#absolute banger of a symphony

[galescafe]

tried studying to mahler symphony no. 5 and almost had a breakdown i was so overstimulated

[quasi-normalcy]

Surprising Things I Learned From Rewatching All of Star Trek (as of mid 2022)

The first season of the original series is good. Like really, really, good. You can definitely see why it caught on.

"Spock's Brain" isn't actually all that bad. Like, for all it's infamy, I wouldn't even put it in the bottom 5 episodes of TOS. Maybe not even the bottom 10.

The Motion Picture is an amazing movie if you watch it like a symphony with incredible visuals, rather than an action movie.

The weird utopianism of TNG season 1 is actually really appealing now

Wesley was just as bad as I remembered

I actually like Worf. Quite a bit, actually.

Kinda wish that Deep Space Nine had kept a major focus on Bajoran politics. Like, the Dominion War stuff is good, but the political arc in the first few seasons is actually really fascinating.

Voyager has lots of absolute banger episodes, and they're good enough to forgive the overall lack of continuity

Seven of Nine's arc has uncomfortable overtones of reparation therapy when you know that she's queer (and even when you don't, it's basically seems like learning how to mask neurodivergence)

Tuvok is actually a brilliant detective. I didn't notice before.

Enterprise is...well, I'm not going to say "good", but I get what it was going for now. And the Xindi arc is way less jingoistic when considered as a whole than I remember it being.

(The fourth season isn't as good as I remember, just because the constant continuity references have gone from being an exciting novelty to being freaking everywhere)

The 2009 movie really doesn't have a lot going for it, in retrospect. The cast are good, though.

Into Darkness...was even worse than I remembered. Like I'd forgotten just how unlikable it made Captain Kirk. That said, the "anti-militarism" messaging felt somewhat less "tacked-on to the last five minutes of screentime" than I recalled

Even though I don't think it ended well, the first season of Discovery is actually a lot better than I remembered when I already knew where it was going.

The second season of Discovery fares much worse, though. Strange, because I'd thought it an improvement over the first when it was airing.

I'd been disappointed by how the first season of Picard had wrapped up it's plot threads, but on a rewatch, I actually thought it was close to being a masterpiece

The first season of Lower Decks is kind of lacklustre compared to all of the subsequent ones.

[atragicallycrispydude]

I haven't listened to anything but Guilty Gear soundtracks for like a month (since Symphony released) and for a while I didn't really appreciate how fucking good the songs were but they're SO GOOD

A super underrated part of their composition that I don't really see people talk about is the level of complexity that the instrumentals get into without being overwhelmingly loud. It adds such beautiful relistenability, because you can seemingly always hear something new in a lot of the songs. ON TOP OF THAT, they help to capture the vibes of a character supremely well

For example, Sol's Xrd theme, Give Me a Break, starts with a thick, grindy, intense guitar riff. Then slow, crashing drums and cymbals come in, adding to the sense of weight the song already has, along with subtle clacking (i don't know what the instrument is but clacking is the best descriptor, it might be a cowbell?) to help keep the pace and fill out the song. A bass is there too, adding a nice smooth underlying layer of deep notes to the song. Finally, a lead guitar comes in and the grindy rhythm guitar moves to the background of the song, exchanged for a more melodic guitar in a higher pitch, but still with the longer, more intense notes. This is in the first 10 seconds.

It all blends into a rich and dense layered cake of a song, allowing for freedom of expression from the lead guitar, while not relying on it too heavily to carry the song. (It absolutely is the best part of the song, but the background instrumentals are just as important)

Drift (Happy Chaos' theme) does this so fucking well, so fucking fucking beautifully well. When the outro starts, you hear Naoki's vocals, over a piano and some sparse strings, before cymbals crash in with trumpets and a choir and booming drums to accentuate the climax of the song, cutting out as Naoki says "Please don't stop the flow!" It then goes back to the very fast heavy-metal-esque drums and guitar and bass, but WITH the strings and choir backing up Naoki's singing and holy fucking shit it's amazing amazing oh my goooood

Symphony (A.B.A.'s Strive theme) was what really got me hooked onto it, though. The last two minutes of that song are fucking PEAK music. It starts with light drums, an organ, and a bass backing up a piano, cutting the formerly intense tone of the song for a nice break from the intensity. Naoki comes in, shortly followed by that classic grindy Guilty Gear guitar, as the piano and drums speed up to match a slowly rising intensity, before breaking into the final verse and chorus, with Naoki vocalizing over intense drums and guitar (as well as a bass but i do struggle to pick it out,) with the piano providing the main melody. Choral "la la la la" chants accompany the cries of "Break out, break out," filling it out perfectly for the tone of the song

It's honestly extremely difficult to properly articulate how it all comes together in the end for the songs. It ends up being a complex, emotional, BANGER. Go listen to the music from these soundtracks and when you do, pay attention to the main melody, then listen to them again and again and again and again and pick out the little extras in the background to truly understand WHY Guilty Gear music is so good.

[symphonybracket]

YouTube Links: Dvořák 9, Brahms 1

Submitter's Comments:

Dvořák 9 (6 submittals)

I know it's gonna get nominated a hundred times, but I have listened to it four times in a row in the past week so I gotta mention it. Exquisite bliss from first to last note.

it slays <3

When I heard the first movement for the first time, I was GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT because of how much I loved it. LIKE THIS IS SO YUMMY (link opens to the timestamp)

it's got everything. the interplay between minor and major. themes from the early movements that come back in the finale. the most iconic english horn solo in all of classical music. dvorak wrote it while traveling across the US and was directly inspired not only by his native czech/bohemian soundscapes but the musical languages he heard from black and native americans. there's a tuba part but it only plays for like five measures. fantastic orchestrations, making full use of all the different colors of the orchestra. the start of the finale sounds kinda like jaws. it is physically impossible for me to feel upset while i'm listening to it it's the first symphony i ever played in orchestra and i'm so normal about it that i want to get that EH solo tattooed on my art and also i wrote a paper about it for a university music history class and i got an A on it so it should definitely win the bracket or i'll cry

Brahms 1 (1 submittal)

2nd and 4th mvt absolute bangers

[supercantaloupe]

happy sleepover saturday! any thoughts about Beetlejuice the musical (positive/negative/etc)? I've really liked what I've seen/heard but I'd be interested to know what you think. additionally, as a guy who rarely listens to any kind of classical music because he is bad at remembering the titles 😫 what are some bangers i should put on tonight while i assemble a gerbil cage? (preferably the smaller... songs? numbers? please no longer than 10 minutes per. concerto???? idk what they're called im so sorry. last thing these are my three beautiful boys im adopting tomorrow!

OHH THREE BEAUTIFUL BABY BOYS. i like that that two of them appear to have airbender arrows on their heads

i! don't have very strong opinions on beetlejuice the musical, to be honest. i haven't seen it and it's been a few years since listening to the soundtrack. i remember it being decent, a few clever lines and composition moments here and there, there was clearly some creativity and heart put into it. it didn't seem to have like the kind of lazy cashgrab project vibes that other movie-to-stage musical adaptations sometimes, like sure the original movie here was a cult classic already but the team turning it into a musical seemed really interested in making into its own thing that adds to the creative idea. it's not really my cup of tea these days but it seems like a fun time, and you can absolutely do worse

HMM...well i am very much at heart a symphony girlie and symphonies tend to be quite a bit longer than ten minutes, But i shall try to come up with some shorter selections...

the overture to die meistersinger is genuinely a work of genius. i regret having to recommend a wagner piece because philosophically (and also at times musically) i disagree with the man intensely, and he was a massive piece of shit. but damn could he write an overture. he should have been a symphonist. and left it at that.

in that vein actually opera overtures are gonna offer a lot of great options for exciting classical music pieces that don't go on for too long. rossini has a ton of classics to choose from, many of which are very famous and also might be recognizable, like the barber of seville, la gazza ladra (the thieving magpie), l'italiana in algeri (the italian girl in algeria), la scala di seta (the silken ladder) and william tell.

some of my other personal favorite overtures are mozart's le nozze di figaro (the marriage of figaro) and the magic flute, weber's der freischütz, donizetti's la fille du régiment (the daughter of the regiment), and bernstein's candide.

also! the dance of the hours is a classic, it comes from the ballet la gioconda and also was featured in the original fantasia so it might be familiar!

finally i'll recommend some concert band music which i think is often overlooked in the classical music world. and no one does concert band better than brits and americans. holst first suite in Eb and second suite in F are both great, same for vaughan williams' english folk song suite. and william walton's crown imperial coronation march.

OH and arturo márquez's danzón no 2. okay love you bye

[ask meme]

[chadhunkler]

5 SONGS YOU'RE INTO RIGHT NOW

tagged by @sealrock and @verysmallcyborg thank you!!!

tagging uhh @ahollowgrave @duchessdynamic @dragonsongmakhali @desertdragon @shroudkeeper and anyone else who'd want to!

I had a lotta trouble picking JUST 5, so i just looked through my On Repeat playlist

Old Ocean - Cosmo Sheldrake Cosmo Sheldrake always good, releases seem to be sporadic but always welcome.

Gone - Sonic Boom (Andrew Huang and Rob Scallon) I enjoy both artists, so having them make a bunch of songs together is very fun! This one I had on while I was at work, just had it on repeat. Very good.

Symphony - NAOKI New Guilty Gear character new music! Absolutely crazy, just like A.B.A. All the GG music is jammin

Dragon - Senbeï Had this on a while when working on some pictures, pretty cool song, enjoy Senbei.

Solo Leveling - Daddyphatsnaps, Mix Williams gotta have my boy DPS on here somewhere, every three weeks he drops a banger rap about anime!

I've got a playlist on spotify that houses all the music i listen to, it has... lemme check... 3871 songs on it, totaling 240 hours of music!

[th3-0bjectivist]

Dear listener, this will be my final musical post of this year and you know I’m gonna end it on an eternal banger. Godspeed to ALL my followers on Tumblr, happy holidays! Let’s have a great, and positive 24'. Fret thee not, I will be back with more tuneskis next year. That said, I’ve been commenting on classical music for the end of 23'. If you’re just joining me on my page I alluded to Bach and Vivaldi in previous weeks… along with a generous peppering of pejorative comments when I was describing myself listening to modern radio. Modern radio was the REASON I started listening to classical music again this year. Why? Because radio BLOWS. Actually, the programming blows and modern music SUCKS. Classical music on the other hand, for all its technological limitations and despite its clear crow’s feet, is at least quality music. Timeless even! So, for Christmas this year, let’s focus on the excellence of execution for music in the 1800’s, Johannes Brahms. Inventor of great individual and collectivized musical works, and the final exhibition in my three-part 23' classical showpiece. At the end of 24', join me for the likes of Mozart and Beethoven, but for now, smash play and enjoy the uniquely holiday and dream-time piece above. Recognize it? Thought you might, dear listener. For those of you who stay and read my little commentaries on these musical posts I really appreciate it. When you read them, you’re spending time with me in a way. Thanks for your time!

For his time, the mid to late 1800’s in Europe, Johannes Brahms became the tip of the spear in Germanic symphonies and sonatas. Writing something like two hundred songs in his lifetime, he started off in his young teens as a naturally talented pianist and played in inns and brothels around the docks of Hamburg to help his family generate money. For such humble beginnings, he also began composing his own music and performing concerts with other notable musicians such as Eduard Reményi. Through further networking, Brahms became closely associated with other virtuosos and composers like Joseph Joachim and Robert Schumann. Schumann helped boost Brahms’ career when his compositions were featured in a media periodical called Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Now, I’m not gonna lie, this guy is not my favoite composer and if I’m being 100% honest, I think his symphonies are a little boring. A lot of it is just too lite and plodding for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, the man was a God among normal humans, but when it comes to personal taste, I prefer orchestral symphonies by the likes of Bach and Vivaldi. However, where I think Brahms’ truly excelled was in his original solo piano works, as he was truly a master of vastly intricate mechanisms and capable of very technical applications with music. He invented harmonies with an almost entirely different kind of emotional resonance than other contemporary classical artists; often using instruments to create a warm and introspective noise rather than a lot of the LOUD AND GALIVANTING classical music that you can find a lot of in the 1700’s. In the 1800’s, the tail end of the Romantic period, concerts and festival overtures were the Taylor Swift venues of the time, and the music of Brahms sold BIG in an international way. He also held the Masters of Composition that came before him in high regard, attempting to cling hard and fast to the idea of ‘absolute music’ (the idea being that music should carry no specific or primary meaning) like composers before him. This conservative view of music put him at odds with composers like Wagner, who wrote program music (introducing literary ideas, a subjective drama, an actual scene, etc). Brahms never married but had a few flings. He was known as being prickly and reserved with adults, but kind-hearted and warm around children. He also died of liver carcinoma in Vienna in the late 1800’s after nearly three decades serving as a musical director, principal conductor, educator and perhaps one of the most influential European composers of all-time.

I should also be diligent and let you know that his most concentrated and vital works came along after he began visiting Vienna around the 1860’s. His mother passed in 1865, and he afterward created German Requiem, which is widely considered to be a mass for the living. His works such as Hungarian Dances, Violin Concerto, Wiegenlied (also known as Lullaby or the Cradle Song), and his Piano Quintet were all generated in his later years from 1860 to 1885 or so, gimme a break folks I’m not a historian. It’s all about subtle movements with Brahms, or just his harmonic movement in general. On Christmas this year, or every year, consider coming back to this post and clicking on the Best of Brahms. Spend time and mend with family folks! One more musical post and then I need a long break. Enjoy! Image source: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/best-looking-composers-musicians/johannes-brahms/

[nintendofuck]

Ok holy fuck, i never really make personal posts on here but I saw the Sonic Symphony in Seatle on friday and it was truly one of the best nights of my life. It was pure autistic joy. I'm a sonic the hedgehog autistic for as long as i can remember and seeing crush 40 has always been a dream of mine. I have a tattoo of adventure 2 soap shoes Sonic playing the iconic black crush 40 sonic guitar.

My show had Jun Senoue as a guest (he is not doing the whole tour, and Johnny Gioeli was only at select shows ((not mine)), he was doing autographs in the lobby before the show and I met him a got a picture. He was super cool and nice! I showed him my tattoo and he said it was awesome and took a pic on his phone. This happened 2 days ago and I still can't believe I got to meet him, I am fangirling so much

And wow, the show was INCREDIBLE. The symphony was beautiful and the rock show half of the show was phenomenal. The setlist had BANGERS, every single song made me grin from ear to ear and when the rock show part started the venue roared, EVERYONE was singing. Also Jun actually playing the fucking crush 40 guitar solos in front of my eyes was amazing.

I just can't stop thinking about it all. If you have a show playing somewhat close to you and you like Sonic you should absolutely go. One of the coolest things I've ever done.

[ladyhoneydee]

30 Day Song(fic) Challenge: Day 29

It's the penultimate day of my Song(fic) Challenge! And today, for once, I'm not even late! The prompt for today was "A song by your favorite artist right now". I don't really feel as though I have a particular favorite right now, so I went with an old standby: dodie. Although she has some absolute bangers with a great deal of emotional storytelling, her song "Air So Sweet", which I've loved since it was just a little demo five years ago, captured the exact peacefulness I needed tonight, for myself and for my writing.

in the light and the air

Game: Tears of the Kingdom, post-game

Pairing: Zelda/Link

Word Count: 1080

Keywords: peaceful, happy ending, domestic bliss

It was an ordinary night. She’d had dozens like it in this summer alone; hundreds over the years since they were finally freed from the pitiless jaws of fate. She would have dozens more before the apples in the trees began to drop, and the nights began to crisp and chill and remind her of the air of her almost-endless flight. And yet, with the earth beneath her hands and the air caressing her hair; the water droplets gracing her still-drying legs and the fire of his presence and skin warming hers…this was all she needed.

Read the fic on Ao3, or under the cut!

Hateno summers were notoriously long, warm, and sticky. The moisture from the ocean would rise under the heat of the sun, and get pushed inland by the westward-blowing winds. It’d linger, heavy and wet, over the fields, unless a storm swept over the land in its place, and leave the air clear and sparkling after its passage. Even in the evenings, the humidity could linger heavily in one’s lungs, like a breath held so deep it couldn’t be fully expelled. 

Zelda often chose to spend these nights outside, as the stars blinked their eyes open above her head, and the moon rose to greet her with cool rays that made her horns shine silver. She would sit on the familiar wooden porch, or take a nude dip in the pond in front of their house, or climb a tree to fulfill that intermittent craving for the sky. 

Tonight, she chose to run.

She’d not bothered to put on any shoes on her way out. The thick, scale-lined callouses on the pads of her feet saw to it that very little debris could injure her. Instead, as she dashed up the Firly Plateau back towards their humble home, she could feel every cool tickle of the summer-plush grass beneath her, kissing her heels with each thudding impact upon the welcoming earth. Any twig she landed on snapped cleanly beneath her weight and added delightful percussion to her sprint. The roughness of rocks underfoot only supplemented the symphony of texture.

The night air was so, so still; sweet with the perfume of wildflowers and wetness on her every inhale, and she gulped and gasped for more, eager, eager, eager. She couldn’t get air like this in the heavens she’d flown through for thousands of years, with its preserving, frigid thinness; its presence in the lungs like icy knives of a deathless Death. Only down here, on the surface—as herself—could she inhale pure Life. 

She relished in the sensation of her body. The way it felt to run on two legs, with toes instinctively gripping to and pushing off from the earth; with the echo of impact ringing in her knees as they absorbed the pounding of her footsteps; with the call-and-response of the muscles in her left calf stretching and thigh pulling as she bounded forward, followed by the return of the melody in the right. The sinuous swinging of her tail behind her like a metronome. The burn in her diaphragm and lungs at the lack of air even despite how deeply she inhaled. The tightness of her core muscles, held firm to keep her strong. The reaching swing of each arm, and the warm clenching of her fists, each finger nestled in tightly. 

It had been years since she’d last had to call upon the golden power of the goddess, although she knew it still coiled deep within her, nesting somewhere in her stomach lining like a divine ulcer. When she ran like this, so in tune with Life that it felt like her very soul was rising from her body to sing with the currents of the air and the beating heart of the earth, she could taste a very different flavor of gold: the pure honey of sunshine, rather than the blood-tang of metal. Something all her own.

She crested the final hill, and the familiar taupe stucco of their house came into view. In the air, she could taste rather than smell the dissipating dregs of smoke from that evening’s cooking fire. From the singular window visible at this angle, a gentle light glowed: one of Zelda’s favorite beeswax candles. And above, the stars, fully fruited in the night sky, washed her in light like the softest of summer rains. 

Laughter, breathless and joyous, bubbled up from her chest. It only crescendoed further as she ran straight into the shallows of the pond, feeling the shocking splash of coolness on her shins and spraying all the way up to her torso with the force of her entry. She submerged up to the knee. The water soaked the tea-length, sky-blue skirt of her home-stitched dress, and she didn’t care one jot, letting it swirl around her as she turned to face north, over the glowing windows and darkened fields of the town she called hers. 

Little by little, the temperature cooled, and the air lightened as the humidity bedded down for the night. The shadows of the pond’s fish emerged cautiously from the holes they’d fled to at her tumultuous entry, although they gave Zelda a wide berth from where she still stood in the shallows. Sunset fireflies, with their quintessential gold-green hue, gathered in the yard; bioluminescence below to duet with the stars above. 

Finally beginning to shiver from the chill, Zelda waded slowly from the pond, and sat in the sweet summer grass. It accepted her form—tail and all—like a hug. She watched the glide of the moon across the sky. 

The wooden door swung open behind her and to her right. She could barely feel the impact of his footsteps through the earth, but she could hear the way the grass whispered around his legs as it parted for him like an old friend. 

He sat beside her, and the ember-glow of their touching knees sent her soul spinning into the air once more. She lifted one dirt-smudged hand from where it propped her up to rest it atop his own, feeling his fingers staggered between and beneath her own like the interlinked logs of a cabin, shaped and reshaped by their wholehearted efforts until they fit together just right.

It was an ordinary night. She’d had dozens like it in this summer alone; hundreds over the years since they were finally freed from the pitiless jaws of fate. She would have dozens more before the apples in the trees began to drop, and the nights began to crisp and chill and remind her of the air of her almost-endless flight. And yet, with the earth beneath her hands and the air caressing her hair; the water droplets gracing her still-drying legs and the fire of his presence and skin warming hers…this was all she needed.

It was what she had forced herself to survive for, for all those long years, even when it was a distant dream her dragon-self wasn’t even capable of calling up. 

And it was what she lived for now, in this life that was, at long last, all their own. 

[aerowolf]

My band director has pulled out some absolute bangers for the next concert.

not to mention my favorite jazz song: Sing Sing Sing

GIRL YOU KNOW WHAT THAT SONG WAS THAT I DID SWING DANCE TO AT THE SYMPHONY. IT WAS SWING SWING SWING THIS IS SPECTACULAR

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

I can’t put my Spotify on shuffle bc it be going from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror immediately into the absolute banger that is Family Affair by Mary J. Blige and I just can’t handle that amount of whiplash I already have severe neck pain

[aphroditestummyrolls]

For the WIP ask: 21 - 3 songs

AH! Thanks for asking! I’ll give you three for each of the three WIPs I’m actively working on right now 💕

Color and Light (joe/nicky)

Shim el Yasmine by Mashrou Leila

Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful? from Brandy’s Cinderella

Symphony no. 2, opus 27, adagio by Rachmaninov (literally the most romantic song ever written)

I Travel Alone (pierre/mickey)

(Don’t Stand) A Ghost of a Chance with You by Ted Fio Rito, sung by Vera Van

Valse Sentimentale by Tchaikovsky (the Mickey Miranda Thesis™️ for me)

Solitude sung by Billie Holiday

Untitled Star Wars Pride and Prejudice AU (Din/Luke)

Dawn from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice (shocking, I know)

SOS by ABBA

Victory Celebration (the Endor party music from the end of RotJ) by John Williams

Absolute bops, every single one of them. Bops and bangers ✨✌️ maybe one day, I will actually finish something and be able to share it with you all 💕 thanks for playing!

[lynslegion]

Heya! I'd be so excited to hear some of your answers! Perhaps for 8 & 9? And maybe 16 to! 💜

Heyyyy :D Sorry it took me a few days ^_^ 8. Who are some of your favorite characters? Hmmmm I feel like the answer changes every so often but my most common ones would be Marisa, Lyn, and Constance! 9. Which game has your favorite soundtrack? What are your favorite songs from it? Nostalgia makes me want to say FE7 with "Everything into the Dark" and "Campaign of Fire", but honestly if I'm being realistic the FE Warriors Three Hopes OST has some absolute fucking bangers that I often come back to, especially "Between Heaven and Earth" and "The Apex of the World" 16. What do you love most about the series overall? Probably the gameplay tbh! There's not really many other games/series like it(until recently with games like Darkest Deity and Symphony of War) so it was always very uniquely enjoyable to me. Ofc I love the characters and story as well but the gameplay is what always has me coming back.

Thank you so much for the questions!!

[queen-erika-the-songful]

Top 5 barbie soundtracks?

These would be my picks, but not necessarily in this specific order aside from #1.

Star Light Adventure - Most GORGEOUS score of any Barbie movie. Rich, vibrant, emotional; it’s all just SO well done. My favorite parts are when Barbie dances with the Heart of the Galaxy, the music during the hoverboard race, and that slowmo walk when they board the ship. The songs are also really great. Even if they’re “just pop” or however you want to put that, they have such a unique sound compared to other Barbie movies. By that I mean when I listen to the soundtrack, only maybe 1 or 2 sound like they could just be inserted into any other Barbie movie with pop songs. Like these are SLA’s songs, you know what I’m trying to say?

Princess and the Pauper - Amazing musical numbers with catchy tunes and gloriously crafted lyricism. Score was also memorable, but I think that mostly comes from a lot of it just repurposing the songs’ melodies. Not a bad thing; I just can’t think of a part where the score stands out as its own thing. I could recognize it backwards and forwards for sure, but that’s because I’ve seen the movie a million times. The musical numbers are the real meat and potatoes.

Magic of Pegasus - This movie used classical music the absolute best of all of them. Each piece is woven into the narrative expertly and none of them feel out of place. Disney fans may associate the Pastoral symphony with Fantasia, but for me it’s always gonna be Princess Annika skating through ice and clouds. And I’m not sure if the main theme for Cloud Kingdom is based on anything, but it’s definitely one of my favorite instrumentals from any Barbie film. It’s just so ethereal and magical. End the movie with a very catchy and uplifting pop theme and you have yourself one great soundtrack. 

Spy Squad - The songs are all bangers and the score absolutely slaps. I mean “Strength in Numbers” is such a god tier Barbie song. The others are very fun too and make me smile when I hear them. They’re also very unique from one another, which is helpful in a soundtrack so small. I don’t get bored or feel like I’m just hearing the same kind of song over and over (VGH has this problem for me aside from maybe “Invincible”). The score is so freaking cool, especially that main guitar theme. I love how well they capture that sort of “spy movie” sound. 

The Barbie Diaries - Gosh this is just a perfect 2000′s teen flick soundtrack to me. It’s got everything you’d want: teen angst in flavors of sad AND angry (”Where You Belong” & “Real Life”), romantic ballads to daydream about your crush (”Feels Like Love” & “Fate Finds a Way”), and of course lots of pop-rock to just jam to (”Note to Self”, “This is Me”, etc.) I don’t have much to say about the score, though. It’s fine and I like it fine but it just doesn’t have much standing out. Even if the movie is subpar the soundtrack is kickin’ and I love putting it on.

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 11/09/2023

Stickerbrush State of Mind

Season 1 Featured on: GilvaSunner's Highest Quality Video Game Rips: Volume 7: Part mm2wood Also on: SiIvaGunner: Starter Kit & Essentials

Ripped by wheel able

I'm going to be as upfront as I can be in today's post. I'm European.

I really don't have a good enough image of the impact of the 9/11 attacks on America, how it affected everyone involved, how its continued to haunt the nation since. I had a hard time picking which rip would even be apt for a day like this one, if it'd be better to just skip it altogether. Althesame, 9/11 was a full-on tragedy, and making light of tragedies of any kind is always a very touchy subject - One SiIvaGunner unfortunately dabbled in during its first year active. In hindsight, its absolutely no wonder that the "9/11 event" on Season 1 of SiIvaGunner was met with such immense backlash as to be cancelled midway through. To date, its likely the most hostile the fanbase has ever been toward the channel and the people behind it. SiIvaGunner's early years, as lighthearted, joyous, and oft emotional as they oft were, are still coated with a thin film of edgy, insensitive and downright hostile flavor of comedy. I'm at least glad that 9/11 day was one project the team knew to denounce, and its alternatives for the Seasons that followed the first have all been filled with the kind of joy I always associated SiIva with.

There was a different kind of sadness that hung over Season 1's 9/11 day in the fallout, however - not every rip made during the event really had hostile or insensitive intent. After the event's official cancellation, the entire day's rips were deleted from the channel, catching a group of genuinely excellent rips in the crossfire. Of these, I'm sure there's none more iconic to the channel than Stickerbrush State of Mind. It took until Season 3 for it to get reuploaded to the YouTube channel, but its lived in the hearts of all SiIva album listeners since it was first saved through the Volume 7: Part mm2wood release in 2016.

Stickerbush Symphony (sorry - that's the official spelling!) is already one of the most hauntingly beautiful tracks within VGM, and both it and its remix in Super Smash Bros. Brawl have been community favorites since Season 1. Stickerbrush State of Mind follows a similar track to what I described in Noonsummer Madness - it mashes this laid-back, calming piece of music with a piece of hip-hop music that would otherwise not quite fit into the meme language SiIvaGunner otherwise speaks. Empire State of Mind by JAY-Z has only been featured on the channel two or three times since this rip debuted it - and both of those instances were almost definitely inspired by the impact this initial time had on the channel's audience.

I'm not American, I'm not an avid listener of hip-hop, and I wasn't even avidly listener to the SiIva albums until a good while into my time following the channel. But Stickerbrush State of Mind has always stuck with me as a kind of time capsule, a reminder of the old times, and an anthem known to us who've been here for so long. To quote a comment SSB_Seal left on the video's reupload five years ago - "I am elated that this rip is finally going to receive the recognition that it has deserved in my eyes for over a year and a half now." It's on Starter Kit & Essentials, it's been safe on the channel since Season 3, and its still a banger - Stickerbrush State of Mind, despite me having so little connection to its joke, the tragedy it was so unfortunately tied to, and the time in which it was first released and archived in, is an eternal vibe and an all-time favorite.

[lightyaoigami]

thank you for the tag @mellovolence ♡ i am tagging whoever sees this. it is a universal tag!

are you named after someone?

nope...monica was just the only name my parents agreed on and it's easily pronounced in a lot of different languages

when was the last time you cried?

i cried when i lost my job (not in the layoff meeting thank god but the second my laptop got locked) and then i cried again a week or so later because i got hit by a car and the next day i was in so much pain that i couldn't get back to sleep. also it was right before my birthday lmao. march was an absolute BANGER of a month!

do you have kids?

no wtf i AM a kid (jk i'm 31)

do you use sarcasm a lot?

hehehehehehehhehehheh ya

what's the first thing you notice about people?

clothes and shoes!

what's your eye colour?

green with a ring of blue on the outside! i just learned literally today that this is a type of heterochromia apparently

scary movies or good endings?

either one tbh i just like when movies are good ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

any special talents?

singing........................sounds like a bullshit lie but i have been onstage with the national symphony orchestra!! the show was reviewed in the washington post!! they said it was just OK lmfaoooo

where were you born?

stop trying to steal my identity, do you want my mom's maiden name too? sheesh

what are your hobbies?

writing, reading, FASHUN, kpop, skincare if that counts

do you have any pets?

i have a dog and she can't stand me lmao

what sports do you play/have played?

i only ever liked dance...i did ballroom dance until my partner quit and then switched to ballet, tap, jazz etc and did that through end of high school

how tall are you?

5'0" (153cm)!

favourite subject in school?

i absolutely fucking HATED school and nobody believed me because i got good grades but it was TORTURE!!!! yes i am ND why do you ask.......anyway i guess my favorite was history bc i like trivia n such

dream job?

i do not dream of labor........but if capitalism weren't real i would want to be a stylist for transmasc people or anyone who wants to masculinize their style. love menswear sooo much. alternately i would have stuck with music and become a classical singer :)