#opening song is 'I'll Be Your Girl' by Carly Rae Jepsen

[snowedinpodcast]

Transcript and content warning under the cut~~~

Let’s Walk: I Am a Location [Transcript]

[Content Warning: possibly graphic body descriptions (organs are "piles of meat," etc), sexual acts spoken of in metaphor, heavy wind sounds throughout]

"You're my baby! Come to bed, I'll be your girl" 

Phew. It's cloudy and I do not have a raincoat. This is risky business. It's also been a long time since I went outside. I am pretty behind on ... on classwork right now, I will admit that. And so ... I just haven't been out here. Bird calls are so majestic. [Sigh]. This suburban street is just blowing my mind. There's so many little sounds. [Bird calls and breathing].

I mean it all sounds so loud now, this ambient noise all around me, but technically it's never ever really quiet, is it? 'Cause your breathing makes noise and so does the thrumming of blood through your veins. So does your gastrointestinal system. So you kind of never experience honest-to-God silence. In order to do so, you would have to experience detachment from the very forces that keep you alive ... and that just can't happen. We haven't found a way to do it yet. 

[Wind sounds]. Hello. [Soft chimes]. That's a bell. Breezes and bells, it takes me right back to, to the [Inari] shrine at Nara [Note: I meant the Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto]. Isn't it great how these little details can just pull forth whole swaths of memory? Human brains are complicated piles of meat. Okay, alright, okay. Let's ... go. [Laughs].

The other day I was holding my cat. His name is Joey, he's got his little tuxedo and his white paws and his bright white whiskers against his dark face. Beautiful contrast, love him. He's a very cuddly little man ... and it occurred to me that my arms are a location. I am a person, I am also a place—which are two of the categories under the subcategory noun, y'know, a person, place, or thing. So I guess this isn't earth-shattering but it, it meant something to me. [Car passes]. I'd never thought of myself as a place before. [Car passes]. In fact, the phrasing of the definition of a noun—a person, place, OR thing—it implies you can only ever be one, at least at a given time. But when I hold my cat, I am both a person—a creature with its own consciousness—and the location where another consciousness rests. My arms are a container.

It's the same thing as when you hug somebody. Although, I think that one's a bit more complex—with Joey, I can hold his body completely on my person without relying on any other surfaces, so ... he is 100% located upon me. I am his location, in that moment. When I hug somebody, their feet are still planted on the ground—although, I guess, maybe I could be giving them a piggyback ride or something and clinging to them in that way, which would be more akin to the cat example but … going with the more complex example—if their feet are planted on the ground, but their … abdomen is what is in my arms, then where are they? We're both in a room, or outside, or something, but then we are also partly embodying one another's space. We are both located in each other. 

... Which you can also take in a very sensual direction if you wanna think about penetration! That's another way in which human bodies are locations in which you can be—very literally! We're not gonna get too much farther into that, don't worry. Get it? Farther in? Ha! [Laughs]. But y'know, that's actually—that's another interesting, complex one, because part of your body enters another human or part of another human enters your body, but then another part of that entered person is still ... not completely in your body, right? So where are they? Are they in two locations at once? 

This also makes me think of the Four Corners in the United States, it's .... aaaaaaah, I don't know. Utah, Wyoming, ... [car passes] Nevada? I wanna say Colorado is the last one but I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again [Note: It's actually Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico]. But—oh, look at this cute little crocus. Hi, little buddy. It's purple, it's a—almost lilac, a pale purple, with this bright, orangey-yellow, fluffy stalk in the middle. That's great. I love crocus leaves, too. I like that they're spiky but then you actually touch 'em and they're soft and bendy, and uh, they're dark green with this white stripe up the center, just emphasizing that spike formation. I wonder why they're not bigger because it must be kinda hard to get—[laughs] I almost said serotonin. It must be kinda hard to get [car passes] a lot of sunlight if you don't have a lot of surface area, but maybe crocuses are just very efficient with their energy distribution* and they don't need giant leaves to amass as much sunlight for chlorophyll as possible. Anyway. Carry on. Where was I? [Laughs]. Aaaaaaaah. Um.

People are locations. Yes. True. Yeah … What does it mean to be trusted by someone to the degree where you either allow them to enter you—metaphorically or literally—and also they, they allow themselves to enter you, y’know? It’s mutual trust. [Car passes]. 

And yet, it’s really easy? Joey did not like being picked up when we first adopted him. He was pretty skittish about it and the way he acted, it was like he didn’t understand what being picked up meant? And that he was more afraid of it than anything else. Like, I would scoop him up and his limbs would be still and he would push against my chest with his little hands and his eyes would get all big and he’d just sort of freeze for maybe 10 seconds, and then he would start to scramble and squirm and try to get out, so I’d put him down, but. Over time, as I picked him up more and more often and let him down when he had enough, 15 seconds later, I think he kind of figured out what it means? I think he figured out that I reached down to pick him up and bring him closer to my face—and bring him into the location that is me—because I want closeness with him, and that closeness is affectionate. And it’s vulnerable! I mean, having-having a creature with claws placed right under your chin, resting on your heart, basically, that’s … that’s vulnerable! [Laughs]. So I think, I think he kind of figured it out? And he’s now accepted this as a symbol of closeness, a symbol of togetherness that he also draws meaning from. 

I’m—I’m kind of projecting onto Joey a little, which … run with me, though. Because now when I pick him up— … okay, so you know how when cats are comfortable they, uh, they’re more willing to close their eyes, um, and they, like, they tuck their limbs under their body—you may have heard the term “catloaf”? In Japanese it’s kobako, which, um. Hako is a word that’s very similar to that and hako means “box,” ‘cause it looks like the cat just sorta turns themselves into a little box with, with corners for where their feet are tucked in. Um. I also made up—at least, I think I made it up. Someone else may have come up with this before me, but I made up another way to talk about that cat stance where they’re all tucked in. I call it ashi nashi: ashi meaning “feet” and nashi being, uh, a conjugation of nai which means “lack of” or “none.” So, no feet! But it also rhymes—ashi nashi!—and I think it’s funny. Nashi, uh, just by itself, can also mean “pear”—like, as a noun, not as as a conjugation of a [wind wounds] verb—so ashi nashi could also mean “pear feet,” which is equally funny, [laughs] so … don’t mind me, just making puns that are incoherent but very enjoyable. 

Anyway, yeah. So, cats, cats will sort of let their guard down and … Tucking in their feet and being willing to close their eyes or look away from you—and not be watching out for potential attacks at all times—those are signs of trust and comfortableness in cats. So, every time I pick Joey up these days, he almost immediately tucks one of his hands under his body while he’s rested on my chest. And he does, y’know, blink his eyes and close them on occasion and he starts to purr. And purring isn’t always an indication of cat happiness, I mean, contrary to popular belief, like—cats that are in labor purr, cats that are operated on can purr, um … purring is just like a—it’s a response that a cat either does when they’re in a stress situation and they want to calm down or if they are very pleased and they’re having a, a good time, y’know? Um, so, if, if a cat’s purring, it’s either having a great time or it’s having a bad time and you gotta use context clues to figure out which one it is [laughs]. Um. But yeah, yeah, Joey does multiple signs of what humans have thus far understood as cat comfort. So I think he does recognize being picked up as love and I think he has also taken that to mean love. Like, he understands that when I pick him up I am showing him love and more than just that, he also accepts being picked up as love. He receives that love [now, compared to] when previously, before he understood what it meant, he didn’t receive that love—d-does that make sense? 

Also you can understand that someone is trying to do a loving thing for you but not accept it that way. Like—like you see where they’re coming from but it is not for you. For me, that would be gift-giving. I try to be … I try to say “thank you” anyway ‘cause I understand people mean well when they give gifts but unless it’s something that they’ve asked me about or something that I specifically mentioned—and we’re close enough that I know they’re not gonna hold it against me somehow, or, like, they’re not gonna have these great expectations of reciprocation and make a big thing out of it—I just have such a hard time receiving gifts, they are not my love language. They, they symbolize stress rather than love, for me, and they symbolize work, like, now I need to keep track of this thing you’ve given me and make sure I give you something back of equal value. And it becomes more about performing affection than actually … giving and receiving affection. [Huff]. So I recognize that gifts are used to indicate love … but I do not feel loved when I receive them. Or, at least, I try to and often fail. 

It seems like in Joe’s case, he has … he has learned to accept the love of being picked up? ‘Cause he could kick me, y’know. [Car passes] I try not to be a dick about it. If he really doesn’t want—like, even after, like, I dunno, five minutes of being paraded around the kitchen in my arms, if he gets tired of it, he will sorta kick around a little and like, sometimes he mews, too. And then I put him down. I try not to force him to be in the location that is me for longer than he actually is willing to stay there. So y’know, if he kicked at me from the get go, I wouldn’t pick him up [car passes] but that is pretty rarely the case. Most of the time he’s [car passes] rather docile about it [car passes].

This is to say, how do I feel about being located in other people? [Car passes] I used to ride horses so that is a kind of—in that scenario, I am Joey and the horse is me. The horse is the location that I am now occupying. And we are traveling together to get to another location, whether that’s circling back to the barn after, y’know, going on a trail or like in Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur riding his various horses to do missions, to get to certain people’s houses and shoot things and draw flowers in his journal. [Laughs]. Arthur, a man of many talents. Arthur Morgan. [Taps chest] proud to be related to this man. But yeah, in that way, I guess horses are kind of liminal spaces in that they are a location you can be at that is a mode of transportation, a mode of connection from one location to another location. Maybe that’s why it’s so weird to me to think of horses as locations, or as myself as a location for Joey. I am a liminal space. I connect Joey from upstairs to downstairs, I take him down there all the time. 

Whoa. I am a corridor. I am the atrium of a beautiful hall. I am a courtyard. I have many venues through which I can enter and exit. 

This is both physical and metaphorical, right, like, think about all the ways that you—that your body carries you through life, and all the paths you ignore and all the ones you choose. Wacky. I guess, in a way, you could think of your own body, like, this meat carcass, as a location that you constantly live in … Yeah. ‘Cause my arms are a container that Joey sometimes occupies, but I occupy my own arms all the time. All the time. 

… Huh. I guess this depends on what your definition of where you are … is. Ooh, that sentence did not hit right. I think some people envision selfhood as centered in the brain—although there have been studies that show that … mmm, similar connections … lemme start that sentence over. There are studies that show that your, your guts, your stomach, uh, [taps body twice, keys jingle]—I dunno if it’s that it has neurons or if some of the connections or energy or something that happens down there are involved with brain decision-making. I can’t remember what it is but there’s something about your gut [taps body twice again] being involved** with stuff your brain does more so than just the digestive tract. Yeah, something like that, I guess [laughs].

So I guess you could make the argument that your selfhood is located in your gut. And then some people even transcend the body with their idea of selfhood, and they’re like, well, it’s this nebulous thing. Like yeah, sure, you inhabit your body but it’s also possible to be very much alienated from your body. I’m thinking of, like, trans experience here, where people can fall on a spectrum of being totally in love with and fully, fully embodied by their, their meat existence—[laughs] meat existence. You’re welcome. While other people really struggle with their features and feel like these features do not accurately portray the gender identity—person—that they know themselves to be in this other nebulous, nonphysical way. 

The body is a home—OH, places versus homes, that’s a whole other thought. Ok. [Laughs]. [Car passes] that might be a lot, for now. Maybe we should put a pin in that. I think we should put a pin in that. Phew. Ok. Alright. Good talk! Thank you for this. That was exciting. I appreciate it. Thank you for letting me talk about my cat, he’s just, he’s such a sweetheart. Always adopt, adopt cats, you find the coolest little weirdos and they’re great. Alright [tongue click] I will catch you on the next [car passes].

*It turns out I'm a little right, but also wrong; a 2017 study found that leaf size is connected to risk of overheating and freezing. A plentiful batch of narrow leaves, like what crocuses make, can collect enough energy to fuel their growth while also surviving chilly nights; they can withstand temperatures as low as 14 degrees F or -10 degrees C (Source: atlasobscura.com, plants.ces.ncsu.edu).

**I was right this time! The link between our brains and guts is referred to as the Brain-Gut Connection or the enteric nervous system (ENS). It’s mainly in charge of digestion but it’s also been shown to send signals to the brain that cause emotional shifts (Source: hopkinsmedicine.org).

[spaceytingz]

you temporarily gain Beyoncé's vocal abilities, stamina and dancing expertise for one purpose: you have to sing 25 Carly Rae Jepsen songs at a concert of your own. Which songs do you pick? And where are you performing?

Ooh, 25, me likeyyyy

NOTE: idc if this makes no sense story-wise

lemme see:

1. I'm obviously opening with Run Away With Me, it's tradition.

2. Making The Most Of The Night (I adore this song, imagine being able to sing it properly) - Storywise, we're flung into the beginning of a fling.

3. I Know You Have A Girlfriend - It starts out as an affair, but she just can't help herself (also the reason this made the cut out of all the other Kiss songs is the "I THINK I THINK I THINK I WANT IT WAAYYY TOOO MUUUUUUUCH" part)

4. Want You In My Room (this was the last minute addition)

5. Body Language - They start having problems, and Carly (or is it me??? who knows) thinks everything will be okay, they just have to fuck it overfhdsjfdfsd

6. This Is What They Say - She feels amazing, post nut clarity is a friend.

7. Curiosity - But we do have to remember, he has a girlfriend. And he's kind of an ass. (This is one of my fave Carly songs of all time, it's so good)

8. Cry - Continuing with the emotional unavailability with probably her objectively best song of all time

9. Love Me Like That - I have such a soft spot for this song, it's literally perfect, it's so dramatic and emotional. Realisation that this relationship can't work out.

10. Wildflowers - Leaving. This song made the cut cause of the whole DON'T YOU THINK IT'S EASY FOR ME OH ALL THE THINGS I'VE TRIED TO BE part

END OF ACT 1

11. Let's Get Lost - Honestly, I'd sell my soul just to be able to sing this once, this song is so fucking good. Start of something new

12. LA Hallucinations - The relationship starts and continues, finding an anchor in someone else.

13. Fever - Sudden and tragic end, this is the #1 song along with Cut To The Feeling that I would answer this question with

INTERLUDE - "TAKE ME INTO YOUR ARMS AGAIN" from LAH plays four times, getting distorted in the process

14. I'll Be Your Girl - Descent into madness hehe, this song would be so fun live with Beyoncé's vocal abilities, stamina and dancing expertise.

INTERLUDE - "SHAKE ME FROM LA HALLUCINATIONS" from LAH plays four times, getting distorted in the process

15. Little Of Mine - Continuing the descent into madness.

INTERLUDE - "TAKE ME" FROM LA HALLUCINATIONS STARTS PLAYING ON LOOP, GETTING MORE DISTORTED IN THE PROCESS UNTIL IT SUDDENLY STOPS.

16. Your Type - Moving on

17. Roses - Moving on again (this song specifically made the cut cause of the DRUNK ON CIGARETTES LAST YEAR SILHOUETTES part)

18. Too Much - Self acceptance

19. When I Needed You - Obviously

20. Store - Except the Store is a metaphor for the club lol

END OF ACT 2

21. I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance - Finding someone new at the club, this song FUCKS SO HARD

22. Happy Not Knowing - After everything that's happened, reluctance to get into something new

23. Third to last, we got The One. Contuination of HNK with her finally giving in a) it's frankly criminal this song has never been performed live, b) it's fucking god tier, c) I really wanna sing it with some sort of hesitation and self-destructiveness ROMANCE IS FINE POUR ME SOME WINE and d) it sets up the final songs

24. Second to last, we got Stay Away. a) I adore this song to bits, it's so high energy and it just makes me wanna dance and b) storywise, it's Carly (or is it me???) getting over herself and realising she wants something more with this person

25. Closing with the most euphoric song known to man, Cut To The Feeling

[thequibblah]

hi so i'm looking for some new music to listen to and i thought you could help because you have great taste!

if this helps, i'll tell you what i normally listen to, which is very basic & basically the same few artists over and over lol

- mostly just taylor swift, she makes up 70+% of my listening probably haha and if i had to pick a favorite genre of hers it would be the folkmore style

- some other pop, like olivia rodrigo and conan gray and lorde & some doja cat but i'm not a huge fan of doja's lyrics

- lyrics are really big for me, so is having a pretty voice and nice melodies

- i love your playlists but the old songs are usually not my style (there's been some though that i really like, ty for that !! <3)

- ceremonials is my favorite florence album

- liability is my favorite lorde song

no problem if u don't want to!

OH i basically recommend things for a living so why not music, eh?

so. what i'm getting from this is that you have three big listening buckets: soft acoustic and indie pop and just plain old pop. so i will divide my recs by those broad genres! i too prefer singable music so i will try to lay off on especially dissonant artists, or mark them as such so you can be prepared (LOL)

acoustic/folksy (i'll admit i am a big indie pop girl so this stuff will be a bit sparser)

phoebe bridgers — admittedly she is more alt-rocky, but see garden song, savior complex, moon song, graceland too, prayer in open D

waxahatchee — can't do much (GOD THIS SONG), lilacs, st. cloud

lucy dacus — also more alt-rocky, but here r some softer jams: hot & heavy, christine, green eyes, red face (a jily song)

anything by first aid kit! start with stay gold and the lion's roar

hozier — i feel like most people on the internet have listened to SOME hozier but check out wasteland, baby! (i tried to pick individual songs and ended up listing most of the album LOL)

kacey musgraves — another artist you've probably listened to already, but try golden hour

brittany howard — stay high must be the sweetest song in existence, and basically all of her album jaime

arlo parks — the whole album but especially caroline, hurt, and black dog

lake street dive — i can change, good kisser (a mary song if i've ever heard one), and i adore their hall & oates cover!

anya marina — this whole album has had me by the throat since like 2013

lucius — just the whole album wildewoman, h/t @figg-anon for putting me onto this!

idk what tf genre fiona apple is but try her out as well!

artists i listen to less of but are in this vein: the lumineers, bon iver, vance joy

u know i had to rec some old people shit (LOLLLL), so in this vein, joni mitchell, heart, judee sills, emmylou harris, joan baez, vashti bunyan

one-off songs you might like: hold you now by vampire weekend, big wheel by samia, i eat boys by chloe moriondo, strawberry blond by mitski (i worship at the altar of mitski but she might not be your speed haha), like i used to (acoustic) by sharon van etten & angel olsen, body by julia jacklin, jackie onassis by sammy rae and the friends, cowgirl bebop by HANA

indie pop BELOVED

maggie rogers — ok i cannot recommend this higher like if u like lorde and conan gray drop everything now and mainline maggie's brilliant debut album

HAIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — they've got poppier songs like want you back and more mellow songs like summer girl, but honestly i would just recommend a deep dive because they have a pretty surprising breadth within their own alt-rock/pop niche

caroline polachek — can sometimes get way out n weird in the pop sense but so hot you're hurting my feelings is a very listenable pop standard (also it's so funny she's such a clever lyricist also this is irrelevant here but she sounds amazing live), also love look at me now and her cover of breathless

charli xcx is more experimental pop but would rec trying out warm (FT HAIM!!!), blame it on your love (FT LIZZO!!), and official

rina sawayama — technically her album is all sorts of genres but especially XS, comme des garcons, paradisin', bad friend, and tokyo love hotel

orla gartland is a lil softer and i love more like you, oh GOD, and did it to myself

king princess — especially cheap queen, 1950, holy, but basically all of cheap queen

more one-offs: kansas by ashe, comeback by CRJ (full paean in her honour to come in the pop section), i am a big fan of other people covering the bleachers (LOL) especially rollercoaster by charli xcx and i wanna get better by tinashe (full tinashe praise to come too), saturdays by twin shadow (FT HAIM!!!), the kiss of venus and 3 nights by dominic fike (also his interlude on halsey's album), aute cuture and milionària by rosalía, young lover by st. vincent (i love her but again might not be for u haha), good days by sza, backyard boy by claire rosinkranz, slow dancing by aly & aj, hot sugar by glass animals

if ur down to try out something weird witchy and cool, kate bush is like the originator of 9 billion pop and rock genres and hounds of love is a masterpiece

pure pop (we can split hairs on what makes pure pop LOL but basically everything here is based on ur enjoyment of doja)

carly rae jepsen — ok if u haven't listened to her non-radio-hits u may be like "what?? call me maybe lady???" to which i say YES, especially window, stay away, no drug like me, and too much

victoria monet — this may or may not be a selling point to you, but victoria is a frequent ariana grande collaborator and you can absolutely hear it in her music (see also: the mattress spring background noises in dive JUST like they are in positions...), and i love experience, go there with you, and we might even be falling in love, and why not throw in her ariana grande collab monopoly

magdalena bay — how to get physical which i am destined, nay, contractually bound, to put in a jily modern AU someday, killshot, stop & go

tinashe — basically ALL of her new album!!! SO good. i also love rascal (superstar), esther, and old jams like company (and i JUST found out she has a chaka khan cover!)

chloe x halle have the most angelic vocals in the world

this might sound actually demented because WHO hasn't heard love on the brain but rly... go give ANTI a re-listen...

tove lo — especially are u gonna tell her, mateo, and jacques

WAIT I FORGOT TO SAY ROBYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERY ROBYN SONG!!!!!!!

for that throwback poppy sound u may as well go real throwback KJAHKJA and check out donna summer!

one-offs: right to it by louis the child n ashe, serial lover by kehlani (also more by her but im getting lazy now kdjfhgk), missed calls by max n hayley kiyoko, peppers and onions by tierra whack, idk who hasnt heard this song but circles by meg, todo de ti by rauw alejandro (the way i wanted this to be song of the summer so bad ;___;)

hope you enjoy and pls come back and tell me if you really liked any of these!!!! xoxo

[thewickedwizardofoz]

Tagged by @the-100th-witch in a game where I give a song for each letter of my url and then tag as many people as there are letters:

My URL is long (It's like 18 letters) so I'll put it under the cut, and also that's too many people to tag, but if you see this and wanna do it, go ahead! Enjoy my weird ass hodgepodge music tastes :)

T - Ten S And (10s And) by Pentagon, bc I'm obsessed and I'll put it in here even if it technically starts with 1 loool

H - Hikari Are by Burnout Syndromes!!

E - Evidence by Daisy x Daisy, I don't like how Fairy Tail ended, but this song is still a bop. so jot that down.

W - W.I.T.C.H. by Marion Raven

I - I Won't Say (I'm in Love) by Megara from Hercules.

C - Call Me Maybe by Ms Carly Rae Jepsen bc I loudly and proudly loved the song way back in high school before it was cool

K - King of Anything by Sara Barielles

E - Everybody Breaks a Glass by Lights

D - Dr Bebe by Pentagon was ROBBED of WINS.

W - ~Wendy~ It's You by SPYAIR

I - I'm a Hex Girl by the Hex Girls

Z - Zero by Kensho Ono

A - About Last Night by Monsta X

R - Reincarnation by Kiria Kurono (Yoshino Nanjou) from TMS#FE

D - Dreamer by Yuto Adachi bc ofc i gotta support my mans

O - Open Mind by Wonho

F - Free Your Mind by En Vogue

O - Ordinary Day by Vanessa Carlton

Z -Zombie by Day6

[garudabluffs]

Carly Rae Jepsen

Carly Rae Jepsen is a juggernaut pop songwriter. For over a decade she has relentlessly released banger after banger. She's often derided for empty lyrics that reveal very little about herself but that's the genius of CRJ: the ubiquity is the point. She crafts anthems that you can belt from the passenger seat with all the windows down, the kind of unadulterated pop that isn't pressed about being cool. The moment she started to get the recognition she deserved (or at least when Music Twitter began to take her more seriously) was after Emotion and the Emotion B Sides EP were released, but she's been solid since the beginning. Her hooks beg to be chanted and she cranks out earworms on the regular.

It sounds effortless, but it's far from, and that's the mark of a true pop songwriter. She writes a lot: she wrote more than 200 songs before settling on the 12 that would end up on Emotion. She synthesizes ideas about love in all its forms to make the kind of widely palatable, bright, shiny pop that can take on dozens of meanings. Take "Too Much," from her album Dedicated: the "girls just wanna have fun" energy of the chorus could easily be about grappling with obsessive tendencies, depending on the listener's perspective. — Kelsey Adams

'Too Much'

When I party, then I party too much When I feel it, then I feel it too much When I'm thinking, then I'm thinking too much When I'm drinking, then I'm drinking too much I'll do anything to get to the rush Now I'm dancing, and I'm dancing too much So be careful if you're wanting this touch 'Cause if I love you, then I love you too much.

https://www.cbc.ca/music/who-is-the-best-canadian-songwriter-right-now-1.6176130?cmp=FEED_PROG_music

Jessie Reyez

Jessie Reyez is one of the sharpest, hardest-working songwriters in the business, and she's honest about how difficult that life can be. "Make sure you love it, because there's going to be days where it's super hard," she told CBC Music in an interview last summer. "Like, oh, you want to do this because you don't want a regular job? You end up working twice as hard in a creative industry when you're carrying your own business on your back." Her lyrics are at once fiery and vulnerable, able to deftly break open the doors to music industry abuse on "Gatekeeper" or climb into the dark corners of a love you should let go of — but can't — on "Before Love Came to Kill Us." She's won four Juno Awards and been shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize for her solo work, but she's also in high demand elsewhere: Reyez has written songs for Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris and Normani, among others, and has twice collaborated with Eminem. — Holly Gordon

'Don't waste your mic': Jessie Reyez's advice on mentorship and using your platform for justice

'Before Love Came to Kill Us'

Love you in the worst way  You knock me down like a heavyweight, mm-mm  We fell in love, got a KO, oh no  Too damn young, so we broke up, no go  So much for a wedding date, ha.

Lowell

When a 23-year-old Lowell, real name Elizabeth Boland, burst onto the scene as Arts & Crafts' most exciting new signee in 2014, many of the same stories were told about her and her debut album. Reputable publications like the New York Times and Rolling Stone couldn't get enough of her dancer-turned-student-turned-indie star story, when really it was her songwriting aptitude that immediately set her apart from her newcomer peers. What she'd reveal over the next almost decade was a formidable back pocket of hooks, human lyricism and very little interest in the centre stage at all — shelving her bold, solo persona in favour of life as a meticulous songwriting fairy godmother.

If her pop pen touches a song, magical things can happen. Working with the likes of Madison Beer, Tate McRae, Demi Lovato, Hailee Steinfeld and Lennon Stella, Lowell's penchant for relatable, often heartbroken sentiments is a known commodity, and not limited to those she assists — her own 2020 singles showcase artful and expertly worded reflections on the disoriented state of her world and the world at large. She's lived a lot of life, and can expertly identify other artists who have, too, helping them translate their earthly experiences with care — and sometimes into a certified hit. — JH

'God is a Fascist'

God is a fascist And he holds all the cards He brought us together just to keep us apart And there's nothing more tragic than this thing that we are I'm a hopeless romantic who didn't get the part.