Chemical Compound™

[lynne-leafwater]

My favorite animals are actually

Cemetery Pigeons, Necropolis Snails, Phantom Skunks and the Syntactic Souls of the Ants

[lynne-leafwater]

"Fucking up your definitions even though it's life or death"

🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

[lynne-leafwater]

I woke up from my summer hibernation!

Not even Penelope Scott songs can make me enjoy summer

However, did celebrate Halloween In July, and that was the highlist of these last few months

However it is finally approaching autumn again

[lynne-leafwater]

Ok so in honor of it being Pride Month, here are some of my favorite Penelope Scott songs that I consider to be queer/have queer subtext

Born2Run: Obvious first choice. We have the classic "Soft boys with their succulents, and girls dressed to crack skulls", which is iconically queer, and the rest of the song is as well. Kissing your gal pal in high school, hating on bigots and conservatives, doing a queer revolution, etc. overall love the song, vibes are immaculate, and I am manifesting this energy for all of us this pride. (bonus: Born2Run has a glitzy draft and a guitar draft, both of which are amazing as well and all have very distinct vibes)

Runaway: A somewhat wholesome, optimistic song abt finding your person, and healing from trauma. Has some really well included queer references, (eg. All the little rainbow trucks in a row, etc.). Also very calming vibe, may make you cry, so fair warning. All in all 10/10, we love to find queer joy in songs.

Cabaret: This is my favorite song in the Girl's Night album (to which Runaway also belongs), it's a very emotional song abt getting over and healing from shitty relationships with men, and then going halfway across the world with your queer partner to start a new life. This song is so queer and lesbian coded, I promise you you'll love it.

These are some of my favorite and also the songs with the most overt queer references and queer vibes, but there are a few more that are very queer-coded. Honorable mention goes to that one Moonsickness lyric "fucking up your definitions even though it's life or death", cause that is so trans coded and very relatable.

Anyways, Happy Pride Month!

[lynne-leafwater]

All the little rainbow trucks in a row,

Happy Pride Month Everyone!!

[lynne-leafwater]

Unreleased Penelope Scott songs just hit different. There's a certain vibe that a lot of them have, it's very distinct from the officially released songs, and especially the newer albums. Idk if it's about how raw they are, because The Junkyard 2 also has a similar vibe, at least some songs do, and I love it.

Here's a list of my top 3 unreleased songs

- Honeysuckle Lavander Butterscotch

This song is like every cottage core queer's dream. Gardens? Free movies? Bunnies? Fun drinks? Sign me the fuck up. Also it's very hopeful which is a nice contrast to a lot of the other songs

- Tastes Bad

This song is just such a vibe, like it's giving Cigarette Ahegao and Cabaret's secret love child. "Government subsidized suicide" is such a line as well, that sold me on the song I think.

- This Night Will Not Suck

Love this song so much, it's the perfect song to listen to when you got fed up with capitalism and just wanna be angry at the fucking capitalist hellscape of a system we live in

Honorable mention is Them's Dancin' Words, it doesn't have lyrics but it's so good and just tickles my brain in the best way

I didn't include drafts in this list, even though some differ from the final released versions, but I will probably also make a post for my favorite drafts. I also didn't include songs that exist in albums that are only on her bandcamp such as Halloween in July, Shitty Song to Listen to After a Shooting and Drizzle.

[lynne-leafwater]

So one of the reasons I really like Penelope Scott's music is because it doesn't forget that music is meant to be fun

Don't get me wrong, I love how thoughtful and intentional her music can be, but also it's not afraid just to be whimsical and fun.

It strikes the perfect balance of just silly lyrics and randomness and quirkiness without trying too hard and then having the opposite effect

Cause in some songs, it's really deep and profound with complex metaphors and motifs throughout the song, and then there's:

"salt inside my veins, liquor on my tongue, freckles on my cheeks from god damn fucking west coast sun" or "it's lukewarm, and stale bread" or "you'll never hear from me again save for an envelope I'll send containing 15 million dollars and some photographs of dogs"

Like genuinely, music is supposed to be fun, and it's so painfully obvious when an artist is trying way too hard to be deep and meaningful to the point where it loses meaning.

And of course Penelope Scott's music is also meaningful, my point is not to discount that, but that her music strikes a good balance between the two.

[lynne-leafwater]

"I went to school I got good grades, I don't know what you want me to say"

I see this line as having two possible meanings, depending on how you interpret education in this context.

The whole song is about propaganda, so it makes sense that the education referred to in the line is another version of propaganda and selling someone a lie, which would make the line be more about the expectation that with enough propaganda and bullshit education, you'll say whatever the institution, the government, the companies' bureaucracy, the congressmen, the lobbyists want you to say, which are all lies

The second meaning is where you interpret school in the line of representing actual true knowledge, like it's supposed to. And after all 4 years, and then almost a decade more, you finally realize that it was all a sham and that in a metaphorical sense your job is somewhat to suck the devil's dick as a person who helps this system of oppression, oppress people.

[lynne-leafwater]

"It was the government, the companies' bureaucracy, the congressmen, the lobbyists, and lies. It trickled into both my ears, it got louder over the years, until all that I could hear were fucking flies."

This line is very powerful because of how accurately it depicts the process of being propagandized.

The whole song is about Propaganda, specifically propaganda within the field of healthcare, and especially the american healthcare system, however also about the institution as a whole and how it interacts with both capitalism and other forms of oppression

"Well people die every day"

The line is a great example of propaganda, people die every day normalizes death, especially when it's done to marginalized or oppressed people. It's a way of deflecting the institutions' own faults onto the seemingly innocuous fact that people die, it happens, so no need to try and prevent it when we don't want to. Alternatively even outside healthcare systems this excuse is used to justify horrific acts because if "people die" then that's unstoppable, it's passive voice meaning no one is at fault for the death, it just happens, this is a great way to brainwash and sell propaganda to people.

"I wouldn't have it any other way, I just think they should feel okay whilst they're alive"

Particularly the second part of this line, has two meanings the way I see it, "they should just feel good whilst they're alive" is partly an expression of individual opinion, but also the official response to any critique of the previous line "people die every day", as in 'sure people die every day, that's fine, but at least they can feel good whilst they're alive.'

And the next line: "how could they ever feel okay, when things are more and more this way" is a counter to that idea

The way I see it this part is supposed to say "yeah people die every day, that is a part of life, but even by your logic they should feel okay whilst they're alive, but they don't and that's your fucking fault, if you're not to blame for their death then you're definitely at fault for their shitty life.

[lynne-leafwater]

One of my favorite things to do with some songs is to imagine parts of them being read in a dramatic theatrical dialogue (and then badly act it out), and a lot of Penelope Scott songs absolutely have those parts.

Since I'm currently in an American Healthcare phase I'm doing it to that song and wow is it good

Just imagine this with me:

"when I was 7 years old, I saw a dead man in the road outside the liquor store just a few blocks from my school. He was cold, and he was warm, and really he looked the damn same as he did before, except for a little something in the eyes and a bit of drool..."

"People die every day, and I wouldn't have it any other way but I think they should feel good while they're alive! I went to school, I got good grades, and I don't know what the fuck you want me to say, but tell me faster, cause you're running. out. of. time."

"I could say it was the government, the companies' bureaucracy, the congressmen, the lobbyists, the lies... It trickled into my ears, kept getting louder and louder throughout the years, until all that I could here were fucking flies."

I changed some words to fit my imagined version of what a dialogue would look like but I think it has so much potential, as well as a bunch of other PS songs

[lynne-leafwater]

Every morning at 7 o' clock, when I wake up from the hot garbage pile in which I fucking sleep, I drink my lukewarm sweet hibiscus tea. it Tastes Bad, and I'm not happy yet, I don't smoke, but I like the smell of cigarettes. I fill a bottle up with water and a soggy piece of fruit, as I wonder what I'll do, to the cups I keep right there on the table (just to demonstrate I'm a little unstable.) There's a Drizzle outside, today on Halloween in July, the world seems to be Over This, and as I press my face up against the glass, I think to myself so am I.

I have no plans for today, but I still might just Runaway, run away to mexico, cause there's nobody here and nobody at home. I was Born2Run, I was born to roam.

I take my meds, until I stop. I grab the trenchcoat made of atoms by my bedroom wall, under which the future flows like static, that wretched sound. I do the regular shuffle, I walk down to the streets of the fake Montreal constructed by my brain within my dead girl town.

Perched on the Dumpster, a cemetery pigeon, a necropolis snail, I mumble "Warm Regards" as I try to sound sincere, but I'm just so sad, I fail. Cemetery pigeons, I met God, will she love me like a fawn? Oh how I wonder just what went so wrong. The Lavander Soap I used to clean the wounds from the ripped stitches of my mammal flesh makes me feel high, like last night on Pseudaphed.

I wind through the streets of town, all over the place, like a headless moth, a Ghost Chase. My phones ring, even though it's still winter break, the alerts from the news sing a tune, not unlike a sadistic Cabaret. So I say to the hammerhead stuck in a large glass tank, and the cemetery pigeon flying away "You Should Know, Baxter 3rd Is Under Fucking Siege!", "Time of my life" they respond, but the beast refuses to die.

I met god or whatever, I see her on the sidewalk, and I know it's just a game, that I'm playing with my brain, but Them's Dancin' Words make me go insane. It's Bad Advice! It must be so, cause it doesn't really matter, if I don't wanna go, Over the Moon or anywhere alone. Cause when I said take me to the moon, I never meant take me alone, have fun in Montreal, I'll stay in, watching c-span on my phone.

Atomistic rational behaviour, I concur, I might've seen the way I spoke last night, but I'm not sure. I haven't the slightest and I haven't the right. I wanna run, I wish to scream: "Old Man, you corporate fucking prick. I'm just a goblin, I never asked for this. I'll be your sin eater, I'll be your something blue, but people are in pain, the fuck went wrong with you?"

So I wake up again to twelve o' clock lights, the concentric circles above me swirling in my dead girl eyes. I'm writing a letter, sitting right there in the street, it was salty, you see. It also tasted Gross, but the west coast sun stroke left me loving you most. I love writing you letters, I write to you every day, and it says exactly what we both wish it to say. "I'll be your something blue, though I don't quite yet know how, I will save you from that fate, it'll feel better. Cigarette Ahegao". I sign the letter with Warm Regards and make sure to add "From Russia with love". All I wanted was a framework, now I'm moonsick, nearly dead, however I miss you still, the liquor underneath your bed, the way you loved our lukewarm Honeysuckle Lavander Butterscotch, and stale bread.

You didn't text, you didn't call, you've got 4 for thanksgiving in the fall. The blood has been rejected, but that's fine, cause you drew the tar out of my bloodstream, the salt inside my veins and in my eyes. And you could plausibly say that I'm alive by sheer luck, but with God as my fucking witness This Night Will Not Suck.

I returned to my apartment, stay in and wait to die, but at least we have each other, despite the beast refusing to die.

Now that you've made it all 4 years, and a few paragraphs more, I think You Should Know. Sometimes I move so fast sometimes so slow, I don't care much for what happens to me, but as I imagine a life better than the one I know, I realize it won't happen and slip into the sea. And tonight I think I'll skip the true crime, there's enough of it in real life, and to be honest I'd rather cry. I'll turn on the Shitty Song I listen to After a Self Care day, take my drugs, and say

"Well isn't this just the time of my fucking life, I honestly couldn't care less nor could I care more, however since the beast itself refuses to die

I guess

I suppose

Neither will I"

[lynne-leafwater]

The sin eater "draft" from that one live concert (not the teaser but the live guitar one) fills my soul with an indescribable sense of peace. It just resonates with my being so much, and the vocals are so nice.

Don't get me wrong, I love love loove the released version in Mysteries For Rats but the draft is imo almost equally as good depending on the situation.

[lynne-leafwater]

Girl's Night is so queer coded

Fight me on this

[lynne-leafwater]

Every day I wake up from my hot garbage pile in which I fucking sleep, look inside myself and ask:

Do I feel like a "soft boys with their succulents" or "girls dressed to crack skulls"?

And the answer is still-

That I feel like shit

And that's how I experience gender

[lynne-leafwater]

Shitty Song to Listen to After a Shooting is female/femme rage personified.

It's calm, it's collected, but it's vicious, and mean, not to mention creative.

"You're not special just for torturing the poor, you unoriginal spinesless monster it's been done before"

[lynne-leafwater]

I think it's often overlooked that Dead Girls is a song about society, it's a social critique. Obviously it can be interpreted both as an individual experience but also I feel it's also about a general outlook of society on dead girls/dead kids.

Dead Girls portrays how glorified dead kids are, how they're often seen as inherently pure, untainted by sin. Often dead kids are simultaneously seen as a tragedy yet also somewhat the best thing that could happen to a person, especially in hyper religious circles. A dead kid is basically automatically going to heaven, because they're free from the sin and impurity that adults and older people inherently have.

Additionally the line "if all you ever see are dead girls, and all you hear is terrible news, maybe it's not all about the dead kids, maybe it's more about you. The living need attention too" is so powerful in that it shows how empathy can sometimes only be rewarded to dead people, especially dead kids, who are seen as not being able to do wrong. ("Dead kids/girls, where do they go?" Is I think half a rhetorical question because it's just assumed the answer is heaven in a lot of society)

A slightly different interpretation however very much connected to what I've mentioned is that dead kids are often seen as the only version of a blameless victim. In a world where we blame victims, especially girls/women who are assaulted or abused, we view even kids who are abused as ending up becoming adults with trauma who aren't seen as blameless, who are seen as dirty because of their trauma, and are often seen as causing harm too. Therefore a somewhat logical conclusion (however fucked up it is) is that the best thing to be in the eyes of society is a dead child.

Moreover "they seemed like something special, really don't they all? I guess before you're gone it can be kind of hard to tell" definitely at least reflects a lot of experiences I've witnessed where a person is only really regarded as 'special' or 'having value' after they're dead, no matter if in theory they do before that.

Anyways this was just to add another perspective to already done analyses of the song. I'm not saying this is the only right (or even intended) meaning of the song, but it's an interesting perspective and I think it holds a lot of weight within the context of the song

[lynne-leafwater]

"I want a truck bed, clean it up, put in some blankets. We'll have fun, we'll run if the bank tries to take it."

If my soulmate isn't down for that I don't want them.