Christmas TOTP.

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I’ve just discovered the utter joy of strawberry beer and also, a can of lemonade and southern comfort. Hello drunken warmth! Oh yes. Anyway, watch these two clips of sexy people from the Top Of The Pops Christmas Special. When it was on, it did resort in me having some kind of seizure, my lovely stepdad telling me to calm down, mother burning some veg andmy best friend and I texting each other about the beautifulness of these two stunning women. Yes, Flo and Elly Jackson.

Flo’s dress is AMAZING and Elly has a Christmas tree in her quiff.Perfect women? Oh of course. Enjoy!

Florence + The Machine-Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up).

La Roux-In For The Kill.

Albums of 2009.

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I’ve battled with pen, paper, keyboards and my own choices doing this list. So, I’ve decided to not make a list. I am simply going to tell you what my favourite albums of this year are. Then, I shall tell you what my top 3 are because they are the only 3 I can’t change..not that I’d want to.

I’m basically doing this because I am an indecisive bugger when it comes to this and not making an official “Top 10” list or whatever was just pissing me off. It makes sense. Here we go.

Remember..in no particular order (apart from the last 3 I mention!)

Golden Silvers-True Romance.- A band I enjoyed seeing live and made my dull summer a bit exciting.

Doll & The Kicks- Self titled, bloody brilliant album. Next year, I hope, sees them getting signed. It is a bloody horror, a shambles! that they are not signed. They’ve been supporting Morrissey for ages. SOMEONE SIGN THEM.

Bob Dylan-Togther Through Life. I just love Bob. Simple as. One of my heroes.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs-It’s Blitz! This band will NEVER make a shitty album. I know a lot of people were like “IT’S NOT LIKE FEVER TO TELL!!” Well, obviously because that’s Fever To Tell-the debut..and this is their 3rd album. Clearly they are not going to make the same album over and over. That’d be boring. And we all know that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are far from boring.

New York Dolls- ‘Cuz I Said So. Legendary band showing these new bands how it’s done!

Girls-Album.  Amazing album. Amazing band. Sounds a bit 60s ish, which is never a bad thing. No fillers, just a brilliant album.

The Raveonettes- In And Out Of Control.  Same as the album by Girls. Stunning album.

Comanechi-Crime Of Love. First saw them support Gossip in 2006, been in love ever since. Seemed like forever waiting for this album, worth the wait. Means I can stop playing the EP to death now!

Gossip-Music For Men. This band mean a hell of a lot to me, it’s not my favourite album by them but I still love it enough to say it’s one of the best this year.

Jack Penate-Everything Is New. For some strange reason Jack Penate makes me want to runaway to Brighton. I don’t know what it is. Every time I listen to him, I just want to get on a train and go to Brighton. It makes no sense, I know. Bloody good album though!

Norah Jones-The Fall. Her previous albums didn’t do anything for me. But, The Fall left me in awe. A beautiful album from start to finish.

White Lies- To Lose My Life. Dark, haunting…two things which I love in music (I’m not a miserablew person though)

Bat For Lashes-Two Suns. Natasha Khan could sing me the phonebook and I’d still find it captivating and enough to reduce me to tears.

Julian Casablancas-Phrazes For The Young. This album was good enough for me to be okay with The Strokes not putting an album out this year..or last year…or the year before that. It’s THAT good.

The Dead Weather-Horehound. A sexy album. I hate myself for that statement but bloody hell it is true. Alison Mosshart’s voice can make the strongest person weak. This is what happens when genius’ come together.

Metric-Fantasies. I interviewed Emily and Jimmy from the band. Lovely people. This album got me through some crap. Magnificent album. Worth waiting for.

Morrissey-Swords. Ahhh..an album full of wonderful B-Sides. THANK YOU MOZZA!

Morrissey- Years Of Refusal. I love the artwork and title. I love Moz. It’s Morrissey. I don’t need to explain why I’ve mentioned him.

Camera Obscura-My Maudlin Career. Most underrated band of 2009. Fabulous live. Beautiful, heart-wrenching album.

La Roux. Flawless live. Amazing on record. Cover My Eyes breaks my heart every time. I’ll always remember being at the Brum gig in November when they played Cover My Eyes..and me and my best friend hugging each other. The song kills us both. But somehow, seeing it live wasn’t as bad as hearing it on record. Elly Jackson is beautiful. La Roux got the 80s sound right and made it seem effortless and not tacky. Unlike some bands who try too hard.

The Horrors-Primary Colours.  Proving that the second album can outshine the debut. This album sounded nothing like Strange House. Strange House was an excellent debut and Primary Colours, for me, is just as good.Maybe better. The Horrors gained more fans with this album and it’s easy to see why.

TOP 3…THE ACTUAL LIST THAT I WON’T CHANGE!

3. Fever Ray- Fever Ray. Odd and fucking good (sorry for the swearing but I had to.) This album left me in awe. I lay on my bedroom floor listening to this when I got it. There was no other way of doing it to be honest. It sent me some place else. I love it when music does this.

2. The XX-xx. Favourite new band of 2009. I remember hearing their cover of Aaliyah’s Hot Like Fire. Anyone who knows me knows how much of an Aaliyah fan I am and have been since 1995. This is a cover that I adored and from then on..my love grew and grew. When I heard they were supporting Florence + The Machine I felt like my birthday had come early. The vocals, the lyrics, the music..everything. Just everything about this album made me happy. The first track, Intro is simple yet you can take what you want from it. I hope 2010 sees more people seeing how wonderful this band is. Which leads me onto…….

1. Florence + The Machine-Lungs.  You knew it would be my number 1. It’s been my favourite album since it came out. I’ve played it every day since it came out. I’ve got a singed copy, a copy on vinyl and the deluxe edition. This year started a bit wanky for me and I’d been using certain songs to deal with it all. I read that this album deals with Flo’s split with her boyfriend, I suppose that’s why this album was a crutch to me. It pretty much changed how I felt about things around me and people around me. It gave me strength and guts. I remember watching a clip back in 2007 with Flo and Dev Hynes singing in his flat and just being in awe with Florence. Seeing her go from unsigned, playing small venues to winning awards and putting out an album like Lungs makes me feel like a proud parent. I know it sounds a bit obsessive fan ish. But we’ve all had that one singer/band that means the world to us and makes us laugh,cry,smile,dance,sing and what not. Me and my best friend met her in September. Meeting Flo with my best friend is quite possibly one of the greatest things ever. The photo of us 3 together is the most special and important thing to me. I look at it and it just makes me happy. I can’t really put it into words how much Lungs means to me, so I’ll stop. There are so many reasons why this album is my favourite album of this year. The main one being it stopped me from going a bit mental and helped me accepted the changes around me. Adjusting to become a better person. Blinding helped me let go of everything that no longer mattered. So thank you Florence Welch.

(I’ll do another post about singles and stuff later)

xxxx

Music Go Music.

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Music Go Music will be my favourite band of 2010 and hopefully they’ll be yours too. They are quite frankly, brilliant and beautiful. The lyrics, the music, the vocals are astounding. They sound like something from the 60s..ish. They are the good kind of odd I suppose. I think they may be the band that people may foolishly sleep on next year..sort of like how Camera Obscura were this year. I’m not bitter about it, I’m just pissed off. That’s all 🙂

Music Go Music…I know nothing about them. I don’t know who is in the band, or where they are from. But I do know that they make wonderful music that makes me happy and makes me want to attempt to dance. If they play the UK..I’m going. I expect to see you there too.

Enjoy these songs!

I Walk Alone.

Explorers Of The Heart.

Just Me.

Ellie Goulding.

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I can’t remember exactly when I first heard Ellie Goulding..but at first I was a bit unsure I suppose. Quick to dismiss, I know. It’s always the way. But for the past month or so I’ve had Under The Sheets playing over and over in my head. I am a fan. A big fan and I can only hope 2010 is a brilliant year for her. I know awards mean fuck all and the vast majoirty are rigged (MERCURY MUSIC PRIZE..I AM STARING AT YOU.) but Ellie was recently award Brits Critic Choice for 2010…Florence won it this year and look what happened! SO hopefully, the same good luck and stuff will happen for Ellie Goulding.

Guns And Horses.

Wish I Stayed. < Produced by Frankmusik=AWESOME.

Under The Sheets.

She’s supported Frankmusik (who is amazing) and is supporting Passion Pit on thier UK tour…I think? Or so I’ve read! She’s also doing her own tour in March.

Spiritualized.

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 All I’ve done is listen to Spiritualized over the past few weeks. There’s been a dormant love for this band, well J.Spaceman in general but only recently has it just blown up big time.

The music is quite frankly, the most heartbreaking stuff I have ever heard. Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space is easily one of the most, if not THE mos heartbreaking, earth-shattering, upsetting albums I have ever heard and probably ever will hear. This year, I went through a breakup..and I’m honestly fine ande happy now…but many months and months ago I think if I listened to Spiritualized, I’d probably be a bawling mess with no desire to get out of bed. When I listen to them now? Well, all I hear is the genius of J.Spaceman. Spiritualized are the best thing to have ever come out of Warwickshire.

Now, if you don’t mind..I’m going to put up a few more posts and keep listening to some lovely music….including Spiritualized!

Spiritualized-You Lie You Cheat.    < Favourite track…fowllowed by Hold On.

Florence + The Machine. Manchester Apollo. 10th December 2009.

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I just want to say that I don’t think my review of the gig below actually shows you how amazing this gig was. Unless you were there, I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand just how special this night was. To see a singer you love/adore be overwhelmed by the love of her fans is just beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the last gig of the year that I’m going to…and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather see 🙂

Before I tell you how amazing Florence + The Machine were, I must say that the support acts were once again, brilliant. Frankie And The Heartstrings and The Temper Trap were rather bloody good. However, I still stand by The xx being the best support act Florence has had (and will have…but that could be because I am in love with The xx)

The Apollo in Manchester is a venue that in the past I have disliked. I don’t know why, but I really didn’t like it. Obviously my opinion changed after seeing Florence + The Machine there.

In May I saw Florence play a venue that held around 200 people. In September I’d say around  2500 and now in December there was just over 3000. It is common knowledge that I’ve been a huge Florence fan since seeing a video of her with Dev (Lightspeed Champion) back in 2007. So seeing her go from playing to a few hundred to a few thousand makes me feel like some kind of proud parent.

The crowd is made up of friends, lovers and parents. In front of us there was a young boy with his mum. They were singing and dancing to every song, it was truly beautiful.

The set opened with My Boy Builds Coffins, and after a few tracks in Florence said they would be playing some B-Sides. The nerdy fan in me went into some kind of seizure (internally) and hoped for Hardest Of The Hearts and Falling to be played.

Both were played, thus sending me into some kind of trance. I’m lucky that my best friend (who goes to Flo gigs with me) understands my love for the band. To Florence’s surprise everyone sang along to Falling which made her cry on stage. What’s so beautiful about Florence is that she still doesn’t see how well loved she is and how much us fans adore her. I still stand by Florence having the most wonderful fans ever, if I do say so myself!

I’m Not Calling You A Liar was played acoustically and those who have seen this live will know exactly what part of the song causes the crowd for a better word, to go rather apeshit. She hits a certain note that just leaves you stood there with your mouth open. In awe of what you are in the presence of.

For me, as always, Cosmic Love and Blinding were a personal favourite. I will confess now that I bawled when they played You’ve Got The Love. I’m still trying to work out why, but I think it was seeing 3000 people sing this as loudly as they could with their arms around each other.

The keyboard solo in Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) always covers me in goose bumps and makes me want to learn the piano.

During Dog Days Are Over, Florence decided to go for a bit of a climb. It did result in her hitting her head on one of the speakers. I’m pretty sure the crowd were expecting her to stage dive!

I know that I’ve said this after every time I’ve seen them but this was the best gig of hers I’ve been to (so far!) The venue was perfect and the crowd were amazing.

I’ve been to quite a few gigs and I’ve never seen a crowd react like this to a band before, Florence fans- you are the best!