#the way this song is such a banger and for WHAT

[ghelullu]

I have tried to sort my thoughts about Skeletá and mostly failed, but still wanted to talk about it because it’s such an interesting little big album already after only a handful of listens

tl;dr: I like it alot, it has some certified bangers on it, some songs didn’t fully land for me personally, I love the variety and his voice is amazing.

I think what stood out to me the most – apart from the very obvious and super cool 80s vibe going on (80s lovers WIN) – is the sheer variety of songs on it and how most of them did not sound the way I expected them to sound at all: Cenotaph was so much groovier and uplifting than I thought (looking back and knowing it’s about his brother, I feel like I should’ve seen that coming), De Profundis Borealis is less heavy than I thought (and hoped; insert the "I know it's not a black metal song" clip), Marks of the Evil one is just so much etc! And I do mean this as an absolute positive in a time where most successful music does not surprise us often anymore.

I totally applaud and respect him for not doing the easy thing: Making an album that follows directly down Impera’s path sound wise – that would have been safe, considering the commercial and critical success it had. Instead he took some of Impera’s (and Phantomime’s) sound, threw in some things from the old albums and a ton of stuff out of his Very Normal brilliant brain to mix something… well. Different.

It is not an album aimed to please people, it’s not targeted at his „old“ fans, not at his new fans from the last album, not at critics or whatever; it’s not a people pleaser album, in my opinion (I’ve seen people say it’s too „commercial“, gotta disagree; I think they just heard it's more „pop", not understanding how 80s Rock worked), but rather Tobias doing what *he* thinks fits, what he thinks needs to be done, what he thinks would be cool, interesting, fun.

While doing that he’s once again not afraid of things that are bordering on too cringe, too corny, too whatever. We’ve all seen that one Reddit review of Missilia Amori – but one thing about his music I really respect is how he can take stuff that wouldn’t work with other artists, would be painfully cringe, and make it work. Because with him it is (and comes across as such) intentional and well handled, often with a wink; he’s been doing that literally from the beginning, because he, unlike some people on Reddit, is capable of not taking himself and things *so* fucking seriously all the time.

He knows that things, art, music, yes, even Big Serious Metal, can just be fucking FUN. (Plus, have these people never listened to any bit of 80s Rock? Like, really?)

And there is so much going on in this album. Lyrics wise, yes, some absolute gold (the 3rd rider "looking cool" absolutely took me out, though), I won’t even touch on that here, because I haven’t studied them enough. But every song is very different: Different vibe, different themes, different *things* that make them stand out (something I LOVE about his music is how every song has at least 1-2 thingies, special, interesting melodies, intrument bits, vocal moments, whatever, that just scratch the brain right and make you come back again and again).

While there are many callbacks to his previous works (and obviously even way more to other artists; it's once again a loveletter of his to his favourite artists growing up), in my opinion it’s also the least „typical Ghost“ album to date; in a way it’s more a Tobias album, which is fine to me, and fitting, considering how incredibly personal it is – and a fun coincidence with the other Tobias album, Passiflora, having finally blessed our ears earlier this year. I think there are surprisingly many similarities? Obviously he has developed all of his skills enormously since, but… It was fun listening to both of these very personal albums back to back, highly recommended.

Lots of high praise, is it my new fave? It doesn’t beat Prequelle, my #1, at this moment in time, and I don’t think it will, even after multiple listens. It’s an album that definitely requires being listened to at least a dozen times. Many songs on it – on Tobias’ work in general – are absolutely required to be listened to multiple times before you can fully appreciate and connect with it (which is, i may add, a GOOD thing. He puts in so much stuff to discover!).

First of all, for me the ballads didn’t land. And this is mostly a personal preference, I am not a ballads person, they rarely hit for me (Life Eternal taking me out almost immediately was an outlier and to this day the Helvetesfönster – Life Eternal combo is the only music that ever made me bawl my eyes out). Both Guiding Lights (his vocals are so, so good) and Excelsis are objectively fantastic songs and I understand why people love them so much, but especially Excelsis is musically just a bit too much...I don’t have the right word...; the end however is wonderful (and circles nicely back to Life Eternal (and also Respite!))

I would have very, very, VERY much preferred a heavy song instead of one of these two. A Faith, a Mummy Dust, a Twenties, you know, some growls? The heavy riff in Lachryma gave me hope there’d be more in another song, but it’s fine, it’s his baby! I expected De Profundis to be the heavier song, but it turned out softer than i thought, but it’s still super fun and I think it will do a bit of a Watcher in the Sky, where it’s cool on the album and then FUCK live!

Speaking of live, many of these songs will shine live, as the 4 already played prove. The vocals on the album – SO good, so much variety! Sometimes he sounds like Ozzy, sometimes like Phil Collins, sometimes very Phantomime, the high notes but also more lower register, bless him (that was one of my big wishes), just great! – show that he’s experimented with his voice (despite talking shit about it all the time) a lot and that he has much more trust into his abilities to perform them live (with the reduced mask; and he’s already proven that; I cannot stress enough how incredible he sounds live now).

The instrumentals are fantastic, such nice guitar solos, the synths, the keyboard-guitar sex in Umbra is just 👌🏽, but really, they shine in all songs. And you cannot forget the Cowbell, bless him.

My favourite is Lachryma with the heavy guitars and the catchy pop-y chorus, followed by Peacefield (esp live) and Umbra; honorable mention Marks of the Evil one and Missilia Amori, and De Profundis

There is so much to love about this album; how personal it is for him, how much it feels like a big hug (and punch in the gut, followed by another hug tbh and of course some horny) from him to the world. How much growth both as a singer, instrumentalist, producer etc but also in his...presentation of himself and his art he has shown.

He doesn’t hide behind a full latex mask on stage anymore, but he also doesn’t hide his messages behind a mask of 3 layers of satanic lyrics anymore.

It’s in every way such a vulnerable, wonderful work and I’m very grateful he shared this with us

[writingjourney]

i just think creatives don't owe you to stay the same, they don't owe you a specific style just because that's what made them "famous". back in 2013 arctic monkeys released AM, an album that was the most rock heavy of theirs yet, taking them from an indie rock band with dirty raw classic indie sounds (suck it and see was already an outlier then) to a super popular rock band that felt sexy and rough and dark.

what did they do with that success? well, they didn't do anything for 5 years, then released a concept album inspired by old sci fi movies that lacked any of those classic rock tunes, that was slow and didn't have any "bangers" like AM had. stylisitcally, alex turner's writing and his voice is very unique, yes, that is the only common thread they had. OH BOY, the reactions were horrible, it did not land well, the aesthetic was different, the songs were so different it might have been a different band and people that joined for AM sounds (ot the old classic style) alllllll hated it (something that happened before, they reinvent their sound with every album, but never as drastically as here) and while i enjoyed the album i will say to this day it is one i have to be in the mood for.

did that harm their careers? no, they released another album four years later that was still very different from AM but definitely more rooted in that slower, newer style and absolutely gorgeous. did it top AM? perhaps not, no, their early work is still more beloved, the AM songs the most streamed, better, depending on who you ask, but it cemented a more mature style and they won't ever go back, i don't think. you can tell alex (and tobias) are creatives at their core and they won't stop creating just because their tastes change and their art evolves. the idea of this consistent branding imo is a very capitalist one, you shouldn't have to create a new band or project every time your style changes, let people come and go.

tldr: what i am saying is – musicians as any creatives sometimes need to be allowed to release divisive things that might upset older fans, things that are right for them at the time, that may lead them to discover where they want to go, that might not be what is expected of them. and this development is often necessary for survival, not just for their creativity but because literal lives depend on it, as the height of the fall is now suddenly a lot bigger. ghost is now 15 years old and not a small occult underground band anymore, it seems natural to experiment with what a more mature ghost could look like. we fight off change, it's very human, it's an uncomfortable dissonance we have to accept, but it comes either way if we want it or not. criticism is good and necessary, don't get me wrong, doesn't mean there is no value to the thing or that people enjoying it are wrong.

[sakuraluck]

when they took out the instruments, i just knew we were never going to recover

[cosmosnout]

From here, I can tell you Thank you (for loving me)

Link to a TikTok with the song in the background!

[once-more-with-anxiety]

it has been nearly 20 years and I Don't Dance is still THE most sexually tense homoerotic scene in the history of cinema.

just...

yeah. homos.

[nmzuka]

"Holy be thy words, Dangling swords above the herds"

A piece inspired by Vulture by Bear Ghost

[pasta-pardner]

spotify | john marston's revenge quest, set to music from 1960s spaghetti westerns.

Fun detail: the opening cutscene for Red Dead Revolver (2004) features an instrumental version of "His Name Is King". The lyrical version is oddly fitting for John, given that it's a song about seeking vengeance for a dead brother.

[waywardstation]

I'm too much of a nervous bean to reach out not anonymously. But I wanted to say that your stories are my favorite iterations of Ingo and Akari and are what sucked me fully into submas. So thankyou and I look forward to seeing everything you come out with 😊

AHH thank you kind anon!!! ;w; <3 that means so much to me!! I’m also looking forward to getting more out!! I have so much I want to get out. I realize most of my writings that have most solidified how I currently write their dynamics are still not out yet. I have so much to get out and the most important parts of them I realize still are not public, so people can’t see the characters how I currently headcanon them.

I haven’t even posted anything yet that sets up the AU I’ve developed around them. It’s called Savepoint AU and it’s been in my head since 2023, regarding the tags I left in this post.

It’s very important to the narrative leading up to everything in I Won’t leave You Behind, but I feel I cannot post about it until I get Rain Check and its accompanying sequel Entropy Syndrome out. One group of people knows a little about it and has seen art related to it but that’s it haha.

ANYWAYS these are where Ingo and Akari’s dynamics really shine and I am hoping I can pull it together enough soon to be satisfied with the smaller details and get it out. I don’t want to rush it or I know it’ll bug me forever, as I feel that way about some stuff in HFBE haha. (DW I will fix these eventually)

Once again thank you anon!!! I’m so happy you like my work specifically, and I’m looking forward to getting more out!

[art--harridan]

[Image description: A digital drawing based on Pedro from the film Arrebato. At the bottom of the piece, there's a close-up drawing of Pedro's eyes staring listlessly into the distance, face upturned. The skin around his eyes is red and blotchy. This drawing melds into another drawing of Pedro. He's sitting on a bed and tightly clutching a cluster of grapes close to his face. His mouth is pinching together and a liquid strand falls all, implying that he's eating one. He's looking straight ahead with wide, wild eyes. One of his legs is pulled up in front of him so his arm rests on his knee. To the left, there's a circle that shows Pedro asleep in his bed, bathed in blue light. It looks like a lens, and is coupled with a red light above it, as if a camera. Other circles in the piece are randomly coloured red, specifically Pedro's right eye on the top drawing, one of the grapes in the cluster, and the highlight in his left eye on the bottom drawing. The lineart is a dark blue and alternates between stark shadows and scratchy shading. The background is a bright teal, which contrasts against the more sallow colours used for colouring Pedro.]

Inktober - Day 26 (Camera)

Film - Arrebato (Iván Zuleta, 1979)

[seaofreverie]

The biggest problem with trying to come up with a dream Sparks setlist is that I truly want them to play just about every song. Or at least 80% of them, would that really be too much to ask..

[akai-anna]

Round 8

Round: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

[radio-4-is-static]

You glance a ricochet from every alpha male behind me Eyes like marbles on a washing machine Oh and do you ever wonder How the boy feels?

- Katherine Kiss Me by Franz Ferdinand ⤷ Week One of FranzFeb: appreciation for your favorite song or lyric

[jacarandaaaas]

from doing my mirabel analysis I’ve come to the conclusion “the family madrigal” song does an incredible job at setting up the world as well as mirabels character and deserves more credit

[lizzybeeee]

I was tagged by @thewardenisonthecase!

rules: Put your music library on shuffle, then list the first five songs that come up in a poll to let people vote for which one they like the most! Then tag Tumblr friends to keep the game going!

What a collection lmao

No pressure tag list! -> @pendlewood, @ellstersmash, @forestdragoncat, and @a-driftamongopenstars <3

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by the exceptional @cordiallyfuturedwight and @cosmicdreamgrl thanks ever so much my loves <33

now tagging some heroes @aprylynn @thvinyl @visionsofgideontheninth @hoseeok @btscontentenjoyer @jihopesjoint @monismochi @raplinenthusiasts <333 and everyone else

[malpractice-morale]