Made by a Coconut.

XtraX- Triggered Tuesday 008

‘Sometimes... I cry, for no reason at all.’

Lyrics

Life is pain

So inhale the numbness

Exhale, revel in dumbness

Choices choices

Cooperate obliterate

Alone, as one

Together we suffer

We’ll never be more than a number

You’ll break

Hide away, medicate

Doctor please, I don’t want, to be

Like this or like that but like them

Cos sometimes

I cry for no reason, at all

It’s our own fault

This life’s what you’re living

Count to ten, back from ten

Breathe in out, in and out

Walls of shrinks closing in

Therapist, I have sinned

Open wide

Effects aside

Don’t you long to feel like

Everyone else, it’s all the rage, swallow the hype

Change my mind

By design

Fold and bend

So I can

Fit the roles I’m not supposed to

Everybody’s screaming

There’s gotta be meaning

With all of these opinions I’m crawling on the ceiling

Scrolling is my heroin

Comparing’s how I better me

Constant self belittling

What is that you think of me

HEY! You’re not that bad a guy

Fuck me harder

I thought you knew that I am capable, more than capable of murdering

I am a monster

You’re fresh blood to me.

Don’t struggle and let me peel you off, show you, you bask in sin

Come in, sit on the couch

And tell me

When did this start

I know

Everyone’s crazier than me

If only

They would believe

Lock and load, here we go

Used to be need to know but

I’m not well, I need help

Life is hell, life is hell

Open wide

Forced inside

Don’t you long to feel like

Everyone else, it’s all the rage, swallow the hype

Erase my mind

No rewind

Fold and bend

So I can fit this

Meditate

Having finished ‘12 Rules for Life’ by Jordan Peterson, (fantastic book by the way), I’ve been semi-stalking the guy across the internet. It’s safe to say, I hold him in very high regard, though, I’m not one for adopting him as my long lost dad. 

As a young male straddling cultures, forming a currently pathetic looking career, living at home, wrestling addiction and crippling mental health problems, the advice published in his latest book resonates with me enormously. 

It’s important to add that I don’t blindly follow his every word. His ideas occasionally gripe with my own stead fast beliefs but that only makes me respect him more, for if it wasn’t for him, or at least in part, I perhaps wouldn’t be as receptive to opposing points of view as I am now.

He’s an odd public figure, regularly taken out of context by the left-wing media who clearly prioritise sensationalism over digesting the often centrist message at the core of his statements. He’s also regularly edited and re-purposed by the far-right, who are quick to (surprise, surprise) take comments out of context and re-post them on YouTube, often with click-bait headlines such as, ‘Feminist gets owned by Jordan Peterson’. 

On a surface level - should you choose to take the rhetoric surrounding him as truth - you could be forgiven for dismissing him as an extreme philosopher that’s defending privilege, ever diligently smashing the safety nets for minorities offered by political correctness. All in the name of the status-quo. But you couldn’t be more wrong. 

I implore anyone to dig in to ‘12 Rules for Life’ and tell me that the words authored by Peterson come from any place other than a sincere desire to help you better yourself. He speaks like a man who’s been there, lost it all and valiantly clawed himself back. His anxious and frantic style of presenting are the subconscious scars of a mind that’s had too much time to itself.

I’ll be an advocate of his as long as his message resonates with me. I will always carefully pick and choose which ideas of his I denounce, as and when the time comes. I find it hard to dismiss an individual entirely off the back of one comment, as I believe we are the sum of our deeds, the summation of which, for the sake of denouncing an entire being, is nigh on impossible. We all make mistakes.

I love Gary Vee. His enthusiasm and energy is infectious, however, his work till you drop philosophy leaves a lot of young people sickeningly disenfranchised and feeling like they’re under performing.

Absolutely and utterly out of this (Astro)world.

Throwing convention to the wind, Travis Scott has redefined himself whilst simultaneously staying true to what makes him so unique.

The album sounds like his personality. His crusade to make life reflect art reflect life, is forever bettering itself and this album pretty much seals the deal, placing him leagues above the rest as a convincing road show of debauchery, depression and psychedlia. It’s an often confusing blend, as the ups and downs of such intoxicating emotions usually are but it never seizes to be beautiful.

It’s not a piece to dip in and out of, begging for you to dedicate an hour to an eye closed, undisturbed play through instead.

Each listen reveals something new and serves only to make it more exciting.

The mix down is peculiar but serves the attitude of the album well. Often you’ll hear clipping on filters due to them squeezing as much volume out as humanly possible. It’s an odd touch but one that suits the explosive nature of both the music and Travis’ personality.

The production has been met with criticism from certain producers in the scene, with some going as far as to call it mediocre. However, a quick dive into their back catalogue of personal productions reveals no efforts of their own that come even close to bettering it. Whilst the mix errs on the side of ‘hot’, it works only in the album’s favour.

It’s worth noting that Nav’s feature is ridiculously quiet. A strange and bizarre oversight on an album that reeks of consideration and attention to detail. In today’s day and age of ‘album patches’ on streaming services, I wouldn’t be too surprised if this gets ‘updated’ pretty soon.

Astroworld is a rollercoaster, the sonic palette of which is carefully considered and hand crafted from the ground up. It’s Travis’ ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’, swapping club hooks for a concept album that’s individual in visual style. It’s the album that serves to position him as a creative visionary on the scale of Kanye.

I’m in love and that love looks ever lasting.

Sat here, mouth open, holding back the vomit.

Well, shit...

GOAT GOAT GOAT GOAT

I’m obsessing over ‘Scorpion’. Admittedly, the first half is better than the second. Reality is, though, it’s all lit.