[Shuffle 40] Pynk-side out
Gaslighter, The Chicks
Chromatica, Lady Gaga
Hurts 2B Human, P!nk
Ventriloquism, Meshell Ngeocello
Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe
Riding the waves of trauma on some sound-ship, they rise and fall together. I, too, obsessed over Chromatica, but struggled to put it in any other context than its own for some time. Gaslighter finally hit a complementary chord. The personal is universal; the deeper you go the closer you can get to what's outside you. Both call to the same center from opposite ends. Or call from the same center to opposite ends? Hurts 2B Human weaves between them somehow. Stylistically, thematically, tonally. Now suddenly it's about pink; art comes into play, and color, unexpectedly. Ventriloquism works in so many shuffles; its simplicity and depth spread across a wide range of emotions and traditions, part funk, part folk, air-soul, punk-jazz, raw pop. And here, its upside-down pink triangle strips it all down, centers and grounds, deepens. If it's pink, it's also pynk. I shuffled up Dirty Computer a lot in 2018. Hear its beat and its rumble, its soft parts and endlessness all over, feel its bop and follow its grind somewhere inside. Together, their vibrations ease my own traumas, self-inflicted fear-scars and worry-worry-worry circles, help me sweat it out and soothe me.
Heard this go’round: October 25, 2020
Wuhn-wah wuhn-wuhn, wuhn-wah wuhn-wuhn. "So good so good so good," so screwed up. Li-li-li-li-li do-doo! "The rain [sows] seeds of love and hope," she chants. Lullaby-bye-bye-bye-bye to you, to us and where we came from. "Get it right," she (en)courages. "I see a wildfire coming." Chorale and echo, church and pasture, back-porch altar, a familiar ritual and easy hum to follow. Wavering hollers, reaching ahead of us. "Was it you or I?" Infinite head bobs and neck rolls, chest pounding and foot stomping, jump jump jump (twenty years) jump (twenty years)... Jam after jam after jam, today tomorrow tomorrow today yesterday yesterday today tomorrow. Reverb, re-verbing, re-doing, renewing. Small leaflets uncurling themselves into the sun, crocuses as we crunch boot-prints into a half-inch of snow. Stories we know by heart, retold, refolded (like a love note?), "don't go."
Make Me Feel
Gaslighter
Courage
The Last Song Of Your Life
My Best Friend's Wedding
Replay
Crazy, Classic, Life
Pynk
Sometimes It Snows in April
Waterfalls
a way to listen