#but this is like an official album on his discography forever and i love it so much bc its like exactly what his music was made for

[silouvertongues]

something about the sort of immortalization of louis' voice with the fans voices on an official album is making me so emotional

[dangopango00]

COLLEGE BAND AU HEADCANONS

Legato x gn reader

It was pretty rude of me to just randomly put an au fic without explanation so heres the explanation bye still self indulgent; always will be i fear

more utc

- OK FIRST ABOUT HIM. He works for knives still but in this au his job is to cause vash suffering by 😭😭… outselling him??? Ridonkulous ik but go with it

- Knives wants him to outsell vash so vash realizes that art and human creativity is obsolete and instead help him run his tech/AI company that also focuses on helping global warming (humans suck they should die. robots go!)

- Hes apart of a band to rival Vash’s and ofc its the Gung Ho Guns; he hired them to play for him

- Tbh i think their genre isnt set in stone bc theyre purely doing this to outsell vash so I think theyd keep the core of it rock or indie but it has a lot of shifting gears, doing wtv gets the most traction

- Legato is the bassist but he knows keyboard if their keyboardist is absent

- I think legato writes most of the songs himself (to impress knives ofc this is still HIS mission afterall) and gets a lil sad and defensive if it flops LMFAO even if its just his first album; considering how Knives talked down on music Legato thought it’d be somewhat easy

- It DEFINITELY took him a while to write things that had some semblance of humanity in it tbh he had to have either another less emotionally stunted member write it or a ghost writer but he did still practice writing in his spare time since he had nothing better to do

- NOW ABOUT YALL. Ur roommates in a college dorm; if it were up to him he’d have an apartment but knives wanted him to keep an eye on vash and vash lives on campus

- He only has like one or two official rules as roommates but if ur pissing him off with sth thats not on the list he WILL let u lnow LOL

- The only rules established off rip are:

1. MYOB

2. Do not touch him (no tolerance rule if u touch him without permission he WILL be out of there asap even if its a lot of trouble and will probably even idk push u or sth ignore u forever, hope and pray on ur downfall idk its hard to translate his violent tendencies to modern society without getting him arrested ok)

- You often eat together when he isnt busy tbh usually in silence but its ok its comfortable silence (to him at least)

- Ok im gonna try to say this in the least creepy way possible but like. He likes to observe you for inspiration HEAR ME OUT. Just seeing u go about ur day and since hes always in first person POV seeing someone else just… live gives him immense inspiration on what to write

- He also gets inspo from other artists and heres where u come in hehe. You are a solo artist who doesn’t show your face and your speaking voice is pretty much completely different from ur singing voice (Not like insanely different but if you heard the two separately you wouldnt really connect the dots unless ur one of those people who connect voices easily + depending on ur genre u could be using a completely different tone of voice than usual)

- Your genre is a little similar to Legato’s in the fact that although you keep your core component (Love theme IMO but hey i dont make the rules yes i doo) you change around the other moving parts such as the instruments or wtv so he listens to your music often though he never really thought it would be you; just never really thought about the possibility

- Im not gonna say hes like obsessed with your artist persona or anything but he does (as much as he would rather khs than admit it since according to Knives music is the bane of this world) greatly enjoy your music and often finds himself getting your songs stuck in his head

- Hes def a gatekeeper i mean this is the guy who can name every song in ur discography (Not saying much though since you dont post too often)

- ANYWAY u have no idea this is going on since hes prone to just listening to music in his headphones rather than showing you or blasting it for the world to hear so ur relationship is developing as normal roommates

- You often get him stuff from the college snack shack and in return he often gives u whatever he doesnt want from the dining hall (that sounds crappy but its usually good stuff like ur fave fruit or cheese and crackers or sth)

- After u become a bit closer going on trips together becomes common not like vacation but like a little drive to a department store or him taking you with him to practice/performances

- SPEAKING OF PRACTICE U work part time at a coffee shop and it has a practice room which is where he usually brings his band it sounds random but I’ve encountered a coffee place like this before ok

- Killing two birds with one stone, he gets to see you on his way in and out and he gets a quiet place to practice + Vash often brings his band here too so ig killing two birds and one afterthought with one stone

- Other GHGs (NOT greenhouse gasses. Gung ho guns) think that ur another one of his groupies probably 💀 he def has tons i fear

- He def writes songs about you or rather than about you, references how u make him feel but he is in denial and thinks feelings are embarrassing so hes just like no they just gave me inspiration

- Its ok though the only one he has to justify himself to is himself bc hes like. The only one who knows its about u since his songs are never rlly about romance and in the rare cases that they are its very subtle

- When, if ever, he feels ready for touch he frames it like hes doing u a favor lmao “I will allow you to (blank)” he is tbh

Random Misc:

- Hes majoring in Ecology or Conservation Biology prob minoring in sth like computer science (his entire life surrounds Knives what did u expect)

- Sleeps in his daytime clothes and ur always like ???? Esp bc he wears jeans often… U two went to the department store one time and u convinced him to let u buy him pajamas so he could wash the day clothes overnight

- Hes a big ass fan of vinyls and cds and just physical ways of owning things like music or games but wont admit to himself he likes it its just for the aesthetic ok even though he has a record and cd player

- Wants to cut ur hair and feels like its one of the most intimate things u could do without having to touch too much (forever subscribed to knives cut his hair hc)

- If u have a lot of accessories and generally just a lot of stuff he gets annoyed if it isnt properly organized and will organize it for u wnv hes having writers block

- If ur an artist he has u make his merch designs n stuff 😍😍 he pays very generously he rlly dgaf abt money tbh + Knives sponsoring him

A/N: irrelevant but idk whether to imagine him as tristamp or trigun design like both are so good but Ok im done yapping ty

[catty-words]

notes on a haven (2024) listen

a/n one: i was reading the fidlar wikipedia page recently (as one does) and this pitchfork quote really struck a chord with me - "[the band doesn't] make music you'll grow old with...but that's not really the point."

reading that, my mind immediately leapt to marianas trench.

i started listening to mt's music in 2021, when i was deeply unhappy, in need of escape, and barely cognizant of either of those things. their music brought me much joy for the way it was endlessly fun and danceable and facilitated the imagining of scenarios for my favorite fictional characters. but lately - before haven (2024) had been officially announced - i'd been thinking that i wouldn't grow old with them.

i came into this album asking it to prove me wrong and it didn't and that broke my heart a little bit. my listening experience is forever colored by that first impression.

a/n two: i presuppose that the fundamental tension in all of marianas trench's discography is between sickness and love, where the sickness is both literal & the drive to perform selfhood and the love is both a person & the audience consuming that selfhood. you can disagree, but then explain why my masterpiece theatre (2009) breakdown did numbers?

"a normal life"

- marianas trench openers have a history of setting the tone and soundscape of their album with impeccable flare, but that's just not true of "a normal life". it's giving generic film score. it's giving netflix YA property script quality. it's giving self-consciousness about how hard it is to sing the word 'normal' prettily.

- i can't say it doesn't accomplish its goals entirely, though, i find a lot of thematic richness in the chorus.

the voices in the night evoke mental illness but also suggests the inability to stop writing lyrics, to stop chasing the performance. for five years, our protagonist has been living inside normality (or at least without performance), but something innate to him can't settle there.

- the final verse and outro, too -

- drive home an idea of compulsion. the need to create means lack of stability.

"lightning and thunder"

- a second's faster than we thought gets to me. i haven't come to any meaningful conclusion as to why, i'm just kermit-nodding.gif about it.

- i am a sucker for the way the energetic rhythm of the pre-chorus contrasts with how effing dark the lyrics are.

what we got is a compensation. the performance (one last show) is costing him his heart.

- the chorus suggests that coming back to this performance (after a couple years of [feeling] estranged) is fate, is a force of nature. but honestly? given how much of this album sounds bored with itself, sounds like it was forced out at every step of the creative process, i simply cannot take the premise of the song seriously. and it's even a highlight on the album for me! woof!

"i'm not getting better"

- a bop. thank god. this album suffers from a lack of certified bops.

- why is the opening instrumentation serving "blank space" by taylor swift, though.

- see??

every piece of the album so far has highlighted the way performing - the creative voice in our protagonist's head, being on stage for one last show, the dance he needs to leave - is unhealthy. to get better, our protagonist has to walk away from all this.

and my overwhelming reaction to this through line is. SO GO. the music certainly isn't making a compelling case as to why we need you to hang around.

- anyway, this song is also critical in establishing that the grand love in the protagonist's life is still A Person. i know, i know by the sound you make / you've been around, 'cause your heartbeat keeps me awake / i know, i know i should stay away and all that.

"down to you"

- this has been my main grower track. it's gotten stuck in my head the most, its the place where the campbell inspiration does the most work (reading the song as the narrative speaking to its protagonist makes all about you, with or without you a very chewy refrain), and i had to admit to myself that it belongs on a ship playlist that is near and dear to my heart.

- HOWEVER. because it's also explicitly about the protagonist's love object - a broken heart and stay with me tonight and you're all i want - it sucks ass. this demonstrates exactly zero progress toward self-actualization or seeing porcelain as anything more than a fix-all for our protagonist's life. GET A JOB. STAY AWAY FROM HER.

"now or never"

NO

a reaction that works both in the context of the love being a literal person and the love being the audience. do not give yourself up to keep serving either of us, that's not what we're asking you to do.

"into the storm"

- on the other hand, i find this a really powerful commentary on the protagonist's relationship with his love:

he chose to immortalize versions of both of them forever in his art, and they can't escape those versions because they're always on the radio. that's as bitter as it is romantic. that's haunting, a la phantoms (2019).

i also really like the way the of mine ambiguously applies to either the broken record or the radio. the cadence of the delivery sells the former, though, and i am gnawing gnawing gnawing.

"ancient history"

- okay, but.

we just did this in the last track? and it was much less on the nose??

- i will admit to being emotional over the toronto name drop, though. maybe it's because the have a piece of american dream lyric looms large in my brain, but i often feel like mt avoids being so explicitly canadian. i like that we've been given a setting to imagine a wistful re-encounter with love, and that setting is toronto.

"stand and fight"

- a track where the campbell inspiration feels like it's doing the least! what are we fighting? why do we need this generic pep talk? this would be cheesy regardless, but it would actually mean something if we'd built a concrete enemy to stand against!!

"turn and run"

- i have similar issues with this track as with "stand and fight" but i will admit that the dramatic turn in the instrumentals does hit for me.

- though the more fantastical setting (the edge of where the world drops) comes out of nowhere, i can't say i hate it. i kind of wish this energy had been present throughout the album. i wish this album had a more concrete identity and understanding of itself.

"worlds collide"

- i hadn't yet clicked with this track, but okay. i guess with a title like "worlds collide" it Would be about reconciling those voices in the dark (i.e. the sickness, the need to live in the spotlight) keeping our protagonist from his normal life (i.e. settling down with his love). i can get down with the intent to weave together the established threads.

the repetition of several key lyrics from this album really brings home that intent, too.

- and i obviously love that they chose masterpiece theatre (2009) lyrics specifically to include in the repetition section.

it corroborates my read that haven (2024) is taking up the mantle of performance costing the protagonist something essential at the same time that it is something essential to their selfhood.

- BUT. i find the music and the production uninspired. it's simply not a song with a strong identity of it's own, which honestly kind of fucks thematically speaking since the protagonist is struggling mightily to marry the contradictory forces of nature on his life, but i don't want to have to engage with this primarily as text for it to fuck. i want it to be good music first, and it's still mainly serving me generic film score.

"nights like these"

- bored.

"remember me by"

- a bop! thank god! this album suffers from a lack of certified bops!!

- since this album is supposed to have a narrative - even if that narrative is a meta-narrative about the shape all myths take - this necessarily feels like regression. we're back to talking about how the protagonist and his love first met? why?

- whatever. like i said: a bop!

- you've got me burning like a dive bar cigarette really does it for me in terms of similes. there's skeeze! there's an unhealthy element! there's a 'hot and quick' implication that really works! i fuck with this so hard!!

- also, the i'll give you something to remember me by sitting in the shadow of "into the storm"!!! he gave her an inescapable musical legacy! FUCK!!

"haven"

- unlike the album opener, "haven" does live up to the mt legacy of closing tracks Going Hard. i feel like it picks up the fantastical, gritty edge from "turn and run", which sets the closer in a distinctly storybook land. it also folds in the rain/water/force of nature motif that has otherwise not done much for me through the rest of the album's run and makes me care.

- ooh ooh OOH this part

just landed with impact for the first time. in the beginning, the protagonist was kept from belonging by the voices, and here, the pairing of but i try to belong here and i'm trying to be gone here suggests that the voices are a kind of coping mechanism insomuch as he isn't present on purpose in order to belong. EATING THAT SHIT UP.

- still don't think this song has any right to evoke "ever after" though, the narrative album that upstages haven (2024) in every way. like, why are you reminding me that you've done this better already? embarrassing for you.

- and then, of course, i still hate the way the resolution claims that this life of constant tension with performance fits our protagonist better than anything else. it's cheap and happens so quickly as to be disingenuous and - ONCE AGAIN - the quality of the music is not making a case that this is something at which the protagonist ought to keep salving away. a break (more permanent than a five-year lapse between albums) might be a relief for everyone.

- not to mention, the literary nerd in me is driven up a wall by this because when the hero returns, he's not supposed to fall easily back into his so-called normal life. he's supposed to be too changed by his experience to reintegrate. and i guess you could make the case that haven's protagonist started out ill-fit to his normal life, so slotting into it neatly in the end is still indicative of the you can't go back story beat.

but you know what? no!! the bitter-sweetness is what makes that part of the monomyth resonate with me. journeys - be they literal or emotional - leave lasting impacts. you're never the same person at the end in a way that's painful but Correct. this twee sentiment wrapping up the album sells that out in favor of maintaining the status quo.

self-actualization when, king?

[borathae]

heyyy sibi!!!! what are your favorite solo songs of theirs? i think 5/7 of mine are from the wings album lmaooo

This is genuinely one of the hardest questions ever omfg how could I only choose one per member? *sobs*

Okay so, Imma make it easier for me and say my favourite upbeat/energetic song AND my favourite slow/calm song by each member 💜 edit which you don't know happened: screw that, imma make my own special lil lists hahahah they have too many good songs, like there is a fucking reason why ever since I started stanning Bangtan, my most listened to artist on spotify has always been them each year. I genuinely, truthfully, honestly love their music. Picking only ONE song when their entire discography is on constant replay with me is too difficult.

Imma also include links for any new ARMYs who might wanna check out the songs <3

Favourite slow/calm melody song:

Namjoon: forever rain

Seokjin: Abyss

Yoongi: Amygdala

Hoseok: Blue Side

Jimin: Letter

Taehyung: Winter Bear

Jungkook: My You

Favourite upbeat/energetic melody song:

Namjoon: Lonely

Seokjin: Super Tuna (obviously)

Yoongi: Life Goes On

Hoseok: More

Jimin: Filter

Taehyung: Inner Child

Jungkook: Standing Next to You

Favourite song from a BTS album:

Namjoon: Reflection

Seokjin: all of them Epiphany

Yoongi: Seesaw

Hoseok: Ego

Jimin: Lie

Taehyung: all of them Inner Child

Jungkook: Euphoria

Favourite song from their solo albums:

Namjoon: Joke | the entire album moonchild | Wild Flower

Seokjin: i can't wait for his solo album, less then four months left besties

Yoongi: The Last | People | the entire album Snooze

Hoseok: Blue Side | Arson | hope on the street coming soon <3

Jimin: Like Crazy

Taehyung: the entire album Slow Dancing

Jungkook: Hate You

Favourite official single:

Namjoon: Bicycle

Seokjin: The Astronaut

Yoongi: eight

Hoseok: Chicken Noodle Soup

Jimin: Promise

Taehyung: Scenery

Jungkook: Still With You

Favourite cover (if they did official covers):

Seokjin: Outside the Autumn Post Office

Taehyung: Ending Scene

Jungkook: If You Falling

[appears]

hide: ROCKET DIVE

Within hide's (as it would turn out to be) small discography, ROCKET DIVE is one of the biggies. Like PINK SPIDER before it, it was the last of a certain kind of single release (the last one hide was alive to see), and due to its proximity to his death, comes saddled with interesting baggage.

The single, which came out in January of 1998, was the first to be released under the group name "hide with Spread Beaver" rather than hide's name alone. The change was meant to acknowledge the contributions of the band members, while also cementing the live band that he had already been working with for years. Among the colorful cast of characters were hide's former band mate in X Japan, Pata, I.N.A., who would come to be something of hide's musical right-hand man, as well as someone like Chirolyn, who added the kind of wild personality that made the band stand out aesthetically -- technically, hide's pink hair already did this, but if any mainstream J-rocker was less inhibited on stage than Chirolyn, I never saw them.

"ROCKET DIVE" was written and recorded in Los Angeles well before hide's passing, while plans were being drafted for subsequent single releases, an album, and a concert tour. The song leans heavily into hide's new predilection for more industrial elements in his music, an obvious nod to his love for groups like Garbage, Nine Inch Nails, and Marilyn Manson. Unlike the more organic Hide Your Face, or the smorgasbord of PSYENCE, the songs on what would eventually be Ja,Zoo embraced synths and computers to achieve their sound, one boosted by hide's signature vocals and sense of dangerous fun. "ROCKET DIVE" is ostensibly a song advocating the escape of everyday ennui for a life of adventure by taking off unfettered into the freedom of outer space. Enhanced by sex and drug references, it's unclear whether this freedom can be found literally or just chemically. Does it matter? Both take you "to the world where new stars glitter." Like "PINK SPIDER," it's a meditation upon feelings of unsatisfying emptiness, and a yearning for the bigger, brighter things in life. As an introduction to his new sound, it did a lot of explaining while also leaving room for experimentation, a perpetual exploration of whatever styles hide had yet to play with (pop, rock, reggae, jazz, industrial, and thrash being only some of the ones he already parlayed into some of the most exciting J-rock of the 90s).

In that sense, the inclusion of an amped up version of "DOUBT" for the B-side could leave a listener nonplussed. The original song had been released as the B-side for his second single 50% & 50% in 1993, and is here renamed the "MIXED LEMONed JELLY MIX." While retaining the same base melody, lyrics, and general ambience, the song is updated to represent the harder sound hide was creating with Spread Beaver, and in some ways echoes the kind of work that he would begin exploring with his U.S.-based band Zilch. With its aggressive rhythm and hypnotic chorus, it's always been one of my favorite hide songs, and his iconic, satirical performance of it as a salary man, just hours before he passed, ranks as one of my all-time favorite. Based on his return to the song, it's clear something about the original felt lacking, unfinished, or inauthentic for him to take the time to update it.

This single was originally released on the 3″ mini-CD format and comes in standard packaging, with the lyrics and song credits printed on the inside back cover. Besides the two above tracks, it also includes the karaoke version of "ROCKET DIVE." As a testament to the song's amazing energy, it was chosen as the first track off of hide's first posthumous greatest hits collection, hide BEST ~PSYCHOMMUNITY~, and as that was my first official hide album, it thus cemented the spirit and image of hide for me forever: bright pink hair in a lemon-yellow track suit, courageously, cheekily, setting sail for the seductive, unpredictable unknown.

Catalog Number: MVDH-9002 RisefromAshes also wrote about this song recently here.

[no-reply95]

Sorry I didn't make my question clear! I wanted to ask about songs from paul's solo albums after 1980! (except here today) like the lovers that never were, scared, etc.

Hi anon,

Thanks for your patience on this!

I'm going to focus on Paul's 80s output only in this post, just to make sure this post isn't too long - will happily do later periods at a later date, if that's something you'd be after?

Also I'm only doing the songs that appear on the original release of the album - but may also revisit those at a later date, if that's something you specifically want me to look into.

Okay, I've pulled out some song lyrics and relevant quotes regarding some songs from Paul's 1980s discography that may be directed to/about John - under a cut as this got long.

McCartney II (1980)

Coming Up

You want a love to last forever

One that will never fade away

I want to help you with your problem

Stick around, I say

"John described ‘Coming Up’ somewhere as ‘a good piece of work’. He’d been lying around not doing much, and it sort of shocked him out of inertia. So it was nice to hear that it had struck a chord with him. At first, after the breakup of The Beatles, we had no contact, but there were various things we needed to talk about. Our relationship was a bit fraught sometimes because we were discussing business, and we would sometimes insult each other on the phone. But gradually we got past that, and if I was in New York I would ring up and say, ‘Do you fancy a cup of tea?’"

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Tug of War (1982)

Tug of War

It's a tug of war

What with one thing and another

It's a tug of war

We expected more

But with one thing and another

We were trying to outdo each other

"Of course I can see how it could fit that interpretation, because John and I did try to outscore each other – that was the nature of our competitiveness – and we were both very up front about it. But it’s also important to realise that our work benefitted from this tug of war in so many ways. I always like the story that someone told me of how John’s hearing ‘Coming Up’ prompted him to get back in the studio to record Double Fantasy. ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’ is a real favourite of mine. So, it’s true that if he wrote a good song, I’d feel I had to write a better one, which is no less a form of inspiration than anything else."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Here Today

What about the time we met? (What about the time we met?)

Well, I suppose that you could say

That we were playing hard to get

Didn't understand a thing

But we could always sing

"I heard somewhere recently, ‘Why can’t men say “I love you” to each other?’ I don’t think it’s as true now as it was back in the 1950s and ’60s, but certainly when we were growing up you’d have had to be gay for a man to say that to another man, so that blinkered attitude bred a little bit of cynicism. If you were talking about anything soppy, someone would have to make a joke of it, just to ease the embarrassment in the room. But there’s a longing in the lines ‘If you were here today’ and ‘I am holding back the tears no more’, because it was very emotional, writing this song. I was just sitting there in that bare room, thinking of John and realising I’d lost him. And it was a powerful loss, so to have a conversation with him in a song was some form of solace. Somehow I was with him again."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

The Pound Is Sinking

Hear me lover

I can't be held responsible now

For something that didn't happen

I knew you for a minute

Oh, it didn't happen

Only for a minute

Your heart just wasn't in it any more

Like many other McCartney’s songs, “The Pound Is Sinking“, from 1982 album “Tug Of War“, was assembled from the fragments of two songs. “Something That Didn’t Happen” is the demo of one of those songs, and was officially released in the 2015 archive edition of “Tug Of War“.

Prior to its official release, it has been made available on countless bootlegs, under the title “Hear Me Lover“.

via The Paul McCartney Project

Wanderlust

Oh, where did I go wrong, my love?

What petty crime was I found guilty of?

What better time to find a brand new day?

Oh, wanderlust away

Pipes of Peace (1983)

The Other Me

Well I Know That One And One Make Two

And That's What I Want Us To Be

I Really Would Appreciate It

If You'd Help Me Find The Other Me

The Other Me Would Rather Be The Glad One

The Other Me Would Rather Play The Fool

I Want To Be The Kind Of Me

That Doesn't Let You Down As A Rule

"We all get into situations where we put our foot in our mouth. We say something we didn’t mean to say, or say something that is taken amiss. So this song is an apology: ‘I know I was a crazy fool / For treating you the way I did / But something took a hold of me / And I acted like a dustbin lid’. Something took over, and I acted childishly – ‘dustbin lid’ is Liverpool rhyming slang for a kid. Often after an argument, people walk away with a lot of strong feelings and energy with nowhere for it to go. If you’re a songwriter, you can use that. In writing songs like ‘The Other Me’, you can be your own psychiatrist. You’re reviewing your actions, admitting your faults and then looking for the solution which will make it better next time.

In the very early days of The Beatles, of course, we didn’t even think of writing songs, except as a little bit of a side project. We mainly just liked fully formed songs that other people had recorded, so we’d do a Chuck Berry song or we’d do a Carl Perkins song or an Elvis song. When John and I met, the first year of our friendship was spent talking about these cover versions, the records we loved, and then playing them again and again. As we got to know each other, we practised these various covers until one day the conversation went, ‘You know, I’ve written one or two songs.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, so have I.’ That gave us something in common that was itself wholly uncommon. I went to a school of a thousand boys and I’d never met anyone who said he’d written a song. Mine were just in my head. So were John’s. We took each other by surprise. And then the logical extension was, ‘Well, maybe we could write one together.’ So that’s how we started. And we became versions of each other."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

Sweetest Little Show

And If They Treat You Like A Brother

Well You Will Never Let Them Down

But If They Treat You Like A Lover

They've Got The Sweetest Little Show In Town

They Got The Sweetest Little Show

Sweetest Little Show

Sweetest Little Show In Town

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984)

No More Lonely Nights

I can wait another day

Until I call you

You’ve only got my heart on a string

And everything aflutter

But another lonely night

Might take forever

We’ve only got each other to blame

It’s all the same to me, love

’Cause I know what I feel to be right

"This was a straightforward love song, really, about a lonely person saying, ‘Can’t wait till we’re together.’ There are a few more lines to reinforce that idea: ‘’Cause I know what I feel to be right’ and ‘You’re my guiding light’. It’s about the heartache of being apart from your loved one and, when you’re back together, not wishing to be apart from them again – ‘May I never miss the thrill / Of being near you’."

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 2021

No Values/No More Lonely Nights

On the waters of life you row your boat

Into the strongest tide that you can find

On the darkest of nights we were two of a kind

We went through it all before the tide went out

And left us stranded on the shore

How was I to know

How was I to know

Press to Play (1986)

Good Times Coming/Feel The Sun

There Was Something About The Weather, What Can I Say?

Nothing Like Any Other Holiday.

That Was A Silly Season, Was It The Best?

We Didn't Need The Reason, Just A Rest.

Happy At The Good Times Coming,

Happy At The Good Times Coming In.

“There’s a nostalgic air about summers that have gone,” explains Paul. “…To me the song is three summers: one when I was a kid going to Butlin’s in my short trousers, feeling embarrassed ’cause I wanted long trousers… Then the second verse is a bit more grown up… I associate that second verse with The Beatles – ‘It was a silly season, was it the best?/We didn’t need a reason, just a rest!’ That’s one of my favourite lines on the album…

via The Paul McCartney Project

Footprints

Oh White Blanket Covers The Memory

Of All That Used To Be. All That Used To Be.

But His Heart Keeps Aching In The Same Old Way,

He Can't Help Feeling That She Might Come Back Someday

However Absurd

Something special between us,

When we made love the game was over.

I couldn't say the words,

Words wouldn't get my feelings through,

So I keep talking to you...

However absurd, however absurd... It may seem.

However absurd, however absurd... It may seem.

There’s a sort of ‘Walrus’ intro to this track, but of course any time you play that style on piano it evokes that. It’s a style I know and love. The lyrics on this song are a bit bizarre, but then again they make a kind of sense, a strange kind of sense. But then I find that things in life don’t always make sense, they’re not always conveniently wrapped up with a little sticker that says ‘This is very sensible!’ Sometimes they are completely absurd, which is what the song is about. In the middle section it explains itself a bit, less surrealist: ‘Something special between us… Words wouldn’t get my feelings through… However absurd it may seem.’ That’s taking off into ‘The Prophet’ by Kahlil Gibran – there’s a line of his that always used to attract me and John, which was ‘Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you’. So it’s that kind of meaning to ‘However Absurd’.

via The Paul McCartney Project

Flowers in the Dirt (1989)

This One

What Opportunities Did We Allow To Flow By

Feeling Like Like The Timing Wasn't Quite Right?

What Kind Of Magic Might Have Worked If We Had Stayed Calm,

Couldn't I Have Given You A Better Life?

[‘This One’] is another very personal song – and it’s sometimes hard to talk about things that are personal. That’s why you put them into a song. ‘This One’ is about relationships. If you love someone, you want to be really great for them. But I don’t know hardly anyone who pulls it off all the time – certainly not me. I can be great for like a week, but then I bum out and blow it. This is about trying to explain how you wish you could always be. It’s about your best impulse.

Paul McCartney, Chicago Sun-Times, 1989 via amoralto

Don't Be Careless Love

Saw Your Face In The Morning Paper,

Saw Your Body Rolled Up In A Rug

Chopped Up Into Two Little Pieces

By Some Thug,

Don't Be Careless Love,

Be Careless Love.

When I returned, Paul had moved on to “Don’t Be Careless Love,” one of the most beautiful melodies that he had brought to our writing sessions and into which we had inserted the horrifying images of a nightmare. It was probably the weirdest song we’d written together. Paul was already at the microphone, delivering a perfect vocal performance in one take. The anger of ten minutes earlier completely evaporated in the face of such a beautiful piece of singing.

Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink, 2015 via The Paul McCartney Project

[eviclair]

thanks to @starlit-pathways for the tag!! love talking about myself, 10/10

last album: i consume 98% of my music through the random shit spotify yeets at my face every week so i dont really ever listen to full albums BUT

Lei Line Eon by Iglooghost : iglooghost and his beepboops have been gluing my mental health together since like 2014. lei line is the most recent album but please know i am listening to his entire discography all the time forever

Afterburner by Dance Gavin Dance : last year prisoner was my most binged song and the only reason thats not still the case is because the i realized the rest of the album was Also great and i just let the whole thing play now

what i DO listen to cover to cover are soundtracks!! constantly!! this weeks favorites are

Made in Abyss from Kevin Penkin : you could not pay me to finish watching this series but mr penkin sir i have feelings for you

Final Fantasy XIII / XIII-2 : this year spotify told me i was in the top 2% of masashi hamauzu’s listeners. this is distressing. who is in the top 1% if not me, i just want to talk.

D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die : man don’t @ me about this i just wanna live in a world where i can get the serotonin hit from theme of d4 without being hit by crushing cancellation sadness

Endwalker OST from Soken: its not officially out for me to link but please know of the 25 hours a day i spend logged into the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV with an expanded free trial which you CAN’T play that covers the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime, about 15 of them are spent healing vanaspati. there is no reason for this. my whm is at cap. i just want that orchestrion roll and i am willing to experience unlimited amounts of violence to obtain it.

last movie: spider-man nwh. it was certainly a movie! i did have fun! 98% of that was my pea brain going OOOH WOOOOOAH ITS SPIDERMAN I LOVE THAT DUDE and not much else, which i guess is the point!! will not be consuming another marvel property until spiderverse 2

currently reading: i miss books, man. miss being able to read real actual physical literature without feeling like my brain is trying to escape out my ears but here we are!! what i CAN still read is uhhhh horrendous amounts of fanfic so here’s the top picks of late

Pedestal by Digital Skitty (Pokemon): area child begins their pokemon journey with the most broke-ass team (derogatory) conceivable. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next ! i dont know anything about pokemon now and i didnt know anything about pokemon eleven years ago when i read this on ffn but skitty’s puttin in on ao3 now so its a good time to say: pedestal is the fucking best. i’ll die on this hill. pedestal fucked me up as a human so bad i now own this persons actual published books. go go now

The Tourist’s Guide To Aselia by ritzcracker (Tales of Symphonia): y’all already know im a huge slut for inserts and godddd this one is just excellent. oc is chefs kiss, worldbuilding is chefs kiss, scenery description is unparalleled. mx ritzcracker if youre reading this i love you

the call of yesterday by MargaritaDaemonelix (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) : new game +++ byleth vs Her Actual Job but make it hurt me so good. god GOD god i love gen. prayers in chat for op’s grades tho 🙏

i am accepting fic recs 24 hours a day 7 days a week. i am in love with your ocs specifically.

up next:

A Clash of Kings by George RR Martin : i have been trying to read the asoiaf series with minimal success for like four years. it is going to happen. it is GOING to happen. there is simply too much happening in that ao3 tag for me live out my days in ignorance. its just that every time i open this fucking book all i can think is WOW what a fantasy series, so horny, really makes me want to read the vastly less sexual and incomparably better

Cry of the Icemark by Stuart Hill : high fantasy feral teenager has to figure out how the hell to be Queen At Thirteen while gathering a supernatural army to fight Literally The Roman Empire. i’ve read this book maybe thirty times. i will read it perhaps thirty more times. thirrin freer strong-in-the-arm lindenshield, my beloved

currently watching:

Jujutsu Kaisen : i’m way behind the curve on this one, i know, i just finished the junpei arc and im suffering

Mo Dao Zu Shi : i did not know the mdzs donghua got a part three until like yesterday. where were you all in my time of need. i have so much to watch

currently craving:

not the catboy. i mean yes the catboy but i have thought of almost nothing else but this donut basket for... weeks. i think a lot my problems could be solved by a picnic basket full of pastries (and also the catboy) but all the bakeries around here have been so slammed for the holidays it just aint worth it til after new years

tagging:  do you also like to talk way too much about your interests?? lucky for you i like to read abt them!! if youre reading this then i tag you

[wongki]

curiosity tag ! ! 💕💕

tagged by @mowah, thank you tagging me! (❤´艸｀❤)

Q: which artists make you instantly smile when you hear their laughs?

A: hyungwon, mingi, seungcheol 

Q: what’s a song you’d like to recommend to the person who tagged you?

A: Headache, Moon Jong Up Feat. Yunhway & Pumping Up Clouds, Urban Cone one ksong and one western lol 😅

Q: which artist(s) have your favourite voices?

A: disclaimer I have many favorite voices but these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head and their songs played while I was completing this. lol

Hyungwon (MX): from zero is one of my favorite mx tracks because of him honestly. 

Wooyoung (Ateez): when he sings mists...woah just chills, his voice is absolutely beautiful. 

Jun (SVT): his voice attracted me I was like I HAVE to know who he is, he sings beautifully in every language. 

Joshua Hong (SVT): his voice is heavenly.  

Woosung (The Rose): who knew one man’s could make me feel as much as his. It’s the way he can sing strongly and softly. (if that makes sense).

MK (ONF): no words. just hand over my heart. 

Taeyang (SF9): his voice is like velvety not too sure if that’s the correct word but yes. 

Taehyun (TXT) & Beomgyu  (TXT): they really surprised me with their vocals in their new album. I am in awe. 

Q: what are some of the sets from the wonderful ccs here that you find yourself thinking about often?

A: i did top 10 from my cc mutuals to make it easier to choose from. in no particular order:

@tuanzie‘s favorurite kpop title tracks (34/?) Monsta X “Beautiful” (2017)

@shuaway’s wonwoo + flowers

@kihyunmp3′s one of a kind vinyl edit 

@wonheons’ monsta x’s discography part one & part two

@mowah’s tomorrow x together & nintendo switch lite

@softhyungkyun’s cheolsol’s photobooth pictures

@soonhoonsol’s special video :: anyone :: hoshi  

@kyunsies’s showhyungkyun - pepsi ‘taste of love’ campaign making film 

@wabisaba’s  victon edit

@studioweus’s is yonghoon okay 

Q: if you could steal (affectionately) an idol’s pet, who’s would it be and why?

A:  Bookkeu! 🥰 

Q: which artists that share your star sign do you like?

A: Minhyuk, Kihyun (he is scorpio/sagittarius cusp but I am gonna keep him here), Hongjoong, . My favorite scorpio lads, we’re gonna start a club. 

Q: do you have any favourite photoshoots that your ults have done?

A:  2019-2021 edition

Hyungwon: Allure shoot (July 2019). Dazed (June 2020). Star1 (Dec. 2020). Marie Claire (July 2021)

Mingi: Ateez 1st Official Fanclub Kit. 1st Look Magazine (July 2020). The Star Magazine (Sept. 2020). Arena Homme+ (Oct. 2020)

Wonho: Dazed (Nov. 2019). Beauty+ (Nov. 2020). Dazed (Jan. 2021). e.L.e ( March 2021). 

S.Coups: Dazed (Jan. 2017). W Korea (Oct. 2020), Going Seventeen (2020/21). D-Icon (2021).

Seungkwan: Arean Homme+ (Jan 2020). Cosmopolitan (Feb. 2021). Elle (June 2021). D-Icon (Aug. 2021).

Q: who are your favourite dancers in kpop right now?

A: Taeyang (SF9), Wooyoung (Ateez), Dino (SVT), Rocky (Astro), Shownu (MX), Yoojun (Onlyoneof)

Q: are there any photos of your ults that you find yourself thinking about a lot?

A: I chose only one of each of them. 😅

Q: which artist(s) do you feel you can see yourself in?

A: umm...i don’t know how to answer this question. lol Pass!

Q: who’s rapping do you always find yourself vibing with?

A:  Mingi (Ateez), Hongjoong (Ateez), I.M (MX), Joohoney (MX), Hwiyoung (SF9), S.Coups (SVT). adding my disclaimer: I have many favorites but these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head and their songs played while I was completing this. 😅

Q: are there any artist/s who’s talking voice you could listen to forever?

A: Wonwoo (SVT).

Q: is there anyone who always manages to give you gender envy?

A:  Hanse (Victon). Yoojun (Onlyoneof). Junji (Onlyoneof). actually all of onlyoneof(ot7 T-T).

Q: and finally, which idol do you think the person who tagged you is most like?

A: I would say Kihyun (MX). The takes care of others aka the mom friend but also takes no shit from no one. You’re sugar and spice and everything nice. lol 

tagging: @kihyunsgf, @offmymindmp3, @sunshinejunghoseokie, @tuanzie, @shuaway, @kihyunmp3, @wonheons, @soonhoonsol, @kyunsies, @wabisaba, @studioweus, @softhyungkyun​

[sanstropfremir]

(not sure if you have done this before) but how do you rank taemin's cbs/title trackss?

I haven't really done an official ranking per se, but someone did ask me about my favourite taemin songs which you can read here, but I can go a little bit more in depth if you like! i think these are his main title tracks? i know he released a bunch of japanese singles including eclipse (which is a song i love) but i think these are all the ones with mvs? i’m probably missing some because he has so much and i can’t keep track. also these are purely in my personal opinion on which songs i like the best combined with aesthetics and concepts, not full analysis of the stages + choreo + aesthetics, because that would take SO long.

advice - perfect culmination of his career up to this point and also a perfect note for him to fuck off to the military on. i wrote more about it in my taemin + masks post, but it has big fuck all y’all energy and i love that for him because he’s been so prominent a public figure for so long. also i’m obsessed with the styling and how grody it is. especially the charles jeffrey suit, who is one of my fave scottish designers.

famous - what do i even have to say here. the ropes. the bloody nose. all the half eaten apples. the LYRICS. the concept photos of him in the acrylic box. everything about the choreo is so weird and awkward and incredible. only taemin would make the point choreo of a title track straight up spasming.

want - i think we all know how i feel about want and the answer is i love everything about it. flawless. it’s so careless and deliberate and watching the choreo is so hypnotizing and he knows it. it’s really one of his best examples of perfect execution of concept + choreo + song all together.

criminal - i hate that criminal is fourth on this ranking but taemin’s discography really is that flawless. another example of perfect execution of concept + choreo + song all together, and i think i’d probably rank the live stages of criminal higher than those of want, but i personally like the choreo and concept of want that smidge bit better. if you haven’t already seen it please watch this kbs song festival stage because everything about it makes me insane. the lava suit?!?! and then you should watch the intro choreo clip that kasper posted. AND THEN you should watch koharu’s original demo choreo, just because. also the mv is an incredible work of art and one of the best mvs i’ve ever seen. my only complaint is that there wasn’t enough chainsaw.

idea - i hate that idea is fifth on this ranking. this is the only song i’ve ever had a visceral bodily response to: the first time i heard that bass and strings drop in the chorus i actually almost vomited. catholic fuckery? check. niche intellectual concepts that have no place being in a kpop song? check. boa? check. perfection.

move - it’s excellent but also it’s four years old now and so much of his newer work expands on the concepts that he first put forth here much better. do i still watch the mv occasionally? absolutely. is it still leagues ahead of most of kpop? 1000%. the choreo will be forever iconic and i don't think he's going to be able to ditch it anytime soon. patiently waiting for the day we get footage of him dancing it with his new boy crew in the military.

press your number - it’s a great song and a fantastic album; press it has my all time favourite taemin track one by one on it. but again, like move, it’s from early in his solo career and in terms of overall concept and aesthetics, his newer stuff hits harder as gesamkunstwerk.

danger - it’s great and i’m very partial to the remix with sherlock that he’s been performing at concerts, but it's the same as with press your number: it doesn’t read as ‘him’ in the same way as his post-move stuff. although at the time i’m sure it was genuine because he was 21 and wanted to shake the ‘feminine’ and boyish persona that he’d been pigeonholed into, but a lot of the aesthetics of the mv and the stages from his debut feel a lot like performative overcompensation when looking back at them from where his current work sits. honestly it’s kind of neat to see how far he’s matured; he was shirtless for danger and he was shirtless for advice too, but both of them have very different vibes. i think that’s why i like the remix with sherlock so much, it’s kind of like a sonic acceptance and embodiment of the journey he’s been on.

sayohito - it's fine i just don’t listen to ballads!

under my skin - it's fine i just don’t listen to ballads!

flame of love - it's fine i just don’t listen to ballads!

[onestowatch]

The Top 21 Artists to Watch in 2021

In a world where the only universal certainty seems to be opening every email with “hope you’re doing well,” the only other surefire guarantee is that there will continue to be new music worth discovering. And, we figured with the start of a new year, what better way to say to spend the waking hours of 2021 than introduce you to a few of the artists we currently have a close eye on. Often genreless and belonging to Gen Z, these are the 21 artists we are watching in 2021. 

spill tab

Where to Start: “Calvaire” 

In her breakout single “Calvaire,” spill tab sings in French over an intoxicating backbeat. The effect is akin to a spell, ushering into existence something inherently danceable and transfixing, like an Angèle B-side finding new life as a Billie Eilish cut. It is a standout moment that would be followed by similar standout moments in the form of a series of varied singles, culminating in spill tab’s debut EP, Oatmilk. Short and sweet, the four-song collection holds all the promise of a 2021 artist to watch.

Joesef

Where to Start: “The Sun Is Up Forever”

Emerging from the fog of Glasgow, Scotland, Joesef’s marriage of heartbreak, desire, regret, hope, and sublime joy is nothing short of intoxicating. Immediately making an impression with his tender, heartfelt croon, the Glasgow artist’s songs soon give way to emotionally rife personal recollections–some beautiful in their understated minimalism, some breathtaking in their expansive scope. Whatever the setting, the result is always the same–a passionate, shared moment you will not be forgetting anytime soon.

brakence

Where to Start: “dropout”

Self-described as “self-care punk,” brakence effortlessly pairs the unmatched energy of punk with an impressive showing of vulnerability. While the past few years saw the Ohio native experiment over a range of singles and on his debut album, 2020 was without a doubt the year he found his sound in the noteworthy punk2. Blending Midwest emo, trap production, hip-hop, and alternative, brakence’s sophomore effort is a masterclass in infectious emotional catharsis.

Mustafa

Where to Start: “Stay Alive”

Few artists embody the sentiment of music as poetry as emphatically as Mustafa. First leaving a mark with 2020’s “Stay Alive,” Mustafa introduced himself to the world with a breathtaking, earth-shattering ballad rife with impassioned emotional imagery. Soft-spoken but never lacking for impact, the poet, activist, filmmaker, and songwriter brings to life the lived realities of Toronto’s Regent Park, a public housing project that shaped Mustafa into the once in a lifetime artist he is today.

Holly Humberstone

Where to Start: “Falling Asleep At The Wheel”

In her 2020 debut EP, Falling Asleep at the Wheel, Holly Humberstone proves herself a master at crafting a palpable atmosphere. Rife with emotional highs and cathartic lows, all backed by Humberstone’s magnetic and graceful songwriting, the British artist lays her heart on her sleeve and in turn lays the groundwork for a debut offering poised to stand the test of time. It is no mere hyperbole to say that Humberstone is an artist to watch out for not only in 2021 but in the years to come.

AG Club

Where to Start: “Memphis”

The initial comparison of AG Club to collectives like BROCKHAMPTON and A$AP may be an easy one to draw, but a single listen tells another story. While the genreless Bay Area collective may radiate the same rapturous energy of the aforementioned groups, AG Club is clearly riding high on their own wavelength. Aiming to make hip-hop but not as you know it, the idiosyncratic collective made their vision clear with the release of 2020’s Halfway Off the Porch, an electrifying amalgamation of disparate genres, sights, sounds, and moods.

347aidan

Where to Start: “Dancing in My Room”

Euphoric, difficult to perfectly define, and haphazardly brilliant, aidan347 embodies the adventurousness and inventiveness of Gen Z. The project of 17-year-old Aidan Fuller, the Cambridge, Ontario native has spent the past five years making music. Yet at the beginning of 2020, the Cambridge artist had less than three thousand monthly listeners; now, that number sits well above five million. A testament to 347aidan’s tenacity, his devoted fanbase, and the power of a TikTok-fueled viral hit–arriving in the form of “Dancing in My Room”–it really feels we are only witnessing the prologue of what’s to come.

Frances Forever

Where to Start: “Space Girl”

When thinking of music’s future stars, what better place to look than to the galactic, lovelorn musings of Frances Forever. Making less of a splash and more of a tidal wave with the release of “Space Girl” late last year, the Boston bedroom artist’s ode to intergalactic love has been rapidly climbing the TikTok and indie charts. Now signed to Mom+Pop records, Frances Forever is more than ready to shoot for the stars and beyond in 2021.

Hope Tala

Where to Start: “Lovestained”

Hope Tala is impossible to ignore. A West Londoner to her core, the UK singer-songwriter finds inspiration in everything from ‘90s movies, classic literature, to the constantly changing world around her. Transforming what feels like a lifetime, and some, of inspiration into an undeniably spellbinding fusion of R&B and bossa nova, Hope Tala’s musings of daydreams, heartache, and fear are the sort ready to define a generation’s ails, joys, and mundane triumphs and anxieties. Universal in scope yet deeply personal, Hope Tala is without doubt an artist to keep your eye on in 2021. 

Q

Where to Start: “Take Me Your Heart Is”

Q, much like his name, is an anomaly. Releasing one album a year since 2018, the ineffable soul and R&B artist has somehow coasted under the radar in spite of releasing some of the most breathtaking music out there. And with the release of 2020’s The Shave Experiment, Q feels like he’s finally stepping into the much-deserved limelight. Leading with the striking “Take Me Your Heart Is,” Q brought to life a nostalgic, hyper-emotive track sure to stop you in your tracks. Hopefully, it’s one of many to come. 

Claire Rosinkranz

Where to Start: “Backyard Boy”

16-year-old Claire Rosinkranz has been making music for the better part of her life, and 2020 was the year that scribbling down lyrics and helping her father compose music for TV shows and ad jingles paid off in a major way. The California native’s single, “Backyard Boy,” taken from her debut EP, BeVerly Hills BoYfRiEnd, soon became a TikTok hit, racking up over 80 million streams to date, on Spotify alone. If there are two things to look out for in 2021, make sure it’s your mental wellbeing and Claire’s euphoric self-dubbed “alternative-blues-pop.”

KennyHoopla

Where to Start: “how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//”

KennyHoopla is nothing if not electrifying. The alternative, punk, and ‘80s new wave-evoking artist moves through each track with a sense of world-ending hunger, jumping from one ensuing mosh pit to the next. It is a balancing act of new wave nostalgia and genuine inventive alternative that results in a maelstrom of palpable excitement. To best experience this cathartic form of self-expression firsthand, look no further than his debut EP, last year’s how will i rest in peace if i'm buried by a highway?//. No one is quite making music like KennyHoopla, in 2021 or beyond.

MICHELLE

Where to Start: “THE BOTTOM”

New York collective MICHELLE deftly imbues the sincerity of soul and R&B into a uniquely tender pop outlook, and the result is nothing short of infectious. The project of six predominantly queer POC individuals, the group originally earned widespread critical acclaim for their 2018 album HEATWAVE, but it was arguably their subsequent signing with Atlantic Records last year that has them set to be one of 2021’s most promising acts. Quickly making the most of their newfound major label status, MICHELLE released “Sunrise,” the sonic equivalent of the first rays of light breaking through the clouds, signaling the end of a rainy day. It’s safe to say the future is looking bright for MICHELLE.

glaive

Where to Start: “eyesore”

Few artists define and defy the label of hyperpop as readily as glaive. Falling somewhere between 100 gecs and the second coming of mid-2000s pop punk, the newly-signed Interscope artist released his major debut label EP, cypress grove, earlier this year. Yet before finding a home at Interscope, glaive’s official discography only stretched back as far as 2020. Making the most of a year we all would rather soon forget, the 15-year-old wunderkind showcased to the world a continual musical evolution that is looking to only further pick up steam in the coming year.

Claud

Where to Start: “Wish You Were Gay”

From opening for Clairo to releasing a steady stream of resonant singles, Claud has spent the last couple of years making a name for themselves in the indie music world, but 2020 saw arguably their biggest breakthrough moment yet. With the release of “Gold,” Claud became the first artist signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Arriving as the first taste of their upcoming debut album, Super Monster, 2021 is looking absolutely golden for Claud. And not to mention the fact they recently started a band with Clairo and friends.

María Isabel

Where to Start: “The 1”

Where has María Isabel been all our lives? First making herself known with the release of “The 1,” an ode to long-distance relationships, which soon became more prophetic than we ever could have imagined, the debut single served as lovely an introduction as they come. Thankfully, we would not have to wait too long to hear more dreamlike R&B from María, who graced us with her debut EP, Stuck in the Sky shortly thereafter. Uniquely heartfelt and velvety smooth, María’s voice is just the thing to carry you through 2021.

Remi Wolf

Where to Start: “Photo ID”

The past couple of years have seen avant-garde pop wunderkind Remi Wolf test the waters with one out of this world single after another, and 2020 felt like the year everything finally fell into place. Arriving on the Bay Area native’s sophomore album, I’m Allergic To Dogs!, “Photo ID,” and its unafraid, in your face anti pop mentality cemented itself as a surefire hit, and TikTok soon took notice. Serving as a testament to Remi Wolf’s mainstream appeal in spite of her outsider approach, “Photo ID” merely set the stage for what is to come.  

PawPaw Rod

Where to Start: “HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS”

PawPaw Rod may be the only artist on this list with only one single to their name, but in no way does that disqualify him from being an artist to watch in 2021. Releasing his debut single, “HIT EM WHERE IT HURTS,” out into the ether, the Los Angeles artist immediately landed on something special. Blending elements of hip-hop, funk, and alternative under a mellow, syrupy flow, PawPaw Rod wasted no time in setting himself apart from the pack. And with godmode–the same development company that brought us Yaeji, Channel Tres, LoveLeo, and more–it is safe to say that this is only the beginning.

Evann Mcintosh

Where to Start: “WIYULD”

In her dreamlike take on alternative R&B, Evann Mcintosh attempts to capture the turbulent act of coming-of-age. At times delicate to the touch and at times emanating a self-assured confidence well beyond her 16 years of age, Evann Mcintosh’s 2019 debut album, MOJO, laid the groundwork for an act whose promise knows no bounds. It was a promise she made good on during the tail end of 2020, with the release of singles “WIYULD” and “BULL$HIT.” Showing off two different sides of her continued musical growth, 2021 has us all the more excited for what Evann has in store.

Serena Isioma

Where to Start: “Sensitive”

In her breakout single, “Sensitive,” Serena Isioma fuses modern-day R&B and woozy indie pop with reckless abandon. The outcome is a song that not only sounds quite unlike anything else out there, but one whose own vibe seems to shift and evolve from one moment to the next. It is an electrifying opening moment that begins to define the Isioma’s artistry and her debut EP, Sensitive. The first of two EPs the Chicago-based artist would release in 2020, it is hard not to feel like Isioma is already in the process of creating a one-of-a-kind discography.

Blu DeTiger

Where to Start: “Figure It Out”

Whether you know her as the touring bassist for acts like FLETCHER and Caroline Polachek or as the TikTok famous bassist, the fact of the matter is that Blu DeTiger is an artist you need to know. A bassist since age seven and crowned the “coolest DJ around” by Vogue, the New York native’s music skirts the realms of funk, indie, and dance. Unmistakable, nonchalantly cool, and unsurprisingly bass-heavy, you deserve doing yourself the favor of diving headfirst into Blu DeTiger’s music. Just be sure to come up for air, when you’re ready.

[chaeryybomb]

“brick walls” || l.dh

anon: idk how to do these but I’ve had a story idea for a while 🥺👉🏽👈🏽. Y/n has an emotional breakdown at a party and asks best friend ! Haechan to drive her home (idk why she’s having a breakdown but I very much like angst🥺

pairing: lee donghyuck/lee haechan x reader

featuring: seo yoorim and mark lee

genre: best friends to lovers, high school!au, angst, fluff, we going sad boi hours y’all

warnings: mental breakdown, curse words, usage of alcohol

word count: 4K

a/n: dhshdhd I am SO SO SO SORRY that I took a long ass time to finish this, again I’m really sorry fhshd pls don’t hate me

You were never the kind to let your walls down. You had a stone wall surrounding a kingdom that was your heart, the sole place that stored your emotions. But of course, that wall was never there to begin with. It started out as pebbles surrounding it, which soon turned into bricks, and the older you got, the higher the wall started to build.

You would never admit it, but deep down, you blamed your parents for making you turn out like this. All those arguments and discouraged words tore you down as a kid, so you learned to deflect those words to be stronger. Still they were your parents. Sure they were bad at some aspects, but they had their golden moments. They did raise you and gave you home. Your family was broken, and you learned how to live with it.

Donghyuck was a different kind. He was always smiling and happy. He was literally the sun. The mood maker, the class clown, he made people feel better. You were someone who was quiet and barely smiled. Rain clouds followed you wherever you went whereas Donghyuck made flowers grow on the ground he walked. He was also the sun that made your dark clouds go away.

You were a different person when you’re with Donghyuck. He made you laugh and smiled wider than anyone ever did. Whenever someone asked him how he could be friends with someone like you, he always replied with the same thing with no hesitation.

“You don’t know them like I do.”

Donghyuck was your getaway. Your door to another dimension. His presence made all your worries go away. He meant everything to you. You wished you could tell him that.

It’s obvious that he has feelings for you, so painfully obvious. The way he stared at you like you were his world. The way he subconsciously holds your hand in his every time you’re together. You were on his mind twenty four seven.

You chose to ignore his feelings. You knew it was selfish for you to do so. You thought if you pretended that you didn’t know that he was in love with you, and just continued to be best friends, everything would be fine. No one would get hurt.

Did you feel the same? Of course you did. You love him so much that it physically pains you knowing that you’ll never be good enough for him. He was sunshine and rainbows, you were raindrops and thunderstorms. You knew that it wouldn’t work out between the both of you, you couldn’t even love yourself. How could you love someone else?

It was unfair to you and Donghyuck. You knew you couldn’t keep leading him on, one day, Donghyuck was going to confess to you and you’d have to face the harsh reality of rejecting him. But you never expected that day to come so soon.

You and Donghyuck were in his car, the both of you were driving back from your weekly movie nights in the local theatre. Donghyuck had Conan Gray’s newest album playing from his radio. You had no objections to his music choice, a few months ago, the honey-skinned boy managed to convince you to listen to Conan Gray’s discography.

When he finally reached your home, he parked outside of your driveway and turned to look at you. You were busy getting your bag off the floor to notice, when you were done, you turned to bid him goodbye but caught him staring at you with a familiar look. The same look he always had when he was with you, he looked like he was in love.

You knew he was going to take advantage of the situation to confess to you. You needed to get out of the vehicle. You had too. Your fingers gripped the door handle but his voice caught you off guard.

“Y/N...” his voice was as soft as silk, he gently grabbed your arm so you were facing him again.

You tilted her head, looking at him with those innocent eyes of yours, yet behind that mask was a pair of panicked eyes. His hands moved until he was holding yours and he started to play with your fingers.

“You’re amazing, you know that right?” He started off. His eyes were trained on your intertwined hands. “You’re beautiful, smart, and strong. I wished you could believe me whenever I tell you how perfect you are,” he slid off one of his silver rings and placed it on your index finger. Your breath hitched at the action. He finally lifted his head up to look at you in the eye, love surrounded his brown irises.

“I like you— no, I love you. I love you, L/N Y/N.”

And there it was. The words you dreaded to hear. The cold air from the car’s air conditioner pricked your bare arms as you shakily pulled your hand out of his, the silver ring easily slid off your fingers and you heard it drop into the cup holder. You watched his face morph into confusion.

“No,” your voice wavered as you closed your eyes. “No, you don’t,” you opened your eyes and repeated. This time your voice was firm.

Donghyuck furrowed his eyebrows. “Yes, yes I do, Y/N. I love y—“

“Stop!” You pressed your hands to your ears. “Stop saying that! You don’t love me.”

He reached over to grab your hands but you flinched backwards. Your back was now pressed into the window as Donghyuck stared at you with a different look this time. His eyes had a thin shield of tears, the look of love was gone and replaced with hurt and disbelief.

“D-Don’t say that, I do love you. I love you so much, Lia,” he tried again.

“No, you don’t, Donghyuck. You...you can’t.”

“Why not, Y/N? I love you! Is that not enough?!”

“Because I don’t!” You spat. Your breathing was heavy and your eyes were filled with tears. But you looked Donghyuck in the eye and said it again. “Because I don’t love you.”

The two of you stared at each other in silence, with tension rising every second. And finally a stray tear escaped from Donghyuck. That was the final movement for you to swing the door open and run into your house. You couldn’t bear to stay in that car any longer, you couldn’t stand the sight of seeing him sad, broken like you.

You slammed your bedroom door shut, ignoring your parents confused faces, ignoring everything. Your back was against the wooden door. It was official. You broke the school’s sunshine, you broke your best friend, you pushed the boy you loved away. You choked out a sob, and soon the tears flowed down your cheeks. You covered your whimpers and sobs with your hand and closed your eyes.

There was no turning back this time. It was done. You rejected him and you saw how the tears formed and how he flinched when you said you didn’t love him. You lied to him. You cried yourself to sleep that night, knowing that no one else in the world, loved you anymore.

It had been weeks since his confession. Haechan didn’t go to school for 4 days. When he returned, he acted like nothing ever happened and that he was still the same old happy go lucky boy. The only difference was, he stopped approaching you.

He stopped waiting by your locker in the morning with a cup of coffee in his hand, he stopped sitting with you at the cafeteria, he stopped yelling your name from across the hall. He didn’t even spare a glance at you when you crossed paths in school. You convinced yourself that it was better this way. It was bound to happen anyways, no one ever really stays forever.

Of course news spread fast that you and Haechan were no longer the duo. Haechan never denied nor confirmed that you stopped being friends so the students took it upon themselves to say what they wanted to hear.

“Did you hear? Haechan confessed to Y/N last week and they straight up rejected him!”

“I heard they laughed at his confession and called him an idiot.”

“They’re such a heartless bitch. How could they treat someone like that?”

“Right? Haechan was going to leave them sooner or later. They never deserved him.”

At first the words were like a knife being stabbed into you, but you soon let yourself turn numb to them. The rumors weren’t true. You never laughed at him, yet your mind mocked you.

They’re right, you are a heartless bitch. You don’t deserve him.

Today was not a good day for you. Fridays seem to always suck for you. It started out with the little things in the morning, you overslept and was almost late for school. Your parents were arguing over something petty that they barely noticed you slipped past the door. Since you were late, the bus had already left, so you were left with no choice but to sprint to school.

You barely made it to school in time and luckily you reached before the final bell. But you were then sweaty and the thick blazer you were required to wear was not helping. Later during lunch, someone accidentally bumped into you and split their drink all over your white button-up. You desperately tried to rub the stain off, but with no avail, there was now an orange stain on your uniform. And you knew for a fact that your mother was going to give her an earful for staining it.

And you were right, the moment you stepped into your household, you could feel the tension left over from this morning. Your mother noticed the big stain immediately. One thing led to another, and it turned into an (another) argument. Your mother started accusing you of not caring enough about anything.

She was still yelling when you slammed your bedroom door shut. You let yourself fall against the door with your palms pressed against your ears, trying to drone the yelling out. Your mother was right, you don’t care, you stopped caring. Oh, how you wished you cared.

Honestly, you didn’t know how you let Yoorim convince you to come to this party. Not to mention you were underage and you didn't drink alcohol. You spent most of your days wallowing in self pity. Everywhere you went, you heard Haechan’s laughter ring through your ears. Yoorim was the only one other than Haechan who annoyed her way into your small personal bubble. The tall girl dragged you to a party thrown by some college students to “help you get over Haechan”.

Sweaty bodies and loud music filled the atmosphere, the stench of alcohol floated around you. The party scene made you sick and dizzy. It hasn’t been 30 minutes and you already regret your decision. Sighing, you pushed yourself off the kitchen counter you had been leaning against since you arrived and went off to find the one who dragged you here. You mentally lectured yourself, what were you thinking? Yoorim was a wild spirit, obviously she wouldn’t be there babysitting you. As you pushed past the bodies of drunk teenagers, you started to feel bad about finding Yoorim.

But you had already caught the taller girl in your field of vision. There she was, playing beer pong. The small crowd cheered loudly when the orange ball went in the red solo cup. You shook your head, maybe you shouldn’t disturb Yoorim. Walking home was always an option. Just as you were about to turn back, Yoorim called out your name.

“Y/N! Over here!”

You grimaced but still obeyed nevertheless. Yoorim threw her arm around your neck, her height giving her the advantage to basically head lock you. You looked up to see Yoorim’s cheeks to be tinted pink. She was already drunk. You tried to balance yourself but found it hard due to the other swaying around in her steps as she tried to aim at the cup.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a familiar mop of black hair. You squint your eyes at the sight. When the figure turned around, your eyes met. You froze and your eyes widened.

Mark Lee, Haechan’s best friend.

What was he doing here? Judging by Mark’s expression, he must know about what happened between Haechan and you. Mark had a sad look on his face, it was sympathy. He gave you a sad smile and small wave but you were still frozen in place. The loud cheers slowly drone out of your ears.

If Mark was here, does that mean he was here too?

As you struggled in Yoorim’s hold, you tried to crane your neck to find the familiar face. Anxiety starts to fill you up, what if he was actually here? You can’t face him. You didn't know how. You avoided each other like the plague, whispers of others followed the two of you like a trail of blood. What were you going to do if you saw him? Would the people here start whispering too?

And suddenly, you felt the stares of others on you. A million pairs of eyes fixated on your trembling figure. Their faces were blurred but they’re mouths were moving. They were talking about you, spreading rumors about her. Everyone was pointing their fingers at you.

You squeezed your eyes shut and your grip tightened on Yoorim’s arm. You couldn’t breath. You didn’t know what overcame you, but with one powerful tug, you dragged Yoorim out of that crowd. Ignoring the confused stares of others and Yoorim’s protest, you dragged her until you were somewhere quiet. When the noise died down in your head, you finally let go of Yoorim's arm.

“What the fuck, Y/N?!” Yoorim yelled at you. But you couldn’t hear anything. Your back was facing her and your hands were pressed against your ears, an action that became a habit. Tears swelled up around your eyes and you kept blinking to push them away.

You were then forcefully turned around by the taller girl. Yoorim's eyes were burning with anger at your unexplained actions. Maybe it was the alcohol that clouded her vision but she didn't notice how your eyes had a veil of tears over them.

"What was that for?!" she demanded. "We were having so much fun and y—"

"I want to go home, Yoorim."

Yoorim stopped mid sentence and stared at you in disbelief. "Go home? Y/N it hasn't even been an hour yet—"

"I said, I want to go home!" you repeat yourself through gritted teeth. You clenched your fists at your sides as you looked Yoorim in the eye.

Yoorim narrowed her eyes at you. "No, Y/N. You don't get to go home. I took you out so you can relax and shit but right now you're just ruining everything! What the fuck is wrong and why won't you fucking tell me?!"

"I—"

"You always do the same shit. You run away from your problems and you push anyone who wants to help you away! Do you know how exhausting it is to keep up with you?! I tried so hard to be your friend but in the end you still push me away. This is why Haechan left you!" Yoorim gasped and she immediately slapped her hands over her mouth. Her outburst seemed to sober her up. You stood there with your eyes wide opened in shock and lips slightly parted as you soaked in Yoorim's words.

"I— I'm so sorry, I…I didn't me—" Yoorim stuttered out. She reached forward for you but you jerked backward. With every step she took, your feet moved back. You shook your head. You felt the tears finally falling down and with that you turned on your heel and ran.

"Y/N!" you heard Yoorim call out but you didn't look back.

Tears blurred your vision as you tried to navigate your way through the crowded house. Small "excuse me"s left your lips as you pushed past everyone. You had to get out of the house. You couldn't break down right there in front of everyone. Yoorim's words still echoed in your head.

You run away from your problems and you push everyone away.

Do you know how exhausting it is to keep up with you?

This is why Haechan left you!

No, no, Yoorim didn't mean it. She's drunk. She was intoxicated. She wasn't thinking straight. She wasn't sober.

But the drunk mind speaks from the sober heart.

And it was true. All you did was run and run away. You never face your problems. You couldn't face Haechan after rejecting him. You never confronted your parents. You never tried to clear the rumors about you. You thought that hiding away behind her four walls could save you.

And Haechan was the one picking your walls down with a stone pickaxe. When you saw how your walls started to crumble, panic rose inside. You started to patch the holes made by him. You didn't want him to see how broken you really were. You couldn't let all your burdens onto him. You had to let him go.

You were so deep in your thoughts that you didn't notice you bumped into someone. "Sorry," you whispered and withdrew yourself.

"Y/N?"

Your eyes snap up to the owner of the voice.

Mark.

Mark looked at you with a worried look. He gently grabbed your shoulders to balance you. "Y/N, are you okay?" he asked in a worried tone.

You shook your head and reluctantly shoved Mark away. You stumbled in your steps as tears continued to gather around your eyes.

"Y/N, Y/N! Wait up!" Mark called out but the wall of dancing bodies blocked him from getting to you.

You finally found the door and your face was greeted with the cold wind of the night. You gasped as you stumbled out of the house. You walked down the stairs of the porch and crouched down. Your hand was over your heart as you breathed in heavily. Fresh tears still stained your cheeks and there was a heavy ringing in your ear.

You slid down against the white porch, sucking in short breaths. Your hand found your phone in your back pocket and dialed the first number that came to mind. You wanted to go home and do nothing but curl up in a ball and cry.

You raised the phone to your ear. "Please pick up, please pick up," you whispered to yourself.

"Hello?"

He picked up. He actually picked up. It has been weeks since you heard his voice. Oh god, how you missed hearing it.

"—llo? Y/N?"

"D-Donghyuck?" your voice was hoarse, it was barely a whisper. You didn't even know how you managed to say his name within your shortened breaths.

The moment he heard your strangled voice, he was suddenly alerted. "Y/N? What's wrong? Are you crying? Are you okay?"

You felt another wave of the blues washed over you. Tears started to fall and you let out a choke. "I-I'm s-s-sorry, Hyu—ck," you hiccuped.

You could barely blabber out formed sentences, let alone words. All you repeated was "I'm sorry" as you sobbed to Donghyuck through the phone.

Donghyuck's heart clenched at the sound of your cries. "Hey, hey," he softly called out for you. "Where are you? I'm going to come get you, okay?"

"I-I don't k-know, some pa-party with M-Mark. I-I-I don't know w-where, I'm sorry," you sniffled.

"Hey it's okay, stop saying sorry. Stay on the phone with me okay?" You could hear his keys jiggling from the other side. You nodded at his words as he kept continuing to talk to her. "I'm here for you, Y/N."

The entire car ride back to Donghyuck’s place was silent. He didn’t say anything and the only sounds that came from you were your sniffles. But he kept a hand on your right knee the entire time, the action gave you a sense of comfort.

He wordlessly let you into his house, thankfully his parents were out of town. You didn’t need more people to question your tear-stricken face. Donghyuck told you to take a shower and he’ll prepare some food for you. When you emerged from the bathroom, your face now cleaned and hair damped. A set of his clothes were neatly placed on his bed for you.

It was your favorite hoodie of his that you would “borrow” from time to time and a pair of grey sweatpants. His clothes were big on you, but it made you feel safe, like a warm blanket being wrapped around your thin frame.

Donghyuck knocked on the door and asked from the other side, “Can I come in?”

Your lip twitched into a small smile at his question. You found it sweet that he was asking permission into his bedroom. You replied with a soft “yes” and the door opened, revealing Donghyuck with a bowl of ramen.

He set the bowl at his desk and the two of you were now facing each other. Awkwardness filled the atmosphere. You didn’t know what to say and Donghyuck couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. You stood in silence, the awkward tension was suffocating.

“I-“

“I’m sorry,” the words flew out of your mouth before he could say anything. “I’m sorry about the other night in your car. I lied,” you confessed. The tears were starting to build up again and your gaze never left the carpeted floor. You took his silence as a sign to continue.

“I’m...I’m sorry that I pushed you away. I didn’t mean it when I said I didn’t love you, Hy—Donghyuck,” you winced when you stopped yourself from calling him “Hyuck”. That nickname was for close friends, and you were almost strangers. It didn’t feel fitting for you to use.

You took in a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m sorry,” you repeated for the nth time of the night. “I-I do love you, but you don’t deserve me. I’m broken a-and messed up. You deserve better,” you finally raised her head to look at him with your glassy eyes.

His expression was unreadable. You’ve never seen it before. You squeezed your eyes shut, your hands fisting at the sides of the hoodie as you anticipated his next movements. You heard his soft footsteps advancing towards you.

You quietly gasped when Donghyuck wrapped his arms around your shoulder, pulling you in for an embrace. He raised his left hand to stroke your head, gently resting it against his collarbones. “It’s okay, Y/N,” he softly said, “I forgive you.”

Those three words hit you like a train and the tears came flooding out once again. You buried your face in his shoulder and your hands clenched at the back of his shirt. Donghyuck held you as you cried, whispering sweet nothings into your ear. He let you cry out until there were no more tears in your system, until he was sure that the walls surrounding your cold heart would be weakened.

You spent most of your time building up brick walls around your heart. You spent years feeling numb and putting up a tough facade. Donghyuck spent most of his time breaking down those walls. He spent his days poking at your heart until it was beating again. You never felt loved and he made sure that he loved you until his very last breath. And for once in forever, you didn’t mind getting your walls taken down.

[therappundit]

The Best of Griselda: 2020 Edition

Don’t get me wrong...W.W.C.D. was dope. And it even grew on me with repeated listens. The musicianship shown by crafting a strong major label debut album without using old samples - considering Griselda is a collective that traditionally feasted off of dusty, classic soul samples - was truly impressive. I was impressed once again when Westside Gunn did the same thing on his own Shady Records debut with Who Made The Sunshine.

Nevertheless, given the prolific discography of Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, and Benny The Butcher over the past few years, it’s hard for me to keep my expectations grounded whenever they drop a new project. When I heard that the Griselda family was finally dropping an official group album back in 2019 - a project I had been yearning for since I first heard “Beloved” by Conway, Benny and Mach-Hommy, off of Con’s now famous Reject 2 project - I went on a binge of classic Griselda tracks, trying to assemble the perfect album from my favorite joints that have been unleashed by the Buffalo brothers over the years. I never completely followed through with crafting that perfect album...it was simply too time consuming for me to narrow down my list to just a handful of songs (at some point I hope to revisit that idea, but it has only gotten more challenging as time has passed).

Now here we are in the ever frightening 2020. On many days, it feels like the world around us is falling apart, yet the arts continue to thrive - as they so often do during times of peril. Surely Griselda has thrived more than most, having the most successful year of their careers (at least in terms of growing their fanbase off of string of high quality releases). Having expanded their own label (the signings of Boldy James and Armani Caesar), expanding their industry connections to benefit even more talented rap artists that they came up with (Benny’s Black Sopranos/BSF venture), to enduring tragedy and gaining strength and wisdom from it (COVID, the shocking loss of Buffalo’s legendary DJ Shay), all while keeping their hands in numerous other business ventures outside of music (Westside Gunn’s ongoing love affair with the fashion industry even yielded arguably the collective’s strongest music project of the year, Pray For Paris)...it’s hard to imagine a more prosperous year for a group of rap artists from Buffalo that fought most of their lives to emerge from the shadow cast by their rich downstate neighbor - and Hip-Hop’s original home base - New York City. 

With all of this success in mind, I feel that it is the perfect time to take inventory of my favorite songs from/featuring Westside Gunn, Conway, Benny, Armani Caesar and Boldy James (post-Griselda signing, that is) in 2020. Even with the smaller sample size, it really wasn’t easy (again, these folks have had quite an output already and it’s still only October), but I think I narrowed down my list to a strong 25 joints...plus a few bonus cuts for the deluxe edition (eh, sure it’s cheating...but who besides me is setting the rules here anyway??). 😬

***Please be aware***: this is NOT a list ranking the order of my favorite Griselda songs of the year, these are my favorite Griselda songs sorted into an order that I feel would make for a helluva strong album. 

And here it is, a surprise album/playlist drop that I am calling:

“GRISELDA IN 2020: THE ALBUM a.k.a. W.W.T.R.P.D. (What Would The Rap Pundit Do)”

1. “Lemon” - Conway feat. Method Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I7IJtgk2xM

2. “Timeless” - Benny feat. Lil Wayne & Big Sean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwEGQAvsens

3. “Ishkabibbles” - Westside Gunn feat. Black Thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JUSxD0aRus

4. “$500 Ounces” - Westside Gunn feat. Freddie Gibbs & Roc Marciano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uDP6zK5Da0

5. “Front Lines” - Conway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY4adAbUHZ8

6. “All Praises” - Westside Gunn feat. Boldy James & Jadakiss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3lrYoDU38o

7. “Babies & Fools” - Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist feat. Conway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6TLj6OdKEs

8. “George Bondo” - Westside Gunn feat. Conway & Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIFGODKcsKA

9. “Dough & Damani” - Conway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnPm4IJygn0

10. “Euro Step” - Westside Gunn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY-ZRIEp2iY

11. “Maria” - Boldy James & Jay Versace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YquWv_dCXEQ

12. “Spurs 3″ - Conway feat. Westside Gunn & Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU3-uAmzBHI

13. “Shawn vs. Flair” - Westside Gunn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW10mMQtAFE

14. “Nu Wave” - Boldy James & Jay Versace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4rus5aUTNE

15. “Think of the Lox” - The Lox feat. Westside Gunn & Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xNG_SjBVXw

16. “Buffs vs. Wires” - Westside Gunn feat. Benny & Boldy James

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJnfNMAvWbQ

17. “Ginger Rothstein” - Armani Caesar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWMfltKn3C4

18. “War Paint″ - Benny feat. Westside Gunn & Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4VWqp6Q3TY

19. “Forever Droppin’ Tears” - Conway feat. Elcamino

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugAtgRL2-GA

20. “Trade It All” - Benny feat. Queen Naija

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dANUAH3AvQ

21. “Claibourne Kick” - Westside Gunn feat. Boldy James

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b7IrwdxJgI

22. “They Got Sonny” - Conway & The Alchemist feat. Cormega

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4xg6kXNeuE

23. “Scrape The Bowl” - Boldy James & The Alchemist feat. Benny

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbedOG50QNw

24. “327″ - Westside Gunn feat. Billie Essco, Joey Bada$$ & Tyler, The Creator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmhgibIoJj0

25. “Legend” - Benny feat. Hit-Boy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boskATjX9Wc

Bonus Cuts: 

“One More Hit” - Westside Gunn feat. Stove God Cook$

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmb0hi55kzE

“Michael Irvin” - Westside Gunn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temO1qS7Rl4

“Frank Murphy” - Westside Gunn feat. Stove God Cook$, Smoke DZA, Elcamino, Estee Nack & Flee Lord

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_nrRA0-dM8

[lethal-liability]

Info Dump Time!

So it has come to my attention that the slasher fandom has recently been introduced to Ice Nine Kills, my favorite band (aside from Rammstein, of course). So if you are really wanting to get into them but have no clue where to start, look no further! As I am about to impart my knowledge onto all of you lovely people!

So Ice Nine Kills is an American Rock band from Boston, Massachusetts (but they like to say they’re from Salem). The band was formed in 2002 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz, though today the only surviving member of the original band is Spencer.

(more under the cut)

The current members are:

Spencer Charnas - lead vocals (main stage character: Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees)

Ricky Armellino - rhythm guitar, co-vocals (the extra screaming voice in most songs lol) (main stage character: Georgie)

Patrick Galante - drums (main stage character: Jigsaw)

Joe Occhiuti - bass, keyboard (Main stage character: Eric Draven)

Dan Sugarman - lead guitar, backing vocals (Main stage character: Leatherface)

Justin “JD” DeBlieck is also technically a current member but he's been on hiatus from the band since Warped Tour 2018. His role in the band has been filled in by Ricky since then.

Their original sound was more ska-punk but have, since their first official album, have changed their sound to metalcore, or as Spencer calls it, theatricore.

Their discography is as follows:

Last Chance To Make Amends - 2006 (not currently on spotify and the only one I haven’t heard)

The Burning - 2007

2 Song Acoustic - 2009

Safe Is Just A Shadow - 2010

The Predator - 2013

The Predator Becomes The Prey - 2014

Every Trick In The Book - 2015

The Silver Scream - 2018

Other notable releases:

They’ve been featured on Punk Goes Pop three times and Punk Goes 90s once. They covered Adele’s Someone Like You on Vol. 5, Maroon 5’s Animals on Vol. 6, Taylor Swift’s I Don’t Want To Live Forever on Vol. 7, and Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) on Punk Goes 90’s Vol. 2 (also, side note, Motionless In White covered Rammstein’s Du Hast on that record and it is *chef kiss* horrible. Awful. Listen to it if you wanna ruin your ears. Chris Motionless does not know a lick of German and it shows)

In 2017 they released a re-recorded version of Safe Is Just A Shadow which I personally prefer over the original because it is a much cleaner record. I also like that it only features Spencer’s vocals which I find sounds much better than the mix of his and former bassist Shane Bisnett’s vocals.

Last year, they released a deluxe version of The Silver Scream which includes the new track Your Number’s Up, a cover of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, and acoustic versions of A Grave Mistake, Stabbing In The Dark, SAVAGES, and Thank God It’s Friday (personally I only really like the acoustic of A Grave Mistake)

Their two most recent albums, Every Trick In The Book and The Silver Scream follow a similar format where every song on them follows a similar theme, ETITB being all based on classic novels and TSS being all based on slasher movies (with the exception of Thriller).

The songs and what they’re based on are as follows:

The Nature Of The Beast - Animal Farm by George Orwell

Communion Of The Cursed - The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty

Bloodbath & Beyond - Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Plot Sickens - Alive: The Story of The Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

Star-Crossed Enemies - Romeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare (the analyst in me really loves this song because it implies that Romeo and Juliet knew that they were only characters in a play but died together anyway because they knew they couldn’t escape their fate)

Me, Myself, & Hyde - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Alice - Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

The People In The Attic - The Diary Of A Young Girl by Anne Frank (this song features Spencer doing a very unconvincing German accent which, outside of the context of the song, is very funny)

Tess-Timony - Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Hell In The Hallways - Carrie by Stephen King

The American Nightmare - A Nightmare On Elm Street

Thank God It’s Friday - Friday The 13th

Stabbing In The Dark - Halloween

SAVAGES - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Jig Is Up - Saw

A Grave Mistake - The Crow

Rocking The Boat - Jaws (fun fact! This song features Jeremy Schwartz, the other founding member of the band and the lyrics contain the names of 5 of their 6 albums, excluding The Silver Scream)

Enjoy Your Slay - The Shining (another fun fact! In 2016 they put a vote to their fans to pick what piece of media the song they were working on would be based on, either The Shining or Psycho, I voted for Psycho because they already had a song based on a Stephen King story)

Freak Flag - The Devil’s Rejects

The World In My Hands - Edward Scissor-Hands

Merry Axe-Mas - Silent Night, Deadly Night

Love Bites - An American Werewolf In London

IT Is The End - It (including this one they have 3 songs based on Stephen King stories! His influence, ugh)

Your Number’s Up - Scream

More fun facts!

Aside from INK, Spencer also has a clothing company, Kleaver Klothing, which if they haven’t moved sites again, is at salem666.com

Last Year on their Summer tour they were supposed to play a show at a venue in Orlando, Florida that is on the grounds of Disney World. At the last minute Disney canceled their show because they’re performance was deemed “too violent” for a family park, despite the show already being 18+. In retaliation, the band released a series of limited edition merchandise featuring classic Disney characters as slasher villains, most notably Mickey Mouse as Freddy Kruger. They literally all sold out. I really should have got one when I had the chance

I own more pieces of Ice Nine Kills merch than literally any other piece of media I have ever consumed, including:

3 t shirts

2 tank tops

1 Letterman jacket

1 CD

2 vinyls

1 Kleaver t shirt (that I’m wearing right now)

1 poster

And a red balloon and paper boat from the IT Is The End music video promotion, (the boat is currently serving as a jewelry dish on my vanity)

I’ve seen them twice, Warped Tour 2016 and Warped Tour 2018, both times I met Spencer after the set and despite the whole scary act the band puts on during the shows, he’s very genuine and always really sweet to his fans. Enjoy these fetus pictures of me meeting him at 14 and 16 y/o

The lyric sheet for The Silver Scream is formatted like a spec script with action lines, scene headings, and inter-scene cuts, which screenwriting student me really, really enjoys

I got distracted while writing this because Patrick went live on Instagram, oops. He was setting up his new kit for the show tonight, it looks really cool, they’re painted to look like popcorn buckets

So that’s about it! Thank you for reading and enjoy the music!

[haveyouseenthis]

Ranking GO生 Tracklist | Stray Kids Special

GO生 Tracklist:

GO生 (Go Live) *intro

神메뉴 (God's Menu) *title track

Easy

Pacemaker

비행기 (Airplane) 

일상 (Daily Life/Another Day)

Phobia

청사진 (Blueprint) 

타 (TA) 

Haven

TOP *“Tower of God” OP

SLUMP *“Tower of God” ED

Mixtape : Gone Days *Pre-release 1

바보라도 알아 (Mixtape : On Track) *Pre-release 2

Since I’ve been so obsessed with this release recently, I thought it’d be fun to post a ranking for its tracklist the same as I did to hype up for its release.

Just as I did in my SKZ discography ranking, I’ll be commenting here and there on why I like certain songs, but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum as I’ll be talking about this album more soon. Also, just like last time, I will not be including the intro track in the final ranks.

Kasin’s final GO生 Tracklist Rankings: 

1.“神메뉴 (God’s Menu)”

This track is everything I didn’t know I needed from Stray Kids - from the kpop industry across the board. Most comebacks and debuts this season have felt pretty bland to me. None of them have really been bad, but none have been good either, you know, T? It’s like all of them just knew they needed to be eye catching, but then became nothing more than that. No real effort was put in on the producing side. Songs like NCT’s “Punch” or “Ridin’” feel like they were produced on an assembly line in the company. A cheap way to get max profit with minimal effort.

“God’s Menu” doesn’t feel like that. It’s not recycled. It wasn’t written on an assembly line or according to a formula. I’d bet money that that is because Stray Kids produces for themselves.

“God’s Menu” is shocking. It’s unique. It’s out there. It’s short and sweet for a title track but somehow it feels like it goes on forever. I never listen to it and go “Oh it’s over already”. I listen and find myself somehow feeling like the 2:47 song was actually 5:00. Somehow 3Racha wrote a song that, while being short, makes the listener think it’s longer. It sucks you in and makes you feel like it goes on forever. I mean, it literally only has two verses - two! So why do I feel like it has so many more?

Well, I’ve thought about it and I think it’s how they split up the parts. Verse one is done completely by Han. It also has consistent sound, changing only once halfway through. Verse two, however, is split up between Felix, Seungmin, I.N., Chan, and Hyunjin, and changes line to line, or part to part. This makes each line become its own verse, making the song seem longer. 

I don’t think it would’ve had the same effect if they hadn’t given Han all of verse one, or if they had split up each verse like they did verse two, or even if they had split up the first verse instead of the second. Giving an entire verse to one member right off the bat and then giving that verse a consistent sound, gives the listener’s brain the impression that that is how the rest of the song is going to go. Each verse will be sung by one member and have it’s own sound. So when that changed in verse two, and it gets split between five members and has four different sounds (I.N and Seungmin share a part), the single verse ends up sounding like 4 individual verses back to back.

I don’t want to get too sappy or anything, but the song truly feels like it’s its own little world.

There also isn’t a single break in the track. With many comebacks there will be lulls in the title track, normally two thirds of the way through. This is where raps are shoved into vocal songs for line distribution, or vice versa. It often ends up feeling forced, like the producers were trying to fit a square piece into a circle hole. 

My point is, this song is a masterpiece. Every line fits. The beat is gorgeous.

 2. “Easy”

This is the best song for them to follow up “God’s Menu” with. It has that same braggy style as “God’s Menu”. It’s like a brother to the title track. You can hear the smirk on their face in their voices as they sing - especially in the post chorus with Lee Know and Han. I.N’s voice also pleasantly surprised me this comeback. He has always had a gorgeous voice, but I’ve always been able to tell it's higher in pitch than the others. He sounds younger when he sings and it feels out of place in some of their previous releases. I think Young K said it best in Stray Kids when talking about how I.N’s stage presence disrupted the serious air the crew had with his cute-ness. Listening to “God’s Menu” there were many times I caught myself saying “wait… That’s Innie?”. “Easy” cemented his new vocals. Confirmed that, “yes, that’s I.N you heard,”. 

I think “Easy” could have easily been the title track for this comeback if “God’s Menu” wasn’t a part of the tracklist. It’s still powerful and, while I haven’t looked at the line distribution officially, it doesn’t sound so terrible. Seungmin and Chan probably got the most, being the main vocalists (err, official main vocalist and the honorary one…). It doesn’t seem like Changbin got too much time (his only parts are in verse 3) which is probably a reason they nixed it as the title track, if it was ever in the running. It’s probably doesn’t look too good if you don’t give your main rapper significant time in a title track (*cough* NCT 127 - yes I’m still bitter about Taeyong, shut up.).

3. “비행기 (Airplane)”

It’s so pretty and lighthearted at the same time. When I think of it, it’s with the same fond smile that I wear when I think of ballads, but then I listen to it and remember that it’s light and boppy. 

What I like most is that everyone’s vocals get to shine. Everyone in Stray Kids can sing. All of them. It was so nice to be able to listen to all of their beautiful voices.

Chan’s vocals at the beginning are everything I never knew I needed - jesus. Felix’s “Ay, ay, 기다려봐 / 잠깐만 진정해봐 / Ay, ay, 있잖아 나 / 네가 난 너무 좋아”, and Chan’s strong soulful vocal response with “처음부터 넌 / 내 심장을 흔들고 나를 미치게 해”. Lee Know, with his focus being dance, is never the first person I think of when I think of Stray Kid’s vocalists. Seugnmin, I.N, Bang Chan, and Han come to mind, but how dare I forget our main dancer. He may not have many parts in “God’s Menu”, but listening to the rest of the album I find myself not really minding it because he has a lot of vocal parts in the rest of the songs to compensate. 

I already mentioned how I feel like I.N’s voice has matured a lot, but now it’s time to talk about Seungmin. I wonder if he’s been training more since being appointed as the main vocal? I love his sound this song, especially during his alternating parts later in the song with I.N, namely “난 너의 피터 팬 나의 손 놓지 마 babe”.

4. “청사진  (Blueprint)”

So. Pretty. I’ll talk a little more about it in my GO生 review, but I don’t have terribly much to say. I just love it. 

(Also Chan kills his part around 1:57-2:02)

(And I.N’s vocals are lovely)

(K that’s it)

5. “일상 (Daily Life/Another Day)”

I’ll just save all my thoughts for the main review because I have a lot of them, thank you very much (this is already toooo long~).

6. “Pacemaker”

This almost made 3rd, and there really isn’t a concrete reason why it didn’t besides personal preference. It’s an amazing song, hard-hitting, and sounds like SKZ. That’s actually why I put it after songs like “Airplane” and “Another Day” - because those songs sound different from anything I’ve ever heard from SKZ, and they pleasantly surprised me.

That’s not to say “Pacemaker” is mundane, or sounds just like their previous tracks - it doesn’t. Nothing on this album sounds recycled. None of it sounds like they were uninspired while producing it. “Pacemaker” is a song that stays true to Stray Kid’s hard hip-hop sound, and they spared no expense because of that. There wasn’t less effort put into it because it was another hard track - it demands just as much attention as any other song on this album.

7. “SLUMP”

When “TOP” and “SLUMP” were first released I never really listened to SLUMP. For some reason it slipped my mind that the two were released as a pair, and all I paid attention to was TOP. Maybe it’s because, and forgive me for my sins, I thought “TOP” was “meh” upon release so I didn’t bother listening to “SLUMP”. Or maybe it’s just because “TOP” got most of the hype and I truly forgot about it’s brother track.

Months later, GO生’s release was upon us and I found myself repenting at the altar. How could I have ignored the blessing that is the Tower of God ED all those months ago? 

It only has a duration of 2:14, and I’ve seen a lot of STAYs cracking jokes about how the short length is the only bad thing about it. I disagree. I like it the way it is. Something about it being short and sweet makes it better in my opinion.

8. “타 (TA)”

This song feels like old SKZ. I’m not exactly sure why, but it does. This could have been released right after District 9. However, what separates it from their earlier releases is that it sounds more polished. It sounds like an evolved version of their debut sound.

I do like that, with SKZ being self-producing, you can hear their music getting better. Not that it was ever bad, but there is something a little “more” to their more recent songs. You can tell they’ve gained experience. Recently starting around the astronaut era, you can tell they’ve been getting more comfortable with playing around with their sound more, and I like that a lot.

9. “바보라도 알아 (Mixtape : On Track)”

ONE MORE STEP, I WILL NEVER STOP-

Prettyprettyprettypretty

Okay, I admit: I did not like this song when it came out. Like… kind of at all. But then I listened to it again. And then one more time. And then I looked at the lyrics. And then I watched the music video a few more times for good measure.

When I talk about vocals shining I- this. This is what I mean. The chorus, the verses, the everything.

Also, it brings this album’s love song counter up to 4~. 

10. “Phobia”

I was hoping to like this song more than I do, but I just don’t. It’s a good song, just not my favorite of the bunch. I had it as 8th, actually, for that reason, but I realised it just didn’t sit right with me. I was ranking it for what I wanted it to be, not what I felt it was.

It’s a solid song, don’t get me wrong. I just favour the above more.

11. “Mixtape : Gone Days”

I’m still not able to make up my mind about this one. It reminds me of the saturated hip-hop sound “Get Cool” and “Awkward Silence” enlist, but somehow it goes farther than either of its predecessors did. 

12. “TOP”

If anyone was wondering how close these rankings are, TOP was almost 4th.

Yeah.

I wasn’t sure quite what to think of TOP when it came out. The scythe-y electronic sounds caught me a little off guard. Like “Mixtape : On Track” the more I listened, the more I liked it.

13. “Haven”

I had high hopes for this song, what with its, at least unofficial, namesake being an alternate name for STAY. Meaning-wise it didn’t fall short. It was a song from Stray Kids to their STAY. Telling them this, the music, is STAY’s safe space. It was a message of encouragement and inspiration. 

It was a fun song, truly, just not my favorite. However, it still holds a place in my heart for it’s meaning.

Look out for my GO生 review, coming in two parts~, soon. (Pray for T, she had to proofread so much.)

Links:

GO生 on Spotify

GO生 on Youtube

“神메뉴” M/V

[blackkudos]

Shirley Horn

Shirley Valerie Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005) was an American jazz singer and pianist. She collaborated with many jazz greats including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and others. She was most noted for her ability to accompany herself with nearly incomparable independence and ability on the piano while singing, something described by arranger Johnny Mandel as "like having two heads", and for her rich, lush voice, a smoky contralto, which was described by noted producer and arranger Quincy Jones as "like clothing, as she seduces you with her voice".

Biography

Shirley Horn was born and raised in Washington, D.C.. Encouraged by her grandmother, an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. Aged 12, she studied piano and composition at Howard University, later graduating from there in classical music. Horn was offered a place at the Juilliard School, but her family could not afford to send her there. Horn formed her first jazz piano trio when she was 20. Horn's early piano influences were Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson and Ahmad Jamal, and moving away from her classical background, Horn later said that "Oscar Peterson became my Rachmaninov, and Ahmad Jamal became my Debussy." She then became enamored with the famous U Street jazz area of Washington (largely destroyed in the 1968 riots), sneaking into jazz clubs before she was of legal age.

According to jazz journalist James Gavin, the small New York City record label Stere-O-Craft discovered Horn in Washington, D.C. and brought her to New York to record her first album, 1960's Embers and Ashes. Horn had recorded with violinist Stuff Smith in Washington, D.C. in 1959, as a pianist in one of the rhythm sections featured on Cat on a Hot Fiddle. Unfortunately for Horn, Verve Records did not include her name on the album's list of backing musicians, and the experience did not raise her professional profile.(A later reissue of Stuff Smith's Verve recordings on Mosaic Records documented Horn's participation, and included three Horn vocal performances of George Gershwin songs that were left off the album.)

Horn's Embers and Ashes record attracted the attention of jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who praised Horn publicly and invited her to play intermission sets during his performances at the Village Vanguard. Davis's praise had particular resonance in two respects: because he was highly respected as a musician, and because he rarely offered public praise for fellow musicians at that time. A 1961 live performance recorded in St. Louis' Gaslight Square district was eventually released on LP under the title "Live" at the Village Vanguard. (A later CD reissue of this material was released under the title At the Gaslight Square 1961).

By 1962, Horn had attracted the attention of Mercury Records vice-president (and jazz arranger) Quincy Jones, who signed Horn to Mercury. On her two Mercury LPs, Horn was placed in a traditional pop setting with medium-sized jazz orchestra, and on neither album did she play piano. According to jazz journalist James Gavin, a third Mercury LP was recorded but never issued, and as of 1993, the tapes for that album were presumed to be lost. Horn's final LP of the 1960s was 1965's Travelin' Light, recorded for ABC-Paramount. She was popular with jazz critics, but did not achieve significant popular success.

Though she had recorded a song by The Beatles on Travelin' Light, Horn for the most part resisted efforts to remake her into a popular singer in the mid-1960s, later saying of such attempts "I will not stoop to conquer." From the late-1960s to the early 1980s, she was semi-retired from music, staying in Washington, D.C. to raise her daughter Rainy with her husband, Sheppard Deering (whom she had married in 1955), and largely limiting her music to local performances. She made one album in 1972 for Perception Records, but the record received little notice, and Horn did not tour to promote it.

In 1978, Horn's career got a boost when SteepleChase Records of Denmark tracked her down in Washington, D.C. and offered to record her with drummer Billy Hart, (whom Horn had known for many years) and bassist Buster Williams. The resulting album, A Lazy Afternoon was the first of a total of four Horn albums released by SteepleChase between 1978 and 1984. Horn also began to play engagements in North America and Europe, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, where two of her albums were recorded.

In 1986, Horn signed a one-record deal with CBS-Sony for the Japanese market and released All of Me, a studio session recorded in New York City with her regular trio and guest Frank Wess on three tracks. By early 1987, Verve Records was pursuing a recording contract with her, and in May of that year, the live album I Thought About You, her first for Verve, was recorded in Hollywood. Horn recorded one further session for an indepdendent jazz label (1987's Softly, for Audiophile Records), then returned to Verve. She released a total of 11 studio and live albums for the label during her lifetime (additional compilation albums added to this total). Horn's most commercially successful years were spent with Verve, and the label helped her find a large international audience.

Miles Davis made a rare appearance as a sideman on Horn's 1991 album You Won't Forget Me. Although she preferred to perform in small settings, such as her trio, she also recorded with orchestras, as on the 1992 album Here's to Life, the title song of which became her signature song. A video documentary of Horn's life and music was released at the same time as "Here's To Life" and shared its title. At the time, arranger Johnny Mandel commented that Horn's piano skill was comparable to that of the noted jazz great Bill Evans. A follow-up was made in 2001, named You're My Thrill.

Horn worked with the same rhythm section for 25 years: Charles Ables (bass) and Steve Williams (drums). Don Heckman wrote in the Los Angeles Times (February 2, 1995) about "the importance of bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams to Horn's sound. Working with boundless subtlety, following her every spontaneous twist and turn, they were the ideal accompanists for a performer who clearly will tolerate nothing less than perfection".

Her albums Here's to Life, Light Out of Darkness (A Tribute to Ray Charles) and I Love You, Paris all reached number one on the Billboard jazz charts.

A breast cancer survivor, she had been battling diabetes when she died of complications from the condition, aged 71. She is interred at Ft. Lincoln Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Since her death, concert recordings of Horn have been released on CD and DVD by Resonance Records and Image Entertainment.

On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Shirley Horn among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

Awards and honors

Horn was nominated for nine Grammy Awards during her career, winning the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance at the 41st Grammy Awards for I Remember Miles, a tribute to her friend and mentor (the album's cover featuring a Miles Davis drawing of them both).

She was officially recognized by the 109th US Congress for "her many achievements and contributions to the world of jazz and American culture", and performed at The White House for several U.S. presidents. Horn was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music in 2002.

She was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award in 2005 (the highest honors that the United States bestows upon jazz musicians).

Discography

As leader

Embers and Ashes (Stere-o-Craft, 1960)

Loads of Love (Mercury, 1963)

Shirley Horn with Horns (Mercury, 1963)

Travelin' Light (ABC-Paramount, 1965)

Where Are You Going (Perception, 1973)

A Lazy Afternoon (SteepleChase, 1979)

All Night Long (SteepleChase, 1981)

Violets for Your Furs (SteepleChase, 1982)

The Garden of the Blues (SteepleChase, 1985)

I Thought About You (Verve, 1987)

All of Me (CBS/Sony, 1987)

Softly (Audiophile, 1988)

Close Enough for Love (Verve, 1989)

You Won't Forget Me (Verve, 1991)

Here's to Life (Verve, 1992)

Light Out of Darkness (A Tribute to Ray Charles) (Verve, 1993)

I Love You, Paris (Verve, 1994)

The Main Ingredient (Verve, 1996)

Loving You (Verve, 1997)

I Remember Miles (Verve, 1998)

May the Music Never End (Verve, 2003)

You're My Thrill (Verve, 2000)

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz with Guest Shirley Horn (Jazz Alliance, 2006)

Live at the 1994 Monterey Jazz Festival (Concord, 2008)

Live at the Four Queens (Resonance, 2016)

As guest

Benny Carter, Benny Carter Songbook (MusicMasters, 1997)

Bill Charlap, Stardust (Blue Note, 2003)

Benny Golson, One Day, Forever (Arkadia Jazz, 2001)

Charlie Haden, The Art of the Song (Verve, 1999)

Quincy Jones, For Love of Ivy (ABC, 1968)

Carmen McRae, Sarah: Dedicated to You (BMG/Novus, 1991)

Oscar Peterson, A Tribute to Oscar Peterson – Live at the Town Hall (Telarc, 1996)

Jeffery Smith, Ramona (Gitanes/Verve, 1995)

Stuff Smith, Cat on a Hot Fiddle (Verve, 1960)

Clark Terry, Live on QE2 (Chiaroscuro, 2001)

Toots Thielemans, For My Lady (EmArcy, 1991)

Joe Williams, In Good Company (Verve, 1989)

DVD

Live at the Village Vanguard (Lucy II, 2006)

[identityexcavationstation]

The High Fidelity Remake is Good and my Identity is Irreversibly Linked to Music Consumption

Hi! So, I’m kinda insane about playlists.

This year I’ve made a lot of them. They’ve been short and snappy on index cards, scanned and pasted in a book and uploaded to the internet. (I’ve really fallen in love with index card playlists and they’re my thing now and I think everyone should do them always and forever.) They were easy to churn out as a retrospective exercise because the music I listened to as a teenager really defined my high school experience. Also, I have most of my favorite songs from that period in a very dramatic playlist I started in 2014 so it was really a game of copy-and-paste. 

Making these smol boys in batches has been a really peculiar experience because for years now, I’ve only made one playlist at a time. In my second semester of college, I’d officially burned myself out listening to only CHVRCHES for three months and began venturing elsewhere. (Don’t get me wrong, CHVRCHES absolutely bangs, but you can only listen to “Never Ending Circles” so many times before getting seasick.) All of the random songs I was listening to made me feel kinda hazy and purple, like I’d done all of this before. So I made a playlist full of them and called it “Deja Vu.”

I added to it all semester, and then suddenly it was summer and I didn’t feel purple and hazy anymore⁠—everything was blue and crisp on the way to South Haven as my friend blasted “Settle Down” by Kimbra in her beat-up Honda. So I started a new playlist and named it the first word that popped into my head: “Roots.”

Using Deja Vu as a rubric, I developed some ground rules for the playlists I would go on to create. They are pretty nonsensical but also exceedingly firm because if I don’t make rules for every area of my life I feel like I’m falling into a deep and limitless void. Health! Anyway, the rules are:

The playlist’s title has to be a short noun (seven letters maximum).

This has since transformed into a noun that is also a verb.

To generate a title, I ask myself what short word I would use to describe the phase of life I’m currently in. The answer comes quickly and reflexively, and I choose the very first word I think of.

One song per artist, no repeats!

Exceptions are made for artists who are featured on a track.

There have been times when I’ve obsessively listened to a whole album or an artist’s entire discography, so I have to choose just one song that represents the very best of that album or artist.

Tracks are added chronologically, based on when I first hear them and/or start listening to them compulsively.

The playlist has to contain an amount of tracks that is divisible by five.

If a song in a playlist is deleted from Spotify, I have to find a replacement asap that is accurate to what I was listening to when that playlist was being created.

and, most importantly, 

I can’t make a new playlist until I feel I’m finished with the current one.

These playlists represent seasons of my life, cycles in which I change and evolve and stagnate and fuck up and try again. The only rule I have for beginning a new playlist is that I feel done with the current one—those songs are a little stale and don’t represent me anymore. These “seasons” don’t have any set length, and I can never predict when I’ll feel like a new being who needs new songs to define her. So far, my life has looked like this:

Deja Vu - 176 days (12.03.16 - 05.28.17) Most common lyrics: now, love, time, need, take

snow that covers ivy that covers bricks, towers made from dining hall dishes, smiling at the bus stop without knowing, sheet masks in the dorm bathroom at 2am, pink string lights and pink crocheted blankets and pink shag carpeting, cheap beer behind tarps and walking everyone home

Roots - 111 days (05.28.17 - 09.16.17)  Most common lyrics: love, one, give, wanna, know

t-shirt tan lines, mozzarella and tomato and basil and singed spaghetti, sunset walks around abandoned high schools, green leaves outlined in watercolor, the smell of mildew and old paper in banker’s boxes, sweat-soaked french braids, the knife twist of eye contact, tarot readings under lamplight

Walls - 110 days (09.16.17 - 01.04.18)   Most common lyrics: wanna, know, baby, take, feel

crying in the gender-neutral restroom, pretty boys holding guitars or rolling rock, photos in the forest, blue carpeting and lofted bedframes, pitch-black bonfires, sitting in the dining hall to just watch the people pass, snow on eyelashes in large wet clumps, laughing at lies

Bite - 78 days (01.04.18 - 03.23.18)    Most common lyrics: know, love, stay, come, need

impatience at the airport, texting on the laundry room floor, nervous night drives, five grilled cheese sandwiches, acne like freckles, ceiling photos taken in secret, watercolor lines and paper houses, broken glass on the sidewalk, ink-stained forearms, notebook paper comics, writing small on basement walls

Windows - 131 days (03.23.18 - 08.01.18)   Most common lyrics: love, now, know, baby, fall

books piled up by the bed, rum and coke and orange juice and vodka and cheap white wine, rainy day night walks, streetlights turning the leaves orange, echoes from the party upstairs, solo trips to the grocery store, always leaving the blinds open, aperol and chai lattes and smørrebrød, never coming home

Grip - 136 days (08.01.18 - 12.15.18)    Most common lyrics: know, boy, lost, girl, night

read receipts, the creaking of an empty house, sand and bricks and traffic cones, sitting on the curb and shaking, applause at dinner, bubble tea, bike rides in torn jeans, mr brightside blasting at 10am, doodles during lectures, embroidery at the kitchen table, blue bus panic attacks, half an apple for lunch

Wait - 117 days (12.15.18 - 04.11.19)  Most common lyrics: heart, want, one, back, know

crying in the lobby, measuring oats by the quarter cup, drunken voice memos, shoes on power lines, another bowl of granola, reading all the lyrics, photos taken with the flash on, sleeping on strange couches, shoeboxes full of photographs, wire catching the sunlight, fifteen minutes of windchill

Wave - 108 days (04.11.19 - 07.28.19)  Most common lyrics: wanna, know, now, love, come

dancing on the porch, reading on the roof, tipsy trips to the corner store, silent heavy parlor air, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, barred windows and string lights and exit signs, highlighting the important parts, nails tapping on wooden tables, wet wind before the storm, biking straight into the smoke

Home - 178 days (07.28.19 - 01.22.20)   Most common lyrics: down, know, now, wanna, think

steep downhill walks, fingertips covered in graphite and lead, blank faces on green walls, forest walkways, hands gripping thighs too tightly, light leaks in darkrooms, the handwriting of strangers, chains trapped between teeth, white words left unread, twirling at the tennis court, yellow becoming blue

Hand - 63 days (01.22.20 - 03.25.20)   Most common lyrics: know, time, love, die, back

masking tape messages, laughing four shots in, BiC .07mm HB mechanical pencils slipped into coat cuffs, cheeks blushed with red ink, green floodlights and kissed knuckles, windows fogged from the inside, falling asleep with earbuds in, finger guns and everything in boxes, wedging open locked doors

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It’s interesting to look back at these playlists altogether, see them as self-contained units, little stories I tell about myself, about the people I used to be. Adding a song to one of these playlists was like making a vow, entering a relationship with a collection of sounds. It’s like I was saying “this song is now a part of me.” I constructed this little world for myself in the space between my ears, and it, in turn, created me.

I really mean it when I say that the first word that floats to the front of my mind becomes the title of whatever playlist I’m making. I never question what the word means, and its meaning always ends up describing that season of my life. 

“Roots” became a period of reconnecting with essential pieces of myself I thought I had abandoned. 

During “Grip,” I was holding on so tightly to things that had left me ages ago, and I think I knew that, even if I was unable to admit it to myself. 

“Wait” revealed itself in two ways: it was a time in which 1.) I felt stagnant and restless, unable to be patient, and 2.) I was forced to grasp with a physical and emotional weight that had been bearing down on me. 

The mind is a magical thing—it processes what we refuse to recognize. 

Speaking of which, these playlist covers have been driving me up the wall for ages. They’re like nails on a freaking chalkboard for my synesthesia. Is “Bite” a heavily blue playlist? Sure. But is “Home” purple? Is “Grip” pink??? I think the fuck not! 

(I could do a whole goddamn blog post on synesthesia, and I might.)

Now that I know how to switch out playlist cover art (can you believe it’s taken me this long to figure out how to do that?), I have decided to issue myself a challenge/project/way to procrastinate actual work I have to do. 

I’d like to make a piece of cover art for all of the above playlists. And because I am, to reiterate, insane, I’m setting up some Rules For Creation:

All works must be the same size, on the same type of paper using similar materials (tbd but probably graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, fineliners, and/or collage).

The preliminary sketch for each cover must be created while listening to the playlist.

Each piece can (must?) incorporate the five most common lyrics as listed above because goddammit I did not spend four hours compiling lyrics in a web-based word cloud generator for nothing.

If I’m not having fun, I won’t make myself do it because this is literally just for laffs. 

Anyway, I’m looking forward to creating some fun weird art! I know nobody is gonna read this and nobody is gonna comment but if, by some miracle, you feel like it, comment a playlist you’ve made that you’re really proud of! Or comment if you have some weird playlist rules! Or cyberbully me! Anything’s fair game. 

TL;DR playlists are fun and I’m a maniac :)