Thursday 29 December 2011

Nothing but the Beats


AKA the only music I paid actual money for this year…


I’ve been in love with David Guetta’s music ever since I heard "Walking Away vs. Love Don’t Let me Go," and saw the respective music video (genius!), and ever since he’s just been producing more and more brilliant music. Nothing but the Beat is by far my favourite album of the year (sorry to the rest of the albums!), since I can’t get the tracks out of my head, and they’re all masterful. Every song just makes me want to jump around like crazy dancing, and sing along, and move to Europe and become a clubgirl. Not gonna happen obviously, but I’m never going to stop loving this album. Bringing in a variety of different vocalists who all fit their respective songs perfectly makes the album so successful in my mind, because straight up beats aren’t really enough. Seriously go listen to “Without You” (the track with Usher), “Sweat” (with Snoop Dogg!!!), and “Repeat” (with Jessie J) and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Just go listen to the whole album because each track is a gem!


Just enough dance, and just enough chill. This album is the perfect mix between his classic trance albums that I adore (Nyana and In Search of Sunrise: Ibiza) and his dance pop club albums that I can’t help but dance along to (Kaleidoscope). My favourite tracks are “Blessed” and "Heiress of Valentina” for vocal tracks (yes Tiësto had nothing to do with the vocals, but he chose some damn good songs to mix),  and “C’Mon” for my favourite straight up electronica track. Though the whole album is great. I like to listen to it when I’m doing yoga or drawing stuff, because it’s chill, but upbeat at the same time.


Besides from the obvious reasons to adore Adam Levine (uhm GORGEOUS and funny) he’s also ridiculously musically talented, as is his band. I’ve been waiting for years for Maroon 5 to release another album after It Won’t be Soon Before Long, and damn the wait was worth it! “Misery” is a beautiful track, but I fell in love with the album when I heard “Stutter,” “Give a Little More,” and “Runaway.” The rest of the tracks are beautiful as well of course, some being so because of their pop-y dance vibes, some for the guitar-riff melodies, some for their carefully worded poetry. And of course let’s not forget “Moves Like Jagger.” I can listen to it over and over and over again, and still want to hear it again. Plus the music video is visually amazing (if you’re into that whole Mick Jagger, gorgeous guy, British vibe thing – which obviously I am). If you’re smart you’ll pick up the Deluxe version of the album because it has a few extra tracks on it that are gorgeous, including a wonderful acoustic version of “Misery.”


Go listen to “You Make me Feel…” and you’ll understand why this album made my top 5. I’m only learning to love the rest of the tracks, but these guys are definitely growing on me now that they’re no longer employing Gossip Girls as their guest vocalists. Haha just kidding, I actually quite liked “Good Girls Go Bad.”


It wouldn’t be right for me to have a top 5 music list without including an artist from the UK, since I’m often called an Anglophile for going on and on about random UK stuff. Example is the newest addition to my list of loved English bands, and his newest album Playing in the Shadows was a shoe-in for my top 5. He earned his chops as a rapper, but has since moved onto electronica and pop rock influenced stylings, so this album is a motley collection of contradictory sounds all brought together in a brilliant way. I love “Changed the Way you Kissed Me” and “Midnight Run” as the two prevalent singles from the album so far, but “Lying to Yourself” and “Natural Disaster” (featuring Laidback Luke) are really close to my heart for their carefully constructed lyrics. “Wrong in the Head” is also really cute because it’s such a strange blend of electronica music and rap vocals. Needless to say, Example has some mad skills!

Just a little FYI: the header links are to the artists’ websites, the title links are to music videos, and the pictures are all from Amazon. 

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