I recently started running again after really struggling to get back into exercise after I recovered from glandular fever. I have been using the BBC Get Inspired Couch To 5K app on my phone (a great free resource for anyone who wants to improve their fitness!). This gives me a perfect mix between pushing myself to actually get fitter and having periods of rest. This has been good motivation, but I have also created an upbeat playlist to inspire me more. If anyone is interested, I have linked it here:



(Disclaimer; this is not an ad, just me thinking this is fab!)

Finally, I return, after a little messy hiatus where I was stressed af. Here is this month's playlist, full of new stuff that I'm enjoying, and there's lots for you to enjoy!


I had to include a few standard songs, but particular standouts this month include Khalid, Mondays, Gabriella Cilmi, and the return of Macklemore (on his own, too). Old, returning favourites also include Scouting for Girls, and Ellie Goulding, as I listened to 'How Long Will I Love You' on a bus through London and had the indie little tear rolling down my cheek.

Klara

Recently we were contacted by OGECHI's press team and asked to review her new music video (out 22nd October 2017) called BLVCK + WOMVN. If I'm honest I hadn't heard of her before but the information the company sent to me she is a poet, author, recording artist and dancer. She made her debut at only 17 years old in 2015 and I'm all for supporting young artists, and Amber and Ana agreed so we decided to go ahead with the review. The lyrics are a poem so they're very deep and explore race and femininity which I personally liked, I think these are important topics which are often avoided due to perceived taboos. The video also depicts a woman dancing while onlookers ignore or glance over her which I think represents the struggle for women, particularly those of colour, to be noticed for their work. Overall I would definitely recommend watching this music video.

Amber

I listened to the video first out of us, and really, really enjoyed it, in terms of aesthetic, music, and substance. I loved the strength of Ogechi, even showing through the bare-bones title, and shows intersectionalism from her perspective of a woman, who is also black. We all picked out the symbolism of the solitary dancer: rejected by her peers and still dancing on. In terms of musical content, I thought the opening was Beyonce-during-Formation-reminiscent but then she really came into her own. She directly addressed issues such as misogyny and other struggles she has experienced, and obviously, with her album entitled 'Intersectional Blvckness' she is highly aware of the importance of intersectionalism, which was fab. Not only is the content very personal and informed, but the music is great too, and it works so well as a song, rather than just as poetry.

Ana

Having not heard of the artist before I was curious as to what the video will be like and was pleasantly surprised. Being quite interested in the issues surrounding gender and race, I found the video to be an insightful and powerful take on the intersection between the two. The portrayal of a woman as a lone dancer voiced several messages to me; it was both a depiction of the struggle women go through and the strength they have to keep going. Another element which I found interesting is that at the end of the music video the performer is silenced by a man, which illustrates the ignorance and lack of engagement with the art produced by women of colour, and therefore the lack of attention the messages those powerful lyrics send to the listener. I would definitely recommend watching this video as it forces the audience to engage with the struggles of women, and more specifically women of colour and further comment on the ignorance exhibited towards the said issues by society.

Having been a Paramore fan for quite some time now, I was super excited to hear that P5 was coming out, and decided to interrupt my revision to listen to it in its entirety and review for your reading pleasure!

I must say that my reaction to this album is that it is not their best, but does have some very, very good songs on it, and as so many have said, fully marks their departure from pop punk 2007-ness, but it can be good to change and evolve a music style. Is this fresh? Arguably, yes, although I feel like I would have cut a couple of songs from this album that make it feel a little samey.

1. Hard Times
I love this song a lot, although it definitely took a few plays to grow on me, and I'll probably end up overplaying it to the point where I hate it! It's very catchy but I really like it, especially as an album opener. I think it also signals very much through the lyrics, the transition of the band up until this point.

2. Rose-Colored Boy
This is very funky, think The 1975's Love Me, or even some of the more upbeat songs from self-titled. I love the chorus, especially, and it follows nicely on from Hard Times.

3. Told You So
By this point on the album, I'm thinking that the last three songs have all sounded *quite* similar and I am hoping for a little diversity soon. Self-titled was so good because it was a beautiful mix of old and new Paramore, so I want to see more of that. I will say that I love the 'throw me in and pull me out again' section.

4. Forgiveness
Oooo I actually really like this. It shifts tempo into a slower and much sadder groove, juxtaposed with the peppy melody favoured of late, and it is something very pretty. I am noticing that a lot of the songs are only just around the 3-minute mark, which I think does work as it stops them sounding repetitive.

5. Fake Happy
Around 42 seconds, the shift into the sound of the rest of the album kicks in, but I was a little surprised up until then. Hayley sounds amazing, and I find the chorus a little reminiscent of Last Hope.

6. 26
Acoustic prettiness, not my favourite, but a welcome addition to the album

7. Pool
I'm not that keen on this song, and it's almost too vanilla for me to work out what I don't like about it. This is one of the ones I would have cut, like I was saying above :)

8. Grudges
I don't know how many more adjectives I can use for this album ahaha, but this is a nice, fairly middle of the (new) road song from the album. It's also very catchy, especially the final line from the chorus!

9. Caught in the middle
This is a good song, from the opening guitar melody, and then opening up into a bubbly chorus. I think this definitely is one of my favourites

10. Idle Worship
This had a surprising chorus that made it feel a little more old-Paramore, before simmering back into the verses. Not bad, not bad.

11. No Friend
This doesn't feature Hayley at all (unless she's playing an instrument) and I think does nicely as serving as an interlude of sorts. Not the sort of song to put in a playlist of its own, but not worth skipping on the album.

12. Tell Me How
When I heard the opening bar or so I thought it was turning in the direction of Still Into You, but it surprisingly didn't and moved into a beautiful piano led slower final track.

This month's playlist comes to you nice and early (up by the third omg!) and features some interesting and wide-ranging new songs. I'll also be uploading a few different playlists that I've cultivated such as French-language, love, and songs for studying, in the not too distant future.

I realised the other day that I really enjoy finding new musical artists, bands etc, introducing my friends to them, and being able to watch them as they grow. There's also nothing better than a small, (cheap), intimate concert and so I've compiled a list of a few artists that I love, that aren't massive yet, and I hope/think they will be soon! Feel free to let me know your opinion too, below.

1. clipping.
That isn't a grammar mistake, I promise, but clipping. are very very good. I actually first came across them on a Donald Trump diss album (called '30 days, 30 songs' - also containing tracks from Franz Ferdinand, Jimmy Eat World and many others), and then got really into their first and latest albums. Other people may know them as they contain the actor Daveed Diggs, who is really talented as their frontman, and I'd recommend the tracks 'Work Work' 'Taking Off' and 'Fat Fingers'.

2. Christine and the Queens
I discovered their debut album 'Chaleur Histoire' in my local record shop, as they were playing it, and loved it. I've been playing it almost non-stop, and even have got to the annoying phase of trying to persuade all of my friends to listen to them (particularly one person that I often try to convert to my music taste ever since I did it with the Japanese House and it worked <33). I bought the French version, but here is the English version of my favourite song, 'Christine', which I think was on a British tv talk show at some point recently.

It apparently features a lot of rap, so apologies if that's not your thing, but Drake released his new project More Life, and Kendrick Lamar returned to my radar this month with a very very good single. In other areas, Kasabian have released two new songs (probably in anticipation of an album before they headline Reading), and Harry Styles' debut solo track is out now, which I personally feel is a 7/10, but I know Klara loves and many other people hate with a passion.

Till next month, enjoy <3

WHAT ON EARTH ARE LINKIN PARK DOING?!?!?!
(Listen to their new song and you tell me lol)

Anyway, this month seems positively festooned (what a gorgeous word) with loads of new music, so this month's playlist starts out already quite busy.

Only a short post today, but I have been making a throwback playlist for a few weeks of songs I used to listen to in primary school or the early years of high school and I'm rather pleased with it so here it is:

As promised in my monthly playlist, here is a selection of suitably Christmassy music! You have two to choose from, made by both Klar and I. However, they're a bit different, mine has about 50 songs to press shuffle on and have in the background, whereas Klara's is more of a fine-tuned selection of favourites.

Hi guys, so a couple years ago Amber and I made playlists of sad music that we would listen to when we were feeling down and last week a friend of mine messaged me to tell me my playlist was really helping him through a difficult time so I thought I'd make a post on playlists for different situations.

For starters we have the 'sad songs' playlist. These are great for when you're feeling a bit down, or just want to wallow for a bit. I particularly like this playlist at the moment because I have just gone back to school, and as we all know, the end of summer is a depressing time ;)

 

I have also made a playlist called 'all time faves'. I have approximately 6 billion favourite songs so obviously they can't all be on this playlist at once and I will probably end up updating this regularly but it's a start. This list is great for those of you looking to discover new music or rediscover past favourites.



My third and final playlist for this post was going to be a Christmas playlist but I decided it's actually far too soon for that so instead I decided that I'd make a morning playlist for those days when you just need cheering up before you get going. Hope you guys enjoy! :)

I always feel like in September there's a sort of lull in music. It's after the summer, so there aren't usually any summer tunes to come out, sometimes just an album to follow a great single. However, even I have been able to put together a great playlist for this month!





So if you haven't already made a Spotify account, I would recommend you doing so as for me, it's the fastest way that I use to find new or unexplored music. You can either listen to this playlist embedded here or click through to my playlist in the app or on desktop by clicking the green Spotify logo below.



This month's playlist mainly features new material, although I rekindled my love for James Bay. When I first thought of this month's playlist, I wanted to make a more chilled back to school vibe, but then a few songs really lent themselves to a more upbeat playlist, so I feel like there's a mixture.

So, a few highlights. The new Sia song I have really loved so far, and I feel like she's been really climbing from strength to strength really in terms of how good I thought her last single was (which I can't remember the name of for the life of me!) Edit: Cheap Thrills!

I feel like Carly Rae Jepsen has just reached the point where all of her music pisses me off. Luckily I did like at least one of her songs from her album: First Time, which is less annoying tinny synth-pop because there's at least some chill between annoying choruses :).

Major standout would be Noir by Maejor and I'm super excited to hear new stuff from The Fray!