The Good Witch

 The Good Witch

Maisie Peters: Hit Or Miss?

    Maisie Peters is, in my opinion, one of the most hit or miss artists I listen to. It feels as though each of her songs is either the most incredible bop or the most mind-numbing internet slang filled monstrosity. Despite that, she is one of my most listened to artists, I went to her concert in October and will be seeing her open for Conan Gray later this year, and I have worn my History Of Man bracelet every day since that concert. 

edit: I started this post a while ago. Long before she was even announced as an Eras Tour opener. I am so proud of her and in no way do I mean to jump on the hate train for this talented young woman. This was my unbiased opinion of her current music. I do not agree with the distasteful, mean comments being left on her post. 

Track 1: The Good Witch

    The Good Witch is a perfect opening track, because while it does have wonderful lyrics, a calm but interesting backing, and an overall witchy atmosphere, the outro is also the perfect segway into Coming Of Age, creating a sort of introduction paragraph for this album in an effective and enticing way. 

Track 4: Body Better

    I say Body Better is a hit. Does it have the best lyrics? Maybe not. Has Peters done better? Maybe. Do I care? Absolutely not. This song is a bop. Whether or not it is the bop is for you to decide. I love it. The pop beat and fun atmosphere of this song make it wonderful, and that's really all there is to say. Fun music for fun people. 

Track 5: Want You Back

    My opinion on Want You Back sways regularly. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I do not, but I am still going to put it as a hit. Although it has a mellow, borderline boring instrumental, and Peters chooses not to experiment with the vocals of this song, I think the songwriting makes up for the faults of the musicality. Personally the lines, "You left like an assassin, maybe that's for the best/'cause if you'd told me what would happen I think I would've begged/so you got to be a coward and I salvaged a little self-respect"

Track 8: Lost The Breakup

    Despite the flack this song faced online, I love it to death. There is no performance that I think about more than hers of this song on Fallon. While her performance may not shine, the song is so fun that it completely makes up for it. The problem people have with this song is that it is not meant to be taken seriously, it is just fun music and they are bitter and old and cannot handle it. 

Track 9: Wendy

    I read the original tale of Peter Pan And Wendy a little under a month ago, which made me appreciate this song a million times more. Well known, this novel is ridden with misogyny, where the lost boys are constantly expecting Wendy to act as a mother to them despite her young age. Wendy has to give up her whole life, her own mother, and her family in order to serve her brothers and the rest of their gang simply because she decided one night to chase her own desires and imagination, and unknown to Peter, the weight of this responsibility weighs her down until she can no longer handle it and reluctantly drags her brothers back to London. Although Wendy portrays a sort of buzzkill, a party pooper, she has just decided that she would not like to give up her own childhood to mature in order to keep the lost boys young. Peters does an incredible job relating this story to her own life, depicting her relationship as this parasitic display of maturity as well, and questioning the future within such a life. I adore anything Peter Pan because I can act pretentious despite classics making up like .2% of what I read, so this song strikes right to the heart. (Also if you love reading about parasitic relationships I would recommend the short story "The Feather Pillow" by Horacio Quiroga #englishresearchessay)

Track 10: Run

    I may be dumb as a rock, but I do not entirely understand this song. I think it is sarcastic, about how men cannot be trusted even when they do the right thing, but I just hate it. I am sure there is some girl out there that loves this song and would connect with it, but this one just feels like it would be used in a republican talking point about misandrists and feminists hating men in order to shift focus away from the patriarchy. That sounded very rad-fem of me, but I do not really care because my anonymous online persona is about as relevant as this song. I am not a music video person, although I do believe this song has one, and the fact that I do not know whether or not it does for sure tells you about as much as you need to know about my care for this song. It should never have been a single, and overall was just forgot about as it should have been. 

Track 11: Two Weeks Ago

    I would write about this song but I think I have listened to it max 5 times because it just struck me as "mid pop ballad about wanting to get back with your ex". Boring lyrics, boring beat, boring song. From what I remember.

Track 12: BSC

    Batshit Crazy, or BSC is only a year old and yet it feels so outdated already. The trend of those "Little Miss _" children's books passed about 2 years ago and nobody ever hears about them now, but the lyric "You made me little miss unstable" is permanently embedded into this song. Peters tried to put a lighthearted spin on the trends of the time, and while fun last year, the song quickly lost relevancy and importance. I rarely remember it exists, and even when I do I do not decide to play it. 

Track 14: There It Goes

    There It Goes was my favorite when I first listened to this album at midnight on YouTube on my mini TV because Spotify was not loading, so I have a special place in my heart for it. The perfect pop beat combined with catchy, relatable lyrics, and a wonderful live performance shapes it into an incredible pop song. It is not trying to be revolutionary or philosophical, but it is just plain fun music. The overall vibes make it just a sweet and lovely song about self-acceptance that nobody can really hate. I think it is the perfect song to show someone who is trying to become more of a Maisie Peters fan because it is the perfect introduction to her style. Hit. 

Track 15: History Of Man

    History Of Man concludes the album as my favorite track, as you could have probably guessed from my opening paragraph. I absolutely adore this song and its message, and it serves as the perfect conclusion to this album. Foremost, The underlying beat mimics that of the opening track The Good Witch creating a perfect sandwich and tying up the album in a nice little bow. The serious, feminist message of this song also contrasts the more lighthearted, fun atmosphere the album had at the start, leaving the listener thinking about how each song connects. History Of Man challenges the notions of true love and the gender roles of typical relationships through lyrics such as "I'm sure there was heartbreak/inside the walls of Jericho" and "Women's hearts are lethal weapons/did you hold mine and feel threatened?". Peters suggests that although love may seem benign and peaceful, it has the power to shift tides and create discord. Jericho's mention as well implies that, even though there may be a protective paradise in love, there can always be problems. Additionally, the famous lyric "The men start wars yet Troy hates Helen" comments on the role women play in heartbreak, and how even if they may not be the cause, they always take the blame. Peters' reflections on women's belittlement and sacrifice in romantic relations through these metaphors relates to the very real, modern problems she experiences in her own relationships. The title of the song History Of Man, originates from the lyric, "I've tried to rewrite it but I can't/it's the history, the history of man". Peters highlights the patterns of romantic relationships and the burden of those relationships played on women in the past and of today. Furthermore, the phrase 'history of man' accentuates the theme that the focus is not on women but on men. Although she tells the tale of relationships as a woman, she titles the song History Of Man to reiterate that in her relationship she took more of a supporting role and played along in the background, whereas in reality she was the reason for the relationship. Although it was a two person effort, one of those people gets overlooked simply due to their gender, which was the exact feeling Maisie Peters emulated in her perfect song History Of Man. 

The Secret Of Us

 The Secret Of Us 

a prospection of Gracie Abrams

    Gracie's sophomore album The Secret Of Us came out on June 21st of 2024. I have been a Gracie Abrams fan since 2021/2022 ish and I believe that this is by far her most disappointing work. While this may not be a revolutionary opinion, Gracie Abrams' plummet in quality has been due to her recent relations with Taylor Swift, which raises the question, when can meeting a mentor be a bad thing? And is it true that one should not meet their idols?

    The Secret Of Us' cover reflects my initial opinions on the album, negative ones. When I first saw the cover, I hated the font style of the title and the posing of her face (I love you, I'm sorry Abby). While these negative opinions were not entirely righteous considering it was simply a cover and the album was yet to be heard, it also reflected a brighter aesthetic than her previous albums. What I am expecting from Gracie is not constant depression. I believe that she can make happier music, but the stark contrast between this cover and Good Riddance displays inconsistency within her image. The reinvention she was going for in this album felt bland, as it marked a shift from her previously mellow style into a more generic pop beat, losing the individuality she once had. To compare this album to her arguably most "poppy" project minor, the songs off minor stick out in a playlist, whereas the songs off The Secret Of Us blend in. The fan favorite Blowing Smoke is the third track on The Secret Of Us, and Under/Over is the third track on minor, subjectively, Under/Over distinctively holds dramatic pauses and interesting instrumentals creating an exceptional pop song, but Blowing Smoke's simple guitar back track melts into the plethora of guitar ballads on the rest of the album. While those were just two tracks, the theme of experimental, developed pop compared to generic pop separates Abrams' previous works from her new album. My first impressions were negative and as each new piece of this era came to light I felt more and more disappointed by the lack of novelty surrounding Abrams' second album. 

    Gracie Abrams opened for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour, and is set to continue doing so later this year. I saw her Foxborough night 3 at Gillette Stadium, and I enjoyed her set a lot, but the evolution of her music due to her recognition by Swift has felt regressive. The friendship the two share is unquestionable, especially due to the photos, videos, and interviews the two have shared featuring each other, and additionally the Taylor Swift feature on Abrams' song Us, where the album title comes from. While I am a massive Taylor Swift fan and have been since I was 12, I am also a massive Gracie Abrams fan due to both of their own individual aspects of songwriting and music production. The joy that came from liking both artists found itself in the distinction, which is why so many of those artists promoting themselves as "Taylor Swift style singers" do not end up garnering any fame. Music artists are called artists for a reason, they create art, and art cannot be simply copied. The basis of art stems from finding new mediums to display emotions, feelings, beliefs, and other opinions, but if Claude Monet and Van Gogh painted in the same style, they would not have been the household names they are today. The significance of artwork is that it is unique, complex, and beautiful, and when the uniqueness factor is lost, the artwork fails. It is apparent that Gracie Abrams views Taylor Swift as a mentor due to her extensive success in the music industry, and therefore Abrams has taken inspiration from and has worked directly with Swift to create her new sound on this album, but the influence of Swift on Abrams' music has lost the separation between Swift and Abrams creating almost a Taylor Swift clone instead of a new pop star. Gracie Abrams has clearly had an advantage in the music industry due to her father's, J.J. Abrams', role in Hollywood, and when the combination of a dull sound with an industry plant past combine, the outcome is not a recipe for success. While she may be popular right now, unless Gracie Abrams finds her own fanbase that is not derived from Taylor Swift's, she will lose the traction she has had, and she will become just another forgotten child of nepotism. 

    Gracie Abrams is new to the music industry, but her fame now seems to feed off of Taylor Swift's, leaving her with little to no individuality within this space. The negative impacts Taylor Swift has placed on Gracie Abrams' career demonstrates the harmful effects of idolization and inspiration, because although they started as mere friends Abrams will continue to struggle in her future to separate herself from Swift. Despite my pessimistic outlook on this album, I did genuinely enjoy it. While it may be my least favorite of Abrams' works, last.fm says I have listened to it 350 times, more than minor which is at 332, so I do not despise the album. Although it has its feeble moments, I will continue to support Gracie Abrams in her career, and I am simply hoping for her to return back to her previous styles of music and create a more extraordinary catalog. I will be seeing her for a third time in October, so Boston people keep a lookout for a 16 year old (as of tomorrow) in the mezzanine section. While her recent album felt insignificant and uninteresting, I do hope for a brighter (or darker) future for her down the road. 

Thank you for reading once again!!! Hopefully I will do more music critiques like this in the future, and shoutout to my band teacher last year for telling me to be a music critic after the numerous projects I have done on Taylor Swift (I've gone through like every album at this point). As much as I shat on it, I love this record, and my favs are I love you, I'm sorry (see my Pinterest username), gave you I gave you I, and free now!!! Even though I didn't include it I also thought it was ironic that she finally released Close To You after years of it lying unreleased with nothing more than a 30 second clip. Alright I'm done yapping hopefully you all have a great night!!

Descendants: The Rise Of Red

 Descendants: The Rise Of Red

(with spoilers)

    Earlier today, I watched Descendants: The Rise Of Red with a friend of mine. I have been a fan of the Descendants franchise since I was a little girl, reading all the books, doing many school projects on it and even writing an essay on the life of Dove Cameron. This movie excited me, as the new characters and time-traveling storyline intrigued me, but I was also nervous as to how they were going to continue such an iconic franchise all these years later, especially since the kids like me that grew up with the series have grown up. While the cast does not feature many returning characters, it gives a new era of Disney Channel stars a chance to feature in these movies. In the end, I rated the movie 2 stars, because while it may not have been much worse than the previous Descendants movies, it did not ring the nostalgia bell that kept me watching. 

(disclaimer: I did not go into this post expecting to write a full essay, but I apparently felt very passionate on this subject so ignore the incoherence and grammatical errors)

    I do not believe that these movies were targeted at the teenagers who had grown up with Descendants, but instead they attempted to foster a new generation of this fandom, which I suspect will lead to the downfall of the series. With the conclusion of Descendants 3, most fans believed the series was finished, as that movie was marketed as the final installment, especially due to the tragic loss of actor Cameron Boyce. Following the third movie, the Descendants brand slowly faded, and aside from smaller appearances such as Descendants: A Royal Wedding and remixes from the Hall Of Villains, the franchise concluded. The day Descendants: The Rise Of Red was announced, I was very shocked, as the resurgence of my favorite DCOM series was not on my 2024 bingo card. My initial shock was in the title, as it was not called Descendants 4 but instead Descendants: The Rise Of Red, separating itself from the previous trilogy and instead portraying a spin-off. Additionally, the extensive marketing to explain that Descendants 3 was the final Descendants movie in 2019 in order to prevent fans from begging for another movie felt useless now that they had discarded their strong stance on the matter. While The Rise Of Red did follow the Descendants name, there were not many similarities to the previous trilogy, as the only returning actors were China Anne McClain and Melanie Paxson, the main character came from Wonderland instead of the Isle Of the Lost, and the main setting of the story was Merlin Academy, the Auradon Prep of the past. Accordingly, the lack of returning actors supports the notion that this movie appealed to a different audience due to the age range of main characters. The actors in the original trilogy (oh my god I sound like a Star Wars prequel anti), Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, and Booboo Stewart were all born in the mid to late 90s, whereas the new main characters Kylie Cantrall, Ruby Rose Turner, and Malia Baker were all born in the mid 2000s. The shift of generations between the two movies relates to the shift in generations between their audiences as well. Descendants: The Rise Of Red failed because they attempted to rebrand a well-loved franchise for a new audience, ignoring the elements that made the franchise successful in the first place. 

    Personally, I dislike the new style they took with this movie, as the inauthenticity of this new, commercialized, Kenny Ortega-lacking installment represented everything fans condemn about reboots. The new director felt the need to emphasize the color palette of this movie as red and blue to accentuate the main characters Chloe and Red, losing the magic of the individuality in each character's style of the original series. Another gripe was within the costume designing in this movie, which is a little bit pickier, but the wigs were atrocious and looked like they were from party city, the main characters only had two horrendous outfits throughout the entire movie, the Queen Of Hearts' guards were not cards, and the makeup was excessively heavy and ridiculous. While I felt like the costume design declined, I did enjoy the better CGI, although I would hope almost a decade would reflect some advancement in special effects, although young Hades' eyes did not feel more natural. Not only did the visuals of the movie feel different, the sound has also evolved. While many scenes deeply reflect those from previous movies (Merlin's office and Night Falls, the ending scene, etc.), the music behind those scenes did not feel the same. Although the original movies featured autotuned tracks with a hint of rap, this new movie featured much more rap, and featured even more sound distortion. One of my favorite elements of the original movies was the music behind them. I regularly play If Only, and even though I may not be proud to admit it, it is one of my favorite songs of all time. While there were highs and lows in this soundtrack, the music pales in comparison to the bangers of the past. The differentiation of styles ridded Descendants: The Rise Of Red of the uniquely loved qualities featured in Descendants. 

    The plot of this movie mirrored that of the first and third Descendants movies, where Ben, or in this case Uma, would invite a new group of VKs who would have to assimilate into Auradon Prep. The difference in this movie, however, was that Red did not even get a chance to enter the school as her mother, the Queen Of Hearts, took over Auradon in one fell swoop. In an attempt to stop her mother from becoming evil (?), Red and Chloe (daughter of Cinderella) must go back in time to stop the prank that turned Bridget (Queen Of Hearts) to the dark side. This differs wildly from the original Descendants movies because the coups that happened in each movie happened at the climax, whereas the coup in this movie jump starts the rising action. Following that spark notes explanation of the plot, I will now discuss the plot holes that come to mind. Firstly, in a promotional video, Red claims that all the previous VKs are old and washed up. This makes no sense as they have just graduated high school, and the old movies only finished 5 years ago. Additionally, Cinderella is already a character in the franchise who has a son, Chad Charming. Unless she is immune to menopause, it would not be possible for Cinderella to have both teenage and middle-aged children, and while I understand it is fiction, Prince Charming has black hair and is asian in this movie and Cinderella has blue hair and is black. While these hair colors and races make sense with their blue-haired mixed daughter Chloe, it does not make sense for them to have a blond, white child named Chad. Furthermore, when they go back in time to Merlin Academy, many problems arise. They attempt to portray a sort of School for Good and Evil type, but instead just create an insurmountable number of potholes. In this school, half of the kids have already had their fairytales and the other half have not. Aladdin and Jasmine have already met and have fallen in love, but Cinderella is still under the protection of Lady Tremaine, even though their timelines do not match up. I will not get further into the inconsistencies within the side characters' timelines and how they fit into this academy, and how the social classes of many of these students do not reflect them because I value my sanity, but just know that it makes no sense whatsoever. One character stands out, however, because why is Hades there? There are no other Gods featured, and there is no reason for him to be at an academy with mortals. He also serves practically no narrative function, so aside from being an easter egg to Mal's dad, he should never have been added. Enough with the side characters, the Queen Of Hearts has one glaring issue at the finale of the film. After Red prevents her mother from becoming evil, she returns back to the present to find her preaching about kindness while wearing a tampon dress in almost the exact position as she was before. I believe that turning an infamous story tale villain good again would alter a lot more than just stopping her coup. The lack of consequences for changing the entire trajectory of this characters life also directly contradicts the statement the Mad Hatter gave to Red before she stole the Descendants version of the time turner, as his warning about the consequences of time travel never showed. I think this carelessness when dealing with the complexities of the universe reflects the covert failures of this movie. It appears that Disney decided that they could sell another horrible movie by simply sticking the Descendants name on it, a strategy that did not end up favoring them since the catastrophic dumpster fire that was this movie could never be saved by that name alone. 

    

    While I did have a very enjoyable time making fun of this movie, especially for the horrible writing (ex. I'd rather be a goody goody than a bad person), it presents the larger problem that Disney seems to be facing in recent years. The Disney brand has lasted generation after generation without many issues, but newer movies seem to be performing worse and worse. If we look at Wish specifically, Disney's first theatrical animated release since the pandemic, it performed horribly. The merch has been discounted, the Rotten Tomatoes score is below 50, and the movie ended up losing nearly 130 million dollars. Although there have been highlights in recent years, the new era of Disney movies has not performed well, which I believe to be a response to social media. With the rise of social media, kids have been turning more towards short-form content like YouTube and TikTok instead of looking towards longer-length movies. Although Disney has tried to appeal to this new, younger audience, their failures outweigh their successes, and it begs the question, what will happen if Disney continues to put out lackluster films? Although the brand will not die out anytime soon, at least not in my lifetime, I wonder if these repeatedly failing movies will dent the company in any way. Descendants: The Rise Of Red did end with Uma's classic line, "You didn't think this would be the end of the story, did you?", so hopefully the next installment will not be the failure this one has proved to be. 

On a less serious tone, I think it is incredibly jocular that I simply wanted to write an insignificant blog post on the flop of the century and ended up writing an elaborate, 5-6 page essay. Thank you for reading my absolute blabbermouth sprawl on and on about this disgrace to Descendants, it was one of the most fun things I have ever written. Sorry about the ATROCIOUS writing I have presented. I will be getting back to my life (not that I have one) but you can find my letterboxd review for this movie here, and stay tuned for the next one!

Once Upon A Broken Heart 💖

My most recent read was Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber. ⭐⭐⭐

Some things I liked:

• The characters I liked how all their personalities meshed together which made the story and conflicts a lot more entertaining. They all felt very fleshed out, and it was easy to identify with each character. 
• The fairytale aspects If you couldn't already tell, the girl who just created a blog about her reading and movie-watching pleasures was a fairytale kid! I genuinely could not count how many times I read the Grimm Brothers' tale of Little Red Riding Hood, and this book felt very nostalgic and close to my heart because of that connection, however it might just be because I will enjoy a fairytale story no matter what (I read The School for Good and Evil)
• The setting Is it entirely unique? No. Is it technically the same setting of Caraval? Maybe. Do I care? No. I loved the whimsical fantasy of this book, even if it did not break any boundaries. I felt so swept up in the story because I wanted to learn more about the Magnificent North. 

Some things I disliked:

• The biting I am not sure what drove this author to include biting not once but twice outside the context of the vampires in this book. It made me so uncomfortable because not only was it simply odd but it also was described in so much unnecessary detail. Who asked for him to bite her ear? We knew he was not a vampire! 
• The vampires Moreover, the addition of the vampires made me unhappy because I was under the assumption that we left them with The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 in 2012. I understand their narrative role, however I did not appreciate it.
• The cutoff I understand that it is a series and the function of the ending was to build anticipation for the next release, but this ending simply reminded me why I prefer standalones. While I enjoyed this book, I hate cliffhanger(ish) endings due to their lack of completion. I will be reading the second book as I have heard it is better, but is it wrong to hope for a conclusion to this novel? Simply a pet peeve of mine.
• The covers I read this book through the library because, unfortunately, I am American and the US covers of this series are severely inferior. If anyone has a link to buy the prettier covers for less than $30 a book, I would be forever indebted to you. 

While those are not my only thoughts on the book, they summarize my immediate reactions. I read Caraval a few weeks ago, and I liked it about the same. I felt that the setting was wonderful but that the plot fell a little flat in that book, and while this one did impress me a little more, I still have similar feelings in the end. I hoped to continue the rest of the Caraval series eventually, however I feel more connected to the characters in this series, so I will be reading The Ballad of Never After before starting Legendary. 

Thank you so much for reading through my first book review! Hopefully you enjoyed, and please, tell me anything you think I could improve on in the comments. Thank you again, I will be back soon!

-Ellie

Welcome!

First Post!

    Welcome to the blog!!! I’m so excited to start this! I doubt anyone will read this but me, but nonetheless i will be blab. My name is Ellie and here I will discuss movies, tv shows, books, music, and anything that interests me. Stick around if you’d like!! Maybe I'll even get better about making an interesting format!

- Ellie

Socials:

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insta: @elliesbookz

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storygraph: @winter13