You'll never make a saint of me...

I just want to say, that anyone who has not heard Saint Of Me by the Rolling Stones is MISSING OUT. I know it's on Bridges To Babylon, not the most reputable address, but it's a fantastic track. I danced all the way down into town listening to this, and it made me the happiest girl in the world. Admittedly it's not suitable for exceptionally Christian ears (I know this from experience... ooops!) as it's kind of glamourising heathen behaviour, but it's in a fun way! O:)

My first ever album review!

Metric - Fantasies
****

Although this alt-rock/pop album came out much earlier this year (27 April), I thought I'd review it, as this is my first ever review and it's been a major part of my soundtrack of 2009. I fell in love from the very introduction of track 1, Help I'm Alive, so much so that I really embarrassed myself at Glastonbury, front row of the Other Stage, leaping around in excitement when it played, only to find that it was just a soundcheck, *cringe*.

I've summed up this album to people as a cross between Silversun Pickups and The YeahYeahYeahs, at least in their It's Blitz style. Applying synths over a regular band set up has resulted in a catchy selection of beats, creating numerous memorable songs such as Sick Muse, Gold Guns Girls and Gimme Sympathy. It fizzles down a bit as it progresses, with Blindness and Collect Call being hard for me to recall even now, although, let's face it, most albums have tracks like that, and, unlike others, I don't skip them if they come up on shuffle on my iPod! Regardless of the music itself though, the lyrics are never dull, I can say that much.

The album ends on a high note, with Stadium Love, which, if nothing else, conjures some pretty spectacular mental images of animal battalions. This transferred well onto the stage, as did their other songs. The only mistake, I would say, was the the choice of Twilight Galaxy first on the setlist. Nice song, not an opener. Emily Haines was fantastic nevertheless, her distinctive vocals (and eclectic dress sense!), in my opinion, are what really give this album its edge.


Favourite Track: Help I'm Alive

So... I started this blog ages ago with the best intentions, but forgot that projects need time! So I thought I'd get the ball rolling with some random thoughts...

I was reminiscing the other day about Newton Faulkner and his stage presence, he has an awesome sense of humour. I was trying to convey this to my tutor at our subject dinner, but I don't think I was particularly successful. The main thing I remember is the unique form of encouragement he gives to his audience to sing their hearts out, which essentially goes like this:

'OK, so you're pirates, and you're sailing towards an island, about to do battle to almost certain death with barbarian hordes. Oh, and you have rabies, that's very important. 60m away, 50m...'

It worked fantastically, both in 2008 and in 2009, which was especially effective for two reasons. The first being that due to some serious oversight he was put on stage in the Acoustic Tent, when his crowd at the Other Stage the previous year had prevented movement throughout the set. Second, he actually gave us a reason to be angry with the barbarian hordes. And unlike the usual political shnargle you expect, (OK, some of it is relevant, but as a 19 year old trying to have fun at a festival it's generally unwelcome) our explanation consisted of:

"THEY KISSED OUR MUM!!!"

Classic.