#and also looping part of an old choir song

[queer-in-a-cornfield]

It is 1:25 am

My brain won’t shut up

Help

[twyllodrus]

dead boy detectives + ride the cyclone AU

like, say, the agency gets a new case in north-eastern saskatchewan, ppl report hearing music & singing once every year, at an abandoned warehouse of a theme park, on a specific day in september. with little digging, they find out there was an accident a while back involving a high school choir

for some reason the cyclone gang never moves on, so the agency arrives & so here are some headcanons for their interactions and agency's reactions to some of the songs:

the uranium suite, everyone's really creeped out/confused, except for niko who's vibing throughout the whole thing; at first the two groups don't realize they can see/speak to each other, but soon the cyclone kids find out that holy shit there are new people here hi hello heyy

everyone's excited about newcomers, ocean especially so, who quickly takes the initiative & so edwin defers to her as the group's leader (to noel's annoyance), and they attempt to work on solving the case together, it's all v civil. but then the talking part's over & the singing part of loop begins, so ocean performs what the world needs which does a total 180 on their encounter thus far & now everyone's high-key judging ocean; edwin gives a lecture on evils of social darwinism

noel's lament, noel right away clocks edwin as a repressed edwardian twink & sets out to put him in a coma with the whole monique routine. strangely the moment lipstick & lingerie come out it doesn't seem to faze edwin as much. but then noel also sees the way edwin sometimes looks at charles & so instead of mischa he pulls charles in for the kiss part, who cheerfully goes along with it, which nearly short-circuits edwin's brain (later on constance and niko get to gush together about two boys kissing). by the end of it everyone's dancing & being dramatic like they're the cast of cabaret on acid, except for edwin who's still digesting what's just happened

every story's got a lesson, everyone's still pissed at ocean, edwin incredulously wonders what was the lesson in being sacrificed to a demon & sent to hell at age 16

at first everyone's kinda cringing during this song is awesome, edwin is convinced this "autotune" is a modern tool used to commune with otherworldly entities, but eventually everyone gets into it; they all get sunglasses on, crystal gets edwin to wear a baseball cap backwards, everyone's having general fun

talia, charles is relived to learn that "the angriest boy in town", who could've been easily chalked up to being the toxic masculinity type dudebro, isn't like that at all (just mischa's whole monologue "i lay my masculinity at the altar of your maidenhood" gods). everyone gets to wear vyshyvankas & flower crowns. it's gorgeous

ricky potts unintentionally answers the age-old question of "is it actually possible to give a ghost an aneurysm?" the answer is yes, and space age bachelor man almost succeeds where the noel's lament failed. the moment horny cat people are in the mix, edwin is bombarded with cat king flashbacks and, later on, crystal "casually" mentions that they have met the actual cat king. ricky is super hype & asks lots of questions, giggling, twirling hair etc and also he totally called it that cats can talk but just choose not to

the ballad of jane doe, crystal hardcore relates to the dead decapitated girl, who doesn't know her own name or her past, or who her parents were and whom no one can identify too ("oh no soul, and no name, and no story, what a shame" like c'mon!)

jawbreaker/sugar cloud, everyone's gets a tad teary-eyed, but charles is openly weeping when constance lists all the random things in her life which she grew to appreciate only after the accident

in the end, they figure out the reason they couldn't move on is bc of virgil the rat who for some reason kept shutting karnak off prematurely, before the voting could begin. after figuring that out the voting proceeds as intended, but instead of one of them returning to the living world, they all get to move on. niko adopts virgil the rat

[glitchyred]

Hellooo, just a random thought here. Been listening to immortals and started connecting the vibe such gave me to pokepasta bcs yeah.

(fear yet crave to have something from a timeless memory and it hurts and we live forever in an abstract sense of nothingness that's filled once we remember again -lyrics towards the curtains part-, uneven repetition of the string of lone crashes upon us that form a haunting void only so close to what was once wishes to become a source of peace at their painful remains, until it's gone after all fades while everything else becomes part of the parallel world we were in before the old lullaby arrived to reclaim the cries for their choir, the peaceful fright from their leave clinging to ourselves consciousness.)

(idk, music I'd feel so deep while on the balcony in the middle of the night staring at the dark sky while alone with ringing in my brain from the lack of enough noise after some stupid shit and remembering similar things that led to similar scenarios to retroactively feed the burn in heart and throat, but it's cold outside lol so then I'm a microwaved-whatever-halfdefrosted that wants to howl out to the moon and fly towards the clouds with the high wind until myself extinguished at the point near ashes so I'd keep flying around far away even if tied to the burns lol.)

Being immortal sounds awful af in these pastas' situations tbh, yet sounds comforting in a twisted manner that I have no idea how to explain (maybe merely the soothing singing and nostalgia getting to brain, like a take on 'we suffer and it sucks but I'm addicted¿ to the fact we even share such thingso I won't stop either of us meanwhile' from a perspective, unhealthy coping bs )

What do you think? Some scenario/emotion of a pasta evoked by the song?

(Not focusing by the "romantic" aspect of the lyrics but imma take them as not directed to a person, rather a wish to keep experiencing something -but not for long🎵- heh, couldn't let go of in spite of result.)

LMAO DW ABT RAMBLING I say my inbox is always open for a reason. I haven't thought about this song in foreverrrrr but I get what you mean I think

It is a strongly reoccurring theme in Pokepastas that the characters are "trapped" in a specific time, by virtue of being games one is meant to replay over and over, either incidentally implying immortality or thru a more nuanced Infinite Looping Afterlife (LS). I have a lot to say about Pokepastas and their reflections of Childhood Trauma in that regard, but I'll save the essay and just say read Glitchy Red Retold /silly

That being said, call me an optimist, but immortality gets more of a bad rep this days than I think is necessary. I'm a firm believer of life having cycles, every low point necessitates a high one, which I think comes through in a couple of my projects. A Reason to Live as a short one, which subverts the usual "endless looping suffering" trope by implying that Amanita was reborn without their memories, and Semicolon as a whole having strong themes of immortality both through memory and literally (via Slenderman refusing to let people die). You are only stuck in suffering as long as you allow yourself to be, I think (purely neutral statement; I know there's usually some morality tied into that line of thought but I think it's way more nuanced than that lol), so breaking these characters out of their Loops and making them realize that unending time means limitless time to move forward is. Cathartic, I think. After what the contents of most pokepastas are like lol

Hopefully that all made sense?? I'm also kinda rambling lol. Thanks for the asks!!

[the-space-jesus]

♪ Rehearsal 7 ♪

Oh jeez oh boy this is a long one. BUCKLE UP!

So, since this Tuesday we had a free day (this is literally as rare as an eclipse happening we never get random free days) our theatre group decided that we should do the most productive thing of all with that free day: rehearse! (Instead of practicing for the test that I have literally the next day...). So, I'm that one person of the group that lives an hour away from everyone else, and I decided that for once they should be the ones to have to bike for like 45 minutes or sit in a tram for an hour! It's also because I found this really cool amfitheater-like spot near my tram-station, and I figured it'd be the perfect place to rehearse!

I brought my totally neurotypical bag (from the 'if you see some1 w this bag wyd' post) and went in what I currently already have for my Ricky costume!

When I arrived at the tram-station, Ocean was already there (very in-character of her) and we chatted until the rest arrived too, and we went to the spot to practice. We basically did a bunch of random scenes, but for the most part it was a walkthrough of the entire musical (is that the correct English word btw??), but we didn't get very far...

By the rest, I mean Karnak 1. We were a small group, being only me (Ricky), Mischa, Karnak 1, and Ocean.

When we were rehearsing Fall Fair Suite, this random child and it's mother just decided to spawn out of nowhere and feed the ducks whilst we were rehearsing, it was so awkwardd.

At some point we decided to go to my house because why not?? But we got distracted by the playground right behind the amfitheater-space...I tried to stay in-character but the playground isn't very fun when you can't walk correctly...also we toooootally didn't jokingly try pole-dancing on one of those fireman-poles and fall to our certain deaths, and by we I mean Mischa (and I'm pretty sure Ocean tried it too at some point).

why did I just randomly get a HIT of rehearsal 1 nostalgia wtf

Anyways, after the playground (it sounds like we're all like 7 years old or some shit XD) we continued walking to my house and I discovered that Karnak 1 knows THE NEIGHBORHOOD THAT I LIVE IN better than me. So yay.

Don't ask me why, but like 70% of the time that we spent walking I had put on the Nyan Cat Theme. It was just funny idfk we probably looked like crazy people smh. Also, we were in-character at some point whilst walking and basically what happened was that we were all already at the point in the time-line where we're dead, and Ricky annoys everyone by playing Nyan Cat on loop. How he can play it with no wifi? He downloaded it. It is the only song he has every downloaded. The St. Cassian Chamber Choir will forever be hearing the Nyan Cat Theme.

Anywayzeee, then we got to my house and ate some cheese sticks (it's a Dutch thing and is NOT as disgusting as it sounds, I <3 cheese sticks!!) with some orange juice and for some reason we were all really calm and down to earth (probably just tired from rehearsal). We js talked about plans for RTC and (other) stuff.

My dog REALLY liked our new guests, also yes I have a dog she's the sweetest little DEMON named Pixel. She literally jumped on everyone and could not stop sniffing them and begging them for cheese sticks. I had to teach my friends how to say "DOWN!" in Bulgarian (Доло), because that's one of the few commands that she listens to.

Then, we decided to continue rehearsing because why not! When Mischa was performing Talia, my dog was very intrigued and worried, and she started barking REALLY loudly when Mischa started (fake-)crying at the end of the song. Apparently his performance was so good that my dog believed it haha.

Before that I also had to practice my monologue and little thingy after SABM and it was kind of chaotic and I didn't do very well because for me to do a scene properly I have to be in the mood and also rehearse in front of the mirror like 40 times...

I also gave them a room tour!! Mischa had a lot of appreciation for my RTC wall (which has grown btw, I will make another post about it soon!).

That was all!!^^

-Ricky Potts🖖

[armand-de-romanus]

tagged by @figsandphiltatos :)

shuffle your on repeat playlist (on spotify) and list the first 10 songs and then tag 10 people

First Time by Hozier -- Been listening to this one (and the album in its entirety) since last October and like much of Hozier, it spoke to me! I think my favorite part is about the flowers,,,, mothers gifting life to you again, how a plant lives mostly underground in the roots, deadened to light and sound but reaching for the light anyway, even when it's doomed to be cut back for its beauty?? how the plant knows it's dying but puts forth its every effort to make flowers anyway?? "fighting off like all creation the absence of itself, anyway" ANYWAY????? and the end hurts a special kinda bad ough! ough!

Sjamboksa by Gang of Youths -- god knows I love these boys, but this one is an unsung gem from their earlier albums. "In the thick of my heart, by the skin of my teeth, until I'm forgotten, and covered in weeds, and my withering soul is in the sea, i will hold on to you, hold on to me." It has a warm, heartful sound that gets me emotional

Keep Me In the Open by Gang of Youths -- not your typical love song. It's about a relationship in the end stages of failing. It's always been a heartbreaker, and I appreciate it filling an uncommon niche. "When did everything get this weird? how the fuck did it start? did you ever believe in me? was it always so hard?"

Welcome Home, Son by Radical Face -- I've loved this one since like 2018? or 2017? It's an EXCELLENT "thinking about your OCs" song with excellent vibes. Generally this band is good for this purpose, recommend their other stuff since I think this is their only big song. I enjoy Small Hands iirc. They have very visual lyrics that I can smell yk? "Sheets are swaying from an old clothes line, like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass, was never much but we made the most"

Wildflower and Barley (Feat. Allison Russell) by Hozier -- This makes me think of Seurri and Erastos' year together in their mutual downtime, enjoying the glade together and Philander learning to be comfort in a gentle, quiet love. the fuck . the vibes are... like, jazzy and folksy. "springtime from my window, another month has not much longer now, the sun hesitates more on each evening's darkening, would all things god allows, remain above ground? like grief and sweet memory, wildflower and barley"

I Don't Know You by Mannequin Pussy -- Excellent intro to their show in Atl. Started us off easy for sure lol. It's soft, it's about regret, it's about knowing your regret and still being unable or unwilling to act on it i think. plus longing

Little Dark Age by MGMT -- I don't remember listening to this a ton recently but in general? yes. I'm claiming this one back from the fashy teens who wanna use it in ww2 edits, this song slaps severely and the dark and mysterious vibes speak to me. good for OC imagining lol "The humor's not the same, coming from denial" IDK if this song has a coherent meaning (ik MGMT can be cryptic) but I havent interpreted it and I like it that way frankly

Too Sweet by Hozier -- Who could have predicted! OHhh! who knew! This song is for Solomon and Solomon only idc idc idc idc "But you worry some I know, but who wants to live forever babe" like yess mercenary queen work i need you to concern your elf nobility non-wifey wifey endlessly

We Don't Believe What's on TV by Twenty One Pilots -- Middle school makes a bold return! I stopped listening to these guys before 2016 I think, but I got a hankering for this particular song because I'm so unsure of what I want to be or do, or if I can even be or do that. I want to be unafraid of the future with somebody and I don't think I could relate to this song in middle school but I get it now! Also I refuse to factor religion into my interpretation of top or I'll stop enjoying it again shh

Archie, Marry Me by Flyte -- This song is one I'd occasionally play on loop late at night, the echoing choir and soft, what, organ? in the background? If I had a wedding this would probably be in it. It's so warm and personal, but I love the original by i think Alvvays! This cover I just think I love more.

I don't think I have any steady mutuals who haven't already been tagged in figs' post so... like or rb this or otherwise let me know if you'd like to be tagged in anything in the future :)

[torchwoodfanfests]

Torchwood Bingo 2020 Masterpost

The masterpost is here - browse through every work submitted to the 2020 Torchwood Bingo Fest! You can also find most of the fanfiction in our AO3 Collection. Thank you to everyone who took part in out first ever fest. Your response blew us away; we had a total of 172 fanworks from 32 wonderful participants. Hope you all had a good time, and congratulations to everyone who got bingo!

If one of your works should be on this post but isn’t, please let us know and we’ll add it ASAP.

@shejustcalledmeafish

FANFICTION

To Love a Harkness

Coffee/Coffee Shop

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again

Time Loop, Black and White, Friendship, Secrets

Wrong Face, Wrong Time

Twelve/Frobisher confusion

Kiss, Bang

Bullet wounds

A Soul in Twain

Andy Davidson, Lois Habiba

Just the Messenger

Time Travel, Tarot Girl

Golden Days

Gold

Out of Order

Torchwood One, Prequel/Set Before Canon

Kiss of a Viper

Dancing, Betrayal

I’ve Got a Fascination (With Your Presentation)

Grooming/Bathing, Genderbend

World and Enough Time (Stories From the Loop)

Accidental Marriage, Cold/Warm, Bed Sharing, Plants/Vegetables

Commissioned

Human Monsters

Technician, Free Thyself

Timelord AU

Never Has He Ever

The Hub Goes On Lockdown

@princess-of-the-worlds

FANFICTION

Moments in Grayscale (and Eternity in Colour)

Anniversary, Cultural Differences, Immortality, Gifts, Water, Boeshane

i would’ve followed all the way, no matter how far

Psychic Power/Telepathy, Benign Alien Visitors, Canon-Compliant

silver lining

Fake Dating/Fake Marriage

found you made us in a star

Friendship

sing me like a choir

Kink/Sex Talk/Innuendo

the world is at my feet (i am standing on the ceiling)

Secrets, Torchwood One, Under the Influence (Alcohol, Drugs, Alien Pheromones, etc)

perfect premiere

Red, Pink

@torchwoodbutmostlyowen​

POETRY

Photographs filled with Lense Flares

Rhys POV

@toshsato

FANFICTION

I Don’t Even Know What I’m Doing Tonight

Rarepair

the night-time is the hardest

Bisexuality, Friendship, Healing

I ain’t letting go

Music, Benign Alien Visitors, Dancing, Werewolves and/or Vampires

GIFSETS

Martha Jones

The Resurrection Gauntlet

Backstory, Camping

@iianto-jones

FANFICTION

On Family

Bullet Wounds, Domesticity, Immortality

Our Worlds Move On

Friendship

How Much of It You’ve Got Left

Interspecies Romance

@dinodina

FANFICTION

In Which Ianto May or May Not Be Fully Human

Domesticity, Meet the Family, Canon Character is an Alien AU, Interspecies Romance, Betrayal, Cold/Warm, CoE Fix-It, Mission-Related Trip, Myfanwy

Rosy-Fingered Dawn Flipped the Page of Life

Healing, Flat Holm, DW Companion, Crossover, Rarepair, Under the Influence, Amnesia, The Year That Never Was, Original Character

@aellesiym

ART

Canon Character is an Alien AU

Mary, Canon Divergent AU

Domesticity, Based on a Song of Your Choice

Werewolves and/or Vampires

@cxptained + @agent-harkness

FANFICTION

Burn Me

Immortality

Inside My Mind (Trying To Get Things Right)

Disability

@ultraviolet-eucatastrophe

FANFICTION

You’re gonna heal over (someday)

Doctor’s Orders, Hurt/Comfort, DW Companion Cameo

Take it on trust

UNIT

All some children do is work

Kids

By the green you shall know us

Con-man/Grifter, Green

Keep holding on

Team Bonding

Half-lives

Past Canonical Character Death

A place to start from

Torchwood One

But the blues are still blue

Big Finish Audio or TW Novel Tag/AU, Food, Curtain Fic/Ordinary Everyday Situations and Chores

@agent-sato

FANFICTION

I Know Not Everybody (Has A Body Like You)

Genderbend, Team Bonding, Hurt/Comfort, John Hart, Pining

Off The Grid

Harriet Jones/Mickey Smith

Imposters Among Us

Rhys POV, Human Monsters, Doctor’s Orders, Canon Character is an Alien AU, Under the Influence

@moonlightrhosyn

FANFICTION

For I Chose the World’s Sad Roses

Plants/Vegetables, Therapy

An Exile on Lemnos’ City Streets

Mary

My Favourite Kind of Rain

Gold

The Cordiality of Death, with his Metallic Grin

Canon Character is an Alien AU

@currently-very-asleep

FANFICTION

Ianto’s Funeral

Meet the Family, Dead

@captainawesome242

FANFICTION

It’s the Taking Part That Counts (but the winning is great too!)

Water, Fake Dating

If You Should Fall Upon Hard Times, If You Should Lose Your Way

Mental Health

Who Wants to Live Forever

Immortality

You’re the Better Half of Me (you’re the only half I need)  

Mickey Smith, The Year That Never Was, Weddings, Family

Meet the Family

Public Displays of Affection, Kids, Confessions

@golyadkin

ART

Dancing

Meet the Family

Werewolves and/or Vampires

FANFICTION

What Comes Next

CoE Fix-It AU

@amlaich

ART

Harriet Jones/Mickey Smith

Under the influence

Martha Jones, AU/Canon Divergence

Immortality

@thirteeninafez

FANFICTION

Lost in Translation

Handcuffs

Porcelain Penguins and Other Such Knick-Knacks

Canon Character is an Alien AU

@asarahworld-writes

FANFICTION

hen night

Under the Influence

Gafr Siafft

Kids

@searching-for-arcadia

ART

Genderbend, Dancing

first, you must be buried (to understand light)

Canon Divergent AU, Mission-Related Trip, Exercise

Plants/Vegetables

Bullet Wounds

Ianto’s Criminal Past

The Hub Goes on Lockdown

@horselover107

FANFICTION

Team Tardis

Secrets

Date Night

The Child

Kids, Alternate Universe

Missing

Missing, Nosy Coworkers, Friendship, Future!Fic

Sibling Rivalry

Family

PLAYLISTS

Broken

Mental Health

Coffee: A Janto Mix

Coffee/Coffee Shop

@chandelle13

FANFICTION

Resurrection of the lost

Torchwood 4

Some secrets

Team Tardis, Family and Domesticity

With some help

Character Do-Over, DW Companion Cameo, Canon Divergent AU

Surprise!

Pets, Big Finish Audio or TW Novel Tag/AU

Once a year

Friendship, Curtain Fic, Blue, Comfort

Expect the unexpected

Anniversary, Doctor’s Orders, Date Night, Hurt/Comfort, Boeshane, Missing, Prequel/Before Canon

Things change

Bilis Manger, Canon Divergent AU

Annoyance

Gwen has some of Gwyneth’s powers

Unexpected Events

Pink, Fake dating/Fake Marriage, Undercover/Disguise

@my-random-fandoms

FANFICTION

The Animals Always Know

Pets

The Devil and the Time Traveler

Rarepair

EDITS

Weevils

@mathemagician7

FANFICTION

Returning to Torchwood

Old Friends, Big Finish Audio Tag

Physical Therapy

Therapy

Haunted By You

The Ghost Machine

To The Letter

Clothes, Gifts

ART

Almost Perfect

Genderbend

Mary

@itneveroccurredtomeatall

FANFICTION

Undercover On The Bachelorette

Undercover/Disguise

Black and White

Black and White

Missing

Sabbatical

Future!Fic

Pollen

Sex Pollen

@garknessandbones

COMICS

Domesticity, Secrets

Dreams, Music

@celstese​

PLAYLISTS

Heartache and Pain Tracklist

Diary, Betrayal, Friendship

A Different Doctor (Time Lord Owen AU Tracklist)

Music, Timelord AU, Prequel/Set Before Canon, The Year That Never Was

FANFICTION

Congratulations its a doctor!

Character(s) of Your Choice is/are Trans

Gwen and Rhys garden

Plants/Vegetables, Domesticity

Gwen Cooper gets her groove back

De-Aging/Aging Up, Date Night, Old Friends/Chance Meetings

ART

Clothes/Outfit

Fantasy, Undercover/Disguise

Grooming/Bathing

Bisexuality

@agent-jones​

EDITS

Holiday Celebration

Domesticity

Family

Martha Jones/DW Companion Cameo

Rhys POV

Exposed (NSFW)

Human Monsters/Suzie Costello

Amnesia

Old Friends

Stars

Camping

Torchwood One

@i-really-should-be-writing​

FANFICTION

Surrender my everything

Immortality, Based on a Song of Your Choice

Always With You

Psychic Powers/Telepathy

Lights in the Darkness

Hurt/Comfort, Family

@toshsatos

FANFICTION

poenitentia

Alternate Realities, Interspecies Romance

shining, she was, like moonlight

Anwen, CoE Fix-It AU

roughneck

Undercover/Disguise, Benign Alien Visitors

ART

Timelord AU

Crossover of Your Choice

@samantharyderthelionqueen

FANFICTION

Barbecue

Cooking, Interspecies Relationship

On Romance

Big Finish Audio or TW Novel Tag/AU

Sam’s Vision

Future!Fic, Psychic Powers/Telepathy

Serves You Right

Bullet Wounds

Skeleton-Knapper

Kidnapping

Slow Tango in Saint Lucia

Dancing

The Perfect Present(s)

Gifts

We Catch Aliens

Crossover of your Choice

What Families Do

Authority

ART

“Aunt Mei! Mama and Daddy are being gross again!”

Public Displays of Affection

Lust Flower

Sex Pollen

Myfanwy is Trans!

Myfanwy

“This Time I Won’t Let Go…”

Boeshane, Episode Tag/Missing Scene

Torchwood Said Nonbinary Rights!

Genderbend

Torchwood vs UNIT

UNIT

MOODBOARDS

“FRIENDS” moodboard

Friendship, Based on a Song of Your Choice

Janto blue moodboard

Blue

Towen black & white moodboard

Black and White

@this-is-quite-homoerotic

FANFICTION

Joke’s On Me

Anger

I’m holding tight cause it feels alright, my love, when I’m with you

Cold/Warm, Vegetables

Don’t You Know You’ve Haunted Me For Years:

Gwen has some of Gwyneth’s powers, Gifts, Bisexuality

You Got Me On Edge (Any Minute I Might Jump):

Exercise, Rarepair, Cultural Differences

EDITS AND MOODBOARDS

Blue, Gold

Black and White, Gold

Prequel/Set Before Canon

Clothes/Outfit

EDIT AND PLAYLIST

The Bad Old Days

Music

@hotchocolatedictator​

FANFICTION

Little Green Men From Mars

Green

@violetmessages

FANFICTION

Sustenance

Plants/Vegetables

Clairvoyancy

Canon Character is an Alien AU, The Doctor Meets the Team

Tales from the Filing Cabinet

Mission Related Trip, Flat Holm

the hands on the clock keep ticking

De-Ageing/Ageing Up

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Opening Up with… Evanescence

Opening Up sees us talk to musicians about the opening track from each of their studio albums. Our next guest is Amy Lee, lead vocalist and founding member of goth-pop veterans Evanescence. With millions of albums sold worldwide, the band are one of the most beloved of their era – and there's still plenty left in the tank, as their latest studio album attests to.

Amy Lee’s eyes widen when she realises what the premise of today’s conversation is. “I never get asked about this sort of stuff!” she exclaims excitedly from her Nashville home, surrounded by a stuffed toy collection belonging to her seven-year-old son Jack. Lee is very drawn to the prospect of a grand opening, whether that’s in the albums that she listens to, the gigs she attends or the movies she watches.

“I have a couple of different ideas about it,” she says. “An album opener…it’s got to pull you in. There’s different ways to do that, and we’ve done a few. One way is to give it the slow build – something that is opening up a world and an atmosphere to you where you’re like, ‘Okay, this is the world I’m stepping into.’ It builds up until it gets to that first big moment of impact. The other method, which I also love, is when you don’t hesitate and just burst right into something. We do our live shows both ways, too. It’s one of those things where it just kind of depends on your mood. You want to really reflect not only on where you’re at, but where you’ve been.”

‘Going Under’ – Fallen, 2003

In another life, ‘Going Under’  would have been the world’s introduction to Evanescence. The opening track to what would go on to be one of the highest-selling albums of the decade was the favourite among Lee and co. to be its lead single. Wind-Up Records, however, opted for ‘Bring Me to Life’, and the rest, as they say, is history. That’s not to count out ‘Going Under’ by any means whatsoever – after all, as Buzz Aldrin once said, second comes right after first.

“That was the song that we really wanted,” admits Lee, reflecting on the song nearly 18 years after its release. “I love ‘Bring Me to Life’, obviously, but we had a great feeling about ‘Going Under’ being sent to radio before the album came out. When that didn’t happen, it kind of became like, ‘Okay, well at least when you hear the album, I want it to still be the first thing that you hear.’”

The song details a tumultuous relationship that Lee had in her early 20s, both in the throes of it and staring back at the ashes of its remnants. She acknowledges the song’s agency reflects both strength and vulnerability in tandem, which explains why the track has spoken to so many listeners over the years. “I think it’s really strong,” she asserts.

“It presents a place that I kind of got to later. I’m calling out for help – ‘I’m going under/I’m drowning in you’ – but it starts out with me being like, ‘You know what? I’m done with this. I’m stepping out of the situation.’ I think that attitude was something for me that I was more excited to project.”

Setlist.fm approximates that the band have played ‘Going Under’ nearly 500 times over the years, making it one of the strongest staples of their shows. It’s a classic “hold out the mic” song – Lee can defer to her makeshift choir on any given night to take up any section of lyrics with full confidence that they’ll be sung back loud and proud. “It’s a fun one to play live,” she notes. “Some songs have more staying power than others, and that song really has that for me. That’s the song that still feels really good and still fits. It doesn’t have anything about it that sort of feels like ‘Okay, that’s cool and that’s part of our history, but that’s not really what we are anymore.’ That one just really has stood the test of time.”

‘Sweet Sacrifice’ – The Open Door, 2006

The parallels between the first tracks on Evanescence’s first two records are obvious. Each cuts straight to the chase, pairing a distorted Lee vocal with a crunching, down-tuned palm-mute guitar chug before bringing in a steady full-band groove and a rousing, angsty chorus. Internally, however, the make-up of Evanescence had drastically shifted between albums, informed by the exit of the band’s co-founder in guitarist Ben Moody less than a year after the release of Fallen. This came midway through a tour, leaving the band to scramble in finding a replacement guitarist, which came in the form of Terry Balsamo (a member of the opening band, Cold). At the conclusion of the tour, Balsamo ultimately joined Evanescence full-time – a position he would hold for the next 12 years.

“That writing process was a new experience,” recollects Lee on co-writing with Balsamo for the first time. “We just had a different energy, which was really cool. We spent a lot of all-nighters in this house in LA – which was actually the first house I’d ever bought. Terry would come up and stay for a month or whatever at a time, and we would work all night.”

When queried specifically on the writing of ‘Sweet Sacrifice,’ Lee recalls a moment where she and Balsamo really clicked creatively – the song’s stirring pre-chorus, which builds to its hard-hitting hook and big-swinging drums. “The guitar and the vocal are kind of mirroring each other there,” she says. “We were really excited about it. There was just this feeling that came with it,  like, the freedom of saying ‘we’ve earned the right to make music however we want right now.’ So many people were breathing down my neck being like, ‘Let me write your songs for you.’ Writing that song was us saying ‘no, we’re gonna do whatever we want because we earned this.’”

“I felt like the song was so beautifully heavy,” she continues. “I also felt like it would subvert what people would expect as an opening track. Because I was without my guitar-playing original counterpart, there was somehow this idea that the next record [should] be softer and more feminine. I love heavy music, of course, and what was coming out of me and Terry was, in some ways, a lot heavier.”

September will mark the 15-year anniversary of The Open Door, and although it doesn’t hold the same legacy as Fallen, it remains a sentimental favourite among fans of the band. Lee still maintains a strong relationship with the record – if not for the fact that the band was able to make it at all in the first place.

“I still love it very much, it means a lot to me,” she comments. “I did have a lot to prove, and I felt the pressure of people feeling like, ‘I wonder if she can do that without Ben.’ I was really excited to show right away that we were taking it to the next level.”

‘What You Want’ – Evanescence, 2011

The first thing you hear on Evanescence’s third studio album is not Lee. Hell, it’s not even a guitar. It’s a reverb-heavy kick and snare beat, which sounds like it’s echoing from the depths of an arena. It immediately kicks the album off on a high gear, and is a perfect example of Lee’s latter example of not hesitating and bursting right in as an opener.

“That’s Will,” she determines of the song’s opening fill – courtesy of drummer Will Hunt, who made his debut on Evanescence after touring with the band for several years prior. “He is the greatest drummer in the world. That part was totally him. He is arena rock to the max, so it’s perfect. What’s cool about that is we all have different things in us that [are] our own style, each member of the band. When everybody’s particular tastes and styles get a chance to really shine through what they’re doing, I think that’s what can make it really amazing.”

“That album, it’s self-titled because it was such a group effort. Certainly it was more [of] one than before, when it was really more kind of duos for both of the other albums – Ben and I, Terry and I. This time was more like, ‘Okay, let’s let everybody really have a chance to shine.’” Lee points to ‘What You Want’ in particular when reflecting on the all-in band approach in songwriting: “I believe it was me, Terry and Tim [McCord, bassist], and we were at my house in Brooklyn,” she describes. “I had a little studio on the top floor, and just pulled up a loop on Pro Tools. Terry started playing, Tim started playing and it just became a thing with the three of us. We brought the band in, and that dinky little loop became what Will did. It really took it to another place.”

“It starts off with that awesome drum beat, but the combo to me really happens when when everything eventually comes in. It really comes together. I hear Terry in those different little half-note steps, I hear me bringing in some of my pop influences in the melody. This is us just really having fun making music and being ourselves.”

‘Overture’ – Synthesis, 2017

In one of the band’s most ambitious projects to date, Synthesis saw Evanescence team up with veteran composer David Campbell (also known as Beck’s dad) to create orchestral renditions of their best-known songs. Before it kicks off in earnest, however, the album opens with a swelling overture penned by Lee herself. It’s a rare instance of her flexing a different creative muscle in the track-ones of the band’s career, where she approaches it as an arranger and composer as opposed to a singer and songwriter.

“The whole idea of the project, for me, really stems from the fact that there’s all these little parts,” she explains. “It’s where my classical influence, which was my first really passionate musical influence, has a moment. It’s something that is an important core part of the music. ‘Never Go Back,’ which follows the overture, is one of those songs – the bridge is totally just like mad Mozart in the darkness, y’know? It’s my classical alter-ego going crazy. It’s interesting, because I think that the combination of that happening against the rock is really what makes it Evanescence. At the same time, I can still see this whole landscape of us that exists underneath and inside the music that is just entirely that other side. A lot of the time, when I’m coming up with the idea to start and then bring it to the table, it’s usually in this piano and electronics-based world before it really becomes a fully-fledged rock song. The idea of Synthesis was to get to just indulge in all of those things.”

When looking at the creation of the album’s overture, Lee sees that alter-ego taking both form and flight. “That part in particular is just one of my favourite moments on the record,” she says. “It’s very classically inspired, obviously. To make that into a full piece with David and give it that slow build, like we were talking about…I just loved being able to do that. That’s one of the ones that we’re driving you into a place and you’re like, ‘Oh, where are we going?’ And then you get there. It was very special to have at the beginning of every show on the tour. I’ll never forget that.”

‘Artifact/The Turn’ – The Bitter Truth, 2021

“Let me tell you about this, because it’s unusual.” Having eyed the conversation’s flow keenly, Lee is prepared at the ready to talk about ‘Artifact/The Turn,’ which opens The Bitter Truth, the first collection of all-new Evanescence music in a decade. As she will go on to explain in great detail, the album’s opening moment is twofold – hence the forward slash in its title. First, the artifact, which Lee found on her computer. “That’s nothing but like a little keyboard and my voice,” she confirms.

“That part is me on my laptop with the laptop built-in mic in a hotel room in Canada in the middle of the night on tour. That was not intended to make it as is on the album. The reason it’s called ‘Artifact’ is something that Nick [Raskulinecz], our producer, said. He was like, ‘Do you really want to redo this?’ I always was thinking I was going to. ‘Well, yeah,’ I said. ‘Don’t we need to like do it in high quality, like on a real microphone? He says, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to be able to recapture that exact feeling.’ I thought about that, and it all just kind of connected. It has all these little artifacts in it – it’s actually a little ancient piece of the the writing process, and it’s intact. It hasn’t been re-recorded or redone in any way.”

This leads to where the music makes a turn – courtesy, naturally, of ‘The Turn.’ This was another one-on-one between Lee and a collaborator, although this time, it arrives in the unexpected form of The Crystal Method’s Scott Kirkland. “We just met through a mutual friend, my old lighting director,” Lee recalls. “We were both on the bill at some festival and we made friends. It turned out we were fans of each other, and I was like, ‘Hey, if you ever want to just like swap files, who knows? We might come up with something!’ We started sending each other little baby demo ideas that we had. He had that music bed a little bit in a different arrangement that he sent to me – and again, on tour in a backroom, I found myself singing over it and came up with a melody. He tweaked it and did it for real, and that was it.”

Piecing these two compositions together made it very clear to Lee from the outset that this is how The Bitter Truth would begin – especially when she saw how it transitioned into track two, ‘Broken Pieces Shine’. “I love the way that that riff brings you into our band – where we are now and what the sound of us is now,” she says. “It’s driving, and it is coming for you – and it just feels so good when it hits. I love the beginning of this album.”

It’s been around a month since the album’s release, and although the band obviously haven’t gotten to play any shows thus far, they’ve still been met with an endless stream of messages, comments and praise from fans all over the world. After such an extensive rollout – not by design, of course – the sense of relief within the Evanescence camp is palpable. “It’s so satisfying,” adds Lee. “The one thing that’s going to drive it all the way home, obviously, is going to be when we get to live inside it and go on tour and play these songs live.”

[sternbilder]

that holst post from earlier awakened the slumbering basic orchestra bitch in me and now i’m wild about classical music again all of a sudden for one (1) night only, i’m going through my old classical playlist and here are some unsolicited opinions?? recommendations?? top 10 piece rankings?? from yours truly, most of which i have played personally

10. rossini, barber of seville overture - SPEAKING OF BASIC let’s get this one out of the way, literally everyone in the universe knows this piece but it’s just so goddamn catchy and also fun to play?? sometimes it just gets stuck in my head at random times for no reason but i do not care it is welcome to live rent-free in my brain always

9. bizet, intermission from l’arlesienne suite no. 2 - ok this one is a slower piece and i never see anyone talk about it ever but imo?? highly underrated with a gorgeous, well-developed melody from beginning to end not to mention an INCREDIBLY satisfying build-up & payoff and ok maybe the ending is a little dragged out but that climax makes me cry real human tears pls give it a chance?? it kind of reminds me of a soliloquy in a musical where the main character like. breaks down and spills their entire heart out at the audience and it’s so dramatique™ and good

8. von suppé, poet and peasant overture - the violin part in this is SUPER fun but that’s not important compared to the fact that that cello solo is the reason i lowkey have a crush on every single cellist tbh,

7. dvořák, largo from the new world symphony - this is probably the most Basic Opinion on this list but idc i love this melody to death, even all the dumb corny choir boy editions of it, a+, top 10 songs to die to if i’m gonna b real

6. bruch, finale from violin concerto no. 1 - i just ADORE how the violin solo in this piece manages to balance being playful and light with being colorful and interesting, it def makes me wish i was good enough to be a soloist LMAO?? also this lush middle section (which kind of reminds me of the tchaik romeo & juliet a little bit??) makes me want to die, it’s so beautiful

5. dvořák AGAIN, slavonic dances op. 46 - everybody loves the brahms hungarian dances yes but my favorite “collection of folksy fun orchestra tunes” is DEFINITELY the slavonic dances, really all of them but ESPECIALLY no. 7 bc it starts off sounding like it should be accompanied with an animated montage of a dopey little cartoon knight or something plodding along, fantasia style, but then it swells into this GORGEOUS sweeping middle section for just a few bars then back to cute cartoon nonsense for the rest of the piece?? i don’t think i actually ever played no. 7 myself now that i think about it but i love it anyway. also no. 8 bc i love how FUCKING dramatic it is

4. rimsky-korsakov, capriccio espagnol - i got to play this for a summer camp once and again recently with my company orchestra, it’s so fun?? it’s so light and festive with great solos and great melodies and with all its short sections it’s both SO listenable but also v cohesive, i’m a huge fan

3. márquez, danzón no 2 - i think this is a pretty modern piece actually but i’ve also played this multiple times at this point and love it a lot, it has a lot of really great solo bits (like this sexy little trumpet solo) and it just makes me want to dance, i love watching dudamel conduct this bc he looks exactly the way i feel the entire time

2. shostakovich, allegro non troppo from symphony no. 5 - listen i know for sure this has some deep symbolic or ironic political meaning about something something living under an oppressive, propaganda-and-censorship-controlled state or whatever but it just. fucking rules. my favorite part is that eerie little part with the high violins near the middle which i’m SURE i fucked up when i played it back when i was a wee high schooler just kiddding it’s actually this OTHER part with the soaring violins but anyway. my favorite performance is the bernstein one bc it’s the only one i can find that’s as fast or aggressive as i remember it being

1. beethoven, egmont overture - i’ve always thought that if you threw a slow punchy drum loop over the beginning of this you’d get some epic trailer bgm tbh?? idk maybe a controversial opinion but this is my favorite beethoven symphonic work bc the entire piece is a BANGER that’s not only fun as hell but also incredibly listenable all the way through, and also the ending fucking slaps!! anyway not to be lowkey sacrilegious but here’s a space jam remix of the ending part which i love but my fellow orchestra members did not appreciate so now i am sharing it all with you all instead,

honorable mentions:

holst, jupiter from the planets - this honestly deserves to be on the list, i just didn’t want to talk about it AGAIN bc i already started ranting in the tags a little bit but really this is self-explanatory, the i vow to thee section is one of the most beautiful pieces of music i’ve ever had the pleasure of playing or listening to and that’s THAT 

saint-saëns, bacchanale from samson and delilah - danse macabre is also fun and carnival of the animals is ok but bacchanale is the saint-saëns piece that makes me go absolutely feral. it may be a go-to “we need something to spice up this concert program to make it not sound just Totally old and bland and white” but man. what an absolute party of a piece to play

mussorgsky, the great gate of kiev from pictures at an exhibition - i really love grandiose, epic pieces like this but this one in particular holds a special place in my heart bc (i think) this was the finale for my last high school orchestra concert which, while not the most rigorous group, was definitely the one with the fondest memories for me 😭i’m not gonna link it but i found a youtube clip of that performance and man. i miss.....this part through the end brings goosebumps to my skin and a tear to my eye aaaAAAA IT’S SO GOOD

[grimelords]

October Playlist

My October playlist is finished and it’s complete from Rico Nasty to Rachmaninoff. I absolutely guarantee there’s something you’ll love in this 3 and a half hours of music, and probably something you’ll hate too! Something for everyone!

If you’d like to have these playlists delivered to your inbox instead of having them randomly appear on your dash, please subscribe to my tinyletter here.

listen here

Santeria - Pusha T: In anticipation of Jesus Is King I relistened to the entire Wyoming Sessions project a few times, and a year removed from all the hype and controversy here's the thing: it's fucking great. The individual albums ranged pretty widely in quality and felt slightly unfinished for how short they were sometimes, but taking the project as a whole 5-album 120 minute playlist it turns out it's a masterpiece. My personal tracklist goes Ye/Daytona/Nasir/KTSE/Kids See Ghosts, which isn't release order but I think makes it flow the best - both Kanye albums bookending it and the less impactful Nas and Teyana Taylor albums buried a bit further in where you can appreciate them now that you're deep in the mindset of the whole thing rather than alone on their own.

Puppets (Succession Remix) - Pusha T & Nicholas Brittel: This remix is such a perfect match: Pusha T’s corporate villainy finally given a context and prestige it deserves. It’s also short enough that it could feasible be the actual theme song next season, which would be a marked improvement imo.

Use This Gospel - Kanye West, Clipse & Kenny G: I am and remain a Kanye stan, even after everything. It’s nice to see him going back to the extremely uneven mastering of MBDTF era, it’s a sound that is uniquely his and it’s fun to see him revisit it. The thick vocoder harmony is so soupy you get lost in it, and the way it opens up to include the full choir in the No Malice verse is beautiful. Kanye reunited Clipse through Christ and we have Him to thank for that at least. The Kenny G break is great, and the grain and dirt on the whole track when the beat kicks in is so gritty you can feel it.

Man Of The Year - Schoolboy Q: I didn't love the Chromatics album they surprise released but it did thankfully remind me of the time Schoolboy Q sampled Cherry for Man Of The Year. Taken exclusively on lyrics, Man Of The Year is a triumph: he's the man of the year and it's all worked out but the sample and the beat underscores the dead eyed melancholy that runs through the whole of Oxymoron of never winning even when you've won.

Cold - Rico Nasty: This song fucking tears your face off. Imagine STARTING your album at this level of intensity. She just goes straight to 100 and burns the house down. Outside of Lil John so few rappers can get away with just straight up screaming in the adlibs but the way she just lung tearingly screams GOOOO through this is fucking sick.

Fake ID - Riton & Kah-Lo: TikTok songs are becoming their own genre, but it’s a very nebulous sort of a mood encompassing everything from aughts pop punk hooks to skipping rope raps like this. It’s a strange new way for songs to blow up that everyone seems compelled to write articles about but my take on it is it’s exactly the same as ads were in the old days. Remember how many songs did absolute numbers because someone put it in a Motorola ad? Same thing except you’re not being sold a phone this time, so in some ways it’s better. Anyway, this song bangs. The spirit of 212 era Azealia Banks lives on even if she’s doing her best ever since then to kill it.

Doctor Pressure - MYLO & Miami Sound Machine: There was a very good era in the mid-2000s where you could just put mashups out as singles and they’d chart, it was sick. My only two examples are this and Destination Calabria but I’m sure there’s more. Drop The Pressure is a masterpiece but as an alternate version this mashup is equally masterful.  

If You’re Tarzan, I’m Jane - Martika: Martika is unfortunately best known for the 1989 one hit wonder Toy Soldiers, a sort of boring overdramatic ballad which is best known for being sampled by Eminem in 2004 in his quite bad super duper serious song Like Toy Soldiers. I say unfortunately because every other song on her first album is great, it’s all hypercolour 80s synthpop and I love this song especially because it is so completely stuffed with activity it becomes dizzying. It gets so lost in itself that they completely abandon the dramatic pause before “I’m Jane” for some reason toward the end and instead just layer three different tracks of vocal adlibs. Every part of this song is great, the weird ‘o we o we o’ chant before the second verse? The neighing horse guitar before the bridge? The musical tour of the world IN the bridge? The part where she says ‘I want to swing on your vine?’. This song has everything.

You Got Me Into This - Martika: Every part of the instrumentation in this is amazing. The bass sound, the main synth, the extremely athletic brass, the wonderful echoing 80s snare that’s as big as a house. I just love it. She also does some really intriguing slurs on the word ‘love’ all the way through, just moving it around absolutely anywhere.

Space Time Motion - Jennifer Vanilla: I love when someone has such a clearly defined aesthetic and mission from the very beginning. Jennifer Vanilla is the alter ego of Becca Kaufmann from Ava Luna who I've had in this playlist before but never competely investigated. Jennifer Vanilla feels like an episode of Sex And The City where Samantha gets really into Laurie Anderson and she is incredible. This video is the best mission statement I’ve ever seen and is currently criminally underviewed so please do your part and support the Jennifer cause by watching these two videos.

So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings - Caroline Polachek: Caroline Polachek said watch me write a Haim song and did it. Apparently the very early versions of this album started when she was in writing sessions for Katy Perry, but then it started to turn into something else and she took it for herself, and I think you can hear that. With more normal production and a little faster this is a hundred percent a Katy Perry song, but instead it’s completely uniquely Caroline Polachek and it’s all the better for it. And also Katy Perry must be furious because her new songs are simply not good at all.

Electric Blue - Arcade Fire: I just love the obsession of this song in the outro, chanting over and over and over “Cover my eyes electric blue, every single night I dream about you”

Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado and Timbaland: I got a youtube ad for one of those Masterclass videos the other day and it was Timbaland teaching production. This ad went for five minutes for some reason and I watched the whole thing and it made me admire Timbaland even more. He’s demonstrating his compositional technique which is basically to just beatbox, and then loop it, and then add some extra percussion layers with more beatboxing and hand percussion, then loop that and add a little melody by singing or humming. ‘It’s that simple’ he says. Then later he goes back in and puts in actual drums or synths or whatever. I was stunned because suddenly a lot of his music makes sense. Without the barrier of instrument or timbre to get hung up on it allows him to write from this instantly head-nodding place of just making up a little beat you can sing and dance to immediately. Listening to a lot of his music now you can hear the bones underneath everything so clearly, all his beats are supremely beatboxable and all his melodies are very hummable, they’ve never overcomplicated by instrumental skill or habits, they just exist to serve the song.

Serpent - TNGHT:  TNGHT are back baby and this song is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It feels like afrofuturist footwork from another dimension, the mbira sounding lead against the oil drum percussion in this cacophony of yelps and screams that just builds to an irrepressible energy without a bassline in sight.

Ghosts Of My Life - Rufige Kru: I'm reading Mark Fisher's Ghosts Of My Life right now and some good person has put together a spotify playlist of all the songs he mentions. He has a whole essay about why this song is sick so I’m not going to go into it here but it’s interesting to hear about someone growing up with jungle when it’s a genre that has always felt very niche to me. I guess partly as a result of it never really making it mainstream as a genre here, and also me being a little too young for it.

Renegade Snares - Omni Trio: My biggest introduction to drum and bass comes from the game Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition and this really great song from the soundtrack that is finally on spotify after a very long absence. At almost the exact same time as I discovered this song with its spacious piano and repitched snares, I discovered Venetian Snares and breakcore in general. Having no particular frame of reference for breakcore as an offshoot of drum and bass only amplified its appeal to me as a completely alien genre that sounded like nothing else I’d ever heard, and so my personal history with drum and bass is a story of walking backwards into it after the fact which is interesting if not helpful.

Punching In A Dream - The Naked And Famous: The Mark Fisher book also mentions the Tricky song which I’ve never heard from which The Naked And Famous got their name and I thought ‘man remember The Naked And Famous, they were sick?’. The sort of harder edged Passion Pit instrumentation mixed with pop punk, a winning combination.

Vegas - Polica: My favourite part of this song is the unexpected blastbeats after the chorus, using their two drummers to their full advantage and just shaking the song by its foundations every now and then lest you get too comfortable.

Right Words - Cults: I’m beginning to suspect I may be the last surviving Cults stan but if this be my lot I’ll gladly do it

Running From The Sun - Chromatics: The new Chromatics album got me to relisten to their definitive document Kill For Love, and something new I appreciated this time about an album I love a lot is its length. Kill For Love is almost 80 minutes long and it luxuriates in that length. It’s sequenced perfectly so it never feels like it’s long for no reason, but large chunks just completely space out and go out of focus in the soft neon light and the second half of this song is a good example. The whole thing just evaporates into smoke and it feels perfect. If this were a shorter and more concise song that had a proper ending it wouldn’t feel right, this whole album has no straight edges at all and it’s all the better for it.

Chance - Angel Olsen: I cannot belive this song. This feels like she wrote her own version of My Way looking forward instead of back. Instead of the ruefully triumphant "I've lived a life that's full / I've traveled each and every highway" it's “I don't want it all / I've had enough / I don't want it all / I've had a love." before the turn from the future to the present at the end, where she gives up on a forever love in exchange for right now. I love how raw this vocal take feels. It's not her best voice but it feels very very honest as a result. She's just singing her heart out in this huge showstopping closer. In an interview she said "I didn’t love the recording of it very much, and now I just feel in love with it as a closing statement, because it’s a way of saying, ‘Look, I have hope for the next thing in my life.’ I’m not going to anticipate negativity or hate or an end. But instead of us looking towards forever, why don’t we just work on right now?"

Something To Believe - Weyes Blood: This album just keeps paying dividends. I’m systematically going through long obsessive periods with every single song on it and now it’s Something To Believe’s turn.

Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely) - Brigid Mae Power: Without meaning to, Brigid Mae Power seems to have created some incredible fusion of folk music and stoner metal. The way this song absolutely sits unmoving on one deep and resonant chord for so long is amazing. When it does change chords it feels like a full body effort to get up and shift. She has a similar feeling to Emma Ruth Rundle, who more explicitly wears her metal influences, but Brigid Mae Powers' strength is in how much it resembles the traditional folk side of the spectrum. Her voice is also amazing, with the huge effortless runs she goes on about halfway through just coming unmoored from the song completely and floating off into space.

Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ - Josh T. Pearson: I had a real problem with Josh T. Pearson for a long time because of how he presents as so authentic on this album, and as I’ve previously discussed in these playlists the concept of authenticity in country music is a source of neverending anguish for me. But his newest album The Straight Hits! has largely cured that for me because it’s not good at all, is extremely contrived (all the song titles have the word ‘hit’ in them) and he’s shaved his beard and replaced it with one of the worst irony moustaches I’ve ever seen. So now I’m free to enjoy The Last Of The Country Gentlemen as a character construction, which allows me a far deeper and truer engagement than the idea of a man actually living and thinking like this which is frankly a little embarrassing.

Codeine Dream - Colter Wall: I love this song, it has that feeling that great folk songs do of feeling like you’ve always known it. The strongest moments on this Colter Wall album to me are in songs like this that chase this particular feeling of morose isolation, and where he leans away from storytelling like his biggest hit Kate McCannon - a kind of cliche country murder ballad. This song is fantastic because of the way it wallows in this black depression not as a low point, but as a reprieve from the lower previous point. Things are as bad as they get now, and they’re always going to be like this, but at least I don’t dream of you anymore.

Motorcycle - Colter Wall: I only just found out about Colter Wall this month and have been listening to this album over and over. When I first heard him I though it was strange I'd never heard of him before because he's obviously some old country veteran based off his voice, but it turns out he's 24 and this is his first album he just sings like he ate a cigar. I love this song especially because it's so straighforward. It's a simple and supremely relatable mood: what if I bought a motorbike and fucking died.

Who By Fire - Leonard Cohen: I watched American Animals a couple of weeks ago and it’s a great movie, highly recommended. This song plays near the end and I waited for the credits to find out what this great song was, and like a rube found out it’s only one of the most celebrated songwriters of all time. I’ve never had much of a Leonard Cohen phase, somehow. In my mind I always get him mixed up with Lou Reed, which I’m learning is actually way off. I love the harmony vocals in this, and the way they move around into the shadows in the ‘who shall I say is calling’ parts.

Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce - The Drones: Alexander Pearce was a convict who escaped Sarah Island’s penal settlement in Tasmania with seven other convicts in 1822. He was recaptured two months later alone. In 1823 he re-escaped with a fellow convict, Thomas Cox and again was returned alone.He was executed by hanging later having eaten six men during his escape attempts.

It Ain’t All Flowers - Sturgill Simpson: I found this album going through the Pichfork 200 albums of the decade list and I feel like a fool for not having heard it sooner because now I am completely obsessed. Sturgill Simpson is doing the very best work in country music right now because he's looking backwards with one eye and forwards with the other and this song is a great illustration: a perfect Hank Williams Jr type country song with big voiced hollers that morphs into a surprise psych freakout for the whole second half.

Desolation Row (Take 1, Alternate Take) - Bob Dylan: I’ve always liked Desolation Row a lot as a song but the acoustic guitar on the album version is simply not good, it's just kind of mindlessly playing this long directionless solo the whole time and over the course of a song this long it really adds up to just being annoying. Luckily because it’s a Bob Dylan song there’s a whole universe of alternate takes and mixes and this is a great pared down version I found without it. The best kind of Bob Dylan songs are the ones where he just makes an endless stream of allusions and bizzare imagery, and this and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are my favourite examples of it.

Living On Credit Blues - El Ten Eleven: This is a groove I get stuck in my head a lot, and this is also a song I think would work well as a theme for a tv show. I've been meaning to do a 30 second edit of it just for my own amusement, maybe I'll do that soon. El Ten Eleven are a duo where one guy plays drums and one guys plays a double necked guitar/bass and looping pedals and somehow against all the odds of that description they manage to make emotional, driving instrumental music of very deep feeling, like this song which is one of my all time favourites.

Dusty Flourescent/Wooden Shelves - Talkdemonic: This is sort of a companion Living On Credit Blues, and Talkdemonic are similarly an instrumental duo with good drums. This entire album from 2005 is highly recommended, it's a sort of halfway between the post rock of the time and a kind of acoustic hiphop instrumentals that ends up sounding very rustic and homemade, like a soudtrack for a winter cabin.

Turnstile Blues - Autolux: This is a perfect song, built around a perfect beat. Every part just fits perfectly.

Fort Greene Park - Battles: The new Battles album is finally out and I absolutely love it. I cannot think of another band that has shed members in the same way as Battles; originally a quartet on their first album, then a trio for their second and third and now down to a duo for their fourth album - and somehow still performing material from their first album live. The paring down has seemingly only servers to focus them and the new album sounds fresh but still distinctively Battles, with no sense of anything lost or missing. This song is my standout so far, and the guitar line in particular is so good and interesting to me because I don’t think I’ve ever heard Ian Williams play something so distinctly guitar-y in his whole career. This is a straight up pentatonic riff with bends and everything. Filtered through his usual chopped and looped oddness it feels like he’s almost gone all the back around the guitar continuum and is this close to just doing power chords next album. And I’ll support him!

Diane Young - Vampire Weekend: I've listened to this song a lot in my life and I only looked up the lyrics the other day to find out that the opening line is 'you torched a SAAB like a pile of leaves' which I somehow never noticed. What a power phrase. There's also this very good quote from Ezra about it: "I had this feeling that the world doesn’t want a song called ‘Dying Young’,“ says Koenig, "it just sounded so heavy and self-serious, whereas ‘Diane Young’ sounded like a nice person’s name.”" and he was right to do it. This song is 100 times better because he’s saying Diane Young than it would be if he was saying ‘Dying Young’. That’s a songwriting tip for you.

Monster Mash - Bootsy Collins & Buckethead: Hey did you hear Bootsy Collins and Buckethead did a cover of the monster mash? Thank god for freaks.

The Dark Sentencer - Coheed And Cambria: There's not that many bands that I absolutely loved as a teenager that I've completely abandoned. I've moved on from a lot but I'll still keep up with them if they have a new album or something. Coheed And Cambria are one that I've almost completely turned my back on. They've had 3 apparently pretty patchy albums since I stopped listening after Year Of The Black Rainbow, which was extremely bad and really taught me what people mean when they say an album is 'overproduced'. On a whim I decided to see what they're up to now and listened to their album from last year and guess what: it rocks. It's got everything you'd expect from them: big riffs, bad and confusing lyrics, his weird high voice, overwrought and overlong songwriting, cheesy muscleman solos. Everything about this band is sort of cheesy and embarrassing and takes itself way too seriously, but I'm discovering slowly that that's what's so good about it. The weird pulp sci-fi story and mindset that underpins this whole band is ridiculous and overwrought and as a result it gives the music a reason to exist the way it does. It’s so big and dumb because the story it serves is so big and dumb. It feels exactly like reading Perry Rhodan or some increidibly long and dense but not especially good series like that, it’s pulp music and that’s what I love about it.

Romance In A (6 Hands) - Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano works for 4 hands (where two guys sit next to each other on the same piano) have always seemed to tend towards the realm of the gimmick or party trick, and works for 6 hands (where three guys do it) even more so - but this Rachmaninoff piece is just beautiful and I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it before this month. It doesn’t overload everyone with a million things to do, it just builds this very wide harmonic bed for the simple melody to swim in - then the way the melody transfers over to the middle register is just magical before the tension of the final section takes over and builds.

Love's Theme - The Love Unlimited Orchestra: I’m so glad I got to learn about the Love Unlimited Orchestra this month. Aside from having one of the best names in music, they were Barry White’s backing band and had their own solo instrumental records too. Here’s a fun aside: Kenny G was a member when he was 17 and still in high school. This is a genre of music that has seemed to totally disappear into the realm of parody and farce only which is sort of a shame because it is unironically very beautiful and dense in its own way.

Dancing In The Moonlight - Liza Minelli: Can you believe I thought Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader was an original until the other day when my girlfriend played this Liza Minelli version that predates it by several decades? This also isn’t the original! It was written by a band named King Harvest in 1972, with this version AND a version by Young Generation both coming out in 73 and a whole bunch of others in between (including a Baha Men version in 94) before Toploader finally had a proper hit with it in 2000. Truly the world works in mysterious ways. This version is the finest I think, it just goes and goes, frenetically unwinding at a breakneck pace before opening up into a flute solo of all things and then winding up again even and finishing in a kick line breakdown. Absolutely no limits.

Girls - Royal Headache: The sheer amount of power and melody that this song manages to pack into a minute and a half is incredible, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more instantly relatable opening lyric than “Girl! Think they’re to fine for me! Oh girls! And I’m inclined to agree!”

Pov Piti - Matana Roberts: In anticipation of Matana Roberts new volume of her Coin Coin album series that just came out I relistened through the three previous albums and they are even more powerful than I remembered. This song serves as a pretty good mission statement for the whole project, and the heartrending tortured screams that open it set the tone for the rest of it. Matana Roberts sings the injustices of slavery into being, and her sing-song delivery highlights the trauma - her indifferent delivery mirroring the indifference of the world at large. The way she rattles off this story like she’s gone over it a million times and grown numb to the facts only accentuates the pain in the telling, a pain that rises to the surface in the screams of her instrument and herself.  

Kingdoms (G) - Sunn 0))): This new Sun 0))) album is one of my favourites they’ve ever done because it’s so straightforward and back to basics. Every song is just ten minutes of straight up no-nonsense, big, rich, drone. They even put the notes in the track names so you can drone along if you like.

listen here

[skimaskkass]

Pre - Jeri (album review) (breakbit music/ROFLTRAX classics #1) (re-formated)

https://jeri.bandcamp.com/album/pre A long time ago (2014ish) I slightly helped or maybe tried to help a label called Breakbit Music. I am no Breakbit Music master but maybe I will be one day. In the meantime I can reminisce about albums that are dear (or not) to my life as a music fan and other things. One of these albums is Pre by Jeri. I had heard someone I’m in contact with make a track similar to one of the tracks on this album, though not exactly. I wondered if she knew this album and she didn’t. I mention this because I am very proud of her because this album is not just dear to my heart but makes me realize more than 99% of music I listen to how special life and musical ability is.

The opening “Seq1″  is musical chaos to me. But it is not nonsense. It sounds like nothing else I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard some orangy (an alias Jeri had used earlier) tracks before and maybe this is a distillation of that. Jeri was a king of sampling and using them at the right moments. Every time that “woo!” plays you don’t know what to do and when it jumps out of the middle of a spaced out bar. It gets sandwiched by FM sounding percussion arpeggios with even more staccato drums and snares that without intentionally listening for a pattern doesn’t seem like there is one. It’s such a free track that somehow has order sonically is face melting. Musicians should take note how to create textures with the same sounds by placing them at different spaces like they are in this track. But remember this is just the intro. The next track “Toxic People” has this Nintendo 64 sounding echoing guitar over this seasick portable game system synth. It draws you in and the drums come in. The hi-hats sound like they could be on a high quality Amon Tobin track in their modulating pitches. The drums once again phase through different pitches, sounding irregular, FM sounding. Then this really low fidelity, reamped industrial drumming runs into the mix and the song’s baseline comes in (but it’s the kind of overwhelming thing that you hear in dubstep or grime tracks that just bubbles and soaks the mix (which is also somehow trombone that seems to have the suggestion of higher frequencies which maybe is why it coats the ears in ear candy)). The drums have sped up and become isolated. It sounds like industrial influenced ‘post-techno’ or something along those lines. Before you can make that thought the drums are run through a flanger. There’s a proper bassline that comes in that would fit a Nintendo 64 game (I will bring it up a lot). It’s wild. There’s reverb slowly being filled in the mix from the seasick synth. There’s some ring-mod sounding vocal cries and the track ends. “*SHOT*”: is playing and brace yourself for a lot of notes on this track. There is this percussive kind of 8-bit/bit crushed melody that sounds has the effect of dramatic fast horror movie-like piano playing. This track also has a sea sick synth. It sounds like howling ghosts now. The bass drums come in and are replaced with a bassline and then there is a ghost acid bassline and these ghost drums that are going at a fast tempo (ghost in this instance meaning low volume). It is at this point of the album where I say if you’ve ever been a fan of madness combat’s music. Listen to this album. It’s just bassline and the drums with some cuts of high pitched spooky sounds. There are these portamento woodblock sounds in the fast drums that might have echoing delay and/or vocoder on them but regardless they are an excellent detail. The 8-bit/bit crushed sound gets panned around and sounds ring modulated now. Every loop there are two slight notes that adds to the techno spinning inferno music, yeah it is quite tribal at this point. At 1:25 a great transition sound and more vocode-y drums and then this melody that I can’t describe the sound of. It’s like a synth lunatic singing as this synth squeal keeps pitching down. The piano stuff I was suggesting now completely reveals itself at a nickelodeon-fast speed...The track just keeps changing and changing and changing a bunch of distorted sounds come in over it and the after the bass kicks up and the sounds are being swiss-cheesed by distortion. The song falls into a loop where the drums change into that fm squeak and a formant camera-shutter with light melodies taken from sounds from before and it goes back to the consistent sound it started with. Except I notice a high pitched sound in the background now. The bassline bumps back and the percussion ghosts play in the background over a synth hi hat. The track ends. “Computer”: IDM crackling drums and deep town ball bounces over quiet strings. Insane synth 1 and 2 start descending both. Then gabber kicks and noise snare that are quiet play a hell-decent march over fm pads and synths that make creature-screams. Crackle and ball bounces come back and the synths. And back to the gabber hell-on-display.“Synop”: starts with a synthesized brass sound. A quiet high pitched pinging over absolutely beautiful resonant filter sweeping snares and expected character rich kicks. Then a really long melody starts playing that sounds like it’s for a Nintendo 64 game for robots. Then this high pitched club music melody comes in that I absolutely love. And a wandering synth robot starts to sing. It sounds like abstract vocoded vocals and high pitched hotel service bell sounds. There’s a high pitched sine wave sound that tells the robot to stop. Sometimes there’s some distortion in the robot’s singing. The music stops to focus on this part. It’s tremolo and then has a finish. There’s a lot relistening this track deserves. “Kesanspor”: starts with a formant synth for alien salsa over two notes of synth strings and a winding sound that’s revving up. Then a distorted roar. This complicated pad sound that sounds like 50 laser sounds suggesting a choir and an electronic church refrain synth ‘yeah’ are added.  A strange orchestral hit is added to the dead space between string sounds. This arcade sound that is loud but distant plays. There’s some hi-hats that come by to say hello. “Opalei”: Drums start: Kick drums that don’t sound like any kick drums I’ve ever heard personally. Noise snare and a synth-y but somehow metallic sound that’s almost a ‘hyuck’. At 0:05-00:6 there is a stutter in the drums that you gotta love the glitchiness of which is in the loop. Reverb-spaced out (a processed square-wave?) synth that suggests a string section come out. There’s harmonies of this sound and a pianoish, watery synth melody dripping nice through the mix. The melody loops and the drums switch up and then the melody goes to church organ mode and also formant squeals I’ve never heard before except maybe in a Rustie track. You now notice the side-chaining bass drum that is humble but starts rocking out to the magic. This is what bedroom producer synth-rock heaven sounds like. The synths go all filtery and flittery between high and mid tones. They start to take on a liquid quality as time slips. The string section comes back with a variation on the original melody, listen to that detail at the end of the sequence. It is a beautiful gated sound. Then a strange sound sneaks in that sounds like sitar and there are strumming sounds. “M0d”: A murderous string sound and a mid-range fm synth that’s like an electric guitar riff from DOOM over a kind of timpani drum beat. You’re getting ready to murder people to this song as wood block and congas add a playful touch to the track. There’s a slight high pitched triangle (the percussion instrument) sound there. Bursts of echo-y wavy synths start to add the melody to the track. The drums are now rock drums. There’s a turntablism sound at the end of the sequence. There is a slight variation to the sequence then a major one where it scales back and adds beautiful conga sounds and blatant triangle sounding noises with dynamic sound effect rustling noises. There is a cute synth doing a little boat toy whistle (it has an almost old video game / emulating-that-sound quality) after the echo-y wavy synths get more animated, excited and dramatic. I start to notice the bottle whistle sound. This sound starts to pan through the mix when more dramatic sounds are stripped back. Then the song switches up. The synth bludgeons that were echo-y and wavy go transform into searing hot jabs. N64-sounding acid bassline comes in. The bottle whistle transforms into an ore of noise. “Smoke Gogol”: Drums pan left and right. Acid like you’ve never heard it. Melodramatic portamento synths like cartoon character swoons. A sound like someone tapping on a stage mic to test it. Phone/Ringtone sounding synths and snares pan. It gets replaced with a resampled crossfaded type sound bobbing up and down from a low tone. The drums stand out more and variations abound including the phone sound pitched down. I noticed a synth pad that was behind the portamento synths when they came back. The structure is like poetry. First it goes A B A B then C D C D and loops back again. “Thez”: It sounds like a re-amped chop of When The Levee Breaks. Re-amped to make it sound just so beautiful. There’s that odd resampled sounding synth sound that seems to be speaking and singing to us. But that’s because there is a vocal sample in the background that’s grunting in an alien language. The synth goes up and now it really is singing. There is that constant note hammering way in the background that I love to hear in things in popular music. It gets isolated and moves up and down the scale with the drums. And then a N64 guitar comes in and acid nudges panned past you like you were driving past them. The guitar goes full wonky then the resampled sounding synth comes back. It is so unique. The resampled sound isolates and I notice the string sound that has been in the background maybe awhile. And in that isolating the sound shows you how wild it is. The track regains some layers and fades out like a dying candle. “Porta”: It sounds like a fm synth became a sad siren coming to retrieve a body. The snares are like snipps. The base drum sounds like a heavy object dropping on a metal plate. There’s another guitar-y sound. The track sounds like 5th gen video game music for a bad dream. There’s formant synths that harmonize with the siren. There’s a descending sound at the end you can hear at 1:30. It sounds like percussion of some kind. “Holtz IV”: Acid bassline that has an emulated sound quality to it which makes me think of it in a 5th gen gaming console. It’s on it’s own. Then this reggae melody string instrument comes in. More re-amped drums. More video-gamey sounds, this time an organ replaces the reggae melody. The organ comes back sounding more epic, perhaps it’s been layered multiple times. You gotta love it when it stutters. This is building up to the best part of the album for me. It’s not the medieval video game melody that comes in or the marching band beat that comes after it. Or the sick bass drum that comes in the second medieval melody starts. The drums flit around shortly as tastefully as any track of druqks. The glassy synth comes in (triangle wave I believe). And it’s one final surprise. There’s a bouncy club bass drum, I suppose it’s an 808. The squelching organ comes in to dance with the glassy arpeggio. Reverb at the end of the track. I didn’t know Jeri. We never talked. I knew a fair amount of the people on Breakbit Music though. He did a live set during the record label’s virtual music festival, ‘Bit Mania’. A pioneering thing for the early 2010s for sure. I remember the label’s founder mrSimon saying when the song Toxic People played something along the lines: “This is [jeri]? This sounds too good to be him”. Just a joke and Jeri said something in response. I know that being in that chatroom together was a privilege even though I never reached out to him like a fair amount of the people on the label. I didn’t really listen to the other albums under the name Jeri or too much of the Orangy stuff (which was too good to listen to imo). When I saw the cover for Pre I was entranced. It is beautiful and the album is... I view the outstanding musical genius of this album as a distant goal of what I want or imagine others to achieve as an artist. Anyone who can approach this kind of music should feel wonderful at their ability. People who know Jeri or are fans of him know that he passed away in 2014. I know his music will live on because of its power. But only if the effort is made to share it with the world.

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 1997

Holy shit, almost none of this comes from the US year-end list. That feels weird. But yeah, a great year for the kind of music I like in almost every musical genre possible on radio.

Also, we’ve entered a series of years where it’s gonna get increasingly harder for me not to make top 20s.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

A few honorable mentions really quickly.

Men in Black (Will Smith) - I liked this way more back in the day.

Mmmmbop (Hanson) - Back then, if you were a kid, you were almost contractually obligated to like this.

Vivo Per Lei (Andrea Bocelli & Hélène Ségara) - This is supposed to sound grand and epic but it kinda falls on the “silly” side of the spectrum.

Tubthumping (Chumbawamba) - Will make the next list. Spoiler, I know.

I Shot the Sheriff (Waren G) - But it didn’t shoot this top 10 list.

10 - L’Empire du Côté Obscur (IAM)

US: Not on the list / FR: #92

This is a French rap song which samples some bits of the French dub of Star Wars, and it’s sung by a guy pretending to be the evil Emperor, trying to convince you to join the dark side. And he has an audible lisp. And the music video is just as ridiculous as you’d expect.

If you don’t think that falls into the “so bad it’s good” category, there’s nothing more I can do.

9 - Barbie Girl (Aqua)

US: #94 / FR: #4

This is the only song from the US year-end list on my 1997 top 10 list. And I have nothing to say about it. It was a ton of fun at the time, it’s still a ton of fun now.

8 - Meet Her At The Love Parade (Da Hool)

US: Not on the list / FR: #36

This is an endurance test more than a song, per say. And yet, I put it on the second cd compilation I ever made in my life, and I’d gladly listen to it.

I told you my tastes made no sense, didn’t I.

7 - Around the World (Daft Punk)

US: Not on the list / FR: #44

The only reason this isn’t higher is because I find it too repetitive to be listened to on a loop, and yes, I’m aware of how ridiculous that sounds after putting Meet Her At The Love Parade on the same list.

6 - Mon Papa à Moi Est un Gangster (Stomy Bugsy)

US: Not on the list / FR: #15

They say music can have a really bad influence on kids. And yeah, if this list was made according to each song’s impact on my life, this one would be number one. The title means “My Daddy Is a Gangster” and as you can guess it’s about a kid who’s dad is a gangster and he’s explaining how it impacts him (he’s never sure his dad will be here to pick him up after school, adults keep asking him questions, he sees his dad’s face in the newspaper...).

But the dad himself sounds like he genuinely tries to be a good father, and that song taught me some life lessons which definitely prove hip-hop has a bad influence on kids. See for yourself.

Fils, tu sais, la vie c’est pas un film, ça dure pas une heure et d’mi deux heures et puis on rembobine (”Son, you know, life isn’t a movie, it doesn’t last 1 hour 30- 2 hours and then rewind”) // Les gangsters ne font pas d’vieux os, si “ouioui”, paf, derrière les barreaux (”Gangsters never die old, and if you hear a siren, boom, you end up behind bars”) // Choisis le droit chemin, c’est le seul par lequel on n’se fait jamais attraper, retiens bien (”So pick the right path, it’s the only one on which you’ll never get caught”) // Le savoir est une arme, maint’nant tu l’sais, le savoir est une arme bébé, ne l’oublie jamais (”Cause knowledge is a weapon, and now you know, knowledge is a weapon kid, never forget it”)

(...) Ne jamais respecter quelqu'un qui ne te respecte pas (”Never respect someone who never respects you”).

See? A bad influence, I told you. Terrible life lessons.

5 - La Neige au Sahara (Anggun)

US: Not on the list / FR: #50

In a more mediocre year, any song in this top five could top the list. I don’t have anything to say about this one, just please listen to it if you don’t know it yet. It sounds fantastic and Anggun is a great singer.

4 - Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve)

US: Not on the list (...yet...) / FR: #96

This barely makes the year-end list but it still counts, dammit, and the next list was so difficult to make I might as well put it here while I can.

If you ask me how the second half of the 90s sounded, it sounded like this song, and it had the strange privilege of being the first song I loved that my mother openly disapproved of. And I was nine. Being a kid and having your own tastes? What a horrible notion (she’s always been fond of forcing her musical tastes on me and only offering cds she liked and I didn’t, which is why the first cd I ever received as a birthday gift was Celine Dion, and it promptly joined her cd collection instead of mine - insert gif of Kuzco making gifts to himself here).

And I loved the music video. I wanted to grow up and look as cool as this jerkass walking in a straight line without a care in the world. My favorite part was when he walks over the car.

3 - Ameno (Era)

US: Not on the list / FR: #26

So. Uh. This is a nonsensical song in vaguely latin-sounding meaningless gibberish chanted by a pseudo-medieval choir over a dance beat.

This is going to be one of those songs, isn’t it.

Yes. And I loved it to bits. And I have the album. Fight me.

2 - Hasta Siempre (Nathalie Cardone)

US: Not on the list / FR: #8

This was a huge hit here and- hang on. This sounds like one of these goddamn Mylène Farmer songs that keep appearing on my lists, doesn’t it. Uhhhhh. Well. It’s because the same guy who usually works on her songs made the music for this song. Damn it

Anyway, using this kind of music to make a modern version of Hasta siempre, Comandante was a genius move, and, again, I strongly recommend you give it a try if you’ve never heard it before (tw: firearms but only used on bottles).

1 - Alane (Wes)

US: Not on the list / FR: #5

This was one of the biggest summer hits here at the time and oh my god does this sound fantastic. That guy’s voice. That guy’s voice. That song always throws me back to when I was a kid and how great summer vacations at home could be, and. Ugh. I know I sound like a broken record but. Please just listen to it for yourself if you don’t know it yet. Quite possibly the ultimate summer song for me. Nearly untouchable.

Also yes, it was on the first list of my favorite songs I ever made.

Next up: this next #1 will sound absolutely insane to you if you’ve never heard it before but I swear it was a massive hit here

[crystaljins]

It’s a small world.

Characters: Namjoon x Reader

Word count: 1.5 K

Synopsis:  14. Parent!au + 8. Exes + 14. “okay, maybe I’m crazy but did I just hear you say that out loud?” [drabble game]

Notes:  You forgot to pick a member, anon! So I picked Namjoon for you :)

There was nothing your daughter loved more in the world than Disney. Every week she would choose a favourite princess and refuse to wear anything that didn’t have the princess printed on it. When she was huffy or grumpy nothing cheered her up faster than randomly selecting a DVD and playing a Disney movie. Her walls were decked out in posters. She dragged an Elsa doll with her everywhere she went. You would almost call it borderline unhealthy but you suppose at a mere 5 years old there was still time for the behaviour to fade into something more reasonable. Like just having one favourite Disney princess instead of one a week. Or like actually changing clothes instead of prancing around in a little replica of Cinderella’s ball gown for three days.

So when Namjoon offers to pay for the three of you to go to Disneyland together, you know it would be foolish to refuse, regardless of the current state of your relationship with him. It had been almost three years since he’d left you and Yuna so any lingering feelings or hurt should long have vanished. You should have, in theory be able to manage something as simple as a week away with the father of your child and your ex-husband. Yuma’s happiness far outranked your own in your list of priorities and nothing would make her happier than agreeing to this trip, especially since she loved her dad almost as much as she loved Disney.

So, if you are on this godforsaken trip for Yuna’s sake, why are you currently trapped in the damn “It’s a small world” ride with your ex husband while your daughter spends the day with her grandparents? When Namjoon had begged on his parents behalf to let her spend at least one of the days in Disneyland with her grandparents, you had agreed because you were exhausted and could use a rest day of sorts. But nothing about this is restful! If you have to hear one more time about how small the world is you’re going to grab one of the robots and beat Namjoon over the head with it. The universe does not hear your silent threat and the song loops once more.

“This is not how I imagined today going.” Namjoon admits and he looks so unfairly handsome in the colourful lights bouncing off the water that your heart aches. You’re far too weak for this man. If you finally go nuts and murder everyone stuck on the boat ride with you and get asked by police why you even agreed to explore the park on your own without Yuna, you’d just have to show them his picture. His smooth skin and warm smile and cute dimple. He looks the same as when you’d fallen for him 10 years ago.

“We apologise for the inconvenience.” A staticky voice announces over the speakers. “We are currently trying to remedy the situation and get the ride started once more. Please bear with us.”

Namjoon sighs and has the audacity to start humming the stupid song along with the chorus of singing robot children. You want to screech and gouge your eyes out.

“How did you think today would go?” You grit out, making conversation if only to distract yourself from the agony of hearing the song again. Namjoon shoots you a furtive look out of the corner of his eye that you couldn’t ever hope to decipher. He’s always been unreadable to you, from the day he left you up until now.

“Well, for one thing, it was supposed to be a nice day. One where we explored the park just the two of us. Like when we were dating.” He says the last part quickly like he’s hoping you won’t hear him. But then he feels oddly disappointed when you don’t respond, just nod awkwardly.

“Do you not remember?” He asks. “We came here when-“

“I remember very clearly.” You cut him off, a little more curtly than you perhaps intended. “We came here right before you proposed to me. I’ve always thought it was a bit ironic that Yuna loves Disney so much considering how we ended up.” You don’t mean to sound bitter and tired but three years of raising a toddler and nursing a broken heart would leave even the brightest, most optimistic people in shambles. Regret fills Namjoon’s expression.

“I’m sorry.” He says and he sounds so sincere and upset that you almost forgive him. But then you remember that your daughter will have to grow up between two homes because of him and the urge quickly flees.

“Joon, what are we doing? Why are we here?” You ask sadly. He looks defensive.

“You wanted to try this ride but the robots scare Yuna.” He reminds you. “And since her grandparents wanted to spend the day with her I thought we could-“

“No Namjoon, I mean here. Not just in Disneyland. Why did you take us on this trip?” You ask. He bites his lip and his whole expression scrunches up like he’s constipated before he sighs in defeat.

“I wanted to win you over.” He confesses. “These last three years without you have been hell. I thought that I couldn’t handle the family life and I was so upset that I couldn’t focus on my career or meet any of my goals that I couldn’t appreciate what I had until it was gone. And once I started spending time with Yuna again, I realised how much I missed her and you and how I’d had everything I ever wanted when I was with you. And today was supposed to be the day I asked for a second chance but it’s all messed up now.”

You blink slowly, the chorus of “it’s a small world” still drowning out the conversations of the other people trapped on this ride. Then you blink again.

“Okay, maybe I’m crazy but did i just hear you say that out loud?” You say incredulously. “You... you want me back?”

Namjoon watches intently, trying to catch even a hint a positive response in your expression. Your heart is caught in your throat. You’re so caught off guard by this because you still love Namjoon. You love him with all your heart. You never stopped loving him. But you also can’t just drop everything and leap into his arms at the slightest hint of him wanting to take you back. It’s not good for you and it isn’t good for Yuna.

“Namjoon,” you say, barely audible above the children’s choir screeching “There’s so much that we share”. He winces and grabs both your hands between his.

“You don’t have to give me an answer now. I didn’t expect you to declare passionate love for me and throw yourself at me. I just.. I wanted to start off by showing you that I care. About both of you. And I wanted you to know what my long term goal is, so that maybe you could think about if it was something you wanted to.” He admits. “So what do you say? Just give me a chance to prove myself. That’s all I want.”

You’re interrupted by a clanking sound. The boat lurches forward and begins drifting through the ride once more. A cheer rises from the group of trapped ridegoer’s and there is a crackling as the ride operators make an announcement.

“We are pleased to announce that the ride has started again! We apologise for the technical difficulties and hope you enjoy the rest of the ride!” They say, and sure enough, the broken ride is fixed. Right when you were starting to think you’d never find your way out of it again. That you were stuck in this broken ride forever. It took some time, and a lot of patience, but they fixed it and the worst is now behind you.

In the chaos of the boat starting up again, you had lost your balance and somehow landed against Namjoon. His arms have come up to steady you and his eyes watch you intently as he awaits an answer. He had once been your rock, but that had been a long time ago. When you were young and full of life and love. Now you haven’t been held by him in years and you thought you’d made your peace with the fact that he’d never hold you again. You would be a fool to say yes. People don’t change that easily and your every instinct is telling you that he’ll just hurt you and Yuna again. Still... this whole trip he’s been different. Attentive, kind, reliable. This has been one of the most stress free holidays you’ve had in a long time because Namjoon handled literally everything. And he’s proven himself once before- when he first wanted to be let back into Yuna’s life. You had been reluctant but allowed him to spend weekends with her, and since that day, he’s been a doting, adoring father. 

Things that are broken can sometimes be fixed, can’t they? 

“Prove me wrong.” Is all you say before turning your attention to the ride. You’re not giving him an answer, or making any promises. You’re just agreeing to a second chance, for him to at least have a shot at proving to you that he could be a husband and a father again. The rest is up to him.

You miss the ecstatic, love filled look he shoots at your profile in response to your simple words.

[baekhvuns]

Bad Boy | Baekhyun IV

( series masterlist )

part four.

word count : 1.3 k

paring : baekhyun x reader

theme ( s ) : romcom, angst, lil bit steamy near the end.

It’s been a week since I’ve been here for Eunhye’s wedding preparations, the wedding date was coming closer and the time was getting shorter.

Fortunately, I haven’t been closer to Baekhyun, just a few little talks and nothing else.

The wedding was in 5 days, Eunhye made sure to spend it with me. We went on shopping sprees, clubs, and restaurants around the town.

Tonight I felt something different, the whole day I was busy and escaping from Baekhyun’s playful glances. It was now night time, I was getting ready to sleep.

“Ahhh, finally some peace!” I sighed and laid on my bed gently, only to awoken by the door knocking on the door. Annoyed I got up and opened the door furiously.

“WHAT!” I yelled before looking at a scared Jongdae with his hands on his heart.

“Shit sorry, I was about to sleep and— never mind. What do you want?” I leaned on the doorframe.

“Eunhye and I thought that we should all catch up, ya know before the wedding and stuff? Just like the old days!” Jongdae shouted, as an unimpressed Eunhye comes behind him.

“Ahh I don’t know—“

“Come on Joohyun! We’re gonna have some fun just like old times!” Eunhye yelled, and I noticed she said ‘we’re’ there’s definitely something going on

“Oh and we invited Baekhyun!” Jongdae said. Exactly! I knew something was up. I rolled my eyes and went back to grab my jacket and got out of my room, locking it securely and leaving with them.

When we reached the end of the hallway I saw Baekhyun on his phone leaning on the doorframe.

“Yah Baekhyun let’s go!” Jongdae yelled.

***

We walked down to the empty town, reminiscing all the old days we had spent. Jongdae and Eunhye walked a bit in front of me and Baekhyun, leaving the both us next to each other.

“So? Haven’t seen you in a while, where have you been?” He asked looking at me as I kept looking in front.

Avoiding you.

“No where, just finishing my work. I replied.

“Oh, where do you work?” He asked again, I looked at him this time and answered.

“Ah I just work as a teacher.” I replied, and asked him the same question.

“I actually own a fashion company, Privé.” He replied as I pretended to be impressed, as he was about to open his mouth again. Eunhye interrupted.

“Hey Jongdae, Baekhyun go grab some soju! We both will wait here.” Eunhye said as they both nodded and left, me and Eunhye found a spot where you could see the city from.

“You like Baekhyun?” Eunhye spat, I quickly nod a no, she smirks.

“You sure? I’ve seen him look at you like he just wants you, heck even jongdae noticed!” She said as I looked at her in shock.

“Look even if I end up liking him, the relationship won’t even work— because whatever happened in the past, if he gets to know who I am he’ll hate me and I already do!” I explained as I could see Jongdae and Baekhyun walk near us with 4 bottles of soju.

They both handed us the soju bottles as we opened them and drank sips of it. We all sigh and look at the city. As beautiful the silence was, Jongdae had seem to find a way to make some noise.

He started to sing a song, I remember he’d sing it every Monday in his choir practices. I smiled and look at the couple in front of me, suddenly Baekhyun started to sing along with him.

I have to admit he sings beautifully, I glance at Baekhyun as he also looks at me and smiles.

A genuine smile.

I took the time and looked at him carefully, looking at every feature he had, how he was dressed so effortlessly. I smiled back slightly before taking a sip the soju, I started a conversation right after they finished their sing.

“Remember when the whole school shipped you and Jongdae at that point where they literally payed for a skinship moment to happen. Like they’d put bets on you guys!” I remembered as everyone laughed and added on their own stuff until we all got drunk.

I was carrying Eunhye and Jongdae was carrying Baekhyun, we both made some jokes as we walked back up to the hotel.

“You know Baekhyun isn’t a very bad person, he just thinks of his business a lot.” I look at Jongdae, I guess he knows, Eunhye and her big mouth.

“Yeah and that doesn’t mean completely banishing me from ever entering my dream.” I snapped, and heard Jongdae sigh.

“Yea I guess that was wrong, he’s pretty fucked up in that type of stuff.” Jongdae replied, as I heard Eunhye groan

“Jongdae~ my lovee!” Eunhye spoke in her drunk state of mind as Jongdae looked at her and then at me.

I understand what he was trying to say, I switched Eunhye with him and Baekhyun with me. Jongdae looked a bit sorry before going in and I understood but how do I Handle this piece of mess now.

I kept walking inside and lifted Baekhyun every time he’d start to trip. The hallways were empty as mine and Baekhyun’s unstable footsteps.

“You know Joohyun, you swo pewtty!” Baekhyun spike in his drunk voice, as nodded, “Yea I kinda do.”

Suddenly Baekhyun pulled my arm and slams me to the wall, I groan in pain as Baekhyun looks in my eyes with a serious stare.

“Sometimes I want you to be mine, I know you tried to ignore me all these days. But I won’t let that happen. Son Joohyun I think I’m in love with you.” He said as my eyes widen.

Baekhyun stumbled towards me, almost falling over. He hiccuped as he reached for my face to touch my face gently.

I swallowed hard and my breath shook as he inched towards my face. Baekhyun’s deep and empty eyes moved down to my lips, his calloused thumb brushed over my lips lightly.

The scent of alcohol was more evident now as he gingerly moved forward.

My heart hammered away in my chest as I struggled to get some words out of my mouth.

My chest now rising and falling heavily, Baekhyun’s lips nearly brushed mine.

“You’re drunk.” I managed to whisper out.

His hot whisky washed breath fanned against my lips. “So?”

Our bodies now smack against each other, the heat radiating off our bodies as our swear mangled together. One of Baekhyun’s hand now softly brushed down to my waist, my skin hot wherever he touched.

“We shouldn’t do this.” I breathed out, glancing at his lips.

He ignored my words as he pressed his lips against mine and bit my lip.

I couldn’t take it anymore as I feverishly kissed him back.

Kissing me possessively, his hand on my waist now locked and his other hand travelled to the back of my head.

He lifted me up and my legs instantly wrapped around his waist as he pressed me smack against a wall.

His hands on my butt as I looped my arms around his neck. I moaned as slipped his tongue inside my mouth and I tugged on his red hair, releasing a groan of need from him.

Baekhyun moves to the corner of my mouth then down my neck, slowly agonizingly leaving his mark. He kissed and sucked, as I hissed in both pain and pleasure. I gasped as he hit the spot right under my ear and he continued his sweet torture on it.

He returned to my lips, moaning into them as soon as there was contact. I tasted the intoxicating whiskey on his tongue once again.

Finally pulling apart, all sweaty and gasping for air, Baekhyun looked at me in the eye.

His chocolate brown orbs sparkled as he spoke, “You’re so beautiful.”

And with that our lips joined again, except much softer this time.

I could feel the love laced in his kiss.

We pull away and I leave him to his room, as soon as I reached my room I shut to door and leaned against it.

I bit my lips and touched them slightly replaying every movement of Baekhyun’s lips on mine. “I’m going to go crazy.”

Once can’t hurt, plus he’s drunk.

He won’t even remember it.

[biubers]

DJ MUTAMASSIK

Hi guys! This is Boby and here is my Artist research on an Egyptian-American artist, Guilia Loli who is also known as DJ Mutamassik.

Photo by Geoff Albores

She found her DJ name in an Arabic language book - The word Mutamassik “means many things...” She said, but “mostly “stronghold” as in someone who hangs on firmly to their beliefs”... 

Reading through her chapter, I couldn’t believe how many instruments she plays, the breadth of musical interest she has. She started playing piano, sax, violin, in her early childhood. She became big fans of hip-hop until she was twelve then got immersed into loving punk rock. Meanwhile, she was into classical European music (especially baroque music she mentioned) and played cello and drums for some punk rock/experimental bands. And from kindergarten to ninth grade, she was always in various choirs singing the usual repertoire of Latin hymns, English madrigals, pop tunes, etc. In college, she worked in the music resource center and played music to people. She would make loops from tape to tape of parts of the songs that she likes. Meantime, she started digging into cassettes of Egyptian folk music, continued playing music in bands, and went on her friend’s musical radio shows. It was after she moved to New York in 1995 when she started her DJ carrier and gave her self the name DJ Mutamassik. 

She started off strictly sampling from vinyl and cassette for her music to exalt the old crusty Egyptian tapes and remix them with hip-hop beats to draw the musical dots clearly. Her intention was to search for her cultural roots. She mentioned, “growing up in Ohio... I never learned about the vastness and depth of African civilization, only the humiliation, and savagery - (which is)  truly scandalous” Perhaps that's why Egyptian and African elements in her works are so apparent (even though the major music influence throughout her childhood was not Egyptian or African). Later on, she began to sample herself playing different instruments such as cello, percussion, guitar, bass, drums, etc.

Photo from High Alert: Interlude for Grampa [Vinyl]

She is also a sound collector. She collects worldly sounds that are meaningful to her and makes music out of them. Some significant features of her work are the layered mixes and diverse sounds. From her work, I can hear the creative clash of Egyptian folk beat and hip hop.

In an interview she had with META MUSIC, she mentioned the major influencer in her life is Sun Ra, an American jazz and experimental music composer, and The Dead Kennedys, an American punk rock band. As I listen to their works and went back to her work, I can somehow sense elements of punk rock influence in the composition of the drums, electric guitar, and bass and jazz elements in the keyboard lines. 

Initially, I was going to research another artist, but when I flipped through the book once more, I came across her chapter and noticed her. I searched her up on youtube and REALLY liked her works. I think for me what caught my eyes (ears) was the uncertainty of how to categorize her work. Her works are very rhythmic and most of them have a hard syncopated beat where I can jam to. At the same time, there are elements in her work that made it distinct to conventional music. I think her works are experimental, yet musical. And this is what made her work eye-popping for me. Here are some of her works! Hope you will enjoy them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzusAY4kO9Q  - Omani Revolutionary Army - A'aish El Shaab (Ragamuffin Mix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIOs_ARBZ4g - "Shaky Knees" (1999) متمسك

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWCnNTu8POQ - Mutamassik "Dr. Aida" متمسك

[deputy-sarah-sux]

Maps

Originally posted on Archive of Our Own [x]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Far Cry 5 Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: John Seed/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Original Female Character(s), John Seed, Jacob Seed, Joseph Seed, Faith Seed Additional Tags: Weddings, Wedding Fluff, Idiots in Love, that’s it y'all, we’re just living for this wholesome fluff Series: Part 1 of The Voice

Summary:

“Isn’t it bad luck to see a bride before the wedding?” She teased and hooked her fingers through the belt loops on his pants, pulling him flush against her once again. John simply shrugged leaning down to kiss her again.

Smoke wafted out the open window at the ranch, trailing out of glossy red lips as a woman dressed in all white dragged on what was most likely her last cigarette. She smoothed out the crisp white fabric of her dress and turned to the mirror on the other side of the room.

“We really doing this?” She asked her reflection and stood from the chair she’d been man-spreading in, the cigarette hanging loosely from her lips. “Really gonna marry John Seed? Marry into a cult? Gonna have little cult babies one day and prepare for the end of the world?”

She took a final long drag before stubbing out what was left of cigarette in an expensive-looking ashtray on the vanity table. She blew the smoke into the mirror and smiled at her reflection as it appeared before her.

Faith had helped her get ready. Her make-up was flawless, her hair curled and pinned away from her face, a few strands framing her cheeks. Faith had made a hair clip of bliss flowers that pulled the outfit together while she wore her own flower crown.

The dress was custom because of course, she couldn’t wear off the rack, this was <em>John Seed’s</em> wedding after all. She had to admit, she felt like a queen in the lace ball-gown dress with a tulle skirt and train long enough that she had tripped on it nearly 10 times in the last hour.

“I, Irene, take thee, John Seed, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer though if we ever get that far I’m pretty sure you’ll die without your custom Prada shirts.” She giggled at her own joke and took a sip from a glass of champagne, he’d broken out the good stuff, even Joseph had been alright with it.

“In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till prison or death do us part. And if your brother’s crazy prophecy turns out to be true then we’ll live in a fancy bunker and fuck like bunnies until the world stops burning.”

“Will we now?” John’s laughter cut into the warmth of the room and she turned around to see him in the doorway. He’d dressed in his absolute best formalwear: navy blazer, vest, bowtie and pants to match, his white shirt looked like it had just come off the machine. “You’re ready, my love?”

“I’m ready.” She stood and turned to face him, she couldn’t keep the smile off her face.

John stepped into the room and pulled his bride into an embrace. He grabbed both of her arms and held her away from him, looking her up and down.

“You look amazing.” He brushed one of the loose strands of hair away from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

“Isn’t it bad luck to see a bride before the wedding?” She teased and hooked her fingers through the belt loops on his pants, pulling him flush against her once again. John simply shrugged leaning down to kiss her again. He slipped his hands underneath her thighs and lifted her, walking her back to the vanity and dropping her on it.

“I can’t wait to be married to you.”

“Fifteen minutes babe,” She kissed him again and pulled back so she could look him in the eyes. “Fifteen minutes and then under God and in front of your family we’ll be married.”

“Don’t know if I can wait that long.” He complained, kissing her neck and pulling her against his hips.

“Well you’re gonna have to.” She swatted at his shoulder and pushed him away, standing and fixing the strands of hair he’d put out of place. “I’m not gonna sin on my wedding day.”

“You already did this morning.”

“Sure but we were in pajamas then, now I’m in a fancy wedding dress that cost more than I want to know and I don’t want you ruining it.” Irene walked to the open window, her fingers laced through John’s to pull him with her. “Look out there, everyone’s here for us.”

The field outside had been decorated in white lace and bouquets of bliss flowers. Joseph was standing by the alter talking to Jacob, they were both dressed in their nicest suits as well. It had taken John early two months to convince Jacob to wear one and it didn’t help that he’d be adamant they all wear matching ones.

Irene could see Faith darting around talking to people and fretting over details. She seemed more invested in this wedding than Irene. She and John had spent hours pouring over details and getting everything perfect while Irene sat back and watched.

“Last chance to run.” John wrapped his arms around her waist, his chin rested on the top of her head. “Take the bridge to Missoula and never look back.”

“Hmm, no thanks. I’m about to marry into a cult ran by three of the sexiest men I’ve ever met.”

“We prefer the term 'religious sect', and did you just hit on my brothers? To me? Your fiancé? On the day of our wedding?”

“Yup, you gonna do something about it, flyboy?”

“Oh I intend to, it’ll just have to wait until tonight, unfortunately.” With a final kiss, John left the room. Irene returned her attention to the window and watched John stride across the property and towards the alter.

Thin clouds of bliss floated above the floor of the aisle, drifting out of the bliss bouquets next to the seats and giving off the illusion of fog. People were clapping and cheering, someone had dragged an entire grand piano out of the field and was playing a cheerful tune. Irene couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she pulled away from John and laced her hand through his.

“Can’t get out now,” John whispered in her ear, running his thumb over her wedding ring.

“Don’t want to.” Irene retorted and looked around at her new family as they made their way down the aisle back towards the ranch.

The reception was tasteful, again, all John's and Faith’s doing. The music was peaceful, happy; the Hope County Choir had come out in full swing for the day and Irene couldn’t be more proud. She’d spent the last year working with them to record the Eden’s Gate music for Holland Valley, she’d grown quite close to them. John had promised that once they were married and she was officially inducted into the family she would be given charge of the choir.

Of course, John had also brought his own music, he may have given up his old life but there were some things he was still attached to and his music collection was one of those. The choir sang during the photography section of the reception, the orchestra during dinner, and his playlist now blasted on the speakers around the dance floor.

Freya Ridings’s cover of “Maps” started on the speakers and John pulled Irene from her chair and on to the dance floor for their first dance, everyone else quickly vacated the floor.

“Remember this one?” John asked, his voice low enough that only she could hear him over the music. They swayed back and forth to the music, neither had bothered to learn any fancy footwork.

“It played in my car on our way back to your place after our first date.” She reminisced, she often looked back on their first date fondly.

He’d been in Atlanta finalizing some things, Joseph and The Project were in Rome at the time, and he’d somehow convinced her to go to dinner with him. They’d met before when he was a practicing lawyer, she’d been called as a witness for the defense and after the case’s conclusion, they’d swapped numbers. It’d taken him another two years to finally ask her out, finding his long-lost brothers after so many years was a good excuse though.

“You sang along the entire time. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.” Even after nearly two years together, John still looked at her like she was his entire world. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to it.

“Oh?” Irene hid her face in his neck to conceal her blush.

“I knew right then that we’d end up here again. That this was going to be our first song.” Irene peaked up at him and was floored by the complete vulnerability and unconditional love she saw reflected in John’s eyes.

“I love you.” She pulled him down to her height and kissed him.

“I love you too.” He brushed his thumb over the Eden’s Gate tattoo on her right hand.

A fist pounded on John’s bedroom door and Irene shot up in bed. John groaned beside her and rolled onto his back, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“What?” He called, voice groggy.

Seeming to have taken as meaning John was inviting them inside, the door opened and Jacob stepped inside. Irene pulled the sheet up to her chin to better cover her bare chest. Jacob looked between the two with a smirk and flipped on the lights. John practically hissed at the sudden flood of light.

“Get up, Joseph wants you both downstairs. He wants to go over Project business now that Irene is a part of the family.”

John finally sat up, if only to glare at Jacob. “What is there left to go over?”

“Just come downstairs.” Jacob rolled his eyes and kicked a stray piece of clothing out of his way as he left. He was kind enough to close the door on his way.

The room was quiet for a minute, John yawned and threw back his blankets, <em>their</em> blankets. Irene let the sheet fall from her hands and stood, reaching up and stretching until she felt a few of the bones in her spine pop. A sigh drew her attention to John who was still seated on the bed staring at her like she was some piece of art.

Irene laughed a little at his slack jaw and threw one of his many decorative pillows at his head, John caught it with ease and joined in her laughter. He lunged across the bed and yanked her back down, pinning her below him.

“Good morning, <em>Mrs. Seed</em>.” Irene mirrored his excited expression, the man’s joy was infectious.

“Good morning, Mr. Seed.” She pulled him down to her by the back of his neck. Their kiss was slow and sweet, nothing like the heated ones from the night before. She’d have the rest of her life to kiss this man, there was no need to rush it now. When John pulled away to breathe, she gently pushed at his chest so he rolled away.

“If Joseph is expecting us we really should hurry.”

“We just got married, I believe we’re entitled to being a bit slow.” John shot back, his tone dismissive.

“Do you <em>really</em> want Jacob to back in here?” She looked at him sternly, keeping the smile from her lips when he began pouting like a child.

“Fine.” He finally rolled off of her and stood up, now it was Irene’s turn to stare. John looked back at her and winked before walking to his closet to get dressed. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

She couldn't help but snort and marvel a bit at the fact that this idiot was now her husband.

[adelyn-talks-vgm]

OST #1 - Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo Composer: Koji Kondo Released June 23, 1996

playlist

oh, where to begin with this one...

this game is renowned globally as an absolute classic, an innovative title that essentially changed 3D platforming as we knew it to be, but who cares about any of that, how’s the music? most would call it excellent, being one of the most iconic soundtracks of the era, something everyone knows, but might it be overrated? has it aged well since 1996? let’s take another listen and find out!

(note to self: tumblr only allows 5 video embeds at a time, so i can only share 5 songs easily. oops!)

the soundtrack starts off with one of the cooler remixes of the classic SMB1 ground theme, with relatively simple instrumentation but absolutely mental drums, already setting the tone for everything to come and making it very clear that this is something new.

next we have one of the single most iconic pieces of video game music ever written and what is widely considered the main theme of the game, bob-omb battlefield! this song in and of itself is very well-written, a good example of what sound the N64 can produce, and above all, extremely catchy. it didn’t get its critical acclaim from nothing, it’s certainly a jam.

we also have the slide music, the next most iconic piece of video game music. i’m really glad koji kondo invented ska just for this game (i don’t think this is actually ska but i don’t know what else to call it lmao). it’s also a very interesting spin on the main theme, completely restructing the melody and chord progressions while still staying recognizable in a sense, and in general it’s really fun to listen to.

can’t talk about this game without giving credit to the pioneer of chill mario bangers, dire dire docks! i’m so glad video game composers collectively decided that water levels meant ballad-type pieces, because this stuff is sublime. i love the way the 6-bar phrasing makes the piece feel, it’s something i can’t particularly describe. OH one more thing about this is that it’s the first to show off midi channel fading, where individual channels can fade in and out at the game’s command, and in the case of the game, it does so as the player explores different areas, giving a very dynamic aspect to the levels it’s featured in that adds an extra layer of goodness to the song itself.

---

a few more mentions before i wrap this up with the last song: - snow mountain is among the most jolly music i’ve ever heard and i can’t get enough of it. - lethal lava land is a really cool song, with multiple parts interacting with each other in really cool ways - the percussion going a mile a minute at its own pulse with all these other really cool and distinct sounding instruments overlaying it makes for a very interesting sound that fits the stages well. - haunted house isn’t called that for no reason, it sounds genuinely haunting and has a really cool sound to it in general. i think it also has channels that come in at different points of the mansion like dire dire docks did, like that marimba sounding instrument. - cave dungeon is probably one of my favorite takes on the SMB1 underground theme ever made, up there with 3D world’s. no idea why the OST version doesn’t have the choir in the beginning like it does in-game, which is lame because that’s a high point for me, but the song is still excellent. i especially love the part where it’s just the choir and percussion when you’re in the deepest part of the cave where you find the metal portal. great track - powerful mario: it may be a short loop but i LOVE the instrumentation and sound of it, really cool remix of a really cool remix of the starman theme - metallic mario:

also short but MAN does koji know how to make these short power-up songs sound sick as heck koopa’s road: when listening to this just now i literally just discovered the horn hits in the background at 0:18 so that should tell you how good this song is bowser theme: my man koji was really in da booth making bowser sound absolutely dastardly ultimate koopa: my man koji was really in da booth making bowser sound absolutely evil. the sounds and setting of this final boss fight have resonated with me for years, and of all the video game music i’ve heard (a LOT) this actually somehow remains one of my favorite final boss themes of all time.

---

as i said before, i only have so much room to add videos so i gotta skip to the end here. this credits song still hits hard after all these years, standing its ground as one of the most melancholy yet equally cheerful pieces of music in the franchise. it shows off the diversity of the game’s instrumentation wonderfully - not bound by the limits of gameplay sounds, it can use a lot more channel real estate, and it takes plenty advantage of it. also it may sound cheesy but that key change at the end still touches my soul in such a special way after all this time, and that IV - iv - I is just the icing on the cake (shoutouts to you if you know what that even means).

---

so is mario 64′s soundtrack any good? of course! i’d even say it hasn’t aged a day since it was released. sure, music nowadays is far more capable of producing good sounds than games back in 1996, but there’s something so nice about these old sounds that i just cannot let go of. i’ve always been in love with these really old instruments for whatever reason, their sound is just so charming to me, and it’s stuff like that that made me want to begin this project anyway.

back to the matter at hand though. mario 64′s soundtrack is honestly timeless - i’m of the belief that good compositions never age, and this game is hard proof. i actually never realized just how much i actually love this soundtrack until relistening to it in its entirety, and i’m glad i could start this project off on such a tremendous note as this one.

---

thank you so much for reading! if you have any questions or feedback, send me a message and i’ll try to get to it as soon as i can. check back here in a bit for pilotwings 64! see you then!!

---

RESULTS:

Top 3 Tracks: 1. Staff Roll 2. Ultimate Koopa 3. Lethal Lava Land

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10