Latest / The Tortured Fans Department / Ep. 67 - 'Heard It in a Past Life' - Maggie Rogers (The Record Club - Volume 5)

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Ep. 67 - 'Heard It in a Past Life' - Maggie Rogers (The Record Club - Volume 5) · The Tortured Fans Department

• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Tortured Fans Department podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Sean Boyle.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: I am joined by a good friend and a man making his first appearance on the Record Club.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is Mr.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Michael Blum.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Blum, how are you?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, Sean.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I am doing well.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: First time, maybe the last time, depending on how this goes, but uh happy to happy to give it a shot.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm thrilled to have you here, Blum.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: You're a regular on this feed.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Listeners will be familiar with you by now, but it is your first time doing an album review episode on the Record Club.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: You brought this album to me.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let you tell me why.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the album I am bringing to the table today is Heard It in a Past Life by Maggie Rogers.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: She is an artist, one of my favorite artists, I would say, probably somewhere top three.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: This album really just has, I feel like a bunch of songs that are just extremely catchy.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am, I would call myself a very basic person in terms of how I listen to music.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: If a song has just good instrumentals, I'm all in.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: You could be singing the ABCs, the Star Spangled Banner, it just truly does not matter.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like this one is just full of like those type of catchy songs.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Very versatile as well.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think it could be a summer album, a fall album, road trip album.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: You could put it on really any time of the year.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So uh for me, it definitely gets uh a lot of miles uh throughout the year as I as I listen to it.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Heard of the Past Life is Maggie's first album, which I'm glad you brought to the table, Bum, because we haven't done a first album from an artist yet on this record club series.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we've done several albums at this point, but none of them have been the debut album for an artist.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited about that.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: I also agree with you, it's a very versatile album, a lot of different listening moods.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a big matching the mood with what I'm listening to, guy.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like fall is my perfect time of year, it seems like when all my favorite artists really come out to shine.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think this album kind of carries through the seasons pretty well.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different elements to it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to talk about it with you.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: I have to ask you quickly, is this your favorite Maggie album or no?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It probably is, just from a nostalgia standpoint.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're all very good.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's only three of them, so it's it's in my top three for sure.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But it's I would argue it's probably one, and then we can maybe just briefly get into her other albums.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I think her biggest hits, I would say, are from this album.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I I think that's a that's a fair point.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Have you seen Maggie in concert?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And this is more a question for the listeners because I do know the answer to this one.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have, and she is the only artist I've seen more than once in concert.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I saw her for the first time um at the Mann Center just outside Philadelphia, uh, by the Philadelphia Zoo, if you're familiar, uh, in July of 23.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then the reason why Sean's asking is because Sean and I saw her uh on the Don't Forget Me tour at the former Wells Fargo Center in October of 2024.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Both just incredible experiences.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she's awesome live, and uh we had a great time.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: That was the only time I saw her bum.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So you shared that experience with me.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great one.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Wells Fargo Center, I would prefer the man.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think that outdoor listening experience is a little bit better, but that don't forget me tour was incredible and the set list was great, so I'm glad we got to take that in.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: The Don't Forget Me album is my personal favorite, but this one is a close second, so I'm glad we're talking about it today.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and we have to start with the artist background.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you tell me a little bit just about Maggie and what she's up to, where she's from, that sort of thing.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so Maggie is an East Coast girl.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: She grew up in Easton, Maryland, which I was actually there, Sean, in March or April.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: My girlfriend's cousins live out there, so we visited them.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: When I was there, I didn't actually did not know she was from Easton.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: The trip would have been a little more special had you known, I think.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: You could have maybe seen some sights.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: But walking around the town, it was definitely like a just a quaint kind of like artistic vibe to it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: A very small the population can't be more than maybe a couple like tens of thousands of people.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes sense just walking around there, kind of just seeing like the town where she grew up, um, getting her inspiration.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: She is 32 years old, and um, I know we'll get into this in a in a bit, but uh kind of how she came onto the scene and got viral, I think was very, very unique.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so we'll touch on that in a in a bit, also.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and the only other thing I wanted to add, I did a little bit of research.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: I knew you would be doing more of the heavy lifting for this episode, but I've learned that she started playing the harp when she was seven years old, and she was inspired originally by Vivaldi and Gustav Holst.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So some classical musicians inspired her to get into this, and then you do some more reading, and before you know it, she's playing guitar, piano, all while she's in middle school.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: She found herself in an orchestra, she joined a jazz band, she started playing the banjo.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: What can't this girl do?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's really the question.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you see it like in her music too, just the different instruments we'll get into, how she produces the music.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely a very, very talented girl and easy to be a fan of her.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I think especially what you see in the music too is you see all those different elements and genres kind of blended together throughout not only this album, but throughout all of her records.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to talk about it, Blump.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about this album specifically.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Heard it in a past life.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Give me the details.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so this is like I said, it's her first of three albums.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so it was released in 2019.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: She started writing the songs in 2016.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a three-year process.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, three albums.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: So she released another album called Surrender.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then most recently in 2024, uh, released the album Don't Forget Me.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Where she recorded it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So there were multiple locations, uh, primarily in Los Angeles and New York.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there were some key studio spaces, Echo Studio, Harpoon House, Capitol Studios, if you're familiar with those, all in Los Angeles.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then there were some other kind of private, just um commercial production spaces across New York.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it definitely, you know, got around at the big cities.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's just, you know, overall, like you'll get into Sean.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of people were involved in producing it, writing it.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely a lot of big names here in terms of her inspiration.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I do think that's an important thing we should touch on is just how many cooks were kind of in the kitchen on this one.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: The good thing that I love to see Maggie wrote on every song and produced every song, which is kind of rare to be able to do both.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what you touched on, her ability as a producer as well.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: I love when artists write their own music.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't give people much credit for just being able to sing somebody else's tune.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's still cool sometimes.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like we love covers and that's great, but I think it's really it takes a level up in talent to be able to write your own music, perform it at a high level, and then to produce it as an extra layer on top is extremely impressive.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Outside of Maggie, the key contributor for this one was Greg Kirsten, who I was not familiar with by name, but I did a little bit of digging and he has won nine Grammys, including Producer of the Year.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: He co-wrote and produced Hello and Easy on Me from Adele.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: He's worked with Kendrick, Beyonce, Foo Fighters, and Harry Styles, to name just a few.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: He is given writing credits on four of these songs and producing credits on six.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Another big name on this album is Kid Harpoon.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that might have something to do with Harpoon Studios or Harpoon House, whatever that production space you mentioned was.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: He is most famous for his work with Harry Styles.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's done all of Harry Styles records.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: But in this album, his lone contribution is he writes and produces alongside Maggie during the song Light On, which is a big hit.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So good job from Mr.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Kid Harpoon.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's also worked with Miley Cyrus on the song Flowers, another big hit.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So he's clearly got some chops.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: Doug Shat, tough last name.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was the first to say it, Dougie.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can't do any more digging on this guy, but his lone collaboration on this record was the song Alaska.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know anything about him, but well done, sir, because you produced an instant classic.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, the one person we do have to mention, Rostum Batmanglish.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: This guy, I pronounced his name Botmanglish.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: I do believe that's how it's pronounced.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's spelled like Batman.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's spelled the first six letters of his last name are Batman.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: A completely sick last name.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: He works on Fallen Water.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: He is the lead singer and frontman of Vampire Weekend in the band.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you guys are familiar with their work, it's the coolest last name in the industry.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I do think we would be remiss if we didn't mention the Batman.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out Batman.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Great job with that pronunciation, Sean.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you practiced that a while.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I mean the names you name dropped there are definitely a wide variety of genres.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And as we'll get into, I think what makes Maggie special is how unique her music is and it sounds like her.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't even start to pick like another artist that remotely sounds like her and her style of music, which I think is pretty rare to find, since obviously music has been around forever, and there's just so many artists out there.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a really good point.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: It it's very unique what she does, and that's such a credit.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: This album, like you said, came out in 2019.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: To be unique in 2019 is extremely hard.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And usually, if you are unique, you're not popular.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to do both.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can be niche and cool and do a lot of things well, but it then it's hard to draw a big wide audience.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think this album was able to do both.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think you have some information on just how well this did commercially, but it is impressive, like you said.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and just as impressive as that is, it did do um very well commercially.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so it debuted uh number two on the US Billboard, uh top 200th chart, right after release, it sold approximately 200,000 uh units, light on, which I know we mentioned as being one of her biggest hits.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was top of the charts for the adult alternative singles.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then also she got a Grammy nominee for this album um for the best new artists.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Again, best honor there at Grammys for this album.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in terms of charts itself, like I mentioned, land at number two during opening week in January of 2019.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Very highly streamed on Spotify with hundreds of millions of views, uh, then late on, like we said, it reached number one.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, the two singles, uh Light On and Alaska, did great in the charts.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, commercially, I think it kind of held up its end of the bargain as well.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so overall, a very successful album.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Which is great to see.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad it was successful because I couldn't imagine a life without Maggie Rogers in it.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: We have to do, well, as always, we have to do our track-by-track breakdown.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is going to be such a good time.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was a great time going back and re-listening to this album start to finish.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: I did it a couple times just to prepare and take some notes on each of these.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: The first song is called Give a Little.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna let you kick things off, but my only note to start would be it it's a great opener.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: It sets the tone for the record.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Great opener.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: We'll nickname it Juan Pierre, who, for those who don't know, great lead-off hitter.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Does his job as well.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Gets on bass gets on bass.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's likely to take a bag.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Runner in scoring position right away.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, yeah, so fun fact on this song.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: She was she actually wrote this song on the day of the national school walkout for gun control, of just feeling inspired by students, um, just kind of fighting for change outside of feeling helpless.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I thought that was a cool, fun fact about the song itself.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: But like you said, it's just very catchy, sets the tone.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: The songs sound a lot kind of similar, a lot of them, but in like a good way.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a very good intro to you know how you're going to feel and listen to the music.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, definitely enjoyed it as a track number one.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the leadoff hitter, so to speak, on an album should not only get you in the mood to listen to it, it should serve as kind of a roadmap, as a plan for what you're going to hear throughout.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird if an album were to give you one thing initially and then completely change it up all throughout and you can't really get a rhythm.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think, like you said, a lot of the songs do sound similar.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're produced in a similar fashion.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I could say maybe it's sometimes overproduced.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think we there's a lot of production that goes into this album.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Overall, I think it's a good thing, but this song in particular, it's a great representation of the record.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: It really does tell you, hey, here's what we're here to do.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Here's my opener, and I love every minute of it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, Blum, as you know, we go through and we tier these album breakdowns.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: We we give four possible tiers and then we put each song in one of them.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: Tier one for the listeners is always a great song.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: We can't really live without it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's a key fixture on the album.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Tier two is really good.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Teetering on great just falls a little bit shy.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Tier three is a fine song.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: We we don't mind it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to cut it, but it's not an essential one for us.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then tier four would be a cut.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Blum, what do you have for me with give a little?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna give give a little.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go tier three, just because I don't want to overload my tier one and twos.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you could argue it's a tier two song, but I would say it's overall like a middle of the pack song on this album.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So for that reason, I'm gonna give it tier three.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't agree more.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm worried about the room at the inn if I were to pack this one into tier one or two.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I think tier three is where it belongs.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's good, it's not blowing me away, but it does it just it sets the table, and there's room for that in the context of the album.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not necessarily a standout for either of us.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I like that.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: We can move on to track two, which is overnight.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Whoo, blummy.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: I I know you're a fan of this one, so I'll let you go first.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is, I would say, my favorite song on the album.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: I will admit though, I was late to this song.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: I maybe heard it like once or twice on the initial run through of the album, then kind of put it down a little bit.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last year, I went through this album again.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, wait, this overnight song, this is like, why didn't I give this more attention, you know, five, six years ago?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's extremely catchy.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of songs start slow.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: This one starts right away.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like it feels like when you hit play, you already missed like the first syllable out of Maggie's mouth.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's no warm-up, it's awesome.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was performed, I think, on the Today Show in 2019.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it does have some you know mainstream buzz behind it.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And surprisingly enough, it's not as listened on Spotify as you would think it is.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we gotta change that.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I will personally change that.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing your doing your job.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not down to the blum household that it's underappreciated.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm right there with you.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: This song is super, super underrated.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Especially, I didn't even know that it was not that listened to in the context of the others.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a song that nobody really mentions as their favorite Maggie song, and I think it's such a good one.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: One of my favorites on the album as well.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, straight from the get-go, it is a total bop.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's impossible not to dance around, whether that's in your seat, just a little bit of moving around or standing up.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's a people pleaser for sure.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: The layering of the vocals in the back half is so good.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think Maggie's vocals are incredible, and one of the many reasons I like her.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: But at the end of this song, they're amazing.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is a clear tier one for me.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming you're gonna be there with me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's hard not to put my favorite song on the album as a as a tier one, so I'm right there with you.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we're we're in lockstep so far, through two.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: The third song is The Knife, and this one, this one's a little bit weird.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: I this one has some more buzz to it than a couple of the others, but it's not necessarily my favorite, but I love a couple elements of it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like there's parts of this song that I completely love, and then there's some parts where I just feel like, hey, maybe we did overproduce it.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's a bit too much going on.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: I do love that bass guitar that just absolutely rips throughout the song.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's so good.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's a standout.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: The rest of it, it it just gets feels like we're doing a bit too much.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you mentioned the word overproduced, and you could, I think, in my opinion, make an argument for two songs that were definitely overproduced.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this being one of them.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is not my favorite.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: By no means is it, I would say, a bad song, but like, would I be upset if I never got the chance to listen to this again?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's fair.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's fair.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that then the question becomes, is it a tier three or four song?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Would you cut it from the record or would you keep it around?
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm on the I'm on the knife's edge here.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: The the knife's edge.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: I could go either way.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: In the spirit of I love Maggie and I don't necessarily feel the need to cut any, they're not an offensive, it's not an offensively bad song.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I'll keep it.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tier three.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, contrary to the name of the song being a knife, you would think I want to cut it, but I will keep it as a a tier three because I want to keep tier four for a specific song on this album, which we'll be going to say.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm interested in that.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's exciting.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's good stuff.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: I will say, listeners, we did not premeditate this.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: We we had a conversation if we were even going to do the tiers.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: So so far we've been in lockstep on three of them.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm hoping there will be some variants coming up.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: It won't be with the fourth track.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: That is Alaska.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: This one, I mean, it's an all-timer bum.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: You mentioned how a viral moment kind of catapulted Maggie into a different life than maybe she was expecting.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: That does come from this song.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, listeners, if you're unfamiliar with the context of not only this song, but just kind of this album's Genesis in particular, it has to trace back to Maggie was a student at NYU.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: One of her teachers or professors is involved in the music industry.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: He was friends with Pharrell Williams.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: He invites Pharrell Williams to attend the class and listen to, I believe it was four students' samples of music that they had prepared.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And he calls three of them down, and Pharrell gives them some notes and says, Hey, good job, good job, like keep going, that sort of thing.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then he calls Maggie down, and Maggie plays Alaska, this song for him.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And Pharrell sits there the whole time, and you could just tell by his reactions, he's absolutely blown away.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: He is sitting there like, wow, oh my God, I've not heard anything like this.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: And then what he tells her afterwards is that he has no notes and that what she's doing is singular and it sounds like nothing else, kind of how we talked about.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: He made a great point that really stood with me.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was if you set out trying to say I'm I like this artist or like that artist, you end up sounding or taking things from them.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if you set out just to create on your own, you end up with something unique and singular like this.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that moment of Maggie sitting there as a young college student having Pharrell sing her praises went completely viral.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And this album kind of talks about what life after that was like because Alaska was put out on her EP two years prior to this album being released, and then it was re-released in the context of this album.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of that is just background information to say that this song is absolutely iconic.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's one of my two favorites on the album.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of the two with the most staying power.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's widely covered, it's become a huge hit.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think the production on this one is where we see Maggie get it exactly right.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: The vocal dynamics are so cool, just really almost a 10 out of 10 no notes for me.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was uh very well summarized and important note the song that was played to Pharrell wasn't like the finalized version that was released.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: It still sounded similar to the Vienn song, but it was still raw.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact that he was impressed by just that self-produced song, I think speaks a lot, you know, to Maggie.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And also, Sean, I don't know if you remember this, but I was introduced to Maggie through you showing me that video on a friend trip.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I I'm happy you said that, Bum.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: That means a lot.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love spreading good music, and I was I was yelling from the rooftops.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: When I when I found Maggie Rogers, I was telling anybody who would listen, hey, you guys gotta check her out.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then I do remember sending this video along.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: I and then you took a liking to her immediately.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: I will say, from the moment you heard her, it was kind of love at first.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Listen for you.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: It was like wow, I'm all in.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a credit to you and Pharrell both just being ball knowers, you know?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: You just know when you hear it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Listen, me and Pharrell, Music's finist.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really, just an ear for it, you know.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some people have it, some people don't.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Michael Blum, Pharrell Williams, have it.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I mean the song itself, you would think like a song is called Alaska.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: What's like the metaphor behind that?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's really no metaphor.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like she went to a trip to an Alaska, walked around, and just wrote about it.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that's yeah, and the imagery of it is so cool.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you you you feel like you're walking there with her.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's she does such a good job.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a great song.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: The vocal dynamics are really cool.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: She hits this falsetto, that's just oh, it's perfect.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: I also will say the tiny desk version of this song, where it's acoustic, it's just her and the acoustic guitar, special stuff there.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't heard that, go check that out.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Really just an all-time classic, a clear tier one.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, I would agree.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Tier one for me as well.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is like the ultimate song where if you don't know who Maggie is, you don't know the song Alaska, I guarantee you probably have heard it dozens of times, just haven't known that it's her song.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like right when you hear the first couple notes of the song, you're like, ah, like that's that song.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um I agree.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Tier one, uh, no question about it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Let's move to track five.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, oh boy, the hits keep coming.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: It is officially a hit parade here.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'll let you go first, but light on is, I mean, this this is my goat, is what I'll say.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's my this is where I went from liking Maggie and telling some people about her to absolutely loving her.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: This song is special.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, every good cleanup hitter needs a good cover man in the five spot, and I think that's what Light On is here.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like I said, it is one of her singles.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: This song is all over different streaming TV shows, which we'll get into in a bit.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: But uh yeah, I mean, great song, very catchy.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think overall, I personally don't have it as high as Alaska.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm going to put this in tier two.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, right when you hear like the Would You Believe Me Now, that song.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, it's no complaints with me, very catchy.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: It comes on, I'll be you know, toe tapping and nodding my head, but I think tier two is for me where I'll put it.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: This one is a tier one, like I said, but the reason why I I'm in love with the songwriting element of Maggie, and I think this one is just her on full display writing, just a truly good song that everyone can connect to, and using some metaphors and references that are great.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit of a change of pace from the album.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's not as heavily produced as some of the others, which I appreciate.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: The melody, and that's a key element throughout, even when these songs are very much produced.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: She has an ability to write melodies and sing melodies that are so catchy, and you're able to sing along and connect with.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think this one stands out in that aspect for me.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then that I'm still dancing at the end of the day, that's what puts it in tier one.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: When she sings that, I just lose it every time.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's my goat.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna go light on, is an easy tier one for me, but I do appreciate what you said with tier two.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: I do think some people are Alaska people, some people are light on people.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: I just happen to fall into the light on camera.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, you can't go wrong there, Sean.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the song is already popular.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: She did it on SNL.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you've seen the movie, the idea of you and Hathaway on Prime, it's on that as well.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Supergirl on CBS, Love Island.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the song's been all over the place.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: So another another very, very popular one.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have not seen the idea of you, but I do know the premise of it.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And Anne Hathaway plays kind of like a cougar of sorts, and I could get behind that.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me tell you a quick sidebar here.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know Anne Hathaway is widely regarded as a beautiful woman, but I don't think she's widely regarded enough for that.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, she's an all-timer.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: She is an all-time fox.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: She's amazing, and she's so talented.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's the crazy thing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: She's more talented than she is beautiful, and she's one of the most stunning women on earth.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, Anne Hathaway, two thumbs up from this panel.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing but good things to say about her.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: The sixth track bomb is Past Life, which it's a changeup here.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're making some baseball references.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: This one, we've been throwing heaters, painting the edges.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Off speed pitch.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Could be a curveball, could be a changeup.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a lot different.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's a ballad of sorts from Maggie, which we do see on some other albums, but this one is kind of unique in this album.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh this was actually written on her uh grandmother's piano shortly after her first headline tour.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, really just kind of that transition from her being like an emerging artist to a recognized name.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, like you said, Sean, if there was such a thing as a Maggie Rogers power ballad, I think this would be it.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's just Maggie's voice and a piano, which listen is never a bad thing.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So sign me up for that.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: 100% with you.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think this one for me, it was needed to kind of slow things up and take a break from just the amount of energy that goes into those first few songs.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think this one is a nice kind of buffer in the middle of the album.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: You can't have everything be out of 10.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of the How I Met Your Mother episode where Barney creates a pump-up mix for their New Year's Eve night out, and he starts with Shot Through the Heart and you're to blame, and they keep replaying that.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in the camp that we cannot be on 10 the whole time.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: I do like a ballad being mixed in.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: I do think, though, what comes with a ballad is sometimes they're not the most re-listenable.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: At least for me, it's not a song that I'm seeking out.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: I can appreciate how good it is and how well written.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's beautiful.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't find myself going into my Spotify and saying, you know what I want to listen to right now is past life, you know?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a very, I would say, a specific situation where like you would want to listen to it.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not a party song, it's not a friends in the car kind of song.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: But listen, credit to Maggie because she obviously can cover any and all types of songs and music.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: It would probably be a tier three for me, not because it's, like I said, bad by any means, but it's just not a like you said, go back and listen to it type of song.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: 100% with you.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm between I'm I'm gonna keep it in tier three.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I could cut it.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I think it does serve a really, really good purpose in the album.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not something I'm seeking out too often.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's where it'll live in tier three.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: The next one, the seventh track, is Say It and Blum, let me say it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is a sexy little number here.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: I love this song.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Sexy is a good way to describe it.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: The chorus, when that chorus hits, you know that like Bart Simpson gif where he's like just like vibing off the headphones.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's me when the chorus hits the song.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good stuff.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a hundred percent a great analogy.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I am right there with you.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: This one is impossible, impossible not to groove to.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: The build of it is awesome.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: It it like you said, it the payoff comes in the chorus when you get to it, but it's because of that buildup.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's subtle, it's and then oh man, it sexy is the word that comes to mind.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's weird to describe music as sexy, but I think this is a sexy little song.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: So not weird at all.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: No, we flip that switch and it goes from like, oh, this is nice to whoa, here we go.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like six to midnight, and I'm here for it.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's a tier one for me.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, tier one.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tier one.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think this is where we're in the track seven now.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think the the first six songs in this album are a lot of like her, like you, like the finding yourself thing is the self-discovery, and then this kind of is the turn of like you know, finding yourself, being happy, self-realization, things like that.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go tier two for the song just because I want to hold tier one for one more song that we'll talk about.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said, it's extremely catchy.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is a song unlike past life where you can go back to it, you could play it.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't get old, so uh it's a strong tier two for me.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I see that.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Next track is the eighth one.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is on plus off, on and off.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure how you're actually supposed to say that.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: I know she says on and off in the song, but I don't know how the song's actually titled.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's a hand up for me.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: This one, I'm gonna let you go first, and I'm gonna I have some thoughts, I will say.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for the song title, we'll just go on and off, just because that I guess how she says it in the song.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll assume that's how you you say the song.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: For me, this song is just kind of there.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a a standout performer by any means.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not bad.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the messages behind the song are like, oh, finding a stability and a romantic partner, which like cool.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Wish the best for you, Maggie.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, it's similar to the I think Say It where the chorus is catchy, like it gets me going, but I wouldn't say it is to the extent of like a light on or an Alaska.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like we said, every song has its place on an album, and this is just kind of like your you know, your seven-hole hitter.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully he gets on bass, turn the lineup over.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: But uh not one that I'll go back to very often.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I kind of agree with what you said.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna be a little bit more harsh and say that I will cut it.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not an offensive one where I'm like, I'll get this out of my ears.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that, it's not bad, like you said.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's fine, it's it's okay.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: There are parts of it again that I like.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just one that's a little bit too much for me.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like we got lost in the sauce of production again.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's a fun little piano in the beginning, like you mentioned or you you talk about.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's good, but then that kind of persists throughout that piano, and then it gets annoying to me.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like it starts off cute and funsy, and then all of a sudden I'm like, okay, we've heard that, and now it's like taking away from the song itself.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: It it's we've reached a point of diminishing returns, I feel like, with some of the production.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And in this one, it feels like, okay, we could have done without some of it.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, it and again, the songwriting isn't at her highest level either, kind of like you said.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I will be cutting it.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: It will be a tier four for me.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if I have any others in tier four.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: There might be one, to be honest, now that I'm looking ahead in these tracks.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: But it's gonna be my first cut from the record.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: I hate to cut a song, but I won't be missing it too badly.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, as you were talking, I kept going back and forth in my mind between tier three and tier four.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think you did enough there to convince me that this would be a tier four.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't um, I would say, dislike it as much as you do, but I do see your points, and it's not one where if I, like I said, if I never listen to the song again, like I will go about my day perfectly fine.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: And and that's fine, you know, we're allowed to we're allowed to cut a couple.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: This is her first record, and we're singing its praises throughout largely.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's fair for us to cut one or two.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: The ninth track is Falling Water.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Falling Water, this is this is a little personal favorite for me.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the best on the album, but I like it a lot.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's it just resonates with me.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: I love the vocals on this one.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think the pacing is really good.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: We have a slow breakdown and then kind of a build back up.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: The outro vocals, that back half of this song, they're they'll take your breath away, blow.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: The outro vocals, yes, they are great.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give a quick shout-out to the the good old-fashioned hand clap in this song because listen, the one instrument that everyone in this world can play is they can clap their hands.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you can't go wrong with that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: It has like church kind of gospel vibes, like you said, like towards the bridge, that outro vocals.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I think compared to consensus on a little lower on this song, but by no means is it one that I would be cutting.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: I would say it's probably a I'll give it a tier two, just because you said the uniqueness of the bridge and the vocals.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds different than the other songs on this album in a good way.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, definitely one that I'll be coming back to and listening to.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, I like that point you made.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: It does sound different.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of these songs with the production being similar do tend to blend together.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: This one does stand out in a good way for me.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm with you on tier two.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: I was debating tier one, but I do want to keep tier one just a little bit sacred.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's not it's not an let everybody in club, even if you do have a soft spot for the song and enjoy it.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: I would say this is in the upper half, maybe my favorite song in tier two.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: The tenth track, however, is not in tier one or two for me, or maybe even three.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: It is retrograde.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: We're really heavy on the production here.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, like way too heavy, in my opinion.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to hear your thoughts.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: Maggie, I love you.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna be good here, Maggie.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't close your ears.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm bringing this album to the table because I like the album as a whole.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: But like you said, Sean, it's overproduced, and I don't know about you, but you can't hear or understand what she's saying at all.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's the problem.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Because I do think when you do catch, you actually do hear it, I think the melody's really good and her vocals are great.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is you can't hear it.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's we got lost in the sauce here.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: There was a good song there.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think you strip it back to its bones, we got something.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: The version that was released on this album, we don't have something.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can't hear her, you can't understand her.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: She might be speaking a different language, I would not know.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: But like a lot of her, I feel like her charm is like she has like this kind of mumble sing, which is very unique.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's that in the song, but like you said, the instrumentals are on like volume 50, and like her vocals are on volume 10.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: This seems to me like a song Maggie Rogers at age 32 would never put out or write or anything.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: But when it's your first record and you're trying to fill a record and you don't know yet, and you're maybe you're a little bit novice in this area, I think this is one that kind of slips through the cracks.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, it's pretty good.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: The production's cool, and then when you're doing it, it seems cool, but then you listen to it like a year later and you're like, whoa, that was a lot.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't need to do all that, and I think this would be a regret of hers.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: With all that being said, I I'm interested.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm assuming this is four for you, tier four.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's safe to say that I'm I'm throwing this one out, Sean.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're throwing it out, okay.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking at tier three and a half.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know what to do.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I do really think the bones, like I from what I can hear of the melody and the the vocals are great, it's just you can't hear much of them.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go, I'll go tier three begrudgingly.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'll keep it, but barely.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the lowest of tier three.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's close to the it depends on the day.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in a nice mood, I'll give it a tier three, but I think our opinions of the song are pretty similar.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's very nice of you, Sean.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice of you.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's courteous.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: The 11th track, the penultimate track, is Burning.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm another this is another one I'm a big fan of Bum.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's really good.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's strong.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: The only thing I have to say is when I listen to it after listening to the album straight through, it does feel like, okay, we've kind of heard this sound before on the record.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: If I were to listen to it after not listening to Maggie for a couple weeks or months and hear this song, I'm like, oh, this is amazing.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: When you're through 10 songs and you get to burning, there's a little bit different listening experience.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I still so I need to kind of remove that from it when I'm evaluating it.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: But that would be my only critique of the song.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like it sounds like overnight, sounds like light on, which again aren't bad things because those are great are tier one songs.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: But to your point, it's a little repetitive nature, but not enough for me to not come back to it.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: I would say this is a top four song on the album for me.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very catchy, so I will comfortably put this in my tier two.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go tier two as well.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you kind of talked me into it because sounding like really good songs isn't a bad thing, you know.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_01: And and we did talk about how unique Maggie is, so it's not like she's sounding like somebody else's work.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of sounding like her own self on this record a little bit.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine, I guess.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: I was between I actually I was pretty firmly in tier two.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was kind of thinking maybe tier three, just because when you get to it in the album, you could be a little bit stale at that point.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: But when you zoom out and look at it, it's it's a clear talk, clear tier two song for me.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: The last one we have Back in My Body.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: I love, and I I don't throw this word around lightly, I love this song.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is one of my favorites.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's a phenomenal closer to an album, ties the bow on it nicely.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: The guitar we finally start to see shine through a little bit.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's room to breathe in the song.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's not overly produced, you know, it it flows nicely, there's some space to it.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think the writing's brilliant.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm a big fan of this one.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like you said, Sean, great closing song.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of tracks the meaning of it was she was on like a European tour, and she had a moment where she was had like a panic attack, and she almost had to flee like a photo shoot in Paris just because of like the overwhelming nature of everything.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of what the song was about.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then being able to like do things she loves again, like you said, bring it full circle.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a perfect last track of an album.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: Also, this song got some additional buzz.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you I think I recommended the show to you, Sean, off campus.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you got the chance to watch it.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: You did recommend it, and it is going to be watched at some point because you recommended it.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: I have not had the chance to watch it yet.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this song is in that show uh during a a very famous scene in the show.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: See that's spoiled.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you know, you know, and I'll leave it at that.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a great song.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh great closing, like you said.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'll put this uh in tier two as well.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not strong enough to be tier one for me, but uh definitely one that I'll come back and listen to.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna you know what?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in a giving mode again.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do something I haven't done on this yet before.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna downgrade retrograde to a tier four.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: With saying that, I'm gonna throw back in my body into tier one.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a little give and take.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: Give a little, get a little, that's what I'm gonna do.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take back in my body in tier one.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a really just a beautiful song for me, and it is a little bit different, which I appreciate.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I I think overall, Blum, we're big fans of the album.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: We always have to go through and give our just kind of final takeaways, you know, things that stick with us from the album.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna remember this one by?
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you keep coming back to it?
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think just the points that we mentioned earlier on, just how unique and and catchy it is.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's an album that I listened to year-round.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: It has the the hits Alaska Light On are the songs that if you regardless if you knew it or not, like everyone has probably heard them at one point in their life.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then it has the uh kind of like niche songs like the over Overnight that we talked about, Burning Back My Body, as well as it yeah, so like it's all catchy.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know we kind of trashed on a two of these songs or one of these songs, but overall it's just an album that's a very easy to listen to, top to bottom.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, you could just you're working out, going for a run, you're driving, you're just working and have had your headphones in.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a lot of versatility there.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um in terms of scoring, real quick, Rolling Stone.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you heard of them, Sean, a four out of five stars, so very strong rating for them as a critic score.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: I agree with them, but I'll give it a personal boost and go up to an 8-5 out of 10.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my one of my favorite albums from one of my favorite artists, so I'm slightly biased.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't think that's crazy at all.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I I was thinking about going even potentially a little higher.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: I love I love this because there's a nostalgia piece to it as well.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think that was something you touched on that I do appreciate.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is one of my favorite artists, one of your favorite artists that plays into it as well.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think overall, the record, if you zoom out and just look at it, it's such a good debut album.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many songs that are still in the rotation for me, for a lot of people that come from it, and that's rare in a debut record.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: Usually you have a couple duds before you really get onto the scene and have songs with some staying power.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think this record has quite a few of those and quite a few of those underrated ones, like you mentioned.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, there's a couple blips on the radar that we might get rid of or that we aren't the biggest fans of and don't revisit a ton.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think overall, if you zoom out and say, hey, this young 20 girl in her 20s puts out this debut album that doesn't really sound like anything else that you could directly point to and be like, oh, this is what it is, and it has all these hits from it.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's outstanding work.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm impressed by Maggie every time she puts out a record for the most part.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think she continues to get better and develop as an artist.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: I really love how she's grown in some areas and kind of experiments in different genres.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this album is just cool.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you had to pick one word to describe it, I'd say it's cool.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't sound like anything else.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I I appreciate that.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: I'm right around the same scoring lines as you.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go 84 out of 100.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go one notch lower than you, and that's just because a couple of reasons.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that some of the songs kind of blend together and sound similar, not a bad thing necessarily, but it's just not maybe as creative as you would hope in that aspect.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then also the fact that there are two songs that I would cut.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: I do think a perfect album has no cuts.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, some of these other ones we've talked about are some of the all-time greats.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: There are 12, 14 songs in a row without a skip.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's a couple skips on this one for me, so that's gonna knock it down a little bit.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: But overall, the the stuff we get from it, I think a B is a very good, strong score.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_01: I would, I'm honestly, I'm thinking, I'm keep going back and forth between B and B plus.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'll keep it at a B because I will be singing her praises even more on a different one of these episodes, Blub, and I would love to have you back for that.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, don't forget me, that album is my favorite, and I think that one will receive an even higher score.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: But overall, I think if we just look at Maggie and her body of work, completely we're just fans of her.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: We were newsletter subscribers, we were there in concert, we're waiting for the next album.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: I I would say nothing but good things about Maggie Rogers.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think you summarize it perfectly by just saying the album is cool.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I know it sounds simple, but it's just like a very cool album.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if you haven't listened to it, I would definitely recommend it.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would say first go watch the Pharrell video just because that gives you kind of a background on like who she is just as a person, where she came from, you know, how she got to where she is, and then listen to the album.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I like I said, I think we spoke pretty highly of it.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um very unique album, so uh hopefully uh we don't let you down.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and a great running album, great workout album, like you said, really good on that front as well.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just cool does sound basic now that I hear it back.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like I agree with you though.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's that's that's what it is.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's different, cool, has good like upbeat, but not so upbeat that there's not any meaning behind the music.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think she does a good job of balancing that as well.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: So overall, it's a two thumbs up from us.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: We've both given it good scores in the 80s.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Well um, I think your debut record club appearance went swimmingly.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think you were great.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're a natural here.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully I will uh get invited back on because uh had a fun Sean.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you are already invited back on for any record of your choosing, and I will put you aside for Don't Forget Me as an album as well.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we have that to look forward to.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: Listeners, thank you all for tuning in.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate it.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you could hit the subscribe button on your way out, the follow button, whatever it is, we would appreciate that as well.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_01: And until next time, take care of the video.