2.8 KiB
| title | date | tags | draft | url | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reduced to tongue eardrum thumb pencil and price (WN28) | 2025-08-11 |
|
true | week-notes/028 |
Doing
Reading
Watching
Playing
Listening
I finally got around to listening to SOPHIE by SOPHIE. Man, I have such mixed feelings about posthumous releases. The greedy bitch in me wants more, always, especially from artists who died way too young. I know SOPHIE's brother, who finished the album, insists that SOPHIE was nearly done with it at the time of her death, but the stretch between "nearly finished" and "actually ready to release" can be miles long for an artist. I'm not an artist, by any means, of SOPHIE's caliber, but a piece of writing for me can completely transform in the edit. Posthumous albums too often feel like an early sketch1, a pastiche of the auteur that are perhaps categorically incapable of capturing the genuine vision and artistry of the deceased. Unfortunately, this was the case for me with SOPHIE: "Reason Why" and "Live in My Truth" were standouts, but in general, it lacked the thrill and voice of SOPHIE (RIP).
I downloaded nothing or something to die for by mui zyu. I had high hopes because I really like "donna like parasites" (I got a version of it in a free sample pack from the label), but I found the album as a whole to be rather dull. "donna" was my only standout. zyu did put out a collection with a few of the songs translated into Cantonese, which features Emmy the Great (who I like) — a really cool idea that would be more novel if I was into the original tracks.
I shifted to Joanna Newsom's earliest release, Walnut Whales; it's a rough sketch of songs that would be realized later, but there's something really interesting about them — I think I love "Peach, Plumb, Pear" better than the one that eventually appeared on Milk-Eyed Mender (which is, of course, iconic and still wonderful, but I love a synth). I really love "Erin" too, which never saw a re-recording outside of Walnut Whales. I listened to a bunch of Ys this week as well; it remains one of my favorite albums.
I'm still super into I Love My Computer by Ninajirachi. Brendon Bigley wrote a great review of it on Wavelengths.
-
I had similar beef with Mac Miller's Circles. ↩︎