marisha ray supremacy

4. a song that reminds you of your favorite season

my favorite season is autumn! i'm gonna do one aespa one non-aespa again bc i'm a cheater <3

aespa - Flowers. ik this song is about flowers which are not associated with autumn basically ever but i truly could not care less about lyrical content like 95% of the time when i'm deciding how a song makes me feel or whether i like it. this song's got a lower quieter energy and i think a lot of its appeal lies in more subtle complexity and layering which feels very autumn to me

AURORA - Hunger. aurora has a lot of songs that somehow quite viscerally evoke the unstoppable force of the neverending turning of seasons and the circle of life, which is very on-brand. but i think this song sits squarely in one place, and perhaps that place is autumn? it's honestly so hard, i feel like there are a lot of songs out there that are slam dunk winter songs, and autumn is close to that feeling but not quite the same and it's hard to find that subtlety, but this is the best i can do i think

12. a song you can scream all the words to

aespa - Licorice. i can i have and i will continue to scream all the words to the vast majority of aespa songs, but this one is just so FUN, and completely totally underrated. there are sooooooo many ad libs that tickle your brain. the attitude is off the charts, this flippant bratty effortlessness. the intonations of the line immediately following the "i wanna scream and shout" line is the best ever, makes me smile every time. "REALLY! not like that. REALLY! REALLY! not like that!!" "sticky! sticky! oh my god." winter always but winter in this song especially. it's such a simple song with such a fun sassy vibe. i wish it was longer

Ado - Episode X. this song is SO GOOD. a yoasobi-type rapid complex melody with the vocal and energetic flexibility of ado makes it so fun to sing and also so so so impossibly difficult to sing. but the question is not which song do you sound good singing along to because if it was i think this would be close to last place. but the key change at the end is so irresistible how can you not scream along

24. a song from a soundtrack (musical, movie, video game, etc.)

ok every time i get this question i have to do one song from each type of soundtrack bc i Live for soundtrack music. sorry not sorry

Musical: The Drowsy Chaperone - Bride's Lament. this was the last musical i ever worked on and when i tell you my roommates and i were constantly performing this song in our apartment like absolute fools. it's so fucking funny. it's the epitome of a bunch of professionals putting their whole pussies into beautifully performing a song that is essentially a five-minute long joke and i think that's so beautiful

TV: TLOVM - Ruby (End Credits). lol i didn't even watch the new season i'm too scared of how much it'll piss me off but this little track is so good, and it's hilarious that laura's stupid "the ruby of the sEa is the best–...layy ever,," turned into this

Film: KPDH - Golden. do i even need to say anything here. ejae put crack cocaine in this song and sang it so well that we were all forced to face the beautiful irreparable consequences of loving ourselves

Game: FFVII Rebirth - Demon Gates. one time my coworker asked me what kind of music i like and it was during that time in my life where i listened to nothing but ff7r music so i told her "oh a lot of soundtrack music, mostly orchestral stuff right now" and she said "aw, that's nice and relaxing" and i didn't have the energy to tell her that orchestra music is not just cute and bouncy mozart symphonies. orchestra music can be Demon Gates too. i didn't sit down and rly listen to this track until months after i finished the game but better late than never i say! they love to hide the most batshit stuff in the background of a boss fight that is already so overstimulating you can barely even tell there's music playing half the time. but this piece is such an Experience. so many leitmotifs flying around. a meter change at 2:45, and then another one 10 seconds later, and then this huge foundational shift 10 seconds after that, into this exhilarating energy rush. that rapid staccato arpeggiated thing that starts so low and goes so high that it gets passed between at least 3 instruments. more leitmotifs. more insanity. this is the type of piece that lets you truly understand why classical musicians are so fuckin out of breath at the end of their performances. i'm nearly out of breath just listening to it

30. your all-time favorite song

impossible question, i'd rather die than answer it. i'll pick my favorite aespa song because once again i'm a cheater

aespa - LEMONADE. i thought about this for a long time because i like so many of their songs so much and maybe there's some recency bias here but tbh i don't think so? it's just SO GOOOOOOD. I CAN'T DENY IT! the rap flows are sooo fun and have this effortless laziness to them even within a song that otherwise has an unrelenting forward momentum. the sassy lil stops and starts that don't disrupt the actual flow of the song but instead just make the beat hit even harder when it comes back in. the production is so sexy. that crazy BWOMP sound on the first down-beat of every chorus. the alarm-like synth over the latter half of the first verse. the high-pitched tings and tangs that kind of lazily decay downward over the whole second verse. the way the tension of the bass releases into a wider slower suspense for the pre-chorus. "i take my karma straight" banger line. music video cool af. the ad libs over the final chorus (obsessed with the lazy "no ETAaaaaaaa..."). winter "like zip" part end of sentence. except actually not end of sentence because the doubling she did over it where she starts low and goes high is the coolest ever. i have absolutely no notes on the construction of this song. simply the best

6. your current “on repeat” song

since you didn't specify and i'm on a self-indulgent streak, i'm gonna do one aespa and one non-aespa song for this one bc i have multiple on-repeat songs

aespa - Orbit Pop. this whole EP is on repeat. i can't put my finger on why this song is so fun to listen to but i've been having a major major earworm issue with it. there's so many little parts that make me grin. aeri's sassy speaking parts. the chorus is so catchy. "i don't chase your orbit no clash!" "EW! EWWWWW." "whatever i'm the MAJORRR" or whatever tf ning is saying there. signature aespa vocal layering at the end. the name orbit pop is so cute and the song fits that vibe so well, the cutie quirky space girl. wait actually it's totally an extension of the characters from the long chat track video? four cutieful weird girls who are also accomplished physicists and astronomers. wait i love that

Agnes - MILK. don't have much to say about this song i just think it's catchy as hell. i initially thought they were saying "i turn milk into body and body into money" and i thought turning body into money was kind of a cool lyric but the milk part didn't make sense. and then i found out it was "i turn milk into butter and butter into money" which makes even less sense but i will admit it does make it catchier to sing

23. your favorite cheesy pop song

Matchbox Twenty - How Far We've Come. there are a lot of super basic songs that i love deeply so this is one of many but i have loved this song since i was in middle school. i have a core memory of reading the climax of a book while listening to this song on repeat and it's important to me. it's so dramatic. it's the best

27. an instrumental song

i listen to SO much instrumental music and i think it's dumb that this question condenses that all into one entity, so i'm gonna have to self-indulge again and give you a few options. i'll be brief tho i promise

Artisan - Wylenna. if you're into the more medieval fantasy soundtrack vibe

Jeon Yonghyeon - Ah! if you're into groovy saxophones and you love wishing that a song was longer

PROFF - Whale Song. if you're into electronic paintings of otherwise dauntingly vast and unknowable things such as the deep ocean

Nobuo Uematsu - FFVII REMAKE: Flowers Blooming in the Church. if you're into the feeling of falling in love with a woman whose unrelenting optimism and deep kindness will fundamentally change your life but will also be the reason she is ripped away from you and from the beautiful life she deserves the most out of anyone you'll ever know :)

Polyphia - Playing God. if you're into i don't know a dude just going absolutely fucking batshit insane with a guitar

1. your favorite album opener

aespa - Welcome to MY World (feat. naevis). surprised myself with how easy of a pick this was, actually? this isn't my fav song out of all their album openers (although i do love it so so much) but i do think it does the best job as an opener, if that makes sense? it's been years since it came out but they have yet to make another song that accomplishes the same level of cinematic suspense, which is the stuff that makes a song specifically good as an opener. you want it to set up the rest of the album as a cohesive musical experience, not just "best song first" which is how most of their other albums are set up

Paradis - Instantané. this was harddd! i know the last time i answered this, ages ago now, i said ODESZA - Intro + A Moment Apart, which i lowkey still stand by. but for the sake of not repeating myself and also picking an opener for an album that i actually love in its entirety, it was between this song and Pendulum - Prelude + Slam. two very different options! the paradis opener is more subtle? it eases you into an emotionally ambiguous headspace that i feel persists for the whole album in a very cohesive way, and i think that's super impressive

6. your current “on repeat” song

aespa - Fangirl. new release! this EP surprised the hell out of me, SM barely promoted it and the girls barely talked about it and it is SO good? so realistically every track of the EP is equally on repeat, but to pick one to talk about briefly, fangirl prob has the most entertaining production and percussion imo. it's one of those songs where you never stop noticing new details and how those details develop over the course of the track (not rare in aespa's discography by any means but some songs certainly have that more than others). and if there's one thing you should know about me it's that i LOOOOVE a song that has a bunch of Noises in it

Rêve - Disco At The Strip Club. i don't have much to wax poetic about with this one, but i love when you listen to a song with headphones in and it feels like it's filling every little corner of the soundscape and seeping into all the wrinkles in your brain. there's this super satisfying soft, open fullness to it and i like to let it Envelop me

26. a song that taught you a lesson

aespa - Savage. honestly a strange question that i'm not quite sure how to answer, but every song can teach you something about how music can be interesting and exploratory and evocative, so i'm just gonna use this as an excuse to talk about one of the weirdest songs ever? i suppose the lesson i learned from this song was "apparently people like this. apparently a song that sounds like this can be mainstream. and apparently i can love and sing along to a song that sounds like this." the first time i listened to this song i was in the airport and publicly going 🥴🥴🥴. and before you go look it up and three whole minutes in you're like "it's not that bad," the final chorus is what'll really wring out your ears. i don't have much to say about the Weird parts of this song other than that they are Weird and Numerous, but i do love the stark contrast that they have between the weird dissonant noisy crunchy atonal verses/chorus and the super melodically and vocally driven softer fuller pre-choruses and bridge. it's a song that sonically dangles you over a cliff edge and then pulls you back just long enough for you to find your footing before dangling you even farther out. it's fascinating albeit honestly quite difficult to endure on first listen LMFAO but that in itself is fascinating! and to be clear i've grown to love the weird parts so so so so much i think this song is SO good

Christopher Larkin - Lace. the sheer force of pent-up energy and frustration and anger that a string quartet conjures up in this track truly broke open my understanding of what Musicality really is. this track was revealed YEARS before silksong came out and just by listening to it, i felt like nothing about lace's personality or backstory came as an emotional surprise to me (even if lore-wise it was unexpected), because the frantic complexity of that psyche was alllll conveyed in this performance. absolutely incredible how far a single composer and the musicality of four musicians can go and how much storytelling it can accomplish

29. your favorite album closer

aespa - You. for me, aespa album closers are generally on the weaker side because they're either fan songs (cute but i find it infuriating that the k-mys are basically pointing a gun at them and saying "you better make one of these for every album for the rest of your life") or pop rock songs (just not my style). but this track just makes me the happiest out of all of them, and it feels the most like a happy ending to a nice little story. especially the final chorus, i feel like it just explodes with this innocent bright joy. it makes me smile.

Taylor Swift - New Year's Day. not a swiftie by any means but this song perfectly captures the mood of "i'll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year's day." that specific brand of quiet and calm the settles in after the last person files out the door at the end of a party. it's one of those rare songs where the ending transitions perfectly into silence. as someone who is nearly constantly listening to music, there aren't many songs where i want to sit in the silence for a bit after they end. such a great way to close out an album