Let's Rewind! General Favorites Of 2014.

Welcome to the second installment of favorite albums from the year we just said goodbye to. I thought I'd share some of my favorites of 2014 that have managed to make it as a permanent part of my favorites.

Favorite albums of 2014, 

Paramore - Paramore (Deluxe); okay, so this is could probably be considered a new release, but seeing as it was a re-release let's just treat it as an oldie. Paramore released a re-release of their self-titled album very recently with a few new songs and some live versions as well. We haven't seen any official releases of this live songs since The Final Riot! tour, so I was very excited. They did not disappoint. All of Paramore's albums are very important to me, but this album marks their growth as a band in a very beautiful way.

twenty one pilots - vessel; these guys. Wow. I went to their show early on this year, and ever since then I haven't stopped listening to them. Rumor has it that they're recording new music, and I can't wait for it. Their Vessel album is very important to me and if you ever find yourself struggling with life then these guys will help you through, I guarantee it. 

Fall Out Boy - Save Rock And Roll; yes, I'm aware that the album on my phone is their new release of American Beauty/American Psycho, but I wanted tot all about Save Rock And Roll. When Fall Out Boy returned with this album they did with an impressive power. The album is a work of art and it just proves their talent and that you shouldn't let yourself be fooled by rumors and haters. 

Arctic Monkeys - AM; these guys have got a lot of great albums but this is one of my favorites. I think. It's raw, it's cool and if you've ever spend any amount of time on tumblr you'll have seen many posts dedicated to the coolness of this album and the need to "wear red lipstick and smoke cigarettes" when listening to it. The album always manages to give me the right amount of "f*** you-attitude" when I'm feeling down. 

Haim - Days Are Gone; as with AM this album is all about the cool attitudes. And great tunes of course. The three sisters will forever be some of my favorites and I always return to this album and I never get bored of it. I just wanna join a cool girl-band - any takers? I'm currently teaching myself to play the ukulele. No?

Echosmith -  Talking Dreams; an album with a very happy-but-sometimes-melanchlic-but-still-optimistic sound. Does that even make any sense? You've probably been blasted with their single Cool Kids but the album has so much more to offer. 

What's some of your all-time favorite albums?   

xx Sisse

Let's Rewind! New Releases Of 2014.

2014 has now come to an end, as I'm sure you're all very aware of - maybe even in the form of a moral or physical hangover. So why not spend the time enjoying all the wonderful music this year had to offer, eh? This post is all about my favorite new releases 2014, so stay tuned for some serious fangirling. 

Six Favorite New Releases,

Ed Sheeran - X/Multiply; This year has truly been great for Ed Sheeran. Sure, he kept us waiting for what felt like an eternity to hear something new from him after the release of his first album, but it was definitely worth the wait. Even if you wanted to avoid it I'm sure you couldn't, and really, why would you even try? Ed can do no wrong it seems.

Lewis Watson - the morning; not too different from Ed's music if I'm honest. Lewis Watson released his first full-length album this year and now another British dude has managed to make it into my top list of favorite human beings (that list is getting pretty damn lengthy). I've rambled about him before I'm sure, so I'll spare you for now, but do yourself an early favor of 2015 and go listen to him. Now. 

George Ezra - Wanted On Voyage; let's just stick to the English guys with amazing voices and equally amazing skills on their guitars, shall we not? Is it an epidemic? Not that I'm complaining, but I'm not sure my heart can take much more. As I said, my list of favorite human beings is taking over. 

The Kooks - Listen; okay, not a single dude and his guitar. Still British though. Oh well, they're impossible to avoid. Listen is one of those albums that I keep going back to, even when I think I've had enough and could in no way dance to Bad Habit one more time. Every time I'm wrong, and yes I did welcome the new year by jumping around to this album. 

Tove Lo - Queen Of The Clouds; I've saved the strongest for last *cough* yes, the girls *cough*. Again and again I read about the struggle of being a lady making it big in the music-biz, (I mostly hear about the pop/punk/rock area, but I imagine it's difficult in most genres) so whenever a girl manage to break through I get even more proud. I talked about Tove Lo in a very recent post, and while her music is not my usual taste, usually music like this is something I'll listen to so much in a very short period of time and then forget all about it, I do really like it. Maybe I'll forget about her album in a week, but her lyrics and attitude cannot be ignored. 

Candy Hearts - All The Ways You Let Me Down; ah, yes. I've talked about this band before and I will never ever stop. If I'm impressed when girls make it in the pop-biz then I'm extremely impressed when girls make it in the pop/punk/rock-biz. And while Candy Hearts is not an all-girls band, then they're mostly represented by their (female) lead-singer, Mariel Loveland. Mariel often talks about the male-dominated world of music on her blog and other social media, and you got to admire her for standing up for herself and other women in music. She's strong and a great singer, so what's not to like? Their album is definitely one of my all-tome favorites, and whenever I listen to it I want to live it - it that weird? I just admire the way their lyrics admits to making mistakes but not breaking down because of them, and it always reminds me that it's okay to not take life too seriously. And sometimes we all need that reminder. Okay, I rambled, I really didn't mean to. Oh well, we'll all survive.

These were my favorite new releases from 2014, stay tuned on the blog for a post on my general favorites of 2014 that were not as new. What was your favorite new album of 2014? 

xx Sisse        

Let's talk Deluxe Albums!

This Monday night Paramore released their Deluxe version of their self-titled album. Being a major Paramore fan had prepared me for this, but nobody seemed to know what this deluxe version would be or include. Many probably had their minds set for something like a special, limited edition box-set as we've seen from them before. But the bomb finally dropped on Monday and in the form of a digital album. Now, I'm not disappointed by this - not at all actually. Sure I would have liked something crazy and cool but seeing as not many new songs were actually added to the album I think this is a nice way of making into something nice without over-doing it. I feel like they've thought a lot about their fans regarding this deluxe album, seeing as nobody will feel tricked into spending a lot of money on something fancy and then "only" getting two new songs. 

The songs you see above - "Hate To See Your Heart Break" feat. Joy Williams and "Tell Me It's Okay" - are the new songs you can get on iTunes. Besides those the album includes "Escape Route" and "Native Tongue" but I think most of the fans already got their hands on these during the release of the original album.  "Escape Route", "Native Tongue" and "Tell Me It's Okay" all three have a sort of more old school-Paramore sound to 'em, and I think that's quite nice - their old and new sound sort of mix together on these songs. On "Hate To See Your Heart Break" Joy Williams join Hayley and this is actually the first official "featuring"-song from Paramore - and I love it! Their voices mix together so well and seeing as the song is about friendship and love between friends I think that two good friends singing it together gives it such a nice detail, and the feelings in the song become so much more obvious.  

You can get 8 live songs on the album as well if you want. Another nice detail about this release - you don't have to buy the complete album! None of those "album only" songs, which always annoy me because they sometimes make you spend money on something you already have in order to get something  else as well. So yeah, I really do feel that this album was made and published for the fans without the band compromising and delivering something half-heartedly. Hayley has said on some occasions that the band isn't ready for new, complete album so this makes for a nice compromise. 

Then again, I'm a major fan of basically every single thing this band does an since I've been a fan since I was 13, I might be a bit compromised.  

Have you listened to any of the songs on the deluxe album? 

xx Sisse

LIVE IN CONCERT l Ed Sheeran

It feels like centuries ago since I sat in my phonetics class, stressing over buying tickets to this show. It was intense. An online queue formed instantly and it seemed that every single person in the world wanted to buy tickets for Ed Sheeran's concert in Copenhagen. I managed to get the tickets I needed and so did the people I had planned to go with. It was pure bliss. Then the show was moved from venue to another in order to make room for more people. Those tickets sold out in no time as well. It took under an hour in total to sell 9.000 tickets. And now it's been a week. A week since we lined for 8 hours, a week since I cried during "One", and a week since I saw the wonder that is Ed Sheeran. 

The show was more than I had hoped to dream of and the 8 hours in line was worth it all, despite me getting sick and trampled. He had two supporting acts that were both amazing and Ed himself was even better. He played so many songs, all of them fantastic and the next one better than the one before. His loop was amazing, his energy was amazing and his voice was amazing. I still can't believe how a single man can bring so much energy onto stage and create an emotional party for every single person at the show. But that is what he does. If you're a fan of Ed or just a fan of music in general I hope for your sake that you get to go to one of his shows. I really do think it's a special experience because he is the only singer that does what he does. Do yourself a favor and go to his show. And please, if you have the option then go see him at Wembley next year. I mean, that is going to be something alright. And then tell me all about it. I still hope I win some sort of lottery so I can go myself. That concert easily made its way into my Top 5 list of concerts I've been to. 

xx Sisse  

ALBUM REVIEW l 1989

Today the talk of town will most likely be all about the new One Direction album - but not in this town my friends. I'll most likely do a review in a couple of days, but let the "professionals" have their time to shine and say all the horrible things about the album they can come to think of. Or is that just here in Denmark? Then again, the Danish reviewers does seem to have something against the five guys, but I reckon they're just jealous. Anyway, back to who this review is about - Taylor Swift!

Recently Taylor released her new album, "1989", with two strong singles to support it, "Shake It Off" and "Out Of The Woods". Since the album was released she's put the single "Blank Space" out there as well. When the singles began dropping I never pictured myself as a fan of her entire album. I guess I'd been pretty bad marked by the global feeling that "all she ever does is write songs about her exes and that's annoying and immature". But when I started thinking for myself I realized this; who doesn't? Every singer that write his or her own songs are bound to be inspired by their own life, and most of them have exes - what a shocker! When I let go of the negative thoughts and actually listened to the album in complete? Well, I'm a fan. Taylor has completely abandoned the country-style guitars and choruses and is now a true pop queen. And she has claimed the throne. Her songs are catchy and well-written. The lyrics are probably the part of the album that surprised me the most, 'cause they're smart and funny all at once. She doesn't try to make people feel sorry for herself, which I think is a way many other artists would have chosen. Instead she makes fun of herself and all her haters, and it really works out to her advantage.  This album has been on repeat at my place for a couple of weeks now and I've hardly listened to anything else. I do feel myself losing a bit of interest in it now but that almost always happens when I listen to something exclusively for a while. But I will say this: the album is a killer. Great job Swift! 

Buy this album if: you're into a good pop-tune with just enough shaming in it and you feel like putting some b****** down in the comfort of your own living room. You know, so you can just picture yourself putting them down... With a nice song playing in the background... Don't actually put them down...

I hope you liked this review! Have you listened to the album? And what did you think of it?

xx Sisse

LIVE IN CONCERT l The 1975

So, in June I went to the two One Direction shows in Copenhagen. That was intense and never in my life had I experienced teens go wild like I did at those shows. Until now. I had never expected that I'd get pushed around and squeezed so much in the line that I couldn't move. But that was what happened. Maybe it was because it was at a smaller venue and maybe the staff/security-dudes didn't see it coming. I know I didn't. We wanted to get up front so we lined up a couple of hours prior to the concert but already then we were behind in the game. Some of the girls had been there since early morning. Each to their own I guess. We did mange to get pretty close to the stage but even before the supporting act went on we retreated. We just had to face that we were no match to the vicious fans who were there as well. 

The show was great from the back too, and the sound was a bit better. Matty was his own charming self, with a wine bottle and open shirt and all. This time around they had their sax-guy with them (John I believe his name is) and he was pretty good, and the rest of the band was amazing as they seem to always be. Even though the show was great and all, I'm really happy that I got to see them before they blew up here in Denmark. There's just something about catching a band live before fame gets to them. Not that they were snotty or anything, but it's much more relaxed at smaller venues and you feel more like friend rather than idol and fan. 

They played at Store Vega which will forever be one of my favorite venues and it was great seeing them there. Seeing as they just have a single album and a couple of EPs out they played all my favorite songs which is a plus. On the other hand I really do looking forward to them releasing another album. Matty told us this would probably happen in 2016 (WHAT?!) but I guess really good music takes time, so I'm willing to wait. To my knowledge they still got quite a few shows left on their tour, so go watch them before we have to wait for another album and then a new tour. You will most definitely not regret it.

xx Sisse.  

LIVE IN CONCERT l Passenger

Back in the day (during the summer that is) Passenger played a show in Tivoli here in Denmark. I went there with some friends and it was such a pleasant surprise! That Mike really is cool dude and just did the show in whatever way he wanted. When he played a sad, quiet song he told us to shut up, and during the rest of the show he would tell us to clap, jump, sing, you know the drill.

When we went to that show we knew he would play a concert later on as well. My friend decided that I had to go with her and bought me a ticket when I didn't answer my phone because it died during the show, and during the hour it took me to get home from the show, she'd already ordered the tickets. And for that I am thankful. His concert a couple of weeks ago was much like the one in summer. Sure, you had to buy a ticket for this one and the majority of the audience was happy couples that were obviously very much in love. I was there with my friends, but yeah, you know. He is a talker when on stage and the stories behind the songs were very touching and entertaining. I imagine it can be quite a challenge to captivate people when you're a single person on stage but he did it really well. His own songs are works of art and he is really good at covers as well. Sadly, Ed Sheeran wasn't there with him to sing their collaborated song (luckily, I'll see him very soon - but more on that show later on). If you like nice shows without too many crazy people and with a nice vibe you'll enjoy a Passenger show. The music is definitely in focus and you won't get trampled. But it won't be boring either. It's a really nice balance! 

xx Sisse.