Vocal effects, a toxic relationship, and emotional stasis: Worst Thing I Could Do (ARORA)
A cappella electronica? This episode covers “Worst Thing I Could Do,” from contemporary a cappella group ARORA’s groundbreaking album, Bioluminescence. The group leverages advanced vocal effects and processing, creating ethereal, electronic textures that blur the line between human voice and synthesizer.
In this week’s conversation, Trist and Elaine rave over the chord changes, dynamic arrangements, and clever use of half-choruses and rhythmic effects. They also analyze the song's poignant lyrics, which depict a toxic, unresolved relationship, and discuss how the unresolved musical ending mirrors the emotional stasis described in the words.
In the Mailbag segment, Elaine and Trist discuss a real-world example from Threads illustrating the dramatic shift in songwriter earnings from the CD era to the streaming era, highlighting the challenges and reduced royalties faced by modern songwriters.
Listen to the song
- YouTube - https://youtu.be/2GAbXRIu6v8
- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/1gxzmqDNAILcvi0iOp5BOl?si=e78fa631505b4805
- Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/song/worst-thing-i-could-do/681276513
- Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00E8WEALQ?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_1cRxsNHQ8PyoK0o8vZFxFlOAk&trackAsin=B00E8WEJTO
Other links
- Playlist of the songs we’ve reviewed
- YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5bn23baJ4xQ1t0TMqukELY5W95HwuMoT
- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7gCOF5M0zYS1fBvXgT5ccI?si=7F3yVdEDRRWa_gAArK3AYg
- Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/songs-reviewed-on-the-musicians-loupe/pl.u-V9D7maah06JNo
- Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/user-playlists/3b47be4937b7490982f4a872db32ec8dsune?ref=dm_sh_AEFZY8KhvSsz1TGoRmasg6zHZ
About us
Trist Curless is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, educator, and sound engineer. As a performer, Trist has toured worldwide as a co-founder of the pop-jazz vocal group m-pact and a 10 year member of the Grammy-award winning The Manhattan Transfer. In addition to these two vocal powerhouse groups, he’s also performed with Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, New York Voices, Vox Audio, Naturally 7, and The Swingle Singers. His latest venture, The LHR Project, is a new vocal group collective celebrating legendary jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.
As an audio engineer, Trist has toured nationally with several vocal groups and bands in a large variety of venues, working for Grammy award winners Pentatonix and Take 6, as well as prominent a cappella vocal groups Straight No Chaser, VoicePlay, and Accent.
Elaine Chao, M.Ed is a San Francisco Bay Area-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, vocal percussionist, and songwriter whose career spans a cappella, contemporary worship, and classical music. She has leveraged her training in classical and choral music over the course of her contemporary performance, including in orchestras for musical theatre and in sacred spaces. In addition to music, she also is a martial artist and published author. She currently leads a product management team at a major software company dedicated to creative expression. All statements in this podcast are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.
Transcript
Elaine: Hey, Trist, what do we have this week?
Speaker:Trist: Well, I'm surprised it didn't
Speaker:Trist: lead this way between the two of
Speaker:Trist: us loving a cappella and being
Speaker:Trist: involved in a cappella groups so
Speaker:Trist: much.
Speaker:Trist: This could very easily be just
Speaker:Trist: an a cappella podcast, but it is
Speaker:Trist: not.
Speaker:Trist: However, today, while it is I think maybe the fourth or fifth
Speaker:Trist: a cappella selection we have, it's the first one that just
Speaker:Trist: doesn't sound like it.
Speaker:Trist: I suppose our friends from Cuba, Vocal Sampling, didn't really
Speaker:Trist: sound like it quite a bit, but this is a further departure from
Speaker:Trist: what we think of when we think of a cappella.
Speaker:Trist: And this is really I say this all the time, but one of my
Speaker:Trist: favorite groups, this is Arora.
Speaker:Elaine: Mm!
Speaker:Elaine: Okay.
Speaker:Trist: And their song, "Worst Thing I Could Do."
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm really looking forward to this.
Speaker:Elaine: So before we get settled down and pause for a moment, can you
Speaker:Elaine: remind us how we're listening to music as a part of The
Speaker:Elaine: Musician's Loupe community?
Speaker:Trist: Especially this week because of the recording excellence that
Speaker:Trist: happens in this recording.
Speaker:Trist: I highly recommend and strongly encourage that you take the time
Speaker:Trist: to reposition, readjust, move to the better room with the better
Speaker:Trist: speakers, with the better headphones, whatever it takes to
Speaker:Trist: make your listening situation as good as you can make it.
Speaker:Trist: Take the time.
Speaker:Trist: Give yourself that treat.
Speaker:Trist: You bought something really
Speaker:Trist: expensive that sounds really
Speaker:Trist: great, but it's not easy to use
Speaker:Trist: every day.
Speaker:Trist: So take the time to do that if you can.
Speaker:Trist: We like to encourage such things.
Speaker:Trist: If you're out on a walk, you're in some place you can't do that.
Speaker:Trist: We're still thrilled to have you.
Speaker:Trist: We're still thrilled that you'll listen to us at all.
Speaker:Trist: Anyway, please do make it better if you can.
Speaker:Trist: If not, enjoy regardless.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: So we're going to go ahead and
Speaker:Elaine: leave the links in the show
Speaker:Elaine: notes, and we will be right
Speaker:Elaine: back.
Speaker:Elaine: And we are back.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: I will guarantee this is one of my favorite songs.
Speaker:Elaine: I was looking at my Apple Music statistics, and it looked like I
Speaker:Elaine: have played it at least one hundred and ninety five times.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I am not exaggerating when I say that I have listened
Speaker:Elaine: to this a lot.
Speaker:Elaine: That being said, I want to give
Speaker:Elaine: a little bit of history from my
Speaker:Elaine: perspective, and I actually dug
Speaker:Elaine: back into our history as
Speaker:Elaine: friends.
Speaker:Elaine: And there is a post that you
Speaker:Elaine: made just to your friends on
Speaker:Elaine: Facebook in July of 2013 that
Speaker:Elaine: said, buy
Speaker:Trist: Twenty
Speaker:Elaine: this
Speaker:Trist: thirteen.
Speaker:Elaine: now.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. 2013. "Buy this now.
Speaker:Elaine: Thank me later.
Speaker:Elaine: Seriously, why haven't you clicked on the link yet?
Speaker:Elaine: Don't you trust me?
Speaker:Elaine: Would I lead you astray?
Speaker:Elaine: Click and buy already.
Speaker:Elaine: Geesh.
Speaker:Elaine: Okay, okay.
Speaker:Elaine: You really don't need to thank me at all now or later.
Speaker:Elaine: Just get this."
Speaker:Elaine: And it was a link to this album,
Speaker:Elaine: and I bought the album and it
Speaker:Elaine: quickly became one of my
Speaker:Elaine: favorite albums.
Speaker:Elaine: So I'm so glad you chose this one.
Speaker:Elaine: And just to say that our relationship goes way, way back
Speaker:Elaine: to music recommendation.
Speaker:Elaine: And I say that this is probably
Speaker:Elaine: the first one that I purchased
Speaker:Elaine: sight unseen without any kind of
Speaker:Elaine: expectation that it was going to
Speaker:Elaine: be great.
Speaker:Elaine: And it was awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: So I did want to say that this
Speaker:Elaine: album became one of the
Speaker:Elaine: soundtracks of me being an
Speaker:Elaine: author.
Speaker:Elaine: It was one of those albums that really got me into the zone.
Speaker:Elaine: And so that's part of the reason I've listened to so much.
Speaker:Elaine: But that being said, this was a time that I was able to listen
Speaker:Elaine: to it very closely because, you know, we're doing this as a part
Speaker:Elaine: of a community.
Speaker:Elaine: So reevaluating it kind of like
Speaker:Elaine: the Patsy Cline one, where it
Speaker:Elaine: was so familiar that it was
Speaker:Elaine: almost like, oh, I can sing all
Speaker:Elaine: the parts.
Speaker:Elaine: But this was an opportunity for
Speaker:Elaine: me to stop and really analyze it
Speaker:Elaine: in the way that we do on this
Speaker:Elaine: podcast.
Speaker:Elaine: So with all of that rambling and all of that raving, I wanted to
Speaker:Elaine: start by asking you, why did you choose this song?
Speaker:Elaine: And also why did you choose this song of all of the great tracks
Speaker:Elaine: that there are on Bioluminescence, which is the
Speaker:Elaine: name of this album?
Speaker:Trist: I can't really necessarily say
Speaker:Trist: why, because I could easily just
Speaker:Trist: have picked random on the whole
Speaker:Trist: thing.
Speaker:Trist: And any song could have been like, oh yeah, this one's great.
Speaker:Trist: We could talk about this one.
Speaker:Trist: This one's great.
Speaker:Trist: We could talk about this.
Speaker:Trist: There are many candidates, as you mentioned.
Speaker:Trist: By the way, I'm thrilled that a post like that.
Speaker:Trist: The way you read that, that
Speaker:Trist: sounded just like something I
Speaker:Trist: would say about something that I
Speaker:Trist: enjoyed so much that I wanted to
Speaker:Trist: not just to be, hey, check this
Speaker:Trist: out.
Speaker:Trist: It's cool.
Speaker:Trist: Like I wanted to really dig in
Speaker:Trist: like, no, no, no, you don't
Speaker:Trist: understand.
Speaker:Trist: You really will like this.
Speaker:Trist: I can almost guarantee it.
Speaker:Trist: Everyone has their own likes, but boy, this thing is so good.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, who's your favorite child?
Speaker:Trist: It's like, oh, I like it all.
Speaker:Trist: So it's hard to really pick.
Speaker:Trist: But, I always just liked the chord changes in this.
Speaker:Trist: I liked the groove.
Speaker:Trist: I liked the sounds.
Speaker:Trist: I love the little half chorus.
Speaker:Trist: I love the half chorus that gets paid off.
Speaker:Trist: When you finally hear the rest
Speaker:Trist: of it, you're like, oh, that's
Speaker:Trist: so cool when you hear the rest
Speaker:Trist: of it.
Speaker:Trist: Christopher, the main (in my brain at least)- While all
Speaker:Trist: talented and lovely and incredibly contributing to this,
Speaker:Trist: the brain trust, the mastermind, the man behind the curtain,
Speaker:Trist: Christopher Harrison, who sings the lead on this, is also the
Speaker:Trist: one that spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours
Speaker:Trist: and hours at his computer, mixing and flipping this stuff
Speaker:Trist: around and taking their voices and making them sound like
Speaker:Trist: beautiful voices and sound like not voices at all.
Speaker:Trist: As I mentioned, all the audio
Speaker:Trist: you hear does come from voices,
Speaker:Trist: but all processed and distorted
Speaker:Trist: and mixed in such a way to just
Speaker:Trist: get the sounds that they really
Speaker:Trist: want.
Speaker:Trist: I love his voice on this.
Speaker:Trist: I like the writing.
Speaker:Trist: Did I hit any of the important
Speaker:Trist: parts yet about why I chose this
Speaker:Trist: one?
Speaker:Trist: I just do.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, let's break this up into a couple of different areas, and
Speaker:Elaine: we'll end on the lyrics.
Speaker:Elaine: But I did want to start out with
Speaker:Elaine: some of the effects that we
Speaker:Elaine: heard on this, because I would
Speaker:Elaine: say that this is an interesting
Speaker:Elaine: one.
Speaker:Elaine: This is one of those areas where my brain really goes electronica
Speaker:Elaine: because of the
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: way that the voices are
Speaker:Elaine: processed, even though it is a
Speaker:Elaine: cappella.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that there is a lot
Speaker:Elaine: in there that we can really
Speaker:Elaine: consider.
Speaker:Elaine: Now, one thing I didn't hear,
Speaker:Elaine: and I was listening pretty hard
Speaker:Elaine: for it.
Speaker:Elaine: It didn't sound like anything was autotuned, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Because a cappella singers in
Speaker:Elaine: particular, they are just so
Speaker:Elaine: precise in general with their
Speaker:Elaine: voices.
Speaker:Elaine: There were a lot of things where you heard where it was just a
Speaker:Elaine: very human sound.
Speaker:Elaine: You could just hear that it
Speaker:Elaine: wasn't autotuned, but there was
Speaker:Elaine: a lot of processing on the
Speaker:Elaine: voices.
Speaker:Elaine: So can you tell me a little bit about what types of things you
Speaker:Elaine: heard or that you guessed might have been applied to the voices?
Speaker:Trist: Well, related to that, my best guess, I don't know.
Speaker:Trist: I probably should have done a
Speaker:Trist: little interview with
Speaker:Trist: Christopher myself.
Speaker:Trist: Part of what I was saying about Christopher being so good at
Speaker:Trist: this is, my best guess is there's a lot of tuning.
Speaker:Trist: And the main point is it doesn't sound like it.
Speaker:Trist: So when you say that, I take it as it doesn't sound like the
Speaker:Trist: sound that I usually hear when there's a lot of tuning.
Speaker:Trist: So, along with the fact that
Speaker:Trist: there is a lot of processing and
Speaker:Trist: the sound they're going for very
Speaker:Trist: intentionally supposed to be
Speaker:Trist: kind of an instrumental
Speaker:Trist: synthesizer sound.
Speaker:Trist: Their voice, even if it's kind
Speaker:Trist: of tuned, doesn't have that
Speaker:Trist: metallicky edge to it like it
Speaker:Trist: would if it were literally
Speaker:Trist: against an acoustic guitar part
Speaker:Trist: instead.
Speaker:Trist: I don't know those things to be true, but that's my guesses from
Speaker:Trist: what I know of mixing and effects of this type.
Speaker:Trist: And the way that he does things.
Speaker:Trist: But your point stands, absolutely.
Speaker:Trist: It doesn't sound like super robotic, tuned singing.
Speaker:Trist: Um,
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Trist: but my
Speaker:Elaine: And
Speaker:Trist: best guess
Speaker:Elaine: when I.
Speaker:Trist: is that it's against the electronic effects.
Speaker:Trist: It doesn't seem unnatural sounding, which
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: is wonderful.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think what I was trying to get, you know, when we think
Speaker:Elaine: about auto tuning, we're thinking about that one track
Speaker:Elaine: from Cher, "Do You Believe in Life after Love," where it
Speaker:Elaine: sounds very sliced.
Speaker:Elaine: It was a large part of the entire style of that song was
Speaker:Elaine: like this over auto-tuned.
Speaker:Elaine: I will say that in my own music, I do tune my own voice, but I
Speaker:Elaine: always tune it so that it sounds like I could have sung it.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm not eliminating that kind of thing.
Speaker:Elaine: I just think stylistically, it wasn't what we would consider
Speaker:Elaine: like a very overprocessed electronica vocal sound.
Speaker:Trist: Right. Totally.
Speaker:Trist: I love the almost watery intro.
Speaker:Trist: I've thought of that word, like
Speaker:Trist: just those really blurred,
Speaker:Trist: ethereal voices at the
Speaker:Trist: beginning.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Kind of sounds
Speaker:Elaine: And.
Speaker:Trist: like some reverse vocals.
Speaker:Trist: Um, He's just so good at the different textures.
Speaker:Trist: And then where his voice lands in the mix, it's just right out
Speaker:Trist: in front of it all.
Speaker:Trist: It's so good.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah, I also wrote down the word ethereal and
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: I was like, it doesn't even sound like voices.
Speaker:Elaine: When you said watery, I was
Speaker:Elaine: like, almost underwater, so very
Speaker:Elaine: similar
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: kind of vibe there that I got from it.
Speaker:Elaine: One of the interesting things
Speaker:Elaine: that I thought about the rhythm
Speaker:Elaine: and I only caught it this time,
Speaker:Elaine: it starts out in a very funky
Speaker:Elaine: kind of rhythm, but then it
Speaker:Elaine: ended up in almost this 1950s
Speaker:Elaine: double clap thing where it had
Speaker:Elaine: that syncopation, but it also
Speaker:Elaine: had
Speaker:Trist: Sure.
Speaker:Elaine: that double clap feel.
Speaker:Elaine: And I don't know why I didn't catch it until now.
Speaker:Elaine: Maybe it's because we've been
Speaker:Elaine: listening to all sorts of
Speaker:Elaine: contemporary eras.
Speaker:Elaine: I've really been thinking about the rhythms that come in
Speaker:Elaine: different parts of it.
Speaker:Elaine: And so this 1950s era kind of, *insert rhythmic noises*
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: you know that that's what I
Speaker:Trist: That's
Speaker:Elaine: heard
Speaker:Trist: true.
Speaker:Elaine: in this one.
Speaker:Elaine: Which I thought was interesting because it didn't sound that
Speaker:Elaine: 1950s to me.
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Elaine: It was just like this particular bouncy rhythm was a large part
Speaker:Elaine: the heartbeat of the song.
Speaker:Trist: That's cool.
Speaker:Trist: I hadn't ever really thought
Speaker:Trist: about that when you mentioned it
Speaker:Trist: that way.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, oh yeah, that's totally from that.
Speaker:Trist: But because all of the sounds and the vibes and the chords and
Speaker:Trist: everything else around it is not of that time.
Speaker:Trist: I didn't even think of it that way.
Speaker:Trist: That's cool how you extrapolated that out of that feel, but it's
Speaker:Trist: very much that boom, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. It's totally
Speaker:Trist: the backbone of a lot of that, even though there's all this
Speaker:Trist: other stuff happening around it that isn't in that feel or
Speaker:Trist: style, it's really cool.
Speaker:Elaine: Another thing I heard was how the effects really serve to
Speaker:Elaine: underscore the rhythm.
Speaker:Elaine: And a good example of this is in
Speaker:Elaine: the bridge where there was
Speaker:Elaine: actually slicing.
Speaker:Elaine: It's kind of like you were singing through a fan.
Speaker:Elaine: Like the voices would cut in and out rhythmically.
Speaker:Elaine: It was right in beat with the rest of the thing, even though
Speaker:Elaine: the voices were being sliced to
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: maintain the sense of rhythm.
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I just felt like the effects were really supporting
Speaker:Elaine: that sense of ongoing rhythm.
Speaker:Elaine: And one thing I really
Speaker:Elaine: appreciated about the
Speaker:Elaine: instrumentation and the way that
Speaker:Elaine: the arrangement worked, is how
Speaker:Elaine: often it just dropped to the
Speaker:Elaine: rhythm part, like the beatboxing
Speaker:Elaine: and
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: just one or two voices.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: And then it became full again, and then it dropped down.
Speaker:Elaine: And so you got this wide variety in a genre that tends not to
Speaker:Elaine: have a whole lot of dynamics.
Speaker:Elaine: I think of electronica as like mostly layering.
Speaker:Elaine: It's like you're layering voices, you're
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: layering sounds, and then you're
Speaker:Trist: That's
Speaker:Elaine: taking
Speaker:Trist: how they
Speaker:Elaine: them
Speaker:Trist: achieve.
Speaker:Elaine: away.
Speaker:Trist: That's how they achieve the dynamics is via textures.
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I felt like these
Speaker:Elaine: textures were even more extreme
Speaker:Elaine: than your typical electronica
Speaker:Elaine: sound.
Speaker:Trist: Sure.
Speaker:Elaine: where it was just always like dropping you into something kind
Speaker:Elaine: of new so that
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: it was never really repetitive.
Speaker:Trist: Indeed. Yeah. It's so well done.
Speaker:Trist: And I know we only do songs on here, but this is two of us
Speaker:Trist: encouraging folks to listen to the whole album, if you can,
Speaker:Trist: just to hear the variety of things, some of these same
Speaker:Trist: comments could go to just about any of the tracks.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, ooh, I love how they masterfully did this.
Speaker:Trist: And the thing is, at a time when maybe there have been other
Speaker:Trist: albums that had done this a bit in terms of really digging into
Speaker:Trist: effects, really digging into disguising the voices.
Speaker:Trist: But for me, no one of those voices that I like this much
Speaker:Trist: together as a group and maybe not quite as much of maybe the
Speaker:Trist: songwriting not as good.
Speaker:Trist: There's another group, spiralmouth before this and
Speaker:Trist: actually, Gabe, who is in that band helped produce some of
Speaker:Trist: their stuff early on.
Speaker:Trist: This group, Arora.
Speaker:Trist: So there's some ties to that.
Speaker:Trist: This is definitely not a first of anything, but it's the one
Speaker:Trist: that is stuck and within the a cappella community to this day,
Speaker:Trist: you'll find people rave and rave and rave about this and be like,
Speaker:Trist: yeah, we haven't had an album as good as that one yet.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, I'd encourage folks to check it out.
Speaker:Trist: I've always thought from the time I heard it, that if someone
Speaker:Trist: took these same songs, that's what I was trying to get to.
Speaker:Trist: The songs are so good.
Speaker:Trist: The songs are so well written.
Speaker:Trist: It's such a great collection of
Speaker:Trist: songs that a producer just takes
Speaker:Trist: these songs and produces them
Speaker:Trist: with actual sequencers and
Speaker:Trist: instruments, band, singers, etc.
Speaker:Trist: could also make an amazing
Speaker:Trist: album.
Speaker:Trist: It's not because it's a cappella that makes it cool.
Speaker:Trist: It's just an extra cherry on top that it's all voices, I think.
Speaker:Elaine: I agree with you there.
Speaker:Elaine: And, I could go on about spiralmouth for a while, but I
Speaker:Elaine: think that they really were going for the grunge rock kind
Speaker:Elaine: of sound, whereas Arora was really going for this
Speaker:Elaine: electronica kind of sound.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I just felt like it was different.
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Elaine: Both
Speaker:Trist: Right,
Speaker:Elaine: of them
Speaker:Trist: right
Speaker:Elaine: were
Speaker:Trist: right
Speaker:Elaine: good.
Speaker:Trist: right.
Speaker:Elaine: Um.
Speaker:Trist: Speaking mostly in terms of just using effects,
Speaker:Elaine: That's
Speaker:Trist: getting
Speaker:Elaine: right.
Speaker:Trist: manipulating the voices away from just normal vocal sounds.
Speaker:Elaine: So let's switch over to talking
Speaker:Elaine: about the lyrics because I agree
Speaker:Elaine: with you.
Speaker:Elaine: This was also a very well-written song.
Speaker:Elaine: I would love to hear like your first take on this, and I can go
Speaker:Elaine: very deep into these lyrics because they were pretty
Speaker:Elaine: interesting to me.
Speaker:Trist: We often get my first take on this.
Speaker:Trist: So I want your first take on
Speaker:Elaine: Ah,
Speaker:Trist: this,
Speaker:Elaine: man.
Speaker:Trist: Elaine.
Speaker:Elaine: Okay. So first of all, I think
Speaker:Elaine: I've already led with the
Speaker:Elaine: thought that it is an amazingly
Speaker:Elaine: written song.
Speaker:Elaine: This song describes a toxic relationship.
Speaker:Elaine: Like they're spiraling near the end of a relationship, but they
Speaker:Elaine: really are spiraling.
Speaker:Elaine: They seem to be in stasis in this toxic relationship.
Speaker:Elaine: And the lead singer is in this intimate relationship.
Speaker:Elaine: They're constantly bickering.
Speaker:Elaine: They're constantly digging pieces out of one another.
Speaker:Elaine: And it describes this relationship, but it doesn't
Speaker:Elaine: have a resolution.
Speaker:Elaine: And actually, one of the things I thought was interesting was
Speaker:Elaine: that the song really doesn't have a resolution either.
Speaker:Elaine: It just ends on a five.
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: Um, is it the five?
Speaker:Elaine: I can't
Speaker:Trist: Sure.
Speaker:Elaine: yeah,
Speaker:Trist: I don't know, I don't remember,
Speaker:Elaine: it
Speaker:Trist: I
Speaker:Elaine: just,
Speaker:Trist: don't
Speaker:Elaine: it just,
Speaker:Trist: remember.
Speaker:Elaine: it doesn't end on the one.
Speaker:Elaine: And so it ends with a cliffhanger and you're like,
Speaker:Elaine: augh, but what happens next?
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's a big part of
Speaker:Elaine: how the music and the song fits
Speaker:Elaine: together.
Speaker:Elaine: So, we hear that, "I'm not in
Speaker:Elaine: love / I'm just too weak to give
Speaker:Elaine: you up."
Speaker:Elaine: Like there's a sense of they're stuck.
Speaker:Elaine: And, "I never learned from my mistakes."
Speaker:Elaine: And at the same time, the singer
Speaker:Elaine: recognizes that he is a part of
Speaker:Elaine: the system.
Speaker:Elaine: He's
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: like,
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm indulging you.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: and then there's a lot of this blame language.
Speaker:Elaine: Like "why is it what you said / if it's not what you meant?"
Speaker:Trist: All
Speaker:Elaine: Um,
Speaker:Trist: right.
Speaker:Elaine: and there's also this whole
Speaker:Elaine: thing, like the partner isn't
Speaker:Elaine: healthy either.
Speaker:Elaine: You hear about ill intentions and this push and pull.
Speaker:Elaine: So there's this sense of just we are going nowhere and you're the
Speaker:Elaine: worst thing I could do.
Speaker:Elaine: You're the worst choice that I could make.
Speaker:Elaine: And yet, here I am making it.
Speaker:Trist: Here we are.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah,
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: exactly.
Speaker:Elaine: But going into the bridge, we've
Speaker:Elaine: talked about bridges here
Speaker:Elaine: before.
Speaker:Elaine: And one of the things that
Speaker:Trist: It's
Speaker:Elaine: we
Speaker:Trist: so
Speaker:Elaine: always
Speaker:Trist: good.
Speaker:Elaine: say is that the bridge is really that moment of revelation,
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: right?
Speaker:Elaine: Where we find out something about how this person views the
Speaker:Elaine: world, what is the moment of truth in there?
Speaker:Elaine: And, it really is that the other
Speaker:Elaine: person is hurting as much as he
Speaker:Elaine: is.
Speaker:Elaine: And we find out about, "Your broken will won't change your
Speaker:Elaine: heart or stop the bleeding."
Speaker:Elaine: It's like even though you're digging pieces out of me, it's
Speaker:Elaine: not going to stop you from hurting as much as you do.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I just felt like it was a
Speaker:Elaine: very poignant song from that
Speaker:Elaine: perspective.
Speaker:Elaine: We've talked about tragedy before.
Speaker:Elaine: This is a different type of tragedy.
Speaker:Elaine: It's a tragedy of two people hurting each other and from this
Speaker:Elaine: person's perspective, a way out hasn't been found yet.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. So good.
Speaker:Trist: I the, I already mentioned it, but the things that I like,
Speaker:Trist: lyrically and production wise, while you're in the bridge at
Speaker:Trist: the beginning that "the sum of all your dark remarks I find
Speaker:Trist: misleading" is a great line.
Speaker:Trist: And the fact that the tone very much covers it and the melody is
Speaker:Trist: doubled an octave lower.
Speaker:Trist: The sum of it's just like
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Just the way that it goes and
Speaker:Trist: with the octave double
Speaker:Trist: underneath.
Speaker:Trist: It's just perfect choice, Chris, perfect choice.
Speaker:Trist: Um, I guess in subsequent
Speaker:Trist: listens, it's enjoyable because
Speaker:Trist: I know that it's like kind of a
Speaker:Trist: tease.
Speaker:Trist: The little half choruses before that first chorus is really just
Speaker:Trist: half of the chorus.
Speaker:Trist: And then, when you get to it the
Speaker:Trist: second time, the amount that you
Speaker:Trist: got before you kind of think
Speaker:Trist: that's it.
Speaker:Trist: And then even the way the chord
Speaker:Trist: progression is like, okay, we're
Speaker:Trist: going on and it moves on is so
Speaker:Trist: rewarding to me every time I
Speaker:Trist: hear it.
Speaker:Trist: I don't even know that the first
Speaker:Trist: time I heard it, I could say I
Speaker:Trist: was, you know, cognizant of that
Speaker:Trist: thing.
Speaker:Trist: But upon multiple listens, it's like, oh, that's so clever.
Speaker:Trist: That's so cool that it just cuts short right there and then
Speaker:Trist: continues on later.
Speaker:Trist: I love those particular choices
Speaker:Trist: in the craft of this
Speaker:Trist: songwriting.
Speaker:Elaine: I wrote down that like half
Speaker:Elaine: chorus that you were talking
Speaker:Elaine: about.
Speaker:Elaine: There's a hold.
Speaker:Elaine: There's like a pregnant pause, and then there's
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: something that kind of sounds like a zipper.
Speaker:Elaine: And just like, you know,
Speaker:Trist: Oh,
Speaker:Elaine: it just,
Speaker:Trist: I
Speaker:Elaine: you
Speaker:Trist: think
Speaker:Elaine: know.
Speaker:Trist: that sounds like a match lighting to me.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Which, which
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: torching the relationship etc. sounds.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh that's
Speaker:Trist: I hear
Speaker:Elaine: great.
Speaker:Trist: what you mean though.
Speaker:Trist: There's
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah
Speaker:Trist: a sound
Speaker:Elaine: yeah yeah.
Speaker:Trist: and a nondescript sound,
Speaker:Trist: obviously, since I thought it
Speaker:Trist: was a match and you thought it
Speaker:Trist: was
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: a zipper, so it was supposed to
Speaker:Trist: not be exactly noticeable,
Speaker:Trist: exactly recognizable, then
Speaker:Trist: mission accomplished.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, I also appreciated where, at the end of the verses, at the
Speaker:Elaine: end of the chorus, there was generally this breakdown where
Speaker:Elaine: it just went to the rhythm.
Speaker:Elaine: And just one or two voices singing this interlude that led
Speaker:Elaine: into the next piece.
Speaker:Elaine: And
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: so I think that that brought into the sense of like big and
Speaker:Elaine: medium and very, very small.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, one other thing that I heard that I thought was interesting
Speaker:Elaine: was in the bridge there is this high angelic voice that overlays
Speaker:Elaine: it, introduces it.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: And it's just floated on top.
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: It is a sense of here's where the truth is.
Speaker:Elaine: Here's the sunbeam in the midst
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: of this darkness.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: Uh, and it was gorgeous.
Speaker:Elaine: it was this beautiful, not even operatic.
Speaker:Elaine: It was just like a very floaty voice at the very top.
Speaker:Elaine: One of the sopranos just floating this note on top.
Speaker:Elaine: And I just felt like it was a good juxtaposition to the tone
Speaker:Elaine: of the entire song.
Speaker:Trist: I remember that as multiple voices, but you're right.
Speaker:Trist: There's like just that floating voices up top while the oh da de
Speaker:Trist: da de da da da.
Speaker:Trist: The underneath melodies.
Speaker:Trist: That's so good.
Speaker:Trist: Why don't we get done with this?
Speaker:Trist: I'm listening to this again.
Speaker:Trist: That's so good.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, definitely one of our favorite songs.
Speaker:Elaine: So thank you for introducing it.
Speaker:Elaine: Any final
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: words before we wrap up?
Speaker:Trist: if I were to say one thing, I would say buy this now.
Speaker:Trist: Thank me later.
Speaker:Trist: Seriously, why haven't you bought this yet?
Speaker:Trist: Don't you trust me?
Speaker:Trist: Would I lead you astray by this already?
Speaker:Trist: You don't need to thank me at all now or later.
Speaker:Trist: Just get this.
Speaker:Elaine: Thank you, Trist, from my 2013 self two hundred listens later.
Speaker:Trist: That's what I would say.
Speaker:Elaine: All right, so with that, let's
Speaker:Elaine: move on to our next segment,
Speaker:Elaine: which is.
Speaker:Trist: Mailbag. Mailbag.
Speaker:Trist: Mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: The mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: And you can reach out to us at
Speaker:Elaine: themusiciansloupe at gmail dot
Speaker:Elaine: com.
Speaker:Elaine: That's L-O-U-P-E, or via Threads
Speaker:Elaine: or Instagram at
Speaker:Elaine: themusiciansloupe.
Speaker:Trist: And that is the place where you can let us know what you thought
Speaker:Trist: about this song, or if you've listened to this album, or if
Speaker:Trist: you liked a different song on the album or what you thought
Speaker:Trist: about this, production of this one or what your favorite is, or
Speaker:Trist: really any of the songs, any thoughts you have about the
Speaker:Trist: production, the lyrics, maybe that we didn't touch on that you
Speaker:Trist: picked up from listening to it.
Speaker:Trist: That is where you can tell us your thoughts.
Speaker:Trist: We'd appreciate it.
Speaker:Elaine: All right, so this week's
Speaker:Elaine: Mailbag is once again from
Speaker:Elaine: Threads.
Speaker:Elaine: It is from Elizabeth Melkins from April of 2026.
Speaker:Elaine: and she writes in 2004, a close friend had 30 percent of one
Speaker:Elaine: song on a hit country album.
Speaker:Elaine: It was not a radio single.
Speaker:Elaine: She made six figures in 2015.
Speaker:Elaine: Together, we had forty percent
Speaker:Elaine: of a song that went to number 29
Speaker:Elaine: the Billboard country chart as a
Speaker:Elaine: radio single.
Speaker:Elaine: We each made 5 thousand ish as writers.
Speaker:Elaine: To be fair, it got us a publishing deal, which we lost
Speaker:Elaine: after the song didn't go top 10.
Speaker:Elaine: And that's how much digital
Speaker:Elaine: streaming services changed the
Speaker:Elaine: songwriting world in just a
Speaker:Elaine: decade.
Speaker:Trist: Ah, yes, that is true.
Speaker:Trist: in the way that the stuff has changed, as we've talked about a
Speaker:Trist: bit before moving to streaming and the way that the pie is
Speaker:Trist: split is definitely different.
Speaker:Trist: There are some things in the
Speaker:Trist: system that I think still need
Speaker:Trist: some adjusting and correcting,
Speaker:Trist: but a lot of it is just
Speaker:Trist: unfortunately, we're living in
Speaker:Trist: the change.
Speaker:Trist: And so many people lived in an old way.
Speaker:Trist: In a weird, blunt, almost rude way to say to this.
Speaker:Trist: I mean, they're not even really
Speaker:Trist: necessarily complaining about
Speaker:Trist: it.
Speaker:Trist: They're just stating this is how much it's changed.
Speaker:Trist: It's easy to read this and think
Speaker:Trist: that she's maybe complaining
Speaker:Trist: about it.
Speaker:Trist: She isn't necessarily.
Speaker:Trist: There's little inference like, oh, it used to be cooler.
Speaker:Trist: To me, that's the thing that I think gets missed.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, yes, this is totally true.
Speaker:Trist: It's not necessarily a good or bad thing.
Speaker:Trist: It's just your luck ran out,
Speaker:Elaine: It's descriptive right?
Speaker:Trist: your
Speaker:Elaine: Of what the industry.
Speaker:Trist: luck ran out.
Speaker:Trist: Like, oh, I had a song that was
Speaker:Trist: on an album that had a hit on
Speaker:Trist: it.
Speaker:Trist: I made money because someone
Speaker:Trist: else's song was a hit, is what
Speaker:Trist: it used to be, because you just
Speaker:Trist: sold the whole albums and you
Speaker:Trist: used to have to buy the whole
Speaker:Trist: album.
Speaker:Trist: So as long as I could get placed
Speaker:Trist: on the same album, yeah, I might
Speaker:Trist: still make a little bit less
Speaker:Trist: than the person with the hit,
Speaker:Trist: because there would be some
Speaker:Trist: singles and some airplay, but
Speaker:Trist: largely the income would be from
Speaker:Trist: the sales of the whole album
Speaker:Trist: that had a hit that I didn't
Speaker:Trist: write,
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: so.
Speaker:Elaine: So let's back up a little bit and talk about how songwriters
Speaker:Elaine: in particular were compensated previous to the streaming era.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think one of the things we
Speaker:Elaine: haven't talked about, because we
Speaker:Elaine: talked so much about performing
Speaker:Elaine: here, we talk about full time
Speaker:Elaine: musicians being indie, etc., but
Speaker:Elaine: we really haven't talked as much
Speaker:Elaine: about the music industry and
Speaker:Elaine: about how things were for
Speaker:Elaine: songwriters in particular
Speaker:Elaine: previously.
Speaker:Elaine: And then what it's like today.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that you've kind of hinted at some of this, but I
Speaker:Elaine: would love to hear a little bit more about what you know.
Speaker:Trist: from what I understand, that's what we were just talking about.
Speaker:Trist: This post is a great choice
Speaker:Trist: because it really does outline
Speaker:Trist: it.
Speaker:Trist: She said, in 2004, a friend had
Speaker:Trist: 30 percent of one song on a hit
Speaker:Trist: country album.
Speaker:Trist: It didn't say her friend's song was a hit.
Speaker:Trist: It could have been the least liked.
Speaker:Trist: There's no way to really take a
Speaker:Trist: poll because it's not like now
Speaker:Trist: where you can see the streaming
Speaker:Trist: numbers.
Speaker:Trist: You can't magically know, of all the CDs we sold, which song got
Speaker:Trist: listened to the least.
Speaker:Trist: You just know what songs were hits.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: So the way that it has changed is as a songwriter, you were
Speaker:Trist: just dying to be on the album of a big artist.
Speaker:Trist: Sure, of course you want the hit.
Speaker:Trist: You would love for your song to be the one that takes off.
Speaker:Trist: But kind of the secondary thing.
Speaker:Trist: Well, sure, it'd be great if the hit was my song, but if I'm on
Speaker:Trist: the same album as another hit song or two, it's just going to
Speaker:Trist: move just as many units.
Speaker:Trist: You're selling all those CDs with the one song that everyone
Speaker:Trist: had wanted to buy.
Speaker:Trist: That was kind of a racket that happened for a long time with,
Speaker:Trist: sure, you could buy some singles, but that wasn't really
Speaker:Trist: promoted if you really wanted to hear that song, a lot of times,
Speaker:Trist: you paid the whole 15, 16 dollars for the one song.
Speaker:Trist: And so that's some of the glory
Speaker:Trist: of streaming to the consumer
Speaker:Trist: now.
Speaker:Trist: Oh, I just want that one song I want to listen to.
Speaker:Trist: I don't want to listen to a whole group of songs by them.
Speaker:Trist: That's changed a bit.
Speaker:Trist: But yeah, she's outlining it
Speaker:Trist: perfectly is, you used to be,
Speaker:Trist: hey, as long as I could get on
Speaker:Trist: an album that was a hit album
Speaker:Trist: that had a hit song on it,
Speaker:Trist: great.
Speaker:Trist: Now it's like, okay, well, our
Speaker:Trist: song wasn't as big and people
Speaker:Trist: didn't listen to it because they
Speaker:Trist: don't buy the whole album
Speaker:Trist: anymore.
Speaker:Trist: They just go to the stream and they play the one song that they
Speaker:Trist: want to hear, and it gets all the streams and the whatever
Speaker:Trist: revenue is from it, not ours.
Speaker:Trist: So yeah, to me instead of, aw man, that's not cool.
Speaker:Trist: It changed.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, well, no, it just changed.
Speaker:Trist: Sorry.
Speaker:Trist: You used to be really lucky that you got money from being on an
Speaker:Trist: album of someone else's success, but now you don't.
Speaker:Trist: I wish it were different.
Speaker:Elaine: It's interesting to think about
Speaker:Elaine: this from a couple of different
Speaker:Elaine: angles.
Speaker:Elaine: Like, first of all, certainly from the songwriter's
Speaker:Elaine: perspective, I can see where they benefited from some albums
Speaker:Elaine: that have strong songs, some albums that might have had
Speaker:Elaine: weaker songs or just songs that are less discovered.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's part of my
Speaker:Elaine: own journey as a listener as
Speaker:Elaine: well, just not to get trapped
Speaker:Elaine: into what I would call like the
Speaker:Elaine: curated radio culture that we
Speaker:Elaine: have nowadays.
Speaker:Elaine: There is a number of different
Speaker:Elaine: algorithms that drive a lot of
Speaker:Elaine: our listening.
Speaker:Elaine: And so when you and I first
Speaker:Elaine: started playing this game, I
Speaker:Elaine: think I referred to this during
Speaker:Elaine: our separate introduction
Speaker:Elaine: episode.
Speaker:Elaine: You and I started talking about
Speaker:Elaine: music, and you were like, do you
Speaker:Elaine: want songs like, what do you
Speaker:Elaine: want?
Speaker:Elaine: And I ended up deciding on albums.
Speaker:Elaine: I wanted to listen to entire albums.
Speaker:Elaine: And part of it was that I felt
Speaker:Elaine: like there was a certain
Speaker:Elaine: artistry of listening to the
Speaker:Elaine: lesser known pieces, of
Speaker:Elaine: listening to the entirety of the
Speaker:Elaine: album, because it is an art form
Speaker:Elaine: separate from the individual
Speaker:Elaine: song.
Speaker:Elaine: So I feel like in some ways, in this curated culture, we may be
Speaker:Elaine: losing out on finding something that we really like that might
Speaker:Elaine: have been considered a B-side.
Speaker:Elaine: It might have been considered one of these throwaway songs on
Speaker:Elaine: an album, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that.
Speaker:Elaine: And certainly as a music listening advocate now, because
Speaker:Elaine: now that we have a podcast, I'm an advocate, right?
Speaker:Elaine: My encouragement is for people to listen to the entire album.
Speaker:Elaine: If you like one song, then listen to the entire album and
Speaker:Elaine: see if you like more songs off of that album.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that would maybe
Speaker:Elaine: address, not entirely what
Speaker:Elaine: Elizabeth is mentioning here,
Speaker:Elaine: but I think that in some ways
Speaker:Elaine: our listening habits drive what
Speaker:Elaine: is happening to the rest of the
Speaker:Elaine: industry, the people who might
Speaker:Elaine: still be up and coming for
Speaker:Elaine: people who might be just trying
Speaker:Elaine: to make their living writing
Speaker:Elaine: music.
Speaker:Elaine: How can we listen a little bit, I don't want to say less
Speaker:Elaine: discriminately, but like, how do we listen more broadly so that
Speaker:Elaine: we might be able to discover something that we might not have
Speaker:Elaine: imagined that we would have liked, I guess
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: is where I want to go.
Speaker:Trist: One of the best ways that I discover songs that I like now,
Speaker:Trist: for those who don't know, I have a pretty extensive collection of
Speaker:Trist: just music CDs, vinyl, hard drives, etc. I will as much as
Speaker:Trist: possible, either in an old iPod or in some way that I can gather
Speaker:Trist: a lot of files.
Speaker:Trist: I will gather entire albums,
Speaker:Trist: thousands of albums worth of
Speaker:Trist: music, and I'll use some kind of
Speaker:Trist: shuffle function.
Speaker:Trist: So I'm often discovering music that I own already.
Speaker:Trist: I own the music, but because I got it for one song or I only
Speaker:Trist: liked these certain things about it, there's gems hidden in some
Speaker:Trist: albums that I haven't listened to in forever.
Speaker:Trist: Even at the house, all of my stuff is kind of burned into a
Speaker:Trist: big home server hard drive.
Speaker:Trist: So I'll kind of try to use a randomization shuffle on that
Speaker:Trist: during the day if I'm cleaning the house or whatever.
Speaker:Trist: And most of the time I'll find something that surprises me.
Speaker:Trist: Something will catch my ear and be like, what is that?
Speaker:Trist: And I'll look at it.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, oh yeah, that album that I never really listened to,
Speaker:Trist: or I only listened to this one song from it.
Speaker:Trist: So I find myself trying to do
Speaker:Trist: that as much as possible to find
Speaker:Trist: the hidden gems and the stuff
Speaker:Trist: that I already own before I even
Speaker:Trist: get to the fact of just finding
Speaker:Trist: a streamer and letting it go and
Speaker:Trist: just letting it feed me new
Speaker:Trist: things that I might not have
Speaker:Trist: heard, which of course I also
Speaker:Trist: enjoy, but it's like I have
Speaker:Trist: thousands of recordings that I
Speaker:Trist: don't necessarily know all of
Speaker:Trist: them.
Speaker:Trist: So I try to learn and find the gems within.
Speaker:Elaine: I also think that personal recommendation is something that
Speaker:Elaine: is really powerful.
Speaker:Elaine: And I've certainly found it very
Speaker:Elaine: powerful for my own listening
Speaker:Elaine: practice.
Speaker:Elaine: For those of you who don't know, Trist recommends basically
Speaker:Trist: The
Speaker:Elaine: all
Speaker:Trist: music.
Speaker:Elaine: of my music for me.
Speaker:Elaine: And my deal to myself is I have to buy what he tells me to buy,
Speaker:Elaine: and I have to listen to what he tells me to listen to.
Speaker:Elaine: And I find my own horizons being opened by just that practice.
Speaker:Elaine: Of asking someone who knows me and knows my listening, is
Speaker:Elaine: learning what I like.
Speaker:Elaine: It's like the ultimate mixtape experience.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's a big part of this podcast as well, is we're
Speaker:Elaine: hoping that you will be able to discover types of music that you
Speaker:Elaine: have never listened to, never considered listening to, and
Speaker:Elaine: finding something that you actually enjoy through this
Speaker:Elaine: experience of participating in the Musicians Loupe community.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Trist: And that leads us right into the
Speaker:Trist: thought that if you have the
Speaker:Trist: same experience and you want
Speaker:Trist: someone to listen to this and
Speaker:Trist: you would like to share the
Speaker:Trist: experience of learning about
Speaker:Trist: these songs, you can send them a
Speaker:Trist: link to one of these podcasts,
Speaker:Trist: but you could also send the
Speaker:Trist: information on to a friend about
Speaker:Trist: the playlists we have on all the
Speaker:Trist: same places that we are
Speaker:Trist: available.
Speaker:Trist: We have playlists, so you can look down the playlist.
Speaker:Trist: Maybe your friend just listens to the playlist and then they
Speaker:Trist: find a song that they like.
Speaker:Trist: And then they want to find out
Speaker:Trist: more information and then they
Speaker:Trist: can listen to our episode about
Speaker:Trist: it.
Speaker:Trist: So we would love you to share us that way.
Speaker:Elaine: One hundred percent.
Speaker:Elaine: And so with that, any final
Speaker:Elaine: thoughts before we wrap up for
Speaker:Elaine: the week?
Speaker:Trist: Mm, that's it.
Speaker:Trist: Just to reiterate, man, just one of my top albums of the last
Speaker:Trist: twenty years, regardless of style or type.
Speaker:Trist: It's definitely way, way, way, way up there.
Speaker:Trist: So check all of those out.
Speaker:Trist: And, Elaine mentioned it earlier.
Speaker:Trist: If you haven't, make sure you
Speaker:Trist: listen to the little bonus
Speaker:Trist: episode where you do get to
Speaker:Trist: learn a little bit more about
Speaker:Trist: us.
Speaker:Trist: I think that one might get skipped a lot because it's just
Speaker:Trist: not a quote unquote real episode and maybe should be first, but
Speaker:Trist: that's not how we did it.
Speaker:Trist: We did it later.
Speaker:Trist: You can still listen to it and find out more about who we are
Speaker:Trist: and why we say what we say.
Speaker:Trist: It might not answer those
Speaker:Trist: questions, but maybe you'll get
Speaker:Trist: closer.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome. Okay. So with that, we're gonna wrap up.
Speaker:Elaine: Have a great week, everyone, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker:Trist: Thanks a lot.
