#clementine springsteen

[commiepinkofag]

Trans Teen Receiving Award from Iowa Gov. Shouts “Trans Rights Are Human Rights”

A transgender student in Iowa used an award ceremony as an opportunity to protest Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), who earlier this year signed two bills into law that attack trans kids across the state.

[ID: Transgender high school senior Clementine Springsteen stands onstage between Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg (R) and Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) during the Iowa Governor's Scholar awards on April 30, 2023. Clementine Springsteen wears a striped tie with pink, white and blue, symbolizing the colors of transgender pride, with two pins that read “Trans Rights are Human Rights” and “She Her.” ]

[lesbianjudasiscariot]

Let Those Powerlines Take Me Somewhere

Powerline Valley (Demo) - Ethel Cain / Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen / Hum Hum - Mary Oliver / Sleep on the Floor - The Lumineers / Triple Dog Dare - Lucy Dacus / Courtney Love Prays to Oregon - Clementine Von Radics

[trashmuth]

(1) Succession 1x08 + Jeremy Strong in Humboldt County (2008) + Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down (2002) / (2) Bruce Springsteen, Adam Raised A Cain / (3) Wiener-Dog (2016) + Succesion 4x10 + Natalie Diaz, A Brother Named Gethsemane / (4) Ritika Jyala, excerpt from The world is a sphere of ice and our hands are made of fire / (5) Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down (2002) + Succesion 2x03 + Clementine Von Radics / (6) Conan Gray, Family Line / (7) Igby Goes Down (2002) + Succession 4x10 / (8) Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis / (9) Succession 2x07 + Succession 4x02 + Mary Ruefle, Woodtangle

[wastemanjohn]

y'know I thought I was all done but I got one more thing to add to my earlier (lengthy -- sorry!) response to the wincest wednesday askbox scattergun, and that's on the topic of familial lexicon:

mundane headcanons, I hear you say? how about this one that is gospel in my heart: there are dozens, if not HUNDREDS, of songs that sam hears in his brother's voice before anybody else's.

there's songs for bathtime and bedtime, songs to make sam sit still while dean clips his sharp little fingernails, songs for when dad's been gone for so many minutes, way past the little hand on the eight and the big hand on the four. there's songs for waiting in the car while dad pumps gas or digs deep holes or lights fires that make dean go pale and a little sweaty, so his palm slides clammy-cold over sam's. there's songs for walking home from school, songs that sam gets to hear vibrating up to where he's perched on dean's shoulders, and songs whispered against his temple when sleep won't come.

(later, when he's older, there's songs for counting cadence during PT and songs for walking back to the fence to reset the pop can targets and songs for when he's fought with dad and screamed himself hoarse. there's songs for hanging out the window to the waist while dean does a conservative seventy-five of roads graded for fifty. there's songs dean sings to and for himself, but he doesn't mind if sam listens in.)

like, for sam, pete seeger didn't sing "little boxes"; dean winchester did. paul simon and art garfunkel didn't sing "cecelia"; dean winchester did. bruce springsteen didn't sing "atlantic city" and arlo guthrie didn't sing "alice's restaurant massacre" and warren zevon didn't sing "roland the headless thompson gunner" (besides, sam's pet theory is that warren's probably a hunter himself, or at least a well-informed civilian); peter schilling didn't sing "major tom" and elvis didn't sing "suspicious minds" and roy orbison didn't sing "all I have to do is dream". joan baez didn't sing "with god on our side" and tom paxton didn't sing "lyndon johnson told the nation" and hoyt acton didn't sing "greenback dollar" and fleetwood mac sure as hell didn't sing "the chain". phil ochs didn't sing "the highwayman" and john denver didn't sing "country roads" and dusty springfield didn't sing "I only want to be with you". dean winchester did; word-perfect, every time.

sam's a connoisseur of the entire dean winchester discography. no matter what anybody else (the radio included) says, sam knows how those song go.

sam knows that the song goes, "my sammy lies over the prairie, my sammy lies over the sea, my sammy lies over the prairie, so bring back my sammy to me"

sam knows that the song goes, "a-round her neck/ she wore a yellow ribbon/ she wore it in the springtime/ and in the month of may/ and if you asked/ her why the hell she wore it/ she wore it for her young marine sent far, far away"

sam knows that the song goes, "I've got some fine memories of san angelo/ and I've seen some beauty queens in el paso/ but the best lookin' women that I've ever seen/ have all been from kansas and all wearin' jeans"

sam knows that the song goes, "we've hauled some barges in our day/ filled with lumber, coal, and hay/ and we know every inch of the way/ from albany to far below"

sam knows that the song goes, "my father was hung as a horse thief/ my mother was burned as a witch/ my seventeen sisters, they run the whorehouse/ and I'm a cocksucking son of a bitch"

sam knows that the song goes, "oh, my darling/ oh, my darling/ oh, my darling clementine/ you are lost and gone forever/ dreadful sorry, clementine"

sam knows that the song goes, "so take my tip before you ship to join the iron gang/ don't be too gay in botany bay, or else you'll surely hang/ "or else you'll surely hang," says he, and after that, jim jones/ way up upon the gallows tree, the crows will pick your bones"

sam know that the song goes, "bye, baby bunting, daddy's gone a-hunting, gone to fetch a gator skin, to wrap his baby bunting in"

(sam's twenty-three and newly dead so he doesn't know the next time a song from dean's back catalogue gets sung in a whisper against the thin skin of his temple, hair pushed back behind his ear so maybe he'll hear: bring back, bring back, oh, bring back my sammy to me, to me; bring back, bring back, oh bring back my baby to me)

!!!! SCREAM! ANON YOU ARE FUCKING *COOKING* this is so beautiful 😭😭😭😭 gosh. I'm screaming. EVERYONE READ WHAT ANON SAID PLEASE BECAUSE MY BRAIN IS REARRANGED BY THIS

[im-tempted]

- Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart by Mitski- Courtney Love Prays To Oregon by Clementine von Radics- Icarus by The Crane Wives- N/A- Adam Raised a Cain by Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band- Family Line by Conan Gray- The Dreamer Trilogy- August’s Quote Collection: For the found and repurposed

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 14/09/2024 (Linkin Park Reunite! + Central Cee/RAYE, Fred again.. - ten days)

Sabrina Carpenter may no longer hold the top three of the UK Singles Chart but she still hangs onto the top two with “Espresso” at #2 and “Taste” at its third week at #1. It’s an interesting one so welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, discussion of sexual assault

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, those being songs that exit the UK Top 75 (which is what I cover) after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid farewell to a long list of hits, including “Double Life” by Pharrell Williams, “Bring Me Joy” by Rudimental and Karen Harding, “Pour Me a Drink” by Post Malone featuring Blake Shelton, “misses” by Dominic Fike, “360” by Charli xcx, Badger’s remix of “These Words” by Natasha Bedingfield, “Fortnight” by Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone, “Happier” by The Blessed Madonna featuring Clementine Douglas, “Dancing in the Dark” by Bruce Springsteen, “Houdini” by Dua Lipa and finally, “Evergreen” by Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners. Whew.

Now what ended up replacing this mass exodus of songs? Well, other than the new tracks, which we have plenty of, we also have re-entries for “i like the way you kiss me” by Artemas at #74, “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls at #69 and “Numb” by Linkin Park at #41, which we’ll get to. We also see a few boosts for “Scared to Start” by Michael Marcagi at #65, “Belong Together” by Mark Ambor at #59, “Carry You Home” by Alex Warren at #36, “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish at #30, “We Play” by Coldplay and friends at #26, “The Door” by Teddy Swims at #16, “Sailor Song” by Gigi Perez at #13, “Move” by Adam Port, Stryv and Malachiii at #12 and “Somedays” by Sonny Fodera, Jazzy and D.O.D at #10, with most of the higher gains filling in for Oasis losses.

Our top five in the UK Singles Chart this week consists of: “Please Please Please” by Sabrina Carpenter at #5, “The Emptiness Machine” by Linkin Park at #4 (yes, I know, we’ll get to it), “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan at #3 then of course, Sabrina with the top two. As for what’s below, it’s pretty interesting so let’s start right at the bottom.

New Entries

#75 - “Embrace It” - Ndotz

Produced by RJ Pasin

We start with… what? Okay, so Ndotz is a rapper from the UK who imitates Cash Cobain’s cover art gimmick on this single’s art, but the music is anything but, going for a bass-heavy rhythm not dissimilar to a Neptunes beat but with bass so blown-out it basically comes as its own bass-boosted meme version, which makes sense given that it’s barely two minutes, mentions TikTok in the chorus and commands girls to twerk, presumably to this song, so the mystery is solved to why this cheap, kind of garbage mix is charting. The worst thing is, thanks to the silly acoustic guitar and the fact you can tell Ndotz is having some fun, I don’t even dislike this. I don’t want to give the obvious, somewhat cynical attempt at virality much praise, I don’t want to “hand it to ‘em”, but I gotta hand it to ‘em. It’s just somewhat funny, and that’s pretty much all it wanted to be. Sure!

#71 - “Circadian Rhythm” - Drake

Produced by London Cyr, Ben10k, Eli Brown and Gordo

So, the embarrassed post-beef Drake has been posting songs on social media, leaking them to his website, hoping the sample gets cleared, then tossing it onto streaming if the reception is positive, and this has been vaguely unsuccessful, with the songs - even potential hits like “It’s Up” with 21 Savage and Young Thug - not making much noise, even with Drake still dissing subliminally throughout these leftovers. This song from the latest re-release of 100 GIGS - in reference to the realest thing he’s ever done: dump a bunch of useless files on a website because he felt like it - is billed as somewhat of a sequel to his 2013 song “The Language” but this all just feels like a demo. The chorus is primarily drumless, filling space with a chipmunk sample, and the verses have oddly webby-sounding snares, with Drake’s verses not fully equipped to the beat yet, and some unclear vocals if I’m being honest where I absolutely had to check what he was trying to say. This might be common for Future but definitely not Drake, whose nasal drone has never been indecipherable. The song ends abruptly, has frankly nothing to say with pretty minimal and vague lyrics about the rap game betraying him and shouting out Toronto artists, which may be the realm he should be in: part of Kendrick’s critique was his lack of identity, and harkening back to when Drake was at least marginally closer to his birthplace may be a step in the right direction regarding that. If this is the Toronto sound, though, this may be the drowsiest of all time because this is clearly a dull leftover, and for Drake, whose discography is no stranger to dull leftovers, when it’s this obvious, that’s just sad.

#70 - “I Adore You” - HUGEL, Topic and Arash featuring Daecolm

Produced by HUGEL, Topic, A7S and Late Nine

The only names I recognised here were Topic and A7S, who had some hits together in 2021, namely the top 10s “Breaking Me” and “Your Love (9PM)”, which were both okay slices of European deep house. Here, the German and Swede DJs team up with HUGEL from France, Iranian singer Arash Labaf who represented Azerbaijan in Eurovision years ago and South African-born Daecolm for a considerably multinational collaboration. Music really is borderless these days so I was interested on how this would mesh, and whilst you can definitely hear Daecolm bring an Afro-house rhythm in both the percussion and higher-register vocals, they’re inserted into a more generic tropical house template that doesn’t allow the organic sense of much of the African music that charts nowadays translate very well. I appreciate the strings in the back of the chorus, but with such an echoed mix and incessant “la-la” vocals, the final product renders as overproduced with very few realised sonic ideas, just kind of an unemotive noise, which is disappointing but might be expected with four lead artists, four producers and a short runtime that aligns strictly with the typical EDM build-drop format, but without much impact as everything is a wispy cloud, made to soundtrack adverts telling me to visit the Canary Islands rather than actually form that solid of a groove or string me along with an anthemic hook. It just kinds of floats in the air, but with a stiffness brought to it by how programmed it all is, and how there’s little in the way of actually unique sound design. I suppose it joins “Move” in this niche category of international Afro-house tunes which set the energy to negative numbers, but we didn’t really need another one.

#68 - “BABY I’M BACK” - The Kid LAROI

Produced by Rogét Chahayed and Dopamine

I know this looks bad with The Kid LAROI and Drake, but I promise you that there is interesting, worthwhile and genuinely amazing music coming up, it’s just that there’s plenty of less impressive stuff to get through also, like all weeks. I was faintly interested to see LAROI collaborate with UK DJ group Dopamine, who typically don’t collaborate with rappers necesssarily, but that quickly left me when I realised it was another lazy sample flip. As I always say, the story starts in 1977, when Player released “Baby Come Back”, cheesy soft-rock adult contemporary schlock typically schmaltzy of its era,  but just catchy enough to be a semi-ironic guilty pleasure, which Yung Gravy understood when using the track as the basis for his comedic storytelling track about MILFs, “Cheryl”, from all the way back in 2017. So why The Kid LAROI wants to try and get us to believe it as a semi-serious breakup narrative with some toxic piss-offs but still loving platitudes, is completely beyond me. The original song by LA band Player peaked at #32 over here despite topping the charts stateside, though Vanessa Hudgens brought it back to the chart by sampling it on 2006’s “Come Back to Me”, peaking at a whopping… #100. Mr. LAROI’s rendition is largely pointless, with a weirdly-mixed chipmunk variation of the hook, where you can tell it transitions to a version where the vocals may have been removed through an AI website, which is largely covered by the drums, so why so much of the song actively presents the sample without them is also beyond me, the drop doesn’t hit hard or anything. I suppose the bridge’s flip on the original hook with the pianos is sweet, but LAROI doesn’t have the soul in him to pull this off, at least not yet. Sorry, it gets close to being… okay, though.

#66 - “Neva Play” - Megan Thee Stallion featuring RM

Produced by LilJuMadeDaBeat, Shae Jacobs, B Ham and Peter Fenn

“Neva Play” is the newest single from Texas rapper Megan Thee Stallion, coinciding with the success of her VMAs hosting and her other stateside hit “Mamushi” with Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, by bringing Korean rapper RM, of BTS fame, to the fold, though Megan had remixed “Butter” before so this is not the first time they’ve crossed paths. Hilariously, Megan makes what appears to be an active attempt to keep it clean here, to fit with BTS’ young fanbase, seemingly unaware that RM was not afraid to drop F-bombs anyway. Other than that trivial note, the song’s pretty cool, there’s a minimal phonk beat that really brings into question why it needed more than Megan’s long-time collaborator LilJu to bring it together, though the distracting deep backing vocal is a bit off-putting in the verses. Megan has a lot of charisma, and whilst the content isn’t anything new - or really anything referencing East Asian culture outside of a “Hadouken!” ad-lib - her verse is a lot of fun. The counting chorus feels a bit basic or immature for this kind of banger, but RM brings a really compelling verse here. In fact, he outperforms Megan by just being really interesting - I wasn’t familiar with just how deep his drawl could go, pairing interestingly with Megan by smokily floating in at the end of the chorus and quickly going into a staccato verse about how he paved the way for Asian artists, before swtching into different flows and paces, including one moment where he purposefully kills all momentum of his verse to echo into a different cadence that feels very fittingly Memphis and also surprisingly catchy, with a decent amount of unique character and swag to his warm tone that he later brings onto the final chorus. Without RM, this would be a fine if typical Megan track, but his performance is pretty interesting if not a bit awkward or slightly abridged, and I like to hear the BTS members stepping into weirder cadences and musical ideas. More of RM would be interesting to hear.

#64 - “peace u need” - Fred again.. and Joy Anonymous

Produced by Fred again.., Joy Anonymous, Barney Lister and Will Bloomfield

So this week, Fred again.. released one of my favourite albums of the year, ten days. I spoke more about this on my RateYourMusic 2024 listening log - account name: exclusivelytopostown - but in summary, the album acts as what I would imagine as a picturebook, a collage of postcards reflecting on a particular Summer wherein those memories are all stored in layered, gorgeous progressive house taking motifs from more ambient directions and placing them into slow-burn atmospheric dance tracks. Outside of “adore u”, I love pretty much all of the songs on there, and it’s an incredibly cohesive listen despite the fact that we hear so many different voices thanks to it consisting primarily of remixes, and perhaps succeeds in part due to that as we get to hear different stories that all tie into the reminiscent feeling of wishing you could experience that Summer all over again, with the sound collage interludes forming a togetherness that is really touching and reflects on Fred’s collaborative spirit.

“peace u need” is yet another highlight, with perhaps the most strident attempt at making a classic 90s house piano banger considering the faint crowd cheers and vintage piano notes placed against a falsetto moan not dissimilar to Moby’s “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?” - at least that’s what it reminded me of. This track is a rare example of Fred providing his own vocals, longing for a relationship that has passed but hoping for amicability and fulfilment on both sides, given how lost he is without them but also how much they put into making it work, though this can also function as an analogy for nostalgia. “I let you take a piece of me” - your identity is found in memories you can’t revisit but also end up remembering, or dreaming about, on those particularly “quiet nights”. He teams up here with UK EDM duo Joy Anonymous here, who do not disrupt or honestly, really add anything new to, Fred’s distinct, stuttering style and greatly uses his sample of Snoh Aalegra’s 2017 track “Time”, fabricating a semi-duet between Aalegra and himself that really manifests in a creeping refrain of backing vocals that eventually overrides the entire track, leaving little of Fred’s vocals remaining as the “silence” - the distance from that period of time - “clouding” the mix entirely. The organic drums that rumble on occasion from the middle section onward as well as the tiny blips of vocal rendered as practically a sound effect shimmering just a bit too high in the mix, exemplify the album’s constant instrumental mirroring of the beauty of the humanity he experienced and that of the electronics he’s using to express it. Much like nearly all of the album, this is an incredible if not too accessible track, eschewing a pop structure for clearer and more concrete progression, including a weirdly eerie bass warp coming in at the last second to end that timespan for good. I don’t see it making a second week at all, but it’s absolutely worth your time, and thankfully, we have another one of my absolute favouritess from the album right up next.

#57 - “just stand there” - Fred again.. and SOAK

Produced by Fred again.., PARISI and Tobias Wincorn

ten days debuted just outside of the top five on the albums chart at #7, but that is still an impressive feat for an album that is simultaneously a remix compilation and almost sound collage, with “just stand there”, primarily a spoken word piece as Fred has explored a couple times before, coming towards the middle of the album. The piece pre-empting it, “.four”, has a car ticking aimlessly in a spreckle of rain, before a sample of SOAK’s spoken word piece “I’m Alive” featuring Gemma Doherty begins. SOAK is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter who broke out in 2015, whose track here is used mostly to have a spoken piece sat in the middle of wonky, heavily-manipulated vocal loops surrounding, circling the story being told, though it’s a different one from the original, as fragments from it are re-contextualised and at times looped to emphasise the awestruck moment of having someone tell you that she loves you. They stand there, amazed by the connection they feel and the appreciation of being able to “hear a world”, which makes them feel alive. There are many ways to interpret what now registers as a poem, in fact I have contemplated, given how introspectively focused some of the details seem to be, to if the “she” is the speaker themselves and it is a track about a confused sense of self-love and recognition of the world around them.

I love the pitch-shifted, distorted vocal leads cutting in as the song produces a slight bounce alongside more organic drums faintly set out to the left of the mix, I love the rise of pianos elevating the relative mundanity of SOAK’s poetry, the self-appreciation they find in observing other people live their lives and internalising that wonder, and especially the stuttering vocal that transitions the piece outside of that distorted bump of a kick into utterly transcendent territory, once the poetry steps way out of reality and into the surreal: “all four seasons happen in one day”, and whilst they’re already lovestruck, quite literally stuck in place because of their overwhelming feelings, it becomes unbelievable. Hell, it becomes too much to continue to try envisioning, and the song fades into echoes of vocal and synth that phase in and out, whilst they remain. Without anything, despite everything, “she loves me.” The fact that this is sandwiched between “fear less” with Sampha and “places to be” is really unfair, an emotional rollercoaster in the mid-section of the album that is as gorgeous as it is utterly overwhelming, which fits the nature of not just this song but the conceit of the whole record. It’s one of my favourite songs of the year, as if Fred again.. didn’t already have enough of those, and I cannot recommend his latest album more. Once again, this basically cannot last a second week, but God, it deserves to. Now, what’s next?

#38 - “Moi” - Central Cee and RAYE

Produced by Harry Beech and Eight8

…Cench, did you have to bring RAYE down with you? Central Cee, as he becomes more of a global star, has been swiftly shredding my goodwill for him, becoming increasingly gimmicky and embarrassing, seemingly taking his status as our biggest rap export to fuck around and make sure we’re never taken seriously in the genre again. We have an irrelevantly lovestruck French intro from RAYE here, which is atmospheric enough, but is completely rendered pointless by a flexing set of typical Cench verses where he talks about threesomes, drugs, the fact that you just HAVE to mention him when talking about drill - no, I don’t - and thirsting for random women in the public eye that he should just leave alone. He leeches onto the gay jokes again in the chorus, over a decent 2-step rhythm that transforms in and out of a stiffer drill beat, but the more telling line may be: “They gave me a fish, they ain’t teach me fishing”. Cench never struck me as ambitious, so the platform he has, largely off of TikTok virality and connections, I think scares him as much as it does me when it comes to how he represents UK rap. What’s frustrating to me is that I think he knows other people deserve the spot he has, but he cluelessly stumbled into it anyway and isn’t really willing to let it up at this point. Instead, he continues dropping these loose singles - allegedly from an album called Can’t Rush Greatness… okay - as he appears less connected, much less convincing and all the more deluded. Take a break, man, make something worth the pedestal you’re giving yourself and maybe stop relying on what got you there in the first place.

#4 - “The Emptiness Machine” - Linkin Park

Produced by Mike Shinoda

“This is not what I had planned. It’s out of my control.” One of the most successful rock groups of the century, Linkin Park, and the music world as a whole, suffered a terrible loss with the death of their co-lead vocalist, Chester Bennington, in 2017. Since then, the band has naturally been dormant on much new material but have played concerts, some in tribute, and have released troves of unreleased or rare material in compilations and reissues of their earliest records. There had been some concerning moments, namely the AI video for “Lost”, but the treatment of the posthumous material was respectful enough, at least as much as I can tell as I was never the biggest fan of Linkin Park. I would not say they have any great albums that are consistently fantastic all the way through, but what they do have to me are plenty of fantastic songs and even more fond memories dating back to my childhood, so regardless of my overall opinion, they definitely hold a comfortable place in my heart. So this reunion, which had been rumbling for a while, was probably going to grant strong opinions from me regardless of who it was and, ironically, I actually did not have strong opinions on new lead singer Emily Armstrong’s performance during the live shows. The livestream featured the Dead Sara frontwoman singing “Numb” which honestly did not seem all too different or interesting, though it clearly gave it enough of a boost for the song to return to #41 this week. She has a good voice, she was clearly present and has the range to perform much of their material, and since they’ll be recording and releasing new songs, she does not need to “replace” Chester.

Here’s the deal, though: Armstrong is connected to the cult of Scientology, which is extensively controversial, with Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta and his wife Chrissie on Instagram criticising the choice publicly by connecting her with the group and accusing her of being present at the 2020 trial of actor, Scientologist and convicted rapist Danny Masterson, which she admitted to and called a “friend”. Chrissie herself was a victim of Masterson, and with Chester’s history of being sexually abused as a child as he admitted to Kerrang! and NME, naturally this sparked outrage amongst some fans and music nerds in general who found that the choice of lead singer does not reflect Bennington’s principles, trauma, experiences and what he both fought for and expressed in his music, which has always been angst-driven and, at times painfully, honest. I tend to concur that this was a tone-deaf decision and though not all of his family have been open or even disapproving, his son Jaime has spoken against the decision and also about how band members including Mike Shinoda have ignored his concerns, and even that Linkin Park “fans” have harrassed him over his public opposition to the new singer. Armstrong confessed in a response that she did indeed attend the trial but was mostly dismissive of the contents or identity of what the trial actually involved, claiming to be unaware of details that at the time of trial, were - as allegations - readily available, especially to someone familiar with the then-alleged, now convicted.

I do not have to tell you that I have enjoyed music by bad people, I do not have to tell you that Armstrong is not the worst person ever, I do not have to tell you that the other members of Linkin Park I’m sure already have skeletons in the closet. I do have to tell you that this sucks. A man who formed some of my earliest memories of enjoying and connecting with music having his former band return, without the acknowledgement of his own family, alongside someone who defended - though not as publically as others - a man who afflicted sexual violence onto others, when Chester has been sexually abused and wrote earnestly about his overall trauma on the very records his band members played on, just sucks to me, and it seems many others, including Jaime and including the Bixlers. I cannot imagine how Emily Armstrong can guiltlessly cover some of his songs, and even if she relates them to her own experience as many fans have, Hell, many audiences have in general, including myself, I can’t help but feel a gross element to that. Those aren’t just not your experiences, they are experiences you worked in part to dismiss. For many, the apology will be enough, and that’s fine. Hell, I’m still going to listen to that new album when it’s out and it won’t stop me from relistening to their back catalogue which has some of my favourite songs of all time, like “Waiting for the End”, “She Couldn’t”, “Given Up” and a ridiculous amount of modern rock classics. Linkin Park are still a great band, and their legacy is not torn by this. But doesn’t it just suck?

You know what bothers me the most? The song’s fantastic. Armstrong’s not Chester, sure, but she already has an impressive chemistry with Shinoda, whose voice seemed off at first but blends perfectly with her more breathy rasp, and as a songwriter, Shinoda is in full pop form, with fuzz and reverb alongside some fantastically muffled drums leading in the echoing verses until a very typical but still anthemic chorus about falling victim to perhaps misguided hope and optimism leading you on in a moment of vulnerability: giving your life and receiving very little in return. It was a clever move to have Shinoda lead in, with Armstrong driving the song from the second verse on, but appearing in smokier, backing screeches during the first chorus, and once the full band comes in, whilst it doesn’t go as hard as it could, it’s still an incredibly full mix as you’d expect from Linkin Park. The band may have replaced the singer and drummer, but the core emotive thesis that LP have been working with for decades may still be here, and honestly, for as much shit as I will give her “apology” and public connections to Scientology, Armstrong kills it here. I’m a sucker for some good pop-metal and whilst this is far from their best, it’s a killer track, I’ll give it that, even if it probably won’t last too long past this week - though it’s 2024 so anything could happen - and it comes with a lot of baggage that I don’t think anyone was looking for.

For chart trivia purposes, as always: “Numb” returns after peaking at #14 in 2003 and returning to #20 in 2017. When it peaked, the Black Eyed Peas’ “Where is the Love” was #1. Its official mashup version with JAY-Z’s “Encore” matched the #14 peak on three separate occasions across late 2004 and early 2005.

Conclusion

I didn’t lie, did I? It was a fascinating week with an array of genres, artists, stories and even quality, but Fred again.. sweeps the competition here, getting Best of the Week for “just stand there” with SOAK and the Honourable Mention for “peace u need” with Joy Anonymous. Worst of the Week is more of a toss-up because the worst this week has to offer is largely just mediocrity, but I think Drake takes it by default with “Circadian Rhythms” as Cench wastes even more of our time with “Moi” featuring RAYE as the Dishonourable Mention. As for what’s on the horizon: The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, Tate McRae, Charli xcx and Troye Sivan with Dua Lipa on the new remix, it could be a lot at the top of the hit parade next episode so prepare for that. As for now, rest in peace to Will Jennings, Frankie Beverly and the legendary James Earl Jones, and I’ll see you next week!

[rapeculturerealities]

Students protest LGBTQ, education bills at ceremony with Kim Reynolds

The protest comes as Iowa has passed a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors and other legislation that advocates say is some of the most restrictive in the nation targeting the LGBTQ community.

In addition, lawmakers passed an education bill that, once signed into law, will make it easier to ban books and curb LGBTQ instruction in public schools.

The Iowa Governor’s Scholar Program is a partnership between the Iowa High School Athletic Association, the governor's office and sponsor Iowa Farm Bureau. The program honors the highest-achieving students from each of Iowa's high schools.

This year, 422 students were recognized. Organizers say 349 students attended the event. Students one by one shook hands and took a photo with Reynolds and Gregg, and received a certificate during the program.

Clementine Springsteen, who is a transgender woman, attended the Iowa Governor's Scholar Program in Des Moines wearing pins that read u0022Trans Rights are Human Rightsu0022 and u0022She Her.u0022

[romanarose]

Meet my Oc’s!

Samantha Marie Waters

From my series Sunshine Starlight Sweetheart Brightside, Sam is an energetic, quirky, compassionate redhead from a large family. With a history of child abuse, sexual assault and mental illness, when she meets Steven, Marc and Jake she does a good job at hiding it. She thinks.

Rebecca Levi

From Seattle, this is Rebecca after Marc has to come get her when she finally decides to leave her abusive husband after years of abuse leaving her with scarring on her face. Rebecca is intense, hard working with a strong sense of justice towards everyone except herself. Rebecca is proudly Jewish.

Candy

Candy started as just a reader with a nickname but took a like of her own. A prostitute in 70’s Colombia she is an informant to Javier Peña and Santiago Garcia. She is self sufficient, outspoken and protective of those she holds dear. Candy is Colombian and has worked her way out of brothels to own her own sex work completely.

Lacina Marie Dumas

First picture is when santi first finds her tied up in a basement. Second picture is several months later, Laci is happy and getting better, one step at a time. Laci is a gentle soul, girly, giggly, cried easily and cares deeply for others. Despite being all of 5 feet (barely) she is fiercely protective of 6’3 Ben miller. Her father was an immigrant from French and she speaks French. She’s soft and empathetic.

Jana Abeda Fernandez

Frankie Morales’s “lady” and the mother of his children, Jana never stopped loving him when they broke up after she got sober and he couldn’t just yet. But she never gave up on the love of her life, supporting him until the time was right to get back together. Jana is a highly educated Afro-Latina woman, she’s laid back, teasing, and fun loving ex-military current social worker. Jana has a strong sense of right and wrong and is protective of the vulnerable

Lorelei Ngoc Giang

A lover of all things old Hollywood, Lorelei dresses like something out of a 50’e fashion magazine. Don’t let her classy look and love of flowers fool you, Lorelei doesn’t fuck around. Will swears he fell in love the day he met her when she was Ben’s ER nurse and she didn’t take his shit. When her ex boyfriend slapped her, she knocked out his tooth. Lorelei is calm, self-assured in her abilities and brain but less in her self worth. She’s stunningly beautiful, incredibly intelligent and if she thinks you’re being a dick, she’ll tell you.

Cameron MacDonald

Not introduced yet in the LaL universe, Cam is Ben’s “one that got away” a wondering soul, a stoner hippie, Cam is a seasonal farmhand, working odd jobs during off season and traveling the country in his van. Him and Ben were each others first loves and gay awakening. Cameron is obsessed with Bruce Springsteen and old music. He loves Ben dearly and never found anyone like him since high school. Ben is happy, goofy, hardworking and can match bens high energy

And finally

Clementine O’Niel

Originally a reader in the wrong way known as “little one”, I’m adapting the fic into a dark romance novel. Emmy is Arab and Irish,her father marrying her mother overseas, but where, no one knows.m Emmy is horrifically traumatized from the abuse of her father and other men, but even still she never stops trying. She’s emotional, a frequent cryer but also self sufficient and capable in many ways. She loves Joel very much despite it all, but she loves her unborn child more than anything

[twoheadedfawnn]

tagged by @sullengirl and @tenderheart444 to post 10 of my favorite songs with names in the titles! thank you for the tag my loves 💘🪽

1. salvatore - lana

2. what katie did - the libertines

3. lua - bright eyes

4. tyrone - erykah badu

5. hey there delilah - plain white t’s

6. candy says - the velvet underground

7. gloria - patti smith

8. clementine - elliott smith

9. candy’s boy - bruce springsteen

10. lorelei - cocteau twins

tagging @chamonamile @runtoyou @tomwambsgansgf <333

[vriendenboekjes]

URL song tag game :3

I was tagged by @xiaoguiwang <3333

RULES: Spell your URL with song titles and then tag as many people as there are letters in your URL

V - Valentine, Texas - Mitski

R - Rayuan Perempuan Gila - Nadin Amizah

I - I'm on Fire - Bruce Springsteen

E - Each Time - Tamino

N - Nemesis - Benjamin Clementine

D - Diving Woman - Japanese Breakfast

E - Exclusive - Taemin

N - No Place in Heaven - Mika

B - Borondong Garing - Nusantara Beat

O - Our Film - Tigran Hamasyan

E - Empty Room - Arcade Fire

K - Kibun - Kaneko Ayano

J - Jigsaw Falling Into Place - Radiohead

E - Een Barkie - De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig

S - Swamp - Mid-Air Thief

it took me approximately 5 years to find so many songs that start with an E but this was really fun! I'm ignoring the second part of the instruction and just saying if you want to do this or haven't done this yet im tagging you!!!

[dedicatedtodance]

National Dance Radio Airplay

Top50 for the week ending September 14, 2024

Girl$ --Dom Dolla -5

360 --Charlie XCX -4

Free --TELYKAST f/x.o.anne -2

Heat --SG Lewis & Tove Lo -3

Music Is Better --RUFUS DU SOL -6

In The Dark --Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta f/Aldae -1

I Like It --Alesso & Nate Smith -10

Free --Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding -8

15 Minutes --Madison Beer -9

I'm The Drama --Bebe Rexha -11

Without You --KYGO w/HAYLA -13

Wrong Way --Two Friends, Alexander Stewart -18

Hot Honey --Tiesto & Alana Springsteen -16

Fire --MEDUZA, OneRepbulic, Leony -7

Go Back --John Summit & Sub Focus f/Julia Church -15

Living In Color --Audien f/Jeoff Harris -17

She's Gone, Dance On --Disclosure -21

Tears Don't Fall --Kaskade & Enisa -31

A Little Closer --Diffrent -19

End Of Time --Lucas & Steve, LAWRENT f/Jordan Shaw -12

Midnight --VASSY -23

Somedays --Sonny Fodera, Jazzy & D.O.D. -28

One Cry --Galantis -23

Lioness --Swedish House Mafia f/Niki & the Dove -14

Believe It --Louis The Child & MADEON -30

Thinkin' Bout U --Mattilo & Julian -25

I Go Dance --Kiesza -20

***Never Going Home Tonight --David Guetta & Alesso -412

Illusion --Dua Lipa -24

Yo Bunny (Pop Like This Part 2) --PRODBYCPKSHAWN & CHEAT CODES -35

Find The Way --Peggy Gou -41

Stumblin' In --CYRIL -26

Heavenly Hell --Steve Aoki f/Ne-Yo -29

Find Love Now --Cheat Codes, Punctual, Raphael -32

Chills (Feel My Love) --Oliver Heldens, David Guetta, FAST BOY -34

Where Are You Tonight --Gryffin -44

***Finally --Swedish House Mafia, Alicia Keys -138

Fair --Billy Gillies f/Betsy -38

Love Bites --Nelly Furtado f/Tove Lo, SG Lewis -33

Guess --Charlie XCX f/Billie Elish -36

***Ain't Giving Up --Duke Dumont, Clementine Douglas -61

Lonely (Planet Earth) --Dillon Francis, Chloe Moriondo -47

Joyride --Kesha -45

Body Say --Xandra & Gigi Grombacher -43

Move --Adam Port & Stryv -49

Espresso --Sabrina Carpenteer -50

***Good Luck, Babel --Chappell Roan -52

***It's A Feeling --Sigala, Trevor Daniel, 24Goldn -54

***I Only Smoke When I Drink --Nimino -98

6 new on the chart 24 off next week* (to be determined)

[bienmoreau]

🎶✨️when you get this, put 5 songs you actually listen to, then publish. Send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers/mutuals 🎶✨️

This is old I'm so sorry!

[lonita]

I prefer

I got hooked on keeping lists years ago, and this is just another one. I don't think I need to explain this idea too much. Naturally subject to change without notice.

mild to spicy orange to red spring/autumn to summer/winter one-on-one to group bright light to mood light Friday to Saturday crunchy peanut butter to smooth flat shoes to heels silver to gold pie to cake beer to wine forest to beach micro-fine tip to broad The Clash to the Sex Pistols cool days to warm punk to metal political left to political right reading while sitting to lounging Dune to LoTR navel to clementine acrylic to oil bar shows to arena shows self-discovery to goal-oriented barefoot to socks singing to dancing atheism/antitheism to religion BOH to FOH work Paul Simon to Bruce Springsteen clever to crude trains to planes drama to comedy Austen to Bronte savoury to sweet citrus to berries black to white casual to formal working from home to working in office tree shade to sunbathing chicken broth to veg/beef broth blunt/direct to overly careful up late to up early urban to rural tea to coffee 24-hour clocks to 12-hour spongy pillows to feather black ink pens to blue subtle to gross Hafiz to Rumi dubbed to subtitled rich soup to brothy pepper to salt abstract/surrealism to realism talking to typing binge-watching shows to watching single episodes thrift stores to department stores humour to comedy physical books to e-books Android to Apple green to blue chicken to turkey room temperature water to cold (in winter) Madam Secretary to Scandal shower to bath orange to apple Christmas Eve to Christmas Day leisurely strolls to brisk walk printmaking to painting night time to daytime online shopping to in-store being a night person to being a day person milk chocolate to dark being guest to host

[vampyrfagg]

hiiii 15 and 25 foe the music asks :))

HAI AMEERA !!!

15 - a sing covered by another artist

ok this one technicallyyy isn't a cover but the song wasnt written for him initially and also i don't listen to that many covers and also its literally such a good song buuuut

25 - a song by an artist no longer living

[heroarchives]

Endeavor's children.

@ heavensghost/ Woodtangle- Mary Ruefle / Amatullah Bourdon /Clementine von Radics -Every Time A Man Yells /Bruce Springsteen - Adam Raised a Cain

[araekniarchive]

could you please do a webweave around toxic fathers

Mary Ruefle, Woodtangle

Ocean Vuong, Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong

Agustín Gómez-Arcos, The Carnivorous Lamb

@heavensghost (x)

elandrialore, Dreams of Dying

Bruce Springsteen, Adam Raised A Cain

Catherine Lacey, Cut / @heavensghost

Desireé Dallagiacomo, Origin Story

Jamaica Kincaid, The Autobiography of My Mother

Clementine von Radics, Every Time A Man Yells

Lanning, Lord of the Flies

Richard Siken, War of the Foxes (ii)

Joan Tierney, Free-Range Angel Produce: An Idyll

Augusten Burroughs, A Wolf at the Table