Top Albums of 2015
Hey everyone,
I haven't done one of these in a while so I've decided to change the format a little bit. You essentially get gushy reviews (in most cases) of the new releases I loved best in 2015. They are in order of favourite to least favourite. Enjoy!
1. Madonna - Rebel Heart
I have to admit that I’m a giant Madonna fan. So while I might not be exactly unbiased when reviewing this album, trust me when I say, this album is perfect! I’ve followed Madonna and her music since I was 5 years old and there have been some ups and downs, I will absolutely admit that and there are some albums that I definitely love more than others. That having been said, I will not look at this in comparison to her prior work, but as a complete stand-alone.
What you have to remember when you look at this album is that this is a Pop Music Album. There is no way around it and I’m going to look at it as thus. It starts out mellower and quiet, with the song “Living for Love”, which picks up quite a bit after the first few beats. The singing is good, the beat is superb and it makes you want to listen to more. It’s got hymnal elements like a good sing along pop song should have and is a strong start to the whole album. Let me assure you, it gets even better. Did I mention this song will make you want to dance? No? Well I did now. This album is danceable as fuck and there are so many times you just want to jump and clap your hands along to the beat, I lost count. “Devil Pray”, has some folk song elements and is very catchy. (You have been warned) Again, makes you want to dance. “Ghosttown” slows it down even further, this is the first ballad on the album and for a ballad it has everything you want, a beautiful melody, longing in the lyrics and melody and a strong chorus. And then, BAM out of nowhere, you have it, “Unapologetic Bitch” a Reggae type song with synth and Rap/Hip Hop elements, with everything that makes a Reggae song good. It makes you proudly stand up and proclaim “It might sound like I’m an unapologetic bitch, but sometimes, you know, I gotta call it like it is”. And let me just add, her rapping is actually spot on and before you know it, there is suddenly a sort of “sing along element” right there. Further on the Bitch subject line, “Bitch, I’m Madonna” just rules my world. For this song Madonna worked with Nicki Minaj and let me tell you, IT IS UTTERLY FUCKING BRILLIANT! I cannot get enough of this song and what’s more, I cannot get enough of Nicki’s part in it. Hands down one of my favourite songs on the album. Btw, also love the MASSIVE screens on stage during that song and just Nikki’s flawless rapping! Hold Tight is again a beautiful flawless pop song, beautiful melody, beautiful lyrics, beautiful everything, reminds me of Madonna’s work in the 90s and everything that was good about it. Again, beautiful hymnal elements. Another of my favourite songs is “Iconic” which includes an intro by Mike Tyson and I can’t even tell you how much I love this song. It’s poppy, it’s dancey, it’s got hymnal elements, it’ll make you clap your hands, jump up and down and just make you fucking blow up the house with your moves! I can’t even sit still typing this. Also, this one is a collaboration with “Chance The Rapper” and includes some AWESOME Rap style sound elements as well as a very smooth rap element by Chance himself. The next few songs are either beautiful ballads, like “Heartbreak City” with a military style drummer setting the mood in the background, Body Shop, which is cute and fun, “Holy Water”, which reminds me of Erotica and Bedtime Story. If I remember correctly there were nuns pole-dancing on stage during the live show. Yes please! “Best Night” also has a strong Erotica Vibe to it. “Inside Out” on the other hand is a beautiful pop song. I’m not even sure whether it’s a ballad or what it is. All I know is, I really like it. Wash all over me, is again a beautiful ballad that feels very personal. And then we have probably my hands down favourite song “Veni, Vidi, Vici” which features Nas. There are several reasons I love this song. I love it because Madonna writes and talks about how she got started in the music business, if you take into account that she used this album to work through the fact that she was raped at the beginning of her career and never really worked through it, this song feels like her liberation from what was before, as she proudly sings “I came, I saw, I conquered” right after listing several obstacles. It feels like she made it anyway. What I also love is that she includes a lot of titles of her older songs within the lyrics. And I definitely feel her on the line “music saved my life”. If that wasn’t enough to love this song, Madonna gives Nas’ space entirely to him and what he wants, he’s talking about gang-like fights between rappers, talks about police violence against people of colour and get this, FUCKING FERGUSON! YES YES YES! Just. I love this so fucking much! And then you have the fucking awesome Rap elements and sounds and just. This song is one of my three favourite songs of 2015. This is then followed by more songs reminiscent of Erotica and another beautiful ballad. The title-giving song “Rebel Heart” is a beautiful uplifting piece of music, celebrating diversity in characters. I honestly don’t know how long the regular version of this album is, but I got the cool “special snowflake super long limited edition version” for my birthday last year, so I’ m going to stop here.
I have to say I found it hard to skip forward between the songs, because I love them all so much. To sum up, Rebel Heart is pretty much a PERFECT pop music album, which why I find it so hard to understand that I’ve not heard a single song from the album on any of the “popular” radio stations. My recommendation is, if you are not that much into Madonna, or if you’ve been disappointed with her recent endeavours like “MDNA”, give this a try anyway, I promise you, if you like pop music, this will be something you don’t want to miss out on.
2. Lord Huron - Strange Trails
I got into Lord Huron, because someone shared “The Stranger” in a mix CD with me and I’ve never looked back. I think I gushed about how fantastic seeing them live was and how great their first album was, if not, be aware, Lord Huron love fest to follow in its own post! I can’t really say that I have a favourite between Strange Trails and their first album Lonesome Dreams. Both are beautiful and both have songs that I don’t want to leave the house without, so I make sure I don’t. “The Man Who Lives Forever” is still hands down my favourite Lord Huron song, but Strange Trails added some pretty spectacular music to my list of favourites. “Love like a Ghost” is a lovely start off for the album, it shows what the band really knows how to do and makes the listener look forward to what’s to come. With Strange Trails Lord Huron go more of a Cowboy-type direction with their music, while the first album had some Asian influences, especially in the choice of musical instruments. That makes Strange Trails quite a different album to their first instalment, however like with Boy and Bear doing something different didn’t unmake their identity and became something great. “Hurricane” was the first single to be released before the album and it made a lot of promises the album kept. It shows the beautiful harmony of layers upon layers of percussion, several voices singing in tandem and percussion, instruments and voices coming together to further the rhythm and making a beautiful upbeat song. Unlike with their first album, the ballads on this one are filled with more positive longing and less loneliness than the previous ones. It’s a nice change, while both have their advantages. “Fool For Love” is a really good folky song, it goes beautifully along with the whole notion of riding into the sunset and transfers that into music. It manages to describe the emotions of travelling through music it rings of “Time to Run”. This song is in the sorry position to be right in front of my favourite song on the entire album so it probably never got as much of a chance to leave an impact on me as it deserved, because once I found “The World Ender” I always skipped forward. “The World Ender” actually reminds me of Nick Cave at least music wise and then Johnny Cash as well. The rhythm reminds the listener of the sound of horses’ hooves. The lyrics are utterly fantastic and the whole song is both creepy and fantastic as are the lyrics and the melody. It invokes Cowboys riding out to take revenge on whoever wronged them. I can’t even put into words how much I like this song. All I can say is that I cannot get enough of it. Listening once… not possible. I’ll be right back as I play it again from the beginning. The next song “Meet Me in the Woods” is also one I genuinely enjoy and am always happy to listen to when it comes up on my mp3 player during shuffle. It reminds me of “Time to Run” again and yet is gentler as a whole. The melody is beautiful, as are the chorus and the percussion as always is flawless. “The Yawning Grave” is what I love about the sadder and darker ballads written by this band. Like “The Ghost on the Shore” this song manages to tap into some kind of existential yearning that we perceive in lonely places. Both the echoing vocal as well as the melody support the impression. “Cursed” despite the title is one of the fun songs on this album and somehow always makes me smile. “Louisa” oh my god! Yes! That song I love. It’s easier to love than “The World Ender” because the melody and the lyrics so easily permeate everything only to get stuck in your head. I woke up some mornings after I bought this album and was singing that very song. I love both the easier and the more complicated songs Lord Huron do and “Louisa” reminds me again why I like their stuff so much, because it just becomes “more” as it evolves and one is almost sad when it ends. There is only one way to get over that, play It again. Which, by the way, goes for the entire album. I’ve been known to simply put the album on repeat and I didn’t even notice it start from the beginning, I just knew I was getting exactly what I wanted and needed right then.
One more thing to add for this band in general, both “Louisa” and “The Man Who Lives Forever” are songs that help me calm down, when I suffer from anxiety.
3. Boy & Bear - Walk The Wire
Let me just mention at the beginning that I love this band very much and every new album is always highly anticipated and I mean ridiculously highly. That being said, I LOVED this album. I already enjoyed their first two instalments but this one I wouldn’t want to miss. I was lucky enough to get the super cool limited edition clear vinyl for Christmas from my friend Jett. I kind of don’t want to live without it now. XD
Anyway, on to the proper review: The first song “Limit of Love” already has a different vibe to their previous albums, but I really dig it, it’s different, but still uniquely Boy & Bear. The cowbells and the combination of beautiful melodies and great guitar play are what makes this song for me. I’ve listened to it on repeat so much, if I was listening to the vinyl doing that, the needle would have come out on the other side of the record. “Walk the Wire” is the first single from the new album and was my first contact with their new sound. It’s a bit synthy, but it works really well with the strong vocals and as I said before the overall Boy & Bear sound did not suffer because of them going into a different direction. “Hollow Ground” reminds me of their first album and all the folky impressions it had. The same goes for the next two songs. “A Thousand Faces” is one of my favourite tracks of the album, it’s just exactly what I want from a Boy & Bear song, when I grab their album. Also very dangerous and listened to excessively because I cannot get enough of it. “Man Alone” is great as well, the piano especially works really well with the entire constellation of instruments and vocals.
This album is wonderful, you can listen to it attentively or in the background, you can listen to it, when you’re happy or when you’re sad and there will always be a song that speaks to you! ♥ If you’ve not tried Boy & Bear before (despite my excessive talking and rec-ing them) maybe you’ll give this album a try. Why you ask? Because they are currently doing their world tour and not everything is sold out. Also and this is just a personal opinion, the band members are super nice, smell great and are wonderful huggers! :D
4. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
I read an article about how Florence and Mumford exchanged their producers. What I find strange is how Florence still sounds authentically Florence and Mumford don’t. Anyway, on to the beauty that is this album. My first contact with this album was the “What kind of Man EP” that I bought on Vinyl during Record Store Day and BOY was I impressed! It’s the kind of song you think a Florence Album should kick off with, as it turns out “Ship to wreck” works perfectly as an opener. It feels as strong an opener as “Dog Days Are Over”. Ship to Wreck wants you to dance and sing along and if you do it’s a lot of fun. It holds true what the longing for a Florence album promises and with gusto. Now back to our second song “What Kind of Man”, rings strongly of the slower and mystical songs on “Ceremonials”, which to me is a pretty high endorsement, considering songs like “Blinding”, “What the Water gave me”, “Seven Devils”, “Leave my body” and “Strangeness and Charms” are totally up my alley. Florence manages to provide both deep and mysterious songs as upbeat and folky songs. One might think putting both types on one album wouldn’t work, but it does, what’s more it’s arranged so well that one seamlessly works with the other. Also, HOW MUCH OF A FUCKING FANTASTIC HYMN does “What Kind of Man” turn into?! Love it! The next song on the album that gave it its title finally lets you catch your breath in the nicest gentlest way possible before leading over into the fantastic “Queen of Peace” that again is nothing less than perfect! The melody is KILLER and will nest in your head and have children and then ask its friends to come join them. I can’t even with how great this song is. The rhythm works really well with the lyrics and the melody and it just gets better and better and you feel like the song ascends to some higher plane of existence as it develops and becomes something more. I have to admit that I don’t know which other songs on this album became singles, but not releasing “Queen of Peace” as a single would be akin to a crime. The ballads on this album are wonderful with beautiful fragile melodies and then Florence’s strong vocals that go from gentle to cutting and it’s just a complete and utter joy to behold. What I like about her ballads I love about Patrick Wolf’s so if you are not familiar with either, you should look up the other ASAP. “Delilah” is another good one that’ll make you dance and then we have the beauty that is “Long & Lost” which just speaks to me on some level. I missed it the first time I listened to the album but then I listened to it when I worked and I absolutely had to listen to it again and again for like 3 hours. The refrain and how deep the voices go and just the levels in the vocals I really enjoy. To me it’s pretty much as perfect as Madonna humming in “Frozen” or “Isaac” which are some of my favourite things in the music world. “Third Eye” again is a really good song that just goes right through to the part of your brain that’s in charge of dancing. “Mother” rocks pretty fantastic and gives you a nice kick to do whatever the fuck needs doing. Now, again I own the limited deluxe special snowflake edition so I get extra demos to review and I am so fucking grateful for that! I can’t even describe how much of the most perfect Florence and the Machine song “Witch Which” is. That song has fucking EVERYTHING I want in a Florence song. Beautiful voice, great melodies, hymnal parts, BIG and almost spherical music that will pass through you and envelope you, it has great lyrics and just… HORNS!! OMG! The bit with the horns and the drums and the singing and it’s so fucking perfect and I can’t! I had to actually stop writing as I listen to this song, because it’s so fucking perfect and I didn’t want to miss anything. I could listen to that song for hours, days even, on end and believe me when I say that I have and I will keep doing it. That song alone makes the investment in a better proper set of headphones so worth it. Sometimes that song feels like a call to battle for me and as I write this I notice how this seems like a quality indicator for me, I feel like a fucking invincible yet dainty fairy creature. So essentially, I totally worship at the altar of Florence and her supreme musical talent. This album is a great example of what this woman can do and I hope she keeps doing it over and over and over again, because while how much I love “Which Witch” might be impossible to top, there is still so much room at the top of my musical pantheon for more greatness from her, there always will be.
5. Spy OST
An absolute treasure, and I don’t only mean the film. Essentially, this Soundtrack takes everything that made the film fun and brings it back in songs that were included in the film. I really hate it, when you have great songs in a film and they just don’t appear on the Soundtrack. What is the point of that exactly? Anyway, the reason I’m including this Soundtrack here is, because it’s a.) really good and true to the film and b.) because the collection of songs is utterly fun and hilarious.
The Soundtrack starts out all grand and serious with the song “Who can you trust” which, let’s face it, is a proper Spy/Bond song, not like that thing we got settled with at the beginning of Spectre. It’s perfect and sets the mood for something the film delivers in a quite unconventional way. The first time listener of the Soundtrack will immediately note that the next few songs are just a fun romp down popular music lane and it’s impossible to sit still. Be it that ridiculously awesome Eurovision song, the one where Mika suddenly sings French OR the one that essentially goes “me me me me me me, sexy me.” If you want to feel like you “can’t even” this will be the segment for you. This is then followed by some pretty awesome rap and Hip Hop, among others by Santigold and then before you kick off with “I’m a Diva”, which you suddenly want to agree with, you get blindsided by the awesomeness that is Gin Wigmore and her song “kill of the night”. Actually made me buy her own album as well, more on that under “out of time discoveries” further down.
The whole Soundtrack comes to a close with a great combination of ROCK YOUR WORLD Girl Band Rock Songs that just make you want to head bang. Also, small word of advice here, do not head bang in the shower.
Summing up, this Soundtrack is one of the few that is actually true to the film, it’s a LOT of fun and there is something for everyone on it. I don’t want to miss it among my collection and what’s more, neither do I want to miss the film.
6. Junkie XL - Mad Max OST
I’m convinced that one can like this without having watched or enjoyed the film. The soundtrack itself is intense and dark and claustrophobic. It reminds me of the Score to Only Lovers Left Alive. Despite it being so loud and aggressive in parts it’s one of the major reasons I managed to continuously work on my thesis without interruption. I’ve found it to be pretty perfect whenever I need to work on anything non-fiction related, because it helps me focus beautifully. The entire Soundtrack is a thing of beauty that I have to put emphases on that, cannot be listened to in the background. This Soundtrack will always take precedence to anything else you can do and it engulfs you and drags you along, if you want it to or not. Probably one of my favourite originals scores to come out in years! Strong on percussion and utterly fantastic.
7. Peter Gregson - A Little Chaos OST
The contrast couldn’t be stronger to the Mad Max OST. If I had to narrow it down to two favourite films in 2015, it would be Mad Max and A Little Chaos, two films who couldn’t be more different. Part of why I loved both films so much was definitely their superb score.
Alan Rickman apparently attended a ballet performance and fell in love with the composer’s work, who turned out to be Peter Gregson who had never written anything for a film before. Much like the film and its characters, the soundtrack is both fragile and strong, it goes from barely there to all encompassing and it’s beautiful to behold. The music flows much like water and manages to believably portray the characters’ inner workings. Not a single track is just sad or lonely or thoughtful or happy even. Most tracks are both and become something more both in tandem with each other but also by themselves. They beautifully come together and help round of the film to the masterpiece it is. The piece “A Little Chaos” that plays in the final scene of completion is an absolutely wonderful piece of new classical music that can stand all by itself and can be enjoyed without having to have seen the film. It’s pulsing and alive and full of positive energy and as cliché as that sounds, I’ve turned it into my alarm in the morning, because it’s such a sweet and gentle way to start into your day. Sometimes I’m tempted to just let it keep playing over and over and over again until I REALLY have to get up and you know what, sometimes I do and I do it with a smile on my face the whole way to work!
8. July Talk - July Talk
The album kicks off with a wild song, called “The Garden”. If you’ve never heard about this band, what makes them so cool is not just their Rock, but also the combination of a very deep male voice and a very beautiful high female voice. They work beautifully together and having seen them live, I can say they have the most amazing chemistry and while you might assume that a woman with a high, light voice wouldn’t be able to hold her own against the backdrop of Hardrock and accompanied by a deep male voice, let me educate you. The singers have such great chemistry and just like her voice can never be droned out during the songs, that is mirrored in her stage persona as well. One of goddesses of Rock, if I’ve ever seen one.
Now back to the album I have in front of me. The album is very danceable and not just in a mosh-pit kind of way. The music never gets boring, songs like “Paper Girl” and how the drums work with the guitars and voices is magic. If you walk along a street and listen to them, they make you feel invincible and larger than life. I also love their political messages in their songs, like “Gentleman” is about violence against women and controlling men and about how much women sometimes give up in their desperation not to be lonely. “Summer Dress” is the song that originally drew me to this band, because a friend recommended it and well, here we are now. This song is everything I want a good rock song to be, loud, fun, danceable, never boring and just something you don’t want to ever end. “Don’t Call Home” on the other hand is slow and spooky and is about how young native American men have trouble bridging their origins with their lives. It’s about being adrift and emotionally homeless. “Uninvited” in contrast reminds one of the fun that is The Ting Tings or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
All in all, this album is great and this is again one you shouldn’t miss out on. Further recommendation at this point is definitely to catch them live somewhere. I promise you, you’ll get blown away, they are well worth the investment. I can’t wait for them to come back!
9. Parov Stelar - The Demon Diaries
Again, a very, very, very solid Parov Stelar album. While some say that Parov Stelar does more Electro and too little Swing, I’m a 90s child and love that shit. Keep that in mind when reading this review. The Demon Diaries goes back to the roots of the earlier swing albums by Parov Stelar and reminds me of The Princess and Coco. It starts off with a great song that makes you want to move and has everything a good Electro Swing song should have. The second song then is very akin to the song “The Princess” if a bit faster. OH MY GOD! The Sun! Our Song number 3. Remember how I gushed about Graham Candy earlier? This is that song! I first heard it on the “Clap your Hands EP” and it was the reason I had to buy the Vinyl, because YES! The Sun is perhaps one of my favourite songs of 2014 and going over into 2015. It’s one of the songs I cannot get enough of. There is never a wrong time to play it and it always makes me just drop fucking everything and drive off into the sunset. The Sun neatly paved the way for “Sometimes” by Alle Farben and Graham Candy and is probably the reason I like that other song so much. Let’s look at it a little more closely. We’ve got a lot of fantastic piano in this song, it starts right out with a rhythm giving piano melody, followed by percussion and then we’re already right in the fantastic parts that are the lyrics and Graham Candy’s voice. “ Now I’m gonna tell my moma that I’m a traveller, I’m gonna follow the sun.” That just speaks to me on an existential level and part of me wishes I could do just that. That song can hardly be topped and yet Parov Stelar managed something no one else has before, not only do we have more great songs, some loungy, some electro or trance songs and more what could be called electro jazz. What he did was cover that divine song “Summertime” I LOVE the version with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and while I won’t fight anyone who’ll tell me their version is anything less than perfect, I’ll probably leave the conversation with an energic “agree to disagree”. He managed to make a cover version of a song that I always thought was unconverable and he did it so well that I genuinely enjoy it! The other sold Electro Swing songs with emphasis on Electro and Swing are “The Green Frog” and “I need L.O.V.E” . They do what I love, they combine the hymnal exaggeration of 90s trance and techno with Swing elements and I could dance and dance and dance to those songs for nights on end. If you liked “Fleur De Lille”, “The Snake” or “Wanna Fete”, you’ll love “The Green Frog”. Unlike “The Invisible Girl”, “The Demon Diaries” delivers a solid, danceable and fun Electro Swing album that is well worth the time and money spent on it.
10. Elle King - Love Stuff
I got into this artist because of the same friend who recced me July Talk and what now feels like half my music collection. Elle King is seemingly a small blonde woman with a great voice. The first song I heard and loved and that made me feel feminine and invincible was “Ex’s and Oh’s”. If you know the song and haven’t seen the video yet, watch it nao!
Love Stuff is a great mixture of different blues and folk songs, some even fall into the indie rock genre and all of them play to the strengths of her great, surprisingly gravelly voice. I don’t usually like it when English sounds that American as if it was from the Wild West, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me with Elle. The album starts with “Where the Devil don’t go” and I sort of imagine it sung in an old Wild West Saloon and her essentially burning down the stage with her voice and awesome music. Right after “Ex’s and Oh’s” kicks off and it’s not just fun musically, but also where the lyrics are concerned. It’s strong, it’s catchy, it’s self-confident and it gets stuck in your head in the best of ways. Some of Elle’s songs also remind me of the likes of Amy Winehouse and The Black Keys. “Kocaine Karolina” is a ballad that has a beautiful melody and shows how many facets Elle’s voice has. It’s very folksy and includes a banjo among other instruments. “Song of Sorrow” is one of my favourite songs and reminds me of “Gold in the Sunset” by Bob Schneider somehow, which is one of my all time favourite songs. This song is also very catchy and gets stuck in your head to an extent that you’ll wake up with that song in your head. The melody is beautiful and invites one to sing along. Which I’ve done… plenty… and not just under the shower. “America’s Sweetheart” is very strong on the Banjos and would totally work on that imaginary Saloon stage that I mentioned earlier. It’s a hymn and just makes you push harder and makes you feel invincible. “Ain’t Gonna Drown” I just love. I have no explanation, or maybe a bit of one. You know how I like music that feels like it’s three dimensional? Like it’s a wave of smoke or something that moves through space and towards you and then engulfs you. This song somehow manages that, even though it’s mostly Elle’s voice, a guitar and drums.
There’s one more song that’s on her EP and not her album but that has to get an honourable mention here: “Playing for Keeps” is just hands down fantastic. It’s got that Rock’n’Roll element where you snap your fingers to the beat and it makes you want to dance. The lyrics are great and when the drums set in properly accompanied by the piano and a great background chorus with lots of “Woo-Oh’s” it makes for a perfect song. What are you still doing here, listen to it on YouTube and then come back for the rest of this review.
Summing up, buying this album was money well spent! I really hope Elle tours in Germany so I can go and see her, I’m really curious as to her stage presence and how what I like about her music would translate to a live gig.
11. Graham Candy - Holding Up Balloons EP
You might know Graham Candy, or rather his voice, because he worked with Alle Farben and sang the vocals on “She Moves”. Don’t get me wrong, I like that song, but I like “Sometimes” by him and Alle Farben or “The Sun” by Parov Stelar that he did the vocals for even more. Now Holding up Balloons is an EP where I love half of it and can’t really work up to liking the other half, it just never worked for me. So let’s look at the songs I liked and have something to say about: “Worth It All”, is beautiful and works with Graham’s voice. It also gets stuck in your head and makes you want to sing along. It’s a wonderful ballad and the message behind it is great. Also love the jump from deep sort of classical music inspired instruments with strings to the chorus itself which is entirely free of them. “Holding Up Balloons” is just fantastic. That song alone is reason enough to give this artist a try. It reminds me of Alphabeat’s song “Fascination”, which reminds me, I really need to look up what they are doing now. I used to love their stuff. Note to self, “put songs on mp3 player”.
If you only know his work with Alle Farben or Parov Stelar, I highly recommend looking up his EP and giving it a spin. Especially with spring on the way it will make you feel like summer’s already here.
12. Mark Ronson - Uptown Special
Uptown Special is a pretty solid pop music album as well, with some funk, some rap and some pop elements. Mark Ronson does what he does best and “adds some horns” to some already pretty well written tracks, which gives them a pretty amazing do-over. Uptown Funk we all know and love as a pretty perfect summer hit. I’m still glad I got into it when I did, because my favourite music reccer just passed it along and said “give this a spin”. The video is fun, what’s more is that the song works perfectly without it also. It’s the kind of song you shouldn’t listen to when driving and that makes you do that little headshake and sing along however loud or quiet, there will be singing. My favourite part of the Uptown Funk legacy is probably that now the response to “I’m too hot” has been established forever and ever. What goes for the rest of the album can also appropriately be summed up in the only possible reply. “Hot damn!”. I bought the CD for “Uptown Funk” and was surprised by how many other good songs were on it!
13. Mumford & Sons - Wilder Minds
Just, no. I’m disappointed, I don’t want to see them live, if they play these songs. I’m not married to the banjo, but this album feels like they’ve lost their identity. Strange thing is that Florence + The Machine and Mumford & Sons switched their producers and somehow Florence still sounds like herself and for details go to my review of that album, but Mumford & Sons now sometimes sound like extreme mainstream Nickelbag wannabees and I can’t bear it. I’m just pretending they never made this album. I accept that they have the right to develop their music in any way they want, but I’m also allowed to not like their music anymore.
That's it from me for now. There'll hopefully another post for honourable mentions like I mentioned, but for now I need to get back to work. :)
Also, let me know what you think and if you got some recs yourselves, bring them on :D
I haven't done one of these in a while so I've decided to change the format a little bit. You essentially get gushy reviews (in most cases) of the new releases I loved best in 2015. They are in order of favourite to least favourite. Enjoy!
1. Madonna - Rebel Heart
I have to admit that I’m a giant Madonna fan. So while I might not be exactly unbiased when reviewing this album, trust me when I say, this album is perfect! I’ve followed Madonna and her music since I was 5 years old and there have been some ups and downs, I will absolutely admit that and there are some albums that I definitely love more than others. That having been said, I will not look at this in comparison to her prior work, but as a complete stand-alone.
What you have to remember when you look at this album is that this is a Pop Music Album. There is no way around it and I’m going to look at it as thus. It starts out mellower and quiet, with the song “Living for Love”, which picks up quite a bit after the first few beats. The singing is good, the beat is superb and it makes you want to listen to more. It’s got hymnal elements like a good sing along pop song should have and is a strong start to the whole album. Let me assure you, it gets even better. Did I mention this song will make you want to dance? No? Well I did now. This album is danceable as fuck and there are so many times you just want to jump and clap your hands along to the beat, I lost count. “Devil Pray”, has some folk song elements and is very catchy. (You have been warned) Again, makes you want to dance. “Ghosttown” slows it down even further, this is the first ballad on the album and for a ballad it has everything you want, a beautiful melody, longing in the lyrics and melody and a strong chorus. And then, BAM out of nowhere, you have it, “Unapologetic Bitch” a Reggae type song with synth and Rap/Hip Hop elements, with everything that makes a Reggae song good. It makes you proudly stand up and proclaim “It might sound like I’m an unapologetic bitch, but sometimes, you know, I gotta call it like it is”. And let me just add, her rapping is actually spot on and before you know it, there is suddenly a sort of “sing along element” right there. Further on the Bitch subject line, “Bitch, I’m Madonna” just rules my world. For this song Madonna worked with Nicki Minaj and let me tell you, IT IS UTTERLY FUCKING BRILLIANT! I cannot get enough of this song and what’s more, I cannot get enough of Nicki’s part in it. Hands down one of my favourite songs on the album. Btw, also love the MASSIVE screens on stage during that song and just Nikki’s flawless rapping! Hold Tight is again a beautiful flawless pop song, beautiful melody, beautiful lyrics, beautiful everything, reminds me of Madonna’s work in the 90s and everything that was good about it. Again, beautiful hymnal elements. Another of my favourite songs is “Iconic” which includes an intro by Mike Tyson and I can’t even tell you how much I love this song. It’s poppy, it’s dancey, it’s got hymnal elements, it’ll make you clap your hands, jump up and down and just make you fucking blow up the house with your moves! I can’t even sit still typing this. Also, this one is a collaboration with “Chance The Rapper” and includes some AWESOME Rap style sound elements as well as a very smooth rap element by Chance himself. The next few songs are either beautiful ballads, like “Heartbreak City” with a military style drummer setting the mood in the background, Body Shop, which is cute and fun, “Holy Water”, which reminds me of Erotica and Bedtime Story. If I remember correctly there were nuns pole-dancing on stage during the live show. Yes please! “Best Night” also has a strong Erotica Vibe to it. “Inside Out” on the other hand is a beautiful pop song. I’m not even sure whether it’s a ballad or what it is. All I know is, I really like it. Wash all over me, is again a beautiful ballad that feels very personal. And then we have probably my hands down favourite song “Veni, Vidi, Vici” which features Nas. There are several reasons I love this song. I love it because Madonna writes and talks about how she got started in the music business, if you take into account that she used this album to work through the fact that she was raped at the beginning of her career and never really worked through it, this song feels like her liberation from what was before, as she proudly sings “I came, I saw, I conquered” right after listing several obstacles. It feels like she made it anyway. What I also love is that she includes a lot of titles of her older songs within the lyrics. And I definitely feel her on the line “music saved my life”. If that wasn’t enough to love this song, Madonna gives Nas’ space entirely to him and what he wants, he’s talking about gang-like fights between rappers, talks about police violence against people of colour and get this, FUCKING FERGUSON! YES YES YES! Just. I love this so fucking much! And then you have the fucking awesome Rap elements and sounds and just. This song is one of my three favourite songs of 2015. This is then followed by more songs reminiscent of Erotica and another beautiful ballad. The title-giving song “Rebel Heart” is a beautiful uplifting piece of music, celebrating diversity in characters. I honestly don’t know how long the regular version of this album is, but I got the cool “special snowflake super long limited edition version” for my birthday last year, so I’ m going to stop here.
I have to say I found it hard to skip forward between the songs, because I love them all so much. To sum up, Rebel Heart is pretty much a PERFECT pop music album, which why I find it so hard to understand that I’ve not heard a single song from the album on any of the “popular” radio stations. My recommendation is, if you are not that much into Madonna, or if you’ve been disappointed with her recent endeavours like “MDNA”, give this a try anyway, I promise you, if you like pop music, this will be something you don’t want to miss out on.
2. Lord Huron - Strange Trails
I got into Lord Huron, because someone shared “The Stranger” in a mix CD with me and I’ve never looked back. I think I gushed about how fantastic seeing them live was and how great their first album was, if not, be aware, Lord Huron love fest to follow in its own post! I can’t really say that I have a favourite between Strange Trails and their first album Lonesome Dreams. Both are beautiful and both have songs that I don’t want to leave the house without, so I make sure I don’t. “The Man Who Lives Forever” is still hands down my favourite Lord Huron song, but Strange Trails added some pretty spectacular music to my list of favourites. “Love like a Ghost” is a lovely start off for the album, it shows what the band really knows how to do and makes the listener look forward to what’s to come. With Strange Trails Lord Huron go more of a Cowboy-type direction with their music, while the first album had some Asian influences, especially in the choice of musical instruments. That makes Strange Trails quite a different album to their first instalment, however like with Boy and Bear doing something different didn’t unmake their identity and became something great. “Hurricane” was the first single to be released before the album and it made a lot of promises the album kept. It shows the beautiful harmony of layers upon layers of percussion, several voices singing in tandem and percussion, instruments and voices coming together to further the rhythm and making a beautiful upbeat song. Unlike with their first album, the ballads on this one are filled with more positive longing and less loneliness than the previous ones. It’s a nice change, while both have their advantages. “Fool For Love” is a really good folky song, it goes beautifully along with the whole notion of riding into the sunset and transfers that into music. It manages to describe the emotions of travelling through music it rings of “Time to Run”. This song is in the sorry position to be right in front of my favourite song on the entire album so it probably never got as much of a chance to leave an impact on me as it deserved, because once I found “The World Ender” I always skipped forward. “The World Ender” actually reminds me of Nick Cave at least music wise and then Johnny Cash as well. The rhythm reminds the listener of the sound of horses’ hooves. The lyrics are utterly fantastic and the whole song is both creepy and fantastic as are the lyrics and the melody. It invokes Cowboys riding out to take revenge on whoever wronged them. I can’t even put into words how much I like this song. All I can say is that I cannot get enough of it. Listening once… not possible. I’ll be right back as I play it again from the beginning. The next song “Meet Me in the Woods” is also one I genuinely enjoy and am always happy to listen to when it comes up on my mp3 player during shuffle. It reminds me of “Time to Run” again and yet is gentler as a whole. The melody is beautiful, as are the chorus and the percussion as always is flawless. “The Yawning Grave” is what I love about the sadder and darker ballads written by this band. Like “The Ghost on the Shore” this song manages to tap into some kind of existential yearning that we perceive in lonely places. Both the echoing vocal as well as the melody support the impression. “Cursed” despite the title is one of the fun songs on this album and somehow always makes me smile. “Louisa” oh my god! Yes! That song I love. It’s easier to love than “The World Ender” because the melody and the lyrics so easily permeate everything only to get stuck in your head. I woke up some mornings after I bought this album and was singing that very song. I love both the easier and the more complicated songs Lord Huron do and “Louisa” reminds me again why I like their stuff so much, because it just becomes “more” as it evolves and one is almost sad when it ends. There is only one way to get over that, play It again. Which, by the way, goes for the entire album. I’ve been known to simply put the album on repeat and I didn’t even notice it start from the beginning, I just knew I was getting exactly what I wanted and needed right then.
One more thing to add for this band in general, both “Louisa” and “The Man Who Lives Forever” are songs that help me calm down, when I suffer from anxiety.
3. Boy & Bear - Walk The Wire
Let me just mention at the beginning that I love this band very much and every new album is always highly anticipated and I mean ridiculously highly. That being said, I LOVED this album. I already enjoyed their first two instalments but this one I wouldn’t want to miss. I was lucky enough to get the super cool limited edition clear vinyl for Christmas from my friend Jett. I kind of don’t want to live without it now. XD
Anyway, on to the proper review: The first song “Limit of Love” already has a different vibe to their previous albums, but I really dig it, it’s different, but still uniquely Boy & Bear. The cowbells and the combination of beautiful melodies and great guitar play are what makes this song for me. I’ve listened to it on repeat so much, if I was listening to the vinyl doing that, the needle would have come out on the other side of the record. “Walk the Wire” is the first single from the new album and was my first contact with their new sound. It’s a bit synthy, but it works really well with the strong vocals and as I said before the overall Boy & Bear sound did not suffer because of them going into a different direction. “Hollow Ground” reminds me of their first album and all the folky impressions it had. The same goes for the next two songs. “A Thousand Faces” is one of my favourite tracks of the album, it’s just exactly what I want from a Boy & Bear song, when I grab their album. Also very dangerous and listened to excessively because I cannot get enough of it. “Man Alone” is great as well, the piano especially works really well with the entire constellation of instruments and vocals.
This album is wonderful, you can listen to it attentively or in the background, you can listen to it, when you’re happy or when you’re sad and there will always be a song that speaks to you! ♥ If you’ve not tried Boy & Bear before (despite my excessive talking and rec-ing them) maybe you’ll give this album a try. Why you ask? Because they are currently doing their world tour and not everything is sold out. Also and this is just a personal opinion, the band members are super nice, smell great and are wonderful huggers! :D
4. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
I read an article about how Florence and Mumford exchanged their producers. What I find strange is how Florence still sounds authentically Florence and Mumford don’t. Anyway, on to the beauty that is this album. My first contact with this album was the “What kind of Man EP” that I bought on Vinyl during Record Store Day and BOY was I impressed! It’s the kind of song you think a Florence Album should kick off with, as it turns out “Ship to wreck” works perfectly as an opener. It feels as strong an opener as “Dog Days Are Over”. Ship to Wreck wants you to dance and sing along and if you do it’s a lot of fun. It holds true what the longing for a Florence album promises and with gusto. Now back to our second song “What Kind of Man”, rings strongly of the slower and mystical songs on “Ceremonials”, which to me is a pretty high endorsement, considering songs like “Blinding”, “What the Water gave me”, “Seven Devils”, “Leave my body” and “Strangeness and Charms” are totally up my alley. Florence manages to provide both deep and mysterious songs as upbeat and folky songs. One might think putting both types on one album wouldn’t work, but it does, what’s more it’s arranged so well that one seamlessly works with the other. Also, HOW MUCH OF A FUCKING FANTASTIC HYMN does “What Kind of Man” turn into?! Love it! The next song on the album that gave it its title finally lets you catch your breath in the nicest gentlest way possible before leading over into the fantastic “Queen of Peace” that again is nothing less than perfect! The melody is KILLER and will nest in your head and have children and then ask its friends to come join them. I can’t even with how great this song is. The rhythm works really well with the lyrics and the melody and it just gets better and better and you feel like the song ascends to some higher plane of existence as it develops and becomes something more. I have to admit that I don’t know which other songs on this album became singles, but not releasing “Queen of Peace” as a single would be akin to a crime. The ballads on this album are wonderful with beautiful fragile melodies and then Florence’s strong vocals that go from gentle to cutting and it’s just a complete and utter joy to behold. What I like about her ballads I love about Patrick Wolf’s so if you are not familiar with either, you should look up the other ASAP. “Delilah” is another good one that’ll make you dance and then we have the beauty that is “Long & Lost” which just speaks to me on some level. I missed it the first time I listened to the album but then I listened to it when I worked and I absolutely had to listen to it again and again for like 3 hours. The refrain and how deep the voices go and just the levels in the vocals I really enjoy. To me it’s pretty much as perfect as Madonna humming in “Frozen” or “Isaac” which are some of my favourite things in the music world. “Third Eye” again is a really good song that just goes right through to the part of your brain that’s in charge of dancing. “Mother” rocks pretty fantastic and gives you a nice kick to do whatever the fuck needs doing. Now, again I own the limited deluxe special snowflake edition so I get extra demos to review and I am so fucking grateful for that! I can’t even describe how much of the most perfect Florence and the Machine song “Witch Which” is. That song has fucking EVERYTHING I want in a Florence song. Beautiful voice, great melodies, hymnal parts, BIG and almost spherical music that will pass through you and envelope you, it has great lyrics and just… HORNS!! OMG! The bit with the horns and the drums and the singing and it’s so fucking perfect and I can’t! I had to actually stop writing as I listen to this song, because it’s so fucking perfect and I didn’t want to miss anything. I could listen to that song for hours, days even, on end and believe me when I say that I have and I will keep doing it. That song alone makes the investment in a better proper set of headphones so worth it. Sometimes that song feels like a call to battle for me and as I write this I notice how this seems like a quality indicator for me, I feel like a fucking invincible yet dainty fairy creature. So essentially, I totally worship at the altar of Florence and her supreme musical talent. This album is a great example of what this woman can do and I hope she keeps doing it over and over and over again, because while how much I love “Which Witch” might be impossible to top, there is still so much room at the top of my musical pantheon for more greatness from her, there always will be.
5. Spy OST
An absolute treasure, and I don’t only mean the film. Essentially, this Soundtrack takes everything that made the film fun and brings it back in songs that were included in the film. I really hate it, when you have great songs in a film and they just don’t appear on the Soundtrack. What is the point of that exactly? Anyway, the reason I’m including this Soundtrack here is, because it’s a.) really good and true to the film and b.) because the collection of songs is utterly fun and hilarious.
The Soundtrack starts out all grand and serious with the song “Who can you trust” which, let’s face it, is a proper Spy/Bond song, not like that thing we got settled with at the beginning of Spectre. It’s perfect and sets the mood for something the film delivers in a quite unconventional way. The first time listener of the Soundtrack will immediately note that the next few songs are just a fun romp down popular music lane and it’s impossible to sit still. Be it that ridiculously awesome Eurovision song, the one where Mika suddenly sings French OR the one that essentially goes “me me me me me me, sexy me.” If you want to feel like you “can’t even” this will be the segment for you. This is then followed by some pretty awesome rap and Hip Hop, among others by Santigold and then before you kick off with “I’m a Diva”, which you suddenly want to agree with, you get blindsided by the awesomeness that is Gin Wigmore and her song “kill of the night”. Actually made me buy her own album as well, more on that under “out of time discoveries” further down.
The whole Soundtrack comes to a close with a great combination of ROCK YOUR WORLD Girl Band Rock Songs that just make you want to head bang. Also, small word of advice here, do not head bang in the shower.
Summing up, this Soundtrack is one of the few that is actually true to the film, it’s a LOT of fun and there is something for everyone on it. I don’t want to miss it among my collection and what’s more, neither do I want to miss the film.
6. Junkie XL - Mad Max OST
I’m convinced that one can like this without having watched or enjoyed the film. The soundtrack itself is intense and dark and claustrophobic. It reminds me of the Score to Only Lovers Left Alive. Despite it being so loud and aggressive in parts it’s one of the major reasons I managed to continuously work on my thesis without interruption. I’ve found it to be pretty perfect whenever I need to work on anything non-fiction related, because it helps me focus beautifully. The entire Soundtrack is a thing of beauty that I have to put emphases on that, cannot be listened to in the background. This Soundtrack will always take precedence to anything else you can do and it engulfs you and drags you along, if you want it to or not. Probably one of my favourite originals scores to come out in years! Strong on percussion and utterly fantastic.
7. Peter Gregson - A Little Chaos OST
The contrast couldn’t be stronger to the Mad Max OST. If I had to narrow it down to two favourite films in 2015, it would be Mad Max and A Little Chaos, two films who couldn’t be more different. Part of why I loved both films so much was definitely their superb score.
Alan Rickman apparently attended a ballet performance and fell in love with the composer’s work, who turned out to be Peter Gregson who had never written anything for a film before. Much like the film and its characters, the soundtrack is both fragile and strong, it goes from barely there to all encompassing and it’s beautiful to behold. The music flows much like water and manages to believably portray the characters’ inner workings. Not a single track is just sad or lonely or thoughtful or happy even. Most tracks are both and become something more both in tandem with each other but also by themselves. They beautifully come together and help round of the film to the masterpiece it is. The piece “A Little Chaos” that plays in the final scene of completion is an absolutely wonderful piece of new classical music that can stand all by itself and can be enjoyed without having to have seen the film. It’s pulsing and alive and full of positive energy and as cliché as that sounds, I’ve turned it into my alarm in the morning, because it’s such a sweet and gentle way to start into your day. Sometimes I’m tempted to just let it keep playing over and over and over again until I REALLY have to get up and you know what, sometimes I do and I do it with a smile on my face the whole way to work!
8. July Talk - July Talk
The album kicks off with a wild song, called “The Garden”. If you’ve never heard about this band, what makes them so cool is not just their Rock, but also the combination of a very deep male voice and a very beautiful high female voice. They work beautifully together and having seen them live, I can say they have the most amazing chemistry and while you might assume that a woman with a high, light voice wouldn’t be able to hold her own against the backdrop of Hardrock and accompanied by a deep male voice, let me educate you. The singers have such great chemistry and just like her voice can never be droned out during the songs, that is mirrored in her stage persona as well. One of goddesses of Rock, if I’ve ever seen one.
Now back to the album I have in front of me. The album is very danceable and not just in a mosh-pit kind of way. The music never gets boring, songs like “Paper Girl” and how the drums work with the guitars and voices is magic. If you walk along a street and listen to them, they make you feel invincible and larger than life. I also love their political messages in their songs, like “Gentleman” is about violence against women and controlling men and about how much women sometimes give up in their desperation not to be lonely. “Summer Dress” is the song that originally drew me to this band, because a friend recommended it and well, here we are now. This song is everything I want a good rock song to be, loud, fun, danceable, never boring and just something you don’t want to ever end. “Don’t Call Home” on the other hand is slow and spooky and is about how young native American men have trouble bridging their origins with their lives. It’s about being adrift and emotionally homeless. “Uninvited” in contrast reminds one of the fun that is The Ting Tings or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
All in all, this album is great and this is again one you shouldn’t miss out on. Further recommendation at this point is definitely to catch them live somewhere. I promise you, you’ll get blown away, they are well worth the investment. I can’t wait for them to come back!
9. Parov Stelar - The Demon Diaries
Again, a very, very, very solid Parov Stelar album. While some say that Parov Stelar does more Electro and too little Swing, I’m a 90s child and love that shit. Keep that in mind when reading this review. The Demon Diaries goes back to the roots of the earlier swing albums by Parov Stelar and reminds me of The Princess and Coco. It starts off with a great song that makes you want to move and has everything a good Electro Swing song should have. The second song then is very akin to the song “The Princess” if a bit faster. OH MY GOD! The Sun! Our Song number 3. Remember how I gushed about Graham Candy earlier? This is that song! I first heard it on the “Clap your Hands EP” and it was the reason I had to buy the Vinyl, because YES! The Sun is perhaps one of my favourite songs of 2014 and going over into 2015. It’s one of the songs I cannot get enough of. There is never a wrong time to play it and it always makes me just drop fucking everything and drive off into the sunset. The Sun neatly paved the way for “Sometimes” by Alle Farben and Graham Candy and is probably the reason I like that other song so much. Let’s look at it a little more closely. We’ve got a lot of fantastic piano in this song, it starts right out with a rhythm giving piano melody, followed by percussion and then we’re already right in the fantastic parts that are the lyrics and Graham Candy’s voice. “ Now I’m gonna tell my moma that I’m a traveller, I’m gonna follow the sun.” That just speaks to me on an existential level and part of me wishes I could do just that. That song can hardly be topped and yet Parov Stelar managed something no one else has before, not only do we have more great songs, some loungy, some electro or trance songs and more what could be called electro jazz. What he did was cover that divine song “Summertime” I LOVE the version with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong and while I won’t fight anyone who’ll tell me their version is anything less than perfect, I’ll probably leave the conversation with an energic “agree to disagree”. He managed to make a cover version of a song that I always thought was unconverable and he did it so well that I genuinely enjoy it! The other sold Electro Swing songs with emphasis on Electro and Swing are “The Green Frog” and “I need L.O.V.E” . They do what I love, they combine the hymnal exaggeration of 90s trance and techno with Swing elements and I could dance and dance and dance to those songs for nights on end. If you liked “Fleur De Lille”, “The Snake” or “Wanna Fete”, you’ll love “The Green Frog”. Unlike “The Invisible Girl”, “The Demon Diaries” delivers a solid, danceable and fun Electro Swing album that is well worth the time and money spent on it.
10. Elle King - Love Stuff
I got into this artist because of the same friend who recced me July Talk and what now feels like half my music collection. Elle King is seemingly a small blonde woman with a great voice. The first song I heard and loved and that made me feel feminine and invincible was “Ex’s and Oh’s”. If you know the song and haven’t seen the video yet, watch it nao!
Love Stuff is a great mixture of different blues and folk songs, some even fall into the indie rock genre and all of them play to the strengths of her great, surprisingly gravelly voice. I don’t usually like it when English sounds that American as if it was from the Wild West, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me with Elle. The album starts with “Where the Devil don’t go” and I sort of imagine it sung in an old Wild West Saloon and her essentially burning down the stage with her voice and awesome music. Right after “Ex’s and Oh’s” kicks off and it’s not just fun musically, but also where the lyrics are concerned. It’s strong, it’s catchy, it’s self-confident and it gets stuck in your head in the best of ways. Some of Elle’s songs also remind me of the likes of Amy Winehouse and The Black Keys. “Kocaine Karolina” is a ballad that has a beautiful melody and shows how many facets Elle’s voice has. It’s very folksy and includes a banjo among other instruments. “Song of Sorrow” is one of my favourite songs and reminds me of “Gold in the Sunset” by Bob Schneider somehow, which is one of my all time favourite songs. This song is also very catchy and gets stuck in your head to an extent that you’ll wake up with that song in your head. The melody is beautiful and invites one to sing along. Which I’ve done… plenty… and not just under the shower. “America’s Sweetheart” is very strong on the Banjos and would totally work on that imaginary Saloon stage that I mentioned earlier. It’s a hymn and just makes you push harder and makes you feel invincible. “Ain’t Gonna Drown” I just love. I have no explanation, or maybe a bit of one. You know how I like music that feels like it’s three dimensional? Like it’s a wave of smoke or something that moves through space and towards you and then engulfs you. This song somehow manages that, even though it’s mostly Elle’s voice, a guitar and drums.
There’s one more song that’s on her EP and not her album but that has to get an honourable mention here: “Playing for Keeps” is just hands down fantastic. It’s got that Rock’n’Roll element where you snap your fingers to the beat and it makes you want to dance. The lyrics are great and when the drums set in properly accompanied by the piano and a great background chorus with lots of “Woo-Oh’s” it makes for a perfect song. What are you still doing here, listen to it on YouTube and then come back for the rest of this review.
Summing up, buying this album was money well spent! I really hope Elle tours in Germany so I can go and see her, I’m really curious as to her stage presence and how what I like about her music would translate to a live gig.
11. Graham Candy - Holding Up Balloons EP
You might know Graham Candy, or rather his voice, because he worked with Alle Farben and sang the vocals on “She Moves”. Don’t get me wrong, I like that song, but I like “Sometimes” by him and Alle Farben or “The Sun” by Parov Stelar that he did the vocals for even more. Now Holding up Balloons is an EP where I love half of it and can’t really work up to liking the other half, it just never worked for me. So let’s look at the songs I liked and have something to say about: “Worth It All”, is beautiful and works with Graham’s voice. It also gets stuck in your head and makes you want to sing along. It’s a wonderful ballad and the message behind it is great. Also love the jump from deep sort of classical music inspired instruments with strings to the chorus itself which is entirely free of them. “Holding Up Balloons” is just fantastic. That song alone is reason enough to give this artist a try. It reminds me of Alphabeat’s song “Fascination”, which reminds me, I really need to look up what they are doing now. I used to love their stuff. Note to self, “put songs on mp3 player”.
If you only know his work with Alle Farben or Parov Stelar, I highly recommend looking up his EP and giving it a spin. Especially with spring on the way it will make you feel like summer’s already here.
12. Mark Ronson - Uptown Special
Uptown Special is a pretty solid pop music album as well, with some funk, some rap and some pop elements. Mark Ronson does what he does best and “adds some horns” to some already pretty well written tracks, which gives them a pretty amazing do-over. Uptown Funk we all know and love as a pretty perfect summer hit. I’m still glad I got into it when I did, because my favourite music reccer just passed it along and said “give this a spin”. The video is fun, what’s more is that the song works perfectly without it also. It’s the kind of song you shouldn’t listen to when driving and that makes you do that little headshake and sing along however loud or quiet, there will be singing. My favourite part of the Uptown Funk legacy is probably that now the response to “I’m too hot” has been established forever and ever. What goes for the rest of the album can also appropriately be summed up in the only possible reply. “Hot damn!”. I bought the CD for “Uptown Funk” and was surprised by how many other good songs were on it!
13. Mumford & Sons - Wilder Minds
Just, no. I’m disappointed, I don’t want to see them live, if they play these songs. I’m not married to the banjo, but this album feels like they’ve lost their identity. Strange thing is that Florence + The Machine and Mumford & Sons switched their producers and somehow Florence still sounds like herself and for details go to my review of that album, but Mumford & Sons now sometimes sound like extreme mainstream Nickelbag wannabees and I can’t bear it. I’m just pretending they never made this album. I accept that they have the right to develop their music in any way they want, but I’m also allowed to not like their music anymore.
That's it from me for now. There'll hopefully another post for honourable mentions like I mentioned, but for now I need to get back to work. :)
Also, let me know what you think and if you got some recs yourselves, bring them on :D