#i think she put out one album in the mid 90s

[fbfh]

thinking about making eddie munson a daddy. specifically loud simp!eddie, just fuckin living the dream with you after high school. it's the early 90s, corroded coffin just finished their first world tour and are working on their fourth album. Eddie's a little older now, maybe mid/late 20s. His hair is still wild, it's even a little longer now, and he has a little stubble that tickles when he kisses you. or yk. does other stuff. anyway you're running some errands with Eddie and your 2 year old daughter Rose. He has even more sweet ol' tatties now, too. tucked right in next to the demon on his chest, he has a rose for your daughter, and your birth flower right over his heart so he can always keep you close to him. You're nearing your third trimester and your second baby is growing beautifully inside you. Eddie is so obsessed with your bump, always holding it for you, playing metal hits in headphones and kissing it. He tells it stories every night, too, right out of his dnd books. Rosie sits in on all of them, of course. She can't stand normal bedtime stories and only wants to hear about how the tieflings and orcs settled their age old dispute over the kryptgarden forest I don't play dnd don't come for me if this is inacurrate- Baby number two's nursery is almost done, you just need to pick up a few more cans of paint and some last minute decorations and additions. You're wearing a snug little maternity cami that shows off your bump and gorgeous figure, the one that drives Eddie crazy, and a pair of loose overalls with paint smudged on the side and cuffs. Rosie is wearing her favorite sundress, and Eddie has regretably left his leather jacket at home in an attempt to combat the hazy summer heat - but his vest isn't going anywhere. His hair is tied up all messy and a few stray curls have fallen out, brushing the neck of his cut off corrorded coffin shirt. He still can't believe his band actually has shirts, even though he sees you sleep in them every night. Rose wants to look at a music box for the baby, and since you're not allowed to pick up any more than 15 pounds on doctor's orders, Eddie scoops her up to take a look while you flip through paint swatches.

You're rudley interrupted by a grating voice you thought you'd heard the last of at your high school graduation. You look up as your name is called again at one of the bitchy girls you went to school with. You never thought you'd see her or any of her rude, cliquey, mean girl friends again, and you know exactly what you need to do.

You look at her blankly.

She keeps saying your name and introducing herself until finally mentioning you went to school together.

"Oh," you nod, ensuring no lightbulb of recognition goes off in your eyes. "Right."

You've only just started to take the wind out of her sails, and you look through paint swatches as she talks, and you remain completly bored and uninterested.

"You look... different!" She says with a fake kindness that she mircaulously hasn't grown out of yet. You hum in response. Right as you're about to exit as gracefully as possible, Eddie walks up the aisle behind you, Rosie on his hip. He's playing some little game with her, making her giggle like he always does. To this day, it astounds you how good he is with kids. You look back up at your former classmate, and have to bite back a laugh. She is totally checking him out. The irony of the situation - the exact type of girl who made your life hell and absolutely would have terrorized Eddie if they'd known each other back then - is now pushing up her boobs in her shirt and putting on the same pick me flirting face she apparently still uses.

"Hey there, sweetheart." Eddie says, gazing at you so warmly that his love for you is palpable. One look, and anyone can tell how head over heels crazy he is about you. He kisses you in a way that makes your stomach flip - and hers, both with longing and jealousy - then crouches down to your belly.

"And hello to you too, little dragon." Eddie chuckles, kissing your bump. Baby number two had earned the nickname from all your intense cravings for spicy food early on in your pregnancy, along with jokes about how Eddie wouldn't be surprised if the little guy can breathe fire when they pop out. He puts Rose in the baby seat of your shopping cart and reaches down to hold up your belly, swaying and kissing your cheek - and maybe nibbling your ear a little, just enough to make you laugh. He rests his head on your shoulder when he finally notices your former classmate.

"Oh," you say, like you just remembered she was there too. "How rude of me, Eddie, this is..."

You trail off, gesturing to her with the hand not on your cart for Rose to hold. She definitley takes after her dad, her love language has been physical touch since day one. The silence grows awkward as you're unable to recall her name, and after a painfully long wait, she finally relents, introducing herself.

"Right." You nod, chuckling. "Pregnancy brain. Anyway, we went to... high school... together." You say, like you're unsure if that's right. She nods, growing agetated that her status as popular girl and runner up prom queen doesn't extend into the real world.

"And this is Eddie. My husband." You look up at him lovingly as you say it, a warm gaze he returns. He takes your hand and kisses it.

"The luckiest husband in the world." He says sincerely, pressing another kiss to your temple. Her face sinks as she realizes you got married before she did.

"Oh," She nods, then tries to recover quickly. "Okay. Well, let's see the ring."

She says it playfully, but you know she's committing every detail to memory, looking for anything to scrutinize, and you're sure you'll hear about her gossiping about you from one of the kids you went to school with - you know, the nice, non-shitty ones. You extend your left hand despite the tacky nature of her question, and you wish you could have gotten a picture of the look on her face.

The ring and wedding band you wear are actually the second set of wedding rings from Eddie. The first one, the ring he proposed with, is actually one of his. You still wear it on a chain around your neck - it was always way too big for you, but you never wanted to resize it. When corroded coffin signed their first recording contract six months after you'd eloped, the first thing Eddie did with his signing bonus was buy you the biggest diamond he could find. The way you reacted with such genuine surprise, and still loved the old one too much to stop wearing told Eddie with more certainty than ever that he could not have made a better choice in handing over his heart to someone.

"Wow..." she says, trying to keep her face neutral. "Looks like you're ready to pop any day now too, huh?"

the backhanded comment rolls right off you as Rosie speaks up in her endearing toddler babble.

"I- I'm- mommy's making me a- a baby brother for us!" She says excitedly, "Or- she maybe baking a baby sister. Maybe." She emphasizes, repeating what you and Eddie told her about being surprised if it's going to be a baby brother or baby sister. You chuckle at your daughter, and Eddie looks down at her.

"That's right sweet girl. You're gonna have to teach baby how to fight dragons and be a big strong paladin, just like you!" He pokes her playfully and she starts giggling her head off again. You can't get over how much they look alike, she really could be Eddie's twin. Before you can find a graceful exit out of the conversation, a group of a few people freeze a few feet away. You're used to this sort of reaction by now, you have people from 12 to 45 shaking and crying at the sight of Eddie - dubbed the number one guitarist in the last decade by Rolling Stone - much less getting to meet him and take a picture, which Eddie always loves to do.

Your former classmate watches in shock as the guys walk over nervously, asking if he's really Eddie Munson, like the Eddie Munson. He confirms playfully, and you accept their cameras to take a few pictures for them. He offers to autograph their arms or notebooks and starts patting his pockets down for a pen. You beat him to it, pulling out a perminant marker from your purse. He chuckles sweetly, caressing your face.

"You really are always one step ahead, aren't you sweetheart?"

He signs some pages and shirts and even a forehead before they go, thanking him profusely the whole time.

"I'm sorry-" Your classmate interrupts. "What exactly is it that you do?"

One of the guys, still straggling to get a few more glances at Eddie scoffs, personally offended by her question.

"You don't know who that is?" he demands. Thankfully, you manage to slip away to finish your errands while he lectures her on the genius of corroded coffin. Once out of ear shot, Eddie says softly, intimately close to you, "Was she the one from the prom dress story?"

"Oh yeah," you nod. "She was a real bubhosh." Eddie laughs at your middle earth insult - roughly translating to dung heap - that the two of you used to substitute any words you don't want Rosie picking up yet. Eddie is glad you pulled him away when you did, cause if he was around her much longer, he probably wouldn't have been able to resist roasting her to a crisp. Then again, with someone as incredible as you it's pretty easy to make anyone else look bad in comparison.

[inknopewetrust]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 [𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮] [𝒔𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌]

summary: the colors of life change with time, but the music that narrates it lives on forever in one, standstill moment of the 1990s where success and passion came tumbling down. Years later, the story is declassified.

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader

warnings: minors dni (18+), this is based off of fleetwood mac/daisy jones and the six so imagine mid-80s and 90s rock scene, language, lil bit a spice, a whole lotta angst, enemies to lovers to enemies to…

In a world where words meant so much, it was difficult to find them at a time where they were needed.

The cool wire weaved against your skin. Its path crawling like a snake of retrospection from the bottom of your chair to your chest. There was a pebble of sweat threatening to spill from the top of your hairline in the hot California sun which made you think:

"Why the fuck did I ever move out of Indiana?"

But if you closed your eyes, you could recall why. A sickening, thunderous roar of the crowd–you could still hear it now. Somewhere, thumping in the back of your mind as their chants filled a space that breathed a new life within you as the another was dying.

An echo chamber of the taste of metal against lips; the white knuckle grip that still threatened to slip from your grasp.

The woman who sat across from you had a plastic smile on her lips. For her, it was nothing more than a job. An exploitive adventure where you'd be sticking headlines and messages across platforms for weeks to come because of this tell-all documentary.

"When did you know?"

Against cynicism the inevitable hardness of the culture you had immersed yourself in at one time had risen again and the attitude that rose promised a truthful reflection of your experience.

On the floor beside the mics battery pack, a half smoked carton of cigarettes met a glazed palm and the woman watched as a perfectly rolled stick land between two mauve lips. As the flame sparked, your eyes darted to hers.

"Know what?" you muttered between the smoke.

“When it was finally over?”

You could feel the breath being sucked out of your soul. The shudder radiating like a shutter letting rain inside of the home in the canyon; kissing the very center of a heartbeat that stopped at the sight of a pair of eyes, shoes peaking through a doorway.

The cigarette burned between your fingers. Ticking away like a bomb with scorching red embers fighting its casing.

“The Album was the best and worst thing to ever happen to any of us… that sounds ridiculous,” you scoffed, shaking your head and the woman quirked her head.

“It sounds ridiculous that something so magical, something so brilliant, can make those who built it feel small. It put us in a fishbowl and it took every last drop from our cup before it dried up and cracked under the heat… that's when I knew it was over."

She shifted in her seat, readjusting the papers to organize her thoughts. You imagined there was no sounder way of stating it. It was the truth, frank, and to the point but something the rest of them negated to realize or speak into words.

But she shook her head. “Yes, the band… but what of the relationships?”

“None of us had known about Steve and Nancy, Robin and Vickie had barely interacted until their writing began and by the end… well you can read plenty of articles about the end of it all.”

You drew from the cigarette again. Smoke filling the air around you like a mist; the woman kept digging.

“And Eddie and yourself?”

“Well…”

That heart-skipping beat never left. Laurel Canyon was so far away, the studio was a memory, and the stage was a phantom piece of your imagination yet the simple mention of a name so far removed was enough to make time stand still.

Somewhere, a young woman frozen and left wondering the "what if" of a life not shrouded by fanatics and the thrumming of a guitar. Somewhere, lost in the violence of a summer and the shattered glass of a heart left on a stoop, that girl remained inside.

“It was always complicated.”

“So,” she shrugged at you as if the conversation was nothing more than such. It wasn’t as though she was here to get all the details of every part of a life that had already played out in public if people had only been paying attention.

It wasn’t as though she was cracking open a mountain full of jeweled memories that had crystalized themselves in the past.

“When did it all go wrong?”

Feeling the sting of the camera focus on your face, there were two responses to this question that many had already answered before you:

"When did it all go wrong?" You lamented to yourself.

When did you know it was over? When did it all go wrong?

The woman's eyes glistened in excitement. Her story was unraveling before her. You took a drag again.

Fuck. You thought to yourself.

And the film began to play.

A/n: I'm excited to get back in the writing game - especially with Eddie. Let me know your early thoughts! Yay, nay, slay?

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Women & Songs 4 2000 Adult Alternative / Singer-Songwriter / Pop / Adult Contemporary / Dance-Pop / R&B / Country-Pop

Me, sitting in a packed boardroom in the Canadian offices of Warner Elektra Atlantic in ~1997:

"OK, OK, hold on, hold on, wait..."

*closes eyes and lightly pinches bridge of nose with thumb and index finger*

"I just got this brilliant fuckin' idea."

*takes an enormous bong rip and then exhales while gathering thoughts*

"OK, so, y'know, like...people...they love women, right? But another thing that they also love is songs too, right? So, like...see if you can follow me here...what if, like, we took women, but then, like, what if we also took songs...and then, like, what if we somehow managed to...put them both together...?!? 🤔🤯"

*The CEO of the company takes the stubby cigar from his mouth and places it in his ashtray. He then removes his glasses, gently places them on the table, and rubs his eyes a few times as he carefully mulls over what I've just said. He then gets up out of his seat while a grin starts to form on his face, and proceeds to clap slowly, with each successive clap coming more quickly than the previous one, which then leads to a universal round of applause and standing ovation from everyone else in the room. The CEO then pulls me aside and says the following into my ear...*

"See, RV, this is why we're paying you the big bucks."

*He shakes my hand vigorously and then proceeds to give me a million dollars 😀*

---

Y'know, I've posted *a lot* about *a lot* of different compilations over the years, but the first installment in Canada's Women & Songs series is one that's probably going to stick with me until the day that I die; not because it presents a terrific encapsulation of the female singer-songwriter boom of the mid-to-late 90s—which it so totally does—but because of the plainly awful and absurdly low effort that went into both naming and packaging it. It's like, you'd think it was being put out by someone who had just decided to invest in a CD burner and then sell their own bootleg releases that'd been comprised of songs that they'd downloaded off of Napster or something; but no—this shit *actually* came from the greenbacked behemoth that was WARNER ELEKTRA ATLANTIC instead! And for whatever reason, the folks there *really* couldn't be bothered to spare a few more bucks or literally thirty seconds to come up with something that was even a little slightly better than Women & Songs and these atrocious album covers. It's really all just so ridiculous when you think about it, and because of that, it's also very unforgettable as well.

But anyhoo, just like its first volume, this fourth one from the series is really nothing short of excellent too, as it provides a fantastic and diverse array of female-led gems that had specifically been lighting up the Canadian charts in some capacity dating back to 1996. We've got superstar divas like Janet Jackson, Toni Braxton, Tina Turner, Madonna, and Whitney Houston; we've got the country-pop stylings of Faith Hill and LeAnn Rimes; we've got summer romcom staple "Breathless" by The Corrs, one of the single-greatest radio pop songs of the 90s in Natalie Imbruglia's version of "Torn"—believe it or not, she was actually, like, the fourth person to record and release that song—we've got Tracy Chapman, Veruca Salt's Nina Gordon on a well-translated adult alternative tip (anyone else remember "Volcano Girls"?), teen poppers All Saints, and we've also got Dido's "Here With Me," which was co-produced by none other than the great Rick Nowels, a guy whose own exploits have somewhat quietly managed to enrich the careers of so many other female pop stars too, from Stevie Nicks, to Belinda Carlisle, to Celine Dion, to Adele, to Alessia Cara, to Dua Lipa, to Lykke Li, to FKA Twigs, to Madonna, and Lana Del Rey 😯.

But because the Canadian music industry itself has a natural inclination to insularly market and promote a lot of the country's very own artists, there's also a showcase of some really talented women on here whose names you probably wouldn't recognize unless you were Canadian yourself; and that's a bit of a shame, because Pickering, Ontario's own Sarah Slean, for instance, really brings it with a beautifully woven and rich tapestry called "High," which first appeared on her independently released debut album, Blue Parade, in 1998. Trust me when I say this: if you really love all those singing-songwriting ladies of the 90s, like Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Paula Cole, Jewel, Tori Amos, etc., you're gonna wanna hear this Sarah Slean song as well, because while it's definitely in a similar vein to all of those women, it's also pretty uniquely wonderful too 👍.

And speaking of Sarahs, I usually don't go for classical crossover-type fare, but Sarah Brightman's rendition of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" here is especially lovely. It's a highly effective combination of her own soprano, a lush arrangement of orchestral strings, and an unexpected infusion of a contemporarily cinematic trip hop-type of drum beat that really manages to satisfyingly bring the whole thing together. Awesome, and dare I say, (le) epic, stuff.

And I can't leave here without briefly marveling over Whitney Houston's "My Love Is Your Love" too, which Wyclef Jean and his frequent collaborator Jerry Duplessis lent their own subdued Fugees production style to back in 1999. Such a beautiful collaboration with that one, the likes of which I'm not sure that we've ever really heard anything similar to since. Maybe my favorite song on this entire album 😊.

So, in conclusion, women and songs are both great on their own, but once again, as the wea conglomerate has shown us, when you actually decide to combine 'em, it can really yield something special. And I know it's kind of a wild concept that might be a bit difficult to grasp at first, but I think if you give this thing a shot, you'll be able to hear a lot of the mid-90s-to-y2k greatness that came as a result of this purely abstract, out-of-the-box thinking. A bunch of quality music on here, and with some focus specifically put on Canada too, but just make sure to do yourself a favor and skip over the totally uninspired opening that is Madonna's cover of Don McLean's "American Pie," because that thing is BAD.

Highlights:

Faith Hill - "Breathe" The Corrs - "Breathless" Chantal Kreviazuk - "Before You" Janet Jackson - "Together Again" Natalie Imbruglia - "Torn" Tracy Chapman - "Telling Stories" All Saints - "Pure Shores" Toni Braxton - "You're Making Me High" Dido - "Here With Me" Nina Gordon - "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" LeAnn Rimes - "How Do I Live" Tara MacLean - "If I Fall" Whitney Houston - "My Love Is Your Love" Sarah Slean - "High" Sarah Brightman - "A Whiter Shade of Pale"

[choicesmc]

Rams' 4 Bands

This is a long one folks. I had so much fun with it, I hope y'all will too! I'm putting it under a read more because (and this is a warning) it is long. And all the art you'll see is mine (admittedly it's only four pieces but 🤷‍♂️)

Tagging: @choicesbookclub

Summary: A rather established band with pop rock aesthetic. Rams found them in ~8th grade and has been an avid fan since! Right now, she's listening to their latest album: Solitude.

Band Name: +Eyes+ Members:

Adaeze Okeke "Iris" Leontes Valjean "Lens" Dieuwe Antema "Optic"

Latest Album: Solitude Songs In The Album: Keep Quiet, At Night, Things Stir, With Mal Intent, Interlude, Twilight Hour, Moonset, You Know Too Headcannons:

This band exists in the magickal world and are better known there! Their Tuneless music doesn't include Phono magick which often makes the sound feel 'lacking.' When Rams discovered this, xe reexperienced all their music 'properly' and will admit that it's much better on Phono than not. It feels complete.

Summary: Still underground, Buried Alive is a new band trying to gain a little following. Rams only heard of them through a friend of his who was friends with the band members. They only have four albums so Rams is starting with their first: BROKEN BONES.

Band Name: Buried ALIVE Members:

Ji-Woo Min Gang Deadweed Nkiruka Thorn

First Album: BROKEN BONES Songs In The Album: Mary's Strange Daughter, The Pastor's Sermon, My Witch Hunt, Sticks and Stones Headcannons:

They have a very ballad/tragic style. Each of the listed is songs is 9+ minutes long. Rams isn't sure how they feel about it yet but it's... not bad. It grows on them with each re-listen. The cover is homemade. They're trying their best, okay?

Summary: This band has the oldest members of all the bands Rams has listened to. The duo is 76 and 81 years old and their still going strong. Rams started listening sometime around sophomore year of high school.

Band Name: Sickening Sugar Members:

Immy (76) Mal (72) Nia (Deceased) Tyril (Deceased) Aerin (Deceased) Valax (Deceased)

Latest Album: Coffee + Tea Songs In The Album: Filter Me Out, Divide My Mix, Stir It In, No More Cream, Pieces of Crystal, Hot Bitter Drink, Choke and Choke Headcannons:

They're an old queer band though they were only moderately known in the 50s and 60s. That changed with the AIDs epidemic which claimed four of the six members lives leaving only Immy and Mal. Post-death, Sickening Sugar released a single (the last one to feature all members voices) titled 'What Do Mean? There's Still Six of Us'. It quickly gained traction and catapoulted the now duo into the centre of the LGBT movement throughout the late 80s and 90s. Their still heavily involved in activist work even if their heyday is a shiny memory. Yes, they are named after BOLAS characters because I think BOLAS the show is sort of like what Honor Amoung Thieves is to D&D. I headcannon that in-universe the BOLAS show pulled from a nerd culture of RPG games and Sickening Sugar named themselves after their favorite characters in those collaborative RPG games. It actually caused licensing issues while BOLAS was first coming out because two major characters couldn't be licensed since this band already held those licenses. The BOLAS legal team, Immy, and Mal worked out an agreement so Immy and Mal get royalties from each item. It's pretty good money considering the show's popularity.

Summary: it's a very folk-rock song. Mainly blending religion with critical anti-capitalism themes. The members in mid-40s and are currently on a break-up tour. Rams is devasted about it, the band has been a major part of hir highschool career and none had seen the break-up coming!

Band Name: PrOvide Members:

Wally Crawford Josslyn Platt Lilac Winton Astra Jackman

Last Album: Old School Choir Songs In The Album: Hymn, Hum, Worship, Watch, Praise, Pray, Worship, Watch Headcannons:

Yes, there are two different songs named Worship in the same album. Fans call the second one 'Worship Again' to differentiate them. Rumors have it that they're breaking up over creative differences but Rams doesn't fully believe those rumors. Unlike other bands, they've have a rather flexible sound that should be able to accommodate the odd/diverging album here and there.

[formosusiniquis]

Hello your friendly neighborhood children’s librarian bringing you the most retired rockstar/dad!Eddie book ever. All images are from My Dad Used to Be So Cool by Keith Negley (which you should check out if you can get your hands on a copy from your library, there are some great illustrations that I didn’t include.)

Anyway post Vecna Eddie and Corroded Coffin get semi-big. Nothing wild, they aren’t the next Metallica but they do well enough to go on a Nationwide (plus Canada) tour, they put out a couple of albums, get some radio play. They aren’t a household name, but they’re beloved by the people in the scene and in the know. It’s a good life, more than a young Eddie could have ever hoped for. It’s the mid-90s and their initial contract is coming to a close, Eddie and the guys have a decision to make: are they going to resign and try to make it even bigger or are they going to finish out their run, do a couple of farewell shows and quietly retire.

Eddie and Steve have been a thing since the first Corroded Coffin EP dropped. Eddie’s heart is in his lyrics and Steve has been their biggest fan since Eddie left Hawkins to make it big. Long distance has been hard. So hard. But Eddie comes home to a tiny apartment in Indianapolis that Steve and Robin share every chance he can. He’s written every album since the first one at the battered wooden kitchen table that Robin saved from the curb. Steve goes to the shows that he can and Eddie comes back to Indianapolis every chance he gets, but as Steve starts his social work job it becomes a lot harder to go to shows more than a couple hours away.

There’s a decision to make. Eddie and the band are in Chicago meeting with their agent for what might be the last time when he gets a page from Steve: SOS. Eddie is panicked when he gets to the phone, calling Steve’s work phone like he was told and expecting the worst. The Upside Down is back, Robin has been hurt, Dustin has been hurt, Steve has been hurt. It’s worse, when Steve answers with a calm, “Steve Harrington speaking.”

“Don’t ‘Steve Harrington speaking’ me, what the hell!”

“Eddie! I’ve got the best news.”

Now he’s got two decisions to make. A coworker of Steve’s has a baby that needs a home, five months old with a dead mom and a deadbeat dad and the story is a little too familiar for Eddie who knows how important stability is for a kid. “Her name is Christina, Eddie, I think it’s meant to be.”

Eddie has become a big believer in fate. He’s got two decisions to make today, they might be the easiest decisions that he’s ever made.

Eight years fly by. Eddie had squirreled away most of his Corroded Coffin money and with Steve’s salary he’s able to stay home with Chris most of the time. He’s mellowed out over the years, Wayne had warned him when they first brought Christina back to the little two bedroom they purchased that fatherhood changed you and he could see it now. His hair is shorter, his sweetheart spends more time hanging on the wall than it does in his hands, he has become a lot more acquainted with the vacuum cleaner then he had in his wild youth.

It’s a Saturday and Stevie has gotten called in to handle an emergency placement leaving Chris and him to have a daddy/daughter day. Chris giggles the way kids do when Steve leaves with a kiss to her forehead and eliciting a promise that she'll keep dad out of trouble. One part pleased at the responsibility, one part disbelief that dad could be cool enough to be trouble at all.

"Alright my knight errant, you've accepted your quest from King Daddy. Now you've got to help me clean the house if you're going to keep me out of trouble."

"Will I get a reward? I think this quest is worth a bajillion gold."

She squeals and giggles, a sound that could break him from Vecna's curse, as Eddie picks her up from her chair at the table and spins her round and round. "I think you should stop listening to Uncle Dustin. How about we go to the park, is that a fitting reward?"

“Those terms are acceptable.”

“And less time with Auntie Erica, jeebus kiddo.”

Christine Harrington-Munson knows that cleaning the house is really code for making sure all her toys are picked up off the floor so Dad can clean the floors. Which they are, she’s a lot more like Daddy in that respect. She likes to have her dolls and ponies lined up in rows where she can see them when they aren’t having adventures; her jewelry from her Aunts is in the jewelry box that they gave her. So she follows Dad around the house while he cleans up his mess. Shoes kicked into the closet with the drumset, little statues from his game he plays with her uncles go back into his office. The one with the posters on the walls that Daddy made Dad frame, that have Dad’s face on him from when he was young before she was born. He’s all screamy and sweaty and he’s got eyeliner on like Aunt Robin wears. She’s pretty sure Dad used to be in a band.

Her friends from school say she’s lucky cause she got a cool dad when she got adopted. She knows which dad they’re talking about; Daddy works more than Dad does, has to help other kids who are waiting to get adopted or who can’t live with their grownups anymore, so Dad is the one who usually picks her up from school when he gets done doing the mid-morning radio show.

She doesn’t really get it.

Dad is kinda lame. He’s cooler than Katie’s dad who always snores on the couch whenever she’s over. He’s definitely cooler than Mikey’s mom who always makes faces when Dad picks her up from school in short sleeves. He’s a billion, million times cooler than Shelby’s dad who said something to Daddy the one time they had a sleepover and now Shelby’s parents are getting divorced. But saying Dad is cooler than them is like saying that Barbie is cooler than Skipper, he always sings his dad music when they’re cleaning the house together and he does silly voices when they’re talking together.

So maybe he used to be cool a hundred years ago when he was the guy in those posters, but now he’s just Dad. Something must have happened ‘cause Uncle Lucas is still really cool and so are Aunt Max and Aunt Robin.

Cleaning the house with Dad always goes a lot faster than it does with Daddy. Once the floors have been vacuumed and the counters are cleared they’re in the van headed to their favorite park.

The other moms and dads hang out by the benches watching their kids run around. Dad reaches the edge where the grass stops and the mulch starts and pauses, he bends down into a bow. “As promised my faithful knight, your reward. We’ve got an hour here before we go see if Daddy can take a break for lunch.”

“Can I give you a quest? Can we find a dragon before we go to Daddy?”

“A noble quest, my lady.” He uses one of his silly voices, one that sounds like a fancy grandpa. She knows he always tries to wrestle with her when he uses that voice, but even then he gets an arm wrapped around her before she can run across the yard. He swings her around and tosses her, “a head start on our quest, m’lady.” She lands with the bent knees and forward roll that Aunt Max taught her.

Dad chases her around the park for the full hour, letting her lead them through bushes and into the playground tunnels. He points out tracks that might belong to their dragon, says he’ll be her wizard if she carries the sword, Dad finds a stick and presents it to her like it’s a weapon. He sweeps her up when it’s time for lunch, “Noble knight, we must not get lost on our quest for the dragon. We must obtain sustenance and we can return later with aid from our King.”

She rides back to the car on his shoulders, times like these she can almost see what her friends mean when they say that he’s cool. “Dad, can we get a dog?”

The music in the car is quiet, but the guitar is sharp and bright. He bobs his head up and down in time with it, catching her eyes in the rear view mirror as he does, “I think that’s a talk Daddy needs to be part of too, Chris. Give him those sad eyes and I bet he says yes.” He turns the radio up a little more, one of those softer songs that he spins Daddy around the kitchen to is on, “We can bring it up at lunch if you want, ladybug, but you gotta take care of it if he says yes. A dog is a big responsibility.”

Yeah, no, she still doesn’t get why anyone would think that her Dad was cool.

[darkfictionjude]

[Singer MC] How would the family react to one of MC's debut album songs (since they didnt know MC could sing or where even making a debut album)

The album is called No Man's Land the deluxe edition has 5 extra songs which makes it in total a 20 song album the deluxe it's also called No Man and Woman's land the sounds of a town called Croun and the album cover is MC's dismembered naked body in the woods and the important bits are Covered by dirt and leaves aswell as the album tittle.

The song that their listening to it's called Mad House and the music video was recorded in the family mansion while everyone was away and basically highlights how messed up abusive and toxic their family life is, how their mother treated Orla like a doll, how Percy was used as a punching bag by their father and how Sal crossed MC's boundaries and put them in horrible positions when they didnt want to and neglected giving Orla and Percy the love and care they gave them.

What truly makes it worse is the delivery of the lyrics since its in the whole everything will be alright toxic positivity mindset of Sal.

The whole album is pretty much MC venting their hole life story out their and current events aswell as their feelings about events in the past and present if i where to compare it would sound like an Oliver Tree album or a BoywithUke album with how catchy the songs are.

I feel like mc could not release an album with that cover in the early to mid 90s with the satanic panic just recently dying down 😭 it’d be censored to shit

Now onto what I usually say: how much do you think mc’s parents will care? Orla? Realistically do you think they’ll feel sympathy? Compassion? More like anger.

Victor: anger, annoyance, feels like mc is ungrateful and a big mouth

Prudence: furious that the interior of her home was used for what she deems self-pleasuring demonic trauma porn. Thinks mc is making a fool out of themself

Sally: is hurt that mc thinks like this about him and rather betrayed that mc would expose their relationship that sally views as sacred to the masses

Percy: would sue mc. Would sue the shit out of them and if he doesn’t hit them he would never speak to them again. Believes that mc can talk about their own shit but talking about his abuse is crossing a line they have no right to

Orla: rolls her eyes. As if mc has it worse than the rest of them. At the very least no one in the family make their dirty laundry public for a bunch of fucking strangers. And who gave mc the right to talk about her and Prudence’s relationship? That’s her fucking business

In summary: no one would be happy about this

[androcola]

I need 90s monkees fluff headcannons

WAAOW OKAY !!!!

after mikes heart attack in '93, the boys pampered him HEAVILY and did everything necessary to keep his stress down. this included LOTS of back and head rubs, a total takeover of ALL of his chores and general house work, and just generally a lot of tender, loving care. even though he griped a lot about it.

peter got to watch a lot his students grow up and become adults in the 90s and got very tearful at their graduations, while also happily welcoming many new students. sometimes his old students send him letters :) he hangs them up on the wall by his bed.

in the 90s, the monkee family welcomed a grand niece into the world, Genesis, Janies first daughter. In a family photo album, theres a photo of Mike holding the baby, crying so hard from joy that he couldn't even look at the camera properly.

this isn't 90s specifically, but late 80s. in the late 80s, Cici came out to her unkees as a lesbian, and spent a long time before that feeling very fearful of what they may think, even though they had never given her anything to fear before, but it was still very scary. she was met with overwhelming love and support, especially from uncle micky, a loud and proud bisexual.

this one isn't of any specific time period, but it's fluffy I think. The monkees have a way of greeting eachother, usually after ones been gone all day, where when one walks in, the other will hold out their hand, and the other will grab it kinda loosely and jiggle it around. it isn't like a hand shake at all, more like a jiggle. its real casual, it's almost like a kiss in its action. They do also kiss eachother though! it was joked about in the '97 special, but I think it's implied that they're all so used to asking eachother if the other wants a kiss, with how casual micky sounded about it.

later in the mid 90s when mikes put on a large amount of weight due to depression, I think micky of anybody doesn't give him a hard time about it, in fact I think he loves how mike looks and is always giving him big hugs. although I think he's aware of how unhealthy it really is for him. but he's cuuuuuuuuuute !!!!!!!!

mike got a step father in the late 70s whom he was very apprehensive of..he didn't like or trust him at all. but by the 90s he's accepted him completely and he calls him all the time! it's always so nice when the boys hear him on the phone sounding so happy to say "Hi dad!" ☺️

in the late 80s and early 90s, Cici fronts a new wavy punky type band and her uncles are so happy and proud of her and they attend as many of her shows as possible! they always clap the most and cheer the loudest ☺️☺️

although by the 90s the guys are much older and more mature, they never grow out of cuddling with each other like they did all those years ago. they'll still all find a way to fit into one bed and snuggle up to eachother. especially when the weather is cold and the air conditioning isn't quite doing the trick. mikes especially warm to cuddle up to in the mid 90s 😍

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin #40:

Lucinda Williams' Running Down A Dream

As the self-appointed Lord of The Dollar Bin I do not sing karaoke. The closest I come is bellowing out Love Shack on the bike ride to work/school with my daughter, much to her horror and amusement. Why Love Shack? I don't know. The song just floats my entire flotilla of boats.

But when it comes to karaoke, there's only one human being I would eagerly listen to rocking the mic, and that's Lucinda Williams. She's Tom Waits without artifice; she's my Dodgers as soon as Clayton Kershaw retakes the mound; she's my sainted wife with a flamethrower.

And so I've always been on the Dollar Bin watch for Running Down a Dream, Williams' Covid-era toss off Tom Petty tribute album. I've never been willing to drop $30 for it, ever. But $15 while on vacation for a three sided record, even if it's nothing more than Lucinda offering up Petty's lyrics via teleprompter while assorted young men act like The Heartbreakers? Yeah, sign me up.

At least for me, the legend of Lucinda Williams still begins with the Rolling Stone review of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road in the late 90's. Back then the magazine was a meaningful authority rather than an endless series of pop up ads for sex toys and the equally dumb Foo Fighters. And so that review introduced me to Williams as a feminist savant, a mature woman who could sing about masturbation and make it high, perfected, art.

Well, it's 26 years later and Williams no longer dwells in the perfectionist camp, refusing to put out records until they are impeccable. Gillian Welch took her place on the perfectionist throne late in the Oughts and hasn't let go yet.

Let's get into this record:

The first three songs are freakin' awesome. This is not karaoke; this is Lucinda Williams finally delivering a big deal rock and roll record.

She opens with Rebels, Petty's personal, problematic and deeply poetic rewrite of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. The song marks the end of Petty's mid-80's, heavy cocaine, first smashing into a wall, era; sitars, skateboarders and vampires soon took over. As such the song comes complete with allusions to "blue bellied devils" who "burned our cornfields and left our cities leveled". That would be the union soldiers who saved our country and ended slavery. So, wow, that's something to chew on.

Williams, who's obviously white and grew up in the deep South, had to have a Confederate flag airbrushed off her jacket for an early album cover. But she also preaches progressive politics in song, swears by the Velvet Underground as much as Hank Williams, and calls Trump a man without a soul. So, like Petty's song and Petty himself, she's complicated.

But singing a song like Rebels without apology and making it the lead track for an album that came out at the same time everyone worthwhile - including Williams herself - was grieving George Floyd is a bit more than complicated; its straight up knotty. Or nutty. Or both.

But meanwhile the song sounds awesome.

The album's title track follows, so we get a break from all that edgyness and take a ride with Petty, Del Shannon and Lucinda. And what a lovely drive: the track gives the hipsters in her band a chance to shred. Petty's lead guitarist, Mike Campbell, is the white man's Hendrix, sure.

But check this out.

Williams doesn't let up after that; rather she makes another brilliant decision with Gainesville, an Echoes-era outtake I never appreciated until now.

Williams owns the song; like Petty, she too grew up thinking of a place with more than a few stoplights as a "big town". It's these moments of sympathy and kinship between Lucinda and Tom I like best; later in the album Williams handles the line "be a landlord and a renter" in a manner that shows she deeply understands the later position and has no interest in the former. In doing so she understands Petty's lyric better than he did and way the hell better than I, born into late 70's SoCal privilege, ever could.

But Williams recorded three or four other tribute records all at once during the lockdown and then rushed them all out - and that entirely oppositional approach to the deliberate work she did in the 90's makes for problems during much of the rest of the album. Too often the arrangements are obvious, and therefore dull. Same thing with the song selection: You Don't Know How It Feels has always been a boring song and Williams offers it no fresh new angle. Let me get to the point Lucinda: you shoulda chosen a better song.

But the album's biggest problem is Side 4: and that's because there is no Side 4. We get a picture disc of Williams instead of any of the real deep tracks from Petty's first, pumped-up heyday. We should have Insider, with Williams performing utterly solo; we should gaze with her out the window of a 747 and see only black sky.

And we should hear American Girl delivered by one of the greatest of our American Women.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I have really truly loved all of NewJeans releases, downloaded Phoning but am too old to be bothered with it (sorry gals) and even would suggest I’m a “Bunny” to a degree, though I don’t have the time to really invest in their content beyond the music. But I was disappointed with this latest release, I find the songs pretty forgettable - with the exception of “bubble, BUBBLE, Bubble, bubble” part — I’ve been in Korea for the last couple weeks and am staying till mid June for work and I do hear the songs being played by stores and heard on the streets but then I kinda immediately forget them 😬. I had to wonder if *some* of MHJ’s ‘whistleblowing’ was knowing she was about to put out a less-than-stellar record of b-sides and that she was angry that Illit got Magnetic? Tbf, if IVE or like, idk, Kep1er (that 1 in the name cracks me up) had gotten Magnetic it would have done super well because it’s just that catchy. Not to knock the Illit girls themselves and the rest of their EP is enjoyable to be sure but not the pop-gold of Magnetic. But again, music is subjective - maybe it’s just me who isn’t catching on with How Sweet. It could be the backbeat makes me think I’m at the roller rink in 1993 at summer camp but still not as catchy as the actual songs from back then.

*

Ask 2:

Same anon who sent the ask about How Sweet & Bubble not being quite catchy enough — honestly maybe the other thing is that I have LOST! (And really all of RPWP) stuck in my head and my poor brain only has the bandwidth for one earworm at a time! 😅

***

It's unfair to compare anything to RPWP.

The NewJeans girls are sweet. They make good music. But nothing they've released so far holds a candle to the magic that is RPWP. There are some people who think the hype around Namjoon’s intelligence is overdone, and like I've said before, there was a time I was skeptical about if he actually knew what he was talking about. But that was years ago and he continues to vindicate the belief I have in his abilities as an artist. Acid jazz, psychedelic rock, Fuji music, new school funk, Korean hiphop - all of that seamlessly combined in a contemporary fusion jazz album, all of it his own creation, made with artists he personally selected and respects. Namjoon is very much worth the hype. He makes music that makes my blood burn.

And yeah Lost is stuck in my head too, the bass sequence on Lost reminds me of the sequence on Pharrell's Happy.

That said, I think How Sweet is my favourite track from NewJeans since New Jeans (the song). And funnily enough, I like it for kinda similar reasons to why I love RPWP: the song is avant garde for k-pop and takes interesting risks. And I frankly just like what I hear.

For example, the genre and bassline. How Sweet is in the Miami Bass genre, one of the more niche sub-genres to break out from 90s hiphop. It never really took on, which might be why it makes you "think I’m at the roller rink in 1993 at summer camp but still not as catchy as the actual songs from back then." G-funk, East-West Coast, and Gangta Rap genres got more popular while only a handful of Miami Bass tracks were hits. In fact the only Miami Bass song I (vaguely) remember from back then was Tootsie Roll (I didn't even fully remember the title of the song, I had to google it lol). ADOR could've made another song in the trap genre since that's a more popular Y2K hip hop creation, and their last song in that genre (OMG) was a hit anyway.

But no. They went with a fairly obscure expression of 90s hip hop, which I think shows the depth of knowledge and appreciation for the that era that either ADOR, Min Heejin, or their producer 250, has. NewJeans don't seem to be doing Y2K-type sounds for the fun of it or just because it's on trend, else they could've easily gone for something more mainstream or more modern/popular takes on that era, like Magnetic. To me, How Sweet shows ADOR is very deliberate in their exploration of nostalgia, and in that way they are the antithesis to what is typical in modern k-pop. [Ironically, Min Heejin's whistleblower report (linked here) explicitly called out the sub-par quality of HYBE's operations teams which I believe includes their A&R team (and I agree btw). And Min appears to be mostly responsible for A&R at ADOR, so in reality, it's unlikely Magnetic would've been a song she'd release, but it's still identical enough to NewJeans' sound to support her concerns about Belift and HYBE].

Also, to my ears it sounds like 250 tweaked the bassline in How Sweet to keep it centered in the mix with the synths, something I feel is innovative given the MB songs I've listened to have the bass more forward in the mix. The topline melody is also soothing over the high-energy instrumental, making it feel nostalgic, but fresh. Like, I'd rather listen to How Sweet than Tootsie Roll to that point, but just like RM's RPWP, it's a song that's strange for k-pop. It shouldn't sell, it's risky, but it works because the artists have already established an identity.

In my opinion lol.

I totally sympathize with you finding How Sweet to be underwhelming though. I've had similar conversations with some friends for both Namjoon and NewJeans' latest releases. If my guess is right about NewJeans, they'll continue their intentional/methodic exploration of nostalgic sounds and concepts, meaning for some people it will quickly become a snoozefest. And of course that's totally fine. Personally, I enjoy it.

[everythingodysseydd]

@aeide & @findusinaweek I finally put it all in one place!

A few notes first:

I have two types of music... Good music and fandom music. The first one bleeds into the second on occasion, but 90% of the time those two categories mutually exclusive. Be forewarned.

I’m gender-bending and mid-line pov swapping all over the place, so expect that. I’m also terrible about tossing lines that don’t work and keeping songs purely for choruses, concepts, and single lines. This is a living list, so this original post is the best place to look.

Okay, so starting general and then haphazardly chronological:

Walking with Giants (Rachel Sandy): Just general. All over Odyssey.

2. Start A War (Klergy, Valerie Broussard): Again, everywhere.

3. Blood // Water - Acoustic (grandson): Nikolaos-focused, especially toward the end of the game, but all throughout. Greed is the wrong word, but the rest.

4. Brasidas (ACO Soundtrack): Might’ve been in my Top 5 last year…. xD

5. You're the One (Tracy Chapman): I love her so much and putting this to Brasidas' perspective really makes me laugh. That is all 😂

6. Wild Child (The Black Keys): When fandom sneaks into my actual music it always makes me laugh. This barely applies, but I've laughed about it in Kassidas context, so it's here in the most lighthearted way possible. I take my ships seriously most of the time, I swear xD

7. A Thousand Miles (Vanessa Carlton): Pure reminiscence for one of @findusinaweek’s old posts that really made me smile <3

8. Enemies (Shinedown): Look, it works for Deimos, okay? xD

9. Dive Deep (Andrew Belle): You know when something completely unrelated in the shuffle just makes the writing write, so it ends up on repeat? That’s what happened here. Completely unrelated, but the second and third chapters of Korinthia spent some time with this one. It helped that he enunciates so poorly that I didn’t catch the words until later. They do work, surprisingly. They’re a bit uh… They didn’t hurt the vibe, let's just say that... 👀

10. Whirlwind (JOSEPH): This is a general Kassandra theme for me, but especially through Korinthia. Once it builds up into its full chaos I really love the vibe. Most Kassidas scenes have some element of this on the writing side. Korinthia’s Ch.3 section was fleshed out almost entirely to this at very high volume.

11. Spark (Ed Sheeran): This came round the same way Dive Deep did. I was listening to Ed’s new album at my sister’s request (she’s a huge fan) and this one just worked while I was drafting choreography for Korinthia Ch.3. Most of the lyrics conveniently work as well. *shrugs*

12. Myrrine (ACO Soundtrack): I see this threaded through a lot, but especially in Sparta, Athens, and Euboea. Anytime Kassandra is really going through it or is struggling to see Alexios through the Deimos mask.

13. Twisted (MISSIO): Deimos perspective. Something about it is particularly jarring to me, but in an intentionally lazy, offhanded way?

14. I Don’t Even Care About You (MISSIO): Deimos again, and again, not my favorite, but here functionally.

15. Bad Blood (Bastille): Deimos again. This one I enjoy a lot more. The indifferent annoyance. Essentially, ‘We’re never getting away from each other. Let’s stop pretending this can be different and get on with it.’

16. Born For This (The Score): I actually have this song for another fandom (TCW / TBB, which it actually works for), but every time I think of it in a Spartan context I laugh so hard I had to put it here for kicks. Particularly that northern campaign when it needs some light-heartening. Sobbing over here, don't mind me.

17. Monster (STARSET): Deimos generally. I actually like the concepts here a LOT. There’s a line in Warmth on the Mountain about the EB being the center of Deimos’ world by the end and I really love that fixation idea. That’s in here. The idea of trusting your redemption to the people who destroyed you in the first place… the Can you change me? // Will you cage me? thought dichotomy… Lots of little things in here.

18. Devour (Shinedown): I’ve loved the sound of this one for ages, but hate the content 😂 It finds a decent home in Deimos though. And if it lands anywhere, it’s probably post-Kleon betrayal as everything unravels for them.

19. Hurricane (Tommee Profitt, Fleurie): Battle of Amphipolis. This is in here purely for a concept – that sudden sensory loss and stillness in the middle of chaotic shock. I want to pull that sensation, but haven’t captured it yet, so it's here as a reminder. ALSO, that line, ‘I am aching now to let you in’ – the missed opportunity gets a little extra love from me <3

20-22. Honor Him, Elysium, & Now We Are Free (in that order – Gladiator Soundtrack): For me, these overview all the immediate events after Amphipolis. Forget Gladiator, they were just easy instrumentals to write to, and then I learned the words of Now We Are Free and might have become very, very, very attached to them, particularly this part:

We regret our sins, but // We sow our own fate and // Under my face I remain feeble // Under my face I smile // Even alone/afraid // Under my face I will be waiting

I mean …😫 Can’t you just imagine if those were part of the procession and then repeated in the Underworld when when we learn Brasidas refused Elysium and is putting himself through this??? (Because if he’s there at all, HE chose it – canon can fuck off as far as I'm concerned). The lyrics of this song as a lament over the situation and a call to come to terms with the past????? I'm not going to do it, but I mean…

I also really love the emotional path of Now We Are Free for an actual funeral procession. Since Brasidas was esteemed as a liberator, beloved by the city he died successfully defending, I see the event as a celebratory lament for a city who's populace mostly knew him as the personification of an idea more than a person. When you add the warriors' death glorification layer that Sparta had going on, it just sorta fits? And with the ashes and hypotheses that follow, I imagine Kassandra staying up to the moment his body is gone. The beginning of that song is procession, then the cut back to drumsticks and immediate uptick afterward are the lighting of a pyre. The sound fall that follows is the return to self, where the misthios, not ready for joy, takes a last look at empty flames and slips away into the night alone.

I despise it... but it wormed its way in and it’s not coming out 😂

23. Overjoyed (Bastille): There’s a lot of Bastille in this list. I don’t usually listen to them, but I swear most of this album was written for this specifically. This one was part of my early mourning process and is my excuse for writing 6k-10k word conversations I can’t cut down…

24. I Ran (So Far Away) - Epic Trailer Version (Hidden Citizens): Post-Amphipolis. Kassandra’s not big on processing. This is a bit overkill for me, but it's here regardless. Concept pull.

25. Daniel In The Den (Bastille): Felled in the night by the ones you think you love. Pessimism post-Amphipolis. ^This referring to Brasidas’ death at Alexios hands, which is the tipping point on a scale that had been sliding for a while. By Amphipolis, Kassandra thinks she'd found common ground with Deimos in Athens (not realizing how personally he would take her escape and silence afterward), and was double blindsided. It’s the drudgery and the Cult of Kosmos and Sparta and Deimos, all in one. It’s the backbone of what pushes her to hunt the cult after what happens in the north.

26. These Streets (Bastille): Kassandra post-Amphipolis. Sparta becomes too much. It’s the place of too many memories, all around. She makes a (temporary) decision to be done with it.

27. War (Poets of the Fall): This was here for a handful of lines that I circled for a while and drew a couple concepts from. If I can let the memory heal // I will remember you with me on that field // When I thought that I fought this war on my own // You were there by my side because before Korinth she has people, but not anyone who’s brought all the way inside. With his background, he easily becomes that person. Also a bit of With no one wearing their real face // It’s a whiteout of emotion // And I’ve only got my brittle bones to break the fall // So will you please show me your real face? Because I was suspicious he was a Cult plant for a longggg time. Too good to be true 😂 Fic Kassandra shakes that sooner than I did, but it plays a part. It’s since come off this list, but it’s back for you all 😂

28. War of Hearts (Ruelle): This whole idea of trying not to love someone is just very Kassidas to me. I headcanon that she never makes a pass at him in the game because it’s clearly more serious and that’s a LOT, considering.

29. Deep End (Ruelle): Not resisting the post-Amphipolis spiral.

30. I Found (Amber Run): Found this one on Tumblr’s Kassidas tag… 😫

31. Burning House (Cam): Post-Amphipolis. Technically country, but I’ve loved this song since the very first time I heard it. The fire imagery sticks from Korinth and I headcanon Kassandra carrying a LOT of guilt for Brasidas’ death, alongside the grief she’s experiencing. With that and everything else that comes crashing down in Amphipolis, I headcanon that she hardly sleeps all the way to Pephka, which is a later segment.

32. Hospital (Lydia): Wallowing. Just wallowing 😂

33. Icarus (Bastille): For Kassandra it’s not substances, it’s a dissociative Cult-killing spree, but that’s neither here nor there. Completely a perversion of the myth. And yet it still worked its way into Myrinne’s letter in Euboea, because I’m awful. Lmao.

34. Fading (Decyfer Down): I’ve been obsessed with that lyric, ‘unshackled and unbound’ since I was a weird, angsty teen and finally finding a home for it in the Pephka Arena makes me SO HAPPY. Again, swapping substances for murderous tendencies though xD This connects to this headcanon.

35. Centuries (Fall Out Boy): Pephka Arena. This is what happens when you're an entire library shuffler. I have no excuses 😂

36. From Where You Are (Lifehouse): I miss the way the sunshine would light up your face. This has been a mainstay on my BSG Kara/Lee playlist for YEARS because of this awful video that vented a whole lot of teenage grief for me (that I'll never be over), but it’s an easy song to write wistful, nostalgic scenes to because it’s so even-toned. That lyric ^^ grabbed me in particular, because I did Port of Lawlessness at golden hour (doomed to fall, clearly) and couldn’t stop looking at his arms in that light 🤣🤣🤣 I use this post-Pephka arena when she’s first started to heal and is finally capable of remembering him, but it also comes back in the post-game when she’s finally come home to Sparta.

37. Waves (Dean Lewis): Just general pining, but of a *slightly* healthier variety.

38. Song for Zula (Phosphorescent): Another Nikolaos song. I ignore one lyric at the beginning, but gah. These lyrics KILL me. It’s about the grief and anger of being broken by a relationship and still feeling that enduring emotional attachment you can’t quite shake. I’m in love with it. Might be my favorite on the whole list. It’s Kassandra collecting the pieces after Boeotia and wrestling with the same in Euboea where he finds her again. They (mostly) work past this later, but it's SO perfect for most of the game.

I saw love // You see, it came to me… // It put its face up to my face so I could see // Then I saw Love disfigure me

You will not see me fall // Nor see me struggle to stand // To be acknowledged by some touch from his gnarled hand

39. Carnival of Rust (Poets of the Fall): A high^ and a low. Lmao. I have an adversarial relationship with this one. I DO NOT LIKE IT, but just like Dive Deep and Spark, the MUSIC (NOT the lyrics - repeat, NOT the lyrics) accidentally ended up being what I needed to write Brasidas’ first scene in the Underworld and it’s forever, horrifically, attached to it. It makes me laugh in an ***extremely*** irritated way. Helps me remember not to take myself too seriously, because… *Facepalm*

WRITING FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY IS HARD, OKAY?!

40. Foreigner’s God (Hozier): There are only about 5 seconds I actually apply to ACO, but something about “Her eyes looked sharp and steady into the empty parts of me” is just so strikingly Kassidas, especially for that early Underworld segment. Sometimes I think the whole song fits if you really force it, but mostly it's just that line ;)

41. Blood And Fire (Indigo Girls): I'm obsessed with their voices, but extra in this song. It’s not a perfect fit for me, but POV swapping all over the place, I feel like there are tons of snippets. And something about I am looking for someone who can take as much as I give // Give back as much as I need // And then still have the will to live just makes me laugh so. damn. hard. Brasidas being dead has nothing to do with this for me. Kassandra is just... it makes me snicker.

42. Let It All Go (RHODES, Birdy): Underworld angst. Sitting on that relational precipice before the fall, alongside the next song, trying to break past the rules they created for themselves in life so they can get to that next space they both need for healing. I headcanon their physical chemistry in the game being naturally very Port of Lawlessness, but they keep from the complicated explosion that would become by leaning into the rigidity of their professional roles and goals (canon). They share a common goal in Korinth... He uses his position to help her with citizenship in Sparta… She comes to him as a misthios to Pylos and Amphipolis... That structure keeps things easy. It’s an excuse to connect/disconnect without addressing the rest. During the game, she uses that crutch and he lets her have it. In the Underworld *he* needs it, but by that point, she's not as gracious. Breaking anything rigid is daunting though, especially in grief ❤️

If we’re strong enough to let it in // If we’re strong enough to let it go

43. For Me, It’s You (Lo Moon): Sitting in the same tension as above^.

44. Mountain and the Sea (Ingrid Michaelson): At one point (I think while she’s pushing back against his decision to stay in the underworld) I have Kassandra characterize Brasidas as the cliffs beside the wild tempest sea (Kassandra 😂), because up until that point he always has such a steady grasp on things. Everywhere he goes, he has things well in hand - that presence of mind. Even at Amphipolis, the (real) numbers and results tell that story. They're equally formidable, but by a different approach, built by different methods. And when she comes up against him for the first time there, she appreciates it less. When this came up in my shuffle sometime later, I couldn’t resist. And the gender-bent refrain ‘you can move me’ makes me laugh, because that's the story there, even though Kassandra doesn’t realize that deeper piece of the analogy at the time. He ends up HAPPILY in Elysium, dammit. Screw Ubi.

45. Take What I Can Get (Mathew Mayfield): The line that I couldn’t get away from was You’re still locked inside me, holding on. Something about that lyric just hits it for me.

46. Walk Through the Fire (Zayde Wolf, Ruelle): Kassandra-view in the Underworld. It’s hopeless, but we’re finally processing at least.

47. Demons at the Door (Sleeping Wolf): Hmm... Let’s just say this lightheartedly connects to a very specific scene in the Underworld and leave it at that. Breaking some rigidity. When it comes to workshopping ships, the cringiest part of my soul makes an appearance. It is what it is 😂

48. In My Veins - Feat. Erin Mccarley (Andrew Belle): This one was the sound support to some Underworld writing sessions… I rediscovered it (for completely unrelated, unromantic reasons) around the same time I was writing that and it happened to stick.

49. Follow You (Bring Me the Horizon): This one came from Tumblr’s Kassidas tag too. I’m not a huge fan, but the second half does make me laugh about the Underworld portion. And shipping in general... mostly shipping in general XD

50. Light (Sleeping at Last): EXCLUSIVELY SKIPPING TO 1:55. NOTHING BEFORE THAT. (I see Phoibe as Kassandra’s pseudo-child, but everything before that point in the song is irrelevant). For me, the second half of this song is loosely how I felt finding Phoibe in the Underworld. That scene is so gut-wrenching. The awe of the person. The unfulfillable promises. The ‘I’ll do better’ refrain… especially that, but tipped further toward grief. I see this all being part of Kassandra’s internal journey there. There’s nothing she can do, being alive. There’s no promise she can actually make.

51. Silhouette (Aquilo): Phoibe 😫 Sometimes I swing it towards Brasidas in the Underworld, but so much of it is Phoibe’s piece there. Blending the two probably works best.

52. Holding On and Letting Go (Ross Copperman): The stillness and peace that exists in the underworld portion after Kassidas sorts themselves out. There's an underlying calm, despite everything else.

53. Be On Your Way (Daughter): Preparing to part ways in the Underworld - Kassandra on with her tasks, and others on to Elysium. I'm really attached to this one.

54. My Darling (Ingrid Michaelson): I don’t love the first few lines, but all the rest. There are a lot of ways you could apply this one, a lot of relationships, but peak is probably at that second Taygetos moment.

55. Who Are You (SVRCINA): Deimos & Kassandra again, especially in the foundations of their post-game relationship. For that final Cult quest as he’s still very raw. I’m a little obsessed with this one.

56. I Won’t Let You Go (Switchfoot): I’m nothing if not a child of my era and here's proof, lmao. This is a song I took a lot of comfort in at one specific moment in my life (as the subject, not the singer), and I use it for the Kassandra & Alexios relationship at various points too, but especially post-game. The idea that you can’t fix a person’s circumstance, but you can fiercely love them and choose to stay beside them. That.

57. Tally Marks (JOSEPH): I've heard every Joseph song 85k times and can pick them apart in tiny segments, so this is probably just worth skipping for everyone else. It’s written romantically so I’m being VERY selective and filtering out a TON, but there are a couple lyric sets midway through that I LOVE for the tension between Kassandra & Alexios in their early post-game days:

What you’ve done cannot be undone… // But you’ll wake up to another sun.

There just aren’t enough words to describe the chasm between those two thoughts, you know? That gap is the vibe of all the early post-game days. But also,

I’ve got a sense about you // Under your hood, there’s a man that I knew // His eyes are fire and his hands are true // Where is he? // Where are you?

My hope is to be able to find some version of non-Deimos Alexios eventually, because Alexios is such an amazing character.

58. Control (Halsey): Deimos’ internal conflict after coming home to a Sparta who fundamentally hates him while fighting to find a new life. The push/pull of fighting not to become people’s expectations is just… 🙌 Concept pull.

59. Find My Way Back (Eric Arjes): Alexios & Kassandra again. I love this idea of her clinging to him for his benefit, but the same happening in inverse without her realizing. The two of them becoming each other’s counterbalance. I’ve also swapped it toward thinking about Brasidas in Elysium in moments, but I like it for the siblings better.

60. Hold on for Your Life (Acoustic) (Sam Tinnesz): This one is on thin ice, but when I let it lean in on Alexios & Kassandra in post-game quiet moments, I still like it barely enough to keep it.

61. Right Here (Ashes Remain): This song makes me cringe badly, but between the siblings, the line ‘I will always be the one who took your place’ has something that's been bugging me forever and I just haven’t drawn out exactly what that is yet, so until I unlock that tidbit its stuck here. The song means it sacrificially, but its something else entirely in my brain. First time Taygetos... Inconclusive thoughts.

62. Don’t Hold Me (Dean Lewis): More post-game moments on Deimos’ end mostly. (Also possibly washes toward Kassandra at the end of her stay in Athens, realizing there’s a reason Alexios keeps coming back to talk. She starts to feel his leaning in and is pretty listless at that point.) It's a stronger Thalexios song to me, but there's juuuuust enough to keep it here.

63. Honest (JOSEPH): The first half of this song especially has always been a favorite of mine. I love the idea that we’re never as alone as we think AND this is sung by siblings, so that callback portion is full of those rich family dynamics I LOVE. Applies to post-game everything.

64. Keeping Your Head Up (Birdy): Post-game all around. They’ve got a messy 4-way lift happening. Plus, when I first heard this song I misheard the chorus as ‘I’ve been giving you hell’ and honestly that fits everyone in this family so well 🤣

Honestly though, way bigger is that something about this song feels EXACTLY like co-regulation to me. That's a crisis tool where you use one person's calm nervous system to stabilize another, often through physical contact. Like hugs? That might be why. I've been the anchor for a number of people and it’s a really powerful tool, especially for pairs who have a strong bond. If you don't have that before, you absolutely do after. As much sparring and tight-quartering as these siblings do in my imagined post-game, I imagine that being a big (accidental, unnamed) part of their recovery.

65. Coming Home - Part II / Bonus Track (Skylar Grey): I’ll probably never write this portion, but these last two songs are the shift to airy Elysium at the end of Kassandra’s NATURAL life. The original song made its radio debut while I was a teenager struggling to process the death of a peer, so it’s always been laced with a sweet sort of grief-release for me. This cover is much softer. I particularly like the first couple lines, which are specific to this version.

66. Beautiful (Trading Yesterday): Not quite my speed, but this is in here because I love some of the imagery. Summer rain to wash away the winter stain and The morning sun inviting the dawn to break. There’s a freshness to the imagery that I want to try to extract if I ever do write that Elysium portion. I have a visual flow for it all, but am not sure I have the skill to make it as simultaneously light and grounded as I’d need. *shrugs*

And stolen from other's playlists:

67. White Flag (Dido): Just one that makes me laugh about shipping in general, but applies a little too closely to all things Brasidas for me. He's the real ship for me. Everyone else is bonus xD

68. Brasidas (Justin Bianco): Because why not?

69. Run Boy Run (Woodkid): How I feel about the approach to Amphipolis and the whole northern campaign (and just Brasidas in general 😭). He would never, but here we are.

70. Korivantes (Avlites): Such great chaos and order. I love it.

71. Leveler (Half Waif): ❤️

72. Recording 15 (Shannon Lay): Also ❤️

73. Shattering The Hourglass (Deep Sea Diver): Such a good insert for early Underworld to me.

74. Upward Over the Mountain (Iron & Wine): Myrrine / Kassandra. So many thoughts❤️

75. exile (Taylor Swift, Bon Iver): This one hit me months later and I had to come back and add it. Myrrine, with all her history and relationships. I love her so dearly.

76. Bloodstream (Stateless): I blame aeide!

77. She Just Likes to Fight (Four Tet): Just background :)

77. The Phone Book (Editors): Destroying me in the best way possible. I seriously can't even with this song. Strong Alexidas leaning ;)

[grigori77]

2022 in Music - My Top 5 Favourite Albums

5.  MUSE – Will of the People

The maddest trio to have ever come out of Devon have returned, completing their magnificent comeback as they again prove they’ve been one of the best things happening in prog rock for a while now.  They’re still clinging to the more electronic sound that’s come to pervade their music for the past decade or so, but this still feels like a glorious throwback as Matt Bellamy and co have brought back the old school HEAVY in a big way here …

Standout tracks: Will of the People, Compliance, Won’t Stand Down, Ghosts (How Can I Move On), You Make Me Feel like It’s Halloween, Kill Or Be Killed, Verona, We Are Fucking Fucked

4.  ARCHITECTS – The Classic Symptoms of a Broken Spirit

They’ve done it again. For the second year in a row, the Brighton metalcore heavy-hitters have delivered a blistering, pitch-perfect album full of riotous bangers, this time peeking in what I could happily argue is THE BEST TRACK they’ve ever put together.  As with their previous offering, For Those Who Wish To Exist, this record probably won’t please their old school fans, but I love this stuff JUST FINE.

Standout tracks: Deep Fake, Tear Gas, Burn Down My House, Living Is Killing Us, Doomscrolling, A New Moral Low Ground, All the Love In the World, Be Very Afraid

3.  FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – Dance Fever

Florence Welch and her astounding band have delivered another masterful opus of epic soundscapes and richly orchestrated opulence, effortlessly showcasing the singer-songwriter’s once-in-a-generation voice and big calibre lyrical and compositional flair, proving once and for all she’s the undeniable QUEEN of the indie rock scene …

Standout tracks: King, Free*, Girls Against God, Dream Girl Evil, Cassandra, Heaven Is Here, My Love, The Bomb, Morning Elvis

*Honestly, I CANNOT choose between this one and King for best track on the album …

2.  EDITORS – EBM

The most criminally overlooked and underrated indie band of all time returns with what I think might be their very best album EVER, packed with pretty much perfect electro-rock belters. They’ve always worn their Joy Division/New Order influences on their sleeves, but this one puts the Mancunian pioneers on notice that these boys from Birmingham are now officially coming for their crowns.

Standout tracks: Heart Attack, Picturesque, Karma Climb, Kiss, Silence, Educate, Strange Intimacy

1.  RAMMSTEIN – Zeit

The German masters of industrial metal have been plying their trade since the mid-90s, and every release has been well worth a spin, but they’ve come a long way in that time, and their previous eponymously titled album was a proper banger, dominated by the best track they’ve EVER recorded, the immortal Deutschland.  It seemed like a tall order for them to top that masterpiece … but they’ve pulled off the impossible, crafting a flawless opus that perfectly encapsulates their discordant-yet-ingenious singular brilliance and, OF COURSE, the incomparable voice of Till Lindemann.  Despite appearances they insist they’ve still got plenty more music to make, but this is the PERFECT encapsulation of Rammstein at their very best.

Standout tracks: Armee der Tristen, Zeit, Zick Zack, Angst, Dicke Titten, Lügen, Adieu

The ones that didn’t quite make the cut:

BILLY HOWERDEL – What Normal Was (the other creative half of A Perfect Circle proves he can do dark, edgy and beautiful electronic rock without needing Maynard); THE GREAT DISCORD – Deam Morte (the gothic-edged Swedish metalheads bring us another winner, with magnificent frontwoman Fia Kempe on fire throughout); AURORA – The Gods We Can Touch (the immensely talented young Norwegian singer-songwriter’s third indie-pop album is another winner); GHOST – Impera (Sweden’s most unique metal band continues to dominate as Tobias Forge delivers more retro-styled brilliance); PANIC! AT THE DISCO – Viva Las Vengeance (Brendon Urie pays fitting tribute to his biggest influences – especially Queen - with this lovingly irreverent record)

Honourable mention:

SPIRITBOX – Rotoscope

The best new metalcore band of the block continue to show they really are the ones to watch with this BLINDING three-track EP which shows that the astonishingly talented Courtney LaPlante and co are DETERMINED to keep experimenting with their sound. Opener/title-track Rotoscope is the undeniable highlight here, but Sew Me Up and, in particular, Hysteria both prove to be thoroughly irresistible earworms too …

[jonnylovers-in-neverland]

Chris Martin’s NME playlist

“With competitiveness and professional jealousy, I feel very lucky that it very quickly alchemises into just being inspired by someone and then being a fan of them,” Martin told NME, before giving us the lowdown on his fandom love of The Verve, R.E.M., and Missy Elliot in his genre-smashing choices. Check out what tracks he selected and why here…

‘It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)’ – Peggy Gou

Chris Martin: “Peggy Gou is a genius, as far as I am concerned. Her grooves are wonderful. Some people are still in the age of social media and everyone knowing everything, while some people just have ‘cool’ about them. Nick Cave has cool about him, Jay Z is effortlessly cool, and I think Peggy Gou is like that. Of course she has ‘Nanana’, which was brilliant, but I heard ‘If It Makes You Forget’ a few years ago, and every time I do I’m like, ‘How does she do that?’ It’s so clever. When talking about people who make you want to be on top of your game, and she’s one of them.”

‘Bittersweet Symphony’ – The Verve

“Any list of songs that I like has to include this because it’s still the most important song in my life. In a strange way, if you put together all of our songs, they’re all essentially saying that same thing: ‘It’s a bittersweet symphony’ – focussing more on the sweet, but always aware of the bitter. I was at that perfect age for that song; it was just seismic.

“When we were late-teenagers in the mid-90s, the big five of British bands were The Verve, Oasis, Blur, Supergrass, Radiohead. While I still love all five of those bands equally and for different reasons, if I had to take one song from that period, it would have to be ‘Bittersweet Symphony’. It only just beats ‘Airbag’ [Radiohead], ‘It’s Too Late’ [Supergrass], ‘Song 2’ [Blur] and the whole of ‘Different Class’ [Pulp]. ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ must always win.”

‘Independent Women, Pt. 1’ – Destiny’s Child

“This is the blessing of being in our band is you’re allowed to like all kinds of different things because you never have to worry about being cool! Now of course, liking Beyoncé is super cool. The first time we played Top Of The Pops, we were walking up the stage looking like what we were (which was students who’d just been given a bit of money).

“We didn’t look very good, but coming down the stairs were this group of goddesses. I hadn’t heard of them yet, but it was Destiny’s Child. We’d just done our performance of ‘Yellow’ or whatever, and ‘Independent Woman’ was around that time. I was like, ‘Oh my God, there’s a whole other level beyond grime-y bars and indie cool’. To this day, Beyoncé is someone who I’m always inspired by and in awe of. That was the first song that made me understand how good she is.”

‘In The Wee Small Hours’ – Frank Sinatra

“There definitely comes a time in life when you realise, to paraphrase Spinal Tap, no one has loved and lost like Frank. ‘In The Wee Small Hours’ and ‘Only The Lonely’ – those two records that were made in the ‘50s and arranged by a guy called Nelson Riddle who also did a lot of Ella Fitzgerald’s records. His arrangements are compositions and geniusly put-together. There’s a warmth, a sadness and a beauty in those albums that just really hits me now. I feel the same way about Chopin. These are all things that put me firmly in my place.”

‘Feeling Good’ – Nina Simone

“To me, she’s a real paradigm for one of the key philosophies of our band: look at what’s missing as an opportunity, look at what’s broken as the crack where the light comes in (that’s a Leonard Cohen line). Whatever’s happening to you is supposed to be happening to you and is for its highest good. Her story is that she was rejected from a classical conservatoire because of her colour, so she went and became Nina Simone. That’s alchemising trauma in such an incredible way. I hold her in the pantheon of great humans.

“I first heard this song being covered by Muse, every night when we opened for them back in 2000. I was like, ‘Oh this band are really good and that Nina Simone song is amazing.”

‘Nightswimming’ – R.E.M.

“R.E.M. are in the first group of big inspirers. After James, plus ‘Bad’ by Michael Jackson, Aha, and a band called Five Star, they were my first influences. Then came the first real wave of indie and shoegaze – some of it I really liked but some I just pretended to be into to impress the older boys.

“My introduction to R.E.M. was ‘Losing My Religion’, but then ‘Nightswimming’ was when I really fell in love with that band. I realised you could be a great band without any virtuosos if you’ve got the gift of songs and you really care about what you’re doing. R.E.M. gave me that lesson, and ‘Nightswimming’ still blows my mind every time I hear it.”

‘Starburster’ – Fontaines D.C.

“Will [Champion, Coldplay drummer] actually told me about Fontaines right at the beginning with ‘Big’. I listened to it and I got insanely jealous, which is my highest compliment. It was the same thing I felt when I saw The Flaming Lips for the first time or heard Nicki Minaj’s verse on ‘Monster’ by Kanye West. ‘Oh my god, how do you get this good?’ With ‘Big’ I thought, ‘This is unbelievable’. Then ‘Boys In The Better Land’ did the same and my son got really into Fontaines D.C. a few years ago. I thought ‘Skinty Fia’ was a masterpiece and I was eager to hear ‘Romance’ and ‘Starburster’.

“It shows how you become a brilliant band over a long period of time. It’s brave, it’s forward-thinking, it’s got soul, the lyrics are incredible, the melodies are incredible, the production is incredible, it keeps every other band on their toes. You can play it last in a set when no one even knows it and it will hold up. It’s perfect. That deep inhale is the best anti-sing-along too, it’s a breathe-along!”

‘Die Fledermaus: Overture’ – Johann Strauss II

“I saw this the other day at The Hollywood Bowl. My friend is a conductor and he was conducting it. It’s a waltz. Classical music was pop music at the time, and it really hit me the other night. I went right to the back of The Hollywood Bowl behind everybody and watched from way back. I felt like a fan and intimidated by how good the piece was. It was so full of life and colour.

“If this came out tomorrow, it would still be a hit in its way. Even the barrier between ‘classical’ and ‘modern’ music are being erased now. Things are either great or they’re not. This is really, truly wonderful.”

‘The Spark That Bled’ – The Flaming Lips

“When I was 19 and Coldplay was forming, you can hear in our early stuff that my main two influences at that time were Jeff Buckley and Radiohead. Jeff because I could sing in the same range. Before that, I didn’t think we stood a chance because I couldn’t sing like Liam Gallagher, we didn’t have the energy of Supergrass, I can’t observe like Jarvis Cocker could with Sheffield, I’m in trouble. Forget about trip-hop and hip-hop; that seemed so far away. Then Jeff Buckley seemed to sing like I sing but much better, and Radiohead at that time were from a similar socio-economic part of the country and were brilliant. They made me feel like it was possible to be in a band.”

“For a while, you can hear their influence, but then in 1999 we played Reading Festival at the bottom of the bill in the new band’s tent. At the top of the bill was The Flaming Lips, about whom I’d read in the NME and Melody Maker, because they were all into ‘The Soft Bulletin’ and saying it was the best album ever. I had to check them out.

‘The Spark That Bled’ was the first time I’d heard them when I saw them live, and it changed my entire world. It made me realise, ‘Oh, what our band needs to be is just ourselves’. As the internet grew and we travelled further and wider, we found too many influences to name. At the centre of any artist, should just be the freedom and bravery to be yourself – regardless of what anybody says.

“As a human too; as long as you’re not trying to hurt anybody, then the biggest thing you can be is yourself. Wayne Coyne was the first person I saw in the flesh, being really himself. It changed my life.”

‘Work It’ – Missy Elliott

“I remember that video being brilliant. I was probably watching that in the studio, thinking ‘Where has this come from?’ We hadn’t been to America yet or anything, and this was another thing that felt a million miles away but now doesn’t. It’s another perfect song.”

[link to that playlist on Spotify]

[megan-loves-surveys]

#49. Music surveys!

List 10 random musical artists you like in no specific order. Warning: Do not read the questions below before listing your favorite artists.

Five

Blue

Little Mix

Ayumi Hamasaki

Madison Beer

Britney Spears

Taylor Swift

Girls Aloud

Spice Girls

Adam Lambert

What’s the first song you ever heard by #6? "...Baby One More Time" obviously.

What’s your favorite song by #8? "Untouchable"

What are your favorite lyrics by #5? Oh, she has SO many. A standout is "I would take a bullet for you just to prove my love, only to find out you were the one holding the gun" <3

What song by #3 makes you the happiest? "Happiness" haha, it lives up to it's name!

When did you first get into #2? I think I just heard them on the radio when they debuted, and since I love boybands, I naturally liked them immediately.

How did you get into #3? I checked them out cos they won X Factor, and were the first girl group to do so.

What is your favorite song by #4? "SCAR"

Have you seen #9 live? How many times? I wish. They never came anywhere near NZ lol.

Favorite album by #7? Probably Lover. Reputation is a strong runner up though.

What’s your favorite song by #1? "It's The Things You Do"

How did you become a fan of #10? I didn't watch him on American Idol, but I randomly downloaded his album after hearing it was good. Didn't listen to it till one of the songs came up on shuffle, and I was like "damn this is good" so I listened the entire thing. The rest is history.

How long have you known #9? Since 1996.

Top 5 by #5.

Effortlessly

Good In Goodbye

Stay Numb And Carry On

Follow The White Rabbit

Baby

Have you ever seen #10 live? Yep! I've seen him twice with Queen and once solo. He was amazing all 3 times.

Have you ever met #4? Hahah oh I wish.

What’s your favorite album by #1? Their debut.

Favorite lyrics by #7? I can't decide.

What’s #2’s best song? "Back Someday"

How many times have you seen #2 live? Twice - once at a showcase in 2001 and then again in 2019.

Favorite song by #9? "Last Time Lover"

Which one of these have you known the longest? Spice Girls, since 1996!

Name first twenty-five bands on shuffle. No repeats.

Jessica Simpson

Danity Kane

Atomic Kitten

Rihanna

Melanie Martinez

Neon Jungle

Blue

Jasmine

Velvet Empire

All Saints

Vanessa Hudgens

Koda Kumi

t.A.T.u.

Ayumi Hamasaki

Delta Goodrem

Selena Gomez

Lady Gaga

Namie Amuro

Daphne & Celeste

BoA

Britney Spears

Five

Utada Hikaru

Spice Girls

The Pussycat Dolls

What was the first song you ever heard by 6? Probably... "Trouble"? Not sure. What is your favorite album by 2? Welcome To The Dollhouse What is your favorite lyric that 1 has sung? I hate these questions cos I can never think lol. How many times have you seen 11 live? None. What is your favorite song by 7? "Back Someday" What is a good memory you have involving 20? None, really. I just love her music. Is there a song by 3 that makes you sad? Oh yeah. What is your favorite lyric that 14 has sung? Most of her lyrics are in Japanese, so not sure. What is your favorite song by 19? "Hey Boy" How did you first get into 22? I don't even remember, it was sometime in the mid 90's and I was a kid lol. What was the first song you heard by 21? "...Baby One More Time" What is your favorite song by 4? "Umbrella" or "Cheers (Drink To That)" What is a good memory you have involving 13? None. Is there a song by 23 that makes you sad? Dunno, maybe. What is your favorite album of 15? Innocent Eyes What is your favorite lyric that 9 has sung? Hmm... What is your favorite song by 8? Probably... "B*TCH*S" or "R!de On" How many times have you seen 5 live? Twice - once on her first tour and once opening for Adam Lambert. What is your favorite album by 12? Hard one! She has so many good albums. What is a good memory you have involving 25? None. What was the first song you heard by 18? Not even sure, but it was probably from the PLAY album cos that was her current album when I first got into her. What is your favorite song by 17? "Starstruck"

Put your ipod/MP3/Media Player on random

Song Number 1 (name and artist): Little Mix - More Than Words Your favourite lyric from this song: "I find peace in every story you told, I think of you, I'll never be alone, it's true true true, I do do do" Does this song have any bad memories attached?: Not at all. What genre is this?: Pop.

Song Number 2: B*Witched - Leaves What's the last line of this song?: "Till like a leaf we fall... unto the ground" Have you ever seen this artist live?: Yes, twice. Who does this song make you think of?: Autumn.

Song Number 3: Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame What's the first line of this song?: "Close your eyes, give me your hand, darlin" Where did you first here this song?: Back in 2001 when I got their album. How about the first time you heard the artist?: Sometime in 2000.

Song Number 4: Norma John - Blackbird Which friend could this be a theme tune for, and why?: None of them. Write down the chorus: "Blackbird, blackbird, don't sing to me, don't sing below my window" Why do you like this song?: Cos it's a beautiful heartbreaking ballad.

Song Number 5: Enya - Only Time What kind of film would you choose this as the theme for?: Something dramatic. Who introduced you to this artist?: I don't remember. Best part of this song: The entire thing.

Song Number 6: Five - It's The Things You Do The third line reads: "No need to hide now, open up your mind now" How long is this song?: 3:36 Is it one of your favourites?: YES!

Song Number 7: Ricky Martin - Private Emotion How long have you been listening to this artist?: Since he got big in 1999 or so. What's the cover look like on the album this came from?: It's just his face lol. Where would you rank this in your favourites from the artist? It's my fave by him!

Has your favourite song come up? If not, what is it?: Not in this 7, but the Five song is up there!

1) Using band/artist names, spell out your first name: Melanie Martinez Enya Girls Aloud Ayumi Hamasaki Najoua Belyzel

2) Have you ever had a song written about you? Haha nope.

3) What song makes you cry? Oh my god, so many. First one that comes to mind is Sarah Cothran - As The World Caves In

4) What song makes you happy? LOADS.

5) What do you like to listen to before bed? I don't listen to music before bed, I usually watch YouTube on my phone, lol.

6) Name a song by Brand New: No idea.

7) Who was/were your idol/s when you were younger? Spice Girls, Atomic Kitten, Girls Aloud etc.

8) First album you ever bought? Billie - Honey To The B

9) Name a song that reminds you of someone and why: Wild Thing reminds me of Mox cos it's his entrance theme xD

10) what is the last album you bought? I dunno, I just use Spotify these days lol.

11) what is the last song you downloaded? Some random J-pop album that isn't on Spotify.

12) what is the last concert you attended? Five's Greatest Hits tour <3

13) what current overexposed artist and/or song do you actually like/enjoy? Taylor Swift. Easily.

[i-should-be-so-lucky]

My ranking of Tension by Kylie Minogue

Padam Padam - Padam ? Padam . What else can I say ? Well quite alot actually . What better song to orchestrate Kylie's return to the UK Singles Top Ten , which she hadn't seen since featuring on the Taio Cruz song Higher , which , fun fact , was actually an Aphrodite reject . Padam Padam is my most streamed song on Spotify of all time , and I don't see any other song taking that spot from it any time soon(save for maybe Cherry Bomb). Padam Padam is Kylie at peak club vibes , and is also , in my humble opinion , Kylie's best lead single since Slow back in 2003 . There's a reason its gonna be one of Kylie's most remembered songs . Its iconic , its eternally fresh , and it makes you wanna move onto the club floor and find someone to take home , and have them take off all your clothes . I sincerely hope Kylie works with Ina Wroldsen and LOSTBOY in the future , because God knows they know how to make a song .

Heavenly Body - I struggled with whether to put this at number one or two , but it just couldn't quite beat out Padam Padam . Regardless of that , Heavenly Body is my second fave track of the album for a reason . Its an experience all in itself . Its so 4am , lying in bed after listening to music and reading all night vibes to me . Its so calming , and it's also Kylie at peak club . The production and bass in the song are ever-present , but not in anyway overwhelming . It kinda gives the trance of the 90s , which I love aswell . It also reminds me of Love Affair , which is also one of my favourite Kylie album cuts of all time .

Somebody To Love - A song people seem to be relatively ignoring, and I can't figure out why . Its the album closer on the deluxe edition , and for good reason . It really does give the album a feeling of closure . It feels like a song who's energy is best captured by Kylie in her mid 50s - its a more mature , calm take on love , and I find it so refreshing . I love how Kylie can be like this but also remain sexy at the same time .

You Still Get Me High - To put it simply , this is Kylie slaying at the 80s synthpop trend of the 2020s . The song is super emotional when you listen to it and pay attention to the lyrics , and the demo of it , Moonlight(Can't Say Goodbye) , is even more emotional. The high notes Kylie hits at the end are sooo good too !! I love the visualiser aswell ! It's grown on me an awful lot since Tension released , and I'm not surprised . Its pop perfection , and I will stand by that .

Just Imagine - I CANNOT understand why everyone's sleeping on this track . I cannot . The only criticism I've even seen of the song is that it doesn't go anywhere , but like , so what ? I think it's supposed to have that built-up energy in it , the neverending ball of energy that it is is like the neverending hope that the song represents . Its just. So good . And I will fight anyone and everyone on that .

Tension - Tension is definitely the most experimental track on the album , and I love it . It also marks only the second time ever that a title track of a Kylie album has been made a single , after Golden in 2018(though it would've been the fourth time if Kylie had gotten her way with making Enjoy Yourself and Rhythm of Love singles back in the PWL era) . The music video is chock-full of references too , from references to Kylie herself , to other artists , like Cher and Britney, and even movie references , like Blade Runner and Paris, Texas . It also definitely has the best music video Kylie has done since like , All The Lovers or maybe even Chocolate .

Vegas High - yet another taste of Kylie and the OG clubby feel of Tension , Vegas High is what it says it is - a high . It's continuously grown on me since its release, and I can see why it was my second fave track after the tiktok leaks months earlier. It heavily reminds me of one of my fave-ever Kylie songs , In Your Eyes , and it defo has single potential too !

Things We Do For Love - There's no surprise to why this is like , the fourth most streamed song on the album . Its good . solid . pop . It's Kylie at her best , and infused with 80s synthpop glam . The build-up to the bridge is amazing , and imo should defo be a single !

Drum - Now this is what I thought Tension was originally going to be like ! Clubby bangers , back-to-back ! Of course , Kylie ultimately chose to take it in a more 80s synthpop direction , and of course did so flawlessly . Nevertheless , its fun to Just Imagine what could've been ! I remember hearing Drum months ago , when it leaked alongside Running(which NEEDS to be released , aswell as More Than A Feeling!!!!!!)and I loved it ! I like how its structure is a little different , with the chorus taking a little longer to fully come in . I remember listening to Drum and Padam Padam when I was on holiday in Greece , and I have a vivid memory of dancing with my headphones , alone at 10PM , on a balcony overlooking beautiful scenery , the darkly-tinged yet still visable bay miles below , and the gorgeous town on the beackfront , in the north of Crete . I'll forever cherish that memory because of Drum , and I'm forever grateful .

Green Light - It's a good song , what can I say ? Its calm , cool , chill , and Kylie slays vocally . I love the visualiser too , its so fun ! I don't really have much to say on the song itself , apart from the fact that its a solid track . Oh , and the sax solo in the chorus is immaculate

Story - I find this song really sweet . I can see why Kylie cried while performing it for the first time in London . It would appear to be quite personal to her , and seems to be half an admittance on Kylie's half , of her life and its ups and moreso its downs , and also a love letter to her fans a la Sincerely Yours from Golden , and All The Lovers from Aphrodite .

Hands - This was actually my favourite track when the minute-long tiktok leaks came out a few months back . Although its fallen way down my rankings since , it's really cute as a track , and truly stands out . I love Kylie rapping sooo much (like in Secret (Take You Home)!!) . I wasn't surprised to hear it was originally gonna be on The Barbie Movie soundtrack , it really would've fitted . My only real criticism of the song is that the chorus is wayyy too short , it desperately needs a good long one because with the current version of the track it kinda throws you back into the last chorus before the bridge has even really started:/

Hold On To Now - I do think this track is a little overrated . Then again , I find All The Lovers and Say Something overrated , and the track is quite similar to them , so it's definitely just me lol . It's still a solid track though , and I can see why Kylie would choose it as the third single , even though I'd personally prefer Things We Do For Love or You Still Get Me High . Also the bridge is EUPHORIC!!!!

10 Out Of 10 - I didn't really care for it upon its release way back earlier near the start of the year , but I've started listening to it alot more since the album released ! I used to find Oliver Helden's vocals in the chorus a little grating , but I can vibe with them now . Overall , its a cute little pop number , even if it sounds a little jarring coming directly after the much darker-sounding Vegas High lolz

Love Train - It was originally my least fave but it has definitely grown on me ! Its fun , different , and I love how its like kinda a throwback to Loveboat on Light Years ! Its super camp , and I am glad Kylie put it on the album , even if it seems a little out of place at times .

One More Time - it's the only track that hasn't really grown on me . I find the chorus kinda repetitive . I love Kylies vocals tho , when I'm in a good mood its a fun song to listen to !(Still wouldve scrapped it in a heartbeat if it meant getting Running or More Than A Feeling a proper release though , sorry)

[hotflatrock]

Sam Hunt at Shoreline Amphitheater

When did country music become OK?

This was at top of mind as I attended a concert at Shoreline Amphitheater featuring Lily Rose, Brett Young, and Sam Hunt. I didn’t know any songs from any of them, and I was only an alternate to attend the concert. The wife’s friend had to put down her dog at the last minute, so I was pressed into duty.

And it was great fun.

The year of the concert has pushed all kinds of boundaries for us both, but just a few months ago, I never would have imagined I would be attending my third country concert of the year. Back in the 80s and 90s, I would use the word “hate” if asked about country music. Having a country music-loving girlfriend, later wife, will ensure you will get an earful of it. But I think the transition from hate, to tolerance, to 3 concerts in about month didn’t happen just because of that.

There are a few songs and acts that acted as the gateway to tolerance. I think it started with The Chicks’ cover of the legendary Fleetwood Mac song, Landslide. I actually bought album just for that song, and I really glommed onto a couple other tracks from it… particularly Traveling Soldier. Next up were some KOIT radio standards in the mid-aughts: Lady A’s Need You Now and Just A Kiss. I listened to When I Die Young by The Band Perry and Taylor Swift’s early stuff on a loop, and I absolutely loved when Mark Knopfler teamed up with Emmylou Harris for All The Roadrunning and the incredible song This Is Us.

But the real turning point was probably when I went to Nashville with the wife and her friends for a birthday celebration. Being immersed in that city with music pouring out into the street from every bar was a revelatory experience. We arrived on July 4th in the middle of street party with the main drag blocked off for a live concert, thousands of people thronging the street.

There were aspiring musicians everywhere: in every bar, street corner, and hotel lobby. There was even a blonde lady singing country and trying to rap in the café gift shop after touring the Ryman.

We also went to a show at the Grand Old Opry, which turned out to be a delightful mix of bluegrass, newbie country acts, and a fiercely jingoistic performance by Lee Greenwood. While I didn’t love all the music, it was the overall experience that sticks with me.

Flash forward to concert at the Shoreline, I was again fully immersed in the experience, if not the music. Lily Rose was really cool. Her own music was solid, and she sang some famous songs to warm up the crowd. Brett Young shared his own fond memories of attending shows at Shoreline from when he was a student, and the one song he sang 10 different ways was ok.

Sam Hunt shared some hilarious stories, particularly how he fell in love with his wife in the back of cop car, before singing his song about falling in love in the back of a cop car. But the image that sticks with the most was the video backdrop to one song whose name I didn’t catch. The video displayed a house at dusk alone in a field, with hundreds of fireflies lighting up the tableau.

I used to live on the east coast for high school, and I hated it there. I’ve long said that the only things I miss from the east coast are thunderstorms and warm rain. But the fireflies in the video were a reminder that there were other cool parts of living on the east coast, things that are never present or possible in California.

Yet I never gained appreciation for country music when I lived in the near south, and it look falling in love with a country-music loving San Francisco native to make it possible.

[musiconanironingboard]

25 February 2023: Sophomore Jinx!, Olivelawn. (Cargo, 1992)

San Diego grunge-punk band Olivelawn was the kind of thing I’d never have encountered were it not for my job programming university radio in the early to mid-’90s. My station was fortunate to be serviced by a vast array of record companies, both major and independent. Olivelawn’s 1990 debut Sap, on Nemesis Records, was one of those garage-rock albums of the time that, while not phenomenal, I really enjoyed. I remember I put it in medium rotation, which still ensured plenty of play in any given week, and the opening track “College Volume Pedal” remained enough of a favorite that long after I’d forgotten how it went I still knew I wanted it when I stumbled across a copy of Sap in Annapolis, Maryland, in 2014, almost a quarter century later. 

I guess Cargo didn’t service us (surely not) or had stopped or something, because the station never received a copy of Olivelawn’s 1992 follow-up Sophomore Jinx! I always wanted a copy because I loved that album cover, but I never got one.

There’s a person I’m loosely acquainted with on Twitter, though I don’t know her in real life, but occasionally we’ll have a casual exchange about something or other, always related to pop culture. Recently she mentioned that her friend “O” had died, and following the thread a little I learned that he had been in the band Fluf, whom I’ve not thought about in nearly thirty years (and never listened to). Continuing to read about her recently departed friend, I finally learned that he, Otis Barthoulameu, was the guitarist of Olivelawn. I instantly went to pull out my copy of Sap, and sure enough, there’s the lowercase credit: “o, guitar.” Way in the depths of my memory, I recalled the guitarist on that album being credited merely as “o.” I played the record for the first time in several years, and decided the time was right for me to satisfy my longtime wish for a copy of Sophomore Jinx! In the week that followed, I saw a handful of tributes to Barthoulameu on social media, including from Thurston Moore. By all accounts, he was the kind of guy who made friends wherever he went and would go out of his way for you, apparently another case of the good dying young.

Above are the front and back covers. I had to photograph them at an angle because the jacket has that kind of old shrinkwrap that will tear to pieces if you try to slip it off, and with a glossy black cover I can’t avoid reflections, so that front cover I always liked so much now has my ironing-board pattern all over it. I’ll show a stock photo of it at the end of this post.

The inner sleeve is plain white; below are both labels. I’m not positive who that is on side two—it’s not O., but I think it might be their original bassist Neil Blender, who performed on an Olivelawn 45 before Sap came out. (Johnny Donhowe played bass on the two extant Olivelawn albums.)

Here’s a better shot of that front cover, taken from Discogs.

There are no writing credits anywhere on the package, but I am going to assume that “Heard It on the X” is a cover of the 1978 ZZ Top song, which I wouldn’t have expected from a band like Olivelawn.