#new album causing me feelings emotions thoughts etc

[rainily-03]

will the edge of my sorrow be gone in the morning?

[image ID: a five-page comic featuring Akira and Akechi from Persona 5. It is grayscale aside from occasional pops of red. In the first, Akechi looks up at Akira from where he sits at the bar in Leblanc, dressed in his January outfit, holding a cup of coffee in one hand. Text reads, "If I stay here any longer / I will stay here forever". In the second, the coffee cup is shown from above, reflecting Akechi's face with the faint, blood-red outline of his Loki mask overlaid on top of it. Text reads, "Till the echo of my shadow is gone". In the third, Akechi gazes down into his coffee, his expression weary. A white outline of his Robin Hood mask is overlaid on his face, and white outlines of his cognitive self and his injured real self from the engine room pointing guns at each other are shown on his front. Text reads, "There are heroes within us". In the fourth, Akira looks sadly down at Akechi, who hunches over his coffee, his face in shadow. Text reads, "There are lovers around us". In the fifth, the door to Leblanc is shown from the outside, the darkness split by white light streaming out from inside. Through the door's windows, the pair sitting at the bar can be seen, Akira reaching forwards to put a hand on Akechi's face. Text reads, "Stay right here / Stay in the light, my dear". End ID]

[smuglilsomethin]

The Maybe Man by AJR is so Furina coded

Soooo I was listening to the new AJR album (I have Steve's Going to London stuck on loop in my head). And then I played through 4.2 over the weekend. And now I really want to make it into an animatic so I have a whole lyric chart thingy set up and everything.

Obvi this is going to contain spoilers for Fontaine 4.2 (not her story quest tho, I haven't played it... will probably rb this with updates if I decide to make any changes to the lyric analysis)

This made me think of how Focalors and the Oceanids wanted to be human. They saw how the humans did goofy human things (having emotions, being happy, being sad, etc... hence the "made up and smiled") and went "Yes I want to do that". So they "don't want to be stone, [they] changed their mind". They didn't want to be oceanids anymore, they wanted to become human.

Wish I was a stone, so I couldn't feel

You'd yell in my face, it'd be no big deal

But I'd miss the way we make up and smile

Don't want to be stone I changed my mind.

This one's a bit on-the-nose. It made me think of Furina's accession speech and how at first she was earnest, probably thinking a lot about what Focalors said to her (the "places [she's] been" being the mirror scene when Focalors first told her to pretend to be the hydro archon), but then she heard the Fontainians judging her and questioning her legitimacy as an archon ("talking shit"). In animatic form this would just be where it shows why she started acting all-knowing and all-powerful. Also I wonder if she actually thought of the Fontainians as her "friends"/equals when she initially began her speech.

I wish I had eyes in the back of my head

Then I could see the places I've been

But then I would know that you're talkin' shit

I don't want to know what my friends think.

I've yet to see Furina interact with a dog so my first thought was that scene where she was playing with the cats in the courtyard on the night Arlecchino attacked her. Not that scene specifically, but just the idea that she normally plays with stray animals in Fontaine's city. The "I wouldn't live long" immediately made me think of her lifespan being unnaturally extended via her curse, meaning humans don't live long to her (not just dogs/cats, though it's the same way pets don't live long in comparison to humans).

Wish I were my dog, out on the lawn,

I'd be so glad when I hear you come home

But if I were my dog, I wouldn't live long

I'm sure gonna miss her when she's gone.

I wish I could act in a show on TV

'Cause then I could practice not bein' me

I'll practice my cry, put it into my reel

But you won't believe when I cry for real.

This one I thought fit Furina really well. Furina de Fontaine acts in plays as well as fakes being an archon. Bro is acting 24/7, always practicing "not being [her]". Because she never is her actual self.

In an animatic I could see that for the "I'll practice my cry, put it into my reel" it could show her crying, like full on breaking down, but then on the "you won't believe me when I cry for real" it zooms out to show that it's a stage with an applauding crowd to show that the Fontainians think it's just a part of the show she's starring in.

She wants to be as wise as a real archon. Whether it be her finally being able to come up with a way to stop the prophecy, or a way to always win in a trial (every "fight", or as she would put it, every "duel"). Except if she was always all-knowing, she would constantly be thinking about the prophecy or other super heavy archon-related things, and being a human, humans aren't meant to constantly be under that strain. Because (as I interpreted the cutscene, at least) even though she had the prophecy and archon role weighing her down, she seemed to at least have some moments where she was having genuine fun (i think??? or maybe she's just that good of an actor and fooled me ig)

I wish that my brain would triple in size

I'd nail every joke, I'd win every fight

But I'd get too deep with that kind of mind

I don't wanna know the point of life.

In some other life I would be rich

I'd travel in style, I'd cover the bill

But couldn't complain 'bout anything small

Nobody'd feel bad for me at all.

She's living someone else's life as the hydro archon. She already lives luxuriously so I think in the animatic it would just be showing her day-to-day life, doing fake archon things. But she can't confide in anyone the truth. She can't "complain about anything small", or break the image that she's this perfect being. And because of that, "Nobody would feel bad for [her] at all".

If I was cocaine or a bottle of Jack

I'd get invited to every frat

But when you get old and your good days have passed

You'll only want me when you're sad.

This made me think of her trailer where she was surrounded by all the Fontaine characters in a choreographed fight. Except instead, this part of the animatic would be her surrounded by Fontainians dancing. Naturally, as an archon, she gets invited to every party.

But when she gets old, and her good days have passed--when the flood dissolves everyone and she's all alone in the sea--she'll only have the memories of those plays and dances that she had with the humans when they were still there. (This never happened but it's what she expected to happen since the beginning. It lowkey reminds me of Briar Rose from Ever After High? Like she wants to party and have fun with everyone while she still can before everyone gets dissolved and she's all alone.)

The first two lines kind of go with the previous paragraph with the music and dancing. But the second two lines made me think of the scenes where she would have Fontainians having appointments to meet with her and being all excited. Except "two or three minutes, then I'm gone". I interpreted this as every human's lifespan feeling extremely short to Furina, especially with that one part of the cutscene where one of the humans was talking about one of their ancestors being the first in their bloodline to meet her--a human that we saw her "talking to" only a few moments ago in the same cutscene.

Wish I was a song, your favorite one

You'd follow the dance to me at your prom

I would be there when your baby is born

For two or three minutes, then I'm gone.

I wish I was big, as big as my house

I'd sleep on the trees, I'd skip every crowd

But I wouldn't fit on my therapist's couch

God, I could really use him now.

Now's when the meat of the song comes in.

She wishes that she was as "big", or as powerful, as a real archon. She'd do all the things a real archon could do ("sleep on the trees", "skip every crowd"... not sure how these would be depicted but you get the point).

But then, she wouldn't need Neuvillette anymore, which I see as her main support (even though she never tells him anything, she wanted him to go to Arlecchino's meeting with her to feel safe so I feel like she places some confidence in him / reliance on him at least). But she doesn't want to not need Neuvillette anymore. She wants him around.

I wish I was God, I'd never trip up

And if I did, well, so fuckin' what?

I could be cruel and break all your stuff

Yeah, I'd be loved no matter what...

THIS STANZA LKSDJFSDLKJFDSLKJ

Again, she wants to be a real archon (or maybe she doesn't--my favorite part of this song is how it's constantly contradicting itself and going back on its statements because maybe you would want to be all-knowing. Maybe you would want to be all-powerful. Maybe you would want to be God. It's indecisive and constantly changing, just like the human condition etc etc). She wouldn't have to be so scared of messing up. She wouldn't have to be afraid of the humans questioning her legitimacy. She could do whatever she wanted and get away with it. The Fontainians would love her no matter what.

But if I was God, it'd get kinda weird

'Cause you would only say what I wanna hear.

And then you would die. You'd love me to death.

I'd never know who the hell I am.

...Except, if she were an actual archon, she'd still feel weird about how the humans worshipped her. When her act is convincing enough, the humans listen to what she says without question. Especially that one part of the cutscene where she's meeting with one of the citizens and literally starts crying in the middle of it. She makes up an excuse about her being the hydro archon, thus having excess hydro in her system... and the human just. Buys it. She starts fangirling as Furina is crying.

And then they would die. They'd love her to death.

This could fit with that part with the talk of bloodlines and the first ancestor who met her, but I'd like to think that it meant the prophecy's flood.

The prophecy would swallow Fontaine whole. All the Fontainians would dissolve.

But they'd still love her to death. They would still worship her without question.

And she'd never know who she was for real.

I wish I was me, whoever that is

I could just be and not give a shit

Hey, I'll be whatever makes you a fan

'Cause I don't know who the hell I am.

I can see her saying this during her internal monologue stage as her play's final scene.

She wants to be herself, but she doesn't know how. She's been Focalors since day one, so she has no idea who Furina is.

One, two, pandemonium!

One, two, pandemonium!

Here I go again

One, two, pandemonium!

Here I go again

One, two, pandemonium!

One, two—

Here I go again.

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

This part of the song oml. "Pandemonium" describes Fontaine's archon quest pretty well, and combined with the instrument spaghetti in the song finale it conveys the feeling of the storyline precisely.

When the instruments start playing and the crowd starts cheering, I could see that being the magic box opening revealing that Furina is going on trial.

Here she goes again, about to put on another performance.

I was thinking of making this into a series? Like I have a lot of songs that line up with characters (not just Genshin, like I currently have one for Danganronpa that's been cooking for like a year) and I want to put it in some kind of lyric analysis / animatic planning format like I did with this one. I'm putting this post (along with the Lyney as Envy Baby drawing) under [ #smug's playlist ] so look out for that I guess?

[seaofreverie]

Hi!

Hello everyone, you can call me Ray or Goose and the most important thing about me at the moment is that I LOVE SPARKS!!!!

I started getting into them in april last year and soon enough progressed into becoming a full-fledged fan sometime around august, and now I'm here! I'm a total tumblr newbie and not much of a social media person overall (so please forgive me if I don't know how this website works half of the time), but I decided that I can't just sit alone with all my thoughts and feelings about them and I have to try to get into the fandom proper. I hope I can make some Sparks friends this way because it's felt pretty lonely as of late not being able to share my enthusiasm about them with anyone!! (Or at least anyone who would understand this level of emotional involvement that I'm at now, hah)

As for my favourite albums and such, my top 5 (in no particular order, cause ranking them would be impossible) are Propaganda, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip and the entire Lil' Beethoven trilogy! I could write entire essays and song by song analyses about all of them i bet, I mean, I actually did exactly that with Hello Young Lovers already, so let's just say that I mean it when I say that these albums changed me (and so did Sparks overall of course) and I will happily talk about that.

Other than that I love music in general (They Might Be Giants are my other top #1 fav band), art (it's a new hobby but I try to draw and paint as often as I can manage), nature, writing (mostly in the sense of doing elaborate writeups on things I enjoy, mainly music nowadays, to no suprise), "retro" design, especially interior design etc. (I mean stuff from like 60s-80s), collages / mixed media kind of creations, collecting stuff like toys, various trinkets, and as of late also physical media! (and by that I mean music, both CDs and vinyl)

I feel like this is a bit too long for an introduction post perhaphs but that's just how it goes with me I suppose. So anyway, that's about it, yay!

[deadr00t]

Introduction to DEADROOT - The members as their songs

!!!: References to depression and self-harm

Bongsoo

Same Old War (2016)

‘i feel so far from the sky as my dreams are flying by’

Same Old War is the closest thing we have to DEADROOT's debut track (only the original three* have the live performance of their actual debut, but it was so bad that they refuse to release it).

The song is about Bongsoo's struggles with depression, something he still battles and sings about today, though he has never explicitly stated that he has it. It also talks about his dreams of becoming a successful musician, which he thought was impossible as he had been a part of three different failed bands by that point.

Most of Bongsoo's songs follow similar themes of melancholy and gloominess- he often writes the band's darkest and heaviest songs.

RAIN** see Bongsoo as; laid-back; affable; a strict leader; a dedicated composer; and a true artist.

Gyumin

Heaven Knows (2021)

‘i can wait for years if i gotta, heaven knows i ain’t getting over you.’

Gyumin will either have you crying over an emotional love song or holding up a 'take me backstage' sign as he sluts it out. There is seriously no in-between.

Before the band got signed in 2020, he was even more of a manwhore, but unfortunately, management told him to tune down the NDA talk.

Despite being seen as the ultimate rockstar boyfriend, Gyumin is not the type of man you want to date. It's a bit of a mystery why people see him as their dream type, considering that he does not keep his promiscuity a secret

RAIN see Gyumin as; the lead yearner; boyfriend material; confident; and an alluring voice.

Matthew

Careful What U Wish 4 (2022)

‘don’t call it a party, ‘cause it never stops’

Regardless of the lyrics, Matthew will always bring a fun, energetic instrumental to an otherwise depressing album.

CWUW4 is very obviously a song about addiction. Matthew wrote it based on things he's often told by friends and colleagues who are quite honestly getting sick of him. He's quite self-aware of his addiction, but he isn't gonna stop anytime soon. 'YOLO', as he would say, 'half of the job is the drugs.'

(if only you saw the look on the band's faces when he proposed this song)

Matthew is infamous for his quirky tees, pins and guitar/bass stickers, most of which have got him trouble. Even under the strict surveillance of HORIZEN, he hasn't stopped wearing controversial messages in public.

RAIN see Matthew as; GAY; playful; a born performer; and unapologetically him.

Kitty

Decode (2024)

‘i’m screaming i love you so, but my thoughts you can’t decode.’

Decode- in fact, the whole album was the first to finally get long-time RAINs to STFU!!! and accept Kitty's role in DEADROOT.

If nothing else, Kitty's addition brought a new level of vocals to the band, and let them be more creative technically.

It took her a while to get here, but she’s now earned her title as the ‘Queen of Festivals’ due to her seemingly infinite energy on stage, crowd control, and stable vocals.

Decode was the first title that Kitty partook in writing, and the sentimental lyrics paired with her voice made it a worldwide hit.

Still, Kitty has been struggling with her self-worth for years, even before the two-year-long hate train she got. Part of the reason why her stage presence, vocals, etc have improved so much is because of how tirelessly she works. Her perfectionism can often come across as bratty.

RAIN see Kitty as; the queen of festivals; the perfect front woman; a little vain; and a hard worker.

Yohan

Father, Father (2023)

‘do you even miss us? your bottle’s your mistress.’

‘Father, Father’ was the first (released) song Yohan wrote lyrics for completely alone.

The song is about Yohan's non-existent relationship with his father, who is a failed rockstar himself. Yohan actually got his love of music from his father, but after his dad's band flopped, their relationship became abusive as his father tried to live vicariously through his son.

Despite the abuse, Yohan did become a bassist of his own accord... mostly. He was partially hoping that joining a successful band would cure his father's alcoholism and make him return to his family which he abandoned just a few years prior. It didn't work

The other photos on the mood board are pretty self-explanatory I feel.

(Fun fact, Yohan is a high school dropout, but he did not drop out with the intention of joining a band. He was ready to become a NEET.)

RAIN see Yohan as; reserved; a music lover; mysterious; and a teenage dirtbag.

*Bongsoo, Gyumin, Matthew debuted together in 2016, Yohan joined in 2021, and Kitty joined in 2022

**Rain = deadroot's fan name

A/N: I MADE TWO MISTAKES AAA ITS 12:20 I COULD CRY

i rushed to post this bc i rlly cba to make 5 profiles and i had a personal goal to at least post something by the end of the week so... if you do want to know more about them u can always ask for a summary.

also THEY ARE NOT IDOLS, like at all, not even in a DAY6 way. Their company does make them do some idol-y stuff, like fan signs or wtv, but they dont go on music shows, end-of-year awards, etc. just felt like i should clarify

[jiminjeonging]

okay your blog is my comfort place so let me just get this out of my system along with everyone else so I never have to think about it ever again.

Karina is not a naive girl, which for some reason, everyone paints her out to be. She’s been in the industry long enough to know how dating rumors can negatively impact an idols career. With that being said, she 100% knew that she was being set up to be in a dating scandal with ljw. Whether she agreed to it fully or not, we will never know.

People keep pointing fingers at it being a promotional stunt to promote their upcoming album/drama, but that literally makes no sense to me because they’re both so successful in their own careers. I think there’s bigger players here that we don’t know about and the ulterior motives will remain unknown.

It’s just odd how dispatch would release the announcement that they’re dating, have absolutely no picture proofs (not even one?? 😭) and then both companies confirming the relationship shortly after. Everything sounds so forced and abrupt and unlike any other idols whose relationships got exposed.

Like when dispatch revealed that joy and crush were dating, they had picture proof of them together on dates and they both shortly went on their ig pages to confirm said relationship. Karina’s apology that she posted didn’t even address that she was in a rs or “meeting someone with good feelings” if anything, I felt like it was void of any real emotion and it was something that she was forced to post in order to diffuse the situation .

The kpop industry is and always will be a business. It’s always going to be about profiting the most and taking advantage of the pawns on the board so the higher ups can reap all the benefits. I’m sure all idols know this themselves. It’s just unfortunate to see it happening with our own very two eyes and watch the events unfold right in front of us.

i agree with you on ppl keep painting jm to be naive or downright dumb sometimes which pisses me off ngl. i think ppl took it too far with stupid cheese cat or just calling her a loser that they started to believe that its true. like ofc i call her those stuff too affectionately but because of this ppl act like jm cant be ambitious or want things for herself. ofc you can keep calling her that and i will too but ppl need to realize shes not some 2d angel character but an actual human being with dreams which she would do anything to achive.

i dont think jm agreed willingly. you can tell by how much she wanted to distance herself from it (dead to romance cap, tagging mj to her glasses bcs ppl thought it was a couple item, singing wanegbt, saying she'll come in the morning but break news dropping instead etc) and i dont think her apology was devoid from emotion. korean speakers talked about how beautiful it was and kmys that were mad at her(hope they die) all came back saying" i love you jimin ofc i forgive you this made me cry. " high chance she was advised to post it but her emotions were real and this doesnt prove dating news really at the end of the day she caused stress for the fans and she was sorry for that no matter the reason. i wish she didnt have to feel this way but she does. she always comes to bbl too when this ungreatful fandom complains about something.

yeah kpop is all business we will never know how much the idols show us is real. at the end of the day all we can do is speculate

[straycatboogie]

2023/05/28 English

BGM: The Clash - London Calling

Today was a day off. This morning I went to the mountain, where I listened to Flare's album to think about various idea. But it couldn't work today. Occasionally, I got a message from a friend in Kyusyu on WhatsApp. It's about Aki Kaurismaki had got a prize of Cannes. I had not learned about that at all. All I had learned was about the news Kouji Yakusho and Yuji Sakamoto had got their prizes. So I thought how important to learn news through various news sources in English from foreign presses etc. Also remembering Hirokazu Koreeda, I thought that I should work more by the successes/progresses of those artists who that friend and I always have respected. After that mountain time, I have read Richard. H. Smith's book "The Joy of Pain". It criticizes the emotion of "schadenfreude", which can also mean as a Japanese proverb "Other people's unhappiness tastes like honey" or simply "meshiuma (it means 'I can enjoy delicious meal because of other's unhappiness')". Why is other people's unhappiness so pleasant? This book tries to answer this question with clear style and description. It's really an interesting book.

The mind that can feel other people's unhappiness as fine thing... I confess that in my mind that kind of emotion certainly exists. Because I often feel the unfair or unequal with "Why is he/she pretty great like that?". We are different from each other. Some people are handsome. Or our smartness or the height are also different. And... I wish I could say that kind of difference would mean our characters. From there, that "schadenfreude" must come. I remember the past days. Once I had been haunted by the strict belief that said I must be unhappy and miserable completely, so I wished other's misery. Maybe I even wished other people's death... In "The Joy of Pain", various examples are told and criticized by author. The fall of politicians and celebrity by their scandals, the humiliation in various "reality shows" which enable treating others as idiots, and the discrimination toward Jewish people by Anti-Zionism. It treats really wide topics, so I guess it would cause the sympathy of the readers who might think "I'm liberal so not concerned with that schadenfreude". I also felt exactly that this can't be a topic separated by my life. I have to learn and think more.

Through the movie "Seven", I learned that "envy" can be one of seven deadly sins. Indeed, that "envy" could light a fire to other's motivation to live a better life. So I can't say that "envy" must not be a good concept easily/simply. But, in this book, the author suggests to us that we should accept that emotion, "envy", certainly exists in our minds. So we should give it a proper place within our minds. I can understand that it is not easy. Me, as I always do confess again and again, I have to accept the fact that I had kept feeling that "Why do they live such successful life? They exactly bullied me... I want to pound them". Or, referring to the "envy", I even thought that "I want to speak English more fluently than that person"... And now, I can accept that "envy" as one of my negative emotion. Where has this change come? I can't see. But through the connection with others I have learned that I have to face the negative and ugly emotion in me. Accepting/noticing that ugly emotion might be able to relativize that schadenfreude.

This evening I got a message on WhatsApp from that friend who had shared the news about movies in the morning. He said that he had learned how important understanding Muslim through admitting the meeting of Muslim. He had enjoyed a meal with them (but he is not a devotee). Me, I have to say that I think automatically that religious people can be different from me because I am too full of material/snob desire. "They stand a different stage from me"... I think like this and separate myself from them (this might sound weird, but I do that by a respect). And maybe, I had thought that those Muslim could be a kind of dangerous and fanatic people because of a lot of silly/suspicious news. I could think them as a kind of "would-be terrorists" (of course, this is a silly idea. But I could have it somewhere in my mind). That friend told me the book "Covering Islam" by Edward W. Said. About that Said, I have read his "Orientalism" once but that's all. I should learn various things about Islam. That must work in my life successfully. I can feel that in Shiso city there are a lot of chances to communicate/understand different cultures. Indeed, that might be troublesome. But beyond that we should try to communicate/understand. That would work meaningful trials, and also bring various pleasure... I got this from that friend.

[avaliveradio]

7 New Music Releases Just Added to our Songwriters Showcase Playlist

Songwriters are not just musicians, they are also storytellers. The best songwriters have the ability to transport listeners to new worlds, evoke emotions, and tell real stories through their music. In this article, we will explore the art of storytelling in songwriting and look at some of the best songwriters who have mastered this craft.

The Art of Stortelling in Songwriting

At its core, songwriting is about telling a story. Whether it's a personal experience or a fictional tale, the best songwriters know how to weave a narrative that captivates their audience. They use imagery, metaphors, and clever wordplay to paint a picture that resonates with their listeners.

Here are our picks for 7 New Releases just added to our Songwriters Showcase Playlist …

Ann Gray- Sorry Excuse

Folk/Acoustic - Pop - Rock/Punk

Sorry Excuse was the first single released from Ann Gray's debut full-length album, The Half Of It. The song was inspired by Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which I read last year. I became engrossed with the complicated and toxic relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. Catherine’s love causes her to see him everywhere and in everything. I was inspired to put an urban spin on it. The song begins with the end of the relationship, “when things were going south, then I drove up to the north”, which is followed by the longing. While Catherine sees Heathcliff in every blade of grass, in Sorry Excuse, the lost lover is seen in grocery lines, takeout menus, and traffic lights.

Riots and Jetpacks - Carousel

Cheyenne Pohl -  Friend Crush

Released by: DistroKid

Genre: Pop Rock, Indie Rock

Moods: Happy, Energetic

Friend Crush is an upbeat rock song that navigates the feelings and emotions a person has when they start to have a crush on a friend. Every time I thought I was starting to have feelings for someone I always asked myself…do you see yourself dating them or is it a friend crush? To me, having a friend crush always meant I loved the person’s energy, they gave me a serotonin type of feeling, and I craved their presence…but I couldn’t imagine us being boyfriend and girlfriend. The song plays off of those feelings with a bit more of a romantic twist. Friend Crush goes through this journey of dissecting one’s emotions and tendencies. Is it a friend crush or is there something more? Why do I care how I respond to your messages? You’re always making me smile…is that a normal friend thing? Why am I so nervous around you? This “crush” feels more intense than the others. Etc. There’s nothing in this world more confusing than trying to figure out your feelings for someone that in the end you probably don’t have real feelings for. 

Songwriter Chloe Borthwick has the power to captivate an audience

One talented storyteller that I recently discovered is Chloe Borthwick. Her ability to lead the listener through an experience has the power to captivate an audience. Her descriptive imagery resonates with the listener and creates magical moments. It’s a wonderful experience and I highly recommend listening to her new single, ‘Don't Ghost Me’. 

Cabela and Schmitt's Endearing New Single 'DON'T DROP THAT MONKEY'

It’s rare to come across a song that is endearing but DON'T DROP THAT MONKEY is about a little girl whose made up best friend is a stuffed monkey doll. She calls him Harry and hardly ever let's him leave her side. The song is pulling influence from the songwriters of the 70’s with brilliant musical elements intermingled into a fun upbeat child friendly tune. But just as the Beatles often included hidden meanings in their songs, I can’t help but hear a covert message hidden in the song. What do you think it’s about?

GATLIN KATE JAMES - Untitled Song of Self-Doubt Music Genre: Pop Vibe: Emotional, Bright, Inspiring Located in: Tulsa, OK Sounds like: Somewhere between Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish

"Born in Nashville, Tennessee, GATLIN KATE JAMES was no stranger to music. At four years old, she began her career as a session vocalist. She was signed to a national talent agency for acting at 6, and at 11, her love of songwriting bloomed.  Listen on Spotify

Sydney Dalessi - Trying (to believe)

Music Genre: Bedroom pop, indie pop Vibe: Chill, Sentimental, Love Located in: New York Sounds like: Phoebe Bridgers, Boygenius, Billie Eilish,

With a singing style as unique as her take on the bedroom pop genre, Sydney Dalessi  has released a precious new single called ‘Trying (to believe)’. I think she’s captured a special vibe that sets the listener at ease from the first sound of her vocal. Sydneys tone is warm and inviting painting a soundscape around the listener like an artist fills a room with canvas and paint. It’s creative, patient and delivered with grace.

[waluijoe]

ok ok im doing the ji//m/in music review of 2023 here cause that way i can let it out also i’m a music nerd and i’m obsessive and unhinged it’s terrible i need to overanalyze everything and slap little thoughts abt it and this song frustrated me a lot by sheer potential/amazement etc so ye whatevs this is my lonely corner anywayz 

im so fkcing curious abt the album and i mean it, but i’m also v frustrated with the new song. like,, the production is crazy, literally the music is so intense & beautiful, orchestras & wind instruments is just such a wild ride and i’m so into it (i was hyped from the trailer tbh i knew itd be crazy). the harmonies are Haunting. the two together is just an insanely intense mix of emotions. it feels like being plunged into a RAW emotion immediately, you could use this music for dark movies, crash scenes, religious deaths, horror movies, and it would fit perfectly cause it’s That intense. i love it sm. 

// the clip is very seemingly simple which i really love cause it balances out perfectly with the music, like, you couldn’t have different decors and rooms and like idk sexy/cute closeups or whatever i think it would just break the flow with such an intense music. so, you have to shoot like a short movie, perfect. i feel like it’s a direct play with like,, expectations. “this is what you want, this is what i show you, but set me free from this” it’s very ,,, intriguing. that the lyrics would prone being set free but ,,, clearly the choreo jimin does, it’s smthg you’ve seen before (i don’t mean like, it’s recycled or whatever, but like, the movements are strong, kind of sensual, the fact that he’s dancing at all really, that’s the style that people expect and love from him), the outfit its Litcherally what everyone who’s trying to be a bad boy in kpop wears (big chunky boots with the chunky bomber jacket and cargo pants like, sure). 

so it’s like. you’re trapping yourself. you sing abt being free. you’re not freeing yourself at all. you’re literally in a huis clos, that looks like a prison. there’s no color, there’s no life except for the dancing, it’s so fkcing depressing to see such a cage, but it Looks cool too, right ? but the group choreo !! i love it, it joins the haunting voices perfectly. the voices are literally screaming at you with anguish, and the dancers are always in a role of being agressors to jimin, pointing fingers from the ground, from higher up, surrounding him, making noise (the gestual i mean is very noisy always all limbs moving etc) looking at him, and then lifting him up, touching him until he falls down and “dies”. horror movie, much. i love that, it’s like,,, this is what you want, this is what i give you, you still destroy me. thats kind of what i got, esp with the poem, which is very pretty, placed on the part of his body that’s nude. i love that his body becomes art but becomes politic in that way ; that’s where you’ll be looking so read then. but will you care abt it anyway ? it’s all depressing symbolism to me tbh but i love it anyways

the ending with the white clad ji//m/in, my thoughts are either,,, is this the inner self that’s gotten out (the lyrics want that i guess), or is it just you showing the new expectation that you’ve carved out.. cause technically, he is still trapped in the scene, he is showing something that people also want ; purity, no scandals, softness, the perfect angel side of him. so my first thought was that,, i didn’t feel like that was really a “being set free” resolution, like to believe that you’re truly being set free i’d need to see something else because this narrative isn’t really showing it. and then like,,, i learnt this was the last song of the album. and that made me feel like, oh is that it ? kinda broke my heart in a way. it made me think abt Arson and how it’s the last song of JITB’s whole trajectory, and with Arson i feel like it’s about reclaiming the control of something uncontrollable. the ending note is “i get to chose to burn it all or extinguish the fire” kinda,,, it’s strong and full of anger and pride and self doubt, but it ends on this note that feels like this is it, you know, new chapter now, i’m looking at a crossroad of choices. it feels Good to hear. set me free pt2 just feels daunting like,,, idk it made me feel like Ji//m/in (im talking abt the persona etc i don’t know the guy this is abt a narrative yadayada) ,,, idk the dilemna is still going. it’s like,, claiming you’re finally free but still begging to be set free till the end, doing it by looking straight at the camera and taunting you (is this what u wanna see ? am i free now ? will you read me ? etc), in a way it feels he’s reclaiming his agency/control by doing this, but also like he doesn’t believe it profundly at all. it’s like. i’ve done it now, will you get it anyways, i don’t think so, i’ll just be this other part now, you will never know me. i think that was my feeling overall. you will never know him, he’s not sharing that, he’s showing surface in many ways, and in details he’s showing more, but even that more isn’t that much and will never be clear. it’s intriguing, i’m intrigued, i’m also frustrated because i honestly would just really like to see the whole album to get a feel for everything and place it all in context but can’t do that so let’s ride, and idk, part of me would enjoy more clarity/substance

// next point,,, music is music first. and that makes me so Mad lmfao and this is personal taste you know but i was quiteeee disappointed by the song, because i honestly think it has the best & worst at the same time ? and that makes me Maaad i really want to love the song because the fkcing instrumentals you know, but i can’t because i don’t think his voice is well placed on the track. like, listen. what pple call autotune even tho it’s not, its actually filters, anyways im annoying lets call it autotune, it was too agressive for his voice i think. he has a very beautiful tone and texture, his lower register in Promise is just insane. so like... the point was to make his soft voice agressive, alright, the song calls for energy and agressiveness, Alllright. but it doesn’t feel like it fits to me my ears just don’ttt like that. 

i think his voice sounds different because he’s singing in english, im not a fancy music nerd im just a music nerd from years of digging, but basically language means you sing differently, mostly because the sounds are different, the way you hold your tongue, head, the way you use your throat is different depending on those sounds. so basically,,, korean and english are actually Very far apart in terms of sounds, like, fr it’s reaaaally hard to go from one to the other for learning cause it’s so wildly different, pronunciation is Hard, but just getting used to using your vocal chords and throat and jaw all that, is also hard because we have Habits and we need to learn New habits in Our Bodies literally (language is insane, its basically why going on T is so fkcing weird for voice changes cause like,,, thats a whole part of ur body that u gotta learn to reuse and it Hurrrts ? and it’s a very weird process). back to the topic, in english it feels like he’s singing with a more open-throat sound in lower registers and im gonna be honest i don’t like that because it sounds uncomfortable.. it’s smthg i personnally notice in singers and that i don’t like hearing,, when something feels unnatural. his english in higher register ? delicious. the high notes on set me FreeEEE ? beautiful !!! fits the music so fkcing well !! 

but the lower registers with that unnatural singing feeling AND the haannnddful of modifyers making it v robotic and harsh, thats just taking me Out of it. pple love that cause they feel like he’s playing two different people, i Get that and in theory that’s so cool but tbh i just don’t think the execution ended up that good. idk. honestly wonder how that could’ve gone ? im not a vocal coach nor a musician nor a singer so i wouldnt know shit abt that lmfao but really in terms of details thats just bugging me cause it makes me feel like,,, damn you were So close. the concept was cool but this isn’t hitting. cause it’s like,, the higher notes are this beautiful insanely pretty moments but every 0.2sec theyre cut back to the uneasiness and i don’t like that,,,, maybe it would’ve deserved more lyrics,,, like instead of being low NOW YEA NOW YEA you come in with a low singing sentence idk maybe that would’ve felt less empty/gratting,,, wonderinnnggg. anyways the trap bridge just took me out,,, i just,, idk i don’t feel it fits his voice again, i don’t like ji//m/in rapping actually i don’t think he’s a rapper like idk he’s a good singer but rapping is a whole other category and thats that. i liked his verse in T/ony Mon/tana because he used his voice Differently, he was spitting it out, it doesn’t come from an open throat singing, it was litcherally using a hoarse voice, which just works for agressivity but also he does v well !! like he’s literally alternating between breaking his voice to sound agressive which he Does in concerts sometimes and all and is cool as hell, and then singing very calmly but BASICALLY the hoarse texture works !!! my hypothesis is like,, the open throat thingy is because he’s screaming (HEY FOOLS ! part like,, power through screaming it out, many rappers do that in concerts because of the hype etc so like rather than rapping like u usually do you’re shouting it out), buuuttt not everyone can shout a performance to get higher energy and make it sound good. many rappers Don’t sound that good when they shout at concerts, cause that’s not their typical texture or whatever or it just loses the edgy touch of their texture before (do i make sense, god i hope no one in music reads me like ever). how do i equate that to make sense... J/h/ope singing at Lolla, you can literally tell at some point that he’s singing in low register but gave his voice too much power (shouting), had bad notes, so finished the sentence and for the next sentence got back to a quieter voice,you can hear Less well cause like, the whole crowd yelling thingy, but thats were his notes were correct cause thats were his voice is. anyways. fun bit to illustrate that nobody gets but me but lets gooo cowboys. anyways, the ending is pretty, i wouldn’t have added that last high “set me free”, i think letting his voice disappear slowly and ending with the other backing vocals would have felt more poetic, but whatevs. i’d say overrall,,, i think, the song would’ve been better with a lot more textures, instead of voice modifyers and gratting filters, you know like,, if you wanna get angry and go hard, then your voice needs to go Angry and go Hard, thats my mood (make it Hurt, make it punk, layer the fuck out of it, add weird fcking details, idk, anything tbh)

// in terms of lyrics huhhhh,,, i don’t dig it particularly, i think the message is well, pretty clear, some shout outs to other songs, his past self, etc. tbh i just don’t think the imagery is particularly original ? like,, free & butterfly (yes but it’s a nod to other songs yadayada i know i was there,,,, it’s sentimental but i’m an annoying person looking at the song as a song also) it’s like,, it’s all things you’ve read/heard before in terms of actual words. which like, i guess we can’t Invent new words but that’s where poetry and imagery come from, intricacies and all that jazz, it’s pretty fun to play with, and i feel like, well, the song is pretty straight forward so at least it’s clear but it’s not rocking my jams too much. i like the imagery of “raise your hands for the past me” cause it can be read both as “congrats for getting there” and mockery, like pointing finger, which they all do in the choreo, so i think it sounds bittersweet which i Like. i also feel like the lyrics really put in context the narrative of the video (duh ig) because the maze never really leaves even tho the chorus begs for freedom (wandered/stuck in/at the edge/still in). and the juxtaposition between “finally free” vs. “set me free” vs. “primetime/finally begun” vs. “forget/forget” and obvs “insane/sane” are the most interesting parts in terms of lyrics & depth. but yeah. i don’t particularly vibe with the fuck offs and you fools and the i never stops and fuck all your opps cause like,,, mmmh,, idk why i feel like it’s just not hitting. why is it not hitting tbh ? i Wonder. maybe because it doesn’t feel that tightly knit with the rest of the song, maybe because his voice doesn’t really push the feeling through enough ? it kind of feels very randomly put there, musically at least, instead of Hitting right. my guess is that i’d say the song lacks actual words ? it was a gut feeling like, it’s too empty, it’s too general, if it was more precise, more dense, it would really balance out the fkcing Sheer craziness of the music & background vocals. maybe MORE jim///in vocals juxtaposed too ? maybe if he really played with having many voices !!! like, tbh, many singers create texture by singing themselves in different keys (damn that was the word i searched for all along) and stacking those up (ie. literally any pop artist ig idk Ha/rry Sty//les does it in Matilda very clearly, i think thats what came up first in my brain anyways, it adds this kind of, haunting feeling because you can’t clearly distinguish the other keys but you still hear them, it’s like,, little ghost voices, adding the same emotion but slightly different versions of it), but i still think just packing more words would’ve made the song feel more anchored. cause in the end the verses are super empty,, esp the “not yet, not yet” and then “now yeah, now yeah” that feels so unfulfilling !!! just stock em up, get more up there. and i get that it works w the message but it just idk. im not fed, like, musically. 

//overall,,, hmm, i guess it boils down to i vibed with it in theory & sentiment, but the actual song just leaves me unsatisfied. sadly. and its like, tragic, cause thats kind of the point of the song to be free from judgement and reception etc, but alas, i just didn’t really reception it. but tbh i think music and art is just about learning & growing, and i think that’s what he’s doing and will do all his life just like me. honestly i always have respect for artists who Do try to make something honest and true. i think that’s what he was going for, cause the music proves it, and the care proves it, so i’m gonna sit my ass and say that,,, this isn’t a song empty of Meaning it’s a song that struggles to bring it out into Emotion. like, actual emotion, followed through all the way not just with the instrumentals and background vocals cause those are Very emotional, but through technique and creativity and depth. it’s too neat. that sounds super harsh cause i just use direct words all my life but anyways. lets get it. end of my music rant. will come back here for all my music rants from now on cause this is litcherally an empty space and my friends can’t bear the music obsession so, good for me. 

[lesovoj]

what are you most excited about in this jimin's solo era ? cause we are eating good friend

EVERYTHING. i cant even idk man like im sure the teaser for his collab VIBE is dropping in couple of hours and i cant sleep 😭 because im so excited and nervous.

2022 made me so jimin content deprived (not only he wasnt doing any solo activities but his lines and screentime in their new songs was so little) that i cant believe this is real actually. what do you mean his collab coming out this friday? him doing magazine covers and interviews?? his whole album dropping this year? im so akhsoahskajs.

SO YEAH IM EXCITED ABOUT EVERYTHING.

but most of all his music . I wanna hear his voice and what he has to say in his album. Like imagine a new jimin song all his just his angel voice on it :')

then dancing and performances cause no one compares to him when it comes to stage presence in my opinion. he is a master of it. i already get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

i would also kill for a similar song/performance like LIE.

of course a cunty song and dance from him

would love a baby making song like sexy rnb one i have a feeling we might already get something like that in this collab

one like pop perfection song to shake your ass on it and one super emotional ballad to cry my ass on it

etc

Idk whatever he does he will do it amazingly i have no doubts . the expectations are huge for his album but for a good reason we are talking about park jimin here. he did serendipity lie and filter stage and NO ONE was able to copy that so far.

aslo really excited about his interview i wanna hear his plans , thoughts, feelings , worries anything he wants to share with us

his own solo music videos when his album comes out...if his photofolio is anything to go by oh my god. i am not ready at all. i already know he will come up with the most insane music videos that will have us all withering on the floor gasping for air

the very thought of seeing jimin in a music video is making me all giddy even for the VIBE that is only a collab 😭

and his concepts?? can you imagine?? his clothes his hair styles his make up looks... yeah im excited about every little thing

HIIS ALBUM COVER!! Im so curious about that one too..

[slipping-through-my-fingertips]

If Glee did a Taylor Swift Tribute Episode...

Just my opinions, feel free to add on to them. I know I have some fellow gleek swifties following me. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Obviously they have to do some of the hits but I think some people would have some out of the box picks.

*This post assumes all Taylor songs are available to choose from as of May 14th 2021 but focuses on Taylor’s first 6 albums (if you want more glee and Taylor I have fics with that; LOVER and FOLKLORE) and takes liberties with where this episode’s placement is in terms of canon. But since it’s all made up anyway who cares (but Blaine’s involved so I guess season 3 idk).*

Okay, trying to do a full plot here (completely inspired by @kurtdeservesbetter head canon posts. I hope this lives up to her fabulous posts). This will be my version of glee so everyone gets solos and Rachel can’t hog the spotlight. Also, this is about to be super long (both post wise and episode wise).

Let’s open the first episode with

...Ready For It because the New Directions are in their reputation era. Santana does the opening cough centerstage. Everyone in black and/or camo green outfits (can you just see Kurt in a dark green bedazzled snake jacket, Santana in a black leather dress, and Tina digging out some goth clothes for people to borrow?), snakes everywhere, but probably no Karyn (she just wouldn’t fit on the auditorium stage). Santana takes the first verse but we have Blaine step up for verse 2. (I just love their friendship in the Michael tribute, cute little badasses are BACK. Also him singing “Burton to this Taylor” is such a Klaine thing to do).

Everyone is still dressed in their rep outfits but we’re in the choir room now. Mr. Schue is talking about why Taylor had to disappear and clap back with rep, how rough the industry is for women and tries to uplift the ladies in the room and encourage them to not silence their voices (cue snarky comment from Santana about Rachel needing to be silent).

Then, Mr. Schue goes on about how you can only understand how Taylor got to her rep era by studying her earlier music. So we have a performance of Tim McGraw. Simple, front of the choir room performance, maybe Puck does guitar, and sitting on stools.

Everyone is surprised to find out how pumped Sam is for this assignment but he is all over it. “It's about time we did some country in this room.” Cue Sam and Quinn at her locker talking about their ‘date’ last night, Sam’s all cute and teasing and Quinn is not into it. She tells him it was fun but she was wrong, they shouldn’t do this again. In turn, he does a wonderful performance of Bye Bye Baby. He thought it was more but clearly he’s “a part of her past.”

Then, we’re in the empty choir room. Tina and Mike are there. (I love their cutesy duets) They sing Everything Has Changed and it’s utterly adorable. Can’t you hear Mike asking Tina if she’s “good to go” like Ed does? And while we’re on the subject of cute duets and RED, we flash to the courtyard to see Santana and Brittany. They turn Stay Stay Stay into a duet. “I’ve been loving you for quite some time,” “before you I only dated self-indulgent takers who took all their problems out on me,” “no one else is gonna love me when I’m mad, mad, mad,” and “it’s occurring to me that I’d like to hang out with you for my whole life” it’s perfect for them. Adorable ladies kisses are had.

Let’s toss in some boy drama for fun. Idk shit about football but somehow Puck is praised by their coach over Finn, which gets him all pissy, and Puck’s upset and jealous because Finn is back with Quinn now (this is why Quinn shut Sam now earlier, she changed her mind). Can we say duet of Bad Blood? “So if you’re coming my way...just don’t.”

After their dramatics, we have a Brittany solo in the choir room. It’s after school at this point (or whenever glee club is). Brittany does You’ll Always Find You Way Back Home.

When she finishes Mr. Schue tries to explain that it’s a Hannah Montana song. Britt injects that it’s confusing how she’s really Miley Cryus “like how can you be two people at once?”. Before Mr. Schue can continue, Kurt pipes up “you never specified that the songs had to be sung by Taylor Swift, just that they were her songs.” Mercedes adds, “yeah, Mr. Schue, Taylor wrote that song.” Mr. Schue concedes that he has once again been outwitted by Kurtcedes. The friends do their little hand shake thing.

With a sigh, Mr. Schue asks Mike if he’s ready to go and Mike asks to take things to the auditorium for some dancing room. Everyone’s on stage with him and it’s kind of a group number but Mike is the focus. It’s Shake It Off. All inspired by the music video. He’s tried to fit in elsewhere (i.e. football, with the smart kids, etc..) but he’s really himself in glee when he’s dancing.

Part 2 of Taylor Tribute Episodes

We begin with an ALL GIRL NUMBER of A Place In This World. Just because.

Glee is dismissed and we zoom in on Artie. He’s watching Tina with Mike and Brittany with Santana. Both Tina and Britt have broken his heart by this point. So, he’s rolling down the halls singing A Perfectly Good Heart. While Artie’s soloing, we cut to Rachel watching Finn and Quinn chatting. Artie’s song playing over this scene. Rachel is feeling similar to him at the moment.

She’s pretty sure Finn dumped her to be with Quinn again even though Kurt and Blaine told her they saw Quinn and Sam at the movies last night together making out in the back row. Fine, if that’s how he’s going to be, she doesn’t need him anyway. Cue Mr. Perfectly Fine. Uber dramatic solo performance walking around McKinley’s halls watching Finn and Quinn together ending in the auditorium alone. (see what I did there, both broken hearted peeps singing a song with Perfectly in it (this was not at all planned, actually, happy accident))

After some good old heartbreak, we have Kurt and Blaine on screen. Blaine walks into the auditorium to see Kurt sitting on the edge of the stage. “What’s all the fuss?” he asks from the door. Kurt had texted him “EMERGENCY.” The band starts to play and Kurt just starts singing, Enchanted. It’s time to profess their love for each other, just like they sing Perfect together in the car, this duet needs no audience. Blaine catches up and sings while walking towards his boyfriend. It’s very reminiscent of past New Directions competitions where they come in from the back and make their way to the stage. “Wondering if you knew I was enchanted to meet you?” Kurt and Blaine both know the answer to that question now but just a few months ago they were both wondering that exact thing.

They kiss before we cut to Kurt and Blaine walking hand in hand into the choir room where everyone else is already. Mr. Schue is praising the performances thus far and of course asks Rachel if she’s ready to solo (some practice for her completion solo). This causes an uproar from Mercedes and Santana. Another classic argument of how she gets too many solos. Mr. Schue tries to shut them both down but Santana tells Rachel to watch her back, and we get three very different reactions to this. 

All three girls storm out.

First, we visit Mercedes alone in the courtyard. This solo is all about being hurt over this great thing in her life (glee) and her being denied happiness within that club. Thus, Cold As You. (mostly to indulge myself because she’d blow us away with this song).

Next, Rachel in the auditorium. A huge bridge on stage (very Speak Now Tour of her), belting out Better Than Revenge. Santana’s dropped the last straw (the humiliation, name calling, Finn at one point and now solos,) it’s too much this time.

And finally, Santana walking around McKinley, showing us flashes of Rachel ‘outshining’ her and the rest of glee and Mr. Schue being unfair, while singing Look What You Made Me Do.

Tina walks out at the same time as Rachel, Mercedes, and Santana but no one seems to put two and two together. She feels just as underutilized as the latter two do. She ends up in an empty classroom and sings The Outside. “Nobody ever lets me in” and “on the outside looking in.”

Once the 3, err 4, divas have left the room, Finn sticks up for Rachel. Quinn, of course, has something to say about this along the lines of “you always defend her.” Finn, intimated by her ‘scary Quinn’ fumbles and blurts “because she’s my girlfriend” WHICH IS NOT TRUE AT THIS POINT. Quinn dumps him on the spot, cuts quickly to Blaine and Kurt sharing some ‘oh my god, can you believe this’ expressions, and vanishes from the room.

By this point, Rachel is long gone from the auditorium but the bridge is still there.

Here’s where we go way off script but imagine, Quinn has decided to just quit boys. They’ve all failed her anyway, she’s better off being alone. She walks up the bridge and thinks to herself “god Rachel’s so dramatic, where did this thing even come from” before it hits her “fuck, I’m as bad as Finn. I want her.” Then, she starts singing Clean to herself in the auditorium, likely tearing up throughout and ending with a good cry. (Because Dianna would DELIVER with Clean.)

While Quinn is having a sexuality crisis, the rest of glee is still happening. They’re discussing upcoming competition and debating solos and songs.

Kurt’s all: “Mr. Schue, if I may” and performs a lovely rendition of Call It What You Want. Those opening lines are too good. “My castle (ie McKinley) crumbled overnight, brought a knife to a gun fight (ie couldn’t fight off Dave Karofsky), “I’m doing better than I ever was ‘cause my baby’s fit like a daydream,” and “at least I did one thing right.” When he’s done, Blaine’s a mess in the back of the choir room, and Mr. Schue says: “not really what we’re looking for but very nice, Kurt” however, Kurt’s too busy sitting beside Blaine teasing him about blushing.  

Then, the missing girls return to the room having sung out their emotions. Quinn, having realized her feelings for Rachel, ends up soloing You Belong With Me to the New Directions in the choir room. Odd looks all around, no one knows what’s up with her and why does she keep glancing at Rachel? (Faberry just fit so well I had to add it, don’t know if I’m a shipper or not but it’s here now) (also thanks to @spicygemini for pointing out the obvious “Quinn would have ate YBWY”).

Mr. Schue wants to move the group to the audition to perform their final number of the Taylor Swift tribute well but Tina asks to sing first. He’s surprised but allows it, taking a seat with the rest of the New Directions.

Tina sings Beautiful Ghosts. “Watch from the dark, wait for my life to start” because New Directions is refusing to use her talents AGAIN. She’s singing this to Rachel and the girls who were in the Treble Tones. Because she absolutely SMASHES this number, the glee kids agree she gets solo for their next competition (and they deliver on that promise).

To conclude Part 2 of the Taylor tribute episode, we have a group performance of Long Live. “One day we will be remembered”, “all the years we stood there on the sidelines wishing for right now”, “for a moment a band of thrives in ripped up jeans got to rule the world” ie wining completions, “when they look at the pictures please tell them my name...”

[galactic-aesir]

Unpopular opinion probably but I don’t like Obsessions? It can make for some interesting writing and conflict for sure but I just don’t like how it robs the characters of agency? Like, Danny with a Protection Obsession: he is compelled to protect rather than choosing to. And it just strikes me as way less heroic since Danny really isn’t choosing between having a normal life vs saving people. He’s not given a choice, he has to.

Instead, I like to think about ghosts having uhhhh let’s call them anchors for now? Anchors are a condition or series of events that need to happen for a ghost to be willing to move on. Anchors are based on the last thought or emotion or regret that a person had while dying. Most ghosts don’t know exactly what their anchor is thought they might have a pretty good idea of it.

Danny for example, his last thought could have been “I’m just 14 I barely got a chance to live” or “I don’t want to leave my friends behind” or maybe both! So to properly move on he would need to fully live his life or wait until all his friends have passed on before moving on.

It’s possible for ghosts to have an anchor that’s difficult to achieve or even one that’s nearly impossible. But anchors are kind of vague and can get fulfilled in unexpected ways.

However, Obsession still exists (I’m not giving rid of it entirely!). Except it’s more like a state of mind or a ghostly mental illness. Obsession happens when a ghost wants to move on but doesn’t know how and just starts doing more and more drastic and irrational things to fulfil their anchor. This state is extremely dangerous because they can make it impossible for themselves to move on at all. You know in video games when you have, say, a quest to deliver something to someone but it turns out that you accidentally killed that NPC a while ago and now that quest is stuck and cannot be completed? Kind of like that. That said, Obsession can be fought against and staved off entirely with proper support and care.

And since I’m already on a roll, let me just ramble a bit more. Fettered ghosts are ghosts that still have their anchor to fulfill. Unfettered ghosts are ghosts who have either fulfilled their anchor and decided to stick around or because they found themselves an entirely new anchor. There are lots of reasons for this: finding a new ghostly family, conditions having changed, sowing more chaos in the world, or just cause. That said Unfettered ghosts, even with new anchors, have a much easier time to move on.

To give another example with Danny, if his anchor was “I don’t want to leave my friends behind” and Sam, Tucker and Jazz all became ghosts after their deaths then he’ll still stay with them even if his anchor was fulfilled. Or, if after they die, he still feels like he needs to protect Amity Park, then that’s a new anchor for him: “to only move on once Amity is safe”. Or if he’s King of All Ghosts and he’s like “aw, well, I can’t just leave now, I got responsibilities and stuff”. Lots of ways to go about it!

Most ghosts that attack Amity would be in a certain stage of Obsession and would be prime material for Jazz to do her ghost psychology thing and help them cope with it better and find better ways to try and fulfill themselves.

Box Ghost focused too much on boxes and forgot his previous life so give him a new purpose and family. Did Skulker wanted to be the greatest hunter known to man or did he just want respect? Ember wanted to be remembered but she won’t need to hypnotize or coerce people if she’s given a chance to publish her own album. Etc, etc, etc.

Listen, I’m a sucker for the Earn Your Happy Ending trope. I just want everyone to be okay and happy ;-;

And all this just makes it so much more tragic when a character: Pariah Dark, Vlad, Spectra, etc refuses to change or accept help for their Obsession and go too far. We do still like conflict here!

Anyway, this kind of got away from me. I’d like to use this in future fics but I dunno how hard it would be to implement? Since Obsessions are such a tried and true fanon (phanon?) concept that everyone sort of uses? I wouldn’t want to alienate my readers.

[gunterfan1992]

Interview with Half Shy (the songwriter of “Monster”)

For the last few months, I’ve been collecting information for a second edition of Exploring the Land of Ooo that will also cover the production of Distant Lands. This means that I’ve started to look into the new songs that we have been graced with this year, and this of course includes “Monster,” the beautiful track from the masterpiece that is “Obsidian”. And so I reached out to the song’s writer, Half Shy, who was kind enough to chat with me via email about the songwriting process!

(Photo courtesy of Half Shy)

In many ways, Half Shy is living the creative Adventure Time fan’s dream: She got asked by Adam Muto himself to write a song for “Obsidian” after he heard her music through Bandcamp! (I’ve dabbled in fan music before, and the fact that someone from the show might listen to it just blows my mind.) What an opportunity; I am so excited for her!

Since a second edition of my book won’t be coming out until after all the Distant Lands episodes air, I thought it would be best to share my Half Shy interview now. Read on for the fascinating behind the scenes story of how Half Shy and “Monster” came to be..

GunterFan: What is your origin story? How did you get involved in music, and how did the Half Shy project come to be?

Half Shy: I’ve been making music pretty quietly since I was in high school with a keyboard and guitar. I played one or two shows a year after college when I could find a friend or my brother to get up on stage with me, but I don’t really have that performer gene in me naturally. I get too much in my head and forget what the lyrics are to the song I wrote, or what the next chord is. Total brain freeze. So that whole experience is a bit of a mental drain. It’s something I think I’d like to dig into and figure out, but right now I’m really enjoying the time writing.

Even playing a song for my friends I still get pretty nervous. That’s where the name Half Shy comes from. I’ve always been interested in making things that by their nature draw a bit of a spotlight, but at the same time, I am just really quite nervous about the attention.

I recorded my first songs under my old name Hey V Kay in my bedroom and started putting them up online one at a time. When I got enough I thought about packaging it up into an album, but then got really distracted by learning how to fix up motorcycles and going to automotive tech school. When I eventually got back around to it I named the album Gut Wrenching.

After a few years I realized that I didn’t want the day-in-day-out life of a mechanic, I just wanted to know how to fix cars for myself and to have that knowledge in my back pocket. I got back into making music but grew frustrated at the process of writing and recording songs. I felt like I wasn’t able to capture the ideas I had in my head. Like trying to draw on your computer with a mouse. Doable, but it’s not going to come out like you’d hoped.

So these last couple of years I’ve focused more on learning the technical aspect of it, from the initial ideas and lyrics, to the recording and mixing. During that process I put out Bedroom Visionaries, and while writing I happened upon the name Half Shy in an old Thesaurus which felt instantly right. Learning all of that has been fun, I even went as far as to create my own book to solidify a daily writing routine (lyricworkbook.com). All that has been a bit of a tangent from actually making much music though. I should be getting my books in December from the press so I’m really looking forward to getting back into making more music instead of dealing with printing presses, setting up websites, and sourcing ribbon suppliers.

GF: What is the story behind "Monster"? How did the show get in contact with you?

HS: I keep a log of “Song Starters” with neat things I’ve heard in the world, and I would look through it every now and then and notice just how many came from Adventure Time. Eventually I thought well, I have to make a song about this show that just keeps breaking my heart. It was around the time I was nearly done with the first [Adventure Time-inspired] song “In My Element” that I got an email from Bandcamp saying “someone bought your album (Bedroom Visionaries).”

I get maybe one or two of these a month at most so I love to go in and say hi to the person and say thanks, be curious about who they are, [and] what they’re all about. Turns out it was Adam Muto, the executive producer of the show. (I asked and he has no idea how he happened upon my stuff. He guessed that I must have tagged something #adventuretime and he just happened to see it.) So I sent him an email saying, “Hey wow thanks for checking out my tunes. Also... holy crap you’ve made the best show I have ever seen in my life.” [I] played it real cool like. After finishing up writing my second [Adventure Time-inspired] song “Betty” I couldn’t help but fangirl real hard [and I sent him another message saying], “I’m sorry this is probably awkward, but I really love your show and I wrote these songs about it.” He was incredibly kind and shared them with his Twitter Universe, and a while after that I got a random email from him saying basically, “Hey, I’m working on this thing I can’t talk about, would you be interested?” I was like… well you know I’m pretty busy working at a sign shop so I’m gonna have to pass on this once in a lifetime opportunity (J/K. Obviously I fan-girl squealed and said yes immediately).

We chatted a bit about what the project was going to be and the direction. He mentioned there [would be] two Marceline songs in the special, [and he asked if I] would I be interested in giving the love song a try? Trying real hard to suppress my instant imposter syndrome I was like, “Yea, totally I’d be into giving that a shot!” So I read through the story and loved the idea of the dragon mirrored in Marceline, thinking through how they’ve both built up a protective shell, how she grew tough for a reason, but now she can open up and be vulnerable with PB.

From there I wrote the initial demo with the first two verses mostly intact and we went back and forth a few times editing it down into the final version. I recorded the final parts for the show in my little home studio in Seattle.

GS: When you were writing the song, what emotions, thoughts, or ideas were you channeling? Was there any sort of memory of event that you were trying to artistically "catch" or "recreate" with the lyrics or music?

HS: As far as channeling an emotion, generally I’d say just the experience of existing as a human. It can be so hard to open up and be vulnerable. I can remember that feeling even as a young kid—getting really excited about something and having someone completely trash it or look at you like, “Why are you so interested in that? It’s dumb.” [It causes us to grow] a little more weary to share ourselves because we know that hurt and embarrassment. The pain of being misunderstood is something I think a lot of us can relate to. Then having to decide whether to keep sharing those vulnerable parts of yourself or think, “They’re just not going to get it, I’m going to get hurt, so why bother?” and then stop putting yourself out there. You lose a lot with that thick armor though. You might feel protected, but you’re not feeling a whole lot of anything else other than the weight and chafing of it (I had a whole lot of armor-related metaphors that I didn't end up using.).

I struggle with this in songwriting too. I’m not the bolt-of-lightning type. There are pages and pages of cliches, total garbage, bad jokes, and cheesy lines that I have to get through in order to get to something that I am excited to put out there into the world: “Here I did this thing, I know it’s a little (this or that), but I made it... What do you think?” It’s hard to open yourself up to hearing the other end of that question.

I filled about 5 little pocket notebooks just thinking through the story, ideas, and trying to get this song right. I wanted it to feel familiar and honor the past songs of the show ([e.g.,] using the ukulele and referencing a few of the familiar chords from “I’m Just Your Problem”) but also be pretty open and vulnerable and different for [Marceline]. [I wanted to] show that she’s going through some tough emotions but also figuring herself out and growing.

GF: I feel like “Monster” is, at its core, an ode to the “Bubbline” ship. How do you feel about your song being intimately connected to one of the most famous LGBTQ+ relationships in animation? Do you have any general thoughts on Marcy and PB, Bubbline, etc.?

HS: Oh, I’m a total fan girl of Bubbline. The whole story of how Rebecca Sugar and Muto slowly morphed it into this deeper relationship is just great. As a part of the LGBTQ community myself it really means so much to see the representation of characters like yourself portrayed in an intelligent way. Growing up I was too young to fully understand what was going on but I saw Ellen getting cancelled, and [I] heard people around me saying they’d never watch her show again after she came out. That stuff sinks in as a kid and so to have these characters who are not only intelligent, but funny, complex, and unapologetically strong who also happen to be queer is really great. I love that the story here isn’t about their orientation, but that they’re people struggling with how to be open and vulnerable in a relationship.

It feels like something sci-fi and animated shows do so well—to show that ridiculousness of limiting who a person should and shouldn’t love. Marceline is a 1000+ year old half-demon/vampire and PB was born from the Mothergum of an apocalyptic radioactive world, but you’re going to get hung up on them loving each other? It sort of brings it into perspective in a really interesting way.

GF: Do you have any other thoughts about the experience that you'd like to share?

HS: Just how lucky, thankful, and honored I feel to be a part of my favorite show, writing a song for one of my favorite characters. It’s also incredibly cool how the people on the show are so willing to connect and collaborate with their fandom. Everyone [on the production crew] was very open and a real joy to work with.

I’d like to give a huge “Thank you!” to Half Shy for agreeing to participate in this interview; she really was quite amiable! If you’d like to hear more of her music, check out her website and her Bandcamp. You can also follow her on Instragram here and on Twitter here. And of course, here is Half Shy’s awesome video of “Monster”.

[aurora-daily]

AURORA’s Reddit Q&A (July 13th 2021)

Kmilalv: Hello aurora we love you, I'm @ aurora.s_love on instagram ✨✨🥰🥰🧚‍♀️🧚‍♀️ Aurora: oh hellooo!!!! Exportmusic: Meep Aurora: meep < 3 Lisxnne: WELL HELLO AND THANKS FOR YOUR NEW SONG! 🙏🌟💕 Aurora: HELLO!! and thank you for being open to it 24681357900: Thank u for making music Aurora: thank you for inviting it into your heart Emergency-Club-7529: This is have some upper case , it's the real Aurora Aurora: yes!!! Helloooooo brunamombach: hello ✨🃏🧚🏻‍♂️🤘🍇🍄🧚🏻‍♀️ when are you coming do Brazil? so glad to see you here!!! Aurora: I think I will be coming to Brazil next year  I love being in Brazil because I feel like it awakens my heart and soul to be there !! Brunamombach: if you were going to an souless island, what book would you bring with you? 🧚🏻‍♂️🍇🍄🧚🏻‍♀️🤘�� kisses from Brazil Aurora: I would either take: "The name of the wind" and "a Wise mans fear" or the LOTR trilogy. Or the "Mistborn" trilogy. or "warbreaker" or "the good omens" or "the ocean at the end of the lane" or "Anne of Green gables" or "The alchemist" or just all the books in the world oh no I cant decide

all DanParis: Hey have some karma you cool bean 🤌🏼 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Aurora: thank you < 3 Ok-Estimate8468: Tell us something you can tell us about the second track on the Cure For Me vinyl, “Potion For Love”. I'm very curious...

Aurora: its the song I decided for the B-side of the vinyl, and I will probably release it digitally one day too. Its the sister song to "exist for love" but from the other perspective. where love does not fill you up, but love has left a big hole within you < / 3 Ok-Estimate8468: Did you get a lot of unfollows and hate from bad people due to Cure For Me? Aurora: I got a little hate from homophobes, and also abelist, and racist comments from people claiming there was nothing wrong with their mindset. BUT it does not bother me. and I will never stop speaking up about the things I find important. because.. what else would our meaning on this earth be? if that makes sense. Some people have attacked me personally, but sadly mostly its people defending their own hateful ways of being. I cant even imagine how it really is to be a victim of racism or violent homophobia, so I feel like the least I can do is to try the best I can to show support. and speak up. and be an ally.

So a bit more short - yes, and I really dont mind!!!! unfollow me if you find speaking about equality and the right to live, and love and be loved unsettling <3 thank you for this question! Ok-Estimate8468: How was the process of creating the studio version of Cure For Me? I heard your first acoustic performance and saw that it's much smoother than the studio, so I was curious to see how you managed to create another even more amazing version. Aurora: Me and Magnus just played around, and we really tried to go with our emotions, and to be playful and to not think too much about what was "AURORA" or what was even...pretty! we just laughed! and danced! and did what felt lovely to us.

I think this is why the making of this song is one of my favourite memories, and also I think that is why it sounds so playful! because it is!! it was like playing a game. and I did also play alot around with symbolics in both the lyrics and the way this song is produced. it all has a meaning you see... but of course I will let you figure that out yourself!!

Pingouiin_: What's your favourite mountain around bergen ? Aurora: mine is Løvstakken!! and Magnus loves Ullrikken!! but important to NEVER stop a Norwegian person walking on the mountain. just say. a quick hello and wander off your own mind. become at one with nature Whoamiandallthat: Thank you for existing, I love your art and you inspire me so much 💙 You are one of my favorite artists 😊 And just the other day I found out that you are just two years older than me, and so successful... I'm wondering how it was for you to become so popular, did you feel like people thought you needed a cure? I'm also in the sphere of arts - filmmaking; but I feel like my films are not good enough... I have a YouTube channel with some videos - if you ever see this comment I would like for you to check it out 😊 Aurora: Ive felt through my life like something was a little off, ive never resonated that much with the people or the "system" around me! it didn't bother me so much even though I. was teased a lot for it ( so again I was very lucky) but I never felt like I understood the world and my place in it. or how I. could fit in, in this worlds society and with other people ! and becoming "famous" which I dont really feel that I am, but I guess that I am a little "known" (meep) was very strange, and very hard to handle at first. as impressions affect me a lot, and noises and people etc. but with time I got better at handling all these impressions, and avoid getting a.. sensory overload! and I am so happy now, that I can look directly at strangers and actually listen to them, and understand them, and even love them I guess what I am trying to say, that ive now understood that this is the very thing that connected me to all of you. and now I see my place here on this earth. and I see all of you, and you give my life so much meaning!! Lets_Fight_Dragons: Firstly I wanted to say I recently discovered your music and I love everything about it. I have two questions, I hope that’s ok 1. How do you start writing songs because I’m trying to get into songwriting and I’m not sure how you write such amazing songs 2. What’s your favourite song you’ve released? Aurora: 1. well I dont really know. ( I am sorry!!) but I feel like it started really natural for me.. I. kind of just sat down with my piano.. and then I started playing around with the Keyes, and I figured out I could make an endless amount of melodies by simply pressing the keys in a different order!! remember finding this extremely magical (I was around 6 years old then) and after a while I started adding lyrics, and I just spent time looking into myself, trying to figure out. - what do I want to say? what do. I need to hear in a song? what do the world need to hear in a song? and etc. I always think about songwriting as storytelling. and I always start out by figuring out what story I want to tell, what matter I want to dress, or what pleases me, or annoys me with the world, or what emotion I need help dealing with!! and then I write a song!!! and if you feel like its difficult to come up with melodies, I would recommend finding a song you like, and learn the chords of it (or find an instrumental version. online) and then you make your own melodies on top of that! many of the songs of the world share the same chords, and often the melodies on top is the thing separating them. music belongs to all of us, and its clear that every song in the world comes from the same magical source. 2. I think its the seed. or couples creatures!! or infections of a different kind!! tiffnoir: Our dear AURORA, your b-side A Potion For Love is helping me a lot (broken heart since a few days ago). I wanted to ask (if I can haha) if would it be included at the upcoming album, or maybe a relaxing, vintage video for it? Thanks for helping all of us with your music ^_^ Aurora: thank you som much for letting this song into your heart  after writing exist for love, I figured that I should also make a sister-song that could belong for the ones with a broken heart as well  it will not be on the album, but for you I will try to put it on the deluxe version FedahpWithThisWurld: Hello, Aurora! I'm a neurodivergent person and I have always felt a lot of shame over being the way I am, like I'm not good enough. Your music makes me feel better and it makes me feel that being me is okay. Thank you for that.  I want to know how you manage to be so confident? Do you ever get nervous before a show? Aurora: hello!!!! I have had a lot of similar experiences with myself in this world too.. so I am very sad to hear you've lived your life with this feeling I think after a while I understood what makes me different also makes me special. and special is good. and if you think about it, special isn't even that different, because in one way or another we are all... unique. but of course, some people have had to fight their. way through life more than others.. making it less easy to learn how to love yourself. and accept yourself. I guess, now I've surrounded myself with good people who understand my quirks and sensitivities, people who give me time. and space to be me. I have also been lucky, because I have a family that have always encouraged me to be myself. and to love myself. and I guess that is why I am trying to convey to all of you now, because now we are like al little family. where being who you are - is cool. and you're cool. and were all cool. and I get nervous all the time, of all sorts of things! but I just accept that feeling as a part of being human. its uncomfortable yes, but I know at least it won't kill me! 3charmplease: What was it like recording for Frozen? Aurora: it was magical  and also slightly scary. but it felt safe and good calling at the mountains. and I feel warm thinking about it. especially now. cause my father just walked over to me with five little strawberries in his hand. he gave them all to me. and they were so small, and sweet. im currently sitting in my childhood home, right next to the very piano where I wrote "runaway" and so many other songs. Tiny-Sink-2397: Boom shake shake shake the room Aurora: that was actually during the recording process of Cure For Me! Tiny-Sink-2397: I thought it was!! Seemed like an epic party Aurora: YES Joelynxyzs: what's your favorite movie ? Aurora: Practical magic BUT ALSO THESE: The LOTR triology ALL GHIBLI MOVIES avatar once upon a time in Hollywood Hannah the perfume fantastic MR. fox Star Wars: a new hope rouge one isle of dogs the hunchback of Notre dame! the arrival stypop: If you were to get the chance to work on a sequel to another Disney movie, which one would you want it to be? Aurora: since Disney owns Lucas films I would love to be a part of the Star Wars universe  or to play either a magical fairy, witch mermaid, forest nymph, or a scary beast!! WE WO brisot: The masks in CFM remind me of theater plays, do you ever watch any and how much of an influence for you is the art of acting? Aurora: this era of my life is very influenced by the ancient times where theatre was all they had. no CGI or special effects etc. and I really wanted all these videos to feel very authentic, and down to earth! The shell in "exist for love" was handmade by someone, and I painted all the masks in "cure for me" myself! so I like it when it feels... human Clear-Champion-1833: i love you Aurora:

<3

Jicuhrabbitkim: How do you like your fried eggs cook!! I like it when its very crispy!! Aurora: as long as its from a local farm that has free healthy chickens that walk about freely and eat good food I like my eggs crispy too. GhostReaper3: Hi I have a question as well: How do you keep positive? Many people including myself find this difficult sometimes so it would be good to hear your technique or way of keeping upbeat and positive! Also, thank you for sharing your music with us! Aurora: I know what you mean, i've struggled with it myself at times. but I guess I tried separating in my mind what I can do something about, and what I cant? if that makes sense?? we are all just here on this planet. and though we all seem to be going though the same things we still feel so alone, in our thoughts and in our minds. And I've been very aware that with music, and with this fandom we can all finally connect, and see each other, and know that we are not alone! and if there is one thing I love, it is to dance a little after I've cried. I think its important to. shake these emotions out of our body. like animals do! and then I made CURE FOR ME. because I thought about all the warriors out there feeling. a little crazy... after isolation! or after being depressed! and being l rocked in with their families that might not accept them for who they are.. and I thought I needed to make a song for us all, that felt a little uplifting. and uniting. just so we know where not alone, and just so we know that we are worthy.. of everything! and that we are worthy of celebrating ourselves!! ALWAYS! aniri003: Were the dancers freestyling in the last part of the video Aurora: YES! I told them to put their freak game on. And they were amazing. L_pls_use_revive: Hei Aurora! Apart from inspiring me with your music for emotional people, I also dicovered my love for Norway and the Norwegian language through you - now studying it in my second year at university. Tusen, tusen takk! I want to visit soon when traveling is safe - So which place should I not miss out on? Have a great life! Aurora: I think the whole of Norway is worth visiting! there are so many beautiful places. and beautiful people! I would ofc. recommend Bergen! (haha!) but also places like Tromsø, Trondheim, Stavanger, lofted and The Geirangerfjord and the Northwest!!! HAHA KakSetoKaiba: How's the progress of the album that you've been preparing which will be released after your death? Aurora: its going well, I take one song for every chapter and I put it on my death album instead of the album I'm making  its going well. and im excited about it! maria_fernandez_: This is not a question but I just wanted to tell you that discovering you and your music has been the best thing that ever happened to me. What your music makes me feel cannot be described in words. I love you so much. Greetings from Spain!! Aurora: thank you!!! applepieaurora: Whats your favorite pie? 🐉 Aurora: apple pie  and blueberry pie!! Ok-Potato7244: Thanks for sharing your time ... a warrior here to welcome you...Have some tea...And i don't need a cure for disliking keeping animals in cages...Especially birds...💚... Aurora: thank you pekaraseva: what do you feel when you perform Ioadk or Adkoh for people? Aurora: I feel so full of emotion and love and despair I could almost explode  and its wonderful. I also feel insanely connected to the audience when I sing these songs.. I. think. its because they are such important pieces of my soul targaryenblood02: omg what do you think cure for me would smell like? 🐛 Aurora: like something Brazilian! like Asai! or caipirinha! or Brigadeiro!

sproutingephemeral: Hello Aurora, Thanks for your new song, I've gotten quite addicted to it😊 I have a question that might be a bit difficult to answer. I am a Warrior from the U.S. currently without a clue of where I should be and what I should be doing. I'm done with school, and in the process of moving to a new town with my parents. I'm applying for jobs, but I feel like I can't find my reason for being in a smaller area with not many people my age. I feel like my parents are trying to mold me into a certain person, which doesn't feel authentic to me. I probably should be making more of my own decisions at my age, but I'm a bit scared and confused, if what I think is deemed too unrealistic or out of line with their expectations for me (like a childhood dream?). I tried talking to them about it, to little success. Is there something inherently wrong with me? Or am I just being spoiled or lazy? I read about how you were initially opposed to starting your career until your mother convinced you to change your mind. How do you know whether or not to trust in your parents' plans for you? On a lighter note, do you prefer cookies that are more soft (chewy) or hard (crumbly)? I don't need a cure for...my autism, and tendency to talk regularly to my deceased cat at his grave (??)😿👼 Looking forward to seeing you in New York! Take care❤❤ Aurora: you should ALWAYS. only do what feels right for you. this world is very absurd, and people tend to think they know what is meaningful and what is important. but we all know, money and success isn't important beyond what you need to simply survive. this one life is yours. and you should be just who you want. and do what feels right for you. because its yours. its only yours. drink tea. work hard. be lazy. dance. be shy. laugh, cry. drink wine and eat good bread. be good. fight for something you care about. and either live for your work, or work a little and then just... live. get a garden, grow tomatoes, get a cat. or a dog. or a parrot. life can be so random, and it can be both so little, and so large at the same time. some days were meant to TAKE chances, and live. and sometimes were just meant to exist. and do nothing. you should never feel guilty for not "being enough" because you are enough. just who you are. just how you are. is enough. good luck on your strange journey my warrior, maybe our paths crosses and maybe they dont. but know, when you walk out of your door, that anything can happen! and the whole world is yours. Hippolyte_gray: is the name of the next album hidden in your previous songs ? Aurora: mayyyyyybeeeeeeeee rashadalt: what do you think about your fans who are racist/homophobic etc.? Aurora: I feel sorry for them. because I know I cant be easy l living a life so full of hate. and even spending your precious. time on this world bringing other people down. and I know how easy it is for people to be driven by fear, and how difficult. it can be to have an original meaning and stand up for what you really mean. so I dont judge them, or hate them,

but I do feel sorry for them. and I am also very disappointed in them. because its such a. waste of human potential to live your life in the paths of hatred.

but as long as we face hate with love, we will eventually win. when we show them. we are not the enemy, just people trying to make a better world, I think, and I hope that eventually we can all agree that being able to live, and being able to love is a human right. Brivera726: I noticed you said you would bring LOTR trilogy with you to an island- I’m reading them for the fourth time right now  I feel like if Galadriel sing songs it would sound like you! Anyway I really like your art so yah just keep doing u- love from PFC Rivera, USMC Aurora: this is then est thing ive ever read thank you Aurora: I am. sorry people, but my time here (for tonight) is up </3 but I will probably be back looking at your questions and thoughts because I did really. enjoy this. and I. love you all so. much.

[link]

[essercipertuttienonperse]

I don't really follow lorde but I felt like the first song she released for this era was really bland? what makes you think celeb culture got her? Would love to hear your thoughts <3

hi! yeah I think solar power was def a bit underwhelming especially because the last stuff she had made was melodrama which is a really really good album imo and coming after that with a beachy song about taking pictures at the beach is a bit😥 sjdj I'm not saying it's a bad song! like imo none of these 3 we've heard are bad songs they're just... okay.. bland as you said (I think stoned at the nail salon is my fave) but if you compare them to her previous stuff I think they fell a bit short? I think for me some of it is probably the production that feels a bit less original i guess? like idk I feel like I've already heard it while previously at least for me the songs felt a bit more unique like you could tell it was lorde ! also the lyrics have like some really nice moments and then moments that are kinda mehhh for me

the celebrity culture thing is that in my opinion a lot of lorde's appeal/brand/what made her stand out in her corner of music was the lyrics and how much people related to them and the fact that they put into words feelings that a lot of people were going through! especially with themes like growing up/ existing in the world etc and it was all very real because she was writing about what she experienced like one was about being a teenager in her hometown and she made it while she was a teenager in her hometown! and the other was about being in your 20s and all the changes/emotions/relationship stuff etc which she wrote as she was going through that and it all worked really well ! imo also because her fans were growing up at the same time so everything felt real and relatable. and I think obviously she knows that and tried to do the same with this album. but obviously this album had a big difference from the others from the very start which is that people rn aren't only feeling the universal emotions about life that she also feels, no rn people are still trying to cope with the entire world being turned upside down and everything that's been happening since last year BUT, and this is why I said the celebrity thing, those emotions and experiences are not universal this time!! this time as we all saw very often, celebrities had a very different experience of the pandemic than we did and imo this past year digged an even bigger gap between them and normal people and for someone who kinda built it all on being relatable that inevitably would turn out to be a problem. from what I've listened to so far she (like many others imo) is kinda circumnavigating the problem by not talking about it/ adopting the "its all over now! let's be happy again" thing which ... I mean I'm not saying it can't work or that people wouldn't like to feel that way because many want to! but at the same time I think it falls a bit flat because 1) is it really over? and 2) you haven't really been through it like normal people have so can the aftermath be the same for you as for them? like I think if you want to go down that route you kinda have to acknowledge the previous feelings first or its not really going to work imo, and especially not now when for so many people the world that she's talking about still seems so far away!! also in a lot of moments in these songs she mentions references to pop culture/celebrity culture like taking selfies on vacation, crystals and gossip magazines but idk to me it feels a bit... forced? like it's not really criticism but it's also not like from the normal person pov or at least it doesn't feel that way to me. [Taylor also avoided the problem but imo her way worked better because she created completely "new worlds" and stories and characters that people could escape to, rather than trying to propose a "brighter" alternative imo]

I'm going a bit all over the place but I hope this makes some sense sjdjjd in conclusion I think the main difference and probably what's causing fans to be a bit ??? is that loss of repeatability and closeness to ordinary life and emotions that characterized her music in the past and I think this is something that is happening/has happened to a lot of other celebrities since the pandemic because as I said it really deppened the disparities and imo also the tension between normal people and Them

[creative-oasis]

So like I know this has been a upcoming thing but I wondered if anyone else considered or coined this before.

Recently AJR came out with their new album "Ok Orchestra" and let me tell you it is a-mazing. But I had a thought, there has been a surge of things I like to call "existential pop" this included artists like AJR, Melanie Martinez, Jon Bellion just to name a few. (I could be totally wrong but) The reason I started noticing this is because these artists tackle topics that aren't just oh yah know "relationships, sex, drugs, and being rich" and a lot of the common tropes of a lot of pop songs. Now don't get me wrong, they are definitely mentioned but its done in a way that flips the script. For example Melainie Matienez covers relationships in her song "Highschool Sweetheart" but it isn't about "oh yes I have to follow all these gender defined roles in a relationship" its a song about her having standards for what she wants from a relationship and how she wants certain things ou t of that relationship and she's not going to just settle (which is what, honestly, a lot off people all over the gender spectrum are forced to do because they don't think they have a choice to do anything else.) Now a lot of people thought she was being demanding and unfair, but when you think of it all people are entitled to want specific things out of a relationship and to have their needs met while also being equals. Now Melanie Martinez since she started making content has broken a lot of preconceived song rules, from talking about tough topics of life in school in k-12 to talking about dysfunction in families and relationship in Crybaby. But thats a tangent. What i wanted to talk about was AJR because I can't help but think that this trend of basically having an existential crisis in song form is what AJR is now being immortalized as. In my opinion.

First off, the entire album is a massive hit and people can fight me on that (though I don't see anyone fighting) Second I wanted to mention a a handful of songs that just stand out and those songs are (but who am I kidding the whole album is fanstatic). I'll go in order of the album

"3 o'clock Things" by AJR is a this sort of collage of thoughts and questions that people realize that they have to keep hidden to stay in favor with the people around them from the bullshit of capitalism, to the truth that not everyone is great at sex and how thats a standard people are judged on so people fabricate or omit things to stay "positively veiwed" to the hot button idea that the American government is rigged and how people and artists are forced to keep quiet about their beliefs because of their ratings whether it be about race, religion, sexuality etc. (Those last two are not mentioned but implied as they are factors that can change someone's idea of you). The chorus "would you go running if you saw the real me. Maybe you'd love him , yeah, maybe you'd feel me. But I'll never ask you cause that super scary. Sorry to bail its already 3 o'clock, its too hard to tell if anything real or not" Sums up the gist of the feelings behind the song

"The Trick" by AJR, this song i relate to so much, the idea of lying to make yourself something you aren't ashamed of and to maybe start knew or just impress or relate to others. The idea that as the song states that one can't have full access to the life or emotional well being of the other because someone has set up their own pitfalls by trying to be authentic and how "oh my god [we're] screwed". I love how its realistic and understandable make song about the fact that you can lie about your life to find relationships but the truth is its not going to come without traps.

"Humpty Dumpty" by AJR, and entire song about repressing emotions and hiding true feelings because we want to give people "the best me" and how that only makes things more fragile and broken. Depression and numbness only be BROKEN up by panic attacks and anger or at least intense emotions. as any therapist will tell you repressing emotions just makes it so much worse in the long run. There isn't a full resolution at the end. I mean part the chorus is literally "humpty dumpy went downn He said screw it imma smile right through it and scream when no ones around" if that tells you anything.

"World's Smallest Violin" by AJR. (Not gonna lie this song is the whole reason I wanted to make this post.) I mean a song about comparing the past struggles of people in your life to yourself and how you as a person feel like utter shit that other people have "worse problems" and that we as people just want to feel validated and are looking for people to make us feel normal. Also its catchy as fuck so yeah!

And of course,

"Way Less Sad" by AJR which came out a little before the album came out but became a huge favorite, its kinda really similar and almost a follow up to "World's Smallest Violin " and happens to be right after, but the whole idea of settling for way less sad because your sadness isn't as bad as what it used to be and setting your bar lower and lower is....a big fucking mood but honestly if you relate to the line "but I'm not dead yet so I guess I'll be alright" then definitely check it out

To be honest I side tracked from what I originally made this post about essentially I think artists should be bold and break the mold of music and if like...."existential pop" is a fair name to call these artist or if you think it should be called something else then let me know because I'd love to know what to fucking call it.

Was a this a shameless attempt to get people to listen to AJR? Yes. Do I want people to listen to AJR? Yes. Am I looking for more existential pop artist? Yes.

So uh......yeah

[mariuspunsmercy]

woodvale: the 3-act musical anthology

So I've been doing a lot of listening to both folklore and evermore and my theatre-junkie brain has crafted 3 different storylines composed of the songs from each album that all overlap in one big story - Woodvale: The 3-Act Musical Anthology. It tells the story of various heartbreaks and healings in a small town - 'cause to me, that's what these albums boil down to.

A few other things:

Though each story seems self contained, I picture the characters from different stories to be somewhat linked, by blood, acquaintance (i.e Dorothea, Inez, James are siblings, Betty is Ada's daughter, etc.)

The acts don't necessarily happen in a consecutive linear fashion (i.e there singular Coney Island trip where everything from each act unfolds)

Though each story seems self contained, I picture the characters from different stories to be somewhat linked, by blood, acquaintance (i.e Dorothea, Inez, James are siblings, Betty is Ada's daughter, etc.)

The acts don't necessarily happen in a consecutive linear fashion (i.e there singular Coney Island trip where everything from each act unfolds)

I've linked the playlists for each to the act title! I'd love to hear feedback, criticism, interpretations and thoughts - I plan to flesh out characters, plot, and maybe dialogue as much as possible, and even hope to get to thinking of staging.

ACT I: that's the thing about illicit affairs

the last great american dynasty - Abigail Lark, the bold and free-spirited 30 year old granddaughter of local historical celebrity Rebecca Lark, introduces the tiny town of Woodvale and Rebekah's legacy there.

cowboy like me - After getting caught in the storm on the way from buying her long term husband, Henry, a birthday present, Ada Lawrence runs into the down-to-earth Monroe Jacob at the neighborhood tennis court and the two... Share A Moment.

tolerate it - Ada finally arrives home and, like usual, is not greeted by the absent-minded Henry -she contemplates how much she is truly being valued in this relationship.

ivy - Weeks pass and Monroe shows up to the Lawrence household ... because he's the gardener Henry hired to fix their backyard for the next few weeks, and while Henry is preoccupied, Ada accompanies him out to the woods and they find themselves entangled with each other, more or less.

the lakes - Monroe and Ada have been secretly seeing each other for quite a while now, and tell each other how much they want to run away from their unhappy marriages together.

hoax - Este, Monroe's wife of 3 years, wonders why her husband has not been as physically or emotionally present in her life as of lately, and begins to come to a heartbreaking conclusion.

invisible string - Some time passes, and Ada and Monroe's affair continues, and they are incredibly happy together. Ada especially is putting all her faith in this man and is willing to risk it all for him.

no body, no crime - Este tells her best friend Abigail about how she thinks Monroe is cheating on her. After Este mysteriously disappears and a mistress begins visiting Monroe's house more frequently, Abigail takes it upon herself to avenge Este's heartbreak and death.

epiphany - Ada mourns the unexpected loss of Monroe along with all the others she had suddenly lost in the past - it doesn't get any easier.

mad woman - Abigail reflects on the gravity and consequences of her unhinged crime, but tells herself that this type of strength and vengeance is what her "take-no-shit" grandmother Rebecca would have wanted.

illicit affairs - While they're both at Monroe's grave, Ada finally comes clean to Henry about the affair, coping with the anger, memories, loss, and questions of morality - while Henry is just shocked.

coney island - Months later. Henry and Ada take a trip to Coney Island, separately - it's a nostalgic place for the both of them. They contemplate the apologies they would've said to each other if given the chance, while Monroe and Este's ghost linger in the air between them.

ACT II: what a shame she's fucked in the head

dorothea - After seeing her face on a movie poster around town, Sylvia thinks about how much she misses her longtime childhood friend and on-again off-again-lover Dorothea, who moved out of Woodvale to pursue acting after they both graduated.

seven - Weeks later, it's a bright summer day on Coney Island and Sylvia and Dorothea both run into each other. Sylvia asks Dorothea to hang out with her and calls upon all the fond memories they once had together, and it's clear that she still has some feelings for her - but Dorothea does not seem to want a relationship at the moment.

'tis the damn season - MONTHS later, over winter break, Dorothea finds herself back home at Woodvale to visit her family, and decides to message Sylvia to finally meet up - things escalate from there, and Dorothea decides to give her and Sylvia a chance.

peace - Dorothea finds herself unexpectedly falling deeper in love with Sylvia, but warns her that she has struggled with self-worth and mental health in the past, and that it may be difficult for them to have a "normal" relationship, and Sylvia understands and accepts this.

champagne problems - Some more time passes and Sylvia finally decides to propose to Dorothea - but she isn't ready - rejecting Sylvia in front of all her family, friends, and hometown.

my tears ricochet - Sylvia tries to cope with the immediate anger from the rejection from someone she had always loved, and Dorothea tries to cope with the anger towards herself for not being able to commit to a good relationship.

marjorie - Dorothea is overwhelmed, lacking support from her hometown, friends, siblings, and father (who had never really supported her love life anyway). She tries to find solace in what her late mother and best friend, Marjorie would think.

the 1 - A few weeks after the breakup, Sylvia is still trying to process her emotions and move on - why didn't it work out between them?

this is me trying - Dorothea takes the train back to Woodvale to apologize to Sylvia - ever since the fallout her mental health had declined, she stopped acting, and she moved farther away. She puts her honest self out to Sylvia, who's astounded and speechless - who acknowledges this apology while accepting that it wasn't the best for them to be together.

happiness - Dorothea and Sylvia separately reflect on their failed relationship, but somehow both know that they will heal individually over time.

ACT III: back when i was living for the hope of it all

long story short - Woodvale High school junior Betty has an unfortunate reputation of failed relationships and "sleeping around", but despite her bad luck with guys, she has finally found the handsome, popular James, who's she's been dating for a while and is incredibly happy with.

gold rush - High school senior Augustine runs into her schoolmate James, who she hadn't seen in forever, at the class Coney Island trip over the summer, and doesn't remember him looking that beautiful last time they talked...

mirrorball - Though Betty is thrilled to be in a new relationship, she is afraid that she'll mess this one up. She opens up to James about her complex worries, and James is reassuring but is secretly unsure about how to deal with this pressure.

willow - James begins seeing Augustine on the side, while still remaining in this relationship with Betty - juggling the two girls back and forth, unknowingly to the both of them, as they become further involved with him.

august - Augustine acknowledges her hopeless romantic attitude and how it's both helped her and hurt her in her relationship with James - then she finds out the truth about him and Betty.

betty - News of James cheating spreads around the school like wildfire, and James contemplates his mistakes, planning to go to Betty's seventeenth birthday party to try to apologize.

cardigan - After denying James' apology, Betty reflects on how used she felt upon hearing the news, and how she has been hurt once again by someone she trusted.

exile - It's been months now - at the winter formal, Augustine sees James, James sees Betty, and Betty sees but refuses to acknowledge James - but they are all hurting.

closure - Augustine receives a text from James, officially apologizing for what he did and checking in on how she is. She is reminded about how wrong she felt about being the person someone cheated on someone with.

evermore - It's December 31st, and James and Betty are in their respective homes, hyperaware of the lack of each other's presence to ring in the New Year together. Because they both acknowledge why the relationship failed, they can take this experience as a lesson to move forward and mature.