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My iPod #22: Blink-182 – All the Small Things

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Well… shit. Late for two days in a row? I’m sorry. Almost half past nine GMT too? Oh damn.

I apologise. I went out with my friends to Leicester Square today. One of them turned 18 on Wednesday, so we celebrated by going to the cinema, watching ‘Side Effects’ starring Jude Law and Rooney Mara, stuffing our faces at ‘Planet Hollywood’ and finally watching a dance act outside Picadilly Circus Station whilst making fun out of them.

‘Side Effects’ was good. It kinda dragged on for a bit, but I do recommend it for fans of Jude Law and those into psychiatric stuff.

‘All the Small Theeengs’, as sung by Tom DeLonge, was released as the second single from their ‘breakthrough’ album ‘Enema of the State’.

I can’t really say much, I’ve heard it for years and years, you’ve probably all heard it for years and years. Jedward then butchered it a few years ago, but no one cares about them anymore so don’t even try and look for that cover.

It’s just a love song really, it was made to be a song for the radio, and for good reason. Who can’t resist singing to the ‘Na-na, na-na, na-na, na-nanana’ chorus, or just generally making out during the song. You can’t stop that. It’s just instinct. It’s a very nice song, you can’t be angry whilst listening it.

If you want a girlfriend you could probably just play this song for her, then she’s allllll yours. Guaranteed. Coming from someone who doesn’t have one right here.

Mark Hoppus met his wife during the making of the video for the song, so that’s saying something right?

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #19: Kanye West – All of the Lights

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WARNING: This video has been identified by Epilepsy Action to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Please take heed of that warning, seriously.

‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, the fifth album by Kanye West. The one which received positive reviews from every music magazine and website you could imagine. The one with the controversial artwork. The one which had a film released along with it. The one that gave rise to memes such as ‘Yeezy taught me’, ‘No one man should have all that flour’ and ‘Let’s have a toast to the douchebags’. What made it so good?

Well, it was his first album after 808s & Heartbreak, for a start.

But real talk, it was the return of a Kanye (the rapper) that the world had never witnessed before. Remember what he did to Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs? Yeah, well no one liked him after that. Beyoncé was shocked, Pink was outraged, even the President had a few words to say about him.

So what did Kanye do? He only went into some sort of exile to Hawaii and recorded his, arguably, best work of ALL TIME. ALL TIME.

‘All of the Lights’ is preceded by its short interlude, a cello/violin and a piano play the melody of the intro. Then the main song starts, “ALL OF THE LIGHTS”, triumphant horns set up the scene, a crescendo of strings build up the mood, Rihanna sings the post-chorus, “Turn up the lights in here baby etc etc.” Then the beat kicks in, and it’s just awesome from then on.

The song kicks arse. It’s a highlight for me from the album. It’s just the rapid drums and bass, the horns, Kanye’s rhymes and delivery. It’s such an adrenaline rush, I don’t think anyone could sit calmly in a chair and bob their heads. No! You’re headbanging, you do a forward roll and you flail about when there’s no one else in the room with the lights flickering on and off. That’s what you do!

Another thing that’s great about the song is also the number of guests he gets on it. No, this song doesn’t just feature Rihanna. You’ve got Kid Cudi in the first bridge, “Getting myyyyyyyyyyyyy eh, you should go and get your oowwwwwwwwwwwwn,” Fergie-Ferg from the Black Eyed Peas in the second bridge, Alicia Keys AND Elton John at the end, and even La Roux. La Roux! How? Why? When?

The song just gives off a sense of glory. “Lights, Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights, strobe lights, street lights, ALL OF THE LIGHTS ALL OF THE LIGHTS, fast life, drug life, thug life, Roc life, every night, ALL OF THE LIGHTS.”

If you don’t have ‘MBDTF’, I suggest you get it. It is probably one of the best hip hop albums released in the last five years.

Who even likes Taylor Swift now anyway?

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #15: They Might Be Giants – Alienation’s for the Rich

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Oh my god, I’m so late. Sorry guys. I’ve been revising, so… yeah.

“They Might Be Giants again?” Yes. Deal with it.

It is another song from their debut entitled ‘Alienation’s for the Rich’, one of those songs with a title which would make you immediately think, ‘Oh hohoho. Those Giants and their weird, quirky titles derp derp derp.’

No.

I have to say, it did take me quite some time to actually get into this song. I would listen to the album, and it was so quick. You would be listening to songs with great melodies and eclectic instrumentation but they would be over so quickly before you realised.

Then ‘Alienation’ would start, and it just sounded so slow compared to the others. I was even like ‘Alienation’s for the Rich, like wh… what does that mean?’ It was a song on the album that I would skip over quite a bit.

After listening to it a few more times, I have realised that it is probably one of the best songs out of the last five of the album, Rhythm Section Want Ad takes first place. Do you want to know why I changed my mind?

I will tell you anyway.

Yes, the first section of the song is pretty much samey samey, but it definitely captures the ‘couch-potato, lazy sod’ emotion and attitude that the ‘narrator’ is in. To me, just from the lyrics, it’s about someone who ‘needs a job’ and needs to ‘get some pay’, but he doesn’t give a shit and he feels fine.

John Flansburgh is a very underrated vocalist. I think that needs to be said. Both Johns are. They are very good singers. In this case, Flansburgh has a very wide range of vocal ability, ranging from girly-sounded whispers to a giant yelling his triumphs high from the hills. And he is able to use it well in any kind of song.

That is when the song completely changes. With a sudden key change after the instrumental bridge, Flansburgh starts belting out the second verse at the top of his lungs! I don’t really know how to say it to you, I’m listening to the song in my head and trying to write how it sounds.

It’s just brings a real elation to the track. You realise that the narrator is not miserable in the state he is in, but is damn proud of it. He really doesn’t care. I mean, listen to the maniacal laughter at the end. LISTEN TO IT.

If only this was possible in real life.

Until next time.

Jamie.

A-HEY HEY HEY.

My iPod #7: The Beatles – Across the Universe

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“Let it A.. Let it B, Let it C… Let it D! Let it F-G-H-I-K… douba-wubba-wubba U-G!”

Say what you want about The Beatles. “Pfff…. they’re so overrated, what did Paul McCartney ever do for me?” or “I’m only 8 years old, and I’ve listened to The Beatles allllll my liiiiife.” :/

Well, whatever you do say I don’t care. All I know is that The Beatles are included a lot on my iPod. There will probably be a few songs of theirs coming up in this ‘A’ series of “My iPod” that I’m doing.

Seeing as this the first of many Beatle songs that I have, I should probably start with when I really began to start listening to them and eventually became a victim of their continuing legacy that carries on throughout the years.

It started back in July 2009…. I had my YouTube channel (it was called jamzftw but it got removed so don’t try and look for it). On there, I would just a whole bunch of albums that I liked, upload them and watch the views roll in.

Now here’s something that may sound stupid to you…. I didn’t actually think that The Beatles were real. Hahaha ha ha ha hahahaha I know! Silly, right?

But I had always heard about the hype about Sgt. Pepper, and how it was the best album ever according to….. everyone in the world, really.

So I wondered what all the hubbub was about and downloaded it. Just to see what was so good.

I was 14 at the time. And at the time, I wasn’t really impressed. I didn’t know that they originally sang ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, the end chord at the end of ‘A Day in the Life’ was cool and the only song that I got into was ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ out of all of them. And it’s still my favourite now.

I uploaded the album onto YouTube. And that was it.

A few months later, VH1 Classic started this programme called Beatlemania. I think this was due to the 09/09/09 remasters coming out, but at the time I didn’t know that this was happening.

That was the first time that I had actually witnessed their music videos on the TV. MTV2 never showed them, and this was when MTV still showed music instead of reality television. I saw ‘Hey Bulldog’ for the first time, ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘The Night Before’ among others.

To cut a long story short, I downloaded all their albums. Let It Be was probably the last one. I would say that ‘Across the Universe’ is a favourite of mine from the album, and the better version out of those on ‘Past Masters‘ and ‘Let It Be… Naked‘.

I really like The Beatles. I’m glad that I found out that they actually existed.

Until next time.

Jamie