In the last few months, I’ve been overwhelmed with my feelings and stress. Those feelings have definitely lead to more stress.
When you have time to reflect, you get to learn a lot about yourself.
I’ve found a 3 things so far that have been helping me deal with my issues.
1. Friends
I haven’t really made a concerted effort to make friends since I started college, but I think I’m doing alright so far.
Since elementary school, I’ve always found that friends usually come to me, and while that may sound incredibly self-centered and narcissistic, I’ve found this to be mostly true, due to my introverted and reserved personality.
I’ve been in contact with my old friends, and have been making some new ones too.
They’ve been very instrumental with helping me get to a better mental state.
I also have someone to go to the gym with now, and will keep me honest. Having a gym buddy is a pretty big deal. I feel accountable for going to the gym, and get kind of excited to go.
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm
I somehow came across this clip on YouTube during my winter break, but I think I was almost so shocked by the clip that I was intrigued. I’m not one to enjoy obnoxious humor, and definitely dislike the uncomfortable moments of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but it’s been something that I can rely on for a laugh. I also stumbled across another clip involving bulgogi, which I deemed to be pretty hilarious. My friend Julian didn’t though.
Regardless, I recently got Amazon Prime Video, and this show happened to be on it. I’m currently on season 2.
3. Music
Music has always been something that I’ve loved, ever since I was a child. I would go off on a limb and say that music has been an instrumental part of my life (this is where the “blogging” gets out of control and I have to make these dumb ass jokes like I’m a 30 year old man). I have perfect pitch, and love singing in front of people that I trust / feel comfortable around.
I’m not one to flaunt my “skills,” but I have been considering posting on my SoundCloud page with me singing. That’s neither here nor there, however.
I love music because of the dynamics, the rests, the staccatos, and most importantly, its consistency. I can always count on music to be there for me. Songs are static, and will never change once they are finished. Albeit, there will always be remixes, but I can always depend on a version of a song to imbue a certain emotion, and for that song to exist in that same form in 3 years, 4 years, or even 20 years down the road. I see myself craving that kind of stability in my life, and will hopefully achieve that someday.
Proposition
So, I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’ve decided that a good outlet for me is to compile a list of 5–10 of my favorite songs on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Why such a large range? It depends on what I’m “feeling” that week.” While I love and crave consistency, I know myself to be quite inconsistent. Having the option to write about less songs makes me feel comfortable, which is another reason why my range is so large. However, I doubt that I’ll have the time, or really have 10 songs that I’ll be going through on a consistent basis. So I expect about 5 per week.
I’ve also come to realize that I maintain a certain internet persona. I tend to make fun of a lot more things than I am actually serious about. In some ways, I think that I really haven’t talked about how I feel on a lot of topics. I’ve come to a realization (albeit an obvious one), that making something and “putting yourself out there,” is a lot harder, and a lot scarier than just making fun of something. Making fun of something is easy.
Additionally, sometimes I’ll feel surrounded by music, and sometimes, I’ll feel underwhelmed and just happy with one piece. I will most likely post a new article every / every other week on Wednesday night, as I have a school radio show. It’s called future beats w/ isaac, and it’s every Thursday from 8–9am Central. The show will more than likely include at least a few of the songs.
Please note that not all of this music is new. While the lists may include new songs from the week, this list just includes songs that I have found myself enjoying that week. Also, I haven’t decided as to what I should do if I have the same song in the list twice.
My Favorite Songs of This Week (2/19/16–2/26/16)
5. Forever 1 (Cashmere Cat Edit) — Hudson Mohawke
Cashmere Cat has held a special place in my heart for awhile. Whether it be the last 30 seconds of “Wedding Bells,” with the beautiful piano along with the strings, or the last minute of “Paws,” I’ve realized that I am a huge sucker for the piano, and more importantly, Cashmere Cat.
This song fits the bill with the somber piano and the howling vocals come together as an emotional piece. This Cashmere Cat edit of Hudson Mohawke’s “Forever 1” is emphatic, and will forever hold a special place in my heart.
Just like “Wedding Bells,” and “Paws,” this piece ends with a beautiful bit of piano at the end. I could not have imagined a better way to end such an emotional and beautiful piece.
Since its release on SoundCloud 4 months ago, this has and was one of my favorite releases of 2015. Again, this song is one of my favorites, and I don’t know when that will ever change.
I was lucky enough for my friend to send me a FLAC version of the Flash Drive EP, but I never really got around to listening the whole thing. I listened to “Flash Drive (feat. B ▲by),”World Record (feat. Lido),” and “ Introooo (feat. Cosmo’s Midnight),” but never “Bubble Wrap.”
I finally listened to Bubble Wrap last week, and it reminded me why I love Wave Racer. Wave Racer has sort of “toy” aesthetic, and his songs really remind me of playing video games. Bubble Wrap is full of energy, and packs a punch with its playful samples (per Wave Racer) and incredibly smooth transitions. 1:20 is a specific instance that comes to mind where the song comes to a “switch-up,” and the dynamic of the song briefly changes to finally come back to its original sound.
Wave Racer really hit it on the head with the 4–5 note chords that bode with me well.
My only complaint with this song is that it’s unfortunately underplayed with only around 100K plays, which is not enough for such an ebullient song.
While this song is a part of Rustie’s EVENIFUDONTBELIEVE album that I was able to get ahold of thanks to my same friend (thanks, Patrick), this song was also released 7 months ago.
While I don’t pretend to be a huge fan of Rustie, I do enjoy a few songs of his — “Hover Traps,” “After Light,” “Attak (feat. Danny Brown),” “Raptor,” “Lost (feat. Redinho),” “Beautiful (Rustie Edit),” “First Mythz,” and of course, Big Catzz.
At 0:24, the song transitions from a sprinting pace to a surrounding sound. When I listen to this part, I feel like I’m running through a jungle, and am suddenly surrounded by the animal kingdom that I was looking for.
This song shines so much, and the shimmering, raw and unfiltered sound is incredibly reminiscent of Glass Swords (2011), and maintains that scintillating and effervescent sound, which was hard to find on Russel’s second studio album, Green Language (2014).
Overall, Big Catzz just feels like a burst of energy congregated into a 3 minute song, and you can feel the aggression, and really feel the shimmering sound that is Rustie.
2. Wolves (feat. Frank Ocean, Vic Mensa & Sia) — Kanye West
The Life of Pablo has been pretty well perceived by most, I would say, but I haven’t really found too much to like from the new album. This song in particular was a “leaked” version with Frank Ocean and Sia, and I found myself enjoying this version much more than the version found on the album.
I’m not a huge Kanye West fan, and don’t pretend to be one. I do like a few of his songs, albeit more popular ones, such as “Homecoming (feat. Chris Martin),” “Gold Digger,” “Good Life (feat. T-Pain),” and probably a couple more I can’t seem to think of right now. This isn’t relevant at all, however.
Something I should also point out is that I love Cashmere Cat. I hit rough a rough patch last year, during my Senior year of High School. I was embroiled in my own emotions, which affected me both negatively and positively. I really counted on Cashmere’s music to help me step out of it.
I found this clip of Cashmere Cat at Coachella playing Wolves, and while I dislike the idea of any sort of concert, this feels like a setting that I would like to experience.
I think the piece is beautiful.
While I tend to dislike auto-tuned vocals, I find that they fit the song’s sorrow tone pretty well.
Because I can’t seem to find a way to embed the edition with Frank Ocean, here’s Cashmere Cat playing the track at Coachella:
I’m not a huge Frank Ocean fan, but I love his vocals in the intro. I could really hear Cashmere Cat in this song in the hook, with the modified “Wolf” (hence the name) sounding vocals, along with a powerful hitting bass that really resonated with me. The howling vocals was reminiscent of Cashmere Cat’s Forever 1 edit (the same one listed above), which sat with me extremely well. I am always eager and thankful for more music from Cashy Cat.
It’s interesting, as my focus is on Cashmere’s music, rather than the sub-par autotuned Kanye vocals.
I love Cashmere Cat now, and I probably will love him for as long as he continues to make music.
don’t fool yourself / your eyes don’t like / it’s much too good to be true / don’t firefight / now I feel you burning, everything’s burning / don’t fly so high your wings might melt / you’re much too good to be true / I’m just, bad for you / I’m just bad, bad, bad for you
I’m pretty behind, aren’t I. This has definitely been a critically acclaimed album for quite some time, and I’ll admit that this is one of the few songs I’ve listened to off the album. I may be incorrect, but I’m pretty confident in saying that this is definitely one of the more / if not most popular songs on the album?
Regardless, this is just such a fun song to listen to, with a catchy hook from Popcaan, and words from Young Thug. The harmonized intro is such a good way to start such a fun and vivacious way.
While this may sound incredibly cliché, I can count on this song to pick me up when I’m feeling down. It sort of does remind me that there are good times ahead.
I couldn’t find a SoundCloud link, so here’s the music video.
all images belong to their respective owners
