Author Archives: Olivia

Beach Fossils.

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I know I’m probably a bit late mentioning BeachFossils, but I discovered them at 4am this morning. This is what happens when I don’t sleep- I find amazing bands and spend hours and hours reading about them, and listening to them.

Beach Fossils are just wonderful. I love the name. Very rarely do I like the name of a band, sometimes it just sounds all too pretentious or a bit silly- there’s something quite adorable about the name Beach Fossils. Almost childlike and innocent. Their music has a wonderful innocent feel to it, much like The Drums. They’re just an ideal band to listen to all through the summer. Whether with friends or just hanging out by yourself.

Have some songs to enjoy :

The Smiths- There Is A Light That Never Goes Out.

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When I was about 14/15 years old, The Smiths saved my life. I had always been aware of their music, but when I hit that disgusting period of desperation and self-loathing, I found The Smiths properly. Or maybe they found me. I’ve always said I’d be dead without The Smiths/Morrissey. His words have time and time again pulled me through life. I feel most days his words just drag me through.

There is something about the way he words disappointment, sadness and the like that no other has- or ever will

I’d much rather cling onto a song or band than a person for those times I feel like shit. And yes, it is ALWAYS Morrissey that I turn to. I have tried a few times to explain what his words have done to me, but it is for the most part, impossible. It’s like, when you are in love with someone- you cannot explain why you love them. You love everything about them, things you just cannot explain- the things that make them who they are, are the reasons why you love them. That’s how I feel about Morrissey. I love the way he pronounces certain words (November Spawned A Monster, when he sings the word “discussing” is beautiful.)

Some things in life will always remain unexplainable.

There is one song by The Smiths that just sums up everything. Stereotypically it is There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. I constantly have this song playing around in my head. I’ve got an awful attention span and I usually have a vacant gaze upon my face with this song playing round my head. For me, it’s not an issue. For those trying to talk to me, it’s a bit of a pain.

I cannot remember the first time I heard this song, but I know I still get the same feeling now as I did when I first heard it. It’s like a state of euphoria mixed with a hug. I listen to it and it’s like I’m being hugged by Morrissey. It feels like reassurance. As soon as the song starts and Moz sings, “Take me out tonight” it’s like everything that caused you to feel bad just no longer matters.

I’ve never felt at home with anything or anyone. I’m not sure if I do too well with anything permanent, but I do wish to one day feel a sense of belonging. I’m nearly 25; you’d think I’d have felt it by now. But I haven’t, and I doubt I ever will.

Anyway.

There is no doubt that this song is the greatest song ever written. I know it’s not the best song by The Smiths (I Know It’s Over probably is) but there is something about There Is A Light That Never Goes Out that gives you hope. I think the first time I heard it, I just broke down. Sometimes now it still does that. Sometimes out of sadness, sometimes out of happiness. It’s a song I go to for everything. Everything I learnt about life has been from a Morrissey lyric (or nagging from my beautiful mum.)

I have sat in the passenger seats of cars with this song whirling around my head, just never wanting to go back home. Just wanting to stay away for longer than I have to. Four walls aren’t comforting. Company is.

I have laid in the dark playing it over and over taking in ever part of the song. The bass, the guitar, the drums, the lyrics, the vocals- and every time, I notice something else. It constantly leaves me in awe.

If I was to compile a list of songs that saved me, this would easily be my number one. It will always be my number one. The older I get, the less I seem to be less sure of everything. I have no idea if I ever had a sense of innocence when I was younger. I’m fully are I’ve always been a cynic, that won’t ever change. I’ve never relied on a person to get me through things; I don’t want to be let down more times than one should. A piece of music is much more stable. A piece of music is always there.

Maybe this makes me sound like a pathetic fool, but There Is A Light That Never Goes Out will always be my tiny bit of hope in a world so harsh.

CocknBullKid-Adulthood.

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CocknBullKid- Adulthood (album stream link).

In 2007 I was immediately blown away by Anita Blay aka CocknBullKid. I heard On My Own and I felt something utterly indescribable. Since then, the odd song has appeared on the internet- singles/EPs.

Seeing her support Marina last year and being right at the front was a glorious feeling, after her performance I was lucky enough to interview her. She is one of the most hard-working artists in the UK right now. She is so talented and beautiful. The way she can sing the most painfully heartbreaking and honest lyrics over the most cheerful beats make her approachable.

She has had the Morrissey comparisons with her wonderfully cynical lyrics, and this is one of the many reasons as to why I love her.

You know when you find an artist you just latch onto before they are signed, and they get signed and you observe this buzz surround them. You see them become the star you knew they would be and deserve to be? That’s exactly what has happened here.

So, finally her album is here. Adulthood, in short, is bloody brilliant. You will want to dance, you will want to shut the world off and listen to the lyrics, you will want to cry- you will feel so many things. It’s just stunning.

I had every bit of faith that Anita would create a killer album. Did I think I think she would create the album of the year? Well considering I’ve sworn that The Kills have put the album of the year out- Anita has most certainly set the bar here.

Listening to it, it is hard to believe it is only her debut full length album. There are no fillers here; it’s just perfect from start to finish. I am not just saying this because I am a massive fan. Even if I knew nothing about her music, I would still hold this opinion. There is something about her voice that makes every part of you feel like you are alive. The album makes you feel alive. It wakes up that part of you that has been bored to tears from the mundane sounds of commercial radio.

I could quite easily sit here and type out the reasons as to why I love every single song on Adulthood. However, it’d just turn into some massive fan girl piece and I’d sound odd. I love how vulnerable each and every song is. Lyrics are a huge thing for me, and yes, here comes a Morrissey bit. This is why I love Anita- her words. How she puts across heartbreak and the like is just so gorgeous but at the same time it oozes vulnerability- just like Morrissey. So open and honest.

Dumb is my favourite. After playing the album over and over- Dumb has claimed a piece a part of my heart. It’s over 5 minutes of, “Bloody hell…who let Anita into my head.” To be honest, that’s how I feel about most of the songs here. Every single track feels like a diary entry, and that is why her songs are so easy to relate to. Every so often an artist comes along that can just seep into your mind and speak what you feel in your heart. For me, that artist is Anita.

I know I’m a sorry excuse for a Music Journalist by being so personal here, but her music has been there for many good and bad things since I discovered her music. From a shitty (when are the not) break-up to being miserable about well…life I suppose, her music has been a bit like a crutch. I’ve got certain artists I go to when everything seems a bit toss, and CocknBullKid is one of them. To some it seems like an insane thing to say, but she is almost like a female Morrissey. Well, to me she is anyway.

When I first heard CocknBullKid and Hold Onto Your Misery, it just sparked something. I’m not entirely sure what- all I know it was a bloody good feeling. Lines such as “The mouth is a trap, whatever I say I can’t take back.” Just made me nod in agreement. I probably swore out of joy too.

Hold Onto Your Misery is a personal favourite. Every single word sung hit me right in the gut. I cannot pick one line; the whole song is just perfect. “You’re most alive when nearest death.” When you know something shite is going to happen, you just feel much more alive. For me, I hate the fact I write more/better when I feel like shit- when everything is awful.

“Hold onto your misery. I need it, and it needs me.” Thing is, sadness and misery are two feelings that are more than likely consistent in us humans. Nobody is ever truly 100% happy, you always want more. I don’t think by nature I am a happy person. I’m content- but not happy. For me, that’s enough. I think misery is a feeling some of us need to embrace more and not be afraid of. That is why I love this song so much. It is okay to be insecure; it is okay to be miserable. “A little cynicism will do you good.” I love that line with every bone in my body. It’s just so wonderfully accurate.

“I’m all dressed up, nowhere to go.” Yellow is another stunner of a track. I hope she releases it as a single. The video would be amazing. Although, if everyone was dressed in yellow- it may cause migraines.

I just want to write so many pages as to why this album is out of this world. She’s supporting Duran Duran on their UK Tour, Anita is living the dream!I am fully aware that this has turned into a rant as to why I love her music and not an in-depth review of her album. You don’t need me to tell you how amazing it is, go listen to it. Find out for yourself.

Tune-Yards.

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If my memory serves me correctly (it rarely does…lack of sleep is the culprit.) Tune-Yards is one woman. One woman making fantastic music. There’s something quite tribal about her music. It’s just amazing. The new album is brilliant. I’m so close to making my Top 10 albums of the year, so many good albums have come out- and it’s only May. I’d put her album in my Top 10, no doubt. Have some videos to enjoy =) :

These are two clips that I loved the most. Especially the second one. Mind=BLOWN!

Warpaint- Undertow.

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There are so many songs that give me this feeling inside my stomach, my heart and cause my brain to just explode. It just blows my mind. I listen to a certain song, and I notice different parts of it. I study the layers of it intensely, to the point where I just annoy myself and think, “Olivia can’t you just listen to a song without wanting to pull it apart and analyse every part of it.” Well, most of the time I am not so obsessive. If I’m out and I hear a song I love, I will have a bit of a dance (by dance I mean my limbs just decide to do what they want.) I don’t stand arms folded thinking about key changes and the way a word is sung. Far from it. But, when I’m on my own listening to music- especially through headphones, I just notice so much. When I close everything off and concentrate, I notice so much. Maybe too much, and this doesn’t just apply to music. However, as this is a music based blog- I will keep it on music.

This song I want to write about is Undertow by Warpaint.

I had been a fan of Warpaint before Undertow. It was Billie Holiday that got me hooked. Heart first. It was like falling in love, but better. Better because there was no hurt. I heard Undertow last year and I have no idea what happened. All I know is that nothing mattered. I felt like I was being thrown into a dreaming state. Warpaint’s music makes you feel like you are constantly floating. It makes you feel so weightless yet at the same time invincible. There’s something about their music that grips you. When you listen to them, you are in this trance. You are in a state that you never want to leave. It is euphoric, it is divine. To feel this is to love Warpaint with all you have- and that I do.

What is it about Undertow that makes me feel this way? I have no idea where to start so I will start with….THE LYRICS! The lyrics when I first heard the song, well they just caused me to stop what I was doing. I thought “Fuck……” I was in awe of such words. How could a band put forward how I felt in such a mindblowing way? Simple really. When a band is THAT good, they can do anything. “Your brown eyes are my blue skies. They light up the rivers that the birds fly over.” That is just so poetically gorgeous. Someones eyes can either make you feel entirely loved or disgustingly broken. “Open your eyes and there was someone else.” We’ve all felt like that. We have all, at some point felt like someone or something other than ourselves. It’s like your reflection just isn’t you anymore, but it is okay.  There is one part of the song that, lyrically, I find to be so beautifully stunning. Every time I hear it, I just find a part of me break yet fix itself at the same time: ” I lay on the floor, pressing in my eyes. Seeing little lights. Please light these decisions that only one could make. I wanted to stay home, but I went running running running running from the troubles.” There is something about how Emily sings this line, the words, that just make it feel like a blanket of reassurance covering me. This part just makes me feel, as daft as it sounds, alive. I’m not saying I feel dead or anything- far from it. But there is something about this song that just wakes up a dormant part of me.

Now for how the lyrics are sung. The way Emily and Theresa sing with each other is stunning. It sounds so pure and angelic. I love the clarity in Emily’s voice. I love how certain words are sung. I love how at the end Theresa sings over Emily. It’s just so so beautiful. It is inspiring. Warpaint are inspiring. They make me wish I could play an instrument so I can start a band. A girl can, as ever, dream. The way Emily sings is like something just falling so freely and gracefully. The way she signs the chorus and Theresa’s voices echoes underneath is beyond description. I feel that whatever I write about this song, or anything to do with Warpaint just does not do them justice. I hope dear reader, if anyone actually sees this, you go and listen to the song after you’ve read this. Just so you can see what I mean.

I have so many favourite parts of this song. I’ll try limit it. I bloody love at 2.44 when Emily sings, “Nobody in my mind.” and Stella’s drums really kick in. The drums on this are perfect. You know how sometimes you think, “Oh maybe if it was done that way….” NO. Not here. This song is utter perfection, nothing needs adjusting at all. It is so perfect. Oh god, Jenny’s bass playing. It’s so free. It is like a waterfall. In fact, that’s how I wish to compare Warpaint’s music- like a waterfall. So beautiful, so relaxing. From the 3 minute mark, it just becomes so euphoric. You feel like your head is tripping out. You can’t control yourself. Yet the best way to listen to Warpaint is to just lay in the dark in a room with your headphones in so you can hear everything so clearly. Theresa’s guitar on this is heavenly. It’s astounding. From 4.44, HOLY HELL! Emily’s voice, Stella’s drums, Theresa’s guitars and Jenny’s bass just come alive. They reach a point where you are stunned. Jaw dropping, euphoric and electrifying. I just don’t think a song has done anything like this to me in such a long time. The way the vocals are layered over each other and the music is so, I hate the word, but it is so “dreamy.” It’s a dreaming state. That’s the only way to describe it.

So there you have it, over a thousand words to describe how this one song just stole my heart. How one song has affected me in a way that I’m not sure even I understand. The album has done something to me that I only thought Morrissey and The Kills could. But Warpaint? Oh Warpaint, you have caused a whirlwind in my heart, body, mind and soul. You’ve given me faith in music and maybe in myself.

I will leave you with this version of Undertow that won so many hearts last summer, enjoy!

Tame Impala.

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I’ll forever be adamant that I was born in the wrong era. I should have been born in the 60s. Surrounded by the sounds of Jefferson Airplane, sat under a tree watching everything pass me by. I could do that now, but it wouldn’t be the same. The feeling I get from listening to Grace Slick’s eerie voice is different to those who heard her the first time round. Regardless, I still love her and regard her as possessing one of the most distinctive and inspiring voices ever.

I’ve always been drawn to music that makes me feel like I’m in another time or just throws me some place else, some place better. There’s always something better, everyone knows it. This is why I love bands such as Warpaint, The xx, Foals, Kurt Vile, Boards Of Canada, The Kills- they provide escapism for me. I love that. I love feeling part of something that is just me and a piece of music. Some may see this as a bad thing, I don’t. It just fuels my imagination even more.

Tame Impala are my saviour. Okay, okay that could be a bit extreme- but seriously, listen to them. But listen through headphones so you can truly feel it. So that part of you that you’ve ignored comes alive. I’ve been listening to them most of the day, and I swear they have caused me to feel things I haven’t felt in a long time- I think contentment is one of them. Listening to them is an emotional experience. Even if you shut yourself off from the lyrics, the music alone just transports you to this place of solitude.

The album, Innerspeaker opens with the euphoric It Is Not Meant To Be. I think right now, hearing this song made me think. We all waste time on what isn’t right, I think this song made me realise this. “I don’t have a hope in hell, I’m happy just to watch her move.” Everyone has felt this way. The sheer sadness of knowing you do not have a chance with the one person you want. It happens to us all, some more than most.

The band captures the whole psychedelic sound in a way Pink Floyd did when they first started. I’m not really a fan of Pink Floyd, well, not after the psychedelic era anyway. The way the whole sound just causes you to see everything in shapes and colours. It’s just a bloody wonderful experience.

That’s what listening to Tame Impala is- an experience. With a lot of bands, you just listen and you feel the same feelings that you feel towards other bands. Yet with Tame Impala, it’s like an outer-body experience. It takes over.

Why Won’t You Make Up Your Mind is beautiful, “Give me a sign! Am I wasting my time? Living in my head. You’ll be sorry when I make up mine instead.” This is perfect to listen to when you are being messed around, well maybe not perfect because it might make shit worse, but you know. You know how you feel, but the other is holding back- always the way isn’t it.

The album needs your undivided attention. Lucidity and Solitude Is Bliss are just mind-blowing. Everything on this album just catapults you freely and you go willingly because you know it is for the best.

If you ever wish, like I do, that you were around in the 60s to be part of the psychedelic era then please listen to and fall in love with Tame Impala. Life can be quite disappointing. People can be disappointing. New music can be disappointing- but let Tame Impala in, and just forget everything around you.