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Notes -
Candidates for most agonizing recent song?
I submit for your consideration Lucinda Williams’ World Gone Wrong, a shambling eulogy for the Current Moment. Naturally, it’s seeing a lot of airtime on my local radio.
While I could provide any number of objections to its lyricism or production, I’d rather take a page from Clench Racing’s lesser-known cousin: Complete the Poem. Use your skill and judgment to complete the following lines.
If you need a hint, imagine the most drawn-out warble possible. The relevant rhymes should jump right into your brain.
The 2026 World Cup single Lighter by some things called Jelly Roll, Cirkut and Carin Leon.
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I had to turn it off after less than a minute. Good job.
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I wasn't ready for the AAAA rhyme scheme.
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A lot of people getting put on the street
It's getting harder to stay off the street
He comes home every night past tents on his street
And wonders how much longer till he's out on the street
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A lot of people getting put on the street
It’s getting harder to skeet
He comes home every night to beat
And wonders how much longer he can use my feet
to beat his meat surely.
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No, no. This is soulless protest music for gen-X, not gen-Z.
Ah my bad
A lot of people getting put on the street
It’s getting harder to avoid pajeet
He comes home every night to browse zillow
And wonders how much longer he can stand his low thread count pillow
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I really can't come up with a clear answer to this. Pretty much anything by Tate McCrae or Sabrina Carpenter or virtually anybody else in this new generation of pop artists is about as aggressively painful as it gets, to be honest. After a while everything melts away into the same homogenised corpus of liquidised shit that is modern pop music. It's virtually all irredeemable, there's no sense talking about "worse" or "better" in such a context.
At least stuff that's unintentionally but parodically bad such as Liz Phair's lyrical and musical masterpieces (Bollywood, U Hate It) are fun to listen to, these songs can't even aspire to that.
Tate McRae's voice is so annoying. She's lucky she's hot.
I watched one video, and I'm still not sure how much of that is her voice. I know I should have gotten inured to modern over-AutoTuned production over the decades, but 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮 I really don't think I'm strong enough! 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮
She's got great taste in underwear, though.
Citation requested.
(I apologise, that was rather Reddit of me.)
My second YouTube search came up with the same top result, and far be it from me to refuse a polite request.
But I'm not making a third search. My kids occasionally use my YouTube account on our living room computer, and at some point I'd worry about the algorithm deciding that my current math/science/art balance needs more "art" and that my "artists" need fewer clothes.
Why did women get into F1 racing all of a sudden in the past ten years? Feels like a psyop but if you asked me if you could psyop women into give a shit about dudes driving around in circles for an hour and a half I'd say no. I could at least understand if they got women driving the cars, but they don't.
Formula 1 teamed up with Netflix to repackage the sport as a reality TV show.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_1:_Drive_to_Survive
It's funny how well the psyop worked in F1, when there have been so many efforts over the years to get women into gaming and none of it ever stuck. It seems like such an obvious formula too.
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If I turn the sound off, this video could be very useful.
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She's got that "heavy" kind of face that I'm really not a fan of.
I know what you mean by saying "heavy," but it's strange to look at photos of her face and be unable to identify what exactly the "heavy" is describing, or what a better description for it would be. Something about her jawline, nose, eyelids...?
Yeah, it's hard to define. I see this type most often among Jewish and Armenian women. I would define it as bored eyes, a long (vertical projection, not necessarily protruding) nose and a slightly slack jaw on a face that doesn't narrow perceptibly towards the chin.
She can look very different from photo to photo and I haven't seen her in motion, but she has a face like this on at least half of them.
I think this is just the default Gen Z expression. Say what you will about millennial cringe, at least we weren't cutting about looking like we just woke up all the time.
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As much as I think we've lost something in the way of common culture -- when I was a kid we definitely all heard the same music -- I've gotta say it's nice to be almost entirely insulated from modern pop music. Sometimes I go to a grocery store or a restaurant and hear what's current and can only shake my head in despair and irritation, but for the most part I'm just free, free as a bird, and like it this way.
Are you free as a bird or free as the wind blows?
More like Free Fallin
NB: Haven't watched the music video for a long time - it's such a 90's time capsule it hurts
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I rarely hear what's current at a restaurant, store, or coffee shop. 95% of the time it's classic rock, and being in any of those places more than 30 minutes means a 100% chance of hearing a Buckingham/Nicks-era Fleetwood Mac song.
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An Irish radio station recently polled their listeners on the greatest song of the twenty-first century so far. The winner was "Pink Pony Club" by Chappelle Roan. Jesus. It's not even her best song. Not "agonizing", just repetitive and irritating.
It wasn't a bad song until I had to listen to it 20 times a day. I predict that in 25 years it will have the same status as "Dreamlover" by Mariah Carey, i.e. it's so ubiquitous that everyone collectively gets tired of it and agrees to never speak of it again.
That was my experience as well. I heard it. It was fun! I listened five times of so, and that was enough. Now sometimes I hear it and groan. That's also how I feel about "Golden," but since I have little girls, I'll continue hearing it for some time, probably.
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I had the opposite experience. I hated Pink Pony Club the first ten thousand times I heard it and then I decided to give up and now I love it :(
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At least you didn't have to listen to Cotton Eyed Joe.
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