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singedsun

singedsun

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AKA: cherith, thesunsaid
Discord: singedsun#1069

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This journal is primarily about my life, music & the occasional fandom diversion (mostly: Critical Role & Dragon Age). I do not have any particular friending policy; I welcome new friends and will usually add back. If you know me from elsewhere, feel free to send me a message. Thanks for stopping by. <3

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You may podfic, MST3K, or create secondary fanwork of any fanwork I have posted. Please include a link to my work and let me know where you've posted yours. Please do not archive elsewhere.

New Music Friday (belated)

May. 22nd, 2022 02:16 am
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
I've been exhausted since we came back into town on Tuesday night, and I'll post more about it later but for now I'll say that everyone is healthy and happy and went home on Monday. It was so hard to leave them, but I was ready to be in my own house and my own bed again by the time we got here.

I'm not going to post any videos this week because by golly we got a big number of brand new album drops between last week and this week so I figured I'd just go through them all because the flights gave me a lot of listening time.

First up. Harry's House by Harry Styles. It's good. It's somewhere between rock and pop, it's incredibly joyful and very horny. I very much recommend it.

If you like that but you're not a Harry fan, but like a joyful rock style, might I (re)introduce you to Hanson and their new album, Red Green Blue. Listen, if you want something a little less horny but love the style of Harry's album, this is definitely for you. I listened to these two albums back to back and they pair really well together. Like, yes, THAT Hanson. It's good.

Now, if you ARE in a mood for more horny music like Harry's House, but maybe you want a louder more pop-punk vibe, please go listen to Panther island by The Unlikely Candidates. I love this band, their lead singer has a very Patrick Stump or Brendon Urie sound and their music is a full on bop. I love them.

If you want a true pop album with a breakout artist of Moroccan-Canadian origin, check out Faouzia's new album, CITIZENS> I've been following her for a while and I love the culture and joy she introduces into her music and her voice is AMAZING.

If you haven't been living under a rock, you probably know that Florence + the Machine's new album, Dance Fever came out last week. If you haven't listened to it yet, I highly recommend. It's pure Florence vibes, if you didn't like her before, this probably won't change your mind. But I think it's really good.

One of my most unhinged favorites is a rock band called Church of the Cosmic Skull, which I have posted about before in the lead up to this new album. But There Is No Time is very good, I love it a lot. It's just as weird and good as their previous albums and worth the listen if you're into new rock that sounds like retro/70s rock, check them out.

Red Balloon by Tank of the Bangas. Listen, if you've been following my music posts for any length of time, you KNOW how much I'm in love with this band. They're SO good. It's rap, soul, spoken-word and it's so very good. I just can't tell you how much I love them, there aren't words enough.

OMG I almost forgot, this absolute surprise album drop from Emma Ruth Rundle, EG2: Dowsing Voice on Bandcamp. If you were a fan of Delerium or Lisa Gerrard in the late 90s/early aughts, check out Emma's music. If you don't those references, she's kind of this ethereal goddess voice and her music feels like it belongs on a Pure Moods album. This is the music to cast spells to.

Another on Bandcamp is the new BEKA EP Your Skin. BEKA has this sweet pop/soulful voice and definitely not enough people know about her voice. If you're a Taylor Swift fan, check out BEKA. Her lyrical style is very similar. (Some of her stuff also reminds me a little of Caroline Polachek.)

Last but not least, Two Feet's new album Shape & Form is exactly what I expect from him. Two Feet is an electronic/alt rock band and I feel like this album is just as good if not better than previous albums. The previous two albums got me through a lot of long days at my previous job while I was working from home.

There are some singles that are worth a listen too like this ABSOLUTE pop-punk banger from Loveless, Middle of the Night, and this new Matt Maeson song, Blood Runs Red which is a rock song I don't even really know how to classify properly, except that it's good.

Okay, I think that's all for this week, which is more than plenty. If you check any of these albums out or are super into something new, let me know!
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New Music Friday

Apr. 15th, 2022 07:08 pm
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
I am feeling maybe like 75% better. Better enough that I've been awake most of the day and was able to work from home without sleeping on my keyboard lol. I always use the Gravedigger zydrate icon for these posts, which feels a little more pointed after recovering from COVID. I promise, he's only offering you my new music recs. :D

There's a TON of new music out this week, especially if you're a pop fan... that's going to be most of this post. Still, there's a R A N G E. Hopefully there's something for everyone.

First, because it's so fun and strange I'm going to call out this song from Jonathan Young & Caleb Hyles. They're well known on YT for their cover work (usually metal covers of Disney and anime shows/movies) but this is an original song officially written for Magic: the Gathering's New Capenna setting. It's called "Old Money" and it's got all the markers of a really great villain song. For those whole will understand this context, it's giving very New Orleans Camarilla vibes.

This week brought us a brand new Lizzo song. This has big seventies roller disco energy, and I'm about it. Whether it's purposeful or not, I appreciate that the first song we're getting from her after all this time is called "About Damn Time", like yes, we also think so. (Also, this is not music related, but if you weren't aware, Lizzo also released a line of clothes with Fabletics this week called Yitty. It's mostly athleisure wear, but the size range is purposefully listed as 6X - XS, which is pretty cool.)


This song has been making the rounds on TikTok prior to it's release but we finally got a full release with a video. This is "cult leader" by KiNG MALA, which she wrote after this tweet: "i’ve decided to be delusionally confident, i’m sick of this sad girl shit it’s villain hours once again". If you haven't listened to her before, KiNG MALA has very much a Billie Eilish musical style but through a masc queer lens.


If you're a more a folk soft pop fan there's a whole Lizzy McAlpine album out called 'five seconds flat' that's a delight, I've listened to it a few times this week. But this song in particular, "hate to be lame" is a really sweet ballad and also features vocals from FINNEAS (O'Connell).


Full album - if you like this wonderful new world of sapphic pop rock, the new album from Xana - Tantrums, is wonderful.

New metal from both Five Finger Death Punch AfterLife & Motionless in White - Masterpiece
There's also this new album "In Stasis" from the bad Monuments that I'm just discovering via Bandcamp, but so far I like it very much.

That's definitely not all, but that's what I've collected so far. I hope your week has gone a little bit better than mine. I'd love to hear what you're listening to lately (since I've abandoned Spotify kind of altogether, I get less new recs tossed my way, so anything I can add to my list to remind Google to DIVERSIFY my recs is helpful. This is my biggest gripe about the change from Google Play to YouTube Music - it's new music recs are pretty garbage unless you happen to recently have listened to that band or their in the trending top 100. So like throw your recs in the comments for us, please!
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New Music Friday

Jan. 23rd, 2021 01:01 am
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
Happy Friday. Woof. I have a lot of links down below, but three videos here at the top. If you're new here, this is my (usually) weekly drop of songs I've been listening to and enjoying this week (or in recent weeks). The last few weeks have been a little strange for me so I've been just collecting songs so these are all from the last like three(?) weeks or so. If you didn't see it, two weeks ago I also talked a bit about my 2020 in music and answered some questions about my process for these posts. As usual, this post is a mix of artists from folk to metal and hopefully you'll find something in here to enjoy.

Emma Ruth Rundle was a recent new discovery for me at the end of last year, I fell in love with the song "Hollywood" and pre-ordered the collaboration with Thou on The Helm of Sorrow EP [Bandcamp]. The EP came out last week and I love it. It's only four songs, but they're all great. I don't know how to classify the collaboration between these two musical acts. Thou is a sludge metal band and ERR is a post-rock, occasionally metal, sometimes just folk rock artist. So I guess if those are things you like, check out this EP.

First is this adorable doddle postal worker from dodie and her new song "Hate Myself". I love pretty much everything about this, dodie's soft vocals, the lyrics and this almost whimsical video about a character building up stamina to be a postal worker in a small British town.


As a bonus, if you like dodie's music, she also recently did this mash-up with some other female artists. This mash-up is dodie's "Cool Girl", Tessa Violet's "Games", Orla Gartland's "Pretending" and Lauren Acquilina's "Swap Places". They've done another of these in the past, same four people but their songs that were popular two years ago. You can watch that one here. If you want to know what kind of female singer-songwriters I like, these four are probably in my top five.
Insecurity mash-up w/dodie, Tessa Violet, Orla Gartland, Lauren Aquilina. The song from Orla is this mash-up is "Pretending" but she's also more recently released a new song, More Like You.

Violet Skies is another new artist for me that showed up thanks to the YouTube algorithm. She's a singer-songwriter from Wales. This is a song session she did with Mahogany, it's a little melancholy. I think there's a part that reminds me a little of Jon Bellion's "All Time Low" but it might just be the repetition. But if you might like this if you liked that.


Lake Street Dive is like a deep love for me. I feel like everytime they have a new song I end up getting stuck on it for a few days at a time. Rachael's voice is just wonderful. I'm sure "Nobody's Stopping You Now" is one of those songs I'm going to end up coming back to again and again like I did with their song "Good Kisser".


And just because I've been collecting songs for this, I'll just throw a bunch of stuff down here as honorable mentions from the the last few weeks. I feeling like I should break these out somehow, so we'll start with some covers and then, break out the rock/metal offers further down.

COVERS
Vintage Trouble - The First Cut is the Deepest (Cat Stevens)
Jonathan Young - Leave Her, Johnny a sea shanty
Violet Orland - Head Like a Hole (NIN cover)
The Hound + The Fox - Evermore (Taylor Swift)

NOT COVERS in order (mostly) from gentle to metal
Alexander Nate - Company
Seether - Fine Again A full band acoustic version
Kings of Leon - The Bandit
Icon for Hire - Last One Standing
Gemini Syndrome - IDK
Architects - Dead Butterflies
Chevelle - Self-Destructor
DRAGONY - Legends Never Die
Moonspell - Common Spells like a pop-up video

Like every week, I hope you find something you like here to listen to for a little while. If you've been digging on a song or band this week, tell me about it, I'd love to check it out. I might always respond, but I do listen to all the stuff you all mention that I haven't heard of before.
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New Music Friday

Dec. 12th, 2020 01:04 am
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
OH I got such good news this week that I'm immediately going to post about tomorrow, but I've been working on this music post all week so I want to do it first.

I know I mentioned Soilwork's new album last week, but it wouldn't be right that I spent MOST of this week with the song "Devil Diviner" on repeat. I wrote like 1500 words of my Yuletide story to it, I seriously just stuck it on a loop and worked, or wrote or read. It's SO GOOD.

I feel like I probably don't have to mention Taylor Swift's new album, but she dropped a new one. Which I'll be listening to. But she wasn't the only one with new music today. After four years, the family of Chris Cornell has released the last album he was working on, which is No One Sings Like You Anymore [Spotify] and oh, his voice, I love it so much. There's a cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" and it's just UGH SO GOOD. Heartbreaking. And if you like dark ambient Russian music, Remember Your Name has a new album [Spotify] / [Bandcamp]. Ksenia's voice is so lovely.

Jonathan Young's metal covers are some of the best on the internet. Most especially those from Disney movies. This rendition of "Carry On My Wayward Son" with the very talented guitarist Sixteen in Mono, is really wonderful. Yes, the song is great as is, but I definitely enjoy Jonathan's take here, and how different his voice is when he's tasked with belting on ballads like this one. Also, he's a huge nerd so the instrumentals from Sixteen in Mono is just him jamming around in the background. (Also if you like Anime, Jonathan covers anime songs and themes all the time.)


The HU, if you're unaware is this AMAZINGLY talented Mongolian metal band that blends Mongolian instruments, throat singing and a seriously badass rock sound together. This is their cover of Metallica's "Sad But True" and I love their take on it. The language, the deep sound of the throat singing and the change to the instrumentation. It's great.


Last for videos, I want to put up this video of a recent song from Nandi Bushnell -- who has now just exploded in popularity due to her infamous music feud with Dave Grohl. She put a bit of her playing both bass and drums to Muse's "Hysteria" up on Twitter recently. And that song is really, really difficult but she killed it. If you're not following Nandi, I highly recommend it. This girl has a really amazing future ahead of her as a musician. A lot of her back and forth with Dave Grohl is on her channel too, so you can go back and see how their battles have gone.


NPR also gave us some big name amazing Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts recently:
And just a few bonus things, because there were some GIFTS this week:
Lastly, this super grungy and wonderful song, "Hollywood" by Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou. I like it so much and I keep going back to it. I'm letting the whole tracklist link, because the EP is up for pre-order and before too long the whole thing will be available to listen too.


But also there was so much good new music this week, so tell me in the comments if there's new stuff you're listening to, or if there's something else you're currently obsessed with. Also someone else tell me their not quite ready for a lot of Christmas songs yet? Like I've been ignoring a lot of them that pop up in my feed but I could maybe just do a whole compliations of Christmas/Hannuka/winter holiday music next week if that's a thing people might like?

Oh and last, last thing. I'm still accepting questions for my end of year music post. So if you've got any pretty please leave them below.
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New Music Friday

Dec. 4th, 2020 04:10 pm
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
Album releases:
THIS WOMAN'S SULTRY VOICE is just so silky smooth and wonderful. This is Yseult for Colours with three songs “BAD BOY”, “INDELEBILE” and “CORPS”. She's French, so I don't understand most of what she's saying, but it really doesn't matter because there's so much emotion in what she's singing and we're just along for the ride. Also the way they shot these performances is just wonderful. I love the sets and the color choices and it's just beautiful from top to bottom.

Not much to say about this next one except that it's just plain fun. A really good time here with "How to Be a Pirate" from Storm Seeker.

If you like Trans Siberean Orchestra and wish they did more than rehash their same successful Christmas album every year, you should check out the new Christmas album from Majestica. Here's one of the songs from the album, "The Joy of Christmas". There's another video for their song "Ghost of Marley" here.


Making up for missing last week with a bunch of others: And if you're in the Christmas mood, here's a few of those:
So in addition to this week's new music… I'm very curious about everyone's Spotify wrapped. If you've watched yours, tell me what your top song (or artist) was for the year! I'd love hear about it -- if it's an artist, maybe your favorite song from them? [My wrapped was heavily influenced by my Nanowrimo playlist so my top band was Dance with the Dead and my top song was "Infinite Orbit" by Explosions in the Sky.]

Also for those of you who really like these posts (I love you so much for enjoying these) I'm thinking about some kind of musical end of year meme/list of questions. So if you have questions you'd like to ask me about music, I'd love to collect them and make a post dedicated to answering them.
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New Music Friday

Sep. 12th, 2020 01:04 am
singedsun: the gravedigger from repo! the genetic opera holding up a blue vial (gravedigger)
Yesterday I was feeling a very specific mood and I put together a playlist that I think at least some of you might appreciate. It's a lot of goth songs that are (mostly) vampire themed and all came out in the 1990s. This does leave out some very specific and very good vampire songs from the 70s and 80s, and of course, the mid-aughts have a very different vibe as things moved towards numetal.

ANY how, it's about 2 hours of goth vampy vibes and I hope for those of you who like that sort of thing, you enjoy it. Feel free to follow it on Spotify as I'll likely to continue to update it as I think/find more songs that apply. I had to dig out a lot of old CDs the other day and I ripped them all this morning, so I might go through more this weekend. I'm still missing my old Goth Box set and my Black Bible set, but I should be able to find those in a box downstairs. That's enough rambling about that.

Making this has certain satisfied a certain itch and it's all I listened to yesterday and today.



I might have another playlist to share next week. As part of Short Story September, I've been putting together a playlist to go with the story (and to listen to while I write).

That's not the only stuff I found this week though. Just today there was a new Halocene/Lauren Babic/Violet Orlandi video cover for "Aerials" by System of a Down. Just as Lauren's screams are super powerful, Violet has this very Amy Lee like voice and the whole collection on this song is just great. Definitely how I prefer to listen to anything from SoaD.



Another fun cover this week from Anthony of Ten Second Songs. He did a styles video for The Weekend's "Blinding Lights" a few weeks ago. His patreon voted on the style they liked best to get a whole video for it. Happily (for me) the Depeche Mode style won. So yesterday we got this full video Depeche Mode-ified version of "Blinding Lights".



Lastly, this isn't a new recommendation by any stretch. But I discovered a new rock band this week that I think might be to some of your interests. A female lead, a sort of classic rock with a grunge edge kind of sound and great production. They're called Royal Thunder and you can find them on Spotify or BandCamp. I spent a lot of time this week listening to this specific album. I'm saving up my time to buy it the next time I see that Bandcamp is doing one of their 'give all the profits to the musicians' days so I can maximize what the band gets when I buy it. I believe Spotify has a newer album of theirs out that's not on their Bandcamp page, but I really, really like this one specifically.

That's all from me for this week.
But, what about you all? I'm always curious to hear what you've been listening to. Share it with me!
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