#feels weirdly like a summer album?? like not in the sense of it being a summer hit

[galaxychaos78]

Saw people on TikTok hating on TV Girl's new album and I was suddenly reminded of when Paramore dropped After Laughter and everyone was losing their shits saying how bad it was

[slut4sugu]

𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐘— YUJI ITADORI X FEM!BLACK READER

[ʚ 🍓ɞ] summary: what its like being with yuji itadori! [ʚ 🍓ɞ] including + warnings: Yuji being a sweetheart, todo is def jealous lol, gojo being a bit of a matchmaker for you two, tooth rotting fluff, confessions over the phone, gentleman!yuji fr, totally did not go over board with the hcs today lol [ʚ 🍓ɞ] genre: fluff

#-WHAT ITS LIKE BEING FRIENDS !

ʚ 🍓ɞ he always holds anything heavy for you/carries your bag if your having a rough day | yuji is always so nice and caring, so when he sees you groan as your about to pic up your bag he quickly offers to do it for you. “Please don’t strain yourself! I’ll carry it for you!”

ʚ 🍓ɞ remembers most of the things you like/ are passionate about | your favorite Summer walker album? Karma. Your favorite candy? Trollis, most things that you like or love he remembers and loves hearing you rant about how good it is/ how much you love it each time he sees you.

ʚ 🍓ɞ let’s you have the rest of his candy/ food when you want it | he knows that some days are rough for you and wish you had your snacks, so he’ll make a habit of asking you if you want the rest of his food/snacks whenever your around. His heart starting to weirdly flutter every time he saw that sparkle in your eyes after offering.

ʚ 🍓ɞ keeps a hair tie on his wrist no matter how girly it is | since Yuji is the sweetheart he is, he’ll offer to keep a couple of your hair ties on him since you switch purses so often and you have a bad habit of remembering which bag they’re in. “No it’s fine really! I don’t mind at all. I kinda like them actually!”

#-WHAT ITS LIKE HAVING A CRUSH ON EACH OTHER !

ʚ 🍓ɞ hugs you longer than others | he loves smelling the scent of strawberries and shea butter on your neck when he hugs you, the soft smell of sweet perfume and body wash making his face flush. Yuji’s hugs are comforting and warm, never failing to make you feel safe every time your in his arms. So when he holds on to you for a few seconds more than others it makes you feel all the more special.

ʚ 🍓ɞ puts himself infront of you when he senses danger | he knows you can handle yourself as your a sorcerer as well, but as long as he has the chance to protect you he will take it.

ʚ 🍓ɞ always is the first to compliment your new protective styles, nails or makeup | something that yuji loves about you is that you always keep yourself looking pretty and taken care of no matter what day of the week, so when he sees you with some new braids or a fresh set he never fails to compliment the pretty brown girl in front of him.

ʚ 🍓ɞ is the first to offer his jacket when he sees you rubbing your hands up and down your arms or shivering | he wouldn’t be the gentleman he is if he didn’t offer his hoodie or jacket when he saw that the pink long sleeved shirt wasn’t providing you all the warmth you needed for that windy afternoon.

ʚ 🍓ɞ having gojo tease you two & assigns you both to missions by yourselves. | even if it’s a simple mission that doesn’t need two sorcerers he knows that you two have eyes for each other and can’t help but give his students a push in the right direction <;33

ʚ 🍓ɞ keeps eye contact with you when your talking in a group | Yuji loves hearing you talk about any ideas and thoughts you have on certain matters so he wants to make sure that your heard by keeping direct eye contact with you throughout the whole conversation. Fighting the urge to smile a bit when your eyes meet his or when you get slightly embarrassed from the eye contact.

ʚ 🍓ɞ asks you out over the phone late at night | you had woken up from a nightmare about being alone and had insictively called Yuji who picked up on the second ring once he saw it was you calling. After calming you down and chatting a little, he comforted you by saying that he would never leave your side and that if you needed him to come over he would. “ I’m so glad you called me.,honestly I wouldn’t ever forgive myself if I knew that you had went through that alone. It would kill me to hear that you were scared, your a really sweet person y/n and if you need me to come over I will because..I like you.”

#-WHAT ITS LIKE DATING YUJI !

ʚ 🍓ɞ long hugs and sweet words whispered into your ear when he leaves you for a mission | he knows you worry about him coming back each time even though he’s strong. So each time he leaves he gives you a longer hug than the last and presses a kiss to your cheek, nose and a soft peck on your lips.

ʚ 🍓ɞ lotsss of pda whenever your with him | Yuji has no shame about letting everyone see that he belongs to you, so whenever he’s with you his hand is always interlaced with yours or his arm is around your waist. He just has to be touching you in some way.

ʚ 🍓ɞ falls asleep easier in your presence | your smell, your voice, your touch, everything about you is like melatonin or a drug. So when he feels himself getting sleepy he’ll rest his head on your shoulder and hold your hand slightly tight even in a deep sleep.

ʚ 🍓ɞ surprise hugs from behind | your pink haired boyfriend will never get tired of hearing your adorable giggles fill the room your in when he creeps up behind you and gives you a bear hug. Small kisses being littered on your neck while holding close.

ʚ 🍓ɞ sweet makeout sessions in your bedroom to sza | Yuji’s kisses are sweet and loving, each kiss making your heart flutter and your body heat up. Giggles and smiles in between each one, making you feel like the most special girl in the world.

ʚ 🍓ɞ helps out with wash day when your too tired | now he’s definitely not an expert on black hair, but after seeing you do it for a couple months and watching a few videos in his own time about the products you have he gets better at each wash over time. Pink blush tinting his cheeks when he’s rewarded with a swarm of kisses afterwards.

[jennyboom21]

Over the next two days, we’ll be getting into all that and more with hours of presentations and deep-dive analyses. This is set to be a smallish, grassroots-y gathering—only 25 in-person campers are enrolled plus a dozen or so volunteers running the show. Meanwhile, about 300 remote Gaylors have signed up for streaming access to the learning sessions, building on the success of a virtual Gaylor summit that happened last year.

As a Gaylor myself, I’d be here even if Cosmo hadn’t sent me. I introduce myself to campers as we craft cute name tags for ourselves in the lobby of the Craigville Retreat Center. I meet Morgan, 30, who came here from conservative small-town Wisconsin, where she’s been living with her parents due to some unspecified tumult in her life. “I am desperate to be around gay people,” she tells me. When she heard about Camp Gaylore, “I jumped at the opportunity to come here and feel a sense of community.”

Paris, 25, a Boston-based attendee who grew up in Arizona, agrees. “With everything that’s happening legislatively right now, it’s really important to be able to find spaces where you’re able to be with like-minded individuals and feel safe and comfortable expressing yourself.”

Nevada, 25, a newcomer to the Gaylor realm, tells me they were able to attend only thanks to a scholarship the camp offered to defray the $350 tuition cost. “I really thought this was a dreamland that was completely out of reach for me,” they say. Just being here, in congress with others, feels like some kind of miracle.

So maybe I should revise: This weekend is about decoding Taylor Swift songs...but only sort of.

I didn’t travel far to get here, but I’ve come a long way. Four summers ago, I left my marriage to a straight man, right around the time Taylor released Lover. I had a passing familiarity with her oeuvre but didn’t consider myself much of a fan. I was crashing with friends—a lesbian couple—while searching for a new home and striving to create a more openly queer life for myself. With its pastel cover and pro-LGBTQ+ anthem “You Need to Calm Down,” Lover got a ton of airplay in that two-bedroom apartment. And the breakup songs—“Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “I Forgot That You Existed”—certainly spoke to me. But given everything I was going through, Taylor’s music felt like little more than a fluffy distraction.

Jump cut to the following July, when Taylor surprise-released folklore. Every lesbian I knew seemed weirdly excited for this album. With my divorce freshly finalized, I now had the bandwidth to dig in. I discovered Gaylor theories on TikTok and plunged into Taylor’s discography with an eye toward gay themes. For the first time, I listened—really listened—to 2017’s Reputation, an album marketed as Taylor not caring about her press coverage but could just as easily be about a secret queer romance powerful enough to blow up her life. This notion, of hiding in plain sight while inhabiting a straight-presenting persona, resonates deeply for me in queer readings of Taylor’s work.

Here at Camp Gaylore (alternately known as GayloreFest), the analysis is served up with mock-academic gravitas. “We all love to cosplay that we’re professors in this field of Gaylor education,” explains Madyson, 23, a camp co-organizer who hails from New York. To wit, the workshop lineup includes sessions like: “Darling, Everything’s on Fire”: An Exploration of The Hunger Games Through Taylor Swift’s Discography; Unpacking Parasocial Relationships: A Conversation in Favor of Imagination & Community; Friends of Fletcher: Themes in the Music and Visuals of Sapphic Singers & Songwriters; and “Now I’m Your Daisy”: Reimagining The Great Gatsby as Gilded Sapphic Fantasy.

What’s happening here is really nothing new—Gaylors are performing the kind of close reading that happens in pretty much every English lit seminar. For campers like Amanda, 30, a longtime Swiftie who discovered Gaylor theories during the pandemic while awakening to her own queerness, this interpretative exercise is more meaningful than the objective facts of Taylor’s sexuality. “I’m not over here trying to convert people like, ‘Hey, Taylor is gay, and it’s really important to me that you believe that,’” Amanda says. “It’s more about Taylor being this incredible writer who intertwines all these incredible things into her lyrics.”

“We are not the first gaggle of gays to go book a conference center and hang out with each other for a weekend just to talk and gab,” Madyson says. “It just so happens that we all met because Taylor Swift put out some bangin’-ass albums.”

“I don’t even care if she comes out,” Madyson adds. “I actually would prefer she didn’t because I think it’s more fun this way.”

After I check into my single room—a rustic BYO-bed-sheets situation—I return to the common area and settle in for the afternoon’s presentations. Remote presenters will be streaming from all over. A few campers here will be presenting too—streaming from a dedicated quiet room elsewhere on the property. In the common space, all sessions will be projected onto a wall.

And here I have to admit that I end up…not paying much attention to the material. In the best possible way, neither do many of the other campers. I watch as they focus on making friendship bracelets, add artistic flourishes to Gaylor-themed coloring pages, and paint each other’s nails. Chatty groups check in on solo folks: “Are you good by yourself? Would you like to come over here with us?” Sometimes a comfy silence envelops the room. A few campers even nap on couches, the presentation audio forming a sort of pleasant background drone.

This dynamic is striking in its chillness—different from most camps and retreats, where schedules are packed with structured group activities. Kae, a 26-year-old from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, much prefers the format here. Although Gaylor TikTok was helpful in “expediting” her awareness of her own bisexuality, she finds the noise of social media kind of bad for her mental health. Camp Gaylore feels like the 3D version of a friendly Gaylor group chat she joined on WhatsApp a few months ago, she says. “It’s nice, having a much smaller source of information and also a place where you can just be yourself and be accepted.”

Presentation topics aside, Taylor’s aura at camp is surprisingly scarce. The aesthetic is one of nostalgic/analog summer whimsy. Think: String lights and wildflowers. Salt air and disco balls. Strawberries and rainbow balloons. An activity table set up by camp staffers includes a deck of botanical oracle cards, the social-bonding game We’re Not Really Strangers, and a handful of book selections ranging from Emily Dickinson poems to contemporary works by queer authors like adrienne maree brown.

It’s almost as though the organizers plucked a handful of nice humans off the internet and closed tab on literally everything else, a welcome break. Gaylorism in general is Very Online—born on Tumblr, increasingly huge on TikTok. Along with Madyson, camp co-organizer Katie, 30, recently wrapped a popular Gaylor podcast called The Archers, the duo’s contribution to a booming cottage industry of queer-minded Swiftie content. (Madyson has already launched another pod.) Tess, 30, a London-based camp co-organizer, is a prolific Gaylor creator too. This camp is the group’s way of passing the mic to others to invite their perspectives, to “recognize the brilliance and beauty of our community,” as Tess puts it. There’s even been talk of starting a literary-style magazine that goes beyond Taylor and into the open waters of, well, gay lore. That’s why the camp name has an “e” at the end—an indicator of deeper possibilities.

Gaylor subculture has now gotten big enough to attract coverage from major media outlets, some of it less than favorable—a Salon article last fall compared Gaylors to QAnon. Many face harassment from a hostile cohort of Swifties known as Hetlors, notorious for a queerphobic insistence that Taylor is straight. Bullying from Hetlors has driven some Gaylors to go dark and wipe their social accounts, which explains why most here at Camp Gaylore have asked that Cosmo publish their first names only.

Taylor herself is outspoken in her LGBTQ+ advocacy—granted, as more of an ally. “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of,” she told Vogue in 2019. But as many Gaylors like to point out, that’s not quite the same as Taylor declaring she’s 100 percent straight and cisgender either. For now, the details of her identity remain anyone’s guess.

“In a cisheteronormative world, we are more likely to assume people to be cis and straight until told otherwise than to assume they’re trans or queer,” says Melissa A. Fabello, PhD, a sex and relationships educator. Her group coaching session this weekend, titled “The Bisexuality Crisis,” will address this very subject.

Camp Gaylore’s idyllic seaside haven is blessedly Hetlor-free. Madyson, who sometimes struggles to socialize in groups, tells me they feel “soothed” mingling on our private stretch of beach. This weekend has always been more about reinforcing the Gaylorverse than dissecting Taylor’s suspected queerness. “It is very much for people to meet and see each other physically and be like, This community is just as real offline as it is online,” Madyson says. In the sand, they spell out GAYLORE in dozens of tiny seashells.

We head to dinner in the large dining hall for a taco buffet—a communal setup that amuses Nevada. “This is so sweet, like the positive parts of going inpatient at the psych ward,” they joke. Then an earnest elaboration: “It’s just nice that other people understand what I’m thinking. I don’t have to explain a million things. I don’t have to be like, Okay, I guess I’ll let you ignore my pronouns. It’s a very good space.”

Afterward, we gather around an outdoor firepit for s’mores and impromptu performances. One camper breaks out an acoustic guitar and shares songs she wrote during a period of homelessness. Her voice is husky and powerful—a howl of survival. A few campers pass around a bong. Inside jokes are hatched. “As cliché as it sounds, I do feel like I’ve known these people forever,” says Lee, 33, a camper from California who credits Gaylor theories with fueling her lesbian awakening seven years ago. For her, this night is “cathartic.”

In the 10 o’clock hour, everyone heads back inside to watch the livestream of the Eras Tour. This has been a ritual for many of us since Taylor hit the road in March. Lots of campers have been tracking the surprise acoustic songs she performs each night—one or two per show, with no repeats from the pre-Midnights archive unless she messes up.

Tonight, Taylor is in Pittsburgh. One member of the Gaylor community—not at camp with us but someone who’s friends with a few campers—has been publicly campaigning for Taylor to play “ME!” at this stop, a track many Gaylors love (see: the big gay energy of its music video). Taylor playing “ME!” would be everything, a definitive acknowledgement of us.

As the livestream plays, campers string together bead bracelets with Gaylor references—the letters “SITBTTEBM” (“She is the best thing that’s ever been mine”), the phrase “WIDE EYED GAYS” (an intentional misspelling of the “All Too Well” lyric). Then the first surprise song begins: It’s “Mr. Perfectly Fine,” off Fearless. Everyone groans. The second song is a miss too: “The Last Time,” from Red. So much for “ME!”

Everyone is super bummed. A few campers even cry a little bit. But there’s beauty in the heartbreak too—something profound and unifying in our shared disappointment. “Even if Taylor were to go away and never do another thing, I feel like we still have this,” Amanda tells me later. “And that’s really cool.”

The big social event of the weekend, on the second and final night, is prom. Given that it’s being held in the retreat’s tabernacle building, camp staffers have printed out a color picture of Jesus, along with big letters that spell out “LYRICS TOO?”—a cheeky nod to the fact that we’re in a house of worship but mostly a deep-cut Gaylor reference (to something once uttered by Taylor’s pal and collaborator Jack Antonoff). A tattooed camp staffer DJs from a heavily stickered laptop, next to a whirling party light that scatters rainbow beams throughout the space.

Many of our prom looks are encoded with Taylor allusions. One camper wears a tiered, ruffled frock in pastel hues, à la Taylor’s Lover era. Another, channeling the Reputation album art, dons a matching corset and skirt in newsprint-pattern fabric. Still another is turned out in the crochet crop tank Taylor wore while promoting Midnights, its colors a near-perfect match for the lesbian pride flag tacked to one wall.

“Cruel Summer”—a Gaylor fave, theoretically chronicling Taylor’s rumored relationship with supermodel Karlie Kloss—blasts from the speakers. The dance floor fills up. We scream-sing the lines about sneaking in through the garden gate, about the shape of a lover’s body being new. As the song reaches its bridge, our collective joy turns incandescent.

“It felt like 70,000 of us in the room,” Lee marvels the next day as campers pack up to leave. “This was the most magical weekend of my summer—and I’ve been to the Eras Tour twice.”

Frankie de la Cretaz is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of The National Women's Football League. Their work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and more.

[golbrocklovely]

since i am going to see the jonas brothers in concert, i figured i would give you guys my reaction to 'the album' since it just dropped !

miracle

first listen thru, i had not a single clue what the ever loving fuck they were saying. like, at all. thank god for genius for the lyrics lol

joe's vocals are INSANE on this album. already, with just this song. i always thought nick's were better, but damn… joe is giving him a run for his money.

fun song. like the piano being the leading instrument. good song to vibe to.

montana sky

country jonas brothers? i would be into it.

this song is really fun. a different vibe than the previous one, but equally as vibey to listen to.

kinda reminds me of sister golden hair by america, just not as sad

would have loved a bridge but it's fine.

wings

this song came out before the album. i like it. i wouldn't say it's my favorite.

i think lyrically it's a bit too simple to be a song really. it's also extremely short. but i like the general idea of it.

i wish it was longer, more flushed out into a fuller song. or at least repeated for one more verse.

sail away

one of my immediate favorites first time i listened. the pre-chorus is so groovy. highkey a great song to dance to.

and as if it wasn't obvious, every song is about their wives. which is nice, but does make me feel perpetually lonely lol

americana

first listen thru, again, couldn't understand wtf they were saying. but i looked up the lyrics and… they're fine i guess.

there is a bit of a nostalgic feel to them. the imagery they give. feels like a summer song.

but a bit too idealistic for me, if that makes sense.

celebrate!

i was dancing to this song, so that let's you know how i feel about it.

one of the tops ones of the album for me.

genuinely love this song.

waffle house

i've seen a lot of ppl not like this song. i get why some might not. but that's not me lol

i vibe heavy with this song. one of the better ones off the album. makes sense why it was single.

highkey wish they would just curse tho lol

vacation eyes

i've always said this about the jonas brothers: they know how to write a romantic song.

and i think weirdly this song is the most romantic on the album. but a light-hearted romantic.

i need a man like the jonas brothers please and thank you :)

summer in the hamptons

…i hate this song sksksks

it's just, not good.

the music itself is fine. the lack of drums is a bit off-putting to me personally. but lyrically….. garbage. like borderline 'pizza girl' level.

summer baby

kinda hate that they have two songs back to back with 'summer' in the title. they could have easily called this song something else. not the point tho.

this is in the similar vibe of 'vacation eyes'. i like this one, and it's pure sweetness.

also the ending of nick and joe saying nonsense, it was adorable.

little bird

i bawled my eyes out :)

i miss my dad a lot.

walls

this song is amazing, and a great end to the album. the choir is a beauty touch to the song, makes the song so much more majestic.

i will say the only part i didn't like about this song was the almost-dubstep electronic breakdown that happens towards the end of the song.

but that's the only part i didn't like. the rest is top notch.

OVERALL

every song is too short. it's kinda weird how many of these songs are barely over 2 minutes. not that the jonas brothers ever wrote super long songs, but these feel incredibly short to me. i also think that whenever the jonas brothers work with someone new, they absorb them and their style. and here, it's a bit of a toss between being really fun to hear these funky, 70s-esque mixed synth songs and not as fun bc it ends up not sounding like them to me. you can tell jon bellion was on this album, and i barely know any of his music. i will say the one true downside, to me, of this album is the amount of autotune that is on the vocals. i understand it's not bc they suck at singing, it's an artistic choice. but i feel like some of the songs didn't need it, and kinda took the authenticity that the jonas brothers bring to their music away. their vocals are their shining star, i think, and covering that up with noticeable autotune flattens a lot of these songs. also, a lot of the songs end abruptly or just don't really have an ending that makes sense.

i have a feeling that this album will be more of a grower on me, bc as of right now i think it's fine but not my favorite. i said the same thing about pretty much every new album i've heard this year, and the jonas brothers' last album, happiness begins. i think the first half of this album is the best. and i kinda wished there was one more ballad on here.

i'm also gonna make a bit of a controversial take (possibly): i love that the jonas brothers love their wives and their daughters. that's great, and there is nothing wrong with writing about either of those two things. however, please write about something else. back in the day, the jonas brothers - on top of being fantastic at writing romantic songs - were also very good at breakup/heartache songs. i don't want them to experience hardships when it comes to their spouses or children, but you need to break up the "i-love-my-wife-and-kids" fest with other songs. a whole album like that is kinda boring, and this is somewhat proof of that. like, we get it… you love your wives. but please find something else to write about.

you can write about the past, you know lol

i feel like i was kinda negative about this album, but i do genuinely like it. i just wanted more, i think. or had a different idea in my head of what it would sound like. but i know i will grow to like this album, like i have with all of their albums. just some came more easily than others haha

RANKING OF THE SONGS

Celebrate!

Sail Away

Waffle House

Walls

Little Bird

Miracle

Montana Sky

Wings

Summer Baby

Vacation Eyes

Americana

Summer in the Hamptons

[floatingstage]

realizing that i can’t form romantic attachments to people unless they give me enough fodder to create *my imagination of* their inner sanctum.

in other words, i need a threshold of fantasy to fall in romantic love. and this manifests in lots of ways, some probably unhealthy, but i think one of the more innocent ways is sharing music and movies. it means a lot to me to be given access to these things, not only because i love those art forms but because then i can learn about people through mining lyrics, enveloping myself in the atmosphere of a song or story, imagining them listening to it, watching it…

i remember specific moments of falling love last summer. she would always have a playlist on when i came over and we would sit on the couch together awash in the mood. sometimes she would play the same song three times in a row. sometimes she would fake play the guitar or dance around the room…we would also watch movies together but i would watch her face, observing how intently she paid attention and how sometimes she’d get nervous when it became apparent i wasn’t. all these moments are what keep me in love now in a way…i can’t let go of what i think might still be true, that there’s a person out there who finds so much meaning and value in these things, these songs and movies, who i can imagine sitting at home at night and on weekends, basking in the wonder of these stories that aren’t hers. i saw her at a screening once and she had her head down, scribbling notes about this old animation in a notepad. i’ve embalmed her memory in this persona now, and i can access her by witnessing the same art.

i feel like i’m not explaining clearly. i’m still trying to understand it myself. but in contrast, when someone isn’t able to share or communicate art to me, i feel like their inner world is completely opaque, no matter how much they try to explain it. sometimes descriptions of what they were like as children help, or examining their bedroom. i do find myself feeling in love with people when i’m offered access to their homes or see what they made as kids or am able to peep an old journal or blog…but…it’s not as salient for me as being given access to the art they love and how they engage with it. only then am i able to feel that rare, deep swell in my chest. it’s better than seeing a physical space or past mementos or hearing about thoughts and memories verbatim…because art is liquid. it doesn’t fill up space in the same way, it’s porous, it gives you room to work in your own imagination, your fantasies. there’s a fusing that can happen that words, something more solid…can’t really achieve. an essence can be floated toward you in art sharing, things that are inexpressible even to yourself…

in the spirit of all that, here are songs that mean a whole lot to me because they were shared with me by those i’ve loved

(and i mean loved in the romantic sense because…generally speaking, or weirdly…i don’t think too many people have shared music with me outside of ones i’ve been “into”

and if i wasn’t “into” someone and they shared music with me, the chances are high that i might’ve felt romantic love for them in that moment)

tinseltown in the rain by blue nile

over the hillside by blue nile

not by big thief

lorraine by big thief

two reverse by adrianne lenker

between the bars by elliott smith (very hard for me to listen to, even now. a song i refuse to share with anyone else)

say yes by elliott smith

everything is free by gillian welch (difficult to listen to)

thirstier by torres

gasoline by the weeknd

house of balloons album by the weeknd

neighborhood #3 (power out) by arcade fire

[newmusickarl]

Album & EP Recommendations

My word, the music world has well and truly spoiled us this week!

The past seven days has seen a colossal avalanche of new releases, so much so I’ve barely had chance to keep up with it all. Although this is not the full list of everything from the past seven days, here are the 16 (yes, 16!) new releases I’ve enjoyed the most this week.

As there is so much to get through the rundowns are (mostly) a bit shorter than normal and there is no single Album of the Week, instead I simply recommend checking out whichever album or track sounds most appealing depending on your preferred taste.

So without further ado then, here’s what’s good:

Californian Soil by London Grammar

It’s been four years since the release of London Grammar’s last record Truth Is A Beautiful Thing - an album that I enjoyed, but I’ll admit also left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed coming off the back of their incredible breakout debut, If You Wait. As it turns out, the band themselves were also having a tough time around that period, with front woman Hannah Reid in particular battling relentless industry sexism, as well as the persistent physical pain caused by her fibromyalgia condition. With this being the case, it is amazing that the young indie-pop trio have made it to their third album at all, let alone delivering what is their best work to date.

Opening on a grand, string-drenched Intro, the record soon morphs into the sun-soaked guitars and soaring orchestration of the album’s glorious title track. It marks an early highlight as Reid catches the audience up with the tribulations of the last few years – “I left my soul on Californian soil.” From there the album doesn’t really let up as the band move through a series of career-defining tracks – the gorgeous contemporary groove of Missing, the dance-influenced How Does It Feel, the chilled-out ambience of the dreamy Baby, It’s You and the sublime, stripped-back closer America.

However, the album’s strongest moment comes when Reid confronts music industry sexism head on with defiant anthem Lord It’s A Feeling. Beginning with some twinkly xylophone, before evolving into an atmospheric synth-laced backdrop where Reid pulls no punches:

“I saw the way you made her feel, like she should be somebody else,

I know you think the stars align for you and not for her as well,

I undеrstand, I can admit that I have felt those things mysеlf”

The cutting lyrics against some blinding quiet rave instrumentation leaves quite the impression, as does this sterling record in general. After a slight misstep, London Grammar have well and truly rediscovered themselves and they have honestly never sounded better – a truly incredible album.

If You Could Have It All Again by Low Island

Oxford electo-pop outfit Low Island are another band that have defied expectations to get to this point. This, their debut album, was not recorded in a professional music studio – in fact, the vocals were recorded in a bedroom cupboard of all places. The band themselves don’t even have a manager or a record label. In every sense of the word, they are a truly independent band. For a self-financed, self-produced effort, If You Could Have It All Again is a quite remarkable first outing.

From melodic, uplifting opener Hey Man, the record quickly jumps into spoken word electro punk banger What Do You Stand For, featuring acid-drenched synths and a dancefloor-ready groove. Fans of FIFA 21 will recall Don’t Let the Light In, with the glitchy pulse of recent single Who’s Having the Greatest Time also standing out. That said, it’s the smooth, infectious sway of I Do It For You that still pulls me in the most.

Having followed the band since their early EPs, I’ve been rooting for Low Island for a while now and this is one debut album I was highly anticipating this year. Safe to say, my expectations have been met – this is a fantastic, accomplished record, which leaves me eager to see where they go next.

The Greatest Mistake Of My Life by Holding Absence

There was a time when the difficult second album used to be a thing, but listening to the sophomore effort from Welsh rock band Holding Absence this week, I’m really not sure that exists anymore. After a dramatic and impressive self-titled debut two years ago, the band have wasted little time taking things up a notch, with this new album cinematic and masterfully produced from beginning to end.

From standout singalong anthems like Afterlife and In Circles, to the album’s epic seven-minute penultimate track Mourning Song, The Greatest Mistake of My Life shows a band pushing themselves and driving forward with ambition at every opportunity. In a year packed with outstanding rock and metal albums already, this is most definitely another one you can add onto that list. Soaring, impressive and demanding of repeat listens.

We Forgot We Were Dreaming by Saint Raymond

It’s been six long years since Nottingham-born singer-songwriter Callum Burrows, AKA Saint Raymond, released his debut album. However it seems the time away has been well spent as this long-awaited follow-up finds Burrows in fine form, with this album packed to the brim with catchy, glossily produced indie-pop anthems.

From the brilliant title track that opens the record, to the bouncy riffs of Right Way Round, Talk and Solid Gold, to more subdued and heartfelt moments like Only You, this album will have you smiling, singing your heart out and dancing your troubles away.

Flu Game by AJ Tracey

AJ Tracey may have only been three years old when Michael Jordan was winning NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, but that hasn’t stopped him making a record influenced by the legendary icon and his famous 1997 Flu Game. Like many others including myself, grime superstar AJ Tracey spent lockdown watching the brilliant The Last Dance documentary, and this record weirdly works as a fantastic unofficial companion, but also just a great summer rap record.

McCartney III Imagined by Paul McCartney

Even if like me you completely missed Sir Paul McCartney’s 2020 album McCartney III, it’s well worth checking out this reimagining, where he has called on the help of some of his famous musician pals. This is a real who’s who line up of guest features including Beck, Khurangbin, St. Vincent, Blood Orange, Phoebe Bridgers, Damon Albarn, Josh Homme, Anderson .Paak and more, making for quite a fascinating mix of sounds and styles.

Moratorium (Broadcasts from The Interruption) by Enter Shikari

And finally on the albums front this week, genre-benders Enter Shikari have released a brilliant compilation of all their lockdown live performances, headlined by an incredible string-tinged acoustic version of The Dreamer’s Hotel and a beautifully stripped-back “At Home” rendition of Live Outside.

Tracks of the Week

Introvert by Little Simz

Wow, wow and wow again. Still fairly fresh off the back of her masterful, Mercury Prize nominated third album Grey Area, this week British rapper Little Simz released the first taste of her next record in the form of this epic and triumphant opening track. At six minutes in length, this majestic and operatic political anthem aims to grab the listener by the collar and shake them awake. Without a doubt, one of the best songs of the year so far, the powerful video for which you can view above.

Smile by Wolf Alice

The second taste of their forthcoming album Blue Weekend, Smile continues Wolf Alice’s pattern for alternating Loud/Soft releases, with this one featuring buzzy guitars, punky vocals and a hypnotic chorus melody.

Beautiful Beaches by James

Although written off the back of the California wildfires that impacted front man Tim Booth’s local community, the lyrics on the band’s latest anthem purposefully offer a dual meaning, giving hope to those dreaming of a post-lockdown getaway and fresh start.

He Said She Said by CHVRCHES

The Scottish trio made their much-anticipated return this week, with Lauren Mayberry also sharing her experiences of sexism on this arena-ready synth-pop banger.

Matty Healy by Georgia Twinn

Georgia Twinn delivers an infectiously catchy break-up anthem, inspired by an ex-boyfriend, who’s most interesting feature was supposedly looking like the 1975 frontman.

Kill It by Vukovi

Underground Scottish rock outfit Vukovi’s new single is so good, they even managed to get KILL IT trending over the weekend of its release. Masterfully produced with big bold riffs and trancey synths, this one just sounds huge.

Can’t Carry On by Gruff Rhys

The latest solo single from the former Super Furry Animals frontman is a stunning, super-melodic tune with an instant chorus you’ll be singing before the track has even finished its first play.

Ceremony by Deftones

One of the highlights off their last album Ohms, the nu-metal rockers have now delivered a cinematic new video directed by horror legend Leigh Whannell. Check it out!

Chasing Birds by Foo Fighters

And finally this week, Dave Grohl and company released a trippy new animated video for this Medicine At Midnight cut to help celebrate 420 in their own unique way. Again, well worth a watch!

[thekillerssluts]

Nostalgic For A Different Future: Arcade Fire's Will Butler On How His New Solo Album Finds Healing In Community

When Arcade Fire released their very first single, it came with a B-side that hit very close to home to brothers Win and Will Butler: a recording of a song called "My Buddy," credited to their grandfather, Alvino Rey. In fact, several generations of musicians line their family tree. While those historic echoes provide joy and solace for younger brother Will, the world tipping into pandemic and protests over racial injustice reinforced life’s darker cycles. On Butler’s second solo album, Generations (due Sept. 25 via Merge), he explores the ways in which we come together in community both because of and in spite of those ripples.

The video for early single "Surrender" represents that duality perfectly. The clip opens with studio footage of Butler’s band recording the jangly anthem, complete with call-and-response vocals and gospel falsetto. But much like 2020, things devolve quickly, with closed captioning-style subtitles mourning the deaths of Black men and women killed by police, calling for sweeping political change, and insisting on prison reform. Though written long ago, the album holds a special ability to tap into something boundless and timeless while simultaneously feeling entrenched in the tragic pain of the present.

Butler spoke with GRAMMY.com about the album’s similarities to Fyodor Dostoevsky, the ways in which songs take on new meaning over time, how Generations fits in with an upcoming Arcade Fire album and the healing power of community.

Did you have any hesitation about releasing the album in the midst of the pandemic?

I'm sad to not tour it. If I could wait four weeks and then tour the record... but that's not going to happen. It's actually kind of a good time to put out music. It feels morally good! People want music, so let's put out music. I've experienced that, where people put things out and it feels generous.

It truly does. You've compared this album to a novel and your debut before this to a collection of short stories. Is there a particular novelist that you feel would be in tune with your work? Do you take inspiration from fiction in that way?

It's not Dostoevsky. [Laughs.] But it is weirdly more inspired by Dostoevsky than it ought to be. It's the tumult of the 19th century, the next stage of the industrial revolution and the gearing up of socialism and anarchism. It feels related to the pre-revolutionary thing happening in Russia. [Laughs.] It's not a one-to-one comparison by any means, but it’s just the deeply human things happening in a context of the whirlwind.

Was there an experience that led you to the feeling that it was the right time to deliver such a politically driven album?

Partly, I went to grad school for public policy. I explicitly went as an artist wanting to know what's happening and why it's happening. I started the fall of 2016, which was a very bizarre time to be at a policy school. But I had a course with a professor named Leah Wright Rigueur, a young-ish professor, a Black woman, a historian. The course was essentially about race and riot in America. And since it was a policy school, the second-to-last week on the syllabus was talking about Hillary Clinton and the last week was talking about Donald Trump. It was a history class, but in an applied technical school, so it's like, "What are we doing with this history?"

We read the post-riot reports of Chicago in 1919 and the post-riot reports of the '60s, the Kerner Commission and after the Watts riots, and we read the DOJ reports after Ferguson and after Baltimore and Freddie Gray. And then Donald Trump got elected at the end of the semester. This course really trained my eyes at this moment of time, just being in that state of thinking about what's going on and why it's happening.

Right, and the album's title feels like it encapsulates not only the history that you were learning at the time but also your personal and familial ancestry.

Yes, very much so. My mom's a musician, and her parents were musicians. My grandmother grew up in a family band driving across the American West with her parents before there were even roads in the desert. Her dad got arrested a bunch of times for vagrancy or for not paying off loans. There's something very beautiful about being in the tradition of generations of musicians. That's a positive thing in this world. It's no coincidence that I'm a musician. There are, however, many more poisonous things that are also not coincidental that are rooted in both personal and political history. All of political history in America has been geared towards making each generation of my family's life better insofar as they're white men. It's been very good to my family, but that is as much of an undeniable generational heritage as music, which is this beautiful and faultless and glorious thing.

Do you see that musical tradition in your family as storytelling?

It's never been explicitly storytelling, though that is part of it. It's more about building community or building a society through entertainment. Entertainment is almost too light a word. My grandfather and grandmother did all these broadcasts during World War II, and some of it's jingoistic, some of it's incredibly moving, some of it's just dance music for people who don't want to think about the war for a minute. It's all these emotions, but still with this aim of trying to get us all in it together–which in a war context is fraught. But there's that element of always trying to make a family, make a community, learning how to bind us all together.

That reminds me of the call and response vocals you've got throughout the record. It has an especially gospel-y feeling on "Close My Eyes," which is such a clever way to paint a song about surrendering to something bigger than yourself, that communal feeling. What was the impetus for that narrative voice?

Part of it is just rooted in Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. [Laughs.] Years ago, someone mailed us the complete Motown singles on CD, just every single starting from day one. Even though there’s some garbage mixed in there, it just feels so human with those gang vocals and great singers that sometimes they just pulled off the street. You get the sense of humanity. Having backing vocals be so integral instead of just having my voice layered feels like having a community and feels very natural. It's hard for me to not just rely on that every third or fourth song. [Laughs.] It just feels like that's how it should be.

Those multi-part harmonies must be especially potent live in a room. Do you write in a way where you’re already picturing these songs live?

We played almost every one of these songs live before we recorded them. My solo band played "Surrender" live on the Policy tour for years. But even before we went into the studio last summer, I booked a weekend of shows. We did the Merge 30th Anniversary festival just to have us feel it live and have that communication. And then we went down to the basement to try to iron it out.

Speaking of "Surrender," that song took on an entire new life in the video. It starts out with videos of your band in the studio, but then quickly and powerfully gets replaced with messages mourning the deaths of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor and emphasizing the need for prison reform. You never know what life a song will have when you’re writing it.

That song is very nostalgic in a certain way. It’s looking towards the past, but not wishing to be in the past. It's wishing that we were in a different present because we had already chosen a different past. So when I was editing the video, I started it as a "making of" video. But the footage is from January of this year—five, six months old. There's this feeling of nostalgia, but also 2019 was not good enough to look back at. [Laughs.] 2019 was also horrible.

It's not like I want to go back to 2019. I want to play music with people. I want to be having fun with my friends. I want to be making a record. But I don't want it to be 2019. I'm nostalgic for a different future. And as I'm editing the video, there have been six weeks of protests of people trying to build something, and it just felt crazy to not acknowledge that. It was what people were focused on, at least the people around me.

Do you feel like you'll be infusing more overt social and political commentary into your music going ahead?

I think so. It's important that it's organic. It's part of the world I live in, part of my family and my friendships. Before the coronavirus hit, I was very much looking forward to touring and had vague plans to do town hall meetings and discussions. It felt like a rich time to do that around America, and around the world. I'm sad to not get to do that, but I think it will happen someday.

You produced the album yourself in your basement, so were you writing with the production choices already in mind or were you writing while in the studio?

I had the band come down and record for a week. And at the end of that first week, we had seven or eight songs that could be real. Some of them were clear. Some of them are simpler, like "Surrender." Others were trying to figure out where they would go. "I Don't Know What I Don’t Know" was more trial and error, trying something crazy. We'd turn everything off for two days and then come back to it and try something else. You try to be surprised by it.

I love revision. Well, I don't love it. I hate it. [Laughs.] I love the process of editing, of making a version of something and then finding something that's either better or worse. It's fun when you work with an editor that you trust, but when you're just doing it yourself, you drive yourself batty after some time. But I still love versioning it until it makes sense.

It feels like you're not too precious. You just want to service the song at the end of the day.

Yeah. I try to not be precious. I feel like the songs mostly came out with a fresh spirit. I didn't massage any of them too much. I'm very conversational in how I think of the world. Nothing is the final statement. You say something and then someone says something else and then you say something. And you have to finish what you're saying in order to hear what the other person says. So if that means putting it out into the world without rounding everything off, to me that feels right.

The record begins and ends on the same burning synth tone, like history ready to go around the loop again. What does that synth tone represent for you?

Not to get too mystical, but there's something about the bass that is so embodied. There's something about a really powerful bass that is fundamental, something that just gets to the core. I wanted that core to feel a little uneasy. It's not like the hit at the end of "A Day in the Life" where it’s this clear conclusion. It's a little bit gnarly. It's a little bit not in the right key for the song. It’s something disturbing at the very core of everything.

What has writing and producing this record taught you about yourself?

I found that while I still prize quickness and thoughtfulness and conversational life, this record took longer and took more effort than Policy. It was way less casual. It was not casual in a very good way. I realized this shouldn't be a casual undertaking—even though it can have lightness and humor and breezy elements. Even then, the whole undertaking can still be serious and grounded. It can even be quick without being casual. In the past, I've fallen into thinking, "Just do something first before you think about it too hard." But this was a reminder that you can do something more thoroughly.

Were you writing these songs while working on the next Arcade Fire album? Speaking about intention, how do you compartmentalize those two sides of your creativity?

Yeah, Arcade Fire is always very cyclical. We record for a year and a half, we tour for a year and a half, and then we're off for a year and a half. I was very conscious to do this in a moment when I wasn't distracted by something else. I wanted to focus on this.

I'm still figuring it all out. Right now I'm making a video for the song "Close My Eyes." I have children, two-year-old twins and an eight-year-old, so the spring was just complete family time—net positive, but total chaos. [Laughs.]

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/nostalgic-different-future-arcade-fires-will-butler-how-his-new-solo-album-finds

[jedivszombie]

‘got tagged by @wancestroll to share some albums I’ve been listening to lately (thank u angel). some musings under the cut. 

This album came out at the end of last year but I stumbled upon it towards the beginning of this year. It has gotten me through some Bad moments and I have had it on repeat variously throughout the year. It’s a really coherent and beautiful neo soul/blues album with excellent production. 

Michael Kiwanuka is so bloody talented it’s almost not fair! It opens up with a BANGER (You Ain’t the Problem), which never fails to make me want to dance and I just put it on repeat when I’m having a bad day. It’s a really beautiful journey through some highs and lows, other personal favourites include Piano Joint (this kind of love) - which always makes me cry and yearn because it’s beautiful - and Hero. 

Michael Kiwanuka is so bloody talented it’s almost not fair! It opens up with a BANGER (You Ain’t the Problem), which never fails to make me want to dance and I just put it on repeat when I’m having a bad day. It’s a really beautiful journey through some highs and lows, other personal favourites include Piano Joint (this kind of love) - which always makes me cry and yearn because it’s beautiful - and Hero. 

It’s the perfect album to blast on sunny days driving around with the windows down because it’s too hot, but it’s also the perfect album to blast when you’re feeling down and want to capture the feeling of a summers day. In short it is gorgeous and I have been obsessed.  

SAWAYAMA - Rina Sawayama

Goshhh this album is just so perfect as a debut album. You would actually be forgiven for thinking this was her second or third full album release, I haven’t been this impressed with a debut album since Tei Shi’s Crawl Space. It honestly sparkles with so much passion and personality. 

She manages to blend so many of my favourite genres into incredible songs that just create such a unique sound, that still sounds incredibly like Rina Sawayama. She draws from such a wide array of influences and experiences - from heartbreaking songs touching on her family to tongue in cheek evaluations of societies obsession with celebrities and wealth.  

It’s fun, it’s heartbreaking, it bangs from start to finish and truly cements Rina as one of the more exciting pop acts at the moment. Highlights for me include: Comme des Garçons (like the boys), Love Me 4 Me and Who’s Gonna Save U Now?. 

It was the perfect soundtrack to a weird, weird year, I could go on for years about this but it would just end up being me screaming and squealing and pointing at every little detail she added (like the concert sounds of who’s gonna save u now?!!!!) 

Petals for Armor - Hayley Williams

This album was probably the one I was anticipating the most this year, from the moment she started dropping hints about PFA I was hooked. As many of y’all will know I am a MAJOR Paramore and Hayley Williams fan, I love the way they have evolved as they have grown up and how it’s weirdly evolved with my own tastes. 

I truly love this album so much, it’s not massively coherent but sometimes albums don’t need to be. Hayley tries out so many different vibes and sounds it makes total sense why she released it as three EPs, giving each of the songs the space they all need in the world before we scrambled to listen to all of them at once. 

It’s also a hugely personal album and as someone who has felt similar feelings of depression and loneliness and grappling with loss and heartbreak I really love how some of the lyrics just really summed up stuff I didn’t even realise I was feeling. 

It starts out very moody and atmospheric and carries us on a journey from anger through to love in such a nice way. There are some duds (I am not a massive fan of My Friend for example) but she delivers them all in such a way I rarely skip songs I don’t love. 

Highlights for me are: Leave it Alone (very atmospheric, very autumnal, very late night walk in the woods, love the imagery and it kills me), Cinnamon (didn’t love this when I first heard it but I was WRONG, it’s really fun and makes you wanna dance and is an ode to loving yourself which we all need a bit more of), Dead Horse (my favourite fuck u song about an ex, it’s cutting where it needs to be and it’s a banger, and it makes me feel like summer and also smashing someone’s car with a baseball bat, and srsly Fuck You Chad), Why We Ever (another one I didn’t vibe with butttt actually now loveeeee so much, it’s so peaceful and full of love and sadness and makes me feel like I’m floating and also like I wanna cry? as someone who has a predilection to self sabotage something good I felt it), Sugar on the Rim (honestly I just wanna dance to this song, preferably in a gay club with pals, it’s so fun and 80s I adore it) and finally Crystal Clear (it makes me feel like I’m floating on a pool of water and serene and peaceful and loved and I’m so happy for her that she can write songs like that, it’s about embracing fear in love and just a really gorgeous song, also the sample of her Grandad’s song is adorable). 

All in all I adore the album and had it on repeat A LOT since it came out, hopefully I will be able to see her perform it live at some point but at this point I am just thrilled that we have been able to experience an album from Hayley Williams like this. 

Flip Phone Fantasy - Ocean Grove

Finally, Flip Phone Fantasy is an album I was introduced to not so long ago (thank u Allie) and I love it. It slaps, it fucks, it is the perfect mad modern nu-metal esque album. 

Again I love the way it blends lots of different genres and sounds and vibes to create something very unique, fun and energetic. I have had this on repeat for about 2 weeks now, so you could say I’m a little obsessed. 

Highlights on the album include: SUPERSTAR (just like a real hot song, love the imagery, wanna dance in a club to it, instead end up just dancing around the house and shower to it instead), GUYS FROM THE GORD (very trance/drum and bass kinda vibes, which I loveeee, reminds me of shady clubs at Uni and going on hikes up Constitution Hill high to watch the sunrise, 10/10 vibes) and ASK FOR THE ANTHEM (another v hot song but in a different way from Superstar, the lyrics are immaculate and the vocal effects are killer, again would party to this song). 

Their first album is also a banger but honestly at the moment this is the kind of vibe I’m going for. Something a little sexy, quite summery, makes you want to dance and also rage at the same time - which is honestly an Eternal Mood. 

also some honourable shout outs to: Chromatica - Lady Gaga, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy - Sarah McLahan, Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple, What’s the 411? - Mary J. Blige, Crisis - Alexisonfire and Die 4 Ur Love - Tei Shi for getting me through this year. 

I am tagging @danielthicciardo, @reynobody, @efe-uno, @alonsista, @j-button and @josefnewgarden1, @laptimedeleted, @mushroom-callum​, @stones-and-water​, @formulaelectrified. 

[taste-in-music]

My Favorite Hit Songs of 2019

This year’s crop of popular music was... absolutely bonkers? I mean, this year we had Billie Eilish crash into the mainstream, Lizzo managed to get multiple hits out of songs she released nearly three years ago, the Jonas Brothers made a comeback, and the longest-running #1 hit in Billboard history became a rap/country crossover that got its start on Tik Tok made by a complete nobody and the dad from Hannah Montana. I’m going to admit, this list was pretty hard to put together, as I found it hard to find 10 songs that I genuinely loved that were hits this year. Despite that, the sheer absurdity of this year’s popular music gave me a spark of hope going into the new decade. For this list, I’ll be selecting my favorite songs off of Billboard’s year end Hot 100 songs list. I’m ready to recount this year in music, so...

10) Sucker by Jonas Brothers I never watched the Jonas Brothers show or listened to their music back when they were big on Disney, so I’ve got no nostalgic investment in them. However, this was a fun comeback to watch play out. This song was pretty dang good for a while, with the funky guitars and the instantly catchy lyrics. It reminded me of “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man. Then it got the point where three separate radio stations were playing it at the same time, and now I can barely stand it. I think that after the radio releases this song from its clutches it will warm up on me again though, because I do like it overall.

9) Better by Khalid The strongest attribute of this song is its ATMOSPHERE. The beat, melody, and vocal delivery all compliment one another perfectly, combining to create a smooth, almost sexy sound that washes over you with ever listen. I also like the Daft-Punk-y vocoded lines that pop in at the end, they’re so unexpected and yet they fit in perfectly. I've always loved Khalid’s vocal timbre, it’s so chill and yet warm at the same time. The only thing I can’t praise about this is the lyrics, because I have no clue what they are. Khalid, bless his sweet soul, cannot enunciate. It’s the same problem I have with Ariana Grande. I love your voice, I want to know what you’re saying! 

8) Trampoline by SHAED Give me the hipster points, because guess who knew about this song before it was cool! I’ve loved SHAED’s music for some time now, so it’s been thrilling to watch this song climb the charts and for them to get the recognition and success that they deserve. While this song isn’t my favorite by them, (that slot would probably be reserved for “Perfume” or “Melt,”) it does showcase the group’s strengths, which are emotive vocals and glossy electronic production. I love the effervescent backing vocals and bubbling keys that pepper this song, it gives the song a floaty feel while still keeping it tense. 

7) Old Town Road by Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus I can’t think of a piece of music in recent memory that has captured the public’s attention so swiftly and so completely, and you know what? Sometimes something gets big because it’s good. This song, despite all the memes and jokes and radio play and oversaturation, never ever got old to me. Every time it comes on, it puts a giant, goofy smile on my face, and I sing along to the whole thing. I want Lil Nas X to stick around, but even if he doesn’t, I want what this song represents, genre blending, trend-bucking, and a sense of fuck-it fun, to stay.

6) bury a friend by Billie Eilish Out of all the strange hits we had this year, this was the weirdest one to hear on the radio. It doesn’t have a classic structure! It’s about the monster under your bed! It’s got nothing but a shuffle beat, bass, and the sound of dental drill! It just doesn’t belong on the airwaves next to songs like “ME!” or “I Don’t Care.” Despite that, I’m beyond happy that Billie Eilish is bringing a bit of emo weirdness to the mainstream, because if the success of her music, specifically this song, says anything, it’s that pop is heading in a far scarier and more experimental direction. And I’m on board with that. 

5) break up with your girfriend, i’m bored by Ariana Grande The groove on this song is fantastic. The combination of eerie synths, bass, reverbed backing vocals, and rolling snares makes it feel tight and controlled, but also loose and flowing at the same time. There was a lot of pushback against this song due the sentiment of the lyrics, but it’s not like Ariana is unaware that she’s the bad guy in this position. There’s enough indifference and sarcasm in her delivery to show that she’s self aware. This was probably my favorite out of the hit singles from the thank u, next era, (”thank u, next” is great but got a bit old to me, and I don’t care for “7 Rings.”) 

4) Circles by Post Malone  This is embarrassing to admit, because I rarely, if ever, enjoyed any music Post Malone has put out in the past. But this song just hits different. The instrumental feels more acoustic-driven and has a nice pulse to it, projecting a warmth and comfort that none of his other songs have. This was a perfect hit for Autumn, being chill and relaxing enough for Summer, but the underlying bass groove makes you want to move into the productive patterns of the school year. If Post Malone made more music like this I’d reckon I’d enjoy his music quite a bit. 

3) Dancing With A Stranger by Sam Smith ft. Normani Sometimes radio filler turns out to be spectacular. The ambiance this track builds is relaxing but in an otherworldly kind of way, forming a soundscape of echoing drums and whispering synths. I’ve always stood by the opinion that Sam Smith sounds really good with an electronic beat under them, it helps their great voice move in a more free-flowing way. Normani also sounds amazing on this song, her vocals dipping into smokier territory, and when the two sing together they play off one another’s performances with ease. 

2) Sweet But Psycho by Ava Max Who predicted this in their last year’s hit song’s list? This bitch! I was so happy to see this hit the U.S. charts, you have no idea. It was such a breath of fresh air in that it was so splashy, sugar-sweet, and unabashedly pop. The lyrics are some of the silliest of the whole year, (”she’s poison but tasty” makes me chuckle every time,) but it doesn’t matter. The addictive melodies and the earnestness in Ava Max’s performance make them sound like Shakespearean poetry, or at least like she believes that they’re Shakespearean poetry. 

Should Have Been Hits

Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift This should’ve been a single. I get why Taylor chose the singles she did, but this was primed to be a Summer smash, with the glossy synths and vocoded backing vocals and soaring chorus. We were robbed. Robbed, I tell you!

Graveyard by Halsey While “Without Me” got all the glory, this is my favorite of all the Halsey singles we’ve gotten so far by a wide margin. It’s the only one that I’ve made the conscious choice to listen to on my own time for one. I love the way the production rushes as the chorus hits, and the synths that sparkle throughout the verses, and Halsey’s reserved performance.

3 Nights by Dominic Fike This was a hit in the U.K., and I even heard it on a few alternative stations, so why no cross over? If there was any song that should have been the chill Summer hip hop hit, it should have been this. This song is weirdly addictive, the chorus is so inexplicably catchy that once you hear it one time through you will know all the words to it. 

Blame It On Your Love by Charli XCX ft. Lizzo When the mainstream decide that it didn’t need Charli XCX? Because it’s wrong, it needs her very, very badly. The success of “1999″ in the U.K., the name recognition, and the Lizzo feature should’ve been more than enough to boost this onto the charts, but I guess we didn’t want an instantly catchy and fun EDM pop song on the radio. Oh well. 

Motivation by Normani Normani and Lauren are my favorite Fifth Harmony members, so I’ve been rooting for their solo careers like nobody’s business. This single in particular had so much potential: a bouncy beat, a stamp of approval from Ariana Grande, and a kick-ass music video filled with impressive choreography. I hope this gets a bigger push into next year, because Normani is a wildly talented performer that deserves success outside of her collaborations. 

Guilty Pleasures

bad guy by Billie Eilish This was a good song, just not my favorite off the album, or of the hits, (I prefer ”bury a friend,” obviously, and “when the party’s over,” which made last year’s list.) Still, watching this idiosyncratic little tune become one of the biggest pop smashes of the year was enthralling. Like “bury a friend,” it was so strange to hear this on the radio. 

Close To Me by Ellie Goulding ft. Diplo & Swae Lee When a melody gets its claws in me, there’s nothing I can do about it. This is not Ellie Goulding at her best, (I’ll admit that I miss the days of “Lights,”) but the way she delivers the hook on this song is absolutely infectious. I’m not the biggest Swae Lee fan, but he’s fine here too. I never minded when this song came on the radio. 

This year was a bit of a roller coaster for me. Needless to say, there were several instances where I felt quite a bit of stress and insecurity, and oftentimes, I would turn to music to make myself feel better. There was one song in particular that a friend of mine, @hasanminajs​, introduced me to, that instantly became a beacon of self-appreciation and enjoyment to me throughout the year. And when I tell you that I have never been happier to hear a song on the radio than I have with this one, I'm telling the truth. 

1) Truth Hurts by Lizzo I have never rooted for a song’s success like I have for this one, and watching a hip hop track this bouncy, confident, and enigmatic climb the charts was an absolute joy. There are so many great punchlines in this song, from “why men great till they gotta be great?” to “I don’t play tag bitch, I’ve been it,” to the ever-iconic “I just took a DNA test, turns out, I’m 100% that bitch.” This song raised the standards for lyricism in the mainstream. I want Lizzo to be huge, I want her to be influential, I want her to be one of the biggest pop stars of the next decade if not longer. Everything about this song, from its production to its message to its performance makes me smile. And you know what? Sometimes that’s all that pop music needs to do. 

Do you agree with this list? What were your favorite hit songs of 2019? Leave a comment and let me know!

[jayrealityv1]

If you've followed this account for over half a decade, then you might know that this is my 2nd Favorite Album Of All-Time. So you'd better believe that it really would've been blasphemous if I didn't go out of my way to commemorating its 10th Anniversary!

Anyways, I think a major reason why this album left such a fantastic first impression on me was due to my love for electronica at the time. Back in the Summer of 2010, I remember frequently jamming to the likes of 3OH!3, Ke$ha & Usher. And while I was having a genuine good time, there was something weirdly "emasculating" about it. Which made me think "Y'know electronica's great & all, but I wish there was more of a hard-hitting edge to it." Low & behold, this incredibly innovative album would end up stepping into my life shortly after.

Unfortunately, the large amount of unavoidable hate this album received from certain fans always made me feel like I was the only being in the universe who actually enjoyed it. Similar to the backlash that "One More Light" had, I remember fans online constantly bashing it by calling it a sell-out & bubblegum pop album. Which I thought was rather hypocritical. Specifically because I thought some of its heavier & louder songs like "When They Come For Me", "Blackout" as well as "Wretches & Kings" reminded me of some of "Hybrid Theory"'s own fair share of loud & heavy songs like "By Myself" & "Forgotten".

Fast forward to present day, it seems like a lot of people have managed to warm up to it. And while I do feel a sense of cathartic relief by it, I really wish it didn't have to take the suicide of the band's members for everyone to finally comprehend all the meaningful messages that this profound & thought-provoking album was trying to convey. Just… a lot of bittersweet feelings are what I have right now.

[citialiin]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @forseenclade thank you ! man i am so bad at doing memes.  tagging: @blossomingbeelzebug @zhrets @lupichorous @dansiere yayayayayayayaya

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated [ z/iggy stardust is DEFINITELY not my original character, but 683 is, and every single part of how i rp ziggy from his backstory to his personality was made up by me. that being said, ziggy is still a character that exists in media. ]

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO. [ im pretty sure ziggy is tied with the thin white duke as one of b*wie’s most famous fictional personas? ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES ? / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [ maybe a little overrated ]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ celebrity rock god of limitless talent vs inevitable overrated washup. most celebrities are polarizing anyways ]

How strictly do you follow canon?  — there isnt much canon to go off of i think? the album barely even states if ziggy is an alien and b*wie himself got really wishy washy about it (sometimes saying z is a human who was contacted by aliens, he was an alien himself, etc). i dont think we know anything about him besides what he looks like (red hair / weird eyes / pale / “well hung” lmao) and he has a band called the spiders from mars, he plays the guitar left handed, he’s bisexual + androgynous, and he’s charming and popular with the teens but inevitably is a victim of his own ego. and he dies.  that too.  but that’s literally it! we know Nothing else about him.  so i filled in all the gaps because my brain has worms.  theres a little bit of the story that verges on fantasy (that he’s some sort of messiah messenger for “the infinites,” whatever the fuck THAT means, david) so i nix that because i prefer hard scifi.  and theres one BIG part that i just ... deleted out of his canon, in that the world is ending in 5 years in his timeline, and he’s like ... aware of this ?  but that’s dumb and confusing.  i legit dont care anymore. my OC now.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  im so embarrassed i know i could be genuine and actually try but i have brain blockajjolajlakala33lak33klak333ak3jka3akjj323j3 i guess it’s like ... ziggy is truly the ultimate expression OF humanity because he reveals everything both wrong and right about the human condition, he literally embodies the best of humanity and the worst at the same time, he’s a really interesting critique on the idea of genuineness/earnestness vs commercalism in art, the perils of fame, and also how humans are so inherently corrupting?  a lot of thematic stuff i like exploring is like what is innate to humans vs what is learned behavior, what are things that humans do naturally that ziggy mimics out of his desire to be like us?  i think he has a really good story arc -- he went from being a literal nameless CLONE in a society full of pragmatic forward thinking science-oriented people to a sell out rockstar celebrity in a society of people that value individualism and self expression and art, but in the process completely lost his mind and himself and gave into the worst that humanity has to offer like rampant selfishness, drug abuse, self destructive tendencies, etc. characters changing is always interesting and ziggy truly changes for the worse -- but he is never just black and white, he was never good and then suddenly evil, he just was always the same person putting on different facades and trying to be himself by constructing an identity that maybe was who he wanted to be versus who he actually is.  i dont know what im talking about. hes just an alien trying to be too hard to be human in all the wrong ways.   i just like how “gray” ziggy is. he isnt good or bad, he can be very nice and he can be very mean, he’s overtly showboating confident but at the same time deeply afflicted with self-consciousness (why tf else would anyone be So obsessed with how they present themselves?).  hes an icon of individualism but also commercialism.  he’s freakishly alien but is almost more human than humans themselves.  he struggles as lot in his head -- which makes for interesting writing, i guess !!  Im so emabrrased im not going to go back and read what i wrote so if i typoed dont look at me

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  i think ziggy comes across as really mean and nothing else.  his horrible bitchy rudeness comes across as hee hee hoo hoo sassy isnt he a rascal when it’s supposed to be more like ... he’s so far gone into the celebrity delusion he’s conflated aggressive rudeness with charmingness because no one told him otherwise and everyone worships him to the point where he’s just given into the delusion that he can do no wrong.  i think theres the general simplification problem that happens with a lot of fictional characters, it’s easy to see him as just a whacky sassy glittery quirky rockstar when i guess it avoids the inherent tragedy of like ... everything else about him. his totally fake and false sense of identity built up from superficial things like fame and labels and stardom.  maybe my version of ziggy is just too weirdly depressing and sad when i know his original iteration wasn’t quite so ... grim.  im not very sure tbh.  

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  hmmm ... a lot of things! i just really got into b*wie stuff in early 2019, i’ve ALWAYS loved aliens and sci-fi, and i was really shocked that db sets up such great visual storytelling potential but does it through music.  i just really liked ziggys “story” and i like any chance to think about aliens so i just got invested into piecing together a little backstory for him using, like, the cumulative knowledge of literally every other piece of science fiction ive ever consumed in my life.  this was summer 2019 when i was making initial pitches for my thesis film, and so i just randomly decided to pitch “animated version of ziggy stardust” as one of the potential ideas.  shockingly everyone liked it a lot and so did my professor who thought it was really cool, and then i just ended up sticking with the character and working on him for an entire year.  ziggy became my hobby but also my homework.  he was such a fun character because everything about him was interesting to me and i had just enough source material to have a starting point but so much room to take him in any direction i wanted to.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  honestly, yooooou guyssssss. i have some really amazing fwends that ive met thru here .... and some of our dumb stupid stories have literally become NOVEL length. it just self generates inspiration because you realize the limitless amount of stories you could tell with this one single character when your character enters his story or he enters their story and etc. etc.  ive drawn endless amounts of comics and stuff for him ... ziggy is just so endlessly interesting ...   cringe be cringed bro but recently (i know this sounds dumb bear with me or die.) ive kind of realized a lot of how i rp z comes as some metaphor for the experience of being an asian immigrant/being asian in the US -- his home “culture” is a lot stricter than the rampant selfish individualism of the usa (he only lives in the uk and usa, so he thinks the whole planet is like this), he’s dissuaded from standing out from his community and his selfishness becomes a community burden rather than a personal flaw, and when he does come to earth, he goes through such awful culture shock, literally nothing makes sense to him and everything is Different.  and while some things are different in a Nice way, something things are different in an Awful way, and he’s given the option between losing his true personal identity as an atominan and giving it up to be a human.  the allure of being a human is a little too much but losing yourself like this is traumatic, in a way.  obvs like ... a little silly and definitely not something that i actively intended to put into his story arc, its just something that fell into place cuz i guess i worked so closely with my own personal experiences and feelings of “alienation” (pun intended) to try to understand how he would feel being a literal alien an shid. its cathartic to write about him. but he also has a lot of my own personal interests just thrown in -- 70s fashion, scifi, science, tryhard implications about human nature, art history, whatever dumb nonsense i get into

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / SOMETIMES?

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO  [ i would prefer information to spring up organically in the story but cuz threads always get dropped i end up just telling people outright. i didnt want anyone to know his home planet/his old name but barely anyone writes enough with ziggy to get to that point to reveal it (i legit managed to do it organically Once) so i just had to write it in a post lmao orz ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ wrote a ton of drabbles ! drew a ton of comics! ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO 

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO / I DUNNO?

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / HAHA NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES  / NO. / IDK ? 

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  definitely!  like i said ... my version of ziggy ended up being the protag of my thesis film and for 1 yr straight his characterization, backstory, design, and even how i wanted to animate his fucking movements (ziggy stardust timing charts.) were beaten to death in a classroom environment, torn apart and rebuilt into something better.  had i stayed with what i originally wanted to go with, ziggy would be so different than how i write him 2day. amazingly my pre production professor is a literal two time emmy award winning storyboard artist and animator so he definitely helped me design him (my version of ziggy is meant for ... a cartoon, obviously, not real life) and give him a better backstory?  and my post production professor is a retired disney animator who worked on hercules and a bunch of old disney channel shows?  had i gone wah wah wah i dont want to hear ur critiques i wouldnt have made him better.  if you ever think ziggy seems inconsistent or poorly written ... tell me !! i literally major in ... animation. cartoons. entertainment.  my job is to entertain you. if you are not entertained, there is a problem.  ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED ????

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  I LOVE QUESTIONS? i love ... answering questions ... if you ask me something ill come kiss you.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  sure! i dont know why that would happen, though, because i mean ... he’s an OC. but i gues someone could be like “i feel like this is incongruous to things you’ve previously established in his character” or somethin

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  i feel like a lot of b*wie stans would find my version of ziggy weird but i mean thats fine!  i guess my goal is to have a well written character, not necessarily an accurate version of ziggy

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  if you hate MY version of ziggy thats fine but if u hate ziggy stardust in general (like the bowie concept) then u need some taste what the fuck is cooler than a egomaniac genderless bisexual rockstar alien with red hair? nothing. go back to watching your CW shows you dirty filthy normie

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  yes! dm me though. dont clown me on the dash like that.  i usually write your replies 12 AM - 4 AM so it’s expected.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  hmmm ... maybe! i do like to talk to people and i am VERY nice, trust me, if youre ever sad ill do everything i can to make you feel better. but im quiet! i dont really reach out to people and i tend to just keep to myself.  im not very social or extroverted at all haha i barely can make ooc posts without feeling like god’s coming to beat my head in with a brick. im sitting here at 5:30 AM with this meme feeling like if i post it i will die (BUT I MUST)

[thisislizheather]

July Jiffs 2020

This was me all month.

The key word being was. We bought an air conditioner! We’ve been an A/C-free family for some time now, but since we’re spending so much time at home, we figured now was the time to be cool. In other news, everything still blows! What a shock! Here’s how I spent July.

I didn’t even know another Halloween movie was being made but of course I’ll go see it even if it turns out to be trash, you gotta support classic horror franchises, that’s just basic horror etiquette 101.

This is the most basic, boring-sounding sandwich on planet earth, but it tastes incredible I promise you (I didn’t add bacon, but I did add fresh mozzarella) and whatever bread you use, it’ll still be great. I find myself constantly forgetting about the greatness of mayo because I, my dear, am an idiot.

I ordered a bunch of new address labels on Zazzle because they were having a Christmas in July sale, so I bought some seasonally inspired labels to use over the next few months. If you’re not seasonally co-ordinating your return address labels, are you even living?

I’m still doing Nathan’s podcast on Patreon incase you’re interested. (You can find more clips on his Instagram.)

I attempted to watch the new Baby-Sitter’s Club on Netflix and it’s really not meant for me. I was never into the books or the movie or any of it, I never liked the idea of kids caring about making money, it seemed too sad to me. “Just be a kid!” I’d always thought.

Speaking of childhood nostalgia, I have started to watch reruns online of Sweet Valley High, which I loved as a kid. It’s no Breaker High, but it’s still pretty great to rewatch. God, Jessica really was an absolute bitch.

Some other things that I’ve rewatched: Con Air (practically a perfect movie, will always love, *Nic Cage forever* might be the only tattoo I’d ever get), Supermarket Sweep is on American Netflix and I was so excited (for about three episodes) then I moved on with my life, Sleepless in Seattle (still a very nice, average, reliable movie), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (actually a really great summer movie, will always be a fun time to watch, will forever be a huge Keanu fan, I just feel like I could trust him??), and Dick Tracy (will always love this movie even if it has eight million too many montages, the set design is gorgeous, and this one outfit that Madonna wears makes me question… everything).

Some new movies that I’ve watched: Always Be My Maybe (so, so great! How did it take me so long to see this! So many good scenes, such a good movie), The Karate Kid (insane that I hadn’t seen it before, kids were uncomfortably mean in the 80s, favourite part was when Mr. Miyagi beats up the children, great movie), The Stepfather (pretty fun time, so happy we’ve starting watching horror movies again), Eat Pray Love (ugh, I don’t know, I do love movies about women just leaving and doing fun shit alone and abandoning their lives, but this was pretty lame, I hated James Franco’s character more than life and truly didn’t understand how Julia Roberts was even briefly into him), and finally the original The Hills Have Eyes (which I loved weirdly enough despite being incredibly tense the entire movie, I just thought it was so well done and scary and incredible, the rape scene is of course awful and I shut my eyes for that part, but that was the only thing I hated, it doesn’t make sense that I liked this movie so much).

I don’t know how to word this, but something is off with the reasonably priced (and almost too cheap) parmesan sold at Trader Joe’s. It melts weird. It doesn’t taste like normal cheese. Something is afoot and I won’t buy it any longer. I’m truly dreading and equally anticipating the day that all of Trader Joe’s secrets are exposed. Be warned.

That being said, obviously I’m in love with the seasonal summer candles that TJ just released. We have a complicated relationship.

I made this gruyere mac and cheese with caramelized onions (I used almond milk and it still came out good) and can every recipe just include caramelized onions? The world is ending, let’s just put sweet, tiny, brown onions on everything and call it a day.

Ennio Morricone passed away last month and I find myself listening to the Cinema Paradiso soundtrack on repeat.

Read this great piece about summer blockbuster movies which also has just some great ideas for movies to rewatch right now.

I have to remember that Essie’s vibrant colours just f-ing suck. Only their muted/bland colours are good. They should really just stick to those. And if you’re looking for loud colours that stand out, the summer collection at Urban Outfitters is my go-to (and there’s always a 3 for $10 sale with them).

I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album and so far my favourites are definitely: the 1 and this is me trying.

Ugh, Astoriaaaaaa, DO BETTER.

I’ve been thinking about cancelling my Ipsy subscription again (because I think I don’t care about makeup at this current moment in time) and when I logged on to cancel, they let me choose one of the items being sent next month as if they knew I wanted to leave! So I chose a Sunday Riley product (because any sample I’ve tried from them, I’ve loved) so maybe I’ll cancel next month?

I tried a sample of Drunk Elephant’s shampoo & conditioner (which smelled so lovely) and my hair did seem softer the next day. There’s something about this brand though, I feel like they might be tricking us with their beautiful packaging and minimalist persona.

I bought and tried the ancient Biore Strips and I have absolutely no idea if they did what they’re supposed to do. Are you supposed to see the blackheads or whiteheads come off onto the strip? It felt like it just tried to peel my face off. No idea what’s going on with these.

I have been in love with the Peter Thomas Roth Correction Pads, I use one pad before bed each night and I think they’re doing something good because I always wake up with no new pimples. It has even started erasing all of the redness I’ve been experiencing lately from the summer heat and sweat and mask-wearing. At this point, I can definitely see myself rebuying when I run out, and if I do then I’ll definitely not get them from Sephora because you can get them way cheaper at other online retailers.

I’ve also started using this Dr. Dennis Gross All-In-One face cleanser and I think it’s a good one. It’s hard to tell because I started using it the same day at the correction pads I mentioned above (yes that was a bad idea but here we are), so maybe they’re working together to make my face good? We’ll revisit this. 

I finally opened up this Belif set I bought a few months ago and it’s really nothing special. I think the face cream is probably the best item in there because you truly don’t need to use a lot to feel moisturized. But the face cleanser? Meh. I don’t think it does very much, it definitely didn’t help any redness. And the toner? Don’t get me started on how I kind of think toner might be a scam. And the “eye moisturizer”? Seems superfluous. My eye area is plenty moist, thanks.

Perfect summer soap scent: Fresh Rainfall. If I can’t travel this year, I will escape into this scent. (Send help.)

Very excited to hear about Lindy West’s new book.

So I heard that Lady M now ships their cakes to Canada and I was able to scream in excitement for approx. four seconds before looking into it and seeing that it’ll cost you over $100 to get ONE cake sent. THE GALL, I tell you. THE GALL.

I briefly looked into the app Sweatcoin after hearing good things, but it really just seems like an app where its main goal is to track you. And yes, your phone already does that whether you’re aware or not, but I think I’ll pass on the extra tracking.

I heard that the upcoming Halloween Bob’s Burgers episode will “follow the kids as they try to deliver a burger to the hotel on their street.” It’s such a sad little bit of tiny information, but I love their seasonal episodes so much that I’ll take any crumbs available.

Actually helpful tips on how to clean your home efficiently.

Christ, why do I keep forgetting that Bareburger is absolutely nothing special? Why in the good fuck is it taking so long for a Shake Shack to come to Astoria?!

I ate on the patio at Hoja Santa in Astoria and the tacos were nothing to write home about. The service, drinks and chips were outstanding though, so I may have just ordered badly.

New favourite beer alert.

Best tweets of the month over here.

I tried Thai iced coffee and it was so wildly sweet and too aromatic, I probably wouldn’t get it again. And I also tried a Vietnamese iced coffee and it was the perfect level of sweet! What’s the difference between the two, you ask?

I finally tried the katsu sandwich at Hi-Collar as takeout in the East Village and it was absolutely nothing special. No idea why people are so into it.

I haven’t been to Bite in so many months, so it was nice to get takeout earlier this week. God how I’ve missed their ciabatta bread. They use it on their sandwiches and it comes from Balthazar each morning and it’s always heavenly.

I have found the perfect, light summer blanket and I’m trying not to focus on the fact that it came from Amazon.

I tried a grapefruit shandy and holy shit, it might be my favourite new summer drink. 

I ate on the patio at L’Artusi since it just reopened and good god, that carbonara will change you. So psyched to see they have the wagyu steak tartare on the menu now, too. The burger, the panzanella salad and the charred corn were all great, but that carbonara was the standout.

Some things I’d like to do this month: I’d love to try this tomato toast with blue cheese mayo, I’m going to start using a new clothes steamer I just bought with the hopes of getting rid of my iron & ironing board, I rebought a tube of Revitalash because of how great my lashes were looking when I used it a few years ago so I’ll start using it on August 1st and track my progress to prove how great this product is, I can’t wait for Moesha to be coming to Netflix this month, and I am waiting waiting waiting until I can find time to return to Lilia (on the patio) to eat this incredible tomato focaccia & garlic butter (shown below).

If you’ve got any interest in reading last month’s roundup, you can see what went down in June over here.

[stateofarabella]

Lover Rankings + Thoughts

Obviously it is impossible to rank the songs on Lover but after much deliberation, I have come up with a list. These are my current rankings but I can see them changing in the future as a listen more (haha, as if I haven’t already listened to it more than any other album this year). 

1. Afterglow - Ugh I love this song so much! It really shows how much she has developed as both a person and a songwriter. The vocals in the song are so soft and pretty (this love/king of my heart vibes???) and make me melt. I really cannot wait to listen to this in the car while day fades into night.

2. False God - What can I say, I am a sucker for the saxophone throughout the song. Again, the vocals are so breathy and beautiful. The way she sings love in the chorus is to die for. I really wasn’t expecting to love this song as much as I do going into the album but it stood out to me.

3. Cornelia Street - Beautiful lyrics with a nice story throughout the song. It really reminds me of a sombre Delicate weirdly... My favourite lyric has to be   Back when we were card sharks, playing games’ as it brings me back to playing cards with my Dad or ‘I get mystified by how this city screams your name’. 

4. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince - Lyrically this has to be my favourite because the metaphors are so insane that it took me ages to dissect the meaning. 

5. It’s Nice To Have A Friend - This song is just so beautiful and almost nostalgic to me. The beginning lyrics also remind me of the movie Carol (they really were great FRIENDS in that movie ;) ). 

6. Daylight - What a perfect way to end the album. It summarises the emotions and ‘journey’ in such a good way that I feel hasn’t been done since Begin Again in Red. The end of the song with ‘I once believed love would be black and white/red but it’s golden’ is one of my favourite moments on the album. 

7. Lover - Two words: THE. BRIDGE. She really meant it when she said she went to bridge city on that track. The music video was very fitting and absolutely Gorgeous as well. The instrumentation is great and reminds me of a live performance but it is also really good when it’s just Taylor and the guitar.

8. Cruel Summer - This song really surprised me because it hadn’t been released it and it just seemed so single worthy and (dare I say) like it could belong on reputation. The chorus was really refreshing and made me feel like I was driving in the summer heat to the beach. If this isn’t a single (which I doubt) I will send an angry email to Taylor’s management team.

9. I Think He Knows - Correct me if I’m wrong but this feels very different for Taylor and I love it. It almost gives me Hayley Kiyoko vibes with the breathy, catchy chorus. I have been unable to get this out of my head and I’m not mad. I could totally imagine this song acapella as well. 

10. Paper Rings - What. A. Bop. The 2000s rock/pop vibes are absolutely everything to me. It’s also cute without being cringe-worthy or patronising and it isn’t trying to be something that it’s not. 1 2 1 2 3 4 anyone?

11. The Archer - When this song came out I thought it was going to be my favourite song on the album but everything is just so good it has been pushed down. Is this my favourite track 5? No, nothing will ever live up to All Too Well but it is about as close to ATWs perfection as you can get. I really like the ‘story’ of the song as well because it’s something that I go through personally.

12. Death By A Thousand Cuts - This song was initially confusing to me but as I relistened to it I began to ‘get’ the song. This would also work beautifully on piano or guitar, like at the City of Lover concert. I really enjoy the bridge everything I listen to it though and it may be one of my favourite bridges ever.

13. The Man - I loveeeeee the message of the song especially the Leo line which will be iconic. I know some people weren’t the biggest fan of the chorus but I personally think that it works quite nicely because the verses are what have the quips and political messages. 

14. I Forgot That You Existed - When someone said that this was like State Of Grace I had high hopes, to say the least, because State Of Grace is my favourite Taylor Swift song. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed. The song is great but and gives a good transition between reputation to Lover.

15. London Boy - This really gives me Gorgeous vibes, especially the chorus. It’s really cute but I prefer other styles of Taylor’s songs. Mind you, I absolutely love the version that she did for BBC One and prefer it to the studio version. 

16. You Need To Calm Down - It’s becoming a tradition now to have a song that addresses the haters (1989 obviously had Shake It Off and reputation itself was really just one big statement to people.) This song does not disappoint and is great to sing loudly (and badly) to in the shower.

17. Me! - This is not a bad song at all by a long shot but in comparison to the rest of the album, it isn’t up there with my top songs. I’ll admit when I heard the song I didn’t really get or understand it but hearing it in the context of the rest of the album makes sense. I’m still sad she cut out the spelling is fun line.

I don’t feel comfortable ranking Soon You’ll Get Better because it’s such a personal song and I feel like I’m judging a piece of someone but the song is beautiful and so sad. My Grandfather currently has terminal cancer and it reminded me of him. The Dixie Chicks also were an excellent addition to the track. You’re in my thoughts and prayers Andrea.

Overall:

I loved this album. Really nice and the tracks were spread out really well. It showed so many different aspects of love which I respect and it was overall an interesting concept to explore. Although RED is still my favourite album it’s because of the experiences I’ve had with time. Judging by the songs on this album alone, I’m sure it will overtake it soon enough. So for now, Lover comes in at a close second. Congratulations on making (yet again) another excellent album, Taylor Swift. 

[makistar2018]

Bad girl gone good? What to expect from Taylor Swift's mystery release

Following her embattled 2017 album and media retreat, Swift looks set to unveil her new project on Friday. We discuss what might be in store

Guardian music 25 Apr 2019

Swift performing at during the TIME 100 gala dinner in New York on 23 April. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for TIME

Winter is coming – no, wait, wrong saga. Judging by the glittery countdown on her website, Taylor Swift is set to release something this Friday – presumably the first single from her forthcoming seventh album, known for now as TS7. And going by the inscrutable, pastel-hued clues she is unveiling daily, her winter of discontent is over.

Swift flipping the gothic aesthetic of her 2017 album Reputation, which surveyed her various feuds, her tumble in public favour and the relationship that put her back together, has led many fans to believe she is heralding a return to love songs and even her earlier country sound. (For anyone wishing to learn more, fans are going into Rain Man-level detail about the clues.) What it does for her, well, reputation – and her pop dominance – remains to be seen.

All will be revealed at about 5am UK time on Friday. The Guardian solicited six critics to discuss what’s at stake for Swift’s career in this new era.

‘A callback to her Nashville roots would be an on-trend reset ... Swift performing in Las Vegas, 2010. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

Can she keep a foot in all genre camps or must she renounce her hip-hop dabbling?

Peter Robinson, Popjustice: The relatively underwhelming sales of Reputation would send some artists fleeing in the direction of the nearest life raft: a big-name DJ collaboration, a Latin-influenced smash-by-numbers, an unconvincing K-pop team-up. It’d be disappointing to see Swift on the back foot, and she’d be foolish to storm ahead as if her imperial phase wasn’t almost half a decade ago, but there is one retreat that would make sense without seeming defensive: if the hip-hop-referencing Reputation was the logical conclusion to the stadium-pop Swift perfected on 1989, a callback to Swift’s Nashville roots would be a partial reset that would be believable and on trend. It would also sidestep direct competition with artists who have stampeded towards pop’s iron throne in recent years.

Will she pivot back to country?

Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone: Even when she moved to the bright synthpop of 1989 or the dark Reputation, Swift never totally abandoned her country roots. At heart, she is a Nashville storyteller with a flair for country anthems, which she makes clear on songs like 1989’s Style and Getaway Car.

I’ve always admired her for moving herself as artistically forward as possible. Following her self-titled debut, her next three albums made incredible strides towards new genres and showed she could turn her signature breakup songs into an art form. And she did it all without alienating her core audience, who were growing up with her. Going back to country in totality for TS7 would be a regression after taking so many risks – and mercilessly dropping her vocal twang! – to discover what she was capable of outside of it.

Even so, I can see her begin infusing a few elements of her past. But I can’t imagine her referencing sounds earlier than those on Red. That was the album that brought her into adulthood and helped canonise her as a pop star capable of unpacking love’s indescribable feelings and moments.

Will her political sentiments surface in her music?

Elle Hunt, the Guardian: At long last, Swift is revealing her politics, endorsing Democrats in US midterm elections and appearing to criticise Donald Trump for “disgusting rhetoric”. But if they’re to become any clearer, I suspect it will continue to be on her Instagram page rather than her music. As a songwriter, Swift is best when her lyrics train a laser focus on love and the loss of it – especially the small moments that capture the dynamics of a relationship. The weakest moments on Reputation are oblique and generic: compare “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one” to “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest” from her masterpiece, All Too Well, on Red. Whether she will become more politically outspoken remains to be seen. But for the sake of her songs – what she’d presumably prefer we measure her by – we should hope her scope remains small.

The cover of US Elle’s April issue, in which Swift alluded to Trump’s ‘disgusting’ rhetoric. Photograph: © Hearst UK

Are there more scores for her to settle on TS7?

Anna Leszkiewicz, New Statesman: In 2016, Taylor Swift’s reputation was a problem. After her high-profile spat with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian left many concluding that she was a manipulative liar hiding behind a victim narrative, it was hard to see what direction she could take on her sixth album that wouldn’t be derided. So Reputation as less of a heel-turn and more of a bulldozer – she leaned so far into the bad girl image, she smashed right through it.

I don’t think we’ll see another vengeance album from Swift any time soon. Nor do I think she can pivot back to the stories of wounded innocence that won her so many young fans. The only score she might have left to settle is the criticism she faced for being an apolitical pop star in an age when pop culture is hyper-politicised. But I don’t think her next record will be super-political. I have a feeling Swift might lean in to the domestic bliss she has hinted at achieving with her boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn. After all, they say happiness is the best revenge.

‘The fact that her press strategy is impossible to call is weirdly exciting’ ... Swift performing in Texas in 2018. Photograph: Matt Winkelmeyer/TAS18/Getty Images

Is her no-interview press strategy likely to change?

Chris Mandle, writer: Although they are different pop stars in so many ways, I did watch Beyoncé’s Netflix documentary Homecoming and its controlled, high-end, faux intimacy and wonder if Swift might be curled up on the sofa taking notes. She did a Netflix doc last year – a live film from the Reputation tour – but given that Beyoncé reportedly did a three-film deal with the streaming service, I’d be surprised if Swift doesn’t have at least one more up her sleeve. There were headlines generated from Beyoncé’s quotes, but they were on the artist’s terms; and there was a peek behind the curtain, but just a peek.

Swift doesn’t need to give warts-and-all interviews at this point in her career, and she’s not alone: Rihanna is on the cover of Harpers Bazaar this month sans interview. Then there’s Swift’s recent Elle cover story, which consists of a piece penned by her titled Thirty Things I Learned Before Turning Thirty. That said, Swift has a role in the forthcoming live-action Cats remake, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she thinks that Hollywood press such as Vanity Fair or the Hollywood Reporter are best suited for her to tell her story. Still, she needs to do something to launch this mysterious album – an agenda-setting Billboard cover, or an internet-breaking Paper magazine shoot. The fact it’s impossible to call is weirdly exciting.

Can Swift’s classic brand endure in this genre-fluid, borderless era?

Laura Snapes, the Guardian: Rumours of pop’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. It’s fantastic (and long overdue) that pop’s top tier has opened up to make space for artists from around the globe, and the quicker someone like Rosalía becomes a global star, the better. But while acts like her and the K-pop band BTS have established a form of cultural dominance, they aren’t household names.

That kind of supremacy comes only from ubiquitous hits, something you’d imagine the competitive Swift is determined to maintain after scoring her first UK No 1 with Look What You Made Me Do. While that beguilingly brittle track wasn’t made for 22-style singalongs, Swift apparently breaking her tradition of releasing in the fourth quarter points to a desire for cultural cache: to see her comeback declared song of the summer.

And as trivial as her album release campaign is – hidden numbers in statements or images that point to 26 April; clothes that reflect the images’ pastel aesthetic – it’s dominating entertainment headlines. If she comes back with a copper-bottomed hit, she could easily find herself at the outset of a second imperial phase.

The pastel Poirot. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

The Guardian

[murdocsagaypirate]

A The Now Now Analysis:

Summertime Sadness

I’m wanted to analysis this album on its own merit without the inclusion of lore.

The message is “I miss you.” and the album never really changes it’s mind on that statement, but each song takes you through that with different feelings. It takes you on a journey through grief but doesn’t end in “acceptance” in the traditional sense. The album ends with Souk Eye, the final message of, “I miss you and I don’t think I’ll ever stop.” Its a sad idea, especially compared to the start of the album, Humility, the focus is “I miss you, but I think I should try to move on.” and trying to be optimistic. The same lyric “I’m calling you” in both songs can read as “I miss you.” 

In between these tracks, we have song after song of reminiscing. Tranz feels like it’s asking the question “were you ever anything like I saw you to be?” in the person's absence that “effigy” is crumbling while the singer wants to keep it in his mind forever (stay in the trance)... 

So many songs about places serve as memories and points of nostalgia: Magic City, Kansas, Idaho, Hollywood. Normally songs about Hollywood are full of praise. This song just.. isn’t. When we are trying to get over someone that has left us we might choose to focus on the unpleasant memories or “dark times” to prove to ourselves that it’s better this way. That’s what Hollywood feels like to me, thinking about when jealous as soured something or when things were just “alright” when they should have been great.

Kansas: as it appears in the studio journal: “I don’t wanna cry I’m not gonna cry.” He’s trying desperately to get over this person. That is his main goal right now. and it’s clearly a struggle. Idaho is... really really sad. It’s true nostalgia. It’s harsh melancholy at being confronted with happy memories of someone lost. That “silver lining” he’s been holding on to since Humility, this idea that he’ll find a new dream and move on, is “getting lost”. 

Fire flies, just feels like straight up depression. We’re in that stage of grief. Complete emptiness. Drinking. It also reflects on the lost relationship as a whole. It was dark, and singer had to struggle to find fleeting moments of light: fireflies. Fireflies on their own are a nostalgic symbol of summer. One Percent is the penultimate and with so few lyrics I have less confidence in my interpretation, but if I fit it in like a weirdly shaped puzzle piece it must serve as a transition from the sadness of Fire flies to the conclusion of the album. I think it’s the recognition by the singer of how much a part of his life the subject is. On this long journey, in all his nostalgic summer memories, the subject is there. The tone grows into something much more optimistic than Fire Flies and then dies back down. 

And finally Souk Eye. It does a great job summing everything up. The answer to the question "Do I pick it up when I know that it's broke, or do I head on to the lonsome track and let you go?" Is one he's pondered the whole album and here he answers it... His feelings are complicated, but he knows despite the fact it might not be wise, that he loves the person he’s been singing about. And he’s decided that, even when the grief has been endured, he wants the relationship to be salvaged, “be forgiven”.  He wan’t to leave behind LA (established as the complicatedness in the relationship) he wants it to be “stone”, solid. Ironically the lyrics sound more optimistic then the music, contrasted with Humility where the music sounds very happy and the lyrics talk about feeling trapped and lonely.  The album doesn’t end on a “happy” note because nothing about the relationship has changed or improved, the singer is just now stepping out of grief and has yet to take action when Souk Eyes ends, and he still doesn’t really know what will happen when he does take action. 

For an album made up of so much nostalgia it’s odd that it’s titled The Now Now. But when we tackle grief and heal from grief it has to be done in The Now. Of course, there are tons of political lines sprinkled throughout as expected of Gorillaz, and we’ve been told that the album is about what’s happening right now (pretty vague if you ask me). but right Now, at this time in history, we are nostalgic. We are grieving. There are so many laws being repealed every day that protected us, there are more issues being pushed back years, more then one could focus an album on. But at the same time I think this album was suppose to be the anti Humanz, turning the political and featured artist knob from 11 down to 1... Most of all I believe this album is an exploration of a lost, dysfunctional relationship and whether or not he thinks the relationship can be salvaged and repaired and I believe the conclusion reached is a tentative “we’ll see”. 

More Gorillaz Lyric Analysis

[stevecanmakeanythingnerdy]

Battle #13

Survivor : Premonition (Side 1)

Vs.

The Cars: Panorama (Side One)

Survivor : Premonition (Side 1)

Survivor is an American rock band formed in Chicago in 1978 by guitarist/songwriter Jim Peterik. The band achieved its greatest success in the 1980s, producing many charting singles, especially in the United States. The band is best known for its double platinum-certified 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger", the theme song for the motion picture Rocky III. The band seemingly reached success overnight with that single, and simultaneously reached their peak. Since then the band has been plagued with revolving members. Original members quit and rejoin more frequently than even the local Walmart’s turnover. I had the good fortune of seeing Survivor in the middle 90’s during one of their shift changes. It was my first bar show, as I had just turned 21. I guess that proves I have always been an old soul. Never trying to sneak in to bars and seeing a band “past their prime”. Anyhow, I thought it was a pretty good show. Of course we just wanted to hear them sing THE song...I don’t even think I ordered a drink. Literally my friend and I just wanted to hear them sing “eye of the tiger”. Anyhow, I digress. This 1981’s Premonition, so the album right before the big breakthrough. It had some encouraging success as Sylvester Stallone got ahold of it and asked the band personally to write a song for his movie, so the rest is history. “Chevy Nights” starts it off. Hmm, a CAR song to kick it off, eh Survivor?? (#iseewhatyoudidthere). It’s a good mid-tempo radio rocker. I have to admit this is kind of an underrated 80’s band. They have the muscle and the music. “Summer Nights” follows sharply. They seem to be fond of the hours between dusk and dawn. We find ourselves smack in the middle of a ballad. A bold move to so quickly invoke the power ballad. I feel like this tune may have been radio fodder. This album gave the band its first Top 40 single, "Poor Man's Son". This is the very tune Sly Stallone cited specifically as his decision to call out to Survivor. It is another very decent rocker and certainly we get a clear understanding of Dave Bickler’s amazing pipe range! The man can sing! Really, pretty decent solo efforts on everyone’s part. I can totally see what Stallone must have seen too. The mid tempo love ballad resurfaces for the finale in “Runway Lights”. So, the band is very well crafted at their carved niche, but overall I must admit, there is not a lot of diversity in this Survivor portfolio. They need more polarization in their progressions. Great harmonies and catchiness is present, but it just ends up sounding like a lost Journey record. I suppose that’s not entirely terrible considering the era we are talking about. For real, this is Perry level shit! Right in line with The Styx, too. Very 80’s stadium rock, but very short for a production of that stature.

The Cars: Panorama (Side One)

The Cars were an American rock band that emerged from the new wave scene in the late 1970s. The band originates in Boston, Massachusetts, circa 1976. The primary lineup throughout their career is singer, rhythm guitarist, and songwriter Ric Ocasek; singer, songwriter and bassist Benjamin Orr; lead guitarist Elliot Easton; keyboardist Greg Hawkes; and drummer David Robinson (not the San Antonio Spurs superstar) (#seewhatididthere ). That makes them somewhat unique as they had no lineup changes, up To and including their reunion in 2011 - only missing Orr who had died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer. The Cars were at the forefront in merging 1970s guitar-oriented rock with the new synthesizer-oriented pop that was then becoming popular and which flourished in the early 1980s. They combine elements of power-Pop with punk and even some rockabilly, all with a beautiful keyboard heavy soundtrack thanks to the innovative Greg Hawkes. They were inductees into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2018. Following the success of Candy-O, the band's third studio album, Panorama, was released in 1980. The album, considered more experimental than its predecessors, featured only one Top 40 hit with "Touch and Go". Although the album peaked at No. 5 in America, it did not receive the critical praise of The Cars and Candy-O. This album is hardly considered by most fans, but it really does hold its own. “Panorama” starts it all. Hawkes keys take hold immediately and prove he is one of the greatest. He totally understands the hook. The Sfx king! It has an almost creepy and primitive vibe. Robo vox add a nice touch. It’s very loooong though, it just keeps going around and around...like a Panorama (#iseewhattheydidthere). The big hit “Touch and Go” is next. As previously mentioned it’s the only song to chart in the top 40 off the album, so by comparison to the rest of their catalog, this album performed poorly. I think differently though. To me, this is a big hit for them, a very recognizable Cars song, and one most individuals know...and it’s not even in their top 10 biggest hits. Does that make sense? Even their “b sides” as it were are amazing! It all centers around another cool, but creep-a-leepy riff. Did they record this album near Halloween?! I also appreciate it’s off time signature. Keeps it different and from stagnation, one of the many skills this band had a natural knack for. “Gimmie Some Slack” is a deep cut through and through, but you won’t care. It’s still a keeper and more on the rock level. No creepy riffs on this one, as I am sure you were wondering. “Don’t Tell Me No” does, however, come back strong with the creeps. This time in the form of a creeper tinged theme. Hawkes again takes lead with the key brilliance. A decent near hit with the tempo slowed to maximize the rock. Let it simmer in successful stereotypes. Like all good things, the album must end though. “Getting Through” sees the experimental ambiance continue. I think they were going for a new wave Country genre. Whaaaaaat?!!?! No, really! It has some twang! Still good though, better than I make it sound. It may be the shortest tune on here, or it could just feel that way due to Robinson and his double time drums. Yes, The Cars really know how to do it correctly. They are one of about 12 bands that I frequently fantasize about being in. Orr and Ocasek make such an amazing songwriter team, it’s almost criminal. Weirdly, their voices sound somewhat interchangeable too. Sometimes adding to confusion on who sang what song. For years I thought it was Ric that sang on my favorite Cars tune, “Bye, Bye Love”

So today it was Survivor with their premonitions and support of Rambo and Rocky, versus the automotive awesomeness of The Cars and their panoramic album of amazingness. Survivor played 4 songs over 15 minutes and burned 102 calories along the way. That is 25.50 calories burned per song and 6.80 calories burned per minute. Survivor earned 8 out of 12 possible stars. The Cars took 21 minutes to burn 159 calories over 5 songs. They burned 31.80 calories per song and 7.57 calories per minute. They also earned 11 out of 15 possible stars. Looks like TheCars managed to burn more than fuel today! They burned more calories per minute and win today’s battle!

The Cars: “Don’t Tell Me No”

https://youtu.be/2fz-siSu-gg

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