Hi. Wow a lot happened/is happening this week: we had the Leibster Award on Wednesday, now you're getting the Friday post on Sunday and later in the week it's the first month review - so that's gonna be fun. Anyway, I have lots of stuff planned to make this more interesting in the month ahead, but for now here's this week's review:
Artist: Brandon Flowers. This week’s artist of the week is the Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers. Earlier in the week, he released his new single “Can’t Deny My Love”, performed on the Tonight Show, and also managed to sell out his UK tour. I think doing all that in one week was pretty good going, so he earned the title of artist of the week. His new single’s actually pretty good: it has this kind of 80s feel to it which makes it pretty unique at the moment, so points for creativity. Also, it managed to avoid the trap of sounding like a Killers song which is pretty common when singers decide to go solo, not mentioning any names… I’m not sure it’s my favourite track by Flowers but it has some really good parts. The guitar riff is pretty cool - it has a Daft Punk/Nile Rodgers feel about it, but it’s kind of drowned out a little by the 80s effects. The harmonies are also very emotive - they have a HAIM kind of feel, and they work well in context with the 80s theme, but they also get a little overshadowed by the effects in the chorus. I’m not sure I’m so keen on the synthesised drums, but I guess that’s in keeping with the 80s motif, and I think that’s just personal taste... I did like the track, honestly! I love the vocals - they’re very polished and the song is very well written in itself - it’s very catchy. Perhaps it was just a little too trigger happy with the effects. Anyway, he’s not just artist of the week because he released a new song, he also performed it live on the Tonight Show, and you can’t deny (hehe… sorry) he did pretty well. Actually, can I just say that the backing singers were pretty amazing. Personally I preferred the live version, but y’know you can’t please everyone all the time. Anyway, give it a listen, and tell me what you think. Based on the live version imma give it a 9/12. It was a very strong live performance. However, if you asked me what I’d give the recorded version, perhaps a 7-8/12. I think it’s a bit of a shame because I really do like this track - it has so many good parts, but the effects kind of ruin it for me a bit. Tell me what you think. Was I too harsh?
Album: LOVETAP! - Smallpools. It’s all about the new music this week - this week’s album of the week is LOVETAP! by indie pop band Smallpools. If you’re thinking where did I hear that name before, if you’re a TDCC, |-/, Neon Trees or Walk The Moon fan, then you may know the Smallpools from their tours - they were the support act for all those bands. LOVETAP! is Smallpools first album, and was released just a few days ago. I already absolutely love it and couldn’t wait to tell you about it. There are loads of great tracks on this album that will get you dancing around and singing along so you should definitely give it a listen. My favourite tracks from the album are Killer Whales, Dreaming, Over & Over and No Story Time - I don’t really have a good reason, other than I liked these the best. They have a great sound that I can only describe as Walk The Moon meeting Vampire Weekend then going out for dinner with the Two Door Cinema Club. I’m not hesitating to say that it’s one of my favourite albums of the year, and for that it can sit alongside Kodaline in the 12/12 club.
Track: All In White - The Vaccines. I broke the chain - this isn’t a new song, but it’s a good one so it does have that in common. I suppose I could’ve talked about Handsome - their new single from their upcoming album “English Graffiti” - but I’ll talk about that when the new album comes out, deal? Anyway, I picked All In White this week because I think it makes a good contrast with Smallpools and Brandon Flowers. All In White is quite a heavy Vaccines track, unlike their more popular tracks: Norgaard and If You Wanna. It still has all the components needed to make a good Vaccines song: their traditional bassline and hints of their crazy drum beats (that always makes me think of Animal from the muppets), but it’s much calmer, and a lot more subdued compared to their other tracks. It’s not quite as depressing as Somebody Else’s Child, but it’s toned down a little compared to the rest of What Did You Expect From the Vaccines? Great Track. 11.5/12 - ‘Nuff Said.
I’ll be back again soon with the first end of month post so it’s a busy time :)
See you soon,
M x
PS: Another strange video warning for All In White… do yourself a favour and don’t watch it.
Hi, hello and welcome. It’s Friday, so here’s the post for this week.
If you came here, expecting this to be about housing, then I’m afraid you were mislead because my artist of the week are the Mini Mansions. I’d initially thought that they were fairly new but Spotify* proved me wrong - the Mini Mansions formed in 2009 and since then have released one album and several EPs. From their new-er tracks they’ve collaborated with best-selling artists including Brian Wilson (the guy from the Beach Boys - and everybody was surfin’ / surfin’ USA - yeah that guy) and Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. Covering a Blondie track and successfully half-inching the bassist from Queens of the Stoneage - “we were on a break” springs to mind - can also be added to their list of achievements. Death is a Girl has to be my favourite track by them. I like the variety Death is a Girl; it kind of reminds me of a Two Door Cinema Club song (the earlier tracks, not changing of the seasons etc.) If you like your mod rock, then Freakout! is the track for you. Contrasting with the other two tracks, Freakout! is by far the most cheerful and definitely has the most catchy bass line. It kind of reminds me of Chelsea Dagger for some reason. Anyway, they have piles of other tracks for you to check out so if you're in the mood for something a bit different, go check them out. Overall they earned themselves a 7/12, which is pretty good. I couldn't give them any higher because they do such a variety that I loved some songs but really, really didn’t like others.
*Talking of Spotify, you can now follow theyoungculture on Spotify for an updated playlist every week which you can find the link to here (you can paste the link in the search bar in the spotify desktop version, idk about the app).
Next on the agenda is Death Cab For Cutie. I already used up my artist of the week, so this is track of the week, although I kinda may mention a few (but we won’t tell anyone about that bit). Death Cab for Cutie are a long running favourite band of mine, who you can expect to appear on this blog fairly regularly (along with Coldplay and the Arctic Monkeys). So, as you can probably guess, I’m pretty excited about they’re up and coming album KINTSUGI (which I can’t spell). Anyway, this week they released Little Wanderer from the album :D As if I wasn’t already excited enough for the new album, this has increased the emotion by about 100% if not more. Little Wanderer’s a sweet, quiet track, with a minimalistic guitar intro and a simple drum beat. It picks up a little towards the chorus and becomes a little more ballad-y but the guitar continues with it’s minimalistic style that’s always quite common in DCFC tracks. It has a very apparent influence from Neil Young, I think. I don’t know if that’s intentional, but you can hear traces of tracks like Old Man. I think it’s mainly the singing that does it - the guitar sound is definitely more modern if you wanted to compare the two in that way. It was really hard to rate this track, but after a few hours of deliberation, I decided on a 11.5/12. I couldn’t give it a 12/12 because it’s not perfect - they could have cut a minute off it by losing some of the repetition but it’s so unbelievably close that it really wasn’t worth knocking a full mark off for. You should definitely go listen to the other tracks they released from the album: Black Sun, No Room In Frame (which was the first track I listened to) and The Ghosts of Beverly Drive. Favourite track so far has to be No Room in Frame, closely followed by Little Wanderer, then we have The Ghosts of Beverly Drive and Black Sun trailing at the back - which is sadly the track they chose to lead the album, but it’s still a good track (more like an 8/12 though). I think it’s just the faux-electro-western style I’m not really liking. Anyway, that’s not deterred me: I’m still really excited about KINTSUGI (Idk why I keep using caps, sorry bout that).
On to album. I didn’t really know which album to choose this week, because there are no new albums that really stood out for me. So I decided to talk about an old favourite of mine: In a Perfect World by Kodaline. I suppose I could have talked about Coming Up for Air (their new album) but I don’t like it half as much as In A Perfect World; don’t get me wrong, there were some great tracks on Coming Up for Air - see last week’s Top Ten Tracks - it’s just I’d much rather write about In A Perfect World. Firstly the album art: that view. Personally, I love album art like that and I think it really suits the album so kudos points for that. Next, the tracks: favourites are Pray, Talk, Love Like This, Perfect World and High Hopes. They vary between cheerful and depressing which I think suits their acoustic sound on this album. Talk and High Hopes are both quite downbeat with uplifting highlights which is why they’re probably the most popular from the album - they can suit all occasions. Anyway, I absolutely love this album,if you hadn’t guessed, so it’s getting a perfect 12/12.
Okay one last thing; I’m contemplating about doing a Saturday post as well as the usual Friday post. I’m still thinking about what to put in this post but I’ll get back to you on that. The Something New though is each week in this Friday post, I’ll include a review of a remix and/or a cover of a song I found so I’m looking forward to that because I have lots of great covers and remixes lined up.
Anyway, if I don’t post tomorrow, see you Friday.
M x
PS: Sorry about the videos by the way, blogger decided not to play ball and put them randomly on the page then made them disappear.
Update: The new Mini Mansions' video contains a lot of explicit content (viewer discretion is advised) and I really don't recommend you watch it. It has been pointed out to me that I can't really blame the band for this because they don't really have a say on what happens in the video but all the same, I don't advise you to watch it - personally, I think it's unnecessary and quite frustrating to think that we still live in a day and age where management still think this is what is needed to sell songs - anyway rant over.
Hi, it’s Friday, so that means new post time. I don’t have so much to talk about this week, so hopefully the post won’t be so long. I just read through it and wow that was long but anyway I’ll try keep it brief this week.
Actually talking of last week’s post, I don’t know if you saw, but King has actually been at #1 in the UK charts all week (since Monday I think) so that was good and also, Bloodstream, which we also mentioned (the Rudimental version) has also been hanging around at #36. Thinking Out Loud is still at #14 which I think we mentioned in passing, in case you were interested. (These stats are from the Official Charts Company which is updated regularly here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/singles). Also, Coldplay released a new video! The video was for Ghost Story, from the Sky Full of Stars EP. I’m glad they released a video for this because it’s such a good song and I was so sad when they stuck it on a B side of an EP where no one would pay any attention to it, but now finally, it may actually get a little more attention :D . Anyway, this isn’t another Coldplay blog, so I should probably talk about a band other than Coldplay - as much as it pains me. Talk about topical though.
Artist: George Ezra. Seeing as it’s March and the sun is out where I am (lucky I know), I’ve decided that this week I’m gonna talk about George Ezra. His cheerful songs Budapest and Blame it On Me seemed just right for the weather right now, but if you're in a more rainy climate then he does have some more downbeat songs to suit your meteorological mood. You may like Did You Hear the Rain? (although that does get a little more upbeat towards the middle chorus) or Spectacular Rival. I did mention him in passing last week in connection with the Brit Awards - he was nominated for 4 awards and performed live - but seeing as this week had such nice weather it made me think of summer, so I decided that I’d talk a little more about him. His first album, Wanted on Voyage proved to be very popular last summer when it was released and has stayed in the charts for 36 weeks (it currently sits at #4 incase you were interested). Anyway, since it’s such a cheerful album I thought I’d remind those of you who put it away at the back of your mind for the winter months to get it out for spring and listen to it again. I love the variety of the songs on this album - some are quite lyrical (Did You Hear the Rain?) and some just quite happy-go-lucky if you see what I mean. Anyway, based on Wanted on Voyage I’m giving George Ezra a sunny 11/12 :) It would have been a 12/12 but I did have to consider the fact that some of the ohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohs do get a little tiring after a while. I will give a special mention to the track the Da Vinci Riot Police - prize for the most random track name must goes to...- this track is only available on the deluxe version of Wanted on Voyage but this is actually a great track. It sounds nothing like Budapest or Cassy ‘O (which is apparently about a clock - see you learn something new every day), so if you’re not really into the other tracks try the Da Vinci Riot Police (sorry I just like saying that) :)
Track: Junk of the Heart (Happy) - The Kooks. I was talking to some friends during the week and was kind of surprised to hear that a lot of them haven’t heard of the Kooks, which prompted me to talk about this track. The Kooks are an indie rock band from Brighton, England who are most famous for their songs Naive and Ooh La. Arctic Monkeys fans will probably know the lead singer, Luke Pritchard, as the man who supposedly kicked Alex Turner in the face although that was all a hullabaloo and a story for another time. The Kooks were quite popular a few years back, but they kinda ducked under the radar a bit recently so a lot of their new stuff was missed. Junk of the Heart is from their 2009 album of the same name and proved to be quite popular track then - I say quite in the loosest sense of the word, people liked it, reviewers didn’t. I could have talked about Listen, their latest album - released last September, but to be honest I don’t really have much to say about that - it was kind of a bit non descript. It was good, but there was nothing really outwardly amazing about it - I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me though. Anyway, I love the upbeat feel of this track and the kind of vintage sound that they manage to achieve without making it sound corny, which always seems to be a problem for some of the retro indie bands that try and get that sort of feel. Also I’m pretty sure it’s impossible not to smile when it gets to the chorus of this song. This track’s getting 10/12. I knocked 2 off because I have to admit some of the rhymes are a little dodgy, “life is no race… I’m in disgrace”, and I do have to agree with some reviews that this song doesn’t really have the clarity or direction (the lyrics seem to change their mind from whatever they were talking about in the verse whenever they get to the words “are you mine?”) that perhaps it could have had - it was part of an album that was worked on for a whopping 3 years. Having said that, if you're looking for a pick-me-up this is your song :)
Album: Smoke and Mirrors - Imagine Dragons. Finally some relatively new music. When they released I Bet My Life, initially, I didn’t think I’d like this album as much as I do, but hearing songs like Release and Trouble made me fall in love with this album. It’s got that uplifting Imagine Dragons sound which is combined with depth and poetry in the lyrics. I think it’s quite a clever album which was missed by some of the critics who gave it a poor review: it manages to fall into both the pop and rock market without insulting either. It maintains a new sound yet could easily mix with the vintage indie rock crowd. There are both cheerful songs for those proud moments (I bet sooner or later one of these tracks will turn up on an advert somewhere) and sad songs that are just right for those rainy days. They went a little overboard on some of the effects on some of the songs, - some of that could have been stripped down, but overall this is a high quality album with lots of great tracks and for that I’m giving it a 9/12. BTW: the video is the album trailer, which is actually pretty cool – I don’t normally watch these, but it gives you a taste of some of their new tracks.
So that must bring us to top ten tracks:
Greek Tragedy - The Wombats (Also check out the Bastille remix because… Bastille :) )
These keep turning out really long, sorry about that. Should I post the Artist, Album, Track and ten tracks in different posts? I don’t know… Tell me what you think in the comments :) Ooh and I almost forgot you can now go check out the SoundCloud page for a playlist of all the top ten tracks and you never know, I might add a few extra from time to time :) If you listened to any of the tracks from last week, I'd love to hear what you thought of them. Leave a comment below and leave a +1 if you enjoyed.
That’s all for now,
See you in the next post,
M x
PS: Thank you to all my lovely new followers and visitors
Hi, wow, what a busy week! So much has happened this week, I just simply have not had a minute to spare - which explains why the layout still looks like it does… sorry about that. Anyway, I'm here as promised on Friday with lots to talk about.
Firstly, I’d like to say happy birthday to one of my favourite songs, Shiver by Coldplay. For those of you who don’t know, Shiver was one of Coldplay’s first tracks and it was released back on 6th March 2000 - which makes it 15 today (almost the same age as me funnily enough). Anyway, I’m not going to go on and on about how Shiver’s an “atmospheric” alternative rock song and one of Coldplay’s “finest works” anything like that; I’m just going to say that it’s a good song and you should go listen to it. What I will say though is, compared to Yellow, (the more popular track from the album Parachutes - which Shiver was released on) it’s more tuneful and personally, I like it slightly better but that’s just personal preference. Give them both a listen and tell me what you think in the comments :) If you don’t like either, being a Coldplay fan, I have Magic up my sleeve ;) (Coldplay joke… you get it?... oh you do… oh… moving on...) Sticking with the Parachutes theme, from all the various people over the years that I have tried to convert to Coldplay, I have learnt that those who don’t like Yellow, tend to like Shiver; and those who don’t like Shiver tend to like these next two tracks: Don’t Panic and Trouble. These two tracks are much more relaxed than the previous two. Don’t Panic has a kinda acousticy vibe to it (“vibe”? seriously... sorry about that…) and Trouble just has a nice piano a part and being a pianist I like songs with nice piano parts :).
I wasn’t actually going to talk to you about just Coldplay today, so if you just read that paragraph and were thinking “I really hate Coldplay” firstly, have you recently suffered a blow to the head (hehehe I’m only kidding) and secondly, I apologise, I am moving on now - as hard as it is for me.
Each week, as part of the regular blog, I’ll talk about an artist, a track/song and an album each week and give it a rating out of 12 just because that’s a nice number and ten would be boring ;) and then I’ll end with a list of 10 tracks that are on my playlist this week. (However, each month, I’ll tell you about a book, a film and all the other stuff just because I hear more songs and albums each month than the other things I’m going to talk about in this blog. I’ll also tell you a little bit about my life from time to time if you’re interested but to be honest with you I don’t really do anything that interesting, but I’ll keep you posted anyway. I think that clears that up because I just read my last post and that was really not very clear.)
The artist I wanted to talk about this week was Ed Sheeran and in particular, his performance at the Brits. I was going to mention this last week, but I got so hung up on layouts (of all things) that I ran out of time. Anyway, if you missed it on the TV, it was pretty amazing. Many of you will know that he tends just to perform by himself on stage, but he uses a loop pedal to lay down the tracks in front of you to make it seem like there are several people playing. That by itself is very impressive, but combined with his talent and showmanship, it’s creates a flawless performance (how cheesy was that sentence). At the Brits last week he performed Bloodstream, live, which is from his latest album X or Multiply (the track has recently been re-released featuring Rudimental - I don’t really the re-release as much as the original just because it has such a heavy beat which is a little oppressive but it’s still about a 7/12 because it’s quite energising in a strange sort of way because of the frantic drum beat towards the end if you have to go somewhere early or for a run). X is his second “smash-hit” album which features the number one track Thinking Out Loud which has been lingering in the UK charts for almost six months now. When the company that runs the Brit Awards asked which artist the British public wanted most to perform at the ceremony, Ed Sheeran was the most requested by far, so you could say that he’s pretty popular. ;)
The Brits as a whole were pretty good. Taylor Swift opened the ceremony, then there were some awards then Sam Smith (who was wonderful ftr), then there were some more awards, and George Ezra (who I am a very big fan of) then some more awards. I was just casually sitting down eating my dinner when this quiet little intro starts, building up, and building up and building up until the chorus kicks in (see what I did there? wow these are getting worse). That’s when I knew I had to talk about Ed Sheeran this week. If I haven’t convinced you to go listen to it yet, perhaps the fact that over 5.8 million people already have, so go listen to it. If I had to rate his performance I'd have to give it a very high 11/12.
On to album. This week I’m going to tell you about an album that came out a few weeks ago: American Beauty/American Psycho. I’ve been playing this album on repeat... until I fall asleep (if you got that reference I’m impressed, we’re now friends :) - not that we weren’t in the first place... I really am putting the pro in procrastination today… yep just gonna get worse from here). Fall Out Boy actually changed their tune (ha... ha… ha... just hilarious…) a little with this album. If you’re familiar with their earlier albums, Folie a deux or Infinity on High or even Save Rock and Roll then you might be shouting at the screen right now "I KNOW RIGHT" (or possibly not, then we've reached an awkward crossroad haven't we...) Now this is the point where you either love me or hate me. I kinda like it. Please don’t kill me. Yes, I know it doesn’t make me a true Fall Out Boy fan and I don’t claim to be. Alright, so it’s a little less heavy and a little more mainstream, but you know what, I don’t mind. As long as they’re happy with it, I’m happy with it.
If you haven’t heard the album yet, can I suggest you don’t go and listen to the first track they released straight away. Centuries was the lead track from the album and went to number 10 and all that but to be honest there are some better tracks on the album. Centuries was a little forced - I do agree with some of the comments that Fall Out Boy could have picked a better track to lead with. Next came Immortals, which featured in Big Hero Six, which I kinda want to see now - if you’ve seen it, leave me a comment, is it good? Immortals was also not the greatest track from the album in my personal opinion, and it seems that quite a few agree. There is a glimmer of traditional Fall Out Boy in the chorus but it’s kinda drowned in the opening which I think is a little messy. They then released Irresistible, and now we’re talking. I was a little worried at first, when I heard the trumpet opening, but it actually kind of works. I think it really opens the album well. When we get to the line "I love the way you hurt me" I knew I was going to like this song - this was going to be a great album. It's definitely up there with one of my favourite Fall Out Boy songs. I’d also recommend taking a look at American Beauty/American Psycho (the song), The Fourth of July and Favorite Record. These three songs really epitomise (good word there *pats self on back*) what the album’s all about (bad phrase there *face palm*). Anyway, my point is this is a really great album, and although it’s kind of a little pop, a little rock, and some of the tracks do let it down a little, I still like it and for that I’m going to give it a 9.5/12.
Years and Years. Years and Years is not a reference to how long it has taken me to work out how to use WordPress; they are in fact a band. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re a popular beat combo from London (that’s an old joke… look it up). Seriously though, Years and Years are an a electro pop trio who are rapidly gaining in fame. King is I think their sixth single and is set to be a big hit this week, which is why it’s my track of the week - see logical :) Anyways, I like it. It has a catchy, albeit slightly repetitive opening and a nice chorus. They kind of remind me a little of Clean Bandit who I absolutely adore, and I'm not really sure why... there's no violin or anything... I think it's the kind of electronic sounding parts in between the chorus' and verses. Also, you should go listen to their acoustic sessions. To be honest, I kind of like them slightly more than some of their pre-recorded tracks. The acoustic version of Take Shelter is great to wind down to at the end of the day. I’m going
to give King 8/12, just because the riff does get a little repetitive after a while and I would have liked a little more of a bass line, but it's still a great track. You can tell that this group have a lot of talent.
Here are my ten tracks for this week. I kind of tried to pick quite calming songs, just because so much seems to be going on at this time. Having said that, I did pick Mayday Parade... Yeah... never mind.
It's pretty late now, so I'm going to have to leave it here. Leave a like if you enjoyed and tell me what you think in the comments below. Sorry it turned out so long.
See you next Friday,
Mxx
Update: I've linked everything in a different colour so you can take a look at some of the things I've mentioned if you have no clue what I'm on about. I've also added in the videos at the sides :)
