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Liner Notes (November 19th, 2022)

Posted by Jason Tate
Fall

Another week, another newsletter. Thoughts on music, movies, and some other random commentary. There’s also a playlist of ten songs worth your time, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

A Few Things

  • No matter what your week was like, at least you weren’t Twitter or Ticketmaster, I suppose. (Or FTX. But I guess that was the week before.) Watching Elon flail about learning lessons a 13-year-old knows about the internet/management has been, well, I guess entertaining at least.
  • These last two months of the year are consistently slower in the music industry, plus there’s a bunch of family stuff sprinkled in, so I’ll do my best to put together a newsletter on the weekends I have the time (and energy), but I may miss a few here and there due to other commitments.

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • My most listened-to album this week was the new one from Slowly Slowly called Daisy Chain. It’s a pop-rock album from down under, and it has similar vibes to Grayscale or The Faim, with maybe a little 1975 and Patrick Stump influence in there as well. Catchy pop music that finds a way to get latched to your brain stem.
  • I’ve still been listening to the new Dayseeker quite a bit.
  • Action/Adventure’s new album is now out, and if you’re looking for a new band with that easy-core Four Year Strong kind of sound, this should be right in your wheelhouse. It’s been a great gym album.
  • I spent a lot of this week not really knowing what I wanted to listen to, so I got on a Third Eye Blind kick, listening to their catalog in the background when I couldn’t think of what I was craving. A deep catalog that has some real weird songs sprinkled in, though.
  • The Wombats’ new EP is a lot of fun. Their last album was a shockingly fun 2018 release and this picks right up where that one left off.
  • I don’t think I’ve written about Anna of the North’s new album, Crazy Life, in the newsletter yet. Consider this my apology. This great breezy album is perfect for a lazy Saturday at home.
  • Hit Like a Girl dropped a hardcore EP. Like Origami Angel, this trend of bands playing in this space has been kind of awesome to see. They do it well.
  • I haven’t had time to dive into the new Weyes Blood album yet, but that’s next on my list.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 33 different artists, 49 different albums, and 323 different tracks (383 scrobbles). My most played artist was Third Eye Blind, and my most listened to album was Slowly Slowly’s new one Daisy Chain. Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • All Quiet on the Western Front was very good but a tough, tough watch.
  • Didn’t think I’d get emotional watching a movie about a shell with shoes on, but Marcel: The Shell With Shoes On was surprisingly heartfelt and impactful. I’m looking forward to some more heartwarming movies as we move into the holiday season.
  • Bros was funny but too long.
  • League of Super Pets was silly but very fun for an evening.
  • As a massive Dark fan, I’ve been anticipating 1899 since it was first announced. We have only just begun this journey, but I am so very, very in already.
  • Andor is downright incredible. Easily my favorite Star Wars content in years. Just stupid good. Every week it ends, and I immediately want to watch it again. Between this, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Rings of Power, I feel like I’ve had a really nice run of TV shows that have hit my nostalgia spot without rubbing my face in it or feeling cynical. The space escape in the last episode, the two speeches the week before, just … we aren’t worthy.

Random and Personal Stuff

  • It’s a week of family events coming up. Time to load up on carbs and beer.
  • One random thought as I’m finishing this up on the iPad on the couch. I’m sitting here thinking about how easy it is to write this from the iPad, but the moment I need to do the final parts to get it ready to post on the website and send out via email, I need to go sit at the “real” computer to get that done with any sort of speed. I could do it here, but it would take a bunch of tricks and hacks. And in 2022, that sucks. This iPad is more than fast enough. But I’m still hampered by the software to do something fundamental like finalizing a newsletter post.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

  1. Slowly Slowly – Turn it Around
  2. The Wombats – I Think My Mind has Made Its Mind Up
  3. Nightly – I Wish You Loved Me
  4. Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine
  5. Action/Adventure – Save Yourself
  6. Anna of the North – Bird Song
  7. Dayseeker – Dark Sun
  8. Pinkshift – The Kids Aren’t Alright
  9. Andrew McMahon – VHS
  10. Acceptance – Explanations and Excuses

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by dylan in the “General Politics Discussion (X)” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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