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agentoffangirling · 26 days ago

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Janani K Jha songs, bc why is everything she writes so AoS-coded?

Achilles Heel: Very self explanatory, I feel, a song about being the other's weakness, FitzSimmons

Thanatos (End of Us): Another romance song, being together even if it kills, so very Huntingbird (I think that's the ship name?)

Ms. Protagonist: The loss of innocence from childhood to adulthood, so very s1 Skye to s7 Daisy Johnson. Could also apply to Jemma over the seasons

Library Card: A song about growing up as a nerd? Jemma Simmons

Golden Age: Really could be any woman in the MCU, but since this is more about the hidden and misunderstood women of history, I feel like it's better suited to the "background characters" of S.H.I.E.L.D., for lack of a better word, such as Victoria Hand and Piper

Sunday Crossword: Philinda struggling to convey their feelings, slowly falling out of love and ending as friends

Machine Learning: Fitz. 100% Fitz, oh my god, it's so him. It's literally a song about not knowing how to socialize and always feeling like a robot

Three Specters: Daisy in season 5, feeling lost and thrust into a position of power with little preparation. The song specifically describes being haunted with past memories, which is so her in those moments

Prophecies: Technically a song dedicated to the artist's parents of how they sacrificed everything for her, Daisy's family dynamic w/Coulson and May

Two Roads: Honestly I had a hard time with this since it's about choosing between the safe path and the new one. I'm going with Mack always having to choose between his personal life and S.H.I.E.L.D., especially since he's always threatening to quit (and never does)

Rome (Outro): the collective trauma everyone had by the end of the season and finally taking time for themselves. The song is basically about calming down and taking it slow

Slow Burn: Being in a relationship that just consumes you in all the right ways, that makes the both of you better is so Dousy (OTP frfr)

The Maze: Stuck in a mental/physical maze that you struggle to get out of is perfect for the Framework arc

Hellbent: About literally going through hell, about agency. Melinda May, SPECIFICALLY after the situation in Bahrain

Gladiators: The team fighting any opponent, but the season 7 finale would fit best

Royal We: Staticquake. It's a song on toxic codependent relationships, and I am not loathe to admit (sorry Staticquake fans), that the way Lincoln's death leaves Daisy is quite close to what the song describes

The Siege: Deke Shaw, especially with how much shit the team they gave him later on (May could also apply to this, bc one of the lyrics is "and no cavalry will cave")

Weird Hills: Ward's betrayal on the team; the song is all about trusting someone who called themself a friend only to stab you in the back

Polyxena: A song about sacrifice and being used to further the story. Trip's death

The Judgement (I Think Too Much): The main lyric is "you think too much with your head and not enough with your heart", very Aida becoming Ophelia

Cut the Cord: While it's technically about "dreaming a release from validation" as Janani puts it, I also think this fits well with the whole prophecy subplot of s3b and Daisy trying to subvert it

Nike: Phil Coulson, how his death is always weaponized against him but everyone forgets about him all the other times

Library of Alexandria: the lost innocence of S1, Bus Kids and how we never see them happy following s1

#yes this is a post to tell y'all to listen to janani k jha #when i say her songs are good #if you like nerdy indie pop pls listen to her #agents of shield #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.#aos #janani k jha #j maya #daisy johnson #fitzsimmons #grant ward #melinda may #phil coulson #deke shaw #alphonso mackenzie #dousy

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manysmallhands · 15 days ago

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Top Albums Of 2024: #20 - #11

The second post of my albums of the year! The first post also exists!! More will follow!!! Now read on!!!!

#20. Fred Thomas - Window In The Rhythm

Indie rock

It’s been 6 years since his last proper album and much has changed regarding how much I bother with DiY indie, but I go back a long way with Fred and so I’ll always be excited when he brings a new record out. And all told, Window In The Rhythm is really very good! Most closely resembling 2015’s All Are Saved of his many previous albums, it consists of 7 largely lengthy art rock grinds that take the minutia of relationships and picks away at them remorselessly (there are one or two softer songs in there but most of it is pretty unforgiving stuff). The appropriately titled “Hours” is a bit of a drag but everything else here sounds fantastic and works very well for drifting away to on the grim winter afternoons. Given how the songs kinda melt into each other, I tend to engage with it all as a series of classic Fred set pieces, with my current faves being the way the gentle, ringing guitar arpeggios of "Season Of Carelessness" at first gradually and then suddenly give way to its fizzing, intense electronic coda, and also the bit in opener “Embankment” where Fred does his fast talking about 90s acts party piece, singing “I made you a tape - withthesamesquarepushersongonitfourtimes - but not in a row” and I know that my favourite indie dude is back for real.

#19. Aespa - Armageddon

K-pop

I tend to struggle to focus on k-pop - i can never remember who's who, partly a function of not being able to buy them here on CD - but mercifully Aespa did a cheap retail version of Armageddon and i've managed to give it more time than most things. And their first full length album turned out to be a game of two halves: the first five songs feature a harder, hip hop influenced sound, full of drama and flash but with a hint of Britney here and there, while the remainder takes a lighter, more girlish tone, with "Bahama" coming off like a kind of k-pop "Kokomo" (which is good, not bad like you think) while "Live My Life" goes full pop punk but with a characteristic, slightly restrained quality that makes it all the more charming. A strong debut and an entertainingly distinct calling card that'll make it easier for me to distinguish them from their peers from now on.

#18. Beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves

Indie rock; Singer-songwriter

Bea’s third full album was recorded in LA with Rick Rubin and often seemed as in thrall to America as that would suggest, with the guitars rocked up for a 90s alt vibe and her accent set to a mid Atlantic twang. "Take A Bite" and "Beaches" were both terrific anthems that confirmed her status as burgeoning indie icon but it was her more delicate material that came off best, as "Girl Song" and "This Is How It Went" showcased her huge talent as a singer-songwriter of the old school mode.

#17. Doja Cat - Scarlet 2 CLAUDE

Rap; RnB

Last year’s Scarlet was a terrific album but one where its massive hits failed to carry it to general success. Continuing the era is a brave move but one suspects that this might be a final hurrah for Doja in the rap game before going back to paying the bills. The tone is similar on Scarlet 2 but perhaps a little more lowkey, with songs like "MASC" exuding a melancholy rarely seen on the more bravado infused OG record. But there’s still a lot of fun to be had here too, like on the poppier "OKLOSER" where Doja uses that cute, mocking voice that she does so well and takes it all to some hilariously petty places

#16. Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department

Pop/rock

“How much sad did you think I had in me?” Taylor sings after about 20 minutes here and ngl, there’s quite a lot. Her 11th album has been divisive and understandably so: there’s a sense in which the Antonoff and Dessner partnerships feel a bit played out and its often lugubrious and downbeat tone can get a bit exhausting at times, especially when you tie in the 15 (count 'em!) bonus tracks (which I have mostly tended to avoid). But once you warm to its themes a little, Taylor is still a terrific songwriter and "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart", "But Daddy I Love Him" and the sparkling title track are among her best in what’s largely a strong set, at least til the occasionally lacklustre final third. At heart, TTPD knits together an engrossing narrative which plays on the loneliness of breaking up when yr the most famous woman in the world. Whether you have much sympathy for that is yr own call but for myself, I still think it’s pretty fascinating

#15. Remi Wolf - Big Ideas

Funk pop, rock

I came to Remi Wolf’s second album for the funk bangers but stayed for the hooky indie rock tunes too, at least after I’d gotten over how much i wanted there to be more funk bangers. The most immediate material here is definitely in her sunshine RnB pop style, with "Cinderella", "Pitiful" and "Frog Rock" being some of the catchiest songs I’ve heard all year. But, given time, the rockier "Alone In Miami" became a huge favourite too, with Remi’s diaristic lyricism adding a dimension beyond the hooks and riffing. Big Ideas is comfortable reaching across the stylistic spectrum, being the first record i've heard for a long time that takes in both Prince and Daniel Johnston as notable influences. In summary: there are two Wolfs within this album and both of them are good!

#14. Jessica Pratt - Here In the Pitch

Singer-songwriter; Folk pop; Retro

Her third album Quiet Signs felt a bit hazy and nebulous at times but Here In The Pitch returned to the strong melodies of Jess’s earlier material, a mid century pop record that frequently feels like a warm summer night somewhere in Latin America circa 1962. Tho it’s sometimes as minimal as its small hours vibe might suggest, Here In The Pitch contains plenty of pop energy, full of Spectorish rumble and swaying bossanovas as well as being as packed with hooks as any of this year’s big sellers. While the atmosphere does sometimes tend twds eeriness, Pratt's distinctive babyvoiced coo always feels welcoming on an album where she sounds like she's really enjoying herself.

#13. Tyler the Creator - Chromakopia

Rap; Hip Hop

I’ve never managed to connect much with Tyler before but Chromakopia really blew me away. I'm a sucker for the kind of upbeat funk and soft soul beats that he tends to use here, but his extremely in yr face, percussion heavy approach is also a big draw and the way this album comes at you right out of the gate is hugely impressive. Lyrically, there’s some of the usual bragging that I’d expect but Tyler also gets into the kind of awkward personal and moral quandaries that make up life's grey areas too. Songs like "Hey Jane" and "Take Your Mask Off" have a real depth of character to them, exploring issues like unwanted pregnancy and personal disillusionment in a thoughtful way that doesn't look for neat answers.

#12. Lizzy McAlpine - Older

Singer songwriter; Folk-rock; Retro

Lizzy’s third album, while coherent enough in its focus, finds her stylistically split between a Laura Marling type singer songwriter vein and something more obviously retro focused. In all truth Older is rarely a cheerful record - a young woman’s odyssey thru a time of change type of thing - but it is beautifully rendered, either in rich Fleetwood Mac-esque arrangements or spare, delicate solo accompaniments which reinforce the desperation at its heart. I’ve struggled a little with some of the final third, where the backing tends to drop to a bare minimum and that’s probably kept this out of the top 10 here. But the strength of the melodies and the real character and power of her delivery are getting me now to a point where I’m more consistently enjoying all of it: it’s just the kind of record where some parts of it take a little longer to come into full focus than others. This sort of folky, soul bearing singer songwriter is not always the kind of thing that i can get along with but, far more than most albums of its kind, Older is an absolute gem.

#11. Halsey - The Great Impersonator

Pop/rock

The Great Impersonator was largely inspired by Halsey’s struggles with life threatening illness and much has been made of her “main character syndrome” by some, regarding the way she places her fears and trials at the centre of the record. In truth it can feel quite jarring at times - and occasionally exhausting - but what it actually made me think of is the way that I, as someone with long term disabling illness, often don’t bring things up, in fact make myself small and don’t talk about the basics of my life, for fear of not being heard or accommodated. So when Halsey talks about her issues here, then it really does feel genuinely moving to hear someone making that space for herself and refusing to be silent.

None of this would matter much if The Great Impersonator sucked but - lucky for us - it’s absolutely fantastic. The multi-decade concept feels a bit hard to parse but generally you can just ignore it and focus on the songs, a clash of genres to rival her masterpiece Manic but with an even greater depth of emotional turmoil to draw upon. Aside from illness, there are the usual self hating bangers like "Ego", and a mix of the two is often welcome too: “Dog Years” especially bristles with fury as Ashley growls “they say all dogs go to Heaven / well, what about a bitch?” and indeed the record is well stocked with good one liners throughout. It's fair to say that the consistently downbeat focus can make for a grim listen and also that the returning "Letter To God" songs can come off as a bit repetitive and boring. But there’s sweetness here too as well as harsh reality - especially on the glorious, featherlight title track - and I suspect a bit more time with this would have shunted it into the top 10.

And that Top 10 is coming soon! i have actually written the posts! Maybe starting tomorrow! Bye for now!

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