Mixtapemotions

  • “Africa” by Toto, Monday, August 21, 2023

    My mom didn’t let me play video games unless they were educational. So I didn’t grow up on Mario or Donkey Kong at home. Instead, I got to play educational games like The Oregon Trail or Math Blaster. My favorite game, though, was Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Despite the implausible premise of being a detective, tracking down a criminal who stole intangible cultural heritage, I loved flying around the world to fifty countries–some of which no longer exist–listening to strange music, and discovering the cultures that made the world so interesting. 


    IT’S GONNA TAKE A LOT TO DRAG ME AWAY FROM YOU. TOTO is often classified as a Yacht Rock band today, a somewhat pejorative term for the smooth-sounding light rock of the late ’70s and early ’80s. The term “Yacht Rock” actually comes from a YouTube mockumentary from the early age of YouTube. Music critic Chris Molanphey goes to great pains to define the imaginary genre in his episode of The Bridge called “Yacht or Not.” Molanphey argues that Yacht Rock is, in its purest form, West Coast studio musicians who performed highly refined pop music. Artists like Christopher Crosse and bands like Steely Dan and the Michael McDonald incarnation of The Doobie Brothers along with Los Angeles’ TOTO are some of the prime examples of Yacht Rock, according to Molanphey’s definition. Interestingly, one of the exceptions that Molanphey sites not as Yacht Rock is Daryl Hall & John Oates only because they were east coasters. Yacht Rock isn’t cool, but it’s made a resurgence on Spotify, particularly every summer. Furthermore, while not West Coasters, bands like The 1975 and Jonas Brothers certainly take influence from Yacht Rock. And while Hall & Oates and Michael MacDonald may not receive critical praise for their pop music, critics tend to love the musicality of Steely Dan and TOTO. 

    I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA. Similar to my early interest in the world due to Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, TOTO’s David Paich grew up reading National Geographic and watching UNICEF commercials, romanticizing the continent of Africa. The final track on Toto’s fourth album, “Africa,” is a generalization of a large continent. None of the members of the pop-rock group had been to Africa. Drummer Jeff Porcaro said of the song in an interview, “A white boy is trying to write a song on Africa, but since he’s never been there, he can only tell what he’s seen on TV or remembers in the past.” Having worked with coworkers from South Africa, I’m always fascinated to see how they view Americans. “So many of you think that Africa’s a country. A big one, but not as big as the U.S.” one coworker told me. Yet somehow, when Americans close their eyes we tend to think of everything: from the pyramids to the apartheid, from the Sahara to the Congo. And yet, while this land mass is more than three times the U.S., we shrink the world to make its problems seem small compared to my struggle to pay the mortgage. 

  • “Harmony Hall,” by Vampire Weekend, Sunday, August 20, 2023

     

    I hope you’ve been having a nice Vampire Weekend. Honestly, the band is one I’ve never gotten into, like other heady rock bands such as The National and Tame Impala. Formed in 2008, a time when vampires were all the rage, many rockers took issue with the band calling themselves a rock band, which singer Ezra Koenig addresses in an episode of Song Exploder discussing today’s song, “Harmony Hall.” Part of that controversy comes from a featured interview with Koenig in The Guardian titled, “Rock music is dead, so it’s more joyful to me.” In the article, Koenig talks about the state of the genre as well as the band’s extensive hiatus over the 2010s.

    ANGER WANTS A VOICE, VOICES WANNA SING. The four original members of Vampire Weekend boasted an Ivy League-educated band, leaving a critic to call them “The whitest band in the world.” Ezra Koenig responded to this biting critique, saying, “Nobody in our band is a WASP.” Koenig is Jewish-American, and the other members come from Persian and Eastern European families. Whereas the critic was looking to call out Vampire Weekend on their lyrics coming from a position of privilege, Koenig stated that the band members got into Columbia university on scholarship and were paying student loans. When Koenig declares “rock music is dead,” he feels free to play with genre even more than when the band was enjoying the heights of their success in the late ’00s and early ’10s. No longer boxed in by stereotypes, Koenig speaks of how freeing it is to wear Ralph Lauren, un-ironically as an indie band headlining Glastonbury. But fashion and musical style are just the aesthetics for the message that the band now conveys. 

    I DON’T WANNA LIVE LIKE THIS, BUT I DON’T WANNA DIE. In 2019, Vampire Weekend released their first set of songs after a hiatus. Despite one of the band’s founding members, Rostam Batmanglij, dropping out of the band to pursue other musical endeavors, Batmanglij would be involved with some of the writing process for the band’s fourth studio record, Father of the Bride, but he would no longer tour with Vampire Weekend. Releasing two singles at a time before the album’s full release in May, “Harmony Hall” and “2021,” kicked off the release cycle of Father of the Bride. Both singles “Harmony Hall” and “2021” sound like classic rock in ways that Vampire Weekend hasn’t sounded like before. In fact there is an organic Credence Clear Water Sound on Father of the Bride in their sunny melodies. Lyrically, “Harmony Hall” deals with the loss of idealism toward human rights issues. In the episode of Song Exploder, Koenig also talks about how the title of the song comes from the name of a plantation in Antigua named Harmony Hall. Later it became a resort, but kept its name. Koenig points out that “calling something ‘harmonious’ doesn’t make it harmonious.” He took this thought and applied it to other paradoxes in modern life. The chorus of the song raises an impasse: “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die.” It’s the socially-aware stance that points out the problems with modern life–the contradictions. The problems we are too small to solve because they are systemic. We don’t want to live like this and keep them going, but we also don’t want to die. We can fight, but not all the time. “Harmony Hall” is a call for us all to remember to do the right thing.  

    Official Audio:

    BBC1 Performance:

    Austin City Limits performance: `

  • "The Lining Is Silver" by Relient K, Saturday, August 19, 2023

    When Relient K had been together for ten years, they decided to treat their avid fans with some of their best scrapped tracks on 2008’s The Birds and the Bee Sides. But the album wasn’t exactly a straight b-sides project, but rather called a “double EP”–a combination of new tracks recorded for a project called the Nashville Tennis EP and their b sides spanning from their the time of their second record, The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek; tracks from out-of-print EPs; and rarities from special editions of their commercial second era, Mmhmm and Five Score and Seven Years Ago. While a release like The Birds and the Bee Sides certainly plays into boyish Relient K wit that made the band famous, the experimental songs on the Nashville Tennis EP show a notable shift in the band’s musical output. 

    I FOUND MY NEW BLACK SHOES WHILE CLEANING OUT THE BONES LEFT IN MY CLOSET.  Relient K started out as three small-town friends who signed a record deal. The band had revolving drummers, but until their mainstream breakthrough record, Mmhmm, the lineup was solidly lead singer Matt Thiessen, guitarist Matt Hoopes, and bassist Brian Pittman. But as the band entered their second era, Pittman left the band and other members joined; such as seasoned musician Ethan Luck who was a pivotal member in the major Christian Rock bands The O.C. Supertones, Project 86, and Demon Hunter. These additional Relient K members record vocals on the Nashville Tennis EP, like the single “The Last, The Lost, The Least,” which features vocals by bassist John Warne.  Guitarist Johnathan Schneck sings the country “Bee Your Man,” Hoopes sings “You’ll Always Be My Friend,” and Luck sings “No Reaction.” While these novelty songs may not be staples in the golden age of Relient K, they are breadcrumbs for fans in the future who will have to endure many more twists in the Relient K sound. After all, a band that can change lead singers or do a country tune next to tracks of sincerity will be the band that takes Christian audiences on a cautionary tale about cheating the next year. and then celebrates a worldly lifestyle in Collapsable Lung in 2013. 

    I FOUND A LIST OF FLAWS. “The Lining Is Silver” is an optimistic track on an optimistic record. All Relient K albums were pretty much optimistic until Forget and Not Slow Down, though. Sure, we’ve had moments of pensive Matt Thiessen singing songs like “Getting Into You,” on their third album Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right…But Three Do and the hits “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” and “Forgiven.”But what I notice in “The Line Is Silver” is a choice of optimism. Furthermore, I notice the guitar tone of the song is similar to the next album’s “Therapy,” a song that sees Thiessen “driving through the country just to drive” following a break up with his ex-fiancé. We all go through hard times. Sometimes, it’s easier to look on the bright side–to ignore the “bones in your closet.” Other times, you are overwhelmed by those feelings. The lining doesn’t feel silver on days like that. “The Lining Is Silver” is a reminder in those dark days that everything is temporary. We have to hold on to the belief that “we are golden on the inside.” Like Theissen, some of us feel obligated to push happiness as far as we can, but that’s not healthy. He had built his Christian music brand on optimism, but personally he deals with a lot beneath the surface of the sunny lyrics. Let yourself feel all the emotions and let things work out for themselves. After all, the lining is silver.





  • “Dead Weight” by Pvris, Friday, August 18, 2023 (repost)

    Following the singles “Hallucinations” and “Death of Me” from the band’s EP Hallucinations, Pvris released the single “Dead Weight” from the third album Use Me. The band has talked extensively about their new sound, moving from a conventional female-fronted rock band to, well, how would you classify Pvris? Each song on Use Me could fit into the genre of Alternative, one of the loosest genre descriptions today. Whether it’s the programed drums, the pop hooks, the noisy guitars, or the throbbing bass, Pvris is now a rock-inspired dark pop band, or duo as of now.
    TAKING WINGS OFF A GODDESS. Of course music doesn’t need to be neatly classified. I spend a lot of time thinking about what gets classified as Alternative, though, and it makes me think that my definition that I coined back in the early ’00s was correct. At that time, I began to see rock bands that incorporating instruments and electronic programing that had not been in rock music before. There were groups like Linkin Park, Evanescence, and Incubus carrying the torch of a new sounds. Alternative music wasn’t driven by a heavy guitar, but rather the guitar was added as embellishment. I viewed P.O.D.‘s only Top 40 hit “Youth of the Nation” as an example of Alternative Rock. Rather than power chords driving the song, it’s a hip-hop influenced beat with a guitar picking single notes which are held over the measure. Sure, this definition didn’t explain the early ’90s grunge acts (Nirvana) that are Alternative Rock classics or the punk-rock influenced bands the genre (Weezer or Green Day), but the diversity of these bands and how they expand the Alternative genre with other musical genres is another component to my definition. Put simply, Alternative is rock-based music that has, in some cases, evolved beyond the guitar.

    DEAD WEIGHT HANGING OVER MY SHOULDER. “Dead Weight” is certainly one of the more straight-forward rock songs on Use Me. The song opens with a noisy guitar solo to which lead singer Lynn Gunn sings over. The song reminds me of the dreaded school assignment when the teacher says, “break up into groups,” and doesn’t monitor any of the students’ division of labor. Some of the students end up taking on the entire project, while the “dead weight” students do nothing. Like the “Hallucinations,” the video for “Dead Weight” was created by YHELLOW, a visual production company. In a typical Pvris fashion, the video for “Dead Weight” is trippy and even grotesque. It seems equal parts horror movie and redneck party song. The video depicts lead singer Lynn Gunn at the wheel of an old truck or possibly a hearse. Bassist Brian MacDonald sits, appearing wasted in the passenger seat and several women appear in the middle bench seat between Gunn and MacDonald, and these passengers seem quite inebriated. The video flashes to party sequences, dancing in a ghoulish ball, and eventually the guests, all members who were in the truck, begin snacking on Gunn’s brain, illustrating the lyric “All give, no take,” at its logical conclusion. What’s the dead weight you have to get off of your shoulder? 
     

    Lyric video:

    Lynn’s solo acoustic:

    Live:

    Official video:

  • “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd, August 17, 2023 [trigger warning: discussion of mental health]

    When I’m sick, I like to delve back into childhood favorites. Although I didn’t listen to Wish You Were Here very much when I was in middle or high school–Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were my go-to Pink Floyd albums–the song “Wish You Were Here” was a staple for warming up on guitar. In Pink Floyd’s extensive discography, 1975’s Wish You Were Here  rests in the band’s golden age. The band’s previous album 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon was an unprecedented success, taking an obscure psychedelic rock band to a household name. In some ways, Wish You Were Here deals with the aftermath of that fame in tracks like “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a Cigar.” 
     

    DID THEY GET YOU TRADE YOUR HEROES FOR GHOSTS?  It’s the story of the little guy, the “Crazy Diamond,” that the music industry failed, that is at the center of Pink Floyd’s second concept album. Wish You Were Here marked Pink Floyd’s tenth year as a band. Taking eight years to go from a psychedelic pop band founded and led by the eccentric Syd Barrett, whose mental decline and eventual ousting from his own band would become the lyrical inspiration for much of Pink Floyd’s albums. The band hired guitarist David Gilmour as a second guitarist to help cover up Barrett’s erratic stage antics, particularly his staring blankly into the crowds. Gilmour took on most of the vocals after Barrett’s departure, with bassist Roger Waters stepping up to the microphone on a few songs before almost completely dominating The Wall and its forgettable sequel albums. Gilmour was often assisted vocally by keyboardist Richard Wright. However, when we think of Pink Floyd today, we often think about the tension between Waters and Gilmour–if not between Waters and the rest of the band, especially after The Wall. For a time, the Waters-Gilmour tension was responsible for the band’s creativity. The two rarely collaborated when songwriting, with “Wish You Were Here” as a notable exception.

    DID YOU EXCHANGE A WALK-ON PART IN THE WAR FOR A LEAD ROLE IN A CAGE? 
    Roger Waters penned the lyrics to “Wish You Were Here” thinking about his old friend and colleague Syd Barrett. As fame was taking a toll on Waters’ own mental health, his writing started to explore the mental paths that he imagined Barrett went down to end up the way he did. We now speculate that Barrett struggled with schizophrenia, paranoia, and delusions, which have been thought to have been exacerbated by his favorite hallucinogenic, LSD. The lyrics of “Wish You Are Here” are a series of questions of contrasting images, almost as if they are photographs to flash in front of a “Vegetable Man” to get him to respond to anything. Rather than Waters singing his own lyrics, he entrusted the role of singer to Gilmour, who penned the famous riff on which the song was based. There is some conflicting information as to whether Waters intended to sing the song himself but was unable to because of vocal cord damage during the recording sessions, or whether he thought that his bandmate’s voice could better express his own questions revolving around Syd is still contested between bandmates to this day. The title track of the album is perhaps a more reflective counterpoint to “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” the song for which was the last time that band actually saw Syd Barrett, who appeared at the studio unrecognizable to everyone except, eventually, Richard Wright. Seeing Barrett, ten years later in an even more delusional state. Drummer Nick Mason recalled Barrett’s conversation that day as “desultory and not entirely sensible.” The song “Wish You Were Here,” is a song about loss. It may be that cliché line on a postcard you send on vacation, but in Pink Floyd’s acoustic ballad, you really feel like one of those “lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.” The tragic story of Syd Barrett is unfortunately just one in a growing mental health crisis. Today, we have more research and better ways of treating mental health issues, but there are still major problems, mainly with regard to funding. I wish we lived in a world that could help out Syd and Roger and the bandmates who were traumatized by Syd’s mental decline. I wish we lived in a world where there were systems in place where friends could check in on friends, and if the burden ever got too much to carry, affordable mental health services could be of service. But yet, we’re running over the same old ground. The stigma of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest may not be surrounding mental health treatment, but the unavailability due to cost is just as deadly. 

  • “True Faith” by New Order, Wednesday, August 16, 2023 (repost)

     

    Yesterday, I tested positive for Covid-19. I’d managed to avoid getting sick for three years, but something about the humidity of August and the close proximity to people made me susceptible. I’ll try to get back to writing soon, but I don’t have much energy. So I thought I’d share a repost today, a dusty memory about New Order, more specifically a keyboard from the ’90s that listening to New Order today makes me think about. Buried under twenty years of dust in my parents garage lies an old Yamaha keyboard. It was my dad’s Christmas present to my mom in the mid-90s. This model came with 100 recorded instruments, 100 styles of drum beats, everything from foxtrot to metal, and 25 or so recorded songs. It was a pretty typical family keyboard, but it kept me entertained for years. Although I started playing guitar at the age of 12, I had spent a long time messing around on that keyboard trying to make music. I loved playing the keyboard but hated how fake the instruments sounded. Strings, brass, woodwinds–all sounded like the vegetarian version served at camp meeting tasted. Still, that keyboard played such a crucial role for music in my life.   


    WHEN I WAS A VERY SMALL BOY. I got my first taste of synthesizers from my keyboard. I learned about the Orchestra Hit. It was the sound used in the hits by Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSync. Other synths were used in hits like Eiffel 65‘s “Blue” or Darude‘s “Sandstorm.” And of course, all the computer games I was playing had similar synth music. But as the 2000s took full swing, I started to feel frustrated with the family keyboard. My friend’s family had a newer model, and their instruments sounded 2% more real. This didn’t stop me from playing it or using it to create weird songs with my sister on a tape player. I fully loved keyboard synthesizers without appreciating their origin story. My mom told me one day that I was going to start guitar lessons. I just said okay, but part of me was screaming out that I wanted to learn piano first. Why? Michael W. Smith was so cool back in the ’90s. I wanted to learn how to record trippy music like on Delirious’s Mezzamorphis album. And there were Skillet‘s Invincible and Alien Youth albums. And Linkin Park was getting popular. And Earthsuit‘s  Kaleidoscope Superior had me wondering how could Paul Meany rap so fast when playing the keyboard. I took the guitar and loved it, but rock without keys is kinda boring.

    MY MORNING SUN IS THE DRUG THAT LEADS ME NEAR TO THE CHILDHOOD I LOST. I talked about my history with New Order in January two years ago and about my initial disdain for the ’80s sound in February of last year. Anberlin was certainly my gateway drug to New Order’s discography, as they released a cover of this song as the third single from their New Surrender album cycle, rereleasing their album with a bunch of B-Sides. A college professor I worked for loved this song, so I started getting into New Order. I don’t remember when I first heard this song, but I steered away from it for years because of the old synthesizer sounds. I thought it sounded like something I could have recorded on my mom’s keyboard. But years down the road, I see that’s the charm of these old synth classics. The song opens with larger-than-life electronic drums. The keyboard keeps a dark atmosphere throughout most of the song until the end, shifting into a major key. New Order is the real deal. Pop and rock musicians look to their synth-pop songs for inspiration. 

    Music Video:

    Anberlin cover

    My Calvins commercial featuring “True Faith”:

    Parody with James Corden: 

  • “You” by Miley Cyrus, Tuesday, August 15, 2023 + Along for the Ride Playlist: Songs for the Road

    This year, Endless Summer Vacation has been the most featured album because of today’s song, “You.” Maybe “Flowers” is the stand out track, but almost every other song is so much better than that song. I’ll probably do a track-by-track sometime on this record, but today, as the summer is winding down, I wanted to share the Spotify version of my Road Trip Mix titled Along for the Ride: Songs for the Road. This is one of my personal playlists for long rides and drives. I updated it today to better fit with songs that have to do with driving. There may be more appropriate tracks, but I wanted to prioritize listenability. Enjoy!



  • “Willow” by Taylor Swift, Monday, August 14, 2023

    We’re reliving pop-era Taylor Swift in the middle of the Midnights album cycle and on the cusp of Swift rereleasing her game-changing record 1989. Even the re-record of Speak Now seemed to bypass its original country twang and highlight a pop-rock Taylor. But before we’re welcomed back to New York, especially as the summer is winding down, I’m drawn to the Taylor Swift that’s not quite Nashville, not quite L.A. but somewhere in Appalachian folklore perhaps lost forevermore. I’ve written a lot about folklore, but that release eclipsed the equally surprising release of evermore. While folklore was a more cohesive record, evermore was the album on which Taylor Swift gives herself permission to experiment in what could have been her new sound for the ‘20s.

    WRECK MY PLANS; THAT’S MY MAN. Taylor Swift begins her experimental album evermore with a song that could have easily been released on folklore, “willow.” Similar to “the 1” and “cardigan,” “Willow” didn’t immediately draw me in. It took several listens to get this album, mainly because evermore‘s charm isn’t so much its musicality but its lyrics. There are a few obvious hooks on the record–“gold rush,” “no body, no crime,” “‘tis the damn season” were the immediate stand out tracks for me. The lyrics of these songs paired with pop and country hooks immediately pulled me into Swift’s storytelling. But virtually every track, especially the slow ones boast her dynamic storytelling, from “happiness,” which deals with the end of a long-term relationship, which sounds foretelling about her break up with Joe Alwyn to scenery-painting on “coney island” to the tale of a scammer in “cowboy like me,” evermore is an album for the road or an afternoon at home–not so much for the gym. It seems that evermore exists just as an outlet for writer’s flow. After finishing folklore, Swift had more to write. Whereas folklore was a collaborative effort between Swift, Alwyn, Aaron Dessner, and Jack Antonoff, evermore only sees Antonoff’s production one of the tracks, “gold rush.”


    I KNOW THAT MY TRAIN COULD TAKE YOU HOME. The first track, “willow,” feels like a single because Taylor Swift had to promote a single from the album. Maybe that’s how fans took it too, because “willow” debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 before plummeting to #38 the next week–a record at the time for a second week plummet. Essentially, “willow,” with its plucky rubber-bridged guitar sounding like a banjo, achieved what an artist like Phoebe Bridgers or Sufjan Stevens couldn’t pull off with a similar-sounding song. In the ’60s and ’70s, many famous singers with their plucky guitars could take their hits to the pop charts, but “willow” proved that only the name recognition of one of the world’s biggest pop stars could pull off that feat. But that one-week success wasn’t replicated with any of the other tracks released as singles came close to the success of “willow.” And “willow” did worse than “cardigan.” And when Swift went fully back to pop on her 2022 release, Midnights, “Anti-hero” eclipsed any of the success from folklore and evermore. In another reality, we could be living in a world where Taylor Swift became a sort of Katy Perry–a failure on one album set the singer up for misfire after misfire. We could be in the middle of a Taylor Swift re-release revival without the drama of her tenth album. We could see a dignified Swift sitting in armchairs performing her songs on NPR Tiny Desk, aging gracefully like Carole King. I’m not arguing that Taylor Swift is any less dignified for going back to pop. I’m glad that she is able to blend both worlds, but I would like to see more projects like folklore and evermore.


    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Satellite” by Harry Styles+ Songs About Space Playlist, Apple Music Edition, Sunday, August 13, 2023

    It’s a clear night after a typhoon dumped a lot of water on us a few days ago. It’s been a rainy summer, and the city lights rarely allow for a peak into oblivion. Today, I give you my playlist for those occasions, when the clouds open up and we can look into another world. Most of these songs are not scientific, but rather impressions and mediations on an otherworldly experience. Enjoy!





     

  • “The 30th” by Billie Eilish, Saturday, August 12, 2023

    I’ve talked about how my first impressions of Billie Eilish changed gradually. But to be fair to all of us skeptics before when we heard “bad guy,” we didn’t know what the career of the Gen-Z star would bring. What started out as slowed-hip-hop influenced sad-girl ballads and dark EDM bangers has turned into musical directions that no one can predict where she’ll go next. In fact, following up her 2019 debut, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? Eilish exchanged her dark aesthetic with a lighter, though somewhat eerie look on Happier Than Ever. Not only aesthetically but also musically Eilish’s music hasn’t returned to the goth like her debut album. 


    WHAT IF IT HAPPENED TO YOU ON A DIFFERENT DAY? Following up Happier Than Ever, Eilish released a 2-song EP as a surprise in July of 2022 titled Guitar Songs. Many of the singer’s songs had been synth or piano-based. Happier Than Ever started to drive the singer into organic sounds, even transforming Eilish into a jazz singer on tracks like “Billie Bossa Nova” and the title track. Guitar Songs furthers that vision with Billie’s slow-tempo vocals and clean guitars. Lyrically, rather than the fictional scenarios, Eilish incorporated current events in the song “TV,” a song which contrasts the public fascination with the Johnny Depp-Amanda Herd defamation trial and the apparent apathy public surrounding the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Today’s song “The 30th” details the events of a car accident involving one of Eilish’s best friends. Along with the guitar and the folk-song details, Eilish paints a picture about what could have happened if her friend had died. It’s a gripping song for anyone who has ever worried about losing someone.
    WHEN YOU’RE STARIN’ INTO SPACE. From her second record, Happier Than Ever, Billie Eilish seems to be growing up into the musician that both connects with fans and critics. Even though her debut record was critically acclaimed, cleaning up the Grammy’s in 2020, the teenage-goth act seems only to be one aspect of the artist. “The 30th” was the first song that Eilish wrote after Happier Than Ever, and Eilish said that “The 30th” and “TV” are part of her upcoming third record, but she felt that the message of the song, particularly “TV” was so timely that she had to release it even though the next record wasn’t completed. The message of the song was too timely to miss the opportunity. Both songs and the ballad from Barbie, “What Was I Made For?”give us a slower, singer-songwriter-sounding Billie. With how quickly Eilish went from being a dark-pop star to a singer-songwriter sad girl, it seems like she’s entering veteran artist status prematurely. Eilish’s teenage goth aesthetic may have been just a phase for a Montessori-styled homeschooling and art-schooled daughter of actors who was encouraged by her parents to pursue her art freely. My question is, are we completely into Eilish as a serious artist or can we expect some more weird anytime soon?