Charli XCX just put out a new mixtape

An exquisite burst of irreverent and cheeky pop energy replete with genre mashups that zips merrily along under the power of its own seemingly effortless wit, Number 1 Angel is a clear reminder of why Charli XCX is so deeply necessary to us all.

"You're the one, you're the one, you're the one
Who gets my head so f***ed up
You're the one, you're the one, you're the one
Who makes me scream
Even though, even though, even though
It hurts what you put me through
Holdin' on, holdin' on, holdin' on, holdin' on..."

On "3am," featuring MO, of whose brilliance I have previously expounded, Charli reconfirms that she most certainly gets it.  It's not the only eloquent reflection on the pleasure/pain dichotomy of heartbroken love on the mixtape by a long shot, since we also get the soulful "Blame it on You," the brisk and perky "Roll with Me," and the sweet-sour seduction of "Emotional," which canvas the topic with great aplomb.

"We had something that never happened /

 if only we had lost control..."

Perfect.

Then there's the ode to introverted confessionals, "ILY2," which finds Charli stating, "I don't talk a lot / so you should listen up," hence basically summarizing my existence in one line.  

Sticking mostly to the tough bubblegum feel of her previous work, with a bit more of the grit found in True Romance as opposed to the sometimes more attitude-fueled Sucker, Number 1 Angel strikes the ideal balance between the versions of Charli's sound we've heard in the past.  If the slinkily shameless "Drugs" feels a bit superficial, it's only because the rest of the mixtape is that vastly superior.  If this is what Charli XCX calls a mixtape, I can only anticipate her next official album to be quite fiercely exceptional.

This song scoops my heart out with a grapefruit spoon

Good for Niall, for realizing that with a song this excellent as your debut solo single, you can actually afford to wait a little while before releasing anything else.  You almost don't ever need to do anything else for the rest of your life after this (you shouldn't feel obligated to the universe or anything), but we're glad you will.

Vampire Diaries Season 8B Predictions and Wishlist

It's been a disappointing Season 8 for TVD, let's face it, and it's very hard to fathom how the writers are going to pick up all those pieces and glue them into some kind of winning conclusion.  But I like to hope for the best, especially given past precedent such as Elena's classy and door-leaving-open exit at the end of Season 6, which was the most jaw-droppingly brilliantly-constructed and beautifully executed leap of faith.

Wishes and Predictions!

1.  This one is a sad, bad, mad one.  I'm pretty sure the writers are gonna make us sit through several more episodes of humanity-free Salvatores, and make us listen to Sybil and Seline blah-blah-blahing a whole bunch more.  To which no one looks forward.

Vampires with no humanity are the Julians of Season 8.

2.  The Hell plotline: I've been hoping all along that when the scoobies defeat Cade, the souls undeserving of condemnation will be released from Hell.  You know, like presumably Tyler (he killed people, so one assumes that according to Cade's law that if you look at a fly the wrong way, you're evil, he was pretty much screwed), my Season 8 new character fave Georgie (Georgie and Alaric forever!), etc. etc.  I doubt Katherine will be set free after all she's done, but it would be so cool to see her again...that's assuming Nina Dobrev comes back for anything at all, which is unfortunately an assumption.  

3.  Speaking of which, Elena.  Let's confront the lovely, tiny, delicate-faced elephant in the room.  Will she be back?  Fierce hope that Elena at least awakens at the end of the finale lives on.  Because if there's one thing in this show that means more to some of us, one of whom is me, than anything else, it's Delena!  Let this glorious OTP be as it should at the end of the show!  They need their happily ever after, and we viewers have earned seeing the real Damon again right where he should be.

4.  What will happen to Bonnie?  My theory is that she dies peacefully in old age (flash forward sequence), Enzo by her side, since he'd taken the cure for vampirism years ago.  Then Elena can wake up without Bonnie dying tragically young and missing out on her romantic, blissful life with Enzo.  And also, we all want Bon Bon to have her powers back ASAP and for the rest of the final season of the show, please!

Massive thanks are due to Bonenzo for propping up an often abysmal season with their gorgeous love story.

5.  Are we going to see Kai again? The show's only truly great villain aside from Klaus and Katherine is rumored to make one more brief appearance, which would be terrific.  He's such a fascinating character that I truly can't believe he was confined to one season.

6.  Steroline Wedding.  This seems like a given, and I know the Steroline fans deserve this richly.  

Buuuuttttt I really hope that someday, some way, Klaus and Caroline end up together.  Some ships you just never get over, love.

Even though this has been the worst season of the show since 5, and with its downright depressing constant barrage of cruelty, pretty much worse than 5 (which after all, was more boring than actually mean), TVD never ceases to surprise and often amaze.  I can't wait to see what the series finale in March will hold.  Even though I'm sort of terrified to find out.  Gah!

Feel free to add your own hopes and fears and guesses in the comments!

reminder

This song is still almost alarmingly good.

There aren't really songs like this now.  It's so, so, so 90's-a-liciously deep and passionate as things only were when one was gluing X-Files pictures to school folders and taping Cardigans songs from the radio onto cassette and such.  Yet it gets it.  Then, now, always.

                          "That's when I knew I could never have you, 

I knew that before you did 

Still I'm the one who's stupid 

And there's this burning 

Like there's always been 

I never been so alone 

And I've never been so alive "

Girl, tell 'em.

"And if you want to cut me open/Says a thousands words 'bout you"

Love everything about this song, from Louisa's stunning powerhouse vocal to the '90's retro feel of the track, and the message of resilience.  The fierce, unabashedly OTT video is just one more aspect to adore.

Agents of Shield: Season 4 so far and Philinda musings

(insert spoiler warning for seasons 1-4 here)

What drives me crazy about this season of Agents of Shield is how despite its flaws, boring bits, predictable bits, and easily avoidable, face-palm and fast-forward inducing Ghost Rider storyline, when it comes down to everything happening with the core characters, I still care so much.  This show has its hooks in me so deeply that even after last season, which I like to call "My Baby Killed My Other Baby and They Made Me Watch,"* I am incredibly attached to the sagas of Coulson, May, Skye Daisy,** and Fitzsimmons.

Our new story arc, LMD, benefits so hugely by not being Ghost Rider that it almost seriously cannot effing fail. Plus, who doesn't love androids?  Good androids, bad ones, the creepiness and insidious sneaky-sneaky-ness of androids, how they reveal humanity's own potential for greatness and evil while spinning off into their own self-aware adventures of unpredictable mayhem, it's all great.  

But why do we have to go down this Fringe/Vampire Diaries retread path of having the fake robot May switched in for the real one right when Philinda was just about to happen?

Sure, it's familiar and makes us flinch with its possible implications and consequences, including the idea that moments we wanted experienced first with the real Philinda will be seen with...Fauxlinda...cringe!  Gah!  I still care so much!

Philinda's increased focus in Season 4 has been a major leap forward and one factor that kept me onboard when with so many other shows, lesser shows, I might have disembarked after last year's shark-jumping disasterpiece.

The truth is that no matter how many insane, weird, frustrating or heartbreaking twists and turns AOS takes, it's still and always captivating due to the strength of its characters, performances, and world.  Let's see how that strength may hopefully fuel LMD and guide AOS back to its previous level of Seasons 1-2A perfection (a girl can dream)...!

*Even the dreadful, forced and rushed fauxmance between Coulson and Rosalind did little to prepare me for the nosedive the season took by having Phil kill Grant Ward (I can still barely form the words).  But first, they totally destroyed the entire character of Ward as he'd been clearly and exquisitely crafted from Season 1-2A, like ripping the damn Mona Lisa off the Louvre wall, tearing it up, stomping on it, and then, just for good measure, setting it on fire and waving the flaming pieces in our faces.  

Still, I continue to love this show.  It's amazing.

**(whispers) she'll always be Skye to me!  Hahahaha (maniacal laughter).  But.  Really though.

MO - No Mythologies to Follow

This album is what you'd get if you took the delicate and deliberate vocals of Oh Land or Tove Lo, along with their lyrical beauty and honesty, and spliced it with a little of the gritty, bleary searching, longing, yearning, fearing introspective confusion and analysis of Florence and the Machine or Natalia Kills.  

"In too deep, I have become, my darkest dream, which I'm running from," MO worries on the fever dream track "Fire Rides," a song which also apparently alludes to "The Yellow Wallpaper" in one of its early lines (!!).  And that's just track 1.  There are 20 songs and they are all perfection.  The several different versions of earlier tracks added to the end of the album are welcome and interesting.  No Mythologies to Follow is thoroughly its own animal despite the obviously ideal companion it makes to other albums in its genre.