Reading Time: 7 minutes
Time for another rundown of what I’ve been listening to over the past month.
Yep, I’m a little late but had a really busy weekend last week.
Short on time? My Essential 5 are featured at the top!
As always, I really appreciate every read, scan or visit and hope you find some new music you love.
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In an astonishing twenty year career, Coldplay have exceeded all expectations to become one of the UK’s most successful exports. They’ve won eight Brit Awards, five MTV Video Awards, seven Grammy’s and sold over eighty million records worldwide, cementing their place as one of the world’s most successful acts. Once a quirky alternative-rock outfit unafraid of existing outside of the commercial market, Coldplay’s sound has grown with their popularity, becoming increasingly commercialised over the past five years. Fans first feared for the worst back in 2011 upon the release of ‘Mylo Xyloto‘, a concept album which was drenched in electro-elements and met with a mixed reception. Still, fans needn’t have worried for another four years.
‘A Head Full of Dreams‘ is the epitome of Pop music; a lively affair, full of catchy up-tempo tracks mawkishly coated in over-production. Whilst long-term collaborator Rik Sampson is still present, he has been demoted from production duties on this album, passing the baton to Norwegian Pop/R&B production duo Stargate, known for their work with Rihanna and Ne-Yo. Understandably, the result is an exuberant yet somewhat confused album on which Coldplay seemingly attempt to ditch their Rock-roots and transition into a Pop band. It’s the exact antithesis to previous album, the melancholic and ambient-influenced ‘Ghost Stories‘ and arguably, the entire foundation on which Coldplay built their career on.
Diversity is a likely focus on ‘A Head Full of Dreams‘, on which Coldplay attempt to branch out into various genres and sounds. Camp disco-stomper ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’ with its broken vocal samples and squeaky guitar riffs remains one of Coldplay’s best whilst the substantial, Hip-Hop heavy ‘Hymn for The Weekend’ – a duet with Beyonce – is comprised of tinkling piano riffs, hip hop beats and shiny brass instruments. These clever production elements all work nicely until ‘Army of One’, a ballad so bland, even clever production cannot reinvigorate it. Likewise, the track’s hidden feature ‘X Marks The Spot’ is an abortive Hip-Hop jam, best left to Martin’s close friends Jay-Z & Beyonce.
Despite its Pop approach, however, ‘A Head Full of Dreams‘ is still very much a typical Coldplay album. The signature Coldplay elements are still present; the anthemic Chorus’, wailing guitars, sweeping piano arpeggios and Martin’s pining vocals. The opening title track isn’t too far removed from the material on ‘Mylo Xyloto‘ albeit with a disco-funk groove. It’s a catchy opener abundant with the band’s trademark wailing guitars and is classic Coldplay, just with an extra sprinkle of Pop. Likewise ‘Fun’, a pleasant duet with Pop princess Tove Lo is more or less loyal to the band’s sound with distant guitar riffs, acoustic strums and Martin’s vocals warbling between his lowest and highest vocal range. The album’s finale and one of its highlights, ‘Up&Up’ is the band’s ‘Champagne Supernova’, just two minutes shorter. No surprise, then, that Noel Gallagher is guest guitarist on the track.
The hazy and tranquil interlude bridges between tracks – as present on the band’s previous two albums – also remain prevalent, the most enthralling being ‘Kaleidoscope’ which samples an Obama speech and clip of the president singing ‘Amazing Grace’. Furthermore, the dainty piano ballads are ever-enduring. ‘Everglow’ is gentle ballad on which ghost of Christmas past, Martin’s ex-wife Gwyneth Paltrow provides vocals on. ‘Amazing Day’ is one far superior, however and is one of the album’s highlights, built from elegant piano arpeggios and soaring melodies.
Whilst it’s far from their best work, ‘A Head Full of Dreams‘ is a compelling and enjoyable album; a reminder of Coldplay’s sustained presence in the music industry.
‘A Head Full of Dreams’ is available now on Parlophone records.
1) Take That – We Love to Entertain You
Electrifying and rousing stadium anthem that somehow managed to escape inclusion on an album. Whilst it did appear as a b-side to massive hit ‘Shine’ and was used in a German commercial, it was worthy of far more attention and credit. It’s a fitting tribute to fans; a sort of predecessor to ‘Hold Up A Light’, ‘Portrait’ and ‘I Like It’.
2) Beyonce – Love on Top
Funky and soulful R&B track; unbelievably catchy with an infectious melody and bouncy percussion. Highly influenced by 70’s disco tracks by Stevie Wonder and The Jackson Five, Beyonce braves FOUR key changes and blasts her powerhouse vocal effortlessly. One of her best.
3) Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams
Miss Swift proves once again she is currently the biggest female Popstar in the world. Clearly influenced by the moody and breathy production Lana Del Ray is famous for, the chorus is unmistakeably Swift and the melody isn’t far removed from her signature Country-sound. A lovely track full of emotion, crashing beats and 80’s-esque synthesisers. Irresistible.
4) The Japanese House – Clean
Elusive and enigmatic act Amber Bain (better known as The Japanese House) released another enchanting track earlier this week, once again produced by Matty and George from The 1975. Full of twinkling bells, fizzy synths, distorted brass instruments and unsteady percussion, it’s beautifully endearing and cinematic.
5) Tame Impala – Yes I’m Changing
Aesthetic, downbeat and dreamy, this is another lovely moment from Tame Impala’s latest album ‘Currents’. Evidently influenced by ’80’s synthpop, it has a great bassline and hazy vocals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhlPXa6g4C8
6) Oasis – Half the World Away
Lovely acoustic ballad written and sang by Noel. Whilst never released on a studio album or as a single, this became well known for being used as the theme tune to the BBC Sitcom ‘The Royle Family’. It has also since been featured on two Oasis compilation albums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK_Mrpjppwk
7) The Blue Nile – Everybody Else
Whilst not the most recognised of bands, Glaswegian adult-alternative band The Blue Nile have received much critical acclaim and have gained a cult following over the years. They purposely never chased fame and are notable for their perfectionist approach to releasing music, releasing only four albums in a thirty four year career.
‘Everybody Else’ is a beautifully simplistic track featuring only a strumming guitar, computerised percussion, sweeping synthesisers and Paul Buchannan’s melancholic but sincere vocals. It is the penultimate track on their final album to date, 2004’s ‘High’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQYn5WgvBqU
8) Kylie Minogue, Garibay and Shaggy – Black and White
Miss Minogue is back on form with this sultry and sensual club banger, produced by Fernando Garibay and featuring a rap by legendary Shaggy. It is a return to Kylie’s club roots after previous album ‘Kiss Me Once’ was a more R&B-led affair and was only a moderate success commercially.
9) Lawson – Love Is You
Lovely acoustic-based ballad by Lawson, released as a free download on their website just days ago. Andy Brown’s voice is sincere as always and the chorus is very pretty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFkw8v8eyvM
10) Duran Duran – Ordinary World
One of Duran Duran’s biggest hits, ‘Ordinary World’ launched the band back into the charts after a period of declining popularity in the early 1990’s. Written about front-man Simon Le Bon’s late friend David Miles, this became a huge hit around the world in December 1992. Emotive, powerful and dramatic, it is one of Duran Duran’s best works.
In order to keep myself blogging and to share my love of music, I am going to begin a series of blogs called Music Mondays. Music Mondays will feature a playlist of ten songs I am currently loving. Some may be new releases whilst others may be older but they will all be songs that I am listening to over and over again.
So with no further ado, here’s this week’s playlist!
1) Arctic Monkeys – Why’d you only call me when you’re high
Just amazingly catchy and so damn cool.
2) Toby Burke and George Michael – Waltz away dreaming
A George Michael song I had no idea existed until a scroll through his complete Discography. This is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.
3) The 1975 – Head.Cars.Bending
Glitchy, energetic – awesome song.
4) The 1975 – Pressure
I always overlooked this track on the album but recently I’ve fallen in love with it – very catchy and the lyrics are awesome.
5) Jake Bugg – Songs about love
Not overly keen on all of Jake’s stuff but he’s incredibly talented. Keep hearing this on the radio and it’s definitely my favourite track by him. Very acoustic based and a beautiful song.
6) Eric Clapton – Change the world
Was reminded of this when I found a video of Andy Brown (lead singer of Lawson) covering it on YouTube. Such a great acoustic based track which makes me smile a lot.
7) Neil Young – Harvest Moon
Heard this when watching the movie Eat Pray Love the other day and instantly fell in love with it. Very soft and very romantic.
8) Clean Bandit ft Jess Glynne – Rather be
There’s something very unique about this track and I love that. It’s so catchy and so upbeat, I really love it.
9) Beyonce – XO
This has had a lot of stick but it’s my favourite track Beyonce has ever done. I agree that lyrically it’s not the best and it’s quite generic for a Beyonce song but I find it really powerful, really emotive and very addictive.
10) Coldplay – Magic
This was only released to the world today so this is brand spanking new! Again, it’s had a lot of stick from Coldplay fans about the change in music direction but I love this. I love Coldplay’s older stuff and I also love their newer sound too. I love this because it’s very chilled out and very special. I’ve already listened to this countless times today!
Wednesday saw the 34th Brit Award Ceremony take place at the 02 arena and broadcast live across the world for the first time. Here’s my take on the events of the evening.
The Brits 2014 saw a massive drop in ratings – 2 million less people than last year. Yet, in my opinion, the 2014 Brits were a million times better than last year’s rather dull affair. Bizarre acceptance speeches, electric performances, dodgy jokes and self promotion riddled this years ceremony but in a way that made fantastic entertainment. The Brits has a reputation for generating and attracting controversy but that’s part of what makes it so endearing.
James Corden did a wonderful job of presenting once again, moving the show along nicely aided by a few funny gags and some spontaneous quips (a selfie with Prince and a pinch of a member of the Arctic Monkeys’ bum were particular highlights). Whilst not everyone was equally pleased with some of his remarks, I think James was awesome once again and I will greatly miss him hosting The Brits. He’s not overly controversial, a great guy, loves his music and funny with it. I hope whoever is lined up to present next year’s Brits will be able to bring something original to the table.
Performance-wise, whilst this year’s list of performers perhaps looked a little dull on paper, there were some great performances. Katy Perry delivered a theatrical Egyptian-themed performance of new track ‘Dark Horse’, which, despite the song not being her strongest release, managed to entertain. Bruno Mars took to the stage to sing the fantastically catchy ‘Treasure’ in which, whilst being an amazing performance, one must question whether this was a performance by Bruno or by The Bruno Mars band. There was very little solo by Mr Mars himself, instead, he was joined by an assemble of men to the point it rather looked and sounded like a Boyz II Men super-group on-stage. Beyonce appeared in a stunning, sparkly green gown to perform powerful new single ‘XO’. Disclosure managed to significantly improve incredibly scary Lorde’s ‘Royals’ by transforming it into a house track and Pharrell Williams gave a great rendition of ‘Happy’ with a little help from funk royalty Nile Rodgers.
As for the awards themselves, there were no major surprises. Daft Punk inevitably collected ‘International Group’ award after an amazingly successful year. Rudimental took home a gong for club-crazy ‘Waiting all night’ for Best British Single. One Direction won an award for a seemingly tailored-just-for-them ‘Brits Global Success Award’ in addition to ‘Best British Video’. Whilst many ridicule them, the lads certainly deserved these awards, particularly the latter, although there wasn’t any strong competition as the other Video nominations were incredibly weak and unoriginal. At least ‘Best Song Ever’ was unique, comedic and well-written/directed. Arctic Monkeys also took home two awards for Best British Group and Best British Album whilst Best British Breakthrough Act went to Bastille. Lorde appeared rather creepily onstage again to collect International Female Solo Artist whilst Bruno Mars received the male equivalent. Best British Female artist was won by Ellie Goulding whilst Best British Male was deservedly won by David Bowie.
What was perhaps most interesting this year were the presenters of the awards and the acceptance speeches. Pop royalty Prince appeared with new band 3RDEYEGIRL which was really awesome, Katy Perry returned onstage to present an award, Tinie Tempah was rather oddly paired with Fearne Cotton, Emeli Sande couldn’t keep away from The Brits, Pharell and Kylie, Jimmy Carr, glamour model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Lily Allen, Cesc Fabregas and Nicole Scherzinger, Grimmy (who passionately snogged James Corden on live telly) and Noel Gallagher. We were subjected to excessive plugs of new releases and dresses and suits for the ceremony. A confused Lily Allen struggled to comprehend her role whilst Jimmy Carr attempted three feeble jokes after which the silence was deafening. Katy Perry asked the audience if they would be attending her tour later this year to which she received a wall of silence. Kate Moss accepted David Bowie’s award on behalf of the man himself, reading a witty speech he had written in which he managed to somewhat randomly incorporate his political views (‘Stay with us Scotland.’) A rather drunk and/or stoned Alex Taylor slurred through an egocentric rant on ‘Rock n roll’, looking as if he wished to be anywhere but there.
The issue is, whilst this was all great in the name of entertainment, it just reinforced the view of many. That The Brits is less about the music and more about self-promotion and entertainment. Few of the acceptance speeches were genuinely thankful, many highly successful artists were overlooked in nominations and quite frankly, some of the song nominations were bizarre.
There is no denying that it was an entertaining show, however and a drastic improvement on last year’s bore. So, another year, another Brits over. I already look forward to next year’s!
Day 13 Destiny’s Child – Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
As it’s Beyonce day I thought it would be fitting for today’s song to be a Destiny’s Child interpretation of a classic! We all know and love Rudolph the red nosed reindeer but I love this version. From the awesome a capella introduction to the beautiful harmonies, it’s just a fantastic interpretation of a well known, much loved song. I love the R&B/Hip hop spin on it!
Great little music video too!
the-music-box.co.uk 