Color Me Curious
untitled
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
pixel skylines
almost home
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
EXPECTATIONS
cherry valley forever
Noah Kahan
tannertan36
Fieri Frames
occasionally subtle
Not today Justin
Jimmy Eat World
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Claire Keane
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
Cosmic Funnies
#extradirty
YOU ARE THE REASON
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@coolkidsbelongtogether
Fiona Apple - Shameika (Official Music Video)
Top 10 albums, 2020
#01. Fetch the boltcutters - Fiona Apple
To be frank, and it’s no shade on anyone else, there’s Fetch the Boltcutters, and then there’s everything else on this top 10 list. I knew this was album of the year when I heard it, and here it is.
Notable tracks: every track
Dua Lipa - Don’t start now
Top 10 albums, 2020
#02. Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa
It felt like Dua Lipa came out of nowhere when Future Nostalgia hit, though there were hints of her potential (e.g. other than making hits in the UK, she also gave Black Pink their best collab song, “Kiss and make up”). Her music is best experienced in a full album format, because each song is so easy-hooky that one (me) may understandably assume she’d be a one-hit wonder. This is a huge pop record, so accessible it hurts me to place it so high. But I can’t deny that I had this album on repeat for a while, probably because I couldn’t deal with anything more complicated than the comfort of nostalgic pop this past year. Hey, who knows, maybe that’s also how this caught on with others?
Notable tracks: Don’t start now, Physical, Levitating, Pretty please, Hallucinate, Boys will be boys
Perfume Genius: Jason
Top 10 albums, 2020
#03. Set my heart on fire immediately - Perfume Genius
A beautifully crafted album with a deft storyteller at its core, Perfume Genius continues to prove himself a major force in music whether people know of him or not. I so hope his music travels far and wide, because he deserves the adoration and admiration, but also because everyone should have a chance at setting their heart on fire immediately.
Notable tracks: Your body changes everything, Jason, Without you, Leave, Nothing at all
BLACKPINK - ‘Pretty Savage’ 1011 SBS Inkigayo
Top 10 albums, 2020
#04. The album - Blackpink
Finally, more than two songs! Though, it is pretty hard pressed to call this an album, given that it has like, 8 songs. But when you get this kind of consistent quality, and the ‘worse’ song is a collab with Cardi B., you may as well leave the rest on the cutting board. It does say something when their ‘features’ are the lesser tracks - Teddy Park is the fifth member, people. That, and there’s a very delicate balance achieved with BP not easily messed with.
Notable tracks: How you like that, Pretty savage, Crazy over you, Lovesick Girls, You never know
Porridge Radio - Long (The BME Sessions) | CONTAINS FLASHING IMAGES
Top 10 albums, 2020
#05. Every bad - Porridge Radio
My soft spot - torturous indie rock that goes quiet and loud depending on how much our heroine suffers through her feelings. And ample guitar wailing.
Notable tracks: Sweet, Long, Circling, Give/take, Homecoming song
Run The Jewels - Never Look Back (Live at Holy Calamavote)
Top 10 albums, 2020
#06. RTJ4 - Run the jewels
RJT’s albums just do not disappoint. On this fourth outing, they’ve retained the urgency to their music, which is very appropriate for our time. And for my money, they’ve continued to drive home the cool rap trifecta - hard knock politics, killer beats production, and sick flow.
Notable tracks: JU$T, Never look back, Goonies vs. E.T., Holy calamafuck, A few words for the firing squad, Ooh La La
Jessie Ware - Spotlight
Top 10 albums, 2020
#07. What’s your pleasure - Jessie Ware
My favourite Jessie Ware album so far - the tracks that work really beam with brilliance and shimmering beats. It’s a kind of gentle, controlled happiness that only Jessie Ware could deliver like a natural and groovy thing.
Notable tracks: What’s your pleasure, Spotlight, The kill, Adore you, In your eyes, Save a kiss
070 Shake - Guilty Conscience (Official Video)
Top 10 albums, 2020
#08. Modus Vivendi - 070 Shake
This is some serious talent business. Dani Moon reminds me of The Weeknd when he first came on to the scene, bursting with bravado. A terrific Kanye pick-up.
Notable tracks: Guilty conscience, The pines, Microdosing, Daydreamin, Terminal B, Flight 319
The Weeknd - In Your Eyes (iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Live Performance)
Top 10 albums, 2020
#09. After hours - The Weeknd
The gig is old now, but you know what, the half-great part of the album is friggin’ polished.
Notable tracks: Blinding lights, In your eyes, Heartless, Faith, Save your tears
Das Body - Scared (live rehearsal)
Top 10 albums, 2020
This is the best I can do.
#10. Peregrine - Das Body
The Norwegian band to watch - though they are less like their fellow Norwegian pop group Röyksopp than another European indie pop band, The Dø. Their debut rides hard on Ellie Linden’s awkward, long limbed girlish vocal set against hazy, low-key dramatic melodies.
Notable tracks: On request, Taller than the average man, Scared, Against the glass, Always shitty
(via https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5p6UASl4Tq68nJkvVxYaZL?si=SLtJiCWoR9Wjj1_W4q3wRA)
Here’s a list of the best tracks I listened to last year. It’s 51 because technically, “I can’t remember love” may not be out or something. I made this list a while ago but never got around to post, so maybe my information is outdated. *shrugs*
A few notes:
- This was the year Kpop invaded my list. I credit Blackpink for this, and also for my complete social withdrawal care of COVID.
- Speaking of Kpop, it’s also the year I discovered Red Velvet. They’re awesome!
- I wish it wasn’t The Weeknd topping the list, but I also wish we didn’t have the pandemic and we can’t have everything can we.
If, like me, you’re thinking, what Kpop group should I listen to if I liked Blackpink? Well, I made a list! I only picked 2 tracks from each group, and 1 bonus track if there’s an extra song from a member (2 in HyunA’s case, because she’s a little bit more prolific), provided the group has enough ‘black’ of Blackpink in it (hence, no Girls Generation, T-ARA and the likes). Also, apparently, no boy’s allowed. Happy listening!
Blackpink - How you like that
Blackpink is a clear vision of pop, with careful line straddling. Their appeals are neatly encapsulated in this fantastic music video they released earlier this year.
- Spectacular, spectacular: their MVs are kind of insane in their exaggerated sets, and the editing is as in-your-face as you can get. Just how much stuff can they jam into one MV?? But look at the restraint on the number of people in the group - a nice, easy to count number, for the chillun.
- Eye candy, not still-life-painting fruits: wowwie wow wow, are they ever strikingly gorgeous. Like, so friggin’ beautiful. All of them. In stark contrast to too many celebrities these days, you’ll find no exaggerated botox lips, no angry dump-on make up, no ill-fitted clothes, and no deliberately overtanned skin (please, don’t). Each of them eats up the screen and separates from the rest. The amped-up French-designer glam does not hurt, and apparently, their wig room is endless!
- Swaggy femme: thank goodness, even their pink side is a little black, because I just can not with so much of k-pop or kawaii things.
- Edgy, not b**chy: do they look pissed sometimes? Yes, but in the way someone who does not resent gets pissed: there’s clearly no chip on their shoulders. That’s the key to their blend, which is exactly as their name plainly notes: go hard, but not that hard. I mean, it’s okay to go super hard too (ahem, 2NE1, CL), but that’s not exactly rare these days.
- Sexy, not sex-y: I don’t know if it’s the culture or not, but they have not traded on aggressive sex appeal (though, hello, Icecream). You can see this clearly in Lisa, with the way she dances, sharp and sensual. I’m afraid as they enter the puritan yet sexed up Americana pop scene, that’s the inevitable dimension they’re going to have to deal in.
- The beats drop, the vocals soar: their music is just so ... sharply UP. Melodic and banging (s’up, Teddy Park.) Their vocals blend together but memorably distinct from the rest of k-pop group, and from within the group itself. I used to play a game of ‘guess who’s singing,’ and I win every time (against myself, still counts). Jisoo’s voice is deep and Rose’s voice is clear but twangy. Lisa’s and Jennie’s singing voices are pleasant and strong, though less unique compared to the other two. Luckily, they rap! Two female rappers who can sing, in one group!
- Produced, and yet personal: last but not least, for those who have already seen anything else they’ve produced - concerts, variety, ‘reality’ shows, airport fan encounters (yes) - you know that you’re getting very, very likeable young women in the quartet. Genuinely likeable together. In spite of the very obviously produced and controlled aspect of the group, down to where they sleep (seriously, k-pop school), you just can not manufacture the kind of chemistry that seems to exist (at least on camera) between the group members (just watch other groups interacting with each other). They’re friggin’ giggly and seemingly HAPPY together. Their friendship sells. And I’m betting that it is this chemistry that allows them to retain their naturalness in the face of constant camera action and public views. Not sure how they fare separately from each other though.
Here’s hoping that the efforts to enter the American market do not dull their sound and bend their unique charms out of shape to fit in with what’s current now. I’d love to see a successful dominating girl group from a different market. GODSPEED, BLACKPINK. Be the revolution you keep dropping on your tracks.
And here’s 2019 best of tracks. Sharon Van Etten won, but Billie Eilish made quite the splash with me. And then there was Black Pink in my area. What a year last year was for them - Coachella and all. But back to Sharon, holly molly she’s grown in leaps.
Apparently I never posted this, and Chadwick Boseman has recently laid to rest in power, so here it is. All the stars, Chadwick. All the stars. :(
Rack of his - Fiona Apple (Fetch the boltcutters, 2020)
Fiona Apple does not disappoint. She does not make bad albums, and Bolt Cutters is an astounding showcase for some of the finest works from one of the best lyricists alive. I could easily pick any song off this album and it would be an outstanding track coming from anyone. But nobody could do what Fiona does - reaching to the depth of pain and pulling out an unexpectedly fresh, precisely cut wild bloom. Here, she gets all sorts of percussion going, and nary a sound wasted or boring. Her words are killers (especially on this song, Fetch the bolt cutters, Newspaper, and For Her), as sharply arranged as her musical beats. Album of the year material.
Other notable tracks: no filler on this album, all winners.
My name is dark - Grimes (Miss Anthropocene, 2020)
Holy 90s/early naughts galore! This track is chosen because I heard it off the album this year (decent), and because it probably could’ve been sung by the Cardigans.