I just turned 30.
This is not a story of a fashion epiphany, but one of a slow, if self-indulgent and expensive burn (also, of reading my comment history lol).
From November 2016 to January 2021, I have taken 566 outfit photos. These are my fave outfits of each year.
I was 25 when I first posted in FFA - Posted on 6 November 2016, this was my first ever WAYWT post, just a bit over 4 years ago. FFA has changed a lot since then, and so have I. I used to post religiously, however, I’ve been on and off over the last couple of years, which is not unlike my relationship with fashion.
In that time I have moved countries, developed a horrifying shopping habit and then dropped it, had a few different hairstyles (always messy), travelled, gained and lost weight, and now a pandemic with numerous lockdowns (yay, UK). All of this has had an impact on how I dress and how I feel towards fashion.
2016 - 2017 (26 & 27 years old)

Started off with casual, relaxed silhouettes before gravitating towards more structured, feminine silhouettes in 2017
Almost exclusively wore skirts and dress for the better part of a year and didn’t start wearing pants and jeans until second half of 2017
Started off wearing more colour before going more neutral by the end of 2017
Became more exposed to fashion via social media and increasing my consumption

2018 (27 - 28 years old)

Style leaned towards trendy and boho during S/S, no idea what was going on during A/W (I blame this on a shopping addiction, as expanded below)
Actively consuming fashion content daily, paying close attention to trends and was purchasing clothes on an almost weekly basis
Went on 2 holidays that had an impact on how I view my wardrobe later on
Changed my hair colour
Near the end of 2018, tried to curb my excessive shopping habit (failing more than succeeding)

2019 (28 - 29 years old)

Moved to London (as well as moving flats 4 times)
Started re-wearing clothes more (especially during the first 6 months as I was mostly living out of a suitcase)
Started focusing more on functionality of my wardrobe (i.e. sneakers and outerwear)
Decreasing how much fashion content I follow

2020 (29 - 30 years old)

Stable living situation
Covid has actually allowed me to experiment more
Subconsciously lost weight, so now dressing to a different(ish) body
Style now has more retro elements
Buying less, buying smarter and buying second-hand more (a lot of my wardrobe is at least 1 year old, was bought second-hand or as direct replacements for old items, and I can go a couple of months without wanting to buy anything)
Completely stopped following any fashion content
First time I feel like S/S me matches A/W me, whereas I’ve always felt disjointed across seasons in previous years

Some things remained unchanged, such as I’ve always enjoyed both short and midi lengths, I love a cinched in waist, I like playing around with texture, I obviously love a good turtleneck, my hair was almost always messy and I still enjoy Isabel Marant.
4 years doesn’t seem like a lot, but it sure looks like a lot when I see how I used to dress versus now, my mindset related to that and lessons learnt.
(If it wasn’t obvious, this is mostly tongue in cheek, and it’s very much based on myself).

Lesson 1: You’re Very Dumb When You’re Young (But Who Isn’t?)
First of all, this happens to so many people.
I had just started my first full time job that year. Ever since I left high school I’ve always loved clothes (I even had a short-lived blog in the early 2010s), and now suddenly having more disposable income than ever that I could spend on my biggest passion (fashion, if you didn’t already realise after clicking on this post while on this subreddit), my already high consumption went positively exospheric. How much I was wearing was not in line with how much I was spending, aka a fucking excess of clothes.
It started with expanding a work wardrobe, which was innocent enough. Previously, I only went to uni a few times a week where didn’t see the same people all the time, and I worked part-time jobs requiring uniforms. Buying extra clothes was reasonable. Then I discovered how easy online shopping was, and how addictive pressing ‘checkout’ was, which then led me onto re-sell designer sites like The RealReal and Vestiaire, and suddenly previous designers I’d always dreamed of wearing were now attainable…to me?! I’m an adult, who makes money, and now I wear designer.
Looking bad, it’s not like I didn’t look good. I rate a lot of my outfits and for the time and place I consider them stylish. But looking at what I used to wear before 2020, the thing that sticks out most isn’t how nice a colour looked on me, or how well I wore a leather mini skirt. The thing that sticks out the most is how completely unsatisfied I always felt after that moment of that ‘new clothes thrill’ wore off - I always thought I could look better, which, of course, meant I needed to buy something else to make sure I did. I used to think about my next purchase immediately after buying something, like someone looking for the next hit. It sounds unhealthy because it is unhealthy.
There were so many items of clothes that I only wore for 1 season. And then there were the clothes I wore just once or twice. This snowballed for the next almost 2 years, and season after season I was virtually buying a new wardrobe because my old clothes seemed too ‘boring’ and ‘old’. The number of times I posted on the weekly Recent Purchases thread is actually appalling thinking about it. Instead of actually thinking of the versatility or functionality of clothes (can this be worn for numerous occasions/seasons? Does this go with enough of what I already own?) I was instead buying clothes in terms of creating specific looks - and if that meant buying a whole outfit, worth it (it’s not, FYI. Ever.) And the thought of re-wearing an outfit? Not a chance.
The amount I dropped on clothing I barely wore during this time is most likely the equivalent of putting down a sizeable deposit on a flat in a decent area of a major city. And when you come to that realisation years later, it will make your stomach drop.
And as another aside, get rid of this habit before you move out. It will save you a lot of stress. And it can take years to drop this habit.

Lesson 2: Unlike What That Guy Says on Hinge, Don’t Be Spontaneous
There isn’t anything wrong with being spontaneous - Like any healthy habits, in moderation it’s not harmful. The thing is, when spontaneous is all the time there’s another way to phrase that. A Really Bad Addiction.
That’s not to say every purchase has to be thought out meticulously to an analytical degree (seriously, that would be stressful in itself) - I genuinely have had some great impulse buys. But these have either been sentimental or have made me feel so amazing in that moment as if that piece of clothing had been made only for me. A kimono-esque robe I bought on sale in Tokyo, a vintage silk midi dress that paved the way for a style that I wear years later, a leather jacket that feels as great as it looks, a sweater that’s both basic but not really, a dress I joke is my wedding dress (I’m not actually joking).
But these sort of spontaneous purchases can only exist as good buys when you otherwise think practically about what you buy. The impulse items mentioned continue to work for me because the rest of my wardrobe is thought out, versatile and thus, those impulse items can be worn again and again with the rest of my wardrobe.
A spontaneous purchase only because you have a discount code, or you need to meet a minimum order, or because it was on sale or because you feel like you have nothing else to wear or to chase a thrill will usually end up as a regret.
Continually impulse buying is just bad consumption, pure and simple.

Lesson 3: If You Love Fashion, Don’t Work in Corporate Retail
I’m half kidding. However, there is a good chance you’ll become disillusioned with anything related to fashion the longer you work for retail companies (both on the floor and in corporate). Especially for big companies.
It started off positive - I was surrounded by clothes and by people talking about clothes. I found similar-minded people who felt the same way about fashion as I did.
I had people to discuss the things we wanted to buy, the designers and labels we loved, Paris/New York/London/Melbourne fashion shows, the sample sales coming up, outfits to gush over (consisting of new purchases, naturally). It was 9-5 of just fashion.
It was also 9-5 of tiring. Especially when I’m discussing how to make people buy more, to consume more, to waste more. Then the stress involved when deliveries miss deadlines due to awful circumstances and senior management are freaking out (a ship capsized and the crew are MIA, but where is the product?), working for companies that churn out clothes every week, for companies that stock problematic brands, for companies that thrive on shopping tourists.
And then there are those moments, like when someone senior comments that the Paris bombing will be good for the company because no one will want to shop in Paris.
You see the ugliest side to the retail industry and there are times when you truly hate fashion.
(FYI, you absolutely can have a fulfilling career in corporate retail, however, I find the people that do are the people who can separate their personal views on clothing and consumerism from their work. I couldn’t.)

Lesson 4: Instagram is Aspiration, Not Inspiration
You are the product. Emily from London and Olivia from Melbourne might seem like your style twin and you just seem like the exact same things, but the reason they listed every brand on their aspirational outfit photo isn’t to help you out - it’s to help them out.
I was so obsessed with consuming anything fashion related on Instagram. I felt like I had to be aware of every single high street brand that existed, follow every popular British influencer (I just felt like British style was Exactly My Vibe, you know?), look like I myself would be the type of person who could post on Instagram.
Nothing I’ve bought because I saw it on an influencer I have kept. No style I modelled off someone who’s taller, skinnier, boobier, blonder than me I have retained. The only thing I got out of looking on social media for fashion inspiration were mountains of garbage bags of donations, moments of feeling shit because it didn’t look the same on me and a lean bank account (remember, I could have bought a flat by now).
Instagram is an amazing platform to express whatever you want. But don’t ever use it as a tool to copy something or someone because no good can come from that.
I look at what I wore in 2017-2018, which are the years I consider the eruption in my Fiery Spending Volcano, and I know I based my outfits on certain influencers thinking, ‘Yes, this is an outfit [insert whoever] would wear,’ or specific items I bought because I saw it on someone. The thing is, I honestly can’t remember who these people were. I genuinely don’t feel a connection to a lot of those outfits, as if it wasn’t actually me wearing it. Now I look at what I’ve worn end of 2019 to now and I know exactly who my outfits were influenced by. Me…I’m influenced by me.
I no longer have Instagram.
(And Nanny Fine will always be the only acceptable influencer.)

Lesson 5: Labels Should Only Come From a Label Maker
Boho chic.
French girl.
LA vibes.
Timeless.
Off duty model.
It’s meaningless. Don’t box yourself in. That’s all.

Lesson 6: Size Absolutely Does Not Matter (in This Case)
Capsule wardrobes are not for me. I need options
An entire room stuffed with clothing is also not for me. I don’t need that many options.
I used to have the mindset I had to have every kind of variation of an item. Take the white t-shirt for example - I needed a cropped white tee, a longline tee, a v-neck, a crew neck, a scoop neck, a dressy tee. Outerwear also used to be a huge problem for me. I mostly live in Australia…I don’t need that many outerwear options because I legitimately will not be able to wear all of them. Variety is nice until it becomes hoarding.
I credit travelling with helping me realise I can easily survive on a smaller wardrobe. I look at what I wore when I went to the UK/EU in 2018 and still love those outfits. I had so much fun in Japan dressing with the 17 items of clothes I packed (braids certainly helped too). Dressing just became easy and I didn’t often have that ‘I have nothing to wear’ feeling because I had purposely packed both clothing that I loved and were versatile. A smaller wardrobe has actually made me feel more creative when putting outfits together. No amount of buying new clothes will ever match the feeling of discovering a new way to wear an old thing.
Not to mention, the fact that I used to think repeating outfits was the biggest fashion crime is as fucking ridiculous as you’re thinking it sounds. If an outfit made me feel so amazing the first time I wore it, why wouldn’t I want to experience that feeling again?
Nowadays I get a lot of comments on how much I re-wear and re-use my clothes and it’s genuinely a great compliment. How much I can see myself re-wearing something is a major factor in my shopping habits. This doesn’t mean I aim to have a classic, timeless style (I personally believe no clothing is truly timeless) nor do I completely avoid trends, but I aim to have clothes that easily go multiple seasons and years. I’ve learnt to become patient with shopping and now routinely wait at least 3 weeks from the first time I see something to gauge how I really feel about it. More often than not, I don’t follow through with purchasing. This also works well for me, as by waiting I then have a chance of purchasing it second-hand, which has become something I do more and more these days beyond just shopping vintage.
Also, no one actually knows nor cares if you repeat outfits. No one is that special that people remember every outfit that person ever wore. They will probably repeat compliments though (because you definitely repeated a great outfit).

My relationship with fashion has been messy. I’ve been obsessed, I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been ambivalent. Now, I’ve calmed down. I used to let my shopping habit define my style, whereas now I’m at a stage when it’s the reverse - It’s no longer a case of ‘I’ll make this purchase work’, but ‘this purchase needs to work for me’. I now consume less fashion news, have a smaller wardrobe, but am probably the most satisfied with the way I dress than I ever have been.

EDIT: It appears this has resonated with a lot of people, which I'm pretty chuffed with as it's things I've increasingly been thinking about over the last year or so. I'm glad people have learnt similar lessons and that people will come to learn similar lessons. To everyone who's already made the step to being a better consumer, keep going, and to those who want to start doing so, it doesn't happen overnight and that's okay. We may not all become the perfect, cleanest consumer, but there are numerous little steps we can take to be better than we were before.

"I Can't Get That Old Lady’s Mouth and Teeth Out of My Head."

The reason I am writing this now and not before is because I was only reminded of this the other day, I was driving to the store with my son and he wanted me to listen to a song. I don’t even remember the words, I just remember that the tune brought me back to a place, a place I had tucked away in my memory in hopes to be forgotten.
Now I can’t get that old lady’s mouth out of my head.
This happened in 1987. I am sure about the date because of the Whittier earthquake.
It just so happens that at that very moment I was painting a wall in the dining room a different color when it hit and I ended up streaking paint across the wall as I ran over to hold our overly large fish tank from falling off this stupidly flimsy stand it was on.
This took place in Hacienda Heights, California. My boyfriend at the time wasn’t really welcome at my mothers' house because she couldn’t shake this bad feeling about him. So being young and dumb I moved out of her house and into a place I found down the street with him. I wish I had listened to her.
It was a small one-bedroom bungalow. At first, we were getting along just fine, but it seemed like things changed as the months passed and we started fighting more.
I thought it was odd that I, (Suzy homemaker) didn’t even want to make that house a home. It was just a weird vibe about the place, and it got darker the longer we stayed.
As you walk in the partial glass front door, on the left there were two white windowpane doors on the built-in bookcases on both sides of a fireplace, then the dining room, and in the back was the kitchen. The bedroom was on the right.
We couldn't afford a bed frame so our full side mattress was on the floor under the window and that was the only thing in there besides the clock.
There was an uneasiness in that bedroom that I couldn’t put my finger on, I felt very depressed in there. Oh, little things happened throughout the house from the moment we moved in but we just laughed it off, until it was no longer funny.
It seemed like when we were at odds with each other it intensified in a dark way.
Oftentimes my boyfriend would just leave and I was alone, sometimes for days and I thought that he did it on purpose because he knew I was scared to be there alone.
At first, I was fine, not scared of anything until one of those nights I was sleeping, and I was jolted up by an extremely loud bang that left my ears ringing.
I jumped up and at first, looked out the front window thinking it was something outside but the streets were still. I checked the house but there was nothing out of place.
The next night it happened again louder than before, only this time I glanced at the clock before checking the house and it was five o’clock am on the dot and my room was freezing. I tried to go back to sleep but I heard muffled whales of a woman. I literally had to lift my head from the pillow to listen, but no one was around.
The next day my boyfriend came home and with a few words and some hand-picked flowers all was stupidly forgiven.
I told him what had happened but he shrugged it off telling me that it could have been a backfire or the pipes, and I bought it.
One early evening after dinner we were going to watch TV on the couch in the living room and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. I kept hearing him yelling out things at me but I couldn’t really make what he was saying out.
I opened the door and looked at him like “What?” and he turned white crawling backward on the couch with his big eyes, then leaped up and ran into the kitchen looking around and checking the back door.
He came out saying that the door was locked from the inside.
After he calmed down and I could understand him he told me that he was talking to me in the kitchen, he asked me why I put a granny house dress on and was asking for snacks, and he was getting a bit upset that I didn’t answer him. I had no answers.
There had been a few times we both saw what looked like a teenaged boy sitting on the front stoop, sometimes holding his head in his hands, but when we approached him it was like he was never there.
I pointed out faces in the glass panes of the bookcase that looked like they were talking to us while we were watching TV. They were just reflections of something that wasn’t in the room with their features outlined by the flickering light from the TV, but after a while, the faces became more defined. In the beginning, my boyfriend thought I was making it up until he saw it for himself.
We heard banging on the bathroom door like with someone's fist, even when we weren't in there and an older guys voice saying “AH COME ON!” sending us running outside a couple of times, then feeling stupid sitting outside so we went in and stayed spooked for the rest of the day.
I called the landlord to ask him if something happened there? Or can he make it stop? But before I could even open my mouth he was asking if I was calling to complain about something he had no control over? In the background, I heard his wife say, “Is that the young couple? They want to move, do they? There goes another one.”
He sounded like this had happened a lot to them before, so that really got my blood boiling. Why would they rent this place to us without even a heads up? Realizing that they would be of no immediate help I just hung up. I could not move, I had no money and my mother for sure wouldn’t let me move back in as long as I was with him.
We lived there for at least four months when our relationship started spinning out of control, he was being forceful, demanding, and drinking a lot more. One night he asked me to pick him up so I did, and somehow I ended up with a broken arm because I didn’t want him to drive my car drunk.
I had to beg him to shift gears so I could drive to the ER because he was tired and after the hospital, I was exhausted, I just wanted to sleep, so I went to the bedroom, while he opted to lay on the couch and watch TV.
The next thing I know he’s grabbing his stuff saying that he’s not staying there anymore and walking out leaving me there by myself with a broken arm. Wow! I remember that it was a warm night but it was raining so I laid on the couch with only the screen door closed so I could hear the rain.
The lights went out freaking me out even more so I put candles on the coffee table and one on the bookcase and sat back down on the couch. I was too scared to sleep in the bedroom.
I sat there and saw those faces, one was an old lady, she was frowning and her mouth was moving like she was trying to over enunciate to tell me something or yell at me. Her face got bigger like she was coming closer to the glass and then back, she kept waving her finger at me. Her gray hair was straight and put back with a headband. Her mouth was just going on opening and closing and the candlelight glistened on her bottom teeth. Her teeth looked a little, I don’t know, long and old? If that makes any sense.
Then there was a middle-aged man who didn’t look directly at me, he looked aggravated, but not at me, more like at everything and everyone. And then a crying teenager. His face was so full of despair. I could make out the words “Please, and No, no, no!” and then he put his hand on his face, looking at him brought tears to my eyes and my heartfelt so very heavy. It dawned on me that this was the kid on our doorsteps.
I must have sat there for hours with the blankets up to my nose until the lights came on and I fell asleep.
That next morning I walked down to the corner store and called my mother who was happy to find out that I was ready to come home.
Before I handed over the keys my mother had some words with the landlord.
He told her that he had the place blessed before I moved in, and he was hoping that it had worked, he also told mom that he bought the place already haunted.
All he knew from digging was that It was two bungalows together but one burnt down, the one I was renting was the one where an old lady lived who’s grown son came on hard times because he was an alcoholic, he lost his wife and couldn’t keep a job so he and his teenage son moved into her place with her.
His son was so unstable that he found a gun in the house and shot himself in the bedroom, and his grandmother died from a heart attack not long after. He didn’t know what happened to the man.
Talk about a roundabout. I don’t know why that tune or maybe the light reflecting off the rain on my windshield made me think about that old lady’s mouth but it did.
Now I understand a little more as to why I don’t like reflective things in my home.

Murdoc's Journey in Song Machine - Season 1

Now that season 1 of Song Machine is over, closing out with the amazing music video of The Lost Chord, I came to a realization that really put this whole phase into perspective and had me come out of it thinking Gorillaz truly pulled out the best writing and content they have in a decade! Being very excited to talk about it, I decided to put my thoughts here, hopefully someone will enjoy it.
I am of course wanting to talk about Murdoc this phase, his role, actions and the writing surrounding him, as well as why I believe he was in many ways the star of the season. On top of the fact that I believe his character arc has finally been completed. So let's just dive right in!
For better immersion, or perhaps so that my possible meandering doesn't bother you too much, I recommend listening to the album while reading or rewatching the episodes from the start. The season really comes together masterfully.
PART 1: INTRODUCTION
We all know Murdoc. The evil satanist douche who just so happens to lead our favourite band with his tremendous bass skills. And as the leader of "[his] band" as he often likes to say, he takes center role in almost every phase. Murdoc Niccals has been pivotal to the plot and lore of Gorillaz, climaxing with Plastic Beach, where his douchebaggery probably reached its zenith. Someone ought to wonder why we even like this lime jackass, who replaced the band's absent drummer with a drum machine while he was mutated by toxic waste, cloned his assumedly dead guitarist and turned her into a living weapon and kidnapped poor 2D and locked him in a basement where vignettes of whales tormented his poor mind.
However, something changed after phase 3. Murdoc no longer has this role. After the crew split up and finally reunited, now each out of their own desire insead of coercion, blackmail, kidnapping or what have you - which we had grown accustomed to by 2017 - this time the band members joined and settled as a proper band. Humanz passed relatively smoothly, almost without any turbulence. Each member had their own merit.
So how does Murdoc fit into this? The answer is simple. He doesn't.
And he believes that very deeply. Murdoc was the definitive leader of the band and ruled with an iron fist, or whatever other weapon he happened to have handy at the time. A megalomaniac like him surely would feel a certain way about no longer being in this position, right? Right. And we can most blatantly see this with his unfortunate best friend, 2D.
PART 2: 2D, THE BAND & CONTROL
Ever since Humanz, Murdoc has been losing control over the band and most importantly 2D, his favourite lab rat and punching bag. Over half a decade after Plastic Beach though, 2D is no longer the 2D Murdoc once knew. His eyes turned white permanently, a feature we were led to believe only occurs when he is profoundly happy or afraid. Though still a little weak-spirited, 2D no longer had Murdoc's usual bullshit and that was definitely a sign for the bassist. His band was no longer 100% his band.
In comes phase 5, The Now Now, where Murdoc is thrown into jail and 2D takes the role of the leader of the band. The whole album is centered on him and he is unusually overjoyed most of the phase, definitely a breath of fresh air for our boy, now with a replacement bassist. That is definitely the biggest blow to Murdoc's ego, as his non-essentiality is displayed fully. There is almost no actual plot in this phase, the one that exists being a publicity stunt from Murdoc, for him to get some attention, in typical Niccals fashion. (Not that we as a fandom didn't enjoy the wild goose chase!) Someone like him definitely doesn't take too kindly to slowly but surely "losing" all he has. 2D is independent and happy now. Gorillaz is functional even without him. There are plenty more green pickles in the sea, evidently.
Redundancy. That's what defines Murdoc now. He throws together a bizarre plot of making deals with demons and breaking out of jail only for Noodle to discover it's just a sham, because that's how desperately irrelevant Murdoc feels now. Sure, he returns to the band in the end and many of the songs in The Now Now can be interpreted as 2D's reconciliation of feelings towards his ex-abuser, but that's a far cry from the glory Murdoc felt true and at home with. Turns out not all's well that ends well. And we should emphasize that fact, by the way. Murdoc was an abuser. A scourge to everyone who had the displeasure of working with him, the tragedies of phases 1-3 were almost exclusively all on him all the way til the darkest Gorillaz had ever gotten, with Plastic Beach.
And he definitely knows this. Phase 5 interviews and chats with him indicate his guilt, but you can't change your nature sometimes. It's a big shock for someone like him to lose his utter dominion. The status quo is back, but what about Murdoc's feelings?
PART 3: STRANGE TIMEZ
A year and a half later, the band returns with Song Machine: Season 1 - Strange Timez. This phase finally concludes, at least from what I can see, Murdoc's character arc and displays everything we love about him in impeccable ways that have truly moved me. So let's take the information we have so far and continue.
Murdoc at this point feels so redundant and unnecessary, he will do anything to feel significant again, but it's not meant to be. It's over. The old Murdoc is gone.
Murdoc tries to poison Damon, probably to get control over Gorillaz. It doesn't work, so he drinks the poison himself to check, and ends up barfing violently at the end of Momentary Bliss, while good ol' blissful 2D is just vibing. A royal blunder to be sure.
Murdoc is excited to mess with the gang again, preparing quirky shenanigans for them, only to find out they're busy shooting the video clip for Desole, without a care in the world for his inclusion. While certainly not on purpose, his non-essentiality is shown to him again, and all Murdoc can do is wonder why that is, only to acknowledge it's his fault. Everyone is happy and successful except him now and he knows he deserves it. As much as he tries to tell twitter he was acting, Russel points out that the truth is clear. In the end, he quietly goes back to his box, unnoticed by all.
But what's a megalomaniac without abuse? Though 2D is fully autonomous and knows his self-worth now, Murdoc is desperate. Like the good ol' days, he tags along with his friend for Aries' video clip, only to try and play another classic trick on his ex-punching bag. Not only does the syringe not work though, but trying to fuck with 2D like he used to only resulted in a well-deserved ass kicking from Russ, talk about deja vu.
Friday 13th passes without much hassle, but Pac-Man brings us back as 2D seems to have bizarre space-altering powers that affect the rest of the band and especially the despondent Murdoc who hides in a locker he graffitis as "Murdoc's portal". Interviews indicate that the stuff we see in Desole and Aries are actually 2D opening portals to other dimensions. When did THAT happen? How can he even do that? Murdoc expresses his wishes to know how 2D can use all these weird powers, he probably wonders if 2D is that liberated now.
Strange Timez is a relatively normal video clip by Gorillaz standards, though the theme of portals comes back again as Murdoc is the only one thrown in for a ride, travelling through a bizarre gate back to Kong Studios, freaking out, at a loss.
In The Pink Phantom, 2D, 6LACK and Sir Elton John share a wonderful ballad while Murdoc tries not to be too much of a distraction as he attempts to capture a pink phantom in the background. What is that pink phantom? I'm honestly unsure, but it Murdoc wanting to catch it is important to note for later. In the end, he breaks into the room with a very lol so randem xD matador outfit, exclaiming "It's me!" but the song has already ended. Another W for our happy 2D, another L for our attention-deprived green satanist.
Though Valley of the Pagans isn't that eventful, we see that the car can travel through dimensions, bringing that theme back again, and seemingly with the help of the pink phantom hiding in the trunk. In the end it takes the band to Plastic Beach, where in the season finale it leaves them stranded and disappears. Perhaps that's why Murdoc wanted to capture it. He didn't want to be met with that over a decade later. He can't handle that.
By now, Murdoc has tried all there was to try. We know the facts and the conclusion is that the once glorious evil villain of the band is no longer what he once used to be. His feelings about this shift are perfectly clear... and it all comes to a thrilling and emotionally impactful finale with what I can only describe as a musically aquatic tune, of The Lost Chord. How does this fall-from-grace story end for Murdoc?
PART 4: THE LOST CHORD
Here we are. Plastic Beach. The perfect display of Murdoc's absolute worst. The setting and the events that almost destroyed our favourite band. They're all met with their nightmares from the past. But it's especially hard for Murdoc.
Your sins have finally caught up to you. You can't escape what you've done. Murdoc is met with all of the tragedies of his own creation, as he slowly breaks down. The Boogey Man, whose disasters he personally invoked. Cyborg Noodle, his ego-satisfying personal minion bearing the likeness of his lost friend. All the while, his friends are suffering due to traumas he caused.
Soon, (Godzi)Leee John appears and destroys the island, a huge relief for the 2D, Noodle, Russel and Murdoc, as their past is fully destroyed before their very eyes, but this disaster leaves them stranded still. 2D uses his portal powers to help the crew escape, while Murdoc personally pulls up his friends to the top of the lighthouse so they can escape. And then... they abandon him.
Murdoc is momentarily alone. This is such an emotionally rich moment with so much build-up to it that when I saw it in the premiere I really thought this was it, this is how the phase ends, and I was about to cry my eyes out. Despite all that's happened, all the terrible things we know him for, I couldn't help but feel this was too much for him.
For someone like Murdoc who was once all about control, to slowly lose it all and understand he deserves it, it was extremely emotional how it all culminated in this one moment. Is this how it ends? Murdoc panicks. He has nothing left.
And then...
Throughout all of this analysis we've been looking at Murdoc, how he feels and how he sees himself. But we forgot to talk about 2D. It is definitely easy to see how 2D has matured and be proud of our little man for going through so much and still coming out as the happy and autonomous person he now is. But 2D has always been a pure person at heart, though every man has his vices, his heart is truly good.
And so he forgives Murdoc.
Though The Now Now was largely about 2D coming into his own without the need for Murdoc, so many of the album's songs and music videos, as well as 2D's diary entries, indicate how he still misses Murdoc anyway. He doesn't want to admit it to himself because he's smart enough to know how terrible he's been to him, and yet he still loves him. In my eyes, Souk Eye in particular is the ultimate representation for this. 2D finally making up with Murdoc. But what 2D saw as him and his friend now being equal, Murdoc saw as a negative. He knows he's forgiven, but he can't fathom his status in life now.
And Song Machine season 1 was all about that final exploration. Who is Murdoc anymore? And after everything, we get to the finale.
PART 5: CONCLUSION
As 2D comes back with that goofy little face of his right at the end, uses the portal to get Murdoc, the latter is overjoyed and grabs his friend's hand. He is saved. He is forgiven. It's all okay now.
After so many trials, so much burden and so many tragedies, it all came to a head with The Lost Chord, in my opinion the greatest of the episodes. It may sound like the ramblings of a pretentious overthinker, considering how it's just a few seconds of animation at a time each episode, but those make all the difference. Be honest, how many of us went through all 5 stages of grief in just 2 seconds when Murdoc was left behind? It's because Jamie Hewlett is a genius storyteller and we've loved these characters for so long.
And that's why this moment is such beautiful retribution for the once centerpiece of Gorillaz. After taking everything into account, all the story til now, I find it astounding how wonderful this last episode was.
"I want to be free" sings Leee John as Murdoc is finally redeemed and rescued by his best friend, 2D. And I think he is free now. I believe Murdoc is going to be alright.
This is honestly a character arc so long in the making and explored over so many phases that I can't help but love it with all my heart. It's an utterly perfect note to end the season on and a beautiful conclusion for the characters. I will say, I was never such a big Murdoc fan, I always enjoyed him, but he might just be my favourite character upon contemplating all of this. So much so that I wrote an utter wall of a thread on reddit for some green satanist pickle.
Not bad for a virtual band, huh?
~~~~~~~~~~
I can't wait for season 2 and what other craziness it might bring, cause this phase was 10/10. We've caught glimpses of this little storyline throughout the years but it's never felt as definitive as it has now. Many of us fans felt the "lore" portion of the band has left something to be desired in the previous years, and I truly think this phase was the missing piece. This decade ends well for Gorillaz.
I haven't felt this wonderful about my favourite band since I first got into them way back in 2016. And I consider that a huge accomplishment on both Damon and Jamie's part, who worked together to make the best Gorillaz content in 10 years.
Apologies for going off on such a tangent, but if there's one thing I really just wanted to emphasize, it's that I love Gorillaz so damn much <3
💚

31 [M4R] #merrimackvalley #southernnh - Bi Married Poly Bro Hosting Diff Groups Whenever, Pick a Color, HMU

Album of The Year #1: Lil Uzi Vert - Eternal Atake / Lil Uzi Vert Vs. The World 2

Artist: Lil Uzi Vert
Albums: Eternal Atake / Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2
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Background
Symere Bysil Woods was born on July 31, 1994. Symere had a rather normal childhood. Like many children, Symere’s parents were split up, but he had a healthy relationship with both. Overall, he had a loving, yet somewhat strict, family, attended school and enjoyed cartoons and anime’s. In high school, however, Symere became a bit of an oddball. He enjoyed unconventional music, such as his idol, Marilyn Manson and Paramore among other things, wore fox tails to school and often wanted to stand out in a crowd. Bullied and teased for his music taste and weird tendencies, Symere was as happy as could be, taking pride in being a bit different. Symere’s love for music would even inspire him to play the trumpet in his marching band. Symere would eventually decide to try his hand in hip hop, after seeing the attention and popularity other people, including his friend, William Aston, got from it. Symere would find that he actually was pretty decent at spitting, so Aston invited him to join a rap group he had made with another friend. This group would be known as “Steaktown”, believed to be called that due to Philadelphia’s reputation for cheesesteaks. From here, Symere’s life would forever change. Symere, now going by the name “Sealab Vertical”, actually found that he enjoyed rapping and the type of attention he got with it. Though he loved rapping and had gotten very into the genre, Steaktown broke up, putting a bit of a damper on Symere’s plans. However, don’t let that fool you into thinking he had given up on a hip hop career. Symere knew he had it in him and would not give up on the dream. Symere doubled down on his efforts to become a star, including dropping out of school, quitting a job as a bag boy and even getting tattoos on his face. Symere moved into his grandmother’s place within a nursing home. His grandmother was very supportive of his dream and Symere would constantly upload songs to Soundcloud. One day, a listener to his music on Soundcloud would tell him he sounded like a “Lil Uzi” since he rapped so fast, leading Symere to taking that and combining it with Vert, short for Vertical. However, that combo maybe a double entendre... From here, Lil Uzi Vert was born.
Uzi’s work would finally pay off when DJ Diamond Kuts would hear one of his songs from his first project, Purple Thoughtz Vol. 1. This would lead to Uzi getting one of his songs played on Philly’s Power 99 Station. At this time, Don Cannon was driving around Philly and he would eventually run into this song on the radio. Cannon reached out to Uzi and produced his first mixtape, The Real Uzi. After the release of The Real Uzi, Uzi signed to Atlantic Records through Generation Now. From here, he would go on tour with Fall Out Boy and Wiz Khalifa and feature on many artists’ songs. He had done it. He had achieved the fame he wanted. However, Uzi still wanted that superstar status and would take his next big step towards it by releasing his first big project, Luv Is Rage.
Luv Is Rage was released to a wider audience then Uzi normally got and drew many new people to him. It got very positive reviews and earned Uzi the title of being a breakout star of 2015. The project did feature a much different character then Uzi previously portrayed however. Now, instead of focusing mostly on hip hop exclusively, he set to combine it with styles of other influences he had, such as My Chemical Romance or Nirvana. This new style was very melodic and had a rocker vibe, which many would gravitate towards. Life was great for Uzi. He was making it big, had a hit project, a loving girlfriend by the name of Brittney and a solid fanbase. But this wouldn’t be all, as a few months later, he would release his biggest song yet, Money Longer. Immediately following that, he would release his second big project, Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World, strongly inspired by Scott Pilgram vs. The World.
Vs. The World was a hit. For many, it’s the defining project of 2016 and, among many younger people, is hailed as one of the best mixtapes ever made. Hell, back in 2016, people I knew were only listening to this tape as far as music went and were constantly quoting it. Even my football coach was quoting his lyrics and using random Uzi lines to motivate our team, since he was so popular with people my age. Everyone at my high school was listening to Uzi nearly exclusively and always talking about what he’d do next, as well as constantly posting pictures of him with quotes he never said on Snapchat, before Youngboy had that honor. Yup, those were the days. Uzi, his many watches, Scott Pilgram inspired hair, eccentric fashion choices, melodies and, of course, his girlfriend, Brittney, were and still are absolutely iconic to the year 2016. However, this was only the beginning to an absolutely insane year. Next, Uzi would take part in what is possibly the most legendary XXL Freshman Cypher ever, alongside Denzel Curry, Lil Yachty, 21 Savage and Kodak Black. Many agreed that Uzi was a standout from the cypher and many new fans were drawn to Uzi from it. Also around this time, he was featured on Migos’ smash hit, Bad and Boujee, and also on Future and DJ Esco’s hit, Too Much Sauce. To capitalize on all this, he was dropping constant new songs on his SoundCloud throughout the year, such as fan favorite song Buy It. Things wouldn’t be all good though, as around this time, Uzi would break up with his girlfriend and find that he had many fake friends around him. Regardless, he would then go on to release his second mixtape of 2016, The Perfect Luv Tape. This tape focused much less on vocals and melodies and was mostly a return to rapping. It was a fun and light hip hop tape, that featured many hit songs such as Do What I Want and Erase Your Social. This hype train was far from over, as three months later, Uzi would drop a collab tape with trap legend, Gucci Mane. This tape would be a bit of a spin off of Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World, called 1017 vs. The World. To cap off his legendary 2016, Uzi had a tour with The Weeknd to look forward to. Little did we all know just what that tour would bring and how what would happen next would propel Uzi to absolute superstar status.
Brittney and Uzi’s break up hit him more then he let on. He went through some troubles afterwards, even worsening his drug use. During these hard times, he wrote much more somber songs. One of said songs would find its way to an EP called Luv Is Rage 1.5 (a prequel to his upcoming album, Luv Is Rage 2). The song, called XO Tour Lif3, as a reference to the tour he was on with The Weeknd, would be an absolute smash hit and possibly one of the most iconic songs ever made. This song would popularize what is now known as “Emo Rap”. The style wasn’t new, as it was being done by other artists, such as Yung Lean, Lil Peep and Bones, among others, but it had never been popular on this scale before. After this, Uzi would run with the emo aesthetic as a way to hype up Luv Is Rage 2. Taking massive inspiration from Marilyn Manson, he would put on a devil worshipping front and would go all in with the punk rockstar aesthetic. When released, Luv Is Rage 2 was everything this new aesthetic promised. We got deep cuts detailing his broken relationship, such as The Way Life Goes, songs that showed how much of rockstar he can be, such as Early 20 Rager, personal cuts about his family, such as Dark Queen and even new iconic bangers, such as 20 Min. This album was a hit with the numbers, received positive reviews and is well loved by many. It even would get him nominated for best new artist at the Grammy’s. Uzi was on top of the world. However, some pretty rough times were coming up.
Uzi has a fairly mundane 2018 at first. There were some positive moments to come out of it, such as his hilarious verse on Lil Tracy’s Like a Farmer remix, teasing many iconic snippets and him getting clean after the death of Lil Peep, an artist he greatly admired, but it was mostly a year of us riding the high that 2017 Uzi provided. Uzi would set the rap world on fire when he revealed the cover art for his next album, Eternal Atake. Immediately, everyone was hyped due to the very interesting concept the cover had, in that it was modeled after the Heavens Gate logo. Uzi then started going with a new alien/cult leader type aesthetic, abandoning the devil worshipping punk rockstar aesthetic. That October, Uzi released, what was at the time, the first single from the album. This song, called New Patek, was a six minute banger teased in an iconic snippet and was universally praised and hailed as one of his best songs. The world was watching. Everyone was expecting a legendary album to dropped.
Then we waited. We waited a long time. Well, turns out there was behind the scenes drama going on with the making of this album. Uzi, DJ Drama and Don Cannon all had a falling out, as they wouldn’t let him release it. On top of that, the remainder of the Heavens Gate cult was threatening Uzi with a lawsuit. Uzi even briefly retired from rap. Hell, recently we learned there was an album he was making with Pharrell that was scrapped in all this chaos. Also, I’m pretty sure that his anticipated tape with Playboi Carti, 16*29, was scrapped in this time, unless I’m mistaken. On top of this, rumors say that he had some pretty bad drama going on with his step brother who allegedly murdered someone. It was a mess. This would all cumulate in Uzi dropping a track called “Free Uzi” which turned into a campaign supported by multiple people. Worst part is that a lot of tracks, many of which are hailed as Uzi’s very best songs, from the Eternal Atake sessions leaked, pretty much destroying any chance of getting the OG album. Two of those leaks, Sanguine Paradise and That’s a Rack, were eventually officially released, however. 2018 and early 2019 were hard on Uzi. Many wondered if he’d ever be able to get back on his feet. Fortunately, JAY-Z stepped in and “freed” Uzi, signing him to Roc Nation. After this, Uzi still withheld the album. He teased it many times, but it never would release. Fans then wondered if it’d ever drop. Most just gave up hope that it was even real anymore. Eternal Atake was looked at as the new Detox. Dead in the water, just another scrapped album.
Then something happened. Uzi dropped a new song, Futsal Shuffle 2020, claiming it was Eternal Atake’s first single. Yeah, okay. He’s probably capping. Then a couple months later he dropped That Way, a song with an amazing Backstreet Boys sample and said it was from Eternal Atake. Again, yeah sure. Then in February of 2020 he said Eternal Atake would drop in two weeks. Nobody really took it seriously. Then he dropped a high budget trailer, returning to the alien cult leader aesthetic in the process. Okay, it’s getting interesting. He then let the fans pick out the new cover for Eternal Atake. Could this be real? Then three days later he dropped it early. Eternal Atake was not only real, but it was here. Then, the next week, Uzi promised a deluxe with all the grails people begged for. He then revealed that it was not only a deluxe, but a second half to Eternal Atake, this half being a sequel to his album Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World. Two Uzi albums in one year. One being one of the most hotly anticipated albums ever and the other a sequel to a beloved mixtape that some consider a classic.
Nowadays, Symere Woods is one of the most iconic artists there is. Known for his now many face tattoos, constantly changing hairstyles, crazy outfits and wide ranging music. He is an icon, he stands out in the crowd, he has a very interesting look, a unique sound and he has a devoted fan base. Uzi is now the king of the world. But in a new world where COVID-19 ran rampant, Uzi thrived as a major source of entertainment in these times. He is often said to have carried 2020 on his back even. But is this statement true? Were the releases that good? Did they live up to the hype? Are they even worth a listen?
Review Part 1: Eternal Atake
I would like to apologize for going so hard on that background. However, I feel it is completely necessary to detail Uzi’s entire story for this project. This is what Uzi’s entire career has lead up to. Every single move Symere Woods has made these last few years all cumulated in this project. This project can be viewed to Uzi what Tha Carter 3 was to Lil Wayne and what DS2 was to Future. It marks the climax of a rising star and will set expectations in both fans and the mainstream for where Uzi’s career will go to next. Also forgive me if I got some events out of order.
I think I should clarify this. I was a pretty big hater of Uzi’s this time last year. I thought his music was subpar and had not heard a whole lot of it. However, Eternal Atake changed that. When I went in not expecting something that had a massive concept and lyricism, I was greeted with a very versatile, yet consistent body of work that had a pretty slick concept and story. I would later find more music of Uzi’s with some substance and more to say on other projects, but I think here he very smartly just sticks to having a blast and taking the audience on an upbeat trip through his world. This is not a darker project with some deeper cuts in there like Luv Is Rage 2 was, this is just Uzi in his most fun loving form yet. Some fans will not like that, as they wanted a more hard hitting Uzi like we got last time around, however, I think it was the way to go for this project, as it not only creates a nice parallel to Uzi’s last major release, but it also helped to have some upbeat music amidst the Coronavirus, racial injustices, riots, etc. It was the album I felt we needed and to make life a little bit better in the trying times. On top of that, this album is a huge release for Uzi and would definitely serve as an introduction for thousands of new fans and I think him doing music he’s completely confident in and that is easier to digest and jam to is the way to go. The more serious topics can wait for a future release, for now it’s all about making a banger of an album and giving the audience a good time.
The album does have a story to it that is told through skits. The story is about Uzi being abducted by aliens, encountering a cult on the ship, while trying to escape. The cult may symbol how he has a “cult following”, which is hinted at in a song in the second half of the album. It’s a pretty unique concept and is fun, I also appreciate that he put the extra effort in. While Uzi is messing around in the ship, he travels to different world trying to make it home, each one he travels to introduces a different persona.
We start the album with the persona of “Baby Pluto”. Baby Pluto is the persona Uzi has seemed to have stuck with for most of 2020 as well, especially on then upcoming his collabs with big Pluto himself, Future. Baby Pluto is the Uzi of 2012-2014. Focused on fast flows, this version of Uzi has very little melodies and is just focused on making fast paced and breakneck bangers. The standouts of this section of the album include the Baby Pluto title track, the very catchy Lo Mein and You Better Move, which, in classic Uzi fashion, samples Space Cadet Pinball. Baby Pluto is a much more traditional rapper then the upcoming personas. Another key to this persona is that it’s production feels very over the top and very frantic. Uzi claims this is sound like a spaceship blasting off which I can definitely see. This persona ultimately concludes once we reach Homecoming, a banger of a track consisting of disco type production. Also, before I forget, we have to mention POP and it’s infamous “Balenci” lyrics. I mean, hey, the album wouldn’t be complete without a meme arising from it, so I think it can slide. And just like that, the album starts with a bang, or perhaps a pop (sorry I had to). All the songs are memorable and all of them are hits. After this, Uzi travels to a new planet, entering his new persona, Renji.
The Renji persona has a higher pitched voice, combines faced paced rapping and some melodies and goes over much more cartoonish production. In this section, we are greeted to some absolutely fantastic tracks such as Celebration Station, which seems to be a sound Uzi likes replicating on other songs post Eternal Atake, Prices, a Travis Scott sampling epic, which is by far the best song on here to me and also Bust Me. This Renji persona seems to exist as a way to satisfy all types of Uzi fans. The ones who want melodic and more emotional Uzi will enjoy Chrome Heart Tags and I’m Sorry, while fans of faster paced and more fun loving Uzi will enjoy Celebration Station, Bigger Than Life, Prices and Bust Me. Speaking of I’m Sorry, Uzi briefly returned to his emo roots for that song, which is sure to be enjoyable for fans of that style, however I appreciated how he kept it cheeky, as it seems he was apologizing to his fans for the long wait as well. The production on this section of the album is much more relaxed sounding ranges from light and bubbly, such as on Celebration Station, to downright epic, such as on Prices, but I never feel that it doesn’t feel consistent, as none of them are beats that feel overly aggressive. With the end of Prices, Uzi crash lands back on Earth. This time we enter a new persona, the one and only, Lil Uzi Vert.
Lil Uzi Vert is the Uzi we all know and love. High pitched melodies, such as Venetia, mixed with more raspy melodies, such as Secure The Bag. This is classic and also new melodic Uzi presented together in a nice harmony. However, the standout to me is Urgency, an absolutely fantastic song with a feature from Syd), a very talented singer who was a member of legendary hip hop group Odd Future, along with the likes of Tyler The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean. Here we get every type of melodic Uzi presented in one song. We hear the raspy voiced one, the high pitched one and the more mellow sounding one. Uzi presents all his vocal ranges here, presenting an insanely catch hook and also a pretty solid rapping verse. Syd then stops by for a pretty nice verse as well as harmonizing with Uzi. To me, this song feels like a spiritual successor to The Way Life Goes, but I can’t place my finger on why. The second stand out here is Venetia, with its fast paced raps and the infectiously delightful “yeah yeah” adlibs, along with an album best verse in its second verse. Secure The Bag also sticks out, with Uzi’s yelling raspy voice, taking us back to the Luv Is Rage 1 days. Then we conclude with Uzi making it to shore and saying that he has to drop the album as he was missing for too long on that ship, a cheeky way of explaining why he hasn’t released, and then we go to the next track, P2. P2 is the sequel to XO Tour Lif3, bringing us full circle back to Uzi’s big breakout hit. This time, however, Uzi seems content with the breakup, he seems happier with it. I think this song shows us that Uzi has accepted that him and Brittney didn’t work and that he’s done with the hard feelings he held in the first part, while also presenting us with a full circle conclusion for the album. The album then ends with Uzi thanking his fans.
The next two bonus tracks are the singles released, That Way and Futsal Shuffle 2020. I like that they’re here as bonuses. Both are very good, especially That Way. As for Futsal Shuffle, it’s a very weird song that sounds like a trashy 2007 pop track, but Uzi makes it work as a throwback. The dance it inspired was alright too I guess, glad to see people had fun with it. I’m glad both songs still made the tracklist, as I feel they both are worthy enough to be on it, even if it’d be hard to place them in one of the album’s sections.
A fantastic album. A great sampler or what Uzi has to offer that also feels consistent and like a coherent album. All going along with a pretty engaging story. The album actually reminds me a good bit of Uzi’s XXL Freshman classmate, Denzel Curry, in that it is structured very similarly to his album, TA13OO. Uzi possibly could have took some inspiration from him there and it is very cool to see another artist succeed with a structure like that. Anyway, there isn’t a single dull moment here. For some, 18 tracks can be very cluttered, but Uzi manages to make all the songs sound fun and even if some maybe a bit similar, they are oozing with character that makes them still stand out enough to work. With this album, Uzi proves that this is his world and we are all just tourist in it.
But we’re not done yet. As I said, there is a second half we must talk about. We’ve only played two quarters of this ball game and it’s a good game so far. How will the rest of it be?
Review Part 2: Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2
The second half of this album, a “deluxe”, would end up starting a major trend. Now it seems every artist has hopped on the wave of having a second half as a deluxe album. The influence of this album is already present. This second half is already iconic. That really says something in my opinion. Anyway, influence aside, this half is pretty great as well. LUV vs. The World 2 is labeled as a sequel to Uzi’s most beloved tape, because it has all of Uzi’s most hyped up grails. The songs the fans have begged for on a sequel to their favorite tape only seems right. For many, THIS is the part they’ve been waiting for.
If Eternal Atake was a trip through space, Vs. The World 2 is a trip through time. It’s quite interesting, as you can tell the age of songs by Uzi’s vocal style, his flows and by which songs he says he no longer does drugs on. We begin our trip in 2018 through Myron, Lotus and Bean, all of which were among Uzi’s most anticipated snippets, especially Lotus. Now, I wasn’t the biggest Uzi fan before, as I stated, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to Myron after the snippet he dropped of it right after New Patek released.
As I said before, I was hyped for Myron. Hell, Myron is the song I was even looking forward to Eternal Atake for, before my time as an Uzi fan. At first, I wasn’t a fan of the actual song, as it’s slowed down a good bit from the original snippet, however, I’ve grown to really enjoy it. The more slowed down voice fits as a strong opener to this sequel project, as Vs. The World 1 was done almost entirely with that voice, so it makes it easier to jump right into here once you finish that one. The song has Uzi spitting over some Christmasy production, all while testing his vocal range with some especially dry yells near the end and also some high pitched vocals sprinkled in. To sum it up, it slaps. Next up is Lotus, which was perhaps the most anticipated hip hop snippet in history. A lot of people were disappointed with it and said the mixing was off, but I personally fucking love Lotus. The song is catchy as fuck and the vocals are very loud on it, which I personally like, as that is the main draw to the song for me. The last verse especially is great, as it fits hand in hand with the hook before. All of this going over some pretty mild, yet spacey production makes for an amazing track. Next up is Bean, or Kobe, as it includes a reference to the now late basketball player and sports legend, Kobe Bryant. This was a song long anticipated and another snippet that fans had been begging for nearly two years for. This song contains the deep voiced and menacing Chief Keef going hand in hand vocally with Uzi’s childlike screeches and high pitched voice. The energy Uzi carries on the song feels a lot like the energy he delivered on Lotus, making it a very consistent transition. This three track trip to 2018 delivered us with three straight knockouts, instantly drawing the audience back into Uzi’s colorful world. However, right as we get comfortable, we’re transported back further into the past. We’re taken to the 2016 XXL Cypher, where we reunite with an old friend, 21 Savage.
Yessirskiii is possibly my favorite song from this project, it’s between it and another track we will get to in a bit. This song reminds me of the 2016 XXL Cypher not just because of 21 Savage on it, but also because Uzi’s elated flow and vocals mixed with 21 Savage’s dry and unenthusiastic vocals make for a similar experience to that legendary cypher, while also being wildly entertaining. 21 Savage glides effortlessly on the production done by Pi’erre Bourne, in what is one of his best beats yet. Savage also delivers one of my favorite hooks of the year so far as well, one that is very simple, but very catchy. Uzi then comes in with his signature high pitched rapping style and if Savage glides over the beat, Uzi rides it, presenting us with a completely different style of rapping over it that also feels consistent with what Savage did. The track concludes with Savage’s hook, leaving you wanting an instant encore. Immediately following this high, we’re taken to the future with a song with none other then Future himself. Wassup is a song that acts as a teaser to Uzi’s then future project with Future. Uzi presents his signature melodies and long stretching of words in an insanely catchy hook. He then delivers a very strong verse, humbly flexing that he can’t win every time, but does most of the time at least. Among that are also some alien references, tying into the first half of the album nicely. Future then comes in and gives another solid verse, not his most memorable, but still solid nonetheless. The track concludes and what we’re left with is a great little glimpse into the future that we didn’t know was coming at the time, here Baby Pluto x Pluto was truly born. After this, we are taken back to the present, at least for two tracks.
Strawberry Peels is a short, yet very sweet, collaboration with Young Thug and Gunna. Thugger gives us a breakneck hook over some wild production, Gunna drops a solid enough verse then Uzi comes in perfectly matching Thugger’s energy. Uzi rapping over the frantic production before going into Thugger’s last hook is the perfect reminder of why these two work so well together. I Can Show You presents us with some classical(?) sounding production with Uzi delivering some Celebration Station types flows over it. It’s an Eternal Atake track vocally, but a new sound production wise. I like it a lot. It feels familiar yet new at the same time.
After our time in the present, we are transported back to 2017, when Luv Is Rage 2 came out. Moon Relate, a banger with some lyrics dealing with “pain” and a vibe that is similar to 20 Min. Based off of another much anticipated snippet, the song more then lived up to the hype. The song has super high pitched vocals and feels like Uzi at his most unhinged, a stark contrast from the vibe of the first Vs. The World, but adding tons of character to this new project. Even if you never heard the much anticipated snippet, you can tell this track is from that Luv Is Rage 2 era with its sound and it is a great revisit to that era. Next up we have what is the best song on the tape and what is, in my opinion, one of Uzi’s best songs period. Come This Way is absolutely fantastic. For it, we are taken back to 2016, when the snippet of it was first previewed. This song sounds exactly like something that’d be on the first tape and is definitely able to compete with the best songs from that tape, such as Grab The Wheel and Money Longer. The song has 2016 Uzi’s classic raspy voice and has modern Uzi’s more high pitched voice at different points throughout the song, making it a satisfaction for those who prefer one or the other. It is clearly a transition track from a transition era in Uzi’s career, that being late 2016, and it sounds absolutely fantastic. The song shows Uzi’s vocal range, all while providing what may be my favorite hook of the year. People have begged for 2016 Uzi to return and its only right that we get the perfect 2016 Uzi track in the sequel to his defining project of that year.
Next up we go back to late 2018 where we get Trap This Way, a song previewed in another wildly popular snippet from that time. First off, I appreciate this track coming after Come This Way since they have similar titles, but beyond that, this is a great track. The hook is catchy, the verses are good and the song is an all around banger. This song and the last represent my two favorite Uzi eras, 2016 and 2018, solidifying this as a great project even before we reach the end.
Next up is the Lil Wayne sampling banger, No Auto. which features Lil Durk. The song is mean, it’s vicious and it’s classic “murder” music. The sample is great and brings us back to 2004, the days of Tha Carter 1, but the sample does not go to waste, as it provides a very hard hitting beat for the harsh lyrics. The song just all around bangs, even if it’s not quite as good as the best of this tape. For the next song, Money Spread, we go to the year 2019, to the day Sli’merre was released. The production by Pi’erre sounds ripped straight from Sli’merre and the feature by Young Nudy is great, yet very foul and nasty. Uzi is great and does very well on the strange production, but Mr. Nudy is who really shines here, with him telling us that he will put his white stuff on our girlfriend’s butts and that she’s promoting his nuts. It is absolutely absurd. Besides that, the song feels a bit like a spiritual successor to the Sli’merre track, Extendo, the last collaboration between Pi’erre, Nudy and Uzi. All of it is a nice throwback to one of 2019’s best tapes. For Got The Guap, we are returned to the week before this tape came out, with another song that has a very similar vibe to Celebration Station. Uzi has a much more muted and calm voice then usual on here and I really like it, it’s nice when he does new things with his voice. Uzi gives us a catchy hook and good verses, touching on how God has helped him and flexes all his accomplishments. I also enjoy the melodies he puts in his first verse. Thugger then stops by for another feature, effortlessly matching Uzi’s energy. The song is a ton of fun.
And finally we conclude the album with the NAV featuring song, Leaders. NAV makes up most of the song, but gives a solid performance. The song is meant to lead right into Eternal Atake, as it focuses on cult followings and relating them to cult leaders, which is a theme in Eternal Atake as we know by the Heaven’s Gate marketing. Nav relates his status to Jim Jones, while Uzi does to Marshall Applewhite, leader of Heaven’s Gate. I think this song is a great Segway into Eternal Atake and concludes this album on a nice note. I think this whole album being before Eternal Atake on the track list makes sense, as it feels like it shows us what songs preceded the album and the road that lead us there.
A great album. Not only that, a fantastic double album. Uzi shows every bit of talent he has across these 32 tracks and on every one of them, he brings his eccentricity to the forefront and shows the world why the weirdos now run the music industry. Everything he set out to do since high school has now come to fruition and Uzi is now one of the kings of hip hop and music in general.
Favorite Lyrics

One eye open, ‘Luminati like Fetty Wap.

Lil Uzi Vert on Silly Watch

Balenci Balenci Balenci Balenci Balenci

Lil Uzi Vert on POP

Get money like Anthony Hop. Silence the lamb and your ass’ll get chopped

Lil Uzi Vert on Prices

They laugh at me because I’m emo, I killed my girlfriend that’s why I’m single

Lil Uzi Vert on That Way

No, statistically I can’t win everytime, but you know the score is probably like 10-3. And them three times I had to take an L, I remember them boys tried to finish me. Said we roll a Wood, I roll like 50 L’s.

Lil Uzi Vert on Wassup

Strawberry Peels, Strawberry Peels, Strawberry Peels, Strawberry Peels

Young Thug on Strawberry Peels

Pain

Lil Uzi Vert on Moon Relate

I got your bitch over here promoting my nuts. Your hoe is a slut, hit it from the back, n*gga, put it it in her guts. Yeah, slap it on her butt, whole lotta white stuff on her butt

Young Nudy on Money Spread

We from the same hood , that’s a nickel and dime. That’s all we know. God gave me the opportunity to open doors

Lil Uzi Vert on Got The Guap

No, I’m not Marshall Applewhite, but I’m tryna phone home

Lil Uzi Vert on Leaders

Questions
• Did Eternal Atake live up to the hype for you? If not, did you still enjoy it?
• Do you think the version of Eternal Atake we got is better or worse then the one we could’ve gotten in 2018, based off what you heard from leaks? What songs do you feel should’ve been kept on?
• What do you think of this deluxe trend? Do you think that it will last? Do you think Uzi handled it well on this project?
• Did the full songs of snippets live up to the hype for you?
• Which half did you like more, Eternal Atake or Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World 2?
• Fans that consider Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World as a classic or even just as a great tape, did the sequel live up to the first one for you?
• Do you miss Uzi’s old 2016 style like many others? Are you happy he seems to be bringing it back?

feeling gutted after WS did it again

Update: over the weekend I decided to investigate further, since the more I thought about it, the more I realized that while the text message convo previews I saw gave me a bad feeling, they also didn't give me definitive proof of anything. As a reminder, I had to briefly borrow WS's phone to turn our alarm off last week and on the Messages app main screen I saw one "what you up to" sent on a sat night from an unknown (to me) name, and another alone the lines of "wowwwww" from a name I recognized from the DDay 1 period (a former co-worker).
Well, late night I took a deeper dive and it was eerily similar to DDay 1: emailed hotel reservation info for a work trip to a known former AP (just prior to covid), attempts to coordinate similar meet-ups with other known former APs around the same time (funny thing is they actually seem like they tried to turn WS down lmao), straight up pornographic snaps sent as recently as December 2020, a deleted Snap conversation with a DIFFERENT known former AP (another former co-worker) where all I could see was WS had sent "hi" a few days ago. The "what you up to" text convo was deleted. Snap seemed like it's regularly deleted as there were only two active convo threads, both with the conversations erased except for one word greetings. But I saw numerous x-rated snaps under "saved snaps" or whatever. Can't tell who they were sent to, but it sure as hell wasn't me...
I feel bad bringing you all bad news, and I assure you this wasn't pain shopping. But I had to be 100% certain before making more definitive moves to break away. This locked it for me. There is no ambiguity around what I found. I can't keep rationalizing this, trying to ignore it, or thinking of how I/we can "solve" this problem. I tried. I'm done being the stable one, the "rock," while my WS continues to blatantly lie day in and day out. I regret not getting out immediately post-DDay 1, but my second best option is getting out now. Will keep you posted with more positive developments when I can. In solidarity with anyone else out there reading who finds themselves in a similar position...

Hey all,
Longtime lurker, first time poster here. Burner for obvious reasons and mildly anonymized account, maintaining core details. If you'll indulge me, I'm putting it all down for cathartic purposes.
My DDay was almost 3 years ago. At that time, I had been married for almost 3 years when I found out my wife had been cheating on me routinely. In the months prior to finding out, my spidey sense had been growing increasingly suspicious that *something* was up. Like many of you here, I made the mistake of trusting my partner so readily, so instinctively, as I assumed we were rock solid.
Sure, our marriage had its issues. But they were challenges that we handled together and in many ways bonded us uniquely. We were in our mid-20s when we met in a fast paced east coast city. We were both aspirational, optimistic, and truly loved each other. We just clicked from day 1, the kind of thing you think will never happen until it does. We spent as much time together as possible. It was crazy in the best way.
But after just a couple months, things got a little turbulent. We had a child together, unplanned, and this was at a young-ish age (at least by east coast urban standards). So our relationship from then on was generally defined by stress, but also by having each other's back. We went through a lot together in terms of navigating our families (both lean conservative so the unplanned kid was a challenge in various ways, for example). We had some real trauma bonding. The feeling that, at the end of the day, we come back to each other.
While our trauma bonding was strong, our "normal" relationship bonding wasn't the best. How could we have the time? Both starting our careers while juggling child having/rearing, it was nearly impossible. I started a master's program, in retrospect probably in a fit of anxiety about the other stuff going on in my life. Once that started, I officially had almost no free time. We were just completely stacked.
The thing is, the day-to-day of our newfound stressful life was actually pretty ok for me; I had had a fun college and early-20s post college experience, so I was pretty ready to settle down. I didn't need any more happy hours than I had to go to for professional purposes. I was pretty stoked on the dad lifestyle, truth be told.
But my spouse was in the opposite camp. Her entire life had been heavily regimented due to controlling parents. Minimal social life even through her mid-20s, constantly under their thumb. So once we were married and I realized the dynamic at play, I made it a point to ensure that she could go out on a Saturday night w/ her girlfriends or whatever. Her friends, I'd met and generally liked. So I'd stay in and take care of the baby, maybe write a paper or something. Sometimes I'd even have to cover for her with her parents (who ofc lived around the corner) who might ask me why she wasn't answering her phone; I'd say she was already sleeping. Mind you, I had no FOMO whatsoever as I felt like I'd been there, done that, while for her, she still had that social itch to scratch. So I encouraged her to absolutely go out and have a good time. As a working mother with a stressful job, I *wanted* her to go out and blow off steam.
The cheating essentially took 2 forms: physical cheating (ONS) with complete randos she met at bars (when out on those saturday nights with the girls), and EAs with people she knew, usually coworkers. These were happening simultaneously. From what I know, there were for sure multiple (4+) ONSs, and at least 2+ in the EA/coworker category (sexting, basically). I don't think the latter ever turned into the former, but it is hard to say. Honestly, when you're talking about multiples of 5+, it starts to lose meaning.
I was so so rocked on DDay. It was a thing where I was about to go to bed and saw her phone go off. I'd had the creeping suspicion so I caved and checked. Boy was I in for a surprise at the scale of what i found. Christ.
I was then in the final semester of my master's, working on a research-intensive thesis. Hardest few months of my life getting that done after finding out. We went to MC pretty quickly after and I actually felt her remorse was genuine. She ended up getting diagnosed with some psychological conditions stemming from her tough upbringing, which were framed as the big reason why the cheating happened (among many other behavioral effects). I was willing to analyze the situation very holistically, and it truly did make sense. So I swallowed my pride and decided to work to stay together. For our child above all else.
In the short term, things got better. Sex life improved, I finished school so had more time, and it felt like we could be more open w/ each other. After a few months, we decided on a fresh start across the country to a state we'd both wanted to live for a long time. Away from her parents, away from our past life. Things felt new and hopeful.
First 1+ year went pretty well in the new state. But just before the beginning of the pandemic I had a bad feeling again. She'd been hanging out with some friends of friends who didn't give off the best vibe. Eg, they liked going to strip clubs and were pretty into drugs, albeit in a state where pot is legal. They were into other non-legal stuff too. I'm not judgmental but I just got a bad, untrustworthy vibe from them. I started to notice that she became more guarded again with her phone, just like 2 years before. Spidey senses tingling big time, but I lived in denial for a bit. Didn't want to say it was so even though I knew something was up.
Then one night we were playing an online drinking game (this is like early April mind you, so the Zoom boom heyday) and literally sitting right next to me, I saw her sending hearts and such to someone via text. Some of the unsavory characters mentioned in the last graf were present. It was so out in the open. It turned out to be a rando friend of friend who was on the video call on the other end. She said she sent him hearts because she wanted drugs from him, that's all, nothing to worry about, it wasn't serious, etc etc. Talk about a red flag...
So she said that she'd lay low on the drugs, and she did for a while. But in the past couple months, I noticed a slow uptick again. Starting to talk more with some of that crew again. It seemed to go hand in hand with the phone guarding, but I didn't initially think as much of it as I might've previously for a couple reasons. E.g., she would openly offer to ask if I'd need to use her phone in random circumstances, such as to follow directions in the car; she didn't used to do that. That made me think that maybe I'm overthinking again and she's just texting a random normal friend; she is pretty addicted to the phone in general, so it wouldn't be a shock.
But this came to a head the other night in a weird way. We have an alarm system that is controlled from our phones, and my phone died while it should've been charging overnight (guess it wasn't fully plugged in). I had to go downstairs immediately as the dog had to go out, so I had to use her phone to turn off the alarm. I'll be honest, I braced myself before I opened the phone. I was nervous of what I might see. Well, I caught a glimpse of the Messages screen - not even clicking on an individual conversation, but seeing it among the active apps. And I saw at least 2 convos that were not good.
One was a person whose name I recognized from a few years prior (DDay-era), a known prior sexting partner with whom there is no other known relationship. I could only see their latest message, and it said something to the effect of "wowwww." AKA, something you'd probably send in response to a pic, IMO. Or certainly something suggestive. And I saw a random name - definitely not a known friend - with a "what you up to" message sent the night before, a Saturday where was out with some friends. And this was just in the top 4-5 convos, so who knows what lies beneath...
I couldn't bear to actually click on the app and see what else I might see. I was re-gutted. I've been gutted multiple times now, to the point that it's hard to feel much. But damn, I felt it again, that gut punch feeling. Many of y'all know it like no one else in my life, so here I am sharing it with y'all.
Really struggling with what to do next. I've been in IC previously so thinking I can at the least start that up again and from there, think about my next steps. But damn if I don't feel like this is the beginning of the end of our relationship. I spent the past 2 days trying to act normal while plotting my escape, something I'd never done before. But I think it has to happen. I have to preserve my self (sic).
I apologize for the dire outlook as I do believe rehabilitation and rebuilding are totally possible in the right context. People do make mistakes or make decisions that aren't totally rational. I even experienced a brief rehabilitation and even improvement in my own relationship it in the short term. So if you're someone working toward change post-DDay, I want you to maintain that positive change and happiness *is* possible. I have no doubt about that.
But at the same time, you have to trust your gut. If it feels off in a bad way, then it might be time to jet. It hurts, but it is good to realize that at the end of the day, you can't change other people. They have to change themselves, and if they don't, then at some point your best option is to change yourself. I think I'm nearly there.
Thanks all.

My bf [32M] has shut down almost completely since I [27F] started new medication.

Popheads Album of the Year 2020 #18: BLACKPINK - THE ALBUM

Artist: BLACKPINK
Album: THE ALBUM
Label: YG Entertainment / Interscope
Tracklist and Lyrics: Genius Page
Release date: October 2, 2020
popheads [FRESH] thread: Here
Listen: Apple Music | Spotify

THE PRELUDE
PART 1. THE GROUP
PART 2. THE MEMBERS
PART 3. THE ERA
PART 4. THE TRACKS
PART 5. THE CONCLUSION
THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
a note from the author

THE PRELUDE

My first memory of Blackpink was around the summer of 2017 when someone in the Popheads Plug.dj room played “As If It’s Your Last”. That song was stuck in my head ever since I first heard it. It had everything I wanted from a K-pop song at that time - a fire rap verse, beautiful vocals, an upbeat production that had an addictive pop bubblegum melody in the chorus. The gorgeous music video definitely played a huge factor on the song’s memorability.
A few months later, I was watching Justice League with my relatives when Barry Allen aka The Flash arrives at his Flash secret den, only to be surprised to find Bruce Wayne aka Batman waiting for him. Why am I mentioning this scene? Behind Batfleck (a portmanteau of Batman and Ben Affleck) is the TV screen of the “As If It’s Your Last” music video and the song can be heard for a few seconds before fading into focus on the dialogue between Batman and The Flash. Being in a Southeastern Country where the influence of the Hallyu wave is huge since the early 2000s, everyone in the theater were pleasantly surprised by the fact that a K-pop song, let alone a song from a group with only 5 songs at that time, was featured in a Hollywood superhero movie. At that moment, I had a huge feeling that the song being featured in Justice League will increase the presence of K-pop in the West to the point that a K-pop song actually charts in Billboard Hot 100 soon and BLACKPINK is going to be one of those groups.
To my surprise, I was actually right.
BTS and Blackpink are the most popular K-pop groups right now thanks to their success in the West, which was the place that is quite hesitant to accept K-pop as a dominant force in pop culture despite its popularity outside the West, especially in Asia. The groups’ appearances in the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Charts definitely made Western labels realize that K-pop is a dominant force globally.
As part of the Popheads Album of the Year 2020 series, I take a look at Blackpink's first full album appropriately titled “The Album''. Their debut full album was highly anticipated as it took four years since their debut in 2016 to finally make this happen. With this post, I deconstruct Blackpink’s history and their legacy, how the tracks fared as an album, and why “The Album” deserves its place as the “Popheads’ Album of the Year”.

PART 1. THE GROUP

When Blackpink made their debut on August 8, 2016, the anticipation was high as they were YG Entertainment’s second girl group after 2NE1. The high anticipation is also because the group was supposed to debut in 2012 after YG’s founder and now-former CEO Yang Hyun-suk teased a possibility of a second girl group back in 2011.
The name for YG’s second girl group wasn’t even called Blackpink in the first place as the group was initially named “Pink Punk”. “Pink Punk” was supposed to be YG’s answer to SM Entertainment’s Girls Generation (SNSD) as the initial number of members were supposed to match the number of members of SNSD, which is nine members. YG even uploaded videos of some trainees who were likely to be members of Pink Punk to build public interest before the group’s supposed to debut.
And then, Pink Punk never happened. Yang Hyun-suk’s indecisive, premature decisions during his time as CEO of YG is the reason why he earned so much infamy within the K-pop community, along with other things. But let’s not delve into that.
Between 2011 and 2016, it was clear that this second girl group went through drastic changes. The line-up of members changed from nine to seven, then to five, to just four. Besides Pink Punk, the group had other possible names such as “Baby Monster” and “Magnum”. I honestly wonder what kind of crack did the people in YG Entertainment smoke to think that these are legitimately good names for their second girl group. Did they get that crack from Senguri? We may never know.
Blackpink’s debut was an instant success as they released their debut double singles “Whistle” and “Boombayah”, compiled as a single album “Square One”. “Whistle” and “Boombayah” debuted at #1 and #7 at South Korean Gaon Digital Charts respectively. The group also became the fastest girl group to earn a win in a Korean music show as Inkigayo gave the group a trophy win for “Whistle”. Looking back, the group said that debuting with “Whistle” as their first single was risky at that time due to it having a “weird country vibe” and its minimal production, which led many people at YG against its release.
They followed “Square One” with the next single album “Square Two” with singles “Playing with Fire” and “Stay”, which both aim to show Blackpink’s softer side, compared to the chaotic, party-vibe of “Square One”.
While most K-pop groups usually have at least two to three comebacks per year, it seems like Blackpink only has one comeback per year based on the release pattern of when the group has their comebacks.
On June 2, 2017, they released their comeback standalone single “As If It’s Your Last”. The following year, they finally released their first mini-album (which is basically an EP) “Squared Up” on June 15, 2018. “DDU-DU DDU-DU”, the mini-album’s title single (K-pop equivalent to lead single) propelled Blackpink to global popularity especially in the West as the single debuted at #55 and #78 in the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart respectively. This marks their first appearance in these charts. Additionally, the song’s music video is currently the second most-viewed K-pop music video with 1.4 billion viewers, being only behind Gangnam Style by former fellow YG artist Psy with 3.9 billion viewers.
In 2019, Blackpink released their second mini-album “Kill This Love” on April 4. The release of the mini-album was significant as it’s the group’s first release under Interscope Records, which distributes their music and handles their promotions in countries outside Asia. The titular track peaked at #41 on Billboard Hot 100 and #33 on the UK Singles Chart. This era is best remembered for the group’s promotions in the West as a result of their increasing popularity, specifically their iconic Coachella appearance that made them the first K-pop girl group to perform in the festival. Their Coachella gig highlighted the group’s stage presence and high energy as performers, backed with a live band that complimented the group’s electronic-style music. It’s Blackpink like we never saw before and it’s definitely a refreshing contrast to their more calculated promotions in their home country of South Korea.

PART 2. THE MEMBERS

A huge part of Blackpink’s appeal are the members. Their beauty and charismatic personalities are some of the reasons why the group has a huge fanbase of Blinks, which is the fandom name of the group. Obviously, K-pop idols are trained to be charismatic. But there is something about the dynamic of the members that feel unmatched and they harmonize well together as a group.
It’s sort of a relief that YG didn’t stick to their plan of having a nine-member girl group. During training, Jennie said that the female trainees are shuffled to different groups every two months and there would be “little fights” on who gets assigned to positions in the group such as vocals, rapping, and dancing. When grouped with Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé, Jennie said it was already clear on who gets the parts.
Each member of the group carries the whole group in their own different ways. They all have different backgrounds, different motivations on why they wanted to become idols and trainees under YG, and different skills that make Blackpink as a whole.
I will be describing the members in the order they were revealed before their debut.

Jennie

Jennie Kim was the first member to be revealed as part of Blackpink on June 1, 2016. She is the group’s assigned main rapper and lead vocalist.
Jennie was born as an only child to wealthy parents on January 16, 1996, in Seoul, South Korea. Jennie moved to Auckland at the age of eight after she was asked by her mother if she liked the place during their visit there. Jennie seemed to adjust her life well in New Zealand and she was featured in a documentary titled “English, Must Change to Survive” for South Korean broadcaster MBC about her experience as a Korean kid living in a foreign land.
Jennie moved back to Seoul in 2010 after not being interested in taking up law in the United States, which was suggested by her mother who eventually supported her daughter’s decision. While Jennie didn’t have any formal musical background growing up, she was interested in K-pop during her stay in New Zealand. She auditioned for YG Entertainment as a vocalist, in which she performed “Take a Bow” by Rihanna. While Jennie was accepted as a trainee under YG, the judges advised her to train for the role of a rapper as she is the only trainee who can speak English.
A trainee for five years, Jennie was one of the most popular trainees in YG and has already gained recognition before her eventual debut as a Blackpink member. YG uploaded videos of Jennie covering “Strange Clouds" by B.o.B. featuring Lil Wayne and “Lotus Flower Bomb” by Wale while she was a trainee. She also appeared as a featured artist for Senguri’s “GG Be” and G-Dragon’s “Black” in their respective solo albums, which she performed with the latter in Inkigayo making it her stage debut Because of her early popularity, Jennie was highly speculated to be part of the original line-up of Pink Punk before the idea was scrapped.
After the release of “Square Up”, Jennie became the first member of the group to debut as a soloist. She released her debut solo single aptly titled “Solo” on November 12, 2018. The music video is the most-viewed music video by a Korean female solo artist with 600 million views on YouTube.
Just recently, she launched her own YouTube channel on her 26th birthday where she intends to create vlogs about her everyday life. Her first vlog served as an introduction to her channel which included a cover of Tangled’s “When Will My Life Begin?” by Mandy Moore. The vlog has already gotten 10.9 million views two days after its release.

Lisa

Lalisa Manoban, known by her stage name Lisa, was revealed as the second member of Blackpink on June 8, 2016. Lisa is the assigned main dancer, lead rapper, and sub vocalist of the group. She is also the “maknae” of the group, meaning she is the youngest member of the group, as well as the only non-Korean member in the group.
Lisa’s birth name is actually different as she was born under the name “Pranpriya” before legally changing to Lalisa. She was born in Thailand on March 27, 1997.
Lisa took dance lessons at four years old and often competed in dance competitions. She was part of the Thai dance crew “We Zaa Cool'' with childhood friend and fellow K-pop idol BamBam from GOT7. She also competed in a singing competition where she represented her school, ending up as a runner-up.
Inspired by her idols and eventual YG labelmates BIGBANG and 2NE1, Lisa had her eyes on the K-pop industry. She auditioned for YG Entertainment when the agency visited Thailand. Out of the 4,000 Thai applicants, she was the only one accepted to be a trainee under YG. Lisa began her 5-year trainee journey in 2011 as she is YG’s first foreign trainee. Like Jennie, she was speculated to be part of the original line-up of “Pink Punk”. Her highly impressive skills as a dancer have always led her to be assigned as the main dancer in different groups that she designs most of the choreography herself. While still training, YG released a video of 16-year-old Lisa performing “Turn Up The Music”, albeit she was nameless in the video.
Lisa is the group’s most popular member as she is the most followed member on Instagram with 45.2 million followers. Her widely-shared dance performance of “Swalla” in the Blackpink In Your Area tour and the “Did It Work?” memes that surrounded her legs contributed to her worldwide popularity.
In 2020, Lisa released a limited edition photobook on her birthday aptly titled “0327”, which consisted of photos she took with her film camera that included some shots of her fellow members.
Outside of her Blackpink duties, Lisa is a dance mentor of the Chinese survival show “Youth With You”. She was dubbed as “Mentor Lisa” by Blinks as her strict mentoring style in the show surprised everyone since it was the opposite of her shy personality. Her fellow members have teased Lisa over her strict mentoring style.

Jisoo

Kim Ji-soo, more commonly known by her first name, was revealed as the third member of Blackpink on June 15, 2016. She is the group’s lead vocalist and “visual” member, meaning she is the most attractive member according to Korean beauty standards. She is also the eldest member of the group, making her the “eonie” of the group.
Jisoo was born on January 3, 1995, in South Korea and she grew up with a close, extended family. Despite being a visual member, Jisoo was bullied as a kid about her appearance by her relatives who often called her a monkey.
Being an idol was not on Jisoo’s radar growing up. She wanted to involve herself in the arts as she considered wanting to become an actress, a painter, or a writer. She developed her acting skills by joining a drama club during her time as a student.
Despite not knowing about YG when she auditioned, Jisoo was accepted as a trainee and began her 5-year trainee journey. Like Jennie and Lisa, Jisoo was speculated to be part of the original line-up of Pink Punk. Before her debut, she made appearances in commercials for Samsonite, LG, and Nikon.
There is always one member in a K-pop group that would likely become actors later in their careers and Jisoo is one of them. It isn’t surprising as she has openly shown her interest in becoming an actress and the members even remarked that she would win an Oscar for her “acting face” alone. Before her debut, she had a cameo appearance in an episode of the KBS show “The Producers” with labelmates Dara of 2NE1. Now a K-pop idol, Jisoo appeared in a role in tvN’s fantasy-drama “Arthdal Chronicles” where she played her first fictional character. Jisoo will be starring in an upcoming JTBC drama “Snowdrop” that is slated to premiere later this year.

Rosé

Park Chae-young, more commonly known as Rosé, is the fourth and last member to be revealed as part of Blackpink on June 22, 2016. She is the assigned main vocalist and lead dancer in the group.
Rosé’s English name is Roséanne Park as she was born outside Korea and grew up living overseas. She was born on February 11, 1997, in Auckland, New Zealand. Her family moved to Melbourne, Australia when she was eight years old.
While Lisa’s musical background is more on dancing, Rosé’s musical background is more on singing as she grew up singing in a choir and has played the guitar often in school. When YG went to Australia to look for potential trainees, she was advised by her father to try auditioning. After being accepted as a YG trainee, she had to drop out of school and move to Seoul within two months. Rosé said it was difficult to be separated from her family during training. Despite feeling homesick, she was determined to become a K-pop idol.
Rosé had no formal experience with dancing, which caught her off-guard when she first trained. She definitely had a lot of time to hone her dancing skills that she eventually became the lead singer in the group. Before her debut, Rosé was a featured artist in G-Dragon’s song “Without You” in 2012.
Given her position as the main vocalist, Blinks have been anticipating her solo debut. She has released covers of Halsey’s “Eyes Open” and Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song”, which really showcased her unique vocals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she covered a series of songs in a jam session that was live-streamed on her Instagram page. Rosé will finally make her debut as a soloist early this year and teasers are expected to pop-up as reports say that she finished filming the music video of her solo debut. Given YG’s well-recorded unreliably on their commitments, we could only hope this would finally push through.
While I have described every member of Blackpink, there’s one more person that needs to be mentioned as he plays a crucial factor in Blackpink’s success.

Teddy Park

Teddy Park is a former member of YG’s boy group “1TYM” and now an in-house producer for YG Entertainment. He wrote and produced many iconic tracks for BIGBANG and 2NE1 such as Fantastic Baby and I Am The Best respectively.
Teddy produced the majority of Blackpink’s discography and has received songwriting credits of Blackpink’s collaborations with Dua Lipa (Kiss and Make Up) and Lady Gaga (Sour Candy). According to the album’s production credits, he is credited as the album producer and creative director for the group.

PART 3. THE ERA

When YG announced on May 4, 2020, that Blackpink finished recording their first full album and will shoot a music video for their pre-single later that month, the news was met with cautious optimism. YG has a track record of promising things that didn’t come to fruition so this announcement was understandably taken with a grain of salt.
It’s worth pointing out that the group was previously featured on “Sour Candy” by Lady Gaga as a promo single for her album “Chromatica”, which indicates that Blackpink might be coming out with their new material. Also, Interscope is capitalizing on the increasing popularity of K-pop in the West by investing Blackpink in their roster. With this, YG has to commit to its schedule. And so they did by dropping a teaser poster a month later that revealed that the pre-release single will drop on June 26.
The pre-release single would later turn out to be called “How You Like That?”, which was met with huge anticipation as teaser posters and videos of the members were revealed until its release. The single became an instant success the moment it dropped as the music video’s premiere was watched by 1.66 million simultaneous viewers on YouTube, making it the highest-rated YouTube Premiere. It was also the fastest music video to hit 100 million viewers in just 32 hours before BTS’ “Dynamite” took over the title two months later, beating Blackpink with 24 hours The song itself was a hit in the charts. It debuted at #32 on Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the UK Singles Charts.
Blackpink then teased the release of their second pre-release single featuring an unnamed artist on July 23 that will be released a month later. It was widely speculated that Ariana Grande is the unnamed artist that the hashtag “#AriPink” trended on Twitter. It was later revealed that Grande is actually one of the songwriters of the single and that Selena Gomez is the actual unnamed artist on August 11. The title would later be revealed as “Ice Cream” on August 22. The single’s music video, in which the scenes had to be shot separately in South Korea and Los Angeles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, gathered 79.08 million viewers in 24 hours. The single is currently Blackpink’s highest-peaking single on Billboard Hot 100, debuting at #13.
Throughout the hype of Ice Cream, YG announced on July 28 that Blackpink will FINALLY release their first full album titled “The Album” on October 2. The name was met with mixed reactions, calling it “lazy”. However, Rosé said that they have worked on the album for so long that simply calling it “The Album” is the best way to describe their project because it’s so straightforward - “Blackpink: The Album”.
Accompanying the album’s release on October 2 is the release of the album’s title track “Lovesick Girls”, which became the sixth biggest 24-hour music video debut at 61.4 million viewers. While the song peaked at #59 on Billboard Hot 100, the new Billboard Global 200 showed that the song debuted and peaked at #2, with the song topping the separate Global Chart that excluded the US.
In-between the releases of the singles was Blackpink’s new reality TV show on YouTube called “Blackpink: 24/365”, which showcased various activities that the members participated in, such as pottery making and kart racing, as well as revealing behind the scenes footage of their music videos. The 16-episode reality series served as a way to promote the group and the album’s release. The series began on June 13 with a prologue until it aired its finale on October 24. It was supposed to have one more episode that was scheduled on October 31 before being pulled off after Chinese netizens were concerned over a clip of the episode’s teaser that showed the members touching a baby panda without gloves and masks during the pandemic.
To cap off the era, a Netflix documentary film about the group was made under the title, “Blackpink: Light Up the Sky”, which documented Blackpink’s first four years as a group featuring behind the scenes videos and footage during their training days. It also showed the friendship between the members and their producer Teddy, their retrospective look on their training days, as well as their struggles of keeping up the busy lifestyle as K-pop idols. The documentary film also showed the girls recording the songs for The Album, as well as Rosé preparing for her long-anticipated solo debut. The documentary received positive reviews, which critics liked the documentary for showing the members’ work ethic and their fun personalities.

PART 4. THE TRACKS

“The Album” is a pop album that has influences of hip-hop, R&B, and EDM, all of which compose Blackpink’s musical signature since their debut. “The Album” is composed of 8 tracks (including the three singles) with a length of 24 minutes and 26 seconds. This is somehow normal for a K-pop mini-album, but too short for a full-album. In comparison, Twice’s second full-album “Eyes wide open” has 13-tracks with a length of 43 minutes and 29 seconds.
As an eight-track album, it’s an equal mix of English and Korean songs as Blackpink attempts to market themselves in the West. All of these songs were recorded in The Black Label in South Korea, with some of the album’s mixing and additional input by producers made remotely due to the pandemic.
Teddy serves as the album’s main producer, along with YG’s in-house songwriters and producers Danny Chung, R.Tee, 24, Løren, Vince, and Future Bounce. Frequent Blackpink songwriter Bekah Boom also worked on the lyrics of “The Album”. New songwriters and producers include Victoria Monét, Tommy Brown, Steven Franks, Ariana Grande, Ryan Tedder, Melanie Fontana, Torae Carr, Jonathan Descartes, Brian Lee, Leah Haywood, David Guetta, Tushar Apte, Rob Grimaldi, Chloe George, and Steph Jones.
The featured artists in “The Album”, Selena Gomez and Cardi B, are also credited as songwriters in their respective tracks “Ice Cream” and “Bet You Wanna”. Additionally, Jennie and Jisoo received their first songwriting credits ever with “Lovesick Girls”.
For this section on the post, I will give my thoughts on each track. I will also include the line distribution statistics based on random_k’s lyric distribution videos (with the exception of Love to Hate Me which I will base on HEXA6ON’s lyric distribution video of the song) and input my thoughts on the distribution as well.

1. How You Like That?

We begin “The Album” with the first pre-release single. “How You Like That?” is an appropriate opener to the album as it’s your typical Blackpink clap-back anthem. The best way to describe my mood on this song is the way AJay reacted to the song, in which she said “This is how you open the album”.
Of course, many have criticized this song for being too familiar with the previous singles “DU-DDU-DDU-DU” and “Kill This Love” and I do agree that this song is definitely a rethread of these songs. However, I will disagree that this song didn’t serve anything new to the table. For me, “How You Like That?” basically re-defined Blackpink’s sound that complements the group’s pop and hip-hop tendencies that the previous singles haven’t reached before.
It feels redundant to talk about Blackpink’s music videos because it always expected that their music videos would always serve BUDGET regardless of the quality of the actual song. Like, look at the budget! And they shot this music video during a pandemic!

Lyric Distribution Video

Lisa: 37.12 seconds | 29.51%
Jennie: 33.89 seconds | 26.93%
Rosé: 31.00 seconds | 24.64%
Jisoo: 23.82 seconds | 18.93%

While the line distribution is not totally equal as Jisoo is missing out on ten seconds compared to other members, I feel like the line distribution is justified. You can definitely hear each member contributing their own lines in the song. Lisa being the member with the most lines also makes sense as she basically she slayed the entire second verse

2. Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)

When Normani released “Motivation” as a single, you can definitely tell that Ariana could’ve sang this song since she is credited as a songwriter. It has the Grande fingerprints all over it. Yet, with Normani’s strong vocals that complemented the 2000s-inspired production, she owned this song with ease. My expectations for an Ariana-penned Blackpink track are quite high based on my feelings on “Motivation” alone and Selena Gomez’s contribution as the co-artist of the song propelled that higher. And oh boy, I wish I wasn’t this excited.
The most disappointing thing about Ice Cream is that it felt like Blackpink attempting to sing an Ariana reject with no sense of originality. I know it’s ironic to say this since Blackpink is basically “2NE1 Part 2” for longtime YG fans, but this song lacked that distinct Blackpink sound that made me a Blink in the first place. It’s so uninspiring and sometimes jarring to hear, even with multiple listens.
Also, the sexual overtones in the lyrics are just too fucking awkward for Blackpink to sing. With their music video that had a cute concept, this is sort of uncomfortable to go through with the sexual undertones in mind. This is the same group that had them bragging how good their bodies look in “Boombayah” and they showed their “sexier side” way better in their cover of Wonder Girls’ “So Hot”.
The only saving grace of this song, which was the reason why I could barely tolerate “Ice Cream”, is Lisa’s rap verse. I could imagine Jennie slaying if she had her own rap verse too. Honestly, Selena would have owned this song by herself without the autotune. But it’s nice to hear Selena in an upbeat song like this in a while.

Lyric Distrbution Video

Lisa: 38.59 seconds | 27.08%
Selena Gomez: 36.02 seconds | 25.40%
Jennie: 29.07 seconds | 20.40%
Jisoo: 22.21 seconds | 15.59%
Rosé: 16.44 seconds | 11.54%

Immediately, I can’t help but think about how Jisoo got only two English lines in the song despite having more seconds than Rosé. Half of Jisoo’s lines are just “Ice cream chillin chillin”. Ugh. I know Jisoo is not a fluent English speaker but many K-pop idols who are not English speakers can sing the language well with enough practice. Thankfully, Jisoo had more English lines in other songs, but I’ll tackle that a bit later in this post.
I am honestly surprised Selena had more lines in the song than I thought because I feel like I heard more of Jennie and Rosé, which funny enough I thought Rosé had more lines.
This is definitely not the worst line distribution I have seen. It’s just that Jisoo could have sung more lines.

3. Pretty Savage

Remember the distinct Blackpink signature sound that made me a Blink in the first place? Now, this is what I am talking about.
This is the quintessential Blackpink sound that I have been waiting for since Kill This Love. I would’ve imagined that Pretty Savage as a pre-release single would've fared better than “How You Like That?” but somehow, I am sort of glad it didn’t. This is the song that Blinks needed to hear as antis have constantly dismissed Blackpink as “influencers with no talent” in response to their constant lengthy hiatuses.
Of course, with this kind of song, it’s already expected Lisa would definitely slay this song. It's nice to hear Jennie rap again after she wasn’t given those parts in the pre-release singles. The way she rapped “F bois, not my bois' ' is just too damn iconic. However, the star of the song is Jisoo who has the second verse to herself and her talking rap flow surprisingly works here. The best part is definitely her saying “Blackpink in Your Area” after being the only member not to say the iconic catchphrase for years. And of course, Rosé’s vocals in the bridge are just as amazing.
Pretty Savage is definitely one of my top favorites in “The Album”. Let’s just forget the messy choreography though.

Lyric Distrubution Video

Lisa: 40.69 seconds | 30.21%
Jennie: 34.42 seconds | 25.40%
Rosé: 31.86 seconds | 23.65%
Jisoo: 27.72 seconds | 20.58%

This is definitely one of the best lyric distributions of Blackpink so far. While Lisa exceeded ten seconds, every member can be heard equally with their outstanding lines given to them.

4. Bet You Wanna (feat. Cardi B)

Coming off from the success and controversy surrounding WAP, Cardi B and Blackpink is an odd, yet exciting collaboration. I can’t imagine any of the members taking the second verse other than Cardi. It would have been nice to hear the “supposed” explicit lyrics she had to tone down for obvious reasons. If she was allowed to swear, she would’ve sung “I bet if you make me wet, I’ll still be fire”, which plays in my head now when I hear the tone-downed version lyric (“I bet if you make me sweat, I’ll still be fire”).
Bet You Wanna could’ve been the next single after Lovesick Girls to capitalize on Cardi’s success from WAP. The entire production is so chill, yet so catchy which makes sense considering Ryan Tedder and Tommy Brown’s involvement. The song is completely in English so that this could’ve been a Top 10 hit with the right push. Unfortunately, the promotional cycle for “The Album” ended so I guess this is going to remain as a fan-favorite track for many Blinks and not a huge hit outside the fandom.

Lyric Distribution Video

Jennie: 40.75 seconds | 28.58%
Rosé: 38.28 seconds | 26.86%
Jisoo: 26.78 seconds | 18.79%
Cardi B: 25.19 seconds | 17.67%
Lisa: 11.55 seconds | 8.10%

Not a perfect lyric distribution, but not too bad either. Each member can be heard just fine and Cardi didn’t dominate the song too much, which is fair since she is a featured artist. Lisa could’ve gotten a bit more lines, but this is also fine considering she has topped the lyric distribution in the previous songs.

5. Lovesick Girls

Considering that Blackpink’s single releases have always been upbeat clap-back anthems, the release of Lovesick Girls as a title track is quite refreshing as it aims to show the group’s more melancholy side, both in the lyrics and the production.
The most striking lyric is from the chorus where the girls sang “We are all born to be alone/But why are we still looking for love?”. This isn’t the most groundbreaking lyric at all, but it does feel a bit weird hearing that from the girls. It brings me back to the documentary where Teddy said that the songs they made for “The Album” are going to show a bit of themselves a bit more as a group.
Living as a K-pop idol is quite difficult as it is and we don’t know a lot about them since their image is very calculated by their agencies. It’s not to say they can’t be in a relationship because of the infamous “no dating” rule in the industry. The girls were probably asking themselves if they could really find love in an industry that is obsessed with perfection. Again, it’s not a very groundbreaking lyric but it does give me a bit of insight into the girls’ psyche a bit on their perspective of love.

Lyric Distribution Video

Rosé: 58.61 seconds | 39.00%
Jennie: 48.65 seconds | 32.37%
Lisa: 21.90 seconds | 14.57%
Jisoo: 21.12 seconds | 14.06%

Rosé taking up the top spot in this lyric distribution makes complete sense since this is the song that is best suited to her vocally. I have a feeling “Lovesick Girls” was a brief glimpse of what kind of song that Rosé will be releasing for her solo debut. Jennie taking up second place is quite surprising, especially her English rap verse didn’t take too long as well. The distribution on Lisa is fine, but Jisoo could’ve slightly sang more lines.

6. Crazy Over You

There’s isn’t much to talk about this song other than its production, which best utilized oriental instrumentals to hip-hop production. This isn’t the best song on “The Album”, but it isn’t as bad as well.

Lyric Distribution Video

Jennie: 40.26 seconds | 34.03%
Jisoo: 29.60 seconds | 25.01%
Rosé: 26.09 seconds | 22.05%
Lisa: 22.38 seconds | 18.91%

The lyric distribution could’ve been fair if Lisa was given more lines to rap. But I think this is fine since Jennie didn’t have a lot of rap lines in this album. It’s definitely nice to hear more of Jisoo in this song as she perfectly nailed the pre-chorus with her vocals.

7. Love to Hate Me

For some reason, Love to Hate Me reminded me so much of Ariana with the way the lyrics are sung by the girls, especially in the chorus and the ad-libs. This song serves as an appropriate penultimate track as the song delivers its final clap-back before “The Album” comes to a close with a softer pop ballad.

Lyric Distribution Video

Rosé: 28.7% Lisa: 28.1% Jennie: 26.4% Jisoo: 16.8%
Honestly, seeing lyric distributions like this where three of the members had equal parts except Jisoo makes me sad. She was close to having an equal lyrical distribution and this could’ve been done if she sang a bit more lines in the song.

8. You Never Know

We finally reach the end of “The Album” as it closes with a soft power-pop anthem that feels very in-character with Blackpink. This song already gained some attention when it was revealed that Teddy had no involvement in the song, making it the first Blackpink song without him. It’s worth pointing that out because Teddy has a mixed reaction as a main producer of the group. While I personally don’t mind Teddy as a producer, it’s quite refreshing that he isn’t involved so that the group can experiment with other producers.
This is definitely the group at their most sincere in this album, in which they address the message of not judging people based on how they look outside. This particular message rings true to the members personally and Blinks can see why.
Getting hate comments is nothing new in the K-pop industry. But Jennie seems to be the most bullied member as she was often villainized in the public eye, from her alleged “lazy dancing” scandal to the intense coverage of her short dating life with Kai from EXO. She was also unflatteringly called “YG Princess” because of accusations that the agency has favored her over other members.
With this context in mind, it was so painful to hear Jennie sing “But you'll never know unless you walk in my shoes / You'll never know my tangled strings / 'Cause everybody sees what they wanna see / It's easier to judge me than to believe” because she has faced so much criticism over nothing.
Other members have gone through similar scrutiny as well, but it’s not as bad as Jennie’s situation. All of the members worked so hard and sacrificed so much to be where they are now, so having this song that asks people not to judge them as a closer feels like the perfect ending statement from Blackpink.

Lyric Distribution Video

Jisoo: 59.01 seconds | 28.75%
Rosé: 55.47 seconds | 27.01%
Jennie: 54.20 seconds | 26.39%
Lisa: 36.66 seconds | 17.86%

It’s so nice that most of the members almost got the one-minute worth of lines and having Jisoo at the top feels satisfying after the limited line distribution she got with “Ice Cream. Vocal wise, this is their best song to date as they get to showcase their most emotional, sincere vocals in this track. The only problem is that Lisa should’ve gotten more lines, especially since her vocals sounded amazing that gives the song a more “heartfelt” feeling.

PART 5. THE CONCLUSION

Now that I have given my thoughts on each track of “The Album”, here are my overall thoughts on “The Album” and the era itself.
In the [FRESH] Popheads discussion thread of “The Album”, a lot of users were disappointed with how short the album is. Yes, the album is unfortunately quite short given that this is their first full album in Blackpink’s fourth year as a group.
Users are also disappointed with how “outdated” the songs felt. To be fair on Blackpink, K-pop tends to be a bit behind when it comes to trends. It isn’t surprising that “The Album” would have some kind of outdated production in Wester music standards. The most obvious one would be “Lovesick Girls'', which sounded like an Icona Pop song.
Sonically, the entire album isn’t even revolutionary at all. “The Album'' is produced on what’s popular in the charts right now and even the biggest Blink here (not me) would know that.
So with all these criticisms pointed out, why is “The Album” even considered as one of the Albums of the Year? Especially as someone who had Taylor Swift’s “folklore” as my own personal AOTY?
For my case as a Blink, a huge part of the reason why I am a Blink is that not only their music makes me feel alive, but also because the group has such a charismatic personality that it’s easy to see why they have a huge Western appeal.
Along with BTS, Blackpink is leading this new Hallyu wave where the West has finally taken K-pop seriously as a dominant force, not as a gimmick. With “The Album” debuting at #2 in the Billboard 200, it's the highest-charting album by a female girl group since Danity Kane in 2006. On top of that, they have sold approximately 1 million copies worldwide (estimated 319,300 copies in the US and Europe according to Pinkvilla as of October 27, 2020), which is a rare thing to achieve in the streaming era unless you’re Taylor Swift. This huge success for a K-pop girl group proves that Blackpink will always be in our area no matter what.
Even with the criticisms that “The Album” had over its short-length and its outdated production, you can at least still hear the huge amount of talent, personality and hardwork of the group in this album. It’s not the content of the album that makes “The Album” an AOTY, it’s the influence that it’s going to make to its listeners and pop culture as a whole.
You know what the Blinks will say, “BLACKPINK IS THE REVOLUTION”.

THE GUIDE QUESTIONS / a note from the author

"That Guy" overanalyzes everything, derails discussions, and repeatedly insults our DM's amazing campaign.

Let me tell you about Sam, the most pedantic and overanalyzing fucker that I’ve ever had the misfortune of playing with. I’m changing his IRL name but not the name of his character, because this is a homebrew and if he somehow sees this he’ll know I’m talking about him anyways, as I’m going to go into lots of specifics. Be forewarned that this is going to be extremely long since I’m going to basically recount the entire campaign so far, but mainly I need to get this off my chest so I can let it go. Somewhat shorter TL;DR at the bottom.
So. To understand the story, you’ll need a bit of background. This campaign started a couple months ago and is 100% on Discord and Roll20. I was invited by a friend I met in a Pathfinder server that we both later left for various reasons, but kept in touch on and off for a while. He and the rest of the players all know each other IRL and live in California. I live in Minnesota, so two hours ahead of them, which is relevant.
As mentioned, this was a homebrew campaign. The DM gave us a ton of information about the world, where we were starting, and other such background info. Basically, the BBEG is called the Overlord, ten years ago he put up magical elemental barriers around all of the cities and stationed Death Knights in each city to... do something. Keep the peace and intimidate everyone, I guess. His motives are still unclear to us. Anyway. Our characters were basically tasked with starting and leading a resistance against him, killing the Death Knights and freeing the cities one by one.
We started off in a pretty small and poor city in the mountains that was walled off by a wind barrier. I made a changeling rogue named Arilies who worked as a bartender at the only tavern in town for a former thief turned mastermind dwarf (Hammerspike), who also essentially raised me. No one but him and a couple other NPCs knew I was a changeling. Sam made a storytelling bard named Jean, but he’s one of those players who can’t separate themselves from their character, so Jean had practically no characterization and his background didn’t matter. In all respects, he was Sam. We also had four other people in our group (not counting the DM), which worried me because I had never been in that large of a group before and I was worried it would cause sessions to run long, which was bad for me because as previously stated, I was two hours ahead of them, our games are on Sundays, and I get up early for work. But the number of players was not the cause of game sessions running long.
Now, my memory of the first few sessions is a bit hazy because they were months ago and a lot has happened since then, but I will do my best to recount the relevant events. I’m also mainly going to refer to this person as their character’s name except when making a distinction between the two, since Jean is just a mouthpiece for Sam.
I missed the first session for reasons now forgotten, but during the second session I immediately began to get annoying vibes from Jean. During the previous session he had gone out into the woods to search for an important NPC because he misinterpreted a note that Hammerspike gave him and missed curfew, meaning he had to stay out there all night, avoiding the Death Knight’s mysterious guards and pretty much not getting any sleep. In the morning, my character and one other went out to find him and bring him back to town, as well as gather information about where the important NPC was. Once back in town, Jean started essentially ragging on Hammerspike to my character, saying things like ‘he can’t be trusted’ and ‘he sent me out into the woods alone after dark,’ etc etc, and Arilies basically yelled at him that he didn’t understand Hammerspike’s note and it was his own fault, and that Hammerspike was trying to start a resistance to save the world. Jean basically said I was being lied to until the DM interjected and said I was right and the note told him to go to the tavern to discuss the situation and rescue of the important NPC, not to go rescue the NPC immediately.
The campaign gets rolling and while we’re talking about what we learned in the forest, a boulder smashes through the tavern’s front window and a bunch of guards rush through. We start the fight and Jean, out of nowhere, starts talking about siege weaponry, its range, and its reloading time, getting increasingly more insistent that the enemies must have a trebuchet or something and we should be ready for another attack, even though we’re in the middle of town and there aren’t any trebuchets in sight. Some dudes just hurled a big rock through the window, and the DM has to shut him down again.
So next session, we need to go confront the Death Knight, which means getting through a big locked gate, crossing a bridge, and storming his castle. Jean immediately starts talking about the labor required to build the castle, where they sourced the stones from, how long t would have taken to build the castle, and just a bunch of other completely irrelevant shit. Once we manage to get him back on track to the problem of getting through the gate, which the DM basically gives us a bomb for, it’s another (at least) 30 minute discussion about if we should use the bomb, are there other ways into the castle, what about the guards, etc, until the DM shuts him down and basically says ‘trust me, this is the intro act, I’m not going to throw complicated puzzles at you or give you bad options just yet.’ So we wind up just blowing open the gate and going through, encountering no guards (which was weird). We solve the puzzle in the castle, defeat the Death Knight, and rescue the important NPC with little hassle.
Now we need to choose which city to go to next. There are two options: go to a city with a big cavern in the middle of it, or go to a city surrounded by fire. Both of these problems are getting worse (cavern widening, fire barrier encroaching on the city), and we spend a good hour or so talking about which to go to. And when I say “we,” I mean Jean does 50% of the talking and the other 50% is split between the other five players and DM. Jean argues about how we’re going to get past the fire barrier and how it’s impossible and seems to me that he had a very defeatist attitude of ‘we can’t get past it so we shouldn’t try.’ Eventually I got tired of him dragging the conversation on way longer than it had any right to be and said ‘let’s just go to the fire city and if we can’t get past the barrier we’ll turn around and go to the other one,’ which was amenable to Jean.
So we go there and of course our DM gives us a way through the fire barrier. The city is on a big river, which the barrier extends out over, but there’s an underwater tunnel we can swim through to get underneath it, guided by an NPC. We get into the city, fight the main antagonists who teleport away after taking some damage, and the local bar owner tells us that that means they’ll be out of commission for 24 hours. Still, Jean argues that we can’t stay at the inn because what if they come back and kill us, etc, and the DM has to shut him down again by explicitly telling him that he set up a situation where we wouldn’t have to worry about being in danger overnight. He drops it and we move on to discussing what to do. There’s a castle by the river that we assume the Death Knight is in, so Arilies volunteers to go scout it overnight, to which Jean makes some snide remarks about how everyone supports Arilies going to scout out the castle but when he went out at night to go scouting everyone was mad at him. I ignored it and no one else responded, but I am thoroughly annoyed with him at this point.
Also at some point he directly asked about my character’s gender to which I replied that Arilies is vague about it and doesn’t correct anyone regardless of what pronouns/genders they refer to him as. (I assumed this conversation was out-of-character.) During roleplays and in session, I switch up Arilies’ pronouns constantly to keep it ambiguous. Technically they’re agender but don’t really define themselves as such, and just doesn’t talk about it.
By this point I’ve privately talked to the DM about Jean and how much overthinking and assuming he does, causing the sessions to drag on four hours longer than necessary, and how that directly affects me because I’m two hours ahead of everyone else and need to go to bed at a reasonable time to get up for work in the morning. The DM said he’d talk to Jean about it and he toned it down for a session at some point before reverting to his old ways.
Out-of-session in a private roleplay with the DM, Arilies goes and scouts the place, taking the face of one of the villagers to not draw suspicion, and sees that the castle is completely surrounded by hundreds of guards. I return to the bar and bang the hot tiefling bartender (which was a ‘fade to black’ thing in the private roleplay) and fall asleep in his room, which is in a hallway behind the bar (aka I’d have to walk past the bar in the morning to get back up to my room).
During the next session only three players were able to attend, so the DM said it would be a shorter session just in the tavern. It was not a shorter session because Jean was there and things kind of came to a head between us. It started out with Jean and another character at the bar while mine still slept in the bartender’s room, only waking in a panic when the bartender came in to get me up. (Bartender is male, Arilies is presenting androgynous/masculine.) Arilies hurriedly dresses while I all but die of embarrassment roleplaying this out with the DM and rushes out to the main area. I intended this to be a funny moment, but in a stunning display of meta gaming that Jean claims he doesn’t do, Jean said something along the lines of ‘well we know that Arilies can change gender, so-’ before I cut him off and basically yelled at him that ‘he does not know that Arilies is a changeling’ because it is a huge character beat for Arilies to reveal that she’s a changeling to the group because of a lot of past trauma surrounding her race and she has a hard time trusting people etc etc, so I didn’t want that moment to be ruined by Jean’s stupid meta gaming and taking a clearly out of character conversation and applying it to in character knowledge. So the DM broke us up, said that Jean doesn’t know about Arilies’ shapeshifting, and the funny moment was thoroughly ruined as Arilies rushed up to his room to make himself presentable.
Arilies went back down to the bar and we started talking about options for tackling the antagonists from the previous day (the Fire Twins), talking about the intel Arilies got about the castle, and talking to the bar owner who has his ear to the ground. He tells us that there’s an underground sewer way that goes right to the castle and that he has a scouting raven that will go look at the guard situation at the castle during the day. So we start talking about ways to approach the castle and/or deal with the Fire Twins, and Jean starts talking about evacuating the entire city via the underwater tunnel we used to bypass the barrier and that two of us almost didn’t make it through. Now, this wouldn’t work for numerous reasons: it would be obvious, the Death Knight would probably stop us and there would be civilian casualties, there’s no practical way to evacuate people through this tunnel, where would they go, etc etc, all of which Arilies argued in one way or another. As a side point, Arilies grew up in this city which the rest of the part does not know at this point, so she is extremely reticent to putting the townspeople in danger if it’s avoidable. Jean would not let this point go so I basically had to yell at him that we are not going to risk the lives of the townspeople and we’ll need to find some other way to lure out the Twins/Death Knight. Jean finally relented and we moved onto the next topic. Oh boy.
This is where it really gets off the rails. Jean turns to the tiefling bartender and starts asking if his demon ancestor could help us, to which Arilies calls him racist. Now, this was a very bad choice on my part and I acknowledge that. My reasoning was that Arilies likes the bartender way more than Jean, and from previous campaigns I as the player know that some tieflings really despise their demon ancestry and it may be a sensitive subject, so I was going off that to... try and make a joke? I guess? I don’t know what I was trying to do honestly, I was still full of adrenaline from arguing with him and I made a bad call. But that ground the entire session to a halt.
Sam immediately got super offended and the DM paused the session to talk about what just happened. I don’t remember a lot of the conversation, but from what Sam said, it was clear that he thought that I, Lava the player, was calling him, Sam the player, racist, which was not at all what I meant. I acknowledged that I made a bad call, apologized, and retracted the statement, which the DM supported and retconned it so it canonically didn’t happen. This brought to light that Jean was just a mouthpiece for Sam and had very little characterization. The other player in the session (who knew Sam IRL) even piped up and said that there really wasn’t anything separating Jean from Sam. Throughout the whole campaign thus far, Sam hasn’t engaged in very much roleplaying, only what was absolutely necessary/the bare minimum, and didn’t do a single thing that defined him as a bard. Whereas on the other hand, I am all for roleplaying. I love it, both in session and out of session, and Arilies is extremely distinct from me, so I didn’t realize that when Arilies called Jean racist, he took that as Lava calling Sam racist. Again, which I apologized for and retconned and to this day am ashamed by it, but it opened up an important conversation where a lot of things were laid out on the metaphorical table. The DM told Sam to stop overthinking everything and bringing in ideas that the DM hasn’t even hinted at. The DM said that if he wanted the bartender’s demon ancestor to be in the game, he would have had the bartender talk about his ancestor at some point. Again trying to reign in Jean’s overthinking and assumptions about the world. The session ended there.
The next day I messaged Sam privately to once again apologize and explain my thinking, and express my frustrations with his playstyle, including that it directly affects me when he drags on conversations for way longer than necessary because he’s thinking about wholly irrelevant details that don’t matter because I’m two hours ahead of them and have work early in the morning. We go back and forth for a while in an amicable fashion, but he doesn’t really apologize for anything and even compares me to Donald Trump since he said I acted maliciously and turned to insulting him when I started losing an argument, just like the (then President) does. Which. No. I wasn’t malicious, I made a bad call and repeatedly apologized for it and retconned it, which he also said he doesn’t believe in retconning?? So luckily he talked to the DM, who confirmed it was retconned and didn’t happen, and I expressed my utter disgust at being compared to Donnie T and how it was more insulting than anything he’s done so far. Which he also never apologized for. But the conversation ended amicably enough with me saying that I thought Jean and Arilies mending the rift between them would be a pivotal character moment for her learning to trust others and that I hope we could be friends, to which he expressed his doubt on the latter and didn’t really say anything on the former.
The next session started and we decided to investigate the sewers leading to the castle. There’s a combat encounter where Jean expresses disdain about not being able to do more, but not much else happens with him.
We get back to the tavern and decide to go fight the Fire Twins. During that conversation Arilies reveals to the party that he grew up in this city and knows one of the Twins (the other Twin said her name previously - Syldi) and is going to try and confront her during the encounter. We spend an inordinate amount of time trying to think of where to confront them, how to get their attention, what to do, etc. Jean of course tries to think of numerous ways to incapacitate them, including tying them up, laying a trap for them, or throwing water on them, which he keeps coming back to and is obsessed with the idea of dousing them in water, even though they’re not literally on fire and just use fire magic. He also said something about taking their wand away and the DM had to correct him and say that neither of them use wands, one has a sword and one a bow that they fire flaming arrows from. Anyway I finally get the party moving towards the area that we fought them previously. We’d been keeping track of the hours until they “respawn” (remember, they had a 24 hour cooldown after teleporting away that we learned from the bar owner) and should have gotten there with plenty of time to prepare, but on our way we ran into them. Surprise!
So the rest of the party fights the dude with the sword while Arilies rushes to confront her friend from the past (and lover, but the party doesn’t know that). This is when Arilies revealed that they’re a changeling by changing back into the person that she was while living in the city. She managed to break Syldi’s mind control and they had a long conversation about the Overlord and Death Knights (surprise, she was one), to which Jean thankfully waited a while before jumping in to. Then the Overlord showed up, cast something that pinned everyone to the ground, and Jean immediately started to try everything and anything to get at him, even though none of us could move, and basically derailed the Overlord’s speech until he just teleported himself and Syldiaway. After the session the DM told me that he had planned on revealing more but everyone was talking over everyone and trying to do stuff that wouldn’t work and he didn’t get a chance to make them listen, which I was annoyed about. We returned to the tavern and the session ended. Between sessions I roleplayed a couple conversations between Arilies, the bartender, and some other player characters basically talking about being a changeling and do they hate her, etc, and drinking heavily because of what happened to Syldi.
The next session started with the next morning. Arilies and one other character were very hungover, and Jean’s assholery was ramped up to eleven. The session started with our hungover goblin character and Jean at the bar, and our goliath character coming up behind the goblin and clapping loudly behind his head to startle him. He got startled and swung at the goliath, who caught his hand and no damage was done to either character. They kind of laughed it off and sat down to have breakfast. But not Jean. Oh no. He would not let it go. He was chiding them because ‘he can’t have his teammates at each others’ throats’ and he can’t have infighting, why are they fighting, etc. The goliath apologized to the goblin and everything was cool. Right? No, of course not. Jean would not fucking drop it. At this point Arilies comes downstairs, very hungover, and Jean tries to drag Arilies into the situation to chide the other two, but Arilies dismisses it because I really didn’t want to argue with Jean again. So then Jean starts shaming Arilies and the goblin for ‘being sloshed’ this early in the morning, apparently not understanding that we’re not drunk, we’re hungover, and basically starts shaming us for drinking and ‘wasting magic.’ Which. The DM said our hangovers would fade in a couple hours, we didn’t need magical cures, but Jean kept bringing it up about ‘wasting magic’ or some shit. I don’t know what he was on about, but I kind of snapped at him that Arilies had a damn good reason to drink the night before.
Eventually this gets dropped and the session moves on to Jean talking about confronting the Overlord and how can we defeat him when he can teleport anywhere and kill us instantly, or wipe out a whole town, or something along those lines. He also brings up the god/demon he made a pact with, which is literally just a wild assumption. We don’t know anything about the Overlord at this point, much less IF he made a pact with someone. We spend a stupid amount of time talking about something that literally doesn’t matter at this point in the campaign (we’re level 4). Jean doesn’t seem to grasp that the Overlord won’t just teleport in and kill us, because he had ample opportunity to do that already and he hasn’t, plus that would make for a really shitty campaign. He’s basically saying that because the Overlord can do all of this stuff, we shouldn’t even try to continue or something. I don’t know, but he seemed very defeatist.
Finally we get around to the task at hand, which is dealing with some fanatics in the town who worshipped the Fire Twins as gods or something. We agree on trying to talk to them first because we don’t want to just roll up and murder a bunch of misguided civilians, and I try to encourage Jean to lead the encounter because he’s a bard and ‘this is what he does, right? Talk to people?’ But Jean tosses out the idea that Arilies could transform into Syldi and get them to step down, which Arilies gives her reluctant acceptance (he doesn’t turn into people she knows and he doesn’t like Jean just casually outing him as a changeling to the entire bar), but the bar owner said that he already spread the word that the Twins died, so that plan wouldn’t work. Jean still insisted Arilies be the point person for talking to people. At some point he starts questioning what we can do about the situation since we’re leaving the town soon and won’t be around to continue to talk to them. The bar owner says not to worry about it, he’ll take care of the fallout (aka the DM dropping a direct hint to not worry about it and move on), but Jean will not. Fucking. Drop it. He keeps talking about scenarios and stuff that the DM has all but directly told him to ignore/it’s not a problem, but he will not stop talking. He also brings up that if we remove the fire barrier (which we now have the ability to do), how will the city defend itself from outside threats? Can we just make a hole in the barrier for people to pass through? To which again, the bar owner says that they’ll be able to defend the city and Jean immediately asks how they plan to do that, they don’t have a militia, etc etc just inane bullshit.
At this point it was around 8 pm my time and I was really annoyed: two and a half hours into the session and we weren’t even past breakfast. I wound up blowing up at him, saying just that and how I needed to go to bed in an houhour and a half or so since I had work early the next morning, and if Arilies is going to be the lynchpin for the encounter then we’d have to stop in the middle. The DM called for a 15 minute break just then, which I was annoyed at initially but ultimately appreciated, and he pulled Sam into a private call that went for half an hour, lol. I joked with the others that it would probably be an hour until they were back.
When they did come back, the DM had us go to the part of town where the fanatics were and then break until the next session, which I ultimately really appreciated because it gave me time to plan what Arilies would say & do and it turned out really cool. But between sessions Sam posted an extremely insulting message in our discord server basically insulting the campaign, calling the Overlord stupid, and rage quitting. He’d been insulting the Overlord and Death Knights pretty much the entire campaign, calling them and their motivations stupid, and we all kind of ignored him. He would repeatedly question and insult the DM’s decisions, world building, map, lore, NPCs, and make wild assumptions about literally everything, then build wild scenarios in “intel reports” he would send to the group between sessions. I don’t think anyone except myself even looked at them, and literally none of them were ever relevant to later sessions. He also expressed regret about building a social skills character since he misunderstood what a “resistance campaign” would entail, and said somewhat saltily that if he had known what the campaign would be like he would have just built a “mallet” character instead.
A couple sessions have since gone by and the game is much improved, to the point that our DM directly called out at the end of last session how much smoother and quicker the sessions were going than the ones from a month ago. He didn’t name-drop Sam, but it was heavily implied his absence was the reason why.
TL;DR:

Player creates a storytelling bard that he doesn’t roleplay as a bard at all (he barely roleplays at all in a roleplay-moderate campaign)
He questions the DM at almost every turn
He makes wild assumptions about the campaign that are literally never correct
He goes on long tangents talking about barely-irrelevant or wholly irrelevant details
He insults the campaign, worldbuilding, and villain motivations
He overthinks everything and drags out conversations because of it for literally hours. (This is bad for me because I’m 2 hours ahead of them and our games are on Sundays, and I have work early in the morning)

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7 Signs Someone is Using Psychological Manipulation on You

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What does vibing mean? - AZdictionary

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THE PRELUDE

PART 1. THE GROUP

PART 2. THE MEMBERS

Jennie

Lisa

Jisoo

Rosé

Teddy Park

PART 3. THE ERA

PART 4. THE TRACKS

1. How You Like That?

2. Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)

3. Pretty Savage

4. Bet You Wanna (feat. Cardi B)

5. Lovesick Girls

6. Crazy Over You

7. Love to Hate Me

8. You Never Know

PART 5. THE CONCLUSION

"That Guy" overanalyzes everything, derails discussions, and repeatedly insults our DM's amazing campaign.

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7 Signs Someone is Using Psychological Manipulation on You