#and just for the record we are NOT going to think about all the 2010s-2020s pop culture references in an AU decidedly set in the future

[lizord-lord]

Don't call my name, don't call my name, Alejandro

I may not have quite enough writing confidence to throw myself into that end of the Cyberpunk AU just yet... but I have my own ways to contribute!

(we are having such fun with this thing. it's delightful. our brains are massive and wrinkly and capable of infinite crime.)

[fangirl-dot-com]

Chapter 31 - Rookie of the Year

Last regular chapter! We have the Drive to Survive episode and then the prologue left! I'm not going to say many words because my farewell to this story will come after DTS drops which will be tomorrow night around 8:30 pm CT

The end of To Do is To Dare is scheduled for this Saturday, 11:30 am CT.

I love you all!

“Kid, are those shorts?” 

You looked up the phone in your hand up to Max, who was sitting in front of you in the limo. Your eyes flitted back down to your lap, where your dress had ridden up to reveal the basketball shorts that were supposed to be hidden. 

You shot him a sheepish grin. 

“Quite possibly.” 

Max rolled his eyes. “And why are you wearing shorts underneath a 7 thousand dollar dress?” 

“If Zendaya can do it, so can I. And besides, I’m taking them off when we get close. I just didn’t want to cross my legs in the car.” 

A snort came from Arthur, who sat to your right. To his opposite sat Charles. The four of you were all decked out in clothing that could definitely pay for a high end sports car. The Armani suits were tailored to the two Monegasques. Max’s suit and your dress were from the newest Dior line, thanks to your own ambassadorship with the luxury brand. The heels on your feet costs thousands as well. You didn’t even want to think about how much the jewelry that adorned your wrists, neck, and ears cost. 

Arthur leaned over, hand on your thigh. “Well you might want to take them off because we’re about 5 minutes away.” 

A pout grew on your lips, but you appropriately slid the basketball shorts off your smooth legs. You definitely didn’t miss the ogling eyes of your boyfriend. You gave him an innocent smile, which made him glare at you. 

“You think I’ll get rookie of the year?” 

The question made the men groan. 

You gawked at them. “What? I don’t know if they’ll do it since I was the only rookie. That’s like giving a first place trophy to the only alone person in a competition. Useless.” 

Charles gave you a smile. “What previous awards have you won or records you have broken?” 

Your eyes flickered to the ceiling in thought. 

“Ok, so I was the youngest European Karting Division Champion in 2010, the youngest Italian Karting Division Champion in 2012, youngest F4 race winner and champion in 2018, youngest F3 race winner and champion in 2019, youngest F2 race winner in 2020. That year I was also Rookie of the Year and got the Jules Bianchi award. And then I was the youngest F2 champion in 2023. This year I was the youngest pole sitter in F1, I had the most points for a rookie year with 333 points, and then the most podiums for a rookie with 15 podium finishes. I equaled Lewis’s record of four wins in a rookie season. And I think that’s it…Why are you three staring at me like that?” 

A blush formed on your face as the three men just stared. Max shook his head in disbelief. 

“You’re more decorated than I am.” 

A roll of your eyes had him arguing. With the jerk of the car, the two of you silenced. Through the heavily tinted windows, you could see the flashes of cameras. You inhaled sharply which caught Arthur’s attention. 

“I’ll hold your hand the entire time ok?” 

A nod of your head let him know that you’d be fine with that. The moment the door opened, the noise was deafening. People were screaming your name, along with Max, Charles, and Arthur. You flashed the best smile you could as you walked to the building. But a certain car caught your eyes. The familiar navy was beaconing you to go over. You let your hand slip from Arthur as you got closer to your season car. 

“Hey buddy,” you whispered as you ran your hand along the carbon fiber body. You could still hear the flashes of the cameras but it didn’t matter to you anymore. You were back with your car that carried you so well during the races.

You leaned closer as if to tell a secret. “I’m still going to buy you so you can come rest with my other cars back home. I’m going to miss you Forum.” 

The name was a simple call back to the Formula cars. But, in your mind, you couldn’t just call him Formula, because that would be weird. Max only smiled when you told him the name earlier in the season. 

Apparently, the Red Bull cars were men. 

You smiled over your shoulder at Arthur who had waited for you. Internally, you were trying to waste time so you didn’t have to sit through long boring speeches. But, the look of mild panic of being late in Arthur’s eyes got you to start moving. 

Once inside, you welcomed the air conditioning. Arthur’s fingers found the open slot of your dress on your side. The comfort of the skin to skin contact was very appreciated. 

Thankfully, they had decided to put the top three at the same table. Since you and Max were on the same team, and Charles got along with the two of you quite well, they didn’t see a problem with you all sitting together. It definitely made the night less boring. 

When Max got up to say his acceptance speech, some tears rolled down your face. It was especially when he got to talking about you. 

The Dutchman smiled down at the table, or well, at you. 

“I don’t normally do this, but I also have to thank my teammate, Y/n. 

“When I heard that she was going to replace Sergio at the beginning of 2024, I was a bit hesitant. I am used to being in a comfortable spot in life, but the world decided to throw a 20-year-old at me and said ‘here you go, have fun’.” 

The crowd chuckled at his words, but you tried to laugh through the tears. Max continued.

“The first few races were great. I had to go find her after she borrowed a car, we played football on the Miami beach, and I got to really connect with drivers that I didn’t know I could be close to.” 

You saw a bigger smile grow on Charles’s face. You personally knew that the Ferrari driver was more than thankful for Max’s close friendship. It made the season go so much better than in 2022. 

“It was in Suzuka that I noticed that my teammate had become part of my family when I was so…scared to lose her. I know I wasn’t the only one that said I wouldn’t have continued to race if she had…” 

Max didn’t finish the sentence as he wiped his eyes. Arthur’s hand gripped yours a bit tightly at the reference to your DNF at Suzuka. 

The Champion inhaled before he spoke again. 

“But what matters is that she was able to finish the season with me in third place. We were able to take home the constructor’s championship with her fastest lap. 

“Y/n has meant so much more to me than a regular teammate. And I am thankful that we get to have more years of competitiveness together. I am 100 percent confident when I say that she will be a World Champion.

“Thank you.” 

Max walked off stage as the crowds roared at the completion of his speech. You were up next, so you stood from the table and walked over to meet him. He brought you into a big hug and didn’t let go for a bit. You felt him kiss the top of your head before he let you go. 

You shakily inhaled as you stood on the edge of the stage. 

“And now, please welcome the Rookie of the Year and third place winner of the Driver’s Championship, Y/n L/n!” 

Once you heard the clapping, you made your way to the middle of the stage. The man handed you two trophies that were a lot heavier than you thought. You awkwardly grinned as you stood still for pictures. 

One the man gave you the signal to start, you bent down slightly to put the trophies down. When you rose back up, you took a deep breath. You gave the crowd a smile before you started to speak. 

“First off, I’d like to thank everyone here today. It would be weird to be speaking to an empty room, so the audience is appreciated.” 

Laughter came from the crowd, which let you know that you were doing great. 

“Next, I’d like to thank my personal team. I wouldn’t be here without my physio, even if I continued to beg her to eat ice cream all the time. To my trainer, I don’t think I’d be able to even turn my steering wheel without him. And then to Vito, my manager. When I say that he is truly the only person who has stayed by myself through the years, it’s him. He didn’t have to stay, but he did. I’d be lost without him and probably driving an uber around cities to make money.” 

Your voice gave a little crack at the end, but a chuckle covered it up. You saw Vito smile at you and hold his thumb up. 

“Then there’s my found family. I’d like to thank the Leclercs for truly putting time and effort into my career. I can’t count the amount of times on my hand that Pascale sent me some extra food whenever she visited Arthur. I know she’s not here tonight, but she deserves all of my thanks. She truly treated me like her own, even if I wasn’t. She’s been the mother that I never got to have growing up.” 

“To Charlie, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to race and compete against my childhood hero. But here we are, with you looking at my backside throughout the season.” 

You heard a “hey!” from Charles that made the crowd laugh even louder. 

“But, we both know you came out on top despite some difficulties. Thank you for being so kind to me. And thank you for signing all three pairs of my Lightning McQueen Crocs.” 

Charles blew you a kiss which you pretended to catch. 

“Last and not least of my Leclerc entourage, Arthur. I cannot begin anywhere to ever tell you how thankful I was to be your teammate in Formula 2. You saw a frightened and anxiety-ridden girl, who thought that the 2023 season would be the end of her driving career. But, you took me to dinner after our first meeting, and in the process might have taken my heart as well. I’m glad that it only took me crashing my car in Japan for you to finally confess.” 

Once again, you choked a bit. But, you’re pretty sure that everyone in the room did as well. You sniffed as you wiped your eyes. 

“But I wouldn’t have it anyway.” 

At the table, there wasn’t a dry eye at all. Arthur was wiping at his eyes harshly in frustration. The tears would not stop falling. Even Max was crying and you hadn’t even said anything in his direction. The Dutchman knew that he would be a gonner the moment you said his name. 

“To the Red Bull team. Like I’ve said all night, there aren’t any words that could sum up my gratitude. I remember hearing the news that Max was signed at 17 and I only thought, gosh they had balls.” 

More laughter from the crowd. 

“Charles might be driving for Ferrari, but I have always wanted to drive for the energy drink team. Their famous saying, Red Bull gives you wings, has been entirely true for this season. You took a chance on me and gave me my wings to fly and soar. Thank you Christian for treating me like the dad I never had. I’m excited to be driving for you for many years.” 

You changed your card and looked down at the wobbly words due to tears. You looked up, and at that moment, you realized that your eye makeup must have been running. Oh well, who cares. 

“And finally, but maybe the most important person of all in this room, other than me of course.” 

Soft laughs could be heard despite the sobering moment to come. Everyone had been waiting to see what you would say about Max. 

“If there was an award for best teammate, I would give Max the trophy over and over again. I was so nervous to meet him. I didn’t want to be disrespectful, because you don’t just become a three-time world champion’s teammate without doing something right in life. But that happened to me. Almost immediately, I could tell that Max would be a good one.

“The night we met, he took me out to get ice cream and showed me pictures of his cats for hours. At Christmas, he knew that I didn’t have any family to spend it with and all but dragged me back to his home in Monaco. He made sure I knew that I was welcomed and loved. 

“Because that is what I admire about Max. Not his career, not his driving, and definitely not his cooking skills. I admire him for his ability to be kind and to love easy. I never had the best childhood, and Max knew nothing about it, but he treated me with such preciosity. He made me feel wanted for maybe the second time in my life. 

“My childhood was filled with moments of unwantedness. I was a female going against the best boys and men in the motorsport leagues. I was treated unfairly sometimes, but I was never treated like that with Max. 

“So, Maximillian, I can’t thank you enough for making a little girl’s dream come true. I might have won all of these awards tonight, but I only feel like a winner because I am walking away with a group that no family could beat. 

“So thank you from the bottom of my heart.” 

The amount of applause could not be contained in the room. Even the security guards outside the door could hear the cheers and claps coming from the different personnel in the room. It wasn’t long before everyone was standing for you as you walked down. 

However, Max seemed to stand the straightest in pride for you. If it wasn’t for the tear stains on his cheeks, you wouldn’t even know that he had been crying. There was a genuine smile on his face. His arms opened for a hug when you got to the table. You put yourself there as he wrapped his arms around you. Your head rested gently on his shoulder. You felt his lips touch your forehead.

Once the hug was over, you felt another person wrap their hands around. You knew who is was once his lips touched your own. You melted a bit before Arthur leaned back.

“I am so proud of you.”

“Thank you mon bebe.” 

A groan left his lips. 

“You know what it does when you speak my language.” 

A smirk grew on your lips. “Oh I know.” 

Arthur only rolled his eyes. 

“My rookie of the year.” 

Max’s hands landed on your shoulder and Arthur’s. To be honest, you forgot that the rest of the word even existed. Oops. 

“Not rookie anymore. Time for the sophomore year!” Max’s voice sounded above the crowd. 

You looked up at the Dutchman. 

“I’m going to win the championship this year.” 

“No you aren’t.” 

“You are both wrong. I will be the world champion.” 

“Sure Charles, sure.” 

y/n.89 has posted

y/n.89 wow, I didn't expect to be walking home with three trophies tonight 😚 all jokes aside, thank you to the FIA for naming me Rookie of the Year (even if I was the only one) and then for granting me the first ever Woman of the Year in Motorsports. I'm hoping that in the next few years, others will be able to be bestowed this award like I have been. Thank you everyone! See you in a few months for testing 💙 - rookie out

liked by arthur_leclerc, maxverstappen1, y/n.nation, and 6,204,957 others

y/n.nation if you look in the back of the fourth picture, you can see me drowning on my tears

arthur_leclerc I am totally fine being the trophy husband

y/n.89 awwww I'm glad that I can have you as the trophy husband

y/nxarthur HUSBAND?

maxverstappen1 HUSBAND??

charles_leclerc HUSBAND?????

y/n.89 I said what I said - haters gonna hate 🤭

box_box_express I cannot WAIT for preseason testing, why do I miss this already?

y/n&co I'm just waiting for the DTS episode, it's going to be so good

y/n4ever her speech tonight, I'm kind of worried for the episode...

lestappenlove oh gosh, Charles and Max looked like such proud older brothers (I don't think I've ever seen either of them cry before)

maxverstappen1 couldn't have done anything without you kid! even if you continue to call me Maximilian in front of thousands and thousands of people

y/n.89 I don't care - you'll always be my maximillian 😆

sophomore_y/n the trophies are so pretty 🥹

formula1_edits I can see all the videos and edits on tik tok forming now - maybe something Harry Styles 🤔

author everything is going to be all right - just like it always is

y/n.89 thank you for making this happen!

author anything for you kid...anything

charles_leclerc CAN I BE WORLD CHAMPION PLEASE?????

formulala_delulu WHY IS IT ENDING??? 😭

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[watermelonsugacry]

Hey! Hope everything’s going good! Was thinking if bandmember did anything like the vanity fair Billie eilish videos when they watch back all those interviews. Would love to see how far our girl has come

YN YLN: Same Interview, The Sixth Year | Vanity Fair

A/N: Christmas break is coming up so been busy but I also have some stuff coming out soon for your lovies! 💚

SINCE 2010 masterlist

“Year six, baby,” YN smirks at the camera. “Alright—” She pulls on the tops of her pink sheer opera gloves that match her pink corset before clapping her hands together. “—Let’s do this. ‘Ello, m’name is YN YLN. Today’s date is October 18, 2022.”

How old are you?

“I’m 23 years old.”

“I’m 24.”

“25.”

“26.”

“27.”

“M’28 years old,” YN kisses her teeth. “M’pushing 30, mate.”

How many followers do you have on Instagram?

“I have 573K followers on Instagram.”

“8.7M.”

“60.9M.”

“94.8M.”

“106M.”

“I currently have 287 million followers on Instagram. Dunno why I have so many; I make a lot of shit posts.”

What is your most liked picture on Instagram?

2017:

“My most liked picture is one of me and the boys huddled up backstage after our last performance together with 654K likes.”

2019:

“It is a picture of me in my home recording studio with about 5 million likes.”

2022:

“It’s currently one of me photo dumps on tour. The first picture on that one is a selfie with Harry taking a bite out of m’cheek. This one has 60,036,819 likes. Which is way too many likes if m’being honest.”

How are you feeling today?

2022:

“M’feeling really good. I always look forward to these interviews. I try me best not to look at the old videos more than once so that I can best prepare meself for my current answers, yeh know? But I love that I get to do this every year. There’s a lot of like, time lapse compilation videos on meself on YouTube that show off how far I’ve come over the years but these I feel are the least cringy ones,” YN lets out a laugh.

Biggest thing to happen in your career?

2021:

“I won a Grammy for producer of the year?” YN furrows her eyebrows as she juts her chin out. “Wha’ is life? That’s insane. The highlight of me career. Hands down.”

2022:

“It’s still the highlight of me career. And I got nominated for it again for Grammys 2023. To even be nominated and be the only woman in this category a second year in a row is just super fookin’ wild. Um...I got seven other Grammy nominations for next year. I’m also on tour again—a world tour—and it’s definitely me favorite thing to do aside from making the actual music. Harry’s new album that we’ve been workin’ on for over the past two-ish years finally came out earlier this year. I’m dropping me third album before the year is up. So many good things have happened this year that it’s honestly too long to list.”

How often do you get recognized in public?

2017:

“Pretty often,” She nods her head, a chuckle pushing past her lips. “It’s pretty hard to just go out and grab a bite to eat without getting surrounded.”

2020:

“Public? Who is she? I dunno her,” YN teases. “It’s pretty rare that I’ll go out nowadays and the masks only help so much with trying to be lowkey on the street on stuff like tha’.”

2022:

“I have to admit, v’gotten a lot better at being discreet when going out in public,” She nods her head with a knowing smile. “I think I was just so used to not being ‘allowed’ to go outside or if I did I wouldn’t enjoy meself because I knew I was gonna get recognized by paps. It was really hard for baby YN there because of how everything started. Everything I did was in the public eye and no matta’ what I did, me fans always knew where I was at all times it seemed,” YN hums. 

“I love me fans and I love the times when we happen to see each other on the street, we can have like a genuine conversation instead of shoving yeh phone in me face and putting yeh hands on me without me permission. I’ve had the most amazing conversations with fans like tha’ those moments are super special to me.

But in all honesty, they need to get hired by the FBI or somethin’. Knowin’ where m’gonna be before I even do,” She huffs out a chuckle.

What’s most important to you right now?

2020:

“The relationships within me life. I think this year has really made me recognize that. Whether those relationships are with me mum, me boyfriend, me tour team, me dancers, the fans—they’re all super important to me. Makin’ sure that we’re all safe and healthy—mentally and physically—now more than ever.”

  2022:

“All of which are still very important to me. I think v’also learned to stay in touch with me emotions. I think in an industry like this, it can be very easy to just put on a mask or passively go through events to maintain an image. If I’m doing something—wether it be somethin’ major or not, I want to allow m’self to be in the moment.

I did a show recently in Austin and...” The crease between her eyebrows disappear and smile etches itself on her lips at the memory, “I was singing POV and I just stopped singing and the crowd took over. I quite literally just stood there, took out me earpieces and just listened to a stadium full of people sing my song back to me. It made me feel so...it made me feel really good, really happy.”

Do you feel pressure?

2017:

“I do yeah,” YN nods with a sincere furrow of her eyebrows. “But I have been feeling pressure for the majority of my career so I’m mostly used to it by now; It doesn't bother me as much anymore.”

2022:

“Of my fookin’ word,” She throws her head back. “I can’t even—like even the way I spoke, man. Can yeh hear that? Like, I was still in the mindset of having to change the way I talk, tweak me accent and act all prim and proper,” YN points a finger into her mouth as she sticks out her tongue.

“And what a lie. Like of course that pressure bothered me still! I was fresh into the hiatus, just dropped me first solo album, about to do a world tour by meself for the first time. I was dealin’ with so much that I remember the pressure of everything was just...it felt that I was gonna be squished into a pancake. Being in the band and being as big as we were, there was an immense amount of pressure for everything to keep going well; everything seemed like it had to get bigger and bigger and if I didn’t live up to that standard as a solo artist, it was the end of the world to me.”

“I do still feel some pressure but definitely not to that extent anymore. It’s more of like, a good pressure, I’d say. It keeps me from resting on me laurels and it makes me continue to work hard to improve meself. Like, just because I won an award for produce of the year doesn’t mean that m’gonna let it get to me head and just not work to better meself in that craft. 

But I have to admit that a lot of that pressure has been lifted off of me from me fans. They’ve just continued to give me their unconditional love and support—whether it be for a year, 2 years, 12 years—m’just super grateful that they just allow me to be me, flaws and all.”

What did you eat today?

2020:

“I ate some grilled chicken—that I made all by myself—with a side of some beans,” YN giggles as she knows by now that the fans have been having a laugh about her boyfriend’s baked beans comment over interviews in quarantine.

2021:

“I had a chicken caesar salad bowl that I probably put way too much dressing on to be considered healthy anymore,” She chuckles, playing with the chunky chain sitting on her collarbones.

2022:

“I actually had an amazing chicken wrap this morning. Just the right amount of protein and yumminess,” She pats her tummy with a content smile. “Yeh girl likes chicken, what can I say?”

Are you aware of people when you're playing?

2019:

“I think so yeah. It’s crazy because for me, it’s scarier to play in front of 6 people than 60 thousand people. But on the other hand, the noisiness of big crowds is super calming to me. I can’t really explain how. Like right before m’gonna go on stage, I like to take out me ear-pieces and just listen to them scream...which now makes me sound like a serial killer of summ’wat,” YN’s shoulders bunch up to her ears as she giggles.

2022:

“I would say that m’more aware of the audience members now more than I ever have before. This current tour that m’on is probably the funnest tour so far and it’s really because of the fans. When m’on stage and when I’m performing, I make sure to look at the people in the audience, yeh know? Like, I can still remember when the band did our first stadium tour, I honestly couldn’t see anything; they were all just blurbed together. 

But with this tour, I make sure to take the time during the show to talk with fans. And I make an effort to sing to them and look at them dancing in the pit, the outfits they recreate, the way some of them are just closing their eyes and just being in the moment. As a musician, to see people come to me show and to see how they create this environment where everyone can have fun and let loose and just have a good time is just super amazin’. It’s a really indescribable feeling.”

Are you more confident this year compared to last year?

2018:

“From last year to now? 100%,” She answers with ease, leaning back into her seat. “I think this is the most confident I’ve ever felt, I think. M’not too worried about what people are sayin’ about me because let’s face it, they are always saying something. So if yeh like me, cool. If yeh don’t, cool.”

2022:

“She’s not wrong. 2018 YN’s ego was pretty up there. Granted, me ego is still growing and sensitive so—” YN shamelessly shrugs and puts her hands up in defense. “—Take tha’ as you will. But I definitely feel more confident and secure in who I am as a person and as an artist. When the boys and I went our separate ways musically, I had a hard time sort of, figuring out what I like and the kind of music I wanted to make for meself. Even the way I thought about fashion, I knew people saw me in skirts and things like that but I remember entertaining the idea of if I wanted to continue that as a security blanket of sorts. 

When I was in the band, I took things with a grain of salt and m’very happy that I’ve kept that with me.” 

Biggest rumor about you?

2017:

“That I’ve slept with each of the 1D boys,” YN lets out a nervous laugh. “Which is gross because they’re all like my brothers.”

2018:

“Where do I even begin?” YN blows out a raspberry. “I’ve been gettin’ this one for literally years now but that m’dating my old bandmate, Harry—which is getting really old at this point,” She scrunches up her nose with a roll of her eyes.

2022:

YN bursts out laughing as she watches her old self answer, knowing full well that during that time period she was in the midst of her on-and-off relationship with Harry. 

She tilts her head to the side with a quick raise of her eyebrows, “I mean, she’s not wrong. V’been getting that question/comment asked since we were on the XFactor. And believe it or not, I still get asked that question. I just answer it differently now,” She cheekily brings her shoulder to her chin.

What do you hate being asked?

2018:

“That. The ‘who are you dating?’ question. For a long time, I just had to suck it up and just answer the question but I don’t have to answer if I don’t want to, y’know? Also, I’m my own person,” She begins to list things off of her fingers, “I’m not someone’s arm candy, m’not so-and-so’s new girl. I’m YN YLN and if all you ask me is if I’m dating anyone rather than me music, you don’t deserve my time.”

2022:

YN drops her jaw and the corners of her lips tug up in a smile.

“A feisty little thing she is,” She chuckles. “But no truer words have ever escaped me mouth. She’s right, and I still stand by that. 100%. My career is not based around a guy or who m’dating. That’s not to say I hate talking about Harry—I love to talk about him but don’t make it the whole point of the interview, yeh know?”

Craziest fan moment?

2021:

“Me first show back on tour after being held back in 2020 was really heartwarming. It a stadium show—not intimidating at all for me first show back—” YN sarcastically comments. “—so there were three levels of seating: the pit, the middle section, and then the top. While I was singing, the audience did a fan project where on the top section held up lights to read welcome back, and then the middle said we missed you, and the pit held up pieces of paper saying we love you. M’not even gonna lie, I was bawlin’ me eyes out. Like, just thinking of the amount of work that went into that...” She shakes her head in disbelief. 

2022:

“I did a show last week in LA and at the barricade, I saw this lineup of these 5 girls wearing my current and past tour outfits. I have seen some really good recreation of me fits before and it was honestly like a copy and paste, I was so shocked. After talking with them for a bit—now I don’t ever do this—but I invited them to come up on stage with me,” YN laughs. 

“I suggested we ditch the choreography for Kiss Me More but they insisted they knew it and sure enough,” YN throws her hands with another laugh. “I almost hired them on the spot!”

Do you have a boyfriend?

2017:

“Um, no. I do not have a boyfriend. I’m just really focused on my music at the moment. That’s my boyfriend,” She lets out a chuckle.

2020:

YN playfully rolls her eyes and throws her hands up, “Well I’d be the biggest liar in the world if I said no.”

She huffs out a giggle as she refers to the entire world finding out about her secret relationship with Harry on New Years Eve of that year.

2021:

“I do have a boyfriend,” She smirks at the camera with a shrug of her shoulder, leaving it at that.

2022:

YN takes a second longer to answer this question and stares at the laptop screen with a fond smile. She technically doesn’t have a boyfriend anymore, but will she let them know that? Nope.

“Well, you’d all be happy to know that Harry and I are still very much together. Still got that boy locked down, ladies,” She playfully winks at the camera with a click of her tongue. 

What makes you happy in a relationship?

2022:

“I like quality time. From staying inside 24/7 in 2020 to easing back into my busy schedule made H and I realize that it was important to set some time aside for ourselves, just the two of us. Like, we don’t even have to be talking just as long as we’re together during the business of it all. And...” A smirk grows on her lips, “One of me love languages is physical touch. It definitely wasn't on the list before so you can probably guess who made me this way but yeah. And music, of course, that’s me main form of love language. Whether we’re listening to good music, making it, singing it—anything to do with it m‘in love.”

Describe your style in 3 words.

2017:

“Figuring it out.”

2018:

“No more skirts,” The 24-year-old rolls her eyes.

2019:

“Whatever is comfy,” She laughs as she wraps her light green cardigan tighter over herself.

2020:

“Trying new things.”

2021:

“Trousers and blazers.”

2022:

She tilts her head as she bites her lip, looking up as she thinks about how to compactly frame her style now. As she says the next three words, she holds up her hand to count it off on her fingers, “Pretty in pink. And 2018 YN was a lie. I still fancy a skirt every now and then.”

Biggest thing you’re struggling with?

2019:

“I think, just being honest with meself in terms of how I feel. I think I struggle a lot with allowing meself to feel the way I feel about certain things,” Or about a certain someone. “And that it's okay to feel those things. I know, super detailed,” She chuckles.

2022:

“Yeah, 2019 YN was certainly going through some personal issues. S’crazy to look back at these videos and remember wha’ I was feelin’ during that time. S’pretty crazy. I can say that v’grown immensely from that time of my life which is very comforting to know. It’s still hard for me, don’t get me wrong, but allowing myself to feel things like love or sadness or happiness is something that I’m subconsciously reminding myself to do. 

I think the biggest thing that m’stuggling now with is to have check ins with meself. It’s safe to say that m’back to my busy, hectic, never-ending schedule so I want to take a breather every now and then. It can be a whole day, a whole 20 minutes, just a pause to check in with my mind, me body, me spirt to make sure m’okay and then be off to a career that I love very dearly.”

What advice would you give your future self?

2017:

“Have some fun and enjoy this new chapter that you’re venturing onto,” She nods with a smile.

2019:

“I would say to allow yourself to feel uncomfortable. Step out of your comfort zone and take that leap of faith.”

2022:

“What a genetic piece of advice for that first year, eh?” YN chuckles with a smirk, “Enjoy this new chapter you're venturing onto like yeh can hear how professional I wanted to sound,” She playfully rolls her eyes with a sigh. “I would say that 2019 YN’s advice is a good one though. It’s a good reminder to not play things safe all the time. As a narcissist, I want everything to be perfect, especially me music, so to be in the studio and not fall back to me old habits of what I think sounds good, try something different, yeh know? I like that a lot, actually.”

This is my mum...

2017:

“Everyone, say hello to Penny,” YN proudly presents as her stepmum comes up to her side, placing a hand on the back of her chair as she waves at the camera.

“‘Ello, lovelies,” Penny beams.

2018:

“Penny!” YN smiles brightly. When she wiggles her fingers towards her stepmum the sound of her rings clinking together can be heard.

When Penny walks up to her stepdaughter’s side, she puts her hands on top of YN’s red leather jacket to give her shoulders a squeeze.

“Hi baby,” Her stepmum gives a warm smile and gently presses her chin to YN’s temple.

2019:

Penny tucks her long, black hair behind her ears before wrapping her arms around her stepdaughter’s shoulders. 

“I love you, my baby,” She says into her hair before planting a kiss on her head.

“I love youuu so much,” YN sings as she holds onto her stepmum’s forearms over her chest.

2020:

“Y’already know what time it is,” YN dances in her seat, her arms already extended out by her side. She lets out a laugh as she watches Penny shimmy her way to her stepdaughter’s side. The tight high waisted jeans show off her curvy, fit figure and a mask covers the lower half of her face.

“It’s Penny time,” Her stepmum throws finger guns at the camera.

2021:

“Come over ‘ere, mum,” YN nods her head over to Penny. Once she’s close enough, she takes a hold of her stepmum’s hand and pulls her over for her to sit on her lap, wrapping her arms over her torso, “Love you.”

“I love you more, baby,” Penny smiles as she leans her head back to rest beside YN’s. 

2022:

“This is me mumma,” YN smiles warmly before cooing out a chuckle. “Wha’ happened?” She questions when she sees Penny walk over to her side with glossy eyes.

“Sorry, m’sorry,” She chuckles, dabbing her under eyes with the sides of her index fingers. “S’just really fookin’ cool to see how far you’ve come. Like look at her—” Penny points to the laptop screen that has 2017 YN on display. “—me lil’ baby.”

“Mum!” YN laughs when Penny wraps her arms around her daughter’s head and pulls it to her chest.

Taglist:

@wobblymug @be-with-me-so-happily @ashtongivesmebutterflies @kiwiskiwiskiwi @darlingdesire @obsesseddd @hopefulwastelandcreation @cacapeepee @breezie-b00 @harrysfolklore @theekyliepage @sunshinemoonsposts @nervousspiderling @tbslonelyhes @tenaciousperfectionunknown @harrystylesrecs @certified-nalayak @itsjustsel @iknowyouthinkimbulletproof @gviosca @behindmygreyeyes @twobluejeans @allisonxmcu @theemeraldbutterfly @jean-love @marvellover-sam @b-reads-things @reveriehs @rach2602 @thurhomish @perrypughstyles @luvonstyles @mxltifxnd0m @teamspideyman @c00chiemonster @juiceboxrry @s8tellite @folklorehrry @illicithallways @claramllera @eunoiaax @hoya122 @nichmedder @sleutherclaw @gloriousmoneyrascalbiscuit @harianaswhore @teawithcyb0rgs @vrittivsanghavi @vc55bughead @futuristiccroissantlampsludge @onecrazydirectioner @valluvsu @itsgabbysblog @awkwardbisexuall @rosehel @sucker4angstt @isalove @diorchives @mrshiddlestyles02

[foxes-that-run]

The thing is...the manipulate jerk that Jake is, he was in her life for way more time than people think. No one understands how much Jake impacted her and broke her. Yeah that can happen in one month too but she literally resents him in a way that makes me think that it wasn't just one or two months. Feel like there's a chance they kept seeing eachother for few more months or like just hooking up. I mean I've read The Moviestar and Me so I wouldn't put it past him to keep coming back to a 21 year old Taylor. He has a pattern

Jake is a POS, Taylor said it was “a kind of bad that gets so overpowering you can't even write about it," Manuscript sings of trauma, and after dating younger boys. I know the WANGBT swiftie-lore is they were on/off, but it was in 2010. Her team said it ended December 2010. To Vanity Fair she said in 2013 "since 2010 I have dated exactly two people.” That is Harry and Conor, so she said she didn't date Jake in 2011.

He also just doesn't sound like someone with who 'the armor falls', 'a worthwhile fight', or the 'golden age of something good and right':

The Guardian: [Hide away and find your peace of mind / With some indie record that's much cooler than mine.] "That was the most important line of the song," Swift says. "It was a relationship where I felt very critiqued and subpar. He'd listen to this music that nobody had heard of … but as soon as anyone else liked these bands, he'd drop them. I felt that was a strange way to be a music fan. And I couldn't understand why he would never say anything nice about the songs I wrote or the music I made."

And finally to USA Today: "WANEGBT is a definitive portrait of how I felt when I finally stopped caring what my ex thought of me. He made me feel like I wasn't as good or as relevant as these hipster bands he listened to. So I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that he'd have to hear it, but it's the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to.

So maybe State of Grace is about some blue eyed fire sign we never knew about... Conor Kennedy is a Leo (fire sign) with brown eyes... or maybe that detail was changed, or its a line she liked from an earlier song. Lots of swifties think its about Jake and that's all cool, but I don't think much of Red is about Jake apart from ATW. ... and I don't' think Taylor does either because:

In October 2013 she spoke with Vulture, “I heard from the guy that most of Red is about,” Swift said. “He was like, ‘I just listened to the album, and that was a really bittersweet experience for me. It was like going through a photo album.’ That was nice. Nicer than, like, the ranting, crazy e-mails I got from this one dude."

"Most of Red" is about someone who listens to her music, unlike Jake who didn't listen to her music, did rant at her and she so much wanted him to hear WANGBT that she made it an earworm. And:

On 28 December 2015, when the Out of the Woods Music Video was about to be released she went on a liking spree about it which included this post, linking the muse of State of Grace with Out of the Woods:

(Thank you @cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim who had all of that in her fabulous Red post.)

[syn4k]

digital media i watched this year that i really really enjoyed: a (non-exhaustive, non-ranked) list

hi everyone! ray keys here. i'm writing this on Dec 21st because I know I'll forget to post this on time if I don't schedule it beforehand.

i don't watch things on streaming services because i don't have any of the apps downloaded on my phone and most shows just aren't my thing anyways (ATLA has been the only exception) so all of the links here go to YouTube or other (free) sites

here we go!

Misc. Series and Standalone Videos

17776

17776 is a multimedia webnovel (?) about American football in the year of, you guessed it, 17776, written in 2017 by Jon Bois. It's told through the communications of three space probes made by humans and it's genuinely comforting as someone who's generally terrified by the concepts of eternity and immortality. Trigger warning for unreality at the start.

17776

20020 (the sequel, written in 2020 by the same author)

Code MENT

Code MENT is a YouTube series made by PurpleEyesWTF, of which the first episode was released in 2010. It's a fan-made abridgMENT of the anime Code Geass, voiced entirely by one guy (or at least i think so), and some parts of it have become legendary (see: Soup Store). Trigger warning for murder, infrequent use of the R slur, and depictions of blood and gore.

Code MENT playlist

Star Wars The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West, uploaded to YouTube by GratefulDeadpool in 2017, is a video where somebody put the entire script of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Google Translate, translated it to Chinese then back to English, and dubbed over it. Yes, it's the entire movie. No, it somehow hasn't been taken down yet.

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Mianite (S1)

At least some of you should be familiar with Mianite, seeing as how it has taken over my entire blog over the past month or so. The World of Mianite is a vanilla Minecraft SMP launched in 2014. It was streamed live, but the recordings of those livestreams were later uploaded to YouTube. The main members of the serverlist are CaptainSparklez, II_JERIICHO_II, SynHD, and OmgItsFirefoxx. Mianite has had three seasons so far, but I've only watched the first from one perspective so that's what you guys are going to get.

CaptainSparklez' Mianite S1 Playlist

MAMASb0y's Mianite Animations Playlist

Mianite Purge Highlights Playlist

Alan Becker (and his Team)'s Work

Hi! This channel gets a special section all to itself because I just finished the Animation vs Minecraft series and I'm pretty sure my life has been irreversibly changed forever.

Animator Vs Animation

Animator Vs Animation (shortened: AVA or AvA) is an animated YouTube series by Alan Becker. The first episode was originally posted in 2006 and was later reuploaded to the platform in 2018. I recently binged the entire thing and was NOT expecting it to be as fucking incredible as it was. This is the de facto best place to start if you want to jump into Alan's other works featuring these characters, which I highly recommend because all of them are fantastic!

Animator Vs Animation Series Playlist

Animation Vs Minecraft

The stick men play the block game. Do not read the comments of any of the episodes until you have finished the entire series. Do not go in with any prior knowledge if you're able to. Set yourself up with a bowl of popcorn and a big ol' glass of ice water, sit back, look really closely for continuity because it is there and it is GLORIOUS, and enjoy.

Animator Vs Minecraft Series Playlist

[aus-wnt]

Caitlin Foord: ‘Men think women’s football is a ‘pussy’ sport’

Despite overtaking the Wallabies to become the third most popular national team in Australia, Matildas star Caitlin Foord says some Australians still see women’s football as a “weaker sport” - but she predicts that’s about to change.

Australians are on the cusp of witnessing one of the country’s most significant sporting tournaments when the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off this month here and in New Zealand. And the excitement is demonstrably palpable: with more than a million tickets already sold, the event (which takes place from July 20 till August 20) is on track to become the most attended standalone women’s sporting event in history.

For Matildas star forward Caitlin Foord, this World Cup will mark her fourth; in 2011, she became the youngest Australian ever to play in the tournament. ​​And to think her record-breaking career may never have happened. “Rugby league was what my family supported and I wanted to play rugby league when I was younger,” Foord tells Stellar. “But my nan told Mum that if she let me play then she would never speak to her again. So that went out the window. But if there were more girls playing at the time, and [if] it was more normal for girls to play, then I don’t even know if I would have gone into football.”

Like many children, Foord’s introduction to soccer began when she was a sporty nine-year-old playing with the boys during lunch at her school in the Illawarra region of NSW. “I was tearing the boys up a little bit, and they asked me to join the local team with one other girl,” Foord recalls. “Mum was hesitant because I was already doing a lot of other sports like Oztag [a non-tackling version of rugby league], and surf lifesaving. But then I got a little bit of help from my sister, who told Mum, ‘She’s really good, she beats all the boys at school.’”

In her first match, she scored six goals, and from there, she never stopped playing. “Before I started, the game wasn’t as professional as it is now, but I probably wasn’t thinking about that,” Foord admits, adding that since she wasn’t much of a student at school, she was all too happy to find herself playing for Sydney FC as a 16-year-old in 2010.

But as her abilities developed, so did the opportunities for women in the sport. Foord moved to the US to join New Jersey side Sky Blue FC in the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season in 2013. She then signed with Vegalta Sendai in Japan in 2017. Now she calls London home, after renewing her contract with powerhouse Arsenal FC, where she’s played since 2020. “My transition in the game came at the same time that the game was growing,” she says. “It kind of just fell into place for me as I went up the ranks.”

Parallel to Foord’s personal career, the women’s game itself has made huge inroads. In 2019, Football Federation Australia signed a four-year-agreement with the player’s union, Professional Footballers Australia, that would see the men and women’s national teams receive equal shares of national team generated revenues. And, thanks to the likes of high-profile teammates such as Foord and captain Sam Kerr – arguably the greatest Australian football player – the Matildas have this year overtaken the Wallabies and are close to overtaking the Kangaroos to become the third most popular national team, according to independent market research firm Futures Sport & Entertainment.

Foord says the bond within the Matildas is a special one. “We’ve all grown up together,” she explains. “We’re a close-knit team. We’re not just teammates, we’re all friends, as well. We all thought that was the normal thing. But being overseas and playing with girls from different nationalities, I’ve heard people say they hate going into the national team. I find that so hard to believe because we love being around each other and I think that’s unique.”

Foord enters the World Cup with not just this camaraderie, but also a considerable home-field advantage and a golden opportunity to raise the profile of women’s soccer in the country. “Football is the world game, yet I’ve had a couple of conversations with people around home and they still don’t really see the women’s game,” Foord tells Stellar. “When we play overseas, it’s on at 3am.”

Which is why this upcoming World Cup is so pivotal. “Australians love sport, so I feel like they just need to see us and that’s enough,” she continues. “That’s all we need. That’s going to be the turning point, especially for the males who have spoken down on the sport before or think of women’s football as a weaker sport or a ‘pussy’ sport. But once they watch us and see how tough the game is and how we all get stuck, that’s all it needs.”

Following the team’s fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas are expected to go deep in the Women’s World Cup. This year’s tournament offers the field a record $165 million in prize money, more than three times the amount from the 2019 Women’s World Cup (though far less, still, than the almost $700 million offered to the men at the 2022 World Cup).

Even so, if the Matildas take out the title, Foord says she will celebrate by purchasing some jewellery.

“As an athlete, I’m used to wearing tracksuits and comfy clothes and the odd dress for an awards night,” she says. “But the older I’ve got, the more I’m into fashion.

“I didn’t grow up with money or anything like that, so when I see something, I don’t buy it straight away. If I’m constantly thinking about it afterwards, then I know I really want it – and I’ve always wanted a Cartier ring. If we went on to win the tournament, I’d buy the one I absolutely love, which has diamonds in it.”

But no matter what happens, Foord plans to keep on kicking on. “All the benefits that come with the game now, me and the girls were part of [building] that,” she says. “We’re obviously grateful for what we have now, but we know it still deserves more – and we need to keep pushing.”

[phanfictioncatalogue]

“Numbered” Fic Titles (4) Masterlist

part one, part two, part three

1st December (ao3) - LadyGrey1996

Summary: Dan and Phil have a very important task.

3:1 (ao3) - thewordshatter (orphan_account)

Summary: The three times Dan wasn’t there for Phil and the one time he was.

4am (ao3) - bloodyscarab

Summary: i’m out late at 4 am  he says “how’s the weather baby, how you been?”

13-17 june 2015 (ao3) - dizzy

Summary: Texts between Dan and Phil while Dan is filming in Sweden for an e-sports documentary.

19th of october (ao3) - starlight_kth

Summary: they fell in love in october, and 100 more

Back To 2009 - phansofotps

Summary: Durning a very important event in their life Phil has flash backs to when Dan first stayed with him.

Buying Chocolate At 3:00 AM (ao3) - shallowlives

Summary: It’s just another late night working at Walgreens, until Phil walks in asking for chocolate recommendations.

December 31, 2010 (ao3) - ReederJoe

Summary: New Year's Eve, 2010

December 2023 (ao3) - yikesola

Summary: December is filled with bonus podcasts he and Phil will be recording, amongst of course his regular podcasts due at their scheduled times, and then there’s all the holidays and all the while all the Everything. Dan’s tired just thinking about it. And before he can even open his mouth to complain he stops himself because he turns and sees Phil laying on the couch with his head in Dan’s lap, looking exhausted as well. He’s been run ragged at the print shop since the middle of November.

Friday The 13th of October (ao3) - Spring_Haze

Summary: Phil surprises Dan after reading his boyfriend's suggestive tweet with regard to a hockey mask and a surprise male visitor in the night on Friday the 13th. Based on Daniel Howell's tweet on October 13, 2017.

If we were two sunflowers, I would have faced you instead of the sun (ao3) - twinphantasy

Summary: It didn’t really matter where they were or what they were looking at because Dan would always be looking at Phil.

June 11th, 2020 (ao3) - sombernova

Summary: 2020 kinda sucks, but that isn't going to stop Phil from making Dan feel like the most important person in the world on his birthday.

March 26th (ao3) - sorasventus

Summary: A very short, sad, Phan Oneshot

nineteenth october (2020 remix) (ao3) - snsk

Summary: The morning dawned cool and inevitable.

October 19, 2009 (ao3) - krissyxlove

Summary: Two internet friends meet for the first time.

party for two (ao3) - SylvesterLester

Summary: Dan has only had five birthdays before this one. And he can't really remember the first three of them. But he knows this has to be the worst one yet.

Still The Same As 5 Years Ago - aleksandraesthetics

Summary: Punk!Dan and Phil were boyfriends back in their high school days. Dan eventually corrupted Phil (In a playful way of course). Phil even gave his virginity to Dan. Eventually they lost contact after high school though, but they ended things on a good note. Phil gets a job as a tattoo artist and Dan comes in one day to get a tattoo. Dan is just as flirty and attractive as Phil remembers him to be.

the fourteenth of february is always cold (ao3) - graylane

Summary: it's Dan's first Valentine's Day without Phil.

The Sixteenth of April (ao3) - thesassykels66

Summary: Why does the month of April always seem so significant to Dan and Phil? Simple, it is when they celebrate their anniversary.

You’re As Cute as 3.142 (ao3) - phanetixs

Summary: “Dan, sweet sweet Dan. All the girls in our class are mad about Phil Lester with his blue eyes and cheekbones and what is he doing about it? Dan, all he’s doing is staring at you,” Louise raises an eyebrow whilst saying this and Dan’s mind becomes increasingly fuzzy in connecting the dots.

or, the story of Dan & Phil, Math rivals, who are secretly into each other.

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Totally disagree that Fine Line's success was modest for Harry, wasn't a significant step, and didn't indicate growth. Its sales figures on debut in the US were more than double that of his first album, with almost triple the streaming numbers (I know you disregard the US sales, but Harry, his team, and the record industry certainly do not! 😆) Given the abrupt shift in how music is consumed between 2017-2019, for him to double sales showed a significant growth and expansion of his audience

This was backed up by the exceptional demand for his tour, by Adore You's radio success and build in December/Jan/Feb, and by the positive album reviews and coverage worldwide. All showing a shift in how Harry was perceived as an artist by audiences outside his initial core fandom, and a significant growth in audience attention.

Your metric - judging Fine Line's initial success against his later work which went on to be even more successful- isn't a meaningful metric for judging how its success was seen at the time by Harry or his team (or audiences). Harry's House hadn't happened yet. Fine Line was hugely successful at debut. Harry's House blew the roof off.

I was super happy to see this anon because it means I can talk true chart nerdery.

Just for clarity - I'm comparing Fine Line's initial release not with what came later, but with HS1. I'm arguing that the data we have about Fine Line indicated that in first couple of months Harry had roughly the same number of people spending money on him and roughly the same number of people paying him attention as he did during HS1.

It's impossible to understand this, without understanding the relationship between 'fans who are spending money' to any metrics - including album sales - is not fixed. The 'album as merch' strategy which is going very strong at the moment greatly increases the number of album sales an artist can get out of one fan who is willing to spend money. If there was a clampdown on the rules for this (for example limiting the number of versions that could be put out) then the numbers for TS11 would be way down from either Midnights or TTPD (unless they came up with somehting new). But that wouldn't mean the number of people who are willing to spend money on Taylor will have changed.

I think UK, while there was a move to streaming over this period, there wasn't a lot of change in record label practices around album sales between 2017 and 2019, so the similarity in the two releases is a straight forward argument to make. Fine Line sold roughly 10,000 fewer copies than HS1 in the first week. I don't think that necessarily suggests a 20% drop in people spending money on him. As you say charts were changing rapidly (although UK official charts was always much stricter than Billboard so there was less inflation) - and Stormzy's sales fell by a similar amount so it could just be the changes in how people listen to music and where they spend their money. And even if there had been a change it wouldn't have been that significant.

But in order to understand what was happening in the US - in order to understand if it's true that "given the abrupt shift in how music is consumed between 2017-2019, for him to double sales showed a significant growth and expansion of his audience". We need to look at what was going on with Billboard rules and how record labels were jacking numbers in the late 2010s.

This was the era of bundling. Billboard allowed both merch and ticket bundling. This meant that artists could set it up so that everyone who bought a ticket to a concert also bought an album (although they did have to actually download the album). Artists could also do exclusive merch bundles . Both of these were at their absolute peak when Fine Line was released. Billboard disallowed merch bundles in January 2020 and ruled out ticket bundling in late 2020 (not that they'd been that pertinent for the last six months). The popcast episode about bundling - is a great summary.

Just a quick sidebar bundling was a really shit way of jacking the charts and I'm really glad it's gone - it meant that artists were giving record labels a piece of revenue streams that should be theirs (album and merch sales) and giving them to record labels - just to increase their chart positions. It also put significant extra financial stress on artists with the pandemic. I think these rules changes ended an exploitative practice by labels (there's some good discussion of this on The Road Taken podcast, but I cannot remember which episode).

Both these practices exploded between HS1 and Fine Line - and Fine Line's very high physical sales were greatly increased by both merch and ticket bundling. Harry had roughly 450,000 tickets on sale in the US at the time, they didn't all sell in the first week and they won't all have included the digital download. But combined with the merch bundling - Harry was getting far more album sales per person who wants to spend money on him during the Fine Line release than he had for HS1. He had a new merch bundle the second week of sales, that helped secure him his second number one.Harry had bundled tour tickets for HS1 - but only the small venue leg. There were only 35,000-40,000 tour tickets sold bundled for HS1 and merch bundling was much less advanced.

I'd be surprised if Harry sold less than 250,000 tickets with an album bundled in - that's the difference between HS1's first week and Fine Line's first week - let alone merch bundling. People bought merch when HS1 was released and tickets to the arena legs of Live on Tour, but this didn't count as an album sale. The fact that album sales were higher when these purchases did count as an album sale is not evidence that more people were spending money on Harry.

Ultimately we can't know for sure there's heaps of uncertainty. We don't know the redemption rate. We have no idea of merch sales. There may have been some growth there may not have been. Ultimately I think the increase in sales in the US is probably understood in the same way as the decrease in the UK. Hard to make exact comparisons - but evidence his career remains in a comparable place.

Your point about streaming tripling is worth investigating - but I strongly suspect it reflects the general growth in streaming at this point. 2017 was still very much part of the transition and there was substantial general streaming growth between 2017 and 2019 (there's a better chart out there - but this captures the basic idea). I quickly compared Reputation and Lover - and Taylor had similar growth in streaming numbers over that time. Would love to consider other examples.

You make a number of other claims about Harry's career at the end of 2019/2020 that I think are exaggeration. The demand for his tour was not exceptional - it sold well, but it was easy to get tickets. I bought my ticket to Love on Tour a month or so after the album came out - a really good seat at a really good price. There were some good reviews, but also some very mixed reviews. Adore You did grow on radio, but very slowly. It wasn't in the radio play top 10 by the end of February 2020 and it peaked at 7 on the Billboard 100 in late March 2020. Again this was a success (even if it happened outside the time I was talking about), but it was not an improvement on SoTT on HS1 (which Watermelon Sugar was). You've based your claim that his image and audience claim on these exaggerations. There's no evidence that his image had changed - or that his audience had increased significantly.

None of this is an insult or a criticism. I think there's a lot of evidence that his team were taking a slow build approach - they didn't try to rush and they kept investing in Adore You as a single (which shows their faith in him). This all started because I said that if HS4 saw the same level of success as Fine Line did initially that would be OK.

[black-arcana]

STITCHED UP HEART Is 'Already About 20 Songs Into The Next Record'

In a new interview with TotalRock's "Louder With Ore B" radio show, STITCHED UP HEART frontwoman Alecia "Mixi" Demner spoke about the band's plans for the follow-up to 2023's "To The Wolves" album. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think the more we create music, the happier we wanna go. Part of it is [guitarist Merritt Goodwin's] fault, and my fault. 'Cause I feel so brutal — I feel so brutal when I scream. But now the next record — we're already about 20 songs into the next record. We're just going for it. And I'm just, like, 'Just write a breakdown after a breakdown after a breakdown.'"

Added Merritt: "I grew up like listening to melodic death metal from Sweden and Finland and stuff. So, back in America when people are, like, 'Oh yeah, this is metal,' but it's just, like, AC/DC or whatever, I'm, like, 'No, no, man.' We have to really, really downtune and do all the cool pedal notes and stuff.

"But yeah, so the next album, we're just trying to get it the next step to go a little bit heavier and a little bit heavier," he explained. "We're just gonna continue to try to push that boundary a little bit."

Elaborating on when fans might be able to expect new music from STITCHED UP HEART, Mixi said: "Yeah, we're just writing [right now]. We were writing before the record came out. We were ready. [Merritt's] super inspired, and we've got a home studio set up. And so we're just having all the pre-production done now. We haven't decided on a full-on producer yet, but as soon as we figure out who's gonna fully produce the record, then we're just gonna go for it."

"To The Wolves" arrived on September 1, 2023 via Century Media Records.

Formed in Los Angeles, California in 2010, STITCHED UP HEART has gained recognition for its intense live performances and deeply personal songwriting.

Mixi is joined in STITCHED UP HEART's core lineup by James Decker on drums, Merritt Goodwin on guitar and Randy Mathias on bass. They released their album titled "Never Alone", which debuted in the Top 10 of both the Billboard Heatseekers and Hard Rock charts. With their single "Finally Free" organically gaining hyper rotation on active rock radio the band paved the way to success for the next two singles "Monster" and "Catch Me When I Fall".

In 2020, STITCHED UP HEART released its sophomore album, "Darkness". Produced by Matt Good, the LP delved further into the band's introspective songwriting and showcases their growth as musicians. Tracks like "Lost" (featuring Sully Erna of GODSMACK) and "My Demon" highlighted the band's ability to blend heavy guitar riffs with anthemic choruses, making a lasting impact on the rock genre.

[boonesfarmsangria]

11, 20, 50, 92

heyyy thanks! was just gonna do this 1-100 as post prompts and kinda forgot it was an actual 'ask' so yeah, thanks for one🤝

11 what is you favorite album of each decade

this will eventually be a list of obnoxious proportions bc before i end this blog im going to answer all these in an exhaustive fashion for a self auditing thing but for brevity...

|| 1960 Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced • 1970 Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon • 1980 Talk Talk - The Partys Over • 1990 Jeff Buckley - Grace • 2000 FOALS - Antidotes • 2010 Sufjan Stevens - Age Of Adz • 2020 Orlando Weeks - A Quickening

this made me feel a lil sick to narrow this to one per. like not a single rem record in here bleh . dont really have anything that comes to mind for decades prior to 1960. im sure they are there but ill figure it out later

20 what are too many songs for one album

13. though youd have to have very good reason to go past 11 really. Oddly 10 usually feels too short

50 song of spring

seems highly unlikely but its actually truly this

92 which albums would you wish to see performed front to back

see this for thee most answer but again for brevity and/or ones i think about too often

grace - jeff buckley // age of adz, carrie and lowell live, planetarium, the ascension - sufjan // antidotes, what went down - FOALS // remain in light, '77 - talking heads // r.e.m.s discography // noonday dream, i forget where we were - ben howard // crack-up - fleet foxes // a quickening - orlando weeks // beacon - two door cinema club // falling bough wisdom teeth - kiev // wildflowers - tom petty

[justcallmelenny]

It’s the fact that he was disgustingly older than her, he dated a minor as a 25 year old full grown adult which is absolutely about power only, his ex said he got angry and violent quick, he admitted in court he called Vanessa paradis many horrible names bc there was physical photographic proof he couldnt deny, there was photos of the damage he did, his own team members admitted they lied bc he intimidated and paid them to lie in ambers person, these same people actually stood up for ambers side eventually, the jokes about raping her dead body was way before they got married which matters, amber does have injuries that were proven to be real if you looked them up or watched the court videos in full, he told Paul bettany that he “pounded and displayed ugly colors on amber”, he said things in recordings where he promised amber he’d get better and “try not to hurt her again” and to “leave him notes in the morning as a reminder to be nice to you”, (abusers always keep you in a cycle where you have hope they’ll change), and in texts to her mom she even said she loves him and wants him to change too, amber never abused her ex bc her ex came forward and said it was a misunderstanding (they’re not dating anymore so if amber was an abuser her ex wouldnt have to defend her), amber was the one that made excuses for jd bc she loved him despite the abuse he admitted in audio to doing to her, JDs emails to ambers therapist and psychiatrist talk about trying to keep her under control in his own words and he swore at them and showed unhinged behavior in the emails about wanting amber under his control, victims record arguments in relationships not abusers: check who did the 18 or whatever hours of recordings… amber was the one trying to call the police and her friends, Mr Murphy was a witness to ambers closet being destroyed, audios of amber saying he beat her up and he responded with “I made a mistake I won’t do it again”, in the audios amber is clearly arguing things we victims of abuse usually argue to our emotionally abusers: that’s about reminding n them to communicate issues, set boundaries VERBALIZE IT with each other on both ends (abusers don’t usually do it on their ends bc a common abuser trait is expecting ppl to read your mind and just know what you want), she argues he’s projecting again, amber also is honest about fighting back and the bad things she says sometimes but reminds him it starts with him, amber didn’t want cameras in court, depp did. Depp enjoyed and said before going to court that hed enjoy bringing her there, and victims don’t feel or think like that at all bc it’s traumatic for us. After countless arrests, convictions for rape and child rape, depp still defended rapist Roman Polanski in a 2010 interview. Jd is known to be friends with multiple men who have been called out on rape and domestic violence, had restraining orders set against them, their children accused them of abuse, and theyve admitted in text s to doing things of that nature, these men include: Brian Warner (accused by 6 ppl), nicolas cage, marlon Brando, josh homme. Ambers close friends I couldn’t find anything, but she came from an abusive home and usually you repeat what you’ve been through. Depp admitted in audio to being “irrational, crazy, jealous” in response to amber filming scenes. https://twitter.com/glossyinferno/status/1517232728755916800?s=20 that’s one of many fucking links. Just watch the full court hearing through and through without fucking skipping. And listen to the full audio recordings amber has which is like 18 or whatever amount of hours, but you have to listen to EVERY FUCKING SECOND.

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

https://href.li/?https://64.media.tumblr.com/269e7de14fb10d628484389ed2f570ff/0261f688e62ded3b-02/s1280x1920/64692e390a5d19208382dcfee6d9d05a329df8e5.jpg

https://twitter.com/k4mil1aa/status/1541465480489185281?s=20&t=ZTGENROShUzd1ISGJ6A0bg

https://href.li/?https://old.reddit.com/r/Deuxmoi/comments/ul82xt/i_will_fck_her_burnt_corpse_johnny_depp_fans_are/

https://href.li/?https://www.reuters.com/world/us/johnny-depp-face-cross-examination-defamation-case-against-ex-wife-2022-04-21/

https://href.li/?https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSAXJgDWUAA2Mo3?format=jpg&name=large

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmUV0DQ9Jco

https://people.com/celebrity/johnny-depps-kicked-amber-heard-business-managers/

https://href.li/?https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

https://href.li/?https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

https://href.li/?https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Judgment-FINAL.pdf

https://okmagazine.com/p/johnny-depp-trial-amber-heard-arrested-violence-tasya-van-ree/

Mr Murphy agreed that he went to the apartment and cleared up the mess which could be seen in the photographs. (p. 82, paragraph 383)

If you’re too lazy to watch the trial full thing through without skipping a second here’s my gift to you: https://twitter.com/i/status/1541483048046194688

https://twitter.com/k4mil1aa/status/1541491246023094272?s=20&t=cjWofJeIegMgTOI-XzcZaA

Dr. Bonnie Jacobs, AH’s doctor (hearsay because the doctor didn’t actually witness the abuse in person as it happened and she told her doctor)

The color-correcting palette in question was used as a prop to give the jury an idea of what Amber would have used to cover up her bruising. Amber's team had removed the label to avoid brand association and have never alleged to her using that specific product or brand. Amber's makeup artist testified to using Clé de Peau to cover her bruises, a Japanese luxury beauty brand.

Color corrector palette came out 2016 not 2017 like rumors said, but it was never stated she used these products.https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/gallery/how-to-colour-correct-best-correcting-kits

https://twitter.com/k4mil1aa/status/1541465506380521473?s=20&t=cjWofJeIegMgTOI-XzcZaA

https://twitter.com/k4mil1aa/status/1541470950721572866?s=20&t=cjWofJeIegMgTOI-XzcZaA

https://twitter.com/k4mil1aa/status/1541487538832961536?s=20&t=cjWofJeIegMgTOI-XzcZaA

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/johnny-depp-amber-heard-recordings-shouting-b2064973.html

https://twitter.com/IvanaE/status/1341517643178717190?s=20&t=5yJAv7jWlbb-Jynf08DPzQ

https://twitter.com/IvanaE/status/1341517645322067968?s=20&t=5yJAv7jWlbb-Jynf08DPzQ

Defended roan. Polanski who was convicted on multiple rape charges already by 2010 when the interview took place:

https://href.li/?https://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/a200464/johnny-depp-defends-roman-polanski/

Depp was arrested in 1989 for assaulting a security guard after the police were called to end a loud party at his hotel room.

He was also arrested in New York City in 1994 after damaging a hotel room he was staying in with Kate Moss.

Depp brawling with the paparazzi.

In 2018, Depp assaulted a crew member on the set of City of Lies.

In 2018, two of Depp’s former bodyguards sued him for unpaid fees and unsafe working conditions. The suit was settled in 2019.

Depp was constantly late and drunk on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Depp will also supposedly receive his full salary for the third Fantastic Beasts movie, despite filming only one scene for it and being asked to leave the project.

Heard sought a restraining order from Depp in 2016. She also sought an order requiring Depp to attend 52 weeks of anger management courses. (page 19, Judiciary Judgements) AND HERE ARE THE LINKS BELOW:

https://href.li/?https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/03/09/Teen-heart-throb-Johnny-Depp-who-plays-an-undercover-policeman/8389605422800/

https://href.li/?https://web.archive.org/web/20170510082221/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/14/style/chronicle-236659.html

https://href.li/?http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/269156.stm

https://href.li/?https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44778997

https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eonline.com%2Fnews%2F1003064%2Fjohnny-depp-quietly-settles-lawsuit-with-former-bodyguards&t=Y2Y5NjJhY2VlYmM3ZDBhMDFhM2FhY2VkYTM2YjQ0NzRmMzVkYzI3MiwyMzRhYzdlZGY5NDVjZWRhYzhiYWMwZTc4YzFkOGQ0MDQ5MmIyZWRk&ts=1652190874

https://href.li/?https://www.businessinsider.com/johnny-depp-pirates-movie-set-crisis-2017-5?r=US&IR=T

https://href.li/?https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/12/johnny-depp-fantastic-beasts-salary#:~:text=executives.,from%20the%20project%20last%20month.

I’m not linking it but you can easily find the full uncut audios of ambers recordings online like YouTube for example; they are of these time lengths (minutes/hours/whatever): 36:53 (3/?/2015), 4:25:11 Toronto (9/12/2015), 4:21:21 accountability, 53:58, 5:30:24 mockery, 2:05:25 issacs 9/?/2015, 31:25 phone call 2016, 24:42 divorce TRO 2016, 2:02:09 deposition 2016

Yeah but he's captain jack sparrow

[javertautismtruther]

JAVERT'S SOLILOQUY/SUICIDE

Pain. But alright /j

For those who don't want an extensive rating, this is my ranking, which I made into a ranked Spotify Playlist as well. Feel free to reblog with your own rankings! I'm curious what you all think!

2011 Madrid

2020 Live

French Concept

10th Anniversary

2008 Dutch

1989 Vienna

1991 Paris

Symphonic Recording

French Concert

2012 Movie

1985 London

2010 Live

Now for the ratings, in no particular order. I live-reviewed them as I listened :)

2011 Madrid: This man is DEFINITELY having a breakdown. I understand nothing but I feel his pain. Amazing performance. I LOVE his voice and THE ENDING ???????? WHAT THE FUCK /pos 10/10

1991 Paris: Not a fan of the part before the song, sorry (I know a lot of version add this part, I JUST WANT THE SONG). I can't really feel the mental breakdown with this one and also don't really like this voice. Though I love the instrumentals building up near the end. Don't like this "there's no way to go on" either. Mid version, sorry. 5/10

French Concept: This one definitely has a better breakdown than the '91 French one, though it doesn't beat the Spanish one. I think this voice fits Javert well, though not perfect. While I think the "updated" ending is better, this one isn't bad. 7/10

2020 Live: Again with the pre-song, but okay. It took me a while to get used to Michael Ball as Javert, but I've grown to love him. I think his voice fits the character very well. I can definitely feel the breakdown in this one. 8.5/10

2008 Dutch: My theatre bestie (number 1 Wim fan) will murder me for this but I don't really know how to feel about this Javert's voice fitting. It's not a bad fit, but not perfect either. Acting is a bit mid, though not terrible. Not my favourite version, but definitely okay to listen to. 6.5/10

2010 Live: Pre-song again. I do not like this. I don't like this voice, I don't like this acting. I know this is a fave of some of my friends but I genuinely don't understand how. Maybe he's better in other performances/boots, I don't know. 2/10

Symphonic Recording: Usually the pre-song is at least decent but what is this??? Philip will forever be one of my favourite Javerts though. The acting isn't really "this man is having a genuine breakdown as we speak" but I can definitely feel the emotion. Don't like how it's relatively slow though. 5/10

10th anniversary: Yes we have another Philip xxx This pre-song is definitely better than the Symphonic, so I'll forgive them. It's also faster, which I think fits better with the vibe, and the acting is a tad better. The superior Philip version tbh. The way he screams JAVERT and the scream at the end always get to me. 7/10

2012 movie: I am SO conflicted over this version because the backing instrumentals are SO good but... Russell Crowe. Idk man. Javertcore. 3/10

1985 London: Proof OG isn't always the best, what the fuck is this Javert. I'm sorry but I really don't like his voice and the acting is mid. Bonus points for "Lawrr" though, I like that. 3/10

1989 Vienna: I'll be honest if we'd had a better actor for this song this would have SLAPPED, German somehow really fits this song. It's definitely not terrible though and the acting is very decent. 6.5/10

French Concert: This man is HOLDING BACK TEARS fr, but I kinda dislike how he holds the notes, it takes away from the vibe a little? Still, it's an okay version if you skip the ending 5/10

[doitinanotherlanguage]

April 2023 Wrap-up: 1930s

(You can read more about the challenge on my post introducing the challenge. Basically, Reading Through the Decades is a year-long reading challenge where we read books - and explore other media - from the 1900s to the 2020s, decade-by-decade.)

Another month gone by! I really appreciated going through the 1930s, learning so much. The more I read and learn about the 30s, the more I keep drawing (worrying) parallels to it and the present day. (idk i’m just feeling pessimistic and shitty bc we’re going to have a more right-wing government in Finland than we have had since the 1930s and we’re seriously gonna be so fucked 🙃)

Anyway.

What I Enjoyed This Month

📖 Lumikadun kertoja (2017; “The Storyteller of Snow Street”), Katja Kaukonen -> Lumikadun kertoja is a novel taking place from 1937 to 1942 in Poland. Bajek, the eponymous story-teller, arrives in a small Polish city, where he has been sent on a mission to observe and record the upcoming events (i.e. Nazi-Germany invading and occupying Poland). He is under strict orders not to get involved in things, but this soon proves to be difficult as he finds himself surrounded by the lively community living in Snow Street. -> This novel has a very intriguing premise since it’s made apparent in the beginning that Bajek is no ordinary man, but instead seems to be some kind of an angel. This novel made me think a lot about the choices we make, especially in difficult situations, and to question passive observation in politically effed up situations. 

📖 It Can’t Happen Here (1935), Sinclair Lewis --> This is a novel originally written and published in the 1930s as fascism was taking over all around, particularly in Europe, and the book also gained a sudden upsurge in popularity in the 2010s when Donald Trump became president of the US. The novel is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and an alarming look at how fascism could take hold in the US. It juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a fear-mongering, anti-immigrant president who promises to make America proud and prosperous once more. --> This novel is very much of its own time yet it also gives so much to today’s reader. The back cover of my edition describes it as “a cautionary tale of liberal complacency,” which is a very apt description.

🎬 Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl (2019; When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit), dir. Caroline Link -> A Jewish family has to flee from 1933 Berlin, navigating unfamiliar lands and coping with the challenges of being refugees. The story tackles prejudice, exile, displacement, and adaptation, as told from the perspective of a nine-year-old child. -> This was a very touching film about being a refugee, based on a book about the author’s real-life experience.

🎬 Cradle Will Rock (1999), dir. Tom Robbins -> This historical drama film fictionalises the true events that surrounded the development of the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein. It’s a social commentary on the role of art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the labour movement at the time. -> I love love love stories about people making subversive art and taking a stand. Labour activism and socialism is my jam, and this is also a fun ensemble movie.

📖 Huhtikuu (1932; “April”), Saima Harmaja -> This is a poetry collection by the young Finnish female poet Saima Harmaja, who died of tuberculosis at only 22 years of age. The poems are about world-weariness, the frenzy of youth, illness, loneliness, love, nature, and death. -> This was an impulse-loan from the library, and I’m so glad I stumbled upon it! Harmaja’s poems are so very touching and lovely. I particularly adore the poem “Syysilta” (”Autumn Evening”), which is a pretty, nostalgia-tinged poem about regretting not having kissed someone in the past.

🎬 The Group (1966), dir. Sidney Lumet -> Based on a novel of the same name by Mary McCarthy, this movie is about the lives of a group of eight female graduates from Vassar from 1933 to 1940. It is a social satire that touches upon controversial topics such as free love, contraception, abortion, lesbianism, and mental illness. -> I really want to read the book now! This film was super interesting; although I found the group of upper-class women endlessly snooty and a bit boring, but the topics addressed are nevertheless fascinating. And it’s always fun to find older movies that centre women!

[awesomeforever]

THE LUCID, the four-piece hard rock band featuring bassist David Ellefson (ex-MEGADETH),vocalist Vinnie Dombroski (SPONGE),guitarist Drew Fortier and drummer Mike Heller (RAVEN, FEAR FACTORY),will apparently release a new song early next month. On Tuesday (December 20),THE LUCID shared an Instagram graphic of the group's logo along with the date of "1.3.2023" and captioned it: "#comingsoon". Ellefson confirmed earlier in the year that THE LUCID was working on new material as a follow-up to THE LUCID's self-titled debut album, which was released in October 2021 via SpoilerHead Records. "The Lucid" was produced by Heller and mixed/mastered by Lasse Lammert. Ellefson previously stated about the LP: "It's been a real blast making a record with these guys and I must say that it's refreshing to explore some new musical avenues… to step out a bit from what each of us have done stylistically in our own careers. There was an effortless synergy that came with creating these songs together which is always amazing when working with new people." During a November 2020 appearance on "The Chuck Schute Podcast", Ellefson stated about how he got involved with THE LUCID: "Drew sent me a track and said, 'Hey, can you throw a bass on here?' And I was writing a new ELLEFSON solo record at the time, so my studio ears were on. I was plugged in and ready to go. He sent it over and I was, like, 'Yeah, this is freaking cool, man.' I'd seen Drew play, I know his BANG TANGO history and the other stuff he's done. But this was really cool stuff that spoke to me. And then he called me up and he said, 'Hey, Vinnie is gonna come in and write some vocals and lyrics and lay down some tracks.' And it turned into a thing." "I love [Vinnie]. I love SPONGE," David continued. "He's such a rock star. He's just a cool guy. And he writes such great lyrics — very trippy lyrics. He's the type of lyricist I'd never worked with before, so it's fun with that. And Drew is a great guitar player. Mike Heller — he's good friends with [MEGADETH drummer] Dirk Verbeuren. And Dirk's, like, 'Mike's awesome.' They're good friends. We all met in L.A. We got the songs together and we all met in L.A. in mid-July [2020]. I plugged in and banged out 10 songs in two days. And it was fun. Mike was very good in the studio; he really knows his way around." As for THE LUCID's musical direction, Ellefson told VWMusic: "It's definitely a rock album. It may trend slightly into metal with songs like 'Damned' and 'Deaths Of Despair'. It’s not a thrash metal record. It's not a doom or a power metal record or any of that kind of stuff. I just think it's just a straight-up hard rock record." Fortier was diagnosed with testicular cancer in May and subsequently underwent surgery. Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH in May 2021 after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. David was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit. A post shared by The Lucid (@the.lucid.official) BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action.

You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends). 8/10 7.5/10 8/10 source

[progeny-ex-machina]

So, I'm not saying COVID was synthesized by a 30-year-old amateur filmmaker from the American Midwest as a marketing stunt...but I'm not saying it wasn't.

(It probably wasn't.)

Let's start at the beginning. In 2010-11, I was in this fandom...

It was an ongoing story run by one guy a little older than me and it was clearly his first time having a fandom cause the first two parts of this story were done and for most of my time in the fandom we were all eternally waiting on the third and final part, which he kept saying vague things about, but never seemed to actually get anything done on it. Eventually, he conceded defeat and officially went on hiatus, saying that he did plan to finish the story and made this bizarre statement that when it started back up again, we would know, even if we didn't have internet.

The fandom, which for the record was comprised almost entirely of piranhas, was like "what the fuck does that mean??? is he going to get it on the fucking news? is he going to commit crimes? what the fuck???" and yeah, that was it. I moved on and mostly forgot about the thing.

Fast forward to like, January 2020? I think? I'm not fact-checking this as I go so whatever. I didn't know about this when it happened, I found out a couple years later, but he randomly started posting weird journaling videos from the POV of a guy who was in lockdown because of a global pandemic. After COVID became a thing, he dropped that storyline or whatever it was like a hot potato, and started the actual third part in earnest, and it was big and by now it's done and anyway the ridiculous thought just won't leave me that these events were related and that this dude made COVID as part of his promise to let people know when he started working on his story again.

Obviously this "theory" is a 3 AM shitpost level of seriousness, but yeah. That fandom was batshit insane and tbh I wouldn't have put it past some of them to come up with something like this. I sound like I'm exaggerating, but it's actually comparable to some stuff I remember from before the original forum went kaput. I wonder how many people following the third part were old fans from 2011 and how many were new people who found it later on. Either way, I'm a little sad in hindsight that I wasn't aware of part three while it was going on, because that would have been fun to be part of, I think. Oh well.

[thisaintascenereviews]

All Time Low - Don’t Panic (Twelfth Anniversary Retrospective)

Thanks to pop-punk being mainstream again, it must be awesome to be All Time Low right now, because the royalties and the revenue they’re getting from “Dear Maria” must be immense. Not that they were struggling before, but they must be doing even better now. That song in particular is one of the handful that’s been blowing up on TikTok over the last year or so, now that the emo revival is in full swing. I just talked about their most recent album, 2023’s Tell Me I’m Alive, and their recently-released re-recorded album, The Forever Sessions, but I wanted to talk about their 2012 album, Don’t Panic.

My introduction to them was through 2007’s So Wrong, It’s Right, and truth be told, it’s a good album, but it’s not perfect. It’s aged relatively well, but frontman Alex Gaskarth doesn’t sound too great. I always thought they were more of a singles band, although I enjoy that album just fine. It showed they were talented songwriters with a penchant for good hooks, but I fell out of favor with them for a few years, at least until Don’t Panic came out. I was just getting into pop-punk properly at the time, and that album came out at the right time, although it’s a record that I’ve admittedly forgotten about with time. I’ve been wanting to revisit it for a long time, and I’ve been listening to a lot of pop-punk lately, so I thought I’d give this a spin, just to see if it’s held up over the last decade, especially compared to other albums from the same era that surprisingly hold up very well.

I’m happy to report that it certainly does, and in fact, this is my favorite All Time Low record. I haven’t kept up with them in years, but like I said, I went back and listened to Tell Me I’m Alive recently. I did really like 2020’s Wake Up, Sunshine, but Don’t Panic really encapsulates what this band is about, and how well they can sound when they go back to basics, especially five years after their debut. If anything, Don’t Panic sounds like an updated and refined version of their debut. There are a lot of things to love here, and truthfully, I think this is a very underrated pop-punk album.

The biggest improvement is Alex Gaskarth; he went from being a C-tier singer in the neon pop-punk scene of the late 00s and early 2010s to being one of the genre’s best. Hell, on their newer material, he sounds wonderful, but he sounds great on this album, too. He has more control, range, and a less nasally tone that he had on their debut that I didn’t hate but it can get old after awhile. His vocals are fantastic here, and a lot of this works so well because of that, which make the hooks really stick. An album’s hooks are only so good as their singer, and they’re amazing here.

The instrumentation is quite good, too; the album is really toying the line between pop-rock and pop-punk, and most songs fall somewhere in between, but a handful of songs fall between one or the other. “So Long, Soldier” is a straightforward pop-punk song, whereas a song like “The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver” is a pop-rock cut. A lot of songs are right in the middle, such as “Somewhere In Neverland,” which is probably my favorite cut on the album, or the Patrick Stump penned “Outlines,” which has his fingerprints all over it (and this was the closest we got to Fall Out Boy in that year).

The lyrics are admittedly the weakest part of this album, but I’m gonna be real - I’ve never been that into All Time Low’s lyrics. Their debut is not exactly rife with genius lyricism, and while this isn’t, either, it’s still pretty good. “Somewhere In Neverland” is a poignant track about Peter Pan and the themes of growing old, and a few tracks deal with long distance relationships, but it never gets existential or anything out of the ordinary for pop-punk albums, especially of that time. They’re not anything spectacular, but they’re good for what they are.

Don’t Panic is my favorite All Time Low record, and it’s the best marriage between their pop-rock and pop-punk sounds. They’re more grown up here, and they had a second wind with this, especially after their last couple of albums before this one being on a major label. They went back to Hopeless for this one, and they were on Hopeless for a long time after, but this is the best combination of their early work and a newfound sense of energy and maturity that they didn’t have before and that they wouldn’t really get again. Wake Up, Sunshine comes quite close, but this is the better album, hands down. It’s one of my favorite albums of the 2010s, especially one of my favorite pop-punk albums from that time.