You playing out, Grimes?

Grimes

Hey hey wanna play well baby i can go go
and every other day you're running off the phone, no.
Well baby I would call you if I didn't know you but I'm paying for it.

Enchanting and melodic, Grimes brings to us a sound that hooks itself around our ears and embellishes lyrics that are charged up with dark meanings and eery pronunciations. With instruments like the harp, the keyboard and drums playing broken beats, it is to be expected that an unusual sound is to be presented to us so quaintly. Someone more interesting than Florence, but on the same page as Lykki Li and Lana Del Ray. Living through the 2000's where Outkast merged with Marilyn Manson, you would only expect a clash of musical influences. Grimes agrees and comments that she's never been an indie kid; instead of fainting at the sight of a boy with a guitar she'd be more likely to fall over her own feet to get to LL Cool J adjusting his vest and putting on another silver chain. Ok, they might be two extremes but you get the picture right? Good.

Grimes looks and acts how loads of girls, including myself, would love to just....be. Her fringe is that little bit too short, her makeup is daring and bold, the prints she wears clash, she's sexy to the guys who like "weird". Overall she's an icon of the 00's. Its hard to pin point her place in music, but when it comes to the name "Grimes" Claire Boucher allows vision and effortlessly presents music and a style that could well stand on its own.

What I love at the moment is if you were a kid growing up in the 2000's you're music palette is so varied. I used to go to clubs where you'd have a room for 'Pop', 'Old RnB & HipHop', a room for 'Indie & Rock' and (sadly) they still exist but 'Hardcore Garage and Grime". Now I'm walking into places where one minute you are doing a little indie jig  (yeh, jig) to Summer Camp and the next singing every word at the top of your lungs to Destiny's Child 'Say my name'. Ps. Kate Spark and myself definitely new every lyric, every shoulder shrug and hair flick. Could have called it the performance of the night? No? Could do though........

On that note, as Grimes sings and plays her keyboards she's creating an appeal that noone can resist and pushes the most unlikely of listeners to embrace a new sound. Her album "Visions", to be released on the 21st of the Valentines month that is February (not that I noticed or anything) is an exciting time for her. So we can only wait with anticipation and excitement about her next move once the album can be purchased. To make this album, Grimes locked herself away in a room for days, she starved herself of light and everyday ammenities in order to bring us something raw and from the heart. The superficials you might sometimes expect from an artist were out of the window for this album, so a lot of feeling and truth is offered quite willingly in every song. I love her music and what she's about and will be massively keen to see her live as soon as I can! Enjoy the songs I've posted below! FiftysAtHeart xx

"Vanessa"

"Crystal Ball"

"Oblivion"

Hurry up, we're dreaming.

Waiting for a roar
Looking at the mutating skyline
The city is my church
It wraps me in the sparkling twilight

I keep thinking who next, who next, who next? So many amazing bands and artists that have kicked off 2012 for us. Since I had a little break from blogging my ipod seems to have got fuller and fuller and I want to have a little reminising sesh, but no, there is no time. So on a count down from 5, 54321.....I'm going with M83, NO, Ben Howard! Nope, M83 it is, or else that would defy the point of the countdown. Jeeze, pull it together.

Anthony Gonzalez. No, he's not mexican and doesn't wear a sombrero, I know I'm gutted too! He is in fact  a French musician at the forefront of the wonderful band M83, alongside members Yann Gonzalex, Morgan Kibby, Loic Maurin and Jordan Lawlor. Score, I got all the names in. They formed/arrived/begun their "journey" in xfactor language, in 2001. So when I click through endless Youtube clips and read about them online I am reading things dating back to when I was only a teen. I wish someone would have handed me a tape of them when I was 11, and not Hearsay. My life could have turned out totally differently, maybe I wouldn't know all the words to Liberty X (Rival band) and maybe I wouldn't idolise Kim Marsh - she went through so much man! Enough! M83 M83 M83......... Lets talk about their new album Hurry up, we're dreaming.
Oh and a quick PS. When you're trying to tell a hot customer at work about the album and how wicked it is, don't get your words mixed up and call them M62. They are by no means a motorway, believe me!


M83 fall nicely into the playlist you'll call "Chilled" and into the times you'll need music to give you that overwhelming feeling when a song has totally turned your day around. With loud instrumentals and softly spoken lyrics, there is something very delicate and moving about their sound. You'll listen to every drum beat and notice every change of instrument, they're songs make you listen more intently than ever, zoning out of more and more with each song. I love it! For anyone that wants to feel spaced out without smoking a joint, this is the body friendly answer. What a good diagnosis, does that make a Doctor now?

Favourite songs.

"Midnight City". When that high pitched noise first sounds, and you'll know which sound I mean, you will love it. It's even more addictive than the song itself when the instrumentals blast out about 30 seconds in. I can't help but say it sounds like Cut Copy, but maybe since they're on of my favourite bands I think they're in everything.

Guess what I have to do too? Prydz it up, sorry for all you hipsters that don't like dance, but this remix is far to wicked to no mention. If this came on in Wire on a saturday night I would most likely kiss the DJ.

"Kim & Jessie". 4 minutes and 6 seconds of lovelyness. 

"Reunion" - More guitar, more indie... for the radio? I like it either way.

"Too late" - Melodic, romantic and I might go as far as to say beautiful.

So what is more to say than get listening and get buying tickets to see them. :) FiftysAtHeart x

PS. Hope it's been an interesting read!

x

And I went away, now there's every sign that I'm wired again.

Look at you with slimmer lines
Dirty toes un-showered
Unholy sight the state of you
And every sign that you’re wired again

So I stopped writing.

I don't know why, maybe lack of time SLASH confidence in my ability to write about something I didn't do a degree in? I'm not sure, but as I sat drinking tea this morning and listening to The Maccabees new album with my eyes closed (Yeh, I can drink tea with my eyes closed) I knew I had to do what I used to do until last September.... Sit and listen to an album over and over then pick out my favourite lyrics and sounds and write about them on here. And then post it all over Facebook and get laughed/criticised by the people I really should have unfriended about 5 years ago! :)

Ok so here goes, The Maccabees third album.. It is always a slight worry with a third album isn't it?You question whether a band/artist has had enough time/continued with the same vibe as last time/pushed the boundaries and tried something new. Will it be a success/will it not/will I like it/please let me like it. So if I give you an example of the good the bad and the oh shit why moments, then you can work out for yourself  without me having to be nasty and critical.

Example 1.

The Strokes gave us "This is it", Blur gave us "Parklife" AND Arctic Monkeys gave us.............. "Humbug". (Sigh........ Enough said? I think so.)

As a HUGE and probably over biased fan of The Maccabees, you can probably guess I didn't have a Humbug moment when I eagerly typed the tracklist of their new album "Given to the Wild" into youtube, staring, dare I say, slightly sycophantically at the screen as I long for the next time I get to see them on stage. They have that power though don't you think? The power of turning a rainy train ride to work into a feeling like you're going to Disneyland! No, erm, not Disneyland, I meant some dead cool bar where you go to smoke and read poetry, yeh... that's what I meant. 

Anyway its an exciting time, this new album like the last seems to be pushing those "wall of arms" boundaries they talk of in the last album even further away. If I think back to 2005, me being 16 at the time, they have come a long long way from what could sort of be described as a quite channelled and controlled time of the Indie-pop era. Then they were all bright colours and lyrics of love, now they're all about ferocious guitars and unruly drumming that creates passionate melodies and quite heart-wrenching lyrics.

So why such a long time between albums? Well from what I have read they have spent a lot of time in Rockfield Studios (Wales), worldly known to be home to some of the greatest songs ever written. From Rush in the 70's, Adam and the ants, The Stranglers and The Undertones in the 80's and New Order and Delphic through the 90's and 2000's. The Maccabees can now safely join the successors of such great music with their latest album. I would comment that it has been such a long time because of their obsession with detail and and exploration of what sounds rewarding to them. 

"It's a long process, it can get pretty clinical, so it takes a long time to make not very much music". Felix then continues,"This time around it feels like we're ready to go out and play live again. We've got a record we feel deserves it"

Well, I completely agree.

And so forth with my ramblings I won't say anything more and will post some teasing songs that should get you as excited for the release date of January 24th as I am. Enjoy!

FiftysAtHeart. x

Ps. Message me on Facebook (Grace Easter) with any new music, always appreciated. Over the next week I'll be writing about The Jezabels, Oliver Tank, Willis Earl Beal, M83, Grimes and Azealia Banks. Oh and maybe Lana Del Ray, haven't made my mind up on her yet! :)

"Feel to Follow"

"Pelican"

"Child"