#Music Opinions

[freshcuntgrass]

Everyone who likes the kind of 70s-80s music that goes emotionally and narratively hard as fuck (I'm talking Bruce Springsteen, Simon and Garfunkel, the Eagles, Neil Young, all of that) absolutely needs and I mean needs to listen to The Mountain Goats, particularly their newer stuff. If you listen to that music and think "god, nobody is doing it like them anymore" I have great news for you: the Goats are absolutely doing it like them. I don't say this lightly, but John Darnielle is the closest thing we have to an heir to the Boss's throne. He also totes around a god-tier saxophone player but unfortunately I don't know if they kiss on the lips

[newwavesylviaplath]

there is something so incredibly vile about the fact that lady gagas doing paparazzi at the 2009 VMAs didn't win the award for 'most iconic performance'. like what. you're telling me roar won over one of the most influential live performances in pop music history. this is ridiculous and that's coming from someone who loves both artists.

[bandbabe]

I’m trying so hard not to feel this rage in my soul for those girls who say “no one gets the arctic monkeys like I do” while talking solely about those videos of mr.snarl and 2014 leather clad aloof performances. because I understand not gatekeeping music, and god I loathe the thought of it. But I just can’t help but feel slighted by these girls who can be loud about their surface level affection for something that occupies a non-insignificant part of my brain. I think I must feel jealous that they can think about it in passing, while my soul gets consumed by tranquility bass hotel and casino, and my mind consumed by the story of the eycte music videos. How dare you be normal about a steinway and sons, how dare you never consider humbug

[ninascoffee]

To the people who doesn't get The Tortured Poets Department: Music doesn’t have to demand everyone’s attention. It’s there for those who need it. Not every song preaches from the pulpit—some hold your hand from the passenger seat.

[marlinspirkhall]

Songs which contain the secret:

Just by Radiohead

Yes by Coldplay

Hush by Deep Purple

Crucify by Tori Amos

For My Lover by Tracy Chapman

Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks

Songs which don't know they contain the secret:

Broken Hearted Melody by Sarah Vaughan

Whipping Post by The Allman Brothers

SW by Blonde Redhead

Semi-Automatic by O Mer

Lent by Autoheart

Pissing In A River by Patti Smith

Songs which are waiting for you to tell them:

Mess by Ben Folds

A Distorted Reality Is A Necessity To Be Free (demo version) by Elliott Smith

Drop The Pilot by Joan Armatrading

You've Got The Love by Florence + The Machine

Songs which are still searching for it:

42 by Coldplay

Hotel California by The Eagles

Jigsaw Falling Into Place by Radiohead

Blood Makes Noise by Suzanne Vega

Worried About Ray by The Hoosiers

Songs which wish they knew it:

Kill V. Maim by Grimes

TALES OF DOMINICA by Lil Nas X

They ache for it:

Pulaski At Night by Andrew Bird

I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself by Elton John

Songs which once knew it, but then the secret changed:

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Pavlov's Bell by Aimee Mann

Songs which are just as surprised as you are by what they find inside themselves:

I Need My Girl by The National

Turn The Page by Bob Seger

Sister Golden Hair by America

Plainclothes Man by Heatmiser

Songs which know, but will never tell you:

Tomorrow Is Today by Billy Joel

I Can't Tell You Why by The Eagles

Ooh by Scissor Sisters

Songs which will tell you, given time:

Over My Shoulder by MIKA

Beyond The Sea by Bobby Darin

Songs which don't contain the secret, but if you never listen to them, the others won't tell you:

The Bends by Radiohead

Journey Of The Sorcerer by The Eagles

Songs which make you glad you don't know it:

Lost In The Citadel by Lil Nas X

Fast As You Can by Fiona Apple

I Love You Goodbye by Thomas Dolby

Songs which were imbued with it by mistake and won't give it back:

Strawberry Swing (cover) by Frank Ocean

Night Shift by Lucy Dacus

Humpty by Mitski

[naomiknight-17]

You know, I don't follow rap so this Kendrick vs Drake thing is all new to me, and I had never actually heard Kendrick's music before like yesterday

And damn, the man can SPIT a verse! Like, fuck! I can barely keep up! Everyone's talking about his excellent lyrics (no argument here) but no-one told me he was so skilled at rapping like damn

[jrat226]

For this hot takes blog imma count down the top 6 most annoying music fan bases

1. Swifties (I don't have to explain)

2. Eminem stans (omg we get it he was good back in the day please STFU we get it he's a legend we understand admit he's washed up a lil and move on get the dick out your mouth)

3. Army (BTS fans) (you people are some of the most annoying people to ever exist, all their songs sound the same, y'all act like they're the best thing ever when there are several kpop grounds better than them

4. Kanye West fans (yes he's influenced a lot of people but at the end of the day, he's a semi solid rapper who hasn't made a good album in a solid 5 or 6 years, he's washed and y'all need to accept it, also supporting a man that said "slavery was a choice" and "hitler was right"... Get help

5. Kendrick Lamar fan boys (as of recently y'all won't shut up, yes he's amazing give it a break, You're making me hate him more than he hates drake just chill please, and not every line has to be a quadrupole entendre, so please shut it)

6. Any boom bap/ 90 rapper old heads and kids (for the old heads yes, they we're great for their time and changed the game forever, and we're thankful, but stop acting like they didn't talk about the same shit today's rappers do, they talked about gangs, drugs and bitches too, where do you think today's rappers got it from, your favorites laid the ground work, and beats and styles change over time, stop acting like lyrical is dead, you're just to lazy to look for it and bitch about what's on the radio, and as for the literal infants glazing tupac, stfu, you weren't alive, continue watching dora bro)

[bangers2]

Jane Remover - Census Designated (Long review)

i wrote this after reaching 100 followers on aoty. The AOTY version can be found here if u wanna read it on there.

Hey! Thank you all for your support on my reviews thus far. Bangers2 started out as an impulsive Tumblr blog where I'd post a song a day, but that got stale pretty quickly so I ended up on AOTY. And it was scary at first (I once got flamed by like 3 people for making an "I hardly know her" joke...that was nice) but I think in the past couple months I've sort of found a community over here. The album that REALLY got me into music spaces and encouraged me to start sharing my opinions / analyses was this one!

Census Designated (or Census/CD, as I'll probably refer to it throughout this review) has been pivotal to my life since before it came out. I first discovered Jane through her feature on underscores' Wallsocket (an album which I'll probably review in more detail soon), where I instantly fell in love with her vocals. I checked out the title track about a week after it dropped and thought it was so fresh. There was a unique sort of pain to the song which really resonated with me at the time, and I kept it on loop for weeks. I was so damn lonely and depressed from October to like...February, and found a lot of solace in Census, especially "Holding a Leech," my personal SOTY of 2023. For the first time in my life I tried to get mental health support, and this album made communicating my feelings and circumstances a lot easier. It gave a voice to what I'd kept buried all my life.

On the other side of all the shit I went through, I still listen to this album a lot. Sure, it takes me back to some of the worst times in my life, but the genius of the production and songwriting is undeniable. I can’t stop coming back to it, even though it breaks my heart. I truly and genuinely believe that Census Designated is a masterpiece.

Census Designated is the sophomore album by Jane Remover, an artist who got her start making electronic music (Frailty, Dariacore, etc.). However, Census is a straight-up rock album, with loud guitars and harsh walls of noise. The lyrics are just as harsh as the production, with fictional stories of abusive relationships, violence, and a lot of body horror. With that being said, despite how much I love Census, I wouldn’t recommend this album to anybody…unless they’re in the right headspace for it. If you go in expecting “Frailty 2,” you will come out with ear fatigue and a hefty dose of nightmare fuel.

WITH THAT BEING SAID. The harshness of the album - all of its jarring static and blood-curdling screaming - is balanced by incredibly catchy melodies and a lot of introspection. Jane’s vocals are really great - a huge improvement since Frailty and even the venturing tracks. She has an incredibly smooth voice, and I can tell she’s influenced by a lot of pop vocalists like Ariana. I'm a vocal technique nerd. I bet SHE's so lucky to have a voice like that.

Vocals aside, I love the instrumentations on here too! She uses the harsh noise and heavy guitars to further the turmoil in each track. They’re all explosive songs, starting out quite calm and eventually building up to a huge release towards the end. It works out really well; on songs like “Holding a Leech,” you can feel the slight numbness in her voice on the first chorus turn into loud, unimaginable desperation by the end of the song, as she chokes out “how much longer ‘till I’m truly alone?”

ALSO!! The lyrics are SO good. She's said in interviews that none of what she talks about really happened to her, they're just abstractions of feelings she had been having. I think her way of articulating these feelings is so evocative. You can't take anything here at face value, so you really have to Analyze for the lyrics to make sense. Even without reading them over and over, I feel like, for me personally, there was a clear feeling that each line evoked, and it's so cool how open ended so much of it is. My favourite lyrics are on the title track, which is fuelled with so much anger and pain that it's sort of overwhelming. Jane said the song is about the music industry and how it takes advantage of young artists. Despite not relating to that at all, I ~felt~ a lot of what she was saying, and saw myself in a lot of it.

Census Designated feels like a cautionary tale; a story of the absolute worst case scenario. Nightmare after nightmare. Boiling water being poured on hands. Jaws being broken. Cars being crashed. Desperation. Begging for forgiveness. Throwing up. Waking up feeling fine, despite it all. In the absence of the physical pain, there lies a pit in my stomach as I listen to these songs. A sense of uneasiness. A deep, unexplainable sorrow.

This album will not save your life. Not like Nurture or Sweetener or any of those albums where you come out of it feeling like everything will be okay. No, this is an album that is harrowing. So intensely horrifying, that you might start to recognize that something is wrong if you resonate with it. And there's something so important about that. I can't say that Census Designated /saved/ my life; but it did change it. And for that, it's become one of my favourite albums of all time.

...And a 10/10.

Thanks for reading. If you've ever felt like I did, I just want to say that everything will be okay, and this, too, shall pass. You will survive. You will find a way out of it. I believe in you. Keep going.

[painstakinglybad]

That's right. I'm gonna post Stardew headcanons

Assigning Stardew Bachelors/Bachelorettes songs that I've played with my band

(I'm sorry Penny enjoyers, she's not here because I didn't have anything that would work for her)

Alex

Are You Gonna Go My Way - Lenny Kravitz

We're starting strong with this one

I feel like he'd listen to it while he's working out. He totally listens to rock and a lot of it's subgenres

The song is fun to play, it's groovy (literally and metaphorically), and it just feels like him yk

Elliott

Don't Fear The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

I think he's existential. He's a writer, how can he not be??

Totally spiritual, he just doesn't talk about it

One of those people who has a very polite and respectful relationship with the concept of death

Harvey

Burnin' For You - Blue Oyster Cult

He listens to classic rock sometimes… he wants to feel cool

Really lonely, but he's chill about it (on the outside 🥀💔⛓️)

Dad bod brings dad energy

Sam

Greener - Tally Hall

HERE'S THAT PART AGAIN WHERE EVERYTHING'S WHERE IT SHOULD B-

He's so… early 2000s rock music

Dramatic teenage boy I swear

He'd probably listen to Tally Hall– that's probably what his music sounds like too– or Good Kid

I resisted the urge to mark him as Even Flow

Sebastian

Reptilia - The Strokes

Oh, he is edgy, and oh, how his heart aches

He makes sure no one is at home and just screams it out I just know it

If he did vocals he'd probably sound like Julian Casablancas– or at least have the same energy

He probably listens to The Strokes anyway, it's Alt Rock and he's 100% the alt part

Shane

Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers

He is… so very sad

The song is about,, subjects… subjects that apply to him

He'd probably be an RHCP fan

Abigail

Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult

She's funny

She's a nerd, and she totally rocks the fuck out to this 😭

Probably tried to convince Sam and Sebastian to cover it, they absolutely agreed

Emily

Misery Fell - Tally Hall

She's weird and metaphorical

ABSOLUTELY one for peace and love and acceptance

Spiritual mom going through a midlife crisis - coded

Haley

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

I think it's very her in the sense that she's ambitious, but a little narrow minded

Probably listens to music in this style or from around this time for the aesthetic

This song has a really annoying structure, just like she's annoying to interact with before you gain her affection

Leah

Crooked Teeth - Death Cab For Cutie

She probably listens to Death Cab

Absolutely wrecked in her last relationship. She felt unloved, and, much like the song suggests, the relationship itself was going nowhere since neither party were really made for each other

She's so sweet and I love her like I love singing this song

Maru

Rio - Duran Duran

There's just something about it

I feel like she'd listen to Duran Duran to begin with

She's really unique– and special- she's very much different from the other Bachelorettes since almost all of them exist in my mind as the same archetype- like Rio, she is an individual

[fools-and-perverts2]

okay it's the morning who wants to hear my entire crane wives opinions

"me i do" okay thank you so top three albums least to most fave:

coyote stories

live from dogtown studio

the fool in her wedding gown

top 3 singles least to most fave:

here i am (i deeply relate to it)

high horse (it's really clever)

take me to war (The Character)

top three fool in her wedding gown tracks least to most fave:

tongues and teeth

shallow river

steady, steady

top three unreleased least to most fave (as of posted check timestamp!!)

margaret

scars

bonebreaker

[yoestuveaquiunavezfrases21]

2239- Mis héroes son los que cometieron errores, pero los enmendaron y se recuperaron.

(Bono)

[s1ckh1mb0]

For all you bitches that came for Megan after her album dropped and said it sounded like all her other ones you bitches are lying. Y’all say that about everything. Y’all just don’t like her which is okay but don’t lie about why.

[bitch-with-a-spoon]

i find doja cat's new demonic persona overhyped and honestly kind of unoriginal. it feels like especially now the idea of being demonic, witchy, overtly not/anti christian imagery is used as a write-off for some form of empowerment (my first thought on this matter is almost always white women claiming witchcraft as a way to almost separate themselves from whiteness/oppressors, though that is more of a line of thought than correlation). I think Lil Nas X's use of satanic imagery worked because there was a connection. a reason. it was more than aesthetic and i could get behind/understand reclaiming the figurehead of what was used to ostracize you. If there is doja lore that i am missing and some big reason why she did all this then sure that's on me for not looking into it further, but it is just so exhausting seeing artists overuse stuff like this to not even have like a cool idea past like... idk it just feels kinda disingenuous.

i lost my train of thought writing this. it spawned from seeing spotify suggest her new album to me. i just cant really get behind her music after she said she said her old music was trash and wasn't really her then turning around and using some of the sickest beats for mid lyrics.

[elfdragon12]

Based on something I saw a Swiftie say...

(No one cares who you hate, only who you like.)

[fembrie]

i think the reason why i like taylor so much, even if she isn't the second coming of singer-songwriter jesus like swifties tend to portray her, is because her music feels like it treats female romantic experiences really genuinely and sincerely? i don't want to listen to a nepo baby's new wave experimental synth pop ballad about how much he wants to fuck goth girls with daddy issues. i don't want to listen to a man scream about how broken and lonely and damaged he is because of an evil psychopath ex. i don't want to listen to love songs by men that make women the punchline, the mouth and tits and ass, the joke everyone else is in on except herself. i want to listen to music that takes me seriously.

[not-lame-llama]

My ideas on the new Hozier songs:

Too Sweet: When you have a crush that’s just perfect in every way and your small interactions make you squeal. But you don’t tell your friends, this is your little secret. You don’t really want them, you just want the attention, you want the joy of having a crush, an adventure to pursue. You just jump up and down in your room sometimes. It isn’t real romance, you don’t really want them to touch you, they’re friends are bad or something would go wrong. You’d be bad for them. But it’s the chase. Love it.

Wildflower & Barley : When you take a quiet moment while on a family trip and go to a local cafe. You feel out of place and that’s both comforting and scary, but you’re in a small, gorgeous town, and you’re just thinking about the barista’s beautiful voice and what her life might be like here. This place that is so alien to you could be important in ways you couldn’t guess to someone else. Someone you’ll forget in a week, but in a place you’ll have pictures from for years.

Empire Now: I don’t know how but the beginning lowkey reminds me of Hadestown. Otherwise, pretty good, lyrics are a bit too repetitive, not as earth shaking as I expect from Hozier, but you feel the inspiration deep. Giving old, multi-song Gacha music videos that were about rebellions. (Don’t ask me about my past.)

Fare Well: 10/10 Listening to the first time I just kinda had to really listen and sway my head. That’s what you hear when you go on a solitary outing, when it feels just right for those five minutes at the beginning. It’s remembering walking down a path you’ve never been, with your favorite weather, and smiling to yourself. It’s good nights with your headphones in, looking at the stars and reminding yourself you can be happy, what you’re happy for. I think it’s quite cute. Adding it to my playlist.