Alt Pop 2020 Rate | WINNER REVEALED

Cutlery

Cutlery

He/Him
*Checks next elimination* Oh what the... this was still here??










Walk into the kitchen, pull the dishes from the sink
And you have changed in the blink of an eye



38
eMLJocB.gif

WNEX20P.png


HIGH 10 (@klow @boombazookajoe), 9.5 (@sfmartin)
LOW 6 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi), 7 (@Phonetics Girl and Yours Truly)

Described by HAIM as the heaviest song they've written, perhaps it's my IQ or something not letting me appreciate this track much? Just joking, my opinion is always right and I'm the host. Anyways, Up from a Dream functions like a diary for Danielle, who probably due to anxiety and stress, often has dreams with multiple false awakenings. This comes up in the rather fun, singalong, classic rock vibe of the choruses where she asks whether she's up from the dream or not.

But If I could read between the lines a little, I believe that, as she's refered to the song as "waking up to a reality that you just don’t want to face", that the whole thing is about mental health struggles in various shades. Like losing the grip on reality, PTSD, paranoia, etc. So perhaps I do need to have an alternate reading of the fairly straightforward in the surface theme and go Inception to learn that there's a more interesting dive into the psyche within those lines so as to appreciate the song more. Anyway, the bridge is the one moment that feels completely real, like a sweet, honest declaration of love and trust in that person who keeps you anchored to Earth.

This is also the other song I was referring to when I talked about eliminations that featured no commentary. Fitting, because I'm also out of words for it at this point. Watch a live performance below if you like!


 
Cutlery

Cutlery

He/Him
57abfafb17a261eefe74c0627447b8e0.gif

this but in reverse

It's been almost a 1.5 year hiatus, and I can't say anything for myself other than life happens, unemployed eras (surprisingly) end, and motivation to log in and throw this rate a bone to keep eliminations moving: nonexistent. Sorry for the wait and for withholding the results far too long!

SO while I make the time to really put in the work to send off this rate (and hopefully also take on the task of reuploading all the broken graphics in the thread), @Phonetics Girl, your PopJustice alt icon's favorite alt icon, and my partner in rate crime, is coming to help me with the upcoming week of elims. Thank you so much dear for it. I know I've pretty much rejected previous offers of help from the gracious members of this rate, and I have to apologize to each of you! I don't wanna hold this back anymore and in other circumstances I would definitely not ghost you.

So, once again and for the last time, here's to closing off the 2020 Alt Pop Rate forreal, this time! Thank you for your engagement and support, you lovely people x

​
@R27​

​
​
 
Phonetics Girl

Phonetics Girl

she/her
surprise-bitch-hi.gif


Honestly, no one's more surprised than me that I'm brave enough to show up here with my brain-decay takes and take us into the Top 30 over the space of a week or so. But first things first. As the usual image hosts are looking bleak atm, I'm just going to unceremoniously upload the beautiful amazing fantastic @Cutlery's graphics straight into the post in hopes that maybe they'll survive this way? IDK, write-ups are hard, ok?





































Don't think we can be friends
'Cause you're too pretty
I wanna see you again
I don't know what I'm saying




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HIGH 10 (@Cutlery @Phonetics Girl @slaybellz @Remorque @Hurricane Drunk), 9.5 (@R27)
LOW 5 (@sfmartin), 6 (@CorgiCorgiCorgi @Jonathan27 @boom bazooka joe)

Let's start with the single piece of commentary for Worth It and it's a heartwarming one. @R27 (9.5) says this is "Discovery of the rate for me." Taste! As for me, when Beatrice Laus first popped up on my radar in 2020, it was a revelation. Unafraid to reference the best of 90s alt-rock, the run of singles from her debut album, Fake It Flowers, (Care ⇒ Sorry ⇒ Worth It) had got me obsessed. Bronze medal in PJSC ain’t nothing to sniff at, so, due to Worth It’s pop potential, it was probably me who proposed it for inclusion in this rate and I surely stand by it. The track's light and airy pop rock vibe does not preclude it from having an edge of horny messiness to it. Before I start sounding too much like chatGPT, let me just add that it evokes the rainy evenings of spring, something like walking with a refreshing not-too-freezing wind in my face while the buzz of half-articulated thoughts tickles the roof of my skull. As beabadoobee is gearing up for the release of her third LP, one has to admit she’s developed into quite a formidable artist who surfs the nostalgia waters of 90s and 00s influences with grace.


 
Cutlery

Cutlery

He/Him
We're back! It's funny how the slow pace I've made this rate move to means we can look back at where these artists were four years ago from the remaining writeups onward. As many have released at least one more album, and sometimes even massively changed their artistic/popularity outlook (Chappell, Charli, for example). Just interesting to discuss and see
 
Phonetics Girl

Phonetics Girl

she/her
The second 11 to leave the rate is...





































You can't hide it in the walls
Sweep it under marble floors
It's been living in our lives
Passed on down family lines





36
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8,239.png

HIGH 11 (@Oleander), 10 (@Cutlery @Phonetics Girl @BubblegumBoy @Ana Raquel @CorgiCorgiCorgi)
LOW 5 (@Hurricane Drunk), 6 (@soratami @sfmartin @Aester @godspeed)


I have a lot of questions.
#1: What the fuck?
#2: What’s a "Bad Friend" or "Love Me 4 Me" and how are they in the top half of SAWAYAMA while "Dynasty" isn’t?
#3: For real, what the hell?

As Rina herself commented for genius.com: "This is the biggest question of the record – whether I’m able to break the chain of pain that runs in my family. For me this is the secondary title of the album."

I'm sure many of us unfortunately have experience with generational trauma. I know for me, there’s an echoing question: Am I good enough to break this cycle and free myself? As I'm typing this a week after my 28th birthday, I am quite convinced that I am my dynasty. And my twin on stanning this song is @BubblegumBoy (10): "What an album opener! If you haven’t seen her Tiny Desk concert, this song pops off". Ok, let me put the performance under the spoiler tag below!

In hindsight, I’m a bit mad at myself for not giving Dynasty my 11 because, in time, it has turned out to be more enduring for me than my actual top score. Admittedly, it would have only pushed it up 3 spots, and we would have been dealing with an even bigger mess of an exit, so I might have made the right decision. It was the other voters who fucked up is what I’ll be telling myself, no, it’s true. Truth also is, I'm kind of a maximalist when it comes to music. I require big obvious hooks, pulverising synths and blaring drama. And Dynasty delivers that in spades. I’d expect to hear the song as the opening theme of some type of ~~adventures of warrior empress from outer space~~ anime. The whole fantasy quality of Rina’s art & the unabashed earnestness behind it is perhaps the reason why she’s the most recent pop star I managed to truly connect with. We have decided to ugly cry and feel cathartic about it, whew!

Let's hear from someone who won't be ascending with me and that's @godspeed (6): "As an intro to the album, I think it works very well. It’s attention grabbing and sets the tone quite perfectly. As a song to listen to on its own, it’s not something that I’d gravitate towards." Fair!

Meanwhile @Trouble in Paradise (8) is on a reverse expedition: "I remember adoring this when the album was released but there’s a lack of oomph to it upon relistening. Sometimes Rina’s Y2K production goes too tinny for my ears." Oop, don't get me started on whoever mixed Hold The Girl cause they're going to hell. And not to the fun one!

Oh well, let's finish on a higher note. Over to @Oleander (11), MVP of commentary:
"Powerful opener and the mission statement of the album. There are sentiments expressed here I can connect to my own experience of being the first "American" of the whole family line. The habits, attitudes, and behaviors inherited and trying to confront them in order to ensure they don't keep trickling down. The experience of inadvertently being the experiment and the hybrid. The accelerated growing up and the resentment that came along with it. The constant cohering and separating of the different sides and cultures housed within myself. It's a lot to inherit but at the same time it's not inherited because it's something my parents will never experience in the same way. I'll never know what it's like to be an immigrant and they will never know what it's like to be born and raised as chicanx. At the same time there are others in similar spots who have even more to grapple with like the added layer of racism which is not something I will ever have to face. Something that my father does have to face, however. It's a layered situation and relationship with what feels like as many levels of disconnect as there are levels of connection. Sometimes I wonder if I am overthinking everything but then I have moments like listening to this song where I see that I am not alone even if it feels that way at times especially compared to other family members. That constant conflict of growing up with what is realistically three cultures is expressed so brilliantly here and across the album that it had to get my 11. To some the album might seem like a collection of different styles that lacks cohesiveness but I liken the patchwork of genres of this album to that experience of being an immigrant or child of immigrants. You are a patchwork of different pieces from your inherited and your new culture that you reach for consciously and unconsciously. A patchwork you have haphazardly sewn together to try and make the pieces yours. A patchwork that as Dynasty shows is sometimes barely held together by thin strands of thread and that with bad pieces that must be undone and cut off the whole."


 
Aester

Aester

She/Her
Yeah, that commentary and the Tiny Desk clip make me feel bad about my 6. The song hadn't clicked with me at the time, but she really sings the hell out of it and it clearly holds a lot of meaning. I'm sorry!
 
Oleander

Oleander

He/Him
Let me start off by saying I'm so happy to see this rate has come back! Thank you so much @Cutlery and @Phonetics Girl, I am so looking forward to revisiting the songs and see how things play out.

Now let me get to the elephant in the room ddd...

Phonetics Girl said:
The second 11 to leave the rate is...





































You can't hide it in the walls
Sweep it under marble floors
It's been living in our lives
Passed on down family lines





36
View attachment 56267
View attachment 56268

HIGH 11 (@Oleander), 10 (@Cutlery @Phonetics Girl @BubblegumBoy @Ana Raquel @CorgiCorgiCorgi)
LOW 5 (@Hurricane Drunk), 6 (@soratami @sfmartin @Aester @godspeed)


I have a lot of questions.
#1: What the fuck?
#2: What’s a "Bad Friend" or "Love Me 4 Me" and how are they in the top half of SAWAYAMA while "Dynasty" isn’t?
#3: For real, what the hell?

As Rina herself commented for genius.com: "This is the biggest question of the record – whether I’m able to break the chain of pain that runs in my family. For me this is the secondary title of the album."

I'm sure many of us unfortunately have experience with generational trauma. I know for me, there’s an echoing question: Am I good enough to break this cycle and free myself? As I'm typing this a week after my 28th birthday, I am quite convinced that I am my dynasty. And my twin on stanning this song is @BubblegumBoy (10): "What an album opener! If you haven’t seen her Tiny Desk concert, this song pops off". Ok, let me put the performance under the spoiler tag below!

In hindsight, I’m a bit mad at myself for not giving Dynasty my 11 because, in time, it has turned out to be more enduring for me than my actual top score. Admittedly, it would have only pushed it up 3 spots, and we would have been dealing with an even bigger mess of an exit, so I might have made the right decision. It was the other voters who fucked up is what I’ll be telling myself, no, it’s true. Truth also is, I'm kind of a maximalist when it comes to music. I require big obvious hooks, pulverising synths and blaring drama. And Dynasty delivers that in spades. I’d expect to hear the song as the opening theme of some type of ~~adventures of warrior empress from outer space~~ anime. The whole fantasy quality of Rina’s art & the unabashed earnestness behind it is perhaps the reason why she’s the most recent pop star I managed to truly connect with. We have decided to ugly cry and feel cathartic about it, whew!

Let's hear from someone who won't be ascending with me and that's @godspeed (6): "As an intro to the album, I think it works very well. It’s attention grabbing and sets the tone quite perfectly. As a song to listen to on its own, it’s not something that I’d gravitate towards." Fair!

Meanwhile @Trouble in Paradise (8) is on a reverse expedition: "I remember adoring this when the album was released but there’s a lack of oomph to it upon relistening. Sometimes Rina’s Y2K production goes too tinny for my ears." Oop, don't get me started on whoever mixed Hold The Girl cause they're going to hell. And not to the fun one!

Oh well, let's finish on a higher note. Over to @Oleander (11), MVP of commentary:
"Powerful opener and the mission statement of the album. There are sentiments expressed here I can connect to my own experience of being the first "American" of the whole family line. The habits, attitudes, and behaviors inherited and trying to confront them in order to ensure they don't keep trickling down. The experience of inadvertently being the experiment and the hybrid. The accelerated growing up and the resentment that came along with it. The constant cohering and separating of the different sides and cultures housed within myself. It's a lot to inherit but at the same time it's not inherited because it's something my parents will never experience in the same way. I'll never know what it's like to be an immigrant and they will never know what it's like to be born and raised as chicanx. At the same time there are others in similar spots who have even more to grapple with like the added layer of racism which is not something I will ever have to face. Something that my father does have to face, however. It's a layered situation and relationship with what feels like as many levels of disconnect as there are levels of connection. Sometimes I wonder if I am overthinking everything but then I have moments like listening to this song where I see that I am not alone even if it feels that way at times especially compared to other family members. That constant conflict of growing up with what is realistically three cultures is expressed so brilliantly here and across the album that it had to get my 11. To some the album might seem like a collection of different styles that lacks cohesiveness but I liken the patchwork of genres of this album to that experience of being an immigrant or child of immigrants. You are a patchwork of different pieces from your inherited and your new culture that you reach for consciously and unconsciously. A patchwork you have haphazardly sewn together to try and make the pieces yours. A patchwork that as Dynasty shows is sometimes barely held together by thin strands of thread and that with bad pieces that must be undone and cut off the whole."


Click to expand...

Sigh....I'm not really surprised by this as I knew this song didn't have much time left based on how many people were coming for the album throughout the rate. I'm proud that it made it this far and got a pretty good average though! I had a few songs fighting for my 11 but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it had to go to Dynasty. I completely forgot that I wrote that commentary and reading it again now makes me feel really good about the way I captured how I feel about it. I also realize that it ended up inspiring a little poem written in Spanish that I never finished so let me try and go back to it now at some point dddd. Even though Rina's Japanese-British experience is vastly different from my own Mexican-American experience, the way she narrates these stories of familial trauma and pain resonates so hard. The best way I can put it is that it has a similar effect on me as Everything, Everywhere, All At Once did. Instead of going for generic representations of immigrant and child of immigrant experiences, both Rina's album and that film are hyper-specific to the Asian immigrant experience and through that hyper-specificity they turn themselves universal by portraying the complex human nature of being a queer child of immigrants and reminding us of the shared trauma that unites us all.
 
Cotton Park

Cotton Park

Phonetics Girl said:
The second 11 to leave the rate is...





































You can't hide it in the walls
Sweep it under marble floors
It's been living in our lives
Passed on down family lines





36
View attachment 56267
View attachment 56268

HIGH 11 (@Oleander), 10 (@Cutlery @Phonetics Girl @BubblegumBoy @Ana Raquel @CorgiCorgiCorgi)
LOW 5 (@Hurricane Drunk), 6 (@soratami @sfmartin @Aester @godspeed)


I have a lot of questions.
#1: What the fuck?
#2: What’s a "Bad Friend" or "Love Me 4 Me" and how are they in the top half of SAWAYAMA while "Dynasty" isn’t?
#3: For real, what the hell?

As Rina herself commented for genius.com: "This is the biggest question of the record – whether I’m able to break the chain of pain that runs in my family. For me this is the secondary title of the album."

I'm sure many of us unfortunately have experience with generational trauma. I know for me, there’s an echoing question: Am I good enough to break this cycle and free myself? As I'm typing this a week after my 28th birthday, I am quite convinced that I am my dynasty. And my twin on stanning this song is @BubblegumBoy (10): "What an album opener! If you haven’t seen her Tiny Desk concert, this song pops off". Ok, let me put the performance under the spoiler tag below!

In hindsight, I’m a bit mad at myself for not giving Dynasty my 11 because, in time, it has turned out to be more enduring for me than my actual top score. Admittedly, it would have only pushed it up 3 spots, and we would have been dealing with an even bigger mess of an exit, so I might have made the right decision. It was the other voters who fucked up is what I’ll be telling myself, no, it’s true. Truth also is, I'm kind of a maximalist when it comes to music. I require big obvious hooks, pulverising synths and blaring drama. And Dynasty delivers that in spades. I’d expect to hear the song as the opening theme of some type of ~~adventures of warrior empress from outer space~~ anime. The whole fantasy quality of Rina’s art & the unabashed earnestness behind it is perhaps the reason why she’s the most recent pop star I managed to truly connect with. We have decided to ugly cry and feel cathartic about it, whew!

Let's hear from someone who won't be ascending with me and that's @godspeed (6): "As an intro to the album, I think it works very well. It’s attention grabbing and sets the tone quite perfectly. As a song to listen to on its own, it’s not something that I’d gravitate towards." Fair!

Meanwhile @Trouble in Paradise (8) is on a reverse expedition: "I remember adoring this when the album was released but there’s a lack of oomph to it upon relistening. Sometimes Rina’s Y2K production goes too tinny for my ears." Oop, don't get me started on whoever mixed Hold The Girl cause they're going to hell. And not to the fun one!

Oh well, let's finish on a higher note. Over to @Oleander (11), MVP of commentary:
"Powerful opener and the mission statement of the album. There are sentiments expressed here I can connect to my own experience of being the first "American" of the whole family line. The habits, attitudes, and behaviors inherited and trying to confront them in order to ensure they don't keep trickling down. The experience of inadvertently being the experiment and the hybrid. The accelerated growing up and the resentment that came along with it. The constant cohering and separating of the different sides and cultures housed within myself. It's a lot to inherit but at the same time it's not inherited because it's something my parents will never experience in the same way. I'll never know what it's like to be an immigrant and they will never know what it's like to be born and raised as chicanx. At the same time there are others in similar spots who have even more to grapple with like the added layer of racism which is not something I will ever have to face. Something that my father does have to face, however. It's a layered situation and relationship with what feels like as many levels of disconnect as there are levels of connection. Sometimes I wonder if I am overthinking everything but then I have moments like listening to this song where I see that I am not alone even if it feels that way at times especially compared to other family members. That constant conflict of growing up with what is realistically three cultures is expressed so brilliantly here and across the album that it had to get my 11. To some the album might seem like a collection of different styles that lacks cohesiveness but I liken the patchwork of genres of this album to that experience of being an immigrant or child of immigrants. You are a patchwork of different pieces from your inherited and your new culture that you reach for consciously and unconsciously. A patchwork you have haphazardly sewn together to try and make the pieces yours. A patchwork that as Dynasty shows is sometimes barely held together by thin strands of thread and that with bad pieces that must be undone and cut off the whole."


Click to expand...

SPOT ON. Love this, PG.
 
Phonetics Girl

Phonetics Girl

she/her




I can be loving
I can forgive
I don’t wanna lose you
I know I’ll still live






35
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8,261.png

HIGH 10 (@Ana Raquel @Remorque @klow @Candy Perfume Girl @2014), 9.5 (@Cutlery @Cotton Park)
LOW 4.5 (@Hurricane Drunk), 5 (@Phonetics Girl)

The first single from the third studio album by Honduran-American artist Empress Of is a self-written and produced low-key banger. I’m not very confident in my genre-recognition skills, but dare I say it’s house-y? So not exactly my cup of tea, but yeah, I definitely appreciate Ms. Lorely’s vocals here. They’re vulnerable when needed but still cool and in control. Although, the author herself states for Apple Music: “This is a song where I sang some shit I didn’t want to sing, but it felt really good. The line “Choose me over her” is so fucking desperate. It’s telling someone, “I’ll be all the things that you wanted me to be when we were together,” you know? Just give me another chance. My most desperate hour was writing this song.”, I have to say she’s camouflaging that well as, when listening to the song, I get the vibe that she's not begging for another chance but confidently stating her case.

Empress Of has found her way into the heart of @Ana Raquel (10): "BY FAR my favorite discovery on the rate. Groove and lush at the same time." Conversely, @Trouble in Paradise (6) confesses: "Eek I’m sorry but I just did not connect to the last Empress Of album and I think that’s more my failing than hers". Maybe you just need to, wait for it...give it another chance? Not that I'm the one to judge with my plain potato palate, mind you. But @godspeed (9) gets it: "The best club banger that was released when clubs seemed like a distant fragment of our minds." Oh, um, clubs, yeah! If you ever got to experience Give Me Another Chance there, love that 4U! Meanwhile, @R27 (7.5) is thinking of another song: "My choice from Empress Of would have been "A Little Rain," but this suits me just fine." Did I link the right track below?

 
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