TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 16, 2021 16:44:27 GMT
For me, "Take Me Away" is definitely the best album opener. I think it does a great job of introducing us to the overall dark sound and kind of reflecting, coming-of-age topics of UMS. I especially love how the first few seconds is part of the intro played reversed with a fade-in and fade-out feeling. Then the clear electric guitars playing that riff, the build-up with those palm mutes, and then BAM! the chorus with those heavy guitars comes in. It's just perfect. The last chord of the outro almost seguing into "Together" makes the song feel even more like an introduction. There's really no better song they could've chosen as an opener. "Take Me Away" is also one of my absolute favourite songs by Avril.
The worst album opener is probably "Black Star" imo. The song is just nothing more than a pretty jingle to me. It doesn't seem to have anything else to say, really. I've also always felt like it was sonically a bit different from the other ballads off GL. But at least it is a ballad, like most of the album If WTH was the album opener for GL, it would've been a complete fail. It's a fun song, but it has nothing to do with the main topic and sound of the album.
My rating: 1. Take Me Away 2. Head Above Water 3. Rock N Roll 4. Girlfriend 5. Losing Grip 6. Black Star
To write a bit more about the other album openers, and explain my rating:
I really enjoy the instant piano-ballad-vibe we get from HAW. It represents the theme and sound of the album really well. It's just not as extra special as TMA.
RnR, while definitely not one of my favourite songs, works quite well as an opener for AL imo because it's just as messy as the album itself, and I've always kinda liked having the album open with that ridiculous/tongue-in-cheek phrase "let 'em know that we're still rock n roll".
"Girlfriend" also represents the sound and theme of TBDT very well, but there's something about it immediately jumping to the chorus that bugs me a bit.
"Losing Grip" has always felt a bit out of place to me. It sounds kinda different than all of the other LG songs; it's like a different sub-genre of rock, we don't really get on LG, except maybe for "Unwanted". I've no idea which song I would've chosen instead, though. I'm so used to hearing "Losing Grip" first when playing LG, I can't imagine the opener being another song.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 14, 2021 14:56:26 GMT
I almost forgot about that Jimmy Kimmel performance...
Honestly, I almost only have positive things to say about it (yay! ). Avril and Mod both sounded great. I also loved their outfits and the stage setting (even though it was almost a bit too much with those skaters; if I'd been there live, I might've ended up a bit overstimulated and scared they'd crash into anyone, lol). I'm also positively surprised to see that it was apparently live and that they seemed to be there in person, right? And they played the album version! I'd fully expected them to go with the (kinda boring) acoustic version, and half of me had also expected them to pre-record it. I'm very happy to see I was mistaken.
The only thing that bothered me a bit was Avril's guitar playing. It seemed kinda fake, and her guitar was barely audible. However, you could definitely hear it in the outro, so now I'm not so sure anymore. I guess she was playing for real, but the volume was just very quiet? There were also a few moments where Avril seemed to be struggling to show her passion, but I feel that's a bit nitpicking of me, considering the vast majority of the performance was pretty top-notch.
It was pre-recorded. They were watching the performance airing on TV at her place with Mod's crew. I don't mind it being pre-recorded, personally, as long as it's live and doesn't sound overly edited in post. Plus, they wouldn't have been able to achieve the visuals they wanted to present on this performance (people skating everywhere) in a more limited studio space. As far as Avril's guitar playing goes, I think it was a mixture of playing it for real and pretending to play it -- with the latter being one of my personal pet peeves with her, I just think it's such a lame thing to do, but oh well. For instance, around the 0:50 mark Avril is filmed at an angle that very blatantly shows her strumming the air instead of hitting the chords of the guitar. Furthermore, she absolutely sucks at pretending to play instruments (much like she sucks at lip synching, I guess lol), so when she fakes it it often looks painfully obvious. I'd rather see her only playing during the parts she knows and feels comfortable with if she wasn't going to put in the effort to learn and rehearse the whole song. That would have also given her an opening to interact more with Mod during the performance now that I think about it. But overall I'm still happy she brought the guitar for the performance and I hope she does it with her own music too -- she looks more comfortable on stage when she has something to play and with a bit of luck she even decides to learn the full songs first and start displaying more passion for performing like she did during UMS (not overly confident about it lmao, but we shall see 😝). Other than that, I definitely share the sentiment of hoping Flames' cycle can come to a closure with this performance. It's a nice way to wrap things up and it's about time they move onto other things. Fully agree with all of this. I don't mind the performance being pre-recorded as long as there's an effort to make it sound and look as if it's live. They achieved that here imo, so it's totally fine.
And yeah, Avril's fake guitar playing is so... ugh, it makes me cringe. I used to think she was such a good guitarist; she's the reason I started playing the guitar about a decade ago. But even though I'm still by no means any good and still struggle with some basics, I can tell now that she's not that good either. Which is fine by me, but then she shouldn't pretend to play, especially when she kinda sucks at pretending. It honestly comes across as quite the poser / wannabe rockstar, and I've hated it from the moment I noticed it. It's similar with the piano btw; in some of her music videos (especially post-TBDT era) you can clearly see that she doesn't properly play and that her finger placement is a nightmare. And that's such basic things, too! I'm honstly baffled that she didn't seem to improve her piano and guitar skills at all in the past decade. (Or maybe I'm wrong and she just doesn't like to show her improvement for some reason...?)
But that's not supposed to mean I don't like seeing her with a guitar (or piano, or any instrument for that matter) on stage. She does look more comfortable that way. I just wish she'd stop pretending. I also wonder if part of why she does this is to maintain her image of being that pop singer who actually writes her own songs and plays instruments? If that's the case, somebody really ought to tell her that this hasn't been uncommon in, like, 10+ years.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 13, 2021 12:31:26 GMT
I almost forgot about that Jimmy Kimmel performance...
Honestly, I almost only have positive things to say about it (yay! ). Avril and Mod both sounded great. I also loved their outfits and the stage setting (even though it was almost a bit too much with those skaters; if I'd been there live, I might've ended up a bit overstimulated and scared they'd crash into anyone, lol). I'm also positively surprised to see that it was apparently live and that they seemed to be there in person, right? And they played the album version! I'd fully expected them to go with the (kinda boring) acoustic version, and half of me had also expected them to pre-record it. I'm very happy to see I was mistaken.
The only thing that bothered me a bit was Avril's guitar playing. It seemed kinda fake, and her guitar was barely audible. However, you could definitely hear it in the outro, so now I'm not so sure anymore. I guess she was playing for real, but the volume was just very quiet? There were also a few moments where Avril seemed to be struggling to show her passion, but I feel that's a bit nitpicking of me, considering the vast majority of the performance was pretty top-notch.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 13, 2021 12:15:47 GMT
John Feldman is playing some instrument in Flames performance tonight. He just posted he was banned from the show and put the video explaining why I'm shocked 😮 http://instagr.am/p/COybn-prgVl Holy crap! What the hell, omg, poor Jimmy! That stunt they did was so dangerous and scary, yet also kinda funny tbh. I understand how they ended up getting banned. But it's nice the ban was lifted after all these years.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 12, 2021 21:19:46 GMT
Ahh, finally... new lyric & song title alert!
"Love Sux" is honestly such a lame, childish title. The spelling makes it even worse; I've always hated it. I know a song shouldn't be judged by its title, but this one really has me more worried than excited tbh.
The lyrics, yeah... nothing special. Kinda sounds to me like they just chose one of the first few words they came up with to rhyme with "cautious". But you can't judge a song by just one line, either (even though that's what I seem to be doing here, lol; sorry, I guess I just feel like ranting right now, hehe).
I do, however, like the photos. The editing is something different from what we've seen in a while, I think. Her poses feel very Mod Sun inspired somehow; very "pop-punk", if that makes sense.
Overall, however, this post doesn't have me excited, mostly because the more than one week wait since the last one kinda killed my excitement.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 10, 2021 20:02:55 GMT
Thanks for sharing that Open House video! I think Mod's place is really cool. It's like some sort of adventure park, there's so much to see. His "tree house" is amazing and I love all those paintings and collectibles, and the bright green electric guitar. But I gotta say, thank goodness he's got such a big house, or he'd have a huge problem finding space for all this stuff. I wouldn't actually want to live in a house like this, though, I'd surely get a sensory overload.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 10, 2021 13:05:56 GMT
2007 Radio Disney? Um... I used to love that kind of music back in the day, but now I feel I'm too serious, too mature, and have too many outside-the-box expectations to really enjoy it any longer (unless I listen to it with a sense of nostalgia - but that only works with songs I actually listened to back then, not new songs). So... yeah, I'm definitely a lot less excited now, too. But I'm guessing Willow's music is more targeted at today's teens anyway, so... *shrugs*
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 10, 2021 13:01:09 GMT
I don't think I've ever seen this before. Great performance! And she looks lovely, too.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 9, 2021 13:56:46 GMT
I'd kinda expected we might have a second lyric alert / song title by now. Maybe it's a monthly pattern? If so, we'd have the album by summer... 2022. See you then, everyone!
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 9, 2021 13:55:17 GMT
Why is Avril’s music the only thing in the world that gives me hope right now and the only thing that comforts me through grief. HAW is a warm hug, and it swallows me entirely in her voice. Just keep praying for my dad, who was diagnosed with cancer. Everything feels bleak and dim and avril is the only thing that is providing me any form of comfort. I'm so sorry to hear this. I hope your dad, you, and your family get through this. Sending much love and strength to you.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 6, 2021 11:58:58 GMT
If you subtract the number of rumoured relationships, however, both of them have dated 9 people.
Not that any of that matters, I'm just bored, lol.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 5, 2021 21:23:22 GMT
Somehow I hadn't expected them to ever perform the song live, seeing as it's been out for four months already. But I'm kinda looking forward to this. Also, the picture is super cute, probably one of my favourites of this shoot.
BogoGog24 I'm really sorry for your loss. Sending you and your family love and strength.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 4, 2021 20:22:11 GMT
"That's what I get for sk8ing in my slippers and dress"? No, that's what you get for clowning with us!! 🤡
I'm joking. I'm glad she didn't hurt herself. Beautiful location btw. Also really like her slippers, they look super comfortable.
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TamyXD
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Post by TamyXD on May 4, 2021 19:28:24 GMT
I actually find this hilarious at this point (no sarcasm). What kind of promotion strategy is this? Have they not learned anything at all over the past decade? Don't they look at what other artists and their promo teams do? Lol. 🤡🤡🤡
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TamyXD
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Join Date: Apr 15, 2015 21:15:32 GMT
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Post by TamyXD on May 1, 2021 12:00:34 GMT
Oh noooooo 😭 I can't believe it. Since she doesnt read the comments maybe she is talking about the album ?! (I am desperate) Or it is 1 song per week which bring us to summer - july Oh no, don't say that!
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