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tiny_voicesIf I'm gonna keep up with these weekly album listens, I'm gonna need to not do them at the last moment on Sundays. Not beating myself up about it, because it's a self-imposed thing and it doesn't matter (shout out to mental health), but I dunno, it's weird because Sunday is like... technically part of the next week, right? Calendar-wise, I mean. Even though that flat out contradicts with it being part of the weekend. Whatever. Maybe this week I'll find a time to sit through an album and generate more than a handful of words, which is all I managed with this one. This one being haha by The Garden.
Granted, the limited amount of time between when I started the album and when I would've responsibly gone to bed for work the next day was not the only reason I didn't crank out a bunch of Thoughts on these songs. The other reason is that I just don't have a lot to say about them. First of all, out of 17 tracks, only two of them are longer than three minutes (and even those are barely longer than that). Not unusual to me, short songs, but on top of the short length of the songs is the either strange, lacking context aspect of the lyrics, or the repetitive and not particularly deep depths of the lyrics. Also, much of the time, the instrumentals are sparing, limited usually to a simple beat, bass and/or guitar, and some keyboardy, techno-y decorations. These are not bad, but they're not broad landscapes, so to speak. That being said, the bass does stand out on the album and has a thrumming twangy tone to it that's nice to chomp on. Crunch crunch.
haha is kinda like the soundtrack to a gang of evil jesters born no earlier than 1998 doing crimes, or at the very least prowling and talking about doing crimes, and then celebrating. There are occasional shades of corporate, white fence, capitalist zombie-esque lyrics, and then there's the songs about clubbing. And I'm pretty sure they're referring to drugs, at least a few times for sure. Two tracks refer to something called "VV" and the latter track says "Vada Vada." Don't know what that is and I'm choosing to let it remain a mystery (after all, I am not an evil jester. I'm just evil). Sometimes the music reminds me of Crash Bash, a party game set in the Crash Bandicoot series, and sometimes the music reminds me of The Outsiders, specifically the movie version with the twangy guitar soundtrack. Strange things happening in this album. Like, if you were to imagine surf rock mixing with drums and bass mixing with post punk... you might imagine something like this album. Or maybe your brain wouldn't know what to even create with that set of components. It's not bad, and the songs are short so it's not a hard thing to sit and listen through, but yeah.
Highlights are "Crystal Clear," "Vexation," "haha," and "This Could Build Us a Home." "Red Green Yellow" is creative in that it's a song from the perspective of a traffic light. The two longest tracks, "Egg" and "Devour," feel the most conventional, and I thought "Everything Has a Face" is rather underwhelming. "We Be Grindin'" sounds like a meme, and I'm still trying to imagine the scene where it would be playing and getting the crowd pumped. I'd say it's satire of "up in the club" types of songs, but I would not put my money on it. Shoplift to "I'll Stop by Tomorrow Night." The title track is kinda like the evil version of the Wii Shop Channel music.
Lyrics I noted for being fun, catchy, or interesting in a way that had I been a dog I would have tilted my head curiously at:
"Take your sunglasses off and put them back on again / I've created a force field and I hope no one breaks it."
"Hip swing, hip swing, means nothing if you don't have thighs." [...] "Hiiiii!"
"You can't wish away what happened / you can't do so wrong / and live, care, live free."
"Lies are made by stories which we think of when we sleep."
"I wonder what's behind that cloak / whatever, oh well, whatever, oh well."
"I live by my knife, I'm so petty / like a ghost with flip flops, I'm not heavy."
"Don't dwell on it, fucker / don't dwell on it, fish."
Weird album. Fun and eerie, but I feel like I'm missing something.
IN OTHER NEWS -
I've officially survived the transition of going back to work after a vacation. Work opportunities were a bit dry this time last year so I'm glad to go back, despite the fact that it's, you know, work. My job is not bad, dare I say. I got color added to my tattoo last week. The tattoo artists were playing Lord of the Rings on their TV; my roommate (my ride) asked if "that guy from Critical Role" was playing Elrond. I thought she meant Matt Mercer, but she meant Liam O'Brien. Neither of these people played Elrond. I was a brave boy and cleared snow from our decks and driveway last week. Monday Night Raw debuted on Netflix and Rhea Ripley, god bless her, is champion again.
Perhaps most exciting: the first ever session of my game (eXtraOrdinary, XO for short) is scheduled for this coming Saturday! My plans are basically ready! Characters have been made and roleplayed! where doing it man. where MAKING THIS HAPEN
Granted, the limited amount of time between when I started the album and when I would've responsibly gone to bed for work the next day was not the only reason I didn't crank out a bunch of Thoughts on these songs. The other reason is that I just don't have a lot to say about them. First of all, out of 17 tracks, only two of them are longer than three minutes (and even those are barely longer than that). Not unusual to me, short songs, but on top of the short length of the songs is the either strange, lacking context aspect of the lyrics, or the repetitive and not particularly deep depths of the lyrics. Also, much of the time, the instrumentals are sparing, limited usually to a simple beat, bass and/or guitar, and some keyboardy, techno-y decorations. These are not bad, but they're not broad landscapes, so to speak. That being said, the bass does stand out on the album and has a thrumming twangy tone to it that's nice to chomp on. Crunch crunch.
My song-by-song Notepad file ended up pretty sparse, so I'll just summarize my thoughts broadly rather than going through each track individually. (click to read)
haha is kinda like the soundtrack to a gang of evil jesters born no earlier than 1998 doing crimes, or at the very least prowling and talking about doing crimes, and then celebrating. There are occasional shades of corporate, white fence, capitalist zombie-esque lyrics, and then there's the songs about clubbing. And I'm pretty sure they're referring to drugs, at least a few times for sure. Two tracks refer to something called "VV" and the latter track says "Vada Vada." Don't know what that is and I'm choosing to let it remain a mystery (after all, I am not an evil jester. I'm just evil). Sometimes the music reminds me of Crash Bash, a party game set in the Crash Bandicoot series, and sometimes the music reminds me of The Outsiders, specifically the movie version with the twangy guitar soundtrack. Strange things happening in this album. Like, if you were to imagine surf rock mixing with drums and bass mixing with post punk... you might imagine something like this album. Or maybe your brain wouldn't know what to even create with that set of components. It's not bad, and the songs are short so it's not a hard thing to sit and listen through, but yeah.
Highlights are "Crystal Clear," "Vexation," "haha," and "This Could Build Us a Home." "Red Green Yellow" is creative in that it's a song from the perspective of a traffic light. The two longest tracks, "Egg" and "Devour," feel the most conventional, and I thought "Everything Has a Face" is rather underwhelming. "We Be Grindin'" sounds like a meme, and I'm still trying to imagine the scene where it would be playing and getting the crowd pumped. I'd say it's satire of "up in the club" types of songs, but I would not put my money on it. Shoplift to "I'll Stop by Tomorrow Night." The title track is kinda like the evil version of the Wii Shop Channel music.
Lyrics I noted for being fun, catchy, or interesting in a way that had I been a dog I would have tilted my head curiously at:
"Take your sunglasses off and put them back on again / I've created a force field and I hope no one breaks it."
"Hip swing, hip swing, means nothing if you don't have thighs." [...] "Hiiiii!"
"You can't wish away what happened / you can't do so wrong / and live, care, live free."
"Lies are made by stories which we think of when we sleep."
"I wonder what's behind that cloak / whatever, oh well, whatever, oh well."
"I live by my knife, I'm so petty / like a ghost with flip flops, I'm not heavy."
"Don't dwell on it, fucker / don't dwell on it, fish."
Weird album. Fun and eerie, but I feel like I'm missing something.
IN OTHER NEWS -
I've officially survived the transition of going back to work after a vacation. Work opportunities were a bit dry this time last year so I'm glad to go back, despite the fact that it's, you know, work. My job is not bad, dare I say. I got color added to my tattoo last week. The tattoo artists were playing Lord of the Rings on their TV; my roommate (my ride) asked if "that guy from Critical Role" was playing Elrond. I thought she meant Matt Mercer, but she meant Liam O'Brien. Neither of these people played Elrond. I was a brave boy and cleared snow from our decks and driveway last week. Monday Night Raw debuted on Netflix and Rhea Ripley, god bless her, is champion again.
Perhaps most exciting: the first ever session of my game (eXtraOrdinary, XO for short) is scheduled for this coming Saturday! My plans are basically ready! Characters have been made and roleplayed! where doing it man. where MAKING THIS HAPEN
