Pierced and Bored

Say Anything: Is A Real Boy (2005)

No Doubt: Tragic Kingdom (1995)

The Grays: Ro Sham Bo (1994)

Metric: Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? (2003)

Pavement: Terror Twilight (1999)

Eels: Beautiful Freak (1996)

Alexisonfire: Alexisonfire (2002)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever To Tell (2003)

Paramore: Brand New Eyes (2009)

Paramore: This Is Why (2023)

Britney Spears: Blackout (2007)

Heart: Dreamboat Annie (1975)

Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness (1995)

Abandoned Pools: Humanistic (2001)

Eliott Smith: Eliott Smith (1996)

The Strokes: Is This It

Built to Spill: Keep It Like A Secret

Regina Spektor: Soviet Kitsch

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz

I’ve been listening to No Doubt’s 1995 album ‘Tragic Kingdom’ for the past few months. Now knowing every track, It’s one of my favourite albums. It has no doubt (pun) completely altered my ear for music. Never even considered listening to Ska before this

Most songs are so well constructed (you just need to be patient sometimes, theres a reason why artists choose to keep their songs a certain time even if they couldve easily shaven it down to a radio playable track time. 

The melodies on this album are also amazing, I doubt theres a formula for anything except intuition and constantly writing/recycling material.

This album has changed me and my life - I dont mean that lightly AT ALL. I’ve fostered a love for this album, this band, and its songs, that it has become apart of me. I dont care that I’m writing all this sentimental crap because no one will see this.

Im gonna do an ‘analysis’ (really just appreciate) the sound and image of this album and the band itself at the time, so without further a do:

The Tracklist 

[1]  Spiderwebs:

An incredibly strong introduction booming with the full band and brass with slight reverb - the trumptets playing a rythymically descending melody that hurls you into the heart of the No Doubt’s ecclectic sound. My analogy for it is - the brass intro is the tornado that carries Dorothy to the 

The verses/choruses are in major key then the bridge switches to minor with this drawling on atmosphere that sounds so freaking good. ‘now it’s gone to deep’ + gwen’s airy backing vocals - her backing vocals are also really god on this entire album

[2]  Excuse Me Mr:

THE BRIDGE. So sudden and unsuspecting the first time I ever listened to it, and it hit me like a train that I felt I had mental whiplash. Im not giving any description of it so you can see what I mean (kind of 

[3]  Just A Girl:

Everyone knows it for a fucking reason.

[4]  Happy Now?:

A point of time sound and space that is most concentrated with the retro 

[5]  Different People:

[6]  Hey you:

[7]  The Climb:

[8]  Sixteen:

[9]  Sunday Morning: 

[10]  Don’t Speak:

[11]  You Can Do It:

[12]  World Go ‘Round:

[13]  End It On This:

Its been a very long time since I watched scott pilgrim for the first time but guess I want to just to write about it since its really important to me. I didn’t feel it immediately but scott pilgrim essentially became part of me after some time, there was a period where I’d watch the movie literally everysingle day. Its the nostalhgia of it all,, being in a less complicated world where everything, despite some life situations not being that great,,, feels a lot better. I’m on the 4th volume of the comic and even though its not visually stunning or anything,, its so comforting and nice,, Bryan Lee O’malley is one of my main inspirations for starting to develop my own comics. I really want to capture the feeling of scott pilgrim in maybe the first 20 minutes of it all,, without the fighting. the fightings great but,, I just dont want to make an action comic.

That aside the movie is honestly so unique and entertaining, I love all the camera pans and the wide shots filled with a vibrant and ambient atmoshpere

The party scene is overall my favourite because the whole inside of the house and all the christmas lights and dim lighting make it so comforting to watch.

My favourite shots are probably when scott is leaning on a wall standing next to amona at the party and its really zoomed out,, the song that plays during that scene is also so fucking good *I heard Ramona sing by Frank Black)

Since about November I have gotten extremely into Britney Spears, and I just want to take some time to rant about her 5th album titled “Blackout”, so “Blackout” came out in 2007. The reason it took so long to release another album after “In The Zone” was because she wasn’t doing well at all mentally and the media of course was destroying her image which was disgusting of them, but even through all of that she kept working.

Blackout is the first album of hers where she is credited as the executive producer meaning she had a lot more artistic control over the album, getting to choose the final tracklist, etc. I think she may have written less of the songs but overall she chose who to work with and basically took control. When the album got released it was given next to nothing in promotion, the marketing team seemed to just vanish and her team seemed to change for the worse after she got put in the conservatorship which greatly stunted blackouts potential for commercial success. (I am in no way trying to undersell this albums media impact, the world always seemed to stop for a bit whenever britney released new material.) I also think there was meant to be a tour for blackout but that obviously didnt happen.

Now to talk about the music,

I wholeheartedly believe that Blackout was the blueprint for dance pop today. critics made comments on how it sounded too outdated which in my opinion is ridiculous because even listening to it now, definitely DOES NOT sound like it was produced in 2007. The album was overlooked a lot at the time of release but now a days it’s resurged back and seems to be more appreciated. It’s quite rare to find a full album with almost every track being a complete banger of a song but she managed to do it. song wise, blackout is objectively britney’s most creative and unique work. My favourite songs off the album are (in no particular oder); Freakshow, Toy Soldier, Break the ice, Get naked, Hot as ice, Get back.

Each song tends to follow a really simple formula yet is executed in such a way that adds complexity to each track. as each song progresses, more elements are layered which is why it’s so rewarding to listen to the full song through as you get so sucked into it. and with the addition of a lot of the songs having their own sort of really special but catchy riffs that really just hit right, really making you want to repeat certain parts over and over again. this album does everything right.

(also how I mentioned the layering aspect, “Womanizer” really reflects this which makes sense since it was originally meant to be put on blackout but was put on the “Circus” album)

The two images ubove are both fanmade for a fanmade album titled “Blackout: Golden Edition” and My god do I love it. A lot of songs are questionable as some of the remixes take away from the originals but for “Get naked” it makes it better in my opinion. I also love the concept and art of having a more high quality version of blackout, also the gold designs are just more to my liking. I have recently downloaded all the demos from Blackout and leakied songs before It came out that got cut so I have even more material to listen to !

Well,, i just finished the last animated episode of Nana and I have a few thoughts,, also i feel empty feel empty for some reason but im just going to ignore that (there will be spoilers !!!)

- I absolutely hate sachiko (the one shoujo cheated on hachiko with) her character was annoying and i wanted to punch her pretty much everytime she was on screen,, Her character isnt intresting and her actions fucking suck,, I am very pro sachiko slander

- Despite reira being a literal pedophile,, I think she was written really well,, she is a very layered character who is greedy and selfish and in a way very manipulative,, using shin was a horrible thing,, the only good thing about her is she has nice hair, but I liked watching scenes with her,, seeing her interact with trapnest/other characters was insightful,, sometimes it feels like you could almost justify her actions if it wasnt for the absolute no no illegal shit she did since she acts so lovely wtih some characters,, (DOING THINGS WITH A FUCKING MINOR????????)

- Ren wasnt interesting,, I never really felt like i was getting to know his character or why he does what he does,, etc, most of the interesting parts came from mostly Nana,, but I still feel like he’s somewhat of a realistic character,, there just doesnt feel that much to him on a very surface level

-Hachiko did get on my nerves at some points,, but she was greatly mistreated by so many people that it angered me,, even at times be Nana,, shin was probably the truly nicest person to her,, she has a lot of natural human flaws,, and she was a very greedy and materialistic person who was on the more sensitive side, and really only seemed to think the most about relationships,, she did have a mothering quality that probably attracted shin to like her,, In summary I Both love her and dislike parts of her,, she has some pretty unhealthy mindsets but has shown she can grow

-Nana definitely came off as a complex person,, she was abandoned by her mother at a very early age and that affected her pretty much at every point throughout her life,, I kind of thought it would be more empowering for her not to be so focused on ren,, and for a while she wasnt,, and she kept trying to reject the idea of him in the year off that he went to tokyo,, but in the end (of the anime) she was with him,, I also feel like thats realistic and I dont blame her for that,, She seems to need him in one way or another,, but i know shed be able to survive even with just Yasu

-Yasu was probably the big brother/uncle/father role everyone needed to keep their shit together,, I swear he mustve lost all his hair from second hand stress of these broken people,, I godamn love this man,, and he handles things so well,, and maturely too,, he always dealt with everyone during the whole show,, and pretty much always knew what to do,, we all need a yasu in our lives

-Shin’s character was pretty heavy ,, its very obvious his way of (TW,, S/H) hurting himself was sleeping with older woman,, it was for sure a destructive behaviour,, He basically got manipulated by reira even though she still liked yasu,, and shin was aware but its sad to know that he pushed that aside just because hefelt like for once someone valued him,, Hachiko was one of the only people that loved him without expecting anything in return,, conculsion - shin needs a better family and therapy,,