Girl With No Face

Young K "Fourever" Concept Photos

And though I burn how could I fall? When I am lifted by every word you say to me. [x]

What I will say is, whilst this record doesn't have something like that— Well, I don't know, remains to be seen whether it does, I suppose, but, um... I do feel like there's something about the essence of that idea of like, a show closing thing, that kind of has like, filtered through it in some vague way.

WayV \\ WayV 威神V 'On My Youth (遗憾效应)' MV

for those interested

biannual reminder that this event sure was a ✨thing✨

everyone talks about “I am Dan Reynolds”, “I’m not a loser,” “I used to dance,” all of ‘The Summoning’

and they’re totally right

but on my now 4th (? or 5th idk) watch i think “I just took a bullet for you. Gimmie a break!” is gonna be my new inner monologue

starting off an album with state of grace/red/treacherous as the opening lineup was an absolutely lethal choice btw

a year in new-to-me albums, 2023

i wish i had the words to explain what yoongi and his d-day did for my mental health this year. i really wish i had the power to somehow let him know that i related to every word he said in that album and everything he spoke about in his documentary, and that his wisdom and reassurances really pushed me forward like nothing else all these months. ugh i wish.

getting so emotional scrolling back through my liked songs on spotify… it’s like falling backwards through every emotion i’ve had for the past few years

I’ve decided that if AE1 is anything less than excellent, I’m calling it quits with being an active K-pop consumer once and for all. Not bc I’m an annoying akgae that hates everyone else in the industry or whatnot, I’m just done with the constant disappointments and bad news and mismanagement that happens to pretty much every group, and extremely frequently to the three of my faves. I’ve tried getting into other groups but I haven’t found any that appealed to my specific tastes and standards AND have non-frustrating management. I’ve constantly make posts such as “[K-pop group with immense but unexplored potential] x [extremely talented non K-pop musician who takes the risks K-pop companies should] collab when?” for a good while. If all these artists outside of K-pop are giving me what I truly need and if I know my fave groups’ companies are gonna let me down pretty much every single time, what’s the point?

I'm preaching to the converted on this website, but Drones was a really fucking good album. Just because people don't really like Revolt doesn't take away from the fact that it's a solid album. There's long been this belief in the Muse fan community in particular that just because an album has one (1) song that's a bit different, or god forbid, poppy, the whole album is trash, or no OOS, the holy grail.

The singles on Drones: Psycho, Dead Inside, Mercy, Reapers, The Handler, Defector, Aftermath, are all fantastic (I think officially Matt was all, "do singles exist anymore?" but I'm counting anything that was released with a music or lyric video as a "single". 2015 was a strange time! Looking back, it makes so much sense that Muse, who had declared the album "dead" in 2014, would end up coming out with their first proper concept album in 2015, which Matt thought was the only real reason to be doing a traditional album format at all!)

The heavier stuff on Drones is flawless. The "poppier" stuff like Dead Inside, its last verse is gut wrenching ugh. So good. Aftermath as a whole just makes me sob sob sob. And I love Muse trying out new sounds. The sound on Defector and the Handler were a new type of heavy for Muse back in 2015: slow, chugging and heavy rather the faster stuff like on say, New Born or Stockholm Syndrome. It was great to hear them keep exploring and expanding their sound. Matt talked about how the bluesy stuff on Aftermath was completely new to him. I love them for giving it a try, and it works. Everything doesn't have to have a riff or a banger chorus to work as a good song.

The Globalist: epic! Clever! A 10 minute saga! That countdown riff! The whistling! The last piano section, ooh. So good. So classically inspired. And don't even get me started on the song Drones. Four Matts singing in 4-part voice harmony? Incredible. Wonderful. Love it.

Anyway this has been quite a throwaway post, I'll properly review Drones sometime but hey. It's a really fucking good album, and even if you really dislike Revolt, it's still an incredible album. Besides, what's not to like about Revolt. Let Muse have their summer guitar pop song. Let it be ;)

I don’t like the idea of regrets or wanting to change things in the past when ultimately it leads you exactly where you are, y’know? but there are times where I think about 5sos and their start and their sound and I wonder how much different their art would be had they’d taken off within the pop-rock/pop-punk scene instead. if they didn’t spend the first half of their career needing to prove they weren’t a “boyband” while also not making a big deal about it either way.

because I think, they’d have been too pop for the genre of a lot of the bands they covered, but at the same time they were a touch too rock influenced and “real instruments” for the pop scene they were invited into. and I think that notion, to start off with the idea that there’s something to prove about who they are as artist… I think it set the tone that has always sort of stuck to the presentation of their music. hence all the self-titles. it’s like this search for self, but applied to the band. there’s the push and pull to the different parts of the industry their influences and leaning have caused and while it makes for interesting music and all the differences in the albums they’ve released, it does make me wonder how they would’ve grown differently as artist had they not been set on their pathway to fame by a louis tomlinson tweet, but more along the lines of them having toured with hot chelle rae.

this isn’t to say I have negative feelings about their whole story, etc. but there’s just the curiousity towards alternate timelines, of parallel universes, of existences that split because of one moment. and while I know there are obstacles and hardships whichever way, I do wonder if they would’ve escaped the very real conflict of trying to discover their sound, or if that same struggle would’ve been just as present, just appearing different.

and it makes me want, so badly, for them to be able to find their sound. as a fan, I do believe they have to an extent—bc there are 5sos songs I’ve heard that do not sound like a 5sos song. and 5sos5 really showcases a sense of the band’s identity that’s been a long time coming. but as each member is still growing and figuring out themselves, there’s also this sense that this isn’t just quite yet their sound? if that makes any sense. like that hint of wfttwtaf in some of the tracks? it’s the feeling that while the band is all four of them coming together, and maybe there’s no need for them to try to hone down a singular Sound together (and I mean they don’t have to LOL), there’s aspect that go “oh that’s a luke track” “that’s a michael track” etc etc not un similar to “oh they listened to all time low” or whatever present in their first two albums. that while naturally you will hear each of them in the music, I’m always excited for the blend of them all in the sonic. and maybe that’s subjective, but to me as great as 5sos5 is and all, there’s part of me that think it’s leading to the next album that just fucking… blows the rest of their discography away.