#love on the other side

[whistle-whisper]

[explodingstarlight]

the emo trinity is alive, well, and prospering in 2023

[vixvaporub]

Those Without Eyes | Mienai Hitotachi by Nagabe 

[blueraimo]

[hakonohanayome]

Emergency Rations & Bountiful Feasts in Love On the Other Side - A Nagabe Short Story Collection

[thisaintascenereviews]

Fall Out Boy - So Much (For) Stardust Fall Out Boy released their seventh studio album, M A N I A, in 2018, but a lot has changed within five years. We’ve gone through a presidential election, a pandemic, an insurrection, the war in Ukraine, inflation, and many other horrible things that have been plaguing the world since, but also music has changed a lot, too. Pop-punk has gone from being the step-child of popular music to being front and center with artists like MGK, Willow, and Olivia Rodrigo making it a household name again. History certainly repeats itself, and the genre of music that so many folks my age (in their late 20s and early 30s) grew up with is popular again. It was only a matter of time before the scene veterans came back with a new record, and it’s certainly overdue at this point. Five years is a long gap to go without releasing albums, but it’s around the same gap from 2008′s Folie A Deux to 2013′s “comeback” album Save Rock & Roll. The only difference is Fall Out Boy never went on a hiatus, but it almost felt like it. Guitarist Joe Trohman left the group, at least temporarily, earlier this year, citing mental health reasons, and the other members of the group, vocalist / songwriter / multiinstrumentalist Patrick Stump, bassist / lyricist Pete Wentz, and drummer Andy Hurley, focused on other projects. They were almost on a hiatus without formally announcing it, but it seems as though their hiatus-without-calling-it-as-such did them some good, because their last few records have been very polarizing and contentious among fans. Some of it is for good reason, especially in retrospect, but there was a lot of very unfair hatred and criticism towards their post-hiatus material that they could never shake. Part of talking about their latest LP, So Much (For) Stardust, requires talking about their last few records, because to understand where the band is coming from on this record, you need to put their last few albums in context. Stardust is almost a soft reboot for this band, so to speak, especially for the better. A lot of their younger fans might not know about their infamous hiatus from 2009, where the band were imploding, so they took some time off for other projects to mixed success and results. The band came back in the beginning of 2013, and everyone was super excited, but the resulting album, 2013′s Save Rock & Roll, was underwhelming to a lot of people, considering it went more into pop and pop-rock that sounded like others bands at the time, namely Imagine Dragons. I loved it at the time, and I still enjoy it a lot, but my feelings towards their post-hiatus material is complicated. 2015 brought us American Beauty / American Psycho, and it doubled down on the Imagine Dragons-like pop-rock with more mixed results. People didn’t like these last couple of albums because of how “mainstream” they sounded, and I somewhat agree with that now, because I was looking at the albums through rose-colored glasses. Fall Out Boy are my favorite band, and they have been for years, but it’s okay to admit a band you love makes bad music, or music that’s subpar. I wouldn’t call either of these records “subpar,” because they still have great qualities, but they’re easily my least favorites of their work, especially almost a decade later. They haven’t aged as well as other albums from them, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Where people really lost their minds, and where most diehard fans jumped ship, was on 2018′s M A N I A, their last album. While I’m not as crazy about Save Rock & Roll and American Beauty / American Psycho nowadays, I absolutely love M A N I A, even though I should really hate it, because it goes too far into the pop / pop-rock sound that the last two albums, but that’s why I enjoy it. Save Rock & Roll and American Beauty / American Psycho are catchy, fun, and energetic records with great performances across the board, but their sounds are interchangeable, both within themselves, and within the landscape of rock music at the time. They don’t sound too different from other bands at the same time in their lane, whereas their earlier work, and M A N I A, are much more unique. M A N I A fully embraces pop music of all kinds, but they also experiment a lot more with other styles, such as Afrobeat, Latin music, electronic music, 1960s gospel-tinged soul, and some more straightforward pop-rock bangers. It’s also a lean 35 minutes, so it never spends more time than it needs to. M A N I A scratched the itch that their last couple of albums didn’t, and I think it’s aged fairly well, but by that point, the band was rather burnt out again. Trohman has said that he didn’t really participate in the writing of M A N I A because of pop-focused it was, and the band wanted to move elsewhere in their sound, which is the genesis of where Stardust was born. Most albums don’t require this much context, but Fall Out Boy is a band that needs it, especially because they’re my all time favorite band. This band means a lot to me, and I’ve gone on record many times saying that before, but this band is the first band I ever got into growing up. I have a vivid memory of picking up 2007′s Infinity On High at Target the weekend of its release, and falling head over heels for it. I was into music before that, but that was the first album I really loved, and it set the stage for falling down the rabbit hole of becoming a music fan. I’ve been looking forward to another Fall Out Boy album for years, and I almost didn’t think we’d get it, but they were slowly teasing this record, ultimately releasing “Love From The Other Side” a couple of months ago, and getting people very excited, because it was a “return” to guitar-based music. This song was a rock song, through and through, instead of leaning more on pop flavors and sounds. Make no mistake, it’s not a return to form in terms of 2003-ish pop-punk, but if anything, it builds on what they did with Infinity On High and Folie A Deux, incorporating other styles of music, such as funk, soul, R&B, and pop, among others. The song also marked a return to Pete Wentz’s brand of lyrical wit that we hadn’t really gotten in years, minus a few moments on M A N I A. We got one more single from the album before the whole thing was released, “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” and it, too, was a return to something more familiar, yet also rather new. It wasn’t completely trying to sound like it was from 2008, but it took elements of their classic material and threw in some new sounds and ideas, too, all the while sounding refreshed. Lo and behold, So Much (For) Stardust is upon us, so how is it? I’ve listened to the album maybe ten times in the last few days of its release, and I have to say... It’s fantastic in every single way, shape, and form. So Much (For) Stardust is the album that I’ve wanted from them for years, because it both blends the old and the new. This is easily their best record since Folie in 2008, but Patrick Stump has said that they wrote this album with the mindset of moving away from the technology and production that they used on their last few albums, and writing a record that hypothetically would have came out after Folie if they never went on hiatus. That’s what this sounds like, because it takes everything that they had done up to that point, and puts it in a blender, so to speak. Folie was a record that took rock, pop, soul, funk, R&B, pop-punk, and a lot of other styles, and made it their own. Stardust does that, too, but in its own way, especially when you remember that Stump put out a solo album in 2011 entitled Soul Punk that owed a lot to Michael Jackson and Prince, which Stump brings to this album, at least with his vocal performance. There’s an obvious return to “organic” instrumentation, but that’s not what this album great. It’s their ability to straddle the line between paying homage to their past and looking to the future at the same time. A lot of the songs on this album sound like songs I’ve been listening to for years, especially in the classic Fall Out Boy canon, but I’ve also never heard them. The best instance of a song like that, at least for me, is “Hold Me Like A Grudge.” This song has everything that makes for a classic and perfect Fall Out Boy song -- Stump’s impeccable vocal, Wentz’s clever lyricism, a great hook, and instrumentation rides the line between multiple styles, but it’s still clearly a Fall Out Boy song. There are many other songs on this record that make me feel the same way, whether it’s the opening one-two punch of “Love On The Other Side” and “Heartbreak Feels So Good,” “Fake Out,” “I Am My Own Muse,” “So Good Right Now,” “The Kinsugi Kid (Ten Years),” and the title track, among others. This whole album is great, and it has the ability to have each song follow a somewhat similar sound, but each song is very different from each other. The hooks all stand up on their own, and these songs don’t feel interchangeable, whether with themselves or other bands, these songs feel distinctly Fall Out Boy in the best way. Stump’s vocals return to that sound that he was always known for, and they don’t sound as processed as they have been, and Wentz’s lyrics are a more interesting this time around, including on every song I mentioned. If I wanted to talk about my favorite moments in terms of his lyrics, this review would be a lot longer than it already is, because there are too many little lyrical nuggets to count. The instrumentation is strong on all fronts, especially Trohman’s riffs this time around, since he’s able to let loose, but Hurley is killing it behind the kit as always, too. It’s nice that we have a more organic dynamic this time, because they feel more like a band, which is kind of insulting to say, but their last few albums dabbled so much in technology and in pop music sounds and ideas, it didn’t feel as though they were a cohesive unit. It’s nice to hear them all together now, and it makes for a rewarding experience. Every song is just chock full of things to love about them, and I’ve found myself going back to this album again and again. There are a couple of very slight issues I have with this LP, but they don’t matter in the slightest, because they’re just tiny little nitpicks that don’t bother me that much, but there are a couple of unnecessary interludes, “The Pink Seashell,” and “Baby Annihilation,” the former featuring dialogue by Ethan Hawke from 1994′s Reality Bites, and the latter being a monologue from Pete Wentz, and they’re fine. They don’t add much to the album, but they’re not bad. Wentz’s monologue reminds me of moments from their earlier albums where he would have a spoken interlude that served as poetry, and I could take or leave those moments, but it’s fine. Really, though, the album is pretty damn strong from start to finish, and even though it’s around 44 minutes, it doesn’t feel like it. I’ll be listening to the album, and I’ll notice that I’m already on the last song, when I feel as though I just started it. It’s one of those albums that you can listen to and never get bored of. This is the best possible outcome from a new Fall Out Boy album, where they went back to making more guitar-based music, but (and that’s big “but”), they didn’t sacrifice what makes them good. They could have easily made another 2003-ish pop-punk album and called it a day, but they didn’t. They made a catchy, well-written, and fully realizing pop-rock album with elements of soul, R&B, and funk that sound great. I’ll be damned if this album is not my album of the year. I really will be. Fall Out Boy means a lot to me, and this record brings me so much joy. It makes me feel like I’m 13 / 14 listening to them again in 2007 / 2008, but I’m also 29 / 30. I’m getting that nostalgia, but I’m also hearing something new that I’ve never heard. Fall Out Boy did it, folks, and if you’re a fan of their classic material, you should listen to this. I will say, though, that if you’re one of those cornballs that only listens to their first two albums, and nothing else (imagine thinking Take This To Your Grave is their best album, yikes), you won’t like this. This is more of the pop-rock sound that they went with on Infinity On High and Folie, but that’s my favorite of Fall Out Boy. I love the first two albums, too, but like with their post-hiatus material, they haven’t aged well in certain ways. In other ways, they have, but I don’t listen to those albums as much. I can imagine So Much (For) Stardust being in top three Fall Out Boy albums, because it sounds like the era that I love so much, but it also does something new and exciting. This is such an exciting album, and I can’t get enough of it. I’ve been looking forward to this album for months, and it was worth it. They delivered one of the best albums of their career, but without sacrificing anything that they made them great to begin with. They just added onto their classic sound. That doesn’t erase the last few albums, but I wouldn’t even say their first couple of post-hiatus albums are bad. They’re not. They’re catchy, fun, and they’ve got a few solid lyrical nuggets here and there, but they’re not as great as Infinity On High and Folie A Deux. This album doesn’t necessarily erase those albums, but it builds on what originally made Fall Out Boy great. I feel as though I’ve been listening to this album for years, but I’ve also never heard it, and those are the best types of albums to listen to, because they immediately feel familiar and welcoming, like you just listen to it as though you’ve already been listening to it for years. It’ll be hard to top this record, but Fall Out Boy came back with something I truly did not expect, and I mean that in the best way.

[eyestrain-addict]

Brendan heard "Love on the other side" and knew he couldn't do it anymore and pulled the plug

[superstarshowcase]

can never recreate the pure emotion i felt when listening to love on the other side for the first time and hearing the bridge,, the way i practically jumped out of my seat like “THE POSTCARD!! THE LYRICS FROM THE POSTCARD!!!!!!”

[pokimoko]

I can't keep being fundamentally changed as a person by animated movies, it's just not sustainable.

[sapsolace]

obsessed w these boneheads as of late :]

[whistle-whisper]

[vixvaporub]

Those Without Eyes | Mienai Hitotachi by Nagabe 

[blueraimo]

[hakonohanayome]

Midnight Waltz in Love On the Other Side - A Nagabe Short Story Collection

[camembri]

you wanted zoro to be on whole cake island to fulfil your weird desire to see zoro punish sanji. I wanted zoro on whole cake island because I think he's stupid enough to right place wrong time the plan and accidentally marry Sanji in full view of the whole wedding party in what becomes the most elaborately constructed comedy of errors ever written. we are NOT the same.

[engshoujosei]

Love on the Other Side - A Nagabe Short Story Collection

1 volume

Licensed by Seven Seas

A manga anthology of poignant short stories from Nagabe, the bestselling creator of The Girl From the Other Side. 

Love comes in many forms. A magnificent bird comforts a struggling girl; a vampire waltzes with a young lady at night; a blind girl lives with a monster of whom there is more than meets the eye. This six-story manga collection by masterful manga creator Nagabe explores fascinating relationships that refuse to be confined. Includes: See You Tomorrow, Daisy The Wolf-Man and the Girl-Wolf Emergency Rations & Bountiful Feasts Midnight Waltz The White King Those Without Eyes

Status in Country of Origin 

1 Volume (Complete)

Tags:

Abandoned Protagonist 

Blind Protagonist 

Corpse/s

Isolated Location

Animal Leading Character/s

Appearance Different from Personality

Childcare

Collection of Stories

Human-Nonhuman Relationship

Human Raised by Animal/s

Atypical Art Style 

Dark Ambience 

Illness

Symbolism

Vampires