Author: Caitlin

Howdy, I'm Caitlin and I'm a senior in Communication Media. My favorite genres of music are pop and indie-rock, though I dabble in most genres. Hope you enjoy my content!

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New Album Review

“Any Shape You Take”: New Album Review

ALBUM: “Any Shape You Take” by Indigo De Souza

LABEL: Saddle Creek

RATING: 10/10

BEST TRACKS: “Pretty Pictures” “Real Pain” “Die/Cry”

FCC: None

Let me preface this entire review by saying that this album is my personal album of the year, at least thus far, and in my opinion, Indigo De Souza has yet to have a miss in her entire discography. Her sophomore album, “Any Shape You Take”  was released on August 27 of this year. The record is ten songs long and has a run-time of 38 minutes, an ideal length for an album.

In regard to collaboration, the album was co-produced by De Souza and Brad Cook (Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel also have production credits). As far as songwriting goes, Owen Stone has a songwriting credit on two songs and Jake Lenderman has a credit on one. 

As a listener, I am lyricism focused, and this album’s biggest strength (although it has little to no weaknesses) are its lyrics. It very much has the honest detailed songwriting that has been emphasized in artists like Phoebe Bridgers as of late. However, De Souza juxtaposes this with repetition of phrases over and over again, that often turn into plea-like shouts. It makes for a dynamic and wonderful listening experience. As I often do in my album reviews, here is a list of just a few of my favorite lyrics from this album.

  • “Do you see me when you’re sleeping? / Do you even shut your eyes at night?” — “Die/Cry”
  • “I promise you I’ll always grow with you / And if my promise ever slips just trust I’ll have the heart to quit / I know when I am better off a friend” — “Pretty Pictures”
  • “I see you in colors, in reds and in oranges / But you can’t color me in fear” — “Way Out”
  • “Dirty the dishеs, stack them higher / We’rе not gonna wash them / We’ll throw them away / Kill me slowly, outside that diner / That we liked to go to / When things were okay”— “Kill Me”

This album is exactly what I needed this year. Other releases were somewhat lackluster, and I was losing hope in having an album I really enjoyed come out this year, but this North Carolina based artist flipped the script.

Happy listening, 

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

It’s Fall, Y’all (November)

Brown background image with red and orange leaves overlayed with text that reads "it's fall y'all" in the upper left hand corner and "88.1 WKNC" in the bottom left hand corner

Now that it’s November, it’s time for me to give you the third and final installment of the “it’s fall, y’all” playlist. September’s theme was folk and acoustic sounds, October’s was haunted and synth-y for Halloween, and I’m happy to finally share with you what November’s theme is. 

These fifteen songs are jazz and blues themed. Although somewhat different genres, I decided to make the first bit of the playlist jazzy and the last couple of songs blues in order to tie it back to the folkiness of September’s theme. I hope these songs remind you of cold rainy days, warm fuzzy socks and twinkling street lights.

Without further ado, here are the final fifteen songs of “it’s fall, y’all.”

  • “I Fall In Love Too Easily” — Chet Baker
  • “The Starlit Hour” — Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra
  • “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” — Vince Guaraldi
  • “Some Enchanted Evening” — Etta Jones
  • “You Are Special” — Johnny Costa
  • “Nostalgia in Times Square” — Mingus Big Band
  • “Sleepin’ Bee” — Tommy Flanagan
  • “Don’t Smoke In Bed” — Nina Simone
  • “Lilac Wine” — Eartha Kitt
  • “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home – Live at Newport Jazz Festival 1958” — Louis Armstrong
  • “Happy Ending” — Sammy Davis Jr.
  • “Let It Be” — Bill Withers
  • “A Sunday Kind Of Love” — Etta James
  • “Mary Had A Little Lamb” — Buddy Guy
  • “Little Red Rooster” — Willie Dixon

I hope this playlist carries you through the rest of this Autumn and for all of the future ones to come. As always, I’ve made it into a Spotify playlist for your enjoyment.

Happy Listening,

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

Old, New, Borrowed, Blue: A Wedding Playlist

An embroidered message with the post title

Recently, a few couples I follow on TikTok have gotten married and I feel like everywhere I look there’s a wedding. I love romance and I have an insatiable desire to go to a wedding after not going to many large events over the past few years. So, the following twenty songs are songs that I think are beautifully romantic and great for a wedding (although, perhaps they’re not the most danceable). 

Of course, I had to start with “L-O-V-E” by Nat King Cole and punctuate the playlist with “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)” by Natalie Cole as an homage to my favorite movie “The Parent Trap” (who’s soundtrack I have written about here on the blog). As always, you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

  • “L-O-V-E” — Nat King Cole
  • “I Feel the Earth Move” — Carole King
  • “First Day Of My Life” — Bright Eyes
  • “Beyond” — Leon Bridges
  • “Apple Cider” — beabadoobee
  • “anything” — Adrianne Lenker
  • “Old College Try” — The Mountain Goats
  • “We Belong Together” — Vampire Weekend, Danielle Haim
  • “Mushaboom” — Feist
  • “Kiss Her You Fool” — Kids That Fly
  • “I Will” — The Beatles
  • “invisible string” — Taylor Swift
  • “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love” — Barry White
  • “Lovesong” — The Cure
  • “Impregnable Question” — Dirty Projectors
  • “Friday I’m In Love” — Yo La Tengo
  • “Anything We Want” — Fiona Apple
  • “Wedding Song – Acoustic” — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • “Let’s Get Married” — Bleachers
  • “This Will Be (An Everlasting Love”) — Natalie Cole

Here’s to hoping I can go to a wedding ASAP.

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

If You Like Rilo Kiley, Then Listen To…

Brown crumply paper in the background. Text in bottom right corner reads "88.1 WKNC" in a warm dark brown color, Text in the center of the poto reads "if you like rilo kiley."

As I’ve made very clear here on the WKNC blog (and many other places), Rilo Kiley takes the cake for my favorite band of all time. Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett struck gold when they wrote together. So, I figured they would make a great installment of my “if you like… then listen to…” series that I’ve been doing here on the blogosphere.

If you’re not familiar with this series, I make a playlist of songs and artists that I think someone would enjoy if they like a certain artist/album. I’ve done it with Fiona Apple, “folklore” by Taylor Swift and “Punisher” by Phoebe Bridgers thus far.

Without further ado, here are fifteen songs you should check out if you’re a fan of Rilo Kiley.

  • “Plea F
  • “Plea From a Cat Named Virtute” — The Weakerthans
  • “Kokomo, IN” — Japanese Breakfast
  • “Wrapped Up In Books” — Belle & Sebastian
  • “Cracked LCD – Live in Sofia” — Ladytron
  • “Why Can’t I?” — Liz Phair
  • “Madonna” — Snail Mail
  • “The Things We Did and Didn’t Do” — The Magnetic Fields
  • “Elevator Love Letter” — Stars
  • “Temporarily Blind” — Built To Spill
  • “Heavy” — Tegan and Sara
  • “Another Travelin’ Song” — Bright Eyes
  • “Summersong” — The Decemberists
  • “Basement Apt.” — Sarah Harmer
  • “Like U Crazy” — Mates of State
  • “Come Back Margaret” — Camera Obscura

As always, you can stream this playlist on Spotify.

Happy Listening,

Caitlin

Categories
Miscellaneous

CD Collection of a Recently Inherited Car

Two CD cases with cd's in them. Purple text in the top left that says "cd collection" three times, gradually getting lighter as it goes down. Text that says "of a family car" that is purple and gradually get's darker as it goes down.

I recently was loaned/given a car by my family to bring to campus this semester since I’d be living driving distance away from campus. This car was previously owned by my sister, who inherited it from my dad, who had it after my mom. Essentially, everyone in my immediate family has owned this car before I have, thus meaning there’s random things that belong to everyone scattered around my car. Particularly, in the center console there are thirteen CDs that belong to individuals in my family. Let’s take a look at those CDs.

Albums

  • “River of Dreams” — Billy Joel (two copies)
  • “Whitney” — Whitney Houston
  • “Best Shots” — Pat Benatar
  • “21” — Adele
  • “Hell Freezes Over” — Eagles
  • “25” — Adele
  • “Daydream” — Mariah Carey

Best Of’s

  • “20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of ABBA” — ABBA
  • “The Essential Bruce Springsteen” — Bruce Springsteen
  • “Greatest Hits” — Elton John

Mixtapes

  • Tune Time 2013
    • One of my mom’s old coworkers would make mixtapes every year for the best/most popular songs of the year. 2013 included the likes of “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers, “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons, and “Feel This Moment” by Christina Aguilera and Pitbull.
  • My Mom’s Favorite Songs
    • My dad used to love making mixtapes back when CDs were still culturally very relevant. This particular burned disc is 12 of my mom’s favorite songs including: “Last Dance” by Donna Summer, “Brandy” by Looking Glass, and “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

So, clearly my family has taste (although I’m fairly certain most of these are my mom’s, they were enjoyed by all). Next time I drive I’ll pop in one of these at random and see what they have to offer. 

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
Short Stories

Random Acts of Kindness: A One Direction Concert Gone Right

One Direction on stage. From left to right: Louis, Liam, Harry, Zayn, Niall.
One Direction at their Santiago, Chile stop on their "Where We Are Tour" April 30th, 2014. Photo taken by Flickr user Javierosh, and used under the Creative Commons License.

When I was a pre-teen, I, like millions of other people, was obsessed- and I don’t use that word lightly- with One Direction. I had posters and random branded merchandise (a toothbrush and toothpaste), I read fanfiction, the whole nine yards. My older sister was also very into them, and our obsessions fed off each other. From their first album all the way until their last, we were invested, although the sparkle did fade after some time.

By the time they were on their third tour titled “Where We Are Tour,” I had been wanting to go to one of their concerts for what felt like forever. As a Christmas gift, my parents got me and my sister lawn tickets at their Charlotte show at PNC Music Pavilion (then known as Verizon Wireless Amphitheater). We were ecstatic.

I had a soccer game earlier in the day, but after I came home and showered and got into my concert attire (a flannel, grey t-shirt, and jeans), I was ready to go. Upon arrival, my sister and I quickly realized that my soccer game had impeded us from getting there when doors opened, and that we’d be seated at the back of the lawn. 

My older sister and I at the Charlotte show of One Direction’s “Where We Are Tour” on September 28, 2014.

As disappointment crept up my throat, two middle aged women approached me and my sister, and told us that they had seated tickets that they were not going to use. At first skeptical, we further questioned them, and they explained that for some reason I no longer remember that they were leaving and no longer needed the seats. My sister, the older one, and thus in charge used her best judgement and decided that this was legit. We walked up to the guards scanning the seated tickets and they pointed us in the right direction: we were going to be astronomically closer than we had expected.

I don’t remember a single thing from that concert. The only fragment of a memory I have is that I cried during “What Makes You Beautiful.” Apparently, Harry Styles put on a banana costume. But what I will always remember is those two women making two teen girls’ dreams come true, and that for a while, it was the best night of my life.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I was a Niall girl.

Until next time,

Caitlin

Categories
Miscellaneous

Screen Time: What to do Instead of Doom-Scrolling

Grey background with a photo of a scroll in the center. On the top right text reads "this is a" and on the bottom left the text reads "no doom scroll zone"

I treasure my screen time (my weekly screen time report is an embarrassing number). But sometimes, even when I want to be taking a break, scrolling through all of my endless feeds can be very emotionally and mentally draining. When I want to be on my phone or computer, but don’t want to scroll myself into the void, here’s what I do instead.

Phone Games

I feel like everyone is entitled to at least one silly little phone game that they are way too into. For me, it’s the app/website Cardgames.io (right now I am going through a major Farkle phase but I have played most games on there). Whether it be a card game, an adventure game or something where you have to tend to crops, let yourself have a game or two on your phone. It’s all in good fun.

Make A Playlist

If you’re in a creative mood, check out my blog “Struggle Making Playlists? Have Some Playlist Prompts.” It could potentially give you some new ideas for ways to freshen up your music library. 

Quizzes

There are two types of quizzes I frequent in my free time: personality quizzes and knowledge quizzes. Recently, I’ve been loving the Taylor Swift Sporcle quiz where you have 11 minutes to try and name every song on every album. Sporcle is a generally good resource for the knowledge/trivia based quizzes, but you can find them on all corners of the internet. 

The “Wikipedia Game”

You know the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” phenomenon? It’s kind of like that, but with Wikipedia. As Wikipedia describes it on the Wikipedia page for the game the objective is: “Players (one or more) start on the same randomly selected article, and must navigate to another pre-selected target article, solely by clicking links within each article. The goal is to arrive at the target article in the fewest clicks (articles), or the least time.” This is fun on your own, but is especially fun racing a friend. 

Catch Up On Favorite Podcasts/Current Audiobook

I feel like all I do is recommend my own blogs but I have written a blog with some podcast recommendations, as well as several blogs with book reviews (“You Have A Match,” “Tweet Cute,” “The Unhoneymooners”).  But if you have your own personal favorite that you haven’t listened to in a while: do it, it’ll be worth it.

Set The Phone Down

If you’ve exhausted all of these, maybe screen time should come to a close. Or not, I won’t tell you what to do. 

Here’s to no more doom-scrolling,

Caitlin

Categories
Miscellaneous

Why WKNC Rocks

Red background with the WKNC 88.1 logo repeated over and over,

As I wrote about in “My Year Writing For WKNC,” I’ve been involved one way or another with WKNC for about a year now, and I want to share a few of the many wonderful things about the Triangle’s very own 88.1.

The People

Whether it be sharing memes in the Discord, eating lunch together in the lounge, or waving to one another on campus, I’ve met some wonderful people at the station. It’s a blessing to be surrounded by people who have seemingly infinite knowledge about music and who are incredibly talented.

New Music Everywhere, All The Time

I used to have this irrational fear that I would never be able to listen to all the music in the world, and that I could have a favorite song out there that I just hadn’t listened to. WKNC has exposed me to hundreds of new songs and bands and diminished this fear almost entirely. If I ever get bored with my music, I know I can always tune into HD-1, HD-2, go to the blog, the YouTube channel, or our Discord to find something new to listen to. 

The Interior Design

I cannot stress how many stickers and posters adorn the doors and walls of the station. I notice something new every time I walk into the station. Not to mention the LED lights that set the ambience in the HD-1 and HD-2 studios.

The Coolest Opportunities

I’ve gotten to DJ at The Den, write blogs for the station, and interview my peers. I’ve also seen my fellow DJs get to attend festivals and conferences, express themselves creatively and achieve other wonderful things through WKNC.

Creative Outlet

Making playlists has always been my jam, but getting to share them with people live for one hour every week is such an immense privilege. 

Our Amazing Advisor, Jamie

I’ve never met someone so radically supportive and accepting. Not to mention, she’s pretty cool, herself. I, and I’m sure the other DJs agree, could not ask for a better advisor.

If you’re a student at NC State on the fence about getting involved at WKNC, go for it. Seriously, it’s changed my life, and your time at WKNC can be whatever you want it to be. 

Long Live College Radio,

Caitlin

Categories
Playlists

Albums On Repeat This Fall

Glitch-edited photo of leaves. White text in the center of the photo that reads "Albums on repeat this fall"

Autumn is in full swing (although, I wish it were at least 15 degrees cooler outside), which means my rotation of albums to circle through is autumn to its core. So, let’s get straight into it and look at the albums I frequent during the fall time. Hopefully this list can give you some inspiration or remind you of an album you haven’t heard in a while.

  • “Tapestry” — Carole King (1971)
  • “Tender Buttons” — Broadcast (2005)
  • “Any Other City” — Life Without Buildings (2001)
  • “Figure 8” — Elliott Smith (2000)
  • “Lesser Matters” — The Radio Dept. (2003)
  • “The New Abnormal” — The Strokes (2020)
  • “Just As I Am”— Bill Withers (1971)
  • “Hypnic Jerks” — SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (2018)
  • “Emmerdale” — The Cardigans (1994)
  • “Painted Shut” — Hop Along (2015)
  • “songs” — Adrianne Lenker (2020)
  • “Dark In Here” — The Mountain Goats (2021)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

  • “Our Extended Play” — beabadoobee (2021)
    • Unfortunately only four songs, so it’s not an album, but it’s so, so good.
  • “Speak Now” — Taylor Swift (2010)
    • Controversial to not list “Red,” but “Speak Now” (despite having a song called “Back To December” on it) is much more fall to me. An honorable mention because this probably isn’t up the alley of most WKNC listeners, but hey, you never know.

Happy listening,

Caitlin

Categories
Music News and Interviews

Mitski’s Return to Music

Cover for Mitski's single, working for the knife.

On October 1, Mistki fans rejoiced as they noticed that she had made a return to Twitter and Instagram, which had both been deactivated by the artist since July of 2019. On October 4, she (or rather, her management, as the bios on both of these accounts read “Account run by Management”) posted a cryptic image indicating that music would be coming the next morning.

New music came indeed. At 10 a.m. ET on October 5, Mitski released a brand new single, “Working for the Knife.” I have been consistently disappointed by my favorite artist’s comebacks this year, but Mitski is an exception to that rule; she never disappoints. 

“Working for the Knife” Music Video

From the lyricism to the production to the nihilistic subject matter, this single is Mitski through and through. My favorite lyric comes in the very first verse: “I cry at the start of every movie / I guess ’cause I wish I was making things, too.”

Along with the single, she announced tour dates, and she begins her tour with two North Carolina stops, and I’m excited to say the least. She’ll be performing at The Orange Peel in Asheville on Feb 17, 2022 and at The Ritz in Raleigh on Feb 18, 2022. I was able to snag tickets to her Raleigh show, and am tentatively going to attend.

Here’s to good comebacks,

Caitlin