Not completely random! This post was written yesterday whilst I was watching Reading Festival 2012 highlights, and I caught Florence's set. She really is a true artist, her singing is so powerful and effortless and her songs so heartfelt and emotional. And she completely embodies the music around her, as if channeling spirits at a seance! Catch her set whilst it's still on the BBC website.
Anyway, the first song that I ever heard by Florence was 'Rabbit Heart', and it was magical, the pop-folkiness of it and her huge belting voice had me bought from the get go! Her first album, Lungs was phenominal and so is Ceremonials. I can't sell it better to you than to just get you to listen to it! And Florence's career is going from strength to strength due to the Calvin Harris remix of 'Spectrum (Say My Name)', which went to the top of the UK singles chart.
Been a quiet one this week - apologies apologies! I finished work at the factory last Friday, and since then I've just had a bit of a laze and seen some friends and spent some quality time with my nan and grandad :) I have a ton of reading to do for uni that I need to get on top of too (about 12 books!), plus job search, and I'd like to try paint/draw some more too. Also, upkeeping this blog (because all writing is practice!) and getting back into writing fiction and fan-fiction - yes, I was one of those in a former life! - is something to keep me busy too.
I'm currently catching up on Reading & Leeds 2012 highlights, and watching The Maccabees, The Cure and Florence and the Machine atm, although I'll probably watch as much as the highlights as I can by later. I'm totally jealous of my friend who spent the entire weekend at Reading, it sounded like it was an absolute blast! I've often struggled to justify the price of festivals due to the ticket prices compared to the amount of bands that I'd want to see, but my friend said that they saw at least 20-25 bands with only occasional overlaps, and apart from that there was tents with various activities and shopping and things going on, which was more than I'd ever thought was there to be honest, so I think next year I'll definitely have to go! Plus Muse are due for the festival circuit next year (though I have a feeling that they'll opt for Glastonbury) so I'll definitely put some effort into getting down there!
Apart from that, I've not much to say for now, but I think I may leave you with a LIGHTS live set just to give this post some purpose :) She's talented and a total beaut!
Seeing as Muse released their first single from their sixth album, The 2nd Law, this week, I thought I'd give you a bit of a Muse flashback, as I went all uber fan on the 'Madness' post and thought I'd educate (can I call it that? :P) a little!
So keeping with the conventions of 'Madness' and my Flashback Friday feature, here is a vintage Muse track with an electronic twist! Here, I present you with the Soulwax remix of Muse's third single, 'Muscle Museum', taken from their debut album, Showbiz. Showbiz was likened by many a music review to Radiohead back in the day, and in listening to the original song you will find elements of a Muse just waiting to hatch into the beast that they would become! Slightly faster, this remix retains all of that aggression and energy, just pinpointed through a laser and made somewhat more catchy and menacing, and channels drum'n'bass undertones.
This is quite universally considered the best Muse remix within their fanbase, and goes to show that electronic music and Muse have been thrown together rather well in the past, so this may dispell a few of the sceptics of their new direction, although the final results remain to be seen!
I mentioned that Purity Ring's debut album, Shrines, was releaseda few weeks ago, and after eagerly waiting for it to come out for what felt like ages, I finally purchased it!
Was it every bit as amazing as the singles that preceded it? I'm glad to say that, yes, it really was! But it was in a different way than I expected. It was more subtle than I anticipated, being delicate and dreamlike, but also confident and dark, like the musical fluctuation of dreams and nightmares intertwined. The childlike vocal of Megan James only adds to this effect, spouting somewhat grotesque lyrics pertaining to the fantastical and longings of love.
Purity Ring's penchant for merging and creating new words (or 'neologisms!' - hooray for the English student in me!) continues here, for example, 'Crawlersout', the opening track for the album, striking the perfect balance between moody and epiphanous, although, after looking up the lyrics (here, bottom of the page) I can confirm that even my metaphorical and poetic mind struggles to decipher any deeper meaning from this! All of the previous singles, 'Ungirthed', 'Berlispeak' and the viral hit 'Lofticries', are present on the album, and rightly so. The first and second singles from the album, 'Obedear' and 'Fineshrine', both polarise Purity Ring's musical spectrum, the first being more subtle, the second practically the most upbeat track on the album, and both equally as fascinating. And that's a word best used to describe Purity Ring, as the sound they create and the lyrics they write are nothing if not unique and usual.
I'd definitely say that Shrinesis one of the most hyped and anticipated albums of the year, and rightly so! It's definitely worth a listen, and even if (somehow!) this is your first time hearing of Purity Ring, I would definitely recommend you give it a try! As for touring, the band are currently on a tour of the States, Canada, UK and Europe, hitting the UK for London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow dates in late November!
This is the third track debuted from Muse's,sixth album, The 2nd Law, following the official soundtrack to the London 2012 Olympic Games, 'Survival', and the dubstep influenced track, 'Unsustainable'.
The track above, 'Madness', is to be released as the first single from the album, and is of similar nature to 'Unsustainable' although, as a track it seems more promising; as odd as this may sound; to me at least, it feels like Muse, whereas the tracks that preceded it didn't. 'Unsustainable' was too 'dubstep' and 'Survival' was too 'Queen'. This somehow still manages to merge both, with Muse's recent penchant for taking Queen influence too literally as of late for my tastes, still being apparent here in the echoing of Matt Bellamy's backing vocal and a Brain May-esque guitar solo. The dubstep is far more subtle than the brashness of 'Unsustainable', and this works in the track's favour. The latter half of the track, following the solo reminds me of their Absolution track, 'Stockholm Syndrome', in the manner the lyrics are sung and the tempo changes of music.
There is no doubt in my mind that I will buy The 2nd Law when it is released. Muse are one of my favourite bands, and although I feel that their 'golden era' - for lack of a better term - may have passed (to me, Muse personified themselves most completely in their second and third albums, Origin of Species and Absolution - which is my favourite), I appreciate their openness to the influence of different musical genres and genuinely look forward to whatever they put out there! I have a feeling that I'll like this album more than I did The Resistance, as I am a big fan of dark electronic music, and the latter was more orchestral I feel.
'Madness' is out now via iTunes and the Muse webstore. The 2nd Law is to be released in various mediums (and worldwide?) on 1st October!
Slightly late today ladies and gents, but I have FANTASTIC news (for me at least anyway!) because, after approximately 8 or 9 years of loving and wishing, my wish has come true! I.. am going to see.........
I can't express how happy I am at all! This bands means so much to me and they've been my favourite band for so long! This was really perhaps the first band that made me make the transition into more mature 'rock' music, moving away from bands such as Lostprophets etc and into post-hardcore.
Alexisonfire are a very diverse band, easily shifting between being melodic yet edgy and downright aggressive punk. What also makes them unique is their effective use of not 1, not 2, but 3 (!?) vocalists! In theory, it should be a mess, but it works so well because each of the vocalists specialise in a certain vocal range; George Pettit shrieks and screeches his tirade, Dallas Green smooth, pitch perfect voice, with Wade MacNeil straddling the fence in between with his rumbling punky undertones!
The band announced that they were to split last year, after Green decided to devote himself full time to his folk side project, City and Colour, whilst MacNeil was named the new Gallows frontman following the departure of Frank Carter, but that's another story! At the time, I was so distraught that I'd missed the opportunity to see them play during their previous run of the UK (their visiting Nottingham seemed too far away at the time, despite the fact that I'm now willing to travel to London!), so I'm ecstatic that my friend managed to get us tickets this time :D
Back to the song - this is 'Hey, It's Your Funeral Mama!', taken from their second album, Watch Out!, perhaps their most experimental release, and my personal favourite! It was the first song that I heard by them and will always be amongst my favourites, perhaps just being on the subject matter of Go-Karting! If you like this, go check all their albums; if you're not so keen on one, you may be on another, as the sounds shifts a little through the time periods. Their last release, Dog's Blood EP, was easily their heaviest stuff to date and they went out with a bang!
Alexisonfire are playing London's Brixton Academy on Mon 3rd December (sold out) and added Sun 2nd December due to demand !
Apologies for the lack of, well, anything of substance for the past week! Once again, I've had other things to do and I've not really got around to writing stuff on here.
But last week, on a whim, I downloaded some new music to revitalise my ears whilst at work, namely:
Purity Ring - Shrines
Delilah - From The Roots Up
Lawson - Taking Over Me EP (cheesy, I know, I don't care! It's fun and makes me happy and reminds me of my bessie :)
Josh Kumra - Helicopters and Planes EP
Turbowolf - Selftitled
SO expect some reviews soon!
In other news, I'll most likely be getting the new Spector album, Enjoy It While It Lasts; as one of the main buzz bands this year (a la the annual 'BBC Sound of 20blah' poll), they're really one of the only acts, other than Charli XCX that I've gotten excited about!
ANYWAY this post was originally about up and coming singer-songwriter, Josh Kumra!
If he looks and sounds vaguely familiar to you, you'll be forgiven for thinking twice, as he was the guy who deelivered the vocal hook (probably the only thing that makes me like the song) in Wretch 32's UK number 1, 'Don't Go', 'don't leave, please stay, with me..!'. My current obsession with him began when I went to T4 on the Beach a month or so ago, and saw him perform with Wretch 32. His vocal was spot on and I ended up converting to liking the song, which I originally hated!
Moving on, this is his debut solo single, 'Helicopters and Planes'. At first it didn't strike me as anything too individual, but after a while I really got hooked on it! For £1.99 off iTunes (and 99p for the single on its own), it's worth buying the whole EP, and there are surprisingly good remixes on it!
OK, OK, definitely a not so 'rapid' review on this one! When the catchy pop of radio friendly 'Radioactive' appeared last year, I got rather excited for the second album from Marina Diamandis' outfit, Marina and the Diamonds. However, after 'Primadonna' was debuted, I became far less enthusiastic; what had happend to the quirky Marina of yesteryear?
'Primadonna'
Recently however, after skimming through some of the songs on Electra Heart on Spotify, I decided to give the album a proper go, and in doing this I realised that Marina was just as smart, opinionated and self critical as she ever was, if not more so, but her wit and intelligence was far more slickly hidden. Take the dance pop of the album's first single, 'Primadonna' for example; many a fleeting ear would dismiss it as a teenager's 'Barbie Girl', and it was largely received so, giving Diamandis her highest charting single to date (Top 10 in UK chart), however lines such as 'living life like I'm in a play', 'I wanna be adored' and 'All I ever wanted was the world/ I can't help that I need it all/ The primadonna life, the rise and fall' hint at darker themes that are displayed more explicitly in other songs, such as 'Lies' and 'Fear and Loathing', with Diamandis bluntly stating in that latter the lyrics of 'I've lived a lot of different lives/ Been different people many times/ I live my life in bitterness/ And fill my heart with emptiness'.
'Fear and Loathing'
Whilst the actual music of the album is dark, sometimes sterile, sometimes emotive pop, it surprisingly works better than you'd think, given the contrast to her previous, more theatrical/ musical direction of her debut album, The Family Jewels.
I'll be honest, Electra Heart surprised me as being a better album than I'd thought it would. But to me, Marina's best quality in her song writing will always be her ability to take somewhat controversial and polarising themes for her songs and mask them within catchy pop songs, and Electra Heart is a far more expansive project than The Family Jewels, spanning media forms (songs, photos, music videos, trailers - it's an entire body of work), as well as Diamandis herself committing herself to the character of Electra Heart within her daily life (the retro outfits, the blonde(?) hair) for the duration of the project and tour. You can't accuse Marina of being anything but thorough!
'Radioactive'
Electra Heart is out now, as is 'Power and Control'.
'How To Be A Heartbreaker' the next single is released in US and UK on 15th October 2012.
This first appeared on her mixtape HEARTBREAKS AND EARTHQUAKES (review here!), as a mini contribution and the very very end, and here is the full version, unveiled as a birthday gift early on Aug 2nd and a treat for the fans on which appears to be Charli's birthday (Happy birthday!).
Many fans have stated on Youtube that they prefer this remix by Odd Future's The Internet and Mike G to the original single. I don't really have a preference in this instance, as I tend to love the different interpretations of remixes and covers anyway, and this one is above average.
This week's Friday Flashback is a not so old blast from the past, but most likely a song that a lot of people would have missed the first time around.
Jamie Woon is a British singer-songwriter whose music combines acoustic guitar and subtle programming in order to compliment his soul-tinged voice. And boy, is it a voice! Not in the usually applauded overdramatic powerhouse of a voice, but it's smooth, silky and subtle, and a voice you'll never tire of listening to; many a night has the lucidity of 'Night Air' sang me to sleep!
And on that note, Mirrorwriting, his debut (and so far, only) album, is underrated and appears to have snuck under the radar. I genuinely couldn't name you a lacklustre song on here, in my opinion, the quality of the songwriting and production (the album was co-produced by dubstep mogul, Burial) is consistant and the album is definitely worth a listen.
If only he had more material out!
Listen to his live session of 'Spirits' below :)
As you should all know (or soon shall!) I love Charli XCX! In fact, I <3 her! She is a cool, quirky, pop powerhouse, and she is going to be big, be it in indie cyberspace or above the water.
She released her mixtape HEARTBREAKS AND EARTHQUAKES approximately a month ago now, and whilst I've been listening to it non-stop and have been planning to review it, I just never really got around to it.
But I shall now! The mixtape is split into arcs named after famous and cult films (namely Beyond the Black Rainbow, The Craft, Kill Bill, Cruel Intentions, American Beauty), incorporating soundbites to show the transitions. Similarly, the arcs shift between moods, altering between sultry seductress, self hate and love, largely discussing relationships and doubts.
Charli has a penchant for spoken word/semi-rapping segments, and this gets a lot of air time here, similarly to when used on 'Stay Away'. But the balance is right, it works and makes the songs more interesting (Charli recently stated in an interview that she used to have pipedreams of being a rapper in her early days, so it is most likely channelled here!).
Apart from that, the mixtape contains samples and remixes of Blood Orange, Blood Diamonds, Drake, Rudimental, plus others, as well as a very short remix of her recent (US)/ soon to be (UK) single, 'You're The One' by Odd Future's The Internet and Mike G.
So anyway, apart from the delay, a very good mixtape to whet our appetites for the album later in the year!
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