#and with that I just have the non album songs to do later and we'll have a full ranking lmao

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

So I’m stealing this from @tayloralisonswift and you should definitely check out their version, but I’m going to listen to and rank all of Taylor’s songs album by album (and then maybe her non album songs at the end). You can also see my debut rankings and what I’ve changed here + my Fearless, Speak Now, RED, 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights rankings here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

So with that in mind, it’s The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology's turn. As per usual, I’ll put a content warning here and say that I mention mental struggles (including addiction and suicidality), age gap relationships, family issues, domestic violence and infidelity. So read at your own discretion. I also want to mention that one of the main reasons I decided to do this ranking is because I had a long post I wanted to make about this album that I will be condensing down for this. So yeah while it definitely won't be as long as that post, I do expect this to be the longest of the posts by far lmao.

Opening statement: So one of the reasons I wanted to make the long post about TTPD:TA is because it feels like the paradoxical album for me. Something that should have related heavily with me and been my thing entirely, and yet wasn't. I want to make a note now that a big reason it took so long was that I feel I couldn't express why I see TTPD:TA like I do without talking about my own experiences, which I've cut down on completely out of respect for privacy for people both currently and historically in my life. I note this because some of this post may be vague to try find a balance of those two things and I want you to know that you are not dumb if it feels that way to you. Also, the anon that one of my mutuals got saying regarding this album being about someone who did it shorter, someone who did it longer and someone else who did it first really hit for my relationship to the album, so I guess keep that in mind.

Fortnight: A few years ago, right after coming out of my own long term relationship (a note that he is not any of the 'Mr did it shorter/longer/first'), I had the opportunity to be the 'Matty' of a situation (obviously without the discriminatory and fame side of things) with someone I truly liked; more than I would like to admit (Mr 'did it shorter'). I chose not to, but the 'Taylor' of the situation did not make it easy (neither did the 'Joe', but you can kinda understand that more even if they were lashing out at the wrong person). As time went on, our kids became close friends (this is important, like just as not having kids is important to Taylor's version of TTPD:TA, having them is the key component for me. And yet, this is the closest thing to a direct song this person got on this album for me; and even then, while I do think the overall vibe really does encapsulate how it feels to be pursued by someone you like who is taken, Fortnight very much does feel like my "This could be us, but in order for it to be, I would have had to be a different person" song. Like I've often described TTPD:TA as an album that an alternative universe version of me would relate to heavily, and I think this song really is the best encapsulation of that. Like maybe if 'Mr did it longer' and I had never met or if we didn't have the kids or some other thing was different, I would have jumped in; but I didn't. And perhaps only having one song relate directly to this person is fitting given the nature of Taylor/Matty and the song being based on a (relatively) short amount of time, but still.

Outside of myself, I love the music video visually but wish it wasn't the first one. I feel by having it be the first thing most fans see about the album, it makes the asylum imagery (which I will talk about my feelings on later in this post) feel kinda hollow. I understand why she would not have wanted to do what I am about to say given the likeness to previous singles, but in my mind, having Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me be the first music video for the era followed by I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (same video we got), the title track, I Hate It Here, Fortnight (same video as we got) and finally Down Bad really would have given it a chance to tell a fuller story. I also wish it wasn't the track Post Malone featured on because I feel he's kinda wasted on it and I hope they collaborate again (preferably on a more upbeat song) and he's more present on it. I do love how the song directly ties into Hits Different in a way that is subtle enough that you don't have to know that to enjoy the song but it is a extra moment for those who do.

Finally, this song is literally Good Luck Babe's sequel from the other person's pov to me.

All up, it's not a favourite, but I completely understand why it's the opener. 6/10.

The Tortured Poets Department: I promise I don't have as much to say about all of these tracks as I did Fortnight, and this is one of the songs I have less to say about. While the general 'thinking we're sadder than we are' vibe reminds me of my Mr 'did it longer', the anxiety, insecurity and overseriousness that leads to destruction of myself and my relationships feels very resonant of myself in my early 20s as I battled with realising all that propping up I received as a kid really didn't mean much materially. I've also spoken with friends historically about how my experiences with Mr 'did it longer' really feel like they translated in me in a way that while I was seeking to recover, looking back, I think part of me had given up and thought that there would always be some level of sadness, anxiety or so on and so in that way both of the ways I related to the song intertwined.

Ultimately, I like the song and I'm a little surprised at how hated it seems to be on this site specifically given how many people call themselves former gifted children and are open with their depression. Like to me, this song is about someone who was propped up or for whatever other reason thought that they were going to be much more “successful” (read that in the capitalist definition type way) but it hasn't happened for them yet and so now they're in their head. 7/10.

My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys: We have reached what I called the first 'teenage petulance' song of the album. One of the most.... interesting I guess things that I have heard people who defend this album say in its defence is that those who don't like it just aren't old or mature enough for it. And to me that's very conflictory with my own opinion because to be honest, I think 15 – 17 year old me would have resonated with this album far more with it than 28 (now 29) year old me did upon hearing it. And this song is one of the first examples of why. To me it comes off as every 'I can fix him' teenage girl's wet dream before she inevitably gets traumatised by the situation. Needless to say at this point, but if you are in any relationship, romantic or not, like this, leave and never look back. Like the only time in my life I could even think of relating this song to was when I was in an abusive friendship that I felt at the time was penance for a past situation with a different friend. 4/10.

Down Bad: This is one of those songs that I like the fan interaction around more than I like the song itself. Like I know this is an unpopular opinion, but for as much as people in my life assumed that I would relate this song to either Mr 'did it shorter' or Mr 'did it longer', this song has never clicked for me and I don't really understand the hype around it. In saying that, given it was such a fan favourite, and as I said, I think could be a really good closing single for this era, I do hope it gets a music video at some point.

I will also say that the first time I heard this song, I thought she said 'did you really beaT me up in a cloud of sparkling dust?' and full of dissociated thinking that she had just admitted that the other person got high and committed domestic violence against her. It took me being like “why the fuck is no one else talking about this? This feels like the biggest bombshell she's ever said???” and looking it up to be reminded that I have bad hearing. It also did not help that the first thing I heard when coming back through was the final 'I'm having his baby' in But Daddy I Love Him.

As for the fan interactions, I've seen a lot of people relate this song to past queer and interracial relationships they've had and while this song is still low ranked for me, I have a new appreciation for it after hearing those views. 5/10.

So Long London: My favourite song from the project. It genuinely makes me very sad that this song was slammed as the 'Taylor left Joe due to his mental illness' song because it's moreso a 'your mental illness does not give you the right to be a dick to others and expect them to stay at your level forever' meets 'you can't save someone if you're drowning too' song and the codependence that comes with those two things clashing (when Taylor talks about mutual self harm in the prologue, I think of this song, not the Matty ones because I question if it was mutual on Matty's end). Like I know there's nuances of her wealth and other factors in this comparison, but from my first listen, I immediately thought about my anti recovery ptsd/bipolar (before you @ me saying this sounds mean, I say this as someone who has only recently been deemed as 'recovered' from these two illnesses too. It is said with all the love in the world) ridden mother who I am a carer for but who also sees my recovery as betrayal to this day. And having that pressure of feeling like you're the difference of if this person lives or dies (Because tbh, to me, when Taylor said she's not sure if he wants to be there, I didn't take it as the relationship, I took it as life itself. And that mixed with the suicide baiting line from the title track really encapsulates this song for me) is a lot for anyone. I will quickly note here before anyone starts worrying that things with my mum are better now, like not fully recovered, but I definitely think more of 2015 - 2018 in relation to this song. But anyway, 'Taylor left out of a lack of love' is such a cold take because the truth is she stayed so long because of love and I can say with 99.9...% certainty that leaving was not a decision Taylor would have taken lightly, and I will die on that hill for the rest of my days. 10/10.

But Daddy I Love Him: My least favourite track from the album. And no, before you make assumptions, it's got nothing to do with Matty, the vipers lyrics (though I do think that's weird to add given her history with being called a snake, especially aimed at the people who defended her against that), that it took the place of genuinely loving fan songs on tour (I genuinely think she put it on the setlist because it was/she thought it would be a fan favourite) or even that it's the first mention of fans on the album. Because if I'm honest, I don't even see this as the 'fuck my fans' song that it's made out to be. Like if anything, this song is a self admitted hissyfit and again something I would have to go back into my teen years to relate to lmao. The 'fuck my fans' song does exist on this album though, but it's further down the track so we will talk about it then. I feel like now is probably also a good time to mention that I am a 'this song started about Matty but was reworked to have aspects of Travis in it; especially the latter end of the song' truther. The reason I don't like this song honestly just comes down to it feeling like a wordier and less catchy version of Love Story to me. And I've been told that it feels different to that if you grew up in a small Christian conservative town. But at the end of the day, as much as I joke about my city feeling like it's one step away from being a small town given everyone knows everyone and there are a bunch of towns/nature around us, I grew up in a left leaning, equally as agnostic/atheist as religious city. If I move out of here, I only have one other place in mind and it is a bigger city that is also left leaning and less religious than these places people have spoken about. The whole conservative small town thing is likely never going to be my reality to relate it to. So yeah, ultimately it literally is just the case that any time But Daddy I Love Him comes on, I remember we only have so many hours of the day and I could be listening to Love Story if I want that vibe, so do so lmao. 3/10.

Fresh Out The Slammer: This is another song that I like fan (or in this case, my loved one's) interpretation of more than the song itself. It's also a song that I am glad I heard after So Long London, because quite frankly, the way that a lot of you see So Long London as the 'Taylor is a bitch for leaving someone with depression' song, that is how I probably would have seen this song had I not had the context of So Long London (and I guess You're Losing Me if we're talking more broadly within Taylor's discography).

I feel the need to say here that I resent the fiction this fandom has made that Joe forced Taylor to stay inside and avoid the media. Those of you saying that either are new or don't remember that at the time they met, it was Taylor who did not want to be around the media. Joe may have agreed or may have simply just gone along with it and ended up liking that path, we don't know. But I think it's a good reminder that it was actually Taylor who ultimately changed her mind on how much exposure she wanted. And that's not to bag Taylor, like she has every right to that. But it is a major change and for a fandom who seems to understand that the 'asylum [Taylor] was raised in' is the media and how much damage that did to her and how she struggled with it, it is kinda fucked up that the same grace is not given to him. That also goes with him talking about what happened between them; especially because quite frankly, he has been a hell of a lot nicer about it than most would.

Anyway, time for the positive with this song. As I mentioned above, a loved one of mine recently came to me with how they relate to this song and it's changed it completely for me. In short, this person has recently gone through rehab and relates the song to addiction with all of the 'he' mentions being the addiction/himself before recovery, the 'I' mentions of course being them now and the 'you' mentions being their loved ones. It was incredibly heartwarming to hear. It's not a favourite, but has grown from being a near least favourite due to that. 6/10.

Florida: This is one of those songs that is objectively better than my ranking in my honest opinion. Like I think it's the best summary of everything this album is trying to say, it's lyrics and production are great and just overall a good song. But something about it just did not click with me on the same level as other songs I love on this project. Like it's still strongly in the top half of my ranking, but it's not a song I'd say I stan or anything. Also, if I'm honest, I kind of wish it was a Florence And The Machine song because I like her voice on it better than Taylor's. 7.5/10.

Guilty As Sin: Maybe because I just don't relate to it at all (not that sexual of a person, especially in that way, sorry), but for me, this is one of those songs that I think of when people say you need to listen to all of Taylor's discography in order to fully appreciate if you listen to music through the lens of what it means to the artist. I say this because my favourite aspect of this song is 'am I allowed to cry' and how it relates to The Great War; specifically 'I vowed not to cry anymore if we survive the great war'. Guilty As Sin serves as a unclear space of time on whether the current relationship is over because it both is and isn't. Like realistically if you're masturbating to someone else in your monogamous long term relationship, it's over. But at the same time, technically you are still together and it can be saved. So have they survived? Can they? It's unclear in that moment and from an artistic point of view I love that connection because it's so interesting to me.

I'm nosy, so I do have to wonder if she ever told Joe though, given he mentioned that he had previously asked if Matty was just a friend and part of his (understandable) pain was that Taylor had said yes just to leave him for Matty. So had this come up? Or was it just vibes? It's not our business and we will never know, but yeah, like I do wonder if she fessed up as a final attempt to fix the relationship.

Either way, the song ranks relatively low for me. 6/10.

Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me: To start off, I just want to say that I was told about the 'asylum' line at the time of the leak, and as a result (given I am a person who has previously spent time in a mental hospital), decided to listen to the leak of the standard album + The Black Dog (before you @ me had already planned to buy the album and do not stream music of albums I buy, so me listening to the album early was not taking money away from Taylor). And ultimately I'm glad I did. Because from the minute I heard the asylum line, I knew this fandom and the broader audience would not be normal about it and was able to make the choice not to be online/scrolling for this release. I do want to make a note here that Taylornation being so horrific about this line over the months has genuinely been upsetting for me and many others, especially because I think while we correctly identified that the fandom and general public would not be normal about the line, we weren't expecting them to act the same. As such I hope that this is something Taylor/her team talks about with them in the future to at very least prevent it from happening again. And though I don't have faith in it, I hope that one day the fandom will listen to those of us saying that Taylor saying something about herself and her mental state is not an open door for inappropriate jokes.

As for the song itself, this song is the best/most relatable representation of mania I've heard in a song before. While I do think this song is somewhat of a whack at her fans, I feel like it's broader than this in that it's about everyone (but not Olivia Rodrigo given some of you seem very obsessed with a feud that was fan made) and predominately about the media. But it all comes from mania. Like I know there were debates about whether the prologue of this album was meant to be a defence drawn up like an insanity plea (something people see as 'getting off easy' despite the 1% of people who successfully do it often ending up in worse positions than prison) or legitimate retelling, and while I think there's room for nuance in the conversation, this song has convinced me that it was genuine mania. Like I do think Taylor felt all of that in the moment due to the mania, but I do not think she goes around every day thinking everything is about her or that she (or at least she alone) paved the path for people to attack her or whatever else in the song. Nor do I think this song would have existed if she was healthier at the time. And before you @ me over this, a reminder that I say this as someone with a history of bipolar and it is not an attack on Taylor. It is hard to explain to people who have not faced emotional highs of mania or even emotional lows of depression, but for better or worse, our emotions and circumstances do dictate our actions a lot of the times, and this is an example of that for me.

On another note, this song has somewhat been ruined for me because I saw a tiktok based on Gideon from Gravity Falls with it as the background music and now I laugh whenever the song comes on.

Overall though, it is a top 3 song from this project for me. 9/10.

I Can Fix Him No Really I Can: Another 'teenage petulance' song. Like I really don't have much to say about this song at all past I wouldn't be surprised if it was used for a bunch of like fanfics and videos for other fandoms and that 16 year old me would have loved this song and related it to the same abusive friend I mentioned in MBOBHFT. I will give her that the way she says 'Good boy, that's right' is very attractive lmao. But yeah overall definitely low ranked. 4/10.

Loml: So remember when I said I relate heavily to the whole 'Mr did it longer/shorter/first' mentality of this album? Well it's time to officially introduce 'Mr did it first'. I call him dad and we haven't spoken in years. Surprise! This is now a daddy issues album. I won't go into a whole run down of what happened, but the tldr that you need to know is that I went from my father's favourite child, to a weird on/off again period where he only called when it benefited him (despite calling my siblings including the one he was estranged with at first consistently) to a fallout due to him deliberately causing a wedge between my mother and I reuniting with said estranged sibling (yes, this ties back into how my mother feels re: what I said about So Long London) and all of my extended family (he admitted it was to get back at us, this is not an assumption). Because of this, I am very attached about this being just as much about Matty as Joe and feel off when people try to deny that. Because like Matty is the loss of Taylor's life not because he was the love of her life, but because of what his actions cost her (her life with Joe, her respect from a lot of fans, her self respect, aspects of her mental health etc etc etc). Anyway I love this song. It's so beautiful and haunting and definitely something I will listen to long term. 8.5/10.

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart: Now you may think that me having a long term relationship then... whatever came after with Mr 'did it shorter' fall apart within months would make this a song about that for me. But alas, you'd be wrong. The fact that within 24 hours of this album coming out, I got an anon that said “damn, 2018 you would have loved [this song]” is really all you need to know about it. I never answered that anon because I had no response to it, but anon if you are reading this, you're right. This is very much my “getting through law school after losing my dad/family while also being a step parent and carer" song. Like I very much love and relate everything in this song from the pushing through/overworking to deal with your problems to the denial that everyone ever is seeing how fucked up you feel. In saying all of that, I'm glad we have this song now, when I have more compassion and empathy for that version of myself.

Outside of myself, I just genuinely love this song. I understand why people are uncomfortable about the “more” line, but I'll be real, if Taylor was that worried, I really don't think she would have added it to the setlist (especially a setlist where she could have easily shortened it to not include that line), let alone made it the tour music video. On the note of the music video though, the golden outfit from it is the best version of that outfit lmao. Overall just a very fun, sad and relatable song. 9/10.

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived: I recently heard of a child who said this reminds them of their dad, and I want to hug that child and tell them it's okay and that they will get their happy ending even if he's not part of it because I feel the same but got my happy ending. I don't have much else to say about the song past it being one of my favourites from the album and that unfortunately as someone with historic substance abuse issues, the ghosting drug supplier line is incredibly funny to me. 9.5/10.

The Alchemy: I'm sorry, this song is just very boring to me. 4/10.

Clara Bow: Again, this song is super boring to me and by far my least favourite out of her songs about fame which is super unfortunate because I feel like the cycle of public abuse/propping up celebrities just to tear them down when the new thing comes along is a very interesting topic, but yeah this just doesn't hit for me. 4/10.

The Black Dog: So I loved this song from the start, but I listened to it on my estranged (younger) sister's birthday and realised that yeah, this reminds me of my dad and her. Definitely one of my most listened to tracks from the album. 9/10.

Imgonnagetyouback: Okay so listen, I hate comparing similar themed songs from different artists because like no one owns a theme right. But at the same time, I don't think this song coming out so close to Olivia's (which I love a lot more) did it any favours. And that's a shame because as much as this is a 'teenage petulance' song, I think much like ICDIWABH, it's fun/deliberate about it, but yeah just another case of 'I can just listen to this other song I like more for the same vibe' like how I feel with songs like Anti Hero and BDILH ngl. 5/10.

The Albatross: This is actually a song that's grown on me a lot since the release. Like I used to find it boring, but after a conversation with 'Mr did it shorter''s daughter where she told me she relates the song to me and the ways I helped her through the heartbreak and mess of what happened between me and her father (and the fallout it had for her family), I really saw this song and the album in a new light in terms of like why I feel like having kids involved is so impactful for me in regards to my relationship with this album. 8/10.

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus: 'You needed me but you needed drugs more' coming out while I was in the midst of almost losing someone to addiction did numbers on me. Thankfully, as mentioned above, that person got help, and funnily enough, I don't relate the rest of the song to them. Instead it was about a friend breakup, which you know, sounds normal and unrelated to how I relate to the rest of this album until you take into consideration that my mum used to hate this friend because she saw him as just like my father... Anyway, I truly do love this song and had my Eras show been post TTPD:TA's release, it'd be near the top of my surprise song wants. 8.5/10.

How Did It End: I feel awful for saying this song is boring to me because I think it is filled with emotion and 'look who we ran into at the shops, walking in circles like she was lost' would have taken 2018 me by the throat out of relatability, but the song just never clicked for me. Also, this is the 'fuck my fans' song in my honest opinion. Like it may not be as stark as BDILH or WAOLOM but it is a whacking and one that does not feel as aimed at the world at whole/people who don't care about her in the way fans do. Either way, it's a beautiful, haunting, objectively good song; just not for me. 6.5/10.

So High School: I like that this song sounds like the time period from when Taylor was in high school and I think younger me would have liked it as a whole more, but I'm just not drawn to it. 5/10.

I Hate It Here: This is a song that really dropped off for me as I continued to recover at the rapid rates I have this year ngl. Like I have a lot of sympathy/empathy for anyone in that mind frame, but it's just not where I am anymore and the song really lost its shine for me when it lost its relatability. 4/10.

Thank You Aimee: Love and relate to the the mentality of turning something shitty into something great and being proud of the way you handled the shittiness, even to the point of being able to recognise that it was for the best that shitty thing happened. It's also cute that it's the most 'debut' sounding song and brought back 'secret' messages. However, the song in general is just not for me. 5/10.

I Look In People's Windows: I'm sorry, I know it's a fan favourite but simply find this song boring. 4/10.

The Prophecy: Oh 2018 me would have cried her little heart out to this after losing our family (not to mention 'Mr did it longer' and the Chloe et al friend). The final 'please' is my favourite production choice of this album. On that note, Taylor singing this song mashed with This Love, my ultimate self love song on Eras Tour, was such a moment for me especially! Like yes, this self love changed The Prophecy and led me to get to my happiest (so far). Overall a great song. 8.5/10.

Cassandra: Closure's sister song (to me). Not a favourite, but highly relatable to how I feel about my family, something I think younger me would have liked more and a good song overall. 6.5/10.

Peter: Top 5 song of this album for real. I love it and heavily relate it to the Chloe et al friend and have done so from the first listen. 9/10.

The Bolter: This is not a favourite of mine, but having recently made a playlist I really love revolved around it definitely brought it up a bit from finding it uninteresting to decent. 6/10.

Robin: The centrepiece of why I do not relate to this album (in my opinion) and what happened with 'Mr did it shorter' for me. I find it incredibly funny but also a testament to Taylor's writing that this song is so impactful for me and how I relate to this album despite the reason for that being so different than what she actually wrote it about. Because ultimately 'Mr did it shorter' and I did not go down that road and we held off on expressing how we felt because of the kids. We stayed civil with each other despite all of the hurt on both ends because of the kids. And, when him and his partner decided that they wanted to give it another go, I cut him off and allowed my stepfather's daughter to deal with all interactions with him for the kids. Like it was all in sweetness. And maybe it was too late by then, the damage of his actions and the rumours had done their dash, but I would have done it the same way over and over again and am glad that he eventually got to the same page. It has been so incredible to not only been able to see my stepdaughter grow and trust me fully through this process, but to be able to see his kids through it too. Like idk, I'm just rambling at this point, but I feel so much gratitude and pride for how I and the kids dealt with this all when I hear this song and it will always hold a special place in my heart because of that. 9/10.

The Manuscript: And one final song for 'Mr did it longer'. I'm never going to say that I am thankful for the damage he did to me, but much like Thank You Aimee, this song really sets it in stone for me that that experience 16 - 22 year old me had with him really determined the outcome and personality of my adult life (both in good and bad ways), especially the impact I want to have on the next generation. Like going back to what I said in Fortnight, I think things would have been very different and I would have been a lot more naive re: 'Mr did it shorter' had I not had that experience (and obviously the experience with 'Mr did it longer' and the Peter/Chloe et al friend was impacted by my dad, just in a lot less linear way at the time) and whether it's 'Mr did it shorter's' kids, my stepdaughter, the 'lovers who stayed my age' or any other children in my life currently, historically or in the future, I will always value the growth I had through that experience that has led me to being able to help others. All up, this is just the perfect closer for the album (being a RED girlie just made it all the sweeter lmao) and a great song. 9/10.

Final score: 202.5/310 - 66.3%

[fromtenthousandfeet]

Am I the only one who expected something more significant from the ? due today? Instead, we get an announcement for the pop-up garden opening later this month that most of Jimin fans will never be able to see or visit.

Of course, we'll be able to buy merchandise. I wonder if that will be the next big ? reveal on the 23rd?

This is like breathlessly waiting for Christmas morning, only to hurry downstairs and find none of the presents under the tree are for you--and you have to sit and pretend to smile amidst the rustle of paper and squeals of delight from the lucky ones.

Bitter, much? Why, yes, thank you.

But I have to wonder at the parochial and non-inclusive nature of this promotion for MUSE. I'm sure the garden is beautiful, but why would the marketing team design something that excludes most of Jimin's fans? Why so deliberately limiting? And how does this announcement help launch the album to wider audience?

Am I missing something? Or just making a big deal out of nothing?

HYBE just sucks. They really do. My best advice is to keep your expectations so low they’re in the basement. I’m looking forward to the remaining songs on the album. Beyond that, I expect nothing.

[mishacollinsthighsss]

I'm still not over what happened, but I have brain worms and they most likely make absolutely no sense and don't even go together but I need to get them out, so heh... guess you guys have to suffer.

THIS PROBABLY WILL INCLUDE A LOT OF TINHATTING BOTH FOR DESTIEL AND COCKLES.

You still there? Great, let's get into my not medicated adhd brain a little.

First of all, starting Friday: The Album Drop

...do I need to say more? No? Well too bad, because I'm going to 😂 I'm a huge music freak, been singing since I was four, play guitar and the piano (I didn't say good okay, I'm actually very jealous of Jensen) and I've been obsessed with lyrics for pretty much forever. Alright, call me crazy but this album is so Dean Winchester coded it's unreal. Every song could be put together with Dean and I'm not even joking. You know what's even funnier? THAT THE DAMN SONG JENSEN AND MISHA PUT TOGETHER YESTERDAY COULD VERY WELL END UP AS A RADIO COMPANY SONG. The lyrics definitely needs some work (probably making it more vague), but... come on. The first thing my mind jumped to when I realized what Jensen was singing was Watching Over Me. MOVING ON.

Second: Jensen's answer about the Destiel reunion

This hole thing still drives me crazy. This was probably the clearest answer we've even gotten from Jensen, plus we got confirmation that he'd like to see a Destiel reunion AND ADDRESSING CAS' GOODBYE (I wanna say here that at this point I have no idea how that would play out if it would be something like "Hey buddy, I don't feel that way but I don't wanna lose you" or a full on love confession from Dean... I have no idea and that's okay, because I know Jensen knows how important that confession was to a lot of us, so I trust him not to invalidate Cas' feelings). Now, I paid a little attention to the words he said about maybe seeing it: first, he said that hopefully we'll get to see that at some point, and later he said maybe we won't. This immediately jumped out to me and you know what my brain did? Let me tell you: Jensen said that he doesn't talk about possible project before they aren't under the wraps because he doesn't wanna jinx them. Now hear me out: first, he said maybe we'll get to see it. Then he backtracked. He's talked about a reboot/6-10 episode thing for forever now. He WANTS to come back. My tinhat is firmly in place when I say that I have no doubt he's working on it already, but it isn't greenlit yet (hence the backtrack later). The description was just too specific to be made up out of thin air. (Watch me regretting those words later because I'm just too hopeful.)

Third and last: Whatever that Cockles Panel was

Listen, I could scream about them forever, we all know what went down, the only thing I wanna point out is: When Jensen said "...which is funny because so do I" he looked flustered as hell, we all know that by now. What gets me is that Misha had basically no reaction to this (he looked down, but that's it). So, did they plan something like that? I don't know, I just think it's weird as hell to have no reaction to something like this, especially when it's your "best friend" and he says that in front of hundreds of people.

(Plus, a little side note: still not over how you can SEE Jensens brain working while he's nervously rubbing his thigh.)

I don't even wanna go into the lyrics they wrote together, I've talked about it during the first point already, but something I wanna add is that I loved jensens face journey as Misha first mentioned the brothers but then immediately jumped to "The Angel". That was hilarious and by God, Jensen was planning on throwing together something romantic.

I'm very much not fine as you can tell, but it feels like the universe has shifted after the non-existent finale and now it's our turn. I always try to keep my expectations low, but the album and this whole weekend catapulted me right into the sun, so now all I can see is light and stars and it's wonderful.

[putschki1969]

I am afraid that my question could be a little negative one.

I want to ask your opinion about Wakana’s high note.

Listening to her performances of “Yakusoku no Yoake” on “Wakana Calassic 2022” and “Wakana Winter Special live 2019”, I hear her high note in the beginning of the song “まだ暗い空から( mada kurai sora kara)～” really grating though it is so sorry.

Not only it sounds grating or too shrill but I feel that her high note has something wrong, and it is disappointing that the problem seems not to be temporary thing.

I know some people says her high note is grating or shrill from when she started her solo career.

I guess this is due to her Kalafina era where she had been burdened with successive use of high note and it had worn out her throat. If it was correct, I could not say how disappointing this is.

How do you feel when listening to the part?

Thank you for reading this, and I would be happy if you tell me your opinion about the issue.

Hello there!

Don't worry, you phrased your question in a perfectly respectful manner, nothing bad about that at all. I apologise though for taking so long to reply. I wanted to do this justice.

Melody/composition-wise, "Yakusoku no Yoake" is actually one of my favourite tracks from Wakana's debut album (the Celtic vibes are just so gorgeous) but I agree that it is a very demanding song that is unfortunately not very flattering for her voice. There are certain parts that are either too high or too fast-paced for her so she often sounds out of breath or strained during these sections. Her breathing is pretty loud and noticeable so people who are not into that should give this song a pass. While you could argue that her non-existent breathing technique is almost part of her charm and trademark style, it's one of those times where it bothers me quite a bit. It truly baffles me that none of her mentors, producers, teachers or instructors have ever pointed out those issues (and possible solutions) to Wakana during the 20+ years of her singing activities.

I find it very interesting that you chose the very first part of the song as the one that sounds most grating to your ears => “まだ暗い空から (mada kurai sora kara)～”

In my opinion, the intro is one of the better parts with Wakana managing to have moderate control of her voice. Not always of course but I think she sounds decent during most live performances. Ultra high of course but not unpleasant to my ears yet. The chorus is where she struggles most if you ask me (probably due to the higher tempo). The "hikatta" for example in the first line of the chorus, "あの向こうで光った", is a little too shrill for me. And then it just builds up for the remainder of the chorus, I really struggle listening to the following section: [...] 行ければいい | [...] ikereba ii 明日へ進む道に | Ashita e susumu michi ni 飛び込んで [...]| Tobikonde yukou [...]

I thought I'd include her three officially released live performances in this post to give everyone an idea what we are talking about. It's the first time I am inserting audio with the new Tumblr format so we'll see how it goes. Please note that I have no music education to speak of so everything you read below is based on my personal feelings regarding the individual performances.

Wakana Live Tour 2019 ～VOICE～

During her early stages of performing this song live, she seemed a bit rushed? I guess she was trying to emulate the original sound of the studio version but I prefer it when she takes her time (especially during the intro). I am glad they slowed down the tempo for some of the later performances. However, I thought the performance was actually quite good. Yes, she doesn't sound 100% comfortable in the higher registers but I can honestly still enjoy it. It's not damaging my eardrums or anything. And for the most part her singing comes across as more or less effortless, not too flimsy or strained, yes, it's unnecessarily breathy but it sounds relatively stable to me

Wakana Winter Special Live 2019 ～瞬き～

This is probably my favourite live version of "Yakusoku no Yoake". The reduced tempo seems to allow her to polish a couple of those super high notes. It's still far from being perfect but it feels like she is not constantly in need of catching her breath.

Wakana Classics 2022 ～Christmas Special～

Maybe the weakest performance. Her voice is pretty shaky and thin, I'm sure some of that can be chalked up to nervousness but a lot of it might be due to a bad technique.

As I've mentioned in my review post for "Sono Saki e", Wakana keeps talking about all the vocal lessons she's taking but they don't seem to be doing her any good, if anything I would say they are actually making things worse for her. I have never been one of the people who have complained about Wakana's voice essentially deteriorating ever since 2012, I acknowledge of course that certain changes have taken place but overall, she has continued to sound good to me, sometimes more so than other times. There are more than enough occasions where she can access facets of her voice that are reminiscent of the "old-Wakana", with her singing sounding strong, rich and emotional. This indicates to me that the potential is still there, buried somewhere deep inside her but for whatever reason, Wakana doesn't always rely on those skills. It could be a conscious choice to spare her voice or maybe she just doesn't receive enough professional guidance...? There's no doubt in my mind that Kalafina's brutal schedule has taken a major toll on her throughout the years but unlike many other fans, I don't think she is a lost cause with irreversibly damaged vocals...

[elvenbeard]

I have too many VP ideas HELP. I need to write them down somewhere where I'll find them again so here we go, what is a blog if not a notepad?

Done:

part one of an attempt at making a big edit - gonna be a set of four pics, revolving around Vince's Arasaka past and how merc life is honestly the same shit, just a different packaging (the project I mentioned earlier this week that I needed a lot of pics for XD it's also inpsired by a song that fits him so well that I've been listening to non-stop on repeat basically for two weeks now xD) ✅ done!!

the harness photoshoot: gonna make two photosets here too, one a bit more clothed than the other xD ✅done!! :D

Currently in progress/still need to edit:

A photoset of V through the years (inspired by several other's amazing takes on this <3) - headcanon/lore posts for the most important moments or timeframes in his life -> pics taken, still need editing and writing though xD

V showing Kerry some of his favourite places in the city and vice versa -> started this, but now I wanna write something for everything too and aaahh xD

Some pics to accompany the post-canon fic I spontaneously started writing -> have a couple taken already, need editing still

Part two of the big edit thingy from above: with more song lyrics that just hit the spot XD -> have a few pics taken but might scrap and redo them

Currently not started on these yet, but the ideas are not leaving my head and/or have been with me for a bit (some a lot more complex than others):

Dirtbike tour through the badlands, because hell yes - would like to incorporate this in a little fic somehow, post-canon but not too far in the future

Just V chilling with Nibbles in the penthouse garden - the grass may be fake, but I think it's been a while for both of them since they touched grass and they deserve some peace and happiness XD (might incorporate this in the same story/ time frame as the idea above - we'll see!)

V and Kerry hanging out, listening to music

Kinky Kings (I am tempted to change their ship name ngl xD but I think I'll keep it and do a cool photoshoot instead)

Some promotional pics (sorta) for Kerry's new album (potentially in black and white? I'm not sure yet but I'd really like to do a bw set!!)

Not really a big VP thingy, but I've wanted to do a headcanon post about Kerry's cyberware, what all of it is and does and when/how he got it/ had to get it - need close up pics for some of that though (and any excuse to look at Kerry for prolonged periods of time honestly)

V and Kerry on a bike tour through the city at night - no deeper meaning here other than "let's blow off some steam" "okay :3" *five minutes later* "okay, this is not what I had in mind o.o but still fun!" (also Night City at night <3 but I have no idea yet how to pull it off with traffic and all probably running me over repeatedly as I set this up, but we shall see xD gonna be an interesting challenge for sure!)

More photo stories with V and Jackie, but no concrete ideas here yet

A photo story/ fic with pics of "that one perfect morning" I mentioned in a oneshot once, meaning the morning after Boat Drinks - also ties in a bit with the "favourite places" idea) - I am also tempted to do this as a comic instead, but don't even get me started on my comic ideas and all that's in progress there... the day needs more hours!

Also I wanna do more spicy stuff :3c but no concrete ideas here yet (maybe I'll redo the window photoshoot some time because with the graphics update their reflections might look even nicer... we shall see though!)

Road Trip with V and Kerry!!

Just some nice aesthetic model-y shots with Vince because he's pretty xD

[1001albumsrated]

#26: Miriam Makeba - Miriam Makeba (1960)

Genre(s): Afropop, World

I don't want to sidebar on it too much, but let me start by saying that Miriam Makeba was a truly incredible person. Take some time and learn about her life, she did some impressive work and fearlessly stood up for black liberation both in South Africa and here in the states, often at great personal risk. It's tangential to the material on the album so I don't want to devote a lot of space to it, but it's significant enough that I'd be remiss to not mention it.

As for the album: the very, very abridged version of the story is that Miriam moved to the states from Johannesburg in the middle of apartheid and met Harry Belafonte, who mentored her and gave her an in to the music industry. In fact, his backing band plays throughout this album.

The tracklist is a mix of African folk songs and Western standards, and the sound is a similar combination. I'm not an expert on traditional African music by any means, but this is very sedate compared to the field recordings/etc I've heard of African music as performed in Africa by local musicians. This aesthetic was a very smart move on Miriam's part, as it surely was much more appealing to a Western audience than the "more authentic" versions of these songs would be, and as a result helped kickstart Western interest in "world music" (for the record, I've never liked the idea of bulk-batching all non-Western traditional music into one pseudo-genre; Japanese shakuhachi music has as little to do with Indian classical music or African folk songs as jazz does with heavy metal or European classical music. What a bullshit big business music industry concept it is to just throw it all under one card in the record store.)

That being said, I also find this "blended" sound much less appealing than the other African music I've heard from the era. Don't get me wrong, her singing is excellent. There's just something missing for me here. It's all a little too loungey. It's not a bad listen, but I find myself losing interest throughout and tuning it out a bit. I think this album possesses immense historical and cultural significance, but MUST you hear it before you die? I'm conflicted on this one, but I'm leaning towards No. I think if you have a personal interest in the history of African music it's essential, but I feel like there are better options out there that would be of more interest to the average listener. There's a wide assortment of comparatively-high-quality field recordings of traditional African music out there from the usual suspects (Smithsonian Folkways, JVC World Sounds, etc) if you want the real McCoy, and there are more interesting albums from later down the road that blend African music with Western sounds to greater effect in my opinion (Afreaka! by Demon Fuzz and Lazy Bones!! by Witch both come to mind, listed in order of exclamation, as well as the obvious picks like Fela Kuti or Songhoy Blues, both of whom I believe we'll hear later in the project).

Also, for the nerds, I listened to this one in hi-res on Qobuz. I've ran across the record before, but never could bring myself to drop the cash on it.

Next time, pull on up to the soda fountain and hit the drive-in with your gal with A Date With the Everly Brothers!

[itwas50yearsagotoday]

Happy New Year 2024!!

1/1/24: So here we are, the last New Year of this blog. I do intend to carry on after my 50th birthday in a couple weeks, but not after a long break... I've been doing this for free for six and a half years and I have other things I need to attend to. Regarding 1974, it's kind of a lousy year for both Pop and Rock... I think the Boomers just kinda gave up thinking and gave in to the lounge life, getting high, drunk, and everything in between... sort of a Disco mentality before Disco. Interestingly, it was quite the opposite year for film, with some of the greatest movies ever made coming out in 1974 (Blazing Saddles, Chinatown, Godfather Part II, etc.). Anyway, the MUSIC... like I said everyone seemed to be coasting: Zeppelin took a year off, as did The Who and Pink Floyd; the Stones put out maybe their first 'meh' record since the mid-1960s (when record companies were breaking up their records for maximum profit). McCartney was still riding high with Band on the Run, as was Black Sabbath with Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath... Prog in the UK was dying a prolonged death (whose sound began spawning imitators over in this hemisphere, most of which sucked pretty hard) as Yes would put out a lousy record and EL&P took three years off. The best stuff came from a lot of second tier artists: Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Roxy Music, Steely Dan, Neil Young, David Bowie (his last as Ziggy), ELO, and Budgie. Perhaps the best album of 1974 belongs to the British Prog-ish group Supertramp, whose third album Crime of the Century most certainly drew Dark Side of the Moon comparisons... a must listen, if you listen to anything from this year at all. Second best: BOC's Secret Treaties. Third best: Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic (not as good as Countdown but still excellent). Fourth best: Aerosmith Get Your Wings. Alex Chilton of Big Star would have quite a productive year as well, releasing one Big Star record (we'll do it) and creating tunes for another (that wouldn't be released until 1978). Some of the new kids on the block include: Rush, although this is before Neil Peart joins for their second album on drums and lyrics, so here you are dealing with mostly a Canadian Zeppelin copycat band (although 'Working Man' and 'In the Mood' are bona-fide Rock Classics); Bad Company, which is basically Free reborn with better production and was the first non-Zeppelin band on Swan Song records... tis okay; Kiss, whose legend speaks for itself; and the bassist for the Stones, Bill Wyman, with a surprisingly excellent solo debut, Monkey Grip. Some of my favorite songs from this year include 'Doraville' by the Atlanta Rhythm Section, 'In For the Kill' by Budgie, 'Dreamer' by Supertramp, 'Fingerprint File' by the Stones, 'Astral Man' by Nektar, '(theme from) Death Wish' by Herbie Hancock, and 'Feel Good' by Fancy (whose instrumental bridge was used on many '80s rap samples)... kind of a mish-mosh, eh? Perhaps the worst offender of 1974 was 'The Night Chicago Died' by Paper Lace... P.U.!!!... recommend you watch YouTuber Todd In the Shadows' take on this tune; 'You're Having My Baby' by Paul Anka is a close second in disgraceful tunes. This year we hear perhaps the first true Disco singles, including 'The Hustle' by Van McCoy, 'Pick Up the Pieces' by the Average White Band, 'Machine Gun' by the Commodores, and 'TSOP' by MFSB. Also, more proto-Punk and just overall weirdness by the likes of the New York Dolls, Sparks, and the Residents. I could go on and on... it's like the malaise President Jimmy Carter spoke about later in the decade kinda starts here, particularly with the economy (first real recession since late 1950s) and politics (see: Nixon, Richard... Watergate). The year also spawns some of the most ridiculous fashion of the era, as well as very long hair for mainstream men and mustaches... lots of mustaches, which men really hadn't worn stylishly since the late 1940s (even then they were very thin... see Walt Disney). Okay out of space... enjoy!

[musiclessonsforme]

Music Industry Diversity

For years, we have heard about all kinds of discrimination and for years we have talked about it. Music is a force that brings us closer than ever before the color of our skin or the race of our face. We see it all the time, how these voices no one would listen to finally became heard.

50 Cents was raised by his single mother Sabrina who had him when she was just a teenager. She was a highly regarded drug dealer with a lot of enemies. She was later killed in a fire. No one knows how the fire started. Her young son Curtis,( who was just eight years old) decided to follow in his mother's footsteps. He started dealing drugs when he was twelve and by the time he turned nineteen years old, he was the new neighbourhood kingpin.

On May 24, 2000, Curtis was shot outside of his grandmother's house nine times. This scared him to his core so much he went ahead to commit fully to his music.

That was how he got his first album as 50 Cents, callee " Get Rich Or Die Trying".

Music can be this force, that can change a person's life around despite their background.

However, we still need to talk about racism within the industry since it never really left the conversation, to begin with.

Mathew Knowles ( Beyonce's father, as well as the manager of Destiny Child), has called out the issue of colourism within the music industry.

When he was asked if Beyonce was more accepted because of her skin tone, he replied back saying"It becomes easier. Absolutely.".

He went on to add: "This is the record industry and the music industry that has chose to have this colourism because in America you can't name in the last 10 years... [there's] maybe one person in the last 10 years that wasn't a lighter shade of black at pop radio. It's a 100% fact."

Already you might be wondering what this means.

How can you have a black artist but they can't be too dark?

Why is it we put the spotlight on some black people and take it away from others?

When did we decide what was black enough? Where did we draw this line somewhere along the way of how dark a black person should be?

An Artist by the name Lioness would constantly be told by people like the A&Rs [talent scouts], "She would be better if she was light-skinned".

Yet the discrimination does not end here.

How many non-skinny people are there in the music industry? How many females are running the game behind the scenes in the music industry? Why is it that some LGBTQ+ plus songs are barely ever played on the radio?

I keep asking you these questions because like you, I wonder if we have come so far then why is it we still struggle to name more than a few people.

Maybe we could say we have Meghan Trainer and Lizzo, ok who else?

Maybe we can talk about female producers such as Missy Elliot,and Paloma Faith who has gone on record to say "There are all these engineers there, and they don't let you touch the equipment .... I was like, 'Well, can I just edit my vocals?' And they'd be like 'No, just tell us what to do, and we'll do it.' And then a male producer would come in, and he'd be allowed to do it."

This was the reason she self-produced her own album Art Angel.

Now with the issue regarding why we don't have that many LGBTQ+ plus people in the music industry, I would like to bring light on what Lauren ( a former fifth harmony member who went solo) talked about during an interview on how she was told she didn't have to actively define she was bi but say things like how she was open to any human regardless of gender without giving herself a label that might turn off male fans.

With all these diverse and different people in the industry constantly breaking barriers. We should be saying the music industry has become a more open and accepting place.

We live in the year 2021 with no real change.

We have gotten more diversity but have we really when what is offered to us is heavily motored.

You can be a Cuban woman singing in a girl group but don't come out as bisexual.

You can call it diverse with a handful of female producers in an industry filled with an ocean full of male producers.

You can talk about body positivity until back up dancers get put to the side during an artist's more sexy performances for being undesirable yet only put them in when someone wants to talk about self-love or look inclusive. If the singer themself is chubby than even the fact we live in 2021 won't save them, because the industry is mostly run by older men who have been doing this longer and have picked up tricks to get what they want.

It a pick and choose kind of diversity that leaves much to be desired.

Is there any real diversity if we are constantly just drawing up more lines for people to not cross.

The reason why the music industry is so diverse now is that they heard the people's demands,   it doesn't mean their minds have really changed.

What going to happen next time a "too dark " girl walks in with her head held high who is open to the fact that she is a lesbian or bisexual who also happens to be apart of the Muslim religion.

In fact, name me one girl in the music industry who like that,

Now name me a boy whose white, who either is Jewish or catholic and is straight and how many people did you think of.

I know the first people that came to my mind were Justin Bieber, Shawn Menders, Ed Sheeran.

These men are extremely talented, but what happened to the girl who was" too dark", who fit outside more than one box.

Where her album?

I have asked many questions during this time, however how many of you can actually answer me why this is all happening. How should we know? Where not the one running things.We are just people online reading a post, trying to learn to step into an industry with a history of labeling all of us.

Before we are producers we are men or women with no mention of the nonbinary ( not that theirs alot to talk about with how low the percentage of them is in alot of fields).

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/by-the-numbers-2018/9524084

Before we were singers we are, black or brown or white girls/boys/thems.

Before we are anything we are defined by a box we could not help but be born into.

We learned how to manage within the box, but if we ever stepped out we have no knowledge of where that would lead us. Are we even allowed to be ourselves if we are not deemed the norm?

The answer is yes, because music has no gender or race. We may be born different, however, we make music all the same, and that is what the music industry needs to understand as well as remember as should the rest of us when we listen to a song,We are there for the artist and what they stand for not what label is sellable.

( This was a raft draft for school when my word wasn't working enjoy if you want)

[swimmingleo]

The Wizard of Oz: yet another conspiracy

It's about the infamous spinning around parallel, this one:

Why... would they do this.

Point is I've gone too far, Harryween happened, I fell into a Wizard of Oz rabbithole and found this that for some reason I've missed all this time, which happens to be mf Pink Floyd related because why wouldn't it be.

I promise it kind of adds up in the end, but it's mostly me... clowning.

The Dark Side of the Rainbow:

It's an old Pink Floyd theory and one of the most well-known in the band's lore: it started around the 80's with the popularization of videotapes. One day, someone just had the idea to mute the Wizard of Oz (1939) and play The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) over it right at the beginning of the movie (the third roar from the MGM lion). A scarily accurate synchronization resulted, to the point where one could ask themselves if the album was indeed produced as an alternate soundtrack to the film.

cut, im pouring mercy on the dash

Just your average fan theory, which really took off in the 90s and surprisingly received a lot of response. The album's audio engineer called it "eyewash" and an impossible thing to do with the technology they had back then. (which is. really not true. You could do it, it was just terribly impractical. then again if you're crazy enough..)

David Gilmour and Nick Mason, guitarist and drummer of the band, also vehemently denied the theory: total non sense and a waste of time.

basically everyone got real pressed for no reason lol it's a cute fan theory guys not gAy rUmOuRs cmon

HOWEVER, there is one person who never denied it and it's the guy who literally conceptualized the entire album. Indeed, Roger Waters found the theory "amusing" and had even referenced Over The Rainbow in later album The Wall (and seeing how frustrated he gets when the audience doesn't engage with their music the way he'd like, it almost feels like he was encouraging the theory but then again. pure assumption idk shit)

So yeah, make what you want of this dysfunctional band's response to the theory.

Okay but does it really work ?

There have been psychological explanations of the phenomenon: the theory has been dismissed as the brain always finding connections and parallels between different elements: if you're looking for something, you find it. Yes, this explains various fan theories like the Beatles' ''Paul is dead'', or crispy audios we have around here (pReTtY uNfoRtUnaTe) where the perception is influenced by what we're told to hear or what we want to see. If you play any random music over any random movie, you will always find synchronized moments. But I think the Dark Side of The Rainbow goes beyond that: you can actually make out obvious interpretations and patterns that make sense with the rest of their discography or what they said about certain things/songs. The album actually matches the movie’s narration or the transitions between scenes. But once again, the theory has been associated with crazy delusional fans on acid who live on conspiracies so... (so larrie of em)

Here you have the full movie, with the album playing on loop over it (cuz it's an album designed to be played on loop). Most little moments feel like those funny coincidences I mentioned before, like a character moving, dancing or speaking on beat, but some others are like... too much for me to dismiss as coincidences, because they carry some deep PF-esque meaning. I won't get much into it here cuz we don't have time for that~ but if you're a PF fan interested by the topic feel free to send me an ask and we'll rant about it it's honestly so cool ffgeifzji

Still, I really recommend to watch this specific part:

There isn't any kind of edit to make it fit. It just naturally goes smooth like that.

CMON IT'S. IT'S WEIRD.

Also the front and back cover of the album:

...No colour > Colour > Back to no colour // Sepia > Technicolor > Back to sepia.

If you're wondering why Roger Pink Floyd would go this far to hint at a movie which had a massive impact on queer culture ever since WW2, and how it could be even more relevant to Larry, here <3

AND LARRY BITCH??

Do we know other weirdos with too much time on their hands who do weird shit with synchronization in their art yes we doooo.

So, the shot of them filmed by a camera spinning like a tornado, in an already spinning setting (twirling dancers) in MVs loaded with queer symbolism.

last one just because... SOTT sounds a lot like The Great Gig in the Sky to me. Also he's flying passing by a rainbow at some point so.

The tornado scene is the core of the Dark Side of the Rainbow theory. The music and image go incredibly well together: the piano starting on the first gust of wind, the music gradually getting louder with the chaos on screen until it suddenly calms down when Dorothy’s unconscious in the eye of the tornado. Music ends when the tornado stops for good. But also the symbolism of that song and that scene combined: The Great Gig in The Sky is part of the transition between the first and the second part of the album and it evokes death. The tornado in Oz is the transition between sepia and technicolor, two different worlds and technically.. it's Dorothy's departure from earth to somewhere over the rainbow.

Meanwhile, TPWK is in black and white, Walls is colorized. Both songs represent a significant milestone in their respectives careers. That theme of "I used to feel bad, but I've made peace with myself and now I feel better".

The TPWK/Walls parallel starts at 1:41. Solely based on that film video I linked earlier, The Wizard of Oz is 1:41:47 long. So like. If they wanted to be little shits and choose a precise timestamp that would hint at the Oz synchronicity theory...

... I just like the idea of Harry and Louis scanning the internet for some rbb/sbb ideas, stumbling upon (or already knowing) the Dark Side of the Rainbow and being like.. aha, we could do that at some point. Because in the end, whether it's intentional or not, it's a pretty big pop culture fan theory, and they've both already hinted at PF and Oz.

All in all, the first person who had the idea to play Pink Floyd's album over the Wizard of Oz would have made an excellent delusional larrie and I wish they were here.

[pantaloonwarrior]

That’s so cool! I’ll have to check them both out. I’m American, and tbh, I’ve really never listened to non-American artists (except for one direction, which I feel like doesn’t count 🤣). Yeah christmas is celebrated on the 25th but I work christmas (rip) so I am celebrating today and tomorrow (Christmas Eve). I know you said you are keeping it low key with your family but do you have a nice meal plan? Are there any traditions that happen in your country? -🎄

Sigur Rós' album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (what a name) has many sort of Christmas-y songs on it so that could bring a nice vibe rn!

I'm usually listening to some random playlists, and if I find some cool songs, I'll save them on my own playlist and then later maybe check out the artist. And somehow they hardly ever are American haha I'm sorry. I found Mogwai because they made the soundtrack for a TV show I watched years ago, and thought the music sounded cool.

Yes we'll have a meal together today, listen to music, play boardgames and just chill, I love it. We already visited all the relatives so now it's just us. We'll visit the graveyard later today too to lit up candles at some relatives' graves.

[rambleonwithrosie]

150 Followers. Feel free to take this and use it yourself.

Okay so if you've been following me you know that at every milestone of 50 I go and answer 50 questions. So this time they're all gonna be Queen/Classic Rock specific and y'all are all welcome to take these and make asks out of them or reblog/copy with your own answers.

Favorite Queen member's solo album? Strange Frontier by Roger Taylor

Who of the band would you call to help you fix a flat tire? John, he's a dad and a diy guy, as much as I wanna say Rog I just don't want to deal with a drama queen when I'm having my own drama but I've seen him under the hood of a car so I've no doubt he probably knows how

What do you think Brian May smells like on am average day? Very woodsy, like pine needles and some light but expensive cologne

How would you kiss Freddie? On the cheek like a good friend I just can't get into his looks enough to think about kissing him any other way

How would you kiss John? Well if we're talking long haired fluffy John I'd probably psst at him to come around the corner and then give him a kiss and see what he does

How would you kiss Brian? Very carefully otherwise @squeezemylemon is gonna kill me so probably the sweet quick chaste type kiss

How would you kiss Roger? (My moment has come) I would walk up to him and grab ahold of one of the necklaces he wears and just pull his lips down to mine and crash mine onto his wrapping my arms around his neck kissing him for all I'm worth or less dramatically if we were just sitting on a couch or something I'd just lean my head up off his shoulder and press a gentler sort of kiss to his lips and see where he takes it after that

If you were going to date one of their kids who would it be? Felix, I'm partial to brunettes usually (Roger and Luke Skywalker are my exceptions) and he seems pretty cool and has done a lot of different things which would be interesting to talk about

Favorite gif of your least favorite band member?

10. Most recent Queen photo on your phone

11. Favorite piece of fanart?

I can't pick just one. I also don't remember where I found these and if you know the artist I'll happily tag them in the most. The artbis most definitely NOT mine

This is mine

12. Queen song that makes you want to cry? Love of My Life

13. Which band member would you pick to keep an eye on you at a party so you don't get too crazy and make it home safe? Brian probably, I would say John but I feel if he's drinking he'd be less than no help

14. Who's flat would you ask to crash at? I have reasons to want to say Roger's but banging aside I'd probably pick Freddie he was generous and funny and would probably do his beat to cheer me up from whatever circumstance had made me not have a place of my own to stay

15. Who would you want to teach you to play an instrument they play? Well I genuinely feel I'm best suited for drums so I'm not just saying Roger because he's my dude. Plus he could teach me the most instruments anyways considering as he knows drums, bass, electric, and keyboard.

16. If you could spend a day with Freddie what would you do? I'd just want to sit and have tea and talk and maybe go shopping later hear his advice and crack some jokes

17. Favorite solo song by a Queen band member? As far as written by goes, it's probably Let's Get Crazy or Happiness by Rog bit overall it's gotta be Rog's version of Racing in the Street *chills*

18. Favorite live performance?

19. Whose singing voice do you like best? Roger Taylor (nothing against Fresh he's amazing)

20. Whose speaking voice do you like best? Again Roger Meddows Taylor for the win

21. Write a snippet where you're holding hands with your least favorite band member.

Freddie had never been to an amusement park before, hadn't wanted to go really, but John had begged him to come along and then left him with Aston to babysit while he dealt with his actual children. It wasn't that she had anything against Fred it's just him tagging along on her elbow was keeping her away from the drummer whose attention she wanted. They got onto one of the rides and she saw how pale Freddie was looking and felt sorry for him. It wasn't his fault that he was being a third wheel or that the drummer was off on one of the more dangerous rides that Freddie was not about to get on.

"You can hold my hand if you want" Aston joked looking over at Fred.

"Really?" He asked a little relieved. The two of them chuckled and to Aston's surprise Freddie's black nail polished fingertips interlaced through hers and he looked a little more at ease for the comfort of human contact.

"It'll be fine" she grinned and then the ride took off and the black fingernails damn near dug into her hand in panic.

22. Write a snippet where you're fighting with your favorite band member.

They had been living together for just over two months and despite not knowing how to boil an egg Roger somehow found a way to get into the kitchen and put things in the wrong spot. He came home from the stall.

"Where is the paprika?" She leveled at him before he had scarcely shut the door.

"The what?"

"Paprika, Rog, the spice that I was going to use for the supper I was cooking us, but I can't ever find anything in this kitchen" Aston said muttering as an afterthought "thanks to you."

"What was that?" Rog said coming over to her and looking darkly with his blue eyes.

"Just tell me where you put the paprika and we'll be fine" she sighed.

"I didn't fucking touch anything in your stupid kitchen" he glowered going to the liquor cabinet.

"Well I still can't find it" she huffed.

"Not my problem" he said swigging straight from the bottle.

"Well if you want dinner it kind of is" she retorted.

"I'll get something out" Rog said dispassionately.

"Fuck you" she muttered and went back to banging through the cabinets in search of the missing spice. She was on her knees with half her body in a lower shelf looking in the back and growing hotter for Roger showing no signs of caring or helping. She smelt the dish starting to burn on the stove and tried to crawl out, raising her head up and whacking it on the shelf above. She let out a round of oaths.

She went over to the stove and moved it off the heat halfway between tears and screaming.

"I'll order something" Roger said standing up.

"I can fucking cook!" She shouted "if only I could find the things I need when I need them."

"Well don't yell at me about it" Roger said and brushed past and out the door.

Aston collapsed onto the floor sitting with her back to the cabinets and started crying. She sobbed into the kitchen towel. So much for her cosy dinner at home with Rog. She was so distraught that she didn't hear the door open and close. She felt her fingers clutching the towel pried open and looked to see a bottle of paprika put into them. She turned her teary red eyes up to Roger's face. He pulled her to her feet and held her in his arms. Softly stroking her hair and planting a gentle kiss to her cheeks.

"Come on, I got us reservations, you can cook your thing tomorrow if you still want to" he looked down at her smiling and put a kiss to her nose and grinned at her in his arms.

23. Favorite picture of Brian

24. Favorite picture Roger

(Well it's one of many favs)

25. Favorite picture of Freddie

26. Favorite picture of John

27. Best song to slow dance to? One Year of Love

28. Best song to make out to? I'm In Love with My Car

29. Best song to drive to? Breakthru or Don't Stop Me Now

30. Best song to strip to? Tear It Up

31. What era of the band would you like to hang out with most? I wanna say mid to late 70s. I'd rather not have to hang out with them during Hot Space 😂

32. Favorite song on your favorite album? Rock It (Prime Jive)

33. Least liked song on your favorite album? Probably Play the Game

34. Who would you want to take care of you if you were sick? I feel Brian would be the most knowledgeable but I'd probably prefer Fred just cutting up and maybe grabbing the aspirins and whatever else was needed. I just don't feel Brian would be funny enough to cheer me up. And Rog I just don't know how good he'd be at taking care of someone

35. Who would you want to go driving with? Roger. Duh! So many reasons!

36. Who would you pick to spend a lazy (non-sexual) afternoon with? Well not that I'm just into Rog for the sex, he'd still be my first pick because laughs. But second would be Brian.

37. Rate how thirsty you are for each band member? Freddie 0/10. John variable between 0/10-6/10. Brian 2/10-4/10(red special is factored into Brian). Roger 1000/10 (cars aren't factored into Rog otherwise I'd break my phone adding zeros to that 1000)

38. Least favorite Roger song? Sheer Heart Attack

39. Favorite Brian song? Sail Away Sweet Sister or Dragon Attack

40. Least favorite Freddie song? Body Language and Get Down Make Love

41. Favorite John song? One Year of Love or If You Can't Beat Them

42. Are you excited for the Bohemian Rhapsody movie? Yes. Not insanely. But moderately excited yes

43. Is Queen your favorite band of all time? No. They're in my top 3 but The Moody Blues were my childhood and are so unique and very special to me

44. If you married your crush from the band where would you go on your honeymoon? The beach. Hopefully the Pacific Ocean. Probably some nice private beach just to have space with each other and I love water and he loves boating and stuff.

45. Who has the nicest butt? While I prefer Rog's ass I must admit John possesses the superior booty

46. Who has the best smile? Roger. Hands down and not just because he's my main man all around it's literally made of sunshine

47. Who would you go to if you were scared? Roger. I don't get scared so if I did I'd want someone around to make me laugh my fears away

48. If you were going to be in a crime fighting/super hero duo with one of the band, who would it be? John. He's sound and sensible and so long as he can handle my forceful personality and not write any DISpatches raking my bad behavior and rash decisions we'll get along

49. Do you listen to Queen daily, or at least multiple times a week? Yes especially if you include their solo works

50. Have you written any Queen fanfiction or made any fanart? Yes. Fanfiction galore. Some has yet to be posted but when I do it will be on @drummerinthecupboard

[thesleepyskipper]

Hi Valentine!

I'm thinking this will be the last message I send to you on 'Anon'. We're in different time zones, so I'm planning to post your gift tomorrow, later in the day, so that you can have it before bed on Valentine's eve.😆

It's funny that you commented on how much we have in common. From the beginning, I kind of wanted to reach out to the organizers to see if this was more than just some random lock and key match-up. Since I have the privilege of knowing who you are, while you're in the dark, I know that we really do have a tonne in common.

SFABC is also my favourite of the two albums, although I listen to them both regularly. I have both on vinyl, my preferred way to listen to music. Runaway is my favourite song (accordian - swoon), and I also love False Alarms (live falsetto version - SWOON). But like you, my favourites sometimes change from day to day.

I'm so freaking happy for everyone who is going to have a chance to hang in New York this spring, and desperately wish that it could work with my schedule. I'm hoping for a possible trip that way this summer though. We'll see. I've kind of been waiting for tour date information to make a decision. At any rate, I'll happily meet up with you over Bellinis (but not Ceasars) one day!

Have a wonderful day, Valentine! Talk to you!

~ scsv ❤️

OMG Valentine, my last ask from you anon!!!

While I will miss our back and forth, I am also VERY excited to know who you are AND for your kind gift AND to have it before bed on V-Day eve!!! 💘💘💘

I've been wondering the same in terms of if the match-ups were completely random or not, my own Valentine is someone whose work I have admired!

I also have both albums on vinyl! Though admittedly I listen to them more online, mostly because my family does not appreciate the musical stylings of Noah Reid as much as I do! 🤣 Both Runaway and False Alarms are excellent songs too and I enjoy them both very much!

I'm planning a trip to NYC this spring, and I'm just grateful I was able to make it happen. Hopefully something materializes for either the play or a tour date (or many) for you, my dear Valentine! 🤞🤞🤞 I am also very curious about tour info since it will also require a lot of planning on my part, as my schedule is generally not very flexible. But it's a (Bellini) date, whenever we can make it happen!!!

It has been an absolute blast answering your questions and getting to know you better over these past few weeks! Thank you for all of the time and effort that you put into your messages, I want you to know I appreciate you very much!!!

I will honestly miss your messages, anon scsv! But I sincerely hope they continue in a non-anon fashion!

Best wishes and warmest regards, Valentine! ♥

[sftswigan]

Manchester garage punks, Tinfoils, George from the band tells us about their latest single, their money raising effort for BLMUK and how a game of pool completed the band...

Alright hope you’re doing well through this shit time.

Can you tell us who Tinfoils are and where did the name come from?

TINFOILS are a mardy northern bastard garage punk band based in Manchester. There's three of us, and we've all moved here from Yorkshire.

The name came from when I was on an X Files hype. Thought it was a good name for a band, so I just got the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages before we'd even done a rehearsal! I think it was before we even met Will. I just thought it was a good name, the other two agreed and we ran with it.

Sounds like you had confidence in this band early on then. How did you find Will and what has he brought to the band?

I don't know if I had loads of confidence in the band before we started really, I just thought the name was cool! We didn't really take it very seriously for a long time, took us about 6 months to bother looking for a gig. Was just an excuse to meet and get pissed up at first.

Me and Alex had known each other for a while, and went to a pub in Fallowfield. We were having a game of pool, when two blokes came up and asked if they could play doubles because no other tables were free. We agreed, and one of them turned out to be Will. After that they invited us to some flat party, and at about 6 in the morning on some unknown persons kitchen worktop he mentioned he played bass. We met up a couple of days later and the rest is history.

He's an amazing bassist, and his love for funk has a massive impact on every song I write. Tunes always come out sounding better once I show them to Will and Alex.

Love the bass lines in your songs, The Abyss, especially. Could’ve been a different story if you and Alex decided that was your last game of pool and just handed it to Will and his mate!

Like The Blinders, you also (and I think one or two others have followed suit) made the journey from Doncaster to Manchester. How much of a difference has that made to you and the band?

Definitely! All credit for that goes to our mate Breezy to be fair, he was the one who suggested doubles. He drops it in to conversation every time he's trying to convince us to come out.

Yeah I moved from Doncaster about 5 years ago, I do love it to bits but I wouldn't have been able to do half the stuff I wanted to if I'd stayed. Wouldn't have met Alex and Will, and probably wouldn't have ended up starting a band. There are some decent bands in Doncaster but a lot of it was indie stuff at the time, which I do like but not something I was interested in doing. The music scene in Manchester is amazing at the moment, there's so much music and it's all really different and interesting. Best place for music in the country at the moment I reckon.

Manchester is definitely a great place for music but I think the UK in general has a really good music scene at the moment with loads of good bands about! Though places like Manchester have some unreal venues and bands love playing there.

I wanna talk about your latest single ‘Spitting’ which was released during lockdown. Absolutely love that track! You went to Magic Garden to record it. What did recording it there bring to the song?

Cheers mate, we're really happy with it. I think it added a lot going to Magic Garden, Gavin's brilliant. First of all, it's just way higher quality than anything else we've put out, and I think it manages to sound a lot like we do live. Gavin also suggested we add some vocals in to middle 8 bit, which was originally just instrumental. I quickly wrote something down on a bit of scrap paper in a few minutes, and recorded it in one take, and that's the take in the final song. It's the whole "lap me up I'm stagnant water" bit. We'll hopefully get some more tunes recorded soon, would love another trip to the garden. The music video for the song is just clips of our time at the studio mixed in with some live clips, had a really good time there.

I hear quite a few bands speak highly of him and his influence on their time in his studio. He does seem to get great results.

You recently released some songs on bandcamp that were live demos if I remember correctly. Are they going onto Spotify at any point and also will you be recording any of these? Peeping Tom is probably one of my favourites of yours.

Yeah they're a load of demos we did at Dead Basic Studios last year, we thought it was a shame to have them just lying about. We decided to put them out and donate all the money from Bandcamp Day to BLMUK, every little helps doesn't it. They won't be going on Spotify, but I reckon we'll probably record a couple of them properly one day. Peeping Tom's a bit of a favourite, would love to get that recorded in a studio but there's a million tempo changes so I think it'd probably be tricky to nail down. Its one of my favourites to play live, especially when we're headlining and get the chance for a self-indulgent 10 minute jam with a big sing-a-long. The demos will stay on Bandcamp for the foreseeable, but I think we'll probably take them off at some point.

A great cause, did you manage to raise much? Some really good tracks on there would love to here them recorded like you say.

So what are the bands plans once lockdown is relaxed to a point bands and musicians to get out there and do proper stuff without fear again?

Yeah we raised about £60-70 I think? It was only for the day, when Bandcamp waived their fees. Props to Lewis from Dead Basic for recording and mixing them all.

First things first we need to get in for a rehearsal! I've written a load of new songs which I'm looking forward to working out, I think it'll be a lot of new tunes in the set list when we're back gigging. Hopefully reschedule our tour that had to be postponed, play some tunes, get some recording done, and go out and see some bands! Just got to hope it's not too far off.

That’s awesome! Excited about the new tunes and future recordings...and gigs again obviously.

Hopefully you can squeeze a rearranged gig for us on the tour!

You mentioned how highly you rate the Manchester scene. Which bands should people go and see once bands get to gig again?

There's a tonne of bands to go and see, to name a few: Loose Articles, Blanketman, The Early Mornings, Swine, Springfield Elementary, Giant Boys, The Red Stains, Cold Water Swimmers, and loads of others. There's a lot of different styles about but I do feel like there's a sort of coherent feeling between all the bands around here at the minute. It got to the point just before pandemic where no matter which venue or what day, if you turned up you'd probably see something amazing. Fingers crossed it all survives the lockdown!

There’s some good bands there, really like Springfield Elementary and Swine what I’ve heard of them and also Red Stains. I need to check the others out but we’re very lucky to have so many good bands about and more people these days that are very much into new music!

We’re gonna end the interview with some quick fun questions...

Favourite album/EP of this year?

I'm gonna go with either Zero Dollar Bill by Do Nothing, or The Non-Stop EP by Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. Can't pick between them!

Also really looking forward to Fontaines DCs new album, and Idles, and The Blinders.

If Tinfoils could tour with any band alive or dead who would it be?

Would love to go on tour with Fontaines DC, Idles or Sleaford Mods. If I had to pick between them, at the moment probably Fontaines. Loving their last few singles, and Dogrel was banging.

Ah wait, Thee Oh Sees! Maybe Oh Sees actually. Any of the above would allow me to die happy.

Is there a song that at least one member isn’t keen on in the set but are outnumbered?

I don't really like The Royal Baby Machine that much, but the other two do.

Chinese food or Indian?

Indian

Lager or Real ale?

Ale, but more of a standard bitter to be honest. Not West Coast passionfruit and jasmine infused with lemongrass IPA stuff, it's rank and I don't get it. Give me a pint of John Smiths over that wank any day.

Festival you’d love to play?

Wouldn't turn down Glasto!

Last one...

Best live band you’ve seen?

Best live band I've seen is probably Idles.

Alex, our drummer says Cabbage at Night & Day was probably the best gig he’s been to recently

Thanks to George from Tinfoils for chatting to us! You can listen to their music on all the streaming services and go and visit their social media pages. Here is their latest effor, Spitting.