#and i know the album isn't really a concept/narrative album

[andreasgypsysoul2020]

“I just wish that they could have done a Super Bowl half-time performance with some meaning behind it…”

Okay, Carol…

“The revolution is about to be televised - you picked the right time but the wrong guy.”

Kendrick Lamar just gave us a masterclass in storytelling - so let’s break down this performance like it's a video game, because that's exactly what Kendrick wanted. Remember how Super Mario had different levels that told a story? That's what we just watched, except instead of collecting coins, we're collecting layers of meaning.

Lamar's vision for the show was to portray his life as a video game, which was symbolic of reaching young people through a medium they understand. This theme was his way of illustrating his journey through the American dream, as noted by Shelley Rodgers, the art director for the show. This concept could be seen as a metaphor for navigating the complexities of fame and success in the music industry, akin to levels in a game.

Level 1: The Opening Scene

Samuel L. Jackson shows up as Uncle Sam - and if that's not the most perfect casting since Heath Ledger as the Joker, I don't know what is. This wasn't just for show - it's like when your parents try to tell you what to do with your life. Uncle Sam trying to control Kendrick's narrative is that same energy - it's about control, conformity, and breaking free. .

Level 2: The Car Boss Battle

Kendrick starts the show on top of a 1987 Buick Grand National GNX. If you're not a car person, this is like the Batman of cars - all black, all business, and with a serious story to tell. This isn't just any car - it's connected to his album "GNX" and represents his journey from Compton to the biggest stage in America.

Level 3: The Power-Up Costume

The dancers are doing this whole red, white, and blue thing, making the American flag come to life. But it's not about blind patriotism, it's about questioning what these colors really mean for different communities. The flag can also represent his stance on issues like racial justice, given his history with songs like "Alright" becoming an anthem for movements like Black Lives Matter.

Level 4: The Boss Fight

Now, this is where it gets spicy. Despite Drake trying to sue him, Kendrick performs "Not Like Us." That's like showing up to a fight with receipts in both hands. And then - plot twist - Serena Williams shows up doing the Crip Walk during this song. Remember when Drake was all about Serena? Yeah, that's some chess-not-checkers level of shade.

Level 5: The Special Items

Kendrick's rocking this jacket with "GLORIA" on it - a reference to his collab with SZA. And peep that "a" necklace he's wearing - it's probably referring to that line "Tryna strike a chord and it's probably A minor" from "Not Like Us." If you know, you know - and Drake definitely knows.

Final Boss: The Message

This whole performance wasn't just about the music - it was about identity, power, and who gets to tell whose story. Kendrick took the biggest stage in American sports and turned it into a Broadway show about being Black in America, about success, about rivalry, and about staying true to yourself even when Uncle Sam is trying to write your script.

This wasn't just a halftime show - this was Kendrick Lamar turning the Super Bowl into his own personal TED Talk, his own museum exhibition, his own protest rally, and his own victory lap all at once. Lamar being the first solo rapper to headline the Super Bowl halftime show in 2025 signifies the elevation of rap and hip-hop culture to mainstream acceptance at one of the highest levels of American entertainment. This act itself is symbolic of the progression and recognition of the genre.

Now watch it again…(Rachel Hurley)

[piedoesnotequalpi]

I'm normal about these being on the same album

[brltpop]

.

[blindrapture]

Opeth: The Last Will and Testament

Opeth's new album came out! and I got it in the mail.

I've listened to it twice now and it's getting its hooks in me. it's a fascinating little thing. it's exactly 50 minutes long and is easily the densest piece of music Opeth have ever put out. it reminds me of Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick in terms of sheer density, and also hey by complete coincidence this album guest stars Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson (on flute and spoken-word parts). it also stars the lead singer of fucking Europe for some backing vocals. "The Final Countdown," the guy who sings that, he's on this album.

this album sounds nothing like I expected. well, no, I'm pretty familiar with Opeth's work by now and this album is entirely in keeping with what they like to do. but there's still something surprising, paradoxically, about the fact this album sounds like what I expected the album to sound like if someone took the concept really seriously. because I didn't expect the concept to be taken that seriously! I don't really know Opeth for their concept work! they can tell a story, sure, and they can make comically cryptic lyrics that aren't supposed to be all that cryptic, but.

well, again, it's like Thick as a Brick! it's almost a dry joke, it's a clear concept and it takes it very seriously and just commits to it!

look at this. the lyric booklet folds out into this beautiful thing.

look at that! that's a full-on last will and testament (of a fictional character), and that's the lyrics to this album.

this album tells a story, but it tells it entirely in epistolary form, through found objects. this will and testament is the majority of the album, and a private letter is the final song.

it's a cool idea. it removes a lot of the drama, since the actual narrative here is of a bunch of adults standing in a stuffy room hearing this will and testament being read aloud. but it still uses that to provide drama! this man's life was strained! and his three children are going to find out some things!

I'm.. I'm gonna talk about the plot. technically spoilers, but c'mon, come and listen to this.

this is cuck metal. this isn't a rock opera, this is a cuck opera. this is a fucking story about a great cuck of a man. the kids aren't really his kids. and he waits until he fucking dies to tell them that. he was a cuck!

that's a funny way of putting it, yes. but not inaccurate. this was a very rich english man, a very conservative man with strong beliefs in heritage and legacy, and he struggles with that as he agrees to raise these two sons that his wife had without him. and he instead latches onto his daughter, who he had with his handmaid-- he cheated on his wife for this, because he needed to have an heir. and this daughter comes into life "disfigured" but healthy. she has some sort of chronic illness or disorder, I don't think it's specified, but she will live a full life, and this father accepts that and loves her. and it is to her that he leaves his estate, his funds, everything. the sons get worthless but sentimental trinkets. the daughter gets everything.

so the actual last will and testament gradually reveals all that. in it, the father alludes to the love affairs, the secrets he and his wife kept, his feelings about bloodlines, his jealousies, his frustrations, and he leaves everything to his daughter.

but then the final song takes place later. the daughter is now living in the estate, her estate. and she receives a letter from that handmaid, her mother. and the letter tells her some things too. her "father" was infertile. he fucked the handmaid, but nothing came of it. she, instead, came from a poor father, the handmaid's actual lover. but the handmaid told the rich patriarch that this child was his, so that he would agree to care for her and keep her alive. so in the end, all that obsession with bloodlines was tragic. the patriarch was infertile!!!! he left everything to Just Some Fucking Kid! and never knew!

and that's!!! how the fucking story ends!

I love this so much. I love the way this plot is told. I think it's so fascinating a choice.

but then! what about the music? y'know, the proof of the music is in the listening, so what is it like to listen to?

well!!!

it's.. fucking dense!!! it is so dense!!! a thick soundscape of emotion, kept under a stiff upper lip as we just have so much more to get to. it's appropriate to the concept.

there's flute on here, there's mellotron, there's a live string section, there's hand-claps and some of the sweetest basslines I've heard in a long time. there's wild drums that go nuts at the slightest provocation. there's frequent chugging guitars that keep the action moving forward. and there's vocals. there's fucking vocals. the vocals are a constant back-and-forth between folksy evil and soulful crooning, and beyond that they're a constant back-and-forth between clean and GROWLS Opeth has GROWLS again!!! Opeth hasn't had growls since fucking 2008!!!! and if you've never heard Opeth's growling vocals before, ohhh my goddd they're so good, they're so pronounced and controlled and fierce.

but the word of this album is "dense." you gotta keep that word in mind. it is proggy to a perfect pulp, it throws everything at you, your first listen won't even be a rollercoaster, it'll be an onslaught of ideas and sensations. this is an album that requires multiple listens. I need to give it plenty more. it comes and goes very fast, you have no idea where the music is going to go, and every moment is filled with details in a rich mix. it could be downright overwhelming. absolutely.

but for me??? for me???? for me this is christmas. this is exactly the kind of album I've been craving. this album is a challenge, something to sink my teeth into, something to track and interpret every way 'til sunday. and it's an immediately rewarding challenge, because it's not noise music or anything like that, it's prog rock!!! it's smooth classy rock music! all the elements are recognizable, everything is familiar! when I revisit a song and dig into a passage, I'm rewarded with "oh I just noticed the guitar does this really cool riff here!" the whole album is that!

it's fucking FUN!!!

this album is FUN!!!

this is music to HAVE FUN LISTENING TO!

I will leave you with the album's single. because I gotta demonstrate what I'm talking about. if you read all this, I want you to hear the music!

here is Paragraph 1, here is how the album begins.

so I've gotta listen to this album more.

thank you, Opeth!!!

[wumblr]

there's this thing going on with the taylor swift criticism where everybody seems to assume the album's worst sin is that it's bad, and maybe we've all been blinded by a solid decade of calculated mediocrity in major label music, but i would just like to point out you're all kind of outing yourselves as fake music fans with that. bad albums can be good. the best producers are almost never the best lyricists, the best lyricists only know twelve guitar chords and you put up with them being solo acoustic because they're that good, both types have tried something that didn't work, and if i'm being honest it's a miracle anybody gets an album finished and released given the state of the industry

the reason this album is so noticeably uninspiring and difficult to relate to (things that bad albums can't be in order to be good) is because we all know her dad bought shares in the record label that distributed her debut. that's why she's in the industry, she bought her way in. there cannot be a coherent underdog narrative, the work she puts in couldn't matter less because the album's going to chart quality regardless, there's nothing to be proud of her for having done, we're not seeing any risks being taken and we're simply not learning anything about her. did jack antonoff or aaron dessner produce this one, who was the stylist, does it matter? that kind of ambiguity would never occur in a cult following

you can call the lyrics insipid all you like but that really isn't the point, some of my favorite albums are deeply insipid but the production or the concept was interesting or it displayed a surprising amount of growth or it broke ground on a new genre. it has none of these elements, risks that other people take because it can make or break a career, because it doesn't need them in order to sell. she doesn't have to try anything new in the studio because distribution was assured when she bought the job

[uncloseted]

omg please talk about taylor swift!! (i am scared)

Anonymous asked:

„Taylor Swift's public image and why Midnights was a bad idea“ interesting! can you elaborate? i‘d like to know more of your thoughts on this :)

I love that of all of the things I listed, this is what people wanted to hear more about. I feel like I should start by saying that I'm not a Swiftie and so this really isn't a commentary on her music or anything, so please don't come for me 😅 I feel like I should also say that I know there's some Taylor Swift cultural critic out there who's talked about this in way more depth and detail than I ever could, but I've always been fascinated by the way that Taylor Swift has navigated the concept of relatability when it comes to her public image.

Initially when she came onto the scene during the Taylor Swift and Fearless eras, I think what people liked about her was that she was relatable. Her vibe during that time was very "I'm an unpopular girl at high school who just wants to be popular/who wants boys to like me/who's being bullied by the popular girls," and I think a lot of people who were in that same situation really resonated with those narratives. "You Belong With Me", where she complains about her crush liking the "cheer captain" while she's "on the bleachers" and "The Best Day", which was inspired by being bullied in middle school, are both examples of that kind of writing for me. In that era, Taylor was really representing herself as the underdog, and at the time, it felt very relatable, authentic, and true.

But after Fearless, that narrative of a relatable underdog kind of started to run into a problem, right? When your album spends 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 charts, it's kind of hard to convince people that you're an underdog who nobody likes, and so you run the risk of alienating your audience. She even got called out for doing this - in 2009, a Rolling Stone article said that her “emotional state seems to be stuck when she left school [at 16]”. The Kanye West VMAs thing kind of ameliorated this problem for a while, because it gave her a lot of public sympathy and really cemented this narrative that she's an underdog even when she's on top. When he took away her microphone at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, she could transition her public image from being an unpopular girl in school to being the victim.  Everyone can relate to a victim, since we’ve all felt victimized at one point or another in our own lives.  This event was arguably what made her a bona fide celebrity, and also what made her marketable to a wider audience.  Now she didn’t have to have “high school girl” as part of her image; she could be relatable to both her high schooler fans and older fans in their 20s and 30s. 

I think that narrative continued into the Speak Now era, which deals a lot with the difficulties of suddenly becoming a public figure and the victimization that comes with that. It's an album that's very confessional and written in kind of a diary entry way, and so it allowed listeners to project their own life stories and experiences on top of hers, and it stayed relatively relatable because of it. Sure, "Dear John" is about John Mayer and "Mean" is about a music critic and "Innocent" is about the Kanye West VMAs thing, but they could just as easily be about your terrible ex-boyfriend from high school or a girl who bullied you in high school or whatever. At the same time, I think this is the first album of hers that really invited speculation about the "truth" of these songs - who they're about and what moments inspired them. It kind of threads this needle between being relatable, casting her as an underdog, and being aware of her role as a celebrity all at the same time.

By the time Red came out, though, I think she knew that if she kept pushing this victim image, it would start to feel inauthentic because she was such a big celebrity. I think she was seeing what happened to people like Anne Hathaway, where the public turned on them for seeming inauthentic or like they were trying too hard, and she wanted to prevent that from happening. She knew it was clear that she wasn't unpopular or a high schooler or really even a victim anymore, but at the same time, she kind of had to appeal to her fans that were still unpopular high schoolers or victims of something.

So around the time Red debuted, she made this really interesting pivot to her "girl squad" era. Part of that was, I think, this desire to stop being seen as boy crazy - as she said about that time, "if I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that right?” And I think part of it was that after Speak Now, she was perceived as "not a girl's girl", so she was trying to fix that narrative. She wasn't the vengeful, boy crazy, control-freak kid she used to be portrayed as, she in on the joke. She could mock her public perception in songs like “Blank Space” and “Shake it Off”, and, in that way, mask whatever truth there was to those allegations. And at the same time, she turned those allegations into an issue of feminism- that she should be allowed to live her life as a typical young woman would, without the public speculating on her love life- even though she invited the public in to begin with. In order for her music to be successful, one kind of has to think about her private life. Because of the confessional nature of her songwriting, she could never not be a public figure. She had to be a public figure who was “about” something else - in this case, she became "about" female friendship.

But I think the biggest part of it is that having a "girl squad" allowed her to change the underdog narrative she had written for herself. Instead of being a "serial dater" she became a "serial befriender". She now had a clique of beautiful female friends in a way that felt kind of similar to the popular girls at your high school, and she was the prettiest and the most popular and the one in charge. But instead of being a mean, exclusive clique, her "squad" really pushed this parasocial idea that if you met them in real life, you'd be welcomed into the squad, too. This move allowed her to acknowledge her position of popularity while also being relatable (since most people know what it's like to have close friends), and aspirational ("I'm an unpopular girl in high school, but so was Taylor Swift and look at her now" combined with "if I just met Taylor, we would totally be friends"). The "squad" humanized her and made her seem like just another girl you might know. Sure, all of her friends are famous, but they have sleepovers and bake cookies just like us!

Around this time, she also starts leaning hard into other ways of fostering parasocial relationships between herself and her fans. She was super active on social media around this time, which was still kind of novel for celebrities to do. And in 2014, she did the first "secret session", inviting 89 fans to her actual, literal home to listen to 1989 before it was released. Again, to me this feels like the dynamic of archetypal popular girl at school inviting you over to her house and then finding out she's actually super nice. Like she said at her East Rutherford, New Jersey concert in July of 2015, it’s easy to be Taylor’s friend- the only two criteria are that “you have to like me, and you have to want to spend time with me”. So there's this promise of, if you're just a super dedicated fan, if you're into Taylor's music enough, you could be invited into her secret circle. You could be treated like one of her friends. She'll hug you when you tell her about your mother's battle with cancer or reach out to you when you post on Tumblr about your struggles with infertility- she's just that kind of girl. She'll show up unannounced at your house to give you presents because she cares about you that much. One of the people that attended the first set of secret sessions, Stephanie, said that, “people often ask how we didn’t faint, but the truth is she acted and treated everyone as she would a friend," and I think that's exactly what it is. She's treating everyone like the popular friend you wished you had in high school who brings you into her cool, fun world.

At this point, I want to take a second to say that I think a lot of this was genuine. For her part, Taylor has said that her lack of female friendships in high school is why her female friendships are so important to her as an adult. I think she really, genuinely did want to interact with her fans and do something special for them. I'm not trying to knock her or say that I think she was being manipulative or anything. I'm just saying that, intentional or not, all of this was a brilliant move for her public image because it allowed her to be more transparent about the unrelatable aspects of her life while still pushing this idea that she is, fundamentally, a girl just like you. It's relatable and asporational all at once - a difficult tightrope to walk, and one that Taylor has done incredibly well.

This is getting kind of long (I really wasn't kidding when I said I could yap about this forever) so I'll try to speed it up, but basically, this whole thing eventually crashed and burned on her. Lena Dunham started talking about how uncomfortable "the squad" made her, the New York Post accused the Squad of being a cult, Gawker published a piece called “Taylor Swift is Not Your Friend”, and Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear accused Taylor of having stringent rules for her “Squad”, including not speaking to her unless they were spoken to, a strict dress code that they had to follow, and being willing to defend Taylor in the public eye. During this time, Taylor made a few public attempts at playing the victim card, such as when she said that “there's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women," in response to a joke at the 2013 Golden Globes, and people weren't really having it. It seemed like she was over-reacting to something small, and I think people found it annoying.

Finally in early 2016 the Kanye West "Famous" thing added fuel to the fire and blew her whole thing up. There's simultaneously a lot to say about this and nothing to say about this. Taylor again tried to adopt the narrative of victimhood to save her public image, which seemed like it would have been a slam dunk for her because he was the person who victimized her in the first place way back at the VMAs, but it just didn't really take. Taylor tried to turn it into a girl-power moment at the Grammys, by encouraging young women to believe in themselves even as people "try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame." Later that year, in June, Kim Kardashian alleged that she had recordings to prove that Taylor signed off on the line, and in July, an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians verifies that Taylor did, in fact, sign off on the lyric. Again, she tries to make it a girl-power moment by saying, “You don't get to control someone's emotional response to being called 'that bitch' in front of the entire world.” When that didn’t work, she once again reverted to the “victim” role- “Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination. I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009." She would very much like to be excluded from this narrative… but it’s one she had written for herself.

That said, I think that the backlash she recieved would have happened with or without Kanye's lyrics. In the words of Jameela Jamil (broken clocks, etc.), "she's a woman in an industry whose favorite thing is to build up women to an expectation they can’t meet, hyperbolize how great she is so that other people get annoyed with her and deem her “overrated”, hyper-expose her so people become sick of seeing her face and hearing about her drama, and then take her down." I don't think it was really about how she handled the Kanye West thing so much as I think people just felt like she was overexposed and annoying and needed to be cut down to size. That said, I do think that some of what people were reacting to in that moment was the breakdown of her relatable persona. They started to realize that nobody can get to that level of fame and success as a young woman, especially as (relatively) unscathed as she has been, by being nice to everyone all the time.  Sometimes people have to abandon being genuine and being relatable in favor of playing the game, and I think it was starting to become obvious to people that there were times when she was making the decision to do that.

When it was revealed that she did sign off on "Famous", it became clear for a lot of people that Taylor Swift was not just a talented, friendly, girl next door who got lucky. She wasn’t unusually relatable or genuine. She’s someone that was very much in control of her image and her career, who was competitive, and who wanted to ensure her longevity in the music industry. And that meant not always being nice or truthful. The cracks in her image were starting to show, and that's the worst place to be for a female performer of any kind. Taylor has always known what she’s doing- she’s always been a shrewd businesswoman who intimately understands how the public sees her and adjusts her behavior accordingly. But now the secret was out for good- Taylor Swift is “calculating”. So she had to find a way to brand herself that didn’t include being a girl next door, or being genuine, relatable, honest, or nice, and she had to do it on the back of being very publicly cancelled by millions of people. Her only move was to attempt to own it, and so that's what she did.

Reputation came out about a year after the Taylor/Kanye debacle. It was Taylor’s attempt to reclaim the narrative she once wanted to be excluded from by making an album that paints her as the villain. She knew at that point that her private life couldn’t be separated from her public persona, and so she played with it. The persona that got developed for Reputation, both on the album and in her public life, attempted to be cool, jaded, and detached. "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now…she’s dead,” she says, solidifying how we were meant to understand this new phase. If the media was going to paint her as “bad”, she was going to be the most perfect bad girl she can be. She reclaimed the assertion that she’s fake, that she’s a snake, that she’s petty. Ultimately, it wasn't a super successful persona, because it just didn't feel genuine. While she may be calculating or a perfectionist, she’s never been a manipulative seductress or a crazy, revenge obsessed ex-girlfriend.

After that, a bunch of other stuff happened that didn't really seem to make much of an impact on her image either way. The Scooter Braun debacle happened, she was in Cats, and she released Lover, which felt more genuine and honest than Reputation. It kind of acknowledged that Taylor is at heart a romantic, someone who is fundamentally a light, bright person and who loves love. On Lover, it seems like she’s no longer answering to the media or the public (at least, not as much), and she let go of the defensive, guarded persona she put on for Reputation. Alongside the album, she released diary entries from her life, again acknowledging that her private life is intimately tied to her music. As Chuck Klosterman wrote in a 2015 interview, “Swift writes about her life so directly that the listener is forced to think about her persona in order to fully appreciate what she’s doing creatively. This is her greatest power: an ability to combine her art and her life so profoundly that both spheres become more interesting to everyone.”

And that's what I think was so brilliant about Folklore and Evermore, and brings me to the mistake I think she made with Midnights. So much of Taylor's career has been about her as a person - not just the music she puts out, but what she's wearing, how she's doing her hair, who she's dating, who she's friends with, the story she's telling us about the kind of person that she is. And as she saw with Reputation, that's not a sustainable approach to a career. The public can, and inevitably, will, get tired of celebrities and tear those celebrities down because they can. Folklore and Evermore freed her music from the shackles of her public and private lives and let the music stand on its own. She had finally, fully, literally, “removed herself from this narrative.” And in doing so, she could have solidified the future of her career. By writing about characters and imbuing them with the emotions of her personal experience instead of the literal events, she could have continued with the raw, emotion-driven lyrics that she’s known for while controlling how much of herself to give up in the process. As she gets older and her life calms down, as she no longer experiences breakups and messy feuds, as she maybe settles down and has more of a private life and wants kids, she could have still had something to write about by going down the path of writing about fictional characters instead. She could have abandoned having to curate her public image as closely as she's had to since she was 16.

But instead she released Midnights, which goes back to those super-confessional, autobiographical lyrics. It puts her back into the narrative and invites people to once again speculate on her personal life, which means that she needs to continue to curate how people view her and her work. That's not necessarily a bad thing from a business perspective - she's made more money from the Eras tour than ever before - but I don't know if it's great for her public image and I don't know if it's great for her. Obviously she can do whatever she wants forever, because she's Taylor Swift and she's obscenely wealthy. To me it feels like that level of public scrutiny that she invites about her life through her lyrics is both unsustainable in the long run. But it's also all she's really ever known, and I don't know if at this point she can let it go.

I don't really have a satisfying way to end this. I don't really have a lot of thoughts about The Tortured Poets Department or what it represents, and I don't really have a lot of opinions on her relationship with Travis Kelce other than it feels like she's really gone full circle on the whole "unpopular high schooler to popular girl dating the football player" trope. Mostly I'm just curious to see how this all continues to evolve.

[authenticparanoidghosts]

hey, found your blog by accident. i see that you have many opinions on chess. what are your thoughts on freddie's arc in the obc? ngl, i kind of love that he never improves. he's a hysteric diva to the end. i think that's so fun but it's also so interesting how he gets a weird sort of redemption arc in every single revival i've read the summary of lol. florence vassy you just haven't got the instincts of a winner!!!!!!!!!!

okay first of all we need to understand two things. 1) I received a CD of the original concept album for christmas, which I promptly loaded into my car's CD player, and 2) it took me a really long time to guess what OBC might stand for. I'm still not totally convinced it isn't Original British Concert, but enough about Chess in Concert! enough, I say! I don't care what Tim Rice said in 2009, Chess in Concert is the coward's way out!

Original Broadway Cast Freddie is a great Freddie because he sucks so bad. it is so important that Freddie sucks. it is, I would argue, fundamental to his character that he sucks like crazy and is generally unpleasant to be around. Broadway Freddie is so weird and dramatic and pathetic. he throws a big fit about the yogurt, he ditches Mountain Duet to do One Night in Bangkok, he's Walter's babygirl who is so so easy to manipulate. they don't let him in on the big plot to get Anatoly back to Russia, they don't even let him win at chess on his own merits!! Anatoly has to outright throw the match for Freddie to finally become world champion, which I find a very funny choice for the American version of the musical.

within the swirling multiverse of Whatever Chess Is Supposed To Be, I like Freddie a lot. I like when he acts weird and bad, because the point of him is to be a flawed human being whose faults reflect on himself rather than the material success of his country/capitalist ideology. Freddie gets to be annoying and misogynistic and hurtful and childish all out in the open because he is Anatoly's mirror, because Anatoly is not a paragon of Russian ideology/communist superiority, he is also just some guy who sucks and is hurtful and misogynistic and childish. Anatoly fighting for his right to be judged as an individual invites this comparison by default - as rivals, they are the only truly "equal" characters in the story - so when Anatoly becomes a man who is not the Representative of Everything Russian, it makes the viewer aware that Freddie is not just a boiled down extraction of what it means to be American. and therefore, when Freddie does something lame and bad, we know this is because he is lame and bad as an individual, and that Anatoly is also lame and bad on his own merits.

I don't think Freddie needs a redemption ("redemption" or maybe, like, "minor improvement") arc to be an interesting character, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything from the Broadway version of him where he doesn't really grow or change as a person. the MOST important thing about Freddie is his positioning relative to Anatoly (men will hurt every woman who comes into their life because their real [NARRATIVE PARALLEL] is another man), so as long as that's interesting, I'm having a great time. in the original Broadway production Freddie is unaltered by the events of the plot, and therefore Anatoly is pulled, magnetically, back to his starting position. the board resets, same as it ever was, with Anatoly back in Russia, Freddie chasing fame as the American champion, and Florence alone, with nobody on her side.

[joons]

As someone who knows very little about the Beach Boys but is curious, I would love to know all the tea on Mike Love.

"Mike Love isn’t just not rock … he’s actually in the red, like the anti-rock. He’s in rock debt and should spend his next life wearing golf pants and selling hairpieces." — Tony Hicks, Riff Magazine

A real article.

Let me take you on a journey.

Every Beach Boys fan starts to hate Mike Love as a joke, and then it gradually becomes real. (Mike Love defenders, I am truly sorry; you are the devil's strongest soldiers.) The traditional narrative is that when Brian Wilson (the eldest Wilson brother and de facto leader) stopped touring and began spending all his time writing music for the band, Mike Love (Brian's cousin, lead singer, lyricist) became worried that Brian would go off on his own and leave them behind. Mike had good reasons to worry; when the band came back from an extensive tour in Japan, Brian excitedly showed them what he had been working on: Pet Sounds. Widely considered their best album, and one of the best albums of all time, Pet Sounds is chamber pop music, with a wall of orchestral instruments and complex vocal harmonies, interspersed with really off-the-wall sounds, like bicycle horns and theremins, all in service of a "concept album" (the first ever such thing) about a young man entering adulthood and struggling to manage a relationship. Oh, and Brian had already recorded all of this with the Wrecking Crew (professional session musicians, who adored him), written all the lyrics with a new guy, Tony Asher, and then ushered the Beach Boys in to record the final vocals.

Mike Love was probably justifiably a bit peeved that Brian had just like ... done the thing without him and without the band, but that was Brian's job; that was the deal they had worked out when Brian decided he couldn't handle the pressure of touring anymore. Brian was already considered a savant composer at the time and the key to the Beach Boys' success; the Beatles adored his work, and he was in a constant battle to do something as spectacular as the Beatles were doing with albums like Rubber Soul. But when the band came back and got to hear the full thing (Mike was consulted on some of the lyrics beforehand), Mike was like, "This isn't us, this won't sell." (Other members had similar concerns, especially about having to recreate these elaborate orchestrations with a few guitars and drumkits on tour, but they trusted Brian.) The stressors between Mike and Brian continued when Brian started doing an even more ambitious album, Smile, using a really avant-garde lyricist who dealt in poetic imagery rather than concrete stories. Mike once again spent all the recording sessions whining about it and resisting any push toward psychedelic imagery. Legend has it he said something like, "Don't fuck with the formula" (of cars and girls and surfing), and basically shat all over what would have been the most innovative pop album of all time (purely from a production standpoint, it was a beast, needing to be constructed in tiny segments and then edited back together using analog recording equipment). It would have been, as Brian described it, "a teenage symphony to God."

Brian, being mentally fragile, did not do well with conflict like this, (he had already, with great struggle, gotten his father, Murry Wilson, fired as their manager, after Murry's abusive, controlling behavior made it impossible for them to record) and the disappointing reactions from the band and from the public toward Pet Sounds and Smile essentially killed his confidence, meaning that he soon retreated from being the band's leader and took less and less of an interest in writing. (He was more involved than popular imagination might think, but it was certainly a turning point in his creative output.) The pressure quickly became too much, and Brian, who was struggling severely with his mental health, shelved the entire Smile project. It was not released in any complete form until 2004, when Brian had the support around him (hint: not the Beach Boys) to let him put it into an acceptable shape and release a legendary lost piece of media. And it was incredible.

Now, at this point, most fans are like, "Aw, that Mike! Always sticking to the formula!" while acknowledging that he was right about how big of a risk these albums were. Points were made, and Pet Sounds didn't actually sell as well as their other stuff! Smile was very weird! Pet Sounds was so influential among rock musicians at the time (the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was a direct response to it), but it wasn't a commercial smash. And music does need to be somewhat concerned about the business side. So maybe some fans are like, "Well. We give Mike too much grief for this, Brian had to be responsible for his own confidence, this stuff happens, whatever."

But there's never really a moment where Mike Love is vindicated. He is never satisfied to be "right" about one thing; he must be right in all things. As you keep learning about him, you're like, "Mike is just an asshole."

Very famous picture of Mike and Brian. You can see the whole relationship here.

The main reason the clashes in '66-'67 are still a sore spot is because they're a microcosm of the decadeslong war for the soul of the band. In the 1990s, Mike wrested control of the Beach Boys name from the other surviving band members after the death of Carl Wilson, Brian's brother (a saint, a diplomatic soul who kept the band together when they would otherwise be at each others' throats). This gets into complicated legal weeds, but basically Mike won the rights to tour as "the Beach Boys" even though he only toured with one other member. All of the members share in the profits but are not allowed to do their own tours with the name. Brian had no interest in touring with him at the time, and neither did Al Jardine, another surviving member, but Mike went after Al for touring as "Beach Boys Family & Friends" and successfully sued to prevent any of the other boys from doing anything similar. At the same time, he excluded them from working with him on the official tour. He has kept the band in stasis, rarely playing songs beyond the 1962-1966 eras, and keeping the band's image as a good-time surfing group, when they are so much more, and it grates that they are not more known for how musically significant and groundbreaking they were (I count the entire band's contributions in this, not just Brian, as many of them are great songwriters in their own right and did wonderful production work in the late '60s and early '70s). Mike stands athwart that deserved legacy because he finds it difficult to share the spotlight, and his contributions in the later years were simply not good. Mike isn't solely responsible for the Beach Boys being classified as a nostalgia act; that impression began when Capitol Records, their first label, put out a greatest hits album that sold far more than anything new the band was making in the early '70s. But Mike leaned into that, and instead of capitalizing on renewed interest by showing how the band had grown, Mike wanted to show that the band was exactly how you remembered them.

He is also known for being bizarrely abrasive at times, to the detriment of the band's reputation. When they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, Mike interrupted Brian's sweet statement and wound up going on a ramble lambasting other Hall of Fame members for suing each other (THIS IS DRAMATIC IRONY) or for not "showing up" for that year's event because they've "always been chickenshit to get onstage with the Beach Boys." I have never been able to get through this video in one sitting, I have to stop because the secondhand embarrassment is too much.

ELTON JOHN: Thank FUCK he didn't mention me!

He later blamed his tirade on not meditating that day.

In the 1990s, Mike began to sue the other members for damn near everything. While Mike was somewhat justified in regaining songwriting credits from the Beach Boys' early work (Murry Wilson had something to do with wanting to keep the credits for the Wilson brothers), he went on to claim that Brian including a picture of the Beach Boys in the album sheets for his version of Smile "damaged" the image of the band. Jesus wept. He also sued Brian for how he was portrayed in a (to be fair, mostly ghostwritten and bad) memoir without having read it.

The surviving members of the Beach Boys reunited in 2012 for the band's 50th anniversary. They put out a new album (it was great!) and toured together for the first time since the 1990s. David Marks, an early member who left during the first year, was invited back to play with them. It was healing to see them together and genuinely enjoying performing. Audiences were thrilled. Brian Wilson and Al Jardine both expressed how excited they were to keep it going, not just as a one-time anniversary tour but something they could conceivably do year after year, healing the split between Mike's band (with Beach Boy Bruce Johnston) and the tours that Brian and Al did together. But before any of that could be worked out, Mike just ghosted them, along with David. He announced that the tour was going to go on without them without doing a joint release. Brian and Al wrote a freaking letter to the editor stating they hadn't been told. So it's definitely another "Mike is why we can't have nice things" moment. He has described his exclusive ability to tour as "my nourishment and my revenge," framing it as a way of recovering lost royalties after being cheated out of songwriting credits for a long time, even though he was already awarded monetary compensation for that. In actual fact, he just cannot handle being upstaged.

Some other things that Mike gets flak for: getting obsessed with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation movement, writing songs exclusively about the concept and trying to turn the Beach Boys into an official Maharishi touring group; overclaiming writing credits for his small contributions to certain songs; playing for Trump's campaign events; playing for a trophy hunter guild (these last two in spite of public disavowals from Brian and Al). There are probably other, more private things that I don't think are necessary to get into. None of the band members have completely clean hands in how they've treated one another. What sets Mike apart is that he makes it public and cannot move on.

Everyone has a different breaking point with him, I think. For me, it's his continued digs at Brian, particularly relating to Brian's mental illnesses. Even extending some grace to him for dealing with difficult working conditions as some of the band members spiraled, I cannot excuse how disgusting his language is and how much he clearly wants to erase the empathy and love people have for Brian, with whatever tool he has at hand.

For context, Brian Wilson was locked into an unspeakably abusive conservatorship with his psychologist, Eugene Landy, for a decade, up until 1991. The abuse involved improper prescription treatment that continues to affect Brian to this day. (He is lucky it did not kill him.) I don't even like to think about it much because it's so dark, but Landy controlled what Brian could eat, what he sang, and who he could talk to. He sold off Brian's publishing rights and represented him in public and corporate matters. Thanks to a longtime fan and music journalist, David Leaf; Brian's future wife; and intervention by the family (who had been cut off from communicating with Brian), he was given control of his own life again and eventually properly diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. He has gotten to lead his own life again, making music that helps him deal with auditory hallucinations and depression, and working with who he wants to.

With that background, it's absolutely fucked for Mike to say this:

"He’s not in charge of his life, like I am in mine. His every move is orchestrated and a lot of things he’s purported to say, there’s not tape of it. But, I don’t like to put undue pressure on him, either, because I know he has a lot of issues. Out of compassion, I don’t respond to everything that is purportedly said by him. I’ve noticed where he says he really regards me as his greatest writing partner and that he loves my voice. Even on the 50th (anniversary tour), he made it quite clear he really liked watching me do my thing while he was at the piano. So, there’s a lot of positivity there.” (X)

So many layers there. He's so comically up his own ass, but the things he says about Brian upset me so much. He's so vile for no reason. Even if this were a criticism of Brian's PR or legal team, he could say so, instead of using Brian's past abuse to brush aside his opinions. He always does this thing where the Wilsons' addictions and illnesses are the result of bad choices, while he's never done anything wrong and was victimized by them. It's so infuriating, but it's also hard to get too upset with him because he's genuinely blind.

The thing about Mike is that he's so ... bad that he's fun to hate. Is he truly the worst person in the world? No. But is he actually the worst person in the world? Yes. His terribleness makes me laugh. That might have more to do with the cerebral way Beach Boys fans cut Mike Love clips, but goddamn, it gets me. (Beach Boys fans have had to deal with an awful lot of kitsch against their will, and I think this is their way of coping.)

LISTEN TO THIS MANIAC, I AM WHEEZING AT WORK.

(It's so crazy, he even added in that psychedelic riff at the end of the video! That's not in the song! It's just to emphasize how weird he thinks "Good Vibrations" is and how much he has to "apologize" for it. What is happening. Even when he is "joking," there's such a dark energy about it.)

In conclusion:

A real article. "His memoir leaves him neither vindicated nor convincingly tolerable as a human being."

[josephlikesmusic]

Bando Stone and The New World - Childish Gambino (2024)

Besides the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure brainrot surfacing, causing me to accidently call this album "Dio Brando and The New World" multiple times, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this album. I don't tend to love original movie soundtracks on their own, especially when it's all done by a single artist, but I found the bits of dialogue scattered throughout the track list helped push the narrative along. I also enjoyed the variety of genres that Gambino explores on this album, although I think that I'll enjoy this feature even more when I go see the movie. Speaking of the movie, while I did enjoy listening to this album alone, it is hard to really judge a soundtrack when you haven't watched the film that goes along with it. Like I mentioned earlier, this album does work as a standalone project, but having the knowledge that this is a soundtrack for an unreleased feel makes the listen feel somewhat incomplete. I may or may not re-review this album once the movie comes out just to see if my feelings change, but between knowing that this is supposed to be Gambino's final album and that this isn't the completed project, I definitely wasn't completely satisfied with the album.

Despite my grievances, this album had many songs that I will definitely return to on their own. Lead single Lithonia surprised me on my first listen, with a slow, chill, pop-rock vibe and such a straight to the point message: nobody gives a fuck. But I think that the most shocking element of the single was it's music video and it's sudden twist that I won't spoil here. And of course we can't forget about Fartbuckle. Such a wide variety of emotions for a song that is so blunt and straightforward.

Other songs that surprised me instrumentally were No Excuses and Happy Survival. No Excuses brings on composer Ludwig Göransson, who is easily the highlight of the track. From the percussion throughout the beginning of the song, to the unexpectedly amazing saxophone solo, Göransson took a great track and made it an incredible one. As a drummer, and someone who spent his high school years in the band room fascinated with each and every percussion instrument, I appreciate how Göransson incorporated so many instruments that we almost never see in music as mainstream as Gamino's. As I mentioned earlier, Happy Survival was another instrumental that I would never expect from an artist like Gambino, yet I found myself jamming out to the bossa nova groove, with it's incredible vocal riff from Khruangbin. While I didn't find Happy Survival to be as groundbreaking as No Excuses, it's a nice, simple groove to chill out and dance to.

I've already mentioned Ludwig Göransson's work on No Excuses and Khruangbin's vocals on Happy Survival, but Bando Stone is filled with great features throughout it's runtime. I adore Jorja Smith's vocals on In the Night, especially in the post-chorus where she really shines. Smith is the highlight of this track and I wish she had more solo vocals. I also love Flo Milli's verse on Talk My Shit, a more straight forward rap song compared to the other tracks on this album, but still a super enjoyable song that features many modern references, yet doesn't feel dated.

Bando Stone and The New World surprised me with it's variety of genres, great percussion, and amazing storytelling, but I think that this album is going to need the film alongside it in order to really be a fulfilling final album for Childish Gambino. As I've mentioned before, the knowledge that this is a soundtrack rather than just a concept album makes it a bit difficult to fully judge, especially since there isn't even a known release date for the film at the time that I'm writing this. The soundtrack did get me more pumped up for the movie than the trailer did, and knowing how talented Glover is I do think that it will be an enjoyable watch, but until the film's release I really have no way of knowing. The album wasn't my favorite to be released this year, but I still enjoyed many of the individual songs and the concept surrounding them.

[fromtenthousandfeet]

Anon again, thank you for trying to allay my fears of a "Jimin desert." That was what you were trying to do, right? By raising the specter of another JK collab and album?

Gee, thanks. 😉

But your comment about Pdogg I did find controversial--and interesting. To me, FACE is a perfect album. I can't think of anything I'd want differently--except for it to be longer, of course.

But MUSE... we don't know yet. The concept photo this morning gives me hope, though. (So exciting!)

It's just that I already know there are two songs on MUSE I would probably skip after repeated listens. I don't skip ANYTHING on FACE. But then, I love the intense, the dramatic, and the misery. So that's on me.

In any case, do you have an idea for a different Jimin production team? He seems so comfortable with them and they work together so well. And Jimin is so loyal.

And he doesn't have anyone pushing/encouraging him in a different direction. Or perhaps he does, and we just don't know about it.

Thanks for the discussion!

Haha! Anon, were you looking to vent without comment? I'm sorry. I hate being on the receiving end of unsolicited advice, so please forgive me. But you and I both know more JK content is on the horizon because no way they invest so much into his solo career and then say nah, forget it.

I love a controversial conversation, so let's chat about Pdogg and why I don't want him on Jimin's future music team. Sorry, this is going to be long.

Let's talk about FACE first. Like you, I really love the album. There are three songs that feel strong and complete to me -

Interlude: Dive. A fascinating opportunity to be a fly on the wall on a day in Jimin's life. We go from mundane activities of daily life to the euphoria of being on stage and adored by fans to suddenly being deeply and utterly alone. Powerful.

Like Crazy. To me this is the most "complete" song on the EP. The synth pop sound goes so well with the concept of losing oneself in pleasure and vice. The lyrics are good, the use of Jimin's voice is good, and the music composition is interesting. Initially I was sort of put off by how often Blvsh and Chris James seemed to take credit for this song, but I suspect they have a right to.

Letter. This song is such a beautiful representation of what Jimin is capable of as a songwriter and as a singer. It's straight out of a romantic movie from the 1970's. It gives hints of Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, and Cat Stevens. I love the strings, the acoustic guitar, the harmonica, the waves, but especially Jimin's soft, breathy whisper-like vocals. It's just a lovely love song.

I like the rest of the songs on the EP, too. I think Jimin's lyrics and vocal performance effectively convey anger and betrayal, loneliness, and eventually self determination and emancipation. Where I think the three songs fall short is with composition. They feel incomplete and a little amateurish. Set Me Free Pt. 2 is powerful and moving, but the song is too repetitive at the end. The performance, on the other hand, is unmatched.

Jimin is many things. He's an astonishingly talented dancer. He's a master of the stage. He's a great singer with a voice that drips with emotion when used correctly. But what he is not, is a trained composer/musician. This is a-ok, but it means he needs a great team of musicians to provide him with well written and fully realized compositions to match his fascinating narrative song-writing style.

I'm throwing out this example because I'm going to see Still Woozy in concert in a couple of weeks. Even if this isn't your style of music, just note how well all the instrumentation works together, how seamlessly the background vocals enhance the song, and how the tongue-in-cheek ad-libs and samples make the tune pop. Oh, and Sven (Still Woozy) records his music in his garage, not an ultra fancy music studio like Pdogg's.

I've spent a lot of time this week listening to Lie, Filter, Serendipity, and Promise. In all four of these Jimin solo songs, the compositions are so good and match the lyrics so well. Jimin's voice is used to the fullest, really relying on the power of his lower register and his techniques like growls and vocal runs. His high notes are used sparingly but poignantly. But when I listen to Closer Than This or SGMB, the compositions are just so flat. Where is Jimin's precious lower register? And what weird distortion are they doing to his voice on SGMB? Somebody is dropping the ball on these songs and I'm not ready to blame Jimin.

This reaction video strikes me as a fair review of SGMB. It's a fun, happy song, but there's basically no hook. It feels like missed opportunity. The track video is so well done, though. Jimin's creativity and charm really shines.

Like SMFpt2 and CTT, this song is repetitive. The refrain in the marching band horn section at the end is repeated 7 times. Yes, I counted.

In summary, the things that don't thrill me about Jimin's solo songs:

Too many high notes, not enough lower register and use of his vocal techniques.

Not enough background vocals or poorly done background vocals. Someone should go to jail for the bg vocals in CTT.

Overly simplistic compositions that lack tension and have too much repetition.

Jimin obviously feels comfortable and safe working with Pdogg and the rest of the SGMB crew. but I hope he eventually follows in RM's footsteps with RPWP (yes, he's on everybody's shit list today), hand selecting musicians and composers to work with who will push him out of his comfort zone and encourage him take risks.

It's really a pity that Jimin didn't get to see the response to FACE before he started recording MUSE. He's made several comments along the way that indicate he's really focused on making music that he believes will please the fans. In reality, what resonates with the fans is honest, sincere, vulnerable songs, like those on FACE. Not all songs need to be depressing, of course, but the sooner he gives up on being a people pleaser and instead hones in on the art of songwriting, the better his work will be.

Okay, thanks for sticking with me through this long post. Believe it or not I'm actually super excited to hear the rest of MUSE and I'm keeping an open mind.

[akookminsupporter]

I don't understand why people only follow this concept of there being one singular truth or idea in any song. Jimin said Letter is for ARMY. I've seen some jkkrs act like that's just a cover-up and I've seen non shippers just accept the ARMY narrative wholesale with no further thought.

Letter can be for ARMYs definitely - but it makes sense to think that it could also be for BTS themselves and yes it's possible it's for JK specifically as well. The explanation for ARMY and BTS are plain to understand - the narrative of knowing and being protected for years and wanting to stay with them forever fits well for both.

For me personally, there are 2 major reasons I believe Letter could also be specifically to JK. The first is his inclusion in FACE at all. Jimin has stated multiple times that he didn't want anyone featuring in the album since it was a very personal concept. If letter is truly only a letter from Jimin to ARMY, why /does/ JK pop up? Secondly is the placement of the vocals. JK isn't included in the first half of the song and Jimin simply does his own background vocals during that half. Why not simply continue to do the same for the second half? JK's inclusion is symbolic.

Now for me the only question is does JK symbolise himself or BTS as a whole and there I can see the argument going either way. As a jkkr I would think it's for him but that would never get admitted and it does make sense to say he represents BTS itself so there's no way to really know.

Opinions.

[hisuianhellion]

@justasong asked:

what is your favorite song?

This is gonna be... a long one. I'm unreasonably passionate about this band and this song in particular, so I really am sorry for a HUGE explanation when you probably just wanted a short "here it is, I like it because of this" response. Long story short, it's an old rock song I doubt most of you would know, but would be overjoyed if some of you did. S'a band my dad got me into my favorite genre with.

... and in effect, I've got a weird pick. One I don't think anyone could ever really expect from me. I've shown some funk, some fusion, some good old fashion hard rock. Check out my tag, #songs in hisui to see a few song reccs.

My actual favorite band? S'called Rush. They disbanded a good few years back, but hey. For a band that formed in the 70s, making it to the 2010s and ending things on their terms was one hell of a showing. Progressive Rock is my favorite genre, with its subgenres of Progressive Metal and Prog being close behind.

Lotta their songs are based on telling stories or trying to convey feelings. Their most popular album, Moving Pictures, is a string of stories. Even has by far their most popular instrumental, YYZ, on it. Another bits of their bread and butter was concept albums. Normally, they're effectively a string of songs that all tell one cohesive narrative, and their last album, Clockwork Angels, did exactly that. But these guys are fuckin' insane, and instead had a tendency to make Concept SONGS. Ever heard of 2112? Yeah. That's a 20 minute long SCI-FI EPIC. Just because they fucking could.

But I tend to gravitate to the songs that convey pure feelings from them. And none better conveys that than this song from the album Power Windows: Emotion Detector. And it's all about letting your emotions run rampant about the dissatisfaction about other people's views of you.

Would you believe me if I told you that it helped me come to terms with who I was as a person? 'Cause it bloody fuckin' did. It's part of the reason I keep a healthy respect for the loud and proud, but know that those too quiet to really speak up for themselves might not just doing it because they want to. How there's the feeling buried so damn deep inside of you that just NEEDS to get out, and that waiting for the approval of others to show it isn't necessary; you've gotta discover it for YOURSELF. "Feelings run high", and that tone inside needs a voice to shout it out!

HI.

I'M TRANS.

I'M PROUD OF MYSELF FOR BEING WHO I AM, AND THIS SONG WAS A CATALYST FOR HELPING ME PUT TOGETHER THE PIECES OF MY MIND WHEN I NEEDED HELP TO DO IT.

MUSIC. SAVED. MY. HEART. AND LET ME BE WHO I AM AS A PERSON.

...

That... isn't to say you need to like this song. None of that. Some people aren't fond of Rush due to the vocalist. Some don't like this album in particular for its heavy reliance on synths when the 80s were at their peak, LEAST of all the guitarist at the time (boy did he throw a fit about this album). But... it feels like a song made for people like me. To just... give a description to a feeling we can barely comprehend ourselves. And hopefully after understanding it, move past it.

... I like music, okay? It's my comfort food. It's what keeps me feeling like myself.

[chim-chim1310]

I see even former level headed jikookers making more and more wild speculation about how they must have discussed it was ok to have the concepts be alike and all that. At the end of the day, they really like JK and they're twisting themselves like pretzels to avoid how badly he's coming off. I think it's hard for people to accept that someone they've stanned for years and liked so much ended up being a sellout and to this extent. So they make up some imaginary narratives about how it's not JK's fault that he's getting all this push, how the payola isn't that much, redefining what payola is, how we should accept them with their new personas in chapter 2, reframing this into people not liking seven because they're being prudish etc.

They tell themselves these things and just fall back into their comfortable narratives about JK and Jimin and what good people they are and what dedicated artists they are and how close they are to each other. But avoiding or denying the truth won't change reality.

Lol jikookers are scrambling. Even the big jikook blogs are getting more and more delusional as they keep seeing the difference between jungkook's debut and jimin's debut.

Like jungkook has some random ass concept while jimin's concept is actually personal to him and much deeper. How the f*ck can they connect in any way?! Idiots.

Giving signs and shit. Dude plz. That's so delusional.

God I've really started hating jikookers. I think they are becoming more like taekookers day by day. You know not acknowledging the reality in front of them and having that same mindset and moving like a cult. And whoever doesn't agree or points out the reality they're antis. Because come on how can they still deny the blatant favoritism happening here?!

They are saying we shouldn't be angry at jungkook because we also wanted this treatment for jimin.

Yes we wanted jimin's song to get radio. But other than that we just wanted fair chances, a smooth debut without any active sabotage like the one jimin got.

Jungkook is not only getting radio but they're using all the dirty tricks to shove that song down our throats. And everything that was wrong during jimin's debut is suddenly working.

And I'm not mad that jk is getting all this. I wouldn't care that jk is getting all this IF only jimin's album wasn't actively sabotaged by the same people who are now actively supporting jungkook.

And jungkook is working with them. He's not dumb that he doesn't know how they sabotaged jimin. Jimin knows too that he's sabotaged. And still jungkook is working with them.

And I'm sorry but seeing this I don't feel comfortable shipping him with jimin.

They both can fuck each other but I wouldn't care because their love life is none of my concern. But then as a fan I wouldn't go and actively ship them together because I've stopped liking jungkook.

[quincywillows]

Short n' Sweet n' Sound: Crafting a Narrative for SC6

My fellow Carpenters, where are y'all at?!

Now having had SNS for a few days (and thoroughly enjoying it), I thought I would share how I rearranged the album to give it a bit more of a coherent storyline. If you're a listener like me, you may also have been just a tad disappointed by the curation of the track list -- it's a collection of really enjoyable songs, not a bad one in the bunch, but it lacked the cohesive, strong emotional through-line that I thought really put EICS over the top.

So, using the pieces we had, I attempted to reframe the narrative into something slightly easier to follow. Disclaimer that obviously this is not Sab's vision and I respect her approach to the album, and also double disclaimer that in making up this narrative I am ignoring every single "real life" situation the lyrics may be referring to (which is how I prefer my pop music anyway).

So let's go! Here is my reimagined narrative for Short n' Sweet:

The Premise

To start, I wanted to focus in on the emotions portrayed throughout the album and find where I thought the "heart" of this witty, sometimes bombastic album was. That of course ends up being Sabrina, but I was thinking specifically about this character she has created in the music videos for this era -- this confident, clever, unapologetically chaotic woman who isn't afraid to mess with men for fun (and if a little bloodshed happens in the middle, well... oops?) I picture her tough as nails on the outside, little patience for BS, convinced she has it all figured out and that nothing will be able to get the best of her, because she's already worked to stay three steps ahead.

All of this gets flipped upside down -- and our album begins -- when fate, or the universe, or whatever you believe intervenes and drops a bomb on our independent, unflappable heroine: a man. No, no, THE man. A man unlike all the others she's tricked before, who actually sweeps her off her feet and -- God forbid -- makes her want to make him and her fall in love.

The Track List

Track 1 - Juno: So our album opens here, bright and sparkly and starry-eyed. I kind of view this song as our intro into the story as she's met this mystery man -- let's call him The Lover -- and suddenly she's feeling things she hasn't in a long time, or maybe ever. This dude has her daydreaming, fantasizing, thinking about these mundane things like romance and motherhood, concepts that are foreign and fascinating to her. She also is jumping the gun and fast-forwarding majorly, kind of suffering from love at first sight syndrome. The chemistry between these two hasn't truly ignited yet, but the heroine can feel it there, and that is both thrilling and terrifying. Maybe she can have it, and still come out in control. She's done it before. But is it worth the risk?

Who knows?

Track 2 - Bed Chem: There is, naturally, another motivator playing a role in the will-they-won't-they here -- hormones. And, as our heroine just confessed on the opening track, she is THIRSTY. It's that magnetic pull that despite her better instincts causes her to cave to their mutual attraction. She doesn't know much about The Lover just yet, but she does know they have sparks, and she wants to act on it. She's strong enough not to get too attached. A girl has to satisfy her needs, no?

Track 3 - Espresso: Thus, our heroine and The Lover have hooked up, and now are toying with the idea of being a "thing." Our heroine is at her highest peak of confidence here, as she feels she has this guy wrapped around her finger, and oh, doesn't he look so cute that way? This song chronicles the honeymoon phase of their new romance, empowering her by how she has this guy on the hook... but also lowering her defenses without realizing it. She has learned at this point that he has an ex -- one that "don't do it for ya" anymore -- but she's choosing to gloss over that fact with these silky smooth grooves.

However, this track serves as an early turning point, foreshadowing some of the very pitfalls she's going to confront in the coming tracks -- right now, she can't relate to desperation. Later...

Track 4 - Please Please Please: With that first turn, we also get our first glimpse of true vulnerability from the heroine with PPP. At this point, a few little orange flags are starting to pop up in the relationship with The Lover -- maybe he's getting a little vague with details on where he's hanging out late at night all of a sudden. Maybe our heroine's righthand gals have noticed he's been texting someone a lot, someone who isn't named "SC" in his phone. But whether she likes it or not, whether she realizes it or not, our heroine has fallen in love, and she's putting up a big confident front that she has it all under control. She doesn't want to hear the warnings of her loved ones; they just don't "get" The Lover the way she does. But this song cracks the glass a bit, betraying her internal insecurities -- both for her heart and her well-constructed persona and ego.

Please, please, please, don't prove 'em right...

Track 5 - Good Graces: Okay, so, that moment of authentic emotion was extremely embarrassing. Enough of that! Our heroine immediately turns the bad bitch confidence back on the instant it starts to seem like the trickling of bad news might be true, giving The Lover one last warning. He has the best thing he'll ever have right now with her, and he better cherish it, because she can turn on a dime so fast. She's done it before. Hasn't he heard about all those unfortunate players from "Feather?" No? Anyway, the message is clear -- it's simple, he just needs to stay in her good graces. An ultimatum will make him get back into shape, won't it? She isn't sure, she's never really done this actually-caring thing before...

Track 6 - Coincidence: Surprise! The rumors were true. The Lover wasn't over his ex -- the one she learned about during "Espresso," but chose to brush aside under the guise of arrogance and wishful manifesting. So The Lover has split, leaving our heroine to process her first real genuine heartbreak for the first time... but not before she stomps out the story to all of her friends in a self-righteous, sarcastic biting fury. The campfire style sing-along vibe here brings to mind a good vent gossip sesh with your girls, all of you trashing the no-good loser to support the scorned friend. That's where the heroine is at right now -- still somewhat in shock, rehashing the details to anyone who will listen as if it's ridiculous, nowhere near ready to process what actually happened.

Track 7 - Sharpest Tool: Once the cheerful choir of her friends has left, our heroine is left to process the heartbreak by herself for the first time on the record. She's starting to acknowledge some of the red flags about The Lover that were always there, but also getting glimmers of self-reflection in how she mishandled it -- how she bought his faux reassurances just like he bought her faux arrogance, how they never actually talked about the more complicated aspects of their romance. Another soft, fragile down tempo moment to showcase a true emotional beat for the heroine.

If that was casual, then I'm an idiot...

Track 8 - Taste: Okay, but forget all of that again, because it felt terrible. For one thing, the heroine has never done anything wrong in her life for the record (yes, including those maybe-potentially-no-longer-living-men), and this is obviously everyone else's fault. Anger is much, much easier to sit with and process (or rather not process), so that's what she's going to lean on for a while. She's over it... but, just remember, she had him for a moment and she's going to linger forever. And she's completely over it... but dang, doesn't she leave quite an impression! Sue her!

And singing 'bout it don't mean I care!!!

Track 9 - Dumb & Poetic: The anger is start to ebb, leaving nothing but the numbness and ache behind -- but first, our heroine needs to get her last digs out. The musical shift to acoustic down-tempo reflects that slow shift in mentality, transitioning from heat to hurt, but don't think that makes her tongue any less sharp. She unloads the clip of her disses towards The Lover on this final fiery track.

Track 10 - Don't Smile: Okay, screw it. She's sad. The heroine, ice queen, queen of playing boys like Nintendo, has been played. And the worst part is, she's pretty sure it wasn't even intentional. The Lover was too dumb, too earnest and impulsive, to even mean to have hurt her. Somehow, that's almost worse. She wasn't an intentional get -- she was just a moment in time. She was already there, but it doesn't matter, and that's what sucks. It sucks that she's being ripped apart at the seams over this, when she convinced herself the whole time she had it under control, and he truly seems to not give one damn about their (short) history. It's not fair. What's the point of love, anyway? How did she get into this mess?

Track 11 - Slim Pickins: At this point, even the mere prospect of love and romance feels exhausting. If even this perfect guy, The Lover, wasn't the right match, then what hope is there? The heck of it all is that the heroine still finds she wants more -- she wants to recreate that feeling she had back in the days of "Juno" and "Espresso." It feels impossible, like it will take a lifetime to find it, and she's going to be bitching and moaning the whole way there. Even so...

Track 12 - Lie To Girls: If our heroine got anything out of this whirlwind experience, it was a hard lesson. Yes, men suck... but she played herself, too. She ignored the warning signs, she glossed over the red flags until they were sticky and drenched. In protecting her own heart and trying to maintain her confident shell, she also let it go too far. She didn't get the insight and truth she needed before she fell in love. So maybe that's the takeaway -- that love is possible, potentially, but she needs to listen to herself better next time. Not just the hormones and "bed chem." That ardent defender she is for her girlfriends, her sisters and her mother and the girl outside the club getting her tarot cards read; she needs to be that protector for herself. Maybe if she does that, next time, things will be different.

Maybe. For now, our heroine just needs to sit with the hurt and take the time to heal, slowly but surely. Maybe this time, when the cracks became faded scars reinforced in gilded gold like kintsugi, she'll be a bit more steeled -- and ready to soften to truly sweet when the Right Lover truly comes along.

[musicarenagh]

Get To Know The Wise Bloods And Their Recent Single Welcome to our sonic rendezvous, where I'm thrilled to introduce The Wise Bloods. More than just musicians, they are torchbearers of an idea sparked from personal breakthroughs and urban struggles. Merging reggae vibes with spirited purpose, this group has etched a narrative that echoes through London's system of streets—a narrative conjuring unity and enlightened collectivism. Today we peek behind the grooves to unveil how The Wise Bloods have channelled adversity into their harmonious crusade for change. Each member infuses the band with unique fervour, making every beat a battle cry for peace and authenticity. So lean in as we explore the heartbeat of The Wise Bloods: their formation, their passion, and their unyielding drive to resonate beyond melody. https://open.spotify.com/album/3FNE4WxBseV3A0nAFhAiuK?si=LW47tDbQQtyXr1BulXxI7A 1. First things first – for those not yet in the know, could you share with us how The Wise Bloods came into existence? The Wise Bloods has two aspects; The concept and then the band. The Wise Bloods as an idea was a phoenix that came out of the embers of an old teenage school band in the form of an old song. Following the decision to leave my job and a toxic relationship, I came across old stems from an unfinished song. I began to write a song around it. It turned out to be the first release of The Wise Bloods called 'Smooth Runner'. That came out before the current lineup of the band existed. At the time of conceiving a new band, certain things were going on. A very strange news report came forward on the tv. It was about the Bloods and the Crips being fed up of living the poverty-stricken lives of their city life. They were sick of their infighting and came together with an idea for a truce and a desire to overcome the situations that they were all in. I thought to myself. wow, did the bloods and crips just get wise? It reminded me of Bob Marley's sentiment in his song Zimbabwe 'No more internal power struggle'. It sent me off on a romantic thought process of what if the citizenry of this world collectively became aware of the oppressive conditions and corrupt nature of global forces that people found a way to overcome the causes of our ongoing conflicts, It would bring us into a new era of human civilization, characterized by co-ordinated co-operation at a grassroots level to replace what currently seems like an inevitable and unwavering global system of conflict, domination and exploitation (both of nature and humanity). So in that respect 'The Wise Bloods' is an ideal about collective enlightenment. Our logo is a cog with blood dripping from it and a feather. the cog represents the system, the industrial complex and its hold on our lives in the modern/post-modern era. The feather represents finding freedom in this time and it also nods to a more tribal, spiritual or natural philosophy for life. I guess that's quite a romanticised interpretation of 'tribal'. really, on a personal level, I just yearn for a more simplistic life that isn't offered in modern urban living. So yeah The Wise Bloods is the idea first, the band came after. I had to bring these new songs to life with musicians, and so over time, I found the right people for the music. I was at a Reggae jam night in a place called Troy Bar in Shoreditch. Makeda Moore (one of our singers) was singing there, both performing songs and performing backing vocals. I was blown away, she is actually someone you just have to watch perform live, very captivating and full of great stage presence. I approached her about joining the project, she brought her sister Kandaka Moore on to provide harmonies. I actually found Ryan (our bassist) through Instagram. My previous bassist Rudi Creswick left to tour with Tom Misch and pointed out that Ryan was an active Reggae bassist. After that, it wasn't long until Makeda put Jason forward to play drums. That for me is the core members of The Wise Bloods.

Those members have helped shape the sound, and the vibe and have become friends whom I trust and understand on a fundamental level. Since then we've had a couple of really good key players be a part of the band and recently I brought in my old band's horn section, which is exciting. Keys are essential for reggae and Horns are always fun. I'll be honest. The current members have stuck because, not only do I vibe with them, but they came to the music I had been writing with more talent and musical capability than myself. it was slightly intimidating at first, but it has brought a new dimension and authority to the live show. [caption id="attachment_53080" align="alignnone" width="1152"] Get To Know The Wise Bloods And Their Recent Single[/caption] 2. Was there a particular moment or experience that served as the catalyst for forming this band? I'm not sure if it's a catalyst, but certainly a pivotal point, where certain events going on around me coincided with my decision to pursue music once again I mentioned before, that a small political clearing of clouds appeared to me in the news. I guess that spurred on the concept and inspired the band name. On a more personal level, things had begun to get a little dark. Out of deciding to pursue music again. A long-term relationship not only began to unravel, but the nature of its toxicity had become stark to me. The experience of sobering up from your own delusions and the effect it has on your mind and personality is an unsettling one. Not only that, my return to my home town in London as an adult was beginning to take a turn and the place was appearing to me more and more tragic and sinister. I'd had two friends in the area lose brothers. One kid was only 17 and died after a stabbing to the leg. It was so heartbreaking because he was the youngest of the family and was just a really good kid. All around that time, I wasn't making things better for my friends or myself but just carrying on with self-sabotaging behaviour and escapism. I was getting into trouble most nights I went out. However, the difference between me and my friends was in the week, I was working on a career in tree surgery. Others around me were dealing with some really serious life issues with very little prospect of improving their lives. I realised people around me were in and out of jail, losing loved ones and even dealing with homelessness, on top of that some of them were new parents. I was feeling really frustrated with one friend. I just felt like all this madness we were getting into was just escapism from our own feeling of inadequacy and shitty situations. Seeing that behaviour play out in a friend to the point they're not addressing their homelessness is a terrible moment. Out of that time, I wrote 'Smooth Runner'. I wrote it to those old recorded stems taken from my first band. That became the first song from The Wise Bloods. Back then, none of the current band members were a part of it. Now, if we play that song, they play it way better than the recording (which was made mostly at home on a laptop with no prior recording experience). The first moment I see as defining us coming together as a band was when we jammed out 'New Blood', which is a song about fresh conflicts and major disasters popping up around the world and the inherent hypocrisy of the state about judging the legitimacy of the use of violence. I was trying to point out how a government's stance on global affairs is determined by its geopolitical relation to the regions and populations involved. That then of course is conveyed to the public in mainstream media. I'm quite proud of the lyrics, label 'em a terrorist if they take a pop, but supply arms on a regular to murdering despot, a country built on war draws new blood just to stay on top, our safety just a small price for a war dog boss' When we jammed that song the first time it was like an introductory meeting of all our musical essences. the vibe was strong that day... That was Jason's first ever rehearsal with us, also his first late arrival to practice.

..not his last 3. Each group has its own dynamic; who would you say is the 'glue' in The Wise Bloods that holds it all together? Musically it's Jason's drums and Ryan's bass perfectly in sync. Like all proper reggae, they are the foundation. In terms of keeping the band together. It's me, I bring them together in this setup and do all the homework. 4. How does living and creating music in London influence your sound and lyrical themes? As you can probably tell, quite a lot. Although I tend to allocate songs to ideas that are a bit more universal. I don't want every song' to just be a 'London song'. Of course, a lot of the music is inspired by moments within London so there is always going to be an aspect of that in the music, especially on the sound. In some songs, London is perhaps ingrained in the music but in others, the song is London in every way. It might not be so obvious in previous songs, but with London Summer Loving I went all the way. So much so that the song uses London slang, and describes London scenes, the final verse is fully in a London accent. I feel like only people from London will truly understand a lot in that song. I'm hoping people from cities around the world can relate though. [caption id="attachment_53082" align="alignnone" width="1152"] Get To Know The Wise Bloods And Their Recent Single[/caption] 5. Diving into your latest single “London Summer Loving” - what's the backstory? What summer breeze brought this song to life? I feel like no matter what is going on in people's lives, that feeling of the sun on your back, or a cool breeze or sunset is just something that gives us instant relief and happiness whether you are rich, poor, healthy or unhealthy. That moment when the sun starts coming back after winter and warming up the days you just get this feeling of relief and excitement for what's to come even when you have stresses and worries, summer is a time you have an excuse to have a good time no matter what. That's the initial inspiration. Then I thought to myself, Summer is a straightforward song theme I need to jump on on a promotional level, I can release it in the summer and people get behind it as a summer reggae anthem... then everything got delayed and I released it in November FFS. So I'm gonna ramp it up with some visuals next summer I think... but then again I'm just ready to make more new better music now. That was the backdrop and starting point. From there I had a rockers riddim idea and from there I just used that backdrop to write bars just for me and to share something about London authentically from my perspective. 6. Can you talk about any memorable anecdotes from writing or recording “London Summer Loving"? I mean what is written in the verses of that song is just years of memories on memories. Smells, visual memories, historical moments, emotions and sentiments about past friendships and all the things that make up my home town, which is a borough in south London called Deptford. So in terms of anecdotes- it's a big long story balled into something digestible in song format. Recording it. I mean, I recorded the vocals in a dusty backyard shed. The backing vocals sound sort of like they were recorded in a shanty town by some old-school reggae dudes, like the Congos or something, which wasn't intentional but is cool. It's a total contrast to the lead vocals, I ran those bars over and over in the shed till I had something that sounded passable. I'd do a take that felt so good in expression but I'd look back and think naah that sounds crap. It's weird trying to fit in with things that come before you so people can pick it up and their brain goes, 'ah yeh I recognise this sound, it's such and such, it cool, legit and I like it,' but still try and innovate and be authentically yourself as opposed to formulaic and completely derivative. There's a thin line, the less you are in the process, the harder it is to get into that pocket. 7. Musically, what direction did you aim to take with "London Summer Loving," and how does it align or differ from previous projects?

We wanted to make the music just for us. Rather than approach the music with a mind for what should a reggae song sound like, it was more like, what way do I want to express this for myself. Like, What way can I deliver this in a way that satisfies my curiosity and expresses what's in my heart? LSL is also a single from a project that has brought in the band at a way earlier stage. So I had the ideas and straight away I got Jason and Ryan in to run their parts and develop them. From there each session helped the song grow. I actually had two versions. A looser live recorded skeleton and a more straight version based on a programmed idea that we played on. It was faster and less organic. I wasn't sure on which one to use. I took the two to Keys player Noa Rodriguez. She came up with this Latin/Cuban sounding piano idea and it blew me away. She brought that idea to the faster version and in one take she did something proper bwad! Listen to that plinky plonky piano theme in the background of the chorus, I think its genius. I was thinking, ok now that version has something.. like a new forceful energy, it made me want to write bars not so much sing. In other projects, I was a lot more concerned about the listeners or radio picking it up. For 'Eye Out For The Devil' I was like, I want to do what's right and authentic for me right now and if people like it then good, if not, fine. So yeah, it's maybe a more selfish exercise in music. The music sentiment is a little more F you I'm doing it like this! I think that carries through to every member's performance in the recordings. [caption id="attachment_53083" align="alignnone" width="1366"] Get To Know The Wise Bloods And Their Recent Single[/caption] 8. Regarding "London Summer Loving", was there anything outside of the music itself—like film, literature, or art—that inspired its creation? Not so much outside music, but definitely outside the reggae genre. For me, I love those songs that represent an artist's place. It's so wicked when you can tell they have really done the place justice and represented it to the max. They paint a picture and you feel like you are from their town now. Songs like Nas' 'NY State of Mind' or Nina Simone's 'Baltimore', also covered brilliantly by the Tamlins- That version with that hornline, thats one of the best reggae songs of all time. 2Pac's California Love or Alborosie's Kingston Town, a modern reggae classic. Also, it's not explicitly about a city but 'Master Blaster' by Stevie Wonder, he vividly describes a street party and I feel like I wanted to write a song in that way where the song takes you into a scene of a real place and the listener is transported there, that's the inspiration from others there. 9. A question about the process: When working on new material like “London Summer Loving,” do lyrics typically come first, or do melodies dictate where words will follow? The creative process depends on the song but almost always its melodies before the lyrics. If I write lyrics without musical clothes it ends up terrible and unmusical. Sometimes songs are created in a more contrived fashion. so for example, I'm gonna make a roots rockers track- so you build the riddim and then ideas stem from that vibe. London Summer Loving was like that. I think of that process as the Hip Hop/ rapper or artist-to-producer type creative process. There's the production and then the lead ideas on top. For me, those types of songs take the most work to get the vocals and ideas to grab something authentic. It's like you have to work it until authenticity comes, rather than come straight from a place of authenticity and make that come to life. I came up with the ideas for LSL and it just felt too lifeless and the more I worked on it the worse it sounded. I had to stop and go back to vibe. So I just sang some jibberish to find a melody and delivery. From there I was like that sounds like an Afrobeats singer, how the hell am I gonna make a London song from that?

I separated the chorus melody delivery from the verse delivery to make it work, but to be honest I still don't think I made 100% the thing how I wanted the thing, but you have to know when you've worked on something enough and put it down to experience and allow the work to be imperfect. The most natural songs come from a feeling. Something may have happened or you just might be feeling in a certain space and the Melody, the harmony and the vibe come to you. I think those are the most authentic real songs. 'Eye Out For The Devil' our previous single was like that. I felt terrible about humans, myself included, I had to get something out and the music ideas just flowed from there. I also think that's the best place for reggae to come from. If you are in a point of desperation or darkness or hardship and music is used to overcome, that is reggae at its most authentic. 10. As artists tend to be critical about their work - if each of you had to choose one thing they love most about “London Summer Loving,” what would it be? I'm not with the guys at the moment. I've got something from Ryan but the rest will take an eternity to get back to me, so other than Ryan's input I'll take the opportunity to point out some cool parts of the music that the guys pulled out of the hat, purely just improvised on the spot whilst in session. RYAN: I really liked putting down this bassline. I had some fun with it. I like to draw inspiration from a lot of people around me. I was reminded here of a song by Natty titled "Seasons Change". I've depped for him several times and have even watched how "Tallis" who is his main bassist and one of my inspirations in the bassline, plays it live. The other inspiration is one of my mentors "Don Chandler" and his style and approach to reggae bassline. I like putting those influences into the new music I play. What I enjoyed here and with The Wise Bloods in general is the freedom I have to experiment a bit, but still somehow be able to complement Jesse's style of songwriting and composition. Jesse: there's always a sign of that experimentation from Ryan. If you listen to the third verse, there's a breakdown. The bass goes into this sub-low frequency...that is Ryan just showing off. It's so deep and it hits so good. he just doing it in the pocket of what the music wants. Jason's drum machine overdubs: To be honest this drum performance is just flawless, he destroys that beat, and the fills are insane... but what you might miss is his drum machine overdubs. There's a weird whale moan in there. He just kept hitting this pad. Someone poked their head in the room and looked at Jason and said 'The black whale', we were cracking up and Jason flipped and said, 'Yeah your laughing now but you're gonna hear back and think that's fucking sick!', it does sound sick. Noas Piano: the piano theme I mentioned earlier you hear in the chorus and the breakdown. That was an improvised idea that pretty much became the glue of the song. For me, that part is the most important part of the track. With regards to vocals, I think the third verse nails exactly what I wanted. I feel it captures London in Summer for me in song format and it's ghetto AF. There's no one out here writing reggae like this, maybe hip hop but not reggae. 'Vietnamese, Jamaican, Pho and curry in a pot dealers keep it moving in a stuffed crotch sock ballers in their beamers turn to boujin' out the block Crackheads on the corner hope this day never stop...' 11. In terms of vocal performance on ‘London Summer Loving,’ how were decisions made on delivery style? Does it encapsulate specific emotions tied to London summers? The chorus I am certain is influenced by Afro beats. The whole vocal was at first delivered in that fast-paced MC delivery. but the chorus was just missing some flavour. the high end almost falsetto vocal delivery came from just feeling a melody out. Afro beats is becoming a big thing in London and it's hard not to take influence. As I mentioned before, I had to separate the chorus and verse in my mind.

The verse delivery is definitely bringing a London energy. London in summer has a hazy bliss but energetically it also has this relentless menacing drive, like everyone is out to just live life, no matter what. I admit it's a gamble, this vocal is a bit marmite. Love it or hate it, but in this song, I achieved my goal of capturing an essence and a vibe. Like London, it's not for everyone. [caption id="attachment_53081" align="alignnone" width="1152"] Get To Know The Wise Bloods And Their Recent Single[/caption] 12. Let’s get technical: could we geek out a bit over which instruments, gear, or production techniques stood out while crafting “London Summer Loving”? If we are going to talk technical we have to mention our tracking and mix engineer Jaime (pronounced hai-mey) Zugasti. The foundations of the track are recorded by an actual reggae genius at BBMC Studios. The overdubs-like vocals are recorded in my shed home studio on an SM7B on a Scarlett USB interface, which is the best budget mic you can get, but it is by no means a high-end mic and boy did Zugasti let me know about it. Also, I have ADHD, I do things so scatty that half my stems need extra work, and my mic placement is a mess... If Jaime Zugasti hadn't worked on it, the music would not be hitting your ears properly at all. The most unique thing about all of the music from the 'Eye Out For The Devil' project is that Zugasti has done the final mix using an analogue board. The Verb is an actual real spring reverb. You can really hear his hands-on work in action when you listen to the dub versions (LSL dub is out on 8th December). 13 . Your music carries an infectious energy — when performing live, particularly new singles like " London Summer Loving," how do you translate that studio magic onto stage? the newer tracks have more energy because they are closer to the live. the bass and drums were recorded together and the songs themselves were jammed live before they were recorded. so when we play these tracks the translation to the live show is less of an issue. In fact, we just add more vibes with the added performers. Before some of those tracks were just tracked and built on ideas laid out on the computer beforehand, with no live jamming or input from the players prior. I would like to bring some recorded stems into a live show at some point just to maintain some signature production sounds, but what's more important is capturing the band's dynamic in new recordings more and more so the transition to the live show is more seamless. That said, the live show is just always more energetic and brings a whole new element. People have said they got more into our songs after seeing us live. 14 . This might be tough but describe " London Summer Loving" in three words – no cheating now! You just said it, it's in the title... hmmm. Ghetto Surf Reggae 15 . And finally, looking ahead can fans expect more sunny vibes à la ”London Summer Loving” from future releases? Or are there surprises up your sleeves? We've been playing with several reggae styles. In this project, we've had two steppers, one Rocker and the next is going to be a soulful ska love song, then of course the dubs. I've been working on this fusion of hood style with the sunny reggae feel quite a bit, so I'm sure we will have some more. The idea is to bring the original London style but deliver it in a way that people are still getting that juicy harmonic and melodic reggae hit. I'm still wanting to reach that sweet spot with our sound and style. Also, we are not just a reggae band. We have funk/soul and hip hop-influenced tracks, so we are going to have more bangers coming like our previous song 'Lonely Hours' featuring the late ones. I think from here on the guys are going to be involved in the writing of the music from the get-go I'm going to write ideas from my end but won't bring forward any skeleton sketches of bass or drums. I'm also going to ask the guys to bring something to me. This way I can focus

on the songwriting and the vocals and get out of my own way of what I'm worst at production. I'll keep practising and doing production in my own time, but I want this project to become what I always planned for it to be, an actual band where all the players are equally the artist- there is not enough of that in reggae these days. Well, in the US they have that because of the heavy influence of rock, but everywhere else reggae is- artists with a band supporting them. I get why, it makes things more clear cut, but The Wise Bloods was always meant to be a band's band. - High energy in your face live music but with deep roots in our foundations. So yeah, just expect an even better iteration of The Wise Bloods. Follow The Wise Bloods on Website, Facebook, Instagram, SongKick and TikTok.

[trickstump]

We as a fandom collectively goof-slash-complain about the conflicting timelines and narratives of Danger Days- between the album itself, the supplementary materials, the music videos, the later comics, etc.- but I kinda really wanna talk about how that like. Adds so much to the idea of the album.

Danger Days, and the Fabulous Four (to me) is, like, the story of four normal people who became bigger than themselves and then, through that process, sort of lost their personhood after their deaths? Throughout all the narratives, even the ones we most prominently see them in, we never really get a concrete sense of identity for any of the Four. We know their names, their faces, and that they were heroes. We see small moments- of them taking care of The Girl, being a family- but we never get a narrative beyond that for them. That isn't to say they don't have histories or personalities; from the comics, we know they probably did, but as time has gone on, they've been forgotten for everything but their heroism.

In the body of the album itself, without the music videos, we get to know even less: only two of the Four are named in the songs (Jet Star and the Kobra Kid's traffic report), and only three in the text of the record (Party Poison getting a whole song title.) Fun Ghoul is nowhere to be found on the record as a whole. Even then, the only ways we talk about the Four are in their deaths; Jet and Kobra Kid being used as unfortunate carnage in the Killjoy's war against the Dracs and BL//ind, a warning to "die with your mask on if you have to" and then something that's immediately moved on from.

In the music videos, again, we have a slightly better insight into who the Four were as people, but only insofar as we know they epitomized cool gunslingers with rebel spirits that ultimately loved The Girl so much they laid down their lives for her. I think there was a discussion a few months ago here about the concept of "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" being a much better fit for the narrative of the "SING" MV than SING was, but I also think there's credence to the idea that that was the point.

The intent in storming BL//ind wasn't to be heroes on a grand scale. It wasn't a liberation attempt. It was to save their family, a deeply personal thing that became, to other Killjoys, a rallying cry after the fact. In their absence, the Fab Four's narrative got to be written by the masses, and in raising them to martyr status, their sacrifice became less personal and more symbolic. Their personhood was forgotten, and the details of their lives- and, eventually, their deaths!- didn't matter so much as what they represented: something to fight for.

Anyway TL;DR the narrative of Danger Days, to me, is a story about how in trying to save yourselves you can save the world, but ultimately at the cost of your individualism and identity, even when that's exactly what they're trying to celebrate.