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beepen · 3 years ago

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Hello gays and gays only. You may have known me as dicks-out-for-adam :) felt a little nostalgic and wanted to post a little something for the adashi tag. Happy pride and happy summer, here’s two hockey players getting midnight snacks on a road trip.

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“Adam….”

Adam stirred in his sleep, nuzzling further into his pillow. His sore muscles protested his awakening and he couldn’t agree with them more. He wanted to continue sleeping….

“Adam.”

“No….”

Let him sleep. He loved sleeping.

“Adam!”

A poke to his shoulder had him scrambling for his dreams to come back, reaching for them and wanting to cover himself in them like a blanket. But they were already too far away and Adam was already too awake.

He sighed, saddened by his loss. “What?”

“Are you up?”

“No.”

“Do you want Mcdonald’s?”

His stomach immediately reacted at the question, growling, and Adam finally opened his eyes to peer over at Takashi kneeling beside his bed.

“Are you serious?” Adam said, voice cracking from sleep and hissing as he stretched his aching limbs.

“Yeah, I’m serious. Do you want some or not?”

Ignoring his question for the moment, Adam reached for his phone. He squinted at the brightness as he read the time. “Takashi. It’s 12 A.M.”

“I know.”

“Did you even sleep?”

Takashi chose not to answer, instead he rose to his feet, his tall frame now towering over Adam’s horizontal form. Adam noticed even in the dark that he was dressed to go out.

“Can you answer my question, please?” Takashi said, his entire being now starting to radiate impatience.

Adam sighed again and rubbed his eyes, giving his hunger levels a once over. He didn’t really have much time to eat except for a couple bananas and a protein shake after the game. The others went to have dinner together but Adam was beat and set out to his hotel room, where he made a quick change into some shorts and literally sunk into the mattress. His stomach was now beating him up for not having a proper meal. He lost so many calories during the game that his body was in a starving state.

“Well?” Takashi crossed his arms and glared down at him. He was probably hungry too.

“I am hungry….” Adam sat up in the bed, keeping the blankets over his shoulders for warmth. “But I don’t want Mcdonald’s.”

In fact, the idea of it made his stomach recoil a bit. He didn’t mind the fast food usually, but after waking up from a deep sleep? Not ideal.

Takashi was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking. He then pulled out his phone and began typing on it.

“Do you feel like walking?” Takashi asked.

Adam shrugged. A midnight walk didn’t sound awful. He actually enjoyed them if he was in the company of a friend or two.

“There’s a 24/7 convenience store five minutes from here.” Takashi looked up from his phone to stare at him, inquiring. “Do you want me to pick something up for you?”

Adam thought about it. On one side, he wanted to stay in bed. The hotel room was especially cozy, and the city lights outside his window tried to lure him back to sleep. And looking at the streets below, he noticed fresh snowfall. He could stay inside, safe from the cold, and wouldn’t have to get dressed either.

But on the other hand, it was only a five minute walk, and walking in the snow sounded just as inviting as laying in the warmth of his bed. And Takashi would be there with him. That idea alone had Adam craving something similar to companionship, but not quite. He couldn’t quite explain it. Something about walking around in the middle of the night, seeking food with his best friend in a city constantly bustling with college students who were also out on a walk, whether for food as well or from a club…it was like nostalgia, in a way. But Adam could not recall ever doing such a thing in the past. Maybe with family or old friends, but never so late.

“Okay.” Adam made up his mind, stretching one more time before pulling the covers away.

Takashi tilted his head, looking for a clearer answer to his question than the one he was provided with. “Okay, what?”

“Okay, let’s go to the convenience store.”

“You want to come with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Alrighty. Hurry up then. I’m starving.”

In less than five minutes, they were exiting the hotel elevator and made their way outside through the grand lobby. It was quiet, and their footsteps echoed against the smooth tile. The receptionist paid them no mind.

As soon as they stepped outside, it was even quieter. The snow had built a heavy blanket over the sidewalks and parked cars, muffling the sounds of the city. Passing vehicles drove carefully over the salted roads and squelched over gray sludge. Only a few groups of people mingled about, most of whom were inside the many cafes and diners in the area, trying to stay someplace warm for a bit.

And walking beside Adam was Takashi, who made it his duty to talk Adam’s ear off. In the five minutes it took for them to reach the corner store, Takashi was on his tenth topic of conversation, water-vapor blowing from his mouth in short puffs of smoke from the cold. And when the doors slid open for them, his voice lowered into a low mumble to match the volume of the store.

It continued like this as they wandered down all six aisles of the small shop. Their conversation quickly shifted to food as they eyed various snacks and groceries. Shopping while hungry was dangerous, and Adam tried to suppress his urge to buy everything he craved. The team was leaving for a different city tomorrow morning, so the less baggage the better. He just needed something he could eat and dispose of quickly.

He had to constantly remind Takashi of this as well.

“Ha, look.”

Adam turned away from the many versions of Cheez Its to peer over at what Takashi was pointing at. He grimaced. “Sour Patch Kids cereal?”

“Sounds gross right?” Takashi laughed, then paused to stare at the abomination for a moment. “I want it.”

“You’re disgusting.”

It took Adam a few tries to convince the impulsive man that he shouldn’t buy it. Takashi only agreed with him after Adam pointed out that if he bought cereal, he’d have to buy milk, and what was he going to do with the milk tomorrow? Leave it at the hotel? Dump it and waste money? Bring it with him on the bus and risk spoiling it?

“I’ll just eat as much cereal as I can with it and then drink the rest if I have to.”

That resulted in Adam snatching the box from a laughing Takashi and placing it back on the shelf.

After more wandering, they eventually found food suitable for their cravings: Adam decided on a premade buffalo chicken wrap, hot chocolate, and a bag of hot fries, while Takashi settled on a lunchable, chocolate milk, and four Slim Jims. They paid and traveled back to the hotel, eating their snacks on the way.

Adam watched with absolute horror as Takashi opened up each Slim Jim, held them in one hand, and bit into all four in one bite.

“Takashi.”

The barbarian glanced down at him, asking what was up with a mouth full of Slim Jims.

Adam gave him a disappointed look. “Why?”

His only response was a goofy smile.

Upon arriving at their shared hotel room, Takashi’s Slim Jims were gone, Adam’s hot chocolate was warm enough to finally drink from, and his bag of hot fries was half empty, courtesy of both Takashi and himself.

“What lunchable did you get?” Adam asked as Takashi unlocked their door. Pushing it open, Takashi marched inside, singing his answer to Adam’s question with a light voice.

“Pizzaaa~”

“Of course~” Adam sang back.

They convened in Adam’s room with the rest of their food. Well, more like Adam had walked to his room and Takashi simply followed. Adam of course didn’t mind.

They easily melted into their usual comfortable and laid back routine, chatting on the bed as they chowed down. Takashi was very particular in how he set up his mini pizzas; the order absolutely had to be sauce, then cheese, then pepperoni. Adam pointed out that if he placed the pepperonis down before the cheese, he could use them to spread the sauce around evenly. Takashi looked at him as if he was the one who had bit into four Slim Jims all at once.

“Heretic,” Takashi accused him, and when Adam kicked his leg, he threatened to crush him if he did it again. Adam didn’t hesitate—he kicked Takashi again.

Takashi stared at him with a twinkling, impish look in his eyes. “You have until I finish my lunchable to apologize.”

Apparently by ‘crush’ Takashi meant plopping his entire body on top of Adam’s.

Once they finished their food and after Takashi felt Adam was adequately crushed, they settled into a comfortable silence, laying side by side. It wasn’t until Adam whipped out his phone to scroll through social media that Takashi repositioned himself on his side, head on Adam’s shoulder as he watched him scroll mindlessly.

Adam didn’t mind. He trusted Takashi, and if anything weird popped up, he knew Takashi’s socials were probably even weirder. That didn’t stop his commentary though.

“Kinky.”

“Shut up.”

Takashi chuckled, the breathy kind. The type of laugh that was only a puff of air and a soft hum. It brushed against Adam’s skin. His heart felt like it was blooming.

“Do you want to finish that one walkthrough?” Adam whispered, and he mayhaps turned his face a little so his nose could bump against Takashi’s.

Takashi hummed his affirmation, eyelids drooping. His breath once more tickled Adam’s skin.

Knowing they were going to fall asleep, they both decided to discard their jeans. Adam changed into the same shorts he had slept in before while Takashi remained in his boxers, too tired to travel the distance to his room. Adam didn’t want him to anyway. He knew Takashi would probably fall right asleep in his own bed if he left to change, and Adam wasn’t quite ready to give up his companionship just yet. He wanted to stay close, nuzzling his shoulder back underneath Takashi’s head to reclaim their position from before. Takashi happily obliged and let out a sigh so blissful one would think he had found the gates of heaven. Adam tried his best to ignore the way his skin prickled, how his heart felt opened and exposed like a blossoming flower. He swallowed it all down and played the video game walkthrough they started watching together last week.

Ten minutes in and Takashi was sound asleep, warm and comfortable against Adam’s side. Adam wanted to soak himself in that warmth, bury himself in it. Every point of contact between them was set aflame: the head on Adam’s shoulder, the arm resting flush against his, and the knee laying on top of his thigh. It was a loving and furious kind of heat, one that battled against the snowfall outside.

The best sleep awaited Adam, one he had no issue in partaking in. He only wished he could stay awake a little longer to appreciate all that was around him, like the soft mattress, the heavy duvet splayed over his form, the soft light protruding from the window and the now quiet city beneath it. And Takashi, dreaming beside him.

Soon, Adam will be dreaming as well, but before he could submit to the warm embrace of a good night’s rest, he turned his head until it bumped against Takashi’s.

Adam exhaled a final sigh, and drifted off to the lullaby of Takashi’s soft breathing.

#adashi #shadam #vld shiro #vld adam #vld #voltron #phew havent used those tags in a while #hockey au #yes i am still very much into hockey LMAO #cant stop wont stop

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m-o-o-n-s-g-o-o-n-s · 3 years ago

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IT’S MUSIC TIME MY GOONIES PT. 3

FT. MY YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

hehe, so i have been wanting to do one of these again for a while now, so here we are! but instead, we’re doing my youtube playlist, which has all the slowed, sadder versions of songs that i like. yes, i like sad songs, oops :P. ballads have always been my jam, probably always will be so, here are some songs from my playlist! once again, putting the playlist on shuffle and just going with the flow besides the occasional skip lol :P

people i feel like would like to see this: @loth-wolffe @weirdcharacter @ladykatakuri @ahsokasleftbicep

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happier by olivia rodrigo but it’s ten times sadder

by wisterxiaa

i love slowed versions of songs, that is like the way to my heart lol 😂 this is really nice, her voice sounds really cool slowed down like this. the electric guitar in like the middle sounds so cool omgg. is it sad? yeah, a little, but it’s really nice slowed down like this. most of the time, the titles say this in my playlist, but i just like the way it’s slowed lol 😂. the thumbnail is so pretty 9/10, love the purple and the monarch butterflies :) overall, recommend this song when your in the mood for some olivia rodrigo, but a tad bit sadder. AND THE OOH’S AT THE END HIT DIFFERENT OMGGGG AND SHE SOUNDS SO BROKEN AND SOFT AT THE END APOBIHJ[OADSIJB

everybody loves somebody - dean martin (slowed n reverb)

by starclouds

pretty sure i got this song from General Angsty (if i didn’t, apologizes), but this slowed down verison HITS THE SPOT. i love his voice in this slowed way, it is so interesting. also, it’s reverb? like? yes, please. the thumbnail is actually a GIF that is a fountain, it’s pretty cool, 7/10, also this makes me wanna sway with like Echo or something (actually now that i think of it, i’m pretty sure i got this from General Angsty’s dancing post with the boys, which made me so SoFt omg :)) overall, recommend listen to this when you wanna sway with your lover in like a dance club, but your nestled into their neck and your pulled so close and it’s warm in their embrace :) the instruments also are really nice in this verison.

Clair De Lune Ethereal Remix

by A.Krishna

IF ALL MUSIC SUDDENLY BECAME ETHEREAL ON YOUTUBE, I WOULD MOST LIKELY CRY. so i love ethereal remixes, there’s just something so… whimsical about ethereal remixes. this song is so pretty and beautiful on ethereal omgggGGGg. the thumbnail is beautiful 10000000/10. I just- this sounds like a song you would use as like a look back through your entire life, like every memory and moment just appearing as this song plays WOW. and when the piano climax’s in the midDLE OMGGGG it is INSANE, LIKE THE EMOTIONS THAT GO THROUGH MY BRAIN AOBIASDNB and then it gets super soft and quiet aaaahhhh CAN YOU TELL I LIKE ETHEREAL?? IDK IF YOU CAN 😂 anyways, overall recommend this song when your just watching the rain fall and reminiscing about good times in your life :)

heather - conan gray ( slowed + reverb)

by Vibey

okay definitely this song is sadder slowed, like THE FEELS OMGG but it’s amazing slowed, like the original is awesome, AND THEN THIS???!! so the thumbnail is a really pretty GIF of this VHS tape just playing, and it’s purple so 10/10. this definitely brings the raspy part of his voice, and i really like it (or that’s just the reverb lol 😂) only thing i do not like about this slowed version is it cuts off the end of the song at the end of the video, and I don’t know why, but it’s still really good, so i don’t mind too much :). it’s very pretty and sad all at the same time. overall, recommend listening to this song when your just chilling, staring up at the ceiling and your like “let’s be a puddle of sad for a sec”

Chiquitita(slowed+reverbed)💜

by Brown Aesthetic Syndrome

LIL’ SOKA, IT’S OUR SONG!! OUR SONG SLOWED AND REVERBED IS SO PRETTY, AND AWESOME!!! MKAY, SO THE THUMBNAIL IS COOL, 8/10, THE FLOWERS ARE PRETTY!! YES, I WILL BE SCREAMING ABOUT THIS SONG LOL 😂 THE PIANO SOUNDS SO PRETTY IN THIS, LIKE IT’S SO MUCH MORE BROUGHT OUT :))), AND THEIR VOICES SOUND SO PRETTY SLOWED!!! OH AND THE CHORUS ITS DIFFERENT OMGGGGG AOPBINAS[FDPOIBJOFIBOAFINBPOJ IT’S SO INSANE OMGGG AOIBAPDOFSKGN!! ANYWAYS RECOMMEND THIS SONG WHEN YOU ARE LIKE “I NEED ABBA VIBES, BUT SLOWED” ALBKNDSPFOBIN

billie eilish - my future - slowed dreamy reverb

by ayabe

so this song is incredible, like it slowed really hits different. billie’s voice has always been so interesting to me because sometimes she sings like very whisper like, and other times she is full on belting like going insane, and i really like that she uses her voice in multiple different ways during her songs. billie is the number one artist i go to when i really wanna be in the feels, and this verison of my future is so amazing. the beat is so interesting, and the thumbnail is really cool 9/10, also i don’t know what the language is nor, do i know what it says, so if you do, let me know lol 😂 but the picture is cool. this song is one i listen to all the time because it’s just- yes. overall recommend this song when your chilling in bed, just in the dark, with the window open on a summer night :)

friends on the other side - s l o w e d

by angelicsounds

THIS IS SO EPIC SLOWED OMGGGGG I CAN’T NOT EVEN EXPLAIN AOBPINADOPBNF I REALLY FEEL LIKE A SPOOKY DUDE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DO SOME SPOOKY STUFF OMGGG i love the original song, and i also really like the cover by annapantsu, definitely recommend her verison too! this has got to be the coolest disney villain song slowed down, hands down. the thumbnail is a GIF of this anime character’s eyes doing weird looking highlight stuff lol idk what to call it, 8/10. overall, recommend when you wanna listen to a song that makes you feel like the main villain in a story :) AND THE ENDING HITS DIFFERENT OMGGGGGGGG

le valse de l’amour - patrick doyle (slowed down)

by mari

okay, so we all know that I love Cinderella. and this song is so incredible, i can’t- okay, but just imagine… the bad batch, undercover at a senate ball, you, trying to make sure the senators are safe. the boys are in their separate locations, you know, watching, making sure everyone is good. some random dude from out of nowhere tries to make you dance with him. you are obviously like “um, what the heck, please no sir.” and suddenly…

“may i have this dance?”

it’s Hunter (or crosshair, but i’ve written a fic about Hunter dancing with the reader, so i feel like he would be a good dancer).

anyways, he whisks you away from random dude, and your like “Hunter there’s no music” because the orchestra just finished their previous song, and he’s like

“just wait.”

bam, this song comes on.

and suddenly, Hunter’s waltzing with you and you didn’t even know he could waltz. and it’s exactly like the scene from Cinderella 2015. So you two are doing your own thing in the middle of the ballroom, and everyone starts moving out of the way because woah these people are really good at dancing

and you are just shocked because HOW??

and he just leads you through the whole thing. he spins you around, and if your wearing a dress and it’s got some tulle on it, it swishes around when he spins you and oh my god the butterflies and smile he gets when you giggle because you love the way it swirls around you. and then people start backing up more, because at this rate, you guys are taking up the whole dance floor.

and you just keep going, and he starts pick you up and spinning you around when the harp comes on. and he grabs you by the waist and starts swinging you around just like Kit & Ella do in the movie. and then the end of the song comes, and he dips you, brings you back up, and that’s it.

and when it’s all said and done, you just look at him, and well, he obviously looks extremely handsome, his suit is all pressed, and his hair is done back in a bun, but he’s got a few wisps coming out from your whole little dancing experience, and all you can say is:

“I-”

“shhh, mesh’la. later. i’ll tell you later.”

anyways, thumbnail is a solid 11/10, and recommend if you wanna daydream about dancing at a senator ball with Hunter.

no i am not planning on writing a fic about this, what you you implying? okay, yes i am, i am. no shame 😂

sleeping beauty - once upon a dream (slowed + reverb)

by Paige Coddington

sleeping beauty is one of my favorite disney princesses besides rapunzel & cinderella, so i love this. The GIF is so pretty, 10/10. Aurora’s voice is pretty, and her vibrato is so much more prominent in this verison, and i am obsessed. this is so pretty, I- speechless, actually. and then philip comes in and it’s just ✨ also, i always like aurora in the pink dress when i was younger, but now i kind of like the blue dress more. they should have just given her a purple dress i guess lol 😂 overall, really pretty, recommend when you are in the mood for some more nostalgic disney vibes :)

D a n c i n g Q u e e n 女王

by v a p o r w a v e

okay so i originally found this on an edit of “the snap from avengers infinity war, but dancing queen” -

and when i tell you that the snap got even sadder, I-

anyways, i also really like vaporwave music, very interesting and very cool. i love the video because i’m pretty sure it’s the original music video, but it looks like your looking through a kaleidoscope, so 100000000/10. this song is so good vaporwave, like, just yes. like when i say this hits different, like for real, this hits different. ABBA is always good, but this by far has to be my favorite thing of ABBA music i have ever found. It’s like…

it’s just incredible.

like i said with the ethereal remix of clair de lune, this is like a song that you put on your life, and just look at all the memories and moments that have happened to you.

overall, recommend when you wanna just sit and think for awhile, or maybe make the snap from avengers infinity war sadder

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and that’s it! i decided that i would just stick to 10, the other ones i have done are about 12, and i just thought it was a good number lol 😂 i hope you guys enjoy these as much as I do, and check out my pinned post to see them all linked on one post :)

lots of spells (& music listening),

moony

#music #music time my goonies #youtube #hope you enjoy ☺️#wolffe :)#general angsty ✨#lady kuri 😏#bicep ahsoka 😎🧡💙#you need a new nickname lil’soka #since i call you that now #lil’soka 💙🤍🧡🌼

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shinydelirium · 3 years ago

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MLQC Season 2 Chapter 12 (Kiro) Part 4 [Confession of the Stars] Translation [CN]

***SPOILERS*** THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR CONTENT NOT YET RELEASED ON EN SERVER!!! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***

For previous translations of Season 2 Chapter 12: Part 1/ Part 2/ Part 3

Enjoy~

[Confession of the Stars]

Even so, I still didn’t see Kiro’s face. The hospital still expressed his unwillingness to see anyone.

But nonetheless, it was fine for me to text him. I want him to know that he is not alone.

As long as he wants, I will appear in front of him immediately.

In the past two days, Kiro has asked Savin to bring his belongings to him from time to time and sometimes buy a few books.

After entrusting a lawyer to submit my alibi for me, I no longer need to go to the Task Force for regular reports.

However, the previous hospital hostage incident triggered more and more group skirmishes and discussions on the Internet continued on.

Everyone wants become the one who wins the right to speak. On the other hand, the hostile takeover incident of LFG, which had been raging before, was gradually suppressed.

There hasn’t been much movement on LFG’s side, so the problem probably isn’t that serious. I also successfully sent out the USB flash drive according to Gavin’s instructions.

Many departments of the company are asking whether or not to follow the hot topics to produce a show. I was so busy that I could only text Kiro at night.

Such days lasted for more than a week.

After nine o’clock in the evening, I had just entered the house, dragging my weary body when Kiro called.

Kiro: ….Miss Chips?

His voice was a little cautious, wary, and even quivering.

MC: What’s wrong?

Kiro let out a little laugh from the other end.

I’ve been so out of it lately. It’s been a very long time since I heard him laugh so enthusiastically.

Kiro: MC, say my name.

MC: Kiro, are you okay? Why are you so happy?

He didn’t answer but just laughed happily.

Kiro: What are you up to?

MC: Of course, I just got home from a rough day at work. ***Changed some wording***

Kiro: Thanks for all the hard work, Miss Chips.

I was lying on the sofa and complaining to Kiro about recent events. He listened carefully, and from time to time he also grumbled about his troubles to me.

This moment gave me a certain illusion, as if nothing was wrong.

The next day I heard that Kiro asked Savin to bring his guitar.

At the same time, the Task Force came forward and started to take control of the chaotic situation reasonably and accurately.

I checked Weibo and found that more and more people are no longer emotionally angry, but deeper in discussion about the relationship between Evol and ordinary people.

Along with the nice weather, I think a lot of things are heading in a good direction little by little.

I had a rare chance to get off of work early today. After thinking about it, I went and bought Kiro’s favorite canelé and arrived at the door of his ward.

MC: It would be wonderful if I could see him today…

While I muttered this, I stretched out my hand to knock on the door.

Before I could, an overly harsh and messy guitar chord came to my ears and left me frozen in place.

The crude, sharp sound felt as if it was forced out like a shout being torn from a person’s throat and the chords held some frustration within them.

It was so depressing. It was even hard to breathe.

After a profound silence, a few faint guitar notes came quietly as if crying. The voice was soft and desperate, as if it was not a note.

But a shattered dream.

I leaned on the door and listened to the broken chords, holding my breath without making a sound.

Finally, I left the snack in the nurse’s care. I told her to give it to Kiro after waiting for a bit and then left.

On the way home, a new advertisement shot by Kiro some time ago is being displayed on the large screen on the side of the road.

Passerby A: Kiro clearly announced that he’s an Evolver. Why is he still so popular?

Passerby B: Kiro is Kiro. What does that have anything to do with being an Evolver?

Passerby A: Maybe he used some special Evol to control you and made you like him so much.

Passerby B: Do you actually know him or even understand him?! Of course, there’s a reason why Kiro is so well-liked. Do you think Evol can do everything?

Passerby B: I’ll show you this collection. You’ll understand after reading it. Why hasn’t he released a new song yet….?

The girl and her companions walked away slowly and I watched their backs disappear into the night.

In this turbulent moment, there are still many people talking about him, expecting him, and waiting for him. But at this time, I don’t want to tell him this.

Stars dotted the night sky, watching the whole city tenderly and peacefully.

I took a photo of this night sky with my phone and sent it to Kiro.

I don’t know what Kiro is struggling by himself, but I hope he won’t make all his expectations become his own burdens.

There was no reply from Kiro that night.

Until 7:25 the following evening, my phone rang.

***During this next scene, the 3rd anniversary song is being played. It made the entire scene so much more emotional and touching but also sad. The BGM in this whole chapter was meticulously chosen.***

Kiro: Good evening, Miss Chips.

Kiro: How did you know that I wanted to eat canelé? When I ate it yesterday, tears were about to come out.

MC: Tears from the corners of your mouth? ***T/N: She means drooling***

Kiro: Hehe, hurry up and remove the camera you installed on me!

MC: If there really was a webcam, that would be great….by the way, how are you today? ***Woah, woah, MC!!! So you want to upgrade from sneaky pictures to sneaky videos? MY GIRL!!!***

Kiro: Of course, I’m doing well!

MC: That’s good. It seems that the retreat is working effectively.

Hearing what I said, he laughed. His voice full of energy.

But we both know that these are all tacit masks.

Kiro is too clever. He must know how weak his excuses for shutting himself up are.

So weak that he doesn’t believe them himself.

When 7:30 came around, Kiro stopped talking. Then suddenly he spoke solemnly.

Kiro: Miss Chips, I want to play some songs for you.

MC: Okay! I haven’t heard you play a song in a long time.

Gentle guitar music came slowly from the other end of the phone. I imagined Kiro playing right now and closed my eyes, feeling a little nostalgic.

Soon, one song was finished.

Kiro: Sitting on the bed and closing my eyes just now, it felt like I was in a concert.

MC: That’s not right. The audience hasn’t arrived yet and you can’t have a concert with just you.

Kiro: Then come to the special concert. A concert dedicated by Kiro himself.

Kiro: Miss Chips is the only special guest.

MC: That’s not very monotonous.

Kiro: How could it be?

Kiro: Miss Chips, are you standing by the window right now? Can you see the stars outside?

Listening to what he said, I immediately got up and went to the balcony.

The stars outside the window twinkled and hung in the night sky like little lights.

MC: I can!!!

Kiro: My favorite stage is like this starry sky.

Kiro: That was my first stage. It was not very big and crowded with people.

Kiro: That day was the same as today, a sky full of stars. There was a long passage leading to the main stage.

Kiro: Every time I stepped on a square, a star will light up under my feet.

Kiro: The audience turned on the flash from the back of their phones and the whole world seemed to be connected into a sea of stars.

Kiro: In that moment, I told myself to shine in this sea of stars and become the brightest one.

I slowly listened to him talking about his beloved stage and the brightest star in his heart.

I was on this end of the phone, looking at the starry night outside. I could feel him holding my hand and leading me towards the stage.

I saw him piously touching the places he knew and missed the most, holding the guitar and standing in the most radiant place.

His entire being seems to be shining.

Kiro: Miss Producer, would you say I’ve done it?

MC: Of course.

MC: You did it long ago.

Kiro laughed lightly. This time the guitar music was accompanied by his singing.

His voice is so soft and sincere, like some kind of long-distance reunion. Like a farewell to something.

After a dozen songs were sung one after another, Kiro’s voice was already a little hoarse.

MC: ….Since it’s a concert, can I still have an encore?

Kiro: (chuckles) Since it’s MC’s request, I would definitely not refuse it.

Kiro: This is the last song called “Confession of the Stars”.

***T/N: Decided to include both the EN and CN versions of the lyrics. I’m not a songwriter so the CN version is what Google Translate gave me. I really love Bian Jiang’s singing in this scene so do give it a listen 😉. Also, I love how there’s no BGM music playing while he sings because I feel like that would just take away some of the emotion.***

Kiro: (EN version) “I got a song that I wanna sing for you~ It may not be perfect, but it will have to do~”

“Dreaming your dreams and going your own way~ Sometimes you feel lonely, sometimes heartbreak…”

(CN version) “There is a song I want to sing for you~ For you who work hardest in the world~”

“On the road towards your dream~ Sometimes you feel a little lonely….”

***Now I can’t hear this song the same way ever again. WHY, KIRO!?! TELL ME WHY!?!? YOU SURE KNOW HOW TO BREAK MY HEART!!! TAT***

When I heard the familiar, leisurely melody, I was overwhelmed. The song seemed to pass through time, embracing me tenderly.

I always feel that something will end after this song. I want to try my best to hold onto it, but I can only grasp at nothingness. ***FORESHADOWING!!! Actually, this entire “concert” is.***

Eventually, I could only wait quietly for it to come to an end.

Kiro: (sighs) The concert is over. Thank you, Miss Chips.

Kiro: (In the sweetest, most tender voice): Good night.

-End of Part 4-

#spoilers #mlqc #mlqc spoilers #mlqc season 2 #mlqc season 2 spoilers #translations #mlqc translations #mlqc season 2 translations #kiro #kiro spoilers #love and producer #koi to producer #mr love queen's choice #mr love game #mr love dream date #mldd

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7-wonders · 5 years ago

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As Above, So Below Ch. 21

Summary: Your average, mundane life as a college student is flipped upside down when the man you thought you knew as your next-door neighbor turns out to be the God of the dead. When Michael lures you down to Hell, everything that you thought you knew about the world is proven wrong.

Word Count: 2523

A/N: Hello, hope y’all enjoy this new chapter! If you did, likes and reblogs are extremely appreciated, as are comments :)

In all of your wildest dreams, you would have never imagined getting to show your love your favorite parts of being a human would be one of them, let alone your reality. Now, Michael’s hand clasps yours as you walk down the streets of . He had given you the option to go anywhere and, while there’s so many places and things that you want to show him, you had to first go to where it all began. The situation almost feels mundane, were it not for the fact that Michael’s the literal God of the Dead.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, darling?” Michael mutters into your ear.

“Just...thinking about how weird this is, that we’re together Above.”

“Is it a good weird or a bad weird?”

He’s teasing you, the quirk of his lips betraying his cautious words, so you play along. “A bad weird, obviously. I had hoped to parade through the streets after successfully returning from the land of the dead. Unfortunately, I seem to have fallen in love with the ruler of that land.”

Michael smirks, stilling when you smile at him and kiss his neck. “What was that?”

“Uh, me kissing your neck?” Michael nods. “Because I think you’re cute, and I can show you my affection when we’re not fighting, fucking, or on the verge of death.”

He stares at you for a long moment, making you nervous that kissing his neck was the wrong move. “Do it again,” Michael commands.

Biting your lip to stifle your giggles, you oblige and kiss his neck once more. Michael hums contentedly, pulling you closer to his side. Everything about you clashes with him. Michael’s skin, pale as new snow, while your skin has weathered years of being under the sun. He’s clad in nothing but black, which makes your sweater stand out even more. He refuses to show more than a minuscule smirk in public, but the wide smile on your face more than makes up for his lack of one. On the outside, you’re two completely different people. Your souls, however, are another story.

If souls could have colors, Michael’s would be the darkest shade of black. It’s the type of soul where, if anyone were to get too close, they would come away with hands stained the same color as his soul. You’re not sure what color yours would be, but certainly lighter than Michael’s. While your soul no doubt bears the mark of Michael, just as his has your lightness, a stain’s something that you want to get out. You would never want to remove Michael from any part of your life. No matter the differences you may share, your souls are in perfect harmony with one another, each drawing light from the dark and vice versa.

“This is the best that your mortal life has to offer?”

You shoot Michael a playful glare. “Well, I didn’t exactly have much of a forewarning before arriving at Violet’s, which makes it a little difficult to come up with a way to fully celebrate my last day as a mortal.”

“We can do whatever you would like, darling. This is your day; I will follow you anywhere and do anything as long as I’m with you.”

“Including just standing around, waiting for me to decide what to do?”

Michael laughs, pulling you closer to him and kissing your forehead. “Especially that.”

You continue walking through a park, no destination in mind as you think about the possibilities of the day. You could go to Paris or Milan. Greece would be nice to visit, although you’re not sure Michael would be too excited about that. Somewhere tropical, maybe? The mental image of Michael, dressed in his long sleeves and slacks and sitting under a black umbrella to keep out of the sun, makes you laugh.

“Wait,” you say suddenly, an idea forming. “Can you give me like half an hour to get some things together? I know what I want to do.”

“What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?”

You shrug. “I don’t know. Go help your sister? Or I’m sure there’s business to attend to back home, if you think you have the time.”

“Half an hour,” Michael says after a moment, “and no longer. Then I’ll have to hunt you down and it will spoil whatever you’re planning.”

“Deal!” Kissing Michael quickly, you glance around to make sure nobody is looking your way before you transmute to where you need to go. Michael sighs while looking at the spot where you once were, your excitement getting the best of your conversational skills.

“Love you too.”

Exactly thirty minutes later, you track Michael down with very simple divination. You’ve kept good on your promise of never using a mirror for divination again, the experience of being sucked into a living nightmare one that you’d like to never repeat, but divination using objects like pebbles comes in handy. He’s not at his sister’s apartment, nor is he in the Underworld. Instead, Michael’s in a location that you’re both familiar with; the location where you first met.

The Murder House doesn’t hold the same dread within its walls that it once did. After battling the literal Devil, you don’t think anything could scare you like it used to. Traipsing through the house like you own the place (maybe you do--if Michael owns it, then that means it’s technically yours, right?), you find Michael standing in the unfinished living room.

“Feeling nostalgic?” You wrap your arms around him from behind, leaning your head against his firm back.

“Just reminiscing.” Michael lifts your arms from his torso, turning around so that you’re face to face with him. “Did you accomplish what you set out to do?”

Humming your affirmation, you look up at Michael. “When was the first time you saw me? Was it when I snuck in here to go ghost hunting, or were you up to some stalker shit?”

“It was not ‘some stalker shit,’” Michael quotes with a scowl. “I had simply come Above for some business, using the Hellmouth under this house as my portal, when I saw you struggling to carry all of your groceries into the house at once.”

“Wow, and you didn’t bother to help?” you quip sarcastically.

“If I remember correctly, I heard you saying that ‘multiple trips are for amateurs.’ Didn’t want to diminish your accomplishment.” Your face heats up at the quote, but you can’t help the smile at the first time Michael saw you.

“That’s when you knew you loved me, right?”

Your teasing tone is lost on Michael. “No. I knew I was in love with you the first time you met Cerberus and you immediately managed to become best friends with him.”

“How do you manage to make my jokes into something sweet and sentimental?”

“A millennia of practice.” Michael looks out the window, towards the house that you used to occupy. “Do your roommates know what’s become of you?”

“I told them I’m studying abroad in England next year, and that I wanted to leave early to travel through Europe. My belongings are still there, but I can worry about getting those later.” You can tell that Michael is starting to feel guilty about what he believes is himself forcing you from your mortal life, so you grab his hands. “Are you ready to see what I have planned now?”

“Lead the way, my queen.” Closing your eyes tightly (the sudden change of location still makes you a little nauseous), you transmute both you and Michael to your so-called “secret” location.

It takes Michael a moment to adjust, the sunlight so bright that his eyes squint to avoid being temporarily blinded. You giggle, waiting patiently as he becomes accustomed to being in nature. When he’s finally able to open his eyes, he looks around in confusion.

“Is this--”

“The meadow that you recreated for me in Elysium when you took me on a date. I decided that I wanted to show you the real version of it.”

Michael’s at a loss for words as he looks around at the wide open space, and the best response he can come up with is “why did it take you thirty minutes if you knew where you were going?”

Gesturing to a spot beneath a large tree, Michael sees a large blanket set up with a variety of foods spread on it. “I figured I would return the favor and take you on a date this time.”

“That’s quite backwards, isn’t it?”

“It’s the 21st century, Michael. Women can take men on dates if they want.”

Michael knows you’re joking, but still holds his hands up in mock-surrender. “I’m not complaining, I’m just not used to this.”

You lead Michael over to the picnic you set up, sitting down and attempting to keep your excitement contained as he joins you. “Pick your poison, baby. What speaks to you?”

“What are those?” Michael asks, pointing to a plate.

“They’re cupcakes.” He tilts his head in confusion, reminding you of a puppy. “It’s cake, but in cup form so that you don’t have to eat it with a fork.”

Hesitantly unwrapping one, he sniffs it before taking a cautious bite. Michael looks at you with an indecipherable expression, his lips sporting the remains of the white frosting.

“Oh, I really like that.”

You laugh, surprising him when you kiss the frosting off of his lips. “You have to be careful though, because they can be pretty sweet.”

“Just like you,” Michael fires back, making you roll your eyes.

“Wow, how original. There must be a universal playbook or something.”

“Or every other man in history has learned that line from me, because I’m pretty sure I was the first to use that line,” Michael points out, making you begrudgingly nod.

“I didn’t think of that possibility.”

“Your turn.” Dipping his finger in the frosting of a cupcake, Michael holds it up to your lips and watches intently as you lick it into your mouth. You know exactly the game that he’s playing towards, and you refuse to give in.

“What’s it like?” you ask suddenly.

“What’s what like?”

“Being immortal.”

Michael thinks for a moment. “There’s a certain...power that comes along with knowing that you are one of the privileged few that get to live forever, but I can tell that’s not what you’re curious about.”

You smile slightly, shaking your head. “I’m scared to watch my family and friends grow old and die, while I remain the same.”

“I can’t pretend that I know what that’s like,” Michael sighs, “but I can attempt to offer you comfort. While that must be difficult, the upside of being the Queen of the Underworld--”

“Not yet,” you chime in.

“Not yet, but you will be. Anyways, I suppose that’s the beauty of our realm. Life does not end with death; it continues, just in different forms.” At the mention of ‘death,’ Michael looks down at the wilting flowers around him in disdain. “Well, life does not end with death when it involves you.”

“Here, give me your hand.” Michael looks at you suspiciously, but you just hold your hand in front of his face. “Hand.”

Michael complies, placing his large hand in yours. You breathe deeply, ignoring how he looks at you like you’re going a little crazy.

“Now look.” Michael does as he’s told, looking down at the ground. The flowers around him are now fully blooming, each a variety of colors that have Michael bending down to get closer.

“You’re spectacular, (Y/N).” Michael beams at you. “I cannot wait until you’re my wife.”

“Your wife?” you say, choking on air.

“Yes? That’s typically what comes along with being a queen.” Michael hesitates at the look on your face. “I mean, unless that’s not what you want, in which case exceptions can be made.”

“Michael,” you call, stopping his rambling. “It’s--you just surprised me, that’s all. We’ve never talked about marriage before, so I wasn’t really expecting it.”

“You...would want to be my wife, though?” Michael asks cautiously.

“Is this you asking to marry me?”

“Would you accept if it was?”

You shrug, stringing him out just a little longer. “I don’t know, I suppose you’ll have to ask and find out.”

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N), I love you. As a man who did not believe I was capable of being loved, you’ve shown me how to love and be loved unconditionally. For that, I give you my word that I will love you until the end of days. I can only hope that you will do the same; that I have left the same indelible mark on your soul as you have mine.

“I am sure you are aware that our union would not be the traditional one that you have in mind. No white dress or elaborate ceremony, no ‘I do’s or wedding marches. However, I can promise you that you will be mine, just as much as I will be yours. We will be married for all intents and purposes as according to the customs of the gods. I will move mountains for you; hang the stars in the sky and then take them down, solely because you asked me to do so. So, (Y/N), will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

You grin, desperate not to cry as Michael spills his feelings to you, ending it with a declaration that’s just as surprising to him as it is to you. He knows what you’re going to say, he’s been able to read you like a book since the day you met, but he still waits patiently to hear you say it.

“Yes, Michael.” You whisper it so quietly that you fear it may get lost in the wind, but he hears it. “Of course I’ll marry you.”

He takes your face in his hands. “Yes? Really?”

“Yes,” you laugh. “Really.”

Michael surges forward to kiss you, eagerly touching any piece of you that he can. You giggle as he lays you back on the blanket, hovering over you and kissing your cheeks, nose, neck--everywhere.

“My wife,” he says in awe. “You’ll have to forgive me for not having a ring at the ready for this spontaneous proposal.”

“I don’t need a ring, love,” you stroke his hair away from his face. “Having you as my husband is all I’ll need.”

“Your majesty,” a voice says suddenly, causing you and Michael to spring apart. Cassius, the demon who had helped with your plan to dispose of Satan, stands above the blanket.

“Jesus Christ,” you mutter, still getting over the shock of having somebody interrupt an intimate moment. “Look, I know you shun modern advancements, but everybody should seriously consider investing in cell phones to give some forewarning.”

Michael huffs a laugh under his breath, kissing your hand that he holds. “Cassius, what brings you here.”

“I have a message from Hermes, on behalf of Hera. The golden apple has been procured. Hermes will be bringing it Below henceforth.”

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elenamcwrites · 4 years ago

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folklore - a reading

If you’re a swiftie (officially not capitalized now), like me, you’ve probably been experiencing the mystical reverb and spiritual reckoning that is folklore. You’ve also probably been reading plenty of reviews and analysis articles--there are some stellar articles out there already.

Listening to the album is like lying in a meadow over the course of a summer day, afternoon thunderstorm, and the harsh sunset that comes afterwards, spiraling through memories and contemplation. It’s the best of the worst feelings you’ll ever have, and you can’t stop.

So, compulsively, I had to share my own interpretations and thoughts as I listen to the album again for the 7th time.

the 1 - Starting out with just piano, and then turning into what feels like a casual bop, the attitude of this song starts out very ‘I Forgot That You Existed’. And we hold onto that cavalier, ‘oh well’ attitude until... UNTIL. “If my wishes came true, it would’ve been you.” That line starts the slow ache that builds through the end of the track and makes this song much more more layered and complex than the first song of Lover. Perhaps this is a more honest version of the same feeling. Swift digs deep into that nostalgic feeling, letting us vibe to the wistful wishing at the same time. And of course, there is foreshadowing in the lyrics--film, graves, rose, chosen-family, painting. All of these reappear later on in various songs on the album, and some have been themes from earlier albums, too (especially graves).

Highlight lyric: “In my defense I have none // for digging up the grave another time.”

cardigan - We start with a beat that sounds reminiscent of “high heels on cobblestones,” and it emphasizes this early imagery. Being young is one of the major themes of this song, even though it’s also part of the triptych of songs about a love triangle. The nostalgia feels more specific to young love generally than to the specific lover, asking us to wonder why we judge the young perspective so harshly. The song is an anthem to how much she knew about love, including the pain of it, despite what people say. Swift has shown a special appreciation for the wisdom and raw experience of youth, and this song is another classic defense of the teenage experience. The metaphors in this song are classic Swift, and the structure of this song is reminiscent of ‘All Too Well’--the chorus lyrics change just a bit each time, and we get a powerful, gut-punch verse at the end.

Highlight lyric: “I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs // the smoke would hang around this long // cause I knew everything when I was young.”

the last great american dynasty - ‘The Man’ was probably Swift’s first real feminist anthem, directly stating how sexism affects her career and the perception people have of her. But this song gets at feminism from another perspective. First of all, she’s telling the story of Rebekah Harkness, who was the heiress that lived in her Rhode Island mansion before her. She was a trouble-maker in her town, blamed for her husband’s death and for ruining the calm status quo of the old money neighborhood. It’s completely apparent that Swift relates to this experience, and she likely knew some of this story before she purchased her home. In telling the story of a powerful, interesting woman, Taylor is rebelling against the patriarchy in a slightly subtler way than her previous songs--though she still makes her point pretty clear. Swift cares about the herstory of her home, and she’s made this story iconic by including it on her album. It’s like she took the idea of ‘Starlight,’ but instead of retelling a happy love story, she used her powers for an even more important tale. Now, there are also two potential connections to note: Rebekah also went by Betty, and her maiden name was West. Just remember that. And of course, the theme of the mad woman returns later as well.

Highlight lyric: “who knows if I never showed up what would have been // there goes the most shameless woman this town has ever seen // she had a marvelous time ruining everything.”

exile - I like to imagine this song as the follow up to ‘The Last Time,’ from Red. Both are duets, and they both have relatively simple, but strong chords as the primary musical backdrop. Where ‘The Last Time’ depicts a relationship at the cusp, moments before their final conversation, ‘exile’ is post break-up. She’s out with someone new, and we understand this is an unspoken conversation across a room. And the vibe of the songs fit with this progression perfectly. ‘The Last Time’ feels like anxious desperation, but exile feels heavy and depressingly final. We revisit the film motif, and there’s some potential connection to the archived ‘If This Was A Movie’. Now, is that intentional, or does Swift just really like movie imagery? Does it matter? The build in this song is arguably the best on the album, which I think is partly due to the style of the musicality, and partly because it’s helpful to have a lower voice to mix it up. This song sounds the least ‘Swift-esque’ to me--reminds me of Damien Rice most of all--but it still fits beautifully into the album. Also, lots of callbacks in here--town and crown are used a LOT in her prior albums. A few examples: “You traded your baseball cap for a crown” in ‘Long Live’, “They took the crown but it's alright” in ‘Call it What You Want,’ “Staring out the window like I’m not your favorite town” in ‘False God.’ Now, again, these could just be words that she loves to use (they also rhyme with a lot), or there could be some deeper connections. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the middle.

highlight lyric: “second, third, and hundredth chances // balancin' on breaking branches // those eyes add insult to injury”

my tears ricochet - I’ll admit this song had to grow on me a little bit. Why? Well, I don’t love revenge-ballads. But, this is much more complex than LWYMMD, and like the rest of the album, it centers the more vulnerable side of her anger. This song is 100% about Big Machine Records and Scooter Braun. The funeral is for her--or the version of herself that died just before Reputation--and she is back as a ghost (or another version of herself) to haunt those who caused her death. It’s slow, moody, haunted... Everything you want from a bitter funeral march. The best part of this song is that she doesn’t solely pass blame. She shows off her self-awareness, which has become more common in all her music since 1989, but still very clearly places responsibility on Scooter for her ‘stolen lullabies’ (i.e. her masters). Swift claims this song is about young love gone wrong--but, death is a pretty intense metaphor, and given that she blatantly used it (for the first, and maybe only time?) to talk about her career, I don’t think anyone is buying it.

highlight lyric: “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace // and you’re the hero flying around saving face”

mirrorball - Maybe I’m just a biased toward romantic and nostalgic songs, because I don’t love this one either. (I’m sorry!) But, here’s what I’ll say: this song is still exquisite. It reminds me of the reverb-radio-vibe of the late 80s songs, but with the astral, saccharine flavor of the rest of the album. If you condensed the Miss Americana documentary into a song, this would be it. A reflection (get it?) of fame and her desire to be everything to everyone--to be well liked, to be the center of attention. The coolest thing about ‘mirrorball,’ to me, is that she hasn’t written a song quite like this before. It’s sort of a manic-pixie-dream-girl version of herself. Swift is telling us that she knows who she is, and that comes with seeing the less ‘pretty’ side.

highlight lyric: “I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why // I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try try.”

seven - Can you say haunting innocence? This is a great song for half-attentive listening in the sun, and it could almost be a lullaby. In Swift-lore, the theme of childhood shows up every so often, like in ‘Mary’s Song,’ ‘The Best Day,’ ‘It’s Nice to Have a Friend,’ and ‘Christmas Tree Farm.’ This one is definitely the most dreamy, and it is also tinged with that darkness that consistently underlies all the tracks on this album--“Are there still beautiful things?” Imagine a sepia filter, and that’s kind of what this song embodies. Some fans have wondered about this song as a possible hint to bisexuality and/or relationships with women in general. (See Kaylor fan theories if you want to dive deep.) I can see this--the childhood friend has braids, which could imply she’s a little girl, and they ‘hide in the closet’. However, it seems more likely to me that this is coincidence. Lots of kids play in their closets, and if the song is about the friend’s father being angry all the time (and maybe abusive?) hiding in the closet also makes literal sense. I think the imagery in this song is some of my favorite on this album.

Another interesting point that I haven’t seen discussed so far is that Swift names this song ‘seven’ spelled out, yet uses the number ‘1′ in the first track title. The only other track she uses numbers in the name is ‘22′, which is about being 22. So, she could be trying to push past the idea that ‘seven’ is just about being 7 years old--though I do think it’s about that, too. She could also be intentionally connecting ‘the 1′ to ‘22′ in some way. They are both a similar vibe, and perhaps they even refer to the same time period in her life. If we go with that theory, who was T dating at 22? The most likely candidate for that timeframe is Conor Kennedy, which was sort of short-lived, and didn’t seem to end with as much fire as many of her break-ups. So, it’s possible that it’s about him. Or, maybe she just wanted to make sure we knew that ‘the 1′ was a concept she doesn’t really believe in anyway, and didn’t want to grant it the full word ‘one’. Will we ever know?

highlight lyric: “Before I learned civility // I used to scream // Ferociously // Any time I wanted”

august - It seems clear to me that this is the second song in the love-triangle narrative. I’ve heard people claim this is ‘illicit affairs’, but those people obviously haven’t looked at the lyrics. The narrator says ‘James, get in the car,’ which is directly connected to the lyrics in ‘betty.’ But, even without that obvious link, the style of august fits in with the stylistic choices of ‘cardigan’ and ‘betty’. All three have strong instrumental tracks complementing the vocals, soft harmonies, and lots of wistful lyrics. ‘illicit affairs’ cuts much sharper and deeper, but more on that later. Combining the dreamy vibes of ‘seven’ with the slight bop of ‘the 1′, this track is sticky--easy to get stuck in your head. The only thing I wonder about this song is how old this narrator is meant to be. They’re drinking wine, and she references going ‘back to school,’ which sort of feels like a reference to the college experience. But, the betty and james characters make numerous references that feel like high school. So, maybe this affair took place in another city with a college girl? I have to wonder if this is Swift referencing some of the age-gap relationships she’s been in. Again, with Conor Kennedy, she was 22, and he was 18. She also supposedly crashed his sister’s wedding in August, and that was the start of the end of their short romance. I’m just saying...

highlight lyric: “Wanting was enough, for me it was enough // to live for the hope of it all.”

this is me trying - If ‘The Archer’ was Swift confessing to her bad habits after a couple early relationship fights, ‘this is me trying’ is a desperate reminder a few months into the relationship. The two songs are sonically very similar, and I didn’t love the vibe (sorry, again!) the first time. But, I do love the artistic continuation. ‘this is me trying’ slows us down even more than ‘The Archer’ did, with a drum line that is almost like a heart beat, and it feels much less hopeful as a result. The lyrics are also some of the darkest I’ve heard from Swift--”I got wasted like all my potential” and “could’ve followed my fears all the way down.” My heart almost can’t handle this song, to be honest. She also references films again, but my favorite imagery connection is her standing over the lookout, which calls back to Rebekah looking out over the sea in LGAD.

highlight lyric: “and maybe I don't quite know what to say // but I'm here in your doorway”

illicit affairs - This song has that ‘All Too Well’ ache with a hint of ‘Death by A Thousand Cuts’ energy, and personally, I love it. You’ve got the busy instrumental strings underneath a simple, yet haunting melody line, and it’s that light, anxious tension that fits beautifully with the theme of the song. The lyrics depict the simple, small heartbreaking things that remind you of the pain you’re putting yourself through, which is reflected in the slightly surprising, soaring note at the end of the line in the verses. Whether you’ve actually been involved in an affair, these feelings show up in plenty of toxic relationships, and that universality is part of what makes the song powerful. The lyrics aren’t about pretty images, but that’s sort of the point. It’s prime Swift conversational lyricism, and you could pick out any number of lines that make a painful short poem all by themselves.

highlight lyric: “and you wanna scream // don’t call me “kid,” don’t call me “baby” // look at this godforsaken mess that you made me // you showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else”

invisible string - The primary love song on the album, this feels like a follow up to ‘Lover,’ maybe something she’d sing after being married a year or two. It’s sort of like ‘Mine,’ but much more mature, partly indicated by the pace of the song, which is steady and sure of itself. It’s also lovely to me that she’s returned to a bit of her country vibes--I ask you, would it feel like true end-game love for Swift if she couldn’t write a country love song about it? Back when she wrote country, all her happy ending songs were merely aspirational, and now they feel true. This is also 100% about Joe Alwyn, and to me, this is proof they have not broken up like some early reviews speculated. We also need to acknowledge that she’s past the Joe Jonas break up (um, good, that was ages ago) and is sending him and Sophie presents for their baby. I read a review that basically said this song seems a little too ‘all tied up’ for Swift, and that it doesn’t feel as genuine as a result. I sort of agree, but if we can take a sad song and accept that it isn’t how she feels 100% of the time, can’t we also do that with happy songs? Plus, she technically does say that it would be ‘pretty to think,’ which sort of implies it’s more a thought experiment than an actual belief. So, there’s that little twinge of sadness we needed to appease the folklore goddess. Oh, and of course, there’s a reference to Lover’s color scheme, saying time “gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies.” Which, many Kaylor hopefuls read as a reference to the Bi pride flag. To that, I just say... Maybe?

highlight lyric: “time, mystical time // cutting me open, then healing me fine”

Mad woman - My favorite thing about this song is the piano melody that happens in the background the whole song, working in concert with the main melody, but also completely independent (and haunting). It reminds me of one concept of madness--having multiple voices or thoughts going on simultaneously. But of course, it’s artfully and perfectly put together, which is the whole point. What could be perceived as madness is, in this case, what makes her able to create a masterful work of art. Now, this is also certainly a song about her masters, Scooter Braun, and Scott Borchetta. But it is also another feminist anthem. Women are taught not to be angry, not to yell, not to react with any emotionality otherwise we are discredited entirely. Swift directly calls this to attention by explaining that we’re angry for a reason--often antagonized intentionally until ‘you find something to wrap your noose around.’ She also makes the important point that women can also ‘hunt witches,’ and can be complicit in treating one another poorly. This is a reference to Scooter Braun’s wife defending him publicly against Taylor. Probably the most savage line is about the ‘master of spin’ having affairs, which she implies his wife knows about and seems to passively accept. But Swift doesn’t go too hard on her, reminding us that ‘no one likes a mad woman’, and that pressure is real. Could this ‘master of spin’ also be Scooter? I think probably. But I did read that some people are connecting this song to Hillary Clinton (she’s a scorpio, and the song references a scorpion sting), and that maybe Trump is the adulterer here... I feel like that’s a stretch, but I appreciate the interpretation.

highlight lyric: “What a shame she went mad // You made her like that”

epiphany - I suspect this song is directly related to how Swift is processing the current state of the pandemic. The atmospheric vibe with slow, clock-ticking beat in the background really feels momentous and poignant. Yes, she starts with images conjured from her grandfather’s stories of World War II, but she quickly seems to compare this awful battle to the doctors fighting COVID-19 on the frontlines in hospitals. The lyrics are simple, repetitive, and powerful. With so many ill literally struggling to breathe, the lines about breathing out really do hit especially hard these days. I can’t believe that wasn’t a thoughtful choice. The chorus is just barely hopeful, reminiscent of the numbness we all have to use as a coping mechanism to get through traumatic experiences. But it’s that little sliver of hope that makes the song even sadder--is that possible?

highlight lyric: “only twenty minutes to sleep // but you dream of some epiphany // just one single glimpse of relief // to make some sense of what you've seen”

betty - Give me all that Tim McGraw, Love Story, early Taylor pop-country. This song is definitely enhanced in part because of its connections to ‘cardigan’ and ‘august,’ but it stands strong on its own. It’s old news at this point, but James and Inez are based on the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s daughters, so it’s all-but-confirmed that their third daughter was named Betty. Written from the perspective of James, there is massive speculation out there about whether the narrator is meant to be a boy or a girl. There are reasonable clues on both sides, so I’ll just say this: I love Taylor, but she’s always been a little late to the party when it comes to socialized ideas of male/female. Because of that, I don’t think she’d have a female narrator riding a skateboard. I also feel from the style of narration--“I don’t know anything;” “just a summer thing;” “would you tell me to go fuck myself”--it does sound more like stereotypical teenage boy language than what we know as swiftie teenage girl language. What I do like about this song, though, is that because it’s written from James’s perspective, it does sort of leave a wider opening for personal interpretation than some of her other love-story-like songs. The reason I personally love this song is that it’s mostly about redemption and forgiveness. Everyone has wished someone who broke their heart would write this song about them, and so it offers catharsis. Plus, it’s the only song on the album that truly feels happy at the end--thanks, key change! It’s refreshing and heartening, and it’s good timing, too. After the heaviest song on the album, we needed it. (Oh, and there’s a callback to the broken cobblestones from ‘cardigan’. And then he literally mentions her cardigan. So.)

highlight lyric: “if you kiss me // will it be just like I dreamed it? // will it patch your broken wings?”

peace - The vibe of this song is like laying on your couch in the summer with light coming in through the blinds and the ceiling fan is going around just fast enough to keep the warm air circulating, but not really cool you off. This song has a hint of ‘False God’ style, a little jazzy, but otherwise, it’s a pretty fresh feel for Swift. The message fits this thoughtful, lightly antsy feeling. She’s basically saying she wants to start a family with Joe (no, I don’t think she is literally pregnant yet) and settle down, but there is no real ‘settling down’ with her level of fame. I also think that Swift truly enjoys making music, performing, and engaging with her fans, and she doesn’t want to leave that life behind any time soon. So, she’s asking him if he can make that work. It’s, again, a mature vision of what a long-term relationship can actually look and feel like. Not all of us can truly relate to the burdens of fame, but there are other ways we can be unable to ‘give you peace’. No relationship is idyllic forever in the way romantic love often makes it out to be, and this song gives us a more realistic, consistent example. And just in case we thought this was just a nice song, the whole ‘clowns to the West’ is another potential Easter egg. In the lyric video, east is not capitalized, but West is. Most likely, this is a dig at Kanye. If we want to believe Taylor wasn’t being vengeful, it could potentially be a reference to Rebekah (West was her maiden name). I lean toward theory one, although it’s kind of amazing that it works out such that it connects to both.

highlight lyric: “but I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm // if your cascade ocean wave blues come”

hoax - (Phew last one--I don’t have access to ‘the lakes’ yet) Swift can’t end the album without bringing us all back to the raw emotional space she opened up within us. This song brings back similar piano lines from ‘mad woman’ and the image of screaming on the cliffside. Chronologically, ‘hoax’ feels like it takes place after or during the death of her reputation, i.e. the feud with Kim and Kanye, when she was still very vulnerable. Based on timeline, this seems likely to be either Calvin Harris or Tom Hiddleston. It could really be some combination of the two, since many songs aren’t really about just one person. My gut tells me it’s primarily about Calvin, since she’s referenced that they didn’t have a very faithful relationship--”your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in.” Both relationships travelled a lot--“I left a part of me in new york.” I’m guessing she’s referencing the feud with Harris over her writing credit on ‘This is What You Came For.’ She takes attacks on her career as seriously as hurtful relationships, and since she’s referencing being torn apart by the media when she says that “what you did was just as dark,” I think it’s likely that this also has something to do with hurting her reputation. It’s another hauntingly beautiful song, and you can totally imagine yourself out on that cliff looking at the midnight sea as the piano line ends.

highlight lyric: “you knew the password, so I let you in the door // you knew you won, so what's the point of keeping score?”

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

Overall, the album is my favorite of Taylor’s so far for two reasons: 1) the continuity in both theme and sound is stellar, and 2) there aren’t any songs that I don’t like. Usually, there are 1-3 songs on Taylor’s albums that are either forgettable or too on-the-nose for my taste. I’m sure that is a product, in part, of having to craft songs for radio-play and for her amazing, cinematic live shows. Having given herself the freedom to make whatever music she wanted without thinking (so much) about whether they’d top the charts or be good for a stadium concert, she made an album without a single ‘pop just because’ track.

Now the real question is... What will she do with the remaining 6 months of quarantine???

#taylor swift #swiftie #folklore #album thoughts #folklore thoughts #ts #ts8 #tswift #who else was supposed to go to lover fest?

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dearophelia · 4 years ago

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Lol duh. Gonna ask about Dropsonde.

I adore you. I’m gonna answer them all because I’m that person. Also includes 6-8 for @swaps55! Thank you both!! [dropsonde (singers in a lower choir remix)]

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

For the original? I think it was a half-baked scene that came to me while I was on vacation in Florida. I remember scribbling it down in a notebook and then going to town when I got back home. I threw a bunch of time-skips in there because, frankly, I didn’t want to write small children. I do not blame 2007 Sara for this. She was a wise human.

For the revamp? A cascading domino effect started in last October and resulted in my mental health going entirely sideways for eight solid months. Literally nothing was working to screw my head on straight again: not meds, not therapy, not yoga, not getting my sleep and food under control, literally nothing. I think it was around early June when I realized the hallucinations weren’t going away this time (and perhaps had never really left) and I hit the end of my rope. Luckily, my great pal Aly texted me out of the blue with the fact that she’d fallen face-first back down a Grey’s black hole. We got to talking about our various fics we’d both written, how nostalgic we were for them, and I re-opened the OneNote notebook I had for this. Started writing, didn’t look back.

I'm not gonna say that I’m stable again as a result (I’m really not), but I’ve written like 30k words in the last three weeks, which is the most I’ve written since August of last year, and it’s something to do and think about that isn’t pure doom and panic. It makes me happy, and makes me happy in a way that doesn’t include caveats or exceptions; there’s nothing else in my life right now that’s just happy. It’s helping.

2: What scene did you first put down?

For the original, it was the one at the beginning of (the original) chapter 2, where Addison’s finishing up Goodnight Moon for the nine-hundredth time. For the remix, it was the actual opener: where Addison finds someone else’s shoes in her apartment.

3: What’s your favorite line of narration?

Later, when the snow has turned into rain and they've even managed a round three, Addison curls up against his chest, tangling their legs together. She smiles. She'd been using dead reckoning to make it out of her storms her entire life. Now she has a lighthouse.

4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

"Your storm is a natural disaster. It's chaotic and wild and unpredictable and often the only thing I can do is hang on. But that storm brought me you. That storm brought me love and a future I didn't see a path to." His fingers coast across her bare shoulders, mapping constellations out of freckles. "And if I'm the lighthouse in your storm, then I promise you to stay standing and lit, because I need you to know the way home from your storm, Ads. To me."

5: What part was hardest to write?

I remember the original sort of effortlessly flying out of my fingertips. What’s been challenging about the rewrite is filling in all the little gaps the original left; writing the spaces between the facts. Don’t get me wrong - that has been fun as hell, but also challenging because I have to remember the voices of these characters I haven’t checked in on in over a decade.

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

IT’S MY WARM COMFY BLANKET UNIVERSE. It also...it does not have a plot. There are pieces of plot to it, but there’s not an overarching plot or anything. It’s not a mission, it’s not a rescue, it’s not anything that has plot-based structure. It’s just life. I hate plot, I hate it, it’s the worst. This lets me write shit in a world I like and not care about what happens next because life just be like that sometimes.

7: Where did the title come from?

2007 Sara was an idiot and really liked formatting her chaptered fics by snagging an album and making each chapter title a track on the album. Even if the album didn’t remotely fit (even better if it didn’t, because she thought she was such a musical snob. she was not. she was full of crap). “dropsonde” is an album by the trance group Biosphere (and I hate it. I think I hated it back then, too). It’s also a hurricane tracking tool. So that’s a weird legacy to have to work with.

The revamp’s remix title comes from Leonard Cohen, because 2020 Sara is a pretentious asshole and owning it. Book of Mercy 1: In a transition so delicate it cannot be marked, the court is established on beams of golden symmetry, and once again I am a singer in the lower choirs, born fifty years ago to raise my voice this high and no higher.

That line gives me so much life and hope: I don’t have to try to sing higher. I don’t have to reach for other octaves, I don’t have to try to shove myself into a space that isn’t Sara-shaped, and in fact I should not. Because I was born to sing in this Sara-shaped choir and it would be insulting to myself and to the creators to insinuate that this Sara-shaped choir was not made for me. The space you inhabit is holy because it is yours. As much a reminder for me as it is for the characters.

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

I don’t think I grabbed anything from actual reality? I may have. Especially in the original prequel/second part/whatever we’re calling Shenzhou, when I was grasping at straws for ideas and wrote a few really random scenes just to fill up space.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Not of the fic itself, but this Rachel Montgomery is definitely the same Rachel Montgomery in gonna set your flag on fire.

10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?

Because it was 2007, I was writing fic instead of doing homework, and Addison/Alex was very much about to become a thing after being teased for a whole fucking season. Missed opportunities: the goddamn ship. I’m still mad.

11: What do you like best about this fic?

It’s fun. It makes me happy. And I don’t care about what anyone thinks about it - there are no expectations, I’m not trying to live up to “oh god I hope it’s good enough for so-and-so” (which, yknow, is bullshit anyway, but is how my brain was working on gonna set your flag on fire). It’s completely free from strings. So I can do what I want. Who cares.

12: What do you like least about this fic?

It’s real fuckin’ long and I’m real fuckin’ long-winded. I’m about 30k in and Rachel’s not even one yet. Hot yikes.

But, on the plus side, as part of the “who gives a shit, do what you want” mentality, I’ve broken out of the “oh god I have to write the other side of this, I have to keep x topic going.” No, no I really don’t. It’s an Addison story, it’s always been an Addison story, I just didn’t realize that 13 years ago. It’s an Addison story and everyone else is window dressing that can come and go as the sun requires it.

13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

oh boy, here have an eight-hour playlist

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

plot is overrated. write what you want.

15: What did you learn from writing this fic?

I learned how much I’ve improved as a writer in 13 years. Part of this experiment was to shut down the “you’re not a good writer, you suck, no one likes you, everyone’s just tolerating you” voice that has plagued me for my entire life and got a lot louder at the end of last year because of Reasons. That voice is still trying really hard, but it doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when I can point to a scene I wrote in 2007 and then the exact same scene written in 2020 and see just how much better it is now.

#thank you both!! <3 <3 <3

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alediazpizarro · 4 years ago

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Senior Soundtrack

Music is a love language. Lo he tuiteado, lo he dicho, y —con ustedes— lo he vivido. Parte de mis 7 años en ASF ha sido la música que he compartido: canciones que son intereses en común, recomendaciones, o hasta tracks de obras de teatro que nunca voy a borrar de mi memoria. After all, de eso se trata la música en parte: de acordarse. Y sepan que cada vez que oiga una de las canciones en esta lista, va junto con su recuerdo. A todos ustedes, de todo corazón, gracias. No sé que sería de mi vida sin ustedes.

Les dejo la playlist que construyeron conmigo, whether you knew it or not, de 2014 para acá.

PS: si no aparece su nombre en esta lista de canciones, lo único que quiere decir es que we have yet to share a song. Los adoro a todos.

Abarca

Burn · Lin Manuel Miranda You have the voice of an angel, and every time I think of this song I no longer hear it in Philippa Soo’s voice, but in yours.

Tuyo · Rodrigo Amarante Dancing Kermit.

Alexander

"Eungenio” Salvador Dalí · Mecano We love the music, hate the lyrics.

Na Na Na · My Chemical Romance Debate bus trips. Blasting it from the backseat, with Nesquik and cold pasta at hand.

I’m Not Okay · My Chemical Romance “¿Estos son los Rolling Stones?”

Being Alive · Stephen Sondheim Life’s dream: be Bobby. Not literally. That would suck.

If I Could Tell Her · Benj Pasek & Justin Paul You once said this is the song you would dedicate to me. Though I think we’ve grown past that, I will always remember how warm it made me feel when you said it.

Ana

Isle of Flightless Birds · Twenty One Pilots Ya sé que me odias, pero DARARAAAARAAA

I’m Low on Gas and You Need a Jacket · Pierce The Veil El concierto que más he disfrutado en mi vida (and that’s saying a lot), y parte de por qué fue porque fui contigo. Lloramos en esta canción y en el video que grabé con mi horrible teléfono se oye lo feo que cantamos.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea · Neutral Milk Hotel De un Tiktok (de miles) que me mandaste pero de los pocos que sí abrí.

Numb · Linkin Park WAWAWAWAWAWA

Anna

Fashionista · Jimmy James Really obscure pre-middle school memory, pero every time it gets stuck in my head me acuerdo de ver el lyrics video en el ballet y la miss Celia regañándonos.

Ari

Life Itself · Glass Animals It slaps. Plus, concert.

Remember When · Wallows My favorite song in my “Drive” playlist, cada vez que sale I remember sitting in the backseat of your dad’s car and you turning the volume up so we could drive over the Reforma speed limit with this blasting.

The Cave of Two Lovers · That LSD guy from Avatar SECRET TUNNEL!!!!!!!! SECRET TUNNEL!!!! THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN!!!! SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEEEEEEEL!!!! (No Spotify version, so here’s the surf rock cover.)

Covarrubias

Toxic · A Static Lullaby Flashbacks a clase de Ms. Miranda en 7º.

Back to Black · Amy Winehouse No puedo oír esta canción sin acordarme de tu audición para Grease. Rizzo could-have-been?

Diana

The Adults Are Talking · The Strokes Es chill yet vaguely nostalgic Diana vibes to the max.

Stuck on the Puzzle · Alex Turner Thank you for liking Alex Turner. :`)

Dark Red · Steve Lacy Memorias de una tarde que pasamos armando Repentinos con una mini guillotina y pláticas de Dinamarca.

Diego

Thinking of a Place · The War on Drugs La primera que me recomendaste, y la mejor para manejar de noche.

Vissi d’Arte · Giacomo Puccini No creo que hubiera visto Tosca si no me la hubieras recomendado. Qué bueno que lo hiciste, porque esta aria se volvió de mis favoritas.

Money · Pink Floyd Alguna vez jugamos music trivia en el salón de Stearns y me acuerdo de que yo todavía no la ubicaba pero tú la adivinaste sin problema. Years later, eres la persona que sé que le gusta Pink Floyd tanto como a mí. Lástima de Roger. :(

Layla · Derek & The Dominoes Este año tuve un classic rock renaissance que empezó, you guessed it, cuando me recomendaste esta. Clapton no falla.

Klavierkonzert Nr. 21, No. 2 “Andante” · Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart También me hiciste escuchar mucha más música clásica de la que conocía, y aprendí a disfrutarla. Esta sigue siendo mi favorita.

Sara · Fleetwood Mac De las pocas de Fleetwood Mac que no conocía pero que me recomendaste en uno de esos exchanges a las 12 am y que oí con audífonos in the dark.

Resguardum Ether · León Larregui También de las pocas de este cuate que nunca había oído pero que se volvió de mis favoritas.

Fer

Good Life · OneRepublic Buenas vibes.

Can’t Fight This Feeling · REO Speedwagon Horton --> improvised conciertos en el baño.

What the Heck I Gotta Do · Lin Manuel Miranda Más conciertos de regadera/vestidor en lo que nos arreglamos juntas.

Beth · KISS El club Glee y el karaoke en el Wii.

Miss Jackson · Panic! At The Disco No lo vas a admitir, pero te gusta mi música y lo sabes. Anytime que dudas, sólo es cuestión de ponerte esta.

The Man · The Killers Nada como nuestros buenos trips manejando de noche.

Fernando

The Bad Touch · Bloodhound Gang You and me, baby, we ain’t nothing but mammals...

EugeRiq

This Life · Vampire Weekend Siempre que la oigo pienso en ti.

I Wear Glasses · Mating Ritual Me la recomendaste en alguna de mis countless Close Friends stories.

Jose

I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) · The Proclaimers Picture it: a gaggle of eight or so kids marching around Cumbres de Santa Fe loudly screaming this in a terrible Scottish accent after watching a horror movie.

Somebody Else · Clones of Clones A bop!

Ocean Man · Ween I will only say four words: Lord of the Flies.

Lauro

Desencuentro · Residente ft. Soko Clases de Domínguez contigo were always lovely. Plus, who could forget the iconic “NO HAY SEÑAL”?

I Don’t Know How to Love · The Drums Otra de cuando we were still developing our own music tastes.

Luz

Papaoutai · Stromae De cuando estábamos haciendo Haiti research and really wanted to get into the francophone mindset.

Moonlight Sonata · Ludwig Van Beethoven Those Knowledge Bowl kids never saw it coming.

Beware of the Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke) · Panjabi MC Memoria tangible de Vancouver: cuando pusiste esta en el restaurante indio al que fuimos.

Madison

I Know Things Now · Stephen Sondheim No sé cuántas veces me ayudaste a ensayar esta canción. Me ayudaste muchísimo todo Into the Woods, y desde ahí en 6º sé que te tengo como amiga.

Mare

Rumour Has It · Adele ¿Te acuerdas del proyecto que hicimos de Mr. Kamm en 7º estilo “fleas on rats”? Literal después de que usamos esta canción ya no puedo cantar las lyrics de la original.

Mariana

Bitter Sweet Symphony · The Verve La oíamos dizque “para concentrarnos” en el salón de Austin.

Pas de Quatre from Swan Lake · Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky De cuando te fui a ver bailar ballet con Fran. :)

Tú y Yo Somos Uno Mismo · Timbiriche EL SOL

Manu

Fly Away · Laid Back The moment you played this at Montero’s party you literally made everyone be vibing. It’s like the Fairy Godmother of Chill. That was also the day you stopped being “Manu from TEDx” and were just “Manu” there on. Probably ‘cause you appreciated my ability to drive a stick. :`)

MDRH

Choke · I Don’t Know How But They Found Me I wouldn’t like this Dallon spinoff as much as I do without you. It’s like emo, but evolved, mature— like you. In a good, compliment-y way.

Oceans · Frank Iero Remember when we were gonna see him in concert? :( Thanks for being the only person with whom I can enjoy weird throaty emo screamy shit. At least the guitar is good.

House of Wolves · My Chemical Romance Something about the aggressive guitar and fast pace of this song has always reminded me of you.

Mich

Tear in my Heart · Twenty One Pilots Your Koreaboo initiation before you even knew it.

The Kids Aren’t Alright · Fall Out Boy Remember the lyrics from this I wrote as a dedication in your eighth grade yearbook? I meant them.

I Write Sins Not Tragedies · Panic! At The Disco I CHIME IN—

She’s My Winona · Fall Out Boy Something about Folie à Deux, and especially about this song, always carries a you vibe.

Perfect · Simple Plan From when you got angsty and Montes called you out on it. Then it became a bit of a joke.

One of THOSE Nights · The Cab Back in seventh grade, this was the most ambitious crossover ever attempted.

Montse

I Want To Hold Your Hand · The Beatles De cuando saturamos la rockola del Johnny Rocket’s con 15 canciones y pensaron que no servía. But we knew. Plus, a really fun Snapchat video de nosotras bajando las escaleras a tambos y aplausos con esta canción.

Something · The Beatles Too bad Eric Clapton stole George Harrison’s wife.

I Am the Walrus · The Beatles Want to feel what it’s like to do acid without actually doing it? Play this song on Rock Band!

Don’t You (Forget About Me) · Simple Minds De la única pijamada que me han dejado hacer, donde vimos tu película favorita. An unforgettable night with an unforgettable person.

Pato

Hit the Back · King Princess The best experience of my life was one I’m glad I shared with you. Still want to murder those Rock Lobster loiterers though— blocked us from KP. >:(

Just the Same · Bruno Major I had never heard of him, but to be next to you enjoying him, with our KP t-shirts in my bag and just-refilled water bottles, was one of the highlights of my night.

The Louvre · Lorde Remember when we played Melodrama in your bedroom? This is the song that I feel best captivates that: shoes on the floor, laying softly on the bed, sunlight streaming in through the window, the vinyl spinning, and a general feeling of levity.

No You Girls · Franz Ferdinand Friendly reminder of literally the worst physical experience of our lives. :))))

The Other Side of Paradise · Glass Animals The first GA song I ever showed you, which is a nice chain thing because it’s the first GA song I ever listened to that Jordan showed me. And a birthday vinyl we played in your room.

Romina

The Only Thing · Sufjan Stevens This entire album is your personality. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Futile Devices · Sufjan Stevens Same as above. It’s not your fault you’re a Sufjan Suf-stan. But every time I listen to Sufjan I remember you playing him at the Open Mic. That’s a very nice feeling.

Mama · My Chemical Romance Indisputably goes HARD and hey what are mommy issues without a little angst/general gender confusion?

Sam

Goodie Bag · Still Woozy El día del college fair que estuvimos juntas al principio y conocimos a la USC rep que nos cagó traías tu camisa de Still Woozy. Since then, el grupo me recuerda a ti.

Vale

Heart of Glass · Miley Cyrus Tú viviste esta out-of-body transcendental experience al mismo tiempo que yo, el día de mi cena.

Don’t Stop · Fleetwood Mac Espero que ya te guste Rumours completo. :)

Yuhis

Chiquitita · ABBA I didn’t know you could sing. After listening to you sing this one (and almost crying), I wondered why you didn’t do it more often.

Beauty School Dropout · Frankie Avalon I am sorry pero literal I can only think of this song in your voice. Iconic!

Gracias por todo. Los quiero. Los voy a extrañar.

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yourfandomfriend · 5 years ago

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Salty Millennial Jams

Unlike a lot of people my age, I really do like Gen Z and try my best to sympathize with you guys and trust your judgement. Listen to what you have to say. Try not be that idiot shaking their fist at a cloud. But guys. Guys.

Britney Spears music was not good.

No, it wasn’t, you guys. It wasn’t, and I’m not gonna pretend that it’s just like, my opinion, man. No beef with her as a person or any of her later stuff I didn’t listen to, but in the 90s and oughts, her music was, to put it mildly, not okay.

But it was everywhere. And we hated it -- by “we” I mean everyone who wasn’t a sheltered tweenaged child whose parents picked out all their music or a 35-year-old creeper dude who got banned from the library computers.

Please, if you wanna try out late ‘90s and early ‘00s music, try literally anything else before you settle on Britney/Backstreet 4 Life? Despite the barrage of non-stop painful pop we were being force-fed, there was still this window between 97 and 2002 when mainstream music -- like, accessable, radio friendly bops -- was so good.

In fact, here’s a playlist that I listen to when I’m nostalgic for the late 90s and early oughts, stuff you Gen Z kids didn’t hear if your parents had bad taste.

OLD MILLENIUM PLAYLIST

1.) “Bouncin' Back” by Mystikal

From the days when Pharrell was mostly just fucking around in the background of other people’s jams, it’s this was super-timely, clean rap song about people being brave and managing the grief and paranoia that followed the September 11th attacks. And it’s really good, you guys. I play this when I feel like I need more fight in me, like right now.

Also, it’s a reminder of a bygone era when rap music had emotion and didn’t sound like it just did a bump of ambien.

2.) “Crush” by Jennifer Paige

It’s like “Oops! I Did it Again,” only good! This is what people like me were listening to when your grandpa was first getting into Britney Spears.

Yeah, you heard me.

3.) Sleepwalker by The Wallflowers

It’s the Crowley song! Which Crowley? Exactly.

4.) “My Favorite Mistake” by Sheryl Crow

This is a special song because it’s Sheryl Crow’s last single before she went, “Fuck it, I don’t care. Soak up the sun, it’s all bullshit anyway.”

5.) “Diggin' On You” by TLC

This is one of those songs from when people still bought entire albums for one single only to find gems like this a few tracks down. I mean, it just feels like summertime listening to this. The sound of sunlight radiating off pavement.

6.) “Otherside” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Warning: This song will try to make you listen to it on full blast five times in a row with earbuds in until yours ears bleed. Listen responsibly.

7.) "Love Is In The Right Place” by Bryan White

Hey, did you know country music wasn’t always just puns and lists of rural stuff like pickup trucks and dirt roads and sweet tea and for the love of god, don’t watch the news? Yeah, there was once happy stuff, funny stuff, deep stuff, original stuff. Good stuff.

Between “Panderin’” and a couple decades of country just being “the music of sad people” there was Clinton era country, when the genre was capable of being fun and happy and making you feel good. Suspicious timing, no?

8.) Jumper by Third Eye Blind

Speaking of great albums, every track on this album was blindingly 90s. I mean that in a good way. The obscure ones like “In the Background” kinda blew your socks off, but the singles were so great.

9.) "It's All Been Done” by Barenaked Ladies

This was part of that great 60s pop revival in the 90s that made everything on the radio so much more fun.

10.) "You Light Up My Life” by LeAnn Rimes

Okay, one more country song, and yes, it’s a cover but... I never liked the original for some reason. Too self-indulgent sounding. But I feel like Rimes nailed it. There’s almost something menacing in her deep voice in the verses, so when she sings out the chorus it gives an uplifting effect.

11.) "Are You That Somebody” by Aaliyah

Had to have at least one Aaliyah song on this list. She was one of those artists who made music like the world was the way it should be, to show it what it could be. Did I steal that line from an episode of Angel? You’ll never know.

12.) Gossip Folks by Missy Elliott

I love how gloatingly bitchy this song is. It don’t apologize and neither will I. There’s a clean version but it’s not the one on my playlist, Ye Be Warned.

13.) Sour Girl by Stone Temple Pilots

I have to end the list here because the amount of late 90s in this song threw my back out and I need to crawl for one of those grabber things.

#90s music #salty old millennial #get off my lawn!#long post #gotta do something while stuck at home #might as well rock out #playlists

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talkingismylifewrites · 5 years ago

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What are some Fleetwood Mac songs that you would recommend? I want to start listening to some of their stuff but I don’t know where to start lol

don’t worry, i gotchu. strap in, it’s long, sorry, i tried limiting it to just my top faves but that got uhhhh hard ahha:

1. landslide: this is just...this is just the greatest song ever written. it’s so poignant yet hopeful yet melancholic?? like i can still, to this day, remember the first time i heard it. it was at my friend sasha’s house, and i was six, and it was the cover by the dixie chicks?? and i heard it and i just laid on her bedroom floor and she had all these little gold painted stars on her ceiling and i felt like i was looking into the whole of space listening to it. then i heard the real version and it was even more magical. it’s a song i never skip, it’s just too beautiful.

fave lyric: “i’ve been afraid of changing cuz i’ve built my life around you/ well time makes you bolder, children get older/ i’m getting older too”

2. the chain: this fucking banger. this goddamned banger of a song!! it’s my favorite song ever, i could listen to it all day, every day. it’s a fucking powerhouse, and i’ve talked about it before, hell, i named my fic after it!! it was written for the album rumours which is infamous in that it was written while the whole band hated each other: stevie nicks and lindsey buckingham were breaking up, stevie had had an affair with mick fleetwood, john and christine mcvie were mid-divorce, and it was the shit show to end all shit shows. this is the one song that they all collaborated on together and it is fucking powerful. the whole song is about being betrayed and kinda accepting that things are ending as they are, and allowing yourself to be angry as shit over it. every single member shines on it: the rawness of the vocals from nicks and mcvie, buckingham’s guitar solo or fleetwood’s drums, to the dirty bass by mcvie. from start to finish it is, in my mind, a PERFECT song.

fave lyrics: if you don’t love me now you will never love me again/ i can still hear you sayin’ you would never break the chain

3. tusk: where do i even begin with tusk. easily one of the best drum beats? again, brilliant lyrics, stellar performance, and overall overwhelming. my dad used to play it in the car with all the windows down and we’d be driving down the highway with it blasting belting it out and it was just...amazing. i genuinely think?? that the chain and tusk compliment each other so fucking well. like the chain is about the aftermath of the break up, the initial betrayal and the heartbreak, the fucking aftermath of the destruction?? while tusk is the slow crawl of a breakdown. and like a breakup, it creeps up on you in intensity: it starts out soft and kinda suspicious? “why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” and the initially suspicions of a lover cheating, or hiding from you, and then explodes into this sick drum beat that builds and builds and builds while the horns blast and wow. it echoes in your chest, matching the intensity. it just slaps

fave lyrics: “don’t say that you love me/ just tell me that you want me”

3. silver springs: stevie nicks wrote this for rumours and apparently the decided not to include it due to ‘tensions’ in the band (lindsey buckingham cough cough). it’s so poignant?? and simple?? yet so complex?? and haunting?? that’s what i think sets stevie nicks apart from other songwriters is that her lyrics haunt you when they’re finished. like they stay with you and just loop and loop around in your mind. absolutely fucking fantastic. i cannot even imagine being lindsey buckingham and having to stand on stage and listen to the woman who i considered to be the love of my life stare into my soul while telling me that “you will never get away from the sound/ of the woman that loved you” like DAMN STEVIE!!!

fave lyrics: “time cast a spell on you but you won’t forget me/ i know i could have loved you but you would not let me”

4. rhiannon: where do i even begin with this one?? the guitar is just insane, almost as amazing as the bass, and stevie nicks just shines on vocals. she wrote the song about a welsh witch and she managed to solidify that aesthetic in the lyrics and the vocals. originally, fleetwood mac only wanted lindsey buckingham to join the band, and he had to demand that stevie nicks (girlfriend and musical partner) join. they relented, she got to join the band, and she wrote their two biggest hits off the next album; landslide and rhiannon. so suck on that.

fave lyrics: “dreams unwind/love’s a state of mind”

5. dreams: this song in itself is just an experience. it’s beautiful and haunting and so fucking melancholic and yet i listen to it no matter what my mood. apparently stevie nicks wrote it in ten minutes. TEN MINUTES. i love her. i will fully fucking admit i listen to it on the bus to work while i stare out the window to see the rain falling down outside. it is a magical experience, i firmly believe it changes you. it will cleanse you

fave lyrics: “thunder only happens when it’s raining/ players only love you when they’re playing/ say women, they will come and they will go/ when the rain washes you clean you’ll know”

6. little lies: christine mcvie and stevie nicks sound like sirens as they croon out the chorus. it’s so fucking good?? so fucking good. it’s catchy and it’ll stay in your head for forever after you listen to it once. like, damn.

fave lyrics: “no more broken hearts/we’re better off apart/ let’s give it a try/ tell me, tell me, tell me lies”

7. go your own way: if silver springs is stevie nicks calling lindsey buckingham out and cursing him to always be haunted by her, go your own way is lindsey buckingham offering her his heart on a silver platter with a little side of fuck you. he’s basically like fine you wanna break up?? then fuck you i tried my best and you still wanna go? i can’t make you want to stay if you don’t want to. but at the same time its kinda like a farewell to their relationship like i can’t make you stay if you don’t want to. the two of them end up screaming this at each other throughout their ‘82 tour? just eyes locked as they kinda let the other know ‘fuck you’. fantastic

fave lyric: “if i could, baby i’d give your my world/ how can i when you won’t take it from me?”

8. everywhere: what a perfect goddamned love song that just encapsulates the feeling of being in love and wanting to be near someone at all hours of the day. its so pure and simple yet so powerful because it’s just that fucking good. christine mcvie does NOT get as much recognition as she deserves. its so fucking good and lovely and sentimental

fave lyrics: “can you hear me calling out your name/you know i’m falling and i don’t know what to say”

9. songbird: this will be the song that i sing to my children when i put them to bed. enough said.

fave lyrics: “and the songbirds keep singing like they know the score/and i love you i love you i love you/like never before

10. gypsy: so there’s a radio station that plays on sirius xm and only in the summer called yacht rock radio. it’s 100% dad music or songs that you would listen to while sipping a margarita wearing a hawaiian shirt while cruising around the sound with your douche friends ironically wearing a captain’s hat and it is my FAVORITE station ever. this song plays at least ten times a day and now whenever i hear it i think of california sunshine rolling over the hills as i drive down the highway or watching the sunset in the horizon as we all sing along. it’s very nostalgic in the best possible way. it makes me feel both old and young.

fave lyrics: “back to the floor that i love/ to a room with some lace and paper flowers/ back to the gypsy that i was”

honorable mentions: beautiful child, you make loving fun, gold dust woman, don’t stop, secondhand news, never forget, sara, big love, the entire album of rumours (even thought i’ve basically listed them all here...oops), and stevie nicks entire 1981 album bella donna

let me know what you think!!

#fleetwood mac #rumours #tusk #stevie nicks #lindsey buckingham #christine mcvie #mick fleetwood #john mcvie #anonymous asks #also i dont have spotify otherwise id make you a playlist 😭#caro talks

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theyearoftheking · 5 years ago

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Book Eleven: The Gunslinger

“Go then. There are other worlds than these.”

Of all the books in Steve’s universe, this one might be the most sentimental. Dig if you will the picture. I was sixteen years old, and out shopping with my friends. We stopped into the Harry W Schwartz Bookshop in Brookfield (where I’d later spend several years of gainful employment); and I was of course looking in the fiction section under K. For a reason I still don’t understand, a copy of The Gunslinger made it into my hands. I don’t know if I was trying to look cool, or if I wanted a foray into fantasy fiction... I don’t know. We’ll just say twas ka.

Later on that day, I went home and devoured the book in one sitting, and needed to read more. My level of disappointment at discovering there were only three books in the series so far was great. I mean, more than finding out Santa wasn’t real, but less than GRRM fans still waiting to see how their universe wraps up.

But this one little book has meant so much to me throughout my life. The night I met my husband, I recommended it to him and his friends, and they were all promptly hooked. My husband was so enamored with the universe he has a Ka tattoo. We speak in Gunslinger ease (yar, thankee, thankeesai, long days and pleasant nights). I guess you could say we didn’t choose the Ka Tet life, it chose us.

But quite honestly, The Gunslinger isn’t that great of a book. I love it for sentimental reasons, but it’s by far the weakest in the series. Most people give up on reading the other Dark Tower books, because they can’t get through The Gunslinger. And fair point. It’s a weird book by an author who up until this point has written straight horror. A fantasy book about a cowboy following a man in black across a desert? Pass. Hard pass.

But in this strange little book is some truly beautiful writing. For example, “It spoke of a man who might straighten bad pictures in strange hotel rooms.” As someone who spends a lot of time in strange hotel rooms, this evokes quite an image. Think of what kind of man this might be. It’s beautiful writing.

And of course the second I (carefully) crack open my beloved copy, the first line brings me home: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger follows”. That one line brings about the same sentimentality that starting Harry Potter, or The Magicians does. Allll the feels. So enough sentimental happy crappy.

The story starts with Roland making it to a house on the outskirts of the desert, where he meets a dweller named Brown, and his raven Zoltan. Brown confirms The Man in Black had passed through recently, but was unsure about when. Because time moves differently. Roland and Brown palaver over dinner, and Roland tells Brown all about some shit that recently went down in the town of Tull.

Roland and his donkey had rolled into Tull (to the dulcet sounds of Hey Jude), and he mosied into a tavern where he ended up hooking up with the proprietor (Allie or Allison, depending how sentimental Roland is feeling). Allie tells him all about The Man in Black coming into town earlier, and bringing a weed eater (Tull’s version of a heroin addict) back from the dead. Roland gets some seriously creepy vibes, and the town, along with help from the preacher, Sylvia Pittston, ambushes Roland and tries to kill him. But, Roland has not forgotten the face of his father, and shoots them all dead before taking off. Deuces, Tull!

After a night of rest, Roland leaves Brown and Zoltan, and takes off across the desert. He’s dehydrated, half-starved, and close to death before he collapses in front of Jake. Little Jake nurses Roland back to health, and Roland regales him with tales of his coming-of-age. These flashbacks are maybe my favorite parts of the book: Roland and one of his besties, Cuthbert turning in a treasonous cook, and then having to watch his execution; Roland finding his mother with another man, the evil and mysterious Marten; and that led to Roland challenging his teacher, Cort, to a battle that will either land him exiled, or make him a gunslinger. Roland uses his falcon, David, as his weapon, and proceeds to best Cort. And then, Roland heads out of town, off to do some shit.

Jake tells Roland he’s not quite sure how he ended up here. He’s from New York City, and was pushed in front of a taxi by The Man in Black, and died. And after his death, he ended up here, alone.

Roland knows he’s inevitably going to end up sacrificing Jake. Jake knows it too, which makes it even more heartbreaking. So, the two take off to find The Man in Black. Roland suspects he’s intentionally slowing down, and wants to be caught. So, after dangers untold, and hardships unnumbered, Roland and Jake come face to face with The Man in Black. Annnnd then the sacrificial decisions need to happen. Does Roland pull Jake up the side of the cliff with him, and let The Man in Black slip away, or does he let Jake fall to his death, and finally face his mortal enemy?

You already know.

Roland and The Man in Black also palaver for a bit (sorry if you were expecting a battle royale); and The Man in Black reads Roland’s tarot cards, serving up a heaping dose of foreshadowing (the man with the monkey on his back! The two-faced Lady of Shadows!); and tells Roland about the vastness of the universe, and then tells him he was actually Walter, one of the men in Marten’s tribe. And he had orchestrated the entire messy situation with Roland’s mom back in his youth. You remember... the situation that led to his battle with Cort, and him becoming the youngest gunslinger ever. They finally both decide they need to make it to the tower; it’s their destiny. Roland falls asleep, wakes up, and The Man in Black is nothing but a skeleton in a shroud. Roland steals his jawbone, and sets off for his inevitable destiny: The Tower.

Having read all the books multiple times, I know what’s about to happen. But it was fun reading Steve’s afterward, where he acknowledged he had no idea what the hell was going to happen in any of the future books, “But what of the gunslinger’s murky past? God, I know so little... And there’s this girl, Susan. Who is she? Don’t know.” Wizard & Glass is my favorite book, so it’s interesting the name Susan, and the image of her peering at Roland from a window is all Steve had to go on. What a story he managed to create from just one image.

So, there were no Wisconsin mentions in the book, but I did think it was fun when I opened the book for the millionth time, I found a review I had never noticed: “A compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievably to its center,” from the Milwaukee Sentinel. That was a fun nostalgic throwback to the days when Milwaukee had two newspapers: The Journal and The Sentinel. Then, in 1995, the two publications merged to create The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I know that’s why most of you keep coming back to this blog... for your odd and obscure pieces of Wisconsin history.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 12

Total Dark Tower References: 7

Book Grade: C+

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Shining: A-

The Stand: A-

The Dead Zone: B+

‘Salem’s Lot: B+

Carrie: B+

Creepshow: B+

Danse Macabre: B-

The Gunslinger

Firestarter: C+

Cujo: C-

Nightshift: C-

Next up is Different Seasons, which inspired several of my favorite Steve movies (Shawshank Redemption, and Stand By Me). I’m traveling all week, and spending lots of time on airplanes, so expect an update towards the end of next week.

Until next time readers, Long Days and Pleasant Nights,

Rebecca

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worrywirt · 5 years ago

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The music video for There There by Radiohead is a masterpiece and here is why

So, as many of you might know already, There There and Nude are my two favourite songs by my favourite band, Radiohead. They are two very unique songs that move me in different but equally intense ways. But what makes There There extra special to me is the video, which managed to combine basically all the things that I love: spooky forests, little animals in clothes, hollow trees with winding roots, references to fairy tales and literature and a dream-like, voyeuristic atmosphere. I am first going to analyse the song itself, then how combined with the video, it is one of my favourite pieces of media I have ever seen.

Lyrics here. As the song starts off, it already feels like the listener is dropped inside a weird, intense primal world. I love percussion-heavy music and when I first heard it, the use of tom-toms and alienating, hardly recognisable sounds already reminded me of one of my other favourite artist’s best-know song: Björk’s Human Behaviour. I can’t really explain it if you don’t hear it, but both have this hypnotic, primal quality that beckons you in right off the bat. Then Thom’s mournful voice sings: “In pitch dark/ I go walking in your landscape/ Broken branches/ Trip me as I speak”. Not to go all A-Level English on his ass because let’s be honest, Thom’s lyrics are often nonsensical and vague, but I love this verse so much. It goes perfectly with the instrumental, starting off in a way that is like the start of a story; the words painting you a picture that is both dreamlike and frightening. To me, it describes falling in love in a way: “I am walking in your world, and I don’t know the way, and it’s all new and confusing and dark and sometimes I say the wrong things but I am still exploring, and it’s beautiful”

After this start that frankly hits you in the chest like a basketball in year 9 PE, we are treated to a combo attack with the lines “Just 'cause you feel it/ Doesn't mean it's there”. In classic Radiohead fashion, all the perceived optimism from the first verse is denied from us, basically saying “just because you feel a connection, it doesn’t mean it’s real”. Trust issues central. But it can also be interpreted to mean emotions in general, which is usually how I (a very emotional person) interpret it: feelings technically aren’t real. And the way you perceive the world while you are Going Through It™ is not always correct. No, everyone doesn’t hate you because their world isn’t centred around you: stop obsessing. It’s okay. There, there. (This is also reinforced later on with “someone on your shoulder”, basically saying it’s just your brain playing tricks.) Additionally, some think it’s referring to a dream, which would fit thematically with the music video.

The next verse to me is about the temptation of a bad decision while Going Through It™. Yes, it would be very easy to do the wrong thing, to go off this path that is making it really hard to get up in the morning: but it would also ruin you. I also interpret “don’t reach out” as coming from the siren (i.e. surprise, surprise: depression) – it wants you to self-destruct, to be a “walking disaster” but that, however tempting, is the wrong thing to do. The use of “we” also works with the “someone on your shoulder” line, and to me (however cringy that sounds) it means that music will always be there for me and help me work things out. It can also be applied to the relationship angle: the couple are in the same boat (/ship), and if one of them does something self-destructive, it will affect both. Both of these options work with the “Why so green and lonely? (…) Heaven sent you to me” lines. It’s interesting because the religious interpretation on Genius always annoyed me – Radiohead are the least religious band ever! This is the only religious reference I can think of from the top of my head, minus “angel” in Creep – but because it’s so rare, maybe it has a reason to be here? Maybe it IS about God after all, but I don’t really think so. Also, to me the imagery of “green and lonely” and the nautical “siren” and “shipwreck” have a much bigger weight visually than “heaven”, so they negate the religiousness in my eyes. I think it’s about two broken people finding each other, but also finding it hard to figure out how to fit together. They’re thinking that it might be a lost cause and destruction is right around the corner, but the best they can do (is good enough) is try and be there for each other while they head towards their ultimate end. Very comforting in a twisted way, which is Radiohead’s specialty.

So, let’s talk about the VIDEO!!! I’m writing this after an HQ version was FINALLY released on their website, so I’m going to use screenshots of that because oh my god, it’s beautiful.

We start off with the “pitch-dark landscape”, more-or-less just as I imagined it while listening to the song. Although it is kind of drab and boring at the start, this only emphasises the magical quality of what it becomes later, as our protagonist Thom (I’m going to call him by name but I’m obviously referring to the character, not the real person) heads deeper and deeper inside. Oh, how I love forests in the dark. Nothing else has the same perfect ambiance.

Thom is walking in a way that matches the rhythm and the dreamlike atmosphere of the song, i.e. somewhere between an alien who just learned the way the Earthlings walk and the exaggerated, slightly sped-up movements of a silent movie star. We already know he has an affinity towards both bowler hats (Lotus Flower video) and pantomime-like acting (ANIMA) so this is truly on brand. He then sees dark clouds pass at a breakneck pace (again, the dreaminess of it all... chef’s kiss), then confused and lost, heads back into the forest which this time looks a lot less boring and “real” then at the start. The dark clouds can be interpreted as a warning of things to come (“stay out, not safe”), which he ignores or just a sign that something is off and we’re not in Kansas anymore.

So as he turns back, we’re treated to my first Favourite Moment: Thom finding the beckoning yellow light and deciding to follow it. The way he is acting suggests both curiosity and sneakiness, like he suspects the thing emitting the light is much better than his original destination (if he had a destination at all).

I love the way the light is illuminating his eyes here, it again reminds me very much of old movies (and Morticia Addams in the 90s movies, but probably because the filmmakers also took inspiration from the same well)

Oh my god, just look at this shot. Beautiful. Lothlórien who?? I only know magical glowy Radiohead forest. Because yes, we’ve obviously crossed the path between realms the minute Thom decided to pursue the yellow light (which can also be connected to the “siren singing you to shipwreck” in the lyrics). This is now the land of magic and fairy tales, and strange things are afoot.

Again, I gotta stop analysing for a moment and just note that the amount of serotonin this gives me would fuel 10 people for a year. For anyone who doesn’t know me well enough, animals in little clothes living in little well-arranged dwellings inside a tree are in the top 5 things that make me happy, and combined with Thom Yorke Radiohead peeking in the window like an innocuous tourist… and the warm light illuminating the miniatures… perfection. Okay, moving on.

Thom is exploring this strange world of anthropomorphic animals like an awkward giant, without seemingly anyone noticing him. This adds to the alienation seeping from the music: this is a weird and wonderful place but you don’t belong here (sorry for the Creep reference, swear it was not intentional). He first saw a pair of squirrels, chilling in their house; then a big banquet; then a cat wedding (power of 3, the fairy-tale number). If we are going with the dream metaphor here, these might be alluding to things happening in real life, especially the wedding as he actively walks away from it, but this is just a speculation. Mostly it just shows that these animals are living in a happy little community and we love that for them! But it also make me feel like this is a coping mechanism for our protagonist here. Apparently Thom (the real one) got the idea for this video from a children’s TV show called Bagpuss: I had a look and it’s the tear-jerkingly comforting and nostalgic stop-motion series that everyone needs one of in their lives (I have several, both English and Hungarian). The subtitle “The Boney King of Nowhere” refers to a song in episode 2 about a king who wasn’t comfortable on his throne: according to this link, this resonated with Thom, who found himself on a pedestal he never wanted. (It’s kind of funny that a little kid’s song about a king’s bony ass has such a sick name though). He also wanted the original creator of the show (Oliver Postgate) to animate the video but he declined. Anyway, the "fifties East European genre animation, overlaboured and naïve” aesthetic, to me, symbolises comfort and warmth that our protagonist doesn’t feel at home in.

So off he goes, into the dark heart of the forest. Also, important to note the patch of fog that keeps showing him the way: is this the siren’s song physically manifested, pulling him away from the warmth of community? (”don’t reach out, don’t reach out”)

He then climbs up and sees a golden coat on a tree inside some kind of ancient ruin. This to me immediately brought to mind the Golden Fleece from Ancient Greek myth, which was the fleece of a magical ram that hung on an oak tree. It signified kingship, linking back to the subtitle. Thom sneaks to the tree, looks up at the ravens (7 of them: another fairy-tale number) and when he sees they are sleeping, tries on the coat. I found it interesting how at this point the coat looks quite ordinary, drab and brown – possibly a metaphor for a decision that you know is bad but you do it anyway; and by the time you realise it actually didn’t feel as good as you thought, it is too late - he listened to temptation (the sirens). He even takes the boots from inside the tree, which reminded me of SO many of the folktales that I grew up on: it’s not enough that the bad sibling did this one bad thing, they even did ANOTHER bad thing, which cements the listener in believing them to be irredeemable and worthy of the awful fate the tale has in store for them. The ravens (birds of death and in this case agents of justice) wake up – Thom has a little “oh shit” close-up and then start running for his life in his new attire.

Addition: another theory I found interesting among the comments is that this place is Limbo - “

The gothic look of the ravens chasing Thom with the rising full moon is such a huge contrast to the warm, comforting glow of the stop-motion animal town, but it makes sense with the crescendo of the music and it’s dark and menacing cacophony: “we are accidents waiting to happen”. This was Thom’s mistake: and now there is no turning back. (Quick note: his running here reminds me once again of the Human Behaviour video – I am working on another similar essay that concentrates on how Radiohead and Björk are mirrors of each other so look out for that).

He thinks he is saved for a moment by the magical seven-league boots (another folktale reference) but it is only a false hope. He gets his punishment and turns into a tree by what we can assume to be a painful and terrifying process (I love his facial expression so much). The ravens arrive and we realise that this is most likely how the previous tree met his or her fate. The cycle continues. He is now the Boney King of Nowhere.

One of my favourite mental images is people taken over by nature: not in a decomposing way but more like a Hanahaki disease way. Thom turning into a tree reminded me of a couple of things: one, my other favourite piece of entertainment Over the Garden Wall, which is very similar in tone to this video (if I ever meet Thom, I genuinely only want to ask him if he’s ever seen it and if yes what his thoughts are on it). SPOILERS for OTGW: the Beast turns lost children into trees and uses oil from the trees to keep his lantern alive, which is basically his life source – in this case the tree-person seems to be the living beating heart of the forest. The way the tree-curse is transmitted also reminded me of how the lantern was (nearly) passed down to Wirt. Basically, it is an inheritable burden. Two, and this isn’t my interpretation but I thought I’d mention it: Daphne & Apollo, wherein Daphne hides from Apollo’s sexual advances by turning into a tree. This doesn’t really fit the tone of the scene in my opinion, because Thom’s transformation is an involuntary punishment; but it kind of connects to the other reference to Greek myth, Odysseus and the sirens (both chasing after women, or the impossible dream). Three: Dante’s Inferno, in which the second ring of the seventh circle is the Wood of Suicides where “the souls of the people who attempted or committed suicide are transformed into gnarled, thorny trees and then fed upon by Harpies, hideous clawed birds with the faces of women; the trees are only permitted to speak when broken and bleeding”. Whomp whomp, it was a suicide metaphor :/ And it wasn’t a dream, it was Limbo - a thematic preoccupation of the band, so not impossible.

A comment I found relating to this: “After death you have to cross over. He got distracted by the nice and shiny shoes and jacket (don't reach out), hence the siren that leads you to shipwreck (Odysseus). When you want to enter the spiritual realm you have to be able to leave the material world behind or you shall not pass. He was distracted, got caught and changed into a worldly tree (he was still to attached to the material realm). The so-called reality we live now is the dream. (Just 'cause you feel it doesn't mean it's there). He remembered that he died and came back to this illusion. We are stuck in a lift....” I really like this interpretation of Thom’s downfall being too attached to materialism/ fame & fortune. I wonder what he meant by “came back to this illusion”? Also, who are the animals in this scenario: aspects of Thom’s life or other people, stuck in Limbo/ every-day oblivion?

This wouldn’t be the first or last time Radiohead explores the concept of death, so I don’t think it’s far-fetched. And it fits with the lyrics too, as I’ve discussed briefly above: this is what happens when you listen to the siren (the fog, the light) and stray away from the cute animal town, Thomas! I’m joking because it is kind of a bummer to end it on this, but I just love how dense and layered this video is. Most of their videos are top-notch but this one just hits a really sweet spot for me, so yeah! 2500 words! I’m glad you came along, pardner! Goodbye till next time!

#radiohead #thom yorke #there there #the boney king of nowhere #bagpuss #otgw #sorry I didn't go into the sonic side of things I just don't know anything about it #music theory is a scam

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thesinglesjukebox · 5 years ago

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LANA DEL REY - THE GREATEST

[7.71]

The discourse is lit...

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Lana Del Rey's embrace of decades-old American culture has always been a window into the present, so it's no surprise that her invocations of rock music and Dennis Wilson's deaths on "The Greatest" are signposts for our own inevitable demise. But even before she concludes the song with ruminations on California wildfires, Hawaii's false missile alert, and the possible necessity of colonizing Mars, you can sense the knowing dread in the midsong guitar solo and her affected vocalizing. She declares that she's "wasted" with poise and romantic longing, stretching the word out into a rallying cry; she intimates that debauchery is not just an expected response to contemporary anxieties, but an empowering action in times of seeming powerlessness. She channels that same depressing spirit in her semi-ironic delivery of the song's most memorable couplet -- "The culture is lit and I had a ball/I guess that I'm burned out after all" -- toying with its dual meaning to succinctly portray how escapism in end times isn't indecent behavior, but a necessary means toward survival and acceptance of one's fate. The sparse guitar strums and piano melodies that close out the song anticipate the somber eventuality that awaits us, but can that be much worse than right now? Worse than a time when "dancing with you" and "doing nothing" can be nostalgic pastimes due to never ending stress? Whatever the case, we'll collectively watch as it happens; it's the "live stream" that Lana hints at in the final line, and it'll be of cinematic proportions: "the greatest loss of them all." [9]

Joshua Copperman: "The culture is lit, and if this is it‚ I had a ball." This line is everything I hate about the aesthetics of this decade, but it IS the aesthetic of this decade, at least the latter half. Apart from rare, usually unintentional exceptions, something about 2010s voice-of-a-generation songs always felt pat, apparently because they had hope. We need songs for an age when everything is so overwhelming and impossible that there's nothing left to do but give up, give in, and bide your time until the flames -- the literal ones or the David Foster Wallace ones -- consume you too. (Who by fire, who by water vapor.) The cool, detached gloominess of "The Greatest" sends the opposite message to the one producer Jack Antonoff sent years ago; I don't want to get better, because there's no time left and no point. Lana was "doing nothing most of all," and that's why she's become the figurehead for this decade's music. Not Gaga. Not Beyonce. Not Lorde. Lana. Lana won the race to the bottom because she was there first; maybe a writer once took her sadness out of context, yet if someone said "I wish I was dead already" today, the response would not rise beyond a shrug of 'mood.' I don't even like this song that much as a song. It's slow and dreary, and that "culture is lit" line sounds hackneyed and pandering in its own way. But it's because of that artificiality that the line feels authentic, which was Lana's whole thing in the first place. Maybe I'm just bitter that she became so important when I wasn't looking. To paraphrase another, equally 2019 line, I hate to see it. Especially when I was so blind the whole time. [7]

Josh Buck: "I miss New York, and I Miss you. Me and my friends, we miss rock and roll." As Lana del Rey laments her Big Apple days, it feels like a lifetime since she was a Brooklyn Baby, singing Lou Reed with her boyfriend's band. She ventured out west to create an entire California fantasia and over a handful of albums, she built a cinematic version of the Golden State that was vibrant and full of endless sun and limitless romantic possibilities; even if it was all tinged with just a dab of noir-ish danger. It was a world as fully realized and teeming with mythology as a great novel. And "The Greatest" is where she watches it all burn down. "I'm facing the greatest loss of them all." California dreams are beautiful, until you have to wake up, so she sparks a cigarette and raises a glass to the ride. But if "The Greatest" is a moment of personal reflection, it's also a celebration. It's a toast to a new Greatest Generation. A generation that created and protested, that fucked and traveled and loved in spite of a planet threatening to burn them alive, and world leaders determined to end things even quicker. It's an anthem for thriving in the face of the apocalypse. It's my favorite single of 2019, and just thinking about it triggers a million competing emotions. If all somehow make it through this moment, we'll have one hell of a story, and a hell of a song to go with it. The culture is lit, but we had a ball. [10]

Michael Hong: A couple of cycles ago, that line probably would have drawn mass scorn from critics, but for now, it may very well be the lyric of the year. Part of that may be attributed to the way the culture has shifted their view on Lana Del Rey, but another part of it is that Lana sounds the most honest she's ever sounded. "The Greatest" is an ominous but sincere reflection of the current state of the world, and Lana no longer seems content with empty depictions of American touchstones. Lines like "I miss New York and I miss the music" still rely on those same symbols, but they now feel like lived experiences rather than empty nostalgic musings. Hell, Lana Del Rey even manages not only to make "me and my friends, we miss rock 'n' roll" work but sound like one of the most profound statements you've ever heard. Lana Del Rey's hushed vocals paired with the gauzy instrumental are quietly disarming, playing out like the cinematic zoom-out at the edge of the apocalypse. And if this is it, those final laments on the outro might be the greatest way to go out. [9]

Alfred Soto: She's not the greatest, nor does she think she's the greatest, so long as she thinks the "culture is lit" and she's "having a ball," whatever that means, but I suspect it means more than the guitar solo. Narcissism as plaint. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: The core Lana Del Rey problem is that she confuses narcotic with dramatic and droning with sweeping. "The Greatest" mitigates those faults a little, but only a little, and only by borrowing some faults from classic rock. The track also smothers what could have been a fine torch song in overproduction -- the culture can't be lit if you snuff it out with a million moles of echo. It shouldn't happen that I felt more genuine things about ghosts and missing things from a perfume newsletter than this. [4]

Ian Mathers: So here's the thing; I originally wrote about and scored this song before the more exhausting parts of the whole Lana Del Rey Conversation that engulfed Music Twitter last week had happened, and I was basically saying, yeah, the conversation is interesting and has some good points but I mostly receive the song outside of it and I just like that song (and generally do, with her singles). But then... it got worse. And between the artist herself showing her ass and all of the assorted takes, the thought of listening to any of LDR's music just got more and more enervating. Some would say it's unfair or incorrect to adjust my opinion of this song, or at least to admit that those events have, in fact, adjusted my opinion of the song. But I'm a guy who wrote a Master's thesis at least partly on the idea that the context around a work of art justifiably changes not only our aesthetic relationship to it but the ontological status of the work of art itself (which is not a physical thing, not even as data). The classical example is finding out, say, a painting is a forgery, but honestly this whole thing is a great example too. Doesn't make me outright dislike "The Greatest", but does legitimately move it from being a real bright spot to a song I enjoy that I need a bit of a break from. [7]

Stephen Eisermann: Hats off to Lana and Jack for really creating an atmosphere of nostalgia that you fall into the second you hit play. Lana's vocal is tender and understated, further reinforcing the sense of longing the track aims to create; but, hearing her sing the word "lit" and the Kanye West reference stand in stark contrast to that moody guitar lick and I... I just can't reconcile the two. [4]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Lana Del Rey is deeply aware of the fickleness of the music industry. On Born to Die, that manifested in her almost-trolling approach -- aggravating, almost-rap cadences, weird production choices, even weirder lyrical ones -- that wormed its way into the pop consciousness. For her middle three albums, she refashioned herself as a thinking person's pop star, working with more respectable (and more male) figures like Dan Aurebach and A$AP Rocky as a way of positioning herself as adjacent to prestige. The music was better but also more boring. Now, with Norman Fucking Rockwell!, she has cashed all the checks that a decade of practice and following the rules of pop earn you. "The Greatest" is a thesis statement for the album's ambition. It's not just the title -- although that is a helpful indicator. It's everything: the classic rock guitars and big drum fills, the nostalgia for doing nothing of the lyrics, the way she sings them. On "The Greatest," Lana sounds done. Not exhausted, but complete, as if she could walk away from this all and not miss a second's worth of sleep. It's a big damn classic rock song that's aware of how bombastic it sounds, and yet its self-awareness does not undercut its narrative and sonic heft. It's the kind of song you can't make without making a lot of worse songs that dance around the same topics. But here, where it really counts? Lana nails it. It's a buzzer-beater of a song, rattling around the rim four times before falling in -- all the sweeter in glory for the bumps on the road before it. It's likely not the last Lana Del Rey single we'll review, but if it is, it's a fitting send-off: in response to all the fickleness of the industry, Lana rewrites her story on her own terms, and makes it sing. [9]

Jackie Powell: Norman Fucking Rockwell started as such a fascinating paradox, but didn't really continue building and evolving on what made its first third so successful. "The Greatest" is lyrically relatable and sonically beautiful. Jack Antonoff, being the wizard that he is, finds a way to wean Lana Del Rey of her noir and whining tendencies. He overdubs her potential for a beautiful vocal pairing it with brighter arrangements. It's pellucid and mellow but not a snoozefest. But its placement on this album really sold the track short. NFR loaded its most compelling tracks at the top of the project. Del Rey placed "The Greatest" after "Fuck it I love you" in a double feature of a music video, which where it should have been placed on the album. In the visual, Del Rey floats around and almost above her surroundings contemplating what's next. The haunting but gorgeously comforting guitar solo brings the listener along with Lana herself back down to earth. Lyrically and through its soft piano, the outro is what gives this song its weight and a sense of profundity. Her cultural references which include Kanye West's physical and emotional transformation and David Bowie's "Life on Mars" allow us to reflect on what we've become. Lana Del Rey does that here and on almost every record. I just wish "The Greatest" was given the proper stage to achieve the status of its moniker. [6]

Joshua Lu: The majority of "The Greatest" feels unbound by time, as Lana Del Rey reuses Extremely American words that apply to the '80s as much as today: Long Beach, New York, the Beach Boys, rock 'n' roll. Only the outro plants the song firmly in the current year -- with mentions of Mars, Kanye, global warming, and that time Hawaii thought it was about to get bombed -- and with this passage of time, these signifiers bring no joy to Lana anymore. Her sprawling sense of nihilism seeps through in her languid voice and the turgid, psychedelic guitar as she laments how her generation's time is ticking away. Tempting as it is, I'm wary to read into this song as some kind of political statement, in part because the epochs that Lana fetishizes were also rather shitty, and also because I think Lana herself wouldn't prefer this reading, as it would play into that "p" word she, erm, has expressed adversity to. Maybe that's the song's trap, that despite how alluring it is to try to ascribe some deeper meaning, it's better to just do what the song does: sit back, observe, and mourn. [8]

Alex Clifton: Lana Del Rey has a beautiful and occasionally overwhelming voice. It's haunting but for me it can be like ingesting too much cake in one sitting -- extremely rich to the point where it feels exhausting to listen to more than one song at a time. Having said that, "The Greatest" is a song that works well with Del Rey's vocals. When the first pre-chorus hits -- "those nights were on fire, we couldn't get higher" -- her breathiness feels less like an affect but sadder and more wistful, the awareness that she'll never be able to get that life back again. It's a grandiose song, strings and languid piano and a chorus of a dozen Lanas sighing "if this is it, I'm signing off," but for once the grandiosity of the production fits the message. My issue with Del Rey's persona back in the Born to Die days was that I couldn't quite make out who she was under all the artifice, flower crowns and American flags. I know that's the appeal of artists like Del Rey, whose entire careers are built off of specific personas (despite what they claim to the contrary), but I don't deal well with facades that are built that tall. Arguments about personas and performativity in music can quickly dissolve into arguments about authenticity and how much that matters to the music, and I want to stress that I don't care about authenticity in the slightest -- I just like the moments where artists aren't invincible but human. In "The Greatest" those walls crumble down and Del Rey revels in her sadness in a way that hits close to the heart. She's vulnerable and mourning over a real love rather than a fantasy, and for once I feel like persona or no, I understand the appeal of Lana Del Rey. [8]

Vikram Joseph: At 2am this morning I found myself in the smoky bedroom of a guy I hadn't met until two hours earlier, half a bottle of red wine deep and still high off the fumes of the MUNA show I'd just been to, discussing the aesthetics of Lana Del Rey's music videos (as a kind of emotional foreplay, I guess?). It struck me that this, right there, was actually a pretty good representation of Lana's aesthetic -- unlikely moments that shimmer at the fringes of reality, a doomed romanticism that bleeds into a laconic, blissful sort of nihilism. There's so much heightened emotion (close to melodrama) in her music, and yet there's a simplicity too in what she craves -- men, bars, California, sun -- that Vice described as a "revolutionary pleasure." It feels like an extremely LDR move to draw a direct parallel between lost love and the end of the actual fucking world, but it's testament to her songwriting, those aesthetics that she's worked so hard on, and the spellbinding, crystalline production on "The Greatest" that she pulls it off so completely. From the opening bars -- dignified piano chords, soft-focus acoustic guitars and cinematic strings -- it feels like an elegy; I can't help but see the crumbling, sunlit edifice of a gorgeous building when I hear this song, especially during that billowing, washed-out guitar solo, or the slow nuclear decay of the outro. "The Greatest" feels like a culmination, and a kind of closure. It's a veteran of an iconic club scene reading the memoirs of her golden years out loud, or the last time two people who once loved each other ever speak, or a beach scene at the end of civilisation. Sonically and aesthetically, it sounds cast adrift in time, and that's why it's so effective. It's the end of the world as we know it -- I don't think Lana feels fine, exactly, but maybe there's a certain comfort in finally knowing for sure that it was all for nothing. [10]

Will Adams: Lana Del Rey made a career writing elegies to American culture, which is what makes "The Greatest" as moving as it is heartbreaking. The patriotism of "American" has turned bitter. The sprawling luxury of "Shades of Cool" has fizzled. The worries expressed in "Coachella -- Woodstock In My Mind" have been realized in twisted, terrifying ways. So it makes sense that, after a few minutes of misty-eyed farewells presented with a smile ("I had a ball"), it all collapses to rubble. The gleaming classic rock evaporates into three descending chords. This, it turns out, is the greatest loss of all. Not rock 'n' roll, not a past lover, not Long Beach, not Kanye West, but everything. In that final minute, the song sinks to the ocean floor, the flaming city fading from view, the monuments and culture blurring into nothing. Del Rey is gone, too, as there's nothing left to say. There is nothing except the brutal end. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

#Lana Del Rey #pop #music #music review #writing

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kuciradio · 6 years ago

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As 2018 is coming to an end it’s time to reflect on this amazing year for new music and artistry. KUCI is a diverse group of DJs and we are proud to represent all genres of music. I have finally put together our Top 10 albums of 2018 along with some honorable mentions towards the end accompanied by some lovely words written by our fellow DJs. We can’t wait for what 2019 brings for us and continue tuning in on kuci.org or 88.9 FM if you’re in the Orange County area. Have a safe and happy new year!

1. Mitski - Be The Cowboy

“Mitski Miyawaki’s powerhouse voice resonates with a haunting clarity on her stunning masterpiece Be the Cowboy. She creates entire worlds and characters out of pieces of herself, from paranoid, awkward women who yearn for traditionalism and some idealist version of what life or love should be (hello “Lonesome Love”), to cowgirls who can do it all on their own. From sorrowful to triumphant, Mitski colors the spaces in between from soul-bearing ballad “Geyser” to unforgettable dancing-alone-in-your-bedroom anthem “Nobody.” (Sophie Prettyman-Beauchamp)

“This album was so personal and raw and I also liked how the songs flowed well on this album.” (Heidi Barragan)

2. The Internet - Hive Mind

“I can't talk about this album without mentioning how mad I am at myself for missing the tour. Syd, Pat, Steve, Matt, and Chris, The Internet, are prominent figures of musical evolution; this speaks volumes and not just because they got their start with Odd Future, a hub of avid freeform artists. If you’re inclined to believe what I believe, Ego Death is a heartbreak album and Hive Mind is loaded with recovery anthems and passionate songs to share with your new partner who is not a rebound. Across the timeline, the sounds change from R&B and Hip-Hop to Funk and Soul; but what captures my attention the most, from Ego Death to Hive Mind, is the way a facade is casted aside. Hive Mind is just so sincere and therefore, perfectly fitting for being a part of my top three.” (Thorson Munoz)

“[This album] is a very funky album with heavy tones of R&B. The Internet does not disappoint with their funky sounds, which can be heard on “La Di Da”. Overall the album has powerful baselines, thanks to the amazing Steve Lacy, and groovy beats backed by Syd’s smooth vocals. It is hard to listen to this album and not dance along to it.” (Melissa Palma)

3. Kali Uchis - Isolation

“Colombian singer Kali Uchis’ long-awaited debut album is a high-production value journey into her uniquely sultry, dreamy world of R&B. The songstress’s silky voice pushes boundaries of various genres, from bossa-inspired intro “Body Language” to the Amy Winehouse-esque “Killer,” each track better and more of a banger than the last. Isolation features artists like The Internet guitarist Steve Lacy, British soul success Jorja Smith, and reggaeton icon Reykon. Uchis also recruited her friends Tyler, the Creator and legendary bassist Bootsy Collins for the hit single “After the Storm,” a follow-up to her and Tyler’s song “See You Again” from his 2017 album Flower Boy (supported by a stunningly whimsical music video by director Nadia Lee Cohen). The producer credits are just as stacked, including the likes of Thundercat, BROCKHAMPTON’s Romil Hemnani, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn. Uchis proves herself as the new sound of pop, never veering from her originality that made her a Soundcloud sweetheart.” (Sophie Prettyman-Beauchamp)

4. Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

“She’s such an intelligent creative weirdo and I LOVE HER. Not to mention her oozing femme POWER.” (Naseem Eskandari)

“About the moxie I mentioned earlier, this emotional rollercoaster has an abudnace of it and I cannot get enough! Cover to cover this album packs a punch, and as the visual companion--which brought me to tears--would suggest, this entire album is a celebration of deviant bodies and identities. This album contains the perfect ratio of soft and tender tracks and upbeat exciting ones so its no wonder why NPR named Dirty Computer their number one of 2018.” (Thorson Munoz)

5. Anderson .paak - Oxnard

“Sometimes artists, after huge successes, feel that they need to make music that sounds just like their previous work to gain the same traction, but really the true artists are the ones that stay honest and true to their creative ability - their sound moves through life with them.” (Naseem Eskandari)

“Anderson .Paak, to me, is responsible for every playlist I've ever built that revolves around driving in Los Angeles with the windows down, no matter the time of day. However, I don't drive a convertible, so instead I honored Venice and Malibu using my radio program, Detours. Not only am I excited to honor Oxnard as well, but Oxnard was built for driving; this is evident after listening to "Tints", the first release, and "Headlow". This album, just like Malibu, is masterful; the only difference is that Dr. Dre stepped out of the shadows and was a feature. Oxnard is beyond incredible and worthy of it's legendary features, Snoop Dog, Q-Tip, and Kadhja Bonet, to name a few. I'm really excited for what will likely be Anderson .Paak's next Grammy nomination.” (Thorson Munoz)

6. Blood Orange - Negro Swan

“AMAZING production, amazing narrative!!!!!!!” (Angel Cortez)

“Dev Hynes never fails to make master pieces of albums that narrate the experience of marginalized people in an oppressive and toxic environment. Hynes brings together artists as big as ASAP Rocky to smaller artists of equal talent such as Steve Lacey creating a beautiful medley of indie hip hop to soul and funk. Coupled with interviews, Hynes is able to make this album a personal experience for the listener. For me it always feels as though he is singing to me personally, something that not many artists are able to do.” (Kelsey Villacorte)

7. Kevin Krauter - Toss Up

“Toss Up has to be my personal #1 favorite album of 2018 by Kevin Krauter who began making music apart from lo-fi dream pop band Hoops in 2015. Toss Up was released this past summer and was the perfect album to listen to during warm summer nights and has carried through to the end of the year as a comforting reminder of those warm times during these cold nights. It has that dreamy, nostalgic feeling, something that you would listen to as you’re reflecting on the tender moments of your life. Krauter mixes vaporwave-esque sounds with sweet ballads with no one song sounding like the other.” (Kelsey Villacorte)

8. MGMT - Little Dark Age

“MGMT's come-back album is focused, synthy, and fresh. Without abandoning the dark undertones present in their older albums, this album reflects the band's personal growth and resonates with fans, old and new. Tracks like TSLAMP and Little dark Age are some of my favorites!” (Angelica Sheen)

“MGMT has maintained their status as an alternative staple and has since transformed their sound into something more experimental since their debut album Oracular Spectacular. MGMT did not disappoint and gave us an album that went from the weird wii-fit/dystopian vibes of She Works Out To Much to 80s dance of Me and Michael to another sweet ballad titled Hand It Over which is super reminiscent of the ending/title song of their second album Congratulations. MGMT never fails to write well thought out lyrics that all almost feel like their own story. All in all, they did not disappoint and this is exactly the kind of MGMT album I was hoping for after a 5 year hiatus.” (Kelsey Villacorte)

9. Ian Sweet - Crush Crusher

“Jilian Medford refines IAN SWEET’s sound and practices self-care on sophomore album Crush Crusher, her most intimate release yet. Medford rediscovers her identity as she considers how much of herself she has forgotten while preoccupying herself with being a guardian to others (she warbles “The sun built me to shade everybody” on “Holographic Jesus”). Ever poetic while satisfyingly straightforward, she notes that “It’s been too long since I let myself cry about something that wasn’t even sad” on the pummeling single “Spit.” She coos, squeaks, and screams in perfect, dissonant harmony over her guitar’s cathartically melancholic reverb. IAN SWEET remains a perfect contradiction that only grows sweeter.” (Sophie Prettyman-Beauchamp)

10. Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!

“This band's genius shows through with every new release. Wide Awake throws all of their influences together and expels energetic funk beats with poignant, dark, and brutal lyrics that are especially political. The juxtaposition of these themes with upbeat and optimistic instrumentals speaks to their compositional talent, making it a fan favorite. AND THEY USE COWBELLS.” (Angelica Sheen)

Honorable Mentions:

Glenn Crytzer Orchestra, "Ain't it Grand?"

This album couldn't have been better aimed at me if the band had come and asked me what I wanted to hear. A modern swing-style orchestra performing both classic tunes from the 1930s and modern pieces written in the big band style. The ensemble playing is tight, the solos just exactly right, and the production quality a lot sharper than any of the original Duke Ellington recordings. Top notch stuff. (Michael Payne)

The Vaccines - Combat Sports

"The Vaccines brought back the spirit and energy of their debut album but with a new twist when they released their 4th album early in 2018. Get pumped up with the "I Can't Quit" and "Nightclub" or settle down with "Maybe (The Luck of the Draw)" or "Young American". The Vaccines perfectly embody the sound and snark of the '70s and '80s artists of which their influenced while still creating a modern feel of the 2010's. My personal favorite off the album "Out on the Street" definitely a treat live! Over all Combat Sports is an excellent album and what we needed in 2018." (Stacey Brizuela)

Cobra Man - Toxic Planet

“Los Angeles local duo Cobra Man blows it out of the water with their sophomore album that carries the heart and groove of something you'd hear out of '84. It is indeed one of the best albums of the year because it utilizes one of the most underrated instruments in the game, the saxophone.” (Spartacus Avina)

Nu Guinea "Nu Guinea"

Heaven & Earth by Kamasi Washington is an album that’s loud and bold in both sound and vocals. A lot of the album often creates an ethereal effect with the heavy instrumentals ascending into a grand peak, most notably heard on “Street Fighter Mas”. The vocals on the album accompany the instrumentals in their same form, loud and climaxing. Listening to this album is like a rollercoaster with its thrilling jazz sounds. (Melissa Palma)

Drug Church - Cheer

Mac Miller - Swimming

“The tragic beauty of this album speaks for itself. Mac was such a raw and very real individual and it reflects in his music the way that many others cannot replicate. May he rest in peace - I hope the next life will be better for him.” (Naseem Eskandari)

Thank you to all the amazing DJs who submitted their Top 10 list of 2018! I am super glad to have been part of an amazing and diverse radio station for this past year and this is only a small piece of what our DJs music tastes are like here. I hope everyone has an incredible and safe New Years Eve and a happy 2019 :)

-Kelsey Villacorte (Music Director)

#kuciFM #top 10 lists #top 10 albums #college radio #mitski #kevin krauter #parquet courts #the internet #Anderson .Paak #kali uchis #janelle monae #mgmt #ian sweet #blood orange

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