Rosia Evans

Music I Like

Heres an overview of some albums/musicians I like and why, not in any particular order :)

Some patterns I'm noticing:

Artist: This Is The Kit

Recommended Albums: literally any and all of them

A decent chunk of the music I listen to can be compressed into the genre of "chill folk music played with fairy-lights and candles when I need to unwind" and This Is The Kit is the biggest artist in this.

Their music is slow, delicate, vibey and warm. The lyrics are soft and vague, often talking about strong interpersonal emotions but the majority of it isnt romance, which I am a big fan of! Some example songs are Bullet Proof and No Such Thing.

Bullet Proof feels like the singer comforting themselves in hard times, challenging themselves to feel things and recognise that its good that these things happen.

To be patient and awake There are things to learn here, Kate ... Everything we broke today Needing breaking, anyway Can you prove to me That you can feel anything? Prove to me that you can feel

No Such Thing feels like its talking about how different people can try to get on and exist collaboratively despite their different views.

Slowing everything down, laying out all your wants and needs Giving in to the fact that we all move at different speeds ... How much do you choose, choose to find, choose to lose, does it help? Shove the rest of it up on the shelf, my delusion of self

Artist: Amyl And The Sniffers

Recommended Album: Comfort To Me

Amyl And The Sniffers are a "pub rock" and punk band. What this essentially means is that most of their lyrics and songs are about living life freely and being very drunk. Some classic example songs are "Security" where Amyl basically just begs a bouncer outside a pub to let her in because shes "really not that drunk" and "Choices" where she explains she should be allowed to make her own mistakes in life and doesn't want to be told what to do.

This is already masses of fun and the heavy riffs and chanting vocals add a massive power and self-confidence to it all. But! Under the hood, the more you listen the more you realise Amyl And The Sniffers are a deeply working class band with some really strong views on independence, self-actualisation and the liberation of our bodies and sexualities.

2 more examples: "Don't Fence Me In" is definitely about gender and social constructs

I'm not in your scene That shit's limiting I like elements of everyone and everything ... Who's telling me? Oh, you're telling me? Well, you'll have to prove your intelligence Before you can get a fence and wrap it 'round me ... I'm free from a shackle, I'm free from a chain My body's just a body, my name's just a namе

and "Capital" which talks about the state of the world generally with some great lines around the flaws in the "each for their own" mindset and the sexualisation of womens bodies

Comfort to me, what does that even mean? What reason do we persevere? Existing for the sake of existing, meaning disappears Meanwhile, I only just started learning basic politics Meanwhile, they sexualise my body and get mad when I exploit it ... So ordinary and normal, don't see the intensity that it is And I wonder why I get dopamine released when I give

Amyl are a great band that I put on whenever I'm feeling hyped, powerful and confident or want to feel these things.

Album: April Fools by The Scary Jokes

In earlier parts of my life I've dated people going through hard times who often found themselves feeling unsafe or delicate. One of them listened to this as their favorite album. It's got a quiet, lonely and vulnerable energy mixed with indie-pop beats built out of a small range of instruments. It feels small, simple and deeply hurt in such a way that's its left with nothing but the ability to hold onto that hurt.

I found this album helped me understand the person who loved it to a much deeper degree and really empathise with them and because of this, to this day, it holds a really strong place in my heart.

At the time it found me, I was also going through a lot. I was very early in my transition and the relationship I was in had me oscillating between feeling unhappy and used but also responsible and loved. I was a waitress at a pub and would often walk home very late at night, the streets so empty that I could walk home along the middle of the main road. This would be my main source of me-time, I would listen to this album, under the street lights, singing the high-pitched lyrics in this squeaky un-trained voice and working through my feelings.

In my mind, the album put pictures in my head of this girl sat under street-lights in a dark void, singing lyrics she wrote to comfort herself and the album really fits this vibe with its minimalist instruments, constant reverb and quiet spaces.

I'm doing much better now, I've cut contact with that partner so I can't say I know how they're doing sadly. But I have a certain fondness for that part of my life, I think?? Either way, this album has been the wallpaper for my phone for a long long time now, its something I hold with me and still listen to every so often.

A nice thing about it is the final song which has some really powerful moments where you start to feel the singer is building towards getting stronger. Their newer albums feel much healthier and that makes me really happy.

Can't seem to cut loose all these tangled threads In my embroidered tapestry crafted by my very own 2,000 hands You got any weekend plans? Can't help but wonder if you're still my pal But you told me once that you would follow me into hell And oh man, that place is far behind me now

Artist: Big Thief

Recommended Albums: Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, Double Infinity

Big Thief are another "cosy lighting and folk music evening" band for me. Their lyrics can sometimes be pretty vague and cryptic but often will fall towards valuing the simple things in life. They'll talk about being okay with dying and rejoining the earth or the beauty of growing old or they'll talk about close interpersonal issues in the modern world, anxiety in long distance relationships (something I experience a lot). Their songs often have a habit of mixing folk music with sci-fi concepts in a way that still feels natural and fitting. They'll often mention phones or the internet without it ever taking me out of the flow which that often can do.

Their music is often a bit denser than "This Is The Kit", its a bit noisier and hectic with more going on at once and a more compressed sound quality.

I find their music very very comforting, the kind of music I'd put on around a camp-fire and sway to. As a nice side-bonus, it's really effected my world views generally, left me choosing to feel more content and happy with my day to day life.

"I'm afraid of getting older", that's what I've learned to say Society has given me the words to think that way ... But the soft and lovely silvers are now falling on my shoulder ... My mother and my grandma, my great-grandmother too Wrinkle like the river, sweeten like the dew ... How can beauty that is living be anything but true? ... So let gravity be my sculptor, let the wind do my hair Let me dance in front of people without a care Let me be naked alone with nobody there With mismatched socks and shoes and stuff stuffed in my underwear

Album: View Monster by Lemon Demon

Lemon Demons music has changed a lot in throughout his career but for me a lot of it is filled with an attachment to this childlike view of the world. View Monster is great at this, but it also has a slightly dark ominous edge to it too.

It opens with really great clowish circus music and moves into silly songs about wheres-wally, an overly-simplistic knife-fight that devolves into a tickle fight and a market land full of people selling half-eaten homework and rotten pears. Then it slowly takes a turn and begins to talk about a man who's filled with a drive to build a machine the size of an american state that does nothing or an entity hiding in our homes that slowly destroys all our minds when we try to think about it. It also just straight up has an anti-love-song.

For a lot of people, Lemon Demon can be a hard sell, his lyrics are weird and his melodies can be slightly dissonant and jarring but give View Monster a few listens and I promise it'll grow on you. Even if it feels childish and weird, let go of that and just try to enjoy the music :)

Lost in solipsism, he then slowly pulls a lever Which sets off a mechanism which does nothing whatsoever But the nothing that it does negates the everything we know Because it's screaming just because, because it's neither friend or foe And so we label it a menace or a grandiose work of art From its finale to its genesis, we slowly pull it all apart ... That's the beauty of it It doesn't do anything

Artist: Sodikken

Recommended EP: Hansel And Gretel

In a similar vein to Lemon Demon, Sodikken's music is often dripping with childish metaphores, though in this case, often hiding much heavier topics.

Their songs are insane, using squeaky toys and clumpy melodies and some of the best vocals I've ever heard. I don't know anything about Sodikken's real world life but I'm almost certain they're non-binary. Their vocals will flow between masculine, feminine and just completely ungenderable, they'll suddenly swing from the highest pitches they physically can sing to the lowest lows. If you're someone who's done voice training there's a lot more going on here that you can really appreciate, they do an insane amount with their resonance, weight and nasal buzz.

In terms of lyrics, the songs will often use childish metaphors about cheese, juggling or birthday parties to talk about abusive unbalanced relationships or people in not great places. A good example is Hansel which talks about a child who's sister was born with a deformity, because of this Hansel never got any attention as a child and starts acting out self-sabotaging behaviour to get it. It eventually ends with Hansel dying and I found the song really driving. It made me realise that people doing attention seeking behaviour are often still vulnerable people in need, they are doing it because they feel they need attention, they're feeling a lack of care.

Got in Candyland, I paid the entrance fee Good thing no one tried to stop me through my self-injury spree People, please, you should be smiling If ya cared that much, shoulda showed love 'Fore I became a piece of meat ... Now I've been appointed as your new king, I decree That it's too late to start caring about me

Sodikken is an animator first and foremost, they were working on an animated series with a really amazing variety in animation techniques. They vanished 5ish years ago though and it seems unlikely they're going to come back. Its a real shame.

Album: If Youre Feeling Sinister by Belle And Sebastian

Another cosy folk album, Belle And Sebastians older music all fits this category very well. I don't have much to say about this but I really enjoy it. Slow soft music talking about kids going through tough times.

Still to be done:

Slowness by Outfit

Metronomy (Riviera or Small World)

2020 - richard dawson

Leige And Leif - Fairport Convention

LSD And The Search For God - LSD And The Search For God

Wanderer On The Continent Of Saplings - Thrawsunblat Metachthonia

Rosselsongs - Leon Rosselson

Let Them Eat Chaos - Kae Tempest A Book Of Traps And Lessons

Hippocracy Is The Greatest Luxury - The Disposable Heros Of Hiphopracy

Penelope Scott? - one of the newer albums

Supertramp

Normal Album - Will Wood

A Day Of Nights - Battle Of Mice

Anthropocene - Cattle Decapitation

Citadel - Ne Obliviscaris

Justice - Justice

Webrings

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