Hey, it's OGR. Let's just chop it up real quick. I love music, and I particularly love the album as an art form. I have this playlist of 'no skip' albums that are just amzing front to back and I've been lsitening to a bunch lately. I want to recomend you some and just talk about how much I love them.... PS I ain't proof reading this before I ship it so good luck xD
The first is an album from an amazing Indigenous Canadian artist named Jeremy Dutcher. I dug up the archives of recording of traditional Indigenous songs and rerecorded/composed them to perserve his history. This project makes me cry it's so beautiful. The passion in his vocals combined with the concept of the project is one of the most deeply human things I've heard expressed via audio. You can hear the spirits of his ancestors celebrating the return of thei music. It's friggen awesome. And has like no listens. Utter masterpiece.
Second I've got 'A Black Mile to the Surface' by Manchester Orchestra. As time progresses it's becoming undeniable that this is my favourite band of all time. Their music ages so flawlessly in comparison to so many other alt rock bands of the time, and they continue to evolve and grow: musically, lyrical, and just maturity wise. They so worth a full discography dive, bbut this project definitly feels like 'the one' if you know what i mean. It's got so many non-4/4 time signatured that scratch my brain just right, and such a imensely sad but inspiring vibe to the story/lyrics/music. The lead singer Andy Hull is i think my favourite singer period. He did the 'Swiss Army Man' movie soundtrack and also has 2 side projects like Bad Books and Right Away, Great Captain!. His voice never fails to cut through to the core of me.
Note: I found a reddit article with someone summarizing the narrative of the album, and the thread has replies from a band member saying he did a perfect job, pluss adding notes to the summary. I would recomend lsitening to the album blind at least once before looking into the dark narrative of it though. Just trust. This album is pure beauty: https://www.reddit.com/r/manchesterorchestra/comments/8lan14/a_black_mile_to_the_surface_story_analysis/
Okay let's wrap it up. This is a classic but if you forgot it wxists this is your sign to go rock out to a perfect and immensely influental Linkin Park classic. Meteora deserves its flowers. I don't know how you set out to blend Punk and Hip-hop (the 2 most 'aprents scaring' genres of the time) and end up producing something so undeniably likeable and listenable!!! But they friggen did it and it chnaged the ear palets of an untold number of youths of the early 2000's, influencing music as a whole forever. This album just rocks. Nuff said
OKay that's it for music and I'm happy. Let me know if you listena nd enjoy. I really really love music and I'm deciding to reconnect with that as a listeners in a big way. I've had this realization that when God gives you a passion it's a gift for YOU to enjoy first and formost. I love music and I was born in an age where I can listen to new amazing sounds easily and in HQ every day and that just's a blessing that way given to me free of charge. Me not endulging in this blessing is a arrogance I don't care to partake in any longer.
Let me explain the idea casue I like it. SO many people say something like 'music saved my life and now i want to do the same for other people,' as if they owe it to anyone. Music is free dude, you just have to take your blessing and enjoy it. If you have some internal guilt thinks you didn't 'deserve' to be blessed with this music then you gotta heal that. Cause all your 'apying it forward' is going to do is transplant your guilt and sense of worthlessness into the next generation.
It happens in everything. Eg. 'Sports saved my life so I just want to coach these kids to help them out,' or 'i had a teacher who believed in me so now i want to be a teacher to do the same for some kid'.... do you think that's what your coaches and teachers wanted for you? to grow up to feel some sense of un-breakable servatude to the people who helped you?... accept your blessings with some grace! love this life and the gifts that are given to you. if you don't feel like you 'deseve it,' and therefore have to pay it forward you are just ducking your blessings, and that's arrogant!!! You are re-gifting your blessings onto someone else so you can avoid doing the self-acceptance and healing in your own heart to be like 'damn, god/life/theuniverse gave me all of this for free and i don't have to do a thing but accept it and appreciate it'. like just let your heart fill up with the love that the world is trying to pour into it!!!! you don't have to earn that, and in fact you never can. trying to be 'worthy' of a blessing is always a vain and empty endevour that is performative and rooted in your own ego and just avoiding the truly difficult inner work that your life requires.
so i terms of this music. i've just been itting here listening man. like really listening. with a big ass smile on my face. the same way when i went to the swimming pool the other day i was just there to swim. i would list all the things i 'wasn;t' there for but i've rewired my subconcious on a deep level to not express myself via the negative so much, cause negatives are innately vauge and our mind doesn't grasp them very well so why communicate in a sub optimal way. i stopped in that pool and looked at the light reflecting up onto the roof and wall doing it's beautiful dance and just looked at it. it looked like this....
I looked at that and thought 'if an artist were to paint this we'd call them a genius, but god gives it to my eyes for free and i just ignore it. i've got SOME NERVE,' and then i just let that gift in, this perfect masterpiece in front of my eyes.
in the pool i always do just plain breathing too where i exhaul under water then come up and breathe, and as i do it more my breathing slows to about 2-3 breathes per minute, sometimes less. and in that time i felt how this applies to breathe too. every breathe is just free and if you can't accept that you gotta just heal okay. you are given way too much to ever 'repay' anything to anyone in any way. you cup is just running over with love and life and experince and you can drink it or not, but don't pretend it's anyhting other than what it is. and what it is is free and perfect and beautiful
so imma listen to music and drink smooties and go swimming
what about you??
also here's the playslist of all the no skip albums: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/no-skip-albums/pl.u-d2b09JBsbyA8ym
peace