The Olympics have consumed my life.
Therefore I am late on this newsletter, duh.
My album this week was Friends Who Break Your Heart by James Blake.
Turns out I thought James Blake and James Arthur and Jame Bay were all the same person.
Turns out they are not. Just have the same first name.
Because of this mix-up I was very confused when I looked him up on Spotify and didn’t recognize any songs. So, this was new to me.
James Blake surprised me. Mostly because, again, I thought I was going to hear “Say You Won’t Let Go”, and I did not.
Tbh, his music is a little more electronic than I typically like to listen to, but the more I listened to him, the more I grew to enjoy the album. I also, kept thinking, WHY DO I RECOGNIZE THIS MAN’S VOICE?
It was on the song, “Foot Forward” that I finally realized why I knew him. Foot Forward opens with a feature from the producer Metro Boomin. Which unlocked a cabinet in my brain. I know James Blake because he did Hummingbird on the newest Spiderman into the Spider verse movie. And to know me is to know that I LOVE those movies.
Then I realized he also did a couple songs with Kendrick and Metro for Black Panther. Which I also love.
((I am really into Marvel/Superhero movies, however the ones I love, I LOVE. And it has a lot to do with the soundtrack.)
ANYWAY, back to James Blake.
Super white boy R&B, a little too electronic for my taste, BUT I still liked it. It just won’t be something that I return to frequently.
Here’s what I really loved:
There’s a strings section to the song I’m So Blessed You’re Mine that slaps. I loved it.
I’m a pretty big fan of Metro Boomin, so I really liked the song Foot Forward. like most producers, Metro Boomin has a pretty specific sound and this track is 100% their work. On top of that, I think it’s one of the more interesting and enjoyable tracks on the album.
I really like the track, Life is Not the Same, but more than that there’s this dissonance on the harmonies in the chorus and it’s visceral. I love that about music. How choosing one chord over another, picking one harmony instead of a different one, can change the entire tone of a song. It really is a science. How cool that our emotions are affected so deeply by these formulas.
One of my favorite lyrics on the whole album comes from the song Funeral:
“I would live in the leaves that crunch under your feet,
I want to be heard if I can’t be seen.”
All in all I think I really liked the album. I also learned that James Blake and James Arthur and James Bay are 3 different people who didn’t write and record the same songs🤷♀️
OTHER STUFFFFFF???
The Olympics. I 🤍❤️💙them. I’m absolutely glued to the tv every free second I have, if Simone Biles even so much as lifts a finger, you better believe I’m cheering for her. When I was a kid one of my favorite movies was this old movie about Nadia Comaneci (1st gymnast to be awarded a perfect 10). I think the women who dedicate their lives to gymnastics are some of the most extraordinary athletes in the world. It doesn’t get more elite.
I also love swimming, diving, track and field, skateboarding, surfing, sailing, rowing, beach volleyball and anything that the US is winning.
The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke is a new podcast series on the life, arrest and sentencing of Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrand and it is so good. Listened to all of it in 2 days cause I couldn’t stop. If you don’t know who Ruby Franke is, just listen to the podcast…its crazy (and also rly sad)
I think I have a minor hip injury and if there are any PTs on here please lmk, as I would like advice without the hassle of going to the doctor and then getting a PT referral.
A thing about me is that I have a constant jukebox running in my head. For as long as I can remember I have always had a song stuck in my head, but not of the earworm variety, more like at any given moment a song from God only knows when will pop into my head and I won’t be able to stop hearing it until a new one pops up. And it can be anything. Like one moment it’ll be Downtown by Macklemore and then it’ll be What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers and then it’ll be Head Over Feet by Alanis Morissette and then it’ll be She’s Country by Jason Aldean. There is no rhyme or reason. No word association situation. It just materializes in my gray matter and I have no control over it. What I’m wondering is, does this happen to other people? It’s not songs I’m listening to regularly and sometimes it’s not even songs that I know well or particularly like. It’s just songs that exist and my ears have heard. I’m going to start keeping lists of the songs as it happens and maybe I’ll make them into playlists or share them here. But it’s just a silly little thing and I’m wondering if this is common. That’s all.
Now for my album of the week, by recommendation:
Promised Land by John Lucas
I have never heard of this album or this man, so here goes nothing!
See ya next week✌️
