Album of the Week

Belle Isle – MoZella

So I’m a little late with the post this week, got caught up in a whirlwind of financial accounting work, doesn’t that just sound exciting! Anyways amidst the craziness of this week I still found time to enjoy the warm comfort of music, as I always do and, this week I found myself listening to quite a bit of MoZella. I have had her latest album for a couple of weeks but this is the first time I really took time to focus on the music. The album is really well produced with lots of catchy stuff happening in the background, while managing to never become distracting from MoZella’s lyrics. I recommend this album with a warning though, after one listen you will find yourself singing the lyrics  in your head, as they are intoxicating.

Highlights

1. Luvsik
2. Manhattan
3. Magic (Oh Oh Oh)

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Luvsik

So for those of you out there who haven’t heard of MoZella before you really need to check out her music. Last little while her songs have been stuck in my head constantly, but it almost never seems to be a bad thing. The most recent tune that has been bouncing around the confides of my brain his the song Luvsik from her latest album Belle Isle. Damn is that tune every catchy, and not only that but there are some great lyrics to go along with it.

I wish there was some remedy

I try to run away from getting caught in a cage

Things don’t always end perfectly

But it’s the change you take

Your heart is gonna break

Such a simple idea but so resonant, especially those last three lines. I don’t care who you are, at some point you have been in such a situation, and it is a very cliche thing to write about, yet for some reason this song in particular doesn’t feel so cliche. Nice to see that there are still some people out there who can write old ideas in different and interesting ways. Well done MoZella, well done.

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Kanye Meets U2

Ok, so not really a mashup in its truest form, but I have been fooling around with some melodic ideas from Heartless and Where The Streets Have No Name and came up with the following for a school project.

Album of the Week

jacksoul – SOULmate

This weeks album choice was really a no brainer for me. I have had jacksoul’s last album for a while now and enjoyed listening to it every now and then, but this week it really took off for me.One of my school assignments this week required me to pick 5 tracks from an album and more or less pick them apart. I had to note all of the instruments, how the mix was constructed, how each song was built, just general information like that. My teacher warned us to not pick an album that we are overly fond of as sometimes picking things apart like this can really ruin the music, however, with jacksoul I found quite the opposite happening.

iTunes: A Gift and a Curse

So I can’t deny that the move to digital music is great for being able to store and access a large library of music quickly, but as my iTunes library continues to grow some things are becoming forgotten.

Lets start with a few stats. My iTunes library currently is home to some 4373 songs that would last 12 days played end to end. While this is a significant amount of music, I would not consider this collection anywhere near complete, there are are some stark absentees that I just haven’t gotten around to adding yet.

Now I love being able to just flip through and listen to whatever I’m in the mood for, or just throwing on shuffle and seeing what comes up. You should note that shuffling my library can result in anything from Cool Jazz to Metal to Country, musical whiplash often occurs. The problem that comes around is sometimes I will add something and then lose it in the vast list of songs. It’s not always a sign that the CD is bad either, just me having the memory of a goldfish.

Today for example, while scrolling into the J’s to find a John Mayer CD, the name Joss Stone caught my eye and I realized that I had only listened to her latest album “Colour Me Free!” once. I had completely forgotten that the CD existed even though the quality of music is superb. Sure it is nice to rediscover artists every once in a while, but as I scroll through my library I am finding more and more things I have forgotten about.

All of this has lead me to wonder how I might better organize my iTunes library to prevent me from losing these gems. I try and use the “Recently Added” playlist more often now, but I’m sure some of you out there have some more suggestions, so lay it on me!

Album of the Week

Adele – 19

So I have to admit, this is a pretty old album and one that I hadn’t listened to in quite some time. I’m not entire sure what prompted me to put it back on, but boy am I glad I did. Adele has such a great voice and the vibe of the whole CD is just so awesome. If you haven’t listened to 19 before you are missing out.

Highlight tracks:

1. Chasing Pavements
2. Hometown Glory
3. Best for Last

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iTunes

Top 10 Albums of ’09

So every year I compile a list of my favourite albums that were released over the previous 12 months. As with every other year narrowing down the choices was not easy. I have to say that 2009 was a pretty good year for music. Several new albums from big artists like John Mayer and Alicia Keys were released along with some solid entries from lesser known groups.

Album of the Week

Alright, so one of my hopes with this blog is that I will be able to pick a new favourite album every week. I’m open to suggestions from anyone else out there and will give anything a listen. The album I have chosen for this week is No Nations by Jets Overhead, a group who hails from the awesome country of Canada (fact: Canada has the most square-footage of awesome per person in the world). I recently got to meet the group at a concert here in London, Ontario and have to say that they are a great group of people. The album has a laid back feel that makes perfect driving or travelling music.

James Morrison – Songs For You, Truths For Me

Last semester in one of my classes a project was assigned where I was required to review any popular album released in the last 50 or so years. At first I had no clue what I would choose to write about as there were just so many good choice. After much struggling and deliberation I finally decided on “Songs For You, Truths For Me,” what was released by James Morrison in 2008. The album is fantastic on so many levels is most ranks up there as one of my favourite albums of all time. The review I came up with is a tad longer than the average review, but hey, it was a university assignment so I had to conform to the requirements.

We are live

So tonight while working on my Top 10 albums of 2009 list I suddenly found the desire to start blogging. Why you ask. Well who knows it is just another mysteries of the world. Either way as you can see this is only the beginning, how long it will take me to get this steamboat chugging, who knows, hopefully not too long though. For those who care to stay and watch the progression this blog will be dedicated to music. More specifically the music I am listening too. If you don’t like my tastes, well you can go climb a tree. Let’s get this party started.