November / December update

The last movie I watched...
The Princess Switch (Netflix)

As much as I love my parents, one of my favourite times of the season is when they disappear off on holiday for a few days and leave me home alone to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures: cheesy Netflix teen rom-coms.  The Princess Switch actually ticks my brother's guilty pleasure box too, in that it doubles as a made-for-TV cheesy Christmas movie; hopefully he won't be disappointed that I watched it without him.  If you haven't seen the trailer for The Princess Switch, the premise is basically The Parent Trap, except instead of separated twin sisters, the protagonists (both played by Vanessa Hudgens, star of wholesome teen Disney movie High School Musical and less-than-wholesome teen exploitation movie Spring Breakers) are mere doppelgangers - one is a baker from Chicago, the other a Duchess days away from marrying a prince.  The set-up for the switch is quick and clumsy - baker Stacy's whole back-story is dropped on us in the first scene, nobody in the kingdom knows what the Duchess looks like because she's "camera-shy" - but the film still has its charm, containing all the sweetness of an old-fashioned Disney princess movie.  A lot of the story was predictable, but it took me a while to work out just how the romantic pairings were going to fall and how the fairytale ending would play out. 

On my record player...
The 1975 - Give Yourself A Try/Love It If We Made It (2018, Dirty Hit)

The 1975's third album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, came out this week.  I haven't yet been able to decide whether I like it or not, although I suspect it'll grow on me, as my copies haven't arrived yet, but the special edition of their Q Magazine cover with a 7" of the first two songs they released from the album has arrived so that's currently on my timetable.  If you haven't heard them yet (where have you been?!), Give Yourself A Try is a noisy, fun powerpop song about Matty Healy's inner turmoil, and Love It If We Made It is a shouty protest song about the global turmoil surrounding him.  Basically, he's managed to cover every subject in the modern world on 2 sides of vinyl, which is pretty impressive.


My November 2018 playlist:

1. thank u, next - Ariana Grande
2. Corrine - Black Honey
3. World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
4. Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine
5. Here And Now - Ride
6. Palisade - Mineral
7. Your Silent Face - New Order
8. Herjazz - Huggy Bear
9. The Drowners - Suede
10. Brass In Pocket - Suede
11. Da Da Da - Elastica
12. Sincerity Is Scary - The 1975
13. Having A Blast - Green Day
14. The Ghost In You - The Psychedelic Furs
15. A Change Of Heart - The 1975
16. The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme - The 1975

This week in my journal:

My theme this week is sort of a 'teenagers gone wild' thing - there's some freakishly-dressed young people appearing on a 90s talk show, Yolandi Visser from Die Antwoord getting high outside in her pyjamas, and the goth girl skating in platform shoes (which I'm very envious of). 


I usually mention the last book I read on here too, but I've now spent about 4 months wading through The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh and still have 100 pages to go, so I'm not ready to talk about that yet.  However, instead I can offer...

The last book I listened to...
The Letters Of Sylvia Plath (BBC Radio 4 Book Of The Week, 2018)

I'm a huge fan of Sylvia Plath's letters, so I was delighted when Radio 4 did a second instalment of her words as Book Of The Week last week, this time focusing on the later period of her life when she had finished studying and met Ted Hughes (her student years and first breakdown were covered earlier in the year).  Her letters during this period are mostly upbeat and loving: she has a supportive husband, her poems are being accepted for publication and she becomes a mother.  Towards the end of the week, however, things take a dark turn when she uncovers Ted's adultery - the anguish in the letter that opens Friday's episode is gut-wrenching.  She simultaneously is lost and feels that she can't go on, and has days when she realises she must pick herself up and start a new life without him.  The last letter is from right before her suicide aged 30 and is heartbreaking.  I know I've blogged about this before, but I wish she'd carried on and was able to see how much of a hero she is to the women who followed her. 

October 2018 Update

The last book I read...


Coal Black Mornings - Brett Anderson

Over the summer I read John Harris' Britpop book 'The Last Party' and came away with an interest in Suede, whose story makes up part of that book.  At around the same time, I was scrolling through the Edinburgh Book Festival programme and noticed that their singer, Brett Anderson, was going to be appearing to discuss his memoir, Coal Black Mornings.  I had to renew my library card to borrow the book, which I devoured over a few days and adored.  The book covers the story of Brett's young life, from his beginnings in a little council flat with his eccentric parents, through his school and university years, ending with him living in London and finally signing a record deal with Suede after years of being ignored by the music world.  He describes the book as being about failure, rather than the classic celebrity success memoir that we're all used to, and it's full of little details which ground him as a regular person with an extraordinary job, rather than as the otherworldly indie rock icon he can appear as in the press.  I'm too young to remember a lot of what he talks about youth-wise, but I'm enchanted by his tales of time spent living in London in the late 80s and early 90s, especially the treatment of his relationship with Justine Frischmann.
After finishing the book I went to the Festival and saw him talk about it (in a room full of Suede/Britpop people of his generation, that is, twice my age) and had him sign a copy for me, which I'm still a little starstruck about two months later.  I've heard that he's planning to release the next instalment of his story in a year's time and am patiently waiting for it to arrive.

The last movie I watched...

The Lost Boys

When I was 18, I saw The Lost Boys for the first time and then proceeded to watch it every other day for the rest of the summer.  I knew every line, every song, every piece of trivia about the making of the movie.  I wrote about it in film class, pointed to it when asked what my favourite movie was and was basically obsessed by it for a while.  It's been a few years now since I last saw it so last weekend I decided to put the DVD on and find out whether it still resonated with me, and I was pleased to find that I still love it just as much as I ever did.  Having recently watched Stranger Things, I saw parallels between that squad of monster-hunting kids and the vampire-slaying team of Sam and the Frog Brothers who used to irritate me but who I now see as endearing.  I was always drawn to Kiefer Sutherland's David and his vampire gang so that very first shot of them walking around on the boardwalk carousel still makes me shiver.  I still remember what happens but there were little details that had faded from my memory which made it feel like I was seeing it for the second or third time again.  Aesthetically it's still on point; there's the black leather motorbike gang vibe of the vampires, Star's hippy-Stevie-Nicks thing, and I even appreciate and kind of want to emulate the trendy 80s looks that Sam wears.  If there's anyone out there who hasn't had the pleasure of watching The Lost Boys yet, please stop reading and go do that right now!

On my turntable...

Elastica - Elastica

I've listened to this album more than any other over the last few months.  Again, I became interested in Elastica after reading The Last Party (and, to an extent, Coal Black Mornings) and they quickly became my favourite band of the Britpop era.  Their songs are short, fast, sexy and witty, and it doesn't make sense to me that they aren't universally beloved by young women in the same way that Hole or Paramore are.  I'm fairly certain that Justine Frischmann is the coolest woman in the world and it's a shame that they split at the beginning of the millennium because I really want to be down the front at every one of their shows, singing every word back to her.  They reissued this, their fastest-selling, Mercury-nominated debut album, on vinyl last year and I snapped up a cut-price copy on eBay from someone who said there was a flaw in the packaging that I haven't been able to find, so now I have it on my turntable at home, in my cassette walkman at work and on my iPod for those places in between so that I never have to be without it.

My Autumn playlist:

1. Stay Together - Suede
2. TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME - The 1975
3. Elastica - Elastica
4. Suede - Suede
5. Filmstar - Suede
6. Love Interest - Dear Boy
7. Four Out Of Five - Arctic Monkeys
8. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
9. I Wanna Be Adored - The Stone Roses
10. Parklife - Blur

Currently watching...

The Good Place

I'm a big fan of Michael Schur's past shows (The Office, Parks & Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), so The Good Place has been on my radar since it started in 2016.  I'm almost at the end of the first of three seasons and find it very charming.  It follows Eleanor (Kristen Bell) who arrives in the Utopian 'The Good Place' after her death, despite not having earned her spot there while on Earth, and her struggle to become a good person so she can escape being committed to 'The Bad Place' where she belongs.  The show is filled with charming supporting characters, like Eleanor's supposed soulmate-cum-teacher Chidi and her philanthropic neighbour Tahani, but my favourite character is Janet, the humanoid designed to deliver goods and information to the residents of the Good Place who isn't quite perfect.  If you like your sitcoms to be a little whimsical and surreal, you should definitely give this a try.

From my journal...

These are the pictures I've used to illustrate my bullet journal this week.  The mood is a little romantic, a little retro, more Valentines than Halloween and a good excuse for me to test out some of the red and pink washi tape patterns I've been saving.  

Update piece: 3 June 2018

The last book I read: Crackpot by John Waters

I do a reading challenge every year and one of my 2018 categories is "a book written by someone you admire" so I chose to read the John Waters essay collection that I've had sitting on my shelf for a while, since I find his movies so entertaining.  It's definitely the book I've enjoyed most so far this year - Waters writes about niche obsessions like Baltimore TV shows of the 60s, tabloid journalism, Z-list actresses and criminals hilariously and even though I tried to limit myself to one essay per day I found it hard to put the book down.  His references are so obscure that for all I know he could have invented William Castle and Pia Zadora (I had to do a bit of Googling) but it wouldn't have mattered if the whole thing was a work of complete fiction.  Immediately after finishing I went online and ordered a copy of his first book, 'Shock Value', and headed to YouTube to watch some clips of him being interviewed on late-night talk shows; I admire him far more now than I did when I picked the book up.

Choice quote (from 'Hatchet Piece: 101 Things I Hate): "I've had it with being nice, understanding, fair and hopeful.  I feel like being negative all day.  The chip on my shoulder could sink the QE2.  I've got an attitude problem and nobody better get in my way."

The last movie I watched: West Side Story (1961)

This one has been a long time coming.  I saw parts of West Side Story in high school music classes, I've seen them pay homage to it on Glee and the soundtrack has been welcome on my turntable, but I'd never actually seen West Side Story until last month.  As I already knew the story and the songs, it didn't feel like I was sitting down to watch something new but it was interesting to finally see the visuals that go with the iconic musical numbers and the faces behind the voices (or at least, the faces miming those voices).  I was a little disappointed to see how white the Puerto Rican characters were, having gotten used to seeing Latinx actors on Jane The Virgin and Orange Is The New Black, but now I'm itching to see a remake that gives those actors a chance to inhabit the roles of Maria and Bernardo and the other Sharks.  I see that Spielberg has put out a casting call and I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic.

On my hi-fi: Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion

The album may be the same age as me but it's my favourite of 2018; there's not a single song on it that I don't adore.  I was listening to some of my favourite Depeche Mode singles last night and after putting 'I Feel You' onto the turntable I ended up getting this CD out and playing the full album.  So right now I have I Feel You on the turntable, Songs Of Faith And Devotion in the CD player, and an old mixtape of my dad's of his favourite songs from 1972-73 in the tape-deck - that's a bit early for Depeche Mode and is instead made up of a lot of glam rock and the like: Children Of The Revolution, Ballroom Blitz, Walk On The Wild Side... 

My current playlist:

1. Give Yourself A Try - The 1975

2. Route 66 - Depeche Mode

3. Young & Dumb - Cigarettes After Sex

4. The Dream Synopsis - The Last Shadow Puppets

5. Tammy Faye - Nicole Dollanganger

6. Cherry - Lana Del Rey

7. Black Celebration - Depeche Mode

8. Rose-Colored Boy - Paramore

9. Nothing - Depeche Mode

10. Space & Time - Wolf Alice

The TV shows I'm watching: Orange Is The New Black / My So-Called Life

I finally finished (or at least caught up with) Orange Is The New Black last night, after a couple of years of watching episodes whenever I can get an hour alone with Netflix.  I'm glad the next season is due out this month because I need to know what happens next, especially with Flaca and Maritza!

I've been making my way through My So-Called Life as well, even though it was on TV 20 years ago.  It's regarded as a classic that was cancelled too soon, and even though I'm enjoying it I don't think it lives up to the hype as much as, say, Freaks & Geeks.  I relate to Angela (played by Claire Danes) and I'm especially jealous of her 90s flannel outfits but I can't deal with her parents and how much of an ~after-school teen issues~ vibe it has sometimes.

My journal theme this week: pretty pastels

I'm using this adorable flower collage as my inspiration this coming week.  I've stuck it in my bullet journal, where it compliments the pastel highlighter pens I bought, and I've painted my nails in white, lilac and mint with pink and blue holographic sparkle.  The pale colours and the super-organised pattern feel so peaceful and I'm hoping I can draw on that if I have a difficult day at the office.

Tell me in the comments what things you're into at the moment!

R x

The last book I read...

Interview With The Vampire - Anne Rice

I've wanted to read this book since I was a teenage goth who liked vampires because I liked My Chemical Romance and the opportunity presented itself when I was in a bookshop in Preston stocked with complimentary literature on its last stop before the recycling centre. Never one to turn down a free book, I scooped it up and stuffed it into my backpack which was already full to bursting with tour souvenirs, where it began the next leg of a 40 year journey (the edition I have was printed in 1977, not long after the story was first published).

I saw the movie version of the book a few years ago but couldn't remember too much of the plot; I knew that Christian Slater of Heathers fame conducted the interview, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise played the two main vampires and Kirsten Dunst was an adorable vampire infant, but aside from that I had little recollection. The story is that of Louis, who, over the course of an evening, recalls how he came to be immortal and recounts the major events in his long life. The book is broken up into four parts which relate to the four settings for the novel: firstly in New Orleans where Louis spends the first part of his life, meeting the vampire Lestat and procuring the child Claudia, then moves on to adventures in Eastern Europe and Paris before arriving at the present day.

This is the first of Anne Rice's books that I've properly read, discounting The Taking Of Sleeping Beauty which is an erotic novel she wrote under a psuedonym and which I've never managed to finish. I really liked her descriptive style, particularly in explaining the splendour of the town house the vampires inhabit in New Orleans and the articles Claudia surrounds herself with. It's not an action-packed story of gore like some vampire stories, although there are some gruesome scenes, and I think it's my second favourite vampire story after The Lost Boys. The ending has made me eager to seek out a copy of the sequel which tells Lestat's story and has the added excitement of an 80s rock'n'roll excess setting. Like Less Than Zero, the last book I wrote about, this is another book I saw the movie of first and now need to go back and rewatch.

The last movie I saw...

Behind The Candelabra - dir. Steven Soderbergh

Before seeing this movie I had very little knowledge of Liberace; I knew that he was a cultural icon, a pianist, a homosexual, but not much else. Behind The Candelabra tells the story of the last decade or so of his life through the eyes of Scott Thorson, played by Matt Damon, who became his companion during that period. Their life together seems almost too bizarre to be true - they're lovers but Liberace (Michael Douglas) wants to adopt the orphaned Scott as his son, then he pays for Scott to have plastic surgery in order for him to look like the young Liberace... it's all very weird but oddly compelling. Of course, like in all glittering celebrity biopics there is a sharp turn for the worse, in this case when the star shows signs of ditching his protégé for a younger model, and the movie kind of lost my interest at that halfway point, not picking up again until the ending. My favourite things about this movie were the performance by Rob Lowe as the creepy Hollywood plastic surgeon and the gorgeous costumes and set pieces, particularly in the stage scenes and in Liberace and Thorson's home. The whole place sparkles with so much gold and silver and gleaming white, a look that Liberace refers to as "palatial kitsch" which has inspired me to let more tacky gold and glitter into my life.

On my turntable...

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome

I found this 1984 double-vinyl album in my Dad's collection which surprised me as dance music isn't really his scene, but I'm so glad he bought it because I'm obsessed with it. Hits 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes' have been on my playlist for a couple of years now and I was familiar with the band's notoriety for flirting with sex, homosexuality and violence, but until I heard this album I never realised how important they really were.

Welcome To The Pleasuredome comprises four sides of vinyl which each have a different feel to them - side one is more or less one long side of dancefloor music which sounds like the wildest orgy since the Roman era; side two has the aforementioned hits; side three is more nostalgic with excellent covers of 'Born To Run' and 'Do You Know The Way To San Jose?' and the final side has the huge ballad 'The Power Of Love'.

Listening to this album is like taking the most exciting journey through a hedonistic 80s paradise and the artwork fits perfectly. On the outside are the Picasso-esque portraits of the band and their vibe but the slipcases for the records are my favourite part, combining little logos of hearts and crosses and sperm and bullets with quotes and complaints and a reading list and a merchandise catalogue featuring a jumper I'm coveting despite it being 32 years old. Welcome To The Pleasuredome is probably my favourite old album that I've discovered this year and if you don't have a record player you should definitely head to Spotify and listen to the deluxe version in all its excessive glory.

On my nails...

OPI - Kermit Me To Speak

I haven't taken a photo of my own nails this week because they're not especially exciting, but I'm using this fancy nail polish for the first time today. This shade came to me for free via Pink Parcel and is from the OPI Muppets Most Wanted collection which came out with the movie in 2014. Despite being named after Kermit the Frog it's not green which seems a little strange to me; I'm not sure where the name came from at all.

It's quite hard to work out from the bottle what colour the polish was going to be but on my fingertips it's a sparkling pinkish-lilac colour in some lights and golden in others. It's a pretty colour but not as striking as my usual black or bright coloured looks and I doubt I'll be using it a lot. I can't complain about a freebie though, especially one that's worth as much as OPI polishes are.

My playlist... 

Now that it's summertime I've added some more retro 60s sounds into my playlist alongside new favourites. Highlights:

1. Are "Friends" Electric? by Tubeway Army which I've recently become obsessed with

2. Christian D'Or by Adam & The Ants which is my other obsession song right now, there's something about these post-punk boys with English accents that's doing it for me recently...

4, 22, 30, 36. Songs by The 1975 that fit into the whole 'summer of love' theme 

6. I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys, current favourite by them

8, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33. 60s classics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 25, 31, 35. 50s and 60s teen idol hits

21. Blue Moon Motel by Nicole Dollanganger because even though she was on the last playlist I'm still in love with this song

34. Milord by Édith Piaf who was on my turntable last week

A random image from my aesthetic blog on Tumblr...

Ladies restroom at the 2016 Met Gala, themed "Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology". Part of a gorgeous set of pictures of ladies in sparkling silver dresses in the bathrooms at the ball looking classy and trashy and a little bit 'palatial kitsch'!

R

The last book I read...
Less Than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis

Less Than Zero is the debut novel by Bret Easton Ellis (who is perhaps best known for writing American Psycho) and I picked it up in a second hand shop years ago following an 80s movie phase where I ended up watching the superbly-soundtracked Robert Downey Jr film loosely based on the book.
The novel follows Clay, a college student who has come home to LA for Christmas and does nothing but get high, attend mind-numbing parties and listen in to the vapid conversations his Valley friends have. There is a loose plot concerning Clay and his former best friend Julian, but the book is more like a list of events detailing the lives of these teens who live a dream existence of wealth and celebrity and excess but are bored by it all.
The idea of a book without any storyline might sound like a waste of time but I loved it; the prose is immersive not only in the way it puts us in that world but in the way it feels like we're rolling around in the mind of the character along with the 'Disappear Here' billboards on the Californian highways and the Joan Jett lyrics from the café stereo.
I definitely plan to read more of Easton Ellis' books, which conveniently are often among those sold really cheap in Fopp/HMV.


The last movie I saw... 
Nowhere - dir. Gregg Araki

Nowhere is kind of like Less Than Zero in movie form - it follows bored LA teens whose only interests are sex, drugs, parties and gossip (in fact some consider it a direct rip-off). The trailer makes it look like an action-packed coming-of-age tale when in fact it's surreal, lurid, neurotic and overall bizarre. The cast of this movie includes 90s icons like Rachel True, Mena Suvari, Kathleen Robertson, Rose McGowan and Shannen Doherty, plus a whole host of other gorgeous kids with piercings and green hair and lipliner.
I first watched it a few years ago and didn't really get it but I'm glad I revisited it because I adored it the second time around. Again, I'm not sure if there's any plot to speak of but the visuals and the Valley dialogue and the casting and unexplainable scifi moments make this film so great that I'll probably end up watching it a few more times in the near future.


On my turntable...
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses

I found this record amongst my dad's collection and saved it from storage with the intention of eventually listening to it, which I got round to doing at the weekend. I expected to find it monotonous but was pleasantly surprised and kind of didn't want it to end when the needle was getting closer to the centre.
 I was familiar with the band's legacy and their song Fools Gold (not included on this record) and song titles like I Wanna Be Adored and I Am The Resurrection. I Wanna Be Adored turned out to be one of my highlights, along with Waterfall which is one of those lovely dreamy songs that makes me want to lie in the grass and watch the clouds go by. Add that to the Pollock-esque artwork that looks great on display in my room and it's safe to say this is one album that won't be going back into storage.

Clothes

At the moment my uniform consists of ripped black skinny jeans, comfy band t-shirts, a choker, my leather jacket and platform shoes; I am a cliché.  At work I'm still all about Peter Pan collars and cute dresses with leggings which make me feel like the office princess.

My favourite recent purchase is probably this The 1975 t-shirt which I ordered from Amazon for about £5 because it turns out it's really easy to pick up cheap replicas of shirts Taylor Swift (left) has worn. It's light and sleeveless which makes it perfect for sunny days and also people talk to me about the band when I wear it - I got tricked into re-activating my HMV card the other day when the cashier told me they were giving away goodies...

Although I bought them in December to replace my much-loved creepers, I've recently discovered that there is no outfit that isn't improved by my platform shoes. They were really cheap (£7.99 on eBay and still available), add a few inches to my height, and generally make me feel like the boss in any situation. They probably don't count as workplace-appropriate shoes but they're comfy and weatherproof and go with all my outfits so I don't really care.




On my nails... 


This week I'm wearing one of my favourite looks, glitter tips. I've blogged about how much I love glitter before but I have to state once more how much it cheers me up to see it twinkling on my fingertips (and everywhere else that it lands once it starts to flake off). In this case I used w7 Green Glitter (my number one Christmas colour) on top of my all-time favourite, Barry M matte polish in Espresso, except on my thumbs which are painted in Stargazer's grey shade. They have a dark Halloween vibe which shouldn't be seasonally appropriate but it also snowed last week so who cares? I've been extra careful all week in an attempt to make this look last as long as possible but I know it's only a matter of time before the sparkle will be all gone, so I'm enjoying the compliments and glitter while it lasts.

My playlist... 

The Spotify playlist above is a combination of the music I've recently been listening to on the bus, in the shower and in my bedroom. Highlights:

2, 5, 9, 13, 21, 24, 30, 33, 38: all of my current favourite songs by my current favourite band, The 1975 (narrowed down from a much bigger playlist)

6, 10, 36: adorable love songs by Nicole Dollanganger from her Ode To Dawn Wiener: Embarrassing Love Songs EP

1, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 29: current pop songs by Drake, Rihanna, Zayn, Years & Years, etc

23, 31: my two favourite songs by The Sundays

7, 22, 34, 37: selections from the 60s

4: Transgender Dysphoria Blues by Against Me!, which psyches me up for work in the morning but also makes me want to get off the bus and do something more adventurous

28: Animal Nitrate by Suede which gives me much the same feeling, but sexier

3, 26, 35: favourites from Frankie Goes To Hollywood's album Welcome To The Pleasuredome

15, 16: aspirational bad bitch anthems

20: Local Roses, the newest song by Dear Boy.

TV shows I'm currently watching... 

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Love, Angie Tribeca (more on those another time)

A random image from my aesthetic blog on Tumblr...

Debbie Harry in Hairspray; an 80s recreation of the 60s and a movie I need to see.

(This is my first blog of 2016 - pathetic!)

R

Music Monday: my favourites from October

It's been just over a month since I started using Spotify to stream music rather than trying to download everything that I wanted to listen to for as little as possible, and as a result I've had to change the way that I put together my end of the month playlists. For the last three years I've been compiling a playlist made of new songs that I've downloaded each month, uploading them to 8tracks and committing them to disc, but now I don't have enough new music in my iTunes each month to fill a CD. Luckily, Spotify offers an easy-to-use playlist feature where I've been adding all the new songs I've come across there alongside other favourites that I've been playing a lot. 

1. Mene - Brand New
I went to see Brand New live in September and I wrote a review of the show for music site Gigsoup, which you can find here. While I was writing I listened to the band for some inspiration and particularly enjoyed hearing this, the only new song the band have released in the last five years. 

2. Sink Into Me - Taking Back Sunday
I foolishly thought that I'd be able to listen to Taking Back Sunday while writing about Brand New but it confused me thoroughly. If I had to choose between the two bands I'd pick TBS, who I got to see a couple of times last year. This song is particularly fun and I've played it a few times this month.

3. Sippy Cup - Melanie Martinez
4. Soap - Melanie Martinez
I heard a remix of her cover of Toxic last year and absolutely adored it, so when I found Melanie Martinez's debut album 'Cry Baby' on Spotify I set aside some time to listen to it and I thought it was amazing. These two songs were my favourites but really I liked the whole album.

5. The Fire - Tonight Alive
6. Lonely Girl - Tonight Alive
I spent an afternoon listening to Tonight Alive, who I got really into in 2013 after seeing them on the Kerrang! Tour. Both of these songs are from their 2nd album, 'The Other Side', which came out that year and which I bought but haven't listened to as much as I should have. They put out a new song the other day which I'm not as keen on but I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the new album.

7. Castle - Halsey
There's been a lot of hype around Halsey and a lot of my friends are obsessed with her, but I wasn't particularly impressed when I first heard her - her voice has a bit of an Ellie Goulding quality at times which really irritates me. This song appeared in my Spotify Discover playlist one week and while I was excited to give it a chance, I didn't think I would enjoy it; it was a nice surprise to find that I actually really liked the song!

8. What Do You Mean? - Justin Bieber

This is probably my favourite song of the month, I've listened to it way more times than I can count and it's actually the reason why I dusted the cobwebs off my Spotify application last month. I watch the video every time it's on TV and I made a rare visit to the iTunes store to purchase the song. I'm getting a little bored with it now but luckily there's a new Bieber song to replace it with.

9. Can't Feel My Face - The Weeknd
This is another of the big chart hits that I've been listening to a lot, it's been stuck in my head more or less all month. I saw The Weeknd perform this on Saturday Night Live the other week and it was amazing, I've really grown to like him lately.

10. Stay High (Habits Remix) - Tove Lo, Hippie Sabotage
This song was dropped into one of my Discover playlists this month and it was definitely the highlight of the collection, I listened to it a couple of times on repeat just to relive how great it was the first time. I don't know much about Tove Lo but this song is magical.

11. Hotline Bling - Drake
Obviously this song is huge right now so it's not a big surprise that it's on my playlist. It's the other song that's stuck in my head constantly and I'm totally okay with it because it's amazing. The video is a bit dodgy though, Drake's dancing is definitely not sexy.

12. Gold Teeth - Redlight
I heard this song on my Discover playlist and thought it was pretty cool. Then my brother came home having been to see Radio 1 DJ B.Traits on tour and when I asked him what songs she played he said "nothing you'll have heard of" but when I pressed him this was the first song he mentioned, so listening to it makes me feel kind of hip.

13. How Deep Is Your Love - Calvin Harris ft Disciples
Another big chart song, which is on TV pretty much every time I flick to the music channel. I didn't think it was that great at first but it's grown on me and now I listen to it regularly, which is nice because I've not liked a Calvin Harris song in ages!

14. Love Me - The 1975

When I first heard this I thought it had a real 80s INXS/Depeche Mode vibe which I'm definitely into. It's a really catchy, happy song, a total contrast to 'Sex' which is the other song of theirs that I really like. 'Love Me' sounds totally unlike anything else and I'm glad it's doing well.

15. Be Right There - Diplo, Sleepy Tom

I can't remember where I first heard this song but I ended up with the chorus stuck in my head and luckily I was glad to have it there, so I've listened to it quite a lot. I didn't realise quite how many great summer songs Diplo was behind so it's nice to have this one with his name actually attached.

16. Anyone/Anything - Touché Amoré
I started listening to this band when they toured with AFI a couple of years ago, around the time that their last album came out, and I was listening to them one day this month. My favourite of their songs is 'Is Survived By' but I also really like this one. 

17. Grand Piano - Nicki Minaj
I listened to Nicki for a while one evening and when this came on I was floored. She's best known for her tongue-in-cheek party songs so to hear her singing a ballad really surprised me. At first I expected the song to be someone else's and for her to drop a rap verse somewhere but I'm glad to discover a different side of Nicki.

18. The Hills - The Weeknd
I already included The Weeknd's other hit earlier but as October went on I also fell in love with this song. I really need to sit and listen to his whole album I think because every song I've heard so far has been incredible.

19. Girls Fall Like Dominoes - Nicki Minaj
This is another Nicki Minaj song that came completely out of the blue for me. In this case the surprise was that she'd sampled 'Dominos' by The Big Pink, another song that I really like and hadn't expected to hear in this sort of setting.

20. Mean - Nicole Dollanganger
I've been a fan of Nicole's for a while since a few of her songs crop up all the time on the 8tracks playlists I listen to, so I was really excited about her album 'Natural Born Losers' coming out. It's all good and I struggled to pick just one song for my playlist. 

21. Over And Out - 5 Seconds Of Summer
I definitely didn't expect to like this song when it appeared on my Discover playlist since 5SOS have such a bad reputation - I heard some of their last album when they first came on the scene and found it to be a lot like my old favourites Busted. This song sounds like it could be by All Time Low though, and I think it's a step in the right direction.

22. Leave A Trace - CHVRCHES
I've been keeping an eye on this band since their first single 'The Mother We Share' came out and when they've appeared on chat shows to promote this new song I've tuned in to see their performance. 'Leave A Trace' is just as good as anything that they've done before and I think their singer Lauren is magical.

23. Sorry - Justin Bieber
Basically at this point I'm not sure Justin Bieber can put out a song that isn't amazing. When I first heard this I was glad that it was just as catchy and fun as 'What Do You Mean?' is and I have no doubt that I'll be listening to it a lot over the next month.

24. Laughing At You - Head Automatica
I've been a bit obsessed with this song for the last few months and sadly Spotify only has a live version of it, but that hasn't stopped me from playing it on repeat and singing loudly along. Daryl Palumbo's tone is so cutting and sarcastic in this and I just love everything about it.

25. Can't Be Sure - The Sundays

26. Here's Where The Story Ends - The Sundays
'Can't Be Sure' started playing when I was listening to music from my last.fm library, yet I don't remember ever hearing it before. After I'd listened to it there was a bug that made it play again and the second time around I was even more mesmerised and had to find out more about them. When I looked at their page I recognised the title 'Here's Where The Story Ends' and found out that it was the original version of a song I remember being in the charts when I was little. I've played the two quite a lot this past week.

27. Focus - Ariana Grande 
This song came out just in time to be included in my October playlist, although I'm sure it'll also make it in next month. I think Ariana is wonderful and I'm pleased to see her stick to the fun 60s inspired aesthetic that made me fall in love with her to start with. 

Music, July 2015

I've been struggling for the last couple of weeks trying to decide how I want to write about music on my blog. Music is my greatest love in life and I have so much to say about all my favourites that I'm not sure exactly how to begin to cover everything that I want to explore. Last week was easy, the VMA nominations had just come out and there were a whole lot of music videos that I hadn't seen, and some which I already loved, to review and make predictions on. However, award ceremonies don't come around every week and they only cover a small portion of my interests so they can't be the focus of all my music blogging.

On my old Buzznet blog (rachii.buzznet.com) I tried to write about a band, album or sub-genre that I loved every week and I liked that approach but if I carry on solely doing that I'm going to miss out on all the new songs and videos that are coming out. For now, it seems like my best bet is to alternate between the two, covering new music some weeks and old favourites on weeks when there's nothing new to talk about. I've been making a note over the last few weeks of recent releases that I want to review, so this week I'm going to work my way through them and also share my playlist for the last month.

NEW MUSIC

Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon ★★★

I became a big Lana Del Rey fan a couple of years ago and I love everything she does. Recently she's been soundtracking a lot of movies, including The Great Gatsby, Big Eyes and The Age Of Adaline, which makes sense because her music is very cinematic. Honeymoon is a long, slow song showcasing the direction that Lana's 3rd album is likely to head in. She's backed by a beautiful string section and singing lyrics filled with typical Lana imagery. I'm not sure that I love it quite as much as her other work but I felt the same when her previous album, last year's Ultraviolence, was released so it's likely that this song will grow on me. Even if Honeymoon doesn't become a faviourite, I'm still very excited to hear what else Lana's been working on. 

Alice Glass - Stillbirth ★★★★

Alice Glass, up until recently, was the incredible frontwoman of the electro duo Crystal Castles, who I was spellbound by when they arrived on the scene. Stillbirth is the first song she's released as a solo artist, following the first Crystal Castles single (Frail) to be released without her, and I think the decision to split was a great one because now there's two sets of people making innovative music. 

Stillbirth isn't a long song but it's really memorable. It was released with a statement by Glass explaining her struggle leaving an abusive relationship and this experience shows in her lyrics. All proceeds from the single are being donated to survivors of domestic abuse, so this song is definitely worth purchasing.

PVRIS - Fire ★★★★

PVRIS' album, White Noise, has been out for a while so this isn't a new song but the video just came out a couple of weeks ago and the song is on the BBC Radio 1 playlist so I needed to include it. I don't really know how to describe their music, at times the lyrics are aggressive and accusatory but the electronics and the vocal delivery of Lynn Gunn stop the band from being easily classified as a hard rock group. Fire is a great song, like every song on the record, and the video fits in nicely with the band's aesthetic - my guess is that they'll put out videos for every song on White Noise and they'll form a complete story, but until then Fire is a great introduction for anyone who isn't already on board with one of my favourite new bands.

New Found Glory ft. Hayley Williams - Vicious Love ★★★★

Vicious Love is a typical summer pop punk New Found Glory song: catchy, sweet and over in three-and-a-half minutes. It also features Hayley Williams, the fiancée of guitarist Chad Gilbert who's probably best known for fronting Paramore but has also had big summer hits as a featured guest on BoB's Airplanes and Zedd's Stay The Night. The video sees the band playing incompetent tattoo artists who manage to ruin romantic tattoos in a number of funny ways, parodying all those reality shows set in tattoo shops. Vicious Love probably isn't going to become one of those all-time classic pop punk songs but that doesn't mean it isn't good, and I bet the video gets a lot of airplay on the rock music channels for the next while.

Bring Me The Horizon - Throne ★★★

Bring Me The Horizon were a band I loved to hate in high school, and I'm pleased to say that they've improved vastly since then. Throne is a huge atmospheric rock song accompanied by a video filled with the kind of dark imagery you see all over album artwork and Tumblr blogs. I do have one major issue with it that's prohibiting me from giving it any more stars though, and that's the fact that the chorus is lifted almost word-for-word from Wolves, a single released by The Blackout last year - in fact the still images that appear on YouTube for the two videos are similar too... 

Marina & The Diamonds - Blue ★★★★

I haven't enjoyed the most recent incarnation of Marina as much as I liked the aesthetic of her previous album, Electra Heart, so I didn't expect to be a big fan of her new video for Blue but I was pleasantly surprised by it. In the clip Marina is the only girl at the carnival, playing with classic American imagery like her contemporaries Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift but adding a sparkling 70s disco spin on things. Her voice is stunning, the colours are gorgeous and I feel bad for assuming that I wasn't going to love this - it's not as huge a departure from the Electra Heart collection as I had anticipated and it probably won't be long before I'm watching it again.

MY PLAYLIST - JULY 2015

When summer comes around I often find myself listening to a lot of chart pop music and hip-hop. Recently on repeat: Taylor Swift, Kanye West, PVRIS, Nicki Minaj and Die Antwoord. Here's a playlist of the new music I've been listening to, and a few old favourites too: 

July 2015 from Rachii on 8tracks Radio.

1. Major Lazer & DJ Snake featuring MØ - Lean On
2. Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
3. Rihanna & Kanye West featuring Paul McCartney - FourFive Seconds
4. Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money
5. Alice Glass - Stillbirth
6. Sigma featuring Paloma Faith - Changing
7. Kanye West featuring Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom and Paul McCartney - All Day
8. Years & Years - King
9. Kanye West featuring Lupe Fiasco - Touch The Sky
10. Sia - Elastic Heart
11. Jessie J + Ariana Grande + Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang
12. Little Mix - Black Magic
13. Omi - Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix)
14. Romeo Santos featuring Nicki Minaj - Animales
15. PVRIS - St Patrick
16. Dr. Dre featuring Jewell, Lady of Rage, Tha Dogg Pound and Snoop Doggy Dogg - Bitches Ain't Shit
17. David Guetta featuring Afrojack and Nicki Minaj - Hey Mama
18. Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar - Bad Blood
19. Nicki Minaj featuring Drake - Moment 4 Life