#god now i'm thinking about that version of the ballad of me and my friends frank played on the last night of the nambucca before it closed

[notajoinerofthings]

note to self: no, you can't go to vienna just to see lucas gregorowicz perform at the theatre. you neither have the time nor the money for such a trip. don't even think about it 💀

[intomusings]

﹒﹒  guts   sentence   starters    !

my  brain  goes  ahhh  !  guts by olivia rodrigo just dropped and it's been on repeat  in my household .  olivia rodrigo  can do no wrong in my opinion and i  realized  that  the  lyrics  make  for  some  perfect  sentence  starters  —  so  under  the  cut  you’ll  find  a  bunch  of  heart  wrenching  and angsty one  liners  .  if  u  found  this  useful  ,  feel  free  to  like  or  reblog  to  boost  this  .

﹒﹒  all - american bitch  :

" i feel for your every little issue , i know just what you mean .. "

" you know me , i forgive and i forget .. "

" i got what you can't resist "

" i know my place and this is it "

﹒﹒  bad idea right?  :

" haven't heard from you in a couple of months .. "

" i'm out right now and i'm all fucked up "

" i know we're done , i know we're through but god when i look at you .. "

" seeing you tonight , it's a bad idea , right ?

" i know that he's my ex but can't two people reconnect ? "

" i only see him as a friend .. "

" i know i should stop but i can't . "

" i'm sure i've seen much hotter men but i really can't remember when "

﹒﹒  vampire  :

" i loved you truly "

" i've made some real big mistakes but you make the worst one look fine "

" i used to think i was smart but you made me look so naive "

" every girl i ever talked to told me you were bad news "

" you called them crazy god i hate the way i called them crazy too ! "

" you're so convincing , how do you lie without flinching ? "

" can't figure out how you do it and god knows i never will "

" you said it was true love .. "

" you can't love anyone cause that would mean you had a heart "

" i tried to help you out , now i know that i can't . "

" how you think is the kind of thing i'll never understand "

﹒﹒  lacy  :

" did i ever tell you i'm not doing well ? "

" i see you everywhere .. "

" i'm losing it lately . "

" well aren't you the greatest thing to ever exist ? "

" my stomach's all in knots "

" you got the one thing that i want "

" it's like you're made of angel dust "

" it's like you're out to get me "

" you poison every little thing that i do "

" i just loathe you lately "

﹒﹒  ballad of a homeschooled girl  :

" i don't think i get along with anyone .. "

" i guess i should go .. "

" i told secrets i shouldn't tell . "

" i made it weird , i made it worse . "

" oh god , what did i say ? "

﹒﹒  making the bed  :

" i thought it so i said it "

" sometimes i feel like i don't wanna be where i am "

" i'm so tired of being the girl that i am "

" i'm playing the victim so well in my head "

" i got the things i wanted , it's just not what i imagined "

﹒﹒  logical  :

" god , you're so good at what you do . "

" i'd put myself through hell for you "

" hear all the rumors lately that you always denied "

" you convinced me , it was all in my mind "

" changing you is possible .. "

" i'm sure that girl is really your friend "

" our problems are all solvable "

" why do i do this ? "

" i know i'm half responsible and that makes me feel horrible "

" i know i could've stopped it all .. "

﹒﹒  get him back!  :

" i met a guy in the summer .. "

" i wanna get him back "

" i wanna make him really jealous "

" i really miss him and it makes me real sad "

" i miss the way he kisses and the way he made me laugh "

" i am my fathers daughter so maybe i could fix him "

" i wanna key his car "

" i wanna break his heart "

﹒﹒  love is embarrassing  :

" i told my friends you were the one "

" you said space was what you need "

" i waited by my phone like a goddamn fool "

" i consoled you while you cried .. "

" how could i be so stupid ? "

" you found a new version of me "

" i give up everything "

﹒﹒  the grudge :

" one phone call from you and my entire world was changed "

" you took everything i loved and crushed it between your fingers "

" i doubt you ever think about the damage that you did "

" i hear your voice every time i think i'm not enough "

" how could anybody do the things you did so easily ? "

" i say i don't care , i say i'm fine but you know i can't let it go . "

" i fantasize about a time you're a little fucking sorry "

" i try to understand why you would do this all to me "

" do you think i deserved it all ? "

" you have everything and you still want more "

" but even after all this , you're still everything to me "

" i know you don't care "

﹒﹒  pretty isn't pretty  :

" there's always something missing "

" i don't know why i even try "

﹒﹒  teenage dream  :

" it gets better , but what if i don't ? "

[folk-enjoyer]

Hi, I want to thank u for all the recs you do here, especially for recommending marty robbins' version of (ghost) riders in the sky, i'm obsessed with this song now!

Since pete seeger is one of your favourite artists and you like phil ochs too, i'd like to ask what phil songs would you like pete to cover, besides the ones he already did? That you think would work well with his voice/would do a great arrangement of ect

I think the highwayman and one more parade would be amazing

Cheers!

Sorry for how long this response took, i had to think about it!

I'm definitely not as familiar with Phil Ochs as i am with Pete Seeger and all the Phil Ochs songs that scream pete seeger, he had already covered like power and glory (one of my absolute favorites).

I do wish that Pete had covered "Changes" because I think it fits right in with other songs on his God Bless the Grass album, it also feels really similar to another Pete Seeger song "Turn!turn! turn!" they are both songs about seasons and the impermanence of nature and people, I'm surprised he didn't cover it.

I wish he covered "too many martyrs" because I think it's a well written political song and would fit right in with other songs like "Last Train to Nuremberg " and other political ballads. I wish he covered "small circle of friends" specifically with Arlo Guthrie on tour, I think that would have been cute. Oh, and obviously, "love me, I'm a liberal," because he's like overtly referenced in that song! it would have been funny. I also wish Pete Seeger covered the Billy Bragg song, "I dreamed I saw Phil Ochs Last night"

I also wish that Phil Ochs covered the song "Passing Through". It really fits in with his whole deal as a tragic but ephemeral artist, and is similar to other songs like "When I'm Gone" and "Changes"

ofc yea 100% agree with "the highwayman" and "one more parade"

songs mentioned:

the highwayman

one more parade

[chaoscradle]

assigning GUTS songs to stranger things characters (i know this has been done a ton of times already but i'm doing it anyway):

all-american bitch: nancy

"I know my age and I act like it"

"I'm a perfect all-american bitch"

"I know my place, I know my place, and this is it"

"I'm the eternal optimist, I scream inside to deal with it"

"I pay attention to things most people ignore"

(el could also work with this one, but i felt like with the whole nuclear family thing the wheelers have going on that nancy fits better)

bad idea right?: max

"'I only see him as a friend' the biggest lie I ever said"

"can't two people reconnect?"

"but god, when I look at you, my brain goes 'ah', can't hear my thoughts"

vampire: joyce

"every girl I talked to told me you were bad, bad news"

"you're so convincing, how do you lie without flinching?"

"I've made some real big mistakes, but you make the worst one look fine"

"the way you sold me for parts"

"you said it was true love, but wouldn't that be hard? you can't love anyone, 'cause that would mean you had a heart"

"I loved you truly. gotta laugh at the stupidity"

lacy: el

"I linger all the time, watchin', hidden in plain sight"

"aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of hell?"

"I feel your compliments like bullets on skin"

"and I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you"

ballad of a homeschooled girl: mike

"and I hate all my clothes, feels like my skin doesn't fit right over my bones"

"the party's done, and I'm no fun, I know I know, I know, I know"

"I made it weird, I made it worse"

"everything I do is tragic"

"I'm shocked I'm still alive"

(this could also work for robin tbh)

making the bed: mike

"another perfect moment that doesn't feel like mine, another thing I forced to be a sign"

"push away all the people who know me the best"

"every good thing has turned into something I dread"

"and I tell someone I love them, just as a distraction"

logical: will (psa this is from will's pov i don't think any of this of mike)

"come for me like a savior, and I'd put myself through hell for you"

"and I fell for you like rain falls from a February sky, but now the current's stronger and I couldn't get out if I tried"

"oh, why do I do this? I look so stupid thinking two plus two equals five, and I'm the love of your life"

"'cause if rain don't pour and sun don't shine, then changing you is possible"

"you lied, you lied, you lied"

"I guess love is never logical"

"the sky is green, the grass is red, and you mean all those words you said"

"I know I'm half responsible, and that makes me feel horrible"

"I know I could've stopped it all, god why didn't I stop it all?"

"'cause loving you is loving every argument you held over my head"

get him back!: max (NOT about lumax, just how she'd handle a different breakup)

"I want sweet revenge, I want him again"

"do I love him? do I hate him? I guess it's up and down"

"I wanna make him really jealous, I wanna make him feel bad"

"I wanna break his heart, then be the one to stitch it up"

"I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks"

love is embarrassing: will

"and then, you kissed some girl from high school"

"waited by my phone like a goddamn fool"

"god, love's embarrassing as hell"

"and I consoled you while you cried over your ex-girlfriend's new guy" (minus the new guy part)

"you found a new version of me"

"I give up, I give up, but I keep comin' back for more"

the grudge: lucas

"how could anyone do the things you did so easily?"

"I try to be tough, I try to be mean, but even after all this, you're still everything to me, and I know you don't care, I guess that's fine"

"one phone call from you and my entire world was changed"

"and I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did, but I hold onto every detail like my life depends on it"

"and I know in my heart, hurt people hurt people"

(this song doesn't 100% represent lucas and max's relationship in s4 imo but it comes the closest)

pretty isn't pretty: el

"there's always something in the mirror that I think looks wrong"

"when pretty isn't pretty enough, what do you do?"

"I could change up my body and change up my face, I could try every lipstick in every shade, but I'd always feel the same"

"fix the thing you hated, and you'd still feel insecure"

"I chased some dumb ideal my whole fucking life, and none of it matters and none of it ends"

teenage dream: will

"they all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don't?"

"when am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise?"

"I'll blow out the candles, happy birthday to me" (birthdaygate)

"but I fear that they already got all the best parts of me"

"will I spend all the rest of my years wishin' I could go back?"

[jasntodds]

I'm new to your blog hiii 😊 This is cuz of your music fic post, this is not me requesting I just simply must gush about this because I love music and there are some musicians imo that just hit so right with Jason (*cough* Matt Maeson)

Anyways here's some songs that I think have serious tremors of Jason Todd running through them 🎵 ❤

🎵Halestorm: Back from the Dead (this one is self explanatory lol)

🎵The Pretty Reckless: Got so High/ Standing at the Wall (side note~their latest album Death By Rock N Roll is so good and so sad)

🎵Eminem: Drug Ballad/ Never Love Again (don't worry these are milder Em lyrics cuz we all know some of his word choices are vomit inducing but these are basically simultaneously love songs to the drugs but also a cautionary tale against them)

🎵Avril Lavigne: Fall to Pieces/ Nobody's Home (I just think they fit for Jason esp nobody's home)

🎵 Matt Maeson: Dancing After Death/ The Hearse/ Tread on Me/ Go Easy/ Cringe/ Me and My Friends Are Lonely/ Mr. Rattlebone/ Grave Digger

(I motherfucking love this man's music 😢💘 lyrically mostly everything describes Jason. I LOVE the line in Me and My Friends Are Lonely "The city breathes when I do not" > that is so Gotham and Jason and Gotham and Robin and Gotham and Redhood. In Mr. Rattlebone the lyrics "I am the driver. I am the shadow. I am the hearse" welp 😢🙃 The opening of Grave Digger oh my days "I can't run to you Father, I need love". Anyway I'm gonna shush now because I am getting carried away lol but hope you don't me spaming you with all this

Hey!! Uh, I love this???? lmao I love hearing songs that relate to my favorite characters!! I definitely made a playlist here with all of these songs and I'm gonna add to it for songs that just scream Jason dkfhgdf I will be 100% listening to all of these and I actually really enjoy Matt Maeson's voice so that's so perfect??????

I'm so sorry but this is me reading "The city breathes when I do not."

Look, ANYTHING relating to daddy issues screams Jason to me and I nearly lose my fucking mind every single time. It reminds me of that one quote that's like "Growing up and seeing your parents' flaws is like losing your religion. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in my father either." This will be the first song I listen to omg

You can always come and ramble to me about music and/or Jason I love all types of music and I love Jason so I am always here lmao

And since you gave me some awesome recs, I'm gonna give you a few fkghfd:

Left Behind by The Plot In You. Look, it is one of my FAVORITE songs (is it my most played of the year?? Probably lmao it's in my top most played of all time and it came out in Feb lmao and I know I clocked over 60k minutes of music this year). But, when I listen to it, I relate it to Jason and Bruce's dynamic with lines like "Just know, all the sacrifice had robbed me of my time" and "I left behind, everything you killed inside" Landon screaming the lyrics makes me wanna CRY you can hear the pain in his voice and that's just very Jason Todd to me lmao

Deep End by I Prevail. It's such a good song?????? (I used in a fanedit and they liked it on TikTok) but my mom knows every word because she has to deal with me and brother playing it lmao but the WHOLE chorus is super Jason coded "So I made friends with all my demons. Let 'em sink their teeth in. Got used to the feeling of letting it go. So give me something to believe in or throw me in the deep end. It all feels the same with your eyes closed. So you can throw me in the deep end."

And Hollow - Lo's Version by Lo Spirit. I found him on TikTok (I swear I am not on that often??) and he's an INCREDIBLE vocalist. But this song is his best imo (followed by Good Enough and Wild Things (my beloved)) but this song is perfect for Jason. I mean, in Titans, he literally says there's a poison in him. It's perfect!! "Maybe somethings wrong with me. Maybe I was meant to sit and wait." and "Why do I, why do I feel so hollow? Hollow, hollow. Try to hide from my mind, but it follows."

[its-to-the-death]

Godddamn this competition has consumed so much of a time over the past week.

Bracket H thoughts:

Both of the first ones were good so I chose "Attack at the Wall" out of personal preference.

Darla had a point, people do love things that are "Big and Loud." The reprise is better with the context of the original.

...I know everyone is gushing in the notes about "I'm the Villain in My Own Story" and "Playing With the Big Boys Now" isn't the best villain song in that movie, but I honestly enjoyed it more? Probably because of a combination of nostalgia and *Megamind voice* PRESENTATION! Also probably doesn't help that I haven't watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend in forever.

"Marley and Marley" is a darkly awesome bop.

"Molasses to Rum" is such a weirdly cool callout of Northern hypocrisy that I voted for it, but I was really tempted by "When the Chips Are Down" because I do think that one is better musically.

After much deliberation, I voted for "One Step Ahead" because I am a sucker for the homoerotic power of swordfighting and calling someone "old friend". Also the soundtrack version of "Made in America" is better than the live performance because everyone was kind of sick when they did the Black Friday proshoot and it really shows.

The lyrics of "Why We Build The Wall" are so good, damn.

"Descole's theme live version" just sounded better to me, IDK.

Oh my god "Countdown." Dawn's singing. The hidden countdown in the lyrics. "The tick-tock of my flintlock's hangfire." The Western guitar. Vote for "Countdown," PLEASE. Everyone needs to hear Dawn sing right now.

"I Love You (As Much As Someone Like Me Can Love Anyone)" doesn't even seem that evil to me, that's just an aromantic trying to clarify the nature of her relationship with her fuckbuddy (joking). Anyway, try watching the actual Omega Flowey boss fight and tell me "Your Best Nightmare" doesn't deserve the win.

...I love "The Ballad of Sara Berry," but "God-Shattering Star" is one of the few redeeming factors of the rushed clusterfuck that is the final stages of Verdant Wind*. Anyway it's still a really badass song with a badass title.

"Friends in Low Places" is a kickass rock number. Also why are FernGully's villain songs so weirdly horny.

THAT FUCKING PIANO. VOTE FOR "BATTLE! POKEMON WIELDER VOLO."

Ok guys I know we all love PnF but "Evil for Extra Credit" is not as good as Bernadette Peters' villainous yet tragic performance in "Stay With Me."

THE PLATYPUS SONG IS NOT A VILLAIN SONG. HE'S NOT DOING VILLAINY OR SINGING ABOUT VILLAINY. HE'S JUST DJ-ING A PARTY. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL.

The essay in the notes about "Eternity Served Cold" convinced me to vote for it. Join us filthy Homestucks in turning this one around.

*Why does nobody talk about the antisemitic implications of the eeeeevil conspiracy of underground people (who you genocide) that are secretly ruling the world with blood magic+infiltrating society and were responsible for killing Crystal Dragon Jesus. I mean, I know why, but come on guys.

Aaaa I’ve loved hearing your opinions on all these even though that probably took so much time!

[margridarnauds]

hey! if you are still looking for some distraction - what are some of your favourite albums that you've been listening to recently, and why? (i am currently enjoying my first full listen-through of joanna newsom's 'divers', which is immensely lyrically interesting and very... textural? much to like!)

Thanks, I'll check it out!

I'm not someone who usually listens to whole albums -- I often focus on individual songs for months.

That being said, since 3 of my "on repeat" songs from Spotify at the moment are from "Speak Now - Taylor's Version", I think it definitely qualifies as a current favorite. I don't know, I didn't really appreciate this album at the time, not the least because I had a very gradual introduction where I was interested in a couple of songs in her early days (Teardrops on my Guitar, which was a Quintessenial OC Angst Song; Our Song, which was perfect for Rural Midwestern Roadtrip Feelings; Love Story, which was the pinnacle of romance to me; You Belong With Me, ditto), was interested in "Mine" from Speak Now for the same reason as "Our Song", but I wasn't really INTO her stuff until 1989, with "Blank Space", where I started to be like "Okay, I get it now." (And even still, I mainly get info secondhand from friends.) I know that these days, she's probably the most famous pop star working at the moment, and definitely among her own age range (it's hard to put her alongside someone like Beyonce or Madonna, just because they've had DECADES to mold themselves into icons, but she easily trumps everyone from her own age group), but there really was so much misogyny around her at the time that I wasn't able to fully appreciate her until around 1989, when people (especially on here) started to be more critical about the narratives around her + point out how generous she could be with her fans. (Is that part of her own manufactured image? Almost definitely, but there are worse things to manufacture.)

...all this to say that I never really HAD an OG!Speak Now phase, even if I did grow to adore "Enchanted" as well, so I've been rediscovering it in a way.

I've been listening to "United in Distaste" from Starry: The Musical on repeat, mainly because when a friend of mine recommended the titular song, I thought "Pretty" and then did nothing, but there's something about famous painters bitching at one another while admitting that they need one another that happens to relate directly to the reasons why I needed a distraction re: grad school that appeals to me significantly more. Moral of the story: Spare the ballads; send me the bitchiest songs from a musical if you want me to get interested in it.

The Baldur's Gate III soundtrack, especially "Raphael's Final Act" and "I Want to Live - Classical Version", but with honorable mention to "Nightsong", "Down by the River", "Main Theme, Pt. 3", "Weeping Dawn", "Harpy Theme", and all the different versions of "The Power." Not helped by me playing BG3 whenever I can take the time off from studying.

I've been OBSESSED with Epic: The Musical lately, though it's unfortunately mainly songs that haven't gotten official releases yet. "Warrior of the Mind" (officially released), "My Goodbye" (officially released), "Dangerous", "God Games - Aphrodite and Ares", and "The Challenge". I'm really excited for where this musical is going, I have a lot of high hopes for it, and I do like how they've adapted the story, honestly.

[seaweedsawyou]

Podcasts in review 2022

It was decidedly NOT a good year. Hence all the actual play podcasts.

Actual Play :/

These Flimsy Rituals - Divine cycle but fantasy. No seriously, they have Divines, the Rapid Evening, the Crystal Palace - and I'm 90% sure it's a coincidence. Severe lack of Keith J Carberry (or equivalent) makes it hard to listen to. Play their own system, Blades and a variety of other small games to expand the story.

Eidolon Playtest - Jojo stands in a tabletop world with moves such as "reveal your masterplan". Tarot card pulls are much cooler than dice. Their mini seasons (Giants? in particular) are a great place to start. The cast is mostly trans women who both loved and disliked Jojo (and Persona) enough to unionize and make something of their own - one of the characters in the current season is legit Naoto but good (trans). Play different versions of their own game.

Spout lore - somehow they play Dungeon World nigh gmless. The players supply the world, its geography, fauna, even reasons for this particular group of bad guys to kidnap them. Even if I consider the results of their world building inferior to some others, there sure take a ton of joy in creation (and that's beautiful). Also a TON of dick and fart jokes and the weirdest cases of no(?) homo from the cast. ALSO they do a goof (dndads style) by stealing from a more popular podcast thinking it was just a thing (princept as a gender neutral term for "ruler of a principality". look it up. there is only a urban dictionary entry from after partizan has started. a song, a firm and FaTT Wiki entry). Play Dungeon World and Blades (in bonus Patreon content).

Naddpod (Eldermourne) - there had to be a point where I put my foot down. No more dnd podcasts from now on.

The Unexplored Places (Deliverance, OH; Tango Sector) - Deliverance, OH is a cool name for a place to see monsters every week. Tango Sector is a cool name for a place to be scum and villains in, but the sum of its parts is less than. Catfishes: the Rock opera is a masterpiece. Play MotW, Scum and Villainy, Masks, Fiasco, smaller games.

Qomrades - a friend group that plays not dnd decided to record themselves on game night. Play whatever.

Tales Yet Told (Season 1) - discovered through their post in the FaTT tag here (good hustle). Cute (and sufficiently creepy) little story about siblings lost in the woods. Not in a rush to catch up, but I'm looking forward to. Play Babes in the Woods.

Rusty Quill Gaming - absolutely atrocious beginning (eps 2-8 are the same fucking combat encounter). The ending felt out of nowhere: was the fandom as analytical organ required to understand it? Grizzop voice makes me so happy it's illegal. Play Pathfinder (ugh) and a variety of games as bonus content.

Audio Drama :)

Wizards Seeking Wizards - it can be difficult to fill your quadrants when you are a wizard - but you should try anyway. Wacky wizards go on weird love, hate and friend dates. Product of voice actors in quarantine.

The Ballad of Anne and Mary - have you ever wanted to hear cool historical female pirates to sing about their life? Now is your chance. Product of actors in quarantine.

The Doctor Is Dead - ahhh!!!! Cool weird queer (thematically and otherwise) musical. Complete with astonishing songwriting and music. Favorite thing I've encountered all year.

Out of Place - alternate dimension puzzles are more fun when they are based in history (season 1), and not in sci Fi the author has read (season 2).

Beneath our Feet - doctor but not cool.

Mirrors - normally I am very easily impressed by both women and ghosts.

The Tides - I really wanted it to be In Other Waters. Hard to do so without visuals or scientific basis.

Woe.Begone - I won't be listening to another Homestuck while also being personally victimized by the writer (/j but I refuse to elaborate).

Malevolent - possession narratives are sooo fun I will keep listening to another Homestuck 💛

Arden - when fem!Hamlet goes to the nunnery. Oh my god. Oh shit. O fuck. So unfortunate you have to get through the first season to reach the second.

Tech won't save us - host's name is Paris Marx, which makes everything else self explanatory. Your leftie tech podcast.

Various unnamed philosophy podcasts - not good enough to mention. None of them compare to the One (GSSB) which isn't even one primarily.

[iamapoopmuffin]

What are you working on now? Or at least rotating around in your head now? (Because that counts as writing! 😂)

Ooh okay, I have a bad habit of flitting between projects when I get my inspiration, but I'm working on a few things right now (one of which I think I've been working on all year but in my defence it is intended to be a very long piece-)

Who Wants To Be A Best Man? (Ducktales) - That thing I posted a preview of where Dewey, Della and Webby are putting Donald's potential best men for his wedding through trials and Storkules crashes the trials determined to be the best of the best men for his bestest friend ever, Donald. I've written everything up to the first trial but by thunder I still can't come up with a trial lol.

The Sharkbomb AU (Ducktales) - As it says on the tin. I'm bringing the Sharkbomb AU to life by stealing a life giving McGuffin from Legend of the Three Caballeros and putting it in the puppet and writing the chaotic adventures of Flinty and Son as they adapt to this new part of their lives and then Sharkbomb finds out he was a ventriloquist puppet and has an existential crisis.

Bring Your Daughters To Work Day (Ducktales) - So, precursor, I love that Donald is the 'More kids to adopt don't mind if I do' dad, and I love that he did not hesitate to take May and June, but also half of me also wants Scrooge to raise all his daughters once someone actually tells him they're biologically his daughters and also for Webby to have the sisters she's wanted since Season 1. This led to me writing a thing that's Scrooge realising these are his kids and then the four of them going alone on a father/daughter bonding adventure. I also want to write a bonding piece for Webby and Mrs Beakley.

The Final Solution (Original) - Point note, all superhero stories are posted on a separate blog focusing on the superhero series (it is not updated often as all the co-creators, me included, are usually very busy with other life stuff). Anyway, this is the final part in a whole overarching arc, essentially the end of the main Censor and Ballad arc, which summed up is 'Ballad is a disgraced former hero trying to step back into the limelight but committing criminal acts to do so and is determined to use his biological son's powers to enact the ultimate staged disaster for him to fix as a mighty hero'. This staging involves killing off other heroes so that A, people think there's a serial killer, and B, he's the only hero who can stop the crazed killer known only as The Censor. This is the long long one. It has fights, murder, sexism and transphobia.

The Fear (Original) - Another superhero story, this one focuses on students at Janusz' school for super humans, specifically Ajax. I'll probably make this a little series that introduces every student, giving a little background and leading to them joining the student population. In Ajax's case, he's being hunted by both a cult he stole an eldritch horror from and the government that knows he has fear and insanity inducement powers and is linked to said cult-

Mirror Mirror On The Wall (One Piece) - The Straw Hats arrive on a strange island that traps them with mirror versions of themselves. Mirror Chopper steals organs and Mirror Brook hunts whales. There's a whole host of evil Straw Hats stuff I've discussed with @rosetheshapeshifter to build up on but I can't say too much about specifics here without either spoiling things or making this answer way too long

Alcohol And Idiots Do Not Mix (Kuroko's Basketball) - I'm finishing the second and third chapters of this old shit if it kills me.

Away In A Manger (Teen Titans) - Oh dear god, this. So, fun fact, I discovered while reading comics that Beast Boy can willingly change gender when changing animal which, alongside my at the time interest in Norse mythology and specifically the origins of Sleipnir, led to me joking with some friends and the wife about a cursed M-preg idea, which in turn led to the creation of fankid Fifi Logan, which in turn led to me actually writing this. It all comes down to me dicking about with cursed cursed ideas. And nothing will ever stop me.

Assorted other small side original series stories. Most of them gay.

[watch-grok-brainrot]

ah hey! snowbunny again, and this time it's 6am where i live so yeah. i'd probably pick mandarin? it would make watching cdramas so much easier i think, and just in general? a year or so back i probably would've picked russian, my father had to learn russian when he was a kid and he still speaks it partly, one of my close friends family is from russia too, so i could speak it with her too. but rn? mandarin would probably the one i'd like to be fluent in.

the cql ost is currently 80% of my comfort playlist, though one of my mutuals and i (more like me and she just has to suffer through it and i enjoy making her cry) are making a wangxian playlist! it wasn't meant to be as angsty as everything turned out to be so far, but i'm not complaining. except for like one song everything is in english, the other song is in german actually and we're not sure if it categories as angst or happy. the acoustic version makes the song sound incredibly sad, the lyrics is somewhere between sad and happy, basically between "you make me happy" and "why did it have to be this way in the first place?". if you want to be specific, the song talks about the other person lifting a burden from your heart "freed it, revived it" is one of the lines, and.... it's a great song but 🤧🤧🤧 then there are these lines "[i] was stuck and didn't know what to do / and you took hammer and chisel / made an artwork* out of my cold heart" (ig to make it flow better you could say "made a masterpiece out of my cold heart" but he says "Kunstwerk" eng. artwork). idk the whole lyrics flows better in german but if you want to listen to it (i prefer the acoustic) it's Betonherz by Wincent Weiss (Cement-heart).

Today idk what to ask so: what are your favorite mutuals/the ones you interact with the most? was there anything you wanted to do this year but couldn't? a random fun fact over tea maybe? (btw i drunk tea this week and it was uhmmm mint tea? i think? and black tea but i can't say more about that tbh)

ahhh wait!!! if we include fantasy languages i'd like to speak quenya 😌😌 or sindarin, that would be okay too - ❄🐇

You did send me asks! Sorry i’m bad at responding. 

mandarin is pretty handy. i will vouch for that. i listened to erha audiodrama on maoer FM today while i was cooking. it was delightful. i had to google the languages you sent in. i know nothing of lotr. but @phoenixrisesoncemore is good with lotr. does neat art. loves untamed. great tea friend. so i would probably reach out to her! :D

cql ost is a lot of what i’ve listened to this year too. i’m really digging teh “I will take you life” song from Ever Night though. It’s so perfectly chipper. I come from so and so place, i’m here to take you life. I just giggle every time i hear it. a little morbid, but alas. Also, the end theme of ever night is cute and chipper too. and the words are really nice. I also LOVE the opening theme of love and redemption. it makes me think of some 80s rock ballad or something. and the words “Even if i drank the waters of wangchuan, I will not fail to meet you again” is really romantic. 

Uh... in case you don’t know what wangchuan is, it’s the river that make you forget your past life before reincarnation. so it’s a pretty intense promise IMO. I really dig that idea... maybe it’s because i read erha and wife is first back to back and now i’m all on board with the idea of “if i get a second chance i won’t fuck it up”. 

oh god. the two mutuals I talk to the most are definitely @needtherapy and @merelhyn. if i go more than 24 hrs without hearing from them i feel weird. I really wanna go on a trip post pandemic to visit merelhyn and spend a day drinking tea with her. and i really want needtherapy to visit me so i can make her crawl through the bowels of the place where i got married -- it’s a weird modern art, industrial playground space filled with mosaics and concrete and ironwork sculptures. it is actually that cool. but you can’t really wear nice clothes there. i’ve ripped holes in shirts before. AND it has a circus school inside. it’s the place of litte haoppo’s dreams. I also talk to lots of other people i didn’t mention (e.g. members of mdzsnet and other friends of mine) but that’s just because i am an extrovert and i talk to people. i like talking to people. and there are SO MANY AMAZING PEOPLE on tumblr. but the two i listed are people who i swapped irl phone numbers with so they get listed as special. i’m drawing my line here or i would probably end up writing a page of people who i adore and that might get annoying :/

random fun fact over tea snowbunny says. random fun fact over tea... uh... i saw @yumingyesfairy‘s previous url and asked if “duchess of orange” was a reference to “duke of orange” which is where we get the tea grading “orange pekoe”. i was correct! and made a tea friend! :D

you are by no means obligated to know tea or even care about tea. i just love it and love sharing about it. because someone isn’t actually good at compartmentalizing. 

how is your week going? <3

[arreisstorm]

Happy RM Day!!!

When it comes to Kim Namjoon the important impact he's had on my life cannot easily be summed up in one word. Neither love or respect fully conveys how much this man means to me. I know it might seem ridiculous to some when people say how band members are their "life" or how it is so easy to profess a unconditional love for them, because I mean, how can you love a complete stranger?! Here you are shouting praise, yet, in most cases, you have never met this person in life and have no idea what he is alike aside from what you see and hear; however, that is exactly how it is for me. I might know him personal, I have no way of knowing what truly happens behind the scenes, but even with that uncertainty, I can still say without a doubt in mind, BTS's leader, AKA: RM, is one of the sweetest, most caring, influential, and highly intellectual human beings alive on this planet right now.

Not only is who a leader for the rest of the a boys, he is both an encouragement and comfort as well. I've heard from numerous interviews that the rest of the group have participated in, that RM is the one they look up to the most and the one they know they can always confide in. When BTS had just debuted,  Jungkook was self-conscious about showing his body so much so that he actually cried a couple time because he felt nervous and anxious towards the action, but once he talked with RM and got the reassurance he needed, Kookie came to self-acceptance that he shows now and is a completely different entity on the stage! Not to mention that Jungkook wouldn't even be with BTS if it wasn't for RM! Thank God he saw the clear talent that was there.

It's not only JK though, RM has helped all of the boys in different ways. From tutoring and teaching Taehyung to better understand English, to having in-depth, personal conversations with Hobi and Jimin, to making sure that Jin gets the support and spotlight that he deserves, RM always knows how to make the boys feel loved. He makes sure that everyone is acknowledged as they deserve to be.

One of my favorite examples though has to do with the period where BTS were still in their training days and there was this special being shot about RM as an artist. The video as a whole was very insightful and well done, but there's this certain part towards the end that showed RM's true colors. Their producer Bang Si-hyuk or Bang PD as he's more commonly known, had just called RM to his office to have a meeting, the topic concerning his future. Now I'll remind you that this was infact a hidden camera show, but because he was not let in on the prank, RM thought it was real. To summarize, basically Bang PD was supposed to get irritated with RM and his behavior and give him the ultimatum of staying with BTS or splitting and going solo. Mind you, RM had already been told that the talent and determination he possessed was already good enough to make a successful career as a solo artist, and as an idol, RM knew that these kinds of opportunities were once in a lifetime chances and did not come easily, so it should have been a no brainer right? Well that's not what RM thought. You see, Yoongi and him, although they hadn't known each other for long, they shared some hardships and trying times that cemented this unbreakable bond and beautiful friendship that was far stronger than promises of fame and fortune, and the same goes for thw rest of the boys. He had built a family with those 6 strangers and so when the deal was offered, "Solo or Bangtan," without a moment of hesitation, RM chose his brothers. Although it might have come with fame, fortune, and even more recognition and credit to his name as a "real rapper" in Korea's hip-hop community, RM knew that in going with the more luxurious option also meant that he would have to leave his best friend, his family behind and turn his back on what they had built together. Being an idol might have been exhausting and there was an insanely, rigorous schedule with countless limitations on what you could or couldn't do, but those thoughts came second in his mind because RM was willing to put in the hard work, long hours, sleepless nights, and criticism from former groups members if it meant that he could stay and share it with the rest of his boys. That is why this is one, of the many reasons, that I have a deep respect for Kim Namjoon, and it is because he values friendship and family over all else that he makes such an amazing and worthy leader.

Here's the video:

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This truly one of the best videos, because aside from that prank, you get the honest, stripped-down version of who RM is as an artist and also who Namjoon is as a person.

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As you can see, RM has gone above and beyond for his fellow members, so you're probably wondering what he's done for me right? Well aside from being one of the best rappers I've heard, and having a heart of gold, the most memorable thing I have taken away from this role model is the discovery of self-love and learning to accept all my flaws as just another part of me. Through the use of beautifully crafted lyrics and messages the whole of society can relate to, RM has been the backbone for BTS and has been a huge factor for the direction that they are going now, and that direction is all the way up! Of course I know that all the other boys have also played an equally as important role in the development of one of the best K-pop groups out there, and you can guarantee RM has given them all of the credit more times than I can count.

Link to prove it:

I think it's pretty obvious that having a great leader like this has propelled all seven of these phenomenal boys to heights and boundaries unknown. From the way he unapologetically raps about social issues like injustice or inequality, and then does a complete 180 by singing ballads with his soulful, calming voice, it's impossible not to fall in love with this multitalented man. He is ethereal in mind, body, and soul and his poetic, philosophical  outlook on life is truly that of a genius at work. He can be extremely adorable with his dimples and childlike behavior, but he can also be one of the most rude and seductive persons with his wink and the way he spits fire. Either way he is a jack of all trades and I wouldn't want it any other way.

So thank you Namjoon from the bottom of my heart. You have taught me so much in such a short time and your words are like canvassed covered masterpieces. I know you don't always get the recognition or support you deserve, but I'm going to make sure that changes. You have put your everything into BTS and you have given ARMY everything as well, now it's time for us to give a little of that love back. This is just a small gesture, but I wanted to say Happy Birthday and show you how you have successfully reserved a special and irreplaceable home in my heart. We don't deserve such a generous, selfless, instrumental, and warm-hearted person to be our leader and voice but I can't imagine what life would be like without you, so please continue to be that essential presence we all need. 💜

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Some extras if you wish to get to know RM better and fall in love with him like the rest of us:

Thanks for reading! 💜

[lunapaper]

The year was 2010. Emo was just starting to die out (long live the scene). I was studying to become a secondary school teacher, and Katy Perry was shooting whipped cream out of her boobs...

Second albums, more often than not, fail to live up to the hype. And yet, Teenage Dream has somehow endured.

While Perry’s 2008 debut, One of the Boys, launched her into the mainstream, it really hasn’t aged all that well. On tracks like ‘Self Inflicted’ and ‘Fingerprints,’ she tries way too hard to emulate Paramore’s bold pop punk. On others, she attempts to rebel against her gospel roots by turning the bawdiness up to 10.

It can also come off pretty juvenile at times. The singer was almost 25 when she sang on the title track: ‘So over the summer, something changed/I started reading Seventeen and shaving my legs/And I studied Lolita religiously/And I walked right in to school and caught you staring at me.’

But let’s be honest: Even though it’s been declared ~problematic~, you still jam out to ‘I Kissed A Girl’ when you hear it, don’t you? I hadn’t listened to ‘Ur So Gay’ before this, either, but its slinky, jazz-infused vibe absolutely slaps.

Like Teenage Dream is also a product of its time, presenting pop at its most sugary, hook-laden and bombastic. It managed to spawn 5 No.1 singles, the second album in history to do so after Michael Jackson’s Bad, as well as a documentary, Part of Me. There’s even a deluxe edition, cleverly titled The Complete Confection. It was Perry at her peak.

You know the title track, of course. Evoking images of cherry red lipstick, tight denim and driving down an empty highway in summer, Perry desperately clings to the memory of young love, breathlessly pleading ‘don’t ever look back, don’t ever look back.’

‘The One That Got Away,’ meanwhile, is its bittersweet sequel, Perry's lovesick nostalgia now tinged with regret. Yet, the only thing I really remember about the song is the video starring Cassian Andor himself, Diego Luna, as Perry’s past love, the beautifully dishevelled and tortured artist of my dreams (Dear God, that penetrating stare...) He’s also the only reason why anyone bothered to watch Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, if it wasn’t already obvious.

First single ‘California Gurls,’ on the other hand, is pure pop exuberance at its most campy and carefree, indicative of a more innocent time when it wasn’t driven by algorithms or social media. ‘Firework’ is still a go-to empowerment anthem for just about every kind of montage imaginable. ‘ET’ (featuring a pre-’presidential’ Kanye) is heavily-synthesised cyber pop that doesn’t get nearly enough love.

But Teenage Dream, in retrospect, has quite a few misses. ‘Peacock’ is just one big, long, glitchy dick joke. ‘Not Like The Movies’ is big ballad schmaltz. The brassy soft rock of ‘Hummingbird Heartbeat,’ meanwhile, opens with a hell of a line: ‘You make me feel like I'm losing my virginity/The first time, every time when you're touching me.’ And I’m pretty sure ‘What Am I Living For?’ is partly plagiarised from Justin Timberlake’s ‘My Love.’ Even Pitchfork awarded Teenage Dream a rather tame 6.8 in their recent retrospective review.

By the time Perry released Prism in 2013 – her ‘darker, moodier’ record - she had shifted further into ‘inspirational anthems.’ There was the inescapable mega-hit ‘Roar,’ the saccharine power ballad ‘Unconditionally’ and the Eastern-tinged ‘Legendary Lovers,’ complete with wellness and spiritual motifs.

But it wasn’t without its bangers: ‘Dark Horse’ (featuring Juicy J) jumped onto the trap pop bandwagon just in time with its subterranean bass and eerie, otherworldly synths. Even the slick, 90s-indebted ‘This Is How We Do’ has a certain charm.

Prism also marked the point where Perry’s invincibility began to wear off. Where the masses once lapped up her candy-coated antics, they were now calling her out for wearing braids in the video for ‘This Is How We Do’ and dressing up as a geisha during a performance at the American Music Awards.

And they would only get louder during her era of ‘purposeful pop.’ Released in the aftermath of the 2016 US election, Witness was meant to cement Perry as ‘Artist. Activist. Conscious’ - as her Twitter bio read at the time. She had joined Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. On Instagram, she was quoting the likes of Socrates and Plato. She was Woke now, and she was telling anyone who’d listen.

Yet you’d be hard pressed to find much trace of this ‘purposeful pop’ on Witness, bar the first single, ‘Chained to the Rhythm.’ Written with Sia and Max Martin, the singer implores listeners to ‘put your rose-coloured glasses on and party on’ amid whirling, colourful synths.

The rest of the record, however, is made up of either soppy, overly sentimental ballads (‘Save As Draft,’ ‘Pendulum,’ ‘Into Me You See’), awkward lyrical turns and CHVRCHES/Purity Ring knock-offs (‘Hey Hey Hey,’ ‘Roulette,’ ‘Deja Vu’).

Funnily enough, Purity Ring’s Corin Roddick produced some of Witness’ better tracks: ‘Mind Maze’ and the soaring ballad ‘Miss You More, along with ‘Bigger Than Me.’

Final track ‘Act My Age,’ meanwhile, feels like a pre-emptive strike against the criticism Witness would inevitably receive (‘They say that I might lose my Midas touch/They also say I may become irrelevant/But who the fuck are they anyway?’).

Then there’s the godawful ‘Bon Appetit’ (featuring Migos) with its food-related double entendres. It was ‘Yummy’ before ‘Yummy’ existed. Seriously, I just wanna see Orlando Bloom say he likes this song with a straight face...

But I will still defend ‘Swish Swish’ to the death. Do the lyrics suck? Yeah, but Perry’s never been the strongest lyricist. But its pulsing 90s house beat does a lot of the heavy lifting, along with Nicki Minaj’s spitfire verse.

The promotional rollout for Witness, meanwhile, proved just as messy. Among the most infamous was a 72-hour livestream, where voyeurs got to witness Perry sleep, meditate, do yoga and welcome a random assortment of guests, including Gordon Ramsey and activist DeRay McKesson. Then there was the meme-laden video for ‘Swish Swish. She literally served herself up on a platter in the clip for ‘Bon Appetit.’ She tried reigniting her feud with Taylor Swift on James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. Needless to say, it reeked of desperation.

Looking back, though, you can’t help but feel a little bad for Perry, trying so hard to please only for it to blow up spectacularly in her face. So devastated, it sent her to the Hoffman Institute, which offers an abridged version of therapy. As she later told the Guardian:

‘I think the universe was like, ‘OK, all right, let’s have some humble pie here […] My negative thoughts were not great. They didn’t want to plan for a future. I also felt like I could control it by saying, ‘I’ll have the last word if I hurt myself or do something stupid and I’ll show you’ — but really, who was I showing?’

But although Witness lacked the perkiness of Teenage Dream or the cartoonish charm of One of the Boys, it shines best on its darker moments.

‘Dance With The Devil’ has the kind of smoky allure that wouldn’t look too out of place on a BANKS album, while ‘Power’ is a revelation. Produced by Jack Garrett, what could’ve been yet another dull empowerment ballad is turned into a gritty, groaning slab of vaporwave pop, with sultry sax riffs that sample, of all things, Smokey Robinson’s ‘Being With You.’ It’s electric as fuck. You believe it when Perry sings: ‘’Cause I'm a goddess and you know it/Some respect, you better show it/I'm done with you siphoning my power.’

If the singer had just done away with the whole ‘purposeful pop’ concept and stuck with Garrett, Roddick and Terror Jr’s Felix Snow as her core producing group, Witness probably wouldn’t have been half the failure it was. It could’ve had a chance to grow on people, the kind of slow burn Perry could’ve gotten away with at this point in her career. The cyberpop dystopian feel also could’ve gone hand in hand with her newfound wokeness, echoing people’s fear and anger in the aftermath of Trump’s win. But alas, we’ll never know...

While the rollout for Witness over the top, Smile’s was lacklustre and wildly inconsistent.

First single ‘Never Really Over’ came out a whole 15 months before the release of Smile to little fanfare, along with a hippie-inspired video to match. ‘Harleys in Hawaii’ later followed, which also stuck with the flower power aesthetic. Other singles - ‘Daisies’ and the title track – seemingly came and went without a trace.

So how did Katy Perry get to this point? And is there any chance of coming back?

It’s hard to say. A lot of artists go through a rough patch or two:   Miley's twerking antics divided audiences when she released 2013’s Bangerz. Taylor Swift’s reputation divided audiences. Only in recent years has Lady Gaga’s ARTPOP been vindicated. Such is the nature of music and pop culture in general. It’s fickle, just one vicious cycle after another; an endless quest for trend-bait that'll never end.

Right now, disco pop is going through a renaissance, while hyperpop reigns supreme. Dua Lip and Charli XCX are basically untouchable at the moment. TikTok has taken over from Top 40 radio when it comes to breaking hits, while the gap between album releases has also grown shorter and shorter. Even the nature of fandom has changed, shifting from old-school elitism to the bloodsport that is ‘stanning,’ along with an unhealthy amount of ‘endless simping’ (to quote a close friend of mine).

Perry, meanwhile, has failed to keep up, choosing to play it safe in order to avoid further scrutiny. But in doing so, she strips away the humour, the mischief and other idiosyncrasies that fans fell in love with in the first place.

But what choice did she have? As Junkee’s Sam Murphy notes in his own piece about Perry’s rise and fall:

‘At that point, you have two choices as a popstar — hunt for relevancy or make what comes naturally to you. Perry chose the former and came unstuck. She inserted vague wokeness into her songs as cancel culture infiltrated pop, tacked on rap features as hip-hop became the dominant commercial genre, and worked with producers who may have been able to find her credibility.’

(Full disclosure: I started writing my piece on Perry back in December 2020, so the timing of Murphy’s piece and mine is purely coincidental).

Even if you don’t believe in cancel culture, no one actually wants to be cancelled. It’s just not good for PR, especially for someone with an image as glossy and as carefully put-together as Perry’s. Even now, she continues to atone for Witness, telling the LA Times: ‘Having more awareness and consciousness, I no longer can just be a blissful, ignorant idealist who sings about love and relationships […] Even my travels have afforded me a new perspective on cultures, class systems and the inequality around the world, not just in the United States,’ though she carefully avoids the subject of politics on Smile.

But redemption is possible. Swift – Perry's one-time nemesis - was a total pariah back in 2016, mocked for her Girl Squad, for diddling the Hiddles while on the rebound from Calvin Harris and criticised for remaining coy on her political leanings. Now she’s earning indie cred with two of 2020’s biggest albums, folklore and evermore, and has thrown her support behind a number of social causes.

The devil works hard, but Swift’s PR team work harder. I might not be her biggest fan, but Taylor works Kris Jenner levels of mastery when it comes to rebuilding public sentiment. Thanks to her newfound indie cred, you’ve almost forgotten about the pastel atrocity ‘Me!,’ her 2019 duet with that insufferable drama kid cliché, Brendon Urie. Shifting her songs away from petty grievances to more original storytelling was also a smart move.

But while Swift has managed to move on, Perry seems to have fallen into the same adult contemporary trap as Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and Pink, one that ensnares many female artists over 30 (Though many have also managed to escape – Gaga, Taylor, Beyonce, Rihanna, Kesha, Robyn...)

As ‘woke’ as the industry and fans at large might think themselves to be, they’re still pretty ageist. There's still an expectation to ‘mature’ your sound as you age, to become more ‘serious.’ No more fun, no more experimenting, boomer. But when you do end up filing away the edges, you’re called dull, generic and past your prime. Perry said as much on the aforementioned ‘Act My Age. You just. can't. win.

And yet, many female artists over 30 have created some of their best work yet in just the past year or so: Hayley Williams made the dramatic shift from pop rock to low-key, Radiohead-inspired tunes on her solo debut, Petals For Armor. Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters was hailed by critics as her most bold, urgent and visceral. Jessie Ware’s What’s Your Pleasure? was a cut of understated disco pop elegance. Carly Rae Jepsen, meanwhile, released an equally stellar companion to 2019’s Dedicated.

At this point in her career, Perry could afford to follow a similar path to that of the Canadian singer. Once the meme value of ‘Call Me Maybe’ wore off, along with her mainstream appeal, Jepsen finally had a chance to discover real creative freedom, pushing her sound to greater heights and earning critical acclaim, all without having to compromise her love for catchy hooks and bold synth pop arrangements.

A couple of years ago, a Reddit user made a post about participating in a focus group held by Perry’s label to discuss why she’s ‘no longer one of the[ir] most notable female pop artists,’ and ‘what can [they] do with her image or marketing to make you care about her again?’

It’s depressing to think that an artist as accomplished as her needs a focus group to help solve her identity crisis. There really is no easy answer. Hopefully, Perry will be able to return more vibrant and assured than ever, on her own terms...

-Bianca B.

[pajamaplants]

opinions on campfire songs? no wait actually, your top 5-10 anco songs. no wait. actually, just wanna talk about anco opinions in response to this ask bc that's what I'm going for. favorite member? unpopular opinions? feelings on avey's album coming out SO fucking soon? you can answer any, all, or none of these I am very sorry

hello! i only just now saw this but thank you so so much for asking!! buddy never apologize for asking me anco questions because that’s the one thing i am always ready to talk about at any given moment.

campfire songs is actually one of the few anco works i’ve only listened to a few times through (although i’ve heard live versions of doggy a lot) and not because i don’t like it i just haven’t gotten into it as quick as some of their other albums i guess? it’s a little tough for me to sit for multiple lengthy down tempo acoustic ballads, like it took me a few listens to fall in love with visiting friends off sung tongs which is pretty lengthy too. but from only the few listen throughs i’ve done, i think it’s a lovely album full of sad and nostalgic memories remembered.

top 10 songs holy moly that’s so tough to choose i’ll just list 10 studio favorites of mine in no particular order:

winter’s love

purple bottle

fireworks

grass

alvin row

who could win a rabbit

tikwid

today’s supernatural

unsolved mysteries

mr. fingers

for this list i’m not including any solo works (i love me some solo works) or covers (because their cover of on a plain would be on the list) or live versions of songs (because other wise this 2009 version of slippi, this 2007 version of taste and in the flowers, and this 2006 version of we tigers would cut it)

favorite member for sure avey!! i love that amazing and genuine sweetheart of a man with a passion but really i love all the boys so much they all bring me so much joy and are only better all together i’d be lost without them

unpopular opinions hmm i’ll just say i think deak deserves a lot more love than he seems to get he’s just as much a member as the rest of them and he has as beautiful a voice as panda and avey and my ultimate dream is all three vocalists sing on the next album together as a trio like dude could you even i m a g i n e  all three harmonizing together on a full studio track? god

confession i listened to a leak of it because i couldn’t take the wait and jesus it’s so so good avey out did himself. favorite tracks so far are ms. secret, roamer, coral lords, pj and boat race. but like damn dude lemme tell you i’m blessed enough to go to an animal collective show later this month with a good buddy of mine and i hope they’ll have avey’s album for sale there since the show is only like a week after it releases because i will snatch it up so fast

thank you so much for asking, feel free to tell me your answers i would love to hear them!!