#but man he really worked hard on his vocals and it paid tf off

[idubildino]

dino is actually such an objectively solid vocalist and honestly in the like. upper ranks within the group overall

[dustedmagazine]

Dust Volume 6, Number 7

Stars Like Fleas

The summer rolls on in a very peculiar way, with masks and zoom calls and brief, furtive trips to the grocery and the growing realization that normal is months, if not years, away.  Even so, the music remains excellent. Thank god it’s downloadable and accessible even in these strange days we inhabit. Here writers including Bill Meyer, Jennifer Kelly, Jonathan Shaw, Ian Mathers, Justin Cober-Lake and Ray Garraty consider improvised drone, precocious alt.country, experimental banjo tunes, rap metal and jazz.  Enjoy.

75 Dollar Bill — Live at Café Oto (75 Dollar Bill’s Social Music series)

Live at Cafe OTO by 75 Dollar Bill

Before 75 Dollar Bill put out those widely revered LPs for Thin Wrist records, Che Chen and Rick Brown made a series of tapes. You could pick them up at shows, packaged in a clamshell case with a business card advertising their services. 2020 is a plague year, so it’s going to be a while before anyone hires them for another party or a parade, but this download-only release fulfills similar functions. It captures the band at a particular moment in time, and it gives you a chance to throw a few bucks their way. Do so and you probably won’t be sorry, because the late 2019 tour documented by Live at Café Oto was unique in 75 Dollar Bill’s history. Chen and Brown did the whole run of shows with double bassist Andrew Lafkas, but they also did nearly all of them without essential gear. It wasn’t until near the end, when they played in England, that Brown was reunited with the big wooden box that is his main percussive instrument. Spread across three sets, this three-hour long album shows how swell they sound when they’ve got a committed agent of swing adding his subtle shift to their Bo Diddley meets Mauritanian wedding music groove. If you know I Was Real, you’ll recognize many of these tunes, and you’ll likely appreciate the differences that 75 Dollar Bill works and reworks upon them.

Bill Meyer

  Bandgang Lonnie Bands \ Bandgang Javar – The Scamily (TF Entertainment \ Empire)

After Bandgang broke up, Lonnie Bands made a successful solo career. His only misfortune, apart from a murder rap prosecutors tried to stick him with, was that he picked up a no-talent partner Javar. Here, surrounded by aggressive but undistinguished artists Mascoe and Paid Will, Lonnie hasn’t learned lesson. Thankfully, Javar makes his presence on The Scamily scarce, and the second half is basically Lonnie’s solo effort with some guests. As usual, Lonnie makes himself busy in illegal activities: drugs, scams, pimping, firearms. He neatly sums up his bad deeds on “Me Too”: “You on that bullshit? Me too.” The Scamily is not that focused as last year’s KOD but Lonnie, with his slick rhyming and catchy hooks, always reinvents a bad man’s lexicon.

Ray Garraty

 Sammy Brue — Crash Test Kid (New West)

Sammy Brue is no longer quite the wunderkind he was when he released his first full-length at 15, but he is still quite impressive here on the follow-up, hitching the spit and fire and wordy angst of, say, Ezra Furman, to the downhome pyrotechnics of Bob Log III. “Teenage Mayhem” explodes with teenage aggression, building out a twitchy blues riff into a monumental rock chorus, while “Crash Test Kid,” is softer sonically, but just as unflinching in its narrative. “Skatepark Doomsday Blues” is epic and grandiose but carries it off, infusing an old man’s blues progressions with the eruptive feelings of young manhood. All the signs point towards Brue growing into his art. He’s already channeling raw emotion into sharp song structures and lyrics without sacrificing their force. It’s a drag getting old, but it doesn’t have to be a step back.

Jennifer Kelly

 John Butcher — On Being Observed (Weight of Wax)

On Being Observed by John Butcher

English saxophonist John Butcher has a deep and diverse discography, much of it on CD. Since the standard of his playing is so high, and the settings and accompanists he selects so diverse, they’ve never been merely about documentation; you’d have to look hard to find a dud on the shelves. But as format preferences, economic shifts, and that damned virus turn everything upside down, Butcher has, like everyone else, found himself suddenly with plenty of time to comb through the hard drives and reassess the music stored there. And since CD manufacturing and distribution has been snarled up worldwide, what better time to transfer some of it straight to yours? On Being Observed comprises six solo performances recorded between 2000 and 2006, and you could not ask for a better introduction to what he does on his own. It features him in the studio, at a jazz festival, and in some unusual acoustic environments which afford a number of ways to understand what it means to read the room. Whether he’s playing to an audience or a 20 second delay in a dis-used gas storage facility, acoustically or amplified, using a soprano or tenor sax, Butcher’s tone is unmistakable, and his sense of how long to develop ideas and how to develop them is peerless.

Bill Meyer.

 Carling & Will — Soon Comes Night (self-released)

Carling & Will (banjo player Carling Berkhout and multi-instrumentalist William Seeders Mosheim) have spent the last few years working out new twists on old-time music. Their debut album Soon Comes Night takes another a step forward from their previous, more traditional sound. Much of the album relies on the interplay of banjo and electric guitar. The pair don't go for outre sounds, but Mosheim provides textures for Berkhout's banjo playing. “Lillie's Lullaby” offers a highlight, not only in its prettiness, but in its revelation of Berkhout's idiosyncracies as she shifts in and out of more typical patterns. The album in itself makes for a lovely collection of songs, but it has both the ups and downs of an act starting to find itself. Carling & Will have a distinct voice, and the more they work to develop that (probably by letting Berkhout get odder and Mosheim explore his voicings a little), the more impressive they'll become. If the pair decides to just focus on smaller updates to mountain music, they've already shown a worthy artistry in that.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Cloud Rat — “Faster” (Self-released)

Faster by Cloud Rat

Like a lot of us, the folks in Cloud Rat have been cooped up behind walls, watching the world burn. But that hasn’t stopped them from making some terrific music. This new track, “Faster,” has been posted to Bandcamp as a benefit for Black Lives Matter-aligned organizations. The song is somewhat in the mode of their most recent EP, Do Not Let Me off the Cliff (2019). That record traded in the band’s characteristic grindpunk intensities for some weirdo experiments in dreampop, noise and gauzy gothic nightmare soundtracks. “Faster” isn’t quite as far out there, and longtime listeners of the band will recognize some of the textures of tracks like “Moksha,” “Raccoon” and “Luminescent Cellar.” The song starts and ends with some lovely acoustic finger-picking by guest musician Andy Gibbs of Thou. In between, there are clean vocals by Madison Marshall that border on the ethereal, and electric riffs that build and build toward majestic heights. Good cause, great tune.

Jonathan Shaw  

 Drakeo the Ruler – Thank You for Using GTL (Stinc Team)

Recorded through a phone line from prison, with beats later provided by JoogSZN, Thank You For Using GTL right after its release was named best prison album since Penitentiary Chances, by now classic joint effort by C-Murder (still incarcerated) and Boosie Badazz (now free). It was too strong a claim to be true. On that duo’s album you can hear a sense of doom hanging over them. When all hope is lost, there is only a prayer, and even that can get lost on its way to God. There was no tomorrow. Drakeo the Ruler, on the other hand, raps like there is tomorrow. Even rough sound of voice recording and “This call is being recorded” tags are more like a necessary sound effect and a gimmick rather than an effect of reality (he couldn’t do it any other way). Strip this tape of all these effects, and you end up with an ordinary rap album, exactly like others released by dozens every week. Maybe there is no reason to thank GTL. It did us a disservice.

Ray Garraty

 Holy Hive — Float Back to You (Big Crown)

These super laid back funk soul cuts stay well inside the pocket, except when they veer unexpectedly into indie-folk. The funk parts come from one-time Dap King Homer Steinweiss, whose loose but transcendent way with a groove can be best heard on “Hypnosis.” Paul Spring, the singer, brings in the psychedelic falsetto, more Justin Vernon than Curtis Mayfield, but still radiant and chilling. The title track plays like a lost 78 soul classic, Spring’s mournful melody wafting skyward as big loopy bass notes and splayed jazz guitar chords drop into a slink and strut of snare drum. That’s maybe what you’d expect from Steinweiss’ Brooklyn soul revivalist resume, but elsewhere, there are surprises. “Red Is the Rose” sounds like Tunng, all space-bopped folk magic and electro-pinging drums, and “Be Thou By My Side” is lattice-picked folk without the slightest hint of syncopation. Both sides of Holy Hive have their sweetness, but only the funk stuff buries a stinger.

Jennifer Kelly    

 Dustin Laurenzi’s Snaketime — Behold (Astral Spirits)

Behold by Dustin Laurenzi

Here’s an irony for you. Composer Louis Hardin, whose habit of dressing up like a Viking and hawking his wares on the streets of mid-20th century NYC turned him into a bona fide attraction, may have conversed with jazz musicians, and shared a record label or two with them. But he didn’t really like jazz. Nonetheless, jazz musicians liked his music back, and they still do. The melodies are graceful, but malleable, and the Bach-meets-powwow rhythms have plenty of productive implications for a percussionist willing to work between the lines. After years of study Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi formed Snaketime, a project named after one of the composer’s rhythmic notions, that turned seven of his compatriots loose upon the Moondog book. Maybe loose isn’t quite the right word, since Laurenzi’s arrangements show deep respect for the original melodies and their exotic vibe. But there’s not a lot of music that can’t be made a bit better when you ask bass clarinetist Jason Stein to improvise from its foundations. This half-hour long tape adds four tunes to the seven on last year’s excellent LP Snaketime: The Music of Moondog, and any one of them could have made the cut if Laurenzi had been given enough rope to make a it a double album in the first place.

Bill Meyer  

 MachineGum — Conduit (Frenchkiss)

Like its Pepto-Bismol-pink cover, these songs seem a bit over-sweet and undernourishing at first, but damned if their synth and disco and art-rock grooves didn’t start to catch on after a few listens. The project, launched in New York City with the mysterious appearance of pink gum machines, is not what you’d expect from a Strokes offshoot, but give Fabrizio Moretti credit for branching out. Here tight, “O Please”’s sleek, wah-wah’d guitars and fat-fingered bass throws off a funk shimmy, but soft, dream-y choruses add an element of electro-pop introspection. “Act of Contrition,” by contrast, swells and swirls with gothy new wave drama, but also vibrates with indie earnestness; it’s like the National playing a New Order cover. If you’d told me a month ago, that I’d be enjoying a super clean, super precise synth-dance album by a member of the Strokes, I’d have laughed, but here we are.

Jennifer Kelly

 Phosphene — Lotus Eaters (Self-Release)

Lotus Eaters by Phosphene

Portland’s Phosphene drifts and drones in a satisfying vintage 4AD-ish way, the serene vocals of Rachel Frankel wafting out over intricate tangles of shoe-gazey guitars as Matthew Hemmerich pounds out motorik rhythms on the kit. This album, the band’s second, was written in the turbulent aftermath of the 2016 election, but it exudes a murky calm. In “Carousel,” for example, Frankel sings about how “everyone gets lost in their own power,” but the temperature remains cool, dream-like, lit by arcs of guitar sound and undergirded by a thudding mantra of bass (Kevin Kaw). The two singles run closest to pop. Bright, upbeat “Cocoon” is spiked with Spoon-ish piano chords, while “The Wave” damn near bubbles with girl pop exuberance. I can see why they’re leaning on those cuts, but I like the cloudy radiance of “Seven Ways,” the morose moods of “The Body” better.

Jennifer Kelly

 Sara Schoenbeck / Wayne Horvitz — Cell Walk (Songlines)

Cell Walk by Wayne Horvitz/Sara Schoenbeck

Bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck and pianist Wayne Horvitz built to their first duo release slowly. They've been playing together since the previous decade in Horvitz's Gravitas Quartet, working together in various styles. The bassoon doesn't necessarily lend itself to jazz, but Schoenbeck's experience with artists like Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton — as well as in various orchestras and symphonies — has revealed her fluency in different languages. Horvitz and Schoenbeck develop that approach on Cell Walk, mixing composed and improvised tracks, moving from jazz to classical and back again, happily residing in a new music space. The pair's chamber background comes to the fore more than anything else, but the artists' experimental ideas and Horvitz's occasional electronics keep the duo moving forward. The album mostly stays cool, although a few tempo shifts and Schoenbeck's varied tone create unexpected energy any time the disc starts to settle. Schoenbeck and Horvitz fill an unlikely niche, but they also make a good case for expanding it.

Justin Cober-Lake

  R.E. Seraphin — Tiny Shapes (Paisley Shirt)

Tiny Shapes by R.E. Seraphin

Ray Seraphin makes sweet, sharp songs out of guitar jangle and whispers that seem to nestle right in your ear. His first cassette under his own name after a stint in the slightly more abrasive Talkies kicks up a power pop dust and haze a la Luna or, more recently, Plates of Cake. Like these bands, however, he envelops smart, coiling melodies and wild spiralling guitar hijinks in daydreaming inchoate jangles. In “Streetlight,” Seraphin vamps and caroms in spike-y mid-temperature anthemry, crooning “And I won’t feel a thing,” and indeed there’s a misty, nostalgic remove around most of this album’s emotional content. Yet there’s also a classic pop shape that can’t quite be obscured by muttered, offhand delivery. “Fortuna” is the best bit, to my ears, a summer radio megahit heard from several rooms away, bittersweet and slipping away even as it plays.

Jennifer Kelly

 Stars Like Fleas — DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO (Amsterdam) (self released)

DWARS Session: Live on Radio VPRO (Amsterdam) by Stars Like Fleas

New York collective Stars Like Fleas are still gone, but the tracers and streamers left in the air by their passing continue to be entrancing. Whatever collapsed in the wake of their work on the follow up to their epochal LP The Ken Burns Effect can perhaps be glimpsed a little in the bulk of this first (and hopefully not last) release from what they describe as “a huge archive of live and session material.” As the title indicates, six of the 11 tracks here come from a radio session they did during their final tour (coming apart and leaving the final album unfinished upon their return to America). Along with a couple of Ken Burns highlights that session is all new material and it is as rich as anything they released during their lifetime. The collection is rounded out with some brief improvisations and another track intended for the final album, the 7” single “End Times”, and a wonderful performance of “Falstaff” from a Toronto show. Perversely and beautifully enough, the result is not only a must listen for fans of the group, it makes an excellent introduction for anyone who missed them the first time. Bring on the archives!  

Ian Mathers  

 Thecodontion — Supercontinent (I, Voidhanger)

Supercontinent by Thecodontion

 A death metal band entirely devoted to songs about ancient, paleolithic lifeforms and geological history? It’s not the most harebrained musical concept you may have heard — it even makes a sort of sense. What better musical genre to address such massive, atavistic and lumbering forms? Supercontinent is the Italian duo’s first LP, following 2019’s Jurassic EP. As its title suggests, this new Thecodontion record goes way, way back, to primal landforms, before continental drift assembled the earthball’s map into its current shape. Appropriately, the longest track on Supercontinent is “Pangaea,” named for the unimaginably huge late Paleozoic landmass. Thecodontion’s featured instrument is Giuseppe D’Adiutorio’s bass, which he variously thrums, hammers and shreds. He gets some pretty amazing sounds out of it, sometimes producing the soaring, moaning, keening sounds that Greg Lake coaxed out of his bass on the early King Crimson recordings. The proggy reference is pointed; Thecodontion’s high concept project smacks of prog’s grandiosity. But where prog shoots for the heavens, Thecodontion goes bone hunting. It’s interesting work.  

Jonathan Shaw

 Various Artists — Building A Better Reality: A Benefit Compilation (JMY)

Building A Better Reality : A Benefit Compilation by Various Artists

As Bandcamp’s choice to waive its portion of transaction proceeds in favor or certain needs and causes has evolved from an occasional to a monthly event, releases have started to appear which take advantage of both the event and the rapidity of production when no physical objects are being produced. George Floyd died under a policeman’s knee on May 25; this compilation was released just 24 days later, on Juneteenth. Brent Gutzeit of TV Pow secured 106 contributions from friends, friends of friends, and customers of friends — and that’s just the parties that this writer recognizes. They range in length from Kendraplex’s 58 seconds of metallic shredding to Joshua Abrams’ half hour of mournful clarinet and cathartic double bass. You’ll find acoustic protest music, swinging jazz, harsh noise, hip-hop, and a sound collage that includes sounds of protest and mourning. The participants include Simon Joyner, Jsun Borne, I Kong Kult, Jesse Goin, Chris Brokaw, AZITA, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and the Jeb Bishop Trio, along with many, many more. Have I listened to them all yet? Of course not! But the thing with a set like this is that you don’t need to. Put it into your shuffle play and it’ll yield surprises for years to come. Income goes to Black Lives Matter, NAACP Legal Defense Fund. and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Bill Meyer

 Michael Vincent Waller — A Song (Longform Editions)

A Song by Michael Vincent Waller

At first listen, you might not guess that composer Michael Vincent Waller’s new EP/song A Song is an improvised piece, and as the surrounding material on Bandcamp makes clear, that’s kind of part of the point. Composition vs. improvisation is the kind of duality where both sides are never really distinct, and Waller is both interested in the history of composers improvising and (possibly naturally) improvises in a way that’s not a million miles away from his compositions. Which also means that just on that first listen the 21 minutes of solo piano found here are frequently beautiful, whether patiently probing a set of arpeggios or momentarily going somewhere a bit darker and deeper near the end. Whether considered as work done around or between more composed ones or in its own right, A Song makes for both a fine follow up to Waller’s 2019 collection Moments and a brief thesis on the always permeable boundary between two methods of creation.  

Ian Mathers

[rqs902]

.

This is the strangest and most 隨便 and least emotional ranking reveal ever

What is xikan's weird pink streaked hair

You know it makes no sense for xzx to make it in when cxh is #23 and they're literally the same person except for his connection to gjm... CMON CXH TOTALLY KNOWS ITS RIGGED LOOK AT HIS FACE

so did akey only make it in bc 20boy or did youku add him into top 14 just so it wouldnt look weird for xzx to be the only unexpected one

Wait did we get to see them eat hotpot together or am I forgetting something

Aw all of zlj's group came together except zhan yu bc tyger lol

Ofcourse ycw could get emotional lol

That was a weird transition straight into a shot of douzi lol

Also can we talk about how awkward zry and xzx are on stage LOLLL actually when I think about it, in comparison, ycw being as comfortable as he is on stage is pretty impressive.

Also gz's voice sounds nice! But also theres some weird audio stuff going on with the live and recorded voices not lining up LOL awkward.

Im just watching this perf being like why this song.....

LOL SBR'S MILK TEA SHOP

wait so people who didnt make it in ep 1 just dont exist to this show LOL rip

LOL LI HAOS FACE when syh is talking hahahahhhahahahahha

Lol this second group just standing on stage all bored of waiting lol

Omg lin mos voice

Wat just happened to him lol

Ooof lin rans voice is so fitting ahhhh

So why are they still singing covers during the finale lol

Lol why am I so amused that lin mos interaction with the girl was basically no interaction LOL

Lol feels like they're not singing live

Lin mo has lost a lot of weight

PLEASE LET LIN RAN CENTER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HE NEEEEEEDS THISSSSSS

Please please please please please omg this can be it, this can be a lyj moment!!!

LOL WHY DO THEY GET MULTIPLE VOTES lol wasting everyone's time making things over dramatic

I'm sorry I love ycw but lin ran neeeeeeeds this

OMGOMGOGMGOMGMGNGMG YESSSSSSSSSS LIN RAN CENTERRRRRR

Lol they look out of sync and they don't seem to be singing live either?

Man this isnt as satisfying as I thought itd be bc the center doesnt stand out very much?? He doesnt even get a particularly nice outfit.... the camera is also not particularly focusing on him....

This song is okay but why is xzx suddenly a vocal

看我的手段!!!!!!! Tyger!!!!!

Tbh this perf looks messy and the outfits and staging are so mediocre??? This is so far from what I imagined a finale stage to look like.

The top 14 is missing a strong vocal like ZHAN YU lol... even renyu when dancing doesnt sound particularly strong :/

Lol ylq and cyc sitting together lol

Ay Jin fan and zhan yu!!!!!

Gz and zlj are both really good dancers and maybe I'm just biased but I feel like the other group did better, just had more strength? Their friendship is cute tho hahaha

Omg hwx and lm imitating them IM DED

I'm not super perturbed who gets center bc I dont think itll really matter for these kids, they're ranked so safe. But hoping itll be xikan just bc I love xikan :')

Xikan and zuo ye repping IP ayyyy

AY XIKAN but c'mon if it wasnt, it wouldn't make much sense. plus youku owes him LOL

Xse rap a bit messy

But this song and stage is so much more high quality designed than lin ran's smh

Lol did zlj just say "booty" wat

Lol did lin mo mess up

Im just so happy they actually LOOK good, and even tho the prerecorded is so overbearing at least lin mos voice sounds nice on it LOL

When zlj is in a group of strong performers like this, you really notice how much he gets buried...

LUO ZHENGGGGGGG OMGGGG HE LOOKS SO MATURE WTFFFFF I'm so happy he came, what real friendship :')

Lol ycw's mom would be here lol

Awwww luo jie.....

Aww dxy and lxk first meeting and cyc and ycw wow such warm beginnings

Aw Jin fan and sbh friendshipp

LOL LI HAO RIPPING THE CAMERA OFF THE WALL

Ylq crying like a ycw lol

Ayy I hear lin mo cheers :')

Lol they added shoulder pads to their uniforms, is this ytzm style lol

I would not be surprised if star master paid for 2 tygers to make it into the top 14 lol

aw akey's crying.... I'm happy for him, doing so much better this time around. He deserves to have more recognition for all he does

Lol ycw isnt crying??? Loljk and even cyc aw

LIN RANNNNN aw hes crying too... and xue en

Aw gz reminding us that hes really just a smol child inside.

Lin mo's been through all of this before so hes trying really hard to be strong. Ofcourse youku is suppressing his votes to put him at the edge to add drama ugh this is the type of thing that would happen to lin mo.... literally he deserves to be so safe pls

Hwx also just a child inside aw

lol I'm sorry this is supposed to be so emotiona but hwx's foundation is such a weird shade lol actually zuo ye's is too LOL

I'm grateful for the extra xue en footage? Lol seems random but hes so handsome darn

Omg is xikan teaching a bunch of moms how to dance eiei

I love tygers

Omg LI HAO THIS VCR ENDING IS TOP QUALITY HAHAHHHAA

Singapore broooooos

Ofcourse li hao yet again delivering us the eng subs lol

Oh gosh seeing lin mo sing this type of song with this look of sadness reminds me too strongly of the qcyn finale. Oh gosh the hair, the gaze, it's such a punch to the gut

Wow these kids look so uninvested LOOOOLLL but also I'm surprised they let all them back on stage for this and not the theme song?

Oscar comforting a distraught lin ran omg can we pls talk about this

Hm how did they do this part distribution lol

Literally youku keeps using junrong for his voice but gives him no recognition ugh

The crowd cheering for xikan yus

Oh I notice enyu's hair is styled like a wave oo

Why is Jin Fan's hair such a strange color

Lol ycw would be completely ruined

Aw lin mo's little smile at the end of his words

Youku is really bent on making this the longest finale ever lol...... another song???? With everyone??? Uhhh and obviously some people's mics aren't on??? I'm so confused what is happening why cant I hear some of their voices lol

LOL LI HAO RUNNING INYO ENYU HAHAHA

This is really dragging things out lol I'm just doing work while watching bc no ones got time for this much unnecessary build up..... good thing all my meetings are in the afternoon today lol

At least they kinda highlighted xikan more in that last montage... finally

Ugh why did renyu get 6th. I think it means it's over for lin ran. You know I'm not surprised but also I still cant believe youku did this. What a disaster.... I knew I'd be disappointed by these results :( im literally shaking my head.

the rest is gonna be lxk zlj hwx zy lm gz in whatever order youku wants. Well it's over. Thanks for the quick ending to the suspense youku lol

They even had the audacity to put zry 6th.....not even 7th..... is this an insult? Theres no way. It's like they want to make it seem like he was safely at the top but theres no way.

Well I knew not to get my hopes up, gotta be ready for disappointment lol.... lm hasn't been announced yet at #3..... lol is this what star master had to pay to get akey in top 14? Pulling lin mo down. Well I feel like this is gonna be a damper on his career bc the media wont care how high you ranked before, but only where you rank at the end. And the ranking becomes how the media defines you.

How tf would lin mo go from 3rd to 7th wtf. Theres no way. He literally has one of the largest fan bases lol this makes zero sense. Way to play with someone's career for the sake of your dumb drama youku

Why is stanning lin mo always like this...... ugh he always gets stepped on and mistreated

I'm sure hes disappointed, hes supposed to be higher and everyone knows. Theres a reason the fans were demanding 高位, not just debut

Also rip lin ran sigh I'm so sad for lin ran too.... what will lin ran do now... he was so close this time :( is he gonna have to do this again?

and the kid has been so distraught for the better half of this 4 hour show.... you can tell how much this really means to him and how desperate he is and how empty and completely ruined he’ll feel when he realizes hes lost. tbh i dont think renyu would’ve felt that destroyed. but youku is here to destroy lin ran. 

I knew youku would disappoint me

THANK YOU AT LEAST XIKAN IS CENTER. If anything, he shouldn't be so emotional bc he shouldn't have needed to be so worried. He so safely has the largest fanbase, but youku just didnt make it easy for him. The main reason why he has doubt in himself is because of youku, and it's sad bc he deserve to feel safe, he shouldn't have to feel so insecure.

Me still smh to see renyu on the other side and lin ran stuck in the back.

Lol the right side of the debut group (the public's picks) vs the left side (youku's picks)....

Lol SKY could be worse

Lol feels like youku just being like let's pick a random english word

Okay but really, I just really want to know what lin ran will do next

I have zero hopes youku will actually manage this group well. Let's look at new storm or blackace lol

Like we all knew this lineup would happen but it doesnt make me any less sad or disappointed

Welp at least it's over now. Time to continue doing my work lol

renyu makes nice songs

but that doesnt mean he fits in a boy band better than lin ran 

i dont think ill ever get over this