#it's kind of crazy because this is one of my top 5 elton john songs of all time and i didnt even think of it. your mind

[oldbutchdaniel]

If Elton John’s ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ isn’t on Luke and Eric’s S3 Daniel playlist what’s the point of living

the way that this song is about elton john being suicidal because he was continuing to outwardly claim he was straight/be in relationships with women but also armand could so easily be the person in question who "nearly had me roped and tied / altar-bound, hypnotized" kind of a daniel song across the board. crazy stuff.

[toscrollperchancetomeme]

Lestat de Lioncourt - A playlist

So, guess who made a Lestat Playlist (like there aren't enough already) and decided to sit down for 4-6 hours to find some excerpt corresponding with each song? Featuring 80s and 90s music (clearly showing my age...) as well as many european songs and showtunes. Enjoy!

1. Cathedrals – Ramin Karimloo (Original by Jump, Little Children)

In the cathedrals of New York and Rome There is a feeling that you should just go home And spend the lifetime finding out just where that is

And that was not a good year for me. I was wandering aimlessly. I was sick of things. I was furious with myself that the „beauty“ of life wasn't sustaining me, wasn't making my loneliness bearable.

I wanted to join them. Always do want to join them and never do. „Go home,“ he whispered. - Prince Lestat

(I actually feel like there are quotes that would correspond to this song in every one of the books and indeed have not yet found any other song that captures the general spirit of The Vampire Chronicles as perfectly.)

2. Edge of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks

Well, I went today Maybe I will go again tomorrow Yeah yeah, well, the music there Well, it was hauntingly familiar Well, I see you doing what I try to do for me With the words from a poet and a voice from a choir And a melody, and nothing else mattered

He sat next to me, hugging me and asking me why I was crying, and though I couldn't tell him, I could see that he was overwhelmed that his music had produced this effect. There was no sarcasm or bitterness in him now. I think he carried me home that night. And the next morning I was standing in the crooked stone street in front of his father's shop, tossing pebbles up at his window. When he stuck his head out, I said: „Do you want to come down and go on with our conversation?“ - The Vampire Lestat

3. I ain't scared of lightning – Tom McRae

No I ain't scared of lightning And thunder never killed I was born in a summer storm and I live there still

I wasn't part of the world that cringed at such things. And with a smile, I realized that I was of that dark ilk that makes others cringe. Slowly and with great pleasure, I laughed.

And the labor that brought it forth was rapture such as I have never known. - The Vampire Lestat

4. Junge Roemer – Falco (Young Romans – Full Translation)

Don't ask for new old values See white light, see only feeling The night is ours till morning We play every game Don't ever let this journey end The doing comes only from the being Only from dimensions, that Are worth illusions and sensations Give me more, give me more, give me more...

... and again she laughed. „Ah, but we are splendid devils, aren't we?“ „Hunters of the Savage Garden,“ I said. „Then let's go into Paris,“ she said. - The Vampire Lestat

5. Running up that hill – Candy Says (Original by Kate Bush

If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places, Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, Be running up that building,

„Not even with Nicolas?“ „No, god, no!“ I looked at her. She nodded slightly as if she approved of this answer. „Why not with Nicolas?“ she asked. I wanted this to stop. „Because he's young,“ I said, „and he has life before him.“ - The Vampire Lestat

6. Florence – Notre Dame de Paris (Full Translation)

The little things always triumph over the large And literature will kill architecture The school books will kill the cathedrals The Bible will kill the Church, and man will kill God This will kill that

„I never lived in it. I push against the glass. But how do I get in?“ „I can't tell you that,“ I said. „You have to study this age,“ Gabrielle interrupted. Her voice was calm but commanding. He looked towards her as she spoke. „You have to understand the age,“ she continued, „through its literature and its music and its art. You have come up out of the earth, as you yourself put it. Now live in the world.“ No answer from him. Flash of Nicki's ravaged flat with all its books on the floor. Western civilization in heaps. - The Vampire Lestat

7. Go your own way – Fleetwood Mac

Loving you isn't the right thing to do How can I ever change things that I feel

If I could maybe I'd give you my world How can I when you won't take it from me

You can go your own way You can call it another lonely day

„Keep your promise,“ she said. And quite suddenly I knew this was our last moment. I knew it and I could do nothing to change it. „Gabrielle!“ I whispered. But she was already gone. - The Vampire Lestat

8. Désenchantée – Olympe (Original by Myléne Farmer - Full Translation)

If death is a mystery Life isn't exactly tender If heaven has a hell Then heaven can still wait for me Tell me how to handle this headwind Nothing makes sense anymore, nothing's fine

Laughter. That insane music. That din, that dissonance, that never ending shrill articulation of the meaninglessness... Am I awake? Am I asleep? I am sure of one thing. I am a monster. And because I lie in torment in the earth, certain human beings move on through the narrow pass of life unmolested. - The Vampire Lestat

9. A kind of magic – Queen

The bell that rings inside your mind Is challenging the doors of time It's a kind of magic The waiting seems eternity The day will dawn of sanity

And quite completely I understood that it was looking for me, this sound, it was seeking me out.

Blood like light itself, liquid fire.

It seemed beneath the roar of the flow he spoke. He said again: „Drink, my young one, my wounded one.“ I felt his heart swell, his body undulate, and we were sealed against each other. I think I heard myself say: „Marius.“ And he answered: „Yes.“ - The Vampire Lestat

10. La quête – Bruno Pelletier (French version of „The Impossible Dream“ from Man of La Mancha)

To try when your arms are too weary To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest To follow that star Ooh, no matter how hopeless No matter how far

I would remain in New Orleans if New Orleans could only manage to remain. Whatever I suffered should be lessened in this lawless place, whatever I craved should give me more pleasure once I had it in my grasp. And there were moments on that first night in this fetid little paradise when I prayed that in spite of all my secret power, I was somehow kin to every mortal man. - The Vampire Lestat

11. Wicked Game – Chris Isaak

What a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you

Yet Louis gained a hold over me far more powerful than Nicolas had ever had. Even in his cruelest moments, Louis touched the tenderness in me, seducing me with his staggering dependence, his infatuation with my every gesture and every spoken word. - The Vampire Lestat

12. Do I disappoint you – Rufus Wainwright

Do I disappoint you, in just being human? And not one of the elements that you can light your cigar on Why does it always have to be fire? Why does it always have to be brimstone?

„And suppose the vampire who made you knew nothing, and the vampire before him knew nothing, and so it goes back and back, nothing proceeding from nothing, until there is nothing! And we must live with the knowledge that there is no knowledge!“ „Yes!“ he cried out suddenly, his hands out, his voice tinged with something other than anger.

And then I sensed it. He was afraid. Lestat afraid. - Interview with the Vampire

13. Ordinary World – Duran Duran

What has happened to it all? Crazy, some'd say Where is the life that I recognize? Gone away

But I won't cry for yesterday There's an ordinary world Somehow I have to find And as I try to make my way To the ordinary world I will learn to survive

I do not remember when it became the twentieth century, only that everything was uglier and darker, and the beauty I'd known in the old eighteenth-century days seemed more than ever some kind of fanciful idea. - The Vampire Lestat

14. I'm still standing – Taron Egerton (Original by Elton John)

And there's a cold lonely light that shines from you You'll wind up like the wreck you hide behind that mask you use And did you think this fool could never win? Well look at me, I'm coming back again

But after the third night up, I was roaring around New Orleans on a big black Harley-Davidson motorcycle making plenty of noise myself. […] I was the vampire Lestat again. I was back in action. New Orleans was once again my hunting ground. - The Vampire Lestat

15. Catch my fall – Billy Idol

I have the time so I will sing, yeah I'm just a boy but I will win, yeah Lost song of lovers, fellow travelers, yeah Leave me sad and hollow out of words

It could happen to you so think for yourself If I should stumble, catch my fall, yeah

I've survived, obviously. I wouldn't be talking to you if I hadn't. And the cosmic dust has finally settled; and the small rift in the world's fabric of rational beliefs has been mended, or at least closed. I'm a little sadder for all of it, and a little meaner and a little more conscientious as well. - The Queen of the Damned

16. I want it all – Queen

I'm a man with a one track mind So much to do in one lifetime (people do you hear me) Not a man for compromise and where's and why's and living lies So I'm living it all, yes I'm living it all And I'm giving it all, and I'm giving it all

It is not enough any longer that my little rock band be successful. We must create a fame that will carry my name and my voice to the remotest parts of the world. - The Vampire Lestat

17. Let me entertain you – Robbie Williams

Hell is gone and heaven's here There's nothing left for you to fear Shake your arse come over here Now scream

I'm a burning effigy Of everything I used to be You're my rock of empathy, my dear

So come on let me entertain you

"I AM THE VAMPIRE LESTAT!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as I stepped way back from the microphone, and the sound was almost visible as it arched over the length of the oval theater, and the voice of the crowd rose even higher, louder, as if to devour the ringing sound. - The Vampire Lestat

18. La bien qui fait mal – Mozart l'Opera Rock (Full translation)

I can feel a violent urge I feel like I'm sliding towards the ground If I don't find out where this plague is coming from I adore having it under my skin Bewitched by mad ideas Suddenly all my cravings take off The desire becomes my prison Until I loose my mind

Yet I was in her arms in this chilling darkness, in the familiar scent of winter, and her blood was mine again, and it was enslaving me. When she drew away, I felt agony. - The Queen of the Damned

19. Tainted Love – Soft Cell

And you think love is to pray But I'm sorry I don't pray that way Once I ran to you Now I'll run from you This tainted love you've given I give you all a boy could give you Take my tears and that's not living, oh

„What do you think I am that I am so easily swayed? I was born a Queen. I have always ruled; even from the shrine I ruled." Her eyes were glazed suddenly. I heard the voices, a dull hum rising. "I ruled if only in legend; if only in the minds of those who came to me and paid me tribute. Princes who played music for me; who brought me offerings and prayers. What do you want of me now? That for you, I renounce my throne, my destiny!" What answer could I make? - The Queen of the Damned

20. Dancing in the Dark – Ruth Moody (Original by Bruce Springsteen)

They say you gotta stay hungry Hey baby, I'm just about starvin' tonight I'm dyin' for some action I'm sick of sittin' 'round here tryin' to write this book I need a love reaction Come on now, baby, gimme just one look

"I want you to put the book aside and come join us," he said. "You've been locked in here for over a month." "I go out now and then," I said. I liked looking at him, at the neon blue of his eyes.

"Do you love me now?" I asked. He smiled; oh, it was excruciating to see his face soften and brighten simultaneously when he smiled. "Yes," he said. "Want to go on a little adventure?" My heart was thudding suddenly. It would be so grand if- "Want to break the new rules?" "What in the world do you mean?" he whispered. - The Queen of the Damned

21. I want you – Savage Garden

Oh, I want you, I don't know if I need you But oh, I would die to find out

"You don't think you'll be back?" he asked. "I think you will, whether I call or not." Another little surprise. A little stab of humiliation. I smiled at him in spite of myself. He was a very interesting man. "You silver-tongued British bastard," I said. "How dare you say that to me with such condescension? Maybe I should kill you right now."

I thought of David Talbot's face, and that moment when he'd challenged me. Well, maybe he was right. I'd be back. Who said I couldn't come back and talk to him if I wanted to? - The Queen of the Damned

22. Lay your hands on me – Bon Jovi

I'm a fighter, I'm a poet, I'm a preacher I've been to school, oh baby, I've been the teacher If you show me how to get up off the ground I can show you how to fly and never ever come back down

I sat down on the bed beside him. And then I bent down and kissed his face again gently, as I had in New Orleans, liking the feel of his roughly shaven beard, just as I liked that sort of thing when I was really Lestat and I would soon have that strong masculine blood inside. I moved closer to him, when suddenly he grasped my hand, and I felt him gently push me away. „Why, David?“ I asked him. He didn't answer. He lifted his right hand and brushed my hair back out of my eyes. „I don't know,“ he whispered. „I can't. I simply can't.“ - The Tale of the Body Thief

23. 20th Century Boy – Placebo (Original by T-Rex)

I move like a cat, charge like a ram Sting like a bee, babe, I wanna be your man, hey!

He drew back with a speed that astonished me, cleaving to the wall. „Don't do this, Lestat.“ „Don't fight me, old friend. You waste your effort. You have a long night of discovery ahead.“ - The Tale of the Body Thief

24. Way down we go – KALEO

Oh, Father tell me, do we get what we deserve? Whoa, we get what we deserve And way down we go

„In chains, to my friend and my scribe, I dictated these words. Come with me. Just listen to me. Don't leave me alone.“ - Memnoch the Devil

25. Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode

Reach out, touch faith

"Don't tell me," Gabrielle said slurringly, "that it's a matter of faith." She sneered and shook her head. "You come like doubting Thomas to thrust your bloody fangs in the very wound." "Oh, stop, please, I beg you," I whispered. I put up my hands. "Let me try, and let him hurt me, and then be satisfied, and turn away." - The Vampire Armand

26. Papillon – Editors

Darling Just don't put down your guns yet If there really was a God here He'd have raised a hand by now Now darling You're born, get old, then die here Well that's quite enough for me We'll find our own way home somehow

"And if I spill my blood down into this coffin now," Lestat asked her, "what do you think will come back? Do you think it will be our Louis that will rise in these burnt rags? What if it's not, chérie, what if it's some wounded revenant that we must destroy?" "Choose life, Lestat," she said. - Merrick

27. Sunday Light – Choir Boy

Why, why, why, are you silent on the ride home? I'd love to see the temple with you Heavenly and bright, golden angel twisted scathing You were one of us, one of us, one of us, you were one of us

"Then come, Little Brother, take me to where you want to talk," he said, and I felt the soft squeeze of his fingers on my arm. "Why are you so kind to me?" I asked him. "You're used to people being paid to do it, aren't you?" he asked. - Blackwood Farm

28. Für mich solls rote Rosen regnen – Hildegard Knef (It should rain red roses for me - Full translation)

It should rain red roses for me All wonders should encounter me The world should rearrange itself And keep its worries to itself

I want to be a saint. I want to save souls by the millions. I want to do good far and wide. I want to fight evil! I want my life-sized statue in every church. I'm talking six feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes- Wait a second. Do you know who I am? - Blood Canticle

29. Constant Craving – K. D. Lang

Even through the darkest phase Be it thick or thin Always someone marches brave Here beneath my skin And constant craving Has always been

I was hunting, thirsting though I didn't need to drink, at the mercy of the craving, the deep agonizing lust for heated pumping human blood. - Prince Lestat

30. Kalte Sterne – Jan Ammann (Cold Stars from the musical Ludwig² - Full translation)

Get up, ride home, on your horse, through your land Across the morning with your reins trailing behind you Build a castle like a dream, build it with mighty hands And it shall be named „future“

Build a castle like a dream Up from the ashes and close to the heavens Build a castle like a dream And realise the future as king

If we wanted to survive, if we wanted to inherit the millenia […] then we had to meet the future with respect as well as courage and count fear and selfishness to be small things. - Prince Lestat and the realms of Atlantis

31. C'est une belle journée – Mylene Farmer (Full translation)

I'm going to bed To bite eternity With my mouth wide open It's a beautiful day

And I felt the cold numbing shell of alienation and despair which had imprisoned me all of my life among the Undead – I felt that shell cracked, broken, and dissolved utterly into infinitesimal fragments. - Blood Communion

32. Princes of the Universe – Queen

Fly the moon and reach for the stars With my sword and head held high Got to pass the test first time, yeah I know that people talk about me, I hear it every day But I can prove them wrong 'cause I'm right first time

„I know that you meant full well to bring Rhoshamandes down, of course you did. But you had no way of knowing that you could. And no one would have predicted that you could. And with the willingness to die, you gave yourself over into his hands... and you disarmed him and destroyed him.“ – Blood Communion

And finally, because I can, a bonus track:

33. Primadonna – MARINA

And I'm sad to the core, core, core Every day is a chore, chore, chore When you give, I want more, more, more I wanna be adored

[javier-pena]

Interview Game

I was tagged by my role model and friend (🥺👉👈), the very talented and kind @frannyzooey

nickname: i don’t have one, but don’t think i haven’t noticed that no one has called me ms peña yet

pronouns: she/her

star sign: libra

height: 5′7″  

time currently: 1pm

birthday: october 14

favorite groups/bands: vampire weekend, florence + the machine, fun., violent femmes, fleetwood mac

favorite solo artist: billy joel, elton john, keith urban, lady gaga, lil nas x, lorde, meat loaf, mika, taylor swift, prince

song stuck in my head: too old to die young by brother dege

last movie you watched: deadpool (it wasn’t as funny as i had expected it to be ngl)

last show you binged: barry (hbo)

when you created your blog: in 2012 lmao

last thing i googled: probably something work-related

other blogs: @mandalorianblr​ (which i should use more) and @hbothelastofus​ (which will be used more soon)

why I chose my url: because i’m in love with agent javier peña

do you get asks: yes, sometimes 🥺

how many people you are following: 240

how many followers: 7.7k

average hours of sleep: 6-7 which isn’t enough but i keep waking up really early

lucky number: 7

instruments: i used to play the guitar but i kinda stopped, my plan for this year is to start learning how to play the piano though

currently wearing: a superman shirt and mauve trousers

dream job: i just wanna be a writer because then it would be okay for me not to pick up my phone when someone calls me

dream trip: hawaii, australia, new york but as soon as covid is over i’m going to cambodia, and i also really wanna go back to paris and to the netherlands to visit dani @javierpcna

favorite food: those little french pickles that are really sour

favorite song: this changes so much, right now it’s probably lets go crazy by prince

top 3 fictional worlds to live in: not to be dramatic but i would love to live in the tmtc universe, just sit around all day and wait for din, also while we’re at it, the valley nights universe too for obvious reasons, and every universe dani creates

tagging: @hoeberynmartell, @javierpcna, @keanurevees, @mark-hamil, @bestintheparsec, @steveroger, @angelreyess, @pascaluniversity

[natromanxoff]

Queen live at Hyde Park in London, UK - September 18, 1976 (Part-1)

An interesting bit about the Hyde Park gig (thanks to Jane Palm-Gold): "The white boiler suit Fred wore coming onstage was especially chosen by him so that he could be seen from miles away (because white stands out at a distance) and even better (and this is great but you have to know this place really - a London landmark for many years) it was acquired at Lawrence Corner at Euston (!), a tatty second hand clothes /hire place where a lot of clothes /outfits were hired from for band promo shoots - for instance they had a lot of military stuff there."

(x)

After the success of A Night At The Opera (and not to mention how the weekly Sounds readers' poll elected the band #1 in the best album, best single, and best band categories), Queen wanted to pay the British fans back for back their loyalty and support over the last few years. Whilst in Japan earlier in the year, they came up with the idea to stage a massive free concert. With the help of record industry entrepreneur Richard Branson (creator of Virgin Records/megastores) they started making plans for the Hyde Park show, which turned into a mini tour along with the Edinburgh and Cardiff shows. It is estimated that between 150-200 thousand people turned up at Hyde Park, which is still a record for the venue to this day. This show cemented their position in the top bracket of rock bands. The stage used was the same stage that was constructed for the Rolling Stones concert at the Knebworth Fair a few weeks earlier. 

Queen's first huge show at home brought certain areas of London to a grinding halt, and space on public transportation was at a premium. The concert took place on the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's death. A banner hung from a tree that read "Hendrix Lives," and at one point in the show Brian May noticed it with much appreciation. The band are seen in the photos above arriving at the venue, where they were joined backstage by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters. Supercharge, Steve Hillage, Rufus, and Kiki Dee (along with a cardboard cut-out of Elton John, who couldn't make it to join her for Don't Go Breaking My Heart) played before Queen (Be-Bop Deluxe and John Miles were supposed to be on the bill as well, but were axed for some reason). A pro-shot video of Steve Hillage's performance exists as well as Queen's. There was a fight in the audience during Hillage's set, during which he played extended trippy versions of It's All Too Much by The Beatles and Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan. Also notable is Supercharge's singer Albie Donnelly parodying Freddie Mercury in a white leotard and a half mic stand. The first half of the A Day At The Races overture is aired publicly for the first time (the upcoming album had been partially recorded by this point). The usual Bohemian Rhapsody opening sequence then commences for the last time. The band make their entrance, and everybody near the stage stands up (the audience had been seated on the grass for the opening acts). This angers many fans who are further back (roughly 90% of the audience now cannot see the stage), so they start lobbing cans, bottles, or whatever else that can be thrown. After a few songs, Freddie asks everyone simply to calm down: "I have been requested by the constabulary for you not to throw little things around, tin cans or whatever. So make this a peaceful event, ok? Sit on your arses and listen." Brian, after his solo spot in Brighton Rock (he stutters a bit, revealing that he's still nervous): “From one piece of nonsense to another, I’ve said it before. This is something we wanted to do with the London Philharmonic but they didn’t show up, so we will do the ethnic version of a song called '39." He is seen in a dazzling new outfit tonight, which he'd wear every night through Japan 1979. It would become the outfit he'd change into during the opera section of Bohemian Rhapsody. "Clap along and stuff," he urges the audience, as he plays the intro of what he'd later describe as the first song about Einstein's general theory of relativity. After '39, Freddie audaciously performs the as-of-yet unreleased You Take My Breath Away alone on the piano, even hitting many of the falsetto notes that he'd excise in 1977 versions. He then gets cheeky and introduces The Prophet's Song as "a little shorter number from our album A Night At The Opera." Perhaps he still had You Take My Breath Away in his head, as he begins the a cappella section with what would become the first line of the A Day At The Races ballad instead of the usual "oh, people can you hear me?" bit. He also references Death On Two Legs, as he had done a few times earlier in the year. After Stone Cold Crazy, the band play Keep Yourself Alive and Liar, having dropped Doing All Right and Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon from the set. The combination of these three heavy numbers would prove to be very effective, and they would stick with it for their following North American tour. Liar is a great version, with many great Mercuryisms throughout. Before the last song, Brian coyly says, "This is In The Lap Of The Gods, or something like that." The band play a similar set to the ones they did in Edinburgh and Cardiff, except they drop Doing All Right, Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon and Tie Your Mother Down. They intended to perform their usual encore of Big Spender and Jailhouse Rock, but the show had run a half hour past its scheduled ending time (a curfew strictly enforced by the authorities). The police threatened to arrest the band if they went back on stage, and Freddie was later quoted saying how he would prefer not to be stuck in a jail cell in his leotard. And so, Bob Harris was left with the unenviable task of announcing to the crowd that the show was over. He later recalled how difficult and nerve-wracking it was to tell an audience of this size who had waited for about ten hours that there would be no encore. Now I'm Here was the first encore every night around this time, making this the one time between 1974 and 1986 where the song is not performed. The liner notes of Live Killers suggest that Now I'm Here was dropped from the set for a while, but that is patently untrue. People in one section of the audience chanted "Why are we waiting," all in good fun, knowing full well the show was over. The police soon turned off the main power feed to the park, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to make their way out in sheer darkness. Their reasoning was that it was the only way to "control" such a large number of people who had been rowdy throughout the day. In a 1977 interview with Capital Radio, Brian recalls the day: "It had a great sunny day for it, and everyone had a good time. There were still altercations on the day, and there was a big thing with the powers that be because they wouldn't let us go on and do the encore, about which we were very upset, having worked up for months and prepared for all that. They got very frightened because there were 150,000 people in Hyde Park in the dark, and they thought they were going to get out of hand. But in fact, there was no possible danger happening at all. Everyone was peaceful and having a good time."

This show is what epitomized their popularity in Britain, and when they felt they "had really made it," as Brian would later recall. On another occasion he said, "I think that Hyde Park was one of the most significant gigs in our career. There was a great affection because we'd kind of made it in a lot of countries by that time, but England was still, you know, we weren't really sure if we were really acceptable here. So it was a wonderful feeling to come back and see that crowd and get that response." Despite the fact that the audience had been there all day watching the various opening acts and waiting, the band delayed the show as long as possible just so it could get dark enough for their lighting and various other effects to make their full impact (as demanded by Freddie). Throughout the show, the band's nervousness and excitement for the occasion are evident. Most of the audience couldn't see a thing during Queen's set, since the stage was barely elevated. "The smell of the dry ice and the sound are the only sensory memories I have of this show," recalls Jane Palm-Gold. Here is an article from the day of the show, 

and a review from a week later (both were submitted by Boris Arkhangelsky).

Tonight would be the final performances of Flick Of The Wrist, Son And Daughter, and the (almost) full The Prophet's Song. A snippet of The March Of The Black Queen would be performed only once more in 1978, but a different part of the song.

Here is  a Virgin Records flyer.

The second pic is the famous overhead shot that appeared in the October 9, 1976 Melody Maker. Pic 5 was submitted by Janneman,  and pics 6 and 7 were submitted by Lukáš Bosík.

Fan Stories

“Well, I was 13 years old and had got into Queen through Night At The Opera and THAT video. I'd never been to a gig before and it took a lot of convincing of a sceptical mother to let me go to Hyde Park on my own. After answering the inevitable "no, I won't talk to strange men mum" questions I was allowed to go. The morning came and I was up at 6am, got my packed lunch together (can you imagine going off to a gig now with your sandwiches and orange juice!) and headed off to Hyde Park. I remember getting there so early that I was right by the crash barriers at the front and determined to try and hold my spot all day. As the day progeressed however I ended upmoving backwards slowly as people pushed in. I can remember savouring the whole build up, the support bands, everything. As dusk started to fall, the stage went dark and the dry ice started up. I broke my mums don't talk to strangers bit and a very nice bloke put me up on his shoulders so I could see them come on. I just remember the crash of light and sound as they came on as if it was yesterday (and not 27 years ago!). The rest of the gig was amazing and that was it, I was hooked on Queen and rock music. I saw Queen on every tour they ever did in England (and a few in Europe) after that but nothing compares to that first gig for me.” 

- Andy

Part-2

Part-3

[tayspurrito]

Taylor Come Back To Europe Project: Spain’s week.

Hi there!

So, as a little explanation before we start: last January I created on Twitter an account called @Europe _ Loves _ TS in order to try to get Taylor back to Europe. It works this way: each week is dedicated to one different country, this one’s being Spain, and each day I post different stuff about the country, Taylor’s charts there, where she could play and that kind of stuff. I started posting this week because it took me quite a long to finish with all of the preparations but now it has already started, and Day 6 (a.k.a. Tumblr and sign the petition) is about posting everything done on Twitter but on Tumblr, that’s why the texts will be really little. Also, here you have the summary, in case you want to see something first:

Day 1: Where would Taylor play?

Day 2: About the city.

Day 3: Swifties day!

Day 4: Taylor and the city.

Day 5: Conclusion.

Day 6: Tumblr and signing the petition.

Day 7 (does not appear in here): New country announcement.

Here you have the petition’s link https://www.change.org/p/ticketmaster-taylor-swift-european-tour?recruiter=931350637&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition , just in case you want to help us.

And the first country of the week will be... 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻!

Barcelona, Spain: Palau Sant Jordi (although there is also a stadium, Camp Nou).

Madrid, Spain: WiZink Center.

𝖂𝖍𝖞 𝕻𝖆𝖑𝖆𝖚 𝕾𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖎? 

Palau Sant Jordi, located in Barcelona, is the largest indoor arena in Spain, with a maximum seating capacity of 17,960 people. It was opened in 1990, and it has a 3,000-seat club behind the main building.

𝕺𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝖜𝖍𝖔 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝕻𝖆𝖑𝖆𝖚 𝕾𝖆𝖓𝖙 𝕵𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖎:

-Madonna. -Shawn Mendes. -Rihanna. -Ariana Grande. -Beyoncé. -Avril Lavigne. -Ed Sheeran. -Lady Gaga. -Tina Turner. -Frank Sinatra. -Elton John.

𝖂𝖍𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖎𝖅𝖎𝖓𝖐 𝕮𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗?

The WiZink Center, located in Madrid, is an indoor sporting arena with a capacity of 15,500 people for concerts and a standing public ramp. It was built in 1960, and rebuilt in 2005 due to a fire.

𝕺𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖗 𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝖜𝖍𝖔 𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊 𝖕𝖑𝖆𝖞𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖂𝖎𝖅𝖎𝖓𝖐 𝕮𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖗:

-Nirvana. -Elton John. -Taylor Swift. -Lady Gaga. -Rihanna. -Imagine Dragons. -Bruno Mars. -Shawn Mendes. -Whitney Houston. -Spice Girls.

𝕬𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝕭𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖆:

Located in Spain, Barcelona is the capital and largest city of Catalonia, with a 1,6 million population (yeah, a lot of them Swifties), and it counts with a great number of museums, parks and beaches.

𝕻𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖛𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝕭𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖆:

-The Sagrada Família, which is the main symbol of Barcelona.

-The gothic basilica of Santa Maria del Mar.

-The Palau de la Música Catalana, in English "The Palace of Catalan Music".

-Parc Güell, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

-Casa Milà, one of the most emblematic places of Barcelona. 

-Parc de la Ciutadella, which also has the Barcelona Zoo. 

-Magic Fountain of Montjuic, a magic spectacle of colors and lights. 

𝕬𝖇𝖔𝖚𝖙 𝕸𝖆𝖉𝖗𝖎𝖉:

Madrid is the capital of Spain and its largest municipality, with almost 3,2 million inhabitants (Swifites!). It's also considered an amazing destination when talking about art museums, such as the Museo del Prado.

𝕻𝖑𝖆𝖈𝖊𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖛𝖎𝖘𝖎𝖙 𝖎𝖓 𝕸𝖆𝖉𝖗𝖎𝖉:

-The Parque del Retiro, one of the largest parks of Madrid. 

-The Museo del Prado, its most famous museum. 

-The Puerta del Sol, a public square and the nerve center of the city.

-The Plaza Mayor, a major public space in the heart of Madrid.

-The Casa de Campo park, which is the largest park in the city, and it also has the Madrid Zoo inside.

-The Fuente de Neptuno, which is located inside the Paseo del Prado.

“I started to be a Swiftie by the end of the RED era, when I saw the “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” video, by the end of 2013 (yes, I know that I saw the video a bit late). I don’t know why but I realized that Taylor is the only one that can help me with my depression (unfortunately I suffer a lot of depression) and put a huge smile on my face just with her songs. She means the entire world to me. While I was studying in high school, I worked as a teacher for another students, and I started saving money to be able to go one day to any Taylor’s concert. And finally, after two years of saving money, on November 29 2017 (the day after my birthday), I bought two tickets for the “reputation Stadium Tour” in London, one for me and one for my sister. After seven months the day finally came and I traveled from Spain to London just to see Taylor for the first time. That was my first concert. That day I realized that Taylor is a real angel, and that she is always going to be there for us. And also I’m so grateful since because of her I met a lot of new friends. My dream is to one day be able to hug her and tell her how much she helped me, and also I would ask her if she could draw a thirteen on my ankle, because I always wanted to get a thirteen tattooed on my body. Thank you for reading this.”

-Javier, 16 years, Barcelona (@tattshold on Twitter).

“I’m not good at English but I’ll try. I was always bullied, had no real friends so I never went out with people and stuff like that. When I was 14 I sit in class next to a redhead called Claudia and she played me “Tim McGraw”. I started listening to the song at home and soon enough I was addicted to Taylor Swift. Taylor was here when the first boy broke my heart, I don't know how many times I played “Should’ve Said No” during that time. Taylor was there when people called me slut and bitch, telling me that they were just “Mean”. Taylor was there at my spinal surgery, I played “Speak Now” in the hospital every day. Taylor was there while my depression and my self-harm problems. Taylor was there when my (ex)boyfriend broke up with me on my birthday... That year she recorded RED and “All Too Well” made me cry every day, but it also made me stronger. My dad left and only Taylor knew how I wanted him to “Come back” and “Be here...”. He started a new family without me, obviously. 1989 was my very first Taylor’s show in Germany, Köln, whit my mom. We had so much fun. Some economic problems started and I had to work while studying my nurse degree. I saved a lot and I went to “reputation Stadium Tour” in Dublin with my mom. Andrea gave us rep room passes and I showed her my “fighter” tattoo. She knows my story now. I hugged Taylor and somehow that was everything.”

-Clàudia, 23 years, Spain (@alltoo_swift on Twitter).

“When I was 12 (in 2009), one day I was watching Disney Channel and the “Love Story” mv came on. I just fell in love! Me and another friend started listening to more and more of her songs and we were really crazy about it! We were always singing her songs, laughing and dancing. We planned on going to her shows and meet her.”

-Sara, Spain (@EverySwiftieDay on Twitter).

“I haven’t been part of this fandom for a long time, at least compared with half of it. At the beginning, it made me feel uncomfortable, as if I wasn’t worthy of all the joy this family brings. Now, though, I’ve realized that this big family welcomes everyone, and I feel confident to tell my story. I have this weird “ritual” of walking from side to side of my corridor while listening to music, and that’s how I started listening to her music, back in 2017, with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and “You Belong With Me”. I knew who she was, but I couldn’t consider myself a Swiftie, not yet. And then, “Look What You Made Me Do” came, and I wasn’t ready for that. I just clicked on it because I was curious, but once I heard it I stopped walking in the middle of the corridor, my phone in my hand, my eyes wide open, freaking out. I didn’t get all the references, but I knew some of them, and when the phone part arrived... I went to my mom running and told her all about it, and she was like “Since when are you a huge Taylor Swift fan?”. Days passed, “...Ready For It?” and the album came and I loved them too, and the “reputation Stadium Tour” began, and I really wanted to go. She didn’t come to Spain, so I knew I had to figure out a way to go to London. I made a presentation to my dad, with all of the prices, hotels and transportations, and he incredibly said yes. I remember that night as the best night of my life, and I can’t explain how happy and free and loved I felt there. I saw Taylor Swift’s magic happening in front of me, and I will be forever grateful for that.”

-Núria, 16 years, Spain (@TaysPurrito on Twitter and on Tumblr because yes, that is me).

𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖎𝖙𝖞:

Taylor's albums are still breaking records on the country. "reputation" debuted at #3 on the Spanish Albums Top 100 list, and has been there for 17 weeks, and "1989" debuted at #4 and stayed 70 weeks.

𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖎𝖙𝖞:

Taylor has a big importance on the country, and the only show she has played there was for the "Speak Now World Tour" at Madrid, on the WiZink Center and had all 3,962 seats occupied.

𝕿𝖆𝖞𝖑𝖔𝖗 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖎𝖙𝖞: 

Spain has a very big Swiftie fan base. Its biggest fan account, @rincondetaylor on Twitter, counts with over 12.3K followers, still growing. When she came, she sold out, and the fandom wasn't as big as it is now.

𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖑𝖚𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓: 

Spain is an amazing country, with big stadiums for Taylor to play and her presence still very active on the radios of the country. Although she hasn't come back since the "Speak Now World Tour", she is still breaking records.

𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖑𝖚𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓:

Also, Barcelona and Madrid are the best places to host the show, not only because they have the enough capacity to but also because of the easiness to go to both of the places.

𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖑𝖚𝖘𝖎𝖔𝖓:

I just wanted to thank every single person (especially @EverySwiftieDay on Twitter) who has helped with this week's challenge. You are all amazing, and one of the most supportive parts of it all. Thank you so so much. Os quiero.

Duh.

https://www.change.org/p/ticketmaster-taylor-swift-european-tour?recruiter=931350637&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=a8694c60-1e79-11e9-8dcf-1bb98ece69a1 (This one is the link for the petition to get Taylor to come back to Europe).

So thank you so much for reading this! If you want to take a look to the Twitetr account, that’s the link https://twitter.com/Europe_Loves_TS and the account is called @Europe_Loves_TS . I would recommedn you to check it, since the stuff will be posted there before and the new country announcement is tomorrow.

Thank you so much again!!

@taylorswift @taylornation

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly(/Monthly) Update #44: Well That Was Fast (7/23/17)

How goes, friends. Three weeks ago, I wrote what I thought would be my last weekly update for at least several months. “They’re going on hiatus,” they said, “You won’t have enough content for months.” they said. But they didn’t count on one thing: Joshua. William. Dun.

...And, actually, a few other things. The last three weeks have given us more than enough content to give all two of you who have missed my combination of rambling and dorkery your fix. Again, I write this thinking it will be the last time I’ll write anything for several months, but who’s to say?

This Week’s TØPics:  

Sleepers and Closing the Eye

Josh at the APMAs/WTF is DEMA?

Goldfinger Album Release

We Know That Our Band Did Well in 2016... But How Well?

Major News and Announcements:

There’s been a fair bit of shenaniganry since the boys put a cap on the Blurryface Era. First, as expected, Mark dropped the final Sleepers vid. Peeps cried. Mark got some great shots. Josh got a boo-boo playing in the ocean at Hangout. Artopia notably wasn’t featured, which was a little disappointing, but it was still a great vid. The Sleepers series ended with a nifty animation of an eye closing, and we were all like, “Yeah, that makes sense, it’s called Sleepers, Tyler talks about sleep all the time, nothing new to see here.”

Then, a week later, Tyler (or somebody on the team, but let’s be real, it was Tyler) decided to destroy us.

Over the course of one day, all of TØP’s social media accounts changed their images every hour or so, in a series of pics that featured a red-filtered POV shot of a concert audience. Each image progressively shrunk in the manner of a closing eye, and each featured a different lyric related to sleep or saying goodbye mirrored across the crowd. Interestingly, the o’s in the final message were not crossed out, and instead the e’s have received horizontal slashes, perhaps indicating that the next era will feature the last part of the |-/ logo in its typography. Some people/publications freaked out, speculating it was a countdown to a new single or album, but it was pretty obvious that it was just one more nail in the coffin for the era, especially by the time it reached the above image. They’re done. They’re on hiatus. They’re not releasing music anytime soon. They’re just going to become a bunch of hermits.

...At least, until two weeks later, when Josh singlehandedly revived the fandom just as they had entered into their hiatus coma. Josh was invited to perform at the Alternative Press Music Awards, held this year in Cleveland instead of Columbus, but still not far from home at all (Tyler was likely on vacation and couldn’t attend, though the image of him staying at home with Jenna and his leaf blower rather than go to what I would argue is easily the worst awards ceremony in the music industry is really amusing). 

We’ll get to the performance in just a bit, but we first gotta address the fact that they won an award for Most Dedicated Fanbase. Josh (dressed in camo pants, a band t-shirt, and a baseball cap and yet still looking more professional than almost anyone else at the show), gave all the credit to the fans as expected, but also got in a couple of good jokes about how he is actually the most dedicated Twenty One Pilots fan. The most noticeable part of the speech, however, came at the beginning, when Josh explained Tyler’s absence by saying he was “cutting ties with DEMA [sic?]”.

As expected with the Clique, fan speculation immediately ran wild, and while the immediate reaction seemed to be that he was referencing some security agency that wasn’t properly doing its job, things quickly got out of hand when that son-of-a-gun Blurryface hopped back on his Twitter after months of silence (even through all of Tour de Columbus) to like a fan theory speculating that it was an esoteric reference to the eye-shaped Towers of Silence, old Zoroastrian structures (notably shaped kinda like eyes) on which the dead were left to be eaten by birds. That is awesome, intriguing, infuriating, and worrying at the same time. What’s going on in your head, Ty Jo? Are you just trolling? Are you outsourcing fans to give you cool ideas? What gives? Does any of this even count as news? Who cares, we’re all just flying through space on a speck, live a little.

One last bit of news: the new Goldfinger album The Knife, which features drumming from Jishwa on the song “Orthodontist Girl”, was released Saturday. It’s not really my jam, but if you’re into that sort of thing or just want to support Josh, it’s on Spotify/wherever else music is streamed or sold.

Performances, Interviews, and Other Shenanigans:

Anywho, Josh joined forces with two other amazing drummers (Adrian Young of No Doubt/DREAMCAR and Frank Zummo from Sum-41) to perform a drum medley of various pop and alternative hits. Despite (or perhaps because of) his much shorter time on the scene, Josh noticeably attracted much more noise from the teens in attendance. The performance featured everything from marching snares, audience members holding drums, exploding golf balls, pretty spotty audio mixing/camera work, Josh busting out a backflip, a pretty sick remix of “Ride”, and Josh playing “All Star” on the trumpet. It was pretty surreal.

Other than that, not much to report. Tyler has gone almost completely dark since the end of TDC, and even Josh hasn't been up to anything besides the APMAs and some occasional drum promotions. But there's still more to cover, if you can believe...

Chart Performance:

It's back! My old recurring segment's been kept mostly on the back-burner ever since "Heathens" left the Hot 100, but Billboard and the RIAA gave us a little more sales info about our band that I felt warranted coverage. First, some of the RIAA certifications for the band have been updated. “Message Man” has gone gold (500,000 approximate sold units), while “Holding On To You” and “House of Gold” have both gone platinum (one million). The big singles- in ascending order, “Ride”, “Heathens”, and “Stressed Out”- are now 4x, 5x, and 6x Platinum respectively. Nutty. Absolutely bonkers.

Next, after presumably six months of number crunching, those calculators over at Billboard released their list of the Top Money Makers of 2016. It's a pretty interesting read for any music fan, as the list includes a breakdown of the different revenue streams for each of its fifty featured artists, from how big a percentage of sales they receive in royalties to how massive their touring was in the given year. Our boys made the list for the first time ever, debuting at a whopping #13 and an estimated total of $21.1 (wtf) million. For context: that means that Tyler and Josh together made more money from their music in America in 2016 than Garth Brooks, Carrie Underwood, Future, Metallica, Maroon 5, and Elton John. 

However, like all Billboard rankings, this list contains tons of major caveats and weird arbitrary rules that makes it almost useless for actually assessing success. It doesn’t count sales in other regions, which is crazy for today’s global market and would totally reorder the list (for one, tons of the American country artists on this list would get booted out due to their negligible international sales and touring). It also doesn't cover other hugely significant revenue streams like merchandising, sponsorships, and other jobs like TV host or producer, which would likely put Twenty One Pilots quite a bit behind many of these guys for which the music is almost a secondary thing. Additionally, all of those artists have been making this kind of money much longer than our boys, and after taxes and other costs, most of that change probably isn't going directly into their bank accounts. Still, it's pretty safe to say that both Tyler and Josh are technically millionaires at this point, and it’s hard not to feel an immense sense of pride in the scale of their accomplishments. Now, I just genuinely hope they put those blessings to good use for charitable works.

A few more points from this list: The band was the top earner in 2016 in terms of publishing royalties due to their involvement with a major motion pictures soundtrack and the incredible radio support for three of their singles the whole year round. Additionally, they were the #3 most streamed artist/group of the year, just behind Drake and Kanye. They were also the biggest money-makers of any "new" group that had never previously been in this echelon of popular influence. For further context, the twelve artists that had better sales/touring years were, in ascending order, Rihanna, Billy Joel, Kenny Chesney, Kanye West, Luke Bryan, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Adele, Drake, Bruce Springsteen, Guns and Roses, and Beyoncé- obviously, the boys are in very, very esteemed company. Finally, and perhaps surprisingly for those fans who consider Twenty One Pilots first-and-foremost a live band who are always playing shows, they were one of very few artists who did not make the majority of their money off of touring in 2016. This is not because they weren't touring their tushes off, but rather because a) they really did have an amazing sales year and b) despite what scalped ticket prices might tell you, the boys really did try to sell those tickets for much lower than what many fans were willing to pay for them. Most of the artists on this list were selling tickets up front at over $100 a pop; TØP was doing half that, and they were still up with the big boys. I'm a proud pop.

That's all for this week, folks. Not sure when I'll be back to chat again. Until then, and as always, power to the local dreamer.

[astoldbytoria]

ATBT: Harry Styles Album Review

ATBT Tuesdays: Harry Styles Album Review!

Hello! Today’s review will be on Harry Styles’ new self-titled album. I’ve always loved Harry tbh and I was excited yet skeptical of how this album would fare, especially since Zayn has already proven that his solo sound is a worthy one. But this album is already breaking barriers, making waves, and soaring on the charts.

Harry’s debut album shows his old soul for sure. I got heavy 60s and 70s classic rock vibes. His inspirations - like Elton John, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones, for example - are channeled through this album with a modern twist. This is an era of rock that many people haven’t replicated in today’s popular music because it is so unique and might come off as inauthentic if not done carefully. But I believe Harry respectfully draws inspiration while still making the music his own. 

I’ll go through my thoughts on each song, highlighting my favorites, things he did well, and things he should improve on:

1) Meet Me in the Hallway

This one has such an eerie vibe to it that I love. It definitely reminds me of the The Beatles, especially with the warped bass guitar. The guitar is definitely the highlight of this one from a musical standpoint. From the lyrics, I like how he’s characterized his feeling for this person as an addiction, because it’s something that people - especially teenagers - can relate to. But this is not the teeny-bopper Harry Styles that we’re getting. This is a mature voice, one that’s really expressing a longing for someone. I love that the song doesn’t follow a strict structure, similar to the ones they were bound to in One Direction. This one just flows and changes with each emotion and action he describes. This is a solid opener to me. It shows his style and it showed his ability to convey emotion lyrically.

2) Sign of the Times

I’ll be honest, when I heard this was his debut single, I was not impressed. I liked the vibe of the song and even his vocals at the end. But should it have been the debut single? Not in my opinion. I do love the instrumentation. There are so many layers and it sounds like a classic rock song. I loved the addition of the choir accompanying his emotional belting toward the end. But you have to listen to the song for like 3 and half minutes to get to any sort of climax. The objective of the song is kind of cloudy too. At first listen, it sounds like he’s talking about the end of the world or some kind of ending that affects a multitude of people. But in an interview, he says the song is from the point of view of a mother that is in labor but was told that she’s going to die from complications from birth? So yeah, lyrically this one is not strong on conveying whatever message he’s trying to send. I love the Bowie and Queen inspo on this one but it just isn’t a strong one for me.

3) Carolina

This one is a fun one. I love the funky run in the background and the melody is not a typical one, but very reminiscent of  late 60s rock. Out of all of the songs, this one is the cute one about the “girl next door.” The closest thing to a One Direction song if there was a trace on the album. I saw the Behind The Music video, and when they recorded this song, they used actual pots and pans, so I thought that was cool. Musically, this one is very rich and I especially love the chord progressions in this one because they are not typical. The music meshes very well with the lyrics and creates an easy going song that is nice to listen to honestly. This is a good one!

4) Two Ghosts

Ugh. This one is definitely one of my top, if not the top, favorite songs from this album. The lyrics are emotional, believable, and relatable. This one reminds me of something John Mayer would make. Especially with the guitar riff during the chorus. It kind of has a country twang to it and the catchy hook makes it memorable. This one has been the one that sticks in my head. In my opinion, I’m glad this is one of the singles on the album, but I could have seen this one being the debut, easier than “Sign of the Times.” He said in his Behind the Music video that this one was an easy one to write and that it was a song that just unraveled. And it really shows.

5) Sweet Creature

This would have been such a strong debut single, which again just makes me upset that it wasn’t. The vocals and lyrics are impressive to me. This one is lyrically and vocally believable to me, compared to some of the other songs on this album. Even though it’s pretty much just an acoustic guitar and vocals, it doesn’t feel this stripped down. It still feels so full. This song is definitely a powerhouse.

6) Only Angel

This one gives me serious classic rock vibes and I’m into it. Lyrically, he’s talking about a girl that he believes is an angel even though she tends to have “devilish” tendencies - being crazy in bed and wearing short skirts, for example. It’s rumored to be talking about Kendall Jenner, maybe indirectly referencing her as a Victoria’s Secret “Angel.” But I don’t really care about that. I love the guitar chord progressions in the chorus as well. This song was lower on the list for me personally, but I really appreciate it at the same time.

7) Kiwi

If Harry ever did a collab with the Artic Monkeys, this would be their baby. I’m sure any of their fans probably jumped on this one hardcore. The “I’m having your baby, it’s none of your business” refrain during the chorus is obviously cheeky, so it definitely helps his edgy “bad boy” vibe that he’s trying to encompass. I vibe with the groove in the bridge and I love how the tempo kind of slows down. Otherwise, this song doesn’t do much for me aside from letting me know that Harry is into bossy chicks lol.

8) Ever Since New York

I attached to this one as soon as I heard it. I love the melody in the chorus and the verses and how it bounces right with the instrumentation and the soft drumming pattern of the song. It is a very comfortable, calming song that you kind of listen to during a long drive or when you’re just in your own thoughts. However, after listening to this one after a while, I noticed that it’s a pretty weak one lyrically. I think that maybe when he wrote it, he was trying to just convey a feeling he had in that moment, but it doesn’t come across well to the listener, and they can’t really piece together the message of the song and relate it to themselves because of it. 

9) Woman

I get heavy Elton John vibes from this one. Musically, this one impressed me a lot. I loved the woozy bass during the pre-chorus and the weird “uh” sound that recurs in every measure. The chord progressions are so boomin’ and the vocals are nice. I kind of cringed at the opening Netflix reference though. However, this song lacks in a lot of things. Because of the music, you almost assume it’s going to go somewhere big, but the song is pretty anti-climactic. The chorus is not creative and it doesn’t make sense to me in the context of the song honestly. The song just kind of fades out and leaves me feeling like nothing is resolved as far as what he’s feeling. I loved the lyrics in the verses, but everything else was just not given the same effort. There’s so much that he could have done with this one. But I love the music and the vocals so much that I just try to ignore it. In the future, he definitely needs to master bringing out a song’s full potential.

10) From the Dining Table

I absolutely love the lyrics on this one. They feel the most personal, emotional, raw, and real. You can feel his frustration and he translated it so matter-of-factly that it almost feels cut and dry (in a good way). His vocals are so close and soft. Compared to Sweet Creature, which pretty much has the same amount of instruments, he successfully made this one sound stripped down. Which is ironic, because the girl he’s talking about seems and feels far away. Additionally, I love the strings because they fit with the vibe of the song and help it grow to a climax. This one contrasts with Meet Me in the Hallway nicely because it seems that he’s in withdrawal. So it’s kind of cool that it ended this way. But in the same token, I feel like this shouldn’t haven’t been the ending because nothing seems resolved. But this one is definitely a fave.

So what’s my conclusion?

If you get to the end of this novel, thank you lol. In conclusion, I really like this album. I love that he didn’t just sell out and make a bunch of structured pop hits that would guarantee him album sales. He went for the sound he wanted. He crafted each song differently. He’s one of the first artists in a while that have embraced rock and have now brought its sacred sound to a popular audience. The instrumentation was great on this album and it clearly embodied his influences while still creating a fresh take on them. Lyrically, there were some good spots and there were some bad ones. Hopefully in his next album, he’ll really make sure he’s driving each and every song to their full potential.

My rating for this album is a 6/10. I’m proud of Harry for jumping into the industry on his own and I think his future is bright and full of potential.

[sandiegodjstaci]

Cierra & David's Green-With-Envy Temecula Creek Cottages Wedding

Cierra & David's Green-With-Envy Temecula Creek Cottages Wedding

Of all the San Diego wedding DJs calling America’s finest city home, Cierra & David chose me to DJ and MC their “green with envy” Temecula Creek Cottages wedding on Saturday, 10-19-19 The following write-up is based on San Diego DJ Staci’s crazy organized & detailed outline for this Temecula Creek Cottages wedding.

  THE TEMECULA CREEK COTTAGES WEDDING CEREMONY

Prelude ➔ Country, Oldies, Big Band/Old Jazz love songs

Wedding Party Processional ➔ “I Choose You,” Sara Bareilles

Bride’s Processional ➔ “Better Together,” Jack Johnson

Recessional (no newlywed presentation, start song during kiss) ➔ “Love Someone,” Brett Eldridge

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci, the Track Star

  THE COCKTAIL HOUR & DINNER MUSIC

While San Diego DJ Staci offers couples pre-set cocktail & dinner playlists to choose from, Cierra & David opted to hand-select their background music for their Temecula wedding.

Cocktail Music ➔ Forever – Chris Brown, Everything – Michael Buble, Benny And The Jets – Elton John, L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole, Feel It Still – Portugal, The Man, I Do – Colbie Caillat, Africa – Toto, Sweet Home Chicago –Blues Brothers, Ob La Di – The Beatles, Hurts So Good – John Mellencamp, Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys, The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson, Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations, Sweet Child O’Mine – Guns N Roses, We Are Young – Fun, You Can’t Hurry Love – Phil Collins, Run-Around – Blues Travelers, Saturday In The Park – Chicago, Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Dinner Music ➔ The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson, Cheek to Cheek – Fred Astaire, Feeling Good – Michael Buble, It Had To be You – Harry Connick Jr, The Way You Look Tonight – Frank Sinatra, Shh Boom – The Crew Cuts, Because You Loved Me – Celine Dion, Singin’ In The Rain – Gene Kelly, When I Fall In Love – Nat King Cole, Tiny Dancer – Elton John, Sea Of Love – Cat Power, That’s Amore – Dean Martin, The Luckiest – Ben Folds, Somewhere Beyond The Sea – Bobby Darin, Fade Into You – Scarlett O’Connor & Gunnar Scott, Roses And Violets – Alexander Jean, Unforgettable – Nat King Cole, Fly Me To The Moon / Lucky – Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat, In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel, Iris – Goo Goo Dolls, Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You – Frankie Valli, My Kind of Town (Chicago Is) – Frank Sinatra

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci, the Track Star

  THE TEMECULA CREEK COTTAGES WEDDING RECEPTION

MC Welcome ➔ “Good evening! Welcome to Cierra & Davids wedding reception!!! I am the Master of Ceremonies, DJ Staci. Please take your seats so we can officially welcome our guests of honor. Please be sure to post your photos today with #ToHaveAndToCole. If you need to charge your devices, I do have a mini charging station up here including some universal chargers.”

“Tonight I’m going to be sharing a lot of stories about Cierra & David with you. To get rolling, lets tackle the first I love you. They had been dating for 4 or 5 months and were out at the Colorado River. It was about 10:00 at night, and they were sitting outside together. He said those 3 little words, and, of course, she reacted by laughing in his face. Cierra said, “Are you sure?” She did eventually say she loved him too in the same conversation…Ladies & gentlemen, put your hands together for the introduction of the wedding party!!!”

Grand Entrance ➔ “Little Swing,” Aron Chupa, Little Sis

1. “Give it up for Bridesmaid Brianna &  Groomsman Jay!!!”

2. “Show some love to Bridesmaid Kendra & Groomsman Alan!!!”

3. “Please welcome Matron of Honor Lindsey & Groomsman Ryan!!!”

4. “Give it up for Matron of Honor Breanna & Groomsman Doug!!!”

5. “Show some love to Maid of Honor Christina & Best Man JD!!!”

➔ “Uptown Funk,” Bruno Mars ➔ They met in early 2017 at her dads bar, the Sportsman, in Los Alomitos. He asked her if she wanted to play pool. It turned out that David already knew her dad from hanging out in the bar….but he did not know she was his daughter. When David found out, he barely talked to Cierra for 6 months. Together they enjoy going to the river, rock climbing, bike riding, camping, paddle boarding—anything outdoors. Ladies & gentlemen, get on your feet to welcome–for the FIRST TIME EVER—Mr. & Mrs. David C—–!!!”

  (c) San Diego DJ Staci, the Track Star

  ➔ First Dance ➔ “I’ll Name the Dogs,” Blake Shelton ➔ fade early: no ➔ “In October of 2017, Cierra’s best friends daughter told her that David was going to propose. Time passed and more time passed and nothing happened. Hmmm…Fast forward to March 2018. Cierra & David went rock climbing at Riverside Rock Quarry & two of his friends were already in position and dropped down a huge banner that said & Will you marry me? After Cierra saw the banner, David was just quiet, but she got the point! We know how she answered because we are about to welcome Mr. & Mrs. C to the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife.”

➔ Newlywed Brief Welcome/Thank You Speech ➔ yes

6:00 PM +/- ➔ Meal Served: buffet ➔ Dismiss tables: DOC Julie

6:30 PM +/- ➔ Toasts ➔ no champagne pour ➔ “Ladies &  gentlemen, may I have your attention please for the toasts. Please welcome our first speaker:”

➔ Best Man J.D.

➔ Maid of Honor Christina

➔ Father-Daughter Dance ➔ “I Loved Her First,” Heartland ➔ fade early: yes ➔ “Now let’s welcome Cierra & her father, Doug, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔ Mother-Son Dance ➔ “What a Wonderful World,” Louie Armstrong ➔ fade early: no ➔ “And now let’s welcome David & his mother, Ruby, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔ Formal Cake Cutting ➔ Song – DJ Choice

➔ Money Dance ➔ “Bad Boy, Good Man,” Tape 5, “Lucky,” Jason Mraz & Colbie Calliat, “I Do,” Colbie Caillat, “Speechless,” Dan & Shay

➔ Garter Removal ➔ “Timber,” Post Modern Jukebox

➔ Garter Toss ➔ “Another One Bites the Dust,” Queen

➔ Bouquet Toss ➔ “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” Cyndi Lauper

➔ Open Dancing, remind guests that the photo booth is open

8:00 PM ➔ Photographer leaves

➔ Open Dancing

9:20 PM ➔ Last call for bar & photo booth

9:30 PM ➔ Bar closes, photo booth closes

9:50 PM ➔ Last Dance

  CIERRA & DAVID’S DANCE MUSIC RECIPE

Requests ➔ yes, DJ discretion

Genres ➔ Variety, older & newer (rap, hip hop, disco, R&B, YMCA, line dances = OK), try some country dances (Slappin Leather? Boot Scootin Boogie?)

Swearing ➔ mostly clean, but some R/X-rated is OK

Dance Remixes ➔ OK

Priority During Dancing ➔ maximum dancing/use my expertise to read the crowd

Genres ➔ Top 40/Pop, 80s Pop/Rock/New Wave, 90s R&B/Boy Bands/Pop, Oldies, 70s/Classic Rock, Motown/Funk, Electronic Dance Music, 2000s

♥ M U S T – P L A Y S ♥

Blanco Brown – The Git Up, Old Town Road (Remix) – Lil Nas, Luke Bryan – Country Girl, Kid Rock – All Summer Long

♥ D O   N O T   P L A Y S ♥

Techno, Rave music

  TEMECULA CREEK COTTAGES WEDDING FLOOR PLAN

SAN DIEGO WEDDING VENDOR LIST

Here is the amazing team of San Diego wedding vendors I had the pleasure of working with on this Temecula Creek Cottages wedding:

Venue ➔  Temecula Creek Cottages

Day-Of Coordinator/Florist ➔ Julie from Simply Regal

Caterer ➔ Signers BBQ

DJ/MC/Lighting ➔ DJ Staci, the Track Star

Photographer ➔ Cory Kendra Photography

Videographer ➔ Isaac Meza

Photo Booth ➔ All Shots

Officiant ➔ Mason Brown, Bride’s Brother

Cake Bakery ➔ Truly, Madly, Sweetly

Again, I was honored to be the one and only San Diego wedding DJ Cierra & David trusted with their Temecula Creek Cottages wedding. Thank you!

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  Like DJ Staci's vibe? Stalk her wedding DJ services below! shshsh...

  GIVE IT TO ME BABY

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 6th January 2019

The twelve pop songs that weren’t Christmas are all in the top 13 along with a new arrival, so, yeah, essentially this week is the same as last week without a holiday. Everything that was below the top 40 just came back in spades, hence...

Returning Entries

There’s a ton. Let’s get all of the returning entries and drop-outs in our first, very busy week of 2019, done first. Let’s go, starting from what’s at the top to what’s at the bottom. “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra is back at #14, “Baby” by Clean Bandit, Marina and Luis Fonsi is back at #15, “This is Me” by Keala Settle and The Greatest Showman Ensemble is back at #16, “A Million Dreams” by P!nk is back at #17, “Woman Like Me” by Little Mix featuring Nicki Minaj is back at #18, “imagine” by Ariana Grande is back at #20, “Promises” by Calvin Harris and Sam Smith is back at #21, “Going Bad” by Meek Mill and Drake is back at #22, “Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora is back at #23, “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is at #24, “The Greatest Show” by Hugh Jackman, Keala Settle, Zac Efron, Zendaya and the Greatest Showman Ensemble returns to #25 (this was the first song I ever reviewed on this series so it’s crazy to see it back pretty much exactly a year later), “Happier” by Marshmello and Bastille is back to #26, “Advice” by Cadet and Deno Driz is at #27, “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes is at #28 (and while I’m at it, “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott featuring Drake, Swae Lee and Big Hawk is back at #33), “Eastside” by benny blanco, Halsey and Khalid is at #29, “A Million Dreams” by Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams comes back to #30, “Leave a Light On” by Tom Walker lights up at #31, “KIKA” by 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez jumps back to #32, “Girls Like You” by Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B rears its ugly head at #34, “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa, the biggest song of the year in the UK (yes, the year-end has been released, and I’ll rank it on my Twitter), “Funky Friday” by Dave and Fredo is at #38 (that one’s growing on me too...), “Body” by Loud Luxury and brando is at #39, and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran rounds off the Top 40. Well, since all of these have had their own reviews on this series before, I might leave links on each song to where they’ve been reviewed or something, although my opinions have already changed. Oh, “Perfect” and “Mo Bamba” don’t have proper reviews yet but it’ll be redundant doing it now because I’ll just be covering them more in-depth on my best list anyway (sorry, spoilers). Now...

Dropouts

Oh, my goodness. Okay, so, every single Christmas song is out. “All I Want for Christmas for You” by Mariah Carey from #2, “Last Christmas” by WHAM! from #3, “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl from #4, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid from #6, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas” by Michael Bublé from #7, “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis from #8, “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens from #9, “Step into Christmas” by Elton John from #10, and the episode’s already half of a 1,000 words. Listen, sorry about all the changes in structure with the series, especially in this episode, but I asked on Twitter if you would rather have me review more songs and not bother with anything else, and no, it was decided by 80% to continue with the standard format in the poll, so, yeah, I guess I’ll have to do it like this for another year. Anyways, back to this nonsense. “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea is out from #11, “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard from #12, “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande from #13, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee from #16, “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade from #17, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band featuring the Harlem Community Choir from #18 (God, that is a chore to type every week), “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney from #20 – may you rest in peace, you gorgeous novelty – “We Built this City on Sausage Rolls” by LadBaby from #21, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love from #22, “Cozy Little Christmas” by Katy Perry from #23, “Santa’s Coming for Us” by Sia from #24, “Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord” by Boney M. from #26, “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber from #28, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams from #29, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by Jackson 5 from #30, “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby from #31, “Stay Another Day” by East 17 from #36 – still not a Christmas song – “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson from #37, “Lonely this Christmas” by Mud from #38, and finally, “Baby it’s Cold Outside” by Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé is out from #39. That felt oddly therapeutic.

Now, there’s not a single song that fell this week, obviously, but there are a few that climbed outside of the Top 10, and they’re all rebounds from the avalanche.

Climbers

“Without Me” by Halsey is up three spots to #11, “Lost Without You” by Freya Ridings is up 20 spaces to #12, and finally, “Thursday” by Jess Glynne is up a whopping 27 positions to #13. Now, with the chart finally rid of those pesky Christmas songs, welcome to 2019, everyone, and this is the state of British pop as the year turns around.

Top 10

“Sweet but Psycho” by Ava Max is spending its second week at #1 today, which is cool, I guess, but i don’t imagine it holding on for that long.

Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” is up three spaces from last week to number-two, but now we’ve got some massive jumps from scattered within the top 40 straight to the top 10.

“Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is up 16 positions to number-three.

At number-four, we have an 11-space increase for Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus’ “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”.

Finally, in what feels like ages, we have a top 5 debut, with Post Malone having his ninth top 40 hit and sixth top 10 hit this week, as his new song “Wow.” enters at #5. We’ll talk about it at length later on.

At number-six, Lord help us, we have “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong up 21 spaces from last week. This is the best proof we’ve had since Mr. Blobby that the charts are ran by children.

“Shotgun” by George Ezra rebounds by 26 spots to number-seven for no good reason. Go away, please, for my own sanity.

Oh, joy, James Arthur too, with Anne-Marie for “Rewrite the Stars” up 17 spaces to number-eight.

Zara Larsson creeps her head into the top 10 as well after a 26-spot boost up to number-nine, making “Ruin My Life” her sixth top 10 hit in the UK.

Finally, Kodak Black’s “ZEZE” featuring Travis Scott and Offset is up an undeservedly high 24 places up to #10, rounding off our top 10 at way too many words for an episode that has yet to have any song reviews. I’ll try to keep them brief.

NEW ARRIVALS

#36 – “Gun Lean” – Russ

R-R-Russ? Huh... Never expected that name to ever pop up on here, to be honest. Russ seems to only be kind of big in the US but he’s never hit the top 40, and he’s pretty much just a running joke or meme in the hip hop community so I honestly never expected any Brits to take him seriously either but this is his new single, I guess, and it’s not great. It starts with a menacing piano line that could be kind of interesting but then Russ comes in with a British accent and—oh.

#36 – “Gun Lean” – Russ splash

BBC has called new UK rapper Russ splash “Russ” instead, but who really cares? He might as well be Russ because he doesn’t say anything of substance either, with a painfully simplistic hook and chorus that doesn’t really help his lyrical ability shine (if it exists). The heavy bass is obviously trying to be have that energetic old Lil Pump energy, but it doesn’t work when your song is three and a half minutes because this song is tiring as all hell. This is generic British rap that follows the formula to a T, and I hope it doesn’t rise. Speaking of following a formula...

#35 – “Money” – Cardi B

Sigh, I do like Cardi B, but she seems to have stopped bothering and that’s a big issue because that’s the main reason anyone liked her. It’s definitely not the lyrics and while it may be the beat, she always rides it with that loud, straightforward and powerful delivery she is known for, and when you stop trying in the booth, I feel like that appeal is going to squander, and this is her ninth top 40 hit in less than two years, so the fact that it’s going quick is an issue. Anyways, this is absolute garbage. The beats is literally like two piano notes just being violently played under trap percussion and bass, with a recurring high-pitched “Money” ad-lib that is trying to break up the monotony but, no, it’s just annoying. Cardi B sounds more ruthless on the verses, which may actually be kind of unfitting, but it works, although then she gets bored on the chorus. In fact, the transition is actually pretty abrupt and forced here. At least it’s shorter and has a few good flow switches, so it’s definitely better than “Gun Lean” in that respect, but that doesn’t mean it’s good.

#19 – “Play” – Jax Jones featuring Years & Years

This is listed as a returning entry on BBC’s UK Top 40 page but this came out last year and I never reviewed so it’s safe to assume it’s new; I apologise if it isn’t, but I mean, would you care? The lead singer from Years & Years keeps up with a tiring atmospheric house beat, with meaningless lyrics and weak, radio-friendly drops that kind of take away its EDM properties immediately, I mean, the hook here isn’t that crazy of a vocal manipulation either like “One Kiss” or “Solo”, it’s just a pretty comprehensible phrase repeated and edited to sound a tad more distant. It’s so weak and pathetic, although the dude from Years & Years is trying so hard to fit on this beat, it’s kind of funny in that regard. Otherwise, yeah, who cares?

#5 – “Wow.” – Post Malone

Let me put it this way: my sister loves Post Malone for many reasons, one of which being his music, and she’s consistently loved a lot of what I’ve hated from Post like “I Fall Apart” (which is still a gruelling and confusing song to this day, read my worst list if you want to see me go into depth), but not even she could dig this, but I think I know why – she took it seriously. The tuneless keys is the only real build-up we get until Post comes in and there’s a cool noisy melody that ends with a high-pitched screech, and yeah, it’s a pretty awesomely minimal and menacing beat, so surely Post should add a lot to this... well, he literally has a whole line that is just “G-Wagon, G-Wagon, G-Wagon, G-Wagon”, but otherwise his delivery is on-point (I love his voice right at the end at the second verse), his flows are catchy, his lyrics are serviceable and sometimes pretty funny, and every single beat drop here is beautiful, seriously, that’s some perfect production from Frank Dukes and Louis Bell. After Post stops rapping, there’s a period of time where it’s just the distorted melody over some reverb-drowned drums with a chipmunk vocal coming in and him just ad-libbing “wow”, and it’s stunning. It’s not going to replace Beck’s song of the same title and in the same vein (seriously, it’s a trap-rap song too), but this is cool.

Conclusion

This week was mostly trap, huh? Well, Post Malone gets Best of the Week for “Wow.” but Russ splash is definitely bagging Worst of the Week for the dreadful “Gun Lean”. Dishonourable Mention is tied, and goes to Jax Jones, Years & Years and Cardi B for “Play” and “Money”, respectively. Not  a great start, guys. See you next week!

n

[tinybabybanana]

RULES: answer all 30 questions and tag some people you want to get to know better.

I was tagged by my twin sister @peacetotherestless Thaaanks lol 

NAME: Venla 

NICKNAME: Hmmm, I don’t know if I have any, some people call me Vensku I guess haha. 

GENDER: Female

STAR SIGN: Leo

HEIGHT: 5′6 or about 168 cm

TIME: 15:42

FAVORITE BANDS: One Direction, Little Mix, Kodaline, McFly, Westlife, Take That. 

FAV SOLO ARTIST: All of 1D ofc, James Bay, Rag n Bone Man, George Ezra, James Blunt, Jessie Ware, Paloma Faith, Shania Twain. 

SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD: Sacrifice by Elton John :D. 

LAST MOVIE I SAW: Riptide, on Netflix

LAST SHOW I WATCHED: Friends

WHEN DID I CREATE MY BLOG: 2013

WHAT DO I POST?: 1D, Marvel, HP, Black Sails, etc.

LAST THING I GOOGLED: The date of the Hillsborough Disaster, bc I wasn’t sure if it happened on the 14th or 15th of April. Its 29th anniversary is today. I watched a really good documentary about it last year. Such a tragedy.   

DO I GET ASKS?: No. 

WHY DID I CHOOSE MY URL?: We used to call our youngest cat tiny baby banana when she was small and I appropriated it lol.  

Following: 431

FOLLOWED BY: 336 :)

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: about 7 hours

LUCKY NUMBER: 7

INSTRUMENTS: I don’t play any. 

DREAM JOBS: Librarian, I’m studying to become one right now. 

DREAM TRIP: To Ireland or Scotland. London is cool but I really want to go to Dublin. 

FAV FOOD: Salmon, fries or hamburgers. All kinds of sandwiches. 

NATIONALITY: Finnish

FAV SONG(S): Celine Dion - To Love You More, Gavin James - The Book of Love, James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover, Kodaline - The One, Harry Styles - Sweet Creature, George Michael - One More Try, Niall Horan - Flicker (and On My Own), Shania Twain - You’re Still the One, Madonna - Crazy for You, the symphony version of Perfect by Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli. Aaaand lots more. 

LAST BOOK I READ: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I’m trying to reread them all bc it’s been awhile.

TOP THREE FICTIONAL UNIVERSES I WANT TO LIVE IN: HP, also Percy Jackson’s and Middle-Earth!!. 

Tagging: I’m tagging @proud-to-be-nerd because I see her a lot on my dash and she seems  fun :)). 

[whitejeweler]

Welcome to Music Monday when we bring you hit songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Canadian songstress Amanda Marshall throws caution to the wind while wearing a very special locket in her 1995 chart-topper, "Dark Horse."

In the song she co-wrote with Dean McTaggart and David Tyson, Marshall tells the story of a 19-year-old girl who enters into a whirlwind romance with the new guy in town. She's criticized for being a crazy, romantic fool, but Marshall's heart tells her that this could be "the lucky one." Despite the long odds, she's willing to put her money on this "dark horse."

She sings, "I wear your locket, our picture's inside / Inscription says 'the joy's in the ride' / And I believe / That something so sacred / Is something worth this kind of fight / Cause love knows no patience / You can't please everyone all the time."

"Dark Horse" appeared as the fourth track from Marshall's wildly successful self-titled debut album, which sold more than one million copies in Canada alone. The single peaked at #5 on Canada's RPM Top Singles chart and #1 on RPM's Adult Contemporary chart.

Interestingly, while appearing on The Rosie O'Donnell Show in 1995, Elton John commented that he was listening to Marshall's just-released album and that "Dark Horse" would be a "guaranteed hit."

Born in Toronto in 1972, Amanda Meta Marshall studied music extensively during her childhood and her talents yielded her a spot at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. While performing on the Queen Street West bar scene in her teens, she met Canadian jazz and blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey, who was impressed by her powerful voice. She eventually toured with Healey and then released her debut album a few years later. It was a monumental work that spawned six Top 40 hits.

A year later, in 1996, her song "This Could Take All Night" was included in the original soundtrack of the motion picture Tin Cup, and, in 1997, Marshall's "I'll Be Okay" was featured on the original soundtrack of My Best Friend's Wedding.

Although Marshall has an active Facebook fan page, the artist has not performed since 2010. Her followers regularly encourage Marshall to return to the music scene.

Please check out the official video for Marshall's "Dark Horse." The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along.

"Dark Horse" Written by Dean McTaggart, David Tyson and Amanda Marshall. Performed by Amanda Marshall.

Indian summer Abilene You were new in town, I was nineteen And sparks flew They called us crazy behind our backs "Romantic fools" we just let them laugh Because we knew It may be a long shot We may get lonely down the line But love knows no reason And I won't let 'em make up my mind

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby My heart is saying it's the lucky one And it's true color's gonna shine through someday If we let this, let this dark horse run

The stars are brighter in the desert sky No need to wonder or justify Where this will lead I wear your locket, our picture's inside Inscription says 'the joy's in the ride' And I believe That something so sacred Is something worth this kind of fight Cause love knows no patience You can't please everyone all the time

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby My heart is saying it's the lucky one And it's true color's gonna shine through someday If we let this, let this dark horse run

So rare So sweet Together baby, I know We can Disappear Be free

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby My heart is saying it's the lucky one And it's true color's gonna shine through someday If we let this, let this dark horse run

My money's riding on this dark horse, baby My heart is saying it's the lucky one And it's true color's gonna shine through someday If we let this, let this dark horse run

Indian summer Abilene You were new in town, I was nineteen

Credit: Screen capture via YouTube.com.

Visit our website at whitejewelers.net

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[wavelengthintl]

The Top Ten Tracks Of 2016

10. Foxes - Cruel

Pretty much everything Foxes has put out since she did that track with Zedd has only gotten like 3% of the traction that Clarity got, which is really unfortunate because Foxes is one of the top pop stars of our time. She's one of the few pop artists who can give radio pop the sincerity of indie pop.

9. Famous Dex - Hit Em Wit It

Famous Dex is the latest artist to contribute to music's rich history of making music that emulates the feeling of being on drugs - in this case promethazine cough syrup. Although he wasn't included in XXL's freshman class he was pretty much an unofficial member, as his unique style differentiated him from the rest of Chiraq's drill rappers.

8. Kero Kero Bonito - Lipslap

When it comes to house music I definitely thought this was going to be the song of the summer, or at least hit over one million views by the end of the summer. Over the past handful of years the UK has produced a lot of solid house / pop fusion acts, and this track shows that KKB has the potential to be on the same pedestal as acts like Disclosure, Gorgon City, and Disciples. It looks like this style was a one-off for KKB however, as most of their music sits somewhere between J-pop, indie dance, and the soundtrack to most scenes ever made where Michael Cera is trying to talk to girls.

7. Rich Chigga - Dat $tick

In 2014 there was CoCo, in 2015 there was Slim Jesus, and Dat $tick was 2016's viral internet rap sensation. What all of these tracks have in common is that they use the phenomenon of "post-irony" to very rapidly gain traction. Some aspect of the production is unorthodox in a major way, and this then creates a wave of people who come to the video to make fun of it. Then, 20 replays later, people are actually hyped up on this shit and playing it full volume in the drive-thru at McDonald's in some kind of janky-ass trap-fuelled defiance of social order. Once people start to actually like it, that's when fights start happening in comment sections, people start encouraging popular YouTubers to film reaction videos, and media outlets start reporting on it. In the case of Dat $tick, this whole process can be summarized with the comment "I've been laughing for like thirty minutes and then I try to figure out if this is a real thing or not and now I'm laughing even harder, dammit." This song was a perfect storm of actual talent, a creative decision to go with an unorthodox look in the video, the fact that Rich Chigga is from Indonesia and taught himself English online, the fact that he was 16 at the time of the track's creation, and the reality that post-irony is constantly gaining more ground at the centre of hip-hop.

6. Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom

This year Charli XCX went back to her indie-pop roots with the launch of her new indie label "Vroom Vroom Recordings," and the release of its eponymous EP co-produced by PC music's Sophie. Post-irony seems to be on the rise in music in general right now, and if this keeps up into 2017 then PC music could easily become the dominant sound in pop music.

5. Danny L Harle - Super Natural feat. Carly Rae Jepsen

Charli XCX wasn't the only major pop artist to align herself with the PC Music camp over the past year, a surefire indication of that sound's gradual rise into the centre of pop. Whereas a lot of Sophie and A.G. Cook's productions sound like being transported to a post-internet caricature of the late 90's, Danny L Harle's productions sound like being trapped in the after-party of an anime convention with the type of people who wear fake tails, which is something I'm totally okay with it. Ironically this collaboration sounded like a natural progression for CRJ, who's been gradually drifting into pop music's more experimental side while simultaneously releasing two of the best pop albums of the year in back to back years. You can tell by how happy she is in the video that she's gradually honing in on her own sound, and this is it.

4. Rosie Lowe - Woman

This past year was a good year for noir r&b, with new material from artists like Banks, Sohn, and a new James Blake / Bon Iver collaboration. However, only noir r&b artist got Elton John so hyped up that he gave them props on the radio then invited them to perform a live duet, and that artist was Rosie Lowe hailing from Devon, England. She closed off 2015 with a Machinedrum collaboration, then came back this with her full length album "Control" that fully placed her on the same pedestal as artists like James Blake and Jessie Ware.

3. Clams Casino - All Nite ft. Vince Staples

A lot of amazing rap music happened over the past year, but it was also one of the most divisive years in hip-hop history. Old schoolers were angry at seeing their genre get overrun by MCs who look like those troll dolls from the 90's with purple hair. New schoolers were mad at old schoolers for being unwilling to let go of the past. Then there were acts like $uicideboy$ who drew fans that probably disliked both factions equally. Amidst all the turmoil only one figure was able to unite this divided landscape - legendary beatmaker Clams Casino. His album 32 Levels assembled artists from each of hip-hop's factions, and his witch house-leaning beats created something that rose above the partisan warfare raging in the streets.

2. Beyoncé - Formation

Mike WiLL, the same producer who forever changed the way the world saw Miley Cyrus, was behind the beat that forever changed the way we look at Beyoncé. When this track dropped the internet exploded with think pieces. It was apparent from reading some of the more conservative ones, particularly after her super bowl appearance, that before this track a lot of people expected Beyoncé to be a minstrel and use her blackness for benign entertainment. As one writer put it, however, this video was defiant blackness at its most unapologetic. On the other hand, there were a lot of criticisms, even from people on the socially liberal side, as to whether this was actually a powerful statement, or just trying to profit from social justice imagery. I remember shortly after this dropped I had an argument in some comment section against someone who had that opinion, and I was trying to argue that this video was essentially akin to Public Enemy. The other person obviously thought that Formation was nowhere near the level of a group that blatantly called Elvis racist on a track, but my position was that a track doesn't have to sound like a manifesto to be bold. The fact that Formation actually got Tomi Lahren to say the line "Guess what Beyoncé, white people like your music too," is a sign that a definitive impact was made.

1. 21 Savage & Metro Boomin - No Heart

I legitimately have no explanation as to how 21 Savage got this popular. I listened to gangster rap in the 90's, I've listened to artists like Jedi Mind Tricks and Jadakiss, and 21 Savage is by far the most violent shit I've ever heard. It's even more chilling because when he's describing all this crazy stuff he sounds like he's casually reading a shopping list to his mom on the phone. Here's why I think this track is so amazing: it's virtually impossible to hit these numbers in rap music without a substantial amount of white people being stoked. Fifteen years ago, however, music that's this charged probably would have alienated a lot of people in the suburban white market. I think in the early 2000's a lot of people from this demographic were drawn to gangster rap because it offered an emotional outlet that a lot of other genres didn't have. If 21 Savage would have been around back then, his music probably wouldn't have been viewed as offering that same vicarious outlet because the things he talks about would have been too alien to people, like glorifying the sale of a drug that ravaged inner city communities in the 90's. Now, however, 95% of white people on the internet are hyped up on this and putting 21 Savage on their playlist for spin class. I don't even really know what a spin class is, I just know it's where predominantly white civilians convene to listen to music when the club is closed. It's ultimately not the fault of any one market for spiking the popularity of 21 Savage though. We all know that this is bad. We all know that generally it's probably not a good thing to roll up to someone's mom's house and blind-fire live ammunition into it until someone is dead, but as soon as we heard five bars from this track we bought his entire discography. This is why Fidel Castro called mainland North America a land of sociopaths.

[sandiegodjstaci]

Caroline & Nate's Swingin' Coronado Community Center Wedding

Caroline & Nate's Swingin' Coronado Community Center Wedding

Of all the San Diego wedding DJs calling America’s finest city home, Caroline & Nate chose me to DJ and MC their swingin’ Coronado Community Center wedding (Nautilus Room & Patio) on Super Bowl Sunday, February 3, 2019.

  THE CORONADO COMMUNITY CENTER WEDDING CEREMONY

Prelude ➔ Piano, Vitamin String Quartet

Processional ➔ Latch by Simply Three

Bride Processional  ➔ “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” by Haley Reinhart

Recessional ➔ Brighter Than The Sun by Colbie Caillat (cue to 30 seconds/first chorus)

  THE COCKTAIL HOUR & DINNER MUSIC

While San Diego DJ Staci offers couples pre-set cocktail & dinner playlists to choose from, Caroline & Nate opted to hand-select their background music for their Coronado Community Center wedding.

Cocktail Music ➔ Forever – Chris Brown, Everything – Michael Buble, Benny And The Jets – Elton John, L-O-V-E – Nat King Cole, Feel It Still – Portugal, The Man, I Do – Colbie Caillat, Africa – Toto, Sweet Home Chicago –Blues Brothers, Ob La Di – The Beatles, Hurts So Good – John Mellencamp, Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys, The Way You Make Me Feel – Michael Jackson, Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations, Sweet Child O’Mine – Guns N Roses, We Are Young – Fun, You Can’t Hurry Love – Phil Collins, Run-Around – Blues Travelers, Saturday In The Park – Chicago, Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Dinner Music ➔ The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson, Cheek to Cheek – Fred Astaire, Feeling Good – Michael Buble, It Had To be You – Harry Connick Jr, The Way You Look Tonight – Frank Sinatra, Shh Boom – The Crew Cuts, Because You Loved Me – Celine Dion, Singin’ In The Rain – Gene Kelly, When I Fall In Love – Nat King Cole, Tiny Dancer – Elton John, Sea Of Love – Cat Power, That’s Amore – Dean Martin, The Luckiest – Ben Folds, Somewhere Beyond The Sea – Bobby Darin, Fade Into You – Scarlett O’Connor & Gunnar Scott, Roses And Violets – Alexander Jean, Unforgettable – Nat King Cole, Fly Me To The Moon / Lucky – Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat, In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel, Iris – Goo Goo Dolls, Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You – Frankie Valli, My Kind of Town (Chicago Is) – Frank Sinatra

  CORONADO COMMUNITY CENTER WEDDING RECEPTION

My Welcome ➔ “Good evening! Welcome to Caroline & Nathaniel’s wedding reception!!! I am the Master of Ceremonies, DJ Staci. Please take your seats so we can begin tonight’s festivities. Be sure to post your photos today with #CelebrateWithCareAndNate and #GarciaSoon. If you need to charge your devices, I do have a mini charging station up here including some universal chargers. Nate’s Uncle Steve, who was also one of today’s ceremony officiants, will now say grace before dinner. Then the wedding coordinator, Tatiana, will dismiss tables to eat.”

➔ Dinner Blessing: Uncle Steve

➔ Meal Served: Buffet/Food Stations/Etc ➔ Dismiss tables: Day-Of Coordinator

➔ Grand Entrance ➔ Sing Sing Sing by Benny Goodman (cue to 18 seconds) ➔ “I hope you are enjoying your meals. Just a reminder to post your photos today with #CelebrateWithCareAndNate and #GarciaSoon. And, again, if you need to charge your devices, I do have a mini charging station up here including some universal chargers. But, right now, may I have your attention for the OFFICIAL welcome of our guests of honor!!! Get on your feet to welcome–for the FIRST TIME EVER–Mr. and Mrs. Garcia!!!”

➔ First Dance ➔ “Garcia First Dance Medley” ➔ fade early: No ➔ “Let’s welcome Mr. and Mrs. Garcia to the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife.” (wait for a thumbs up from them)

➔ Newlywed Brief Welcome/Thank You Speech ➔ yes

6:15 PM +/- (after B&G eat) ➔ Toasts ➔ whatever the guests are already drinking ➔ “It’s time for the toasts now. Please welcome our first speaker:

➔ Best Man David H

➔ Maid of Honor Jannell L

➔ Formal Cake Cutting ➔ Cake by the Ocean by DNCE (clean version)

➔ Uncle-Niece Dance ➔ Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole ➔ fade early: yes ➔ “Now let’s welcome Caroline & her uncle, Michael, to the dance floor.”

➔ Mother-Son Dance ➔ I Hope You Dance by LeeAnn Womack ➔ fade early: yes ➔ “Please welcome Nathaniel & his mother, Pam, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔ Group Photo on Dance Floor (with football toss once everyone is gathered, winner gets special prize) ➔ Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis ➔ “In lieu of a garter or bouquet toss & since it is super bowl Sunday, Nate & Caroline are going to be tossing a football instead!”

➔ Open Dancing

7:00 PM ➔ Photographer/videographer leave

9:57 PM ➔ Last Dance ➔ Sweet Caroline

  CAROLINE & NATE’S DANCE MUSIC RECIPE

Dance Music Rating ➔ PG-13 (like radio edits of songs)

Priority During Dancing ➔ maximum dancing/use my expertise to read the crowd

*Music/Dancing Notes ➔ no drunk uncle karaoke

Genres ➔ Top 40/Pop, 80s Pop/Rock/New Wave, 90s R&B/Boy Bands/Pop, Oldies, 70s/Classic Rock, Motown/Funk, Electronic Dance Music, 2000s

♥ M U S T – P L A Y S ♥

1. I Got A Feeling – Black Eyed Peas, 2. Bailando (Spanish Version) [feat. Descemer Bueno & Gente de Zona], 3. Shape Of You – Ed Sheeran, 4. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (when B&G present), 5. In The Mood – Glenn Miller, 6. Shut Up and Dance – Walk The Moon, 7. All Of Me – John Legend, 8. Living On A Prayer – Bon Jovi, 9. Perfect – Ed Sheeran, 10. Then – Brad Paisley (when B&G present), 11. Sway – Michael Buble, 12. Havana – Camila Cabello, 13. Jump, Jive, And Wail – Brian Setzer Orchestra, 14. Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen, 15. Shout! – The Isley Brothers, 16. This I Promise You – N’Sync, 17. Cupid Shuffle, 18. Cha Cha Slide, 19. Pianoman – Billy Joel

♥ P L A Y – I F – Y O U – C A N ♥

20. Open Arms – Journey, 21. Spice Up Your Life – The Spice Girls, 22. Uptown Funk, 23. Party In The USA – Miley Cyrus, 24. I Want You To Know – Zedd feat. Selena Gomez, 25. Good Life – Kanye West, 26. Toxic – Britney Spears, 27. You Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC, 28. This Is What You Came For – Calvin Harris feat Rihanna

♥ D O – N O T – P L A Y S ♥

Anything too raunchy/dirty, Hot In Here – Nelly, Sean Paul, Shots – LMFAO, Baby Got Back – Sir Mixalot, Ice Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice, Achy Breaky Heart – Billy Rae Cyrus, Get Low – Lil Jon and Eastside Boys, My Humps – Black Eyed Peas

  CORONADO COMMUNITY CENTER WEDDING FLOOR PLAN

SAN DIEGO WEDDING VENDOR LIST

Here is the amazing team of San Diego wedding vendors I had the pleasure of working with on this Coronado Community Center wedding:

Venue ➔  Coronado Community Center

Catering/Day-Of Coordination ➔  Bekker’s Catering (one of my faves!)

Photography (photo credit – featured image) ➔  Abigail Gagne Photography

Videography ➔  Kaylee Duke Films

Flowers  ➔  Flowers By Kendra

Desserts  ➔  Incredible Cheesecake Company and Cafe Zucchero

  Again, I was honored to be the one and only San Diego wedding DJ Caroline & Nate trusted with their Coronado Community Center wedding. Thank you!

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  GIVE IT TO ME BABY

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 30th December 2018 - its Christmas ennit

So, there are twelve Christmas songs I need to review and no new arrivals. Hence, I’m not going to take myself too seriously on this one, so be prepared for a more lighthearted, funnier and most importantly shorter episode of REVIEWING THE CHARTS right after the usual. Anyways, the chart is pretty much three quarters Christmas this week (28 holiday songs) – joy. Let’s go into what survived, what suffered and the Top 10.

Top 10

We have a new number-one – for its first week, ten weeks into its chart run, “Sweet but Psycho” by Ava Max has reached the top spot. I’m not necessarily complaining because it’s not a bad song, but it still isn’t very festive.

Now: the holidays, because as soon as I start celebrating New Years and the dawn of 2019, there’s a Christmas avalanche (unfortunately, none by the Avalanches). “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey is up three spots to the runner-up place. This could have gone to number-one, which is insane.

“Last Christmas” by WHAM! is up four spots to number-three.

“Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl is up seven spaces to number-four.

“thank u, next” by Ariana Grande is down two places to number-five.

“Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid moves up seven positions to number-six. Blech.

“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé is beginning to look a lot more popular as it slides past nine positions all the way up to number-seven.

“One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis proves itself surprisingly well, up eleven spots to number-eight.

Shakin’ Stevens has an identical boost as “Merry Christmas Everyone” travels up to number-nine.

Finally rounding off our top 10, at #10 we have “Step into Christmas” by Elton John, up eight spaces from last week.

Christmas Nonsense

“Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea is up 11 to #11, “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard is up 12 to #12, and just to ruin our streak is “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande, moving up ten spaces to #13, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee is up five to #16, “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade is up 19 to #17, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band featuring the Harlem Community Choir is up 11 to #18, “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney is up 15 to #20, “We Built This City on Sausage Rolls” (yes, this is a Christmas song) by LadBaby is DOWN 20 spaces from its top-spot debut last week, now at #21 – and that’s it.

What Survived

Really not that much. Outside of the top 10, “Without Me” by Halsey is down nine to #14, “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” by Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus is down nine to #15, “Sunflower” from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse by Post Malone and Swae Lee is down nine to #19, “Rewrite the Stars” by James Arthur and Anne-Marie is down 13 to #25, “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong is somehow UP three spaces to #27, “Lost Without You” by Freya Ridings is down 18 to #32, “Shotgun” by George Ezra is up four to #33, “ZEZE” by Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott and Offset is down 19 to #34 (this is the only rap song on the chart this week, which is crazy considering how big that genre was this year), “Ruin My Life” by Zara Larsson is down 18 to #35, and “Thursday” by Jess Glynne is down a whopping 31 spaces to #40. Now, in the first 600 words or so of this episode, I have name-dropped every single song on the chart right now that is not in any way related to Christmas or the holidays, adding up to a total of about twelve. Why are there so little then? Well, first of all...

What Suffered

Let’s start with songs that aren’t in the top 75 at all. “KIKA” by 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez is out from #34 and “when the party’s over” by Billie Eilish is out from #39. These weren’t going to live long anyway. Now, these next songs are ordered by where they are on the top 100 as of this week. “Imagine” by Ariana Grande is out from #8, “A Million Dreams” by P!nk is out from #27, “Baby” by Clean Bandit featuring Luis Fonsi and Marina is out from #25, “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra is out from #32, “Close to Me” by Ellie Goulding, Diplo and Swae Lee is out from #28, “Going Bad” by Meek Mill and Drake is out from #26, “Better” by Khalid is out from #33, “Empty Space” by James Arthur is out from #31 – good!, “Advice” by Cadet and Deno Driz is out from #38 and finally, “Let You Love Me” by Rita Ora is out from #40. Jesus. Now, returning entries.

Returning Entries

#39 – “Baby it’s Cold Outside” – Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé

Written in 1944, the dated lyrics that are perceived as rapey and manipulative have caught some flack in recent years – of course, what do you expect? It’s from 1944, you should be grateful it doesn’t have a reference to minstrel shows. Although the lack of adjustment of the lyrics in recent covers like this one has been concerning because people become more aware, and who else than Adele Dazeem and the definition of non-descript to cover this charming yet problematic classic? I’m kidding, of course, because these two personality vacuums make me sick to my stomach with their dull-as-bricks cover of an already lethargic traditional. Somehow at two minutes and 36 seconds, it’s too long, especially with its static production. I’d like to say mixing is slightly odd too, but that’s probably on purpose, although the skits in between verses are pretty cringeworthy. Next.

#38 – “Lonely this Christmas” – Mud

Speaking of lethargic and boring, how about the exhausting song by Mud? It starts with the a-capella “bom-bom-bom-bom” and I feel that symbolises your life flashing past your eyes right before your slow, gruelling death with surf-rock guitars and the lead singer sounding like he has a gum shield in his mouth but was forced to stand in for Lionel Richie at a Christmas charity event. I’m calling it now – this type of lazy, awfully dreary music is the reason all of our substance-less emo-rap and lo-fi nonsense exists now, and if less Mud means less Juice WRLD and joji, I’m all for removing this song out of the British Xmas music canon. Go away, and take your annoying spoken word sections with you. Next.

#37 – “Underneath the Tree” – Kelly Clarkson

Hey, something that doesn’t suck as much as an alcoholic toddler hidden within fields of cattle. Although this still has barely any build-up so the climax (which is about three seconds in, may I add) feels immensely worthless. Kelly sounds great, as usual, but the instrumentation is quite cluttered when the chorus comes in, meaning like all new Christmas pop songs, it has that overproduced vibe, which is a vibe nobody except Kanye can really work well with. I’m all for maximalist production but once you add a sax solo to about 40 layers of plastic tangentially festive loops, you lose me. The hook is an earworm and a half. Next.

#36 – “Stay Another Day” – East 17

This isn’t a Christmas song. It was number-one at Christmas, and it had snow in the video, but that doesn’t mean it’s a Christmas song. Hence, I refuse to review it. It’s pretty rubbish generic boy-band schlock, anyway, and it’s really bottom-of-the-barrel tier of that genre, so no losses here!

#31 – “White Christmas” – Bing Crosby

This is an absolute classic, with elegant, beautiful strings and some of the sweetest vocals I’ve ever heard laid down from the 50s and 60s crooners of their day. The lyrics are as well-written as Christmas songs really got back then, and for the time, this probably sounded good on records. It sounds pretty awful on streaming, actually, there’s a few vocal clippings that are oddly frequent. Seriously, we need a remastered version of this that isn’t by Michael Bublé. When’s the last time we got a white Christmas anyway? Even Crosby had to wish for it 60 years ago, we basically have to pray the whole 12 months. Next.

#30 – “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” – Jackson 5

Kids shouldn’t be singing, okay? None of them are all that good at it especially when it’s a professional, label-backed recording. Michael Jackson has always sounded pretty awful as a kid, both in and out the Jackson 5, to me at least, in my opinion, and it’s no different here, although I’ll admit he sounds okay in his best moments throughout, and the production has some actual funk and groove behind it, so I’ll always appreciate that (although I definitely do appreciate the painful infant Michael Jackson ad-libs). When I typed in “Santa Claus” into Spotify, the first thing to show up was “I’m Gonna Kill Santa Claus”, so that should tell you how I feel about this type of sickly Christmas music in general. Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnext.

#29 – “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” – Andy Williams

It really isn’t, but as much as I disagree with the politics here, the song’s pretty cool. This is actually remastered so I can appreciate every tidbit, from the bass in Andy Williams’ gorgeous voice, the cute lyrics, the beautiful orchestral instrumentation  and the unintentionally lo-fi backing vocals that kind of work as a lower quality in comparison to the rest of the mix because it sounds like a public recording of a chanted vocal in a pub or village or something, like gang vocals in DJ Mustard beats. Why are there ghost stories, though? Was Jack Skellington involved in the making of the song? Either way, this song’s pretty NEXT!

#28 – “Mistletoe”- Justin Bieber

Just because it’s a song that briefly and vaguely references Christmas whilst really being a song about picking up a girl doesn’t mean it’s a Christmas song. I mean, that would imply Lil Wayne’s song about having sex with every girl in the world is a Christmas song, and that’s just wrong.

These hoes is God’s gift like Christmas

Next!

#26 – “Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord” – Boney M.

The women are great but listen, the dude in Boney M. can’t sing, at all, and personally, I don’t like my Christmas songs to be too overly religious. This literally re-tells the birth of Jesus, and for what it’s worth, it’s a decent gospel-disco track although I know a whole album that makes a better combination of urban contemporary music and gospel, in fact, I know two, from the same year and the same people... but seriously that dude’s voice is hilariously pathetic, and his part is just unforgivably horrible and out-of-place. Who told him this was okay? This was the sex icon, I’m pretty sure, of the group, because he was Daddy Cool and all that, but if a man walked up to me with that voice, I’d think he was a child initially and then eventually run away. He scares me with how Godawful (no pun intended) his performance here is... but it’s okay as a whole, I guess. Next.

#24 – “Santa’s Coming for Us” – Sia

Sia tries to do reggae-fusion Christmas and it hurts my ears. This is the only time where Sia’s diction really bothers me because she’s just indecipherable here, and she has nothing to cover her initially except synth noise until the cliché, plastic Christmas beat comes in. Admittedly I like the horns here, but that goes for a lot of these tracks. Sia’s chorus where she just repeats the title until she absolutely mangles the word to the point where it means nothing disgusts me with his repulsing beauty. It’s almost unlistenable, and I’m pretty sure the fake Caribbean inflection deserves this white Australian woman some flack. No? You guys still going to fight the dude in the 1940s who made a song that portrayed gender roles considered more standard at the time, and not the woman who fakes an accent for a worthless Christmas cash-in? Aight then, next.

#23 – “Cozy Little Christmas” – Katy Perry

If you don’t put your music on Spotify and are a big name who is absolutely able to, you are pretentious, irrational and uptight. This song only exists as a single because it was released on Amazon. That’s baffling to me. Next.

#22 – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” – Darlene Love

Was this in Home Alone? It seems oddly familiar to a song that was definitely in that soundtrack. I don’t know, but this song rocks. The song is oddly desperate despite how it may sound, and I can really dig her longing for days that she had a “true” Christmas because of how she spent it all with her significant other. It’s sweet. Phil Spector’s jolly production shines again with the steady beat (needs a remastered version ASAP) and Darlene Love perfectly riding the instrumental as if she was Santa on his sleigh. Thank you, next.

Conclusion

Oh, wait, that’s all? Thank the Lords. Mud get Worst of the Week for “Lonely this Christmas”, with Dishonourable Mention going to Katy Perry, East 17 and Justin Bieber for all of their worthless cash-ins that I didn’t even bother doing any form of substantial reviews for. Best of the Week goes to Andy Williams, to be honest, for “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, with Honourable Mention going to no-one. Happy Easter.