Top 10 songs of 2011?

A response to all of the "Top 10 songs of 2011" posts that are going on, some songs that I've grown to love the last 12 Months.

Delicate Steve - Butterfly




This song, like all songs by Delicate Steve is bloody brilliant. One of those walking to the bus stop "today is going to me an amazing day" songs. I first heard Delicate Steve in 2010 sometime and just didn't understand what was going on but put it on my phone anyway and it came on when I was walking home from the pub on night and I felt invincible. Listen to this, you won't regret it.

By Your Hand - Los Campesinos



When I first moved to London this was a song that reminded me of home. I'd not heard it before I moved but if you've known me for any length of time you'll probably know that a few years ago I practically worshiped Los Campesinos at one point, their songs were something I could dance to and still be all "yeah, so this unknown welsh band, you've probably never heard of them" way back in the days of school uniforms when I was cool and wanted all hipster and stuff, naturally, once I heard You! Me! Dancing! I kinda turned them down a bit. Maybe that makes me bias because it might not actually be one of the best songs of 2011, but it's a great taste of their new album and gets my feet tapping.

Beyonce - Countdown.




I tried at first to avoid butting beyonce in, part of me just wants to do a post of my favourite beyonce songs. I'm not sure if it's some kind of nostalgic link to sitting about with the girls from home listening to youtube beyonce playlists but this is - like so many of her songs - undeniably good. The song is just a mix of all things good about her. Definitely been a great and welcome addition to my iTunes top 25 played, I have some theory that it makes my cycle faster.

The Joy Formidable - Whirring




I think it was my old history teacher that told me about The Joy Formidable, a hope that they'd make it or something. This is actually a re-release so I'm a bit hesitant about putting it, its such a chilled song, the start reminds me so much of arcade fire, but like Of Montreal and Broken Social Scene all at the same time. A crush of all your favorite "indie" bands. You know those days when you're walking somewhere and its sunny outside, but it's still cold enough that you have to wear a coat.. autumn..  that's when you want this
 to come on. Kicking the leaves aside. It's mellow but its not depressing. Makes me want to dance. If you're not content with this, check out Wilco's Whole Love instead. That was my original choice but I changed it.. urgh...

Milo Greene - 1957



I read about this band on http://www.thegrapevinemusic.com late one night half by accident, half by doing that ever so hipster thing of thinking that you can find the next big thing. Part of me just thinks anything with a banjo or mandolin is cool and grabs my attention. I thought that this band had been kind of over looked but when I went to put the youtube link to this song I found people thanking NPR on the comments. I originally was going to put The Alabama Shakes in place here which I recently heard via P.M's post, but decided to avoid and pick these guys. Similar to The Civil Wars but a bit more plinky plonky if you're fans of them.

Azealia Banks - 212.



I hated this song the first time I heard it, the lyrics were crude the sound felt repetitive and I really didn't want to like a song just because Pitchfork told me too. I then found it again about a month later on pitchfork and listened to it again and thought it was the best thing in the world. It's probably the coolest thing I've heard this year and I can't really describe why.. (probably because of the reasons I didn't like it in the first place.) I spotted that this has been hitting the top of plenty of  music blogs 2011 posts and rightly so. It deserves a place. I had a choice between Niki Minaj's Super Bass - a song I do really love and this, there really was no competition.

The Weeknd - The Morning



I swear down this song was everywhere I went this year. Or at least I downloaded The Weeknd before I went to uni at some point and this song came on all the time on shuffle. I remember sitting at my brothers playing poker with his friends and this song came on and I was thinking "I love this song" then realised I didn't even know who it was. What a mistake. I've since listened back, I downloaded their 2 mixtapes for a reason and this is it - I haven't got the third in the trilogy yet but I have high hopes.

Metronomy - The Look.



I think this was my favorite summer album. Metronomy are effortlessly cool, this album makes that clear. I judged a lot of this off my phones top 25 most played and when I saw this a massive smile came accross my face. After the summer I kinda forgot about this album but the night before I came back to Manchester for Christmas my friend mentioned them and I swear this song helped me power through the 5 hour coach journey north. Makes me want to pick up my bass for the first time in forever.


The Milk Carton Kids - I still want a little more.



I probably could have picked anything of either of The Milk Carton Kid's albums this year. Tempted as I was to pick Charlie (which I've recently blogged about somewhere) that would simply be because I love my dad loads. Reluctant as I was to even put them in for some reason if I had to pick a most played album of 2011, the last 4 months alone plays would grant this the top spot. I picked this song because this is the song I put on when I walk to Tesco to get more milk and apple juice and it makes me feel on top of the world. I so wanted to be putting PJ Harvey here, and I feel kinda bad. But please if you haven't already, download The Milk Carton Kids albums from their website, its free so you basically have no excuse.

Bon Iver - Towers

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I don't think I could really get away without putting Bon Iver up here. After an incredible second album the whole world is buzzing all over again for this guy. This song makes my heart beat faster. If you want a song to put on in the morning when you wake up, this is it. I probably don't have to write any more about this because anyone who knows or likes to think they know anything about music has this album. // Side-note, definately do check out the acoustic Beth/Rest on NPR. It's close to perfect.

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There are loads more that I wanted to put on. If I could have been bothered I'd have made a much longer one. You wouldn't believe how much time I spent trying to get it to not match up too much with the lists on NPR, Pitchfork and similar blogs.. but in the end I gave up. They're on the lists for a reason and I don't think I've been quite hipster enough this term. Hope you enjoy this post. I assure you, there is not a bad song on it.


Check Out:

http://pmasinpaulmichael.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/songs-of-2011/
http://lifeascamille.tumblr.com/post/14087219117/songs-of-2011-or-songs-i-listened-to-in-my-car-with

Also, the Sunday CD Project over at JulezTalks.Blogspot for some reviews on new and old albums.



God Bless, L x

Memories of a lost life: #1

Face Off.

I couldn't tell you the precise date, when I look back over what was "Year 11" at Blue Coat; which I guess was 08-09 it seems like I spent everyday, even the blustery wet winter outside the schools modern foreign language shed the "JT Block." The most I could tell you is that it was a dry sunny day, a rarity that year, but I know because we were all sitting on the grass.

Everyone's done it. It's almost a right of passage, something you learn about from a young age and never forget. You know the one, when you pick up a aerosol can and hold a flame just a small stretch away from the tip of the can and spray away creating your own quite dangerous but really freeking cool blow torch and generating a feeling of ultimate power for a few short seconds.

You'd have thought by the time we were 16 that we'd have grown out of this arsonistic phase of our lives, but amusingly (albeit a bit sad) we hadn't.

So yes. It was a dry day sat out on the grass outside the "JT block" with all the usual culprits (pictured at the bottom.) When I think back, I feel like it was that time of year when everyone got out their old gameboys and tried to re-complete the original pokemon games, this period usually lasts a week and no one ever compleates it fast enough. I however wasn't taking part in this. Me and a good friend, probably one of my best friends at the time were lying on the grass with a box of matches and a dwarf can of "Impulse body spray" - which I can only assume was mine from when I was like 11 and first started secondary school.  

The plan we had wasn't quite that of the flame thrower I described above, we were after all in the middle of our school grounds and although we could get away with a lot of stuff, flame throwing wasn't one. No, instead we filled the lid of the body spray with body spray, we probably sprayed it for about 15 second's or something like that and prepared ourselves a match to throw in. 

When I replay the scene, I'm not sure why we didn't move further away after we'd thrown the match in. I'm not sure why we thought - after it didn't blow up within the first couple of seconds - why it was safe to go back to it. But that's exactly what we did. Luckily for me I was hovering at the side of Sam whose face was directly over the top of this lid. 

We genuinely didn't expect it to blow up, after the delay it seemed illogical in the moment that it might still blow up. I remember this rush of heat pass over my face burning the tip of my nose, rolling to the side as fast as possible I wasn't really sure what had just happened. I turned back over to see Sam sat up holding his face in his hands.

 - It's ok, his face wasn't burned, no sever injury's obtained.

The hair on sam's chinny chin chin, his eyebrows, his stubbly upper lip and the baby hairs at the top of his head had gotten singed. patches of black frizzled hair were to be seen on his face in place of what was previously stubble and there air that surrounded us became polluted with the stench of burnt hair.

That was a funny day.

Good ol' days.

God Bless L x

Matthew 4:23

Hey, I did a post a while about my friend Christina getting healed, hear is how she put it on one of our St Mary's Students Facebook walls. Wanted to share this with you because she tells it way better than I do and it really is mint:

I know you guys have heard this a million times but this is for the ones who have not :) 

About six months ago, I got diagnosed with a heart condition that meant the valves in my heart were smaller than average and had trouble pumping blood constantly. Sometimes I would get what was called “episodes” were my heart would just give up and I would get a sharp pain from my heart followed by my left arm going dead and being unable to breathe etc. I was on medication to control these episodes but not for the condition itself. 

About two months ago I got told by the doctors that the valves were for some reason shrinking and I would need a heart transplant and they cannot fix my heart and was given up to a year to get one. A month later my condition was worsening so they priority listed me and told me I would have to get the heart transplant within 6 months or I would quite possibly die. The sad part being even if I did get a new heart my chances of living were for no more than another 10 years; being 20 that really sucked. 

I had such a strong support group of people from church and elsewhere who supported me and prayed for me and kept me strong through the whole thing, but it really did seem like the more we prayed about it all, the more ill I was getting; such to the point at I eventually kind of said fine God do whatever concentrated on other aspects of my faith. 

The life course weekend came around; Eastbourne was amazing; I felt like I had an amazing experience with God focusing on everything else except for my health. On our way back on the train I had another one of my episodes and freaked everyone out a little bit :) We came straight from the train station to church. At the end of the service John asked for someone to come up for prayer if they had a tingly sensation in their hand connected to a heart problem, and I conveniently ignored this request because I had been prayed for and not healed and I was too tired to deal with it at that point. 

After a little “persuasion” (did not demand I go to the front whatsoever) from Rach I was prayed for by a number of people including Rach and Jenny. I knew something happened I experienced the Holy Spirit like I had never before and by the end I was convinced I was healed. 

Next morning, I went for my check up as I do every Monday, and my doctor did an ECG said my readings were different from usual and did a sonogram for my heart called and Echo, and turned to me and said, I do not know how to tell u this but there is nothing wrong with your heart. 

There was no medical explanation to what happened, but nothing short of a new heart would make me better and now my heart is as good as new. It came at a perfect time, when I actually stopped slacking and started doing what God wanted in other aspects of my life. 

It has been just under a month now been for three checkups and they asked me to come every three months now because it is a waste of money to see a person who is healthy every week. I am of course off the transplant list. I am well and healthy. 

Sorry this was so long, but God did something truly amazing in my life, from being told I could only live another 10 years if I was really lucky (and knowing I would not be able to have what I have always wanted and dreamt of in life) to be given my whole life back is amazing. I feel loved. God is good he never fails; it is just up to us to be patient. 

Ah, so awesome.

God Bless,

L x

Londin.

I love this.

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat Please put a penny in the old man's hat If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!

Next week is the last of term.

This time next week I will be in (hopefully) my new bed, in my newly decorated bedroom at 1082 Huddersfield Road, Scouthead. I will be looking forward being woken up by my dad with a cup of tea, to walking down stairs to a Christmas tree in the corner and a day of lazying about doing nothing but watching neighbours and planning my week ahead. A week of hanging out with friends, Christmas party's, pub quizzes, drinking, singing Fairy Tale of New York really loudly with old friends and eating good food.

I can't wait. 

In the mean time I'm entering into my last week with a fist full of average grades (no lower than a 2.2, no higher than a 2.1) and a contact book full of new friends, a few of which I'll actually miss over Christmas. 

It might seem via my social networking output that I sit in bed all day watching Buffy and eating popcorn, and whilst this true for some of the time, I'm going home not dreading the thought of returning, which is definitely a positive for a cynic like me. Part of me might even miss London, not just the part where I hang out with celebs but little things, like sitting about the actors church writing, finding the best pubs/bars/cafes - general "joints" with various people, late nights playing jungle speed and .. I might even miss the Nutford dinners - although I highly doubt that last one. 

Despite all this, I can't wait to get back to Scouthead (Third wonder of greater Manchester) 

It is with Christmas cheer that I give you all this present, A Collection of Faux-Baroque Greeting Cards (From Edgerton Street to Kensington Series) Christmas Mixcast 2011:

Download it HERE: http://d01.megashares.com/dl/8799cc2/Christmas.mp3

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21913923@N03/4374726939/sizes/z/in/photostream/
This is Scouthead... 

1. In the bleak mid winter - Paper Areoplanes (For Folks Sake, Download.)
2. Here we come a wassailing - Kate Rusby
3. You never come home for Christmas - Catilin Rose and Keegan DeWitt
4. O little town of Bethlehem - Belle and Sebastian
5. The Man with the bag - Vonda Shepherd 
6. I saw mummy kissing Santa clause - Jane Krakowski
7. Sister Winter - Sufjan Stevens
8. River - Joni Mitchell
9. Baby Its Cold Outside - Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting
10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Salwa Azar 
11. Drummer Boy