#this is the most pretentious song I've ever heard

[rivertalesien]

I don't believe Richard Harris had that recipe to begin with

[mrschwartz]

not to defend ts, she looves to do all she can to get the numbers she wants, but she is also one of the biggest pop stars on the planet and her songs regularly go viral on tiktok. to attribute her enormous success to crazy swifties alone is a bit dishonest, i think

true! i personally have loads of friends who aren't obsessed with her and still were crazy to listen to her newest album when it came out, and i know this will sound shitty af and even more pretentious, but those friends are the ones who don't really venture musically and only listen to "top 40" type stuff, so like. i can't help but feel that they were excited for her album only bc she has been shoved down their throats so much. ofc they can choose if they do end up listening to her or not, i'm no saying they can't, and if they like her or not, but i also can't help but feel they wouldn't. if they knew other types of music and whatnot

ncmjnvjfvngjbngj .............and other "hey look at me i'm so cool bc i listen to indie and rock" admittedly bs opinions lol

[best-overplayed-song]

As someone who never understood the hype around Take Me To Church and keeps forgetting that song even exists, can I ask the fans what exactly it is you like about that song? Because my current hypothesis is that yall were around 14 when it came out and music just hits different when you're 14. What else is there to like, genuinely

I try to stay unbiased here but Hozier is one of the only musicians I allow myself to be pretentious about, so before i info dump about why i love take me to church here's some other hozier songs you should give a shot:

francesca [i'd go through hell again just to hold you one more time], nina cried power [song about activism and black activists], swan upon leda [about the violence of colonialism, misogyny, and religious bigotry], eat your young [about the violence of war, capitalism, and generational trauma], movement, to noise making (sing), shrike, NFWMB [sexy], sunlight

anyway take me to church is so much more than just “loving you is like church”. he starts off by telling us how happy his lover makes him, despite constantly being told by The Church he was born sick and his happiness is a result of sinful behavior. he rejects the religion being forced on him, because unlike christianity, his church doesn't force him to accept absolution to reach heaven ("my church offers no absolutes / she tells me, 'worship in the bedroom' / the only heaven I'll be sent to / is when i'm alone with you"). the last two lines of the first verse-- "i was born sick, but i love it / command me to be well"-- questions why a god would create us to be inherently sick only to punish us for being sick.

i see the the chorus as a smart-ass comparison of his relationship to christianity. The Church expects him to blindly worship their lies and confess his sins, which he knows will be used against him ("take me to church / i'll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / i'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife"), but he's supposed to accept this and devote his life to God so he can get to heaven ("offer me that deathless death / oh good god, let me give you my life"). by offering to do this for his lover, he's equating their love to religion.

in the second verse, he reiterates that he worships his lover with a metaphor ("if i'm a pagan of the good times / my lover's the sunlight"). the subtle remark of referring to the ancient practice of paganism as "the good times" comments on the colonization and forced conversion of ireland by christian england, which criminalized paganism. immediately after stating how his lover demands a sacrifice, he hungrily eyes the high horse The Church sits on, and questions what power they have over him and his people ("that's a fine lookin' high horse / what you got in the stable? / we've a lot of starving faithful"). this could also be a reference to the irish potato famine, which was not a result of drought, but of english lords forcing the irish to turn over their entire crop to send to england.

then we get the most poetic description of sex i've ever heard: "no masters or kings when the ritual begins / there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin / in the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene / only then, i am human / only then, i am clean". fuck man

a lot of gay people with religious trauma love this song bc of everything i described above. also, it's a fuckin banger.

and yes i was 14 when it came out. what about it

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Total 2 2000 Tech-House / Minimal Techno / Ambient

I've definitely done this before, but in order to kick off this post, I'm gonna have to rely on prolific electronic music opinion-haver Ishkur at length here, because he and I seem to be completely simpatico when it comes to our thoughts on the mostly bad phenomenon that is tech-house music:

Somehow by incorporating the strengths of both Techno and House, Tech House succeeded in appealing to neither. So the result is something frustratingly banal and monotonous when it really shouldn't be… Tech House straddles the razor-thin tightrope of something that doesn't have enough funky warmth for House yet not enough cold mechanicalism for Techno, so what comes out instead is something stiff, repetitive, and boring. It's such a disappointment, like the last season of Game of Thrones. Tech House had real promise. It could have done great things with the tools it had. And it's something everyone hoped would happen, like feeding Scrabble tiles to a dog to see if it shits out a word. But instead Tech House wasted its potential on pretentious Berlin nightclubs and that aimless, meandering noodlyness that the Brits are fond of, like a 70s prog rock solo that goes on for way too long. Technically interesting but utterly soulless… Tech House can be good. There is honestly good Tech House out there. I've even heard some. But finding it is a Herculian task of Sisyphian anguish in a Kafka-esque, Orwellian realm of Dostoevskian torment. It is possible to load up your music player with nothing but Tech House mixes, hop into your car, and drive to the other end of the continent and back and never hear the same song twice yet never hear an interesting song once. The odds of coming across decent Tech House are worse than needles made of diamonds in a rough full of haystacks.

So, yes, I 100% co-sign every single word of that. Ishkur did not teach me to think this way about tech-house, he just merely put it into words that already happened to mirror my exact thinking on the subject. In a similar way to progressive house—another genre that I don't like all that much—the sounds being made to create tech-house may be interesting and innovative themselves, but the way that those sounds are then combined typically yields something totally listless and often way too steady to be enjoyed. Like Ishkur says, the pieces are literally there to make something dope, but tech-house just seems largely unconcerned with a very crucial aspect of dance songcraft writ large—one that requires a tune to excitedly or satisfyingly grow, progress, and/or change over time.

See, to me, a lot of tech-housers really feel like people who are just cynically making dance music for the sake of it. It's like they heard house and techno and said, "oh, yeah, I can do that. That's easy. It's just looping up the same shit over and over again." And it's, like, "no, motherfucker, that's actually not at all what this is about. You really have no idea, do you?"

But guess what? They're actually not totally wrong here. Tech-house may legitimately be, overall, the most boring form of dance music that I've ever encountered in my life, but there are evidently more than enough people in this world that somehow derive satisfaction from it in order for it to have been able to successfully sustain itself for over two decades now. It's just that the people who enjoy it are like the dance music equivalent of those who, after a long and grueling day of work, like to go home and kick back with a blissful session of Lawnmower Simulator 4 😌.

So here's the second dispatch from Cologne-based label Kompakt's long-running Total series, a turn-of-the-millennium sampler that, despite it having a good deal of unique quirkiness to it, still somehow manages to bore me to absolute tears. Maybe if you've been following me long enough, you remember that I once posted about the first volume of Total, and concluded that the first half was excruciatingly boring, but the second half was fantastic. No such luck here. This is pretty much just that first half of the first Total, but doubled. Most songs start in a way that'll have you thinking, "Oh, yeah, this is pretty cool, this definitely sounds like it could be good," but then Lucy ends up pulling the football each time 😩.

Case in point, M. Mayer's "Amanda," a five-and-a-half-minute song with so much promise and a neat 80s new wave-pop edge to it too. When this thing first starts up, there is no sign that this 80s edge is going to materialize itself in any way, shape, or form, but at a little past the one-minute mark, it starts to lather itself in. And then, as you find out, this early, appetizing moment actually ends up representing the song's entire creative apex! I mean, we still have, like, over 80% of this whole tune to go, but I promise you, not a single interesting thing occurs in its very large remainder. Again, like Ishkur says, it's just so utterly aimless. This song exists because someone made it, but the idea that it has any sort of actual purpose in this universe is really questionable at best.

Like, all of this is just so maddeningly confounding to me. It's like these musicians really do genuinely find themselves on to something each time, and then rather than trying to push further, they decide that they're actually finished and just let whatever half-baked thing they've built ride itself out on an agonizingly long plateau until it thankfully takes a nose-dive off the side of a cliff. It really drives me nuts, because you can hear a possibility of something enjoyably substantive coming to fruition, but it's like there's also this inherently natural aversion to the idea of having to lift more than one finger too; everyone is just so content to glide down the bunny hill, and people are more than willing to vociferously cheer it on. It really makes not a single lick of goddamn sense to me, but there you have it—my tech-house take.

Read more Ishkur.

No highlights.

[annas-hair-donut]

My Favorite 2023 Fanfics

Instead of posting a master list of the fics I published in 2023, I'm just going to give you some of my favorites.

Knock on Wood (Kristanna, T)

“So, like, I’m not really a superstitious guy or anything, you know? But I saw this girl, right, and I’m about to ask her to dance.” He strummed a few times before stopping the strings with his hand and knocking three times on his guitar. “I don’t know, I figure every little bit helps. Couldn't hurt anyway.” A few people clapped and whistled as he strummed the opening to a song Anna hadn’t heard before. Then he smiled. “Maybe y’all can 'Knock on Wood' for me, too.”

I wrote this one for the FHWM Friday the 13th event. It was really fun because I got to set it in a time and place that is near and dear to my heart and I haven't seen many similar AUs. It's also a song fic, and I just had so much fun with it.

Pretty Please (Kristanna, E)

“Show me how bad you want it, Kristoff. Show me how bad you want me to spank you.” “You think I only want to sink my tongue into your $!@# so you’ll spank me?” His smile made her heart flutter as much as his words, but she tested him anyway. “Pretty men say pretty please.’” “You think I’m pretty?” he asked, each word punctuated by a sloppy, wet kiss on her thigh, "when I wear my lace panties?" When she didn't answer, he looked at her with lifted brows and puppy dog eyes. She cupped his cheeks and said, “You're not pretty, Kristoff; you're very pretty."

I wrote this one for the BDSM Exchange. It's not for everyone, but it's probably my favorite fic I've ever written (of all time).

Waffle Waltz (Kristanna, T)

Anna travels to Tromsø, Norway to attend her sister Elsa's wedding, and ends up renting a room with Bulda and her grumpy and resentful son Kristoff, who is the king of waffles. 1. Waffle, Noun: (1) A soft indented cake cooked in waffle iron; (2) Empty or pretentious words 2. Waffle, Verb: (1) Equivocate, vacillate; (2) To blather

This was for the Candy Hearts Exchange. It involved a ton of research and drew on my own knowledge of/experience with folk music and dance, and I consider it to be one of the best (quality-wise) fics I've ever written. I also really love the fun relationship between Anna & Hans.

Hey, Little Girl (Kristanna, E)

Loner Kristoff gets hired by cheerleader Anna’s parents to teach her how to drive because they’ve lost all patience with her. She isn’t what he expects, though, and when he realizes the feelings he’s been harboring for years are reciprocated, he lets down his guard. Then one thing leads to another... and quite possibly the hugest mistake of their lives.

This started as a driver's ed lesson and ended with a prom for Kristanna School Days. In between, I wrote Kristoff probably the most conflicted and tormented I've ever written him (other than Sophisticated Grace). And it was all set to songs by the Ramones! It really has it all, fluff, angst, high school drama, teen pregnancy, first times. Also some of the OCs were really cool.

The Chaise (Gaston x Adam, E)

Adam debates buying a small chaise longue at his local antique shop until he finds out it comes with an extra large delivery man.

I wrote this for my a friend, and TBH I'm still completely tickled by it. Adam seduced Gaston through flattery and it was just so much fun to write!

The Moment I Bit My Lip (Kristanna, E)

Anna shivered as she packed her suitcase. It was winter, the furnace was broken, and they’d run out of firewood. And Kristoff had run out of time. Based on "Love Me Harder" by Ariana Grande ft. The Weeknd

This was a reader request. It was a huge challenge because I tend to write more female-dominant stuff and the song lyrics screamed Kristanna, but at the same time didn't really fit with the kinds of things I usually write. So I had to get a little creative and I absolutely love that. Anyway, I came up with one of the coolest AUs I've written and I absolutely adore this piece.

Boom, Clap! (Kristanna, E)

A sharp pain sears across Kristoff’s face from the force of Anna’s hand slapping him to the present. Stars twinkle just inside his field of vision as he rubs his cheek, and his heart beats faster in excitement. He hasn’t felt this good in years. Until an irate voice says, “What the fuck?” Anna stands in front of him, angrier than ever, and he smiles a little more. “You think that’s funny?” she asks. The correct answer is no, of course, but the right answer is that he’s elated. He looks down to hide the smile he couldn’t make go away. That’s when he sees his brace and remembers his injured leg. The only pain he feels, though, is on his cheek. “I had it handled,” she says and shows him the red rhinestone-encrusted mace attached to her keychain, which her thumb sits on top of. He grins, and says, more bravely than he would have had he not been floating on Cloud 9, “Or you could just slap me again.” Her red lips slowly curve into a cat-like smile. She folds her arms and coolly leans against the wall. Her eyes glitter with mischief, and she purrs, “Well, now you’ve got my attention.”

I wrote this for Smut Week, but it's so much bigger than that. It was a monumental task writing about Kristoff, a war-injured vet, and Anna, the woman that uses pain to take away his pain, but so rewarding as their relationship turned into something so much bigger than h/c for them. It's two people bringing out the absolute best in each other, Kristoff healing in a way he never thought he could, and discovering that he was worthy of giving and accepting love. It's one of the most meaningful things I've written.

Rain Check (Kristanna, E)

Newly divorced Anna goes for a walk to work off some pent-up energy, but gets derailed by rain, a good Samaritan’s garage, and some really great D.

Another Smut Week fic, a follow-up to a cute little one-shot I wrote for myself last year (Future's So Bright, T) and wanted more of. I really love the way Anna and KB love each other. And Anna really goes for what she wants, but ultimately chooses herself and what she needs. I like this AU so much that I did a follow-up fic (Here Comes the Sun, E) and I'm also planning a 30+ multi-chap fic tentatively titled "And If I Change My Mind" to be published hopefully in the next few months.

Valentine Bear (Rydoff, T)

Kristoff gets some unexpected help setting up the Peeps Valentine's Day display at Weselton's Grocery Store when Anna, the assistant manager--and Kristoff's best friend--assigns Ryder to assist. Will Anna's Cupid's arrow strike Kristoff's heart? Or will it knock him down, along with his display?

I had this idea of Kristoff playing with Peeps and using his fake voice to talk for them. Who else talks for Peeps? Ryder of course! It's such a fun concept and I loved writing for them so much that I wrote a short multi-chap sequel (Mint Jelly and Onion Jam). Oh, and I got to explore Anna & Kristoff as adorable best friends and Anna/Hans (Alive and Burning Brighter), also a first!

Behind Adjoined Doors (Kristanna, E)

After seeing her recently engaged ex at her cousin's wedding, Anna sneaks through the adjoining door of her hotel room to have meaningless sex with Kristoff - because it’s not possible to fall for someone you can’t stand, right?

I wrote this one for Smut Week and it still tickles me. Cocky Kristoff is just so... he's a bro. Sort of. At least it seems like he is. And Anna has to open her eyes (and her legs) to see the diamond in the rough hiding right next door.

What's up for 2023? I'm working on a Kristanna Valentine's Day fic (short multi-chap), finishing up All Tied Up and Head Over Feet. Chugging along with The Refugees, and my new upcoming long fic "And If I Change My Mind," set in the Bandana AU.

[sleepanonymous]

What are your top 5 Sleep Token songs annnd why?

Also love your blog! 💜

Oooh interesting question, ty Anon! I'll go in descending order (mostly so number one should be cut off naturally because it's kind of personal). Also! Spoilers for the TOG Tour setlist.

5.

Number five is Vore, because out of 17k+ minutes I listened to Sleep Token on Spotify in 2023, I listened to Vore the most. Once again shouting out Vessel for writing a song about one of my squicks and making it one of my top 5. I thought it was an absolute banger the first time I heard it back in February 2023 and it's still one of my go-to Sleep Token songs.

4.

Number four is Hypnosis. It was the first song I'd heard by Sleep Token (and I thank Spotify every day for putting it into my Discover Weekly playlist back in 2022). Hypnosis from BRRF 2022 was also the first YouTube video I ever watched of Sleep Token (fun facts: the instant I realized they were all masked I thought they were super pretentious, and I also mistook III for a woman😅).

3.

Number three is TNDNBTG. I'm not kidding when I say that Vessel singing this song to me live altered my brain chemistry (even if it was for 1.5 seconds). Hearing this live in Phoenix was one of the best moments of my life, and then reliving it in Albuquerque was almost equally as amazing. Plus Vessel bowed right in front of me after the song (not saying he bowed to me, just that I was in a lucky spot lol). If things work out in Denver this next weekend, I'll also get the sigil for TNDNBTG as my first tattoo on my 32nd birthday.

2.

Number two goes to Jaws. This is another song I fell in love with immediately when I first heard it, and everything I've learned about it since (from the alternate live lyrics to the fact that Vessel, II, and the producer finished the song in 4 days) has made it that much better. It's one of the only Sleep Token songs I never skip and am always in the mood to listen to. (Spoiler Alert but) If neither Atlantic or Heaven is a Spectrum existed, then I would call Jaws Vessel's magnum opus.

1.

My favorite Sleep Token song is Atlantic. To be honest I didn't click with this song until I forced myself to sit down and actually listen to the entirety of TPWBYT sometime around June last year. Funnily enough, that happened in two sittings because when I started making connections to Atlantic, I was utterly shook and didn't end up listening to the rest of the album right then because this song went on repeat. Without getting too deep or trauma dumping, I've struggled with SH in the past and I've been through several bouts of suicidal ideation. I'm also hyper-independent, so the whole idea of the third and fourth verse is my absolute worst nightmare. It's the first Sleep Token song I made such a severe personal connection to, which is essentially Vessel's main goal with his music. I just hope to god that he wasn't drawing from personal experience.

[caluski]

Few days ago @ikonofilizm tagged me to do the "put music player on shuffle and list 10 first songs" thing Thank You my dear I loooooove doing this shit 😁😁😁 let's get to it

1. Lucky to get him by Aly and AJ - revisited this album recently, it's really nice and chill, I like the direction they're going in now as adults. I was never really into Americana, but maybe theyve kinda changed that with this release.

2. Another life by Jadu Heart - god, this was the first song I've ever heard of them, such a throwback!!! I remember walking thru the city at night time, walking back from a party I think? Alcohol leaving my body and I just stared at the starry sky. An unbelievably beautiful track. Since then the duo became one of my favorite bands atm.... Please give them a chance, especially their last EP.

3. Liquid air by Temples - one of my favorite tracks from their new album. Talked about them more than a healthy amount of times recently; really good neopsychedelia if you're into that stuff, a 10/10 album for hot summer days.

4. DYNA by PEEL - some more neopsychedelia! It's been a while since I listened to it, but I used to have it on repeat so much.

5. HAUNTED by Isabel LaRosa - ugh, i remember when it came out and I discovered it in like one of those spotify playlists. It had like a thousand plays maybe!!! And I loved it so much, I added it to my midground playlist and had it really high up on my wrapped for that year, and then I checked back a few months ago and it became like a tiktok sound or something with like a billion plays :((((( I guess good for her but mannn my pretentious soul was hurting LOL

6. Assumptions by Sam Gellaitry - some house...ish dance track, i guess. It's fun and I like that vibe of sort of city pop it has going on, but the fucking high pitched sound at the start is the WORST. So fucking annoying. Every time it comes on, even though I actually like the song, the noise just pisses me off and I cant help but skip it!!!! Who thought it was a good idea to START with what sounds like fucking tinnitus.

7. Upside down by Sacha Rudy - ohhhh throwback... I used to love every single track this guy would put out since like 2019. And then he released that EP last year and other than "upside down" I really just couldn't get into it. Felt like a mess. And now he's disappeared since! Can't help but hope he'll come back with something as good as "be a man", because that was my most listened to track that year. So good.

8. Lamb's wool by Foster the People - HEY that's my song!!!!! Oh no wonder it's coming up on shuffle when I've listened to it so much again this past few weeks. This time it's the original and not the Poolside version. One of my all time favorites, like, ever, and if you can only listen to one of the songs I've listed, please make it this one. Who DOESN'T love tracks about how terrifying death is??? I'll hold you so you're not alone 🤓

9. Blessed by August Charles - people who listened to my dinner party/cafe playlist probably heard this one. Ugh it makes me so melancholic. Really good tho. No wonder it's his most listened to track.... I should probably check out his other works bc I really like his voice.

10. Theme of Re:Served by Re:Served - instrumental track with So Few listens that it doesn't even have the count visible on spotify! I remember being obsessed with them back in 2016, when the way I would discover new music was by downloading random japanese experimental albums from my favorite site. This is honestly just like runway music. I love runway music with good bpm. This one is good. You should listen to it and become their third monthly listener with me.

Thank youuuuuuuuu for tagging me!!!!!! Sorry its so long tho!!!! I love talking about songs I love!!!!! Tagging back: @moldavite , @slavicafire (i know u never do these but hope dies last!), @ferdydurke , @jurajurica , @kotikonnut , @skrzynka , @nocylipcowa , and everyone else who listened to at least one of the songs 😁😁😁 let's have a lovely Sunday afternoon everyone mwah

[justaperson15]

AoT oc introduction !

I've been watching AoT since November/December 2019 - I probably never showed my AoT OC here, and since watching the Final Part (and rewatching the show itself), I'd love to share her :)

— OC INFO

Name: Eri Bodt ( 恵里 - “Eri Botto” )

Age: 16 (year 850) | 19 (year 854) | 22 (year 857)

Gender: female

Birthday: June 16th (16/06)

Birthplace: Jinae, Wall Rose

Current Residence: Trost, Wall Rose

Sexual Orientation: Pan

Relationship Status: Married

Life-Long Dream: Eri's lifelong dream was to see the “even bigger” forests in the outside world, and the “sea” she's heard of.

Dislike(s):

• Bugs

• Pretentious people

Hobbies:

• journaling

• reading

Fear(s):

• Heights

Personality:

Eri is often perceived as being the strongest "people person." They can forge friendships with all personality types, even with more introverted or reticent individuals. Because of her ability to sense what others feel and affect how people behave, she has the ability to influence others. This is balanced by her strong value system and desire to help others. Eri has great people skills and is often warm, affectionate, and supportive. She’s great at encouraging others and gets satisfaction from helping people, which brought her to join the Military. Eri also tends to be too hard on herself, blaming herself for when things go wrong and not giving herself enough credit when things go right. Eri can be an outstanding leader and bring enthusiasm to a group that can be motivating and inspirational.

— FAVORITES

Color: pastel yellow

Season: summer

Time of Day: Dawn

— Appearance

Height: 167cm (season 1-3) / 170cm (season 4)

Weight: 55kg

Hair style: Messy, shoulder length, always down, parted

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Light brown

Skin Tone: light

Body Shape/Build: slender figure

Scar(s):

• Midway in her forearm - titan bite

• Nose bridge, neck, shoulder - flying debris

Other:

>> Freckles on her cheek, shoulders, hands, knees, and various other places.

(season 1-3 appearance)

(season 4 appearance)

— Health

Memory: good-ish

Mental: Undiagnosed ADD

Sleep patterns: depends on her mood, mostly decent sleep quality

— Abilities/Statistics

3D Maneuvering Gear: 8/10

Intelligence: 8/10

Martial Arts: 7/10

Battle Skill: 8.5/10

Agility: 9/10

Strategy: 8/10

Teamwork: 7/10

Passion: 9/10

— Military

Affiliation: Survey Corps

Former Affiliation: 104th Trainee Corps

Grad. Rank: soldier (Veterinary Officer)

Status: alive

— Relationships

disclaimer, most of the names are only headcanons!

Parents :

• Eugen Bodt (Deceased);

• Julia Bodt.

Siblings:

• unnamed older brother

• Marco Bodt (Deceased);

• Isaac Bodt;

• other unnamed siblings

Love Interest:

• Jean Kirschtein (S2 — S4)

Best Friends:

• Norah Clarke

• Connie Springer

• Armin Arlert

• Sasha Blouse

Quotes :

“ Tell me, could I ever be as brave as him? As helpful? <...> After all, that's what I wanted to be as a child ”

— Eri to Norah, chapter 20

“ Whatever happens, I will not leave your side, I won't. ”

— Eri to Jean, chapter 75

“ You're my little brother, Isaac. I'll never let anything happen to you, I can't lose you too. ”

— Eri to Philipp, OAV

★» Gallery !

— Assigned song ★ :

My Love Mine All Mine - Mitski

okay that's should be REALLY all, hopefully, goodnight

backstory soon, gotta end season 4 character arc

[hoodssery]

Recommending Video Essays #8

In lieu of any thoughts on video essays I'm gonna recommend an album, but not change the title because I think it's funny to mislead people.

Recommendation: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is an album that I can almost guarantee that you've at least heard of if you've spent enough time on the internet to be a part of the few people to see this post any time in the next six months. It's an album that gained a shocking amount of reverence in the late-aughts and 2010s, and has remained a cultural touch stone for people who's online activity descends, in some form, from boards like /mu/ and websites like RateYourMusic. It's an album that's filled with words that form barley intelligible surreal paintings for your ears. An album, filled with buzzing guitars that push the limits of whatever cheap equipment the album was recorded on. An album that very clearly push the limits of front man Jeff Magnum's vocals for a majority of the track list. An album I would guess most people (myself included) have to listen to at least 10 times before really understanding what it's even about. It's also proof that sometimes the most pretentious, annoying parts of the internet are right.

Listening to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as many times as I have, I have come to the conclusion that you just have to listen to it at least once. So for those who haven't listened to it, I implore you to listen to the album, look at the cover art for the 40 minute run time, and just visualize. If I was reading this right now, I might be turned off by that ask, because assigning homework is a really annoying thing to do when recommending an album that's supposed to be great. But, if you're interested enough to read the rest of this, and you haven't listened to the album before, you should listen to it.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the most fucked up albums I've ever listened to in my life. It is also really hauntingly beautiful. While there are certain ideas about the album, what that idea is used for I think is probably going to be different from person to person. This is usually a down fall of media in my opinion, because what was originally intended gets largely lost in abstraction, thus making that underlying thing that the themes all wrap around, generally unknowable. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is still legible, even where the lyrics of the album suggests it's not.

From my point of view the album is mostly about faith, in the spiritual sense. What drives us as people to have a faith? The conclusion that the album very loosely comes too, is that it's an answer for feeling used. King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1, the first track on the album, explores the start of the cycle that leads to both faith and feeling used. Just as the lyrics point to in the abstract telling of sex, the two characters of the song use each other and “learn what each other's bodies were for,” just as they would “lay and learn” from the unhealthy and abusive relationship their parents left out for their children. This continues further into the next track, King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3, where just as their father dreamed of all the ways to die, they're left waiting for the salvation of Jesus, entirely separated from the world, and using their mother as a guide. I guarantee that after listening to this album, you have a different take on just these two first songs. But if you've been paying attention to the lyrics there are absolute core ideas that translate between your read and my read on the songs. This is what truly makes this album great to me. Managing to make a very thoughtful and human story through absolutely insane abstraction, while making all the potential thoughts of the listener coherent with both the album and other peoples thoughts. And that example I gave is just the first two songs. I'm not even going to take the time to delve into where ideology and faith thematically intersect in Communist Daughter, or where the tackling of the separation between life and death in religion separates the character's own life in Two Headed Boy, or all the other essay length topics present in the album.

The only downside to the album is that you'll probably have to listen to it a lot to get the bigger picture, and fully form your own thoughts and ideas on the entire album. Fortunately, this album boasts incredibly beautiful songs that are still ringing in my head to this day.

In my opinion, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the oh so few albums out there that completely lives up to the hype it's given. There isn't a single down moment or worse song on the album, and each song (excluding the instrumental track The Fool) has enough to chew on for years of listening. Genuinely a modern masterpiece.

[litlunacy]

I just heard some of, what feels to me at least, the most pretentious writing advice I've ever heard. And I really do want to give a long rant and break down how impossibly wrong it is, but I think I'm a little too upset at the moment to do that properly.

The basic gist of it though, was that writing is an unforgiving medium and is a much more difficult art than painting or singing because they have more tools at their disposal and writers only have words.

Which is just so ridiculous that I'm foaming at the mouth over here. Writers have so many tools. The tools are how we shape the words, the same way a painter's tools shape the painting and a singer's tools shape the song.

And as someone who is both a writer and a painter (among other art fields) who also writes poetry (which is not singing, I know, but follows a lot of the same rules of meter and rhythm), it feels like such an insult to other art forms which require just as much dedication and effort and careful crafting as writing.

[appleciderp]

for the ask game I'll have a number 7, a nr 15, 16 and a 25 thank you <33

I feel like I'm working at a drive-thru window.

7. Favourite works of all time excluding your own?

How pretentious do you want this answer to be??

Because the real answer is We Walked the Earth by Uffe Isolotto (TW: Suicide, and a bunch of other things I cannot explain but I'm sure will upset people. I'm not gonna put the examples here) though it's more of an exhibit than an illustration.

The sheer desperation that looking at the photographs give me is outrageous. I want to see it in person. But it's kind of pretentious.

Keaton Henson's work has always affected me, from the second I first heard his songs, to the first time I read his poetry, to the countless times I've looked at his sketches.

There's just a perfect imperfectness to his drawings.

15. Biggest artist pet peeve?

Anybody trying to tell anybody what to do. Yes, ideally you'd need to learn anatomy before bending the rules. Do you HAVE to? no.

Art, to me, is made from love and emotions and especially when you enter more classically trained areas, I feel like they say "Oh you can do that, once you learn the basics."

That only turns people off the idea. Do things that annoy you, THEN you can have fun. For example: Do I understand composition? Fuck no. Would it better my art? yea, definitely. Will I do it? Maybe when I feel like it.

Any time you create, you better your art. Whether that be writing, drawing, playing an instrument, or whatever.

The only rule to me regarding art is to create.

Another one is regarding pricing. Whenever I've taken commissions in the past, I've always done Pay what you want prices. I always see posts saying to not undervalue yourself as an artist and to at least ask for minimum wage as a pricing guide. I ain't charging anybody 15$ an hour for my drawings.

Art for me is a hobby, that I rarely do for money. I don't care that I'm valuing my work at less than 5$ an hour. Hell, I did a 6 character scene with a background a few years ago for about 20$, just because the concept seemed fun.

Not everybody who draws should make it a career, and I feel like telling everybody to treat as if everybody taking commissions for their living wage is not the way to go.

IF you want it to be your sole source of income, go for it. But I don't feel like saying that every artist needs to follow those rules.

16. What’s the most daunting part of your process? Ex, planning, sketching, lineart, rendering etc

Lineart, shading, and backgrounds.

Linearts are mostly due to my struggle with accepting the imperfections in my art. I used to have a very crisp and bold lineart with the smoothest brush you could ever imagine. It's just when I sat down and looked at the art that I enjoyed (both online and offline) that I realized I always preferred a thinner lineart and sketchier overall. I always used to think my sketches were so much better back then.

Shading pretty much follows the same vein. Thining my lines made imperfections in shading stand out more. I prefer lighting, and I have no idea how tf my brain makes those two completely different to me.

Backgrounds I believe are nearly universal. Everybody hates 'em.

25. Based on your recent reference searches, what would the FBI assume about you?

Guns, bombs, and kilts. BUT I frequently pop on a little (It's for a drawing, I promise) or (I'm writing something, I'm not killing anybody!) Which either amps my suspiciousness up or it makes me seem sane.

The worst is when I did the Midas piece and I wanted refs of oozing liquids, and like, blood was the obvious choice, but nothing was popping up exactly and it was frustrating to just have to google "blood oozing" "real blood oozing" "blood oozing wound" "Nosebleed" "hands covered in blood"

[pikesprouts]

Tagged by: @eat-study-draw thanks!

Relationship status: Single! Kind of dating but no one specific

Favourite colour: Yellow

Favourite food: Pasta (any but like basic stuff ie alfredo/spaghetti/instant ramen/cheese etc)

Song stuck in my head: Bright by Echosmith (have been singing it in my head for a few hours and I have no fucking clue where I heard it recently)

Last thing I googled: "uta vehicle locator" (the public transit system where I live has a real-time vehicle locator on all buses and trains across the state and I rode a bus today- this is frequently one of my most recent searches ngl)

Dream trip: I want to take a roadtrip out somewhere with like one or two of my friends and just drive and hang out with each other and stay in lowkey kind of shitty motels and just exist without any expectations other than being with each other for awhile. I'd also love to go to like DC or Chicago and experience like a big big city someday.

Last book read/currently reading: The LIttle Prince by Atoine de Saint Exupery (Highly fuckin recommend it's poetic and lovely and philosophical and a little existential and a quick read but it's a good vibe I really like it)

Last book enjoyed: Magyk by Angie Sage it's an old comfort book of mine I like reading it every now and then like an old friend

Last book hated: Mismatch by Kat Holmes in large part because I have to read it for class but also because it feels so pretentious as someone who benefits from inclusive design when it's written as though all designers don't need inclusive design and have to be convinced that they should design inclusively- so conceptually it just makes me mad

Favorite thing to cook/bake: Pizza! I also like baking cookies, and I like cooking pasta dishes or making tacos

Most niche dislike: Carpet that hasn't been vacuumed recently on bare feet

Opinions on the circus: I've only ever been to a Chinese acrobatic circus troupe performance and that was cool; not a fan of circus animals being mistreated obviously; I didn't like the Dumbo movie, and those are my only three exposures to anything remotely circus related so there you go

Sense of direction: Good, I'm uncannily good at telling which cardinal direction I'm facing, but I can't tell you which direction it is without relating back to my house cause I can match a direction to the name of said direction that way- every time. I'm really good at remembering directions and undoing what I did to get somewhere in order to get back out, but my sense of cardinal direction is fucking shit when I'm in brand new buildings without a chance to explore it first. This is exactly the reason that I went to my junior high/high schools and my college campus before classes started and just wandered around until I figured everything out and like where shit was. So good outdoors and good indoors once I'm familiar with layout and shit.

Some people i want to get to know better!

@felagund-fiollaigean @chiaroart @cantsleepanything if you guys want!

[thesunlightismanufactured]

Listening to podcasters reviewing godfeels and I remember reading it after they went through 2.2

I don't remember what I thought when I read it but now I think I would like to share that I don't think that she should think that much. Fine maybe I remember opinons the stuff it is strange. Vaska. Do you think my aunt heard and has opinons on me playing a Kanye song and then talking to myself about how most people who have met vriska would probably like to think she would kill people who were mean to her about being transgender.

I have found all hs fanfiction to suck compared to the actual comic. Then post canon is second. Then this one series in which Egbert has things suck severely from the rescon powers including several scenes of killing himself with a hammer & hal has a life on earth c. I like a lot of earth c stuff that has them interact with anyone other than the same 12 people forever & of course gets weird with it. I will not share more fanfictions I am thinking about publicly. I think about writing something where they all go to the alpha universe (2011) instead of the beta universe. Maybe they all eventually have to fight the condesce. I like grandma English but I don't know if I'd revive her for no reason. Maybe vriska terezi and grandma English suddenly appear right before everyone goes to fight the condesce. the idea here is obviously really about adult RoRyu qjse and Dave randomly having their lives radically changed but I am not sure how invested I could really get into all that.

I've been pondering if humor joky jokes can be brought into conversation with the meat-candy dichotomy in any meaningful way. The only thought I've got is youtube video saying the toilet humor really sucks -> I think the humor is often a sort of masculine pov? That isn't sense or true. Meat-candy doesn't do anything with game versus actual narrative also. I am completely fucking haunted by someone calling sburb pretentious sword art online.

I still have a Google doc with colored text about stupid shit happening while the i feel uncomfortable saying it. These characters they are exploring a cave. I have a chart in a sketchbook where I have placed Dave rose and no one else. I have a google doc with the worst 4 paragraphs about arquius ever and a long playlist. I have a much older google doc where I was juggalo moment.

[tony-quinn]

Eifel Like Shit (idk how to include 65)

Has anyone heard the song "Colors" by Halsey?

I mean probably because it's pretty famous. For anyone who hasn't, humor me while I shift into overly analytical, pretentious douche mode.

IT'S MORPHIN TIME MOTHERFUCKERS!

I was listening to the song recently for the fiftieth time and the chorus struck me in a way it hadn't before. Here it is for those who haven't heard the song, aka dirty plebs.

"Everything is blue His pills, his hands, his jeans And now I'm covered in the colors Pulled apart at the seams And it's blue And it's blue

Everything is grey His hair, his smoke, his dreams And now he's so devoid of color He don't know what it means And he's blue And he's blue."

I've always been a pretty sad guy, ever since I was a kid (not yet a guy.) I'm not sure where it comes from. I've also been an anxious fucker for a long time and I recently found out that the two things correlate so RIP to any sense of peace.

A popular song from my childhood (as well as anyone's who isn't an aforementioned dirty pleb) is "Blue" by Eifel 65.

It annoys me when people say that the group confirmed the song to be nonsensical fuck shit, when songfacts.com quotes them saying otherwise. Here's the quote so nobody can accuse me of pulling it out of the same vault that Half Life 3 is sealed in.

"I started thinking about this character I invented called Zoroti and the lifestyle he led, from the way he would buy his house, pick his girlfriend, his job or the neighborhood he would live in. Then I came up with a color, a color I thought described the way he saw things."

Checkmate bitches. Where's my Nobel Prize?

Listening to "Colors" recently made me think back to this quote and my brain did its typical thing of connecting separate thoughts into a bridge that allows a fully fledged idea to pass over. Nothing is ever simple with me.

Okay if you think the humor in this post is egregious, that's only because I'm writing this in real time and have trouble being completely serious, but I have to do that now so yeah.

I'm blue. Yeah that's a line from the Eifel 65 song, but blue is just who I am. As much as I'm no longer a total believer in anything supernatural or spiritual, maybe this song being a big part of my youth was some form of fate. On the surface it's a silly club anthem, but when you actually look at the lyrics it's kind of deep.

"Colors" gave me this mental image that honestly haunts me, where every woman I've ever tried dating are sitting in a room and talking about me, whether positively or negatively I can't be too sure, but probably the former.

Then the conversation gets serious as one of them (probably the only one I loved) says, "He was pretty sad most of the time.) One by one the other women nod and agree with that sentiment. Sure they thought I was a comedic god, but in some way they all saw the truer version of myself below the surface buried under my goofy jackass attitude; the thoughtful, melancholy loner who never really felt like he could be exposed.

Halsey wrote "Colors" about Matty Healy from The 1975 (they dated.) I don't know too much about his life, but I know he had a drug problem and struggled (or struggles) with depression to some degree. In a way I kind of view myself as a celebrity, in the sense that I'm known for stuff that serves as a smokescreen to the unflattering parts of my life. Gee it's almost like celebrities aren't so different from us. Fucking unfathomable.

This post really had no ultimate purpose. I just wanted to talk about the one thought, but every time I write off the top of my head it shapes itself into something unexpected.

Thanks for reading if you even did. Regardless I feel a bit better.

[dancefloors]

bestie i HAVE to know, what do u think of the 1975

I think Matty Healy was the original pandemic

[heavymetal-and-reflective]

Le Tigre by Le Tigre

Official album review by MacArthur Radio

I’d recommend this album for fans of ‘90s alternative, punk, grunge rock bands and artists like Veruca Salt, Garbage, Nirvana, Bikini Kill, and more modern artists such as Rina Sawayama, Miley Cyrus, (specifically her Plastic Hearts album, Grimes (specifically Art Angels and Miss Anthropocene) Ashnikko, Rico Nasty, and Avril Lavigne and just anyone who likes intense, punk music that can sometimes be beautiful.

Le Tigre's self titled is one of the defining albums of the riot grrrl genre, and is an unapologetic, perfectly pretentious, cohesive record that makes you wanna simutaneously throw shit around, dance slowly in your bedroom, and protest against the government.

This album has really intense, angry, "RAHHHHH" energy songs like "Deceptacon" and "Let's Run" that are so satisfying and make you wanna whip your hair back and forth like Willow Smith, to very strange, conceptual songs like Phanta, which is written from the point of view of hippies hidden in a bunker as they await the apocalypse and are hiding from a supposed monster outside (based on true events that happened in 1967-1968 when scientists realized the asteroid named 1566 Icarus would be coming close to Earth).

Then there's the ethereal almost-ballad "Eau 'd Bedroom Dancing", to the political, feminist, thought provoking statements on life and art spoken entirely throughout tracks like "Hot Topic" and "Slideshow at Free University".

The closing track Les and Ray is also a criminally underrated, hidden gem. One of the cutest, most purest, songs I've ever heard that I didn't expect to hear on an album that goes this hard. Kathleen Hanna (lead singer) sings from the perspective of a nine year old thanking her neighbors Les and Ray for playing a big role in her loving music and holding out hope that her life could be better one day as she sings "You were my oxygen/The thing that made me think I could escape/This is a thank you song for Les and Ray." The song's instrumental sounds both like you're listening to music playing at a party by your next door neighbors, and a soothing music box lullaby.

Otherwise, most of this album's sound is heavy punk guitar riffs, passionate and raw punk vocals by Kathleen Hanna full of frustration, anger, but also a very "fuck you!" type of pure, unadulterated joy, very experimental and unique songwriting, samples, and production, that I think people who are fans of alternative, punk rock, punk pop (like Miley Cyrus's latest album which I love), experimental music will really enjoy.

This is one of the most unique, memorable, and enjoyable albums I've ever heard.

Fav songs: Deceptacon, The The Empty, Phanta, Eau 'd Bedroom Dancing, Let's Run, and Les and Ray

SOURCE: (for 1967/1968 story of hippies fleeing due to fear of doomsday)

https://www.nytimes.com/1968/06/14/archives/hippies-flee-to-colorado-as-icarus-nears-earth-hundreds-camping-in.html