Rapid Review.. Laura Marling - 'Once I Was An Eagle'

I admit, I have never overly immersed myself in the music of Laura Marling. The only reasons I have for this are:

1. When it comes to acoustic and/or folk music, I prefer male voices, eg. Jamie Woon, Jonny Craig, Justin Nozuka, Josh Kumra (off the top of my head, and they all begin with a 'J':- WOW.)
2. My limited exposure to Marling had left a somewhat depressing, lovelorn mark on my consciousness, and it's rather rarely that I actively choose to listen to such lyrically heavy music.

Therefore, despite approaching Marling's new album, Once I Was An Eagle, with a touch of trepidation, I must admit I was pleasantly surprised, despite her tales of romantic misdemeanour. I'm rather proud of the review I wrote for Renowned For Sound.com so please feel free to read it here :) 

I gave it 5/5 - yes people, a mighty 5/5! Marling truly captivated her audience with this album!

Rapid Review.. Maroon 5 feat Wiz Khalifa - 'Payphone'

I was originally going to make this a 'New Waves' feature but, seeing that even though it was only officially  released this week, it has already been played everywhere like an incredibly loose prostitute, I thought I'd slam this in the 'Rapid Reviews' section instead.

You can most likely tell, due to the tone of my writing, that there's something that I've been burning to tell you.

I don't like 'Payphone'. 

In fact, I decided to make this post just to tell you exactly how much I dislike it.

At least with Maroon 5's previous single, the incredulously over-hyped 'Moves Like Jagger', made up for its lack of substance with an undeniably catchy chorus that you could boogey away to to your heart's content when drunk (I know from much experience :D), but alas, with 'Payphone' there is none of this.

                                

Perhaps what's most disappointing about this song is that, despite Adam Levine's signiature vocal, Maroon 5 just sound incredibly generic and borderline modern R'n'B. The chorus is substandard, and the song is just not exciting!

To detriment this song even more, rapper Wiz Khalifa makes a pointless contribution during the bridge, making a previously unremarkable song just bad in my opinion.

It's almost as if Maroon 5 are getting worse with increased age and commerciality. Their 2002 debut album, Song's About Jane, will forever be the pinnacle of their career it seems; there was not a single bad track on that album, and one cannot help but wonder what sort of music Maroon 5 would have made had they continued in their original pop rock with funk undertones.

'Payphone' is out 17th June. Maroon 5's 4th album Overexposed is released on 26th June 2012.

http://www.maroon5.com/

http://www.facebook.com/maroon5

Organisation!

I'm gonna write this post now as an attempt to organise myself and my weekly features!

Monday or Tuesday, depending on release date, I'll compile a list of weekly releases.

Sometime in the first half of the week, I'll put a few reviews up of my favourite singles of that week.

Album reviews will be uploaded in the second half of the week to allow for digestion time, and both single and album reviews will be listed (separately) on the Rapid Reviews page.

The New Waves will be updated whenever I hear/see a band or artist worth posting about.

The Life Logs will probably be the most regular, just if something worthwhile occurs in my existance or if I feel the need to have a whinge ;)


Now, time for features that I've yet to start!:-

1. Wonder Woman of the Week

This will be a weekly feature where I choose a woman who inspires me (or has been heavily featured for whatever reason in that week) and discuss them and say what exactly makes them so great! 

    2.  Fashion Files

This was inspired by some other bloggers, whom take post about their daily outfits, fashion and beauty products. As much as I like clothes and things, I don't think I'm enough of an interesting dresser to warrant photos everyday. Same goes for beauty products, I just stick to what I know. However occasionally I may post on this sort of thing, especially if my outfit has been inspired in some way (eg. yesterday I felt like Kathleen Hanna, today more a pre-Electra Heart Marina and the Diamonds) or if it's for some special purpose.

    3.  DIY Ditties

Regarding the DIY aspect, that's self explanitory - tutorials for when I feel the need to share my creativity. This will most likely increase once our little customisation franchise gets up and running.

And I think that's it! Hopefully, this won't get too hectic (although I can see it getting that way)!

Go forth! LLAP!