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valeriefauxnom · 3 months

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Hey big fan. How tall do you think the androids in DL are?

Not gonna lie, it's always a bit shocking to hear one has made anything to earn a 'big fan', but thank you very much nonetheless!

As for your actual question, though, I think they're roughly about human height, judging by art? Of course I've gone over how art sometimes varied wildly in height, but as mentioned in that post if you have seen that, Dragalia did seem to try and keep a 'comparison heights' straight, at least. They might not have kept straight if Euden was 4'11 or 5'9 but he was shorter than Ranzal and Luca, etc.

And what we see in the wyrmprints, they seem consistently human in size:

(Well, these are both with sylvans, but sylvans are human in height as well, ears notwithstanding, so the point stands).

As funny as it might have been if every android was big or really tiny, I think it probably makes sense that, being created and wished for them to be 'humans' by Maestro, they resemble humanity as much as possible.

Now, just because Laxi, Mascula, and the androids from their era are human sized, others might not be.

They're a recreation of the older models in another case of Dragalia's humans trying to resurrect older tech, the same tech that made the dragons Very Displeased 1k years ago.

Now, Eireene and Finni, who unfortunately have among my personal least favorite designs in Dragalia, don't really give any indication either of being a wildly different size than Laxi or Mascula. Like this art here, where they are about the same size as Laxi and in a similar 'dwarfed by Ranzal' category most everyone falls into to varying degrees.

That doesn't mean there aren't standouts.

Anassa, for example, seems to carry a much bigger presence in her art. Being something of a commander and command center for the 1k year old model androids, it stands to reason she might have more weapons built in, more data processors, or other things in greater quantity. While we don't have a model or comparative art to truly say for certain that she is bigger, she certainly looks it.

(Does she even have legs??? Is she a roomba that would be foiled by anything over a 15° incline or a sudden height change, ex, stairs??? I mean yeah, doesn't she fly and drop down the one time, but even then, there's any number of environments that might make it awkward or impossible to use it to navigate a hazard.)

Ahem. Anyways, the point is that the general androids, be it Maestro's recreations or their elder Nier:Dragalia -er, Ex Machina, a part of the Humanoid Liberation Agency/the ones living in the sky, seem to be human sized. But there might be a few special model ones out there like Anassa who serve a unique and important purpose to justify the time, energy, and resources designing and creating them to fulfill their goal.

Now, admittedly, androids in Dragalia would be a weak point in my general knowledge since they never really quite struck a chord with me enough to inspire a fixation on them, but yeah, as far as I can tell, they're human-sized with perhaps some rare exceptions. The most I can say that might not be wholly normal is their apparent tendency towards a sort of gaunt build, which, to be fair, it's not exactly as if they can build muscle to change that.

Hopefully that answered your question satisfactorily!

#dragalia lost #dragalia #inbox responses #thanks for the ask!#While I uh 'majored' in the royal family I'm more than happy to try and sift through other lore!#So yeah I'm always down to talk Dragalia or Scaling or other video games like Tales of the Abyss!#...I suddenly realized that Dragalia and Abyss share another thing in common: endings that are very much in dispute for what happened.#It's probably one of the top two fastest ways to start an argument among players for Abyss #And while the Dragalia fandom isn't quite so occasionally hostile about differing interpretations it's a funny coincidence.#Anyways. Dragalia. One thing I have a bit of qualm with is how quick the new androids are accepted.#Like Finni 'the emotional one' of the pair you'd expect to be the bleeding heart will casually talk about rampant murder of innocents.#These are androids that have been told over and over that all non-Ark humans are not worthy of life and need to all be killed.#That's not something that completely disappears overnight. Yeah enemy of my enemy and all that but...#When EUDEN is the one expressing the most vague caution to saying 'welcome aboard' you know something's not quite right.#And that in this case is 'is bringing a pair of androids known to have been involved in committing genocide and one of whom has a tendency #...to go berserk into our castle a good idea?'#But yeah this is a rant in tags but. I just don't quite like how they handled that detail regarding the Ex Machina androids.

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noneuclideanwhimsy · 1 year

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@gmilfwhore I finally wrote something for Singulari+y! It gets a little sad but there’s a happy ending! They care each other so much…

“Thank you for coming, everyone! Goodnight, and we will see you again under new skies!”

Corey’s eyes caught the concert hall beginning to clear in little trickles as she made her way backstage, shaking her tired, slightly sore fingers in the air. They had performed for the better part of the evening, and even in the backstage room the air still smelled faintly of smoke and excitement. Throwing herself bodily onto a faux leather couch, Corey stared absent-mindedly into the dirty gray ceiling lit dimly by a couple of yellow lamps in need of being changed. She barely acknowledged it when the door swung open with a slight creak, and only when her fellow band member spoke did she break out of her stupor.

“Hey, Corey. How are you feeling?”

Zircon was clearly tired too, xir voice with its impossible to place accent not having quite the energy it usually does. Xe noticed Corey’s awkward resting place on the couch and brought over a plastic chair so xe could sit next to her.

“Tired, but okay. No twisted wrists this time, you can relax.”

She let out a dry chuckle, remembering that ill-fated rehearsal that had made her think twice before trying to play multiple tricky chords in quick succession without practicing slowly first ever since. Both Zircon and Sylvan had hovered over her, fetching her anything she might need, for several days after until the bandage around her right hand was removed, and for at least another day after that. While she certainly appreciated the gesture, that didn’t mean she didn’t get to tease her band members about it from time to time.

Zircon laughed too, xir glittery earrings jingling faintly as xe did so.

“Oh, by the way, where’s Sylvan gone?”

“He offered to help the stage crew pack up. I’m surprised he still has the energy for that after all that drumming.”

“Yeah… my heart’s still pounding from that closing segment.”

The sensation of keys beneath her fingers and the smile she gave Zircon as xe hit xir final note with xir hand over xir heart (or, where she assumed xir heart was) flashed through her memories, drowned in a tidal wave of applause but still vivid. Corey sat up on the sofa.

“Y’know, Zircon… I never thought we’d get audiences this big. When we first performed together, back at Finder’s Joy, there were, what, twenty people there? But today… today there were hundreds… and every single one of them had come to enjoy our music… it’s a bit crazy to think about, isn’t it?”

“Yeah… I have seen a few audiences as big as this before, but none of them were quite so… sincere. This planet has a way of making me feel like my voice needs to be heard, like I’m touching the hearts of hundreds of individual people rather than a unified crowd… the other difference, of course, being that around here I’m performing with you and Sylvan!”

Xe gave a wide, genuine smile, exposing xir row of unusually pointed teeth.

“Awww… my point still stands though, you’re gonna need to tell me about those tours you’ve done on other planets someday! You’ve got me burning with curiosity, little mx. starchild, and you know what happens when you play with fire!”

“I’ll tell you when there’s absolutely no chance someone else who’d believe me would overhear.” Zircon spluttered out through their laughter. “I should go check on Sylvan, we can’t have him getting lost on us.”

Xe rose from xir chair, still chuckling breathily, but something was wrong: Corey noticed with a start the way Zircon seemed to be struggling more and more to draw a breath, xir exhales turning to sharp and raspy coughs.

“Do you need to lie down?”

“No- I’ll- fine-”

Every word was punctuated by a dry cough; Zircon clutched xir heart, the same way xe had onstage, only more desperately, and collapsed back into xir chair, xir head jerking back and forth every time xe coughed.

Corey bolted to her feet and rushed over to Zircon, picking xir up as gently as she could and half-carrying, half-dragging xir shaking body over to the sofa on which she had been sitting moments ago and carefully laying xir down with xir head slightly elevated.

It was not the most comfortable position in the world; Zircon’s long, skinny legs hung awkwardly over the other end of the sofa, occasionally kicking air as xe shook, but Corey could hear xir breathing begin to stabilize over her own frantic heartbeat.

“Thanks…”

Another cough pierced the air. Kneeling down next to xir and reassuringly touching xir hand, Corey noticed Zircon looking at the belt buckles of xir stage outfit’s jacket, the silvery belts tight around xir chest…

“Should I loosen those?”

Xe nodded shakily.

Corey silently willed her hands to keep steady as she reached her hands over and undid first the lower buckle, then the upper one. Xe gave a relaxed sigh, the movements in their body lessening in intensity. Xir face was even paler than it usually was, but the glint in xir wide, sunset-orange eyes refused to fade from xir starburst-shaped pupils.

“What’s… doing this to you?” Corey asked, her voice low.

Zircon lay silent for a few seconds, then shook xir head. “'S nothing…”

“You almost stopped breathing! Clearly it is something!” Her tone sharpened involuntarily.

Another pause, even longer than the first. Zircon avoided Corey’s eye, gazing instead somewhere between the ceiling and the far wall as xe continued to take deep breaths.

“There’s… something, in the Earth’s atmosphere. Something we don’t have. You humans are probably somewhat used to it, but… it’s been attacking my lungs. I haven’t felt it much until today, but sometimes, when I’m really tired… I get these… sharp pains, in my chest, and I struggle to breathe. I’m sorry for keeping it under wraps, it’s just that… if someone finds out, they’ll take me to a hospital… they’ll take one look at me and they’ll know.”

Xe solemnly tilted xir head downwards, and Corey could almost see the tips of the pair of short, thin antennae buried in the wild puff of xir dandelion-yellow hair. She placed her fingers on her tear ducts to stop herself from crying.

“We’ll find a way out of this together, I just know it.”

It was Zircon’s turn to place a hand on Corey’s arm. Xir long fingers were adorned with rings and stone-cold; she wished she had a blanket to cover xir with.

“I’ll be okay. I’ve been to harsher places. I’ll live. For you, for Sylvan… for everyone.”

Corey very gently nudged xir in the side.

“Don’t forget yourself.”

“Yeah… I’ll live for myself too.” Xe tried xir best to smile again, and this was more than enough for Corey to return it.

They were silent for a few minutes, a much more comfortable silence than any that came before it, a silence in which Zircon’s once frantic breathing slowly but surely fell into perfect sync with Corey’s.

What broke the silence was another swing of the slightly creaky door, and Sylvan’s footsteps on the floorboards.

“Hey guys, sorry to interrupt but-” his eyes darted to Zircon lying on the sofa. “Zircon, is everything alright?!”

“Xe’s had a… bad coughing fit,” explained Corey. She couldn’t give Sylvan all the details, and she hoped he wouldn’t inquire her further. “I think xe’s alright now, but xe’s really tired…”

Sylvan tried to hide the worry in his facial expression, but his voice still shook slightly as he said “Our ride will be here in a couple of minutes.” He turned to Zircon. “There’s some more comfortable clothes in my bag in the corner if you’d like to get changed before we move out. Are you sure you don’t want to see a doctor about this?”

“No!” exclaimed Zircon and Corey in unison. Sylvan raised an eyebrow but seemed too tired to press it further.

“Alright then” he said. “Would you at least like some water? I’ll get it for you.”

Upon seeing Zircon’s nod, Sylvan immediately disappeared back behind the door.

✦ ✦ ✦

Endless window lights of shops streamed their colours through the windows of the car. Corey was the only one who took notice of them: Sylvan was fidgeting absent-mindedly with his zipper in the front passenger seat and Zircon had fallen asleep in the back seat next to her, too tall to put xir head on her shoulder, leaning backwards in xir seat instead.

The lights washed over xir face, illuminating xir features: xir ever-so-slightly pronounced cheekbones, xir long eyelashes, xir full pink lips, the cascade of fluffy hair, unbound from its braid, that fell beyond xir shoulders like clouds in a sunrise… Corey had to admit it, even in a grey hoodie that hung loose over xir thin frame, xe was beautiful in a most peculiar way, a way that was neither masculine nor feminine, a way that didn’t make sense but made her oddly happy when she saw xir all the same…

Corey had been a shade away from scoffing at herself. Really? She thought. Almost four and a half billion human beings on this Earth, and you are actually about to fall for an alien.

Corey turned her head back towards the car window. The dark shape of a factory loomed behind countless illuminated shops and apartment buildings, its pipes sending fumes into the sky like ominous torches that obscured the stars.

There’s something in Earth’s atmosphere. Something we don’t have.

She clenched a tired hand into a fist: her own kind were destroying the planet, and they were going to pay for it before they could take Zircon along with it. She had always loved the Earth dearly, so had Sylvan, and she knew Zircon did too, despite the fact that it was so, so far away from xir home.

Be it as lovers, friends, or just people who loved one another very dearly, she knew that they and their music would stand behind the Earth no matter what, and someday, the voices that always needed to be heard would make their difference.

#singulari+y!#before someone inevitably brings it up #I know the 4.5 billion people thing is a very outdated statistic. this is set in the 80s.#original characters #OCs #oc story #oc writing #fiction #found family #sci-fi #retro sci fi #long post

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ghostwise · 1 year

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2022 Writing Summary 🖊️🗒️✨

This year was an interesting one for writing and I am so excited bc I tackled a few different projects in 2022!

- I worked on for suffering is such a part pretty much daily from December, finally finishing it in April with a total of 51,575 words!

- In April, feeling pretty burnt out on writing, I did some fluffy AU pieces (huapangos de arlathvhen) as well as aloe, elfroot, and the flood (which will probably be rewritten, but remains as an attempt to write a DAO-era Crestwood fic).

- In May I busied myself writing original fiction and firing off some submissions to literary magazines. I am still working on a way to bring original fiction to an audience, but for now I just don’t feel very comfortable sharing it here. Stay tuned, though!

- In June I got into Wayfarer and challenged myself to develop a character by writing 30 micro fics. This got me writing pretty consistently, and I collected all those pieces in lovesong of the buzzard.

- Closed the year with a fic I wrote for the Wayfarer Exchange, there’s a flame that burns out at sea, and also planning for Quinta de Talpa and other original projects.

I’m looking forward to what 2023 will bring. 💖

January

Zevran tried to picture Hamal’s face without any of the vallaslin, but found that he couldn’t. The blood writing was such an important part of his Warden. He knew that Hamal was fiercely proud of them. Now he knew why.

He smiled at Mathuin, feeling that they must have shared the story both for Cammen’s benefit as well as for his.

February

Every time he made a mistake it was like this: Somewhere in the deepest parts of his id existed a small thought that Hamal might not want him once he realized that he was broken in a way that was permanent; not transient like the Blight, not as easily defeated as an Archdemon. Sometimes the thought was loud. Right now, however, he was able to confront the thought, because the fact was, Hamal had married him.

March

“And how are you?”

Zevran raised a brow and looked at him.

“Zevran. In the past few days you fought a sylvan, fractured a bone, hiked through the forest, fell through a ceiling, got a concussion—and that’s just the stuff I know about. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

April

Loneliness was a sharp barb that worked its way under his skin. He’d never felt it so keenly; it was agony, it eclipsed everything, every thought, every feeling, every past, present, or future, even his name.

May

Everyone here is so busy. His cousins now have titles and jobs and families. Even Petra is married and has children now.

Fortunately he doesn’t have time to dwell on it. The ocean peeks over the rise of a verdant hill and suddenly they’re there. Arlathvhen.

June

“What if I do not wish to go back?” Hamal asked. “What if I ask you to leave?”

“Then I suppose it’s just a question of what I should tell the others.” Zevran looked away with a shrug. “But it’ll have to be good; both to ensure that no one comes looking for you, and to clear me of any suspicion.”

Hamal let out a hint of a laugh at that—short, bitter, but a laugh all the same. The sound surprised him as much as it did Zevran.

July

Perhaps because of his desert childhood, it delights him at first. Rain is transformative, a sign of good things to come: the cacti flowering, the buried animals emerging from the dry earth.

(He once believed them to be resurrected; believed the whole world was a dead thing coming alive.)

But the rain in Rona is different. There is no transformation, no resurrection here.

August

Alassar steel cuts through the darkness, flashing as Refugio cuts his vocal chords. Just as quickly, Yuribia clamps a hand over the other one’s mouth and smothers her wings around him tightly, muffling his scream as she snaps his neck.

She and Refugio stand there for a moment, breathing heavily in the dark.

September

It’s a bad pain day. It swoops upon him like a vulture and pecks his back apart vertebrae by vertebrae.

Refugio slouches in his seat, each bump and pebble on the road sending painful little shockwaves through his back. He’s known Yuribia long enough that he doesn’t bother hiding it. She’s known him long enough that she doesn’t bother commenting.

October

Kit’s long hair hangs like a curtain, her legs draped over the backrest of the couch she currently occupies. Anyone else might look absurd lounging in such a manner, but she pulls it off; she just has an air of grace about her, on and off the stage.

Refugio smiles appreciatively, his eyes trailing from her pretty curls to the script in her hands.

November

The Amell mansion is big enough to house a haunting.

Renata has always suspected that she ought to have one of those, which is to say, the absence of one had been thus far conspicuous in her life; a thought in the back of her head all these many years, from Lothering to Kirkwall. Late at night in her family’s little farmhouse she’d think of it, paranoid of some specter that never was there. She just never had the time or the space for it.

December

“I imagine he wants what any man wants: His life, with a shred of hope, and a regular fuck. So he slit your throat! We are Crows! If we killed everyone who made an attempt on our life, we’d hunt ourselves to extinction.”

#this is very indulgent but when i realized i wrote EVERY MONTH this year i wanted to put this post together to view my own progress #and maybe a few of you remember when I was super shy about writing and hardly posted any at all; i'm really really proud of overcoming that #it's a big deal for me and i rely so much on the kindness my pals have shown me <3 #thank you thank u mwa mwa also if any writer friends want to do this please go ahead and tag me!!#rinnywrites #2022 writing summary

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r-o-s-e-f-i-r-e · 1 year

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@geddyqueer tagged me in this a minute ago and i'm just getting around to it! here's five songs i've been enjoying :)

show me love - hundred waters. like a little psalm. my current go-to "listen to one million times in a row while i'm doing work" song

youtube

hijos del sol - hermanos gutiérrez. digging into their whole discography again this week, gr8 writing music, atmospheric and lush, saw em live last summer at [redacted]

youtube

ferris wheel - sylvan esso. absolutely on my "steve harrington is a summertime girlie agenda" playlist, best live show from last summer

youtube

radio - sylvan esso. yeah this one's on there too. DON'T YOU LOOK GOOD SUCKING AMERICAN DICK

youtube

waloyo yamoni - christopher tin. ohhhh the way i can feel the first soloist's voice resonating in my chest. we're gonna be ok

youtube

the booley house - the gloaming. the b part of this oh my god. my soul taking flight, those piano chords that are slightly more dense and complex than you expect them to be, phew

youtube

won't be long - the dead tongues. nebulous longing for a place i've never been ft. harmonica AND flute

youtube

ok that's actually seven lmao tagging @the-barn-rat @blysse-and-blunder and anyone else who wants to!!!

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cathartidie · 2 years

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it's just a bunch of tender songs about roje's brand of love. most of them are sad. a few of them aren't.

(TW DEATH AND BLOOD)

selected lyrics below the cut.

[ youtube . spotify ]

Salt - Lady Lamb in your arms, i understand all at once, my life has been building me up to us.

Holding Us Back - Katie Herzig but if you disappear you'll still hear when my heart hits the ground.

Little Joy - The Chord and the Fawn dying happens all the time. smiling in the warm sunshine.

Steamroller - Phoebe Bridgers you're the feeling i get when i'm feeling fine.

In The Absence of Everything, I Promise to Keep You Warm - Flatsound i'll throw everything i have into the flames just to make it last.

Two - Sleeping at Last i just want to love you, to love you, to love you well.

Love’s Refrain - Julie Byrne, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma it's so like me to breathe you, to be lost to desire.

Follow You Into the Dark - Miya Folick cover of Death Cab for Cutie if there's no one beside you when your soul embarks, then I'll follow you into the dark.

Blue - Shannon Lay don't be sad my love. i won't always be here, but i will love you till my hair turns blue.

Funeral Singers - Sylvan Esso all my friends are funeral singers, funeral singers, wailing.

Work Song - Hozier no grave can hold my body down. i'll crawl home to her.

Graceland Too - Phoebe Bridgers and i knew then i would do anything you want me to. i would do anything for you

We Are Nobody Else - Lady Lamb there's nothing lovelier than your laughter, my friend. and there is nothing left i need, i have everything.

Strawberry Blonde - Mitski all I need, darling, is a life in your shape. i picture it soft and i ache.

Comfort - Julia Jacklin are you thinking of me too? i was so happy all those years with you.

The Man Who Sees Tomorrow - Uwade life is warm and then it's cold and time forgives the past. i just hope the love we shared can resurrect the last.

Elise - The Greeting Committee and all of it spent in the sheets you kick to the end of the bed i make every morning, with your side a bit of a mess.

A Love of Some Kind - Adrianne Lenker i don't have much, but what i've got is something i can give. and i've found that on your own is no good way to live.

art credit Jen Mazza

#tunes #aes #tw #death #blood #grief

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dustedmagazine · 1 year

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Arrowounds — In the Octopus Pond (Lost Tribe Sound)

In The Octopus Pond by ARROWOUNDS

Ryan Chamberlain’s new album as Arrowounds, In the Octopus Pond, begins with the sound of running water reflecting off the walls of a cave, immediately setting the scene. On this immersive opener, “Phosphene Silver Abyss,” a kick-drum pulse soon fades in, accompanied by tambourine that shimmers between the stereo channels, followed by delicately plucked acoustic guitar and modulated bass — but even when all the elements have been introduced, the sound of water is still prominent in the mix. This approach to incorporating field recordings creates a bizarre and entrancing effect, comparable to early 4AD artists such as Dif Juz, and more contemporary post-rock and ambient albums by The World On Higher Downs and Svartbag. The sounds and how they’re treated go a long way towards mustering a unique, shadowy atmosphere, which is sustained throughout the album’s 45 minutes, with each of the six tracks running into one another.

“Tree of Disciples” prominently features field recordings of a nocturnal forest, plus pedalled guitar tones and eerie backmasked percussion, immediately conjuring the mournful, sylvan setting of Twin Peaks. On “Blue Entombed,” Chamberlain evokes prime Bark Psychosis with hard-hitting brushed drums, glowering bass, and some gorgeous, resonant guitar chords. “Oil Swimmer” opens the second half of the record with a subtly evolving palette of sounds, juxtaposing high, keening tones with growling, almost prog-metal bass. “Spectral Colours of Science” is the album’s most ambient stretch, the rhythmic pulse kept low in the mix like a distant heartbeat, the track’s heavily effected guitars blending together in an ecstatic blur. Closer “Winding Serpent Dance” offers some of the album’s most beautiful moments, its shimmering tones falling gracefully down to earth in an elegant melodic arc, carried along by a gently puttering rhythm track and more thickly modulated bass.

Though there are plenty of precedents for what Chamberlain is doing here, there’s a cohesive vision to this record that proves intoxicating. In the Octopus Pond truly comes into its own when listened to as a whole, on headphones, at night. Dive in and drift away.

Tim Clarke

#arrowounds #in the octopus pond #lost tribe #tim clarke #albumreview #dusted magazine #ryan chamberlain #post rock #ambient #4AD

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ize0ftheworld · 1 year

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ذي الفترة

#mine #Spotify

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zenwldflwr · 1 year

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The Sylvan Horn

Book One of the Sylvan Chord The Sylvan Horn: Book One of The Sylvan Chord by Robert RedingerMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThis adventure has Efkin on a journey of not only self discovery, but to help the realm on mankind from a terrible force they have unleashed on the earth.I found this book an enjoyable quick read once past the first couple of chapters. The author did a good job keeping things…

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iamthekarmapolice · 2 years

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the new sylvan esso album is so fucking good. it’s 99% electronica which musically always makes me feel emotionally detached (which is good! sometimes i want to feel more composed than emotional) except that it has chord progressions and vocal delivery that makes me feel controlled amounts of emotions. it’s just an immensely cathartic album imo. it just immediately puts me in the mindset of being at the beach on a sunny day just staring at the waves, which is what the lead single sunburn actually soundtracked for me. i feel clean and lighter after listening to it. easily one of the best albums to come out this year

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earlgreymon · 3 years

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flying birds & floating petals; a koukari playlist for lovers who questioned about the reflecting wings and fallen cherry blossom on the river. (youtube / spotify)

01. must have been the wind - alec benjamin we can talk about the noise when you're ready 02. venus - sleeping at last astronomy in reverse, it was me who was discovered 03. hesitate - steve moakler excuse me while i fall for you 04. you can - david archuleta show me the good thing comes to those who wait 05. livewire - oh wonder so hold me, when i'm wasting the light 06. (they long to be) close to you - chord overstreet that is why all the boys in town follow you all around—just like me, they long to be close to you 07. take care of yourself - maisie peters you don't get a medal for the last one awake, so rest your eyes and give your baggage to me 08. bright - echosmith did you and jupiter conspire to get me? i think you and the moon and neptune got it right cause now I'm shining bright 09. love u - shye take it slow, you don't gotta tell me. i just wanna know if you need me to call you maybe—it's alright if you don't bonus tracks: there are many ways to say i love you - sylvan esso you'll find many ways to say 'i love you', you'll find many ways to understand what love is

part 1 of lovers in japan series track-by-track commentaries;

since the beginning of june, i've been curating some songs that i think can be associated with my favourite pairs on my twitter. as the digiweek is coming and one of the prompt is "music" i was thinking to wrap them all into a playlist for each pair.

but... i end up having five playlists, and i don't think i want to put them all on digiweek because i actually have another fic entry for day 3. so i'm gonna save one for digiweek, another for a specific otp week (take a guess!), and the others for... well, day-to-day post like this.

you will find the playlist on my lovers in japan series. the name was taken from coldplay's song. please note that my playlists will not be arranged chronologically, so you will see the 'storyline' is kinda messy. i arranged them according to how i think the order of the songs will sound good in the listeners' ears, and trust me when i said i have listened to these playlists a million times to make sure that they do sound good.

please also note the songs may have different interpretations, and i know there's gonna be people who disagree with my song choices. as i'm also not that good at translating songs, this is just my take and 1) i can be wrong; 2) you may have a different take.

for this koukari playlist itself, the title and the subtitle are inspired from @skuag's koukari headcanon. ngl i'm so in love with sku's line about koushiro and hikari questioning things around them, and i put the line into this. i hope you don't mind! :D

onto the real commentaries now!

01. must have been the wind - alec benjamin

when i first heard the song, i thought it was about an attempt to save a girl from an abusive relationship/domestic violence. but generally, this song is also about being a friend to someone who isn't ready to talk about his/her own feelings, and that's how i think the dynamic between koushiro and hikari is. they will both be loyal and helpful no matter what to each other ("promise I'm not playing tricks on you, you're always welcome to come in. you could stay here for an hour or two if you ever need a friend").

the whole song mostly told about the girl refusing to talk, but in the last part of the song, it is also implied that the singer won't push her. koushiro and hikari are both very patient, so this song is perfect. another trivia is that this song is about two persons living in the same buildings and koushiro lives in the same apartment with hikari in da:2020 :D

02. venus - sleeping at last

this is just a general, sweet love song with a hint of scientific touch with astronomical metaphors. also, on the line "astronomy in reverse, it was me who was discovered" that i quoted above, i think it can also be interpreted how koushiro is always passionate about finding things, but then love comes and finds him instead.

03. hesitate - steve moakler

"i've always been the kind to contemplate but you like the kind that don't hesitate, so excuse me while i fall for you." yes. this line is just perfect for koushiro who is very polite and easy to get nervous, and i bet he's very nervous to start a new page full of love. also, i thought the first line when the singer says "the human heart is a scary part in fact" is koushiro-ish because it sounds somewhat biological, iykwim.

04. you can - david archuleta

i (maybe even most of us) often associate koushiro as someone who have no room for romance. even if he does, he will be very careful about it; talk about someone who is very conventional and believe in one true love/soulmate. so that's why when someone as wonderful as hikari comes in picture, he must be thinking this is worth the wait. 'cause if anyone can make him falls in love, she can.

05. livewire - oh wonder

livewire. electricity. koushiro. yes. however, this song is actually more from hikari's side. the first line, "i've been depending on the overgrown" is like her depending too much on taichi. "i've been pretending all my shots are blown, cover my heart up never let it show"—again, with the issue of concealing her feelings. "oh so heavy the water, falling down down deep down" ...well, somehow it fits the dark ocean, eh?

06. (they long to be) close to you - chord overstreet

so i really want to put this song no matter what because it's a simple, sweet, innocent love song—and gee, koukari is such an unproblematic pair! however, the carpenter's version has this line where it says "that is why all the girls in town follow you all around" and i think it's better to reverse the situation because... well, hikari is more popular than koushiro, right? the song can also be used for takari with the "so they sprinkled moon dust in your hair of gold and starlight in your eyes of blue" but the innocence is just screaming koukari for me.

07. take care of yourself - maisie peters

i think this is the most important song on this playlist. the whole song itself is like things that hikari wants to say to koushiro. i remember @seventeenlovesthree once said that koushiro is very lacking sleep, and we know it's because he keeps working and researching. we even see in tri how he couldn't take better care of himself, with messy workstations, fashion 101 with takeru, and that horrendous dark circles. and when someone told him to just take a rest, he would refuse—saying that the world was in danger and it's more important to save it.

please also highlight these two important lines, which can also be good for yourself:

"you don't get a medal for the last one awake"

"and i hate how you're going through hell when you've never let anyone else, so cut off a little slack and roll all your cavalry back"

08. bright - echosmith

similar to venus, this is just a simple love song with a dash of moon and planets in the refrain. also, remember that koushiro's first kanji in his name is hikari, which also means light (bright)!

09. love u - shye

this is similar to must have been the wind, except it's more of hikari's point of view. koushiro is someone who's also struggling to reveal what he feels, but hikari won't ever push him and wait until he's ready. also, i've mentioned before in my headcanon that hikari texts koushiro more often, but once he gets busy, she will not disturb him and just patiently wait until the morning follows. this song is the perfect description.

bonus track: there are many ways to say i love you - sylvan esso

at this stage, you may probably know the general theme of this playlist is koushiro and hikari loving each other very subtly. i often said that they are not the type of couple who says 'i love you' blatantly, and this song is a conclusion on how they profess their love to each other!

#digimon #by me #digimusic #digiloversinjapan #koushiro izumi #hikari yagami #koukari #this is actually the first playlist i've managed to wrap up!#so it's only proper to publish them first :B

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aquariumdrunkard · 3 years

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Joni Mitchell w/ Brian Blade :: Fez Club NYC, 1995 | Bootleg

This is folk-jazz straight from the source, folks. Shimmering, harplike chords swirl around Mitchell’s sylvan-siren-meets-full-throated-thrush descants, while Blade’s thundering percussion and cymbal splashes push it into those poignant uppers.

#joni mitchell

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noneuclideanwhimsy · 1 year

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3, 4, 5, and 7 for my besties!!!

Thank you!

They fall asleep cuddling in a very specific position: Zircon sleeps in the middle facing the wall, Sylvan sleeps between the wall and Zircon and fits his head neatly into the crook of xir neck, and Corey sleeps behind Zircon for easy access to the nice texture of xir hair, which she often buries her head in or just plays with.

They love songwriting together, it’s their favorite part of being musicians, they feel absolutely comfortable bouncing ideas off each other, splicing together wacky rhymes and goofing off playing random songs on their instruments. They also enjoy just running around 198X London dressed in very normal clothes (Zircon usually needs shades to hide the orange eyes), sometimes with Phoebe, and joking about how no one could tell that they’re the legendary rock icons Singulari+y! Sylvan also sometimes talks them into exploring abandoned places with him (and they’re in England so lots of buildings have a history!) and both of the others pretend that they aren’t scared (though Zircon is more unnerved by unstable architecture than xe is by the concept of ghosts).

Augh I’m bad at ship songs… Zircon and Sylvan are mutually Lady Stardust, Rebel Rebel is very Zircon @ Corey, Corey is Cloud 9 @ both of her partners (oh also Corey and Sylvan are more queerplatonic but both are /r with Zircon), also Stereo Hearts can be any of them @ each other really…

A few miscellaneous inside silly things:

- Corey will make stupid music puns her mom taught her (eg. Saying ‘not looking too sharp!’ whenever Zircon plays a minor chord on xir guitar because chords in the minor key always contains a flat (the opposite of a sharp)) during EVERY rehearsal and every time Sylvan will sigh loudly and very dejectedly do a ‘ba-dum tss!’ on his drum set.

- When Corey and Zircon first revealed the fact that Zircon is an alien to Sylvan, they showed him xir antennae and he blurted out “Xe’s a snail person?!” (because the antennae really are kinda reminiscent of a snail) so every time Zircon takes too long doing something it’s “Hurry up, snail person!”

- Corey and Zircon jumping every time Sylvan references anything to do with space for old times’ sake (they did it unironically pre-reveal because ‘oh sparkles he knows and is dropping hints!!’ All three of them still do it unironically when Phoebe does it.)

#singulari+y!

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grimelords · 4 years

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I have been unbelievably busy for all of 2020 so far. Starting a new job and crunching to finish an old one, it's been very good but it has also meant that I haven't had the downtime I'd have liked in order to write long screeds about when drums sound good in songs so my December and January playlists unfortunately never got finished. They will exist as 'lost' playlists in the grimelords canon where you will simply have to listen to them and have your own thoughts about the songs instead of having your judgement clouded by me saying things like 'this sounds nice' and 'I love when the guitar goes woo-eee'.

You can listen to them here:

December https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4crPEVSPwftPpWl14xUrXF

January https://open.spotify.com/playlist/25MP7onYLCwWRYBIi0u3yc

As far as this, my February playlist goes: It's great! It's two and a half hours. The songs sounds nice and the guitars go woo-eee. I was worried I wouldn't be able to listen to as much music with my new job but it turns out I'm listening to more than ever which is extremely nice. Please enjoy, and if you'd like to subscribe to this playlist please do so here: https://tinyletter.com/grimelords

Listen to this playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZraEZOeS6qvVxfnz3AJS9

Ballad Of The Skeletons - Allen Ginsberg, Paul McCartney, Phillip Glass and Lenny Kaye: I had a dim childhood memory of this 1996 Hottest 100 funny skeleton song that my sister randomly brought up this month and was was shocked to find out that somewhere deep in my brain the part where the electric chair skeleton says “hey what’s cooking???” was still stored. I was also shocked to find out that the funny skeleton song I remembered from when I was a kid was actually a collaboration between Allen Ginsberg, Paul McCartney and Phillip Glass and was an unexpected hit on MTV and Triple J in 1996 for an as yet unknown reason.

I Can Go With You - Sam Burton: This song came up in my Discover Weekly, and I was so excited to listen to more of this 70s singer songwriter I've never heard of before who has no doubt had a long and illustrious career and was shocked to find out that not only is this song from 2020, it is also the first and so far only release by Sam Burton and his debut album is coming out sometime this year. I love how plain it is, and the first time I heard it it made no impression on me until a couple of hours later when I realised I was humming the melody to myself. It has this decepitive simplicity to it, and it sounds like a song you've always known which is really about as good a compliment as you can give a song. I also love this statement from him: “I was writing a song a day for 30 days as a personal challenge to myself. I Can Go With You came near of that practice and I considered it a throwaway at the time. After recording most of the album I still needed a couple more songs and decided to throw it on and we recorded it live followed by two others. When I listened back it ended up being one of the tracks I was happiest with on the record.” I love when artists are asked about songs and they have no divine inspiration to relate, just a process of daily work where they're like "well, I wrote it, like I always do. Did the chords and the words and everthing just like normal. I write hundreds of these things and this one came out pretty good. I don't know what else to tell you."

Wild Dogs - Colter Wall: This is a song by Billy Don Burns who you can probably expect to see on this playlist next month, and who as I understand it is one of these 'real' country guys that have been around for a million years and only ever had success when other people sang their songs. So it's very nice of Colter Wall to continue that tradition for him. I love the way this song takes the metaphor to a place of almost uncomfortable literalism, a tryst metamophising into something private, bloody and feral. The subtle way the lap steel whines slowly along in the background before stepping out and taking centre stage once the song picks up steam near the end is a marvel too.

Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega: I had a live version of this randomly recommended to me by youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkYPge6ZKSQ and it made me see this song that I'd always been sort of aware of in a new light and really properly appreciate it for the first time. Somehow I'd never noticed the last verse where it moves from literalism to memories, and of course that's sort of the moment that ties the whole song together. What I really appreciate about the acapella arrangement is that it feels like this is a song that's existed a million times before but she's the first person to actually write it down and record it. Everyone's made up a little dishwashing song or a little walking song, reciting some to-do list in your head. It's an entire genre that exists under people's breath for a few minutes and gets immediately forgotten.

If You Don't Know Now, You Never Will - Drugdealer: I could have sworn this was a Tobias Jesso Jr song. I really just assumed it was until I looked at the credits. It's such a nice song though and I'm glad this sort of 70s californian vibe is making a quiet comeback because it is just uniformly pleasant and it's nice to hear these sorts of arrangements, with the accenting violin runs and things like that. All the extra decorations and ornamentations that have sort of disappeared.

Crimson Tide - Destroyer: I absolutely love this new Destroyer album because it just feels like such pure uncut Destroyer. I’ve always thought of him as a sort of 400 year old vampire lounge singer who is just amusing himself at this point and so the cover art has really confirmed my suspicions on that front. The lyrics through this whole album are so good, the sort of stream of consciousness strangeness like ‘when lightning strikes twice the funeral goes completely insane’ that takes a on such gravity because he sings it with complete deadpan seriousness.

Truth (feat Alicia Keys and The Last Artful, Dodger) - Mark Ronson: I didn't really give this album a chance when it came out but ever since I found out Alicia Keys is good now (Time Machine) I've been looking for more good Alica Keys work and found one here. The Last Artful, Dodger is one of the worst artist names I think I've ever heard but she absolutely kills it on the way she says biiiiitch so I'll forgive it.

Surf & Turf - Boldy James + The Alchemist: Alchemist's production on this whole album is so incredible. He really just lets Boldy go and doesn't get in his way like good production should. Especially on the opening verse where Boldy James sticks with that loping flow for so long in 3s over 4 that matches that arpeggios in the beat, it's just a perfect harmony of rapper and producer.

Fat Mac - Duke Deuce: Misogyny in rap is a real issue that nobody seems really allowed to talk about because it's obviously very complicated, and this song some real classic 'stay in the kitchen' type woman hating in it and is basically incredibly callous and cruel throughout. However this beat is hot and there is also a part about a third of the way through where he says "fuck her till that pussy fart" and then makes a big fart noise, so.

Set It Up (feat. Trina) - Kamaiyah: I only found out about Kamaiyah's fantastic 2016 album A Good Night In The Ghetto about two weeks before her new one came out so I've been on a real Kamaiyah hype for a little while now. She's just fantastic. I love this song because I love the part where Trina seemingly out of the blue threatens to piss in my mouth. The first time I heard it I said 'wow!' out loud.

Come As You Are - Greg Phillinganes: There's something going on with the pop math in this song that I just can't put my finger on. It feels for all intents and purposes like this should be a hit. The melody is great. The big synth voice is great, it's got extremely fatty bass. It's great! But something about the structure of it is just off, it's got too many sections or something. Which kind of makes me love it more really.

Devotion - Pure Bathing Culture: What surprised me the most about this song is the secret shredding happening throughout. It feels like a sort of clean and cool guitar that hasn’t existed in the wild since the Lethal Weapon soundtrack and it adds such an energy to this already completely wonderful song.

Paper Cup - Real Estate + Sylvan Esso: The production on this song is just so beautiful. The violin melody and the pillow soft synths really add such an extra dimension to it. The tone on everything really. The guitar in the solo. Every time I listen to this song I just want to listen to it again because it goes down so smooth.

Mark Zuckerberg - Nap Eyes: I’m a very big fan of the way this song transitions from a sort of TMBG novelty song halfway through into a lonely and beautiful thing instead. It’s like he got distracted and wandered off in the middle of his set but the camera followed him. I also haven’t heard a lyric in a long time that made me bark laugh so instantly as “And what does he do with all that sand? He collects sand right? I think I read that somewhere. Seems innocent enough.”

Viking Hair - Dry Cleaning: I fell in love with this band immediately on hearing this song. The way the spoken lyrics sit in a place of almost coherence, dipping between mysterious phrases and earnest admissions feels like Life Without Buildings for a new generation. I love the feeling of a huge crush at the centre of this song that comes through achingy in every single word, even when she's talking about abandoned refrigerators.

LeBron James - Do Nothing: This is my number one song this month I think. I've listened to it every single day and I cannot wait to see what this band does once they've got more than a couple of songs out. It's my absolute favourite kind of lyrics: the kind that sounds like you just wrote down every one-sided phone conversation you overheard on the bus and then the music is some halfway point between Black Midi and Franz Ferdinand. What else do you need!

Can I Receive The Contact? - The Spirit Of The Beehive: The Spirit Of The Beehive's album is one of the best I heard this month. The way the production incorporates sound collage and samples without diluting the immediacy of the songwriting is really something special that feels hard to pull off in a rock context but sounds effortless through this whole album. The way this shifts at the end into the odd time section is so great and really the way the whole album flows like one long track is just amazing. Please listen, I'm obsessed.

An Air Conditioned Man - Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: There is so much space in Rolling Blackouts songs. They just go and go, sitting in this great jam space without feeling shaggy. The tempo across the album stays pretty consistently at this breezy, upbeat, driving speed that makes it feel like as soon as one song ends the next one just picks up exactly where it left off. It almost feels like a studio confines them and they'd be better off just recording their album live at a show where every song can go for 8 minutes like it wants to.

Leak -Truth, yesnoyesnoyes- - Boris: I got to see Boris and Merzbow this month, which was a great treat for me but it was also at a seated theatre venue which was a very strange choice. Sitting down and clapping politely as Merzbow pressed the screaming button feels odd, like being at an 1800s World's Fair show about the wonders of electricity or quite literally like being the guy in the chair getting blown away by the speakers in the Maxell ads. I bought earplugs for the show but ended up pulling them out for the last three songs or so to properly experience it, and it was fucking great. Something I was thinking about after the show is that it's interesting how Boris mostly have clean vocals, and really approach metal as an idea from and angle that's more shoegaze than Slayer. Aside from the immense volume, there isn't a lot about their music that I would describe as agressive, even most of what Merzbow added to the set was just extra feedback frequency noise, not atonal agression. I don't mean this in a trve kvlt way, more like it's interesting how they've taken the aesthetics of metal and refined them into pure amplifer worship, in their words, by either playing straight drone, or just playing normal hard rock at inhuman volumes. Boris are very good is what I'm saying, and I can't wait to listen to more of their extremely large discography.

Nameless Streets - Defeater: I've never really listened to much hardcore and I'm not really sure why. I've listened to Defeater's first two albums to death though so maybe it's time to branch out. What I love about this song, and this band in general is the vocal delivery. In a lot of agressive music from metal to screamo, because the agression and emotion is always sitting at a 10 the nuance can get lost and it becomes a sort of white noise, but Defeater have a nice way of backing off musically and vocally here and there to let the hard hits really hit hard. The outro to this song is also some absolutely world class snare work, building a tension bed in the simplest way thats relieved when the rest of the band comes crashing back in.

Boys In Town - Divinyls: I love the true desperation in this song. The trapped in a small town, surrounded by fuckers stress that gives way in the second half to just screaming "get me out of here!!". I am also interested in the evolution of the phrase 'too much, too young' and would like to know whether this song is referencing the song by The Specials, and if the Defeater song on this playlist is referencing this song or The Specials song, or if all three came up with it independently. It's a simply enough phrase, I suppose they could have. Who cares, really.

Body By Crystal - Spike Fuck: Come on a journey with me and imagine a world where Alex Cameron makes good music. That's Spike Fuck! The sort of burned out, past their prime singer desperate for a hit in any sense type of character - except actually put together with some heart and emotion and not an 80s comic book writer's understanding of human lows. I cannot wait to hear more from Spike Fuck.

Rogue Wave - Aesop Rock: It is something of a marvel how consistently high quality Aesop Rock's work is. For all his verbosity and expansive vocabulary he seems to never veer into white guy rap god flexing for the sake of it. Even a song like this that's 3 minutes of dense verses with nothing resembling a hook doesnt feel exhausting, it just feels like a series of extremely pleasing words and images like "take it where the warlocks lock horns, soda pop, popcorn / top notch gore set to Bach over fog horns" that makes my brain go "nice".

Momentary Bliss (feat. Slowthai and Slaves) - Gorillaz: I love the strange rollout Gorillaz are doing for this album, building the tracklist one song at a time. It's a nice way to force close listening, especially in songs with odd structures like this. I love hearing how different prouction changes Slowthai's approach; on this and Deal Wiv It that he did with Mura Masa it feels a lot brighter than anything on Nothing Great About Britain and there's a playfulness in his flow that comes through accordingly. Gorillaz are always moving around musically but I love how much of a live band feel this has compared to the more studioy sound that killed their last album for me.

We Will Always Love You (feat. Blood Orange) - The Avalanches: I am so excited at the possibility of a new Avalanches album already, and this is the perfect song to have as a lead single because it functions more like a teaser. Like 'would you like an hour more of this kind of beautiful, loving dream?'

Tar Sequence - Lalo Schifrin: I found out a little while ago that the local news theme when I was growing up was actually this song from the score to Cool Hand Luke, and according to a bunch of other guys in the youtube comments it was the local news theme for a lot of stations across America as well. The scene is of a prison road gang working under the blazing sun, and I'm sure someone could write a thinkpiece about the soundtrack to the nightly news, and really the platonic ideal of news themes in general stemming from the score to a scene about prison labour. But not me! I'm just going to write this little post and say we all owe Lalo Schifrin our lives for inventing the sonic pallette of kung fu AND the news, which is an incredible achievement whichever way you slice it.

When You - Tha Pope: It's a little bit of a shame that footwork is 'over' now but I suppose that's the way of things. The intro to this song is an absolute all timer for me. The delay soaked tag, the extended organ lick and then a total gear shift into this shrieking vocal sample that sounds like something has gone wrong but is revealed in actuality to be the centre of the whole track. I absolutely love Pope's little adlib at the start, and halfway through when he brings it back - it injects some real humanity into this cacophonous, volatile song and lets you know someone's done this on purpose, they've not just turned every dial to 10 and pressed play.

Jonny/Jonny (Reprise) - Faye Webster: I am absolutely in love with the tone of Faye Webster's voice and especially the way she slowly slides up to the note at the end of every line in the verse. This is a song that belongs to the great genre of songs that sound like they were entirely written and performed while laying on the floor and staring at the ceiling. The reprise here comes back at the end of the album and I love it so much. It feels like a Sex And The City monologue set to music, an underexplored genre I'd definitely like to hear more of.

Holes - Matt Berninger: Matt Berninger of The National covered Mercury Rev's Holes for a series of charity 7"s that Planned Parenthood are doingand I really love his take on it. It's a difficult song to cover because it is so beloved, and I think he does really well to not smooth out the arrangement into any sort of easy listening version. The rumbling piano and the extra vocals that mirror the original saw sound near the end are just wonderful. The part that always breaks my heart in this song is the "bands" line at the end and he really does it perfectly without being overdramatic.

Ta Aro - Nadia Reid: I love the way this song is just soaked in tension and potential energy. She has a beautiful way of holding a note just past the edge of her breath, like when she sings 'glory hallelujah' or 'I am stronger' and in the wordless refrain that just draws me in. Then the way it all closes in on itself and shadows close in at the end while it swells to this beautiful thunderstorm of sound. Just great.

Purify - Neurosis: Someone had a tweet a while ago that was like 'listen to a new album every day in February and write about it' and I thought 'fuck it why not' and started doing that. I kept a little note in my phone of every album I listened to that I'd never heard before, and I ranked them out of 5 so I could remember which ones I liked. I ended up listening to 49 new albums which surprised me, and it was surprisingly easy to do as well so I've decided to keep doing it in March as well. Highly recommended. A nice side effect of constantly searching for new things to listen to is it's given me a chance to hear bands that I've always heard about and know the name of but never actually listened to for one reason or another, which is how I got to Neurosis. It's nice to hear this kind of industrial 90s metal that I'd only ever previously heard in Tool from another angle, and it is especially nice to hear bagpipes in a drone metal context - a thought I'd had independently about a week before hearing this album and was glad to have willed into existence before me.

Shallow Sun - Real Estate: Time! I love a song about aging that mentions specific years and ages so you can count along on your fingers. '25 in 2010... so he was 24 when they put out in their first album.. 39 in 24.. so he's... 35 now.. and i'm 28... which means I'm... 3 albums behind..'

Quand Vas Tu Retrer - Melody's Echo Chamber: I'll listen to any song in 5/4. It is simply groovy. This song is so beautifully textured it feels like you can just get completely lost in the sound while the groove moves it along.

Living Through Another Cuba - XTC: I think I've posted this song on one of these playlists before but fuck it, the more time passes the more I think this might be one of the best songs ever written and a complete and total encapsulation of the cold war mood. The absolute maniac resigned powerlessnes on full display, screaming and shouting about pullings fins from an atom bomb and the absolute certainty that even if the world isn't destroyed this time it'll all come around again soon enough anyway.

Time - U.S. Girls: I am a huge proponent of the long song at the end of the record as a concept, and really I believe every song should be the long song at the end of the record if at all possible. This amount of colour in this jam is just incedible, it never gets weighed down or waylaid it just keeps moving though an ever shifting kaleidoscope and I absolutely love it. It also reminds me of Los Bitchos who were on one of my secret lost playlists from December so it's nice to have their vibe represented here at least. This song also interestingly ties into a thought I was having this week about the limits of music wherein time is the only immutable constant. In all of life music is an inescapable constant of course, but in music especially compared to visual art or written art, time is an inexorable force. You simply cannot bend time in music, a song or performance will always have a duration that will define it, short or long, which cannot be muted or played with in the same way that rhythm or tonality can. 4'33" is a good example of that, being devoid of everything except time. When there is nothing, there is still time. Canyons of time.

Bad Magic - Weyes Blood: I got to see Weyes Blood a couple of weeks ago and I feel extremely blessed that I did. She's just amazing. She played this song solo as her last encore, and she's in a sort of interesting position of blowing up majorly on her fourth album so people (myself included) weren't overly familiar with her older stuff. So when she said 'this is a song called Bad Magic' everyone clapped politely and one woman right up the back screamed "oh my GOD??" which is the kind of personal, just for her, singular experience I'm always here for. Hearing this song for the first time in that setting has really made me fall in love with it. The thing that's always alienated me a little abot Weyes Blood's earlier work, and the thing she changed so dramatically on Titanic Rising is the structuring of her songs. Titanic Rising embraces pop songwriting so wonderfully where her earlier work was so much shaggier and harder to access as a result - but in this song I love it. This song is meandering and long and wanders around in circles and I'm here for every second of it.

Listen to this playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3ZraEZOeS6qvVxfnz3AJS9

#playlists

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