Mixtapemotions

  • “The News” by Paramore, Monday, April 10, 2023

    After incredible success after releasing their comeback single last fall, “This Is Why” which would be the title track to the album the band released in February, Paramore released their second single, “The News.” Both singles prepared the listener for a Paramore album unlike anything that the band had recorded before. “This Is Why” featured the self-defeating lyrics fans have come to expect from lead singer Haley Williams and the song had a certain Paramore catchiness, but the funky bass and classic rock guitar explored musical territory the band had not yet shared with their listeners. 


    A WAR RIGHT BEHIND MY EYES. “The News,” however, was a hard rock socially-conscious track, darker than most of the band’s prior songs. The same day that Paramore released the single, they also released a video for the song. The video (see below) features Haley Williams hypnotized by a television, which becomes a catatonic state in the video. As the second single and the second track on This Is Why, “The News” works in tandem with the rest of the songs to answer the question posed by the album’s title. While the line is “This is why I don’t leave the house” critics and fans have interpreted the real question posed by This Is Why is the reason the band got back together. During the pandemic, fans wondered if Williams’ solo work could fill the hole left in music without Paramore. After all, there does seem to be a lyrical progression from After Laughter to Petals for Armor, and This Is Why seems to be an update on Williams’ mental health. But while Williams is a very capable solo artist, the new Paramore tracks, full of passion, “spite and sweet revenge” seem to show that the three bandmates left in the messy band after two decades of in-fighting are happiest when they make music about their frustrations. 


    A WAR ON THE FAR SIDE, ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PLANET. “The News” talks about the unhealthy relationship many of us have with the news. This Is Why is the most overt political statement Paramore has ever made in their music, but that political statement comes from Haley Williams refusing to silence her opinions. Of course, Williams’ statements on faith on the band’s third record Brand New Eyes, particularly “Ignorance,” was notably the first fracture when Williams declared “The truth never set me free” contradicting the Bible verse John 8:32, which states “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (NIV). The backlash and support from this line emboldened Williams to speak out about other things, including supporting the band’s LGBTQ+ fans in 2020. Williams has also supported Black Lives Matter and recently spoke out against the anti-drag laws proposed in her home state of Tennessee. But constantly dealing with the backlash of speaking out against what Christianity stands for in the 2020s gets exhausting. Since Paramore has been away, so much has happened. The Christian values the band was raised are on trial, and the Trump years and all that the news shows us is that those values may have caused the issues that we face today. It would be one thing if the gloom and doom of the pandemic finished and the villainous politicians went to jail and the world was a little less eventful. Instead, the news keeps flooding in and it’s overwhelming. Why do I check the news when I take a break at work or even when I’m blogging? It’s not like there’s going to be something amazing that’s going to give me energy to get back to work. But is cutting it out completely healthy? “Turn on turn off the news!”  
     

  • “Pictures of Us” by beabadoobee, Sunday, April 9, 2023

    Last week, I listened to a podcast introducing artists who sound similar to another artist in order to help expand lesser-known artists expand their fan bases just to hear some takes that the commentators had to say about another artist I was preparing to post about. I didn’t actually end up writing about that artist, but I inadvertently discovered a few new artists to add to my AppleMusic library, one of which was Filipina-British singer-songwriter Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus, better known by her stage name beabadoobee.

    BUILDINGS AND RUST.  With nearly 15 million monthly listeners on Spotify, it seems that the bedroom pop singer beabadoobee is blowing up in popularity these days. Could it be her opening on the current leg of Taylor Swift‘s Eras tour? Born in Iloilo City in 2000 and relocating to London with her family at the age of three, Laus was influenced by indie rock from an early age. At the age of seventeen, she learned guitar from YouTube tutorials after having played violin since the age of ten. In September 2017, she released two songs on YouTube, a cover of Karen O‘s “Moon Song” and an original titled “Coffee.” With 300,000 views on YouTube, Bea signed to Dirty Hit Records. The UK-based label housed acts like The 1975, The Japanese House, Wolf Alice, and Rina Sawayama. After signing to Dirty Hit Records, beabadoobee released several EP and started garnering critical acclaim. Supporting tours with Clairo, labelmates The 1975, and Halsey and admiration by Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Khalid for her artistry, beabadoobee has become a kind of artist’s artist.  

    LAST NIGHT’S EMERGENCY. Last year, beabadoobee released her second full-length record Beatopia. The album shows Laus’s blends indie rock with acoustic singer-songwriter tendencies. The under-refined elements of the album make the album delightful, from the cover art that looks like it was designed by a child to opening track “Beatopia Cultsong.” Most of the album is more at home in a coffee shop than on the radio, but there are certainly some catchy hooks hidden within the album. Deep within the record is today’s song “Pictures of Us.” The song’s lyrics are vague. The short verses deal with a conflict between the speaker and an unnamed female. Musically, the song reminds me of a ’90s soft rock forgotten gem. The song was originally written by The 1975’s frontman Matthew Healy about his childhood friend, by Bea rewrote the track about a friend she had when she was a teenager. Of the iconic line in the chorus: “She reminded me that God starts with a capital, but I don’t think I can do it” Laus told Apple Music: “It’s so open to interpretation. To me personally, it means someone that you truly, truly admire, but not being able to be on the same page. But you’re trying to be.”

  • "High Hopes" by Kodaline, Saturday, April 8, 2023 (updated repost)

    Two years ago, I taught a lesson on Irish music to my students. I played examples of Celtic instrumental music. I showed videos of River Dance. I played sad songs like “The Parting Glass” and “Danny Boy.” Then I played some famous Irish artists like Enya,  U2, and The Cranberries. Then I played  Kodaline‘s “High Hopes.” When I asked my students which they liked the best, they said Kodaline. But that was kind of a stupid question for a music lover. There are times when I want to listen to Celtic bagpipes and jigs. There are times I want to go out and have fun in an Irish pub and hear Celtic punk rock. There are times I want to listen to U2, and it’s certainly not the same day I want to listen to Enya, but those days happen too. But like my students, I think Kodaline’s first album fits more into my everyday listening habits.

    BROKEN BOTTLES IN THE HOTEL LOBBY. While In A Perfect World  is a great everyday listen, you have to be careful watching the music video for “High Hopes.” It’s a beautiful love story between an older man and a somewhat younger woman. The couple meets when she runs away from her wedding and she saves him from trying to kill himself in his car. They begin their relationship when he takes her to his meager cottage.  The two build their relationship, but the tone of the video changes when they are lying in bed and he notices the scars on her back. Then, as the guitar solo starts, the couple is shot by a man carrying a shotgun. The two are in a pool of blood.  The man wakes up in the hospital and sees her bed is empty. At the end of the video, she hugs him from behind. Lead singer Steve Garrigan wrote “High Hopes” after a bad breakup. I think the graphic nature of this video is meant to be metaphorical. The woman saves the older man from his destructive ways. They fall in love but when he discovers her scars, the relationship reaches levels of problems that lead to another person/outside factor “shooting”  both partners. The end of the video could either mean she left him and he’s remembering her, and the embrace is just holding on to memories, or it could be that she left for a while but comes back to him. Either way, the video is a bit shocking, so I didn’t play it for my students. 

    I KNOW IT’S CRAZY TO BELIEVE IN STUPID THINGS. In 2021, Garrigan released his memoir, titled High Hopes: Making Music, Losing My Way, Learning to Live, in which the singer talks about his shyness and became the lead singer of the immensely popular Irish band. Sure, Kodaline doesn’t have the 17 million monthly listeners that U2 has, but 8 million a month certainly isn’t bad. I’m curious to read the book, to see what Garrigan has to say about the song that was birthed out of a break-up years ago, and why he used this song as a springboard to write about his career as a rock star. For me today, though, “High Hopes” got me thinking about how futile it seems to get ahead. It seems that I’ll always be plugging along at the same type of job, even if I get more education. Every year the resources dry up just a little bit more, and you’re left feeling as if you should be grateful for your job in the ever-growing “hard economic times.”  Still, why are more duties added to the contract and no extra pay? Will the situation convalesce back to what it was? I think back to my hopeful outlook after just graduating from university and how oblivious I was to how the world actually works. And yet, the world keeps spinning around the sun.

    Read “High Hopes” by Kodaline on Genius.

  • "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, Friday, April 7, 2023

    Few songs are as recognizable from their piano introduction as Journey‘s 1981 hit, “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Television in the 2000s may have played a role in why the song is still so iconic. From appearing as the emotion ending sequence to the critically-acclaimed HBO series, The Sopranos to the phenomenal performance by the teens at McKinley High back when Glee was still novel, “Don’t Stop Believin’” is probably the first song that comes to mind when you think of Journey. 


    JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL. Well, of course I have to play my hipster card for a minute. In the age of Limewire and from the rare occasions that my mom would listen to classic rock stations, I fell in love with two of Journey’s rockers: “Separate Ways” (Worlds Apart) and “Wheel in the Sky.” And then there was when my music teacher had me playing “Open Arms” when I played wedding music. But twenty years after that, Journey’s number 9 Hot 100 hit has far more streams than their rockers or their other ballads, even if “Open Arms” reached number 2 in 1982 and even “Separate Ways” reached a spot higher on the Hot 100 at number 8. Recently, I’ve been constructing an anti-hipster argument arguing that the classics are remembered for a reason. In one of my classes I have been teaching a fairy tales book filled with many obscure fairy tales that certainly have merit, but ultimately lack the punchiness of the ones that we grew up listening to by Hans Christian Anderson or collected by The Brothers Grimm. Years ago, I filled my Kindle with complete works by Ray Bradbury, Daphne du Maurier, Pearl S. Buck, and several other authors, and read as much of their works as I enjoyed. I certainly found some gems, but I started to realize that their most popular books usually showed their writing craft in the most refined way. In other words, there was little filler and characters and plots were digestible in ways that felt satisfying. 

    JUST A CITY BOY, BORN AND RAISED IN SOUTH DETROIT. While I haven’t listened to Journey’s entire discography, I think “Don’t Stop Believin’” is the band’s most lyrically refined song. The song follows an odd structure, particularly for a 21st century audience that screams “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.” But in other ways, “Don’t Stop Believin’” utilizes multiple hooks, taking the listener on a journey to the end of the song where the chorus finally is realized as a guitar solo 3:06 into the song and finally sung at 3:22. Of course, the chorus has been bread-crumbed to the listener after each verse, but it’s the exuberant chorus at end of the song that listeners wait for, like the climax of a book or a movie. But while the musical journey of the song may be what brought listeners in initially, I think it’s the lyrics that bring me back to this wistful ballad. The imagery of two lovers meeting for the first time in a “smokey room,” “a midnight train going anywhere” gives us a sense of time stopping when you meet someone special. We smell the wine and cheap perfume and it’s a little nauseating, but enduring because it’s the milieu of youth–it’s the sweat at the club or a concert, which is gross if you’re not part of it. And somehow, these feelings of young love, horniness, and pure musical emotion seem to be mixed up with faith for those of us who have it. “Don’t Stop Believin’” is a song that leaves you feeling like you just went to church if all you hear is the chorus and the music. So many worship songs borrow the chords and try to capture that feeling that Journey gives us in their most-streamed song. It’s a kind of siren song to faith in something even if the over all message is not about that. It’s a feeling rather than an articulated thought. And you never want that feeling to stop.


  • “Bloom” by Troye Sivan, Thursday, April 6, 2023 (warning: frank discussion of explicit sexual acts)

    Spring is a time of youth and renewed life. Flowers are blooming and pollen is swimming in the breeze. We have seen this happen year in and year out, perhaps never really thinking about how Mother Earth is regenerating herself. Indeed sex is all around us as the bees inseminate the flowers in the garden. The vibrancy of springtime in a garden is an appropriate cloak for today’s song as Troye Sivan wraps the metaphor of young horniness in the beauty of the natural world in the title track to his second record Bloom. While Sivan’s track is undeniably queer, the journey into the garden feels universal–a trip that all will take when leaving youth behind.


    TAKE A TRIP INTO MY GARDEN. Troye Sivan’s sophomore record, Bloom, takes the singer-songwriter into more adult themes. The singer’s previous work Blue Neighbourhood intentionally steered away from overtly sexual topics. When Sivan made the music video trilogy “Wild,” “Fools,” and “Talk You Down,” Sivan created a space for exploring same-sex attraction during youth without overly sexualizing love. He told Advocate “I feel like gay relationships are sexualized in the media and I just wanted to show a romantic, adorable, puppy love situation between two little boys because that’s something we never ever see.” And while some of the tracks on Blue Neighbourhood are explicit due to language, most of the songs deal with love and acceptance for one’s sexuality. But Sivan’s 2018 record has been described by Out as the singer’s “sex record.” At the age of 23, Sivan told stories about losing his virginity at the age of “Seventeen” to an older man. The video to the album’s lead single “My, My My!” takes a cue from Christina Aguilera‘s “Dirrty” video, with Sivan dancing provocatively, and the Saturday Night Live performance of the song left Sivan dripping wet.  
    I’VE BEEN SAVING THIS FOR YOU. Troye Sivan revealed to Dazed that “Bloom” was about “being the receptive partner losing his virginity.” The gay community calls the receptive partner the bottom and performing this role as bottoming. There are not many songs about gay sex, and much fewer about bottoming. Sivan is opening a curtain to the queer community to a much more sexually fluid and open generation of younger millennials and Gen-Z. The video for “Bloom” feels like a New Wave video from the ’80s blurring the line between masculine and feminine. While the album Bloom may have not been a runaway success in the general market, Sivan leaves a positive influence on the gay community, particularly the members who shame “fems,” or men who are on the more feminine side. Of course, one celebrity doesn’t completely change the number of men with 20 miles who are only “masc4masc” but Sivan as a pop star gives queer folks a role model for what can be on the feminine side, authentic, and sexy.



     

  • “Cotton Candy” by Jinyoung (진영), Wednesday, April 5, 2023

    Park Jinyoung  is a 28-year-old singer/actor who shares a name with one of the most famous entertainment mavens–a singer and founder of the record company JYP, which also happens to be the label that the singer of today’s song is also signed to. Jinyoung started his entertainment career as an actor in 2011 and quickly began sharing his vocal talents by contributing to the soundtrack of the drama Dream High 2, which the singer also stared in. 
    FEEL SO HIGH LIKE THE SKY. Jinyoung was born in Jinhae-gu, Changwon, South Korea, which coincidentally is home to one of the most famous cherry blossom festivals in Korea. The singer had dreams of appearing on television since elementary school. He auditioned for SM Entertainment while he was in sixth grade, only with the promise to his mother that if he failed the audition his parents wouldn’t support him. Jinyoung didn’t win the competition, but made it to the third round, winning an award for his popularity in the competition. Because of this accomplishment, Jinyoung’s parents allowed him to study dance in Busan during middle school. Today, Jinyoung is probably best known as a member of the idol boy band GOT7, though he was a member of the duet JJ Project prior to GOT7’s debut in 2014. The duet has made music during GOT7’s career; however, their most recent release was in 2017. As a solo artist, Jinyoung started releasing music in 2021, and earlier this year he released Chapter 0: With.  Unlike many idol singers, Jinyoung is credited with writing much of his music for all three projects he’s been involved with including his 2023 EP. The lead single, “Cotton Candy,” though, hasn’t charted like GOT7’s music.
    IT FEELS LIKE I AM FLYING IN THE SKY. Cotton candy tastes really good for a few bites. It’s served in a loom that is always too big for however many people are sharing it. It’s all fluff and no substance, and if ingested too much and with other fatty, sugary carnival foods, a good day can turn sour in the stomach. But that’s just adult me griping. Today, I need a saccharine ballad. But really, that’s not the reason why I chose the song today. A few days ago, I realized that the cherry blossom trees in the mountains looked like cotton candy. The hue of light pink to a pinkish white reminded me of the trees from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax.  And then I realized that today is arbor day. Yes, it’s all a very loose connection. The cherry blossoms will all be gone tomorrow morning after the rain stops. Spring is in full swing and the world is looking more and more colorful. The world is greening and purpling and becoming more and more vivid. And while my mood has been hampered by allergies and annoyances in work and life, I can’t help but feel life coming back to me and that renewed energy coming back with the spring.

    Read the original lyrics in Korean.

  • "cherry blossom" by Kacey Musgraves, Tuesday, April 4, 2023

    Only for one week cherry blossoms bloom. The sakura or 벚꽃 are a delicate flower that is quite a spectacle both where they naturally occur in East Asian and where they have been planted. The peach and plum trees and magnolia trees are also beautiful, but the cherry blossoms when they fall like snow are quite stunning. But unlike the other flowers, cherry blossoms are the most delicate. Heavy rains, winds, unseasonable hot or cold, improper pruning of the trees all could be reasons for an uneven sakura week. And if the weather permits, the week ends with the flowers blowing in the wind like snow. 


    EVEN IN NATURE TIMING IS EVERYTHING. The third track on Kacey Musgraves‘ star-crossed, “cherry blossom,” compares the singer and her love to the delicate flowers that are supposed to bloom in “early April” but now earlier due to climate change. The cherry blossoms bloom for one week every year and then blow away in the breeze. Love too can disappear if it is not nurtured. In the loose story arc of Musgraves’ divorce record, “cherry blossom” establishes the speaker as being worthy of love and a pretty good catch. Today’s song is more upbeat than the previous track, “good wife,” with the second track taking on a heavier responsibility in the dissolution of the marriage, whereas today’s song the speaker shows that it is up to the other party to make it work. Today’s song was one of the tracks chronologically excluded from star-crossed: the film. It does, however, serve as the film’s end credits scene, but contributes nothing to the so-called plot of the film. While star-crossed is indeed a loose concept album, “cherry blossom” does serve as one of the few tracks on the record that build a somewhat believable relationship between the protagonist and her ex-husband.

    TOKYO WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY. One rhetorical device Kacey Musgraves uses in “cherry blossom” is changing city in the cliché “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” On her previous album, Golden Hour, Musgraves points out “In Tennessee the sun is goin’ down / but in Beijing they’re headin’ out to work” in “Slow Burn.” While this line doesn’t seem profound, it does paint Musgraves as more internationally aware than most of her fellow country singers. Musgraves has toured both Europe and Asia headlining and supporting pop artists. In 2019, the singer was accused of cultural appropriation and sexualizing Vietnamese culture for wearing a traditional outfit, only wearing the top half of the outfit. I’m not sure if Musgraves has apologized for this fashion faux pas –and the CNN article points out other pop stars who have been accused of cultural appropriation from Asian heritage–and it is not my job to cancel Musgraves or justify her, I have a feeling that Musgraves’ mistakes come from a sense of almost childlike wonder at a big world full of people with different backgrounds that she became more and more aware as her music reached a bigger audience. It’s that wonder for Japan and the sakura that made its way onto her 2021 record. The memories of cherry blossoms falling add much needed lightness on this otherwise dark record of divorce and heartbreak. 

    Instagram live performance:


  • "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" by Pink Floyd, Monday, April 3, 2023 (updated repost)

    A fan of the funk/disco band Chic, producer Bob Ezrin convinced Pink Floyd to include a disco beat backing what would become their only number 1 hit in their career. Ezrin also convinced the band to release the song as a radio single, something the band had been against on previous albums as they wanted their songs to be understood in the context of their greater work. The band had been a psychedelic pop act in the ’60s and had done radio, but they felt their artistic concepts were too big for the casual listeners. Classic Rock radio remembers a Floyd that never was, playing tracks from Dark Side of the Moon until The Wall, but perhaps without the commercial success of “Another Brick in the Wall,” radio would have forgotten the band.  

    TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE. Recorded with school children singing “We don’t need no education” and despised by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, “Another Brick” is the ultimate protest song of school children everywhere. If we take this song at face value, schools are concentration camps and teachers are the Nazis in charge. The ultimate revolt would be against education, children returning the human race into a feral state, as human infrastructure would deteriorate because no one would know how to operate anything. I’m sure the kid who pretended to be sick today and wished all schools would burn down hasn’t taken that thought to its logical conclusion. This, of course, isn’t want the song is about. Drawing on lead singer Roger Waters’ experience in a  Dickensian U.K. school, he argues that this hostile environment caused trauma and years of mental health issues, laying bricks in the wall that separated him from other people. Waters explained in Mojo: “You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ’50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that.”

    IF YOU DON’T EAT YOUR MEAT, YOU CAN’T HAVE ANY PUDDING. It’s funny, though, contrary to Margret Thatcher, this song didn’t destroy education. Academia is still alive and well, and it’s just as hard as ever to get into a good school. Americans are so racked with university debt as it’s been told to us that you have to go to college to make any money in the modern world. Since Roger Waters’ grammar school days, there have been lots of reforms to education, and school systems has leaped forward with better, research based practices to improve learning and support students. Education will never be perfect. Greedy politicians always think they know better how to educate the nation’s kids. Timmy’s parents will always believe that he’s a perfect angel. People will always think that it’s a babysitter’s job and that anyone can do it. When I hear “Another Brick,” I think about what I’ve learned as a teacher. How I’ve learned to cause less trauma to my students as they grow up. But I also think about how much more we as teachers and as a society need to do for children. We can’t erase what’s happened in Mr. McChoakumchild’s classroom, but we can hear the stories and decide to make the change.
    Scene from The Wall film:

    Official Music Video:

  • “Late Night Talking” by Harry Styles, Sunday, April 2, 2023 + sick: a playlist of for staying in bed

    The last week I’ve been sick. The doctor says it’s just allergies and put me on a ton of meds that have me really sleepy. It feels like a cold, but I’ve been powering through my hell schedule. So today, I decided to make a playlist of songs that I want to listen to when I’m sick. It’s an on-going playlist and it also eats up a post as I’m adjusting my algorithm (a Google Sheets document I use for determining the song of the day). Please enjoy!



  • “The Fox” (What Does the Fox Say?) by Ylvis, Saturday, April 1, 2023

    I take this blog seriously. Maybe a little too serious at times. I want to share the music that I want others to care about as passionately as I care about it. But sometimes we have to remember that music can just be fun. And stupid. That’s why I’m updating my Foolish Mix from last April Fools day, this year featuring the bizarre electro-dance hit, “The Fox” (What Does the Fox Say?) by Ylvis. This will be an ongoing list of strange songs that don’t usually make my regular format. Enjoy!