Hi Again (+ thoughts on Ego)
Jul. 31st, 2025 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
letterstonowhereThe 2020s brain yearns for scrolling. I deleted the Twitter and Tumblr apps off my phone (but don't have the heart to log off on my laptop yet) in an attempt to curb my phone usage (yes, again). And yet, I keep finding excuses to scroll—Substack, Bluesky, Instagram. I think I'm still trying to find a healthy place for myself online, which is funny because I've been on here so long. I've tried multiple times to commit to making my own website on Neocities, which is fun for me but ultimately something I apparently can't stick to for more than a week at a time. I've considered making substack newsletters but can never figure out exactly what to put there. I journal a lot more than I used to which I am really satisfied about, so that fills my urge to yap about my personal life. So, maybe I'll come back here for the longform yapping that isn't uber personal. I was scrolling through the old posts from a couple years ago and I really like what I was doing with the BTS lyric analysis and album reviews. I've been trying to write more because I've been so so frustrated with my attempts to get back into writing fiction. Even fanfic is tough. Maybe this can be a kind of rambly media diary sometimes? Yeah, let's try that.
Earlier this week, Hayley Williams surprise released 17 songs. That alone is already interesting, because it's been a few years since she last released solo music (other than her recent collab with Moses Sumney). A week or two prior, she also surprise dropped her song Mirtazapine exclusively through a Nashville radio station. This song along with the 16 others were posted to her personal website, hidden behind a code you could only get by ordering Good Dye Young hair dye (or sharing a code with a friend, which the site encouraged!). I think this made a lot of people uneasy, purely because it wasn't accessible at all on streaming services, unless you downloaded the songs as mp3s and uploaded them yourself. I love this. I'm so obsessed. Then, as soon as the media outlets and general public got wind of it, she basically unreleased them, wiping them from the website. And now, the next day, we find out (thanks to timezones) that they will be on streaming for New Music Friday... but not as an album, rather 17 individual singles with individual cover art photos of Hayley. Again, I'm so obsessed. To me, this kind of reads as a call to action. Spotify is paying artists literal fractions of pennies for each stream. Stans are consumed by the Billboard charts and sale numbers and streams. So, to release this many songs in such an unconventional way is genius, I think. Unless she once again switches things up, these songs don't count as an album, so it won't show up on the Billboard 200. And releasing it wholly independently beforehand means that the true fans are the ones that hear it first. I've also seen people theorize that maybe the songs are being released separately because they're demos from different eras of Hayley's life, not meant to be read in a particular order or narrative like an album typically is. Or maybe she just had 17 photos that she really wanted to use for each song, rather than one single cover art.
Honestly, I have never really gotten into Hayley's solo music. I've listened to and enjoyed some of the bigger ones (Dead Horse, Simmer, Cinnamon) but for some reason, I just never did. But I'm so hooked on these songs. I think the lyricism is fantastic and I really, really enjoy the varied sound of each song. Here are some of my faves:
kill me
An eldest daughter anthem, and as an eldest daughter... yeah. I think I'm where the bloodline ends/I'll never do the right thing again
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
I'm so hooked on this one and the melody. It's so good.
Ice In My OJ
The chorus?? Hello??? The screams in the background are incredible. I love.
Dream Girl in Shibuya
This one's very narrative based, hence the title setting in Japan. I really like the bridge in particular.
Love Me Different
This one has a very poppy sound, I've seen people say it might be a After Laughter outtake? I don't remember. But the way she sings "and I want" in the post-chorus scratches my brain soooo good.
Honestly there's so many songs that I need to go and do another full listen, because I already know there's tracks I'm sleeping on. But god this is so good.
Earlier this week, Hayley Williams surprise released 17 songs. That alone is already interesting, because it's been a few years since she last released solo music (other than her recent collab with Moses Sumney). A week or two prior, she also surprise dropped her song Mirtazapine exclusively through a Nashville radio station. This song along with the 16 others were posted to her personal website, hidden behind a code you could only get by ordering Good Dye Young hair dye (or sharing a code with a friend, which the site encouraged!). I think this made a lot of people uneasy, purely because it wasn't accessible at all on streaming services, unless you downloaded the songs as mp3s and uploaded them yourself. I love this. I'm so obsessed. Then, as soon as the media outlets and general public got wind of it, she basically unreleased them, wiping them from the website. And now, the next day, we find out (thanks to timezones) that they will be on streaming for New Music Friday... but not as an album, rather 17 individual singles with individual cover art photos of Hayley. Again, I'm so obsessed. To me, this kind of reads as a call to action. Spotify is paying artists literal fractions of pennies for each stream. Stans are consumed by the Billboard charts and sale numbers and streams. So, to release this many songs in such an unconventional way is genius, I think. Unless she once again switches things up, these songs don't count as an album, so it won't show up on the Billboard 200. And releasing it wholly independently beforehand means that the true fans are the ones that hear it first. I've also seen people theorize that maybe the songs are being released separately because they're demos from different eras of Hayley's life, not meant to be read in a particular order or narrative like an album typically is. Or maybe she just had 17 photos that she really wanted to use for each song, rather than one single cover art.
Honestly, I have never really gotten into Hayley's solo music. I've listened to and enjoyed some of the bigger ones (Dead Horse, Simmer, Cinnamon) but for some reason, I just never did. But I'm so hooked on these songs. I think the lyricism is fantastic and I really, really enjoy the varied sound of each song. Here are some of my faves:
kill me
An eldest daughter anthem, and as an eldest daughter... yeah. I think I'm where the bloodline ends/I'll never do the right thing again
Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party
I'm so hooked on this one and the melody. It's so good.
Ice In My OJ
The chorus?? Hello??? The screams in the background are incredible. I love.
Dream Girl in Shibuya
This one's very narrative based, hence the title setting in Japan. I really like the bridge in particular.
Love Me Different
This one has a very poppy sound, I've seen people say it might be a After Laughter outtake? I don't remember. But the way she sings "and I want" in the post-chorus scratches my brain soooo good.
Honestly there's so many songs that I need to go and do another full listen, because I already know there's tracks I'm sleeping on. But god this is so good.
