#wherein people are born with magical powers called 'talents'

[zekeen]

OC Interaction

Thank you @pinkberrytea for tagging me! 😃💖

Now, brain activation... 🧠😵‍💫 "OC lore, come to me"

My OC

Kat(aigyda)'s mother was a tiefling and his father a half-drow from Baldur's Gate lower city. So, bad mix to make good first impressions on most people in the city. He was abandoned to an orphanage by his father shortly after his mother died, as he grew up, he figured out he was a sorcerer and was capable of using magic naturally, particularly stormy and psychic ones. He grew up lonely and often ostracized, therefore he holds a grudge against people too hasty to judge him. In order to get by, he became a criminal, he learned how to manipulate people when needed, also his talents in magic allowed him to work for the guild.

For his personality, he's seemingly friendly and polite to people. He presents himself as an assertive person but is actually filled with self-doubt. He's a bit lazy, and sleeps a lot. He may be good on surface level relationships but struggles with allowing people to get close enough to really know him.

Your OC

Mavka is a Bhaalspawn, product of a foul ritual wherein borrowing the power of the archdevil Mephistopheles to sire a creature born from his own gore , the evil god would crush a fae, from whose bones and innards mixed with his blood, a child would come to be—a child born from murder. She was not Bhaal’s first solo venture, although her older Dragonborn sibling bore a purer lineage, for Bhaal was able to conceive him with no external aid. The sole purpose of her existence was to be bred by her brother, and thus, it was decided that she would be raised by a mortal family until her coming of age—that is, until she first bled. Left at the doorstep of a human patriar known for his feverish adoration of Tyr, one of Bhaal’s enemies, she was taken in by him for he saw in her an opportunity to cleanse the rot, raising a devilish child into a devout woman. As she matured into a young girl, however, his obsession with her grew, and with it, the resentment of her foster mother and sisters. Physically and mentally abused on a daily basis, completely isolated and with not a single friend to call her own, she was primed for the Urge; the moment she gave up on living was the moment when her true father would convince her to give herself to him. And thus, on the day of her 13th birthday, with the blood of her menarch running down her thighs, Bhaal would use her as a flesh puppet to take the lives of all members of her foster family as she helplessly watched, a pitiful passenger inside her own body.

Personality-wise, she is quiet and soft-spoken, a little gloomy, but gentle and kind. Her past molded her into a needy, clingy individual, who is willing to submit to others in whatever way to quench her thirst for kinship; self-loathing to a fault, she voluntarily waives control to anyone who will ask, for she trusts herself not with anything. She is constantly scared of being left behind, and thus, will do anything she can to please those around her, her pathetic desperation often translating into selfishness. There is, however, a silly, girlish side to her, and she enjoys bantering with her friends and making them smile. She loves animals and children, although her sometimes worrying naïveté does make her an easy target for the likes of Mol. Also, when it comes to domestic tasks, her skills are appalling, but no one with a heart would ever tell her that as she sweetly bats her eyelashes at them while offering a plate of the most vile thing you can think of.

I think that as long as Mav and Kat are working towards a common goal, they would get along just fine, they might even become friends but I fear that at first he might try to take advantage of her naiveté... But he would rapidly get fond of her gentleness and try to cook her a good meal as often as possible. (That's also a way to prevent Mav's vile cooking from occurring too often 🤭)

I’m tagging @selemchant , @pastel-starr-bitch , @cryptidcryptic , @lavender-ravens , @bananasfosterparent only if you want to of course ! :)

[starryjuicebox]

OC Interactions

Thanks to @pinkberrytea and @zekeen for tagging me!

My OC: 

Stella is an Winter Eladrin Elf princess hailing from a far away kingdom called Silevren, and has been a noble her entire life, resulting in an incredibly privileged upbringing. 

She was visiting Baldur's Gate on diplomatic business representing her kingdom when she got kidnapped by mindflayers and a tadpole placed in her eye. Personality-wise, she is very ruled by her sense of duty. She tends to be polite and respectful, though keeps others at an arm’s length until she feels she can trust them. She is fiercely loyal to the people she feels responsible for, to a fault. Though often considered the more “mature” despite being the younger twin, she does have a playful side, though it is very carefully buried. 

Your OCs

Kataigyda

Kat(aigyda)'s mother was a tiefling and his father a half-drow from Baldur's Gate lower city. So, bad mix to make good first impressions on most people in the city. He was abandoned to an orphanage by his father shortly after his mother died, as he grew up, he figured out he was a sorcerer and was capable of using magic naturally, particularly stormy and psychic ones. He grew up lonely and often ostracized, therefore he holds a grudge against people too hasty to judge him. In order to get by, he became a criminal, he learned how to manipulate people when needed, also his talents in magic allowed him to work for the guild.

For his personality, he's seemingly friendly and polite to people. He presents himself as an assertive person but is actually filled with self-doubt. He's a bit lazy, and sleeps a lot. He may be good on surface level relationships but struggles with allowing people to get close enough to really know him.

Stella and Kat would get along alright I think, though Stella would probably try and encourage him not to be lazy. I can imagine he doesn’t have the best view of nobles, but she would try not to exemplify that for him. 

Mavka

Mavka is a Bhaalspawn, product of a foul ritual wherein borrowing the power of the archdevil Mephistopheles to sire a creature born from his own gore , the evil god would crush a fae, from whose bones and innards mixed with his blood, a child would come to be—a child born from murder. She was not Bhaal’s first solo venture, although her older Dragonborn sibling bore a purer lineage, for Bhaal was able to conceive him with no external aid. The sole purpose of her existence was to be bred by her brother, and thus, it was decided that she would be raised by a mortal family until her coming of age—that is, until she first bled. Left at the doorstep of a human patriar known for his feverish adoration of Tyr, one of Bhaal’s enemies, she was taken in by him for he saw in her an opportunity to cleanse the rot, raising a devilish child into a devout woman. As she matured into a young girl, however, his obsession with her grew, and with it, the resentment of her foster mother and sisters. Physically and mentally abused on a daily basis, completely isolated and with not a single friend to call her own, she was primed for the Urge; the moment she gave up on living was the moment when her true father would convince her to give herself to him. And thus, on the day of her 13th birthday, with the blood of her menarch running down her thighs, Bhaal would use her as a flesh puppet to take the lives of all members of her foster family as she helplessly watched, a pitiful passenger inside her own body.

Personality-wise, she is quiet and soft-spoken, a little gloomy, but gentle and kind. Her past molded her into a needy, clingy individual, who is willing to submit to others in whatever way to quench her thirst for kinship; self-loathing to a fault, she voluntarily waives control to anyone who will ask, for she trusts herself not with anything. She is constantly scared of being left behind, and thus, will do anything she can to please those around her, her pathetic desperation often translating into selfishness. There is, however, a silly, girlish side to her, and she enjoys bantering with her friends and making them smile. She loves animals and children, although her sometimes worrying naïveté does make her an easy target for the likes of Mol. Also, when it comes to domestic tasks, her skills are appalling, but no one with a heart would ever tell her that as she sweetly bats her eyelashes at them while offering a plate of the most vile thing you can think of.

I feel that Stella and Mavka would get along well! She wouldn’t mind Mavka’s clinginess in the slightest and she would try to help Mavka build up her self-esteem. It might be awkward at first, as both are pretty reserved, but Stella would treat Mavka with kindness. 

Tagging: @lipstickghoulie, @kaeoticneutral, @shinyredgloss, @carooosa, @ghostfire

sorry if y'all already got tagged or did this, I'm soo late all the time to these things lmfao

[auoiegonzales]

Beyond Words: Exploring the Moral and Ethical Dilemmas behind Isabel Allende's Two Words

Two Words:

Figure 1.

Analysis:

Figure 2.

“That was the day Belisa Crepusculario discovered that words make their way in the world without a master.” (p. 2).

Words can evoke strong emotions and even alter a person’s identity. It can convey emotions, share knowledge, make impressions, and even control how others perceive the speaker. Words' power is seen in the short story “Two Words.”

Figure 3 Isabel Allende - Author of "Two Words"

Isabel Allende is a world-renowned magical realist writer who published “Two Words” under the collection of “The Stories of Eva Luna” stories in 1989. The story introduces the main character, Belisa Crepusculario, born into a poor family. Not wanting to have the same fate as her family, she worked hard and found a living in selling words. A colonel who wanted to run for power captured her and bought her words, which he used to capture people’s love. Her words not only impacted the people, but her two words acted like a spell that enthralled the colonel himself. This story ends with Belisa Crepusculario, the lady who sells words, and the Colonel, the power-hungry man who captured her to buy her words, falling in love with each other. Words hold a lot of power in it, and in this story, it was utilized to determine one's fate and future in this story.

Figure 4. Belisa Crepusculario

Two Words romanticized the issue in this text— exploitation. Belisa Crepusculario lived life in poverty and endured its harsh reality. She was captured and tied but earned only a single peso for her words, while the colonel was showered with love by people. Her naivete due to her being used in poor living conditions made it easy to take advantage of her.

However, in the end, “The men knew then that their leader would never undo the witchcraft of those accursed  words because the whole world could see the voracious-puma eyes soften as the woman walked to him and took his hand in hers.” (p. 7). Even the colonel was smitten with her, Belisa Crepusculario, and they ended up together.

Figure 5.

“Two Words” showed different values in life. Belisa Crepusculario showed how braveness, determination, and hard work could change the trajectory of one’s life. She used her life challenges as motivation to learn and took advantage of this knowledge to survive. Her talent in delivering these magical words helped people and made a difference. When the Colonel bought words, he acted as if it was his. Every delivery of Belisa’s words led him closer and closer to power. The text portrayed that those in power always win in life. No matter how hard one works, life favors the rich. This world is unfair, and having money and resources is the biggest advantage one can have in life.

Figure 6.

The values taught by the “Two Words” reflect what people should do in a similar situation. It reminds them of their responsibility to question the authorities whenever they see something wrong. This is evident in the story wherein Belisa Crepusculario saw the wrongdoings of the Colonel. Still, instead of going against it, he even helped him win. This also warns people not to be easily fooled by flowery words. The Coronel did not even know the meaning behind the speech he bought but took credit and recognition for it. This can be compared to present times, where most politicians use flowery language and empty promises to persuade people to vote for them. Knowing the true power of words, one should use them carefully and smartly for a worthwhile cause, like inspiring and helping other people, and to fight against their wrongful use, like taking a stand and calling out those who take advantage of this power.

References:

Allende, I. (1989). Two Words. For The Love of Short Stories. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wNzpHXGnvebpFtMFDGNkyFec3ch9endR/view

Staff, L. (2022, February 17). Two Words | Summary and Analysis. Litbug. https://www.litbug.com/2022/02/15/two-words-summary-and-analysis/#:~:text=Summary%20of%20Two%20Words%20by%20Isabel%20Allende&text=Although%20there%20is%20no%20real,Sayers%20Peden%20in%20(1991)

Figure 1: Ramsey, Z. (2020, September 16). Two Words by Isabel Allende [Video file]. Youtube. https://youtu.be/XqunuJ8W56w

Figure 2: Solis, M. (2015). Machismo and The Power of Words [Online image]. Reading Between The Lines. https://readingbetweenthelinessite.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/machismo.png?w=670&h=205

Figure 3: Barra, L. (2023). Isabel Allende [Online image]. Love and Revolution: The Epics of Isabel Allende. https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/isabel-allende-2000x1500-1677515303.jpg

Figure 4: Dos Palabras Isabel Allende [Online image]. (2020). English translations of all stories and poems for the AP Spanish Literature course and exam. https://rubell.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/spanish-woman.jpg

Figure 5: [Beautiful closeup shot of a couple holding hands on a blurred background of a field]. Holding Hands Images. https://img.freepik.com/free-photo/beautiful-closeup-shot-couple-holding-hands-blurred-background-field_181624-33635.jpg?w=360

Figure 6: Woman whispering into man's ear stock photo [Online image]. (2013). iStock. https://media.istockphoto.com/id/56516784/photo/woman-whispering-into-mans-ear.jpg?s=170667a&w=0&k=20&c=zLBP8QluOwSlb6A2qyqMzruHkCebyV3BdSiqpIB6YcU=

Written By:

Auoie D. Gonzales

Angelo Clark D. Tongco

Last Published:

May 28, 2023

[pocketramblr]

im actually down for that family tree au 👀👀👀 hell yeah for rarepairs!!

THANK you anon I'm glad someone else around here appreciates my smedry talent

But yeah there's some other fun relations brewing in that one too so will be fun to put it all together!

[oinonsana]

Balay Karunongan

For all your Fire Emblem Three Houses/RWBY/Harry Potter/Naruto/Persona needs. This is written with Gubat Banwa in mind, does not have strict game mechanics.

In the 199th Year of the Skysea War, in the hinterlands of the Lakanate’s land borders, where it touches the hunting grounds of Bayi, five siyak came together to establish a mistake.

They called it Balay Karunongan, the House of Wisdom. With the help of Datu Padakar, a Datu under the Kaponoan of Bayi, they managed to create a grand Balay that opened its doors to the children of Datu across the entirety of Kitatak.

It was a house that taught how to kill.

Over time, it grew in size. The original five-floored dakbalay gained annexes that went all the way down the mountain it was built upon. Behind it arose a bamboo pagoda, attached to the giant nunuk that anointed the area as a sacred place.

Princes and Princesses of Datu, even if they be binukot, usually from 16 harvests and beyond are put in here for a total of 5 years. They are taught in the ways of war, combat, battle, tactics, strategy, and, if they have the talent for it, offensive magic and sorcery.

The students are assigned a particularly colored saob-saob, an open gown, to denote their year. They can wear almost anything underneath. Jewelry is encouraged. Fashionable takes on the saob-saob and clothing is encouraged due to the cutthroat student culture of the House of Wisdom, wherein social standing among nobles is fought over.

White/Undyed Saob-saob are given to first years.

Brown saob-saob are given to second years.

Black saob-saob are given to third years.

Indigo saob-saob are given to fourth years.

Crimson saob-saob are given to fifth years, and is a sign of graduation.

The colder climate in the mountains has allowed for more elaborate and layered outfits from the nobles, much to their delight, which has allowed them to create elaborate fashion.

A Concordance

In the 212th Year of the Skysea War, the Balay was assaulted by the Lakanate. The five Grand Siyak managed to repel the invasion attempt with the help of their friends from Bayi, as well as the well-taught and disciplined students of the balay, which has begun to incorporate foreign martial techniques into their studies as well.

Impressed, Huwan Rekno promised to stop assault attempts if the Siyak will accept nobles from the Lakanate. Seeing this as a compromise to keep the balay alive, they agreed. Thus, the Balay has become a household for Datu and nobles from the Lakanate to bring their children there to make them even more skilled and powerful, to secure their lineages and royalty.

The Balay Karunongan, while officially not following any particular polity, is now under being afforded gifts and hosted feasts by all across the archipelago, in hopes of gaining the balay’s allegiance. Both Bayi and the Lakanate know however that the Balay will not give its allegiance to anyone not them, since they are in a particularly difficult position to not choose from either of them.

Cut Throats

The students are taught in all forms of warfare, not only in its physical aspect, but also in its social and mental aspects. Manipulating the enemy, forcing a raid, attacking during the morning, retreating when you’ve gotten what you need. This has caused an internal political mandala within the Balay, exacerbated only by the Five Clan allegiances established by the Siyak themselves.

Mimicking their parents, each class has a Datu, who has his own gang of right-hand men that is the Sandig. It is, however, a simplified version of the political composition of the outside world. Each Datu has an Attendant, their closest secretary and ally, as well as their steward. Along with the Attendant, their Sandig is made up of a Sword, that is a sort of sheriff. A Warhorn, that is the one that gives news to the rest of the class. Finally a Staff that gives counsel and wisdom to the Datu.

Those in the class are thus treated as freedmen would be treated in the outside world, despite being noble born themselves.

Each class, across all the five years, regularly war against each other. Each Year has an overlord that reins in and keeps order among the Datu in their Year. Similarly to the outside world’s society, these are called Kaponoan. The Datu follow after the Kaponoan as a freedman would follow after a Datu.

Every end of the year, the Kaponoan for the next year is determined by an Interclass Tournament known as the Paligsahan ng Hari (Competition of Kings). There five of the best fighters from each of the five classes within a year compete to be the next Kaponoan. This is usually the Datu of each class, but doesn’t always have to be.

This is almost always held in front of the Gubat Nunuk, the war pagoda tree, that is sacred to the entire house. The Paligsahan is constantly considered to not only be a tournament, but also a worship ritual as well as a divination ritual. Whoever comes out on top is almost always uncontested, even if they used underhanded means to mean.

The ancestors always know.

Outcasts

There are times when an actual timawa or even an oripun might make it into the school. Usually, due to their inability to wear rich finery and jewelry, they will be cast out. One way or another, their non-nobleness is found out. These students are known as patapon, or trash. The patapon usually must work harder to become Datu, but becoming a Datu is usually something decided among the freedmen within a class, so the only real chance in power that a patapon has is through the Paligsahan.

Limang-Talulot, The Five Clans

Limang Talulot, translated to Five Petals, are the five clans within the house established by the Five Grand Siyak. These were established by the siyak to encourage competition as well as help students find like-minded friends. The Five Clans are organized according to their specialty in war. Each of the five clans are modeled after a specific Balaanghayop, or Holy Beast.

Additionally, the Clan that you end up in will influence the classes you take beginning from the second year up to the fifth, as these are more or less considered as specializations in war.

During the first year, there are things called Clan Jams, wherein the five clans try their best to entice new students to join them. This usually ends up with a couple of deaths, much to the teacher’s chagrin. The Aso are prone to showcasing duels to the death. The Uwak is prone to summoning untold powers from realms unknown. The Salindayaw lets themselves be possessed by diwata in a blasphemous paganitu. The Banoy hosts drunken revelries where everyone is treated as royalty. The Musang is prone to kidnapping students and bringing them to their booths, where they are given nice gifts actually.

Aso ni Dakim

The clan that follows the martial tenets of Siyak Dakim, with an emblem that is the head of a hunting dog. The Aso, with their motto of “Rip and tear until the sky is broken!” are often called “Fucking dogs” derogatorily, especially by those of the Kuwago ni Pitukil. Those that end up in the Aso ni Dakim are usually those that prize martial ability above all else, and seek to overpower all the other clans by sheer skill in violence and fighting.

Siyak Dakim is the Eskrimador sa Daghang Armas, “The Eskrimador of Myriad Weapons”, so called due to his skill in turning anything he touches into weapons.

Those in the Aso ni Dakim are mandated to always carry an implement to kill.

Uwak ni Itomsiga

The clan that follows the occult and sorcerous tenets of Siyak Itomsiga, with an emblem that is a crow picking on its own feathers. The Uwak, with their motto of “Know what should not be known.” are often derogatorily referred to as “magna”. Which is a shortened version of “magnanakaw”, which means thief or stealer. Most Uwak are not actual thieves, but they are known to always get what they want, even it be from other people. hose that end up in Uwak ni Itomsuga are those enraptured by the thought of impossibility, and have an unholy thirst for knowledge, even if it be forbidden.

Siyak Itomsiga is known as the Mambabarang sa Lawom nga Sulad, “Sorcerer of Deep Hell”, so called due to her skill in knowing seemingly forbidden spells and using it upon those that invoke her ire.

Those in the Uwak ni Itomsiga are mandated to always carry a trinket with a bamboo bark. Upon it is a mentala, which they can utter to instantly cast a protective spell. Once used, it burns up, and they must create another before the next morning.

Salindayaw ni Hilomng Kabai Balaang Alaag

The clan that follows the spiritual and pious tenets of Siyak Hilomng Kaba Balaang Alaag, usually just referred to Alaag. Their emblem is that of a deer with horns that rotate to form undulating mandalas. The Salindayaw, with their motto of “Until all are one under the same sky,” are often derogatorily referred to as “Boang sungay”, which means crazy horns. Believed due to the initial impression of them being peaceful flower-smellers who think harmony can be achieved simply with words. Of course, they themselves know this is not true. Those that end up in the Salindayaw are usually those that hold nature to a high esteem, or see fighting simply as a mean to peace, instead of being something to strive for itself. They value harmony, and almost always side with the decision that would cause the least amount of disharmony with nature.

Siyak Hilomng Kabai Balaang Alaag is known as the Mapasipalahong Manluluwas, “Blasphemous Savior” due to their ability to heal even those that seem to have been killed or have died, and once doomed an entire island to Di Hiyang due to the act of resurrecting an entire haop of more than a thousand households.

Those in the Salindayaw ni Alaag always bring with them a wreath of mulawin flowers, santan, gumamela, waling-waling, and sampaguita, to remind them of their responsibility and duty to nature.

Banoy ni Sri Bayisaalak

The clan that follows the royalty of Sri Bayisaalak, otherwise known as The Bayi or the Wine Maiden. Their emblem is that of a crowned Philippine eagle. The Banoy, with their motto “To ascend past heaven!” are often derogatorily referred to as “Datu-Datuhan”, which means “playing Datu”. At first glance, those of the Banoy are prone to power tripping and issuing orders. Those that end up in the Banoy are usuall those that take upon themselves the hard responsibility of leading or guiding, and are taught a great number of philosophies.

Siyak Sri Bayisaalak is known as the Hubog nga Emperadora, “Drunk Empress”. It is not a secret that Sri Bayisaalak is actually a diwata, one of Ang Daghan. Specifically, she is one of the many minor Langitnon. She is the Langitnon of Royalty, who cloaked upon herself mortality so that she may teach royalty, leadership, and civilization for the rest of the world. Unfortunately, she also has a penchant for alcohol. She is the lesser known wife of the God of Civilization Munsad Buralakaw.

Those in the Banoy are required to bring around a porcelain jarlet filled with wine and taselled with a banoy’s feather.

Musang ni Aninong Kislap

The clan that follows the subterfuge and informational tenets of Siyak Aninong Kislap. Their emblem is a shadowed musang. The Musang, with their motto, “The sun casts shadows,” they are derogatorily termed “Ay giatay--” due to their predecessor’s penchant to appear and disappear unexpectedly. Those that end up in the Musang are usually those that do the hard jobs of subterfuge, surveillance, and infiltration, which is a well sought after skill in Kitatak’s valuing of raids and ambushes when it comes to war.

Siyak Aninong Kislap is well known as, well, Aninong Kislap, “The Shadowy Spark”. None know his true name. He is often wrapped in robes and saob-saob. None see his true face, his true hands. Many say that he is also one of Ang Daghan: a Suladnon of Many Faces. None can confirm this.

Those in the Musang are given shawls that can be worn around the head as a hood, the neck as a scarf, or the waist as a sarong.

If people are interested I’d follow this up with another post that details a few more school activities, a school calendar, and a table for staff and students.

[arts-dance]

Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece, c. 1476, oil on wood, 274 x 652 cm when open (Uffizi)Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece, c. 1476, oil on wood, 274 x 652 cm when open (Uffizi) 

Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece

Created by Smarthistory. By Dr. Rebecca Howard Artworks are powerful things. Hugo van der Goes’s Portinari Altarpiece caused quite a stir when it arrived in Florence—the city that was to become its permanent home. Van der Goes, master of light and minute descriptive details, is considered one of the greatest Netherlandish painters of the second half of the fifteenth century. The Portinari Altarpiece is a large triptych that was commissioned by an Italian named Tommaso Portinari, who was living in the Netherlands.

An Italian family in the North

Just as today, people in the renaissance often traveled extensively or even moved permanently for work. Portinari, his wife Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, and their children were living in Bruges at the time of this painting’s creation. Tommaso worked as a high-ranking agent of the Medici banking industry, helping to run a branch of the bank in Bruges. The Medici were one of the most powerful families in western Europe, and their lineage had developed an extremely wealthy banking, mercantile, and political family. Agents throughout Europe managed branches of their banking empire.

The Portinari family and Florence’s Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova While Tommaso had made a name for himself in Bruges, his family remained important to the history of Florence. In 1288, Tommaso’s ancestor, Folco Portinari, founded the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, today the oldest functioning hospital in Florence. In the 1420s, the Portinari family supported further renovations to the hospital, which, by the fifteenth century had around 200 beds (up from 12). As with many hospitals today, Santa Maria Nuova had a connected church, Sant’Egidio.

The Portinari Altarpiece was commissioned for the main altar of this church, and was simultaneously a way for Tommaso to perpetuate his family’s name and importance in conjunction with the city of Florence and the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.

The Portinari Altarpiece stands as a highlight of Tommaso’s career and the public image he hoped for his family name to retain. Unfortunately, the Portinari family fell on difficult financial times not long after this painting’s creation, as Tommaso lost the Medici family a great deal of money through loans to Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, which were never paid back in full. Hugo van der Goes and north-south exchange

Portinari’s choice of a Netherlandish artist to complete this great altarpiece to be sent back to Florence helped to effectively change aspects of Italian art. The latter half of the fifteenth century was characterized by increased artistic exchange between northern European and Italian artists. Italian artists were enthralled by Northern artists’ careful attention to individual details and still-life minutiae incorporated in architectural settings and landscapes. Hugo van der Goes was considered a master of such careful, minute details and his talent was often compared to that of Jan van Eyck, considered one of the greatest painters of the early fifteenth century. Look closely, for example, at van der Goes’s rendering of the foreground angels’ garments. It appears as though we can physically touch the gold brocade of the fabric. And the clear vessel in the foreground also flawlessly seems to capture, reflect, and refract light.

Such tiny details are found throughout the Portinari Altarpiece, and nearly all of them hold some iconographic meaning. When this painting finally arrived in Florence in 1483 for its installation in the church of Sant’Egidio, it had a direct, visible effect on artistic production in Italy. A particularly famous painting that clearly recalls the Portinari Altarpiece is Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Shepherds, painted in 1485—only two years after the Portinari Altarpiece arrived in Florence. In Ghirlandaio’s painting, one can see that the shepherds adoring the Christ child are rendered with such individualized detail that they feel like portraits, as in the Portinari Altarpiece. The group also takes the exact same formation as the three shepherds pictured in van der Goes’s work.

Layered iconography

Iconography, commonly used in the field of art history, is the study of the symbolic meaning of things found in works of art. In northern renaissance art, artists frequently used certain figures, objects, and even depictions of biblical or historical events to symbolize something more to period viewers than what was seen on the surface. The iconography throughout the Portinari Altarpiece is extensive and quite complex.

Triptych altarpieces like the Portinari Altarpiece would have been kept closed, except on holidays and special feast days. Therefore, the exterior of the folding side wings of such artworks were typically painted. The Portinari Altarpiece’s exterior is decorated with a depiction of the Annunciation, the biblical event when the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary to tell her that she had been chosen to carry the son of God. This moment is understood in the Christian faith as the beginning of mankind’s salvation. Here, we see it essentially frozen in time, as the artist has chosen to paint these figures in grisaille. These faux sculptural figures are located in shallow architectural niches and reveal van der Goes’s incredible artistic talent in their believable naturalism.

Upon seeing the Portinari Altarpiece opened, one can imagine that any period viewer would have been stunned by the elaborate details and bright colors contained on the three panels within. In the center panel, we are privy to the quiet, magical moment just after Christ’s birth, the Nativity. Angels surround the kneeling Virgin Mary and newborn Christ child, and the three shepherds have rushed in from the countryside to bear witness to the miracle. This scene would have been instantly recognizable to any period viewer, and most would have noticed the iconographic details—certain objects and scenes that held multiple meanings.

Far in the distance, behind the heads of the shepherds, we see those very same shepherds attending to their flock on the hillside. These tiny figures make gestures of surprise as an angel appears above them. This is the moment of the Annunciation of the Shepherds, when they were told that Christ had been born. In the repetition of these shepherds in the background and again in the foreground, the artist has used what is called continuous narrative, wherein figures are repeated within the same frame of an artwork to show more than one moment of a story.

In the center are the most important figures in the scene, the Virgin Mary and the infant Christ. It may seem strange that Christ is laying naked on the bare, hard ground, and that rays of light appear to emit directly from his body. However, this imagery is drawn from the writings of a medieval visionary named St. Bridget of Sweden. By the fifteenth century St. Bridget’s vision of the Nativity had become the inspiration for many depictions of this moment. Mary kneels beside Christ on the ground, a position meant to emphasize her humility, and bends over in somber adoration of her child. And her solemn nature, in this case, is meant to foretell what is to come—that she will have to sacrifice her son for the salvation of humanity.Perhaps the most striking detail in the central panel is the group of objects in the foreground. Imagine this altarpiece in its original location, just above the altar of Sant’Egidio. The two vases would appear almost as though they were sitting on the altar itself. Notice, too, that the sheaf of wheat behind them is quite similar in color to and situated directly parallel with Christ’s body. At Mass, a priest would consecrate the Eucharist—the bread and wine—thereby turning it into the body and blood of Christ (according to Catholic tradition), which would be consumed in remembrance of his sacrifice. The hem of the red and gold brocaded vestment worn by the angel foregrounded on the right is embroidered with the repeated word “sanctus,” or holy, referencing the moment of the consecration of the Eucharist. The positioning of Christ’s body parallel to the sheaf of wheat, which in turn would be parallel to the physical bread on the altar, functioned as a stark reminder of what really took place at communion. The image masterfully creates a visual equation between the bread, the wheat, and Christ’s body.

The vases and flowers just in front of the wheat are carefully studied depictions of recognizable flowers that each held symbolic meaning for period viewers. The Spanish albarello vase on the left is a type of vessel that traditionally held herbs and ointments used by apothecaries, an artistic choice which was almost certainly meant to comment on the altarpiece’s location in a hospital’s church. The albarello vase holds two white and one purple iris, along with a scarlet lily. These flowers represent the purity (white), royalty (purple), and Passion, or tortures, (red) of Christ. This vessel is also decorated with an ivy leaf motif that resembles a grape vine, alluding to wine, and therefore, to the blood of Christ, consumed with His body during Mass. The presence of this vase also reminds us that Valencia (in Spain), Italy, and northern Europe were engaged in extensive trade during this time, and expanding their trade across the globe. Spanish lusterware, like this vase, was a popular luxury trade item in the fifteenth century, admired for its reflective surface. The luster technique derives from Islamic pottery, and it is important to keep in mind that the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) had a large Muslim population.

The clear vessel to the right holds three red carnations and seven blue columbines. The seven columbines are symbolic of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, while the three red carnations make reference to the three bloodied nails at Christ’s Crucifixion. As you can see, many of these flowers were meant to remind viewers of what was to come for Christ.The story grows, and so does the Portinari family

Having discussed the details of the central panel, let’s take a look at the two side panels. In the backgrounds of each of the side panels, we find scenes that occurred before, after, and during the primary scene of the Nativity in the center. And just as the story is expanded in the side panels, we see that Tommaso and Maria have expanded their lineage, as well. Van der Goes, a master of detailed portraiture, depicted Tommaso Portinari in the left panel, kneeling in prayer as he faces the miraculous scene in the center. Because he paid for this elaborate gift, his family’s inclusion in the altarpiece essentially guarantees that they will forever be included in the daily prayers carried out in the church. Tommaso is accompanied by their two sons (as of the creation of this painting c. 1476), Antonio and Pigello, who kneel behind him. Note that, even if Tommaso were standing, he would still be noticeably smaller than the two figures who stand behind him. This is known as hierarchy of scale, where a visible difference in size between figures indicates that larger figures are of higher status. In this case, the larger figures are saints. St. Thomas, the name saint of Tommaso, works as his intercessor, effectively “introducing” him to the scene in the center and helping to convey his prayers to heaven. Behind St. Thomas is St. Anthony, the name saint of Antonio, as well as a “plague saint” who was frequently invoked by the sick, suffering, and dying. His presence makes yet another connection to the altarpiece’s original hospital location.

In the right panel, Maria Maddalena Baroncelli kneels in a position that mirrors her husband’s, accompanied by their daughter Margarita. These two figures are joined by their name saints, Mary Magdalene and St. Margaret. Interestingly, however, it is St. Margaret who stands behind Maria, not her name saint Mary Magdalene. St. Margaret is the patron saint of childbirth, and is evoked by pregnant women and those in labor in hopes of a successful process and outcome. St. Margaret is typically depicted as emerging from the mouth of or standing atop a dragon, as seen here (her legend explains that she survived being consumed by Satan, disguised as a dragon, whose stomach then rejected her and she emerged unharmed). As such, it is speculated that this may have been a deliberate choice, as Maria’s primary role as a wife in the fifteenth century was to bear children and continue the Portinari lineage, so she felt a stronger connection to St. Margaret at this point in her life.

Just as in the central panel, the side panels also include small scenes in the background. In fact, the left panel continues the theme of childbirth already indicated by the Nativity in the center and the presence of St. Margaret in the right panel. Far in the distance behind St. Anthony’s head, we see Joseph attending to a pregnant Virgin Mary who has decided to walk rather than ride her donkey. This is a precursor to the miraculous birth that will soon occur, the Nativity. In the right panel, the landscape is populated by scenes of the three kings, the Magi, on their journey from far parts of the world to visit the newborn Christ.

What the northern painters did best

Hugo van der Goes’s Portinari Altarpiece encompasses the numerous aspects of northern renaissance painting that enthralled those in other parts of the world. This particular artwork perfectly embodies all the things that northern European painters were thought to do best—the rendering of complex landscapes that stretch far into the distance, skies that seem to capture light at different times of the day or under different circumstances, faces that appear highly individualized, even when they are not intended to be recognizable portraits, and carefully rendered, incredibly minute details throughout. Considering this triumph of artistic virtuosity, along with the work’s fascinating layers of symbolism, the direct and immediate impact of the Portinari Altarpiece on the art world of late-fifteenth-century Florence comes as no surprise. It is after this moment that we see, in particular, increased individualism in Italian faces and, perhaps even more importantly, a swift rise in the use of oil paint in Italian city-states.

Read about this painting on the Uffizi website

https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/adoration-of-the-shepherds-with-angels-and-saint-thomas-saint-anthony-saint-margaret-mary-magdalen-and-the-portinari-family-recto-annunciation-verso 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/xa6688040:hugo-van-der-goes/a/hugo-van-der-goes-portinari-altarpiece

[astrologia-zodiacus]

Cognitive Abilities of the Horoscopes

     Hardly everyone appears to have a personal intellectual capacity of their own. The Signs undoubtedly have such a tremendous influence on its bearers at a certain point. All of these are reasons enough for the Astrological Signs to include certain typical behavioral attributes, particularly intellectual capabilities that have already been interacted beyond its believers.

     Astrology is a science that deals with the study of man's celestial influence. People often ask, “How can we be influenced by planets and stars?” There is no answer to the question, but one thing is for sure: realistic results and projections were given by astrology.   

     Now, let us grasp the concepts that are based on these reliable sources from “Astrotalk Online Astrology” and “Astrology Bay” of the following horoscopes: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. 

Specific behavioral characteristics within each zodiac. (Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Gemini) 

     People who were born from March 21 to April 19, are given the star sign which is Constellation Aries. They are portrayed by a ram that is confident and has a dominant character which is identified as committed and strong. Aries loves being number one that dives headfirst into even the most tricky times. 

     People who were  born between the 20th of April up to  the 20th of May are known as the Taureans, portrayed by the bull. They enjoy relaxing in a serene, woodsy environment surrounded by gentle sounds, calming aromas, and succulent tastes. The Taureans are trustworthy people who are devoted to their daily routine, and determined to bring a duty to their well-being.

     Gemini or Twins are considered to be those born on May 21st-June 20th, are known to flourish in the debate, and may also be excellent individuals with infinite sources of knowledge. Have you ever been so busy that you hoped to be able to duplicate yourself just to get everything done?  That is the experience of a Gemini in a nutshell, having been involved in so many pursuits that they had to double themselves.

     Cancer, individuals who were born on the 21st of June up to the 22nd of July, are called “healers” because their touch is like the magic of other sun signs. Crab's sense of intent is mostly about fostering and cultivating emotional intelligence, language, and knowledge. Along with their adaptive and intuitive minds, they will risk their happiness for others.

     On the other hand, related zodiac signs such as Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio also have their fascinating attitudes to display.

Popular but also unique behavioral traits of every zodiac. (Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Libra)

     Those who were born on the 23rd of July to the 22nd of August are known as Leos, portrayed by the Lion, who are the royals among the zodiac signs. Leo's sense of mission is to crack boundaries, achieve victory, and rise to fame. They are artists who fly to guide and inspire others at the heart of life.

     Virgos who were born between 23rd August up to the 22nd September are observed to obey their own decisions and also to aspire for the excellence of anything and everything in life. If no one else can do the same, Virgos are always prepared to overcome challenges and take initiative. They are independent, adventurous. and also enlighten individuals around them.

     Represented as the only non-living item on the list, born on the 23rd of September – the 22nd of October, Librans are dynamic thinkers and outstanding caregivers. Librans are known to be perfectionists and are level-headed. This represents Libra's emphasis on equilibrium and harmony. Libras are fascinated with symmetry and aim in all aspects of existence to achieve equilibrium.

     Scorpio, born between October 23rd to November 21st, is one of the most confounding zodiac signs. The Scorpion's purpose is to discover the shadows of nature, reveal hidden realities, and acquire power. Known as the passionate creatures, intuitive with a strong personality and often manipulative. They use their lessons and knowledge gained to correct their future selves.

     Moving on to some zodiac signs such as Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces with very intriguing mentalities and behaviors.

 Several familiar, common but also peculiar attributes between each zodiac. (Capricorn, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Pisces)

     The Sagittarius, the archers, were born from the 22nd of November to the 21st of December. The Sagittarians, open to new thoughts, find satisfaction in everything they put their sights on. They are all about questioning the universal concepts of life, and this symbol will go to the absolute ends of the earth and discover for itself all that life has to offer.

     Capricorns are the last earth sign holders, born on the 22nd of December – the 19th of January.They have a clear mind that hard obstacles cannot bring them down. These can be accomplished through the growth, management, and maintenance of organizations and communities that work hard through strong cardinal leadership skills for a common cause.

     January 20 - February 18 Aquarians, represented by the water bearer, known as free-spirited and eccentric.  Aquarians are strategic thinkers and have exceptional leadership abilities. They are easily attracted to any relationship wherein thinking, economic equality, and awareness structures can both be deconstructed and restructured.    

     Pisces belongs to the water and signifies the fish. Born on the dates between February 19th-March 20th, they are the ones who will never get tired of giving you all the love and support that you need. Pisces has a great creative skill and innovative inspiration that is intuitive and imaginative. Pisces adapts and communicates their healing talents to their peers in a mutable way, channeling their transcendental emotions into their artistic projects.

     Zodiac signs allow us to understand the features related to each person. Astrology seeks to help us direct these efforts on the positive aspects, gain a deeper understanding, and cope with negative aspects of our potential and our positive traits.

     Zodiac signs encourage us to identify the characteristics of each person. Each sign has several specific qualities found in each entity of that particular sign. Every person has their own personality, but they all have some common traits that are unique to their horoscope.

     Astrology is expansive, dynamic, and transforming. Despite the nuances, the most fundamental definition in astrology is based on the 12 familiar signs of the zodiac. Over time, each emblem has developed its associations, including myths, animals, and its characteristics. Each icon boasts an independent approach to life, with dynamic abilities and troublesome weaknesses.  

     Many people still believe in awkward and sometimes absurd thing such as superstitions, sorcery, astrology, and so on. This work refers in particular to astrology; although many people assume that horoscopes are "completely true" to their zodiac signs, research reveals that it is merely a matter of perception.

[feynites]

Vivienne is such a complicated character.

Like, here you have this woman who has heard for her entire life that she is dangerous. That’s one consistent thing which almost all mages, whether they’re born to a noble family in Tevinter or peasants in the Anderfels or traders in Rivain, are told. Even Dalish and Avvar mages get this message to some extent. You’re a mage - you’re dangerous.

And especially for Circle mages, being dangerous is expected to eclipse everything else about you. The Circle requires a phenomenal balancing act from people. If you’re not good enough at magic, there’s a chance you won’t even be deemed capable of taking your Harrowing, and you’ll just be made Tranquil. This was what prompted Jowan to start using blood magic, in fact - if you go through Irving’s notes in the Circle Tower, you will discover that, in order to meet certain quotas for how many Tranquil the tower has and to maintain the status quo (wherein mages never forget who is holding their leash), the head enchanters single out mages who aren’t talented enough to profit the Circle and chantry as Harrowed mages, and they are basically set up. Instructors warn that they’re not meeting their skill requirements, temptation is offered in the form of books or tomes that provide illegal knowledge, and if the mage takes the bait, all they have to do is slip up. Then the templars move in, no one can really argue the point because blood magic is considered both illegal and immoral, and no one has to worry that Owain is getting too old to carry down the higher boxes in the store rooms anymore.

This is the kind of atmosphere in a good Circle, too. If you can’t prove that your magic would be a profitable commodity for the chantry, then you start to look like dead weight - or the potential materials for a docile labourer, who will just work and work until told to stop, and never offer up protest or a potential lack of compliance.

But, if you’re too powerful or talented, you become worrying for other reasons. A skilled mage can make a lot of coin, healing and entertaining nobles who can afford to pay for the expense, or serving in a military capacity. Powerful mages are also more likely to gain the kind of worldliness and mobility that would enable them to act upon any revolutionary impulses they might have, though, and can threaten the templar’s authority by challenging their ability to pose a physical threat. Again, if we go back to DA:O, Jowan was perfectly set up to be branded a blood mage and made Tranquil for his transgressions. But he was singled out, most likely, for being the least adept among his peers - that didn’t necessarily mean he was actually that bad at magic. And he proved to be adept enough at blood magic itself that the plan blew up in Irving and Greagoir’s faces when he successfully disrupted the templars enough to make a run for it.

The downside for the chantry in making sure templars are indoctrinated to fear mages’ power is that, on the instances when they’re actually called to fight, they do seem to hesitate an awful lot. Kinloch Hold saw the supposed anti-mage elite barricading themselves into the front entryway while the main force opposing Uldred was actually made up of mages; DA2 saw Hawke cleaning up the majority of magical incidents, while Meredith’s goons mostly just bullied the already-legal-and-complacent mages within the Gallows, or else occasionally ventured off to things like torture Dalish kids on Sundermount.

So, the tightrope which mages have to walk. If you’re too weak, you’ll be targeted for Tranquility. If you’re too strong and not compliant enough, you might actually scare the Templars, and face the same treatment. And if you’re just middle-of-the-road, you can probably get by with only the standard danger in your life - but you’ll also probably never venture far from the Circle’s walls, unless some disaster or another calls for all mages on deck, like the Blight.

That’s a pretty grim prospect, overall. Tranquility hanging like a blade on both sides of the accepted skill range, and lifelong imprisonment nestled securely in the middle.

But now we have Vivienne, and unlike... pretty much all of the Circle mages we’ve met before her, Viv has figured out how to navigate the very narrow space left open to her, and actually succeed. She’s skilled enough at magic that no one doubts her prowess, and anyone who tries to tempt her - demon or scheming enchanter or templar alike - is going to be faced with nothing but a firm denial. I think that was probably so essential to her initial survival among Orlais’ cutthroat Circle politics that it more than explains how unnerved she is by the likes of Cole. Tolerance of things that are even remotely questionable by chantry standards is evidence of ‘corruption’, and that could be used to condemn her, or halt her progress. For Vivienne to succeed in the environment she was brought up in, she had to be skilled, and there had to be no question that her skills came from purely acceptable schools of magic. Anything else could be ammunition for rivals, or an excuse for the templars.

Of course, such things could still be manufactured, if anyone had a sufficient reason to frame her. So Vivienne not only had to be squeaky clean, she also had to make herself a vastly preferable mage for the positions she aspired to than any other candidate. How does she do this? By cultivating the reputation required in order to alleviate any and all suspicion that she would be reckless, that she would challenge templar or chantry authority, or that she might use any freedoms granted to her to that end. The kinds of mages who leave Val Royeaux’s Circle to go and entertain the nobility, are almost certainly the kinds of mages who say things like ‘templars are a necessary precaution’. 

They’re also the kinds of mages who can be charming, and entertaining, and make nobles feel good about themselves. They’re likely full of assurances. ‘Of course Circle life isn’t perfect, but it’s hardly a prison. There are opportunities for those who have the right temperament, the right mindset, to go further in life than they otherwise would have. Why, just look at me - my family wasn’t rich. If not for the Circle and my magic, I would hardly be standing in the greatest city in all of Thedas, speaking to some of the most powerful people in the world’. Vivienne went from Circle politics to Orlesian politics, and those are both environments where the truth is something that people will use to destroy you, trust is a fool’s gambit, and you are constantly surrounded by people who want you dead.

But, what really gets me about Vivienne, is that she’s compassionate. And it’s funny because I don’t think she wants to restore the status quo to the Circles because she doesn’t believe she could hang onto her power and influence without it - although I do think she considers the prospect very daunting. I think she’s a compassionate pessimist. She sees the worst possible outcomes in any situation as the most likely. No guaranteed, but certainly most likely. She doesn’t want a war, in that case, because if you look at the Circle’s revolution from a pessimistic angle, the most probable outcomes are either ‘a bunch of people die, and then everything goes back to Square One anyway’ or ‘a bunch of people die, and then Southern Thedas becomes like Tevinter’. The rebellion early on already causes a lot of death, and destruction, and leads to things like the mass kill of Tranquil mages for nefarious purposes. Vivienne genuinely hates this.

Now, mages and Tranquil were already suffering under the existing system - that’s kind of the whole point of the rebellion. But it’s understandable that Vivienne herself has moved far enough away from Circle life, and is accustomed enough to those kinds of horrors, that I don’t think she’s considering the factor of ‘people were already suffering and dying, they were just doing it more quietly and where fewer people could see’. And that makes sense, to me, because people are often expected to just overlook certain kinds of suffering as inevitable. Since she was taken to the Circle, Vivienne has learned that magic is a threat, and I think that’s also why she uses so many ‘villainess’ trappings, despite not being in any way villainous. She has had to balance the perception of her - and all mages - as inherently dangerous, inherently threatening, with the need to seem skillfully dangerous (because if magic is dangerous and being talented in it is still the only way to get ahead, what else can she be?), and also totally reasonable, and not at all inclined to step out of line.

Like. Holy shit. No wonder she and Solas are the best companions at understanding how stressful being Inquisitor probably is.

But back to the matter of her compassion, I think explains a lot about how Vivienne wants to go about things. Because she does want to shift the balance of power between mages and templars, but she wants to do it in a way that’s virtually unnoticeable to the general public. She wants to keep the templars, and the Circle, and the same titles and systems for the most part. But she wants to utterly nerf the templars’ behind-the-scenes authority, and hand it over to the enchanters instead. She’s aware that the majority of people in the south have no clue what goes on in the Circles, and she wants to turn that to her advantage, to assuage hysteria and panic by providing them the  balm of ‘no look see everything you know is entirely back to normal, here are the mages in their towers, here are the templars in their shiny armour, you just go back to planting turnips or whatever you were doing in your village’, and then just totally upend things in a way that even most nobles probably wouldn’t have to pay attention to.

Of course, to do that, she also needs to keep appearances just right. There can’t be other factions of mages sprouting up, because that will destroy the impression of chantry authority over them. And ultimately, I don’t think her plan would really work, because the system is too entrenched in favouring the templars and has too many inherent flaws - I don’t think you can keep the presentation of it, and change the back room dealings, and actually solve Thedas’ issue with mages. But you could make the every day lives of mages already in the Circle much better, and as with Orsino, I think Vivienne has prioritized that. She doesn’t want to see Bill-the-Mage-Who-Lights-Chantry-Candles or Bess-the-Tranquil-Shop-Assistant die in a bloody conflict, and her approach is actually better than a full-out revolution for preventing that.

So that’s really interesting to me, because I think one of the prevailing ideas about her is that her ambition is throwing other mages under the bus - that she wants to preserve the status quo because this is the system she’s mastered. But, while that might be part of it, I don’t think it’s the whole picture for her. She wants people to be safe. She wants to turn the templars into a pretence. She can’t escape the lesson she’s spent her whole life both learning and proving, which is that magic is a thing worth fearing. She’s very aware of just how precarious her own position is, all this while, not only in terms of this one event but also with regards to the future. A failed rebellion could spell her doom, signing on with the Inquisition is a gamble, she’s spent her whole life having to be charming, beautiful, approachable, formidable, to restrain her anger, but to rebuke anyone who tries to treat her as a doormat in ways that deter repeat offences without also inviting retribution onto herself. She’s masterful at dancing on the head of a pin, but it’s also brutally unfair that she has to. And one can only wonder what kinds of things she’d be doing in Thedas if she didn’t have to devote 50% of her energy to not being killed at any given moment, or rather, if she hadn’t had to spend her whole life doing that.

[itsakyo]

Taeyeon has been called an idol born to be a star sometimes. Do you think she was born to be a star? Why?

If you think about it, the phrase “XXX was born to be a star” has multiple layers of meaning. XXX would have to be a person who embodies all the necessary qualities a top star would require. Some of these qualities are unable to be nurtured/trained, meaning you have to be born with it, while some qualities can be trained or acquired through hard work/practice.

1. Appearance. We all know about plastic surgery and its powers. Even minor things like wearing braces to adjust your teeth, doing laser to clear blemishes/freckles on your face, or injections to tighten your skin and maintain a youthful appearance etc all play a part. But no matter how much you do to your face, the “basic structure” is there at birth. Meaning, your starting canvas (face) is fixed by birth. Like how some people naturally look pissed off until they smile but are actually super friendly and kind at heart, or how some people look friendly when they’re actually not.

Some people just naturally have more appealing looks to more people. I am not talking about individual preferences cos I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I am referring to looks that appeal to the MASSES, whereby MANY/TONS of people agree that this person looks appealing/attractive. Now this is one element of the X-factor. And you have to be born with it, more or less, cos everyone looks different from each other and there is a limit to how much PS/aesthetic procedures can change your appearance.

So from the get go, lots of people like the way Taeyeon looks. Whether it’s something in her eyes (soulful? charming?) or whether it’s the way all her features come together to form her face, the impression many people get is positive and they feel attracted to her.

2. Talent. Singing technique is trained. Vocal range can be expanded with training as well. Singing expression can be nurtured too.

But most critically, the one thing that can’t be trained/nurtured is the timbre/tone/shape/colour of the voice. You have to be born with it. The only way you can change your voice is by changing your hormones, which is why your voice changes as you go through puberty and various stages of life wherein hormonal changes occur. Otherwise, your voice is your voice. You can’t PS it to make it sound more appealing to people. Some people naturally have a DJ-quality voice. Some people’s voices are naturally sharp and more jarring on the ears to listen to. You get my point.

On top of that, style and expression in singing is also a highly personal musical taste/choice, unique to each singer. Some are able to move you to tears, while some are unable to convey much emotions.

Taeyeon’s voice can work magic on many/tons people. Enough people to make her a very popular singer. Again, I’m not saying 100% of everyone will like her voice but I’m saying a big enough mass of people are attracted by her voice such that they will listen to her songs and buy her music.

3. Personality. I’m sure many of you will agree with me, that personality, while it is shaped by family, friends, life experiences, the environment you live/grow up in etc, is something you can’t change easily. Unless you’re putting on a show/pretense 24/7 (which is extremely difficult to keep up without slipping up one day) your personality is something that is truly yours and yours alone.

Personality also isn’t something you can fix or change overnight. Neither is there a fixed set of personality that will guarantee you instant popularity and stardom. Not every friendly, kind and warm person will successfully earn a huge fandom and massive popularity. And not every popular idol is outgoing and hyper.

Some personality types might make it easier for a person to succeed as an idol/artiste but as we can see, all the successful idols out there have different personalities so there is no way of knowing beforehand if an idol/artiste will be able to be massively popular simply by analyzing their personality alone.

4. Fate. Given a person has the personality to appeal to lots of people, possesses great looks that attract heaps of people and has awesome talent in their chosen field of entertainment (voice/dance/acting etc). There are “perfect” artistes like that who are simply not popular enough and for some reason, are unable to gain a big enough fandom/popularity to be considered a top star, maybe B or C-list at best.

This is when you will find some people saying “this XXX is so underrated. great looks great talent great everything but why isn’t XXX as popular as ZZZ? And YYY isn’t even half as talented as XXX but YYY is way more popular than XXX”

The explanation for this would be put down to one of the most important factors - FATE. Sometimes, things are just meant to be.

SNSD without GEE would not have been the SNSD now. SNSD could just as easily have been just an ordinary girl group with a decent fandom that is nowhere as huge as the SNSD that we know today.

Think about Gangnam Style. PSY had been doing that style of music for such a long time and it definitely isn’t the first time he did a wacky dance but Gangnam Style went viral and PSY was propelled to massive popularity without him doing anything different with the intent to go globally viral. He was just doing what he does.

There are tons more examples of this and what it demonstrates is how little control idols have when it comes to MASSIVE popularity. Not to discount the effort they put in. The company tries hard. The idols all work hard and try hard and do everything they can to succeed and climb to the top. It is a given for them to be well-prepared for any opportunity that comes along. That will most probably lead them to somewhere in the middle of the pack - the average or above average.

But for something special enough to happen and help you to emerge from the pack and stay on top, you do need some lady luck smiling on you.

I remember Taeyeon saying in her PERSONA concert (not her exact words but the gist of it): “Thank you. There are so many (other great?) singers out there, but you chose me, so thank you.” She captured the essence of it in that line.

So is Taeyeon born to be a star? I think Taeyeon has qualified for all of the above. And therefore, in those aspects, is indeed born to be a star.

[networkingdefinition]

Labrador Retrievers Quotes

Official Website: Labrador Retrievers Quotes

• A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.- Ralph Waldo Emerson • A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal applicability in men, but each has his special Talent, and the mastery of Successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when that turn shall be oftenest to be practiced. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Art is like an ill-trained Labrador retriever that drags you out into traffic. – Annie Dillard • Australian cattle dogs, are not like Labradors, where they just like to just sit around by the fire and get petted. They’re working dogs, so they have a lot of energy, and they can drive you crazy. – Owen Wilson

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Labrador', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_labrador').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_labrador img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Books of natural history make the most cheerful winter reading. I read in Audubon with a thrill of delight, when the snow covers the ground, of the magnolia, and the Florida keys, and their warm sea breezes; of the fence-rail, and the cotton-tree, and the migrations of the rice-bird; of the breaking up of winter in Labrador, and the melting of the snow on the forks of the Missouri; and owe an accession of health to these reminiscences of luxuriant nature. – Henry David Thoreau • Children, as well as grown-ups, in their individual, glorified, drudgery-proof homes of Labrador, the tropics, the Orient, or where you will, to which they can pass with pleasure and expedition by means of ever-improving transportation, will be able to tune in their television and radio to the moving picture lecture of, let us say, President Lowell of Harvard; the professor of Mathematics of Oxford; of the doctor of Indian antiquities of Delhi, etc. – R. Buckminster Fuller • Clinton’s pet Labrador, Buddy, is getting neutered. The dog will never have sex again. Overnight, they’ve turned Buddy from a Democrat into a Republican. – Jay Leno • Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • I can’t imagine living in a house without a couple of dogs. If I ever got out of bed at night and didn’t have to step over a Labrador or two or three, or move one off the covers so I could turn over, my nights would be more restless and the demons that wait in the dark for me would be less easily fended. – Gene Hill • I love dogs. I grew up with dogs in my family from the time that I was a little boy; we always had German Shepherds and Labradors. I get on very well with dogs, they trust me. – Paul Walker • If unconditional love, loyalty, and obedience are the tickets to an eternal life, then my black Labrador, Venus, will surely be there long before me, along with all the dear animals in nature who care for their young at great cost to themselves and have suffered so much at the hands of humans. – Richard Rohr • It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador a greater wildness than in some recess of Concord. – Henry David Thoreau • Most of my escapades were getting my Labrador dog into the back of my car to drive to Brooklyn where I worked at Avenue M Studios shooting a soap opera and battling being a 17 to 18-year-old playing twins being afraid that I was going to get fired, because who wouldn’t fire me? I had no idea what I was doing. – Anne Heche • Mousse was a Labrador retriever, which is a large enthusiastic bulletproof species of dog made entirely from synthetic materials. This is the kind of dog that, if it takes an interest in your personal regions (which of course it does) you cannot fend it off with a blowtorch. – Dave Barry • Quarkbeasts, for all their fearsome looks, are obedient to a fault. They are nine-tenths velociraptor and kitchen blender and one-tenth Labrador. It was the Labrador tenth that I valued most. – Jasper Fforde • Saying that you don’t believe in magic but do believe in god is a bit like saying you don’t have sex with dogs, except labradors. – Jimmy Carr • That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the United States generally, any more than to Patagonia. – Henry David Thoreau • That’s the thing about being a Labrador retriever – you were born for fun. Seldom was your loopy, freewheeling mind cluttered by contemplation, and never at all by somber worry; every day was a romp. What else could there possibly be to life? Eating was a thrill. Pissing was a treat. Shitting was a joy. And licking your own balls? Bliss. And everywhere you went were gullible humans who patted and hugged and fussed over you. – Carl Hiaasen • The hardest thing about being a guy is that women don’t accept that you really are just a simple, pathetic, labrador retriever-like creature. That we live in a world were women actually expect you to think thoughtful thoughts, and have real emotions, which we don’t have. Having to try to live up to the imaginary ideal that women have of what men are, instead of just being what you are, which is just a pathetic creature, but still. – Dave Barry • There are people all over the world who like to write fan letters in the voice of their pet: ‘Hello, my name is Fifi and I’m a labrador and I think you’re great. Paw paw!’ – Rebecca Hall • There is the morass, wherein you plunge up to your knees, or the walking over the stubborn, dwarfish shrubbery, whereby one treads down the forests of Labrador; and the unexpected bunting or sylvia which perchance, and indeed as if by chance alone, you now and then see flying before you, or hear singing from the ground creeping plant. – John James Audubon • Well the dog that is the most is the a Labrador retrievers because they tolerate kids tugging on them and things better than other dogs. They are a real good natured. They’re also real calm and sometimes when working with autistic children that’s probably more popular dog breed – now there are different ways to use service animals. – Temple Grandin • When the contemplative mind is a French mind, it is content, for the most part, to contemplate France. When the contemplative mind is an English mind, it is liable to be seized at any moment by an importunate desire to contemplate Morocco or Labrador. – Agnes Repplier • Yes, I hate it when people call me a ‘national treasure’. It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador. – Sue Townsend

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'y', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_y').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_y img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'y', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_y').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_y img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[equitiesstocks]

Labrador Retrievers Quotes

Official Website: Labrador Retrievers Quotes

• A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.- Ralph Waldo Emerson • A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no lustre as you turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors. There is no adaptation or universal applicability in men, but each has his special Talent, and the mastery of Successful men consists in adroitly keeping themselves where and when that turn shall be oftenest to be practiced. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • Art is like an ill-trained Labrador retriever that drags you out into traffic. – Annie Dillard • Australian cattle dogs, are not like Labradors, where they just like to just sit around by the fire and get petted. They’re working dogs, so they have a lot of energy, and they can drive you crazy. – Owen Wilson

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Labrador', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_labrador').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_labrador img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Books of natural history make the most cheerful winter reading. I read in Audubon with a thrill of delight, when the snow covers the ground, of the magnolia, and the Florida keys, and their warm sea breezes; of the fence-rail, and the cotton-tree, and the migrations of the rice-bird; of the breaking up of winter in Labrador, and the melting of the snow on the forks of the Missouri; and owe an accession of health to these reminiscences of luxuriant nature. – Henry David Thoreau • Children, as well as grown-ups, in their individual, glorified, drudgery-proof homes of Labrador, the tropics, the Orient, or where you will, to which they can pass with pleasure and expedition by means of ever-improving transportation, will be able to tune in their television and radio to the moving picture lecture of, let us say, President Lowell of Harvard; the professor of Mathematics of Oxford; of the doctor of Indian antiquities of Delhi, etc. – R. Buckminster Fuller • Clinton’s pet Labrador, Buddy, is getting neutered. The dog will never have sex again. Overnight, they’ve turned Buddy from a Democrat into a Republican. – Jay Leno • Coal is a portable climate. It carries the heat of the tropics to Labrador and the polar circle; and it is the means of transporting itself whithersoever it is wanted. Watt and Stephenson whispered in the ear of mankind their secret, that a half-ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal, by rail and by boat, to make Canada as warm as Calcutta, and with its comfort brings its industrial power. – Ralph Waldo Emerson • I can’t imagine living in a house without a couple of dogs. If I ever got out of bed at night and didn’t have to step over a Labrador or two or three, or move one off the covers so I could turn over, my nights would be more restless and the demons that wait in the dark for me would be less easily fended. – Gene Hill • I love dogs. I grew up with dogs in my family from the time that I was a little boy; we always had German Shepherds and Labradors. I get on very well with dogs, they trust me. – Paul Walker • If unconditional love, loyalty, and obedience are the tickets to an eternal life, then my black Labrador, Venus, will surely be there long before me, along with all the dear animals in nature who care for their young at great cost to themselves and have suffered so much at the hands of humans. – Richard Rohr • It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such. It is the bog in our brains and bowels, the primitive vigor of Nature in us, that inspires that dream. I shall never find in the wilds of Labrador a greater wildness than in some recess of Concord. – Henry David Thoreau • Most of my escapades were getting my Labrador dog into the back of my car to drive to Brooklyn where I worked at Avenue M Studios shooting a soap opera and battling being a 17 to 18-year-old playing twins being afraid that I was going to get fired, because who wouldn’t fire me? I had no idea what I was doing. – Anne Heche • Mousse was a Labrador retriever, which is a large enthusiastic bulletproof species of dog made entirely from synthetic materials. This is the kind of dog that, if it takes an interest in your personal regions (which of course it does) you cannot fend it off with a blowtorch. – Dave Barry • Quarkbeasts, for all their fearsome looks, are obedient to a fault. They are nine-tenths velociraptor and kitchen blender and one-tenth Labrador. It was the Labrador tenth that I valued most. – Jasper Fforde • Saying that you don’t believe in magic but do believe in god is a bit like saying you don’t have sex with dogs, except labradors. – Jimmy Carr • That Cabot merely landed on the uninhabitable shore of Labrador gave the English no just title to New England, or to the United States generally, any more than to Patagonia. – Henry David Thoreau • That’s the thing about being a Labrador retriever – you were born for fun. Seldom was your loopy, freewheeling mind cluttered by contemplation, and never at all by somber worry; every day was a romp. What else could there possibly be to life? Eating was a thrill. Pissing was a treat. Shitting was a joy. And licking your own balls? Bliss. And everywhere you went were gullible humans who patted and hugged and fussed over you. – Carl Hiaasen • The hardest thing about being a guy is that women don’t accept that you really are just a simple, pathetic, labrador retriever-like creature. That we live in a world were women actually expect you to think thoughtful thoughts, and have real emotions, which we don’t have. Having to try to live up to the imaginary ideal that women have of what men are, instead of just being what you are, which is just a pathetic creature, but still. – Dave Barry • There are people all over the world who like to write fan letters in the voice of their pet: ‘Hello, my name is Fifi and I’m a labrador and I think you’re great. Paw paw!’ – Rebecca Hall • There is the morass, wherein you plunge up to your knees, or the walking over the stubborn, dwarfish shrubbery, whereby one treads down the forests of Labrador; and the unexpected bunting or sylvia which perchance, and indeed as if by chance alone, you now and then see flying before you, or hear singing from the ground creeping plant. – John James Audubon • Well the dog that is the most is the a Labrador retrievers because they tolerate kids tugging on them and things better than other dogs. They are a real good natured. They’re also real calm and sometimes when working with autistic children that’s probably more popular dog breed – now there are different ways to use service animals. – Temple Grandin • When the contemplative mind is a French mind, it is content, for the most part, to contemplate France. When the contemplative mind is an English mind, it is liable to be seized at any moment by an importunate desire to contemplate Morocco or Labrador. – Agnes Repplier • Yes, I hate it when people call me a ‘national treasure’. It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador. – Sue Townsend

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'y', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_y').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_y img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'y', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_y').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_y img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

[creative-ive]

Top Albums of 2017

2017, the weird year of political distress, independence as an option, an entirely evolving digital music world where artists were born for the new age. 

Creative-ive chose to give our creatives an opportunity for their voice to be heard. They were brave enough to put down their thoughts on the album most impactful on their lives/culture this year. (They are in no particular order)

Enjoy the reviews. Please share it with those you love.

______________________________________________

We begin with the Saturation Trilogy

Saturation 1 - BROCKHAMPTON

The fascinating thing about a creative collective is the ability to see every individual’s contribution to the whole. Being a part of a creative group and still maintaining the voice that makes you, you isn’t just a feat but something to be admired. So for the 12 member Brockhampton boy band to seemingly come out of nowhere and drop this 17 track album uniquely constructed with fuck you heavy bangers and beautifully vulnerable songs as a debut album is nothing short impressive. Like reallyyyyyy impressive.

“I’ll break your neck so you can watch your back” is one of the furious rhymes Brockhampton lay down on the opening track that shows the pure aggression of the young collective. Lyrically, this album delivers haymaker type bars on all of its tracks.The album is reminiscent of the exciting power that the Wu-Tang brought on 36 Chambers (yea, I just said that. Brockhampton has the talent and balls to be THAT influential). However, as aggressive as several of these tracks are, this album brings to the table a flavor that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough. This album brings gives you sincere emotional honesty. On the standout track, Milk you get a moving personal account to what it means growing up and finding yourself. Not in the cliche travel to Rome, fall in love and find yourself way, but in the personal testimonies, the group tells all. The themes on this song are nothing short of amazing for anyone let alone a debut album; understanding letting go, coping with heartbreak, realizing you’re not okay, fearing losing the people you love, and ultimately moving forward with all those feelings in your heart and continuing on your path.

If you want an album you can relate to in a brutally sincere and genuinely furious capacity, do yourself a favor and spin this.

Written by Oscar Aquino

Saturation 2 - BROCKHAMPTON

Brockhampton, the boyband that flipped the game upside down and continuously impresses with consistency. The first one made people pay attention and while they did, quickly released a second album to cement their talents. This album propelled them into the masses and the ears of Tyler who booked them for his Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. In the Brockhampton documentary, Kevin mentions capitalizing on the hype and to continue riding the Saturation wave with messages that compel their audience. To saturate with real messages in a world of processed music. This is what has caused this young generation to stan this group much like we did for Odd Future years ago.

Gummy, a five-letter word, begins the album where the rest are too, aside from the final track. Kevin Abstract starts off with the anger of not being appreciated enough despite his influence. He takes the perspective of a hater mentioning the fact he can’t rap and stays playing a role of high school loser yet he’s already in 20’s. Kevin’s self-awareness, as well as the rest of group, is incredibly impressive. Ameer Vann, the man on the album’s cover, starts off by saying he’s the king that deserves a crown made of thorns like Jesus. Dom McLennon says, “I could get shot in my back and they’d tell the world that I fought ‘em,” to which he’s referencing Michael Brown and the state of police in our country. He shows no fear in bringing such a touchy subject into his verse and make positive use of his platform.

The Rap God said, “let there be light”, and on that day, he united a boyband to save Hip-Hop.

Queer, Matt Champion expresses his insecurities about having no muscles which would often represent femininity in males. He talks about having to walk to work and mindlessly work for 8 hours. Now that he’s reaping some success as an artist he can’t stop, there’s no chance he’s going to vacation. Matt shares that he has depression and it is not erased by fame. Yet he will continue to grind at it. Merlyn Wood starts off by saying “fuck Dolce & Gabbana, racist mothersuckers tyna be my pana (partner),” this is such a rebellious take where most rappers would flaunt a brand, they’re taking shots at their non-sensitive advertising. “The Waco is far away, I don’t even mind, as long as you stay right here, right next to my side,” Kevin sings on the hook. They all seem to take perspectives of their rising fame and going away from their hometown of Waco in Texas. I feel the word queer is used in the context of weird, for their position in the rap game and being “radical” enough to think they can make it in music. If they remain a resilient support group for each other, they will continue to elevate themselves.

To me, the craziest part is the fact most of them met through KanyeToThe forum where they all decided to move to LA and start a boy band. On Jello, Kevin raps “met all my friends through Kanye West and I ain’t met him yet.” Ameer always raps about the duality of being a gangster/drug dealer to now garnering success through making records. He says, “turned rap into the new pop,” which is the best lyric of this song solely because of their desire to break the conventional stigmas on words such as boyband and what pop music is.

Teeth is an interlude which only features Ameer showcasing his personal dealings with racism and hardheadedness towards his mother. She only wanted him to excel by putting him in white schools where all he “learned” there was that he was different (by his skin color). He professes that Brockhampton will soon have stars on Sunset Boulevard. Reminiscent of Kanye West’s Homecoming line, Ameer leaves off with a shining piece of wisdom, “if you shooting for the stars, you only headed one way.”

Swamp entails their ability to “[fuck] commas up from the outside,” the outside is their place in rap where they’re still not being taken seriously. Merlyn, “never would’ve met my friends if not for satellites … luckily professor failed me at the proper time.” He has often expressed the leap of faith that he took moving to California with the rest of the group. The internet made them what they are, there’s magic in the connectedness of the web.

Tokyo themes around insecurity, regret, and past mistakes. Joba expresses his inner conflict of what-ifs in his life. They discuss the notion of what has you “shook” on a Saturday or any day.

Jesus is where Kevin’s talking about a toxic relationship. “Remember when I was trippin’ off some wack shit, when I thought the automatic had an answer?” Kevin says to himself. Often when we’re stuck in maniac depressive state we think that a gun or suicide will have the solution to our inner problems. But in hindsight, Kevin’s chuckling at how wack that problem was and his happiness of not taking his life.

Chick, Matt is honest with his purpose to make “loot” for himself while inspiring “some of you, to do what you do despite all the fuck you’s.” Those that are around you that don’t support you are often projecting their own insecurities. The message is to continue through all the hate because they won’t ever realize the vision until you’re “shitting on the toilet with Grammy’s in your lap.” Ameer raps about “[people] talk a lot of shit, in a safe place, aiming with they keyboard, they shootin’ up a case (uppercase).” He tweeted his anger about internet trolls and how it affects him due to insecurities.

Junky, Kevin wastes no moments in delving into the landscape of being a gay rapper. Kevin uses his platform to speak for those that can’t. “And for me to be onstage in front of that many kids and for them to be like, damn, I identify with this person – now they have a new hero that looks like them,” Kevin said in his interview for the Guardian. Matt uses his verse to discuss the notions of patriarchy and males power over women in feeling they owe us something (sexual favors). This is a beautiful idea that is often not present in a machismo culture that rap is. He calls for men to respect these women as individuals with choices in their actions. Women are humans too, not objects to stick our junk into.

Fight, Ameer states, “my male role models drug dealers and thugs,” wherein the black (minority) community rings true too loudly. He explains how he deserves to be hanged from trees like the rest of history by his teachers. Black people are “born with a target” which is stuck on their skin unable to be removed. Ameer understands that he will have to live with this for the rest of his life.

Sweet, my favorite track on the album starts off with Matt talking to his subconscious representative of his care-free/alter ego self. He expresses his successes or issues to which it replies to him. He asks himself questions that as a rising star should have it figured out based on the perception of fame. A big ego, girls flocking like seagulls, paying off your mom’s house so she can live comfortably for the rest of her life. The standout verse of the whole album hands down is Joba’s. His journey of leaving for LA with $300 dollars to his name, living off of Ramen, to now eating $500 dollar dinners not even having to pay. He reflects on his teacher’s hard instilled thoughts of having to go to college to be successful in life. His flashback to his Walkman days of listening to NSYNC that a desire to be Justin Timberlake inspired his dream. Ironically, what was the biggest boyband of possibly all time now has a new flame reaching for their spot: Brockhampton.

Gamba, off the hook, seems to be in the perspective a baby callin’ for their parents, trying to reach them only to trip and fall. The parent then asks them “what you gonna do when you older? What you gonna do when you grow?” This seems to be the running theme throughout the entire Saturation Trilogy, that they’re reaching for their dreams.

Sunny, the standout lyric is how now Ameer’s making clean money and working 7 days a week non-stop, “My daddy called me, said he seen my last video, looking at a young me, coulda had a heatstroke.” His father seemed to always nag him about being a respectable man and now he’s finally doing it. His father is proud of his success, reflecting on his younger self, he would have fainted.

Summer, the most beautiful song on the album with the vocals of bearface. With the production so elegant and its guitar sweet-sounding to that of Kanye West’s Gorgeous off My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Tells a story of summer love in the heat of it all, that person you meet that is so different from the rest.

Saturation 2, my personal favorite of the entire trilogy stands out to me as their official stamp in the rap industry to prove they were no creative fluke. Kevin Abstract has formed his “own dynasty” much like Def Jam, a total force in creativity. Not only as a boyband but as a record label, a media company/ad agency. There’s so much to be learned from this group and that there are no excuses for your potential success. It’s all a matter of how much you want it. “There’s also Apple, it started in a small room and it becomes this huge corporation. Basically, how I wanna be.” Kevin says in an interview with Fader. They’re not following a specific blueprint, they’re winging it and believing whole-heartedly in their visions. That ideal of friends lifting other friends up towards stardom. It inspires me, it makes me want to dream more, go after what I want. There are no excuses in the internet age of not taking hold of your dreams. You are who you surround yourself with. The people around you become the boiling pot of how you’re brewed for the world’s consumption. Surround yourself with dreamers, shoot your shot, in all directions because you don’t want to limit yourself to only one way.

Written by Erik De La Cruz

Saturation 3 - BROCKHAMPTON

If you don’t know who BROCKHAMPTON is by now, don’t worry, they’ll keep flooding the internet with content until you do. With their final installment in the Saturation Trilogy, the unorthodox collective has somehow managed to do the unthinkable; progressively improve each studio project within a year span.

Saturation III is by far the most enticing and diverse narrative from the LA based group. From the heavenly R&B falsetto on BLEACH, to the chaotic opening dance number in BOOGIE, this album offers a little bit of something for both casual listeners and All-American Trash stans alike.

With their latest work BROCKHAMPTON offers a more mature and vulnerable take on their music. Partnered with incredible production from members Romil, Q3 (Jabari & Kiko), and Bearface, the album serves to tackle taboo themes such as isolation, sexuality, and mental health. The track Sister/Nation stands out with first half production reminiscent of an early Odd Future. Here member JOBA, channels his inner Marshall Mathers with vocal stacks acting as multiple personalities. At the 3:51 mark the title production abruptly transitions into a synth and layer heavy canvass where members Ameer and Dom recite verses addressing societal normalities in adolescence and racial division.  

In my personal opinion, BROCKHAMPTON member JOBA, completely stands out with his contributions to Saturation III. His versatile abilities include but are not limited to singing, songwriting, rapping, production, and engineering. Whether it be background vocals on STUPID, unorthodox cadences on ZIPPER, or production on TEAM, JOBA’s signature is somehow stamped on every Saturation III track.  

I will admit when I heard that BROCKHAMPTON planned on releasing three studio projects in 2017, I was extremely skeptical. However, it is the end of December and I am currently sitting here writing a review for the biggest musical surprise of 2017. It’s become apparent that with creative direction led by Kevin Abstract, non-replicable chemistry, and unconventional practices, BROCKHAMPTON has all eyes on them for 2018.

Standout Tracks: SISTER/NATION, BLEACH, JOHNNY

Standout Lyric:

“It seems I’m destined to fall apart when I’m depressed, it’s all a test, scream at God from my bedside, I glue my hands together, life’s got me hog-tied.”

 Written by Tommie Brown 

Laila’s Wisdom - Rapsody

“A better one.”

The opening lines of Laila’s Wisdom, Rapsody’s Grammy-nominated second studio album, echo the popular phrase of Miami’s larger-than-life DJ Khaled. However, when it comes to making classic albums, her goal isn’t just “another one.” On this album, named after her maternal grandmother, Rapsody sets her sights on making it “a better one” than her last, and she succeeds with gusto.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Rapsody has been killing it for years. Anyone who’s heard her rhyme knows that she can hang with the best. Just take a listen to her standout verse on Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion (A Zulu Love).” One listen to that verse and anyone can see that she’s a star. She deserves all the recognition for her lyrical ability, complexity, wordplay, and depth. One play-through of a Rapsody verse is not enough; her lyrics are those that you must go back and listen to repeatedly to fully grasp the triple-entendres and flips that she laces in her stories.

Now that we’ve established her past, let’s talk about the present, especially as it relates to the gift of an album we were blessed with this year. Before even listening to the album, a look at the production credits for this project should let you know that this is something special. 9th Wonder’s contributions to this project cannot be overstated. It’s common knowledge that this man is an absolute legend and beast when it comes to his samples and chops, but this work is something special. 9th and Rapsody have a musical bond that dates back to her signing with his indie label It’s A Wonderful World Music Group back in 2008 and it’s clear as day on this album. He’s credited as a producer on 9 of the album’s 14 tracks (7 of those being solo); this goes a long way in making a project that’s both lyrically AND sonically cohesive.

It’s hard to pick out some of my favorite songs on this project, seeing as how they’re all fantastic, so I’ll just go straight through. The title track of the album is a powerful opening over a sample of Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted, and Black.” Rapsody sets the tone early on, that we’re about to be blessed with the lessons of her grandmother she carefully laced throughout the album. “Power” is easily a standout track, outside of Kendrick and Lance Skiiiwalker’s assists to Rapsody’s musings of power, both external and internal. “Chrome (Like Ooh)” has one of the BEST beat switches I’ve heard all year, outside of DUCKWORTH (produced by 9th, unsurprisingly.) Producers Khrysis and Ka$h Don’t Make Beats both knocked that one out of the park, and continue the flow beautifully into “Pay Up.”  On this song, Rapsody creates a tale of two gold-diggers, both female and male, the latter a flip on the common view of women as opportunists in the music industry.

Ridin’ is a come-down from the upbeat pace of the previous track. It’s smooth and silky, something that you can spark one up to and ride around your hood with your friends, contemplating your places in life. This song comes with another gorgeous beat switch, featuring a Busta Rhymes sample (more on him in a bit) that switches the scene to a house party that gets rolled up on by the cops. Rapsody promises to turn down the volume, only to turn it right back up as soon as the doors close in direct and unapologetic defiance. This is a party for Rapsody and her friends to unwind from daily strife, and she’ll be damned if a cop kills the vibe.

Now I’ll admit, though I didn’t feel the vibe on “Sassy” that much, it’s still an amazing track, and I wholly understand that it’s not for me. By that, I mean that this is a track of empowerment, especially for women; this is evident in the references to Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” Rapsody uses her words to continue the message of the original: that she is going to thrive at being exactly who she wants to be, regardless of whether or not others find it offensive (and if you do, the 1950’s is where you can take ALL of your seats). The album continues into “Nobody,” with features in the forms of Moonchild and Anderson .Paak’s gorgeous vocals and Black Thoughts always stellar words of wisdom.

In the interest of brevity, I’m going to skip ahead a couple tracks, but not without mentioning Busta Rhymes’ feature on “You Should Now.” It’s gorgeous and makes you just want to love your significant other with all of your heart. The contrast of his trademark gruff with the sensitivity and passion that he feels for this woman is perfection and is capped off by the final lines and chuckle that he delivers.

“A Rollercoaster Jam Called Love” is a special song; Rapsody starts off talking to a lover about her need for space, but not too much of it. She wants to strike the perfect balance of love with this person, where they can both be themselves while still enjoying their time and bond together. She knows that it’s not an easy task, but also knows that the work it takes is necessary to maintain the healthy relationship. 9th’s transitions on this track mirror the ups and downs of a relationship; not every day is the best, and it’s necessary to be okay with letting things slow down at times to really build a life-long partnership. The track closes out with the couple splitting, and the breakup is solidified on “U Used 2 Love Me.”

“Knock on My Door” finds Rapsody telling the story of her pining for a neighbor of hers, wishing that he would come and knock on the door of her life and let her take care of the rest. It’s the feeling that we’ve all felt before; your mind’s imagination runs through all the possibilities of how you and your crush will finally get together. The final verse plays out as an imaginary conversation with this new boo, revealing Rapsody’s imagination of what the vibe would be like between the two.

.Paak returns for “OooWee,” injecting his signature vocals to bring an extra helping of soul into this track where Rapsody talks that talk in full glory. She knows she’s got the juice and isn’t willing to let the people know that she’s a boss.

And now, the final track, “Jesus Coming.” This song is something special. 9th’s simple loop with minimal percussion gives the song space to let the emotion of Amber Navran’s vocals seep through before Rapsody begins her tale of loss. The first verse seems to be from the perspective of someone dying of an overdose after being peer-pressured to partake in drugs/alcohol/etc. The background “Time to Go Home” sample replays throughout, which Rapsody incorporates into her lyrics. The second verse is from the perspectives of a mother and a daughter who are shot and killed in a park by stray gunfire stemming from a nearby argument. The mother notices the men escalated tensions and tries to leave but it’s too late, and Rapsody provides their final words as they lay dying. In the final verse, Rapsody closes out the song from the perspective of two dead soldiers on opposite sides of the same war, drawing the parallels in the two and how they were more alike than they could have imagined. She injects raw emotion into each of the verses, changing up the delivery perfectly to make each of the stories hit home, regardless of your background.

This album was criminally under-appreciated by the masses this year, and I believe this is largely because of the sheer quantity of music that was released in 2017. Though it’s easy for great bodies of work to get lost in the sauce, this album does not deserve that fate. This is an album that deserves to be recognized as the best album of the year.

Laila’s Wisdom will be a classic that will be talked about for years to come, and I’m excited to see Rapsody continue to grow and build a career that will see her go down as one of the all-time greats of hip-hop.

Written by Lewis Holloway

Digital Druglord - Blackbear

My favorite album of the year comes from the artist by the name of blackbear. One where the central themes of women and drugs are prevalent but he’s still able to convince the listener into feeling for him. Making you feel what he feels, whether it be lust, betrayal, or feeling numb. Digital Druglord does just that. Whether you put yourself in his shoes or you tie in his lyrics to your own life, emotions will be felt. So, in essence, the act of feeling and feeling nothing, are the main drive in the creation of this album. The inner struggle with drugs, being taken advantage of, and not being able to love is broad but connects to plenty of hearts. Feelings of bitterness and a sense of hopelessness are stained in each track and will leave you alone to wonder if you could be able to cope with such a lifestyle and self-reflect.  Sonically, it comes together elegantly with Blackbear’s vocals layered on top of each other with melodic and catchy beats. It’s an album that’s worth to be listened to with an open mind, there is at least something you can take away personally from this project.

if i could i would feel nothing, stands out as the outlying track that sums up the album and puts a whole new meaning to being numb. It’s a song you play when nothing seems to be going your way or when life feels like in a cycle you cannot change. Blackbear is his most vulnerable on this track, from lyrics from, “Mixed prescriptions, bad decisions, world is cold and life’s not fair,” to “I’ve been prayin’ they won’t find me, laying somewhere in a ditch,” blackbear is having trouble accustoming to his newfound stardom.

Written by Kevin De La Cruz

Flower Boy - Tyler, The Creator

Out of all the albums that came out this year, I would have to say that amongst the group Flower Boy by Tyler the Creator stuck out to me the most. As someone who has listened to Tyler from his early on cockroach eating days in his video for Yonkers, Tyler has come a long way with Flower Boy. This album as a whole is as bright as it’s album art and in my opinion a true artistically defining moment for Tyler. Tyler expressed that after his performance at his festival Camp Flog Gnaw he was glad to no longer had to perform Yonkers which was the song that got him on the map. He believed he had enough great songs on his album to retire that song from his performances, he was glad that he could finally be himself and not the crazy Tyler everyone expects him to be. In Flower Boy, there are 14 tracks each their own work of art. What stuck out to me about this album is that each song is catchy in their own way, each song has a hook that almost everyone can sing along to examples being “Run it, run it, run it, run it I rock, I roll, I bloom, I glow (I glow)” from Where This Flower Blooms or “who dat boy, who him is” from Who Dat Boy and “ boredom, boredom, boredom, boredom” from his song Boredom with Rex Orange County and Anna Of The North, to name a few. However, the song that sticks out to me the most was Where This Flower Blooms which featured Frank Ocean. The song is essentially a story talking about his early beginnings about living at his grandmother’s house and having to sleep on the floor due to having no bed. There were nights where he had nothing to eat but had supportive friends that would let him stay at their place and cook for him, which he saw as his second family. He talks about how the Rent-a-Center, a furniture store known for allowing payment plans would call and show up to his home for repossession of the items due to lack of payments. However, now he can afford luxuries such as expensive cars which is something he brings up numerous times in the album.

“Now I skrrt, skrrt, skrrt, skrrt, in toys I only dreamed that I could afford, now I roll through Okaga”

In that he means that he can now drive his expensive cars he dreamt about through Okaga which has been speculated to be a place where Tyler can be free to do whatever he wants due to the success he has worked so hard for throughout the years. In the hook, he says “I rock, I roll, I bloom, I grow (I glow)” which to me means his progression as an artist, Tyler has truly bloomed from this album which may be the reason he named the album Flower Boy. He is not only seen as a rapper but a true creative. Tyler has come far from his early days of sleeping on the floor to being a rapper, record producer, music video director, and now designer of his own brand. Flower Boy truly captured his growth and I believe is a true representation of who Tyler Okonma truly is.

Written by Stephanie Salas

Cozy Tapes Vol.2: Too Cozy - A$AP MOB

Grab your surfboards, A$AP MOB making waves again!

The second installation of A$AP’s Cozy Tapes was released as part of “The AWEGEST” campaign which saw the release of Asap Ferg’s Still Striving, Twlevyy’s album 12 and the unveiling of a website, awgeshit.com, a home base created by The Mobs influences in music fashion and culture. Back to the album haha

Cozy’s intro is a roast session among teens, in a bus on the way to Yamborghini High, letting you know A$AP is about to take you to school. The engineering is top of the line. Contributions from A-listers Hit-Boy, RZA, and Hector Delgado (an A$AP staple) deliver intoxicating posse cuts: Perry Aye and What Happens mixed in with tracks that make you want to spazz out like the Bahamas, Please Shut Up, and of course Feel So Good. Along with producers comes a bevy of featured artists (Jaden Smith, Gucci Mane, Frank Ocean etc…) who know the standard, and drop verses that exude confidence and challenge each other to prove who has the sauce, no one is just collecting a check here. The definite standouts on the album are Playboi Carti age 20 at the time of release age and Smooky MarGielaa age 15. 15!! Each deserve a rookie of the year award for hanging with veterans and not skipping a beat. Those honorable mentions shed light on the fact that the A$AP brand shows all the signs of growth for the future, consistency, and no slowing down. From its inception in Harlem to its blog on Tumblr led by A$AP Yams {R.I.P} to its rise in power from rap crew to Monolith, A$AP Mob has cemented itself as a pillar in Hip-Hop. Evident as the leaders in music fashion and whatever else they put their hands on, A$AP is going to continue to push boundaries influence and inspire the future generations as they are doing now. Wrapping up the album, the message for “shit is real out here love each other lift each other up … do whatever you want but you can’t change this fucked up world if you’re dead.” Always Strive And Prosper. Insert wave emojis xxx

Written by David Magadan

Verse 2 - JJ Project 

JJ Project did a comeback after 5 years on July 2017 with the most beautiful and meaningful album I’ve ever heard this year.

“Tomorrow, Today” the song title talks about how people between 20-25 go

through a phase where they are lost and don’t know what to do with their life. I believe many people can relate to this song because nowadays a lot of young adults are facing this in their lives where they’re lost and want to give up, where they expect people to take them and guide them when the reality is that you have to look for yourself and have to find your own path. All the songs have meaningful lyrics talking about life, relationships, and friendship.

You can definitely feel the meaning of the songs and not only the lyrics, the music is amazing with vibes of R&B and Soul that can make you feel at peace and happy.

The mission of JJ Project was to make a beautiful and meaningful album to help us find our way and they achieved it because thanks to this album I feel like I’m not the only one facing a lot of things. Even if it’s in Korean you should take a time to listen (and look up for the translations of the songs of course) I assure you this album will help you find your way.

Written by Carolina Maddox

Tell Me You Love Me - Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato, the prized Disney starlet, comes back in 2017 with a vengeance to be respected by the world, she’s gracefully singing to the world to tell her they love her, and she’s not sorry for it. Through her YouTube Red documentary, you see her story of this albums process and it’s both wonderful and alarming.

Tell Me You Love Me, the title track tells a story of insecurities, needing to have a significant other in her life, and the need to fill that void within her. She’s vulnerable in her flaws and the strong urge to keep this relationship intact. From the infatuation driven honeymoon relationship of Sexy Dirty Love, she seems to be exploring her sexuality casually with others till finally finding one that drives her crazy in the best ways. 

You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore, tells a story of her breaking up with her past-self filled with addictions and an eating disorder. Often, we feel bad for ourselves and expect pity from external sources, she finally picks herself up and decides enough is enough. To leave a lover is one thing, but to rip apart a past version of yourself is the most difficult breakup anyone can ever have. To want to grow and unlearn all these past agreements instilled in ones mind it brutal and excruciating mentally. 

Daddy Issues, she explores the duality of effects a father leaving a daughter emotionally drained at an early age could do in her future relationships. She expresses the fact she’s in love with broken men with commitment issues - a tough reality to admit. “You’re the man of my dreams, cause you know how to leave,” just like her father, she longs to find that in her soulmate. No matter how shitty he treats her, “lucky for [him]” she’s got daddy issues and will stay doing whatever he wants to keep him from leaving forever – like her father.

She insists jumping the boundary of having a platonic relationship to “Ruin the Friendship.” She talks about the sexy, fun, and a bit scandalous idea of wanting to hook up with a close friend or best friend. In what is a continuation of the last song, she expresses her strong desire to fill voids in Only Forever, giving that person a lifetime of chances. She’s firm in her request only to say that she’ll wait no matter how long it takes for them to be together.

Lonely and Crybaby showcase her effects of being left heartbroken to a lover she gave her all to. Demi seems to contradict herself throughout the album which is the foundation of humans. Lonely is Demi longing for her past lover yet continuously chasing love in hollow one-night stands. Crybaby shows her stubbornness to claim she isn’t one but admits that this lover really hit her heart where she had no choice but to weep. Those that hold themselves to be invincible emotionally when they do fall, they crash hard.

Games, in a digital age with Tinder and Bumble, relationships have become sort of a game to score. Technology has enhanced our ability to have options while simultaneously flooding our tear ducts with more hurt. Left on read, no double texting, late night “wyd” texts - all a result of lack of communication.

Occasionally through this harsh world, you meet a fantastic lover that can leave you scavenging for water and the inability to "Concentrate” after sex. She is so awestruck by the performance she’s willing to do anything and be a sex slave. I appreciate Demi’s ability to be so confident in her sexual urges without feeling shamed.

Demi from heartbreak to taking romantic risks in going on adventures with someone she trusts. Hitchhiker, tells a story of just going along for the ride and not overthinking all the labels people tend to put on relationships. She’s young, sexy, and confident. She has every right to be vulnerable while taking the risk at this new love that’s driving her wild.

I wanted to shed light on this beautiful album. She truly wowed me with her vulnerabilities, contradictions that make her human despite her celebrity, and flaws in self that make her, her. Although it was Grammy snubbed, it deserves to be recognized as a coming of age masterpiece. She uses her platform to tell girls it’s okay to be recklessly confident in yourself, it’s okay to rely on a lover and needing them, it’s okay to show weakness in this maddening hookup culture. She’s fearless in her desire to want to be heard for who she is. There’s duality in love, the good and bad will always be there and no human can be perfect. Neither is Demi, so give it a listen, and go tell her you love her.

Written by Erik De La Cruz

Harry Styles - Harry Styles (Self-titled)

If there is one thing to be true about the year 2017, it is that it has been one hell of a year for music. Harry Styles is definitely in my top 10 albums of the year and I was hesitant to listen to him at first since I was never a huge fan of One Direction. Let me tell you, I was completely wrong. Get ready to transport back to the 60′s with this funky rock and roll inspired album. There is a song for every mood and every song is a fresh new take on some of your favorite classic bands. On the contrary, Harry isn’t afraid to be vulnerable with this album, and you hear this in acoustic songs like Two Ghosts, Sweet Creature. His voice on melodic ballads of piano and guitar makes my heart melt and I am definitely all up in my feels when it comes to these songs. I love that the acoustics are balanced with fun and quirky rock songs like Kiwi and Carolina. You can catch me blasting these playful numbers in my car with my best friend belting out all the words. The energy is amazing and none of these songs ever get old.

The songs that spoke out to me the most would probably have to be Sign of the Times or From the Dining Table. Sign of the times is such a successful single that I believe goes into how hard and dark life can be. We have all felt lost and hopeless but we still have to keep moving forward. Our life here on Earth is very short lived and we go through many experiences but we all end up in the same place. This is a heavy song yet beautifully written and recorded. It showed us all a side of Harry that he kept hidden. He has grown so much since he first started his career. Harry’s From the Dining Table hits such a chord with me I don’t know if it’s because of his soft voice on a beautiful guitar piece or the simple yet powerful lyrics of being stuck in the middle of a love triangle. It is just the perfect way to end the album. He uses a symphony to break the bridge, which just emphasizes how perfectly layered his songs are. All of the different sounds and instruments give you the perfect listening experience. I would say this album is best heard in your headphones while walking out on the town, but that isn’t to say that you can’t listen to it all the way through on a nice long drive.

There is a song for every mood that you’re in, and it really shows how eclectic Harry is in his own music. Harry definitely proved to be such a great and charismatic solo artist and I am dying to hear what else he comes up with next. The nostalgia this album brings is just the icing on the cake. Whether you are a 13-year-old fanatic or an adult who was growing up during the greatest rock age of all time, this album is a go to. It’s nice to see how many different styles Harry has up his sleeves. If there is any music I am looking forward to in 2018, it is Harry’s next album. Don’t wait another minute, go stream Harry Style’s debut album right after you read this article, I promise you won’t regret one thing!

Written by Whitney Paramore

SweetSexySavage - Kehlani 

Feelings.

We all have them and we all deal with them every single day. Some in healthy ways, and in other ways not so much. We constantly search for ways to cope with our feelings and it’s not always easy trying to find something that will help get you through. SweetSexySavage was that album for me and that’s why I think it was one of the top albums of 2017.

Released on January 27, Kehlani’s debut studio album SweetSexySavage is a project that dropped so early in the year that it sometimes doesn’t get the credit it deserves. But if you take the time to listen and digest each track on this album, you’ll hear and feel the care and dedication paid to each song and understand the effort that went into making each song its own unique musical journey.

Kehlani’s strength lies in her most endearing quality; her relatability. Gay, straight, tatted-up, male or female it does not matter. She WILL have a song for you.

When the project first dropped and the title of the album was revealed it reminded of something but I couldn’t figure it out right away. After considering it a little bit, Kehlani drew inspiration for the album’s title from TLC’s classic cut CrazySexyCool.

And as a fan of 90’s R&B, she did an excellent job of drawing on older inspiration while curating a project that stayed true to her new sound that she nails so effortlessly. “Too Much” from the jump gives off those classic R&B vibes that make you wanna sing and dance like you’re in a 90’s music video. Producer Jahaan Sweet absolutely bodied this beat and it allowed for Kehlani’s lyricism and confidence to shine through for one of the highlight tracks off this album.

Speaking of confidence, Miss Parrish does little to dissuade from the idea that’s she’s lacking any. Songs like “Escape”, “Distraction” and “CRZY” all highlight Kehlani’s brash nature but they’re unique because they are all done in different ways.

“Escape” could be related to the Sweet portion of this album. It almost sounds like a ballad but after listening to the lyrics you realize it’s a woman who wants to be with someone, but not at the expense of either persons’ goals or personal happiness. She doesn’t want anything long-term; she simply asks “baby, can we, Escape?”

“Distraction” keeps the emphasis on the short term in a very sexy way. The Grammy-nominated track does not shy away from keeping things “100” in this type of situation. Making it very clear that she’s not looking for anything serious. “Are you down to be, a distraction?” is an ode to all of us who have felt at one time or another that a relationship isn’t something I probably want to have with this person, but I wouldn’t mind having a little fun with this person either. I would also strongly recommend you watch the music video for this song if you haven’t already. It furthers highlights the sexuality Kehlani wanted to evoke in the song while giving off an early Destiny’s Child vibe with all the creative set pieces throughout the video. Definitely one of my favorite videos and songs for the year.

“CRZY” was the lead single that dropped for the album and it let you know right away that she wasn’t going to just rest on her laurels after coming off a Grammy-nominated mixtape You Should Be Here. The song is as savage as it gets. The song is filled with lyrics that let you know that she is a force and will be around for the long haul so you better get used to it. She lets you know from the beginning of the record that “I got it, and you goin respect it” and if you have any questions about who she is, she’ll be straight up and tell you “If I gotta be a bitch, Ima be a bad one”.

Like all of us, however, we all don’t feel confident 24/7. We have our moments of insecurity and feelings of vulnerability and she has songs like “Advice” and “In My Feelings” that connect to that.

“Advice” can hit home with almost anyone who listens to it; a relationship has gone wrong, leaving one with lingering questions as to why it didn’t work out the way we thought it would. “How is the man of my dreams, not a man of his words?” is a line that people who have felt wronged in relationships can immediately gravitate to. However, Kehlani does offer a silver lining. Even with all the hurt that this relationship has brought, she makes it known that “it’s time to take my own advice” and sometimes that’s all most of us really need. We’ve all had times where we’ve given other people relationship advice but when it comes to ourselves, the answers don’t appear so easily. Kehlani let’s you know that you’ve been hurt, but now it’s time to get up, move on and start taking your own advice.

“In My Feelings” piggybacks off of the idea of confused thoughts and temporary feelings. Kehlani keeps the relatable lyrics going with “and I don’t know why I’m even still here…why do I feel this? I’m in my feelings”. At some point, there has been that person in your life that you felt you had some sort of connection with and even with the signs saying you shouldn’t keep messing with this person, something about that person keeps you interested in them. Kehlani’s right there with you; saying you’re not the only one probably holding on to something that really isn’t there.

We could go into the production and the lyrics for hours and hours when it comes to this album. Don’t get me wrong, they’re all top notch and the quality is outstanding. But it all circles back to one main reason why we listen to music. To help us feel a certain type of way. Very few artists today can pull off that feat with such style, confidence, and passion the way Kehlani can. I know that when I’m feeling depressed, ecstatic, hurt or happy I can throw on a Kehlani song and immediately know that there is someone out there who is feeling what I’m feeling and can relate to what I’m going through. As you listen to Kehlani’s incredible voice and captivating lyrics bump through your speakers, be ready to feel all types of emotions from one the best singers we have in our generation today. It won’t take long for you tell why SweetSexySavage was one of the best albums of 2017.

Written by Leonard Pinckney

Soft Sounds From Another Planet - Japanese Breakfast

The human experience is one akin to that of a celestial being. It feels like it is out of the scope of our minds, and not meant to be understood. After all, humans are just animals burdened with this consciousness. The word burdened is used intentionally here because that is what it is. Sure, humanity is what it is because of it, but this anxiety about existence, is draining. It is obscenely frightening. It is suffocating, entrancing, engrossing, claustrophobic. To many, the mere thought of it drives them to temporary insanity. Being a human is not easy. Navigating the social constructs erected by humans of the past is exhausting. It is fucking confusing. Things like love, death, and sex make up the most polarizing facets of being a human, and they deserve to be celebrated and analyzed. It feels almost mundane to not worry about what else is beyond us. It feels like we are doing the world a disservice by not understanding our existence or purpose. The beauty of it is being able to revel in the human experience of others, and music is a perfect medium to share experiences like these through. Music is such an easy way to connect because there are no words that can explain abstract concepts such as those in any succinct way. Human vocabulary just cannot convey such specific and complicated information.

Michelle Zauner, also known as Japanese Breakfast, aims to ease your anxiety about life in her new LP, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, where she covers everything from femininity and self-love, to the duality of humans and their actions. Michelle communicates her experience and masterfully crafts an epiphany-inducing sonic journey that will take your breath away upon first listen, and demand many, many more subsequent ones. This album came at a perfect time for me. 2017 was the year of loss, change, disappointment, and heartbreak. 2017 was the year where I felt that everything I was sure about was utterly wrong. It was the year I got lost. Lost in my thoughts. Lost in the past. Lost in the future. Lost in the world. This album, however, has left seeds of hope and happiness in the voids where there were only encroaching voids of endless despair.

The first single on the LP, Machinist, details falling in love with a robot. This track is filled with sweeping synths and Michelle’s voice is obfuscated with an impressive layer of auto-tune, which is a joy to listen to. It is a sci-fi narrative that comes together to materialize an upbeat, jazzy nu-disco track that will make you want to dance until you listen to the lyrics and realize how the love portrayed in this track mirrors what love feels like between humans. To me, this song is about loving a “robot”. Not necessarily a real robot, but someone who is cold, and does not have your best interests at the forefront of their minds. To me, it is about loving someone selfish, and no matter what, they have “total control”, as the monotonous voice in the song professes. It seems almost inevitable when in love, however, one person is always going to care more, and the one that cares less ultimately has all the power in the relationship. To me, that is why this track is so powerful. We tend to forget that sometimes, and we need to realize love is about more than you. Love is not about control, love is about nurturing your partner and yourself. This track is a cautionary tale to those in love to not lose focus, and become a “robot,” because sometimes we become robots inadvertently in our daily lives.

The next single, Boyish, details a scene of jealousy, and self-consciousness. Where Zauner shows the unhealthy side of jealousy and the irrationality of it all. More importantly, however, she shows the humanity in it. She really emphasizes the fear of being unwanted by the one you love. It evokes such a commanding tone of self-deprecation and self-hatred. Michelle belts out lyrics like, “So here we are, we’re just two losers/I want you and you want something more beautiful”, where you can feel the disappointment in her voice. You can feel the hurt. If you know the feeling, your heart will sink and you’ll be brought back to the time when your own insecurities absolutely tore you apart and made you feel unloved by your significant other, over something seemingly insignificant. This track is so clever because, at the end, we realize she is feeling this way because he had looked at a waitress in the restaurant they were at and she felt like she was inferior to her. I think it just shows how sensitive, and irrational we become when it comes to love, and when it comes to being sure of ourselves. It shows the fragility of the perception of ourselves, and how easy anger and jealousy can completely take over at times. Humans tend to lose control when they feel like what is theirs is threatened, in this case, it is feeling like the other person is theirs. It seems like these kinds of attachments are unnecessary and only cause suffering, might it be a necessary evil? Maybe.

The third and final single off the album, Road Head, is an upbeat, guitar-filled romp about trying to save a dying relationship. In this track, Zauner recalls a moment where she did what seemed like a last-ditch effort to save a relationship through something wildly sexual, such as, road head. Listening to her speak about this experience is heartbreaking because she obviously was so deeply in love with this person, she would’ve done anything to save the dying relationship. Ultimately though, it was for the best, as she mentions that this person was abusive and told her that she would never make it in the music business. Again, this just holds to what was shown in the first single about being the one who cares more in a relationship, the other person has all the power and you’d do almost anything to save it. The feeling of unwanted-ness seems almost inevitable for one side. This song is important because it ends with her running away and chasing her dreams, which to me really resonates with the period of growth most people try to chase after heartbreak, which is the most important part. The growth.

To me, one of the most powerful tracks is called, 12 Steps, which is about Zauner’s own experience in ending in a relationship, where she had met the love of her life in a bar while she was dating someone else at the time. Michelle says this song is somewhat an apology to that person, but I think it really explains what goes on when love has run its course. Sometimes love ends, and sometimes we need to move on and find our own way. Changes like these are devastating but sometimes necessary. That is the message this track speaks to, and to me, it is relieving, from either side.

The rest of the album visits themes like surviving trauma and dealing with death. The track, The body is a blade, talks about moving on with your life even as your mental state deteriorates. To me, it really shows the disconnect between the physical world and your mental world. No matter what happens to you, the world is going to keep moving, and your body is going to keep moving. What needs to happen is your mind needs to catch on and you need to allow yourself to move along with the world.

This album is a guiding light. It is cathartic. It is enlightening. It is raw emotion from another human, that has been distilled into pure musical bliss. It conveys the lowest feelings that we can ever feel but leaves you with the hope to recover. To me, that is beautiful.

Written by Eduardo Escoto

Luv Is Rage 2 - Lil Uzi Vert

Lil Uzi Vert. The Stephen Curry of rap. In my opinion, Lil Uzi is talented but substance and culturally he has adapted to the typical mumble rap that is today where everyone raps about is bitches, money, jewelry, cars, drugs. Uzi in LUV IS RAGE 2 does follow this path but he shows glimpses of actual talent in his songs.

Dark Queen: Lil Uzi in this song talks about how he is an artist and rappers in all generations get swallowed by the industry and change. Mostly for the bad with substance and crime. He talks about how his mom was worried that he will spend time in jail and he promises he will wash up and show his mom that he wants to stay true to himself and his family despite having this high class and famed lifestyle. When I heard this song while just playing this album in the background of me playing basketball this sounded very different from all the other songs he had in this album. I could tell he really poured extra time and effort on this song and other songs which I’ll get to.

The Way Life Goes: This is personally my favorite song on the album and maybe even from all of Uzi’s music. This song sampled landslide by oh wonder. I think Uzi took the part that reflects more with what he was going through and which was heartbreak. He talks about his ex-girlfriend Brittney. And how their relationship seemed so promising and that there was a side of Uzi that he really wanted to change to “that perfect companion” to her because she deserved that and she was the only person he wanted to change for but to let go of the lifestyle he had aspired to chase his entire life was too hard to give up especially after just obtaining it and grasping the industry at such a young age. He hints at getaway vacations he had with Brittney like in Hawaii where they were already in serious talks of full commitment. But because of him still wanting to keep the Rockstar lifestyle she left him for a man who was fully committed to her. Which is something he couldn’t give but meant the most to her, not the money. Then Uzi really realized he’s missing something that he can’t buy with money. Which is true love that he can offer and fully commit to one. He continues to hint that he’s still heartbroken through most of the songs on the album which is called LUV IS RAGE 2 for a reason.

Pretty Mami: Pretty Mami isn’t the most relevant song to my main point of the side of Uzi that he really pours into love. But in pretty Mami, Uzi found a girl in the coast. Not clear where but he says, “Spanish girl named Rosa and she from the coast”. He states that this girl is a temporary hold for the hole that that is empty in his heart that used to belong to Britney. This girl was pretty, nice, good but he misses even how Brittney would tell him when he’s wrong so he learns from that. He prefers that than “a yes-women” who agrees and just goes along with what Uzi wants instead of telling him when he’s wrong to make him a better person. Now, the most popular song on the album and of Uzi’s career.

XO TOUR Llif3: This song not only is good but Uzi pulls in different parts of what’s going on in his life into this one song. In this song, Uzi really goes into the lonely life that he has now. He has everything he needs but he truly doesn’t have any “friends” he refers to his friends as the faces on dollar bills as his only friends that never change because of his fame. He hints at his ex-girlfriend Brittney in here in the chorus saying how she was suicidal because the way Uzi treated her during the end of their relationship while she tried to make it last but Uzi clearly had other things that were more important at the time than her. The way his relationship ended with her truly made him turn to drugs to help numb the pain that he’s feeling. And because of that, the drugs led him to other drugs that turned him suicidal and really contemplated about “blowing his brains out”. In the music video of this song, you see the satanic side of him showing that he sold his soul to the devil or he just truly vows to Lucifer which he mentions multiple times in this album. His girlfriend admitted that she wasn’t afraid to kill herself no matter what happened throughout the outcome of their relationship which stuck in the back of Uzi’s mind that he felt bad for making her go through that. And almost led him to do the same and was only “pushing him to the edge of suicidal”. Overall this album was my favorite throughout the year. The beats in this album were crazy and I saw a side of Uzi that I never knew existed and I really like that from him and I hope to see more of this side from him because I really enjoy this side of him and some of my favorite songs from him are his heartbreak songs.

Written by Anthony Pantoja

War & Leisure - Miguel

Miguel has long been one of the premiere R&B singers. If there’s any detriment to Miguel’s ability as an artist, it’s that he arrived on the scene around the same time as Frank Ocean and The Weeknd. However with neither of the latter releasing an individual album during 2017 (although you could argue Frank Ocean’s singles were arguably better than many albums this year) Miguel is given space to show off one of the best voices in music. In Miguel’s 4th solo album, War & Leisure, he finds the perfect balance between of upbeat Pop/R&B and dark brooding guitars that contrast the album.

The first four songs of Miguel’s War & Leisure are some of his best work as an artist. This quarter of the album plays out like waking up the morning after a nostalgic, buzzed night. 

On Miguel’s opening track “Criminal,” brooding, dusty guitar riffs blend seamlessly with Miguel’s voice before it gives way to one of Rick Ross’ better verses in recent memory. 

“Pineapple Skies” (my favorite track on the record) sounds like a fusion of tropical house and funk. This track also showcases the incredibly wide range of Miguel’s singing ability and, in my mind, further cements him as one of the best active singers in modern music.

“Sky Walker” is probably Miguel’s most popular track from War & Leisure and for good reason. The chemistry between Miguel and Travi$ Scott is unmistakable. Perfectly complimenting each other in a way that almost sounds like Miguel doing a Travi$ Scott impersonation in his own unique way and vice versa. The album takes a darker turn as soon as we come to track 5 “Wolf,” with a song that sounds all too familiar for Miguel. Heavy uses of distorted guitars and Miguel’s cadence on this track give off a punk 50’s crooner feel to the song. “Harem” is another highlight of the album and in my opinion, one of the smoothest songs Miguel has made to date. From the slow drum beat, spacey guitar riffs, and Miguel’s ability to switch his pitch at moment’s notice this is a near perfect track in my mind.

The only song that feels out of place from a cohesion standpoint is the song “Told You So.” After which the album maintains a darker tone to it. Caramelo Duro was also an incredibly unique track in which Miguel finally sings a verse in Spanish on his album. The first time he’s ever done so (to my knowledge) and he executes perfectly.

All in all, this is a fantastic album that has made me realize how much I’ve missed Miguel in the R&B space. He brings an unmistakable and authentic feel to his music while maintaining the sound that has made him one of music’s best.

Written by Alex Perry  

Sonder Son - Brent Faiyaz

2017 was Brent Faiyaz’s year. From singing the hook of the century in Goldlink’s Crew to dropping his debut album ‘Sonder Son’, Brent Faiyaz has garnered the attention from the world that he deserves. This year was an exceptional year for R&B and it is easy to get lost in all of the commotions that albums like Freudian’ and ‘Ctrl’ have created, but ‘Sonder Son’ is not one of those albums to get lost in the mix. Faiyaz’s debut album gives us something authentic, genuine, and pure. While his voice is already all of those qualities in and of itself, ‘Sonder Son’ puts our ears under a stethoscope to explore the different pulses of his life thus far. The 22-year-old beautifully introduces himself to the world through the songs in his debut album. The word sonder means; “the realization that every passerby is living a life as vivid and as complex as our own – causing each of our experiences to flow into each other.” Faiyaz grants us entrance into his own vivid and complex life through this album in hopes that it will somehow connect to our own experiences. The rich picture that he paints about his life through his words highlights our humanity and the struggles we face as people. The raw emotions felt from his incredibly silky smooth voice is R&B at its core. Music as personal and vulnerable as this can be credited to the incredible push he and his manager made to be an independent artist. ‘Sonder Son’ is a perfect example of what it is like to make music from your heart without the restrictions and agendas that the labels want to push onto talented artists. Overall, ‘Sonder Son’ is a refreshingly vulnerable album that gives us insight into the struggles of a now successful artist that listeners will undoubtedly appreciate.

Written by Kyle Solano

Mansionz - Mansionz (Self-titled)

As the year winds down and I reflect on the music that was released, Mansionz always comes to my mind as one of the most memorable albums this year. Mike Posner and Blackbear collaborating was a stroke of genius and a breath of fresh air. With the oversaturation of monotonous trap and mumble rap, Bear and Mike keep it refreshing and honest when it comes to the lyricism and instrumentals.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the experience of this album was the separate personas that Mike and Bear play into. Mike plays the artistic and more introverted side of humanity while Blackbear plays the party animal, the asshole, the selfish side of humanity. Together, the two creatives represent a duality that comes with fame. While one side of being famous wants to push the envelope and expand on art, the other side wants to party hard, drink and do drugs. This contrast, whether intentional or not, add so much to this masterpiece of an album and plays perfectly into every song.

Tracks like “My Beloved”, “A Million Miles”, “White Linen”, and “Gorgeous” all explore the idea of this duality and finds the artist having different perspectives on subjects such as women, relationships, and fame. Where Mike will be happy that he got to play his guitar, Bear talks about having a threesome at some party. Mike wants to have a stable relationship while Bear wants to spend all his money and go on vacation trips. This is where the album really shines for me in showing that, deep down, everybody has conflicting emotions that question our morality. Mansionz isn’t afraid of being honest and straightforward about how they think and behave.

While the duo has different views on certain subjects, they also seem to agree on much of the time. Both “STFU” and “Dennis Rodman” portray Mike and Bear being assholes and wanting to live life how they want to, not bound to social norms or opinions. “Nobody Knows” finds Mike and Bear admitting that, no matter what they say or do, they really don’t know anything. No amount of alcohol, women, or religion can assure anything because, to the duo, they have no certainty. Both artists repeat that they hate everything they love, and in turn, they love all the things that they hate, which gives off a tone of uncertainty, being lost, and loneliness. While depressing, the duo agrees that life isn’t simple and no matter how much you believe, you’ll probably end up believing in too much.

Of course, there is much more to Mansionz than a dual mindset; the group has much more to say. “Rich White Girls” is a very satirical song about white girls and their daddy issues, describing the difficulty in trying to please them.

“I’m thinking about horses” seems to be the odd one out of the bunch, in that, it is a spoken word poem performed only by Mike Posner, nobody else. The poem consists of random thoughts that Mike has that relates to his existence and purpose, like comparing horses, who are mighty and powerful but “trade their freedom for a dependable meal,” to humanity, revealing that maybe we are all slaves but yet have the power to break free. Or comparing his father’s growing age to standing against a growing tidal wave, unprepared without swimwear, showing how uncontrollable his situation is. Not only is the track extremely poetic and beautiful in its comparisons and metaphors, but the performance is extreme and heart-wrenching. Mike’s deepest thoughts and fears scream out with passion and pain. “I’m thinking about horses” fits perfectly as an interlude that shifts the focus of the album from being “assholish” to being more compassionate and poetic. Much more can be discussed about this track as it is the deepest cut on the album, but this review would go on for way too long if I did, so I’ll leave it at that.

The album finishes off with “The Life of a Troubadour” which plays out like a story. Both artists represent who they are, Mike being the artistic Troubadour who just wanted to spend the night with the princess, to Bear who plays the power-hungry Mad Hatter who wants to steal the throne. The track ends with The Mad Hatter killing the Troubadour, which represents the death of art in modern day music. The ending is fitting and sums the entire album up nicely in a sort of bedtime story.

Aside from all the metaphorical and poetic ties that this album has, sonically, it is a fun experience. “Wicked” sounds like a fusion between a 90’s pop song and a Blackbear song, and it’s amazing. Other tracks like “Dennis Rodman”, “My Beloved”, “Nobody Knows”, and basically every other track on this album all have great energy and synergy between Mike and Bear. Although this album is not My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy levels of production, the production is solid and very enjoyable.

After all is said and done, why should I listen to this album, you may ask. Aside from being poetic and artsy, the music sounds incredible and each track weaves perfectly together to create a unique experience that I’ve never heard before. Other than that, there’s not much more I can say other than just to go and listen to it right now. I could stand and preach all day about this album and how it deserves more recognition but in reality, it’s up to you, the reader, to decipher for yourself as to why Mansionz is such a gem of an album. Maybe it’s the best album or maybe it’s the worst, nobody knows.

 Written by Alexander Apodaca

Melodrama – Lorde

My favorite album of the year was Melodrama by Lorde! I became a really big fan of Lorde’s in 2015. Her album Pure Heroine brought me back to my teenage self and Lorde touched my soul. Fast forward to June 19th when I heard Melodrama for the first time … I sat on my bed with my journal in hand and earphones on full blast. A sigh of relief! Lorde makes me feel very emotional. She will put you on a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the album. From happy dance parties, to feeling sad, lonely, to feeling good and loving yourself! Lorde makes me feel free! I can dance and cry to her music in one sitting.

Hard Feelings/Loveless is my MOST favorite song on the album. I wrote in my journal to remember this feeling. It was a perfect moment, feeling relief & Lorde was speaking to me. I even shed a tear or two. It is two songs in one, but they mesh so well together. Lorde calls the second half, Loveless, a bizarre little outro. She said the song altogether is a heartfelt breakup song. She is finding solitude in being alone and caring for herself.

Standout lyrics:

“I light all the candles, cut flowers for all my rooms, I care for myself the way I used to care about you, these days, we kiss and we keep busy, the waves come after midnight, I call from underwater, why even try to get right, when you’ve outgrown a lover, the whole world knows but you.”

Loveless transitions into its own song with Lorde saying “baby” very faintly and then Paul Simon saying “what is this tape? This is my favorite tape,” that she sampled. I feel like it’s her rebellion speaking of wanting to be heartless, “bet you want to rip my heart out, bet you want to skip my calls now. Well, guess what? I like that.” I feel like after a major heartbreak we become a bit of rebel ourselves. We rebel to love. Are we actually a L-O-V-E-L-E-S-S generation?

When I heard Supercut for the first time I was very emotional and sad, but happy too. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. Lorde said it is a sister song to Ribs from Pure Heroine. Ribs is my MOST favorite Lorde song. In my journal, I wrote, “hearing this for the first time feels so great.” Although I was talking about one song – it’s how I feel about the whole album. In an interview with The Spinoff Lorde says, “I felt the way I used to feel when I made music as a kid and it felt like I could cry because it’s such a relief to get out how you’re feeling for the first time.” I felt this when I heard Supercut also because it was nostalgic to listening to Pure Heroine. So many feelings at the same time and it’s a relief to feel. Reliving memories of people you love and remembering the feelings you felt. It’s like remembering a dream.

“In my head, I play a supercut of us, all the magic we gave off, all the love we had and lost, and in my head, the visions never stop, these ribbons wrap me up, but when I reach for you, there’s just a supercut.”

Liability was a surprise single from Melodrama in early March 2017. To be a “liability” is to be burdensome. Lorde said in a Beats interview: “I had this realization that because of my lifestyle and what I do for work there’s going to be a point with every single person around me where I’m going to be a tax on them in some way.” She found self-love and understood that she needs to be happy with herself. Although it may be a liability with her lifestyle she will always have herself to love and care for. Self-love is something I personally have tried very hard to work on. It will always be a work in progress, but remember to love yourself. Nurture the relationship you have with yourself and you’ll no longer feel like a liability to others.

“So I guess I’ll go home into the arms of the girl that I love, the only love I haven’t screwed up, she’s so hard to please but she’s a forest fire, I do my best to meet her demands, play at romance, we slow dance in the living room, but all that a stranger would see, is one girl swaying alone, stroking her cheek.”

Lorde went from teenage angst in Pure Heroine to coping with a breakup, finding self-love, and finding comfort in solitude in Melodrama. “I’m actually rewiring to become an adult. All that is insane.” The theme throughout the album is about the highs and lows of a relationship. You will definitely get into your feelings while listening to the album. Melodrama deserves so much recognition! Lorde co-produced every song on the album! She worked alongside Jack Antonoff, Frank Dukes, Malay, and many others. Her songwriting is absolutely incredible. It was playing on my speakers throughout this year. Luckily for me, I was able to see her live for the first time in 2017. Lorde did not disappoint live or with her sophomore album Melodrama.

Written by Valerie Rosales

CTRL by SZA

After a string of EPs, various features on fellow-TDE tracks, writing credits for both Rihanna and Beyoncé, endless album delays, internal label drama, and a sudden threat to quit music, it seemed like SZA’s album would never see the light of day. However, on June 9th, 2017, the First Lady of Top Dawg Entertainment finally released her debut full-length album entitled, CTRL. Vulnerability. Insecurities. Womanhood. Losing control. Gaining control. Everything real and relatable is actualized in SZA’s breakthrough album. Both lyrically and vocally, the songstress’ most cohesive work to date pushes the boundaries of the R&B realm. Even in 2017 – a year in which R&B seemed to thrive like never before, SZA established not only her own unique sound but her worthy place in the genre. Fourteen tracks of ethereal vocals, overlaying mesmerizing synth-induced beats, sprinkled nostalgic references to ‘90s pop culture, seamlessly mixed in JT, River Tiber, and Drake samples, and features from Pharrell, Travis Scott, Isaiah Rashad, James Fauntleroy, and Kendrick Lamar, the long-awaited release of CTRL has proven to be well worth the wait. 

The album explores the perils of modern dating, sexual freedom, and the internal battles of self-love in the most brutally honest way. SZA exhibits a vast amount of self-awareness by asking herself, “Why I can’t stay alone just by myself? / Wish I was comfortable just with myself / But I need you” in “Supermodel” and in “Drew Barrymore,” bluntly admits, “I get so lonely, I forget what I’m worth / We get so lonely, we pretend that this works.” She plays with one-sided love, illustrated in “Love Galore” asking her temporary lover, “Why you bother me when you know you don’t want me? Why you bother me when you know you got a woman?” but is accepting of the chaos of it all in “The Weekend” singing, “The feelin’ is reckless / Of knowin’ it’s selfish / And knowin’ I’m desperate / Getting’ all in your love / Fallin’ all over love, like / Do it ‘til it hurts less.” After all that promiscuous havoc though, SZA, ultimately, is in search of a worthy and grounding kind of love asking her potential lover, “Can you remind me of my gravity? Ground me when I’m tumblin’, spiralin’, plummetin’ down to Earth / You keep me down to Earth” in the song “Garden (Say It Like Dat)”. An album so multifaceted with songs about temporary lovers, past lovers, and weekend lovers, it is impossible to not find something applicable to our own complex forays in love.

In a society where women are still scrutinized for owning their sexuality, CTRL delves into the subject full force. Throughout the entire album, SZA displays complete comfort in her sexuality. In the Kendrick Lamar featured track, “Doves In The Wind”, she gives power to the pussy with K. Dot rapping, “Niggas’ll lose they mind for it / Wine for it, dine for it–pussy / Spend time for it, see no colored line for it–pussy” which is representative of the idea that men will do anything for it. In the song, “Normal Girl” where she samples Drake’s “Controlla” she croons, “You like it, when I be, aggressive / You like when I say to you / Get it if you got it, I’m ready and waitin’ for it / I’m callin’ to put it on, yeah” revealing how she isn’t like a “Normal Girl” and in such a patriarchal subject, she knows what she wants. In a sense, SZA is gaining CTRL by finding empowerment in her sexuality versus the societal norm of shame when it comes to women on this subject matter.

The album poetically sums up the quarter-life crisis with authentic candor. SZA acknowledges the things we have trouble admitting to ourselves in a manner that simultaneously stings but reassures us that we are not alone in these inner conflicts. In the song “Prom”, she expresses the constant internal musings of a young adult trying to find a sense of purpose, “Fearin’ not growin’ up / Keepin’ me up at night / Am I doin’ enough? / Feel like I’m wastin’ time” and, again, on “20 Something” singing, “All alone still / Not a thing in my name / Ain’t got nothin’, runnin’ from love / Only know fear.” Her lyricism displays the fluctuating self-esteem of the average 20-something. To tie it all in, scattered in between songs are words of wisdom from SZA’s own mother and grandmother. Throughout the entirety of CTRL, SZA displays the true strength in vulnerability. It is a reminder in the form of an album that lets us all know we don’t all have it together and that that’s okay.

CTRL thoroughly tackles what it’s like to be a 20-something searching for love, entertaining temporary highs, struggling with insecurities, and the harsh realities we face while trying to find our purpose in the world. As of October 2017, the album has been certified gold and with her single “Love Galore” hitting platinum, and “The Weekend” (which wasn’t even released as a single) also hitting platinum, her success knows no limits. With such a strong breakout year, there’s no telling how far her talents will take her. There’s no question as to why she is the most nominated female artist for the upcoming Grammys. This is just the beginning of SZA taking CTRL.

Written by Rachel Reyes

Freudian - Daniel Caesar

Daniel Caesar, the Canadian R&B and soul singer-songwriter, risked it all for his music career. He became frustrated by his stagnation and moved to the city homeless pursuing stardom. The night of his graduation he left with a garbage bag full of clothes. Where he had to make his own family. He struggled early with his parents because of his desire to sing love songs in which they would tell him, “if you’re not going to sing songs glorifying God, anything that isn’t doing that specifically is glorifying Satan.” To which they finally came down to a mutual understanding that “God is love.”

“This whole album is the arc from the inception to the death of just the most intense relationship of my life.” – Beats 1 Interview

Get You became his breakout single which has amassed millions of streams pushing him into mainstream stardom. The song entails him being awe-struck with his capability of getting such an out of this world and way above his perceived “type” of a lover. The world is constantly experiencing droughts, famine, and natural disasters. Daniel explains how whenever he’s with her it’s like being in their own world. The song is in a self-reflective state where Daniel feels he doesn’t deserve everything he’s been given but simultaneously appreciative of it. In this relationship, they were both going through so many things together so being able to have that enhanced their bonding. He states that during this period he would have nonstop sex because there was nothing better to do. This is the first moment that Caesar introduces a principle of Freud, with the id. The id is the unconscious, impulsive part of the psyche which operates on the “pleasure principle” which seeks immediate pleasure and gratification. Kali Uchis states, “the memories, it’s all just memories” may allude to the suppression principle included in Freud’s studies. Kali displays gratitude towards her lover knowing that nothing is forever and to appreciate what you have now.

Best Part is the smooth honey-like duet we didn’t know we wanted. Alongside H.E.R. they express their adoration for their significant other. The beauty of being someone’s favorite anything is something long romanticized and fantasized about. He compares her to water when you’re stuck in a desert as someone he can’t live without. She is “the sunshine of [his] life” which is ironic that she is both the water that quenches him and the sunshine on his life which would dehydrate him in the first place. Despite the duality of love, she is the best part of his life. In a digital generation, the importance of movies and videos is extreme. A favorite movie is usually held close to someone’s heart and calling a lover the “best part” about it, is worth swooning over. “If you love me won’t you say something,” is both a plea and a question. Unaware if this person feels requited love for him. Often when you begin to hang out with someone feelings rise to the point of uncertainty – do they feel the same? Especially if they become the best part of your life’s movie. In a subtle beg, he whispers “love me, won’t you…?”

Hold Me Down, an interesting tale of insecurities and love that is tearing apart at the seams. It starts off with a soft conversation between Daniel and his girl asking “could you, could you say? ‘I love you Danny’” to which she replies, “you want me to?” and then she does. It then transitions into the chorus, “if you love me baby let me hear you say it,” he is certain that he is her favorite despite being left in the basement, thrown on the pavement. This imagery reminds me of Toy Story where Andy first gets Woody and expresses such love and admiration for it. Daniel/Woody’s ego blinds him to see no other reality but the fact he is the favorite despite being played with like a toy. Daniel becomes infatuated to the point he’s willing to start a family with her. The pussy is so good to Daniel that he self-emulates like a Buddhist. He even astral projects into another dimension of how great it feels. He shows his imperfections by saying his spectacle of a life is a sad story and hopefully one day he will find glory – hopefully with her alongside him for the flight. All he wanted was to take her to “higher heights” yet she resisted leaving her comfort zone. He even acknowledges she had “dreams of a better life” possibly marriage but this time there seemed to be no hope of “making it through.” In the bridge, the female is introduced in the form of conversation with Daniel’s previous statements. On how Daniel is traveling far away with music that she’s left behind with pain where she begins to carry resentment. With his success bubbling the superego of Daniel could be strengthening to the point she is asking him who he thinks he is, “some kind of celebrity?” and threatening him to ‘wait and see’ if she sticks around much longer because of that. All Daniel asks her is to stay true to him and having to remind her of all the things he does. He played the game (music industry/being a toy) where all he wants is for the moment; some reassurance that she will hold him down.

Neu Roses (Transgressor’s Song), tells a story of his girlfriend who cheats on him. Neu Roses is wordplay for new roses/neurosis which portrays two forms of a dying relationship brought by infidelity hence she transgressed the trust. “Neurosis is a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.” This girl still recalls the fateful day she threw the love away of Daniel. It appears the resentment she held in the previous song caused her to act out of spite only later to beg for him not to leave. She realized that she made a big mistake, and to not “turn [her] sunshine to shade” as once she was that to him. She then states, “I know this is a game we play,” which would make it seem that they both had their “friends too” while she always came back because he took her breath away. He admits he “fucked with some empty cups” meaning hollow sex with multiple girls. He knows she has various partners, but he doesn’t want to run out on his luck, so he considers stopping from running amok. This could be reaction formation, a Freudian concept which one would switch unacceptable impulses into their opposites or a form of passive aggressiveness. Projection is another term that could be used here in his need to call her out for his own mistakes.

Loose is Daniel talking to himself about his toxic relationship and rationalizing the need to cut the rope. He begins to realize that she has built a depression (cloud over her head raining with thunder). The positives are outweighed by the negative. He is quick to lose patience with her and cause fights. He calls himself out on being a coward because he isn’t helping anyone not even himself by grasping onto a dead relationship. Daniel contemplates his power in this relationship and how if he can’t do it for himself, he should do it for her. Often, we see only the good in others we are with to the point that we stick out through horrid cycles of pain. We can’t seem to let go of what brings sunshine to your life and scared of the darkness that comes after.

We Find Love, a song about the beauties in the ugly of a relationship. He comes off in somber tone aware of the fact that it’s over, but still nostalgic about the good times. “You don’t love me anymore, let’s see how you like this song,” is a spiteful statement coming from a place of resentment and ego. He immortalizes her through this album, that’s where his power lies – in the success he obtains. He realizes since the day they met she was the “girl of his dreams” which is what Get You entails but deep down he knew they could never be no matter how hard they try. The hearts fragile tendencies fall down into which they break into pieces. This seems to showcase the cycle of what love is - finding it, uplifting your spirits, falling down, and then ultimately giving up on the love you would have died for.

Blessed showcases Daniel’s vulnerable state of awareness to his flaws. He has become dependent on this girl to the point he can’t go a moment without her. Her presence must be around or else he feels empty. Despite his horrible traits, he feels blessed to have a girl that is willing to stick with him through all his trials and tribulations. He considers her a home despite how broken he is, he will come back to her.

Take Me Away, he wants to sit back and enjoy the creation that God has manifested to him in the form of a beautiful woman who’s willing to cater to him. “Every time she tops me off, it’s celebration,” this is a double entendre for when you top off champagne it’s filled up to the brim. The double meaning is that she is performing oral sex on him as he sits back – what a reason to celebrate. “She loves to top me off … all she wants to do is please me.” Her willingness to perform oral sex on him is possibly due to an oral fixation she has which is an ideal of Freud through the oral stage. He asks himself what life has become due to his “strange new love” he has with her where they don’t speak much. The communication comes in the form of lust. She begs him to take her away to an orgasmic state. This next line I believe is the central and most crucial line in the whole album due to is the central theme of Freud, “Every time I go inside of your protected, place with reverence, I’m reminded of a time I was neglected.” It could mean at a time where he felt neglected in a relationship, but more so I believe it’s from neglect of love from his parents specifically his mother. His adoration and admiration of constant sex and wanting to escape reality comes from the psychosexual stages of the id’s pleasure-seeking energies – genital stage. This is the personality development concepts that Sigmund Freud discovered in his career.

Transform, the premise of the entire song is the ego and his battle with it for love. “If a leopard never changes its spots, how can I change what I’ve got?” he questions the way nature is and how it’s unfair that he’s expected to change if no one never questions the natural course that animals live their lives. Ego is in the way of his ability to change for his lover. He could feel mad now but once it fades away he will not have her there – a lonely life in the kingdom. He’s aware of his non-attractiveness so if this girl loves him, maybe he should come around. He’s addicted to her love and the energy with it, he baptized himself because it “saved his soul like Jesus.”

Freudian like DNA intertwines two strands of both his mother and his lover. The first verse has Daniel expressing to his girl that she is the reason she sings and hopes to preserve her in the form of art (or save their relationship). He takes a moment to thank her for saving his life and giving him advice that ultimately changed his life despite how they ended. The second verse is about his mother and the need to bring her honor. Through psychoanalysis, people are driven by two things: life instinct (the need for sexual and emotional bonding) and death instinct (aggressive drive). Sigmund Freud is famous for his Oedipus Complex which is characterized by a boy experiencing a form of sexual desire toward his mother or vice versa (for a female). The fact that he went back and forth with both his mother and girlfriend brings about the concept in an interesting way. We long for the reflection (or opposite) of our parent in our lovers. “Send me kisses when it’s grey skies, it’s been so long, look how time flies, if you love me won’t you let me know,” shows a longing for his past lover of wanting to know if she still has feelings for him. He now has the same grey skies he would give her and his sunshine is long gone.

Freudian (Outro), plays on an organ as Daniel sinks into an abyss of his own mind. “Isn’t it nice, human sacrifice,” and the universe’s form of “natural selection” of people and of ourselves. In many ways, that girlfriend is dead to him. As aforementioned, the “death instinct” is apparent here in his ability to sacrifice himself as an artist.

In his Beats 1 interview, he says, “I’m trying to live out Hero’s Journey, it’s sacrifice to a point… I’m putting my business out there.” The supernatural or even superego, where he meets helpers along the way in the form of lovers, to his death and rebirth, transformation and return to his highest being.

My personal favorite lines are: “They say I’m a martyr, charge that to my ego, I just want all the lights.”

He hears others call him a martyr for being vulnerable which only boosts his ego in thinking he is sacrificing himself for the greater good. When his selfishness drives him to only pursue his name in lights rather than for humanity. He continuously takes the “easy way out” each time where he brings dishonor to his own self.

“Vulnerability is the greatest thing. The reward is very high but the price is… [the danger is there, fear is there] but I guess that’s why it’s so awesome, ya know?”

The thrill of being open with your flaws is admirable for not many are able to accomplish such a feat in a compelling way. The risk to be shamed, “killed” through critique, and the online trolls that are out there in this world.

“It’s Freud, I’m trying to analyze, I’m like looking at myself, trying to figure myself out. It’s like looking in the mirror.”

To look at others we can easily project our fears and perceptions onto them without realizing it. However, the bravest thing one can do is look at themselves, look within themselves to decipher one’s own code. Why we are the way we are, psychoanalyze not just our positive but embracing our negative to become the complete hero.

Written by Erik De La Cruz

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Honorable Mentions: 

DAMN. by Kendrick Lamar

Process by Sampha

Black Ken - Lil B

Peak - Choker

The Thrill Of It All - Sam Smith

Drive Slow - Mac Ayers

American Teen - Khalid

Everybody - Logic (for its concept)

Dua Lipa - Dua Lipa

Fin - Syd

About Time - Sabrina Claudio

Frank Ocean Singles (could’ve been its own album)

ADDED AFTER:

Coco Music Soundtrack - Pixar (Various Artists)

Cybersex - Blackbear

Funk Wav Bounce Vol. 1 - Calvin Harris

SYRE - Jaden Smith

Trip - Jhene Aiko

Yours Truly Forever - Phora

Loverboy - Russel (aka Pryde)

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I just wanted to say thanks to all those that helped and participated in the album reviews with me. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you all.

I appreciate them all and the hard work you put into helping this to come to life!

Let me know if you have thoughts, opinions, or your own albums you feel like we missed!

By Erik De La Cruz

CEO of Creative-ive (pronounced ivy).

contact: erik@creative-ive.com

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