A dishwasher ran, making swooshing and swishing sounds. A running dryer holding a pair of sneakers, banging and clanging, blared nearby. Cows greeted the morning with moos. Cars drove by, driving over bumps and potholes, clattering and clacking.

Then suddenly: you hear a voice. It is held to a young woman, with a strange accent that covers multiple cultures, with an elongated neck, strangely connected buns in her hair, several inch-long nails, and a kimono on. It is Bjork. Hearing the loud morning pandemonium, she says: “moosic?”.

Feel like skipping all the talk? USE THIS LINK TO SEND IN YOUR SCORES

Hello Earth.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the OGs of Art-Pop Rate! I’m your host, Eli, who you may know from around the sub, but most related to this rate, from being the Bjork stan of sub. I come to you with help from a few different people. First and foremost, my lovely co-host and score collector, u/wailordfan. Also a notable mention to u/whatareblackhole!

I am honored to host this rate, as three of my favorite artists are the subject of it. Without further ado, let’s introduce these icons:

The wonderfully lyrically witty and saucy Fiona Apple The baroque-art-pop hitmaker who has stunned the music world with her fascinating production and words, Kate Bush And last but for sure not least, the Icelandic fairy who has touched every musical genre and idea one could think of and more, miss Björk

Today, these three women are considered to have made some of the greatest musical works of contemporary music: Fiona’s poetic and piano-driven When the Pawn…, Kate Bush’s artsy and ethereal Hounds of Love, and Bjork’s genre-bending, electro-orchestral crossover, Homogenic. With almost every track on these three records being written solely by the artists themselves, the works of these three were all incredible feats for women in music. So let’s look into each, more in depth!:

in chronological order

The Albums Masterpieces

Kate Bush - Hounds of Love

Kate Bush’s art pop-rock masterpiece does not need words. It speaks for itself.
(—until later tonight, when kate’s full write-up is posted im a flop lol sorry)

Bjork - Homogenic

Hectic is an accurate way to describe the latter half of the 90s for Björk. After Post was released, she experienced her first taste of true international fame, with more anticipation to her follow-up than there had ever been prior. Experiencing obsessive fans, screaming crowds, incessant paparazzi, and that cash schmoney was something that can change one’s personality and perspective. While she didn’t lose herself, a simple listen of her works chronologically allows one to know that it was definitely a maturing process for Björk.

After taking a complete 180° in the recording process, Björk’s most patriotic, experimental, and courageous work was born: Homogenic.

A darker sound than she had had in the past, the record crossed a daring bridge between orchestral and electronic instrumentation. Taking influence from her home country of Iceland, the album does feel like volcanoes and geyser that swarm the land on tracks like “Pluto”, “5 Years”, and “All Neon Like”. More intimate, inventive instrumentals are found on both the opener and closer; Björk manages to make every song feel its own experience while creating a vivid journey throughout the record. From the orchestral-backed screams on “Bachelorette” that encompass power and assurance to the anthemic, awakening “Alarm Call”, Björk ensures that she is here to stay and to make herself known.

Critics unanimously praised the album, and some consider it amongst the greatest of its decade and of all time, and rightfully so. Homogenic also was a fair commercial success, reaching top five in the UK and three of its four singles charting within the top 40.

Note! We are rating the album versions of Alarm Call and All is Full of Love. Those are the linked versions. Not the single version of Alarm Call nor greatest hits/video version of All is Full of Love.

Fiona Apple - When the Pawn Hits the Conflict He Thinks Like a King…

(writeup by u/cloudbustingmp3)
Fiona Apple is a woman on a mission: to let everyone know exactly what she’s feeling and how intensely she’s feeling it. On her previous record, Tidal, Apple took listeners on one of the most intense rollercoasters of visceral emotion ever set to music. After such a brazen debut, Apple faced a wave of criticism largely for being an unapologetically emotional woman. Like popheads’ faves who followed, the common reaction of “wow, so pretentious” was echoed by those who thought they were too cool to feel. Instead of giving in to the jeers, Apple doubled down on her Fionocity and gave her sophomore record a 90 word title: When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might so When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right. She was, of course, made fun of for it, but she ended up getting the first and last laugh; the title was meant to poke fun at those who called her pretentious and self-indulgent, and those rooting for her to fail musically would have to suffer to see her garner more Grammy nominations and sell nearly a million copies without a hit.

But what about the music itself? While When The Pawn… finds her in a similar sonic landscape, this is not Tidal 2.0; Apple somehow manages to be more cutting and primal than she already was. She spends more of her time spitting and growling her words out, and Ms. Apple has always had a way with words. From the album’s beginning, we see that her mission is a bit of a warpath. The first track, On the Bound, starts with a bold declaration: all my life is on me now/hail the pages turning/and the future’s on the bound/hell don’t know my fury. A flurry of discordant electronic blips come in near the end to highlight her frustration. Throughout the record, Apple hits hard and never shies away from a low blow when it’s deserved. On the single Limp, she hits back at an abusive lover, warning him that he’ll end up alone if he doesn’t treat her with an ounce of dignity. The imagery is vivid yet not explicit: it won’t be long till you’ll be lying limp in your own hands. Even the sonically tender moments are full of intensity. Love Ridden describes the deterioration of a relationship. She can see the end coming, and in the bridge just flat out gives up on keeping it alive. The Grammy nominated Paper Bag is a tricky song, but this works to its advantage. The instrumental presents it as a quirky little jazzy number, but the lyrics turn this little ditty into a tale of disappointment. It suits the song perfectly; “I thought it was a bird, but it was just a paper bag” ends up translating into the way the music and lyrics contrast beautifully. The climax comes in lead single Fast As You Can. An aggressive, off-kilter number, it stands as a mission statement of its own. A struggle for power, its sheer manic energy collapses in on itself in the most Fiona way during the slow, jazzy bridge. It’s a moment of clarity not just within the song, but the album as a whole.

From its record-breaking title to the musical minutiae, When The Pawn… is both predictably Fiona and completely disarming. A woman unafraid to feel and share every single moment, it’s a complete evisceration of both everyone who wronged her and herself in true Fiona fashion. Only 2 studio albums and nearly 20 years later, Fiona still manages to hit a nerve with each song, and it’s this unnerving openness and honesty that forges such a deep connection with listeners. We don’t know when she’ll share with us next, but with the intensity of her work it’s always worth the wait.

Shush, let’s get to rating!

Spotify Playlist

I’m no fucking Buddhist, but these are the rules

Listen to each song and assign each a score between 1 and 10. Decimals are fine, but please refrain from giving decimal scores that have two decimal spots. This means that giving a 7 is fine! Giving a 7.5 is fine! Giving a 7.55 is absolutely out of the question!
You may give ONE song a 0 and ONE song an 11. By one, we mean that this is one song total, not one song per album. Please reserve these for your least favorite and most favorite tracks; excessive sabotage ruins rate results and is very annoying!
You have to listen to and rank each song!
Your scores are not confidential!
If we suspect you from intentionally giving certain songs or artists low scores for the sake of sabotage, I will not hesitate to tell you to clarify or change your scores!
Your scores can be changed at any time! Just PM the corrections to /u/_wailordfan!
If you want to attach a comment to a specific song (which is encouraged!) write it right after your score. Make sure nothing is separating your score and your comment except for a space! Like this:

THIS IS THE CORRECT FORMAT TO SUBMIT:

Paper Bag: 11 Plastic bags could never.

THESE ARE WRONG, LITERALLY ANY FORMAT THAT IS NOT LIKE ABOVE IS WRONG:

Paper Bag: 11: Plastic bags could never.

Paper Bag: 11 - Plastic bags could never.

Paper Bag: Plastic bags could never, this gets my 11

Paper Bag: eleven Plastic bags could never.

You can also comments on the albums as a whole by adding a colon after the title:

Album: When the Pawn...: Pawn > Queens anyday

Don't do it like this or anything that's not like above

Album: When the Pawn > Queens anyday

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Submitted November 02, 2018 at 10:00PM by AbnormalPopPunk https://ift.tt/2qoC4Kb

nail for girls

Friday, November 2, 2018

Respect Your Elders: OGs of Art Pop Rate