#anyways it’s fine it’s just an album there are several songs i really like.

[nicollekidman]

never thought i'd see ms cruel summer song of the century shit so much on tswift... is this character development?

not enjoying an album of music does not equate to shitting on taylor nor does it connotate any type of development because her old music is still right there and she's still my wife <3 music just happens to be subjective and does not require blind adoration.... cruel summer song of the century!

#really resent the idea unrelated to this anon but all over my inbox #that fans who don’t like an album are like gleeful about it and trying to get people to agree like. i want everyone to love this album #i’ve been listening to her for 18 years do you think it’s Fun to not have a good time #anyways it’s fine it’s just an album there are several songs i really like.

[nexility-sims]

𝐍𝐎. 𝟑   ❛ 𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭 ❜   |   NAKAWE, 2023

❧  𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲  /  𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠  /  𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬  /  𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭.

   ❛  Karolina Teague was hardly famous. Her name carried a certain heft among culture critics whose heyday had passed, but she liked the anonymity that came with being washed up. All of her favorite people were has-beens, after all, and she wasn’t ashamed to spend her time reminiscing about days past with them or anyone else who would listen. Today, she welcomed a whole crew of listeners into her Nakawe home—a film crew to be exact, led by a director-producer duo who had known her name well before a previous interviewee mentioned it to them. She wouldn’t be the star of their documentary, but they believed from its inception that the story wouldn’t be complete without her thoughts.

❧ honestly very proud of the scrapbooking !!!! this is basically just shameless exposition, but i am convinced i picked a creative vehicle for it :^) i watched that 90s docuseries on hulu a year ago and this specific story post was born fjdhjf anyway, canonically, no one would be writing or printing in script like that but i am simply NOT that committed to my worldbuilding sdkjfsf consider this whole thing an english language reimagining (^:

𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 & 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 ↓

Karolina took them on a tour of her colorful seaside house, one concluding in a room already set up for their perusal. It was the archive, she explained. This was what they came for; her recollections were valuable, but she had so much more than her own memories. Photographs waited on the tables, and an old television screen teased some scene from exclusive VHS tapes. Karolina plopped down onto a sofa and gestured widely, saying, “Have a look. I’m ready when you are.” 

The director, a woman named Ildaria, picked up a photograph. 

“Can you tell us about her?” 

Karolina beckoned for the photo, and Ildaria walked over to hand it to her. For a moment, she peered at it, keeping everyone in suspense. Finally, she replied, “Sure. What’s she going to do, sue me?”

“Maybe,” a cameraman elsewhere in the room snorted.

“I’ll take the risk,” Karolina laughed. “Look, I don’t know Princess Leonor, but I met her plenty of times. She was at The Den at least half the nights in 1991, for sure. Probably into 1992, but I didn’t really keep track of her comings and goings. Definitely not after 1993.”

The producer, Eilo, held up another photograph. “What’s the story here?” he asked.

Karolina reached for it. Unlike the other photo, this one was a proper candid. There were several people in the frame, but Leonor was at the center, kneeling by a table with her hand draped across Renzo’s thigh as he held her head in his palm and said something beyond the capture of still photography.

“It wasn’t anything formal,” Karolina explained. “Renzo didn’t date anyone in those days, and I don’t think she did either. They liked each other. It was mutual fascination with zero understanding, is how I saw it. They hung out—liked each other’s company. Hot and fast, burned out quick, that’s what it looked like.” She shrugged. “That was Renzo.” 

“And Leonor?” Ildaria asked, having sat down nearby. 

“Like I said,” Karolina began. She seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “I didn't know her. Seemed like a cool girl. I’m older, mind you. I think she wanted to get a little wild and try new things—this is off the record—and The Den was for her what it was for everyone. You could kick your shoes off. Scream along to your buddy’s new song, have a movie star tell you his woes while he pours your drink, get high in the dressing room and probably be fine—” 

“Did she do that?” Ildaria’s eyes were wide.

Karolina cleared her throat. “No, of course not. Not everyone did! Enough, sure. We all know the quote-unquote horror stories.”

The crew listened, rapt, having stopped flipping through albums and poking around the bookcases, eager to hear something explosive. They had set out to make a documentary about a particular time and place. The Den at the turn of the century was their subject. That glorious decade solidified its place in celebrity culture, to say nothing of its place in music history. The princess was just a footnote in that story. Nonetheless, it was a tantalizing footnote. Most people below a certain age were shocked to hear that she hadn’t been a humorless, buttoned-up bureaucrat her entire life. The idea that someone whose day job involved keeping the country afloat may have once been young and reckless intrigued. That she was adjacent to the salacious stories of sex, drugs, and rock and roll they knew better nearly crossed the line into unbelievable. Yet, people in Uspana also knew their royals had been wrapped up in the glamor of celebrity for decades. Even now, they continued to rub elbows with rock stars, including the one elder princess who was herself a music star. 

“She’s a different person now, clearly,” Karolina continued. She spoke tentatively still but nonetheless addressed what everyone wanted to know. “But, for a time, she was at The Den with everyone else, drinking too much and carrying around a pharmacy in whatever cute purse you had that night. You may remember there was a big Reyes death around then. It’s like—when my mother died in 2009, I lost my shit, too.” 

Karolina shrugged again. “She was having fun. I was doing worse, alright, so I only feel judgmental about it insofar as she’d probably be embarrassed if you asked her about any of it today. Royals are supposed to do their sniffing in private, right, not in a bathroom Renzo forgot to hire someone to clean. She was snobby, but my sense was that she liked pretending she wasn’t—roleplay, you know, transgressing or whatever.” 

Someone coughed. The rifling through materials resumed. Ildaria and Eilo shared a look. 

“You haven’t talked to her since ‘92?” Ildaria asked. Eilo, meanwhile, had pulled out his cell phone and was typing with fast fingers. 

Karolina shook her head. “So, she knew I’d asked Renzo to let me collect photos and bring along my Zenith. I got a weird email in 2000 inquiring about them from someone who worked for her.” She grinned, then added as an aside, “Only one recording, by the way. The Den had a strict no video policy.”

“We’d like to see them sometime,” Ildaria responded. 

Karolina nodded, then shook her head and clarified, “Which—my tapes or the email?” 

Eilo answered without looking up, “Both.”

He finished what he was doing after a moment of quiet, then held his phone up for Ildaria and Karolina to see. “Seems like she’s still in touch with people,” he said.

They leaned forward to view the screen while he swiped at it, then Karolina laughed.  “Okay, maybe she just didn’t like me!”  

While they watched, Eilo moved through a hastily thrown together slideshow of the princess with various people Karolina knew well. Some looked like event photos. Others were captured with long lenses—paparazzi shots that made money but didn’t always generate enough interest if the other person was a comparative nobody. Not everyone had evolved in the last thirty years. Plenty of people who visited the bar during the decade of Renzo’s ownership continued to have flourishing careers. They were, at the time, young and beautiful and painfully unprepared for the lifetime of celebrity ahead of them. That’s what they brought to this place more than anything: their pain, which, being creative types, they eagerly spun into something beautiful and private. 

That’s what The Den gave them. These impossibly talented, dedicated stars created fleeting things for each other and no one else. Bands and dance troupes formed. An endless stream of songs and poetry and performance art kept the bar’s little stage occupied nightly for years. Offstage, people with no reason to meet in the real world bonded in this space of both contrived and undeniable intimacy. For some, the reprieve helped them endure the difficulty of becoming that invariably attended a rise in fame. It was detrimental to others. These were the ones who didn’t evolve—people who gave up their relevance to live forever in this meaningless, generative privacy or people who couldn’t make the choice and lost everything in the process. 

Karolina hadn’t evolved, but she hadn’t died or wanted to die either. From her perspective, what people like the princess and even Renzo himself had done wasn’t evolution. It was more like a revelation. People don’t change, she would tell Eilo and Ildaria later, over dinner, when the conversation had moved far away from the royal footnote. She believed people just uncover deeper truths about themselves, knowingly or unknowingly, and those became harder to conceal once they were exposed.

Have you felt that way before? she asked them. Exposed, like when you break your leg so hard the bone snaps right through your skin? They had. The conversation detoured to childhood misadventures, but Karolina had a point to make. She pulled them back. Some people get comfortable with that feeling and learn how to live in it. Other people, you know, they deny and lie and call it growth. That’s my opinion. I’ve seen it—artists are the worst for it, I swear. Artists who don’t want to be artists anymore? Worse than that. 

Can I say you sound bitter? Ildaria laughed. 

Now, Karolina threw her hands up. She exclaimed, joyful, That’s my truth, baby! I took too many bites of the world, and I’ve been disgusted by it ever since. Some people come out of their mamas malcontent.

Later that night, Eilo was exhausted, but Ildaria’s hand hovered over the light switch with uncertainty. She heaved a big, put-upon sigh, then asked, “Is it bad that I want to give Mencia Cipac a call?”

“Give her a call?” Eilo snorted. “Sure, Mencia Cipac, whose number you totally have, definitely won’t ignore your calls because she, for sure, knows who you are and has endless free time to spare.” He sat up straighter, then added, “No more overloading on projects. You promised. Besides, you don’t wanna poke that bear.”

“Not a bear,” Ildaria retorted. “A jaguar. Roar!”

TRANSCRIPT:

KAROLINA | Have a look. I'm ready when you are.

RENZO (O.S.) | Get that thing out of here, Karolina!

ILDARIA | Can you tell us about her?

KAROLINA | Sure. What's she going to do, sue me? CAMERAMAN | Maybe.

KAROLINA | I'll take the risk.

KAROLINA | Look, I don’t know Princess Leonor, but I met her plenty of times. She was at The Den at least half the nights in 1991, for sure. Probably into 1992, but I didn’t really keep track of her comings and goings. Definitely not after 1993

EILO | What's the story here?

KAROLINA | It wasn't anything formal.

KAROLINA | Renzo didn’t date anyone in those days, and I don’t think she did either. They liked each other. It was mutual fascination with zero understanding, is how I saw it. They hung out—liked each other’s company. Hot and fast, burned out quick, that’s what it looked like. That was Renzo.

ILDARIA | And Leonor?

KAROLINA | Like I said, I didn't know her. Seemed like a cool girl. I’m older, mind you. I think she wanted to get a little wild and try new things—this is off the record—and The Den was for her what it was for everyone. You could kick your shoes off. Scream along to your buddy’s new song, have a movie star tell you his woes while he pours your drink, get high in the dressing room and probably be fine—

ILDARIA | Did she do that?

KAROLINA | No, of course not. Not everyone did! Enough, sure. We all know the quote-unquote horror stories.

KAROLINA | She's a different person now, clearly. But, for a time, she was at The Den with everyone else, drinking too much and carrying around a pharmacy in whatever cute purse you had that night. You may remember there was a big Reyes death around then. It’s like—when my mother died in 2009, I lost my shit, too.

KAROLINA | She was having fun. I was doing worse, alright, so I only feel judgmental about it insofar as she’d probably be embarrassed if you asked her about any of it today. Royals are supposed to do their sniffing in private, right, not in a bathroom Renzo forgot to hire someone to clean. She was always a snob, but I my sense was that she liked pretending she wasn’t—roleplay, you know, transgressing or whatever.

ILDARIA | You haven't talked to her since '92?

KAROLINA | So, she knew I’d asked Renzo to let me collect photos and bring along my Zenith. I got a weird email in 2000 inquiring about them from someone who worked for her. Only one recording, by the way. The Den had a strict no video policy.

ILDARIA | We'd like to see them sometime.

KAROLINA | Which—my tapes or the email?

EILO | Both.

EILO | Seems like she's still in touch with people. KAROLINA | Okay, maybe she just didn’t like me!

ILDARIA | Is it bad that I want to give Mencia Cipac a call?

EILO | Give her a call?

EILO | Sure, Mencia Cipac, whose number you totally have, definitely won’t ignore your calls because she, for sure, knows who you are and has endless free time to spare.

EILO | No more overloading on projects. You promised. Besides, you don’t wanna poke that bear.

ILDARIA | Not a bear. A jaguar. Roar!

#ts4 story #sims story #sims 4 story #royal sims #simblr #ts4 legacy #1992.story.post #1992.a1 #1992.e04

[vikkirosko]

Hi there! I’m just here to send in a request since there open here I go!

Could I request Vox and Alastor with a GN! Gyaru! Reader who listens to a lot of kpop, jpop and V系? they have a lot of albums and other merchandise based off those other genres, also bonus if they see them dance a little to the songs, INCLUDING if they’re hime gyaru and they’re very sweet, nice and helping to those around them. and yes I would like this romantic.

Thank you so much if you do this! I’m looking forward to it and I hope you have a wonderful day, 그동안 뵙겠습��다!

Headcanons Gyaru

📻 Alastor x gn!Reader 🎙

Alastor has always noticed unusual sinners. Not all of them attracted his attention, but it was hard not to notice you, especially in such a sparsely populated place as a hotel. You were one of the hotel guests and stood out because of your style of dress. You wore clothes in white and pink colors and you loved music, which, to Alastor's taste, was unusual

He has heard the music you liked so much several times. You often turned it on in your room or when you were helping in the kitchen. You often sang along to the songs you listened to. This music was very different from the one that Alastor liked so much, but as long as you didn't impose your musical tastes on him, everything was fine with him

Alastor was courting you. You were very different from him. You were kind, sweet, and often helped others. Maybe that's why you got along so well with the others. There wasn't a shred of falsehood in you. Alastor was curious to find out what you were hiding from the others, but that wasn't the only reason why he was spending time with you

It was unusual for the others that Alastor and you were getting closer, but no one, not even Charlie, dared to ask. As long as the relationship between you was good, the rest of you were fine with it. Alastor liked your communication and he wasn't going to give up on it

🖥 Vox x gn!Reader 📱

Vox was familiar with many modern trends. He knew perfectly well about your style and what kind of music you liked. He was not the one who judged. On the contrary, he liked it when your clothing style and color scheme were so different from the one he was used to. It was as if you filled his life with gentle colors

He watched with interest as you sang along to your favorite songs and you even danced. Sometimes, when Vox was in a particularly good mood, he would take you dancing. Your dance usually didn't match the music, but he liked it anyway, just like he liked your sincere, gentle smile, which he loved to see on your face

You stood out among those with whom he communicated not only with your style of clothing, but also with your character. You were sweet, caring and often helped others. You didn't hurt anyone, and sometimes Vox sighed heavily, wondering how you even survived in Hell before you met. He liked the way you were, but it was hard for him to believe that you could easily live in Hell

You were an unusual couple in Hell who attracted the attention of others. Vox loved you and your unusual style for Hell, he loved your easy character. Next to you, he could forget that unpleasant situations had happened in his life and feel really happy

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel headcanons #Alastor #Alastor x Reader #Vox #Vox x Reader

[vmartist]

Adrien Agreste/Cat Noir x Male Reader:

• surrender my heart •

Quick AN: This is part two to the loneliest time. tw:minimal editing

The song is another track from the same album. I recommend listening when you have the time anyways bye hope you enjoy xx

Your hands mess with the fabric of your pants as you sit in the chair. The bouncing of your leg isn’t easing your anxiety as you wait for your name to be called.

“Uh…” A woman with a clipboard exits and reads out your name. “(Y/n) (L/n)?”

You stand and follow her into her small office. It’s adorned with children’s books, toys, diagrams about mental health and her several degrees hanging behind her. The room is slightly dimmed and warm, with a subtle scent of vanilla.

“This is our first session together. I understand that it can be very nerve wracking.” She says while looking to your bouncing leg. “But I assure you, there’s nothing to be afraid of here. You can talk about whatever you want or not talk at all. It’s all up to you.”

You nod your head and watch as she writes something down on her clipboard. “What’s that for?” You ask pointing to her clipboard.

“This is how I log all my sessions with my patients. It’s all purely confidential and I won’t share this with anyone. Unless it’s putting your health at risk of course.” She replies.

You sit in silence for a bit before she speaks up. “Do you mind if I ask you a question? You don’t have to answer if you’re not comfortable.”

“Go ahead.”

She nods and proceeds with her question. “Why is it that you wanted to seek therapy? What brought you here today?”

“I’ve got a lot going on in my life and it’s kind of…stressing me out. I don’t really have any one I can turn to for help. So…I thought maybe therapy could help.” You admit while breathing out softly.

You hear her pen scratch against the paper before she speaks again. “What exactly is going on in your life that’s causing this distress?”

“A friend of mine...We got into an argument. I said some awful things I wish I could take back and I hurt him…” Your eyes are glued to the floor, but when you look up you see her nod.

“What started the argument?” She asks, continuing writing something down.

“He kept this huge secret from me. Which normally I wouldn’t mind but, he prides himself on hating secrets. But when I think about it…it wasn’t that big of a deal…” You muttered out as you rub your arm.

She hums while nodding. “And do you like this guy?” You perk your head and think for a second.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. I stopped talking to him for a bit and we recently reconnected. And I’m pretty sure he wanted to be more than…friends.” You say before swallowing the lump in your throat.

“And how did that make you feel?” She asks looking up from her clipboard.

“Um…I don’t know? I didn’t mind, he’s a nice guy…” You mumbled while gripping your knees.

She sighs before putting her clipboard down. “Alright. I’m gonna give you some resources so you can better understand your emotions and how you feel. For our next session I want you to tell me what you learned about yourself. Can you do that?”

“Yeah I can do that…”

That night you went online and filled out several questionnaires before sighing. “This is…ridiculous.”

The next therapy session was much more productive as you were able to unpack more of your issues. For the next couple days you drafted an apology. Something quick and to the point that’ll get your message across.

You transform and sit atop a random apartment before pinging Cat Noir. Adrien looks at his glowing ring, he transforms and looks at the location that’s been marked. Once he’s there he looks around nervously.

“You actually came…” You smiled.

“I thought it was important?” He sighs and starts to extend his weapon before you stop him.

“I wanted to apologize. Please, just give a moment of your time. That’s all I ask.” You plead while looking into his eyes.

“Fine.” He sighs before sitting down beside you.

“I’m sorry for being an asshole…it wasn’t cool at all. I understand now why what I said hurt you and I don’t want you to feel like that around me any more. I shouldn’t have hurt you, but I did.” You look over to him. He’s quiet for some time.

“Thank you…I forgive you but I’m still gonna need some time away from you…I have a lot to think about…” He stands and turns to you with a weak smile. “I’ll…see you around.”

“Take your time, I’ll wait for when you’re ready.” You reply. He smiles and nods before leaving.

‘I’m forgiven…but that doesn’t mean he’ll even want to be around me any more…And that’s okay. As long as we know that we’re okay now…’ You ponder while looking into the night sky with a determined smile.

The weeks after are looking up after all. Adrien is more outgoing than usual and when he’s Cat Noir he’s more determined than ever. Yet he still hasn’t reached out to you personally, but you understand and respect his feelings.

I found myself back in therapy this time in a better spot. I sniff the subtle vanilla and smile while crossing one of my legs over the other. My therapist looks to me with a polite smile as she places her clipboard down. “You’ve made a lot of progress since our first session. I’m proud of you for putting in the work and taking initiative.” She says while adjusting her jacket. “So, what brings you in today?”

“Well at this point you’re pretty much caught up on everything that’s going on in my life. I came here today to thank you, for listening and helping me.” I stand and nod my head to her.

“But you still have an hour? All you came to say was ‘thank you’?” She asks quickly standing.

“Yep. That’s it. But don’t worry, I’ll be back to update you. But in the meantime, just accept my thanks.” I wave before leaving. She sinks in her seat and smiles to herself.

I take a stroll into Paris, taking in every view there is. The pigeons chirping, the cerulean sky, the barks and meows, the Parisians going about they’re every day and my phone buzzing. I look down and pull it from my pocket and see a text.

Adrien: Hey, meet me at my place tonight.

You re-read the message several times before typing a simple: “Okay.” Sure it was basic but it gets the point across. You pocket your phone and go about the rest of your day in peace. As nighttime approaches you feel anxiety slowly seep into every pore of your body. In an attempt to calm your nerves you begin pacing around your room, which only makes it worse.

‘I just need to go on a walk…maybe that will calm my nerves?’ You wonder as you run outside and take a walk. Your chest rises and falls quickly as you breathe through your nostrils. Eventually you remind yourself to take deep, slow breaths and calm down. Once calmed down you make your way to Adrien’s and text him. The gates open and you walk inside to see Adrien at the top of his stairs.

“Up here.” He states with a tiny smile before turning and walking up to his room. You follow behind and enter slowly while looking for him. He exits his bathroom and waves you over. You enter the bathroom and look around with confusion.

“Um…what exactly are we doing in your bathroom?” You ask while chuckling. Adrien just pats the spot beside him on the floor.

“I just need to make some peace with myself…and with you as well.” He says, looking up at you with a sullen expression.

You sit down and bring your knees close to you as you hug them and watch Adrien. All that can be heard are his soft breaths. He turns to you and makes direct eye contact.

“Before I said I couldn’t look you in the eyes and say I forgive you. And I know I’ve said it before but I just wanna make sure you understand. I genuinely forgive you.” He whispers. You grab his hand in yours and shake your head.

“You don’t owe me anything. I do.” You whispered while pushing some of his hair behind his ear. He glances down at his wrist and begins touching it. “Our friendship bracelets…I’m not sure if you still have yours but I…kinda destroyed mine.” He whispered. His eyes look up at you and he smiles nervously.

You touch his wrist and rub it gently. “That’s okay, we’ll make new ones.” You both smile as your eyes meet. His eyes trail down to your lips as he slowly leans in. You lean in but before your lips touch both your miraculous begin blinking.

“Guess we’ve gotta transform…” You murmured as you slowly stand. Adrien nods quickly before you both transform.

Soon you’re both with Ladybug. “Alright now that you’re both here I need you two to distract.” She states as she motions to the akumatized victim. Cat Noir nods and grabs your arm.

“Follow my lead, mon amour.” He whispers while winking.

You roll your eyes. “As long as you promise me no more cat puns.” You said as you run by his side.

He pretends to act offended and clutches his chest. “You’re kitten me right?”

A groan erupts from your throat as you stare at him. “Let’s just get this over with already.”

When you land, Cat Noir extends his hand. “May I have this dance?” He asks while grabbing your hand and planting a gentle kiss upon the back of your hand.

You nod. “With pleasure, kitten.” He throws you in the air, you quickly dart into the enemy and after landing the first hit you bounce back. You grab Cat’s hands and begin dancing while occasionally swatting at the monster with kicks. He leans down into you as you lift your feet in the air. “Ready for the finisher?” He whispers.

“Let’s do it.” You whispered back while grinning. As you twirl you guide your hands down to his waist as you wind up for a throw.

You spin into a throw as you launch him towards the monster. “Cataclysm!” He shouts as he reaches his arm out. He flew past and destroyed a large advertisement that collapsed onto the monster, immobilizing it in the process.

Ladybug snaps the akumatized object before capturing and releasing the butterfly. Afterwards she fixes everything with her ladybugs and turns to you two.

“Did I miss something?” She questions while pointing to your hands. You glance down and chuckle as you noticed your hands intertwined.

Cat Noir blinks and averts his eyes to the side. “Not at all M’Ladybug…”

Her eyes rest on the both of you as she sighs. “Well, I’m glad you both are okay now. Just as long as this doesn’t make either of you prey for Shadow Moth.”

You’re quick to shake your head. “No, he’d be a fool to try and come for one of us.” Suddenly everyone’s miraculous begin beeping. “Looks like we’ve gotta go. Great job as always Ladybug!” You praised before leaping away.

Ladybug nods and swings away as you and Cat Noir head back to his house. After de-transforming you sigh as you sit on the ground while feeding your kwami.

“Where’d you learn to dance like that?” Adrien asks as he feeds Plagg.

“We had to do an elective and I chose dance since it seemed fun. Trust me, not as easy as it seems. I can already feel my body cramping.” You giggle while rubbing the back of your neck. Adrien laughs with you and takes a seat next to you. He nuzzled himself into your neck while planting kisses along your skin. Then he pulls away and looks into your eyes.

“I know this probably isn’t the best time to ask, but…” He doesn’t hold eye contact for long as he looks down. “Why were you mad at me?” He mutters.

“I…I was frustrated at first that you kept such a big secret from me. Obviously I was too but I didn’t see it that way at first. Then I realized that I didn’t know you. I knew Cat Noir and you as if you both were separate people but to then suddenly merge the two together…It made me wonder about myself.” You mumbled as you stared at the ceiling.

“…” He nodded slowly before shrugging. “I didn’t put that much thought into it. Hero or not, you’re still you. And…I’d love you regardless.” He smiles softly as he rubs his thumb across your cheek.

You cheeks tint a soft rose as you cough awkwardly and avert your gaze. “…You’re so cheesy…you know that?”

A small chuckle escapes him as he nods. “So I’ve been told.”

Okay it’s done, thanks for being patient. Honestly I wish I had an excuse as to why I was gone for almost half of the year. I suppose mental health could be one? But I feel like that would sound so cheap. (Cheap coming from me specifically, not coming for anyone else😭) Anyway, hope you enjoyed! I’m not gonna promise anything soon but I do have some drafts and ideas for stuff in the future.

#mlm #male reader #male x male #mlb adrien #adrien agreste x male reader #adrien agreste #miraculous adrien

[thatscarletflycatcher]

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).

#Rick Astley #music #discography overview #nostalgia

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

omg since you’re taking off todya from studying can we hear some of your beatle hottakes?

ughhhhhhh sorry, these are so hard to come up with these days

meta take: I sort of wish we could have a genuine conversation about the blurry line between wishful thinking/headcanon and more objective (or, aspiring to be objective) historical analysis – I get the headcanons, I really do! but just in the past year, there's been several instances of people in good faith asking about sources or questioning "fan favourite" anecdotes and being shouted down for "ruining people's fun". If you want to engage with this stuff in a more lighthearted way, that's fine! but accept that that's what you're doing. Being rude to people trying to get to the truth is not a good look. Your imagination can withstand it, I promise.

more people need to jump on the Day Tripper tinhatting train. shit's crazy up here

the more I listen to Double Fantasy the more I'm offended that a certain brand of John fan basically only names songs from 1970/71 as his best. ditto with Walls and Bridges…

Again And Again And Again: best Denny solo-written Wings song ( it's hard to gauge how much is him and how much is Paul for their collabs. Anyways, No Words my beloved)

Sexy Sadie is kind of perfect… The lyrics, the chords, the distorted doo-wop it all embodies that DISAPPOINTMENT so well. The guitar solo is great, the high-pitched oooooooooohs. No notes, underrated song for sure.

the Mind Games album cover is soooooo deranged but so fucking good. That and Ram might be the best post-Beatles album covers.

this isn't exactly a take but the SADDEST part of Hey Jude is when John harmonizes with Paul. I can't not hear all the unspoken pain.

I kind of hope we get versions of Free As A Bird and Real Love with cleaned up John vocals like Now And Then. I don't want to erase those originals because the audio quality tells a story of its own, but Real Love especially suffers so much from it. I listened to it earlier today and nearly got teary. "No need to be alone" kind of gives me goosebumps. There's something so raw and emotional about all three of these songs…

This is almost the opposite of a hottake, but it kind of Doesn't Matter To Me who Now And Then is about. It could be about Paul, it could pretty easily be about Yoko too, and a few people I've seen say they think it's about May, which could be too! It perhaps not being directed at Paul doesn't take away from the song for me, because the song feels bigger than just its direct inspiration.

On that note, I sort of think that sometimes people could stand to.... Die on fewer hills? Like, the notion that Now And Then could be about Yoko doesn't negate John and Paul's relationship or most things people theorize they may have gotten up to. Now And Then Release Week bonus round, cause it's been long enough to talk about it a bit:

Paul (and Ringo and George! they also have a writing credit, guys!) making editorial choices about John's unfinished song with the blessing of his widow is literally fine. "But John might not have approved–" yes, this is how death works. John also might have found the song embarrassing and not wanted it released at all. It wasn't on Double Fantasy after all! Or maybe he would have specifically wanted to remove the same bit! (which I maintain is musically strange and unfitting at worst and at best a still really rough idea that would probably require a lot of work in of itself – echoing the chord progression in the instrumental bit is the best compromise I could imagine)

I actually really get the George girls who were a bit bummed out by the rollout of the song. He DID get the short end in this situation! but… what would have been better? I saw some people say Paul isn't nearly as good a slide guitarist at George. Okay well then… So Paul should've hired a session musician? How does that makes sense? Paul should've asked Dhani to find some random guitar bit George recorded 25 years ago and frankensteined it onto this song? I'm asking this honestly: what should have been done instead? Because… I sort of got the feeling from some of the criticism that the only acceptable solution was to not release this song at all. And TBH I don't think George "getting the short end" is worse than not allowing Paul and Ringo the closure of completing this song. This wasn't perfect but again: yes, this is how death works.

#ask #anon #fiona.docx

[akookminsupporter]

Hope this isn't taken negatively because I don't mean it as such.. But lately I've come to a conclusion that while I love all 7 of them (with a slightly more particular fondness for the two this blog is on) I'm kind of heavily interested in the artistic directions (career choices) of only 4 of them - jhope jimin rm suga (even though I'm not really a huge rap enthusiast) . Jungkook also used to be on that list but I've been feeling kind of jaded by some of the music choices he's been trying out recently.

Regarding 3d, I think it's an okay song but my main problem lies with Jack Harlow's rap verses.. They're very adjacent to being overtly misogynistic and objectifying. And it's just not something I thought I would hear in a bts member song. Anyway would like to hear your thoughts on the lyrics if you want to share!

If I may I would like to make a few comments on your two points.

On the first point or paragraph: This is totally understandable and something that has been said a lot in this second chapter and definitely has been said several times on this blog. It has been interesting to see the direction their solo projects have taken and how they have handled/planned them. I don't want to say too much yet because although Jungkook has released a few songs, he still hasn't released an album or EP yet and I want to wait and see if anything changes but for some time now I've been thinking that although I share the same taste in music/songs as Jungkook, i.e. the kind of songs he always listens to on Wlives or recommends, his musical direction in this solo stage doesn't exactly go with my musical tastes. I was expecting songs like Still With You or Delcalcomania and that doesn't seem to be the direction he wants to take and that's fine, it's completely my fault for having expectations about something I have no control over.

As for the second point or paragraph: The song is very much to the taste of today's young consumers, especially in markets such as the US. The lyrics of the song are… they don't offer much depth and that's what's in vogue, I think. I think the intention is just to have fun and come up with songs that are catchy, fun and easy to remember, I guess. Jack Harlow's part is… no. I remember a couple of years ago or was it last year? he was quite popular on social media and I never understood the hype, I think a lot of people loved him for his looks and I didn't understand why, I'd never heard a song from him I think and I was surprised that he's a rapper. For a long time, I thought he sang country music. His two verses, and I'm surprised it was 2, are too clichéd and cringy.

#anon #ask #bts fan opinions #rosie's opinion

[nohoperadio]

Oh, hello. That's right, I'm in Bristol, thanks for noticing. I had some business to conduct with some goats, which has just lately concluded. It went very well.

Definitely the best time I've ever had seeing them. It helps a lot that Mr Jon Wurster was present, the last several times I saw them goats it was the drumless version, which is still good but having him makes a huge difference. I hope the fandom at large understands just how special Jon Wurster is, I feel like we have a proportion of people who really do Only Listen To the Mountain Goats or close to it, which is fine as long as you appreciate how lucky we are, the man is a fuckin... like I wanna say he's a fuckin beast but I need to convey that his drumming has tremendous power but also great intelligence and artistry. He's like a fuckin, a beast who's a wizard as well. You know?

Great set list tonight, and although I was rude about the newer albums on here a week or two ago, I have to report that every song they played from the past ten years (there were about 6?) was one I was actively excited to hear. Not that these were new revelations to me, I already knew they were bangers, but it's good to be reminded that they are still putting out some bangers and I'm glad to see the band agrees with me about which ones those are. Or I just got lucky tonight, but fine I can be glad about that too.

It's an open question in my worthless opinion whether Matt Douglas and his contributions have been a net positive on tMG's recorded output, but there's no possible doubt he's been a huge positive to their live presence. There were several moments during the show that made me audibly gasp, or put my hand to my heart, or say out loud "oh fuck", or make some other melodramatic gesture, and a good many of those moments were directly Matt's doing. Also, what a great face he's got? Absolutely iconic face, inspires a combination of enthusiasm and trust otherwise elicited by only the very best dogs.

I love Stabbed to Death but would never have expected it to be a highlight of the gig like it was, I can't describe the mad shit they did with it but I can tell you it was gripping.

I only contributed my voice to I think three songs towards the end, most prominently the best No Children I've ever experienced, but managed to give myself a sore throat anyway. Don't worry, it was mild enough merely to contribute to the atmosphere. I must admit that despite being an annoying hipster who thinks This Year is just a pretty good B+ song, I did get swept up by the spirit of it this time.

It's been a firm and settled matter in my mind for years now that Beat the Champ is the third best album (Tallahassee second, WSABH first), but the last song of the encore was Heel Turn 2 and as the first chords sounded I was instantly and forcefully struck with the thought: "wait, is Beat the Champ actually the best Mountain Goats album??" I feel quite perturbed. I am going to have to think.

There was some kind of throuple directly in front of me who were all dancing with indefatigable abandon and frankly excessive horniness throughout the show, and it's a testament to the excellent general atmosphere, to my good mood, and I suppose also to their winsome spiritedness that I was for the most part simply charmed by this. Normally any stranger being conspicuously happy and in love is enough to fill my shrivelled lonely heart with black bilious resentment, but tonight, quite the opposite. That's part of the magic of them goats, you know.

#nohopelistenio #the mountain goats #uninteresting

[runningatypufullspeed]

@vostokmcclellan you have no clue what you have just unleashed within me. You reap what you sow. You have asked, and you shall DEFINITELY receive

Intoduction to C,honny jash 🔥🔥🔥 (no way fire... like from *gets shot)

CLAPS HANDS TOGETHER OKAY. OKAY. so chonny jash is this really cool singer guy song cover man on YouTube he makes some really good goddamn music and if you like tally hall, will wood, lemon demon (all other alternative/indie music creators and bands) then you MIGHT like him.

I think his most popular work/the work that gets most people invested into his music in the first place would be his album CCCC (chonny’s charming chaos compendium) which is a cover album consisting of songs that were originally from tally hall before jash took the lyrics and the music and like. Molded it to fit his ocs. That’s the best way I can describe it.

The three main characters of this album would be Heart, Mind, and Soul, and people (including me) GO ABSOLUTELY NUTS OVER THEM jash’s writing and singing and like general music skills are so good if you want to get into this album I’d seriously consider checking out his mind electric video first (the twelve minute one, it has 3 songs in total and they all do a pretty good job of introducing all three characters respectively).

Not only is the music like REALLY FUCKING GOOD the entire. Differentiation between sepereate characters based off of jash's artistic skills thing + motifs/symbolism for each one is extremely well thought out and the relationships between the three of these guys are CRAZY and TOXIC and RIVETING and bottom line SUPER GODDAMN RELATABLE to the vast majority of those in his audience. I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy concept albums/piecing together a story based off of several songs for me it was certainly an arduous process but BOY was it rewarding.

The lore/message itself is mostly up to listener interpretation but I personally like to think of that album as being centered around how valuable self acceptance is, how important communication and understanding and empathy is in a relationship, learning to break free from the bars that society cages one within, and just general dealings/causations of psychological turmoil. I think that what I like the MOST about CCCC tho is how lax/free you can be with your interpretations. it allows a LOT of space for creative liberty and overall message variation, and I like that. I like that very much.

OH and if you enjoy witty lyricism/enjoy having a bunch of allusions that you can rabbit-hole yourself into then you’ll probably like chonny jash . His stuff is like a puzzle but in video/music form. Anyway chonny jash changed my life I think everybody should listen to and look at the lyrics of one of his songs at least once in their life this shit is so good

Tergun 🤤

AND . AND TRIGUN. TRIGUN ISN’T A VIDEO GAME it’S a space western anime. Well OKAY it was originally a manga from the 90s that got adapted into an anime in the late 90s and then ANOTHER newer anime in 2023 so it’s actually just a broad term for these 3 pieces of media .

This is very general btw and while all adaptations go about it in different ways all of them center around the same plot; humans completely NERFED earth so they sent out these ships in order to find another habitable planet, and this mission is called “project seeds”. Aboard these ships are a bunch of humans put into cold sleep but OBVIOUSLY they can’t survive without resources, so alongside the cold sleep people are these human-made organisms called “Plants” who produce the necessities + more that humans need to survive.

Still with me? Ok So everything’s all fine and dandy, but then suddenly due to an event that I cannot disclose because of spoiler related reasons these ships CRASH on a deserted sandy desolate planet, and the remaining humans are then forced to survive solely off of the remaining plants (since all the technology from the spacefaring age was lost in the crash).

Now that the worldbuilding stuff’s outta the way, the main character is this dude named Vash the Stampede who is constantly being chased and hunted down because of this CRAZY bounty he’s got on his head and this is where . The main themes of Trigun start to shine through. It’s about morality and the lives of other people, about the cycles of abuse that lead to why people do certain things and it dives quite deep into the psychological and philosophical aspects ESPECIALLY since this is like a “kill or be killed” world and the main character ALWAYS chooses NOT to kill, no matter what.

I started out with watching the newest adaptation (Trigun stampede) but there’s no right or wrong order to consume the three medias, so start with whichever one you’d like ,,,, assuming you do want to start watching it, anyway.

Judging from what little i know about ur interests, I think trigun would be more up your alley BUT ALSO chonny jash is so good ESPECIALLY CCCC AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ENJOY A SMALLER AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS COUGH COUGH COUGH but it's ultimately up to you, this is all assuming you'd wanna delve into anything in the first place. anyway yeah rant over . 👍

#I know this is an f451 acc but bear with me here #the brainrot has hit #me spewing my twisted gospel #these are (somewhat) old-ish hpfxs btw so if I got some things wrong I apologize #cough #stinkygirldays pee you!!!!!!! 😡 #unshowered #I love acting like I know what I’m talking about #yapathon #kinda copied my friend at the trigun part I was having somewhat of a hard time remembering I am a #fake fan

[27-royal-teas]

YET !!! ANOTHER ANALYSIS!! And for good reason this time because people keep misinterpreting Pete’s work to be about Mikey and it makes me fucking PISSED can you not let pete have one thing in his goddamn life i get it its fine to have headcanons and opinions but PLEASE for the love of god please stop discrediting all of his hard work & good writing to be about a white boy he fucked back in ‘05 this CONSTANTLY happens with poc artists and it makes me mad to no end

yep, that’s right. today we’re talking about I Am My Own Muse. writing this essay i have listened to it a grand total of twenty three times 

i like this song a lot specifically because i do kind of relate to it a lot frequently i feel like smashing a guitar until i go insane but i dont have a guitar and i dont know how to play one regardless so. uh yeah

The thing about IAMOM is that it’s saying that in the TITLE. Hes his own muse. And obviously no one can take that away. sure , some of his songs might be inspired by someone, but in the long run, who do they come from? pete. romance songs might not be about anyone in particular. I know ive wrote songs that could be interpreted as romance, but they’re actually me talking to my younger self or my future self or my friend, and the point is, even though songs written by pete may seem like they were about someone that doesnt mean they are and you cant, you CANNOT discredit the fact that he is his own muse. just like the song title says.

The song begins with a BANGING orchestral arrangement. I think the intro to IAMOM is my favorite song intro on the album. It's just very well thought out and clearly carefully planned, and quite honestly I think patrick did an AMAZING job and I'd love to see him do a breakdown of the composition here because I am IMPRESSED. Not even to mention the vocals, he is on FIRE. anyway in the rest of this essay I’ll be interpreting the lyrics and tying them back to the central topic i just opened with: How Pete Is His Own Muse. 

The first verse is quiet, and it begins like this:

“Here i am, not sure you should take a chance

I like playing dumb, letting you figure me out

But i was faded in my own defense

So drop a bomb on the things we dreamed about”

I feel as though this verse is very clear. He isnt sure that the person he’s referring to should take a chance on him, should think that he is worth it, and he likes being able to be up to someone else’s interpretation with no outside influence. i do this frequently with strangers- i stay quiet so that they can make up their own idea in their head about me. They can figure me out themself, since i clearly cant figure myself out, and i think that’s the idea pete is really aiming for here. ‘So drop a bomb on all the things we dream about” can be referring to himself or someone else, but here let’s take it in the context that he’s discussing himself. This line is repeated in the second verse, so it’s clearly one of the main points that needed to be stated here; here he is saying to himself that (again, it’s that self sabotage) he should give it up, give it all up, it’s not worth it, destroy it all, drop a bomb on all our dreams because they aren’t going to happen. Taken together with the previous lines we can basically say that pete is saying that because he is leaving himself open to interpretation from the public, the things he truly meant to say are lost. And i think that’s the main thing here, especially with the title, and obviously im doing it myself, maybe this isnt what he meant at all, but i definitely do think it correlates along those lines to some degree. 

The chorus is repeated several times throughout the song (3 times to be specific) and it goes like this:

“Smash all the guitars ‘til we see all the stars

Oh got to throw this year away

We got to throw this year away like

A bad luck charm” 

And then that repeats twice. 

I think i can safely say everyone reading this right now has gone through the pandemic. I assume three year olds dont go on tumblr. The entire smfs album references 2020 and 2019 time and time again, most critically in What A Time To Be Alive, and it’s heavily present in this song too. “Got to throw this year away (like a bad luck charm)” vocalizes the wishes of pete and everyone else who wishes to cut those years out of their brains- pete has expressed in interviews how taxing the pandemic really was on his mental health, and i think that “smash all the guitars” could symbolize the frustration and pain he really felt in that time; destroying music (one of the main things he loves) until he can sink into that despair and just float away (“‘til we see all the stars”). Another way this can be interpreted is an act of rebellion (a lot of musical artists smash their guitars during shows, cough ryan ross cough) but i dont really think that that makes as much sense in this context. 

The next verse:

“The trumpets bring the angels but they never came

No one let them in ‘cause they didnt know my name

I know i keep my feelings so tucked away

Just another day spent hoping we dont fall apart

So drop a bomb on all the things we dreamed about”

Another very pete based verse (BECAUSE HE IS HIS OWN MUSE). This kind of links to Heaven’s Gate because it’s related to the same thing- not making it on the list, not feeling worthy of getting into heaven, because this sort of self deprecation is reflected throughout most of Fall Out Boy’s albums. I could give a million examples of this, but I don’t want to be here forever. “The trumpets bring the angels but they never came/ no one let them in ‘cause they didn’t know my name” sort of brings to mind the image of a person waiting to be carried away to something they’re not entirely sure they deserve, and they’re proven correct because no one ever came to carry them away, no one ever decided that they’d be on the list to get to heaven and the angels just went marching past and pete can hear their horns, know theyre there for people who deserve heaven much more than he does. How sad is that?

“I know i keep my feelings so tucked away/ just another day spent hoping we dont fall apart” carries the feeling of not wanting to be a burden with every emotion thought and expressed, even the good ones, and ‘we’ can be referring to himself, every single aspect of himself, hoping he doesn’t fall apart into shards of the stars his guitar is made up of. and then of course it’s the line about the bomb again, although this time it feels even more internalized and personal because it’s the second time he said it, and he dreams of getting into heaven but how can he make it up there if the angels themselves know he does not deserve to and so. drop a bomb on all the things we dreamed about, folks, because they aren’t going to happen. 

The bridge: 

“So let’s twist the knife again, twist the knife again

like we did last summer

So let’s twist the knife again, twist the knife again

Oh, i’m just trying to keep it together

But it gets a little harder when it never gets better I'm trying

To keep it together, to keep it together, oh”

To me this entire bridge just feels really deeply confessional and personal. Im going to start at the bottom because i like it the best. 

He’s trying. He’s trying so damn hard- to be optimistic, to be hopeful and stay full of happiness and love but it’s SO HARD when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel to motivate him. This is still talking about quarantine, i think; i remember i was in middle school at the time; they said that we would be back in two weeks. I remember i was grateful to get a break and time off. Then two weeks turned into two years and it got really, really hard to see an end to the pandemic. When things stop improving it gets harder and harder to keep it together when you can’t see the results of any of your actions, when you’re trying your best but it still gets you nowhere. Wouldn’t you stop trying? i know i would.

And let’s talk about “let’s twist the knife” just a little bit. “Last summer” might refer to the last album release, which is Mania (even though it was released in January). Another album cycle, another twist of the knife; another bit of words that pete has to pull out of himself like ribbons, and although he loves it, that’s his job, it still feels like dredging up all the pain again. So let’s twist the knife again, dig it in just a little deeper, just like we did before. 

So, yeah. Pete is his own muse and i truly do think that that is heavily reflected in this song, even this whole album. A lot of songs in smfs seem more him-centered, because he is the writer and he is talking about himself. So Good Right Now and What  A Time To Be Alive are especially good examples of this. 

And the interesting thing about the title is that it’s pulled from a Frida Kahlo quote, which goes like this: 

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. I am the subject I want to better.”

And isn’t that just it? This whole album, it’s an album of self discovery and going back to your roots and staying current anyway. It’s patrick pulling pete out of his funk and getting him back in the game; it’s an exploration of a new style, a new fall out boy. And like a phoenix, every album they rise again, still the same but somehow completely brand new. The orchestral arrangements displayed in IAMOM and SMFS and LFTOS showcase this, the new feeling but still the same, something bettered, and I’m really, really happy with how far they’ve come not only in their expansion of music but also with themselves. And I feel like this song and this title- I Am My Own Muse- is really a stand up, it’s a show of how far they’ve come. Because they are the subject they know the best.

#Toby speaks #Toby’s meta #fall out boy #fob #pete wentz #patrick stump #andy hurley #joe trohman #fob meta #meta #lyric analysis

[captainrayzizuniverse]

Yes! Thank youuuu @goldcrumble for this I truly need it now. I’m sitting in Kelowna waiting for the worst year of my life to be over in the most unremarkable way (binging on paw patrol with my nephew) and what better way to do it than this? Beware, long ass essay incoming. 

When did you become a Louie? (This is about to get loooong)

I love talking about this because it’s such an interesting journey for me compared to other artists I love. I used to watch British reality tv with my grandma every year and that of course includes x-factor and strictly come dancing (and the GBBO, sewing bee, BGT etc..it was unhealthy) which usually start around the same time. We started with x-factor when leona lewis won until the last season with Louis as judge. So yes of course I watched the one with 1D and I was rooting for them during the show (and Louis was my LEAST fav only because I’d watch the xtra factor and the video diaries and he was SO loud and obnoxious and basiclly everything I find annoying in a person. Sorry it was what it was. Anyway after that season I never paid them any attention but we continued watching x-factor year after year. I've mentioned this before but when Louis was announced as the judge in 2018 I remember telling my grandma that it’s probably to draw in the 1D fans because the show was so bad at that point. Obviously I said it with eyes rolled and thinking ‘they really think they’re gonna save this shit with a kid from a boyband?’. Little did I know this guy will ruin me. Anyway as a non fan and someone who really didn’t know anything about the guy I absolutely loved him as a judge..so like a couple of weeks in I read his entire wikipedia and was 100% drinking the ‘reconnected and in love with his long term gf and has a kid with a one night stand from LA’ koolaid. And I listened to his singles at the time, loved them, added them to one of my Anghami playlist and it was chill for a while.

I have never been in a music fandom before..I’ve been in the football fandom (esp livejournal) for ages and also several movies/tv shows and books. I think most of the music I listen to are either from bands who are dead or there just isn’t a fandom big enough to exist…or I haven’t found it. Dunno..just never got into one. SO on a flight from oslo in 2019 I was reading a fic from another fandom and in the author’s note there was something about being inspired by a Larry fic and I vaguely remembered who the Larry ship is about. So when I clicked it and saw that it was THE Louis T, I went into my second rabbit hole and saw all these news singles he has out and an album that was about to come out and a show in Toronto and wow so much excitement all at once. Booked the tickets for the show which were later cancelled due to covid and then never got to see the ltwt live (rip hearing defenceless live). After that I didn’t follow up with him, I didn’t even know lthq was a thing ffs. When people say that they need to promote things on his personal IG, it’s for people like ME! Anyhoo! I still never searched him up on Tumblr until one day by chance I saw a clip from a livestream on instagram of one of his earlier shows in Texas. I didn’t even know concert livestreams were a thing tbh. So I kept on monitoring to find the source until I got to finally watch an entire show (I think it was the 4th American one, a few before the chicken nugget incident) and then somehow that led me to Tumblr and slowly I started following very very few blogs. So when did I become a Louie really? Was it 2018 when I was like ok the dude is cool I like the couple of songs he has out? Or 2019 when I booked my first concert ticket? Or in 2022 when I found the fandom on Tumblr? Also I got into 1D when I read that wiki page and it said something about him having the most writing credits. It intrigued me and was like ‘fine! I’ll give them a go I guess!’

your favourite song? (one off walls and one off fitf)

We Made It. All this time (if you ask tomorrow it might jump between Saturdays or holding onto heartache or she is beauty)

your favourite music video?

Miss you! The hair, the song.

your favourite gig?

Toronto one because I was anticipating it for sooooo long and it fully lived up to it. Esp after spending the entire 2022 watching livestreams and being jealous af. The new york one was good too but my home show will always be my fav

your favourite louis hair?

X-factor hair. 

your favourite louis interview?

Oof man this is hard! They all kinda get mixed together so either a Zach lang one (probably the first one because it sticks in my memory more since I saw it right when it came out) or one of the buzzfeed ones like the snack wars or the one he did with the yellow background (man I’m lazy as shit, I can literally YouTube this).

suit louis or tanktop louis?

Suit Louis. Literally anything but tank top louis. I know I’m the only one in this boat but I just don’t dig tank tops. I think it’s also the fact that he almost always wears hideous shoes with them that kinda kill the look. If I had to be specific, I’d say tracksuit Louis. 

favourite louis tattoo?

I’d also go with the x&o’s 

favourite louis bodypart? (c'mon we all have one!)

I immediately thought his eye crinkles but realized that’s not a body part. Maybe hands or the veiny neck??I love a neck with passionate veins (what even am I saying??)

—-

I think my small Louis loving mutuals have either already done this or have been tagged, so it ends with ME!

And with that I shall wish everyone a genocide free 2024! A free Palestine! And an end to this fucking massacre!

Back to watching Marshall and Skye on PP. 

#what is kelowna even btw?

[wrecking]

how is it already january 31st. ok anyways uh fun month musically tbh! been listening to a looooot of yeule and a bunch of random older stuff clicked with me finally, gonna ramble about them under the cut

allie x - girl with no face (pre-release singles)

tbh gwnf made sense to me instantly and owht was incredible on first listen, but black eye took MONTHS to grow on me. at least i'm obsessed with now, prepare to see this on the list all year

ariana grande - yes, and? (single)

i am basic and like house music. i think the dissonance on the chorus lines scratches my brain in a way not a lot else does currently, it's just kinda listenable in a fun way and that's all it needed to be imo. that one line is kinda funny with how underperformed it is tho

dua lipa - houdini - extended edit (single)

this has just been slowly taking over my brain ngl, hooks on hooks and they're all very fun to just sing to yourself while you're doing random things

tinashe - bb/ang3l

talk to me nice SWEEPS okay but also tightrope, needs, treason... honestly the whole fucking ep okay it's all good

paramore - this is why

tbh this gets on here almost exclusively off me watching the live debut performance of running out of time. her vocals are so good and that song in particular has been my jam this month ok, also you first is so good both as their song and as remi wolf's

adrianne lenker - songs

several alters were vibing with this this month and tbh good for them. her next solo album is probably gonna take over my life when it releases so hey

paramore - after laughter

dash really liked this one, i've been really clicking with rose-colored boy finally. i find this is why to be the better listen overall, but god this thing is still really good

confidence man - tilt

weird pick but i've kinda come back around into being obsessed with this again! subdued but quirky dance, it's not as immediately catchy or bold as their debut, but i really like it for what it is

yeule - softscars

this was the centerpiece of the month, well tbh all of yeule's discography could be. their stuff is so good but in particular like poison arrow, a song i'll get to later when i talk abt glitch princess, and cyber meat and 4ui12 have been just ruling this month for me. this album's groaning metallic soundscapes have just been so cathartic as of late. i'm a stan now

looks away somewhat shamefully - 1989 (taylor's version)

i don't even have an excuse for this one ok i just like this album, i have for like fucking 7 years at this point and i like the vault tracks and the less i have to think about the discourse surrounding Her As A Person the better.

charli xcx - crash

this kinda snuck back up on me this month? finally decided to revisit it after a long long time away, and it's held up incredibly well! much like hold the girl by rina sawayama, an artist is not merely worth based on how much they pander to rym nerds. the hooks, delivery, and production on this are so fucking good idgaf

100 gecs - 1000 gecs

this really has held up so well ok. 10k also rly good but this and the unreleased stuff has been scratching a particular itch for me this month. literally every song (except stupid horse i THINK which is fine bc i was obsessed with it before now) has been the subject of a small obsession of mine this month it's so good

olivia rodrigo - guts

this album keeps holding up and keeps being relevant to me personally. girl please put the deluxe tracks on streaming already for me

pinkpantheress - heaven knows

this album is SO fucking good hoooooly shit. i thought her first project was just ok but this is an ALBUM. ophelia, feel complete, mosquito, the aisle, hell that ENTIRE first 4 track run, i feel like i'm forgetting more but like just that alone... god...

rajie - heart to heart

my city pop hidden gem, this thing is so flawless even still. it's me it's you is still peak hooks. there are a couple other japanese titles i don't wanna go copy paste but like they are also just some of the most timeless melodies i've ever heard. this and timely by anri are the 2 city pop releases i keep on full rotation constantly now

yeule - glitch princess

don't be so hard on your own beauty. that's literally it. i don't want to talk about it because it's personal but i've been streaming it like my life depends on it. means the fucking world to me

cafune - love songs for the end

this just refuses to let go of my attention? 5 songs, probably just "generic pop" to most people, yet perspective and unchained memory REFUSE to leave me alone. the amount of times i've just ended up mumbling out that "honestly i think about-" and end up singing the entire thing to myself is unreal. shockingly effective hook

lady gaga - the fame monster (deluxe)

felt like revisiting this and it's still kind of just a big pop bible. my spotify has been playing teeth way too much but other than that, no song really manages to wear itself out. i guess maybe paper gangsta but that one's so silly how could you hate it

florence and the machine - how big, how blue, how beautiful

random pick but i'm standing by it. have come to the conclusion this and hah are her best records, and i maintain that. this one in particular tho is just stunningly good

kacy hill - is it selfish if we talk about me again?

alice really liked this, and i've also been streaming frog rinse a fuckton bc god that vocal effect is so unique yet so good

laura les - haunted (single)

probably the 2nd most defining thing in january besides yeule, this single has been just The thing i listen to all the damn time. her unreleaseds are so good too (walls are closing in?!?!>?!?>!>??!! RELEASE IT)

maude latour - 001

random pick again but this ep is so good, it's her best imo despite not appearing to have "that high highs." something about the aesthetics of each song here and how they're basically all good bops holds them up so well

hiroshi yoshimura - music for nine post cards

this and green are records that mercedes has been streaming like no tomorrow cuz they're so chill, but this one is definitely my lesser favorite? better cover but i care a lot more abt the songs on green except for blink, which is mesmerizing

100 gecs - unreleased

literally all of them but especially ratatouille and the thos moser remix. they need to just put out an unreleased record idgaf they have too many good songs sitting on youtube

hiroshi yoshimura - green

i got a gorgeous vinyl copy of this, and i've just been thinking a lot about this album. also peak reading music, ambient sweep

-----

ok so unrelated ik i said i'd do stats for 2023 in this post back in december but you know what... i don't feel like it. just know it was like big thief dragon, ethel preachers daughter, and maggie rogers surrender top 3 charters of all time so far. let's see how this year treats all of them!

#d #m

[innytoes]

JATP Gilmore Girls AU

Because apparently sooner or later I create a Gilmore Girls au for every fandom I am in... All the blame goes to @hawkguyhasstarbucks who sent me ‘emily patterson 🤝 emily gilmore’ and I have not known peace since.

-When Luke has Rory, he decides to name her Lorelai after himself. That way, there will still be a Lorelai in the family after he transitions so everyone can suck it.

-Luke is constantly baffled by his daughter being like, the opposite of him in every way. Except really she isn’t. He is all about music, she is all about books. He loves and supports her even if he doesn’t really get it.

-Luke still runs away to work at the Independence Inn. But besides cleaning rooms, he also mans the piano or guitar during dinner. If you tip well enough, he will play requests. If he thinks your request sucks, he will keep your money and play something better. If you want him to play Piano Man, it’s 100 bucks.

-Bobby, Rory’s father, did not run away with them even though Luke asked him to. When Luke is cleaning rooms several years later, he hears a very familiar song on the radio.

-It’s said to be by Trevor Wilson, but Luke knows that voice.

-Let’s just say that for the sake of their kid, Luke doesn’t sue the pants off of Bobby. He’s been dealing with his shitty broken promises to Rory for years and trying to keep from badmouthing her other dad. But this is one bridge too far and it’s burnt.

-He lets Bobby know if he ever tries to steal another song of Luke’s, Luke will not only sue the pants off of him, he will tell Rory everything. Rory who at eight is already smarter than both of them put together and the most fair-minded child in the universe.

-Bobby takes this threat very seriously and indeed never steals another song of Luke’s. His first album is a hit, but all his next ones are kind of flops. He does pay Luke some money, so he can move and get a house for him and Rory.

-Luke moves to his own place in Stars Hollow with Rory and they are quickly adopted by the town. They have breakfast almost every morning at Reggie’s, the diner in town. It’s run by Reggie, who is just a ray of sunshine, and Alex, who complains about how much coffee he and Rory drink but also always pours it for them anyway.

-Luke and Rory move next door to the Molinas, who are pretty awesome and have a daughter about Rory’s age. Julie and Rory are best friends and Luke is so thankful to have some Adultier Adults nearby when he has parenting questions like ‘how young is too young for a child to read Russian literature’ and ‘how did I explode the microwave trying to make soup for my daughter, no it’s fine it’s not on fire... anymore’.

-Okay and also maybe Luke looked up to Ray a little about how to be a Proper Father because he was just winging it by going ‘how about I take everything my parents did and do Not That’.

-When Ray realises he makes sure to tell Luke that he’s doing everything right and Rory seems like a well-adjusted, happy kid. Luke manages to keep it together until he’s home and only then cries about it, because that’s all he’s ever wanted, was for Rory to be happy.

-Reggie inherited the hardware store from his dad and turned it into a diner. He immediately invited Alex to join him because 1) Alex knows coffee better than Reggie ever will and 2) they were best friends and Alex was on the verge of either being cut off from the family or forced into a marriage with a Girl, Any Girl.

-Yes the Mercers did cut him off because he started living with a man and they were both like: lol but we aren’t even dating.

-They lasted like, 2 or 3 years of ‘we’re totally not dating we’re best buds’ before finally confessing they were totally in love.

-The next morning while opening the diner, Miss Patty and Babette took one look at the two of them and exchanged money. (Babette thought it would take them at least another six months and was hoping for a Dramatic Christmas Confession instead of a ‘dramatic random March confession.’)

-Tía Victoria is 100% Miss Patty’s right hand woman. Together (when Taylor isn’t looking) they rule Stars Hollow. She had her money on New Years.

-Yes Reggie baked Rory a coffee cake for her birthday. Alex is the one that grumpily informed her she was sitting at the wrong table, before nodding to the table he and Reggie decorated with balloons.

-When Rose died Luke and Rory were devastated and they did their best to help. Even if that meant ‘we know better than to try and make you a casserole but we did buy one of everything you like at Reggie’s so here you go.’

-Luke has 100% covered for the Molinas with Victoria. No no that extra plate is totally for me Victoria I promise. You know I just freaking love Ray’s spaghetti so much.

-Rory gets into Chilton and they have a small party before Luke realises that they aren’t eligible for the scholarship money. Ray offers to loan him the money but he just can’t. Ray’s fighting to keep Julie in her own music school, he doesn’t need the extra stress.

-So he goes back to his parents.

-Can you imagine how fucking painfully awkward Friday Night Dinners are. Just sit with that a moment. On the one hand Luke has Unsaid Emily running through his mind, on the other, Emily is scolding him for not wearing sleeves and trying to talk Rory out of going to Harvard and go to Yale instead and all he wants to do is run away and hide at Reggie’s diner or possibly the Molina’s studio.

#julie and the phantoms #gilmore girls #help I made another gilmore girls au #terrible crossovers are my brand #I blame hawkguyhasstarbucks #luke patterson #lukexreggiexalex #is of course endgame #reggie and alex run the diner because reggie is the plaid and alex is the backwards baseball cap #jess can be Alex' nephew #is Luke the town troubadour? or is that his biggest arch nemesis #imagine the whole 'moving the mattress in and out and in of the dorm' but with lukereggiealex #yes this makes carrie gigi and it works #HE STOLE THE NAME. RORY. CARRIE. #HE'S STOLEN A LOT OF THINGS #instead of starting the dragonfly they start sunset curve idk #imagine the whole wake up song but without the ghosts and with Luke and Rory standing on their own porchy all weepy #I yeet these headcanons out in the world so y'all will play in my sandbox with me #I wrote a thing

[emilypemily]

i have been writing and mostly ignoring the same album for the last 5 years. the songs have been pretty much entirely written for a long while now, but i have been putting off the recording process bc, idk. i think i'm a much better like, producer than i was when i did the first two albums so my standards have changed, and so suddenly i've got these perfectionist tendencies and it's been putting me off recording anything at all. and the stuff i recorded a while ago i've been put off fixing or changing the stuff i need to fix or change.

anyway, this past week i've kicked myself in the butt and actually made myself sit down and record, and it's been going really well. i think they're shaping up really well. i have the track list and in brackets i write what i still need to do, and i've been tackling each song like, guitar on a bunch of them first, and then keys on a bunch of them next, and then vocals etc etc. not always in that kind of order but that's some of why it's been going well.

there are 4 songs left of 14 that need recording at all, as they're still undone, and the rest is just rerecords or adding bits. 3 of them are finished, but it's the same 3 that's been finished for ages now. one of them is very close to done but i'd like my friend to play piano on them so that will take a while as we don't live in the same place and i don't want just a recording off a phone.

idk, it's not five years of writers block bc i've never had an issue with that. if i'm not writing that's like, fine, i'm doing something else. but, recording block? production block? the technical side of it is the thing i've been ignoring. it does feel good to be getting somewhere now.

i think the whole time i've thought and still believe that the songs are good. or at least, i like them. and i want them recorded and put out. every now and then i think 'if i get hit by a car and die and i've never really this fucking thing i will be so mad'. it's weirdly not very motivating. i think the motivating thing was complaining about it several weeks in a row in therapy to the point that it becomes cringe if i don't actively change something.

it's not really close to being done bur it's significantly closer than before.

#this is cringe and about recording music #the mortifying ordeal of talking about your art

[technetiumai]

Discography Tag

Rules: pick an artist or a band and share your favorite song from each of their albums, then tag some mutuals!

Okay, @onepintobean you asked for it!

YES, I AM DOING RUSH. Obviously. 

me, whenever I’m about to do something like this that’s music related: Rush isn’t even my favorite anymore! It’s just the discography I’m most familiar with!

me, after doing something like this and listening to a bunch of Rush as a result: God, I love Rush so much. They’re the best. Unparalleled in all of history. A+ 👏

Rush (1974): Finding My Way. This one was hard, but only because I don’t like any of the songs much. I mean, no Neil? Come on!

Fly By Night (1975): Beneath, Between, Behind. Also hard, also because I’m not crazy about any of it. They had just hired Neil and just realized he’d be more willing to write lyrics than they were, and they just hadn’t found themselves yet. 

Caress of Steel (1975): The Fountain of Lamneth. NOW they’re finding themselves! I love this song so much.

2112 (1976): 2112. Classic. I talk about it a little more when I talk about  Vapor Trails.

A Farewell to Kings (1977): Cygnus X-1, Book I. I actually always forget which song the Cygnus X-1s are until I start listening to them, especially the first one. But as soon as I start playing them I’m like---Hell yeah.

Hemispheres (1978): Cygnus X-1, Book II---Hell yeah.

Permanent Waves (1980): Natural Science. I think it’s sort of interesting how their more conceptual songs (the extra long ones with several movements etc.) become VERY MUCH not the standard ‘70s prog rock concept song/album like as soon as they crossed into the ‘80s. This song is over 9 minutes long, but it’s nothing like the long ones which pervade the previous albums and tended to tell a literal story which is also a metaphor or exploration of something else (more like operas), whereas this is more of a journey through ideas and feelings (more like a traditional rock song)(although still overtly a metaphor). This is one of my favorite Rush songs, and, when pressed, usually the one I’ll say IS my favorite, though my favorite often changes, and is often whichever one I’m listening to at the moment.

Moving Pictures (1981): Vitals Signs. I’ve just always really loved this song. It’s essentially about change being basically the only thing that life CAN do, to stop changing is to stop living, which seems like one of those things where I’m usually like… well duh, but for some reason it’s very meaningful for me in this song. “A tired mind becomes a shapeshifter” has been one of those lyrics that has really stuck in my head since the very first time I heard it, although I’ve never been entirely sure why. 

Signals (1982): The Weapon. I think maybe Neil Peart is just especially good at saying pretty obvious things in a way that really resonates with me.

Grace Under Pressure (1984): Distant Early Warning. When I’m singing songs to my kids I’m like, “can I sing this one?” and they’re like, “it’s not sad, is it?” and I say “it’s about the potential of nuclear war between the US and Russia, from the perspective of someone in Canada, which is right between the two countries…” and they say “okay, that’s fine.” And I’m like… who am I raising?

Power Windows (1985): Grand Designs. Good shit. “Against the run of the mill, static as it seems, we break the surface tension with our wild, kinetic dreams.” 

Hold Your Fire (1987): Prime Mover. This album is the first one since Caress of Steel with songs that I actively do not like. I do love this song though.

Presto (1989): Chain Lightning. Okay, sometimes I say this is my favorite Rush song. 

Roll the Bones (1991): Bravado. This was pretty hard for me. This album came out the same year I was born, and Roll the Bones was a CD I remember seeing around the house for my entire childhood, and it was the extent of my Rush exposure up until my dad made his torrented Rush road trip mix CD that sent me down the Rush rabbit hole from which I never escaped. So, anyway, even the songs that I’m like… I don’t know if this song is good… I’m still like, it’s my jam, though! I can only speak to it as a person thoroughly brainwashed to love the album, but the whole thing is thoroughly listenable to me.

Counterparts (1993): Leave That Thing Alone. Oddly enough, this album is like the anti-Roll the Bones for me, even though it directly follows it. It was the last of the Rush studio albums I bought (besides the ones that hadn’t come out yet), and I just didn’t really like it. I think there’s a level of cringe/’that didn’t age… great’-ness (and not the nerdy type of cringe, because, arguably there’s a decent amount of cringe in all of Rush), that starts to show up in Hold Your Fire and goes through to Test for Echo, but it really peaks for me in this one. Not that it aged badly, it just is different enough to how we think about things now that it’s kinda like… eh. And I’m 100% talking about the lyrics, I actually really like most of the music (though it sounds... weirdly mixed? to me? or something?). Leave That Thing Alone is the instrumental song on the album and it FUCKING SLAPS! (Counterparts is, btw, often a fan favorite, but Rush fans are often white, cis-het, gen-x men, so…)

Test for Echo (1996): Limbo. Also an instrumental track, although this album is infinitely more listenable to me than Counterparts is. The cringe is all goofier, which I think helps.

Vapor Trails (2002): Secret Touch. This was the most recent album that had come out when I was 13 and discovering Rush, and it’s usually the album that I’ll say is my favorite, when pressed. This one was by far the hardest to choose a favorite from. I changed it several times. My dad’s mixed tape of mostly ‘80s/’90s Rush was what piqued my interest, but when I followed up listening to the first song on 2112 (2112, which is over 20 min long, btw) with listening to One Little Victory from Vapor Trails (even just the first like… three seconds of the song), I was absolutely hooked! I bought 2112 and Vapor Trails because they were the only Rush albums at Best Buy that weren’t compilations, and---boy! Am I glad that was the case! This crazy, weird, almost orchestral, but only three people playing, amazing, ‘70s sci-fi journey that was 2112, then this intense drum solo and heavy rock song, which both sounded so different from each other, but even more different from everything my dad had played of Rush, which would have been created between those two albums. I was absolutely obsessed.

Snakes & Arrows (2007): Hope. This one’s one of the three instrumental songs (which are all amazing), but this time not because I don’t like the lyrics of the rest of the album, just because it’s great. It’s actually just Alex playing the guitar, which is very strange for them, but it’s beautiful. Snake’s and Arrows was my first real ‘A band I love and have made a part of my identity is coming out with a new album!’ experience, and it was so much fun. I had two teachers at the time, who were also fans, to bond over it with, and my dad was also super psyched. Rush was the first concert I ever went to (R40 in 2004), and I went to two more on the Snakes and Arrows tour, and two more on the tour after that (Time Machine, 2010-2011). Besides that I’ve only ever been to one Panic! At the Disco concert for my sister’s Birthday (2008?), which was really more like just a really bad party… like all of the worst parts of a school dance and a house party (it was at a weirdly small “ballroom”), and the band wasn’t even playing well---it sucked. and a U2 concert (2018). That concert was actually so good, though. People can say whatever they want about U2, but that was a fucking amazing show. (10/10, would recommend, would go again at any and all opportunities.) (But there will never be another Rush OR U2 concert with all of the members there again, because ALL OF MY DRUMMERS ARE BREAKING!) (Larry’s not dead, he just has drummer related health issues.) (I was all alone contracting in Maine when Neil Peart died. Like, I didn’t have anyone I knew to talk to in person about anything, let alone this thing that was very sad for me, but was a relatively niche interest.)

Clockwork Angels (2012) BU2B. The music started slipping for me a tiny bit with Snakes and Arrows, or maybe… the music and vocals together? I think mostly the music… But it’s even more extreme in this album. I think it’s just like A LOT for me. And I’m a Rush fan, so… The book that was written based on this story was fun, and I respect what they were trying to do with the album, but I almost never just go and listen to this album or any of the songs. Except sometimes BU2B, I actually do think that’s a pretty good song---I think the name just bothers me.

I have no idea who would bother to read all that, but it was fun to do! I made a playlist of these songs, and a playlist of my least favorite song from each album, and it was really interesting. 

My cat died yesterday morning, and I had to just keep going; I had to go to work, do all the normal stuff, but I was really sad. She’s been around for way more of my life than not, especially the parts of my life I can remember, and she lived twice as long as her breed’s expectancy. Which is a cold comfort, considering how much more of me she carried with her because of all that extra time. She was there when I started high school, there for every break up I’ve ever had, my parents divorce, that time my husband and I lived in a three bedroom house with nine other people, a couple other cats, and a dog. When I joined the Navy, when my kids were born... And she was so very her up to the very end.

Anyway, this was a welcome distraction as I kept trying not to openly weep (and give myself a migraine) (which I did) all night at work. 

I haven’t actually checked Tumblr, so I don’t know who else has done this:

@raenestee @cutestkilla @captain-aralias @ivelovedhimthroughworse @fatalfangirl 

#tag game

[flieslikeamoron]

@skystamp tagged me and it took me a minute, but here are five songs I've listened to recently. 

Let Me Down Easy - Daisy Jones and the Six

I watched the show, and it's fine. The ending was lame, but I liked it okay otherwise. Riley Keough and Nabiyah Be were very good. And yes, I listened to the album by this fake band. It's also fine. You might as well just listen to Fleetwood Mac, honestly. But it has some catchy tunes. I generally like the live versions from the show a bit better than the polished "album" versions though. 

Waffle House - The Jonas Brothers

I'm still vestigially in Jonas fandom. It was never really about the music for me, I was in it for the fic. And for the codependent brothers. (Except I did love love love the DNCE album. Suck on that, Nick! Joe was secretly the most talented one all along!) But yeah, my favorite albums from my Disney era were Demi's Here We Go Again and Aly and AJ's Insomniatic. So although I still have feelings about the Jonas Brothers, they're not really much about the music. I still listen to their stuff though in the way that you might listen to music put out by someone you went to high school with or used to date or something. This one is fun, but I hate that one line about "headstrong father and a determined mother." It just hits my ear wrong rhythmically.

Fistfight - Ballroom Thieves

I added this one to my steddie playlist a while ago, and I listen to it pretty often. I really like the dirty groove of it, and the soar of the chorus. Love the line: They said love is grabbing blindly at a pit full of snakes/And wait to feel the only heel among the rows of all the venomous teeth and of course the chorus: You were a bright light/You were a fistfight. IDK I think that fits the way I'm writing them.

I'm a Man - Adam Lambert

This is from the covers album Adam put out recently. I don't like the Sex on Fire cover at all, but the rest is good. I think my faves are the Beatles-esque take on Getting Older, a sexy cool I Can't Stand the Rain, and a moody and modern Do You Really Want to Hurt Me that I like way better than the original. And this one, which is from Jobriath. He was an out gay rock musician in the early 70s. He had a big contract and a lot of marketing hype, and then his first album bombed, and he got basically abandoned by the industry and died of AIDS. Anyway, the Jobriath album is pretty much aping Ziggy Stardust/Bowie. Especially vocally. And it has several "space man" songs. But I kind of get more Elton John vibes overall. Jobriath was a pianist, so it's a lot more piano heavy than Bowie and it has these musical theater/showy/operatic tones. Like there's one song Movie Queen that just sounds like vaudeville/cabaret, not really "rock." Aaaanyway, Adam's voice is always A+ and you can tell he relates to this song. It's a great cover.

The One that Got Away - The Civil Wars

I guess Daisy Jones put me in the mood for fraught band relationships and tangled up feelings. This is so pretty and haunting. And I love that complicated dynamic of it was easier when it was just pining, and it was all potential, and it wasn't this hard, real thing.

#music #if you want to play consider yourself tagged #i can't figure out how to make the spotify links not huge