Friday the 30th, 2021: A Stressful Day of My Life and of New Music

July 30th, 2021. No one was prepared for the highs and lows that arrived on this forsaken Friday. So much happened. I’m sure a lot of stuff happened in the Olympics or the news or something, but if that’s what you’re thinking about, switch gears now. I am a teenage girl with teenage girl interests that I would like to discuss, and this blog is not for serious things.

I’m talking the season finale of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” (mixed opinions, leaning on mainly positive/EJ’s arms are my favorite characters). I’m talking new Kurtis Conner and Drew Gooden videos (both great). I’m talking season two of “Outer Banks” dropping after what seems like decades (that show is a masterpiece, but Kiara has to be the most annoying character on television to date, like you’re rich babe, stop being horrible to your parents and acting like money doesn’t matter when you literally hang out with people that fish to survive and are basically orphans). But most importantly, I’m talking movements in music.

Three albums debuted on Friday that pertained relevance to me: Billie Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever,” Bleachers’ “Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night,” and Jelani Aryeh’s “I’ve Got Some Living to Do.”

I managed to listen to all three within 24 hours, starting with TTSOOSN at breakfast, “Happier Than Ever” at lunch, and “I’ve Got Some Living to Do” at three in the morning at the airport while attempting to find my flight to Jack Antonoff’s home state, New Jersey. I also managed to watch most of “Outer Banks” and “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” so suffice to say it was an emotionally exhausting day. 

In order to make running through this eventful day easier for me, we’ll start with “Happier Than Ever.” I’ve never really listened to Billie Eilish’s music as more than someone that goes to an all-girl school and therefore knows lots of girls that really like her work, or as just someone who has listened to the radio at some point. I have always maintained a pretty neutral opinion of her music, and nothing’s ever made me so excited that I’ve added it to my playlist for more than a week. As of Friday, that has not changed.

It was pretty well-produced, but it was somewhat monotonous and her vocals were pretty uniform the entire time. It was 16 tracks, so it was extremely difficult to muscle through it; however, I know that “NDA” has a pretty humorous aura around it, and rightfully so. The pre-chorus’ twangy melody does 1000% sound like the Among Us theme. But it’s chorus really isn’t bad, and it is one of the more interesting tracks on the album. 

The song “Happy Than Ever” was also pretty good, but other than those two songs, it was just dry. It felt like they wrote “Happier Than Ever” and then realized they couldn’t release a single without an album so they wrote the rest of the songs overnight and started shooting promo pics. I’d get excited by a concept or intro, maybe even make it as far as being interested in the production or lyrics, and then it just would never get better than the start of the good parts. Over all, I just wasn’t super interested. The promo was pretty, though. (Also, some advice for Billie that she will never see, but that I would like to speak into existence: if you want your music to be better received on the internet, don’t be dumb or rude on the internet.)

On to TTSOOSN! A high of Friday’s fruits! I genuinely loved this album, and there was never a single boring or uninteresting track on the album. It feels genuine to the band’s intentions, and has easter eggs of Jack Antonoff’s lore, like Bruce Springstein’s feature on “Chinatown,” the second track on the album and also my dad’s favorite song (any time I play “Rollercoaster,” he always goes, “What’s this song?” to which I answer, “Rollercoaster,” and then he says, “Hm. I like it,” and then forgets what the song is called and who it’s by. He’s also a big Springstein fan, like any other man that grew up in the 70’s.) 

I have no bad things to say about this album, and I commend Bleachers for making an album that feels so them. It was colorful, it was original, and it was an excellent feat of songwriting. The production was unique to their other albums, and to all those saying Jack Antonoff is being overused and is starting to reuse his own works, I say HA! Kiss my butt and listen to TTSOOSN! 

My personal favorite tracks are “Big Life,” ”91,” “Secret Life,” and especially “What’d I Do With All This Faith.” WIDWATF is AMAZING and I have not seen enough hype for it on Twitter, so listen to it!

Finally, we move on to “I’ve Got Some Living to Do,” yet another highlight of Friday’s mischief. Even though I was half-conscious and barely functioning, this album got me through my journey through LAX in the wee hours of July 31st. I’ve been a huge fan of Jelani since the first time I listened to “Stella Brown,” which is more than a year as of today, and it automatically became one of my all-time favorite songs. As soon as I listened to the album, I contemplated buying tickets for my twin and best friend to see him in concert on my birthday, so we’ll see if that ends up happening.

Jelani’s whole discography is so emotive and lyrically-driven, with such fantastic R&B and hip hop undertones despite sounding like an indie debut (it has the same vibe as Conan Gray’s transition from “Sunset Season” into “Kid Krow”). The entire album’s production is fantastic, and the way he plays with dynamics in both vocals and mixing is so masterful and immersive. It’s ability to communicate with my synesthesia really surprised and excited me: though I have lots of music that invokes response from colors and textures, I always really love when I perk up at the start of a song, and I did that for nearly every single track. This album brings a new definition to ‘no-skips,’ and I feel like I can get lost in every song. 

I found myself laughing, because sometimes, it felt like I was still listening to TTSOOSN! All of the melodies were insanely distinctive while contributing to a greater theme, and yet consistently maintained a wise grip on intentional instrumentation一 very Bleachers-esque, if I do say so myself. 

His lyricism is so romantic and poetic, and I love feeling like the first couple times I listened to “Folklore” and “Evermore” where I had to stop and look songs up while wondering what Taylor Swift got on the English part of the ACT. Jelani, what were your SAT scores? Did you take AP Lit? (Asking for a friend, but also not asking, but also demanding to know.) My favorite songs are “Trunk Song,” “Someone to Hold You,” “Stella Brown,” and “Love Dies At Dawn.”

I can’t wait to make my friends listen to TTSOOSN and Jelani’s latest release as the summer ends, and what a soundtrack to fade out such a rollercoaster of a summer. As for Billie, it may just be differences in preferences, but it just didn’t do it for me. But congrats to Jelani and Bleachers一 you survived and thrived in the unforgettable 30th of July, 2021!