#like its an objectively good rap album to me

[sn4kebites]

jackman is such a good album. 24 minutes long and every track is so good and so raw. i do not take like most of anthony fantanos opinions seriously anyways but the low score on this one especially was such a bad take.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Baseball's Greatest Hits 1989 Novelty / Swing / Pop / Jazz / Comedy / Folk / Singer-Songwriter

Well, folks, I gotta say that baseball and I really aren't on the greatest of terms right now. See, my Mets are currently in the fight of their life for a playoff wild card spot, and their MVP-caliber shortstop, Francisco Lindor, who prides himself on playing every day, is now nursing a back injury, and we don't yet know the severity of it, because as I'm currently writing this, me and this entire fanbase are awaiting the results of a very important MRI. And as a diehard Mets fan whose only really been raised on baseball heartbreak, I've been conditioned to only expect bad news at this point, knowing full well that even if his injury is minor and he's only out for a few games, that his absence at this highly critical point in the season has a pretty good chance of causing this club to miss the playoffs by a mere inch, even though they've been pretty much the best team in the league since Memorial Day, with a starting pitching staff that was not expected to be very good, but has somehow miraculously developed itself into the best one in the game, despite ace Kodai Senga only making a single appearance all season due to multiple injuries.

But even though I really don't wanna think too much about baseball right now (hah!), we still push on, because like it or not, this novelty album of baseball songs from Rhino Records—the first of its kind, they allege—happens to be the next album in my queue, and so here I am, regardless of my own mood and how I'm currently trying to cope in this moment, ready to write, objectively 😥.

So, first of all, and above all else, this is a fun album. Little of it consists of music that I would consider to be *good*, but that's not really the point of an album like this in the first place; we're here for goofy novelty, and boy, do we have a whole lot of it, from swingin' and showtuney and rockin' tunes about specific greats like Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron; to jazz pianist Dave Frishberg's "Van Lingle Mungo," a song that, according to this albums own liner notes, became his most requested, even though its lyrics are literally only names of baseball players that he'd found in a baseball encyclopedia once, including that of Van Lingle Mungo himself. What a song to have your career defined by 😂.

But the absurdity of this album really only begins there, because in addition to that, we've got some peak 80s cringe here as well. Like, you know how so many people in that decade mistakenly thought it'd be a good idea to try their hand at rapping? Well, have a listen to legendary Yankees announcer Mel Allen rap the words 'that ain't no jive' on "Baseball Dreams," by Allen and a group called The Naturals. This song is like if one of those horribly cheesy 'just say no to drugs' anthems was made about baseball instead. A complete atrocity that reminds you just how much of this awful type of cheap and generic, keyboard-dominated ~sound~ was really floating around out there at the time. Fun to point and laugh at now, but holy shit, what terrible, terrible music this was!

And up until that very song on this album, I was set to write about how this is a great release for families to listen to in their car while on the way to a ballgame, so long as they don't go to more than a few games a year. But then I heard the next song, "Baseball Card Lover" by Rockin' Richie Ray, and thought otherwise, because while Richie provides the thinnest of pretenses that this song is merely about his love of baseball cards, what it's actually clearly about instead are his own fantasies about having wild sex with the players on those cards 🥵. So, uh...fun for the whole family, this album certainly is not.

Still, though, there are a few genuinely good songs on here too, and the best among them, I'd say, is probably Philly soul group The Intruders' "(Love Is Like A) Baseball Game," which wasn't their biggest hit, but still managed to perform modestly well, reaching #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. A quality piece of soul music that came courtesy of the legendary songwriting and production duo of Gamble and Huff, but I'm not too sure that I agree that the whole concept of love can really be equated to "three strikes, you're out" 😅.

So, all in all, it definitely did feel a little bit tormenting to have to listen to this album and then write up a post about it today, but now that I've done it, I won't have to do it again 👍. Worth a listen if you love the history of baseball and think you'd get a kick out of the wide variety of wacky music that this folkloric game has managed to yield since about the ~1940s, but if baseball's never really been your thing, you can probably skip this collection, because you probably wouldn't understand or appreciate much of what these songs are about anyway.

But seriously, how do you leave a song like "Meet the Mets," one of the single-catchiest baseball tunes ever written, off of an album like this?! 🤔 Tsk, tsk. The lesser known funkier and peppier 70s version of it goes pretty hard, as far as baseball songs go, too, I think.

Highlights:

The Intruders - "(Love Is Like A) Baseball Game" Steve Goodman - "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" Sister Wynona Carr - "The Ball Game"

P.S.: Since I've written this, Lindor's MRI has come back clean, which is definitely encouraging, but they really need him back ASAP. Time is definitely not on their side right now 😓.

[thesinglesjukebox]

(G)I-DLE - "QUEENCARD"

Time to find out once and for all -- like, for real this time -- who hates fun!

6.29

Kayla Beardslee: Dumb bitches assemble (affectionate). "Queencard" is kind of embarrassing to defend (you're going to bat for the boob and booty hot song? really?), but if you listen to it enough, it becomes impossible to deny that it's also kind of a banger. It would be a different matter if the production and topline weren't pulling their weight, but that bassline rips, and those line-to-line handoffs between all five members in the first verse get me every time. It also helps that this song comes from by far the best album (G)I-DLE has ever put out: when "Queencard" is placed next to the beautiful, dreamy B-side "Paradise" or the sinister-sexy "Lucid," its goofiness seems less like actual vapidity and more like Soyeon intentionally fucking around because she knows it's good to have a little fun and gas yourself up sometimes. Like, look me in the eyes and tell me it's not high performance art to release "Tomboy" and "Queencard" (and "Nxde"!) within a year of one another. I can get on board with a bit of silliness in exchange for the album I've been waiting for (G)I-DLE to make since I first discovered them -- which, as it happens, was when the Jukebox covered "Uh Oh" back in 2019. What a lovely and emotionally nuanced full-circle moment. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go back to twerking on the runway. [8]

Crystal Leww: MY BOOB AND BUTT IS HOT MY BOOB AND BUTT IS HOT MY BOOB AND BUTT IS HOT MY BOOB AND BUTT IS HOT MY BOOB AND BUTT IS HOT [8]

Katherine St Asaph: Vintage Fergie. [3]

Harlan Talib Ockey: Ridiculous. [7]

Tara Hillegeist: As an object lesson in one of pop music's golden rules -- "unfuckwithable production can save unforgivable lyrics every time" -- "Queencard" ticks all the bases. Embarrassing lines like "twerking on the runway" and "sexy like Kim Kardashian" that not even Meghan Trainor could've written with a straight face completely fail to dent that supple bassline and synth-bleep driven stomp of a beat. There isn't a single word of this song worth dignifying with a sincere analysis; there isn't a single word of this song that matters while the squelched-alarm bubble and squeak of a melody and irrepressible line delivery are still making the brain jiggle like so much excited jelly under their sonic assault. This is a missive from the same school of thought that produced "Song 2": a heady slab of music so thoroughly stupid yet sneeringly self-confident about it, hearing it excites the listener enough to mistake it for the work of a frustrated genius, instead. I cannot take its message seriously without taking insult. I can't stop pressing repeat. [7]

Will Adams: So many delightfully dumb lines, it's hard to choose a favorite. I wish the music had been equally as silly, as opposed to whatever Jonas Brothers purgatory it currently exists in. [5]

Alfred Soto: Elements from Pussycat Dolls and Meghan Trainor drift and fade with the attention span. [4]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: This quintet's energy is infectious enough to take "Queencard" (great title) to the finish line, but there's no getting past the backing track. Envision every Black Friday/post-Christmas/commercial on TV, strip the jaunty musical beds from their flatscreen-deal context, then paste them one after the other. I'm sorry, but GO TO PRISON!!! [2]

Nortey Dowuona: Pop rock as an aesthetic is actually a good thing to be pilfering from. It's not novel or boundary pushing in the slightest, but after the last decade of everything stealing from rap -- the structures, the adlibs, the flows, the kicks, snares, hi-hats and percussion, the poses, the clothing -- and miserably failing to even slightly capture the same lightning strike... maybe don't be bothered to try. I've been listening to What Had Happened Was with Questlove, and at each turn I grow more frustrated by the fact that neither he nor Black Thought ever cottoned on to the giant possibilities of being an actual band, only producing musical phrases to be looped in the least interactive or vivid way. And this song, which is a solid approximation of 2005 pop rock and 2011 piss-take raps, just frustrates me cuz it feels like Jeon So-yeon, the group's Questlove, has the same problem; being able to make poppy Shafiq Husayn records and settling for Max Martin throwaways. [5]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: How long has it been since we've had an honest-to-god hook song? You could blame it on shifting musical trends, but ever since K-pop made it big in the West, lyrics have had to start making sense. This means we've been deprived of the joy that comes with wonky English. The lyrics are especially camp on "Queencard," but it goes beyond that: it's the total surrendering of a topline to phrasing and rhythm. Case in point: "My boob and booty" has syllabic parallels with "I'm top" and "twerking." There's also a slick maneuvering between English and Korean here, with (G)I-DLE selecting the words that sound best -- "ppoppo" is way more fun than "kiss," and "I'm cute" can be delivered with more sass than the same phrase in Korean. "Queencard" may not be a term the average American knows, but it doesn't matter: it's the sort of nonsense word that you can repeat incessantly, much like we all did with "gee" 14 years ago. To top it off, (G)I-DLE actually sound like they're enjoying themselves instead of delivering a Serious Message. We may never get a song like this again. [7]

David Moore: There's boob and booty and twerking in this one, sure, but the most exhilarating part of the whole thing is when the phrase "I'm a queencard" in the chorus devolves into uncanny syllables, like Jell-O starting to go runny in the sun, in a way doesn't just tell you what a queencard is, but really points to it -- this is a queencard. I'm reminded that K-pop isn't just multilingual, but often meta-lingual in the way that so much (all?) good pop is, refusing to let words get by as mere signifiers and forcing us to reckon with words at the phonemic, molecular level. How wild is it that the entire basis of our civilization is built on these funky noises we make with our mouths and tongues and lungs and noses and throats? I think that's neat. [8]

Kat Stevens: I worry that she's going to lose a lot of money at poker. [6]

Michael Hong: Look, Soyeon's English lyrics are often questionable, and it doesn't help that each member seems to drop syllables. She's exaggerated her "rapping" voice to be sharper and more piercing, and the lyric "look so cool, look so sexy like Kim Kardashian (uh) / look so cute, look so pretty like Ariana" fits awkwardly in the meter and is a bit reductive of each (but also your bad if you expected a nuanced feminist take from the group that brought you "Nxde"). And the entire thing is just a Valley Girl rip of "Song 2" by Blur. And yet, 4 + 4 is still: [8]

Brad Shoup: The pre-chorus is really interesting, how it teeters on the rim of Meghan Trainor maltshop-pop without ever falling in. It's a nice break from the spy-theme slink that dominates this. [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Referencing Ariana Grande directly feels like giving away the game -- this is some real Dangerous Woman shit, a maximalist pop barrage that seems to operate on the principle that if you make enough baffling aesthetic and lyrical decisions it'll loop back to sense eventually. Joke's on me -- they're right! This sounds like how I imagine getting shot out of a T-shirt cannon would feel. [7]

Michelle Myers: Shuhua is a queencard. Soyeon is squeak-rapping like she's HyunA's daughter. Minnie is hosting a blue champagne party and doing her best Debbie Harry impression. Miyeon hard carries the pre-chorus. Yuqi is jamming the phrase "sexy like Kim Kardashian" into five syllables. She's top. She's twerking on the runway. [8]

Anna Katrina Lockwood: "I'm twerking on the runway" has got to be in the top five greatest stunt English lines in K-pop history. (G)I-DLE have always had oodles of talent and charisma, but "Queencard," like last year's "Tomboy," has the confidence of maturity and a rare sense of unfettered enjoyment. Nobody's had such a good time in a music video since GD and TOP went to the club. Speaking of YG party songs, of course this is reminiscent of that format---though as others have pointed out, it lacks the true YG party chorus to close. There are a few better precedents in Cube's own history, which are combined effectively with a vaguely punk rock sound and a sensitive handful of blog house references. Part of the magic has to be the judicious editing Soyeon has applied here -- "Queencard" is a blisteringly tight 2:41, far from the bloat often befalling her earlier compositions. It's fun, you can shout along to it, there's a funny little dance, there are at least three melodies I've had stuck in my head--it's some good fucking K-pop. [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[schismusic]

On abandonment, Lou X, the eternal recurrence of the same

Browsing through the people I follow (and my followers) I can't help but notice just how many of these blogs haven't been updated in literal years. That line Diane Venora has in Michael Mann's Heat comes to mind: "you live among the remains of dead people…".

The idea of neglect and disuse is a weird thing to me, in that I never registered it as an inherently negative thing - it's melancholic, sure, but not everything needs to keep being active and productive. In unrelated news I'm listening to Lou X as we speak, go figure. For my international followers, Lou X is a rapper from Pescara who made his last full record in 1998. It is called La Realtà, la Lealtà e lo Scontro and you could call it a conscious/gangsta rap record in Italian/Abruzzese dialect. Then he basically went off the radar except for maybe one feature or two on other people's songs and albums.

If you think about it Italy's greatest contributions to the culture of the past century mostly involve objects that either don't exist, are somehow crystallized into unserviceable forms, were abandoned years ago and have reached an absolutely dismal state that could only make them interesting as a work of art. Think about it: Neorealism in cinema (and maybe even the Realists' interest in decrepit/disadvantages rural realities, but that would be an overarching nineteenth-century European thing), Ennio Flaiano's Tempo di uccidere, the last writings of Cesare Pavese ("Tutto questo fa schifo. Non parole. Un gesto. Non scriverò più": what else here but the defeated realisation that nothing could ever change?), Italo Calvino's Le città invisibili, Luigi Ghirri's landscape photography work, CCCP and CSI even.

Europe is doomed to its binary division and therefore we are of course doomed to repeat stylings and "revolutionary" aesthetics in never-ending loops: Disciplinatha were smart enough to point it out, but like Whitehouse said: "grubbing job-hunting artists and art aficionados who prefer art that 'raises questions' are certainly as disgusting as those rubbered dilettantes who recognize that the answers are what you masturbate over". Whitehouse also had this to say, in the same context: "So better to just shut your fucking mouth".

Obviously mentioning a rapper from Abruzzo has implications for those of you who know anything about me. God knows there are very few places as left to their own devices as that region of Italy, and considering my violently antihumanist views regarding the Abruzzese people I'm inclined to say that the only reason this abandon should end is just so I can no longer hear these motherfuckers bitch and moan about nobody giving a shit about them or something. It's no big deal to be fair - people think Abruzzo is further down South than Rome is because it was added into the monetary help program for the South of Italy at the end of World War II. The Abruzzese people who have voted for Matteo Salvini in the past seem to have conveniently forgotten that if it didn't mean more votes to him, they would be seen as cannon fodder at best and shit under his feet at worst.

When the Amatrice earthquake hit in 2016 we knew that would be the end of the very little good things we had managed to get back after L'Aquila in 2009: the small towns in the province, which is unreasonably fucking big in L'Aquila's case but honestly what are we going to do, make Sulmona or Avezzano their own province like assholes?, anyway I'm getting distracted - my point being everything went even further to shit when that happened. A lot of the old people, some of whom not as old as you would expect, died in consequence to the quakes or went further down into some form of (if I had to guess) trauma-induced dementia. Happens even to the best of us - then, you can imagine how easily it happens to the average Abruzzese. I was setting up another band with some kids and if we had our way, honestly, I believe there would be no NUMBERS, simply because I had found people who really got me, in the typically effortless way that teens bonding through activities do, and I do believe I got them, too. When I meet them now, and I never meet them together because one of the two guys can no longer come to town now, it feels like I'm on a completely different wavelength. Yet I refuse to let go, because in true Abruzzese fashion I never fucking learn. We did manage to get a record out, though. Its only tangible effect was, likely, to stop NUMBERS and the Operators from playing the La Zona d'Ombra festival at Bronson, in Ravenna. Here in the future, everyone has their fifteen seconds of fame.

In relating to the theme of this post, I cannot seem to let go of this fucking post. I have been writing in circles for literal hours at this point because the idea of abandonment ultimately scares me, disproving what I said at the beginning. It's no surprise that the only things I can think of when they suggest to me the idea of abandonment are Burial, Forest Swords, Techno Animal, maybe some ambient music. No point in trying to prove at all costs that "I'm different" or that "I have something fundamental to say about it".

So better to just shut my fucking mouth.

[sinceileftyoublog]

billy woods & Kenny Segal Album Review: Maps

(Backwoodz Studioz)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The prolific billy woods’ second album with beat mastermind Kenny Segal is centered around touring, inspired by the idea that the road--or the lack of home--is, in itself, home. On Maps, places where people reside are as constantly changing as the landscapes that pass as you’re on the highway. It’s the perfect fodder for woods’ neuroses and pessimism, the low thoughts that occur when you have too much time on your hands but still can’t make sense of your surroundings. He’s constantly searching for stimuli--weed, food, drinks--to distract himself from the human condition. Like the titular “Houdini”, Woods escapes, even if temporarily.

Segal’s hazy production is, often by way of contrast, the perfect complement to woods’ spirals, and the two work beautifully in tandem. Segal interpolates gorgeous strummed guitars and Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” as woods looks at the birds, sun, and breeze on “Soft Landing”, lamenting that their magnificence doesn’t match his own mood. He’s more straightforward on the beat-switching “Babylon By Bus”, distilling his ethos into a declaration that, “People don’t want the truth, they want me to tell ‘em grandma went to heaven.” It often feels like he’s playing tug of war with himself, on one side his perceptions--feeling pastoral dread on the devastating “Agriculture”--and on the other, the objective, bleak truths of the world, from colonialism to police brutality. The two sides, along with Segal’s intelligent contributions, come to a head on “The Layover”, a paranoia-addled tale of no fly lists and surveillance. “Finally got it to where lies is the truth and the truth is a ruse,” woods raps over a piano line, the song sporting an ever-steady groove as if to emphasize the eternal nature of his internal struggle.

Of course, and perhaps thankfully, it’s not all dark, and Maps wouldn’t be a great album without some fun. Segal’s production from track to track feels like a road trip, passing the aux cord between friends with related, but unique tastes, the piano-looped “Rapper Weed” followed by limber free jazz bop “Blue Smoke”, the industrial “Year Zero” by the gentle, lilting “Hangman”. The guest verses include woods’ usual jaunts with Armand Hammer bandmate E L U C I D, and an unexpectedly soulful chorus from Future Islands’ Sam Herring on “FaceTime”. Yet, it’s Quelle Chris and Danny Brown that steal the show, boastful, hilarious, and intense in what ironically brings moments of levity to the record. Chris brags on “Soundcheck” that he’s so good the audio engineer should have to pay for a ticket, while Brown hasn’t sounded this manically dialed in since Atrocity Exhibition. Of course, woods himself shines alongside them, as plainspoken in his sorrow that his “taxes pay police brutality settlements” as he is uproariously confident in the adage that “You can’t fix stupid.” That Maps is filled with more than just variance, references within references, synaptic, weed-influenced connections among society’s ills, is a feature, not a bug. 

woods’ modes of thought all seem to be influenced by death, the lurking presence of it, the survivor’s guilt he feels, that his son, too, will die one day. “No need to ask who sent you, it was always just a question of when,” he raps on “Hangman”, accepting even a premature fate. It’s a desolate attitude, sure, but it’s ultimately an acceptance of the chaos of the world, one that allows him to seek out and enjoy expensive Vietnamese food and cocktails even when their very existence is a product of a losing class and racial struggle. “Death in a top hat dance a jig in the street / Don't get it twisted boy, the city wicked, it'll crush you with its feet,” woods raps on “NYC Tapwater”. With Segal behind him and a Mezcal Negroni in hand, Maps is the sound of woods dancing back.

[visasgerai]

30 day new album challenge Day 1: J Dilla - Donuts (2006)

I have this issue where I don't ever listen to new music. Branching out into a new album is not a casual thing for me, I have to set aside time out of my day to listen to it. A lot of it comes from some sort of fear that it won't be something that I like and therefore is a waste of time. I suspect it has something to do with my spectrum disorder. Either way, I've decided to challenge myself to listen to a new album every day for the next month and review them. Some of them are really popular, some not, but they're all things I've been avoiding for whatever reason.

Today's album is rapper and producer J Dilla's posthumous release, Donuts. I hadn't really heard about this artist until this year, and recently with the release of the Apple Music 100 Best Albums list I've been seeing discourse regarding the placement (or lack thereof) of Donuts. A large portion of the general conversation seems to agree that Donuts (and J Dilla's work as a whole) was very influential to hip-hop, and so I decided to see for myself what the hype was about. Again, I didn't really know anything about this artist going in.

To me, Donuts is a very funky soundscape that seems to precede its time a little bit. Granted, I know nothing about music history or any sort of cultural context to the album, so take my words with a grain of salt. Or two. I really enjoyed the sampling work on this album, and it seemed to me as a way for J Dilla to display his prowess as a producer. All the songs are around one to two minutes long, just enough to get the listener hooked with the chopped crooning vocals. Listening to this album all the way through showed me the influence that Dilla had on rap and hip-hop posthumously, as the mind literally cannot help but draw comparisons between songs off this record and any popular modern rap song. The impact that Dilla had on the game is retrospectively obvious upon hearing his work, almost served to the listener on a silver platter. To me, it feels like this album knows how historically important it is. What first came to mind was Call Me If You Get Lost by Tyler, the Creator, along with any MF DOOM or Madlib song. What stuck out to me the most were samples I recall hearing in music in other genres, specifically the "Aw yeah" from "One Eleven" reminds me of the iconic tag used by Snow Strippers.

Overall, this album plays with a lot of samples - which isn't a bad thing! It processes sound bytes in with electronic beats, which at times are on the heavier side, to create a steady groove. Dilla's prowess is exemplified in this record and it is again so obvious how much Donuts impacted hip-hop. Personally, I find it very funky and energetic. Please understand that my ratings and opinions are all just based on personal opinion and how much I enjoyed it, and aren't a good reflection of the music's objective quality.

Rating: 6.7/10 Would I listen again? Probably, if I'm in the right mood. I don't typically listen to things without lyrics but I can definitely see this being put on as background music while I work. I can appreciate this album for what it is influentially, but ultimately it's not realllyyyyy my thing. Which is fine!

Notable songs: Waves, Stop, Don't Cry, Walkinonit, U-Love

[pika2482]

AOTD 1/5/2024 - Graduation (Kanye West)

[All albums are rated subjectively based off my own enjoyment]

4/10

I am not a very large fan of Rap. Sure, some songs catch my ear and I do genuinely love and enjoy, but I have never been able to get into the genre as much as I'd like to. Of course, that effected my review, but with my usual review header that I give before I even write down the rating, personal influence is much to be expected in this thread. I am not trying to be objective, that is not my goal. This is my album review thread. My rules. My bias. Your problem.

I disliked Graduation. Most of it didn't speak to me, and the songs had a tendency to linger on for far too long. The instrumentals rarely developed past the chorus, and it's home to the worst song I've ever heard (More on that later). Most songs I wanted to skip after the second or third verse, but in the spirit of fariness with the rest of the albums, I soldired on. There's a phrase in songwriting that goes "People can loop your song as many times as they want, but they can't make it shorter". Either cut everything past the 2nd or 3rd verse or develop the instrumentals some to give it some more merit.

Stronger in particular suffered from this. The backbone of the song is actually pretty damn good! Somehow they got Daft Punk to clear a sample, and I jammed with the song pretty hard. It just... dragged. If it ended at like 3:30 or 4:00 it would have likely scored higher, but pacing holds this song, and most of the album back.

There however Was a highlight, And it was a pretty good one too! I found myself genuinely Jamming to Homecoming. What a sick fucking piano riff dude, fuck I wanna LEARN that! Good beat, nice atmosphere, good enough chorus, a flow I could dig, and it didn't outstay it's welcome. I'm gonna be actually genuinely reaching for this on in shuffle. It suffered a bit from the same developmental issues but it's length helped alleviate that.

Other highlights included Stronger, Everything I Am, and The Glory, though they don't make the main highlight for some of the reasons mentioned in the second paragraph.

And now, the aforementioned "Worst song I've ever heard, Barry Bonds. Between it's mediocre flow and vocals, subpar sample selection, and mediocre chorus, yeah sure it's not terrible, just a forgettable 4 or 5 out of 10.

But then Lil Wayne's verse came on.

Some people don't know this, but I am on the Autism Spectrum. Not by much! Just enough to make me struggle with my social life and any type of large gatherings (No, not social anxiety, I'm a complete extrovert). I suffer from something called Sensory Overload, which is commonly found among people on the spectrum. What this means for me is that certain combinations of senses can severely overwhelm me. Overlapping sounds such as; a large amount of people talking at once, somewhat loud music, and the sound of a ping-pong table or basketball dribbling, have triggered this consistently in the past, and cause me to start shutting down. It can also be triggered by other senses, but for me it's usually induced by sound.

Now this next sentence is about the furthest thing from a compliment I can offer

Lil Wayne's voice immediately started triggering my sensory overload.

This combined with its sample choice gave me a Viceral reaction to the rest of the song, as I had to take a short break before continuing the rest of the album. I'd be hard pressed to find a song I hate more than this one.

Overall, a combination of "not my thing" and "I dislike this", with the exception of 3 songs I liked and one song I can compare to nails on a chalkboard. Not a great batting average for a 13 song album. I'd recommend The Glory and Homecoming, but that's about it.

Favorite Songs: The Glory, Homecoming

Least Favorite Songs: Good Life, Can't Tell, Barry Bonds, Good Night

[vawsculturecorner]

My Musical 2023: Musings by a girl who can't stop getting high and tweeting.

PART 1: People don't know what "A weak year for Music" means.

End of year time chat - you know what that means, everybody and their mother wants to tell you what the best, most valuable per minute piece of funny sound waves was in the year of our lord 2023. Cynicism aside, I like year-end lists! Despite my immense disdain for attributing any form of hierarchy to art, they are good fun to put together when we throw out any notions of objectivity. It's a way to preach how much we love something by measuring it against other things that we love.

Attempting to not be brazenly hypocritical, I’ve taken a “Mic the Snare” approach and grouped albums together under categories that make some sense to me and probably none to you. The hope is that if you like one thing on this list, you find something similar that you haven’t heard to try. The ultimate takeaway I want people to have after reading is “fuck I should listen to this aye”.

I am nowhere near a skilled enough writer (or observer, frankly) to make meaningful commentary on everything (or anything depending on who you ask). For the sake of brevity and our collective sanity I’m only going over the standout stuff from this year, my absolute favourites and whatever else I deem relevant/vaguely amusing. Consider anything mentioned here to be an album that I think of positively. If I don’t include it here, I didn’t hear it or I forgot because unbeknownst to you I am capable of making mistakes. If I don’t go into depth on something, assume I love it but I possess insufficient skill to do it justice/not quite obsessed enough with it to make an ass of myself trying

Herculean Hip-Hop

Goyard Comin': Exordium - Goyard Ibn Said Y'all gotta stop annoying the shit out of my man on Twitter and let him make his music. Yes, the artist who you may know as Ghais Guevara has put out some high-quality conscious hip-hop but man's also makes fucking bangers. To quote the album, you can't even go a yard without collapsing - hit the gym and bump tracks like Blood on My Grails whilst you are there. Faith is a Rock - MIKE x Wiki x The Alchemist MIKE, Wiki and Uncle Al link up for my favourite Alchemist-produced project of the year. Bleeding New York to the bone, this intergenerational meetup runs seamlessly across its brief runtime with the signature Alchemist production and intricately spun lyrics from MIKE and Wiki. Listen to Be Realistic.

Voir Dire - Earl Sweatshirt x The Alchemist Whilst we are talking about Alchemist, his long-awaited collaboration with Earl Sweatshirt is another solid addition to his discography. You really can’t go wrong with these two, and I feel like Alc’s beat really lend visibility to Earl’s pen and avoids intrusion, providing a clearer spotlight to the labyrinth of Earl's rapping. Undoubtedly My Brother, The Wind and 27 Braids are the two tracks I find the heaviest hitting.

14K Figaro - Wiki x Tony Seltzer Wiki had a fucking year hey - of his releases this is pretty handily my favourite, with Tony Seltzer's more digital production adding a “vintage in the modern” feeling with more synthetic sounds and beats contrasted with naturalistic and lively rhythms. Goes without saying that Wiki brings his A-Game to the mic as well. Fried Ice Cream would be my go-to track for the project.

Notorious Dump Legends 2 - Mach-Hommy x Tha God Fahim You really thought Hommy wouldn’t be here? Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim link up again, the legendary duo delivering on what they do best. A great appetizer before RAH next year - check out lead single Olajuwon. Glockoma 2 - Key Glock This album was my introduction to Key Glock and it is just a mixtape-style project packed with murky southern bangers. His deep, rolling delivery lends himself to a broad span of topics and emotions whilst maintaining a cold-blooded bluntness that is as cool as it is compelling. Sucker-free got an immense amount of play in the car this year. The Estate Sale - Tyler, the Creator. Hear me out - I know this is much smaller than CMIYGL and sure that album is tighter because it's more fleshed out, but on purely a song-for-song basis? I think I prefer these songs. In a decade where Tyler has released his best music yet, tracks like Dogtooth and Wharf are some of the strongest showings in his catalogue so far. Sorry not Sorry is also his best closing track period.

Soul of Too Birdz - Too Birdz Too Birdz defy genre in a blistering kaleidoscope of jagged noises and sounds that are increasingly difficult to pin down or label. All the better for it, Soul of Too Birdz introduces a cavalcade of phantasmic futurism to Australian music that mesmerizes the mind as the group's lyrical mantras are enveloped by folds of digital madness. Blood Money Millionz is a must-listen. (An addendum - this probably should have made relentless replays because I think this is one of the best albums to drop this year).

Decay - Fatboi Sharif x Steel Tipped Dove If the Too Birds album is the phantasm jolting from the street lamps at midnight then Decay is the poltergeist haunting abandoned homes in transient suburbia. The lethargy of a dying world has manifested in the voice of Sharif and the prowling soundscapes of Dove. As Sharif proselytises the apocalypse, you can hear the buzz of flies infesting corpses on key tracks like Brandon Lee. A stunning project from both artists.

Melodic Amazement and Terrific Trunknockers:

Straight up, I found it really hard to write about these ones but you should listen to them so I am including them here so again you have stuff to check out. Melodic Amazement: Ooh Rap I Ya - George Clanton George Clanton follows up his legendary "Slide" with another solid serve of hypnagogic warbly audibles. Manages to sneak in a couple of classic tracks for his catalogue too with tracks like I Been Young and For You, I Will featuring Hatchie. Filth - Collarbones The Swansong for cult-classic outfit Collarbones, the band goes out with a bang as Filth is pumped with ethereal yet driving euphoria, with Marcus Whale's singing oozing with sensuality and intimacy. The album is packed with essential tracks but I want to give a special mention to God is Here for being such a triumphant close to the beloved Australian Duo. Muscle Memories Vol 1 & 2. I saw these guys at SXSW this year and whilst I had heard tracks from them before, their set was the pure definition of mesmerizing. That same crystalline funkiness is here in spades across the two EPs that they put out this year and I am hotly anticipating their next moves. 5D dub is an excellent track to start with. What Colour Is the End? - Nikodimos Speaking of artists I found by watching them live, Nikodimos was the first artist I caught at Big Sound 2023 and fuck me was the bar set high. A jack-of-all-music-trades, there is no genre or instrument or musical crevice that Nikodimos does not excel at - case in point, What Colour Is the End? Lathered in psychedelia and warm jazzy tones you could lose yourself forever in the layers of these songs. IT HURTS! is a standout track for its emotional vocals and groovy percussion. How To Capture Playful - Pink Navel x Kenny Segal Coming off last year's EPIC, Pink Navel's earnestness and slightly dorky energy is the type of thing you would expect to be grating, but in fact, it just fills your heart with warmth and sugar. They team with the one and only Kenny Segal for an album about video games, and the results are endlessly endearing. Lead single Present Vendor is a great introduction if you are a newcomer to their music. In The End, It Always Does - The Japanese House Ok, I have to admit something that is going to have my queer femme card revoked - I am not really that enamoured with Phoebe Bridgers. She's an incredible musician, but the emotional connection that most people have with albums like Punisher I think I'm starting to have with this album here. Touching Yourself is pure saphic bliss and I swear to god if I don't meet a beautiful femme woman soon to have an emotionally charged intimate situationship I might just kill myself.

Terrific Trunknockers: OPPBOYZ - SOLLYY x Dxvdre Seriously this lil fuckin album is non-stop anthems and tracks that will make you non-stop bop. Hard on the car stereo and on the decks this album will have you yelling OPP BOY DOWN OPP BOY DOWN on top note, irrespective of the time or place. Also special shout-out to that CK line it was a bit of a cultural reset. Definitely check out OPP BOY DOWN. STRESSOR - Teether x Kuya Neil Look I'm still pretty new to the underground Australian music scene but if there is one thing that became clear to me pretty quickly, it's that Teether is one of the godfathers of this shit. Another artist who had a jam-packed year (even ending up featuring on Backwoodz release plus one from the multi-talented Fielded), this link-up with Kuya Neil is one of the most critically acclaimed underground hip-hop records of the year for good reason. Kuya Neil offers a masterclass of production here with smooth textured production riding on top of punchy, breakneck percussion. Closing track RENO is already a classic.

The Spiritual Meat Grinder - Zheani Zheani is just an incredible man - I did not expect the pivot into more electronic, dancier takes on her signature occult alt-metal-rap stylings but it's executed immaculately. How can I not recommend Bring Wet Cunt, honestly, it's such a banger.

Inconsistently Incredible and Future Funhouses:

(slightly) Inconsistently Incredible: Am I going to say these albums are perfect back to front? Not really, but there are enough moments of brilliance that go above and beyond that I think it's a disservice to skip over them.

And Then You Pray for Me - Westside Gunn W$G continues to prove he has this curation shit down fucking pat and continues to indulge his creativity with a datpiff tape-styled trap-ier take on his signature Griselda sound. Let this man executive produce a Tyler the Creator album please. Kitchen Lights is the stunner for me on this album for sure. Utopia - Travis Scott Mr "Play FEIN Ten Times in a Row" has become a more difficult sell for me as of late (and very little of that has to do with his album output) but UTOPIA manages to make good on a few moments of dusty, garish pop-rap constructed on a level of grand spectacle (I mean this as a good thing). I KNOW?, TELEKINESIS and DELRESTO (ECHOES) will probably go down as some of my all-time favourite Travis tracks. Burning Desire - MIKE MIKE continues to almost click with me (the closest I’ve come thus far is Tears of Joy) but moments on this album are like portals to a dimension where he is one of my favourite rappers working right now, with a distinct realm of abstracted explosive creationism that I genuinely struggle putting into words. Plz Don't Cut My Wings is absolutely my favourite song he has put out and has this distinct melancholic grain that wraps around MIKE's lyrics of memory and making it to the light at the end of a rough road. Something to Give Each Other - Troye Sivan Personally, I don't come back to this album in it's entirety as full listens can sometimes drag a bit, but individual tracks like the singles and a few deep-cuts like Can't Go Back Baby are undeniable gay boy summer smash hits and I am so fucking here for them. 

Future Funhouses: These are albums that I did hear this year but didn’t really dedicate enough time to properly sit with them. That said, I feel pretty confident these will grow on me with more listens. Obviously, because of this I'm not gonna write anything on them because I would be talking out my ass! HELLMODE - Jeff Rosenstock Never Falter Hero Girl - Katie Dey - ok but this one is really good and is probably the one you are most likely to have not heard of these albums listen to Katie Dey shes incredible Lahai - Sampa Did you know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvd - Lana Del Rey Again - Oneohtrix Point Never

[anyways-wonderwall]

Album of the Week #68

Planet Her

(2021)

by Doja Cat

Overall Rating: 6.5/10

TL;DR: Probably an objectively good album, I’m just tired. Tired of hearing these singles that were drilled into my head, tired on the stupid one-liners, tired of the trap snare. While she has a fantastic singing voice and seems to be having fun, I’m too damn tired to have the enthusiasm rub off on me. 

(You know, I'll give her this, that is a badass album cover 10/10)

Every week i somehow get busier. When will it end

Overall Thoughts

As her albums become more refined, focused, and professional, her intent of writing about sex and womanhood becomes clearer. I think that Robert Christgau’s description of writing sex songs instead of love songs fits even more with this album. Every duet is about sex, every rap mentions it, even “Kiss Me More” which sounds like a lighthearted love song is incredibly graphic once you listen to the lyrics. I’m not saying this is a bad thing at all, it’s just fascinating to hear a whole album that has pop woven through it not mention love (I wonder what boomer Robert Christgau has to say about that). 

“Woman” starts the album off with a sensual tone and is I think the most creative and distinct song on the album. The rest kind of blend together and I think how overplayed some of them were on the radio ruined a few of them for me. I don’t think many of the songs offered anything unique or especially good, with a mix of predictable slow songs and rap songs that offer your standard sound board of effects and beats. The only real variation you’ll get is in a sometimes really good chorus or baseline, as she also offers about the same flow in every song. I think most of the album (especially “Naked” and “Need to Know”) fall into the category of “songs I’d dance to at a club and enjoy at the time but never think about again.” You need songs like that in your life, but that also means that I don’t have much of a desire to listen to this album in full again. 

In listening to her whole discography I’ve found that the one thing that Doja Cat lacks is being a good writer. Okay that sounds really harsh but I think her messages and themes are great, her ideas are solid and complex, she’s just really bad at writing well crafted, smart, and good lyrics. Often they’re stupid enough to border on funny which was fine in her early days but as she wants to be taken more and more seriously it just doesn’t really work. Often lines don’t rhyme or barely rhyme, the word play is stupid (“square like Madison”??? That’s dumb as hell), and when thing do flow and rhyme it feels like gibberish. I hope she gets better soon because if you’re gonna start billing yourself as a rapper (like she is in her newest album) you at least have to be able to write. Sure you can say the lines, but are they worth saying?

Part of me wonders if I’m especially harsh on this album because pretty much every song that was a single when this came out was so overplayed that it makes me genuinely angry to here. “Get Into It (Yuh)” is one of my least favorite songs of all time tbh, and if I have to hear that weird bird owl sound effect one more time I’m going to throw my headphones into the road. “You Right” is probably a good song objectively but I just find myself wanting to turn it off because its so boring to me, and the only song (other than “Woman”) that I find myself coming back to is “Kiss Me More.” 

You know, to end this review on a good note let’s talk about that song for a bit. It’s honestly perfect. I’ve had it stuck in my head for the past week but not in a dreadful way, in a “nodding my head and humming while doing the dishes” kind of way. The baseline is perfect, all the guitar parts are wonderfully catchy, SZA is fantastic in it, and its the perfect length. I’m glad the album ended with that song because I was at least left with a good taste in my mouth. 

Next week's review: Scarlet (2023) by Doja Cat

[biobliterator]

It's 5ammmm gonna listen to some music I used to like when I was edgy

[leemarkies]

If u wanna write a thinkpiece on noise music i would be v interested tbh

ok buckle up 🤠

so in this essay i'm going to only focus on and compare nct and skz because they're the forerunners on noise music. full disclaimer: i ult both groups and love the (majority) of their music and i adore the members. this thinkpiece is only to give my most objective opinion on their artistry and music.

what constitutes noise music? and what elements of noise music make it "good music"? to me, noise music has clashing instrumentals, that separated would not sound cohesive at all, but when put together have at least some semblance of musicality. this definition excludes sticker and thunderous from the category of "noise music". ik this might be a controversial opinion, but sticker simply does not have enough instruments in the song to be considered noise. i can practically count on one hand how many instruments are used. yes the weird synth base and flute clash, but there is too much empty space (for back of letter word). i think sticker is definitely experimental, but i would not classify it as noise music. nct noise music includes (but is not limited to) songs like kick it, limitless, chain, mad dog, and to an extent, punch and simon says. i would not classify thunderous as noise music because there is not enough clashing instruments. sure, the song has brass fanfare, but at no point when i'm listening to it do i think it is itching my brain. don't get me wrong, it's a great song, but it is not similar to their other songs like miroh, side effects, god's menu, go live, or cheese. that's why i think trying to compare nct and skz by their newest releases is kind of dumb. however, you can definitely compare and contrast their previous songs

NCT 127

now i'm going to focus on nct 127. although nct dream has some songs that are defined as "noise music" (see: go and hot sauce) it is primarily nct 127's "brand". the main element nct has that turns their music from "bad bad music" to "good bad music" is their vocals. their songs often have small breaks from the clashing instruments to give the listener a relief, and during that break, they showcase what sm is known for (amazing, industry-standard vocals). not only does it break the monotony of the noisy instruments, but it also creates hype for when it resumes! limitless is a great example of this! please do yourself a favor and listen to the instrumental ver of the song on youtube. i get legit goosebumps every time the beat drops all over again. i do have two complaints. 1) there are times were their raps are lacking, and it really kinda almost breaks the whole vibe of the song because it makes me cringe a little. see lemonade as an example, even though i would not classify lemonade as noise music. 2) this is off topic but i kinda rip apart skz a little bit so i feel like i need to be balanced and fair but i literally hate sticker so much and the album, although has good songs, is bland and has little variety

STRAY KIDS

stray kids are the younger cousins of nct. they too focus on noise music, but they have their own twist on it. skz comparitively have better rappers. not saying mark and ty are bad by any means, but there are some nct members that also rap that ... should not and instead be vocals. but skz continuously show hard, impactful raps that nct usually lacks to some extent. this is both a good and bad thing for noise music, depending on your baseline opinion on noise music to begin with. if you generally don't like noise music, raps add even more clashing. if you do like noise music, rap can be used as an additional "instrumental" element. i think a great example would be cb's rap in miroh and god's menu. it hypes up the song either right before the beat drop or at the beginning respectively. nct doesn't really have that, they rely on vocals for the lead up. skz definitely have their own spin on noise music and i'm glad they do, variety is the spice of life. i only have three complaints. 1) they do not use their vocalists to the best of their abilities. sm and in have lower toned voices, yet they are consistently forced to sing notes in a very high register, which can understandably sound strained. to combat this, skz use han for the really high lines. 2) when they do have vocal breaks, they should really utilize lino more. part of the reason why nct's vocal breaks are so good is because they are such a contrast to the rest of the song. have you ever watched judges on cooking network? they often say "i wish you used a spalsh of lemon to lighten up this dish". well in this scenario, light, airy voices are the lemon and the noise music beats are the heavy cream. nct has light voices (dy, hc, jw, and to an extent tl). look at kick it. the very first vocal break is jw and hc and it really elevates the entire rest of the song. now skz really only has lino as a light voice (bc and han also too an extent) yet they very rarely use him, which is disappointing. 3) this is kind of off topic but i'm disappointed that their lastest album, literally termed "noeasy" which is a spin-off of the word "noisy" has only one noise music song. like i said before i do not classify thunderous as noisy, but cheese fits the description. don't get me wrong, noeasy is literally one of my favorite kpop albums now but it does kind of fall short of its given name.

conclusion: i really enjoy nct and skz's music. i think the introduction of the noise genre is a great illustration of why kpop is so unique. kpop is MEANT to be experimental. it is meant to be in your face. it is meant to be loud and colorful. it is meant for you to initially think "wow that's weird" because in the end, 9/10 you'll fall in love with it. i think nct and skz can both improve on different aspects and i think it's interesting to compare the two, but in the end, they both have their own takes on noise music

[soundsof71]

Hey! Album: 'Fleetwood Mac' (1975) - Fleetwood Mac

Hey! Great to hear from you! You (and your previous blog) were my original inspiration for trying to raise my tumblr game to something intentionally curated, and more than that, personally creative. Sorry to have let you down. LOL

What a pleasure to talk about this one, though, an album I think is -- strangely enough -- one of the most underrated albums in the classic rock pantheon!

What’s that you say? An album with “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” underrated?!?! Well it’s true, seriously underrated, at least partly because those two stellar, nay, legendary songs are the first ones that most people think of. There's so much more! It's definitely my favorite Fleetwood Mac album!

My perspective is a little different than the standard rap that Fleetwood Mac didn't properly begin until those two California kids joined the band in 1975, because to me, they started taking off when their first American joined the band, Bob Welch in 1971 for Future Games, which I wrote about at some length here. 

(For the record, Future Games is my second favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Anyone who hasn't checked it out really needs to.)

I’ll leave it at that for now, except to observe that to most of my music nerd friends at the time, I was a latecomer to Fleetwood Mac the band, having completely missed their earlier, bluesier lineups. Indeed, the 1971 lineup was their 8th! And they'd come to #9 in 1972, before landing on lineup #10 in 1975.

They had a bunch of hits on the five albums in this 71-74 range (”Hypnotized” is one that still slays me) that I think hold up as among their best ever. While the album before Fleetwood Mac, Heroes Are Hard to Find didn’t have a hit single, it rose to #34 on the US charts, and got plenty of attention. 

My point is that Fleetwood Mac didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere in 1975. Nor was 1975 necessarily ground zero for the millions of people who bought the album Fleetwood Mac. It came out in the summer of ‘75, but took 15 months to hit #1 in the US! (It peaked at #11 in the UK.) This was a far bigger album in 1976 when all the singles came out, and the band was touring like crazy to support it.

They basically dragged the album to the top of the charts kicking and screaming by the end of THAT year with relentless touring, setting the stage for their true commercial breakthrough with Rumours in 1977, but artistically? I prefer everything about 1975′s Fleetwood Mac.

btw, the music nerds know that Fleetwood Mac was recorded at Sound City Studios, which makes all the difference in the telling of the tale. In 1974, the band had located to Los Angeles, and following the departure of Bob Welch in December, Mick Fleetwood went looking for both a recording studio and a guitarist. 

While getting to know producer Keith Olsen at Sound City (a studio legendary for its drum sound, among other things), Keith played Mick some tracks from an album he’d recorded here a couple of years earlier with a local guitarist and his girlfriend singer, both of whom were also songwriters.

Mick said, I’ll book the studio to record my next album, I’ll book you to produce, and I’ll hire the guitarist....who famously informed Mick that he and his girlfriend were a package deal. All of this happened because of Sound City Studios.

(Here's Mick recording this very album in this very studio.)

Your friend and mine Dave Grohl directed a FANTASTIC documentary about Sound City Studios, a kind of a dump to be honest, but where tons of phenomenal records were made, from After The Gold Rush to Caribou, Damn The Torpedoes, Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine, and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher. Lots and lots of stories about the making of Fleetwood Mac in this movie, and much more. 

Here’s the trailer. The whole movie is available on YT, too! And Amazon Prime, and a bunch of other places. HIGHLY recommended!

So here we go taking directly about Fleetwood Mac.....

the first song from the album i heard: "Over My Head". This was the first single released in the US, remarkably, four months after the album was released! I dunno, did the label not want to sell any albums? Or did they just not get how catchy these tunes were? I have no idea.

And ironically, the band didn't like the choice of "Over My Head" at all, ranking it dead-last in their own considerations of likely singles! I think that this is evidence that they were using heavy drugs much earlier than we thought. LOL

"Over My Head" peaked at #20 in the US, their highest to date by far, although, in some defense of the band's reservations, didn't chart at all in the UK. Saying that it rose to "only" 20 in the charts doesn't begin to describe how heavily it was played, though. A LOT.

do i own the album: Did then, Spotify now. The answer for most of the albums in this round of Asks. :-)

my favorite song: "Over My Head". Look, I admit that this is insane when Fleetwood Mac also includes "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." "Landslide" in particular is maybe one of the greatest songs anyone has ever written, and every single person reading this knows somebody named Rhiannon because of that song. (I've met two.) And hey, "Say You Love Me" was a MUCH bigger hit at the time too... but I'm tellin' ya, "Over My Head" fucks. 

It's the single version that fucks hardest, though, no doubt about it. I was disappointed when I finally bought the album that the version there fades in (NO! THIS IS WRONG) and has a wide mix that diffuses the impact. The radio version is so tight that it's practically mono, and it punches you right upside the head. 

One of my favorite things about listening to "Over My Head" in the past couple of weeks for this Ask is that it's Old School Fleetwood Mac. Chris on piano, Mick on drums, and John McVie with what might be the best bassline that anyone stroked out in 1975. My god, it's a fucking monster, and it just gets hotter as the song progresses. By the end, it's on fire, and you hear it so much better in this tight single mix.

The new guy adds a nice little solo on top of a nice rhythm lick, and he and Stevie add background vocals, but they're not front and center. "Over My Head" is really Christine McVie's showcase, although Fleetwood and Mac really shine too. This would have been a monster hit without the new kids, as indeed it pretty much was. You could say the same thing about "Say You Love Me", which is also all about Christine's songcraft, and a voice like no other, then or now.

Here's my edit of a lovely Mick Putland photo of Christine McVie from a couple of years earlier.

I guarantee that it's been way too long since you heard the in-your-face single version of "Over My Head". On Spotify, you can find it on the couple of Deluxe Editions of Fleetwood Mac (here's one), and it's also on the anthology, The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, which I've embedded here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-lIt1ILzk

least favorite song: "I'm So Afraid." I'm so afraid not. LOL

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: Hmm, I might put "Sugar Daddy" in that category, but honestly, the main thing I don't like about this song is the title. LOL But it's the 4th best Christine McVie song on an album where the best three of hers were all released as singles, so I guess it all works out.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: Anything by the new guy. I'm not going to go into detail here because what I love about this album, I still love. At the time, I dug two of his songs here (you can guess which two, surely), but I started to really despise this guy a few years later. Now, I can't listen to anything where he's prominent at all, on any Fleetwood Mac records.

Fortunately there are more than enough Christine and Stevie songs, and Mick and John's playing, plus all those earlier albums like Future Games, to keep Fleetwood Mac in the rock good pantheon. I'd have fired the new guy 30 years earlier than he was. 

favorite lyric:

Mirror in the sky

What is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changin'

'Cause I've built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I'm getting older too

Like I said, the two Stevie Nicks tracks on Fleetwood Mac deserve every bit of the love they've gotten over the years. You can also see with just a quick glance around my blog that she's one of my most-posted artists. Please don't take me repping Christine as any disrespect for Stevie!

Do I like "Landslide" a little more than I otherwise might because it's specifically about outgrowing the aforementioned new guy? Maybe.  Or do I like it a little less than I otherwise might because I can't hear it without thinking of him? Maybe that too.

overall rating out of 10: Then: 9.4. Now: 9. The new guy went 2-for-4 for my money at the time, and the two that he whiffed on are genuinely terrible...but as bad as those two clunkers were, the rest of the album seemed perfect to me. Certainly among my most-played mainstream rock records into the early 80s. I was perfectly fine skipping one song on each side.

Even though nowadays I can't stand any of the songs he sings lead on, you take those off, and you STILL have "Landslide", "Rhiannon", "Say You Love Me", "Over My Head", and "Warm Ways". No album with ALL THOSE on them gets less than an 8.5, right?

I'm adding a few tenths each for how tightly Fleetwood and Mac are locked into each other and these songs on rythm (easily the most underrated duo of the era, sez me), and Keith Olsen's immaculate production. The score of 9 is therefore objectively correct and mathematically unassailable. LOL

I'm going to end where I began, by talking about Christine McVie. Instead of listening to this first and foremost as an album with a couple of giant Stevie Nicks songs, listen again to Fleetwood Mac as Christine McVie really lighting things up. She deserves so much more credit for the band's success than she gets, and seriously, "Over My Head" fucks. 

Now looky here, @aluacrescente . I know that YOU have strong feelings about this record, so spill! And the rest of you, too! I don't intend to have the last word on the albums in any of these Asks! Just the first one. :-) So lemme know what YOU think!

PS. Apologies for any formatting weirdness! I started this on desktop, where I do all my writing, saved the first few paragraphs to come back to later, only to be told by tumblr that I'd stated this on the app (DID NOT) and could only edit there. Grrr. Not cool, @staff. I've spent another day just tweaking to make it somewhat readable and wondering how these people can be so bad at their jobs. LOL

My crackpot opinions and wobbly writing are my own of course, and I'm aware that they have a larger negative impact on readability than tumblr's incompetence by far. LOL

[thesinglesjukebox]

BEYONCÉ - "MY HOUSE"

Beyoncé drops too late for the Jukebox revival? Never mind, Wayne’s made sure we’re across it…

[5.43]

Aaron Bergstrom: It can be disorienting to remember that Beyoncé exists on the same plane of existence as the rest of us. After all, she's the alien superstar. She's one of one. Imagine Beyoncé eating a sandwich. It's not like she doesn't have influences, or contemporaries, but she's taken great pains to create a personal aesthetic of otherworldly perfection, and to position her most recent albums as self-contained objects that arrived fully formed, the product of a singular genius. She is above us, beyond us. Then you hear the first thirty seconds of "My House" and you realize, "Oh. Right. Houston." Beyoncé is from Houston. She comes from a lineage that is Southern, Texan, and influenced by identifiable strains of late-'90s and early-'00s hip hop. She does it better than pretty much anyone else, and by the end of the song she has transformed those fairly mainstream reference points into something that probably only she could make, but still. Real person, from Houston. Probably eats sandwiches. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: We tend to grade artists on a curve after a certain point. Beyoncé has been making hits since two months before I was born -- how am I supposed to compare her to anyone aside from her? In this context "My House" is too much and not enough all at once. Beyond its literal status as an end credits song, the song still feels like a multilayered rehash -- emulating not only the thrills of Renaissance but also her long tradition of tossed off, post-album cycle excursions in swag rap. "My House" is fun but in its own way slightly threadbare -- it piles on boasts and hooks with an almost haphazard glee, with little regard to how these parts hold together. It's impressive, but only to the extent that "My House" feels like Beyoncé operating at roughly 50 percent of her usual capacity. [6]

Alex Ostroff: A slightly less fluid version of the "Pure/Honey" trick of stitching together two disparate songs. "Pure" started off as a cunty ballroom track, then shifted into the impeccable Vanity 6 riff of "Honey" -- and, importantly, Beyoncé convincingly embodied both modes perfectly. "My House" begins as aggressive rap and pivots into a minimal blippy-bloopy house track. Historically -- since at least a decade ago -- one would expect Bey to pull off the first half of this off more easily than the second. But after immersing herself in the sounds of Renaissance, she's more compelling imperiously telling the audience to get the fuck up out her house over top of chanting vogue crowds and gospel choirs. The first section has promise, but I can't help but wish the instrumental loop was a Homecoming-style marching band with a full drumline and a bunch of tubas instead of synths. Mostly, it makes me wish that Act II fulfills the promise of that "I Been On (Remix)" with Bun B, Scarface, et al. by giving us an entire chopped and screwed Houston rap album of Bey spitting fire. [7]

Nortey Dowuona: The drum programming on this starts off frustratingly bad. If it had been done by an actual drum line before cutting the coals, it would sound good, rather than demo arrangements done to prepare for the rehearsals. The actual arrangement below the chant sounds good -- it's just so flat it can't move, pump or jam. The mediocre choir chorus does work a cappella - it sounds full by at least four voices and ends on a warm note -- and the delicious bass stab towards the back end of the song does help, but it's already too late. This is why we rehearse, and why some songs have good ideas but don't make the album. Would you take off "Plastic Off the Sofa" for this? [3]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang:

Alien Superstar [10]

Heated [10]

Pure/Honey [10]

Plastic off the Sofa [9]

I'm that Girl [9]

Cuff It [9]

Cozy [9]

Virgo's Groove [8]

America Has a Problem [8]

Break My Soul [8]

Church Girl [8]

Thique [8]

Energy [8]

My House [7]

Move [7]

All Up in Your Mind [7]

Summer Renaissance [7]

*Subject to change [7]

Katherine St Asaph: One producer Beyoncé continually re-hires is The-Dream, even as her former, once-feted collaborators disappear from her unsparingly curated house. Hey, about that, remember how he was accused of assaulting his pregnant ex-girlfriend last decade? But it's not like this was enjoyable before I knew who produced it, either. [3]

Will Adams: Basically Renaissance's "7/11": a throwaway track, only mildly fun, ultimately a distraction from its otherwise exquisite parent album. That alone is enough of a disappointment from Beyoncé; in light of recent pushback, though, a lyric like "let's heal the world, one beautiful action at a time" makes it that much more eyebrow-raising. [4]

Taylor Alatorre: When I was young, I used to annoy my dad all the time during TV commercial breaks, asking why McDonald's or Coca-Coca had to run advertisements when every living person on the planet already knows what they are. Of course, at the age of seven, I had no knowledge of concepts like brand perception, market share, consumer loyalty -- for me the only purpose of an ad was to inform you that a product exists. However, there is something to the idea that companies often devote an excessive share of resources to marketing and PR as opposed to improving the quality of their goods and services, so maybe my seven-year-old self wasn't completely off-base. It is in that spirit that I ask: why does Beyoncé need to release a song like this when she is Already Beyoncé? [3]

Alfred Soto: Enough already. [5]

Brad Shoup: She's most believable on "get the fuck up out of my house": she strings the vogue and Dirty South sounds together like a top-of-the-line security system. I guess anything could be a revolution if you're the sun. [5]

Ian Mathers: I think the thing that most surprised me about "My House" is that it doesn't just sound like an end credits song, it sounds like a whole bunch of them. The part where the track downshifts feels just like when the credits cut from the maximalist, triumphant "credits song" that tends to get promoted as such to another track (usually by another artist, or maybe even just from the score). You can practically hear it switching to the part where each line of the credits has like four people in a row. But, crucially, it sounds like it does so for one hell of a movie. [8]

Micha Cavaseno: Y'know, of all the nostalgia ticks for Beyoncé to hit on a recent single... I wouldn't exactly have figured we'd get proto-crunk Atlanta Rap in the style of Hitman Sammy Sam while doing the cadence of Chuck Roberts to be something she'd go for. Transitioning it into electro-house rather than indulging in a brief detour over to Atlanta Bass is understandable, but I can't help but that might've been a perfect piece de résistance. Nevertheless, it's perfectly solid music that features Knowles really continuing to rely on dancefloor rollers instead of pop smashes or R&B storms to keep her concerts heavily anchored. She's clearly transitioned into a touring event rather than a mainstream presence, and it makes perfect sense the more she transitions into her "mother" stage: career, personal life, Beyhive Queen analogies, the gay icon definition... whatever perception you prefer. Beyoncé is now a force to herself in the way that few pop stars are lucky to solidify themselves as, and Knowles knows that her ship runs on fuel and showcase, less on staking and striving. [6]

David Moore: I didn't begrudge Renaissance its world-beating rep, but at the same time there was something inaccessible to me about the project; the whole thing seemed like if you ever tried to really touch it, someone would brusquely remind you to stay behind the rope. More than any other celebrity archetype, Beyoncé reminds me of a television star of the '90s who made the prestige move to cinema and never looked back, even as television and cinema merged into the same formless blob of Engaging Artistic Narrative Content: she's like George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston, carrying the torch of a pop culture upward mobility that everyone says they've moved past even though they still treat the legacy holdouts with the reverence of a bygone era. Of course, Beyoncé's music is usually much better than anything George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston does. (Usually.) [5]

Oliver Maier: A microcosm of the Renaissance experience: expertly put together, more structurally inventive and surprising than the vast majority of pop music currently doing the rounds, never electrifying. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[sisilafami]

2020

Rap:

Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake Playboi Carti - Whole Lotta Red Polo G - The Goat Los and Nutty - Panagnl4e Vol. 2 Preservation - Eastern Medicine, Western Illness Sada Baby - Skuba Sada 2 (Deluxe) Medhane - Cold Water $ilkMoney - Attack Of The Future... / G.T.F.O.M.D Akai Solo - Eleventh Wind Roc Marciano - Mt. Marci Chief Keef - Ferrari Musik Rio Da Yung Og - City On My Back Armand Hammer - Shrines Max_B - Charly Tony Shhnow & 10kdunkin - Rp's & Plan B's Shawny Binladen - Merry Wickmas Babyface Ray - For You Tae Dawg - Ooze God / Dawgprint 2 Lil Baby - My Turn (Deluxe) TisaKorean - Wasteland Lil Uzi Vert - Luv vs The World 2 R.A.P. Ferreira - Purple Moonlight Pages Ka - Descendants of Cain 03 Greedo - Load It Up Vol. 01 TyFontaine - 1800 / Virtual World Moor Mother & billy woods - BRASS Boldy James - The Price Of Tea In China (Deluxe) Mad Moon - Mad Space Smino - She already decided mixtape G Herbo - PTSD B Side WTM Scoob - A Beautiful Drug / Don't Be Proud / I Went to Plu2o Young Nudy - Anyways KanKan - B4 AMGs & SRTs Drakeo the Ruler - We Know the Truth (Deluxe) Tree - The Blue Tape Yak Gotti - Gotti Outta Here KrispyLife Kidd & Ysr Gramz - Kid N Play CeeFineAss - Welcome to My City H31R - ve·loc·i·ty Baby Smoove - Hardwood Classic Lucki - Almost There Bandgang Lonnie Bands & Bandgang Javar - The Scamily Damedot - Mafia Lord (Chapter I)

Hm:

18veno – R4z / Pablo 21 Savage - Savage Mode II Akai Solo - Ride Alone, Fly Together / Like Hajime Autumn! - Ils Verront / Solitary DaBoii - Tour Vibes Dopeboy Ra - Mobstyle Duwap Kaine - Bad Kid From The 4 Flo Milli – Ho, why is you here Goonew - Big64 2 Hook - I Love You 2, Hook Key Glock - Yellow Tape Lil Durk - Just Cause Y'all Waited 2 (Deluxe) Lil Keed - Trapped On Cleveland 3 (Deluxe part) Lil Shane Krush - 5000 Degrees in the Field Los - Carlos \ G Shit Vol. 1 Master Holy - A Holy Journal Megan Thee Stallion - Good News MIKE - weight of the world NLE Choppa - Top Choppa PG RA - God's Gift Rod Wave - Pray 4 Love (Deluxe) Rylo Rodriguez - G.I.H.F Rx Papi - The Real Dominic Toretto/ Mood Sada Baby - Bartier Bounty 2 Spotemgottem - Final Destination Starlito – Paternity Leave Su'lan - Baby Glock Gang WB Nutty – TWYH (That's What Ya Heard) Yhung T.O. x DaBoii - Demon and Mufasa YN Jay - Coochie Land (Deluxe)

R&B:

amaarae - The Angel You Don't Know Brent Faiyaz - Fuck The World Teyana Taylor - The Album Liv.E - Couldn't Wait to Tell You... Brandy - B7 Kehlani - It Was Good Until It Wasn't keiyaA - Forever, Ya Girl

Amplify20 (info @ amplify2020.blogspot.com) :

Michael Pisaro-Liu - Tai Pi Bryan Eubanks - Qualia-Cosmos English - Democracy Keith Rowe - an assemblage - construct for 45 voices / GF SUC TARAB - 41 containers Vanessa Rossetto - perhaps at some time you have acted in a play- even if it was when you were a child Bonnie Jones - An Hour is a Sea Joe Foster - Since I Don't Know When Michael Rosenstein - Outer Cape Sojourn Lionel Marchetti - L'ignorance Kevin Drumm - Q Manja Ristić - Out Of Thin Air Benedict Drew - Music for crawling inside a costume Marc Baron - Elle a traversé deux fois la même rivière Shira Legmann - The Ganges Heather Frasch - The sound of objects helps me remember Zhu Wenbo - Open Reinier van Houdt - friction sleep maze (22 april 2020) / horizon without traveler (22 may 2020) Moniek Darge - Quarantine Butterfly Ivan Palacký - Sanctuary

Contemporary:

Choi Joonyong & Jin Sangtae - Hole In My Head Olli Aarni - Mustikoita ja kissankelloja Linda Catlin Smith - Meadow Naomi Pinnock - Lines and Spaces Dominique Lemaître - De l’espace trouver la fin et le milieu Manuel Pessôa de Lima - Realejo Sarah Hughes - I love this city and its outlying lands Philip Sulidae - Tupik Paolo Coteni - Nel Corso Del Tempo Lil Jurg Frey Live 5-2-2020 / Live 5-14-2020 Delphine Dora - L'inattingible Greg Stuart - Colluvium Du Yun - A Cockroach's Tarantella Clara Ianotta - Earthing Timothy McCormack - Karst Lucy Liyou - Welfare YIN YUE- An Amateur Compilation

Digital Beats:

DJ Diaki - Balani fou DJ MC - DA LEGENDARY HIT FACTORY Equiknoxx - Equiknoxx Music in 2020 Gooooose & DJ Scotch Egg - jac DJ Lycox - Kizas do Ly NÍDIA - Badjuda Sukulbembe FELIX - Oito ou Oitenta

Nice forms:

Elysia Crampton - ORCORARA 2010 Joanne Robertson - Painting Stupid Girls Lorenzo Senni - Scacco Matto Beatrice Dillon - Workaround Dylan Henner - The Invention of the Human Brannten Schnure - Ei, wir tun dir nichts zuleide! Space Afrika - hybtwibt Autechre - PLUS James Ferraro - Neurogeist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi & Burnt Friedman - Yek 2 Mark Fell & Will Guthrie - Infoldings Merula - Sleep Eiko Ishibashi - Hyakki Yagyō Various - Kulør 006 Employee - Hold Music Vol. 1

Techno / House?:

Serwed - Serwed II 33EMYBW - Arthropods Terrence Dixon - Galactic Halo Actress - 88 / Karma & Desire Nkisi - Initiation Speaker Music - Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry Lord of the Isles - Whities 029

Jazz?:

Moor Mother - Circuit City Nick Malkin - A Typical Night in the Pit Lemon Quartet - Crestless Moor Mother and Olof Melander - ANTHOLOGIA 01 Jon Hassell - Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two) Moor Mother - Clepsydra

Pop?:

Charli XCX - How i'm feeling now LISACHRIS - uchushimin meat computer - virtual house arrest FROMTHEHEART - things happen- it's ok! EM Records - S.D.S -零- (Subscription Double Suicide -Zero-)

New Old:

Foul Play - Origins Roland Kayn - Requiem Pour Patrice Lumumba George Lewis - Rainbow Family Henning Christiansen - Op.201 L´Essere Umano Erravando La Voca Errabando Adult Fantasies - Towers of Silence Notchnoi Prospekt - Курорты Кавказа (Health Resorts of the Caucasus) Charles Curtis - Performances & Recordings 1998-2018

[kpop-zone]

Playing with Fire: Ch 3

Word Count: 3,535

Chapter 3

Lisa happily skipped down the hallway with two cups of coffee in her hands. One for her and the other for you. She had really enjoyed the day with you yesterday and was looking forward to what the rest of the year held.

When she stood in front of the conference room, she could see Chaeyoung and Jisoo walking towards her from the other side of the building. Therefore, Lisa waited for them and tried to somehow wave at them despite the beverages in her hand.

“Is that one for me?”

Chaeyoung asked with a grin once she reached the maknae, but Lisa immediately shook her head.

“Nope.”

She stuck her tongue out, causing Chaeyoung to look at her offendedly. But before she could say anything in return, Lisa opened the door to the conference room.

Once inside, however, her grin faltered. Her gaze immediately fell on the long conference table and the sight made her clench the two cups tightly. Jennie was sitting next to you and the two of you were looking deeply into each other’s eyes. Lisa didn’t know why, but the sight made her heart feel heavy. Were you interested in Jennie? She couldn’t blame you if you were. Jennie was one of the most beautiful people, she had ever met. And no one had yet been able to resist her charms.

When you noticed the other members standing in the door, you quickly leaped to your feet and walked towards them to greet them. But the insecurities had already been planted in Lisa’s head. Therefore, she only sheepishly bowed to you, before shoving the second coffee that she was holding in Chaeyoung’s hands.

“I thought it wasn’t for me?”

She asked confused, while Lisa plopped down on her seat as far away from you as possible.

“I was just joking.”

She mumbled grumpily, causing Chaeyoung’s confusion to increase.

Gladly, however, she let Lisa’s strange behavior go and just sat down beside her, happy about her free drink. Teddy started the meeting, but Lisa could, quite frankly, not care less what her was saying despite usually trying to be attentive and diligent. A whirlwind of emotions was dashing through her and she didn’t know how to stop it. Disappointment, jealousy, anger. Everything was happening so fast and Lisa’s mind was racing at 300 miles per hour.

Nevertheless, she tried to behave as normal as possible. She couldn’t prevent herself, however, from glaring at you and Jennie from time to time. At one point in the meeting, she was pretty sure that Jennie had laid her hand on yours under the table and it took everything from Lisa to not slam her hand on the table and yell at Jennie. How could it have been so easy for her to wrap you around her finger?

It was incredible how fast you had managed to get under Lisa’s skin. She had never felt about someone this way and now she was a little overwhelmed with her feelings. What was she supposed to do about them? Even if Jennie didn’t claim you hers, you were still her coworker and, in some ways, even her boss. She couldn’t just ask you out. The humiliation would be too big if you rejected her and it would ruin the whole energy of the production process. No, she couldn’t let that happen.

But that was easier said then done. Feelings weren’t something that you just could turn off. They were something that even managed to grow in the dark. And in Lisa’s case, it felt like they were a bad tumor that was slowly eating her from the inside out.

Whenever your laughter was filling the room, she felt like getting drunk from the sound. Whenever you gestured with your hands while talking, she wondered how they would feel on her skin. But she knew that she would never get to know. You didn’t even seem to see her. At least not in the way you saw Jennie or Chaeyoung. Your eyes lit up whenever you saw them, and you greeted them with a wide smile as soon as they entered the studio. While she was only a supporting role in the production process.

Lisa hadn’t even started to get her hopes up when you announced that you were choosing the lead for the song that you had written on your own. Of course, you wouldn’t choose her. She wasn’t what you were looking for. In every way.

The weeks passed with that knowledge weighting down on her and she started slacking off. Every day she had to watch how Jennie and Chaeyoung grew closer to you. You had your own inside jokes and although Lisa didn’t want to envy her members, she couldn’t stop the bitterness that was rising inside of her. All the things that you made her feel turned into this violent storm that was raging inside of her and wanted to break free. It cost her everything to tame it, making her irritable and unconcentrated. Which brought her even further away from being noticed by you.

Why should you give the main rap of the song to the lead rapper that couldn’t even keep two sentences in her head because it was occupied by thoughts of you? How was the supposed to sing powerful and energetic songs when her heart was slowly crumbling? No matter what she did, it only seemed to speed up the vicious circle that she was caught in.

Lisa had been looking forward to this album for a long time. She wanted to give her blood, sweat and tears into it and give the fans what they deserved. But apparently it wasn’t meant to be. Her performance was abysmal, and she had already accepted the fact that she wouldn’t play a big role in this album.

But then the impossible became possible.

You finally noticed her. You gave her the killing part in the second song that you completely produced on your own. Lisa couldn’t have been happier. Finally, you recognized her talent. Maybe this could be the exit to the misery that she had been feeling the past months.

If she had only known that this was the beginning of the end.

---

No matter how much you were complaining about the situation you were in, you couldn’t deny its impact on your creativity. Since Blackpink had come into your life, you couldn’t stop picking up the pen. You came up with lyrics that you would have never imagined in your wildest dreams and sometimes you spend almost 48 hours in the studio without even noticing. The girls were your biggest inspiration.

You were at the top of your game and Teddy was very satisfied with your work. Satisfied enough to agree to include a second song that you had basically produced on your own in the album. This was an immense honor for you as a new producer in the game. But also, a challenge.

Once again you had to pick the parts for each girl and decide who would get the most lines. You knew that you should choose objectively. Give the killing part to the girl that fitted the concept the most. But you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t work with Chaeyoung or Jennie that closely again. They had twisted your sense of better judgement and you needed to stay clear of all hidden traps. So you needed to go with the safest, not the best option.

Therefore, you decided to give the killing part to Lisa. She had been the shyest and most low-key member till now. Maybe she had truly only been trying to be nice to you and she wouldn’t be dangerous for you. Of course, you would still treat her with suspicion, but you felt safest to work close with her.

When you told the girls the news, you could see the shock in Lisa’s eyes, and you felt bad for ignoring her these past months. She had been nothing but nice to you on the first encounter you had, but then all the drama with Jennie and Chaeyoung had started and you had no capacity to take care of her. So much for your intend of treating all the girls the same.

Therefore, you were glad to have made the decision to give Lisa the lead. Opposing, however, to the rest of the girls. The moment you had announced your decision, the atmosphere in the studio changed. You earned yourself piercing gazes from the rest of the members and it was hard to look them in the eyes. Apparently, this production process hadn’t only been a rollercoaster of emotions for you.

No matter what you did, it always seemed to contribute to the tension that had been forming between the five of you right from the start. You wanted it to finally disappear, so you could work in peace. But at the same time, you were afraid that it would unwind itself in a massive explosion that would lead to casualties. One of them would probably be your career.

But you wouldn’t think about that yet. You had just made the first rational decision in a while and it was supposed to calm the situation.

At least that's what you had thought. But then the disaster beyond all expectations happened.

---

You couldn’t explain why, but the second you opened your eyes in the morning, you could feel in your bones that today would be a bad day. You really didn’t want to leave the house and actually played with the thought of calling in sick. But then you remembered that today would be the first day of recording your self-produced song. It was a big day for you, and you didn’t want to let anyone down.

Therefore, you eventually made your way to the YG Entertainment headquarters, while you could feel a headache starting to form. Either you were starting to get paranoid or your body truly knew that you should have stayed at home. But it was too late to turn around now, so you were about to find out which case would occur.

When you entered Blackpink’s studio, it felt like stepping into the Antarctica, causing a cold shudder to run down your spine. The girls were sitting all over the room with large distances between them. No one was talking. No one was even looking at the other. Teddy was sitting in the middle and helplessly searched for your eyes when you entered the room.

“Good morning.”

You mumbled nervously before closing the door behind you, although you’d have preferred to go back to where you had just come from.

All eyes fell on you, making you gulp thickly. Judging by their expressions, something must have happened between them. And something was telling you that you had a major part in it. But you couldn’t let your insecurities show. You had to take control of the situation and do as much damage control as you could. Therefore, you straightened up and cleared your throat.

“Let’s get started right away. How about we start with Lisa?”

You asked with a fake smile, ignoring the eyeroll that you received from Jennie in response.

Lisa instantly leaped to her feet and walked towards you with her head held high. By the way she was clenching the sheets in her hands, however, you could tell that she was nervous. If you were right, this cold atmosphere was caused by your decision to give Lisa the killing part. So you couldn’t really blame her for being a little nervous. You were sure that you wouldn’t want to be the target of Jennie’s, Chaeyoung’s and Jisoo’s anger.

“Don’t worry. I know you’ll do great.”

You whispered silently once Lisa was standing next to you, while squeezing her arm encouragingly.

Like an ice statue, Lisa suddenly stopped in her movements and you looked at her perplexed.

“Are you ok?”

You asked concerned, while following Lisa’s gaze that was fixed on your hand that was still resting on her arm, causing you to let her go.

“Y-Yeah of course.”

She stuttered sheepishly before going into the secluded part of the studio to record her part.

Confused by the weird situation just now, you gazed back at her for a second before shaking off your trance and moving to your spot. Teddy and you took a seat in front of the mixer and waited till Lisa had put on her headphones and organized the sheets with the lyrics. Once she was ready, she gave you a nervous thumbs up and you started to play the song. Expectantly, all of you stared at the maknae who was insecurely fidgeting with her headphones. Her cue came and...

Nothing.

Lisa had opened her mouth, but no words were coming out. Teddy and you looked at each other in wonderment while you could hear a malicious scoff from behind you that you chose to ignore. Quickly you stopped the music and turned to Lisa.

“That’s ok, Lisa. Happens all the time.”

You tried to calm her, but her eyes skipped you and wandered to her members in the back of the studio who were probably wondering whether you were regretting your decision yet.

“Ok, one more time. 1,2,3.”

You counted in before starting the music again.

This time, Lisa didn’t miss her cue, but the outcome wasn’t much better than in the first try. Teddy immediately stopped the music and Lisa looked at you with fear in her eyes. Her voice had been shaky and not at all powerful like it was supposed to be. You tried to muster a smile to soothe her, but slowly you were beginning to get nervous yourself. After all, Teddy, who was the leading producer of the album, was sitting right beside you. What if he cut your song off the list if this didn’t work out?

Despite your own nervousness, you encouraged Lisa once again to not let herself be thrown off by her mistakes, but you knew that your words weren’t much of a help. One take followed the other and Lisa either missed her cue completely or messed it up by not being able to capture the energy of the song. You could feel the girls behind you getting more and more agitated and slowly you were losing your patience too.

“Let’s take a break guys.”

You eventually sighed and Lisa shakily took her headphones off to join you.

“I’m really sorry.”

She apologized silently and you wondered whether those were tears in her eyes.

“It’s o-“

“You have to sing more like you mean it.”

You had wanted to cheer Lisa up, but you were cut short by Chaeyoung.

“Yeah your last notes aren’t clear. You need to hold them longer.”

Jisoo agreed causing Lisa to look at them angrily.

“You sounded breathless. You have to control your breath better.”

Jennie joined the other two members and you looked at the scene in front of you in terror.

You could see how Lisa was starting to clench her fists more with every word her members said and how her expression slowly turned to ice. Her eyes were almost black and the air around her seemed to be electrified. You slowly began ducking as if you knew that an eruption of emotions was about to come.

“Seriously Lisa. Our vocal coach has told you that a million times already.”

Jennie huffed, causing Lisa to finally break her silence and groan in response.

“You know what. Fine. Here take it. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

Lisa suddenly exclaimed angrily while holding out the sheet with the lyrics, catching her members off guard.

“Just take it from me! That’s what you do best, Jennie!”

Her voice cracked and tears suddenly spilled from her eyes, making you look at her in shock.

When she realized that all eyes were on her, Lisa hid her face behind her hands, making her members immediately reach out to comfort her.

“Get off me!”

She yelled in response though before suddenly storming out of the room and slamming the door behind her.

All of you jumped in surprise before complete silence fell around you. No one knew how to handle this situation, because none of you had ever experienced something like this before.

“What was that about? I’ve never seen her like this.”

Teddy finally broke the silence with wide eyes while looking at the other members for an explanation.

“Me neither...”

Chaeyoung mumbled perplexed while staring at the door as if Lisa would return any second and declare everything a joke.

But the door didn’t open, leaving everyone in shock.

“I think, I should check up on her.”

Jennie eventually said although it sounded more like a question.

She was about to walk to the door when you held out your arm and stopped her from moving.

“No, I think that’s a bad idea. Let me check up on her. I think, I’m the one that’s least involved in your fight.”

You proposed, earning yourself sheepish nods from the other girls.

After taking a deep breath, you left the room to search for Lisa. The headquarters were huge though and several rooms were on the same floor as the studio, so it took you a while to find her. Eventually you peaked into the right room and saw Lisa huddled up in a chair while silent sobs left her mouth. Your heart broke immediately, and you quickly rushed to her side.

“Hey it’s ok. Don’t cry.”

You whispered before lowering yourself to her height and pulling her into your arms.

Her sobs immediately increased, and you felt her clinging to your body in search for comfort.

“It’s ok. We all have our bad days.”

You tried to calm her, but suddenly Lisa pushed you away.

“It’s not just a bad day! I’m not the right one for the part!”

She sobbed heartbreakingly, causing you to cup her face.

“Don’t say that. I know you can do better.”

“Really? Do you want to ask the other girls what they think about that?”

Lisa responded with a bitter laugh, but you weren’t letting her talk badly about herself.

“They are just jealous because I haven’t given them the lead in the song. I’m sure if they were honest with themselves, they’d know that I have made the right decision.”

You smiled encouragingly while wiping away the tears that streamed down Lisa’s cheeks.

“That’s not true! You know very well that I’m not as talented as them. Why else have you been ignoring me these past months?”

Lisa’s accusation caught you off guard and you almost tumbled back in surprise. Quickly you shook your head though and put your hand on her cheek to make her look at you.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t ignored you! You are incredibly talented. That’s why I gave you the part. Don’t ever think like that again, ok?”

You answered somewhat confidently after forcing your heart to beat normally again.

Lisa looked at you searchingly and you tried to seem calmer than you actually were. Apparently, she believed your words because she slowly nodded although tears were still streaming down her cheeks. Therefore, you gently grabbed her head and pushed it against your body again. She immediately began trembling, so you held her as tightly as possible to give her the comfort that she needed. It seemed like she was letting go of all the emotions that she had held back way too long, because your arms were already falling asleep once she finally stopped crying.

“Your voice is perfect for this song. It’s all I have been looking for.”

You said softly when you noticed that it had been quiet for a while, causing Lisa to lean back.

Her face was dangerously close to yours, causing your breath to hitch in your throat. Your eyes were lost in hers that had an inexplainable look in them.

Was that...desire?

You hadn’t found an answer yet, when Lisa suddenly lunged forward and captured your lips with hers. Your brain couldn’t comprehend what was happening, but your feelings made your lips move against hers in a passionate kiss that ended as abruptly as it had started. Panting for air Lisa pulled away and stared at you with wide eyes.

“Oh my god.”

She mumbled before slamming her hand over her mouth.

“Lisa...”

You breathed, still in disbelief and lacking any clear thoughts in your head.

But you weren’t given the chance to say anything else, because Lisa suddenly leaped to her feet, causing you to fall backwards. Hastily she left the room while you gazed back at her with an open mouth. One part of you wanted to chase behind her. The part that had allowed her to kiss you. But another part was forcing you to stay. It was the part that knew that any wrong action would be like pouring gasoline in the fire that had just struck down on your life. Your heart was beating faster than every before, making you hold your head in frustration because the drumming was too loud to concentrate.

Should you stay or should you go?

[bisexualhobi]

wait I think I agree not today is really bad but now rank all their title tracks from best to worst pls

lmaoohdksjjdjf i love this question so much anon but due to the fact that i’m me this would get way WAY too long. so i’m doing the top 5 best title tracks and then top 5 worst ones okay? i’m looking at google and apparently they have 26 korean singles so yeah that’s too much.

to rank them as objectively as possible I'm gonna try to take into account gp impact (which is not the same as chart impact since the fandom inflates those numbers), production, creative value (how innovative/different from other pop songs was it?) and the concept of the music video/aesthetic in general. 

BTS TITLE TRACKS: TOP 5

5. Black Swan (2020)

am I cheating by putting here a pre release single? maybe. but it would be a disservice to leave this one out so bear with me

⭐gp impact: this song made more noise as a pre release single than the title track. I saw it in at least 3 end of the year editorials for best kpop songs of 2020. and the thing is it could have been WAY bigger but a lot of stuff happened that sadly made it go away too soon. I don't think this one is as famous or recognizable as the others in this list which is why it's going last, but also I think this song is the most underrated gem in bts discography so it's still going here.

⭐production: this song beat out the front runners (I need u, save me, DNA) solely because of its production. there are not a lot of kpop songs out there that manage to pull off what this song does. it's powerful, it's nostalgic, it's a dark and sexy song without being too on the nose. the mixing is SUPERB I remember the first time I heard it I thought "this would blow the fuck up if it was a Travis Scott song" and I will DIE on that hill. this is an example of heavy autotune on a song done right, not like the rest of their super autotuned songs that sometimes come out unrecognizable and empty sounding.

⭐creative value: it's not truly a new concept in pop to make a song about the Death of the Artist. it’s also not something a rookie group can do, this song needed to be released at exactly the time in bts’ career that it was. there’s just no emotional impact if you just sing about how the music makes your hear beat and you’ve been in the industry for,,, 3 years. this is the type of Swan Song you release at the peak of your career, so that really contributes to the message. mixing a trap beat with a ballet motif is GALAXY BRAIN SHIT.

⭐️concept: the ballet influence is just beautifully executed, this song is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship on all fronts. i think they could literally build an entire ALBUM off this concept, so the fact that they jampacked it onto one single song is both amazing and a little sad for me. i wanna hear more of this. i want a literal Black Swan (the darren aranofsky movie) horror concept where the protagonist falls prey to his own madness because he strives for perfection. but yeah, the song itself and the orchestral version just make this a complete golden concept in my book.

4. IDOL (2018).

⭐️gp impact: i think a lot of people that didn’t know anything about kpop vaguely knew about this song when it was released. i know i wasn’t into kpop at all but in my pop culture circle there was a small bleep from this song bc of the concept and the dance. i think it’s a great “embassador of kpop” track, like if you wanna explain to someone with no previous knowledge what kpop is about you can show them a performance of this song.

⭐️production: the production is a little all over the place for me. the instrumentals are amazing and really creative tho, but like in terms of mixing vocals and the structure of it, it might be a little too grating. it’s not the best produced song in ly: answer by any means but it still makes it work

⭐️creative value: the whole hanbok thing is a 10/10. bts weren’t the first ones to do it, but they did it in such a tightly executed way that honestly that “classic korean roots meets the edgy western feel” concept belongs to them now. groups are still recreating it. it’s a really innovative concept in general.

⭐️concept: the music video is,,,, something. you might love it or hate it, but it’s memorable. i think the purposeful way in which they made it as loud and brilliant as possible can be taken either as a camp adjacent or just as the group going nuts with the budget, which props to them. the choreography is also a BIG plus. the south african influence is really well executed and they made sure to do it as cultural appreciation and not appropriation. definitely the most memorable thing from this song is the choreo

3. Run (2015).

⭐️gp impact: this was their second song to have a music show win. it was the lead single from hyyh pt2 and honestly it might be the best song off hyyh as a whole. it cemented bts as not just another kpop group, because it made non fans turn their heads too! from what i gather this really propelled them forward and made the fanbase grow a lot.

⭐️production: hyyh pt2 is super well produced. i feel like this song in particular makes a fine job of mixing the vocals but it’s not outstanding. the best part is the instrumentals. but overall it’s a really good song with amazing lyrics and a great melody.

⭐️creative value: this built off of what they did with pt1 so they were already in a comfortable place, when they found this sound they really explored it well and deep and it works! i’m glad they went this emo pop route because it was a good contrast to what was dominating the charts in kpop in 2015.

⭐️concept: the aesthetic is PERFECT. there’s not a single other thing that i could add or that i wanted gone. it’s the perfect mix of coming of age teen film and heartfelt, dreamy pop. the music video is by no surprises the favorite mv of a lot of the fandom. the cinematography is beautiful and the song and the video perfectly capture that fleeting moment in life when you’re in the brink of adulthood.

2. Mic Drop (2017).

⭐️gp impact: this song was the first bts song to chart on the billboard hot100. back when the fandom had no idea how to chart, mass buy etc. that’s enough said. (personally i think mic drop is the quintessential bts song and their best release so the fact that i’m not putting it first should count as something).

⭐️production: for the purposes of this ranking i’m using the original mic drop and not the steve aoki remix even tho it was the steve remix that was released as the single. the song has the BEST mastering i’ve heard in kpop. the transitions are flawless, the beat is pure fire, the entire first minute is literally the hardest hype rap i’ve heard in kpop. everything about it WORKS.

⭐️creative value: it’s kinda funny how this song got released the same year as kendrick lamar’s humble, because imho it’s the best hiphop song of that year after humble. 2017 was truly the year of the diss tracks. bonus points for including it right after the billboard acceptance speech skit in ly: answer. SUPER refreshing among the ed sheeran type of pop that dominated that year.

⭐️concept: it’s a great concept but not innovative by any means. still, it works and bts managed to exploit it to the max. the choreo, the mv, the styling, everything was amazing!

1. Blood, Sweat & Tears (2016).

⭐️gp impact: it's probably the first song to put bts on the map beyond the kpop sphere. it really set the tone for their 2017. it's one of their most famous and recognizable songs to date.

⭐️production: this song is STUNNINGLY arranged. the mix, the ambience, the progression,,, it's all brought together to make a very well crafted song. it has a distinctive electronic/pop sound to it that still manages to set itself apart from the trend that was going at the time. black swan is probably the closet single they have to this in terms of production.

⭐️creative value: the song itself is very in compliance with the 2015/2016 trend of hype songs with edm influence, (ie. closer, shape of you, cheap thrills, let me love you, something just like this, etc.) but it still packs that punch that makes it sound fresh even for 2021.

⭐️concept: it wasn't the first song to sound like this in kpop ofc but it was the first truly sexy concept for bts. the aesthetic is innovative and very well thought out, the mv is amazing and the choreography too. i read somewhere that j-hope had a lot of input for this choreo so that's amazing. also blond taehyung is literally the best thing to come out of big hit.

WORST BTS TITLE TRACKS

ok so here we go with the worst ones! this is in ascending order as i prepare myself to pick the worst of them all, but please remember this isn’t meant to be mean spirited, i am simply applying the same criteria to their most underwhelming songs but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own merit! it’s just that out of 26 singles, SOME of them have got to come out at the bottom right?

5. Life Goes On (2020)

⭐gp impact: this song is not memorable with the general public, its #1 on the bb was the product of mass buying and even though it's a feel good song made to comfort fans in the times of pandemic it's still bland and boring. I think it had no music show appearances either, and as far as bts ballads go this is just bottom tier. it’s not that it’s terrible, it’s just very underwhelming 

⭐production: the autotune in this song is very poorly executed, it doesn't add to the song the way black swan does for example. it's just off putting and the melody is really forgettable. it's funny bc the chorus is directly pulled from the 2018 reggaeton super hit "La Canción" by J Balvin and Bad bunny lmaooo 💀 so I can't get that out of my head either. the structure is just fine and has nothing of substance 

⭐creative value: the song is attempts to be a heartfelt acoustic song but it really has nothing that sets it apart from other songs product of the pandemic like Justin and ariana's stuck with u. for a song in a self produced album it's the song with the least input from the group. the lyrics are good, but they're not as sincere or groundbreaking as for example Spring day. 

⭐concept: as a ballad ofc I'm not expecting it to have a grand choreography, and the mv being filmed in their personal dorms to reflect the lockdown is actually a nice touch but besides that there is nothing exciting, innovative or even sincerely comforting about the song and the concept. the greatest thing abt it is the fact that jk directed the video, which is actually pretty good.

4. We are bulletproof pt 2 (2013)

⭐gp impact: this song made no noise back in the day and to this day its just beloved by the fandom due to a sense of nostalgia and "remembering bts' roots". don't get me wrong it's amazing that bts still perform it in the year of our lord 2020 because you can't forget where you came from, but it's not a good or memorable song by any means. 

⭐production: I went back to listen to it for this and oh god. I can't remember the mixing being THIS bad. jimin, jin and taehyung sound exceptionally bad, they don't sound like themselves especially jin. it's just a really poorly mastered song, but then again the rest of their debut album isn't far better. 

⭐creative value: this is straight up ripping off early 2000s black culture from the US. not only the music, the styling for this era in general is unfortunately really bad and culturally appropriating and overall it's a mess. 

⭐concept: there is nothing of substance to be said about this song. it's just really a miss. the mv is terrible, the only thing that can be salvaged from this is the choreography, but besides that the whole thing feels sloppy, rushed and is also kinda cringey.

3. N.O. (2013)

⭐gp impact: no noise. this song was just a really weird pick for their first comeback when attack on bangtan or coffee was right there. not to be mean but no wonder they didn't have a music win this year. 

⭐production: it's an objectively bad song. it's just really underwhelming, the whole mixing feels amateur. it's not a good hiphop song and it's not a good vocal arrangement and the chorus is also a rip off of a late 90s American song I can't find right now 

⭐creative value: this song isn't innovative in any way, it's just..... there. very meh in general, I have nothing more to say about it 

⭐concept: the storyline kinda wants to go somewhere with the music video but it doesn't manage to make a connection. the styling is plain, simple and not flattering at all. it tries to make a protest of the Korean school system but it doesn't say anything beyond "school bad" which we already knew

2. Not Today (2017)

⭐gp impact: its a very middle of the list song for a lot of the fandom. I literally know of no one that claims this as their favorite mv/era/song. when you ask people about their least favorite bts songs they won't mention this one either, you know why? because it's that irrelevant. it had no music show wins either. it's precisely because of this why I put it so high up on the list. there's nothing worse than an unmemorable song, if it was widely hated then at least that would be a response. 

⭐production: it's a really mediocre song in terms of structure and melody. it tried to be hype but it falls short. the chorus feels half finished and the message of the song is just “the revolution has begun”? which okay? but it adds nothing to the You never walk alone album either.

⭐creative value: there is nothing exciting about this song, and the chorus is too grating. the rhythm is repetitive and nothing new either in kpop or pop in general. 

⭐concept: sadly there's not a lot to be said for the song. it says nothing of value and what it says falls flat. there's no innovation. you can actually see a lot of idol in this song, and also ON. those two songs are what this one tried to be but failed.

1. War of Hormone (2014)

⭐gp impact: thankfully none. this song got the treatment it deserved, if they had won a music show for this one it would feel tainted lol. now it's just a meme in the fandom but overall it made zero noise and contributed nothing to bts' evolution 

⭐production: the production is very lazy, which is odd because dark & wild has some pretty tight tracks. but this one is just meh, nothing outstanding and the melody is just annoying 

⭐creative value: this is a song that was probably born out of the desperation to have a gp friendly hit. it tries really hard to replicate an outdated idea of what boy bands should be, and it does it badly. simply put this song is very mediocre and misogynistic and the fact that it's a running gag in the fandom that "feminism isn't important when war of hormone comes on" isn't funny and it's actually cringe. please stop 

⭐concept: the styling is so ugly :( the mv is very low budget which isn't surprising but they managed to make more with less in past releases. it's just embarrassing and I wish this song didn't exist, there's a reason why they never play it anymore lol. overall a dark mistake in bts' career