A Quick Grammy Recap

So, I don't usually post on Mondays, but I just figured that I had to make this post. Considering that on Saturday, the day before the Grammys, I made a post about what I wanted to see, it didn't make any sense for me to not follow it up. So let's talk about the Grammys!

This year, the Grammys had a more bittersweet tone than usual. Earlier yesterday, NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash. Even those who didn't really follow basketball in-depth knew that Kobe was one of the all-time greats both on and off the court. He accomplished more than most of us ever will by virtue of putting everything he had and more into the game he loved, and he was extremely dedicated to his family and the city of Los Angeles. My heart aches for his family, who not only lost a husband and father, but also lost a daughter and sister. And although the other victims of the crash will naturally not receive as much publicity as Kobe and his daughter, their losses are just as great, and my heart aches for everyone at all affected by this horrific accident.

It was a cruel coincidence that the Grammys took place at the Staples Center, the building Kobe and the Los Angeles Lakers called home for so long. Because of what had happened prior to the show, there were numerous tributes and homages to Kobe. They had a spotlight on Kobe's two retired jersey numbers hanging on the wall, and it was illuminating for the entire show. Alicia Keys, the host, also took some time to honor him on more than one occasion throughout the night. One of the first performances of the show was when Alicia and Boyz II Men sang a song called "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday" acapella. I thought this performance was really touching and meaningful. Lizzo began her performance by saying "This is for you, Kobe", Lil Nas X featured a Kobe jersey as a part of his "Old Town Road" set, and in the middle of the tribute to Nipsey Hussle, the rapper who was also tragically murdered last year, DJ Khaled took some time to pay respects to Kobe and his daughter, Gianna.

I thought all of the gestures people made to Kobe were really thoughtful, no matter how big or small. Alicia Keys and Boyz II Men's opening song was beautiful, one of the best performances of the night. I also thought the Nipsey Hussle tribute was really well-done, featuring DJ Khaled, Kirk Franklin, John Legend, Meek Mill, Roddy Ricch, and YG. I thought the all white staging and African dancing was a smart choice, sort of celebrating Nipsey Hussle's accomplishments and life. I think more tribute performances should go for a similar tone, celebrating the person's life instead of being serious all the time. Of course, serious tribute performances absolutely have their place, but it would be nice to see more upbeat celebrations of life mixed in.

Demi Lovato's performance was another emotional moment of the night that I really loved. I had said that I was anticipating her return to music, and she didn't disappoint. She performed a new song called "Anyone", which was written a few days before she almost lost her life from an overdose. She called the song a "cry for help" in an interview, asking, “How did nobody listen to this song and think, ‘Let’s help this girl’.” The lyrics were absolutely heartbreaking, with lines like "Tired of empty conversation, 'cause no one hears me anymore", "I feel stupid when I sing", and "I feel stupid when I pray, so why am I praying anyway?" being particularly gutting. This song really represented her at rock bottom, and I thought it was extremely inspiring that she was so open about her struggles. With such a heavy song, Demi understandably got emotional at the beginning and had to restart the song, but she persevered, giving what may be the vocal performance of the night. It's good to have her back. 

I also really loved Billie Eilish's performance of "When the Party's Over". I said that I hoped she would do this song because it is my favorite from her, and I was overjoyed that she actually did it! I thought for sure she would do "Bad Guy"! This performance was simple, with Billie being joined by her brother Finneas on piano and just singing the song- no elaborate choreography or effects or anything. I loved the bare-bones style of this performance and thought it was a great showcase of Billie's tender vocal abilities. Billie had a great night at the Grammys, winning five of the six awards she was up for, including all of the Big Four categories (Record, Song, and Album of the Year, and Best New Artist)! She is only the second person to sweep the Big Four categories after Christopher Cross in 1981, which is quite well-deserved, especially after she gave such a stunning performance at the ceremony. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I really enjoyed Tyler, the Creator's performance! I'm not really familiar with his music, but I thought the energy and staging of his performance was superb. He performed "Earfquake" and "New Magic Wand" with Boyz II Men and Charlie Wilson. I loved how we had soulful vocals from the featured artists juxtaposed with Tyler being aggressive and setting things on fire. I watched this performance with my little brother, who thought it was awesome. And then when Tyler won Best Rap Album for Igor, he was beaming from ear to ear and looked like a little boy who just found out he's going to Disney World. I thought that was incredibly wholesome and adorable. I might have to look into Tyler, the Creator's music- he seems like a pretty cool guy.

Another favorite performance of the night was Lizzo's opening number. She started out doing "Cuz I Love You", which I thought was great. The entire time I'm like, "yes, Lizzo! Sing!" She got so into it. We then had an interlude featuring some ballerinas, and then a familiar intro started playing and she transitioned into "Truth Hurts". As soon as I realized the transition was going on, my jaw dropped and I was delighted. I proceeded to sing every word. I also loved how Lizzo took a break mid-song to do a flute solo! As a band geek, I wholeheartedly adore the fact that one of the biggest artists in the country plays the flute and does so in the middle of her performances. The entire performance was full of energy and just 100% authentic to Lizzo. It's exactly what I'd expect from Lizzo opening the Grammys, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Yet another performance I want to highlight was, of course, Ariana Grande's. She started out doing "Imagine", one of my favorites from thank u, next. I was prepared to be floored by the signature whistle notes she does at the end of that song, but she swiftly transitioned to singing "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music after the first chorus. I thought the orchestral version of this song she did was very classy, and I'd love to hear a full Ariana cover of it. But "My Favorite Things" was obviously a setup for her to perform "7 Rings", a song that samples "My Favorite Things" and is probably her biggest hit. I don't really like "7 Rings" that much, but get me in the right mood and I will be singing every word. I was happily singing along, and I also enjoyed the pink slumber party-esque staging of the performance. She ended things with "thank u, next", which I wasn't really expecting her to do because I thought she'd just do "7 Rings" and call it a day, but I was pleasantly surprised by nonetheless. "thank u, next" is one of my personal top 5 Ariana Grande songs, so seeing it be performed at the Grammys made my day. She sounded gorgeous as always, and I loved how she shouted out her dad by singing "I'll be thanking my dad, 'cuz he's kinda awesome."

Probably my absolute favorite performance of the night was Lil Nas X doing "Old Town Road" with Billy Ray Cyrus, BTS, Diplo, and Mason Ramsey (aka the Yodeling Kid). It was a perfect summation of all the various "Old Town Road" remixes and a whole lot of fun. After Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X is probably my single favorite person in the music industry. Not necessarily my favorite artist, but as a person, I just love everything Lil Nas X stands for. He's so energetic, youthful, and absolutely hilarious, and watching him have the time of his life on the Grammys stage was wonderful. After all the fun with "Old Town Road", he brought out his namesake, Nas, to do a remix of his song "Rodeo" for some more hype. A lot of the performances at the Grammys were heavy and emotional, which makes sense, so it was nice seeing something fun and spirit-lifting to balance out the heavy nature of the show.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the Grammys, because it shows what Alicia Keys emphasized: music is the one thing that can bring us all together, even in dark times. It was a great showcase for tons of talented performers to show their stuff, and it provided us with some emotional, somber moments. It wasn't perfect (it did feel overlong at times), but it was ultimately a celebration of the universal healing power of music. I may do more recaps of other music award shows in the future, I may not, but this was fun to do. I'll write next on Saturday. See you then.

Stellar

Grammys Stream of Consciousness Thoughts

So this is not the Kpop crash course I promised. I talked about 10 of the 25 songs I had selected for part 1 of the Kpop crash course, but I just didn't have the motivation to finish it. This past week was finals week, so I was pretty burnt out from finals and didn't feel like writing at all. I wanted to still post something smaller because I still want to keep up with posting every Saturday unless I have a really good reason to do so. I thought about looking at the Grammy nominees and predicting who I thought would win, until I realized that I really didn't listen to much of the nominees for this year. Instead, I think I'm just gonna talk about a few things related to the Grammys, sort of stream-of-consciousness style. The Grammys are the biggest night in music, and although I didn't watch them last year, I plan to watch them this year. I don't care about who wins, normally (except for that one time when "Praying" by Kesha got snubbed in favor of Ed Sheeran's mediocrity. I'm still salty.), I just like watching the award shows for the performances. It's like a giant concert where you can hear all your favorite songs from the past year and maybe discover some new favorites. I'm gonna talk about some of the performances I'm excited for.

Obviously, I'm really excited for Ariana Grande's performance. I don't know what song she's doing but it will be a great, vocally incredible performance for sure! Ariana is nominated for five awards, and I hope she wins at least one. I just wish "thank u, next" was nominated instead of "7 Rings" for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. I don't really care for "7 Rings" that much and I think "thank u, next" the song was far more deserving of a nomination.

I'm also excited for Demi Lovato to make her comeback! I like Demi, I think she is one of the great vocalists of this generation and I think she's one of the most inspirational celebrities for how open she is about her struggles. In the summer of 2018, she had a drug overdose, which I was very saddened to hear about. This will be her first performance since the incident, and I don't know what she's going to be performing, but I hope she gets a heartfelt, poignant power ballad moment. Something in the lane of "Skyscraper", a soaring vocal showcase that also has lyrics about overcoming what she's been through. I expect that Demi will do a powerful, vocally dynamic ballad, and that's exactly what I want from her.

I feel like the three biggest new artists of this year were Lizzo, Billie Eilish, and Lil Nas X, and that's reflected in the nominations. Lizzo has eight nominations, while Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X have six. I really like all three of those artists for various reasons, and I'll be disappointed if they don't walk away with at least one award, and because they got so many nods, they'll get at least one trophy. All three of these artists, are performing, and they're some of the performances I'm looking forward to.

I love Lizzo's confidence and how unashamed she is to be herself. She does a great job making music to inspire you and make you feel better at yourself. I'm so happy that she's gotten so popular and acclaimed, because her fun, empowering brand of R&B is delightful. I know "Truth Hurts" is her biggest hit, and it is nominated for Record of the Year, so I would expect her to perform it, but I hope she performs "Good as Hell" instead. "Good as Hell" is one of my favorite songs in recent memory, so uplifting and catchy! Plus, there is a remix featuring Ariana Grande, so maybe Ariana can make a cameo for this performance.

Billie Eilish is only a few months older than me, and the fact that she's my age but has already done so much more than I will ever do is insane. I'm impressed by how Billie is so young but still makes mature, dark, unique music. I'm also impressed by how her music is literally just her and her brother Finneas making it in their bedroom, but it sounds so professional and good. My favorite song by her is "When the Party's Over", which is such a beautiful song. I love how delicate Billie's voice is on it. I hope she performs that. I think she'll probably perform "Bad Guy", though, because it's the one nominated for Record of the Year, but that'll be fun too.

Wikipedia says that Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, BTS, and Diplo are all performing together. I can assume this will be sort of a trainwreck combination of all the "Old Town Road" remixes, but it'll be fun. I think it's awesome how this random 19-year-old kid bought a beat off the Internet for $30 and made a country rap song that became the biggest song of all time. I can already tell that "Old Town Road" is probably the defining pop culture event of my lifetime, and that makes me happy. Lil Nas X just seems like a really cool guy, and he is absolutely hysterical on Twitter. Most famous people on Twitter are just like "Here's my new album! Buy my new single! Watch my new music video!" but Lil Nas X tweets stuff like, "finally watch the new avengers wow that purple man is mean".

I'm not sure who to predict for who will win, but for the Big Four general field categories, here are the people I hope will win:

RECORD OF THE YEAR: I think my favorite song nominated is probably "Sunflower" by Post Malone, but I think "Old Town Road" most deserves to win. That was truly the Song of the Year. It was the one that got talked about the most, was the most successful (it stayed on top of the Billboard charts for 19 weeks, making it the longest-running number one of all time), and was the song that best defines the year.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: I think either Ariana or Billie deserve it. For Ariana, thank u, next was her most cohesive and emotional record, one that she made during a really dark time in her life. It would be very rewarding to see her get the award for how much she put into the album. Billie Eilish also deserves it, because When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was both commercially successful (Billboard named it the top-selling album of the year and "Bad Guy" went #1), and critically acclaimed. I haven't heard every song on the album, but I like everything I've heard from it. Plus, it would just be awesome to see a girl my age win one of the biggest prizes in music.

SONG OF THE YEAR: While Record of the Year goes to the artists, producers, and engineers, while Song of the Year goes to the songwriters, so it goes to the best written song of the year. Out of the nominees, I would give it to "Truth Hurts" by Lizzo, personally. I just think this song is incredibly quotable and has a ton of memorable lyrics. There are so many lyrics I love in this song, from "Why are men great 'til they gotta be great?", "Yeah, I got boy problems, that's the human in me, bling bling, then I solve 'em, that's the goddess in me", and of course, the memed-to-death, "I just took a DNA test, turns out I'm 100% that bitch". 

BEST NEW ARTIST: This is obviously going to go to Billie Eilish or Lizzo, both of whom I like a lot. I don't know who I would prefer, as I think both of them are interesting and creative, and I like what they bring to the table. I don't know which of them will win, but I know it will be between them, and either one of them winning will be well-deserved.

So, this was kind of random and all over the place, but I just needed to post something quick and I figured some Grammys thoughts would do the trick. Next week will maybe the Kpop Crash Course, otherwise I have another fun post I want to do. I'll see you next Saturday either way.

Stellar

Movie Talk- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I'm a senior in high school, and as a senior, you have your required classes that you need to take, the electives you actually want to take (either because they interest you or because they can be helpful for your career), and the "slack-off" classes. These classes are where you don't really care about them and don't take them as seriously as your required classes or the ones you're actually interested in, but you just need something to fill your schedule because they won't let you leave for 90 minutes straight. One of these "slack-off" classes for me is a leadership class. This is one of the more popular "slack-off" classes because it's known school-wide for being a class where you watch a lot of movies. You do some other stuff, but mostly you watch movies.

One of these movies we watched is the 2000 drama Pay it Forward, and this movie inspired me. Not in the sense of it inspired me to be a better person or to do the right thing or what you'd expect, but in the sense that it inspired me to want to talk about movies more critically, sort of like I have done with music. While watching Pay it Forward, I was thinking and analyzing it more than I really do with movies. I kept asking myself "who is this movie for?" because it looks to be a family movie with a good message, but there's also a sex scene and a character (who is certainly a token black character and definitely a stereotypical "thug", right down to his durag) who uses a lot of curse words, including the n-word! The ending also got me thinking, because I won't spoil it, but what happens genuinely comes out of nowhere and it didn't really have a point other than to be a tearjerker.

Because this movie caused me to start thinking and want to analyze and discuss movies more in-depth, I decided to start a new segment on my blog called "Movie Talk". This is where I, you guessed it, talk about movies! I'll choose a movie, most likely one I've never seen before, but occasionally I'll do an all-time favorite, and talk about whatever I think is interesting about it. I'll also be sure to give my opinion and recommend the movie if I think it's worth recommending. I'll do this once a month.

For my first Movie Talk, I'm going to talk about the 2018 animated superhero movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The big reason for it is because I have heard that this is a freaking fantastic movie, and it's been on my list to watch for a long time because of all the positive buzz it got. It got critical acclaim and even an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, becoming the first non-Disney or Pixar film to win in this category. One of my friends went to see it in theatres when it came out and said it was incredible. The funny thing is, I actually have the DVD of this movie and my brother had it playing in the car on a road trip. I saw the first half hour or so, but I didn't really get to enjoy it because I couldn't really hear it. I always made a mental note to watch it on my own time, but I never got around to it. But then I'd read something saying how great this movie is. Then I'd hear "Sunflower" by Post Malone and start thinking about how great Miles' introductory scene is, where he's jamming out to the song despite his parents yelling at him. (I actually did see that part before writing this.) Then I'd decide to do a movie night in my room and even though I saw the Spider-Verse DVD case staring me down, I inevitably would decide to watch something else. After months and months of the universe sending me signals to watch this damn movie, I'm finally caving.

Okay, to be clear, I'm not a fan of superhero movies. It's not like I hate them, in fact I would be willing to learn a lot more about them and watch more of them, it's more that I don't know much about them and haven't seen many. But despite my lack of knowledge on the Spider-Man character and superhero movies in general, one thing I am a fan of is animation. And without being able to hear the movie and really understand what's going on, I can say this movie is absolutely fantastic in that regard. The look of this movie is unlike anything I've ever seen, using computer animation to get the bold style of a comic book. I'm not an connoisseur of animation or anything, but based off of visuals alone, this is one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. So we already know it gets a 10/10 in one department. Are its other elements as strong? Let's find out.



When I watched this movie, I took notes, but found myself basically just describing the plot. I don't really want to do that for Movie Talk, so instead, I'll briefly sum it up and then describe all the things I liked about this movie. The basic premise is that Miles Morales, who is just your average teenager in New York City, gets bitten by a radioactive spider and becomes Spider-Man. However, he is not the only one, as the movie sees many Spider-Men teaming up to stop the villain known as the Kingpin from opening up a vortex called the Collider.

I really loved all of the alternate Spider-Men from parallel universes. We have Miles, who is just a good kid, very passionate about art, and he had a great relationship with his uncle Aaron. Then there's Gwen Stacy, who Miles actually met at his new private school, but was surprised to learn that she was actually a female Spider-Man. They have two Peter Parkers, one who is young, blond, and dies pretty early in the film. However, we spend a lot of time with the other Peter, who is older, more jaded, and brown-haired. here’s Spider-Man Noir, a film noir-style Spider-Man voiced by Nicolas Cage, Peni Parker, an anime-style girl from the future, and my personal favorite, Spider-Ham. Spider-Ham is a version of Spider-Man that is a pig from an anthropomorphic universe, but he’s voiced by John Mulaney. Side-note: y’all need to watch John Mulaney’s Kid Gorgeous comedy special on Netflix. It’s great. I watched it on a sick day and laughed the entire time. 

I also thought it was great to make a movie about an African-American Spider-Man. Of course, I myself am not black, but I think representation is absolutely necessary. I think it's very powerful for people of all ethnic backgrounds to be able to see themselves in a positive light in the media. White people are not the only ones with stories to tell, dammit! Miles is actually half-Latino, half-black, so he provides positive representation for an additional demographic. I've seen posts from people with similar backgrounds to Miles talking about how important it is for them to be able to see themselves as one of the most well-known superheroes, especially in a movie that made $375 million and got critical acclaim out the yin-yang, and I think that's fantastic. The more positive representation we have in big, successful movies, the better.

One thing I loved about this movie was how despite being an action-based superhero movie, it wasn't afraid to have a lot of heart and it handled its emotional moments very well. The scene when the TV news anchors announce Spider-Man’s death, followed by the entire city of New York mourning him, really struck a chord with me. It reminds me of whenever a famous person dies and are promptly mourned by everyone. It’s even more striking because it says that he died at 26, and it feels like lately, we have had a lot of famous people dying far too young. To add to the sadness and poignancy of the scene, Stan Lee, the original creator of the Spider-Man character, has a posthumous cameo, selling Miles a Spider-Man suit.

Another emotional moment is when Miles is going through a loss and his Spider-friends go to comfort him. I can’t help but think of Big Hero 6 when watching this scene, specifically when Tadashi’s friends go to comfort Hiro after Tadashi dies. Come to think of it, I notice quite a few similarities between this movie and Big Hero 6. They’re both animated superhero movies, they both aren’t afraid to tackle topics like death despite being known as “kids movies”, and they both have a fun cast of heroes. Of course, I’m not accusing Into the Spider-Verse of ripping off Big Hero 6, because it’s obviously not doing that. (In fact, I would say the concept for this movie is incredibly creative, one of the most novel concepts I’ve seen in a movie: showing many alternate versions of an iconic character and seeing how they would react if you put them together.) It's just that Big Hero 6 is one of my all-time favorites, and the fact that this movie reminds me of it is a great thing.

I really like the witty dialogue added to this movie, like when Gwen calls the Kingpin a pig, and then Spider-Ham, the actual pig, is like, “Um, I’m right here.” I also love the music and how well it adds to the mood of the movie. It’s very glitchy and futuristic, to reflect the glitchy animation. I also think it’s cool how they got a ton of popular hip-hop artists to do the soundtrack to reflect what a teen like Miles would actually listen to. And plus, "Sunflower" is one of my favorite songs in recent memory, so the fact that it pops up repeatedly in the film is definitely a plus. One of the funnier scenes is when Miles is stuck on the ceiling and is freaking out. Peter asks him what he does to calm himself down, so Miles starts singing his favorite song, and Peter's just like, "oh jeez."

One of my personal favorite scenes, at least from an animation standpoint, is when they’re in the woods, battling a female version of Doctor Octopus.The The autumnal colors of the trees are absolutely gorgeous. Come to think of it, both battles with Doc Ock are eye candy, with the second one taking place in multiple dimensions having so many vivid colors. I already touched on this in the intro, but can I talk once again about how absolutely fantastic this comic book-style animation is? I love how it sometimes has dialogue written in the traditional comic book font and has some scenes animated in panels. It truly feels like a labor of love for the original Spider-Man comics, as well as one for the medium of animation in general.

That's the best way to describe this movie for me; a labor of love. It felt like the filmmakers set out to make the best movie they could, handling the iconic character of Spider-Man with so much respect and giving him an innovative visual style. I will forever find it amusing how this movie was made by Sony Animation, which, just a year earlier, made one of the most critically panned movies of the decade with The Emoji Movie. (Side note: I absolutely want to watch The Emoji Movie and do a Movie Talk on it, just to thrash it.) The difference in animation, creativity, originality, and overall quality between Into the Spider-Verse and The Emoji Movie is night and day.

So in conclusion, I would give Into the Spider-Verse a 9.5/10 after my first viewing. I don't think I'll ever give a movie a 10/10 upon the first viewing, because my favorite movies are the ones that can hold up to repeated viewings. I can definitely see this movie getting a 10/10 as I see it more: it's really something special. It shows that animated movies can have just as much depth, maturity, and creativity as live-action counterparts, and it makes me appreciate animation even more. There's so much you can do with animation, and this film uses it so effectively to bring comic books to life. I would absolutely recommend Into the Spider-Verse, not only if you like superhero movies, but if you just like looking at pretty animation, I would highly recommend this as well.

I'm not sure how Movie Talk will continue to go, if it will have more of a format or just be free-fall thoughts. This is sort of a trial run, as well as an excuse for me to watch and talk about a movie I've heard so much about and definitely lives up to the hype. Next week, we're talking about kpop and introducing another new series: Kpop Crash Course. I'm going to look at 100 iconic kpop songs (according to some YouTube video), to see which songs are legends of the genre, ones I absolutely need to know if I'm going to call myself a kpop fan. But that's for next Saturday. I'm gonna wrap things up for this week and say that I'll see you next Saturday. Have a nice one.

Stellar

My Top 20 Favorite Ariana Grande Songs

One thing you’ve probably noticed just from reading this blog is that I’m a pretty big fan of Ariana Grande. The Nickelodeon show Victorious premiered when I was eight years old, so I was right in the target audience for it and I watched it a lot. The flighty, naive Cat Valentine was my favorite character because I was at the age where I thought a character being stupid was the peak of comedy. I also thought Cat was a great singer. They didn’t have her sing much on the show (I think because they knew they’d overshadow Victoria Justice, the star of the show, who is fine, but not on Ariana’s level), but every time she did, it was always a great time. (I specifically like “Give it Up,'' a duet with the amazing Liz Gillies.) When Ariana Grande, the actress who played Cat, began releasing her own music after the show ended, I was excited and impressed by what I had heard. Since I’ve followed Ariana for a long time, I’ve been with her for every stage of her career and it has been amazing, just watching her grow and overcome so much. There are a lot of artists I like to listen to, but none compare to the personal attachment I have with Ariana. So here are twenty songs that have cemented my love for her and made me a ride-or-die fan.

20. “Bad Decisions”- Dangerous Woman
I actually really didn’t think much about this song until I listened to Dangerous Woman for my review of it in 2017. I always thought “yeah, this song is good, but it’s not my favorite”. Upon that relisten, I ended up really loving it and it’s one of my favorites from the album. It’s sort of like an upbeat version of the album’s title track, with the same “ooh you’re such a bad boy, you make me want to do bad things” message, but even though I like “Dangerous Woman” a lot, I wouldn’t object to this being the lead single instead. I feel like this song has a better hook and is more upbeat and playful. Although the reference to “hood love” may raise some eyebrows coming from a former child star, I feel like this is still a catchy and fun song. I like how playful the melody on the verses is and the chorus is great. My favorite part is the bridge, where Ariana does more of a confident whisper before delivering the mic-drop line: “Ain’t you ever seen a princess be a bad bitch?” This song does a great job at being a confident, edgy but still upbeat pop song, and I love it.

19. “Break Your Heart Right Back” ft. Childish Gambino- My Everything
Honestly, I don’t really care for any of the singles from My Everything. I don’t dislike any of them, they just aren’t any of my personal favorite Ariana songs. “Problem” is probably my favorite of them, and it’s great when I actually want to listen to it, but most of the time I just don’t. “Break Free” is overrated, “Bang Bang” is too “OMG LOOK HOW HIGH WE CAN BELT AND HOW MANY VOCAL RUNS WE CAN DO WE’RE SUCH AMAZING VOCALISTS” for my tastes, “Love Me Harder” is a song I like, but feel like I should like more than I do considering that I love Ariana to death and enjoy pretty much every The Weeknd song I've heard, and “One Last Time” has never appealed to me despite its emotional significance with the Manchester tragedy. However, a lot of the deep cuts from the album are really good, and “Break Your Heart Right Back” is one of my favorites. I love the samples from “Mo Money Mo Problems” by the Notorious B.I.G. and “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross. This song has a lot of hooks and catchy parts, including the samples. My favorite is the “what goes around, comes around” part. I also like how this song is about Ariana finding out her boyfriend is cheating on her, not with another girl, but with a boy. I also like the guest feature from Childish Gambino, who plays as her ex. I would kill to have another collaboration between Ariana, one of the biggest pop divas of today, and Childish Gambino, who is basically the Renaissance man of our times. Can we have them do a slow R&B guitar song, like “Redbone” and “Dangerous Woman”? I would love that.

18. “Knew Better/Forever Boy”- Dangerous Woman
This song is a two-in-one, a package deal. I actually said I liked the “Forever Boy” half better when I reviewed Dangerous Woman, which is kind of mind-boggling to me now. “Forever Boy” is fine, but it feels like album filler. I think “Knew Better” deserved to stand as its own song. There’s an extended version that Ariana released on SoundCloud. If I were in charge of this album, I would have put the extended version as a whole song and gotten rid of “Forever Boy”. It feels weird referring to Ariana Grande as a “savage”, considering I first got introduced to her as Cat Valentine, a character who is not a savage in any way. However, I’d probably refer to the lyrics of this song as “savage”. It’s a clear diss to an ex who wronged her, and some of my favorite lyrics are “You can say what you wanna, but I wouldn’t believe it”and from the extended version, I like, “If you knew better, you would do better, but you don’t know sh*t so I’ll do better”. Of the many R&B-inspired songs Ariana has released, “Knew Better” is one of my favorites.

17. “sweetener”- Sweetener
I just think this song is really cute. When I reviewed the sweetener album, I gave this one a 9/10, but I’d probably give it a 9.5, maybe even a perfect 10 if I was reviewing it now. This song is just adorable and tremendously fun to lip-sync to. Whenever it comes up on shuffle, I have to start lip-syncing to the chorus and that probably makes me a weirdo but I don’t care. This song is about the person who makes you feel good at your worst, the one who makes your day a little sweeter just by existing. The chorus is super sweet, but then she follows it up with a post-chorus that sounds like it’s from Bop It. It’s good though. I also really like the production courtesy of Pharrell Williams, which sounds like a 90s slow jam mixed with video game synths. Ariana collaborated with Pharrell for a lot of the songs on sweetener, and this is easily my favorite of their collaborations. Still not crazy about when she sings “I like the way you lick the bowl” because I think that’s kind of gross, but I still love the song.

16. “bad idea”- thank u, next
This is one of the bops from the thank u, next album, and it’s a song I think had quite a bit of potential to be a single. It’s darker, but not to the point where it isn’t catchy and upbeat. I really like a lot of the melody lines on this song, specifically the “forget about him, yeah, forget about him, yeah, forget about me” part in the chorus. The song has a really cool guitar part that repeats through it to help set sort of an ominous vibe. It turns out the “bad idea” in the title isn’t anything promiscuous, instead it’s just that Ariana and her lover need to temporarily take a break. This theme is also touched on in the song “NASA” from the same album, which is another song I really love but forgot to put on here. Consider it my #21, I guess. My favorite elements of “bad idea” are the vocals and the strings at the end. I love how it climaxes with some strings then Ariana belts “I got a BAAAD IDEAAAAA” at the beginning of the last chorus. The outro for this song is also just like, a minute of some beautiful strings, and I love it.

15. “Heatstroke”- by Calvin Harris, also featuring Young Thug and Pharrell Williams
I'm keeping most of this list as songs that appeared on Ariana’s albums where she is the lead artist. I think her albums are truly where she does her best work and gets to express herself as freely as possible. However, I still really love a ton of songs where she’s a featured vocalist, so I’m going to highlight this one as my absolute favorite. I remember in 2017, Calvin Harris did a ton of these disco-style songs where he’d get a bunch of singers and rappers to um, sing and rap, and then there would be a really nice disco funk groove to hold them together. I also really liked “Slide” with Frank Ocean and Migos and “Feels” with Pharrell, Katy Perry, and Big Sean, but this one was my favorite, because of course it was. Ariana really doesn’t belt or anything, she just coos “when you do things like this, and you set me free” after every chorus. It’s a small part, but I still think she sounds really pretty and the song would be missing something if her part was taken out. Pharrell also does a nice, breezy chorus and Young Thug’s ridiculous caterwauling manages to work. All three of the performers sound like they’re having fun and the beat is great too. I could have chosen “Quit” by Cashmere Cat or “All My Love” by Major Lazer for my token Ariana-featuring song for this list, but the summery vibes of “Heatstroke” were too irresistible for me to deny.

14. “everytime”- sweetener
When I reviewed sweetener, this was one of my early favorites. It’s still up there as one of my favorite songs from the record, essentially for one single moment: the part where she belts “BAAACK TO YOU-U!” at the final chorus. The song could be complete crap in every other aspect, but it would still probably make the list because of that one glorious moment. Ariana is bar none my favorite vocalist; her voice and tone is just so pretty and pleasing to the ears. Just listening to her sing is a delight, and I absolutely live for her high notes. Ariana’s insane vocals make this song for me, but luckily, there’s a lot to like even without the high notes. I really like the vibe this song goes for and the chorus is really good. The song is super catchy with great vocals and production, and I think it would have made a good choice as a single.

13. “imagine”- thank u, next
One of the most tragic things that can happen to a person is watching a best friend die young. On September 7, 2018, rapper Mac Miller died from a suspected drug overdose. He had dated Ariana for a few years, and despite the couple breaking up earlier that year, she still loved him and considered him a best friend. Naturally, Ariana was inconsolable upon his passing, so she paid tribute by releasing songs about him on the album thank u, next. “imagine” is the first song on the record, and Ariana tweeted that it is about “a simple, beautiful love that is now (and forever) unattainable”. It is widely believed to be about Mac, and it’s the perfect tribute to their love. This song gives a look into what their relationship was, with details like “staying up all night, order me pad Thai, then we gon’ sleep ‘till noon.” It really makes you feel for Ariana, knowing that she can no longer have such a lovely relationship like that. The production is very R&B inspired and sets an appropriate vibe for Ariana to get personal. Her vocal performance is one of her most emotional to date. The highlight for most is when she uses her whistle register to hit some piercing high notes, but as amazing as those high notes are, I think they sound even better live. I’m going to shout out the performance of this song from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, because it is just breathtaking to me. If you like amazing vocal performances, check this one out!

12. “The Way” ft. Mac Miller- Yours Truly
We go from a song about the late Mac Miller to a song that features him. I don’t really know much about his music, and obviously I don’t know Ariana or any of these people personally, but he was probably my favorite of Ariana’s ex-boyfriends. He was one I thought was the best match for her. She seemed so happy with him, and he was by her side during the Manchester incident, the hardest time of her life. It’s a tragedy that they won’t ever be reunited, in this lifetime, at least, when their love seemed so pure. Plus, every song they collaborated on was a treat. Even before they started dating, on this song, they had a ton of chemistry and just seemed so cute together. “The Way” was Ariana’s first official single and it was a great way for her to start out. As soon as the song came out, she became to receive comparisons to Mariah Carey for her musical style and vocal talent. This song came out in 2013, which was the same year as Miley Cyrus’s Bangerz and twerking. Although I’ve begun to appreciate the Bangerz era as I’ve gotten older, it was nice to have a former child star who wasn’t overly flashy and was more focused on letting her music and talent speak for itself. “The Way” isn’t anything overly deep, but it doesn’t try to be. It’s just a cute little throwback pop song with the intentions of putting a smile on your face. It really showed what Ariana was all about at this stage in her career; R&B-flavored pop with an emphasis on her great vocals. And even today, she’s still all about those things.

11. “Greedy”- Dangerous Woman
Just barely missing my top 10 is “Greedy”, one of the big fan favorites from the Dangerous Woman album. This song, more than any other, was the one that was requested to be a single, get a music video, all that fun stuff. Unfortunately, it never got the big push it needed to become a chart-topping hit, which I think is a disgrace. I know Future is a big name, but was pushing “Everyday” as a single really the best decision? “Greedy” had so much potential to be a big hit. In addition to it being adored by the fans, it had a sort of funky throwback sound reminiscent of Bruno Mars, a catchy chorus, excellent vocals, and a lot of potential for a great music video. I really love this song and I think it’s one of the most fun and upbeat songs Ariana has in her discography. I love how it’s so playful and in-your-face. Plus, I always love when a song does a key change in the final chorus, and this song does it. Ariana’s music, especially as of late, tends to lean more towards R&B. Most of the time, it’s more R&B like something Drake would do, and that’s fine and dandy, but I’d also like to see more throwback R&B, Bruno Mars-y songs like this. And if she does make more songs like this, her label had better not repeat the mistakes they made with “Greedy”- at least one of them needs to be released as a single and get a ton of promo!

10. “Right There”- Yours Truly
This song is the epitome of everything that made early Ariana great, with 90s R&B-inspired production, a catchy hook, adorable lyrics, and impressive vocals. This song is pretty cute, but it definitely has an urban side with the production and Big Sean’s solid rap verse. It’s probably the song on the album that bears the most resemblance to current Ariana, both sonically and quality-wise. This is a perfect pop song, with memorable and catchy melodies in every aspect of it. This is also one of Ari’s strongest vocal performances from this era. She handles her vocals with such control and the high falsetto notes at the beginning are gorgeous. She also sounds like she’s genuinely having fun singing. I feel like this is definitely Ariana’s most underrated single. It definitely underperformed on the charts compared to other songs of hers and it should have done a lot better. It could have been a huge hit if given the right promotion.

9. “God is a woman”- sweetener
This song blew my mind the first time I heard it, and even though I probably prefer the other sweetener singles, I still think “God is a woman” is an incredible song. Although the fact that it’s a sex song instead of a straight female empowerment song may be disappointing to some, I still think it manages to be empowering no matter what the subject matter is. The production and the way Ariana uses her voice really give the song a powerful vibe. You play this song and you feel like an all-powerful girl boss who can destroy anything in her way...at least that’s how I feel when I listen to it. I really like the different types of singing Ariana does in this song, from the seductive lower range in the verses to the rapid-fire pre-chorus to the belting in the chorus and the outro, all culminating in the whistle note right at the final chorus. The outro is stellar, with Ariana’s voice layered over and over to make a choir-like effect. I absolutely love when songs have vocal harmonies, and Ariana goes the extra mile by recording layers and layers of complex harmonies herself. It’s one of the many reasons why she’s my favorite. Also while I don’t have much to say about the lyrics as a whole, I adore the line “When you try to come for me, I keep on flourishing”. I just think that’s a powerful sentiment regardless of context. Whenever people try to knock you down, you just get even stronger.

8. “Touch It”- Dangerous Woman
I actually reviewed the Dangerous Woman album in 2017, and when I talked about “Touch It”, I said, and I quote:

“This is another one of my absolute favorite songs by Ariana. If I were to make a list of my top 10 favorites, this would make it.”

It’s been a few years since I said that, but I’m now making this list of my favorite Ariana songs, and “Touch It” is in my top ten. Just goes to show how much I truly love this song. And the main reason why I love this song is Ariana herself. Ariana sounds absolutely incredible on every song she’s ever sung, but if I had a gun to my head and was asked to pick the best vocal performance of her career, I’d pick “Touch It”. This song really shows off every amazing aspect of her voice, and there are so many stunning vocal moments here it’s crazy. Her low notes in the verses are soothing and surprisingly solid considering how high her voice is, her middle range is stunning, her upper belted notes are chill-inducing, and the highest notes (falsetto? Whistle notes? I’m not sure of the correct terminology) are perfect. The song itself is pretty good, with some great synths and a bunch of fantastic melody lines. But I can safely say that I wouldn’t love this song nearly as much if it wasn’t being sung by my favorite voice on the planet. Ariana’s vocal skills can make a mediocre song become worth listening to and send a good song into the stratosphere, and that’s what she does here.

7. “Honeymoon Avenue”- Yours Truly
Not many pop stars would have the first song on their first album be nearly six minutes long. From what I can tell, it’s common for pop stars, especially those who are in their debut era, to not get super risky or experimental so they can attract the general public. Most debut albums start out with the big single to hook people in with a song they already they know. Ariana took a risk by opening her debut album with a six-minute song, but it paid off because I think this song is gorgeous. The song has a unique premise of using a traffic jam as a metaphor for a souring relationship. This song is overall one of her best lyrically. She also sounds absolutely gorgeous vocally, focusing more on selling the bittersweet emotions of the song than showing off. I also really like the production of this song. There are actually two different versions of “Honeymoon Avenue”. There’s the one on the album, which is more sultry and modern, and the original, which is very 50s doo-wop and more upbeat. I definitely prefer the album version, because its less upbeat tempo just fits the lyrical content. For whatever reason, this song makes me pretty emotional. I don’t know why that is, because I’ve never dated anyone and can’t relate to the lyrics, but it’s just that one time, I was in the car listening to this song and I was trying so hard not to cry. Because it makes me emotional, I don’t really listen to this song that much, but it’s still my favorite song from Yours Truly and a very special song for Ariana and her fans.

6. “no tears left to cry”- sweetener
This song was Ariana’s first release after Dangerous Woman and the Manchester attack, and it was highly anticipated by many at the time, including myself. The result was one of the most likable and hopeful pop songs to come out in recent memory. To me, this song is about keeping a positive outlook on life and celebrating despite all the tough times one has been through. The melodies are catchy, the harmonies are tight, the production is ethereal, and Ariana delivers a knockout vocal performance. In live performances, Ariana often likes to ad-lib and make changes to the melody of the song, much to my delight, and one of my favorites is when she adds an extra high note on the final “We on another mentality” in this song. It’s just really pleasing to the ears. Everything about this song makes it a highlight of Ariana’s discography and it would be the best lead-off single for one of her albums...if she hadn’t immediately topped with her next album’s lead single a few months later.

5. “thank u, next”- thank u, next
Ariana had already been through so much by sweetener’s release, with the Manchester tragedy and her PTSD following it. But the months immediately after the album saw a bunch of really tough events in Ariana’s life, one after another. Of course, quite possibly the saddest event was seeing her ex die at such a young age, and because people are stupid and ignorant and like to assume they know everything, she actually got blamed for his death. On top of that, she called off her engagement to Pete Davidson and ended their very public relationship. As a result, even though she had just released sweetener, she made the thank u, next album pretty quickly and released it just six months afterward. The first song she released from the album was the title track, a song that makes me so proud of how far she’s come as an artist and a person. This is a song about acknowledging the hardships in your life and although they might have seemed difficult in the past, they all helped you become a better person than you were before. She takes time to thank her exes for teaching her love, patience, and pain, and although she is genuinely appreciative of her time with them, she’s ready to move onto the next chapter in her life. My favorite lyric is in the second verse where she’s talking about how she’s found someone else, but then says, “I know they say I move on too fast, but this one gon’ last/Cuz her name is Ari and I’m so good with that.” It’s such an interesting way to phrase how she’s taken time to love herself. Really, I love every line in this song and think they’re all iconic at this point. I would say this song as a whole is iconic. It was Ariana’s first #1 of her career and debuted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and while I think she deserved one before this song, it is probably the most fitting song to take the prime position. It’s something only Ariana could have made, as it is extremely personal to her, and what it represents for her is something I truly admire. Plus when she takes time to immortalize Mac by singing, “Wish I could say ‘thank you’ to Malcolm, ‘cuz he was an angel”, I get hit in the feels every time.

4. “fake smile”- thank u, next
So, as we established, 2017 and 2018 were...not great years for Ariana’s personal life. Between losing an ex-boyfriend from a drug overdose, having a very public engagement followed by a very public break-up, to a literal terrorist attack at one of her concerts, Ariana has been through a lot. The thank u, next album touches on a lot of those themes, and my personal favorite is “fake smile”. This song is about how if she’s feeling upset, she’s not gonna act like she’s not, because she has been through too much to do that. There are also some lyrics about how even though she’s so grateful to be in the position she is as a famous singer, she sometimes wishes that she wasn’t in the public eye. She admits to being too afraid to leave a party alone (presumably because she knows the paparazzi will get at her if she goes alone), and she admits that some of the things she reads about herself in the headlines are genuinely shocking to her. I think this song is a really good portrait of who Ariana is as a person, at least from my perspective. She’s been through a lot and isn’t afraid to be emotional, despite the fact that being stoic is what’s expected of big-name stars. Where this song really shines is in the lyrical content and message, but there are many other things I like about it. I like the old-school, 60s sample from a song called “After Laughter (Comes Tears)” by Wendy Rene. There’s a really nice contrast between the old-school sample and the more modern beat. I also really like the contrast between the pretty, melodic pre-chorus and the actual chorus which is more sparse. This is a song I gravitated towards when I first heard it, and immediately upon listening to it, I knew it would be one of my ultimate favorites from Ariana.

3. “Be My Baby”- My Everything
Truth time: I haven’t listened to Ariana’s second album, My Everything, because I’ve heard all the songs in snippets and only a few of them really stood out to me. One of those clear standouts was “Be My Baby”, her collaboration with Norwegian DJ Cashmere Cat. The one complaint I have about this song is that the lyrics are quite generic, but it doesn’t matter because everything else about the song more than makes up for it. This song is pretty much perfect when it comes to melodic composition to me, as every melody line is memorable and catchy. The chorus’s tune goes up and down in the most satisfying way. I also really like how complex yet appealing the production is. It’s like a mix of the R&B and dance genres, and it sounds incredible. Ariana has done some other collaborations with Cashmere Cat, and it’s clear they do good work together. Ariana herself is the highlight of the song, showing off every aspect of her range in what may be her most technically difficult song to sing yet. She goes from low in the verses to belting at the very top of her range in the final chorus to showing her falsetto and runs at the song’s outro. This song is a great showcase for Ariana’s powerhouse of a voice, but it also manages to be a fun and catchy song.

2. “breathin”- sweetener
This song is extremely personal to me. I struggle with anxiety, and seeing a person I have looked up to for a long time make a song about how she struggles with it too just means the world to me. I’d also like to say that I am so thankful this song came out when it did. In the summer of 2018, I struggled with some pretty bad anxiety. Everyday I worried myself sick with one of three irrational beliefs: everyone I cared about was going to die in a horrible accident, the people I cared about actually hated me behind my back, or I was unknowingly dying of a deadly disease. I spent that entire summer worrying and crying. Ariana’s talked about how she has always had anxiety, and she said that she wrote the song because she was having a lot of panic attacks. I relate to the lyrics immensely, with the lines “Feel my blood running, swear the sky’s falling/I know that all this sh*t’s fabricated” in particular really resonating with me. That’s one of the things about anxiety; I know the things I’m worrying about are all in my head, but in the moment when I’m having a panic attack, it seems very real and very scary. This song isn’t just really relatable, but the tone of the song and the repetition of “just keep breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’ and breathin’” make it a good song to calm you down. The production actually sounds a lot like “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake, but that’s another all-time favorite for me, so I don’t mind. One of the things I love about “Hold On, We’re Going Home” is how comforting the song feels, and that’s even more true about “breathin”. This song is a gorgeous, emotional, relatable, and comforting synthpop cloud and it means the world to me. This isn’t quite my favorite Ariana song, but it’s bar none the one I’m most grateful to her for making. This song means so much to me and so many others, and I’m so thankful that it got released as a single so that the general public could notice it and it could be there for people who need it.

1. “Into You”- Dangerous Woman
If I had to pick a favorite song of all time, I’d take a little bit to think about it. Maybe I’d choose “Africa” by Toto, a song where my love of it is something of a meme to those who know me in real life. Maybe I’d choose “Shut Up And Dance” by Walk the Moon, a song that can make me smile no matter how many times I hear it. Maybe I’d choose “Fix You” by Coldplay, a song that gets me in my feelings and resonates with me emotionally more than any other. But most likely I’d choose “Into You”. With that said, because I’m relatively sure that it’s my favorite song ever, it’s gonna be hard to talk about. I’m not sure how to explain why this song, out of the thousands I’ve heard in my lifetime, is The One. But dammit, I’m gonna try. I'm a huge fan of pure pop music, somebody who loves when it's well-made, well-produced, and catchy. This song is so perfectly made, it's like the writers have pop perfection down to a science. (and considering Max Martin, the producer behind songs like "I Want It That Way", "Baby One More Time", and "Teenage Dream" is behind it, they probably do have it down to a science.) The production is masterful, with the pounding bass in the beginning and synths in the bridge being particularly noteworthy. The sonic atmosphere this song has is perfect. The lyrics are flirty and fun, perfectly describing the feeling of being in love. That opening with the pounding beat and Ariana breathlessly singing, “I’m so into you, I can barely breathe” is awe-inspiring. And Ariana, being the vocal powerhouse she is, absolutely nails it on this song. Her vocals are low and seductive in the verses, then she’s belting in the chorus, and she even slips in a couple super-high and pretty falsettos towards the end. It’s just one of those songs where everything falls into place perfectly. If I were to write a textbook definition of the perfect pop song, it would be simple; “Into You” by Ariana Grande is the perfect pop song. That textbook would also have an entire chapter dedicated to the bridge, with the pounding beat and Ariana sounding as passionate as ever, climaxing in that amazing high note. It’s the perfect build-up to an incredible payoff with a final chorus that leaves me speechless every time. This song has been out for like four years at this point, and I’ve heard it so many times, but it still manages to be as exhilarating as it was the first time I heard it. “Into You” is the sort of song Ariana could retire on. It’s so breathtakingly perfect that Ariana could release nothing but mediocrity, or even nothing at all, and I’d still consider her my favorite. Luckily, she has continued to make amazing music, despite so many hardships in her life. I love every single song on this list, as well as plenty of other Ariana songs that didn’t make the list. But as far as I’m concerned, “Into You” will always be her zenith, the absolute high point of a discography with so many high points.


Yeah, I know, this one’s long, but when I’m writing about things I genuinely love like I do these songs, I’m naturally going to get wordy. I think my post for next Saturday will be some movie review, because as much as I love talking about music, I’d like to branch out and start talking about movies and other kinds of media as well. I’m not sure what movie it will be about, but that’s what I think it will be. So that’s where I’m going to end this post, and I’ll see you next week. 

Stellar

REVIEW: Feel Special EP by Twice

So, I'm reviewing a kpop project. I'm probably not the best-equipped person to do this, because I don't speak any Korean, and many of the cultural aspects may be lost in translation. I guess I'll try to explain as briefly as possible (hopefully not as long as when I tried to explain Panic! At The Disco's entire history before I reviewed their album, also I really disagree with what I said in that review because "High Hopes" and "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" are really annoying and they're like 2/10s but I guess that's not really relevant.) So, kpop!

Kpop is short for Korean pop. Typically, it is known for being upbeat and cheerful. For years, I wrote kpop off as being annoyingly cheery, having weird music videos (because all I knew about kpop was "Gangnam Style"), but having passionate, overzealous fanbases. I initially wrote kpop off as a genre, due to my first impression. 

But at some point in 2018, my best friend (we're just gonna call her Nike because she is the one who wrote that one post with me) got into Twice for some reason. She told me about how much she loved them, so I listened to a few songs. Initially, I wasn't too impressed and thought "eh, not really my thing, but I'm happy they make you so happy". Once "Fancy" came out in early 2019, it kind of blew my mind. It was more mature than their other songs, but was still ridiculously catchy. It had a great beat, and the music video had a great aesthetic. I then listened to "Breakthrough", one of their Japanese singles, and I loved that even more. It's probably my favorite song of theirs to date. I decided to relisten to some of Twice's older music and was surprised by how much I liked them (when it comes to pre-"Fancy" stuff, my favorites are "Likey" and "Heart Shaker"). In addition to Twice, I got into Blackpink, another kpop girl group, and fell in love with their edgier style. I learned more about how kpop works (namely the concept of comebacks and the roles of a kpop group) and although I won't claim to be the biggest fan of kpop (because, of course, this genre is known for its passionate, overzealous fanbases), but I've been a lot more open-minded and I can't wait to delve in deeper to the genre. 

Due to my friend being so passionate about Twice, I added more and more of their songs to my playlists, including the entirety of their Feel Special EP. I heard all of the songs at one point or another (except for one, but we'll get to that) and I really loved them all, so I figured I had to talk about them and why I love them so much. I'm going to review this EP, but first, I'm gonna write a short paragraph to sort of serve as an overview of Twice. For every other album review I've done, they've mostly been about artists that I have a lot to say about every stage of their career. Thus, the reviews have started with long-winded histories of these artists' discographies and personal lives. While it would probably be fitting to do the same with Twice (because as big as they are in Asia, they're not as familiar to Western audiences due to the language barrier), and while I could write every single thing I know about these nine girls as a preamble, I'm not gonna do that. One of the things I really regret about those old reviews is that I go way too in-depth, and I'd like to practice being concise for once. I also don't really think it's relevant to go super in-depth and detail their entire history. Just a brief, 200-words-or-less intro will work. So, with that being said, let's write about Twice in 200 words or less!

Twice are a South Korean girl group who were formed on the talent competition show Sixteen by JYP Entertainment. There are nine members; Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. Momo, Sana, and Mina are from Japan and Tzuyu is from Taiwan; the other members are from South Korea. They released their debut single, “Like Ooh-Ahh” on October 20, 2015, and their first EP, The Story Begins, was released the same day. In April 2016, they released their song “Cheer Up”, which brought their fame to new heights due to its catchy chorus, positive energy, and music video, which homaged many films, and the song was the best-performing song in South Korea in 2016. Some of the group’s most popular songs include the aforementioned “Cheer Up”, “TT”, “Signal”, and “What Is Love”. Twice has had many best-selling singles and albums in Korea and their “Cheer Up” and “Knock Knock” videos were the most viewed kpop videos on YouTube for 2016 and 2017, respectively. They are also quite popular in Japan and have released exclusive Japanese singles including “One More Time”, “Candy Pop”, “BDZ”, and my personal favorite, ''Breakthrough”.

That's...let's check my Google Doc's word count...191 words! I can be concise! Now, to celebrate my newfound ability to keep things short and sweet, let's take a look at the Feel Special EP.

1. "Feel Special"
The title track is the first song on the EP, and it was the main single. This song is different sonically from previous Twice songs, as it's more mature and less cutesy. While I think Twice do the whole cutesy thing well, I'm definitely a fan of this more mature sound. I'm not going to look in-depth into or judge any of the lyrics on this project due to them being in a language I don't speak, and because of that, when translated into English, they'll naturally sound odd. However, I can still tell that this song is more personal to them, even though it is one of only two songs to not have writing credits from any of the members. Instead, it was written by JYP, the founder and manager of the group. He has stated that the lyrics were written from conversation with the members and they express how they felt. Mina, one of the group's members, has struggled with anxiety, to the points where she has had to sit out of concerts and events due to her anxiety. Because of this, her verse in particular seems to be quite personal, with one of the (translated) lines being "I just wanted to hide/ Didn't wanna face the world." Despite these themes, the song is all about that one person who makes you feel like a million bucks even when you're at you're lowest, and is quite uplifting. One would probably assume that it's about a romantic partner, but I think the message is universal enough to apply to anything. I really like how the music video shows that the person that makes the girls feel special is...each other. This song has a really catchy beat and the girls sound great. While I'd say I prefer "Fancy" by a hair when it comes to Twice's 2019 singles, I still think "Feel Special" is really good. I'd give it a 9.5/10, because as good as it is, the pitched-up, sort of chipmunk-style vocals that play throughout are not my thing. Remove those and we have a 10/10 track.
2. "Rainbow"
And after that, we start with the b-sides! One thing I think is really cool is that all of the b-sides have writing credits from at least one member. This one in particular was written by Nayeon, who is the group's center. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I really like the piano in the chorus of this song. I think it's sort of 90s-esque, but whatever it is, that sort of layered piano is amazing to me. The girls really went all out on the vocals, with Jihyo and Nayeon in particular sounding really strong in the chorus. There's a lot of falsetto notes on this song and what I think is a whistle note on the final chorus. But despite the great vocal performances the members give, it never feels like they're oversinging. Like the last song, this one is uplifting and positive. I'm not sure exactly what these lyrics are about, but the overall sound and vibe of the song is worth another 9.5/10.
3. "Get Loud"
This next song sees Jihyo, the leader of the group and my friend Nike's bias (basically your bias is your favorite member) doing lyrics. From looking at the title, I first thought it was going to be a vapid dance track like "get loud, turn the bass up, dance all night" or something. Genius only has English translations for the first three songs on the EP, so I did look at that, and I think this song is more about being powerful and not letting anyone get in your way. However, you could play it at a party and it would be a great dance track. The drums are so aggressive and powerful. The girls also sound really good and this song has very catchy melodies. I first heard it when riding through a big city at night, and it really fit the vibe. It's hard to explain, but certain songs just give me the "driving at night in the big city" vibe and it is one of my favorite feelings in music. I remember texting Nike about how all of the songs I had heard on this EP have that vibe, and I think that's one of the reason why I love these songs so much. 10/10
4. "Trick It"
This next song, "Trick It", was written by Dahyun, one of the group's rappers, and my bias-wrecker. (A bias wrecker, for the uninformed, is the member of the group who makes you reconsider who your bias is. Dahyun is mine because of her rainbow hair!) This song continues with the night-drive feelings from the last track, but I think I like it even more. Naturally because of Dahyun being one of the rappers, this song has more of a hip-hop sound to it, but not to the point where it feels awkward. The production on this song is top-freaking-notch. Whoever produced this song (Wikipedia doesn't really say, it just credits the lyricist, the composers, and the arrangers) deserves a gold star. The "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh" part the song starts out with and repeats throughout is so catchy, and the chorus is fantastic and features some more excellent vocals. If I had to describe the song in one word, I would go "kinetic". I'm not sure how to explain it, but it makes sense to me. I think if I were to make a Twice top 10 (I may do this at some point!), this would probably be in it. 10/10
5. "Love Foolish"
In my rough draft for my review of this song, I just wrote "this song slaps", except with some profanity thrown in there. Momo, the group's main dancer and my personal bias, wrote this one, so I had the highest expectations of this song when looking at the tracklist. And oh my god I love it so much. This is some glitchy, experimental but still catchy electropop. I love all the interesting sounds in the production. I think this song is about a dysfunctional relationship, as one of the main highlights is Chaeyoung, another rapper of the group, saying "I love you, love you, hate, foolish". That's probably my favorite part of the song, although I love the chorus, the verses, really, every part of it. This song is just something different for Twice, a kind of sound I've never heard from them, but it still fits in with the rest of the EP.  I can totally imagine listening to it when driving through a big city at night. Momo is my bias for her cute, relatable personality (the girl is a total foodie) and amazing dance skills, but she can also write one heck of a song. 10/10
6. "21:29"
This song's lyrics were written by the entire group and the song is a dedication to their fans (known as Once). This song is a ballad and more laid-back in sound than the previous five songs, with more of an R&B sound to it. The song's meaning is perfect, as it's about how thankful the members are that they get to live their dreams thanks to their fans' support and how they will always treasure the memories they have made. The girls sound gorgeous and do some great harmonies. I definitely feel like I have less to say about this song than about the others, but that doesn't mean I love it any less. I typically prefer to listen to more upbeat music over ballads, so I can't see myself returning to this one as much as the other songs, but it's still beautiful and it really gives the EP an extra bit of emotion and heart. And I almost forgot to mention it, but if you were wondering where the title comes from, it's because they wrote the song at 9:29 PM. 9.5/10
7. "Breakthrough" (Korean version)
I already said it before- the original Japanese version of "Breakthrough" is my favorite Twice song to date. The huge electropop production just makes me want to get out into the world and be awesome. Surprisingly, I haven't heard the Korean version yet, so this is sort of a "first impression" thing. It feels weird listening to it in a different language when I've played the Japanese "Breakthrough" so many times. However, even though they changed the language, everything I loved about the original "Breakthrough" stays intact. The girls all give fierce performances, and the production is still as massive as ever, and brings back that "night drive" atmosphere I love so much. They even keep the English repetitions of "say say, don't give up!" that I loved so much. This song is about just being a boss and killing it no matter what people say. Dare I say the message of this song wouldn't be too out of place on a Beyonce album? Obviously, the song doesn't resemble Queen Bey at all sonically, but the attitude is all there. 10/10

So...maybe I'm really biased because I love these nine girls so much, but I really think every song on this EP is strong and shows a kpop powerhouse at their peak. The songs are all different but the project is still cohesive. Not a single song feels out of place. Even "Breakthrough", which wasn't even written for this project, still manages to fit in. These seven songs show a variety of unique styles, from the uplifting positivity of "Feel Special" and "Rainbow" to the percussive "Get Loud" to the hip hop-influenced "Trick It" to the glitchy "Love Foolish" to the emotional "21:29" to the fierce "Breakthrough". A fun project from start to finish. I can't wait to see what Twice does next. Seeing them grow and evolve is so rewarding. Typically when I do reviews of albums, I list my favorites and least favorites, but I genuinely do not have a "least favorite" song and think every track is replayable. My absolute favorites would be "Breakthrough", which is fantastic no matter what language it's in, "Love Foolish", and "Trick It". If you like catchy, well-produced pop music, check these girls and this EP out.

I'm not sure what my next post will be, but it should be out next Saturday! I'll see you then.

Stellar