Frankie Ballard - El Rio JA

June has been a long month, that is for sure. Tiring and at some points a drag but the music has been there time and again to re-energise me and keep me singing along. With great albums from Whitney, Womps, Weaves and many other artists beginning with W there are many reasons to keep smiling. You can check out my full month playlist HERE. Without any further ado here we go with my top 3 picks:

Decorations - Have Fun was my third favourite album of June and it came as a bit of a surprise for me. Having not heard of the band before this release I really had no clue what they were like or how much I was going to love this album. A little bit electro pop, a little bit of indie rock and just the right amount of grandeur for my ears, Have Fun definitely has more sides to it than an a4 sheet of paper and that is a compliment from the bottom of my heart. Enjoy one of the singles 'Promise' below.

Straight out of the gate with this album I knew I was on to a winner when I heard the guttural scream of "Are We Alive". That's right, it is the Augustines third release This Is Your Life. Unlike Decorations, I had known of and listened to a lot of Augustines before this release and it is pretty safe to say I was expecting fairly big things. Thankfully I was not let down in the slightest and they delivered on every aspect. The epic ballads, the more chilled numbers with hints of electronica and the same great vocals from Mr Billy McCarthy. Easily their best work to date but it is almost expected that musicians improve over time as does everybody. Enjoy!

Perhaps a slightly surprising number one pick, perhaps not. One thing is for sure, Frankie Ballards El Rio is a absolute banger. Released in the earlier end of June, ER is packed full of 'Country Foot Stompers' that kept me smiling ear to ear all month long. His personality has a charm that comes through in the music and lyrics that I feel if another artist were to sing the same songs, they would come across as cheesy and out dated. He definitely has all the songs about the usual tropes: cigarettes, alcohol and girls but he puts a personal spin on the standard that any regular old Joe could come up with and has made a truly fresh and brilliant album. Summer afternoons in the park I hear you calling. Enjoy!

Stereophonics - Keep The Village Alive SA

September Album

Another month, another great time for music. I have been loving the new releases from FIDLAR, Widowspeak, Motion City Soundtrack, Little Simz and Chvrches to name but a few. But my big hitter this time is the new Stereophonics release Keep The Village Alive. This may be their 9th LP but the Welsh group are as strong with this as anything that they have released before. My favourite parts of the album are the epic ballads such as I Want To Get Lost With You which really shows off Kellys voice and seems to push him to his limits without sounding strained and painful to listen to. Below is the fast paced C'est La Vie, the first single off of the album. Catchy as all hell and the obvious choice to get people to fall in love with the album. Enjoy!

Gutted :(

Just a quick post to say how annoyed I am with how impatient I get when purchasing concert tickets for the next gig. A few weeks ago now I purchased a ticket to see Tonight Alive (pictured below) for a concert on the 1st of October and just yesterday I received a notification off of my SongKick app telling me that Laura Marling will be playing Birmingham Symphony Hall on the same date. Sooo annoying that there wasn't even one days difference between the two artists because even the amount that I want to see Laura Marling, I still want to see Tonight Alive. I think their album is a proper killer which I think I have mentioned in a previous post and I think they will proper rock the crowd. Their tickets are not sold out yet but they should be, they are that good.  I just hope Laura does more dates in my area. Please.

 

 

 

Thank You HMV

Recently I have been making the most of HMV closing down (or whatever they are doing) to get discounted CD's. In the picture, the top 8 albums are from HMV and the bottom few I bought from Amazon but I figured I would include them because I got them around the same kinda time. I have definitely been getting into more rocky based genre of music recently, with the Tonight Alive album which is one I have been particularly lovin, Biffy Clyro, Kids In Glass Houses, and I'm proper looking forward to giving the Sound City and Slash album a good listen. From the looks of them both, there sounds like a few great collaborations and both albums produced by awesome musicians, you cant really go wrong :)

Back to the Tonight Alive's What Are You So Scared Of? album, it has been one of my more played albums so far. It has been one that has spent a long while on my Amazon wish list and the push I needed to get my ass in to gear and buy it came from a music mag (forget which one) that had an article reviewing a few different Australian rock groups latest releases and they were really bigging these guys up. A nice thing about this album is it ends with 4 acoustic tracks: What Are You So Scared Of?, Safe & Sound, Let It Land and Breaking And Entering. It just ends the album on a bit more of a relaxed feeling which I find refreshing.

Plenty to keep me busy over spring break.

I am also super excited to be going to Reading festival this year. I just bought my ticket this morning. I will no doubt do a post about it in the near future.