Rca To Vga Converter Circuit Diagram: full version free software download. 9/5/2016 0 Comments. Laura Marling Alas Rapidshare Downloader.
With a musical timeline dating back to her early childhood, Laura Baird is an exceptionally talented multiinstrumentalist and singer-songwriter, best known for her projects with her sister, Meg, as The Baird Sisters, and guitarist Glenn Jones. Baird’s own sound stems from the Appalachian folk tradition, and she connects to it via family lineage—her great-great uncle I.G. Greer’s folk recordings for the Library of Congress are a large influence. Also woven in are classical composers like Bach and Satie, and modern day musicians such as Opal and Yo La Tengo. With this debut solo album, I Wish I Were A Sparrow, Baird plays odes to the traditions from which she learned, combining Appalachian balladry and the roughness of old field recordings, but there is also a dose of dreaminess and solitude that captures sleepy central New Jersey.
This is where she departs from tradition, leaving the communal origins of folk music to capture the singular self. The lyrics also present an amalgam of old and new, with half of the songs, including “Dreadful Wind and Rain” and “Pretty Polly,” being passed down from the folk tradition, and the other half, including “Wind Wind “and “Love Song From The Earth To The Moon,” coming from Baird’s own hand. Mr Yogi Tv Serial Download there. While the most salient part of her previous Baird Sisters project was the melding of familial voices and various instruments, Baird’s solo effort is centered around the combination of her virtuosic banjo playing and prominent but airy vocals.
STAFF COMMENTS Barry says: It seems now that winter is drawing in, the record labels think we all like to put a blanket on, have the fire blazing and listen to some lovely folk music. Now that I mention it, it sounds lovely, and even moreso if Laura Baird can be the music in question. Not too frantic, but driven and melodic plucking banjoes flicker over pulled strings and Baird's haunting vocals.
‘Semper Femina’ is Laura Marling’s sixth album — an intimate, devoted exploration of femininity and female relationships, and among her finest work to date. Written largely on the tour that followed 2015’s Short Movie and recorded in Los Angeles with production from Blake Mills, it is at once a distinctive and musically compelling collection of songs, run through with Marling’s fierce intelligence; a keen, beautiful and unparalleled take on womanhood.
STAFF COMMENTS Andy says: Insanely talented Laura delivers again with a blissful, graceful record that manages to mix complex arrangements (and incredible playing) with memorable melodies and heartfelt words for and about women. Powerful stuff. FORMAT INFORMATION 2xDeluxe LP Info: Limited deluxe 2LP edition including bonus live tracks and digital download card.
Beedles' about, and he's formed some jagged dancefloor choonz to keep us all entertained on these long cold summers. Sidechained technoid synthery with shimmering pads and punishing sub-bass grooves. Rhythmically intricate but perfectly measured, with melodic phrases and build-ups akimbo.
Richly harmonic, and heart-warmingly pristine future-techno stormers. A++ STAFF COMMENTS Barry says: Well this is great isn't it? Fiery and melodic percussive passages intersperse with glacially cut synths and shimmering pads. Ducking and blooming like a confused flower. Also, much like a flower, it's very good.
‘Short Movie’ is Laura’s fifth album in seven years, which is a remarkable achievement for someone who has yet to turn 25 years old. This album marks a new chapter in Laura’s sound and development, this record moving towards a much bigger & electric feel, it’s a much freer and looser sounding album than anything she has done before. ‘Short Movie’ is Laura’s first selfproduced album which was a pleasant but anxious experience for her but one she boldly undertook with a desire to ‘demystify production’. STAFF COMMENTS Andy says: Gorgeous voice, more direct, and therefore very, very good song-writing. Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp perform traditional songs from England and beyond, with special attention given to their respective homes in the North West and East Anglia. While placing a great value on unaccompanied solo and harmony singing, they also accompany themselves on English concertina, 5-string banjo, cello, and guitar and are sometimes joined by fiddler, Laurel Swift. Laura and Ted interpret and deliver their music with a reverence for traditional performers and source material, taking influence from the classic folk revival performers of the 60s and 70s, whilst achieving a style that is very much their own.
Their debut EP, The Charcoal Black and the Bonny Grey, produced by Rob Harbron (Fay Hield and the Hurricane Party, The Full English) is their interpretation of 5 songs collected from or set in Lancashire. 'Their new EP is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard in a long time. There’s no artifice, no straining for clever effects at all. It’s just damn good songs sung beautifully.'
Mike Harding, The Mike Harding Folk Show. 'Good straight ahead, proper job folk duo like what they made in the 1970s - sound and look like an escapee from Trailer. No silly folkist mannerisms, and not twee worth investigating.' Ian Anderson. 'The Charcoal Black and The Bonny Grey EP is a small but perfectly formed gem which shines like a beacon in the dark winter night and will be treasured by anyone for whom the legacy of traditional English folk music is as important today as it ever was.
Laura Smyth and Ted Kemp are part of that rare but thriving band of musicians who are influenced by traditional material while developing their own distinct style and I, for one, hope we’ll be hearing much more from them in the future.” Helen Gregory, folkradio.co.uk. How can Laura Marling still be only 23 years old? 'Once I Was An Eagle' is her fourth studio album in five years and on it we discover that not only is she an incredible lyricist: (caustically back handing Bob Dylan's misogyny to the subject of 'Master Hunter' 'If you want a woman that will follow your name, it ain't me, babe') but also, a genuinely, great, guitar player. Her open folk tunings, reminiscent of both Burt Jansch and (deep breath) Jimmy Page on 'Led Zep III', lend the songs a beautifully, bleak drama. And what songs she writes, continually dissecting the minuate of her relationships with such poetic vitriol that surely only the bravest of men could love her, but then, how could anyone deny such a precocious talent? STAFF COMMENTS Andy says: Deep, powerful, early-70's vibes on Laura's fourth LP. Dark, dramatic moods, with incredible playing and super words.
FORMAT INFORMATION 2xLP Info: Double vinyl pressing in gatefold sleeve. La Grande (pronounced in the way of the American West, without any hint of French inflection – “luh grand”) is a town just east of the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon where native Oregonian Laura Gibson found inspiration while writing the songs that would become her new album of the same name. Gibson describes La Grande as a place that “people usually pass through on their way to somewhere else, but which contains a certain gravity, a curious energy.” It’s an album about strength and confidence – about the tension between wildness and domesticity and the courage required to embark upon either path, about asserting one’s will rather than submitting – and it’s a significant departure from Beasts’ subtle meditations on frailty. The thematic notion of aggressively taking matters into one’s own hands was at the front of Gibson’s mind during much of the process of developing La Grande, a period in which she also took on the task of transforming a 1962 Shasta trailer into a makeshift studio/private writing place.
The twin projects of restoration and transformation – all that sanding, painting and do‐it‐yourself problem solving – seeped into her music, a sometimes surreal blend of styles that doesn’t belong to any particular decade or genre, but leaves the listener with the distinct impression that something old has been repurposed in a brilliant new way. 'A Creature I Don't Know' is Laura Marling's third full length album. Produced by Ethan Johns, it feature ten new, original compositions of intricate and captivating story-telling, buoyed by Marling's rich voice, evocative lyrics and the precise, confident instrumentation on every track.
Marling's delivery is pitch perfect, her voice going from the delicate whisper to brooding murmur and rousing wail, sometimes all in the very same sentence. John's production on 'A Creature I Don't Know' is the perfect showcase for her remarkable gifts, pulling back to give a stark spotlight to her stunning voice before surging forth with a rollicking live band feel. Fans of Marling's previous recordings will recognize her mesmeric tales and soaring melodies in what is ultimately and incredibly intimate album. STAFF COMMENTS Millie says: A beautiful album, it has a feeling of a lullaby and follows a trail of poetry.
Within the drifting songs a powerful surge of emotion builds, the contrast between both reveals Laura Marling’s incredible passion and sentiment. FORMAT INFORMATION Ltd LP Info: US import vinyl copies. 180 gram vinyl.
Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code. Laura Marling’s 2008 debut album 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' proved to be one of the most endearing critical successes of recent years and earned the young singer-songwriter a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and more importantly being one of our top five albums of the year. Now Marling is back with her second album, 'I Speak Because I Can'. Crafted with producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams, Paolo Nutini, Rufus Wainwright), 'I Speak Because I Can' sets quintessentially English lyrical themes and stories to a backdrop of music that recalls prime Americana and the Laurel Canyon scene. Backed by sublime performances by musicians including Mumford & Sons, the album represents a coming-of-age for Laura; her unique identity - thoroughly English, unapologetically female, and a fully-fledged musician – now freshly defined. Laura Marling’s 2008 debut album 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' proved to be one of the most endearing critical successes of recent years and earned the young singer-songwriter a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and more importantly being one of our top five albums of the year. Now Marling is back with her second album, 'I Speak Because I Can'.
Crafted with producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan Adams, Paolo Nutini, Rufus Wainwright), 'I Speak Because I Can' sets quintessentially English lyrical themes and stories to a backdrop of music that recalls prime Americana and the Laurel Canyon scene. Backed by sublime performances by musicians including Mumford & Sons, the album represents a coming-of-age for Laura; her unique identity - thoroughly English, unapologetically female, and a fully-fledged musician – now freshly defined. FORMAT INFORMATION 2xLtd CD/DVD Info: Deluxe CD/DVD comes in fold-out DVD-sized packaging featuring a lyric book, five postcards designed by Marling, plus links to download tracks featuring friends of Laura Marling. Laura are an amazing six piece collective/band from Melbourne, Australia who create noise and beauty unlike anyone else out there today. They definitely have sipped from the same cup as their older brethren the Dirty Three, but yet also go way beyond that in their peaks, valleys and fury while incorporating so much more than the post rock blueprint sometimes can offer. 'Yes Maybe No' is the culmination of the bands evolutionary path to this point that has seen them release a very strong first album in 05' followed by a stunning second record in 'Radio Swan is Down' in early 07. This record incorporates everything about the band that makes them heavy, passionate and absolutely beautiful.
There are spots on the record where the music takes you in very different directions than you would expect. The band entered the studio in April with outlines and certain structures loosely mapped out but it really took shape in the studio to the point the EP started to grow almost into album length. The material was really leading the way so everyone just let the music direct them and 'Yes Maybe No' is the result. We feel Laura are quite simply one of the most passionate, powerful, melodic and more unique bands out there today. They take their intensity and meld it with some of the best in what the post rock world has to offer and yet create something that is wholly their own.
It's deep, dark, powerful and almost magical in its beauty. FORMAT INFORMATION CD Info: Limited to 2000 only.
Laura Marling will always have a special place in the heart of Piccadilly. Mostly because 'Alas I Cannot Swim' is the most accomplished album by an English singer-songwriter that we care to remember but also because of her now legendary in-store, a performance that had people, quite literally, fainting in the aisles. Like seemingly every girl who's had a way with words and picked up a guitar since Woodstock, Laura has been compared to Joni Mitchell and her Laurel Canyon compatriots.
However, 'Alas I Cannot Swim' eschews the stoned smog that permeates the work of Joni and her friends for a seemingly effortless clarity and an apparent ease with song writing that must have most of her contemporaries crying themselves to sleep at night. That someone so young should possess such an evolved talent shouldn't come as a surprise but it's the record's sublime subtlety; akin to a tear kissed from your face and a gently whispered declaration in your ear that takes the breath away.
At a time when people's musical attention spans seem to be shortening to the point of impatience, Laura's songs of love; lust and loss are mementos to keep you warm through the long, dark nights of winter. FORMAT INFORMATION LP Info: Re-mastered on 180g vinyl with deluxe gatefold packaging and MP3 download code. This limited edition 'Song Book' edition of 'Alas I Cannot Swim' comes in a beautifully printed box designed inside and out by Laura, using her ideas and the imagery of her lyrics, offering a keepsake for her fans in which to keep their music and other mementos. It contains: A concert ticket CD copy of the album Mementos relating to each song on the album - postcards, booklets, posters and even a board game The concert ticket is printed with a unique code allowing you to register online at lauramarling.com to gain access to the nearest of five concerts which will take place in March: • Tuesday 4th March – Glasgow, Oran Mor • Wednesday 5th March – Birmingham, Glee Club • Thursday 6th March – London, Union Chapel • Friday 7th March – Bristol, Trinity Arts Centre • Saturday 8th March – Manchester, Academy 2. Laura Marling is a young small town girl from Eversley just outside of Reading. She began playing the guitar at the age of three, first being taught the blues by her father in front of the family fire, and has been in thrall to the songs and lyrics of the likes of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell ever since. It's not just the 'golden-oldies' that Laura admires; contemporary artists such as Vetiver, Bonnie Prince Billy, Regina Spektor and Diane Cluck rank highly in her current listening favourites.
FORMAT INFORMATION Ltd 7' Info: This limited edition four track EP features 'New Romantic', 'Night Terror', 'My Manic And I' and 'Typical'. The third release on the ultra-hot Way Out West label is by Laura Marling. She may be young, but she certainly isn't dumb. The 17-year-old small-town girl from Eversely, just outside Reading – doesn't just sing about love, lust and romance but of the futility of religion, self-loathing and human psychology. An alt-folk star in the ascendant, whose striking melodies and wise-beyond-her-years vocals could melt even the iciest of hearts, Laura Marling muddles the strength of Regina Spektor with the intelligence of Carole King and the acoustic lushness of Joni Mitchell.
FORMAT INFORMATION CDS Info: We have 3 copies of a CDR version of this release (with different sleeve image). One per person! Listening to Laura Veirs is like looking up into the night sky and suddenly witnessing a meteor shower: there's something startling and magical, both intimate and awesome, about her songs. The nature-obsessed images Veirs conjures up and the mesmerising sound she creates are as indelible as the blaze of shooting stars. 'Saltbreakers', her third album release in three years, is her most beautifully realised band-oriented disc yet.
Produced by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, Built To Spill), it is by turns haunting, playful, tender and fierce, embracing everything from machine-driven beats, to angelic gospel choirs, to fuzzed-out guitars and driving alt-rock rhythms. 'To The Country', was recorded in the Nashville cabin once occupied by June Carter and Johnny Cash, with Veirs backed by an eight-member Baptist choir, some of whom had previously performed on the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? With its gorgeous shape notes singing, it is the stunning centrepiece of an album that is as entrancing as staring at the sea or gazing at the stars, waiting for the next one to fall. 'Humming By The Flowered Vine' is the much-anticipated third album by Nashville-born, New York-based performer Laura Cantrell. It features ten extraordinary songs both crafted and caught. As on her two previous albums, 'When The Roses Bloom Again' and 'Not The Tremblin' Kind', Laura's own compositions are some of the highlights; 'Khaki & Corduroy' is a meditation on being a transplanted Southerner in New York City, 'California Rose' was inspired by the West Coast country music pioneer Rose Maddox, and 'Old Downtown' draws on the story of World War I hero Sgt. New York figures prominently in both Emily Spray's infectious '14th Street' and 'Letters', a previously unreleased Lucinda Williams song dating back to her days as a struggling folk singer living in the city.
For those of you wondering where I have disappeared off to, I do apologise. I didn't get lost out in the Cornish countryside (however tempting that sounds), but in fact I've now migrated to university in the heart of Birmingham. Not the most beautiful city to have picked but I'm really having a great time. Plus, (if not a shameless plug), I am now the music editor for iAston Magazine, so if you do happen to stumble across the publication pick it up? Or even have a peek at it online! Keep an eye out on my YouTube page, as that's still running in real time (unlike this blog, though I'll still try to update it from time to time) and my Twitter, @besmalucy. Sorry to those lovelies who have been wondering what ever happened to me, I'll repay you one day.
Well, let's talk more about what's in frontman Alex Burnett's enchanting voice shall we, rather than the not-so-appealing gothic eyeshadow and deathly black hair dye. Not that I have anything against self-expression, I just think it's a style that's been done so many times before.
And could pigeonhole Sparkadia for those who watch the video first. Because it was a blind experience for me the first time I heard this song and I loved it perhaps a little bit more than I do after seeing the video. But all the same, it's a song I'd like to share. This guy plays on my guilty pleasures of Miike Snow and Cold War Kids, but I do sense a likeness to Boy & Bear's more folky, stripped back sounds. We'll see how the pendulum swings.
(I mean, even now I can see myself finding the repeated 'Mare-ray!' Getting on my nerves). I think I've just talked myself out of liking this song. If the awful acting and try-hard video didn't do that for me already.
The first song to be released from Peggy Sue's second album, and it's growing on me. It's lost the layers of acoustic guitar that made me bob around to songs like Yo Mama and Fossils And Other Phantoms as a whole, and with my weakness for anything with acoustic guitar it's a real shame, but nevertheless I can't help going back and listening to it over and over again. The darker sounds from the electric guitar work well, especially coupled with the fierce and perhaps slightly morbid lyrics of 'I cut my teeth, on his flesh, and watched him weeping, as I left'. Acrobats, the title of their second album, will be out on the 12th September - another album to look out for that month. The First Day of Summer hasn't exactly been what I expected it to be - driving about (with my driving instructor - we're best buds, so I take him for a drive every now and then. Ah, who am I kidding?
I just haven't passed yet) in infrequent little spitting showers and bursts of sunlight. Then hayfever-y snivels all day and a quick trip into what I like to think is my true childhood home (as a village girl at heart, and as the backdrop for most of my dreams, bizarrely enough. The actual place where I live barely features compared). I just feel a little mixed up with everything, and if I really am going to link in why I've placed Those Dancing Day's Hitten as the video above this blog, it's the sentiment of the poppy lyrics. 'I wanna know what I'm thinking, what I'm feeling, what I want my life to be,' is kinda the way I'm feeling right now. Exams have consumed my life! And this Friday, being spat back out into a life where I can leave the house (gasp!), with no true indication of where I will be living in four month's time, who I'll be with, and how I'll actually be surviving, the demise of not only English but my education, school, the place where I've spent almost half my life.
It's a startling idea. I'll have my job, yes, and a few holidays, true, but the rest of the summer? This, and a doorstop-sized piece of cake, and tea. In my pyjamas. Pretty please. I made the most bitter-sweet discovery this week: I could go and see Slow Club, Emmy The Great, The Kooks, Cloud Control, Bombay Bicycle Club, Noah & The Whale, Lykke Li, Arctic Monkeys and Bon Iver all within the first two months of going to university.
Orrrrr, I could spend my time and student loan on other, more trivial things, such as university. It's a toughie. I really don't want to have to choose! I've got them all calendar-ed up anyway. Being the optimist, hoping my horoscope actually proves to be correct and I will find myself inundated with money in the next few months. My fingers are oh-so tightly crossed. Summer Soundtrack #1?
There's little I can say that hasn't already been said, but I can't get enough of this right now. Having slim-lined the music I listen to, it's nice to suddenly rediscover why you liked certain bands in the past, and the Arctic Monkeys have fallen into that category. Whatever People Say.
Has become one of those albums I rediscover every couple of months and have a great time listening through, but Favourite Worst Nightmare often wore a little thin, and with Humbug falling out of my shopping list completely (due to all the negative reviews, I have to admit - although as a reviewer I should really be taking note of others, shouldn't I?), I'm desperate to find the money to add this to the list of albums that are going to make my summer this year. Welcome back (into my life, anyway). Again, perhaps a little eager on the uptake, but I just can't help myself. Slow Club's new album is just around the corner and they're going to let us take a peek by releasing the video of the first single from the album, Two Cousins, on 13th June. Pop over to their next week and see! I'll hopefully be able to post it here when it does come around, so keep your eyes peeled! It's an exclusive on their website, so click on over now!
(Don't worry about only being able to see a snippet of the video, enter your e-mail address and you'll get the goods. It took me a while to work out, I'll admit!) I've finally managed to post the video, although I'm sure all you eager lot have already watched it! P.P.S. Tune in to Red Bull Studios at 7pm, 21st June to hear them play songs from the album too. Oh, I apologise for my flippancy.
Perhaps it is branching off my usual tastes, but having first discovered her through live sessions online a few months ago (both Watch Listen Tell and La Blogotheque have snapped her up) she is talented, even if I do prefer the stripped down versions. However, if you like the recorded music more and want a free snippet of her album, visit her website and donate your e-mail address to download 'Don't Care About Anything'. In fact, it's debatably the closest to stripped down on the album. This film looks to be the most beautiful and possibly my favourite film of all time already.
And I've only seen the trailer. Desperate to see it, sounds like such an odd little story line about coming-of-age (some of the best material for books, I have so many favourites).
Oh and because Alex Turner did the soundtrack. And because Richard Ayoade produced it (wow, he's actually amazing. New found respect!). And all the cute clothes and camera angles.
And the accents. (Even if I am purposefully forgetting where I recognise the main characters from.). So I'm not normally one to pay much attention to plugs, or Spotify adverts, but I did come across Agnes Obel a few months ago and couldn't help getting caught up in the haunting Riverside again. It's all freezing rain and roaring sea. The pier and the fear of jumping, of moving, of leaving. Free Download Windows Xp Sp3 64 Bit Iso File. (Another sparkle of inspiration and another chapter in the book I am yet to finish. I'll keep you posted).
You can also get a free download on Agnes Obel's Facebook page (I'm not sure why, but I don't really like artists using Facebook as their principal online home. I always prefer a MySpace/Bandcamp/webpage), or visit her website. Spotify is a beautiful idea.
A world where you can share music with friends (both publicly or privately), peruse albums of pretty much any artist, whether hugely popular or tiny tiny up-and-comers. In fact, the smaller the artist, the better. The program allows all us music fans to share all our tiny discoveries with each other. So let me come clean - I do find myself using up to my limit of twenty free hours of music a month. And in most ways, it has helped me to support these artists, publicise them on this blog and buy into them (both music-wise and gig-wise). So it comes as a bit of a shock (even though I did have some suspicions, considering I am slowly learning the art of business) that Spotify will be adding new, tighter limitations to all users of Spotify Open. Daniel Ek, the founder of Spotify, released a blog today informing all us Spotify Open users of these changes, in which, he encourages us 'heavier users' to buy into Spotify Premium.
Nice tactic, and nice persuasion skills, except it seems all too clear that Spotify is shifting its vision from popularising music to making money from it. By putting forth limits on current customers suggests our loyalty is not of much value to them, even if we do put up with those irritating adverts every five or ten minutes.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but those customers who were invited into the service still receive their unlimited usage, even after Spotify Open's terms changed in the past? This only skews the unfairness further (perhaps an immature view, but if we are all free users, we should all be treated the same. If changes are put in place, and they did not affect previous customers, why are they now going to affect customers from before November 2010?) In my opinion, only new users of May 1st should find themselves with these new limitations. Another startling idea is the ability to only being allowed to play a song five times per month.
Where is the ingenuity in a service with such harsh limitations? For a service which has collaborated listening to music via YouTube (limitless) and MySpace (limitless for members), finding new artists on Bandcamp (again, limitless to listen to entire albums) and sharing music directly on Facebook and physically, Spotify is effectively making itself redundant. I appreciate the idea behind it all, and the enjoyment I have gotten from the program in the past.
However there will always be a certain resentment come May 1st, one which will discourage me further from buying Spotify Premium. The latest read accompanying me and my picnic blanket out in the garden is Nick Hornby's About A Boy (that is if the sun does come back anytime soon.). It's one of those books that reassures you that you're a relatively normal human being, compared to Will and Marcus and Fiona. If anything, it's made me love my family more for every little thing we do for each other. And the beautiful speech by Rachel about having something to live for, even without a family, job or true friends except that odd twelve-year-old boy who insists on coming over to your flat gives a little bit of hope as I'm prepping for my A-Level finals. I might fail, but I will never be living off the income of a cheesy Christmas hit ( phew). Considering I was born a year after the book was set, it's always nice to learn that there were some fashion- and music-conscious people in the nineties (I think the weakest decade out of all my music is the nineties.
Personally, all I can remember was the yo-yo craze and Pokemon cards, so that could be why). Even if it was Adidas and Kurt Cobain. Another one of those books that I judged by its cover before buying, I have to admit, although I did have an inkling of who Nick Horby was. Perhaps not a life-changing book (just yet, having read three-quarters of it), but another one to add to the collection of any-day reads.
So, secretly this might be the best eighteenth birthday present I received. The album is no less than phenomenal. From the first cymbal crash to the last whispered lyric, it's a beautiful, solemn, fierce and almost haunting memoir of teenage-hood, of living on the suburbs themselves. The familiar, almost friendly title track starts the album off, a prologue of things to come; 'sometimes I can't believe it, I'm moving past a feeling.' Then crashing into Ready To Start, and slipping an orchestra behind the drums, guitar and vocals.
I've refrained from using the cliche 'emotional rollercoaster', but it truly is every emotion; from the shouted chorus of Empty Room to the cold, slow and traumatic imagery in Sprawl I (Flatland) - it's nothing short of a novel in music form. Which of course, is now also the soundtrack to Scenes From The Suburbs, a short film inspired by the album (some scenes of the film are featured in the above video for The Suburbs, see the trailer for Scenes From the Suburbs underneath it too). Unfortunately there's no way of buying the film yet, although if I had gone to South by Southwest this year, I would have seen the screening of it (in no way am I bitter about it at all, whatsoever, it's fine, it's fine, there's always next year I guess.) but I'm keeping my eyes peeled for when it will be available in the good ol' United Kingdom - according to Arcade Fire's YouTube, it will be released in May/June this year.
Until then, it's all earphones and imagination. Happily turned eighteen this week, and what a week it's been. Forget the sixth form and the work for a minute, (I neatly tucked them away on the back burner this past weekend) as I got out and had some fun (albeit sober fun, but fun all the same). Muscially speaking, it was a brilliant week too. I received Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, was bought The Maccabees' Wall of Arms and also was leant Neon Bible. (I know, all things I should already own, it's true.
Well, I do now!) Plus on top of that, a few gigs coming up, all of which were funded on borrowed and now birthday money: next week, it's Kate Nash, then Lucy Rose in April and Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons, The Vaccines and Beirut in June. Just a snippet of how beautiful my music life is right now, whilst I watch everything else go to pot. They're a band I'm in love with. The album was not love at first listen for me, however.
Sounding very different to The First Days of Spring (more so than First Days did compared to Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down), it's more of a grower, with L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. Picking the album up and spinning it out into something more beautiful, if not still a little too eighties for my liking. I can't say I'll be swapping it for First Days, which really is melancholy perfection, but I will be ordering and locking myself in a room with it for a few nights (so as to give a proper listen and opinion, meaning this blog will most probably be rendered useless.) Listen to it for free // Visit Noah & The Whale's.
Okay, so please forgive me for only just popping this beauty of an album on my blog; it's not like I've only just discovered Miss Marling, I just haven't gone back through the archives from before I was blogging. (I have a feeling this will be a common thing, since there are so many artists and albums from the past that I cannot hush up about).
It's been an odd week, so visiting this album helped to restore a bit of my old self, especially Tap At My Window and Your Only Doll. It's a happier, more youthful album than I Speak Because I Can (although another beauty) and has been helping me get through the bundles of coursework I've been doing over the last few days. So I give my full, if not belated, thanks to Laura Marling, and if I wish hard enough and keep a beady eye out, hopefully I'll get to see her this year. That'd be lovely. Another cinema trip this week to see Never Let Me Go, a film I have been looking forward to for literally months, mainly due to the sepia-tint and Carey Mulligan (of whom I have been a fan since she appeared on Doctor Who.
A show I no longer watch since the farewell to David Tennant, I must admit). It wasn't exactly the cutesy film I had in mind, yet with such a deep storyline it truly was something better, if not a lot darker. Which in many ways I respect more. If I'm honest, I have never felt a stronger urge to cry at a film (I did so, and walked out unashamedly with my tear-stained cheeks). Apparently it has been criticised for not sustaining an emotional link between the audience and the characters, but for me I felt this was almost deliberate, as the children seem shy, innocent creatures with no real sense of the world and their emotions.
Especially once their pre-chosen future is revealed to them; at first, the way they do not seem to grasp the gravity of their destinies, but then the way the grow with it and let the viewers watch it destroy them. Tragically beautiful. A book I must read this summer, even with its haunting storyline. A book I finished reading a while back, although one which I will be adding to my book collection (yes, I am a regular user of the library, and proud!) It popped up in my life again after I found the television adaptation on 4OD, so I'm currently going through the episodes which are, incredibly, the best adaptation of a book I've probably ever seen (some serious credit due to Simon Burke, as the book's complex twists and turns have somehow managed to be beautifully condensed into less than four hours of film). If you're a 70's, 80's or 90's child then you're gonna love it. Or even if you're in it just to see a young John Simm, James McAvoy and Russel Brand.
Normally I'd say watch the film/television version first, then read the book to avoid disappointment, but I don't think that's necessary. So last week I coloured my Wednesday orange and went to see Black Swan with a few friends. First of all, I was NOT expecting it to be so psychologically dark. But brilliantly done, to be fair. Even down to the way Nina dresses in white and Lily in black.
And Natalie Portman definitely deserves an award or two, her acting was incredible. Especially compared to the only other film I've seen her in.
Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Still a little bit creeped out by all the blood, but for a film I wasn't too bothered about seeing, I loved it.
One to see at the cinema, but I doubt I'll be buying it on DVD. This is the book I'm currently reading - I took a break (time for reading in my life is scarce at best of times anyway, so being a busy bee hasn't helped), but I'm back into this beauty of a book. If I'm honest, I have been a bit shallow when it's come to choosing books recently - if the cover is cute, I'll go for it. This one really is even better inside though - inside the odd little mind of a 1970's child and his ghostly, if not delicious, explorations.
Another keeper, plus after this it's straight on to buying Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell too.