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Dawnbreaker

Dawnbreaker

~The Other Side of Fear~
My mother said I'm too romantic
She said, "You're dancing in the movies"
I almost started to believe her
Then I saw you and I knew
Maybe it's 'cause I got a little bit older
Maybe it's all that I've been through
I'd like to think it's how you lean on my shoulder
And how I see myself with you

I don't say a word
But still, you take my breath and steal the things I know
There you go, saving me from out of the cold

Fire on fire would normally kill us
But this much desire, together, we're winners
They say that we're out of control and some say we're sinners
But don't let them ruin our beautiful rhythms
'Cause when you unfold me and tell me you love me
And look in my eyes
You are perfection, my only direction
It's fire on fire, mmm
It's fire on fire

When we fight, we fight like lions
But then we love and feel the truth
We lose our minds in a city of roses
We won't abide by any rules

I don't say a word
But still, you take my breath and steal the things I know
There you go, saving me from out of the cold

Fire on fire would normally kill us
But this much desire, together, we're winners
They say that we're out of control and some say we're sinners
But don't let them ruin our beautiful rhythms
'Cause when you unfold me and tell me you love me
And look in my eyes
You are perfection, my only direction
It's fire on fire, oh
It's fire on fire

Fire on fire would normally kill us
But this much desire, together, we're winners
They say that we're out of control and some say we're sinners
But don't let them ruin our beautiful rhythms

Fire on fire would normally kill us
But this much desire, together, we're winners
They say that we're out of control and some say we're sinners
But don't let them ruin our beautiful rhythms
'Cause when you unfold me and tell me you love me
And look in my eyes
You are perfection, my only direction
It's fire on fire

You are perfection, my only direction
It's fire on fire

[Fire on Fire]
 
Ghost X

Ghost X

Moderator
My Top Ten for 2022, in order:

1. PPC music seems to frequently be the anti-dentist needle stabbing into my brain's pleasure centres.

2. Benee had my favourite pick a year or two ago. This year I like the word play :P.

3. I feel like I've heard the general sound of this song before. Would be curious if it heavily borrows from another.

4. I don't really think much of the song, tbh, just what Montaigne's voice does in it.

5. The Presets frequently do a lot with a little.

6. In my view, this is a Tame Impala song featuring Gorillaz and Booty Brown, despite what it tells you.

7. Aurora's song Animal really grated on me, but her singing ability is capable of redeeming her :mon:.

8. Nothing from Florence has done much for me in recent years, but this was pretty good.

9. Seems like this band has been around for a while, but only now recognised by the industry. Looking forward to more of their music.

10. Proving that bogans sometimes come out with some good music :P.

Honorable mentions, also in order.

11. Ball Park Music - Stars In My Eyes
12. Sigrid - It Gets Dark
13. Adam Newling - Singing Blackbird
14. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Acid Dent
15. Wongo - Apple
16. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Spitting Off The Edge Of The World
17. Spacey Jane - Sitting up
18. Pacific Avenue - Leaving For London
19. Beabadoobee - Talk
20. Meg Mac - Only Love
21. Bicep - Meli II
23. Jean Dawson - Bad Fruit
 
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Nanaki Skywalker

Nanaki Skywalker

Kate Lord of the Sith
AKA
Tarkatan Trash
I'm listening to these 3 albums I just got for Christmas on vinyl.

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I already finished the Maiden one, and I'm about halfway through the Arch Enemy one. I haven't listened to the Lamb of God one yet, but will as soon as I'm done with the Arch Enemy one.
 
Rankles

Rankles

Pro Adventurer
Brian Eno-An Ending (Ascent)


A very happy New Year to everyone on the forums! 2022 has surpassed last year as the worst year of my life, but I remain thankful for the amazing people I have (and have had) in my life and hope that 2023 is a much better one.
 
Ⓐaron

Ⓐaron

Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
AKA
The Man, V
Gene Clark – “Some Misunderstanding”

I am genuinely salty that it took a wiki walk after David Crosby’s death (RIP, by the way) for me to find out about this album, No Other, and that I went 39 years of my life without hearing it once, and especially that no one even told me about it. I only discovered it because Crosby and Clark were both erstwhile members of the Byrds; Clark wrote or cowrote many of the band’s early hits that weren’t written by Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger, most notably “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better” and “Eight Miles High”.

It might be slightly glib to call this the American All Things Must Pass, but the comparison gives you a vaguely accurate idea of what it sounds like. There are elements of rock, folk, country, funk, soul, R&B, gospel, psychedelia, progressive rock, and more, but simply listing the diverse set of influences on the album (Clark singled out Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and the Rolling Stones’ Goats Head Soup as especially big influences on it) doesn’t remotely do it justice.

Clark and his producer, Thomas Jefferson Kaye, wanted to outdo Brian Wilson and Phil Spector’s production, and I think they succeeded in every way. The songwriting, arrangement, performances, and production quality are all immaculate; it helps that many of Southern California’s finest session musicians played on it.

Nonetheless, the album was a commercial failure upon release, and critics predictably savaged it as bloated and pretentious at the time. It did not help that David Geffen hated the album and refused to promote it; apparently he was salty that the album had only eight tracks, which is especially asinine on his part considering his own label also released Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky – and here’s the punchline: it came out the exact same month as this album. (For those in the cheap seats, Late for the Sky also has eight tracks.)

It took until the ’00s to undergo a reappraisal, at which point Clark and Kaye were unfortunately long dead. Critics have since called it “a lost masterpiece” and “one of the greatest albums of all time”, and I feel inclined to agree with both statements. It’s one of those albums that already feels like it’s been part of my life forever, even though I only first heard it last month. It also feels like it was made specifically for me. It’s immediately accessible but reveals further depth with each subsequent listen.

The whole album is on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and a bunch of other services. I can’t recommend it enough.
 
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Ⓐaron

Ⓐaron

Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
AKA
The Man, V
Get a box of tissues, then sit down and strap in for this one. It’s nine and a half minutes long. The length isn’t the reason you need to strap in, though; you’ll be too busy dealing with a heavy emotional reaction from it.

(content warning: frank discussion of thoughts of self-loathing, self-harm, suicide, etc., plus other physical and mental health issues. This video has an ultimately positive message, but it shouldn’t be a replacement for actual therapy.)



So, I’d never heard of Ren until a few weeks ago. This track features just his voice and acoustic guitar, and its video was recorded in a single take along with the audio. He’s not lip-synching; you can clearly see the mic setup at one point near the end, which I won’t spoil because it deserves to be experienced for itself.

I must’ve listened to this track at least two dozen times in the past two days alone, and every single time, it hits me like a goddamn Mack truck. It’s easily one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen in any medium and one of the most important pieces of art produced this decade¹.

I’ll spoiler tag the rest of my discussion of this track. Watch the video before you open the spoiler.

Ren is Ren Gill, a Welsh musician based out of Brighton formerly known for his work with the band The Big Push. In 2010, he signed with Sony Records, and shortly after, he became severely ill, which resulted in his being dropped from the label. After a decade of being misdiagnosed (which he discusses in more detail in his other songs), he finally was correctly diagnosed with Lyme disease and received a stem cell transplant. He is currently in Canada receiving further treatment for the disease.

He has also suffered from auditory and visual hallucinations, which heavily inspired this track. He explains:

Up until I was 9 years old, I would intermittently hear a voice in my head that was not my own. The voice was distinctly different to mine, and always negative. It would self criticise or urge me to do things I knew to be morally wrong. The most peculiar thing about the voice was that it took no effort on my behalf to produce. My own thoughts always felt like there was a process that required effort to bring them to the forefront of my mind, this voice appeared as though it was spoken by another. The sentences felt predetermined like they had already been constructed.

I remember very vividly at 9 years old, becoming very frustrated with the voice. I stood in my back yard, internally screaming at the voice to be silent again and again, and it did. In a flash there was silence, to the point where my head felt like an empty room. I wasn't used to the quiet and that voice never returned. It almost felt lonely in my head.

When I got older I had intermittent bouts with auditory hallucinations where I would hear perfect symphonies, usually at night when drifting off to sleep. They were so clear that they sounded like they were emanating from a radio in the corner of my room. I knew they weren't there, but for some reason they never came with the feeling of fear. I also recall sitting on a bus at the age of 15, and hearing the sound of a crowded room, with about 100 voices chattering away, I was the only person apart from the driver on the bus.

These experiences were always very brief, and few and far between.

My last hallucination was during an intense bout of psychosis in 2015, and was my first visual hallucination. I was walking down a pavement after jumping out my mums car in a crossroads in a moment of frustration and distress with my condition. I was trying to run from myself. What appeared to be a homeless man with a dark complexion approached me, and asked me what was wrong. I explained that I had been sick most my life, and I wasn't sure I had the strength to continue. He looked at me, and smiled and told me 'everything is going to be okay in the end Ren.' I had not told him my name. There was something so overpoweringly sincere about this very simple message, which brought with it an overwhelming feeling of inner peace, and in a flash, he vanished.

My rational brain always linked these experiences to what the doctors have told me, that there are parts of my brain compromised by the autoimmunity in my body. That the myelin sheaths surrounding the complex electrical system that conduct my thoughts were damaged and compromised, causing these lucid experiences that I knew did not exist inside the physical world.

The part of me that edges away from logical and rational thought always attributed these thoughts to some kind of otherworldly intervention, that made my thoughts the battleground of some spiritual tug of war.

For a long time I never really acknowledged this part of myself, for with it brought the danger and stigma of sounding like a crazy person.

I decided with my latest release, to the best of my ability, to capture and express this chess match of thought.
Click to expand...

I’ve never experienced a more honest and truthful description of the doubts that must plague every creative person. There’s always the nagging thought in the back of one’s mind, “You don’t do this as well as other people do; everything you’ve ever done is ripped off from others, and you’re worthless.” That voice isn’t true. But it never really goes away. The triumph isn’t to quiet the voice; the triumph is to not listen to it.

The two most powerful passages for me are these.

I go by many names also
Some people know me as hope
Some people know me as the voice that you hear when you loosen the noose on the rope
And you know how I know that I'll prosper?
'Cause I stand here beside you today
I have stood in the flames that cremated my brain and I didn't once flinch or shake

So cower at the man I've become
When I sing from the top of my lungs
That I won't retire, I'll stand in your fire
Inspire the meek to be strong
And when I am gone, I will rise
In the music that I left behind
Ferocious, persistent, immortal like you
We’re a coin with two different sides
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Even reading it gives me goosebumps. The fact that he actually stands up after spending most of the song in a wheelchair moves me to tears. Every goddamn time. Then his singing. Even writing about it has me a mess.

The other passage is the ending.

It wasn’t David versus Goliath, it was a pendulum
Eternally swaying from the dark to the light
And the more intensely that the light shone, the darker the shadow it casts

It was never really a battle for me to win, it was an eternal dance
And like a dance, the more rigid I became, the harder it got
The more I cursed my clumsy footsteps, the more I struggled
So I got older
And I learned to relax, and I learned to soften, and that dance got easier

It is this eternal dance that separates human beings from angels, from demons, from gods
And I must not forget, we must not forget, that we are human beings
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Brief tangent: coincidentally (or not), he uses the name of a game I’ve spent years working on five different times throughout his track. And one of Eternal’s central themes is exactly this: the need for balance. The balance of power, the balance between order and chaos, and especially the balance within oneself. This reflects a struggle much older than us; and trying too hard to be good, to be perfect, just makes us more flawed. I don’t think I could’ve articulated it more eloquently than he did if I’d tried, though.

“The more intensely that the light shone, the darker the shadow it casts” is a close paraphrase of a line from Carl Jung² describing an example of enantiodromia, the tendency of things to turn into their opposites, which is a central theme of Eternal (as is the shadow archetype as a whole). Enantiodromia is a central theme of this song as well, as is the idea that the perfect is the enemy of the good. Allowing ourselves to be consumed by the idea of perfection prevents us from actually living our lives, from making the mistakes that are necessary for the creative process.

Moreover, refusing to accept our flaws as human beings is itself a flaw. Admitting a flaw is the first step towards correcting it. Remembering that we are human and allowing ourselves to admit to our flaws is necessary for us to work to correct them, or to compensate for them in some other way.

This track is a master class on every level. It deserves all the hype and acclaim it’s received and then some.

________________

²“It is a psychological rule that the brighter the light, the blacker the shadow,” from Jung’s introduction to Fanny Moser’s Spuk: Irraglaube oder Wharglaube (Ghosts: False Belief or True).

¹The only other musical work I’ve encountered from this decade that I’d consider to be of comparable importance, for very different reasons, is Ashenspire’s Hostile Architecture. I’ve written a lengthy exegesis of that album that the band themselves liked enough to link on the blue bird site and the Faceplace, which I’ll link to eventually.

(Sorry for these being in reverse order, but the second footnote needed to be within the spoiler tag.)
 
Ⓐaron

Ⓐaron

Factiō Rēpūblicāna dēlenda est.
AKA
The Man, V


it’s utterly baffling to me that this doesn’t have like, 100x the number of views and likes that it currently does. these arrangements and performances are sublime.


and on an unrelated note…
Ⓐaron said:
¹The only other musical work I’ve encountered from this decade that I’d consider to be of comparable importance, for very different reasons, is Ashenspire’s Hostile Architecture. I’ve written a lengthy exegesis of that album that the band themselves liked enough to link on the blue bird site and the Faceplace, which I’ll link to eventually.
Click to expand...
…as promised, since my copy of the LP finally came in yesterday, here’s the link to my lengthy exegesis of the album. The band had this to say in response:

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I can’t recommend this album highly enough to people that like metal.
 
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