Finally Music Bloggery is back, and we're kicking it off with our song of the week! This week we've chosen the single Mecca, taken from Wild Beasts' recent album release, Present Tense. The band originally formed in 2002, under the name Fauve (which means 'wild beast' in French - classy lads!). Eventually they were signed on Domino Records which was timed perfectly because following this, they achieved commercial success with their 2011 album Smother. Present Tense is their 2014 follow-up album, also received with acclaim (NME giving them 9/10 and Line of Best Fit 10/10!).
Mecca is a personal favourite - the untamed falsetto of front-man Hayden Thorpe, the timely drums and balanced sounds of the synthesiser work together in harmony to create a truly ethereal track that is genuinely a pleasure to hear. I have no idea whether this was the intention, but I like to think of the progression of the song as symbolic of the journey to Mecca. The chorus provides a culmination of emotion, while the sedate, dulcet tones of the bridge act as a representation of the end of the journey, almost if a feeling of enlightenment is reached (yes, we're mixing religions here).
The only problem with this song is that it takes a while to get used to. By this I mean that the chorus is catchy but the music is so sedate throughout, that might be hard for someone used to alternative rock to get into. Alongside this single, the band released the music video which is too weird for my liking. The psychedelic video is way out of line with the song itself - I just feel as if it is the music video for another song, not this one. Do you agree? Comment below! Check out the song below and share your thoughts, we'll tweet the best one at @musicbloggery.
So I'm finally writing again as you have so smartly noticed! Quite a few albums as well as singles, have been released by a few of my favourite bands so I thought I would share them with you guys!
Okay, so first up is Swim Deep's 'Where the Heaven Are We?' released 5th August 2013. This album is rapidly becoming my top summer album simply because of the sedating tunes and Nirvana-esque appeal of the band. The Birmingham based indie band, having first formed in 2011 and releasing their first single 'King City', went on to perform with up-and-coming band from London who go by the name of Spector (we love 'em) and are now performing in festivals all across the UK. The album features sombre tones such as 'Soul Tripping', which is a perfect song to lie on a sandy beach and just click repeat. Swim Deep are great, but if you were like me a year ago and hadn't heard of them before, I would recommend listening to 'Honey', simply because it's a fun, bouncy tune to have a bit of a jive to. (I apologise for the use of the word 'jive') Their debut album is already set for a top 10 album in the Official Albums Chart. Bearing in mind, this is risky territory with the likes of Miley Cyrus and other mainstream artists. If this band reaches an influx in popularity, their old fans could drift away.
Music Bloggery Recommends: 'King City', 'Honey', 'Soul Trippin'
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Next up, it's another British band, White Lies and their third studio album, 'Big TV', releasing just today in the UK! (12th August 2013) This band is one of my favourites and has been since the release of their first single 'To Lose My Life' (if you haven't listened to it, do so now!). White Lies have always reminded me of Joy Division, as they've got that depressing, eerie mood about them. After releasing their first single from the album via SoundCloud for a free download ('Getting Even), they released short clips of various songs being played by different members of the band on YouTube in order to promote the album. We can only wait and see if this will be as successful as the last. So far it has received mixed reviews. Ben Beaumont-Thomas says 'First Time Caller' uses 'overwrought metaphors' and that 'dumb lyrics can be mitigated by robust anthems' If you're interested in the band, have a listen to the album and tell us what you think!
Music Bloggery Recommends: 'Big TV', 'First Time Caller', 'There Goes Our Love Again' (if you want to listen to their older stuff, we recommend listening to 'To Lose My Life' and 'Farewell to the Fairground')
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Next up is Panic! At
The Disco! This quirky band led by frontman Brendon Urie is back with a
fierce single called 'Miss Jackson'. I don't know if this is the same
Miss Jackson as Outcast sing about, but it's pretty good nonetheless.
When I first heard this track I was a bit confused as to what style the
band is now as they raked in the fans with their unique style but now they're becoming a little generic. If you have a look at most of the comments on their new videos (their newest release being 'This Is Gospel'), you'll see most people agree that they're sounding more like Fall Out Boy, and I'm afraid I have to agree. For me, Miss Jackson lacks the witty lyricism and fun style that I've come to love of the band.I think the fact that the other two band members left, they've become a little different. We've posted the video below, have a look and tell us what you think!
This page will be frequently updated throughout the summer to give you more updates so as much as I hate saying it, watch this space!
Hola, fans of Music Bloggery! I've created a new Youtube channel, to promote my new style of lyric video! Some of you may know already, I previously created a special lyric video for a Weezer song, 'Put Me Back Together' (You can find the video below). Now, I have decided to make this a regular thing, and create a special lyric video for all of my favourite songs! My new obsession is a song called 'If You Wanna' by British indie band, 'The Vaccines'! What I basically do is to write the lyrics to a song on paper, with my own special drawing, and put them in sync to the music. Check it out!
Recently I've had quite a few obsessions. I had decided to take a big 'ol nostalgia trip and get songs from when I first got into rock music. Music from The Wombats, Franz Ferdinand and even the first Friendly Fires album have been played constantly! However, there is one exception to this. I had always heard the band name 'Foals' thrown around quite a bit, but I had never got down to actually listening to them. So, I decided to break the trend and buy one of their albums - the 2008 release, 'Antidotes'.
I have to say, this album is one of my favourites now! Their music is the epitome of indie. It's just so catchy and the fact that it's not extremely upbeat is even better. I am now officially obsessed! Everyone should listen to two of their great singles - 'Cassius' and 'Olympic Airways'. I think 'Cassius' is just too cool for school and 'Olympic Airways' is just simply beautiful and heartfelt. I've also thrown in another single in there just for fun. Check it out and tell us what you think of Foals!
'Given To The Wild' is the new 2012 release from British indie rock band, The Maccabees. This is the
third studio album release from the London based band. The whole sound of the album was quite a transcendental, eerie sound. The band's first single from the album, 'Pelican' is fast paced, repetitive and just too damn catchy! I personally like the meaning of the song. How I interpreted it as was that we grow older, holding more and more responsibilities on our shoulders until we die. What's your interpretation? Have a go in the comments below!
The album starts off with a two minute instrumental, then immediately carries on into the second song, Child. This song is one of those songs that starts off beautifully harmonious, and continues doing so until it reaches the last minute or so, where it becomes more louder and builds into a crescendo-style instrumental. There's quite a few songs in the album that use this same technique which becomes a sort of motif of the album. The album itself is a much more refined version of the band. If you have a listen to their older stuff on their album 'Wall of Arms', you'll find that it's quite a mish-mash of different ideas and I find they don't work as well as 'Given To The Wild. With better piano melodies on songs such as 'Ayla' and much more experimental, emotional lyrics, it makes for a much more pristine album.
However, there are a few things that didn't really stand out for me. For example, the title of the album is Given To the Wild, and as the album artwork suggests (a picture of a bushfire in a deserted area), you would think the sound would be more similar to the sound of their first album Colour It In, a more 'wild' sound, yet it is more peaceful and toned down. How can you be given to the wild if the sound is completely the opposite?
If you know me well, you'll know that I hate when you can't hear the lyrics of a song properly. With such a good sound, the fact that vocalist Orlando Weeks doesn't make an effort in actually enunciating his words and making sure that they're clear to the listener ruins the experience for me. It's only when I actually research the lyrics that I understand what he is saying fully and therefore enjoy the song a whole lot more. I just don't understand why there is such a style in indie music of having distorted vocals and not singing like a normal person.
Another point is that a lot of the songs have a habit of sounding similar to one another. I know this is bad of me, but it usually takes me a while before I become completely used to an album, and can be trusted to remember the song fully when I haven't listened to it recently. With this album, it took me about 10 listens before I remembered most the album off by heart, which tells you something really. I found that songs like Glimmer and Heave (to name a few), were too similar to one another, and I just hoped that they would have more experimental songs on the album, with it being called Given To the Wild.
So, for the following reasons, I am awarding The Maccabees' Given To the Wild a 4/5 stars! A very good effort, but for me, still needed a but more something. There's potential for more chart-toppers, but there are no actual hits there.
Music Bloggery Recommends: Pelican, Child, Feel To Follow, Glimmer, Go, Slowly One, Grew Up At Midnight
For day two of our '7 Days of Blink-182' segment, we're featuring one of the most popular Blink-182 hits which gave them more credibility, gaining popularity for their irrelevant sense of humour and catchy songs. That's right, if you hadn't guessed already, it's the 2000 release, 'All The Small Things'! This song is a great punk-rock classic, and the video is a great parody style which highlights the band's great sense of humour. Released from the band's 2000 album release 'Enema of the State', it is the band's highest-charting song of their career to date, teaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100.
Make sure you check it out!
Orange Juice was a Scottish post-punk, new wave band, first formed in Glasgow, Scotland. Rip It Up is the second studio album by the band, and it was first released in November 1982. This album features the self-titled song Rip It Up, which was the first and only song to feature in the UK Top 40 (It featured at no. 8).
When you first listen to the album, you'll be confused yet intrigued as I was, simply because of the collaboration of odd, slightly dark vocals with upbeat synthesisers and extended saxophone solos. The modulated vocals of frontman Edwyn Collins work really well with the fast-paced guitar and rhythmic drums. Part of the reason I believe this album works really well, is because of the mash-up of upbeat, constantly changing melodies and almost unrealistic vocals with the poetry of the lyrics. The sound of the band is quite a nonsensical one, however, if you take a look at the lyrics, they are quite poetical in their own way. 'When I first saw you, Something stirred within me, You were standing sultry in the rain'. Yes, it's no Shelley or Poe, but they are beautifully simple in their own way.
The album is a giant boiling pot of completely different songs, yet they all go together perfectly. For example, songs such as Breakfast Time, (a perfect nostalgia song by-the-by) is incredibly slow paced, and literally on the next track, it's the polar opposite and the pace is much faster on I Can't Help Myself and Flesh of My Flesh.
'Rip It Up', is not a quintessentially indie album, so I came to discover. When listening to it fully, it reminded me of the African sounds of the modern American band, Fool's Gold. It seems to me there is some sort of African language being spoken on A Million Pleading Faces and Hokoyo (correct me if I'm wrong), which made the tracks much more interesting and I think it's great how the band are so in tune with other cultures.
In terms of themes, the album is very consistent. The title, derived from the self-titled first track on the album summarises the whole album and what it is inevitably all about, and the title for the track is taken from the lyric in the song 'Rip it up and start again'. Rip what up exactly, I don't know. It could be ripping up the time vortex to start again, or ripping up anything, really. It's all open for interpretation. (So make sure you share your interpretation in the comments section!). But initially, the album is about love and the loss of it. To be honest, I'm quite bored of the topic of love. I understand why people choose to write about it, because it is raw, human emotion, and because of various experiences, but to be honest, I'm tired of artists singing about love. It's a matter of opinion, but I'd like to see more artists talk about death and a completely opposite theme. It's very rare that music artists choose to do so, which is why it would be interesting to see.
However, I did get the feeling that the band were trying too hard to come across odd and quirky when they're not at all. Collins' vocals seemed too staged and slightly melodramatic to me. For example, on the track Turn Away, Collins' vocals sound completely different to his vocals on songs like Breakfast Time, and to be honest, I much prefer his vocals on Turn Away as they sound more natural.
So, for the reasons given, I am awarding 'Rip It Up, a 4/5 stars! Don't get me wrong, Although I did enjoy the album, there were a few negative things that stood out in my mind. The great thing about this album and the band in itself is that there's no one genre that you can define them as. The frequent use of synthesisers on Hokoyo would make you think 'electronica', yet the extended saxophone solos on songs like I Can't Help Myself make you think 'jazz'.
Share your views in the comment box below!
Music Bloggery Recommends: Rip It Up, A Million Pleading Faces, Turn Away, I Can't Help Myself and Hokoyo
Hello to all you rock fans out there, wherever you are! You may be wondering where the album reviews are, but do not worry, need thou not be afraid. Instead of just supplying everyone with some stellar music reviews (if I do say so myself), I thought I'd do what I call 'chopping it up', and provide you with some brand new music recommended by me and that's set to come on your radios and TV sets pretty sharpish. So, here it is!
This week saw the release of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds new single 'If I Had a Gun...'. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is Gallagher's new project after the definate break up of Oasis. Personally, the fact that you've got your own name in your band's title is a little pretentious and self-centered. Frankly, if he had just left the band title as High Flying Birds, it would have remained more poetic and mysterious.
The song itself is a beautiful melody perfect for a love song such as this. The intro itself has a 'Wonderwall' style riff, but when delving deeper into the song, the peaceful harmonies provide a subtle difference to the Oasis that we're all familiar with. Oddly, one thing did catch my attention when listening to this song. Whenever I listen to a specific song, it tends to remind me of another song because of the striking similarities. When listening to this cirtain song, I was reminded of the Fool's Gold track 'Lantern'. These two songs both have a ridiculously similar sound, and both have a swaying, sombre melody that leaves the listener morbidly singing along towards the end (If you haven't heard of Fool's Gold, you should definitely do so now. We've reviewed their album, so give that a read and check it out.).
One distinctive aspect of the song is the lyrics. At times beautifully heartfelt and poetic, the lyrics marry well with the simple, slow riffs of the acoustic guitar. 'Cause you're the only God I'd ever need.' It's a raw, emotional song, stripped of any convoluted meaning. However, the song doesn't achieve complete poetic genius. One of the lyrics states 'If I had a gun I'd shoot a hole into the sun, leave a burning city down for you'. Now I don't know what your opinion is on that, but giving the one you love a burning city isn't the loveliest of things. Yes, the meaning's there, but I was just hoping that perhaps there would be more of a romantic metaphor.
So in summary, this is a song you better watch out for! It's a song that you know will end up in some romantic comedy eventually, nevertheless, it's a very good song, and you'll most likely be hearing of it a lot more in the coming days.
