TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 23, 2021 22:22:22 GMT
I just listened to Willow's full album "lately I feel EVERYTHING" and I gotta say, I'm completely surprised by how "G R O W" sticks out as the only song that has this kind of Disney pop child-like sound to it. All of the other songs on this record have much more of a rock production and just overall a heavier sound and less predictability imo. There's some really good drums and guitars on there. So, in that sense, "G R O W" sticks out kind of negatively imo, because it just doesn't fit sonically.
Overall, I still wouldn't say the album is amazing. It's good; I enjoyed it. But most songs are indeed too short. It seems more like Willow (and whoever else had influence in the writing process) couldn't think of anything more to add, rather than the songs deliberatley being short. I also think these super short songs aren't able to convey much of a meaning. Admittedly, I did not pay much attention to the lyrics, but imo a good song should also be able to tell you something through its music alone. I didn't really get that with most songs on this album; they were over before I really got to get into the right mood for each of them. I'd say there's only one exception to this, which is "F**K You". It's by far the shortest song, only 36 seconds, but I think it acts as a really fun, random interlude. It sounds like Willow was just having fun in the studio. It's like a little track recorded straight out of life.
Other songs that I thought stood out positively are "don't SAVE ME", which has some pretty sick guitars; "Come Home", which I really enjoyed instrumentally and rhythmically (apart from the rather uninspired guitar riff before the last chorus) and which, in comparison, is a bit of a slower song; and the last song "BREAKOUT!" which also featured some pretty cool instrumentation, especially the drums, and some shouty vocals from Willow that actually fit the song pretty well.
I also really need to point out the production and mixing of the album (again), which is so so so good throughout and which I'd definitely classify as a solid rock production (apart from "G R O W", which features much more of a pop production). I like it much better than the mixing/production of "Internet Killed the Rockstar" tbh. Honestly, I would kill for AL7 to have production and mixing like lIfE!
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 23, 2021 16:44:45 GMT
To get more back on topic, I don't really think "Grow" sounds Disney, but it does sound a little immature to me, like a lot of pop-punk imo (I think it must be the fast beat and the bright production... idk, there's just something about most pop-punk songs that makes them sound kind of goofy and childish to my ears). It's overall still a good song, though, I just unfortunately already keep forgetting it exists. I listened to it maybe three times on the day of its release and afterwards only two more times. It was the opposite with "Flames".
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 23, 2021 16:39:07 GMT
I get that and I don’t disagree. A lot of the Disney songs were written by the same people which is probably why they sound similar. And it’s targeted towards kids so of course it’s gonna sound kind of cheesy and perfect. However, some people are acting like Avril doing happy upbeat music is like a bad or “immature” thing. You could say a lot of her songs actually have a “Disney pop rock” feel to them like YASNY for example. I’m not saying she should make a whole album like that but if a few songs on AL7 sound more Disney and poppy why is that bad? God forbid being an adult means you should just be dark and depressed all the time to be considered “mature.” I agree that happy upbeat music does not equal immature. Hoping not to offend anyone, but I think it's rather close-minded to believe that only serious / dark sounding music can be mature. However, the issue with Disney pop rock isn't that it sounds happy. It's the cheesiness and that it tries so hard to use this rockstar image, but not the correlating sound and production. Then you end up with songs like "Rockstar" by Hannah Montana or "We Rock" from Camp Rock. It just seems try-hard and fake (even though the songs might still be enjoyable). If Avril added some Disney pop rock songs to AL7, it might make her seem fake too. As HeiBai mentioned, she already likes to use the rockstar image, e.g. acting like she's really badass when playing guitar on stage, when in reality her guitar playing is pretty mediocre. Releasing Disney pop rock songs would intensify this. In the end, however, I think it also just depends a lot on personal taste and what each of us considers to be "rock" or "pop". What seems immature and fake to me might seem perfectly mature and genuine to someone else. Or it might seem immature to both parties, but one thinks it's fun an gets a nostalgic kick from it, whereas I simply don't.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 23, 2021 13:09:59 GMT
Why is everyone shitting on Disney so much? I really don’t think Flames sounds “Disney” at all lmao Plus who cares if any of her songs do sound a little like Disney pop/rock? Don’t pretend like you didn’t watch the Disney Channel growing up or listen to Radio Disney as a kid. I’m still a huge Disney nerd to this day. Disney is fun and magical and keeps you feeling young at heart - personally, Disney stuff makes me happy. You don’t have to act all pretentious about it and act like something sounding like Disney is childish and “bad.” I havent watched any disney show, except from a few Hannah Montana episodes. I guess I was already too old when the shows came out and it wasnt that big in Germany (my friends also never watched it). Don't know about other European countries though but I can imagine it was never as big as in the US. I'm also not a big fan of Disney in general, some old movies were cute but I dont get the obsession some grown up people have with Disney. For me "Disney music" can be fun, but it all sounds the same and it doesnt sound like passionate music but rather like fabricated songs where they just change a few lyrics or slightly something in the melody and then make it a new song. So that's the point that bothers me. Yes,a "Disney-Avril"-song every now and then can be fun, but it's very repetitive and boring if e.g. her whole album would sound like Grow or other "Disney-music". Though I wouldnt say that Flames sounds like Disney. The piano intro is a bit "wanna-be-deep-and-emo" and I could live without it, but it's fine imo. It's a good song. I spent my pre-teens watching and loving a lot of that Disney Channel stuff, like Hannah Montana, The Suite Life, High School Musical, etc. I'm also from Germany, and I remember especially Hannah Montana and HSM being hugely popular among my peers. All the girls in my class were fans of Miley, Selena, Ashley, etc. I still enjoy going back to all that 2000s Disney stuff every now and then. And yet I fully agree with your last paragraph, that Disney music all sounds the same and too fabricated.
I would also add that they tend to sound kind of too wholesome, if that makes sense? Like, Disney is a world full of magic and possibilities and wonder. There's not much room for the kind of negativity that can't be easily solved; it's quite black and white, with the white (the good side) always winning. I feel like that translates a lot in the music. It's too perfect/wholesome-sounding, too cheery or something. Idk, it's hard to describe. But that's what eventually makes Disney music sound kind of childish to me. I also feel like in the 2000s, when rock music was super popular, Disney would try and make their songs sound more rock too by simply adding an electric guitar and then being like "let's rock this! Rock 'n' roll, yeah!" when in fact it was still pop music. Which isn't bad per se, it's just rather pretentious imo. Though I understand that they wanted to make money and thus chose to adapt to what was currently "in".
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 16, 2021 20:09:39 GMT
I think the recorded live performance is pretty good; I quite enjoyed watching it and the little behind the scenes footage. I loved Willow's performance, she seemed super energetic and passionate. Probably because of this, I even liked her voice more than on the studio track. I also adore her hair and outfit! It was indeed a little weird how Avril joined the performance, but it's a fun song, so it worked, lol. She really sounded a lot like in the studio version; her vocal control is just amazing, it always surprises me somehow. I felt like she wasn't as energetic as Willow, though, but still enough for me to enjoy it. So, overall a decent, enjoyable performance. I also gotta say that I think the song is starting to "grow, grow, grow" on me.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 15, 2021 22:37:12 GMT
It's finally out in the EU, and I just listened to it twice. It's better than I'd expected. I was not very impressed by Willow's vocals at first, but upon listening to the song a second time, I already felt like I got used to it. Though I still feel for a song that's supposed to be in the rock genre, there's missing some more energy in her singing style on this track. I also feel like the song is missing some more dynamics and power / aggression overall. Idk, the drums seem pretty mellow for a pop-punk song. The entire song just doesn't sound very pop-punk to me, apart from the rhythm maybe. But mainly, it reminds me a lot of the mid-2000s Disney pop songs that tried to be rock simply by adding some electric guitars and some drums, lol. So, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, right? After all, Willow herself mentioned Disney when she described the song. It's just that these recent articles from Kerrang! and whatever else there was made the song sound so much heavier than it actually is... I also find the lyrics to be kind of childish. I mean, I guess they're "deep" for someone of Willow's age, but for me - someone in their mid 20s who's probably too serious for her age - it just seems a bit meh. I can see my younger self rocking out to this song, though. What did definitely positively surprise me, however, is Avril's vocals. It's not my favourite vocal performance of hers by far; she sounds quite nasal. But she sounds a lot more passionate than on "Flames" and there's no too-obvious filter or effect that makes her voice sound weird (watch me eat my words after I've listened to "Grow" a couple more times, haha). I also really like that she gets pretty much half of the song for herself. So, overall, I think the song is fine. I think it might be a grower (lol). It's definitely better than I'd expected; the snippet doesn't really do the song justice (thank goodness!). The hook is kinda repetitive and predictable (honestly, the entire song is), but it's catchy as hell and quite a cheerful tune. I'm surely gonna listen to it a couple more times. But I'm sure that, if I had to choose, I'd rather go with "Flames".
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 15, 2021 12:11:09 GMT
The song's not out in the EU yet, so I can only listen to the snippet. And yeah, as always, I know a song shouldn't be judged by a short snippet, but... I don't like the snippet very much. It sounds like the kind of pop-punk song that I find kind of childish-sounding. The hook with the repetitive "grow, grow, grow" also seems quite meh to me. And I'm not that big a fan of Willow's voice in this snippet. I've recently heard "Wait a Minute" and really liked how she experimented with different vocal styles on that track. There was a lot of diversity there. Maybe there will be some more of that on the rest of "Grow"? But I honestly won't get my hopes up.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 15, 2021 12:06:27 GMT
I do not have spotify How can I hear it? The song will surely be out on other platforms such as Apple Music and YouTube once it's midnight in your country.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 15, 2021 12:05:51 GMT
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 10, 2021 12:35:18 GMT
Hmm... Does this mean there's yet another issue with the label / distributor? Or is it simply another thing of having to wait for the right people to be available (kind of like she was waiting for the right producer(s) to be available when making HAW)?
Whatever it is, I'm glad Avril finally said something, even though it's still kind of vague. I wish she'd said this earlier, though. I mean, we've been waiting for half a year, thinking every single day "today could be the day". And now it sounds like the album may not even be released this year after all, at least that's how I feel. Honestly, at this point I wouldn't be surprised if we had to wait till spring 2022.
I also gotta say that I'm still quite disappointed in Avril tbh. As I said above, she could've said this earlier. She also could have not teased us from early 2021 on. This entire bad communication which has been going on for four eras now, is imo definitely at least partly her fault. Of course, this is not going to stop me being a fan, but it is going to make me question her statements, including her latest comment. I mean, we just got her side of the story. Who knows what else might be going on to stop the album from being released?
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 9, 2021 13:08:27 GMT
Sorry if it’s already been posted, but does anybody know the link I can use to listen to the interview? Here's on YT. I couldn't find the whole interview. Does anyone happen to know if there's something relevant after this short clip? I kinda like the way Avrils is having fun here This was really fun to watch! Thanks for sharing.
I love how happy Avril and Mod seem to be. Avril also looks absolutely radiant. The new hair cut, even though it's not that different from before, suits her so well. I also think it's kinda cute how she indeed fails to properly speak into the microphone; it seems she's just having such a good time, she doesn't even notice, lol. And then the whole time she manages to avoid cursing, until the very end, but doesn't even notice until Mod points it out. Haha! Yeah, great little interview. That's how I love seeing Avril. I'm so glad there's finally something positive to talk about.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 6, 2021 19:15:18 GMT
Avril: "The writing is neverending"
Yeah, so is the waiting, duh.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 6, 2021 17:48:38 GMT
I'm always curious what's that bump in Avril's face between her eyes? Since when she has it? I think it's just a cute little mole, and as far as I can remember, she's always had it. But I did notice that it's sometimes removed in photoshoots, which I find kinda dumb and unnecessary, but that's just my opinion...
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 5, 2021 21:18:55 GMT
I quite like those lyrics. The photos are pretty nice, too. The fifth one gives me huge TBDT vibes. But the last photo is my favourite of the bunch.
Unfortunately, however, this post doesn't get me excited at all. I'm just like "yeah, okay, thanks. See you again in a month or two." She / her team just absolutely ruined the hype and they're not gonna get it back by posting one lyric alert. Now, if they post another one in e.g. two days, and a third two days after that, and roughly keep that pattern, then I might get excited again. But I honestly don't see this happening. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Avril and her team were patting themselves on their shoulders right now, telling each other how well they did today by posting this one lyric alert.
Ugh, this is so frustrating. How much do you have to screw up for your own fans to not even get excited from new photos and a lyric alert anymore, but instead always expect the worst?
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Post by TamyXD on Jul 3, 2021 14:45:53 GMT
That Kerrang! article about Willow is really nice imo. Are they hyping up the whole punk-rock / pop-punk thing? Probably. But Willow seems like a really cool, intelligent person. I like that she's trying to play a part in the rock revival, despite getting all the backlash from these dumb haters.
Now here's just to hoping "Grow" will actually be a good song. But, tbh, I don't have high hopes, but that's mainly on Avril. I don't know Willow's music except for that one song "transparent soul" that I listened to once and don't even remember in the slightest. But Avril... I just fear that her vocal performance will be just as lackluster as it is on "Flames", and that just doesn't work at all with rock or punk music imo. I'll gladly be proven wrong, though.
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