Music blog number 777

  • Portfolio

    This blog consists of reviews of some of the music and artist that are the most important to me, at least for some period of my life. I listen to everything fun for me on my Spotify, my taste in music is quite diverse, from Italian rap to French musical; from teen pop to classic rock and roll. But in this blog, I reviewed:

    Louis Tomlinson’s 2022 album Faith in the future,

    One Direction’s greatest hits (according to me) track-by-track annotation,

    Mozart L’opera Rock to bring to my desert island,

    and Backstreet Boys’ online streaming concert from their DNA world tour. 

    One Direction has been a new obsession of mine as of this May. As I grow up and have more and more responsibilities in life, I found it harder and harder to be fanatic and enthusiastic about something as I so easily could a few years ago. It’s so refreshing to be reminded of my easy-to-love and easy-to-open-up self. So I hold on to them, and I wanted to write about them and hopefully bring the same happiness to other people. In my peer reviews, some of my classmates noted that there were grammar issues, so I edited that when I was revising. There were some photos and media that I edited or added to make the review more aesthetically pleasing and useful for the readers.

    Mozart Lopera Rock and Backstreet Boys were teenage obsessions that extended themselves to my adulthood. I love to listen to them even today. I wrote so many versions of these and revised them individually so many times before and after posting them, and later based on the feedback I received. Again mainly on the wording, grammar, and multimedia front. 

    A) How does your portfolio reflect your personal experiences with music and with writing about music to public audiences?

    I chose very carefully what music do I want to review, especially for the first and the second WP. Although they couldn’t conclude the entity of music I listen to, I did make sure to choose the ones that make me happy and passionate when I listen to them again while writing the reviews. I had so many other options in mind, for the desert island piece, I even wrote about 700 words of my worlds album from Justin Bieber. However, as I write on, I found out that there wasn’t anything deep from my appreciation of the album, I simply knew the guy when I was watching Saturday Night Live and likes his songs, there weren’t any deep meanings behind the lyrics, I couldn’t say a lot rather than I had fun and the songs were catchy. Before I wrote the piece my world, I struggle to choose from the guardians of the galaxy mixtape and Evita the musical, and the greatest showman soundtrack. All of which was quite special to me at some point in time. But when I listen back, I couldn’t find the joy and the passion that I did find for the final choice of Mozart L’opera Rock. The same could also be said with the first album review, where I had to choose from Harry Styles’ Harry’s House and Faith in the Future by Louis Tomlinson. But since the requirement said “preferably not someone super famous” and Harry’s House has been topping charts everywhere, so I thought maybe not. And I stand by my choice, although Harry’s House is an international success. I liked Faith in the Future better. I believe passion and joy are the essences of writing a music review, whether you hate it with passion, or you love it with passion. Without passion, this is just a boring assignment you had to do to graduate; with it, it’s an embedded personal experience with music. 

    B) How does your portfolio’s content reflect how you will approach music and music writing (your own and by others) in the future?

    I think my review represented how I view music as a whole, what I expect from music, and my writing style in general. I mentioned time and time again how I need to feel passion and happiness when I listen to music. It doesn’t matter what kind of music, which genre, what language, or from which artist, as long as they make me happy, I will enjoy them. And this writing experience is really important to me because I get to explore writing music reviews in a casual and fun tone instead of the monotonous academic writing we usually do. It definitely gave me the confidence to write more, after seeing so many kind words both from our professor and from my teammates. 

    C) When it comes to writing about music, what advice would you give to future students enrolled in this ASEM?

    Have fun, this is one of my favorite courses in a long time. Make sure you choose the kind of music you enjoy and just enjoy the experience. I learned a lot about writing the music from the readings, from other students, and from our professor’s feedback. 

    I really had fun writing reviews for the past month, I was always looking forward to the next assignment and seeing the peer reviews. I learned more about the artists I liked because of the research I have done for the assignment. I struggled with a casual tone of voice in my first assignment, which our professor commented on. But as I went on, I found my voice and tone. In later peer reviews, my classmates told me about how my new tone is unique, funny, and enjoyable. And I’m really proud and happy about the progress I made, I have this course to thank. When I’m putting together the portfolio I feel achieved and proud of the work I have done. 

  • Backstreet Boys on my 65 inch flatscreen 

    One of my best friends in middle school is a fan of Westlife while I’m a fan of the Backstreet Boys. We share a love/hate, competitor/collaborator relationship where we constantly battle who is better, spoiler alert: it’s the Backstreet Boys. If you haven’t lived under a rock, you’ve heard them before. Officially forming the band on April 20, 1993, young Brian, A.J, Howie, Kevin, and Nick are setting down the path to superstardom when they later performed in arenas and stadiums.

    Let me set the scene: me, sitting impatiently on my couch, staring at the screen of my TV, the curtains were closed to seal off the light. I have water on my small trolly in case my throat gets dry after screaming or singing alone. And I got a small fluffy carpet in front of the couch in case I want to stand up and groove to the music. 

    All of the songs performed

    First and foremost, the format was pretty shit. Not that the streaming concert is bad, but the fact that they assumed their target audience will be watching the show on their phone, which, is such insolence! So they recorded the entire whole vertically, ugh, who does that? Even if people are watching the show on their phone, they could just tilt the phone? What about us who have the basic decency to watch them on TV? We could only see a small portion of the screen. It’s so shit, if it was a solo artist, sure, at least they could focus on the person. But Backstreet Boys are a group of 5, they can’t all fit on the screen, can’t they??

    The shit vertical shooting aside, the concert was magical. Apart from the two newest songs (out of 32, I might proudly add, ahem), I knew almost every single lyric when I was singing along. I couldn’t say that for ANY. OTHER. ARTISTS. EVER. Starting with a small video presentation, they opened the show with Everyone. Written in mind of a show opener, a grateful note to the fans, and a conviction:

    We’ve been through days of thunder

    Some people said we don’t belong

    They try to pull us under

    But here we stand together

    And we’re millions strong

    Let’s get on with the show

    Turn the lights down low

    You were there from the start

    We know who you are

    Everyone, everyone, everyone

    So this one goes out to you, everyone

    The show is a combination of promoting their new album DNA and reliving their greatest hits, finishing with Larger than life. I was dancing with them, and some of the routines were the same as when I first watch their music videos on Youtube or myspace or whatever in 2009. You could call them lazy, but I call it e̶c̶s̶t̶a̶s̶y̶, I̶ m̶e̶a̶n̶ fan service, and nostalgia. Dancing almost the whole time during a 2-hour show is no easy chore, especially when they are already 42-50 years old. I should know because I only danced to 80% of their choreography, and with maybe 50% precision if I’m being generous with myself. That means I made less than 40% of their effort (I could be wrong, I might be the only Chinese person who sucks at math). Plus I’m way younger than them and I’m not singing at full volume due to the fact that I have neighbors. Yet by the end of the concert, I’m dead tired. So it’s really no surprise when the lead singer Brian’s voice is worse and worse from 44 minutes on. When they were doing the interview segment halfway through, Brian almost lost his voice, I keep screaming ‘give the man a bottle of water for fuck sake’!  

    Some people like to say that Backstreet Boys is the cliche of cliches of boybands. The stereotype that wearing the same outfit, don’t play instruments, and dancing all through the show, is true for the Backstreet Boys. But the boys think they are more of an acapella group, and would sing acapella whenever they could, they love to showcase how their voices complement each other in harmony. Their songs range from love songs like as long as you love me, to pop-rock songs like incomplete, R&B ballads like show me the meaning of being lonely, and dance-pop like Everybody and The call. All of which are my favorites. When the prelude started, I can’t help but screamed a little (a lot).

    The show is longer than their average concert, they added endorsement because it’s free to watch, and a translator, so that throws the rhyme of the show a little bit off. But since this is the first time that I have ever been to a backstreet boys concert, after being a fan for over a decade. I think as long as Nick didn’t take a shit in the middle of the stage, I would’ve enjoyed the show regardless. 

    I think the overall sentiment is admiring too because Backstreet Boys is one of the first and only western artists who has been touring in China for more than one time. Many artists couldn’t be bothered with the system of media and cultural event censorship: you have to apply for a permit months in advance and it might not get approved. So this time because of the strict Covid regulations, Backstreet Boys couldn’t come back here, so they close the venue on that day and streamed the whole show exclusively for people who watch it on WeChat stream. Their fame in China started with two college students: Back Dorm boys who lip sync to Backstreet Boys’ songs that went viral on Chinese social media in the year 2004 (they made an appearance and talked to the band during the live stream!). Famous as One Direction and NSYNC elsewhere in the world, most people in China have never heard of them, but if you ask any random person in China, chances are they knew about Backstreet Boys. That is demonstrated by the fact that more than 44 million viewers watched this concert.

    One of the biggest and most special moments of the show is when Westlife and Backstreet Boys performed two of their biggest hits: my love and I wanted it that way.

    Westlife and Backstreet Boys performing together for the first time from the United States and Ireland for Chinese audiences — in an era of xenophobia, due to the uncertainty brought about by the covid situation— is the beauty of international cultural exchange. After watching the show, my first thought was, I wish I was still in contact with that friend who is a fan of Westlife, and tell her, see? Our idols are on the same stage performing! It’s like an end of an era. I don’t know if she was watching the concert then if she was, was she thinking about me?

    There were obviously bands who were more famous, produced more albums, or won more awards. But Backstreet Boys are the only ones whose original members are all still touring after almost 30 years, and that’s gotta count for something. In their interview on Regis and Kelly back in the 1990s, Brain said: “I think we could be a group for as long as we choose to be a group”, and how true was that? Still touring at the end of the year 2022. I hope the next concert I see is the Live show of the Backstreet Boys, because “As long as there’ll be music, we will be coming back AGAIN!”

  • Mozart Rocking on a desert island

    I love how music takes you away to another place, not “like Mumford & Sons is playing at this restaurant so now I’m going to another restaurant” kinda way. Rather how every time Spotify shuffled to Mozart L’opera Rock, it never failed to take me back to Paris when I’m singing “Divine, candide libertine, ce soir je viens m’inviter dans ton lit!” with my friends when we went to watch Spiderman while laughing like mad people; nor did it fails to bring me to when I watched the show in Tianjin when they were touring in China; nor to when I first watched the official DVD and wrote down all the lyrics, trying to learn French but failed. All of these moments were great core memories of mine. I fell in love with the musical by accident and continued exploring other musicals after this. As someone who is obsessed with the French language and the clothes royals wear in the medieval French court, it wasn’t such a surprise that I would like this show. It’s like a classic musical but with rock and roll, like debauchery meets debonair, like ancient stories but with reality TV show-level drama, like Rococo-style inspired costumes but with modern fashion designs. It’s everything you would need in a small but utilized entertainment pouch. That’s why I would like to bring the official recording of the Mozart L’opera Rock, preferably Blu-ray, but I can’t be picky if I ever got stranded on a desert island. But for you people who aren’t going to a desert island, you can search the name on Youtube and watch there, in its full 2-hour glory. 

    First premiered in Paris in 2009, the show amazed so many French millennials. While the original cast ended their European tour back in 2011, some cast members continued their tour in China from 2017 to 2019 because of its undying popularity and demand there. In a Chinese interview, when being told he was called the prima donna of the show, Salieri actor Florent Mothe said that as artists they need to explore their femininity, he wears nail polish and Michelangelo wears crazy black eye makeup with gold highlights all the time. Fans believe this added to the vulnerability of the character, and make the audience engrossed with them more. “I’m the actress, no problem,” Florent remarked. Indeed the fans were crazy about him, I remembered seeing cosplayers dressed as Salieri and Mozart’s sister in one of the comic-cons in Beijing back in 2017. 

    I think part of the reason why Penser l’impossible connected with me, as well as many French and Chinese fans so well, is because of the bureaucracy that we have seen in our lives. Encore nos idées que l’on tord. Étranglées dès l’aurore et nos rêves. Que l’on crève sans un remord. Again, as soon as we have some ideas, it was demolished, and they destroyed our dreams as well, without remorse. The song continued on how the government or men in power demolish music and art. The citizens were only allowed docile lives, with no sweet madness and no poetry, “we are merely stupidly happy puppets without souls”. The song was set after the storyline where the new bishop didn’t like Mozart, so he fired him using some lame excuse, and used his connection to not ensure Mozart doesn’t have a job elsewhere. It speaks to me then when I first heard it, and it strongly represented how I think now. Many movies and books were not imported into China in the past three years, and they always have excuses as to why, oh there was LGBT content that children might be confused by, oh this was speaking ill of our Russian friend it would be a slap to their faces if we get to watch the movie. They use corde à nos cous (ropes around our necks) to control us. They use censorship to stand behind their agenda. We as commoners had no choice but to be deprived of sweet poetry and mad fun. The song Place je passe is basically “make way, I’m coming through”: fuck the monarchy 2.0. It aims to mock the ones who kiss ass and get better treatment, that “I am the king of my dreams, ruler of freedom”, I don’t associate with this bureaucratic nonsense. Which again, I connect with my own life. Often my relatives and colleagues wanted to educate me on the “ins and outs of society”, what they mean is the nepotism and unspoken rules of the back side of society. Call me a romantic, and call me a fool, I don’t like that one bit, now that just won’t do. Now I sound like an antisocial Dr. Seuss, hell, I’m already stranded on a desert island, give me a break, will ya?

    Inquisiteurs, citoyens: Je ne vous dois rien. Je suis un libre-penseur, un trublion, un emmerdeur. People who doubt me, citizens, I owe you no explanation. I am a free thinker, a troublemaker, a pain in your ass. The opening sequence of the song Le trublion reminded me of Captain America, and I’m sure both Steve Rogers and Mozart or the Mozart cast members would be offended by the statement, but it’s true nevertheless. Part of the reason why I relate to a 100-year-old white American WWII super soldier is that sometimes I stand by what I believe in even if everyone else thinks differently. This is exactly what happened to Mozart, when people mistook the Bishop’s mistreatment as the fault of Mozart, and mocked him for his ambition of writing a musical in German. When he was singing that song, I kept thinking about an old Chinese saying “how would a sparrow understand the ambition of a swan!” Animal racism aside, it felt right with the current situation, and I believe it also connected with a lot of young people, feeling out-of-place where they are, dreaming of a place and family who understood our ambition and dreams, even if the common people don’t. I don’t owe any explanations to you, I’m a free thinker, and I don’t give a fuck what you think of me. Like a little mermaid rock & roll, if you will, wishing I could be part of that world. 

    Is it really a French musical if there isn’t any sexual tension? Tatoue-moi is basically about how Mozart is sleeping with the whole of Paris, even if you are a married woman, maybe especially if you are married. Laissons dormir les maris, allons nous aimer au nez des braves gens. Let your husband sleep while we make love under these kind people’s noses. A Youtube user called kivy commented, “Mozart is a ho, can you tell?” Which pretty much summarized the lyrics and dances. It’s a sexy little number, with beautiful upbeat electric guitar and drums, if you didn’t know the meaning of the lyrics, it could have been about a happy picnic. I didn’t know about the meaning when I first heard it, and it became my favorite song. After checking out the meaning, I was like oh, that’s why. The title is tatoue moi, which is short for tatoue moi sur tes seins, which roughly translated into tattoo me onto your breast. Another song that also has a sexual undertone is Le bien qui fait mal which some fans called “the song of BDSM” because it was about how Salieri was jealous of Mozart. Yet can’t help to enjoy his musical talent. Salieri described the feeling as “it hurts so bad it’s so good” and “take pleasure of the pain”, hence the song of BDSM, or “Why am I a masochist argued by Salieri”. Plus the original choreography is super racy with a lot of choking action, all the dancers were wearing some sort of harness, so I’m sure they are not that far off. 

    The musical ends with Vivre à en crever, a requiem for Mozart. With lyrics like S’il faut mourir, autant vivre à en crever. If we have to die, might as well live to the fullest. Or stuff like engraving our laughter on our graves, all of which immortalize Mozart, and alert us that YOLO, you only live once. The reason why the show gained international success, and why it was so unique, was the fact that the cast was given complete creative freedom. They were involved in making the show, and aside from singing the songs as required, they could do anything on stage, there weren’t any rules. Just like the creative freedom the real Mozart had, Michelangelo explained, the kind of which is even a rarity for today’s artists. Michelangelo said that’s why he never got bored even after ten years of touring, that he could always add new nuance into it as he grew up, because the character grew with him. I went to see their show back in 2019, and it was amazing, only Mozart, the king, the court jester, and Mozart’s father remained the same as the original cast, but the new members were phenomenal too. I thought the new Salieri was even better than the legendary Florent Mothe, having a much wider range of registers. When he first opened his mouth the whole auditorium shook. I got to tell Michelangelo Loconte how amazing he was after the show, and he said thank you so sincerely while looking into my eyes. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I have listened to this album across different platforms for over 10 years now and still haven’t gotten sick of it. Listened to it again and sang along when I’m writing this. So I’m sure me and my desert island are going to have so much fun listening to it again and again, and hey, who knows, maybe I would finally learn French, eh?

  • One Direction’s Track-by-track annotated playlist

    Love, heartbreaks, sex, and rock & roll: notes on One Direction

    People just love to hate on popular stuff enjoyed by teenage girls, if teenage girls enjoy something, it is inherently bad, because apparently teenage girls’ got no class. But aren’t teenage girls all about passion and love? What do adults with 9 to 5 jobs and a heavy mortgage and a sick mother know about being romantic and loving? Do they even have the time and mental capacity? What is the last time you really are passionate about something, eh? I’ll bet it’s your teenage years, so what is the reason to dismiss teenage passion again?

    But I digress, One Direction is loved by fans and casual listeners alike. Although short-lived (they are on a break!!), they did not have a shallow discography. As X-Factor rejects, Simon Cowell put five young boys in a group on the show. One Direction turned out to be one of the biggest bands in the world despite only finishing third in the 2010 X-Factor finals. Making five albums, having four world tours in five years sounds like an impossible task, but they made it. Their albums (chronologically:) Up all night, Take me home, Midnight memories, Four, and Made in the A.M. have won numerous awards and sold a bajillion copies. But that’s not why I wrote this review today. I wrote this review because I genuinely enjoy their music, you see, I rate popular media on the sole scale of the amount of entertainment gratification I received. And boy does One Direction know how to entertain. Even the breakup songs sounded sexy and fun, the kind of songs that could immediately lift your mood. As a band, their voice complement each other, Zayn can hit really high notes, while Liam can do magnetic vibrato, and though Harry’s voice is very deep he has great range, his high note on the fifth album is power through the roof. Louis’ voice is like a clear yet sultry whisper in your ear, and Niall’s got that sweet and smokey drawl that goes great with EVERY ballad. Even when they all sang together, their voices hit different parts of your body and face. That’s why they work so well together as a band.

    I guess what I’m saying is that One Direction is the ultimate teenage (to young adult) boy band dream, with talent, looks, and a hell of fun. I’m not saying they should be in the Rock & Roll hall of fame, and win each year’s Grammy’s lifetime achievement awards, but why do you need that to enjoy some fun music? Their music is relatable, catchy, emotional, and uplifting. I always have fun when I listen, and that’s enough for me.  

    More than this 《Up all night》2012

    Opening with the soft and beautiful voice of Liam Payne, the chorus by Harry Styles followed by boyish charm 1D harmony and a powerful bridge by Zayn Malik’s high note. A very simple acoustic guitar and a little electric keyboard for the chorus are all they need for a classic boyband-pinning ballad. At this point in their career, they are going with the boy next door, rather cute and gentle than the cool guy, rather sweet than hot vibes, and their lyrics reflect that. 

    Although from this early on, they try to slip something naughty in the lyrics to attract horny teenagers, and I can’t say I blame them: “when he opens his arm and holds you close tonight” “When he lays you down I just might die inside”. Aww, puppy love. 

    I want 《Up all night》2012 

    These two songs set the tone of One Direction’s first album Up all night. Half of them are moody ballads like More than this singing about pinning and heartbreaks, and the other half like I want full of powerful and danceable tempo (albeit also about pinning) is suitable for fun school parties.

    Most fans know this song by heart because of Harry Styles’s cheesy lyric change on tour “You could be preoccupied, different dick every night”, earning screams everywhere they went. They also always had a suit and tie and formal table setting when they sing this song for their first tour, contradictory to what’s coming out of Harry’s dirty mouth. 

    Little Things 《Take me home》 2012

    Written by Fiona Bevan and Ed Sheeran, this song is bound to be a hit even before it was released. Yet another powerful ballad from the second album. The boys were more professional in the way they control their voices. This entire song only had an acoustic guitar and nothing more, showing you the 1D goodness in its purest form. The lyrics are empowering for young girls who were normally self-conscious about their weight, appearance, and quirks. Five of the most desirable boys in the world are telling you they love these things about you. Shouldn’t you try to love yourself too?

    Although I think maybe Fiona and Ed are writing about the boys, because I know Louis “talk in your sleep”, Liam’s got “crinkle by your eye when you smile”, Harry’s got “dimples in your back at the bottom of your spine”, but well, many teenage girls do too. 

    Best song ever 《Midnight memories》2013

    It’s upbeat, the tempo is strong, and the lyric is catchy. “Maybe it’s the way she walks, aww! Straight to my heart and stole it!” Whenever you listen to it, you just wanna sway your hips and sing along. The older they get, the more mature their styles of music got, and the more rock they added to the album. I once saw a review saying this made them seem dangerous and sexy, more desirable. The instrument used in the song are drums, piano, and electric guitar. The boys all acted in different roles in the music video portraying the standard Hollywood bullshit in the music industry. Liam went on to talk about Zayn’s realistic prosthetic boobs for an extensive amount 7 years later on his Youtube channel, it was probably his idea since, in a video prior he commented on how Zayn with glasses looked like a sexy secretary, and guess what Zayn’s character’s called? The sexy secretary. Coincidence? I think not. 

    At this point, they began to show their sexual attractiveness. Their songs became a lot more spicy and naughty. No more cute teenage boys, they are sexy young adults now.

    Night Changes 《Four》  2014

    I will be honest, this song holds a special place in my heart, I’m sure many other One Direction fans will tell you the same, even Zayn Malik, the One Direction member who left the band after this album, sang some chorus of this song this August, after 8 years, but this is the song that made me a fan. I wanted to quote one of my friends “most singers’ voice resonates inside of my chest, but Harry Styles’s voice resonated in my ovaries in this song”. Her words, not mine. 

    No control 《Four》  2014

    Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson wrote more and more One Direction songs in later albums. The fact that this song is not originally released, but the fan release got so many views (more than 56 million views on Youtube by the time I’m writing this review), that they had to re-release them in the extended version goes to tell how powerful the fandom is.

    But to quote the great James Corden “I’m gonna read you the lyrics now: waking up beside you I’m a loaded gun, I can’t contain this anymore, I’m all yours I’ve got no control…I don’t wanna wash away the night before, in the heat where you lay, I could stay right here and burn in it all day. What’s the song about guys?…basically you woke up in the morning and be like, *lift the cover and look down* Wow, here’s an idea for a song.”

    I don’t know why they didn’t choose this song in the first place, this is such a powerful song, despite (or because of) the sensual lyrics, it could be a rock & roll classic.  

    Drag me down 《Made in the A.M》2015

    I don’t know what I like the most about this song, the all-consuming surrounding beats, the high notes Harry hit at the end, the clapping on the beat in the middle, the hard hit of piano keys to create a classy yet strong rock vibe, or the perfect harmony between Liam and Louis during Niall’s solo chorus, or the drop posture Harry did when he sang  “down”.

    By the time I’m writing this review, this song has over 900 million listens on Spotify, making it one of the most listened-to One Direction songs on Spotify. If you had any doubt that they are truly phenomenal rock stars, you wouldn’t by the time this song came out. From their looks to their fame, from the number of records sold to the number of awards won, from Harry’s Louis Vuitton jacket down to Niall’s Yves Saint Laurent boots, all the way to NASA where they shot this music video, suggested that they are proper rock stars now. 

    Love you goodbye 《Made in the A.M》2015

    The best One Direction song of all time, and you can’t convince me otherwise, period. Written by the great Louis Tomlinson. “Why you’re wearing that to walk out of my life? If tomorrow you won’t be mine, won’t you give it to me one last time, oh baby let me love you goodbye.” Ugh, breaking up is sad, but how’s about a goodbye fuck? Mark me down as SAD and hORNy. 

    History 《Made in the A.M》2015

    This is such a bittersweet song for both One Direction and their fans. To outsiders, it might be about begging one’s girlfriend to stay, but it’s actually about how the band is going on hiatus, and they don’t know when they will come back together again, which is accurate since they still haven’t got together til this day #18MonthsMyAss. The song is written by Louis and Liam, two of the members who voiced their urges to come back the most. Which you could clearly hear in the lyrics anyways. “You and me got a whole lot of history, we could be the great team that the world has ever seen, so don’t let it go, we can make some more, we can live forever.”

    I used to be one of these people that thought myself cooler than the crazy fan girls who like One Direction when I was younger because I was into more “mature stuff”. This is why I criticize myself and other people who still think so. While self-hatred is a topic for another day, One Direction does remind me of a simpler time: when there is no adult drama, just harmless crushes; when I have unrequited love but nothing can’t be fixed by a day of sulking; when I enjoy my life with friends and passion, and my horny self. Maybe my teenage self was cooler than boybands and love songs, but my adult ass sure as hell ain’t. 

    I guess the moral of the story is, One Direction is a fun escape to your funnier, younger, more care-free self, great dance and party music, a great soundtrack to listen to while you are driving on a road trip, or just when your adult life sucks and you just want to distract yourself. Obviously, since they are on hiatus, you couldn’t go see their concerts, but Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are having their solo world tour at the moment, so go check them out if you will, Niall’s third album is about to come out, and Liam originally set to release his second album this year, so maybe we will see something next year. Anyways, some of the One Direction vinyl are still on sale at urban outfitters, you can always stream anything on Spotify, Youtube, and Apple Music. 

  • Discussion Post #2

    Part A

    Cooper researched many references mentioned in the lyrics of “On Neutral Milk Hotel”, like Jesus Christ, cannibalistic innuendo, Anne Frank, and nazis. Cooper did extensive research on all of the mentions of Anne Frank’s story and the impact this is on history, WWII, as well as the singer. Holland, 1945’s annotation is particularly insightful because if I didn’t know this is a track-by-track album review, I would have thought it was an essay on Anne Frank’s history, it was clear that Cooper did a lot of research both on the singer and on the historical context, and they gave us great insights on both, that we could appreciate more of the song after this review. 

    Part B 

    Tari Gevinson’s “Just Kidding, Love Sucks: Notes on Taylor Swift has a variety of lengths in annotations. “All too well” has about 130 words and is of average length in the note. It has everything: lyric analysis, emotion bursting, and even background information on the song. However, I wouldn’t say the note of “I almost do”, which has only 5 words is any less good, in five words, Gevinson pictured a scenery where you could be listening to the song, how it is a classic Taylor Swift song, how the scene is almost cinematic. Sometimes less is more. I wouldn’t say the emotion Gevinson expressed in the review of “sad beautiful tragic” is any less powerful and sincere in the review of fifteen, which is more than 400 words. In mere 23 words, Gevinson expressed enthusiasm and passion towards her voice, alongside the technique, lyrics, and emotion conveyed in the song. I think the combination of long and short annotations is brilliant, not long because the short ones are as insightful as the long ones, but it’s reader-friendly. In a TL;DR era, it’s harder and harder to capture the audience’s attention, while we need background information and insightful thoughts on some songs, the alteration of small and concise fun short sentences acts as buffers for more in-depth analytics.

    Part C

    Jonathan Lethem’s review of the Talking Heads album is a storytelling narrative with a natural flow to different songs, unlike many other track-by-track reviews with clear distinctions. His review dealt with the bank history, instruments, malfunction on stage, and lyrics analysis all the same, but not necessarily for every song. It is clear that Lethem has strong feelings towards this band, from the clear sadness upon hearing the band’s swansong to the unmistakable strong emotional words used in his review “…instantly renounce. The anxiety, claustrophobia, and dread, but also the fascination, the solipsistic delight, all bound within a suite of internal self-references, has exploded”, I can almost feel the passion behind the words. You can always tell by someone’s words how invested they are, and Lethem’s words are a good demonstration of passion. 

    Part D

    Patterson Hood wanted to explore the wide range of Americana, and what that entails by reviewing different songs in the mixtape. Because not every song in the album Patterson proposed captures the essential Americana spirit, so initiating a mixtape review helped Patterson achieve the goal. Shea Serrano wanted to substantiate the opinion on the best rap songs, so Shea laid out different songs of choice and analyze verse by verse as well as rap technique, lyrics, and style to back up the claim. Obviously, it’s hardly a valid point to say every song in someone’s entire album was the best rap song in history, therefore a mixtape analysis is more appropriate. 

  • Discussion Post #1 Louis Tomlinson’s Faith in the Future Album Review

    Part 1: Intro

    I am in my second year at the University of Denver, studying Management, and if everything goes well, I’m expected to graduate in 2025. I like traveling, filming videos, listening to music, and going to the gym. Right now I plan to graduate, and then find a job at some company where I would feel fulfilled doing something I love. I have a combination of tastes in music, on one hand, I love pop music like many greatest hits from popular singers like Olivia Rodrigo’s driver’s license, Helium by Sia, Lizzo’s About damn time, etc. I also loved the band Backstreet Boys and One Direction and loved almost every single one of their songs, including many solo tracks. On the other hand, I love broadway musicals and French musicals like Annie, Evita, 1789, Les Amants de la Bastille, and Mozart L’Opera Rock. I have been to an online Backstreet Boys concert not long ago that is the concert I am writing about in a later assignment. I have also attended one of the Mozart L’Opera Rock show in China. But normally I watch shows and concerts on DVDs and streaming services online. My primary email address is snowxsk@live.cn 

    Part 2: Album Review as Genre

    Three key features of an album review as a genre of writing are the making of the music, instruments or technical side of the songs, and lyrics. Because background information helps us understand the songs and the album more in-depth. Lyrics and music are what constructed the song, so they should be the main features in any review. The making of the music, like in Derogatis’s review “The duo recorded Bookends with producer Roy Halee, a trumpeter who had become a staff engineer at Columbia Records, recording” Like a Rolling Stone, among other Dylan songs” (p. 27). Instruments or technical elements of the songs, like Powers’s remark “Random Access Memories may instantly disappoint because it abandons EDM’s tried-and-true routes to body-mind fulfillment: accelerating machine beats, busy noise, and that roller coaster effect, the drop” (p. 24). Quoting lyrics is another key feature of an album review, like how Balm wrote “But Andy Shernoff contributes by singing lead and coming up with precious lines like “‘Won’t be happy till I’m known far and wide, with my face on the cover of the TV Guide” (p. 217).

    The review dealt with background information on how Olivia got famous, what her debut song diver’s license was speculated to be about, trivia about her driver’s license, and even many background stories about her show High School Musical: the musical: the series. As well as her song-making process and social media skills. This kind of information gave us an insight into her, as an artist, and an intimate understanding of her song-making process and inspirations. It helped greatly understand her and her music because a lot of information wasn’t available to us just by listening to the song. It gave depth into the emotion behind them, make us more empathic, and relate to Olivia. 

    Part 3: Review

    Faith in the Future by Louis Tomlinson

    In an interview with Hits Radio, Louis Tomlinson answered the question “What would you tell your younger self?” with his unmistakable Doncaster accent “Trust your gut.” That’s what his new album feels like: when he is more comfortable in his skin, when he sings about feelings and emotions from his gut. When he trusted his music taste and make music that was not popular for the sake of being popular, but true for the sake of “matching who I am as a person”. The yellow backboard reflected yellow light to his normally sparking blue eyes, making them almost olive green, he cleared his throat and gave out advice “What I found easier was work in backward from who you don’t wanna be, kinda reverse engineer it and eventually, okay, this is who I wanna be.” Indeed that’s what he did. As he expressed in interviews with SiriusXM and Rolling Stone that there were so many things to consider in his first solo album Walls. When he had so many emotional baggage, and his music style is still developing. Whereas he can just enjoy the process of making this one, to make it more personal, and conveying the feeling of being optimistic: to have faith in the future. It must have been nerve-wracking after his career took off being in the band One Direction. Consciously or not, people wanted to see whether or not the five most famous boys can make it as their own. They were, after all, the hottest band on earth, winning awards, sold-out stadiums, becoming the richest under 30. 

    The overall genre of this album is probably R&B rock. He used a lot of guitar as the base in this entire album because he likes being organic, and guitars have always been the backbone of his creative process. He also used some electric guitar, and more often than not, the drums added tempo that was made for live shows. Louis has written the first song of the album The greatest as the tour opener. He explained that was because touring is his favorite part of the job, “You see the song come to live”, so he wrote most of this song having the tour in mind, on how these songs would have sounded live. It did help when he wrote it, he just finished two shows from his last tour, as he explained in his interview with Rolling Stone. As Louis intended, this album does sound better with a bigger volume being played in an arena, but it also sounded right on a laptop during one of your late-night parties with friends. Most of the songs are easy to dance to, like The Greatest, Out of My System. Even the ballads like Headline and Holding on to Heartache have an uplighting vibe, not unfit to listen to through your headphones during a gym workout session.

    But of course, hopeless romantic Louis Tomlinson, as some of his fans called him, can’t have an album without beautiful ballads like Chicago, where he addressed an old lover who had a baby, whose mum didn’t like him, but “Just because it didn’t work, doesn’t mean its meaningless to me. It just wasn’t meant to be.” The song has an uplighting rhythm despite its core on heartbreak, it reminded me of his bandmate Harry Styles’s song from the dining table. I don’t mean they have similar instruments or rhythm, no, From the Dinning table has big cello, a bit of piano, and acoustic guitar as background instruments while Louis’s music mostly only has guitars and drums. But the lyrics are both about some former lover who got away, with specific clues as to who did what, what they lost, etc. Aside from a direct conversational realistic writing style, sometimes Louis writes in metaphorical terms, where the lyrics sound more like a poem, it was about a feeling or a vibe, rather than specific events, like how he sang alongside neat drum beats in Out of my System “Gotta get it out of my system, gotta get it off of my chest, I’ve lived a lot of my life already, but I gotta get through the rest.”

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