Babel

This week, Mumford & Sons released their new album, called "Babel". It released on September 21 and since then it has been #1 on iTunes. There is a deluxe edition and regular album. In the deluxe edition there are 3 extra songs named, For Those Below, The Boxer (feat. Jerry Douglas), & Where are You Now. The regular edition is made up of 12 originals. Marcus Mumford, the lead singer, has a unique voice that fits most of these songs just right. The lyrics in the songs are also very good. Two of the biggest songs of the album are Babel and I Will Wait.  Here they are.

This is Babel.

This is I Will Wait. This is the most popular song of the album. It released about two weeks prior to the release of the album as a single. It did quite well, and was at #1 on iTunes for a couple of days. The album is great and I would definitely recommend it.

The Who

This week we listened to The Who's first album called My Generation. This album was to me, a mix of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. There were songs that were Bluesy and there were also songs that sounded more like rock. The most popular song of this album was called My Generation. It ranks number 11 on the "500 Greatest Songs of All time" list. Here it is.

 These guys liked to have fun. They would smash stuff on stage, like guitars and drum sets. In a show Keith Moon, the drummer, put dynamite into one of his drums without telling anyone and let it explode, permanently damaging one of the member's hearing. A lot of their shenanigans are pretty cool, but the drums exploding was a little too far.

One thing that The Who did differently from the The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, was that they dressed differently. While the two other groups dressed in black, The Who dressed a bit more flamboyantly, wearing bright colored pants and shirts, which made them unique.

Penny and Sparrow

I've been listening to Penny and Sparrow lately. They are a local group, with two guys named Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke and are quite small still. They cover mostly, and also play their own. The main vocalist, Andy Baxter, sings at a new church, and does small little gigs around town. They have three of their own songs, and working on an album. Here is some one of their originals.

This is "Creature" by Penny and Sparrow. Here is one of their covers.

This is their cover of Hallelujah. Both of these were sang by Andy Baxter.

Covers

In music, you have the original song, then other artists come in and do it their own way. That's a cover. Some covers can be extremely good, and others not so good. They can turn a song from good to bad, or the complete opposite. I think covers are great for music in general, because it gives other people, who may not be very good at songwriting, a chance to be heard. There have been some really successful acoustic covers of popular songs. The most covered artist I've seen is Taylor Swift. There are hundreds of covers for every one of her songs. For example artists like Walk Off the Earth only cover, and they add cool twists to their videos. Here is a cover of Someone Like You by Adele.

This song was good by Adele, but  I really like what they did to it. I like the Ukulele in it, and the female vocalist has a very good and natural voice. I also like how this is done live. It shows that they have talent, and aren't only auto tuned.  It kills me to see groups like this, who are undiscovered, but have a ton of talent.

A Hard Day's Night

We watched "The Beatles" movie called A Hard Day's Night in class. Unlike their first movie, which was a documentary, this movie was scripted. The movie was funny, there were some subliminal things you had to be paying attention to to catch. One thing that made the movie a little worse, was their accents. They have pretty heavy accents, and it was a little hard to understand some of the things that they were saying, but that's extremely minor. My favorite scene of the movie, is the end, where they have to go rescue Ringo from the police station. That was fun to watch, even though you knew he was going to make it back, it was still fun to watch. Another thing I liked about the movie, is how throughout the movie it would show the guys doing stuff, but instead of them talking it would a song in the background. I think this happened twice or three times in the movie, but I enjoyed it and thought that it was a good idea. 

Here is a picture.

The Rolling Stones

In class we listened to "The Rolling Stones" first album called "England's Newest Hit Makers". The album line up was made up of 11 covers and 1 original. The album starts of with "Route 66" (Bobby Troup). This song is alright, but Mick Jagger, personally, doesn't have a good voice at all.The guitar solo in the middle it good, and I think that saves the song. Here is the song.

I'm not a big fan of their first album, because their music is sloppy, Mick Jagger's voice just isn't that great, and they didn't write enough of their music. 

Their album cover isn't very good either. I don't like it, because it looks almost exactly the same as "The Beatles" second album, and it is boring. In the first album, I feel like you should go big or go home in the photo. To me The Stones went home. I completely understand why they did their album cover that way, and its because The Beatles had amazing luck with it. I don't know how well it works the second time around though. Here is a picture of The Rolling Stones first album cover.

I'm not a very big fan of this album. 

Tenth Avenue North

So there is this Christian band, by the name of "Tenth Avenue North". They sing Christian rock. The lead vocalist, Mike Donehey, is very passionate when he sings, so listeners can connect. In songs such as By Your Side the band's passion is displayed. 


In the song, at 2:40, there is a large pick up in the volume of Donehey's voice. Overall the song is great, and I'd recommend it for anyone who is into Christian music. 

Currently, the band has 3 albums out. "Over and Underneath" (2008) is their oldest album, the most popular song of the album is By Your Side. "The Light Meets the Dark" (2010) is their second oldest album, the most popular song of the album is You Are More. "The Struggle" (2012), is their most recent album. It just came out on August 21, 2012, in the debut week it was #1 on the Christian and Rock albums. The most popular song is Losing. 

Here are some pictures and songs of Tenth Avenue North.

This is Losing from The Struggle. 

A picture of the band. 










Until next week... Farewell. 

Week 2 Blog

So this week we listened to "The Beatles". We checked out their first and second albums that they had ever made. The thing about these guys, is that you love them or you don't love them. Going into this week I didn't have much of an opinion for them, but now I think that they're pretty good. I'm not a big fan of the the background singer, every other note, but they do it quite well. Another thing that they do well, is harmonizing. I feel like in the majority of each song you can hear a member of the band harmonizing with the lead singer, which makes it sound good, and it makes it sound more passionate. An example of this, is "You Really Got a Hold on Me" Through out most of this song there is a member harmonizing. 

For how cool these guys really are, a name like "The Beatles" just doesn't do them justice. For having 27 number one hits worldwide, I personally think they should have a more manly and outgoing name. 

Album covers are a big part of an album. "The Beatles" first album cover was loud and bright, while their second album cover was boring and dull. 

This was their first album cover. It's appealing to audiences, and it 's loud. There is a lot to look at, like bright colors, "The Beatles" themselves, and the background.  

This was their second album cover. Its not very exciting, what soever, and I don't like to look at this, because there isn't much to look at. 

Until next week... Cheerio.