Review of 2013

Now 2013 has been a huge year for music, tv and my life. A lot has changed this year and this post is a quick review of my favourite albums and songs this year.

Favourite albums of 2013

So to start the list it has to be with the legend that is Kanye West. This guy has had a controversial year concerning his personal life and all that but his release of Yeezus was the best thing to come from this man. Every song on this album is a tune and this is definitely one of my favourite albums from this year.

My second favourite album has to be AM. Now this album is another where every song is amazing and well produced. Alex Turner's singing style has evolved into an indie Elvis and in my opinion that's what makes this album so good.

Third favourite album goes to the genius that is David Bowie. I'm a die hard Bowie fan so when he released this album I lost it. The album The Next Day was the first studio album in a decade and it didn't disappoint. My favourite song from the album 'I'd Rather Be High' made an appearance with the man himself on the Louis Vuitton advert.

Fourth favourite album is from a band I've loved since I was fifteen and I finally saw them this summer at the Gentlemen of the Road festival. The band is Vampire Weekend and the album is Modern Vampires Of The City. This is possibly one of my favourite summer albums and it brings back a lot of good memories from summer which is partly why i love it so much, but it's also full of trade mark Vampire Weekend vibes and sounds.


Fifth and final album that I've loved this year goes to a band i saw at Reading Festival and they made the whole weekend for me, even though I was moshing with a bunch of chavs who were waiting for Chase and Status, Foals were amazing. Holy Fire is a great album and is the sound of a band utterly on form and completely on top of their game. Just like Vampire Weekend, Foals were a band i'd needed to see for a long time and seeing them at Reading was amazing so this album brings back even more memories of summer.

Favourite songs of 2013

Lorde- Tennis Court
I'm fully in love with this girl. She is original, cool and has a deep voice i can sing along to without any discomfort. Her first single release is her most known song 'Royals' and don't get me wrong it's a great song but there is something about Tennis Court that i love, the beat, her vocals and the lyrics all together show her talent. She's going to be huge in 2014 and I can't wait to listen to her new tracks.

Biffy Clyro- Biblical
Seeing this song played live at Reading Festival made it even better. Biffy produced an insane album this year called Opposites which even though unmentioned was one of my favourite albums of the year. I think the only way to describe this album and song is to quote a quote from the Daily telegraph, "If you’re already a Biffy Clyro fan, Opposites might be your idea of a masterpiece." Mon the Biff.

Tyler, The Creator- Tamale
This song is catchy and i love the different styles throughout the track. This whole album shows growth and change within Tyler but at the same time it shows his uniqueness and up to the same antics.

Cedric Gervais vs Lana Del Rey- Young and Beautiful remix
This song made my summer. Standing in a crowd full of different types of people with the one same love, dance music. Being at Tomorrowland 2013 was the best 4 days of my life but this moment was amazing, Tiesto was playing and myself and my friend were about to trek back to our tent when this came on. I love Lana Del Rey as much as the next nostalgic teenage girl but this remix was something else. It's a track that makes up my summer soundtrack.

Haim- The Wire
This song just like so many in this review has links to my summer which was the best time of my year. I got to see this band at the Gentlemen of the Road festival along with Mumford and Sons, Ben Howard, Vampire Weekend, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Bears Den and Haim were just electric. Their vocals live are on point and their talent to play their instruments is refreshing. When I first heard this song, well i loved the video but the song was slightly more pop than their previous songs which was nice to hear and their lighthearted nature make this song even more so.

I think it's safe to say this year for me has been incredibly difficult with some horrendous moments, such as my suicide attempts and being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. This year has taught me a lot about myself and how much i need to grow in the future and how i shouldn't be ashamed of what happened to me. However, as much as this year has been hard and I can't wait it to be over, I've had the best summer of my life! Spending the summer at festivals such as Gentlemen of the road, V festival, EDC, Reading and Tomorrowland. I'm happy this year is ending and ready for 2014 and all it brings and all I've planned for it! 2013 has been a great year for music and i really hope 2014 can match up.

You'll be seeing more blog posts and maybe even some vlogs.
I hope you all had a great Christmas and happy new year!

Bowie = Bookworm?

100 favourite books of David Bowie will appear in Ontario, Canada.

'David Bowie... is' exhibition recently opened at the Art Gallery with curator Geoffrey Marsh and will run until the 27th of November.

The exhibition exposes the bookworm Bowie is, according to Marsh, David was a 'voracious reader', claiming he reads a book a day. The list of favourite books includes works of authors such as Don DeLillo, Christopher Hitchens and Tom Stoppard and classics titles such as 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and 'In Cold Blood'.

The full list reads as follows:

The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby, 2008

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, 2007

The Coast of Utopia (trilogy), Tom Stoppard, 2007

Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, Jon Savage, 2007

Fingersmith, Sarah Waters, 2002

The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens, 2001

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler, 1997

A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890-1924, Orlando Figes, 1997

The Insult, Rupert Thomson, 1996

Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon, 1995

The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, 1994

Kafka Was The Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, Anatole Broyard, 1993

Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective, Arthur C. Danto, 1992

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson, Camille Paglia, 1990

David Bomberg, Richard Cork, 1988

Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom, Peter Guralnick, 1986

The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin, 1986

Hawksmoor, Peter Ackroyd, 1985

Nowhere To Run: The Story of Soul Music, Gerri Hirshey, 1984

Nights at the Circus, Angela Carter, 1984

Money, Martin Amis, 1984

White Noise, Don DeLillo, 1984

Flaubert’s Parrot, Julian Barnes, 1984

The Life and Times of Little Richard, Charles White, 1984

A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, 1980

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole, 1980

Interviews with Francis Bacon, David Sylvester, 1980

Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler, 1980

Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess, 1980

Raw (a ‘graphix magazine’) 1980-91

Viz (magazine) 1979 –

The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels, 1979

Metropolitan Life, Fran Lebowitz, 1978

In Between the Sheets, Ian McEwan, 1978

Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, ed. Malcolm Cowley, 1977

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, 1976

Tales of Beatnik Glory, Ed Saunders, 1975

Mystery Train, Greil Marcus, 1975

Selected Poems, Frank O’Hara, 1974

Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, 1972

In Bluebeard’s Castle : Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture, George Steiner, 1971

Octobriana and the Russian Underground, Peter Sadecky, 1971

The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll, Charlie Gillete, 1970

The Quest For Christa T, Christa Wolf, 1968

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock, Nik Cohn, 1968

The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1967

Journey into the Whirlwind, Eugenia Ginzburg, 1967

Last Exit to Brooklyn, Hubert Selby Jr. , 1966

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, 1965

City of Night, John Rechy, 1965

Herzog, Saul Bellow, 1964

Puckoon, Spike Milligan, 1963

The American Way of Death, Jessica Mitford, 1963

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima, 1963

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin, 1963

A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 1962

Inside the Whale and Other Essays, George Orwell, 1962

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark, 1961

Private Eye (magazine) 1961 –

On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious, Douglas Harding, 1961

Silence: Lectures and Writing, John Cage, 1961

Strange People, Frank Edwards, 1961

The Divided Self, R. D. Laing, 1960

All The Emperor’s Horses, David Kidd,1960

Billy Liar, Keith Waterhouse, 1959

The Leopard, Giuseppe Di Lampedusa, 1958

On The Road, Jack Kerouac, 1957

The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard, 1957

Room at the Top, John Braine, 1957

A Grave for a Dolphin, Alberto Denti di Pirajno, 1956

The Outsider, Colin Wilson, 1956

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, 1949

The Street, Ann Petry, 1946

Black Boy, Richard Wright, 1945