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mildiva · 3 months

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CC REVIEW

prefacing this by saying i have little aside from praise for Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter as an album like… Beyoncé has done it again! what can i say? she knows how to make music. i literally cannot stop listening to about half of the album. YAYA to the end might be perfect actually? anyways

okay let's do the tracks one by one now.

American requiem - beautiful gets gospel and classical like part writing in there, the continuo happening is crazy 2 me

Blackbird - gorgeous, wish we got a little more from tanner adell and co. also what is that mysterious ticking noise??? asking the Beatles that question. why is a click track running

16 carriages- only weird thing: how are you STILL underpaid… aren’t you your own boss? still a beautiful epic ballad epic! dying to know what the two different crashes in the chorus are

Protector - kind of perfect. when she performs this live?? The stadium will flood. “I will be your projector!”

My rose- love triple time love three party harmony. she Trinity’d on this one, also acts as a little coda for the first arc of the album

Smoke hour - hi Willie! I think the radio concept is very effective

Texas Hold’Em -pour that liquor on me honey… my favorite of the two initial singles… also the whole “young and going anywhere and in love” thing yas. ALSO the banjo playing is such a treat. whatever the short time between the rumors she was doing a country album and the release of texas hold 'em i DID think "wow i hope she gets rhiannon giddens involved"

Bodyguard - like 6 months after Texas hold em.. so much more sing, bass is just sitting while beyonce flies over it all... also she's a genius for making "kevlar" three syllables. not much more i can say except i cannot stop singing it

Dolly P - “that cameo by Dolly Parton, and i DO mean cameo as in the app” - macy rodman

Jolene - personally i think the weakest song on the album.. many have said how weird it is that she turned such a lesbicious song into this defense of heterosexual marriage.. i think it works best if you imagine that Jolene has no interest in her man and Miss Carter is wildly jealous.

also weird bc in most of the love songs it sounds like she’s singing as a much younger woman in life and love so like.. is this autobiographical? bc, Lemonade does exist. Anyways

One last thing - very funny for this to be Jay-Z’s only credit on the album and he’s clapping. you have to laugh!

Daughter - she beat Jolene ! of course only deep love for the caro mio Ben interpolation and thrumming guitar throughout… and her deep contempt for her father is sooooooo lmao. I need to read interviews from Miss Tina

Spaghetti - i saw so much hate for this online and. sure it’s weird but Essential to the project of CC. also Beyoncé rapping in triple time is not smth I’m doing to diss. it's cunty country time

Alligator Tears- maybe i just love all her ballad-y love songs… the banjo (?) line on this is gorgina, the low harmonies, the altered idiom… like yes

Smoke Hour II - very funny and pointed, literally telling the listener what to think. preaching to the choir willie!

Just for Fun - mmm yes… bc I can’t read i thought this was Willie Nelson singing at first.. getting a little more gospel in here... i actually wish Willie Jones had a whole verse to himself!

II Most Wanted - incredible, wish Miley took the harmony on the second verse or smth… also so weird that she did this and Jolene. which is it??? R u gay or not. Well, does that really matter?

Levis Jeans - fun and cute. did not realize Mr. Post was named that. also interesting which white artists she chooses to work with… Post Malone is very much giving Florida Georgia Line/a “hip hop” artist who would feature on a country song. "Baby let me rattle that snake with my venom" is really good.

Flamenco - similar to My rose, closes this little arc very neatly. it’s doing its job!

The Linda Martell Show - once again doing the work. it’s 15 seconds

Ya ya -literally this launches the insatiable arc to the end. planting us in the 60s with the sexiest sample ever (bass line from boots were made for walking), the good vibrations interpolation, the rock vocals… it’s kind of everything. this more than anything makes me want a rock album from her

Oh Louisiana - genuinely no shade but how IS Beyoncé the sole artist on this? id kill to read the agreement between her and chuck berry's estate

Desert Eagle - I did not realize this song was only one minute long at first… she gives us so much. “Do si do and it gets creamy in the middle” is NASTY! and that wet slap bass thing? yes. just yes.

Riverdance - BOUNCE on that shit.. The slightly off kilter guitars and echoing sustained piano yasss..Steve reich is kinda quaking in xir boots

II hands II heaven - she put something in this i cried at a traffic light imagining a love like “put my feet on the dashboard, now go really fast boy” anyways the chugging in this slash galloping that’s in tyrant and sweet honey omg. like the gallop starts here

Tyrant - she’s still cooking the pot is still BOILING… that clap pattern could kill in a classroom. idk if like 3rd graders “should “be listening to it but OMG ...“5’9 thique and fine” she’s just like me... the harmonies not quite gelling with the beat at the end yes please!

Sweet honey buckin - that piano accordion vocal sample whatever is wheeeeezing... is this zydeco? she’s going home her man is dead!!! and the patsy cline interpolation yes yes yes. that doo wop sound is so sexy

Amen - Pitch cue cueing up the beginning of the album.. mwah. Very much a reprise of the first track, love to the plagal cadence as always.

overall, I love love love what she's doing. Beyoncé is so good at pretending to be herself it’s crazy like when is it her when is it “cowboy Carter” or the character… which is named after her... not to go for the easy analysis but the brechtian bits like the pitch cues and the interlude videos literally showing the titans of country as PUPPETS... like there is no illusion that this is not a performance.

which i think works so well for like. her thesis? what she's trying to say. like it is an exploration of the Blackness and Black music in country music but also she's not going old-time with it. so many of these songs sound like "radio country." and I think there's two parts to her point: the music that country was born from and country itself was pioneered by Black musicians (blues, zydeco, GOSPEL, "folk" and "old-time" music), but also that country music today has cribbed so much for hip hop. the country purists look foolish and more nakedly racist when Florida Georgia Line exists. maybe the purists are denouncing them too! but the radio stations are not.

now for the "critique"

my issue with CC is political, obvi. i feel comfortable critiquing Beyoncé on this bc 1) i think she’s wrong and 2) she’s playing with some of my favorite concepts (i love Genre) so i feel semi in my lane. where the album falls apart is when it comes to America. beyonce, bianca, ms. carter, you're right. there IS a whole lot of red in that white and blue that history can't erase! this house WAS built on blood and bones! Them big and old ideas ARE buried here! now i'm going to turn your question back to you: can YOU stand for something? idk, your vision of a new America, or a rehabbed America, feels very flat in the face of failing to extend a lick of solidarity to Palestinians begging you to pull your movie from being shown in Israel. You certainly don't need the money. like i want to believe you are trying to say something but what the hell is it? what is this American you envision? it doesn't seem like anything would change.

anyways loved the album! will be singing so many of these songs for years to come.

#beyoncé #cowboy carter #music #music review

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teddybeartoji · 8 months

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ৎ୭ CINEMA, BABY!

hi there! this is my massive list of recommendations including films, directors, series and videos about films (and stunts and games). the films are rated by going from the easiest watches to the hardest and i've added the trailers or clips and a few words myself.

also! some of these have more text, some have less - please don't be discouraged if it has less, i probably have seen it only once and i didn't wanna start making up stuff! everything that's on here is genuinely changed me in a way or two.

please please please! if u watch anything from this list - let me know! i wanna hear all of your thoughts and ideas and if u have any recs for me i am one big ear!

⚠︎ this got very fucking long but i refuse to apologize i love having fun!

+ here are more recs!

FILMS

·:* RATING: ALL FUN AND GAMES

SNATCH (2000) - dir. guy ritchie

this is my feel-good film, whenever i'm feeling down i put this on and i'm fixed! this is exactly my type of humor and it just never gets old (i've seen it like ten times)

INDIANA JONES (1981 & 1984 & 1989) - dir. steven spielberg

don't you just love it when the main character is a bit of a loser? well, i definitely do. he's getting hit, he's fucking tired he just wants to nap but there are snakes and screaming companions and everyone is so greedy and he just wants to be a nerd and keep the artifacts safe:( please take a note of how fucking good the lighting is in these films goddddd they seriously don't make them like this anymore.

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022) - dir. ruben östlund

absolutely fucking ridiculous i literally cried from laughing in the theather and trust! i was not the only one

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018) - dir. peter ramsay, rodney rothman, bob persichetti

c'mon. C'MON. you have heard that it's good but you haven't watched it bc they're probably lying, right? they are not, i promise. it's soooooooo good. the animation, the voice acting???? the friendships, the action, the soundtrack - i wasn't the same after watching it and i'm so grateful

THE FABLEMANS (2022) - dir. steven spielberg

i laughed. i cried. me and my friend and then an elderly couple were laughing outloud in the cinema during this it was very wholesome i loved it.

SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (2023) - dir. anna hints

"in the darkness of a smoke sauna, women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences, washing off the shame trapped in their bodies and regaining their strength through a sense of communion." took the description right off the page but i couldn't have said it better; i cried while watching it, it reminded my of my grandma and how much i miss her i loved it a lot

OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) - dir. steven soderbergh

SO GOOD SO SMOOTH?? so satisfying to watch george clooney my charismatic king i love u so

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2003 & 2006) - dir. gore verbinski

okay look! these are very important to me! they raised me they changed me! i actually might be jack sparrow; no but seriously, the score the characters the story the tropes elizabeth swann overall elizabeth swann dressing up as a man elizabeth swann being called 'the pirate king' the fun action the wheel fight the VILLAINS OH MY GOD BARBOSSA AND DAVY JONES ARE INSANE THEY DON'T MAKE CHARACTERS LIKE THEM ANYMORE i could talk about these silly movies for hours

(note! i do not fucking support j***** d*** though! that man can go kill himself amber heard i love u you u did absolutely nothing wrong!)

WHITE CHICKS (2004) - dir. keenen ivory wayans

hey. it's okay. you don't only have to like oscar-winning films, okay. nobody will judge you. it's okay. this movie is a banger and it makes me laugh every time. literally so funny.

EMMA (2019) - dir. autumn de wilde

"IF I LOVED YOU LESS I MIGHT BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT IT MORE." BITING MY FINGERS RIPPING MY HAIR OUT AAAAAAA such a great cast wowww it's all so pretty and funny plus a special shoutout for my favourite little guy josh o'connor i love u josh

AFTER YANG (2019) - dir. kogonada

it's so beautiful, oh my god. and quiet. and it just burrows itself deep into your heart and change you the way you look at things and life and people

THE FLORIDA PROJECT (2017) - dir. sean baker

will take your depression, throw it in a dumpster and then smack you in the face with the whole thing

HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (2003) - dir. donald petrie

YOU'RE SOOOOOO VAINNN i love them both soooooo so much my all-time favourite rom-com no explanation needed matthew's best role he's so fucking hot in this

THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) - dir. rob reiner

i only saw this like a month ago and i have to admit that i've been missing out IT'S SO FUNNY?????? it's fucking ridiculous "there's a shortage of perfectly beautiful breasts in this world it would be a pity to damage your"??????????????? ten out of ten for that already + the link is a clip from the film and not a trailer

·:* RATING: ACTION, BLOOD, VIOLENCE AND JOKES

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) - dir. quentin tarantino

very rewatchable, i know every single line in it i think...... rather violent so beware but then again it's quentin tarantino

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (2015) - dir. george miller

an important fun fact! the director of this film asked his wife to edit the action sequences (she had no experience editing action films) and the reasoning behind it was "because if a guy did it, it would look like every other action movie." (it won an academy award for 'best editing' btw)

ATOMIC BLONDE (2017) - dir. david leitch

i think it's great how the mc fights with using her surroundings, and it's gritty - she gets hit and hit hard but she can't stop she has a job to do. great action scenes, no unnecessary cutting and they show everything + charlize theron did most of her stunts. and as always the soundtrack is so sexy, oh and btw it's gay!!!!

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (2015) - dir. guy ritchie

now, i do realize armie the cannibal is here but i might be biased bc i looooove the soundtrack and the director and the humor of it and the action of it and the tropes in it and okay i'm just gonna say that i love this movie ok

BODIES, BODIES, BODIES (2022) - dir. halina reijn

another really fucking funny one, it's very meta but it's not annoying

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (2018) - dir. christopher mcquarrie

when i say i like action movies i mean it!!!!! this has the cleanest fights in every possible term - they're shot clearly, you can see all of their moves and the fight choreographies are good, they flow very well + it's always good to see the mc's take hits and ethan gets his shit rocked a nice couple of times!! another plus is to know that the actors are dedicated to their films and they take the extra step to do as many of their stunts as possible, it's so cool!!!!

DON'T BREATHE (2016) - dir. fede alvarez

actually made me feel like i had to hold my breath with the characters on screen. definitely scared me and that's a good thing!!!!

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 (2023) - dir. chad stalhelski

this is rated 5+ by my friend who does not watch action. like at all. and she fucking loved it. we (and the whole room) were literally laughing and gasping during the whole thing it's so entertaining. the action is mmmmmmmmmm giving me a boner honestly. this is what u get when the director himself is a stuntman and your lead is doing the majority of his stunts. they're so invested and it fucking shows

DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012) - dir. quentin tarantino

blood. very blood. very red. u have been warned. tarantino's dialogue is so mwah he's on some next level shit. i know everybody is always talking about christoph waltz in this but JAMIE FOXX IN THIS????? HE'S LITERALLY THE GUY. HE'S DJANGO. HE'S THE WHOLE FILM. AND THE OUTFIT?????? FUUUUCK HE'S SOOOOO GOOOD AAAAA I LIKE THE WAY U DIE BOY

READY OR NOT (2019) - dir. matt bettinelli-olpin & tyler gillett

SO FUN. AND BLOODY. YAY.

·:* RATING: INTERMEDIATE

UNCUT GEMS (2019) - dir. safdie brothers

adam sandler nation rise up!! the man is actually good just trust me on this! very very exhilarating and fast and intense and yeah i was getting so anxious during it it's great

PARASITE (2019) - dir. bong joon-ho

best picture winner for a fucking reason!! bong joon-ho is on a completely different level. the way it's shot????? ohh i feel all warm and fuzzy just by thinking about it. the dialogue the story itself?????? mmmmmm please watch it you'll never be the same (in a good way)

THE FAVOURITE (2019) - dir. yorgos lanthimos

oh yeah gay as hell everybody go watch it. saw in the cinema four times in a month. it's fucking great. + here is olivia colman's best actress speech bc it's great

ARRIVAL (2016) - dir. denis villeneuve

insane. hypnotic. braingasm. the sound design people were on something bc holy shit i just came?? anyway i've heard people say that they didn't understand it the first time but you know what - it's totally fine if you don't understand it the first time or even the second time or however many times u watch it u can watch it for the soundtrack and the visuals alone hehehe

THE WITCH (2015) - dir. robert eggers

very intense performances, overall very eerie and spooky.

DUNE (2021) - dir. denis villeneuve

godly sound design. like it's fucking crazy. rather slow paced but you will love it nonetheless. there's a lot of lore but it's interesting and it's not as hard (or too much) like i thought it'd be. plus there's an almost fully naked oscar isaac

ANATOMY OF A FALL (2023) - dir. justine triet

oscar worthy performances from everyone. unrequited love trope (i will love this tiny lawyer man myself sandra move aside)

DECISION TO LEAVE (2022) - dir. park whan-wook

very very unique. especially the how it was shot. came out of the cinema and thought about for the rest of the day, couldn't get it out of my head. i also loveddd the characters, the dynamic was so cool.

GOOD TIME (2017) - dir. safdie brothers

who doesn't love having a panic attack? this is what you'll get when u watch this :D it's good though i promise i promise

·:* RATING: FILMBRO 101

BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017) - dir. denis villeneuve

what did i say about the loser main character? here's another one!! the visuals and the score is insane and not to mention the performances (especially sylvia hoeks who plays luv!!!!! she's terrifying in the best way)

SE7EN (1995) - dir. david fincher

tw: gory. if ur sensitive it might not be a good watch for u. the plot is so cool i'm so sad i couldn't see this in the cinema yk considering i wasn't even born yet smhh i would've loved to have the full experience of the climax.

THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) - dir. christopher nolan

very entertaining!! heath ledger is just... wow. and i know that has been said i'm not original but well it's just the truth. the way he plays the joker mmmmmmmmm scratches my brain fr. i like the part where he does the "disappearing pen" magic trick

THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013) - dir. martin scorsese

WHOOOOOWEEE BOYS!! coke and naked women and coke and money and some more money. it's great. after every watch i am CONVINCED that i also need to be doing that. every single time.

FIGHT CLUB (1999) - dir. david fincher

THE NARRATOR NATION RISE UP!!!!! WE ARE ALIVE AND WELL!!! MY BELOVED IKEA BOY!!!!

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014) - dir. dan gilroy

very thrilling! he's not a good guy why are u still watching? ok it's probably just jake gyllenhaal being a very good actor.... the mc is so fucking weird it's almost hypnotizing. also! this isn't a trailer just bc i didn't like the trailer so i put a link of one of the first scenes from the movie i think it gets its point across really fucking well

·:* RATING: SILLY LITTLE MOVIES (VERY EXTREME)

SALTBURN (2023) - dir. emerald fennell

this one is most defintely not for everyone but it's for me ok! very erotic and peculiar and i hadn't been this mesmerized in a minute i was leaning more and more toward my computer screen just because i needed to be in it

MOTHER! (2017) - dir. darren aronofsky

actually this is also one of those, hmm, weird ones, let's just say that. it's very very intense so a big trigger warning for that but there's nothing alike this movie. very one of a kind and you can decide for yourself whether that's a good or a bad thing.

THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2016) - dir. yorgos lanthimos

my very first yorgos lanthimos film and i was hooked from the very second the trailer started playing in the cinema, immediately knew it was gonna be a freakshow and i was not disappointed!! very wtf but so good

HEREDITARY (2018) - dir. ari aster

scary. idk what else to tell u. scary in a sense that you'll feel sick in your stomach. sound design goes crazy along with the soundtrack. amaaaazing performances from everyone toni collette the very first mother of all

REVENGE (2017) - dir. coralie fargeat

VERY GNARLY i think that's a good word for it (a tw for rape here bc that was a very hard watch) and later it's very bloody but i fucking loooved the ending the final chase around the house it felt very comical???? funny even though it's really not the moment for giggles

DIRECTORS

wasn't gonna put them here but i fucking will sue me

GUY RITCHIE - snatch, the man from u.n.c.l.e.; THE MOST LIKE ME ok it's the fast pacing, it's the quips it's the music it's the action it's the car chases it's the characters it's the dialogue it's the humor i think i'm repeating myself but i do genuinely think that his films have had such an impact on me and how i imagine things in my head lmao

DENIS VILLENEUVE - blade runner 2049, arrival, prisoners; rather slow paced but intense, it's all about the visuals, the soundtracks always slap

DAVID FINCHER - se7en, zodiac, gone girl; very dark and intense, also rather slow-paced

QUENTIN TARANTINO - inglourious basterds, pulp fiction, django unchained; now i realize that i'm coming off a real filmbro but it is what it is i love these movies with my heart they're very much my style my taste - blood and violence and good jokes

YORGOS LANTHIMOS - the favourite, the killing of a sacred deer, the lobster; literally so weird i fell in love with his work from the first time i saw the killing of a sacred deer (and i'm so excited for his newest one!!!)

SERIES

MINDHUNTER (2017-2019)

oh my god, especially the first season!!!! i think i like it so much bc i love holden i don't think i've seen a character who i resonate with so much in a minute. he's so naive and so curious oh man i love this guy. and bill!!!!!!!!!! i know these people are based on the book (which i loved too btw!) and real life and well i hope these people are having a great time ok. i love holden's and bill's dynamic, how bill kind of lets him do his thing but is still lecturing him about it. while being very caring i love how soft-spoken he is most of the time??? and ahh the way it's shot wait wait also need to mention the whole ed kemper and holden dynamic too (this is also where i feel like me and holden are the same fucking person bc i would too believe everything that man says lmao)(i would too think that we're somewhat buddies) AND THE SOUNDTRACK GODDD THE SOUNDTRACK full of bangers anyway i really really love this show and i hope mr fincher will get his shit together and make the third season too

JUJUTSU KAISEN (2020-)

the animation IS INSANE, like i mentioned before i have a habit of leaning closer and closer to the screen when something is getting exciting and well if i wasn't wearing glasses before i would have to get them now bc i was almost inside the fucking screen ok, not for a second was i able to tear my eyes because so much was happening (in a good way)

TASKMASTER (2015- )

literally the funniest show i almost peed my pants (although i've been wondering how different is european humor - will people from everywhere else also find it hilarious idk you let me know)

my favourite seasons are 4 and 5 and 7!!

SUCCESSION (2018-2023)

sooo funny. so stupid. it's so fucking straightforward it catches you off guard all the time. the shit that comes out of their mouths? hilarious. they're all a bunch of losers and i love them for it. and i love tom.

MANIAC (2018)

life-changing honestly, the idea of it is so cool i was completely obsessed with it when i first saw it (and then i immediately watched it again)

LOVE, DEATH & ROBOTS (2019-)

the first episode i saw was 'sonnie's edge' and let me tell you, i've never been more enthralled!! it's the animation it's the blood it's the gore oh my god it's the horror of it!

season 1 - three robots, the witness, sucker of souls, beyond the aquila rift, helping hand, the secret war

season 2 - pop squad (hehe on a side note one of the greatest voice actors, nolan north, is in this), the tall grass, the drowned giant

season 3 - bad travellling (directed by david fincher btw)

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL (2015)

this season specifically because - lady gaga, lady gaga as a vampire, lady gaga covered in blood, lady gaga in a suit, lady gaga with bleached eyebrows, angela bassett, angela bassett's arms, angela bassett's outfits, angela bassett and lady gaga kissing. enough said.

BLUE EYE SAMURAI (2023)

the animation!!!!!! i love when animation has fighting in it and this was just great. very good action scenes, very bloody and very brutal. PLUS such an amazing main character????? not your typical badass, oh no she definitely got her fucking ass beat all the time but she just kept going. actually shoutout to all of the side characters too they were all so good i loved them + my favourite episode of the season was ep4

VARIOUS VIDEOS

·:* AND ACTION!

inglourious basterds - the elements of suspense

annihilation - the art of self-destruction

nightcrawler - empathy for the antihero

the social network — sorkin, structure, and collaboration

parasite's perfect montage

how david fincher hijacks your eyes

when the director reallyyyy respects the audience…

hereditary | what the script teaches us

zodiac | when truth is stranger than fiction

pirates of the carribean | accidentally genius

·:* BOOM! CRASH! POW! BANG! ZAP! POP!

movie stunt coordinator breaks down ‘atomic blonde’ fight scene

knife expert breaks down atomic blonde stairwell fight scene

john wick 2's stunt coordinator breaks down the opening car chase

artial artist scott adkins breaks down 'john wick' fight scenes

chad stahelski breaks down 'john wick: chapter 4' fight scenes

martial artists break down john wick’s knife and judo skills

stuntmen react to bad & great hollywood stunts + this + the full playlist

·:* CUE CONTROLLER SOUNDS

searching for disco elysium

what games are like for someone who doesn’t play games

#ceo of letterboxd says hello #no this is ACTUALLY what zero pussy and dick does to a mf #this is crazy #it's a lot i know #and well #there will be more #(that's a threat)#PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAASE IF U WATCH ANYTHING FROM HERE TELLLL MEEE LET ME KNOWWW I'M SO DESPERATE #i might change how this looks later but this'll do for now!#mayor of loserville #movies #films #film recommendations #movie recommendation #succession #saltburn

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richincolor · 4 years

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January's New Releases

2021 told 2020 to hold it's beer and what a month January has been! Publishing YA also came out swinging with a slew of new books (many already bestsellers) in what we hope will be another banner year for BIPOC stories. Click below to find books for your TBR list.

Week of January 5th

The Life I’m In by Sharon G. Flake Scholastic Inc

My feet are heavy as stones when I walk up the block wondering why I can’t find my old self.

In The Skin I’m In, readers saw into the life of Maleeka Madison, a teen who suffered from the ridicule she received because of her dark skin color. For decades fans have wanted to know the fate of the bully who made Maleeka’s life miserable, Char.

Now in Sharon Flake’s latest and unflinching novel, The Life I’m In, we follow Charlese Jones, who, with her raw, blistering voice speaks the truths many girls face, offering insight to some of the causes and conditions that make a bully. Turned out of the only home she has known, Char boards a bus to nowhere where she is lured into the dangerous web of human trafficking. Much is revealed behind the complex system of men who take advantage of vulnerable teens in the underbelly of society. While Char might be frightened, she remains strong and determined to bring herself and her fellow victims out of the dark and back into the light, reminding us why compassion is a powerful cure to the ills of the world.

Sharon Flake’s bestselling, Coretta Scott King Award-winning novel The Skin I’m In was a game changer when it was first published more than twenty years ago. It redefined young adult literature by presenting characters, voices, and real-world experiences that had not been fully seen. Now Flake offers readers another timely and radical story of a girl on the brink and how her choices will lead her to either fall, or fly. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant Balzer + Bray

Sixteen-year-old Tessa Johnson has never felt like the protagonist in her own life. She’s rarely seen herself reflected in the pages of the romance novels she loves. The only place she’s a true leading lady is in her own writing—in the swoony love stories she shares only with Caroline, her best friend and #1 devoted reader.

When Tessa is accepted into the creative writing program of a prestigious art school, she’s excited to finally let her stories shine. But when she goes to her first workshop, the words are just…gone. Fortunately, Caroline has a solution: Tessa just needs to find some inspiration in a real-life love story of her own. And she’s ready with a list of romance novel-inspired steps to a happily ever after. Nico, the brooding artist who looks like he walked out of one of Tessa’s stories, is cast as the perfect Prince Charming.

But as Tessa checks each item off Caroline’s list, she gets further and further away from herself. She risks losing everything she cares about—including the surprising bond she develops with sweet Sam, who lives across the street. She’s well on her way to having her own real-life love story, but is it the one she wants, after all?

One of the Good Ones by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite Inkyard Press

ISN’T BEING HUMAN ENOUGH? When teen social activist and history buff Kezi Smith is killed under mysterious circumstances after attending a social justice rally, her devastated sister Happi and their family are left reeling in the aftermath. As Kezi becomes another immortalized victim in the fight against police brutality, Happi begins to question the idealized way her sister is remembered. Perfect. Angelic.

One of the good ones.

Even as the phrase rings wrong in her mind–why are only certain people deemed worthy to be missed?–Happi and her sister Genny embark on a journey to honor Kezi in their own way, using an heirloom copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book as their guide. But there’s a twist to Kezi’s story that no one could’ve ever expected–one that will change everything all over again.

Roman and Jewel by Dana L. Davis Inkyard Press

If Romeo and Juliet got the Hamilton treatment…who would play the leads? This vividly funny, honest, and charming romantic novel by Dana L. Davis is the story of a girl who thinks she has what it takes…and the world thinks so, too.

Jerzie Jhames will do anything to land the lead role in Broadway’s hottest new show, Roman and Jewel, a Romeo and Juliet inspired hip-hopera featuring a diverse cast and modern twists on the play. But her hopes are crushed when she learns mega-star Cinny won the lead…and Jerzie is her understudy.

Falling for male lead Zeppelin Reid is a terrible idea–especially once Jerzie learns Cinny wants him for herself. Star-crossed love always ends badly. But when a video of Jerzie and Zepp practicing goes viral and the entire world weighs in on who should play Jewel, Jerzie learns that while the price of fame is high, friendship, family, and love are priceless.

The Awakening of Malcom X by Ilyasah Shabazz & Tiffany D. Jackson Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)

In Charlestown Prison, Malcolm Little struggles with the weight of his past. Plagued by nightmares, Malcolm drifts through days unsure of his future. Slowly, he befriends other prisoners and writes to his family. He reads all the books in the prison library, joins the debate team and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm grapples with race, politics, religion, and justice in the 1940s. And as his time in jail comes to an end, he begins to awaken — emerging from prison more than just Malcolm Little: Now, he is Malcolm X.

Here is an intimate look at Malcolm X’s young adult years. While this book chronologically follows X: A Novel, it can be read as a stand-alone historical novel that invites larger discussions on black power, prison reform, and civil rights.

When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris HarperCollins

When you look like us—brown skin, brown eyes, black braids or fades—people think you’re trouble. No one looks twice at a missing black girl from the projects because she must’ve brought whatever happened to her upon herself. I, Jay Murphy, can admit that, for a minute, I thought my sister, Nicole, got too caught up with her boyfriend—a drug dealer—and his friends.

But she’s been gone too long now.

If I hadn’t hung up on her that night, she’d be spending time with our grandma. If I was a better brother, she’d be finishing senior year instead of being another name on a missing persons list. It’s time to step up and do what the Newport News police department won’t.

Week of January 12th

Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne Crown Books for Young Readers

She looks me hard in my eyes & my knees lock into tree trunks My eyes don’t dance like my heartbeat racing They stare straight back hot daggers. I remember things will never be the same. I remember things.

With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.

The Meet-Cute Project by Rhiannon Richardson Simon & Schuster

Mia’s friends love rom-coms. Mia hates them. They’re silly, contrived, and not at all realistic. Besides, there are more important things to worry about—like how to handle living with her bridezilla sister, Sam, who’s never appreciated Mia, and surviving junior year juggling every school club offered and acing all of her classes.

So when Mia is tasked with finding a date to her sister’s wedding, her options are practically nonexistent.

Mia’s friends, however, have an idea. It’s a little crazy, a little out there, and a lot inspired by the movies they love that Mia begrudgingly watches too.

Mia just needs a meet-cute.

Concrete Rose (The Hate U Give, #0) by Angie Thomas Balzer + Bray

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison.

Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control.

Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father.

Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different.

When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can’t just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink Feiwel and Friends

Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. A passionate follower of WEB. Du Bois, he believes that black people should rise up to claim their place as equals.

Sixteen-year-old Angel Hill is a loner, mostly disregarded by her peers as a goody-goody. Her father is dying, and her family’s financial situation is in turmoil. Also, as a loyal follower of Booker T. Washington, she believes, through education and tolerance, that black people should rise slowly and without forced conflict.

Though they’ve attended the same schools, Isaiah never noticed Angel as anything but a dorky, Bible toting church girl. Then their English teacher offers them a job on her mobile library, a three-wheel, two-seater bike. Angel can’t turn down the money and Isaiah is soon eager to be in such close quarters with Angel every afternoon.

But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

Week of January 19th

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela Cinco Puntos Press

Out of nowhere, a lady comes up to Anamaría and says she’s her, from the future. But Anamaría’s thirteen, she knows better than to talk to some weirdo stranger. Girls need to be careful, especially in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico—it’s the 90’s and fear is overtaking her beloved city as cases of kidnapped girls and women become alarmingly common. This thirty-year-old “future” lady doesn’t seem to be dangerous but she won’t stop bothering her, switching between cheesy Hallmark advice about being kind to yourself, and some mysterious talk about saving a girl.

Anamaría definitely doesn’t need any saving, she’s doing just fine. She works hard at her strict, grade-obsessed middle school—so hard that she hardly gets any sleep; so hard that the stress makes her snap not just at mean girls but even her own (few) friends; so hard that when she does sleep she dreams about dying—but she just wants to do the best she can so she can grow up to be successful. Maybe Thirty’s right, maybe she’s not supposed to be so exhausted with her life, but how can she ask for help when her city is mourning the much bigger tragedy of its stolen girls?

This thought-provoking, moving verse novel will lead adult and young adult readers alike to vital discussions on important topics—like dealing with depression and how to recognize this in yourself and others—through the accessible voice of a thirteen-year-old girl.

Your Corner Dark by Desmond Hall Atheneum/Dlouhy

Things can change in a second:

The second Frankie Green gets that scholarship letter, he has his ticket out of Jamaica.

The second his longtime crush, Leah, asks him on a date, he’s in trouble.

The second his father gets shot, suddenly nothing else matters.

And the second Frankie joins his uncle’s gang in exchange for paying for his father’s medical bills, there’s no going back…or is there?

As Frankie does things he never thought he’d be capable of, he’s forced to confront the truth of the family and future he was born into—and the ones he wants to build for himself.

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo Dutton Books for Young Readers

“That book. It was about two women, and they fell in love with each other.” And then Lily asked the question that had taken root in her, that was even now unfurling its leaves and demanding to be shown the sun: “Have you ever heard of such a thing?”

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.

If I Tell You the Truth by Jasmin Kaur HarperCollins

Told in prose, poetry, and illustration, this heartrending story weaves Kiran’s and Sahaara’s timelines together, showing a teenage Kiran and, later, her high school–aged daughter, Sahaara.

Kiran is a young Punjabi Sikh woman who becomes pregnant after being sexually assaulted by her fiancé’s brother. When her fiancé and family don’t believe her, she flees her home in India to Canada, where she plans to raise the child as a single mother. For Kiran, living undocumented means constant anxiety over finances, work, safety, and whether she’ll be deported back to the dangers that await her in Punjab.

Eighteen years later, Kiran’s daughter, Sahaara, is desperate to help her mother, who has been arrested and is facing deportation. In the aftermath, Kiran reveals the truth about Sahaara’s conception. Horrified, Sahaara encourages Kiran to speak out against the man who raped her—who’s now a popular political figure in Punjab. Sahaara must find the best way to support her mother while also dealing with the revelation about her parents.

We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya #2) by Hafsah Faizal Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The battle on Sharr is over. The dark forest has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan he set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, and finally returning magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.

As the zumra plots to overthrow the kingdom’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power into a weapon, to wield not only against the Lion but against his father, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—a darkness that hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of her sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dare not unleash. In spite of the darkness enclosing ever faster, Nasir and Zafira find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose…but time is running out to achieve their ends, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.

Lush and striking, hopeful and devastating, We Free the Stars is the masterful conclusion to the Sands of Arawiya duology by New York Times–bestselling author Hafsah Faizal.

Week of January 26th

Written in Starlight (Woven in Moonlight #2) by Isabel Ibañez Page Street Kids

If the jungle wants you, it will have you…

Catalina Quiroga is a Condesa without a country. She’s lost the Inkasisa throne, the loyalty of her people, and her best friend. Banished to the perilous Yanu Jungle, Catalina knows her chances of survival are slim, but that won’t stop her from trying to escape. It’s her duty to reclaim the throne.

When Manuel, the son of her former general, rescues Catalina from a jaguar, a plan forms. Deep in the jungle, the city of gold is hidden, home to the fierce Illari people, who she could strike an alliance with.

But the elusive Illari are fighting a battle of their own—a mysterious blight is corrupting the jungle, laying waste to everything they hold dear. As a seer, Catalina should be able to help, but her ability to read the future in the stars is as feeble as her survival instincts. While searching for the Illari, Catalina must reckon with her duty and her heart to find her true calling, which could be the key to stopping the corruption before it destroys the jungle completely.

The Knockout by Sajni Patel Flux

If seventeen-year-old Kareena Thakkar is going to alienate herself from the entire Indian community, she might as well do it gloriously. She’s landed the chance of a lifetime, an invitation to the US Muay Thai Open, which could lead to a spot on the first-ever Olympic team. If only her sport wasn’t seen as something too rough for girls, something she’s afraid to share with anyone outside of her family. Despite pleasing her parents, exceling at school, and making plans to get her family out of debt, Kareena’s never felt quite Indian enough, and her training is only making it worse.

Which is inconvenient, since she’s starting to fall for Amit Patel, who just might be the world’s most perfect Indian. Admitting her feelings for Amit will cost Kareena more than just her pride–she’ll have to face his parents’ disapproval, battle her own insecurities, and remain focused for the big fight. Kareena’s bid for the Olympics could very well make history–if she has the courage to go for it.

Wings of Ebony (Wings of Ebony #1) by J. Elle Denene Millner Books/Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

“Make a way out of no way” is just the way of life for Rue. But when her mother is shot dead on her doorstep, life for her and her younger sister changes forever. Rue’s taken from her neighborhood by the father she never knew, forced to leave her little sister behind, and whisked away to Ghizon—a hidden island of magic wielders.

Rue is the only half-god, half-human there, where leaders protect their magical powers at all costs and thrive on human suffering. Miserable and desperate to see her sister on the anniversary of their mother’s death, Rue breaks Ghizon’s sacred Do Not Leave Law and returns to Houston, only to discover that Black kids are being forced into crime and violence. And her sister, Tasha, is in danger of falling sway to the very forces that claimed their mother’s life.

Worse still, evidence mounts that the evil plaguing East Row is the same one that lurks in Ghizon—an evil that will stop at nothing until it has stolen everything from her and everyone she loves. Rue must embrace her true identity and wield the full magnitude of her ancestors’ power to save her neighborhood before the gods burn it to the ground.

#new releases #weneeddiversebooks #ownvoices

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dendre · 4 years

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A mai nap ugyanúgy megfelelő arra, mint bármelyik másik az eddigi 2020-asokból, hogy megosszam kedvenc 2019-es lemezeim listáját. Az elmúlt két évtizedben ezt mindig megtettem év végén, tavaly valahogyan elmaradt (leginkább mert nem törődtem vele és csak valamikor januárban csináltam meg) és most, hogy Loraine James bejelentett egy új EP-t (https://pitchfork.com/news/loraine-james-announces-nothing-ep-shares-new-song-listen/), eszembe jutott ez a lista, mert hogy Loraine James tavalyi LP-je a 2. rajta. Szóval teljes relevanciával, íme a kedvenc 2019-es lemezeim. Tényleg csak annak reményében, hogy hátha talál rajta valaki valami olyant, amit nem ismer és majd boldoggá teszi a meghallgatása.

01. FKA twigs: Magdalene 9.5 (r&b) 02. Loraine James: For You And I 9.0 (idm) 03. Default Genders: Main Pop Girl 2019 9.0 (future pop) 04. Tyler, The Creator: Igor 9.0 (experihip-neosoulhop) 05. Mattiel: Satis Factory 9.0 (garázsyéyé-lofisoul) 06. Murlo: Dolos 9.0 (UK bass) 07. Yin Yin: The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers 9.0 (world funk) 08. The Sonic Dawn: Eclipse 9.0 (pszichpop) 09. Special Request: Vortex 9.0 (hardcore breaks techno) 10. Barker: Utility 9.0 (deconstructed house)

11. Holly Herndon: Proto 9.0 (kísérleti elektronika) 12. Ot to, Not To: It Loved To Happened 9.0 (mark hollis of experimental r&b) 13. Hand Habits: Placeholder 9.0 (slowfolk-dreamtweepop) 14. Purple Mountains: Purple Mountains 9.0 (indiefolkrock) 15. Sault: 5 9.0 (soul-afrobeat) 16. Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka 9.0 (soul) 17. Kokoko!: Fongola 9.0 (kongói afrohouse) 18. The Caretaker: Everywhere At The End Of Time - Stage 6 9.0 (dark ambient) 19. Girl Band: The Talkies 9.0 (noise-art-posztpunk-rock) 20. Erika de Casier: Essentials 9.0 (r&b)

21. Special Request: Zero Fucks 9.0 (jungle) 22. Klein: Lifetime 9.0 (glitch) 23. PJ Harvey: All About Eve 9.0 (színpadi zene, de úúdeszép) 24. Nilüfer Yanya: Miss Universe 9.0 (gitárpop-pop) 25. Rosalie Cunningham: Rosalie Cunningham 9.0 (pszichrock, kabarépop, artpop) 26. Ari Lennox: Shea Butter Baby 9.0 (neosoul) 27. Anderson.Paak: Ventura 9.0 (neosoul) 28. Kaytranada: Bubba 9.0 (zsánertelen pop) 29. Bon Iver: i,i 9.0 (glitch-ambient-r&b-pop) 30. Andrew Wasylyk: The Paralian 9.0 (instrumentális pasztorál)

31. Minor Poet: The Good News 9.0 (00’s indierock) 32. Little Simz: Grey Area 9.0 (uk hiphop) 33. Kano: Hoodies All Summer 9.0 (grime) 34. slowthai: Nothing Great About Britain 9.0 (uk rap, grime) 35. Rapsody: Eve 9.0 (hiphop) 36. Rina Mushonga: Into A Galaxy 9.0 (pop) 37. Angel Olsen: All Mirrors 9.0 (art-barokk-kamarapop) 38. Hayden Thorpe: Diviner 9.0 (szofiszti-artpop) 39. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds: Ghosteen 9.0 (ambinet-crooner) 40. Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? 9.0 (pop)

41. Kornél Kovács: Stockholm Marathon 8.5 (housepopdeepoutside) 42. Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!! 8.5 (pianopop) 43. Y La Bamba: Mujeres 8.5 (latin alt, indiefolk) 44. Yves Jarvis: The Same But By Different Means 8.5 (neopsych-folksoul) 45. Helado Negro: This Is How You Smile 8.5 (bossa-indiefolkronica) 46. Rev Magnetic: Verses Universe 8.5 (electro shoegaze) 47. Woolfy vs Projections: Destinations 8.5 (diszkó) 48. Clairo: Immunity 8.5 (pop) 49. Brittany Howard: Jaime 8.5 (pszich-jazz-hop-funk) 50. Jpegmafia: All My Heroes Are Cornballs 8.5 (expri-hiphop)

És innentől már tényleg csak akit nagyon-nagyon érdekel :)

Szóval tavaly ugye januártól elkezdtem pontosan dokumentálni, hogy miket hallgattam meg az új termésből, mi mennyire tetszett. Hozzávetőleges, sokszor csak félig hallgatott lemezek értékelése volt, de aztán valamikor június-júliusban ráuntam, mert nem úgy haladt, ahogyan terveztem, sok tervezett meghallgatás felhalmozódott, nehéz projekt ez, mert hát egyre több jó, de nem kiemelkedő lemez van, masszív túltermelés zajlik. De hát ki mondja meg bárkinek, aki hangszerhez nyúl, hogy ne tegye. Vagy legalábbis ne adja közre, ami kijön belőle. De ha nem mondjuk senkinek ezt, akkor ki értékeli ezt a mérhetetlen mennyiséget, tényleg csak tipp: évente sokszázezer lemez jelenik meg. És hát hogyan lehet objektíven értékelni, ha nem úgy, hogy a lehető legtöbbet megpróbáljuk hallani? Nem csak, azt a pár tucatot, amit a hype, meg a haverok elénk hoznak.

Én ezt továbbra sem unom csinálni, továbbra is érdekel, hogy mi történik, kíváncsi vagyok, örömet okoz. De néha ráunok. Vagy elsodor. Azért az év második felét is behúztam úgy-ahogy, de év vége helyett valamikor 2020 januárban lett ez a lista, amire még később is rátettem tán két lemezt. Nincs vége ötvennél, amikor abbahagytam a szöszölést vele, akkor ennyi volt (138), amire úgy gondoltam, hogy ha évek múlva ránézek erre a listára, nem baj, ha a 112. helyen lévőről is beugrik majd valami.

Nem tudom mennyi 2019-es lemezt hallottam összesen, tippre ezerpárszázat, abból ez a java, van jó pár tucat, amit felírtam, hogy még mindenképp meghallgatni, de nem került rá sor. És én sem felejtem el, hogy simán lehetne még egyszer ennyi olyanból, amiről alig pár ember hallott, de ott van Bandcampen, mint 2019-es lemez.

Nem szigorú, nyilván. A lista mindig csak játék!

1. FKA twigs: Magdalene 9.5 (r&b)

Loraine James: For You And I 9.0 (idm)

Default Genders: Main Pop Girl 2019 9.0 (future pop)

Tyler, The Creator: Igor 9.0 (experihip-neosoulhop)

Mattiel: Satis Factory 9.0 (garázsyéyé-lofisoul)

Murlo: Dolos 9.0 (UK bass)

Yin Yin: The Rabbit That Hunts Tigers 9.0 (world funk)

The Sonic Dawn: Eclipse 9.0 (pszichpop)

Special Request: Vortex 9.0 (hardcore breaks techno)

Barker: Utility 9.0 (deconstructed house)

Holly Herndon: Proto 9.0 (kísérleti elektronika)

Ot to, Not To: It Loved To Happened 9.0 (mark hollis of experimental r&b)

Hand Habits: Placeholder 9.0 (slowfolk-dreamtweepop)

Purple Mountains: Purple Mountains 9.0 (indiefolkrock)

Sault: 5 9.0 (soul-afrobeat)

Michael Kiwanuka: Kiwanuka 9.0 (soul)

Kokoko!: Fongola 9.0 (kongói afrohouse)

The Caretaker: Everywhere At The End Of Time - Stage 6 9.0 (dark ambient)

Girl Band: The Talkies 9.0 (noise-art-posztpunk-rock)

Erika de Casier: Essentials 9.0 (r&b)

Special Request: Zero Fucks 9.0 (jungle)

Klein: Lifetime 9.0 (glitch)

PJ Harvey: All About Eve 9.0 (színpadi zene, de úúdeszép)

Nilüfer Yanya: Miss Universe 9.0 (gitárpop-pop)

Rosalie Cunningham: Rosalie Cunningham 9.0 (pszichrock, kabarépop, artpop)

Ari Lennox: Shea Butter Baby 9.0 (neosoul)

Anderson.Paak: Ventura 9.0 (neosoul)

Kaytranada: Bubba 9.0 (zsánertelen pop)

Bon Iver: i,i 9.0 (glitch-ambient-r&b-pop)

Andrew Wasylyk: The Paralian 9.0 (instrumentális pasztorál)

Minor Poet: The Good News 9.0 (00’s indierock)

Little Simz: Grey Area 9.0 (uk hiphop)

Kano: Hoodies All Summer 9.0 (grime)

slowthai: Nothing Great About Britain 9.0 (uk rap, grime)

Rapsody: Eve 9.0 (hiphop)

Rina Mushonga: Into A Galaxy 9.0 (pop)

Angel Olsen: All Mirrors 9.0 (art-barokk-kamarapop)

Hayden Thorpe: Diviner 9.0 (szofiszti-artpop)

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds: Ghosteen 9.0 (ambinet-crooner)

Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? 9.0 (pop)

Kornél Kovács: Stockholm Marathon 8.5 (housepopdeepoutside)

Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!! 8.5 (pianopop)

Y La Bamba: Mujeres 8.5 (latin alt, indiefolk)

Yves Jarvis: The Same But By Different Means 8.5 (neopsych-folksoul)

Helado Negro: This Is How You Smile 8.5 (bossa-indiefolkronica)

Rev Magnetic: Verses Universe 8.5 (electro shoegaze)

Woolfy vs Projections: Destinations 8.5 (diszkó)

Clairo: Immunity 8.5 (pop)

Brittany Howard: Jaime 8.5 (pszich-jazz-hop-funk)

Jpegmafia: All My Heroes Are Cornballs 8.5 (expri-hiphop)

Jamila Woods: Legacy! Legacy! 8.5 (neosoul, alt r&b)

Fontaines D.C.: Dogrel 8.5 (artpunk)

Special Request: Offworld 8.5 (ambient techno)

Caterina Barbieri: Ecstatic Comutation 8.5 (progelectro)

Sault: 7 8.5 (soul-afrobeat-dub)

O’Flynn: Aletheia 8.5 (nu-disco)

Yak: Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness 8.5 (pszichrock)

Rap: Export 8.5 (experi-elektronika)

Nivhek: After… 8.5 (ambient-dreampop)

Big Thief: Two Hands 8.5 (folkrock)

Flamingods: Levitation 8.5 (psychdisco)

Physical Therapy: It Takes A Village-The Sounds Of Physical Therapy 8.5 (posztmind

Thom Yorke: Anima 8.5 (elektroartpop)

Kali Malone: The Sacrificial Code 8.5 (drone)

Octo Octa: Resonant Body 8.5 (euro-house)

Danny Brown: U Know What I’m Sayin? 8.5 (boombaphiphop)

Joose Keskitalo: En lahde surussa 8.5 (finn psychfolkpop)

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib: Bandana 8.5 (gangsta/boombap hiphop)

Chromatics: Closer To Grey 8.5 (diszkódreampop)

Sharon Van Etten: Remind Me Tomorrow 8.5 (dalszerzőpop)

VC-118A: Inside 8.5 (elektro-techno)

Vampire Weekend: Father Of The Bride 8.5 (indiepop)

Ohtis: Curve Of Earth 8.5 (folkamericana)

Callum Easter: Here Or Nowhere 8.5 (szellemjárta, másvilági lofipop)

Durand Jones & The Indications: American Love Call 8.5 (chicago soul, retrosoul)

Black Pumas: Black Pumas 8.5 (psychsoulrock)

Ogawa & Tokoro: Planetary Exploration 8.5 (bedroom electronica)

Sessa: Grandeza 8.5 (brazilpop, mpb)

96 Back: Excitable, Girl 8.5 (nu-electro)

Georgia: Time 8.5 (absztrakt elektronika)

Galcher Lustwerk: Information 8.5 (deep house)

Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle 8.5 (jazz)

Injury Reserve: Injury Reserve 8.5 (experihiphop)

75 Dollar Bill: I Was Real 8.5 (drone-jam, pszichrock)

Richard Dawson: 2020 8.5 (artrock, progfolk)

Rustin Man: Drift Code 8.5 (posztjazz-artrock)

Kali Malone: The Sacrificial Code 8.5 (drone)

Dave Harrington: Pure Imagination, No Country 8.5 (artrock-postjazz)

DJ Healer: Lost Lovesongs / Lostsongs Vol. 2 8.5 (ambient-broken beat)

Fire! Orchestra: Arrival 8.5 (experibigbandjazz)

Nkisi: 7 Directions 8.5 (future techno)

Special Request: Bedroom Tapes 8.5 (idm, ambient techno)

Denzel Curry: ZUU 8.5 (avanttrap)

Megan Thee Stallion: Fever 8.5 (traprap)

Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats: Anger Management 8.0 (hiphop)

Stats: Other People’s Lives 8.5 (gitáros groovepop)

Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri 8.5 (mande)

These New Puritans: Inside The Rose 8.5 (posztpop)

Tropical Fuck Storm: Braindrops 8.5 (artrock)

Fennesz: Agora 8.5 (ambient)

Agent blå: Morning Thoughts 8.5 (indie-dream-posztpunk)

Henning: Natter Utan Dagar 8.5 (softrock, “markknopflerwave”)

Blanck Mass: Animated Violence Mild 8.5 (noise-electro)

Bent Knee: You Know What They Mean 8.5 (artrock)

Flume: Hi This Is Flume 8.5 (wonky)

Feels: Post Earth 8.5 (lofi-posztpunk)

Fling: Fling Or Die 8.5 (indiepsychpop)

Isaac Birituro & The Rail Abandon: Kalba 8.5 (ghánai xylofon, folkronika)

Floating Points: Crush 8.5 (progelectronika)

Junior Brielle: Tampa 8.5 (80s electropopsvédesen)

Equiknoxx: Eternal Children 8.5 (idm-dancehall)

Pixx: Small Mercies 8.5 (artsynthpop)

Lafawndah: Ancestor Boy 8.5 (keleties altr&b, deconstruct tribal glitch bass)

The Comet Is Coming: Trust n The Lifeforce 8.5 (ambient-electrojazz)

Woman’s Hour: Ephyra 8.5 (dream-szintipop)

Lemonheads: Varshons 2 8.5 (feldolgozáslemez)

Emotional Oranges: The Juice Vol. 1 8.5 (nudisco, szofiszti r&b)

Bill Callahan: Shepherd In A Sheepskin Vest 8.5 (americana, altcountry)

Piroshka: Brickbat 8.5 (indierock)

Bigwave: Romantic 8.5 (japán future funk, disco)

Methyl Ethel: Triage 8.5 (indie-szinti-pop)

100 gecs: 1000 gecs 8.5 (bubblegum bass)

Lingua Ignota: Caligula 8.5 (neoclass darkwave)

Tree: We Grown Now 8.0 (hiphop)

Sun Runners: Lust For Life 8.0 (waporwave)

Giant Swan: Giant Swan 8.0 (industritechno)

Black Dresses: Love And Affection For Stupid Little Bitches 8.0 (noise pop)

Anthony Naples: Fog FM 8.0 (outsider house)

Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising 8.0 (softpop)

Sister John: Sister John 8.0 (szép gitárzene)

Moor Mother: Analog Fluids 8.0 (industrihiphop)

Wilco: Ode To Joy 8.0 (alt-rock)

Big Thief: U.F.O.F. 8.0 (folkrock)

Paula Temple: Edge Of Everything 8.0 (industri-techno)

Charli XCX: Charli 8.0 (electropop)

Sleater-Kinney: The Center Won’t Hold 8.0 (indierock)

Tayla Parx: We Need To Talk 8.0 (pop)

Teebs: Anicca 8.0 (downtempo)

#2019 #2019 évvége #2019 aoty #album of the year 2019 #fka twigs #loraine james

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set-phasers-to-whump · 4 years

Text

not invincible

X=done, O=taken

Prompt: fevers

Whumpee: Will Riker

Fandom: Star Trek TNG

For: @has-a-blonde-sidekick

team riker whump let’s gooooooo,,,hope u like this!!!

Will Riker was not the type of person that would go to Sickbay at the slightest inconvenience. Or the largest one, really. He had more important things to do than be injured or sick.

Like today, for example. He had the responsibility of leading a small away mission to a new Federation colony to deliver some supplies and check up on the colonists’ progress. While this wasn’t exactly a thrilling exploration, he enjoyed visiting colonies, and besides, he could get some real fresh air, maybe even take a little nature walk-the holodeck, for all its capabilities, really couldn’t compare to the bona fide outdoors.

Maybe a walk in nature would lessen the pounding in his head. It had begun as soon as he had woken up, spiked dramatically when he’d gotten up out of his bed, so that he’d had to collapse back onto it for a second, and then mellowed out into something tolerable but irritating. Not the end of the world, he figured.

He’d skipped breakfast, having felt extremely and decidedly Not Hungry, and arrived for his shift on the Bridge slightly earlier than he needed to. He chatted with a young Ensign who had also shown up for shift early until shift began, at which point he gratefully sank down into his chair next to the Captain. Why did his legs ache? He hadn’t done any strenuous exercise involving them recently.

“Morning, sir.”

“Good morning, Will. Sleep well?”

Not really. He’d woken up twice in the middle of the night, the first time feeling entirely too hot, the second entirely too cold. “I slept fine. Any important news yet?”

“Nothing. The colonists are expecting our visit at 1100 hours.”

He nodded, then relaxed into his chair. He had a few hours of hopefully-not-much before he had to do anything. He’d be fine by then, he told himself. He just needed a minute to relax, or something.

The morning was filled with usual, menial activity. Reports came and went, small talk was made, and the ship cruised along at warp three, uninterrupted by anything out of the ordinary.

They arrived at the colony slightly ahead of schedule, and its leader invited the away team down at once, if they wished, to have a look around.

Ordinarily, Riker would have been appreciative of the chance to explore the colony, but as the morning had progressed, his headache had grown more intense, not to mention he’d steadily felt colder and colder, yet he was pretty sure he was sweating. He was sick, he knew. But not that sick, not really. Certainly nothing worthy of a trip to Sickbay.

He took a second to mentally prepare himself for the task of standing up, and called to the members of his away team-“Data, Worf, with me. A science officer will meet us in Transporter Room Three.”

He stood up and wavered on his feet for a moment as black dots swam in his field of vision. Picard reached out and steadied him by the elbow.

“Are you alright, Number One?”

He jerked his elbow out of Picard’s grasp, a little harder than he’d perhaps meant to. “I’m fine. Sir.”

Picard looked at him, something like worry on his face. He looked as if he might say something, but didn’t. He sat back down, and the three members of the away team stepped into the turbolift.

Riker leaned-what he hoped was subtly-against the wall of the turbolift. His legs, apparently having decided that aching was not enough, had begun to shake slightly, and, while he didn’t think it was noticeable to the others, it was certainly noticeable to him. Stop shaking, he thought at himself, as though that would do anything.

But if the others noticed anything unusual about him, they didn’t mention it. The three arrived at the transporter room, where they were met by Lieutenant Alvarez, a science officer specializing in horticulture, who would be checking up on the colony’s plant life. The four of them beamed down, and were immediately greeted by a smiling woman with dirt on her clothes and mud in her hair.

“Good morning, officers! I do apologize for my messy state, I’ve been tending the gardens all morning. They’re doing just marvellously, by the way-but let me show you!”

Data and Lieutenant Alvarez followed her, while Worf and Riker each picked up a box of supplies and headed towards the main building of the colony.

Ordinarily, a large, heavy box would have been no problem for Riker, who was, after all, very capable of lifting heavy things. However, the universe seemed to really have it out for him today-his palms were sweaty and he kept almost losing his grip, his legs were still shaking, and now his arms had decided to join in as well, plus his head was still pounding. He nearly lost his footing several times on the fairly short walk, and by the time he arrived, Worf was already inside, his box having been placed on a table. Its contents were being unpacked by a small group of colonists, who were attempting to engage in conversation with him and finding it difficult.

As soon as Riker stepped into the room, the box fell out of his hands and to the floor. It landed the right way up, as though he’d carelessly dropped it on the ground instead of losing his grip on it. His hands were shaking, he noticed, and he looked down at them, and then looked up, to where everyone in the room was looking at him.

“Didn’t mean to drop that quite so hard,” he said, in what he hoped was a lighthearted tone. He picked the box back up, or did his best to, and Worf came to his side, taking the box from him and gently setting it on the table like it weighed nothing at all.

“Are you...okay, Commander?”

“Of course, yeah. I just...lost my grip on the box, that’s all.”

Worf looked at him skeptically but said nothing. He headed outside, nodding slightly at the confused-looking colonists who had watched that whole exchange.

Riker also turned to the colonists, nodded sharply (which made the pain in his head spike once again), and followed Worf out of the building.

The two of them milled around for a few minutes, waiting for the other two members of the away team to return, so that they might discuss how the colony was progressing. Or rather, Worf milled around, wandering among the colony’s few buildings as though he were inspecting them for safety violations. Riker simply stood in the dirt, watching the scenery around him tilt and blur, feeling like his whole being was slowly melting.

He attempted to lessen this feeling in the only way that made sense to his fever-ridden mind, and sat down on the ground, placing his head between his knees. This accomplished nearly nothing, but he wasn’t in danger of collapsing and falling to the ground any longer, so he counted that as a win, somewhere in the back of his mind.

Somewhere even further in the back of his mind, he recognized that he had to be nearly delirious with fever, but that thought was overrun by the more pressing matter of said fever, which was making it very difficult for him to do any kind of thinking beyond “everything hurts and I might be dying.”

Through his distorted vision, Riker managed to make out a shape advancing toward him. As that shape got closer, it resolved itself into the muddled form of Worf. Without thinking, Riker shot to his feet, not wanting to be caught sitting down in the dirt for no good reason.

This was, naturally, an extremely foolish idea, as he had no sooner shot to his feet than he was pitching forward, an intense wave of dizziness knocking him too far off balance to possibly recover. He nearly fell to the ground, but was stopped at the last second by a pair of arms which caught him and pushed him back into a standing position.

He most likely would have collapsed again, but the owner of the arms had apparently realized that something was wrong, and had placed hands firmly on his shoulders to prevent that outcome.

Riker slowly blinked his eyes open, trying to clear the fog of dizziness. His eyes made out the gold color of an Operations uniform, and he became dimly aware that someone was speaking to him.

“Commander!”

“Hm?”

A hand came up hesitantly to his forehead and was quickly withdrawn. “Commander, your temperature appears to be far too warm. Are you ill?”

“Worf?”

“Yes.”

Had he been about to say something? There had been something he’d needed to say...what was it again?

A sharp tap to the side of his face brought his thoughts back into reality. “Commander!”

“I feel...really bad,” he managed to say, feeling his words slide and melt into each other. “Hurts.”

“What hurts, Commander?”

“Dunno. Everything.”

He decided he’d said enough at this point, and simply slumped forward into Worf’s arms. Everything was so very uncomfortable, and he just wanted to fall asleep and wake up and feel better.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The next time he woke up, he was lying face up on a couch which was most definitely not aboard the Enterprise. He was freezing, and his head still hurt.

“Wh’re am I?”

“You are in the home of Miss Marion Jones, one of the colonists, Commander,” said Data, from somewhere to his right. Riker attempted to look for him, moving his head, but felt something-something very cold-slip off of his forehead.

“Don’t move, please,” came the voice of the woman who’d greeted them-Marion, Riker took it.

Whatever had slipped off his forehead was put back. He clumsily reached up a hand to move it. “What is that?” he muttered. “‘S cold.”

“It’s just a cold cloth, Commander. You have a dangerously high fever, nearly 104 degrees,” said Marion.

“Oh.”

He thought for a moment, doing his best to process. “Why...why am I not back on the ship, then?”

“Electromagnetic storm,” piped up Lieutenant Alvarez. “Not a big one, but bad enough to interfere with transporter function. The colonists estimate it will take about an hour to pass.”

“Oh.”

“You will be fine,” Data added. “The colonists lack sophisticated medical supplies, but they are well versed in basic Earth medicine, and they are confident that, providing they keep your fever below 104 degrees, you shall not sustain any damage.”

He supposed he should have been grateful for this news, but he was freezing and achy and once again on the edge of delirium, so he said nothing beyond a simple “mm.” of agreement.

Throughout the following hour, the fully lucid members of the away team took turns talking with the few colonists who had congregated in the house and trying to make contact with the Enterprise.

Marion made tea for the group, and she and Alvarez chatted about the plants she was hoping to grow in the coming years. Data engaged in conversation with two children who had come by who were fascinated by the idea of an android. Even Worf found a suitable conversation partner, a young woman with a passion for studying weaponry. The room was filled with quiet chatter, and it would have been a lovely, peaceful scene, if it weren’t for the underlying worry for the Commander’s state-while his temperature was not yet dangerous, it had most likely been rising all day, and there was no guarantee that it would not continue to do so. Therefore, every few minutes, someone would check up on him and report his status to the group.

This went on for perhaps half an hour, at which point the storm reached its peak. Conversation had reached a lull, cups of tea had been emptied, and a tense silence filled the room.

This was the scene to which Riker awoke, his mind hazy, his thoughts still jumbled. He groaned lightly and tried to sit up. A gentle hand was placed on his chest, stopping his movement.

“Still here?” he asked clumsily.

“Yes, Commander,” replied Data, sitting down on the floor next to the couch. “The storm has reached a peak, however, and the colonists estimate it will be over within twenty minutes.”

Twenty minutes should not have seemed like a long time, because it wasn’t, but to Riker, it seemed like an eternity.

“Twenty minutes? That’s...that’s so long.”

Data might have said something in reply, but his ears suddenly chose to not cooperate, and whatever was said was lost in a distorted garble. He felt so bad…

He woke up the next time to near silence. He could hear faint voices coming from somewhere, and attempted to focus on them.

“-gets much worse and I don’t know what else we can do. The electromagnetic interference should fade within another half hour, maybe even less, but-”

Another half hour? He was so tired of being here, of being sick...but what could he do?

The answer was, obviously, get up and leave. He was fully capable of that, right? He had to be. So he stood up and made his way towards the door. His hand was on the knob when he felt himself be pulled away, and he reached desperately out for the door.

“Commander, you cannot leave. You should not be standing,” Worf instructed, steering him back to the couch.

“‘M fine. Don’t wanna be here.”

“I do not wish you to be here either, Commander. However, it will be only a few minutes before we can beam back to the ship.”

“You said half ‘n hour.”

“Lieutenant Worf said that twenty minutes ago,” Data informed him. “The electromagnetic radiation has nearly dissipated.”

“Oh.” Time, apparently, did all sorts of strange things when you weren’t capable of paying attention to it. “That’s nice.”

He drifted in and out of consciousness for the next several minutes, until he heard the distinctive voice of Captain Picard come through a combadge. “Understood, Mr. Data. One to beam directly to Sickbay.”

The next instant, he was lying on the floor in Sickbay. Someone hauled him to his feet and said something which he couldn’t quite make out, and he blacked out once again.

He woke up the next time feeling uncomfortably warm and a great deal less achy.

“How are you feeling, Will?” came the voice of Dr. Crusher.

He looked up at her and managed a small smile. “Hot. But better.”

She smiled back. “Your fever’s broken. It was already starting to come down when you beamed back up, but I gave you a little something to speed it up. You’ll be back on your feet in no time.”

“Thanks.”

“Although,” Dr. Crusher began, and he cringed inwardly, knowing exactly where this was going, “if you had just come to me this morning, you could have avoided most of your suffering.”

“It wasn’t that bad this morning,” he defended.

“Really? Jean-Luc told me you nearly collapsed on the Bridge. Why he didn’t stop you then…” she drifted off, then looked at him with a glare that wasn’t really angry, more just...concerned.

He couldn’t think of what to say besides, “sorry.”

“It’s okay, Will. Just please come to me next time? You don’t have to be strong and invincible all the time, you know.”

He nodded. “I guess.”

She ran a hand through his hair, which he noted, belatedly, was plastered to his forehead with sweat. “Get some sleep,” she advised.

He did.

*insert obligatory “I know the ending isn’t that great, sorry” here* Thanks for reading this!!!!!! Hope it was alright!!!!

#bad things happen bingo #fevers #fever #sick #delirium #will riker #star trek tng #my writing #i say things #i looked up fever symptoms for this one and i was about to try and add the website to my nonexistent works cited page sjkdfhjdfhs #anyway hope this was ok!!!!

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wightwulf-a · 5 years

Text

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻

repost, don’t reblog !

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

FULL NAME. james buchanan barnes. NICKNAME. bucky. GENDER. cis male. HEIGHT. 6′1″. AGE. 102 ( physically late 20′s to mid 30′s ) . ZODIAC. pisces. SPOKEN LANGUAGES. English, Russian, German, Romanian, Italian, French, Spanish, etc.

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOR. dark brown. EYE COLOR. blue. SKIN TONE. fair, but he can get a light tan with decent sun exposure. BODY TYPE. athletic, muscular. ACCENT. no distinguishable accent although he does sometimes carry a Brooklyn accent with certain words or phrases. VOICE. not incredibly low and relatively soft, all things considered. he often has a very level tone which falls in line with his attitude being very calm most of the time. he will cut words short and adopt a gruffer tone when upset or frustrated. DOMINANT HAND. right ( although he is ambidextrous with the prosthetic ) . POSTURE. hmm... in normal / mundane situations he looks pretty relaxed. low shoulders, loose muscles. just over not very tense. if he is uncomfortable or alert, he sort of stands “at attention”. he just Readies himself. shoulders become more square and he’s lost this softer silhouette that he’d have otherwise. SCARS. heavy scarring on his left shoulder and pectoral muscle at the site where the first bionic arm was attached to his body. TATTOOS. none. BIRTHMARKS. none. MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). bionic prosthetic left arm. very blue eyes.

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF BIRTH. Shelbyville, Indiana. HOMETOWN. He mostly grew up in NY and considered Brooklyn, New York his home. BIRTH WEIGHT. idk man BIRTH HEIGHT. think of a baby. that’s him. MANNER OF BIRTH. natural i guess. FIRST WORDS. mama. SIBLINGS. rebecca barnes, violet barnes, theodore barnes. PARENTS. george and winifred barnes. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT. george and winifred were both very good parents to their four kids and loved them all with their entire hearts. george wasn’t a successful man by any means, having been a dockworker for years, but bucky still looked up to his dad, inspired by how hard his dad worked. winifred was a seamstress and worked often while the kids were young but never let her work interfere with her parenting.

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION. formerly associated with the United States Army and the Howling Commandos ; formerly a brainwashed assassin for Hydra ; no longer any active ties to these groups. CURRENT RESIDENCE. in mcu canon it’s not entirely clear?? / in my shield verse, which i employ a lot, he has an apartment in new york. CLOSE FRIENDS. steve rogers, sam wilson. RELATIONSHIP STATUS. verse dependent / in a commited relationship with @noheroiine's jessica jones. FINANCIAL STATUS. u h.... DRIVER’S LICENSE. he can drive just about anything but doesn’t have a license. CRIMINAL RECORD. he carried out multiple high profile assassinations from the 50′s up until 2014, albeit unbeknownst to him. among these were the assassinations of Howard and Maria Stark in 1991 and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. VICES. he’s p stubborn and can get a bit of an ego from time to time.

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. heterosexual. ROMANTIC ORIENTATION. hetero-romantic. PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch. PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE. submissive | dominant | switch. LIBIDO. normal, i guess?? TURN ON’S. neck kissing. but other than that...different people can do different things TURN OFF’S. ordering him around in bed, holding down his arms or wrists, restricting him from movement in any way. LOVE LANGUAGE. again, it probably changes from person to person. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES. there’s a lot going on with him mentally and he’s often worried how a prospective romantic partner will react to his nightmares or even the hallucinatory episodes he has on occasion. he also requires a pretty solid amount of emotional intimacy before he’s comfortable being physical and it has a lot to do with him having lost autonomy of himself physically for so many years.

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. i really don’t know. HOBBIES TO PASS TIME. he enjoys reading, listening to new music / music he missed out on, and watching movies. MENTAL ‘DISORDERS’. none. MENTAL ILLNESSES. PTSD. PHYSICAL ILLNESSES. none. LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. both. PHOBIAS. the idea of being captured and controlled / generally losing autonomy of his mind or his body. SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL. decent. he had more of an ego when he was younger. it’s greatly diminished now, but he will occasionally have an egotistical attitude, even if just to poke fun at people. VULNERABILITIES. he has increased durability as a super-soldier, but he’s still vulnerable to anything else the average man is.

TAGGED BY: @underoosed

TAGGING: if u wanna do it, go for it.

#character study.#i've done so many of these before #but they're always fun

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years

Text

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 06/03/2021 ("BED”, Digga D, Kali Uchis)

It’s finally a really short filler week on the UK Singles Chart but not one without its importance as we’ve got some real interesting stuff to talk about this week, even if there are only six new arrivals. Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” is at #1, and whilst I may not be able to post this on Twitter because I’ve been locked out – don’t ask why – this is still REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

So, a lot of our debuts are gone, including “test drive” by Ariana Grande as well as other bigger hits dropping out of the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – including “Burner on Deck” by Fredo featuring the late Pop Smoke and Young Adz, “i miss u” by Jax Jones and Au/Ra, Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Love Story”, “Before You Go” by Lewis Capaldi, “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper and “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran. There are also a handful of fallers across the chart like Fredo’s continued drops as “Money Talks” with Dave is at #28, “Let’s Go Home Together” by Ella Henderson and Tom Grennan off of the debut to #34, “Love Not War (The Tampa Beat)” by Jason Derulo and Nuka at #36, “34+35” by Ariana Grande at #40, “Good Days” by SZA dropping hard with the streaming cut down to #46, “Mixed Emotions” by Abra Cadabra at #54, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles at #60, “Didn’t Know” by Tom Zanetti off of the debut to #68, “Siberia” by Headie One featuring Burna Boy at #71 and “willow” by Taylor Swift at #72. What’s probably more interesting are our gains and returning entries, as for returns, we’ve got “ROCKSTAR” by DaBaby featuring Roddy RIcch back at #75, Wilkinson’s 2013 drum and bass track “Afterglow” featuring uncredited vocals from Becky Hill back at #74 for whatever reason, “Higher” by Clean Bandit featuring iann dior at #70 and “Goodbye” by Imanbek and Goodboys coming back strong at #59. Our gains are also pretty unique, as we have some second winds for “Looking for Me” by Paul Woolford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax at #67, “Loading” by Central Cee at #61 and “Roses” by SAINt JHN and remixed by Imanbek at #55. We also have a handful of climbers within the top 40, like “All You Ever Wanted” by Rag’n’Bone Man surging up to #33 off of the debut, which I’m pretty happy about as it’s a really good song. I’m less over the moon about “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #27, “Believe Me” by Navos at #25 and finally, “My Head & My Heart” by Ava Max up to #19. There’s not much movement above that however, so let’s get into our new arrivals, starting with something I didn’t think I see here this soon.

NEW ARRIVALS

#65 – “SugarCrash!” – ElyOtto

Produced by ElyOtto

I love doing this show because I find out more about genres I’d usually tend to avoid. I’m not the most knowledgeable person about Afroswing or really, a lot of the house that ends up charting on the UK Singles Chart. I think I know my fair bit about at least the mainstream of a lot of the UK drill stuff, but what I really would consider myself somewhat specialised in is hyperpop. I’m probably too old to enjoy any of it as much as I do but that may just be why I have a connection to this overly online, digital scene of SoundCloud producers and rappers making pretty obnoxiously mid-2000s-influenced electropop, as it really does feel like a retreat to a simpler time with all of the angst of the emo-pop being made around the same time. The hyperpop scene and bubblegum bass as a whole has always felt inclusive, which I think is one of the main reasons why it’s big with teenagers nowadays, because there really isn’t much of a limit in the genre or at least the scope that we’ve found as of yet, whether it be integrating elements of ‘hexd’ or brostep or trance or what have you. Whilst companies may want us to be nostalgic for the 1990s, I think most people are taking a couple steps forward here, and it’s creating some genuinely great music – some of the time, at least. Hyperpop has birthed many SoundCloud-based sub-genres, or I guess micro-genres, including one of which being glitchcore, a glitchier, more off-the-wall brand of cloud rap with a lot of high-energy trap production and nightcore-esque pitch-shifting. I see some brands of infighting amongst people who listen to hyperpop and glitchcore seeing as glitchcore has arguably taken off a bit faster than other more electronic or pop-focused scenes, but I see that as evolution of a scene more than anything. 100 gecs sounds nothing like A.G. Cook, anyway, it’s pointless gate-keeping at this point, especially when TikTok gets their hands on this random kid from Canada. In a genre full of pioneers, this young Canadian guy’s debut single is what gains traction and for what it’s worth I’m happy for the guy but I’m not a fan of the song at all. This does feel like a parody if anything, with its fast-paced gecs impression and admittedly pretty ethereal synth patterns pretty drowned out by lightweight trap percussion and this ElyOtto guy who really isn’t a presence at all, especially if he’s going to pitch himself down and further into the instrumental on the outro... of a song that’s already only one minute and 20 seconds yet runs through two choruses and a verse, of which nothing really is said of substance. People like blackwinterwells and osquinn make similar music especially in terms of lyrical content but there is something to be said about their honesty and somewhat paranoid tones that creep in, whilst there’s nothing really emotionally convincing about this guy’s delivery or content, as while he may make the same semi-ironic references to self-harm, pain medication and Gen Z culture as they do, he doesn’t really have any tact and it feels overly self-aware to the point where I refuse to believe anyone outside of ElyOtto can really enjoy it fully. It makes perfect sense that this started off as a “short soundfont test” and really, it probably should have stayed that way. There’s a lot to be enjoyed in hyperpop but if this isn’t a satire and is a genuine attempt at approaching the scene, I’d be genuinely surprised. That said, his song “TEETH!” is legitimately good with the exact same length, so maybe I’m just full of it. Either way, I’m not a fan. Sorry.

#56 – “AP” – Pop Smoke

Produced by 808Melo and Rico Beats

Another posthumous Pop Smoke single, except this was actually recorded well before his death and probably finished before to boot, as it’s attached to a film, Boogie, that he will actually star in. With 808Melo on production, it’s guaranteed to have at least some hard-hitting drill production and, yeah, I mean, it’s fine. It’s got a pretty eerie vocal sample behind all the murderous lyrics and pretty busy drill percussion with some great 808s, even if it and the sample feels a bit too loud in the mix when Pop Smoke’s rich voice feels buried. It’s just gunplay, really, and a bit of flexing and references to his older songs, as he makes a call and it’s war and he’s off that Adderall. It’s sad that from now on, any material we get from Pop Smoke will be his leftovers and throwaways. That said, this is fine, perhaps a bit too long, and it could be worse – I mean, it originally leaked with a Rich the Kid verse, it REALLY could have been worse. Once again, RIP Pop Smoke and I hope 808Melo gets his YouTube channel back if he hasn’t already.

#50 – “Pierre” – Ryn Weaver

Produced by benny blanco, Ryan Tedder and Michael Angelakos

The UK Singles Chart is changing, and I think that’s what makes this such an interesting week as there is genuinely some stuff here we’ve never seen debut on the chart before – or anything like it – and that’s exciting to me. You probably know Ryn Weaver from “OctaHate”, a brief 2014 viral pop song written by Charli XCX and produced by Cashmere Cat that led to a debut album the next year and thanks to presumably TikTok, a deep cut from said album has now debuted in the top 50. Now I hadn’t heard of her before looking at the chart about an hour ago, so I can’t tell you much of anything at all about the California singer. I’m not really a fan of “OctaHate” but I do have a fondness for that janky electropop production from the mid-2010s – “Gold” by Kiiara is a hill I’d die on – so with production from Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit, I’d hoped “Pierre” would be pretty cool and, yeah, it’s pretty odd, actually. It seems like a pretty ballad but with a very fast-paced, raspy delivery from Weaver and some choppy production that soon tenses in the chorus and I’ve got to say, while I’m not 100% on the mixing, I can get behind the concept here, especially with some multi-tracked vocals from Weaver. The song itself is about trying to run away from her feelings for a lover that never really went away, particularly as she hooks up later with a man called Pierre who speaks in broken English, which gives a lot of reason for the tense pace of the song, even if that is undercut by the production being muddy and awfully willing to kill its momentum in the outro as there’s never really a proper climax. That said, it’s fitting for that final line, “I’ll come around”, which can be interpreted as about moving on or complacency – just coming back to that guy after years of searching for someone else. I do like this – or at least what it’s trying to do – but I feel like it’d enjoy it more with less clutter, particularly in that chorus, which could really elevate this but as it is, it’s fine.

#45 – “telepatía” – Kali Uchis

Produced by Albert Hype, Manuel Lara and Tainy

Okay, so alt-pop all the way from Latin America, that’s also a first... except not really, as ROSALÍA has charted before, if only off of the back of Billie Eilish. Regardless, this is a really high debut for a global hit from Colombian-American critical darling Kali Uchis, someone I’m always glad to hear from. Admittedly I did not check out that last project that was a return to a lot of the Latin American music, including reggaeton, she took early influence from. That debut studio album is mostly an English-language neo-soul record so I appreciate the risks taken, even if I personally didn’t check it out. I probably should though, because this bilingual streaming success “telepatía”, is pretty damn smooth with some of the signature fuzzy keys you’d hear from any Kali Uchis song, somewhat reminiscent of Tyler, The Creator in all of the elegant piano ambiance and soul drums that cut the line thin between live and programmed, but sound quite either way. I especially love the flushes of Latin guitar in the chorus but really, Uchis’ silky voice is what shines here, especially in the subtle, seductive double-tracking and how smoothly it switches from Spanish to English. It’s not perfect, I mean, the transition from chorus to second verse and back again is somewhat awkward, and it does feel like it runs a little short. I was honestly expecting a guitar solo or something but we get very little of anything after that final chorus. Given that I know Tainy mostly from his work with J Balvin – and I’ll admit, also mostly from his work on the Sponge on the Run soundtrack – I’m pretty pleasantly surprised with how this has meshed together and I do really hope this sticks around.

#23 – “Bluuwuu” – Digga D

Produced by Glvck

We didn’t get an album bomb from Digga D, bless the Lord, but we did get this one single and... do American rappers make genuine death threats on their top 40 singles? Just wondering, because this has several references to rival gang members and how he’s going to hurt them in one way or another. That would be fine if it were convincing, but this guy really isn’t, especially if he’s going to do the silly “bluuwuu” ad-lib in the chorus over one of the least interesting drill beats I’ve ever heard. The 808s don’t slide notably, the percussion is like a template and there isn’t any energy to this... which is fine, because it’s very much just about gang violence, half of it censored. That said, it crosses the line from intriguing detail to possibly too detailed in a way that’s just unwarranted over a boring beat and with the tendency to go off-topic with his flexing ever so often. I’d probably rather listen to the posthumous Pop Smoke single over this if I had to choose, at least that beat is, you know, good.

#20 – “BED” – Joel Corry, RAYE and David Guetta

Produced by Giorgio Tiunfort, New Levels, David Guetta and Joel Corry

I thought these guys were literally famous for just being producers, why does a song by two producers need two extra producers and if it really needs them, why aren’t they given a lead artist credit as well? Oh, right: name recognition, even though neither Corry or Guetta have ever made anything worth recognising. This song with RAYE, personality-void guest singer, relies on the line, “I got a bed, but I’d rather be in yours tonight”, because it’s a sex jam in one way or another, even though there are no stakes to that chorus line at all. Yes, I know RAYE has a bed; she probably sleeps very comfortably on it. She probably bought it from Premier Inn. Maybe they were having a sale. There’s no point in clarifying that you have a bed – in fact, a more interesting lyrical turn would to maybe bring some stakes into it by saying that RAYE does not in fact have a home, and the intimacy with unnamed man keeps her afloat in times of hardship. This is really just me stalling because this may be our highest debut but that does not mean it’s worth talking about. “BED” doesn’t really do much more than it’s supposed to. It’s got some vaguely 90s keys, fake hand-claps, a checked-out performance from RAYE and an anti-climactic deep house drop. Do you care? Does that description make you want to hear it? It’s not a negative critique, it’s an unbiased description of what happens. Are you intrigued with that? Do you want to check this out? This’ll go top 10 next week because of the music video, but God, this is just soulless, and that’s coming from someone who talks almost purely about the pop charts. I do like the post-chorus vocal melody for what it’s worth, but, yeah, no, I don’t care.

Conclusion

I don’t even care enough to give it Worst of the Week, as that’s going to “SugarCrash!” by ElyOtto with a Dishonourable Mention for Digga D’s “Bluuwuu”. Best of the Week should be obvious as Kali Uchis’ “telepatía” is the only good song here, but the Honourable Mention I guess goes to the late Pop Smoke for “AP”, even if that’s mostly because of 808Melo on the production. Here’s this week’s top 10:

I predict a lot will change next week, as we’ve got new songs from Justin Bieber, James Arthur, Bruno Mars (with Anderson .Paak!) and an EP from Drake... follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank if you want in the event that I can use that again, and I’ll see you next week for that snoozefest.

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workingontruth · 4 years

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Our 2 Kings 7 Kind of Life

Don’t you love it when God shows up?

Have you ever missed it when God showed up?

What about now?

Today, opinions are a dime a dozen. Talk to a dozen people, and you’ll get a dozen different angles on any of a dozen subjects. But in spite of our differences of opinion on any of a wide range of topics, I think we all agree on one thing these days; had I interrupted your Christmas celebration this past December (whether or not I were wearing camel’s hair and in need of a good flossing to extract locust legs from between my teeth), telling you the following list of things would all come true in less than 90 days, you would have labeled me a complete crazy man and would’ve told me to go back beneath the rock from which I had come.

“In less than 90 days,…”

1. You, over there in the Free Enterprise motor coach pullover (that would’ve been me) … you will be returning to the University of Indianapolis with the Men’s Lacrosse team from South Carolina before playing the final game of your trip–but oddly enough, both teams will be fully healthy, the weather will be ideal, and the trip will have been coasting along without a hitch. Oh, and the university’s administration will also require the other eight remaining U Indy teams, participating in their various collegiate sporting events from Florida to California and everywhere in between, to immediately return to campus as well. And, once you return, your entire fleet of buses will be emptied of fuel, removed from insurance plans, and put out of service–though all machines are mechanically sound and all drivers are healthy and available to drive.

2. And you, in the red Community Hospital valet shirt (that would’ve be my wife) … you will be in your new role in the front office of the Center for Genetic Health. But having been asked not to congregate with your co-workers in the perfectly suited and newly designed office space the hospital had just finished, you and all of your co-workers will be working from home to reschedule all patient appointments sixty days or more into the future–unless they are willing to conduct their appointment over the phone or via video-chat.

3. The NBA post-season will never happen, and the balance of the season itself will be stopped cold in its tracks at half-time of a game in the Mountain Time Zone on Wednesday, March 11th.

4. All NCAA spring athletic events will be cancelled for the remainder of the school year and March Madness won’t happen.

5. There will be no date set to begin the MLB season.

6. Grocery stores will have been unable to keep chicken, ground beef, bread and toilet paper on their shelves.

7. Gasoline will, in some places, be under a dollar a gallon, but few will be filling up.

8. The nation’s restaurants will be closed for all dine-in experiences while the fortunate will try to stay in business by doing carry-out or drive-through business only.

9. All shopping malls, strip malls, barber shops and hair and nail salons will be closed.

10. The Federal Government will be sending $1,200 tax-free cash gifts to the vast majority of American citizens.

11. The world will have a drastic shortage of personal protective equipment.

12. The Down Jones Industrial Average will suffer 3 of its worst days since the “Black Monday” market crash in 1987 in the span of less than a week, losing roughly one-third of its value in a matter of about eight days.

13. State governors will be requesting their citizens “shelter in place” by remaining home but for essential trips for food or health-related emergencies, while in some states it will be a finable offense to travel anywhere but to secure such.

14. The President and VP of the United States will be holding daily, 2-hour press briefings for weeks on end.

15. Frequent air travel will be little but a memory, international travel banned, airfares costing less than a good meal out (which will no longer be happening).

16. The President will sign a presidential memorandum that will require the likes of General Motors to begin manufacturing respiratory ventilators.

17. Dozens of privately held companies like Michael Lindell’s “My Pillow,” will be transformed into N-95 facemask factories.

18. Samaritan’s Purse will have set up and be running a fully-functioning hospital in the middle of New York City’s Central Park.

19. The United States Naval Hospital Ship “Comfort” will have been deployed to New York to help in the cause.

20. Most people will be wearing PPE masks everywhere they go.

21. All public concerts world-wide will be on hold.

22. Churches will be asked not to meet, and nearly all will comply without resistance.

23. Employees representing nearly every U.S. industry will be furloughed, let go or kept on payrolls with forgivable loans from the Fed.

24. People will be asked to stand in lines outside Lowe’s stores at six-foot intervals to ensure active shopper customer quotas are kept while both one-way entries and exits are monitored.

25. Many stores will be required to close down public access to much of their merchandise not deemed “essential,” to help support the cause.

26. Pork, chicken and other meat packing plants in the U.S. will be closing down.

27. U.S. unemployment will be at the highest rate since the Great Depression as new weekly filing claims will be counted not in the hundreds of thousands, but in the millions.

28. The nation’s, and most of the world’s movie theaters, will be closed.

29. People without facemasks will be shunned and avoided by “mask-wearers.”

30. Neighbors will be sitting in their driveways and on FRONT porches again.

31. College students will be home with their families, taking part in online classwork since all university campuses will be closed prior to semesters’ end.

32. In lieu of our celebrating athletes and Hollywood types, doctors, nurses and healthcare workers will be the new heroes.

33. People in some industries will be earning more to stay at home than while working full time.

34. The Fed will be paying the unemployed an additional $600/week over and above the state provisions.

35. All elective surgeries will be halted while hospital ORs remain unused.

36. Online church “attendance” will skyrocket, leading to thousands and thousands of new believers.

37. American celebrity musicians will be holding online “Global Citizen” concerts to raise millions of dollars to give to the World Health Organization which is being held liable for its part in enabling the death of hundreds of thousands in nearly 200 countries world-wide.

Would any of these things been plausible just a few months ago?

Obviously, this is only a partial list, and one to which most of us could quickly add another dozen. And NOTE they’re not all bad! Isn’t it just like God to orchestrate blessing in the face of difficulty?

But in my mind, these “90-days-ago incomprehensible occurrences” are not unlike the similarly baffling predictions that Elisha, in 2 Kings Chapter 7, was revealing to the king and his officer.

Here’s the short version:

Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah [probably about 7 lbs] of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”

The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”

“You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”

The officer was utterly confounded. “Really? How could this be?” And to be sure, there is no way, given their circumstance at the time, they could have concocted such an unlikely series of events.

(Read verses 3-13 to learn how this mystifying prophecy actually took place.)

But then, the verdict is recorded in the later verses...

“So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.”

Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.” ...but your officer will not eat any of it.

What’s my point?

God often does things in ways no man would ever script. What we deem impossible is a drop in the bucket of God’s immeasurable and endless power and insight. After all, He knows the future!

But here’s what WE do.

If told of how the above-mentioned improbables would come true by late-March, we would have responded, “Oh I see. What a tragic series of events. But I understand now how that will happen. It all makes sense.”

And because it “makes sense” in hindsight, we disregard the overriding variable of the supernatural God into the equation and chalk up the now-plausible circumstance as nothing more than the “natural” occurrence of things.

No matter how crazy things get, when viewing world events on merely the natural plane, most won’t need a God to “see it.” It will all make logical, cause-and-effect sense.

In the same way, I believe much of what will lead up to Revelation 12 and is told us in Daniel 11:31 and following, will likewise “make good sense” to the mind of mankind at the time. Going so far as to think of the Anti-Christ to come, we have to assume he will not come into power forcefully, but peaceably, with the full support of a global community…one that is now forming rapidly. Yes, it will all “make perfect sense,” for the answers and charismatic leadership of the one we know is to come will help to solve what will have become the world’s most pressing and previously unsolvable complexities. And the world community will give him his prominent role.

Still, for those in Christ, let me be clear that these can be days of amazing intrigue and anticipation, not fear and worry.

But, you see, my point is that this is how God usually chooses to bring about his plans, through a course of events that will be laced in the common sense of man … so much so that even the elect would be deceived were it possible (Matthew 24:24).

BUT, He gives light to the eyes of his children. Our great and unshakeable God has let us in on his plans. We are his friends if we do what He commands (John 15:14). And as friends of the Son of God, the Son has made known us to his agenda (John 15:15).

Now, my intention is not to insinuate we are absolutely on the cusp of the rapture of the Church, or teetering at the edge of the Tribulation–though I’m also not saying that we couldn’t be, for the Father alone only knows the day of Jesus’ return for his children (Matthew 24:30-42).

What I am saying is that if we can learn anything from history, and from an acquaintance with the scriptures, we can assume that the initial events predicted in the Bible will likely “make sense” in the moment to the mind of unregenerate man.

So, one last question.

Given our current sermon series at my home church, Northview Church, I am wondering if you are listening, watching and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit living inside you? It’s something about which I wrote in great length as well in SET FREE.

Do you know the mind of Christ? Do you have the mind of Christ?

If not, it’s time to change that. If not, you may be missing that God himself is showing up right now on planet Earth.

Place your trust in Jesus Christ. He is ready to open your eyes.

Maybe it’s time you learn more about the God who is doing something incredible right now in the midst of this unprecedented time. Maybe it’s time you gain in you the Resource that dispells anxiety and replaces it with a calm assurance the world will never understand.

You can learn more about having a relationship with Jesus here. Or, reach out to a pastor at Northview Church by texting “NEXT” to 85379 and selecting Option 2.

God is showing up right now. Don’t miss him in the details.

Keep watching.

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youngandhungryent · 4 years

Text

The Osiris Of This: Celebrating The 25th Anniversary Of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s ‘Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version’

Source: Al Pereira / Getty

The Wu-Tang Clan shifted the recording industry in the 1990s by not only emerging as an unstoppable collective but also securing solo deals for the nine members of the group’s top tier. Ol’ Dirty Bastard emerged as a star for the New York crew by way of his debut album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version, which was released 25 years ago today (March 28).

RZA, GZA, the aforementioned Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa transformed the Hip-Hop landscape with their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) in 1993. The single “Protect Your Neck,” which introduced much of the world to the Wu Swordsman, featured a verse from ODB that, alongside Method Man’s scene-stealing turn, burned itself into the memory of fans for good reason.

Hip-Hop fans approached ODB’s solo album with hopes that it would feature more of the same left-field styled coupled with the “what will he do next” personality the rapper born Russell Jones became famous for. They were not disappointed on that front.

After an intro that puts all of the zaniness of ODB at the front of the mind for the listeners, “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” blares through with RZA’s signature thump and ODB’s performance set the tone early. The following track “Baby C’Mon” features more of that Ruler Zig Zag Zig Allah dust, and the album’s first single “Brooklyn Zoo” sounds as timeless as ever with True Master delivering one of the few tracks not helmed by The Abbot.

Rapping in stunted growling grunts and breaking into off-key song at times where it doesn’t even make sense, ODB appeared larger than life. He instantly became an undeniable presence across the album, most certainly propelled by RZA’s guidance on the tracks. The production is decidedly muddy as if it were recorded in a Brooklyn closet; the bass bleeds on even the best-quality speakers and it sounds that this was the intention.

By the time listeners reached “Raw Hide,” there are still dips and turns left in ODB’s rap arsenal:

Tired of sittin’ on my f*ckin ass N*ggas I know be runnin’ around with mad f*ckin’ cash Who the f*ck wanna be an emcee If you can’t get paid to be a f*ckin’ emcee? I came out my momma p*ssy, I’m on welfare Twenty-six years old, still on welfare So I gotta get paid fully Whether it’s truthfully or untruthfully

In past interviews, Method Man stated that a bulk of the album consisted of old rhymes from RZA and GZA’s rhyme books but he did admit that ODB did know how to write his own verses. But because of his voice, style and natural charisma, it didn’t matter what the source of the lyrics, especially with the level of performance ODB presented across the album.

A remastered version of Return to the 36 Chambers has been released to commemorate the 25 years since its release, along with a mini-documentary from Amazon Music that features words from RZA, Raekwon, his widow, Icelene Jones, and his son Barson “Young Dirty Bastard” Jones. ODB is a sorely missed voice in Hip-Hop and would probably still find a way to bulldoze his way onto the airwaves despite the genre’s many shifts in sounds in the years since his untimely passing.

For now, we’ll hold on tight to the audio memory of Ol’ Dirty Bastard. Hopefully, tonight somewhere in ODB’s beloved “Brooklyn Zoo,” a 40 or two will be cracked, safely indoors of course, with the speakers blasting the record in Ason Unique Allah’s honor.

—

Photo: Getty

source https://hiphopwired.com/849608/ol-dirty-bastard-return-to-the-36-chambers-anniversary/

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source https://youngandhungryent.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-osiris-of-this-celebrating-25th.html

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source https://youngandhungryent.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-osiris-of-this-celebrating-25th_29.html

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#fucu #fucul #young and hungry ent #boss of bosses #instrumental type beat free

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supercatburglar · 7 years

Note

⌚[ ooc: any verse???? Idc which u pick. ]

Being back– alive– Trish has no idea how long it’s going to take to get used to it. To sensations like soft and warm and relief. To taking a shower. To looking under her fingernails and not finding dried blood underneath them. To the taste of coffee. To how much The Today Show doesn’t annoy her anymore. It’s all beautiful, but it’s all so strange.

Surely she wouldn’t get used to them all overnight. It’s barely been twelve hours, and her mind is racing with possibility– all the possibilities of what she’ll get to re-learn. All the things she’ll get the chance to appreciate again.

Keyed up, full of anticipation, Trish couldn’t sleep. Not after finding Jessica. Even after she put the other woman in her bed and let her succumb to drunken exhaustion, Trish couldn’t sleep. She had too much going on. Too many thoughts. Too much emotion. It’s kind of funny, she thinks, that she’s made peace with having died and been in Hell, but the idea that she can walk to her fridge and get a cool water whenever she’s thirsty seems like a dream.

That’s actually what she’s doing right now, satisfying thirst, when she hears commotion coming from her bedroom.

Jessica.

Trish puts down the water and darts across her apartment immediately, pulling the sliding barn doors that separate her bedroom open. Jessica looks disheveled– horribly so– and disoriented. Still dressed from last night, hair mussed… expression haunted. She looks scared, and that’s a look that Trish isn’t completely used to seeing. It’s not the fear she’d tamp down on with Kilgrave. This is naked fear.

“Jess, it’s OKAY.”

She rushes forward, crawls onto the bed on her knees, and reaches out– hands on shoulders– trying to reassure.

“It’s okay, it’s fine. You’re fine.”

“Trish?” That haunted look doesn’t go anywhere. She almost looks dazed. “Wha–”

“It’s okay.” That’s all she can think to say. God, she missed her so much. It feels like it’s been decades…

“That…” Jessica’s searching. Trying. Trish can read it all so clearly written across her face. Dark eyes find hers, and Trish holds her breath. “Wasn’t a dream?”

“Oh, Jess,” Trish curls her hand around the woman’s cheek. “No. No it’s real. I’m back. I’m HERE.”

She can pinpoint the exact moment it hits Jessica Jones. The second it sinks in that, yes, this is real. This is happening. Trish isn’t dead. She’s very much alive and touching her and she’s supposed to be in this apartment because Trish brought her here. There’s someone to live in it again, and Jessica isn’t alone. Trish came back.

There’s that feeling again: relief. It’s hitting Jessica, and Trish thinks that might’ve been one of the most cruel things about HELL. There was never any relief. From anything.

Then something rare happens. Something really rare. Trish honestly doesn’t know that she’s seen it… ever. Jessica cries. And she doesn’t just cry, she smiles while she cries. And then strong arms– the strongest arms she’s ever known– wrap themselves around her arms and pull her in close and Trish’s heart catches in her throat.

This is it. This is relief. This is love. She’s home.

@neverthehercine * DRABBLE MEME - FAVORITE MEMORY ( selectively accepting )

#EXACTLY THE HERO I WANTED YOU TO BE. // jessica #AKA. // hell and back #neverthehercine #( i hooooope this little bit of modding is okay. )#( if it's not just let me know and i'll come up w something else! )#( <3 )

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the-ultimate-pie-family · 4 years

Text

Armageddon part 1

*5 years passed*

Belle: the day Armageddon started was out of nowhere *feels failure* glass the story plz

Jarek: sister?

Glass: yes jarek?

Jarek: where's momma again?

Glass: she's ur grandma pinkie and with ur sister Phaedra

Jarek: but where r they?

Glass: there lost in pinkie rift i just never knew she actually use it......

Jarek: wats my dad doing?

Glass: uhm.....?

B: glass there coming *starts the alarm*

Jason: jak this wa

Jarek: coming uncle jason

Glass: thank u

Jason: thank u glass urry mus go now

Michael: *closes door* back door

Freddy: *closes back door* plan b?

Jarek: huh plan b?

Glass: belle can u try?

Belle: i can but this might be my last..... so make it count find my twin..... *teleports them exploding*

*jarek glass jason freddy and michael teleported in the sea abyss*

Jarek: *summons light everywhere*

Party: guys get in hurry

Jason: *launches glass and jarek at party* oo yeah

Michael: *throws jason*

Freddy: *rams michael launching my claws*

Michael: *grabs the claws going threw a window*

Party: close that window hurry *closes the bunker door*

Freddy: *closes window teleporting us in bunker*

Party: wheres my twin?

Glass: im sorry......i don't even know about the others

Freddy: we had no choice jarek is our last hope

Party: he needs his twin or he'll die like belle did u idiot

Jarek: stop!!!!!! *does a magic burst getting thrown in a spike* dah!!

Party: oh no hurry get him off that spike now

Jason: *jumps to jarek pulling on him*

*the spike exploded inside jarek*

Party: nooooo!!!!!!!

Jarek: *standing beside party* wat i miss?

Glass: *looks at jarek* how? Wait a god and a alicorn mixed together *mumbles* oh shit..... jarek i have a plan

Jarek: wats that?

*rumbling*

Freddy: huh u feel that?

Michael: no pony knows about this right nephew?

Party: no this should be a safe place far away

Glass: that means.... everypony pack up now get food and water

*they went and packed up*

Jarek: wait they found us? Why can't we fight?

Glass: because theres time and a day to do that and this is not the time or day to do it

Jarek: but sister?

Glass: no buts let's move!!!!

*they all come back ready*

*the rumbling gets closer breaking threw the roof*

Party: that was good? *summons energy sword*

Jarek: brother wait no

Glass: *holds jarek back teleporting us away*

Party: save us all.... *ready for the attack*

Demons: *bust down doors letting in the freezing water*

Party: *jumps at the demons attacking them*

*the freezing water filled the bunker shallowing the demons and party to davey jones locker room*

Jarek: *falls crying* no no no no!!!!!

B: *was walking away from the battle field barely alive* glass jarek is that *passes out*

Glass: *runs to B* oh no.....she's..... AHHHHHH!!!!!!

Blood: *chained to at wall in hell* glass?.....

The devil: ur still alive? Hahahahah

God: leave him alone brother he has nothing to do with us

The devil: watever u say brother blood isn't going nowhere

God: i should've seen this coming when u and surprise joined together i had to think fast but i was too late......

The devil: u was brother 5 years passed and yet no sign of them jarek my dearest nephew ur weak just gotta find him amd drain his magic for my own

God: brother why jarek is family

The devil: shut up jarek will come to save his father *turns switch*

*a beam is fired at blood draining his life force*

Blood: *screams*

Phaedra: *hears screaming* momma wake up i hear something

Galaxia: shhh sweetie were trying to sleep

Phaedra: but mom i heard screaming

Galaxia: sweetie maybe ur starting to go mad after five years in this fucking place.....

Pinkie: *lights another blunt* galaxia u want in?

Phaedra: ? Mom wat r u and grama pinkie doing?

Pinkie: illegal marijuana i had this stashed for 6 years

Galaxia: come join us birthday girl

Phaedra: wait really? But im only 6?

Pinkie: but ur a goddess like ur father

Phaedra: my dad is a god?

Galaxia: mhm

Pinkie: plus as a goddess u ago faster but can't die

Galaxia: *puffs on blunt* so my daughter is like six *coughs dropping blunt*

Pinkie: party fail!!!!!! *tackles galaxia rolling on top of her*

Galaxia: *low blows pinkie*

Phaedra: *picks up blunt puffing on it* *feels my lungs gasping for air*

To Be Continued

Tags for belinda galaxia @ask-the-equuleus-verse

#the end #more tags #more characters coming soon

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airadam · 5 years

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Episode 122 : Drop It Heavy

"Scripture tell me no one excluded when rain drippin'..."

- Tobe Nwigwe

This month has been a rough one, but here we are once again with a brand new selection for your headphones and speakers! We remember the great KMG, and then sprinkle the selection with some strong UK tracks, overlook gems, rapid genre jumping, and one absolutely amazing remix. While individually there aren't many obscurities in the mix, I'll be impressed if anyone already knows every track on here...

Twitter : @airadam13

Playlist/Notes

Above The Law : V.S.O.P (Remix)

Been waiting a long time to play this one - it was quite a few years of looking to find a decent 12" copy (thanks Discogs!), and then it was one I was determined to save for an anniversary of KMG's passing. The original from the excellent "Black Mafia Life" is proto-G-Funk, but this version puts a just a touch of extra chaos (and bass) into the mix, courtesy of Cold 187um on both occasions. An ode to late-night partying and cognac, but still bringing the battle edge to the second verse, this has KMG handling the hook solo but going back and forth with Cold 187um on the mic. A much underrated tag team from the west!

Jigmastas : Too Ill (Instrumental)

I love the fact that the "Resurgence" album came with a complete set of instrumentals, just so you can get that DJ Spinna flavour undiluted - here's just a taste!

Tobe Nwigwe ft. FAT : PEEP GAME

Another #GetTwistedSundays killer! I'm bringing this Texan back for a second appearance in the last four months, with a track I think a lot of you will really enjoy. The producer Nell brings a fresh style, with some great change-ups in the beat - and the other half of the bargain is held up with skills galore. Tobe absolutely crams meaning (and syllables) into his devastating monotone flow, and his wife FAT provides a great spoken-word-like breakdown in an efficient eight-bar appearance. This is a trio of brilliant artists (along with their video crew) doing amazing things.

BADBADNOTGOOD ft. Kaytranada & Snoop Dogg: Lavender (Nightfall Remix)

Canada's BBNG first released the original version of this track on their "IV" album, but Snoop Dogg heard it and somehow knew it could benefit from his own unique enhancement! This version ended up as an inclusion on his 2017 "Neva Left" album; his added verse addressing police brutality, in addition to the controversial video, thrust it into the consciousness of a much larger audience.

DRS : All Time High

I was reminded of this track from the new "From The Deep" LP when DRS performed it live at a Manchester International Festival event recently. He's one of the most important artists the Manchester scene has ever had, with his influence spreading far and wide - whether fully acknowledged or not. While he's now mostly known for his drum & bass work, he was of course one-third of Broke 'n' English (alongside Strategy and Konny Kon) and this album has him displaying his Hip-Hop skills over the production of Pitch 92.

Lowkey : Hand On Your Gun

If you like politics in your Hip-Hop, then Lowkey is someone you should definitely be checking for - a British MC of Iraqi descent, he brings his worldview to the mic with strength every time. His second album, "Soundtrack To The Struggle" gives us this stinging condemnation of some of the big players in the global arms trade, with ShowNProve providing the Wild West-themed track.

Kaytranada ft. Karriem Riggins and River Tiber : Bus Ride

A nice instrumental from the "99.9%" album. The guest star Karriem Riggins gets busy on the drums in a subtle way through most of the track before showing out right at the end with a little double-time flair!

Children of Zeus : Respect Mine

"Travel Light" is now a year old and it's still getting just as much play as it did on release! Juga-Naut on production, Mr.Thing on the sharp cuts, and Tyler and Konny Kon putting it down on the mic make up a major league quartet.

Robert Glasper Experiment ft. Norah Jones : Let It Ride

As strong as this track is, it's not even one of my top three from "Black Radio 2", which speaks to just how good that album is! Mark Colenburg earns his money on the double-time drumming that you'd think had to be a programmed drum machine, setting a furious pace that the rest of the groove languidly follows. The bass and piano are low-key and do their thing without upstaging Norah Jones on the vocal of this classy cut.

Janelle Monáe : Cold War

This is an absolutely furious cut. The video is definitely worth a watch - similar to the one for Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U", it stays focused on her face for the entire running length and is packed with emotion, as are the lyrics. Clearly one of the standouts on "The ArchAndroid", with the themes of isolation and struggle articulated by one of the best artists of this era.

OutKast : B.O.B

I've been wanting to do the blend from "Cold War" to this for ages! One of my favourite tracks from this duo, this pretty much made my brain explode when I first heard it back in 2000. I was surprised to find out recently that this wasn't a big hit even on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts, but they were actively trying to go against the grain and a lot of the audience probably just wasn't ready. To me, this is Andre and Big Boi at the peak of their lyrical games, keeping up with a track that really would fit the name "organised noize" - but was actually produced by the group themselves alongside Mr.DJ. That's a real gospel choir you're hearing on the hook and the outro, a really serious guitarist letting loose all over the track, and a real MPC being beaten into submission for those drums. Stone classic from the "Stankonia" LP. Oh, and "got a son on the way by the name of Bamboo"? Well, time flies...

[The Alchemist] Cam'ron : Wet Wipes (Instrumental)

This fit the bill here as something electronic-sounding that was also half the speed of the frenetic OutKast track, allowing us to come back down to earth a bit. The Alchemist cooked up a thudding, menacing beat for what was a typically disrespectful Cam'ron track from 2006's "Killa Season". This was actually Alchemist's first MPC beat (he was a devotee of the ASR-10 up to this point) and has the chopping and aggression that is very reminiscent of a track he did years later, Raekwon's "Surgical Gloves".

The Lady of Rage : Raw Deal

I finally sat down to listen to the "Necessary Roughness" album from front to back for the first time recently, and I can confirm that it was indeed slept-on. This was probably a consequence of it being pushed further and further back by Death Row, until it finally got a very quiet release in 1997. If you'd forgotten about the skills that made her a people's favourite, here's a reminder over a Daz Dillinger and Tyrone Wrice beat, laid-back enough to give her the space to get busy.

Glenn Lewis : Don't You Forget It (Curtis Lynch Remix)

FIRE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥! The original Glenn Lewis cut from "World Outside My Window") has always been a favourite of mine, and it's one you don't want to mess up with a clumsy remix - for example, the Desert Storm attempt with the most "missing the point" guest rap verse in music history. I can't remember how I found this one, but it stunned me - the re-interpretation is perfect. Lewis is from Trinidadian and Jamaican roots, and the move to connect with someone like London's Curtis Lynch for this remix was a natural but also an inspired move. It sounds like this one has been re-voiced rather than just swapping instrumentals, and it's a rootsy dancehall masterpiece with the drums, bass, and every single accent on point. Turn this one all the way up!

London Grammar : Non Believer

I'm not even sure what genre you'd count this as - Wikipedia claims "indie pop", but even that doesn't quite hit the mark. For me there are definite vibes of what they used to call "trip-hop" - I can imagine previous eras of Portishead or Massive Attack doing a tune like this. This track from "Truth Is A Beautiful Thing" is itself a melancholic beautiful thing, with Hannah Reid's crystal-clear vocals soaring over the moody beat.

Sean Price & Illa Ghee : 2Pac by the Locker

If you know "Juice", you know what this title is all about! I'd describe the track as "short and sweet", if there was anything remotely street about it. Sean P and Illa Ghee come through like a pair of brass knuckles as they do on every other cut on the "Metal Detectors" EP - just beasting.

Jake One : Gangsta Boy (Instrumental)

Coming through slamming like a new take on Dre's "Lyrical Gangbang", this is a monster of a beat from Jake One's "White Van Music Instrumentals". It had to be, since the MCs on the vocal version are the rugged neva smoove M.O.P.

Raekwon : Canal Street

Raekwon is one of the greatest picture painters in Hip-Hop history and this is an absolute art masterclass. From the first lines "All of our fathers is bank robbers, holding TECs/Eights of hero'n, shooting in the steps" he grabs your mind's eye and never lets it go until the track ends. Flawless street imagery all the way from "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Pt.II" to such an extent that the video actually takes away from it! Icewater Productions bring a fairly well-used sample in that brings the crime-flick menace the lyrical content demands. One nice touch on the production side - the sudden turn up of the volume in a matter of a beat or two in the transition from the intro to the first verse - definitely makes it hit you in the chest.

Please remember to support the artists you like! The purpose of putting the podcast out and providing the full tracklist is to try and give some light, so do use the songs on each episode as a starting point to search out more material. If you have Spotify in your country it's a great way to explore, but otherwise there's always Youtube and the like. Seeing your favourite artists live is the best way to put money in their pockets, and buy the vinyl/CDs/downloads of the stuff you like the most!

Check out this episode!

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naturesloopholedarchive-blog · 5 years

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I will be using tags with ★彡 Follow the leader. Follow this blog ❰Promotion // self Promos❱ as a format. I can use prokeys to help me so hopefully my ocd isn’t a bitch over this.

Old tags that will no longer be in use aside from the url and tw ones.

★·.·´ ❪ Interactions ❫ 🎔 ❝Pretty words all strung together.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // All Replies ❫ 🎔 ❝ A collection of writing that is magic. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Out Of Character ❫ 🎔 ❝Signs her letters with x’s and o’s.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Undecided ❫ 🎔 ❝ Not sure where she belongs in this world beside team other. ❞ ❰Undecided❱

★·.·´ ❪ Helpful // Wishlist Plots ❫ 🎔 ❝When you wish upon a star and hope for the best. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Ask Meme ❫ 🎔 ❝I know how to play this game.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Just a Marshall ❫ 🎔 ❝She was never meant to be a girl that followed the crowd.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Other Promo❫ 🎔 ❝Amazing blogs full of beautiful writing.❞

bloodsoakedfangs

★·.·´ ❪ Visage 🎔 Danielle Rose Russell ❫ 🎔 ❝ Clever as the devil and twice as pretty.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // All ❫ 🎔 ❝A collection of things that I have done over time.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Musing ❫ 🎔 ❝ She could set the world on fire and call it rain.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // All Answered Asks ❫ 🎔 ❝ A collection of writing that is like a book just begging to be read. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // About ❫ 🎔 ❝She used to tie her hair up in ribbons and bows.❞

golemborn

★·.·´ ❪ IC Answered ❫ 🎔 ❝ She is going to prove you all wrong.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Headcanon ❫ 🎔 ❝ The truth hurts but secrets kill.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Pretend to be human ❫ 🎔 ❝Don’t let them look behind the curtain. ❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Hope Mikaelson not found ❫ She jumped into the pit to save the world one final time 🎔 ❝❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Wardrobe ❫ 🎔 ❝Just another dressed up heartbreak.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Next on Nashville ❫ 🎔 ❝Without Music this life would be a mistake.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Isms ❫ 🎔 ❝.Turn the pain into power.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Landon Kirby ❫ 🎔 ❝ Like a phoenix rising from the ashes.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Self Promo ❫ 🎔 ❝A little self love never hurt anyone.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Verse // Marshall Mikaelson ❫ 🎔 ❝A family built from pain and death. Like a phoenix they rise up.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Aesthetic ❫ 🎔 ❝She doesn’t give a damn about her bad reputation.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Desires ❫ 🎔 ❝You can touch me with slow hands. Turn it up and make me sweat.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Videos ❫ 🎔 ❝Sometimes you just wanna watch a show.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Static ❫ 🎔 ❝Just a wonderful edit.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Ipod ❫ 🎔 ❝Just listen to this music and let your hair down.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Screencap ❫ 🎔 ❝Quickly snap a picture because it will last longer.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Klaus Mikaelson ❫ 🎔 ❝He wasn’t just the greatest evil. He was my father.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Saved // Positivity ❫ 🎔 ❝Your message has made my day that much brighter.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Motherhood ❫ 🎔 ❝In my daughter’s eyes I am a hero. ❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Welcome to my youtube channel ❫ 🎔 ❝everyone loves a girl like her. Painting pretty pictures in a flowered dress.❞ ❰Alternative U

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Answered ❫ 🎔 ❝Wears a smile to cover up everything else.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Guest Muse: Hayley ❫ 🎔 ❝It’s time to fight little wolf.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Hayley Marshall ❫ 🎔 ❝She’s somebody’s hero. A hero to her baby with a skinned up knee. A little kiss is all she needs. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mikaelson Boarding School ❫ 🎔 ❝My father wanted me to have a place to be myself so he built this school.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Powers ❫ 🎔 ❝They used to burn witches at the stake. They can’t burn me for I am the most powerful witch in the world.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Graphics made by friends ❫ 🎔 ❝These are so pretty I wanna keep it forever.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Verses ❫ 🎔 ❝ Her vision of the world under the water represented a beautiful stillness. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Rising Children ❫ 🎔 ❝Just two woman raising witches together.❞ ❰Private with abrokenwitch❱

★·.·´ ❪ Visage 🎔 Summer Fontana ❫ 🎔 ❝ It’s not my fault I have my father’s eyes.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Verses Information Drop ❫ 🎔 ❝ Learn more about the wonderful verses of this blog. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Superstar ❫ 🎔 ❝she belongs on the big screen and that is where she is now.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // tutorials ❫ 🎔 ❝Step by Step instructions made by me.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Adopted We Hope ❫ 🎔 ❝We had to do what was right for you even if it hurt like hell at the time.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Legacies Season One ❫ 🎔 ❝A school for the young and the gifted.❞ ❰Canon❱

★·.·´ ❪ Helpful // Tag Drop ❫ 🎔 ❝ Just a drop for all the things that need to be dropped. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Hidden Away ❫ 🎔 ❝I just want to see the world. Feel the sun on my skin and sand between my toes.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // PSD ❫ 🎔 ❝A special coloring here and there for everyone.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Josie Saltzman ❫ 🎔 ❝You are the selfless siphoner that did black magic with me.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Haylope ❫ 🎔 ❝Everything I do is for her. You are your mother’s daughter. Because the very best of me is in you. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Grimoire ❫ 🎔 ❝The most powerful witch in the world.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Starter Call ❫ 🎔 ❝ Like for a starter. If your a multi muse tell me who you want the starter to be thrown at. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Actress ❫ 🎔 ❝Lights. Camera. Action. Fake it until you make it.❞ ❰Private with dcnouement❱

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // GIFs ❫ 🎔 ❝Almost like a short little video but not.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Raised by Aunt Bex ❫ 🎔 ❝Andrea Jones was a high school cheerleader. Hope Mikaelson was a princess❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Permanent Starter Call ❫ 🎔 ❝ Like for the randomness that is me. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Bow down to them ❫ 🎔 ❝My god have mercy on her enemies because she surely won’t.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Visage 🎔 Sophie Turner ❫ 🎔 ❝I’ll survive because somehow I always do.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Icons ❫ 🎔 ❝feel free to use these when you rp.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Credits ❫ 🎔 ❝ Sometimes we have things that aren’t ours so shout out to these people that helped. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Dual Promo ❫ 🎔 ❝ You have me all heart eyes. ❞

fucking-nightemare‌

death threat tw

★·.·´ ❪ Rich Kids ❫ 🎔 ❝Dripping in diamonds trying to kill their feelings.❞ ❰Private with dcnouement❱

★·.·´ ❪ Helpful // Reference ❫ 🎔 ❝ Might need this someday so going to reblog it. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Reblog ❫ 🎔 ❝Reblogging this in case someone missed it or I have updated it. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Introduction of Jennifer ❫ 🎔 ❝ Hello and welcome to my blog! Learn more about me here! ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Faceless ❫ 🎔 ❝ She doesn’t need a hero because she is the hero.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Single Mom ❫ 🎔 ❝She didn’t have time. She coulda cried but she didn’t have time.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Marcel Gerard ❫ 🎔 ❝He is my brother and my friend.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dahlia raised ❫ 🎔 ❝do not weep because weapons do not cry ❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Visage 🎔 Elena Satine ❫ 🎔 ❝The devil has nothing on me.❞

★彡 She is more than just a copy of her twin ❰Verse // Parent Trap❱

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Blog Masterlist ❫ 🎔 ❝Making a list and checking it twice.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Rules ❫ 🎔 ❝Everyone has a set of laws they follow inside of them.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Happily Ever After ❫ 🎔 ❝the way things should have gone.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Drabble ❫ 🎔 ❝Sometimes I write things just to write them.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Map ❫ 🎔 ❝ She traveled the world looking for the beauty without stopping to see that she was what she was looking for

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Watch Me Edit ❫ 🎔 ❝Watch me edit and have fun.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Dash Games ❫ 🎔 ❝Just going to play a little game.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Fanfiction ❫ 🎔 ❝We write to fill a hole in our hearts.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Drawings ❫ 🎔 ❝Sometimes I like to get a piece of paper out and draw.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Stats ❫ 🎔 ❝ There was once a girl who would die to protect others.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Where to find me ❫ 🎔 ❝I have a lot of places that I might be. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Jen // Giveaway ❫ 🎔 ❝Here is a chance to win.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Permanent Graphic Starter Call ❫🎔 ❝ Like for the randomness that is me. Or just comment on this post if it is easier.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Mine // Polarr ❫ 🎔 ❝Sometimes making a free coloring is worth it.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Permanent Romantic Ship Call ❫ 🎔 ❝ Like for a lot of loving from the one bad ass tribrid. ❞

★·.·´ ❪ Visage 🎔 Alexandra Daddario ❫ 🎔 ❝ Live fast. Die Young. Bad girls do it well.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Magic Bound ❫ 🎔 ❝Witches are in fairytales not real life up until now.❞ ❰Alternative Universe❱

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Adventures in iconic Editing ❫ 🎔 ❝Look at this. Jennifer is playing in photoshop again.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Queue ❫ 🎔 ❝When the lights go out in New Orleans.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Giveaways ❫ 🎔 ❝Amazing People that do giveaways.❞

★·.·´ ❪ Dash Only // Starter Call ❫ 🎔 ❝ Like for a starter. If you are a multi muse please comment on who you want the starter for. ❞

#★彡 Signs her letters with Xs and Os ❰Out Of Character❱

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years

Text

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 20/02/2021 (Lil Tjay & 6LACK, Taylor Swift, slowthai)

Okay, so we’ve got a busy week ahead of us, actually a pretty massive one to deep-dive through – and it’s immediately obvious from the second song on the chart, but for now, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo hangs on for what I believe is its sixth week at #1, and we’ve got a lot to cover.

Rundown

First of all, why’s this a big week? Well, there is an album bomb – or at least all that the UK Singles Chart allows for album bombs – and everything that could have debuted... debuted high. So in the UK Top 75, which is what I cover, we’ve got an awful lot to discuss. First of all, our drop-outs, other than debuts from last week, include “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong, “Train Wreck” by James Arthur, “Golden” by Harry Styles, “SO DONE” by The Kid LAROI, “Therefore I Am” by Billie Eilish, “All Girls are the Same” by the late Juice WRLD, “All I Want” by Olivia Rodrigo and fittingly, “Skin” by Sabrina Carpenter. We also have a fair few losers, like “Bringing it Back” by Digga D and AJ Tracey down to #16 off of the top 5 debut and all of Fredo’s tracks skidding down off of the album bomb two weeks ago, like “Money Talks” with Dave at #19, “Ready” featuring Summer Walker at #37 and “Burner on Deck” with Young Adz and the late Pop Smoke at #51. We also have “34+35” by Ariana Grande not getting a remix boost at #30 (though it can get the album boost next week), “Love Not War (The Tampa Beat)” by Jason Derulo and Nuka collapsing at #39, “Regardless” by RAYE and Rudimental at #48, “willow” by Taylor Swift at #49, “Lemonade” by Internet Money and Gunna featuring Don Toliver and NAV at #50, “positions” by Ariana Grande at #52, “i miss u” by Jax Jones and Au/Ra at #55, “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #56, “Be the One” by Rudimental featuring MORGAN, Digga D and TIKE at #58, “Martin & Gina” by Polo G at #59 (I’m surprised we didn’t get “GNF (OKOKOK)” debut, by the way), “What You Know Bout Love” by the late Pop Smoke at #61, “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles at #62, “Loading” by Central Cee collapsing at #63, “No Time for Tears” by Nathan Dawe and Little Mix doing the same at #65 (probably both victims of streaming cuts), “Apricots” by Bicep at #68, “Really Love” by KSI featuring Craig David and Digital Farm Animals at #69, “Looking for Me” by Paul Woodford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax at #70 and “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio at #73. What may be more interesting than our notable fallers are our notable gains and returning entries, however, as whilst only “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper returned to #64, we also have some inexplicable or just plain bad gains. “Roses” by SAINt JHN and remixed by Imanbek seemingly has a second wind at #67, along with “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran at #57 and “Someone You Loved” by Lewis Capaldi at #42, but our other gains are mostly recent debuts, like “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #45, “Astronaut in the Ocean” by Maxed Wolf at #44, “Believe Me” by Navos at #43, “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence at #33 and finally, “Friday”, Riton’s ugly Nightcrawlers remix featuring Musafa & Hypeman dopamine re-editing itself into the top 10 at #10, becoming everyone’s first in that category, except the Nightcrawlers themselves getting their first top 10 since 1995, even if it’s just “Push the Feeling On” getting into the top 10 a second, separate time 26 years later... and it’s scary to think 1995 is indeed 26 years ago. Anyway, let’s start to make sense of these new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#72 – “MAZZA” – slowthai featuring A$AP Rocky

Produced by SAMO, slowthai and Kwes Darko

Now, the charts may be chaotic because of the general weakness of it all but it also allows for artists you wouldn’t really expect to do that well get #1 albums, and slowthai’s riding the waves of controversy, his well-received debut album and, you know, a genuinely very good quality of work, as his sophomore effort, TYRON, debuts at #1 on the UK Albums Chart, and we’ve got three songs from Ty on this singles chart, which is the highest amount the chart actually allows, meaning this is an album bomb. Yeah, an album bomb from slowthai – that’s the one thing you can guarantee ONLY ever happens on the UK charts... well, okay, there are many things, but we’ll get to those later. I’m surprised “MAZZA” didn’t debut higher given the music video, big-name feature, being one of the catchiest on the record and the fact that it’s getting radio play, but it’s still here, so who’s to complain? This track, from the emptier A-side of “bangers” in the first half of the album, relies on a quirky synth loop and a bouncy trap beat for slowthai and Rocky to individually prove themselves on and, yeah, the song is pretty great, with a really infectious hook and mostly really smooth flows, propelled by the charisma that just so easily spreads out of every word Ty raps. The title itself is slang that basically something is “mad” – that in, crazy and fun – and that is fitting for the song, which seems to be at a disconnect between the content, beat and feature. Ty flip-flops between flexing, depression and drug addiction, whilst A$AP Rocky just delivers some flexing... but when it’s one of Rocky’s best verses in years, I’m just glad to have him spitting here finally. This is far from the most interesting track on the record but it’s definitely an empty banger cruising on energy more than anything, which is good because it has that in spades. I’d like to point out though that much like the rest of the first half of this album, it is derivative: this is a beat you could see either Rocky or Playboi Carti on, and Ty seems to be doing mostly Rocky-esque flows with a definite attempt at doing the same ad-lib-focal song structure as Carti would. This is unfortunate by now but I can see him growing out of his influence as time comes, although it is a concern when it’s clearer on your bangers than it is your retrospective tunes, which are also pretty clearly Kanye- and BROCKHAMPTON-inspired. Speaking of...

#72 – “terms” – slowthai featuring Dominic Fike and Denzel Curry

Produced by Mount Kimbie, JD. Reid and Kenny Beats

It’s crazy to see production credits from Mount Kimbie and Kenny Beats on the UK Singles Chart... but with that said, you’d expect that to end up as one of the best songs on the chart, especially with this trio of artists. Sadly, the tracks that debuted this week are not close to my favourites off of the project, but if songs like “45 SMOKE”, “push”, “nhs”, “focus”, “PLAY WITH FIRE” and my personal favourite, “i tried”, aren’t going to chart, then I guess we can deal with this to show the more introspective side of the record and slowthai as a whole... except this song is exceptionally shallow in that lane, discussing the downsides of fame in a way that feels tired and done before, even on the same album – and we’ll get to that in a bit. Dominic Fike discusses his words being “jumbled” when in reality I don’t think anything Ty has said has been confused or taken out of context. It doesn’t help that this beat has a drowned-out guitar sample that just sounds ugly below a dark, menacing 808 and trap percussion that take Dominic Fike out of his element so much that he just sounds awful on the hook. Slowthai may have a faster flow here but he’s remarkably unfocused content-wise, and Denzel Curry doesn’t deliver more than a badly-mixed Memphis rap interlude that you can barely tell is him. This is far from bad, I do like the subtle vocal samples in the chorus and slowthai’s second verse about his daily schedule is genuinely really great, but it feels like wasted potential. Fun fact: This is actually Denzel’s first ever song to chart in the UK... if you can even call it his song. We’ll see Ty more later as we get higher on the chart.

#60 – “Cover Me in Sunshine” – P!nk and Willow Sage Heart

Produced by the Struts

Okay, so this is a song by P!nk with her young child daughter... Hmm, okay, so this is a ballad relying on acoustic guitar picking and some really ugly echoed percussion as well as two voices that go from meshing not at all to meshing too well together for voices 30 years apart. I’d like to end it here because this song really isn’t interesting past the novelty factor and some strange mixing in the first verse especially but as a bland uplifting “Fight Song”-type song, I guess it works though I don’t know about you but if I were going through a global pandemic right now with no real source of income, no end in sight and constant governmental error that’s killing thousands of people nationwide, I wouldn’t want a child who was born into millionaires telling me that it’s all going to be okay... oh, yeah, we are in that situation and I don’t want to hear this at any point, especially because this is generic and frankly, not worth anyone’s time.

#54 – “Mixed Emotions” – Abra Cadabra

Produced by TR the Producer

Okay, so when I said this would be a big week I did not mean or expect that it would be a good week, as we can tell already, but Abra Cadabra is here with a “thugs-need-love-too” track to drive that point home. Apparently a snippet of this went viral before its official release in a Valentine’s Day EP I didn’t know existed, which I honestly don’t get because there’s nothing stand-out about this song, like, at all. It’s got a guitar-based trap beat as Abra Cadabra croons in his admittedly pretty interesting, rich voice but he’s not saying anything interesting and this beat is just incompetent, with those badly-mixed swooshing sound effects that come in way too many times, and the fact that half the song is lacking percussion for no reason other than to make the beat sound busier than it is, even when it already has that ugly acoustic guitar lick playing through the whole thing in the front of the mix and... yeah, what’s the point in really critiquing this? Abra can’t even really hold much of a flow, especially in the meandering second verse, so not much of value is lost when this inevitably drops out next week.

#53 – “Big” – Rita Ora, Imanbek and David Guetta featuring Gunna

Produced by Mike Hawkins, Toby Green, Spenser, Sam Martin, David Guetta and Imanbek

This is the lead single – if you can call it that – from a trainwreck of a collaborative EP by COVID-19 super-spreader Rita Ora and everyone’s favourite Kazakh DJ, Imanbek, who seems to be chasing hits here with no real gain. You can already tell this is going to be hilariously bad, right? There are four primary artists seemingly picked out of a hat who had never collaborated prior to this EP, with two vocalists that would not mesh at all, and two producers... as well as four others to engineer this mix out so that the actual DJs and producers here become pretty much in name only. So, this is an already pointless song in all capacities, but then we find out that Ed Sheeran had a hand in writing this... this is just prepped for disaster. Fittingly, the song’s bad in a hilariously boring way. It starts with a bassy synth lead and some generic house production before Rita Ora comes in with a really unconvincing delivery that does not help to propel some genuinely bad singing in the pre-chorus and awkward songwriting. “Blame it on the city how I’m ballin’”? “Big tanks looking like Transformers”? It’s even funnier when you note that that line is where the beat cuts out (kind of) and it doesn’t rhyme with the rest of the verse at all. There’s some really bad vocal processing that makes Rita Ora sound overly digitised, much like a lot of Imanbek’s production, but also emphasises her in the mix along with the vocal mixing being generally overly loud compared to the rest of the production, which doesn’t really have a proper drop so it just goes nowhere other than a brief drum fill that comes out of nowhere and serves no real purpose. Rita Ora delivers rap clichés or at least lines I’ve heard before in the most generic possible way in the second verse, with as much charisma as Gunna’s literally phoned-in verse, mixed awfully, where the beat doesn’t even dignify his existence by just staying on the build-up and not even properly giving him the trap breakdown that it’s clearly going for. There’s this one stray kick or 808 note in that verse that goes nowhere. It’s honestly hilarious how dreadful this song is, lacking any groove or punch that it would need to become even a guilty pleasure... if you still use that term, anyway. Just fascinating. Anyway, let’s get to the top 40.

#39 – “CANCELLED” – slowthai featuring Skepta

Produced by SAMO, Kelvin Krash and Kwes Darko

Yeah, okay, so this song isn’t great either. Although I’m glad slowthai is in the top 40, it won’t be for long and it’s not because of Ty. It’s because this is a Skepta song through and through. He does the hook, has a verse and a presence on the intro and post-chorus. It’s probably good that it is as well because Skepta does the best he can with his menacing delivery over a pretty weak flute-trap beat that sounds as sleepy as Skepta’s flow on the chorus, which is even more awkward when it takes a left turn for an unnecessary post-chorus. Ty brings energy here and some pretty funny lines but is overall a non-presence on his own song, being over-shadowed by the bass knock and interrupted by Skepta’s hook at the end of his verse. Skepta brings a better verse, with some genuinely really fun flow switches but nothing content wise to make this song that’s already barely two minutes feel like it adds anything to... well, anything. The song itself is trying to prove a heavy-handed yet misguided point about cancel culture, which I don’t think even exists, and how it “kills art” when in reality anything further than stans or trolls on Twitter is probably deserved. When a book shop stops selling J.K. Rowling books, it’s not because they’re silencing or censoring art as much as they are not giving profits to a terrible person with too much time and money on their hands. Thankfully, neither of these guys are terrible people but what backlash they have had has been either from a deserved place or not from the left. There was an incident at an awards show with Katherine Ryan that didn’t get him cancelled but got Ty some brief backlash. Everybody swiftly moved on, and nothing changed except I think he delivered some kind of apology, not that I would remember because this song retcons whatever regret he has for it. He also got some backlash from the British news media – see: the right-wing – from displaying a severed head of Boris Johnson on stage, but again, if backlash “killed art”, you wouldn’t have a #1 album. As much as it wants to be a middle-finger to cancel culture, it ends up as a worthless flex track from rappers who’ve done much better. It’s not bad at all – and I’m glad the guy’s having success (I mean, after all, the album is overall good and he’s a fellow Northamptonshire resident). I just don’t think this song really works at all for what it’s trying to do.

#35 – “Siberia” – Headie One featuring Burna Boy

Produced by TheElements and AoD

This is an awfully rap-centric episode, huh? Well, this is from the deluxe edition of Headie’s album Edna, because that trend’s not going away any time soon... and I think Abra Cadabra could learn from this because this is how you do a low-key guitar trap single, with those watery, almost Blink-182-esque acoustic loops under a somewhat off-kilter trap beat as Headie mumbles in his smoother voice and faster, fun flows that do remind me too much of Gunna but overall sound pretty great. The cadences, especially in the chorus, are pretty infectious, and honestly the song could just use with some refinement in the mixing category and with Burna Boy’s verse, as whilst the singer definitely delivers the energy here, his voice is particularly muddy in this mix and his flow is more janky. With some multi-tracking or backing ad-libs, this could have definitely sounded better. The strings and electric guitar that come in at the final chorus were a welcome surprise though, and Burna Boy’s soulful delivery on the final outro verse sounds better than his actual verse, so I don’t really know what went wrong here. The content isn’t all too interesting, but I’m a sucker for geography references so the hook would have always made me chuckle and that’s before the shallow but deserved political commentary in Headie’s verse as well as Burna Boy making... perhaps insensitive references to infections in his more Young Thug-like inflections that do sound fun and more out-there as a contrast to Headie keeping it a bit tighter. Yeah, this isn’t perfect but it’s a pretty good trap banger so check it out.

#27 – “UK Hun?” – United Kingdolls

Produced by Freddy Scott and Leland

And now in stark contrast, drag queens. I don’t follow RuPaul’s Drag Race at all but I very much understand its appeal, especially now that it’s come to the UK on BBC Three, with I believe Graham Norton at the helm. This is a song from its second season that apparently takes homage from Eurovision for a song which has a title that is literally a pun. “You okay, hun?” but because it’s Britain, it’s UK. Very, very clever. At least it’s up-front right out of the gate so you can expect what will end up as pretty dumb fun... and this is immediately obvious from the intro which introduces you to the chorus: “bing, bang, bong, sing, sang, song, ding, dang, dong, UK, hun”. Okay, so this wasn’t ever going to be a prowess in songwriting, although you’d think there’d be something more here given MNEK’s involvement. Each contestant in the race gets a rap verse here over a pretty rote late 2000s dance-pop beat, with varying levels of charisma but ultimately a lot of energy from people who pretty clearly can’t sing, not that it matters when there’s the Auto-Tune slathered on top of the pre-chorus and chorus. I do feel like I’m separated from the show enough to be completely mystified by this, but really, the song’s not bad, and I can dig the upbeat synths in the chorus, even if the childlike novelty of it makes it a lot less enjoyable to me, personally. At the end of the day, it’s a sugary pop song about confidence with a pretty great fourth verse about loving yourself for who you are, so I can’t hate that. Also “gender-bender, cis-tem offender” is kind of a bar.

#25 – “We’re Good” – Dua Lipa

Produced by Scott Harris, Emily Warren and SLY

Future Nostalgia is a great album, and like all great albums, it needs a mediocre deluxe edition with snippets of leftover, unfinished tracks and remixes... no, wait, no album ever needs that. Sadly, life doesn’t go my way all of the time, so Dua released a “Moonlight Edition”, the fifth version of the album to be released as far as I know, and other than a hilarious JID collaboration in the form of “Not My Problem”, it’s not worth listening to past the first 11 tracks that were already on the standard edition. This track is the worst of them all, stripping away any of the disco groove and grandiose strings that defined the vibe of the album for a really bland, vaguely tropical trap-pop tune. The only remnant of the disco theme is the chorus referencing cocaine, which seems bizarrely out of character if anything, although it doesn’t help that Dua sounds checked-out, especially on the verses but also on the chorus which definitely takes some inspiration from emo-pop in those guitar tones but not in those awkward, first-take vocal deliveries that make the chorus flow pretty awfully. This songwriting is consistently janky too, with the overly short bridge serving no real purpose and the song itself feeling like an under-written, over-produced waste of everyone’s time. I’m surprised Dua couldn’t debut higher than #25, but at the same time I understand why people aren’t enjoying this as much as the prior singles, because this is bad.

#23 – “Commitment Issues” – Central Cee

Produced by mokuba

This guy is just releasing a bunch of singles and squandering any potential I saw in him, huh? Well, okay, this is from an upcoming album but that doesn’t make its acoustic guitar loops any more interesting or the content any more dissonant from its hard-hitting UK drill beat and his aggressive delivery. Like, there’s nothing about his flow or the instrumental that makes sense for a song where he’s apologising to his ex and trying to convince her to come back to him... at all. I’d get annoyed by a song that’s not cohesive in its content, but this one is annoyingly so, with the content never giving a reason for the dark, menacing 808 slides other than the... arguments with the woman he describes in the hook? It does kind of work with the flow there, but, like... why? Why does this exist? This isn’t convincing, it can’t be a banger because of its overly-specific break-up themes and it’s just a mess of a song, not helped by the fact he goes off trailing in the second verse about how many “hoes” he has, which is honestly kind of funny given in the first verse, he acknowledges that his ex hates those types of lyrics. Man, Central Cee was onto something with the jazz-drill on “Loading”, where did any of that go?

#12 – “Love Story (Taylor’s Version)” – Taylor Swift

Produced by Taylor Swift and Christopher Rowe

The original “Love Story” is one of my favourite Taylor Swift songs. There’s something so sweet and Mew Mew Power about it. I don’t know if that’ll work as an adjective for anyone else but what I’m saying is it really emphasises the inner “white teenage girl in the 2000s” that many have hidden in them, with its cute banjo intro and honestly kind of funny misinterpretation of the original Romeo & Juliet text, none of which has been fixed in this new version. Out of the stuff I’ve heard from the country-pop era of Taylor’s work, it’s definitely one of the catchiest, most melodramatic choruses, probably second to my favourite from this era, “Mine”. Well, this new version has to be made so that Taylor Swift can own the rights again to her music that Scooter Braun sold after she left the Big Machine label. Honestly, I think I prefer a younger Taylor Swift in the context of such a cutesy, pretty song with all its childlike novelties – I mean, a 30-year-old Taylor Swift won’t misremember details from Shakespearean texts. Not to say that she sounds bad here because she sounds great, especially over the more refined, modern production and the incredible strings in the chorus that are emphasised in this mix. I can’t say that much of a cover that takes the original and does exactly the same thing with it, just with a more modern instrumental that honestly has a pretty epic instrumental bridge. Ultimately, this is taking a great song and making it sound better and more accessible for an audience a decade or so detached from the original “Love Story” and it sounds pretty great doing it.

#2 – “Calling My Phone” – Lil Tjay and 6LACK

Produced by Non Native, Bordeaux and G. Ry

This chart week ended up being less of a beast to tackle than I thought it was, mostly because there are a couple good fun songs sprinkled in the range of mediocrity here. Now this is the final song to discuss and... this is just as inexplicable as “drivers license”. If it weren’t for the streaming numbers, I’d be convinced this is an error and this should have been switched with the second-highest debut, as it makes no sense for Lil Tjay and 6LACK to debut at the #2 spot in the UK. For context, Lil Tjay is an Auto-Tune crooner from the Bronx, in a similar vein to a Lil Tecca or A Boogie wit da Hoodie, who I thought would completely disappear post-“Pop Out” given he seemed to be on the Lil Tecca route as most of his other singles just couldn’t stick the landing other than I guess “F.N.”. Admittedly, that might be because they were pretty bad, and I think he actually kind of ruined “Pop Out” by killing its momentum with his non-existent presence and gross Auto-Tune whine, but he seems to have gotten a lot of traction since then from a posthumous Pop Smoke record as he wastes time on “Mood Swings”, which became a pretty massive hit for Tjay and the late Pop Smoke, with a lot more longevity than I expected, even though it was my personal least favourite on that posthumous album. 6LACK is more for the alternative and hip-hop head crowd, known less for his street bangers than he is for his smooth alternative R&B collaborations with guys like J. Cole. He has mainstream attention and has tried to cross over before, but ultimately he’s probably better guest-starring on robotic Gorillaz singles with Elton John of all people... or at least that’s what I thought, because they seem to have just released a single with no real promo other than TikTok previews and a music video, and it blew up immensely almost immediately. Maybe it’s good timing given Valentine’s Day but this seems like a combination of weak charts and a genuinely organic sudden hit, pushed by a label of course but not without word of mouth and... I don’t know, I’m kind of clueless on why this is so big here, and seemingly everywhere, but I’m not complaining. Wait, no, I am complaining because I’m not a fan at all. I can go for smoother, more soulful R&B but something about this is way too jagged for it to work for me, with Tjay delivering some pretty bored, mumbled crooning over melancholy pianos and an infectious but off-beat chipmunk vocal sample that acts a refrain because nothing Lil Tjay does is catchy enough. His verse is really sloppy, as is the piano, and the percussion is kind of just gross in how it’s mixed. Thankfully, 6LACK is here for some brief relief on the second verse, as he actually has a presence with his cruising, subtle multi-tracked delivery that sounds genuinely pretty great and would be at better use with bass that isn’t mastered like this and maybe an actual chorus. In fact, I think this would work as a UK garage song with that vocal sample if you speed up the whole track and add some actual groove to it, so someone please get on that because otherwise I don’t see any reason why this is so high. It’s just lethargic R&B, really just basic and tired.

Conclusion

Yeah, this was a big week but sadly I think it is shrouded in a lot of mediocrity that I think will be gone by next week, so whilst the UK chart chaos can be fun, especially when I’ve got nothing else to do, I’m not sure if any of these songs really stick. Best of the Week goes to Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Love Story” with a really close Honourable Mention in slowthai’s “MAZZA” featuring A$AP Rocky, just hedging out Headie One. With the worst, we have a lot to choose from but because of its high debut and hence the expected hype, I’ll give Worst of the Week to “Calling My Phone” by Lil Tjay and 6LACK, with tied Dishonourable Mentions to “Big” by Rita Ora, Imanbek and David Guetta featuring Gunna, and honestly Central Cee’s “Commitment Issues” for not working on any level, though it really easily could have gone to Dua Lipa, P!nk or Abra Cadabra. Here’s this week’s top 10:

Honestly, I have no idea what’s coming for next week other than Ariana Grande’s deluxe edition. Maybe Trippie Redd’s pop-punk album can make somewhat of a splash? I don’t know, I don’t think anything too big is coming but I’m probably wrong. I just know that a lot of this’ll be gone by next week. Follow me on Twitter @cactusinthebank if you feel the need to do so and I’ll see you next week.

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richmegavideo · 6 years

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Dart Adams presents The Top 50 Hip Hop Albums, EP’s & Mixtapes Of 2009 (The Final Top 200)

This is a list of what I consider to be the Top 200 Hip Hop LP’s, EP’s & mixtapes from this year so far. Please keep in mind that in order for me to even narrow this list to 200 I had to exclude all instrumental albums with the exception of Exile’s “Radio” (as it could’ve easily been Album Of The Year) otherwise it would’ve just been ridiculous and impossible to narrow to just 200 Hip Hop albums. This is the final time I do this, after three years I’m sure you all get the point I’m trying to make by now.

Also keep in mind that I’ve heard slightly less than 700 different projects this calendar year (my gmail account was bananas). I’m sure that my Bloggerhouse brethren Eric & Travis have quite a few projects in mind that I missed. That should give you all an idea as to just how deep 2009 was with quality material that you probably never even heard of.

In the comments section feel free to gripe, bitch and/or moan about Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Wale, Fabolous, Busta Rhymes or “insert wack rapper’s name here” lackluster ass album not being in my top 200. Also feel free to add albums, EP’s & mixtapes I missed (like Pill’s). I head mad albums that are still in my rotation that missed this cut (Moka Only made so many albums I stopped him at one so “Summer Notations”, “Carrots & Eggs” & Ron Contour’s”Hot Dog” aren’t on this list).

I’m sure listened to WAY more Hip Hop than you this year (and I probably suffered irreparable damage because of it). All you gotta do to check every Friday of 2009 (both the reviews & Late Passes (For Doz Dat Slept) sections) on this blog for proof. Enjoy (or don’t) my final Poisonous Paragraphs list:

5 O’ Clock Shadowboxers- The Slow Twilight Aarophat & Illastrate-Black Noise Apathy-Wanna Snuggle? Big Tone-The Art Of Ink Blame One-Days Chasing Days

Braille & Symbolyc One-Cloudnineteen

Brother Ali-Us/The Truth Is Here EP

Che Grand-Everything’s Good Ugly Chief-Collabo Collection

D.Black-Ali’yah Danny!-Where Is Danny?

Diamond District-In The Ruff

Diz Gibran-Soon You’ll Understand DJ Spinna-Sonic Smash DOOM-Born Like This

Drake-So Far Gone Elzhi-The Leftovers: The Unmixedtape

Exile-Radio Fashawn-Boy Meets World

Finale-A Pipe Dream And A Promise Freddie Gibbs-Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik Illogic & Ill Poetic-Diabolical Fun J Dilla- Jay Stay Paid

JR & Ph7 present The Standard Keelay And Zaire-Ridin’ High Kev Brown presents Random Joints MAGr-No News Is Good News Marco Polo & Torae-Double Barrel

Moka Only-Lowdown Suite 2: The Box

M.O.P.-Foundation Mos Def-The Ecstatic Obie Trice & MoSS-Special Reserve Oddisee-Mental Liberation Pac Div-Church League Champs Paten Locke-Super Ramen Rocketship Raekwon-Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2

Rapper Big Pooh-The Delightful Bars (North American Pie & Candy Apple Version) Reks-More Grey Hairs

Royce Da 5’9″-Street Hop

Sene & Blu Are…A Day Late & A Dollar Short Slum Village-Villa Manifesto EP Skyzoo-The Salvation Slaughterhouse-S/T Strong Arm Steady & Madlib-In Search Of Stoney Jackson Tanya Morgan-Brooklynati

Thaione Davis-Still Hear

TiRon & DJ LowKey-Ketchup Tiye Phoenix-Half Woman Half Amazin’ yU-Before Taxes

Next 150 (Honorable Mentions):

45-The Revenge Of Soul 50 Cent-Before I Self Destruct 6 Fingers-Who Has Lots Of Fingers? Abstract Rude-Rejuvenation Ace & Edo (Masta Ace & Ed O.G)-Arts & Entertainment/Extra Entertainment A Disturbing New Trend-Year Of The Carnivore Alchemist-Chemical Warfare Ancient Tongue-Time Tells Tales ARES-A Red Eye Smokin’ Atmosphere-Leak At Will AZ-Legendary Big Quarters-From The Home Of Brown Babies With White Mothers Blackroc-S/T Black Sunn-Godsound Blaq Poet- The Blaqprint Blue Scholars-OOF! EP Blu-HerFavoriteColo(u)r Boycott Blues-Irony BP & Odds-The Medium Brokn. English-The Drawing Board Brown Bag All Stars-The Brown Tape Buff1-It’s A 1derful Life BK-One with Benzilla-Radio Do Canibal

Camp Lo-Stone And Rob: Caught On Tape/Another Heist

Cesar Comanche-Die In Your Lap Classified-Self Explanatory The Clipse-Til The Casket Drops

Common Market-The Winter’s End EP Cook Classics-The New Classics The Cool Kids & Don Cannon-Gone Fishing Cormega-Born & Raised Cradle Orchestra-Velvet Ballads Crooked I-Mr. Pig Face Weapon Waist Crown Nation-Slut Bag Edition

CunninLynguists-Strange Journey Volume Two

Currensy-This Is Not A Mixtape/The Jet Files Deep Rooted-D.E.E.P.R.O.O.T.E.D. De La Soul-Are You In?+ Nike Original Run Def Jux All Stars-Def Jux Presents 4 Del Tha Funke Homosapien & Tame One-Parallel Uni-Verse Dillon & Paten Locke-Studies In Hunger DJ JS-1-Ground Original 2: No Sell Out DJ MK presents Skandal-Hunger Pains DJ Quik & Kurupt-BlaQkout Donny Goines-The Breakfast Club DOOM presents Unexpected Guests Dumhi-Indian Summer EP Dylan Thomas & Haz Solo-All Jokes Aside Dynas-The Apartment E-Flash (NBS)-Know The Ledge Earatik Statik-The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Earth Crew-Grassroots: From The Ground Up Educated Consumers-Hello Big Mama Elucid-The Sub Bass Diet Emilio Rojas-Recession Proof/The Natural Eminem-Relapse Eternia-Get Caught Up Fabio Musta-Passport Fatgums x Bambu-A Peaceful Riot Felt (Slug & Murs)-Felt 3: A Tribute To Rosie Perez Film Skool Rejekts-Midnight Movies Fresh Daily-The Gorgeous Killer In: Crimes Of Passion Georgia Anne Muldrow presents Ms. One & The Gang Ghostface Killah-Ghostdini: The Wizard Of Poetry In Emerald City Grand Puba-RetroActive The Grouch & Eligh-Say G&E! Horseshoe G.A.N.G.-Gangsta MC Ilyas-I-El: The Prelude J. Cole-The Warm Up J. Nolan-Resilience J. Period & Q-Tip-The Abstract Best J-Scrilla-Culture Of Honor JC Poppe-Sleep Therapy Jazz Liberatorz-Fruit Of The Past/Clin D’ Oeil Jern Eye-Vision J.J. Brown-Connect The Dots

Joe Budden-Padded Room/Escape Route K-Os-Yes! Kam Moye-Splitting Image Kenn Starr-It’s Still Real Kid Cudi-Man On The Moon: The End Of The Day

Kid Hum & Rock The Dub-Offshore Drilling Kidz In The Hall-The Professional Leisure Tour Krumbsnatcha-Hidden Scriptures KRS One & Buckshot-Survival Skills La Coka Nostra-A Brand You Can Trust L.E.G.A.C.Y-Suicide Music LMNO & Yann Kesz-Devilish Dandruff With Holy Shampoo Marv Won-The Way Of The Won MarQ Spekt X Lex Boogie-Guilty Party Method Man & Redman-Blackout! 2 Mr. J. Medeiros & Boonie Mayfield-The Art Of Broken Glass EP/Friends Enemies Apples Apples Mr. SOS-How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb Myka 9-1969 Naledge-Chicago Picasso Nametag-Classic Cadence Vol. 2 Nico The Beast-Dinner Is Served Mixtape Notes To Self-A Shot In The Dark OC & AG-Oasis Outasight-Further People Under The Stairs-Carried Away Poorly Drawn People-Motion, Not Emotion Psuedo Slang-We’ll Keep Looking

Print-Comic Books: Unlimited Quelle-Blue Mondays Qwel & Maker-So Be It Rashid Hadee & Pugz Atomz-Stormy Raydar Eliis & Quite Nyce-Champs Vs. The League

Red Giants-Chain Reaction EP Reservoir Dogs-Reservoir Dogs Mixtape Rhymefest & Scram Jones-The Manual Ro Spit-The Oh Shit! Project Rob Viktum f/Donwill & Friends-A’ight New Drink Roc C & IMAKEMADBEATS-The Transcontinental

Saigon & Statik Selektah-All In A Day’s Work

Sandpeople-Long Story Short EP Sareem Poems-Black And Read All Over Sean Price-Kimbo Price Sene-Maltas & Music Sha Stimuli-My Soul To Keep Slakah The Beatchild-Soul Movement Vol. 1 Sleep-Hesitation Wounds Sojourn-Sojournalism Souls Of Mischief-Montezuma’s Revenge St. Mic-Honest Music Statik Selektah-The Pre-Game EP Stoupe The Enemy Of Mankind-Decalouge Strange Fruit Project-Making Art Sound Kool Substantial/Burns- Sacrifice Superstar Quamallah-The Invisible Man Tame One & Parallel Thought-Acid Tab Vocab Termanology-Heaven Was A Mile Away/Hood Politics VI: Time Machine Tha Connection-Love Royale Toki Wright-A Different Mirror U-N-I & Ro Blvd-A Love Supreme Wale-Back To The Feature William Cooper-Beware Of The Pale Horse Wu Tang Clan-Wu Tang Chamber Music X.O.-Monumental/Realmatic yU presents The Charlie Ross Project

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