#but he should’ve gotten a grammy for that album. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stylesunchained · 1 year

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Adele apologized coz even she realized that lemonade deserved the award, it was groundbreaking. Renaissance deserved it as well because it's groundbreaking can you seriously listen to both the albums and think yeah Harry's house deserved the biggest win of the night. And then harry goes onstage talking about how it doesn't happen to people like him when the last time a black woman won aoty was in 1999. He'll even bad bunny deserved it if not Beyonce. Both their wins would have been historical for them and for the industry while with harry it's just another album from a white mediocre man winning.

I’m gonna put it in simple terms:

No, I don’t think Renaissance is anywhere near groundbreaking. It’s a subpar album in comparison to everything else Beyoncé has released in the past.

Yes, I believe Harry deserved it because Harry’s House was THE album of 2022 and it was everywhere, unlike Renaissance, which Beyoncé released towards the end of the year and then refused to promote it. I can seriously listen to both albums and recognize greatness in both, as well as see that HsH broke through the glass and reached a whole new audience, while Beyoncé’s album only made noise within her already established fandom.

Harry did deserve the biggest award of the night because he was the biggest artist of 2022 and no argument you guys can come up with will change that. It was his year.

You’re all acting like Beyoncé left that awards show empty handed when she did not. Her not winning AOTY doesn’t change she’s the most awarded artist of all time and doesn’t take away her greatness.

Harry worked hard to get where he is and what he meant when saying “things like these don’t happen to people like me very often” was that people like him, who came from a small village in England with literally 5k residents, people like him who came from a talent show and a boyband who are historically not taken seriously by the Grammys, people like him who were just regular and usually don’t get up to the level of prestige he achieved when winning AOTY and being even NOMINATED for a Grammy. You people are misunderstanding him ON PURPOSE, because you want to be mad.

While all of the above is true, the structural racism within the Grammy voting system still exists and shouldn’t be ignored. Beyoncé should’ve gotten AOTY for Lemonade and so many other black women should’ve been recognized by their greatness in the past. TWO THINGS CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME: while she is being a victim of the system, this year was not her time to get AOTY because Renaissance was simply not the album with most impact throughout 2022. If the Grammys have ANY sense whatsoever, they will give her AOTY next year, after she’s done her tour and performances all over, because everyone knows 2023 will be THE Beyoncé year.

Finally, and most important of all: you people are the mediocre ones, putting down another artist to lift another. Beyoncé has been nothing but graceful over the years, she has shown appreciation and love towards Harry and so should the Beyhive. But you guys choose to be disrespectful because your fave didn’t win when she shouldn’t have and you can’t accept it. You can’t give people a “retrospective Grammy” to compensate for all the times they lost in the past. This wasn’t her year, it was Harry’s and that’s done.

People have continuously found new reasons to trash him and send him hate and he’s done nothing egregious or mean spirited to deserve it. He’s only been thriving and making good music and being a fucking great artist who is, after twelves years in the industry, finally being recognized for his hard work. That is all.

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circusofclowns · 1 year

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lol i never say shit but the grammys AOTY throw down had gotten me riled up so imma say my piece and dip back into the darkness

i’ve been a fan of harry for over 10 years now (fuck that’s crazy to say) so i’ll always be proud of him, like to get recognised at the biggest night of the year, my little ol bakery boy, it’s crazy to think honestly, he’s worked hard to get to where he is and i will be in awe of him for the rest of my life, he’s shaped the way i am today and i’d like to think i’m a better person for it

harry’s house was my top album of last year, it was released during my final month at a uni, a truly trying time for me emotionally and physically, it let me escape out of that bubble and i’m grateful for that, but that’s my personal experience with the album, not everyone else’s and just because i was listening to it on repeat doesnt mean i think it’s his magnum opus

personally harry’s house aint his best work, i will always stand by HS1, cohesively as an album, it’s a masterpiece and for his DEBUT single to be sign of the times? legendary, iconic, life changing, the recording academy are just cowards (what’s new) for not acknowledging his debut stuff purely because post 1D, like how can you nominate watermelon sugar but not sign of the times like pls

now i am extremely and i mean extremely proud of harry for winning album of the year, it’s the pinnacle of the music world (conventionally speaking) but it’s a bittersweet win, i love harry with all my heart but jesus christ how the fuck do the recording academy keep on snubbing beyoncé for the top 4 awards, album after album, release after release

now i’m not a full on beyoncé stan but i grew up listening to her music, it became a part of who i am in discovering myself, she has changed the game, i mean hell she has the most grammys ever, an incredible feat that should be talked about for weeks to come, she has worked so hard and her music speaks volumes and represents such important stories that usually get brushed aside, she’s changed the game, so for the grammys to seemingly deliberately keep on snubbing her, it sits so wrongly to me, like genuinely they aren’t giving it to her cos she’s black that’s literally the only answer at this point

personally speaking renaissance isn’t my kind of music i listen to nowadays, and that’s ok! we all have preferences and different tastes in music, that doesn’t mean i can’t recognise when art is exceptionally good (coming from a music graduate)

in a perfect world to me, harry would’ve gotten recognised for his true best work years ago in HS1 and for fuck sake beyoncé should’ve had like three AOTY grammys by now but alas the industry works in fucked up ways

i love and appreciate both harry and beyoncé and i’m allowed to feel both proud and upset by this outcome

thanks for coming to my ted talk that’s all i have to say

#harry styles #grammys #grammys 2023 #beyonce #i’m gonna get killed for this arent i #maybe i should just stick to my rich men driving in circles instead

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bisluthq · 2 years

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is it possible that tay & joe genuinely worked on folkmore together (like, she asked him for input on most songs maybe)? and that’s why she kept saying that they wrote 2 albums like to tiernan lol. but they didn’t want to give WB production credits on like every song from the get go cause that would draw too much attention? (like taylor swift’s bf having production credits on idk 80% of an album wouldn’t make a good headline imo) and so they only initially credited WB on songs he started composing (exile/betty) or like actively contributed lyrics to

I mean he obviously wrote the songs he wrote and that inspired her to go in the fictionalized direction imo - hence she feels he’s very responsible I think because the songs she had started writing weren’t with characters that was something he brought - and he obviously has been chiming in with suggestions since latter half of Rep tbh. If he was gonna get credited for production, he should’ve been credited for production. If they didn’t want attention the first time round, fair, but then why isn’t he credited for production on evermore?

Because chiming in - which again I’m sure he’s done on the latter half of Rep and on Lover and on the Vault tracks and shit - is not Grammy award worthy production.

Taylor quite obviously thought the 33% rule was garbage because people have won them for less work than he did so she added him to production credits for exactly the number of songs he needed to win the Grammy statuette instead of receive a certificate. It’s impossible to disprove him doing it because he was in the room where it happened and obviously spoke up sometimes.

But if she thought he actually deserved production credits and it wasn’t about the Grammy rule he’d have gotten production credits for evermore and tbh the TVs.

There’s like no alternative explanation: they’re just both not that into rules. They’re not evil and it’s not like the worst thing ever. It’s just a bit pathetic.

#grammygate

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fallingsunflower · 3 years

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He would have been a modern day rockstar. I do agree the rock song fit his voice better, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of pop with him but I'll support it if that's what he's into. however I get the feeling it was more of a money grab. Idk I feel like I can't explain it without someone getting upset and that's not my intention at all //

Agreed mod. The way the songs have been arranged for tour in a more bluesy way is chefs kiss. The man loves jazz and blues and his voice is very suited for slower songs where he can riff and rock. He has a very southern rock voice IMO. I love his arrangement for tour and I think this is probably more how he wanted it or wrote it but he went poppier to deliver why he needed to. I won’t say it’s a money grab but he knew what kind of album he needed to produce with FL and he did but in his own unique way and I’m proud AF of him for that. Also agreed they slapped him in the face by giving WS a Grammy when SOTT should’ve gotten it. I’m happy for him getting a Grammy bc I know how big a deal that was to him. You could see the shock on his face and how emotional it was. To win a Grammy as a musician is like the biggest honor even if they’re on some BS. But I don’t think WS deserved it.

I think Harry was deserving but not necessarily WMS, if that makes sense. Good song but idk. Maybe my feelings are off because it was overplayed but I stand by my thought that SOTT deserved one

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ipoddymouth · 3 years

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Zayn’s music boring? I don’t think so but regardless of your opinion everyone can agree he was snubbed in 2016 when he had a number one single and number one album and the Grammys failed to nominate him in anything. I think Zayn still has the edge over niall simply down to talent and music quality. Zayn’s music >>>> Niall’s

gglgjajteag his music is hit or miss for me BUT when its good it’s fuckin GOOD and i do think that if they’re out here nominating shit like señorita and yummy then idwtlf should’ve gotten tossed a bone as well (was that the year reputation came out? i feel like they were mad at taylor for something bc they paid her dust)

i also think (and know) zayn is a better singer than niall but niall makes the shit that the grammy’s are more likely to pick up on which is why i think he has a slight edge

in a world where they were all making music that suited their voices i think liam would’ve won a grammy first then zayn

#i feel like if they had a white man who could do r&b they'd try and throw him in that cat but again if liam #did fs/ls likes jt he would fuckin EAT #Anonymous

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stereostevie · 3 years

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The Rap Grammy Nominations Are Weird As Hell | Nov 25, 2020 11:12 AM BY TOM BREIHAN

The very first time that the Grammy Awards recognized rap music, it was an utter fiasco — a clear case of an aging pop-music establishment failing to understand this vital new youth music that had sprung up and rewritten the rules. For the 1989 awards show, the Grammys added one rap category, Best Rap Performance. DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince won it for “Parents Just Don’t Understand,” beating out LL Cool J and Salt-N-Pepa and Kool Moe Dee and JJ Fad. The show didn’t deign to recognize Public Enemy, N.W.A, EPMD, Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, or Ice-T, all of whom had released classic albums within the voting window. The award wasn’t televised, and most of the nominees, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince included, skipped the show, attending a “Boycott The Grammys” party instead.

Since that night, the history of rap at the Grammys has been a series of baffling, embarrassing decisions. It’s Steely Dan winning Album Of The Year over The Marshall Mathers LP. It’s Gretchen Wilson winning Best New Artist over Kanye West. “It’s weird and it sucks that I robbed you.” It’s also a history of rappers getting angry over the Grammys: “I never let a statue tell me how nice I am,” “You think I give a damn about a Grammy?” In 2019, Drake showed up to accept Best Rap Song. In his acceptance speech, he talked about how the Grammy voters weren’t necessarily the right people to define rap success. The broadcast cut him off mid-speech. Earlier this year, Kanye West, a man who once cared more about Grammy Awards than anyone else not named Neil Portnow, tweeted a video of himself pissing on one of his Grammys. (The Grammys still nominated West this year, for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album.)

Yesterday, the Grammys nominated Freddie Gibbs and the Alchemist’s Alfredo in the Best Rap Album category. That’s great! Freddie Gibbs is a great underground rap success story, a guy who bet on himself and kept doing great work in his own lane even after multiple major-label situations fell apart. Gibbs has never made a hit song in his life, and he’s gotten himself into a position where he doesn’t need to make hit songs — where he can just follow his instincts and keep his own style intact. Alfredo isn’t my favorite rap record of the year. (Even in the field of Alchemist-produced 2020 rap albums, I’d give the slight edge to Boldy James’ The Price Of Tea In China.) But the nomination for Alfredo is still a very cool surprise, the kind of thing that I would’ve never expected to see from the Grammy nominating committee.

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And yet Gibbs’ nomination doesn’t exactly announce a new golden age of Grammy rap consideration, a time when Recording Academy voters are finally figuring out how to approach the genre. Instead, his nomination points toward something else: An institutional recognition of middlebrow, middle-aged, respectable rap music.

All of this year’s Best Rap Album nominees are Black men between the ages of 35 and 47. The oldest nominee is Nas, who is now on his fifth Best Rap Album nomination and who has never won the award. (The Best Rap Album Grammy didn’t exist in 1994, when Nas released Illmatic, but there’s no way in hell that Nas would’ve won it anyway. The Academy would’ve given the award to Coolio’s It Takes A Thief or something.) The youngest nominee is D Smoke, a former high school Spanish teacher who is also the brother of the TDE R&B singer SiR. D Smoke made his way into Grammy contention after winning the first season of Rhythm + Flow, the Netflix rap-competition show. (Two of the three judges from Rhythm + Flow, Cardi B and Chance The Rapper, have won Best Rap Album themselves. T.I., the other judge, has been nominated three times and never won.)

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D Smoke isn’t exactly a revered or popular rapper, and I have’t seen anyone calling his perfectly-OK album Black Habits a masterpiece, though the man has certainly done better than anyone could’ve expected from a rap reality-show winner. But D Smoke raps exactly like a diet version of Kendrick Lamar, so his nomination works as a clear indication that the Grammy voters really, really wish they had a Kendrick album to nominate. D Smoke is also up for Best New Artist, alongside fellow rappers Chika, Megan Thee Stallion, and (I guess) Doja Cat. Presumably, Megan’s Good News would also be nominated if it had come out early enough to be eligible. Meanwhile, Chika hasn’t released an album, and Doja Cat is nominated in the pop categories, not the rap ones.

Instead, then, we’re looking at five guys hovering around the age of 40, all of whom are respected technicians with boom-bap inclinations. Jay Electronica, who’s nominated for A Written Testimony and who should probably be considered the front-runner, is technically a New Orleans native, but nobody thinks of him as a Southern rapper. (Jay-Z is all over A Written Testimony, to the point where anointing Jay Electronica feels a bit like throwing awards love to Jay-Z in a year with no Jay-Z album.) All the albums up for Best Rap Album are, at the very least, solid. A couple of them, Alfredo and A Written Testimony, are very good. But this is still a remarkably stodgy list — one that shows that the whole middle-aged respectability fetish that’s long plagued the Grammys is now embedded in its rap voting wing.

Freddie Gibbs and Nas and Jay Electronica and D Smoke and Royce Da 5’9″ are all gifted rappers who have done great work. Most of them could justifiably be considered legends. But none of them really show the world where rap music is, let alone where it’s going. By recognizing those albums, the Grammys have pointedly elected not to recognize something like Lil Baby’s My Turn, which is probably 2020’s most popular album in any genre and which is also a fine example of the 808-heavy depressive melodic-goo rap music that currently dominates the genre’s mainstream.

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Other hugely popular, artistically important albums are also absent: Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake, Roddy Rich’s Please Excuse Me For Being Antisocial, Polo G’s The Goat, Gunna’s Wunna, Rod Wave’s Pray 4 Love. Instead, the rap albums getting nominated are the 2020 equivalents of the Steely Dan album that famously beat Eminem. That’s not an indictment of the nominated albums. It’s an indictment of the stuff the Recording Academy values. It’s also a cautionary look of how things might look if the Recording Academy ever gets its way, if rap comes to rely on accepted ossified skill-sets instead of its current state of constant, furious stylistic evolution.

As someone who’s around the same age as this year’s Best Rap Album nominees, I’m not all that amped to see emotionally troubled, pill-gobbling 20-year-olds dominating rap music. But those kids are crucially moving the genre past whatever old men like me might want it to be. Fortunately, there’s at least one Grammy category that has done a pretty good job capturing where things are right now, and that’s Best Rap Song. The list of nominations there — Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture,” Roddy Ricch’s “The Box,” Drake’s “Laugh Now, Cry Later,” DaBaby’s “Rockstar,” and Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” — isn’t necessarily perfect, but it’s a fairly accurate representation of the kind of rap that moves people right now. I don’t know why the division between the Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song nominees is so stark. Maybe it’s a signal that the album is increasingly irrelevant. Maybe it reflects two different voting bodies. Either way, it’s striking.

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Look, the Grammys are weird. They are always going to be weird. Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters should’ve been the biggest lay-up in the world, but it isn’t up for Album Of The Year. Instead, the Academy’s voters went for Coldplay and Jacob Collier and a deluxe edition of a Black Pumas album that didn’t even come out in the eligibility period. “Rockstar” and “Savage” are both up for Record Of The Year, but Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding is the only album that’s even rap-adjacent that’s nominated for Album Of The Year this year. I thought for sure that Lil Baby’s My Turn would be the token rap album that would inevitably lose to Taylor Swift. Instead, we didn’t even get one of those, and My Turn got snubbed even in its own category. Nothing makes sense.

But this year’s Best Rap Albums nominations still show a weird alignment between Grammy Voters and a certain streak of real-hip-hop rap conservatism. Watch out for that. Nothing good, except maybe a Freddie Gibbs Grammy win, will come out of that.

FURIOUS FIVE

1. Roc Marciano – “Downtown 81” It’s not on streaming services yet, but Roc Marciano’s new album Mt. Marci is out in the world now, and it is marvelous. (I can’t tell you whether the digital download is worth the $40 that Marci is charging on his website. Make your own financial decisions.) Right now, the only song out for general consumption is one of the few that Marci didn’t produce himself. (It’s a Jake One beat.) But otherwise, “Downtown 81” is exactly the sort of laid-back, intricately worded deadpan splendor that you can expect to hear on the LP, whenever it goes wide. So maybe that’s worth the price of a full tank of gas.

2. Meek Mill – “GTA” (Feat. 42 Dugg)

Meek Mill released his Quarantine Pack EP on Friday, and the track currently getting the big push is the downbeat Lil Durk collab “Pain Away.” But the real thrill here is in hearing Meek and 42 Dugg getting bracingly urgent over a Detroit-ass bassline.

3. Chief Keef & Mike Will Made-It – “Status” Sosa and Mike Will have evidently chosen to name their new song after this column. Gentlemen, I see this tribute, and I appreciate it. I love you too.

4. Willie The Kid & V Don – “Mother Of Pearls” (Feat. Eto) This is pretty.

5. Statik Selektah – “Play Around” (Feat. Conway The Machine, 2 Chainz, Killer Mike, Allan Kingdom, & Haile Supreme)

Once upon a time, maybe 13 years ago, I was apparently such a recognizable and influential part of the New York rap press that Statik Selektah noticed me at an MOP show, introduced himself, and tried to get me to listen to his mix CD. All these years later, Statik is a globally acknowledged boom-bap specialist with enough juice to put three of the world’s greatest middle-aged rappers on a track together. I’m proud of Statik. I bet he gets nominated for a Grammy someday.

#alchemist #chief keef #d smoke #freddie gibbs #grammys #grammy awards #hip-hop #jay electronica #meek mill #mike will made-it #music #nas #rap #roc marciano #statik selektah #stereogum #willie the kid

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harryimaginestuff · 5 years

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Head Runs Wild

Omg I'm so sorry for not posting for like a month I just haven't been feeling motivated but this was requested by an anon ages ago so here you go finally!

The one where the distance causes a strain on your relationship

Word count: 3k

Genre: Angst (I tried) and a sprinkle of fluff

You miss him.

Mainly because of his absence for almost 3 weeks courtesy of his job calling him to practically every corner of the earth. Distance had never really been an issue in the 4 years that you were with him seeing as you grew beside him as did his career, so distance was something you were used to. If you were being honest those who analysed and scrutinised your relationship believed that it was this same distance that would be your biggest downfall, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth then as the distance really did make the heart grow fonder in your circumstance, causing the both of you to cherish every moment shared.

This time however, the distance had hit you differently.

You miss him. As you always do but that feeling would always disappear as soon as you saw his face again.

But he’s here now, and yet you miss him still. Really, how could you miss someone who’s right beside you?

You should’ve seen this coming, usually when he was in another country it would still feel like he was right there next to you thanks to the constant face times and texts sent back and forth. This time was different though. This time as the weeks went on Harry always had the excuse of being busy, he always had something to do whether it was to see friends or to finish up in the studio. Either way you had never felt more alone.

When Harry had arrived a week ago everything felt out of place, Harry was a lot jumpier than he usually was and in that moment you convinced yourself that it was just because of the upcoming album release, that all of these weird moments that you had recently shared with him were just his nerved being projected through his behaviour.

You recalled a moment when Harry first returned, he had given you a quick hug and kiss before hurrying to the bedroom, dragging his suitcase behind him. After quickly discarding your laptop on the dining table you hurried after him. Only to find the bedroom door locked.

“Why is the door locked Harry?” you had called out, knocking on the door repeatedly.

There was a moment of silence before his voice shakily called out, “Oh sorry, one second I’m on the toilet.”

But there was no flush that followed and once he had let you in, the toilet lights were off even though he always accidently leaves them on, a habit you had always had a go at him for.

“Must’ve gotten used to locking doors after myself since I’ve been staying in hotels for ages.”

“Mmm yeah probably,” you had hummed kissing his puckered lips softly.

The next morning you woke up alone, Harry’s side of the bed was cold something that left you distraught seeing as you were excited to wake up to a warm body besides yours since you’ve been waking up alone and cold for weeks.

“Harry?” you had called out as you stepped out of the bedroom.

“Get back in bed bubs, I’ve got a surprise for you,” he had replied poking his head around the staircase to look at your figure on the top.

“Well if you insist,” as you retreated back into your bedroom your heart swelled as maybe everything was falling back into place.

Whilst Harry busied himself with the surprise you decided to busy yourself with his suitcase since he was doing something so nice for you right now you could return the favour.

“What are you doing?” Harry had said as he came back into the room.

“M’just unpacking your stuff bubs otherwise it’s never going to happen I know exactly what you’re like.”

“Well don’t.” Harry had said bluntly causing you to turn to look at him in shock before he quickly covered for himself, “We’re gonna have a relaxing day of doing absolutely nothing and just staying in bed, I can unpack myself m’a big boy.”

You knew Harry well which was expected seeing as you had been dating for four years, and whilst his excuse was valid and sweet you couldn’t ignore the way his voice rose and cracked slightly and the way his fingers fiddled with the bottom of his shirt causing you to second guess his intentions.

“Now get in bed so I can bring in the surprise.” You smiled lovingly at him, once again deciding to push the minor issue at hand to the back of your mind.

“Surprise!” You watched as Harry brought a tray full of food into the bedroom placing it in the middle before carefully laying down on his side. “Made you breakfast, and I woke up nice and early to do it too.”

You beamed at him and quickly pecked his lips, “Aren’t you the absolute sweetest my gorgeous thoughtful boyfriend.”

The both of you had been sitting in bed for hours basking in one another’s company all issues completely scrapped and left behind as you enjoyed the presence of your love, times like this were rare a consequence of his career choice so the both of you had learnt to treasure it as much as possible.

“Oh yeah, before I forget H, mums asked me to bring you to a Saturday barbeque this weekend and my aunts.”

You watched as Harry pulled a face, “M’not sure right now if I’ll be able to make it, you know how busy I’ve been preparing for the album.”

“Please Harry? She keeps bugging me about you saying that she misses you, and my little cousins do to. You know how much they adore you. Please babes, I’ll love you for more than forever if you do.” You begged, clasping your hands together and pouting, bringing out all the weapons you knew he couldn’t resist.

Harry looked at you hesitantly before nodding slowly causing you to squeal in excitement, “You’re the best.”

Saturday approached quickly and you couldn’t be more excited seeing as you rarely got to bring your boyfriend to the whole of your extended family, something they constantly had a go at you for since they all fell in love with him almost as fast as you did.

Whenever he was present everyone seemed to levitate towards him. Unsurprisingly your little cousins who Harry had no qualms in entertaining whilst your aunts and uncles busied themselves with preparing the food. Even your grandma and taken a liking to him which was a shock to everyone since within your family she was famous for being slightly cold-hearted and distant, but as soon as Harry walked through the doors her face always lit up as she nagged at her family to help her walk over to him. The first time this happened you knew for sure he was the one.

Which is why you were excited for Harry’s arrival at your aunt’s house. The both of you had agreed to just meet there as he had excused himself earlier on in the morning saying that he had errands to run with Nick before going with you.

However, you wish you had asked him not to and to instead just spend his whole day focused on you and your family. It seemed like this had been the case ever since his arrival, he was always disappearing somewhere with half-assed excuses spewing from his mouth.

As night time approached the anxiety within you did not lessen and instead increased as Harry was yet to tell you about his whereabouts despite promising to be there by the afternoon. And with no reply to your messages your mood was constantly shifting from anxious to scared.

Taking matters into your own hands you decided to give Nick a call in hopes that at least he would answer your calls.

“Hello?” he had answered on the first call.

“Hey Nick, it’s y/n. Do you know where Harry is?”

After a long pause he finally answered. “Um, no I don’t sorry.”

“Really? Did you not see him this morning?”

“No, I haven’t sorry, actually haven’t spoken to him in a couple days said he’s been busy with the album and spending time with you.” His answer only caused the worry instead you to explode as your mind reeled at all the possibilities of your boyfriend’s whereabouts.

“Okay thanks anyway, please let me know if you hear anything from him.” With a quick reassurance from him you hung up the phone walking back to the sofa to sit with your grandma.

“Where’s my boy?” she had said turning to look at you.

“M’not sure yet, he should be here soon though.”

“Well he better be, I brought him a batch of biscuits, the one he really likes and if he doesn’t get his little tush here soon I’m afraid I’ll eat them all up.” She had said stuffing a biscuit into her mouth to emphasise her point.

Suddenly the doorbell rang causing you to turn your head so fast your neck clicked. As you rubbed your neck softly your body filled with relief until it was replaced by complete anger as you watched Harry walk through the door so smoothly as if nothing was wrong.

“Harry!” your grandma practically screamed in your ear roughly nudging your arm in a not so subtle hint that she needs your aid in walking over to him.

“Grammie!” he had smiled back carefully bringing her fragile body into his arms before placing a sloppy kiss onto her cheek causing your heart to melt slightly until you remembered his absence during the day.

“Look what I’ve brought you,” she said presenting him with the box of biscuits.

“There’s only one in here, did you get hungry?” he teased taking the box regardless.

“What do you expect after leaving me and your poor girlfriend waiting all day.”

Finally, he turned his focus to you where you shot him the fakest smile you could muster causing Harry to visibly swallow in distress.

“You plonk yourself down here Grammie whilst y/n takes me around to say hi to everyone.”

“Okay but don’t be too long!”

Before Harry could take your hand you quickly began walking down the hallway on your way to the garden.

“I’m sorry bubs.” You heard Harry say, taking two steps just to match your pace.

“Well at least you know you’ve done something wrong, congratulations there aren’t you super smart.”

“Look I-”

“Harry not now okay, just say hi to everyone, they’ve been waiting for you.”

You didn’t wait for his reply and instead gently nudged him in the direction of your waiting family.

You wished you weren’t so upset about this issue seeing as his presence in this particular gathering held no real importance since it was simply a catch up, however Harry had agreed to come both earlier on in the week and the morning of and since Harry had never been one to break promises this worried you immensely and this time there would be no disregarding of the issue at hand.

Silence filled the car as Harry drove back to your shared home and although you were thankful for some silence since you had taken the train earlier this morning, this kind of silence was horrible.

“Are you going to talk to me?” Harry decided to break the silence.

“In a minute, I’m just taking a breather.” You said in an attempt to stay calm as to not completely explode in his face.

After minutes of more silence you finally decided to speak up, “I was so worried Harry, you weren’t answering my texts or calls.”

“I’m sorry I made you worry, my phone died, and I couldn’t get a hold of a charger.” He tried to reason.

“Well that’s nice isn’t it. Tough for you though that now I’m not even worried for you, I’m actually pissed off. You lied to me Harry, and that’s something we both agreed to never do to another, the one thing that we have always had between one another is honesty even when we were just friends we were always honest.”

“Okay well I didn’t mean to turn up late, I just got caught up in a few things,” Harry mumbled fumbling with his top causing you to look at him in complete exasperation.

“Holy shit! You don’t even know what you lied about, are you seriously so caught up in that mind of yours?” Harry only looked at you his face twisted in confusion, “I can’t even begin to express how angry I am at you right now, you said you were going to see Nick quickly didn’t you? That’s what your excuse was this time, that there were things that you needed to do for your album realise which I get H, I really do. But all of the shit that’s been happening is making me question everything.”

Harry quickly pulled over onto the side of the rode as soon as those words left your mouth, “What do you mean? Question everything?” Panic was clear in his voice as he turned to face you, eyes wide with fear. “Question me?”

“That’s not entirely what I meant, not question you as a person but your actions. Harry you’ve been so weird with me recently, you’ve been so distant with me ever since you were in America. Just please talk to me, tell me what’s happening. Are you second-guessing us?”

“Oh god no. I could never second guess you, you’re my life, I meant it when I first said it to you 4 years ago and I mean it now.”

Tears finally began to stream down your face as you stared at the man in front of you. “Then what is it Harry? Why are you being so distant and cold and why are you lying to me? Why now after 4 years?”

None of your questions received an answer causing more tears to spill from your eyes, “Answer me Harry! Why now?”

Harry face now matched yours with tears running down your face as he mumbled to himself how he didn’t want to do it like this and how this was not how he imagined it.

“This was not how I planned it but I guess my actions over the past month was the big mistake I made. I completely forgot about how my nervousness and secrecy could affect you and for that I’m sorry.” You watched as Harry reached behind him to grab his bag that rested in the back seat, his hands fiddling with its contents. “Fucks sake I can’t even get on one knee.”

His words caused you to freeze and for your heart to pummel within his chest because he couldn’t be… there was no way that what he was about to do could be true.

“Harry…” you whispered your voice trailing away.

You watched as Harry shifted in his seat in attempt to get comfortable until finally deciding to rest on his knees. “Okay so this isn’t how I imagined it at all. But over the past month I have been bending myself over backwards to do this constantly second guessing myself on if I should and then how I should. And I know it doesn’t completely excuse my behaviour but the real reason for my distance when I was in America was because I was looking for a ring and I didn’t want to talk to you too much because I was scared that somehow I’d give it away and somehow mess it up, I can see now that I did end up doing that anyways. And that time with the suitcase the ring was still in my bag because I didn’t expect you to come the bedroom so I panicked, kind or ironic really I was actually planning to do it with the breakfast in bed but then I thought I got you in a mood. And today I was late because I was running around London trying to find a nice restaurant that I could hire out so I could do it then.”

You looked at Harry in awe, it seemed everything he did completely bit in the arse but the intention behind his actions were good and for that you could no longer hold such a grudge. “Listen H, I don’t care if you proposed to me in a nice fancy restaurant or during a nice relaxing morning. I wouldn’t even care if you did it parked in a car on our way home. All I care about is that when and if you do it, you completely mean it. Because either way there’s no doubt in my mind that I’d be saying yes.”

“I’m an idiot then isn’t it.” Harry mumbled sheepishly causing you to nod your head laughing, only this man could cause your emotions to go completely haywire and switch so quickly. “So, is it a yes?”

“I’m sorry I don’t recall you even asking me a question.” You said causing Harry to playfully roll his eyes as you pulled him in for a kiss

“Will you, the absolute love of my life who has been for years and will be forever, do me the honour of becoming my wife?” he asked smiling and mumbling against your lips.

“Sorry what was that I couldn’t quite hear you.”

“You’re going to be the death of me woman,” he mumbled before pulling away and screaming, “Will you marry me?”

“I swear to god if you say no,” he said after your laughter had subsided.

“Of course, I’ll marry you, I couldn’t think of doing anything better in my life then making you my husband.”

“Good because if you were going to say no, was planning on leaving you on the side of the road.” He laughed finally driving off.

“Harry!”

“But for real though, I love you so much and I’m sorry for making you feel the way that you have been feeling. I love you so much.”

“I love you more Harry.”

a/n: I’m not gonna lie I'm not happy with this like at all but I really couldn't think of ways I could make it better but I hope you enjoyed this anyway

#harry styles #harry #styles #harry styles imagines #harry styles angst #harry styles fluff #styles imagines

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motherlifesucher-archives · 5 years

Text

Roman Holiday l Shawn Mendes Imagine.

(a/n): in honor of Shawn (hopefully!) taking his first Grammy home tonight!

prompt: Shawn & (Y/N) know their relationship is sinking fast, but they deny it in front of the cameras.

Today marked four years since they started dating.

A lot had happened since then...

They were young, just starting their careers. Now, he was a Grammy-nominated artist and she had recently become an Emmy and Golden Globe winner actress.

They were able to hide their relationship for five months before they were caught sharing a kiss in the line of security on LAX.

Everything was perfect during the beginning. They had managed to balance their work life with their relationship and actually making it work. She’d be constantly traveling to wherever Shawn was playing, since most of her job was situated on Los Angeles.

Almost two years after they started dating, they decided to move in together, buying a beautiful apartment in Los Angeles. People said they were moving too fast but they didn’t listen, they knew they were going to prove people wrong because they were in love.

Until things became harder...

They didn’t want to acknowledge it at first, but people started to point out how they didn’t smile or hold hands when paparazzi got pictures of them doing simple things like getting groceries, and all of a sudden pictures stopped coming altogether.

Their families and friend started getting worried about their relationship, but they just denied it. She always repeated that Shawn was very focused on his new album, while Shawn told people his girlfriend’s life had gotten even crazier after becoming an award-winning actress.

And people bought it.

They never wanted for their relationship to become something they could profit from, but they were too far inside to negate that their relationship was a benefit for their careers.

It made people like their instagram posts from each other. It made people talk about them. It made brands like Calvin Klein wanting them on their ads.

Breaking up just wasn’t possible, so they couldn’t admit to themselves that something was wrong.

They just grew apart.

With time, calls grew distant and colder. Posts about each other became rare and they disabled the comments so people wouldn’t voice their opinions on how they weren’t the same couple they knew from the screen.

She couldn’t help it but feel like something was missing as she walked on her own the red carpet of the SAG Awards.

“You look stunning, what are you wearing tonight?” The interviewer asked gesturing your light pink suit.

“Of course this beautiful creation is from Louis Vuitton,” She smiled to the cameras like she was used to.

“I can’t help but notice your boyfriend is not here, does it feel any different?”

“Oh, absolutely! Sadly he’s London at the moment, but even if he’s not here, I know he’s with me and I just love him so much,” She said never losing the smile, and she internally celebrated when the interviewer awed.

“You two are so sweet. Congratulations on your nominations! (Y/N), ladies and gentlemen!”

She waved one last time before entering the venue. She took a glass of champagne and checked her phone, sighing when there wasn’t a trace of Shawn. Not a message, not a call, nothing.

They had gotten too good at lying to the world.

And themselves.

Shawn sighed when he heard the door being closed and a suitcase being dragged.

They were going to be home together for the first time in months.

He wanted to run and kiss her as he had done many times during the years, but he knew it wasn’t possible. They had barely talked over the last month.

He shyly made his way to the living room, where she was standing with her suitcase.

“Hey,” He greeted his girlfriend.

“Hi. Sorry, did I wake you?” She said taking in his disheveled look.

“Oh, no. I was just laying on the couch,” He mumbled. “Congratulations,”

She raised her eyebrows, “For what?”

Shawn internally cringed. “For the SAG. You totally deserved it! And I saw your acceptance speech, thanks for mentioning me,”

“Well, you are my boyfriend, aren’t you?”

Silence filled the room as they stood there, avoiding each other’s eyes.

“I think there’s something lacing that question,” Shawn said and let out a dry chuckle.

“Are we having this conversation now?” She asked quietly, finally looking at her boyfriend in the eye.

“I think we are...”

She slowly made her way to the couch, not wanting to look at Shawn, because she tried to understand the reason behind how things changed so quickly, but she didn’t have an answer.

“Isn’t this supposed to happen to every couple? It’s a rough patch, so what?” She said and Shawn shook his head.

“This is not just a rough patch. We’ve been lying to everyone, and by doing that we broke us even more. The only reason this,” He gestured them both. “Is so fucked up is because we spent months pretending everything was fine, we held hands in public but we weren’t capable of acknowledging each other when we were on the same space. You thanked me after winning an award and I haven’t done shit for you in months!” Shawn quickly escalated the conversation.

“it’s not like we had a choice, Shawn...”

“We did have a choice! We could’ve stopped faking and fix things, fix us. That’s what should’ve mattered, not putting on a smile while we were falling apart!”

“Do you know how much shit happens if we break up?”

“We shouldn’t give a crap about that, (Y/N)! That’s the point. We got lost. Our relationship didn't start because it brought attention to us, it started because we wanted to, and we’re here because we love each other. I know it seems hard to believe right now, but I do, I love you so much it kills me to not see you or talk to you,” Shawn said with clear pain in his voice.

“Do you think I don’t love you? I missed you every second, and I miss us, and I'm scared that we’ve damaged our relationship forever. It hurts me that we put the entire world first instead of everything we have, because you are everything I have,” She blurted out, trying to swallow the tears.

“I don’t think it’s too late to fix this, to fix us,” Shawn muttered, taking a step closer to his girlfriend.

“I don’t want to give up, I love you.”

She took a final step and circled her arms around his waist, hiding her face on his neck.

He could feel the tears making their way down his neck, but he didn’t care; not when he had her in his arms.

They had a tough road ahead, but they hoped love was enough to overcome everything.

“We have Shawn Mendes here tonight at the Grammys red carpet!” Ryan Seacrest greeted.

“Hi,” Shawn sheepishly greeted at the camera.

“Congratulations on your nominations, you completely deserve it!”

“Thanks, man,”

“I gotta say you always bring something new to the red carpet. Who are you wearing tonight?”

“You make me feel so much better,” Shawn said laughing. “I’m wearing custom Armani Privé,” He looked down at his navy suit.

“I saw (Y/N), why isn’t she her by your side?” Ryan asked, making Shawn chuckle.

“She decided to skip the red carpet. I miss her by my side, but she looked so breathtakingly beautiful that we both decided it was better for her to not steal the spotlight,” Shawn jokingly said, making Ryan laugh.

“I took a look at her and you are absolutely right. You might be the best looking couple tonight, maybe from the entire awards season!”

“Oh, I'm flattered! Thanks, man!”

“Shawn Mendes, everybody!”

Shawn politely answered more questions before it was time to enter the tent were catering was displayed and different celebrities were mingling. There he spotted his girlfriend, happily chatting with Camila and Bebe Rexha.

“Hey babe,” Shawn approached her from behind. He greeted both of his friends before resting his hand on his girlfriend’s waist.

“Did you miss me?” (Y/N) said playfully before leaving a kiss behind his earlobe.

“I don’t think so, you know I love the attention on myself,” He said lightly squeezing her waist, making her squirm.

“You two are so disgustingly cute, I want my boyfriend now,” Camila said jokingly.

“I think I’m gonna start heading inside. This dress is impossible and I don’t want to disturb people while seating,” Bebe laughed while managing her beautiful puffy red dress.

“I’m actually going backstage. I’m really rooting for you,” Camila hugged Shawn before following her manager and publicist out of the tent.

“Should we head inside or find some place to make out?” Shawn suggested, earning a soft slap on his shoulder.

“I think we are saving the latter for the comfort of our home,” She smiled and squeezed his hand.

Shawn swiftly walked down a flight of stairs to leave the tent, extending his hand for his girlfriend.

“You are such a gentleman, Mr. Mendes,” She carefully ran her hands down his perfectly styled hair.

The ceremony started and they patiently waited for the best song category to be announced.

Time stopped as they opened the envelope. Her hand was tightly squeezing his sweaty ones.

“And the Grammy goes too... ‘In My Blood’, Shawn Mendes!”

Shawn nearly jumped from his seat with a look of disbelief on his face. The only thing he could do was to kiss his girlfriend before making his way to the stage with his team.

“Oh my God, thank you so much. To the Recording Academy, my team, my label, my friends, my family. This is unbelievable! Thanks to everyone who has been part of this process, and not only of the creation of this song, but of my entire career. My mum and dad, for keeping me grounded and always giving me a word of encouragement. My sister Aaliyah, for being so annoying and the best sister in the world. My manager Andrew for believing in me,” Shawn held the award in his hand and shook his head with a smile on his face. “I don’t know how to thank everyone, but I know that I saved someone for the last, because there’s no way I would be here without my girlfriend, (Y/N). My love, who keeps me together even during the hardest times, I love you so much, this is yours too. Thanks everyone!” He bowed before leaving the stage.

She was clutching her heart.

She knew people were looking at her and cameras were looking for her reaction, but he didn’t care as she looked at the man she loved on stage, receiving the most important music award.

They went on commercial break, ready to announce the most important award of the night, but she didn’t care. Someone from Shawn’s team told her he wasn’t going back to the venue, so they carefully made their way backstage, where Shawn was hugging his parents.

The moment he saw her, Shawn smiled and she noticed the tears threatening to spill.

“Congratulations,” She hugged him tightly.

“This is surreal,”

This time they didn’t care about the cameras or the fact that Shawn’s family, including his grandma, were standing right next to them. He cupped her cheeks and crashed their lips.

It wasn’t just a kiss. They were leaving a painful time of their relationship and starting a new one, together. They were stronger and happier, they knew they belonged together.

They knew things were going to be just fine.

“What do you say if we skip the after parties and just head home?” He suggested before leaving one more kiss on her lips.

“Shouldn’t we at least spend time with your family?” She giggled.

“I think they’ll understand.”

They were happy again.

#shawn mendes imagine #Shawn Mendes blurb #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes #Shawn Mendes Imagine #Shawn Mendes angst

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tassium · 5 years

Text

#TAYLOR SWIFT APPRECIATION LIFE

PART 3 - Speak Now

(part 1, part 2)

Hello and again, welcome to the Taylor Swift Appreciation Life. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault-- wait, wrong fandom.

This is probably getting posted in the middle of the night, which doesn’t bode well for anyone actually seeing it, but oh well. It’s time to hop in and see a little more from the amazing @taylorswift by taking the ride through her third album, Speak Now.

1. Mine

I really like this track, but I don’t have a whole lot to say about it. The storytelling in the lyrics is probably my favorite thing about it, and the way the instrumentation propels the song along. And.... I’ve heard varying opinions on the way it turns around and she’s “quoting” the love interest of the story. Personally, I like it. I like thinking of it as if he said that and it’s what inspired her to use the line as such a key part of the song.

And I’ve gotta be honest here, the POP mix bonus track version doesn’t really hit me that hard. I can’t pick out enough of a difference between the two that I really care all that much about that version.

2. Sparks Fly

This is one of my favorite tracks on this album. I like the understated instrumentation behind the verses and the way it just drops into the chorus in a way that feels like going over the first rise on a roller coaster - the way there’s nothing behind her voice for “Drop everything now” feels like that moment where you know it’s coming and you kind of pull in a breath and then you’re irrevocably In The Moment.

She does a lot of really cool vocal things - in the second verse I love the way she does that warble on “really wish you wo-ould”. Another favorite is the vocalization in the background of the last chorus. Instrumentally speaking, the solo before the bridge is one of my favorites because of how it’s just a little different from the main motif of the song, and I adore the strident guitar and drums behind the bridge itself.

This song also has the first of several mentions throughout her songs of green eyes! Same, Taylor, same.

3. Back to December

I’m just gonna jump ahead and talk about the acoustic version of this song that’s on the target deluxe version, because if given the choice, I’d pick that one to listen to any day. The strings are my favorite part of the original version, and so the fact that the acoustic version lets them shine just that much more is excellent in my opinion. I also like the way that the harmonies stand out a little bit more - usually I prefer the ones where it’s Taylor overdubbing her own harmonies, but in this one I really like how it sounds with that male voice in the background - it actually makes me think that this song has a lot of potential for being made into a duet song with that delicious aching kind of mutual regret feeling.

4. Speak Now

I don’t know about anyone else, but I really like this song. There’s a lot of really smart choices made, both vocally and in the instrumentals (like the way the drums don’t drop in until the second half of the first verse) and overall I think it’s a solid track.

Over the course of relistening to this early work of Taylor’s for these reviews, though, I’ve also had a thought - Speak Now is the culmination of an escalating pattern of Standing Up And Stealing Other Girls’ Guys that’s been going on through both of the other albums. You have Teardrops on my Guitar, where she just pines herself into oblivion over the boy - then you have You Belong With Me, where she actually does something about it, and now we have this, where she literally breaks up an engagement IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEDDING in order to get her chance at the boy she’s been daydreaming about.

5. Dear John

Easily my favorite track on this album. This is an optimal example of Taylor’s ability to take a song and build it up until it just explodes, even beyond the chorus. The way the song just soars in the bridge, complete with the way her voice just goes a little ragged on "burned them out”.... man. I love it. I love it so much. Another of my favorite moments is when the harmonies slide in with “run as fast as you can” as if that’s the ‘they’ who said that to her.

I think Taylor’s voice really shines in this track in a way that was really foreshadowing of her current vocal talents.

I’ll also never be over the fact that John Mayer claimed this song for being about him. He could have just been like ‘oh yeah I dunno, a dear john letter is a breakup letter right’ but no. He brought it down on himself. “You should’ve known.”

6. Mean

Mean is a jam, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. I’ll bop to this song anytime. I love the bending fiddle between the chorus and the second verse, probably my favorite musical choice in the song overall. The mandolin and the banjo are way up there as well, just in general. There’s something so delightfully vindictive about this track, such a clap back at the haters - and I get Taylor singing her own harmonies, which you already know I love to pieces. (Is it just me, or could Mean be the little sister of Calm Down?)

“Someday, I’ll be, singing this at the grammy’s…. and all you’re gonna be is mean”

7. The Story of Us

THE STORY OF US IS A BANGER, END OF DISCUSSION

…..

ok not really, because I have more feelings to express first.

Taylor’s vocals soar at the end of this track, and I honestly cannot get over the sheer improvement from Fearless to Speak Now when it comes to that. Those belted notes give me life. I love the ‘next chapter’ and ‘the end’ spoken lines, they’re the best for when I’m singing along and dancing around my kitchen. This song is nearer and dearer to my heart than I even realized coming into this review, and I will go to bat for it anytime anyplace any day.

8. Never Grow Up

It sure is a song, alright. It’s a pretty arrangement, and I like the harmonies, but I... don’t have much for strong feelings about this one.

9. Enchanted

Mmmmm, this one’s so pretty. The opening, I love whatever that is in the background, maybe it’s a keyboard? It’s beautiful and ethereal, at any rate, and I love it. The track builds so beautifully to an absolute monster of a chorus - the lead guitar up into that drum hit is a classic and I love it to pieces.

And don’t even get me started on the ending “please don’t be....” etc bit and the use of stereo - listening to this track in headphones is a treat and I love the high in one side and low in the other, accompanied by that soft vocalizing centralized that leads into the belting before we hit another chorus.

It wasn’t until I was listening to this song to write this post up that I noticed that if you really focus you can hear her singing that repetition behind the second half of the last chorus, but I think it’s only on the left. It’s a really nice touch.

10. Better Than Revenge

I’m just gonna go ahead and quote you a conversation my friend @defiantlywhole had about this track to explain my feelings:

Me: listen. listen. i fully agree with "Better than revenge? we don't know her" but. it's such a banger. i hate it. i love it. why

Her: SAME! Dude esp with the whole sb-squared issue. If we could just. Recognize that better than revenge is problematic and love her anyway?? Can you imagine the kind of cool shit the fandom coulda churned out last month? I just want graphics that yell THERE IS NOTHING I DO BETTER THAN REVENGE at them for trying to force Taylor to stay and then punishing her for leaving

So if you wanna know my opinions, there you go. there they are.

Also i’m never going to be able to unhear “she’s full of springs and she’s not what you think, she’s a mattress” from @stateofswiftpod (have you gotten the message to listen to their podcast yet? this is the last of her main albums they’ve talked about so. now’s the time.)

11. Innocent

This isn’t a track I seek out to listen to, like, ever... but it’s a pretty piece of music, and her voice is lovely. Honestly, there’s something about it that just makes me sad, which is probably why I don’t seek it out. Listening to it to write this, thought, I am noticing a lot of things about it that I’d forgotten or maybe not even noticed in the first place - like the haunting background vocalizations that I’d missed previously, and the choices in the instrumentals. There something about this song that just feels heavy, if that makes sense. It just sits right on my chest, and I’m not sure if I like it.

12. Haunted

Speaking of liking acoustic versions of songs better, this is definitely one of them. Don’t get me wrong, I love the original version, but...The piano just hits so much harder for some reason than anything about the original manages, and her vocal delivery is so aching and beautiful and just. Shivers, every time.

The backing vocals come across as very dark, almost, fittingly so to go with a song with the topic and title this one has. Her soaring vocalization in the bridge, and the way her voice breaks when she drops into the low note... man, I can’t even. I don’t have words for what this acoustic track does to me. The note after the last chorus is what gets me the most thought, the almost mourning wavering she sneaks into it and just... I love this song, okay.

13. Last Kiss

This track is so beautiful, but speaking of songs that make me sad. Good heavens. I hadn’t listened to this one in a while prior to this listen through the album and it hit me so hard. Legitimate tears.

I can’t even put it into words - this song is a masterpiece of emotion.

14. Long Live

This song also makes me cry, but for entirely different reasons. Somehow it has even more of an impact now, after seeing everything that’s happened for her and after having been privileged enough to see her live with one of my best friends. This song takes that weight still hanging on my chest from the last few tracks and pushes it aside, replaces it with a bursting pride for this woman who I’ve never met and probably never will. She’s done so well.

To be more specific - there’s some incredible guitar work on this song, and I adore the “THIS IS ABSURD” part - and “tell them how I hope they shine” will always make me cry. I love that she wrote this song, and I love that things have only kept going. That belted “fall” at the end of that post-chorus or whatever it is that then also fades and falls away. The ethereal Aaahs in the background of the bridge. The way she leans into the last “all the mountains we moved”. Gosh. It’s all too much.

Proper full bonus track time!

15. Ours

This is definitely my favorite of the bonus tracks. I’m a little sad it got relegated to a bonus track, since there’s definitely songs that I’d cut in favor of letting this one onto the list, but I’m just glad we have it in the first place.

I’m extremely fond of this song - it’s connected to playing music with my dad (who bought me my first guitar - well, him and my mom both) because we’ve teamed up to do this song, and so that gives me all kinds of happy feelings when I listen to this one.

I don’t have much for specific comments on this one, but it’s a Good.

16. If This Was a Movie

I love the guitar opening for this song, it’s on my list of songs to learn to play one of these days. The first few times I heard the song, I definitely didn’t hear “to me-e like” properly, but now that I know what it’s supposed to be, I don’t struggle too much, thankfully. Overall, I like the song - there are things about it that I’m not super fond of, but there are more things that I do like (the drop after the bridge is definitely one of them).

17. Superman

This one’s a bop. She’s a cute little number. Optimal dancing around my room (a la the you belong with me video) material. I won’t say this track is any work of genius or anything, but it’s a solid danceable pop song, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Whew! We’ve done it again. It’s 3am where I am at the time of writing this, so I’m going to go to bed now, but tomorrow we’ll start our transition into New Taylor. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.

Next up: Red

#taylor swift #speak now #album review #Taylor Swift Appreciation Life #Our Lady and Savior Taylor Swift

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megan-callitwhatyouwant · 5 years

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What Taylor Swift means to me: An essay

Taylor Swift is not just another popstar - not to me at least, and I need to vent.

Taylor Swift’s debut self-titled album came out on October 4, 2006, I was 7 years old at the time, about to turn 8. I felt really alone, my parents were in pre-divorce meaning they were still trying to work through a failing marriage and living in my home was like walking on eggshells, it didn’t help that we had just recently moved from Kentucky to Illinois, hours away from any family so we were on our own. It was summer of 2007 that my mom’s dad and stepmother came to visit us from Kentucky. My Nana (my mom’s stepmother) really loved country music. I did not, I hated it, and was really disappointed to see that CMT was the channel she had chosen to watch (not to worry I have since grown and seen the light that country music can be in dark times, I also discovered old country which is honestly ~iconic~.) As I was actively bitching in my head about how much I hate country music Taylor Swift came on the screen with her super curly blonde hair talking to “Drew” in front of some lockers and I was of course intrigued, the next scene is her laying in a bed snuggling a guitar with rhinestones on her face and lip gloss on her lips (which was and always will be iconic) and I was absolutely obsessed. I begged and begged my mom for the album and finally received it in November of 2007 for my 9th birthday, by this point my dad had lost his job, at the time I didn’t know why but I later found out he was so depressed about his relationship falling apart that he had just quit going to work, his options were to find a new job in Illinois where we lived or to take his old job in Kentucky back. He ended up doing the latter and moved away. We stayed in Illinois so my mom, who went back to school late could finish her degree, at the time the understanding was 2 years. It was like really really hard on me when my dad left, I fell apart a bit and was angry at my mom for keeping us in Illinois and angry at my dad for leaving but it’s hard to be angry at someone you miss. My dad always got me a white teddy bear on Valentine’s day and the most recent one had been easily my favorite and I started taking it to school with me everyday to still feel close to him, everyone knows how kids can be especially when you’re taking a freaking stuffed animal to school and you’re almost 10 years old. I knew it was going to happen, I knew I was going to get shit from other kids but it was so important to me to just have that little piece of my dad and to not feel alone but things got really hard with the other kids. Taylor Swift felt like my only friend and she sang about being an outcast in songs like “The Outside” and “A Place in this World.” She gave me songs to feel sad to when I was angry like “Invisible” and “Cold as You.” Absolute bops to make everything feel right in the world like “Mary’s Song”, “Our Song”, and “Should’ve said no.” This album had everything I needed when I was going through this as a kid and listening to it even now serves as a reminder that things eventually get better and the songs on it are all still absolute bangers. Taylor knows how to capture feelings that feel unmanageable and unexplainable and make them magically feel manageable and like a shared experience. This is I believe what has made Taylor such an unrelenting force in the music industry and why she so seamlessly was able to transition from country to pop. It was never about the genre it was absolutely always about her lyrical genius and the shared human experiences she has always been able to portray so well.

I am so lucky that I found Taylor at such a young age, dumb luck has had her releasing albums exactly when I needed them most. Fearless came out a little before my birthday in 2008, Taylor has a pattern of releasing albums in the fall which also happens to be when my birthday is so it works out perfectly for me. Fearless served as a healing album for me, it was one I danced around my room with my one friend to. It helped me cope with my first crush who obviously didn’t like me back and it made me feel normal despite how hectic my life was with my dad being gone and my mom being essentially a single mother with 2 kids while pursuing a college degree (which was an amazing feat for her but didn’t leave her much time to spend with my sister and I.) I absolutely adored Taylor Swift and every song she released just made me feel everything and I loved her. Fearless for me is like a time capsule to simpler times, I listen to Fearless and it makes me feel like everything is going to be okay and everything was for a while. I found out in Summer of 2010 that my parents were getting a divorce, I had thought that they were trying to work things out so this came as a shock to me, my mom wouldn’t tell me what happened. Me and my friend I mentioned earlier, Margaret-Rose, were on a spy kick we had just gotten our hands on the Nancy Drew movie that came out in 2007 and had recently watched Harriet the Spy so we came up with a plan to figure out what had happened. My mom is the type of person to tell every bit of her own and everyone else’s business to her friends on the phone so me and Margaret-Rose thought it would be an excellent idea to have a sleepover, put on all black and sneak downstairs and out into the garage where my mom would have private phone conversations, we snuck out and hid behind my mom’s van in the garage and waited for her to come out and call a friend, we knew she would do this because she did this every night, she still does. What we found out is that my Dad had cheated on her and she had already been cheating on him, in my little 10 year old brain this computed to both my parents are terrible people and I was of course extremely hurt. I didn’t know how to tell my mom that I’d heard her, I laid there venting and crying to my friend all night it just was all around bad. Of course not too long after Speak Now came out and had the songs “Innocent” and “Never grow up” on it which were a huge part in my healing from what I’d heard. “Innocent” helped me realize that I didn’t have to be mad no matter how wrong the things they did were, I could be hurt and forgive them without holding onto the anger that I felt, I could see them as innocent people who just made some mistakes. This is of course easier said than done and I sometimes do still feel angry but it really helped me adjust my perspective and I come back to both songs frequently. The album also had, as always, a few bangers to help you forget and feel magical. Speak Now is hard for me to listen to now despite being such a beautiful and heavy body of work just because it takes me back to such dark times, but I think sometimes it’s important to take yourself back there just to show yourself what you went through and know that you got through it. Speak Now for me serves as a testament to the strength it takes to get through that kind of emotional pain and broken trust.

Taylor’s album “Red” came out in the last half of my 8th grade year, this year was rough for me because I knew it would be the last school year I’d spend in Illinois with the people I’d been going to school with for most of my life and then I’d be moving back to Kentucky to be near my Dad, 5 years later than the initial plan. It was just too hard for my parents to be around each other so they chose to stay in separate states which obviously wasn’t easy for the kids involved. It just served as an escape from my usual life as all previous albums had, I loved how much raw emotion was involved in this album especially. With “All Too Well” I couldn’t relate to the romantic part of it, but there were so many lines in the song I could relate to easily which is an amazing thing about Taylor Swift songs almost exclusively, even if the entire song doesn’t quite fit your situation you can always find a line or verse somewhere that just hits you hard in the chest. For me anxiety about moving away was eating me up and the line, “Time won’t fly it’s like I’m paralyzed by it, I’d like to be my old self again but I’m still trying to find it” just hit home so hard the first time I heard the song, that line comes to mind every time I feel nervous or scared about anything for a while because it just embodies that feeling so well of just not feeling like you and wanting what you’re going through to be over. I’ve never been through a romantic heart break but I’ve had friends break my heart and parents and just life in general and Taylor just embodied that so well with this song. This album is one I come back to frequently as I get older, it’s amazing how coming back to the albums you can experience them differently with your new life experiences. I’ll get back to Red later.

1989 came out October of my sophomore year of high school and I didn’t listen to it. My parents were actually going through the legal process of a divorce and things were just bad. I lived in a hotel for 2 weeks bad and didn’t want another one of her albums to feel like a time capsule to terrible times so I was waiting for things to get better but they just got worse my junior year. I listened to a lot of My Chemical Romance those 2 years if that shows at all just how angry and unhappy I was, I’m not going to get into it too much but my junior year of high school was the worst year of my life hands down. I FINALLY listened to this album in its entirety my SENIOR year of high school. I’d obviously heard songs from it on the radio despite trying not to and they were amazing and the album won a Grammy for album of the year, I was extremely excited to hear Taylor’s first all out pop album. She’d experimented with pop on a few songs on Red and those were, of course, iconic bangers. 1989 will always be one of my favorite albums by Taylor. I was (am) in a happy relationship, I was (am) in love, and I was thriving as a senior. It was one of the happiest times of my life and I could finally listen to her love songs and actually fully understand what she meant. “You are in love” will always always always mean everything to me and be about my boyfriend. “Clean” absolutely brought me to tears after the years I’d had before, I was reminded how healing she can be. “Style” is THE bad bitch anthem, there is no other song you can hit a strut to like “Style.” Taylor really made the perfect pop album on her first try and I’m so glad I waited to listen to it despite missing out on following the tour and watching the press conferences because 1989 will now forever be a time capsule into one of the happiest times of my life.

Reputation came out when I was starting college and let me tell you I HATE college. I was hating life and in the midst of all the college hating I was doing I find out that my boyfriend had chosen to attend a college in Pennsylvania which, for reference, is a 12 hour drive away from me. Aiden is the actual light of my life, he is what is good in this universe. He’s patient with me when I don’t deserve it, he understands me, and is there for me when I need him and how I need him without fail. He, much like Taylor, just knows what to say and how to make things better, they are the type of people everyone should strive to be like. Aiden being there makes things so much better so finding out he wasn’t going to physically be here anymore was rough. Life was rough, and I of course had a fresh Taylor album right when I needed it. This album was different from the rest because she was happy and in love when she wrote it, she had overcome hardships and I had never been able to relate to one of her albums more. I knew what it felt like to be misunderstood and seen as the bad guy by the people around me and watching her rise from the ashes the way that I had to not too long ago made me feel so good, I was so glad to see her happy and I was so happy to have the love songs to describe what I was feeling to go with it. “Dress” reminds me of how I felt about Aiden before he was my boyfriend, “Call it what you want” reminded me of him still wanting me despite the rough years I’d had previously, “King of my heart” ,“New Years Day”, and “Don’t blame me” will always be Aiden songs to me, always. Not to mention the absolute bangers Reputation delivered in “Delicate”, “I did something bad”, and “Ready for it…” Reputation deserved album of the year hands down and I’ll leave it at that. Despite Reputation being Taylor’s most lovey album by far Red has some of the most iconic love songs on it as well, “Treacherous” and “Come back, Be here” fit my situation so well it’s scary and they really just help me a lot right now because long distance is hard and I don’t know anyone I can talk to who can relate to what I’m going through fully and Taylor really just is there for me, again.

My point in all this is that Taylor Swift will be an icon long after she stops producing music and writing songs. I’m confident that this generation’s children will listen to her music and their children’s children because she is timeless. The raw emotion that goes into her songs is timeless and relatable. Her music isn’t popular because it’s catchy (though she’s good at that too - see “Shake it off”,) Its popular because she captures those raw emotions that you don’t know how to put into words or cope and puts them into words, she makes them normal, she makes you feel like you are not alone. She not only does this with her music but in the way that she treats her fans, she invites groups of fans to her home to play the album for them before it becomes available to the public, she interacts with them online, her mother handpicks fans from the crowds at her concerts to meet her backstage. She feels like a friend more than a celebrity and that is the magic that is Taylor Swift. I can’t wait for the next chapter.

@taylorswift

#taylorlurking #taylurking #taylor swift #essay

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boobdolan · 6 years

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a review of melodrama (2017) by lorde

hey what’s up it’s your boy b-dawg. the b is for boobs as in breasts. this post is a track-by-track review of melodrama, the grammy-nominated sophomore studio album by ella yelich-o’ connor (aka lorde), a new zealand singer-songwriter who likes to dance funny and eat onions. her first album was pure heroine which was pretty big bc i think people (angsty teens) related to her songs about being an angsty teen.

i’m gonna keep it real with you chief. when i first heard green light (the lead single from the album) i thought it was pretty ass. but you know what. i’m an ass man despite my username. so eventually by some karmic circumstance i was reintroduced to the album and i realised: “hey! this is pretty dope! 😎” and then i ended up writing a 4000-word extended essay on it for the IB. but that’s another story.

green light is also the first track on the album, and it’s a hella effective one. with its intro bringing listeners acapella ella™️ over sparse piano chords, it kicks open the door to the sound of melodrama and immediately subverts any expectations for a pure heroine 2.0. as the song progresses we get additional elements of new and old - the boom-bap drums recall the hip-hop influences that permeated pure heroine, while her high-pitched backing vocals in the chorus introduce listeners to new vocal stylings from a singer who was previously known for being a Cool Bean who was Too Cool for all that stuff.

as the maximalist bop green light ends, listeners are thrown even further away from the sound of pure heroine with sober. personal note: sober was the song i most liked on the album upon first listen. and I can see why. it’s because i’ve got good taste! from the spacey uber-processed backing vocals to the bongo beat to the horns in the chorus, the song’s really unlike much else in the pop scene today. i especially like the “night, midnight, lose my mind” intro because when i first heard it i was like “wtf???? cool 🤠” anyway, point is, ella and her bf did well on this track.

at this point one might think, “this girl has a thing for acapella intros to her songs”. and she does! homemade dynamite starts, like an action movie, in situ, with its musings about top gun and the house party that the album is conceptually based around. one thing i love about the song is its synths. the 80s inspiration is obvious, with the synth pad emulating the iconic Fairlight sound on kate bush’s running up that hill. however, the moodiness of the synth pad is contrasted with a sprightly riff that comes in every now and then, emphasising that Potent Teenage Mix of Emotions™️ that the album is focused around. lorde also uses contrast in her lyrics, pairing wordy, literary, stream-of-consciousness style verses with almost childish phrases like “know I think you’re awesome, right???” it’s things like this that really encapsulate the state of being teenaged to me - that uncertain transitional period between adolescence and adulthood.

the following song starts with a very indie-sounding guitar, which is an unconventional sound for a lorde song. but the louvre is so typically lordey in that it shows off one of her greatest skills - the ability to create memorable, quotable lines with unique phrasing. who else would think of stammering the line “i overthink your punctuation use”?? who else would think of using a spoken “broadcast the boom boom boom boom and make ‘em all dance to it” as a hook??? another thing of note in this song is its extended U2-esque instrumental outro, courtesy of jack antonoff. sometimes when i listen to it, i understand why ella is banging him.

jack then mumbles the intro to the next song and starts playing the piano. after a few bars, ella joins him and her voice basically has sex with his tinkling on the ivories. liability is objectively great. lyrically, she reaches mind-bending extremes that many of her contemporaries can only dream of achieving. there’s a verse where she goes “home, into the arms of the girl that [she] loves” which is very interestingly constructed - it hits listeners with the initial shock of “oh wait is ella coming out” and just Leaves It for a few lines. and theN BOOM!!!! she’s actually talking about herself. that’s pretty cool. one other thing is her rhyme scheme in the line “the truth is, i am a toy that people enjoy ‘til all of their tricks don’t work anymore” which has a devastating effect that always gets me, even though it greatly takes advantage of her bananies voice.

now the listener is halfway through the album, and at this point they’re likely as hard as the feelings in the title of the next song. hard feelings/loveless brings us back into the world of electronic drums and synths after the minimalism of liability, and it does so excellently, providing an ambient atmosphere with its muffled beat and echoey distorted guitar. this song used to be one of my least favourites on the album because I thought the L O V E L E S S chant in the second part sounded kinda dumb and edgy. but then i watched lorde’s performance of the song for VEVO and ?????? WtF????? it really shines with a small choir and a boombox. fantastic. i also appreciate the little paul simon sample that bridges the two parts together - it’s a rare example of lorde wearing her influences on her sleeve for this album. also paul simon is one cool mf. i pop my pussy to graceland 24/7. 😎👌

taking a note from jack antonoff’s albums, the next song is a reprise, which have been used by many artists after the beatles to say “hey look my album is cohesive!” even though the only reason why it’s cohesive is because it’s cohesively shit. that’s not the case with sober II (melodrama), which functions as a response to the first sober. the parent song’s repeated calls of “can you feel it?” are immediately countered in sober II’s first line: “you asked if i was feeling it, i’m psycho high”. that’s cool because it reinforces the house party concept of the album. however, while i think the strings and trap drums combo sounds cool on paper, this production choice is the album’s first misstep because it sounds like jack put together 2 apple loops on garageband that didn’t quite fit.

luckily, before lorde turns into one of the migos, we’re treated with another piano song - writer in the dark. a word about lorde’s vocal performance in this song: WOW!!!!!!!!!! 😃😃😃 good stuff! in the verses, her raspy, imperfect voice highlights the intimacy and personal nature of the lyrics. in the chorus, she double tracks her voice and sings with a more round tone, which gives the eerie effect of sounding a bit like kate bush. it’s ok. i’m a bush man too. jack does a little production trick in the outro where ella sings the hook progressively louder as he fades out her vocal and lets the song be overtaken by strings. while it’s cool, i feel like he quite obviously snagged it from the outro of david bowie’s “heroes”, where a similar trick was achieved by the production god brian eno. jack then did it again on the song slow disco by st. vincent later in the year. side note: i’m still kinda pissed about what he did to st. vincent’s masseduction. more on that another time.

the next song, which should’ve been a single, features the metaphor of a supercut. i’m not sure how i feel about that because, on one hand, the term feels very millennial, like a better-written version of katy perry’s save as draft. you know what i mean? like those songs that aged fast - crazy in love with its pager reference, and payphone with its..... payphone reference. on the other hand, a supercut is pretty timeless, as montages have been used in cinema since the french first figured out how to make moving pictures. and the word sounds cool, so it’s ok i guess. but that’s beside the point. the song’s really nice, with some very interesting moments. one notable instance is lorde’s phrasing and the instrumentation in the prechorus - “in your car, the radio on”. the instrumentation just stops for a beat after ella sings the line, in a genius move that makes the song Even More Boppable!!. another moment is how the beat changes during the final choruses - from mellow, with her voice sounding like it’s coming out of a cassette player, to full, regaining all the instrumentation of the original choruses. then the song ends with a weird echoey vocal outro that’s a fantastic moment for me, especially after the intensity of the final choruses. boner time!!!!! 😃 one last cool thing about the song is that i feel the line “so I fall into continents and cars” is an Excessively paul simon thing to say. it’s one of those abstract things that just sounds GREAT, like “fat charlie the archangel sloped into the room” from his song crazy love, part II.

speaking of part twos, the end of supercut transitions into the bassy, atmospheric synths of liability (reprise). unfortunately, i still haven’t gotten round to fully appreciating this song. to me, it’s the biggest misstep on melodrama. don’t get me wrong - it’s a nice enough song, it’s really chill, but it feels slight because of its association to the majestic, melodic liability. apart from their lyrics, there’s not much that links the two. i feel that liability needed no reprise; it’s a work that stands on its own. i felt the same way about yandhi when kanye west announced it. yeezus doesn’t need another album associated to it! it’s perfection by itself. also, someone pointed out that the drums on liability (reprise) are the same as those on taylor swift’s call it what you want, and the last time taylor and jack screwed up a great indie artist’s work was fast slow disco, which we don’t talk about in this house.

finally, we come to the end of lorde’s house party with perfect places. and what a brilliant ending it is. there’s something so stirring about the drum beat, with its crunchy, decisive snare. there’s something equally moving about the synths and chord progression in the chorus, which give me chills like loud organs echoing in a church. when put together, they sound industrial, menacing, as if they move into your soul and alienate you from your own body. but at the same time, they’re an emotional release, a source of comfort like bruce springsteen’s cathartic 70s and 80s albums. another cathartic element - the use of the word “fuck” in the chorus. i could write a whole essay on it tbh. to me, it represents an intensely freeing release of the bad vibes and negativity in one’s life - for lorde, perhaps, her failed relationship and the state of the world in 2016. you know how studies have shown that when you shout “FUCK!!!!😡😡” after hitting your toe on furniture, it helps ease the pain? it’s like that. so while saying something taboo on the record is such an edgy angsty teenage thing to do, but also reflects lorde’s release from her pain. or maybe i’m reading too much into it.

the album ends as it begins, with ella’s bare vocals, reminding us that she is once again the Queen of Indie Pop. overall, melodrama gets a

9/10

for being really cool. peace out bitches. 🤠

#lorde #melodrama #review #music #music review #album #album review

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auggie-hunter · 3 years

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#grahamys.

auggie foregoes the grammys for the simple fact that it’s her night to shine.

that, and he and teddy had this unspoken understanding about the comfort of the girls being with either one of them over anyone else.

(new parent nerves, josie had called it. she said they’d go away. eventually.)

but it’d work out, if only because it gives her a night off to take the stage with her sister, and celebrate all of her hard work. especially in a year where hard work was really optional because everything else was difficult and she went ahead and had not one, but two babies, and worked on not one but three albums while planning four a fourth.

she deserved that, and though he’d love to be right by her side, the way he has from the very beginning, he’s more than happy to take a back seat and stay home with their two little pieces of sky.

“you look amazing.”

they have a moment in the bathroom while she’s getting dressed.

she smiles at him through the mirror. “thank you.”

“no matter what happens, you killed it,” he says from his place at the doorway, stepping in a second later to zip her dress up in the back. “biggest and best year out of anyone.” his lips find the bit of bare skin at the nape of her neck, just above the neckline of the floral dress she wears and below her hairline.

“except you maybe,” she shivers a little and turns in his arms, and her smile is small and knowing.

“i just stood here and rode your coat tails, so definitely even me,” he chuckles, and teddy takes his hand, pressing a kiss to the back of each one, soft and quick so as to not ruin her lipstick.

“among other things.”

auggie snorts and teddy laughs goofily, tugging on the hem of the warm maroon pullover he wears, her name scrawled along stars down the front.

“are the girls still asleep?” she asks.

he nods. “mhm.” he reaches into his back pocket, pulling out the baby monitor to show her where both their daughters are fast asleep in each of their cribs.

“i’m gonna miss them,” she frowns, and he gently rests his hands on her arms, pressing his lips to her forehead, careful not to ruin her carefully styled bangs. “and i wish you were coming with me.”

“yeah, me too.” he wraps both arms around her, and gives her a squeeze, reaching down to lightly tap her bottom. “but tonight’s your night, baby.” he pulls away to look at her. “we’ll be right here rooting for you and waiting for you to get back so we can celebrate.”

“you’re very cute, but if they’re back to sleep by then, you’ll for sure be asleep.” she kisses him, lipstick be damned. “thank you.”

---

her performance makes him cry but mostly because he’s overtired, and hadn’t known just what songs she’d perform. but he should’ve known his wife would be impossibly on the nose about things.

and it isn’t the song with his name blatantly written all over it, but the next one, the wedding vows she’d said with shaky hands holding his in the middle of the night in a paris hotel.

but her beautiful voice soothes rosie back to sleep, and briar just wiggles inside her own bassinet, seemingly too excited to sleep. he should try and get her to sleep, too, especially since she’d just learned to sleep through the night. but it’s a special night.

“she’s just too great to miss, right bri?” he asks, running a hand over her belly. she shoots him a grin, and he she’s just learned to smile, but it makes him melt every time.

bixby’s win is thrilling, and when he squeezes belly, auggie can see teddy and daily itching to run over to him.

teddy’s win, however, is the icing on the cake. it’s the culmination of the last full year they’d spent indoors, navigating being newly married, new babies, and her relentless work ethic. the culmination of choosing not to keep up their lame attempt at secrecy because their lives had gotten too big and too beautiful to hide.

“this is for the fans who never stopped supporting me, whether through a tweet or waiting hours after a show just to say hi to me,” her smile is bright and her words are earnest, and he knows just how much they love her and how much it means to her that they do. he knows how much everything she does is because it’ll make them all happy, because that makes her happy.

“and this is for my sister, my daily,” she looks to daily, who stands beside her in a suit and teary eyes, just so proud. “who always pushes me and ights for me, and i wouldn’t be half the writer i am without her, i wouldn’t be where i am without her.” and daily’s mouthed ‘i love you’ makes his heart squeeze, because it’s the way they’re two halves of one whole in every way that counts.

“for belly and crosby and honey and ollie, and--” her siblings’ names slip out in rapid succession, from years of mentioning them all, and also a desperate attempt to not forget one of them. “bixby! bix, god i’m so proud of you!” she grins at her brother, and gives him a wave, and though his smile is hidden behind his mask, bixby’s eyes are so bright, auggie knows he’s smiling just as brilliantly, and is equally as proud of her.

“and this is for auggie,” the way she looks into the camera then grounds him, her gaze warm and intense, and he wants nothing more than to squeeze her and remind her just how proud of her he is every single day. “for my august. for never slipping away, for always being right here.”

“always,” he mumbles in response. “always, always.”

“even if right now he’s at home with briar and rosie,” she continues, and he smiles, glancing down at the girls, each in their own bassinet. “who i hope grow up to be just like you,” and he has to scoff because he’s hoping they’re all her, from head to toe and everything in between.

“you’re always right here,” she finishes, eyes tearful as she touches a hand to her heart. auggie briefly wonders if his own heart will ever stop feeling like it’s going to burst over teddy graham. and he kind of hopes it never does.

---

he’s definitely asleep by the time she gets home, just like she said. but he’s on the couch, and he’d tried everything to wait up for her, but when the ceremony ended, so did rosie’s nap, and she’d been fussy until he’d gotten her to sleep on his chest.

(how they manage to not wake briar is beyond him, but he’s a mere mortal, and he’s not about to question the many divine occurrences around him)

but he’s got a tiny rosie curled up in his chest and briar asleep in her bassinet. and if teddy graham could melt, she’d for sure be a puddle of goo right now.

she toes off the warm boots she’d stuffed her feet into after the show, setting them down at the foot of the stairs with her soft pink heels before making quick work of washing her hands on her way into the living room.

“hey,” teddy says softly over the back of the couch, threading her fingers through his hair. the arm around rosie tightens slightly. “it’s just me.” she runs her fingers over his eyebrow just as he opens his eyes.

“i’m awake,” he mutters, voice hoarse and thick with sleep.

“oh yeah, super awake,” she teases as he opens his eyes. “hi baby.” she greets him setting her grammy down over the back of the couch.

“winner, winner, chicken dinner,” he grunts, easing up a second later, careful to not jostle rosie awake. “look at you.”

“winner winner chicken dinner.”

auggie smiles up at her. “congratulations, champ. you were amazing tonight.”

she eases over the back of the couch and presses a lingering kiss to his temple. “thank you. it was... kind of incredible? ” she walks around and takes a seat beside him. “i got scared for a second there,” she admits holding her hands out to take rosie.

“i could see it in your eyes.” he hands her over, and smiles as he watches teddy’s face practically melt as tiny limbs mold into her arms and chest. “but i knew it was coming. they’d be crazy not to.” he picks up the shiny gold gramophone, tracing his thumb over the engraving.

“technically, this is your grammy, too, august.”

“yeah considering all the stress you put me through while pregnant.” he scoffs and she laughs. “should i put ‘grammy award winner and dorothea’s better half’ as my twitter bio?”

briar whines a second later. “i don’t think she likes that idea,” teddy pouts, glancing over at her.

auggie’s quick to lean forward to grab her, easing her onto his own chest. “okay, okay, i get it, mom’s totally the better half of this duo.” he kisses her head, bouncing her and rubbing her back. “we all know it.”

teddy reaches out, running her thumb between briar’s wrinkled brow, hoping to help soothe her.

“i’m proud of you.” he glances over at her. “for today, for this year... you’ve gone above and beyond.”

“i’ve cried enough today, please,” she sniffles, unable to help her tearful chuckle.

“i mean it though,” he grins. “it’s been the honor of my life getting to spend this last year with you. all you’ve accomplished...”

“we. this would be nothing without you.”

“shut up and let me compliment you,” he glares, though there’s zero bite whatsoever, and her laughter confirms she knows it.

“i love you.” she kisses his cheek. "thank you for everything.”

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rfsak2 · 6 years

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Cactus, Part XIII

Hope ya like it!

Cactus, Part XIII Summary: Success. The Styles Warnings: None.

“So you’re married…”

She nodded, smiling awkwardly at the boy. “I’m married.”

“Seem young.”

He was sixteen and pursuing the dream and she thought briefly to how Harry must have been at this age.

But this kid was not Harry and she’d bet the commission she was making on this gig that his mom was no Anne Twist.

“I’m more than old enough.”

He bit his lip, a move she was sure he thought would make him the next Justin Beiber. “But are you still down to fool around?”

“No.” To her consternation, he was tall so she had to tilt her head all the way back to make stern eye contact. “I am not down to fool around. I’m married and you’re sixteen.”

“Yeah, but… it’s 2019, baby, what does marriage or age even mean anymore?” He attempted to put his hand on her shoulder and she backed away.

“I’m married.” She was trying to be calm. “The only person I want to fool around with is my husband. That’s a good portion of the reason why I married him.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No.”

Jeff Bhasker entered the booth, arms folded across his chest, and stared the kid down. “Look. You’re new around here, but I’m going to explain something. She’s one of the best guitarists of her generation. She has job security. You don’t if you don’t make something good happen here.”

“Yeah, well even if she wasn’t you wouldn’t fire her right, given who her-”

“It has absolutely nothing to do with who she’s with and it’s ridiculous to think so. Her being married to someone doesn’t make her any less of more talented. So listen to me: I literally will throw you out of this studio if you don’t straighten out and stop harassing her. You have done nothing to make me feel desperate to keep you. On the other hand, she had somewhere in the range of 200 song credits to her name. I’m desperate for her to stay.”

“But-”

“No.”

Her phone rang, a recording of Harry just saying her name over and over playing in the tense silence. She glanced at Jeff and he motioned her out. “I’m gonna continue talkin’ to my man here. See if we can’t come to some agreement.”

“Hey baby.” She closed the door to the booth and stepped out into the hallway. “What-”

“Monster, I know that you’re in studio but listen-” There was a shuffle as he pulled the phone from his ear.

All of a sudden, she could hear the first line of Expectations filtering through the phone.

I was never expected

“Holy Shit, baby!! It’s my song!”

He chuckled on the other end of the line. “I know, love. Congratulations!”

“What radio station are you on?” She rushed back into the studio where Jeff was still discussing with the kid. She pulled up iHeartRadio on the computer, taking Jeff’s chair.

“KIIS-FM.”

“What? Seriously? No fuckin’ way, baby!” Jeff poked his head out of the booth and Jamie waved him over. “Really?”

She hit play as Jeff rounded the table, coming to stand next to her, the kid lurking in the door to the booth. “What’s goin’ on?”

If I sold myself short-

“Jamie-Wamie!” Jeff grinned. “That’s your song!!”

She nodded.

“Who’s tha’, love?”

“Jeff.” Harry made a noise to indicate that he had heard as they all quieted down to listen, a bright smile on her face.

When the song was over and she was discretely wiping at her eyes, the DJ came on. “That was Spike & Devil with Expectations. What a beauty of a song, amirite?”

Whoever was in the studio with the DJ sighed. “It is, that little sigh at the end? Like she’s relieved that she said it. So romantic. It just gets me.”

“Now that is the lone track on the band’s new album sung by the guitarist, Jamie Schwartz-”

“Wait Jamie Schwartz, like-”

“Yep.”

“So it’s about-”

“Yep.”

The guest chuckled. “I didn’t know she had that in her. Put that in your juice box and suck it, amirite? A great big romantic ‘[bleep] you’ to anyone who doubted her or doubted Harry Styles. I mean.. Sh[bleep].”

“I don’t think anyone thought she had that in her, but she’s really talented and the band sounds fantastic and the song is great. The entire album, Getting Older it’s called, is actually really good. It’s blown up on Spotify and the hashtags Spike&Devil, Expectations and Backroads are trending on social media. Speaking of, here’s the other song on the album that people are expecting: Spike & Devil- Backroads. This is KIIS-FM-”

She grinned. “Holy shit!” Matt’s voice was still playing on the speakers, softly.

I’m not defined by that backroad.

“I’m at th’studio, love. Which one are you in?”

“We’re in 205.” She set down the phone as he hung up with a muttered ‘See yeh in a mo’, love’ and drummed her hands on the armrests of the chair, all restless energy and high emotions. “Holy shit.”

Jeff held his hands up and she gave him a double hi-five. “Damn, girl! Good work!”

The door opened and she jumped out of the chair, throwing her arms around Harry’s neck. Laughing, he lifted her against him, arms secure around her waist.

“Baby, they’re playing our songs!!”

He grinned against her neck and squeezed her. “They sound so good, love, so good.” He kissed her cheek. “I’m so bloody proud of you!”

She leaned back and smiled, one hand coming up to wipe at her eyes. “Holy shit!”

Jeff looked over at the kid. “That’s what you were trying to get her to step out on, kid. Think about it. It ain’t gonna happen.”

“I’ve got another radio station wantin’ you to come in and do an interview about Expectations.”

She sighed, sipping her tea, her legs thrown over Harry’s lap. He eyed her over his cup. “Y’kay, love?”

She nodded and put the phone on speaker. “Just me?”

Jorge uh-huh’d.

“Tell them no. I’m part of a band. If they want to talk music, they need the whole band.”

“Okie dokie, mama. Can do. How’re you two holding up?”

She sat up and curled against Harry’s side. “Yeah, we’re fine. It was just starting to calm down a bit and all. Now with all of this… It just started back up again. Harry got mobbed the other day. Wanted to know if I’d told him that I was writing the song. As if I wouldn’t tell my own damn husband.” She scoffed. “Now apparently people think the song was meant as a subtle dig at Taylor Swift and that Harry’s angry with me for it.”

Harry rubbed a hand over her thigh and kissed her head.

“Yeah, that sucks. They know y’all are married yet?”

She laughed. “No strangely enough. There have been plenty of pictures of ‘Haz’s new ring’ and even a couple blurry one’s of mine, but no one has put two and two together quite yet.”

Harry huffed out a sarcastic laugh. “No they wouldn’t care about that, would they, love? Makes me boring, tha’.”

“I don’t think it makes you boring, baby.” She winked at him.

“They’d rather make shit up. We already knew that though. Okay, girl. I’ve got to get Esteban from school, he’s got that allergy test today.”

“Oh no bueno. Not fun at all. Poor kiddo.”

“Tell ‘im I hope he aces it.”

Jorge chuckled. “Not sure how to ace an allergy test…”

Harry laughed. “Yeah, well it’s a conundrum. Which answer’s right? I’ve gotta know!”

“I’ll ask the doctor and get back to ya, bro.” He chuckled and there was a sound like a car door opening. “Hey, m’hijo, you wanna say hi to Tia and Tio?”

“Hi Tio! Hey Titi, I think I’m gonna take orchestra next year.”

She smiled. “What instrument d’ya think you want to play, guapo?”

“Duh… guitar. Papi said that Abuelo has one of your old guitars, the one’s you used when you were little, can I use that instead of getting one from the school?”

“Yeah, course y’can. You’ll have to get your dad to take it by the shop and see if it needs new strings.”

Jorge’s voice sounded distant. “Will do.”

“Next time I’m in SA, I’ll teach you the basics.”

“Tio, can do it too, yeah?”

Harry grinned. “Yeah, I can help, for sure.”

“Okay, you two, I’m about to get on 1604 and it’s a madhouse as usual. I’ll talk to ya later.”

“Te amo.”

She set down the phone and laid her head on his shoulder. He adjusted the blanket to cover her better and leaned his cheek against her hair. “So, wha’ kind of guitar are we buying Esteban for Christmas?”

She smiled. “I was just thinking about that. We want somethin’ nice but not too nice, right? It’s gonna get beat to shit no matter what.”

Nodding, Harry rubbed his hand over her thigh under the blanket. “Should we get a full-size, y’think?”

“Yeah. The way that kid grows he’ll outgrow my old child guitar by then.”

Harry sipped at his coffee. “What’s botherin’ yeh, love?”

She smiled against his shoulder. “I’m just frustrated with all this media crap. I didn’t think they pull this shit- honestly, I never even thought they’d have a reason to pull this shit, we didn’t send the album to mainstream radio ‘cause we didn’t think they’d be interested and now I wish they hadn’t gotten their hands on it.”

She huffed. “Now they’ve made what I thought was a really clear, and really bloody personal song into a go at a woman I’ve got nothing against or an industry that I hate admittedly, but I didn’t write a song for them, I wrote it for my family.” She sat up and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s just really frustratin’.”

He nodded and leaned over to kiss her. “I figured it was that.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and curled back into his lap. “Now there are all these trash journalists askin’ for interviews like I’m gonna sit there and let them drag us, the band, the song through the mud. Like I’m expected sit and be pretty and just stew in this catch-22. I can’t deny because I look guilty and I won’t confirm because it’s not true. I can’t win.”

He smiled softly down at her. “Do you regret writing it?”

“No, of course, not.” She shook her head against his shoulder. “I needed for you to hear it, I wanted you to hear it. I just regret puttin’ it on the album… sometimes. I regret this shit-storm. I should’ve just kept it for us or somethin’.”

“But the song is puttin’ yeh on the map, love. People are listenin’ and you and the band deserve to be heard.” He kissed her hair. “I think yer gonna be on Grammy watch, if yeh ask me. The critics have received it well.”

She snorted. “That’s silly-”

“It’s a beautiful song, love.” Harry shrugged. “Yeh know yer allowed to be successful, right, monster? Yer allowed to do good work.”

“Am I though? I know you think so, but no matter what I do, what I accomplish there’s always going to be someone sayin’ that-”

“It was me who did it” He paused and shrugged. “Yer right, but doesn’t mean that yeh shouldn’t do it. Every time Liam, Lou or Niall or me ever did anythin’, there was someone bringin’ up Simon.”

“I just don’t want to…” She paused and sat back so she could look at his face. “I love you, with everything I am, I love you. I don’t like the idea that there’s someone out there who still thinks that I’m only with you for a leg up. I don’t like feelin’ like we have to constantly defend, to constantly have to validate our relationship.”

He smiled. “I know tha’, love. I know tha’ yeh love me and I love yeh the same way. Yeh don’t have to validate anythin’. We don’t owe them anythin’. I know tha’ yer the woman I will be with until I’m old and gray or I wouldn’t ‘ave married yeh. I know tha’ yer th’future mother of my children or I wouldn’t ‘ave married yeh.”

He kissed her. “However, yeh ‘ave th’right to be successful and yeh ‘ave the right t’do wha’ yeh love and live yer life th’way yeh want. I am gonna be right there with yeh for every bit of it.”

Jamie leaned in for a kiss. “So what should I do? How should I handle this?”

“Well, let’s get yeh some place where you can be honest and get this out there.”

“Tonight we have Spike & Devil with us. They are the indie band out of Nashville that is taking radio by storm. They’re going to play us their two new hit songs and we’re going to talk about their album Getting Older, specifically why they named the album Getting Older,” James snickered, “considering they are all under the age of thirty, and I may yet convince them to participate in a round of Flinch.” James winked at the camera and grinned.

The camera panned in on Jamie’s face as she shook her head frantically and mouthed ‘help me,’ standing behind her guitar.

Backstage, headphones on, Harry snickered into his fist.

“But first, Spike & Devil playing Backroads.”

This was Matt’s magnus opus, a song Jamie had told Harry he’d spent years on. It straddled a line between rock and country and it showed off four very talented musicians to the best of their ability.

No one who watched Spike & Devil perform Backroads could doubt the legitimacy of their talent.

Jamie loved the song and Harry loved watching her play it, enjoying every bounce and the way she leaned over the guitar, bracing it against the inside of her thigh (where he was fairly certain he’d left a hickey this morning) so she could keep the guitar steady for the complicated guitar solo.

She was ridiculously beautiful behind a guitar, doing what she loved. She was ridiculously beautiful wearing the rings he put on her finger, doing what she loved.

The song ended and James called them over to the couch. Offering the others coffee, he grinned down at Jamie.

“So I made you tea, dear, because I know you don’t drink coffee.”

She smiled. “Thanks, James.”

James and took his seat. “So in the interest of journalistic integrity, though I’m not sure I apply necessarily, I know Jamie personally. She and her special someone have had dinner with my wife and I a number of times. In fact Dante has also had dinner at my home. Nice to see you again, Dante.”

Dante grinned. “Nice to see you too.”

“Lets just do a quick introduction.” James motioned to Matt who sat on the far side of the couch.

Matt smiled and Harry grinned, he could practically hear every person in the audience and on the crew attracted to men melt. He was Classic™; blonde, blue-eyed with a jaw like an anvil. “I’m Matt Reeve-” He paused. “What else should I say?”

James shrugged and Matt looked hilariously panicked. “I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee… I’m 27.” He shrugged awkwardly.

“He’s single, ladies.” Jamie leaned forward to pick up her tea with her left hand and cradling it against her chest, the rings on her finger was more apparent to the audience members with seats at the front.

Dante huffed. “Jamie…”

She shrugged and sipped her tea. “Gotta help my sisters out, yeah?”

The women in crowd cheered.

Tommy, tall, dark, handsome and earnest, chuckled. “Tommy Lazert, I’m from Louisville, Kentucky. I’m 25.”

“Also single.”

Tommy grinned. “Am I?”

She sipped her tea and considered him for a moment. “Yes. I fairly positive.”

“You don’t know though.”

“Fair enough. He may or may not be single, ladies.” She shrugged. “It’s a mystery! Adds to the fun.”

Dante, who always managed to balance hipster and relevant, hat sat on top of his afro and big thick, frame glasses sat on his absurdly perfect nose, shook his head. “You’re ridiculous. I’m Dante Schwartz. I’m from San Antonio. I’m 24. I’m her brother… yes. Her brother. We were both adopted.” He grinned down at Jamie’s head. “I’m single, to spare her the trouble.”

“And Jamie you?” James grinned.

“Me? I’m decidedly not single.”

The crowd cheered, the word of the rings having passed from those in front.

Harry grinned, proud of this tiny woman he got to call his.

“Introduce yourself, Jamie. To be fair.”

Jamie smiled coyly against the rim of her cup. “You know my name, I’m also 24 and I’m also from San Antonio.”

James grinned. “Come now… Don’t be shy. You know, maybe not everyone in the crowd knows your name.”

“Here’s hoping.”

Laughing, James sipped his coffee. “You never know though… Does it feel like everyone knows everything about you?”

“Not all the time no. I think we managed to keep some things to ourselves longer than expected.” The rings on her finger glinted as if on cue and she arched an eyebrow. “However, I was in a store the other day and someone I’d never met before asked me if I liked the pasta I bought last week-”

“Maybe they saw-”

“That I bought last week at a completely different store half-way across LA.”

The crowd laughed.

“What did you do?”

She shrugged. “I mean I wasn’t angry or anythin’, just a bit caught off guard. It’s awkward. I think I stuttered out that my husband liked it more than I did… something like that.”

The crowd lost its collective shit.

James grinned. “And what was your name again?”

The blush on her face told Harry that she hadn’t really meant to say that. Regardless, he didn’t really think he’d ever get over hearing her call him that.

In for a penny, I guess.

“Technically my stage name is Jamie Schwartz.”

James rolled his eyes. “But when you, say, sign for a package at the post office, what do you sign?”

“I still sign ‘Jamie Schwartz’ by accident… and then I have to cross out ‘Schwartz’ and scrawl ‘Styles’ above it. All the while, Harry’s laughing at me and telling me my handwriting makes him look like he married a child.”

“That’s specific.”

“It happened this morning.” She shrugged and sipped her tea.

Part XII Up Next: An Interlude

#harry styles #harry styles/reader #harry styles/oc #harry styles fanfiction

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barryorchestra · 4 years

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barryorchestra presents Top 50 of 2019 - #1

#1 - James Blake - I’ll Come Too

And last, but certainly not least....

We have James Blake.

Assume Form got nominated for a Grammy at least, but it still didn’t get the proper shine I think it should’ve gotten. On his previous records, he’s developed a series of experiments in electronic melancholic ballads. Ranging from pure piano & vocal bliss, to choirs of his own vocal takes that have been auto-tuned and time stretched to infinity, James knows how to take technology and pair it with his skill set as a pianist and vocalist in order to create a mood and invoke a feeling. This album is his version of going pop, which is still far away from what could get in rotation on mainstream radio. There’s so much to love about this project. From the guest features, to the variety of genres, it takes you on a rich journey through sound and emotion. This is an album about falling in love when you weren’t looking for it. James confronts his own self image and examines whether or not he is even worthy to be loved.

“I’ll Come Too” is about the moment of abandon where you don’t care what the hell happens...all you know is that you’re determined to be with the one you’ve fallen in love with, and you’ll follow them wherever they decide to go. It’s romantic, if a bit clingy. There’s a haunting operatic vocal that loops in the background while the digital percussion stutters and flutters across the track like a flock of birds. The record builds in intensity before it suddenly ends. I could’ve picked any song from this record to sit on top of my list. It’s literally that good. If you pick one album from 2019 to dig into, “Assume Form” definitely deserves that shot.

Thank you all for letting me spam your social media feeds with these song reviews. For everyone who has read these, commented, sent me private messages about these...thank you. I do this for fun, because I love music, and because I want to share the stuff I love with my friends and whoever cares. Plus your timelines are full of depressing bullshit anyway. You know you love it! At some point I’d like to turn this into something bigger...maybe even vocational....who knows? More to come soon...watch this space...

Until next time...

#JamesBlake #IllComeToo #alternative #Top50of2019

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princeandvanitydotnet-blog · 7 years

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Morris Day on Final Meeting With Prince

New Post has been published on http://princeandvanity.net/forums/topic/morris-day-on-final-meeting-with-prince/

Morris Day on Final Meeting With Prince

A Rolling Stone Interview

Source: Yahoo

Morris Day on Final Meeting With Prince: ‘He Knew Something Wasn’t Right’

At 59, Morris Day is, amazingly, the same insouciant cane-twirler the world met in Purple Rain. “Morris Day, calling in,” he announces with a cocky purr on the phone from his home in Boca Raton, Florida.

Last year, the legendary funk-R&B singer and leader of the Time (a group Prince organized and, ultimately, controlled) recorded his fifth solo album at Doggy Style Records – a special request by Snoop Dogg himself, who executive-produced. It was part of a thrilling period for Day. In 2015, his music was introduced to a new generation of fans via Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ clearly Time-informed Number One hit “Uptown Funk,” as well as Hozier and Este Haim’s cover of the Time’s “Jungle Love” at Coachella.

But everything changed one day last April. Day got a call that someone at Paisley Park had died – and eventually confirmed it was Prince. “It was a bad day,” he says, nearly a year later and still shaken. In February, Morris Day released a poignant new ballad called “Over That Rainbow.” The video, premiering here on the one-year anniversary of Prince’s death, shows Day like we’ve never seen him: understated, vulnerable and heartbroken.

Currently on a tour that will last through the summer, Day spoke to Rolling Stone about his last conversation with Prince, his bittersweet Grammys performance with Mars and the pranks he used to play with Prince – namely, lying to the press (including in a Rolling Stone cover story) about a made-up engineer known as Jamie Starr.

Where did the “Somebody get me a mirror!” bit in your stage show come from? Well, that was all just a part of being cool.

Do you remember the first time you did that, though? Absolutely. We were at rehearsal getting ready to go on tour. Jerome [Benton] wasn’t in the band yet. He actually used to help us with luggage and kind of do whatever we needed, like a gopher. He’d go to the store, go get us some burgers. So we were rehearsing the song at this little dingy rehearsal hall and when I got to the part in the show where I said, “Somebody bring me a beer,” he ran in the bathroom and grabbed an old mirror off the wall and ran up to me with it [laughs]. We’ve been doing it ever since.

That’s amazing. You even did it when you played Kimmel with Haim in 2015.

That was an awesome performance. The girls just fell right in. We didn’t even have to rehearse. We talked and it was like, “Y’all know how to do this dance?” and they were like, “Yeah, we could do it.” “That was an awesome performance,” Day says of appearing with Haim on ‘Kimmel.’ Randy Holmes/ABC/Getty

So, can Snoop Dogg do the Bird? Oh, yeah. Snoop is always dancing. Snoop is a funny guy. Before I met him we’d be on conference calls, strategizing about doing something in the future. He was always like, “I consider myself the eighth member of the Time.”

Did Snoop have a major influence on the new Time album? Well, he does his thing on some tracks. When we decided to go into the [Doggy Style Records] studio, he was like, “Give me a little time and I promise you it will be a classic.” We were a couple months into the project when Prince passed away. So, we’d been working already and that’s when [“Over That Rainbow”] came. It took me a while to decide if I wanted to put my emotions on the line in a song like that.

Why? I was in denial like a lot of people probably were. I had just been at Paisley Park like two months prior [because] Prince wanted us to come a party with him. … When I found out it was really him [that died] it didn’t really hit me. It took a while to sink in.

Day with Bruno Mars at the Grammys. “It was a great opportunity,” he says. “But I hated the reason that I was there.” Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

Your Bruno Mars collaboration at the Grammys was considered the best Prince tribute. What was that like for you? It was double-edged for sure. It was a great opportunity. But I hated the reason that I was there. Now, when I perform onstage it’s like a presence thing. I feel like [Prince] is watching over. We always had such close creative ties – I’d wonder what he would think of my stuff and he’d probably wonder what I thought of what he was writing.

Did Prince seem any different to you before he died? Well, at the time, I thought nothing of it. But in retrospect, I thought maybe something wasn’t right. I thought, he looked thin, even though he always looks fragile. After he passed away, I just wondered if he knew something that he wasn’t telling me. I just felt like he knew. Like he knew that something wasn’t right. Maybe he said it in just being adamant about seeing us again. Maybe that was a sign in itself.

It’s long been common knowledge that the cowriter on the first Time album – the fictitious engineer named Jamie Starr – was really Prince. But you’ve both insisted he was real to journalists. To Rolling Stone, in fact, you said, “Of course he’s real.” I lie [laughs].

How long did you both keep that going? [Laughs] Forever. It just kind of kept a bit of intrigue on the behind-the-scenes side of things. Only in recent years did we start saying that basically [Prince] and I did the whole damn album. The Time wasn’t even together as a band at the time. We put the band together after we got the deal with Warner Brothers.

When The Time came out, you guys were the hottest touring band. Was it true that Prince felt intimidated by you? We’re still the hottest band out there [laughs]. Nobody does what we do. Nobody does the steps, the real music. It turned into a bit of a rivalry for real because sometimes he would lay into us pretty good, and then sometimes, we’d kick his ass musically. And people were seeing it. So it got to the point where in certain markets like L.A. or New York, he wouldn’t let us [perform] and when we were touring together, we’d get the night off occasionally, because he didn’t want that kind of pressure.

In an old Letterman interview, you said you were done working with Prince after Purple Rain. Do you feel Prince is responsible for damaging the Time’s legacy, by not granting you rights to the name? That was frustrating at times, but in a way, it went the way it was supposed to go. In my opinion, he kind of saved us from ourselves. When we did the Original 7ven project, I think it would have looked like more of a fiasco if we had used the name the Time and it really got the attention it would have gotten then. Because I would’ve used the name. But in hindsight, it was the right decision.

“Sometimes Prince would lay into us pretty good, and then sometimes, we’d kick his ass musically,” Day says. Warner Bros/Photofest

But he still let you perform as the Time, just not record as the Time. Well, you know what, for the longest [time] I thought that was very gracious of him. But then I found out from a legal standpoint he couldn’t stop me from using the name [laughs]. I was like, “I’ll be damned.”

You know, the last night that I saw Prince he said, “I want to manage [the Time]. … I want to take you guys to Europe. … I want to put it together for you.”

Wow. Was that completely out of the blue? Did he say why? He just said that he wanted to manage us going overseas, because that’s something we got prevented from doing – which was probably his doing – back in the day. He didn’t want us to go over when the record was hot, when we should’ve gone over there. And we never did. I was just like, “Hey, you know the number. When you want to put it together, we’re ready to go.” And after he passed, guess what? Europe starts calling. The things that he said he wanted to do started to happen. How about that?

There’s been a lot of talk about what music will come out of his vaults. It there anything you know exists that you’re excited people might get to hear? I know I’ve got stuff in the vault, but I don’t really remember the titles. It’ll be interesting for people to hear that ’cause I know Prince wouldn’t have released it [laughs]. The only time we pulled from the vault was specifically for the Graffiti Bridge project, songs like “Jerk Out.” And that was more Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam asking. It wasn’t on my mind what was in the vault [laughs].

“I wasn’t in the habit of biting my tongue around him,” Day says of Prince. Courtesy of Morris Day

Your relationship with Prince always appeared tense but close. Would you say you were one of the few people who collaborated with him as an equal? I always kept it real [with him] because we’d known each other since we were kids. I wasn’t in the habit of biting my tongue around him. And he ended up with a bunch of yes people around him. And I think eventually, that drove the divider between us. At times, he was the classic example of a workaholic. And I’m the polar opposite. Whereas, when I reached my limit, I’d be like, “Damn, I need to go lay down,” so I’d just sleep on the couch or I’d go back to whatever hotel, wherever we’re staying, and he’d show up hours later when the sun was up, completely finished with what we were working on.

What’s the ultimate funk song you guys wrote together? One of my favorites is “Ice Cream Castles.” Back then, of course, we had women on the brain 24/7 – the different flavors – and that’s kind of how that happened. And at that time, there were groups like the Fixx, the Cure doing those haunting, melodic songs and we wanted to do one of our own. And by the end of the song, it kind of turns a corner from being a pop song and starts to get funky. I like that part because back in the day, it was all about the uptempo – the funkier the better. I lived for being in the studio, putting together those grooves.

And you were cool with the Joni Mitchell lyric as the title? I wasn’t as infatuated with her [as Prince] was. As matter of fact, I didn’t really get it [laughs]. No disrespect to her. I’d try and listen, and I’d be like, “Dude, I don’t get it.” It just wasn’t my thing.

Source: Yahoo

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