Related Recs

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baths - obsidian

this is an album I return to in the fall/winter, and while it might not sound like a comfort album from the description i’m about to give it still plays a sort of comfort album role for me during this time of year where it’s easy to isolate and feel listless. this album was made in the midst of a period of debilitating illness for the artist that left him mostly bedridden for months at a time, during which he had little else to do but languish in his deteriorating mental and physical state. each song focuses on a different thought spiral that took over his mind in this time: his past relationship failures, his unhealthy coping mechanisms, his “inner demons,” and his increasingly frail body. though the subject matter is pretty bleak, the production and composition across the album is gorgeous, and the care that went into making the album reveals how music became an escape for Baths–a medium into which his suffering could be channeled into something which allowed him to transcend the restrictions of his illness and give meaning to his pain. I found this album during a time of similar struggles in my own life, and the album was a sort of companion to me throughout that period. It gave me some sense of not being alone in my experience, and if Baths could make it through his period of isolation and pain, then there was no reason to think that my own wouldn't also pass eventually. luckily it did, and now I can listen back to this album and find comfort in the role it played for me and also just enjoy it for being gorgeous music regardless of any personal connection I have to it. also I think it’s a hopeful album simply because it exists–a testament to Bath’s resilience as an individual and talent as an artist. and since he’s found health and happiness and gone back to making the very cute and wholesome music that is his usual style anyway all this to say if you tend to feel a little bleh this time of year and have a high tolerance for hearing other’s tragedies then this album is a great fall listen and oddly kinda cozy

@royallmonarch

Nov 1, 2024

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22° Halo - Lily of the Valley

22° Halo’s Lily of the Valley is a collection of songs written by Philly-based songwriter Will Kennedy during his wife Kate’s treatment for a very rare brain cancer. For full transparency, Will and Kate are close friends of mine – Kate’s treatment was a tremendous weight on my chest, and the news of her cancer going dormant was one of the high points of recent years for me. This album hit me hard as hell knowing the people behind it. But the more I listen, the more I marvel at the specificity and universality of what Will achieved here.   What makes Lily of the Valley such a remarkable album is the graceful confidence Kennedy presents these delicately intimate moments with. It’s incredibly difficult to write confident, commanding songs about such immense uncertainty. My jaw would drop at the sheer chutzpah of the recurring lead guitar on album opener “Bird Sanctuary” – it sounds like This Heat playing Thin Lizzy! And these are somehow the first notes we hear to set the stage for Kennedy’s recollections of some of the most precious, intimate moments of his relationship? It’s incredible.  This propulsive feeling sustains throughout the album. “Orioles at Dusk” is anthemic and climactic in an almost literal drive-into-the-sunset sense, and the closing, titular track could throw a crowd makes me want to beat the air with my fists. That an immense tenderness can remain at the forefront of songs with such electric energy, rather than something masked by the music itself, is a big part of what makes this album such a wonder.  I hate to use a word like “juxtaposition” but it really is this juxtaposition that got under my skin the first time I heard this album and has kept me coming back for 3-5 listens per week since then. If I heard this album without knowing the backstory, without paying attention to the lyrics or knowing Will or Kate, I would still place it as a new high point in the jangle pop canon. It’s how effortlessly Kennedy can get you to sing along with a song about the terror of watching the person you love most endure chemo that makes this a truly transcendent record.  The lyrics are bracingly beautiful and generously specific. The songs sometimes take on a stream of consciousness quality, as if Kennedy is remembering moments both painful and uplifting in the same thought and listing them out as they arrive to him. The moments where Kate accompanies him vocally are among the most moving I heard this year. Kennedy has an uncanny ability to shed off self-consciousness in his music without ever demanding the listener’s attention. He is beautifully articulating a truth too deeply, painfully human to present as anything other than that; the truth.

@clarke

Dec 30, 2024

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Albums to Yearn to

Here are three! Wildly different vibes here, sorry for the whiplash Hospital Bracelet is Midwest emo, kinda angry, less romantic yearning. More like yearning for better things. wished bone is ethereal. I had super intense fever dreams to this album one time. pollinate me and spring time lover still have the power to stop me dead in my tracks. Medium Build just gets it. I listened to this album for the first time on a road trip to see the eclipse this last year and my partner was asleep in my lap. It made me tear up. Love love love

@ugliestbinch

Feb 25, 2025

Top Recs from @SIETE

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Closed mouths don't get fed

This is one that I am still relearning everyday. It's always been rather dificult for me to ask for what I want, or even need. Not sure when or why this pattern started but it became glaringly obvious to me as I matured that the strongest tool I have in my arsenal is self advocacy. I realized that if you aren't willing to speak up for yourself and fight for yourself then that makes it all the more difficult for others to help you because NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT UNLESS YOU TELL THEM FIRST. Slowly shedding the fear around being heard and seen has drastically changed my life for the better. My biggest resolution this year was to stop being so scared of everything and that incudes asking for what I want or even what I know I deserve. It's definitely a journey, and something that I need to work on/relearn everyday but everyday is getting easier and better.

@SIETE

Apr 4, 2025

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ALONE TIME WITH WATER

whenever im feeling more lost than usual, in myself or the world, something that really helps me find my center again is just going to the water by myself.  she will always be there for you whether that is through river, pond, fountain, or sea. you will quickly find she wants to take all your troubles away.  try to just sit there with the water and nothing else as best you can, don’t go on your phone, don’t read a book, if you really really need to do something, listen to an album and don’t skip anything or bring a sketchbook to doodle in. just try your very best to be in the moment and nowhere else. if you are at the beach (my favorite place to be with the water) try to keep your eyes on the horizon where the sky meets the ocean. or for any location just look at the patterns on the surface and notice how light dances across it. let the water be a fidget toy for your eyes. there likely will not be any huge aha moment but i promise if you really intentionally spend time with the water, talk to it even, you will leave feeling different in some way. (here is a little collage from my last solo beach day. the most important part is that you do all this by yourself. have a one on one with the water and she will tell you what to do next)

@SIETE

Apr 11, 2025

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Rian phin, fahsion neurosis, rotational

Rian Phin - Amazing fashion video essays, my favorite place to go for fashion week recaps, as well as more intricate videos on designers, houses, and personal style in general. Rian does an amazing job of not just telling you the information but also WHY you need to be learning these things. This is the channel that first got me interested in fashion from an anthropological POV. Helping me understand why certain choices might be made when styling. An amazing refuge in the age of anti-intellectualism. Fashion Neurosis - One of a kind interview based videos, special not just for their format of therapist and patient, but also because of the heavy hitting big names that are featured in this weekly series. Haider Ackermann, Rick Owens, JW Anderson, Kate Moss and theee Honey Dijon just to name a few. This is an amazing channel giving insight to some of the biggest names and brains in fashion and style, and in such a fresh and enjoyable way. Rotational - A worldwide archive of music. This is the place to find the deepest of deep cuts. All tracks posted are usually ripped from vinyl or tape. I love going through this channel to find amazing records that most people probably haven't heard before to use when mixing and DJ'ing. From Middle Eastern disco/techno to South American sleaze/funk this is a wonderful place to remove the algorithm from your music discovery process and find something new.

@SIETE

Apr 3, 2025