There's a Tear In My Heart, KINTSUGI (finally) and Marina and the Diamonds

Hello again. It’s Friday so here’s this week’s music.

Imma shuffle it up and talk about the track of the week: Tear in My Heart by Twenty|One|Pilots, mainly because I can’t actually physically not. I must have been so boring this week because all I can talk about is this track. Firstly, that piano - I could go on all day about how much I love pianos but it just gives the whole song a facelift - it keeps it light and doesn’t let the bass drag it down. Secondly, those drum patterns - what’s not to love? Thirdly, Josh. Fourthly, Tyler. Fifthly, Jenna. Sixthly, that synth - adds variety to the song. Seventhly, that bass - gives it pace. Eighthly, those lyrics. Ninthly, *mind blown*. I have no idea what to say anymore - too much goodness in one song. The song is deadly serious, yet hilarious (I mean, my taste in music is your face...?) ; pure genius, yet pure insanity; and completely and utterly Twenty One Pilots. I literally can’t stop listening to it. Nothing bad to say about it, so short a review. It firmly finds its place in the 12/12 club ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Onto KINTSUGI. I said I’d review this album when it came out when Little Wanderer was track of the week (you can check that review out here), and this is the first post since its release so here it is. I have to admit, not all the tracks on KINTSUGI were as great as I expected them to be, but Binary Sea and Good Help (Is So Hard To Find) are just wonderful so I’m by no means disappointed. I love the variety on this album - no two tracks sound the same and the more I listen to tracks the more I begin to like different ones (for instance, I’m definitely more into The Ghosts of Beverly Drive now than No Room In Frame). It’s not an album I can listen to over and over, but I love the experimental nature and the imagination that went into creating this album - definitely one I’m proud to have in my collection. 11/12 ★★★★★★★★★★★

I’m not really sure why Marina and the Diamonds are artist of the week because FROOT was released ages ago, but y’know what’s life without whimsy? Marina and the Diamonds is/are a kinda pop group that kinda have this habit of being really popular all of a sudden then immediately disappearing. Anyway, I made them/her artist of the week because as well as having Tear in My Heart stuck in my head, I’ve been finding it really hard to get Savages out of my head. It’s a very odd combination… but that’s beside the point. Marina writes surprisingly catchy lyrics (perhaps not ones you want to shout out like We live, we die / We steal, we kill, we lie) that offer a very unique view on modern life (that sounds a little pretentious, but you’ll see what I mean). Her/their songs have a kinda electro pop/indie pop feel that will either leave you feeling like you want to dance or you want to cry. Either way, Marina’s powerful vocals will definitely bring you back to centre. Alright so some of the tracks on FROOT are very… pop… but I think that’s what makes them/her so clever. She/They has/have these very intelligent lyrics shrouded in these little pop tunes. Anyway, you should go give them/her a listen. 9/12 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (the rating is based on Savages)

Here are the top ten tracks:

1. Sagres - Tallest Man On Earth
2. Satellites - Mew
3. All This Could Be Yours - Cold War Kids
4. Poison - Waxahatchee
5. Marigold - Mother Falcon
6. Overture - Black Veil Brides
7. I Don’t Love You - My Chemical Romance
8. Hold On, We’re Going Home - Arctic Monkeys [Well, Drake, but you know you want to listen to the cover] 
9. Brooklyn Baby - Lana Del Rey
10. I’m A Ruin - Marina and The Diamonds

Anyway, next week: Blur, The Wombats and lots more,

See you then,
M x

PS: Leave me a comment if you want me to listen to anything and put it on the next post/s - I love finding new music :)

March

Here are, as promised, the favourites this month.

Film: The Wind Rises, [PG-13]
Studio Ghibli :) This is the new-er one. This film is loosely based on the life of the Japanese plane designer in the Second World War - but mainly centres on his love life. I love the animation in these films (not so much the plot). For those of you who have seen the films My Neighbour Totoro, or Howl’s Moving Castle, or any of the other of the Ghibli films then you’ll know what I mean when I say that they are just so beautiful. I wasn’t so taken by the plot - it was a little unfocused. At the beginning of the film, it talked a lot about planes, then suddenly it talked a lot about Nahako. I understand that it was meant to represent the change in his life, but perhaps it could have been done a little more smoothly for the purposes of the film. Twas a good film though, with beautiful graphics - 9/12 ★★★★★★★★★

Book: The Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami [14+]
Murakami is widely considered one of the greatest writers of our time, yet I’ve rarely heard his name in conjunction with the topic. I’m not going to hazard a guess as to why this is but I will leave it as he is a great writer and although I read the translation of his novel, it was wonderfully written and I definitely could not have predicted the ending (which is what I always look for in a book). The plot is centered around a young man and how he some how manages to get cut off from his group of friends. He believes this is because he has always been an outcast (for instance, his name is the only one that doesn’t contain a colour - for example Kei Akamatsu, shortens to Aka meaning Red - hence the title). This leaves him feeling depressed and “colourless” - again, hence the title - until he meets Sara, which is essentially where the book begins. He finds himself telling Sara all about his friends and she helps him to solve the mystery of why he becomes the outcast, and why he’s the “Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki”. I really enjoyed it, despite the horrible ending, and the strange part in the middle. This book is aimed at adults, so it does have some strange content, but I skipped over those bits. Even if you just read if for Murakami’s descriptions it would be worth it. 8/12 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

App: Stop Motion Studio [Free - 8+]
This app allows you to make those stop motion animation videos and it’s actually pretty easy to use - I mean, if I can use it, pretty much anyone can use it. My only issue with it is saving - it’s just a little too easy to delete everything you’ve done and then not be able to be redo it. Apart from that, it’s a great app to have to entertain pretty much anyone with. 11/12 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Game: Disco Zoo [Free - 5+]

A surprisingly addictive game that will make you feel like a five year old again - the only way of summarising this game. When you see people playing it, you think “meh, how could that ever be fun” WALK AWAY NOW. I mean it has pandas. Pandas people. Sorry, anyway, this game essentially puts you in charge of your own zoo where you can collect animals. The twist is you can throw disco parties and buy them hats. The hard bit is solving the puzzles to get the animals (when you rescue animals, you’re faced with a grid, and you have to find the pattern to get the animal). It’s surprisingly fun. The best part is you’re not forced to buy anything (I mean you can buy more money and you can buy the ZooPedia which gives you all the answers, but where’s the fun in that?). I would say that it does get a little boring waiting for things to happen, but that’s the same with pretty much all games like this so you can’t really criticise it too heavily for that. 11/12 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆


So that’s the first Culture :)

See you Friday,

M x

The First Month: Blogger vs. WordPress and M's Adventures in Tumblrland

Happy Easter :) I took a quick break, but I’m back now with a quick summary of the month gone by. I was going to bits of this post a while ago, but didn’t get around to actually finishing it so I kinda crammed everything into this post.

As you may know, The Young Culture is on both Blogger and WordPress, and I’d thought do a quick summary of how that’s been going and which one I’m preferring at the moment. I should quickly say that they’re not exactly the same blog, there are some differences, but not really anything that makes this an unfair comparison. When I was starting out, Blogger was definitely in pole position. I liked the ability and freedom to design your blog how you wanted, without having to have a Premium account. Also, it was slightly easier to navigate. However, WordPress took over in the weeks to come. Blogger makes it very difficult to discover new blogs and share your blog with others, within the website. Although views are higher on Blogger, you’re very isolated from other bloggers and I think that’s its major drawback. You can play this kind of roulette game with the next blog button on Blogger but I think Google need to update it a bit. WordPress comes across as more of a community and I’ve definitely found myself using it more. At the moment, WordPress has the edge, but I’ll keep you posted about both.

I was just going to quickly mention that I finally worked out how to use HTML :) Be proud. So the format is actually pretty decent on Tumblr now. I still need to work out how to change the fonts but apart from that, I can almost use Tumblr now. Expect more on that in the coming month. If you have Tumblr, come say hello, and tell me how to use stuff because yh… I’m pretty useless when it comes to Tumblr.

(If you were expecting there to be the Real Neat Blog Award here, it has been moved to WordPress so go check it out)

That’s about all for now, I’ll check back later with the March summary - even though, we’re 8 days into April…

Anyway, that’s all for now,

M x