Mixtapemotions

  • “‘tis the damn season” by Taylor Swift, Thursday, December 15, 2022

     























    This fall was when I got into folklore. Is this winter the one that I get into evermore? Today, I made the jump into the record again after more cursory listens in 2020. I have a few thoughts from this afternoon’s listen, but remember that I am by no means a Taylor Swift export the president of a local chapter of her fan club. I am merely offering my opinions on some damn good music. I’m hoping to have some deeper insights next year when I will probably dig deeper into this record. 


    THE WARMEST BED I’VE EVER KNOWN. A initial thought from when I listened to evermore,  I found that the record was even less cohesive than folklore. In my time with folklore, I began to realize that there was a cohesion to it, and I think the same is true with evermore. The next thing I noticed is that many of the tracks felt like b-sides to folklore, although the record was written and produced quickly after releasing folklore.  I first listened to evermore with my AirPods Pro when they were buzzing, so the bass was distorted, but it made me wonder what evermore or any Taylor Swift record produced by Aaron Marsh, Aaron Sprinkle, or JT Daly would sound like because the instrumentation would compete with Taylor’s voice. Finally, I found that some of the songs on evermore were immediately catchy compared to folklore which took me deeper listens to get into the record, yet with evermore the tracks that I didn’t find as catchy have yet to come to life. Today, my biggest take away from my re-listen is that evermore is Taylor Swift’s true return to country. Sure, the twang is mostly absent and country often uses less profanity, but the storytelling songs in “gold rush,” “no body, no crime,” and even today’s song “‘tis the damn season” feel like country hits that I would have heard at the grocery store or at work on summer vacation in the south.

    THE ROAD NOT TAKEN LOOKS REAL GOOD NOW. Like folklore, Taylor Swift employs the tools of fiction to create the songs on evermore. In today’s song, “’tis the damn season,” the protagonist, likely Dorothea who gets a song about her later on the record, returns to her hometown for the holidays, “stayin’ at [her] parents’ home.” The protagonist has come home from L.A. where she hopes to be famous. At home, over the weekend, she bumps into an old fling and the two reminisce about “the road not taken” and have a weekend fling. In this beautiful guitar-driven fantasy, listeners think about the “roads not taken,” and who would co-star if their lives were made into the Hallmark movie premise of “’tis the damn season.” But as much as this “big city movie star goes back to see the cute boy with mud on his tires” the universe rarely will set the two back on the same path. There’s a reason greater than Hollywood and the distance between the small town that the romance didn’t work out. It was fun for a weekend and maybe regrettable that it ended, but what does the small town hold for you these days? For me, I’m thinking about the feelings I get every time I go home, not that there’s some fling waiting for me there. It feels so right to be around family that I realize that it’s just a fantasy. I’ve found my purpose far away. I’ve built my life far away. I’ve found love far away. It’s just nice when the universe aligns and I can cross back to my old life even if it’s just for a few weekends.





  • “Medley: Sing We Now of Christmas / O Come, O Come Emmanuel / Emmanuel” by Michael W. Smith ft. The American Boyhood Choir, Wednesday, December 14, 2022

     

    Many boys go into the woods and play soldiers or cops and robbers. I did that when I played with other boys, but when I was by myself, I went into the woods and pretended to be someone else. I fantasized about being Michael W. Smith. I’d sing in the forest and dance around like the stones were my audience, pretending to play piano and sometimes guitar making up my own songs. Michael W. Smith is probably the closest Christian music ever got to having a bona fide  male sex symbol, if you exclude Carman for just being creepy. Sure, there were other handsome CCM singers, but no of them played off the scratchy voice and five o’clock shadow the way that Smith’s marketing team did. 

    OF THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS. My fandom of Michael W. Smith lasted the span of three records starting with 1998’s Live the Life and ending with 1999’s This Is Your Time with his second Christmas record, Christmastime between them. Smith’s music prior to Live the Life felt too dated and a little too cheesy at the time other than some of his biggest hits “Friends,” “Place in This World,” and “Secret Ambition.”  In 2001 Smith released Worship, a record of worship songs mostly written by other artists or written by Smith and originally recorded by others and Worship Again the following year, and I was on to rock music. But in those two years or so when I was listening to Michael W. Smith, I was proselytizing for him to my anti-rock music mom. After he released This Is Your Time which included several instrumentals songs with bagpipes, she started listening to Michael W. Smith. I even bought her Christmastime that year for Christmas and the CD became one of our Christmas standards. Michael W. Smith’s music from this middle golden age showed his mastery for composition. The singer often included musical moments not typical in rock and pop music, especially Christian music.

    SING WE NOEL.  I could reminisce for days about the musical odyssey Michael W. Smith brings his listeners on at the beginning of “Missing Person,” the first track of Live the Life, about his reaction to the Columbine tragedy with the touching tribute “This Is Your Time,” about the disappointment I felt with “Healing Rain,” about how he was my musical role model growing up and only later did I realize that he was actually good looking, or analyze the professional partnership with Amy Grant despite her being somewhat boycotted from the Christian market. Michael W. Smith is a giant of Christian music and I feel like my introduction to his music was at the best time. Christmastime broke rules that I was discovering about albums: at least ten distinct tracks with singing, unless you’re Pink Floyd. An instrumental could be on the record if there were at least ten tracks with lyrics. Songs had choruses. But Christmastime was more of a Christmas fantasia weaving songs together with long instrumental sections. And this was okay because it was a Christmas record. The version of today’s song “Emmanuel” paired with “Sing We Now of Christmas” was first recorded on Amy Grant’s 1983 A Christmas Album.  Smith recorded it for another project as well, but the 1998 version is the most refined sounding version of the song, particularly with the introduction with The American Boyhood Choir. So as we approach Christmas, I hope to share more of these Christmas memories. Enjoy!

    Christmastime version:

    Duet with Amy Grant:

    Amy Grant version: 


  • “Song in the Air” by Falling Up, December 12, 2022

     

    After releasing their fourth album, Fangs! Falling Up went independent, releasing their albums without a label and crowd-funding to produce them, starting with 2011’s Your Sparkling Death Cometh. The album was further departure from their former Christian Radio rock sound, the band expounding upon strange space aesthetics and experimenting with longer song formats and delving deeper into science fiction lyrical themes. 


    THERE’S A STAR IN THE SKY. In 2013, Falling Up announced the follow up to Your Sparkling Death Cometh would be two records aimed to satisfy two different types of fans the band had gathered. First came Hours, a rock concept album for which lead singer Jessy Ribordy wrote and read an accompanying audiobook. The second record, Midnight on Earthship also had science fiction elements but ultimately the band pushed into their Christian Rock roots to create a spiritually-themed record. But also in 2013, the band released a Christmas record, Silver City. The Christmas record included traditional songs done in the style of post-BEC Recordings Falling Up and an original song. The glittery, electronic sounds of a Falling Up Christmas record feels a bit late in the band’s career as their music became less relevant after exiting BEC, but the band manages to take songs that they mostly didn’t write themselves and weave them into a what seems like a concept record that has something to do with Christmas and possibly the birth of Christ.

    THERE’S A MOTHER’S DEEP PRAYER.  “Song in the Air” is a Christmas hymn written by Josiah G. Holland. A novelist and poet, Holland helped and founded a literary magazine called Scribner’s Monthly, which was renamed Century Magazine. Holland’s work was more popular in his day as he is seldom read today. Even his Methodist Christmas hymn “There’s a Song in the Air,” is unfamiliar. It is the Seventh-day Adventist hymnal, and I remember it being sung at least once around Christmas time. My sister made a wisecrack about it, saying something like “this is the most boring Christmas song” or “there’s a reason we don’t know this one.” Falling Up having become an more and more obscure band over the course of their career covering an obscure hymn certainly didn’t revive any fandom for this oft forgotten Christmas hymn. The hymn is a mediation on the birth of Christ at the nativity scene. It’s not particularly the best mediation, but I have a real soft spot for Christmas worship–the tradition of feeling awe and wonder at the mystery of the incarnation. And it might just be the four-part harmonies of the old hymns that sound more unique on Christmas hymns than general ones. And so today, I present this imperfect Christmas hymn as an offering. Embrace the mystery of Christmas–the mystical emblems and symbols–or don’t. I’m certainly not here to force you into religion.

  • “I Celebrate the Day” by Relient K, Monday, December 12, 2022

    In 2003, Relient K released their first Christmas album titled Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand. The record is no longer available for sale or on streaming platforms because the band replaced the ten-track record with 2007’s Let It Snow Baby . . . Let It Reindeer. The 2007 version added seven tracks to Deck the Halls. The two versions of Relient K’s Christmas record spans two eras of the band. Deck the Halls was released as a bonus disc with the band’s third record, Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right… But Three Do, and Let It Snow was released between Five Score and Seven Years Ago and The Birds and the B Sides. 

    HOW MUCH YOU’VE TOUCHED MY LIFE. Last month when I was researching Relient K, I found out that there’s a fan podcast titled Sadie Hawkins Pod in which two Relient K fans dig into the band’s history, discography, and fandom, delivering their insights to their listeners. I’m not sure if their facts check out because one of the insights they had was that Relient K’s slower tracks came on the re-released record and the punk rock tracks were on the original record. Today’s song, “I Celebrate the Day,” though was included on Deck the Halls along with the melancholy “I Hate Christmas Parties,” though that track is credited to the group Matt Thiessen and the Earthquakes, a side project Thiessen started to express more than just the punk rock sound of Relient K before Relient K became an alternative band in the later releases. What is interesting that the podcast brought up is that every Christmas season Relient K’s Spotify numbers spike, and their Christmas songs begin taking up their top 5 most played songs along with “Be My Escape.” These Christmas songs were not only a staple in youth group culture but also could be heard in stories like Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister around the Christmas season along with other punk rock Christmas tracks. 
    WE’RE LESS THAN HALF AS CLOSE AS I WANT TO BE. Speaking of the two eras of Relient K, the band started to incorporate an introspective sound by their third record, Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right. . . But Three Do on songs like “Am I Understood?” and “Getting Into You.” Both tracks slow the band down with an acoustic guitar on an otherwise punk rock record. Matt Theissen sings in earnest about his spiritual thoughts and fears, much like he does on today’s song, “I Celebrate the Day.” Relient K would take that confessional song to another level on their seminal record MMHMM on tracks like “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” and “Be My Escape” and would continue this kind of song throughout the rest of their career. Relient K’s early albums followed a formula: goofy, energetic, pop culture reference-heavy lyrics and maudlin tracks about not being a good enough Christian. Today’s song is the latter, only it’s a Christmas song. Following Relient K’s career as an example of a band that has mostly strayed from their original sound and even message, listeners can still hear the regret songs on their latest record Air for Free but the regret is more existential than related to Christian spirituality. While the message of today’s song is about regret about not being in a deep enough relationship with Jesus this time of year, something only specific to Christians, I still think that the spirit of the song translates to everyone who has regret. The years are slipping by, and I’m asking myself “Am I any closer to my goal than I was on New Year’s Eve last year?” It’s time to start making your New Year’s Resolutions.














  • “Drive There Now!” by The Almost, Sunday, December 11, 2022

    In 2007 Aaron Gillespie released Southern Weather with producer Aaron Sprinkle, under the moniker The Almost. At that time Gillespie was known as the drummer and clean vocalist for Underoath, a band that had just released their biggest record, Define the Great Line, the year before. In many ways, Southern Weather was like the first Foo Fighters record written and performed by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. Like Grohl, Gillespie played almost all of the instruments on the record, wrote all of the songs, and then assembled a band to tour with the record. Often filling in on bass, though, is Gillespie’s good friend Kenny Vasoli of The Starting Line. 

     
    WINTER DAYS MAKE ME SAY, “WHAT THE HEY?” Like all of Aaron Gillespie’s projects, Southern Weather captures a moment of sincerity in the singer-songwriter’s life. Before what some conservative critics might say that Gillespie became the agitprop for exvangelical deconstruction, The Almost’s Southern Weather authentically shows a longing for piety. Combining the emotional sounds similar to a Taking Back Sunday record with the lyrics of a charismatic church service, Southern Weather deals with feelings of inadequacy and judgement by other Christians. Some of the lyrics directly come from hymns and gospel songs. “Amazing, Because It Is” uses the hymn “Amazing Grace” as its chorus, while “Dirty and Left Out” references “Something About that Name” by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Because of these songs, Gillespie began a trajectory on the path to becoming a worship leader, eventually releasing two solo records of original worship music. But, a divorce and a quarter-life crisis upon learning about the underbelly of the Christian worship circuit led Gillespie to take some time off from releasing his own music and eventually to rethinking the way that he expressed his faith.

    “AARON, GET READY FOR THIS.”  But not all of the songs on Southern Weather are explicitly Christian. The album’s first single “Say This Sooner” deals with seeing the world differently than other people, which can be interpreted through Gillespie’s worldview no matter where he stands spiritually. The second track, “Drive There Now!” is kind of a love song. Gillespie married his first wife at a young age, and “Drive There Now!” seems to be a song about someone who pushes the speaker to pursue his dreams. Gillespie says that he and his wife divorced because of irreconcilable  differences. Gillespie has been transparent about his divorce, speaking well of his ex-wife and the reasons for divorce, which set him at odds with his career in Christian music industry. Many Christians condemn divorce for any reason, yet some permit it for infidelity or abuse. But accepting divorce for any other reason, they see as licensure for sin. Although Gillespie may have not found that supportive relationship from his first marriage, in “Drive There Now!” the singer’s extensive network of supportive friends in the Warped Tour scene and his band in Underoath and fans who have stuck with him on his journey may be seen as the drivers in this song. While not everyone is suited for a rock and roll relationship or love on the road, the network of musicians that Gillespie is a part of form a tight-knit family. And that family can drive a person to greatness. 

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Let It Snow" by Filous ft. Florence Arman, Saturday, December 10, 2022 + Christmas Mix, Apple Edition

     

    “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” was written in 1945 and first recorded by Vaughn Monroe. It’s often grouped with Christmas songs, but the holiday season is never referenced in the lyrics. In fact, in the Southern hemisphere, it is sometimes played in June, July, and August. The song was famously covered by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin. Other popular adaptations are by Michael Bublé, Jaci Valesquez, and Kacey Musgraves. Today’s version comes from Filous with vocals by Florence Arman. It’s an extremely moody version of the song. It’s not particularly a Christmasy adaptation of the track and more likely to end up on my playlist in January as well if the snowy mood should occur. But for today’s post, I wanted to create an Apple Music version of my playlist that I made yesterday, but with a little difference because Apple Music has a bigger song selection. So I present Christmas ’22. Enjoy!

  • “Last Christmas” by Wham! Friday, December 9, 2022 + Christmas Playlist

     

    Today our representative song is Wham!’s “Last Christmas.” Maybe it’s overplayed, but it’s a synth-pop classic. It’s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head for days, and it’s okay because it’s Christmastime. It’s one of the signature songs of Wham!  and one of the most played songs of Christmas. It’s been covered by many artists from Jimmy Eat World to Carly Rae Jepsen to Hawk Nelson and each cover has its merit. But today, my Christmas mix begins with the original. Enjoy the mix!


    1. “Last Christmas” by Wham!
    3. “Wish” by Paper Route (The band has a bigger Christmas catalogue, just not on Spotify).
    5. “The Winter Song” by Eisley
    6. “Happy Christmas” (War Is Over) by Sent by Ravens

    8. “I Celebrate the Day” by Relient K 

    9. “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Flyleaf

    10. “Santa’s Real” by Sasha Alex Sloan 
    12. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Copeland
    13. “O Come O Come Emmanuel” by Sufjan Stevens
    14. “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Anchor & Braille
    16. “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Day of Fire

    17. “It’s Not Christmas Till Somebody Cries” by Carly Rae Jepsen
    18. “Mary Did You Know?” by Spoken

    19. “Let It Snow” by Kacey Musgraves ft. James Corden
    22. “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay
    23. “Song in the Air” by Falling Up

  • “Artifice” by Sohn, Thursday, December 8, 2022

     

    Christopher Michael Taylor, better known as Sohn, is an English singer, songwriter, and producer. The London-born musician moved to Vienna in 2007, signed to the British record label, 4AD, and released his debut record Tremors in 2014. The Guardian gave the record a mixed review, criticizing the singer’s flare for the dramatic on certain songs, particularly on the track “Paralysed,” but praising Sohn’s musicality.

    SOMEBODY BETTER LET ME KNOW MY NAME. The minimal sounds of Sohn’s Tremors can start to usher in winter. The first single “Artifice” is the most exciting the album gets, and thus stands out on the album. Sohn has released three LPs, including this year’s Trust, but his listenership is only at about 460,000 a month on Spotify. Before releasing Tremors, Sohn remixed Lana Del Rey‘s “Ride,” and he has produced remix tracks for The Weeknd and Honne. The vocals on Tremors are vaguely reminiscent of early Fleet Foxes but I thought of this record when I first heard Carly Rae Jepsen‘s “Julien.” The title of today’s song refers to a trick or cunning, strategic behavior. In the lyrics, though, the speaker seems self-defeated–an external force needs to tell the speaker his name because he’s “not at the wheel.” Strategy is the opposite of playing the victim, but someone may use artifice to victimize another. It’s a dichotomy that kind of sums up this year perfectly–trying to get ahead but succumbing to depression and toxic negativity from others. 

    IS IT OVER?  In 2019, I celebrated the end of the year, maybe a little too much. There were certainly dark times that year, but despite those dark times, I felt accomplished–I stuck to a plan of learning Korean, my boyfriend got into medical school, and I achieved my gym goals. It seemed like I was on a path to something better. I haven’t had a good year since then. There have been worse years than 2022; 2016 and 2020 are two of the worst and last year would probably go down as the third worst. The problem with this year was that the highlights were far between and the low points were more annoying than anything a highlight could reprieve. A lot of that has to do with a toxic coworker who tries his best to indoctrinate negativity to whoever listens to him. It’s hard to be optimistic when listening to negativity for eight hours of your day. And that makes the bad news seem worse–The Itaewon crush, friends going through hard times, jobs lost, deaths, health scares. There have been good moments this year, but I feel like I’m not at the wheel, and I don’t like that. Something has to change in 2023.  

    Read the lyrics on Genius.



  • “Mulberry Street” by twenty one pilots, Wednesday, December 7, 2022 (Trigger Warning: discussion about mental health)

     

    I was wrong about twenty one pilots, and the reason I’m willing to admit that is after I spent time with their album released last year, Scaled and Icy, I realized that this duo was much more than who I thought they were. Mostly gone–but not entirely–are the emo rapping and trap beats that turned me off of the group when they debuted. The lyrics on Scaled and Icy, though, are emotional, and singer Tyler Joseph masterfully weaves clichés, esoteric messages for fans, current lingo, and new turns of phrase all to a funky piano/guitar groove. Scaled and Icy is in the vein of Paramore‘s After Laughter, on the surface it’s fun and light-hearted, but when you spend a little time with the lyrics, you’re bound to discover a surprising depth.


    THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS. I was thinking about albums of the year and how last year I didn’t seem to have one. In 2019 I was obsessed with Mike Mains & the Branches‘ When We Were in Love. And although I didn’t listen to it a lot in 2020, I would have to crown folklore as the album of the year for Taylor Swift‘s songwriting and the vibe that helped create pristine moments when listening to the album. For me, 2021 was a year of old music and it seemed that was the case for a lot of bands as well, whether it was livestream concerts or re-recordings of records. Sure there were a few good records, Adele‘s 30, Ed Sheeran‘s =, Nick Jonas‘ Spaceman, and IU‘s Lilac, but none of them screamed album of the year like Scaled and Icy. My approach to this record comes after enjoying a nice shower to “Saturday” and a few of the other tracks last year and only listening to “Mulberry Street” two days in a row before deciding to check out the rest of the record. As I began research for today’s song, I realized that I really don’t have the proper licensure to discuss a band that has such a cult following that they incessantly comment on the band’s Genius pages about the fiction woven into the band’s songs, about a race on another world, a religion called Vialism that has something to do with social media, apathy, and suicide. 

    KEEP YOUR SUNNY DAYS; LEAVE US  IN THE RAIN. Much of twenty one pilots’ lyrics have to do with mental health, and “Mulberry Street” is no exception. Named after the street in New York City that fellow piano man Billy Joel sang about, “Mulberry Street” is a seemingly upbeat track that’s a fun listen. In a concert video (see below), the duo performs “Mulberry Street” in the middle of a cover of Elton John‘s “Benny and the Jets.” The Elton John cover feels fitting given twenty one pilots’ flamboyant style. But the happiness of the music covers the melancholy of the track. An episode of What About Therapy broke down the lyrics of the track from a mental health perspective. The podcasters pointed out that this track is sometimes criticized because lead singer Tyler Joseph is possibly saying not to medicate depression. The podcasters don’t think that’s what Joseph is actually advocating, but rather discussing that drugs, alcohol, vices, and temporal distractions can make us not actually process our feelings. Joseph reminds us that it’s okay to feel sad sometimes, that it’s okay to live in the weekdays not only for the weekends, and that it’s okay to move sideways because moving ahead may be too hard. So let’s live in that weekday for just a little bit longer.

    Lyric video:

    Live stream version:

    Live concert featuring “Chlorine” and a mash up of “Benny and the Jets” and “Mulberry Street.”


  • "My Bad" (내탓) [KSHMR Edit] by Advanced (어드밴스드) ft. Shaun, Tuesday, December 6, 2022

    Advanced is a South Korean DJ and producer duo. “My Bad” is sung by singer-songwriter Shaun, whose success referenced in this song, brought him to prominence in Korea and internationally. The English version is sung by Norwegian Singer Songwriter Julie Bergan. The track is remixed and the lyrics are not an exact translation. Shaun’s recording of the track is much better vocally and musically. It also has a richer lyrical content in the original Korean. This is not to say that the English version isn’t any good. “My Bad” is a kind of behind the music surrounding the rise of Shaun’s success, telling the story of a young musician honing his craft as a DJ.


    I REMEMBER WHEN I CALLED YOU AND SAID I HAD A #1. In February, I talked about the rise and controversy related to Shaun’s breakout hit “Way Back Home.” Shaun built his career in the music industry as an electronic musician in rock, pop, and EDM. His high vocal range and ability to make music sound classic and new at the same time has helped him become a beloved artist. That is for the listeners who have dismissed the controversy surrounding “Way Back Home.” But as the young artist cuts his teeth as a DJ, “My Bad” tells the story of the girl who got left behind. Shaun is known for his album covers and music videos featuring Korean models. “My Bad,” however, includes a young male character in the music video. The scenes depict them stuck in a fish tank drowning, but later, we realize that they were only pretending. But the imagery, nonetheless, depicts what it might be like to date a starving artist. It might be an adventure at first, but the two being stuck in a tiny studio apartment where the queen-sized bed barely fits (the English version) and with 2 people a dog and three cats (the Korean version), tensions begin to rise.

    BUT THE MONTHS WENT BY AND SUDDENLY OUR PLACE RAN OUT OF SPACE. I ENDED UP PUSHING YOU AWAY. I’ve felt several times that I’m waiting for my real life to start. You know, when you buy a house, have a cat, eat a salad every night. That life. I’m waiting for the right job to fall into my lap so that I can make it happen. Waiting for a partner to get out of medical school so that we could finally move in together. I’m waiting for the day when my job doesn’t suck so much. I’m waiting for the day that my house is finally easier to clean. I’m waiting to be the person I want to become–a fitter, smarter, wealthier me. And it’s not just waiting, I do put in the work. Maybe not always enough. Some days I get lazy. Some days I get depressed and just give up. Most of the time I pick myself back up. But really, when is it going to happen? For years I used student loans as an excuse for not moving forward. Eight Hundred dollars is quite a chunk from the paycheck, and I’ve gotta have a little fun. In high school I was taught to “eat beans now so you can eat steak later.” When is the steak coming? Speaking of beans, I probably shouldn’t have spent so much money on coffee. I’m a little better at not thinking about living in tomorrow, when my life will actually start. It’s actually happening now. What choices can I make for a better future Tyler?

    Lyrics (English, Korean Romanized, Korean)
    Original Video: 

     Julie Bergan KSHMR Edit:

    Lyric video: