#The Last Thing Left

[lovejustforaday]

2022 Year End List - #1

The Last Thing Left - Say Sue Me

Main Genres: Indie Rock

A decent sampling of: Twee Pop, Shoegaze, Surf Rock, Slowcore

I believe this to be my most unpopular choice for #1 yet. I didn’t see a whole lot of hype for this record, which is a shame because this is the best indie rock album I’ve heard to come out in years.

Say Sue Me are a Korean band from Busan, fronted by their gentle-voiced vocalist Sumi Choi (Get it? “Sue Me”). On previous records, the band unabashedly wore their shambling C86 indie era influences on their sleeves, with a prominent mix of jangle, twee, and surf rock married with lo-fi production and carefree songwriting.

Actually hey, now wait just a damn minute. Wasn't I talking about the same thing like two reviews ago?

Why yes, it was a very good year for twee/jangle/C86 revival bands like Alvvays AND Say Sue Me, well after this revival scene came and went out of fashion in the mid-2010s. And in both instances, what made their latest records exceed so well was how they managed to branched off from the original sound (in different directions) organically, while maintaining the songwriting sensibilities of the scene.

As I explained before, Alvvays went headfirst into shoegaze territory, with some electronic and psychedelic undertones.

Meanwhile, Say Sue Me looked inwards, incorporating elements of slowcore ("steadycore"?) and embracing a more serene and wistful atmosphere.

Don't get me wrong; there are still adorable, upbeat twee pop moments here, but even those feel laced with a small tinge of melancholy. This is likely due to the unfortunate passing between records of the band’s former drummer and childhood friend Seming Kang. The original bassist (also a childhood friend) quit the band soon after. In the aftermath, the reformed band created something beautiful and profound.

On their tertiary LP The Last Thing Left, Say Sue Me look to the past with softness and grief, while facing the present with a courageous and bittersweet sense of life’s preciousness. This is a comfort album in the truest sense, with humble, full-bodied guitars and mid-tempo drums creating breathtaking backdrops from rather straightforward compositions. A collection of musical Polaroids and sepia tone flashbacks to simpler times, already acting as an old friend upon first listen.

Opening with the slowcore instrumental rock of “The Memory of The Time”, the music crawls through a small tunnel in space-time, emerging in the middle of somewhere like an abandoned tree house full of memories, located in the dense woods next to your old childhood neighborhood.

The full band sound kicks in with “Still Here”, a soothing bar rock anthem that hugs the listener’s ears from every conceivable angle in an emphatic embrace of low-pitch guitars and patient drums. Sumi sings with warm, listless reflections on how she wants to move forward in her life, before churning out the final chorus with the softened, comfort-seeking angst of “And you say that everything is okaaaaaay...”. The delicately rippling lead guitar solo of the bridge is a signature feature of this record that appears on several other tracks, and it manages to do its trick effortlessly at tugging on my heartstrings every damn time.

“Around You” is the first of an album midsection consisting mostly of a few saccharine twee pop songs, ever so slightly shaded by a drape of nostalgia that’s holding back bittersweet tears. The joyous 2/4 time romp of this particular track immediately makes me think of dog parks and local seasonal festivals fit for family outings. Sincerity at its most cuddliest.

I feel confident in saying that “꿈에 To Dream” is the absolute peak of 2020s indie rock songs thus far. This ode to the afternoon turning into evening, implying the subtle death of childhood, is sung entirely in the band’s native Korean. But you don’t necessarily need to read the translated lyrics to feel the weight of its message. From the very first note, I am transported so vividly to those after-school days that I might as well be physically there, if only I close my eyes.

The guitars become the gentle blowing wind itself, carrying the sounds and the aromas of the days long gone, which brush up against your cheek to serve as a poignant reminder of the inevitable passage of time. Probably my favourite song of the year. As an aside, the music video is equally devastating.

“Photo of You” is an elegy of thumping heartbeats and reverberant shoegazey tones. Lyrically, it is the most precise reflection on grief of the entire album, as Sumi sings about the unbearable sensation of looking at photos and not wanting to “get used to” the feeling of someone being gone. The feeling of emotional sores not ready to be treated. Completely ruinous while still somehow holding on to the feelings of love and hope at its core.

Title track “The Last Thing Left” takes the band’s old surf rock sound through steady waves of uncertainty. Sumi’s delivery in the chorus is yearning in a way as if she were trying to seize that which cannot be eroded by the sands of time.

Say Sue Me send off the listener with “George & Janice”, a re-recorded tribute to the band’s married indie label managers. The song marches along with all the adorable triumph that a marching band of frogs and ducks might embody. It’s a very cute and funny little closer, somehow both characteristically and uncharacteristically light-hearted for a record that is so sweet but also incredibly heavy for a good portion of its runtime.

I’ll be fully honest; this one record resonated with me in a particularly heavy way this year, because I am at a time in my life when it’s really starting to feel like a lot of people have started going their separate ways. I feel like, part of being human, there’s sometimes this almost masochistic need to reflect on times when your life felt easier, or the world seemed kinder. I believe that this phenomenon is something that the band Say Sue Me understands on a very intimate level.

I’m not even exactly sure what it is that’s holding me back on giving this one a 10, other than it may simply be too soon for me to make that call. Sure, it’s not reinventing the wheel by any means, but the record does everything it's intended to do with stunning grace.

I don’t really know what else to say. This wasn’t exactly an easy record for me to do a write-up for, because it’s really hard for me to put into words what exactly this little indie rock record did that no other album did so well this year.

All I can really add to what I’ve already said is that I would recommend this album to almost anyone. The Last Thing Left is a beautiful statement on how everything changes in life, and its songs have become little playgrounds of emotional refuge that I will cherish for a long time. My (very) personal choice for album of the year.

9/10

Highlights: “꿈에 To Dream”, “Still Here”, “Photo Of You”, “The Memory Of The Time”, “George & Janice”, “Around You”, “The Last Thing Left”

[egophiliac]

buckle up lads we're going BACK INTO THE BOOK

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[wombywoo]

aftercare ❤️‍🩹

[stefisdoingthings]

wings

[shushmal]

okay but a like post-series fic i want that's like: steve harrington being the only man left in hawkins fighting monsters

and not like a 'everyone died, last man standing' way but just. they beat it back, the story ends, nice little tie-up and neatly concluded, eleven loses her powers because their world is completely cut from the other. and life goes on. eddie (yes, eddie lives au don't fight me) goes off with his band, robin-nancy-jargyle off to separate cities for college. the kids go to high school, graduate high school, and scatter across the country. joyce and hop buy a beach house far-far-far away from goddamn hawkins indiana.

steve though. steve stays. he does it too without comment, takes all their calls telling him all these amazing things. the years pass. the calls are fewer and far between. he's mostly in contact with only dustin and robin. except robin's out of country doing some crazy temp job in some remote country, she never catches him at home right now so just leaves him messages. and it takes a couple of weeks for dustin to realize he hasn't gotten steve on the phone.

frantically he calls around "have you heard from steve???" except the most people talk to steve anymore is like phone calls during holidays and holy shit what could have happened??

and what if it's back?

cue everyone who can in that moment, rushing back. eddie hopping on a flight from fucking london direct to indianapolis somehow, heart in his throat. he manages to meet hopper in the airport and they pick up max and dustin at the bus station.

they get to hawkins that is even more different that what they left. a smaller town, a town that shuts down completely when the sun sets. it's creepy and deserted.

except for the fucking upside down monsters of course.

and they're in their stupid little rental in front of this demogorgon and they're screaming but then the thing just goes splat on the concrete and steve fucking harrington is blinking owlishly at them.

"Oh, hey guys!" he calls jogging up to the driver's side window. "Wow, what brought you back down this way? You should have told me, I would have told you about the curfew!"

turns out steve just forgot to pay his phone bill that month, didn't even realize he was missing calls and he's been fighting monsters the entire time because actually they WEREN'T cut off from the upside down at all and he's just been casually fighting monsters for the remaining hawkins residence—the whole town knows now and steve's the guy you call when you have a monster problem

sidebar: WAYNE still lives in hawkins, and he and steve are best friends, eddie munson you are gonna LOSE YOUR MIND

[metalmachination]

hey. your legs are on backwards?

[alienssstufff]

I love the way you draw Etho he's so squishy

thank you! Whwh honestly I don’t think I ever have or could draw him threatening I never saw him that way

Even in the Apocalypse au he isn’t

[hejee]

exploring the hinterlands like they’re not walking in circles

[an-internet-introvert]

Countdown to October 19th (19/19)

Happy 15 Years of Dan and Phil 🩵🩵🩵

[alvvaysechoes]

Why why why is some beautiful music always make my chest so hurt ...

Good music is indeed the food for the soul🥹

Thanxx Say Sue Me for making me feel like that..

Happy 10th anniversary!

Sending biiiiig saran to u🥹

[paperglader]

they really put alicent in bridgerton blue on the reunion and genuinely expected me to think that she didn’t in fact march all the way to dragonstone to get wifed up? bfr

[munsonfamilyband]

I’ve been on a Soulmates kick today and just saw a fic where Steve has two marks - one for Robin and one for Eddie. And it’s got me thinking.

Of course, he doesn’t know who his marks are for. He only knows that they’re two people because they look so different. Soulmarks show up where you and your soulmate will have the first skin-skin contact, and they have the words they will say when that happens written in their handwriting.

Steve has one covering his palm, the handwriting is small and sharp, all angles and no rounded edges. That one says “Steve, we need to run”. It seems scared, the wording, but he refuses to think about it. The other mark he has is covering his left hip, curling like someone was holding him from the side. This handwriting is completely different from the other one and is best described as chicken scratch. It’s big and messy, letters flowing into each other like the writer didn’t even pick up their pen between each stroke. That one says “I got you, just lean on me”. It seems less scared but there’s concern laced in the words that helps Steve feel less alone when he’s laying in bed late at night. That’s the only time he ever lets himself think about his soulmates, during the day he avoids it like the plague. His parents are soulmates and they barely speak, so soulmates can’t be all they’re cracked up to be. After Nancy never makes one of his marks tingle and burn he tries to give up on the idea entirely, figuring he can go on without a soulmate and be with Nancy - but then she breaks his heart and those late nights are all he has.

His first soulmark changes when he’s stuck underneath Starcourt mall the summer after he graduated. He had been working with a girl, Robin, who barely tolerated him on a good day and now she’s been sucked into his shitty world. When the alarms go off in the bunker he barely has a second to react before Robin is grabbing his hand and yelling at him, “Steve, we need to run!” His feet start moving and he yells back for her to be careful with his arm, even as he feels the tingling burn cover his palm and in that supply closet, leaning against the door next to Robin they make eye contact. In that short second of connection he knows that she felt it to, that he’s just found his soulmate and despite his fear he’s so happy that it’s her. Later, after they had both puked up their guts and he had confessed to having a crush on her, Robin told him about Mrs. Click’s class and Tammy Thompson and how she’s sorry that he’s stuck with a soulmate who can never love him back. Steve blinks and suddenly his two soulmarks make so much more sense.

“Robin, I have another soulmark. I don’t… I don’t think you were ever a romantic soulmate for me.” He watches the relief and, maybe even, joy cover her face and she launches herself at him in a hug, squeezing him tight and he returns the favor completely ignoring his own pain.

The other soulmate comes over 8 months after meeting Robin. He was so grateful for having her in his life but he still wanted that other piece, he loved Robin and she loved him but he wanted romantic love too. Unfortunately for Steve, just like with Robin, his other soulmark was triggered when he was fearing for his life. He had just been dragged through Watergate and made into a chew toy for a bunch of demobats. Steve was just trying to catch his breath when they all heard the bigger hoard approaching and he knew he had to run. He made it surprisingly far before the pain of each step started to settle in, his feet dragging more and more and his pace slowing when someone moved in beside him, wrapping one arm around his back to settle his hand on his hip. Eddie grabbed the arm closest to him and dragged it over his shoulders, giving Steve a grin. “I got you, you can lean on me.” This only made Steve completely trip; the sudden onset of tingling burning at his side so close to his currently bleeding wounds had his left leg collapsing under his weight.

“Why does this always happen when I’m in danger?” Eddie froze and then a laugh burst forward.

“That makes so much sense with context. C’mon let’s get you somewhere to sit and we can talk more when you’re not bleeding over me.”

When he and Eddie got to Skull Rock, he and Robin made eye contact and he watched her eyes flit down to where Eddie’s hand was on his side. Her eyes grew about three sizes and he just shot her the best grin he could. He didn’t care that he had been bleeding all over his soulmate for the past few minutes - he had gotten blood on Robin when they found out that they were soulmates, so it seemed fitting for him to be doing the same to Eddie.

Years down the road he would look back and laugh at the drama surrounding him finding both of his soulmates. Eddie even joked that the universe gave him two to make up for his shitty parents, and Steve wasn’t going to argue.

[yangjeongin]

6 YEARS WITH STRAY KIDS — #Youtiful6YearsOfSKZ

[hamable]

AGSKFJDBDH LMAO Katsuki physically being leashed to his IV drip, held by his mother, so he’s forced to stand in the doorway and not launch himself across the room

[messy-roadkill]

aughdhshfjjsjcjdjfjsbgsknfjs <- leshy in this art probably