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.
Top Ten Tracks:
Anyway, if I don’t post tomorrow, see you Friday.
M x
*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).
Top Ten Tracks:
- Kathleen - Catfish and the Bottlemen
- Beautiful Day - U2
- Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Paul Simon
- T-Shirt Weather - Circa Waves
- Thank You - All Tvvins
- To Die For - The Bohicas
- Let You Go - The Chainsmokers
- Fairly Local - Twenty One Pilots
- Shut Up and Dance - Walk the Moon
- Old Man - Neil Young
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.
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.
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