Music of the month - January 2015

We've reached the end of January, so this entails failing your new years resolutions and spending bans (goddamn the spending ban, I haven't bought any makeup or clothes this month!) but staying inside and away from the shops has it's positives, it means I've listened to a lot of cool music, so let's have a looksie at what I've been listening to, eh?

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1. Triumph of Disintegration - Of Montreal

Wikipedia describes this band as having 'evolved from vaudeville late 60's Beatles and Kinks-influenced psychedelic pop to a mixture of electronica, funk, glam, and afrobeat music influenced by Prince, Talking Heads, Os Mutantes and David Bowie' - if that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is. This song is quite upbeat and catchy, and it was recommended to me on Spotify, if Spotify doesn't know what's best then who does?

2. I know it's over - The Smiths

You may or may not know that I am a devoted fan of The Smiths, so this isn't a new song. However, when I first listened to the whole The Queen is Dead album this song just didn't stick out to me. Maybe because all the other contenders on the album are so mindblowingly brilliant (literally track after track of perfection) I never had an instant rapport with this song, but I listened to this song again because my Mum kept saying how she believed it to be better than This Charming Man - I disagree, but I'm glad I gave this song another go because it is definitely one of my favourites now.

3. Born too late - Dent May

Okay.. WHY DID NO ONE EVER TELL ME THE GOD-LIKE MUSICAL TALENT OF DENT MAY? I have fell head over heels for him, I may as well mention the entire Warm Blanket album because I love every single track on there - imagine The Beach Boys crossed over with The Smiths and an indie band of your choice from this day and age, and that's Dent May. This is probably the song that's been stuck in my head most but the whole Warm Blanket album is astonishingly brilliant.

4. Oh! You pretty things - David Bowie

Oh! You catchy sooooong... Again, not really a new song but I've been listening to the Hunky Dory album a lot this month and I just really like this one, but Kooks also deserves a special mention - can't go wrong with a bit of Bowie in my books.

5. The Masterplan - Oasis

Another song that isn't new haha, but this is an Oasis song that I've never really listened to all that much. In fact the whole album is one that I haven't listened to too closely before although the songs I do like on that album, I really really like. The issue I have with Oasis (that I'm constantly reminded of because I have a Dad and a brother who are team Blur all the way in the Battle for the Britpop crown) is that a lot of their songs can be a bit samey, which is fine if you like those songs, which I do, but they aren't as diverse as some of the greats *cough cough The Beatles* but I'd still say this song is different from your Wonderwall, Don't Look Back in Anger, and Champagne Supernova - the instrumentation is a lot better, and it's just darn good.

I've got to give a mention to Rage Against The Machine too (literally everything), I've been feeling the cold winds of teenage angst over the last couple of weeks of January and frankly RATM have been what I listened to most for the last half of the month. Also, if you want to follow me on Spotify so you can see what I'm listening to and listen to playlists and stuff, you can click here.

What music have you been listening to this month?

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Music of the month - September 2014

Hello there readers - I do apologise for not blogging that much over this month, I am back in the humdrum sixth form lifestyle, I'm actually doing my last year of A levels so it's a pretty important year but I don't want blogging to take a backseat so I'm still going to try and upload as often as I can! As you can tell by the title, it is time for another 'Music of the month' post (you can read my last one here) because whilst I am spending most of my time crying over the fact that I'm doing A levels and I want to melt my face because of that, I am still listening to music so I have been listening to a few songs on repeat this month!!

1. Babooshka - Kate Bush

I've been listening to Kate Bush a lot this month because my Philosophy teacher loves her, and at the beginning of every Philosophy teacher he recommends some music or a film or a book to us (and then we can recommend something if we want to), and he's recommended Kate Bush a fair few times so I've been listening to her a lot. I turned to her popular tracks on Spotify and Babooshka was the third one in there and I just like how quirky it sounds, and I also think she has a great voice.

2. Every Other Freckle - Alt-J

I have been listening to Alt-J's newest album on Spotify non-stop since it was put on there, it's slightly different from their old album but still has some similarities. Every Other Freckle is fairly similar to the songs on their last album but less chilled and more 'groovy' - I really didn't want to have to use the word 'groovy' in this post but that's what it's like, don't judge me.

3. Lovely Day - Alt-J

As I just said, I have been really enjoying Alt-J's new album. It sounds a little bit different from their first album in some ways but it's also similar enough that if you liked the first album you won't be disappointed with this one. This song is a bonus track on the album and I really like it because it sounds a bit strange and quirky but it's a nice chilled song.

4. The Girl in the Dirty Shirt - Oasis

I have liked Oasis for a long time but I haven't heard all of their songs so I'm always discovering new ones. I feel like all of their most popular songs like Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova (which I love don't get me wrong) sound quite similar but this song provides some variation. My family are always criticising me for liking Oasis (they prefer Blur) because all of their songs sound the same, but this one sounds slightly different and a bit more 'rocky'.

5. Lullaby - The Cure

The Cure also aren't a new band to me but I don't know that many of their songs, and I think this song came up on my tumblr dashboard and I instantly liked it. It's another chilled song but it's more upbeat than Alt-J. I'm never sure if it's wrong for me to like The Cure seeming as The Cure fandom seem to hate The Smiths fandom (please just let me love who I love)

Thanks for reading this month's 'Music of the month'!!

What music have you been enjoying this month?

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?