Album Review! Birdy - Beautiful Lies

So after a 3 year wait, Birdy has released her 3rd album! I must say, since a friend showed me her cover of Bon Iver's Skinny Love, I have been a massive fan. Her first album consisted of almost all covers, however the song that stood out for me was Without A Word, which Birdy wrote herself. I was excited to hear more of her own songs in her second album Fire Within. She did not disappoint! I found Fire Within was quite an emotional album, which Birdy herself carries off so well.

Now when the single was released from Birdy's 3rd album, Beautiful Lies, I was hooked. The first single was Keeping Your Head Up, which was a lot more upbeat than her usual music. I loved it! It was a great track that had so much potential, it also makes an incredible remix. Much like Wild Horses, one of my favourites on the album and the second single, which has already been turned into a remix, you can listen to both in the playlist at the bottom. 

The album opens with Growing Pains which channels a mixture of Kate Bush and Bjork. It has an element of typical Chinese rhythms and melodies, which create a great hook. Birdy has an incredible range and has lots of angelic harmonies in many of her songs, Shadow and Save Yourself are where you can find the good examples of this. 

Birdy plays the piano, so many of her tracks focus on just her and the piano. These are usually the more emotional numbers like Unbroken, Deep End, Silhouette, and Lost it All, which made me cry the first time I heard it. I also think Lost it All sounds similar to Without a Word and I can relate to it a lot, which is maybe why it's another one of my favourites on the album. 

Beautiful Lies is unlike her previous albums, this time Birdy seems to have focused more on the beat and sound that she wants to create. This has created some really some great tracks on the album, like Lifted, Take My Heart and Hear You Calling. In Hear You Calling again we can hear features of chinese melodies.

The last track on the album is the album title track Beautiful Lies, again Birdy uses piano and simple harmonies to create a soft track to finish the album on, bringing the sound back to where she started almost. 

Release almost a month ago now, Beautiful Lies has been added to my own personal playlist of my favourite albums and been given lots of positive praise which it certainly deserves. Now go have a listen!

Christmas Playlist

ONE WEEK UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

I'm only a little excited if you can tell?

As it's christmas and being the wonderful person that I am, I have not supplied you with just one generic Christmas playlist but 3, amazing playlists that are perfect for different occasions.

The first is the obvious, generic one, it has a bit of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING!

The second is for those who want a more classy Christmas, or for when the family is round and Grandma wants to listen to Bing Crosby.

The third and final playlist is the X-mas party playlist. Perfect for having a boogie on Christmas Eve and after Christmas dinner to start working off that food baby.

Album Review! Adele - 25

So you probably would have heard at some point over the past month (especially if you follow me on any social media site), that a certain someone has finally released her new album! That's right! Adele has finally dropped '25'!

Adele's 3rd album is about forgiveness, reflection and growing up. Following the success of '21', the task she faced when writing with album must have been massive. But after hearing 'Hello', we can all be rest assured Adele is back and as fabulous as ever! 

The album starts with 'Hello', a giant track that pulls your heart strings straight away. I think it was the perfect track to introduce the album, something we can all belt out at the top of our voices and relate too. When I first heard 'Hello' I must admit, I did instantly think of Lionel Richie's 'Hello'. I mean considering that 2015 has been a pretty big year for him, especially with his tour and being the act that drew the biggest crowd at Glasto. However, after watching every compilation video on Youtube and Facebook of Adele's 'Hello' mashed up with all sorts of responses, I think the track has become it's own. The music video displays some of Adele's acting skills, which we haven't seen much of before, which made a pleasant surprise and was very good (considering she was using a flip phone). If you want to see some of Adele's acting skills in action, watch the video below.

As I said '25' is about forgiveness, and with songs like 'Hello and 'Send My Love (To Your New Lover)', which echoes elements of '19' with its use of acoustic guitars. 'Million Years Ago' is another track that uses acoustic guitars. This time as the only form of accompaniment, which adds a sort of Spanish feel and simplicity to the track. 'Remedy' is another simple track, but uses just piano as an accompaniment instead. It is certainly one of the tracks about growing up and reflection, along with 'River Lea', the 'Hometown Glory' of '25' and 'When We Were Young', another track we can belt our hearts out to.

Personally I feel Adele has hit the nail on the head with this album. It's no '21', but it's not suppose to be. It's so much more mature than '21' and follows it perfectly. The best example of this maturity is 'Sweetest Devotion', which is about her son, Angelo. However the track can still relate to everyone, not just those who have had children. So once again every track in '25', you can relate to in some shape or form. I think 'I Miss You' has quite a different sound to the stuff we are used to with Adele. Instead, it sounds like something something Disclosure could have done featuring Adele, I think this one will be a good one to remix.
'Water Under The Bridge', one of the more upbeat tracks on the album, I personally find I can really relate to which is why this and 'Love in the Dark', an emotional one, are two of my favourites. At the moment my favourite seems to be 'All I Ask'. With hints of Abba's 'The Winner Takes It All' in the chorus and essence Paolo Nutini's 'Last Request' in the message, this track reminds me of 'Take It All' from '21' with its rawness and well, Awesomeness!
Adele and '25' continues to break records and the internet with this album, selling 2.3 million copies in just three days! Am I surprised? NO! The album is different in the ways it should be, and same in the ways it needs to be. Now all I need to do is see her live!

Nerve Radio!

So some very exciting news for you. I now host a breakfast show every other Monday and Wednesday, at 9am to 10 am, on Bournemouth Uni's student radio, Nerve!

I host it with my friend Tomas, who has a lot more experience than me, so he is teaching me the ropes.
So with that in mind, I thought I would make todays Track of the Day my favourite song on the radio, which happens to be Levels, by Nick Jonas

My next show is on Wednesday 11th, 9am-10am!

Green Man Festival 2015

What a wonderful, muddy weekend in the welsh mountains! 

Green Man festival is always a pleasure and high light of the year for me. Although I spent the weekend not feeling very well, Green Man and the awesome people around me, cheered me and made me feel better. Work, the rain and not feeling too good kept me from venturing in to the festival as much as I usually would. However I still got to see the site and see the acts that I wanted to see, as well as some that had been highly recommended. Being the 10th anniversary since Green Man moved to Glanusk Park, all effort went in to making this the best year so far. The line up was superb, the site was as stunning as ever and the atmosphere was full of excitement.

I arrived on the Thursday evening, unpacked and rushed straight off to catch Leftfield on the Far Out Stage. They had been recommended to me, and although they weren't really my cup of tea, they put on a great show.

On the Friday I should have taken it easy as I wasn't feeling too good. However after I had finished work I was too excited and just wanted to go out and explore and dance. I managed to caught the Headliners Hot Chip, who were awesome. They performed with so much energy and got the whole crowd going. I managed to catch the beginning Dizraeli and the Small Gods, who I had seen a few years back at Green Man with friends. I can't say much about their performance here as I literally caught the first 30 seconds before I had to rush off. Unfortunately they are on their farewell tour at the moment, so I was pretty gutted to miss the second half. However I did manage to catch their set at the next festival luckily (more about that in my yet to come, Shambala review post). I spent the late evening dancing in The Walled Garden to the Heavenly Jukebox DJ set, which blasts out a mix of disco tunes with dance anthems and keeps you dancing into the early hours of the morning.

 I think I may have over cooked it for the friday however, because Saturday hit my like a ton of bricks. I felt awful when I woke up, some sort of stomach bug I assumed. However this wasn't going to stop me having a great time. I finished work and took it easy for a couple of hours, before heading out to catch Charles Bradley. Cool fact, He got his big break when he was spotted as a James Brown Impersonator in 1996. His music is a mix of soul, funk and R&B, so right up my street basically. I hadn't listened to much Charles Bradley before, but after see his fantastic performance at Green Man, I haven't stopped listening to him, and will be recommending him to everyone.
So here is a link to some of his music!

The World (Is Going Up In Flames) is also What's The Set List's Track of the Day!

After Charles Bradley, I went to explore the site a little more, grab something to eat at La Grande Bouffe (The Big Nosh), and check out some of the cool shops, such as Fairy love and Fire Toys. Until at 11pm I went to go and see Super Furry Animals. Having seen them before at Ben and Jerry's festival, I knew they would definitely deliver, and boy did they deliver! What made it especially exciting, was that this was one of the first live shows they have done for 6 years. So their Headline spot on the Mountain Stage was a must! Unfortunately by the time they came on I was shattered from feeling ill all day. Which meant I couldn't enjoy the set to its full potential. My aim was to see Jamie XX on the Far Out Stage after Super Furry Animals, but I barely made it through Super Furry, so I decided to call it a night. I lead a very Rock 'n' Roll lifestyle, can you tell?

On the Sunday, I decided I would power through as best I could, with the help of Paracetamol of course. I powered through work, ate some lovely Falafel for lunch, got loads glitter on my face, finally bought myself a Growler, and went to enjoy The Staves on the Mountain Stage at 7pm. I was a couple rows from the front, which meant the atmosphere was incredible. I have been a fan of The Staves indie-folk sound since I first heard them at Green Man in 2012. The release of their new album was a big deal for me and hearing live was almost too much for me, especially because I was so tired. I did manage to hold myself together and absolutely loved their set. The song choice and order was perfect and their voices, like the paracetamol, made me feel better. For all these reasons, The Staves were my favourite act over the whole weekend.

After The Staves I went to see Courtney Barnett after having several recommendations from my friends to go and see her. Her almost deadpan and witty delivery and her garage rock influenced sound makes her music really interesting and very memorable. I was very glad I saw her and throughly enjoyed it. I didn't manage to catch St. Vincent which was a shame, I have been told she put on an amazing show and was mesmerising. However instead I went on the Ferris Wheel and got a good spot for the burn and fireworks at midnight at 12am. This is always one of the highlights of the festival, when everyone gathers together to watch the Green Man burn and the fireworks. This year was no different and although there were no loud banging fireworks, the show was still spectacular.

Overall, even though I felt ill, I still had a great time. Seeing music I love, finding new music to love, spending time with people I love, and playing in the mud, which I love. Another awesome year for Green Man!

Robert Johnson

This post is dedicated to one of the most important and influential figures in Rock ‘n’ Roll history, Robert Johnson.

Johnson was a blues artist in the 1930s and it was his recordings that laid the foundations for modern blues and rock, without Robert Johnson perhaps we wouldn’t have been gifted with household favourites like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and Jack White.

Listed 5th on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists, Johnson was said to have sold his soul to the devil for his undisputed talent. Yes, that seems a tad over the top, but maybe that is just the way Johnson was – for example, Johnson’s lyrics were full of heart aching sentiment that only a career dedicated to the road hands down to you.

Listening to Johnson’s records is the only time I have ever mistook a solo artist for more than one person, seriously listen to “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom”.

Which is also What’s The Set List’s Track of the Day, since 77 years ago today we lost a highly skilled musician in Robert Johnson.

Robert Johnson

May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938