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the-90s-music-colosseum · 1 year ago

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Round 4 Match 9

propaganda below the cut! (enormous wall of text warning)

Trent Reznor:

"he is everything. he is all that exists around us. he is the air which we breathe. he performed covered in mud at woodstock 94 and somehow made it work. he's largely responsible for arguably the most influential concept album of the 90s. he is beautiful and sweet and stunning. i want to study him under a microscope. i know closer is about sex as a self-destructive behavior but also have you seen how insanely gorgeous he looks in the music video? in the words of my friend, "he sings like he's in heat". he literally humps and destroys synths (in a variety of ways, including stripping the keys off with his boot) during performances. every single outfit he wears is extremely cunty. on multiple occasions guys have said that even though they're straight they would fuck him. finally, in the words of jude doyle: "to this day, looking at a photograph of trent reznor in the early '90s feels like looking into the sun""

"The live March Of The Pigs (1994) video makes me froth at the mouth I start biting and snapping my teeth and growling. I need to rewatch it five times a week at LEAST to stay sane. Trent Reznor is like if a trophy wife was a man. Also the way he WHISPERS INTO THE MIC AT THE END OF SUCK?????HHFSJBDNDNS???? THE ENTIRETY OF THE BROKEN EP????????? Cleanup on aisle my fucking pants. Is this too insane? Sorry"

"I’m a lesbian but that does not fucking mean anything when confronted with trent reznor"

"It's Trent, man. Even the literal devil wants him. He's just boypretty."

"This man deadass wrote a song with the lyric “My moral standing is lying down" in it"

Jonny Greenwood:

"Every art girl's (and boy's) wet dream"

"He wrote the tourist. That's all you need."

"Repeat from my Thom propaganda but he was a part of it so anyways. I had a dream once where I met him and Thom on the street and asked them to sign my Pablo Honey CD, so Thom pushed me into open traffic and I got hit by a car and died and Jonny laughed his ass off. 10/10, my last sight before death was his beautiful face laughing."

"I could probably snap him like a twig but I want to marry him and have 3 children with him before I do that"

"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose 1/5 of Radiohead. Choose 1/5 of In Rainbows. Choose the man who wrote weird fishes, both Greenwood sisters ,the man in South Park, his telecaster and the stickers on it. Choose the bug Jacqueline Kennedy, his love for literature and poetry, and his lovely lisp. Choose his sublime score for Phantom Thread and his husband Paul Thomas Anderson. Choose the weird amount of straight men who thirst over him in the YouTube comment section. Choose his jawbone. Choose the most pretentious, unpretentious member of the band. Choose his silky hair and his (probably) Dove shampoo. Choose his great knowledge of music theory and how he often disregards it. Choose Astroboy's biggest fanboy (minus maybe Thom. Choose a very hot Alex James who eloped with a fish. Choose Jonny Greenwood. Choose your future. Choose life… Involuntary Trainspotting reference but please vote Jonny over Wario. Oh, and( even though Jonny lives in Italy at the moment), I live in Oxford and if I meet him, I'll tell him that he won."

"He keeps chickens guys, CHICKENS"

"I'm a straight guy but no joke Jonny is hot tbh maybe it's cuz he looks like a chick but like damnnnn"

"He's so gorgeous....kinda like an ant 😍😍😍😍"

Mike Patton:

"Mike didn't consistently wear BDSM masks matched with boiler suits and lick Trevor Dunn on stage just to lose this bracket. Also, if you don't think he's hot in every which way, you clearly haven't seen this: https://youtu.be/gjEbHBafvm0 or this: https://youtu.be/i9_hCjcFNO0 or this: https://youtu.be/Kfq7wHJu21c"

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"Mike Patton collaborated with basically everyone who's anyone in music, and he speaks Italian too. He's great in a live show. And Mr. Bungle is unmatched and unparalleled, full stop."

"HEE HEE HOO HOO HA HA FUNNY WHITE MAN SCREAMS IN MY EAR AND BUSTS IT DOWN SEXUAL STYLE"

"I'm a lesbian but I find him insanely attractive which I think says a lot"

"whenever mike arches his back and screams a part of my soul leaves my body and is shattered by the soundwaves."

"all you need to do to love mike is watch this: https://youtu.be/0gq_Jn41iMM&t=1375 the fact that he blurts that out and then super casually goes into the song leaves me crying with rage and hormones every time I see it"

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#most attractive 90s musician #poll #polls #90s music #tournament #trent reznor #nine inch nails #mike patton #mr bungle #faith no more #jonny greenwood #radiohead

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siberian-khatru · 3 months ago

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HAPPY 71ST BIRTHDAY TO GEDDY LEE!!!!!!

OH, and it's the 50th anniversary of Neil Peart joining Rush!!!!!

As with every year on their birthdays, I am doing my Rushathon, in which I attempt to listen to every single Rush album in chronological order from the debut to Clockwork Angels, and this year, in honor of this occasion, I will be live blogging the most formative albums of their career (imo)!!!! This will probably be the debut, Fly By Night, 2112, A Farewell to Kings/Hemispheres (probably in one post), Moving Pictures, Power Windows, Counterparts, Vapor Trails, and Clockwork Angels. Currently, I have started on the debut, and I will posting this after I finish the first one with a review of every single Rush song I listen to today!!!! So, the track list for the debut, which is famously the only album that doesn't have Neil on drums and lyrics, we have: 1. "Finding My Way"- What a goddamn opener!!! I mean, you can hear Robert Plant's influence on Geddy's vocals as he croons the high "oooh yeah"s, but what a way to start a career! I think it's nice that this and the final song on Clockwork Angels have this theme of "finding my way back home".

2. "Need Some Love"- This song certainly has a catchy chorus, but otherwise I don't think it stands out too much, other than continuing the vibe of the album. 3. "Take A Friend"- I like the concept of the song, even if some of the lyrics make me cringe a little ("Take yourself a friend/ whether woman or man"), but I can forgive those because Geddy literally had to write down the lyrics from the best of his memory the night before he needed to record the album because John Rusty ripped up the lyric sheets. 4. "Here Again"- Once again, not super fond of the lyrics, but Geddy's vocals on this track are just stellar, and the song reminds me of the post-battle section on "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" on the following album. It's got a nice, slow, heavy swing to it, and Alex's solo is extremely well-crafted. I think this song is sort of a precursor to a lot of their other work in the 70s. It's also the longest track on the album, coming in at 7 minutes and 34 seconds, 24 seconds longer than Working Man. 5. "What You're Doing"- Immediately I'm taken in by the riff, which is also inspired by Zeppelin, but it has a distinctively Rush tint. And even if the riff is inspired by British blues rockers, the singing doesn't seem to be on this track. And then there's the chromatic breakdown before it goes back into the chorus that is also reminiscent of what they would be doing on the next album on "By-Tor and the Snowdog". Already you can hear some of their prog tendencies! The solo is still definitely a bit of a Zeppelin-esque pastiche, but not a bad one. And I can also hear some other influences in the playing of the solo. 6. "In the Mood"- "Hey baby it's a quarter to eight/ I feel I'm in the mood" are lyrics Rush fans have been making fun of for decades, but despite the cringe lyrics, this is a very fun song! There's a reason why they kept it as a closer throughout the 70s. It's one of the simpler songs on the album, and by any other band, it would probably have been a hit. 7. "Before and After"- This soft opener with harmonics is sort of reminiscent of the ending of "The Necromancer" to me, another sort of look into the near future of their prog career. This song has a gorgeous opening, and I don't know I keep forgetting about it. The build into the main riff and verse is also just fantastic. There's this bit where Geddy and Alex drop out for a few seconds before coming back in with this heavy riff, and it's just sublime.

8. "Working Man"- This is the one that perhaps you've all been waiting for. This is the song that broke Rush over into America--- with some help from Donna Halper, of course! This song was played on almost every tour, and was the last song Rush ever played live together on August 1st, 2015. The riff is simply heavy, with lyrics pining for a better life. The song starts of slow, and slowly goes into a fast breakdown that seems to me to represent how life seems to slip right by as you get older. The song also just rocks. The breakdown has an amazing solo, some incredible bass playing (my biggest concern), and some solid time-keeping work from Rutsey (later improved upon by his successor, of course!). Stay tuned for Fly By Night!!!!

#rush band #geddy lee #hbd ged!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

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talkingpointsusa · 9 months ago

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Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson wage a very stupid war against "sexual boredom"

Projection intensifies (source: Ben Shapiro on YouTube)

This is one of those things that I wanted to talk about when it came out but it kind of fell by the wayside. However, I figured that since it's been kind of boring in the griftosphere and we need to laugh at something after that last episode, here is a 9 minute video of Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson talking about sexual boredom.

Now I know what you're thinking, a guy who thinks all that women are "chaos dragons" and another guy who accidentally admitted that he can't get his wife wet while reading the lyrics of a rap song are probably not the best sources for anything coming remotely close to sexual advice. And you're completely right. Lets get into it.

00:00, Ben Shapiro: "The amount of sexual boredom in this society is extraordinary. So you have more sexual choice and variety available than anytime in human history, given free license by the state because there are no intermediate social institutions in which informal mechanisms of disapproval could make themself felt, and one of the things that human beings psychologically are turned on by is taboo. So when you get rid of literally every taboo then people tend to get bored and then the question is-

Jordan Peterson: "Yeah, well there's no novelty."

And just what exactly is this based off of? Seriously, they never really give any data to back up the existence of this sexual boredom epidemic that they are talking about. I guess them feeling sexually bored is evidence enough.

Anyway, there are still a lot of taboos, we've just more or less moved on from some of the bigoted ones like "no gay marriage" that these guys like. These guys perceive a lack of taboos because society has moved on from the taboos that they think should be in place. Despite what these guys might have heard from their media diet that seemingly consists of nothing but LibsOfTikTok, the world isn't some giant sexual free for all.

What even is this argument by the way? Is Ben's argument that we should get the government step in and regulate and restrict the sexual affairs of private citizens so that those citizens....can break the rules?

Just to really put a final nail in Ben and Jordan's "no taboo's create sexual boredom" coffin, the states with the highest porn consumption are highly conservative states that tend to have more taboos than others. I think people who consume a lot of pornography are pretty sexually bored, don't you?

00:33, Ben Shapiro: "Particularly men are driven by sexual novelty, it's something that's very deeply engrained."

"And that's why we need to stop sleeping in separate beds honey."

00:53, Ben Shapiro: "I mean the -- the part of Freud that everybody ignores is the part where Freud actually is in favor of sublimation right."

So, sublimation is essentially the psychological concept of channeling unwanted thoughts into something positive. So for instance, if somebody is lonely they could join a club. Most psychologists seem to say that sublimation is a good thing so I don't get where he's even coming from with this.

00:58, Ben Shapiro: "It's only later psychologists and philosophers who suggest the sublimation needs to be destroyed and done away with to free all forms of human artistic and material expression."

Who Ben?! I googled "Is sublimation bad, psychology" and there were so many articles talking about how it's an overall good thing. I honestly am wondering if Ben is talking about gay people sublimating their urges and as a result becoming straight given his past track record on gay marriage. Because I honestly don't understand where any of this is coming from!

01:09, Ben Shapiro: "But Freud never said that, Freud says you actually have to sublimate a lot of those short term hedonic desires to something higher."

OK Ben, I don't think Freud meant that you need to sublimate your sexual urges to God.

I think I'm starting to understand why these two are sexually bored.

01:15, Ben Shapiro: "But again that gets back to kind of the fundamental premise that you were speaking to which is there is this narrative of accepted values that we used to live inside of and when you destroy that narrative by saying that for some reason it's not true because it's not coming out of your own head, well once that happens we don't hold a common narrative, there are no common narratives. And if there are no common narratives and everything is then acceptable then what exactly is the taboo? Where does the sublimation take place? There is no sublimation and there is no future orientation, because what sublimation really is is orientation of short term in favor of long term."

Again, this argument is built on a stupid premise that there aren't anymore taboos. Public sex is still pretty taboo and a lot of people find novelty in either having sex in public or staging a sexual encounter to look like that. And that's just one example off the top of my head.

Again, the subtext here is that these two are pissed off that things like LGBTQ+ acceptance are becoming less taboo and as a result they seem to have drawn the conclusion that there are no taboos anymore.

01:50, Jordan Peterson: "Well, and in favor of other people right? So it's long-term plus the social. Yeah well so --- you can think about this technically as well. If there's no uniting narrative, here's the necessary consequences. First of all there's no higher order super ordinate aim."

I can't figure out if these two are talking about God or marriage. Probably both to be honest.

02:15, Jordan Peterson: "We experience positive motivation and the impotence to move forward. So that would be; curiosity, hope, inspiration, enthusiasm, even aesthetic interest. We experience that only in relationship to an aim. And so if you destroy the ultimate aim you destroy the structure upon which reward is dependent."

"You are physically incapable of feeling happiness unless you live the life that I want you to live" is a take I wasn't expecting from a video allegedly about sexual boredom.

The ironic thing about this video is that so far following Jordan and Ben's advice will probably lead to more sexual boredom.

03:28, Jordan Peterson: "There's a relationship between scarcity and deprivation and value, right? And so if you are surfeited by a stimulus lets say, or a resource, so you are overfed, as soon as you're not hungry food is of no interest, if you're stuffed food is nauseating."

This is such a ridiculous analogy. The only way for it to make sense is if people had sex on a daily basis and essentially became screwing machines. Contrary to Jordan and Ben's belief, people aren't having sex multiple times every single day.

Plus, there's the issue of consent. The food can't tell you "No, I don't actually want to be eaten." and as a result, people can stuff themselves to their hearts content. Other people can say they don't want to have sex. There is a massive difference.

Jordan talks about the story of the Israelites and them getting too much quail from the Bible. I mean, I guess if the point is that if you have too much sex then maybe you should take a break fair enough. But again, this metaphor is missing so much stuff like the issue of consent. Then Ben does an ad.

05:44, Jordan Peterson: "We don't know how much depravation is necessary for proper sexual function to make itself manifest."

"And that's why I'm here telling you how much sex you should have."

07:01, Jordan Peterson: "And then you were talking about novelty. And so this is pretty interesting too, so you said men will chase novelty in a sexual relationship. Well, I think part of what is incumbent on married individuals is to figure out how to keep that novelty alive. Right, so that means that each of them have to be transforming and I think the best way to do that is in relationship to a spiritual pursuit."

Nothing spices things up in the bedroom quite like a frank discussion about scripture.

I'll give Jordan a tiny bit of leeway here due to the fact that some studies have shown that religious couples do report better sex than non-religious couples. But there are a lot of moving parts in said study such as the fact that couples showing heightened religiosity overall reported lower sexual satisfaction and the increased sexual satisfaction was more tied with the sanctification of sex. Essentially people who believe that the sex they have with their partner is sacred.

It was only conducted through two groups of people through their workplace as well meaning it's not particularly indicative of the greater population.

07:56, Ben Shapiro: "One of the things that's actually fascinating about this is, biblically speaking, I mean not to get into obstruse Jewish law but I mean, this is actually right in the Bible forget about the obstruse Jewish law, right in the Bible one of the mandates is that for a period of at least one week out of every month married couples are not supposed to have sex."

You know, there's a subtle hint in why that was when you said the word period!

That was clearly about menstruation. It wasn't just no sex either, it was in pretty much every aspect. It was because women were viewed as "unclean" after having their periods at that time. And just to prove it, here's Leviticus 15:19;

"Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening."

So essentially that week was more about the fact that women were viewed as "unclean" after having their period in biblical times.

Conclusion:

Well, on the one hand I'm glad that these two are finally talking about a topic that they would presumably know a lot about. On the other hand, this was dumber than I thought it would be. I kind of want to call Jordan and Ben the Sexual Boredom Squad from now on.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

#right wing bullshit #conservative bullshit #fact checking #journalism #bad takes #conservatives #disinformation #debunking #politics #daily wire #ben shapiro #jordan peterson

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russenoire · 2 years ago

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mob choirさんの「exist」の大まかな歌訳と、この歌から語彙、その３：Ｂメロ❸とサビ❶

mob choir's 'exist' in rough translation + vocabulary, part 3: bridge 3 + chorus 1

その歌から語彙 words from this song

煽る　〖あおる・aòru 〗　to fan (oneself, flames, etc.). to instigate, provoke, incite...

verb 〜ては　if an action continues, then... also lends emphasis to the verb it modifies. 　

欠乏　〖けつぼう・ketsubou 〗　famine, (de)privation, want, shortage, a going/doing without something needed. 漢字：｢lack, lacuna｣ + ｢deprivation, scarcity｣。

指針　〖ししん・sh'shin 〗　indicator, pointer, needle. in a figurative sense, a guiding principle, a basic policy, a guideline. 漢字：｢finger, point to, indicate｣ + ｢needle｣。

ゆえ　〖故・yue 〗　this word has quite a few meanings. among them: a reason, justification, motive; the cause of an occurrence; a malfunction or an accident. see dictionary.goo.ne.jp for more.

メリット　benefit, advantage... merit.　

奥　〖おく・oku 〗　bottom of, depths, innermost part.

氷解（する）〖ひょうかい・hyoukai 〗　a melting of ice... or doubts, misgivings, suspicions. 漢字：｢ice｣ + ｢solve, explain, unravel｣。

つながり　〖繋がり・tsunagari 〗　a connection, a link between two things. compare with 関係。

行く末　〖ゆくすえ・yukusue 〗　one's future; one's path in life; life expectancy, the end of a road.

濁り　〖にごり・nigori 〗　a muddiness, lack of clarity, or impurity, among other meanings. if you are familiar with nigorizake (unfiltered, cloudy sake), this is how you spell 'nigori' in its name.

昇華（する）〖しょうか・shouka 〗　sublimation. in chemistry, a solid transforming into a gas without passing through a liquid state. otherwise refers to a channeling, diversion, etc. of emotions or impulses into a 'higher' or more... socioculturally-acceptable form. 漢字：｢rise up｣ + ｢splendor, flower, gorgeous｣。

lyrics below the cut.

歌詞 lyrics

Ｂメロ

blow 煽られては　離されてく if you persist in provoking me i will soon part ways with you (more literally: if i continue to be provoked by you, we will soon be separated) あの時の欠乏 you will feel my absence then (lit.: a going without [me] at that time) flow 流されても　指針じゃない being swept along on life's tide is no star to steer by 故のメリット to [this] accident, a silver lining allow 胸の奥で　氷解する deep inside my heart my doubts all melt away like ice 繋がりの行く末 the end of the road for [our] connection grow 濁りの無い　この想い the clouds part my (lit.: this) mind is clear 昇華させて let me channel it into something greater

サビ

exist, exist, exist, exist ３回そう、1人じゃない it's true, i'm not alone exist, exist, exist, exist ３回もう、受け入れて just accept it already

translator's note an a cappella rendition of the whole song, from memory part 1｜part 2｜part 3｜part 4

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augment-techs · 2 years ago

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song lyric prompts (3)

Love is the reason, yeah, love is the light//So keep on believing all through the night--The sun’s always shining bright, just above the rain//Your dreams will have wings and they'll fly~ Love is the Reason, by Irene Cara.

Rewind, induce amnesia // Deny the truth, that's easier--”You're just confused.”~ Little Miss Perfect, by Joriah Fleming.

So pull me up from down below//'Cause I'm underneath the undertow; Come dry me off and hold me close//I need you now, I need you most~ Head Above Water, by Avril Lavigne.

Instead of hide, instead of staying stuck inside//Instead of building your wall~ Gonna Be My Day, by Vanessa Hudgens.

Don't wanna wake up on a Monday morning; The thought of work's gettin' my skin crawlin'--I can't fear you, I don't hear you now~ Could Have Been Me, by Halsey.

Well, I think that I've been true to everybody else but me//And the way I feel about you makes my heart long to be free//Every time I look into your eyes I'm helplessly aware--That the someone I've been searching for is right there~ Hold on to the Nights, by Richard Marx.

Sometimes the ones you love the most, have the worst things to hide//Sometimes the monsters turn out to be those who stood there by your side~ Nothing Good, from Centaurworld.

Yes, he’s witty//So disarming//And I really like the way he holds a room//Clever, cunning--Ever charming//How do I make him see I’m special?~ A Girl Like Her; Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.

Stuck it out this far together//Put our dreams through the shredder//Let's toast 'cause things got better~ Here’s to Us, by Halestorm.

But I remember you//And I will relay to you//How our histories interweave~ The Mariner’s Revenge Song, by The Decemberists.

Forever in my heart (Forever in my heart)//You’re all the love I’ve known (You’re all the love I’ve known)//And even though you’re gone, as long as I hold on--I’ll never be alone~ Forever in My Heart, Swan Princess (deleted song).

If you wanna be my lover--You have got to give (You've got to give)//Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is~ Wannabe, by the Spice Girls.

Blow me a kiss from across the room//Say I look nice when I'm not//Touch my hair as you pass my chair~ Little Things Mean a Lot, by Kitty Kallen.

And the fever began to spread--From my heart down to my legs//But the room was so quiet (oh)//And although I wasn't losing my mind, it was a chorus so sublime--But the room is too quiet~ Breath of Life, by Florence + The Machine.

There's nothing else to lose//There's nothing else to find//There's nothing in the world//That can change my mind//There is nothing else~ Hanging By a Moment, by Lifehouse.

Some day somebody's gonna make you want to turn around and say goodbye//Until then, baby, are you going to let 'em hold you down and make you cry?~ Hold On, by Wilson Phillips.

What am I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for you?//Well, I can't do that//And there's no turning back~ Believe, by Cher.

How can I put it? You put me on//I even fell for that stupid love song~ Since U Been Gone, by Kelly Clarkson.

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me//At tea time, everybody agrees//I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror--It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero~ Anti-Hero, by Taylor Swift.

Oh, who's the hunter, who's the game; I feel the beat call your name//I hold you close in victory//I don't want to tame your animal style//You won't be caged--In the call of the wild~ The Warrior, by Scandal.

#writing prompts #song lyrics #ask prompts #GIMME PROMPTS #ASK ME SOMETHING #boom! comics power rangers #power rangers in general

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angrypedestrian · 2 years ago

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I won't ask you to provide elaborate commentary on these or quote song lyrics or anything bc you're already debasing yourself enough (feel free if you want though, by all means. I mean, I'd love it). But look. Zach. I need that whole top 10, babey

Lol so funny story my top ten is actually mostly the new wonder years record, plus Silk Chiffon, a deep cut track from that one Relient K record everyone knows, and my number one, Loved You a Little by The Maine featuring Adam Lazzara peak doing whatever his deal is now, because it is so goddamn catchy it wormed its way into my brain like a parasite.

So in the interest of giving you the nu metal content you crave, I will list numbers 18-28, which seems to better encapsulate the truth and breadth of music I allowed myself to experience this year.

18. Deftones - Be Quiet and Drive Actually good song I have no shame in enjoying! Deftones fucking rule, and I went through a big phase of actually digging into their discography this year. I've always been a fan of the big songs everyone knows, but never really explored them further. I'm glad I finally did! 19. Puddle of Mudd - Blurry The guitar lines and tones in this song light up my brain like nothing else in the 20+ years it has been around. I HATE how much I love listening to this song. It is atrocious, it is incredible, it should never have existed, but I can't say I'm mad that it does. 20. Sublime - Seed Thank u Tony Hawk Underground, the biggest game changer there ever was 21. Wonder Years - Cardinals II One of the best songs they've ever written tbh 22. Chevelle - Send the Pain Below I hear that opening riff and I turn feral. THE GUITAR TONE. 23. Coheed and Cambria - Beautiful Losers You get it. 24. Sublime - Jailhouse Much like Deftones, I never really gave Sublime a shot outside of their singles, so I dug into their discography this year too, and it's not nearly as good as Deftones obviously, but damn the self-titled slaps. 25. The 1975 - I'm In Love With You Matty Healy is one of the most insufferable people on the planet, he also writes some of catchiest songs i've ever heard. it's awful 26. Three Days Grace - I Hate Everything About You Again, the guitar tone on the main riff!!!! I fucking lose my mind!!! 27. All American Rejects - Swing, Swing 28. Sublime - April 29, 1992 If you want to know how this happened, please see my playlist titled "my k hole of shame"

#i unfortunately love nu metal because i was a pre-teen from 2000-2003 #but in its defense so many of the riffs go so hard #and the guitar tones on these songs is just out of this world good #listening to any of the lyrics make my brain melt out of my ears

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newmusickarl · 2 years ago

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5-9’s Album of the Month Podcast – Episode 3 Coming Soon!

March has now come to an end, which means the next edition of the 5-9 Album of the Month Podcast will soon be live, in which myself, 5-9 Editor Andrew Belt, Check This Out’s Kiley Larsen and Blinded by The Floodlights’ Matthew McLister review five high profile album releases from the past month in music, and ultimately name one as our Album of the Month at the end of the discussion.

For a stacked March, the five albums we will be covering are:

Fantasy by M83 (Poll winner, thanks to everyone who voted!)

The Record by Boygenius

LIES by LIES

Rides On by The Nude Party

Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) by Yves Tumor

If you want to listen to the February episode simply click the link below, but also be sure to follow 5-9 Blog on Instagram and Twitter for more news and polls relating to the podcast, along with other great content like film reviews, sports articles and more.

Listen to the February 2023 episode here

Album & EP Recommendations

Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey

A woman who needs no introduction at this point, one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year so far finally arrived this month in the form Lana Del Rey’s eighth studio album – Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (which we can all agree is a peak Lana type of album title).

Having delivered her undisputed magnum opus Norman Fucking Rockwell (NFR) back in 2019, Miss Lizzy Grant has not rested on her laurels since, quickly following up with two more albums in 2021 – Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters. Whilst both records had their moments, the former more so, neither quite came close enough to the theatre, majesty and sheer perfection of NFR. However now back with her fourth album in as many years, Lana has once again hit some career best highs on Did you know…, albeit a record that still has its flaws.

Let’s start off on the positives though and there are plenty to talk about - particularly the entire first half of this record where the songs presented can easily stand toe to toe with anything on NFR. Opener The Grants welcomes the listener with some gorgeous gospel vocal harmonies, before Lana herself takes over with her inimitable vocals, exquisitely sharing memories of her family. The title track is then even better and already one of my favourite Lana tracks, with its stirring strings, anguished vocals and heartbreaking lyrics of self-loathing (“Open me up, tell me you like me, Fuck me to death, love me until I love myself”). As Lana is joined by a choir for the swelling “Don’t Forget Me” refrain in the song’s outro, you’d have to be cold hearted to not be greatly moved.

After the sweeping heartache of Sweet, seven-minute epic A&W is another career highlight which sees Lana detail “the experience of being an American Whore.” It’s vintage Lana, with the first half stripped back and centred around her sublime, hushed vocals, before it steadily morphs into a rumbling, trap style beat as she sarcastically sings “Your Mom called, I told her, you’re fucking up big time.” Just superb.

After an interlude from social media preacher Judah Smith, the Jon Baptiste featuring Candy Necklace then delivers another big album highlight, as a simple piano arrangement beautifully glides off Lana’s vocals on the poetic chorus of “You’ve been acting pretty reckless, dancing like the young and restless.” After the extended Jon Baptiste outro, Kintsugi strikes a similar chord with just Lana singing live alongside a piano – again just stunning and really spotlights what a special artist she has become.

However, as I mentioned the album isn’t without it’s flaws and it’s around the midway point these start to become more noticeable – the main one being the album’s length. This is Lana’s longest record to date and whilst the songs in the middle section like Paris Texas, Grandfather… and her collaborations with Father John Misty and Bleachers sound great in isolation, you may find yourself weary of Lana’s singular pace by the time you reach this portion of the record. Twice whilst listening front-to-back I found myself falling into a bit of a lull during these tracks, but returning to them individually afterward helped me to connect with them. Also for me, these songs just don’t quite match up to those in the first half – at least after a few plays.

Thankfully though Lana pulls it back around at the end, thanks to the infectious trap groove of the album’s most pure pop moment, Peppers. This is then followed by closing track Taco Truck x VB, which brazenly morphs halfway through into a remix of her own classic track, Venice Bitch from NFR. Is this a lazy finish or a cool flex? I’ll let you decide.

So whilst I’ve seen a lot of people saying Lana has knocked it out the park again with this one and possibly delivered her best yet, I’m not quite in that same boat. I do however think it’s definitely in the top half of her discography, and the first half of this record in particular is as good as anything she has ever done. I do still feel that Lana may have oversaturated her catalogue somewhat, and if she had just waited to combine the best half of this record, the best half of Chemtrails and the gems from Blue Banisters like the title track, Arcadia and Nectar of the Gods, she may have had another NFR level masterpiece on her hands.

That said though, I admire the work ethic and frequency at which Lana is delivering new music and I’m not going to complain too much about having a mountain of music from her over the last few years. The fact she’s been so productive and still served up some of the very best work of her career, really it can only be admired.

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SCARING THE HOES by JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

An album that thankfully went from rumour to reality pretty quickly, the last few weeks has also seen hip hop sensations JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown release their much-anticipated collaboration album – and it doesn’t disappoint.

Opener and lead single Lean Beef Patty basically captures everything that you can expect from this record in a nutshell - a sub 2-minute hurricane of hard electronic blasts, masterful production from JPEG and mesmerising lyrical wizardry from both artists. For 36 minutes, SCARING THE HOES is just an absolute blast of fun, thriving on chaotic beats, cheeky samples and ice-cold bars – everything you would want and expect from a project featuring these two cult superstars.

In terms of moments of magic there’s plenty too, with the first half boasting the dazzling and wittily titled Steppa Pig, the energetic, jazz-infused title track and the Kelis-sampling Fentanyl Tester. Then the back end sees Maryland rapper Redveil join the duo for the oddly enchanting Kingdom Hearts Key, whilst the pair then spit over some wildly distorted lounge piano on the bizarre yet brilliant, Jack Harlow Combo Meal. That said, my personal favourite track is the emphatic, horn-backed Burfict! which is so gloriously triumphant, I’ll be very surprised if we hear a better hip hop beat this year.

Overall, this record is just a tonne of fun and a real early 2023 standout from the hip hop genre. Here’s hoping we get more from these two in the future!

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Live At Bush Hall by Black Country, New Road

Carrying on after losing a founding member is never easy, and these next two albums both come in the wake of such a moment for these two bands - albeit in two very different circumstances.

Firstly we have an outfit still relatively in their infancy - art-rockers Black Country, New Road (BCNR). Having earned a Mercury Prize for their debut For The First Time before then blowing critics and fans away with their deeply moving, beautifully crafted sophomore record Ants From Up There (one of my Top 5 Albums of 2022), BCNR looked to be on the verge of big things. However, with frontman Isaac Wood stepping away from the band for mental health reasons prior to Ants From Up There’s release, the remaining six-piece collective were suddenly seemingly sent back to square one.

Promising to not perform any of their music prior to Isaac’s departure ever again, the band instead began to play a few shows of entirely new music, which is exactly what has now been captured in this Live At Bush Hall release. This live album feels like the perfect next step and rebirth for BCNR, showing that although Isaac was a huge loss, they still have plenty to offer both as a live force and as songwriters going forward. If you don’t believe me, check out the full live performance for yourself below and pay particular attention to epic tracks The Boy and Turbines/Pigs which are my early favourites from Black Country, New Road Mk. 2.

Watch the full Live At Bush Hall performance here

Listen to the live album here

Memento Mori by Depeche Mode

Written and recorded amidst COVID limitations before then being released following the tragic sudden passing of founding member Andy Fletcher in 2022, Depeche Mode’s fifteenth studio album was seemingly destined to be a hefty, emotionally charged listen. Haunting lead single Ghosts Again remains one of the best singles of the year so far and offered fans an early window into the thematic and sonic content of Memento Mori. However even with this, I’m sure not many expected the final result to be Dave Gahan and Martin Gore’s best work since at least 2005’s Playing The Angel – possibly even earlier.

Perfectly balancing the darkness in the lyrics with uplifting electronic-driven melodies, the band have also enlisted the help of Psychedelic Furs vocalist Richard Butler who elevates tracks Don’t Say You Love Me and Caroline’s Monkey. There’s also some late career classics from the duo, with the neon-soaked melancholy of Wagging Tongue, the industrial-backed vulnerability of Before We Drown and the exhilaratingly anthemic Never Let Me Go all standing out.

Overall, this is a towering work from a band now well over 40 years into their career, which helps make it all the more impressive. Using the pair’s own description, Memento Mori runs “the gamut from paranoia and obsession to catharsis and joy, and hitting myriad points between" – and if that doesn’t sell you, nothing will.

Listen here

That Sweet Breath EP by Lowmello

Then on the EPs front this week, Santa Fe label Mama Mañana records are continuing to kill it with each release and this latest one from indie-rock multi-instrumentalist Abel John, who goes by the alias Lowmello, continues their hot streak.

Starting initially on a trippy vortex that even Kevin Parker would be proud of, Abel’s powerful raw vocals and buzzy guitars soon cut in on opener Red Lipstick, bringing some welcome unique flavour to proceedings. It’s a scintillating start which soon makes way for excellent single Fool, a track inspired by Abel’s own arrest for drink driving a few years back. Turning this embarrassing mistake into a shareable lesson, Fool is the result of an artist turning a corner and finding clarity in what they want to create, with the song wonderfully channelling Pretty Years-era Cymbals Eat Guitars for a grungy yet poppy belter of a track.

After that brilliant opening one-two combo, I’m pleased to say the EP doesn’t let up from there. 26 is a soaring, sand-dusted anthem of the ilk that made The Killers global superstars, whilst Andrew is a charmingly reflective ode to Abel’s own family and upbringing. The EP’s title track then triumphantly wraps things up in a haze of swirling guitar riffs, inspired by an enlightening hot yoga session and carrying with it more than a few callbacks to The Strokes.

Overall, this is a fantastic EP from Lowmello that delivers 5/5 on the indie belters front. If you love your guitars and have 15 minutes to spare, don’t sleep on this one.

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Rides On by The Nude Party

“The Nude Party is now back with their third full-length record, Rides On, an auditory trip through the late sixties and early seventies, with their barn studio serving as the time machine. For those familiar with the band, this may not sound like much of a change from their first two records, and you’d be correct. The thing is, The Nude Party is one of those groups that pick a lane and choose to barrel down the highway in a tank (with flowers shoved in the cannon, of course).

At the same time, this is the first album with The Nude Party self-producing at their upstate barn, like The Band at Big Pink, and it might be why Rides On is more relaxed and playful than their previous work. Things are much bluesier this time, like the barroom tack and harmonica on “Polly Anne” and the closer, “Red Rocket Ride.” We even have a magnificently greasy cover of Dr. John’s “Somebody Tryin’ to Hoodoo Me” for one of the record’s best moments.”

Read Kiley Larsen’s full review here

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A Fistful of Peaches by Black Honey

“Almost two years to the day since their last album release, the quartet are back with a new focus on third effort A Fistful of Peaches. The Brighton band’s new one is their most personal and open album yet…Black Honey’s third album is full of heavy guitars and big choruses, sprinkling some sweetness throughout. Make no mistake, this is an alt rock record to be played LOUD. Albeit the lack of variety is off-putting. At least initially.

A Fistful of Peaches is darker and heavier both in sound and lyrical themes addressed. This, of course, creates an unavoidable contrast to their last. Written & Directed was incredibly immediate but perhaps lacked the substance to revisit long after its release. Here the opposite is achieved. If you aren’t taken by this instantly, eventually you’ll get there and come around to the record’s many earworms.”

Read Matt McLister’s full review for Gigwise here

Listen here

Also worth checking out: Praise The Lord… by Yves Tumor, Fantasy by M83, So Much (For) Stardust by Fall Out Boy

Tracks of the Week

Eucalyptus by The National

Having been left somewhat underwhelmed by The National’s first two singles for their upcoming album First Two Pages of Frankenstein, I’m pleased to say this latest single has thankfully raised my personal hype-o-meter ready for the album dropping next month. Propelled by the Dessner brothers and riding an anthemic chorus of “You should take it, ‘cause I’m not gonna take it”, this is simply the National at their best.

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No Reason by The Chemical Brothers

When it comes to The Kings of Electronic, you can always expect them to deliver – without even going back to their 90s heyday, just look at 2019’s exceptional No Geography and 2021 single The Darkness That You Fear. Now No Reason continues their recent renaissance, with an instantly danceable groove that shimmers along until it erupts in a blitz of pulsating synths towards the back end. Hopefully a new album is on the way because we want more!

Listen here

Black British by V V Brown

I had completely forgotten about singer-songwriter V V Brown, until the moment I saw this week that she had released her first new music in eight long years. As a big fan of her previous work, particularly 2013’s Samson & Delilah, it’s fantastic to have V V’s talent back in the limelight and Black British is a simply outstanding return. Soulful, urgent and provocative, it’s a song that you simply need to hear.

Listen here

Spellbinding by Smashing Pumpkins

The legendary rockers have already released two thirds of their monster new album ATUM, which is set to clock in at a whopping 2.5 hours and 33 songs once fully released. On sheer probability alone there was always bound to be something worth listening to in that mountain of music and one of those tracks is the first taster for part three of the album, Spellbinding. Living up to its title, it combines playful pop synths, rip-roaring guitars and a hugely anthemic chorus for one of their best songs in years.

Listen here

Stupid by bexx

Retro-banger manufacturer bexx has already proved she is one the most exciting voices emerging in pop music right now, but if you’ve somehow not been convinced yet then her new single Stupid is sure to do the trick. With a (sadly!) relatable sentiment at its core and an instantly catchy earworm chorus, you’ll be singing along in petty rage at your ex in no time. Best experienced with the fun rom-com inspired music video which you can watch below too.

Watch the video here

Listen here

Errors and Repairs by Codice Ego

Something a bit different now, Italian alt-rockers Codice Ego have released their latest single Errors and Repairs this week, with the narrative centred around one of their band member’s experiences dealing with the fallout of a life-changing illness. Dark, industrial and an unsettling tone throughout, it’s shades of Placebo by way of Metric.

Listen here

Beatnik by Fake Turins

North London’s premier disco-psych 11-piece Fake Turins continue their farewell victory lap, having officially announced they will be calling it a day on the 8th June, a date which is set to host their final show at London’s Village Underground. Thankfully they are giving fans one final parting gift, in the form of their Inheritance EP, which is due out a month earlier on the 9th May. Following on from their excellent previous single Yr Made of Gold, the collective have now released the second taster of their upcoming EP. Titled Beatnik, it is a hypnotic barrage of mind-melting riffs, hip-shifting grooves and ominous dread.

Listen here

Lumoflove by Sad Boys Club

We are just over one month out from indie up-and-comers Sad Boys Club finally releasing their debut album, the intriguingly titled Lullabies From The Lightning Tree. Whilst all the singles for the record so far have been great, Lumoflove may just be the best yet, centred around a stirring piano arrangement and a jaw-dropping vocal performance from frontman Jacob Wheldon.

Listen here

She’s A Star (Orchestral Version) by James

Over a decade on from their last highly acclaimed orchestral tour, Mancunian indie legends James will be hitting the road next month accompanied by a gospel choir and 22-piece orchestra for what will surely be one of the live shows of the year. This time around, the band will also be releasing an album titled Be Opened By The Wonderful, featuring these orchestral reimaginings of their biggest and best songs. 90s classic She’s A Star is the first to undergo the treatment and it’s every bit as magical as you would expect.

Listen here

2am (Dan Carey Dub) by Foals

And finally this week, Foals are busy prepping a Dub remix of their brilliant, sun-soaked seventh album, last year’s Life Is Yours, which will be released in a few weeks’ time as part of Record Store Day 2023. The first taste is this mind-altering version of one of the best songs of 2022, remixed by none other than producer of the moment, Mr. Dan Carey. The result? Certified banger!

Listen here

Also worth checking out: In My Head by Nell Mescal, Mommy by Miya Folick, Good Lies by Overmono

REMINDER: If you use Apple Music, you can also keep up-to-date with all my favourite 2023 tracks through my Best of 2023 playlist. Constantly updated throughout the year with songs I enjoy, it is then finalised into a Top 100 Songs of the Year in December.

Add the playlist to your library here

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vormov · 3 months ago

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"Would you fucking wait a second?"

i always felt like i didn't belong. wisps of winds could carry me away like the wind wanted something of me, i couldn't understand why until now. as if the phrases made sense at the tugs of the gown felt real where were you when i awoke? surely you could be here among our accompaniment, i lit a pyre a long time ago. won't it come back to me enormously? perhaps if i live long enough. (let it speak)

all our gains are due to others, we speak in winds untethered but the song remains the same all of our lives feel fleeting now, the winds gave us the life we couldn't notice or let this kindness go without saying, ive never felt such grace.

you'll have to forgive me for loving on you awhile, we let this get so cold i forgot myself gigantic plunges into the unknown, we'll get there eventually, but i never felt uselesss not even this whole time for i was never truely alone. "This heart/ it beats beats for only you / my heart is yours"

the wind did spare me a time to speak, but i made excuses for it like i were a lie on fire. these things they say are hearsay, for they don't know me? but with each phantom verse we understand, one step closer. make it into a powerfully unnoticable node.

i wish to speak open like i never have, as if we longed and spoke like a wind unspoken. agaze again like the stars gave us a glimpse between this ether and the feeling downright felt like i wasn't even alive before. but have only garnered something i carry with the weight, only you know what i mean.

. * i left home, i abandoned who i was to with which such sublime above? let me to the notions of life being a lie, as if i were surprised. if i didn't remember these things i fear it'd be much more of a calamity.

we were taught to fear those of different, save those who weren't quite there… like the words we spoke meant not a thing at all as we followed our guts into the politispheric indulgence, like anyone cares anymore? blithe is the way we speak now engulfed in a madness none can see. "always in my thoughts you are/ always in my dreams you are"

ive felt the fear like a live electric spent my time wondering if the end times had fallen down from the mighty above list it in this lonely manual, i'll find out what you mean later/ we have all the time to spend here among the cosmos, let us bend it with our ever evanescent glow.

i couldn't let go quicker.

would you fucking listen? id love to hear it come from your own lips, that just this one single time i was [redacted], but i'll never know thanks to you disown, ill go. bet that i'll see the horizon before you would, you've always been a coward.

let these winds speak this unknown to those who need to hear it, it is your only imperative now…let it be known. id give my life for that understanding, like all of existance could be summed up in a three minute movie. plead it with convincing terms to engulf it all and never think again, "we'll do it!" i can't even begin the irony without a space for myself. "kicking your crosses down…"

i'll imagine it like it were painted into the sky deeply seeing how our eyes always sought the wrong targets to focus this elegance upon, won't you know who we really were? or will i understand this last verse again on time? won't you. (8-28-24 — lyrics quoted*: Paramore, Porcupine Tree, Circa Survive)

#2024 #dark #poetry #social grief #lossless #stream of consciousness #edited #words

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mathpumamusic · 5 months ago

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Uh oh...

I got busy; Given how long it's been, I think trying to write even terse reviews for all the music would cease to be fun either to read, or to write, so I'll just share some highlights and interesting things. Part of me wants to hate [Sublime Jupiter Snake Duo] for their presentation, but their discography is just to solid for me to ignore. The group [Haggus] makes music so comically agressive that I would earnestly believe that it was a parody if told such. However, that doesn't mean for a second that I don't enjoy listening to it. In a similar vein, [Brojob] specializes in making metal with stellar guttural vocals, whose lyrics are also gleefully as gay as possible, deliberately in ways which will alienate listeners who aren't in on the joke, so to speak. It kicks ass. [Yussef Dayes] nails a particular blue and wistful atmosphere, and is so good at nailing the production of all his music that I actually noticed production for once in my life. The [Scattle] album "Sketch" doesn't have any one thing in particular that I need to point out, but I've revisited it a few times. [SOIL & "PIMP" SESSIONS] created some of the best music to ever scratch the very particular itch I have for jazz based music that's also irreverently aggressive with it's rough edges. It's gritty and loud and great. "Witchy Activities and the Maple Death" was a weird find, but a worthwhile listen that I checked out a few times after the ledger below ceased being updated. There's lot's of stuff I listened to but didn't record, unfortunately. In the below, I grouped all the projects that I listened to so frequently that it wouldn't make sense to even write them on any individual days.

Normally I try to respect how artists stylize their names and album titles, but for the sake of getting this typed and out, that's definitely not the case for the below. Full ledger (except for the fact that at some point I stopped recording due to being so behind): Frequent Listens (Omitted from specific days, because it would be overwhelmingly frequent): [City Hotel] All albums, repeatedly, several times a week. [Pilotredsun] "Groundhog" and "Scuffler" EP's, repeatedly [Ferenczi Gyorgy] "Mindenek Szerelme" at least ten times [Bobbing] "Year of the Newt" numerous times Notable Listens: 4-3-2024: [J3PO] "MAINS" [Squarepusher] "Just a Souvenir" [Carling & Will] "Soon comes the Night" [Lianhua] "Citrus!" [Animals as Leaders] "The Madness of Many" [Bach performed by Masaaki Suzuki] "J.S. Bach original works, Vol.5" [Venetian Snares] "Hospitality" 5-3-2024: [Frums] "Vignette" [Aphex Twin] "...I care because you do" and "come to daddy" [Boiled Buzzards] "Fine Dining" [Bele Fleck and the Flecktones] Various Albums [Floating Points et. al] "Promises" [Kamasi Washington] "Harmony of Difference" 6-3-2024: [Bele Fleck and the Flecktones] First three albums [Glasys] "Defective Humanity" [Dubmood] "Lost Tapes Vol. 2" [Disasterpeace] "Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar" [Green Lung] "Woodland Rites" [E-An-Na] "Alveolar" 7-3-2024: Several recommendations from George [Squarepusher] "Ultravisitor" [Keshi] [The Funky Knuckles] "Delicious" [Flyleaf] "Flyleaf"

8-3-2024: [Adhesive Wombat] "Sticky Tracks" 11-3-2024: [Varra] "Varra III" More recs from George [Lemon City Trio] [Bruno Major] "A song for every Moon" [zabutom] "Lost Tapes Vol. 1" 12-3-2024: [Bruno Major] "Let a good Thing Die" [Return to Forever] "Romantic Warrior" [Soiya] "You can Say Hi" [The Ollum] 13-3-2024: [Drumcorp] "Falling Forward" [Moon Tooth] "Chromaparagon" 18-3-2024: [Wanclaw Zimpel] "Long Weekend" [Justice] "Cross" Recommendations from Kenny [Squarepusher] "Solo Bass" and "Feed me Weird Things" 19-3-2024: [Squarepusher] "Ufabulum" [Mark Guliana] "Music for Doing" [5SOS] [Breaking Benjamin] "Shallow Bay" [David Hyams] "Knowing the Place" 20-3-2024: [Old & in the Way] [Nora Brown] "Cinnamon Tree" [Squrepusher] "Be up a Hello" 21-3-2024: [Arthur Verocai] "Encore" [Glasys] "Defective Humanity" and "The Pressure" [Faux Plums] "In Tongues" [The Collection] "Entropy" 22-3-2024: [Dubmood] "Lost Floppies Vol. 1" [zabutom] "Lost Floppies Vol. 2" [Aphex Twin] "Syro" [Disasterpeace] "Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar" [E-An-Na] "Alveolar" [Machine Girl] "Because I'm young, arrogant, and hate everything you stand for..." [Ween] "The Mollusk" (Large break in the ledger from when I went to visit George in person) 5-4-2023: [Green Lung] "Woodland Rites" [Grouper] "I'm Dragging a dead deer up a Hill" [Pilotredsun] "Cyber op Keys" and "Think Environment" [Moon Hooch] "Red Sky" 8-4-2024: [Mick Gordon] "Doom OST" [Scary Goldings] [By the Spirits] "We are Falling" [Queen] "The Game" [zabutom] "Lost Tapes 1" [The Orb] "Orblivion" 9-4-2024: [Lincoln Park] "Hybrid Theory" and one more album I can't make out in my notes [Irving Force] "Godmode" [Micheal Hedges] "Oracle" 10-4-2024: [zabutom] "Resolution" [ur pretty] Entire Discography [Nora Brown] "Long time to be Gone" [Evan Marian] "Elysian" [Michael Hedges] "Oracle" [Kaizo Slumber] "The Kaizo Manifesto" [Sublime Jupiter Snake Duo] "Clown" That's all for now. I'll probably get back to recording what I listen to because I like the timeline of what I was interested in, but I'll probably not write proper reviews or responses to most things, just in the interest of saving myself some time. Things I have big reactions to will definitely get some more love though.

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0613magazine · 1 year ago

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032723 AERA Magazine

Last year in June, BTS announced that they would be doing both group and solo activities in parallel. How have you been spending your time since this announcement 10 months ago?

I lived as best as I could. There was almost no time to rest as there was the production of FACE, the collaboration with SOL from Bigbang, filming content with the BTS members etc. Once the promotion activities for FACE are finished maybe there will be a bit of free time.

Following in the footsteps of j-hope, Jin and RM, you released FACE, your solo album, on March 24th.

For me this album is a new and big challenge. To tell the truth the pressure is immense. Because really, I will be judged on my skills alone. There is no escape or hiding. I need to make up for my shortcomings and give it my all. I’m also worried at times if I can make it. I really want to do well because I’m doing this as BTS’s Jimin. I don’t want to tarnish the BTS name. I think the members are also looking out for me so I want to do my best.

You said your spirits are different when doing solo activities than doing it with the members.

When I’m with the members, I end up laughing naturally and getting better even when tired but now that I am alone I feel the members’ absence even more.

One of the reasons why BTS has taken the hearts of many around the world is putting their own story into their songs. Is Jimin’s story also told in FACE?

I decided the theme of the songs, wrote the lyrics, and was every day with the producers to the point you’d think we were living together, and worked with them. It was a time when I could acknowledge again how hard music production is. When making FACE, rather than wanting to send any kind of message, I wanted through this album to sublimate the feelings I had during the 2 years of the pandemic.

I faced myself, I slowly dug into the deepest parts of my heart, weaved it into lyrics, turned it into songs and it became this album.

If you listen to it in order from the first track, I think you can grasp the change of emotions from what I thought during the time we couldn’t meet, my mental fluctuations and how I overcame it.

T/N1: sublimate as in the science process of turning something from solid to gas state

Due to corona, the world stopped temporarily. BTS also couldn’t carry on with their plans. At this time, you were struck with a feeling of powerlessness.

When the pandemic started, I put on a brave face and said this: “we just have to wait a bit”. But for me, the damage from being unable to do anything was bigger than I thought. My mental was more and more shaken. Singers exist because there are people to watch them. I felt as if we had lost our meaning when we couldn’t meet the fans anymore. Then my mind became increasingly tired.

At the same time, many changes started to happen within us. I was other powerless facing this. I had never imagined I could become like this, so I was really confused at this change in me.

RM also participated in the title track Like Crazy.

During the production, each word from the members became a big strength. I wanted advice from RM, especially seeing his long experience in song producing, so I had him come to our production studio. I told him I wanted to express in the song a moment that feels as sweet as a dream, and he told me “What you want to say in this song is really clear compared to the others so don’t overthink it”. He corrected the lyrics, gave me lots of advice and I was very thankful.

In February you went with j-hope to meet Jin who is in the military. On March 9th, you sent to SUGA a birthday message saying “Marry me”. You often show your interactions on social networks with V who is your age. You’re not living all together in a dorm like in the past but the BTS bond is unchanging, as strong as before. What do the members mean to you?

They are family. The members and the fans all know, I wonder if it’s necessary to put it into words anymore. Right now we are spending some time apart but close or far, family is family right. This is just the same. Just like Jungkook decided in the past, I live as one of seven men.

The members’ love is deep and strong.

One of the reasons I love the members is that they all have strong beliefs of their own. For me, rather than taking up this job because of a certain belief, I do it because it’s fun and I want to do it. The members have a clear vision of what they want to do and act accordingly. Seeing this by their side has a big positive influence on me and makes me think I want to become someone they can be proud of and inspire me to do my best too.

Which song are you the most emotionally attached to?

There are too many…Each song we performed live is carved with memories. Recently we watched all BTS videos with the producers. All the albums’ songs are dear to me, but every time a title song would come up I’d think back of what happened or how it was at that time, and it sent be back on a trip down memory lane.

When I watched the video of our debut song No More Dream, many memories came rushing out. I came to the capital from Busan, and in 6 months became a BTS member, did recording, dance practice, and our showcase. I remember everything, all the way to how cold it felt during our first TV filming.

You’re one of many charms. Your high-tone falsetto is your particularity but your sharp, powerful singing voice also stands out. You’re both stoic and a perfectionist, all while having a mischievous and naughty side to you too. You’re both handsome and cute. Your most noteworthy charm is your dancing. You’re making the choreography yours, adding your own color and rich expressions to it. You move from the tip of your fingers to your toes, sometimes smooth, bewitching, powerful, beautiful, gentle, as your express the music. You’re often the one in charge of that in BTS performances. When I asked him like this about his charms, he gave me an unexpected answer.

Huuum. I don’t know really. I never thought about it. I don’t want to differentiate myself from others either. (Taking a theatrical voice) “My weapon is the smoothness that comes from my experience in contemporary dancing” well actually, no, that’s not it (laughs). I just dance thinking what is the best way to express a song, no matter what it is.

Ah. I found one charm! My thighs. My dance comes from my thighs. My thighs are my weapon.

You were sleeping only 2 hours a day as a trainee to practice dance. Right now, you’re still very serious about it.

The FACE promotion is coming so I’m spending lots of time in dance practice. What I’m thinking about while I do it? What I will eat once it’s finished (laughs).

One keyword when talking about Jimin is “effort”. How can you be so persistent with it?

You’re really asking questions about my internal personality today (laughs). The answer is simple. I want to bring good music to the fans so I also want to deliver good performances. Even if through my career I gained some knowledge and experience, I’m still nervous when preparing an album and stage performances. I’m practicing to gain confidence.

Another reason that keeps pushing me forward is the sense of responsibility I feel towards BTS. The fact that I do not want to embarrass BTS allows me to keep doing my best.

You said you still have some unexplored areas in dancing.

Recently I think j-hope’s steps are really cool. He’s experienced in many street dances, and he puts what he wants to do into something that can be seen by the fans. Watching j-hope, it made me want to become good at street dance too. I’ll do my best to be able to show something to you all in a not too far future!

The first time I meet Jimin was autumn 2013, right after your debut. I could feel from your light-hearted smile and words how excited and nervous you were, not knowing what to say in your first encounter with Japanese journalists. After many other interviews we meet again the day after your concert in Los Angeles in 2019. Your calm voice and modesty, how you chose your words with care really struck me. And then now. My impression of you has changed a bit again. You’re relaxed all the way through, showing your inner thoughts clearly with jokes and honest talk. I can feel your mind being at peace, having overcome something. When I told him “You’ve become a good talker”, he laughed.

Really? It’s because my current self has nothing to hide. If I’ve become better at talking, it’s because I’ve accumulated so-called “rings of age.”

In the interview you’re talking frankly about your inner thoughts. In concerts, you’re talking about your love towards your fans directly. But originally, you’re not very good at expressing your feelings into words.

I wouldn’t say I’m bad at it but I’m not the type to explain things in careful details. I don’t use undirect or layered expressions and tell my thoughts directly so there might be a clear distinction between people who like or hate me. On the other hand, I want to put care into how I express my emotions in performances.

Therefore, I’m also working hard on this to be better at it. I think pouring emotions into performances is BTS’s strength. A lot of people value this, so it’s something that needs and should be treasured.

You will be 28 years old. You debuted in your teenage years, and lived as a worldwide popstar in your 20s. What do you think you’ll become in the future?

To be honest I can’t picture my future self yet. I can’t even imagine the me of next year. But looking at Jin, I realized that not much is changing because you age (laughs).

Just like now, I want to keep doing concerts with the members, have fun, and live faithfully doing what I should do.

As an artist, I want to nurture my own vision and show you guys on stage how my skills have matured again.

As a human, I want to have a good influence on the people around me. I think it’s better now than the past but I’m still a work in progress.

In 2017, you received for the first time the Billboard Award for Top Social Artist. Only 4 years after your debut, you stood at the frontline of the world music scene. Your song Dynamite, with its message in English about hope and comfort to the people of the world during the pandemic was a bit hit. Your direct environment has also changed.

The stage’s size got bigger, and the set and performance also changed for something more dynamic that can be enjoyed from anywhere in the venue. The number of people watching us, supporting us has also increased and so have our feelings of gratitude. I feel even more that I want to do my best to make even better music, better performances.

We challenged ourselves musically a lot too. Through all of these, we were able to acknowledge again what we should be doing and now, we came back again to our music. It feels like this.

You’ve become a worldwide popstar both in name and reality. How do you see it?

I feel that we were able to reach this stage because of the powerful bond with ARMY. Of course, it’s the same with all artists but I feel that in our case, the bond between the members and the fans is especially strong. There are people who are with us since we did concerts in small live houses, who held our hand when things were tough, walked with us and raised us. All the memories created there became the seed of this bond, which became this big.

You have planned a special one-on-one video call with the fans as part of the release event of FACE. Your strong feelings towards the fans are the reason behind this.

When I asked if it was possible to do something together with the fans because we couldn’t meet them for a long time, a staff member told me about this. I thought it would become a great memory if I could meet directly with everyone. I’ll meet lots of people so the time will be short but I’m really looking forward to seeing their faces and greeting them directly.

What will you be saying to ARMY?

(In Japanese) It’s been a while!

Your voice is so energetic.

Is it because I’m watching too many Japanese manga (laughs)

On social networks we often see people write about how their days got brighter thanks to BTS or how they can go through hard ones thanks to you. When I said this, he whispered slowly, in a sweet, gentle voice.

Me too, I’m also able to live thanks to you all.

What do you want to tell ARMY now.

There are many things I want to say. There are too many… (lost for words).

I think “waiting” is not an easy thing. For some people it’s okay to stay put without doing nothing but when you really miss, love and want to meet someone you can’t wait like this. That’s why I am thankful from the bottom of my heat to our fans who keep waiting for us. What I want to tell them now is this: “I always think about what I can do. I will go meet you. Soon, again.”

I think there is nothing as comforting as meeting directly. It will still take a bit more time until all the members are reunited but if you could wait, I’d be so happy.

English translations by: @bangtan_elfe

#2023 #bts #jimin #aera magazine

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patrickjonesblog · 2 years ago

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22 Favorite Albums of 2022

Hey music friends and random strangers. Welcome back to my annual music blog where I go through my favorite albums released in 2022.

I hope 2022 has treated you all well, and if it hasn't, congratulations on surviving it and I hope you have a better 2023.

I'm still listening to tons of new music and sharing it with anyone who cares to listen. I will say that this years top 10 is probably the most white male dominated indie schmindie top 10 ever, but I don't make apologies for that, the heart loves what the heart loves! There's slightly more diversity in the rest of the chart but at the end of the day i'm an indie sleaze boy and 2022 has been the sleaziest of indie!

Lets start with albums #22-#11 as a list and then we'll get into the top 10 in more detail, all these I've enjoyed, and have tracks on them I've played loads but maybe not stuck with the entire album as long.

22. Lizzo - Special

21. Fontaines DC - Skinty Fia

20. Ezra Furman - All of us Flames

19. Marian Hill - Why cant we just pretend?

18. Bloc Party - Alpha Games

17. Dune Rats - Real Rare Whale

16. The Chats - Get Fucked

15. Black Country, New Road - Ants from up there

14. Loyle Carner - Hugo

13. The Linda Linda's - Growing Up

12. Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Cool it Down

11. Viagra Boys - Cave World

10. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa

It's testament to Spoon's quality that even on their 10th studio album they're still writing songs as great as Wild and the Hardest Cut. The former was my most played song of the year.

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9. The Bug Club - Green Dream in F#

The first of four debut albums in my top 10 showing the health of indie-rock in 2022. It may not be the most popular genre right now but the scene definitely is in somewhat of a renaissance. Bug Club are a Welsh 3 piece and sound like a mixture of Pavement, Los Campesinos and Belle and Sebastian. They write melodic, funny, lo-fi indie 3 minute pop songs and I urge you to check them out.

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8. Alt-J - The Dream

10 years since the release of An Awesome Wave propelled them to hipster stardom I was happily surprised by this release, its the album i've turned to most when I needed to chill out. The first half of this LP is as good as anything they've ever done, it peters out a bit in the 2nd half but still worth a listen all the way through.

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7. Mary Shelley - Look at You

New NYC band Mary Shelley blew me away at this years New Colossus festival. They look like long island frat brothers but sound like an 80's post punk band twice their age. A brilliant live band with some fantastic tunes and the below is one of my favorites of the year.

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6. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn

Two albums from Ol' Jacky White this year, Fear of the Dawn was my hands down favorite, as good as latter day White Stripes. Really heavy, full of riffs and just great fun.

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5. Wet Leg - Wet Leg

After the viral hit of 2021 - Chaise Longue, I don't think anyone expected Wet Leg to have a full album of similar quality catchy tunes. But surprisingly they did, and they backed up their viral smash with a string of great singles and an album which hinted at a lot more depth than what you might have first thought.

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4. Yard Act - The Overload

Must be one of the hardest working bands of the year, so many gigs, so many achievements. I immediately fell in love with Yard Act last year after their brilliant debut singles Fixer Upper and Dark Days but was mortified to see that neither of those made the album. What on earth were they thinking?! Apparently they didn't fit the narrative arc, and they're artists, y'know? Anyway, I needn't be worried the album is brilliant, the aforementioned arc is genius, the writing is sublime, the hooks are big, there's emotion, humor, satire and tunes coming out their arse.

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3. Everything Everything - Raw Data Feel

EE continue to be Englands most underrated band, maybe they're just too weird for the mainstream, but on their 6th album they continue to push the boundaries of what it means to be a pop band. For this record they used AI to generate some lyrics, apparently feeding the robot posts from 4Chan, verses from Beowulf and other weird things, but they may as well have just fed it all their previous work because it still sounds as bonkers as everything else they'd previously released.

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2. Bodega - Broken Equipment

Similarly to the AI algorithm used above it feels like Bodega have been fed an audio diet of every New York band for the past 50 years as an experiment to see what comes out of it. The result is a classic NYC rock record that swings from The Ramones to more modern contemporaries like LCD Soundsystem and Parquet Courts. The lyrics are smart the songs are catchy and there's barely any filler on this fantastic second album.

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1. Sports Team - Gulp!

All hail the new kings of Britpop! I think Sports Team are the closest thing to Blur we have, outside of Blur themselves. They remind me of Great Escape / Parklife era Blur where they're cocky, chaotic but at their most creative and mainstream. Gulp! was apparently a tricky record to make for the band, but it doesn't sound that way. It's a balls out, self assured romp of a record that barely lets up from start to finish. By far my most listened to band of 2022 and it's positivity has helped me so much through a difficult year.

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There we have it! Thanks so much for reading and listening, I hope you've found a new love or gone back to a band you may have skipped over this year. Send me your comments, I always love to hear from friends to see what they thought and what they agree / disagree with.

Want a handy playlist featuring songs from all of my top 22? Here you go.

Still want more? There's so many great songs this year that weren't on the albums above so check out my full 2022 playlist .

Want to stay up to date on 2023 music as and when it comes out? Subscribe to my 2023 playlist and i'll add tracks to it as they're released.

#sports team #yard act #wet leg #jack white #bodega #everything everything #alt j #spoon #bloc party #lizzo #Youtube

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lovejustforaday · 2 years ago

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2022 Year End List - #14

Angel in Realtime - Gang of Youths

Main Genres: Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Chamber Pop

A decent sampling of: Adult-Alternative, Heartland Rock, Art Rock, Maori Music, The Big Sound

Next on my 2022 year end list is a band from the opposite side of the world, who I’m told (by the internet as per usual) have been making a lot of waves on their side of the globe, and even won the J Award for Australian Album of the Year.

Gang of Youths are an Australian rock band fronted by David Le'aupepe, a baritone vocalist with that smooth, down-to-earth kind of voice that makes him a perfect fit for heartland rock and the rock radio format in general.

Everything about this band’s sound is utterly feel-good, which will definitely put some sad-boy hipsters off of their sound. I however, as a sometimes sad-boy hipster myself, fucking love the band’s unabashedly life-affirming ethos, and I think it is something severely needed in these troubling times.

On their third LP Angel in Realtime, Gang of Youths revive new sincerity with a bombastic concept album about Pasifika heritage and identity, guardian angels, lost family ties, and most importantly, David’s father and the secrets that David learned about him after his death.

The record plays out like a cinematic vignette of a son coming to terms with his own origins and everything he thought he knew about his father’s life story, set to the soundtrack of chamber-rock ballads and arena rock anthems, with elements of Maori folk music and chanting inter-weaved throughout. It’s a fresh and compelling concept, and the band makes the subject matter very approachable with their style of music, regardless of how heavy the concept may look on paper.

Honestly, it’s pretty wild to think that this is a record that came out in 2022. This album would sit very comfortably in the established canon of acclaimed noughties anthemic indie rock, among big names like Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire. I can also imagine this record playing alongside the aforementioned artists at your local millennial craft beer bar. And I mean all of this as a compliment; I’m a sucker for that BIG, sentimental millennial rock sound.

“you in everything” is a tear-jerking opener that swells into a sublime dawn of chamber pop, as sincere as it is breath-taking in the same way that opening shots to nature documentaries about giant landforms are. “in the wake of your leave” is a song to shout drunkenly at the top of your lungs, with it’s killer chorus and bright melodic riffs, though it masks painfully bittersweet reflections on death and funerals.

My favourite cut is “tend the garden”, a track which sees David Le’aupepe directly taking on the perspective and headspace of his father, telling much of his life story through lyrics based on his son’s own interpretation. Musically, it’s particularly reminiscent of Broken Social Scene, with a very sonically rich and metropolitan sound, somehow both laidback yet meticulously crafted.

Then there’s “the kingdom is within you”, which blends 2-step dance beats with bold piano lines, alternative rock, and layered, encompassing production, all to create a track that is both enormous and stratospheric.

Things wind down with “brothers”, an introspective six minute piano ballad that largely gives context to the album’s subject matter, as David Le’aupepe explains how he came to learn about his half-brothers after his father’s death. Its the emotional linchpin of the album and, though its composition is quite simple and repetitious for its length, ends up working quite effectively and became a track I wanted to revisit often. This is all thanks to David’s performance, which he absolutely nails with his wistful but frank lyrics and soothing voice that was tailor-made for this kind of balladry.

All that being said, the record is a bit long for its own good in my opinion. The massive arena rock sound can start to wear down on some of the b-side tracks. But then part of me also understands that this is meant to be an album of epic proportions, and the band probably wanted a length to match that.

In one way, it feels more like a concert experience than an album experience, and to some people that’s a definite plus. I can definitely imagine that Gang of Youths absolutely tears it up at a live concert.

Either way, I’m very happy for the success of this band and this record. Angel in Realtime is one of the most uplifting artistic expressions of the year, and it has an profound and touching story to boot. I’m glad that there are artists like Gang of Youths that are still able to find good in the bad, and capture some of the joyous beauty that exists in this world; a very large amount of indie rock these days is about depressive reflections on an idyllic past. So here’s to more albums like this in 2023.

8/10

Highlights: “tend the garden”, “brothers”, “you in everything”, “the kingdom is within you”, “in the wake of your leave”

#angel in realtime #gang of youths #david le'aupepe #alternative rock #indie rock #chamber pop #aoty #2022 #year end list #album review #music review #best music #list

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striocalai · 2 years ago

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Tagged to share a few bops by @reajeasa so in no particular order, here's what I've had in my brain for a while! And I'm passing the ball to @lochlannach, @stargazypie and @lady-sanctuary.

Belicoso by Calva Louise - Kind of Prodigy vibes, has absolutely no right to go as hard as it does. I put this on in the lab once when I was under pressure to get an experiment done and needed to block out all extraneous noise and I think I entered the Avatar state briefly. Just furiously pipetting small volumes of liquid back and forth like I was doing Equilibrium style gun-kata. Basically, it's enough of a banger that it convinced my body I was having fun instead of being massively stressed.

Govorit Moskva (Moscow Speaking) by Shortparis - A Russian punk band with operatic vocals and incredibly surreal, theatrical videos that I'm sure someone with more visual and cultural savvy than me could unpack. For regrettably obvious reasons I feel like I ought to say: they released a video in protest against the invasion of Ukraine about a month after it began, so they're good lads.

New Deep/White Whale, live orchestral version by Everything Everything - If I'm ever offered a trip to space and someone passes me the AUX cable I am putting this on. I actually try not to listen to it more than a few times a month because it gives me a lump in my throat every time I hear it, and I don't want to wear it out. The bit where it sort of peaks and then the saxophone comes in with a smooth, almost tactile bassiness like a wet thumb dragged down glass is just... sublime. While this is for me the absolute highpoint, I'd be remiss not to point out how great their other stuff is. For instance the line in No Reptiles "Oh baby it's all right, it's all right to feel like a fat child in a pushchair, old enough to run..." - I have no idea what that means but I feel it in my soul.

Blood In The Cut by K.Flay - Sort of Fight Like Apes by way of Los Angeles. Her songs alternate between addictive bangers and unflinching stomach-punch self evaluation, and she's just weirdly funny and raw in her lyrics. This song was my entry point, but I also highly recommend Starfucker and Hollywood Forever. Kind of feels like being friends with a mean girl you're slightly worried about.

Girl, I Love You by Massive Attack - Came on while I was driving at night in the lashing rain, and immediately felt like I was in a movie. Dark and broody but with a crackle of energy underneath that pulls you forward.

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tagged by @localpubliclibrary to list 5 songs I have been enjoying, and for once in my life in the spirit of the 12 days of Christmas I am actually going to complete this game!! Here is a ??? selection ??? of tracks I have enjoyed listening to recentlyish

A Christmas Festival (Medley) by Leroy Anderson.

Fingers Crossed by Agnes.

Glistening, She Emerges by One Leg One Eye.

Two for the Price of One by Abba.

Scotch Cap - Juice of Barley, The Rose Ensemble and others.

Tagging @schmirius @pea-green @singinrevelry aaaand @ansel-atoms and @chickenleavesandcornerwater if you would like to share some bops :)

#Spotify #Youtube

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lyrasky · 4 years ago

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【All You Need/ Sublime】和訳 Red Hot Chili Peppers よりも… My way is your way

【All You Need/ Sublime】和訳 Red Hot Chili Peppers よりも… My way is your way LyraのBlogへ #sublime #allyouneed #robbinthehood #BradleyNowell #EricWilson #BudGaugh #troydendekker #california #longbeach #uroy #sea #redhotchilipeppers #budda #halfpint #サブライム #海

懐かしい気分になる時って、人によって各々のが持つ、胸の中にある決まった場所を思い起こすのではないかなっ〜と、車に乗りながら考えていた。

「全くそんなのないよ」と言う人には理解し難いマインドだろうけど、フッと浮かぶ場所に元気付けられているから不思議だ。

いつも両親に連れて行って貰った場所。

テーマパークとかも楽しかったのに、海なんだよね、思い出してパワーアップするのは。

都会に密接した海と、ほかの遠い場所にある海の両方に胸が躍る思いを貰う。

愛だね。

色んな愛を感じるの。

“it’s all about love, love, love”

Bradleyもそう叫んでいるよ。

(more…)

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onestowatch · 3 years ago

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19 LGBTQIA+ Artists You Need to Listen to This PRIDE

PRIDE is all about self-empowerment and self-determination. It’s about not just being comfortable with who you are but showing the world that there is pride to be found in being unapologetically you. And that’s why, this PRIDE, we wanted to shine a light on a small handful of our favorite LGBTQIA+ artists. Ranging from rapturous hyperpop, revelatory bossa nova meditations, romantic rave music, and everywhere in between, these are 19 LGBTQIA+ artists who deserve a spot on your PRIDE playlist and every playlist for that matter.

girl in red

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In her debut single, “i wanna be your girlfriend,” a teenage girl in red unapologetically sings of young queer love over a mesh of lofi production and jangly instrumentation that would come to define much of the bedroom pop genre. It is a standout moment of unrelenting honesty, and a serenely simple three-minute confession that would go on to strike a chord with millions who were afraid of what it meant to be something more than friends. Now, a few years later and following the release of her critically-acclaimed debut album, if i could make it go quiet, Ulven still writes with that same emotional honesty, putting forth every ounce of herself for the world to see.

Meet Me @ The Altar

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“the little lonely black alt girl i was in the 00s is living rn, she never even dared to hope she might see this 💖💖,” reads the top comment on Meet Me @ The Altar’s music video for their single “Garden.” It is a sentiment shared by much of the rising band’s fanbase, who are used to the mainstream alternative scene championing cis white males. Existing in the space between pop-punk and hardcore, Meet Me @ The Altar exists to challenge the notion that queer women of color don’t have a place in punk. And after penning a record deal with Fueled By Ramen, home to the likes of Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, and nearly every pop-punk band that made up your middle school playlist, chances are this is just the beginning for our new favorite punks.

THE BLOSSOM

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For Lily Lizotte, better known as THE BLOSSOM, music exists as the synthesis and subsequent recontextualization of a host of past experiences. From the sound of their dad belting away in his home studio to stumbling upon niche Internet subgenres, THE BLOSSOM transforms all this and more into a sound that is instantly recognizable but impossible to perfectly place. The culmination of this host of influences takes sweeping sonic form on their debut EP, ‘97 BLOSSOM, a perfectly imperfect introduction to one of the most fascinating rising artists of recent memory.

BIMINI

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You may recognize BIMINI as Bimini Bon-Boulash, the runner-up on the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. And now you should familiarize yourself with Bimini, brit-pop extraordinaire. Releasing their debut single “God Save This Queen” earlier this June, Bimini deftly channels late ‘90s brit-pop and punk to deliver a single that has us absolutely living for the ensuing chaos. Serving up multiple looks throughout its eye-catching music video, “God Save This Queen” is not just a non-binary anthem but a veritable 2021 lookbook.

Hope Tala

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With a sound that falls somewhere between turn-of-the-century R&B and bossa nova, Hope Tala’s music is expectedly a dream given sonic form. Perhaps that’s why much of the UK singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist’s music is able to so deftly weave imagery of love, heartache, and teenage fistfights into tightknit tracks that feel simultaneously transcendental and deeply personal. And with the release of her 2020 EP, Girl Eats the Sun, Hope Tala poses one all-important question, “Why have a life if you’re not going to do something crazy and make a difference in the world?”

chloe moriondo

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For much of chloe moriondo’s avid fanbase, watching her transform from budding ukulele sensation to pop-punk phenom very much meant watching her grow up. Getting her start on YouTube, moriondo's fanbase witnessed her evolve as both an artist and person. Coming out in the aptly titled “a ramble about self identity, growth, and being a lesbian,” to be a fan of the artist often feels like trading secrets with a close personal friend. It is a sentiment that rings all the more true upon delving into her debut album, Blood Bunny. Grappling with coming-of-age at the axis of empathic pop and euphoric pop-punk, Blood Bunny sees moriondo taking yet another impressive step forward.

Godford

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Little is known about Godford beyond what can be garnered from a handful of interviews online and his succinct Spotify bio, and chances are he’s happier that way. The anonymous DJ and producer aims to make non-binary music that exists outside of the confines of genres, overly-simplified classifications, and even himself. What is important are the emotions his music hold and what his listeners take away. Fusing romanticism and rave in his debut album, Godford: Non Binary Place, the anonymous artist does just that. He provides a space that exists simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, like an ephemeral night spent out on the dancefloor with a stranger or close friend.

Joy Oladokun

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Joy Oladokun is at the core of her music. It may at first glance appear to be a painfully obvious statement, but as her sincere songwriting seeps into every corner of your soul, it is a notion that becomes undeniable. In her major label debut, in defense of my own happiness, Oladokun writes with an unabashed authenticity, never turning a blind eye to the world around her. These shared reflections and recollections of life are often heartbreaking and uplifting in the same breath, but in their candidness, we can begin to piece together what it means to be human, imperfections and all.

Allison Ponthier

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Allison Ponthier may only have a handful of singles to her name, but her unmatched potential is clear as day. Raised in the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, Ponthier’s moving songwriting and emphatic vocal prowess speak to her country roots. Pair that country sensibility with some of the most pristine pop songwriting we have heard in quite some time, and you begin to understand just how exciting Ponthier is as a rising artist. With only two singles to date, there’s not much else we can say beyond do yourself a favor and play “Cowboy” on repeat.

Rina Sawayama

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It feels like no hyperbole to call Rina Sawayama an inevitable pop icon. First garnering critical acclaim with singles like “Cherry” and her 2017 debut EP RINA, the Japanese-British singer-songwriter staked her name on her immaculate ability to capture all the glamour and larger-than-life appeal of early ‘00s pop. Building on what was a nostalgic yet forward-thinking vision, Sawayama returned with her 2020 eponymous full-length debut. From nu-metal, club beats, to veritable pop anthems, SAWAYAMA emerged as a genre-defying showcase of an avant-garde pop star.

Arlo Parks

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Listening to Arlo Parks’ music is akin to sipping on a hot cup of chamomile tea as you watch the world slowly pass by your living room window. It is a testament to the British poet and singer-songwriter’s subtle yet beautiful way with words, the way in which each lyric serves as a glance into a tightly-held memory or passing observation. These poetic musings come to life in her debut album, Collapsed In Sunbeams, which layers lyrical revelations over some of the most tender R&B of recent memory. Parks’ is more than a must-listen; she feels like the birth of a new wave.

Claud

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Claud has spent the past few years making a name for themselves in the indie pop world, and the culmination of it all arrives in their debut album, Super Monster. The acclaimed album sees Claud reckoning with coming-of-age and love with an irresistible charm. Pair that with a penchant for grounded, affective songwriting and infectious, dreamlike melodies and you have one of the best debuts of recent memory. In case you somehow need any further convincing that Claud is one to watch, Super Monster marks the debut release from Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records.

UMI

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Equally as inspired by R&B and neo-soul as she is by her generation’s penchant for blurring genre lines, UMI and her music exist as a form of spiritual healing. Half-Black and half-Japanese, her work explores everything from identity to self-introspection, such as on the aptly-titled Introspection. It is a fondness for self-exploration that UMI delves headfirst into on her 2019 EP Love Language, a sublime blend of identity struggles, love, and anime that tackles the issue of always feeling like an other, never Black or Japanese enough.

Joesef

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Sad boy summer. It’s the simplest way to being explaining Joesef’s serene albeit somber sound. Emerging out of Glasgow, the quickly rising star often wears his still bleeding heart on his sleeve, even when the underlying sonics seem to be moving onto greener pastures. It is an exquisite balancing act that comes to life on his 2020 EP, Does It Make You Feel Good?. Blending elements of soft-spoken R&B, jazz, and ethereal pop, Joesef sets himself apart as an artist whose influences and appeal know no bounds.

Serena Isioma

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At the top of the year, we named Serena Isioma one of our top artists to watch in the year to come, and for good reason. The self-proclaimed “nonbinary rock star” experienced a breakout moment with “Sensitive,” a track that is difficult to perfectly encapsulate but think along the lines of fusing modern-day R&B and woozy indie-pop with reckless abandon, and you’ll be about halfway there. It was an impressive standout track that was only buoyed by a pair of EPs, Sensitive and The Leo Sun Sets, in 2020, officially cementing Isioma as an artist like no other.

Khai Dreams

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Khai Dreams’ music is effortlessly easygoing. With its straightforward guitar lines and understated production, every track from the Pacific Northwest singer-songwriter flows out as naturally as breathing. Maybe it’s that laid-back approach that begins to explains Khai Dreams’ universal appeal and millions of monthly listeners, despite releasing most of his music independently. A hallmark of the DIY generation and its massive homebrewed potential, it would be a crying shame if you didn’t let Khai Dream’s serene meditations transport you somewhere far from here.

Frances Forever

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Like much of their Gen Z cohorts, Frances Forever’s exponential rise was not the result of a well-executed marketing plan but by the pure chance of a single song finding a home online. The song in question, “Space Girl,” was originally part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Content before soon blowing up on TikTok, and it’s not hard to see why. Short, sweet, and to the point, “Space Girl” is a saccharine love letter to that bubbly feeling of floating on cloud nine. Now signed to Mom+Pop and with their debut EP, Paranoia Party, due out later this year, this is the perfect time to get familiar with Frances Forever.

Dorian Electra

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Unapologetically playing with gender norms and stereotypes while seeing just how far they can push the limits of pop, Dorian Electra has long maintained a cult following in the world of experimental, highly addictive hyperpop. And it’s not hard to see why. Having collaborated with the likes of Charli XCX, 100 gecs, Village People, Pussy Riot, Rebecca Black, and more, Electra’s music ranges from off-the-rails hyperpop to introspective pop slow burns. All of this and more reaches a fever pitch in their 2020 album My Agenda, a devious showcasing of one of pop’s most explosive figures.

MAY-A

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Maya Cumming, professionally known as MAY-A, is no stranger to the hustle it takes to make it in the music industry. The Australian artist got her start entering numerous singing competitions in her hometown of Byron Bay and started busking on the streets at the tender age of 11. Now, she has a breakout single under her belt in the form of “Apricots,” an anthemic indie-pop ode to queer love. And since that breakout moment, MAY-A has continued to release impressive single after single—the latest being the collaborative “American Dream.”

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