FkaTwinks

The visuals and audio for this new track are so out of character for her; What the fuck

Agree. "Show & Tell" is maybe the only song on the record that I would argue is near-perfect and could work on Cry Baby if you found a slot for it.
 
I think the album's struggles are mainly just due in part to how extremely conceptual it is. With Cry Baby, you have to remember that she recorded a decent chunk of the songs (i.e. "Pity Party" and "Cake") without an explicit storyline in mind. And even then, Cry Baby's storyline is relatively loose with a ton of vague characters, brief plots and locations, whereas the concept for K-12 is the first thing Melanie created on the album, and it focuses on events and ideas around 1 isolated building with a consistent cast of characters over a (before the film was written) 13-year span with only 1 song per year.
 
I'd say the first 3 tracks on K-12 are easily the worst (Wheels On The Bus and Class Fight are nothing but exposition), and other good songs are almost completely ruined by a failure to find a good lyric (the "fucking damn Barbie" line in Lunchbox Friends) or more unnecessary exposition (the whole second verse in Nurse's Office).
 
The album also suffers from that, while it's a sequel to Cry Baby, the whole metaphor pattern is largely omitted (sans the 3-4 songs about the music industry) and with Cry Baby you can apply most, if not all, of the songs to real life (whereas K-12's relatability only goes in the "oh that happened to me in third grade" way or isnt relatable at all because it's political, specific to her experiences as a famous musician, or just generally can't be related to by anybody like in the case of Wheels On The Bus).

High School Sweethearts is a highlight smh, the only times Melanie really enters cringe territory are on The Principal and the "fucking damn Barbie" line in Lunchbox Friends

High School Sweethearts is a highlight smh, the only times Melanie really enters cringe territory are on The Principal and the "fucking damn Barbie" line in Lunchbox Friends

Regardless, its kinda ridiculous that nobody in this fanbase can keep their hands on original files for pre-Drama Club leaks and they choose to circulate converted files   Not everybody likes conversions, and not everybody uses iTunes!

MP3s are iTunes compatible    Y'all converting things before uploading them need to STOP

Regardless, its kinda ridiculous that nobody in this fanbase can keep their hands on original files for pre-Drama Club leaks and they choose to circulate converted files   Not everybody likes conversions, and not everybody uses iTunes!

MP3s are iTunes compatible    Y'all converting things before uploading them need to STOP

MP3s are iTunes compatible    Y'all converting things before uploading them need to STOP

Why'd you convert it all to m4a instead of keeping the originals 

Why'd you convert it all to m4a instead of keeping the originals 

The Principal felt too short, so I made an extended mix by adding a chorus after the 'outro'
 
Here you go: https://dbree.org/v/d785bc

Here's a direct audio rip from the film (aka probably the best quality we'll have for a while). It's OPUS, though, so I'm not sure what music players other than MusicBee support it.

I have a lot of opinions    Here's a list of everything I would've changed in the film:
Shorten "The Principal" (Only up to the end of the first chorus is necessary). Extend Crybaby and Angelita's conversation in the tennis scene; Bring up beauty standards in Angelita's magazine as a tie-in to the "Strawberry Shortcake" sequence. Delete the "Teacher's Pet" scene, putting "High School Sweethearts" after Crybaby finds the love letter. Potentially shorten the "High School Sweethearts" scene, or insert clips of Crybaby distracted trying to figure out who wrote the letter. Play "Recess" quietly in the background of the school dance sequence from the start and scrap the whole being-forced-to-dance element. Don't stretch the scene out to the length of the song. Insert "Fire Drill". Have Crybaby sing it while confronting Leo, helping everyone escape, and eventually, instead of the dumb air-bubble thing, burning the school down. Change the cliffhanger. Maybe make it that only Crybaby is eligible to join Lilith, and the choice is between that or her friends. The choice between staying or leaving originally is dumb. Just off the top of my head 

I have a lot of opinions    Here's a list of everything I would've changed in the film:
Shorten "The Principal" (Only up to the end of the first chorus is necessary). Extend Crybaby and Angelita's conversation in the tennis scene; Bring up beauty standards in Angelita's magazine as a tie-in to the "Strawberry Shortcake" sequence. Delete the "Teacher's Pet" scene, putting "High School Sweethearts" after Crybaby finds the love letter. Potentially shorten the "High School Sweethearts" scene, or insert clips of Crybaby distracted trying to figure out who wrote the letter. Play "Recess" quietly in the background of the school dance sequence from the start and scrap the whole being-forced-to-dance element. Don't stretch the scene out to the length of the song. Insert "Fire Drill". Have Crybaby sing it while confronting Leo, helping everyone escape, and eventually, instead of the dumb air-bubble thing, burning the school down. Change the cliffhanger. Maybe make it that only Crybaby is eligible to join Lilith, and the choice is between that or her friends. The choice between staying or leaving originally is dumb. Just off the top of my head 

Yes 

I have a lot of opinions    Here's a list of everything I would've changed in the film:
Shorten "The Principal" (Only up to the end of the first chorus is necessary). Extend Crybaby and Angelita's conversation in the tennis scene; Bring up beauty standards in Angelita's magazine as a tie-in to the "Strawberry Shortcake" sequence. Delete the "Teacher's Pet" scene, putting "High School Sweethearts" after Crybaby finds the love letter. Potentially shorten the "High School Sweethearts" scene, or insert clips of Crybaby distracted trying to figure out who wrote the letter. Play "Recess" quietly in the background of the school dance sequence from the start and scrap the whole being-forced-to-dance element. Don't stretch the scene out to the length of the song. Insert "Fire Drill". Have Crybaby sing it while confronting Leo, helping everyone escape, and eventually, instead of the dumb air-bubble thing, burning the school down. Change the cliffhanger. Maybe make it that only Crybaby is eligible to join Lilith, and the choice is between that or her friends. The choice between staying or leaving originally is dumb. Just off the top of my head 

I feel like this track is personally encouraging me to embrace the toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia demons 

Why is everyone slandering Disconnect all of a sudden 

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.

Here's my hot take on this era so far, since everyone's doing it 
 
I personally think that Love + Fear may end up being my least favorite album by her. I love Marina and have a great deal of respect for her as an artist, but this contemporary pop aesthetic just feels kind of weird to me, and like she maybe isn't putting the best music that she can make anymore. I thought Handmade Heaven was beautiful, but everything else we've heard has been kind of subpar? I'm not really a fan of the overly simplistic production (if ARTPOP was "overproduced" then this is definitely underproduced) and I think the lyrics are quite basic compared to a good amount of material she's released or scrapped in the past. 
 
And I don't even think it's that she can't write a good pop song; she pulled it off brilliantly with songs like Blue. Blue has somewhat basic lyrics like Orange Trees and Superstar do, except Blue pulls it off extremely well by being super catchy and having a unique sound with an instrumental reaching it's full potential. Superstar in particular feels like a really watered down version of I'm A Ruin, without any of the charm. I don't know, that's just my opinion.