#kind of shy to post this since there have been some real bangers on my dash 2day!!

[cattewife]

to take; to accept

a h/ual/ian modern au snzfic/sickfic

fandom: m/xtx t/gcf rating: E word count: 3.5k / 14k contains: couple catching cold from each other sneezing from colds sneezing from allergies (+cold) mess (light at first and then more descriptive) fet! x/ie l/ian, sick x/ie l/ian, allergic! h/ua c/heng, sick h/ua c/heng sex while sick 4 chapters, will post weekly! illustrations in ch.1 & 4 (nsfw in 4)

X/ie L/ian isn't coming down with something. He has too much to do! And H/ua C/heng definitely isn't going to catch it from him. But if he did.... X/ie L/ian might have some feelings about that.

<< read it on ao3 HERE >>

[ pls do not reblog to non snz/kink blogs! ]

[scrapplescribbles]

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. IT'S FINALLY HERE!! (intro to Fairfable)

apologies for the wait. i was procrastinating the hobby i use to procrastinate (and still listening to boss fight by doom scroll on repeat bc it is a banger song)

anyway

for those of you who aren't aware, i posted a poll recently to decide which of my wips to start posting content about because i'm indecisive on top of being inexperienced and not knowing how to do this

and Fairfable won!!

which i'm really excited about because i had a good feeling abt this one getting out on the internet

also it makes me happy and is very close to my heart in many ways

SO WHAT IS FAIRFABLE?

imagine a world much like your own but with gargoyle security guards and troll landlords and elves and mermaids and monsters and fae and whatever else you nerds can think of

and as it turns out their problems aren't that different from yours

i said this would be an animated show (2D bc i like cartoons.) it will at some point hopefully, but i fear i can not animate at this point in my life (as in i am supremely bad at it), and i'd like to get a bit better at drawing and work on having a more consistent style before i really get to animating

also im significantly better at traditional art than digital so that's unhelpful but thats mostly an experience thing

oh also i want it to be a musical yeah i didnt mention that before

it was inspired by indie shows i've seen on youtube (largely Hazbin Hotel (yes i know its not a great show but it wasn't all bad either. it was a start and it demonstrated what indie animation is capable of even at its not-best. i am choosing to learn from it and give something better to the world instead of just going "wow guys this shit sucks") bc indie animation in general is so cool and i will support a studio with a dream over a money-hungry giant any day of the week (cough cough fuck you disney cough cough)

so we have a ragtag band of queer mentally ill fantasy creatures becoming roommates cause what the hell

MEET THE CAST!!! (with yapping) (i apologize none of these are in actual color)

Nema (she/her)

the neurodivergent experience but she's a mermaid

the sweetest person you'll ever meet but can on occasion be absolutely savage

kinda shy and a bit odd but can do a good yap once u get to know her (chat shes me)

Nema's visions have been there for as long as she can remember. They've always set her apart. Made her special. She doesn't know where they come from. No one does. But she's always seen things beyond what is possible for anyone else she's ever met.

Oh, the things she would do for them to just go away and let her be normal.

But maybe, if they're pointing her in the right direction—which she has a better feeling about than usual—she can make some friends here.

I was only bullied a little bit as a kid (and I kind of deserved it cause I was lowkey a pick me), but the real problem was the feeling of seemingly arbitrary otherness. Nema is for the neurodivergent kids who never fit in and never really understood why being different was so terrible a crime.

We all know what a classic mermaid looks like. I like it when they're a bit more "mer" and slightly less "maid," though, so she's got more fins and gills and such. She's also got nice huge eyes for seeing in the dark and also accidentally staring at people when she zones out (real, girl, real.) She's a cutie patootie and I love her.

Lynx (she/her)

says who a cat can't be burnt the fuck out?

pushes things off tables when bored

can and will bite if provoked

Lynx is a cat lady with a temper and a bone to pick with capitalism. But she's got shit to do. She doesn't have time to worry about the fact that she hasn't felt refreshed since that one nap she took when she was, like, eleven. Time is moving too fast, and all she's got now is two jobs, a shit ton of of paperwork, and a giant tree full of a bunch of fellow brokies and a faerie—can fae be broke? Lynx doesn't think Shailyn even knows what money is. Whatever. She guesses her new roommates aren't so bad.

ADHD is always depicted in media as this silly quirky "oopsie poopsie I forgot to get toilet paper at the store because I got distracted by a shiny dinosaur balloon" thing (although I probably would do something like that.) As someone who (probably—I'm not diagnosed but I've done my research, and I show a lot of the symptoms) has real struggles related to ADHD, it's important to me to raise awareness for it and other forms of neurodivergence, especially for adults and women with ADHD.

Take one look at any cat and tell me it doesn't have ADHD. And so I give you Lynx.

Zing (pronouns? yeah those r cool lol)

kind of a little shit but gets away with it cause they're cute and they know it

can not spell

favorite pastimes include impulsively texting their ex at 3am and pissing off Lynx

Zing is a shapeshifter who lives to be the center of attention everywhere they go, and that works out pretty well—who wouldn't love them? They go wherever looks the most interesting and do whatever fuels their main character energy—and if that means going to live with with a bunch of randos in an old tree, hell yeah. Besides, the elf guy's hot.

Zing is one of those characters who sounds fun and crowd-pleasing and tropey. That is probably true. But there is a whole lot going on under the surface, and I'll let all that speak for itself.

Also genderfluid representation! Again, something I share with a character and further proof that writing is fancily projecting and each of these characters is a piece of my soul.

Zing likes to experiment with fashion and hairstyles a lot, which is tough to keep up with as far as creating different designs. They're a shapeshifter, though, so of course they take advantage of that. They have giant ears for no other reason than that they can have a bunch of earrings and look super badass. Also I'm really proud of the hands on this drawing. I'm one of those people who don't really use references (I know, I know, but I genuinely just forget to 😭) but somehow I'm not the worst at drawing hands sometimes (this is the one drawing I got to do good hands in. That's why Sal has his hands in his hoodie pocket.)

Small note: shapeshifters in media sometimes piss me off because their limitations are not clearly or consistently set. I, the nerd I am, have thought all of this through. Continuity!! If you'd like to hear more what the limitations of shapeshifting are, let me know and I'll post my nerd stuff.

Shailyn (she/her)

the mom friend

enjoys some good shenanigans but cries when one of her babies' feelings get hurt

does not know how to use a toaster

Shailyn is a Celtic faerie who knows very little about the human world. She barely has any contact with other creatures in her realm, but, so far, she's been content with her occasional tricks and lack of real social interaction outside the circles of the fae. However, that all changes when an intriguing bunch of weirdos move into the old tree on the edge of the forest, and suddenly she's making friends.

Since she's a Celtic faerie, I always include some swirlies and swoopy shapes. Her design has a long way to go (you can probably tell I'm still experimenting), and it's kinda hard to see the details since I don't know what I'm doing. Her branch antler thingies and wing-cloak thing are always there, though. Also since I wanna get her animated, she's gonna have to have a more consistent and minimally confusing design. She's getting there.

Sal (he/him)

never really grew out of his emo phase

done w this shit

somehow the only one everyone else completely trusts in the kitchen

You'd think Sal is the tall, dark, and brooding stereotype. And he kind of is. But that trope pisses me off, so we're doing it realistically and with warmer colors. The man has ✨issues✨ and a very unhealthy dose of generational trauma and we love him. But there's a little something called character growth and development which is really important in this series and basically the whole reason I started writing it.

For his design, obviously he's tall and pointy-eared. He wears a lot of dark colors because of his remaining aforementioned emo phase. There isn't really much else I can say other than the fact that it was way too difficult to make him not wonky. He's not supposed to be wonky. Elves aren't wonky. Whatever.

CONCLUSION

if you have any questions comments or concerns my asks are open and so are comments and i will be happy to yap as much as you'll let me

also bonus post-nema hand

[feketeribizli]

okay wait marci questions. how does he feel about media stuff? press, sponsored posts, the obligatory slash forced social media goofing etc. actually what's his social media presence like in general. also does he have pets..... did he grow up idolising anyone currently on the grid? how does he feel about racing his childhood heroes if yes? also, what's his favourite colour? capping it here but i want it known that he has eaten my brain 👍

hiii thank youuuu absolute bangers from you as always mwuah mwuah 😁🫶

nearly wrote a thousand words LMAO im putting a readmore somewhere to save yall... thank you for your time everyone 🫡

with all the live cockslip talk i thought itd be fun to delve into his social media presence for real... team and personal brand posting he doesnt mind per say, he got that goober in him that doesnt take oneself too seriously so hopping on silly trends hes almost looking forward to it. aston socials esp their tiktok is like my fave thing in the world lol id love to see him recreate the adam security & gf trend with padre

marci mostly uses instagram and its a mess... i barely follow any drivers but ive noticed they almost always got a certain aesthetic they try to keep up and well. marci dgaf. theyd try to put some color grading filter on the first photo in his dumps so at least theres some harmony to his page but its atrocious

he obviously has an official account on every other site but its usually for stuff his management posts on there (and an empty tiktok profile where his reposts are public. surely nothing weird or suspicious to see)

back to press and shit... hes not a fan 🧍‍♂️ he prefers the scripted stuff and when he can have like three takes to say something cause when its just him and twenty cameras broadcasting live... he still gets nervous and then the accent slips in and he stumbles his speeches and words things in a way people could twist what he said around easily (moment of silence and empathy for little lando norris). hes a small scale driver so the world doesnt hang on every word he says but yknow how it is

oh now im yapping like crazyyy... this part could get a whole new post but its kinda media related and ive been thinking and wanna talk about it a bit... if youve read this far kisses xx 😘

but yeah since im inserting marci into the canon events of real life theres bound to be loud media frenzy around his arrival especially since its aston. and in lances place (gotta work more on this but i was thinking lance has a kinda bad crash somewhere in the beginning of the 2024 season and my guy gets summoned out of thin air colapinto style to fill his place in until recovery but out of nowhere lance is like id like to temporarily step back lol 😋✌️ and the world explodes and marc is full time employed now)

and like idk how the hungarian public would react to a hun on the grid after twenty years (hes faggy so id care. otherwise idgaf about hungarian athletes for the most part) but that combined with the guy the world seems to hate a lot finally stepping down (NOT ME LANCE I LOVE YOU this is me trying to help this is me putting you in good situations) the commotion would be a major event with marcis name in the tabloids for a bit

all im trying to say is that his f1 entry would probably be very overwhelming and hes this shy guy no one has ever heard about before blabbering at stupid fucking press questions while glued to fernandos side. who is he whats his deal

ok lets put a hold on media for now 🧍‍♂️ as for pets... an old bernese back at home :-) marci kind of grew up with her (as much as he was at home. or the country even)... management posting ten-year-old marci at his first karting event with the puppy in his hands and then twenty-year-old marci after his first grand prix facetiming his family in the aston garages with the dog on the phone too... ack

about idols... his big thing is michael schumacher i know that for sure. marc generally looks up to everyone and has immense respect for most drivers. the more i think about it the more im like maybe bro got a thing for psychosexual warfare kinda drivers (schumi, vettel, alonso...) like yayyy to on and off track terrorism when its not aimed at me 😁

confession i kind of made him to deal with my conflicting feelings about aston martin as a whole lol and well. anyway he still shivers hot and bothered sometimes when fernando is around. gets a bit self conscious about it too but nothing that taking it up in the ass couldnt fix

fave color is greeeeen 😁 as i said match made in heaven with aston. team merch is glued to his body

WHEWH what an essay and i dont even know if im making sense lol ! marci is taking shape and becoming rock solid in my head im very happy about it 😋🫶 shoutout again to everyone intrigued i love cooking up the guy im having sooo much fun ‼️💥❣️

[alongtimeagoinablogfarfaraway]

Top 10 Favorite Albums of 2017

#1- This album starts with a track titled Down and it is everything that represents a calm before the storm. It is smooth and reminds us all that the two geniuses behind Run The Jewels are back. Then track #2-6 happens and our ear drums don’t have a second to calm down or recover from what happens next. I wasn’t sure if Killer Mike and El-P could top RTJ2 AND BOY WAS I STUPID TO THINK SO. I think it’s safe to say this is my favorite Run the Jewels album and if you know me that’s saying A LOT. Track #4 Call Ticketron is undeniably in contention for my favorite song of the year…or possibly the track before it Legend has it. Once I listened to this album I was sure there was nothing that would even come close to entertaining me and making me as happy as this album did listening to it. As with its two previous predecessors, Run The Jewels 3 continues to make you automatically transition from any mood into a crazy “I want to smash walls and conquer the world” kind of mood. These two play-off of each other so well and having seen them live this year I can honestly say it may be the most genuine and true rap duo out there right now. This album is pure GOLD as it would seem the hands depict on the cover. Maybe they knew they were making the epic conclusion to this history making album trilogy that have become tied for my favorite rap albums of all time. And just for those saying this came out in 2016, the physical copy dropped in stores January 2017, so shut it.

#2- The fact that this album and RTJ3 came out in the same year makes this one of the best years of releases I can remember in recent history. These two albums cannot be touched and this is by far my favorite Kendrick album since his masterpiece GKMC. DNA may be one of my favorite tracks ever and if your mood doesn’t automatically change as soon as that song comes on then there’s something wrong with you. It’s amazing to say that I am alive to witness the greatness that is Kendrick Lamar and how he just continues to demolish anyone else out there trying to be the best. He is the best and has been and after this album it’s once again proof how close no one is to him. I mean what more can you say other than Kendrick Lamar has done it once again. I mean the album was so liked that it was re released in backwards order because that’s how he said it was really supposed to be listened to. Only Kendrick could do such things. We are witnessing one of the greatest and in an age where so many are losing their likability for me and should stop (Eminem), this is refreshing. 

#3-  I was not a fan of the song Bounce Back or Moves when I heard them prior to this album releasing. That had me worried about this album. Not sure why I still doubt Big Sean so much because now his last two albums have landed at the #3 and #4 spotson my top ten lists, which is pretty damn good. Now, when listening to the album I don’t mind the two songs previously mentioned. They fit well within the album but I honestly still am not a fan of listening to them solo (I know I’m weird). Bigger than me is this album’s One man can change the world but honestly I think it’s even better. It’s such a great song and so is Jump out the window and Halfway off the balcony and I guess I could go on and on. This album surprised me because Sean’s previous album was by far his best and my favorite. After listening to this I can honestly say I may like I Decided just as much and unlike most artists these days, Big Sean seems to keep getting better with his albums and I will never doubt him again unless he makes another extremely underwhelming album like Hall of Fame again but I don’t see that happening after the last two great albums he’s released. Sean’s one of the best and still underrated rappers in my opinion but he’s definitely in my top ten of favorite rappers these days and this album showed me why and that’s why it’s all the way up at #3.

#4- CONGRATULATIONS to the 2017 Stay Trippy Award Winner. You should know what this means whether you know me or have read my previous post. Before last year I had never really listened to Dave East at all so my first real listening experience of him landed him at the #4 spot with his debut album. Impressive. And also more than deserving of the Stay Trippy Award. I first really noticed Dave East off the song Olympian from the album that happens to be up next on this list. I loved what I heard and decided to go see if there was some music of his that I could listen to and sure enough his new album had come out, which was perfect. I was very impressed and am looking forward to listening to much more of Dave East. From a song like Phone Jumpin, which is a high volume type song I love to Maneuver, which is a little more low key, Dave East is already a rapper I can say I like a lot because he well….raps. These days with the way this music is evolving and changing and becoming it’s getting hard to discover true genuine rappers like this. Instead we’ve got the Playboi Cartis of the world who quite honestly just suck, don’t even try saying they don’t.  Anyways, quite a debut for Dave East as he comes in at #4 in his first appearance on one of my top 10 lists. 

#5-This would have been the Stay Trippy Award winner but everyone knows how obsessed I am with A$AP Mob and all it’s eccentric members. A$AP Ferg is no exception and while his first album had some awesome hits, he really has never delivered at the album level for me. I expected this album to be no different. There are a lot of features on this album, which is usually a component of most A$AP albums but they all worked great like Dave East on Olympian or Cam’ron (who I did not see coming at all) on Rubber Band Man. The ultimate BANGERS on this album include Mad Man, Nasty, The Mattress (a song about fucking on a mattress and other kinds of stuff, only on an A$AP album), and East Coast Remix. I didn’t anticipate this album even making my top 10 let alone to come in at #5 but this album is the Ferg album I’ve been waiting for and I feel like what everyone else should have been waiting for if they are a fan of him. That’s’ really what it came down to with this album and I found myself listening to it more than most albums this year, which is why it was up so high on my list.

#6- This album came out later in the year without warning…sorry had to do it, and I’m glad it did because it’s pretty much all I listened to for the weeks following its release. The first two songs of the album are Ghostface Killas and Rap Saved Me and they are two of my favorite songs of the year. The combination of Metro Boomin and 21 Savage had become hit or miss for me. Their debut project Savage Mode I loved but Issa Album really didn’t do it for me. The fact that Offset (my favorite Migos member) was also a joint artist on the album made me enjoy it that much more. This is what you would expect from a Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and Offset album and that’s always a good thing to me. I listened to this album probably the most or close to the most for the last two months or so of the year. This was a fun album, had its bangers on it (sorry for using that word a lot but I do love songs with good beats and that are noisy) and definitely surprised me at how much I ended up liking it because I’m honestly not the biggest 21 Savage advocate but on an album like this I don’t mind him and am a fan of his music and hooks. 

#7- Oh Logic. He’s probably in my top 5 for favorite artists right now. His last album The Incredible True Story is still my favorite but if you’re looking for an album where someone is trying to send a message than look no further than Logic’s Everybody. Racial discrimination and civil rights issues are becoming more prevalent than ever once again and whether it’s a guest montage from the amazing Killer Mike or the many many claims that he isn’t ashamed to be black and white, this album is a movement and it’s a movement towards trying to make the world a better place. While this album wasn’t everything I hoped it would be you cannot deny appreciating the powerful message that Logic depicts and as I listened to it more and more I began to realize how great this album really is. Logic does not shy away from his feelings about race and the problems in the world right now and it’s one of the greatest displays of that from an artist on an album that I’ve seen recently. A great album with an even greater message, which is why there was never a doubt whether this would or would not crack the top ten. I mean c’mon, whats better than having a song called Black Spider-Man on your album? And it’s a fucking awesome song.

#8- My girlfriend Alexis wouldn’t stop telling me to listen to Khalid. If I didn’t credit her for my listening to this album she probably would take my head off (She actually just texted me saying “I better get a shout out”). Now not only did I enjoy this album but it was also the official Stay Trippy Award runner up. American Teen, Young, Dumb & Broke, Another Sad Love Song and 8Teen are some of my favorites off this album but the album as a whole from top to bottom is great and it just gives off the feel that the title of the album looks to embody. Let me just say that I do still hate the song Location. I wish that song wasn’t on the album but it’s whatever because I enjoy every other song very much. After listening to this album I’m very excited to see what we get next from Khalid and if I will like his next album as much as I liked his debut one. One of my favorite things every year is trying to discover new artists and finding new music and albums to listen to. This was one of my favorite examples of that happening last year and with all that being said it had to make it into my top ten list. 

#9-  Now because of how much I love A$AP some might think this is another interesting pick for my top ten but to be honest on a weaker year this may have made it much higher up on my list. What held this back from being higher up on my list was that is that while it was an impressive debut effort from one of my favorites A$AP Twelvyy, it wasn’t anything that stood out as exceptional. To be honest this album did meet my expectations and in some ways exceeded them. It has the feels of an A$AP album between the typical skits or fellow appearances from the other mob members, Twelvyy does a good job of establishing himself as a good artist. However there are many songs that depend upon some heavy features like one of my favorite tracks A Glorious Death featuring the Flatbush Zombies. There are also a couple songs here and there I found myself not too fond of, which is another reason this album ended up towards the back end of my top ten list.

#10- Last time Jay-Z released an album was in 2013 and it was Magna Carta Holy Grail. The album really wasn’t anything memorable and that hurts saying that considering we’re talking about one of the greats Jay-Z. Perhaps that was the beginning of the end. 4:44 definitely proves otherwise. Now I feel like a lot of people may be wondering why this is all the way back at #10 barely making it into the top ten. This album is great and definitely has some great songs, I mean it starts off with great back to back tracks in Kill Jay-Z and The Story of O.J. Everyone was so awed by this album going “OMG Jay-Z admitted to cheating on Beyonce”. I mean he admitted he did something wrong and while that seems to have gotten the album a lot of its initial attention, I think people began to realize the heart and soul Jay-Z sort of lets out in this album. While this wasn’t an album I listened to nonstop throughout the year there’s no denying it was one of the ten best rap/hip-hop albums to come out in the year 2017. 

2017 had A LOT of music come out from many of my favorite artists. It was honestly one of my favorite years for music but there were still come anticipated albums that did not come out that has me looking extremely forward to 2018. Let me finish by giving my top 5 most anticipated albums for 2018 as of this moment. 

1- SremmLife 3

2- Untitled A$AP Rocky album 

3- King Push (But I’m pretty sure this is the new Life of Pablo that will take years to come out because he’s already said it’s coming out two years in a row) 

4- AstroWorld

5- Untitled Schoolboy Q album 

[leighkhoopes]

The first big meme of 2017 has arrived and it's List the Top 10 Albums That Influenced You As A Teenager. This was an almost impossible selection for me, so I gave myself some additional ground rules: these albums all came out when I was an actual teenager (13-19, to be precise) and I promptly wore them out something serious. These are also albums that I continue to listen to and enjoy to this day. I also took the *complete* album into consideration—almost all of these are total listen-throughs for me, even though there may be some other songs and singles that had more of an impact on my impressionable teenage brain. 

 So, here's the list, how old I was when they came out, and some thoughts, in no particular order: 

Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (2002) I was: 17, in between high school and college This was the first SK album I ever bought, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. It was on one of those listening stations at the local music store (RIP ear-x-tacy) and the opener with its urgent drums, spindly guitars and fantastic vocals and harmonies drew me in immediately. Apparently One Beat was their "political" album and that makes sense, but the infectiously jangly "Oh!" remains one of my all-time favorite songs to this day, and though I've listened to the rest of their catalogue, One Beat remains my favorite to this day. 

Christina Aguilera - Stripped (2002) I was: 18, college freshman Fun fact: I was one of those angsty teens who mocked pop music while hiding my secret shame at loving every bubblegum beat and boy band dance jam. When you're a teenager, you have to keep up appearances—I knew I wasn't one of the popular types, so I tried to be a "rock" kid and turned up my nose at what turned out to be some really great songs. My dear Ms. Aguilera changed all of that for me. I had already loved her first singles (You cannot deny "Genie in a Bottle," so don't even try) and her complete ownage of "Lady Marmalade" for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, so when Stripped came out in all its sexual and bold yet vulnerable and honest glory, I found the soundtrack to the twilight of my teenage years. Everyone knows about "Dirrty," "Beautiful," "Can't Hold Us Down," and "Fighter," but have you heard the soft sensuality of "Lovin' Me for Me"? What about the deep piano soul of "Underappreciated"? This album is packed with both gems and jams, and remains relevant to this very day.

Eve - Scorpion (2001) I was: 16, high school junior I came late to the rap game, since I wasn’t allowed to buy CDs with parental advisory stickers until my senior year of high school, so I've made a lot of progress, but I didn't get the kind of hip-hop education most of my friends have besides what made it onto the radio at the time. This was post-Tupac/Biggie but pre-50 Cent, and the airwaves were mostly dominated by the aforementioned pop and its bad cousin pop-punk. So when Eve's basically flawless "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" featuring Gwen Stefani's damn near perfect hook and what I would learn is a quintessentially Dr. Dre beat dropped, all slinky and sexy and sassy, I was beyond obsessed. The rest of the album is on point, too: "Who's That Girl?" became an anthem for me because I could easily sing back "LEIGH's that girl!" (la la la-la, la la la-la); "Gangsta Bitch" was a sick collab with Trina and Da Brat; and "Got What You Need" is a great call-and-response banger courtesy of Swizz Beats and some other lesser Ruff Ryders rapper who is probably mad that Eve destroyed him on this track and probably in real life as well. 

The Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore Somehow I got this CD for Christmas? I don’t remember how or where I heard about it, but this album for me is the perfect combination of sexy and scuzzy with raw guitars and sparse, swampy beats and endless, unbearable chemistry between VV (Allison Mosshart) and Hotel (Jamie Hince) that continues to this day. Fifteen years, four albums, and multiple side projects (and one very high-profile marriage and divorce) later, and I am one of those fans who firmly stans for them to live happily ever after in musical harmony and continuing rock n’ roll cuteness. They’re just SO PERFECT TOGETHER, OKAY? Anyway, this album is great, and you should listen to it if you haven’t already.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2001) I was: 16, soon-to-be high school senior If I had to pick ONE album that was the most influential to me of all of these, it would be Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ seminal self-titled EP. It dropped right before my senior year of high school, when I was finally starting to figure myself out a little bit and realizing that I liked loud music by loud ladies that I could dance to and scream along to, regardless of genre or format. The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes, and all their ilk were kicking off a new rock revolution, but there were so few ladies out there making as much noise as I needed them to. Karen O was not a great singer, but the way she whispered and groaned and wailed over the wall of sound that Nick and Brian created with just a guitar and a drumset was revelatory to me, especially after I got to see them live a few years later, smushed up against the stage at the Southgate House and rapt as the speakers pounded in my chest and Karen sprayed beer and spit on all of us, and she leaned down at the beginning of “Our Time” at the end of their set, when I was exhausted and enthralled, put the mic in front my face and together we crooned “To break on through-ooh!” YYYs continued to put out some great music and evolve their sound not-so-greatly in the following years (sorry, y’all, but Mosquito was not good), but nothing seared itself so firmly on my psyche as Karen and me covered in sweat, singing what should have been an anthem for the pre-1990 Millennials: “It’s the year to be hated / so glad that we made it.” If that doesn’t sum up everything everyone’s ever said about those of us born between 1980 and 1999, I don’t know what does.

Daft Punk - Discovery (2001) I was: 16, high school junior If there’s another album I had to name as one of my top all-timers, completely different but still equally influential, it’s Daft Punk’s Discovery. Daft Punk allowed me to embrace my love of dance and electronic music, and built a perfect unifying force among me and my friends, providing that anthem we’d been waiting for with “One More Time,” a song that still fills me with joy every time those first few beats fade in and I can’t help but smile when it drops and that surprisingly, beautifully warm vocoder voice comes in over the spaces between. The rest of the album is literally iconic as well, and really cemented Daft Punk as the arbiters of dance parties for everyone, all-inclusive, delirious and endlessly entertaining and ultimately joyful.

Le Tigre (1999) I was: 15, high school sophomore I’ll admit it: I missed the Riot Grrl movement by several years, so Kathleen Hanna and Le Tigre were a new experience for me. I loved the edge and the anger in her voice, the fuzzy throwback sound and sampling that made it seem like something I could do if I just tried harder and wasn’t so shy and scared to raise a ruckus and my voice. One thing I’ve noticed about so many of these albums and groups is that I really liked stripped-down music with big sounds created by small groups of people: duos and trios make up the bulk of my favorite albums during this era. I got to see them live as well, when JD Sampson joined the lineup and became my introduction to confusingly, distractingly sexy nonbinary people, and it was at the height of the Bush era, in the middle of my college years, and while I didn’t feel the exhilaration of singing with Karen O, I felt the freedom of dancing my ass off and screaming until my lungs my ached, unafraid of who I might bump into with my unruly booty, unafraid of who I might offend with my burgeoning baby feminism. I was sad when they stopped recording and disappointed at their recent lackluster Hillary Clinton track near the end of the election cycle, but I’ve loved the resurgence of The Julie Ruin and the ongoing reinvention and determination Hanna continues to project in the face of so much bullshittery that permeates our world and culture today. 

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore At the Drive-In was another band I missed out on the first time around, but The Mars Volta popped up in my circles of smartass potheads once I started to find my tiny tribe of people in the rural Kentucky college town in which I lived for four years. I’ve always loved a man unafraid to belt out an anthem, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala golden throat soared over Omar Rodruigez-Lopez’s prog-rock symphonies and movements, and it sounded just as good when I was stone cold sober as when I was self-medicating in the name of social acceptance and anxiety avoidance. I will forever associate them with giant spliffs and endless laughter, letting the discordant sounds wash over me and and Cedric’s voice burn through me, as well as making myself a zombie prom queen Halloween costume under a waxing moon after a bad breakup, working some kind of dark magic to transform myself into someone no one would recognize, even if only for a night. There was always a sadness that permeated these songs, something that got lost in their later, more esoteric albums I could never get into, and there was something on this album that made me feel okay with being sad, allowing myself to feel my feelings that I tried to keep hidden for far too long.

Ludacris - Back for the First Time (2000) I was: 16, high school junior Again, the most rap I had ever really listened to before high school was MC Hammer and Will Smith’s squeaky clean radio-rap, so Luda’s debut was a major eye-opener for overly-sheltered white suburban me. "What's Your Fantasy" and "Phat Rabbit" were titillating, sure, but also fantastic rhymes and beats, and "Stick 'Em Up Bitch" and "1st & 10" were darkly hilarious under their gangsta veneers. "Southern Hospitality" brought bravado to what could have just been another Neptunes beat, and throughout it all, Luda's flow was so sick and smooth, so full of wit and wordplay and unashamed sexuality, and I loved to blare it driving through my parents’ neighborhood, even after the speakers in my car blew out and sounded like nothing but surly vibrations as I dawdled on my way home for my 11pm curfew. If I had to come in at what I considered an unfair, oppressive time, I was going to wake up everyone else in the process. Yes, I was a not-so-secret dick when I was a teenager–weren’t we all? Side note: I'm kind of sad Shawnna never made it all that big, and this video is the absolute perfect time capsule of the year 2000.

Peaches - The Teaches of Peaches (2000) I was: 16, high school senior I’ll also admit this: I fucking loved “electroclash.” That amalgamation of punk and dance music was everything to me, the perfect blend of rock guitars and big beats that enmeshed everything teenage me loved about being loud and dancing like everyone was watching and not giving a fuck either way. Peaches was gross and vulgar and rapped about sex with no emotion but pleasure, and she got even dirtier as the years went on, but The Teaches of Peaches was seminal and shocking and just the kind of thing a slightly crazed and endlessly awkward, horny teenage girl needed to hear to start embracing my own weird sexuality and rampaging hormones and confused feelings, instead of keeping them locked away and shameful like I was supposed to. Everyone knows and loves "Fuck the Pain Away," thanks to its cameo appearances in Lost in Translation and the Jackass movies, but "Lovertits" was always my personal favorite from this album. The moment that breakdown takes over is pure brilliance and one of my favorite moments in any song ever. Peaches dancing in front of the mirror in this video is teenage me, always and forever, singing to myself when no one was looking and finally finding away to sing to myself in public, out loud, and not caring who heard me. I'm still working on it, but I think these albums did a lot to push me in the direction I've gone and to get me where I am now as a feminist and a lover of music and dance parties for life.

Honorable Mentions: 

Beck - Midnite Vultures (1999)

No Doubt - Return of Saturn (2000)

Madonna - Ray of Light (1998)

The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

N.E.R.D. - In Search Of... (2001)

[calvin-af-crone]

Zane Lowe Interview

I gave myself the arduous task of transcribing Calvin's recent interviews & started w/ the last one. What a chore! I reacted strongly to some of this but I'll cover that later.

Calvin: This new one has felt like nostalgia to me in a nice way, the sort of thing nobody else is making it. So that feels good & regardless of how it does or whatever it felt really nice to me.

Zane: How do you go about choosing the voices? We’ve talked about this in the past but I wonder if that’s changed or how you settle on a voice like Tom’s for a song like this.

C: I couldn’t think of anyone else suited to it, to be honest w/ you. The first thing is I liked his voice a lot & stated following him on IG & I was struck by his positivity, his relentless positivity in his posts. I thought this guy, gee, I liked it. So yeah, when I kinda figured out what the song was gonna sound like he seemed like such an obvious choice. I wasn’t sure if he was gonna be up for it either. So I very happy he was & just good vibes, just nice good vibes.

Z: This idea of relentless positivity catching your attention, ya’know, I think a lot of time immersing ourselves as human beings in the other side of it cause it’s just really Moorish and we get attached to it. Is that a big driving force for you right now is like, ah, really trying to surround yourself w/ collaborator-wise or in your life w/ relentless positivity…

C: Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly what it is. Yeah, yeah, no point in doing the other thing & had enough experiences that were making records w/ people who were kinda like oh-wow this is a fun <mumble> weird.

Z: So is this the start of something new on a Calvin Harris level? I mean it’s been, it’s been what, what—I know we had Love Regenerator & I loved those projects as a DJ & someone who loves to listen to dance music. Those are about as authentic as you can get in the last sort of half decade but it has been close to half a decade since the last one for real, for real. So what’s your feeling about releasing albums—quote unquote.

C: To be completely honest w/ you, I don’t really think about it.

Z: So you’re not making an album per say, you’re just making music & if it works out that way—

C: No, I, absolutely not. I mean I’ve made albums since 2010 & then my albums became compilations of singles. They kinda like became compilation albums. And that’s a more fun way of doing it because on—firstly, every song’s gotta be good & secondly, cause it’s coming out as a single. And then secondly, zero pressure…just nothing, ya’know, fun. So nah, I can’t imagine me doing one probably ever at this point. But then next week I’ll start working on one.

Z: <snickers, chuckles> Well, someone will tell you when you’ve got enough singles for one & that will be easy.

C: Nah, because I had enough singles for one. There was like from 2015 to the end of 2016 I could have done 4 more tunes & then put out an album & got like 3 billion streams & that proved that I’m not that guy. That would have worked a treat. I would have got me another platinum disk or whatever. But it just felt a bit sorta cheap so I didn’t do that. But I like <laughing> being cheap.

Z: What’s motivating you now? If…because a lot of the traditional motivations are like what you just pointed out to be not as quite as cheap sounding as that but the idea of making an album & taking another step & another step…

C: Oh gawd, no. Imagine that. Step where, to what? What are we trying to get to?

Z: Exactly.

C: <laughing> You know what I mean? That’s what, you know, we’ve all been there but ultimately we’re the same person no matter how many rungs on the ladder we’re climbing. We got to sit w/ ourselves at the end of the day & ask ourselves are you actually happy now? And, uh, even if you’re top of the ladder some of the most desperately unhappy people I’ve ever met have been the ones w/ absolutely everything at their disposal. So yeah, it’s not that for me. For me it’s making records that make me feel good in the hope that other people feel good from it & ya’know it’s like I’m a service provider. If, like, if you wanna listen to my songs & you enjoy them then that’s absolutely fantastic. I don’t really ask for anything more than that for me.

Z: Calvin Harris, it’s great to see this brand new song featuring Tom Grennan, which is called By Your Side. You know it’s the kind of lyric, the kind of moment that will resonate with a lot of people because there’s been a lot of loneliness & there’s been a lot of anxiety & a lot of uncertainty in the last 18 months. Um, is that to some degree kinda even where subconsciously the message from this came from, ya’think?

C: I had the idea for a while & I was going thru things I forgot that I made &, um, it was one of the things that sort of jumped out at me & I thought oh I should finish this, it’s the max, you know. It’s just if it makes you feel good then, ya’know, stick it out probably it’s a good idea.

Z: Definitely. It’s why we’re talking cause it’s out. I wanted, how many things like not being a reflective human being, but also knowing that you created a lot of music that could just sit somewhere in the background forever & then you could just literally completely forget about it, how is that experience of going thru ideas & tracks & stuff…

C: Yeah, it’s funny I used to release everything that I made & I never had any folders of anything. Everything that I made used to come out. Um, & yeah, recently I’ve done a lot of tracks for people that have either fallen thru or, um, their label said no, or they changed their minds, or I changed my mind. So now I have like folders like I finally feel like a normal kind of producer cause that’s apparently what people have.

Z: Remember you saying to me like 3 years back that you, like, don’t have anything left, like, I make it, I put it out—I think at the time I, like, mostly believed you because of what you just said. Like producers gotta have ideas that don’t make it to the cut but you would literally put yourself into a situation where it’s like if this one isn’t complete then it’s not even gonna go in a file anywhere, nothing's going to happen.

C: Yeah, just getting deleted so that’s what I did & it worked a treat as well because, you know, um, especially like, not that I’m a nostalgic person at all, but 10 years ago when I was putting out loads & loads of singles & also I was touring a lot at the same time so I didn’t have a lot of time in the studio. So, you know, if you got 2 days a month you better use those 2 days to finish this song. So, you know, no time for any, you know, messing around & like trying things out. Um, & that’s the sort of thinking that leads you to using the same kick drums across a whole album because it’s easier…& it sounded great. I don’t know. Now I use other kick drums & enjoy the process of creation more. Less of a treadmill or what do you call it? What’s the, you know, less of a factory line mentality.

Z: You still got that kick drum tho—the good one.

C: Yes, it’s actually from Steve Angelo from 2010 & it’s banging. It’s a little too high for today’s sub.

Z: The way that those kicks used to thump. I feel like when we were all touring & everyone was making big records & it was all crazy, kick drums probably reached their apex of thump-ness. I don’t think we could thump any harder & we had to pull back a little bit. But we may be thumping harder back then.

C: Yeah, you couldn’t use them in a house record now. But I actually, if you were going to press me on my favorite kick drum, Zane, or my favorite era it would be 2010 w/ a close second & this is, ah, really for the demographic of whoever is still listening to this, Ummet Ozcan in 2014, what a kick— unbelievable.

Z: You’ve got a few in the can yourself, my man, I mean I’ve played a few Calvin Harris bangers in my life & there’s a few kick drums that come in a bit shy after yours.

C: Nah, but I never made them. That’s the thing. I always just stole them off other's records.

Z: Everybody did, most people did.

C: But that’s, the best thing. I made a song called Awooga, big EDM track, & I stole an Afrojack kick & 3 years later he asked for the Awooga kick & said I love that track, every time I play that track it really bangs, can you send me that kick. So I send him back that kick. I didn’t tell him that it was his kick.

Z: <laughter> That tickles me in a wonderful, wonderful way. So we have this brand new song w/ Tom that’s wonderful. Are you inspired? Are you going to make another song?

C: Another song, oh, that’s asking a lot that.

Z: I thought I was being really delicate, you know.

C: Yeah, nah, I don’t think, I don’t know. We’ll see. We’ll see. If I have, it’s like that thing, sort of what I was doing before, but much slower because I’m allowing myself to live life at the same time. So it’s, you know, if it’s a good idea & someone wants to sing it & stuff then yeah, absolutely love to but no pressure. I’m not trying to climb that ladder, dude.

[vskpop]

August 2017 ⋅ Enerzetic

Gashina - Sunmi

It’s true across most big companies that we will never get to see what their artists actually want to do until they either have enough power to make their own decisions, or they leave the company entirely. While Yeeun has always been the clear breakout act within Wonder Girls, and the only one with some space to do her thing, I have been waiting for Sunmi to have a decent solo career ever since 24 Hours.

Sunmi had a bunch of writing and composing credits in the last two Wonder Girls album, so it’s not a surprise that she knew exactly what she wanted to do and how to do it as soon as she moved away from JYP. If Gashina is anything to go by, full creative control for Sunmi is everything I didn’t know I wanted. It’s catchy and sexy, which we knew she could pull off, but also incredibly weird and out of the box. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Following - Hyuna

Last year, Hyuna’s comeback was an exaggeration of all her defining elements, and not in a good way. It came out in the first moments of a very very bad phase for Cube Entertainment, a phase they haven’t left behind yet. After the excellent Triple H project, it’s nice to see Hyuna build on her past work rather than staying exactly where she was thematically and musically.

While the central idea of title song Babe is kind of weird - she feels younger and younger because of her love interest, to the point that she feels like a baby - I like that for once Hyuna didn’t have to put  all her effort into being sexy, and looks happy and carefree in the music video and in the live performances.

Babe has catchy parts, but doesn’t shy away from its weirder, more meandering parts. It’s definitely a dance song, but there is more to it: even if the song is about feeling younger, Hyuna is growing up as an artist and can do more than straightforward party tracks.

While A’wesome sounded like a collection of random leftovers from other projects, Following sounds like a cohesive piece of work that shows all different aspects of Hyuna, now a grown-up with control over her releases; after years of collaborating on her songs’ lyrics, she has composition credits as well this time.

Party and Purple mix the party atmosphere of older Hyuna classics with the voices of Cube’s newest acquisitions, Pentagon’s Wooseok and E’Dawn. Dart and Mirror might be trendier, but they are the real gem of this album: both songs are performed by Hyuna in her actual singing voice rather than her high-pitched tough lady voice.

It’s really special that Hyuna and Sunmi are promoting at the same time: the two Wonder Girls alumnae (even though Hyuna’s experience as a WG was quite short) show that there is a life on the other side of a girl group, and that women idols can find their own voice in an industry that doesn’t particularly want them to.

  White Night - Taeyang

There is a fringe of k-pop fans that is absolutely obsessed with establishing scientifically that their favourite is the best singer in terms of technique. I have never seen this kind of morbid obsession in Western pop music, but it does make me laugh to see people spending so much energy on letting everyone know that Taeyang is a bad singer.

Bad technique or not, I think Taeyang is one of the most charismatic, emotional singers in k-pop. This comeback is quintessential Taeyang for me: both Darling and Wake Me Up are sweeping, emotional songs that sucker punch the listener with the insane expressiveness of Taeyang’s voice.

I think this is the first time that instead of pairing a dance song and a ballad, Taeyang chose to go with two slower songs. I’m not huge on very samey comebacks, but the pairing of Wake Me Up and Darling really allowed him to show all of his strengths, and probably to save all his choreo energy for the huge tour he’s embarking on.

It’s also interesting to consider that both Taeyang and G-Dragon, who are celebrated for their danceable or more hard-hitting songs, went with ballads for their comeback. It’s obvious that G-Dragon’s circumstances were forced (and that his original plan was different), but I like seeing that they have reached a point in their career where they can do something that feels close to their heart rather than something that is easier to sell.

I think it will be hard for Taeyang (or anyone) to ever put out an album that’s better than Rise, but White Night is as good as I expected to be. The only song that’s an obvious dance single is Naked, which would have never ever been picked because it would have never been aired on Korean TV with the lyric “I want you naked”. As usual, his intros should be whole songs and he knows it - so much that this time he made a music video for the intro to White Night this time around.  

Since this might be Taeyang’s last comeback before his enlistment (although I secretly think and hope we will get one more GD x Taeyang), I was terrified of how it would turn  out, and I was honestly just relieved that he managed to go through an entire album without any gross cultural appropriation. Even though I still don’t want him to go on a two-year hiatus, I think I can be happy (and by happy I mean rolling in my own tears listening to White Night) with how he closed this chapter in his career.

Our Twenty For - Winner

It will take me some time to get used to Winner having regular comebacks instead of disappearing for 18 months at a time. I’m glad to see that their new four-member incarnation is finding success shedding their mid-tempo image and throwing themselves into the latest trends.

Winner used the obvious title song (the one that sounded like Really Really) as the b-side of their comeback. Island has the staples of every other tropical track, but is made a bit less predictable by avoiding the drop and going with a chorus that’s a bit less formulaic than Really Really’s. I have to admit that it’s my favourite song between the two; the video is so gorgeous and romantic, and the song is the perfect halfway point between hype and chill.

The actual song that was promoted, Love Me Love Me continues the tradition of Winner singles with a repeated title (after Really Really and Baby Baby) but switches things up again in terms of sound. When everyone else is stuck in a labyrinth of EDM trends, they looked in a different direction and put out a disco-inspired song. It’s similar enough to Really Really in structure, but it’s a signal that new Winner is ready to experiment and maybe is not so set on a new identity yet.

If there’s something that I appreciate about Winner, it’s that their lyrics aren’t made up of the same three sentences of the average love song; they actually express feelings that people in their twenties would have, like the apparently very controversial line “I want to mix it up with you on the sofa”. They are corny enough to sell, but not so much that thinking about what they’re actually saying makes me cringe.

Winner have always focused on ballads; it’s interesting to see how they still clung onto a slower song in their first new-formation comeback, but they’ve entirely let go of it this time.

In a way, we are still looking what ‘color’ suits us best. ... I’d say right now, we are in round four (of 12 rounds in boxing).”  - 04/08/2017

For me, none of their songs has reached the levels of EXIT: E, but I appreciate seeing that they aren’t afraid to branch out and that YG is letting them.

Bonus: Island and Love Me Love Me acoustic version

1X1=1 (To Be One) - Wanna One

I am positive that the eleven weeks I spent sweating and crying over Produce 101 will be the last time I follow a Korean survival show (until the YG ones come around, that is). I was bound to be attached to Wanna One even after my favourite Samuel didn’t make it through just for the sheer amount of time I spent watching the show and following the drama and controversies around it.

The rumours that Produce 101 was rigged are unsurprising and, to be fair to Mnet, I do think that the final 11 members really create a fantastic team . After countless hours of performances and variety shows (you might sense that I’m a bit obsessed) I think they are one of the most well-balanced groups I’ve ever seen in terms of actual talent and personas/personalities.

While at this point I have my doubts that debut track Energetic was actually picked by the public and not by the managers of Wanna One, I think it’s the perfect debut song for them.

There is nothing crazily original in this song, but it capitalizes on all the best parts of Wanna One: charismatic dancers, top-notch vocalists, expressive rappers. It was clearly written knowing that capable people would perform it (if not exactly who would perform it), and that their parts didn’t need to be easy or muddled to cover their lack of skills. Mnet also managed to pull through and get a track written by Hui of Pentagon, who was behind the most successful Produce 101 original track, Never, pretty much guaranteeing the success of Energetic.

I am very impressed that Mnet managed to put together a video balancing a more cheerful, colourful vision of Wanna One with the edgier, blue-and-pink neon trend that has swept up “aggressive” k-pop groups. It really shows each member in their best light, and how the group will be able to switch genres and styles without looking out of place.

Seeing the music video for their second possible debut song Burn It Up makes it clear that there wasn’t a chance in hell that it would be the title track. Terrible editing and post-production aside, Burn It Up is a perfectly good song, albeit on the more banger-y side of k-pop trends, a style that Produce 101 never seemed to be particularly inclined towards.

I still really like the rapped pre-pre-chorus, and the distortion in the chorus felt like an interesting way to switch up the k-pop chorus formula that has been everywhere in the past couple of years (screamed title of the song + dance break).

Apart from the fact that it’s a bit conventional, Burn It Up would have really penalized the vocalists in Wanna One since it’s almost entirely rap or rap-singing, so I’m even happier that they went with Energetic.

The more I listened to it, the more I realised that there was another group that disappointed me lately and would have suited this song: it’s perfect for iKON, and I do hope that after their recent debacle they take a page from the Wanna One book and go for something similar to Burn It Up.

Wanna One have a sea of advantages over IOI, starting from the fact that they are men, so they aren’t expected to adhere to a cute, innocent concept. They are also benefitting from all the experience that Mnet and YMC gained from IOI’s failures and successes. Their debut is a million times better than the terrible Dream Girls, so I want to believe that all the other problems IOI had will be avoided this time around. I am really looking forward to the next 18 months with Wanna One.

Holiday Night - SNSD (Girls’ Generation)

In a year of underwhelming comebacks for SM artists, SNSD just reached a whole new level of disappointment for me: I’m furious that this half-assed comeback was their tenth anniversary. They have been working incessantly for ten years and this is what they got.

Considering their team must have been preparing this comeback at least since the end of the You Think/Lion Heart promotions in 2015, it’s quite shocking to see how uninventive and cheaply made their new round of “promotions” (more on that later) was.

I think most people agree that Party was a terrible song, so I can’t imagine why SNSD would double down on it with Holiday. The song is a decent b-side at best, and the styling is atrociously childish for a group of adult women; if Taeyeon hated Gee, I can’t imagine how she felt about this. I can hardly get past Hyoyeon’s rap, which is literally “You know I’m hot, hot, hot, hot”; SM could have at least gotten someone to write her decent lyrics.

All Night is a fun song, and with a much more current sound than Holiday. It does a good job mixing the bouncy atmosphere you’d want for a celebration and a sound that matches a group of women in their late twenties.

The video feels a bit strange - as if they had had to cut out some elements that were key to the narration and we were only seeing the leftovers. If I had to put my money on something, it would be that they had to cut out 90% of the footage with drag queens.

There is everything to hate about this comeback, still - the videos have clearly been shot on the cheap, and some of the costumes are just horrendous. Seeing this comeback in the context of the larger situation with SNSD, however, makes the subpar quality of Holiday Night one of the least important problems that the group and fans should have.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that SM is using organized-crime-level intimidation tactics to make the members renew their contracts: cutting their promotions short, refusing to reprint the album, sending them to schedules with no security, throwing out random contradicting news for media play…

I’ve read as much as possible about the situation (as much as a non-Sone can) and I honestly can’t imagine how being treated like this would make anyone reconsider the choice of leaving SM. I really wish the best to each of them, especially after they’ve worked so hard for ten years for a company that showed yet again that doesn’t give a shit about them.

Free’sm - CLC

The first thing I thought of when the Seonho teaser for CLC’s comeback was dropped was Reality from La Boum (the French film, not the Korean girl group).

Where Are You? is yet another sharp turn for CLC, coming from a “fierce” concept in their previous comeback with Hobgoblin. I wasn’t persuaded by the song straight away, but I ended up falling in love with the 80’s inspired sound and the strange, dreamlike, artsy music video.

I wasn’t so in love with the styling of the performance, which saw the still pretty young members wear outfits I wouldn’t wish to the last surviving second-generation girl group.

Free’sm sounds like a strange mix of bits that they had leftover from previous comebacks and from what they had in mind for them. There’s one tropical song, one hard hitting song, one cute song (that they ended up promoting), et cetera.

Lack of success has pretty much made CLC a directionless group since day one, but this comeback, especially with the promoted song switch in the middle of the promotion - from Where Are You? to cutesy Summer Kiss - really highlights how Cube Entertainment have literally no idea of what they should do with them.

I understand why they would want to try different things and see what sticks, but I don’t think that the constant flip-flopping between concepts will help them cement a fan base. Free’sm has sold about 1500 copies as I write, a pretty severe dip from the 4000-5000 of their previous albums - still an unsatisfactory number for Cube, but not as abysmal as what they did now.

After listening to the album over and over, I still wish that Cube had pushed through with the “tough” concept and had picked Call My Name or I Like It as the title track. Call My Name is trendy enough to be popular, and fierce enough to escape the cuteness. I would have picked I Like It as one of my favourite songs of the year if it wasn’t for the obnoxious chorus; Seunghee’s pre-chorus is just about perfect and I hope to see it live at some point.

With Pentagon hitting it big and Hui becoming a household name as a producer, as well as trainees Guanlin and Seonho making a splash on Produce 101, I can’t imagine that things will look up for CLC if they don’t turn their career around by mid-2018.

Sixteen - Samuel

It’s shocking to think that Samuel is at his nth debut and he’s only fifteen. He was supposed to debut in Seventeen (which is how I ended up following him), he was in the terrible 1Punch, he was on Produce 101 and narrowly missed being in the final group, and now he’s debuting again as a solo artist.

Despite how much I love him, I don’t think this was a very good idea. While it’s obvious that he’s talented and has been working hard for years, he’s still not the most well-rounded performer - which makes sense, since he has literally just turned 15.

The album is sort of neither here nor there for me; a lot of it felt really dated and I’m not sure if the autotune was meant to be a feature or just be covering up for Samuel’s vocal shortcomings. I didn’t mind the song with Chungha, but it’s still not something I would listen to again.

Being onstage by himself underlines Samuel’s limitations and I think he would give his best in a group, even just to share the pressure he seemed to be putting on himself during Produce 101. I hope that Brave manages to build a group around him in the coming months/years, because I can’t imagine this being sustainable for him.

Ever - Jeong Sewoon

I felt bad giving space to Samuel and not dedicating a single word to another of my very favourite Produce 101 contestants, Sewoon. Differently from Samuel, he always looked out of place in Produce 101, and like he didn’t really want to be there or be a idol.

I highly doubted Starship would be able to put together a group for him, but I was glad to see that at least for now he is getting a solo debut. The single Just U and the rest of the album exquisitely blend pop/trendy sounds and the more singer-songwriter identity that is Sewoon’s signature.

Ice Chu - Gugudan Ogu Ogu

While I was bound to watch everything this sub-unit would put out because of my eternal loyalty to Kang Mina, I wasn’t so sure I was going to like their debut concept. I don’t know if I would say I was “pleasantly” surprised, but the horrifying tortures they inflict on the ice-cream people in the video for Ice Chu really gave an edge to what I would struggle to define as a cute concept, at this point.

The hammering rhythm, the tiny voices, the cute-but-freaky concept really reminded me of the later songs of Orange Caramel (it’s more Catallena than Magic Girl). It was watered down just enough to be appropriate for Mina and Hyeyeon, who have just turned 18, but it’s all there. I love it.

MORE SONGS OF NOTE

Don’t Speak - Ali ft. Cheetah 

I’m OK - Cosmic Girl 

What Can I Do - DAY6 

Kiss Me - DIA 

Dumb Dumb (originally by Red Velvet) - Jang Jane, Giantpink, PERC%NT 

The Real - N.Flying

To Do List - Pentagon Kino and Hongseok

~42 - Primary ft. SAM KIM, eSNa

Love City - 9muses

STRAYS

Some more VCRs from Seventeen, always being totally perfect:

AKMU can make everything good/better:

WJSN covering BTS I Need You is EVERYTHING:

Queen Lee Hi sang 2ne1’s Come Back Home on JYP Party People:

Winner cover Wonder Girls’ Nobody on JYP Party People, what a time to be alive.