Tranquility base Hotel and Casino is the latest album released by The Arctic Monkeys. It was released on May the 11th 2018 under the same record company, Domino. It is of note as it represents a drastic difference and change in the band; both in terms of the musical arrangement and style and in the cosmetic and physical appearance of the band members themselves.
In my opinion, this album harks back to such albums as Sgt. Peppers lonely hearts club band or when Dylan went electric at the Newport folk festival in 1965. This is due to the all round difference in style and the fact that the albums or events in question will be forever remembered. Furthermore, like Sgt. Peppers's and Dylan's electric fiasco, the music within is, or at least initially was, very divisive to lifetime fans and new fans alike. After my brother playing me the entire album on Vinyl I was not fully convinced; if anything I was indifferent, but after giving it time and multiple chances on my many journeys to work, I think I like it. My girlfriend and I also were discussing it just last weekend and she said the same thing; being that it requires a lot of chances before it becomes enjoyable.
Therefore, the album is very unique and interesting and is definitely worth trying if you have not yet attempted to listen to it. My advice would be to give it a chance and I would recommend three or more times to allow it to fully penetrate your mind. You wont regret giving it a try.
Cheers again and stay lucky everyone
*All images taken from google. I do not claim to own any rights to anything
Firstly, to all of you I would like to apologise for my absence but as I am sure you can understand I lead a very busy life and I never want to post just for the sake of frequency. However, evidently I am back now and I will be sharing with you all some music from the best two player games on PlayStation 2 for late 90's babies, "WWE Smackdown Vs Raw".
Personally, I have never been a fan of wrestling in any capacity. However, about a year back, it dawned on me that some of the music I had heard whilst playing old "WWE smackdown vs Raw" games with my brothers in my young adolescence were actually very good shouts for resistance training, but more broadly speaking, simply summoning adrenaline. Thus, as always and without further ado, I shall share a few of these with you all. However, I feel that any description I may give alongside would be unnecessary and boring so this post will simply include the videos/pictures and the artist, track name, and the wrestler with whom i associate them. Furthermore, there will be no countdown as these will be presented in no particular order. I hope you all enjoy!
"I walk alone" by Saliva (Batista)
"This fire burns" by Killswitch engage (CM Punk)
"Rollin" by Limp Bizkit (Undertaker)
"Animal I have become" by Three days Grace (Soundtrack)
I hope you enjoyed this list and I hope it rekindled some memories and nostalgia for a fair portion of you. As always I am very grateful for your support and thank you for your time wherever you may be. Be lucky
*All images and music sourced from google and YouTube. I do not claim to own any rights
Now for all of you who want more of an insight into my life, you will be pleased to know that this post will clear up another of my hobbies and regular activities, Weightlifting. I love to lift weights and I love to lift heavy and have done since the age of 16. I have aspirations to compete in Strongman contests and I am an avid believer that music makes a difference to training, particularly in the anticipation and build up to a heavy lift. Therefore, I thought I would share with you my current top 3 songs that get me psyched to lift that one rep max or push me to give that extra burst of power. Here they are in no particular order and I hope you enjoy them:
3) Pantera "Becoming
"
This is very classic of Pantera and is a staple of any live set that they perform. It is violent and fast and rigid and the vocals alone are powerful enough to get you a new one rep max. The guitars and drums are loud and fast and my heart never fails to replicate the beat and thus smash the challenge in front of me.
2) Slipknot "The Blister exists
"
This song was introduced to me by my best mate and training partner one drive to the gym. It gives new meaning to the phrase loud and fast. The song doesn't stop for a second throughout and maintains that dedication and force you need in the middle of a heavy session.
3) Soundgarden "Slaves and Bulldozers
"
I bet you were wondering when Chris Cornell would appear in this post. This track is a 7 minute assault on record companies. It is just over seven minutes of anger and rage and is perfect for mustering one more surge of raw power under a heavy bar. Cornell's voice just screams and if that banshee-like tone doesn't make you want to be a lone wolf and slaughter the weights then what will?
And that is it! I hope you all enjoy my countdown. As I said, these are in no particular order and i place them all on a level field in terms of quality. I encourage you to listen to them all if you have not yet heard them and you will not regret giving them a try. Cheers. Be Lucky
*All images and videos and audio sourced from google and YouTube. I do not claim to own any rights
Good afternoon everyone, it seems to have been a very poor show this year so far in terms of upload frequency. I have been very busy trying to save some money and I intend to remedy the lack of blog entries in the next few months. So, as I always say and without further ado, here are my personal picks for the top 3 acoustic renditions of non-acoustic songs:
3) My Hero By the Foo Fighters (as covered by Dave Grohl solo)
In this popular and touching song by the Foos, Dave Grohl changed up the style of the song to suit an acoustic rendition for BBC radio whilst maintaining all the emotion and power of the original. It is number three because it doesn't differ that obviously to the standard version but it was an acoustic rendition well transposed by the nicest guy in rock.
2) Unintended Muse (As covered by Matt Bellamy solo Live from Wembley in 2010)
My pick for number 2 comes from another band that are very close to my heart, Muse. They were one of the first non-pop bands that ever liked alongside Soundgarden and The Foo Fighters. They are widely credited as one of the best live bands there is and I seriously intend to test that theory before they stop touring. Unintended is one of their slowest and most vulnerable tracks amongst a very diverse and varied repertoire and this acoustic version by the writer of the song and frontman of the band is haunting and beautiful. The brief interaction with the crowd at the start of the video makes the cover even sweeter since Matt wrote the song very early on and his introduction of the song in this instance demonstrates a lot of gratitude to his fans and everyone in the audience. Similar to Dave Grohl, Bellamy and all of Muse are very grateful and humble and this rendition seems to be directed at the fans in gratitude. Thus, please listen and it places as runner up in my countdown.
1) Say Hello To Heaven By Temple of the Dog (As covered by Chris Cornell in Nov 26 2011 Solo)
Any version of Say Hello to Heaven is bound to be touching purely due to the fact that it is a message of a final goodbye to a friend. The song would never have been as moving as it is had it not been for Cornell's one of a kind delivery and emotionally gruff vocal delivery and all of these senses were stripped when he stripped the music down to the bare necessities and sat alone with his voice and an acoustic guitar to remember his long-gone friend. Cornell had covered his own song acoustically before but this version is so powerful and emotive and the soaring vocals are even more impressive given that Cornell was 47 years old at this point. This song is tragic as Cornell himself would die just 6 years later and this song will remain relevant to the loss of the great man as well as Andrew Wood; The song's original subject.
I hope you enjoyed this countdown and I encourage you all to listen to all of the above versions on days when you want to meditate or wallow a little or simply fancy hearing a different take on a song by the very same artist that made it famous. You may also want to check out a bonus tracks that I will include below. Be lucky everyone.
*I do not claim to own any rights to images or videos. All images and videos sourced from google and YouTube
As a present for Christmas and Valentines day, my girlfriend bought me a ticket to see her favourite band at Alexandra Palace on the 17th March. This was a significant moment for me as I had never seen live music up until this point and, being so lovely, she thought I would appreciate the opportunity (Which I did). We were accompanied by her best friend and her boyfriend, myself and him being the only half of us who didn't know much All Time Low and had never seen them. Other than spending an hour and a half in the snow without a jacket whilst queuing, I found the experience very interesting and I enjoyed a lot of the music despite not really knowing many of their set list. I am very grateful to my beautiful girlfriend for allowing me the opportunity to go somewhere I wouldn't have been had she not surprised me and I believe that the other male in question also rather enjoyed his first experience of All Time Low.
The main difference between live gigs and studio music is of course the interaction with the crowd and I must credit the band for their great relationship with the crowd. They seemed genuinely grateful to their die-hard fans as well as everyone else who had paid to see them and they took a selfie with the crowd after the encore. They seem to be very genuine and friendly musicians and thus I enjoyed the gig very much, even if my usual taste is heavier than their style. If you are open minded and enjoy pop punk then I would very much recommend seeing All Time Low; If only to appreciate their humility and good grace.
I would like to publicly thank my wonderful girlfriend for giving me the opportunity and buying the ticket for me and also for keeping it such a secret (she isn't great with the secrecy stuff). I would also like to thank her best friend and her boyfriend for accompanying us and making my experience of the whole day even more pleasant.
Furthermore, I'd like to apologise for being so absent recently, I've been working and I never want to publish work without just cause for the sake of statistics but I intend to come back with a vengeance! Never fear , there will be more content.
* All images sourced from google. I do not claim to own any rights
