Transcript
Speaker: Hey everybody, this is Trevor, also TH, from the I Think You Should podcast, the podcast that you're about to listen to. ah This actually started out as a solo project that I wanted to find people to partner with, but as you'll see from this first episode and the ongoing ones from this season, ah my friend B and I, as my co-host, is just was too perfect a combo. were having too much fun, so we decided to stick with it. and That's how you got the I Think You Should pod that you're about to hear.
Speaker: If you want to reach out to us with topics, offers to be on an episode to talk about something you're interested in or you think more people should know about, please email us at Ithinkyoushouldpod at gmail.com.
Speaker: Like I said earlier, this is a season, so we recorded a number of episodes that we'll be releasing over the next few weeks that started in the fall of 2025, and you'll get a chance to hear our thoughts on a bunch of different things. So, thanks. Enjoy.
Speaker: Hello, and welcome to the I Think You Should pod. I'm one of your hosts, Trevor, aka TH Paul, and I have a co-host. It's It's me. It's B. McBurnie. Hooray.
Speaker: Oh, and there's a third person in the recording virtual studio. Oh my gosh. Who is this? It's me. It's the sister. It's Erica. So we've established off mic that the nickname it should be I'm the man with wrong opinions. And now Erica's nickname is the sister. And you should just proceed from there.
Speaker: Yep. America's sister, Erica. America's sister. Oh, my God. I mean, it's not the worst title.
Speaker: It works. yeah so when i was in uh fifth grade i it was really clever to just write i america on everything because it's i am erica so i don't know it feels like it fits in my 10 year old sense of humor i don't know that just blew my mind at 40 so like i don't even know how to i don't know how to continue from there so yeah the world itself makes no sense anymore uh Before we get into this episode, dear listeners, if you're listening to these or if I've posted them in the correct order, you might remember that last time we recorded with Bea, I talked about having tummy trubs.
Speaker: And oh boy, folks, it turned out I had appendicitis. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I recorded an episode roughly 24 hours before I had to have part of myself removed. Yep. Woo! It wasn't just gas. Who knew?
Speaker: My wife. That's who knew. Yeah, your wife. Another woman in your life who is correct. Yes. Yes. Again, I'm the man who's wrong. That's my goal on this show. ah But so, yeah, it's been a bit since we actually had recorded this episode before and are now rerecording it because I also screwed that up by not paying attention to warnings from Zencaster. Just like a man. Just like a man. Again, the man who's wrong strikes again.
Speaker: ah But yeah, before we get into our topic, which is the reason we've got Erica on here, um what's everybody been watching, listening, playing, or thinks is cool they've dabbled in recently?
Speaker: I learned how to play Wingspan this weekend. Please, please talk all about how great Wingspan is. And don't tell me I'm wrong for that opinion. because No, you you are correct. So like I, I believed the hype with Wingspan, but I did not know how to play. And I have friends that are deeply obsessed with it because they're like real life druids who think all animals are wonderful. So it it wasn't like, I was like, Oh, it's overrated. Blah, blah, blah. It was just, I have no opportunity to play it because it's not really like a pickup and play a which I learned two days ago. so i what I didn't realize is I um i know that there's like 45 million expansions and all of that stuff. Well, apparently there's this thing called the nesting box
Speaker: And if you are a gamer, to compare it in size to something, I would i would compare it to if Gloomhaven and Kingdom Death had one box for both games. That is how big this nesting box is. Dear God. It is the biggest. It took up an entire half of my friend's backseat in her Subaru Forester. It is such a big box of game.
Speaker: But she has like all of the expansions. So... I sat down and played it with four people who have played it before. And my friend and i who had not played it previously, were a ah team.
Speaker: And we played it open hand, really slow. It was very cool. Everybody was incredibly patient. i'm I'm complete crap at the game now, but I really loved it. It's very crunchy, but once you start playing it, it it vibes. Like, you really get into it. So... If you have if you have not played Wingspan and you love a game about birds, I highly recommend it. It is really fun. You don't need to play it with 45 expansions. You can just play the base game. It is good as it is ah But play it with people who know how to play it because it is much easier than just reading the rules. i I have only ever played the non-expansion version, and that was crunchy enough on its own.
Speaker: I will say is like Lords of Waterdeep to me, where it feels extremely overwhelming when you start it. Yes. Oh my god, there's so many pieces, there's so many things to do. And then once you get in the actual flow of the game, it is simpler than it seems. Yes. A lot of moving parts, but like...
Speaker: Beautiful and it makes sense once you're in the game, you know, because like trying to explain rules and all of that stuff. It was just, I'm not somebody who can like, um I go to a lot of gaming conventions, but I'm not somebody who can demo a game because I can't learn like that. I can't learn on the fly. i have to learn while I'm doing it. And usually while i'm making mistakes, which if I'm playing a demo, I don't have time to do.
Speaker: hmm. So I tend to watch other people play games, which is why I loved like when Wil Wheaton did tabletop and all of that. So I could watch rounds. Oh, that show was so good. Yeah. And now Dropout has Parlor Room, which is kind of similar, but um it teaches you how to play a game and you get to watch people play the game. And I really enjoy learning in that way. I love learning by example. So sitting down and learning the game with people who are incredibly patient and had the time for me to take 10 minutes to take a turn.
Speaker: you know that that was it was really really good so i i really do recommend playing any version of the game you can get your hands on so yep that that's what i did i second it i'm a big fan of wingspan too yeah all right what about you me or erica there's two you's in this room oh you know what erica erica what have you been seeing or doing or hanging out with or but loving lately Okay, I'm going to stick with what I did in the original recording because I still haven't finished the game, but I have been playing the indie RPG in Stars and Time on the Switch 2. And it is a game about a group of travelers who are trying to save...
Speaker: some members of their party's hometown that is being frozen in time by an evil king. And the premise of the game is that you play as Sifrin and you gain the ability to loop through time. And you discover this when you attempt to take on the king in his castle and you immediately get crushed by a rock and die And rather than actually dying, um you reawaken in the same place where you started the game.
Speaker: um and then story and feelings and adorable characters ensue um i don't know that i have loved a game this hard since undertale which is huge for me because i am obsessed with undertale um And I would die for Sifrin, the main character, but no, instead the game's just going to make them die for you a whole lot. um So I highly recommend giving it a try, especially if you like kind of like Japanese style RPGs and you want your feelings crushed in a blender.
Speaker: I mean, who doesn't? That sounds sad. I was going to say delightful combination. Yeah. Highest praise for me if I'm like, it emotionally ruined me. That's how you know I loved something. Yeah. That was me Spiritfarer. I'm like, oh, did I cry for four hours playing this game? Absolutely. You should play it.
Speaker: I really need to play that. I've heard only things. It is so good. That was probably Gone Home for me. Gone Home. home oh Gone Home's a delightful game. Yeah. yeah that one really wrecked me the thing that not to go on a tangent but the funny thing about gone home was that i thought it was a horror game when i started it because of the time i went in when i say i went in blind i went in completely blind i didn't even know what kind of game it was and so as you slowly unravel what it's actually about which a surprise not really a horror game um it it caught me completely by surprise which probably is why it worked so well um
Speaker: Not that it's not good to play anyway, but yeah, that was, that was one. Yeah. Yeah. ah Stuff that I did. Hey, I lost an appendix. um In the course of doing that, I have basically indulged in only two things. One of which I'll mention in brief. It's Ted Lasso. I never finished the show. I'm finishing it now. Oh, okay.
Speaker: Yeah. I don't remember why I ended up, I think because Molly and I were watching it together and then we didn't for the third season but anyway that show is as good as i remembered it i went back and redid the beginning and uh it's still great and still incredibly charming the one that i will pick out though my first excursion out of the house sans appendix and that was to get in my car and drive to the movies to see predator badlands which is batshit insane and i mean that is a very high compliment yeah the commercials do look wild
Speaker: Well, so it's interesting. It's gotten good reviews, which I was pleasantly surprised by. It's going to get a lot of backlash. It already has because it's not a Predator film in the way those classic ones are.
Speaker: Where I was explaining this to Erica a few days ago, but, you know, the the Predator movies are horror movies or slasher movies, right? Where the the creature is the threat and everybody else is trying to outsmart the creature. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: This is about one of these creatures ah essentially trying to prove that he is you know worthy of his tribe or whatever. And thus it plays out like a big sci-fi adventure story.
Speaker: It's not you know ah scary. How do you outsmart this terrible killing machine thing? It's how does one become one of these things? And also let's humanize the creature as opposed to make it just a monster.
Speaker: And that's what people are going really mad about and already have started getting mad about. They do not like humanizing the predator as a character. ah Even though if you're like me and you read the really dorky alien and predator comic books in like the 90s, that's like that's like what they did, because otherwise those books would be the same thing every single time because, you know, there's nothing else to tell unless you give them some backstory and a little bit of like character development.
Speaker: Does it make you like sympathize with the predator? Like what does it? For this for this film? Absolutely. oh okay. Within the first two minutes, and I don't feel like this is spoiler territory because it is literally the opening of the film.
Speaker: You discover that our main character is considered a runt and therefore weakling. And so, yeah, yeah maybe and so his brother who you think has been training him has actually been trying to protect him from their father who's ordered him killed for being weak so the film opens up with dad shows up tells older brother kill the younger brother and younger brother your older brother does the heroic thing which is saves his younger brother and tries to fight dad which goes badly right so the whole it is it's a very effective opening to the film it's like five minutes in and there's a pretty heart-wrenching loss of a character you barely know which is the elder brother
Speaker: um And then the rest of the film is deck, which is the character's name, the predator, essentially trying to not initially, it seems like he's trying to win his father's respect back, but it quickly becomes a apparent. He's really trying to justify his brother's faith in him.
Speaker: Got it And that is actually really touching. Like they do a great job of it where it's very clear that his entire motivation is my brother thought I was worth saving. I have to prove to him that I was worth saving.
Speaker: And, That's very heartwarming. its It becomes a theme throughout the whole story because, the so surprise, the film contains a lot of other characters. And eventually they sort of, you know, paths intersect and you figure out who is worth saving and why. And everybody's perspective on that kind of changes. In other words, it's a really good movie. If it was not labeled Predator, I don't think you'd be seeing people getting as pissy about it.
Speaker: Right, but they have the original Predators in their brains. Right. They also, this is a tendency with fandom around this stuff too, just like the Alien franchise, which is interwoven with this franchise.
Speaker: People tend to ignore that like beyond the first couple films, there's a lot of really bad movies of these that have been made. Yeah. Like very recently, The Predator, yes, that was the title, not Predator, The Predator.
Speaker: was made versus aliens yeah yeah and it was shane black and i'm sorry that movie is bad it's a bad movie and and so are most of the alien versus predator movies which are utterly lacking in ah in real reasons to watch them or anything to remember about them.
Speaker: So I don't know. it It was kind of given a ah lot of flack initially because it got a PG-13 rating. um It turns out that's probably because there's no human blood in this movie so they can get away with it because that's host what that's how That's how weird rating systems work. Oh, the blood is not red. I guess we don't have to call it rated R. This movie is insanely violent. I know it's it's insanely violent. And yet that's a justification that they don't have to give it, you know, the R rating apparently. So I've heard, but yeah, short version.
Speaker: It's a really good movie. It's not the movie people, including me were maybe expecting, but if you're, i don't know, I'm very tired of people who are inflexible about art. like You need to go into something and be willing to let them do something different, which is probably going to relate to what we're talking about today, because I feel like that was a topic last time we had this conversation. Yes. So why don't you, why don't you two dive in and introduce what we're actually going to talk about today? Okay. Because you are the experts and I'm the guy who just started listening to this. I mean, I think, I think Eric is the expert, but I'll, I'll at least give a little bit of a, today we're talking about our Lord and Savior, Carly Rae Jepsen.
Speaker: ah queen Canadian queen pop idol ah extraordinaire who has been around for many a year in various forms but she started way back 2007 with Canadian Idol and then really transitioned in like 20 20
Speaker: he 12 into like 2015 which is when her like iconic album came out Emotion it is the 10th anniversary of it this year and Erica and I are here to tell you why you should listen to Carly Rae Jepsen over many many many many other pop artists and why she is singular in a category of you know dime a dozen pop artists that she's doing it better and doing it a lot herself i think is ah is a big thing with her so yeah am i wrong in thinking she has written all of her own music
Speaker: I know she's written a majority of it. I will i will say, i I cannot say, yeah, she's written everything herself. right I can say that she does have a hand in writing almost, if not all of her stuff. She does have credits on a lot of her things, but like she is not in the same vein as like a Britney or a Christina where she where like her team is farming out songs, basically, where where they're trying like putting a call out for songwriters who are trying to shop songs she does work with teams of songwriters she's not writing everything solo in a dark room with a candle but like she's for sure involved in the process and is very smart and understands what it takes to make pop music um good good pop music very good pop music and and her primary collaborator collaborator is her husband is that right erica
Speaker: Oh gosh, I have no idea. she um yeah she she She did just get married, so we'll say yes. And she's pregnant. he it Oh my God, is she? Oh my God. She just waking posted stuff on Instagram like a couple days ago. You heard it here live several weeks later. The like one thing I follow on Instagram besides like everybody's hot book takes. Love that. Yes, that is fantastic. We were we had just discussed her her wedding attire recently in our little good chat and she looked phenomenal and her wedding looked so fun. And now she is with child. yeah There's been a fetal collaboration. Fantastic.
Speaker: But she i don't know if she works a lot with her husband, who is also Grammy-winning music producer, but she does work with um really amazing producers and writers on creating this pop persona that has been ah going strong for more than 10 years, but for 10 years properly from like a really good record, which is what emotion is. So Erica is of a very big fan of Carly Rae. And what I would like to know, Erica, is why?
Speaker: Why do you love Carly Rae so much? I am a person that operates on feels and Carly Rae Jepsen just cranks out all the feels for me. um But like specifically all of the like fuzzy you're falling in love, like the soundtrack on the romance movies booming kind of feelings. um Like so many of her songs are about falling in love or being in love and the high of that
Speaker: but she does it in a way that I actually believe like within the song that she feels it. Um, and everything is like synth and like in run away with me when that saxophone hits and you're just like, Oh my God. Um, it just, the music and the lyrics and her voice and her energy just all come together in like a perfect storm. um and it you just feel all of it like I I know you said I was an expert I don't know anything like producers or like musicians I mean on her music though I mean like you you have listened to her music for a long time and a very long time you love it yeah like I don't need you to like you don't need to go into like oh she was born and this day on this time and this is her rising sign it's just that when it comes to listening to her music you have extensive experience which is to me what makes you an expert and that is absolutely true yeah absolutely my my brief research onto that shows that her husband did produce her most recent 2023 album with her looks like which makes sense and has written stuff for her previously but he's also written for a lot of other people so i would guess he's probably helped but i maybe he's not
Speaker: a primary collaborator. It gives like the Benny Blanco, Selena Gomez thing, right? Like they met working together and then they've now collaborated since they've been involved with one another. And you know, now they're yeah married and in love and all of that garbage. So what, what we know about Carly Rae Jepsen and what most people will know about Carly Rae Jepsen is call me. Maybe it is the song that nobody could escape in 2012. And twelve and ah it is
Speaker: very likely one of the most perfect pop songs to ever exist, but it is that earworm and that overplayed feeling that comes to you. Like when you hear Mr. Brightside, you know, by the killers, you're like, I love this song. It's fucking great, but I'm so tired of hearing it, which is exactly what call me. Maybe did and suffered from, but Carly Rae actually started way back 2007 and seven when she was on Canadian Idol, of all things. Which I did not know existed. but I did not know until looking into this, into into her at all. All I knew was her music, much like Erica. So this is really just me doing cursory research to be like, yes, Carly Rae Jepsen is a whole person besides writing and performing amazing music. And I assume Canadian Idol is like ah the Canadian Football League where they have one more contestant on the field at all times. And that's what makes it different from American Idol. And it's like three more episodes because the field has to be that much longer. Right, right. Thank you. Thank you for running with my joke. Yeah, i here I am. Yeah, absolutely. Was that also, I think from what I read, because we should point out as the non Carly Rae fan here, and I will share my Carly Rae
Speaker: um call me maybe story in a bit because that was how i knew her previously you two sent me music by her to listen to as an in essentially yes and i then fell down a rabbit hole i've since become very uh enamored with emotion as an album i think that album might be perfect question mark soft question mark it's it's close um But also she was like recognized by Justin Bieber or something while she was on Canadian Idol or there was some connection there where he got her to perform in some of his early stuff. Yeah. So Justin Bieber is Canadian, as many people know, or many people should know, but they don't. is And he was, you know, the the preteen heartthrob. And he, you know, basically pointed at Carly Rae and was like, she's the best in that.
Speaker: essentially rocketed her not into stardom, but into... you know, recognized status. And she did, she has done a song with him and has worked with many famous Canadian singers and other songwriters and stuff. Rufus Wainwright. Rufus Wainwright. Love him. yeah Absolutely. the song and they do together is one of my favorite songs. so delightful. It's truly great. And I love them together. They're just, they're a really good duo. And I just think Rufus Wainwright is phenomenal, but yeah, it,
Speaker: You know, it got the nod from Bieber, which is what kind of made people notice. And I think that is essentially where the record pre emotion came from because emotion was a real switch for her from you know like this bubblegum pop into almost like dance poppy stuff which is yeah you know kind of where she is sat for the last 10 years in this really beautiful euro pop dance disco thing which i think is fantastic i was about to say she hit like disco pop
Speaker: That's what I would describe it, which is...
Speaker: really well thought out disco euro dance pop so you're gonna hear her more likely in a club than you're gonna hear her on the radio yeah because her music is so well produced that it's much more fun to dance to than it is to listen to in a car unless you're a fan of her already which i do both so Yeah, I mean, do both yeah yeah those those songs that were shared before, i there's a couple of them that have have nestled into my rotation as like, these are just good songs. That's an excellent transition. So as preparation for this podcast, Erica and I were asked to... pick out some songs that we would put on like an intro to Carly Rae playlist. So we each went and picked out some songs and there were overlaps, which we will discuss, but I'm going to let Erica have them because that she is she's the guest. So she gets to have the two songs that I also added to my list. So Erica, what were the songs that if somebody who only knew Carly Rae from Call Me Maybe and really wanted...
Speaker: to branch out, really wanted like a good scope of her music. What what are the songs you would throw at them as the intro? Okay. would definitely recommend Run Away With Me, which is the first track on Emotion. um It has an epic saxophone. And I feel like if you listen to that song and you don't like it, then Carly Rydre Jepsen is not for you. And that's an incorrect opinion, but I can accept it. because I feel like it just encapsulates like...
Speaker: her turn to like you were saying, like the disco pop and the dance pop. um And it's got like, I love a song that like builds gradually and then just like explodes in the middle. And it has that and it's brilliant. um Other songs that I had off of emotion were warm blood, which the base on that is just a good vibe. um And it's very different than a lot of the other songs on that album. Like,
Speaker: I don't have the music ah knowledge to explain why, but it's like a little bit slower, a little bit like. I don't know, the lyrics in it are so delightful. I am actually sorry, I'm going to pull it up in real time because I want to talk about them. um Let's see.
Speaker: like that eica I should mention at this point that before I got listening to that music, because of the way people talk about Carly Rae in the music, like critic sphere, which is ah extremely complimentary, but also like as an artiste, that's how she gets discussed.
Speaker: um I expected her to be a bit more on the folk music, um like crafted girl with guitar type. sound right and when you actually get into it it's not that like we said it's that disco pop catchy club music but it is an elevated version of that i don't know if if there's a better way to describe what she does it's way more complex than i'm just trying to crank out a radio hit right which i think is what we meant when b you were saying like that first album is the bubblegum pop american pop like right that i want to i want to chart yeah as opposed to you i want to make good music music yeah let's hope two or three of these things make it on the charts and i get some attention out of it whereas all her newer stuff is like it's going to chart with the people who already like this stuff right it doesn't matter if it makes it mainstream like capital m or not right yeah which is a very interesting distinction and i just wanted to point that out sorry erica
Speaker: Okay, I'll just throw in one of the verses from Warm Blood, which is let down my guard tonight. I just don't care anymore. And I've told a hundred lies, but I don't want to tell you any at all. And that just like really like Cupid's arrow right to my little romantic heart. It's so good and so delightful. Yeah.
Speaker: And just even the title Warm Blood is like a little bit sexual, a little bit horny. And in our original recording, um I was like, Carly Rae was horny before Sabrina Carpenter was, but in a different way. Yes. ah It's a little more subtle and like blended in. And I think the way that like a lot of um like older songs like were about sex without actually saying they were. And I think she does that really well.
Speaker: ah The other songs that I had on here, Stay Away is I believe one of the B sides of emotion. um i can't remember off the top of my head, but that is another good thing to know about Carly Rae Jepsen is if she has a B-side version of her album, you should listen to it. It is an album as good as the album that you have listened to.
Speaker: um i agree. Like everything just hits. And let's see. That one is just like a very dancey one. Like if you want one that you can just dance to that would fit in at a club, Stay Away is a good one.
Speaker: um The other two I had were cut to the feeling, which is not on any of her albums, if I'm remembering correctly, despite being like the most single song I've ever heard.
Speaker: it's fantastic for it was cut it was cut from her record so like it was supposed to make a record and they cut it off of the track listing because that's how many good songs that they cut arguably the best song off of the record it is my personal favorite i have to yeah it's delightful I think I also listened to it first.
Speaker: And so it became the barometer for the rest of them. And I was like, yeah, these are all good. But I don't know the heights of that first one. The way run away with me has the epic saxophone. Cut to the Feeling has the epic clap track. So you feel really like jazzed when you're listening to it. And the chorus hits so hard that you just can't help but like start dancing wherever you are.
Speaker: Yeah. ah My partner and I entered our wedding reception to cut to the feeling. It is that kind of song. Hell yes. That is phenomenal. Yeah. So good. to To the other point too about Sabrina Carpenter, Erica, here's the thing. And this is no diss on Sabrina Carpenter. she's I'm not a huge fan, but she's fine.
Speaker: But like this the sexiness for s Sabrina Carpenter is much more in your face. Yes. And like that is intentional. And I appreciate that in the same way I appreciate it from somebody like Megan Thee Stallion or someone like that, who's like, yeah yeah, we're allowed as women to be upfront about our sexuality. That's cool.
Speaker: I don't have a problem with it. What's interesting about Carly Rae's stuff is that like it is very clearly steeped in sexiness, horniness and everything else. But she's doing it, like you said, in a much more i don't even think it's subtle. I think it's a more like.
Speaker: natural way if that makes sense like understated it's not forced it doesn't feel like uh it doesn't it's it's a less marilyn monroe feeling right like when you that's a good carpenter you feel like sabrina carpenter has like that retro yup vampy sex pot kind of a thing yes whereas carly ray it feels <unk> more like homegrown like heartfelt she's got the girl next door vibe that's been her whole thing right right but also like she she's got this I don't know something about Carly Rae's music she feels so genuine as a person that she doesn't feel like a persona right what I what I get when I see and like again this is not a day on Sabrina Carpenter I love what she's doing I think that it's fantastic and I love that she's making a bag off of it but Sabrina Carpenter feels like a persona
Speaker: yeah so when you see her with like the wig and the bodysuit and the eight inch heels and all of that it's like that feels like a a costume that you're putting on whereas when you see or hear carly ray's music you don't feel like she's putting you on at all you feel like you're in the relationship with her or like you're also you're horny with her or like you're doing all of these things alongside of her like you're talking to like a girlfriend which is what i like a lot of like I think that that's 100% accurate. I think a lot of artists kind of learned the wrong lesson from the like M&M explosion that happened. Cause I, as somebody who's a big fan of M&M as an artist,
Speaker: his whole thing was that he would switch between different personas, right? He'd put on different attitudes and costumes. There's Marshall Mathers, there's Eminem. there's There's Slim Shady, there's the whole thing, right? And in doing that, he has talked a lot of interviews about that allowed him to do different types of music and songs and lyrics because he could say things he personally wouldn't say, but he could say them as the character because he's like I'm embodying a character so I can do this now, right?
Speaker: And I think a lot of artists took that as like, well, I have to slap a persona on myself you know, in some ways. Right. And some of them make it work. mean, get it protection. Like, protection reasons. also true. Like, I can't give you all of me because, like, then I don't have any me left. Right. Especially in, like, this time.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. I mean, look at what happened to Brittany. Yeah. I mean, Britney Spears. Right. And it's like, you're slapping on this persona. What Eminem did is that, yes, he tri he like had all of these different personas that he could write under, that he could perform under, but it felt much more genuine. like like These are all different sides of my own personality because they're similar but different to who I am as a person. It's not like when Garth Brooks did the Chris Gaines thing, right? Where he became a completely different person. person right it's like with Sabrina Carpenter like in five years are we gonna have an album where she like doesn't put hairspray in her hair and she wears flats instead you know like is it gonna be an era situation you know an era situation but like with Carly Rae it feels like if she's protecting her own piece because she should and I love that for her but like
Speaker: Even if the person on the album is a persona, it doesn't feel like that, which is what is really enjoyable because it feels real more real than I would say a lot of other pop artists. you know like She's not singer-songwriter, so you're not getting that like heart-wrenching, gut guttural feeling, but like you still are, and you're doing it while dancing.
Speaker: Yeah, you have to pay attention to what she's actually saying. She's not doing ballads, right but she is giving you a lot of stuff about her through her own type of music. Yeah, I agree. I agree.
Speaker: Yeah, so Cut to the Feeling and Runaway With Me are the two songs that also were on my list because they are, to me, quintessential Carly Rae. If I was going to give you two songs of hers to listen to, it would be those. you know And if you get through those two and you're still with me, then it's like, here's the rest of the playlist you have been proven worthy. Yeah. And yeah, those are those are definitely two songs that I would absolutely give. My songs were Julian, which is a personal preference because my friend helped write it, Nate Seifert, who I met way back in his college days when he was the lead singer of a band called This Condition and is now this very famous, ah very cool songwriter for many very cool people. And i ah feel privileged to know him and to have...
Speaker: been in a Brooklyn basement listening to his band while he danced around singing about ah being in his underwear in front of his boyfriend who I think he's now married to so hooray Hey, it worked out. Yeah, it worked out great. So um my other songs were a Psychedelic Switch because I think the but the beat on it is just ah so good.
Speaker: It's so good. i really liked Talking to Yourself because I think it's very cool. i I just like the vibe of the song. Black Heart was kind of my dark horse song, the way kind of warm blood is for you.
Speaker: And Your Type, which are, that those are those are my my five. And then my honorable mentions were obviously Call Me Baby and Good Time, which is the song that ah Carly Rae did with Owl City.
Speaker: Who i now love song. Yeah, Owl City, like, if you could get past Fireflies, which a lot of us couldn't, ah please listen to Good Time and ah redeem yourself. It's kind of like Fireflies are the reason that you hate Owl City, but Good Time should be the reason you love them. And The Loneliest Time is the song that she did with Rufus Wainwright, which is really, oh which is off the so album of the same name. So, which is like a two-part album because she also did The Loveliest Time as well with that record. yeah. That's what I really like about her is that she's, and like you said, Erica, that like she's releasing B-sides. She's basically doing double albums. Yeah. Every time she releases a record, which is crazy. is she calling them Carly's version? Yeah.
Speaker: No, because I think she probably already owns her music. Oh, yeah yeah interesting interesting. Yeah. So the reason that happened is because, you know, you you didn't already own your music. So you had to rerecord all of your music. I don't think Carly is going to be doing that. i Or I hope not. I hope she will not go through a multi-million dollar battle for her own music.
Speaker: yeah I think she's probably okay. I do want to shout out Call Me Maybe real quickly because that was the song I do from Carly Rae Jepsen. And i but the story I have of this is one I told before, but we lost the recording, which is that I was living in China at the time, and I'm living in Tianjin. I used to go running along the Hai He, the river that runs through the city that is kind of like the main artery through Tianjin.
Speaker: And it's got a beautiful river walk next to it. So you can run and then there's so many bridges, you can cross a bridge to basically create a loop back to where my apartment was. And I used to just like absolutely tear up the run listening to Call Me Maybe because that song slaps the whole way through. It's also at the right RPM.
Speaker: to run it is it is crazy how much it would push me through a point where i felt like i was like losing the thread or tired or didn't want to keep going i was like well if i throw call me maybe on right now i'm fine like it'll get me where i need to go uh i i would argue that is maybe the most the best pop song of the last 25 years it's in the running at least it should be in the conversation um I went back and rewatched the music video because I remember finding the music video utterly delightful, which is, I think also why I get the vibe of girl next door, because that is entirely the tone of the video. For those who don't know, it basically features Carly Rae with her band in her garage.
Speaker: And she's got a super hot guy neighbor mowing his lawn or doing other yard work who she is constantly trying to get the attention of. Hence the song's title. not That ends with her falling off the hood of the car. She's trying to sexily wash with soap and water because, of course, her character is being portrayed not as incredibly sexy, but as cute, awkward girl next door, which I think fits her personality really well.
Speaker: And... At the end of the video, we discover that said guy next door is actually into her guitarist because it turns out he's gay. It's done really, really well. It's super charming and fun. And ah again, it makes her feel a lot more relatable.
Speaker: the way that it's shot like i think charming is like the perfect description of her yeah she's charming she is incredibly charming and i think that if she was a pop artist like a britney or even like a sabrina carpenter or whoever like that video would be trying to highlight how otherworldly awesome she is or sexy or whatever and none of her stuff does that like i remember i came remember which video it is erica that she's like traveling around Europe as they're filming the music video.
Speaker: i can't remember. actually haven't watched a ton of her music videos and I don't believe I've seen that one. The only reason I know this is because I use YouTube music. So oftentimes it gives me a video and instead of just the song.
Speaker: And I don't know why it tugged at my like emotional, like heartstrings and memories of being in China or traveling around Europe with like you know, friends in my twenties because a but ah bunch of this song, whichever, what it was, was her with these same friends in like apartments doing karaoke. I think it's run away with me. Run away with me. It is. doesn't make sense It is. And it's, and like, the music is great. I'm not saying that, but like the video also felt relatable.
Speaker: Yeah. that Like that's the thing that is kind of hard to, I think it's incredibly hard to do what she does with her music being that dance core, like, you know, club hit type music. Yeah. And also having the videos and the tone strike it as somebody who's like, yeah, but she'd be super easy to walk up and just talk to.
Speaker: Like that's deeply approachable. Yeah. Yeah. So I just wanted to make sure I got that there. Maybe it's the Canadian thing. It's got to be the Canadian thing. She's got that Canadian vibe that it's like she seems like very girl next door, not pick me. Like it's not, it's not Taylor, you belong with me. It's very much like this is genuinely who I am as a person. I'm just this awkward Canadian girl who is making music about being in love, which is something that most people experience at one point or another in their lives. Yeah. Yeah. She also has a face that you're just like, I want to talk to you as a person. You don't look mean. And I really like that about her. You know, I don't even know what her face would look like if she was being mean. I don't think she's capable of it.
Speaker: it's It's the Canadian thing. They don't breed them that way. canadian thing Well, um go ahead, Erica. Oh, I was just going to say the one music video that I have watched that I think everyone listening should go check out, especially if you love cats, is the Now That I Found You music video. Okay, is a love song about like, oh, I'm so happy we're together.
Speaker: But they made the music video as if I finally found my sweet, adorable cat. I can't remember if the cat like got lost, or if she just discovered this sweet, fluffy baby, but it is so ridiculous, and delightful. And I think also walks that line of like,
Speaker: you know, this easily could have just like been a, like I'm going to dance in a sexy costume and there's nothing wrong with that. But instead she's in some great outfits and there's a lot of cats and I can get behind both of those things. love that. I don't think you know how much you just made bees night. Yeah. I'm literally on, I'm going to pause this podcast to go to youtube.com and watch this video right now. For the record, for the record, Bea has two of the spiciest boys that she takes care of at home. They're spicy. They're so sweet. I just left them for five days and now they will not leave my side. I also have a girl who has been. that's right. I'd forgotten. Yeah. My, my littlest one who I've had since she was a kitten. She has been.
Speaker: attached to me since I walked through the door because she's like you've worked you were gone i thought you died yeah but I mean it took them less than a day to fall back in love with my cat sitter so don't let them no no don't let them fool you they were perfectly content to have me not here but they're very happy to have me back but yeah I am team anything with cats and then a queer ally making a video about cats hell yeah I'm into it we love that Carly's for the gays and the they's and I'm obsessed I love it.
Speaker: um Do we want to talk Taylor? Because that's the looming... The elephant in the room? Yeah. Yeah. The Ophelia in the room? Oh, God. Oh, Erica and I, that's a traumatic thing to bring up right now because of the thing that happened with Erica and myself related to another immediate blood member of our family. Oh, boy. Oh, no. I don't think we can talk about it on this podcast. We probably shouldn't. What if he listens? Anyway. We'll tell you later, B. Yeah, we'll tell you mic. I can't wait. That's an off mic. We should.
Speaker: We should say ah Taylor's most recent album is bad. is a bad album. yes And if you're an objective listener to music, you can recognize that is a bad album because it's her. It's still better than most bad albums, but it's still a bad album.
Speaker: And yeah, I mean, it was produced by Max Martin, which is impossible. he cannot make a bad album. It is against the law, but this is a bad album for Max Martin. He clearly was just like whatever she wants and then left the room.
Speaker: Which is a big mistake, I think. i think Agreed. I think that Taylor does much better when she is being somewhat restrained by somebody with a lick of sense around her. So to that point, Erica, you've brought it up before. What's the one great Taylor Swift album? Because it's true.
Speaker: Oh, i I have a couple, I mean, i folklore and red are my, are my Taylor loyalties. I mean, evermore too, which yeah, those are the big three for me.
Speaker: I guess to me, yeah the great like capital G album is ever is a folklore. I think yeah that that album is like the best artistic thing she's made. She's made conveniently made while in a pandemic when she was really not able to be around anybody and made with like,
Speaker: and Made with Jack, obviously, Jack Antonoff, who is an amazing songwriter and producer. And he has a lot of problems ah in a personal way. And I don't care about that kind of stuff. And generally, I don't like him as a person, but he makes a good album, unfortunately. So he's a good producer. oh We're going to have to talk off pod. I want to hear because I i love ah Bleachers a whole lot. ah Oh, yeah. But i have heard i have heard inklings of maybe him not being a great person.
Speaker: Yeah, not a great person, excellent songwriter, amazing producer, and Folklore is an unmatched record. I think it is the most genuine of her her of her records. And if you compar it's hard to compare Taylor and Carly because they're in completely different categories and in completely different leagues. But by people people who have both worked with Swedish pop producers, which is what Max Martin is, he's the king of Swedish pop, um you see the influence on Carly Rae's music versus Taylor's music.
Speaker: The Carly Rae's music is made better by working with Swedish pop teams and Taylor's music apparently wasn't touched by working with, with Swedish pop teams. And we're talking about people who made Britney, who made Christina, who made Backstreet Boys, who worked with NSYNC, who've worked with people all the way back to Robin, you know, like these are, these are tried and true tested songwriters and producers who, Who are the best at what they do. And for Taylor to have gone in and made a record with Max Martin and his whole team and to have it be this proves that people have stopped being able to tell her no.
Speaker: yeah And that to me is the case in any industry, whether it be an author, whether it be a director, whether it be a musician. Once you get to the stage of people can't tell you no, you need to stop because like yep you are you are not a monolith. You still need people around you who can be objective because you can't be subjective about your own work. You need people who are going to tell you, hey, this is crap, and then to try again.
Speaker: I do think the way to compare Carly and Taylor is the thing that we've talked about with both them, which is everything that Carly Rae Jepsen puts out feels authentic and feels genuinely like it's coming from her.
Speaker: Whereas the problem that I've had with most of Taylor Swift's albums is that there aren't a lot of them that make it feel like I'm getting a real idea of who this person is. Like it's the folklore is the one that I think when we recorded this previously, we agreed is the album that feels the most like we actually got a lot of insight into her and There's just not much of that in a lot of her other stuff.
Speaker: I think what's happening is that with Carly, with Carly's music, Carly has had the opportunity as I understand it to live a real life, right? Like she's obviously done well. She was on Canadian Idol and she has been consistently in the industry since 2007, 2008, right? She has been making music, but she has not soared to the level of stardom and billionaire as other pop stars. Yeah. And you have, as far as I understand it now, again, I haven't done a super deep dive into it. Like I didn't go like, you know, tinfoil on the windows, lights out going deep into the dark web about Carly Rae. So I don't know what like a lot of her history is, but it feels that.
Speaker: She had some sense of normalcy. Whereas with Taylor, she became famous so young and like didn't go to like she was homeschooled and also grew up in a completely different environment and was pushed into the industry really young and got really popular really young. And in the beginning, her music did feel genuine. She was a teenager singing about teenage love and high school and all of that stuff. But unfortunately, at at some point she turned, i don't know, 20 and then she turned 25 and then she turned 30, but she's still singing about the same shit. So like the issue is that her records stopped feeling genuine because...
Speaker: they they they don't relate to the people that are like growing up with her music whereas carly's when call me maybe came out right like it was in 2012 we were all much younger we it was pre you know harambe know when everything went to hell so like so like We were all kids together, it felt like you know like. We all felt like, yeah, call me baby. It's such a jam. you know like We were in a completely different like path.
Speaker: And now she's singing about like more adult topics. And like it's boppy. And it's about real emotion. Whereas what's happened with somebody like Taylor, or there are definitely other artists out there who have done this. Whereas like your music is now unrelatable because you're still singing about high school. And all of us are 40.
Speaker: Well, this is the issue Eminem. a month yeah she's a less than month. Yeah, she's less than a month out from turning 36, right? like she She's the one who made the record called 1989. So like we know how old you are.
Speaker: And you're still talking about, like oh, you know like boys in high school. I'm like, that's gross. Yeah. You're 35 years old. Please sing about something else. Also, please learn how to read. But like, it's just too much. It's just at one point you have to be a grown up. And like, was this your grown up record? Because it doesn't feel like it. It's bad. It's bad. I also on the topic of like being genuine, like I i don't think any artist is required to like give themselves to you. It's just like an unfair ask. But i think the thing with Taylor is that She markets herself as you can have access to like my real life and my real personality and relationships. And I'm very aware and I know you two are both very aware that this is a marketing tactic, but her fans are not Like, no, no, I have a close friend who like really believes there are some candid moments in like the Travis Kelsey podcast where she announced the album and I'm just like I you are too far gone my friend. And I think that's the thing is like.
Speaker: I don't think Carly Rae Dropson and a lot of other artists ever like asked people to believe that their music represented them as a whole person. Whereas I feel like Taylor Swift and her team, I would assume are like yeah selling that this is the real her. um And if life of a show girl is the real Taylor, just no, thank you. I'm good. thanks. I agree completely with that, Erica. I also think that,
Speaker: i brought ah m I brought up Eminem earlier. yeah but he got chewed up for essentially doing what B's saying, which is he kept making the same albums about like, you know, being a guy from, you know, 8 Mile and having like a rough upbringing and all this stuff. Like, dude, do you have millions of dollars now. get Get the fuck out of here. What are you talking about? And he actually kind of backed off of that and just was like, yeah, okay. Like he went away essentially just yeah for producing music instead.
Speaker: It's why like when he puts out albums and he tries to go back to that persona, everybody's like, yeah man no like you're 45 or whatever now and like this isn't who you are uh right he's he sort of walked that back more because it doesn't have to be genuine you don't have to present yourself in pure authenticity at all times but you do have to have like a you know believable presentation of yourself. yes well Taylor's presentation, like you said, is so curated.
Speaker: It doesn't feel like there's anything candid about anything that she does because quite frankly, how could there be given the way that her life works now is like the biggest pop star on the planet.
Speaker: right like Well, everybody saw Miss Americana and they were like, she's my best friend. And I was like, she wouldn't spit on you if you were on fire. Okay. So just just remember who she is and that she is a business. She is a brand, you know, and that's fine. But don't, you cannot be a brand and then also be like, all my fans are my best friends because what you're going to create is a lot of delusional people who think that they know everything that's going on in that tiny little brain of hers you know like if you're going create a persona do the sabrina carpenter create the vamp do the marilyn monroe go for it or do the marshall mathers do the slim shady do do the persona thing i'm team that i think you should protect your peace i i don't think that you should ever give all of yourself to an audience in of a public you should curating who you are to the public is completely and totally fine but do not market it as being like i'm just like you i'm the girl next door first of all you were never the girl next door you grew up rich and then you skyrocketed into fame and you have you know dated celebrities and you have been this girl and now you're still being like i'm just i'm the girl in high school sitting on the bleachers i'm like you are not that girl Honestly, if you're going to do the persona thing, just go full Slipknot. Put on some masks. Pretend to be somebody else. Oh, my God. Yeah, like yeah absolutely. feel Feel however you want to about Slipknot. I'm personally a fan of that band. But, ah you know, I do like the idea that they're just like, no, we're just going to throw on masks or makeup or whatever and become this thing as part of our entertainment act. Cool. Do drag.
Speaker: Do drag. Beat Chapel Rock. Do drag. Okay? Sure. so like This is, i'll i'll leave I'll use a more current example. Chapel Rhone has created a persona for herself and that persona is Chapel Rhone. That is not her real name. That is not who she is, but she is that person when she walks on stage and when she does public appearances. And she did catch shit, ah at least for a bit, of being like,
Speaker: genuine but also disingenuous because it was like well we don't know who you really are and she's like i'm protecting who i am and you don't have the right to to invade who i am please do not call me by my real name when we're out in public you don't have that kind of access to me and she was labeled a whole lot of things for creating a boundary and taylor didn't create that boundary because she wanted to make money Yeah.
Speaker: So I think you said going well, though, into that idea of the other artists that we had thought of specifically yeah female artists, people might not. Well, probably no, but maybe don't know as well. There were two that I had brought up on the last recording, which was Billie Eilish and Chaperone is like.
Speaker: big names that i'm also a huge fan of right um i have to say i'm an even more enormous fan of billy eilish now since the whole donation oh my god yeah money announcement and everything and the deep dive in context we are at the time of year where billy eilish sat in a room full of billionaires and told them to give up their money and then she gave up 11 million dollars to charity Which I believe is one in third of her total wealth. One third of her total wealth and she is still incredibly wealthy. And then there were a bunch of infographics about what would happen if all of the billionaires gave up a third of their wealth. So yup what a time to be alive.
Speaker: It was brilliant. i've I've been out on my statement that I would prefer that she not have the two thirds she still has still and have less. But also we don't live in a world where that's a thing that happens. And the fact that she was willing to give up that much and nobody else. She has people to pay. get it.
Speaker: Yep. Yeah, i'm I'm all for it. it's I support If you're not going to get taxed appropriately by your country, your system, then that's the next best thing you can do, honestly. I agree. I wholeheartedly concur. It made me more of a fan of hers than I was before.
Speaker: Yeah, i so we stand Billie Eilish on this podcast. So, yeah. um Also, okay, do we have to talk about my thoughts on Chapel Roan? We have to talk about it because- to talk about your deranged take. My wild take. Hey, welcome to The White Man is Run. It has traumatized me since the first recording.
Speaker: Welcome to the white man is wrong corner. So yeah, we discussed, um I can never remember the full name of the stupid album. Rise and i want you it's in fall of a Midwest princess. Rise and fall of a Midwest princess. Thank you. I always remember the Midwest princess part. of course i I love this album.
Speaker: My personal favorite song is naked in Manhattan, which we choice is the, everybody thinks is a very weird choice. Okay. The craziest choice of all of the songs on that record. It is by far the craziest choice.
Speaker: I think it has some of the best lyrics, some of the best lines, and it's a fucking banger. I um don't agree on some of those points.
Speaker: Silence. Silence by the two fems. In an album full of way more bangery bangers. Sure. Okay. So you two throw out your two alternatives to that one, and I'll be quiet and wrong.
Speaker: Of Rise and Fall? Oh, right. Okay. All right Go ahead. you you go You go right ahead Erica. Okay. i am definitely going to say a Red Wine Supernova. ah It's delightful and sexy. And it's really hard to pick just two. I think last time um i went with Feminine Nominon, which was like my little anthem after Shithead and Chief got reelected.
Speaker: ah But, i mean, like, it's very basic, but I i mean, Pink Pony Club is is just like a feel-good, delightful song that I can play with the with my students in the classroom, and it's okay. It's probably the only song on the album I can say that about, so... It's also in the contention for greatest pop song of the last 25 years. with Pink Pony Club? Yeah. I still cry listening to it because it's just like that it's so it's so great and so like empowering as a queer person in America. you know It's also, again, as somebody with the whole YouTube music thing, the video for that one is phenomenal.
Speaker: It is really, really good because it's pre-super famous. right yeah it's really when It's before this record really hit TikTok and got huge. Yeah.
Speaker: It's also one where you mentioned her like the persona that she puts on where yeah she's not in that persona for that video. She calls herself a drag queen and I stand by it. I love I love that she draws that line and I know that it pisses a lot of people off because it's like I just want to connect with the artist. No.
Speaker: No, you don't have that right. You don't have the right to to them as a person. You have a right to them as a musician, and she is presenting you with her drag persona, and here she comes with a record. I also second Red Wine Supernova. It is by far my favorite song on the record um that I just think... it it's not necessarily like the bangerest banger on the album but it really hits i like the vibe of it it feel it's a feel good song um my hot take on what i is my favorite song on the record is picture you because i think it's the sleeper hit of the album uh but i won't say it's my favorite because it's not the best song on the record trevor I didn't say Naked of Manhattan is the best song. It's my favorite song.
Speaker: I could put that on a loop and I would be thrilled. I will say too. It's crazy. I know. i think I think that the kind of consensus best song of the album for a lot of people is Casual.
Speaker: Casual is a great song. It's a great, like honestly, yeah to me, there is not a bad song on that record. They're all good. I could listen to that whole record top to bottom, no skips.
Speaker: I did it's multiple times. It's great. yeah But I think that like, you know, I, I got into it because I had students. Cause I teach high school that were really into her album when it blew up and h all of the like, you know, teen girls were obsessed with casual.
Speaker: Cause this is an example of how shitty boys are. And I'm like correct. true yeah Like, and I was like, you know, I can finally somebody said it. And I was like, go off What I do love about the record it is that it's very anti-men and very pro-fem. It's like, this is really an awakening record of being like, I don't like men. And it's fantastic. And ah present company excluded. I also hate men. So this is wonderful ah to listen to. I love listening to a record that's clearly about queer femme love that like yeah we don't get nearly enough of.
Speaker: And I will say, as somebody who teaches high schoolers, a frequent refrain I give to high school girls upset over their shitty behavior of their boyfriends is, boys are stupid. Leave them alone till they're 25. Like, just flat out. At minimum.
Speaker: At minimum. like yeah like Speaking as somebody who went through those ages, it was an idiot prior to and probably after 25. Just fucking stay away. It's not worth your time. like It's okay to feel that way. It takes a while. You can't fix him. Don't <unk>t try. no And i do I do think that that's a big thing that the album hit was it was so pro-fem and so like, you don't fucking need a guy, but not in like... a yeah poppy airhead-y type way, but in a like, no, you're fucking great. But also not in like an angry, in an angry way either. Like she's, she's not right headlining Lilith Fair in like a, a, a man hater kind of way. This is clearly like, this isn't anti-man as much as it's pro-girl.
Speaker: You know, as much as it's just, it's, it's a pro femme record. That's like, boys suck. Let's, let's leave the planet. Like literally in one of the socks. So it's just, to be fair, is the line from Naked in Manhattan that I liked the most, which is boys suck and girls. I never tried.
Speaker: That fucking is an incredible drop and that happens very early yeah song that song. The lyrics of Naked in Manhattan really hit you over the head with it. And I think that's why it's hilarious. Out of a record full of sex, you pick Naked in Manhattan as your favorite. think that's...
Speaker: I genuinely think that's why I like it so much is that it is so in your face about it, but there's not a lot of music that is as in your face about that, like pro like lesbian love type thing. Like there just isn't. And that song is listen so like not trying to pull any punches about it that I find it delightful. record about sex, it is the one that's like, hey, I'm naked in Manhattan. Let's do it.
Speaker: of So should we should we talk about other artists we picked that thought people might want to know about? each picked a female. Yeah. So not in the vein of Carly Rae, what we're doing is we're giving you alternatives because we obviously you have your Taylors and your Sabrina's and even your like Olivia Rodrigo's. And you're Billie Eilish's. But who are the musicians, the femme musicians that are like either up and coming or lesser known or you wish more people would listen to? so we've all come up with one. I think we should let Erica go first because she's the guest.
Speaker: Yes, agreed. Aw, thank you. Aw, you're welcome. I feel like I'm going to, like, get the fancy towels, too. yeah Yep, you are. um I picked Maisie Peters, who is an English pop artist um that I was introduced to by my friend who's a big Swifty and who found out about her from, like, other Taylor Swift fans that enjoyed her. I believe she opened for Taylor Swift um in the UK during the arrows tour. I would have to double check that. um
Speaker: But she does what Taylor does better is how I would put it, because she's writing pop music and she's very lyrics forward. And it's a lot about heartbreak and like being with friends and just like being in your 20s and figuring shit out. um But it's so delightful to listen to. Her album, The Good Witch, which came out 2023, is just a great listen all the way through. um
Speaker: i think one of the highlights that kind of goes along with the conversation we just had about Chapel Rhone is there's a track called You're Just a Boy and I'm Kind of the Man. And if you're feeling like boys suck, I highly recommend checking that song out. Yeah.
Speaker: And she just released two new singles that um I have listened or I have listened to her single Audrey Hepburn so many times and it has only been out for like about a month.
Speaker: And that is a very different vibe of like kind of folksy like love song. But just something about the way she sings it really sticks with you. So if you haven't listened to Maisie Peters, please give her a try. She's delightful. Audrey Hepburn's a great song. I haven't. And I am going to listen to her. I've never heard of her. She opened, yeah, just checked it. She did open for Taylor at the Wembley Stadium. She's also open for Ed Sheeran.
Speaker: who is one of the reasons that she got it he's one of the reasons that she got a chance too because he heard her yeah as much as i hate ed sheeran that's a pretty good idea shearing did something helpful but yeah i mean ed sheeran is kind of like the most bland of all pop stars of all time but at least he's helping yeah other people get stuff made he seems like apparently a decent enough person outside of his like fame so i don't know agreed yeah agreed Yeah, he's just not a very interesting artist.
Speaker: I'm embarrassed to admit that I love the song Shivers. It's fine. Everybody has one Ed Sheeran song that they secretly absolutely love, but they don't talk about it because you're like, it's Ed Sheeran. It's that goddamn song from The Hobbit that I actually think is amazing. But it's like, why is it Ed Sheeran that did this?
Speaker: It's fine. We won't hold it against everybody. Yeah. Yeah. We could talk about that for days. It could be another episode. Yeah. like who We can definitely talk about it. You Trevor, you go. Okay.
Speaker: I have, I weirdly have two because one of them was one was rip off real quick, which was Hayley Williams from Paramore, which people probably not lesser known, but everybody does know who Hayley Williams is. Cause if you don't, you've been living under a rock. But I do want to shout her out because she's an awesome person and such a huge promoter of like you know rights for people in Palestine and other like important like human rights things. and doesn't pull punches. So I just wanted to mention her. And if you haven't gone back to Paramore, they're still good.
Speaker: um Also, she just released a record that is ah fucking bop. It's so good. The whole record is amazing. I haven't listened to it yet. Is it good? Her solo record is absolutely fantastic. She there she really speaks on like social issues and personal stuff. And she went on Jimmy Fallon and absolutely destroyed in a good way. And ah you should all go watch her performance from Jimmy Fallon and listen to the record because it's It is very good and she is very good.
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like she got a bit of a bum rap because she was super young when they kind of made a hit as like everybody's high school band that made it. And then it's like, yeah, but they're actually fucking good. So yeah, somebody who's hated Paramore for a really long time, but then fell in love with them as an adult.
Speaker: Yes. Yeah. ah My pick, though, was Nana Brindis Hilmar's daughter, which is just otherwise just known as Nana, who is the lead singer of of Monsters and Men, which is an Icelandic band that you've probably heard of, but maybe you haven't listened to enough of their stuff.
Speaker: here's my suggestion if you want to fall in love with an eerie incredibly well written album just go listen to my head as an animal it's one of my favorite albums of all time uh it is nana along with the um rest of the band which includes a uh secondary singer whose name i'm blanking on right now sorry ragnar uh thor halson I mean, they're Icelandic names. What are you going to do? Yeah, that's why she goes by Nana is because the rest of her name is complex. So if you don't know if monsters and men are are unfamiliar with my head as an animal, it's really metaphorical.
Speaker: album in which there's a whole heck of a lot of stuff you can do if you really like picking apart lyrics and meanings the simple example i will give is the song little talks which was their really big hit that came out of that it's very good is it's an incredible song most people do not know it is about uh a couple in which one of them is suffering from alzheimer's and is slowly sort of succumbing to dementia and losing the sense of who they are um it's the specific line that clues you into that is, um, tell her that I miss our little talks because if you go back to it, it is Ragnar and Nana going back and forth.
Speaker: And, uh, she is the character in that song who is kind of lost herself and doesn't always come back to reality because, you know, she's struggling with, a mental health illness so yeah it's she's an incredible songwriter uh it's a great uh album their more recent stuff got more experimental which i think is a healthy evolution for any band or artist um but it just doesn't get as good as that she has however recently put out a solo album maybe it's her second solo album i might be wrong um but uh
Speaker: it's It's good. All her stuff is good. And they stick to being very tied into Icelandic culture, which, as both Eric and B know, Iceland is my favorite place in the world and a place I care very deeply about.
Speaker: So I'm a big promoter of their stuff for that reason, too. So that's my pick. Fantastic. And my pick is Bree. ah Her name is spelled B-R-Y-E. I love her. I've loved her since 2020. People might have heard her original song, which was Lemons. It came out as a demo in 2020. Her... Her original single that came out in 2019 was a Million Songs, but ah Lemons really is what kind of got her into the indie scene. She's like an indie pop singer. She does a lot of advocacy and...
Speaker: just representation in terms of like the ah body positivity movement and also the queer ah movement and all of her songs kind of relate to that. And my, she's done a couple of things, mostly EP stuff, but her, um my favorite song of hers is called diet culture. And it is,
Speaker: a really it's deeply relatable but it's also it'll it's going to make you examine a lot about yourself if you listen to it and haven't really faced your own internalized fatphobia but i just find her voice is really cool and interesting i like what she's singing about and i just find her as a person to be very interesting her tiktoks are phenomenal so you should definitely follow her on tiktok if you don't But yeah, that it is. It's Bree. She's incredibly underrated. And I think that more people should be listening to her because she has a lot to say. And she's also very good at saying it.
Speaker: So I have to check that out. I had not heard of her. Yeah, she's great. You made me think of somebody else, though, which is has either of you heard of Sophie Powers? No, a name I recognize, but I don't know off the top of my head.
Speaker: To her credit, she's Canadian, so let's start there. um Love it. But she's put out a ah couple of, like, EPs and singles that are largely, like, very short. i mean, they're being labeled as um hyperpunk music, viral TikTok kind of music. And she is a TikTok presence fashion designer. She's only 22, which is why I'm bringing this up. ah I e think her music shows a ton of promise. It's not there yet, but I discovered it totally and by accident through whatever weirdo algorithm pops stuff up on whatever music shows you're using.
Speaker: I would say she's worth checking out. The song Nosebleed is a good one to kind of get a feel for what she sounds like. It's very different, but she it it feels like a lot of these artists... You two picked because Nana from a Monsters and Men is more in our age group, but they're younger.
Speaker: And i so I'm wondering if somebody like Sophie Powers is going to be on the Brie level of like, this is a newer, creative, expressive artist. Yeah, because Brie's also very young. She's 22, so. yeah so i i'm hope like i have not given anyone a strong recommendation on sophie powers yet because i feel like she's an unformed creation still but i think that if she has a lot there's a lot of talent there a lot of potential that i hope she sorts out because i did find things about her music that i was like okay i could really see this clicking if she gets it all puts it all together so that's another one that yeah reminded me of b that i wanted to mention
Speaker: Love that. So I think we did a sewed people. We did it. And I did not get a single error during this recording. So when I hit stop, this will be an episode and it will be saved forever and it won't go wrong.
Speaker: We're going to hold you to that. Yeah. should Saying all those things at once was a bad idea. Um, Yeah. So anyways, if you want to reach out to B or eye you can email us now. We have an email. Woo. It's the I think you should pod at gmail.com. Send us ideas. Send us criticisms. We will ignore.
Speaker: Send us, I don't know, other stuff. Pictures of your cats, please. Oh yeah. Pictures of your cats. Your actual feline cats. That is not a euphemism. I want pictures of your cats. Also, I'm single and accepting offers and I hate men. so but
Speaker: Just in case anybody wasn't clear. ah Yeah. you can You can find me on my website, TrevorHPaul.com, where you see my occasional posts about stuff that I'm writing or not writing or on Blue Sky at TH h Paul. B, where can people find you?
Speaker: um I'm on the socials. Good luck finding me. You can find me on TikTok, though. I'm at MX underscore BEA underscore MCB. That's definitely my TikTok and not on any of my other socials. Don't bother looking. You'll never find me.
Speaker: Erica, do you want people to reach you? Would you prefer to pretend this never happened? Um, don't reach out to me on socials. But if you want to read a blog that I haven't updated, and I think literal years, it is eep the creep critiques dot com e e the critiques.com. I think I might have a post soon because I'm very close to finishing in stars in time. And I have a lot of feelings.
Speaker: And just so just so being in the audience knows, the reason it's Eep the Creep is because that's the initials that our uncle decided to use to create the name Eep the Creep. And it's stuck since she was four.
Speaker: So yeahp yeah. My uncle used to call me Creepo. So now i I feel even more connected to you than I ever i ever did. We're like sisters. You really are. We've gone full sister circle. And yet somehow I ended up with initials that mean toilet paper. Great. whoa but All right.
Speaker: That's the episode. Bye, guys. by
