19/52, & 20/52

The Mercury Prize is an award which many people, including myself have a few reservations about. On the one had some truly amazing albums have been recognized in a way that they perhaps otherwise wouldn't be. Yet on the other, past winners and nominees have emerged from the race and disappeared into relative obscurity. As for last year's winners The xx - we have still yet to see what has come of them since the award ceremony last September. While I usually keep my opinions to myself, this year I've decided to share a little snippet of a few of my favorites from this year's nominees:

There is a good reason I follow the masses when it comes to James Blake's cover of 'Limit to Your Love'. While yes it is a cover of Feist's amazing recording, it is something special in its own right. With a stripped-down piano intro as opposed to tambourines, Blake evokes just as much emotion as Feist's distinct vocal does. In all, Blake has made it his own and this track certainly pushed him into the limelight this year.

19/52

James Blake - Limit to Your Love 

Nominee #2 that I am backing in this year's competition is Everything Everything's album Man Alive. Everything Everything have been a band whose music floated about the Fuse Fm offices quite a lot when I was bigging up the music dept. Released in 2009, 'MY KZ, UR BF' climbed our playlists that year and we all wet ourselves in anticipation for the album. Ok, maybe not, but I was pretty excited when it was released.

20/52

Everything Everything - Qwerty Finger

Even if James Blake and Everything Everything are not your thing, there are 10 other albums that comprise the nominees, including the likes of Metronomy, Adele, and PJ Harvey.

What do you think about the Mercury Prize? Who are you supporting in this year's competition?

18/52

Well over a year ago I went with a few friends to see Wild Palms at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester. This gig had come out of the fact that a good friend of mine's sister was involved with the guitarist - a good enough reason as any. Also, three members of the band had slept in my now-ex boyfriend and I's bed a few months prior while we'd been away and well, we felt somewhat entitled to see them for free.

While I enjoyed the gig, I don't think at the time, I realised how much a year later I would enjoy their debut album Until Spring. Touted as a 'Band to Watch in 2011' by the Sunday Times, they have enjoyed a good amount of success,although they are very mush so deserving of more.

'Delight in Temptation' is their first major release from Until Spring. Before it was even tipped as a single it was pretty clear that this was a standout track on the album. Catchy guitar riffs mesh well with a good layered beat, making this one of my must have tracks on any Summer '11 playlist.

18/52

Wild Palms - Delight in Temptation 

16/52 and 17/52

I've found that I'm a bit of a broken record, repeating apologies every week for having forgotten to post the previous week. I should probably stop playing Angry Birds and Cut the Rope on my commute and actually put some pen to paper or fingertips to touchscreen and write something. 

I thought that being a student you were always busy having to write essays and read articles. Work life is twice as busy and working from 10 till 18:30 everyday leaves very little time for anything else, this includes cooking real food, cleaning, and having a social life during the week. I've also officially said goodbye to napping in the middle of the week. 

Anyway, I digress. 

At work, when I'm not actually staring at spreadsheets and mobile app-related sites, I do get to spend free moments looking for music. For the last 16 weeks I've been able to compile these tracks onto Spotify, however tracks 16 and 17 are pretty special and can only (for the time being) be found on Youtube.

Both tracks are by a new band I've discovered called Young the Giant. Recently they've been getting good press as a 'one to watch' and I have been. Their eponymous album is a great summer listener and I suggest 'Every Little Thing' and '12 Fingers' as great tracks. However for the Mixtape I have chosen a Two Door Cinema Club remix of their single 'My Body'. Mixing the best of both bands, this is a really good blend of what each band does well.

16/52

Young the Giant - My Body (Two Door Cinema Club Remix) 

While I don't follow the hype that surrounds the voice that is Adele, I do think that 'Rolling in the Deep' is a tune and a half. I also think that this Young the Giant cover is something super special and one of the better covers of this song I have heard.

17/52

Young the Giant - Rolling in the Deep

15/52

I might have been a little worse for wear yesterday. Sunday was a wino-fulled, overly sunny, declarations of love to the sons of old family friends kind of mess of a day. Hence no post AGAIN on a MONDAY. I realise that there is little point in calling it the Monday Mixtape if I am going to forget every week to do it on a Monday.... but hey now, it'll happen one day. 

Johnny Flynn is pretty cool. Still not an artist I know a lot about, but this is great song with certain lyrics which might have been applicable to the situation this weekend.  I wish I had time to write more, but I am still working through my embarrassment of Sunday afternoon. 

15/52

Johnny Flynn - Tickle Me Pink

12/52, 13/52, and 14/52

I hope that having exams, going to interviews, and starting a new job are sufficient excuses for being relatively silent over the last few weeks. Needless to say, I am super tired when I get home from work (hello commute). However, I have been thinking about awesome tracks to put up in the time away and have a few for your listening and visual pleasure now. 

There is no denying that songs have stories: whether it's a story within the lyrics that evoke emotion or if it's something that you - the listener - have experienced that the song conveys well. It could also just be a moment in time that you remember well because you were listening to a song that will now forever be remembered because of what was happening in your life. 

This first song is not only amazing in its own right - just listen to that main riff in the melody - but I will probably always remember my last trip home from Manchester, you know 'the trip', the last time you'll be a student trip when you say goodbye to your housemates, not knowing when all of you will be together in the same place again. It was the end of an era and I'll always remember Friendly Fires 'In the Hospital' playing as I was driven down the M6 towards London with one of my housemates. Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the unique setup that the van required for us to get home (let's just say it was a two seater van and I was in the back sat on a deskchair between a bicycle and the door). 

12/52 

Friendly Fires - In the Hospital

The next track is a bit more 'I just like this band/song' of me. 

Looking through my albums you might notice that I like a number of bands with the word 'club' in their names: Two Door Cinema Club, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Tokyo Police Club are definitely a threesome that express this. Weirdly, TDCC and TPC have actually toured together; I can only imagine the billboards advertising that might have been a bit of a mouthful to read. 

Tokyo Police Club are from Canada and released an impressive second album Elephant Shell. I'm still working through the third one Champ and have yet to determine if I like it as much as the second (the album that increased their visibility). Anyway, 'Tessellate' is from Elephant Shell and is a good example of their sound.

13/52

Tokyo Police Club - Tessellate

This week I discovered turntable.fm, you need to have friends on Facebook that are already registered in order to gain access (an air of exclusivity perhaps... nah, just pretentious). However, it is an amazing amount of fun. I think I wasted 20 minutes of my lunch hour playing on it. I decided to go where most of my friends were which was Katy Simpson's 'Pop Etc.' room. I know Katy from my student radio days (which let's face it, were the other week), and I played a few rounds. You can vote whether you like the song or not and if your song is terrible you get booted off the virtual decks.

So in honour of the awesomeness that was turntable.fm I have added one of Katy's picks, '3 Little Words' by Frankmusik to the mixtape. It is a slight departure from my usual set, but hey it's about 'trying new things'.

14/52

Frankmusik - 3 Little Words

11/52

Today I was offered my first 'real' job as a marketing assistant in an interactive media company. I start next week and I'm very much so looking forward to this new step in my life. As I was getting the tube to the interview (hello long commute across London), a track popped up on my mp3 player that reminded me that even if this opportunity didn't work out for me, everything would eventually fall into place, much like it did with university three years ago (that was an ordeal if I ever saw one). 

So for all my friends that are currently panicking about finding jobs/internships, or for those that are just trying to figure out life. It's going to be ok and you will eventually find yourself doing what your supposed to be doing, it might just take a bit of time.

11/52

Mystery Jets - Miracle

10/52

Well after the last week I've had it would be a mere lie about my musical listening life to post anything but a Two Door Cinema Club track. Recently reentering my life over the last week I have fallen in love all over again with an album that got lost in the mix about eight months back. Tourist History defines Two Door Cinema Club's sound, however, in the eighteen months since it's release I can only assume that there has been much more growth musically and lyrically. Some of this is displayed on a track 'Kids' which can be found on the deluxe version of Tourist History (worth every penny of its £8 pricetag). I eagerly await their next effort. 

10/52

Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work

 

9/52

This week I've found something completely new for the mixtape. This beautiful song by the relatively unknown HoneyHoney, reminds me of one of the first days of this year when I returned on the Amtrak train to my Dad's home in Los Angeles from San Diego. For some reason this song makes me feel as contemplative as I felt that day. Even more so, it makes me miss my second (third?) home in LA and all the people that I know and love there, so this is also for you guys. 

9/52

HoneyHoney - L.A. River

8/52

Today's mixtape find is in memory of this guy:

Tiger: 1993-2011

Tiger was a pretty awesome cat - he used to let me dress him in my doll's clothes when I was little, and as I got older he was often subject to me lifting him up a la Simba from the Lion King.

So in honor of my Tiggles, my 'top cat':

8/52

The Top Cat Theme 

7/52

On Tuesday I was spontaneously taken to see Noah & the Whale - my most favourite band in the world, by Jeremy - one of my most favourite friends in the world. It was the fourth time I had seen them live and after turning in my dissertation (over and out Hungarian refugees!) it was the perfect surprise. In honour of their awesomeness (because I interviewed them in 2009 and they were super awesome) they have this week's mixtape track.

7/52

Noah & The Whale - Give A Little Love 

6/52

A fan of what has be dubiously dubbed the 'West London folk scene' by a number of journalists, I took a little longer than most - approximately a year and 3 months - to listen to Sigh No More by folky, accordion-playing, delightfully handsome, Mumford and Sons, despite having one of their earlier singles being mailed to me by their PR agency the same month as the album's release (a result of my position in local student radio at the time). I'm not ashamed of the fact I didn't get into the album sooner, and while yes I suppose I now am one of the 'hangers on' to the earlier fans, I don't care. The album is beautifully written and hence deserved it's #2 spot in the UK chart and Mercury Prize nomination. 

There are about four or five tracks which I would potentially post - and might do across the remaining weeks of the year's experiment - however I think the title track is a good start. 

6/52

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More 

 

"Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, It will set you free"

4/52 and 5/52

So, my recent vacation was not just a holiday from my dissertation, but also from everything else it seems. So without further ado: 

Moon River is a song that I can listen to in any form. I've only sat through Breakfast at Tiffany's once in its entirety, but it's a song that has accumulated a lot of listens on my last.fm profile. I think one of my favourite versions is by Barbra Streisand, but for tradition's sake - here is the clip from the film. A clip I find no fault in whatsoever. 

4/52

Audrey Hepburn - Moon River

 

While walking around Boston on my recent vacation there were a couple of songs that would not leave my head and my friend Katie and I decided to sing and remix multiple times.One of these was the theme from the late television series Gilmore Girls. So to do the song justice I've posted a Carole King version (she's adjusted the lyrics somewhat), not any sort of home recording of us butchering a classic.*

5/52

Carole King - Where You Lead

*Although, it really was something special

3/52

I managed to completely forget to post this week's musical musing on a Monday, so please accept my apologies with some awesomeness. 

(500) Days of Summer is close to being a desert island film of mine. And even though the song is quite old (1981) with Joseph Gordon-Levitt dancing (swoon much?) it brings Hall & Oates to a new and much younger audience. I started my day this morning by watching this and already feel better for it. 

3/52

Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams (from (500) Days of Summer) 

2/52

The clocks went forward yesterday. Hello British Summer Time - I think this is possibly the first year that it was remotely summery. So in honour of BST and good weather here is one of my favourite tunes by one of my favourite bands which has one of my favourite actresses in it.*

2/52 

In The Sun - She & Him 

*Err I would very much like Zooey Deschanel's hair - if that's not too stalkery weird.

Monday Mixtape: 1/52

For the next year I would like to share some of my favorite music - both of the old 'beloved' and the new variety. For over two years I've been following a blog written by Rebecca Woolf over at Girls Gone Child who has been doing this for a while now. Through her I have listened to new tracks that have found themselves on my favorite lists and hope that I can do the same. So I have many thanks, kudos, and 'props' to give her for inspiring me.

So to start this project I've gone for one of my all time favorite songs. I have always loved Stevie Nicks ever since I heard of Fleetwood Mac when I was younger and whenever I need to contemplate something in my mind this is my go to soundtrack. Stevie never said it better than when she was singing this.

1/52

Landslide  - Stevie Nicks