2014 biggest stars: prediction

HIYA 2014!

2013 brought us many outstanding and disastrous things. Yet I feel 2014 will bring us so many more fantastic artists.

Below is my prediction of 2014's biggest stars.

Chlöe Howl

My current girl crush, Howl is a perfect example of under-the-radar talent. I'm hoping this year, Howl will burst into the mainstream music charts and fly to the top, she's more than worthy of it.

Listen to: No Strings; Paper Heart; Rumour

George Ezra.

Believe me when I say you that you will not be expecting the voice from Ezra. Bluesy and unique, Ezra will knock you off your feet. 

Listen to: Budapest; Did You Hear The Rain?

Saint Raymond

A phenomenal singer-songwriter. Check out one of my older posts on him here.

Listen to: Bonfire; Everything She Wants; Fall At Your Feet

Lewis Watson

After seeing Lewis live last June in fact, I cannot express how much you will instantly fall in love with him.
Listen to: Lamplight; Sink or Swim; Into The Wild

Dan Croll

Simply beautiful. These are the only words I can find to describe Dan Croll. If you like San Cisco, you'll definitely love this.
Listen to: In/Out; Compliment Your Soul; Home

Orla Gartland
Linked to some of the coolest people: Lewis Watson, Saint Raymond, Gabrielle Aplin, Lauren Aquilina, Frank Hamilton and Hudson Taylor, Orla Gartland is the girl-next-door with a powerful voice.
Listen to: Clueless; Down The Drain; Roots

2014 will be the year of Drenge and Toy; hold me to it. 

Drenge

After touring with Peace and Arctic Monkeys, Drenge are definitely the ones to watch this year. Also, their self-titled album is. to. die. for.

Listen to: Backwaters; Bloodsports; Nothing

Toy

With their recent album Join The Dots becoming hugely popular and with an up and coming tour ahead of them, Toy will sail through 2014 with no problem at all!

Listen to: Left Myself Behind; You Won't Be The Same; Join The Dots

Temples

Psychedelic is the only way to describe Temples. With a fan base increasing throughout 2013, I feel Temples will finally make a large impact in the industry this year. 

Listen to: Colours To Life; Shelter Song; Keep In The Dark

Wolf Alice

Again like Temples, Wolf Alice have increased in popularity in 2013. With their Blush EP being supported and promoted many times by NME, Wolf Alice are sure to enlighten your souls with pedigree-indie tracks. 

Listen to: Fluffy; She; Blush

Hudson Taylor
I've loved these boys since they were iTunes Single Of The Week quite a while ago. They've supported Jake Bugg. Enough said.
Listen to: Drop of Smoke; Chasing Rubies; Care

Neon Jungle

Welcome, feisty new girlband Neon Junlge who have already made appearances on the Victoria's Secret 2013 show alongside Fall Out Boy and Taylor Swift, nifty huh!?

Listen to: Trouble; Braveheart

And lastly The Vamps
A very cute 4-piece-pop-boyband. Adorable.
Listen to: Can We Dance; Wild Heart

Prepare to see these artists throughout 2014. And if you do, remember you saw them here first!

I leave you with the first number one of 2014, enjoy!

gigs of 2013

Gig wise, this year has been my favourite! 

Here's my year in gigs.. 

Tuesday 15th March 2013

Jake Bugg

Southend Cliffs Pavillion

Tuesday 2nd April 2013
King Charles
Colchester Arts Centre

Friday 21st June
Lewis Watson
Colchester Arts Centre

Monday 7th October 2013

Miles Kane

Norwich UEA

Friday 25th October 2013

Arctic Monkeys

Earls Court

Monday 4th November

Bastille

Southend Cliffs Pavillion

For me, this year has been amazing. I've been able to see my favourite artists: Jake Bugg and Miles Kane, and I've been able see to all these superb artists in incredible venues. Venues that should not be dismissed and forgotten about! 

I hope that 2014 brings many more gigs in many more incredible venues. I cannot wait to be doing this again next year and showing you all the amazing artists I have seen, I'm quite excited! 

My top 13 albums of 2013 blogpost can be seen here. Check it out!

And once again, see you all in 2014!!

top 13 albums of 2013

So it's come to the end of the year and I can't seriously believe how quick it's flown by!

2013 has been a very productive and somewhat wild year for the music world. And obviously, a year within the music industry does not come without controversy. 

*cough* Robin Thicke *cough* Miley Cyrus *cough* Kanye West *cough*

With the amount of album releases we've had this year, I have found it sooooo hard to decide my top 13. Also, they are not ordered from 1 to 13 simply because I couldn't find my absolute favourite within these 13 - however, they are chronologically ordered by month of release. Here it goes:

Arc - Everything Everything 

(January)

Holy Fire - Foals

(February)



The Messenger - Johnny Marr
(February)

In Love - Peace

(March)



If You Leave - Daughter
(March)

Don't Forget Who You Are - Miles Kane

(June)



Sistrionix - Deap Vally
(June)



BE - Beady Eye
(June)

Where The Heaven Are We - Swim Deep

(August)

Snapshot - The Strypes

(September)

The 1975 - The 1975
(September)

Days Are Gone - Haim

(September)

Shangri La - Jake Bugg

(November)

And there you go, my top 13 albums of this year! There have been so many other fantastic albums this year such as London Grammar's If You Wait, Toy's Join The Dots and Gabrielle Aplin's English Rain, the list is endless.. 

I all hope you have a fabulous NYE!! And I'll see you all in 2014!

Bastille @ Cliffs Pavillion, Southend

Gig: Bastille

Support: Clean Bandit + Rag N Bone Man

Date: Monday 4th November

RAG N BONE MAN

As soon as Rag N Bone Man walked on stage everyone assumed he was a rapper. But to everyone's surprise including mine, wow, he is ah-may-zeng. CHECK HIM OUT! Soulful and powerful, his voice was distinctive making it hard to believe that this voice was coming from the man stood in front of me. A brilliant artist from start to finish.

CLEAN BANDIT

To me, Clean Bandit were a familiar band. I had heard them before on Radio 1 and quite liked their way of mixing together two genres of music - classical and dance. Mozart's House was the first song I had ever listened to by them and I've loved it ever since. Now don't get me wrong, the band were brilliant, but I didn't feel that they suited the tour.. Compared to Bastille, Clean Bandit would be considered a dance artist, they were expecting the crowd to jump around and even though some were, the venue was filled with 12 year old girls waiting to scream at Dan Smith so the atmosphere wasn't as great as it could have been. Clean Bandit have also supported Disclosure on their tour, this is the perfect tour for they are both similar artists.

The tour was a great way to get them noticed and increase their popularity as they are an excellent band but to me, it just didn't fit in with the whole mysterious mood Bastille create. However, I'm sure Clean Bandit will play across many air waves soon enough as their sound is VERY distinctive.

BASTILLE

After seeing Jake Bugg, Miles Kane and Arctic Monkeys earlier this year, I was sceptical about this gig. I hadn't really been 'hyped' about Bastille for a few months because I was SO excited to see my favourite artists earlier on. 

However, I underestimated them for sure. From start to finish, I loved every second! The songs were brilliant, the atmosphere was incredible and I just couldn't believe how much I had disregarded them as a live artist - I'm even slightly ashamed of myself for doing so.


The band played their debut album Bad Blood and also leaked some new songs from their upcoming album.

If you've been a fan of the 'new' Arctic Monkeys sound and the recent increase in heavy rock n roll influences on many other songs, then you'll love Bastille's new album! They have also been pulled towards the rock n roll way of life. One of the songs called Campus sounded really reallllly good, and I can assure that it's going to be a good album.

For those of you who don't know Bastille that well, before their Number 1 album Bad Blood, there were two albums called Other People's Heartache and Other People's Heartache Part 2. These albums were combinations of their songs and other artist's songs. On the tour, they performed Of The Night, which has now been released as a single. This is a remix of the hugely popular dance song Rhythm Is A Dancer.

Overall, I underestimated Bastille and I am soooo glad I have been able to see them live as they are a pretty decent live artist. (In the words of The Strypes, you can't judge a book by the cover.)

Arctic Monkeys @ Earls Court, London

Gig: Arctic Monkeys

Support: The Strypes

Date: Friday 25th October

Snapshop was a bloody brilliant debut album from The Strypes so I was just as excited to see them as I was for AM. Considering how young they are, it's great to see an up-and-coming band supporting such good artists such as Arctic Monkeys and receiving such a phenomenal response. Their vocals were mature, their stage presence was electrifying and they were overall superb. 

After a minute and a half of flashing lights and the introduction music, Alex, Nick, Matt and Jamie all walked on stage to roars of screams and applause. Everyone was prepared for the thrills of AM. The first second of Do I Wanna Know? started and every single person in Earls Court started to sing a long. From this point on, I knew that whole night was going to be electric.

The setlist was slightly changed, much to my delight. I was so happy when I Wanna Be Yours was added because that's one of the songs I was desperate to hear live, it's classic and simple yet outrageously perfect. I was also happy when Teddy Picker was performed, seeing as it's my favourite Monkeys song. (And yes, I was that person who films a whole song. I apologise, I couldn't resist it...)

My favourite thing about a concert is the way it is able bring people together through a common interest and enthusiasm for an artist. This was completely evident when Brianstorm started, the whole crowd starting singing the intro and boy was it loud! So loud in fact that you could almost not hear Alex singing (this also happened for Old Yellow Bricks). Shortly followed by Dancing Shoes and the rock 'n' roll heavy yet sexy Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair.

Surprisingly, considering the recent press surrounding this topic, Alex didn't sound that "American" at all, okay so he may not be old Sheffield Alex, but he's most definitely still British Alex for sure! 

I must admit, I wasn't impressed with their latest Jools Holland performance of Snap Out Of It - this performance made me doubt how good they'd be at Earls Court. But being the performer he is, Alex worked the crowd in the only way he knows how, complimentary. And seeing them live was SO MUCH better than the performance on Jools. 

Alex announced "this ones for the girls, this ones for the laaayyyydieeees", before entering into the hype of I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor.

And finally, the encore. Mardy Bum, One For The Road and R U Mine? Brilliant. Mardy Bum had everyone singing from start to finish."I have one question for you Earls Court, R U Mine?" was the only thing needed to be said before the crowd went absolutely mental for the final time that night.

I genuinely cannot sum up this superb night in a few words.
I think that says it all.

Miles Kane @ The Nick Rayns LCR, Norwich

Gig: Miles Kane

Support: The Family Rain

Date: Monday 7th October

It wasn't until I saw Jay Sharrock and George Moran  stood outside smoking, standing only a few metres away from me that I realised I would finally be seeing Miles Kane. The man that I love so dearly. 

Support came from The Family Rain who originate from Bath. Heavy bass and guitar riffs suffused the room much to the delight of the crowd. The Family Room produced insouciant tracks which without question warmed up the crowd in preparation for the headline act.

The crowd erupted as soon as Miles arrived on stage. As expected everyone sang word perfect to every single song, proving that Miles is a significant artist to many.

Songs from 'Colour Of The Trap' and 'Don't Forget Who You Are' were sung effortlessly. 

The atmosphere was incredible, I could feel my voice dissolving into the heaving baselines and riffs that echoed around he room. I still cannot believe I've finally seen Miles Kane live.One of my favourite songs of the night, not forgetting the brilliance of Inhaler, Kingcrawler, Better Than That and Taking Over, was the acoustic version of Out Of Control. It was sublime and truly intimate.

Ignoring the fact we were immediately removed from the venue due to the fire alarm, it was a superb gig. Luckily, we were able to re-enter the venue and see Miles perform Come Closer - which due to the longer instrumental, always sounds exceedingly better live. Finishing with Come Closer was brilliant, as it was THE song that recognised Miles as a solo artist. 

what doesn't kill you

As usual I tuned into Radio 1, only to find out that Zane Lowe was going to play a single of Jake Bugg's new album. This single happened to be 'What Doesn't Kill You'.
(No, it's not a remake of Kelly Clarkson don't worry).

"Rick Rubin is also working on Bugg's second album. After hearing the reworked version of Broken, I fear that Bugg's second album may not be as great as the first. But I shall wait until it is released to make my final decision and opinion, after all I will always love Bugg."

I can't help but be excited for the new sounding Bugg, who sounds quite punk-like, think Sham 69 and The Ramones. I really do like this new song and after also hearing 'Slumville Sunrise' (multiple times) and 'All Your Reasons', I cannot wait for Shangri La - Bugg's second album - to be released in November.