12/19/09

Top Albums Of 2009

As the year nears a close and the battle for the Christmas number one ends tomorrow I thought I’d blog my top 6 albums of 2009. I always buy a lot of music and 2009 has been a good year for music so here is my favourites! (in no particular order)

1 – Bowling for Soup – Sorry For Partyin’ - This was the follow-up for ‘A hangover you don’t deserve’ the band never had, fantastic album full of Bowling for Soup fun – Read my full review here

2. Relient K – Forget & Not Slow Down - One drummer change later and Relient K release what is now my favourite of their career with a fantastic mix of beautiful sounding piano and pop-punk energy – Read my full review here

3. Newton Faulkner – Rebuilt By Humans - The follow-up to his fantastic ‘Handbuild By Robots’ is possibly even better…Newton Faulker does it again…not much more to say on this album…BUY IT!

4. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight - I had anticipated and looked forward to this album ever since hearing that Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 fame was producing it and I was so right to do so…cracking pop punk album that takes the band back to their ‘Sticks and Stones’ days – Read my full review here

5. Mat Kearney – City of Black and White - I only discovered Mat Kearney this year and liked him so much I ordered both his albums at once. Mat Kearney has a fantastic voice and his music is nice and chilled yet uptempo at the same time…well worth a listen.

6. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me It’s You - I can’t stand her first album but I love this one…I never wanted to though! It’s got a good mix of catchy pop tunes with some interesting lyrics which make you very glad that you’ve never slept with Lily Allen! – Read more of my thoughts on her here

Overall 2009 has been a good year for music but there hasn’t been masses of it released in the pop-punk arena…I’m looking forward to a new Blink 182 album next year, a new Angels and Airwaves album plus a new Sum 41 album! Bring on 2010 music!

10/28/09

Album Review: Forget & Not Slow Down (Relient K)

For a long time now I’ve been a big fan of the punk-rock band Relient K and they’ve always been a band to show variety mixing pop-punk with piano riffs and even ranging to do songs with a hint of country.

Their latest album release ‘Forget and Not Slow Down’ was brought for me by Jo for my birthday last week and I eagerly stuck the CD in to listen to what they’d been up to since their last release however it was only during some long drives and loud music last week that I’ve really got into this album.

This is the first of Relient K’s albums that actually has a title the same as a track on the album and as with all their albums it shows the band maturing however unlike their last album (Five Score & Seven Years ago) this album has a clear and consistant feel about it with a feel similar to their 2004 release ‘mmhmm’ which I’ve considored to be their best for a long time.

The album opens with their first single from it ‘Forget and not slow down’ which is a catchy pop-punk song and as the album progresses the tracks flow perfectly into each other before the album finishes in true Relient K style with the song ‘this is the end’ which has a perfect mix of light piano and heavy rock. Some of my favourite tracks on the album so far include the tracks ‘I’m over it’, ‘This is the end’ and ‘If you believe me’.

I’d recommend you have a listen to this album on Spotify, Alt Press or just go and buy it on itunes!

06/3/08

The Bird’s and The Bee Sides

I have excitedly just pre-ordered the new Relient K EP ‘The Bird’s and The Bee Sides’, I say EP but actually it’s over 70 minutes along because the band have packed so much onto it…plus they are giving another whole host of songs away as downloads when you buy the album…they have been busy boys!

In other news I’m seeing Ben Folds in Sheffield in just over a month which I’m pretty excited about too….so much musically is happening! yay!

01/7/08

Beauty Of Grace

Everytime I hear Relient K’s song ‘Be My Escape’ the lyric

‘It’s the beauty of grace that makes life not fair’

Seems to leap out at me…I don’t entirely know why but I guess it just echoes that we don’t deserve God’s grace and at the same time turns the phrase ‘not fair’ upside down…we’re used to using it when something doesn’t go our way but how often do we say that something good that happens ‘Isn’t fair’.

Interesting….

(I think I blogged on this a while ago!)

01/2/08

My Top 5 Albums Of 2007

So as far as music goes 2007 has been a pretty good year…here are my top 5 albums that have come out in 2007 in no particular order!

Relient K – Five Score & Seven Years Ago (March)

It feels like I’ve had this album forever yet it never actually came out until march this year, but ‘Five score & seven years ago’ by Relient K is an amazing album, mixing catchy pop-punk with a more serious piano side of things. Every song on this album is awesome and I could listen to it over and over again!

Best Songs: The Best Thing, Must Have Done Something Right & Deathbed

Angels & Airwaves – I-Empire

Following their previous album I was pleasently surprised by the added punkiness of the angels and airwaves second album, listening to it left me with that warm fuzzy ‘Tom still has punk in him’ feeling. With some amazing lyrics and catchy, atmospheric and sometimes punky tunes this makes it into my 2007 top 5

Best Songs: Rite of spring, Everything’s Magic, Secret Crowds

Sum 41 – Underclass Hero

2007 also saw Sum 41 surface again with a new album, the Canadian punk rockers return as a three piece with the most surprising album I bought in 2007. I expected them to be as heavy as ‘Chuck’ which although was a good album was dissappointing however Underclass Hero is a cross between ‘All Killer’ and ‘Does this look infected?’ seeing Sum 41 return to their roots with what I think is their best album ever!

Best Songs: Underclass Hero, Walking Disaster

Serj Tankien – Elect The Dead

One of my favourite new albums in 2007 and now one of my favourite albums of all time came to me whilst watching Kerrang TV when Serj Tankien’s video for ‘Empty Walls’ appeared on screen…not knowing the SOAD singer had done a solo project I googled him, myspaced him and bought his album. Elect the dead is as heavy as early System yet at the same time relaxing and melodic. Tankien plays all the instruments except drums and has truly written a masterpiece.

Best Songs: Empty Walls, Unthinking Majority, Saving Us

Tim Hughes – Holding Nothing Back

2007 has also been a brilliant year for Christian music and the final album in my top 5 yet by no means least is Tim Hughes 3rd studio album ‘Holding Nothing Back’, unlike pretty much every other worship solo album out there is not a single rubbish track on this album, Tim Hughes has written what I think is the best Christian Worship leader studio album ever. So hats off to Tim Hughes!

Best Songs: Happy Day, The Highest & Greatest, Take my life

12/25/07

Christmas Day Blog

I have decided that I am like the queen…I don’t have two birthdays, nor do I wear posh dresses, nor am I in Sandringham…I do however feel the urge to make a Christmas speech!Of course by Christmas Speech I mean blog and other than being loved by God that’s where my similarities with the queen end…so this morning I have four things to say;

1 – Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this blog, I hope you have a brilliant day celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ…Saviour of the world.

2 – This article on BBC News Caught my attention. It’s about a vicar in Yorkshire who’s hoping to get more people to Church today by telling the story of the Nativity using Chocolate bars in a bid to get people to listen more too….now you could be critical and talk about the consumerist side of things however I think it’s a positive thing. This year we’ve seen the traditional fluffy nativity story change a fair bit…we’ve had it told with Chavs and Immigrants and now with Chocolate…I think it’s awesome that people are trying to help others understand the insanity, the mystery and miracle of the Christmas story.

3 – Every year for the last couple of years I find the Relient K Christmas song ‘I Celebrate the Day’ really challenges me, so here are a couple of lyrics’Here is where you’re finding me in the exact same place as new years eve and from the lack of my persistancy we’re less than half as close as I wannt be”The first time that you opened your eyes did you realise you would be my Saviour? and the first breath that left your lips, did you know that it would change this world forever?’

4 – And fourthly and a bit mushily yesterday was a year

08/23/07

My Itunes Top 25

Here’s the 25 songs that have been played the most on my itunes

1 – The Descendants – Nothing With You
2- Ben Folds – Still Fighting It
3- Hellogoodbye – Here in your arms
4- Relient K – The Thief
5- Relient K – Be My Escape
6- Angels And Airwaves – Distraction
7- Angels And Airwaves – A Little’s Enough
8- Blink 182 – Mutt
9- Christian City Church – We Have A Vision
10- John Galea – Faded Popstar
11- Matt Redman – Lord Let Your Glory Fall
12- Less Than Jake – Shotgun
13- Matt Thiessen & The Earthquakes – Faking My Own Suicide [Demo]
14- NOFX – American Errorist
15- Relient K – Overthinking
16- Relient K – Jefferson Aero Plane (demo)
17- Something Corporate – Cavanaugh Park
18- Spunge – Kicking Pidgeons
19- Underoath – It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door
20- Angels And Airwaves – Valkryie Missile
21- Angels And Airwaves – The Adventure
22- Angels And Airwaves – Start The Machine
23- Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend
24- Bad Religion – All There Is
25- Ben Folds – Not The Same

I have to say I’m quite surprised at this list

07/13/07

Relient K

I said a couple of weeks ago that Relient k’s tour bus had caught fire, well on their site the legend that is Matt Thiessen posted a blog all about the fire, here’s the concluding bit, whether you’re a Relient K fan or not please read it it has a good message!

Frankly, it’s not some God-given right for us to own a bunch of stuff. It’s a blessing to live in a place where we can work hard and reward ourselves with those comforts. I was blessed to have a cell phone in the first place. In the same way, I’m blessed to have two arms, two legs, ears, eyes, and so on. Nothing is a guarantee, and the truth of the matter is, the most important things in life, are, in fact, our lives themselves.

It almost seems like too much of a coincidence that just hours before all of this happened, we were hanging out with our buddies in Switchfoot (who we’re touring with this fall), and we were discussing some ideas of how to incorporate Habitat For Humanity into the tour. How interesting, that we were thinking about those who had suffered much greater losses than the one we were about to experience in less than four hours. If this night’s tale was a work of fiction, this time with Switchfoot would have been foreshadowing. Maybe God was trying to plant some thoughts in our heads, maybe He wanted us to experience a bit of loss ourselves before we tried to pretend to know what other victims of tragedy go through. I guess we can at least accept it as some perspective. Anyway, at a later date, we’re going to reveal a couple of the ways we’re going to make it fun and easy to donate time/money to Habitat For Humanity (one way will be as easy as buying a ticket to the show). It’ s a cause that helps people rebuild one of the most essential things you can lose. The essentials are; food, clothes, and shelter. Hmmm… I bet if my shelter was destroyed, I wouldn’t be so bummed about a cell phone.

To read the full blog go to http://www.relientk.com

06/29/07

A few things…

Firstly I will be updating the mp3 player tonight with some new songs including songs by band like Hootie and the blowfish and Linkin Park

Secondly Relient K’s tour bus caught fire, but the band are safe!

Thirdly…I’ve forgotton

01/24/07

Currently anticipating…

I have to say that currently top of my anticipation list is the new album from Relient K, due out on the 6th March it’s gonna be awesome, plus the special edition includes over an hour of DVD footage including gig video! Yay! Finally I’ll get to see some quality Relient K live.

In the mean time let’s make Relient K the number one artist on Purevolume.com

Listen to Relient K’s new single, “Must Have Done Something Right,” on Purevolume!

12/13/06

Why?

Why does most Christmas music suck?

It’s either boring hymns with old language (or bad modern translations) which bore the hell out of me or cheesy commercialised crap such as slade ‘here it is merry Christmas’.

Yes, there is punk Christmas but it’s not that good either, only decent Christmas music I’ve found is Relient K or Matt Thiesan and the earthquakes which are great new quieter Christmas songs which are actually relevant!

11/29/06

Wow an amazing surprise…

So I check my RSS feeds this morning and Relient K have a post about a new song being available, one download later and wow! New song from Relient K, how awesome!!!

Itunes Link

I will add the song to the blog mp3 player soon once it’s fixed, and when relient k allow it’ll be on my myspace!!! www.myspace.com/tarkmiddy