A/N: Hey, guys! Normally, I'd hold off until Saturday morning to post this, but I'm going to be busy the rest of the week and won't be able to do much posting, so here you guys go, a little ahead of schedule! Coming in at 16,673 words, it's not the longest episode ever, but it's still on the longer end!
In this episode, we get more running, a special marching cadence, and a few big reveals. Plus some bitter-sweet and happy squad feels at the end.
There are only two main episodes left in Act III, then we'll be back into the war with Act IV. I've already got a lot of Episode 16 written, though if past experience is any indication, it'll probably still double in word count from where I'm at now by the time I finish fleshing all the scenes out (and I'll always have a few unexpected scenes crop up before I'm done). How soon that'll all be done is still hard to say. Work is still keeping me pretty busy, and every time I think things are going to ease up or settle down and give me more free time, it doesn't.
On another note, I'd like to hear from you guys on what brought you to RH, or how you heard about the story, and what some of your favorite parts of it are so far. I can't promise I'll give you more of everything you love (and I can't please everyone), but knowing what you guys enjoy, and what you think is good helps me know what I'm doing right, and what I can focus on to continue doing good. I really look forward to hearing your feedback!
Here is the
Patreon post for anyone who wants it in one solid block. Now, without further ado, what you're all here for:
Retreat, Hell – Episode 15
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“Give me that old Marine Corps Spirit!”
“GIVE ME THAT OLD MARINE CORPS SPIRIT!”
“’Cause it’s good enough for me!”
“’CAUSE IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!”
“It was good for Chesty Puller!”
“IT WAS GOOD FOR CHESTY PULLER!”
These people run too gods damned much! Rinn panted as the battalion thundered around the base on their morning death march.
And oh, look, here we are, running past our barracks again, getting our hopes up just to dash them… He stifled a whine.
At least today they’re cutting the run short for helicopter training. When this is all over and done with, I don’t ever want to run again…
***
“Hahahaha! And the looks on their faces when we went evasive!” Edison kissed his fingertips and flared his hand as he backed through the bunk room door. “Perfection!”
“Nah, the best part was old Shields here,” Kawalksi threw a heavy arm around Rinn’s shoulders, nearly causing him to stagger into the door frame. “He was all stony faced, like, ‘I’ve done this before, this is nothing exciting,’” Kawalski said, putting on a fake deep voice. “Even as the huey went sideways!”
“I was trying not to throw up…” Rinn admitted, flicking an ear at Kawalski as he trudged back to his rack, sore, tired, and trying to pretend that his legs weren’t all wobbly after the day’s aerial adventures.
“Yeah, what’s the straight-horned one with all the “that’s what she said” jokes, Tyaytyay?”
“Tyehtyeh,” Rinn corrected.
Kimber gave him a “whatever” wave. “Yeah, him. He puked his guts out all over the tarmac three feet after he got out when we landed.”
“Ha! He did better than old Stuffy McStuffyface, threw up in mid-air!” Kawalski chuckled. “Projectile vomited when we went evasive! Though, we were horizontal at the time, so it mostly just went straight out the door!”
“Mostly my ass!” Kimber said. “I was sitting at the down door when he spewed! He puked all over the back of my helmet!”
“Hahaha, yeah, it was great!” Kawalski grinned. “You should probably go clean that off, though…”
“Yeah, no shit.”
Rinn sighed as he popped his boots off, wriggling his toes and savoring their freedom. The human boots fit better than any other pair of boots he had ever been issued, and they had mostly broken in by this point, but they were still combat boots, and didn’t quite match his foot shape. He pulled his shower gear out of his pack, looking forward to a hot soak, only to watch a parade of four Marines scramble past, already half undressed and dibsing the showers first.
He sighed, setting his shower kit at the end of his rack before digging out a pen and notebook.
It’s probably best to go last, anyway, now that we get more than five whole minutes of hot water… More time to soak.
“More English lessons?” Bradford asked, leaning over to look at his notebook as he flipped it open.
“Yeh,” he yipped, still amused the Gyani word for ‘yes’ was so close to an informal English word for the same.
“And what’s the word of the day?”
“What is the word for…” he frowned. “It is a place in a home where you build a fire…”
“A fireplace?” she asked.
He flicked an annoyed ear at her.
Of course that would be a word they used… “Yes, but… no, that is not the meaning I’m looking for.”
“Mantle?”
He shook his head. “No, that’s not it, either. The place where the fire is, the foundation, the
hearth.”
“The hearth?” she asked, and he sighed.
I should have just led with the word. The words were different, but the meanings were identical. Not everything translated so well, but many words did. “Yes, that is the word. Hirth…”
“
Hearth,” she said, emphasizing the vowel sound.
“Hyarth.”
“No, no y, stop putting y’s in everything.”
“YI Dyon’t knyow whyat you myean,” he yipped in heavily accented English, flicking an ear at her and sticking out his tongue.
She laughed, then grabbed her pillow and swung it at his head, barely missing as he fell to the side. “Now try it again, you guber.”
“Ha-arth,” he said, drawing the vowel out as he sat up. “Harth.”
“Close enough,” she said, chuckling.
He flicked his ears up with a smile, and jotted down the phonetic spelling in Gyani.
“How did you say your word for it?”
“Sfyisch.”
“Ssfayeesh.”
“No, sfyisch.”
“Sfwitch?”
“No, it’s not a hard tch, it’s a softer sch.” He considered for a moment. “It’s like a hissing tch. And its yi,” he yipped the short vowel sound, “Not uuhhhhwwweeeee. Stop flapping your big, fat lips.”
“Hey, you got lips, too, dumbass!”
“Yeah, but they’re not so fat and poofy, like yours!” He flicked his ears at her. “You look like you got stung by a bee.” He flicked an ear to the side. “Or a dozen.”
This time, the pillow did catch his head, and sent him flopping to his rack. “Oof.”
“Who’s got big lips now, bitch!” she said, puffing her chest out and swaying her head back and forth.
“I don’t know, was that your lips or your pillow you hit me with,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her, promptly earning himself another bonk. “Oof.”
“And just for that, you’re gonna have to wait until I’m done with the shower,” she said, hopping up and snagging her toiletries bag as a gaggle of half-dressed Marines chased each other out of the head.
Rinn chuckled as he tossed her pillow back on her rack and sat back up.
That’s just more time for me to soak…
“Hey, have you guys seen my Switch controllers?” Kimber asked, digging through his pack. “I can’t find them anywhere.”
“Where’d you have them last?” Dubois asked, not even looking up from the boot he was cleaning.
“I could have sworn I put them back in this pocket,” he said, tapping a pouch on his pack. “That’s where I keep them, but they’re not anywhere…”
“You can borrow mine,” Edison said, once again performing surgery on the squad’s GoPro. He gestured absently at his pack. “They’re in the clip-on bag, somewhere…”
“Thanks, man, but… I wanna find
mine.”
“D’you think someone might’ve, like, grabbed ‘em by mistake, brah?” Stevens said, pulling on a clean shirt.
“Or not by mistake?” Miller asked.
“Yeah,” Elder said, looking up from his phone. “We had that platoon thief a while back, remember?”
“Dude, that’s why you need to carve your name into them,” Davies said, lying on his rack playing his own Switch. He lifted his hands to show his name carved into the same kind of controllers Rinn had seen Kimber using. “That’s what I did with mine.”
“I
had my name on them, man, in sharpie.”
“Yeah, but sharpie can come off,” Edison said, still focused on the GoPro. “Alcohol or a dry-erase marker can do the trick.”
Kimber grumbled something, and started expanding his search area.
“Hey, Shields,” Kawalski said, dropping down next to him. He only had his boxers on, and was still a little damp from the shower. “Teach me more keshmin swear words! How do you say fucknugget?”
Rinn raised an ear and an eyebrow at him. “We don’t have that one.”
“Well, come on, then, what else have you got? I’ve got a new one for you! ‘Twat!’” Kawalski grinned. “Means ‘pussy’ in English English.”
Rinn flicked his ear. “Is that how you use your words words, when walking down the street street?”
Kawalski laughed. “No, fuck face, it’s English spoken by the English, as opposed to real English spoken by Americans.”
Rinn paused, pen in mid-air, and stared straight ahead for a moment. “Wot?”
“Kawalski, you dumbass, the English
invented the English language,” Dubois said. Rinn didn’t even need to look at him, he could hear the eye-roll.
“Guys! Guys!” Gomez stuck his head out of their supply fort. “I found some boxes we missed! They’re full of fucking duct tape!”
“No shit?” Kawalski said, immediately distracted by the prospect of creative acquisition. “How much?”
“I dunno how we missed it, hoss, there’s boxes and
boxes of this stuff! Different colors, too!”
“Sweet! Grab us all a roll! Jabs, too!” Kawalski paused, then stood up. “What all colors are there?”
“Dunno yet, I haven’t gone through all the boxes, but there’s a few at least.”
“Lemme see…” Kawalski disappeared into the fort. “How the hell did we miss all this… Oh, I see, it got buried behind the fuck tent.”
Dubois looked up. “Why do you have a fuck tent?!”
“Dude, you
always need a fuck tent!”
“Who the fuck are you fucking!?”
“Your mother! Heheheh!”
***
Rinn pulled the earmuffs off his head as the firing line was declared cold. The new earmuffs they had been given had deeper cups with more room for his ears, but they still didn’t fit well.
We’ll have to talk to somebody about getting some properly designed for us, he thought as he trudged down range to collect his targets. The Marines had scrounged up a few more of their pop-up metal targets for the “new” range, but they were mostly still shooting at paper targets tacked to wooden frames.
Back at the tables behind the firing line, Rinn looked over the keshmin targets with a pleased quirk to his ears. Their scores were not anything the Marines would consider
good, by any means, but even the grizzled Gunnery Sergeant running the range begrudgingly nodded his approval at them being
passable. Barely.
Not bad at all, for what little training we’ve managed to fit in around everything else. Lord Anyo is even showing a particular knack for the weapons, at least on the fixed range. Rinn was pleased to note that his own scores had surpassed Anyo’s on the dynamic range, much to the Knight Captain’s chagrin.
Lunch consisted of MREs at the range, and Rinn once again got to demonstrate his “advanced knowledge” of human equipment to the other keshmin, and warned them away from the less favorable MREs.
Not that I’ve actually tried
many of them, but our pallets seem to match close enough that I’ll take the Marines at their word.
The lunch break was short, barely enough time to heat the food and gulp it down, before they were hurried off to the next event on the range, this one pushing the artificers to their magical limits.
“Cease fire! Cease fiiire!”
Rinn panted, overheated and out of breath, as he lowered his stave. The targets down range were shredded, both by gunfire and spellfire, but this wasn’t a measure of accuracy.
“Most impressive, Ahyat,” Yeshai said as Rinn stepped back from the firing line. “How many armor enhancements were you able to maintain?”
“All twelve of them, Your Grace,” Rinn said, still trying to catch his breath. “But I couldn’t keep up with the machine guns. I could barely keep up with one, nevermind three!” He shook his head, making sure to close his mouth to keep his tongue from lolling, though his ears still flopped a bit. “The best I could do was one enhancement every fifth or sixth shot with two. One in a dozen with three.”
Yeshai snorted. “No worse than anyone else so far, and you did it while maintaining all armor enhancements, a very fine shield, and respectable spellfire of your own.” He flicked an ear. “Any of us might surpass you in single skills, but on the whole, I’d dare say you’re the best of us, and by no small margin.”
“You honor me, your grace,” Rinn said, giving him a bow.
“Your service honors the kingdom,” Yeshai replied, dipping his head in return.
Straightening, Rinn couldn’t miss Anyo glaring at him, but he pointedly ignored the Earl. Sinyan had gone before Rinn, but Anyo had gone before him, and all but confirmed Rinn’s suspicions that the Knight Captain was a sparker.
“And who’s our next contestant?” Gunnery Sergeant Valdez called as Rinn flopped down next to Bradford, happily guzzling the bottle of water she handed him.
“Tyehtyeh, that’s you!” Yenyed called, glaring at the oblivious artificer.
“Oh, right!” Tyehtyeh said, looking up from the spellstructs he had been studying. He barely even put on his false-deep voice.
“Oh, here we go…” Bradford muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t be spiteful,” Rinn said, flicking her ear with his tail. She swiped at the offending appendage and tried to grab it, but he quickly snatched it out of her reach. “He’s made incredlbe progress these last two weeks. He hasn’t admitted it, but I’m fairly certain he’s had no formal education as an artificer, or even at all.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “So his bluster’s all just a show, deflecting from his … ignorance?”
He dipped his head with an affirmative ear flick. “And the more I give him to study, the less he remembers to put on the act.”
“Huh…” Bradford said, giving Tyehtyeh a newly appraising look.
“Line ready?” Valdez called out. “Shooter’s stand-by! FIIIRE!”
Tyehtyeh immediately popped up a shield and sent a triple burst of tight, powerful firebursts down range, before the Marines could rack their bolts and engage. Brief flashes of light rolled down the line as armor enhancements went up.
He still needs to kill that startup flare, but at least he’s cut out the continual glow, and his efficiency is a hundred fold better. He’s barely leaking any mana!
Tyehtyeh hesitated as the rifles opened up, several rounds zipping down range unseen. He rolled his ears, shifted his feet, and every single shot became a visible bolt, glowing as it snapped down range.
More rifles opened up, then a machine gun, then two, then tree. Rinn’s ears shot up under his earmuffs. Every single round glowed.
Then Tyehtyeh brought his stave to bear and let off a barrage that made Rinn’s spellfire look like a peashooter.
“CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIIRE!” Valdez called as the targets disappeared into several plumes of splinters and smoke.
“Holy shit!” Bradford said. “He hits like an artillery piece!”
Rinn looked at her, then to Tyehtyeh, then to Yeshai and the other keshmin. A small part of his mind was pleased to note that he wasn’t the only one whose jaw was hanging open.
“Did I mess up again?” Tyehtyeh asked, sheepishly scratching at the base of a horn.
Yeshai shook his head, the first to collect himself. “No. No, you didn’t.” He looked at Rinn, forcing the field artificer to collect himself. “Second Artificer, you wouldn’t happen to have a metering artifice in your repertoire, would you?”
He cocked an ear to the side, wondering what the Duke was getting at, before it clicked. “Yes, your grace, I do.…” he stood up, retrieving his stave, and walked over to Tyehtyeh with Yeshai. The Marines and other nobles muttered amongst themselves in their separate groups as Tyehtyeh squirmed under the unexpected attention.
“Second Artificer Tyehtyeh, have you ever been officially metered?” Yeshai asked, stopping in front of him.
“Well, ah, no, Your Grace,” Tyehtyeh said, scratching at the base of a horn. “Militia really only ever cared that I could sling spells, didn’t much care for any of the details.”
“I suspected as much,” Yeshai said, dipping his head in a small nod. He flicked an ear at Rinn, then back to Tyehtyeh. “Second Artificer Ahyat, if you would be so kind.”
Rinn nodded and stepped forward, his stave held low in one hand. He didn’t really need it to run this particular artifice, but he suspected the extra precision and peak range it allowed would be useful.
“What’s this, then?” Valdez asked, stepping up to the line.
“The lad has never been officially metered,” Yeshai said, waving a hand at Tyehtyeh, an exaggerated gesture probably for the human’s benefit. “He has no idea how powerful he actually is. We’re about to find out.”
“Will this hurt?” Tyehtyeh asked, his ears nervously twitching back.
“Of course not,” Rinn said. “You don’t even really need to do anything. Just passively channel a mana stream.” He paused. “Down range, if you please.”
“Right,” Tyehtyeh said, turning to point a hand down range. Rinn brought up the metering artifice, set so the measurements were visible in the air. At first, there was nothing, then Tyehtyeh closed his eyes and everything spiked.
“Above and below…” Yeshai muttered as Rinn scrabbled to shift the ranges the meter was displaying. Tyehtyeh blew past the maximum levels. Twice. “You’re a gods-damned savant!”
“What?!” Tyehtyeh squeaked, spinning around and cutting off the mana stream.
“Not just a savant,” Rinn said, his eyes and ears locked on the measurements his artifice was still displaying. “Your Grace, he’s one of the most powerful savants to ever live.”
“What?!” Tyehtyeh said again, this time with a little less squeak. “That can’t be right…”
Yeshai, turned to Valdez. “Gunnery Sergeant, we are done here for today. We need to do a complete examination and assessment of Second Artificer Tyehtyeh’s abilities, and I need to write to the King.”
****
Scrubbing her face, Bradford trudged around the corner of a building on her way back to the barracks, after dark, and smacked right into someone. “Oh, shit!” she said, stumbling back while fumbling out to catch the other person before they fell.
Bradford kept her balance. The other person he the ground with a yipped, “Oof.”
Looking down, horrified at her clumsy inattentiveness, she found Rinn glaring up at her. “I was hoping to run into you on my way back, but I didn’t mean for you to take it
literally!”
She laughed, reaching down to help him up. “Sorry, I’m just a little brain-dead right now.”
“Oh,” he said, standing and dusting himself off. He flicked an ear at her. “I couldn’t tell the difference.”
“Oh, fuck you,” she said, giving him a shove that sent him staggering and nearly back into the dirt.
“Abuse!” he cried, struggling not to laugh. “Help! Help! I’m being abused!”
Bradford just continued walking, flipping him the bird over her shoulder.
“That rough a day?” he asked, jogging briefly to catch up. “Too much going on on your surprise afternoon off?”
“Pff, I wish.” She sighed, waving at the barracks ahead of them in the distance. “Most of the guys got the rest of the day off, thanks to Tyehtyeh, but not me.” She shook her head. “Nooo, I’m a Sergeant now, with ‘field experience,’” she said, with air quotes. “Since I happened to be free for the afternoon, I got pulled into another planning meeting for the field exercise we’re doing at the end of the week.” She shook her head. “Normally, these things are all planned out weeks in advance, but now we’re trying to cram that all into a few days…. Ugh!” she scrubbed her face again, heaving a sigh. “What about you? How was your afternoon?”
Rinn sighed, his shoulders sagging. “Probably not much better.” His ears twitched, and he shook his head, letting them flop around. “More testing with metering artifices more precise and capable than mine will be required to know his exact power, but between myself, the Duke, and the other nobles, we were able to determine that Tyehtyeh is a savant, and one of the most powerful to ever live. There are two, maybe three other savants alive who are more powerful than him, and those not by much.” He scrunched his snout. “And he has the education of a quillhog farmer!”
Bradford laughed. “Sounds like someone’s a little pissed off that their spot as the top artificer has been stolen by an uneducated bumpkin.”
“I’m not pissed off!” Rinn snapped. “Not about that, anyway,” he sighed, tugging at a horn. “It’s just- I’ve taught Tyehtyeh a hundred times more in the last few weeks than anyone else has ever taught him. Almost everything he knows,
he learned on his own! He’s not just a savant, he’s not just one of the most powerful savants to ever live. I have to admit, he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.”
“Oh, really?” Bradford asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Yes!” Rinn rolled his ears. “Now, of course, he doesn’t act like it at all, not in the least,
because he has the education of a quillhog farmer! But instead of a bumbling idiot who can barely figure out which end of his pike to point at the enemy, he taught himself how to do magic from scratch, using a bare handful of spells he was shown as an example, and a few concepts he overheard in conversation.”
“Damn,” Bradford said, shaking her head. “Imagine what he could do if someone taught him.”
Rinn vigorously nodded his head, eyes wide and ears up. “That’s exactly what we just saw today! And if he had a proper education.…” He shook his head. “The Duke has written his father and the King, and the nobles of are two minds about what to do with Tyehtyeh. On the one hand, he should be sent to a university, trained and educated. In time, he might become the most powerful savant to ever live!”
“On the other hand, he’s useful now?”
“Yes.” He sighed. “The education he should get would take years, when he is already a powerful battlefield savant, and we are in desperate need of every advantage in the war.”
“So what are they going to do with him?”
“I don’t know. The Duke has a lot of influence to sway that decision, but it will not be made by him. That is for his father, Lord General Yangri, and the King to decide.” He sighed. “Until that decision is made, I will be continuing my tutelage of Tyehtyeh, and the other artificers will provide selections of well-designed spell structures for him to study and master.”
“Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to worry about tomorrow,” she said as he opened the door to their barracks and waved her in. “It’s late enough as it is.”
“Indeed,” he said, following her through the door. His ears twitched as they approached the bunk room. Bradford could here muffled shouts and laughter coming from inside.
Glancing at Rinn, who gave her a smirking flick of an ear, she opened the door. The room fell to immediate silence as it swung open, the bright light of the hallway casting a sharp outline into the dimmed room.
Inside, every other member of Second Squad was wearing assorted styles and colors of masks made out of duct tape. The diversity of styles included cut-out or molded eye holes, teeth, full cheek guards, bikers goggles, a medieval doctor’s beak, mohawks, and more. Holding a wild medley of cardboard-and-duct-tape melee weapons, they were clad in little else besides a chaotic mix of speedos, diapers, vests, and/or a few get-ups that looked suspiciously like pleasure harnesses, all made from a rainbow of duct tape.
In the dim light and resounding silence, they all turned to stare at the door.
Bradford slowly cast her gaze across them as she looked from one side of the room to the other, the Marines all frozen and staring at her in silence, before she quietly backed out and shut the door.
“We’re going somewhere else for a while,” she said, still staring at the door she firmly held shut.
Rinn’s ears, held straight up, swiveled to point behind him. “That… That sounds like an excellent idea…”
“Yeah…” she said, releasing the door and pulling herself away. She looked at Rinn. “Anyone ever show you how to play Xbox?”
“I can’t say that I have,” he said as she pointedly ignored what sounded like Kawalski’s muted shouting behind the door.
“Sounds like a great time to learn,” she said as muffled chaos exploded behind the door. She turned and headed towards the common room. “C’mon, I’ll teach you how to play Call of Duty, and we can see what other games they managed to snag. I haven’t had time to play anything since they set the system up.”
***
Rinn fidgeted as Echo Company formed up outside their barracks complex. He was nervous. First Sergeant Khatri had found out about his cadence project. He was nervous because he expected to be called on to lead the whole company through his new cadence.
He was also nervous because he was the one who told First Sergeant Khatri about it the night before. That’s why he had run into Bradford on the way back to the barracks. He gave a silent prayer to all the gods above and all the gods below that the squad wouldn’t find out.
“Company! Atten-hut!” Rinn snapped to attention with the other Marines as Khatri marched out in front of them. “Marines! It has come to my attention that one of our augments has been undertaking a little cadence project, translating a Ganlin marching song into a Marine Corps cadence. Is this true, Second Artificer Ahyat?”
Rinn had to struggle to keep his ears from plastering back against his skull. “Yes, First Sergeant!”
“And it is my understanding that it is in a workable state. Is this true, Second Artificer Ahyat?”
Rinn hesitated. He swore he could hear a pin drop. “Yes, First Sergeant!”
“Outstanding! Now, as you all know, I take great pride and joy in a proper marching cadence, and to hear this warms my heart.” He clutched a hand to his chest for emphasis. “The deep, sub-cockle regions of it. Second Artificer Ahyat, you will be leading us in this cadence today!”
“Yes, First Sergeant!”
With the closest Rinn had ever seen Khatri come to a smile, the First Sergeant made a crisp about face and saluted Captain Spader. “The company is formed and ready, sir!”
“Very well. Get them moving, First Sergeant.”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
Khatri pivoted and marched to his place in the column. “Company! Forward! March!”
Feet crunched on gravel and packed dirt as Echo Company stepped off. Khatri called out a basic cadence as he turned their column out of their little assembly area, what the Marines had started calling the grinder, and onto the road.
“Ahyat!” Khatri shouted as the last of the Marines snaked onto the road. “Sound off!”
Rinn cleared his throat. “Yipe! Yipe! Yegh!” he shouted, the corners of his mouth twitching as the Marines echoed back the nonsense sounds.
Here we go, he thought, taking a deep breath.
“I left my heart in San’Riiaaaaa!” he called out in English. His t’s were still a little soft, and he still dragged out his vowels a bit longer than he should, but his accent was still clear.
“I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAAA!” The Marines echoed back, and he could hear the surprise in their voices. He smiled and called the next line.
“I left my heart to heed the caaaall!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO HEED THE CAAAALL!” The Marines’ voices were stronger, more certain, adapting quickly.
“I left my heart to shield her theerre!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO SHIELD HER THEERRE!”
“I left my heart to goo to waaaar!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO GO TO WAAAAR!”
“Chorus!” he shouted, before taking another breath.
“We carry on the looong campaaaign!
We steel our hearts and maaarch aloooong!
To keep the war awaay from hooome!
We raise our pikes and neeever yieeeld!
‘Til we’ve freed the yoke from all Gahlaaa!”
He closed his eyes for a beat. He could already tell his throat was going to be sore when this was all done, but he wasn’t going to bungle it. Another breath, and he shouted again.
“I found my boots in Rotiyiiiin!”
“I FOUND MY BOOTS IN ROTIYIIIN!”
“I learned to march in formatioon!”
“I LEARNED TO MARCH IN FORMATIOON!”
“In line and square and in colummn!”
“IN LINE AND SQUARE AND IN COLUMMN!”
“To bear my heart in San’Riiaa!”
“TO BEAR MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAA!”
This time, a few Marines joined in on the long notes of the chorus.
“We carry on the looong campaaaign!
We steel our hearts and maaarch aloooong!
To keep the war awaay from hooome!
We raise our pikes and neeever yieeeld!
‘Til we’ve freed the yoke from all Gahlaaa!”
A few more had joined before the chorus had finished.
“I donned my armor in Toiyooo!”
“I DONNED MY ARMOR IN TOIYOOO!”
“I wrapped myself in clooth and steeeel!”
“I WRAPPED MYSELF IN CLOOTH AND STEEEEL!”
“Re-enforced with maail and speeell!”
“RE-ENFORCED WITH MAAIL AND SPEEELL!”
“To shield my heart in San’Riiaaa!”
“TO SHIELD MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAA!”
Marine voices started to overpower his as he drove into the chorus once more.
“We carry on the looong campaaaign!
We steel our hearts and maaarch aloooong!
To keep the war awaay from hooome!
We raise our pikes and neeever yieeeld!
‘Til we’ve freed the yoke from all Gahlaaa!”
“I grabbed my pike in Mol’Raiii!”
“I GRABBED MY PIKE IN MOL’RAIII!”
“Enchanted bright and shaarp of biiite!”
“ENCHANTED BRIGHT AND SHAARP OF BIIITE!”
“I lift it up and hoold it hiiigh!”
“I LIFT IT UP AND HOOLD IT HIIIGH!”
“To guard my heart in San’Riiaaa!”
“TO GUARD MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAA!”
The Marines had picked up the chorus this time, and he could barely hear his own voice over theirs.
“We carry on the looong campaaaign!
We steel our hearts and maaarch aloooong!
To keep the war awaay from hooome!
We raise our pikes and neeever yieeeld!
‘Til we’ve freed the yoke from all Gahlaaa!”
“I earned my strips in Riiun Paaass!”
“Blood stripes!” someone shouted in the brief gap before the rest of the company echoed back.
“I EARNED MY STRIPS IN RIIUN PAAASS!”
“At Koilay, Bruhl, and Sai’Li’Unnn!”
“AT KOILAY, BRUHL, AND SAI’LI’UNNN!”
“In blood and fire I baattle throuuuugh!”
“IN BLOOD AND FIRE I BAATTLE THROUUUUGH!”
“To win my heart in San’Riiaaa!”
“TO WIN MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAA!”
This time the Marines beat him to the chorus, and he straightened in pride as voice was drowned out by a company two hundred strong.
“WE CARRY ON THE LOOONG CAMPAAAIGN!
WE STEEL OUR HEARTS AND MAAARCH ALOOOONG!
TO KEEP THE WAR AWAAY FROM HOOOME!
WE RAISE OUR PIKES AND NEEEVER YIEEELD!
‘TIL WE’VE FREED THE YOKE FROM ALL GAHLAAA!”
“I yearn to see my heaarth and hooome!”
“I YEARN TO SEE MY HEAARTH AND HOOOME!”
“Family, friends, and soomeone mooore!”
“FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND SOOMEONE MOOORE!”
“I promise one day too retuuurn!”
“I PROMISE ONE DAY TOO RETUUURN!”
“To see my heart in San’Riiaaa!”
“TO SEE MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAA!”
“WE CARRY ON THE LOOONG CAMPAAAIGN!
WE STEEL OUR HEARTS AND MAAARCH ALOOOONG!
TO KEEP THE WAR AWAAY FROM HOOOME!
WE RAISE OUR PIKES AND NEEEVER YIEEELD!
‘TIL WE’VE FREED THE YOKE FROM ALL GAHLAAA!”
“I left my heart in San’Riiaaaaa!”
“I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN’RIIAAAA!”
“I left my heart to heeed the caaaall!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO HEEED THE CAAAALL!”
“I left my heart to shield her theerre!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO SHIELD HER THEERRE!”
“I left my heart to go to waaaar!”
“I LEFT MY HEART TO GO TO WAAAAR!”
He held the last note to signal the end of the cadence. The Marines copied the long note, and it trailed off as they made the final turn, approaching the rest of the battalion’s formation.
The First Sergeant timed that well… he thought, but felt one last call was needed. “Royal Host, Never Yield! Two-Five!”
“RETREAT, HELL!”
“Company! Halt!”
***
“Guh, my head feels like mush,” Bradford said as they trudged into the gym. “I swear to god, if I have to go to one more strategy seminar or training planning session, my brains will all ooze out of my head and have to be mopped up off the floor…”
“Don’t worry, Jabs,” Edison said, tapping her arm. “We’ve got your favorite activity to make up for it: Picking up heavy things and putting them back down.”
“Damn straight!” she laughed.
“Raaawwwgh!” Edison said, flexing his arms in front of him. “She-Hulk STRONG!”
Laughing, she gave him a shove hard enough to send him staggering off to the side. “Stronger than you, pencil-arms.”
“Why do we keep having to sit through all these seminars, anyway?” Kimber asked. “We’re Marines. You don’t put us in classrooms. You give us a gun, and point us at whatever you need destroyed.”
“It’s to figure out how to train the next guys,” Bradford said, stepping over to a weight bench. “Got my spot?” Rinn and Edison paired up by a couple of benches by the dumbbell rack nearby while the rest of the squad dispersed through the gym.
“Sure,” Kimber said, stepping over to the weight rack. “How much to start?”
“Fifty on the bar to warm up a bit, then up from there.”
“Cool,” he said, grabbing a weight. “And what do you mean, figure out how to train the next guys?”
“The next guys,” she said, locking a weight on her side of the bar, then settling down on the bench. “The next group of Marines and Artificers, or Soldiers and Artificers, or whoever the fuck else gets sent through this program.” She took a grip on the bar as Kimber moved into position at the head of the bench, and with barely a grunt she heaved it off the rack and started doing reps.
“When did we get put into a program?” Kimber asked.
“We’re not in a… program,” Bradford grunted out between reps. “We’re… pathfinding it. The training program… that integrates artificers and the U.S. military.”
After several reps, she shoved the bar back up on the racks and stood up, wiping sweat off with a towel as she switched places with Kimber.
“You think they’re making this a program?” Kimber asked, heaving the bar off the rack and starting his own set of reps.
“Fuck yeah, they are. No putting that cat back in the bag. We’re just kind of the pilot, fumbling our way through, figuring shit out for the people that’ll come next.”
“Hadn’t really thought of that,” Kimber said, putting the bar back up on the rack after his set.
Bradford snorted as she grabbed more weight for the bar. “You’re a Marine. You don’t get paid to think. Good thing, too,” she winked at him.
“Damn straight!” he laughed, locking a matching weight on the other side of the bar and moving back to the spotter position.
Their conversation tapered mostly to insults and encouragement as they added more weight with each set.
They were just locking another set of weights on the bar when Kawalski called over. “Kimber! We need you! Gomer thinks he’s the wrestling champion!”
Kimber glanced back at Bradford, but Edison spoke up. “Go ahead, man, I’ll spot for her.”
“Ha!” Bradford snorted. “Spotter needs to be able to at least help lift the weight that’s being benched, and that ain’t happening with your pencil arms, and I could probably bench Ahyat for reps.” She glanced at him. “No offense.”
He shook his head with a dismissive ear flick. “None taken.”
“Ha, I bet you could!” Edison said.
“Kimber!”
“I can’t, man! Jabs is gonna bench Shields!”
“What?!”
“Jabs is gonna bench Shields!”
Bradford laughed, glancing at a bewildered Rinn.
“Man, I gotta see this,” Elder said, elbowing his way to the front of the crowd that spontaneously formed around the weight bench. It felt like half of Echo Company was there.
“Hey, how many reps you bet she can do with him?” Kawalski asked, hustling the crowd even as it formed.
Bradford looked at Rinn again as a pair of Marines lifted the bar out of the way. He was shoved towards the bench, and his ears drooped in defeat.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not benching him.”
“But, Jabs-“ Kimber said, before she interrupted him.
“Dude. He’s, what, one ten?” She raised an eyebrow at Rinn. “One fifteen, soaking wet, with a brick in your pocket?” He shrugged his ears, flicking the end of his tail at her. “I just repped one thirty,” she said, pointing her thumb at the bar, “And upped it to one forty-five. I’ve got nothing to prove by benching Ahyat.”
“Aw, c’mon, Jabs,” Kawalski said. “It’s not about provin’ nothin’, it’s about bein’ funny!”
“I said no, Kawalski.”
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Edit: From the L2T mod team: After much discussion amongst the mods, we've decided to re-approve this post as a rare exception to the rule. u/mgraunk puts in a ton of work every year, and while the sub does not officially allow playlists posts, u/mgraunk has worked with the mod team to thoroughly vet each artist included to make sure they're within our limits. Thank you to everyone who commented sharing your thoughts on the decision. Spotify playlist is here 2020 was a crazy year, so it’s understandable if you had a hard time keeping up with new music releases. I was in that other camp of people who found themselves listening to music even more than normal. I continued my (admittedly obsessive) tradition of listening to as many new albums as possible each week, and once again I’d like to share a few hidden gems.
These are not my top 25 albums. These are just 25 albums that I felt were sorely overlooked, based on the criteria that (almost) none of these artists have more than three songs with over half a million plays on Spotify. Hopefully we can bring their music to a wider audience. Without further ado, here are 25 great albums you might have missed in 2020:
1. Keleketla! - Keleketla! (Released 7/3/20, Multinational)
I’m going to break the rules right off the bat by including my absolute favorite album of 2020, which includes contributions from internationally famous recording artists like Tony Allen, Antibalas, and ColdCut. But in addition to these names, the musical project known as Keleketla! features many obscure and underrated artists, both from across the African continent and from members of the diaspora living around the world. It may not meet the letter of the law, but it certainly fits the spirit of this community. It’s a funky, jazzy, groovy blend of musical styles that’s truly unparalleled among album releases this past year. The vocals are carefully selected and powerfully performed, with lyrics that serve as a reminder of the many perspectives often overlooked by western-centric media.
Standout Tracks: Future Toyi Toyi, International Love Affair, Freedom Groove, Crystallise
2. Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters... (Released 10/2/20, California, US)
If you’ve listened to my playlists from the past two years, then you know I love me some psychedelic rock. King Gizzard and Tame Impala are great, but the field is really broad right now, and there are plenty of lesser known acts like Frankie and the Witch Fingers who can hold their own. Despite putting out several albums in recent years, this was the first release from Frankie and the Witch Fingers that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish. It has a reckless energy, as if the performers are trying to thrash the life from their instruments before the album ends. Given the ongoing absence of live music in my life, this was one of the few albums from 2020 that almost managed to deliver that raw concert experience to the isolation of my apartment.
Standout Tracks: Activate, Sweet Freak, Simulator
3. Gooral - Ethno Elektro 2 (Wolno/Fusion) (Released 3/19/20, Poland)
This album seems to have been released in a couple different formats. When I first discovered
Ethno Elektro 2, it was as a 6-song mini-album released in March with the subtitle “Wolno”. But on Spotify, there is an earlier version of Ethno Elektro 2 featuring a completely different tracklist with the subtitle “Fusion”, categorized as an EP. Discogs, however, lists
Ethno Elektro 2 as a single 2-disc record containing all the tracks from both
Fusion and
Wolno. Long story short, they’re both uniquely amazing records, and the album works perfectly when listened to from the first track on
Wolno to the last track on
Fusion, smoothly fluctuating between EDM-tinged pop and eastern European folk. In addition to techno and D’n’B, Gooral draws heavily upon Polish ethnic styles to create a dance record that is seriously unmatched.
Standout Tracks: Spod tego jawora, Wadi rum, Cas siy nom uodmienić
4. Thy Catafalque - Naiv (Released 1/24/20, Hungary)
Back in the before time, I got together with a friend to make sausage. It was our first attempt, and we were working on a recipe he’d found for “hot Hungarian” sausage. I told my friend I had the perfect record to occupy us while we worked, and put on
Naiv, which I had not yet listened to all the way through. We were surprised by just how suitable it turned out to be, and it quickly became my go-to album while working, doing chores around the house, and during further sausage-making ventures. The driving melodies and distorted growls are great for motivation, while the epic choral vocals and diverse instrumentations keep you from getting bored. But if you have a minute to pause and pay closer attention, you’ll also be able to appreciate the unusual time signatures and top-notch production characteristic of great progressive rock.
Standout Tracks: Embersólyom, A valóság kazamatái, Kék madár (Négy kép)
5. Suzie Stapleton - We Are the Plague (Released 7/31/20, Australia)
She may not have garnered much attention yet, but I’m really looking forward to following Suzie Stapleton’s career given the strength of her debut album,
We Are the Plague. The album opens with the lyrics “We are the plague / we are the execution / we are the caged / we are the revolution”, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t just the perfect way to sum up 2020. What follows is a murky expedition into the gloomiest manifestations of western popular music - goth rock and dark folk tinged with blues, delivered by a rasping voice that’s equal parts Janis Joplin, Beth Hart and Lucinda Williams. The lyrics conjure images of desolation, destruction, and loss. This is not a happy record, but it is nonetheless a beautiful one.
Standout Tracks: We Are the Plague, Blood on the Windscreen, Don’t Look Up
6. Yuri Gagarin - The Outskirts of Reality (Released 1/31/20, Sweden)
Sweden is known more for its black metal and death metal than for spacey stoner rock, but Yuri Gagarin proves a welcome exception to that stereotype.
The Outskirts of Reality hits the ground running with two lengthy jams over ten minutes apiece which together make up the bulk of the five track album. Laboratory1, the shortest track, creates a similar effect to the ambient middle section of Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, developing an atmosphere that becomes progressively more eerie and unsettling, only to pull you roaring back when the album’s title track kicks in to end the record. It’s not a long album, just under 45 minutes - but that’s enough time for at least, like, three DMT trips, right?
Standout Tracks: Oneironaut, Crystal Dunes, The Outskirts of Reality
7. Aging - Sentenced to Love (Released 5/1/20, England, UK)
Sentenced to Love seems to embrace the notion espoused in the early days of How I Met Your Mother that “nothing good happens after 2 AM”. It is a soundtrack to dastardly deeds committed undercover of the night; the kind of jazz you might hear in a seedy strip club under a freeway while a shady man in a trenchcoat and fedora stares you down from across the bar. There’s an ominous undertone to the album that keeps you on edge, almost paranoid. If the movie Drive were set in the 1940s, this could be the soundtrack. In fact, one look at the
album cover should adequately prepare you for what you are about to experience. As someone who works a graveyard shift, this album really resonates. Not the dastardly deeds part though, I swear.
Standout Tracks: The Trapped Man, Sentenced to Love, The Shadow On My Name
8. Ajate - Alo (Released 3/6/20, Japan)
An album like
Alo is the musical equivalent of a British television series - it hooks you immediately, and then just as quickly, it’s over. Put it on repeat and you’ll have an album of a more satisfying length. I promise you won’t get bored listening to it over and over, though you might find yourself cursing the universe that there aren’t more bands fusing traditional Japanese and West African dance music, much less on homemade instruments of their own invention. There really isn’t a single other band in the world like this.
Standout Tracks: Uka, Galar, Mammamelie
9. Blessed Black - Beyond the Crimson Throne (Released 1/17/20, Ohio, US)
If you like metal bands that draw from desert rock, grunge, doom metal, and classic Sabbath, then put your bong down and pay attention. Now pick it back up and put on
Beyond the Crimson Throne by Blessed Black. It’s derivative in all the best ways, accessible enough for the radio but with enough credibility for the metalhead purists. Expect catchy riffs rather than intricate solos, and clean vocals in place of growls or screams. I daresay this is the best damn butt rock record of the decade.
Standout Tracks: The White Wolf, Arioch’s Bargain, Stormbringer
10. Smoke Fairies - Darkness Brings the Wonders Home (Released 1/31/20, England, UK)
Smoke Fairies is not a new band, but their latest album is definitely their most polished and complete so far. Taken as a whole, the album has a great atmosphere - dark and mysterious, as its name would suggest, with rich harmonies reminiscent of Cocteau Twins. Without the context of the album, the individual songs still stand up. Each one is distinct and engaging, and despite the album’s brooding tone, there are a few good earworms in the mix.
Standout Tracks: On the Wing, Out of the Woods, Super Tremolo
11. The Cool Greenhouse - The Cool Greenhouse (Released 5/29/20, England, UK)
Most of the time, I prefer strong instrumentals over strong vocals. Much of my favorite music is entirely lyricless. The first time I heard The Cool Greenhouse, I wasn’t thrilled with the repetitive 3-note riffs that characterize this album. I almost wrote them off until I started picking up on what their vocalist (I hesitate to call him a singer) was listlessly droning on about in the most unapologetically British way possible. If John Cleese performed slam poetry, I’m not sure he could deliver as scathing a critique of western culture and society as The Cool Greenhouse. Their biting sarcasm is underscored by the apathetic delivery and appropriately low-effort guitar work, but the songwriting is actually pretty brilliant. The more I listened, I realized that what I initially heard as sloppy and uninspired was in fact quite intentional. It’s punk rock for the Doomer generation; the righteous anger is still there, but it manifests in a very different way.
Standout Tracks: Cardboard Man, Life Advice, Smile, Love!
12. Angellore - Rien ne devait mourir (Released 2/14/20, France)
The notes on Angellore’s bandcamp page describe the recording process of this album as “burdensome and depressing”, and while I can promise that listening to it will provide a much more enjoyable experience, this album certainly does take its time to get where it’s going. It doesn’t immediately hook you, but it promises a journey that will be well worth your while. The opening track is 20 minutes long, and starts with a Gregorian chant. From there, it unfolds like the plot of a novel, gradually building to some intense and compelling moments that don’t require any understanding of doom metal growls to be emotionally effective. And there are enough diverse vocal styles over the course of the album that even those who are turned off by unclean vocals can appreciate the vaguely necrophilious lyrical cliches of gothic rock.
Standout Tracks: A Romance of Thorns, Dreams - Along the Trail, Que les lueurs se dispersent
13. N to the Power - Autogenesis (Released 9/4/20, New York, US)
This is some weird, trippy jazz. This is some “don’t put it on until you’re comfortable with the headspace of the acid you just took” jazz. It’s not an easy listen, but it’s not hard to make the time for just five songs. There’s a lot to take in if you can give this music your undivided attention and just focus on the interplay between the different instruments. Each composition expresses a distinct musical idea, and while there are some common elements between them, the album is more an anthology of vignettes than a single theme. But with most of the songs over five minutes in length, none of the songs seem rushed or incomplete.
Standout Tracks: The God Particle, Marrakesh Mesosphere, To the Jackpot
14. Bambara - Stray (Released 2/14/20, Georgia, US)
Stray is a gloomy concept album that combines shimmery surf rock guitars with the gritty imagery of a Rob Zombie or Robert Rodriguez film. There are traces of neo-noir and western in the loosely connected stories of the album’s dismal characters, and also in the music, which vaguely resembles both Nick Cave and Ennio Morricone in trace amounts. While the album is best enjoyed from beginning to end like a nonlinear rock opera, the self-contained stories in each song stand on their own as well - particularly the final track, “Machete”, which would make for a great horror film if the name weren’t already taken.
Standout Tracks: Heat Lightning, Serafina, Machete
15. Tidiane Thiam - Siftorde (Released 5/15/20, Senegal)
There’s not a whole lot to say about Tidiane Thiam. He’s just a guy who taught himself to play guitar, plucking out simple melodies without adornment. His straightforward approach cuts to the heart of the innate human desire to make music. This album is as close as recorded music can get to capturing the experience of sitting around a campfire with your closest friends while someone noodles on a guitar, and the ambient background noises further contribute to that illusion. We may not be able to locate each others’ hometowns on a map, but the universality of this album tells me that we have something in common.
Standout Tracks: Djatasoun, Douga, Yeery-Mayo
16. Zenobia - Halak Halak (Released 6/5/20, Israel)
The duo of Palestinian DJs known as Zenobia make some pretty wild dance tunes. They combine elements of EDM and synthpop with various styles of Arabic pop and folk music that I’m too American to identify. If you’re accustomed to the rhythmic patterns of European and American dance music, you might find this album refreshingly dissimilar. I don’t know what the current slang would be, but in the words of my wife when she’s trying to get under my skin, “this one slaps”.
Standout Tracks: Edine, Halak Halak, Funky Egal
17. Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain (Released 11/13/20, Wales, UK)
Not only is she the best primitive guitar player since the OG, John Fahey, Gwenifer Raymond is also a professional game designer and holds a PhD in astrophysics. So she’s got that going for her, which is nice, but neither of those other pursuits have any significant bearing on this album. Her guitar playing is front and center without any vocals to get in the way.
Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain is colored by Raymond’s Welsh background, but also draws from the full spectrum of Americana styles and beyond. If you’re yawning at the prospect of another instrumental folk guitar album, just listen to her shred on “Hell for Certain” before deciding this album isn’t worth your while.
Standout Tracks: Hell for Certain, Gwaed am Gwaed, Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
18. Malena Zavala - La Yarará (Released 4/17/20, Argentina)
I’m going to break the rules ever so slightly again, because Malena Zavala does have three songs with over 500k streams, two of which are different versions of the same song, and none of which are on this album. Her debut was decent, but Zavala’s sophomore release is a lot more polished in performance and production. She displays confidence and purpose in her vocals without sacrificing the emotion. The rich instrumentals reflect her diverse musical influences, with a variety of electric and acoustic instruments that keep things sounding light and bouncy even when the lyrics tend towards more melancholy and introspective topics. A tropical ambiance seeps through on every song, making this the perfect soundtrack for drinking away a bad breakup somewhere on a sandy beach.
Standout Tracks: En la Noche, Company, Ritmo de Vida
19. Ak’chamel, the Giver of Illness - The Totemist (Released 3/27/20, Texas, US)
What even
is music, maaan? This album is more like a sound collage, beginning with a relatively familiar psychedelic rock melody that quickly fades to the background amidst distant bird calls and other sound effects. By the end of the first song, an eerie, whispering voice is pulling you deeper into your trip, and that’s when you remember that you aren’t even high. If it weren’t for the percussive instruments providing rhythm and meter, you might even forget you’re listening to an album at all. It’s a sort of new age parody, twisting and distorting the tropes of meditative music into something conspicuously unsettling. If you get anxious easily, you may want to avoid listening to this one when you’re all alone at 3 am. Unfortunately, I speak from personal experience.
Standout Tracks: Firedriver, The Funeral of a Woman Whose Soul is Trapped in the Sun, Dark Hat
20. Ka - Descendants of Cain (Released 5/1/20, New York, US)
As much as I enjoy the genre, hip hop albums don’t often rate very high on my list. A lot of hip hop albums feel bloated and uncurated, with too many filler tracks that rely on lyrical cliches without offering fresh perspectives. Ka’s
Descendants of Cain is an excellent exception. The 11 songs center around an allegorical theme that compares the violence in economically depressed communities of color to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel (“brothers killing brothers”). Throughout the album, Ka reflects on his upbringing in cocaine culture, taking every opportunity to insert religious allusions through brilliant wordplay and double entendres. I can’t count how many times I’ve listened to this album already, and every time I pick up on clever details I haven’t noticed before. You don’t have to be a hip hop fan to appreciate the artistry on this album, although it might help to have an English degree.
Standout Tracks: My Brother’s Keeper, The Eye of a Needle, Sins of the Father
21. Matthieu Saglio - El Camino de los Vientos (Released 4/24/20, France)
Matthieu Saglio plays the music of the Mediterranean on
El Camino de los Vientos, which features his own cello playing in addition to the contributions of various international collaborators. From song to song, the album travels around the entirety of the Mediterranean Sea, with stops around both Europe and North Africa. The individual pieces are distinct enough to sound as though they were created by completely different composers, but as a whole, the album is a cohesive masterpiece that bridges the cultural gaps between disparate styles of jazz, folk, and neoclassical composition. My wife tells me this album makes her feel like she’s in the “old country”. She doesn’t have an “old country”. She’s under 30 and has lived in the US her entire life. All the same, I can’t say I disagree with her interpretation.
Standout Tracks: Bolero Triste, Amanecer, Sur Le Chemin
22. Dool - Summerland (Released 4/10/20, Netherlands)
There aren’t enough truly great prog groups these days, especially female-fronted prog groups. Dool fills that niche quite nicely with a 70’s-flavored driving rock album that falls somewhere between Rainbow and early Heart. Dool may not have the instrumental virtuosity to place them among the greats, but they have an abundance of psychedelic guitar licks and instrumental jams, with enough catchy hooks to stick with you after listening. There are also elements of contemporary hard rock and metal, but the album isn’t particularly heavy by today’s standards.
Summerland is a broadly accessible album for rock fans of any generation, hearkening back to the days when groups like Led Zeppelin were viable for pop radio. And if you have no natural affinity for classic rock, you can at least take solace in the fact that this style of dad rock isn’t likely to catch on again anytime soon. I’m just glad someone is still out there making it.
Standout Tracks: Sulphur & Starlight, God Particle, Ode to the Future
23. Cambriana - Hedonism (Released 12/18/20, Brazil)
A last-minute addition to my favorite albums of 2020, Cambriana’s
Hedonism took me completely by surprise at a point when I thought that the year had nothing left to offer. It’s an album of artsy indie-pop jams in the vein of Glass Animals and The Neighbourhood that crawl into your brain and make themselves at home. The songs are simultaneously more delicate and more textured than most of today’s pop hits, with muted drums, shimmering guitars, and layers of synths. The album is immersive even at its slowest moments, and while it never gets too boisterous, there is a restrained energy on songs like “Induction Bread” that gives you the urge to get up and move.
Standout Tracks: Induction Bread, Gamma-Ray Burst, Huge!
24. Sa-Roc - The Sharecropper’s Daughter (Released 10/2/20, Washington, D.C., US)
For most of hip hop’s history, female contributors have been largely overlooked as serious rappers. Sa-Roc has the chops to compete with any of the greats, and a wisdom to her lyrics that would make Tupac proud. While a couple tasteful features provide the opportunity for some interesting back-and-forth dialogue, the album is overwhelmingly just Sa-Roc without any assistance. Lyrically, she surpasses virtually all of her peers in terms of staying on topic throughout the album, keeping her laser focus on topics of social justice without resorting to lazy sex jokes or excessive braggadosio. Not that there’s anything wrong with those tropes, but in 2020, a hip hop album the sort of substance found on
The Sharecropper’s Daughter was both welcome and needed.
Standout Tracks: Gold Leaf, The Black Renaissance, Goddess Gang
25. Will Wood & the Tapeworms - The Normal Album (Released 7/10/20, New Zealand)
The first thing you hear when you put on
The Normal Album is a darkly hilarious parody of 1950s doo-wop that flawlessly transitions into an Elvis-esque rockabilly jam over a wailing saxophone, then back to doo-wop. Thirty seconds later, you get a sample of what it might sound like if Tom Waits collaborated with the Mr. Bungle. That’s just the opening track. Suffice to say, the title of
The Normal Album is a goddamn lie. Will Wood, the multitalented multimedia artist behind the Tapeworms’ music, lays out his relationship with mental illness and the world around him in the most eccentric mishmash of musical styles imaginable. His quirky artistic vision puts him in league with singer-songwriters like Ben Folds and Regina Spektor, though Wood seems even less constrained by the stylistic norms of popular music. His lyrics are dense, but even before you have the chance to decipher Wood’s musings on life and society, the absurd theatrics will suck you in by subverting your expectations roughly once a minute.
Standout Tracks: 2econd-2ight-2eer (that was fun, goodbye.), Laplace’s Angel (Hurt People? Hurt People!), Marsha, Thank You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.
Have a great 2021!
submitted by Hey guys! I am new to this subreddit and I hope that everyone is doing okay. I wanted to talk about this for the longest time and what better way to share it with other people who may have had a similar upbringing as I did. I'm not sure in the direction I want to go with this so it might just be a shitshow lmao but here we go.
I am 21 years old now and this happened when I was 14 right about to go into high school. I'm Hmong and from the midwest so there is a relatively decent Asian community from the state that I am from. I feel like my school was unique since I grew up just outside the metropolitan area, so my school was very white and suburban but still had a handful of minority and hood kids. This particular incident happened when I was at gym class. I cannot remember what game we were playing but I was just minding my own business and talking with some friends. During the game, this white kid (let's name him Billy) starts cracking up some "jokes". He starts with some very lighthearted things at me like "oh look, it's short round from Indiana Jones" which made me genuinely laugh since kids in my grade used to joke around and dish stuff back. The game goes on and he's talking over and over and over. He starts to cross a line where I wouldn't say that they're jokes anymore. I'm talking about stuff like "My grandfather was killing your ancestors in 'nam" "Speak English, Oh china boy don't speak Engrish? So duh sorry". This is all happening in front of the substitute teacher btw. She's standing there watching the game and there is no way that she could have not heard it. Five minutes of this same banter goes on and I could tell most of the other students were uncomfortable and a handful of Billy and his friends were laughing. At this point, I am absolutely livid. He is turned around talking to his group of friends and I give him a hard shove from behind. Billy is much bigger than me so he falls down but not hard enough to be injured. He turned around and starts saying shit like "Woah! it's just a joke man" and all of his friends back up. I start screaming at his fucking face and he looks absolutely stunned. I can't remember all of what I said because I was so pissed off at the moment but I remember telling him that if he doesn't shut up, I would cave his fucking face in. In reality, I probably would have lost the fight but I think he was so shook being cussed out bad by a skinny Asian kid, he didn't know what to do. I keep screaming at him and saying every cuss word in the book when the substitute teacher yells at me "Hey! there's no room for that language here!". I stop and snap back at her saying "Did you hear the stuff that he was saying?" and she replies with "I don't care what he was saying, there is no excuse to use that language in this setting. Whatever he said, just ignore it." Think about this. She was ANGRIER about the fact that I'm disrupting the class by calling out and cussing out this ignorant prick, than Billy going on a racist tirade against me. I feel like this experience is so prevalent among my Asian brothers and sisters, particularly ones who grew up in more suburban areas. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the "it's just a joke" excuse. The substitute teacher is like how mainstream media reacts when us Asian-Americans speak our voice on subjects that affect us culturally. It's taken as a joke and sometimes by other POC sadly. I was never the same after this incident and it opened my eyes to racism and how angry it made me felt. If you made it this far, thank you for reading!
submitted by Recently a friend in my group has been feeling very overwhelmed, with work and covid. He also does content creation on the side is busy. He's long expressed his love for Cthulhu and I decided that to cheer him up I would make a drawing of Cthulhu for him! Now, I'm a creative person, but drawing is not my forte so what I did was find a well done Cthulhu drawing online and traced it. I changed the background and everything to my own but Cthulhu himself, was copied. I spent many sleepless days copying this, as I wasn't watching a tutorial, just looking at a drawing, plus the background I did myself. We had a meeting planned in a few days so I wanted to get it done in time. Almost all my friends knew I was working on the drawing and had complimented me along the way, saying it looked great and that he would love it. ALMOST all my friends being the key, mainly the ones I knew the most (it's a big group, due to him being a content creator).
Then when our friend group finally met up I decided to give him the drawing. I was working on perfecting the background until the last minute, the second I finished, he rang the doorbell. I presented him the drawing, and he was almost moved to tears. Everyone else also liked it! I felt the moment was great, and everyone grew closer. Worth to mention is I never once claimed the drawing to be original.
I had to leave earlier than everybody else ( we met at a friends house, I brought the drawing with me) and returned after a few hours as some of my friends were still there. The guy I made the drawing for had left and I entered jokingly saying "Welp, I'm back to work on another drawing" and one of them replied "Oh yeah you found another drawing to copy?", laughingly. I really felt that one and one of the people I didn't know too well was sitting there with a smug look on her face.
She pulled me aside and showed me the photo I had copied and said "Oh I found this, I wonder why it looks so familiar". I found it weird how she found it as I had searched for quite a while to find a drawing I liked, and she must have had a reason to search up drawings of Cthulhu after I had shown off mine. Like trampling me down, or so it felt. She then said "Oh, so you own up to it ok good to know, you just seemed so adamant earlier when you showed it off, didn't want to put you on the spot" and laughed. I sat there not talking to anyone for an hour, just being on my phone afterwards,awkwardly, until I had enough and just went home.
So Reddit AITA? I don't feel like it. My reasoning being, my drawing was copied, yes, but it made everyone happy. It gave people joy even if copied. I also did some original things, like the background. And I spent a really long time on it, sleepless nights at that. Also why didn't she just ask me personally if I copied instead of telling everyone when I wasn't around? Did she target me? I'm writing this still a bit depressed from the event, so I hope it all made sense.
EDIT: Some people have brought up that what I did was use the picture as a "reference". This fits better with than "tracing". English is not my first language and i misspoke. The video I watched as well ( it was a speed drawing) encouraged the viewer to draw along.
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