TUNE IN BITCHEZ

AN ALBUM A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY

[tuneinbitchez]

7.14.20 // How I’m Feeling Now / Charli XCX I never really liked Charli XCX until now. Prior to ‘How I’m Feeling Now,’ her music slyly blended into the rest of the sub-genre of girly EDM pop along with Halsey and the outdated Cher Lloyd. However, as Charli finally deviated from her typical la-de-da, washed out sound, her music gained more and more traction with a new and emerging crowd (myself included) of hyper pop fanatics. Spearheaded by hyper pop trendsetters 100GECS, their collaborative album combines the catchy and irresistible feelings from Charli’s old albums that have made them such a hit, with the upbeat yet emotional lyrics and melodies of her new cyber sound. Despite ‘How I’m Feeling Now’s inability to achieve the level of widespread popularity of her older albums, Charli has attested to the music as being more of her own. There is intention and heart woven into every digital track on her new album that is missing in the others. This album may not be everyone’s taste, but I encourage everyone to open their minds to the increasing praised upon hyper pop genre. Go show this album some love, because it’s showing us A LOT of love!

[tuneinbitchez]

6.20.20 // Ungodly Hour (2020) / Chloe x Halle 

I first heard Chloe x Halle when they performed Where is the Love during the 2019 Grammys. They looked like identical twin goddesses, and I was enthralled. I did some research of the two and found out that they’re also actors, and are mentored and produced by Beyonce and Solange. However, I never ended up further exploring their music until this last week, when a friend of mine told me that they recently released a new album. So, during my Friday afternoon Door Dashing run, I plugged my phone into the aux and Google Played Ungodly Hour. The album sounds like a mashup of Destiny’s Child and the The Carters (Beyonce and Jay-Z’s couple artist name). Some of the songs are very TLC-esque, hosting a 90’s hip hop sound in songs like Baby Girl and Busy Boy. Other songs are more R&B, smooth and sexy, similar to SZA and Teyana Taylor. And others provide deep bass beats, giving them a trap-like vibe (which reminded me of APESHIT by The Carters. Overall, I think the album is a perfect mix of modern girl pop - providing something for everyone, and is filled from start to finish with hit songs. If their absolute beauty isn’t enough to convince you to listen to Ungodly Hour, than please let this post motivate you, you won’t regret it. 

[tuneinbitchez]

This is not a moment. This is a movement.

Don’t forget where art comes from. Don’t forget where music comes from. Don’t forget where fashion “trends” come from. Don’t forget where our country comes from. Don’t forget where culture comes from. 

Listen better. Educate yourself better. Talk to your friends better. Talk to your family better. Write better. Teach better. Spend money better. Act better. Fight better.

Keep learning. Keep listening. Keep teaching. Keep reading. Keep fighting. Keep respecting. Keep thinking. Keep questioning. Keep asking. 

[tuneinbitchez]

5/7/20 // Invisible People by Chicano Batman (2020)

Today I was scrolling through Instagram when I came by a new post from Pitchfork, saying “The eclectic, party-starting Southern California band make their most accessible record, with big hooks and definitive statements to match.” And being the party starter I am, thought this would be a great ablum for me to listen to whilst doing homework... :) Yep, that’s right, homework!! Love it. So I dragged by ass outside, sat in my lawn chair with my laptop right where it belongs - on my lap, put my massive headphones on and pressed play.

I’ve never listened to any other Chicano Batman songs, but I was extremely pleased to have Invisible People take my Chicano Batman virginity! I knew I liked their sound because I always liked their song Black Lipstick (listen if you haven’t), which is very psychedelic, indie, rock, and pop-y. Their eclectic instrumentals and punk alt-rock voices join together in bouncy and relatable music (for the millenial generation). The perfect upbeat, yet soulful sounds make their music extremely versatile - good music for heart break and good music for good times. The range of tones and catchy tunes makes Chicano Batman’s Invisible People appealing for anyone with any type of music taste. I think that Chicano Batman is a band to watch, and I don’t think they’re going to stop making great music any time soon. My favorite songs on the album are Invisible People, Moment of Joy, and Prohpet. If any of my readers (where are you! I need you!) like Gorillaz (which I hope all of you do!), I recommend the song Polymetrenomic Harmony for a somewhat similar sound. 

[tuneinbitchez]

5/6/20 // Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd (1973)

Alright people, I’m definitely slacking on this whole “one album a day” thing, but I’m doing my best!! It’s been a hectic couple of days (moved home for a month) to say the least. Although I haven’t been keeping this blog updated, I have been doing my best to listen to new albums as often as possible! So for my second album I chose listen to Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. The first time I really heard about this album was when Seattle Center started hosting lazer shows for it. My friends would either take edibles, shrooms, or acid, and head on over to the lazer and have existential experience - laying on the floor, staring at the neon lights, and having a good ass time. A lazer show, I’ve decided since listening through, would be a perfect way to experience this album. The album runs on a kind of “loop” where the first song of the album and the last fade into each other, making the album feel like an infinite circle of life. As do the first and last songs, a few songs in the middle blend together as well - truly exemplifying the experimentation that this album is so well known for. Some songs have words, others have creepy soundbites, others just sounds. The album expresses a wonderful range of music, from classic rock, to jazz, to funk, to alternative/indie punk. Additionally, the song length ranges from a quick one-minute, to almost eight minutes long (I’m assuming the longer the song, the more important or meaningful it is? Just a guess!). Dark Side of the Moon provides the listener with feelings of hope, anger, fear, perserverance, greed, and love. For those who have not listened to this album yet (and those who have), I HIGHLY recommend listening to it in order to hear the full effect, as an exterrestrial-seeming story unfolds and the songs go on. My personal favorites are Time, Money, and Brain Damage!

[tuneinbitchez]

5/5/20 // Love, Loss, and Auto-tune by Swamp Dogg (2018)

Ok so, I’m still trying to find a way for me to blog about every album I listen to while still enjoying writing. I’ve always loved writing, to the point where I chose Journalism as my degree, but I immediately started hating writing when I had to use it in school. One goal I’ve been trying to focus on for awhile is relearning how to love writing. So I’m sorry (to literally no one, because I have zero followers so far), if there is missing information or if your not getting what you want - but the only point of these album reviews are to challenge me to create art, learn about musicians, and listen to beautiful music. So here’s what I have to say about my most recent album:

I discovered the song Lonely (on this album) last night while watching the Hulu show High Fidelity (not a huge fan but I could watch Zoe Kravitz all day). Zoe’s character is a music nerd and owns her own record store in New York City (kind of the dream?). Anyways, she announces that she’s going to sell an x-amount of Swamp Dogg albums by playing the song Lonely - and she does! So I whipped out my phone and schazamed the fuck out of that song, only to discover the bizarre but perfectly strange album  Love, Loss, and Auto-tune. I’d never heard of Swamp Dogg before, but apparently he is one of “R&B’s weirdest - and most radical - weirdos,” and if that doesn’t make you love an artists than I don’t know what will (Rolling Stones). After doing a little investigating, I came to discover Swamp Dogg’s history - starting out singing the funky blues in the 70′s, pushing musical, political, and sexual boundaries up until 2018, when he decided to see what all the auto-tune hype was about. And I must say, I think he made the right choice with this album. Its catchy, weird, techno-y, and dare I say... funny. I actually found myself laughing out lound to some of his songs (I got a kick out of Sex With Your Ex - its so relatable lol)! If you like hip hop, Kanye West, soul, and a little bit of weirdness than I think you’ll probably like this album! I recommend we all step outside our comfort zones for this one - my new fav!

[junksandpunks-blog]

[tuneinbitchez]

808s & Heartbreak by Kanye West, 2008

Personal Reflection:

Overall, I don’t think there are many Kanye West albums that I dislike, and this album is not one of them! Despite Kanye’s (pretty) questionable actions, statements, ideas, beliefs, etc.... I think I can get behind his mentality of being a musical genius. What can I say! This album is full of hit songs like Heartless, Amazing (feat. Young Jeezy), and Love Lockdown. I don’t know about you guys, but I have very fond memories of reciting the lyrics to Heartless during recess and acting out romantic tragedies with my fourth grade homies. I remember listening to this album on the radio and my dad saying, “I think Kanye West is my favorite artist.” This is history people, history!! 808s and Heartbreak sounds like what Daft Punk would’ve created if they were rappers. The dramatic autotune, a classic Kanye trademark, ties the album together in a sad, ~heartbreaking~ sound. As one might assume, this album seems like it followed an exhausting breakup or betrayal of some kind. According to the Rolling Stones, 808s and Heartbreaks is “part self-examination, part-exorcism of two tragic and life-defining moments for Kanye: the death of his mother... and the dissolution of his 18-month engagement to Alexis Phifer.” Is it just me, or did anyone else think Kanye’s mom died in 2014, before he released his single Only One?? You learn something new every day I guess! Anyways, I think that Rolling Stones was right. Some traumatic events seemed to have happened shortly before his release of this album in 2008, some of which he still seems to be recovering from. The story the album seems to tell moves from breakup vibes (with Welcome to Heartbreak and Heartless), to self-reflection and self-assurance (with Amazing and RoboCop), to goodbyes and realization (Street Lights and Pinocchio Story). 

Technical Reflection:

The album name 808s and Heartbreaks has a quite literal meaning. An 808, in the music world, (according to Dictionary.com) refers to a common nickname for the Roland TR-808, a Rythm Composer. Such a machine was created in the 1980s as an electronic drum machine for hip hop music. However, the term 808 is, ironically enough, mistakenly referenced as the penal code for “distubing the peace.” Kanye’s peace was certainly distubed before releasing an album that seems to start and end in depressing verses about life and love - which serves as a perfect segway into the second part of the album title: Heartbreak. As I mentioned before, prior to the release of this album Kanye’s mother, Donda West, passed away and his engagement ended within about a year and a half of eachother. Although it isn’t totally clear if Kanye is referring to his mothers death in his lyrics (??), we can pick up some sad and retrospective moments in his songs Streets Lights, Bad News, and Coldest Winter. The album, as a whole, has a theme of disappointment, despair, and hopelessness, whether these songs are written about the people he’s lost or about his old self, the listener must decifer for themselves. Not only does Kanye seek to find deeper meaning within his music, but with his album tells a story as well (something I learned from a classmate in my public speaking class a few years ago). The art was created by Brooklyn-based artist KAWS, which seems to resemble a popped, crinkled, and torn red balloon. We can only assume this balloon represents Kanye’s own broken heart (Complex.com). In Kanye’s promotional images and during his tour that year, he wore a similar image of a broken heart on his chest. The colors displayed on the strip to left represent the colors from his previous album Graduation (2007). But most interestingly, this particular album cover stands out against his previous album covers: Kanye’s persona as the “Dropout Bear” is no longer present. If we want to get really insightful here, one could examine the idea that the pain and trauma from Kanye’s fame and life events absorbed him during this time period. Perhaps the disappearance of the Dropout Bear represents the loss of the old Kanye, and the rebirth of a tougher, colder, and more chivalrous Kanye. 

[tuneinbitchez]

TUNE IN BITCHEZ!! Welcome to my #quarantine project! I’m not a musician, I never studied music, but I love the scene and I’m just chasin my dreams here! So, in an effort to learn more about music and entertain myself during these trying, trying times (and keep me off of tiktok hahah let’s be honest 😫) I decided to take on a personal project. MY GOAL IS TO LISTEN TO A NEW ALBUM EVERY DAY and write a short review on my interpretation, memories, or ideas pertaining that album! In hopes of learning more about different artists and the history of music, I’m challenging myself to listen to and research a diverse range of music! Please message me or comment if you have any suggestions! Thank you all, muah muah muah 💋 💋💋 - THE BITCH