bluth

as someone who voted religiously for labour since i could first vote in 2015, i can't be excited about tonight and call me delulu/a debbie downer but it's not that great of a win for labour (i mean, starmer's win was embarrassing) the people didn't vote labour in, they voted the tories out. it's a completely unsustainable platform which won't work again in 2029. then you have the terrifying number of reform votes (which is really the big story tonight) which will only shift the tories (and maybe labour) further right unless in-fighting and an identity crisis stops the tories from forming a strong opposition, labour will need to convince the electorate to believe in them as a party and not just as an alternative. otherwise we're heading straight for a biden v trump 2.0 scenario in 2029

the ad hominem attacks against her don’t change the fact that she is absolutely right. and the unfunny “lolz but i am eating chicken xd” comments in here are one thing (i thought we left that humour in 2013), but this idea that vegans are a part of some out of touch elite really make some of you sound like deranged right wing conspiracists. some of you really need to develop maturity and learn that someone stating facts in the interest of saving the planet is not an assault on your character. your delicate feelings are not more important than the issue at hand.

i guess it depends on what circle you’re referring to the average person who buys taylor’s music probably doesn’t make any lofty claims about her being the best songwriter of our generation. they consume her music because she’s average and relatable, and writes about universal ideas. she’s the musical equivalent of friends - a white canvas with a streak of relatability rooted in this idea of being a clumsy, adorable, hopeless romantic. it doesn’t surprise me that the one song taylor says she wish she wrote was the friends theme song. no one thinks friends is an artistic masterpiece, but they sure as hell love deciding whether they’re more chandler or rachel. can you really claim she is overrated by the average person based on a visceral response? idk taylor gets decent scores from critics, but they’re nothing to write home about, especially given the current landscape where any pop album can nab a 7/8 out of 10. i don’t think many reputable critics hail taylor in the way that someone like beyonce is (and rightfully so given beyonce’s output is far superior). and yea, taylor has effortlessly won three aoty grammys where other artists continually get shut out of the main categories, but anyone who is culturally sentient knows that the grammys are worthless then you have stans who are probably the largest catalyst for this discussion. stans hailing her as one of the best songwriters of our time are absolutely overrating her, and i could write a lot about why taylor’s songwriting is nowhere near as good as what her fans believe. equally, stans who praise the diversity of her discography and her winning aoty for three different genres should also probably listen to more music. i don’t even want to entertain the laughable posts i sometimes read that paint taylor as a bona fide artist who doesn’t rely on gimmicks / controversy. so yea, i guess she is overrated by stans but every stan overrates their fave so it’s sorta a moot point

convincing themselves that vegans are all big meanies is a way of coping with cognitive dissonance

album is stunning. i listened to it on a night time walk and it’s the perfect environment for it this was also recommended to me on youtube and it slaps

neither probs. 30 didn't make a lot of noise, and while renaissance is the best album there its chances are seriously harmed by having so many credits. it's a ridiculously superficial point but that's how a lot of voters will see it

she ate. the audacity to release soty less than a month into the year too

> sunak will cling on until the next ge because, unlike truss, he is not a flagrant idiot > economy will recover in the short term and this will be used as a selling point to the voters, with them forgetting that the tories were the reason it tanked in the first place > this is also because the past few days have proven voters clearly have a ******* two week memory with people unironically wishing for boris to return > nothing more needs to be said about how much a corporate shill a literal tax-avoiding billionaire prime minister will be > the tories will win the next ge. partly because of voters having a two week memory and thinking, while cradling their hot water bottle in the midst of the twentieth blackout of the month, "well, our electricity bill has literally quadrupled but think how much worse it would have been if that jimmie curbin got elected!" > also partly because keir starmer is an centrist wet wipe who doesn't have a clear stance on anything although, i admit, great british energy was a step in the right direction country is a lost cause

yeah, i was happy he stayed in all honesty. losing would give the tories the perfect platform to wheel out the next parasite and pin all of the party’s institutional problems on a lone rogue boris that said, keir starmer is a ******* wet wipe who won’t stand a chance against anyone (even boris), because paul and julie from kent want to make sure jimmy curbyn doesn’t steal their hard-earned money from the grave even if it means sending a few refugees to rwanda this country endlessly surprises me with how far it continues to self-implode. i didn’t think it could get any worse than brexit

yeah excellent thread tbh. best one i’ve read in a while. reminds me of oldTRL. all it’s lacking is some ruthless drags from some ciara stans

this is a really nice album sonically but the fact that the only things people are talking about is him saying *** kinda indicates that he’s ran out of interesting things to say, which is a shame because his words were always what set him apart society has sorta moved past the need for didactic music from rich people tbh

omg @ my recommendation making your top three. i am so proud. i would probs have the same top four. a part of me agrees that i want a full release from magdalena bay but also their mini mixes frankly **** all over their fuller bodies of work (e.g. a little rhythm ep)

every time i read through this thread all i see is you and others constantly gaslighting people about not voting biden. you don’t get to flip the script little boy and to those members saying “how do you think people got healthcare in their countries?? by retweeting their fave bartender socialist lololol”, the nhs, for one, arose from radical social reform spearheaded by the labour party in the wake of ww2 - certainly not by ****ing moderates going out to vote for their favourite predator for god’s sake

right thassit bye

10. holly herndon - proto i honestly haven’t listened to this in a few months but it left a decent lasting impression on me. chasmal electronic musical with choirs that makes it sound like the soundtrack to a futuristic dystopia. a good appetiser for next year for those of us who still haven’t listened to the miss anthropocene leak 9. freddie gibbs - bandana in a year where everyone is still freaking out over kanye’s culture death (lyrical eulogies include lana and jpegmafia), it’s nice to hear an old-school rap album that isn’t hung up on innovation or pretence. i think that feeling emerges both in its sound and construction; the purity of a rapper just rapping over some cool beats is so deliciously old school that it fills me with some warmth while everyone freaks out over blonde kanye. 8. charli xcx - charli charli may have not obtained the commercial success she aimed for, but i think she got what she wanted in making an album that was widely talked about and, at times, divisive. there’s no denying that charli is inconsistent, and my opinion of it is probably higher than others’ due to me erasing the likes of white mercedes and blame it on your love from memory. however, if we’re really at a place where an album like charli, which contains the likes of shake it and click, can be considered a stab at the mainstream, then i’m happy with how far pop music has come - and a lot of it is thanks to artists like charli. charli is a great album - it delivers on the industrial chaos of pop 2 while successfully blending with more accessible songs. even if there are one or two duds, you’d be hard pressed to find another artist who can make songs like cross you out and gone which satisfy the mainstream and segue easily into the likes of 2099. anyone who thinks too seriously about charli is really taking it for granted - it’s 2019 and we get to live in that alternate universe where AG is producing commercial-adjacent pop music with an artist like charli at the helm. and for that, i am forever grateful. 7. kelela - aquaphoria as more decade-end lists have filtered onto the internet, i think it’s becoming increasingly apparent that take me apart is the most underrated album of the decade. likewise, kelela continues to prove how underrated an artist she is by flaunting her versatility with aquaphoria. here, kelela exchanges the futuristic r&b of take me apart for a more meditative sound, where kelela’s presence enters and dissipates like raindrops silently hitting the surface of a pond. aquaphoria doesn’t have that fully-formed, complex architecture of take me apart, but it feels all the more serene and fluid for it. more than anything, it feels like an artist dabbling in something new, and it’s a direction i’d love to see kelela pursue further in the future. 6. d. tiffany - rarez in retrospect, 2019 was about two things for me - the stripped back sounds of house of sugar, norman ****ing rockwell and magdalene, versus a taste for female fronted electronic in d. tiffany, roza terenzi and kelly lee owens. rarez is one of those few albums that successfully bridges a dj set with a good, isolated album experience, where songs are crafted with care and a dextrous touch that, frankly, only a woman could bring. it’s also filled that hole while i wait for kelly lee owens to come back. 5. angel olsen - all mirrors i feel like whenever angel olsen comes out with something new, different or unexpected the knee-jerk reaction is “wow, who knew that angel olsen was actually cool and different?” which i think is a pretty damning reflection of how hard it is for a female indie artist to get the credit she deserves. angel olsen is ****ing cool and she knows how to expertly craft a record with chasmal vocals, dramatic strings and dancing synths that aren’t there to show you how cool angel olsen is, but how she knows how to make a damn good album. it would be nice to think that all mirrors is some in-joke forcing us to raise a mirror to ourselves and consider what what we really think of angel olsen and female artists in the indie sphere in general. i’m not sure it is, but i like to pretend. 4. solange - when i get home solange has always been considered the esoteric knowles sister in comparison to the mass appeal of beyonce, but when i get home is when solange really pushes on showing the world her USP. when i get home is filled with small idiosyncrasies and touches that make it feel like an artist just playing around and having fun. i feel like a lot of people don’t appreciate solange’s versatility and evolution enough, from bittersweet blood orange sunset on true, to the elegant and articulate asatt, to the eclectic and often cryptic when i get home. unlike asatt, solange doesn’t so much promote discussion as she just wills the audience to sit back and enjoy a visceral listening experience, the only question being asked that, once she gets home, where will she go next? 3. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell! in a year where greta thunberg was named time’s person of the year and australia erupted in flames while the rest of the world froze, lana offered her most poignant farewell yet - a farewell to a stupid boyfriend, to culture and to the world as we know it. among other things, i suppose NFR succeeds where other lana albums may have faltered not so much in what it has, but more so in what it leaves behind. the absence of born to die’s maximalism and grandeur leaves a certain sparseness which allows the audience to fully contemplate the hole left behind by what once was. venice bitch evaporates into a cloudless california sky, mariner’s apartment complex floats away on a coastal wind, while the album’s final farewell and gentle rumination about the future, hope is a dangerous thing, falls delicately like a tea light touching the surface of the water, before drifting out over the waves and into the night, flickering in the far distance until it fades to black. there’s a silence that follows, and it might be the loudest i’ve heard all year. 2. fka twigs - magdalene in the past, twigs has been that hit and miss artist who, while having some interesting concepts, often opted for style over substance. conversely, magdalene was a slap in the face, not least for its title being a direct mockery of all the people who credit the successes of a woman to a man, but also for stripping back the layers of twigs until all that’s left is a voice that is undoubtedly hers and hers alone. the paranoia from the likes of video girl is all the more elevated here; there’s a cavernous quality to magdalene which amplifies every passing electronic murmur and glitch breakdown. it feels like a weightless, apocalyptic world where twigs’ voice is a central gravitational axis to the production tics and flourishes which pass like celestial bodies. this is the sound of a woman hanging in the balance as gracefully as an aerial performer dangling from a rope; it captures a tragic beauty so perfect and fragile that it can’t be destined for anything other than doom. 1. (sandy) alex g - house of sugar i suppose this year was a success-story for folk[-adjacent] music, and none were as enchanting as house of sugar - a shimmering aurora of cinnamon daydreams and whispering pine forests. there’s a visceral aspect of alex’s music that i’ve always enjoyed, and house of sugar provided me with that soft sense of escapism when i needed it - a shot of crystallised sweetness on demand. the end of the decade always provides a contemplative springboard for the future and what it can bring, but it’s nice to know that, wherever we go from here, locked in 2019 will be house of sugar. with a few plucks of a guitar falling like a path of breadcrumbs, calling us back to that cozy place we call home.

albums (25-11) 25. orville peck - pony 24. goldlink - diaspora 23. magdalena bay - mini mix vol. 1 22. leon vynehall - dj-kicks (leon vynehall) [dj mix] 21. slayyyter - slayyyter 20. kaytranada - bubba 19. blanck mass - animated violence mild 18. carly rae jepsen - dedicated 17. tyler, the creator - igor 16. erika de casier - essentials 15. jenny hval - the practice of love 14. hatchie - keepsake 13. jpegmafia - all my heroes are cornballs 12. charly bliss - young enough 11. the comet is coming - trust in the lifeforce of the deep mystery top ten soon

are we surprised

songs (10-1) 10. cfcf - closed space i felt like being spontaneous and throwing a left-field choice in. voila - ethereal trance (omg this reminds me i forgot to include agnes - i trance) track 9. angel olsen - all mirrors angel olsen magnifies her music on a cinematic scale with synths and strings in a cavernous epic and the result is amazing 8. fever ray - this country makes it hard to **** - björk remix it was perfect in its original form and it’s just as good now. kinda gives you a window into what 2019 bjork could be doing if she ditched arca 7. hatchie - secret we all know by now that hatchie has the dream pop formula down to a tee, but the real standout on keepsake is secret: nothing short of a full-on journey. the song begins wistful, and slowly arpeggiates over the course of four minutes as guitars kick in and hatchie’s vocals soar and stretch like a californian coastline. it’s everything dream pop should be - simultaneously euphoric and melancholic, a beautiful and transient memory bottled in song form. we never learn what the secret is, but that might be because this song is exactly that. in a poptimist world of vociferous fans, keeping this song to ourselves makes it feel like the most precious and pure thing in the world. 6. fka twigs - cellophane there are songs on magdalene i honestly prefer like the title track, daybed and sad day, but there’s something mesmerisingly special and unique about cellophane even if it is a decidedly predictable choice (and i also just wanted to write about it). cellophane captures an acute snapshot of a relationship hanging in the balance, two bodies hovering gently like dust suspended in the golden light, on the edge of spiralling outwards from the faintest centripetal force. every touch in this song, from the dissonant piano to the stress in twigs’ voice as it ebbs in and out of softness (insert she’s nasally/guttural private show shitpost here), feels like some passing cosmic body rippling the gravity around two doomed lovers. it’s a devastatingly intimate and bare song for twigs, and yet i still feel like i can’t figure her out. is she still the paranoid alien from LP1, or the drill house mannequin from M3LL155X? because surely nothing this beautiful was man-made. 5. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell god damn man child is the best opening line of 2019 and i can’t explain why, but ever since i heard it for the first time it’s been lodged firmly in my head like shrapnel. it’s that potent mix of a mother walking in to find a smashed vase while the footfall and giggles from her children thunder from the floor above, combined with someone who has been so cast aside by lovers and critics alike finally shrugging her shoulders and walking away. is norman ****ing rockwell a sardonic farewell to culture and art as we know it, or is it just a piss take of some wannabe artist ex? to be able to blur the lines between the personal and the political, and to carve your own narrative while allowing your audience to sublimate themselves within it, is a sign of a really good songwriter. recently when i watched my country re-elect a flagrantly racist and classist party to power, i couldn’t help but think of this song and album as a whole - the melancholic farewell while clinging onto the last hope that it may one day get better, as dangerous of a thing it is to have. 4. (sandy) alex g - gretel there’s no way i could describe house of sugar better than the way its album art already portrays it: a figure skater carving arcs into a fluorescent lake, flicking constellations of ice into the black sky. i find it equally hard to describe wtf this song does to me at 1:54 - memories of footprints in the snow, deciduous forests and warm december fires captured by a few plucks of the guitar as if it were some simple algorithm played to make robots believe they have memories that never actually happened. **** you, alex, for making me wonder whether my memories are just fairytales, but equally thanks for feeding me the most beautiful lie i’ve ever heard. 3. magdalena bay - only if you want it the 2010s was a really fantastic decade for pop music, which has seen the rise of many indie artists who have carved their own niche within the genre. it feels fitting, then, to salute the final year of the decade with one of the best and newest products of 2010s poptimism - magdalena bay - who have released a string of seriously great music (see: mine, killshot, among others) this past year. i opted for only if you want it because it’s how i discovered them, but it’s just a dang good song that carries the pure, effervescent magic-of-e•mo•tion torch that even carly couldn’t hold this year. it’s that formula that goes all the way back to when i think of you and borderline, a shot of gold in song form. 2. grimes - so heavy i fell through the earth only grimes could turn a feeling of sadness into a weightless odyssey about falling through the ground, your misery materialising into the hollow carcass of a balrog as it rotates slowly through the earth’s subterranean caverns. it’s always nice to hear artists return to a previous era but have it still sound fresh, and so heavy is the closest we’ve heard to a halfaxa sequel, now projected in full imax with grimes’ newfound skills. a good song feels timeless, but a great one feels endless. in november, when i found myself becoming something of a seasonal misanthrope, the only thing i would want to do once the ethereal outro ended and i landed once more was to start it all over again and fall back into the abyss. 1. charli xcx - shake it shake it is more than a song - it’s a rally cry to mobilise all the gays armed with their bags of ket and urns of their mother’s ashes, to come together in one sweaty, iridescent blob and rejoice in the fact that charli xcx, the pop visionary of the 2010s, exists. shake it really is one of the most conceptual things charli has released: a paris is burning ballroom launched through a mirror and left to pose among the shards of shattered glass. the collaborators enter one at a time, each bringing a unique voice to the song, while charli and ag sit on stage letting you know they damn well bring it to you every ball. i think the fact that this song was framed in a work like charli - which is her biggest stab at a mainstream release since sucker - makes me love it even more. you kinda live for the idea that the normies with their blame it on your love’s and 1999’s might stumble upon shake it and its earthquake-in-an-ikea-kitchen-section vernacular, but then you also remember that the album flopped into oblivion so that will probably never happen. but you know what, if they don’t get to hear the best song of 2019, that’s entirely their loss. right albums up next

songs (30-11) 30. poppy - voicemail 29. la roux - gullible fool 28. dj seinfeld - xoul 27. goldlink - more 26. tame impala - it might be time 25. otha - sick and tired 24. jenny hval - accident 23. chelsea wolfe - american darkness 22. slayyyter - cha ching 21. charly bliss - blown to bits 20. holly herndon - eternal 19. carly rae jepsen - everything he needs 18. billie eilish - bad guy 17. solange - sound of rain 16. kero kero bonito - battle lines 15. freddie gibbs - cataracts 14. munya - benjamin 13. roosevelt - falling back 12. the comet is coming - unity 11. kelly lee owens - let it go top ten soon

songs 1. charli xcx - shake it 2. grimes - so heavy i fell through the earth 3. magdalena bay - only if you want it 4. (sandy) alex g - gretel 5. lana del rey - norman ****ing rockwell 6. fka twigs - cellophane 7. hatchie - secret 8. fever ray - this country makes it hard to **** - björk remix 9. angel olsen - all mirrors 10. cfcf - closed space 11. kelly lee owens - let it go 12. the comet is coming - unity 13. roosevelt - falling back 14. munya - benjamin 15. freddie gibbs - cataracts 16. kero kero bonito - battle lines 17. solange - sound of rain 18. billie eilish - bad guy 19. carly rae jepsen - everything he needs 20. holly herndon - eternal 21. charly bliss - blown to bits 22. slayyyter - cha ching 23. chelsea wolfe - american darkness 24. jenny hval - accident 25. otha - tired and sick 26. tame impala - it might be time 27. goldlink - more 28. dj seinfeld - xoul 29. la roux - gullible fool 30. poppy - voicemail albums 1. (sandy) alex g - house of sugar 2. fka twigs - magdalene 3. lana de rey - norman ****ing rockwell! 4. solange - when i get home 5. angel olsen - all mirrors 6. d. tiffany - rarez 7. kelela - aquaphoria 8. charli xcx - charli 9. freddie gibbs - bandana 10. holly herndon - proto 11. the comet is coming - trust in the lifeforce of the deep mystery 12. charly bliss - young enough 13. jpegmafia - all my heroes are cornballs 14. hatchie - keepsake 15. jenny hval - the practice of love 16. erika de casier - essentials 17. tyler, the creator - igor 18. carly rae jepsen - dedicated 19. blanck mass - animated violence mild 20. kaytranada - bubba 21. slayyyter - slayyyter 22. leon vynehall - dj-kicks (leon vynehall) [dj mix] 23. magdalena bay - mini mix vol. 1 24. goldlink - diaspora 25. orville peck - pony

let’s get it over with shall we 25 albuh + 30 songs because concise + laziness is my new aesthetic

gretel really does something to me, especially those plucks of the guitar around the 2:00 mark. mary magdalene is fantastic, i replayed that glitch breakdown before the final chorus so much when i first heard it. poor lp1 Xcited to see ur decade

the top ten is really good and basically summarises this year. titanic rising never really did much for me but i suppose i can blame a lot of that on my attention span. haikus are a great touch as always

dedicated reminds me a lot of dirty computer in that it’s better than what i remember it to be whenever i return to it, but equally in its absence i never have much of a desire to go back

miss kyta and vendredi sur mer luvs it titanic rising was that classic early year release/first big acclaimed album that people latch onto because they don’t want it to be a bad year but then they leave it by the wayside when other better albums are released later in the year or maybe i just dont have the attention span for indie gurls