Reviews

Selling Songs in One Sentence! | Songs of the Week 03/17/2023

Posted on by maxtodd

Since I’m fourteen pages deep into midterm essays with a flash fiction unit on the horizon, I figured it might be fun to try to distill my love for this week’s songs into one sentence each, which is something that should be easy-breezy, especially considering how deliberate, curt, economical, un-repetitive, and un-repetitive my writing tends to be—the “B” in Max B. Todd stands for Brevity, after all, and as a believer in nominative determinism, which I don’t actually think I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I strive to try and embody this in my every sentence, and that’s the Max Todd Dot Com (Max! Todd! Dot! Com!) guarantee, free of extraneous “bombastic”s and “driven”s and “punchy”s and “swelling”s and “earworm”s and any words I’d never, ever use more than once, because… sorry, hold on, I think I was going somewhere with this.

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Songs of the Week 02/03/2023

Posted on by maxtodd

Okay, aaaaaaah!!! We’re a little late this week!! Sorry about that, folks. As I mentioned in 2022’s Songs of the Year, I try to prioritize quality over quantity with these, and lately, I’ve been tired enough that writing has felt more like smashing words together expecting that they’ll fit. It doesn’t always flow, that’s for sure, but I hope by just getting letters on a document, I’ll make something worthwhile happen, even without the combined forces of nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine other aspirational monkeys typing at my side.

While we’re on the subject, I felt it was worth following up on Movies of the Month, seeing as a whole entire month has indeed already scuttled past like the mouse rummaging through your pantry (I made you check). Much as I’ve wanted to talk Pinocchio (the good one), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, and The Menu, I’ve been pretty strapped for time this semester, and when I have free writing time available, I’d ideally like to spend it chipping away at my bigger projects rather than setting more secondary obligations for myself. That’s not to say movie reviews or videos aren’t coming—trust me, I would love nothing (well, a few things) more than to put both out—but until things calm down a bit, I unfortunately can’t make any promises. Ugh, sorry, okay, I need a distraction! Um… okay, uh… songs!! Five of them!

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Songs of the Week / Movie Friday 07/22/2022

Posted on by maxtodd

SONGS OF THE WEEK 07/22/2022

I’ll be the first to admit I’m too lazy for manifestos, but I figure it’s a good idea to give some context as to what these weekly updates are all about (but I’m not gonna pretend I invented weekly songs or movies—actually, I sorta ripped off A Song A Day when I started making these back in the day. I’d link their website, but I’m fairly certain it was shut down a while ago. We are well into digression territory here… maybe this should be a footnote). Since the new year began in 2018, I’ve been creating lists of five songs in Instagram and Snapchat story format and posting them weekly. In the beginning, it was mostly another creative outlet that allowed me to put my own interests out there— back then, I was still in high school, and was fairly convinced that sharing my music with my friends was on par with cropdusting in an airplane cabin. Since then, I’m glad to say I’ve found many people beyond my lovely family (who I owe my music taste to) who are excited to exchange songs, and they’ve propelled this little ritual into something that provides structure in my life through highs and lows— perhaps a bit too much structure. If you know me, you know I rarely drink, and I certainly don’t in the house, because if you know me, then you also know I have less impulse control than a toddler in a shock collar. These days, I’m trying to take a similar approach to social media management, but I’d be remiss to sacrifice this tradition— in fact, one of my main motivations for raising this blog from the grave was to give these a new home. I hope they bring you the same peace and structure as they do for me.

Alright, so maybe I’m too lazy to actively make a manifesto, but too wordy to not accidentally vomit one out. I guess that might be worth getting used to if you want to survive around these parts.

And you know what’s cool about posting this with space for extra words? All you can do is watch as I crack my knuckles in painstaking sequence and get ready to wax poetic about ALL FIVE SONGS.

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