#Mindy Montero

[myadventuresinsims4]

Scarlett becomes a young adult!

[callunavulgari]

“Cages or wings? Which do you prefer? Ask the birds.”

Heather’s Top 50 Songs of 2021

start a war — klergy // ily — surf mesa & emilee // in the blood — darren korb & ashley barrett // think about us — little mix // kings & queens — ava max // real boy — lola blanc // the search — nf // experience — ludovico ienaudi & starkey // moonlight densetsu — patrick moon bird // howl's the wolf — kila // inferno — hiroyuki sawano // demons — hayley kiyoko // voidfish — rachel rose mitchell // will you follow me into the dark — klergy & mindy jones // providence — eternal eclipse // unicorn wizard — ninja sex party // me too — meghan trainor // umbrella — rihanna // colors flying high — lollia // progress — dear hunter // montero — lil nas x // underworld — cypress // midas — skott // tell me — johnny jewel // story — nf // levitating — dua lipa // error — niki, kradness // runaway lvl 2 — aurora // follow you — imagine dragons // shum — go_a // farewell wanderlust — the amazing devil // from the edge — fictionjunction // fire — saint mesa // touch it clean — dj raulito // the devil you know — x ambassadors // grand escape — radwimps // good 4 u — olivia rodrigo //  the killing kind — marianas trench // transparent soul — willow // devil i know — allie x // thunderous — stray kids // your ex-lover is dead — stars // holly holy — neil diamond // the village bride — kevin penkin // money — lisa // enemy — imagine dragons // dirty little animals — bones uk // inkpot gods — the amazing devil // eleanor rigby — cody fry // louder than words — andrew garfield

short version | long version | spotify wrapped

short version is the link to what you see here, my helpfully abridged version. long version will lead you to the 381 song, 23 hour and 42 minute supercut playlist which i’ve been slowly cultivating since early january. spotify wrapped will lead you to a mixture of the long and the short version, which is honestly pretty accurate but does not helpfully represent my ear worms of the week.

under the cut is me ranting about music, like usual. enjoy!

i. start a war || klergy if history is dead and gone then how did we get here, my god?

So, back in January I was driving home from work one day and this song came on as I was hitting the roundabout on Hamilton Rd, and I was immediately seized by the notion to write a role reversal wangxian AU. This eventually became the echo, as wide as the equator, which I didn't get around to publishing until March, but I wrote the second scene in the fic where Lan Wangji is thrown into the Burial Mounds that night. ii. ily || surf mesa & emilee i love you, baby and if it's quite all right i need you, baby

If I'm remembering right, this is another song that came on as I was driving home from work one day and immediately sunk it's claws into me. Pretty sure I found it in one of the spotify discovery weekly playlists. It's a little more repetitive than I typically like my earworms, but I just could not get it out of my brain. iii. in the blood || darren korb & ashley barrett home is not where you live but who cares when you're gone

Hades! It is a thing that happened to me. Very grand, had a great time. Played it for like two months straight and still whip it out every once in a while. Great game, 100/10. Highly recommend! iv. think about us || little mix oh, you put your hand on my waist and then you pull me close It's a bop. I love Little Mix's music, and this is the first I've heard of theirs since I found Salute in my Allison Argent phase back in... 2015? Ish? v. kings & queens || ava max and you might think i'm weak without a sword but if i had one, it'd be bigger than yours I cannot for the life of me remember if I just heard this on the radio or if it came to me through some kind of fandom playlist, but either way, it's just peppy enough that it got me through the last leg of winter. vi. real boy || lola blanc i can give you life with just a single whisper show you what the meaning of a heartbeat is

I wrote gonna make you feel, boy on my phone near the end of January all in one sitting. I had literally just woken up and it is one of the horniest things I wrote all damn year. Anyway, I made a couple playlists for Hades and this was on both of them. vii. the search || nf "hey, nate, how's life?" i don't know, it's alright i've been dealin' with some things like every human being and really didn't sleep much last night

This is another one where I'm not 100% sure where I found it, but I am so glad I did. My gut reaction is that it was another of the Discover Weekly mixes, but either way, I listened to this song every day for two to three weeks before I finally ventured out and listened to the whole album. Some really fantastic lyrics. viii. experience -remix- || ludovico einaudi & starkey *instrumental* I have loved this song since I watched the Sense8 finale back in 2016/2017. Despite the fact that the ending scene of the finale was basically a giant orgy, the song gave it such a depth of feeling that I ended up crying. Ever since then, this has been my go-to for background music whenever I'm writing something emotional. One of the Discover Weekly mixes threw me this remix and I immediately fell in love. ix. moonlight densetsu -remix- || patrick moon bird *instrumental*

I experienced this tiktok sometime in early March, and it is actually the motivation that finally made me download the damn app. Something about the vibe to it was just so weird and perfect. It had this dreamy quality to it while also somehow giving me flashbacks to the Happy Mask Salesman in Majora's Mask. Anyway, found the remix and saved it to my 2021 playlist, then a couple months down the line I'd end up heavily associating the song with Taako from The Adventure Zone. x. howl's the wolf || kila the wolf will run 'til rising sun the wolf will guide you in your dreams, run free

I ended up doing a trial of Apple TV for the sole purpose of watching Wolfwalkers when it came out. I loved the movie so much, which wasn't too much of a surprise since I think I've loved every single thing that studio has come out with since I first watched Song of the Sea back in 2016. xi. inferno || hiroyuki sawano though you can't see the sun a new day has begun I technically watched Promare back in 2020, but I ended up rewatching it in spring of this year because it just makes me so incandescently happy. I don't know what it is about it, but every time I watch it I end up getting teary by the end and a lot of it is this song, which just crawled into my ribcage and set up shop there. I'm so glad they added it to spotify. xii. demons || hayley kiroko please, forgive me, i've got demons in my head tryna eat me, tryna feed me lies until I'm dead

I did end up discovering this song long before it tethered itself to me as a Loki song (thanks to the beginning of episode three), which is why it shows up so early on this list. Anyway, I don't care what the lyrics say because I have definitely heard "he's fucking me, i've got demons in my head" literally all year. xiii. voidfish || rachel rose mitchell *instrumental* First things first, spoilers for the end of TAZ Balance if you click on the link that I'm about to link to. ANYWAY, I finally experienced The Adventure Zone this year! I read the first two TAZ comics at the beginning of the year and ended up finding this amazing animatic for a scene near the end of the series, and long story short, the combination of those two things finally ended up getting me past the first arc of the podcast, which is apparently all it took to hook me. Anyway, I have basically listened to Voidfish on repeat since I watched this animatic. The SHIVERS that I got at the line "there's magic in a bard song." God. Fantastic. xiv. will you follow me into the dark || klergy no trying to pretend we know where the story ends

Since I listened to a lot of Klergy in January, spotify ended up suggesting this one to me at some point in late spring and I just love the dreamy, melancholy thing that her voice does. This one hit me straight in my wangxian feels, like most of her songs do. xv. providence || eternal eclipse *instrumental*

There is a 95% chance that I found this song through SOME kind of fanvid, but I really don't remember which one. All I know is that Eternal Eclipse pumps out some absolute bangers and they're on a good portion of my writing playlists. xvi. unicorn wizard || ninja sex party sometimes i wish i was even more awesome than i already am. what would my life be like if i turned this shit up to eleven (out of a possible five)? I made a Taako playlist shortly after I finished The Adventure Zone and then uh, didn't actually publish it anywhere? Apparently? ANYWAY. There are 89 songs on the mix, including that remix of Moonlight Densetsu I was talking about earlier. Incidentally, the next few songs on this list are ALSO on the playlist. xvii. me too || meghan trainor who's that sexy thing I see over there? oh, that's me, standin' in the mirror

The most Taako of songs. I sort of love it. xviii. umbrella || rihanna now that it's raining more than ever know that we'll still have each other you can stand under my umbrella

Also on the Taako playlist. You know. Because of the... umbrella. And everything. Look, I thought it was hilarious. xix. colors flying high || lollia so choose a color to live by your goal, your faith, your virtue give it all be the best cause nothing less will do

I have been attempting to finish Persona 5 Royal since September of 2020. We ended up losing our cat, Mal, on September 20th and since I was playing Persona when it happened it has been REALLY hard to get through it. I am still technically on the last dungeon (third semester) but I've made progress. And yes, I know that I can just not play it, but I do love the game and really would like to know how it ends. xx. progress || the dear hunter with every ounce of passion i speak till my lungs both billow out i'll give you something to hope for. The Magnus Archives ended in March this year and I made the mistake of listening to the final episode on the way to work that day and basically crying in the parking lot before I went in. I spent my morning meeting combing through the tag on tumblr and found this artwork (spoilers obvs) which made a mention of this song in their tags. So obviously I went and listened to the song, then KEPT listening to it until lunchtime, when I wrote til my lungs both billow out on my break. Anyway, this song makes me have emotions. xxi. montero || lil nas x i'm not fazed, only here to sin if eve ain't in your garden, you know that you can Montero dropped at some point in the spring and put Lil Nas X on the map for me in a way that Old Town Road never did. It was great, it was catchy, the music video was genius, and I just love that man. I hope he goes far. xxii. underworld || cypress i've been searching for a home but i'm lost inside my mind, i'm trapped in the underworld

I think this was part of a Hades playlist. Very catchy. xxiii. midas || skott midas, you've got me thinking 'bout the story you've everything you ever wanted but will you ever get to hold me?

A spotify discover weekly discovery! Loved her voice, loved the lyrics. xxiv. tell me || johnny jewel ft saoirse ronan be mine for always

Her voice is just so sweet. Possibly another discover weekly find. As you can tell, I listened to a lot of them this year. xxv. story || nf too early to tell, but at this rate i'm thinkin' this might be a bad day

when listening to his album after finding the search earlier in the year, this one really was the first one that resonated. xxvi. levitating || dua lipa i got you, moonlight, you're my starlight i need you all night, come on, dance with me I still REALLY like Dua Lipa's music. xxvii. -error || niki, kradness 壊れているの？ 壊れているよ

This is apparently a vocaloid song? I don't know. Somebody was talking about it on twitter and it just stuck with me. xxviii. runaway || aurora i was dancing in the rain i felt alive, and i can't complain This did catch on to tiktok for awhile, but I've been following Aurora's work for the last few years, so seeing her music really pop up there was an absolute delight. I adore her voice. xxix. follow you || imagine dragons i will follow you way down wherever you may go i'll follow you way down to your deepest low

I love Imagine Dragons. I don't care. Every song I've listened to of theirs has been amazing, and I think they have featured on these lists for the last five years. Pretty sure they sold their souls to consistently put out such bops. xxx. shum || go_a Весняночко, весняночко Де ти зимувала?

This was my first year actually paying attention to Eurovision, and holy hell, this song was AMAZING. I ended up looking through the rest of their work and finding other pieces I loved (which are in the longer version of this playlist) and anyway, I don't know, this song will forever make me think of 2021. xxxi. farewell wanderlust || the amazing devil i promise you i'm not broken i promise you there's more more to come, more to reach for, more to hurl at the door

I will forever be thankful for The Witcher because it led me to Joey Batey. I love him so much, and finding The Amazing Devil was a breakthrough for my whole year. Ruin coming out near the end of it was just as perfect! xxxii. from the edge || fictionjunction, lisa 今君はその刃を 何処へ振り下ろす? We watched Demon Hunter at some point in I think maybe late summer? It exceeded my expectations, which was great, even if it did fall into the same trap that I feel like a lot of animes do. The opening went hard. xxxiii. fire || saint mesa burn the broken road hear drums thunder shake in the smoke Not sure where I found it. 90% sure it was another discover weekly playlist. Love it, though. xxxiv. touch it clean -remix- || dj raulito touch it, bring it, pay it, watch it turn it, leave it, start - format it

I do entirely blame Tiktok for this one. xxxv. the devil you know || x ambassadors it's better to know the devil you know the devil you don't 'cause wherever you go, wherever you go with the devil you know your never alone

I think I discovered this one around the time I was mainlining every single season of Lucifer. I'd forgotten how much I loved X Ambassadors' music. xxxvi. grand escape || radwimps 夏風邪に焦る心が 夏をさらに早送るよ めまぐるしい景色の中 君だけが止まって見えた

Man, Weathering With You was amazing. Maybe not QUITE as amazing as Kimi No Na Wa, but it was really beautiful in its own right. This song actually made me cry in the car a few weeks ago. xxxvii. good 4 u — olivia rodrigo maybe i'm too emotional your apathy is like a wound in salt I really like her music. I don't care how similar it is to Paramore's. xxxviii. the killing kind || marianas trench if madness overtakes us both then nobody would be alone the ghost of us can linger here forever not to disappear

I actually found this song on a Magnus Archives fanvideo. The fanvideo was absolutely amazing! However, because I was watching Loki at the time, I then spent the next six to seven weeks in a feverish haze listening to it on repeat because it had solidified itself in my brain as the song that I thought of when I wrote Sylkius. According to my Spotify Wrapped, it is my most listened to song of 2021, which I listened to a very reasonable 137 times. And that isn't including the times I stopped it halfway through to play it again. xxxix. t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l || willow ft travis barker i knew a boy just like you he's a snake, just like you such a fake, just like you I actually ended up messaging one of my friend's asking if this was the same person who did the music for Ruby and he basically just texted me back with, lol Willow Smith??? And then I googled and realized that Willow was... Willow Smith. They do have very similar styles though, and I love her pipes! xl. devil i know || allie x i could pretend that i'm just praying now but i'm only on my knees

Also from the Lucifer phase. Unsurprisingly. They have a LOT of devil-themed songs in that show. xli. thunderous || stray kids bang bang bang boom man, i'm not sorry, i'm dirty I actually ended up finding out that season three of mo dao zu shi was out because @pingvi dropped this vid and I immediately lost my shit and went to go marathon the five episodes that I'd missed. This song is GREAT to listen to in the car and has bass that goes for days. Also, pingvi's videos are just as amazing as they've always been. xlii. your ex-lover is dead || stars there's one thing i want to say so i'll be brave you were what i wanted, i gave what i gave i'm not sorry i met you i'm not sorry it's over i'm not sorry there's nothing to save

This song has been on and off of my radar for years, largely because Life 2: The Unhappy Ending is still my favorite song in all of existence. This song ended up showing up on my discover weekly right as I was trying to write an Akira/Akechi fic for one of my Dark Month prompts - your ex-lover is dead, which I obviously named after the song, because that's how I roll with titles nowadays. Anyway. Good song. Sad feels. It was perfect. xliii. holly holy || neil diamond call the sun in the dead of the night and the sun's gonna rise in the sky

Watched Midnight Mass in October. May have fallen in love with the show itself and the few Neil Diamond songs that were featured. I loved it so much I ended up writing a Sylkius AU for the show. xliv. the village bride || kevin penkin & emi evans *instrumental*

I also watched Star Wars Visions during I day that I had off from food poisoning. I think this episode was my favorite, and this song followed me for weeks. xlv. money || lisa dun, da, la, la, dun-dun, dun, da-la-la, dun-dun dun, da, la, la, dun-dun, dropping on you Another song that I ended up discovering because @pingvi dropped an amazing fanvid. I cannot get over how they utilize sound and have ranted about it to more than one person. This is also a song that's fantastic to listen to in the car, particularly if you're on the highway and can really crank the bass. xlvi. enemy || imagine dragons i'm searching to behold the stories that are told when my back is to the world that was smiling when I turned Full disclosure: the long version of this playlist has basically the entirety of the Arcane soundtrack on it. Arcane was SO AMAZING. I loved it to pieces. This song is probably my favorite that Imagine Dragons has dropped in years and gives me incredibly intense Wei Wuxian feels. xlvii. dirty little animals || bones uk slide, shake your bones out if you wanna ride throw your head back, make you feel alive the kind of bad that make you feel good, good

Seriously, every song on the Arcane soundtrack is a gem, but this one is my favorite. If I remember right, it's the song that Jinx is listening to as she's tinkering. It just has so much energy. I LOVE it. xlviii. inkpot gods || the amazing devil and what you hear is not silence it's just the trees waiting to hear what next you'll hum and what you see is not the dark it's just the gods upturning ink pots 'cause they know what you'll become

Ruin coming out last month was amazing. I listened to the entire album twice through one Sunday morning after a friend tweeted about it and made me realize that it had finally dropped. Inkpot Gods was my favorite track and has made me cry at least two or three times since I started listening. I love it. I love this band. I love their music. It's so perfect. xlix. eleanor rigby || cody fry all the lonely people where do they all come from?

Tiktok lead me to this fantastic cover of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby - specifically - this Tiktok - which made me flash back to at least six different anime phases. Anyway, the song is great and I get to sing it to my cat, whose name is Rigby. l. louder than words || tick, tick... boom cast if we don't wake up and shake up the nation we'll eat the dust of the world

Tick, Tick... Boom! did such a resounding number on my heart. This one hit harder than most. What does it take to wake up a generation, indeed.

[holatortel]

Tórtel Las tres tormentas, prensa.

LAS TRES TORMENTAS. PRENSA

Entre los mejores discos del año para: LA FONOTECA BCN Scanner FM ROCKDELUX ABC CULTURAMARCOS GENDRE MUKIZALIAEL QUINTO BEATLEBEAT EL TELESCOPIOECOS DEL VINILOMONDOSONORO CVTOXICOSMOS Los oyentes de DiSCO GRANDE RADIO3

"Creía que se moría de entusiasmo, pero no. Nada de eso. Paso a paso y disco a disco Jorge Pérez ha aprendido a exprimir a conciencia ese frenesí creativo, esa euforia pop salpicada de melancolia, para seguir reivindicándose como uno de los creadores más interesantes del panorama estatal y transformar sus grabaciones en poderosos y abosorventes microuniversos en continua mutación(..) vuelve a voltearse a sí mismo y se encomienda al mantra electrónico y al ensalmo sintético acompañado de Abel Hernández, Al Pagoda, Joaquín Pascual y Jesús Maciá (...) a Pérez le ha salido la jugada casi maestra. Un disco sobresaliente (...) al valenciano le sienta aún mejor la ambición que el entusiasmo".David MoránRockdelux (01/12/2018)

"una necesidad de comunicación más libre (...) más orgánica. Una voz intervenida por la tecnología que se repilica y proyecta múltiple a sí misma, que trata de ganar tiempo dejándose mecer, unos ritmos volcánicos que fluyen ardientes pero en un sosiego que batalla contra la presentida felicidad pretérita que ahora ya no es cábala sino fortuna (...) No es un disco definitivo pero es un disco total (...)  El entusiasmo es ahora virtud"Jose de MontfortRuta 66 (01/12/2018)

"Un disco de una elegancia sublimada, donde abundan los coches en llamas, las letanías oníricas y las plegarias desahuciadas(...) Un punto y seguido en una carrera que no conoce el conformismo ni el descanso."Juan Carlos PintoBeat (13/11/2018)

"'Las Tres Tormentas' (Intromúsica, 2018) es un disco maestro, sin igual. Acompañado por un buen puñado de amigos (Al Pagoda, Abel Hernández, Alberto Montero…) Jorge Pérez ha creado un peculiar tratado de música en constante movimiento. Bellas tonadas con letras cuyos significados cobran sentido fuera de campo, como las buenas películas de miradas y silencios. Melodías que se acercan a la espiritualidad cegadora y pagana de The Beach Boys en la inaugural “El Rey Podrido”, el trote tribal de “Capa Oscura” atesora el mismo poder de fascinación que las sinfonías de Panda Bear, y la producción, de envolvente hieratismo, me recuerda a las de Mica Levi (...) Verás tu fantasma esta noche. Ese es tu nuevo rostro."Luis MonerMuzikalia (02/11/2018)

"Tras un interesantísimo ‘Transparente‘, su carrera acaba de coger impulso con un disco que sin duda supone un antes y un después y que le abre caminos infinitos. Tórtel ha publicado uno de los discos del año."Miguel Atienza (LaFonoteca)Scanner FM (31/10/2018)

"Siempre es un placer enfrentarse a un disco nuevo de Tórtel. El valenciano ha ido explorando nuevas formas de expresión que dotan de gran variedad e interés a su propuesta sin que en ningún momento veamos comprometida su personalidad. Cada obra es en esencia, todo lo que podíamos esperar de él. Pero aunque resulte paradójico siempre termina por sorprendernos. Tórtel nunca nos sacar de nuestra zona de confort, la expande."José OlmoEl Quinto Beatle (29/10/2018)

"Anda la música popular de este país más necesitada de personajes como Jorge Pérez (...) Las tres tormentas es un disco nada envidente muy difícil de empaquetar en categorías preestablecidas, ingenioso por inesperado, lúcido desde la desazón, un baile, quizás también una burla para tiempos de medianías y borrascas, de comunicación absurda".Fernando Neira#UnDiscoAlDía (11/10/2018)

"...cuesta reprimir los epítetos jubilosos cuando uno se enfrenta a un disco tan formidable como “Las Tres Tormentas“, en el que ya solo la primera escucha nos hace recobrar aquella vieja sensación de asombro: ese intrigante cosquilleo que brota cuando no tienes muy claro qué es lo que va a ocurrir en el siguiente corte del minutaje, tan propio de cuando apenas éramos unos críos y prácticamente todo estaba por descubrir... Un álbum sin desperdicio, en el que no sobran ni los silencios. Superpop en estado puro."Carlos Pérez de ZirizaMondo Sonoro (07/10/2018)

"No vamos a descubrir a estas alturas de lo que es capaz Jorge Pérez al frente del proyecto Tórtel; decir que es ‘sorprendente’ es lo habitual, afirmar que es ‘diferente’, ‘único’ sería llover sobre mojado: No, este nuevo disco Las Tres Tormentas es un todo que va más allá de los adjetivos recurrentes (...) Las Tres Tormentas puede verse como la cúspide de los logros de Tórtel, donde aglutina sus más finas artes y las enseñanzas de un camino ancho y largo, brindándonos los mejores treinta y dos minutos de su discografía."Ricardo PortmanEcos del Vinilo (07/10/2018)

"Tórtel introduce cambios notables en su concepción pop dentro de Las Tres Tormentas, ofreciéndonos caminos más sintéticos que nunca donde las estructuras se sustentan en un apartado ambiental. Intentando que dentro de cada canción parezca que se desarrollen varias, el valenciano asume de forma valiente el riesgo experimental."Noé R. RivasMindies (04/10/2018)

"...asistimos a la constatación del nacimiento de un creador sin aranceles con las corrientes predominantes. Uno absolutamente imbuido en pleno éxtasis, que con esta decena de planetas musicales nos arrastra para que orbitemos a su alrededor..."Marcos GendreZona de Obras (30/09/2018)

"Y no sé si es demasiado prematuro decir que alcanza la condición de sublime, pero sí diré que a mi me ha dejado el sabor que sólo dejan las cargas de profundidad, las obras que tienen la vocación de perdurar, los discos que importan porque nos ofrecen un espejo en el que mirarnos, discos que son la vida misma, discos a años luz de todo lo que nos rodea. Discos estratosféricos."Juanjo FronteraAlquimia Sonora (28/09/2018

"El último Bon Iver, Grimes, Laurel Halo, y hasta Kanye West se atisban como artistas en cierta sintonía con el nuevo universo musical de Jorge, que además también muta en su escritura: se vuelve más abstracto que nunca, desolador, triste y enfadado por una vida que parece estar volviéndonos la cara constantemente. Aunque sigue rodeándose de colaboradores frecuentes como Al Pagoda, Jesús Macía y Enrique Alepuz, en este bautismo de fuego musical también asisten como invitados nombres cruciales en su carrera como Joaquín Pascual, Cayo Bellveser (Maderita), el citado Alberto Montero o Abel Hernández (El Hijo), que colaboran expandiendo territorios sonoros, alcanzando con él una riqueza que, escuchada con auriculares y a buen volumen, fascina. ‘Las tres tormentas’ supone una osadía, una estimulante redefinición del discurso de Tórtel, que no estamos acostumbrados a ver en un artista de larga trayectoria."Raúl Guillén Jenesaispop (14/12/2018)

[myadventuresinsims4]

Artemis and her cousin Mindy before the transition. Mindy is the eldest of her aunt Celia’s children.