Everything Everything - Arc
13 tracks.
Favourite track - Armourland
Favourite lyric - "I wanna take you home, take off your blindfold and show you what I am." - Armourland.

When Everything Everything released 'Man Alive' a hefty three years ago, I thought they couldn't do any better. Even now I listen to their album and still love every beautifully recorded second. Low and behold, when 'Arc' was released in January of this year I was skeptical, I hadn't really heard anything from it (like I said previously, I've been so out of touch with music lately, I deserve a slap on the wrist). Upon hearing 'Cough Cough' for the first time (yes, on the bus; yes, on the radio) I thought everyone had suddenly started coughing at the same time, I felt like I were back in year three where everyone coughing at the same time was "cool". As soon as John's vocals kicked in I knew exactly what I was listening to, my eyes started glistening right there on the bus and I just didn't give a damn.
     When I finally came around to buying the album (for some reason, pre-ordering it didn't cross my mind), I could tell straight away that they had access to better equipment and they were not going to put it to waste. I am so glad they didn't. If I'm being honest, I thought 'Arc' would be an improved, more expensively made version of 'Man Alive', but boy was I wrong! Opening with the more than familiar 'Cough Cough', then 'Kemosabe' coming straight after I knew I was in for a treat.
    Although all of the tracks sound completely different, they all seem to merge into one, I feel like I'm listening to a 48 minute long song, seriously. I feel "sinful" if I listen to just one track and skip the rest to the next track I like. To really enjoy this album you have to listen to the whole thing, start to finish.
    It seems there are no limits to the octave's that John's voice can reach, his voice goes up at least another octave throughout this album. There are so many layers to each song, everything time I listen to a track I notice something different, whether that be: even more metaphorical lyrics, a new synth, Vocoder, anything. I think to understand the meaning of this album you have to research about it; Kemosabe = Faithful Friend, for example, I bet now you'll listen to that song completely differently (I know I did!). They are experimenting but still keeping to their true, unique sound; which I will always respect bands for.
    'Arc' will finally give Everything Everything the true recognition they deserve, it will/has bring/bought them a whole new fame, along with it a new wave of fans. They will own the festivals this year and I won't be surprised if it's on the end of year lists (far away, I know!) for best album of the year.
Well done boys, you worked hard, you deserve this.

Tame Impala's 'Mind Mischief' video was released three days ago today, for some reason I've only discovered it today. I am completely out of touch with the internet at the moment as I am delving in to endless episodes of Dragons Den (not by choice) for a college project.
The video itself isn't far short of a masterpiece, I was in a complete trance when I watched it for the first time; nothing new when it comes to Tame Impala videos but the subtle (maybe not so subtle) use of cartoon nudity gave Tame Impala a new edge I didn't think they had. Impressive. I couldn't help, however, to compare it with the video: MGMT's Kids (from 5 minutes), which I am fine with. I understand that Tame Impala supported MGMT way back in 2008. Seems so long ago now, in five years they have gone from being one of the most underrated bands on earth to one of the biggest (within psychedelic rock, obviously). If you haven't heard Tame Impala (god help you), now is the best time to start listening. Can I please point out though, 'Lonerism' isn't their first album; their EP released in 2007 had the ingenious 'Half Glass Full Of Wine' on it. This isn't a biographical description of them, you have wikipedia for that. I'm just recommending that you don't just listen to their newest album. Don't get me wrong, 'Lonerism' is probably in my top five albums for last year, but so was 'Innerspeaker' in 2010 and 'Tame Impala' in 2007, etc etc.

I interviewed Swim Deep for shout4music. Here's the outcome.

Swim Deep, a five-piece from Birmingham, are in the running to be one off the much talked about buzz bands of the year. With their compelling single 'King City' (which includes the infamous “pretending Jenny-Lee Lindberg is my girlfriend” lyric) and now 'Honey' the only way for this midlands based band is a sharp ascendancy towards the masses ear drums. We chat to Zach about their current tour with Spector and why they love Tame Impala so much.

You're going on tour with Spector later on this month, are there any particular venues you're looking forward to playing?

All of them, we've played a few shows with them over the last few months and they've been some of the best crowds we've played too, there just so up for it. They just love sunshine popstars.

Who's your favourite band right now? Why?

Tame Impala, the way they write music, the way they record music, there pop/ RnB melodies just absolutely blow our minds.

How did Swim Deep come about?

Austin and Higgy met whilst working in Morrisons. Ozzy asked Higgy if he wanted to get the hell out of this place and write music, higgy said yes, then I (Zachary) and Cavan met those guys on the dance floor in Birmingham.

Do you think - given the current music scene - that Birmingham could be/is the new 'Madchester'? If not, do you think it ever will be?

I think it already is tbh, there's just so much coming out of Birmingham at the minute, and every one seems to be loving it.

You guys seem to be really into California. What is it about California that makes you so attracted to it?

The sun, the babes, the beaches, everything to do with California attracts us and makes us want to live there.

Where do you see Swim Deep in 5 years?

On a beach in California surrounded by babes, drinking sangria.

Name 5 albums you'd take on a desert island...

Tame Impala - Lonerism

Pond - Beard, Wives , Denim

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

Elton John - Rocket Man

Michael Jackson - Bad

Tell me about the first gig you ever went to, who was it, when and what you thought of it.

My first ever gig was an NME tour when i was about 13, Lethal Bizzle played and it was huge, it was in Birmingham. i remember just jumping around like a fool shouting 'POW'.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this being published and the fact I got the chance to interview them in the first place! The interview was over email so it wasn't entirely exciting but it's better than nothing! 

Sorry, I've been super busy lately, which is why I haven't been posting at all.

Today, I'm going to tell you about my work experience at NME. I'm not doing it to brag because that's not what I'm about at all, I'm doing it for everyone out there that has this coming up and wants to know what happens, because I know that before I started I wanted to know exactly what I'd be doing, what it looked like, everything.
   So before I turned up at blue fin building - which, by the way is super beautiful and modern and huge - I was super nervous, I was wearing a skirt a blouse and blazer, thinking everyone would be in office uniform. That was one of the biggest mistakes I made, everyone in the NME office was pretty much wearing casual. A mistake I will not make again tomorrow! When I met Karen (the editor's PA) I was pleasantly surprised, she's absolutely lovely, really helpful and friendly and very approachable. She gave us a tour of the office and gave us some handy information about the company, IPC media and how it's gone global.
   From here, she showed us to our desks, (I should explain that there are three of us doing work experience, one of the girls this is her fourth time, and then me and another girl it's our first time) gave us a run down of what we'd be doing throughout the week and throughout the day. It took a lot longer than we thought to go through all of the health and safety, but after that we got through the mail. What I mean by sorting the mail is that there are sacks and sacks of mail to go to all of the editors in the office and you have to sort the mail for each editor and personally go and give it to them. We got through this a lot quicker than Karen thought we would, so after doing that we cleared our desk. Then went for lunch.
   After we came back from lunch we honestly didn't know what to do, we weren't approached by Karen or any of the editors to give us jobs so we sat around for a bit and familiarized ourselves with the office a bit more. After this we went to speak to Karen about what to do next (we felt a bit weird talking to her all the time and asking her for jobs) she told us to speak to Dan Stubbs, the news features editor and see if he had anything for us. He asked us to go and look for some news articles that weren't featured on NME. We had no more le-way than that. So I found out that Foals are doing a UK tour, I noticed that NME hadn't featured that yet so I emailed Dan and he then featured it and thanked me for reminding him. While I was looking for other news stories another editor came up to us and asked us to re-type these Joy Division album reviews from the 1980's, it was so strange to read because I was thinking how these were written before Ian Curtis had died and it was really fascinating to read and re-type. This took up the rest of our day and before we knew it, it was time to go home.
    I am really looking forward to tomorrow!

Yesterday I listened to Lucy Rose's debut album for the first time. I honestly don't think I've been through so many emotions whilst listening to one album, it's perfect. Every song is stunning, each note is perfect and Lucy's voice is so raw and enticing. If you have a spare £10 I would really recommend this album, it's easily one of the best albums of the year for me. It's one you can listen to when you're happy or when you're sad, a bit like Mumford and Sons. I'm so proud of Lucy Rose also, as she has managed to become a well established solo artist even though most people would associate her with Bombay Bicycle Club. If there was a song I could pick for a favourite it would probably be 'Be Alright', it's absolutely stunning. Give this one a good listen guys, it's well worth it!

Also, my friend booked me and her tickets for Fat Boy Slim in December, that's going to to insane! I'll feel like I'm back in the 90's dancing with my parents in the living room when I'm a child. I'll keep you updated on that, all I know so far is that it's in Fabric in London which is apparently a really great night club, I'd never heard of it before though. I'll take her word for it!

Sorry I've been away so long! I've been looking at Universities and College and really boring, lame stuff.
   I have something really special for you all today, the song of the day is a cover, something in which I don't usually approve of...actually, let me rephrase that, it takes a lot for me to like covers, but this is something different, something of pure beauty. It's exactly what a cover should be, the merging of two completely different genres and changing the song to make it your own; exactly what Mumford & Sons have done. When I read the headline from NME "Mumford and Sons cover Alt-Js 'Tessellate' the first thing I thought was, "oh no, please." However I gave it a try anyway and I'm so glad I did. It's majestic, soothing and all in all a stunning cover of a stunning piece of music. I recommend you to listen to this song through headphones, it makes it sound so much better. Enjoy lovelies and enjoy your Tuesday night!

I'm a bit late to this, but Grimes has to be one of my new favourite artists, she's just so unique and great. She's so soothing yet so upbeat at the same time; someone I can listen to in all types of situations and in every mood. Even though I think she only appeals to a few people, the people she does appeal to end up being a little bit more than obsessed with her; I honestly don't think I could ever get bored of her voice. She sings with this voice that sounds a bit like a five year old and her Canadian accent is so strong throughout all of her songs I think that's something that makes her "stand out from the crowd" so to speak. If you don't already listen to her I strongly recommend you give her a go, it could be the best or worst thing you've ever done. She really is a marmite artist but to me, one of the best artists of this year. For this reason, 'Oblivion' - Grimes is my song of the day

It's been a while, summer is over now so I'll try and keep this updated as much as I can. So I'm going to try a thing called "a song a day". Basically I'll post a song here everyday and tell you what I think about it and why you should go listen to it. I think I've tried this before but I'll put more of an effort in this time...promise!

The song I've chosen for today is 'Imbroglio' - Marsicans. This band are absolutely fantastic and deserve a lot more recognition than they have. They're a four piece indie-pop band from Leeds and remind me of an early Arctic Monkeys/Libertines mix. Their songs are happy, bouncy and full of life which also completely reflects their stage presence. I saw them at Reading Festival this year on the BBC introducing stage and are definitely on par for best band of the weekend. If you're a fan of mid 2000's indie pop this band are definitely for you, and do me and them a massive favour and spread the word!

Let's start with music before we get into the really serious stuff here! Lately I've been listening to a lot of Wild Beasts, I know I'm pretty behind with them but they really are amazing, in a weird way they are sort of soothing. Especially Hooting and Howling. I'm also developing a small obsession with acoustic all over again, Ben Howard is really doing it for me at the moment. Along with James Vincent McMorrow. I'm also a latecomer to the whole St. Vincent scene but I can't stop listening to her this week. Her dirty guitar is really unique and different. I love it! Annie Clark is also absolutely stunning which helps. To be honest, there's not really much else to report. Apart from yesterday I ordered my ticket to Lucy Rose, I was meant to be putting myself on a gig ban because I need to budget majorly but she's incredible live and it's only down the road from me and it was only £8 so I would have kicked myself if I didn't go. It also means that in the space of 8 days I'm seeing Howler, Mystery Jets and Lucy Rose. 

   Okay on to the serious stuff. Looking at universities is so damn scary, but I've looked through all of the London universities that do the course I wanna do and I've narrowed it down to 5...

• Middlesex
• London Metropolitan University
• University of Westminster
• University of East London
• Kingston

I also looked at Brunel and Roehampton. I didn't like Brunel because you have to have an admissions test and an interview and I have to get like full marks on everything and that's just way too much pressure. It was basically the same with Roehampton and the course content looked so boring. The only good thing about Brunel is that their Journalism course is accredited by the National Councilor for the Training of Journalists. But I don't think that means anything amazing. It was also very politically based which isn't what I'm looking for at all.

The course at Middlesex is Publishing, Journalism and Media which sounds awesome! It's basically all exactly what I want to do. I also know someone who is currently at Middlesex uni and she says it's really good so that's given me a bit more encouragement to look into that university more. 

 At London Met the course is Journalism, Film and Television studies. This would be a really awesome course because considering I'm studying Film and TV production already this would be pretty much perfect, the only reason I haven't put it as my first choice is because it hasn't got as much Journalism in it as I would have helped but apart from that it looks amazing. 

 University of Westminster is just Journalism on it's own. I would have thought, given it's location the course would be mostly Politics based but it's really not. There's such a range of modules to study there. It looks really impressive, the only downside of Westminster is that it's right in the center of London so it'd be super expensive. 

University of East London has a few courses I like the sound of there but I'd probably just stick with journalism on its own or do a joint honours in Journalism studies and Film studies. Both of these because again there are a wide range of modules covering all aspects of Journalism rather than just sticking to political journalism. 

My final choice is Kingston which also has Journalism and a joint honours in Film Studies and Journalism. I liked Kingston for the same reason I liked East London. It's just making up my mind about which course now. 

I think I'll talk it over with my mum and my course leader and see what they say about it and see if I can realistically get the grades (which to be honest, shouldn't be a problem if I keep working at the rate I'm working at). 

Today's song of the day is Cruel - St. Vincent for obvious reasons that I've mentioned above. 

Apologies I haven't posted in so long! I'll give you an update now.

Okay so on Monday I went to see The Drums, they were incredible. The whole show was, actually. Devin was the first support act. Now...don't get me wrong he was really talented but he was so pretentious. He was like "Hey I'm Devin and this is MY BAND". I was thinking, hey Devin your band are more talented that you are. Did I really just say that? Yes. Yes I did. Anyway, Spector were the second support act. The lead singer was hilarious! He really interacted with the crowd, which I love. It seemed as though they really appreciated being there, although they were completely hammered! They are definitely a crowd pleaser though. They are really great live with really catchy songs. I've heard their single 'Chevy Thunder' on NME radio a lot lately so I sort of knew what to expect. Now onto The Drums, they always know how to put on a great show. The best thing about them is they don't really have to talk to the crowd much because Jonny Peirce's swinging hips are enough! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better Boy George made an unexpected appearance on the stage, where he joined The Drums in singing 'If He Likes It Let Him Do It'. Everyone was going crazy, they couldn't believe it. It was such a surreal moment in music. After this they sung 'Do You Really...' Boy George absolutely smashed it! Easily a contender for the one of Top 5 gigs I've been too!

I've also been super busy with the website, apparently this week is the week for everyone to release their videos...who knows why. I must have done around 50 today! Ridiculous, I know! I enjoy it though because it means I can learn about so much more music. Discover new bands etc. Just still hoping I can start writing soon.

So as you all know I'm working with The Electric Sugar Children for their video to promote their new album. The shoot is this Sunday and after around a month of planning, video inspiration and problems galore it's all finally starting to come together. I have a good idea of what it is I want to do, what shots we need to get etc. We have camera's and a place to shoot. And that's the main thing. Oh and of course we have tapes, I nearly forgot about them though! I'll let you know how it goes, probably Monday now!

And finally! Today's song of the day has to be The Drums - 'Days'. I can't stop listening to them since Monday, maybe it's slight post-gig depression. It's such a catchy song, I adore it!

Today's song of the day is Friendly Fires' stereogum session around 3 years ago. During this session they performed songs completely stripped down and slower than I think I've ever heard them play before, but I'm going to have to choose Paris. I love this song, I've always loved it so hearing it outside of its comfort zone is something incredible to me. It's so relaxing and reposed. Give it a listen and tell me what you think!