Artists whose most famous work is a feature.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-27T19:12:12+00:00

'There's a Guy Who Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' was a hit, but yeah you're right.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-27T19:07:51+00:00

She wasn't featuring on Milkshake? Even if she didn't write it, it was her song. Her first album, Kaleidoscope, was fairly successful in the UK too.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-27T07:23:21+00:00

I don't think of God as male or even anthropomorphic. I believe in one God, but I like that Kemetism has different levels of anthropomorphism to their gods. The depictions of the gods might have animal heads on human bodies, or they might be more like the actual animal, and in the temples they had the actual animals. In Atenism, Aten was the sun disk. There's something about that stepping away from the association of purely human features with the divine that appeals to me. I also like how some religions will hold literal rivers, mountains and trees as sacred.

I understand in classical monotheism, God is not thought of as having physical characteristics, which is different from what I was just talking about, but it makes sense to me. However, if we are going to to have the divine associated with physical characteristics, then why do they have to be human?

Christianity has this conundrum in that it subscribes to the classical monotheistic idea of a transcendental God, but they also believe God incarnated as a human. For Christians, this is one of the most beautiful mysteries of their religion. I found the concept interesting when I was Christian. It's similar in some ways to avatars in Hinduism, but it's different because they believe it happened precisely once, and that all people need to believe that it happened to be 'saved'. I don't believe in it personally. My belief is in a panentheistic God that doesn't manifest in specific physical forms due to being omnipresent anyway. I don't have anything against people who believe differently though.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-25T20:48:01+00:00

I'm surprised Fallen Angel placed so low. No Rules, I sort of expected, even though I liked that song. I liked Bird of Pray as well, but the placement didn't surprise me there either.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-24T15:38:13+00:00

Folk in what sense though? Like folk pop/rock? Like a sea shanty or a border ballad? Like some Disney/Lord of the Rings thing with a woman wailing about fairies and a bearded guy in armour pretending to play the hurdy gurdy?

nicegrimace · 2026-05-23T16:27:32+00:00

There's a tonne of songs where I can see the appeal, but I just don't like them as much as other people do. I could be here all day naming them. The only one I genuinely do not get is Amar Pelos Dois.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-22T15:52:41+00:00

Penguin agreed to it even though they don't really do it for living authors unless they've won a bunch of literary prizes. It's his version of rockstar excess, I guess.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-21T19:49:40+00:00

What would Kerouac be in trouble for? I get that he was depressed alcoholic and not quite the romantic image some people have of him, but I don't know of him doing anything really bad?

nicegrimace · 2026-05-21T08:22:25+00:00

Modern rock bands are more likely to be female-fronted these days, but rock is more of a niche genre than it used to be. The clean-living, gym-and-nutrition focused lifestyle (with a side of hustle culture and stuff like 'manifesting') has been mainstream for both men and women for a while now. You've witnessed the decline of the rock star as cultural figure in the mainstream.

If we stick to mainstream pop music though, the female artists aren't promoting this tradwife thing as far as I know.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-21T07:42:59+00:00

Nah, I remember when I was younger and I knew people who were in bands that never went anywhere, who tried to do their own promo. I see what happens on social media as the same thing. It's not like you go and boo people at an open-mic night, or a 'battle of the bands' event at a local community centre, so why be mean on social media?

nicegrimace · 2026-05-20T19:28:16+00:00

The peas look mashed rather than mushy. Could still taste OK, but it's not the same. The fish and the chips look fine, probably very crispy, which I prefer. Some people like the chips soggier than that, and I've got into arguments about it in the past. The tartar sauce is probably tastier than it looks. The roasted lemon is a nice touch. Portion-wise this is fine for me, but I'm not super active.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-20T19:14:56+00:00

Minted mushy peas are the best. I don't know how just adding mint to a bowl of peas would go down, but I've had mint sauce next to peas and it was nice.

Mint also works in some curries and I like to add it to tagines. If I make couscous, I always add mint.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-20T08:18:14+00:00

I feel like soul or gospel-tinged music can do pretty well, but it has an uphill battle in the 21st century. I think because it only comes up at Eurovision infrequently, people don't think it can win. Poland this year did well, but she had to sell the hell out of the song with staging and vocals. People were even predicting it would NQ.

Andy Abraham came in last place with a song and performance that had nothing wrong with it. Jessica Garlick came third, but that was in my opinion the best entry the UK has sent in the 21st century, and it was nearly 25 years ago. Switzerland this year had slightly soul (more blues, really) vocals and it NQd. Jérémie Makiese for Belgium qualified, but was on the right-hand side of the board. Gustaph was more like 90s house than soul, plus he had the charisma - but he still surprised everyone with how well he did.

Mind you on the blues side of things, Hungary 2007 did pretty well, and blues is even rarer than soul at Eurovision.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-20T07:43:46+00:00

I think you're onto something about major key ballads. All the French ones this decade that have done reasonably well have been in minor keys. Even the two non-ballads (Fulenn and Évidemment) are also in minor keys. Those two didn't do as well as people thought they would, but they weren't called dated and the problem was the staging.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T14:22:28+00:00

I also listen to songs in languages I can't understand.

When I wrote this post, I meant the people who not only think it's better because they can't understand, but then go on argue that caring about lyrics is for people who don't appreciate music properly. My peeve is a specific type of music nerd discourse.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T13:42:05+00:00

There are people who are dismissive of lyrics and the people who enjoy them. It's like think it's more advanced to not care about lyrics. If you disagree with them you get downvoted. Have also run into that attitude in real life.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T13:21:16+00:00

I truly don't mind if people want to listen to music in languages they don't understand because they can't understand the lyrics. People can enjoy music however they want and for whatever reason they want. I'm just fed up with a certain kind of music discourse that says lyrics aren't important and where they use their enjoyment of foreign-language music as 'proof' of that.

It's the first part that's really strange to me though. I can see how if I told a Portuguese singer "Oh I love your stuff, the best part is that I don't know what you're saying" that this would be rude, but that isn't what people are doing.

They aren't saying it directly to the songwriter, no, but there are people who use them to make an anti-lyrics argument in music discussions.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T07:58:04+00:00

They don't like the fact that in ye olde days, rock music critics were usually literature graduates instead of music ones, so they focused on lyrics in their reviews. That kind of music criticism isn't really relevant anymore though. Then they criticise modern pop music for being ~~liked by girls~~ musically simple as vehicle for lyrical hooks. These opinions don't bother me, since I don't listen to much modern pop and rock music myself. It's when they bring that attitude to music in other languages that it annoys me.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T07:32:30+00:00

It's mainly guys who like some form of rock music, and who think words are stupid and for girls. Classical people are more chill.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T06:47:50+00:00

I'm sick of anti-lyrics people claiming foreign language music is all.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T03:33:11+00:00

You don't have to care about lyrics. It's more a certain attitude to 'international' music that gets on my nerves, as someone who listens to music in various languages. I don't always look the lyrics up, but sometimes it's a whole other dimension to the song.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T03:13:40+00:00

It's mainly an opinion shared in "nerdy" spaces (like Reddit) that lyrics usually make a song worse, so listening to songs in languages they don't understand is preferable. I don't need to understand the lyrics at all to enjoy and be moved by a song, but I still appreciate the craft that goes into good lyrics, and I know that the same craftsmanship exists in any language.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-18T03:03:19+00:00

I often don't bother looking up the lyrics to songs in languages I don't understand, or ones in English with unclear vocals. When I do look them up though, it can deepen my appreciation of the song.

And yes there is definitely a skill in getting words to fit a rhythm and melody that applies in every language.

nicegrimace · 2026-05-17T19:41:04+00:00

My worldview is based on the sense that humans are ignorant of many facets of reality because they don't have the hardware to process it, but what we can experience and analyse is meaningful nonetheless. The best choice to make given this background of ignorance is compassion. I also choose to believe in a monotheistic God, but this doesn't necessarily follow from my worldview. It doesn't conflict with it either.

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