#newtunes24

[willowenigma]

the more I broaden my taste in music, the more firmly I believe that more people should embrace putting their whole pussy into their art without worrying about if they're doing it "right" and even at the expense of the final product being "good"

THAT BEING SAID

the more I listen to Trout Mask Replica the more firmly I believe that someone should've taken the mics away from Mr. Beefheart and possibly locked him away somewhere to study for science for a very, very long time

[willowenigma]

Finally did the tally of everything I listened to in May and I'm up to 207 new artists listened to so far this year, out of a goal of 500.

I thought I was waaaaaay behind on where I "should" be to reach my goal but I'm almost exactly on track, which is a huge relief! Just need one "extra" album this month and I'll be at 250 by the end of June!

[willowenigma]

had the opposite reaction listening to new music this morning than I had listening to Fleetwood Mac the other day

was not expecting something like Strange Fruit while listening to Billie Holiday but goddamn is that an amazing song and reading about her relationship to it has exponentially increased my opinion of her

[willowenigma]

since I'm finally expanding my music taste, every once in a while I'll throw on an album that I've heard of but just never listened to before, and usually I get excited to realize that oh I actually do know some songs by this artist!!

however. that is not AT ALL my experience listening to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac for the first time today

hearing "Don't Stop" and realizing I never knew it was by them was bad enough, but the fact that it's immediately followed by "Go Your Own Way" which I also know but never knew was by Fleetwood Mac really just has me like this right now

ETA: Final count is 4 songs. Out of 11 total.

Just over a THIRD of this album that I already knew and didn't realize it was Fleetwood Mac.

JFC.

[willowenigma]

you know, on the whole I've been really enjoying my New Tunes project where I exclusively listen to artists I've never heard before. I've found a lot of really awesome musicians that I never would have found otherwise and it's actually been a lot of fun broadening my horizons so much over the last 8ish months

but.

that being said.

I am Very Afraid that I've learned something terrible about myself and my musical tastes today. I am praying I am wrong, I will know in about an hour when I'm done with the whole album but. y'all. it is NOT looking good for me right now.

[willowenigma]

Finished off my 3rd mini scrapbook for the New Tunes project!

Which means I can finally re-tally the new artists I've listened to since last June and the updated total count is 244.

244.

That's roughly 30-34 new artists per month, every month since last June. That's INSANE.

[willowenigma]

I am currently over an hour into a prog rock album from the 90s, with about an hour left to listen to, which makes this a very unfortunate time to realize that I don't like modern prog rock

[willowenigma]

and once again, my list of bands to listen to has exceeded discord's message limits...

[willowenigma]

love checking out a new artist and realizing only after I listen to the album that it's largely inspired by LotR alsdjfklasdjklfals

[willowenigma]

little updates on my “Anyone Swifties Hate Must Be Worth Listening To” new music project!

I came up a set of unofficial rules for myself for what counts as "new music" which are:

It needs to be an artist that I haven't listened to extensively before.

I need to listen to at least a full album or an equivalent number of songs. If I don't know where to start with an artist, I just listen to their most recent album.

There are bonus points for artists that Swifties hate or artists that Taylor is trying to block in the charts with her endless fucking variants, but that's no longer a requirement of the project.

So to that end I've finally listened to an entire Beyoncé album (Cowboy Carter), Billie Eilish album (Hit Me Hard and Soft), and a Miley Cyrus album (Endless Summer Vacation).

Of those three, Cowboy Carter is BY FAR my favorite. Beyoncé has a great voice for country and I really love the genre-blending that happens. It reminded me a bit of Shaboozey's stuff and I loved loved LOVED his features on the album!

Billie and Miley were.... alright. Their music is actually really good for the styles they're going for, but I personally didn't vibe with their voices. Billie was just super hard to understand and while Miley has a strong voice I think it's far more suited to country than what she's doing now. My favorite songs from her album are the ones where she lets a bit of a twang come through and I really wish she'd do another pure country album because I think with her older voice it would really sound fantastic.

Up next on my to-listen list are Kendrick Lamar (Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers) and a Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah collab that my Housemate recommended (Sour Soul).

I also have a list of artists to potentially check out which includes Marren Moris, Charli XCX, SZA, Chapell Roan, and Megan Thee Stallion (after her new album is released).

[willowenigma]

I managed to listen to 9 new albums last week, which I think is the most in a single week since starting my little listening project at the beginning of summer.

My base goal is 7 per week (average 1 per day), but ideally I'd like to get up to 10 albums per week. That is a lot... but also my full list of artists to check out? Currently over 100 names.

(That's not an exaggeration either. I have 43 artists with albums picked out and another 60 that I still need to choose albums for. Plus 16 downloaded that I still need to listen to, and 17 upcoming albums that aren't released yet.)

So at the rate I'm finding new artists, even with listening to 10 a week I don't think I can finish all of these by the end of the year.

Which isn't a bad thing, honestly, I wouldn't mind continuing this into 2015... but I am running up against character limits on the private discord where I'm storing these lists so yeah, probably need to pick up the pace on this just a titch here.

[willowenigma]

Updates on my New Tunes '24 project:

I have listened to a total of 83 new-to-me bands/artists so far since I started this endeavor in early June.

I know this because I filled up the first volume of my mini scrapbook last night and just finished listing out all the artists in it - 79 in the book, plus 4 more to start off the second volume.

At some point I wanna figure out some stats for this to figure out the full range of genres/artists/languages/etc. I've listened to but I don't think that's going to happen today.

I can confirm though that my two lowest-ranked* artists were Billie Eilish and La Dispute (tied for the bottom). My highest-ranked** artist was Nemahsis, though if I had included the new LC! album that would've tied with her.

(*My ranking system for this is dogshit and isn't an entirely accurate representation of how I feel about an artist. Billie and La Dispute were low-ranking because of my musical preferences, but there are several other artists that I dislike more than either of them purely for personal reasons not related to their music.)

(**Nemahsis is actually fantastic though and you need to listen to her album if you haven't already!)

[willowenigma]

I'm so behind on posting about the new music I'm listening to and adding it to my scrapbook but let's not talk about that now but here are some very brief thoughts from what I've listened to this week at least!

(Under a cut because "brief" for me is still too fucking long...)

Hiatus Kaiyote - Fun sound but not in love with the singer's voice, and I was ready for the album to be over with two songs left to go so. Not really a favorite tbh.

Raveena - Very chill sound and good vibes! But the songs started to sound very samey after awhile. Will probably get added to the rotation for background music but I think I only added one song to my main playlist.

Steve Lacy - Surprise queer! Not quite the sound I was expecting but I really love his voice and it was a fun listen.

Shinto Katana - Not a favorite. Metal isn't my fave to begin with but their vocals are hard to parse which makes it even less enjoyable for me. That being said, very solid sound and production.

Remi Wolf - A new favorite! Great voice and I love the range she shows on the album. Reminded me a lot of Lola Young, but with less heavy subject matter in the songs. I think I've listened to her new album three or four times already.

Olu Dara - Another one where I was surprised by his sound, but it's very nice! Not as much cornet as I was expecting but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Super chill vibes, not sure if it'll go into regular rotation but he makes for great working background music for sure.

Sex Pistols - Love their sound, hate the vocals. Rotten either talk-sings or sounds like he has a mouthful of cotton balls, neither of which is the vibe.

Lil Kim - Currently listening to while I type this up but what I've heard so far is absolutely fantastic!

There's about two-dozen more artists I've listened to that I haven't posted about here but I'm having a hard enough time keeping up with the scrapbook so I probably won't get a chance to post about them in detail.

That being said Cobrah, Carly Cosgrove, and Baby Rose are also new favorites of mine and I liked the new Megan album a lot too. Didn't vibe so much with Clairo but I'll probably give her another try this fall. Griff was too samey to get a re-listen, Lauryn Hill was fantastic but I hate the long outros on every other song, and I have deeply mixed feelings on Idles. Dua Lipa is great, Charli xcx was severely disappointing, and Cardi B was really solid but hasn't got a lot of replays from me.

Artists I currently have downloaded to check out next are: Laura Stevenson, Glass Egg, Childish Gambino, Newfound Interest in Connecticut, Nirvana, Selena, Bahamadia, and Queen Latifah.

I'll probably check out Newfound Interest in Connecticut next, and I'm not even going to pretend that it's for any reason other than the name lmfaooooo

[willowenigma]

New tag for my music opinions

swiftiesongrecs > newtunes24

update your block filters appropriately because here are more music opinions no one asked for or wanted!

since my last update I have listened to Ghostface Killah with badbadnotgood, Kendrick Lamar, Normani, Chapell Roan, Nas, MNL48, The Mars Volta, Lola Young, Pond, Chance the Rapper, Charli XCX, Camila Cabello... and probably one or two more that I'm forgetting at the moment alskjfdklasj

gonna break these down into genres to make it easier to talk about them, but of the rappers I've listened to I think Kendrick and Nas are my favorites. Illmatic especially has SUCH an iconic sound to it, I can't remember the last time an album so specifically took me back to a place and time in history. Kendrick took a few more listens for me to vibe with him but watching some of his live stuff helped make it click more, and the Pop Out show on Juneteenth was just FANTASTIC.

Chance the Rapper was also really good but the albums of his that I listened to (Acid Rap and Coloring Book) definitely have very specific vibes to them and unless I was already in that particular mood they didn't hit quite the same. For Ghostface Killah/badbadnotgood I listened to Sour Soul - the rap/jazz combo was musically interesting and I enjoyed my listen, but I don't think the album will be getting a lot of replays.

for the pop artists... hoooo boy.....

I liked most of Normani's album and I'm SO happy for her that it's finally been released after such a long wait, but I don't think it's a great album to listen through in one sitting. Some of the songs start to feel "samey" and blend together when listened to back-to-back, even though on their own they're all really good.

MNL48 is my first venture into idol groups - I liked their stuff but apart from one or two songs none of it was really to my preference. learning about the history of the group was super interesting though and I'm excited to listen to more idols in the future!

camila cabello's new album is fine but the features are definitely the weak point and most of the other songs are slower ones that I just didn't vibe with. that being said, I appreciate that she's trying around with different styles and that the album doesn't take itself too seriously, and there's definitely one or two songs on there that'll make it into my summer playlist.

I'm still working my way through Brat (I started it today to see how much weight the comparisons between camila and charli actually held; answer is not very much imo). I think I'm gonna need to give charli a few more listens before forming an opinion but while I like her sound in general I think her lyrics leave a lot to be desired and I don't think Brat is living up to all the hype around it.

chappel roan.... you know, I'm glad to see another openly queer artist in the charts and I'm happy for the people who love her music but it's very much not for me and I think that's all I'm gonna say on it.

okay and now onto everyone else aslkdfjaksdljflka

I really did not vibe with either the mars volta or pond, and I'm actually disappointed about both. I've seen so many people rave about the mars volta and they're definitely very talented, but Deloused in the Comatorium was just a wash of noise with nothing really standing out. and Pond has such an interesting sound and I love the retro vibe they're going for but their lyrics are such trash that it just ruined the entire album for me.

on the other hand lola young is BY FAR one of my favorite new artists that I've listened to. This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway is fantastic from start to finish and it's absolutely a no-skip album for me even with the outro - I don't usually go for spoken-word endings like that but it just works in her case and really adds something to the entire album as a piece of art. everyone should go give it a listen because it is genuinely so so good.

next up on new (to me) artists to listen to is definitely Megan Thee Stallion since she also dropped a new album today, but after that it's up in the air. I have Lauryn Hill, Maren Moris, Childish Gambino, Idles, and the Sex Pistols downloaded already so probably one of those? But I may also check out Dua Lipa's newest album since she just released the extended edition of that.

[willowenigma]

I've started a project to force myself to check out new music called "Anyone Swifties Hate Must Be Worth Listening To" where, as the name suggests, I listen to any artist that swifties get Big Mad about because their chart position or general talent is a threat to their soulless capitalist queen

thoughts on this project so far:

Shaboozey is fucking FANTASTIC and is the first country artist I've enjoyed in quite a while. I've really been loving his album "Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die" and REALLY need everyone else to listen to it too

Sabrina Carpenter is indeed very "did you know I have SEX!?" in her songs but they're also very boppy so I don't actually mind too much lasdjflkasjldka especially when she's not taking herself seriously at all in songs like "Nonsense"

Sorry not sorry but Sabrina >>> Olivia Rodrigo. Olivia's voice is really solid but my GOD can you tell her age in her songs and it is painfully obvious in not-a-good-way that GUTS is her sophomore album

That being said the Taylor shade across that album? *chef kiss* it's so fucking good. all-american bitch made me cackle, and both lacy and the grudge are verrrrrry transparent despite Olivia's attempts at obfuscation

the next obvious listen would be the new billie eilish album but tbh I've never vibed with her music so I don't know if I really want to listen to an entire album of hers but. we'll see.

[willowenigma]

Also, doubt anyone is interested but if you are, here are all the new artists I've listened to in 2025, presented as topsters because I've been posting these on reddit like a fuckin nerd:

Finally did the tally of everything I listened to in May and I'm up to 207 new artists listened to so far this year, out of a goal of 500.

I thought I was waaaaaay behind on where I "should" be to reach my goal but I'm almost exactly on track, which is a huge relief! Just need one "extra" album this month and I'll be at 250 by the end of June!