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strawberryblondebutch · 15 days ago

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Back by unpopular demand, it's my top albums of 2024! Same rules as always: everything on this list is a full-length album (no EPs) of generally previously unreleased material (no reissues, no cover albums, no Taylor's Versions) arranged in an intentional manner (no B-sides, no rarities, no mixtapes).

10. Bayside, There Are Worse Things Than Being Alive

I have the least to say about Bayside’s effort here than anything else in my top ten, and yet I couldn’t find a reason to replace it with another. Not even Foxing’s self-titled (more on that below). The New York scene veterans are the definition of a blue collar pop punk band: they tour constantly, and every few years they see fit to release a perfect melodic album. It’s the kind of album where you can’t ask me to pick a favorite – it will change with every track.

9. Full of Hell, Coagulated Bliss

I don’t like grindcore. There, I said it – as if that’s even a remotely controversial position to take. It’s a genre that exists as a joke, from the microsongs to the gross-out lyrics. It’s easier for me to argue that Coagulated Bliss is a hardcore album than it is to swallow my pride and admit that I actually enjoyed a grindcore record. This was the last album added to my top-ten, supplanting Foxing’s self-titled (which is also a masterpiece in genre redirection, going from twinkly emo to full-tilt rowdiness), but Full of Hell accomplished what no one else could: they made a (albeit very, very begrudging) grindcore fan out of me.

8. Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope

Longtime readers of this column will take S-K’s position here for the surprise that it is. Path of Wellness was my worst album of 2021, and I was terrified that the collapse in songwriting ability that had followed drummer Janet Weiss’s departure from the band would continue unabated. This year’s follow-up record proved me wrong in all the right ways. Carrie and Corin sound sharper and more in sync with each other, and more than anything, the record has a point. It needed to be released. Thank God for that.

7. Les Savy Fav, Oui, LSF

Les Savy Fav had a difficult task in releasing their sixth studio album. Their last release, Root for Ruin, came out in 2010. In that time, the band was better known for their live antics than their music. Those antics haven’t stopped (at the Union Transfer in June, vocalist Tim Harrington handed me the microphone to carry the chorus of “World Got Great” while he drank from my beer), but they can’t carry a studio album. Oui, LSF is an art-punk masterpiece from a band who wants you to hear them as much as they want you to watch out for their goblinesque frontman.

6. Kneecap, Fine Art

On the subject of difficult tasks, Kneecap is the unlikeliest story of the last few years. How does a rap trio, whose music is almost entirely in the Irish language, accumulate such a cult following? Part of it is spite – their rage against the British occupation of their Belfast home speaks to anti-imperialist sentiment across the globe – but the rest is talent. You don’t have to know the language to nod your head along to the beats and flow.

5. Leprous, Melodies of Atonement

Some artists have a place on this list penciled in the moment that they announce an album. Leprous is one of them, their specific brand of symphonic progressive metal filling an underserved niche in my listening. It would be easy to file them in somewhere between 10 and 6 just for releasing a full-length, but Melodies of Atonement vaulted itself by breaking through with a raw edge to it that Leprous’s last two LPs lacked. Einar et al. are more confident in their abilities, surer that they have something to say – and that people will listen.

4. Better Lovers, Highly Irresponsible

Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan: two bands often imitated and never surpassed. Although the circumstances leading to the marriage between these two bands are less than ideal (Keith Buckley’s sudden hostile departure from ETID forced his brother Jordan to seek out the talents of longtime Dillinger vocalist Greg Puciato), the members of Better Lovers made the best out of a bad situation, pushing forward with the chaotic precision both predecessor bands did so well.

3. Kendrick Lamar, GNX

Can I tell you a secret? Before this year, I would not have called myself a Kendrick Lamar fan. I enjoyed individual songs of his, but I largely found his talent at the mic undercut by his pen and his devotion to overwrought conscious rap, exemplified by the laughably drivelous “BLOOD.” in 2017. I grew up on the feuds of the 90s, Biggie and Tupac firing barbs from coast to coast. It’s one of the reasons I praise Meg so highly – you can tell she cut her teeth in battle rap. Well, K.Dot went to therapy and became more spiteful, and GNX made a fan out of me.

2. Amigo the Devil, Yours Until the War Is Over

I discover bands in a few ways: playlists, recommendations from friends, opening acts, and entirely by accident. Amigo the Devil is the latter – while enjoying a lunch break at Riot Fest some years prior, I was captivated by Danny Kiranos’s storytelling and sense of humor on tracks like “Murder at the Bingo Hall” and “I Hope Your Husband Dies.” His most recent effort has those in spades, with tracks like “I’m Going to Heaven” and “Once Upon a Time at Texaco, Pt. 1” weaving darkly humorous narratives. But what Yours Until the War Is Over has over his previous works is heart. Pathos. “Cannibal Within” has an earnestness to it that I couldn’t imagine him employing before, and “Stray Dog” is a love song with no wink or nudge.

1. Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, In Lieu of Flowers

Every five years, Dan “Soupy” Campbell of The Wonder Years adds to a story of his – Aaron West. Ten years ago, Aaron’s father died, his wife asked for a divorce, and things got worse from there. It’s tempting to torture Aaron further, and the last decade has not been kind to him. In Lieu of Flowers covers the years 2019 to 2024, as he struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic anxiety of being a touring artist, and a descent into the family trade of alcoholism. But Campbell – and Aaron, by extension – never lose hope, and if this is the last chapter of his story, it ends as it should: with him looking up and letting go.

#music tag #bayside #full of hell #sleater kinney #les savy fav #kneecap #leprous #better lovers #kendrick lamar #amigo the devil #aaron west and the roaring twenties

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fawnforevergone · 2 years ago

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Quick List of References to Dante's Inferno in "Unreal Unearth" (Part Two)

HELLO !!! there is now an updated list since we have now heard the old album so please go check that out instead: [ the ultimate "unreal unearth" reference list" ]

[ PART ONE ]

I'm back!! A bit later than intended but here are the rest of the references we currently know :]

THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE ALBUM RELEASE !!!! please take it with a pinch of salt.

"ALL THINGS END" This song, similarly to "Eat Your Young", doesn't have many specific references, but, as Hozier himself has said, the song is about the sixth circle of Inferno, 'Heresy'. The act of Heresy is the act of holding a belief contradictory to (especially Christian) religion, and this idea is very prevalent throughout the song. "Just knowing that everything will end should not change our plans when we begin again." 'Ending' is used in two ways throughout the song. One: A breakup. Two: Death. The latter is important for Heresy, where Hozier clearly defies the idea that death will be the end for him. 'Beginning again' is often a term used to relate to the afterlife, and, here, Hozier shows himself going against God's plan to give him a restart, saying that he won't allow death and finality to dictate how he lives his life. No specific references to Inferno, but Dante was a religious man, and that theme especially sticks out in this song.

"TO SOMEONE FROM A WARM CLIMATE (UISCEFHUARITHE)" Now, this placement of this song confuses me heavily, I'll be honest. The word "Uiscefhuarithe" is an Irish word meaning "water cooled", which wouldn't align with where we are in Inferno. We are either in circle six or seven, so 'Heresy' or 'Violence', both of which deal with the idea of heat, fire, or boiling sands/rivers. Since the song is name "To Someone...", I believe the song could be written towards the idea of someone in this circle of Hell, rather than Hozier, or whoever he is writing as, residing there themselves. No references with the lyrics we have so far, but the 'warm climate' is interesting for where we are at this point in Hell.

"BUTCHERED TONGUE" So, at this point, I'm highly unsure of where we are in terms of circles, but I'm trying my best. This song will either be 'Violence' or 'Fraud', yet, as far as I can tell, and please correct me if you spot something I don't, I don't see any specific references to anything in particularly. "And ears were chopped from young men, if the pitch cap didn't kill them. They are buried without scalp in the shattered bedrock of our home." However, this lyric does seem to display unjust and violent imagery, so perhaps the song is leaning towards Hozier's distaste of those deserving of the punishment that the circle of 'Violence' holds.

"ANYTHING BUT" Now, I believe we are at 'Fraud', the eighth circle. The issue with these last three circles, especially the eighth, is that they are split into subcategories, 'Fraud' of which has ten. However, the first few circles of 'Fraud' contain people such as panderers, seducers, and flatterers, and the song appears to be very flattering. "I'd lower the world in a flood, or, better yet, I'd cause a drought. If I was a riptide, I wouldn't take you out." This song could be in a similar context to most of the album where Hozier admits to the sin, yet argues against the idea of the sin being a bad thing when it's not practiced in extremity. For example, the 'Lust' in 'Francesca' is portrayed as harmless yet consuming love. Aspects of 'Eat Your Young' convey hunger, 'Gluttony', in a, again, harmless lustful way and then contrasts it with a political hunger. 'Anything But' seems to fall into that category of turning a sin into a love song, as Hozier often does.

"ABSTRACT (PSYCHOPOMP)" I'm going to make a leap and say that this song could possibly not be about a circle at all, but, instead, the transition from one circle to the next. A 'Psychopomp' is a chauffeur of death, someone like the Grim Reaper or, as aforementioned, Charon, who plays a heavy role in the story of Inferno, and, obviously, Virgil, the second main character of Inferno. "The poor thing in the road, its eye still glistening. The cold wet of your nose, the earth from a distance: See how it shines, see how it shines." The lyrics seem to reflect on the idea of something dead, yet also still recognising the beauty in its now-faded life. Since the album seems to be a metaphor for one or more relationships, and the song after this is 'Unknown/Nth', I'm going to make the assumption that this song is Hozier reflecting on the goodness of a previous relationship from the persona of a Psychopomp, delivering this love from life to death. Inferno is about the idea of death, and Dante spends most of his journey being lead, delivered, and guided through sin by various people, but particularly Virgil, who, after the final circle, he parts with.

"UNKNOWN/NTH" This song is stacked with references to the Nth and final circle of Inferno, 'Treachery'. "I'd have walked across the floor of any sea, ignored the vastness between all that can be seen and all that we believe." 'Treachery' is a frozen over lake, where winds grow stronger the closer you grow towards the middle. It's a vast, frozen expanse and, although not a sea floor, crossing the lake of 'Treachery' evokes a similar image in my mind to what Hozier is saying. "Where you were held frozen like an angel to me." There are many 'angel' lines but, with the mention of 'frozen' and the ice of 'Treachery', I'll pick this one. The reason why the winds grow stronger in 'Treachery' the closer you get to the centre is because, stuck in the middle, too big to escape, is Lucifer, the fallen angel. The winds are caused by the violent movement of his wings as he tries to move, only trapping himself further. "You called me angel for the first time, my heart leapt from me. You smile, now, I can see its pieces still stuck in your teeth. And, what's left of it, I listen to it tick, every tedious beat, going unknown as any angel to me." The imagery of Hozier having his heart stuck in someone's teeth is a metaphor to the fact that, when Dante and Virgil arrive at the sight of Lucifer, they see that he is chewing on Judas, another betrayer of God/Jesus. "Going unknown as any angel to me" is gorgeous. Hozier realises, as God did with Lucifer, that the one he loves is no angel, but a traitor. 'Treachery' is a betrayal of trust, and the song clearly references neglect or mistreatment of Hozier's love and trust, and the metaphor of God and Lucifer is a beautiful way to put that. "That I'd walk so far just to take the injury of finally knowing you?" The walk through Hell is a long and tiresome journey, to which Hozier references here. He relates his experience of this relationship to the walk through Inferno, arriving at 'Treachery' and feeling like, despite the outcome not being a positive one, he finally knows his lover in their painful entirety.

"FIRST LIGHT" Though we have no lyrics, I have a theory... as always, but, at the end of this day, this title means SO much being the closing track. At the end of Inferno, Dante and Virgil leave Lucifer stuck, and make their way out of Hell through the same tunnel that Lucifer's body left behind after he was thrown through the earth, down to Hell. They emerge on the other side of the earth and Dante says they can "see, once more, the stars", ending on a cadence of hope, similar to a 'first light'. I mention in part one of this post the utter darkness of Inferno that Hozier references in the earlier songs on this album, and this title seems like a perfect conclusion to emerging from Inferno, and recovering from the damage he suffered throughout his journey.

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OKAY !!!! If I missed anything, let me know, I'm so excited to know what everyone else thinks of the album, and WE ARE GETTING DE SELBY PART TWO IN LIKE FOUR DAYS ?!?!?!?!?! SOOOO

I'm thinking of doing a long winded break down for each song on the album, and previous albums too, so perhaps I will share more of my theories later since, surprisingly, some of you are actually interested in listening to me word vomit over a text post. ANYWAYS!!! I hope this was helpful to some people or at least interesting :] I had fun writing it, so <3

#i just fathomed “abstract (psychopomp)”#i'm in awe of him #unknown is the most beautiful thing ever written #hozier #unreal unearth #literature #music analysis #lyric analysis #all things end #to someone from a warm climate #butchered tongue #anything but #abstract “psychopomp”#unknown/nth #unknown / nth #first light

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ebbarights · 4 months ago

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beach reads 2024

this year i didn't read as much as the previous holidays but in exchange all my choices were absolutely lovely, so much so that i want to recommend them all. no summaries because those are available everywhere i want to do OPINIONS

the first book was the bone people by keri hulme. probably to blame for the shortness of this list because while it is very very good, it is also sloooow. beautiful prose, fascinating characters, lovely new zealand atmosphere but also not very much happens. and then everything does. reminded me of what i have heard people say about a little life, frequently caught myself thinking how many bad things can happen to one person without it being ridiculous, but the relationship between the characters pulled me back in. the very graphic description of domestic abuse and how it is. well. not excused but definitely rationalized left me with feelings too fuzzy to put into words. maybe this issue is simply too complex to unpack in a few sentences. i also think that this is a kind of book that would be lovely to read in a book club, especially with other readers who know more about maori culture. feel like i missed a lot of subtext there

second one was kala by colin walsh. loveditloveditlovedit. reminded me of the love of my life tana french so much, and not just because it's irish. the deeply complex and heartbreakingly tragic relationships between its three main characters and their three friends who (excuse my tumblrspeak) haunt the narrative, the blink-and-you-miss-it elements of the supernatural, the feeling that the story is hurtling towards something big and you can do nothing to prevent it, just sit in your lounger and watch. i want to recommend this to all my friends but i'm worried they'll just see it as a fun crime novel

this one is kind of a cheat because i haven't technically finished it yet, but i'm really enjoying perfect sound whatever by james acaster. it's so evident that james loves music, and loves this music specifically, and while the book is funny at times i think its central premise which isn't all that funny is its strongest aspect. it's such a great idea to take a look at all albums published in a singular year, and i think it's effective to start off with the big hitters first (bowie, cohen, beyoncé) to show that 2016 really was an exceptional year for music. but inevitably, the artists become smaller and smaller, and i have found so much great music because of this book that i would never have heard of otherwise. i think this one might not be for fans of *comedian* james acaster, but it definitely is a great read for people who like music

#forgot i drafted this!!#i did also start reading american psycho but i didn't read a huge amount of it at the beach so that really feels like cheating #and who needs american psycho recommended to them in 2024. it's incredibly funny and incredibly gory there u go #leoreads #the bone people #keri hulme #kala #colin walsh #perfect sound whatever

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the---hermit · 1 year ago

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hello cris! i would love to ask as someone who is currently learning a language (i'm currently trying to learn italian again for the nth time) what are your favorite techniques when it comes to learning a language? i've been trying to study italian for two years now but i always end up giving up immediately 😭🫶🏻

Hello anon!

Firstly I had a vague memory of talking about this before and I checked my masterlist so in case you want to read more here is another similar ask I answered to a while back and here an ask in which I meanioned a few italian fiction books for people who are learning. I'll be honest I did not reread those and I don't remember what I wrote lmao. But you have some more reading to do after this just in case!

At the moment the main language I am very slowly trying to learn is Irish. But I will be honest it's more a free time hobby than actual studying. In the sense that I don't have a schedule for it and I have ups and downs in which I am able to focus a bit more, and times like the past few months in which my energy is nowhere to be found so I do very little progress. The main way I am dping this is with duolingo, which I feel is a great way to start and to keep a tiny bit of practice in your everyday life which is fundamental. Of course if you want to have more progress I would suggest coming up with a more structured study plan and schedule, but I'll talk about it in a bit. The other thing I am implementing is a grammar book that of course is what requires more mental energy. My technique with that is, as everything I study, to read it, underline important things and write my own set of notes. That is because I know it is my main way of learning in general.

And with this we come to a important point, before getting into learning anything try to figure out what are the ways you learn things best. Everyone's brain works differently, I personally have awful memory and my brain works way better using logic (which is why the way duolingo is structured works wonders for me, because it forces me to learn grammar rules with logic and it repeats vocabulary so much that even I end up memorizing it). Writing notes down, even several times, is my go to way of learning in general so of course I focus a lot on that. Clearly with learning a language you also need to implement a lot of practice, which is way I recommend trying out a well made plan. This doesn't mean create insane goals that will make you feel overwhelmed. Instead create a low effort plan in which you regularly do a bit of everything:

Learn vocab and practice it

Learn new grammar rule and practice them

Work on booktext esercises

Active learning with a book

Active learning with a video

These are just some ideas. When I self studied english what really made me learn the language was active learning by immersing myself with the language. That forces you to learn. Watch youtube videos in italian (I am pretty sure there's some people who make specific videos for language learnera in which they speak slowly and focus on certain vocab, so I highly recommend those, but when you feel more comfortable with the language go for pure entertainment, that will have you learn actual spoken Italian which is of course different from textbooks). Approach the language with written texts with either children's books or those novels simplified for language learning (those are great because you often get exercises to practice how much you understood of the story).

I know I have probably mentioned it before, but the first way I got into self studying English when I was younger was by writing down lyrics to my favourite album. I think I have it lying around still, a notebook filled with the lyrics to all the songs from Imaginaerum by Nightwish next to the translations. Listening to music in your target language is such a good trick imo. Take my brother, the guy does not speak one word on English but he knows by heart all the lyrics to Iron Maiden songs all.of.them. he never really had to practice English but if he had to I would suggest he started there. The more you get your target language into your daily life the better it is, and I don't mean just learning from books. Force yourself to describe the room you are in in your target language, write about your days in a diary and do that in your target language. When you are waiting in line list all the words that come up to you in your target language. It's hard at first, of course it is, but with time it gets easier and easier. The final goal is to be able to think in your target language, even if the grammar isn't perfect and it takes a long time to remember the correct words.

Think of yourself as a young child. They are learning languages like you, starting from zero, so focus on things that are for them, books and movies. You cannot expect to learn a language like a native speaker of your age right away, they have years of experience speaking it. If you instead think of yourself as a kid you will approach things that are at your current level, and after you can move on from there.

I think the goal is to make a plan and to fit even the tiniest bit of language learning into your everyday life. The progress might be slow but you are training your brain anyway. When you see something isn't working change it up, give yourself reachable goals, and keep it fun.

I hope this was somewhat helpful! If you have any other questioms my inbox is always open. Buona fortuna!

#ask #asked #asks #answered #language learning #langblr #studying #studyblr #study tips #learning tips #cris speaks #mine #the---hermit #anon

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imichelle-l-rigby · 1 year ago

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Reflections: Cillian Murphy’s Limited Edition

Season 3, episode 5

✨also magnificently late✨

———————————————————————

*I am a music prof (predominantly classical vocalist), and I LOVE listening to Cillian’s music choices! That being said, sometimes I won’t like a song simply because of a vocalist (it’s a professional hazard - sorry!) 👩‍🏫

** The following are my own observations/opinions. We may not agree, and that’s ok! That’s what makes music fun! 😊

*** I wouldn’t say I’m well-versed in Cillian’s music preferences, but I do enjoy them (for the most part). I always wind up adding to my own playlists after listening to Cillian’s recommendations.

———————————————————————

The episode…

🎵Set 1 (Cross Talk I - Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum)

Cross Talk I: this sounds like the technology of my childhood 👵🏻

Soaring X: the instrumental track reminds me of something (specifically the 3 note motif) and I can’t for the life of me remember what it sounds like! Ahhh!!!! Also, I love this! It’s always so interesting to me how a tremolo (the fast repeated notes) can be so effective and moving when the technique itself is so simple.

Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum: … when the melody is basically the Westminster chimes 😳😅😂 wasn’t expecting that!

🎤Talking Break

Thanks for the date info! 😂😂😂

“”Luxury loving Librans”

An ident! 😳😂

… sir. I didn’t need to know that about spiders 😖😖😖

“Do your bit”- yes. Please wash your hands

Why is he so into uninteresting facts?? 😅

Yay! Someone told him the name of the film!!!

🎵Set 2 (All Change - Excess Success)

All Change: the intro sound effects specifically remind me of the jump/crisscross sections of the Cha Cha Slide 😅🤦‍♀️ now it is cool how things get more distorted towards the end! Unsettling, but neat.

it’s been a long week please don’t judge me for my idiocy 😅😂

Apothecary: I’m listening to all the woodwinds in the background. Interesting timbres.

Excess Success: it’s both cute and driving. Idk how that works, but it does!

🎤Talking Break

“Oh yes! Some music from Cork. Where I’m from…”

Reflection inspired tangentially by Elaine’s comments - I’ve noticed so many ppl are afraid to sing. It’s a part of us, so of course it’s personal. Either way, please sing. It’s worth it.

🎵Set 3 (To the Test - somehow she’s still here)

To the Test: chill and atmospheric. 😎

InFLUX: a weird distorted saxophone background. Again, I’m convinced this is one of Cillian’s favorite instruments! I really like the vocals here. And then halfway through everything changes! 🙀 surprise twist!

Somehow she’s still here: soulful! Gorgeous vocals!

🎤Talking Break

More Irish music!

“Cracker of an album”

🎵Set 4 (All of the People)

All of the People: while not my fave vocal style, I do like this (and Fontaines DC). Instrumentals are beautiful *dreamy sigh*

🎤Talking Break:

Oh dear… he manifested a poetry reading 😂😂😂😂

A stormy Brooklyn!

Plateau: the background track is trippy! I am immersed!

🎵 Set 5 (Le Jardin - Sorrowful Soil)

Le Jardin: I feel like I’m in a National Geographic special omg! 🙀 but the cute piano piece is a great addition! It really feels like I’m in the garden and I’m listening to someone play from the garden window. It’s also cool that the piano portion follows the “rustic” or pastoral trope of the pedal point. It’s meant to evoke bagpipes/pipes (not limited to Scotland but of course heavily associated with the country). The lilting melody on top just adds to the pastoral trope. And then the garden atmosphere gets all synth and I go “what???” 😅 this one’s got a bit of everything! 😂

XII: I love that he enjoys instrumental music. Lots of interesting timbres - some brass and woodwinds.

I’ll Stay Here Now: it’s all whooshy like the music’s being played backwards. 😊

Sorrowful Soil: this is so angular! I know I should pay attention to the lyrics, but I’m only paying attention to the musical lines. It’s reminding me of VERY early (medieval) musical lines, but put in the electronic timbres of today.

🎤Talking Break:

“That was Bjork, of course!”

I should check out the podcast. I’m not a huge Bjork fan, but it sounds cool!

Idk how or why, but I always enjoy music from Iceland. I’ve never even been there!

The ident…

GEORGE HARRISON IS MY FAVORITE BEATLE

I still need to watch Living in the Material World… 😅

I LOVE GET BACK

Side note - I’m convinced Cillian’s favorite Beatle is John.

🎵 Set 6 (I Can Feel It)

I Can Feel It: I am dancing and having so much fun!!! 💃

🎤Talking Break

The shortest break EVER.

🎵Set 7 (Inglan is a Bitch)

Inglan: all I can say is OOF. This song packs a punch! 😅

🎤Talking Break

No Cill, he’s not more interesting. Promise. 😂😂😂

Cohen covers ❤️

🎵Set 8 (Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye - What About Now)

Hey: I love Roberta! ❤️❤️❤️

I Shall Not Be Moved: I think tambourine should be in more songs.

Description of People Get Ready: I love gospel!

People Get Ready: ok, for so many personal reasons, I love this song and it’s message! “You just thaaaank the Lord!”

What About Now: I’m feeling so much ‘60s teenage rebellion. 😎 vocals aren’t that strong, but the drums sure do cover a lot of that! Perhaps a Bob Dylan inspired vocal quality! The whine is on point.

🎤Talking Break:

“Great name for a band”

Disco!

“Does this qualify as disco?”

🎵Set 9 (Dee Tour - Genshi)

Dee Tour: fun and girly and so retro! Also… FLUTE SOLO! 😎

Genshi: I looooove the opening. Which is funny because it’s so monotone, but the repeating rhythms are cool 👍 and then you have other lines show up. It’s just a groovy little piece!

🎤Talking Break

“Do work, or tidy the kitchen, or think about composting, things like that”

Kinda a cover?

🎵Set 10 (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat)

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat: more sax! The ding and other sound effects are so strange to me. Like… why? I feel like I’m missing context here. The pedal board lyrics are so “whoa”

🎤Talking Break

GEORGE HARRISON 😍😍😍😍

Yeah George - biggest solo album!!!

ARCHIVE OF GEORGE!!!!

I’m so proud of him for not cussing in this interview because I know he wanted to 😂

🎵Set 11 (Awaiting on You All - One Woman)

Awaiting On You All: not my fave George solo song, but you can’t deny it’s groovy!! His personal style could be haunting, beautiful, or kinda schmaltzy early rock ish. And all wrapped up in a quiet, sassy personality! 😂😅

One Woman: ooohhh this soulful, soulful song! ❤️ gorgeous vocals.

🎤Talking Break

I’m with you, Cill, regarding Al Green

Noooo don’t go!

Jazz! Yussss 😎

“Played this loudly in the kitchen last week”

“Mind yourselves”

🎵Set 12 (Pastoral - Memories of Edith Johnson)

Pastoral - ok, I could go music nerd again on the pastoral genre, but I won’t. Once is enough. But I do like the harp! Such a sweet sound.

Desillusion: yep! Definitely some jazz! 😎 powerful piano. It keeps sloooowly getting more complex as the song goes along. The bass and drums are also getting it! I’m gonna have to look up this trio.

Memories of Edith Johnson: so I looked her up and Edith was a silent film actress. It now makes sense why Cillian likes this. The organ and sax are fun together. The “oooohs” I can do without.

Fin

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Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to share and comment! Episode 6 coming soon!

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#cillian murphy #Cillian Murphy’s limited edition

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deadcactuswalking · 9 months ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 20/04/2024 (Sabrina Carpenter, Dua Lipa, Perrie Edwards)

Hozier sticks to a second week at #1 on the UK Singles Chart with “Too Sweet” and welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we actually have a bit of a massacre so we must bid adieu to: “7 Minute Drill” by J. Cole (that one we literally say farewell to, it’s been deleted), “Cinderella” by Future and Metro Boomin featuring Travis Scott, “Make You Mine” by Madison Beer, “CARNIVAL” by Hitler and Goebbels featuring Rich the Kid and Playboi Carti, “Made for Me” by Muni Long, “bye” and “yes, and?” by Ariana Grande, “Would You (go to bed with me?)” by Campbell and Alcemist, assisted by a remix with Caity Baser, “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, yes, really, “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift and finally, even though we all know it’ll be back, “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers.

It actually turns out that the most interesting stories here outside of the top 10 and new tracks… are the returning entries, because there are quite a few, they’re quite high and also quite - at least tangentially - related to a cultural event. Firstly, we have the release of a biopic revolving around the late singer Amy Winehouse who has captivated audiences long after death and the recent release of Back to Black, as well as its soundtrack, mostly a compilation of Winehouse’s songs and her influences, has propelled the studio album of the same name to #22 on the album chart whilst giving some of her legacy catalogue a solid boost. The song of the same name, “Back to Black”, had several initial runs from 2007 to 2008, peaking at “only” #25, but returned with stride after her passing to find a new peak of #8 in 2011. At #1 that week was “She Makes Me Wanna” by JLS featuring Dev. The charts don’t always reflect what music actually stands the test of time, let’s just say that. Today, it’s at #51. An even more storied chart run comes in at #44 with “Valerie” by Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse. Ronson’s version largely eclipsed the original Zutons version released the year before. The Liverpool indie rock outfit peaked at #9 with their version, whilst Nelly Furtado’s “Maneater” topped the charts, but by the time Ronson and Winehouse came along, the chart was instead reigned by Sugababes with “About You Now”, which halted “Valerie” from hitting #1. Similarly to “Back to Black”, it did return to the chart after her passing though not very high, so I assume that it must have some degree of prominence in the biopic, I’ve yet to see it.

As for our two other re-entries, they somehow have even more chart history dragged into them, so bear with me. Paul Simon wrote “The Sound of Silence” and recorded the track as a member of Simon & Garfunkel in 1964, and despite this being the most prominent and successful version, hitting #1 Stateside, it somehow never once appeared on the UK Singles Chart in any form until long after, specifically in 1966 when an Irish pop group The Bachelors covered it, basically taking any steam off of the original by peaking at #3. The Spencer Davis Group’s “Somebody Help Me” was #1 at the time. It wouldn’t appear on the charts again until damn near half a century later in 2012, when viral acoustic singer Kina Grannis took it to #93. However, and I really wish I couldn’t say this, the most successful cover may be from nu metal band Disturbed, who reached mainstream success worldwide by covering the track in 2016, by then it had been thoroughly memed to death as well as being a long-term pop staple, yet it still worked. Their mediocre version peaked at #29 and now it’s back at #47 because of an inexplicable, practically unlistenable house remix by Australian DJ CYRIL that Paul Simon could probably sue for murder. I didn’t like the Disturbed version, but this is a new level of groanworthy.

As for our final re-entry, we should look towards the album charts, wherein Oasis’ 1994 debut Definitely Maybe is actually down a full positions, lower than other Oasis albums. The irony in that is that it’s the iconic Britpop band’s 20th anniversary this past week, with them releasing special physical editions of their debut single “Supersonic” to mark the occasion. It never really peaked that high to begin with, only at #31, but it did stick around and return for several runs for basically most of the 1990s, only to return once again this week as our highest re-entry at #42.

The gains are a lot less interesting but there are still a handful of notable boosts, namely “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna and Skillibeng up to #38, “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan at #33, “I Don’t Wanna Wait” by David Guetta and OneRepublic at #25 (Jesus Christ), and finally, “Hell n Back” by Bakar nearing its old peak at #21.

This week, our top five on the UK Singles Chart consists of: “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM” by Beyoncé holding at #5, “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims floating at #4, “i like the way you kiss me” by Artemas smooching its way up to #3, Benjamin of Boontown is at #2 with “Beautiful Things” and of course, Hozier still at #1. Now, there’s actually quite a lot to discuss in our new entries, despite the fact that Taylor is still a week away yet, in fact this might end up the more interesting week because no-one is dropping the same day as her. So let’s review them, shall we?

New Entries

#49 - “We Still Don’t Trust You” - Future and Metro Boomin featuring The Weeknd

Produced by Metro Boomin, Peter Lee Johnson and MIKE DEAN

Yup, all of our new entries are within the top 50 this week, and most of them well into the highest reaches of the chart. Given Taylor only has three songs coming next week, I’m pretty excited for a from-the-top shake-up that won’t be immediately torn down… at least until the temporary Eurovision blockade, but we’ll deal with that when it comes to it. For now, I had only heard one of the songs debuting this week before today, and it was this one, the intro and title track to the second of the Future-Metro collaboration tapes, which debuted at #11 on the albums chart this week. Not every track hits on this second album, but if you remember what I thought about the first album, you’d recall I preferred the hazier, more melodically-focused pop-trap that was prevalent through the middle section, and this new record is essentially an extended version of just that with a triumphant victory lap full of bangers on the back-half bonus disc to balance things out. Future is a lot more emotive, Metro is delivering beautiful cloudy soundscapes, and the hooks are catchier than ever, though it’s not nearly as immediate so I understand that it performed less successfully even if it is a damn shame. It also means we only have the first track here, which is barely even a song ultimately, more so an extended, hallucinatory introduction blending punchy synthpop drums with garbled psuedo-hooks about freaky girls from Future, a looming falsetto from The Weeknd over a borderline nu-disco groove and semi-verses that don’t really form into a complete song. In the album context, this is a brilliant introduction to where the album will take you: a late-night drive taking your mind off “the hoes” so to speak. As a charting single by itself, it’s honestly just weird. Other than being the intro to an album most people I imagine didn’t finish all the way through, I don’t understand why “All to Myself” didn’t take this one’s place. I guess it didn’t have the video treatment but regardless, weird single to push, even if it’s a great moment.

#46 - “KiKi (What Would Drizzy Say?)” - D-Block Europe

Produced by Eight8, Harry Beech and Ari Beats

Well, Drake’s in the news thanks to all the dissing back and forth so being the young brilliant entrepreneurs they are, DBE pushed out a song with him in the title, in a vague reference to Drake’s own “What Would Pluto Do” but a much less vague, openly cheap interpolation of Drake’s “In My Feelings”, and the chart history did not stop with our re-entries as if there’s a coherent theme with some of these new tracks, it’s egregious referencing. “In My Feelings” samples a plethora of tracks in the first place, but none as explicitly as DBE have riffed from it here. The original spent four weeks at #1, but I don’t see Young Adz’s nasal auto-croon rendition getting any higher than #46. I actually feel kind of relieved with this because this is back to the stupid, barely functioning DBE of old (and by old, I mean the late 2010s), with a terrible bass mastering job, overly loud flutes that nearly drown out Adz himself attempting to sing his way out of his lack of content, in the same melody as Drake’s chorus until he just starts talking instead midway through. Some of the 2020s improvements are actually present here though; Youthful Advertisements has much tighter rhyme schemes once he actually starts rapping, and they aren’t as audibly out of tune or beat with everything else as they probably would be if they tried this out when the original was big. He also puts a shell in his back like he’s a turtle, tells the girl to close her mouth and leads into Dirtbike Lb’s small contribution, a brief, half-dead and wordy verse that still washes Adz: this is what I’ve come to expect from the duo. There’s not much of an attempt at wordplay but cool turns of phrase that kind of imply he thinks Hermés is the name of the crocodile they killed to make the bag and not just the brand name… they’re good enough. This is good fun.

#41 - “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” - Shaboozey

Produced by Nevin and Sean Cook

Okay, if we’re going to sample egregiously, this is how we do it: not trying to play it off as a completely new song but not serving in the exact same lane and purpose as the original. Instead, let’s make unabashed re-recordings and reimaginings that don’t necessarily modernise or improve the song, and don’t set out to, instead crafting a different experience from the same fundamentals. Now I don’t like the original 2004 track “Tipsy” by J-Kwon mostly because of, well, J-Kwon being useless, but there’s a great hook to it, especially the radio edit, and the beat making up nearly entirely of weird sound effects over a distorted clap sample is pretty clever. The original “Tipsy” peaked at #4 for two weeks, whilst “Lola’s Theme” by the Shapeshifters was #1, and later The Streets’ “Dry Your Eyes”. Shaboozey, a singer featured on Beyoncé’s latest pivot, has taken advantage of that extra traction to completely reimagine the chorus of “Tipsy” and its general conceit of having fun at a gathering to take your mind off problems, especially with girls… but there’s a lot of depth added through the extra populist twist thanks to the financial troubles referenced in the verses, and some particularly really smart intricacies like turning the counting gimmick into counting the rounds of drinks at the bar. He recontextualises a basically meaningless gimmick into something that is a lot more resonant, and that’s really special. Sonically, it feels like a bit more organic stomp-clap soarer, and isn’t really all that special, but the inspired interpolation of “Tipsy”, alongside some great strings in the post-chorus, makes this what it is, and it doesn’t run out of tricks. The shift to a rap flow in the second verse to continue the momentum is brilliant, the spoken backing vocals amidst the multi-tracked crowd hook, which I almost wish was even louder, is a fun idea… and that’s before that final chorus where it breaks down and becomes a true drink-a-long. Sure, this may be a reimagined version of a song I don’t like really at all, but it goes far beyond just that and creates a new experience not just as a cover but as a separate entity entirely that embraces and benefits from its referencing. This is how you do sampling in pop, it’s excellent. I hope this is a smash.

#35 - “These Words” - Badger and Natasha Bedingfield

Produced by Badger

Alright, once again, we have a sample, this time with Natasha Bedingfield’s “These Words”, that other song you might remember from the album that parents “Unwritten”. What you may not remember is that whilst this hasn’t had nearly as much longevity as the title track, it actually peaked much higher, debuting at #1 and topping the charts for two weeks in 2004. This is in spite of it being complete garbage. I like meta narratives in pop music when done well and outside of its camp, it can be genuinely difficult to get through the jerky, dated production and somewhat embarrassing performance, especially lyrically, from Bedingfield. I understand the appeal, and the writing isn’t really a deal-breaker usually, but it’s especially striking to me when the actual music behind her quest to find the best words for her love song… just plainly sucks. Come 2024 and enter UK garage producer Badger, who remixes the track, crediting Bedingfield on streaming but for whatever reason not on the Official Charts page, and I have to say, completely stripping this catchy hook outside of its tedious context is another inspired reimagining, mostly because it turns the “I love you, I love you” refrain into a muffled, glitchy funfest over some of the most detailed, hyperactive 2-step drums I’ve heard on the charts in a while, alongside a hazier synthscape that really shines against the rawer vocal from Bedingfield. Once again, modern artists turn a song from the 2000s I never really liked into a completely different experience, in this case completely removing you from Bedingfield’s narrative to fully envelop you in the euphoric end goal she hints towards in the original. Hope this takes off too.

#31 - “Tell Ur Girlfriend” - Lay Bankz

Produced by Johnny Goldstein

Speaking of taking off, it seems we finally have the inevitable breakout single for Lay Bankz. I’ve been paying attention to her casual flexing and dismissal of pretty much anything else over firy, fast-paced Philly club bangers for a while now, probably since I discovered “Na Na Na”, and it did seem like TikTok would grant her an easy hit any moment now. She finally got it with “Tell Ur Girlfriend” and here, if you don’t remember the specific production elements of its original material, you might not recognise this has yet another interpolation. I wasn’t a fan of Ginuwine’s 1996 track “Pony” for a long time because I felt its dissonance harmed its ability to be a sex jam but… let’s be real, rarely do sex jams actually succeed without being in some way disruptive due to awkward lyrics or stagnant beats. Once I learned to shut up and appreciate Timbaland’s vocoder burping that calls itself a bassline, all was right in my world. It peaked at #16 over here in 1997 and did have a shelf life extending to an EDM remix peaking at #39 in 2015. Bankz and Goldstein don’t really make much use of “Pony”’s fundamentals rhythm or melody-wise, outside of that out of place vocoder burp that is repurposed as a measure-demarcating stab over a comically jerky, sing-songy synth that slows down the pace enough for a 2-step-influenced 2000s throwback, Destiny’s Child-esque, not to rap but closer to R&B. Bankz surprises me to a degree with just how effortlessly she swaps between faster jabs to the smooth choruses, and it almost makes me forget that this is a song about mutual cheating. Does it justify that? No. And who cares? They’re having toxic fun over the Ginuwine “Pony” vocal burp and some of the ugliest synths to hit the top 40 in years, this is not morally righteous in any regard. It’s just pure, sweaty, regretful fun and does not waste any of its two-minute runtime trying to justify itself, and given this whole song is a sarcastic power move about how they should probably tell their partners they’re sleeping with each other, I don’t think she cares in the slightest.

#10 - “Forget About Us” - Perrie

Produced by Steve Solomon and Andrew Goldstein

Okay, the samplefest ended up going pretty fantastically, so I have some hopes for the trio of pop girlies we have lined up all debuting in the top 10, starting with the solo debut from Perrie Edwards of the former girl group Little Mix. She’s always been one of the most prominent vocal talents in the group, so regardless of if the song actually works, there’s going to be power here, and that’s guaranteed, even with an Ed Sheeran writing credit and a compressed to Hell and back mix. In this soarer, Perrie’s ex has become a successful singer after the breakup and Perrie is begging for them to never forget about what they lost in the relationship, especially given how neither seem all that over this relationship and its fallout. There’s a propelling pop rock drive to this, even if the lack of electric grit may harm it a tad, not letting it get into truly bitter territory… which might actually be for the best. Ms. Edwards sounds great belting here but there is a level of restraint in all the acoustic swell that might sing closer to the desperate content, acknowledging the flaws in the relationship and that it is over, but that it should, please, stick to them as a memory. A less kind approach may have flattened its overall sincerity, so even if sonically, I’m not over the Moon about this, I can recognise that this is a tightly-written, excellently performed little pop rock jam that will serve as a good introduction to the solo career. I just want to hear where it goes next.

#9 - “Illusion” - Dua Lipa

Produced by Kevin Parker and Danny L Harle

Okay, Dua, let’s be straightforward. Mixing PC Music’s wildcard Danny L Harle with Tame Impala should lead to much more interesting music than what we’ve heard from Radical Optimism - a disgraceful album title - so far, and I won’t lie and say what has been put out post-”Houdini” hasn’t been somewhat disappointing. I was hoping that “Illusion” could take a bit of a different step, tap into some less recognisable territory for Dua, and whilst it may not have done that exactly, it’s definitely much more interesting. Harle and Parker go for a much tighter house groove here, with elevated pianos, chips of percussion that end up much more minimal under the looming vocal loops and progressive electronic synth beeping, maybe much less impactful than you’d expect. So where’s that in the content? Well, Dua sings about disappointment, playing off a façade placed up by this guy who’s just not impressing her at all, as she’s growing up from just being reckless with her lovers. It’s in the same vein as “Training Season” but with a more unique and honestly more fitting soundscape for that kind of romantic disillusionment, especially given a major conceit of the bridge is that she’s still going to dance all night with that illusion, she still gives in despite her best interests. It also has a ridiculous synth solo slabbed right in for no reason. Genius. Inspiring.

#6 - “Espresso” - Sabrina Carpenter

Produced by Julian Bunetta

I really have not been going into Sabrina Carpenter singles that chart with high expectations or really any expectation that I’ll enjoy it, and she keeps proving me wrong, but not in the way that say Dua just did. No, Ms. Carpenter shares more in common with D-Block Europe in that the appeal, at least for me, comes in the lack of subtlety and disregard for functioning outside of existing pop tropes, whilst still thoroughly embarrassing her public image, cycling around enough for me to be unironically on board. Like “Nonsense” was a plain rip-off that ended up surviving beyond the genuine article on comedy alone, and “Feather” is as light as possible, no pun intended, yet still pinches at you with its infestation of hooks, “Espresso” is emphatically stupid. “Switch it up like Nintendo”? “My give-a-fucks are on vacation”? “I know I Mountain Dew it for ya”? “MOUNTAIN DEW IT FOR YA”? It reminds me all too much of Selena Gomez’s nu-disco embarrassment “Love On”, but instead of selling the cringe with sheer forcefulness, which did surprisingly work for the incredibly limited vocalist Selena is, Sabrina plays the guitar licks and downright invasive pre-chorus synths off with utter, robotic dismissal. Sure, there’s vocal riffing and harmonising, but the main vocal line in the chorus is a multi-tracked, reverb-drenched, Melodyne-controlled nursery rhyme, and it doesn’t escape that lane for nearly all of its three minutes. There are spoken word interludes where she acknowledges the stupidity of the song and its content, but it’s always breezy and lacking in the cringe that would come with it if she cared much at all. The deadpan “Yes” ad-libs in the pre-chorus, and the detail put into the production, are what really sell this to me though. It’s orchestrated to make it seem like she doesn’t care, but there is an entire team twisting the knobs to turn that faux carelessness to a seamless radio edit… and well, they need a raise. She’s done it again. This is ridiculous.

Conclusion

She doesn’t get the Best of the Week though because that, far and above, goes to Shaboozey for “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, and the Honourable Mention… well, I can’t give out a Worst of the Week at all here. Or even a Dishonourable Mention. Sure, Perrie’s song is a bit generic and maybe my enjoyment of the DBE track is purely for the comedy factor, but I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with them, so I’m just going to tie the Honourable Mention between “These Words” by Badger and well, “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter, which is shaping up to thankfully be huge. As for what’s on the horizon… Taylor Swift and Drake. It’s back to the big leagues in the next episode but for now, thank you for reading, long live Cola Boyy, and I’ll see you next week!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #future #metro boomin #the weeknd #sabrina carpenter #dua lipa #natasha bedingfield #badger #shaboozey #perrie edwards #lay bankz #d-block europe

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jadevine · 1 year ago

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Unreal Unearth reactions!

While I got stuck on "First Time" for a few hours, I am baffled at how people seem to think the album's "too bluesy." This dude has ALWAYS done at least one folk/blues song per album. Are people just mad because he's not doing more "IRISH BOG MAN" songs?

I made the naive decision to look at some reviews of Unreal Unearth, which lasted until I read a review where the person said it's a weak album where he now sounds "normal/pop" and "defanged" except for two songs.

You know what this sounds like to me as an artist? Like he's playing with styles. If I really had to lock down a "theme" to the album, I find it more pop-standard or wartime-music than anything else, and his melodies and octave-stretching are never going to be "regular music."

Behind the cut for length.

-De Selby Part 1 - lovely way to start the album, but it might be too quiet for some. This is the kind of song I'd put on when I need to decompress and potentially fall asleep, which is a really good compliment from my high-strung and insomniac ass.

Gonna look up the posts from fans about what the Irish verses say, but I will talk about Shared Colonization Issues in Butchered Tongue. Lovely song, but I think its placement was off as one of the quietest tracks. I would have put this and "De Selby Part 2" with Butchered Tongue and made another song the first track, so people get warmed up.

-De Selby Part 2 - most definitely a callback to his soul sound, but with the bass and electric bits, it starts to feel more like motown or funk. Very dark and almost grungy bass, and I like it. This is a song that people would ask to use for a movie's climax, or for a big-money episode of a TV show--a season-finale, a long-awaited fight, or even the end of the show.

-First Time - my immediate favorite. GET READY FOR AN ESSAY, LOL. So I think Andrew's voice is perfect for big-band/swing and it feels like a follow-up to "Someone New" on his debut album. Andrew has the high notes, the low notes, and the flexibility to pull off jazz melodies, so this is just a really nice song for him to do some big vocal/melody stretches. If anyone knows the cover-band Postmodern Jukebox where they cover songs in old-time styles, covering "First Time" would be redundant unless they specifically rework it in the least jazzy style, BUT!!! I think PMJ would do a fantastic collaboration if they just get all their musicians and singers to back up Hozier!

In true Hozier style, this song is adorable and yet the lyrics talk about severe depression, with how the singer used to hate hearing people say his name and his actual soul was miserable.

Remember once I told you about How before I heard it from your mouth My name would always hit my ears as such an awful sound And the soul, if that's what you'd call it Uneasy ally of the body, it felt nameless as a river Undiscovered underground

And the first time that you kissed me I drank dry the River Lethe The Liffey would have been softer on my stomach all the same But you spoke some quick new music That went so far to soothe this soul As it was and ever shall be, unearth without a name

When you take it literally, this gives me a lot of Filipino Spirituality Feelings. Our souls are said to wander when we 1) sleep, 2) get the shit scared out of us WHILE we sleep (such as a nightmare), 3) go hiking in the wilderness and our soul gets distracted and forgets to catch up, and 4) are possibly ill/stressed in general, because I thinnnnnnk some people believe certain illnesses are a sign of poor spiritual health. Do not take my word, though.

Normally we can just call our souls back because souls LIKE staying near their bodies--but like children, you gotta keep an eye on them. If your soul is too far away or if they stay out too long, they risk getting lost and/or kidnapped by a witch.

That's usually when your local folk-healer, relative-who-deals-with-the-spirits, or a GOOD witch has to do a reverse-exorcism/gang interrogation. I say "gang interrogation" because a lot of times, people start magically injuring you with special items, and that would actually be hurting THE WITCH wherever they are, which forces them to stop and give your soul back.

So Filipino Hozier's soul has been wandering beneath the earth, in the aquifers and caves and deep rivers, and he can't get it to come back. His family would be calling their relative-who-deals-with-the-spirits because "hey Tito/Tita, we think Kuya Hozier's soul got kidnapped! He's always miserable, and we don't know why!" until Significant Other arrives and the song gets Much, Much Happier.

"First Time" is a fucking adorable bop. It's peppy and I want to frolic on the beach! The chorus is also PRIME "misaimed wedding playlist" bait for people who don't listen to the rest of the lyrics.

Some part of me must have died The first time that you called me, "Baby" And some part of me came alive The first time that you called me, "Baby."

Like FUCK, this chorus is lovely. So pleasant and full of sunshine. But the rest of the song is bittersweet because uh, the couple has clearly broken up at the end. The singer does understand that this is life and you just gotta take the good with the bad.

I love Andrew's vocalizing from earlier albums, so I'm surprised he barely did any in a song that clearly harkens to jazz. But the melody roams a lot, so he might have thought scat-singing was too much for now. If he does this live, I am begging Future-Hozier to cut loose and improvise between the verses.

-Butchered Tongue - Another great song, but for the least-fun reasons. Time for severe mood-whiplash, as TV Tropes says. FILIPINO COLONIZATION FEELINGS AHOY.

This song is devastating, as a Filipino-American who enjoys languages but cannot speak her family's language (Tagalog) much better than a five-year-old.

Many people have the mistaken belief that Tagalog is "half/mostly Spanish," but IT MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT. Back in the 1500s, the only people who were guaranteed to know Spanish on the islands were the Spanish-born/descended nobles, their servants, and the monasteries, and that was like the top 10% of society if not less. The closest we got was the Chavacano creole, and it still used a lot of Austronesian grammar and reduplication.

I also used to think Tagalog was half-Spanish, but that lasted right up until I tried to watch "Like Water For Chocolate" without the English subtitles, lmao. I'm pretty sure I only understand as much Spanish as I do because I live in California, which used to be Mexico. Sure, Tagalog borrowed some basic Spanish words like basura, caballo, and kumusta, but we still have native equivalents like "taponan," "kuda," or "magandang araw/gabi." The bulk of our language is still firmly Austronesian and when I was growing up, I usually heard people call Tagalog "ugly" or "weird."

So we didn't learn much Spanish, but guess which colonizer DID impose their language on us so they could "civilize" us for the modern world? AMERICA, THAT'S WHO!

My parents didn't teach me Tagalog when I was young because they didn't want me to grow up with an accent, and this is a problem as a struggling writer. Here I am, trying to incorporate Filipino mythology and language into my work--but while I understand Tagalog and I know how to read words/names, I can't actually SPEAK IT in a conversation unless it's really basic, and I still sound like a five-year-old. I have to rely on online Tagalog translators for a lot, and I'm never really sure if the grammar is right, or if the words are actually Bisayan or Ilokano because the dictionary I used is operating with the "Filipino language" that isn't properly Tagalog, but a mishmash of drastically different languages.

Some Filipinos from the homeland mock the diaspora for not being able to speak our languages well, and they usually say we're "not really Filipino" or "not Filipino enough." I have gotten a couple of comments wondering why I bother to learn baybayin, if I barely know what I'm actually WRITING in it.

As a Filipino-American, the impression that I get from Butchered Tongue is, "The language barrier forced on you by colonizers has swept you away from your ancestors/family like a great wave. You yearn to go back home and speak your family's language, but the damage is done; there is no one left to teach you, or nobody who WANTS to teach you. Is there really a place you can call 'home' if neither your colonizers nor your people accept you as theirs?"

People often feel that their voice changes when they switch languages, and I wonder what I'd sound like if I could speak GOOD Tagalog. But instead I stumble around with my childish speaking abilities trapped behind decent reading skills and baybayin, and sometimes it feels like I got my tongue cut off.

If you asked me to speak Tagalog right now, you will hear the gears turning in my head, and I'm always worried that I'll butcher it. If I think too hard, I will panic and forget the words for basic body parts, or how to count to ten properly.

A+ song about Ireland's colonization. If this was the only good song in this album, Unreal Unearth would be worth it. You did it again, you fucking giant Irishman.

#unreal unearth #hozier #filipino american #colonization #butchered tongue

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randomvarious · 2 years ago

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1990s Punk Rock Playlist

Hey, did you ever realize that if you take the phrase, “Massachusetts’ Dropkick Murphys,” you can pull out and rearrange some of the letters in order to form the words, “Mother’s Day”? It’s true, even the goddamn apostrophe too. Go ahead and try it if you don’t believe me. I’ll wait.

Anyway, I’ve got a nice little update this week for a 1990s punk rock playlist that I haven’t touched in a long while, and it includes not just any song from the Dropkick Murphys, but the first song that they ever wrote, “Barroom Hero.” The Dropkicks really were the first band to crack that “Irish drinking songs can be punk songs too” code. Sure, there were The Pogues before them, but The Pogues were more of an Irish folk band who infused their sound with punk, whereas DKM are a punk band who infuse their sound with Irish folk. There’s a distinction with a difference there.

Also, Dropkick Murphys weren’t actually always a Celtic punk band either. Although “Barroom Hero” was the first song that they’d ever come up with, it didn’t appear on their debut release, and that release doesn’t have any of that Celtic punk sound on it that would soon become the band’s very own calling card, eventually leading to anthems like “Tessie” and, of course, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”

“Barroom Hero” is included on a 1997 compilation called Give ‘Em the Boot, which was put out by Hellcat Records, a sublabel of punk powerhouse Epitaph that was founded by Tim Armstrong of Rancid. And there appear to be multiple, slightly different versions of this song on Spotify, but the one I put on this playlist has 281.6K plays, whereas the other one is at over 5 million. And it looks like Spotify included that more popular one on their Give ‘Em the Boot entry, while the less popular one is on mine. Weird!

Speaking of weird, another add for the Spotify playlist comes courtesy of a band who was there during Cali punk’s late 70s infancy. It’s The Weirdos from Los Angeles, with “Cyclops Helicopter,” a song that fuses punk with a bounding, galloping theme straight out of some old western TV show from the 60s. It’s a fun and catchy one that appears on Frontier Records’ 1991 label sampler, Burns From the Valley of the Sun, and currently has about 37.6K plays on Spotify.

The Weirdos – “Cyclops Helicopter” Dropkick Murphys – “Barroom Heroes”

Now, those two songs are on the YouTube version of this playlist too, but I also ended up adding a whole bunch of songs to that YouTube version that aren’t on Spotify as well; some real rare and unknown ones, in fact. And a lot of them happen to make for some speedy, catchy, and melodic anthems 🤘.

First is Diesel Boy’s “Lime Green,” which is the song among these new YouTube adds that has the most plays, currently sitting at about 4.2K. There’s a shorter album version of this song that’s at about 34.7K plays, but I think this lesser known one, which comes off of Fearless Records’ great Punk Bites compilation from 1996, is better. And it has a stupid recorded prank call skit at the beginning, too, which the album version doesn’t have. Great, vintage mid-90s Cali punk sound on this one from these Santa Rosa boys.

Next is a song from a very unknown band that hailed all the way from Australia; so unknown, in fact, that I can’t figure out what part of that giant country that they specifically came from. They had an unfortunate name—Epstein—but don’t let that fact ruin the fantastic mid-90s pop-punk vibe they brought forth in 1996 with “Just the Way.” I found this one on a fantastic compilation from pioneering indie/new wave/power pop/punk rock label BOMP! Records called Pop On Top! The Cream of Australia’s Power Pop Crop!, and the song is currently sitting at only 17 plays. Criminally low. Get to know Epstein; the good kind!

Then we have a song with an even lower play count: “Hangover,” by Detroit’s Motor Dolls, an all-woman trio who had the honor of appearing alongside both pioneering punk bands The MC5 and Stooges on a compilation called Motor City’s Burnin’ in 1998. This tune only has 14 plays, and among all the songs I added today, it’s definitely the least poppy and melodic. Frontwoman Paula Messner, whose current gig appears to be performing punk rock for kids’ functions, sings with a sharp and fierce chest voice, à la someone like Zack de la Rocha. Her downhill vocals on each verse of this song are just so electric.

And following that is a song with a play count that’s even lower!: “After All,” by Sacramento’s Smartbomb CA, which only has 13 plays. It’s this sort-of rowdy hybrid of Cali punk and pop-punk, with verses that tend towards this slightly malevolent Pennywise-ish sound and choruses that represent a transitional climb towards a much more sugary and exceedingly catchy bout of melodically anthemic pop. I discovered it on a punk and melodic hardcore compilation called You Don’t Have to Be Tom Jones, Volume Two, which was put out in 1998 by Coolidge Records. Coolidge also released a cool concept compilation that same year called Coolidge 50 that had 50 different bands sing a song about their own home state. Most of it wasn’t very good, but it was mostly punk, and the handful of the ones that I’ve come to love are already included on both the Spotify and YouTube versions of this playlist.

Plus, Smartbomb CA also consists of members of another band called The Tank, who also have songs on that You Don’t Have to Be Tom Jones, Volume Two album. And I’ve got a pair of Tank songs on this playlist too.

And last, but not least, is a song from a band called Cooter, who hail from Orange County, but not the Orange County that you’re probably thinking of—Orange County, New York. And I guess that’s kind of surprising, because their song “Full House,” which appears on another album from Fearless Records called Serial Killer Compilation that was released in 1999, really sounds like some sunshining Cali skate punk-type of stuff. Its play count isn’t as low as some of these others I’ve added, but for something this good and anthemic, 146 still feels pretty damn low.

Diesel Boy – “Lime Green” Epstein – “Just the Way” Motor Dolls – “Hangover” Smartbomb CA – “After All” Cooter – “Full House”

This playlist is also on YouTube Music.

So, here’s where things currently stand with this playlist: The Spotify version is at 47 songs and just a smidge over two hours, whereas the YouTube one is at 55 songs and 2 hours and 25 minutes. I’m always gonna end up suggesting that you listen to the longer one, but you’re also gonna find some really underheard gems with it too this time.

And if anything over two hours of 90s punk rock sounds like too much for you, I’ve got another playlist that consists of tunes that are solely from the year of 1996. It’s at under an hour on both Spotify and YouTube.

1996 Punk Rock: Spotify / YouTube / YouTube Music

Enjoy!

A bunch more to add to this. Stay tuned!

Like what you hear? Follow me on Spotify and YouTube for more cool playlists and uploads!

#punk #punk rock #rock #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #playlist #playlists #spotify #spotify playlist #spotify playlists #youtube #youtube playlist #youtube playlists #youtube music #youtube music playlist #youtube music playlists

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only-a-heartbeat-away · 20 days ago

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Hello Again Harlow! I'll do my best to keep digging into my underrated, lost to time glam bands to introduce you to.

Do you know 220 Volts? They remind me of a mix between Quiet Riot and Whitesnake or the Scorpions. I especially love the album Eye to Eye. https://youtu.be/E8F5Q4NXdvw?si=YZ3_-rA6BvlDn2g8

Our writing prompt was to look at how xenophobia or similar forms of conflict are portrayed in media. I ended up looking at the Irish conflict and the IRA through the lens of music.

What tipped you off that it was me? I am curious.

My friends and I have a whole Vampire the Masquerade style 80s Hollywood. I also play Ziggy Stardust in it but overall, there are a lot of characters based on rockstars (at least in appearance) that are vampires, shapeshifters, fae, mages, all sorts of things. It is really fun.

Hope you had a good holiday

I like the sound of that, and no I never heard of them, but I like how you describe them. When I get the chance, I'll listen to that song you sent.

The second ask you sent me, you included a Wings Of Steel song and not long after, you reblogged that "what were your favorite artists you discovered this year" post and included them. I kinda suspected at that point, and then one or two messages later you mentioned all the pets you have and I was like "oh yeah, this has gotta be Aarne."

That does sound fun! I write a lot of stories and at least 90% of all my characters are based on rockstars. Some are subtle while others are very obvious (like one character will have a name similar to one rockstar and that's it but another will look just like a specific rockstar and also have the same name and personality as them). Hope you had a good holiday too!

#asks

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steviejones3 · 7 months ago

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Music that I love this week <3

My Music Reviews #1

"Vanessa- Grimes" This song is an iconic throwback to Grimes in her 2011 era of experimental vocals and instrumentals, but I don't feel it is on the same level as her 2012 hit "Genesis" which I contain so much love for. I think that I am constantly pulled back to Grimes and her evolution through music because she captures the essence of what it was to make music from feel rather than sound or technique.

"Pa Pa Power- Dead Man's Bones" This song has been on my playlist forever it feels like, every now and again it is revisited. It is seemingly haunting but that still doesn't make sense to me. I find it to be beautiful and didn't know the lyrics were so simplistic until I looked them up. Overall it is an interesting feeling, that's why I think it's somehow haunting.

"III.Telegraph Ave. ("Oakland" by Lloyd)- Childish Gambino" This is not my overall favorite of this particular Gambino album but I find this song to be sonically aesthetic.

"She's American- The 1975" I have entered my 1975 era, I love this song so much, it's one of my newfound favorites. I enjoy the upbeat and catchy songs from this band, though I am still slowly learning the discography.

"Deeply Still In Love- ROLE MODEL" This song has captivated me since I first heard it. He played a snippet on his Tik Tok and I waited what felt like months for the whole song and I didn't know if I liked it when I first heard the full song. After probably a hundred listens now, It's safe to say it's somehow nostalgic.

"Be the One- Dua Lipa" This felt very fitting after her recent show, I love the progress that she has found in music, always making pop music fun and carefree. As a listener from the first album era, i can say that her discography is full of hits.

"Miracle Aligner- The Last Shadow Puppets" I have absolutely loved this song so much since first listen, it just captures a specific vibe I can't place yet. I always want to dance when I hear this song even though it's not even a song for dancing to.

"ME&U- Zeke Bleu, Midnight Moon" The first time I heard this song I knew this artist was going to have so many future hits. Some compare it to Euphoria (the show, not Jungkook's song) It encapsulates that feeling of being on the highway with my windows rolled down at midnight.

"I Want You To Love Me- Fiona Apple" I am a thought daughter.

"Casual- Chappell Roan" I had to include the icon herself. I have only really listened to her hits, yes I know I need to listen to the album. This song has just hit a little too hard recently, yeah you don't fake date your friend as a "joke" for six months and then act shocked when I question what we are.

"Lightning Crashes- Live" My feelings because of this song can never be explained. I heard it for the first time one day while sitting with my friend sharing earphones, she played this. That night with the same friend we all went out to an Irish pub and someone else requested this to the live band. I feel everything with this song. Sitting next to the water talking over the faint earphone audio and dancing in a pub like we owned the place.

#music #music review #musicreaction #songs #favorite songs #music song #the 1975 #childish gambino #fiona apple #i want you to love me #casual #chappell roan #live #the last shadow puppets #dua lipa #be the one #role model

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at-thestillpoint · 9 months ago

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questions for fic writers: 8, 17, and 18 (for count my cards, watch them fall) !

[questions for fic writers]

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

I think Maggie Rogers's entire new album is perfect fic fodder! Don't Forget Me really grabbed me when it dropped, and I was noodling on a wedding one-shot for a while because of it, which I ended up folding into the politics!AU draft that won't stop growing.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about "If now was then, I would get out of my head / I would touch your chest, I would break the bed" and what we'd do with new knowledge if we're faced with an opportunity to do it over again. (No, this is not a time travel/time loop fic. Yes, it is an exes fic that also happens to be the Olympics!AU that I promise is coming.)

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

I think it's the politics!AU that I am currently writing. I may end up editing a lot of it out, but the current draft has a lot of minutiae about political communications that I'm not sure I even find interesting. We also should all agree not to examine why I made Phoenix and Hangman who I made them when I finally hit publish on this baby!

Other, not super highly specific AUs I've kicked around but probably won't write: a celebrities AU (feels too close to RPF), the Natasha is the one who gets shot down and Hangman goes down with her AU (needs too much exposition on flying/the escape), and the NFL owners AU (requires more knowledge of NFL logistics than I care to possess). But—and I realize this is rich after I've just rattled off three AU ideas—I don't really ideate in terms of AU situations. I'm more interested in the ways I can contort a relationship between two characters, and usually the AU is just a convenient vehicle for that.

18. If you wrote a sequel to count my cards, watch them fall, what would it involve?

Oh that is a deep cut! I think it would start with Natasha and Jake on a yacht somewhere fabulous (the Bahamas, perhaps?) sipping cocktails and letting their money make them money while they feed each other grilled shrimp. A helicopter with a back-from-the-dead Maverick lands on the lawn of their rented villa informing them that Rooster, Bob, and the rest of the team have gotten themselves into a bit of a pickle, and would they mind very much joining Mav on a jailbreak mission in Bulgaria? That, or Natasha opens her own bakery and gets into a battle of the croissants with the coffee shop down the street that ends with her buying out all the Irish butter in a fifty mile radius while Jake rallies the team to pilfer all of the other coffee shop's spoons or something.

#come talk to me!

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thisaintascenereviews · 1 year ago

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I Finally “Get” U2: One Music Fan’s Journey Of Self-Discovery

Irish band U2 is the ultimate “classic rock” / “dad rock” band. They’ve got a very accessible sound, soaring hooks, larger than life lyrics, as well as a larger than life vocalist in the form of Bono, and their career has been going on for 40+ years. They’re one of the best-selling bands of all time, but they’re also one of the most interesting bands of all time. Most people know their big hits from the 1980s, and even a few from the 1990s, but they’ve reinvented themselves a few times over their career. Since starting in 1976, the band went from a post-punk sound in the early 80s to their trademarked and well-recognized arena-rock sound of the late 80s (Joshua Tree, specifically, but they also experimented with blues and soul on 1988’s Rattle & Hum), moving to an alternative and electronic sound in the 90s (with diminishing returns as the decade went on; 1991’s Achtung Baby is considered to be one of their best albums, but the following two records of the 90s, well, aren’t) to their “classic sound” in the 00s with a brief return to superstardom with 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, and 2004’s How Topic Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

Since the 00s, their star power has faded slightly, but more so delegated to legendary status, despite still selling well (they did just do a residency in the Las Vegas Sphere and it was a huge success for them), and Bono put out a memoir last year along with a companion album, entitled Songs Of Surrender, that recontextualized and redid 40 of their biggest hits in an acoustic format (the book, which has the same name, has 40 chapters and each of them are named after a U2 song). In the last decade, however, they’ve gone down in history as being the band that put an album onto everyone’s iPhones without asking. That album, 2014’s Songs Of Innocence, isn’t half bad, at least from what I remember, but it was my introduction to the bands and that’s not a good idea. Ever since, I tried listening to a few of their albums, and while I did enjoy 1987’s Joshua Tree, and 1983’s War, among listening to a couple of others, I just didn’t “get it.”

In all my years of being a music fan, U2 has been the band that I’ve just never got into, even though I always felt like I should love them. I realized my problem after all of these years — they’re best digested in a greatest hits package. I randomly found their 80s greatest hits album on Amazon for $7 a few months back, and I decided to pick it up, especially after realizing that I love a lot of the songs on it. U2 is a band that I’ve always enjoyed songs from, but I just never got into a full album. What I ended up doing was going on a bit of a deep dive of the band from their 80s greatest hits to listening to their albums from the 1990s and the two albums from the early 00s that I mentioned earlier. I wanted to really sink my teeth into the bulk of their discography, and I plan on listening to the rest of their 80s albums, but the greatest hits is a perfect place to start if you’re new to the band.

The band’s distinct eras are very interesting, as they’ve always been ambitious and interesting, even when it didn’t work as well as it should have. The greatest hits album from the 80s, however, is what I should have always started with; some bands are just better off as “greatest hits” bands, and I’d say U2 is one of those, but a lot of their deep cuts are great, too. While their 90s output doesn’t do so much for me, although I do enjoy Achtung Baby quite a bit, and 1993’s Zooropa and 1997’s Pop are both pretty good for what they are, but U2 got very self-indulgent at this time, only to bring themselves back to Earth with the masterpiece of 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind. 2004’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is a fantastic record, too, but the former album is gorgeous in every way. It’s a great pure rock album, filled with the hooks, vocals, and lyricism that U2 was originally known for, and I wish that I would have started off with this album, or the greatest hits.

It took me years, but I understand them now; I finally get what the hype is, especially when it comes to Bono and his larger than life sound, but this is a good case of listening to the wrong album(s) can sour one’s interest in something. Some bands need the right starting point, and U2 is the best example of that. Because of their different eras, and how I started with their late 00s and early 2010s material (while I did go back to a few classic albums, I just didn’t appreciate them at the time), I just didn’t care for them as much as I should have. Looking back, I’m not sure why I wasn’t into them. I love bands that are huge, soaring, catchy, and fun, especially with a vocalist as unique as Bono and The Edge’s unique guitar playing. There’s no other band like U2, and after doing a deep dive into their work (and reading Bono’s memoir), they’ve become one of my all time favorite bands.

#u2 #bono #the edge #larry mullen jr #adam clayton #joshua tree #war #rattle and hum #all that you can’t leave behind #how to dismantle an atomic bomb #zooropa #pop #songs of surrender #rock #arena rock #post punk #classic rock

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afro-elf · 3 years ago

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Duke Ellington, Doja Cat and The Meters being hozier’s 1st 3rd & 5th top artists… (& white people still wanna say his main influence is like florence and the machine or whatever)

it's levels of denial, right? cause like on one level we all know that hozier has said his primary influences are black blues, gospel, and soul singers from the mid-twentieth century as well as irish folk and rock sounds (which were also heavily influenced by black artistry into the twentieth century). on another level even florence and the machine has an extremely noticeable black influence in her music, with her even citing like sam cooke as a major influence once i think so like... even if it Were true....

on another level white people think this is like black fans shaming them for not knowing black music and it's mostly not. it's just us saying andy doesn't bury or ignore the living history of black people in the genres he's in so like... why do they? why do they insist on inserting his white contemporaries into his influences and his art? they are... his contemporaries............. and they are irrelevant to a conversation about understanding his music on a deeper level than "cottagecore irish bog man dance with trees and sing about corpses" when like.... okay so strap in for a light and perhaps overly involved analysis of hozier's body of work that has fuck all to do with anything you've just said to me

hozier's lyrics evoke nature and hozier clearly finds a lyrical refuge in the romantic, but i think the bulk of his work, especially in the second album is not as in touch with a late 19th century influence/turn of the century as fans would like to believe. it's very clearly modern. a lot of the references to antiquity, nature, religiosity, traditional things are put in contrast to the actual lyrics and music often with humor or irony. the songs are about a modern man (or men, since i think hozier primarily writes in persona) with modern problems, modern love, modern sex, modern anxieties, modern metropolitan politics. but within the lyrics there is no intent to return to nature or a simple life except through death - hence why the cottagecore kids mostly latch onto the songs where that symbolism is most apparent (in a week, work song to an extent but they also don't get that song is a tribute to The Work Song as a concept, nfwmb maybe). those are the themes that mostly clearly show the influence of black blues and black jazz, the two most important musical genres of the twentieth century, in his music. the musicality (with choirs and organic sounds and handclaps and organs) is very black but it's blackness in a specific time and place that hozier feels in some way connected to via his own anxieties and experiences and point of view. it is music that yearns not for a connection to nature but for a recognition of humanity, a connection to the sensual, a connection with other people in an isolated and hectic age, a freedom through art and music. black people get that and THAT'S what we want white listeners to start tapping into and appreciating

ALSO the respect and enthusiasm that is given to hozier's white contemporaries is not at all given to his black contemporaries, especially given that he's shown a lot of love to rap throughout the years. some of you white people treat his love of rap and hip-hop as a joke because, be honest, you don't hold them to the same esteem as white musicians. it's just telling that i don't see fandom-wide calls for collaborations with rappers/black folk and alt artists/black soul artists that hozier could call his contemporaries outside of black fandom but i see calls for a collab with a certain blonde pop girl every other week. please!!! he is not your cottage bog prince!!! he is a 31 year old former class clown and uni dropout named andrew

#anonymous #people ask me stuff and things #great use of my english degree

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queenshelby · 4 years ago

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Just Friends - Cillian Murphy Imagine

Featuring: Cillian Murphy x Reader

Warning: SMUT

Words: 5034

Foreword:

I have never written anything for an actual person. For my own comfort, I will not be referring to Cillian’s actual family and, instead, I have created two small biographies for the Reader and Cillian.

Biography:

The Reader:

The Reader is 24 years old and recently moved to Dublin with her 5 year old son, Max in order to take up a fantastic job offer.

Max’s father isn’t interested in a relationship with his son and separated from the Reader pretty much as soon as she found out that she was pregnant.

The Reader is a novelist and editor for the Irish Times.

The Reader’s interests include books, listening to records, theatre and attending live music gigs.

The Reader has a close relationship with her grandmother who is 65 years old and a writer herself. She also lives in Dublin with her second husband, who is originally from Galway.

Cillian:

Cillian is 42 years old in this story. He is divorced from his wife Siobhan and has two kids, Charlie (6) and Hendricks (8).

He lives in a town house in Dublin and shares custody.

In this story, he finished filming Season 4 of Peaky Blinders about three months ago, which is when the Reader first met him.

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

JUST FRIENDS

Three and a half months ago you moved to Dublin to take a position as editor at the Irish Times. Initially, the move was daunting to you as you were a single mother and moving your son to a different preschool concerned you.

Fortunately, your grandmother was living in Dublin as well and offered to help you with looking after your son, Max. She was a retired novelist herself and you always had a close relationship with her. Having her around was a blessing.

Over the years, you also met some Irish writers and established good relationships with them. Therefore, finding friends in Dublin was not an issue.

One of your best friends was a play writer from London and was working in Ireland at the time, promoting her theatre play called ‘Blessings’. She introduced you to a bunch of people, most of which were working in the entertainment industry in some way or another.

Whilst all of your new found friends were a fair bit older than you, you related to them. You had interests in common and most of them had children, just like you. They understood that sometimes plans had to be cancelled and flexibility was limited. Having children is a commitment which many of your younger friends didn’t understand. You weren’t interested in late nights because a young child meant early mornings. For this reason, you would much rather attend a dinner and board game night as a opposed to a night club.

And this is how you met a very interesting man named Cillian. Three months ago, your friend Orla invited you to a board game night with a couple of her friends. Cillian was pretty much the only other single person in attendance and, since this was a board game that had to be played in teams of two, you and Cillian were paired up with him.

He was funny and smart and very attractive. You had a good time that night and even won the game with your combined knowledge of random trivial facts.

He was a fun person to be around and you had several common interests.

Over the next few months, you spent a fair bit of time together, mostly with other friends but sometimes alone when your friends were doing things as couples with their partners.

Just recently, you went record shopping together and the weekend before last you and another friend of yours would take all of your kids to Dublin Zoo for the day. Your son Max developed a great friendship with Cillian’s youngest son Charlie. Playdates were a common occurrence.

While both of you separately explored the dating world, you really enjoyed Cillian’s company as a friend and he enjoyed yours and you would often chat about the mishaps you encountered and laugh about them. Dates gone wrong was one of your favourite topics.

The last relationship Cillian had was with a co-worker, which was far from ideal. They’ve met on set of one of his movies about a year after he divorced from his wife, but things didn’t go as planned and the relationship didn’t last. It ended about four months ago, being just one month before you met.

The last relationship you had was over a year ago and it also didn’t last as your boyfriend couldn’t deal with the fact that you were a single mum and that your son always came first.

For Valentines Day this year, your friends set up dates for each of you. It was disastrous. Neither of you were interested in committing at this point and you both were rather flustered about your friends’ efforts after you both had told them not to bother.

You were happy singles.

Theatre Night

As happy singles, you decided to go and see your friend’s new play ‘Blessings’ with some of your other friends on the night you all managed to be child free for once. It took a while to organise but was worth the effort.

‘Hi Max, how was preschool?’ Cillian asked as he opened the door to your townhouse for Cillian while you were in the bathroom, putting up your hair.

Max met Cillian numerous times and got along with him very well. After all, Cillian had a son the same age as Max.

‘Good. Do you want me to show you what I made?’ Max asked while you waived at Cillian from the bathroom.

‘Absolutely, show me’ Cillian said with a smile as he followed Max into the living room.

‘Look’ Max said as he held up two paintings.

‘Wow, is that a T-Rex?’ Cillian asked, causing Max to nod with excitement.

‘That’s very cool…he looks super scary’ Cillian added just as there was another knock on the door.

It was your grandmother who was here to pick up Max for his sleepover at her house.

You opened the door and asked Max to get his bag from the living room which you had packed for him earlier.

‘Nan, this is my friend Cillian’ you said as you introduced Cillian to your grandmother.

‘Hello Cillian, I am Margot. I loved Grief is a Thing with Feathers. It was such an intense play’ she said, knowing right away who he was despite the fact that you had never mentioned him to her before.

‘Thank you Margot and I loved By The Sea, it was a fantastic book’ Cillian responded. He read the book after you told him about your grandmother. Your writing style was very similar to hers and he always loved a good book.

‘Oh thank you very much. Now Max, are you ready?’ your grandmother asked.

Max was ready and you said goodbye, giving him a big hug and thanking your grandmother for looking after him for the night.

While Cillian waited in the living room, you finished your make up and slipped on your shoes.

‘Thank you for picking me up. I really have no idea where this place is’ you said as you grabbed your bag and the two of you were heading out of the door.

‘Any time Y/N, it isn’t far from here actually’ Cillian said.

As you were walking to the Arthouse Theatre you talked about all sorts of things, music, childcare and books.

It was a cold night in Dublin and you were probably underdressed for the occasion.

At the Arthouse Theatre you met up with another two friends of yours. They were both married, to each other, and shared three children. Luckily for them, they had a baby sitter that night.

The play was amazing and you all enjoyed it with a few glasses of wine which were served at the theatre. Cillian had good taste when it came to wine and you usually sought his guidance on what to order.

After you left the theatre, you felt awfully hungry. You hadn’t eaten dinner that night.

‘I am starving, is anyone else up for Pizza?’ you asked your three friends, including Cillian

‘We would love to, but only have a baby sitter until 9pm, sorry’ Amanda said, explaining that she and her husband had to head home fairly soon.

‘What about you Cilly?’ you asked.

‘I would love some Pizza, let’s go to Pizzinis’ he said.

Both you and Cillian said goodbye to your friends and made your way to Pizzinis.

As usual, it was packed and there were no table available.

‘Wanna grab them take away and go back to my place? I’ve got wine and you can show me this new album you were talking about earlier’ you said.

‘Sounds good, let’s do that’ Cillian said before ordering two pizzas.

More than Friends

You arrived at your apartment about 30 minutes later and Cillian put on some music. He found this new Irish band he liked and you were really keen to hear them.

‘Hmm Indie…I like it’ you said as he connected his i-phone to your speakers.

‘Wine?’ you asked as you grabbed a bottle of wine from the shelf.

‘Yes please and thanks’ Cillian said as he put the pizzas on the table.

‘I was meant to ask you, how was your Valentine’s date?’ Cillian asked before taking the first bite of the pizza.

‘Oh god, don’t remind me on it please’ you said with a laugh.

‘That good ey? What happened?’ Cillian laughed.

‘He was weird. He basically left after I told him about Max’ you responded.

‘I think that sometimes guys your age might be a bit freaked out by the fact that you have child. I can’t say that I blame them. I couldn’t imagine myself becoming a step father when I was in my 20s’ Cillian said.

‘He was 32’ you responded.

‘Well maybe he was just weird and you are just unlucky when it comes to dating’ Cillian laughed.

‘Yeah, maybe…I am just over dating’ you said…’What about your date?’ you asked.

‘Pretty average. I mean she was nice but had no sense of humour’ Cillian said.

‘Oh what, wait…she didn’t laugh at your Irish jokes?’ you laughed.

‘Outrageous I know. I mean how could she not?’ Cillian joked.

‘Here is to failed dates’ you said as you held up your wine glass for a toast.

‘To failed dates’ Cillian responded with smile.

Over the next hour or so, Cillian and you finished both pizzas and talked about books, including the book you were currently writing, music and embarrassing things your kids had done.

Quite music was playing in the background by then while you talked and laughed together until Cillian brought up a specific book he had read recently, written by a writer named J A Hanson, which he said reminded him on you in a way.

‘I have read all of her books and I really wish I could write romance as well as her’ you said.

‘Her books aren’t exactly romantic’ Cillian responded.

‘Her storylines aren’t romantic, but the character she uses in all of her books involves herself romantically with several other characters throughout the series. The way she writes makes you relate to the character even in these intimate moments’ you explained.

‘She is 60 and probably speaking from experience. I have read in a paper a few months back that she had quite an interesting and adventurous youth in the 70s and 80s’ Cillian said.

‘Free Love…Yeah, I have read this too’ you laughed. ‘Perhaps I just need some inspiration to get over my block, otherwise I will never finish this damn novel’ you said as you poured yourself some more wine.

‘You don’t have to answer this, but when was the last time that…?’ Cillian asked and, before he could finish his question, you interrupted him.

‘That I had sex? Gosh…well over a year ago’ you responded, causing Cillian’s chin to drop.

‘Over a year? Seriously? I mean, surely, a woman like you would get plenty of offers…’ Cillian said, not knowing what else to tell you.

‘A woman like me? What do you mean by that Cilly?’ you asked with a slight giggle.

‘Well, you are attractive, smart and funny. You would get a fair bit of interest’ Cillian responded.

‘So, you think I am attractive?’ you asked with a smirk, causing Cillian to choke slightly on his wine. He regretted what he had said almost instantly, causing awkwardness between you.

‘Well yeah, I think you are an attractive woman’ Cillian said quietly. ‘In a totally objective way of course’ he added, while, just in this moment, you observed his facial expressions.

You observed him drop his eyes to your lips as he said it, and then lower to the place where your shirt opens at the collar, the buttons undone to below your collarbone.

He pressed his lips together. ‘I think I should probably get go…’ he said, and, before he could finish his sentence, you leaned in and kissed him suddenly, like the peck you give a boy you like on the school bus the second before you jump up and get off – a brief bravery without a plan.

He was caught by surprise.

‘Y/N’ he said and, before he could say something else, you apologised to him for what just happened.

‘I am sorry Cilly, I don’t know what just came over me’ you said.

‘It’s alright, I shouldn’t have said what I said. It was inappropriate’ Cillian said.

But, with Cillian’s response, you couldn’t leave it alone and asked ‘So, you don’t think that I am attractive?’ you asked, giggling slightly with some embarrassment.

‘Any man who thinks that you aren’t attractive is clearly blind. But, with that being said, it doesn’t matter what I think, you are 18 years younger than me and it would be wrong for us to take this further. Despite, I don’t want to fuck up our friendship’ Cillian said calmly.

You didn’t know what to say to his comment and, instead of using any words, you ran your hand gently over the side of his perfect face while biting your lip.

‘Just one kiss between friends then, we can blame the red wine after’ you whispered as a comfortable hot feeling washed over you. You felt some sort of attraction towards Cillian since the moment you met him, but didn’t want to admit it to yourself, let alone to him.

‘I don’t know Y/N’ Cillian said as you leaned closer towards him and pressed your lips onto his. You knew he was reluctant but he didn’t push you away.

To the contrary, as you kissed him, his hand came up in a rush to the back of your neck, pulling you in closer. Within seconds, his tongue slipped between your lips, whispering over your teeth and began dancing with your tongue.

You noticed the brush of his stubble on your cheek, the press of his lips on yours and the way his mouth tasted, a mix of minty gum and red wine.

It shouldn’t have been so hot, but it was. The taste of him, the smell and flavour, and it made you whimper in your throat. You knew this was one off and you didn’t want this moment to end.

‘Are you ok?’ he asked after he pulled back a little and paused. He was scanning your eyes and there was a cautious considering from his side. You could tell that he was surprised about what had just happened.

‘Yeah, you?’ you said as you couldn’t help yourself but stare into his baby blue eyes.

‘Yes’ he said as he cleared his throat slightly.

There was an awkward silence in the room and you couldn’t stand it.

You build up all of your courage again and leaned over him, pressing your lips onto his once more.

Cillian didn’t hesitate then.

His tongue slipped right back into the same spot than before, before his lips then moved over your face and down to your neck, leaving gentle bites and kisses.

Cillian’s hands were busy touching you at the same time his lips were trailing over your neck.

One of his hands was in your hair at the back of your head while his other hand was moving down to press the small of your back so that your body was pulled forward into his.

As you were exchanging passionate kisses, you could feel the shape of him, the firmness of his body against yours, your legs pressing into his and his chest pressing into your breasts. You could also feel his erection through his jeans, hard as anything, rigid and warm against your tummy.

By this time, you wanted more than just kisses.

‘Sleep with me, just that once’ you whispered.

‘I can’t Y/N, you are 24, it is not right’ Cillian said pulling away from you.

‘It’s just sex Cilly, I am old enough for that’ you laughed.

‘Yes, but I don’t want this to ruin our friendship’ Cillian said.

‘It won’t. There are no strings attached, it’s just sex. Unless you don’t want me’ you responded. ‘Although I think you do’ you giggled as you ran your hand over his pants, feeling his erection.

Your comment made Cillian chuckle.

‘This is a one off, alright?’ Cillian asked, causing you to nod.

‘One off…and it stays our little secret’ you said before smashing your lips back onto his for another minute or two.

After you exchanged more passionate kisses you stood up.

‘Common, I show you my bedroom’ you said cheekily, taking his hand and guiding him towards the bed.

‘Can you help me with this please’ you asked, turning around to face the bed. Your back was now facing Cillian and you pulled your hair aside so that he can open the zipper of your dress.

Cillian unzipped your dress carefully, exposing your black lace underwear.

As you pushed your dress down onto the floor, Cillian began kissing your back and neck, while running his hands over your breasts and stomach, all the way down in between your legs.

You let out a brief moan before turning around to face him and help him pull his t-shirt over his head, exposing his perfectly shaped biceps.

Looking into his eyes, your hand glided gracefully, for once, past Cillian’s belt buckle and into the holy crevice of his Calvin Klein briefs. His cock was hard and ready.

You moved it between my your slowly, relishing his obvious eagerness.

You used the other hand to unbuckle his belt and unzip his jeans, shortly after which he pushed them down to the floor while your other hand never left his warm and hard cock.

After the jeans came off, Cillian pressed his lips back onto yours while using his skilled hands to unclip the back of your bra. The bra also landed on the floor within seconds.

‘Lie down’ he whispered into your ear. You obliged and crawled onto the bed, facing him.

He loomed over you, climbing on to the bed as you scooted backwards further so that he could straddle your hips while you pushed up against him, wanting the rub and friction against you.

Cillian kissed you passionately as one of his hands moved in between your legs.

He could feel your body tensing up as he ran his fingers over the top of your panties

After all, he knew that it had been a while since you’ve been with anyone. He knew to take it slow and give you some reassurance.

‘Just relax’ he whispered into your ear with his thick Irish accent as he edged his fingers over the lace of your panties, his hand leisurely rubbing up and down the length of your squirming crotch, until he pulled your underwear aside and slipped two fingers inside of you.

You could feel your mouth widen and a loud moan escaped you as he teased the full mound of your clit. The stroke of his thumb was purposeful and steady on your firm, dripping pulse while his fingers plunged in and out of you, sinking further and further.

You held onto him tightly as the slipperiness he found made it easy for him to penetrate you with his fingers. You were so wet.

You shuddered at the pattern, shocked to find it could still stun you, unlocking newfound levels of moisture and desire, even when you began to meet the repetition of his thrusts. You naturally tilted and buckled beneath him.

As he was pushing his fingers in and out of you, he trailed kisses down your neck while your hands clutched at his shoulders, scratched down his back, held him tighter to you as I screamed into his skin.

Cillian’s breath grew more desperate and rugged.

‘It seems like we should take these off’ he said, causing you to nod with anticipation.

‘Don’t move’ Cillian ordered as he lowered himself on the bed while removing your lace undies.

Within seconds, Cillian’s lips were an inch away from your crotch, where he painted your inner thigh with tiny and soft kisses.

Cillian pushed your legs apart gently and you knew what would be next. You have read about this many times but this was the first time any man had gone down on you before and you were nervously biting your lip.

You tried hard to relax as Cillian’s lips finally reached your entrance, tasting the evidence of how much you wanted him.

‘Oh god, fuck’ you moaned as his head dove between your legs. His tongue prodded you softly, short licks against your clit.

Instantly, all restraint and reservations you had vanished. You were relaxed completely as his tongue danced and writhed inside of you.

With each skillful stroke, your thighs clenched. But you still needed more and he read you just right; he didn’t stop as you pushed yourself up the bed. Instead, he held you steady, causing you to look down at him and watching his eyes widen as they met yours, reacting to the rush of your wetness.

‘Cillian, oh god…you need to stop, I am so close’ you moaned, not wanting it to be over. You never came more than once so you wanted to feel him inside of you first.

‘That’s good, just let go’ Cillian said quietly with a grin before he continued and slid two fingers back inside of you while whirling his tongue over your clit.

You couldn’t hold on any longer, no matter how hard you tried. Your exhales began to emerge as deepening sighs and you leaned my head back and lived out the fantasy that had flashed through your mind all along.

‘Oh god Cillian’ you moaned as your back arched and a rush of ecstasy flew through your body. You grabbed onto Cillian’s hair as he sucked every drip from you as your orgasm flooded your body.

As you came down from your orgasm, Cillian shuffled himself back up the bed, kissing you passionately.

You could taste yourself on his lips and you were ready for more.

‘I want to feel you’ you whispered after your lips drifted apart and while reaching for Cillian’s hard cock.

‘Do you have a condom?’ he asked, causing you to nod. You had purchased some before your Valentine’s Date, just in case you needed them.

You reached for the bedside table and opened the pack of condoms, handing one to Cillian.

Cillian was quick to get rid of his briefs and put on the condom, before positioning himself on top of you, in between your legs.

He shuddered a great rushing gasp of breath as he entered you. He couldn’t believe how good you felt, so tight.

You felt him push into you then, slowly and carefully, filling you completely.

‘Cillian’ you moaned as you held onto him tightly as he slowly began to move.

With every thrust, you gasped, whimpered, soft mewling noises, begging for more.

You felt him all the way to your belly button and screamed out with pleasure, your hands taking the heat as he thrusted fast and deep.

As he picked up his pace, you got louder, groans becoming moans becoming shouts, and the bed frame thumped against the wall, louder and faster and louder and faster.

‘Oh god, don’t stop’ you moaned, his skin slapping against yours.

‘You are so beautiful’ Cillian said in between his moans before pulling out of you slowly and lifting up your legs above his shoulders.

He knew exactly that, this way, he would be reaching your g-spot while he was fucking you.

You were slightly surprised by this position but were flexible enough to run with it.

As he entered you again slowly, you let out a loud moan.

‘Fuck’ you moaned in between the high-pitched noises that escaped you.

‘Does this feel alright?’ Cillian asked, wanting to ensure that you are comfortable.

You nodded eagerly and whimpered a shaky ‘yes’ as he continued to thrust into you. He was right at your g-spot and you could barely control yourself.

He slowly picked up the speed and you could feel another orgasm coming on as the tip of his cock kept hitting your g-spot over and over again.

‘Cillian, oh my god, don’t stop…’ you moaned as you held onto his arms tightly.

You began to shake heavily as your orgasm washed over you and tears of joy escaped your eyes.

‘Fuck, Y/N’ Cillian groaned loudly as he felt your walls tightening around him. The sensation coupled with the sounds you were making sent him over the edge and he almost came in sync with you.

As soon as he came, you released your legs from his shoulders and he collapsed on top of you, kissing you passionately.

You could still feel Cillian pulsing inside you when the sudden oddness of what you had done washed over you.

‘Are we ok?’ Cillian asked as he slowly pulled out of you and removed the condom, disposing of it discreetly.

‘I think so’ you said shyly.

‘Good…because I really enjoyed this’ Cillian said as he ran one of his hands over your cheek gently.

‘Me too…plus, I’ve got some inspiration for my book now’ you said cheekily.

‘I am glad to having been of assistance. Make sure you credit me in the end notes’ Cillian said jokingly.

‘Hmm, if I did, it may become a best seller…Sex Scene Inspired by Cillian Murphy’ you said with laughter, causing Cillian to laugh also.

‘I should better get home’ Cillian said as he was playing with your hair. He really didn’t want to leave, but he felt as though it was inappropriate for him to stay the night.

‘You can stay here if you like…’ you offered, but Cillian declined.

After all, this was supposed to be a one off. You are nothing more than friends, or are you?

You accepted Cillian’s decision to leave and weren’t upset by it. You enjoyed your time with Cillian and slept well that night, snugging up in the doona which smelled like his aftershave.

Finishing the Book

The next morning, you got up early to begin writing the intimate chapter of your book. This was the chapter you had struggled with for a while and you finally felt comfortable writing it. If readers would know that, in this particular scene of your book, you were basically reliving your night with your friend, Cillian Murphy, that would be scandalous.

So, you decided to make sure that no one would ever find out about your little adventure.

Unfortunately for you, your grandma seemed to have a good sense of what was going on.

She was on time as usual and dropped Max back at your house at 10am.

‘Had a good night my dear? I can see you are working on your book.’ She said.

‘Yes nan, the play last night was lovely. It has given me some inspiration’ you said.

‘The play has given you some inspiration to write about orgasms?’ your grandmother asked with laughter as she read the screen on your lap top.

‘Nan! Oh my god, don’t read what I am writing’ you said with embarrassment.

‘Oh dear, it’s alright. Believe it or not, I used to write novels myself with a little hint of filth now and then. But, somehow, I don’t think that it was the play that gave you the inspiration to write this little naughty chapter. By looking at the bruises on your neck, perhaps it was your friend Mr Murphy who gave you this inspiration?’ your grandmother said with sarcasm.

‘Nan, no Jesus, please’ you said as your face became flushed.

‘Don’t be embarrassed dear’ your grandmother said. ‘It is good for you. I mean, he is handsome and I saw the way you looked at him yesterday evening…and the way he looked at you’ your grandmother continued.

‘There is nothing between us nan, we are just friends’ you explained with total embarrassment.

‘Alright dear, whatever you say’ your grandmother said, not believing a single word that came out of your mouth.

‘I better go, I have lunch with Alma later… I love you my dear’ your grandmother said before heading out of the door.

‘Love you too nan’ you said.

WHO WANTS A SECOND PART OF THIS?

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