AtomicMess

*slaps* we're in BUSINESS.

Waking up to more leaks and I haven't even had my coffee yet or done my hair it's only Tuesday what else is in store for us omg

Actively Un-manifesting.

Could I get another link please? That one no worky for me. :((

You're too sweet. 2023 congeniality award or w/e.

I do be doing too much. Idk I just think that some people don't always think about or realize that shit didn't get released for a reason. They expect album-perfect every single time, like unreleased content is just some dude hoarding secret master recording tapes in their basement next to a map of Atlantis and the secret Krabby Patty formula, when in reality it's the leftover sonic scraps from a concept that has enough structure to stand on it's own. Artists ain't gonna be hitting home runs every single time, subjectively or objectively. There's also the ethical elephant in the room regarding leaks and leak culture and how the tracks end up being shared out. Like there's only so much one could realistically expect - not every track is gonna leave us breathless on the floor and seeing god. (and if every track DOES that for you, I implore you to raise your standards *somewhere* because if everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted)

I think there's a diminishing returns thing with leaks. You find an artist you ABSOLUTELY love, and you're craving more more more, and then you find there's a little back catalog of unreleaseds or leaks or songs that were released but then quickly taken down, and it's like "OH MY GOD, MORE CONTENT TO LOVE!", but after awhile, the shine wears off. Sometimes, the songs were legit mastered and ready, they're *done*, but held back for a deluxe that never materialized, or an entire album or EP that was canned last minute. They're great quality, lyrically and compositionally, if it's a ballad and you love ballads, then you love it. If it's a pop-bop and you want another pop-bop, you love it. Love/hate comes down to personal taste regardless, and everyone is happy to have another song or body of work. Then you have the songs that were 'done' in the sense of album ready, but not selected and sent for mastering, and the rest of the body of work they were to go with went on and lived its life while they got forgotten. They're still great, but they just didn't get included for thematic reasons. The execs and managers did their own ranking and reviews and the track(s) ended up at the bottom of the pile for whatever reason. Still listenable. Still likable. Fans rejoice. Then you've got the songs in the intermediate that were still in the workshop. Some are 'finished'. Some are absolutely not. Some are lyrically right, but the instrumental is shit, or vice versa. We've got 8 different versions with different intros and outros. Sometimes they're missing a bridge or a proper intro/outro. Sometimes it's just all instrumental stems with no vocals. Depending on the case, dedicated fans will 'fix' the track in a week. Sometimes it's absolute crap. Song quality is questionable - sometimes we get that 320k/WAV, sometimes we get that "recorded in a club in the bathroom on a 2002 Nokia' experience". Sometimes listenable, sometimes horrid. And with demos and WIPs - wide range of expectations v. reality. Could get shit that sounds almost album-perfect, could get shit that's literally tin-can microphone and a ukulele. Could have nonsensical lyrics to fill the space in a track, could just have gaps of silence in the tracks altogether. After awhile of leak after leak after leak after leak after leak after leak bouncing between these different quality levels, it gets fatiguing. I used to be like 'OMG NEW SONG WHENN???!!!", but then when the full doesn't match the hype of the snip, I'm a little more reserved the next go round. Or when the snippet is passed around for months before the full drops, by then I'm already over it. Add in that some people are really hunting for leaks or unreleaseds from a certain 'era' of an artist, or only looking for a specific sound or song, and suddenly the leaks and outtakes and resurfaced old material starts to become less impactful, less important, less celebrated. In the case of Charli, there's a dedicated block of folks who have basically bone-grafted Pop2/Self-Titled/HIFN to their skeletons and literally anything that isn't poppers bottom PC music is panned. There's a block of people who crave witchy-goth-tumblresque True Romance 24/7/365 and anything not from that angsty era is panned. XCXWorld sluts literally want one thing and it's Bounce are constantly chasing that "high" of when that whole thing materialized, so anything less doesn't smack the dopamine button like it used too. Just my 2 cents (adjusted for inflation). (Also sometimes the song really is just that fucking bad, which is WHY it wasn't released. Something something we all missing the forest for the trees on that one.) THAT BEING SAID... I am (baby) obsessing. MOTDF and Crying Stars are good. 3.5/4 out of 5. Solid songs (to me). Going into playlists. Will be bopping. Worth the wait or w/e on MOTDF. I have her. We living. WvW I like it a LOT, BUT sonic texture is off. Sounds demo. Maybe more in future? Maybe scrapped and this is what we get. Who knows. I remember hearing snippets in the past so getting the full now is nice. Hotel - meh. Tables - I need the fulllllllll. I love it.

I love each and every Angel but Bounce is becoming a meme at this point.

Is...this implying what I think it's implying, or?

I hate myself for having this thought but I have noticed that; the face tape strategic hair placement and Photoshop gets worked for sure on MVs and photoshoots, but then on live performances and appearances the difference in neckline is visible. It shouldn't matter, it's not nice to comment on at all, doesn't detract from singing talent, but it's also not-not noticeable either.

Dead leak era.

It slaps. Unrelated - your avatar and signature made me go out and get a copy of that magazine ASAP so I have that photoshoot in print because god DAMN is that man steamy. So like, thanks but also fu.

Better than waiting anxiously to drop an entire album with lyrics that are aging like stale milk?

The title of that link on dbpee is

This is more or less it for me as well. EH/FROOT/TFJ occupy a heavenly space. ADIAML is down to earth. L&F is where Persephone goes for half the year.

For me, yes. Listening to TFJ and then going to EH, massive sonic shift. But then listening to all of the leaked demos and outtakes between the two and what was slated for Die Life, the evolution and shift comes very much into focus.

It's me, Hi!, I'm the Stan it's me. FROOT hit and the title track managed to choke slam me from the moment it appeared, but everything else on the album sat in a gutter for a few years until my tastes changed and allowed the rest of the album to exist for me. EH hit and hit hard for me - probably a mix of who I was and where I was in life at the time it was released - and anything that wasn't *that* by her just felt like shit to my ears for a long time.

Dragging Sky in the Sky thread? ✔️ Dragging Azealia in the Azealia thread? ✔️ Dragging Kim in the Kim thread? ✔️ Dragging Marina in the Marina thread? ✔️ 2023: Year of the Malcontent Stans (keep it out of the Charli thread tho or I'll have to invent some consequences to unleash)

okay purr that clarifies and explains and exfoliates and moisturizes for me

every fucking time I see her stomach it calls me fat and tells me to call weight watchers god I have such a jealousy-hate for her body

Everyone wants to be able to talk and speak and have all the input and recognition but none of the responsibility. Maybe if she's independent now or w/e with less people over her head, she might loosen up a bit? Maybe her topical feminism was shaped in part of having to adhere to the label's standards of acceptability? "You can have your Femi-album but it's gotta come packaged this way...." Maybe I've just done too much copium. Honestly just sellout. Go make an album of bought and sold generic pop. If you like to sing just literally go do that. Not every album needs to come from some personal pain, or be relatable politically or socially. Do a sellout era. Like a real one. Go do some guest vocals for some vocal trance music projects - operatic voices do great on some of that shit. Sometimes it's okay to just ~~vibe without some deep philosophical motivation behind the craft. Just be technical; it won't be for everyone, but there will be some existing fans that are along for the ride, and if you make new ones, congrats, there's a back catalog to explore.

I thought a lot of the L&F outtakes were written with Jesse Saint John and they got dumped because of his behavior and the allegations that came out? Or am I huffing glue? That could explain the "rushed" part of it if true - scrap a chunk of material, and rather than go back to the drawing board, just polish whatever we've got and kick it out the door.

Now that I've had at least 4 hours of sleep, I'm coming back to finish this thought with a "the label should/could wake up and push something/give her something to push". I forget sometimes (maybe we all do?) that it's not just SOLELY an artist doing all the work. There's promo and advertising people. There's photographers and videographers. There's people doing a storyboard for a music video. There's producers and mastering engineers. There's a legal team checking to make sure some video or album concept isn't going to get them sued. There's managers above that whole team. There's managers above them, too. You'd think the people at the top would apportion out some cash to all the people below to get all of that together, and then take it to the artist and say "congrats, we've greenlit all this shit for X # of dollars, that's your budget, we think X is a good single to put it behind, here's the slice of the pie where you put your creative input into it". And I'd expect all of that to come with a lot of persuasion and force from the label, because as someone in their roster, it's their JOB to produce content for them, at the end of the day. That's the whole point of a label/contract, right? "You fund me and my talent and make art, and you turn around and take that art and sell it, and then anyone involved gets a cut of the profits." If they don't work/produce/create, nobody is making money here, and the contract is just rotting with no revenue generation. Assets that do not asset generally make bean counters unhappy, unless they're happy to say "your contract says you owe us X, and until that's paid off, you can't even beg for money on the street without us seizing it" and just let an artist dig their own grave. I think any failure of any of our faves to "do literally anything" comes down to more than just them as the sole entity chosing or not chosing to do shit. There's more heads involved. There's got to be. Or maybe I'm just dense and that's not how it goes at all. I mean Azealia basically just does whatever she wants (or doesn't want) regardless of who is involved, so I guess others probably can/do too. TL;DR - Kim's whole team should be getting something coming off Unholy notoriety here. There should be something going on - generating buzz. Visuals. A MV teaser. Interviews talking about an album. Repressing old music on vinyls. Remixes. Something. Kim can't be doing it all; there's gotta be some money hungry bastards trying to turn a buck into a buck-10 off her shit.

Sweet, awesome, wonderful, fabulous, guess I'll just kill myself waiting for Booq Fawn or whatever.