Music of the month - May

I haven't discovered a lot of new music this month (hence why there are a few rediscoveries in here) but there's a strange mix, so read below to see what I've been listening to!

1. Lonesome Street - Blur

I feel like I could put the entire of the new Blur album on here, but I think this is my favourite one. It sounds a little bit like Modern Life is Rubbish era and it's really catchy with some nice harmonies, plus even Liam Gallagher has said it's the best song of 2015.. if an ex-Oasis member is calling a Blur song the best song of 2015, you know it's good.

2. Martha My Dear - The Beatles

This isn't a new song to me but it's one that I always ignored a bit. The White album is an album that I've always thought to be hit and miss, there are some amazing tracks on there and some really crap ones on there (Piggies, for example..) so when I initially ripped songs from the White album to my computer a few years ago, I only ripped the ones I knew really well and Martha My Dear wasn't one of them. However, since then I've gotten a new laptop and a new phone so I had to rip all my music again and I have been listening to the tracks on the White album I ignored before, and Martha My Dear is one of them. The strings, the brass the piano, and the voice of Paul McCartney is just such a beautiful combination and I've been singing this song non-stop for the past month.

3. Feelin Myself - Nicki Minaj ft. Beyonce

Again, not a new song to me, but one I've been listening to constantly with all of the hype of the new video. Nicki Minaj deserves so much more recognition for what she does, she's a POC woman dominating the rap field at the moment (let's not forget Kanye West nearly took her part out of Monster because he thought she'd show everyone else did, then he didn't, and she did) and she does it in a theatrical way, and I think that aspect is lost on a lot of people. Also, need I get started on Beyonce? Me and my friend Isabella (who you may have seen in the various vlogs on my YouTube channel) have been singing this non-stop in the car journeys on the way to school, it's just pretty darn good.

4. One Great Song and I Can Change the World - Swim Deep

Swim Deep are a group who I only got into about a year ago, but I loooove some of their songs, and this new release is no different. It's just super groovy and catchy, it's a bit more upbeat than some of their other songs which are pretty chilled out.

5. Keep You - Wild Belle

I haven't the faintest idea how I came across this song, but I love it so much. It's got that reggae feel about it, I hate to use the word 'vibes' because it sounds so frigging pretentious but it's got those really chilled out summery vibes in it.

What music have you been liking this month?

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Ten things and ten blogs #3

one.

Big day in the beauty world for Bess - I bought my first MAC lipstick! I got it in the shade 'Taupe' and I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of it, the cheapskate in me (and my purse) was telling me no but my heart was telling me yes.

two.
The lovely Hazel Hayes of the YouTube channel ChewingSand uploaded a video about voting which I think every person, mostly young people around 18-25, should watch. I only turned 18 in November but I've always been very annoyed at the prospect of people not using their vote, so if you're sceptical about the parties or if you're just not sure about whether to vote or not. Watch the video, at least you'll be a little bit more informed on how much your vote matters.

three.
I did my first outfit post (here) and it was honestly one of the most nerve-racking things I've ever done, I have a really really bad body image (for reasons I won't go into here, but may talk about in a future post) but I really wanted to start doing outfit posts on here to incorporate more of the fashion part of 'fashion, beauty and an existential crisis', so I braved it - personal goal achieved!

four.
Having not done a great deal of work through half-term (I did some, but does the homework ever end with A levels?) I decided I needed to just sit down and work, work, work. I caught up on the Great British Bake Off Comic Relief Special to pump myself up for work, and after about two hours of scrolling aimlessly through Tumblr, I decided to do some Philosophy homework whilst watching Cinderella. It's never been my favourite Disney film and it's one that I've neglected through the years, but I was in the mood for Disney and for some reason, in the mood for Cinderella, so I watched it and it was good. In the same day, I went on to watch Mulan and Mulan 2 so you can tell I'm living the high life here. The next day, I watched Emperor's New Groove too - there is no stopping me.

five.
Blur released the video for their new song Go Out because their new album The Magic Whip* has been announced to come out in April (are you as excited as I am???) I quite like the new song, it sounds similar to some of the other stuff they've done but a bit Oasis-esque which is ironic given that Oasis was Blur's rival in the Battle of Britpop. Perhaps not as catchy as Parklife or There's No Other Way, but I quite like it and I'm looking forward to the new album.

six.
I went to my friend's 18th birthday party, which was comprised of two sections. The first part was playing The Hunger Games in a big field, we were put into districts with one other person, I was in district 4. It was very muddy but a lot of fun. Then we went back to my friend's house and had pizza and listened to music and stuff, I'd be lying if I said there wasn't alcohol. I'd also be lying if I said I hadn't drank a lot but y'know #YOLO

seven.
I'll be one of the first to say that Glee used to be great, y'know it made fun of itself and it was generally really good up until about series 4-5. I didn't even finish series 5 although I was obsessed from series 1-3, seriously obsessed (we're talkin' 200% gleek), but series 6 is really really good. I wanted to watch it because it's the last series but I'm actually really enjoying it, plus you've got trans representation in it! Like seriously finally a big show talking about trans people - this is important folks. Plus Klaine and Britanna getting married - can I get a hells friggin yeah?

eight.
I'm sure you've all heard of what happened between Zendaya Coleman and Giulana Rancic but I just have to say again that Zendaya's response to Giulana's racist comments was so articulate and gosh just damn girl protect the POCs.

nine.
My Philosophy teacher provided an interesting twist on the existential crisis that I've been suffering with since the age of 12 today, he said existential crisis' happen as a result of the realisation that you have too much freedom and you have to make a decision regarding your life and, like in Bill and Ted, 'all we are is dust in the wind, dude' but my teacher said this can be a good thing, I forgot why, I couldn't see how my permanent state of existential crisis could be a good thing but y'know it's a different twist on it I guess.

ten.
I've fallen in love with Ben Folds Five all over again, like I never went off them and they've been one of my favourite bands for as long as I can remember and I'm pretty certain I listen to them every day, but I've been listening to their live performance albums on Spotify and their Naked Baby Photos album a lot and I just think they're so so good - if you've never listened to Ben Folds Five, do yourself a favour and give into the wimp rock piano music, you won't regret it.

blogs.
Makeup Savvy
Hello November
Dainty Ditsy
LJLV
Bethany Worrall
That Northern Girl
Bed in the Kitchen
Feel Bella
Rosie Louise Love
Ellabooxo

What's the best thing that's happened to you in the past couple of weeks?

*Not some sort of bondage situation, I'm guessing

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Music of the month - February 2015

It was really hard for me to narrow down February's edition of Music of the month, I think during half-term I discovered a lot of new music on Spotify (which you can follow me on here if you want) so I have a few honorary mentions at the end of the post.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

1. Sugar - Maroon 5

I used to really really like Maroon 5, Songs About Jane is such a good album and to be honest over recent years I've just went off them. I still think they're better than a lot of mainstream artists out there* but goddamn they do some catchy songs, and Sugar is one of them. It's pretty cheesy, the video's pretty cheesy, but it's a lot of fun and I like it.

2. Modern Jesus - Portugal. The Man

I had never heard of Portugal. The Man but Spotify is a beautiful device, half the things I listen to now are Spotify discoveries. I would describe it as alternative, it's a little bit rock-y but not extremely. The actual music isn't particularly inventive but I do quite like the lyrics.

3. Sweatpants - Childish Gambino

Where has Childish Gambino been all my life? He's a bit like Drake 2.0, sorry not sorry, I never really got into Drake, but Childish Gambino is really sweet and chilled and I just like this song because it makes me feel badass saying 'don't be mad 'cause I'm doing me better than you doing you' - seriously just say that a few times whilst picturing someone you don't like and I guarantee you'll feel hella badass.

4. Here Comes Your Man - Pixies

Pixies are a group I had listened to in the past but I hadn't heard much, however after reading and re-watching High Fidelity I decided to listen to the music mentioned in the book and the film, one of which being this song. It sounds a little bit Beatle-esque with the guitar and it's pretty catchy too, have to say Pixies have become a bit of a new obsession!

5. For Tomorrow - Blur

Blur are most definitely not new to me but I hadn't listened to this song. Modern Life is Rubbish is a bit of an ignored album for me, it's not that it's bad, I just haven't really properly sat down and listened to it, I still haven't but I think I saw someone reblog this song on Tumblr so I listened to it and just really liked it. Blur are one of my favourite bands (although I'm part of the small population that likes Blur and Oasis.. weird right?) - this song is super catchy, plus whilst I'm on the subject of Blur, I really love their new single Go Out which is going to be on their new album The Magic Whip, although it sounds a bit like Oasis in my opinion which is an odd musical direction for Blur to go in.

Honary mentions go to Hozier, My Chemical Romance, The Clash, and a last minute addition is Fyfe - Fyfe may make it into next month but I literally only just discovered him a couple of days before putting up this post so sorry Fyfe, you didn't make the cut.

What have been your favourite songs this month?

*Hipster alert

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Music of the month - June 2014

Hello there readers, I hope you're all well!!

This post in the beginning of a new installation on this blog, which as you can see by the title, it is called 'music of the month'. I think it's fairly explanatory what this series will consist of but just in case you want a breakdown I'll just explain what I intend to do.

On my old blog I used to do a segment called 'music Monday' and I would do this on any random Monday whenever I felt like I hadn't posted anything in a while or if I had some new music that I wanted to talk about, it was one of my favourite types of post to do so I thought it would be something fun to bring onto this blog. It is essentially a non-beauty favourites type of post that is entirely focused on music, if you don't know I am quite pretentious when it comes to my taste in music. I was raised by parents who are pretentious when it comes to music so it was quite inevitable, this means that music is a massive part of my life (including the fact that I'm a musician but that's irrelevant) and I sometimes feel a little blue that I don't have many friends who share my taste in music, up until the last year or two I had no friends who shared my taste in music but over the past year I have met some cooler people. Anyway before this turns into the most rambly post ever, I am going to share with you my favourite songs of the month of June (in no particular order):

1. Honey - Swim Deep

I'm quite late on the bandwagon, I have a couple of friends who quite like them but it was this song that got me into them. Someone reblogged this on tumblr so I listened to it, then I proceeded to listen to everything they've ever done. This song is so catchy and the overall message of the song is quite positive, I love listening to Swim Deep when I'm doing work because they're quite chilled and relaxed and I am able to concentrate on what I'm doing whilst having fun which is pretty cool

2. King City - Swim Deep

I listened to this song for the first time about half a year ago, I remember liking it but not thinking much of it but after listening to Honey and loving it, I listened to practically everything Swim Deep has ever done and this made it up into the rankings this month. It's catchy and fun, it's still fairly relaxed (in comparison to some of things I listen to) but you could also get up and dance to it (if I danced, which I don't, imagine Hugh Grant dancing in Love Actually and there you have an accurate representation of how I dance), but this is a really good song - I promise this is the last of Swim Deep in this month's post!!

3. Charmless Man - Blur

I am ridiculously late on listening to Blur, I had obviously heard Song 2 and it was one of my favourites from when I was younger although I didn't know it was by them (it is also known as the 'woohoo' song..) but other than that I never really tried Blur, since the dawn of the 90s it has been Oasis versus Blur so seeming as I liked Oasis so much I felt like I wasn't allowed to like Blur hence I never listened to them. However my Dad really likes Blur, and my brother is getting to that age where his music taste is becoming quite mature - he's 14 this year and his favourite bands at the moment are Blur, the Style Council, the Jam, and he also likes a few Morrissey songs which myself, my Dad and my Mum are quite chuffed about. Anyway, whilst having a Britpop argument with my brother (he does actually like Oasis though) he made me listen to this song, and it's just so catchy. My first thoughts were 'is this a direct reference to The Smiths?' which caught my eye, but the actual song is really good, and honestly I've listened to Blur a lot more since discovering this song - I'm part of the small population that likes Oasis and Blur, if you are as well please comment down below so I know I'm not alone!!

4. Whatever - Oasis

Is putting an Oasis song straight after a Blur song a little insensitive to the die hard Blur or Oasis fans who refuse to have anything to do with the other band? Maybe, but that's called living life on the edge. I've loved Oasis for a long time, obviously I wasn't really around when their songs were released for the first time and they're a band I had to research into and all that jazz, but I hadn't heard this song before and I think it's so relaxed and I think the message is quite reassuring at the moment because I'm in my first year of sixth form, picking universities, choosing courses and deciding what to do for the rest of my life - it can all be very stressful, if you've been there then well done for coming out the other side, if you're about to come to this stage I wish you luck, live long and prosper my young friends. Anyway, this song chills me out whenever I feel anxious about all of this future-deciding-existential-crisis-invoking-decisions is brought up, I think it can also be applied to when you're feeling generally sad - 'I'll sing the blues if I want', if you are sad then you shouldn't have to put on a happy face (I watched a video by Carrie Fletcher recently who discussed this if you want to go and watch her videos). Anyway, that's enough rambling for one song.

5. Cancer - My Chemical Romance

Blast from the past anyone? A part of my life which I tend not to tell people is that I was once a massive wannabe scene kid, I dressed in all black, listening to My Chemical Romance and Paramore all the time and wore heavy black eyeshadow (at home that is, my Mum used to make me take it all off before leaving the house - thanks for that one Mum even though it annoyed me at the time). Anyway, I've rediscovered these bands and I've really been enjoying them, especially this one because this wasn't one of my most listened songs when I was younger so I never overplayed it to the point where I disliked it.

Thanks for reading!

What songs have you been loving this month?