"'I've come to treat the tinnitus as a friend,' Shields has said. 'It filters unwanted sounds and actually protects my ears.'"
That's great, Kevin. I'll be wearing prescription earplugs and hunting earmuffs when I see MBV live next month, because I already have a permanent "friend" in my left ear from one-too-many loud concerts, and I'm not trying to make that friend any louder or make a new friend in my right ear.
At what point does this shit become criminal? jfc
You have every right to be irked.
To paraphrase Dave Chappelle: All these years I thought I liked dancing ‘cause it was fun. Turns out I’m sexually predisposed to liking dancing.
What’s worse is now I gotta tell all my POC friends they’ve been downgraded to acquaintances. Sorry, guys, I don’t make the rules.
Is now a good time to discuss this gem from The Other Site's Chromeo review?
"Like the louche robots, Dave 1 and P-Thugg began in Francophonic bedrooms with a strong personal style and a predilection for funk licks, which they took to increasingly vast crowds as white, heterosexual guys rediscovered the joys of dancing their girlfriends and gay friends and POC acquaintances never forgot."
https://media.giphy.com/media/y7kvOYLzas6Ag/giphy.gif
You’d be amazed how many people never hear about anything political unless a celebrity they follow talks about it, even if the story was already all over the news.
I agree it’s dumb for celebrities to shame other people for not getting involved in a movement when all they’re doing is tweeting about it, but what do you mean by “real world revolution” and “offline action”?
I agree most celebrities come off as inarticulate and insincere whenever they talk politics, but they're not trying to convince you those things are bad; they're trying to raise awareness among people who would otherwise be unaware those things are happening (the cages) or that they're still happening (Flint).
"Black Kemet gods / black Egyptian gods" made me cringe.
The ancient Egyptians were neither black nor white; they were ancient Egyptian. Let it go, everybody.
And I don’t think that’s a coincidence: Cops know there are enough murderous ding-dongs out there who watch movies and wonder, “Wow! You can just hire someone to do that for you, like in the movies...?!” for them to pay undercover officers good money to catch them.
"It may be the kind where, at the age of thirty, you sit in some bar hating everybody who comes in looking as if he might have played football in college. Then again, you may pick up just enough education to hate people who say, 'It's a secret between he and I.' Or you may end up in some business office, throwing paper clips at the nearest stenographer.”
The disco synth that kicks in on "My. Heart. Stops." gets me every time, and that second chorus takes an already great pop song to another level. (The words "skintight jeans" sound tailor-made for her voice.)
Great title track. It felt like her mission statement. And great article, btw!
Reminds me of working at H&M. Not sure whether Katy had a deal with them, but our store played One of the Boys front to back a bunch of times that summer.
Speaking of Summer 2008: She played the Warped Tour, and I saw her set. It was in the middle of the day and felt like everyone involved knew it was a bad fit but wanted to make it work. Katy was trying her best to get the crowd on her side with some stage banter, but it came off like that high school English teacher who tries to win the class over by cursing a lot. (“Anybody here like to smoke weed?”)
“Call Your Girlfriend” is almost all hook, and I love it.
Robyn hits you with so many catchy melodies in the first 30 seconds alone. Then, when you’re one line away from the chorus, she throws in that “and then you let her down eeeeeasssaaaaaayyy” at the buzzer just to show off.
I also like to think the narrator of “Call Your Girlfriend” is the “her” in “Dancing on My Own”.
I give Tom Breihan more shit than any commenter on this site—all jokes aside, Tom, I love you and I think you're a talented writer—especially when I think he's letting someone off the hook for being a terrible person because they make good music, but this was a fair, honest take on the whole X thing.
1- "Dancing on My Own" is amazing and a shoo-in for Top 5.
2- "Bad Romance" is my favorite Lady Gaga song.
3- I never have and never will understand why "We Found Love" is even in the conversation, and I'm well aware I'm in the minority on that one.
Another fun fact about "Chandelier": Pitchfork straight-up forgot to put it on their Top 100 Tracks of 2014.
They gave it a rave review when it dropped and still refer to it as one of the best pop songs of the decade whenever it comes up, but they dead-ass forgot it came out by the time they made their 2014 year-end lists—most likely because they didn't review her album, which was the norm for pre-Condé Nast Pitchfork wrt pop singers.
Really.
The lyrics perfectly capture that thin line between partying to feel free and partying because you feel dead inside and can't stop yourself and are crying out for help. Fittingly, almost every line in the song has a double meaning: "Party girls don't get hurt" can mean "I feel invincible" OR "I feel numb," "I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist" = "I'm gonna live for the moment" OR "I'm gonna drink so much tonight I might not live to see tomorrow," and so on.
That you don't realize the song is about Sia's alcoholism on your first listen—the same way you might see an addict spiralling out of control at a party and mistake them for someone just having a good time—is another stroke of genius.
I could go on and on about the lyrics, honestly—the way "til I lose coOOOoooOOooOOoount" bleeds into the chorus, the way the swinging from the chandelier symbolizes partying/letting yourself go and teetering on the edge of death at the same time ("I'm gonna swing from the chandelier"/"Help me I'm holding on for dear life")—it's all brilliant.
And do we even need to discuss her vocals? The "IIIIIIIIIIII'M"s so powerful you could count on one hand the number of pop stars who could even attempt them let alone hit them, the way she sounds ready to conquer the world on the first "like it doesn't exIIIIIIIIIIIISSSt" and ready to start crying on the second one, the way her voice breaking up on "I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night" makes it sound like a death wish—that's a vocal take for the ages, and I'll fight yr dad if you say different.
Are you ever gonna post your shitty opinion, or just keep hinting at it? Go ahead: What's this provable, inextricable link between race and criminality all us sheltered little libtards are so afraid to acknowledge?
C'mon, coward.
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