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“Disease” by Lady Gaga, Wednesday, November 6, 2024

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Lady Gaga has been hyping her seventh album starting this summer with a promise that it will be “nothing like Chromatica .” After releasing the Bruno Mars duet “ Die with a Smile ,” L7 seemed to pick up where Joanne and A Star Is Born left off--a stripped-back organic singer-songwriter songbook. But “Die with a Smile” was a stand-alone single. To make matters even more confusing, Gaga released what she called album 6.5, called Harlequin , on September 27. The album of jazz standards was produced after Lady Gaga finished filming Joker: Folie à Deux . While critics mostly panned the jukebox musical approach to the Batman villain’s sequel, the persona of Harley Quinn impressed Gaga so much that she said after filming that she “wasn’t done with the character” of Quinn. While it’s a Lady Gaga album, it is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta’s persona Lady Gaga taking on another persona--Harley Quinn. Harlequin was not the album that Gaga’s fans were waiting for. Its quick release with li
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“Dead American” by Anberlin, Tuesday, November 5, 2024

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Some listeners have criticized Anberlin albums for sounding the same. Many of the band’s albums, especially earlier releases, follow a formula. This formula is usually a hard rock opener, a radio-friendly chorus-driven song, back to hard rock, a mellow middle album, some rockers in the center, and a lengthy closing track. While the vestiges of the formula remain throughout their discography, they began to experiment more in their later career. Anberlin's 2012 record Vital was an update on the band’s mostly guitar-based sound as many of the songs were synth-driven. The band experimented more with Vital’ s repacked album, Devotion , delving deeper into hard rock and electronic pop. HIDE THE DEMONS THERE UNDER YOUR DRESS. Stephen Christian said on the Your Favorite Band Podcast that Anberlin repackaged Vital as Devotion, taking the commercial failure from Universal Republic Records to Big3 Records , hoping to push the opening track, “ Self-Starter ” to the radio. Devotion, unlik
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“The Sound of Silence” (CYRIL Remix) by Disturbed (Simon & Garfunkel Cover), Monday, November 4, 2024

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In 1964, Simon & Garfunkel released the first recorded version of “ The Sound of Silence ” on their debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.   Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed the song under their old pseudonyms, Kane & Garr, in Greenwich Village in 1963. The song has been thought by many to be a reaction to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, though, the song was performed before that fateful November day in 1963. Paul Simon wrote the song in the bathroom with the light off so that he could concentrate on the echoes and the patterns in the tile. “The Sound of Silence” became a sleeper hit starting in the spring of 1965, a year after its parent album had been a commercial failure. A late-night DJ at Boston’s WBZ played the song and college students loved it. The folk-rock’s ambiguous and poetic lyrics resonated with the counterculture, the silenced young voices who felt unable to make a difference. Once the song gained popularity, producer Tom Wilson gathere
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“The Planet” by BTS, Sunday, November 3, 2024 + November Mixtape ‘24 YouTube Edition

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“a dying world” by Jeremy Zucker, Saturday, November 2, 2024 + November Mix Apple Music Edition

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“Flights” by Falling Up, Friday, November 1, 2024 + November Playlist (Spotify Edition)

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  It’s time to play mixologist again and set my plan for the new month. This month, I decided to balance bleakness and hope. With its shortening days and gloomy weather, I’ve always found November to be one of the most depressing months. This year, the extra anxiety of the U.S. presidential election also influenced my picks. I always hold the power to shift songs around and change up the formula, and the next few weeks may do that for me. I tried to balance the nostalgic, the dark, and the shiny without giving a feeling too much weight. There’s a contrast I tried to build--the cold outside and warmth. Today’s song “ Flights ” by Falling Up , starts the month in a misty morning haze that is as mysterious as the day after Halloween, All Saints Day. Tomorrow, we’ll hear Jeremy Zucker ’s anxiety lament “a dying world,” which turns into a warm hymn of hope. The playlist will shift to Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Lovesong,” a nostalgic post-grunge ‘90s hit. The playlist will take several
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“Spotlight” by MUTEMATH, Thursday, October 31, 2024

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In 2007, it seemed like Mutemath would become a big Alternative Rock band with their breakthrough single “ Typical .” With former members of the Christian Rock band Earthsuit , Mutemath had taken technical, jazz-influenced electronic music to late-night TV, on tour with The Fray and Matchbox Twenty , and to Alternative radio. The band’s self-titled album didn’t spawn any other charting singles, but their next move seemed like it would make them bigger. In 2008, Mutemath released “ Spotlight ” on the Twilight soundtrack . The song was even featured in the film in the scene when Edward Cullen ( Robert Pattinson ) and Bella Swan ( Kristen Stewart ) are first seen together as a couple. The soundtrack boasted a strong collection of Alternative Rock songs by Muse , Linkin Park, and Paramore--overshadowing Mutemath’s contribution. Furthermore, inclusion in the soundtrack wasn’t particularly helpful as the vampire novel series and its film adaptations were polarizing with some young viewe
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