[Summer Special Day 14] Taylor Swift: The Complete Eras Megamix by Joseph James

Hi! Welcome back to the summer special with a post that will likely be completely overshadowed by the literal mistake post I predict will become my most infamous upload ever. (I'm sure you already found it by now.) So, this is a post where I'm just going to share a video that I've been obsessed with for a while now, and some info about it.

Joseph James is a relatively well-known music YouTuber who primarily makes mashups and "megamixes" of songs by pop musicians. One of his most popular videos, and one of my favorites, is his Taylor Swift: The Complete Eras Megamix, a 13-minute-long mashup of every Taylor Swift song (up until Speak Now TV - the video was posted before 1989 TV and TTPD came out), including features, non-album singles, and official remixes, plus two fanmade orchestral remixes. The megamix is split into seven thematic chapters: Shadow, Ultraviolet, Cherry, Rust, Sapphire, Amber, and Aurora. The whole thing is amazing and I recommend you listen to it if you haven't already.

*indicates song used in multiple chapters

Shadow

Production in order of appearance:

Lover (First Dance Remix) - The Last Great American Dynasty - Wildest Dreams (orchestral edit by Marcus Coronel) - Peace - Willow - I'm Only Me When I'm With You - Wildest Dreams (orchestral edit by Joseph James) - Haunted - ...Ready For It? - High Infidelity - Christmas Tree Farm - Wildest Dreams (regular version) - Cruel Summer* - Birch - I Did Something Bad - The Other Side Of The Door - Fearless*

Vocals in order of appearance:

Bigger Than The Whole Sky - Castles Crumbling - Sad Beautiful Tragic - Glitch - Call It What You Want - You're Not Sorry - You Are In Love - Safe & Sound - Lover - Lover (Shawn Mendes version) - Should've Said No - ...Ready For It? - Today Was A Fairytale - Wildest Dreams - Haunted - Begin Again - Shake It Off - Exile - Willow - Would've Could've Should've - I Knew You Were Trouble - Tis The Damn Season - Stay Beautiful - Eyes Open - Peace - Everything Has Changed - Babe (2021)*

My favorite moments:

• The intro!
• The subtle but powerful use of Peace in a majority of the production.
• The percussion buildup from I'm Only Me When I'm With You.
• The part where one line is used from each album.
• The orchestral versions of Wildest Dreams.
• "I knew you were trouble when you walked in / I watched it begin again / You should've said no"

Ultraviolet

Production in order of appearance:

Long Live - Blank Space - Cruel Summer* - Invisible - Beautiful Ghosts - Tell Me Why - Bad Blood* - Enchanted - 22 - Antihero (Bleachers version) - Maroon - New Romantics*

Vocals in order of appearance:

Babe (2021)* - Babe (2018) - Fearless* - Clean - Long Live (Paula Fernandes version) - Antihero - Bad Blood* - Blank Space - Tell Me Why - That's When - Untouchable - We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Change - Cold As You - Paper Rings - Death By A Thousand Cuts - Bye Bye Baby - I Forgot That You Existed - Marjorie - Seven - London Boy - August - Foolish One - The Way I Loved You - Enchanted - 22 - I Heart ? - All You Had To Do Was Stay - Fifteen - This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Cruel Summer* - Karma - Picture To Burn - Hits Different - Coney Island - Hey Stephen* - Dorothea - Hoax - Maroon

My favorite moments:

• The prominence of Long Live and the combination of Long Live / Fearless / Clean / Antihero.
• "When I was drowning, that's when I was SCREAMING LONG LIVE"
• "Say that we'll be together / We are never ever ever getting back together"
• "Gone was any trace of you, I think I could finally win / I've never been anywhere cold as / You-ooh-ooh-ooh / I'd marry you with paper rings / Saying goodbye is death by a thousand cuts / Bye bye / I forgot that you existed / The autumn chill that wakes me up / I still got love for you / It's me / You loved the amber skies so much / Wanna be with you / To live for the hope of it all, cancel plans just in case you called and said meet me behind the mall / Hi / I know how to act like I'm fine / And that's the way I loved you / Please don't be in love with someone else, please don't have somebody waiting on you" (these lyrics combined are a full-on love story in themselves)
• The 22 / Blank Space duet with brief interjections from WANEGBT and I Heart ?
• The Blank Space / New Romantics / Maroon buildup into the next chapter.

Cherry

Production in order of appearance:

Speak Now - Christmas Must Be Something More - How You Get The Girl - Both Of Us - Afterglow - Dress* - Welcome To New York* - Look What You Made Me Do*

Vocals in order of appearance:

The Outside - Electric Touch - I Can See You - Mine - You Belong With Me - Superman - Sparks Fly - Message In A Bottle - New Romantics* - Both Of Us - The Very First Night - Welcome To New York* - Speak Now - Hey Stephen* - Paris - How You Get The Girl - Snow On The Beach - Snow On The Beach (more Lana Del Rey version) - Christmases When You Were Mine - The Moment I Knew - Forever Winter - Half Of My Heart

My favorite moments:

• The simplicity of the production - Speak Now!!!
• The percussion fill from Christmas Must Be Something More to transition between Speak Now and How You Get The Girl.
• The fact that the Christmas songs are even acknowledged.
• "IIII wiiiish IIII / COULD FLY-EE-Y"
• "Sparks / FLY-EE-Y"
• "I'd write this IN THE SKY-EE-Y / You are the best thing that's ever been mine"
• "Welcome to New York / Like we were in Paris"
• Half Of My Heart jumpscare at the end of the chapter.

Rust

Production in order of appearance:

Look What You Made Me Do* - Dress* - I Wish You Would - This Is What You Came For*

Vocals in order of appearance:

Karma (Ice Spice version) - Look What You Made Me Do* - Right Where You Left Me - I Think He Knows - King Of My Heart - Ronan - I Don't Wanna Live Forever - Cowboy Like Me - Illicit Affairs - The Archer* - Question...? - Dress* - Bad Blood* - My Tears Ricochet - Sweet Nothing - It's Nice To Have A Friend - Midnight Rain - Don't Blame Me - Bad Blood (Kendrick Lamar version) - A Place In This World - Forever & Always - The Man - Labyrinth - The Great War - Gold Rush

My favorite moments:

• Again, the simplicity of the production, and how Dress (my second-least-favorite Taylor Swift song) is actually improved upon by having more full production.
• The not one but two occurrences of Ice Spice saying "grrah" in the Karma remix.
• The brief Sweet Nothing / My Tears Ricochet / It's Nice To Have A Friend / Midnight Rain mashup.
• "BUT I'M READY TO FLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! / I don't think so"
• The polyrhythm between Don't Blame Me and TIWYCF / LWYMMD.
• The surprisingly prominent usage of This Is What You Came For.
• The Great War / Gold Rush duet.
• The chapter starting and ending on the same line - "look what you just made me do, look what you just made me do".

Sapphire

Production in order of appearance:

Look What You Made Me Do* - The Archer* - This Is What You Came For* - Welcome To New York* - Mastermind - Starlight - Red - Girl At Home - Happiness - You're On Your Own, Kid - Gasoline - Timeless - Mary's Song (Oh My My My) - Mirrorball - Crazier - A Perfectly Good Heart - Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince* - You All Over Me*

Vocals in order of appearance:

Look What You Made Me Do* - Run - Mirrorball - Carolina - Treacherous - The Best Day - Nothing New - Mastermind - Love Story - Never Grow Up - Cardigan - You're On Your Own, Kid - State Of Grace - The Lucky One - Don't You - This Is Me Trying - False God - This Love - Innocent - Mad Woman - Sweeter Than Fiction - When Emma Falls In Love - Better Than Revenge - Breathe - Come In With The Rain - Gasoline - Two Is Better Than One - Jump Then Fall - Mr. Perfectly Fine - Back To December - The Story Of Us - Better Man - Dear John - I Almost Do - If This Was A Movie - Highway Don't Care - Come Back... Be Here - So It Goes... - The Joker & The Queen - Mean - Dancing With Our Hands Tied - Tied Together With A Smile - Holy Ground - Renegade

My favorite moments:

• The fact that this chapter contains more songs than any other chapter.
• The way LWYMMD is used in a different way from the previous chapter - in Rust it gave it a dark tone, and in Sapphire it contributes to the sparkly, nostalgic atmosphere. (Fun fact - LWYMMD is the only song used in three chapters.)
• The unexpected return of Welcome To New York, one of only two songs (along with Bad Blood) used in two nonconsecutive chapters.
• The Starlight / Red / Girl At Home buildup.
• "We were both young when I first saw you / Don't you ever grow up, just stay this little / When you are young, they assume you know nothing / You're on your own, kid, you always have been"
• "Another name goes up in lights / Begging you please don't go / So if I see you again / This is me trying"
• The intentional overlap of False God ("still worship THIS LOVE") with the song This Love.
• The softer moments with Happiness and You're On Your Own, Kid followed by a jumpscare slew of songs (Gasoline / Timeless / Mary's Song / Mirrorball) fading into the production.
• "I know why we had to say goodbye like the back of my hand / And I hope you know that / Come back, come back / Cuz I can't live without you baby / Come back, be here / Come here, dressed in black now, so, so, so it goes / The joker & the queen / Why you gotta be so mean"
• "I'd hold you as the water rushes in / The water's high, you're jumping into it" (even more important because these are from songs that already had parallel titles - Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Tied Together With A Smile)

Amber

Production in order of appearance:

Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince* - You All Over Me* - Getaway Car* - Bejeweled* - Delicate* - Vigilante Shit - You're Losing Me* - Wonderland* - All Too Well (10 Minute Version)* - All Too Well* - Cornelia Street* - Champagne Problems* - Teardrops On My Guitar - Me!* - Getaway Car* - Out Of The Woods* - Closure - Tolerate It - Style* - Beautiful Eyes*

Vocals in order of appearance:

Daylight* - Tim McGraw - End Game - Long Story Short - It's Time To Go - Invisible String - Last Kiss - The 1 - Betty* - No Body No Crime - Cornelia Street* - You're Losing Me* - Soon You'll Get Better - All Too Well (10 Minute Version)* - Out Of The Woods* - Style* - Teardrops On My Guitar - Me!* - I Bet You Think About Me - I Know Places - Lavender Haze* - You Need To Calm Down* - Gorgeous* - Getaway Car* - The Last Time - Ivy - Wonderland* - White Horse* - Epiphany - Evermore* - All Of The Girls You Loved Before - Stay Stay Stay* - The Lakes

My favorite moments:

• The subtle use of You All Over Me - it's one of the few infamous "hidden" instrumentals in this megamix that I can easily identify, with the pulsating guitar from the intro being used as a pedal point of sorts.
• "I wanna be your end game / Fatefully / I wanna be your first string / Sometimes to run is the brave thing / I used to think I would meet somebody / Just like our last / (Ooh-ooh)"
• "The worst thing that I ever did / He did it"
• The All Too Well / All Too Well Ten Minute Version / Cornelia Street / Champagne Problems / Teardrops On My Guitar mashup, and the way this takes advantage of the distinct production of both All Too Well editions.
• The percussion feature with Out Of The Woods / All Too Well / Closure / Delicate / Me!
• The part that immediately follows with NINE instrumentals seamlessly blended together - if I hadn't watched the video with the song tags, I never would've guessed Out Of The Woods, All Too Well, Closure, Delicate, Me!, Cornelia Street, Tolerate It, Getaway Car AND Style were all being used at the same time at the end of the chapter, because it sounds like one big, full, gorgeous track, and now that I see it I can listen closely and hear each individual layer, which is really cool.

Aurora

Production in order of appearance:

Beautiful Eyes* - Getaway Car* - Style* - Only The Young - Bejeweled* - Wonderland* - New Year's Day

Vocals in order of appearance:

Me!* - Gorgeous* - You Need To Calm Down* - Our Song - Out Of The Woods* - All Too Well (10 Minute Version)* - Style* - Getaway Car* - You're Losing Me* - Lavender Haze* - Delicate* - Stay Stay Stay* - Ours - Cornelia Street* - White Horse* - All Too Well* - Betty* - Evermore* - Superstar - Champagne Problems* - We Were Happy - Dear Reader - The Alcott - Daylight*

My favorite moments:

• Beautiful Eyes being acknowledged (and for a long time at that, even though I can't really hear it the way it's buried in the production).
• "Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known / Just take me home / And I'm so furious at you for making me feel this way"
• "Don't pretend it's such a mystery, think about the place where you first met / ME-HEE-HEE"
• The callback to the first chapter where every album in chronological order gets one line.
• The way the pianos from New Year's Day and Wonderland are used over the heartbeat from You're Losing Me - absolutely gorgeous.
• "Superstar / I remember / All too well / You won't remember all my champagne problems / Delicate / And goodbye's so much harder / Dear reader / I can't find a pulse, my heart won't start anymore"
• The fact that the production fades away down to just the subtlest piano line, ending with the intro from New Year's Day.
• "I tell you my problems, you tell me the truth / I'll tell you the truth but never goodbye", especially when paired with that echo.
• The fact that the ending makes me want to listen to the whole thing again.

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 13] Hallett's Hits 7/13/25 + Summer Relaxation Playlist

Hi! Welcome to another installment of Hallett's Hits with the third of five playlists in this series: the Summer Relaxation Playlist, a 13-song collection of chill songs for the more relaxing moments of summer. This was a pretty average week for Hallett's Hits, with Sombr getting his first top 30 entry after four Almost There songs, Kpop Demon Hunters slowly taking over the chart, a semi-high debut from a long-time Almost There song that needs no introduction, and a very high debut that I'm sure everyone was expecting to see. Anyway, here it is!

Hallett's Top 30

Exits:

Alex Warren - Ordinary (4 wk: Peak #27)

Debbii Dawson - Chemical Reaction (7 wk: Peak #8)

Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco - Younger & Hotter Than Me (12 wk: Peak #9)

Haim - Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out (13 wk: Peak #7)

#30: Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea - Shake It To The Max (=) (2 wk: Peak #30)

#29: Evanescence - Afterlife (-1) (9 wk: Peak #28)

#28: Hayes Warner - Threw Me Away (-3) (12 wk: Peak #15)

#27: Sombr - We Never Dated (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #27)

#26: Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (-6) (21 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

Golden Extra: Beabadoobee - Glue Song

#25: Kpop Demon Hunters - Free (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #26)

#24: Caroline Polachek - On The Beach (+2) (2 wk: Peak #24)

#23: Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (-4) (5 wk: Peak #11)

#22: Debbii Dawson - You Killed The Music (-5) (13 wk: Peak #2)

#21: Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden (+8) (2 wk: Peak #21)

Underground Extra: Favors - The Hudson

#20: Conan Gray - This Song (-2) (3 wk: Peak #18)

#19: Michael Clifford - Cool (+2) (3 wk: Peak #19)

#18: Doechii - Anxiety (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #18)

#17: Lyn Lapid - Buttons (-1) (9 wk: Peak #13)

#16: Benson Boone - Momma Song (-3) (6 wk: Peak #12)

Rising Extra: Justin Bieber - Daisies

#15: Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers - Balcony (-4) (9 wk: Peak #7)

#14: Avreya Bloom - Pixel Rain (-2) (9 wk: Peak #3)

#13: Finneas - Same Old Story (-7) (20 wk: Peak #2)

#12: Lyn Lapid - Fix (+3) (10 wk: Peak #9)

#11: Alex Warren & Rose - On My Mind (+3) (2 wk: Peak #11)

Almost There Extra: Kpop Demon Hunters - How It's Done

#10: Benson Boone - Reminds Me Of You (=) (2 wk: Peak #10)

#9: Benson Boone - Take Me Home (=) (2 wk: Peak #9)

#8: Avreya Bloom - Battery At 3 Percent (-4) (6 wk: Peak #3)

#7: Role Model & Laufey - The Longest Goodbye (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #7)

#6: Laufey - Silver Lining (-1) (14 wk: Peak #1 for 4 wk)

Summer Relaxation Extra: Laufey - From The Start

#5: Faouzia - Porcelain (-2) (9 wk: Peak #2)

#4: Lyn Lapid - Floater Friend (+3) (12 wk: Peak #3)

#3: Laufey - Lover Girl (-2) (3 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

#2: Favors - The Little Mess You Made (+6) (3 wk: Peak #2)

#1: Laufey - Tough Luck (+1) (9 wk: Peak #1 for 8 wk)

Biggest jump: Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden (+8)

Biggest drop: Finneas - Same Old Story (-7)

Starlight Seven

Removed: Sombr - Back To Friends

#7: Sombr - Undressed (-1)

#6: Doechii - Anxiety (-2)

#5: Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden (Debut)

#4: Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else (-2)

#3: Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (=)

#2: Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (+3)

#1: Alex Warren - Ordinary (=)

Almost There

Favors - The Hudson (Debut)

Henry Moodie - Comedown (4)

Kpop Demon Hunters - How It's Done (Debut)

Lewis Capaldi - Survive (3)

Justin Bieber - Daisies (Debut)

Sombr - Back To Friends (9)

Conan Gray - Vodka Cranberry (Debut)

Maren Morris - Lemonade (3)

Daniel Caesar & Rex Orange County - Rearrange My World (Debut)

Ed Sheeran - Drive (4)

Mgk - Vampire Diareis (Debut)

Mikayla Geier - Piano In The Sky (4)

Foo Fighters - Today's Song (Debut)

Haim - All Over Me (4)

Raye - Grandma Calls The Boy Bad News (Debut)

Mariah The Scientist - Burning Blue (5)

Kehlani - Folded (2)

Dropouts:

Avreya Bloom - I Wasn't Pretty Enough To Be Me (1)

Benson Boone - Mr. Electric Blue (1)

Pinkpantheress - Illegal (1)

Katseye - Gameboy (2)

Eli Vorn - 404 Heart (3)

Abyss

Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else

Chappell Roan - The Giver

Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby

Kpop Demon Hunters - What It Sounds Like

Sabrina Carpenter - Dumb & Poetic

Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco & Gracie Abrams - Call Me When You Break Up

Sombr - Undressed

Summer Relaxation Playlist

Laufey - Lover Girl

Taylor Swift - Clean

Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby

Lyn Lapid - Buttons

Nicky Youre - Eyes On You

Jasontheween & D4vd - Summer Uptown

Laufey - Silver Lining

Tyla - Bliss

Beabadoobee - Glue Song

Grentperez & Lyn Lapid - Room For You

Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea - Shake It To The Max

Taylor Swift - Call It What You Want

Laufey - From The Start

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 12] Wheel Of Names decides my next Hallett's Hits!

Hi! So, before tomorrow's Hallett's Hits + summer playlist post, I decided to try a pretty funny idea. I entered a collection of songs into wheelofnames.com, a pretty well-known site that randomizes entries, to let it "decide" tomorrow's Hallett's Hits. 

The randomized collection was made up of last week's countdown, Almost There, and abyss, along with what will be this week's AT debuts, and, just to make things a little more interesting, my five least favorite songs of the year so far - those five songs are marked with *asterisks, and four of them (all but my #1 least favorite) made the countdown, lol. How I did this was I started by filling in the countdown with whatever 30 songs it decided first, then the next 17 would be Almost There, and all the remaining songs would be in the abyss. (The collection I gave it just happened to be.. 69 songs in total. That also means it will be a twenty-twoooooo-song abyss.)

Anyway, welcome to Wheel Of Names' hits! Let's get into this... very chaotic chart.

Hallett's Top 30

Otherworldly list of more than half of last week's countdown exiting:

Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden (1 wk: Peak #29)

Evanescence - Afterlife (8 wk: Peak #28)

Alex Warren - Ordinary (4 wk: Peak #27)

Caroline Polachek - On The Beach (1 wk: Peak #26)

Debbii Dawson - Chemical Reaction (7 wk: Peak #8)

Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (20 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (4 wk: Peak #11)

Lyn Lapid - Buttons (8 wk: Peak #13)

Lyn Lapid - Fix (9 wk: Peak #9)

Benson Boone - Momma Song (5 wk: Peak #12)

Benson Boone - Reminds Me Of You (1 wk: Peak #10)

Favors - The Little Mess You Made (2 wk: Peak #8)

Finneas - Same Old Story (19 wk: Peak #2)

Laufey - Silver Lining (13 wk: Peak #1 for 4 wk)

Avreya Bloom - Battery At 3 Percent (5 wk: Peak #3)

Faouzia - Porcelain (8 wk: Peak #2)

Laufey - Tough Luck (8 wk: Peak #1 for 7 wk) (excuse me WHAT NOW?!!!)

#30: Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea - Shake It To The Max (=) (2 wk: Peak #30)

#29: Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #29)

#28: Sombr - Back To Friends (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #28)

#27: Benson Boone - Take Me Home (-18) (2 wk: Peak #9)

#26: Conan Gray - This Song (-8) (3 wk: Peak #18)

#25: Kpop Demon Hunters - Free (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #25)

#24: *Ravyn Lenae - Love Me Not (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #24)

#23: Laufey - Lover Girl (-22) (3 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

#22: *Jennie - Like Jennie (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #22)

#21: Doechii - Anxiety (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #21)

#20: Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers - Balcony (-9) (9 wk: Peak #7)

#19: Avreya Bloom - I Wasn't Pretty Enough To Be Me (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #19)

#18: Hayes Warner - Threw Me Away (+7) (12 wk: Peak #15)

#17: *Tate McRae - Sports Car (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #17)

#16: Debbii Dawson - You Killed The Music (+1) (13 wk: Peak #2)

#15: Haim - All Over Me (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #15)

#14: Michael Clifford - Cool (+7) (3 wk: Peak #14)

#13: Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco & Gracie Abrams - Call Me When You Break Up (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #13)

#12: Kpop Demon Hunters - How It's Done (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #12)

#11: Sombr - We Never Dated (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #11)

#10: Lyn Lapid - Floater Friend (-3) (12 wk: Peak #3)

#9: Alex Warren & Rose - On My Mind (+5) (2 wk: Peak #9)

#8: Haim - Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out (+14) (14 wk: Peak #7)

#7: *Charli XCX - Party 4 U (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #7)

#6: Kpop Demon Hunters - What It Sounds Like (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #6)

#5: Lewis Capaldi - Survive (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #5)

#4: Sabrina Carpenter - Dumb & Poetic (Re-entry) (4 wk: Peak #3)

#3: Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco - Younger And Hotter Than Me (+21) (13 wk: Peak #3)

#2: Avreya Bloom - Pixel Rain (+10) (9 wk: Peak #2)

#1: Jasontheween & D4vd - Summer Uptown (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

Almost There

Maren Morris - Lemonade (3)

Faouzia - Porcelain (PT30 Re-entry) (2)

Chappell Roan - The Giver (PT30 Re-entry) (2)

Alex Warren - Ordinary (PT30 Re-entry) (2)

Laufey - Silver Lining (PT30 Debut)

Laufey - Tough Luck (PT30 Debut)

Katseye - Gameboy (3)

Mikayla Geier - Piano In The Sky (4)

Benson Boone - Reminds Me Of You (PT30 Debut)

Mgk - Vampire Diaries (Debut)

Role Model & Laufey - The Longest Goodbye (Debut)

Conan Gray - Vodka Cranberry (Debut)

Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (PT30 Re-entry) (2)

Evanescence - Afterlife (PT30 Re-entry) (2)

Daniel Caesar & Rex Orange County - Rearrange My World (Debut)

Lyn Lapid - Buttons (PT30 Debut)

Henry Moodie - Comedown (4)

Dropouts:

Benson Boone - Mr. Electric Blue (1)

Kehlani - Folded (1)

Pinkpantheress - Illegal (1)

Ed Sheeran - Drive (3)

Eli Vorn - 404 Heart (3)

Mariah The Scientist - Burning Blue (4)

Abyss

Avreya Bloom - Battery At 3 Percent

Benson Boone - Momma Song

Benson Boone - Mr. Electric Blue

Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else

*Bruno Mars & Sexyy Red - Fat Juicy & Wet (newly added!) (lollllll not this being the only bottom 5er not to make the top 30)

Caroline Polachek - On The Beach

Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club

Debbii Dawson - Chemical Reaction

Ed Sheeran - Drive

Eli Vorn - 404 Heart

Favors - The Hudson (newly added!)

Favors - The Little Mess You Made

Finneas - Same Old Story

Foo Fighters - Today's Song (newly added!)

Justin Bieber - Daisies (newly added!)

Kehlani - Folded

Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden

Lyn Lapid - Fix

Mariah The Scientist - Burning Blue

Pinkpantheress - Illegal

Raye - Grandma Calls The Boy Bad News (newly added!)

Sombr - Undressed

Well that was interesting. Anyway, just another reminder to submit to Bubby's March Madness event before the final round tomorrow. That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 11] Ranking weird sounds in Taylor Swift songs!

Hi! This is a slightly larger post, so sorry it was a bit late. It's a kinda niche rankdown that I think I'm the first person ever to do, and it probably won't be a successful post but I love these kinds of things: a ranking of every "unconventional sound" that I know of in Taylor Swift songs. There are a lot of times throughout Taylor Swift's discography where she'll include a sound effect that's just meant to contribute to the atmosphere, and I love these. There are also a decent number of... "errors", I guess? Mostly in the rerecords when the production was slightly rushed, there are some noticeable glitches in the production, and some of them work better than others. So, this ranking includes all of those as well. The entries that are likely unintentional glitches are marked with an *asterisk. I don't think I need to explain further, so... here is the ranking!

#33: *Ed Sheeran's "AEHHH" in Everything Has Changed TV - Pretty obvious last place. This is one of the only major mistakes in Taylor's discography, and definitely the only one that truly disrupts the flow of the song, regardless of how much attention you pay to small musical details. Like, you can't really miss this one unless you're medically tone deaf. All-around, this song is significantly worse in the TV.

#32: *Buzzing in 1989 TV - I never experienced this infamous glitch firsthand, but it sounds horrible from what I heard about it.

#31: *The entire existence of Track 3 - This is just hilarious. For those of you who don't know, a few years back Taylor accidentally uploaded a song on streaming titled "Track 3" and it was eight seconds of static. Rather listen to this than "AEHHH".

#30: *Noticeable mixing imbalance in The Last Time TV - Another infamous glitch, where Gary's vocals are WAY louder than Taylor's for most of the song.

#29: "STAY!" in All You Had To Do Was Stay OG & TV - The first non-mistake on the ranking, and it's more annoying than most of the mistakes.

#28: *Metronome in Forever & Always TV - Fearless TV has a lot of errors, and this one is subtle but audible in the guitar solo. As someone who already doesn't really like F&A because of the lyrics, this just brings down the production for me.

#27: *"FooOOOcus" in Jump Then Fall TV - Reputation and Midnights called and want their autotune back. You don't belong on Fearless.

#26: *"YOUUUUUUuuuuuuu" in Sparks Fly TV - Slightly less noticeable version of the last one.

#25: *"And th--fAdEd picture" in The Other Side Of The Door TV - She's honestly so real for not having enough breath to get through this song's outro in one take, but I feel like the transition between takes could've been smoother. Luckily the other TOSOTD production error is accidental genius, and this one audio cut is not nearly enough to bring this song out of my top 22 favorite Taylor Swift songs.

#24: *Random backing vocal cuts in Lucky One TV - As someone who's more familiar with the TV than the OG, this doesn't bother me as much as anyone else, but still, it's a bit annoying.

#23: *"We were both young when I first saw you-FFFFSSSS-I close my eyes" in Love Story TV - This one isn't super noticeable, but I can never unhear that little static sound on this line. I can't tell if this is something in the production or just a weird closed-mouth breath, but it's a weird one.

#22: Birds & sirens in Exile - Twenty-twooooooo... Ranking these relatively low might have been in part biased by the fact that I hate this song for personal reasons I won't disclose. It's a nice touch but it doesn't really do much for me.

#21: Car tires in This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things - Gets annoying after a while but for the most part sounds cool.

#20: Police car in No Body, No Crime - Amazing unless you listen in the car.

#19: *"OoO-kay" in All Too Well 5MV TV - Possibly Taylor's most infamous production error, and for some reason I think this one is kinda cool. Nothing too special.

#18: *Off-key chimes in Holy Ground TV - Unsurprisingly, I seem to be the only person who doesn't mind the fact that those chime sounds are way out of tune. They're so high-pitched that it just makes it feel even more confused and natural. If it was a vocal it would be a different story.

#17: *"PPPPPAGE" in Lucky One TV - Very angry, very explosive, very ranty.

#16: Gunshots in I Did Something Bad - Very intense, very rageful, very angsty.

#15: VHS tape in I Know Places OG & TV - Because they're being recorded the whole time, even when they think they know places to hide. Genius.

#14: *Screeching noise in The Other Side Of The Door TV - It's a controversial opinion, but I love the way this sounds. It's very eerie, very raw, very rocky, and only makes me love this song more. Unfortunately the other TOSOTD production error is pretty egregious.

#13: Pen click in Blank Space OG & TV - Iconic. Earns the lucky 13 spot.

#12: Windshield wipers in Cornelia Street - Now this is how you do a sound effect in a song.

#11: Massive volume increase in Tell Me Why TV - This one is probably intentional since it happens after 13 seconds, and I think it sounds gorgeous.

#10: RADIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDIDYAHHDYAHH in I Did Something Bad - So glad she had that dream.

#9: Tolling bell in It's Nice To Have A Friend - The subtly sophisticated instrumentation of this song is a standout in Taylor's discography.

#8: High heels on cobblestone in Cardigan - A surprisingly gorgeous sound.

#7: Typewriter bell in Fortnight - Adds a touch of brightness to this otherwise very dark song.

#6: *Bridge layering in You Are In Love TV - This mistake improved the song from the original for me. Understandably, many people find it annoying that the "you are in love" line got accidentally copied over the first line of the bridge, but I think it's really cool how the bridge just kind of emerges out of the chorus in this way.

#5: Heartbeat in Wildest Dreams OG & TV & You're Losing Me - Another very iconic production choice that appears twice in Taylor's discography, and for good reason.

#4: Elephant trumpet in Labyrinth - The synths in this song are incredible.

#3: Metal clattering in Closure - Gets WAY too much hate.

#2: *Shaky breath in Last Kiss OG - Wow. I honestly wish this was in the TV because there's so much emotional depth in just this ONE BREATH, and it was so clearly not forced. The tradeoff? Taylor's Version has an even more hard-hitting sound effect that the OG also has, but the TV does it even better.

#1: Tolling bell in Last Kiss OG & TV but mostly TV - Okay, I'm about to go all-caps. HOW IS THIS NOT TALKED ABOUT MORE? Seriously, I want a 10-minute version of 4:41 of Last Kiss (Taylor's Version), and yet I haven't seen anyone else mention it. I don't even know why I'm obsessed with this. It's such a simple synth effect that could be achieved in just a few seconds, but... one could say it's e n c h a n t i n g. This sound, and the way it's paired with the emotive lyrics and vocals, especially in such a pivotal moment in the song, are the main things that boost Last Kiss into my top 13 favorite Taylor Swift songs of all time.

Well, I probably missed some, but for now that's my ranking of Taylor Swift's weird sound effects, which can also in turn be used as somewhat of a guide to what songs have these kinds of sounds. That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 10] Olivia Rodrigo songs for each of my Animal Crossing: New Horizons villagers

Hi! Welcome back to the summer special with the third of three Animal Crossing: New Horizons posts, now that ACNH may be on its last legs with all the recent events in the Nintendo universe. This has been one of my favorite games for about 2-3 years now, so I've had a lot of time to get to know these villagers. As you saw in yesterday's summer special post, I assigned Taylor Swift Eras to each ACNH villager, and now... they each get an Olivia Rodrigo song.

This is a bit different from yesterday because I was able to make it work by grouping Folklore & Evermore so that there'd be an even number of eras and villagers, but this time I'm just using any random 10 songs from Olivia's discography. Anyway, here it is! 

(Wow, this blog has diverged very far from its original premise.)

Audie

Species: Wolf

Personality: Peppy

Song: So American

Hornsby

Species: Rhino

Personality: Lazy

Song: Teenage Dream

Sparro

Species: Bird

Personality: Jock

Song: Get Him Back!

Lucy

Species: Pig

Personality: Normal

Song: Hope Ur Ok

Chadder

Species: Mouse

Personality: Smug

Song: Jealousy, Jealousy

Whitney

Species: Wolf

Personality: Snooty

Song: Logical

Katt

Species: Cat

Personality: Sisterly

Song: Vampire

Tipper

Species: Cow

Personality: Snooty

Song: Happier

Spike

Species: Rhino

Personality: Cranky

Song: Good 4 U

Goose

Species: Chicken

Personality: Jock

Song: Can't Catch Me Now

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 9] Taylor Swift Eras for each of my Animal Crossing: New Horizons villagers

Hi! Welcome back to the summer special with the second of three Animal Crossing: New Horizons posts, now that ACNH may be on its last legs with all the recent events in the Nintendo universe. This has been one of my favorite games for about 2-3 years now, so I've had enough time to get to know these villagers to do what I seem to do with everything nowadays - surprise not surprise, assigning Taylor Swift eras to each of them. (Since there are only 10 villagers for 11 eras, Folklore and Evermore are grouped together.) Also, this will be the first time I reveal exactly which villagers I have, so for those of you who also play ACNH, you can see if we have any of the same!

Audie

Species: Wolf

Personality: Peppy

Era: 1989

Hornsby

Species: Rhino

Personality: Lazy

Era: Folklore/Evermore

Sparro

Species: Bird

Personality: Jock

Era: Fearless

Lucy

Species: Pig

Personality: Normal

Era: Red

Chadder

Species: Mouse

Personality: Smug

Era: Midnights

Whitney

Species: Wolf

Personality: Snooty

Era: The Tortured Poets Department

Katt

Species: Cat

Personality: Sisterly

Era: Speak Now

Tipper

Species: Cow

Personality: Snooty

Era: Lover

Spike

Species: Rhino

Personality: Cranky

Era: Reputation

Goose

Species: Chicken

Personality: Jock

Era: Taylor Swift/Debut

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 8] Taylor Swift Eras outfits in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Hallett's Version)

Hi! So... no, before you ask, this is not the "larger post" I mentioned yesterday. I think I underestimated just how much "larger" that post is, and so it likely won't be ready until at least day 11. This is a post that I had been working on compiling in these last few weeks where I designed outfits for every Taylor Swift era in Animal Crossing. Let me know what you think of the outfits I made! 

(Unfortunately I didn't think to make note of all the elements that make up each outfit, but they're all in my storage and I might come back to this post eventually to add that information. Also, I have no clue why but this post seems to be loading incorrectly on mobile. You can see everything but it's a complete mess, and it looks much cleaner on the web version.)

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 7] A late but lucky seven months after the Eras Tour...

Hi! Welcome back to the summer special with a post that you may have been able to tell was actually meant for tomorrow by the significance of the date, but I procrastinated a bit on finishing today's actual (larger) post and so that has been rescheduled for tomorrow.

Anyway, I wanted to make a post that was just about a topic that I'm... yes, I know, very late to talk about specifically - the Eras Tour. I was recently thinking about how I planned on making a post like this in late 2024 when the tour was on its final shows, but ultimately didn't because that was the busiest time in my personal life, so I took this opportunity to include it along with the 31 post ideas I had for this month. It's been seven months since the final show of one of the biggest concert tours... like, ever. Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour needs no introduction, and I will make it very clear once again that I never went to an Eras Tour show. The tickets were way too expensive, but I was able to watch many of the shows on fans' livestreams, and I watched the Eras Tour (Taylor's Version) movie on Disney+ as well. So my opinions may be a bit... incomplete, for that reason. But I was able to give some general thoughts on the tour, including my favorite performances, surprise songs, outfits, and the major impacts of the tour.

My favorite songs/performances on the main set

Intro / Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince / Cruel Summer

Fearless

Enchanted

Long Live

22

All Too Well (10 Minute Version)

Wildest Dreams

Don't Blame Me

The Last Great American Dynasty

Illicit Affairs

Willow

Tolerate It

Marjorie

No Body, No Crime

Champagne Problems

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

Bejeweled

Karma

My favorite surprise songs/mashups

Getaway Car / August / The Other Side Of The Door

Fifteen / You're On Your Own, Kid

Mirrorball / Epiphany

Come Back... Be Here / The Way I Loved You / The Other Side Of The Door

Carolina / No Body, No Crime

Us (with Gracie Abrams)

This Is My Trying / Labyrinth

We Were Happy / Happiness

Death By A Thousand Cuts / Getaway Car (with Jack Antonoff)

Espresso / Please Please Please / Is It Over Now (with Sabrina Carpenter)

Long Live / New Year's Day / Manuscript

My favorite outfits

Sunset Lover bodysuit

Black Lover jacket

Tiger stripe Fearless dress

Sparkling purple Speak Now dress

All of the Red t-shirts

Purple 1989 / surprise songs outfits

Both Reputation bodysuits

White Folklore dress

Yellow Evermore dress

All of the TTPD poetry dresses

Lavender Midnights jacket

Moonstone Midnights outfit

Impacts of the tour

- It indisputably set a ton of records.

- Artists who opened for the tour got huge moments during and after the tour.

- Taylor truly began to ascend to a cultural icon more than just a very popular musician.

- More recently, she was able to buy her own albums back!

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 6] Hallett's Hits 7/6/25 + Summer Classics Playlist

Hi! Welcome to this blog's 100th post and the first Hallett's Hits of July, paired with my second of five playlists featured in the summer special - the Summer Classics Playlist, which is fifteen older songs capturing the summer atmosphere, mostly along the lines of pop-rock, ranging from the 1960s to the early 2000s. As for this week's Hallett's Hits, we had a pretty big purge on the countdown but not many AT debuts, which will likely be the case for these next few weeks. Anyway, here it is!

Hallett's Top 30

Exits:

Suki Waterhouse - Model, Actress, Whatever (2 wk: Peak #27)

Miley Cyrus - End Of The World (2 wk: Peak #22)

Avreya Bloom - The Low (2 wk: Peak #13)

Avreya Bloom - What Did The Emoji Mean? (3 wk: Peak #8)

Avril Lavigne & Simple Plan - Young & Dumb (4 wk: Peak #20)

Griff - Last Night's Mascara (8 wk: Peak #5)

#30: Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea - Shake It To The Max (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #30)

#29: Kpop Demon Hunters - Golden (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #29)

#28: Evanescence - Afterlife (+1) (8 wk: Peak #28)

#27: Alex Warren - Ordinary (+1) (4 wk: Peak #27)

#26: Caroline Polachek - On The Beach (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #26)

Golden Extra: Ariana Grande - Successful

#25: Hayes Warner - Threw Me Away (-2) (11 wk: Peak #15)

#24: Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco - Younger & Hotter Than Me (-6) (12 wk: Peak #9)

#23: Debbii Dawson - Chemical Reaction (-4) (7 wk: Peak #8)

#22: Haim - Everybody's Trying To Figure Me Out (-2) (13 wk: Peak #7)

#21: Michael Clifford - Cool (+9) (2 wk: Peak #21)

Underground Extra: Avreya Bloom - I Wasn't Pretty Enough To Be Me

#20: Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (-3) (20 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

#19: Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (-4) (4 wk: Peak #11)

#18: Conan Gray - This Song (+6) (2 wk: Peak #18)

#17: Debbii Dawson - You Killed The Music (-9) (12 wk: Peak #2)

#16: Lyn Lapid - Buttons (-2) (8 wk: Peak #13)

Rising Extra: Maren Morris - Lemonade

#15: Lyn Lapid - Fix (+1) (9 wk: Peak #9)

#14: Alex Warren & Rose - On My Mind (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #14)

#13: Benson Boone - Momma Song (-1) (5 wk: Peak #12)

#12: Avreya Bloom - Pixel Rain (-2) (8 wk: Peak #3)

#11: Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers - Balcony (-2) (8 wk: Peak #7)

Almost There Extra: Kpop Demon Hunters - Free

#10: Benson Boone - Reminds Me Of You (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #10)

#9: Benson Boone - Take Me Home (Debut) (1 wk: Peak #9)

#8: Favors - The Little Mess You Made (+13) (2 wk: Peak #8)

#7: Lyn Lapid - Floater Friend (-4) (11 wk: Peak #3)

#6: Finneas - Same Old Story (-2) (19 wk: Peak #2)

Summer Classic Extra: Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby

#5: Laufey - Silver Lining (+2) (13 wk: Peak #1 for 4 wk)

#4: Avreya Bloom - Battery At 3 Percent (+2) (5 wk: Peak #3)

#3: Faouzia - Porcelain (-1) (8 wk: Peak #2)

#2: Laufey - Tough Luck (-1) (8 wk: Peak #1 for 7 wk)

#1: Laufey - Lover Girl (+4) (2 wk: Peak #1 for 1 wk)

Biggest jump: Favors - The Little Mess You Made (+13)

Biggest drop: Debbii Dawson - You Killed The Music (-9)

Starlight Seven

#7: Sombr - Back To Friends (Debut)

#6: Sombr - Undressed (=)

#5: Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club (-3)

#4: Doechii - Anxiety (-1)

#3: Benson Boone - Mystical Magical (+2)

#2: Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else (+2)

#1: Alex Warren - Ordinary (=)

Almost There

Kpop Demon Hunters - Free (Debut)

Henry Moodie - Comedown (3)

Lewis Capaldi - Survive (2)

Sombr - Back To Friends (8)

Maren Morris - Lemonade (Re-entry) (2)

Ed Sheeran - Drive (3)

Mikayla Geier - Piano In The Sky (3)

Katseye - Gameboy (2)

Avreya Bloom - I Wasn't Pretty Enough To Be Me (Debut)

Haim - All Over Me (3)

Mariah The Scientist - Burning Blue (4)

Eli Vorn - 404 Heart (3)

Kehlani - Folded (Debut)

Sombr - We Never Dated (2)

Doechii - Anxiety (8)

Pinkpantheress - Illegal (Debut)

Benson Boone - Mr. Electric Blue (Debut)

Dropouts:

Debbii Dawson - Gut Feelings (1)

Abyss

Benson Boone - Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else

Chappell Roan - The Giver

Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby

Kpop Demon Hunters - How It's Done (newly added!)

Kpop Demon Hunters - What It Sounds Like (newly added!)

Sabrina Carpenter - Dumb & Poetic

Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco & Gracie Abrams - Call Me When You Break Up

Sombr - Undressed

Summer Classics Playlist

Connie Francis - Pretty Little Baby

Beach Boys - Surfin' USA

Simon & Garfunkel - 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy)

Gloria Estefan - Conga

Smash Mouth - Walking On The Sun

Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do

Don McLean - American Pie

Len - Steal My Sunshine

Third Eye Blind - Semi-Charmed Life

Bananarama - Cruel Summer

Journey - Don't Stop Believing

John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads

Weezer - Island In The Sun

Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 5] The First Street You Drove Down - I wrote a song using every Olivia Rodrigo title

Hi! Welcome to "track 5" of the summer special, which brings us a very different style of post. As you may or may not remember, I am a songwriter, and I decided to do a challenge. I wrote a song containing the titles of every Olivia Rodrigo song, and it turned out... okay? I tried to give it a relatively cohesive story, and some of it kinda means nothing, but let me know what you think of this experiment.

The First Street You Drove Down

You're a bad idea, right?

My friends all said you were a traitor

But you're all I want and I'm wondering why

I'm obsessed with you tonight

I'll be making the bed later

They were enough for you, am I?

Even when the best part felt like it was just for a moment, baby

Baby is you, and so I think I kinda, you know

Even though you still hold the grudge from the failed teenage dream

Take 1 step forward, 3 steps back and move out of the old

Am I granted a second chance?

It's the logical thing to do

I hope ur ok with that

Do you still get deja vu?

When you're with Lacy

Who claims "I'm the girl I've always been"

Am I a stranger to you?

Good 4 u

Her ballad of a homeschooled girl plays without reason or rhyme

And my jealousy, jealousy gets in the way sometimes

Love is embarrassing so I hold back the rose song that plays in my head

Thinking, "I wanna get him back" but being scared of my guitar instead

Pretty isn't pretty to you, but it's gorgeous to me

Acting invisible is the kinda thing a vampire would see

And I'm born to be brave, an all-American b*tch

So American it's brutal

Even though you were my favorite crime 

I'm happier now without you

You got your drivers license

And the first street you drove down was mine

But you can't catch me now

And that's it for The First Street You Drove Down! Let me know if you want me to do more songwriting posts like this. I can assure you this is all me, no AI involved. (As you could probably already tell by the fluidity of the rhyme scheme and the lack of the words "delve" and "meticulous".)

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!

[Summer Special Day 4] This album is SO AMERICAN... just in time for the firework day

Hi! Welcome to my 4th of July edition of the summer special, and my 23rd album review! So, I've known about Benson Boone ever since he made his debut to Hits 1 and I don't think I've ever disliked one of his songs. Recently I listened to one of his albums in full for the first time, his latest release American Heart. He is a bit of a polarizing artist, with a lot of fans and a lot of haters, but in case you couldn't tell from Hallett's Hits, I'm in the former category.

Anyway, let's get to this relatively short album review!

1. Sorry I'm Here For Someone Else

My rating: 5/5 Great

So we start off strong with the lead single and one of the biggest hits from the album being great, which isn't something we see often. One of my favorite things about the lyrics is the titular phrase and how it takes on a (possibly unintentional, but probably not) double meaning throughout the song - the song begins with Benson going on a date that he's not quite sure he wants to be on. His date doesn't show up for a while, and while he's waiting he runs into an ex, and as much as he wants to have a private conversation with them, he can't because he's "here for someone else" - in this case, the one he's "here for" is the actual date. Then, she (nice touch in the song to refer to the date as "she" and the ex as "you" to show that he's really only wanting to talk to the ex) finally walks in, and while the voices in his head say "Benny don't do it, you're breaking her heart", he decides to break up with her because he's "here for someone else" - now the one he's "here for" becomes the ex who he still loves. At the end of the song, there's a production twist - ascending synths and intensifying production as Benson makes his decision to stay with the ex. Wow. That's a lot. I just wanted to point out that cool double meaning thing and how well-made the production is, but I promise the other reviews won't be this long.

2. Mr. Electric Blue

My rating: 5/5 Great

Well, there are a lot of great songs on this album. This seems to be currently being promoted as the fourth single, and I'm glad it is because I love this song. One of the themes that runs through a few songs on this album is family, with the last two singles both being about his parents. Mr. Electric Blue is a song dedicated to his dad, essentially just about how cool he is and how you don't wanna mess with him, with the lyrics and production drawing inspiration from a lot of 70s and 80s pop-rock music. This song is just a lot of fun and one of my favorites on the album. I also love the music video. If you haven't seen it, I recommend you watch it. It reminds me of some of my favorite Taylor Swift music videos making fun of common criticisms toward him. Overall, really cool song.

3. Man In Me

My rating: 4/5 Good

Alright, I find myself somewhat conflicted about this one. I love the production on this song. The synths sound amazing, and I like the driving drums as well. For this song, the only reason why I don't have it rated as "great" is the lyrics. Lyrically, it's about someone "stealing" the man in him, but I think the songwriting is particularly basic. The vocals are pretty good, but at times feel somewhat... whiny? I don't know, the production is incredible so I'll give it that, but it's definitely not a favorite.

4. Mystical Magical

My rating: 5/5 Great

This extremely viral song needs no introduction unless you live under a rock. In fact, even if that's the case, the rock you're living under is not even a rock at this point. It's a giant scoop of moonbeam icecream, and you don't even know it, but this song has taken the memeverse by storm. "MINIONS! TONIGHT... WE STEAL... THE mooooonbeeeeeam iiiiiicecreeeeeam!" A lot of people seem to hate this song, and a lot of people love it. I don't think I need to say which of those categories I fall into. I'm not sure why, but this is one of my favorite songs currently charting. I think my favorite thing about it are the vocals. I'm not sure how to explain it, but he does this really cool vibrato-type thing on the end of every line and once someone pointed it out to me, I can't unhear it. And I really like it. The production is also cool and unique in a sort of campy, almost theatrical way. Great song.

5. Reminds Me Of You

My rating: 5/5 Great

We've arrived at another one of my favorite songs on the album. I think this is my second-favorite song on here at the moment, just behind one other song that I'll get to a bit later. I'm a huge fan of the lyrics here. It's a super relatable song about life being consumed by those inexplicable moments when totally random places and objects that have no connection to someone whatsoever... remind you of a certain person. And it's backed by, yep, great production. I don't think there's a single song on this album I can't say that about. I've recently come to love this 80s-synth-infused pop-rock sound that Benson Boone has. Anyway, this is just another fantastic song. There's still many more to come.

6. Momma Song

My rating: 5/5 Great

I believe this was the third single for the album (or maybe just a promo single? I'm not sure) and I'm glad this was one of my first introductions to this album. Like Mr. Electric Blue, it's another song about spending time with family, this time in a bit of a more serious light. It's an emotionally charged ballad about wanting to have more time with his mom, with orchestral production that kinda harkens back to the 2022-23 days of Benson Boone. Not much else to say for this one, it's just all-around an amazing song.

7. I Wanna Be The One You Call

My rating: 3/5 Decent

Well, this was actually one of the first songs I heard from this album because it came up first in my recommendations for some reason. And... yeah, it's actually one of my least favorites, which isn't saying much considering it's such a great album. I like the intro and the melody, and the production is fine (albeit pretty generic and not evolving that much). The lyrics are also relatable but just kinda forgettable. Most of my issue with this one is the end. There's a key change, and I know this is a bit weird to say about him since Benson is known for his high "screaming", but it almost sounds like he's singing out of his range, and it feels unnecessary considering there's no lyrical change - missed opportunity to change the lyrics to "I'm gonna be the one you call", or otherwise just remove the key change altogether. I don't know, this song's fine, it's just... why is there a key change at the end?

8. Wanted Man

My rating: 3/5 Decent

I think this is my least favorite song on the album. We're almost to the end and it's mostly uphill from here. I'm not crazy about this fast 6/8 synth-pop rhythm used in a lot of songs, and the production here is well-made but ultimately very generic and forgettable. But the vocals are great as usual, and the lyrics... well, they're alright. I'm not sure what it's going for here. He feels wanted because of someone, and I guess that's a relatable concept, but it's a very repetitive song. I don't have much to say for this one, because even my least favorites on this album are not songs I would skip.

9. Take Me Home

My rating: 5/5 Great

YES!!! This is my favorite song on the album right now, and it might be easy to see why because of my strange taste in music. It's another pop-rock ballad like Momma Song or a lot of the Fireworks & Rollerblades tracks, and my favorite thing about it is a word that'll instantly bring you back to my 2023-24 blog: E V O L U T I O N. It's a piano driven ballad with gorgeous instrumentation that progresses as the song moves along. And the lyrics are beautifully written. I'm not sure 100% what they mean, and they seem to be about being with someone that makes him feel nostalgic, probably someone he's known since childhood. And I love it. Benson Boone haters, listen to this song and you'll completely forget that you once only knew him as the "moonbeam icecream" guy.

10. Young American Heart

My rating: 5/5 Great

And we finish the album with a song that was on yesterday's Hallett's Hits July 4th mix, a great album closer, and an all-around great song. We finish things off back at that 80s synth sound with a resolutionary and nostalgic album closer, with lyrics about special times with the ones he loves, and super well-done vocals. Yeah, it's nothing out-of-the-ordinary but that's kinda the point. It's a song about the joy in simple occurrences, and that's what it embodies. (I know this review is making this song sound real great, isn't it, lol.) Well, I love this as an album closer. Wow!

Conclusion

Overall album score: 90% (Great Album)

So, it's actually a better album than I expected, currently falling at #13 on my album score chart out of the 21 full-length albums I've reviewed. I don't know what else to say here, just please, if you "hate" Benson Boone, listen to the other eight songs on this album and come back to me.

Favorite songs: Take Me Home, Reminds Me Of You, Momma Song, Mystical Magical

Least favorite songs: Wanted Man, Man In Me, I Wanna Be The One You Call

That's all for now! Byeeeeeeeeee!