#like. the instrumentation and reimagining is so beautiful
Text
gotta say, the new dw intro really scratches my brain just the right way
#like. the instrumentation and reimagining is so beautiful#they added so many little things in there!! and its the most orchestral its ever been!!#gragrhghgrrrh I WANT TO FUCKING EAT IT#doctor who#all of a sudden. wow never thought id return to it#cause usually im a hater but that mightve been just chibnall + moffat apparently#honestly i watched the last 4 eps and somehow i dont want to trash the whole thing and i have no idea why exactly#maybe the subconscious respect for tennant and tate. maybe the lack of the master and active mistreatment from both writers and the doctor.#maybe chibnall's writing of the doctor's character was so off i just got used to it and gave up on the whole idea until watching new eps#honestly the fuck was spyfall 2. the fuck was timeless children. the _fuck_ was the flux. the _FUCK_ was potd.#and oh my god can we talk about how much it felt like chibnall was inspired by cw flash (/neg) all the way from s12 to the very end to me#he put the master in doctor's body and MADE THE PROCESS LOOK LIKE THE FUCKING SPEED FORCE i couldnt make that shit up in a fever dream#and thats just what i recalled first. like the very concept of the timeless child sounds like barry being the sf source/beginning/whatever#the fucking crystal flux dude being an enemy doctor didnt face on screen yet yet knows her THAT KILLS HER FUCKING 'MOTHER'????#..ok that escalated from an intro appreciation quickly. anyway#turns out i actually still fucking love it! turns out it shaped me in so many ways as my first fixation and still kinda resonates with me
0 notes
Text
Ignition | Danny Wagner X f!Reader X Jake Kiszka | Part 6
Warnings: Minors absolutely DNI! blindfolding, DANNY PLAYING CELLO, graphic sexual descriptions, heavy petting, semi-public sex, getting caught having said sex, unprotected sex, penetration, oral m. receiving, teasing, edging, fluff, Jake angst.
Word Count: 6,000
A/N: THIS CHAPTER WAS SO FUN TO WRITE!!!!! As a classical musician, I indulged with making Danny play cello. Also loved the smut hehehe
Summary: Danny is fun and exciting--more so than you had ever thought. He's sexy and dependable, and he makes your knees weak...yet old ghosts still remain.
Have you read part 5?
Listen to the Ignition Spotify playlist!
PSSSSST: This is the song that Danny plays at the beginning of the chapter. Saint-Saens: Le Cygne
“Where are we?” You asked Danny, squeezing his hand as he led you down what seemed like fifty strangely deep stairs. He had put a blindfold on you while he drove, and you’d jokingly warned him that you knew the number to 911. “You’re a smart girl,” he chuckled, fastening the cloth behind your head.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “Just take your time while we’re walking,” he continued, taking your hand in one of his, holding onto your shoulder with the other. “Okay,” he said after more stairs as he arrived, you assumed, at your destination. He continued to walk with you before finally pausing a few moments later. “Sit here,” he said. You could hear him pulling at something that elicited a loud squeak in the room. You began to squat, feeling particularly awkward. “It’s okay,” he chuckled, guiding you down into the seat.
“Danny, there are very few things I hate in life. This is very much one of them,” You groaned, reaching to fiddle with your blindfold.
“Ahh!” His fingers flitted upward to fix the blindfold himself. “Don’t you dare!”
“Okay, okay!”
“I told you it’s a surprise,” he chuckled. “Okay. I’ll be right back. Stay there and don’t move.”
“Well, seems as I can’t see, I don’t plan on it,” you grinned.
“That mouth is gonna get you in trouble,” he chuckled, stepping away from you. As he walked, you could hear the slight creaking of the floor and a few moments later, something scraping across it. You heard him messing with something and adjusting in place before finally speaking.
“Okay, you can take it off,” he said quietly, his voice echoing off of the walls. As you removed the cloth from your face, you waited for your eyes to adjust. It took you a moment, but you realized that you were in a beautiful recital hall, the entire room darkened except for a single spotlight that shone brightly on Danny, who held a cello between his knees.
“Wh-what?” You asked, your voice and expression scrunched with confusion. The music cut you off as he drew the bow across the strings for the first time, lacing thick, decadent ribbons of sound through the air, hypnotizing you in your seat. You’d heard this piece before, but knew that you couldn’t name it if you’d tried. The tone was luxurious, possessing a depth of beauty and sound that suspended you in place. You watched as Danny’s eyes closed, his fingers moving over the neck of the cello with graceful confidence, like he’d done this a million times. His fingers shook against the strings to coax vibrato out of them, his other hand delicately beckoning the melody from the instrument through each long stroke of his bow. His face loosened in parts of the piece, intensifying in others. You watched every movement before making the realization that his expressions often mimicked the way he looked at the height of intimacy, and your thoughts wandered, reimagining the way he touched you. Your heart pounded in your chest as the erotic image flooded your mind, accompanied by Danny’s song. It took you another few moments to realize that in his mind, Danny was most likely making love to the music, expressing through it his deepest, most ardent thoughts and feelings, and you silently wondered if they might include you.
The spotlight shown over the instrument, bouncing off of the glossy wood into the rest of the hall. The way that the lights were positioned over Danny’s face created gentle shadows from curve of his nose, casting soft fractals across his face as he played. He was beautiful, and in your eyes, he’d never seemed more radiant than in this moment. His mind, body and soul was enraptured in music that was more than a century old, but was nothing but effortlessly timeless. In a moment of abandon, you felt a familiar ache rise in your throat, and before you knew it, you were silently swiping tears from your cheeks.
You listened, letting your own eyes close as he encircled you in the musical richness, until, just like any embrace, it had to end, and the final note dissipated through the hall with longing and romance until it dissolved into nothingness, leaving you and Danny hovering upon the heavy silence.
“I had no idea you could play the cello,” you admitted with an impressed scoff. “That was fucking beautiful,” you said, reaching to wipe away the tears from the corners of your eyes.
“I made you cry?” He asked, standing up from his chair and setting the instrument to the side on its stand.
“No,” you said defensively. “Don’t look at me like that,” you grinned.
“I’m just looking at the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, what’s the harm in that?” He asked, stepping off the stage toward you.
“How are you a real, living and breathing human, Danny Wagner?” you asked him, standing to join him, reaching to take fistfuls of his sweater to pull him downward to you in your seat.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his eyes moving to yours, his dark lashes casting soft shadows over his face in the dimness of the room. His fingers lifted to gently sweep away the tears.
“I mean that you are so incredibly sexy, and thoughtful,” you continued, feeling his hands move to pull you close against him by the curve of your ass.
“Keep going,” he murmured quietly, his eyebrows rising softly with interest.
“You get off on the compliments, don’t you?” You grinned, looking up at him.
“Mm, maybe just a smidge, but only if it’s you saying them.”
“Well, if you must know, I love how romantic you are. How cool it is that you play the fucking cello like a pro and never thought to tell me–”
“It’s not something I usually advertise,” he shrugged. “Sam knows, but that’s because we grew up together. It was either band, orchestra, or sports. I ended up choosing orchestra. So yeah, I’ve always been a nerd.”
“No,” you shook your head. “I think…” you smoothed your hands over his chest, feeling the contour of his pecs, “that you’ve got major game for bringing me here and playing that song,” you grinned. “You knew exactly what you were doing, Daniel Wagner. Didn’t you?”
“Saint-Saëns always gets me women,” he shrugged, his bright grin revealing his annoyingly-perfect teeth. “If you were curious.”
You scoffed, pushing him backward, your eyes widening with surprise. “And by women, I mean just one,” he said, stepping back into your space, his hands resting on your hips. “very smart, and very, very sexy woman.” His lips hovered just over yours, hot breath expelling through his nostrils upon your skin. He let silence fill the room before his fingertips moved to the small of your back, pulling you in against him. You let your eyes fall closed as you waited for him to kiss you. His lips brushed yours gently at first, their velvet softness teasing your mouth slightly open. You welcomed the kiss, letting your lips fold easily with his. Busying your hands, you lifted them to wrap around his neck, teasing the dark curls that brushed against your fingers. He teased the curve of your lips with his tongue, introducing it softly within the kiss, which was quickly becoming needier. Your hands shifted, holding his face by the curve of his jaw as he wandered to the hem of your shirt, his fingertips dancing upward to touch your bare skin.
“Danny,” you groaned into the kiss, aware of the growing arousal between your legs.
“Tell me to stop,” he whispered, his hands continuing to rise beneath your shirt.
“I can’t,” You admitted, kissing him deeper, letting his tongue fold with yours, his hold on your body growing more and more possessive. “In public?” You murmured softly.
“It’s the weekend. No one’s here,” he answered, moving to kiss down the curve of your neck, his hands palming over one of your breasts. You gasped into the room as he tweaked and pulled at your nipple with the crease of his thumb and forefinger.
“Fuck,” you moaned softly, your hands moving to smooth over his back.
“You like it when I tease you?” He asked quietly, moving the tips of his fingers to graze against your sensitive areolas.
“Daniel,” you urged, walking him backward against the first row of seats. “Sit down,” you told him.
“Hm?” He asked, moving back up to your lips.
“Sit down,” you ordered quietly, pushing him away from you, looking around the large room for evidence of anyone else watching. He obeyed your command, moving to sit down as you had told him. He watched you silently, biting on his bottom lip as he waited for you. Though it wasn’t the easiest to do it this way, you looped your legs around him the best you could and lowered yourself slowly on his lap.
“I like this much butter,” you admitted with a soft grin. He moved to your ass, squeezing it hard in his hands before moving upward to caress the small of your back. He’d wanted to give you attention, you knew it. But this time, it would be you to deliver. Slowly, you ground your ass down on him and began to speak. “Tell me what you like about my body, Danny.” You looked down at him, watching as his expression began to relax, pulling his bottom and upper lips into his mouth and biting down on them.
“I love your ass,” He said with a smirk, and you responded by adding more pressure against him, listening to his breath hitch. His hips moved forward to allow you more space.
“What else?” You asked him, raising your eyebrows as you reached up to throw your hair behind you.
“Your tits are incredible,” He continued, reaching beneath your shirt to squeeze your breasts. His hands were so warm, and the sensation was incredible. The calluses from drumming had toughened his hands, but you loved the masculine roughness of them. The idea of being walked in on was exhilarating, especially when you considered what your intentions with Danny were, even if he didn’t know yet.
“What else?” You asked again.
“You really want to know?” he asked, his eyes practically sparkling.
“Mmhmm,” you nodded your head, beginning to swivel your hips against him, feeling his hardness rising to rub against your ass.
“I love,” he groaned, releasing a heavy sigh through his mouth. He reached for your ass, taking a full handful of it and pulling you down with your full weight against his groin, rocking his hips up against your mound.
“Fuck–” you moaned, feeling him against you.
“I adore your perfect pussy,” he finally spoke, reaching for your knees to widen them so he could repeat the movement.
“Danny,” you practically whimpered. He looked up at you through heavy lids, his dark lashes making him look so innocent, but incredibly seductive at the same time.
“What?” He asked softly, a trace of a smirk laced through his expression.
“You think you’re the one in control,” you purred, moving off of him, and getting down on your knees in front of him. “But you’re wrong.”
“I am?” He asked softly, his expression shaded by skepticism.
“Honey, you have no idea,” you told him, walking forward on your knees, reaching for the button on his pants. You felt arousal lurch through your core as you did, pulling down his zipper. Tilting your head upward to look at him, you met his gaze, watching as his Adam’s apple bobbed slowly. You chuckled once through your nose. “You want me to touch you, don’t you, Danny?” You asked him playfully.
His mouth pulled open just slightly as his jaw slackened. He nodded slowly.
“No words?” You asked, grazing your fingertips over the bright blue fabric of his underwear, most definitely touching his cock.
“Y-yes. Yes please.” You made a show of running your tongue over your bottom lip before pulling his fly down as far as it would go, reaching into his underwear for his hardening cock, revealing its full length. You hadn’t had the real chance the first time to take charge in pleasing Danny, and this time, you knew you’d make up for it.
“Such a pretty cock,” you praised, stroking his length several slow times, watching how his expression began to grow less attentive to his sense of sight, and so much more t0 feeling. “So big, too. You know,” you began, placing your thumb on his pink tip, dispersing his single drop of pre-cum with the pad of it as you touched him. “You felt incredible inside of me the other night. I don’t think I really showed you how appreciative I am.” You flicked your eyes up at him. “Should I show you just how good you make me feel, Danny?” You felt his cock twitch under your grasp in response, and you knew that you had him literally wrapped around your fingers.
“Please,” he said in a barely-there whisper, gripping the back of the seats at either side of him as he let you take the lead.
“You wanna feel my hot mouth and lips all over your cock?” You asked him again, adding more pressure against his length, feeling the texture of his veins as blood rushed into his lower body. He was almost feverishly-hot to the touch.
“Stop teasing me, Y/n. Please.”
“So insistent, Danny. Haven’t you ever heard of patience?” Lifting his cock upward toward his belly, you lolled your tongue out of your mouth and ran a slow, wet line up the underside of his cock, feeling how rigid he was against your touch. He tasted so good; natural and masculine, but with the faintest scent of his spicy body wash lifted from the heat of his skin. You looked up again at him, amused when he lifted one of his hands to run it through his curls as he sighed deeply. You repeated the movement, stopping to drag your tongue around the underside of the tip of his cock, knowing you had him when he audibly moaned, hissing with pleasure through gritted teeth.
“Fuck–Y/n,” he grunted, reaching to squeeze the hand that you had left rested on his thigh. “Please.” His voice was insistent, pulled thin, in almost a whimper, and you swore in the moment that you’d never heard anything more beautiful.
Just as you felt he’d beg you once more, you took his tip into your mouth, ringing it slowly with the flat of your tongue. You loved how he writhed underneath you as you finally touched him. After a moment, you decided to give in to his begs by finally taking more of him into your mouth, using the wetness of your mouth to slick over his length with your tongue. Skillfully, you hollowed your cheeks and added suction. As you moved downward, you knew that Danny’s length and girth would most definitely activate your gag reflex. Even so, you didn’t care, especially if it meant you’d get to hear his beautiful whimpers of agonized ecstasy as you took your time pleasing him. “Fuck, that feels so damn good,” he murmured, placing his hand on his thigh where your hand rested. You felt him squeeze it in increments as you moved, and you imagined each time he wrapped his fingers further around your hand, it was a reflection of the amount of pleasure you were giving him. You broke suction for a moment, knowing you’d left strings of saliva connected between your mouth and his cock. You moved in to lick away the excess before speaking again.
“You might laugh,” you say, wiping at your mouth with the back of his hand, “But getting to fuck you with my mouth has been the only thing I could think about…practically since you took me on your motorcycle.” You stroked his cock to remedy the absence of your mouth.
“I would–never,” he groaned, “Laugh at you about that. Not when you make me feel so goddamn good.” Moving quickly off of your knees, you rose to kiss him slowly, continuing to knead my fingers against your length. You felt the vibration of his moans reverberate through his lips as you kissed him.
“You want–” you whispered against his open mouth. “You want more, don’t you?” He breathed against your kiss, and you could feel the gentle puffs of air drift against your face. “You want my pussy, don’t you, baby?”
“Yes,” he answered heavily, his voice barely audible.
“You want to fuck me in public?” You said, squeezing harder on his cock. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Danny.” You grinned when you watched his cheeks pinken with slight embarrassment.
“How about I meet you in the middle, hm? You’re lucky I wore a skirt.” Reaching underneath the hem of it, you tugged at your underwear, pulling them down your legs quickly and handed them to Danny. “Hold onto these,” You told him, watching him loop the fabric around his fingers as you moved to situate yourself on his lap, reaching for his cock.
“Fuck, Y/n. You’re fucking soaked,” he said, rubbing his thumb into the crotch of your panties. “God I wish I could taste you right now.”
“Save those thoughts for later,” you murmured. “For now, this is all about you.” You leaned forward and kissed him. “And maybe a tiny bit for me, too,” you pulled away from him, enthused when he leaned forward to catch your lips once more.
Taking his cock in your hand, you lowered yourself against his shaft, careful to grind along his length. Feeling your own wetness, dropped your hips, sliding against him to cover his cock in your slick. “Oh my God,” he groaned, his voice cut with a raspiness that only aroused you further. His hands moved to grip your hips possessively, his thick fingers digging into your flesh.
“Does my pussy feel good when I grind it against your cock like this?” You moved, using your hand to steady his shaft against your heat, stopping just when you felt his tip poke gently against your entrance. You debated quitting the teasing and taking all of him at once, but you stayed the course, lifting yourself just a few inches off of him. “You want me, Danny? Show me.”
He moved instantly, reaching his hand down to his cock, holding it at the base while lifting his hips to find yours, sliding himself backward and forward against your folds. “I want to fuck you so badly,” He almost whimpered. “You’re pussy is so fucking warm, it feels so fucking good.”
You hummed softly, bunching your skirt in your fist as you reached down to find his hand, guiding it with yours against yourself. His hips lurched upward and forward over and over again, filling your belly with swelling, needy sensation. You’d never done anything like this with someone in public, and though there was a great possibility of getting caught, your need for him surpassed any ounce of fear you had.
“Say my name, Y/n,” he moaned, grabbing for your hips to pull you back down against him. He needed more pressure, more friction–more of you.
“Danny,” you sighed through his name. “Your cock is so hot–so big.” You wished you could squeeze around him to show him just how good he made you feel. “I want you, Danny. So much.” He reached upward to knead your breasts in his hands, moving to pinch your nipples as you rode the underside of his cock. You were certain that he was almost painfully erect.
“Y/n, baby please,” he finally whimpered, sending your insides gripping for the ghost of his cock. “More, please–” his voice rose in pitch, his face contorted with ecstasy.
“You want more?” You asked. “So selfish,” you grinned, though in reality, you were just as desperate. You began to undulate your hips down against his length as hard and as fast as you could, watching his chest rise and fall with increased breath. “I’m so good to you, Danny. And you ask for more?” You pressed your hands down into his chest as you rode him, the increased friction against your pussy flooding your core with desire.
“Please,” he cried out, his hands flying to your thighs, spreading your legs as far apart as he could get them. “More!”
There would be no debate of whether his grip would leave marks. You wanted them there as a reminder of this encounter. “Cum for me, Danny. Close your eyes and let go. I’ll get you there, I promise,” you practically sang to him. You knew what you’d do to send him careening over the edge, and him not knowing only made you work harder.
You watched as he obeyed instantly, his eyes falling shut, his jaw relaxing and tightening in a consistent rhythm. His eyebrows furrowed inward like he was in pain, but you both knew it was the furthest thing from the truth. Soft, beautiful groans escaped from his throat and out of his mouth and nose, his voice resounding off of the walls around you as you.
“You’re being so good,” You praised him, but he didn’t want to hear it. In that last moment, his hips bucked upward against your heat, despite you pressing all of your weight against him. His hand flew to your mouth to silently tell you to stop talking, and instinctively, you parted your lips, taking his fingertips into your mouth, licking your tongue over them.
He was dangerously close, and though he’d be fine cumming against your skin or in your mouth, you had different plans. Lifting slightly without giving yourself away, you routed his cock back to your slick entrance and slammed your hips forward, knowing you were more than aroused to take his entire length if you needed to. His eyes flew open as you did, his cock filling you perfectly. You squeezed down on him as tightly as you could, feeling him twitching uncontrollably inside of you. You tilted forward and let yourself fall against his chest where he’d sunk down in the seat. “Let go, baby. I want all of you.” He needed nothing more except your final permission. He groaned with carnal desire as his hands rushed to your hips, yanking you as close as possible against him, unloading himself inside of you with a thick, heavy hiss through his teeth. His face had grown Scarlet with exertion, and in that final moment, you could see a single vein in his forehead that bulged forward as he released. Closing your eyes, you imagined the shape of him inside of you and tightened your walls around every inch of him, feeling his hot release filling you with a warmth and comfort that was indescribable, and only shared between you and him. He twitched helplessly inside, his breath hitching beneath you as he finally began to come down from the high you’d supplied.
“Hey!” You heard someone bark angrily toward the top of the recital hall, filling you with terror. “The hall is closed! Get out of here!” From where you sat, you could see the stream of light from a flashlight flood over seats above you.
“Fuck!” You whispered, lowering your body closer to Danny, and pulling out of him in the darkness, hoping and praying that security didn’t see you having sex.
“Stupid college kids,” the man sputtered under his breath. “Out now!”
You tugged your skirt down as quickly as you could and watched as Danny buttoned his pants, not bothering to zip them. “Run,” he half-whispered, and you did immediately, keeping your head ducked low, sprinting off to the stage right exit. He reached for your hand and followed quickly.
“What about your cello?” You called back at him.
“Wasn’t mine!” he said casually, running out of the building with you.
***
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” He asked, peering at you over the steering wheel. He’d caught you staring.
“It’s because you’re so just so ugly,” you answered instantly, smirking at him as he drove. “It’s really unfortunate.”
“That’s definitely not what you said last night,” He fired back, blinking at you innocently through long, dark lashes. Admittedly, he looked gorgeous today, and his entire demeanor exuded relaxed confidence. He’d worn a backwards baseball cap, his curls pushed back slightly. You watched as they swirled into tight coils, shining against the sunlight beaming through the windows. As you made eye contact through his tinted sunglasses, you would have let him do anything to you then and there had he simply asked.
“Let’s not advertise that,” you smirked, feeling heat rise to your cheeks.
“Oh, I might be conceited, Darling, but there are things I most definitely intend to keep to myself. Sex in public is definitely one of those things.”
“Daniel Wagner!” You scoffed, reaching to swat at him.
“Don’t tell me you’re not thinking the same thing!” He chuckled, moving away from you as he turned into the rehearsal space. You watched as his fingers gripped the steering wheel, the contour of his muscles adjusting as he turned into the parking lot, and you admired the small veins that moved along his arms and into his hands. You weren’t exactly sure why you found these features so beautiful, but now, your mind fixated helplessly on them.
“Come on, pretty girl,” he said, patting your thigh before stepping out of his car and making his way around it to take your hand. “Let’s go get this shit over with,” he said as you rose out of the vehicle, “So I can take you home and love on you some more,” he murmured, pulling you against him. You hugged him tight to you, his spicy scent looping pleasantly around you. He bent to kiss you on the head, and you moved to tilt upward. He moved to kiss you softly on the lips before taking your hand in his and walking into the building. Already inside, Jake was playing disconnected riffs on guitar, and you rolled your eyes, knowing that he most definitely had turned the gain all the way up. A fond grin began to tug at your lips.
In the moment, your heart twanged with regret, wishing that things were different between the two of you. You would have been laughing at him two months ago, telling him he sucked at guitar, and that you were a better player. He would have made you prove it, and when you made your attempt, you would have most definitely made him fall apart laughing from how awful you sounded.
“You okay?” Danny asked, noticing your sudden silence. You looked up at him and nodded, offering him a thin smile.
“I’m fine,” you told him, and he pulled an arm around you, pulling you to his side as he stepped into the rehearsal room, dropping his drum bag by the stool behind his kit.
“Think you could make a good beat?” He asked you, raising a flirtatious eyebrow.
“Easy. Didn’t you know, I actually made these drums,” you said sarcastically, referring to his kit. You winked at him, stepping over to his kit and took a seat on the stool, completely unaware of what each drum was called, what its purpose was, and how to even keep time.
“Take these,” he said, pulling a freshly prepped set of sticks out of his bag. They had been wrapped in electrical tape. “I use these when my hands hurt,” he explained. “They don’t splinter as easily, and they keep most of the vibration at the tip, up here,” he explained, touching the bead of the drumstick with the pad of his finger. “They’ll be good for you to use, I think.” Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Jake glancing over at you every few moments, but you pretended not to notice. You took the sticks from him, rubbing your fingers over the smoothy-taped areas. “Now,” he began, moving behind you. “Your foot is an extra hand.” He squeezed your shoulders tenderly as he spoke. “The pedal is down there,” he pointed. “Hit it.”
You moved your foot down and stomped on the pedal. The room filled with the sound of the kick drum and Jake’s gaze flitted upward, landing on yours. He looked away quickly and continued to play. “Excellent!” Danny mused. “Now,” he said, leaning inward, his chest and belly pressed against your back, his arms coming around your body to place his hands on yours. You felt his curls tickle your neck as he moved in just above your shoulder. You tilted your head to look up at him for a moment, and he smiled gently down at you before turning his head back forward. “Play.”
“Anything?” You asked him, hovering the sticks over the head of the snare. He reached under the drum and tightened the snare to change the sound.
“You built these, right?” He asked with a wide grin. “You know how it works.”
“Oh yeah, totally,” you said, reaching upward and slamming the sticks against the head of the drum, listening to the rattle resound through the space. You did it several times before reaching up and striking the cymbal a few times, moving to the other toms and then back. Danny chuckled softly as you bashed erratically on the drums.
“You poor thing,” He murmured into the cuff of your ear. Something about the way he said it sent shivers over your body, igniting your skin in an instant array of goosebumps. The worst part was that he knew it. “Let me help.” You felt his rough fingers glide over yours before closing around them. You enjoyed his closeness and how comfortable you felt with him, despite the electricity that silently crackled between your embraces. He moved with easy confidence, the strength and solidity in his rhythm evident through his guiding movement. You chuckled softly as he moved with you, feeling his lips kiss your neck as he somehow continued to play effortlessly.
“Danny! Focus!” You chided him.
“Okay, okay,” he said with a wide grin. “Scoot,” He said, taking the drumsticks from you, backing away. You moved for him, standing and letting him sit on the stool instead. “Now, come sit,” He said, patting his thigh. “This is yours,” he said, handing you one of the sticks.
Jake (will be read from first person POV, present tense):
I want it to stop, but knowing I have no power over that, I move to roll my eyes and boil internally instead. They’re blatantly flirting in front of me, disregarding me entirely. You see me, yet you peer right through me with a gentle smile, but one that isn’t mine to see. How could I become a stranger to you so quickly? Do the last two years of our friendship mean absolutely nothing to you? Danny doesn’t care that I have feelings for you. He knows I do, but his selfishness stole you from me. What he doesn’t know is that I’m still not over you, and I don’t intend to be anytime soon. We’ll find each other again soon enough. This isn’t goodbye. It’s temporary.
I pluck random, thoughtless riffs on my guitar as I seethe. “Talk to her,” Josh says, coming to sit beside me, slurping loudly on what I assume is most likely a hot tea mixed with a cocktail bar’s worth of booze.
“What?” I ask, turning with my guitar toward him.
“Jake. You literally look like a fuckin’ stalker staring at her, man. Just pull her aside and talk to her already. It’s time. You’re losing her. Smooth things over before it’s too late.” You watched as Sam sidled over, bending to pet Rosie as she zoomed around the room.
“Really,” Sam agreed quietly. “The weird tension is getting really old.” I watch as he tosses one of Rosie’s toys into the hallway, grinning faintly as she lunges to grab it and run it back to Sam. It takes my mind off of you for just a moment.
“I wasn’t staring,” I argue despite Josh and Sam’s dissenting glances at each other. I scoff with annoyance. “Fine. I’ll talk to her.” Truth be told, my stance has gotten me nowhere. I could have been honest with you, and I fucked it up by being a coward. I lied to you, and stole away your hope for more, because I was scared. I could have told you. You would have understood, but now it’s far-too late to even consider opening up a conversation like that. Despite my jealousy, I put it aside, determined to pull you aside after rehearsal and try to mend things, if only just a little bit.
***
You were aware of his presence. You hadn’t made eye contact, but something in your gut told you he was approaching you. The room grew smaller and smaller as he arrived beside you, but you laughed at whatever Danny was in the middle of telling you, trying your best to look undisturbed.
“Hey,” he said, breaking through your defenses easily.
“Hi,” you spoke, looking him in the eye. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” He looked nervous, his gaze moving between you and Danny for a long moment. “Alone?” He asked again. You watched as Danny’s jaw set tensely. You touched his arm softly and squeezed.
“Sure,” you told Jake, nodding with a thin smile, stepping away from Danny. “I’ll be back in a few.” Danny eyed Jake for a long moment before looking back at you, nodding coolly.
You walked with him around the exterior hallways that looped around the large building, just like old times, except now, the chasms in your relationship had pulled you so far from one another that silence prevailed for far too long.
“So, I guess I really just wanted to say I’m sorry.” He said sheepishly, casting his eyes down upon the tile floor. He stuffed his hands nervously in his pocket. You were silent, but you continued to walk with him as you listened. “I was terrible to you, and I promised you that I would never leave–”
“But you did,” you said, looking up at him. He met your gaze, nodding.
“I did.” He let more silence linger before continuing. “Y/n, I shut you out because I didn’t know how to process what you had told me.”
“So you decided being an absolute piece of shit was the way to go?” You asked him sarcastically, your tone sharp and icy.
“Apparently,” he said, grimacing with regret. “And you’re right. I hurt you. I know I did, and I only made it worse. And now you’re with Danny…”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” You asked him, turning sharply in place.
“What?” He asked, though he heard you.
“What does that have to do with anything, Jake? Why couldn’t you just be
there for me? You couldn’t–you literally let your bestfriend–hell, pretty much your brother fill your shoes?”
“You’re my best friend!” He practically shouted, stepping forward and taking you by your shoulders. His eyes were wild with intensity, taking you by surprise. “You, Y/n,” he said with a tenderness you didn’t quite understand. “I let you down–and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Y/n. I just want you back. How can I get you to trust me again?” He asked as his expression deepened, practically begging for mercy.
“Don’t leave me, Jake. Don’t leave again.”
--
End of part 6.
If you'd like to be added to the taglist, fill out this form!
taglist: @ohgodthefeeling-gvf, @astreamofcolors, @sammysobaby, @gretavanfreakmadie, @weneedsomehealing123, @sarahstardust7, @strawberryblondeee, @squirreledelman,@madneedshelp, @watchingover-hypegirl, @llightmyllovee, @moralmorbid, @gretavangroupie, @jordie-gvf-admin, @brujamagik, @gretasmokerising, @ascendingtothestarsasone, @mama-likes72, @gold-mines-melting, @myownparadise96, @sanguinebats @sulkyrie, @mackalah, @interstellar-shores, @jakekiszkasmommy, @laneygvf, @overtheehillsandfarawayy, @takenbythemadness, @joshskittytickler21, @jaketlove, @gretasfallingsky, @starshine-gvf, @itsdannysworld, @lipstickitty, @scoreofinfantryvines, @capturethechaos, @tripthelightfatality @hippievanfleet @demolitionndann @thetroublegetssoloud71, @malany-gvf, @gvfmarge, @idontlikelizards, @dont-go-home-without-me, @ace-harrington, @jjwasneverhere, @writingcold @starcatcherry @cherrybugbaby @jakekiszkapunchmeintheface
#Danny Wagner#Danny gvf#gvf#Greta Van fleet#Greta Van fleet fanfiction#Greta Van fleet fanfic#gvf fanfic#Jake Kiszka#Jake gvf#Jake Kiszka fanfiction#jake kiszka fic#gretavanfleet#jake kiszka fanfic#jake kiszka gvf#jake kiszka imagine#jake kiszka smut#jake kiszka x reader#Danny Wagner smut#Danny Wagner x reader#Jake Kiszka x reader#Greta Van fanfic#Danny Wagner angst#danny wagner gvf
130 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m currently writing a Bamon fic that basically reimagines TVD, starting with them starting college and with Bonnie as the protagonist. And like I have SO many headcanons I’m gonna incorporate. A lot of them comes from the show but just elevated.
1. Bonnie
My lovely, mistreated Bonnie… boy do I have ideas for you. First of all, she’s going to have some good ass hairstyles. BLACK GIRL hairstyles. I think Bonnie loves to wear curly ponytails with decorated scarves, or like some long knotless braids. AHHH I have some ideas for her hair. But speaking of style, Bonnie loves the bohemian aesthetic. So, air of half tops, waist beads, long skirts, etc (go on Pinterest and type “bohemian black girl, and you’d see what I’m talking about). She wears alot of brown, green, beige and like golden colors. She wears red when she’s feeling spicy. Bonnie is also into candles, HEAVILY, and crystals. She’s not religious but spiritual. And for college, she’s majoring in dance and minoring in occult studies. Her favorite genre of dance is contemporary. And her favorite breakfast is cereal, and she’s most likely a vegetarian. Also I wanna change her background a bit. She actually grew up being raised by her mother and her grandmother. Her father left because he couldn’t or wouldn’t handle with their witch ancestry, when he found out.
2. Damon
Damon’s bisexual. That’s it, that’s the quote. But no seriously, I firmly believe that he is, and I stand by that. And also in my fic, Damon has this kind of… “punk rocker” aesthetic going. Imagine eyeliner, leather jackets with pins, ripped jeans, black and red color pallete. With that being said, he has a SICK fashion sense. He paints his own fingernails, mainly the color black. Another big thing about Damon is that he LOVES music. He is a music fanatic. He adores all the genres and can see the beauty in all of them, and he collects records. He also loves to play various of instruments. He has mastered the piano, the guitar, the violin and the trumpet and other shit too, and he loves to sing but he never sings infront of people. He loves to cook. Whenever he’s frustrated or gets startled, he swears in Italian. And speaking of Italian, Damon and Stefan’s were born in like the late 1400s or the early 1500s in Florence, Italy. And their family portrait was actually painted by the famous painter, Caravaggio. Damon didn’t come to America till the 1920s as he began to admire the American people’s party era.
3. Elena
She actually stays pretty much the same. However, Elena really likes Britney Spears so a lot of her outfits are inspired by her. She wears alot of dark colors, but you will see her in a pink matching tracksuit and a baby blue cropped top. Elena kind of takes every moment to show her belly button. Oh, and she loves cropped jackets. Veryyyyy Y2K going on here. Elena is trynna become a doctor but she’s also minoring in writing.
4. Caroline
I gotta be honest, I have no notes for Caroline cause I think her character in the show was written perfectly enough to be memorable and entertaining. However I think her aesthetic could be boosted up a notch to rest for her image. Caroline wears a lot of bubbly colors. Very bright but also soft color palette, so imagine a lot of soft pinks, blues, whites. She loves to wear plaid skirts and cardigans and sweaters. She’s trying to be a lawyer, which I fully expect from her. Think of Elle Woods without the hot pink.
5. Stefan
Stefan is good ol’ Stefan (except in my head, the version that I like). He’s very athletic, he gives very much sensitive gym bro. And he’s actually kind of passionate about all sports, and watches them regularly. That being said, he also loves writing, specifically poetry. So therefore he’s majoring in writing. Stefan first came to America, following his brother in the 20s. They were trying to make up with each other, and as Damon was trying to teach him how to feed as a normal vampire, it caused Stefan to be the ripper of something something. Basically in the show but different timelines. Oh and Stefan wears the color red and blue a lot, kind of patriotic of him lmao.
#ugh there’s so so so much more I could add#I cannot wait to write this fic UGH#the vampire diaries#tvd#damon salvatore#tvdu#tvd opinions#elena gilbert#bamon#stefan salvatore#caroline forbes#bonnie bennet#tvd headcanons#headcanon#tvd fic#tvd fanfic
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
So you have heard Rick Astley was the unexpected sensation at Glastonbury this year...
and you'd like to get a taster of his music, but you don't know where to start, because you are only/mostly familiar with Never Gonna Give You Up?
This post is for you!
I'll give you a quick overview of his discography, and a recommendation of what I think are the best tracks of each album and why. Aggregated playlist at the bottom of the post.
Whenever You Need Somebody (1987)
This was Rick's debut album, and the one that included Never Gonna Give You Up. If you have heard the piece of trivia that says "if you drop the pitch Kylie Minogue's I Should Be So Lucky, it will sound like Rick Astley"... there's a very easy explanation for that: both were composed by Stock Aitken Waterman, a trio of music producers that wrote several of the most well known eurobeat hits of the late 80s and early 90s (i.e. You Spin Me Like a Record), based on the principles of... well, being very generic and catchy. Half of the tracks of this album were written by them.
Thematically the album is strangely obsessed with cheating, cheating women, and being in love with cheating women, and being heartbroken over them. I don't know what to tell you, sometimes I forget how common this was around that time for the romantic ballad outside of the US (?)
Anyways, of the 10 tracks of the original album, the best (and also most Never Gonna Give You Up-like) are Together Forever, Don't Say Goodbye, and Whenever You Need Somebody.
The album closes with a cover of When I Fall in Love, that to me feels very out of place. Perhaps it was one thing Rick himself was dead set on singing?
This album had a 15th anniversary expanded remaster in 2010, including 3 ""old-new"" songs and 4 remixes (one of them is an extended version of NGGYU). I'll Never Set You Free is remarkable for being one of the creepiest songs this side of Every Breath You Take.
The 2022 remaster:
This one includes one "old-new" track that is a severe earworm, My Arms Keep Missing You (it does deserve the THREE remixes it gets in this album), several remixes of other songs, three instrumentals, AND, most notably for me, three "reimaginings" of NGGYU, Together Forever, and Whenever You Need Somebody as slow piano ballads, very very worth listening if you are into that sort of thing (these were first released in the compilation album The Best of Me (2019)).
It also includes a new version of When I Fall in Love, that really highlights Rick's growth as a singer and an artist, very worth comparing the 1987 to the 2022 one.
The remixes and "old-new" tracks in these anniversary editions come from compilation albums Rick Astley - 12" Collection (1989) and Dance Mixes (1990).
2. Hold Me In Your Arms (1988)
If you liked Whenever You Need Somebody (1987), then Hold Me In Your Arms (1988) is just the thing for you, because it's more of the same, but louder, catchier, and now with less cheating obsession! This time it's 3 out of the 10 songs that are SAW written, one is a cover of The Temptations' Ain't Too Proud To Beg, and the remaining 6 are all by Rick himself, but the tone doesn't shift that much between them.
The first half of the album is non-stop top danceable tunes: She Wants to Dance With Me, Take Me To Your Heart, I Don't Want To Lose Her, Giving Up On Love (big involuntary "I'm killing off Sherlock Holmes" moment for Rick, the not giving up didn't even last a year :P), and Ain't Too Proud to Beg; the second half is not as strong, but also not bad either. It definitely helps that the tracks are ordered in such a way as to slowly slow down till the beautiful sweet soft ballad that closes the album and gives it its name: Hold Me In Your Arms.
I Don't Want to Be Your Lover, the penultimate track, is the first song that feels more like what Rick writes and sings as a more mature artist.
The 2010 expanded remaster is just remixes of some of these songs, I'll Be Fine (which is, quality wise, between the rest of the tracks of the second half) and My Arms Keep Missing You, again.
The 2022 remaster includes even more remixes, reimaginings of She Wants To Dance With Me and Hold Me In Your Arms (I'm not a big fan of either, but they are interesting, as they are much more modern ballad sounding) and instrumental versions of Take Me To Your Heart and She Wants To Dance With Me.
3. Free (1991)
Almost like a pun, this is Rick's first album "free" of SAW. He even grew out his hair! (probably one of the rare cases of a guy to having gorgeous hair that somehow suits his face horribly). The tone moves away from the 80s eurobeat hit into the soul-ish + gospel-ish ballad, which seems to be more like the territory he feels comfortable in. It's a bit of an "experimental" album, in the sense that he's trying new things and new sounds, but it's all very tentative, and the unsure footing is noticeable.
Even so, Cry For Help, written and sung by him was a hit all the same, although it isn't a favorite of mine. In general it's difficult for me to pick favorites here; none of the songs stick out to me as particularly good or particularly bad. If you like slow ballads, you will probably like Cry For Help, Wonderful You, and Behind the Smile. Really Got a Problem is a first sample of a "social" song in his repertoire. Move Right Out, Never Knew Love, and The Bottom Line are more the essence of what his music evolved into later on, whereas In The Name of Love, Be With You, and This Must Be Heaven are dead on the sort of generic adult-contemporary of the early 90s.
4. Body and Soul (1993)
This album takes a more... lounge-ish turn I do not relish. You'd say, okay, but what sets Rick Astley apart from the general adult standard lounge music of whatever decade he sings in? Difficult question to answer, as all questions about vibes are. To me it is a mixture of A) cringe is dead, long live cringe B) earnest feeling C) plain, direct and sometimes quirky lyrics D) It sounds like he's having a good time singing them.
I just cannot really buy the constant "baby" and "lover" in Everytime, for example. And while none of the songs in this album are bad, most of them aren't even fun. Body and Soul and Enough Love I think are the two most interesting tracks here.
That same year, Rick got on hiatus.
5. Keep It Turned On (2001)
This comeback album is a bit of a rarity -it was released in Germany, but never in the UK (although some of its tracks made it to compilations later on), and it's therefore rare to find, which is a pity, because I think it is one of his best!
It is also one of the most early 2000s sounding things ever. It is to 2000s eurobeat and pop ballad what Whenever You Need Somebody and Hold Me In Your Arms were to 1980s eurobeat and pop ballad, so if you are into it, this whole album will be for you.
I have a particularly soft spot for Sleeping, and the way it just sounds like what a 2001-2007 summer night sounded to me; it's very nostalgic. The lyrics, just like the ones in the ballad Breathe, give heartbreak what I perceive to be a more mature tone that I like much more than the treatment it gets in previous albums.
Other highlights are the very danceable Wanna Believe You and Keep It Turned On (this last one a very pick me up song), and on the ballad front, I think Romeo Loves Juliet has the most delicate, enjoyable sound, but Full of You has better lyrics.
6. Portrait (2005)
This album is a collection of covers of classic pop standards, so there isn't much rickness to it at all, and it is to me, personally, a skip; while I usually like Rick's covers in other albums (and I think his reimaginings of the SAW songs are interesting) these are... off. I just don't think the style he picked for them suits at all.
Between this and his following album, Rick released two independent singles: Lights Out (2010) and Superman (2012) which I think are both peak Rick and worth a listen; earnest, simple feeling and catchy sound.
7. 50 (2016)
This is my favorite Rick Astley album, and it seems I'm not alone in this! It was the first album of his to be number one since his debut one. He sung AND played all instruments for it, and it really feels like a personal project, that brings the artist close to the audience.
From the very title you know you are in for something: the 50, Rick's age in 2016, is a tongue-in-cheek homage to Adele (whose albums have all been titled after her age at the time of release), that also speaks of this sense of being a middle aged artist in an industry and particularly a genre or family of genres that leans so heavily into youth and coolness.
In 50 Rick leans on instead of shying away from the fact that he's not young (In either the heartfelt "Don't fake it, I can't take it/My heart is, close to breaking/It reminds me of my youth" or the humorous "I got to thirty and you show a little wrinkle/One more big plate/Now I'm putting on weight/Skinny jeans but nobody's fooled"), cool, or detached, but that doesn't make him jaded, heavy, or self important; the songs of this album are filled with a sense of hope, gratitude, generosity, and... fun. It's a curious marriage of the lighthearted beat of the pop that made him famous, and a mature version of the soul-ish style he seems to love and that he tried first in Free. Although there isn't a single skip in this album for me, the most representative, and that have what in my opinion is the best sound, are Keep Singing, Angels On My Side, Wish Away, Pieces, I Like the Sun, Let It Rain, Let it be Tonight.
8. Beautiful Life (2018)
There's little I can say about Beautiful Life in general, other than characterize it as an echo of 50. Same ideas, same themes, same tone and sound.
The highlight tracks are: Beautiful Life, Last Night on Earth, Rise Up, and Try.
Since Beautiful Life, Rick has released a compilation album (The Best of Me, 2019), a few remixes and a couple new singles; of those singles I'd highlight Giant (a true banger), Every One Of Us, and Unwanted.
Rick's next album, Are We There Yet? releases in October this year (2023).
62 notes
·
View notes
Text
Todays rip: 03/01/2024
Never Gonna Give Up Mahjong
Season 3
Featured on: 2018.UnregisteredHyperCam2.FullAlbum.XviD.KfaD.320kbps[CDRip]
Ripped by The Duane
youtube
For as much of a perceived SiIvaGunner loremaster as I may appear to be, I've expressed a few times that there are still several areas of the channel's legacy that I know very little about. Last month I talked about my unfamiliarity with the Touhou series despite its prominence and influence on the channel with rips like Imperial Touwer and Beautiful! ~ Curveball of Sean Kingston, and beyond that there's stuff like waterwraith pokos, a requested rip that opened me up to something I had...genuinely no idea about beforehand. Of these surprising new worlds I've been introduced to though, one thing truly shocked me more than any other - Why the Fuck do video games based on Mahjong just consistently have bangers?
Back way long ago during "Voiceless Week", I was requested to cover one of the song's arrangements called voiceless - simple ds series vol. 01 - the mahjong (¥1480). It was far from the first song ripped from its game, and it was a series of rips I was well aware existed, yet never gave any time - what could be so special about some DS Mahjong game music? As it turned out, the game just had an inherently super compelling, distinct, and flat-out BANGING sound to it, that just drew tons of rippers toward making things with its instrumentation. It reminded me of all the rips I'd already heard using the instrumentation of Pokémon's 4th-gen games, like yesterday's Bidoof's Big Band, yet now applied to a game I had next to no familiarity with.
Turns out, there's an entire small sub-community of Mahjong game fans out there, and that Mahjong games having fantastic soundtracks is far more common than I'd been led to believe. Never Gonna Give Up Mahjong is ripping a track from a *different* Nintendo DS Mahjong game, yet its sound is incredibly distinctive from the one I just described whilst still sounding fantastic. The rip's melody swap to Never Gonna Give You Up is a relatively subtle change all things considered, as the track's original percussion and beat is still being used, yet that one added accent just brings out the excellence of those pre-existing elements so much more. It gives the played out Rick Astley internet classic a whole new life, a funky, peppy feel to it, recognizable yet so different in tone.
Compared to many of the other Hypercam-themed rips such as YACKER TOILET, it doesn't feel like the rip is exactly celebrating or relishing in its original track's cheesiness, or to make you nostalgic for an older period of internet life. Its hard to describe, but Never Gonna Give Up Mahjong works so well for me specifically because I'd never gotten anywhere close to hearing its original source material, making this rip simply feel like a stylish, out-there reimagining of Never Gonna Give You Up, one that reminds you of how good the tune is. And even now that I know where that original piece came from, now that I KNOW that "Mahjong Bangers" is a very real thing, I still believe The Duane did a bang-up job making a melody swap this theoretically simple truly feel...sparkly. And just like Beautiful! ~ Curveball of Sean Kingston, its the underappreciated gems like this that so easily slip between the cracks, that I end up really cherishing.
#todays siivagunner#season 3#siivagunner#siiva#The Duane#mahjong bangers#mahjong music#mahjong#nintendo ds#nintendo ds music#rick astley#never gonna give you up#rickroll#unregistered hypercam 2#uhc2#Youtube#Bandcamp
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
August's Monthly Music Post
Actually released in August (or late july lol):
"Memory Lane" De De Mouse & Maeshima Soshi. This is a song that belongs on an infinite lofi study playlist.
"Beautiful (2023 Edit)" AG Cook. ADHD-ass song.
"Do The Dance" SiM. JRock does screamo-y, punky ska? It's all English, for the foreign language cowards. You'll find yourself singing along to the WOOOAHHHS if you give it a chance!
"Sorry (Won't Cut It)" Bibio. Need to relax after that song worked you up? This psychedelic slowburn might just be what you need! This song wants to rock you in its arms, hoping you won't leave it behind. If you want something purely instrumental and more mellow, also try out "Sunbursting."
The song came out in June but the MV came out in August so it counts! "On My Mama" Victoria Monet is actually pretty good follow up to Bibio. They're cousins once removed--slick, slower but still hits hard, and just so enticing. Listen to the rest of her album, I really love "Alright," "Cadillac," & "I'm The One."
"Alien Love Call" Turnstile. The reimagined version! The raw edge of the original is sawed off but it's another transcendent slowburn for this month. Love the horn infusion. The ending of this song reminds me a lot of "Strangers" by Raj Ramaaya, from Wolf's Rain. The songs aren't similar beyond that but just had to shout out a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL song.
"Honor of Love" Wagakkiband. This is a band grown from vocaloid origins but instead of leaning into the synthetic roots, they use a lot of traditional Japanese instruments and vocal techniques and add a rockier edge with guitar and drums.
“Picture” Hyo. Generic dance kpop. You know I’m here for it.
“Don’t Wanna Go Back” Jihyo & Heize. Less generic kpop, not mind blowing though. I do think this mini is the best music from Twice is a while. It’s pretty and I love a duet with two women :3
"Nembutsu" Alpacas. More Jrock but there's so little singing in this song, the language shouldn't be a barrier. God, this song feels like driving through the desert and as you open your mouth to scream, dust and sand and ghosts crawl inside and the scream that comes out is older than any living thing around you. If you listen to only one track off this list, let it be this one. I haven't finished listening to the rest of the album, but it's good so far!
"Fall of the Leaves" Club Casualties. Does anyone remember the like... video game culture rave music from the mid-late 2000s? It's that... meets like... the synth indie music of the M-83's midnight city or like... safe and sound by capital cities. Like it's the UNZ UNZ of the former but aspires to the latter. This song isn't necessarily good but it is... intriguing.
Quick list of releases that I enjoyed but are from artists I mention a lot, so I feel like... you probably know what you're getting if you've followed my earlier posts:
"Metali!!" by Babymetal ft Tom Morello, "Needs" by Tinashe, "Rush (Big Freedia Remix)" Troye Sivan, "Elevator Eyes" Tove Lo, "Gold -Mata Au Hi Made- (Taku's Twice Upon a Time Remix)" Utada Hikaru, "Tik Tak Tok" Silica Gel & So!Yoon!, "Lemonade" BB Girls (uesd to be Brave Girls)
Also, I recognize a lack of English music this month... my bad
#monthly music#im also working my way though alex anwandter's album rn#and it's really good everyone say thank you z keyhologram
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (2017)
The original Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is, without a doubt, the SEGA Master System game ever. It looks, sounds, and plays every bit like the distilled very best of SEGA's 8-bit offerings and is arguably (both by myself and many other fans of the system) the best game available for the console.
Having opened this review with such high praise, I probably don't have to say that if any remake of that game were anything less than absolutely stellar and amazing work, I would not be kind to it. I would hold nothing back, show no quarter, take the gloves off, let rip, and tear it a new one. Luckily, it's absolutely amazing and stellar work.
Essentially that's because this is an emulation of the original Master System ROM with a pretty new skin running over the top of it. Okay, maybe a bit more complex than that, but the game logic running here is basically 1:1 with the SMS version even if, and this includes the game with retro visuals and sounds enabled, there are some changes elsewhere.
Good changes, mind you -- what the kiddies like to call 'quality of life' stuff. Really though, how quality do you need your life if your biggest worries are what creature comforts and conveniences a videogame offers you? But I digress here, there's a whole-ass separate button for special weapon usage and the equipment menu is a much more pleasant-to-navigate affair. And, mercifully, they've got rid of that fucking 'charm point' system that I personally felt was an idea that didn't service this game style as well as it would a more-conventional RPG. And, in essence, all it meant was exiting a shop to remove the Goblin Mail, re-entering, seeing the stuff for sale that should've been for sale anyway. Yeah, that tedium's gone.
There are some small layout changes as well, presumably to even-out the challenge a little. But this is all piecemeal stuff compared to the aesthetic overhaul. Oh, wow, the aesthetic overhaul. Let me, frankly, gush.
Imagine a retro game not just upscaled, not just redrawn, but completely reimagined with the utmost passion, respect, and care for the source material. That's The Dragon's Trap right here.
It. Is. Fucking. Beautiful.
Featureless flat areas with naught but trees are now expansive meadows featuring a memorial to a battle long-since passed, continuing onto a valley with a tower hidden inside a forest by the lake. Standard platform gauntlets across a body of water are now a set of tropical islets in a luxurious ocean that culminates in a shipwreck telling a tale of caution and intrigue before the great offscreen unknown. And there's a little stool outside a hut by a lava lake where the owner has carelessly left some impaled marshmallows to toast in the heat. There is so much attention to detail here, and cute little touches, and visual storytelling, it's tough not to fall in love all over again. The game that was my adventurous escape in childhood, is equally so if not more in adulthood.
Music's amazing, too. Not a single piece feels wrong or updated without the full knowledge of what made the original tunes 'pop'. Particular favourites of mine are the desert and jungle themes, both of which have instrumentation that perfectly encapsulates their host environments and makes the adventure connect on an even deeper level.
I am, however, overlooking some of-its-time "flaws" in this game. I don't care. I even put "flaws" in those scare-quotes because, fuck it, they don't make games like this anymore so there's no reason to change it to be more like games they do make. That one Steam reviewer who says the controls are slippery and the coins bounce over the player's head, you're wrong mate. Couldn't be wronger. Maybe a dragon cursed that guy and he's typing with tiny mouse hands that can barely reach the controller buttons?
Anyway, my recent 2.5 hour afternoon playthrough of this game made me fall in love with it for like the hundredth time. Here's to a hundred more.
5/5
#sega#master system#sega master system#wonderboy#wonder boy#wonder boy iii#the dragon's trap#wonder boy iii the dragon's trap#dotemu#lizardcube
1 note
·
View note
Text
instagram
BARBIE Sounds
Mark Ronson 5. August 2023 on IG:
“But it should always be a party…” - Greta Gerwig
Andrew and I were SO damn inspired by the emotional draw of this film, its technicolour vibrations and enchanting performances, every note of music we wrote came from a true place of reacting to what we saw and how it made us feel. Sometimes we felt like bopping, other times we got WAY into our feelings. I mean how could anyone not?
The scene with Barbie and Ruth Handler discussing life and humanity and motherhood still gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. We spent at least a hundred hours on that scene, writing and rewriting, experimenting with melodies, tempos and orchestration and would have done a hundred more, that’s how much we felt the scene and wanted to do right by it.
We pushed ourselves harder than we ever have on every piece of music here. We taught ourselves old gear, new gear. We studied. I had to damn near teach myself orchestration (luckily Andrew’s ahead of me in that department plus we had the amazing orchestrator Matt Dunkley). We had to find the sound of Barbieland. Greta loved the fat warmth yet artificiality of 70’s & 80’s synthesizers but she also craved the elegant romance of the orchestra.
As Barbie (& Ken!) go out on their journey to uncover their true selves, we worked to find the balance of both. We played a lot of the instruments, but had beautiful players like Questlove, Roger Manning, the Menahan Street Band crew, Josh Freese, Wolf Van Halen and more lend their magic touch. And then of course, London & NY’s symphonic finest!
Keeping the link between the score and the amazing soundtrack tunes was very important. Sometimes a piece of score we wrote would evolve into a song, in the case of “Pink”. Or with “I’m Just Ken”, a song we wrote morphed into score and back into song again. And with “Meeting Ruth” – one of my favourite moments, we were inspired to reimagine Billie & Finneas’ gorgeous “What Was I Made For?” as a wistful 1930’s orchestral ballad accompanied by Molly Lewis’ virtuosic whistling.
When I think of all the music between the score and the songs, in some ways, Barbie is damn near a musical because Greta’s vision makes you feel like you’re going to burst open or walk on air, like all the greatest musicals do.
I can’t believe we got to so deep into our feelings on a film as magical as Barbie. If this music helps you relive the giant pink beating heart of the film just a tiny bit, we’ve done our job.
Love
Mark"
0 notes
Text
My Favorite Albums of 2020, 40-31
40. Moses Sumney, Grae
Favorite Tracks: Polly | Me in 20 Years | Colouour
I first fell in love with Moses Sumney after randomly finding his album Aromanticism in 2017, blown away by his haunting voice and experimental melodies. I hadn’t been struck by experimental R&B/soul like that since Frank Ocean, which, for anyone who knows me, is a massive compliment. Grae is an emotionally rich double album about identity and the self, taking every aspect of Sumney’s music to an extreme. It’s textured and vast, moving past the ideas of genre entirely and presenting something completely idiosyncratic. Overall, it was a bit too high-brow and dense for me to keep in rotation and enjoy like I did with Aromanticism; nevertheless, it’s a beautiful album that solidifies Sumney’s artistry.
39. Beabadoobee, Fake it Flowers
Favorite Tracks: Charlie Brown | Sorry | Together
Beabadoobee follows in the wake of really-talented-indie-rock-girls like Snail Mail, Clairo, and Soccer Mommy by delivering a razor-sharp debut album that features both face-melting guitar and tender bedroom pop vocals. Beabadoobee is often referred to as the voice of teenage angst and is often tied to a sort of adolescence, but I feel that these associations are reductionist to her showcased talents throughout Fake it Flowers: she’s not just some kid with a guitar, she’s putting out some of the best rock music in 2020 despite being so young. I’m excited to see how she continues to grow as an artist from here, and it’s especially refreshing and inspiring seeing a young Filipina artist showcasing her creative truth.
38. Lady Gaga, Chromatica
Favorite Tracks: Rain on Me | Stupid Love | Sour Candy
After Gaga’s foray into acoustic country rock ballads with her lead role in 2018 film A Star Is Born, it almost became hard to imagine her returning to her larger-than-life pop persona. She does so with a new clarity on Chromatica, melding her more recent theatrical cinematic elements with the fun dance pop that popularized her music in the first place. The guest features solidify the album’s place in modern day pop canon by calling upon current superstar Ariana Grande, iconic legend Elton John, and rising group BLACKPINK, resulting in a multigenerational album that will inspire dancey energy in the years to come.
37. A.G. Cook, 7G
Favorite Tracks: Today | Silver | Official
7G is a behemoth: seven discs each focusing on a different instrument, seven tracks each, 2h:39m runtime. After producing for major acts like Charli XCX and founding the label PC Music, Cook had established an entire genre of music known most popularly today as “hyperpop.” 7G serves as a sampler platter for Cook’s legacy, with noisy instrumentals, soft solo singing, and covers ranging from Taylor Swift to the Smashing Pumpkins all on offer. Every cover on the album reimagines the referenced song in a new light, transmuted by Cook’s PC Music touch while preserving the original melodies. His acid-melting cover of “Today” by the Smashing Pumpkins has sent me on a deep dive of ‘90’s alternative that I’m still obsessed with today. It’s not an album that demands to be listened to all the way through, but acts as a journey through the influences that make up the musical genius of Cook: listeners will find traces of rock, country, metal, punk, techno, pop, and electronic throughout, but all are uniquely prismatized through Cook’s signature sound.
36. 070 Shake, Modus Vivendi
Favorite Tracks: Guilty Conscience | The Pines | Microdosing
070 Shake came to prominence for most people on Kanye West’s “Ghost Town,” belting the iconic line, “Nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free!” I was intrigued by the breakout artist, especially since she was relatively unknown but working with big names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi. Modus Vivendi finds 070 Shake blending the G.O.O.D. Music hip-hop influences of West, Cudi, and Mike Dean with her own take on modern R&B to great effect. I particularly enjoyed how she included influences from 90’s alternative, where one of the coolest moments on the album is her interpolation of “In the Pines” popularized by Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged cover, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” While West and Cudi are still active musically, 070 Shake shows how exciting the next iteration of their legacy can sound.
35. Jay Electronica, A Written Testimony
Favorite Tracks: Ghost of Soulja Slim | A.P.I.D.T.A. | The Neverending Story
For those who may not know, Jay Electronica is the closest thing to a rap unicorn to exist: he was an artist with transcendent levels of hype for his debut album after only putting out a mixtape and a few singles in 2007. For me, I only knew of him through r/hiphopheads memes and his random verse on Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book, but my anticipation for his music, if even just to hear if it lived up to the myth, was definitely there. 13 years later, A Written Testimony released on March 13th, 2020, convincing me that we’ve definitely entered an alternate timeline. By all accounts, Jay Electronica delivered on the album, with keen lyrics about spirituality and society over both self-produced beats and guest production from The Alchemist, No I.D., and even Khruangbin. It’s also basically a Jay-Z collab album, and the two trading bars virtually solidifies the project’s prophetic legacy. As much as I enjoyed it, the amount of time that’s passed since Electronica’s initial splash has diluted into a slow ripple, the album unfortunately falling on ears that aren’t really checking for bars about the Nation of Islam. That being said, it’s a legendary release that will go down in the hip-hop history books.
34. Tkay Maidza, Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2
Favorite Tracks: Awake | You Sad | Grasshopper
I don’t really know if this is technically an album (does anyone know what defines an album anymore?), but it’s way too good not to include on this list. Tkay Maidza can’t be pinned down, putting ballistic trap bangers like “Awake” on the same project as the cute bedroom pop track “You Sad.” Despite pinballing through different genre influences throughout the project, it never sounds like she’s showing off—instead, it sounds like Maidza is genuinely having fun exploring the depths of her versatility. You can hear her personality oozing from every track, and even moreso in her amazing music videos. Buy Tkay Maidza stock now, folks: she’s up next.
33. Kevin Morby, Sundowner
Favorite Tracks: Sundowner | Valley | Campfire
I ideally try to listen to albums in their most fitting setting, and Sundowner was almost too on the nose: I was driving my dad’s truck through a valley in Talimena State Park during sunset. It’s no surprise that my favorite songs were quite literally what I was experiencing as I listened to the album (“Don’t Underestimate Midwest American Sun” was a close fourth). Morby’s voice and songwriting wonderfully illustrate the vast openness that I find most beautiful about my home state, making it a worthy addition to any camping playlist.
32. The Weeknd, After Hours
Favorite Tracks: In Your Eyes | Snowchild | After Hours
The Weeknd is an interesting artist, having released some of the most iconic contemporary R&B mixtapes of all time under a mysterious persona and then totally leaning into pop stardom at the expense of the modern version of “selling out.” After Hours finds The Weeknd revisiting what was so alluring about his original sound now through the eyes of a jaded celebrity, presenting a drugged out hedonist who’s exhausted every inch of desire. The dark ’80’s inspired new wave sound perfectly fits the aesthetic of The Weeknd’s current iteration, and while he may never return to the same level of originality heard on Trilogy, I enjoyed the conclusiveness of After Hours as a perfect epilogue to the decade-defining mixtapes.
31. Against All Logic, 2017 – 2019
Favorite Tracks: Deeeeeefers | If Loving You Is Wrong | With an Addict
2017-2019 may sound harsh on the surface, but it sits on a foundation set by Nicolas Jaar’s beautiful ambient compositional talents. Comparing Cenizas, which he released under his own name, to 2017-2019 shows the versatility of Jaar’s musicality, but it’s 2017-2019 that really captured me. Bombastic techno tracks like “Deeeeeeeefers” (totally guessing the number of e’s every time) took me back to grimy nights in Bushwick or Barcelona, where pounding bass and industrial percussion melted away the worries of life. It’s a feeling that just listening to the music can’t entirely emulate, but one that keeps my dream of partying in a post-pandemic underground club somewhere in Berlin alive.
1 note
·
View note
Text
genshin impact
it's complicated/10 i hate it but i love it
(i posted a review of genshin on tele a month or so ago but it was short and sweet without me going into details because i was trying to fit in the symbol limit for one message; now feels like a good time to write something longer)
ultimately it is a good game, really. graphics are beautiful and the only reason one might hate it is if they hate anime in general (unacceptable. if you do and we're friends i'm unfriending you). the soundtrack is exquisite and compliments the visuals well; they mostly use same few motifs over and over again but reimagine them with every new region using different instruments and arrangements, which i think is a nice touch. the combat system is pretty nuanced, fun to play and allows great variety for teambuilding and different playstyles. exploration content is done really well and right up my alley, i can easily get lost in the game for hours when a new area to explore is released. devs are doing their best to bring new kinds of puzzles and traversal mechanics for every new region in the game, and judging by how great sumeru (the newest area) turned out, i'm inclined to believe they do pay attention to players' feedback that they collect with their endless surveys
writing and plot are... okay, i guess. nothing to write home about but not bad in any way either. my issues are mostly with the writing and how there's often just way too much text as if writers/translators tried desperately to hit a specific word limit to get paid more. thankfully i possess the skill of quickly skimming over text and finding the most important bits, so it never was a huge problem for me (seeing a whole paragraph for something that could be expressed with one shorter sentence is still annoying though). however, i know friends who despise questing it genshin because of this. i do have to give it to the devs, recent quests have been better written with more interesting story and plot turns, i hope they'll manage to keep it up
biggest flaw is that genshin is still a gacha game. way less gacha-like than what people are used to, but still a gacha. it's insane that they make this much money, honestly, considering that combat content is relatively easy, there's no competition with other players for anything and powercreep is pretty much nonexistent. you're not required to pull for every new unit (or pull on weapon banner at all) to conquer all content, and still, people pull. even for constellations and weapon refinements just because they like the character; it's honestly crazy. devs do not force you to get new shiny characters to clear game content, what they do instead is lure you in with beautiful character designs and do their best to insert them in the game in a way that would make it easy to like the new character enough to pull for them. characters' combat skills are usually cool and flashy, which also helps a lot (*coughs* i pulled for several characters just because their kit looked cool or felt good to play *coughs*). so if you're not careful you might end up with an empty wallet and a bunch of in-game stuff you don't really need
if you like open world exploration but are not easily swayed by pretty anime characters and not prone to spontaneous purchases then genshin is a fun game to try in your free time! and then leave alone after you've done all quests and exploration you wanted to, because honestly without that genshin is nothing but endless grind for materials to upgrade your characters and weapons that feels pointless after a while because when you reach the highest level there's not much waiting for you. you just stand there with you maxed out characters, do abyss once a fortnight if you like it enough to do it consistently, and that's really it. everything else can be done with minimum resource/time investment. there are bigger limited time events that have additional story and lore bits that you'll miss if you don't participate but are they worth sticking around for? i'm not sure
okay after saying all that SIKE i'm someone who should follow the very advice i wrote up there and let the damned game go already but unfortunately i have been playing almost daily for over two years and i still like the stupid thing enough to come back to it every time
so maybe it's better if you don't touch this game at all
#h-e reviews stuff#genshin impact#genshin let me go give my free time back#the screenshot is mine genshin environment is too pretty not to take a ton of pictures
0 notes
Photo
(▶︎ American Quartet | Yonatan Gatから)
American Quartet by Yonatan Gat
2022年11月4日リリース
Greg Saunier - drums
Mikey Coltun - bass
Curt Sydnor - organ
Yonatan Gat - electric guitarr
Yonatan Gat's American Quartet is a reimagining of Antonin Dvořák’s famed string quatet, one of the most popular works of chamber music in the classical repertoire, written while Dvořák was – like Gat – an immigrant living in New York City. But, as one might expect from the fiery Monotonix guitarist, Gat’s reinterpration offers a completely sui-generis interpretation of the music, imbued with the slash-and-burn energy of punk rock, combined with the unrestricted creative spirit of experimental musicians like Alice Coltrane, who also interpreted Dvořák’s music.
This unique album was created in creative collaboration with Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Michael Coltun (Mdou Moctar's band) and Curt Sydnor, who arranged the music along with Gat. Saunier later mixed it, adding space and dimension to the raw, live recorrding.
“Since the first time I heard the American Quartet it sounded like rock’n’roll melodies, so on this record we took a stab at performing the 19th century string quartet live from start to finish on electric guitar, bass, organ and drums; adding some improvisation and vibe, but following the melodies and the harmonies quite truthfully,” Gat says. “It might be ambitious but it’s also pretty thrashed out. It was composed by Antonín Dvořák, who listened to Native American music and wrote this beautiful piece as a person from another country living in New York. Like me. Unlike Dvořák though, I cannot read music and had to learn the melodies from memory. Greg, Mikey and Curt were responding to the sheet music, each adding their unique take to it. We were also responding to each other. My favorite moments are in the second, slow movement. It was the last thing we recorded together - late night studio magic. And it all happened around the time my first child was born.”
Unlike Dvořák’s string quartet (written for two violins, viola, and cello), the instruments featured include drums (from Deerhoof’s Greg Saunier), bass (played by Mikey Coltun of Mdou Moctar’s band), organ (from composer Curt Sydnor) and electric guitar played by Gat. After a series of live performances, the group entered the studio to record American Quartet. “Recording took place in a day,” Coltun shared. “We set up all together in one room and played each movement once or twice. Very little overdubs and editing occurred on this record as we wanted to capture the piece as the band intended, live and raw.”
While there is a freewheeling spontaneity to the recording, Gat’s first album since 2018’s David Berman-produced 'Universalists', reconceptualizing American Quartet took years, requiring a long, disciplined process, particularly from Gat, who does not read sheet music. Learning by ear also freed Gat’s playing from a strict interpretation of the score, allowing for the wild and unpredictable performance captured on this recording. This adventurous approach extracts electrifying new textures and emotions from this staple of 19th century classical music. In turn, Dvořák’s complex writing pushes the dynamic boundaries of Gat’s guitar, from bursts of howling psychedelic noise, to extended elegant lyrical passages. Saunier’s drums, loosely following the cello, provide a breathtakingly expressive rhythmic interpretation to the piece, while Coltun and Sydnor each bring their unique versatility transcribing the viola, cello and second violin parts to organ and bass – with Sydnor bringing the approach of a classical musician, while Coltun lending sensibilities he developed during years as the touring bassist and producer of Mdou Moctar's legendary live band.
American Quartet will be issued on Gat’s Stone Tapes label, which also releases music by trailblazing experimental powwow group Medicine Singers, Moroccan gnawa master Maalem Hassan Ben Jafaar, Guinean guitar pioneer Mamady Kouyate, and Israeli punk legends Monotonix. These artists are highlighted on the forthcoming Stone Tapes box set, limited to 555 copies and available for pre-order through Joyful Noise or through Bandcamp.
0 notes
Link
Taylor Swift broke all her rules with Folklore — and gave herself a much-needed escape
The pop star, one of EW's 2020 Entertainers of the Year, delves deep into her surprise eighth album, Rebekah Harkness, and a Joe Biden presidency.
By Alex Suskind
“He is my co-writer on ‛Betty’ and ‛Exile,’” replies Taylor Swift with deadpan precision. The question Who is William Bowery? was, at the time we spoke, one of 2020’s great mysteries, right up there with the existence of Joe Exotic and the sudden arrival of murder hornets. An unknown writer credited on the year’s biggest album? It must be an alias.
Is he your brother?
“He’s William Bowery,” says Swift with a smile.
It's early November, after Election Day but before Swift eventually revealed Bowery's true identity to the world (the leading theory, that he was boyfriend Joe Alwyn, proved prescient). But, like all Swiftian riddles, it was fun to puzzle over for months, particularly in this hot mess of a year, when brief distractions are as comforting as a well-worn cardigan. Thankfully, the Bowery... erhm, Alwyn-assisted Folklore — a Swift project filled with muted pianos and whisper-quiet snares, recorded in secret with Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner — delivered.
“The only people who knew were the people I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and a small management team,” Swift, 30, tells EW of the album's hush-hush recording sessions. That gave the intimate Folklore a mystique all its own: the first surprise Taylor Swift album, one that prioritized fantastical tales over personal confessions.
“Early in quarantine, I started watching lots of films,” she explains. “Consuming other people’s storytelling opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines?” That’s how she ended up with three songs about an imagined love triangle (“Cardigan,” “Betty,” “August”), one about a clandestine romance (“Illicit Affairs”), and another chronicling a doomed relationship (“Exile”). Others tell of sumptuous real-life figures like Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married the heir to Standard Oil — and whose home Swift purchased 31 years after her death. The result, “The Last Great American Dynasty,” hones in on Harkness’ story, until Swift cleverly injects herself.
And yet, it wouldn’t be a Swift album without a few barbed postmortems over her own history. Notably, “My Tears Ricochet” and “Mad Woman," which touch on her former label head Scott Borchetta selling the masters to Swift’s catalog to her known nemesis Scooter Braun. Mere hours after our interview, the lyrics’ real-life origins took a surprising twist, when news broke that Swift’s music had once again been sold, to another private equity firm, for a reported $300 million. Though Swift ignored repeated requests for comment on the transaction, she did tweet a statement, hitting back at Braun while noting that she had begun re-recording her old albums — something she first promised in 2019 as a way of retaining agency over her creative legacy. (Later, she would tease a snippet of that reimagined work, with a new version of her hit 2008 single "Love Story.")
Like surprise-dropping Folklore, like pissing off the president by endorsing his opponents, like shooing away haters, Swift does what suits her. “I don’t think we often hear about women who did whatever the hell they wanted,” she says of Harkness — something Swift is clearly intent on changing. For her, that means basking in the world of, and favorable response to, Folklore. As she says in our interview, “I have this weird thing where, in order to create the next thing, I attack the previous thing. I don’t love that I do that, but it is the thing that has kept me pivoting to another world every time I make an album. But with this one, I still love it.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We’ve spent the year quarantined in our houses, trying to stay healthy and avoiding friends and family. Were you surprised by your ability to create and release a full album in the middle of a pandemic?
TAYLOR SWIFT: I was. I wasn't expecting to make an album. Early on in quarantine, I started watching lots of films. We would watch a different movie every night. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't seen Pan's Labyrinth before. One night I'd watch that, then I'd watch L.A. Confidential, then we'd watch Rear Window, then we'd watch Jane Eyre. I feel like consuming other people's art and storytelling sort of opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, "Well, why have I never done this before? Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines? And why haven't I ever sort of freed myself up to do that from a narrative standpoint?" There is something a little heavy about knowing when you put out an album, people are going to take it so literally that everything you say could be clickbait. It was really, really freeing to be able to just be inspired by worlds created by the films you watch or books you've read or places you've dreamed of or people that you've wondered about, not just being inspired by your own experience.
In that vain, what's it like to sit down and write something like “Betty,” which is told from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy?
That was huge for me. And I think it came from the fact that my co-writer, William Bowery [Joe Alwyn], is male — and he was the one who originally thought of the chorus melody. And hearing him sing it, I thought, "That sounds really cool." Obviously, I don't have a male voice, but I thought, "I could have a male perspective." Patty Griffin wrote this song, “Top of the World.” It's one of my favorite songs of all time, and it's from the perspective of this older man who has lived a life full of regret, and he's kind of taking stock of that regret. So, I thought, "This is something that people I am a huge fan of have done. This would be fun to kind of take this for a spin."
What are your favorite William Bowery conspiracies?
I love them all individually and equally. I love all the conspiracy theories around this album. [With] "Betty," Jack Antonoff would text me these articles and think pieces and in-depth Tumblr posts on what this love triangle meant to the person who had listened to it. And that's exactly what I was hoping would happen with this album. I wrote these stories for a specific reason and from a specific place about specific people that I imagined, but I wanted that to all change given who was listening to it. And I wanted it to start out as mine and become other people's. It's been really fun to watch.
One of the other unique things about Folklore — the parameters around it were completely different from anything you'd done. There was no long roll out, no stadium-sized pop anthems, no aiming for the radio-friendly single. How fearful were you in avoiding what had worked in the past?
I didn't think about any of that for the very first time. And a lot of this album was kind of distilled down to the purest version of what the story is. Songwriting on this album is exactly the way that I would write if I considered nothing else other than, "What words do I want to write? What stories do I want to tell? What melodies do I want to sing? What production is essential to tell those stories?" It was a very do-it-yourself experience. My management team, we created absolutely everything in advance — every lyric video, every individual album package. And then we called our label a week in advance and said, "Here's what we have.” The photo shoot was me and the photographer walking out into a field. I'd done my hair and makeup and brought some nightgowns. These experiences I was used to having with 100 people on set, commanding alongside other people in a very committee fashion — all of a sudden it was me and a photographer, or me and my DP. It was a new challenge, because I love collaboration. But there's something really fun about knowing what you can do if it's just you doing it.
Did you find it freeing?
I did. Every project involves different levels of collaboration, because on other albums there are things that my stylist will think of that I never would've thought of. But if I had all those people on the photo shoot, I would've had to have them quarantine away from their families for weeks on end, and I would've had to ask things of them that I didn't think were fair if I could figure out a way to do it [myself]. I had this idea for the [Folklore album cover] that it would be this girl sleepwalking through the forest in a nightgown in 1830 [laughs]. Very specific. A pioneer woman sleepwalking at night. I made a moodboard and sent it to Beth [Garrabrant], who I had never worked with before, who shoots only on film. We were just carrying bags across a field and putting the bags of film down, and then taking pictures. It was a blast.
Folklore includes plenty of intimate acoustic echoes to what you've done in the past. But there are also a lot of new sonics here, too — these quiet, powerful, intricately layered harmonics. What was it like to receive the music from Aaron and try to write lyrics on top of it?
Well, Aaron is one of the most effortlessly prolific creators I've ever worked with. It's really mind-blowing. And every time I've spoken to an artist since this whole process [began], I said, "You need to work with him. It'll change the way you create." He would send me these — he calls them sketches, but it's basically an instrumental track. the second day — the day after I texted him and said, "Hey, would you ever want to work together?" — he sent me this file of probably 30 of these instrumentals and every single one of them was one of the most interesting, exciting things I had ever heard. Music can be beautiful, but it can be lacking that evocative nature. There was something about everything he created that is an immediate image in my head or melody that I came up with. So much so that I'd start writing as soon as I heard a new one. And oftentimes what I would send back would inspire him to make more instrumentals and then send me that one. And then I wrote the song and it started to shape the project, form-fitted and customized to what we wanted to do.
It was weird because I had never made an album and not played it for my girlfriends or told my friends. The only people who knew were the people that I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and then my management team. So that's the smallest number of people I've ever had know about something. I'm usually playing it for everyone that I'm friends with. So I had a lot of friends texting me things like, "Why didn't you say on our everyday FaceTimes you were making a record?"
Was it nice to be able to keep it a secret?
Well, it felt like it was only my thing. It felt like such an inner world I was escaping to every day that it almost didn't feel like an album. Because I wasn't making a song and finishing it and going, "Oh my God, that is catchy.” I wasn't making these things with any purpose in mind. And so it was almost like having it just be mine was this really sweet, nice, pure part of the world as everything else in the world was burning and crashing and feeling this sickness and sadness. I almost didn't process it as an album. This was just my daydream space.
Does it still feel like that?
Yeah, because I love it so much. I have this weird thing that I do when I create something where in order to create the next thing I kind of, in my head, attack the previous thing. I don't love that I do that but it is the thing that has kept me pivoting to another world every time I make an album. But with this one, I just still love it. I'm so proud of it. And so that feels very foreign to me. That doesn't feel like a normal experience that I've had with releasing albums.
When did you first learn about Rebekah Harkness?
Oh, I learned about her as soon as I was being walked through [her former Rhode Island] home. I got the house when I was in my early twenties as a place for my family to congregate and be together. I was told about her, I think, by the real estate agent who was walking us through the property. And as soon as I found out about her, I wanted to know everything I could. So I started reading. I found her so interesting. And then as more parallels began to develop between our two lives — being the lady that lives in that house on the hill that everybody gets to gossip about — I was always looking for an opportunity to write about her. And I finally found it.
I love that you break the fourth wall in the song. Did you go in thinking you’d include yourself in the story?
I think that in my head, I always wanted to do a country music, standard narrative device, which is: the first verse you sing about someone else, the second verse you sing about someone else who's even closer to you, and then in the third verse, you go, "Surprise! It was me.” You bring it personal for the last verse. And I'd always thought that if I were to tell that story, I would want to include the similarities — our lives or our reputations or our scandals.
How often did you regale friends about the history of Rebekah and Holiday House while hanging out at Holiday House?
Anyone who's been there before knows that I do “The Tour,” in quotes, where I show everyone through the house. And I tell them different anecdotes about each room, because I've done that much research on this house and this woman. So in every single room, there's a different anecdote about Rebekah Harkness. If you have a mixed group of people who've been there before and people who haven't, [the people who’ve been there] are like, "Oh, she's going to do the tour. She's got to tell you the story about how the ballerinas used to practice on the lawn.” And they'll go get a drink and skip it because it's the same every time. But for me, I'm telling the story with the same electric enthusiasm, because it's just endlessly entertaining to me that this fabulous woman lived there. She just did whatever she wanted.
There are a handful of songs on Folklore that feel like pretty clear nods to your personal life over the last year, including your relationships with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. How long did it take to crystallize the feelings you had around both of them into “My Tears Ricochet” or “Mad Woman”?
I found myself being very triggered by any stories, movies, or narratives revolving around divorce, which felt weird because I haven't experienced it directly. There’s no reason it should cause me so much pain, but all of a sudden it felt like something I had been through. I think that happens any time you've been in a 15-year relationship and it ends in a messy, upsetting way. So I wrote “My Tears Ricochet” and I was using a lot of imagery that I had conjured up while comparing a relationship ending to when people end an actual marriage. All of a sudden this person that you trusted more than anyone in the world is the person that can hurt you the worst. Then all of a sudden the things that you have been through together, hurt. All of a sudden, the person who was your best friend is now your biggest nemesis, etc. etc. etc. I think I wrote some of the first lyrics to that song after watching Marriage Story and hearing about when marriages go wrong and end in such a catastrophic way. So these songs are in some ways imaginary, in some ways not, and in some ways both.
How did it feel to drop an F-bomb on "Mad Woman"?
F---ing fantastic.
And that’s the first time you ever recorded one on a record, right?
Yeah. Every rule book was thrown out. I always had these rules in my head and one of them was, You haven't done this before, so you can't ever do this. “Well, you've never had an explicit sticker, so you can't ever have an explicit sticker.” But that was one of the times where I felt like you need to follow the language and you need to follow the storyline. And if the storyline and the language match up and you end up saying the F-word, just go for it. I wasn't adhering to any of the guidelines that I had placed on myself. I decided to just make what I wanted to make. And I'm really happy that the fans were stoked about that because I think they could feel that. I'm not blaming anyone else for me restricting myself in the past. That was all, I guess, making what I want to make. I think my fans could feel that I opened the gate and ran out of the pasture for the first time, which I'm glad they picked up on because they're very intuitive.
Let’s talk about “Epiphany.” The first verse is a nod to your grandfather, Dean, who fought in World War II. What does his story mean to you personally?
I wanted to write about him for awhile. He died when I was very young, but my dad would always tell this story that the only thing that his dad would ever say about the war was when somebody would ask him, "Why do you have such a positive outlook on life?" My grandfather would reply, "Well, I'm not supposed to be here. I shouldn't be here." My dad and his brothers always kind of imagined that what he had experienced was really awful and traumatic and that he'd seen a lot of terrible things. So when they did research, they learned that he had fought at the Battles of Guadalcanal, at Cape Gloucester, at Talasea, at Okinawa. He had seen a lot of heavy fire and casualties — all of the things that nightmares are made of. He was one of the first people to sign up for the war. But you know, these are things that you can only imagine that a lot of people in that generation didn't speak about because, a) they didn't want people that they came home to to worry about them, and b) it just was so bad that it was the actual definition of unspeakable.
That theme continues in the next verse, which is a pretty overt nod to what’s been happening during COVID. As someone who lives in Nashville, how difficult has it been to see folks on Lower Broadway crowding the bars without masks?
I mean, you just immediately think of the health workers who are putting their lives on the line — and oftentimes losing their lives. If they make it out of this, if they see the other side of it, there's going to be a lot of trauma that comes with that; there's going to be things that they witnessed that they will never be able to un-see. And that was the connection that I drew. I did a lot of research on my grandfather in the beginning of quarantine, and it hit me very quickly that we've got a version of that trauma happening right now in our hospitals. God, you hope people would respect it and would understand that going out for a night isn't worth the ripple effect that it causes. But obviously we're seeing that a lot of people don't seem to have their eyes open to that — or if they do, a lot of people don't care, which is upsetting.
You had the Lover Fest East and West scheduled this year. How hard has it been to both not perform for your fans this year, and see the music industry at large go through such a brutal change?
It's confusing. It's hard to watch. I think that maybe me wanting to make as much music as possible during this time was a way for me to feel like I could reach out my hand and touch my fans, even if I couldn't physically reach out or take a picture with them. We've had a lot of different, amazing, fun, sort of underground traditions we've built over the years that involve a lot of human interaction, and so I have no idea what's going to happen with touring; none of us do. And that's a scary thing. You can't look to somebody in the music industry who's been around a long time, or an expert touring manager or promoter and [ask] what's going to happen and have them give you an answer. I think we're all just trying to keep our eyes on the horizon and see what it looks like. So we're just kind of sitting tight and trying to take care of whatever creative spark might exist and trying to figure out how to reach our fans in other ways, because we just can't do that right now.
When you are able to perform again, do you have plans on resurfacing a Lover Fest-type event?
I don't know what incarnation it'll take and I really would need to sit down and think about it for a good solid couple of months before I figured out the answer. Because whatever we do, I want it to be something that is thoughtful and will make the fans happy and I hope I can achieve that. I'm going to try really hard to.
In addition to recording an album, you spent this year supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the election. Where were you when it was called in their favor?
Well, when the results were coming in, I was actually at the property where we shot the Entertainment Weekly cover. I was hanging out with my photographer friend, Beth, and the wonderful couple that owned the farm where we [were]. And we realized really early into the night that we weren't going to get an accurate picture of the results. Then, a couple of days later, I was on a video shoot, but I was directing, and I was standing there with my face shield and mask on next to my director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto. And I just remember a news alert coming up on my phone that said, "Biden is our next president. He's won the election." And I showed it to Rodrigo and he said, "I'm always going to remember the moment that we learned this." And I looked around, and people's face shields were starting to fog up because a lot of people were really misty-eyed and emotional, and it was not loud. It wasn't popping bottles of champagne. It was this moment of quiet, cautious elation and relief.
Do you ever think about what Folklore would have sounded like if you, Aaron, and Jack had been in the same room?
I think about it all the time. I think that a lot of what has happened with the album has to do with us all being in a collective emotional place. Obviously everybody's lives have different complexities and whatnot, but I think most of us were feeling really shaken up and really out of place and confused and in need of something comforting all at the same time. And for me, that thing that was comforting was making music that felt sort of like I was trying to hug my fans through the speakers. That was truly my intent. Just trying to hug them when I can't hug them.
I wanted to talk about some of the lyrics on Folklore. One of my favorite pieces of wordplay is in “August”: that flip of "sipped away like a bottle of wine/slipped away like a moment in time.” Was there an "aha moment" for you while writing that?
I was really excited about "August slipped away into a moment of time/August sipped away like a bottle of wine." That was a song where Jack sent me the instrumental and I wrote the song pretty much on the spot; it just was an intuitive thing. And that was actually the first song that I wrote of the "Betty" triangle. So the Betty songs are "August," "Cardigan," and "Betty." "August" was actually the first one, which is strange because it's the song from the other girl's perspective.
Yeah, I assumed you wrote "Cardigan" first.
It would be safe to assume that "Cardigan" would be first, but it wasn't. It was very strange how it happened, but it kind of pieced together one song at a time, starting with "August," where I kind of wanted to explore the element of This is from the perspective of a girl who was having her first brush with love. And then all of a sudden she's treated like she's the other girl, because there was another situation that had already been in place, but "August" girl thought she was really falling in love. It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship. As humans, we're all encouraged to just be cool and just let it happen, and don't ask what the relationship is — Are we exclusive? But if you are chill about it, especially when you're young, you learn the very hard lesson that if you don't define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened. And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you're being made to believe that it never happened at all?
"I almost didn't process it as an album," says Taylor Swift of making Folklore. "And it's still hard for me to process as an entity or a commodity, because [it] was just my daydream space."
On the flip side, "Peace" is bit more defined in terms of how one approaches a relationship. There's this really striking line, "The devil's in the details, but you got a friend in me/Would it be enough if I can never give you peace?" How did that line come to you?
I'm really proud of that one too. I heard the track immediately. Aaron sent it to me, and it had this immediate sense of serenity running through it. The first word that popped into my head was peace, but I thought that it would be too on-the-nose to sing about being calm, or to sing about serenity, or to sing about finding peace with someone. Because you have this very conflicted, very dramatic conflict-written lyric paired with this very, very calming sound of the instrumental. But, "The devil's in the details," is one of those phrases that I've written down over the years. That's a common phrase that is used in the English language every day. And I just thought it sounded really cool because of the D, D sound. And I thought, "I'll hang onto those in a list, and then, I'll finally find the right place for them in a story." I think that's how a lot of people feel where it's like, "Yeah, the devil's in the details. Everybody's complex when you look under the hood of the car." But basically saying, "I'm there for you if you want that, if this complexity is what you want."
There's another clever turn-of-phrase on "This is Me Trying." "I didn't know if you'd care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that." That feels like a nod toward your fans, and some of the feelings you had about retreating from the public sphere.
Absolutely. I think I was writing from three different characters' perspectives, one who's going through that; I was channeling the emotions I was feeling in 2016, 2017, where I just felt like I was worth absolutely nothing. And then, the second verse is about dealing with addiction and issues with struggling every day. And every second of the day, you're trying not to fall into old patterns, and nobody around you can see that, and no one gives you credit for it. And then, the third verse, I was thinking, what would the National do? What lyric would Matt Berninger write? What chords would the National play? And it's funny because I've since played this song for Aaron, and he's like, "That's not what we would've done at all." He's like, "I love that song, but that's totally different than what we would've done with it."
When we last spoke, in April 2019, we were talking about albums we were listening to at the time and you professed your love for the National and I Am Easy to Find. Two months later, you met up with Aaron at their concert, and now, we're here talking about the National again.
Yeah, I was at the show where they were playing through I Am Easy to Find. What I loved about [that album] was they had female vocalists singing from female perspectives, and that triggered and fired something in me where I thought, "I've got to play with different perspectives because that is so intriguing when you hear a female perspective come in from a band where you're used to only hearing a male perspective." It just sparked something in me. And obviously, you mentioning the National is the reason why Folklore came to be. So, thank you for that, Alex.
I'm here for all of your songwriting muse needs in the future.
I can't wait to see what comes out of this interview.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
For more on our Entertainers of the Year and Best & Worst of 2020, order the January issue of Entertainment Weekly or find it on newsstands beginning Dec. 18. (You can also pick up the full set of six covers here.) Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.
#ew#entertainment weekly#article#interview#folklore promo#folklore interview#quote#aaron dessner#jack antonoff#joe alwyn
181 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Poker Face.
Tiffany Haddish tells Gemma Gracewood about taking a holiday from comedy in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter, her hotel comfort viewing, and why Oscar Isaac thinks of her as Jesus.
“When I say yes to a movie, that’s a hundred to two hundred people that get to work and I want them to be happy about working.” —Tiffany Haddish
Comedians taking on dramatic roles is not an innovation in cinema, but it’s which comedian, in which role, that makes a casting choice a talking point. Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Mo’Nique in Precious. Peter Sellers in Being There. Robin Williams in everything.
In The Card Counter, Paul Schrader’s meditative slow-burn on American shame, part of the tension as a viewer lies in what we already appreciate about Tiffany Haddish as a performer. She is an unbridled crack-up, a live wire on screen and off, a former foster kid committed to busting unsustainable Hollywood beauty myths by wearing the same dress throughout an awards season. Her physical comedy is electric, even when it’s a simple raise of an eyebrow.
The wildest thing about La Linda—a gamblers’ agent working the mid-level casino circuit, who spies, in Oscar Isaac’s William (Bill) Tell, a potential new thoroughbred for her stable of card counters—is the way her drinks order changes from hotel bar to hotel bar. “I came in there with my comedy ways and it sucked,” Haddish laughs, disarmingly honest about her leap from the hi-jinks her fans know her for, to her dramatic role in Schrader's new film. “Paul was hard on me at first,” she recalls. “He had to reel me in, make adjustments, strip all this stuff off, all my tools, leave me with these instruments I barely ever use.”
Oscar Isaac and Tiffany Haddish in a scene from ‘The Card Counter’.
There’s an enduring myth that drama is tougher to pull off than comedy, something Haddish’s friend Morris Chestnut corrected her on a few years back. “He’s like, ‘No, what you do, that’s hard work. You are actually overworking yourself, doing these comedies.’ And I’m like, ‘He don’t know what he’s talking about.’ Then I actually did a drama. And I was like, ‘Oh, that was so easy. Oh, that was beautiful.’ It’s way easier. It’s way easier.”
What La Linda doesn’t know, but any casual observer of Schrader’s work will, is that Isaac’s Bill has a past, and that his methodical attempts to keep his guilt in check through a supremely minimal lifestyle, perhaps even to allow himself a spark of pleasure—redemption, even—are about to come unwound.
Before that, though, there’s time for La Linda, Bill and Cirk (Tye Sheridan)—the son of one of Bill’s former, shall we say, colleagues—to become an odd little chosen-family unit as they travel the circuit. Bill and La Linda cook up a nice heat while killing time in cocktail lounges, and her casual business charisma is a charming offset to the deeper themes at play. Writing fresh from a Venice Film Festival viewing, Rahul notes “you keep expecting Haddish to break out of the understated style and that tension works.” Andy agrees: “Her simple outlook on life and lack of existentialism offer a nice contrast to Tell’s brooding sorrow. Plus, La Linda is just a great character name.”
Haddish understood the pull between Bill and La Linda, and La Linda’s desire to probe into his mysterious monotony, in a very specific way: “As a standup comedian, I work with a lot of men that—they’re very talented, they’re doing big things when they’re on stage—but then when they come off the stage you’re like, ‘Who are you? Why are you so dark? Who hurt you? What’s going on?’ I can relate to that in so many ways.”
Still, of all the dramatic writer-directors to work with in America, why Schrader? What was it about his specific brand of lonely-white-man stories that appealed? “Cat People. It’s my jam,” declares Haddish, of Schrader’s 1982 erotic horror reimagining of the 1942 classic (and one of his few films with a female lead, played by Natassja Kinski). “I love that movie. It had some weird, twisted shit in it.” She has been campaigning Schrader to mount a sequel, so that she can have a crack at playing a sexy, predatory jungle cat. “I try to bring it up to him all the time. And he’s like, ‘Tiffany, we’re not doing it. No.’”
Natassja Kinski in Paul Schrader’s 1982 remake of ‘Cat People’.
Haddish imagines that Cat People would certainly be on La Linda’s list of hotel-room comfort watches, along with Shaft and Goodfellas. Haddish, on the other hand, prefers to kick back with series television when she is on the road. “I watch old sitcoms like Martin or, like, The Facts of Life. I love a good cartoon, especially the throwback ones on Boomerang. I really like the old school, like ThunderCats. That’s a good wind down for me.”
Filming days are long, making the minutes can be stressful, and Covid safety protocols add layers of complexity to the job. There are performers who are cast not only for what they bring to their roles, but also for the energy they bring to set. Haddish has an undeniable magnetism, so it is unsurprising to read her co-star Isaac, in The Card Counter’s production notes, describe her as being “like Jesus”, in that people would drop everything and follow her. She enjoys this comparison, revealing that she has always wanted to be an AD, the crew member with, traditionally, the greatest people skills. “I always wanted to be assistant director just so I can be like, ‘All right, picture’s up, guys.’ And just so I can know everybody and be cool with everybody.”
But as a performer with clout, what is her intention when she—Tiffany Haddish, famous actress™—walks onto a soundstage? Haddish’s answer is a generous primer on how to be a good sort on set (or, indeed, in any working environment). “When I say yes to a movie, that’s a hundred to two hundred people that get to work and I want them to be happy about working,” she explains. “I’m going to work with them again in something else, and I want to have a pleasant experience with the crew. The DP, the gaffers, all these people, we all work together as a unit, so I think it’s super important.”
Paul Schrader, Oscar Isaac and crew on the set of ‘The Card Counter’.
Certain crew members, she admits, “are imperative to making me look good”, but more than that, her approach is grounded in her own physical and emotional safety in an often volatile and unpredictable creative environment. “I see how some actors won’t talk to any crew members at all, and I feel like that’s not okay because these people are busting their ass to make you look great, and they are part of telling this story too. They might not be hanging off the side of the building like you are, but they are making sure that the camera’s operating correctly, so you don’t have to shoot it five hundred times.
“These people keep me alive. They keep me going and they can tell when I’m in a bad space. They’re like, ‘Here’s a Snickers.’ If I’m working with an actor who might be treating me not the best, they’re coming over, they’re giving encouraging words, ‘You’re going to be okay.’ We’re a team. I even talk to the editor. They’re like, ‘Picture’s up, sound’s rolling, and speed.’ And I’d be like [staring down the camera lens], ‘What’s up editor? Hey, it’s your girl Tiffany Haddish. Just a little note: I’m thinking about you. Now, if you could just make sure this lazy eye is this way… I know you’re in that room by yourself, but look out for your girl.” Sometimes, Haddish will even throw a bone to the studio executives. “I know they’re watching the dailies,” she laughs.
Her investment in the welfare of her film families is paying off in unexpected turns such as The Card Counter, with more to come. Up next, a trio of unusual comedies: Jerrod Carmichael’s existential buddy farce On the Count of Three, which was picked up by Annapurna out of Sundance this year; Cory Finley’s surrealistic sci-fi romp Landscape with Invisible Hand; and the intriguing Nicolas Cage vehicle, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Related content
A list of favorite gambling movies from Gamblers, a podcast from The Big Picture’s Sean and Amanda
Life Detained: Jack Moulton’s interview with Kevin Macdonald, director of The Mauritanian
Josh’s list of Neo-Noir films
Follow Gemma on Letterboxd
‘The Card Counter’ is in US cinemas now.
#the card counter#paul schrader#tiffany haddish#cat people#oscar isaac#tye sheridan#gambling movies#neo noir#girls trip#actress#Black actress#letterboxd#gemma gracewood#morris chestnut#filmmaking tips#goodfellas
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Todays rip: 29/06/2023
voiceless - simple ds series vol. 01 - the mahjong (¥1480)
Season 2
Featured on: Haltmann's Highest Quality Video Game Rips
Also on: SiIvaGunner: Starter Kit & Essentials
Ripped by trivial171, MtH
youtube
Part of Voiceless Week!
Requested by @cookiefonster!
WELL, remind me to never use Drafts again, because apparently last week's post just flat out spoiled the rip of today in the URL. Tumblr, huh?
Anyhow - this request was part of why I decided to commit to this week's theme, as its a track I too wanted to cover but didn't really feel up to doing before actually disclosing the original track's impact in its own post. Through its appearance on two albums now, I think I can say pretty confidently that this is the voiceless-arrangement I've listened to most in my time due to its permanent placement in my playlists. But its addition to those playlists came as a surprise to me at first, as I'd never even once heard the rip on the channel itself. Even worse - I'd never actually listened to any of the Simple DS Series-rips whatsoever!
As I've previously alluded to on this blog, I think this is one of the beautiful things about the channel - it celebrates the art of just making things without an expected audience to flock to it. Every rip is cherished by a unique group of people because its impossible - or at least extremely unhealthy! - to listen to every single rip on the channel. After having discovered the game and its rips through this installment, I can now absolutely call myself a fan.
Like the prior rips I've covered this week, this is very much a remix through and through aiming to recreate the original song in a new context. Despite having never played the game before, its sound feels so "early DS" through and through, in a way I can only really compare to Gen 4 of Pokémon? I'd speculate that this sound comes from games transitioning from the GBA's heavy use of samples to relying more on full-on MIDI, but still undergoing a form of compression to be audible through the DS. Regardless, the rest is just an immaculately dense and thick sound - drum hits that vibrate through the compression, a bassline that becomes even heavier due to it, and synths that sound videogamey in every way possible. With the three voiceless remixes I've covered thus far, slideless was a direct translation of the original song into the style of a different track, wheras voiceless (short rave remix) was a full on reimagining with all new instrumentation. voiceless - simple ds series vol. 01 - the mahjong (¥1480), then, speaks to me as a full-on rerendition of the original track, capturing every single element of the original track's instrumentation and directly retranslating them to fit the DS vibe. It probably helps that MtH worked on this directly after already being very much involved in the original voiceless, likely allowing more of the subtle differences in instrumentation to become directly translated rather than full-on reimagined.
The result, at the end of the day, is a trio of fantastic celebrations of voiceless' legacy. Ironically, voiceless - simple ds series vol. 01 - the mahjong (¥1480) in particular shows that the song hits just as hard even without vocals - even when quite literally voiceless, the team's voice shines through it all.
#todays siivagunner#voiceless week#season 2#siivagunner#siiva#trivial171#MtH#simple series#d3 publisher#nintendo ds#nintendo ds lite#2000s music#midi music#sampling#vgm#Bandcamp
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Taylor Swift Broke All Her Rules With Folklore - And Gave Herself A Much-Needed Escape
By: Alex Suskind for Entertainment Weekly
Date: December 8th 2020 (EW's 2020 Entertainers of the Year cover)
The pop star, one of EW's 2020 Entertainers of the Year, delves deep into her surprise eighth album, Rebekah Harkness, and a Joe Biden presidency.
youtube
“He is my co-writer on ‛Betty’ and ‛Exile,’” replies Taylor Swift with deadpan precision. The question Who is William Bowery? was, at the time we spoke, one of 2020’s great mysteries, right up there with the existence of Joe Exotic and the sudden arrival of murder hornets. An unknown writer credited on the year’s biggest album? It must be an alias.
Is he your brother?
“He’s William Bowery,” says Swift with a smile.
It's early November, after Election Day but before Swift eventually revealed Bowery's true identity to the world (the leading theory, that he was boyfriend Joe Alwyn, proved prescient). But, like all Swiftian riddles, it was fun to puzzle over for months, particularly in this hot mess of a year, when brief distractions are as comforting as a well-worn cardigan. Thankfully, the Bowery... erhm, Alwyn-assisted Folklore - a Swift project filled with muted pianos and whisper-quiet snares, recorded in secret with Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner - delivered.
“The only people who knew were the people I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and a small management team,” Swift, 30, tells EW of the album's hush-hush recording sessions. That gave the intimate Folklore a mystique all its own: the first surprise Taylor Swift album, one that prioritized fantastical tales over personal confessions.
“Early in quarantine, I started watching lots of films,” she explains. “Consuming other people’s storytelling opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines?” That’s how she ended up with three songs about an imagined love triangle (“Cardigan,” “Betty,” “August”), one about a clandestine romance (“Illicit Affairs”), and another chronicling a doomed relationship (“Exile”). Others tell of sumptuous real-life figures like Rebekah Harkness, a divorcee who married the heir to Standard Oil - and whose home Swift purchased 31 years after her death. The result, “The Last Great American Dynasty,” hones in on Harkness’ story, until Swift cleverly injects herself.
And yet, it wouldn’t be a Swift album without a few barbed postmortems over her own history. Notably, “My Tears Ricochet” and “Mad Woman," which touch on her former label head Scott Borchetta selling the masters to Swift’s catalog to her known nemesis Scooter Braun. Mere hours after our interview, the lyrics’ real-life origins took a surprising twist, when news broke that Swift’s music had once again been sold, to another private equity firm, for a reported $300 million. Though Swift ignored repeated requests for comment on the transaction, she did tweet a statement, hitting back at Braun while noting that she had begun re-recording her old albums - something she first promised in 2019 as a way of retaining agency over her creative legacy. (Later, she would tease a snippet of that reimagined work, with a new version of her hit 2008 single "Love Story.")
Like surprise-dropping Folklore, like pissing off the president by endorsing his opponents, like shooing away haters, Swift does what suits her. “I don’t think we often hear about women who did whatever the hell they wanted,” she says of Harkness - something Swift is clearly intent on changing. For her, that means basking in the world of, and favorable response to, Folklore. As she says in our interview, “I have this weird thing where, in order to create the next thing, I attack the previous thing. I don’t love that I do that, but it is the thing that has kept me pivoting to another world every time I make an album. But with this one, I still love it.”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: We’ve spent the year quarantined in our houses, trying to stay healthy and avoiding friends and family. Were you surprised by your ability to create and release a full album in the middle of a pandemic?
TAYLOR SWIFT: I was. I wasn't expecting to make an album. Early on in quarantine, I started watching lots of films. We would watch a different movie every night. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't seen Pan's Labyrinth before. One night I'd watch that, then I'd watch L.A. Confidential, then we'd watch Rear Window, then we'd watch Jane Eyre. I feel like consuming other people's art and storytelling sort of opened this portal in my imagination and made me feel like, "Well, why have I never done this before? Why have I never created characters and intersecting storylines? And why haven't I ever sort of freed myself up to do that from a narrative standpoint?" There is something a little heavy about knowing when you put out an album, people are going to take it so literally that everything you say could be clickbait. It was really, really freeing to be able to just be inspired by worlds created by the films you watch or books you've read or places you've dreamed of or people that you've wondered about, not just being inspired by your own experience.
In that vein, what's it like to sit down and write something like “Betty,” which is told from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy?
That was huge for me. And I think it came from the fact that my co-writer, William Bowery [Joe Alwyn], is male — and he was the one who originally thought of the chorus melody. And hearing him sing it, I thought, "That sounds really cool." Obviously, I don't have a male voice, but I thought, "I could have a male perspective." Patty Griffin wrote this song, “Top of the World.” It's one of my favorite songs of all time, and it's from the perspective of this older man who has lived a life full of regret, and he's kind of taking stock of that regret. So, I thought, "This is something that people I am a huge fan of have done. This would be fun to kind of take this for a spin."
What are your favorite William Bowery conspiracies?
I love them all individually and equally. I love all the conspiracy theories around this album. [With] "Betty," Jack Antonoff would text me these articles and think pieces and in-depth Tumblr posts on what this love triangle meant to the person who had listened to it. And that's exactly what I was hoping would happen with this album. I wrote these stories for a specific reason and from a specific place about specific people that I imagined, but I wanted that to all change given who was listening to it. And I wanted it to start out as mine and become other people's. It's been really fun to watch.
One of the other unique things about Folklore — the parameters around it were completely different from anything you'd done. There was no long roll out, no stadium-sized pop anthems, no aiming for the radio-friendly single. How fearful were you in avoiding what had worked in the past?
I didn't think about any of that for the very first time. And a lot of this album was kind of distilled down to the purest version of what the story is. Songwriting on this album is exactly the way that I would write if I considered nothing else other than, "What words do I want to write? What stories do I want to tell? What melodies do I want to sing? What production is essential to tell those stories?" It was a very do-it-yourself experience. My management team, we created absolutely everything in advance — every lyric video, every individual album package. And then we called our label a week in advance and said, "Here's what we have.” The photo shoot was me and the photographer walking out into a field. I'd done my hair and makeup and brought some nightgowns. These experiences I was used to having with 100 people on set, commanding alongside other people in a very committee fashion — all of a sudden it was me and a photographer, or me and my DP. It was a new challenge, because I love collaboration. But there's something really fun about knowing what you can do if it's just you doing it.
Did you find it freeing?
I did. Every project involves different levels of collaboration, because on other albums there are things that my stylist will think of that I never would've thought of. But if I had all those people on the photo shoot, I would've had to have them quarantine away from their families for weeks on end, and I would've had to ask things of them that I didn't think were fair if I could figure out a way to do it [myself]. I had this idea for the [Folklore album cover] that it would be this girl sleepwalking through the forest in a nightgown in 1830 [laughs]. Very specific. A pioneer woman sleepwalking at night. I made a moodboard and sent it to Beth [Garrabrant], who I had never worked with before, who shoots only on film. We were just carrying bags across a field and putting the bags of film down, and then taking pictures. It was a blast.
Folklore includes plenty of intimate acoustic echoes to what you've done in the past. But there are also a lot of new sonics here, too — these quiet, powerful, intricately layered harmonics. What was it like to receive the music from Aaron and try to write lyrics on top of it?
Well, Aaron is one of the most effortlessly prolific creators I've ever worked with. It's really mind-blowing. And every time I've spoken to an artist since this whole process [began], I said, "You need to work with him. It'll change the way you create." He would send me these — he calls them sketches, but it's basically an instrumental track. the second day — the day after I texted him and said, "Hey, would you ever want to work together?" — he sent me this file of probably 30 of these instrumentals and every single one of them was one of the most interesting, exciting things I had ever heard. Music can be beautiful, but it can be lacking that evocative nature. There was something about everything he created that is an immediate image in my head or melody that I came up with. So much so that I'd start writing as soon as I heard a new one. And oftentimes what I would send back would inspire him to make more instrumentals and then send me that one. And then I wrote the song and it started to shape the project, form-fitted and customized to what we wanted to do.
It was weird because I had never made an album and not played it for my girlfriends or told my friends. The only people who knew were the people that I was making it with, my boyfriend, my family, and then my management team. So that's the smallest number of people I've ever had know about something. I'm usually playing it for everyone that I'm friends with. So I had a lot of friends texting me things like, "Why didn't you say on our everyday FaceTimes you were making a record?"
Was it nice to be able to keep it a secret?
Well, it felt like it was only my thing. It felt like such an inner world I was escaping to every day that it almost didn't feel like an album. Because I wasn't making a song and finishing it and going, "Oh my God, that is catchy.” I wasn't making these things with any purpose in mind. And so it was almost like having it just be mine was this really sweet, nice, pure part of the world as everything else in the world was burning and crashing and feeling this sickness and sadness. I almost didn't process it as an album. This was just my daydream space.
Does it still feel like that?
Yeah, because I love it so much. I have this weird thing that I do when I create something where in order to create the next thing I kind of, in my head, attack the previous thing. I don't love that I do that but it is the thing that has kept me pivoting to another world every time I make an album. But with this one, I just still love it. I'm so proud of it. And so that feels very foreign to me. That doesn't feel like a normal experience that I've had with releasing albums.
When did you first learn about Rebekah Harkness?
Oh, I learned about her as soon as I was being walked through [her former Rhode Island] home. I got the house when I was in my early twenties as a place for my family to congregate and be together. I was told about her, I think, by the real estate agent who was walking us through the property. And as soon as I found out about her, I wanted to know everything I could. So I started reading. I found her so interesting. And then as more parallels began to develop between our two lives — being the lady that lives in that house on the hill that everybody gets to gossip about — I was always looking for an opportunity to write about her. And I finally found it.
I love that you break the fourth wall in the song. Did you go in thinking you’d include yourself in the story?
I think that in my head, I always wanted to do a country music, standard narrative device, which is: the first verse you sing about someone else, the second verse you sing about someone else who's even closer to you, and then in the third verse, you go, "Surprise! It was me.” You bring it personal for the last verse. And I'd always thought that if I were to tell that story, I would want to include the similarities — our lives or our reputations or our scandals.
How often did you regale friends about the history of Rebekah and Holiday House while hanging out at Holiday House?
Anyone who's been there before knows that I do “The Tour,” in quotes, where I show everyone through the house. And I tell them different anecdotes about each room, because I've done that much research on this house and this woman. So in every single room, there's a different anecdote about Rebekah Harkness. If you have a mixed group of people who've been there before and people who haven't, [the people who’ve been there] are like, "Oh, she's going to do the tour. She's got to tell you the story about how the ballerinas used to practice on the lawn.” And they'll go get a drink and skip it because it's the same every time. But for me, I'm telling the story with the same electric enthusiasm, because it's just endlessly entertaining to me that this fabulous woman lived there. She just did whatever she wanted.
There are a handful of songs on Folklore that feel like pretty clear nods to your personal life over the last year, including your relationships with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. How long did it take to crystallize the feelings you had around both of them into “My Tears Ricochet” or “Mad Woman”?
I found myself being very triggered by any stories, movies, or narratives revolving around divorce, which felt weird because I haven't experienced it directly. There’s no reason it should cause me so much pain, but all of a sudden it felt like something I had been through. I think that happens any time you've been in a 15-year relationship and it ends in a messy, upsetting way. So I wrote “My Tears Ricochet” and I was using a lot of imagery that I had conjured up while comparing a relationship ending to when people end an actual marriage. All of a sudden this person that you trusted more than anyone in the world is the person that can hurt you the worst. Then all of a sudden the things that you have been through together, hurt. All of a sudden, the person who was your best friend is now your biggest nemesis, etc. etc. etc. I think I wrote some of the first lyrics to that song after watching Marriage Story and hearing about when marriages go wrong and end in such a catastrophic way. So these songs are in some ways imaginary, in some ways not, and in some ways both.
How did it feel to drop an F-bomb on "Mad Woman"?
F---ing fantastic.
And that’s the first time you ever recorded one on a record, right?
Yeah. Every rule book was thrown out. I always had these rules in my head and one of them was, You haven't done this before, so you can't ever do this. “Well, you've never had an explicit sticker, so you can't ever have an explicit sticker.” But that was one of the times where I felt like you need to follow the language and you need to follow the storyline. And if the storyline and the language match up and you end up saying the F-word, just go for it. I wasn't adhering to any of the guidelines that I had placed on myself. I decided to just make what I wanted to make. And I'm really happy that the fans were stoked about that because I think they could feel that. I'm not blaming anyone else for me restricting myself in the past. That was all, I guess, making what I want to make. I think my fans could feel that I opened the gate and ran out of the pasture for the first time, which I'm glad they picked up on because they're very intuitive.
Let’s talk about “Epiphany.” The first verse is a nod to your grandfather, Dean, who fought in World War II. What does his story mean to you personally?
I wanted to write about him for awhile. He died when I was very young, but my dad would always tell this story that the only thing that his dad would ever say about the war was when somebody would ask him, "Why do you have such a positive outlook on life?" My grandfather would reply, "Well, I'm not supposed to be here. I shouldn't be here." My dad and his brothers always kind of imagined that what he had experienced was really awful and traumatic and that he'd seen a lot of terrible things. So when they did research, they learned that he had fought at the Battles of Guadalcanal, at Cape Gloucester, at Talasea, at Okinawa. He had seen a lot of heavy fire and casualties — all of the things that nightmares are made of. He was one of the first people to sign up for the war. But you know, these are things that you can only imagine that a lot of people in that generation didn't speak about because, a) they didn't want people that they came home to to worry about them, and b) it just was so bad that it was the actual definition of unspeakable.
That theme continues in the next verse, which is a pretty overt nod to what’s been happening during COVID. As someone who lives in Nashville, how difficult has it been to see folks on Lower Broadway crowding the bars without masks?
I mean, you just immediately think of the health workers who are putting their lives on the line — and oftentimes losing their lives. If they make it out of this, if they see the other side of it, there's going to be a lot of trauma that comes with that; there's going to be things that they witnessed that they will never be able to un-see. And that was the connection that I drew. I did a lot of research on my grandfather in the beginning of quarantine, and it hit me very quickly that we've got a version of that trauma happening right now in our hospitals. God, you hope people would respect it and would understand that going out for a night isn't worth the ripple effect that it causes. But obviously we're seeing that a lot of people don't seem to have their eyes open to that — or if they do, a lot of people don't care, which is upsetting.
You had the Lover Fest East and West scheduled this year. How hard has it been to both not perform for your fans this year, and see the music industry at large go through such a brutal change?
It's confusing. It's hard to watch. I think that maybe me wanting to make as much music as possible during this time was a way for me to feel like I could reach out my hand and touch my fans, even if I couldn't physically reach out or take a picture with them. We've had a lot of different, amazing, fun, sort of underground traditions we've built over the years that involve a lot of human interaction, and so I have no idea what's going to happen with touring; none of us do. And that's a scary thing. You can't look to somebody in the music industry who's been around a long time, or an expert touring manager or promoter and [ask] what's going to happen and have them give you an answer. I think we're all just trying to keep our eyes on the horizon and see what it looks like. So we're just kind of sitting tight and trying to take care of whatever creative spark might exist and trying to figure out how to reach our fans in other ways, because we just can't do that right now.
When you are able to perform again, do you have plans on resurfacing a Lover Fest-type event?
I don't know what incarnation it'll take and I really would need to sit down and think about it for a good solid couple of months before I figured out the answer. Because whatever we do, I want it to be something that is thoughtful and will make the fans happy and I hope I can achieve that. I'm going to try really hard to.
In addition to recording an album, you spent this year supporting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the election. Where were you when it was called in their favor?
Well, when the results were coming in, I was actually at the property where we shot the Entertainment Weekly cover. I was hanging out with my photographer friend, Beth, and the wonderful couple that owned the farm where we [were]. And we realized really early into the night that we weren't going to get an accurate picture of the results. Then, a couple of days later, I was on a video shoot, but I was directing, and I was standing there with my face shield and mask on next to my director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto. And I just remember a news alert coming up on my phone that said, "Biden is our next president. He's won the election." And I showed it to Rodrigo and he said, "I'm always going to remember the moment that we learned this." And I looked around, and people's face shields were starting to fog up because a lot of people were really misty-eyed and emotional, and it was not loud. It wasn't popping bottles of champagne. It was this moment of quiet, cautious elation and relief.
Do you ever think about what Folklore would have sounded like if you, Aaron, and Jack had been in the same room?
I think about it all the time. I think that a lot of what has happened with the album has to do with us all being in a collective emotional place. Obviously everybody's lives have different complexities and whatnot, but I think most of us were feeling really shaken up and really out of place and confused and in need of something comforting all at the same time. And for me, that thing that was comforting was making music that felt sort of like I was trying to hug my fans through the speakers. That was truly my intent. Just trying to hug them when I can't hug them.
I wanted to talk about some of the lyrics on Folklore. One of my favorite pieces of wordplay is in “August”: that flip of "sipped away like a bottle of wine/slipped away like a moment in time.” Was there an "aha moment" for you while writing that?
I was really excited about "August slipped away into a moment of time/August sipped away like a bottle of wine." That was a song where Jack sent me the instrumental and I wrote the song pretty much on the spot; it just was an intuitive thing. And that was actually the first song that I wrote of the "Betty" triangle. So the Betty songs are "August," "Cardigan," and "Betty." "August" was actually the first one, which is strange because it's the song from the other girl's perspective.
Yeah, I assumed you wrote "Cardigan" first.
It would be safe to assume that "Cardigan" would be first, but it wasn't. It was very strange how it happened, but it kind of pieced together one song at a time, starting with "August," where I kind of wanted to explore the element of This is from the perspective of a girl who was having her first brush with love. And then all of a sudden she's treated like she's the other girl, because there was another situation that had already been in place, but "August" girl thought she was really falling in love. It kind of explores the idea of the undefined relationship. As humans, we're all encouraged to just be cool and just let it happen, and don't ask what the relationship is — Are we exclusive? But if you are chill about it, especially when you're young, you learn the very hard lesson that if you don't define something, oftentimes they can gaslight you into thinking it was nothing at all, and that it never happened. And how do you mourn the loss of something once it ends, if you're being made to believe that it never happened at all?
On the flip side, "Peace" is bit more defined in terms of how one approaches a relationship. There's this really striking line, "The devil's in the details, but you got a friend in me/Would it be enough if I can never give you peace?" How did that line come to you?
I'm really proud of that one too. I heard the track immediately. Aaron sent it to me, and it had this immediate sense of serenity running through it. The first word that popped into my head was peace, but I thought that it would be too on-the-nose to sing about being calm, or to sing about serenity, or to sing about finding peace with someone. Because you have this very conflicted, very dramatic conflict-written lyric paired with this very, very calming sound of the instrumental. But, "The devil's in the details," is one of those phrases that I've written down over the years. That's a common phrase that is used in the English language every day. And I just thought it sounded really cool because of the D, D sound. And I thought, "I'll hang onto those in a list, and then, I'll finally find the right place for them in a story." I think that's how a lot of people feel where it's like, "Yeah, the devil's in the details. Everybody's complex when you look under the hood of the car." But basically saying, "I'm there for you if you want that, if this complexity is what you want."
There's another clever turn of phrase on "This is Me Trying." "I didn't know if you'd care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that." That feels like a nod toward your fans, and some of the feelings you had about retreating from the public sphere.
Absolutely. I think I was writing from three different characters' perspectives, one who's going through that; I was channeling the emotions I was feeling in 2016, 2017, where I just felt like I was worth absolutely nothing. And then, the second verse is about dealing with addiction and issues with struggling every day. And every second of the day, you're trying not to fall into old patterns, and nobody around you can see that, and no one gives you credit for it. And then, the third verse, I was thinking, what would the National do? What lyric would Matt Berninger write? What chords would the National play? And it's funny because I've since played this song for Aaron, and he's like, "That's not what we would've done at all." He's like, "I love that song, but that's totally different than what we would've done with it."
When we last spoke, in April 2019, we were talking about albums we were listening to at the time and you professed your love for the National and I Am Easy to Find. Two months later, you met up with Aaron at their concert, and now, we're here talking about the National again.
Yeah, I was at the show where they were playing through I Am Easy to Find. What I loved about [that album] was they had female vocalists singing from female perspectives, and that triggered and fired something in me where I thought, "I've got to play with different perspectives because that is so intriguing when you hear a female perspective come in from a band where you're used to only hearing a male perspective." It just sparked something in me. And obviously, you mentioning the National is the reason why Folklore came to be. So, thank you for that, Alex.
I'm here for all of your songwriting muse needs in the future.
I can't wait to see what comes out of this interview.
*** For more on our Entertainers of the Year and Best & Worst of 2020, order the January issue of Entertainment Weekly or find it on newsstands beginning Dec. 18. (You can also pick up the full set of six covers here.) Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.
71 notes
·
View notes
Video
youtube
Album & EP Recommendations
My word, the music world has well and truly spoiled us this week!
The past seven days has seen a colossal avalanche of new releases, so much so I’ve barely had chance to keep up with it all. Although this is not the full list of everything from the past seven days, here are the 16 (yes, 16!) new releases I’ve enjoyed the most this week.
As there is so much to get through the rundowns are (mostly) a bit shorter than normal and there is no single Album of the Week, instead I simply recommend checking out whichever album or track sounds most appealing depending on your preferred taste.
So without further ado then, here’s what’s good:
Californian Soil by London Grammar
It’s been four years since the release of London Grammar’s last record Truth Is A Beautiful Thing - an album that I enjoyed, but I’ll admit also left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed coming off the back of their incredible breakout debut, If You Wait. As it turns out, the band themselves were also having a tough time around that period, with front woman Hannah Reid in particular battling relentless industry sexism, as well as the persistent physical pain caused by her fibromyalgia condition. With this being the case, it is amazing that the young indie-pop trio have made it to their third album at all, let alone delivering what is their best work to date.
Opening on a grand, string-drenched Intro, the record soon morphs into the sun-soaked guitars and soaring orchestration of the album’s glorious title track. It marks an early highlight as Reid catches the audience up with the tribulations of the last few years – “I left my soul on Californian soil.” From there the album doesn’t really let up as the band move through a series of career-defining tracks – the gorgeous contemporary groove of Missing, the dance-influenced How Does It Feel, the chilled-out ambience of the dreamy Baby, It’s You and the sublime, stripped-back closer America.
However, the album’s strongest moment comes when Reid confronts music industry sexism head on with defiant anthem Lord It’s A Feeling. Beginning with some twinkly xylophone, before evolving into an atmospheric synth-laced backdrop where Reid pulls no punches:
“I saw the way you made her feel, like she should be somebody else,
I know you think the stars align for you and not for her as well,
I undеrstand, I can admit that I have felt those things mysеlf”
The cutting lyrics against some blinding quiet rave instrumentation leaves quite the impression, as does this sterling record in general. After a slight misstep, London Grammar have well and truly rediscovered themselves and they have honestly never sounded better – a truly incredible album.
If You Could Have It All Again by Low Island
Oxford electo-pop outfit Low Island are another band that have defied expectations to get to this point. This, their debut album, was not recorded in a professional music studio – in fact, the vocals were recorded in a bedroom cupboard of all places. The band themselves don’t even have a manager or a record label. In every sense of the word, they are a truly independent band. For a self-financed, self-produced effort, If You Could Have It All Again is a quite remarkable first outing.
From melodic, uplifting opener Hey Man, the record quickly jumps into spoken word electro punk banger What Do You Stand For, featuring acid-drenched synths and a dancefloor-ready groove. Fans of FIFA 21 will recall Don’t Let the Light In, with the glitchy pulse of recent single Who’s Having the Greatest Time also standing out. That said, it’s the smooth, infectious sway of I Do It For You that still pulls me in the most.
Having followed the band since their early EPs, I’ve been rooting for Low Island for a while now and this is one debut album I was highly anticipating this year. Safe to say, my expectations have been met – this is a fantastic, accomplished record, which leaves me eager to see where they go next.
The Greatest Mistake Of My Life by Holding Absence
There was a time when the difficult second album used to be a thing, but listening to the sophomore effort from Welsh rock band Holding Absence this week, I’m really not sure that exists anymore. After a dramatic and impressive self-titled debut two years ago, the band have wasted little time taking things up a notch, with this new album cinematic and masterfully produced from beginning to end.
From standout singalong anthems like Afterlife and In Circles, to the album’s epic seven-minute penultimate track Mourning Song, The Greatest Mistake of My Life shows a band pushing themselves and driving forward with ambition at every opportunity. In a year packed with outstanding rock and metal albums already, this is most definitely another one you can add onto that list. Soaring, impressive and demanding of repeat listens.
We Forgot We Were Dreaming by Saint Raymond
It’s been six long years since Nottingham-born singer-songwriter Callum Burrows, AKA Saint Raymond, released his debut album. However it seems the time away has been well spent as this long-awaited follow-up finds Burrows in fine form, with this album packed to the brim with catchy, glossily produced indie-pop anthems.
From the brilliant title track that opens the record, to the bouncy riffs of Right Way Round, Talk and Solid Gold, to more subdued and heartfelt moments like Only You, this album will have you smiling, singing your heart out and dancing your troubles away.
Flu Game by AJ Tracey
AJ Tracey may have only been three years old when Michael Jordan was winning NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, but that hasn’t stopped him making a record influenced by the legendary icon and his famous 1997 Flu Game. Like many others including myself, grime superstar AJ Tracey spent lockdown watching the brilliant The Last Dance documentary, and this record weirdly works as a fantastic unofficial companion, but also just a great summer rap record.
McCartney III Imagined by Paul McCartney
Even if like me you completely missed Sir Paul McCartney’s 2020 album McCartney III, it’s well worth checking out this reimagining, where he has called on the help of some of his famous musician pals. This is a real who’s who line up of guest features including Beck, Khurangbin, St. Vincent, Blood Orange, Phoebe Bridgers, Damon Albarn, Josh Homme, Anderson .Paak and more, making for quite a fascinating mix of sounds and styles.
Moratorium (Broadcasts from The Interruption) by Enter Shikari
And finally on the albums front this week, genre-benders Enter Shikari have released a brilliant compilation of all their lockdown live performances, headlined by an incredible string-tinged acoustic version of The Dreamer’s Hotel and a beautifully stripped-back “At Home” rendition of Live Outside.
Tracks of the Week
Introvert by Little Simz
Wow, wow and wow again. Still fairly fresh off the back of her masterful, Mercury Prize nominated third album Grey Area, this week British rapper Little Simz released the first taste of her next record in the form of this epic and triumphant opening track. At six minutes in length, this majestic and operatic political anthem aims to grab the listener by the collar and shake them awake. Without a doubt, one of the best songs of the year so far, the powerful video for which you can view above.
Smile by Wolf Alice
The second taste of their forthcoming album Blue Weekend, Smile continues Wolf Alice’s pattern for alternating Loud/Soft releases, with this one featuring buzzy guitars, punky vocals and a hypnotic chorus melody.
Beautiful Beaches by James
Although written off the back of the California wildfires that impacted front man Tim Booth’s local community, the lyrics on the band’s latest anthem purposefully offer a dual meaning, giving hope to those dreaming of a post-lockdown getaway and fresh start.
He Said She Said by CHVRCHES
The Scottish trio made their much-anticipated return this week, with Lauren Mayberry also sharing her experiences of sexism on this arena-ready synth-pop banger.
Matty Healy by Georgia Twinn
Georgia Twinn delivers an infectiously catchy break-up anthem, inspired by an ex-boyfriend, who’s most interesting feature was supposedly looking like the 1975 frontman.
Kill It by Vukovi
Underground Scottish rock outfit Vukovi’s new single is so good, they even managed to get KILL IT trending over the weekend of its release. Masterfully produced with big bold riffs and trancey synths, this one just sounds huge.
Can’t Carry On by Gruff Rhys
The latest solo single from the former Super Furry Animals frontman is a stunning, super-melodic tune with an instant chorus you’ll be singing before the track has even finished its first play.
Ceremony by Deftones
One of the highlights off their last album Ohms, the nu-metal rockers have now delivered a cinematic new video directed by horror legend Leigh Whannell. Check it out!
Chasing Birds by Foo Fighters
And finally this week, Dave Grohl and company released a trippy new animated video for this Medicine At Midnight cut to help celebrate 420 in their own unique way. Again, well worth a watch!
#best new music#new music#little simz#introvert#london grammar#californian soil#low island#holding absence#enter shikari#james#saint raymond#vukovi#aj tracey#michael jordan#the last dance#foo fighters#deftones#gruff rhys#super furry animals#wolf alice#chvrches#paul mccartney#albums of the week#tracks of the week
24 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
da3hyun
Cold Busan Man
thesocialinspector
The Social Inspector
marvelstars
MULTIFANDOM
bonktime
very tired