Untitled

coming back here just to share my final personal playlist for EDAABP, after long while to sit on it (and hearing it live!!!!). A little based on my "narrative" i had from the OG 17 tracks, a little based on vibes lol

ego death at a bachelorette party

hard

whim

Ice in my OJ

kill me

zissou

brotherly hate

true believer

discovery channel

dream girl

showbiz

blood bros

disappearing man

glum

neg self talk

parachute

mirtazepine

good ol days

love me different

I have couple tracklist playlists that I really love the vibe of, but I wanted to make one that tells a story - so here it is. The narrator starts on the ground, on the road, in the earth. Then she voyages, through oceans and forests and jungles…maybe gets caught up in a murky and mystical place. Eventually the breakthrough happens, after change and growth, but also a rediscovery of who she always has been since the start.

ego death at a bachelorette party - this is the thesis statement, the beginning of the journey. it starts low key - the softness of the instrumental intro feels like a good transition out of FFV into EGO - and the keys in the ignition signal that we're hitting the road, going somewhere important. it's the most simple straightforward prosaic lyrics of all the songs, but hints at deeper meaning

Whim - i'm firmly in the camp of a bop track 2, and Whim feels like starting something new with the best of intentions. As light as the instrumental is, something in the lyrics feels so grounded - bare feet on the concrete, lying next to him. also, NGL but on first listen before we had any lyrics, i head "bare feet concrete something knees bandanges" and fully imagined tripping and scraping your knees on the sidewalk - but then you get up again, take it easy, keep going, have faith.

Hard - this song also feels like the start of a story, turning a page from the past, softening a stony cagey exterior

ice in my OJ - feels like healing inner child, an important part of the journey. i kind of love that the screamy chorus is high-pitched and almost tantrum-like, how a child feels/knows something in their gut & is just trying desperately to get that point across

Kill Me - this song is a punch in the gut, another one for healing the inner child.

Zissou - finally a little bit of calm. Zissou to me is soothing, floating on moving water. The narrator trying to reassure someone who is struggling...she offers empathy to that person and acknowledges inner demons, but ultimately is trying to show a path to take together.

Brotherly Hate - i'm obsessed with the tree symbolism in this song. Roots and branches, the desperation to hold steady no matter how the wind blows (or where the water current tries to take you...connection to the last song!). i think this could apply to one person, or even a whole family of 'brothers' in relation to to this narrator.

discovery channel - lust, maybe without intimacy at all. raw, animalistic....like you're ripped open with all your innards hanging out for the world to see, and can't heal, or really even feel. maybe she don't even realize she should be afraid of this happening, until it already has.

True Believer - I truly believe this song could go anywhere in our hero’s journey, it’s so vital and revealing and transformative

dream girl in Shibuya - something about the dream-like quality of this song, sounds right coming after the eerie-ness of True Believer. it's one part of this specific tracklist i picked by ear.

Blood Bros - the narrator thought the water was dangerous - the instrumental even feels like you're listening to it through water to me - but once it's gone she's still drowning. gasping for life/grasping at straws and willing to do anything to hold on

Disappearing Man - a solid presence, her rock, her tether, has dissipated into thin air. following up blood bros with Disappearing Man...something about the imagery in of trying to make it to the bottom, the depths never shared, to suck out all the poison and negativity...only to realize you've pulled the drain-stopper and you're floundering to the surface to not get pulled down.

Glum - in the wake of disappearing, dissipating sunshine...what's left in the void. uncertain, unmoored.

Negative Self Talk - again in the absence of something once full, what's left? negative self talk. we're sitting in the driveway, back home, is the story coming to an end? but the last stretch, the long walk from the car to the house, seems insurmountable if we've filled the silence with nothing good. through the bridge she fortifies herself, looks for light, lets it in as guidance. by the end she's determined to not hear the self-sabotage any longer

mirtazepine - a pick me up? a good time for this.

love me different - a journey all in one song; it sonically feels like we've gone back out on the water, and pulled ourselves upwards by the top-of-her-lungs screaming for a different, better, kind of (self)love.

i won't quit on you - everything has changed, yet nothing has changed. she’s not home, she’s somewhere else entirely, extraterrestrial but the person with her makes it home? despite the journey and transformation, the love and hope still hold. ---------------------------------

Parachute - yep we'll have to see where this goes. this song feels like a foil to Hard in some ways, references the same wedding and that conflict, but now rather than a cage she’s reaching for something safe, a parachute. Maybe she’s trying to come down to herself again, from being stranded on mars.

TWO MORE

You First

RCB or Hard Times

TWYG

Figure 8 or The News (probably a pipe dream but....lol)

Aint it fun

[surprise song, whatever the band feels like playing...ICM/Decode/CITM/last hope/AIW?]

[AWKIF song!! i could see them shuffling HWGA/Pressure/Conspiracy in the spirit of celebrating "eras"]

TOE (i want to see hayley start at the far end of the catwalk and sing her way back to her boys, with the lil og3 moment they created on tour)

TIW

MizBiz

Still Into You

- a “long pond” like recording + video. Taylor and Hayley actually getting to sing/record **together**🥹

To me h’s verse sounds very much like herself - though I do hear the autotune, i very much hear her slinky reflective low-register vocal, that she never showed off until pfa&ffv. the enunciation is also very her.

the backing vocals are also pretty distinctly “hayley” to me. I esp love the “I will just let you down” in the choruses. And the “oohs and ahs” before the bridge…the first thing I thought of was the oohs that h does as crowd-call-and-response does when paramore plays misguided ghosts live.

A little thing that stands out to me is the fact that h has the lines about “once I was the great hope for a dynasty” when rock music/artists/reviewers used to say the same about her - including (guess which villain in swiftie lore) literally calling her the “great (orange) hope”….

she also sings the line of “their faith was strong but I pushed it too far”. when in that era H had also written tons of lyrics about how she handled the public’s view of her/faith in her….but *also* was so vocal about being guided by her own faith. Both of these women were at the time very known for their Christian roots.