#full offense your fav is terribly written

[kurokoros]

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[fuckyeahqueermusic]

FY!QM’s Favorite Albums of 2019 Part 2

Happy Super Bowl Sunday, here have a list of my favorite albums of 2019. You can click here to read part 1 if you missed it, but part 2 is all my absolute favorite releases from the year. Two of them aren’t even EPs, let alone full albums, but it is my list and I am the boss so I can do what I want!!

Obviously a ton of great music was released this year, but I think compared to 2018 it was a little lacking. Which is understandable, that was a bonkers killer year for new music, but I’m already psyched for all that’s coming out in 2020, and I have a feeling I am going to have a hard time doing a round up of everything I loved come next December (or January....or February, who’s to say!)

Anyways, onto my favs of 2019!

Carly Rae Jepsen — Dedicated Okay, so first off we have to talk about how one of the first working titles for this album was “Songs To Clean Your House To”, and how it is a CRIME we were deprived of that. Well, it will always be the real title in my heart.

So, Dedicated is not Emotion. It was never going to be Emotion, and that is okay. It is still an absolutely meticulously crafted, nearly perfect pop record. One that’s not only is full of great singles and individual certified bops (”Julien” anyone????), but actually works as a whole record, an increasing rarity in the mainstream pop landscape. But you can feel how much CRJ cares about what she puts out, and while some songs are weaker than others, there is no filler, and every track has something to enjoy on it. She is still the QUEEN of mid-tempo jams, with “No Drug Like Me,” “Too Much,” and “Automatically In Love” already up in the pantheon of all time mid-tempo jams. Some folks might have been disappointed we didn’t get Emotion 2.0, but I am thrilled CRJ wants to keep growing as an artist, and that she isn’t content to keep releasing the same thing over and over again, even though she very easily could.

Telethon — Hard Pop Telethon is hands down one of the best rock bands in the game right now, and I am thrilled they finally seem to be gaining a bit of traction outside the extremely cult following they’ve been building over the past five years. They have hooks for days, their music a master class in power pop song writing, combined with some of the densest lyric writing I have ever seen. Lead singer and lyricist Kevin Tully crafts each song like a short story about millennial mundanity and quarter life crises: using the exhaustion of finding a new apartment to examine long simmering anxiety, or trying to figure out if contentment is settling, and being too tired to know if you can tell the difference, while getting asked if you have weed at a terrible house party. It’s an album that feels like your late 20’s and early 30’s, with just enough optimism from a synth line to let you know that maybe everything will be okay in the end, maybe not, but it’s not stupid to hope.

Also they are not afraid of a ska influenced breakdown, and for that I must salute them.

Great Grandpa — Four of Arrows This is far and away my most listened to album of the year, and it only came out in October. Every song is masterfully crafted to stick in your head, and whenever I put on “Bloom,” “Rosalie,” or “Treat Jar,” I HAVE to listen to it at least three times in a row. The songwriting on this album is just fucking astonishing, and it completely runs the gamut from acoustic driven indie to 80’s big power chord pop rock, without feeling incongruent at all. It is incredible that this is the same band that made Plastic Cough only two years ago. Not that their debut was bad, but this album is just such a massive leap in skill and sound that it is truly amazing. Just a completely beautiful record from front to back, and I am so excited to see where this band goes next.

that dog — Old LP For the last 3 years that dog’s one semi-hit from 1997, “Never Say Never,” has been in my top 5 played songs of the year on Spotify (it currently has 186,000 plays. I would wager about 100,000 of those are me). I would argue it is the catchiest song ever written. It was on an album, Retreat From The Sun, that is back to back to back catchy jams. that dog should’ve been one of the most famous bands in the world, and I have been lamenting hard for some time that we never got more music from them. They broke up in 1997, scattering to the winds to be involved in making some of your favorite music (Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack anyone???)

Until last year. Anna Waronker got the band back together and that dog released their first album in 22 years, Old LP. And it’s like barely any time has passed. Old LP is practically perfect 90’s pop-rock, insanely catchy with enough of an edge and interesting flourishes (they credit basically a whole orchestra in the liner notes) to make you want to put the whole thing on repeat for a few hours. Or maybe that’s just me. Either way, I am so happy that dog is back in some capacity, and here’s hoping this is not the last we hear of them. 

(Also I picked this live performance of “Bird On A Wire” cause Allison Crutchfield from Swearin’ is there???)

Fireworks — Demitasse single This is not an album, or even an EP, but this is my list and I can do what I want and that includes fawning over a single from what is sure to be one of my top albums of 2020. Fireworks’ reunion was my biggest surprise of the year. They are a band that defined the last decade for me, their lifespan cut too short due to a crowded market and evolving too fast for their audience (they should be The Wonder Years level of famous and beloved, as they were, no offense to Soupy and the boys, the superior band). But after four years away they returned with a 6 minute slow burn of a song, solemn and sparse, until the full band crashes in more than ¾ of the way through. The first time I got to 5:08 in the song, the mix of pure catharsis and active anger that they disbanded in 2015 and we were denied new material from them until now I felt guaranteed Higher Lonely Power will almost certainly be THE album of 2020.

Team Dresch — Your Hands My Pocket “7 Perhaps even more important than Fireworks comeback, the biggest music news of 2019 for me was Team Dresch’s reunion. They are a band that I trace pretty much all my modern musical tastes to, and they are hugely influential to me and so many others in what they proved was possible for queer music to be. When that reunion ALSO came with new music, I about lost my mind. “Your Hands My Pocket” sounds like no time has passed since Captain My Captain came out: perfect hooks, heartfelt earnest lyrics, the vocal trade off between Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson, and all the queer pop-punk jubilation I want. The b-side “Baskets,” is classic Team Dresch emo (and yes I will argue to the ends of the earth that Team Dresch is one of the best emo bands of the 90s), with big volume shifts and longing vocals (and that bridge!). The only bad thing about this release is that there’s not more! Maybe if we all beg hard enough, they’ll make one more album.

[somethingsomethingdragonage]

asks part 2

anon: I wonder if the fans of other DA characters get this much shit about their "problematic faves". I wonder if the fenris fans are called "ableism apologists" (because fenris is ableist), or aveline fans called "slut shaming apologists" (because aveline is a slut shamer).. or you know, in general being called MURDER apologists since every single one of these characters is a killer one way or another. and pls ppl, dont tell me anders doesn't have regrets or didn't do what he had to do out of fear. 

especially since I didn’t even post any discussion prior to the first message I got? it was just a “fun” post about bioware/Anders and I tagged it with “Anders was right” which is indeed a tag I use. like if I started any kind of argument and discussion I can understand why people would comment on that but because of a pretty normal post? idk. and yes, we should all incorporate a club and we will be called the murder apologists because clearly everyone who is playing games where ppl get killed and not despise every single character for it (including their own character) is a murder apologist.

anon: I'm sorry you're getting so much anon hate.  I hope things start getting better and people learn to separate games from current events a bit more. That being said it's nice to find another Anders fan! :3

well I’m not very optimistic that it’s going to happen because I always knew there where a lot of jerks in the DA fandom and I kinda managed to keep them off my dash for most part. since I’m mostly a DA fandom blog I kinda expect getting some crap from time to time but since my blog title and my present icon should give a pretty clear picture about my views it’s not a lot. and yes, I still think people who are unable to differentiate between fiction and reality shouldn’t play these games. or at least keep clear of discussions. yes you can identify with stuff in games, be it a conflict, a character but whatever. but don’t give other people a hard time for doing that as well because they are real and not game characters. well look at me ranting haha I’m also always happy to meet other fans of my fav mage and I hope you have a great day :)

audacityinblack: Some people seem to forget that Anders did not have *any* basic rights, let alone the right to speak freely or protest. A Divine in the past almost called an exalted march on her own damn Chantry because the mages went on strike. Mages have absolutely no right to protest. And, mage or not, they absolutely can and will hunt you down and kill you if you dissent against them too loudly. Heresy is a punishable offense in Thedas. Torture and execution are normalized parts of the justice system.

This is a system where peaceful protest never works. Only those with privilege and power are allowed to resolve their conflicts without bloodshed or surrendering their basic civil rights. The Daughters of Song were pacifists, they refused to fight. The Chantry fucking slaughtered them all. It's also hard to feel much for the poor innocent humans when the Chantry has been massacring elves and mages for centuries.

The Chantry ain't your kind peaceful neighborhood church. It's effectively a totalitarian theocratic power. I'm of the mind that people who can't see that have never experienced or educated themselves about religious oppression. Really, millennials have their own privilege in that we have a fuck ton more freedom to protest without putting ourselves in danger. Those rights would never have existed if there weren't people willing to fight and die and risk fucking everything.

Yes, Dragon Age is fiction. "You can't separate reality from fiction" is a common argument thrown at and by both sides. However, for a lot of us, this stuff is very much a part of our reality. We've *seen* reality, and often from a lot of angles the writers did not see. The writers' biases are on full display especially in the way that the "other" groups in the game tend to be written as misguided or wrong, while the establishment knows best and anyone who shows otherwise is an "exception."  

For a lot of us, the shit we see in game is terribly reminiscent of things that we have seen in real life, or even lived through. "Mages are dangerous" isn't much of an excuse, because there are ways to discover magic long before it becomes a problem. The Chantry is also the only authorized source of information on magic in a world where most people are not literate unless they've learned to read from guess who? Once again, the Chantry.

@audacityinblack: I can agree 100% with that. I’m not very good at making my point in arguments, especially if it’s not my native language. but you can do it perfectly. I mean the chantry is obviously based on the catholic church and nobody can argue that they did some pretty bad things and they happend in real life. that doesn’t mean the chantry is real or has the same impact as actual events but you can still make a connection. (and we also shouldn’t forget that the woman writing Anders in DA 2 didn’t like him at all so sometimes the points he’s trying to make might not come across as well as they should and they do try to make him an actual villain) I’m guessing some people are just too lazy to try to see different sides in games and they do the same thing in real life. let’s not forget, that Cullen is well loved by most people and he did pretty horrible things as well. he ordered me to kill every mage even if there was a chance they hadn’t done anything. and don’t try to argue “well but had to suffer you have to understand” yeah fuck you, Anders had to suffer most of his life and he didn’t choose it. none of the mages gets a choice. templars fucking do. I still like Cullen and try to understand his side of view and can see that he has changed since then but if you make me choose I will always be on Anders’ and the mages side. also I don’t even want to think about how horrible the punishment of turning mages into tranquil is. it is fucking murder or actually worse and they try to sell it as “kindness” and because the chantry is such a large institution no one really questions the stuff they do.