Quietless

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A music lover's blog (where I talk about songs and records, but like a fan rather than a music critic)

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    "I spent a lifetime lost, a generation of letting go."
    ILLENIUM - Back to You, from the self-titled album ILLENIUM
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    - Personal Reflection - 2024 felt like a year where the musician in me really started to take shape. In the aftermath of last year's a-record-a-day project, I stepped into the year with such an expanded horizon that there was no longer any resistance in exploring music. Without the regiment of last year's listening, I fell into a very comfortable non-rhythm of discovery. I still kept track of upcoming releases, so it was almost guaranteed that I would be listening to new albums every Friday, but I would also spontaneously dive into records in my backlog, at times listening to up to five new albums in a day. Again, still very much a core kid, but I have found myself to be quite fond of certain softer genres, some that I didn't expect. I'm warming up quite strongly to country music, courtesy of Zach Bryan, which I'll say is the biggest surprise, but there's also genres like the folktronica of Yaelokre, the shoegaze of Deafheaven, the synth-pop of Magdalena Bay and the indie folk of Novo Amor. And as far as underground music goes, this year has been the deep dive. All credit has to go to @outsidenoise444 on Instagram, which is where I've gotten just about all of the recommendations from. I don't expect most of them to captivate me, but it's such a joy to actually find something worth listening to every now and then from these underground cuts. The haunting beauty of Yara Asmar's Stuttering Music, the dubstep bangers from zeroth's this won't be my grave, the hypnotic loops of Christtt's WWW, the post-hardcore grit of SENTRIES' Snow as a Metaphor for Death, the abrasive emoviolence of flowersfightforsunshine's self-titled. All of these have been such intriguing records to experience, and getting the exposure to other interpretations of what music can be has been kind of useful, to be honest. This blog did start to become a bit hard to maintain, specifically when I started university. Juggling the consistent routine of this blog and the sheer workload of my studies have proven to be a challenge, and I have definitely stumbled a bit this year. Come next year's anniversary, there's going to be some more changes to how I run this blog so that it doesn't become an issue, but I'm glad that I didn't lose the love for music at any point this year. In fact, I'd say that my love for music has hit an all-time high. I've joined a band collective in my university, and it has been such a blast. I got a new eight-string guitar just for it, and that has opened the doors for me to so many things, including a long-time dream to be able to play the plethora of metal songs that use extended-range guitars. But more importantly, immersing myself in such a musical environment, spending time with all these other people who love all different kinds of music, and getting to perform music live for the first time ever, it's been such a special year for me in music. It feels like I've learned so much as a musician that I can barely call myself a musician, much less the person I was a year or two ago. There's so much I've yet to learn, and it's so exciting. Sometimes I worry there'll be less to say as time goes on, but I've realised I'll always find new things to talk about. Music keeps evolving and I have been taken by surprise, time and time again, by how much amazing music keeps coming into this world. And even if in some impossibility, new music ceases to be the goldmine that it is, there is an eternity of great music that has already been released that I'll never be able to make a dent in. In that, I've realised that my main priority now is making sure I'm saying stuff worth saying, and I'm planning to be a bit more picky with my posts, and to say less when I don't feel the need to say more. Broadening my genres is a big help too, because I've found myself saying a lot of similar things when I talk about releases in the same genre (metalcore being the biggest victim). I'm particularly stoked to get into the next year of music, not just because of the expanded horizons and the releases that are already in sight, but also because I feel like I've hit a very optimal stride when it comes to experiencing and documenting my music journey. The systems that I started putting together last year to help me keep track of my music listening has been refined to a point where it feels seamless, almost frictionless to my lifestyle, which makes it all the more fun writing all these posts and making all these lists. And at the end of the day, it's the fun that matters the most. It's what has me so ready to end the year and get to do it all over again.

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    "I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I'd never speak."
    My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words, from the album The Black Parade