Mixtapemotions

  • "Without You" by Lana Del Rey, Thursday, May 19, 2022 (Trigger Warning: Discussion of Domestic Abuse)

    In Lana Del Rey‘s first interview with Zane Lowe, she talked about her inspiration for the 2012 record, Born to Die. She talks about the collaboration between her, hip-hop producer Emile Haynie, and string arranger Larry Gold to create an album that sounds classic and fresh. Although Del Rey has moved away from the Brooklyn-style hip-hop beats in albums after Born to Die, the album still feels relevant ten years later. In fact, when Pitchfork re-examined the record last year, the review bumped the score from 5.5 to 7.8. While pop cynics may argue that music has gotten worse rather than being misunderstood at the time, the young adult escapism, the post-modern life she sings about makes more sense among the younger artists Del Rey influenced such as Lorde and Billie Eilish. 

    I EVEN THINK I FOUND GOD. “Without You” appears as the thirteenth track on the Target Bonus Tracks edition of Born to Die. The album’s standard edition ends with “This Is What Makes Us Girls,” a semi-autobiographical song about when Del Rey was sent off to boarding school to straighten up. Will all of the songs of Born to Die would eventually find a home on streaming services, Del Rey’s fandom started at the tail end of physical releases. Del Rey’s 2012 pop star persona was just gimmicky enough to thrust the singer into a cult level of fandom. While the indie scene obsesses over authenticity, Del Rey offers a carefully cultivated, manufactured image. Appearing on the scene like a highly-vetted industry plant, as people said of pop stars like Britney Spears, and Lana Del Rey in 2012 was a satire of what a pop star is. But this satire is more in the vein that some critics call The Great Gatsby a satire of the roaring ’20s. Del Rey’s use of satire is contemporary and often over-the-top. In this satirical world, she shows us that alcohol, drugs, sex, and a search for a deeper meaning link us to our grandparents’ time. 

    LIVED ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM. Today’s song, “Without You,” is a B-side from Born to Die, and if it were cut, most of the themes and motifs exist in the album without this additional chapter. But Born to Die is far from a cohesive concept record or a rock opera. What “Without You” does after “This Is What Makes Us Girls” reflects on the themes presented in Born to Die. Del Rey has spent the whole album talking about the “bad man” she falls in love with. He’s a type of unhealthy, often sexist, sometimes violent, virile man who makes a girl like Del Rey weak in the knees. This is one major point of contention with the singer-songwriter as many have called her music anti-feminist, glamorizing abusive relationships. The singer also has a slew of controversial statements from social media and interviews. In “Without You,” Del Rey also sings about being fragile “like a china doll.” She finds her worth through him and by being so beautiful that she is adored by “the lights of the camera” where she even thinks she “found God.” The speaker has become part of the old-time glitterati. The line that sticks out the most to me, though, is the commentary about “the dark side of the American Dream.” Del Rey was clearly influenced by American literature when novelists such as F. Scott Fitzgerald set out to write the definitive American novel and ultimately solidified American literature. What the American novel strives for is to define what the American Dream is. Fitzgerald shows that even with all of the wealth that Jay Gatsby acquires, he can’t have the one thing that he wants. And while not all Americans want a brutish hunk, as listeners may think that’s all that Del Rey wants, I can’t help but think that the superficial glamour of Del Rey’s lyrics which harken back to A Street Car Named Desire’s toxic masculinity and strict ’50s-gender roles is a Stepford Wives or Twilight Zone level of satire. But I could be wrong.

  • “Dead Weight” by Pvris, Wednesday, May 18, 2022

    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:


  • “Winning It All” by The Outfield, Tuesday, May 17, 2022

    Signed to Columbia/CBS Records  in 1984 under the “tacky” and “tongue-in-cheek” moniker The Baseball Boys, the London-based band quickly changed their name to The Outfield. The band’s chief lyricist and guitarist John Spinks got the idea for a baseball-themed band when watched the movie The Warriors. The band’s American manager convinced the band to change their name. Spinks was a fan of both American sports, particularly baseball and football because those sports were “far more business, far more spectacle, than British sports.” The “American-sounding band” found their earliest success in America, not the U.K., starting with 1985’s hit “Your Love.”


    NO SECOND CHANCE, NO GIVING UP. The Outfield has a string of hits after “Your Love” between 1985 and 1990, but their popularity faded with the rest of the New Wavers. Most of their album titles are named after baseball references, starting with their debut Play Deep. However, there were a few notable exceptions. Today’s song Rockeye, named after the CBU-100 Cluster Bomb. Today’s song “Winning It All” was featured in NBC‘s NBA Finals from 1992-1996 and it was also heard in the end credits of Disney’s 1992 film The Mighty Ducks. Beyond those inclusions, no song was a hit from the album in America or the U.K. “Winning It All” opens the album. In 1992, the band had dwindled into a duo, with only bassist and lead vocalist Tony Lewis and John Spinks playing the guitars and keyboards on the record. There’s something beautifully cheesy as the late ’80s/early ’90s keyboard plays at the beginning of the song. It feels like a song in a sports film. The vocabulary in the song is simple: it’s about winners and losers. It sounds like a team rally when the game has been postponed for a rain shower, and the home team (The Outfield’s team) is down a few points, and as they meet in the locker room, in uniforms soaked in sweat and rainwater, the captain of the baseball team (the lead singer) gives a speech, persuading the players to do their best after the rain lets up.
    NO ONE REMEMBERS A LOSER. I’m not a big sports fan. I found playing sports when I was a kid to be humiliating. Being raised Seventh-day Adventist living among many non-Adventists meant playing sports conflicted with the Sabbath, so I never really tried. Very rarely do my musical tastes overlap with sports. The stereotype is that there are sports guys and music guys in high school, and they only mix when the hunky captain of the football team plays guitar. There are a few musicians like NEEDTOBREATHE and Tyler Ward who have football backgrounds. But we have to discuss baseball with today’s band. I remember discovering The Outfield because my dad said that Anberlin reminded him of that band. I began listening to the ’80s post punk and New Wavers to see how they influenced the music of my day. Two years ago, apart from thinking about how Trump’s rhetoric sounded like a sports team and this song reminded me of Trump from time to time, I also was taken by how much Acceptance‘s “Cold Air” sounds similar to The Outfield’s ’80s/’90s vocal production and harmonies. So, while jock-rock isn’t always to my liking, I can appreciate how The Outfield influenced my favorite bands. And that’s worth a cheesy sports cliché once in a while, right?

  • “The Wind” by The Fray, Monday, May 16, 2022

    After The Fray‘s eponymous second record, they recorded their third album, Scars & Stories with legendary producer Brenden O’Brien. Lead singer Isaac Slade stated that he admired O’Brien’s work with Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen, and hoped to create a record that was closer to their live show experience. The album was released in February of 2012, receiving mixed reviews. Critics praised O’Brian’s production, but they were getting tired of The Fray and mid-tempo pop-rock bands. 


    I SEE THE EMPIRE FALLING TO HER KNEES. Scars & Stories had a promising first week, selling 87,000 copies and debuting at #4 on Billboard’s 200 Album charts. The band promoted two singles: “Heartbeat” and “Run for Your Life.” The former barely missed the Top 40, charting only at #42, and the later only charted in Australia and on the Adult Pop Songs chart in America. While The Fray’s songs may come across as unoriginal, Scars & Stories perhaps suffered from music listeners’ shortening attention spans and the growing trend of flashy electronic pop music. What should have been recognized as songwriting growth instead was cast aside for the novel and the flashy. Personal conflicts are the backdrop of the lyrical content on this album. Over the course of their career both lead singer Isaac Slade and guitarist Joe King both dealt with marital conflicts, with the guitarist’s 12-year marriage ending in divorce before the release of the album. But rather than being a “divorce record,” Slade and King took inspiration from conflicts around the world to create a tension in the album reflecting personal matters. 

    WILL THE WIND EVER COME AGAIN?  Scars & Stories’ lead single “Heartbeat” takes inspiration from the band’s travels and stories they heard about The Rwanda Genocide in the ’90s. The follow-up single “Run for Your Life” tells a fictional story and deals the concept of survivor’s guilt. The song “1961” deals with two brothers in conflict and references the Berlin Wall. “The Wind,” today’s song,  deals directly with Joe King’s divorce directly. King married his high school sweetheart at 19, and raised two daughters. But after seven years, the couple divorced. The lyrics of “The Wind” deal with instability. King told the Toronto Sun that King began to write “The Wind” during his darkest moments. He said, “My marriage ended and it was the last day of everything. I just went home and had no answer and no clue where the hell I was in life.” However months later, he was able to gain some perspective on the situation. Today’s song isn’t the gloomiest The Fray song, and even has a bit of optimism. King goes on to say: “It was good to have that perspective a few months later on the emotion of it, going from that heavy of a place to seeing some light and the future.” I think today’s song and its parent album are great for dealing with turbulence. One, it’s good to look at others’ suffering to help us not feel alone and put our suffering in perspective and even offer empathy when we can. But two, it helps us to remember that it will get better. It won’t stay the same. The wind may toss you around, but it won’t last forever.

  • “Cannons” by The Hawk in Paris, Sunday, May 15, 2022

    When you’re the lead singer to one of the biggest Christian Rock acts of all time and you want to start a new, completely different musical project, what do you do? In 2009 Dan Haseltine came up with a new electronic pop concept. Unlike the beginning of their career, Haseltine’s other band Jars of Clay was becoming more and more boxed into the Contemporary Christian scene. The band played churches and had  a guaranteed income from fans. However, when Haseltine gathered together two of his friends, Nashville CCM/ Country producer and multi-instrumentalist Jeremey Bose and former Jars of Clay guitarist Matt Bronleewe forming the group The Hawk in Paris, Haseltine was free to go in whatever lyrical direction he wanted to. 

    IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW, YOU’LL LEAVE ME BETTER THAN I WAS BEFORE. Taking their name from a 1957 album by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins, The Hawk in Paris is Dan Haseltine’s experimentation with pop music. According to Halestine when he talked with Frank Jenks on the Listen In podcast, the singer-songwriter was reacting to what he thought was superficiality and over-sexualization in pop music, which arguably has gotten worse in 2022. The Hawk in Paris released their first EP in 2011 His + Hers and their only full length, Freaks, was released in 2013. The band released two more singles after Freaks, “Frozen Heart” in 2015 and “Dream with You” in 2016, and haven’t been heard from since. Although the head-scratching lyrics on the eponymous song “Freaks” (“Boys and the girls and the freaks in the middle”) may not have aged well, today’s song, “Cannons,” examines conflict that escalates between a loved one. It’s the conflicts that arise that turn love to hate. It’s the intelligence gathered when the loved one was most vulnerable. What used to be a tool for good, now is a weapon for harm. 

    MUST BE BITTERSWEET TO BELIEVE SOME HALF-HEARTED TRUCE. “Cannons” explores a war metaphor as both sides have come to a truce. The war may be over, but now the relationship can go one of two ways: it can heal or end. Haseltine admits, “If you leave me now, you leave me better than I was before,” acknowledging the good that person has left on the speaker. He leaves the decision up to the other party. As far as I know, Haseltine doesn’t cite a specific conflict that “Cannons” is about. It could be about a marriage or a business decision. The universality of music allows us to apply a song about a marriage to a business conflict and vice versa. Career musicians often have conflicts with people they trust the most, whether it’s bandmates, producers, label executives, or others who establish a longstanding relationship with a band and are invested in their success. But when those relationships go awry, the cannons come out. Everything that was said is used as a weapon. Sometimes the conflict goes to court and an outside party has to resolve the conflict. Does that solve the problem? Rarely. Today’s song talks about the merits of simply walking away from the conflict. Empty your cannons, spill your ammo. Surrender. You win. What’s next?


  • “Siren” by Taeyeon, Saturday, May 14, 2022

    Last summer, Taeyeon released her first single from the album she released on Valentine’s Day this year, INVU. The disco-infused lead single, “Weekend,” wasn’t completely indicative of the album’s style. With a variety of ballads, house, and dance songs, INVU is a solid third record from the now legendary former Girls’ Generation vocalist. Today’s song, “Siren,” is a power ballad located as track 6 of a 13-song album.

    It’s a song about an unhealthy relationship that beckons the speaker to stay in it. Ultimately does she dive in or get out of the water?

       


    An ancient painting of sirens in 
    The Odyssey. Source.

    CRUEL FANTASY. Today’s song, “Siren,” uses the image of a mythical creature from ancient Greek and Roman legends. Creatures with a beautiful song that lure sailors to perilous shallow, rocky waters appear in Homer’s The Odyssey. In book 12, Circe advises Odysseus not to listen to their “honey-sweet tones” that “bewitch everybody who approaches them.” But the cunning Greek epic hero takes the warning as a challenge. He asks his crew to cover plug their ears with wax and to tie him to the ship’s mast so that he won’t take the ship to land. From those lines in the epic poem and from the mythology itself, sirens seem to be a symbol for sexual pleasure that is the final step that took a “reasonably good man” into sexual depravity. In antiquity, sirens were depicted as either bird-like or mermaid-like creatures. Some have said that the myth of the sirens was really the low visibility at sea and the yelps of sea-lions, and a bit of hallucination, seeing a something on the rocks through the mists. 

    Starbucks logo depicts a double-tailed siren. 
    Image source.

    EVEN IF WE KISS EACH OTHER FOREVER. Siren myths appear in literature and culture throughout the ages. Starbucks’ logo is perhaps one of the most common examples in our everyday lives. Siren mythology appears in Anberlin’s “Take Me As You Found Me,” a song about a divorced couple who are still love each other. A siren (or mermaid) appears in Copeland’s video for “I Can Make You Feel Young Again,” dragging the fisherman to the bottom of the lake. But the word siren in English doesn’t usually bring the mythical creature to mind in everyday conversations. Instead, we think of the mournful, high-pitched sounds related to an emergency: a fire, a bank robbery, a tornado, missiles launched. Are the two words related? It seems that we started using siren to describe the sound of steam ships as late as 1879. The usage of the word migrated to land and it now sounds like the intro to Anberlin’s “Hello Alone.” Plugging the etymology back into today’s song, Taeyeon describes a magnetism to an unhealthy relationship. He’s a siren beckoning her to the dangerous rocks. She hears the warning siren, others can see that there’s danger. What happens? Is there an ambulance chase? Is it a fifty-car pileup that causes a collision in the other direction? Or does she sail away? 

    Read the Lyrics on Genius.

    Lyric video in Korean, Romanization, and English:

    Behind the scenes:

    Music Video:

  • “When I Grow Up” (The Pussycat Dolls cover) by Mayday Parade, Friday, May 13, 2022

    Fun, pretentious, novelty, inauthentic. Call it what you want, but Fearless Records‘ Punk Goes… series has been around for a while. Punk purists will point out that the compilations are made up of mid-tier Emo, Pop-Punk, and Post-Hardcore bands, rather than real punk bands. While music people may debate what is really punk, Fearless Records helped to solidify a punk-rock-inspired scene starting with their first release Punk Goes Metal in 2000. Punk Goes Pop followed in 2002. After releasing several other compilations, Punk Goes Pop 2 was released in 2009. 

    BOYS CALL YOU SEXY. Today’s song comes from the Los Angeles burlesque-turned-mainstream pop act  The Pussycat Dolls. Founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995, and performing at The Viper Room on Thursday nights in the ’90s, the group’s lineup fluctuated before Antin decided to take her group to the radio. Former Dolls included Christina Applegate, Christina Aguilera, and Carmen Electra. The original concept was simple: beautiful women singing standards from the ’50s and ’60s in lingerie. Playboy reported on the burlesque act in 1999 and several of the dancers posed semi-nude for that feature. But as a pop group, choreographer and manager Antin settled on a six-girl lineup and released their first single, “Sway,” for the 2005 film Shall We Dance?  The group released their full-length debut PCD the following year, which featured hits like “Don’t Cha” and “Stickwitu.” In 2008, The Dolls released their second album, Doll Domination,  which features today’s song “When I Grow Up,” a song about being young and craving fame. 

    WE ALL WANNA BE FAMOUS. Mayday Parade is a band from Tallahassee, Florida, founded in 2005. Today they are a staple in the Pop-Punk/Emo scene, cutting their teeth on Warped Tour and touring with the who’s who of that scene. With their mellower, at times piano-driven pop punk, the band is a frequent contributor to the Punk Goes… series. And while music critics pan the Punk Goes… series it’s certainly fun hipster music. It’s fun to hear how Alternative rockers interpret good and not-s0- good source material. Is there screaming on a Britney Spears song? Is there a gender-bender? Is there an interesting guitar or instrument? Or is it just a whacky way to interpret a pop song? I have to say that The Pussycat Dolls were totally off of my radar, and I didn’t even know the original version of this song until I heard Mayday Parade’s cover. Along with Weird Al‘s inclusion of “Don’t Cha” in his 2006 “Polkarama!” medley, Mayday Parade’s version of “When I Grow Up” gets stuck in my head from time to time. But unlike Weird Al’s bizarre take on “Don’t Cha,” Mayday Parade’s song can make sense–Motley Crüe level of rockstar decadence. Of course, Mayday Parade with its 2 million monthly listeners is far from being household names. Maybe the age of rock star rock stars is over, but this song is a fun reminder that if we wish it, it could come true. So be careful.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

    Original version:

    Cover: 

  • “Watermelon Sugar,” by Harry Styles, Thursday, May 12, 2022

    Released as a single in May of 2020, the second track on Harry Styles‘ Fine Line, “Watermelon Sugar” was bound to be a hit. The song was saved as the fourth single from Fine Line after the more wintery singles, “Lights Up,” “Adore You,” and “Falling.” Fine Line was already massive before “Watermelon Sugar.” It currently holds the record for the biggest sales week of a solo male British singer. And while Styles’ rock-influenced eponymous first solo record also topped Billboard‘s album sales, Fine Line packs a more memorable punch. And it’s that sugary, sweet sound that landed the album in Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”
    TASTES LIKE STRAWBERRIES. If the world had been normal in 2020, “Watermelon Sugar” would have simply been a tasty treat. The pop charts would still have its TikTokers and Doja Cats. He’d still contend with Olivia Rodrigo, and maybe Sam Smith‘s dark pop album, To Die For, which was later changed to Life Goes, and Lady Gaga‘s Chromatica would have resinated with a non-Covid world. But “Watermelon Sugar” topped Billboard’s Hot 100 in August of 2021, the first Styles single to achieve that feat. The video was filmed in January of 2020 and released in May after being delayed because of the pandemic. The video opens with the words: “this video is dedicated to touching.” And there is a lot of touching in the video, starting with Styles touching a slice of watermelon provocatively. The video is highly stylized, mimicking ’60s colored film at times. Styles is wearing Gucci‘s Summer 2020 collection, and he is surrounded by bikini-clad models. Everyone looks like they’re having a good time in the summer sun on the beach, enjoying watermelon, getting sticky-wet. And with all of the touching that happens in the video dedicated to touching, the models expressed how careful Styles was to gain consent before touching them. 

    I JUST WANT TO TASTE IT. “Watermelon Sugar” is a sensuous song. Watching the video and listening to the song you can’t help but feel the dripping of sticky fruit juice petering on your chin and falling on your white shirt. I think I felt a strong discomfort to this song when it came out. Yuck. Be more discreet. Don’t eat like a child. Of course, no one didn’t see that this song was really about sex. But more than it is about sex or a specific act, I think it’s about liberation–feeling comfortable enough in your own skin to be seen as dirty without shame. It plays into the aesthetic ’60s era Styles is capturing in the sights and sounds of the single. Styles says that the song was partially inspired by the 1968 post-apocalyptic  novel In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. The novel is set around a narrator who escapes from a commune to collect “forbidden things.” Having not read the novel, I wonder if there are any deep connections with the ’60s psychedelic, counter culture movement as shown in the novel and Harry Styles’ Fine Line sundry aesthetic. But the theme of “forbidden things” is one that I explore a lot in my blog. Growing up pretty repressed and closeted, expressions of sexuality, both hetero- and homo- caused great embarrassment. I always felt that I was the only one like me and that I had to hide my true feelings about almost everything. But as we get older, we start to care much less about what other people think about us. Yes, we still use napkins, but when you’re at a beach party with your loved one(s), you can let the juices drip down your chin.

     Live at the Grammy’s:

    Official Video:

  • “Wasted Nights” by Acceptance, Wednesday, May 11, 2022 (Repost)

    When Acceptance released “Cold Air,” last summer, I was immediately taken by the catchy, ’80s New-Wave electronica meets The Outfield-style harmonies sung by lead singer Jason Vena. However, the rest of the album failed to pack the punch that their 2005 debut and 2017 sophomore record had. Acceptance had become known for their lyricism, Vena’s near-perfect execution in his mid-to-high range vocals, and often haunting/mysterious guitar parts–all mixed and produced by Aaron Sprinkle. However, what Wild, Free offered was clipped guitars, electronics, and gruffer vocal takes by Vena. There were certainly some highlights, but other than “Cold Air,” there hasn’t been much to come back to–except for a song that got stuck in my head today: “Wasted Nights.”

    I THINK WE MET AROUND THE FIRST OF MAY. Billy Power had an interesting interview with Jason Vena back in 2015, in which Vena talks about how his first marriage dissolved while he was on the road with Acceptance. Vena explains that the two of them were high school sweethearts, yet distance proved too much for the couple. He spoke fondly about his second wife in this episode. They met after Acceptance had broken up and Vena had quit music for a day job. Knowing Vena’s history makes me wonder which relationship he’s talking about in this song. To some extent, if you give more in a relationship, you receive more. This is not always true because everyone is different, and of course, this is not taking into account abusive situations. However, any given two people are not necessarily compatible. Relationships take time, and the payoff can be a fairytale romance or a bitter divorce after the seven-year itch. One line from How I Met Your Mother that I think about is when Ted is comparing his break up with Robin to “the emotional equivalent to an English degree.” You’ve learned the other person’s subtleties, yet it won’t work in the next relationship. But then I think about if you don’t break up with that person. Wouldn’t it be pretty rewarding to study up for that A? Or should you aim for a C?

    A FADED MEMORY THAT I STILL KEEP IN MY HEAD. There are two types of people: process people and product people. Product people see task A and complete it right away and take a break until it’s time to solve task B. Then, there are process people. Process people start many tasks at once and work a little here and there. Both types like their styles. I’m a process person. I often have five things going on at once. I watch TV while cleaning my house, but often miss scenes because I have to go into the other room. I have a planner full of tasks to complete by December, but if I have to move the task to next year because some other goal is important, I’m ok with that. Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to completion, but honestly, for process people, we fear success. We want to constantly be in the process. So what happens when a process person dates a product person. You learn to cool down because it’s the weekend. The task for the other person is finished, and you need to learn to calm your racing mind. You need to learn the virtue of being lazy.

    Read the lyrics on Genius

  • “Walking This” by Kye Kye, Tuesday, May 10, 2022

    In the early ’10s, electronic music inspired by the ’80s was making a comeback. While Rock music was still king in the Christian circles, the bands that had brought Christian Rock to the mainstream stopped selling records, and record labels started phasing out Rock bands. But somewhere between the hard rockers and the teeny boppers, Alternative was shifting to incorporate everything else. And with that shift, many female Alternative musicians emerged. In this new shift, Christian music had the opportunity to develop and promote a band based on programming, organic, and synthetic sounds: Kye Kye.

    I’M A FIRE THAT LIGHTS WHATEVER’S IN SIGHT. The Estonian-born Yagolnikov siblings talk about their musical influences in a 2014 interview at New Zealand’s most famous Christian Rock festival, Parachute Music Festival. Growing up listening to European synth-pop their parents listened to in Estonia shaped the musical direction the band would write. The sounds they captured on their two first two albums, Young Love and Fantasize were, to the siblings, a realization of the music of their childhoods. According to an interview with tuned UP, Kye Kye get their name from the Greek letter Chi and the band’s name is a reference to the early church. Their first album was produced by Future of Forestry‘s Eric Owyoung, and the rich musical textures blend both organic instruments and electronic elements into a dreamy, spiritual sound. The band supported worship leader John Mark McMillan on tour. In the band’s promotion of Young Love when speaking with tuned Up, Kye Kye states that their mission was “to express [their] relationship with God through music,” but as of the social media announcements with last year’s album Arya, the group seems to be distancing themselves from Christian music.

    CLOSEST FRIEND, I’M LOST IN LOVE. While the lyrics on Young Love make the most sense in a Christian and a spiritual context, the lyrics are not straight-forward. When Timothy Yagolnikov talks about the lyrics on Fantasize in the Parachute Music Festival interview, he says that the lyrics were inspired by scripture that readers often read quickly without digesting the meaning of the words. He says that readers must read slowly and meditate on the meanings of the words. Perhaps that’s what Kye Kye intended when they write lyrics. The two songs on Young Love “Knowing This” and “Walking This” seem to be spiritual twins. On the standard edition of the album “Knowing This” comes just before “Walking This,” but on the remix EP, the songs are reversed in order. “Knowing This” seems to be based on lines from scripture, while “Walking This” seems to take the information from “Knowing This” and applies it. “Walking This” is perhaps about the Christian walk. Lead singer Olga Yagolnikov Phelan gives a soft, but bright confidence in her role, anointed by God to live like Christ on the earth. However, the vague lyrics are open to interpretation to whatever that means to the band today.

    Studio version:

    Remix: