Wild World is wild, man

It turns out I have a few things to be excited about lately.

Because, not only have Korra comics been given a release date and some very vague plot points, Humans finally has a release date for its second season as well (I've only been waiting for a year and a half) and Bastille released a new album!

This is about the album, because it is absolutely wonderful.

Look. I love Bastille. More than any other band, and I love a lot of bands. But Bastille just gets me. Their music is interesting, their lyrics are poetry, and the lead singer (who also happens to be the main composer and lyricist and is basically a gift to humanity) has an incredible, angelic voice sent from the gods. Dan Smith is a muse unto himself, I swear.

Anyway, they released a new album which is SO exciting, because All This Bad Blood, their first album was freaking perfect in every possible way (I personally recommend Sleepsong, The Silence, Icarus, The Draw, and the Weight of Living Part I. Those are the ones that consistently stay on my most played list). I was basically at a point where I wouldn't even have to hear anything from Bastille and I'd buy the new album because I trust them so fully.

Which is pretty much exactly what I did with the new album, and it did not disappoint.

My current favourites: Warmth, Lethargy, The Currents, and Campus, because I relate real hard.

But really, every song is wonderful and unique and worth listening to. Every song has its own special poetry, and really, the whole album is my favourite.

Just as a preview of each song having its own poetry, I'll list a favourite line from each song. Consider it a teaser.

Good Grief:

Caught off guard by your favourite song/I'll be dancing at a funeral, dancing at a funeral

The Currents:

Still living in the currents you create, still sinking in the pool of your mistakes/Won't you stop firing up the crazies?

[That moment where Bastille wasn't subtle about politics. It's one of my favourite things about the album.]

An Act of Kindness:

An act of kindness is what you show to me/It caught me by surprise in this town of glass and ice

Warmth:

Hold me in this wild, wild world/'Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be/And in your heat I feel how cold it can get

Glory:

You make me laugh until I die, can you think of any better way to choke?

[That's my favourite line off the whole album]

Power:

The air is on fire, this room feels electric/Caught here in your sights

Two Evils:

I'm the lesser of two evils/Or am I, am I tricking myself nice

Send Them Off!:

Desdemona, won't you liberate me/When I'm haunted by your ancient history

Lethargy:

You told me not to be like anybody else/Headspin, happiness, death

Four Walls:

You've only these four walls before they, in cold blood, hang you up

Blame:

I can hear your pulse racing from here/Sitting next to this gun beats your heart in your mouth

[THE IMAGERY LIKE HOT DAMN]

Fake It:

Show me joy, flower through disarray/Let's destroy each mistake that we made/Then restore colour back to the grey

Snakes:

I know, I know, I know, it's not the right way to go/But I pray for the ground to swallow me whole

Winter of Our Youth:

Well I know, the winter's getting colder/But why, just 'cause we're a little older, do I/I relive it, I relive it/I'm peddling backwards

Way Beyond:

It only matters if we care now/If you're way beyond that/Then I'm gonna dust you off of my shoulders

Oil on Water:

Warm affection runs through every word/We're screens away, but we're laughing with her

[This whole song is full of wonderful, poetic imagery and it took me a long time to decide on just a couplet, but yeah, just listen to it. It's art]

Campus:

It must be so lonely, knowing what you know/Man, it must be lonely, keeping it on the low

Shame:

I miss us dancing through the same noise/But here we are, my friend/We're miles from way back when

The Anchor:

'Cause when it feels like I'm lost at sea/You're the song I sing again and again

The other thing about this album is that it continues the habit Bastille had from their cover of No Scrubs (which completely changes the meaning of the song and is a really, really fascinating exercise in how using the exact same lyrics but executing it differently can completely change everything) in using sound bites from unrelated things to help make their point.

For example, in No Scrubs, Bastille's version is about how we shouldn't judge people based on their appearance or life situations, and it's hit home by a sound bite of Norman Bates from Psycho talking about how "we're all in our private traps... clamped in them, and none of us can ever get out."

This goes on for a lot of the songs on this album. The Currents, being the least subtle song on the album, has a sound bite before the bridge which says, "If anyone preaches disunity... tries to pit one of us against the other... you know that person seeks to rob us of our freedom, and destroy our very lives." Don't worry, Bastille, between that and the line about the crazies, (not to mention, "Do you even know what year it is?") I think you've made your point.

That happens in a few other songs that I can't immediately quote or remember right now. I think Way Beyond is preceded by the voice of what sounds like a young man saying, "What the fuck are y'all doing is the question. This is the question." Which definitely hits home the point the song makes about how people have become desensitized to horrible things happening, and therefore cease to care or do anything about it.

Anyway, I love this album. I'm realizing now that the lyrics sound really depressing, but it really isn't a depressing album. All the songs are totally groovable. They just also happen to have more serious messages, which isn't a bad thing.

Do yourself a favour and listen. You will not regret.

I'M SO STOKED

KORRA COMICS ARE COMING IN JUNE

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

LOOK AT HOW KICKASS IT LOOKS

IS BOLIN IN A COP UNIFORM?

LOOK AT HIS CUTE LITTLE JUMP

THIS ART IS SO BEAUTIFUL

GOD I AM SO READY MY BODY IS READY

I Know, We're Your BroTP

I have a very close friend called Jacey. I've known her since pre-school. I am now in college. We still text every day, often about nothing in particular. She's in art school (a very prestigious art school I will add, because I am very proud of her) and I'm studying writing and literature, among other things.

Different paths. Different interests. But we're still as close as we've ever been because we never stop talking to each other. Our friends often mention how inseparable we are from each other. Sometimes they stare at us as we talk as if we're speaking another language (we have a habit of telling each other's stories for each other. I can understand why that might be odd to witness).

When I moved to Victoria, I brought my purse, which has two buttons on the strap which Jacey made for me (both of which depict a few of our many, innumerable inside jokes). I also brought a small stuffed cow that Jacey gave me for my birthday in grade 9 (it is called Vache Espagnol because she gave it to me in Larrivee's class, and that was how he referred to people who weren't very good at speaking French - it translates literally to "Spanish cow") and soon one of my walls will have a picture that she drew for me when I left.

Long story short, I thought it would be weird leaving for an island and not seeing her every day during the school year anymore, but I kind of brought her with me. And, like I said, we still text each other every day. It's a good thing we have going.

So, because I'm happy that our friendship remains so strong, this post is a tribute to that. Because I'm proud of us. Because I love that we can have intelligent respectful conversations with each other, even if we don't necessarily agree (though that doesn't happen very often - our views usually align).

On the other hand, sometimes our conversations aren't so intelligent or profound. Sometimes they're downright unintelligible. And sometimes they're a little of both.

So as tribute, may I present: Text Conversations Between Megan and Jacey.

1) That Time I Actually Had a Comeback

2) We Both Need Jesus (Luckily He's the Prime Minister)

3) That Time Dad Friend Became Too Real

4) My Puns Are the Best Puns

5) My Puns Are the Best Puns: The Sequel

Don't get it? It's a very clever reference to Legend of Korra, a sequel cartoon to Avatar the Last Airbender which I am entirely obsessed with, which Jacey also happens to love. Speaking of Korra, it is time for a little something I like to call 

THE SAGA OF THE FIC

So, Jacey and I are co-writing a fanfic of the Avatar world together, because we both adore it and we're both writers and Korra, wonderful as it was, left us some fun plot holes to dick around with. This fic has led to some pretty intense text conversations such as:

6) Downsides of Being Bilingual

(Not gonna lie I laughed at this for a solid ten minutes). 

7) Picking Genders is Hard

8) When Inside Jokes Become Literature

(We had this joke that that the chapter would start with Mako kicking down the door yelling "BOLIN HOLY FUCK". The other inside joke is that Mako has "vampire hair" because it's gelled up the way vampires' hair always is on TV for some reason. None of this was supposed to actually make it into the story. I laughed at this for another solid ten minutes). 

9) LET MAKO EXPRESS HIMSELF

10) LET MAKO EXPRESS HIMSELF - The Sequel

11) Don't Worry, I Get Emotional About It Too

12) I'm Pretty Sure This is How All Writers Talk About Stuff, Right?

So.... yeah. We text each other a lot. With varying degrees of seriousness, and varying degrees of profanity depending on how passionate we are about the thing. 

I love our friendship. So, as a final punctuation to this:

We are beauty, we are grace