Album Of The Week: Hands Like Houses - Unimagine

Hello and happy Sunday my fellow music lovers! I recently started reading the Divergent series (I'll probably review it in a video soon), which makes me forget everything. When I mean everything, food is included, so I almost forgot to upload a review today. Last night I got the new Punk Goes 90's, on which I found a band called Hands Like Houses. They covered Torn, originally by Natalia Imbruglia, and it was the only song on this album I actually liked, so I proceeded to have a closer listen to them. Due to this, I discovered Unimagine, the band's current album, which I'll talk about in this post.

I haven't listened to Hands Like Houses before, so I only had a slight idea of what to expect. I was honestly prepared for some breakdowns and screaming, but nothing like that happened. In fact, I got some new, refreshing rock songs.

I really like the dramatic touch with which Developments kicks off the record. It actually inspires me a lot for the stories I write, and I'm very thankful for that.
The first line of the second song Introduced Species is something I thought to myself a million times during the last few years. I never had a place where I had the feeling that I belonged, that I could be the way I was, until I stumbled into this part of the music scene. I haven't met a single person who shares my taste in music and judges me for my looks or my "depression" or whatever people judge me for, I stopped caring a while ago, thanks to this music. 

What I really like about Hands Like Houses is the energy they convey, and how this energy makes me feel like there's nothing I couldn't do, for example in Shapeshifters, when he sings "We will be unbreakable!"
With Oceandust, the band shows that they can be quiet and sensitive as well. The drums and any electric instruments leave and are replaced by a piano and acoustic guitars during the biggest part of the song, but Oceandust still possesses a tiny rock part when an e-guitar appears for a couple of seconds. 

The last four songs on Unimagine form a great ending of a brilliant record. The very last song, A Fire On A Hill, closes the record and if you weren't fully convinced of this band and their work until this point, you will like them after the last tune faded. 

Album Of The Week: The Pretty Reckless - Going To Hell

Hello my fellow music lovers! In case you were wondering, I decided to make Sunday the day for weekly album reviews, yaay! *clapping in the background*

I was looking through my music folder to find something I haven't already discussed, and I found this:

If you still have this image of Taylor Momsen as Gossip Girl's Jenny Humphrey in your mind, welcome to the club. However, you and I urgently have to update this image because Taylor drifted away from the role of cute Jenny, and now spices up the music world with her band The Pretty Reckless. Going To Hell is the band's second album and was released on March 12th. 

Follow Me Down, the first song on the album, already gives a taste for the band's talent as a whole. Of course there's Taylor with her powerful voice, but she's supported by fantastic musicians who know exactly what to do to make her voice stand out.
Up next is the song that names the record: Going To Hell, which sounds like a prayer at first but ends up being about certain sins and being married to the devil. 

As loud and fierce Taylor can sound, as quiet and soft she can be. House On A Hill works without screeching guitars, it's emotional and still as powerful as the louder songs. This record is like a rollercoaster; after going down with some calm tunes, Sweet Things picks up the pace again, goes all the way up and picks up where  Heaven Knows left off: the topic of the devil appears again, but just when you think you're settling into Taylor screaming, there's a short interlude called Dear Sister and the rollercoaster goes down again. It almost sounds like a lullaby, and it's already over just when you start enjoying the calmness of it. 

With Absolution comes back the fierceness, it's going up again for around 4 minutes before Blame Me is taking you downwards again. This time the stay down there is a little bit longer because after Blame Me, there's the next interlude: Burn. 

The next two songs take you all the way up again, and to finish your ride to hell, Waiting for a Friend takes you down again, so you can get out and either leave, or get in again for another round. 

Since we need more women in this scene anyway, I'm really glad that Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless are part of it and show that women can be loud and wild just as much as men can be. If you won't check this album out, you'll definitely miss out.

Album Of The Week: The 1975

Hello my fellow music lovers, I should really get my stuff together and blog regularly, shouldn't I. I'll try to fix one day of the week where I'll post whatever comes to my mind, we'll see how that goes. Anyway, this post isn't to ramble about my blogging skills, but to ramble about some new tunes I recently treated my ears with. 

The 1975 are a four-piece band from Manchester, UK, and their self-titled album is also their debut album.
They've been appearing on my dashboard on tumblr for quite a while now, it just took me a while to become aware of them and to give them a listen. When I finally went to my best friend Spotify to check them out, Chocolate was the first song I listened to and that was the moment I fell in love. I immediately fell for Matty's voice (his accent took care of the rest), I fell for the easy sound which feels like a light summer breeze on your skin, and I caught myself acting out my personal music video to Sex more than once. Listening to this album makes you forget everything around you, and no matter how bad your day was, the tracks on this record make you feel better as soon as you press play. If you're upset, Robbers, 12, She Way Out or The City will calm you down; if you feel like celebrating, Chocolate, Sex and  Heart Out will be your tunes. In case you just want to relax a little, the rest of the album will be perfect. Long story short: The 1975 deliver songs for every situation you could possibly encounter, and that's just a beautiful thing.
If you live for acoustic versions of your favourite songs just like I do, I highly recommend you to check out some acoustic songs Matt Healy did, for example this one, or this one. 

I dare to predict that this band will create more  fantastic things in the future, at least as fantastic as their debut album. 

"You're allowed to enjoy shitty pop songs from time to time!" - A Playlist

One of my best friends called me a "music snob" this one time when I tried to make her stop spamming me with songs by One Direction, and what can I say? I might be a music snob sometimes and I might not be the biggest fan of these pop songs. However, the music you enjoy doesn't make you a better or worse person, and I think that's something many music fans should keep in mind. I often read that people who like punk or metalcore make fun of the "mainstream" artists and their fans (I'm especially looking at Taylor Swift and One Direction), and that's just wrong. Just because you enjoy listening to tattooed men screaming into a microphone, doesn't mean you're the coolest person. And just because you don't enjoy listening to these men, they're not some satanic weirdos who promote suicide. So, can we just agree on not judging anybody for their taste in music? Thanks.

Since I belong to the people who mostly enjoy screaming and yelling, I thought it might be cool to show you a couple of songs I always sing along to, no matter when or where. 

1. Daniel Powter - Bad Day
2. Kelly Clarkson - Behind These Hazel Eyes
3. Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi
4. Katy Perry feat. Juicy J - Dark Horse
5. Demi Lovato - Give Your Heart A Break
6. Pharrell Williams - Happy
7. Michael Bublé - Haven't Met You Yet
8. Taylor Swift - I Knew You Were Trouble
9. Backstreet Boys - Just Want You To Know (sorry for the bad quality, but the proper videos for the song aren't available in Germany)
10. Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven
11. Britney Spears - Oops!...I did it again
12. Take That - Patience
13. Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved
14. One Direction - Story Of My Life
15. Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball

What are your favourite pop songs? Let me know in the comments!

Concert Review: Ryan Keen, My First Band & Sunrise Avenue in Stuttgart, Germany

Hey everyone, I hope all is well! My semester break started a couple of days ago and I haven't really done anything productive so far, apart from attending my first concert in 2014!!
 Most of my readers aren't from Europe, so I'm even more excited to introduce a fantastic band from Finland: Sunrise Avenue. I bought their first record in 2006 and I haven't lost it, so that was already a promising sign. I have to admit that I didn't listen to their music properly for ages (unless one of their songs was on the radio), but their vocalist was on the last season of The Voice Of Germany and that drew my attention back to the band itself (yeah he's quite cute, that was a reason, too, but shhh). Luckily I have a friend who's also crushing on Samu big times, so we immediately agreed on going when we found out that they played in my city. 

Shortly after we arrived at the venue, a security guard came out and started to hand out bracelets. This was probably the best-organised concert I've been to so far: The venue consisted of three parts: The first part directly in front of the stage, a middle part and the rest. The security guard explained that those with a pink bracelet were entitled to stand in the first part, so you can guess what we did:

Thanks to these bracelets we actually ended up in the third row and I celebrated a little when there was nobody taller than me standing in front of me (just for the record: that rarely happens). However, since my friend is quite tall, there were two girls standing behind her who tried to argue with her ("You're too tall, how dare you standing in the front???") and this is one of the reasons why I prefer concerts where most of the crowd consists of guys. They don't turn into hysterical balls of too much excitement and they certainly don't try to argue with you because you're "too tall." 

I have to admit that I usually don't have the highest expectations when it comes to supporting acts, but this time I was proven so wrong it was fantastic. Ryan Keen, a singer/songwriter from Britain, was up first and it took him only one song to capture the whole crowd. I've never experienced it before that a crowd was so into the first act, but Ryan had this warm aura which totally fascinated me. He could have played for the rest of the evening and I would have enjoyed it a whole lot. 

He reminded me of John Mayer and Ed Sheeran, so if you like any of them, you should give Ryan a listen (you should give him a listen anyway, he's one of the most talented artists I've seen live)!

Up next were My First Band. Again I had no expectations, and again I had a whole lot of fun! My First Band slighty have the sound of The Killers, they just added some more fun to their performance. I'm not a big dancer, but I danced through their whole performance because it was impossible to stand still.  These guys perfectly managed to transfer their joy of playing to the whole crowd.

As much fun as I had with the supporting acts, I was really excited when it was finally time for Sunrise Avenue. I only knew a handful of songs, but in the end it didn't even matter. They played a big part of their current album Unholy Ground what was great because getting new songs to listen to is always a fantastic thing. However, my favourite moments were those when they played the old songs everybody knew, for example I Don't Dance (hell yes we all danced), Hollywood Hills or Fairytale Gone Bad. Fairytale Gone Bad was my favourite moment of the whole show because the crowd basically sang the biggest part of the song alone and I just love seeing the pure joy and happiness in the band members' faces when that happens. 

The whole thing happened on Valentine's Day and I'm not going to lie - I felt absolutely fantastic when I could tell everybody that I finally had plans on that day which didn't include eating ice cream and being mad at couples. And it was just really cute when Samu asked what Happy Valentine's Day means in German and you know the whatsapp emoticon with the hearts as eyes? Yeah, that was me from the moment the show started until a day or so after.
Sunrise Avenue will be back in my area in August and I honestly can't wait to see them again.

Happy Fobruary!!

Yes, it's been exactly one year since Fall Out Boy went off their hiatus and I think we should celebrate! I'm not going to ramble about how fast this year went by or how so many things changed; instead, I'll show you my Top 11 FOB songs (in no particular order because I'm not able to pick my very favourite)! Put on your war paint and let's go!

1. I Don't Care
   This is the soundtrack of my life. Do I need to elaborate on that (just quoting my literary studies teacher here)? Yes? Well, there is probably a handful of things I genuinely care about - things like music, books, tv-shows, my family (you didn't see that one coming, did ya) aaaand cheese. The list of things I genuinely don't care about could probably fill a book, so thank you Fall Out Boy for writing this song.
2. (Coffee's For Closers)
   This one is just really catchy and the phrase "Change will come" forms a very important part of my development as a person. If my 15-year-old self would know me today, it would run away screaming and this tells me that I made some pretty good decisions during the last couple of months.
3. What A Catch, Donnie
   "I got troubled thoughts and a self-esteem to match, what a catch." - What a catch indeed.
4. Dance, DanceJust watch and enjoy this music video because it's simply brilliant. And while you do so, do what they say and dance a little!
5. Sugar, We're Goin' DownDear Fall Out Boy,
   you definitely are more than I bargained for, yes. I'd also love to understand the lyrics of this song, but there are only little fragments I can figure out, the rest is made of jhkrgfrghlreg. That's all actually.
   Love, Carina
6. Thriller"We dedicate this song to anybody who people said could never make it, to the fans that held us down till everybody came around." - thanks for that.
7. The Take Over, The Break's Over"Baby, seasons change but people don't!" - this is one of the phrases that keeps me up at night because I can't stop reflecting it. I mean, people do change, either for better or for worse. Or are these changes we see only a surface and deep down we're actually not able to change? What do you guys think?
8. Thnks fr th mmrsHow genius is it to cut out the vowels of a song title because your management told you to shorten the song titles? That's what Patrick Stump did and this is the ultimate proof for this band being 100% badass. This is also the song that made me fall for them in the first place. 
9. Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy TonightI honestly don't know anybody who listens to FOB and doesn't like this song, so I don't have much to say about it.
10. The PhoenixWhenever I listen to this song I become super excited and feel like I can manage everything I want and yeeah!! and then I walk into the kitchen to make some cereal and realise that I forgot to buy milk and then I'm like oh but hey, at least one of my favourite bands is back, what do I need milk for!?
11. Miss Missing YouThis is by far my favourite song on the new record. I suppose we all know the feeling of missing somebody, but sooner or later it's time to get over the "missing" process and you move on with your life. And then you lie awake at 3am and wonder how it actually felt to miss this person because they became less and less important and thinking about them became less and less of a priority.
    This song also contains one of my favourite lyrics ever: "Sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger." It's actually sad how accurate this is, isn't it?

What are your favourite FOB songs? Leave them in the comments! 

Album Of The Week: Bastille - Bad Blood

Happy New Year guys! I hope you had a great start into 2014, I certainly did (not so much but let's not talk about it)! I got myself two little Christmas presents which I haven't showed you yet, so here you go:

Today I'd like to spend a few minutes on the british boys with the strongest accents I've ever heard. Just pay a little attention and you'll notice it.

Bad Blood kicks off with Bastille's most famous song: Pompeii. I've heard this song more than a gazillion times now, but I'm still singing along without being sick of it and that's a sign for a really really good song in my eyes.
Song number two is also another very popular song: Things We Lost In The Fire. I don't know about you guys, but I always try to imitate his accent while singing along, I mean where's the fun if you don't do that!?
Bastille have this very unique sound which I haven't heard in any other band so far and that's mostly why I like them so much. Bad Blood just puts you in a good mood with songs like Weight Of Living, Flaws or Laura Palmer. And then there are these quiet, thoughtful songs mixed between the happy songs, for example Overjoyed, Oblivion or Daniel In The Den.
Bad Blood tells twelve unique stories, it takes you on an adventure through good and bad times, it makes you think about your own past and all the good and bad things you experienced. With this album, Bastille showed what a talented band they are and I'm quite excited to hear more from them.