First of all I would like to say FALL SUCKS. This weather is miserable and has made me sluggish and triggered migraines and my allergies, which exacerbates my dry eye. So while you are all enjoying your sweater weather and decorative gourd hoarding and getting all PSLed up, know that I am in HELL and it is your fault. Thank you.
Secondly, a suggestion: Take Solange Knowles seriously. I was NOT expecting Solange to come on in and drop a winner of a record right before October. A Seat At The Table is lovely, and honestly is the kind of album I was looking for as a balm for my frazzled black girl soul. It’s not an angry album. it’s not a “protest” album, it’s deeply personal and very specifically reflecting the pain and love and fear of black women, particularly young black women during this time. Right now I am loving Weary, Don’t Touch My Hair and Cranes in the Sky. Definitely on my best of the year list.
Finally, this is a public service announcement that if you follow me on the social medias you may want to mute me until November because I am about to act a damn fool. I run a website called The Learned Fangirl but nothing about this month is “learned.” My fangirling is about to get STUPID.
SHINee’s new album 1 of 1 is out next week and apparently the concept is Make Keidra Repeatedly Throw Her Phone Across The Room While Shrieking “WHAT ARE YOU DOING???”.
But for real though, it’s basically the “90’s af”thing they were doing for Odd but now cranked to 11. Like, complete with Color Me Badd photoshoot. I’ve been having daily meltdowns thanks to this comeback, because it’s both super kitsch and 100% serious. It’s one of the best things I’ve seen this year. I feel very blessed.
As a snobby metalhead I didn’t fuck with boy bands as a teenager, so I get to have the 90s boy band experience I never got to have. Only this is way better because I have money and the Internet.
And then, the following week, Dillinger Escape Plan comes out with their last album. I’m not ready for this, in fact I’ve only been able to make myself listen to their singles for this album twice, because I want sit with the album and let myself settle in with it. I was actually OK with One Of Us Is The Killer being their last album, but I’ve actually been bracing myself for them to break up since Ire Works, so I feel like I got to have them a lot longer than I ever thought.
But OOUITK felt like a last album to me, so I really, really, hope Dissociation doesn’t sound like a band that’s already broken up. I will say, Greg Puciato’s vocals sound fantastic and while I’m not a big fan of his other band The Black Queen, I can tell that the subtle vocals he does for that band have carried over to Dillinger and that should make this last album really interesting.
I’ll get to see it all in the flesh at the end of the month when I’m headed to Las Vegas and Austin to see DEP a couple more times, so I may be hospitalized after all of this.
It’s a whirlwind month of stannery for me. I apologize in advance.
Keidra Chaney 