#cds of 2023

[sourmonsterworms]

The END (2009) - The Black Eyed Peas

8.5/10

This album has a Very Mixed reputation but there’s a goddamn reason I can still sing every single word of the first 5 tracks. The album is very frontloaded, all of the charting singles are shoved front and center in the album. I know this album’s singles get a lot of shit but I could make a case for all 5 of these singles, even I Gotta Feeling, which I don’t even like that much comparatively (despite the fact that I think this is the song most people feel the most positively toward).

Boom Boom Pow is tight, earwormy, futuristic (for the time) sounding, I haven’t listened to this song in years and I remembered Every. Fucking. Word. Not too overly repetitive, the verses are good, it doesn’t feel like any part of the song is carrying or lagging behind, the epitome of a cohesive song where something interesting is always happening. 

Rock That Body my beloved. I don’t give a fuck what you think about this song its fucking twerkable, this song used to make me go fucking apeshit when I was a kid, this song is a hill I will fucking die on. I genuinely enjoy the chipmunk Fergie vocals and respect them as an artistic choice, I’m Not Fucking Kidding.

Meet Me Halfway is a guilty pleasure, I know by all rights I should say it's bad, that its sampling of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs iconic song about longing Maps is baffling, but in the moment? You know what? This song DOES hit. This is probably the best vocal performance Fergie has or ever will give. 

Imma Be- Ok please stay with me here, I know this is probably most people’s least favorite of the singles. It's repetitive, it's probably the ugliest sounding production wise, its pioneering annoying “ay”s as an instrument, the ever present “Imma Be”s. But when the bridge hits I feel like it's all worth it. I fucking love the back half of this song so much. It's like the musical equivalent of eating your vegetables to get dessert.

I Gotta Feeling is my least favorite of the charting singles, I dunno, I just think it's like, ok. Most people would say this is the best song on the album I feel, its not even in my top 5, but I know every fucking word like its burned into my brain so, what’ll you do.

The album doesn't stop with its commercial singles though, the next two songs were non charting promotional singles (one of which was only released in France). Alive is, surprisingly, kind of reminiscent of a RAM era Daft Punk song but if The Black Eyed Peas were there (4 years predating RAM). I think this song honestly deserves to be remembered as well as the preceding 5 songs.

Missing You, the aforementioned France Only Promo Single, at first feels a bit heavy handed, opening with Fergie doing her most Fergie. However, I actually really like the production on this one. The transition from the first chorus to the first verse immediately changed my expectations for the song, and the second verse, with Fergie’s interjections of “Missing you” is the high point of the song, immaculate. I could easily imagine this song having been a successful radio single 2009-2010 (Yes, I am saying this album should have had 7 charting singles Actually, it’s my review I get to say whatever words I want)

Unfortunately this is actually the point where the album falls off. Ring-A-Ling, a song about bootycalls, is the most straight up offensive to my ears, which is a shame because Missing You leads into it so beautifully that it leaves you completely unprepared for what is about to happen to you. The chorus proudly proclaims that “the girls want ding-a-ling” how brave of will.i.am to say that like it doesn’t sound goofy as fuck. The vocal effects on Fergie do not sound like a Respectable Artistic Choice on this one. The production is very “annoying song from the late 2000s-2010s”, unfortunately I could also imagine a world where this charted in 2010, so it's good that we mercifully dodged that timeline. Also this song ends on a sample that used the R slur, reminding you that the Peas love that word so much that one of their most famous songs is unlistenable without the censored edit (ugh).

The songs after this aren’t too terribly notable, Party All The Time feels like a less good retread of I Gotta Feeling, Out Of My Head is actually pretty decent but feels like a rejected leftover from The Duchess rather than a Black Eyed Peas song (it basically is just a Fergie song), and Electric City just, isn’t very good. Showdown feels like it could have had something with the counting in the pre chorus, but the rest of the song is just, eh.

Now Generation opens with a narrator talking about how The Youth can destroy the Economy by Not Buying things, before tiptoeing into an absolutely baffling song about how cool technology and the internet is and Money and Stuff. I feel like this is supposed to sound rebellious or something but it’s just? What the fuck is this? One Tribe feels like an attempt to return to their roots, or at the very least Where Is The Love? But it's just an empty song about Love and Peace and Unity. Also it sucks.

After 7 tracks of mid, here we are at the closing track. So you know how I said Alive sounded like Daft Punk? Lightning striketh twice because Rockin To The Beat sounds even more like Will.i.am really wanted to make a Daft Punk song. I don’t know if this would clear on an actual Daft Punk album, but on this album? It's a pleasant surprise. Genuinely nice way to close out the album.

Despite this album cycle’s insane success at the time and the album’s commercial success, this album feels bloated. With 15 tracks, the shortest of which clocking in at 3:45, most being over 4 minutes, this album could have been 5 tracks shorter and it would have benefitted the listening experience greatly. Personally I think Ring-A-Ling, Electric City, Showdown, Now Generation and One Tribe could have seen the chopping block and little of value would have been lost. That being said, the good songs here? Pretty good. Would absolutely suggest listening to Alive, Missing You and Rockin To The Beat at least once if you’ve never heard them.

1 Rock That Body

2 Alive

3 Missing You

[dailyastarionpics]

A huge night full of well deserved awards and recognition for Larian Studios! Congratulations and thank you for creating such an incredible game!

[thisisrealy2kok]

E V E R S on Instagram: "Flashback to a shoot in 2023 (2003?)

[oldinterneticons]

Top MUSIC icons posted to @oldinterneticons in 2023

[mogwaei]

Commission: Yennefer of Vengerberg for @/misscoralista1 (twitter)

[one-time-i-dreamt]

A CD was keeping me as a pet. Someone thought I was being held hostage by it, and the CD threw them off an airplane.

[jess-oui]

💖 InuKag Week - Day 4: Modern 💖

I need a whole series of just filler style eps with Inu+Kag going on cute modern date adventures please 🙏

[iybms]

Lance gave up the chance to make a difference by giving up the Red Lion. He gave up his chance to be a hero. What he wants now is just to go home. He'll protect Earth and his family from the Galra as best he can when he gets there.  That's his top priority now.

And sure, he stole the opportunity to make this decision from Keith, and maybe that's not fair.

But whatever. If Keith was going to make the wrong choice, Lance wasn't going to give him one.

rating: T pairing: Keith/Lance words: 51,343 tags: Rivals to Lovers, POV Lance (Voltron), POV Keith (Voltron), POV Alternating, Pining Lance (Voltron), Angry Keith (Voltron), Interrogation, Mild Torture (non-graphic), Red Paladin Keith (Voltron), Vigilante Lance (Voltron), Aliens, Hugging, Kissing, Illustrations

read on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44203882

illustrations (spoilers!) under the cut.

[imaslave4u]

Barbie The Album Released: June 21, 2023

[real-total-drama-takes]

can we please start at least clarifying which season the teams are from when we use their names? I cannot remember this shit bro I have physics to memorise not team names. I don't know who is on team ratsass and team ratatouille

-💽

[ruinedholograms]

(2023)

[feii1effect]

[sonichedgeblog]

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'Sonic CD with the Original Jump Sound' (Hack) by Clownacy A good read this one! Apparently this was far more complicated to do than you'd think. https://shc.zone/entries/expo2023/805

[shinigami-striker]

Sonic the Hedgehog CD | Friday, 09.23.2023

It's been exactly 30 years ago since Sonic the Hedgehog CD was released in Japan. And today, the game still stands as the best-selling Mega CD game.

P.S.: since the game takes place between Sonic 1 and Sonic 2, then apparently Amy Rose and Metal Sonic chronological debuted before Sonic even met Tails.

[mynameis-veryfuckingconfused]

Limited Edition Midwest Emo Benson Mixtape

Available Now In The Backseat Of A Beat Up Car Near You!

The First 20 Orders Get Their Very Own Band Tee Riddled With Bullets!

[cover-me-in-gasoline]

just imagine the red string i don’t have any

sticky notes say from left to right top to bottom:

orange: “ENDLESS NIGHT” drum — no other goodbye? not like them

orange: frankieromustdie fortune cookie posting REAL

orange: foundations is abt 9/11 (+ released w/out warning)

pink: that’s in 2 1/2 weeks btw :)

green: SEPTEMBER 11, 2023 mcr5 release / announcement 💜 a panicked poster by cover-me-in-gasoline

orange: outfits show a woman who stars to decay after “terror” drum (where she dies?) [with attached pink note: feat. gerard autism fit lol]

orange w/ arrow pointing from photo of all the drums: -> “here comes the airplane” + skylines played

orange: skylines is abt 9/11, foundations is abt 9/11

pink: 9/11 would be a banger reunion album theme tbh. circling back to the beginning but showing [how] they’ve changed [“how” not featured (i forgot)]

pink: + basically confirmed by frank’s bad lying + rich is bein kinda suspicious

images are:

top left: screenshot of spotify playing foundations of decay

under that: screenshot of the lyrics “he was there the day the towers fell / and so he wandered down the road” with “the towers fell” underlined in sharpie

under THAT: collage of all 9 drums from the nz/au/jap tour

top middle: screenshot of frankieromustdie’s story which is a photo of a fortune cookie fortune that says “let’s finish this up now, someone is waiting on you for that”

to the right of that: screenshot of a tweet detailing all the frank iero fortune cookie posting (feat. tinhat ray toro image)

to the right of that and all the way down the right side and then along the bottom a bit: all 9 of gerard’s tour outfits in order probably