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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Reading Time: 1 minute
Californian indie-pop trio Hotel Apache have returned after what turned out to be a three year unannounced hiatus with the dreamy ‘Till The End Of Time‘.
Read More » It’s been a while! Some of you may know this as ‘Current Faves‘, which I posted regularly on the Instagram Stories on my music acount for 4 years. I’ve rebranded back to what I used to do here on the blog and call them my Monthly Mixtapes.
The idea? I love music (if you hadn’t already figured), especially discovering and sharing new finds. So on the last weekend of each month (late this time due to ill health), I’ll be posting a selection of songs I’ve been devouring that month. A selection of old and new. Some stuff will be commercial and some won’t. There are no rules, just songs which speak to me.
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Reading Time: 5 minutes
It’s official. Disco-Pop is COOL again.
When Sophie Ellis-Bextor released iconic pop gem ‘Murder on the Dancefloor‘ in the early noughties, would she have thought it would be a smash again 22 years later? Probably not. Yet, whilst always being a Pop staple in the midst of many Spotify playlists and still being played on radio from time to time, the song naturally faded somewhat from the public’s conciousness. That was until the release of black comedy psychological thriller ‘Saltburn’ at the tail end of 2023.
Read More »We’ve reached August which can only mean one thing… here’s the August mixtape!
This month’s is a hybrid of Pop and R&B with a few curveballs… enjoy!
Every Friday, we are adding three tracks to our Feel-Good Friday Spotify playlist. The aim? To create a definitive playlist featuring the best uplifting, feel-good tracks in the world!
Check here every Friday to check any additions!
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As 2015 comes to a close, we wanted to (as always) look back at the year in music. So with no further ado, here’s The Music Box’s official guide to the best music of 2015.
Whilst eventually played to death, this song is easily one of the catchiest pop tracks of 2015. A 21st century of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, it’s fierce, fun and memorable. The perfect pop hit.
One of the most underrated pop albums from 2015. ‘Emotion’ draws upon 80’s synthpop in a similar way to Taylor Swift on ‘1989’ but with superior production. Every beat is meticulously placed and the focus is more on the songs rather than vocal performance. The entire album contains a naivety lacking from most pop albums and it’s a whole lot of fun from start to finish.
Boyband Rixton transform this jittery EDM hit into a gentle 90’s R&B track with gorgeous chords, lush harmonies and an element of Soul lacking in the original.
British Indie-rock band Circa Waves launched onto the scene this year with brilliant single ‘Fossils’. Their début album ‘Young Chasers’ was released in March to positive response and the band have subsequently been touring the world.
One of the most underrated female pop stars, Carly Rae Jepsen avoids controversy and instead keeps her track record solely focussed on music. Whilst many may be put off by undeniably catchy but somewhat irritating hits ‘Call Me Maybe’ and ‘I Really Like You’, 2015 album ‘Emotion’ demonstrated a new side to Jepsen which resulted in the album’s critical acclaim.
Nothing But Thieves have seemingly sprung from no-where this year with singles ‘Itch’, ‘Trip-Switch’ and ‘Wake Up Call’ all receiving extensive airplay on radio. Their self-titled début album is haunting, eerie and bold, resembling some of Jeff Buckley’s best work.
Shura has risen to prominence in the last year with huge hit, the Janet Jackson circa 1986 influenced ‘2Shy’ in addition to catchy dance hit ‘White Light’ and the gentle analog driven ‘Touch’. With her highly anticipated début album due in 2016, we are expecting big things from Shura.
Amber Bain, better known as The Japanese House has won the admiration of many this year with her spaced-out and hazy material. Aided by The 1975’s Matt Healy & George Daniel in production, The Japanese House’s two EPs have been cinematic, bold and impressive.
YouTuber Troye Sivan already had a huge profile before entering the music industry this year. Debut album ‘Blue Neighbourhood’ has been critically acclaimed for its bold and unique sound and sincere lyrical themes.
Take That proved they’ve still got it in a series of triumphant sold-out shoes in various arenas over the UK this year. Featuring a large ensemble of dancers, an abundance of multi-coloured confetti, walls of flame and a flying bike, 2015’s tour proved to be their best yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmk1gMfYsEI
Hello all!
I set The Music Box up in 2013 after numerous other failed attempts at blogging. This year, we became solely a music blog with all other posts exported to an additional personal blog.
2015 has seen The Music Box go from strength to strength. We have received hundreds of likes and shares and our review of Markus Feehily’s ‘Fire’ album was tweeted by the man himself . We are hoping for this success to continue throughout 2016 and wanted to share some of our new developments with you for the next year.
To date, Music Monday has involved a selection of ten songs, both old and new that we have been enjoying immensely in the past week. They are usually accompanied by a short excerpt on why we love them here at the Music Box.
From 2016 onwards, this will be changed to ten new or current songs which we consider to be the hottest records in the world.
Every Friday, we will be adding five tracks to our Feel Good Friday Spotify Playlist. There will be opportunities for suggestions too.
Artist Features will be pieces dedicated to an artist. Generally to promote little-known or up and coming acts, these are to raise the profile of genuinely talented artists.
These will continue as usual.
These will continue as usual.
Thank you so much for all of the follows, likes and shares of our posts and for the support this year. Please continue to share our posts and blog to help us out!
We don’t earn any money from this and do it purely for our love of music.
Thanks for every read, like, follow & share.
Love.
Every year, the arrival of November brings an influx of Christmas albums from a range of current artists, washed up stars and television personalities. Often cynically perceived as an attempt to cash in on the Christmas season, each year they appear to grow exponentially with anybody who fancies a pop doing so. Over the past five years, Michael Buble, CeeLo Green, Rod Stewart and hell, even John Travolta and Olivia Newton John have all given it a crack to mixed response. This year, it’s the turn of the Princess of Pop – Miss Kylie Minogue.
‘Kylie Christmas’ was always going to be an album subject to taste. It was never going to be the most credible of albums, yet somehow its camp, cheesy demeanour still surpasses expectations. An amalgamation of classic standards, big pop hits and the odd original track, it is well balanced but delivers mixed results.
Unsurprisingly, pizazz is present from the outset; it fizzes through the big band instrumentation of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and continues during note for note covers of “Winter Wonderland” and “Let It Snow.” The predictable inclusion of the flirty “Santa Baby” is perfectly matched to Minogue as is “I’m Gonna Be Warm This Winter”. Whilst they avoid straying far from the original tracks in term of style, they are faithful covers and work nicely.
Elsewhere, the album begins to buckle in places. Original tracks “Christmas Isn’t Christmas ‘Til You Get Here” and “White December” utilise the Motown ’60’s sound Mariah Carey captured so perfectly on “All I Want For Christmas Is You” but not quite to the same effect. They are both enjoyable, catchy tracks but are unlikely to become the next big Christmas standards. “2000 Miles” and “Only You” (a duet with James Corden) are both soaked in reverberation and sentimentality and fail to regain the original versions essence. Corden’s vocals are a revelation, however and are surprisingly sturdy. It is ‘Christmas Wrapping’, a cover of The Waitresses’ 1981 track, which is the worst offender, however and strays dangerously close to the Stock-Aitken-Waterman days. Featuring bizarre spoken contributions from Iggy Pop, what was presumably recorded as a ‘bit of fun’ has the adverse effect and is actually somewhat creepy, particularly when Iggy Pop begins growling “Merry Christmas” in the final minute. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is also a mediocre interpretation which fails to capture the magic of the original.
Whilst “Everyday’s Like Christmas”, penned by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, is more or less ‘Liva La Vida’ recycled with additional shimmering instruments and modified lyrics, it is an enchanting, jittery synthpop track and is certainly a stand-out moment on the album.
Despite it being sugar-coated in over-production and cheesy-pop, ‘Kylie Christmas’ is a fun affair which successfully captures the spirit of Christmas.
An album which is the epitome of Christmas – extravagant, intolerable in places but a whole lot of fun.
Kylie Christmas is available now on Parlophone/Warner Bros records.
1) Troye Sivan – Wild
Incredibly catchy synthpop track featuring eerie electro elements and crashing percussion.
2) Troye Sivan ft. Broods – Ease
Another brilliant and sincere track from Troye Sivan.
3) Lucy Rose – Till The End
Strong 90’s vibes on this incessantly catchy track. Mirroring All Saints’ ‘Pure Shores’ with distorted trip-hop styled percussion, pretty piano riffs and funky guitars, it’s an awesome & uplifting track.
4) Jason Reeves – Back With Me
Gorgeous acoustic ballad.
5) Crissi Cochrane – Pretty Words
Gorgeous acoustic ballad with lovely Sara Bareillies/Christina Perri-like vocals.
6) Amelia Lily – You Bring Me Joy
Was reminded how awesome this track is at the gym the other day. Awesome and underrated pop-rock track.
7) Adele – When We Were Young
Gorgeous emotive ballad which completely blows ‘Hello’ out of the water.
8) Take That – Will You Be There For Me?
Gorgeous and vulnerable ballad from Take That’s re-packaged ‘III’ album. It carries an R&B-like vibe and is beautiful from start to finish.
9) Take That – Bird In Your Hand
Stunning synthpop ballad with lush layered harmonies and a gorgeous vocal performance from Mark Owen.
10) Troye Sivan – Fools
Brilliant pop track which opens tentatively with gorgeous piano chords before evolving into a jittery R&B track.
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