Jinkx Monsoon’s sophomore album ‘The Ginger Snapped’ is a bombastic celebration
Bryan Smith
“Feeling like pussy, feeling like cunt. Make way for the Queen”. When the curtains pull back and the lights dim at the start of ‘The Ginger Snapped’, you are instantly greeted with a sassy anthem highlighting extreme and silly aspects of the drag queen lifestyle. This album is absolutely dripping with style, satire and attitude, just like Jinkx Monsoon themself (self-identified as gender fluid, thus preferring the pronouns their, they, and them). Monsoon (a.k.a. Jerick Hoffer) embraces the extremes of drag culture while poking fun at them too.
There is a lot of musical variety here thanks to Monsoon’s musical partner Major Scales, with layers of piano, power chords, heavy bass, strings, and brass sprinkled throughout. The album plays a lot like a Broadway production where Monsoon is the main character that critiques and reflects on their experiences in society. Monsoon’s charming vocals cut through the noise every time in a satisfying way, and they help deliver a sonorous experience that never left me feeling bored or wanting more.
One stand out track: ‘Cartoons and Vodka’ is a fun blues romp that is utterly relatable to everyone; those days where you are just beat and the best thing in the world is to have a drink and watch some cartoons at home. The song has also been treated with an awesome music video that you should definitely check out. Another stand out song: ‘Pianoman’ shakes things up towards the end of the album, and begins with heavy drums and a funky piano progression that makes you want to get up and dance. One of the slower tracks on the album called ‘Just Me (The Gender Binary Blues)’ is solidly written, and it describes the point of view of someone who doesn’t identify as only male or female. Monsoon weaves a narrative of experiences from their life seamlessly into a sarcastic and jazzy package, and I couldn’t help but listen to each word.
‘The Ginger Snapped’ is a well-produced and incredibly tight sounding album, and almost every track is strong enough to stand on its own. It’s also a remarkable glimpse into drag culture, and Monsoon’s lyrics reflect it in a relatable way. Monsoon’s ability to tell an entertaining story in each song, combined with the album’s vibrant sound, made listening to ‘The Ginger Snapped’ an enjoyable ride that will keep me coming back to listen to more.
Un horror dalle tinte splatter, che mescola sangue e sesso, portandoci in un avventura davvero folle. Oggi esce e ve ne parlo sul Blog, insieme ad altri Blogger durante un Review Party 😎 #TheKillingKind #BryanSmith #horror #splatter #dunwich #DunwichEdizioni #reading #leggeresempre #booknow #leggerefabene #bookblog #booklover #read #booklove #bookshelf #amoleggere #bookaholic #libridaleggere #freepik #viaggiatricepigra
Venerdì questo romanzo arriva in Italia grazie alla Dunwich. Già dalla trama si sente che la storia è particolare, fra l'horror e lo splatter, ma addentrandosi nelle pagine la follia regna sovrana. Qualche giorno e ve ne parleremo meglio durante un Review Party; se vi piace i genere e volete saperne di più prima di incominciare questa avventura, seguiteci 😉 #TheKillingKind #BryanSmith #horror #splatter #reading #leggeresempre #booknow #leggerefabene #bookblog #booklover #read #booklove #bookshelf #amoleggere #bookaholic #libridaleggere #freepik #viaggiatricepigra
The Shins flip folk rock music on its head with ‘The Worm’s Heart’
Bryan Smith
This January The Shins released a flipped version of last year’s album “Heartworms” in a new form called “The Worm’s Heart”. The term “flipped” refers to the reversed song order contrasting the latter album, as well as alterations to tempo, key, and instrumentals for each individual track.
It is exciting to have a tandem album experience that contains such a focused effort of musical discovery and critique. In an interview with NPR James Mercer (singer and song writer for The Shins) created “Heartworms” to reflect the changes in rock music and the changes in his own interpretation of what rock music was. “The Worm’s Heart” takes that thesis of exploration and folds it further in on itself to create something new.
“The Worm’s Heart” is probably not going to be a huge hit with loyal fans of “Heartworms”, since “Heartworms” runs a much closer parallel to the Shins’ classic sound. That doesn’t mean that “The Worm’s Heart” is a bad album. On its own, it still stands as a well-produced and engaging album. But it does take great liberties with the sound traditionally associated with The Shins, which is a bit of a let down at times. It manages to improve certain underwhelming songs with the changes made through flipped versions of certain tracks, but at the cost of reducing my enjoyment of previous favorite songs. Overall this album had a scarcity of tracks that jumped out as hits.
Heartworms/Flipped – The original title track is an electric folk song, layered with reverb guitars, and contains a happy melody that makes you want to bob your head side to side. While its flipped counterpart starts off with deeper synth tones that give off a vibe similar to “The Midnight” or the “Tron” soundtrack and ties it together with heavier bass and drums with almost no guitar elements.
The Fear/Flipped – A diddy for worrying about the stupid things, and the regret that comes with that in hindsight. The original track is a lofty pop song with string elements, a ukulele melody, and a bouncy drum beat. It gives off the vibe you’d feel while sitting in your backyard in ambient afternoon temperature and watching nature in all its majesty. While the flipped version improves the song turning it into a garage jam vibe with distorted guitars and drums, which feels like something you’d listen to while slightly hammered and speeding through a tunnel at night.
I feel this accomplishment is successful to what Mercer wanted to explore with the intentional contrast between these two albums, and how changes in interpretation of music can alter one’s enjoyment of it. Upbeat songs turn into slow songs, slow songs gain an upbeat tempo, rock changes to synth pop, and so on. The album is a good time to listen to once or twice, but afterwards, you’ll most likely never listen to the whole thing again.
Haus des Blutes – Bryan Smith Festa Verlag Taschenbuch 13,95 € eBook 4,99 € Eine Gruppe junger Erwachsener fährt auf der Interstate, und da sich alle die ganze Zeit nur streiten, fährt Dream runter von der Interstate. Als sie hält steigen alle erst mal aus, aber sie streiten weiter. Shane wird das zu blöd und er verschwindet in dem Wald. Irgendwann wundert sich Karen (Shanes Freundin) das er nicht wiederkommt, sie geht hinterher. Plötzlich hören die anderen schreie und rennen hinterher. Doch was Shane und auch Karen unabhängig voneinander gesehen haben wollen sie nicht glauben. Karen spricht von einem Monster und natürlich will ihr keiner glauben. Ich habe dieses Buch als Wanderbuch zum lesen bekommen und bin froh darüber, sonst wäre mir dieses wundervolle Buch entgangen. Bryan Smith schafft es einem in seinen Bann zu ziehen, eigentlich ohne dass man es merkt. Plötzlich war ich schon mit dem Buch durch, es ist wirklich sehr spannend und gruselig und sollte wirklich von jemand gelesen werden der schon 18 Jahre ist. Der Schreibstil ist total flüssig du die Protagonisten sind super beschrieben. Ich finde es kommen auch keinen überflüssigen Längen vor, was mich ein wenig stört, ist das es so viele unterschiedliche Protagonisten gibt, da kann man schon mal den Überblick verlieren. Alles in allem aber ein gelungenes Buch. Ich gebe 4 von 5 Sternen Erhältlich hier: https://www.festa-verlag.de/catalogsearch/result/?q=haus+des+blutes #bryansmith #hausdesblutes# #horror #horrorgeschichten #blog #thriller #lesen #bücher #blogger #blogspot #wanderbuch #festa #festaverlag
The last capital ideas panel at the Edmonton journal #capitalideas #edmontonjournal #bryansmith #bluetrain #laurendary #lphotography #andreadeca #andreadecawork #dagr010 #dagr1010 #yeg #youtubedavidgrass (at DAGR Sportscards and Collectibles)
Join Bryan Smith, an award winning filmmaker, adventurer, and conservationist for the National Geographic Channel, as he shares gripping moments from his assignments to document extreme feats and high adventure in the world’s most challenging environments.
An experienced kayaker who paddled steep rivers in India, Peru, and Russia, Smith was inspired to take up video…
