Hi I have a clothing drop shipping website. I make custom designs than I use an apparel drop shipping app that connects to my shopify store to handle manufacturing and shipping. My store has been live for 3 weeks and the most amount of traffic I have since opening has been 13 visitors.
I have had a few add to carts Over the 3 weeks but no sale conversions. I would like input and suggestions on what I could do better, any insights would help! Thanks 🙏
Good Vibe Apparel

Hi I have a clothing drop shipping website. I make custom designs than I use an apparel drop shipping app that connects to my shopify store to handle manufacturing and shipping. My store has been live for 3 weeks and the most amount of traffic I have since opening has been 13 visitors.
I have had a few add to carts Over the 3 weeks but no sale conversions. I would like input and suggestions on what I could do better, any insights would help! Thanks 🙏
Good Vibe Apparel

I’ve heard this song many times, however I can’t quite remember any lyrics. To my understanding it’s somewhat well known. I have no other information other than the chorus sounds something like the link I will post in the comments. TIA.

Round 21 Voting Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBaA3MZf3VQSz3USAgTQZ23SF9gsme_UmSfl5A96n9WoAPyA/viewform?usp=sf_link
Previous Rounds Results
(126.) Purify (125.) Invisible Kid (124.) Poor Twisted Me (123.) Shoot Me Again (122.) Slither (121.) My World (120.) Dirty Window (119.) All Within My Hands (118.) Ronnie (117.) Attitude (116.) Cure (115.) Bad Seed (114.) Murder One (113.) Am I Savage? (112.) Some Kind of Monster (111.) Where the Wild Things Are (110.) Low Man's Lyric (109.) ManUNkind (108.) Better Than You (107.) 2x4 (106.) The House Jack Built (105.) Carpe Diem Baby (104.) Sweet Amber (103.) Prince Charming (102.) Jump in the Fire (101.) Don't Tread on Me (100.) Thorn Within (99.) - Human (98.) Just a Bullet Away (97.) Wasting My Hate (96.) To Hell and Back (95.) Mama Said (94.) Here Comes Revenge (93.) Hate Train (92.) Confusion (91.) Devil’s Dance (90.) Rebel of Babylon (89.) I Disappear (88.) Lords of Summer (87.) Aint My Bitch (86.) Escape (85.) If Darkness Had a Son (84.) Metal Militia (83.) Cyanide (82.) Broken, Beat and Scarred (81.) Hero of the Day (80.) The Struggle Within (79.) Crown of Barbed Wire (78.) Sleepwalk My Life Away (77.) Of Wolf and Man (76.) The Unnamed Feeling (75.) Frantic (74.) Now That We’re Dead (73.) Fixxxer (72.) St. Anger (71.) My Apocalypse (70.) Phantom Lord (69.) Suicide and Redemption (68.) The End of the Line (67.) Screaming Suicide (66.) You Must Burn! (65.) Through the Never (64.) Dream No More (63.) Chasing Light (62.) No Remorse (61.) Motorbreath (60.) Judas Kiss (59.) Unforgiven II (58.) Too Far Gone? (57.) Holier Than Thou (56.) Lux Aeterna (55.) Unforgiven III (54.) The Memory Remains (53.) Shadows Follow (52.) Hardwired (51.) Hit the Lights (50.) Atlas, Rise (49.) Trapped Under Ice (48.) My Friend of Misery (47.) The Thing That Should Not Be (46.) Room of Mirrors (45.) Halo on Fire (44.) 72 Seasons (43.) That Was Just Your Life (42.) The God That Failed (41.) To Live is to Die
Round 20 Results
(40.) No Leaf Clover (39.) Eye of the Beholder (38.) Inamorata
Vote for the next 3 songs to be eliminated in the link above.
What songs are you surprised have been eliminated? What songs are you surprised haven't been eliminated?

I was a 5 star shopper for the last 2 years. Occasionally I’d get a 3 star from a customer that was annoyed some items were out of stock. But it was removed as the lowest rating and I maintained 5 stars.
Now these last 2 weeks, I’ve dropped to a 4.75, but there is no feedback given on these 1-3 star ratings. I communicate, I’m fast, good replacements, and I almost always bag myself. I triple check eggs and double check produce. I follow delivery instructions.
Why can a customer give a low rating but leave no reason for it? No items reported missing, nothing damaged or spoiled. No disliked replacements?
I’m about to hit platinum cart this week, but if I get one more low rating, I won’t hit it due to my rating score. I’m about ready to scream, as nothing has changed in the quality of my shopping. I do this full time now, and these people are messing with my ability to provide for my kids and not even leaving a reason. Why is this allowed?!

This song kept coming up on my Jack Harlow radio on Spotify, and I swore I saved it to a playlist. Now I can’t find it for the life of me.
Lyrics I remember, that are probably incorrect since Google is no help:

1. I say I’m a Gemini, what you make that face for
   
2. Shorty like a taurus, she love…
   
3. She asks me all the time like what’s your name, what’s your sign
   

Examples of other artists on that station: Amine, Post Malone, Lil Nas X, KYLE

There’s one store in the middle of my town that I pretty much always sit at to wait for batches. I like to sit at the very edges of the parking lot right next to the entrance so I’m as far from the door as possible. The only people I ever see park that far out are employees and maybe once a week an actual customer. It helps that there are 2 big trees on either side of the entrance so these are some of the only shady spots in the lot. Since it’s so empty, I usually just park my shit wherever there’s shade, lines be damned. This morning I get there and there’s 3 shopping carts in the middle of the shady spots. No big deal, I park at an angle next to them so I stay in the shade. Maybe 10 mins later another shopper pulls in and does the same thing on the other side of the carts. I had been there for probably 30 minutes when out of nowhere a very pissed off looking woman of about 70 or so comes up to my driver door. I crack my window a bit to see what she wants and she immediately lays into me about how I’m such a selfish asshole for taking up so much shade, and she’s at least 3 times my age, and she wanted to park in the shade but now she can’t, and I think she called me selfish or an asshole at least 5 times each. Guess I’m not allowed to park in the shade because I’m young. Keep in mind, there’s at least 5 perfectly empty shaded spots across the entrance from us. Now had she just been polite about it and asked to park where I was, I would’ve had no problem moving for her. But when you decide to be a bitch out of the gate, lol get fucked. I just went ‘mm’kay, sorry I was here first’ and rolled the window up on her. Of course she immediately went over to give the other shopper the same lecture and we just gave each other this ‘the fuck was that’ look

[REQUEST] What's a good NEW slangy word for this new thing: people loading up a cart in a store and just walking out without paying because management won't press charges and cops won't even investigate
there's no specific one word neologism for it yet as far as I know , that's what I'm looking for: a distinct term not in use beforehand to describe something that hasn't been a thing before now
'brazen' shoplifting is the most common adjective, but it's just tacking an adjective on to an older word that used to exclusively mean covert theft
https://nypost.com/2022/07/10/shoplifters-hit-supermarkets-with-increasingly-brazen-heists/
rampant and brazen - widespread and no longer covert
that's distinctly new and different and deserves it's own name
it's like looting but looting happens in the context of a COMPLETE breakdown of the social order; a riot - this is a more localized, more time limited breakdown of the social order
"Not Worth The Hassle For Minimum Wage Store Staff To Get Involved" phenomenon: true but too wordy for everyday use. that goes to the stance of employees, but doesn't address lawlessness , novelty, and a fundamental change in social norms
some employees have always been apathetic about certain aspects of their jobs, and most employees never get involved in stopping shoplifting anyway - that's the responsibility of security, as directed by management . Both of them have surrendered to the offenders.
'Shoplifting ' existed before, but not in the 'load up a cart and walk right out the door in plain sight, and fight with security if they say anything, or security just does nothing' kind of way
'Socialism' - allow businesses to close like in California, put more stress on common man to find items, government comes in to “save the day” and rations resources. that's an explanation of the dynamic, not a one-word new term to describe this new thing
this may be a follow on effect of some socialist politicians' policies, but it isn't socialism itself
'Being a scumbag.' Not a new word, and it's true but there are plenty of other ways to be a scumbag so it's not specific enough to the situation
'The Purge' has a similar vibe because it's a sanctioned societal breakdown, but this case is violent entitled overt theft, not group murder

[REQUEST] What's a good NEW slangy word for this new thing: people loading up a cart in a store and just walking out without paying because management won't press charges and cops won't even investigate
there's no specific one word neologism for it yet as far as I know , that's what I'm looking for: a distinct term not in use beforehand to describe something that hasn't been a thing before now
'brazen' shoplifting is the most common adjective, but it's just tacking an adjective on to an older word that used to exclusively mean covert theft
https://nypost.com/2022/07/10/shoplifters-hit-supermarkets-with-increasingly-brazen-heists/
rampant and brazen - widespread and no longer covert
that's distinctly new and different and deserves it's own name
it's like looting but looting happens in the context of a COMPLETE breakdown of the social order; a riot - this is a more localized, more time limited breakdown of the social order
"Not Worth The Hassle For Minimum Wage Store Staff To Get Involved" phenomenon: true but too wordy for everyday use. that goes to the stance of employees, but doesn't address lawlessness , novelty, and a fundamental change in social norms
some employees have always been apathetic about certain aspects of their jobs, and most employees never get involved in stopping shoplifting anyway - that's the responsibility of security, as directed by management . Both of them have surrendered to the offenders.
'Shoplifting ' existed before, but not in the 'load up a cart and walk right out the door in plain sight, and fight with security if they say anything, or security just does nothing' kind of way
'Socialism' - allow businesses to close like in California, put more stress on common man to find items, government comes in to “save the day” and rations resources. that's an explanation of the dynamic, not a one-word new term to describe this new thing
this may be a follow on effect of some socialist politicians' policies, but it isn't socialism itself
'Being a scumbag.' Not a new word, and it's true but there are plenty of other ways to be a scumbag so it's not specific enough to the situation
'The Purge' has a similar vibe because it's a sanctioned societal breakdown, but this case is violent entitled overt theft, not group murder

Hi All,
Back in 2019 I was enjoying singing karaoke in pubs around London. It was all a bit of fun, but I decided one day to take some singing lessons to see if I could take things a little more seriously. In the course of taking lessons with my coach he asked me if I had ever considered doing some songwriting. I said, ‘but I don’t play an instrument’. ‘No problem’ he said, just come back with some ideas and I can work out the chords with you.
What to write about? I love 60s folk, particularly Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton, and country rock like the Byrds, but I am just a surveyor in London living a pretty normal life. I couldn’t write anything like that could I? That said, being out on the road and on the trains every day means I get to meet lots of people and know London like the back of my hand. So I started writing about that…
I came back the next week with a couple of songs in my head and some lyrics. Together we gradually put together a dozen songs over the course of the next few months. The next logical step was to try and record them…
With Ian, my producers help, we got some studio time and a handful of session musicians from his local area down in Hastings on the south coast. Negotiating the pandemic and the logistics of recording bits and pieces remotely, and then finally meeting to finalise the record, we had 10 songs all recorded and ready to go.
And here it is. In all, we have 12 different musicians on the record. Many from Hastings but also with some overdubs from a fiddler from Texas and a backing singer from Virginia. The project has been frustrating and expensive, but also really enjoyable and an example of what you can do with a bit of passion and perseverance.
As a vinyl fanatic I wanted to get this pressed. As you will probably be aware, this is no easy task with the lack of capacity at pressing plants, but I now have a small run of records pressed on some cool marble red vinyl. Many of the guys on the record have never been on a record before, so this is just as cool for them as it is for me.
I am selling these on my Bandcamp page for the cost price of £12 per record in the UK (A little more to cover postage elsewhere). If you take a listen and enjoy what you hear, I would be very grateful for your patronage. The record is also available on all your usual streaming platforms and for download.
Here is the link to my Bandcamp https://alanmahon-bouquet.bandcamp.com/album/one-man-on-the-line
Thanks for giving it a listen.
Alan Mahon-Bouquet

Hi All,
Back in 2019 I was enjoying singing karaoke in pubs around London. It was all a bit of fun, but I decided one day to take some singing lessons to see if I could take things a little more seriously. In the course of taking lessons with my coach he asked me if I had ever considered doing some songwriting. I said, ‘but I don’t play an instrument’. ‘No problem’ he said, just come back with some ideas and I can work out the chords with you.
What to write about? I love 60s folk and country rock like the Byrds, but I am just a surveyor in London living a pretty normal life. I couldn’t write anything like that could I? That said, being out on the road and on the trains every day means I get to meet lots of people and know London like the back of my hand. So I started writing about that…
I came back the next week with a couple of songs in my head and some lyrics. Together we gradually put together a dozen songs over the course of the next few months. The next logical step was to try and record them…
With Ian, my producers help, we got some studio time and a handful of session musicians from his local area down in Hastings on the south coast. Negotiating the pandemic and the logistics of recording bits and pieces remotely, and then finally meeting to finalise the record, we had 10 songs all recorded and ready to go.
And here it is. In all, we have 12 different musicians on the record. Many from Hastings but also with some overdubs from a fiddler from Texas and a backing singer from Virginia. The project has been frustrating and expensive, but also really enjoyable and an example of what you can do with a bit of passion and perseverance.
As a vinyl fanatic I wanted to get this pressed. As you will probably be aware, this is no easy task with the lack of capacity at pressing plants, but I now have a small run of records pressed on some cool marble red vinyl. Many of the guys on the record have never been on a record before, so this is just as cool for them as it is for me.
I am selling these on my Bandcamp page for the cost price of £12 per record in the UK (A little more to cover postage elsewhere). If you take a listen and enjoy what you hear, I would be very grateful for your patronage. The record is also available on all your usual streaming platforms and for download.
Here is the link to my Bandcamp https://alanmahon-bouquet.bandcamp.com/album/one-man-on-the-line
Thanks for giving it a listen.
Alan Mahon-Bouquet

Hello! I am enrolled in a fully-online, asynchronous class this semester at my public university in Florida. One of my professors posts all of his lectures as powerpoints with audio recorded over, which does not have Closed Captioning. Everything I have read on the universities website says that closed captioning is a requirement for all recorded audio, but when I reached out to my case manager in the office of accessibility, I was told that I need to get it documented that I have an audio processing disorder, and apply for another accomodation to get CC.
Is there any sort of ADA law that states that university lectures must have Closed Captioning provided for ALL students and ALL prerecorded videos, or would that be up to the discretion of the university on a per person basis? I am certain I can get those accommodations, but some of my classmates are struggling as well, one of them going as far as to pay out of pocket for captioning services.
The university website states "All recorded videos provided to students by instructors are required to have correct captions that fully match the speech of the people in the video." There is no specific "closed captioning" accommodation either, just note-taking assistance, alternative text services, and ASL/CART. Happy to provide more specific information if needed. Thank you!

I know there’s no way to tell for certain, but I thought I’d leave my stats. I am just so anxious, and some reassurance would be really nice right now.
I’ve been smoking daily for the past 2 months, but I’ve only gone through 2 carts during that time.
I’m 5’11 190lbs, but 10-12% body fat and very active in the gym.
I have a test in 50 days; will I be okay by then?

I always wonder how closely someone is listening to Nas whenever I hear them claim that Em—or anyone else—is a better lyricist than Nas. Either they're not hearing or they're not understanding what's being said. It's very difficult to say that Eminem, who generally speaks plainly, can match Nas' poetic style. Nas is the most lyrically gifted rapper in the history of rap. Maybe Nas at his worst can be compared to Biggie or Kendrick at their absolute best. However, Nas' poetic brilliance and depth are unparalleled. Poets have actually studied him.
Em is most likely the most technically proficient rapper to date, with Big L possibly coming in second. He is also incredibly intelligent. However, lyrically, he doesn't go beyond conventional means of expression. No one would ever read his lyrics by themselves. The language itself never makes one feel anything.
Nas
Just read any of nas's lyrics that you can find online. His use of metaphor and his language-stretching techniques are on a poetic level not found in the majority of hip hop. To fully understand and experience his impact, you must read him repeatedly. Many people enjoy Nas because of his style and smooth flow, but it's simple to overlook the depth of his lyrics. If Em says Nas is superior, you should double-check to see if you're mistaken.
That's my thought anyway; I'd like to hear your opinion on this.

Damn.... It's June already. Amazing how fast this year has been passing by. Not much new in PNWestland - all's good and no drama - just the way I like it. Might as well get on with the report - let's go....
The BEST - These are the places that scored perfect 100s. These places are really doing a good job at keeping their kitchens clean. The places that score a perfect 100 are really going all out to do things right and they deserve your support.
Badlands Bistro (f), La Pine (5/19)
Sweet Spot Ice Cream (mob), La Pine (5/19)
Gyro Power (mob), Bend (5/18)
Bluma's Chicken & Waffles trailer (mob), Bend (5/18)
Toasty (wh), Bend (5/18)
Thailandia Asian Food Cart (wh), Bend (5/18)
Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Store #2887, Bend (5/18)
Teriyaki Madness, Bend (5/18)
Toasty (mob), Bend (5/18)
Carmelita's (mob), Sisters (5/17)
Bend Pizza Kitchen, Bend (5/17)
Austin Mercantile (f), Bend (5/16)
The WORST SCORERS: Now comes everyone's favorite part of the report - the list of Rotten Restaurants who scored worse than 85. I don't post any place that scores 85 or above even if they were the worst inspections for a particular week. 85 is a solid B and I don't want to shame them.
^{^} new stuff ^{^} None this week
I'm going to stick these identifiers here so that when you see stuff like (mob) and (wh) you'll have some idea of what they are talking about. I'm not positive about all of these but they're probably pretty close. If you see anything I've missed or I guessed wrong please let me know.
e - fee exempt
mob - mobile
wh - warehouse
rp - recreational park
f - fixed position?
com - commissary
tf - traveler's accommodation
L - Limited Service
If you have time on your hands and want to check out the county inspection site here's the link - https://inspections.myhealthdepartment.com/or-deschutes-county
It's a very nice community resource. Kudos to the county for making it this easy to check up on things.
We come to an end to another report. Have fun and have a great week. I'll be back again next week with more of the down and dirty.
In the mean time - any of you guys remember the Original Iron Chef show from Japan? Greatest cooking show of all time. With the absolute top staff of people that dubbed the show in English. And I'm not talking about the the re-releases where they were too damn cheap to pay the royalties to use the original music. I mean the original! I just found out that my favorite Iron Chef Chen Kenichi passed away a little while back. Here's to you Chen san. You gave MrsPNWest & I a lot of pleasure watching you cook! In honor of Chen Kenichi we will be having Garlic Chili Prawns for dinner tonight and I'm going to use Ketchup just like Chen did.
https://youtu.be/hrNWLDq0EVM
Till next time....

Hello all-american rejects, mothers of Stacy and Hoobastankarinas! It is finally time to rate one of the subgenres of all time - pop punk! Welcome to the 00s Pop Punk Rate.

Introduction - What Is Pop Punk?

Pop punk is a genre that was invented by musical artist Machine Gun Kelly in the year 2020.
No but really, despite the sendup of it MGK contributed, the subgenre actually has a long and storied history dating back to the 1970s. One could argue bands such as The Ramones were essential foundations for the genre, if not themselves being a pop punk band. A reaction to the emergence of punk in the 70s, pop punk takes the energetic thrashings of punk music and overlays the sensibilities of pop song-crafting. Pop-punk saw an explosion of popularity in the late 90s with the rise of bands such as Blink-182, Green Day and The Offspring, and arguably hit its peak in the 00s with the creation of Van’s Warped Tour, a touring music festival that featured a lineup of some of the biggest pop-punk, post-punk and metal acts of the time. Alongside its rise, it would come to incorporate elements of ska, college rock, emo and post-punk.
Another element of pop-punk that differentiates it from punk is its lyrical focus. While punk’s focus tends to be heavily political and explicitly anti-authoritarian, pop-punk trades that topical focus for poppier subjects - love, lust, drunkenness, and how much the singers truly hate this town (worth mentioning that while this is in general true, especially of more mainstream pop punk acts, there are some notable exceptions).
In discussions of subgenres of punk, pop-punk tends to be largely ignored or snidely dismissed by both pop and punk communities but I think this is unfair. Yes, its lyrical subjects are often sophomoric and steeped in teen angst. Yes, the pop focus can cause the songs to feel derivative for some punk listeners. Yes, the culture surrounding pop punk has given us moments that are unintentionally hilarious. However, there is a reason this genre gained such attention - to borrow a phrase from pop, because it slaps. It takes pop music and thrashes it around. It fills the listener with nostalgic angst with power chord after power chord. It is an ode to the immaturity of youth. It is wildly influential; you can see pop-punk’s fingerprints in tons of modern genres - emo rap, hyperpop, and even Billboard-smashing pop songs.
Pop-punk is fun and raucous and a fantastic send-up to the teenage years many of us reminisce about. Today, it gets its due. Happy rating. - u/seanderlust
If you already know the drill because you're a regular rater, feel free to get rolling with the rate. Below are links to submit, a Pastebin ballot, and playlists for both Spotify and Apple Music:
Link to send in your scores
Pastebin Ballot
Spotify Playlist │ Apple Music Playlist

The songs

1. The Academy Is... - About a Girl
   
2. Alkaline Trio - Mercy Me
   
3. The All-American Rejects - Swing, Swing
   
4. The All-American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
   
5. The All-American Rejects - Move Along
   
6. The All-American Rejects - Gives You Hell
   
7. All Time Low - Dear Maria, Count Me In
   
8. All Time Low - Weightless
   
9. American Hi-Fi - Flavor of the Weak
   
10. blink-182 - First Date
    
11. blink-182 - The Rock Show
    
12. blink-182 - Stay Together For The Kids
    
13. blink-182 - Feeling This
    
14. blink-182 - I Miss You
    
15. Bowling For Soup - 1985
    
16. Boys Like Girls - The Great Escape
    
17. Boys Like Girls - Love Drunk
    
18. Busted - Crashed The Wedding
    
19. The Cab - One of THOSE Nights
    
20. Cute Is What We Aim For - The Curse of Curves
    
21. Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down
    
22. Every Avenue - Tell Me I'm A Wreck
    
23. Fountains Of Wayne - Stacy's Mom
    
24. Good Charlotte - The Anthem
    
25. Good Charlotte - Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous
    
26. Good Charlotte - Girls & Boys
    
27. Good Charlotte - I Just Wanna Live
    
28. Good Charlotte - I Don't Wanna Be In Love (Dance Floor Anthem)
    
29. Hoobastank - The Reason
    
30. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
    
31. Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness
    
32. Jimmy Eat World - Pain
    
33. Lustra - Scotty Doesn't Know
    
34. Marianas Trench - Cross My Heart
    
35. Mayday Parade - Jamie All Over
    
36. Mayday Parade - Jersey
    
37. Motion City Soundtrack - My Favorite Accident
    
38. Motion City Soundtrack - The Future Freaks Me Out
    
39. Motion City Soundtrack - Everything is Alright
    
40. New Found Glory - My Friends Over You
    
41. Plain White T's - Hate (I Really Don't Like You)
    
42. Plain White T's - Our Time Now
    
43. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - Face Down
    
44. Relient K - Be My Escape
    
45. Short Stack - Sway Sway Baby!
    
46. Simple Plan - I'm Just a Kid
    
47. Simple Plan - Perfect
    
48. Simple Plan - Welcome to My Life
    
49. Something Corporate - I Woke Up In A Car
    
50. Sugarcult - Memory
    
51. Sum 41 - Fat Lip
    
52. Sum 41 - In Too Deep
    
53. Taking Back Sunday - MakeDamnSure
    
54. Taking Back Sunday - Cute Without The 'E' (Cut From The Team)
    
55. The Used - The Taste of Ink
    
56. We The Kings - Check Yes, Juliet
    
57. Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
    
58. Yellowcard - Only One
    
59. Yellowcard - Rough Landing, Holly
    
60. +44 - When Your Heart Stops Beating
    

BONUS

Okay, so.
The 00s pop punk era of course coincided with the rise of a number of other genres. Seeing an opportunity for a genre overlap in the interest of gaining fans from other genres, indie punk and metal label Fearless Records put out a series of compilation albums over the 00s and 10s. These CDs contained tracks of punk bands doing covers of pop, metal, and various other genres. They referred to it under the umbrella term Punk Goes… and featured such titles as Punk Goes Metal, Punk Goes 80s, and Punk Goes Crunk.
The most popular though, and the one that garnered the most subsequent albums was Punk Goes Pop. In this series, punk bands covered various pop songs that were popular at the time in punkier stylings. Think of it as Now That’s What I Call Music, but if all the songs were sung by Mayday Parade. It was an interesting idea and gained the involved punk bands attention outside of their core fanbase. I mean come on - pop?! AND punk??!! What is this, a crossover episode?
For our bonus rate, we will be rating a sample of tracks that were recorded for the Punk Goes… series. Some of these are quite good! Some of these are certainly pieces of music that musicians decided to record! But which is the best? That is for you, dear popheads, to decide.

1. Yellowcard - Everywhere
   
2. All Time Low - Umbrella
   
3. Mayday Parade - When I Grow Up
   
4. The Cab - Disturbia
   
5. Artist Vs Poet - Bad Romance
   
6. The Ready Set - Airplanes
   
7. Go Radio - Rolling In The Deep
   
8. The Downtown Fiction - Super Bass
   
9. Seaway - Closer
   

To be clear: Rating these songs is optional. You can give a score to one of them, two of them, all nine, or any number in between. You cannot use your 0 or 11 on any of them.

Rules & Instructions

PLEASE READ THESE THOROUGHLY TO AVOID HAVING TO DEAL WITH ANY PROBLEMS WITH YOUR BALLOT LATER.

• You must listen to and score every song in the main rate. Ballots with missing scores will not be accepted.
• Your scores must be on a scale from 1 to 10 and can include one decimal place but no more. So 7.3 is fine, but 7.31 is not.
• You may give one song in the whole rate a score of 11 and one other a score of 0, so if you want to award these scores, save them for your favourite and least favourite songs in the rate, respectively. You must leave a comment on the songs you give an 11 or a 0, and they must be songs from the main rate, not the bonus.
• We encourage you to leave comments of your general thoughts or reasoning behind your scores on any songs you wish. If you choose to do so however, they must be in this format, simply leaving one space after your score:

```
One Of THOSE Nights: 3 They wanna be Juicy J feat. The Weeknd soooooo bad ```
Any other formats will get your ballot rejected. WRONG EXAMPLES:
```
I Woke Up In A Car: Yeah but did you wake up in a new Bugatti? (8) (WRONG!)
The Curse Of Curves: 7: me getting a D+ on my trigonometry homework (WRONG!)
```

• Your ballot must be formatted exactly like the template in the message link, so make sure you use it, or the template in the backup pastebin, for your scores to be accepted.
• Your scores are not confidential. They will be revealed, along with any comments, with your username attached.
• DO NOT SABOTAGE the rate by giving outrageously low/high scores for the sole purpose of skewing the results, we reserve the right to exclude any ballot we suspect of this. If you're worried your scores could be mistakenly perceived as such, all you need to do is leave comments explaining the reasoning behind them.
• If you want to change any of your scores or comments after you've already submitted your ballot, feel free to message myself or my cohost u/seanderlust before the submission deadline to sort it.

The rate is Due on July 15th, if you think you need a small extension please let one of the hosts know!

Finally, here are the links you'll need to start rating:

Submission Link

If there's a problem with it, here's the backup pastebin.

And the playlists of all the songs in the rate.

• Spotify
• Apple Music (thank you akanewasright)

Enjoy!

Hello popheads, or at least the 80 of you who actively do rates, and welcome to the Alt Club Girls Rate. Now you may be wondering "King, what is alt club?" and my answer to you is: I don't know. Alt Club is kind of just a genre I made up!! But club and dance music obviously has an extensive history and it covers a whole range of sounds, and these albums all solidly fit under that umbrella. One thing (for me) that unites these albums, other than being three of my favourites from 2022, is their maximalism: Sudan, Kilo and Shygirl are all mixed media artists who have a clear creative vision for their work and these albums and eras are what they created when they were free of any societal or genre confinement.
Another thing the three of them having common is being black artists in alternative spaces, and how that reflects itself in their music. I think highlighting that they are black does a lot for representation and allowing people to see themselves in these genres, but on the flipside seeing someone only as a 'black artist' can be limiting, and these projects expertly break free of those labels and restrictions. These albums dance from genre to genre like they're going through themed rooms in a nightclub, and I'm so excited for everyone who loves them to get a chance to talk about them, and everyone who is unfamiliar to fall in love with them!
In case you don't know what the fuck is going on, we conveniently have a very helpful introduction to and explanation of what rates are and how they work, and we have a very active and lovely community in the rates discord channel in the popheads discord server who are willing to help any newcomers!! And ofc if you're already a regular here and know exactly what you're doing:
Submission Link Pastebin Ballot Spotify Playlist Apple Music Playlist

Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen

Spotify Apple Music YouTube Tidal

If I cut my hair, hope I grow it long Back long, back time like way before If I wear it straight will they like me more? Like those girls on front covers

- Selfish Soul
One of the primary themes of Natural Brown Prom Queen is homecoming; Sudan (who now lives in LA) is originally from Cincinatti, Ohio (area code #513), and spends a lot of the album tackling the idea of feeling at home or belonging and the restlessness of feeling in between two places. On the albums lead single Home Maker she sings about how she makes her apartment and home studio feel more homely, and compares it to feeling at home with someone you love. In fact, this album was entirely crafted in that home studio over lockdown, with Sudan self producing almost the whole thing. The project is much more electronic than her previous album (the earthy Athena) but is still rooted very firmly in the same sentiments and style, and of course the same brilliant violin work that Sudan is known for woven throughout.
Another thread across the album is Sudan saying things that people are afraid to say, or doing things she might not be supposed to. Milk Me gets outrageously horny, with Sudan singing "your finger up my pussy like a honey stick" over such ethereal production that the subject matter might slip right by you. Sudan tackles her identity as a black women throughout, writing about the colorism she faces being darkskin, or about how her hair ties into her self-worth and other's perception of her on Selfish Soul. Ultimately this album is a lot about her reinventing her image and putting her blackness at the forefront.
"The highest version of myself is a ghetto fabulous girl. I can’t run away from that. It’s time to show these motherfuckers who I am. I’m from Cincinnati, baby.”

1. Home Maker
2. NBPQ (Topless)
3. Ciara
4. Selfish Soul
5. Loyal (EDD)
6. OMG BRITT
7. ChevyS10
8. Copycat (Broken Notions)
9. FLUE
10. TDLY (Homegrown Land)
11. Freakalizer
12. Homesick (Gorgeous & Arrogant)
13. Milk Me
14. Yellow Brick Road
15. #513

Kilo Kish - AMERICAN GURL

Spotify Apple music YouTube Tidal

It's so hard to come to grips like this If I wanted truth this life is it If I wanted you there goes my end

- ATTENTION POLITICIAN
If I were to sum Kilo up as an artist in one word it would be chameleon. Each body of work Kilo's put out, whether it be music, fashion or art, has been an evolution, but not along one linear path. AMERICAN GURL isn't her finale, it's just a representation of where she is at now. The album is the embodiement of a candy store or an arcade, where the album's narrative takes place, sickeningly sweet synthy chaos with deceptively dark lyrical themes of consumerism and tackling what it means to be American looming underneath. On the albums' title track she sings "In a locked box, in a locked draw, will I find me an American Girl", immediately jumping into the idea that as a black artist she doesn't identify with the idea of an 'american girl' that is presented to us, instead that her own american girl is locked up inside of her. On my personal favourite bonus track Star Power, Kilo tackles fame and trying to make it in LA, and how endless that feels. Kilo ponders the idea that in such a capatlist world we consume so many different things, when you strip that all away, what of that actually is you?
The album couldn't be more of a 180 from her debut album six years prior, Reflections in Real Time, an alternative r&b and indie album that is equal parts manifesto and intimate diary. Where in her previous work she opted for minimalism, now is the time for all out maximalism. The use of bright, campy consumerism and Americanism allows Kilo to reflect on fears that are both unanimous and extremely personal: Am I pretty enough? Am I good enough? Why can't I do what somebody else is doing?
"That's the theme of American Gurl — exploring that I am a product of my environment and these are the things that have been put on me in this time so far."

1. AMERICAN GURL
2. DEATH FANTASY
3. DISTRACTIONS III: SPOILED ROTTEN
4. NO APOLOGY!
5. BLOODY FUTURE
6. CHOICE COWBOY
7. ATTENTION POLITICIAN
8. NEW TRICKS: ART, AESTHETICS AND MONEY
9. TV BABY V.2 (LATCH KEY MARCH)
10. ON THE OUTSIDE (JUSTIN'S SONG)
11. SUPER KO LOVE
12. INTELLIGENT DESIGN
13. GOOD MONEY?
14. NOT YOUR ACCESSORY
15. STAR POWER: LA NIGHTMARES
16. INCREDIBLE WORLD

Shygirl - Nymph

Spotify Apple music YouTube Tidal

Yeah it's you that I'm thinking of when I'm feelin' hot Your voice dripping like honey straight from the honey pot Don't stop running on my mind, I can't get enough Is it so bad to just like to be touched?

- Shlut
Nymph is actually a very different debut from Shygirl than what we could've got - she more or less made a record over lockdown, in a similar vein to her fan favourite ep ALIAS, but felt like it was too easy. "If I don't give myself that space to myself, no one is! No one's gonna expect me to do anything else." and thank god she did give herself that challenge, because Nymph is the perfect evolution of Shygirl's character and sound. Taking strong influence from 00's garage and r&b, tracks like the lead Firefly bring the sound into the 2020's with added hyperpop flourishes. Much like Sudan and Kilo, Shygirl is very much a sole visionary, but she has a star studded team of producers behind her to help bring her vision to life consisting of Bloodpop, Danny L Harle, Mura Masa and longtime collaborator and friend Sega Bodega. Album opener Woe is a haunting telling of fame and expectations, with Shygirl singing "When will you see it from my side?". I actually saw Shygirl at the tail end of last year at Printworks in London, which if you're unfamiliar, was a sweaty, gay warehouse used for all kinds of raves and gigs, and I truly can't imagine a setting where Shygirl's music is better suited.
Shygirl also is on a mission to reclaim her own body from everyday misogyny, with Coochie (a bedtime story) being a playful, nursery rhyme esque track about women's bodies and battling the idea that they are weird or undesirable. But of course the overarching theme and imagery of the album is that of a woodland nymph, inspired by romanticism work like Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Nymph as a record is not an attempt to rebrand Shygirl's image, but add depth to it - she can be a provocative, industrial rapper just as well as she can be an ethereal, sensitive artist, and there's no need to limit herself to one or the other.
“When I think of a nymph, I feel an affinity to the ethos of that character – I have felt beguiling, fascinating, mysterious, supernatural and also part of nature. You don’t see people like me in these stories, and I have as much right as anyone else.”

1. Woe
2. Come For Me
3. Shlut / Shlut (feat. Sevdaliza)
4. Little Bit
5. Firefly
6. Coochie (a bedtime story)
7. Heaven / Heaven (feat. Tinashe)
8. Nike / Nike (feat. Deto Black)
9. Poison
10. Honey
11. Missin u
12. Wildfire
13. Crush (feat. Erika de Casier)
14. Playboy / Positions
15. Cleo

Shygirl dropped Nymph_O this year, a side/deluxe album with additional tracks, features & remixes. For the tracks with added features that didn't necessarily remix the song (Shlut, Heaven and Nike) I have added the more popular version on the ballot/playlist (originals for both Shlut and Nike, Tinashe remix for Heaven) but feel free to score whichever version you'd rather

Kelela - Raven

wait til January 2024

Rules

Most of you know all of this, but if you don’t, please read this!! And if you then still have any questions about the rate process or the formatting of your ballot or anything, feel free to ask away :D

• You must listen to and submit a score for every song, ballots with missing scores will not be accepted and you will be asked to submit a score
  
• Each song must be scored between a 1 and a 10 (with exception of an optional 0 and 11). Scores are allowed to one decimal point but no further, meaning you are allowed to score something a 5.5 or a 9.7, but a 5.42 or 9.75 will make the rate machine act all goofy so please don’t. <sup>Also please make sure to use periods and not commas for any decimal places</sup>
  
• Your 11 and 0 are reserved for one song each in the whole rate. You aren’t obligated to use either of them at all, but they are fun to use
  
• Please please use the message format linked in this post, and if that doesn’t work, just use this backup pastebin ballot and send it to me with that.
  
• If you want to change any of your scores after you submit them, message me on reddit or discord (king!#2326). So long as it is before the final due date that should be okay :)
  
• Your scores are not considered confidential, you are free to talk about them once you have submitted them (you are also free to keep it all to yourself til your reveal) meaning I am also allowed to publicly drag the bad ballots I get
  
• Including comments in your ballot is not mandatory, however if you do include any they must be formatted like this:
  

FLUE: 10 me when i sneeze ✅

Any other formats will simply be rejected, such as:

Ciara: 4, does anyone think capitalism is a good thing? i love ciara i think she's a really interesting artist ❌
ATTENTION POLITICIAN: (9.5) what is joe biden's plan to fix this ❌
Nike: 0 - he told me Nike just tank it (please don't tank Nike) ❌

• You can also leave album comments, but if you do, make sure you put a colon at the end of the album title, for example:

Album: Nymph: for a shy girl she doesn't seem to be very shy

• Finally, and this one should be obvious, do not sabotage/tank an album for petty reasons. If you just prefer one album to the others that is completely okay! As long as your ballot seems fair and like you've genuinely given them a chance and justified your possibly controversial scores in your comments. I may ask you to provide further comments/raise your average if I think you are sabotaging, but that is only in dire circumstances.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!! Rate is *tentatively* due on FRIDAY 21ST JULY

Submission Link

Pastebin Ballot Spotify Playlist Apple Music Playlist

Happy rating :)

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