Reviewing ÷ by Ed Sheeran

It's finally here, the album everyone has been waiting for, '÷' by Ed Sheeran. 
Having listened to it all the time that I could over the past few days, I thought I'd do a blog post reviewing it and talking about my favourite songs so far. Enjoy!

 
Eraser
This is definitely one of my favourites, I love the rap part of it and how upbeat it is, whilst at the same time talking about the struggles of the industry and taking a more serious turn. Also the guitar riff is so catchy- an overall great song!

Castle On The Hill
This song was in the first couple of songs that Ed released from this new era of music, and I feel like everyone knows it by now but it never gets old!
I love the nostalgia in this song and the video, it makes me think about my life growing up in my town. The video makes me quite emotional! My favourite part of the song is where Ed is talking about what all the people he grew up with are doing now and the struggles that they face, I feel like a lot of people can relate.

Dive
A more chilled song but still really good! I feel like this is the most laid back song on the album, perfect for a relaxing evening or a roadtrip.

Shape Of You
Another song that everyone knows! It's so upbeat and catchy that I can't help but want to dance every time I hear it! 
Personally I prefer this to Castle On The Hill and my favourite lyric has to be 'Your love was handmade for somebody like me'. 

Perfect
The lyrics in this song are so lovely, I feel like a lot of people will use this as their wedding song. A classic Ed Sheeran song, and yet again he does it justice and it really shines through in the lyrics.

Galway Girl
Let's just talk about this song for a minute. It's so DAMN GOOD!
My personal favourite off of the album, I feel like I need to get up and dance whenever it plays! 
I love how Ed can make his music sound exactly like the music from the place his song is about whilst still having that Ed Sheeran stamp on it. This song sounds like Irish folk music and it fits so nicely with the lyrics and the rapping, I can't stop obsessing over it!

Happier
This is my favourite slow song off of the album, the lyrics and the music go so well together, and the build up to the chorus makes the song even better. 

New Man
My main question for this song is 'who is about?'. So many specific details in the lyrics that I can't help but have an image in my head of this situation! 

Hearts Don't Break Around Here
Another slow one, I feel like this is another classic Ed song and this really shines through in the lyrics.

What Do I Know?
For some reason I can really imagine a choir singing this song! The message Ed is giving off in the lyrics is so true and I feel like the world would be a much better place if it had a little more love in it.

How Would You Feel (Paean)
Another of my favourite slow songs, and also my favourite love song on the album. This is another song that I could see being played at a wedding and some of the lyrics even sound like they could be wedding vows. 

Supermarket Flowers
This song is really sad, and the chorus especially makes me emotional. Before I heard it I thought it was going to be a love song about when they were young and brought cheap flowers from the supermarket. How wrong was I. I was so unprepared for this song, and I know if I ever hear it live I'm going to be an absolute mess.

Barcelona
My second favourite song from the album, another really upbeat one. It makes me want to visit Barcelona so badly, and spend long evenings at the beach dancing!
I also love how Ed sings in Spanish during parts of it, it really adds to the feel of the song. Songs that reference cities are my favourite so that's another point for this song!

Bibia Be Ye Ye
After hearing this song I can't wait for summer! It kind of sounds like a song you'd hear at a carnival, super catchy!

Nancy Mulligan
Yet another one of my favourites! Ed Sheeran has done the story telling through the lyrics in the song perfectly and honestly I feel so connected to this story because of this. I can imagine hearing this played at an Irish pub with everyone dancing around!

Save Myself
A nice song to end on, I feel like this song has the strongest message on the album, that it's important to look after yourself before you try to help others. I know I can definitely relate to the lyrics and I feel like a lot of others can too.  

I can say that this is definitely an album worth listening to! I feel like there's a song on there for everyone. My personal favourites at the moment are 'Galway Girl', 'Barcelona', 'Eraser', 'Nancy Mulligan' and 'Happier'. Now all I need to do is try and find tickets for his tour!

Thanks for reading!

Daniella x

It's not a phase!!

So last night I was thinking about how I was 20 in a week's time and even though I've grown up so much since I was 14, I still love my bands. Most people would assume that it would just be a phase that lasted a few years, but no, not me! I thought I'd use this post to share some of the stories behind how I discovered some of these bands, because I find it so interesting hearing about other people's experiences!

Age 12/13, JLS

Now I don't count liking JLS as part of my band phase because this was before I became in deep for bands, and I was just a fan of their music. This was the first time I can remember actually thinking 'I have a favourite band' and I guess it was the start of things to come! 

 

Favourite Album: Jukebox

Age 14, The Wanted

I was 14 when I discovered The Wanted. They had their singles 'All Time Low' and 'Heart Vacancy' out on the radio and although I liked these songs I never really paid much attention to the artist behind them. My sister decided to buy their album one day, and whilst on a family holiday to France, when we couldn't access the radio in our car, we listened to their album on repeat. From that moment I was hooked. That same month both my sister and one of my friends developed crushes on two of the band members and so all talk turned to The Wanted. I remember sitting in the park during the summer holidays, buying the latest teen magazines just because there were posters and articles about them in there. Those were the days!! 

Anyway, I'd like to say that I managed to resist the band members, but no, instead I also developed a crush on one of them! 

I was luckily enough to see them live back in 2012, which was my first proper concert and it was amazing!

Sadly they're currently on a break and working on solo projects which aren't all in music, but I'm still holding out hope that they return! 

 

Favourite Album: The Wanted

Favourite Member: Nathan 

Age 16, One Direction

One Direction, where do I start?

I'd liked their music since their 'Up All Night' album was released, and I decided one day to put my sister's album onto my iPod to give it a listen. I remember cleaning my room whilst listening to it and instantly thinking how good it was! 

The 'Take Me Home' album was even better, and was the soundtrack to Year 11 and my last year at high school. However it wasn't until late 2013 that I starting getting into the band members and wanting to find out more about them. I desperately wanted to go to their 'Where We Are' tour but I just couldn't afford it. Two years passed and I had finished 6th form and compulsory education forever. I spent several months looking for jobs and during this free time I turned to Tumblr and YouTube where I spent my days watching 1D videos and I fell down the rabbit hole, I was obsessed! 

I got to see them on their 'On The Road Again' tour in 2015 and it was the best concert I had ever been too!

Again they are currently on a hiatus and I really miss them! 

 

Favourite Album: Midnight Memories

Favourite Song: Little White Lies

Favourite Member: Harry (but back in the day it was Zayn) 

Age 17, The Vamps

I don't exactly remember how I got into The Vamps, all I know is that I had the biggest crush on one of them and I became obsessed with their first album 'Meet The Vamps'. It was the soundtrack to my summer in 2014 and I played it on repeat! 

I've been lucky enough to see them live five times so far and I've even very briefly met them at their book signing. I'm still determined to meet them properly one day though! 

I'm actually seeing them in May on their tour and this time we have Wow Pit which I'm so excited for! 

 

Favourite Album: Meet The Vamps

Favourite Song: Wild Heart

Favourite Member: Connor

Age 19, The Tide

Through The Vamps, I discovered The Tide. The Tide are The Vamps' first signing to their record label and have supported The Vamps on their past couple of tours. I properly got into them last year after meeting them at The Vamps' last tour and realising how nice they were! 

Since then I've met them once more, and seen them four times! 

They don't actually have an album out yet, but I think that's on the cards for this year which I'm really excited about! 

 

Favourite Song: Naked

Favourite Member: Levi

Age 19, 5 Seconds Of Summer

I've liked 5SOS' music now for a couple of years but since they've recently released their B-sides and rarities, I've been listening to them a lot more because these songs are so good! In my opinion, these are some of their best songs and they were my soundtrack for on the way to work back in December and January! 

It's also made me pay more attention to the band members, and I've watched several interviews with them. I'm really hoping that they tour some of these songs because I desperately need to hear them live! 

 

Favourite Album: The B-sides and Rarities

Favourite Song: The Space Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Favourite Member: Ashton

I realise this post is pretty long but as you can see I'm pretty passionate about music! 

Thanks for reading!

Daniella x

Things I Love!

I feel like I've never really done a post on the things that I'm passionate about, the things that sum me up as a person. I thought this would be a good post to do to get to know me better, and to give a feel for the things that I hope to be blogging about! So without further ado, here's some of the things that I love!

1) Music
Anyone who knows me well (or just at all) will know that music is my main love. Not performing music- I'm not that talented! Just music in general. The way it makes me feel. The way I can connect with an artist through their lyrics. The way my memories and moments in my life can live on through a certain song. I honestly love it so much and spend nearly all of my free time plugged in to Spotify.

                                                           Last month's Spotify playlist

2) Concerts
Hand in hand with music, are concerts. It's fair to say that concerts are definitely my happy places, somewhere that I can just forget about the world and all my problems, and just live there in the moment with some of my favourite bands/artists.

                                                   The Vamps 2016 'Wake Up' world tour


3) Meeting band members/YouTubers
I've been lucky enough to have met several of my favourite band members and YouTubers over the years, and honestly they were so lovely. The feeling that I had after meeting them is one of the best feelings ever, especially when you see them in concert after and feel like you have a special connection even though you only met for a few seconds.

                                                           Meeting Austin from The Tide

                                                       Meeting Brendan from HomeTown

4) YouTube
I've been watching YouTube religiously now for 4 years and still love it as much as ever. I feel like I can connect with the YouTubers as they have a lot in common with me and just come across as genuinely nice people. My favourite types of video are vlogs as I find it so interesting seeing what other people do in their lives, and quite often I take it as inspiration for things I can do in my own!

                                          Nothing better than catching up on YouTube

5) Travelling
By travelling I don't necessarily mean leaving the country, I just mean exploring new places. I've been lucky enough to travel to new cities in the UK these past few years as before that I'd never really been up North. I love the feeling of experiencing this new place, and feeling like you've left your troubles behind, even if it's just for a night. In 2016 I got to visit Bristol and Birmingham, with even more adventures to come this year as I'm going to Cardiff, Dublin, Mallorca and possibly even Oslo!

                                             Off to Birmingham for The Vamps' book signing

6) Taking Photos
Now I'm not the best at photography, in fact my camera is just the one on my iPhone, but I love it nonetheless. I just love catching a memory and knowing that it has been preserved forever. I especially enjoy taking photos of landscapes, cities and sunsets. This past year I've been obsessed with printing my photos off as polaroids and sticking them on my wall. I just like having physical copies and knowing that I have them safe to look back on at any time. I'm currently saving up to buy myself a proper camera so I can improve my pictures even more!

                                                  Sunset over Greenwich a few weeks ago

                                                      A little side street near Oxford Street

There you go! As you can probably tell I'm quite the fangirl! I hope you learnt a bit more about me in this post, and as I said before I hope to blog more about these things!

Thanks for reading!

Daniella x

My top albums of 2014

I was going to do this blog post a while back, at the start of 2015 but I just haven't had time & kept thinking of other ideas that I preferred.

So today I'm going to share with you 5 of my favourite albums of 2014:

1) X - Ed Sheeran

I was obsessed with this album at the start of last summer, for a while it was literally all that I listened to!

I loved his first album & this follow up album definitely didn't disappoint!

There wasn't (and still isn't) a song that I don't like on X, the lyrics are great and the songs tell a story which I think is what makes his music draw in the listener, and you really feel like you connect with the lyrics. 

Favourite song back then- Afire Love

Favourite song now- Thinking Out Loud

2) In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith

I'd never really heard that much about Sam Smith before listening to his album- so I just assumed that I wasn't gonna like his stuff. I knew he'd been on some other songs like 'Latch' and 'La La La' and I liked both of these songs but I really had no idea what his own album would sound like. I'd heard great stuff about it though so I decided to give it a listen- and it was amazing!

He has one of those voices that is amazing on it's own- he doesn't need backing singers or even backing music, just his voice. I would definitely recommend 'In The Lonely Hour' as it has great songs and deep lyrics to it. 

Favourite song back then- Latch Acoustic

Favourite song now- Latch Acoustic (it's stayed the same!) 

3- Meet The Vamps - The Vamps

This was the year that I fell in love with The Vamps- and I was lucky enough to see them in concert in October and I'm going again in May this year! :D

I can say that this was probably my 2nd favourite album of the whole year, I dread to think how many times I've listened to each song! 

Favourite song back then- Oh Cecilia

Favourite song now- Somebody To You

4 - TRXYE - Troye Sivan

For anyone who may not know, Troye Sivan is a YouTuber, and I watch his videos all the time. This is his debut EP and I love every song off of it! 

Favourite song back then - Happy Little Pill

Favourite song now - Happy Little Pill (no change)

5 - Midnight Memories - One Direction

I know this album came out at the end of 2013 but I was most obsessed with this in 2014. One Direction are my favourite band and every single album is perfect. All the songs on this album are so catchy and I love all of the lyrics! 

Favourite song back then- Strong

Favourite song now - Don't Forget Where You Belong

These albums are in no particular order btw, I love them all and they all remind me of a certain time in 2014. That's what I love about music, when you listen to it all the memories come flooding back :) 

Okay I'm gonna go now, see you soon! :)