#god i love the chord progression after the into section | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

deep-hearts-core · 1 year ago

Text

1996

i'm not reviewing the songs from the prequalifying round here. those will be in a separate post after and not included in my yearly top or average table (just as i don't count the songs from 2020, or ro 2016/ru 2017).

Turkey This rocks - the piano part in the instrumental is super catchy and memorable. And ofc I think Sebnem's voice is great and she has a good, subtle stage presence. The prechorus is a bit of a vibe killer, though, it feels really off and destroys the momentum.

UK Gina G herself is undoubtedly the best thing about this performance. I like to watch her and I like the way she looks in that dress. However, her backup dancers are simply too hype (the routine could have been pared down or eliminated altogether) and whatever camera or lighting effects they were trying to do don't come across well, at least not 25 years later. The song is just ok. A little too frenetic for my liking but not terrible.

Spain That's a pass from me - it's better once the beat kicks in but I'm pretty bored by the whole thing and I don't like his voice.

Portugal This is a hard one. On the one hand, the sections of the song don't cohere, leaving it pretty jumbled-sounding. On the other, I like all of the different sections of it, even though I don't think it works as one piece. So it's good, but also fragmented.

Cyprus He sounds good, but again, I am bored. Ranks above Spain because he just sounds better.

Malta It's a very good song for her. It isn't personally to my taste, though, and more importantly there are moments where she overperforms physically and that affects her singing. But ultimately she looks good and sounds good for most of the song and we have to give her credit for that.

block ranking: Turkey > Portugal > Malta > UK > Cyprus > Spain (this was hard!)

Croatia Those screamed notes my GOD. Just. Frankly startling. Not welcome. Certainly, uh, gives the song a unique character. Ignoring those (hard not to), it's an OK song but she's got so much vibrato. Too much. I don't like it.

Austria Ok, let me get this straight, it's a gospel song sung in Austrian dialect by a guy who sounds like Elvis but just sits at the piano the whole time? Ok! Great! Um, I fucking love this and I think it's a lot of fun but I think it's also performative multiculturalism at its finest and that George sitting at the piano the whole time really detracts from the performance. His backup singers were so much more fun to watch - the male backup singer probably could have performed this as the lead artist and it would have gone better.

Switzerland I am learning why everyone hates ballads.

Greece What I will say is that this year is turning out to have a hard dichotomy between "good songs" and "boring songs" and while this is less boring than the last one it fails to capture my attention. The most memorable thing about it is the photobooth filter.

Estonia Maarja-Liis has a really beautiful voice, but it doesn't match too well with Ivo's, and the song doesn't have as much structure as I want it to. I'm never certain on where the verse is and where the chorus is.

Norway Something funny about her vocal quality on the word "evighet". A little too shrill, she's not exactly on the pitch or there's something wrong with her vowel or I don't know, it just sounds wrong. Anyway this is one of the better ballads, it's beautiful and all, but I /still/ find my thoughts wandering all over the place.

block ranking: Austria > Norway > Estonia > Croatia > Greece > Switzerland

France It's nice but I'm BORED! aGAIN! why is this contest so excruciating every other song. Please god. I wanted this to be good I wanted a good minority language song and then it was not that.

Slovenia This one is ok. She sounds good and there's some interesting chord progression stuff going on.

Netherlands Probably felt a little dated at the time, but here it is a welcome break from the deluge of boredom! There's good vocal match here and they seem comfortable with each other onstage too.

Belgium I'm glad it was another upbeat one but it wasn't the best of the upbeat songs for me tbh. I liked the card visual effect. And the further back I watch the funnier it is for me to see the camera effects like we've been seeing all night here. Poland 2022 did not come out of a vacuum, people!

Ireland It's different from everything else we've seen so far, and Eimear has incredible control over her voice. Her soprano range is light and airy and she makes hitting all those notes seem effortless. I wish there was something more to it, it feels like something is missing. But I am definitely not complaining about its win.

Finland It was okay? Nice guitar. It felt cohesive which is probably the most I can say for it.

block ranking: Ireland > Netherlands > Finland > Belgium > Slovenia > France

Iceland She sings this just fine but I do not really like jazz, sorry Anna

Poland One of the better ballads, it has good movement to it. She sounds very strained vocally though.

B&H This year is going to be so hard to rank because all the ballads are going to blend together and it's going to be awful

Slovakia Gets points above all the other ballads because of how gorgeous this man's voice is.

Sweden This is so unlike what I usually conceive of Sweden sending but I kinda like it. Nice passing tones in the chorus. Idunno.

My top 23 1)Austria 2)UK 3)Turkey 4)Portugal 5)Slovakia 6)Norway 7)Malta 8)Ireland 9)Netherlands 10)Slovenia 11)Sweden 12)Cyprus 13)Estonia 14)Croatia 15)Finland 16)Belgium 17)Greece 18)Switzerland 19)Iceland 20)Spain 21)Poland 22)France 23)B&H

^^ not sure what tf this is. the ranking's a mess, and i'm realizing that i maybe enjoyed, like, four songs out of 23. godddd.

Miscellaneous Thoughts at least these hosts did a good job. they're pretty funny and had good chemistry with each other, and the male host is a really good singer! especially obsessed with him trying to talk to the austrian guy's mom in german and being so utterly confused. i'm also a fan of the green screen scoreboard. all in all i think this was a well-done show, just with shit songs. it's very interesting for me, watching this voting sequence. ireland, about to get their 7th win, soared ahead in the juries very quickly, making the winner fairly obvious from the jump; i imagine that audiences in 1996 felt rather the same way as audiences in 2023 when loreen did the same. it's likely no coincidence that televoting was trialed the next year. i know that the ebu is likewise in discussions about the format and weighting of the juries. and lastly, it's kind of funny how ireland gave their 12 this year to sweden. the country at its peak, about to fall from grace, handing over their 12 to the country that will tie their record. [brb googling who sweden gave their douze to this year] oh, it was finland? in both the juries and the public? hm i guess we better get ready for finnish domination at some point in the next 30 years!

#esc reviews

1 note · View note

miserablesme · 3 years ago

Text

The Les Miserables Changelog Part 5: 1992 UK Tour

Hello, everyone! This is the latest edition in my attempt to chronicle all of the musical and lyrical changes which the show Les Miserables has undergone over the years. Much like the last part, this one focuses on changes made not to the official libretto, but to one particular production: namely, the 1992-1994 UK tour. However, in contrast to the last part, the vast majority of these changes at least made it elsewhere at some point. This will be a bit longer than Part 4, but still shorter than any of the first three parts. With all that cleared up, let us begin!

Like the West End production before it (more on that later), the UK tour swapped these lines from "At the End of the Day":

What is this fighting all about?

Will someone tear these two apart?

He thus instead sings:

Will someone tear these two apart?

What is this fighting all about?

The first noticeable difference original to this production occurs during "Lovely Ladies". Originally after Fantine's "Ten francs will save my poor Cosette", there was a rather complex section in which the sailors and prostitutes sung different lines simultaneously. It went as follows:

(SAILORS - simultaneously with prostitutes' lines)

Lovely lady, fastest on the street

Wasn't there three minutes

She was back up on her feet

Lovely lady, what you waiting for

Doesn't take a lot of savvy just to be a whore

Come on lady, what's a lady for?

(PROSTITUTES - simultaneously with sailors' lines)

Lovely ladies, lovely little girls

Lovely ladies, lovely little ladies

Lovely girlies, lovely little girls

We are lovely, lovely girls

Lovely ladies, what's a lady for?

The UK tour totally reimagines this scene as an exchange between a prostitute and a pimp:

(PROSTITUTE)

God I'm weary, sick enough to drop

Belly burns like fire

Will the bleeding never stop?

(PIMP)

Cheer up dearie, show a happy face

Plenty more like you, dear

If you can't keep up the pace

(PROSTITUTE)

Only joking, dearie knows her place

This is quite a massive departure from the original! I imagine it would be quite a bit easier to get right given that it involves only two actors, neither of whose dialog overlaps the other (in contrast to the original scene with an entire ensemble of actors with distinct but simultaneous lyrics and tunes). It's hard for me to decide what I prefer. Thematically, the revised version is better, given that it makes the negative and exploitative aspects of prostitution quite a bit clearer than the original. However, lyrically I prefer the original somewhat simply for the sake of consistency. The sick prostitute scene, as it's sometimes been called, is the only point in the entire song where that chorus is used without some variation of the words "lovely ladies". Feels a little out-of-place to me.

"Fantine's Arrest" also gets different lyrics - for a time, at least. I have two different audios from the UK tour, from April and December 1992 respectively. The December audio reverts to the original lyrics for Bamatabois (though not for Fantine). I wonder whether or not someone just forgot to tell the replacement Bamatabois about the lyrical edit, or if it was a conscious choice to revert the scene? I also wonder if the year-plus of the tour after that performance kept the original lyrics or put the new ones in again. Regardless, this is how the exchange between Fantine and Bamatabois originally went:

(BAMATABOIS)

Is this a trick? I won't pay more

(FANTINE)

No, not at all

(BAMATABOIS)

You've got some nerve, you little whore

You've got some gall!

It's the same with a tart as it is with a grocer

The customer sees what he gets in advance

It's not for the whore to say "yes sir" or "no sir"

It's not for the harlot to pick or to choose

Or to lead me a dance

The UK tour initially revised the sequence into the following:

(BAMATABOIS)

Is this a trick? I won't pay more

(FANTINE)

I won't have you

(BAMATABOIS)

You've got some sauce, you ugly slut

You've got some gall!

What's become of the world when a whore from the gutter

Can suddenly get such ideas in her head?

Your job is to lie on your back for your betters

This hideous harlot believes she can choose

Who she takes to her bed

I guess the revised lyrics feel a bit more threatening, as well as a little less contrived. (Who the hell has ever actually used the phrase "lead me a dance"?) Still, I prefer the original ones because the rhyme scheme feels a lot more natural.

More changes occur during "The Runaway Cart". The original (rather clunky) conversation among the townspeople was as follows (with each line separate due to being said by a different person than the previous one):

Look at that

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

Don't approach

Don't go near

At the risk of your life

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

Stay away

Turn away

There is nothing to do

The UK tour rewrites most of the scene into the following:

Look at that

Stay away

You'll be crushed by the cart

Don't approach

Don't go near

It'll fall on you too

Oh my god, who is that?

It's Monsieur Fauchelevent

He is caught by the wheel

Oh the pitiful man

There is nothing to do

A far more natural progression in my humble opinion, and less repetitive as well.

The later scene involving the townspeople doesn't actually include any lyrical changes. However, like the West End production before it (more on that later), it does take lines that were previously in the singular into ensemble lines. The sequence was generally being performed as follows:

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor

The load is as heavy as hell

(FEMALE TOWNSPERSON)

The old man is a goner for sure

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

It will kill you as well

The UK tour instead staged it as follows:

(MALE TOWNSPERSON)

Don't go near him, Monsieur Mayor

(ENSEMBLE)

The load is as heavy as hell

(FEMALE TOWNSPERSON)

The old man is a goner for sure

(ENSEMBLE)

It will kill you as well

This ensemble business, which was already being used in the West End at the time, is an interesting callback, perhaps, to the pre-Broadway libretto in which much of the segment was sung by the ensemble. Personally I consider this edit an improvement. It feels far more frantic when the entire crowd is involved in the scene.

Once Valjean actually saves Fauchelevent, his lines are originally as follows:

Monsieur Le Maire, I have no words

You come from God, you are a saint

The UK tour changes them into the following:

Monsieur Le Maire, I have no words

You saved my life, you come from God

I guess the rewrite makes the reason for Fauchelevent's gratitude clearer, though it was already perfectly clear to begin with. The edit certainly doesn't hurt anything though.

The preamble to "Master of the House" retains the original "Hell, what a wine" instead of the post-Broadway "God, what a wine" edit.

Similarly, the "Waltz of Treachery" number has Thenardier ask the original "Have we done for your child what is best?" instead of the post-Broadway "her child".

A slight variation can be heard after the “Waltz of Treachery”. Usually Little Cosette asks:

Will there be children

And castles to see?

However, in the UK tour she instead asks:

Will there be castles

And children to see?

This variation also occurs in some early post-Broadway West End performances, and in the Complete Symphonic Soundtrack. I’d be interested to know whether or not that soundtrack may have inspired the choice during the UK a tour.

Interestingly, “Look Down” reverts an exchange back from the 1987 libretto into the original pre-Broadway version. Perhaps drawing from the West End show which was still using the original variant of this particular moment, the sequence officially sung by the ensemble as follows as follows:

When’s it gonna end

When’re we gonna live

Something’s gotta happen now or

Something’s gotta give

Because, as it was originally written, sung by one person at a time:

When’s it gonna end

When’re we gonna live

Something’s gotta happen, dearie

Something’s gotta give

My thoughts on the two variants can be seen in Part 3 of this blog.

Like the Australian tour, the UK tour has Thenardier say "God rewards all the things that you do" during "The Robbery" instead of "the good that you do".

Also, for some reason Thenardier refers to "the brand across his chest" instead of "upon his chest" later in the number.

The UK tour borrows the revised lyrics to “Stars” from the Australian tour and the West End production. Instead of the original lyrics:

A fugitive running

Fallen from grace, fallen from grace

It used these ones:

A fugitive running

Fallen from God, fallen from grace

Instead of these lines:

He knows his way in the dark

But mine is the way of the Lord

And those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward

It uses the shortened variants:

He knows his way in the dark

Mine is the way of the Lord

Those who follow the path of the righteous shall have their reward

Finally, instead of these lines:

And so it has been

And so it is written

It used these ones:

And so it must be

And so it has written

You can read my thoughts on all those differences in Part 4 of this blog.

The next noticeable difference occurs at the beginning of “Red and Black”. Previously the song opened with the beginning chords. However, the UK tour added a short musical sting before these chords. If I’m not mistaken, this musical addition was placed in to account for a change in staging. Originally the number began with the barricade set sliding off-stage, revealing the ABC cafe set behind it. However, around the time of this tour the blocking was adjusted. Now, the turntable instead revolved at the beginning of this number, revealing the ABC cafe set on the other end of the turntable and allowing the barricade set to double as the walls of the cafe. I believe the opening sting was added to allow time for this slightly more elaborate staging.

Additionally, as was the case in the West End at the time, no one shouts Enjolras' name during the instrumentals to "Red and Black".

In “Red and Black”, Enjolras usually sings:

We need a sign

To rally the people, to call them to arms

To bring them in line

However, the UK tour replaces it with the following lines:

We need a sign

To rally the people, to fire their blood

And to bring them in line

I guess “fire their blood” has a certain idealistic flair that fits Enjolras’ character, but I still definitely prefer the usual lyric. It conveys the message a lot more directly.

After the number, this is Enjolras’ original remark regarding General Lamarque’s passing:

On his funeral day they will honor his name

It’s a rallying cry that will reach every ear

In the death of Lamarque we will kindle the flame

They will see that the day of salvation is near

The time is here…

The UK tour rewrites those lines into the following:

On his funeral day they will honor his name

With the light of rebellion ablaze in their eyes

From their candles of grief we will kindle our flame

On the tomb of Lamarque shall our barricades rise

The time is here…

Though there’s a bit less rhyming in the revision, it strikes me as somewhat nicer and less clunky-sounding. The sentences’ subjects no longer feel all over the place, and the phrasing is far more poetic.

As with “Look Down”, some lyrics to “The Attack on Rue Plumet” are reverted to their original form (which was also still used in the West End at the time). Thenardier’s official lyrics following Eponine’s scream were as follows:

You wait my girl, you’ll rue this night

I’ll make you scream, you’ll scream alright!

Leave her to me, don’t wait around

Make for the sewers, go underground

The UK tour brought them back to this form:

Make for the sewers, don’t wait around

Leave her to me, go underground

You wait my girl, you’ll rue this night

I’ll make you scream, you’ll scream alright!

You can read my thoughts on these variants in Part 3 of this blog.

As with the Australian tour, Philip Quast changes “we’ll be ready for these schoolboys” into “I will join these little schoolboys” in “One Day More”. Unlike the Australian tour, the UK tour would maintain this variant even after Philip left. You can read my thoughts on this variant in Part 4 of this blog.

That’s it for the first act! The first noticeable difference occurs right before “A Little Fall of Rain”. Instead of opening with the beginning music, the UK tour added a short musical interlude beforehand. In my opinion, this music sounds terrible and feels extremely out-of-place. I wonder whether or not there was some change in staging to account for these extra notes.

After Enjolras' "Night of Anguish", the instrumental music is edited. Originally the number was followed by the same tune which would later be heard in "Drink with Me". However, the UK tour replaced it with a reprise of the tune of "A Little Fall of Rain". This is one of my least favorite edits for the tour. The original music felt highly emotional, and, since it predicted a later number, it implies the sense that, despite Eponine's death, there is more to come and the revolution is far from over. I'd argue that simply reprising a song that just happened suggests a degree of closure that is not appropriate for its context.

Everything is as usual right up until the epilogue. As with the Australian tour, the UK tour uses the “I’ll lead you to salvation” line instead of “And lead me to salvation” for Fantine and Eponine. You can read my thoughts on that change in Part 4 of this blog.

That’s it for this part! If I missed anything feel free to let me know, as my goal is to create a changelog as thorough and complete as possible. I plan on making more parts in the near future covering all the changes that have been made in the show up until this day (discounting concerts). Any feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated. As a side note, both for this project and my own enjoyment, I want as complete a collection of Les Miserables audios as possible. I already have most of what’s commonly circulated, but if you have any audios or videos you know are rare, I’d love it if you DMed me! Until the turntable puts me at the forefront again, good-bye…

#les mis #les miz #les miserables #musical #1992 #changelog #the les miserables changelog #through the years #valjean #javert #fantine #cosette #marius #eponine #thenardier #gavroche #part 4 #blog #long post

36 notes · View notes

choccos-aaart · 3 years ago

Text

Close enough to 10 mintues of “Ms Axel is a Goon”

Screw it. I'm posting it here, too. *NOTE: This is 100% fictitious and not going to happen*

Final Assignment Script Writing, Winter School 2021 ONE-PAGE PITCH

TITLE: Ms Axel is a Goon

GENRE: Action, comedy, sci-fi, family

LOGLINE: In the humid city of Dasmus, Mei Axel is a former goon who's just escaped captivity. Since her escape, she's been trying to better her life with her new found passion for music, but she quickly learns that the entire country wants to trade her name and face for a price.

FORMAT: Full-length animated film

MAJOR AND RECURRING CHARACTERS: Mei Axel – A wanted fugitive. Mid 20s. Despite her physical competence, she's mostly a foolish, plucky girl who steals a guitar one day.

Alicia Vonarb – CEO of a liquor company. Late 30s. The last boss to hire Axel to do her sneaky business work. Confident and vain, but does everything in spite of her mother. Wants to capture Axel because she doesn't want to get ratted out.

Kannie Orma – An old gadgeteer friend of Axel’s. Mid 50s. Also a “lame uncle” sort of figure to Axel. Their friendship must remain secret because his work is also involved with Vonarb.

O. Miho - Axel’s former coworker from when she was working for Vonarb. Early 30s. His current assignment is to capture Axel. Smug and thinks he's funny.

K. Claymont – Axel’s other former coworker. Late 20s. Works together with Miho. A kind man, but only most of the time.

SYNOPSIS: Mei Axel. She's a goon that's been caught and jailed. Eventually enough, she makes a successful escape and ventures outside. Not much happens afterwards other than stealing a guitar, and once discovering that she's got a passion for music, now she aims to live up that dream. But while attempting to live her new life, her face still reads as an incompetent menace to her former friends and foes, as well as to the majority of the country – they all seem to want to trade in her face for a cash reward. Now, aside from escaping the hands of everyone that wants to hand her over to the government, it is now up to Ms Axel to figure out how she is going to be able to pursue her new life goal that heavily conflicts with her current place among her people. This first follows the story of a wanted fugitive who sets off on a quest for redemption which, unfortunately, never works out. The story ends when Axel eventually escapes the country. She finally acknowledges that she can never truly change the way she's perceived, as well as never fully experience the life that she wants. However, she still performs under a low profile, happily living a drifter's lifestyle.

RATIONALE: This is a story about someone whose wrongdoings and nurture had shaped the way that others view them. Our protagonist is Mei Axel who had been built up to become a significantly infamous member of society, but once discovering a part of herself that showed her potential in a more respected position, being a musician, she starts wanting to better herself. A problem with this scenario is that her past actions prevent her from fully achieving that dream. She can relate to audiences who want to change aspects of their past, particularly their mistakes or the wrong ways they've been brought up, but can't.

MARKET: Children ranging from 11-16, particularly those that are interested in scenes that involve action-packed chases and fighting between individuals. The [film] will present itself through retro-futuristic aesthetics in its city setting. Rock is also a prevalent music genre for the soundtrack, which may interest audiences who particularly like the genre.

The Script

EXT. BUILDINGTOP – NIGHT

Axel checks out the guitar from every angle with a grin, having a feel of its neck, strings and body. She sits it on her lap as if to play it.

AXEL

Oh... I hope those lessons never went to waste...

She wobbly plays a C major scale while slightly wincing through every second. She runs over the same scale again, but this time it flows a bit more smoothly. She smiles a little.

MONTAGE OF AXEL PRACTISING GUITAR

- Axel goes over the same scale a couple of times and with every run, her playing gets smoother.

- She then moves on to a different key and practises that scale

- She then moves on to another key and practises that scale

- She plays some chords now, beginning with the I IV V I progression

MONTAGE END

Axel continues strumming. A light turns on from a nearby building.

DWELLER

Who is playing that garbage?!

Axel stops strumming. Silence.

AXEL

(Breathes in)

I'll get the hang of it.

She slings the guitar over her back and runs into the shadows. Eventually, she disappears into the dark.

EXT. MARKETPLACE – DAY

A view of a cranny on a roof between two walls. Axel sleeps there resting her guitar on her lap. Waking up, she yawns and then lazily sits up.

CUT TO:

A view of the market grounds. Axel smugly and excitedly, yet discreetly scurries out of an alley between a bakery and a liquor store, with a paper doughnut bag in one hand and a small bottle of liquor in the other.

She sits by a cafe playing some instrumental reggae rock music through a speaker. Axel hums along to the melody of the soundtrack while tipsily bouncing her finger to the beat. She then quickly strums a few chords for a brief moment, all which clash with the song's key signature, until right on the chorus, where she strums a chord that matches the root note of the song.

AXEL

Ooh, it's a G song. God, why do they always gotta be G songs? (Giggles)

She strums along with the music, landing every chord. Her smile grows and she gradually plays more confidently. She whistles the melody, then proceeds to hum. A TEENAGE BOY chucks a coin in front of her. Axel looks up and grins. She finger guns at him as he skids away to his friends, laughing. Axel stands up and plays more purposefully. The background starts dimming down.

DAYDREAM

Soon the marketplace around her blends into a stage. An abstractly drawn audience watches her perform and cheer her on. The chorus section of the song finishes.

AXEL

(Laughs)

I'm going to be known! I'll make myself the talk of the town! Everybody's gonna love me!

Axel starts strumming along to the background music again. Suddenly, a MAN with a large, muscular build grabs onto her shoulder.

END DAYDREAM

The stage fades back into the marketplace. Axel is still strumming.

MAN

You got that last part wrong.

AXEL

And who are you?

The man bats Axel with a club.

OVER BLACK.

SFX: Walking footsteps.

EXT. DESOLATE CITY AREA – DAY

In an alleyway, the man carries a bag containing Axel's body, also with Axel's guitar strapped around his back. After some time, Axel can be seen moving inside of the bag.

MAN

Huh? Hey. You keep still down there, would you?

Axel still moves inside of the bag.

MAN (CONT'D)

Look, this is goin'a be a long walk. That means you better cooperate with me, you hear that, Girlie? (Pause) You don't want to make me hurt you, now--

Axel falls out of a hole the bag with a shank in one hand and one of her boots on the other.

MAN

What the?!

The man looks behind himself while Axel stands up in front of him, holding her boot in both hands. She sends a finishing blow at the back of man's head and he falls to the floor. Axel cautiously looks at the man for a brief moment.

The man lies motionlessly on the ground. Axel drops her boot and fixes her shank back inside her pocket, then dusts off her hands before then squatting down next to him.

AXEL

Gosh, they really never hired me for nothing, huh... But I ain't into that stuff anymore. Say, can I have my guitar back?

The man does not respond. Axel lifts one of the man's eyelids and learns that he's out cold. Axel sighs with a slight chuckle. She lifts up the man and, with a struggle, unstraps the guitar from his body, before eventually slinging it over her own. Once fitting her boot back on, she then stands up and slowly walks over to the edge of the alley, whistling a chipper tune – the same melody she was playing earlier - on her way there. At the edge of the alleyway, her eyes look up. Then they widen.

INSERT – ELECTRONIC POSTER

containing Axel's mugshot and in large writing, "WANTED". Below is a list of details including Axel's height, approximate age, gender, race and the time and location of where she was last seen, “18:50, Southwest of Dasmus City”. There is also a cash prize.

INSERT – ELECTRONIC POSTER

containing the same contents as the previous poster, except the location which reads, “Southern markets of Dasmus City at 15:47, drunkenly playing a red Phenver brand guitar”.

A view of Axel between the alley's walls. All around are copies of the same two posters, both in electronic and printed forms. A mildly shocked expression crosses her face.

INT. TOILETS – DAY

A view of a row of toilet stalls. None of the stalls' doors are closed, except for the one in the centre. Axel's guitar leans on a nearby wall. Her feet can be seen in the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Axel kicks the wall.

AXEL

Damn it! I'm such an idiot! What was I thinking?! Me? A musician? That's just one way to draw attention!

VONARB (O.S)

Axel? Is that you?

AXEL (CONT'D)

I can't b-- (Pause) Ms Vonarb?

Axel immediately opens her stall's door and looks in the direction of ALICIA VONARB'S voice. Vonarb walks towards Axel.

VONARB

And to think I'd meet you here of all places?

AXEL

I never expected to see you here, either.

VONARB

Well, isn't this quite the reunion?

AXEL

Eh. Not really.

VONARB

I'm surprised you got clever enough to get yourself out of prison.

Axel exits her stall.

AXEL

So, is that to say you're impressed with me?

VONARB

Nope. How'd you think I found you here so easily?

AXEL

Easily? That was easy?

VONARB

Anyway... Don't think I came trying to find you for no reason, now.

AXEL

Oh yeah! Coincidentally, I'm a bit short on cash. You don't happen to want to hire me again, don't you?

VONARB

(Laughs)

What? After getting yourself thrown in jail?

AXEL

Oh... (Pause) What are you even here for, anyway?

VONARB

Well. First of all... (Clears throat) Whatever you do, please don't take this the wrong way.

AXEL

Huh?

Silence. The two stare at each other. Axel tilts her head in confusion. Eventually, O MIHO and K CLAYMONT enter the room. Miho holds a taser while Claymont holds a bag.

CLAYMONT

Now, I don't mean to spread any panic or alarm--

AXEL

(Gasps)

You gotta be kidding me!

VONARB

I just said to not take it the wrong way--

AXEL

I knew it! You are as easy to see through as a window! It's 'cause of my “WANTED” sign, isn't it, Vonarb?

VONARB

Wrong!

AXEL

Huh?

VONARB

You see, we're here to keep you away from those authorities. And knowing you, you're probably so incompetent that you'd just wind up stuck in prison again! So, since you're with us, you're going nowhere.

AXEL

What? Why?

VONARB

You're pretty infamous now. And I've got my business to worry about, too. So, if it didn't all add up in that brain of yours, let's just say, I don't want to risk you ratting me out.

AXEL

Yeah, I'm not doing that!

Grabbing her guitar, Axel jumps on the sinks and runs along them. Miho runs to tase her. Axel whacks him with her guitar and then heads right out the door. Claymont follows.

CLAYMONT (O.S)

I got it!

EXT. CITY STREETS – DAY

A view of the front of a pub. There is people scattered everywhere. Suddenly, the door swings right open and Axel sprints outside with her guitar now strapped over her back. She continues along the street. Claymont chases right after.

#OC #Chocco's writing #Characters I may never use again #Chocco's scripts #Uni stuff

5 notes · View notes

requiem626k · 3 years ago

Note

IT IS I! 🎹 anon! I have returned from the land of paper writing for the end of the semester and I live (sort of) HAHA

I just realized I aaid PRELUDES and not ETUDES. But I love both of the either way.

I think Scriabin's etudes are more popular, like Op 8 No 12 and Op 42 No 5. I really enjoy them and the former is really intense, but I think it's easy to get tired of them eventually.

For his Preludes Op 11, my personal favorites are No 1, 15, and 19. I actually don't really understand that much about music theory (though I do plan on learning when I have free time... maybe you could recommend where to start? :D HAHA no pressure of course) so I can only recommend them based on what my ears think sound nice.

Anyway hope you have a good day! May all that you eat be tasty :3

AHH! LOVELY 🎹 ANON HELLO! <3 I was wondering where you were haha! I mean, of course you’re not obligated to write me but ah I think you get the point- I’m just happy to see you again😖❤️

I hope all went well for you with those papers!! I’m sure you did good💕 And thank you so much for the recs ahh, I can’t wait to discover them!!

And thank you for the lovely wishes about my day, I wish the same for you too <3

My commentary for the pieces + recs for learning music theory are under the cut🤭

Etude Op 8 No 12

Oh my God, I loved this. It’s the first time I listen to it, and I chose to listen to it from Horowitz and the chills it sent down my spine are still there. It’s so intense as you said, the build-up is wonderfully written and the passionate emotions just put you in a vortex and whirl you around, I love it. And the bass notes- oh the bass notes, every beginning of a new measure struck my heart.

On the second listen, I can say that I especially adored the heartwarming modulations in the beginning and the use of dominant 7ths during the buildups, omg the amount of chills this piece is giving me- 🤤

Etude Op 42 No 5

My fingers started hurting just by listening to it-😶 Oh my. This one was much more chaotic than the other etude, in the middle part I almost lost my sense of rhythm, it’s just… insane.

I adore the soft melody that chimes in in the middle section🥺 (starting from 01.58 in this recording, it just has my heart ahh I could hum it all day… I never wanted to hug a melody before- ;^;)

Prelude Op 11 No 1

Listening to this right after those passionate etudes was a really interesting and comforting experience. not going to lie. 🤭 Ahh, this one was extremely comforting and soft, it felt like walking on the water and letting myself go with the flow~

Prelude Op 11 No 15

I… I’m mesmerized by this one. How can one create such a beautiful thing with such simplicity? I adore the ambience that the left hand creates, and the pearl-like (as we call it in my native language, which means it’s just so well articulated) melody is the cherry on top- I can easily weep to this, especially to the last two soft chords…🥺

Prelude Op 11 No 19

I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH😭 How does he do that? How does he make the listener feel passionate, bittersweet and emotional at the same time? I also love how he hides such precious melodies inside an orderly chaos, they just shine.

In conclusion: Russians surely know how to make music & Scriabin is so damn underrated. Thank you so so much for these recs, I loved every single one of them ❤️

Now onto the music theory talk! Parting from your words, I’ll assume that you have no experience/knowledge about it.

My first advice: be patient. Think of it as learning a new language, and this is a language that’s using a completely different alphabet too, called “notes”. Would you expect to be able to talk in a totally new language fluently after a few weeks? A few months? One year? I don’t think so. Treat music theory as such too. It will take time, practice and effort. But don’t let this demotivate you, because once you get the hang of it, it becomes so enjoyable and if you’re really interested in going on (which I see that you pretty much are, given your passion about music <3) you find yourself totally lost in it😌

As a starting point, (again, I don’t know how much you know so I’ll just assume you don’t know anything) obviously, you must learn the alphabet: You should know how to read notes as well as you know your name.

After the notes, there comes the rhythms, modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) scales & key signatures, interval types (major, minor, perfect, augmented, diminished etc.) and chord types (triad chords, major chords, minor chords, diminished chords, augmented chords, seventh chords etc.) I’m aware that these are all tedious stuff that you need to memorise quite a bit but please, please lay these foundations very strongly and well. Keep in mind that you’ll be constructing every layer on these knowledges, may it be harmony, counterpoint or piece analysis.

After you’ve learned them individually, you’ll learn the relationships between them. Just as an example: what chord is called how in what scale? Or the chord progressions, which is essential if you want to analyse a piece in terms of theory. And I think this pretty much covers the basics! I definitely recommend learning with a teacher, if you can. But if you can’t, there are lots of stuff on the Internet that would help you learn it yourself, I suppose! It’s been a really long time since I first learned it, for me it’s like my native language so I fear I couldn’t give a detailed and educational advice, but I hope it’s helpful somehow😖

#anon.[🎹]#anon interactions👤#scriabin talks #req’s classical music brainrot

3 notes · View notes

oishirecipe · 3 years ago

Text

Mikhael official DiverDiva song ranking . Let's go !

Warning: VERY LONG . I'm very passionate about music sorry~

SUPER NOVA: A very solid song . It's catchy , the inclusion of small rap sections is great and Love Live has gone for it before but it definitely shows how much they pour into their composition and lyrics here . It has this big futuristic feel with it's synthetic instrumental and the chants in the chorus but also somehow feels dated ? Not as in it's become stale , but the keyboard bits in the prechorus , the pauses , mixture of english , and the ear-to-ear mixing makes it feel like something I've heard before and it makes it REALLY good . The references to light/darkness , the pause in the "oh-oh" in the last chorus , the instrumental is literally perfect for Miyutan and Nacchan's vocals , all of it just comes together so well and is just such a solid , enjoyable song . 10/10 .

Love Triangle: I have a hate/neutral relationship with this song . At first I hated it , I found the chorus annoying and the only thing I could enjoy was the breakdown . I still don't ... Like it but I hate it less . While it does show that they can show more emotion in their voice and a bit of their range , it doesn't suit their voices well at all and you spend basically the whole song waiting for the chorus only for it to feel ... Plain . The "Love Tria~ngle" chants grow annoying to me and the bits right after the chorus are just ... Augh . The instrumental has this sort of lo-fi feel you'd find on youtube with a AMV with footage from some late 2010's moe anime with like 1million views , and has those strong long synth notes that are becoming somewhat of a staple in DiverDiva music . The breakdown is fun and has a sort of energetic dated feel that the one in Super Nova but with just way wayyy less going on . The small bits of backing vocals are good , but all in all it's worse elements weigh out the good ones and it's just a song that grows stale quickly . 2.5/10 because I like it slightly more and the instrumental is less annoying to me now

POWER SPOT !!: A hyper song that is just pure fun . The contrast between Ai's SUPER energetic voice and Karin's mostly chill & cool voice is wonderful and I love how well they go together in this song . It has all these little bits of noises and weird effects that isn't that clear to the untrained ear but really adds to the entire thing , the weird popping noises throughout the entire song are a little annoying at first but they grew on me after a few listens . It also has that same futuristic but a little dated feel that Super Nova has . The lyrics are funny , a little competitive and don't make sense at times but it's just pure fun . That's all this song is ; fun , catchy and enjoyable . 8.5/10 . Point deducted because those popping noises give me headaches

Saika -saika-: Actually the reason I'm writing all this ! I realized while listening to this that I have not gave a shit about DiverDiva's music and that I really either love or hate all of them EXCEPT for Saika -saika- . Saika does the sort of lo-fi feel that Love Triangle has but like , 100x better . It has these gentle notes that sound like bells in a lullaby and the instrumental somehow manages to be both exciting AND calming , which I think is perfect for this sort of mellow song about a fun festival . It mixes that staple futuristic feel of DiverDiva songs with notes that sound like something you'd hear in a more traditional Japanese song , and it also surprisingly suits Miyutan's and Nacchan's voices super well who give wonderful performances here . We love girls with some range ! The lyrics are just sweet and fun and suit the song perfectly as well , which I think comes from the fact that Saika was written , composed and arranged by the same person (Dummy Dog) . At first I was just very ... Neutral on this song , but after really sitting down and Listening to it I've definitely found a new appreciation for it . 9/10 .

THE SECRET NiGHT: Another hyper song full of pure unbridled FUN from DiverDiva . The lyrics have that sort of mature and cool feel that Guilty Kiss & Karin's songs have mixed with the freeform fun that BiBi & Ai's song have ("Our love is seriously forbidden / Dancing and luxury cars are making me excited" & "Secret night , the thrill is here like a burning aphrodisiac / Secret time , can I have you all to myself now ?") And oh my God Miyutan's "Shh ~ shall we ?" That transitions into more Nacchan rap with support from her cute "Fuu !"s that you'd hear in a sort of club EDM song is just so . Good . Honestly the clash between Karin's deep chill voice and Ai's somewhat-higher and exciting voice in general is just amazing . It kind of gives you the image of Karin having experience in whatever fun thing they're doing while Ai trails behind her just having the time of his life . I couldn't find a proper instrumental anywhere so I'm basing this off my own repetitive listening and sharp ear , but anyways . It has again those long high synth notes mixed with fun notes that sound like something out of an old arcade shooter which make for an unbelievably just ... Fun and catchy tune . THE SECRET NiGHT is just such a fun but with a cool twist song that really shows DiverDiva well . 10/10 .

Aaaand that's it . I probably won't do this for other subunits unless prompted but maybe . Yeah . Hope you enjoyed reading this absolute fucking manifesto of a rant .

Fly into the sky: Love Triangle .... 2 !!!! I'm serious here , I think to the untrained ear , these songs especially the instrumentals , sound fucking identical . From the chord progression , the lo-fi type beat and even the way the title is sang in the first line of the chorus it is literally . Love Triangle 2 . It's annoying and absurd but for some reason that makes it so endearing ? The way that on first listen I was just "This sounds the exact same as Love Triangle" drew me towards it for some reason . Like how do these songs sound like , literally the same . It has a few elements that are good , like the weirdish mixture of out of place sounds and notes that make it feel a little fun , but other than that it's just a pretty flat 1-note song . The guitar solo in the breakdown is so fucking out of place and such a strange choice and the way it's muffled sounds like they had the guitarist play it in another room with a glass wall dividing it and the room with the mic while the guitarist taped a paper over the fretboard and played the notes like normal like that . But it's just so . Absurd and boring that whenever I listen to it I can't even skip it I just listen to it and go "How did this even happen ." 3.5/10 . Points added because of endearment

Overall ranking:

1. SUPER NOVA 10/10

2. THE SECRET NiGHT 10/10

3. Saika -saika- 9/10

4. POWER SPOT !! 8.5/10

5. Fly into the sky 3.5/10

6. Love Triangle 2/10

#hatedie #mu

3 notes · View notes

thebadgerclan · 4 years ago

Text

St. Mungos

Pairing: Severus Snape x reader

Requested by @darkthought15

Summary: The sole upside to being bitten by a python...

Despite the raging battle happening at Hogwarts, the emergency ward here at St. Mungos was eerily quiet. Most of the healers had been dispatched to the school, leaving you and three other healers at the hospital. The initial panic that came with the knowledge that the school you’d called home was being destroyed had dulled, but the fear of your loved ones meeting their ends was still chilling.

Night had just fallen when the chaos broke out. A team of 7 healers burst through the doors and into your section. You couldn’t help the gasp that left you. Severus Snape was on the bed, unconscious and covered in blood. “Voldemort’s bloody snake got him. He’s alive, but barely.” You nodded, drawing your wand from your sleeve and casting a variety of charms and spells. There were copious amounts of the python’s venom in his system, it was a miracle he wasn’t dead.

Several hours and countless vials of blood replenishing potions later, Severus was stable and asleep. You dragged a palm over your face as you sat by his bed. There was still a gaping wound in his neck; one that couldn’t be spelled closed, and that would take weeks, if not months, to heal. Your friend, Daniel, soon rushed into the room. “He’s dead!” he exclaimed, tears streaming down his face. “Who? Who’s dead?” “Voldemort! It’s over!”

Daniel pulled you into a hug, his joy radiating off of him. He soon ran from the room, proclaiming to all that the Dark Lord had fallen. You resumed your seat at Severus’ bedside. “We won,” you whispered, settling yourself in for a long night.

***

He woke three days later, understandably panicked. “Easy,” you said, preventing him from sitting so as to not strain his wound. “You’re alright. You’re at St. Mungos, Nagini got you. How do you feel?” “As well as one can after being bitten by a python,” Severus answered, his voice weak from disuse. “I’m assuming we won, seeing as I am not dead?” You nodded. “Yes, we won. Harry killed him, he’s dead.”

“Good.” A few moments passed in silence before Severus spoke again. “You were one of my best students, Y/N. I’m glad to see you’ve become a Healer.” Your heart sped up and you nodded. “Thank you, sir. That means a lot coming from you.” Your long dormant crush on your professor surged forth, and you prayed he couldn’t see you blush. Since your 6th year, you’d had feelings for Severus, and wanted nothing more than to call him yours. But of course, that wouldn’t happen, and when you graduated, you’d managed to push those feelings away entirely. Until today, that is.

The very next day, you were assigned to Severus’ care. You arrived in his room that morning to find him smiling. “Good, they listened,” he said, slowly sitting up. “I requested that you be my personal healer.” “Really? Why me?” “Well, I know your competence with potions, for one, and for another, I enjoy your presence.” Your breath nearly stopped: that was a high compliment coming from Snape.

Severus was elated that the staff had assigned you to his care. He’d fallen head over heels for you during the latter half of your 7th year, and to see you again warmed his heart. “Alright, let’s change your dressings.” You brushed Severus’ hair to the side and unwound the cloth around his neck. There was minimal drainage and blood, which was a god sign. “It’s healing nicely,” you remarked, summoning a clean bandage and dressing the wound.

As you withdrew your hand, Severus nearly frowned. He longed for your touch, having so little affection in his formative years. You left the room, returning a few moments later with some papers. “They want you to do some vocal exercises to make sure your vocal chords don’t deteriorate.” Severus nodded to the best of his ability, allowing you to lead him through the exercises.

***

Two weeks had now passed, and not only was Severus’ recovery progressing wonderfully, your feelings for him were only growing. You found your hands lingering longer than was proper when you changed bandages or helped him with other tasks. Severus noticed it, and he actually enjoyed it. There wasn’t a tension between you two, but there was a palpable sensation of something to come.

While you weren’t in the room, Severus was thinking of ways to breach the subject to you. Some were along the lines of ordering a bouquet of roses and sending them to your house, others as simple as taking your hand and telling you how he felt. Severus also wanted to pull you into his arms and kiss you, but that is something he would not do.

One month after Severus woke and you were changing his bandages, it happened. Maybe it was the way the light was hitting his face, maybe it was all the dancing around one another in the past month. But when you leaned forward and kissed him, Severus’ eyes widened. When his hands came to rest on your hips, you gasped and pulled away. “I’m so sorry,” you said, a rampant blush covering your face. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

But Severus only smiled. “Come here, you silly girl.” He pulled you back to kiss him again; this time slow and sweet. When he pulled away, you were both smiling. “I’ve wanted to do that for years,” you said, resting your forehead against his. “As have I, Y/N.” You shifted to sit on the edge of the mattress, putting an arm around him. “I have nowhere to go,” he said. “When I get out of here, I mean. Hogwarts is in ruins, Spinner’s End isn’t safe for me, I-” “Shh. You’re coming home with me, Severus. I’ll take care of you.”

He knew you meant with his wounds, but also his wounded soul. Severus had lived without love for so long, and now he had someone who was willing to give it. “Thank you, Y/N.” “Anything.” Daniel walked past the door, a smile on his face. “Took ya long enough.”

#severus snape x reader #severus snape x you #snape x reader #snape x you #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter reader insert

40 notes · View notes

be-ready-when-i-say-go · 4 years ago

Text

Drummer!Cal

-is very thoughtful in interviews. Always engages theories and questions and anything about production. Takes his time to consider the process for the music and the fact that several writers are at the table in the band and it’s not so much about getting every idea out perfectly the first time but about collaborating and making every idea the best version of itself.

-However, comma, the second Calum steps out onto that stage and climbs onto the riser and his foot is thumping away at the bass drum, it’s all over. He literally becomes an animal on the drums. One show, he breaks not just one, not two, but three drumsticks. The guys make a joke that all the tour budget is going towards replacement sticks.

-The thing is, on stage, Calum’s not really Calum. It is Calum, but it’s not Calum. His awareness is different. All he can think about is the music, the thump under his feet and the sticks in his hand. Literally nothing else matters. Doesn’t matter if he dropped his sandwich that day on the walk back to the bus. Doesn’t matter if he got lost exploring the city and missed ten minutes of sound check. Doesn’t matter if in the middle of FaceTiming or video chatting with his S.O. that his laptop dies and it takes him nearly ten minutes to find the charger again. Nope, none of that matters on that riser, on that stool, during the set.

-A lot of photos of Calum drumming of him smiling. Hard. The eye crinkles are out in full effect and he’s just so damn happy to be playing music with his bros. Videos will show him almost dancing on the drum stool, swaying along as his biceps bulge beneath the sleeves of his shirt.

-Speaking of shirts, they don’t last long. Calum got too excited once, caught the arm of long sleeved shirt on one of the bolts to his drum kit and there went that long sleeve tee shirt into a muscle tee. Ocassionally, Calum opts for a mesh shirt while performing. Yes, that mesh shirt.

-Back to performing, he gets into it into it. Calum will stand from the stood, sticks in hand, mic pressed to his lips, pointing out to the crowd, “You’re not loud enough for me tonight. I need you to scream!” And the crowd, roars. It’s still not loud enough, so with his index finger and middle finger he motions for the crowd to get enough louder. They do. “Nah, nah, nah, I said I want you guys to scream for me tonight!” Calum won’t let a crowd off the hook until he’s positive someone’s lost a voice in the crowd.

-Even though Calum is mostly smiley on stage, a few interesting pictures surface, mostly from the tour diaries. A drum cam is set up and Calum plays to it all the time, pointing with his fingers or stick. He’ll turn to it, tongue out, rocking out to the song. The screenshots float around after every show of anyone get the famous Calum photo drumming: Calum, standing from the stool, pointing to the crowd, two fingers motioning with his tongue out. It happens at least once a show. Always more though.

-And then in interviews, if he’s asked about what fuels his performance style and if they comment on the energy levels being different, Calum usually responds with, “Shows are different. People came out to have a good time, to have some fun. I want to make sure they had a good time and had some fun with me that’s all. In interviews it’s more relaxed.”

-If his S.O. visits while he’s on tour, he always tries to get them to settle down on the stool and give the drums a whirl. “Oh, you can do it, I know you can.” And they give it a whirl, always because it’s Calum with those big brown eyes that look like the night could swallow them up and they’d happily go into that good night. And as Calum hangs back, teaching them a thing or two, he plants a kiss to their cheek. And maybe sticks get forgotten and hands explore bodies under t-shirt until someone bumps up against the symbols and the crash sounds and the drum lesson ends for the day.

-Backstage before a show, Calum’s running drills on his pad, along the wall, on the cases of their clothes and even he knows how annoying it is, so he always steps out from the room to do it. Literally everyone is like, by god my dude, it’s your instrument no one’s mad. But to be honest, Calum likes the alone time. It kind of reminds him of right before a big football game, his blood would thump in his veins and he’d find himself floating. But not in a spacey way, like he was losing focus, but floating from everyday Calum who doesn’t talk much, keeps quiet into the man that shines on stage that’s an animal on the drums, that’s completely transformed--a showoff, cocky. But through it all, Calum knows it can go at any moment. He can blink and it’s all done. So he tries to make each show unique. He tries to make each show worth coming too.

-There’s nothing better than looking out at the crowd, singing back the words you wrote, jamming out to progression and chords and beat that you made. And the sight almost always produces a tear or two in Calum. Because, godamn he’s so goddamn lucky to be doing this with his life. And he never wants to take it for granted. And sure whenever he gets a moment to talk during a set or joke with the audience, he makes a joke about how his skills aren’t that great and that he’s blessed to see such a full crowd. And it happens, without fail, at every show because at every show, Calum is floored at the outpouring of love and support by fans.

-People compliment Calum about his drumming and the joke about all the ripped sleeves/shirts, about the times halfway through a set he’s quickly shedded his shirt and let all see the tattoos and sweat glisten down a toned chest, and Calum always turns blushy. He accepts the compliment and dodges it all at the same time. And though him and Ashton joke about the rhythm section holding the whole band together, Calum is quick to offer praise to Luke and Michael as well. Because he knows without his other three brothers, Calum alone, as the drummer, is nothing but noise. He is a storm alone on a sea if Ashton, Luke, and Michael aren’t there playing and writing alongside him. He’s grateful for the three of them.

-And when the stage hand leads him up to the riser in the dark, only the light of the flashlight in hand, guiding them, Calum lets himself go. The wood in his hands and between his fingers feel like extensions of himself and with one hand on the stage hands back, they go-half jogging together towards the drum riser, the stoll, the crowd waiting eagerly and maybe even desperately for them, for him that night. They run towards paradise. And the thing about paradise is that it don’t always last forever, but as long as it happens, is all that matters.

@notinthesameguey @calumscalm @pinkbubbles-and-bigtroubles

Works Cited Page

H, A Collection of the Muse, 2020.

A Happy Bub, 2018.

#calum hood #calum hood blurb #calum hood headcannon #calum hood imagine #5sos #5sos blurb #h writes #you're welcome #drummer!calum is NEXT LEVEL #drummer!calum #i have to go into hiding bc of school soon but i'm messy and want to wreak some HAVOC before i go

48 notes · View notes

vyylet · 4 years ago

Text

Personal Recommendations Logic - Under Pressure Review

Logic finally reaches his full potential on Under Pressure.

To me at least, Logic’s career has always been one of missed potential. Ever since Under Pressure and the Young Sinatra mixtapes, Logic has always demonstrated the pen game and instrumental pallet to make a great record. He also has some truly amazing songs that I find myself coming back to often, such as Growing Pains III, Dear God, Soul Food, Everybody, the list goes on. However, on every record Logic’s released up until this point, he always seems to be stuck in mediocrity that keeps him from releasing a great album. He had an especially bad 2019, coming off of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, easily the worst rap album of his entire career, and Supermarket, a record I haven’t listened to yet, solely because of the reviews of this album making it sound so terrible that I don’t want to stomach even a second of it. Coming into this record, I wasn’t really sure what to think. I’m always interested and hopeful for every subsequent Logic release, however at this point I’ve kind of come accustomed to be disappointed. However, the album’s title being a clear homage to his first album, as well as him bringing back legendary producer No I.D. into the fray seemed to signal that this album wouldn’t be like most of the other albums that Logic has released up until this point.

Thankfully, I can say that this album does not disappoint, and actually blew my expectations out of the water. While this certainly isn’t the most revolutionary hip hop album of all time, its tracklist is filled with great song after great song. The appeal of this album is shown perfectly on the first track, No Pressure Intro, with its crispy boom bap drums, jazzy chords, and a nice flow and energy that Logic brings to the table. Logic’s pen game has also taken a step up since his past few records, with some funny and memorable quotables like “Gangsters put that heat to your head like a hairdresser”, and “On my Rosa Parks, in the back writin' like B-Rabbit”.

All of these things combined make this track extremely enjoyable, and it continues onto the next track, Hit My Line. While I don’t think Logic’s melodic chorus on this track is all that stand-out, everything else about the track is great. The production is grand and gorgeous, with some heavy drums and warped piano samples, mixed with some grand synth bass hits at some points. The verses are also another part of the track that I love, with Logic rapping about just general injustices in the world, pleading to God to help solve and fix these issues. While this certainly isn’t the most revolutionary song topic, it’s made up for by some great lyricism, as well as Logic’s verse almost being a little anthemic with how passionate he sounds.

The track GP4 is one that I have sort of grown to love over time. The song is a clear homage to the track Elevators by OutKast, with many elements of the track such as instrumental and the hook clearly being heavily inspired by that song. While I don’t love the fact that this song is pretty much a rip off of the OutKast track, in a vacuum I can’t help but love the song. Logic displays a lot of personality and penmanship on this song, with some stand-out moments, like the pretty funny Erykah Badu impression, as well as that Biggie Kick In the Door line, which completely blew my mind when I finally found out what it meant.

Next on the album, the track Celebration is a fun banger, with Logic sounding confident as hell, and a beat that genuinely sounds like a Celebration. I also really love the track Open Mic//Aquarius III, with a nice beat and a performance that sounds kind of like a quick freestyle. One small part of the track that I really love is the way Logic’s voice is mixed, where Logic genuinely sounds like he’s performing at an open mic night.. After that part of the track, the Aquarius III part of the song starts, which is a fun, celebratory way to end the song, with some great production to boot.

The track Soul Food II is another highlight, taking the beat from the first soul food with some great bars from Logic, talking about how he’s changed as an artist and as a person after the release of the first Soul Food song. My favorite part of the track is probably the flip of the first line on the first Soul Food, where instead of saying “Goddamn, goddamn, conversations with legends, Crazy how one day your idols can turn into your brethren”, he says “Goddamn, goddamn, conversations with people, Crazy how one day, the legends forget that they equal”

The second half of the song is Logic talking about this whole overarching story that’s been going on across his albums. While it may be cool to someone who’s super invested in that part of Logic’s career to hear this, I never much cared for the whole story aspect of his albums, so I didn’t really get much out of it. Still, though, Logic has a great delivery and flow throughout that entire part, and the beat is nice enough to the point where I can still thoroughly enjoy it.

The track Perfect is a fun banger in the tracklist, with some trap-style hi hats, loud kicks, and 808 cowbell melodies. Logic sounds zany, funny, and confident on the track, and my only real complaint about the song is that it’s only 1:40.

After that track, we get two more lowkey cuts, man i is and DadBod. The track man i is is a track that I have mixed feelings about. While I do appreciate the instrumental on the song, the song feels a bit long-winded, with the horn sections taking up an extremely long amount of time. Additionally, I feel like Logic could’ve done a little bit better with the lyrics here. While I most certainly like them, it doesn’t really seem like Logic truly hits any super salient realization about who he is, and the track kind of devolves into rambling at a certain point. The track DadBod is a track that I like much more. The drums on this track are probably my favorite part of the instrumental, as I just find the way they hit and all sound to be extremely satisfying. While the track has a painfully simple chord progression in the sample, it’s more than made up for by the catchy chorus on the song, as well as the lyrics on this song. While some might find the song a bit annoying, it’s rare to see someone like Logic admit how truly boring some aspects of his life are now that he is a dad, rapping about cleaning baby shit and complaining about the bad hotel wifi when he’s touring, and I find seeing this part of the song to be really admirable.

After those two tracks, there’s a much-needed pickup with the track 5 Hooks. While I think the song’s decent, I feel like there isn’t really all that much to the track. There’s not many quotables that I can remember from it, and while the beat is fine, it’s certainly not one of the best on the project.

The track Dark Place is honestly one of my favorites on the album. While the instrumental is very stark, I think Logic lays down one of his best verses on this song, talking about his mental health and a lot of things that are honestly really sad to hear. I really love the message of the song, admitting that you are sad and realizing that it’s ok- everyone gets sad from time to time.

After that is probably the worst track on the album, A2Z, which is an ABC rap. It’s one of the only songs on the album with an instrumental I genuinely dislike, and the lyrics aren’t all that impressive either.

The song Heard Em Say is another highlight on the album, with one of my favorite instrumentals. There’s a huge Kanye influence that I hear on this song, whether that be the drum pattern of the instrumental, or a lot of the inflections that Logic uses during his verses.

Overall, I’m really happy with this album. Do I think it’s going to convince any Logic haters to appreciate his music? No. Do I think this is going to go down as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time? No. However, this is still a very quality release from an artist that has always had the potential to release something this good. It’s nice to see Logic happy in retirement, and I love this record lots. I don’t think he could have released a better sendoff to his career than this.

8.7/10

Favorite Tracks: No Pressure Intro, Hit My Line, GP4, Celebration, Open Mic//Aquarius III, Soul Food II, Perfect, DadBod, Dark Place, Heard Em Say

Least Fav Track: A2Z

#music blog #music #logic #no pressure #music review

4 notes · View notes

bytheangell · 4 years ago

Text

Grow as We Go

Flufftober Day 26: Garden (Read on AO3)

“I’ll kill whoever did this to you,” Raphael says, walking out of the small tarp-covered area of his yard by the fence along the property line. He’s holding a long section of vine he had to cut from one of the tomato plants inside, now dying and riddled with holes from being eaten through. “I’m going to kill them for you, don’t worry. I’m going to find every son of a bitch who ever hurt you, and their parents, and their children, and I’m going to end each of their lives individually until--”

“Oh thank god,” comes a relieved voice from the fence. Raphael startles, looking up to see the figure of his next-door neighbor peering over the top of the fence. “Sorry, I just, uh, overheard your increasingly horrifying threats and thought you might secretly be a mob boss someone crossed or something. But you’re just talking to a plant.”

Raphael glares down at the tomato plant again, buying himself enough time to neutralize whatever expression he might have on his face over his mortification of the first encounter with the guy next door (outside of exchanging names and a few courteous ‘good morning’s in passing) being this.

“Sorry,” Raphael says, but in a ‘sorry you overheard’ and not a ‘sorry I said it’ way. He has to vent his frustrations in some way that isn’t snapping and ripping up the tomato plant entirely, after all. He’ll be the first to say he never gets embarrassed, but if he did this would come pretty damn close.

“It’s all good. I’m just glad you aren’t trying to wipe out generations of human beings over there,” Jace says. “Bug problem?”

“Yes,” Raphael grumbles. “I don’t even like tomatoes, but Simon loves them, and I’m trying to grow him a garden for his birthday and failing miserably.”

“I’m actually really good with plants, and I had a little greenhouse at my last place. I could come over and see if I can help?” Jace offers.

Raphael immediately shakes his head. Not only does he not want to take advantage of his neighbor’s kindness, but he also very vividly recalls the conversations with Simon about how Simon may have … other interests regarding Jace for them. Once they all get to know each other a little better, of course. Raphael doesn’t want to ruin that potential by abusing Jace’s kindness now… and he was actually hoping Simon would be the first of them to make any actual connection with Jace. Raphael is, to say the least, not great at winning people over.

“No. That’s way too much work, I couldn’t-” Raphael starts, but Jace is already waving his refusal off.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure one day I’ll need help with something and you can pay me back, isn’t that how neighbors work?” Jace smiles. “Anyway, I actually kinda miss it, it’d be nice to make sure I haven’t lost my touch.”

“Alright,” Raphael agrees finally, hoping Simon will forgive him for taking a chance on this, and praying he doesn’t mess it up. “Maybe you can start by figuring out what keeps eating the goddamn tomato plant?”

---

Jace wasn’t just lying to get invited over, he’s actually very good at gardens and plants in general. He starts to go over in the early mornings while Simon is sleeping in to help Raphael with natural bug repellant tips, homemade fertilizer tricks, and even pruning and general upkeep techniques that Raphael never saw on any of the websites he looked into.

And yeah, okay, maybe Jace is helping in large part because of his ridiculous crush on Simon. And yeah, okay, maybe this is an increasingly terrible idea, because the more time he spends around Raphael and his particular dark, sarcastic humor, the more he realizes that he and Raphael get along really well. Like, really well - they’re similar in a lot of ways, which normally doesn’t work out for him, but in this case, Jace finds himself completely enamored with the guy who can match his sarcasm with dry wit and clever comebacks without missing a beat.

This is extra unfortunate because this all started because Jace wanted to help do something nice for Simon, who seems like a really nice guy from the few times he met him, one of those ‘you just want to see him happy because he deserves it’ sort of people. Now Jace has to admit his crushes on his neighbors have now quickly evened out from Simon-heavy to a solid 50/50 split between them… not that it matters.

Because Simon and Raphael are very much in love, that much is obvious from everything Raphael says about them, and Jace is not a homewrecker.

Jace is, however, apparently a gardener now. He settles for being happy to help with a gift for Simon and ease Raphael’s frustrations in the process, even if his relationship with his neighbors will never be anything more than casual, neighborly friendship.

Going over once a day (“Just to keep an eye on things, look out for signs of other invasive bugs before they get out of hand, you know.”) is absolutely not necessary, but Raphael doesn’t call him out on it. In fact, Raphael’s been giving him a lot of compliments lately, from the new set of suits he’s been wearing to work to the piano playing he heard through Jace’s open window the other night. There’s also the fact that Raphael is often already there waiting for him in the morning, and if Jace didn’t know any better he’d think Raphael almost seemed eager for their daily interactions. Jace just chalks it up to being eager for the garden to work out - for Simon and all.

Speaking of Simon - it doesn’t take long for Simon to figure out when Jace is normally outside, either to meet with Raphael or to go to and from work. At first, it’s just casual greetings and small talk, but soon he’s prying for information, and Jace smirks.

“Oh no you don’t. If you think a little eyelash batting and puppy dog eyes is going to get me to spill Raphael’s secrets, you’re sorely mistaken,” Jace says, shaking his head.

Simon pouts, and it’s infuriatingly adorable. Jace has to admit to himself that under any other circumstance the look would be more than enough to get Jace to tell Simon anything. Then Jace catches his eyes lingering a bit too long on those pouting lips - and he’s pretty sure Simon does, too.

“I have to go,” he says, tearing his gaze away quickly and turning to go back inside without another word.

The next day Jace catches Simon trying to sneak around to Jace’s side of the fence in the hopes that he could see anything inside the tarp-covered area of Raphael’s makeshift greenhouse. Jace goes outside quietly, moving silently up behind him.

“Isn’t this trespassing?” Jace asks, causing Simon to jump a foot into the air.

“It, uh, isn’t what it-” Simon starts guiltily.

Jace shakes his head. “Your birthday isn’t too far away. I promise the surprise is going to be well worth the wait. Also, I think Raphael might actually murder you if you peek now, and then murder me if he finds out I let you.”

Simon laughs at that, but to his credit, he also backs away from the fence and towards Jace. “Wow, you already know him so well,” Simon jokes, but Jace can’t tell if the hint of jealousy he thinks he hears there is real or imagined.

“Not really,” Jace is quick to insist, and now he can’t read the expression on Simon’s face at all. In a moment of panic, Jace decides the best course of action is to try and spend more time getting to know Simon, too, instead of just spending less time with Raphael. “Hey, do you want to come in and grab a drink?”

Simon looks surprised by the sudden turn in the conversation, but he nods finally, a small smile spreading across his face as he accepts the offer.

---

The inside of Jace’s house has a sort of classic elegance to it that Simon hadn’t been expecting - but maybe it was influenced by the baby grand piano in the living area that Simon knows, even if it looks older and probably refurbished, had to run Jace a couple grand at least.

“May I?” Simon asks, motioning to it, and Jace nods.

“Go ahead,” Jace says as Simon takes a seat, and messes around with a few simple chord progressions just to test it out. “Raphael told me you play - that and guitar, right?”

Simon nods, playing a small portion of a song he knows from memory. “Yeah. Nothing like what you can do, though,” Simon admits, glancing at the sheet music in front of him that he can only barely begin to process.

Jace shrugs, wandering off to the kitchen to make drinks, raising his voice to continue talking as he does. “My dad was kind of a hardass about learning. I almost gave it up a little while back, actually. But I decided to pick it back up recently.”

Simon can tell there’s a story there, but he doesn’t pry when Jace keeps the details vague.

“Well, for the sake of my frequent dinner serenades, I for one am glad you did,” Simon says, getting off the piano bench and joining Jace in the kitchen.

They talk for a while, and Simon doesn’t tell him that Raphael’s already told him a lot of this, not sure how Jace would react to the idea of the two of them talking about him as much as they do sometimes. They talk about new things, too, like music and how they both came from growing up in cities, and Simon’s pop culture references often go right over Jace’s head but by the end of the night Jace has a small notepad page filled with bands and movies to check out.

“Seriously, I have so many DVDs, if you ever want to borrow something just come over and ask,” Simon insists for the 3rd time as he leaves. “We can even have movie nights!”

“I will,” Jace promises, and Simon sincerely hopes he’ll follow through on that.

It isn’t the last time they have drinks together. In fact, ever since that first invitation Simon has been strategically placing himself outside when he knows Jace is around at night, striking up a casual conversation, and getting an invitation to come in for a drink if he wants that’s turned into just a standard nightly nightcap. Each time he sits closer to Jace on the sofa as they talk, each time his lingering touches on Jace’s back, or arm, or somewhere more or less harmless, linger a little bit longer.

Two nights before his birthday, Simon practically sat in Jace’s lap while they talked, and he’s pretty sure his hand rested on Jace’s thigh for a solid 20 minutes without either of them acknowledging it around their easy conversation about the first Star Wars movie which Jace just watched, at Simon’s insistence.

“Raphael, he’s wonderful,” Simon whines, throwing himself down on the bed dramatically after he gets home. “He watched Star Wars for me,” Simon adds as if that fact alone proves his point.

“I know, Si. And we haven’t exactly been subtle, but every time I think he’s finally leaning into the idea he pulls back twice as far. But I’m positive he feels something there, you should see how red his ears get when I compliment him,” Raphael says, laughing a little.

“Raph! Be nice!” Simon says, smiling.

“I’m just afraid asking him now will make him double-down on pulling away,” Raphael admits. Simon sighs and the conversation drops for the night.

When Simon’s birthday rolls around the reveal of the thriving garden is better than he ever expected. It’s beautiful, he’s already excited to get to help take care of it now, and he’s wanted to grow his own cooking ingredients for ages! It’s perfect, not that he expected his gift from Raphael to be anything but perfect, but the garden really is above and beyond.

But there’s one thing that would set the night over the top, and Simon decides to risk everything for the chance of it. He heads over to Jace’s house to knock on his door.

---

The last person Jace expects at his door is Simon. He��d resigned himself to a night in alone, perhaps flicking through Tinder for a hookup to distract himself from the fact he’s missing his daily interactions with Raphael and Simon way more than he should be now that it’s Simon’s birthday and the gardening project is over.

“Simon? What are you doing here?” Jace asks, surprised. “It’s your-- I mean, Happy Birthday! But also shouldn’t you be celebrating?”

Simon nods. “I should. I am! But we wanted to know if you’d like to come over and celebrate with us?” Simon asks. “We’re cooking with veggies from the garden, and you can stay for drinks… or the night if you wanted.”

The night? There’s absolutely no way that means what he thinks it means, but they live next door to each other, why would Jace spend the night otherwise?

Jace shakes his head. They probably just feel bad for him being over here alone again, but he’d been alone plenty before they became friends, he’s used to it.

“I couldn’t impose-”

“You aren’t. We want you there. Both of us,” Simon emphasizes, glancing to where Raphael leans against the front door of his own house, waiting. Simon appears to brace himself before reaching out and taking Jace’s hand in his, giving it a small squeeze, and then very quickly shifting up onto his toes to give Jace a quick kiss.

Dozens of moments replay in Jace’s head during the split-second of that kiss - casually flirty comments and lingering touches he wrote off as just being overly-friendly as they happened because he’d mentally tossed Simon and Raphael in an ‘unavailable’ box. But now…

“Oh,” Jace says, the realization dawning on him. He can feel his heartbeat quicken in his chest. Chancing a quick glance over at Raphael Jace sees him unmoved, watching expectantly and entirely unbothered by the fact that Simon just kissed him.

“You don’t have to, obviously. You could just come for dinner? Or-” Simon is starting to ramble in Jace’s prolonged silence.

“I could,” Jace starts, his brain still racing to process everything that just clicked into place but not wanting Simon to think his silence is a ‘no’ because it definitely isn’t. “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting… yeah, that sounds good. That sounds great, actually,” Jace finally manages and watches Simon practically melt with relief.

“See, I knew asking you now wouldn’t scare you away!” Simon says victoriously. Jace is still too shocked to do anything other than laugh at that before Simon continues. “You can come over now if you want! We picked so many great things from the garden, and Raphael picked up some things from the market, and...”

Jace closes his door and follows an eagerly chatting Simon across their lawns to where Raphael waits, excited for whatever tonight - and hopefully the days that follow - might bring for the three of them.

#raphael santiago #simon lewis #jace herondale #rjs #shadowhunters #raphael x jace x simon #a requested pairing but let's be real i was going to write them anyway #RJS WHY YOU ALWAYS GOTTA GET THE BEST OF ME I WANTED TO KEEP THIS SHORT #2.5k later fjdskljfdskl #flufftober 2020 #elle writes a few deadbeat lines #long post

14 notes · View notes

anarcho-mom-unist · 4 years ago

Text

A survey of my ‘spotify wrapped’ from 2020

So, I listen to music between a lot of platforms, I hate how spotify operates as a company (and like in a way that’s pretty comparable to my loathing of the publishing/distribution sides of creative industries,) and I fucking refuse to ever pay for spotify askjdhd

However based on the aggregate of my 100 most-listened-to songs from a year of mostly hitting shuffle on an artist, album, or playlist on mobile, I do have some reflections and highlights. From that I made something of a survey of that list which includes my #1 and #100 song in addition to 1 song from each set of ten, for a total of 12 songs. These represent artists and genres I really got into this year, as well as longtime favorites that are worth talking about:

1. “Bad Trip” - Bad Trip (single) - Xena Elshazlii & Fady Haroun: "Bad Trip” is probably my favorite 2020 release, like if I had to pick one. The track has incredible energy, from the soft piano and vocalization intro to the verse with it’s sparse drums, subtle bass line, and slight strings to an absolute banger of a chorus with punchy staccato synths, reinforcement of the drum groove, and addition of an electric guitar. Elshazlii & Haroun pack a lot into 2-and-a-half minutes of music, and the variations in texture, mix, & music in each iteration of the song’s discrete sections are *chef’s kiss* ---verse 1 and chorus 1 are not identical to verse 2 and chorus 2, to say nothing of the short instrumental transition b/n the first chorus and second verse. Whenever I listen to “Bad Trip” I’m compelled to hit ‘repeat’ ---which is not a normal occurrence for me---and experience the builds and releases that this track brings once again. I don’t know much Arabic beyond the slang terms and exclamations that peppered my grandparents’ & parents’ speech when they spoke to each other in Armenian, but I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell y’all that “Bad Trip” is among the songs that make me want to learn the language so I can better sing along w/ them.

3. “City Lights” - Sailorwave II - Macross 82-99 ft. Kamei: "City Lights” is the opener to Macross 82-99′s 2018 EP Sailorwave II, and it does that job immaculately. While I recommend the entire EP and an exploration of the Future Funk genre as a whole, you can’t go wrong with getting a taste of either through “City Lights.” The track bursts to life w/ synth brass chords and fast drums, quickly finding its way into punchy up-tempo horn line w/ light rhythm guitar and an active & bouncy bass line joining the mix. “City Lights” more or less goes from A to B to C and after the instrumental opening, the track shifts to a more under-voice horn line offering a countermelody to a mid-to-low register vocal line which is soon after joined by high voices punctuating the beginning of each phrase. The horns, guitars, and singers are cut from the track as the song enters its final section, a rap verse from featured artist Kamei accompanied with a slower-moving bass and light synth chords & wash in the middle register. Taken all together, “City Lights” ---like “Bad Trip” before it---packs a lot of music into a short duration & leaves me wanting more, which I especially long for when listening to the track outside of the context of the EP (which is what I usually do.)

12. “Turn to Hate” - Pony - Orville Peck: There’s a lot I could have done better in 2019, and “check out Orville Peck” is pretty high up there. “Turn to Hate” is a song that is at once heartrending, sincere, & catchy as all get out. Peck does one of my favorite possible things a musician can do on this track, and that’s make me Feel Things at a quick tempo. The vulnerable lyrics sung in outlaw country bass are supported by a fairly simple chord progression that acts as a solid foundation for a lot of texture ---moving guitar lines in the accompaniment part and middle-ground lines that move in and out of the melodic foreground. My moment of pure delight on the track is Peck’s laconic “yeehaw” that leads into a guitar solo that does so much work w/ its relative simplicity. “Turn to Hate” is an excellent song to get you into Orville Peck’s music if you aren’t already, if any of this piques your interest then I strongly recommend exploring his output of classic country meets 2010s indie meets camp gay sensibilities meets emotional realness. (This is as good a place as any to advise you to check out Yola and her album Walk Through Fire.)

27. “Water No Get Enemy” - Expensive Shit - Fela Kuti & Africa 70: I’m a newcomer to Afrobeat which is a fuckin’ shame because it contains a lot of the things I love most in music: rhythmic density and variety, jazz and “folk” idioms working together, a sense joy in the music-making with righteous anger at injustice in the music’s purpose, and a kick-ass horn section. "Water No Get Enemy” by Fela Kuti & Africa 70 is as good an intro as any to Afrobeat as it’s a delightful & excellent piece of music by the genre’s pioneer. It’s worth mentioning that in addition to its musical quality, Afrobeat is also deeply connected with Pan-Africanism and the resistance to the presence of European colonizers in Sub-Saharan Africa. To be frank, whatever I write can’t really do justice to this song or the musical movement from which it comes, go listen to it... a jam you can dance to while hating the British!? Immaculate.

31. “Vardavar” - EP No. 1 - Tigran Hamasyan: The first of two songs from Armenian Jazz-fusion pianist/keyboardist and composer, Tigran Hamasyan, is a fast moving rhythmically dense piece of music named after the Armenian holiday of the same name ---Vardavar is a holiday of pre-Christian origin that Armenians celebrate in July in observance of the transfiguration of Christ, it involves throwing buckets of water on each other! Appropriate to its namesake, the running piano line through much of the track and the melodic lines are both exceptionally fluid and reminiscent of water. The rhythm of the tune follows a highly irregular subdivision of the bar that it’s best to feel along w/ as a listener ---seriously, unless you’re transcribing the tune or practicing/rehearsing it, don’t worry about counting---and get lost in with the flow of the music. Notable features of the track are the dense layering of instrumental/vocal lines on the melodic and countermelodic material, breakdowns & entire sections where the music takes to longer notes, “slower” feel & division of the bar, and a slower harmonic rhythm, unexpected unisons b/n instruments, and the transformation of Armenian folk melodies & texts between vocalized material and statements of the original material. There is no living musician whose work I love more than Tigran’s and if you’re not familiar with it “Vardavar” is an excellent place to start.

46. “Boyish” - Tropical Jinx - Little Big League: "Boyish” is better known as one of the singles from Japanese Breakfast’s sophomore album Soft Sounds from Another Planet where Michelle Zauner presents the tune at a slow tempo with an unassuming instrumental accompaniment, wash of synths in the chorus, and low-register closing guitar solo which leaves the audience with a sense of melancholy & vulnerability. The original version from the 2014 LP of Zauner’s former band, Little Big League, offers a different take on the text: noisy guitars, driving rhythm, aggressive drumming on a rock groove, and a vocal delivery offering more of the rage of heartbreak than its sadness. Zauner refers to “Boyish” as an ‘ugly girl anthem’ and that intention is very apparent on this version of the track ---whereas the Japanese Breakfast take on it gave me a sense of being in the gender hinterlands b/n acceptable presentations of masculine and feminine. Both versions of the song are really worth seeking out for different reasons, and I chose to highlight Little Big League on this list because they’re a solid guitar-driven emo band that deserves appreciation in its own right.

50. “Dreaming” - Eat to the Beat - Blondie: What do I need to say about Blondie!? A CBGB act from the late-70′s that straddled the worlds of Punk and New Wave at their peak with a mix of an exceptional rhythm section (that bass!) diverse and compelling guitar work, and the captivating and ever-iconic vocals and presence of Debbie Harry. “Dreaming” might be my favorite song from Blondie and has had a special place in my heart since I first listened to them with my mom. It’s one of those songs that I’m tempted to call a perfect pop song: a joyful performance, lyrics that are at once simple and relatable ---whom amongst is unfamiliar with longing!?---music full of hooks & containing the kind of energy that just goes and takes you with it!

65. “Holy” - Shadow Theater - Tigran Hamasyan: The second entry from Tigran Hamasyan comes from his 2013 album Shadow Theater ---an excellent work as a whole---and is one of the slower, more spacious, and simpler tracks from it. “Holy” is a setting of the Armenian liturgical piece “Soorp Soorp” which is frequently used in the celebration of the Eucharist (even in the Armenian Protestant church I grew up in) and it’s achingly beautiful. There’s always something to be said about a musician capable of complex and virtuosic feats on their instrument doing something very simply and very well, and that’s what the entire ensemble brings ---including frequent collaborator Areni Agbabian who provides the vocals. Even as the texture thickens in the middle of the song, the middle ground & harmonic support coming from strings and bassoon (Ben Wendel) is simple, under-voice, and reverent. “Holy” is the kind of piece of music that offers an encounter with God ---even if one would never otherwise believe in something beyond the material; even just for a moment.

77. “The Day the World Turn Day-Glo” - Germ Free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex: X-Ray Spex is one of those bands I’ve listened to before on a recommendation I received ages ago but never really followed up on beyond the one song sent my way. “...Day-Glo” is a fuckin’ banger of song that just bursts with this wonderful energy from the jump & showcases the best qualities of X-Ray Spex’s sound: driving guitars, wild saxophone lines, and chaotically charismatic lead vocals from singer Poly Styrene. X-Ray Spex have an output that is wild and fun as hell to explore, and “...Day-Glo” is an excellent place to start ---you’d also do well to check out their more notable song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”

84. “Marquee Moon” - Marquee Moon - Television: Listen, you don’t need to read some internet lesbian with a music degree go off about Television ---one of the most musically interesting acts to come out of CBGB and one of many definitive proofs that Punk is not a label that people should fucking fight about having a true definition of. Clear 11 minutes in your day, find a pair of headphones so you can experience the use of stereo in the recording and enjoy each element of the song, especially with regards to Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s interlocking guitar lines.

96. “Leylum” - Kokorec - Collectif Medz Bazaar & Sevana Tchak: Armenian folk music, baby!! Collectif Medz Bazaar offer a lively and joyful rendition of the classic folk song “Leylum” which has been burned in my mind from church and community gatherings ---the fun ones with music and all of your aunties dancing in a circle and such. Listen to this song and DM me if you aren’t dancing along of joining in on the response parts as best you can. I think this particular recording offers a nice entry point into an exploration of Armenian music, the instrumentation hits a lot of the staples of Armenian folk ensembles ---duduks, dohl, dumbek, clarinet, shvi, etc.---and the song itself is an up tempo dance tune which I find to be easier to start with than ballads or liturgical music.

100. “Electrastar” - Paradize - Indochine: Back in the hazy past of 2017, one of my friends from undergrad and I were hanging out and playing music for each other. In a departure from his usual library of French Baroque music, he played a song by French New Wave band, Indochine. That song was “Electrastar” which is a consistent favorite of mine, my favorite song from its album ---Paradize, which is already a solid record---and a great entry point into the musical output of a band which has been active for about 40 years. "Electrastar” features driving rhythm guitar, pulsing synth under the texture, eminently catchy chorus and post-chorus, and a very care-full and effective approach to the mix. Also, not for nothing but that album cover is 👀

Survey of 2020 Listening

#magatha.txt #long post #music recommendations #Xena Elshazlii #Fady Haroun #macross 82-99 #kamei #orville peck #fela kuti #tigran hamasyan #little big league #blondie #x-ray spex #Television #collectif medz bazaar #sevena tchak #Indochine #french mention

6 notes · View notes

meibemeibelline · 4 years ago

Text

highlights from that 32k word doc i wrote when i marathoned gazette’s songs (2002-2007)

PART 2 | PART 3

Some quick notes:

This is a combo of thoughts on music, lyrics and sometimes just funny things I found while I was hurriedly typing at 11pm listening to these songs. Not every song will be featured in these, sorry

At times I directly quote translations and when I do I’ll specify who I’m quoting, but just so you know first they are all either Defective Tragedy, Heresiarchy or Trauma Radio

Also, I’m planning on writing some longer essay-type things with these notes so there might be some things I skip over (such as a recurring theme in their songs) bc I want to use them elsewhere

CONTENT WARNING FOR LYRIC DISCUSSIONS: suicide (Ganges ni Akai Bara). i will bold the title so you can skip it if you want. it’s one paragraph long

HHHH this is already 2k words but anyway hope u enjoy my ramblings

“I’d have to take a break from feminism to appreciate [Akai One Piece]”

“His delivery is still highly emotional and [Okuribi] overall is really emotional. Like the fact you can still hear and FEEL the sheer bittersweet feelings (mostly sadness) of someone you love passing away is like...really telling of 2002 gazette’s potential”

(Doro Darake no Seishun) “Bitch Aoi and Uruha are serving LOOKS like the red tartan blazer with the black shorts???? And Uruha with the red tank top and the pleather skirt with the garters THE OTHER GIRLS WISH THEY WERE HIM”

(Haru ni Chirikeri, Mi wa Kareru de Gozaimasu) “it’s about a flower that’s in love with a one-winged butterfly, and i imagine the point is that even though they sing songs for each other, they’re just so different that they don’t understand each other and they can’t be together. and they’re just...fated to end, and maybe try again next spring. and you can see that in human relationships too.”

“Akuyuukai i think is such a significant turning point musically like i just FELT a significant shift where they were really painting with their music and having it be more closely connected with the lyrics”

“[Linda Candydive Pinky Heaven] is a happy and fun song!! it’s doro darake no seishun’s cuter and cooler older sister. this also gave me a lot of serotonin and i’m glad this is a classic. it’s also this band’s first fan song (or closest to a fan song) and i think it’s quite meaningful because they were picking up as a band and were starting to really connect with people which is always so so great. and i think it’s cool that many songs before this were fun songs to jam out to but linda is specially DEDICATED to that. it’s so carefree and i think like...this is the exact thing many musicians love about performing and what fans love about concerts. it’s the escapism and just the SPACE to be yourself and have fun. it’s so freeing.”

(Black Spangle Gang) “I can’t believe GazettE were doing 2005 Miyavi before Miyavi did 2005 Miyavi”

(The Murder’s TV) “I think it’s cool how playful they make it sound -> like a creepy show that kids might see and the last chorus is pretty good. it’s a bop AND THE BASS AND GUITAR SOLOS SLAP. The lyrics are really interesting too and I LOVE the way Ruki embodies them with his voice”

“BITCHHH MAD MARBLE HELL VISION SLAPS. THIS IS WHAT I CALL NOISE MUSIC!!!!!!!”

“The composition on Kawareta Haru, Kawaneru Haru is actually SO good (and the costumes are fucking ICONIC). And Ruki is STILL getting better at singing. The chorus is melodic and the effects on the guitar just go so well like I think the others (probably since Akuyuukai actually) have been really getting to play with all sorts of effects on their instruments to make this new variety of sounds which is super rad. AOI SOLO SUPERIORITY BTW.”

“Indie gazette really love their key changes in the bittersweet songs in the last choruses.”

“Comparing the lyrics of [Sumire] to many of the last ‘goodbye’ songs, there’s a lot more imagery and scene-painting as opposed to like, just direct thoughts and feelings. And that’s really Ruki developing as a writer, I think, as his lyrics are becoming more subtle and open to different interpretations which is super cool! Like this is really him finding his voice and I know he’s going to be doing more of this over the years.”

“ANATA NO TAME NO KONO INOCHI SLAPS BUT THE LYRICS ARE FUCKED. LIKE, I KNEW THIS FROM THE BEGINNING BUT I REALLY WISH I WAS JARED, 19.”

“I LOVE MISEINEN SO FUCKING MUCHHHHH. I can only begin to imagine just HOW significant this song is for Ruki. This is him acknowledging his weaknesses and his flaws, looking around him and seeing the people he has, he writes about what he’s afraid of, he writes about how he’s going to change and move forward, what is MOST VALUABLE to him. This is A LOT. This is A LOT for anyone. It is a song about GROWTH – how he wants to grow yet is terrified of change, but even so is going to do it with the help of his support system. This is EVERYTHING. It’s raw and brave and so very beautiful. It has Wakaremichi and BEST FRIENDS energy. These three songs are best friends. And also like, for the last couple of releases Ruki’s been doing lots of wordplay and metaphors and using euphemisms, but this set of lyrics is just completely honest and STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART. Like, there ARE metaphors and symbols but he’s talking COMPLETELY about himself and his FEELINGS. I get emo whenever I listen to this song.”

(Carry?) “Apparently it’s about Frankenstein’s monster, so I guess this is another Concept Song. So this explains the flat vocals – the monster is undead but also…very sad and confused about what it is and its place in the world. ISN’T THAT ALL OF US ON SOME LEVEL…HAHA…”

“Zakurogata no Yuutsu is that 2010 fb meme where someone sees their partner right before going into a heart surgery only to wake up to find they’re gone and the doctor is like ‘omg who do you think gave you the heart😔’”

“WHAT THE FUCK WHY DID I SLEEP ON HANAKOTOBA. THIS IS AOI SONG SUPERIORITY. THE GUITAR SOLO IS ALSO GORGEOUS. Also love what he did with the melody getting higher in the end when the narrator questions the existence of the love they lost. AND THEY DIDN’T RESOLVE THE FUCKING CHORD PROGRESSION OHHH MY GODDDD BECAUSE “I’LL WITHER AWAY, NEVER KNOWING THE ANSWER” //THROWS. THESE GENIUSES. THIS IS THE BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM SO FAR AND THAT’S👏ON👏AOI👏SUPERIORITY👏Also I know that, literally, Hanakotoba is a flower on the side of the road but LISTEN. This is a soul that just wants love...This is the anthem for us lonely invisible bitches <3 This song has the MOST yearning. Thank u Aoi for my life. Like he is TRULY the composer with the most emotionality.”

(Tokyo Shinjuu) “I LOVEEEE THE BASS. This has a very old, classic Japanese style and it’s just…so good. You can really hear it in the melody. Also there’s just something SO feminine about it and I KNOW it’s that classic Japanese sound and like��god I love this gender bending with music. I adore the guitars too I think there’s such a good balance between them.”

(Shichigatsu no Youka) “I love how the lyrics are between sections too – the most emotional parts are in the big, emotional chorus, and the verses are more mellow when the narrator is sort of…more detached and Not Crying… The guitar melodies are really pretty and the solo is just GORGEOUS. It’s such a bittersweet song as well (god GazettE just do bittersweet EXTREMELY WELL) like bruh…already being sad over a breakup and OH DOUBLE WHAMMY THEY’VE MOVED ON like. Ruki sweetie I’m so sorry.”

[a rant about how I know Saraba is well-meaning and is about the peace and unity of a nation and is EXPLICITLY anti-war which I can definitely appreciate but my Chinese ass was just NOT having the whole painting the Japanese army as heroes deal]

(Reila) “Ruki’s vocals are SO GOOD here. ALSO YELLING AT THE BASS AND KICK DRUM BEFORE THE SECOND VERSE WITH THE PIANO. THE WAY THE KICK DRUM PANS THRU THE EARS. MOTHERFUCKER. AND THEN TO COME IN WITH THE GUITAR SOLO HOW DARE!!!!! YOU PLAY WITH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THIS!!!!!”

“COCKROACH SLAPS. Love that he reframes being compared to a cockroach as like, resilient (I’ll never break through -> I want to believe I’ll break through), and he’s embracing his crudeness and taking a huge dose of PHUCEMOL.” (Cr: Defective Tragedy)

(Sugar Pain) “God Aoi’s intro though………..I HATE THE BREATHING SO MUCH. No I’m actually really angry right now why is it actually good. YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE GOOD.” (I then had to stop after the first chorus for obvious reasons)

“Idk why the first thing I thought of when Bite to All started was ‘yeehaw’…[Also] I hate how I know exactly who is screaming at the end and when.”

“BTS 🤝 GazettE Gunshots in songs”

[My personal interpretation of Nausea & Shudder is not that it’s about the pressure of being true to oneself in the face of success, but rather that success itself is not what Ruki expected it to be and he’s figuring out how to navigate that and move forward. It is also just a really good set of lyrics.]

“There’s just a hopelessness that’s so profound in [Bath Room]. Like if depression was a song IT WOULD SOUND A LOT LIKE THIS… Up until this point this is the Darkest song AND WE’RE ONLY GONNA GET DARKER FROM HERE *sweats in DIM*”

“I love these unsaid words Ruki leaves in the booklets. Adds layers and messages for the listener (usually of hope)”

(Silly God Disco) “After reading the lyrics I love this song soo much more. Like it’s actually really nice to think about dancing and living life because you have rock music and it makes you happy. Also the FUNK. The flavour. Not only that, but the way Ruki SWEARS he will live happily, without fear, and always moving past pain and towards freedom and glory. And he INVITES the listener with him. This is just SO nice.”

“I think it’s interesting that like…for an album that is sort of Known to be depressing as hell, there are quite a lot of songs about resilience and just…living and moving forward. Depending on what the rest of the albums are about, NIL might actually be, weirdly, the one with the most hope in it.”

(Worthless War) ““Do you shoot first so you won’t get hurt? / Do you call that sort of thing ‘justice’” damn Worthless War spilled. This sounds like a whole lot of anxiety surrounding war, and a very strong criticism against the government for caring more about power than people. Even though violence is despair, he also says that this age of political tension and FEAR is also despair. And he is correct. Ruki: ALSO THE EARTH IS DYING???” (Cr: Defective Tragedy)

(Rich Excrement) ““Lyric killer is erectile dysfunction” + “Biters should check it out too” -> you’re a limp dick who rips off other people’s work I AM SCREAMINGGGGGG.”” (Cr: Defective Tragedy)

(Crucify Sorrow) “The main metaphor here is someone who is an insect with a broken shell – an empty person. With depression, probably…And I cannot help but think about Utsusemi, in which he uses this EXACT metaphor to describe himself and his own depression, his loneliness and his desire to disappear. Was this a coincidence??🤔”

(GANGES NI AKAI BARA) “I really like this song – music and lyrics both. Like even though it’s sad that the girl was in a lot of pain, kills herself and is condemned by her church, the narrator bringing her to Ganges and doing a sacred ritual for her so that she can find salvation is actually really really kind and meaningful??? Not only because it’s an act of kindness but also because the pain she was experiencing was emotional/mental (with the constant tsu-tsu-tsura-tsura-tsurai), salvation could relieve her soul from exactly that.” (Apparently Ruki said the narrator is Buddhist but in the context of the song Hindu makes more sense, so I’m just going with that)

(Calm Envy) ““If you could love even these words I’ve thrown your way / I could keep trusting only you as you stand in front of me / It hurts every time you bring up the past you’ve suddenly shown me / I want to love even that empty space where I don’t exist / I’ll wipe away my tears so you wouldn’t notice them / So don’t smile in front of me anymore than this” – SHUT UP THIS SHIT IS REALLY UNCONDITIONAL BUT THEY’RE TIRED OF BEING HURT. GOODBYE. GOODBYEEEEE.” (Cr: Heresiarchy)

(Circle of Swindler) “Ruki writing "how much do you buy us for? let's negotiate [the] value of pain" in circle of swindler to demand respect and acknowledgement of his worth from the higher ups of the music industry because it's the music born from his pain that's making their money is Quite sexy” (Cr: Defective Tragedy)

“[Stacked Rubbish] is about the baggage we have, the baggage we give each other, the Errors we make precisely because we are People who have souls. I think the point (of this album being like an anthology) is that everyone could find something in this album that speaks to them.”

#the gazette #the gazette ruki #uruha #the gazette aoi #reita #the gazette kai #ruki #aoi #kai #if you're on mobile and following any of these tags i'm SO sorry #if this pops up without the cut #also wow i'm really procrastinating HARD

17 notes · View notes

roadtohell · 5 years ago

Text

@mynamesdrstuff thank you ur brain is so big, i had like 10 moments of revelation while writing this

A Labour of Love- or, How to Write a Song That Makes Me Want to Lie Facedown On The Floor

Four decades separates the respective rises of singer-songwriters Hozier and Bruce Springsteen, nearly as large as the gap between the worlds in which their public images reside. According to popular myth, the former is the tall, near-ethereal Bog Man, half in this life and half in the next, who rose from a fae-inhabited woodland after 1000 years of slumber to find he was able only to mourn his lost love through song; the other is the Boss, a hardy yet compassionate working-class hero permanently streaked with the blood and sweat of a marathon shift, toiling endlessly alongside the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking*, love-making, legendary E Street Band. The domains of fen and factory may appear to be irreconcilable, but in reality the musicians have many things in common:

Broadly speaking, they both create wildly variable mixes of folk and rock, often with particularly strong Irish and African-American influences.

Their lyrics are poetic and commonly reflect on social issues with a progressive voice.

Songs about romantic relationships typically portray them as complex and difficult but remain respectful, sometimes near worshipful, of women.

Their characters yearn, long, pine and crave more often than not.

They both really like to use religious imagery.

They enjoy and return notable amounts of wlw love.

Representative of many of these are Hozier’s “Work Song” and Springsteen’s “Maria’s Bed”, two songs with close thematic parallels. Each is ostensibly told from the perspective of an exhausted labourer who dreams of returning to his lover. In a twist, however, “Work Song” is a melancholic love story, while the upbeat “Maria’s Bed” is a subtle tale of death; the opposing moods are complex reflections of these underlying narratives. These songs have Hozier and Springsteen skilfully intertwine the concepts of love, death, freedom and spirituality, creating two deeply moving portrayals of desire** that never fail to eviscerate the listener after 10pm.

Though the songs differ in overall lyrical structure, the similarities in narrative are evident from the first few lines:

Boys, workin' on empty / Is that the kinda way to face the burning heat? / I just think about my baby / I'm so full of love I could barely eat

Been on a barbed wire highway forty days and nights / I ain’t complaining, it’s my job and it suits me right / I got a sweet soul fever rushing round my head / I’m gonna sleep tonight in Maria’s bed

The audience can gather that each character works in a harsh environment where they are exposed to the elements. Their work is likely in manual labour, but the details are skimmed over because the narrators don’t particularly want to think about the details. Pushed to their limits, each instead copes by preoccupying himself with thoughts of his lover, though it makes him literally lovesick.

I’d never want once from the cherry tree / ‘Cause my baby’s sweet as can be / She gives me toothaches just from kissing me

She gives me candy-stick kisses ‘neath a wolf-dog moon / A sweet breath and she’ll take you, mister, to the upper room

The worker recalls his lover’s kisses as being vibrantly sweet, sweeter than nature. So, too, is her company- in contrast to the grim situation he is currently in, she is something to be savoured. Sugar cravings, an innate biological compulsion, come to mind; his hankering for her is likewise deep-seated and out of his control.

The reason for such devotion, the narrator reveals, is that she saved his life at a time when he had already resigned himself to death. He believes he was undeserving of such a deed; Hozier describes “three days on a drunken sin… she never asked me once about the wrong I did,” while Springsteen’s character recounts being “burned by angels, sold wings of lead / then I fell in the roses and sweet salvation of Maria’s bed”. In other words, his state of ruin was at least partially self-made, and her care seemed completely inexplicable. He eagerly returns her love, perhaps feeling that it’s the least he owes- but he still doesn’t quite understand where it came from.

True to both songwriters’ styles, these lines are direct allusions to the idea of redemption in Christianity: God sheltering a faithful person from the literally hellish consequences of their wrongdoing, through no merit of their own. However, the worker is notably dismissive of traditional doctrine:

My babe would never fret none / About what my hands and my body done / If the Lord don’t forgive me / I’d still have my baby and my babe would have me

I’ve been out in the desert, yeah, doing my time / Searching through the dust for fool’s gold, looking for a sign / Holy man says “hold on, brother, there’s a light up ahead” / Ain’t nothing like the light that shines on me in Maria’s bed

His faith rests not in God but on his lover; she is his religion now. Her act of grace already gave him a new, better life- he doesn’t need biblical promises when her love is tantamount to anything heaven might offer. This implication conveys a staggering depth of feeling, particularly to a religiously raised listener. Spirituality is, at its core, emotional; combined with the values and customs of religion, it is a force that can exert incredible influence over a person. The worker doesn’t reject spirituality itself- it’s an intrinsic part of him- but he has put all that power in the hands of the one he adores. It may make him vulnerable to her (that’s love!), but he is certain that she will give him the strength he needs.

Theological redemption also has close ties with death, as its benefits aren’t meant to be reaped on earth. Instead, the love, glory and freedom that are promised are relegated to the afterlife. Historically, the presumed ecstasy of achieving this gave death a sexual connotation; after all, if a lover could take the spiritual place of God, then perhaps sex could take the role of death as a gateway to paradise, far away from a life of pain. Work Song embraces this analogy, explicitly linking spiritual fulfilment to the pleasure of sexual intimacy:

When I was kissing on my baby / And she put her love down, soft and sweet / In the low lamplight, I was free / Heaven and hell were words to me

The equally suggestive Maria’s Bed allows the audience to draw similar conclusions, but it accomplishes this using a far less serious method: regular mentions of the titular bed, wink-wink-nudge-nudge. Yet this light-hearted sauciness is something of a misdirection. It’s easy to gloss over the song’s references to water, but they are strong hints that support an alternative reading: Maria is not a woman, but a river***. The story, from this perspective, then becomes much more sombre- the worker is a dying or suicidal man who wishes to have his body laid at the bottom of a river that provided for him in life, and whose real desire is for the peace he hopes to find there in death.

Got on my dead man’s suit and smiling skull ring / Lucky graveyard boots and a song to sing / I keep my heart in my work, my troubles in my head / And I keep my soul in Maria’s bed

This darker interpretation arguably makes more sense than the face-value love story, as it resolves some figures of speech that otherwise seem out of place. Even so, the more obvious reading is no less meaningful****; in fact, the coexistence of these narratives is what makes Maria’s Bed an almost perfect thematic inverse to Work Song.

When my time comes around / Lay me gently in the cold dark earth / No grave can hold my body down / I’ll crawl home to her

Hozier uses the finality of death to illustrate the strength of a man’s desire for love- his narrator embraces his own passing as he is certain not even the most permanent of barriers can keep him from his lover. Springsteen, through the personification of the river, uses the language of romance to demonstrate how fervently a man might desire death- his narrator embraces his demise because it offers a reprieve from life, just like a lover would.

All that said, no amount of lyrical analysis will reveal the clearest point of contrast the songs have: their music.

Work Song primarily draws from blues and folk music, both of which have roots in historical work songs used to coordinate physical tasks as well as boost morale. Reflecting this musical heritage, instrumentation is fairly simple, with the steady rhythm of claps and piano chords punctuating hard. It is slow and heartfelt, almost mournful; though there’s no mention of time frame, the audience has the sense that the worker still has a long way to go before he can return to his lover. This notion comes largely from the song’s circular structure. By ending with the same music it opened with, its story is also implied to finish at its beginning: with the men hard at work in the “burning heat”, and no true relief in sight. This is furthered by having little development over the course of the song- though iterations of the chorus are more intense than the verses, the arrangements underlying both sections barely change. The worker, it seems, is never quite far enough from his reality of hard labour, and never close enough to home.

On the other hand, Maria’s Bed is relentlessly optimistic, driven by a strong forward momentum. Where most modern songs have their choruses as their most powerful feature, here the wordless refrain (“hey hey, la la la li li li li”) acts more like a transition between verses, keeping the story moving. The jaunty fiddles that fade out are quite different to the introductory guitar and organ, suggesting the worker’s situation has developed for the better. In addition, the orchestration builds continually, only briefly pulling back before the music culminates in an extended musical outro. Many of the instruments work in counterpoint, each additional layer contributing to an air of an unrestrained joy that is further spurred on by Springsteen’s high hums and whoops. The linear musical direction and overall impression of good cowboy fun results in the feeling that, unlike the singer of Work Song, the narrator is already on his way to his heart’s desire- though, in light of the lyrics, what this actually means is somewhat ambiguous. Are those final echoes him moving out of earshot… or his ghost ascending to the “upper room” of heaven?

We may not know for sure how either of these stories end, but we can feel the aching hope for something better. This longing is an emotional line that runs all the way through both Springsteen and Hozier’s work, though it never seems to get old. Combined with explorations of love, faith, life, death- that’s why we return to their music again and again; they are experts at playing on old motifs and universal themes in new and creative ways, their crafted melodies and narratives touching wild and industrial hearts alike.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* I am legally obligated to include all these adjectives.

** Maria’s Bed seems to be sadly obscure even among fans; the one and only online forum discussion I have seen about the song refers to it as “not that deep”. Having written this whole essay- if Springsteen himself said that to me, I’d laugh in his face.

*** A random internet comment I can’t find anymore backs me up on this. It even specified that it was about the Santa Maria River in California, as quoted “from Bruce”. Obviously an infallible source 😊

**** It’s important that “[drinking] the cool clear waters” can totally be the description of oral sex you thought it was.

#hozier #bruce springsteen #maria's bed #work song #mynamesdrstuff #mine #this is so tonally inconsistent skjhsakd #literally have not written an essay in 3 years so #@anyone who reads this... thank u and best of luck #send me your address so i can visit you and explain my passions

28 notes · View notes

soaptunes · 4 years ago

Text

Soap’s 2020 AOTY Reviews: JPEGMAFIA - EP!

This EP (!) is really just a collection of all the loose singles Peggy dropped on a roughly monthly basis over the course of 2020. Despite that, and maybe even because of it, it’s still a contender for best rap project of the year.

I feel like I’m getting tired of saying that JPEGMAFIA is one of the most creative artists making experimental hip-hop right now. Even more tired of that appellation is Peggy himself, who on one track here proudly shouts out, “Fuck the underground, I’m going pop.” Of course, on the same song (the raucous, clattering “COVERED IN MONEY!”) he claims he beats his dick when he looks in the mirror and compares his gun to Portia La Rossi’s strap-on, so. Take that as you will.

It’s strange that Peggy’s 2019 album All My Heroes Are Cornballs is over a year old now. That isn’t that long ago, but a lifetime has happened since then, and the thing still sounds more immediate than most projects that dropped this year. The same is true of 2018’s Veteran, but both projects have some songs that fall short. I won’t get specific, this isn’t a review of those albums, but a few tracks on both are experiments that don’t pan out - they get lost in the weeds of harshness and strange samples, they lack strong hooks or funny bars, they follow an obscure groove that’s hard to get a handle on. EP! proves that cut down to its essential moments, a JPEGMAFIA record can be a 25-minute blast.

This is only 8 songs, we can take it track-by-track, which I think we’ll be doing for any EP reviews I do on here.

The first song is “BALD!,” a song that dropped in February, just before the pandemic turned this singles series into a quarantine project. If your first thought is that the beat sounds like something out of an obscure Nintendo racing game, that’s because it is - the main sample here is from Ridge Racer 3D for the 3DS. In pretty much every picture of JPEGMAFIA you can find from before this song’s release, he’s wearing a bandana or sweatband or something around his forehead, but this song literally served as the announcement to his fanbase that he’d shaved his head. This is a fucking hilarious concept for a song to begin with, but the beat is genuinely pretty and Peggy’s flow is merciless. Knocking the breakbeats out from under the synths makes them wash out and sound like the audio equivalent of a shitty screensaver, which I mean in the best way possible.

BEST BAR: “Hairline proof God needs balance, BALD.”

“COVERED IN MONEY!” is a serious contender for song of the year for me. I would absolutely love to watch this guy figure out a beat, because the instrumental on this goes unbelievably hard and simultaneously makes no sense at all. It’s squeaky, stomping, clattering, shambolic, and feels like it’s completely falling apart. Does a beat like this come together in his head first? The drum pattern is borderline nonsensical, did it just come from him messing around in ProTools? I would genuinely love to know, he’s seriously a gifted producer and I wish he’d produce more for other rappers. Somehow Peggy hops into a triplet flow on top of this wonderful mess, the overall impression ending up somewhere in the ballpark of a cartoon character rapping while bouncing on a rusty pogo stick. The man namedrops Ving Rhames, Cannibal Ox, Bernie Mac, and the aforementioned Portia La Rossi all on the same song, and he’s really out for blood on this one, it’s one of his best flows ever. The way he makes the listener wait for the “fuck the underground” line is flawless, he’s slipping between time signatures effortlessly. He does an amazing job of wrangling the herky-jerky rhythms of the beat on the hook, making one of his stickiest choruses yet with the instant-classic line about “borderline dressing in drag.” There’s a beat switch about halfway through the song, which Genius tells me is a second half tilted “The Devil Wears Prada,” but “BALD!” has a lyric about them fucking up his lyrics on Genius, so, you know. It’s not as much fun beat-wise but his bars are just as good, and the song ties up with Peggy repeatedly apologizing and claiming he’s just been “shitted on.” This track is a must-listen, in my opinion, definitely one of the best of the year.

BEST BAR: “I’m covered in money, I’m out for the bag, I flew out the country, borderline dressin’ in drag.”

The sensual R&B of “BODYGUARD!” isn’t a total departure from stuff Peggy has done before - “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot” had some of those vibes and “Free The Frail” proved that not only can he write a great melodic song, he’s a respectable singer. Bodyguard is Sexy Peggy coming to full fruition though, warm synths draping around soft beats and lyrics that could’ve come out of any 90’s hit. Peggy’s ear for a nice chord progression is evident, and there’s still strange touches like clipped vocals, off-kilter melodies, background chatter, and what sounds like a bicycle chain winding as part of the beat. This one took awhile to grow on me but it definitely did, and it provides a much-needed moment of calm on the EP.

BEST BAR: N/A, but I do like “who’s gonna turn me? Bitches gotta earn me.”

Then comes the remix of “BALD!” with Denzel Curry. The beat kicks in in the same way as it did before, and Peggy’s first verse is identical, but the entire back two-thirds of the song is one furious verse from Denzel. At first, his section gets a more muscular version of the racing game beat, but midway through, Peggy drops the drums out and just lets Denzel do his thing over a skeletal, washed-out instrumental. He spans a wide array of topics, from his stress over violence in his hometown, to loss of touch with his friends, to how cutting his famous dreads let him feel freer and more in control of himself. It’s a very cool verse, and I appreciate him linking it back to the haircut theme in an original way.

BEST BAR: “Dreadlocks had your boy like Sideshow Bob”

“CUTIE PIE!” puts Peggy on a genuine boom-bap beat, with nonstop flexing about his production chops. He gets pretty specific, and the title is apt given how genuinely adorable the sounds on the beat are. This one rolls almost normal for a JPEGMAFIA song, and despite the trove of weird references and the colorful atmosphere, it feels almost like a breakthrough, like he’s being more realistic or candid in his boasting. Like these are genuine points of pride for him and not just braggadocio, you know? Props for the music video here too, it’s definitely one of the best of the bunch. Super distinctive and weird, with Peggy hiding behind cacti and dancing in the middle of the desert with a near-nude woman.

BEST BAR: “Your beats inaccurate, muddy low end and you over-compressin’, ‘cuz you don’t know what you doin’, so y’all be stackin’ it, don’t know the diff so they just hold and attack it.”

The beat on “THE BENDS!” is almost oppressive, orchestra hits and a glacial pace lending the track a dark atmosphere. Autotune slurs Peggy’s bars, and the lyrics are relentlessly cynical and bleak. His actual political beliefs are obfuscated behind humor like “caught a body in a MAGA hat” as usual, but he ends the song with a breathy “fuck Trump,” so that much is clear. The glowing synth lines under the heavy saw bass give the first verse a cinematic quality, the “fantasies, fantasies, fantasies” line only adding to that. This is one of the briefer cuts, and one of the weaker ones too, but even this one has a ton of personality.

BEST BAR: “Strap on my hip ‘cuz I’m bitter and old, Mountain Dew sippers, they hating the scroll”

“ROUGH 7” is EP!’s only true miss, and it’s definitely not Peggy’s fault. The beat is shadowy and evasive, and his verse is ice-cold, but the featured rapper, Tommy Genesis, kind of flattens the song. Her adlibs are cringe-inducing and her rapping is flat and devoid of personality, she tries to do the emo-rap scream double-track but it doesn’t work with her style, especially since what she’s rapping about isn’t tragic or even sad at all. The track picks up instantly once Peggy comes on, as usual he can slither into the cracks of an unusual beat and inject his cartoonish, acrobatic character into it. This is a topically unremarkable verse by JPEGMAFIA standards, but he leans into the beat’s rhythms like on “COVERED IN MONEY!” and it ends up working out in his favor and restabilizing the song by the close. His dejected “wow.” and “huh.” and “nasty.” adlibs help make it too, it’s really kind of ridiculous to compare his adlibs to Genesis’s.

BEST BAR: “Light a square n*** up like Billie Jean.”

Peggy closes the EP with “living single,” probably the second-best song either. He sings a surprisingly heartfelt interpolation of Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” as the hook, bringing to mind his has-to-be-heard-to-be-believed cover of “Call Me Maybe.” This beat could pass for vaporwave, its slurred groove and downshifted vocal snippets lending an atmosphere to it like Peggy is sitting outside a club smoking after too much alcohol. The stabbing synth riff that breaks through the fuzz keeps him on his toes and lets him work up a relatively speedy flow over the dazed instrumental. I’m not sure why I rate this one so highly, but the vibes are excellent and this is one of the best verses on the project for sure, it’s another one where he really hooks his flow into the off-kilter lurch of the beat. That may be my favorite thing about him as a rapper, the way he can tie himself to a beat and make sure it’s working for him instead of being outshined by it, even if it’s completely insane.

BEST BAR: “Champagne for the pain and sufferin’, fans same color as voice of Tim Duncan”

Hoo, I wrote a ton about that. Maybe I won’t go track by track for the next EP, this is way too long already. In any case, I think due to its brevity and release method this great little record is going to get passed up on a ton of year-end lists, which is a damn shame. It has easily some of JPEGMAFIA’s best work on it - with no time for filler or botched experiments, Peggy delivered a tight, consistent, outrageously entertaining experimental rap joyride.

#jpegmafia #ep!#ep review #album review #alternative music #indie music #rap #hip hop #experimental rap #experimental hip hop

1 note · View note