Album Review: Taylor Swift 1989

Taylor Swift: Shake it Off 

Artist:  Taylor Swift
Album: 1989
Point of Purchase: iTunes (pre-order baby!!)
Price: $12.99

Thoughts:  Okay, not even going to lie, I've been excited and on the edge of my seat for this album since I head "Shake It Off" awhile back... you know when Kelly Clarkson posted the link to the video on her Facebook page. I'm 33 years old and dancing in my seat like a tweenager.  Last night I watched an episode of the Graham Norton show simply because Tswizzle was a guest on his couch, and there's an InStyle magazine on my BF's couch that she graces the cover of. I feel like I should be embarrassed at the extent of my fangirlishness when it comes to Miss T, but really, I'm not.  I want to bake cookies and talk about boys with her... is that weird? Probably... I'm going to go ahead and embrace the fantasy. My name is Lauren, and I'm a Swifty. 

Track Listing/Favorite Lines:

1. Welcome to New York: Everybody here wanted something more
   Searching for a sound we hadn’t heard before
2. Blank Space: darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream
3. Style: Cause You got that James Dean day dream look in your eye
   And I got that red lip classic thing that you like
   And when we go crashing down, we come back in every time.
   Cause we never go out of style
4. Out of the Woods: The night we couldn’t quite forget
   When we decided
   To move the furniture so we could dance
   Baby, like we stood a chance
   Two paper airplanes flying
5. All You Had To Do Was Stay: people like me wanna believe you when you say you've changed
6. Shake It Off: Just think while you been getting down and out about the liars
   And the dirty dirty cheats of the world
   You could have been getting down to this sick beat
7. I Wish You Would: I wish you know that I miss too much to be mad anymore
8. Bad Blood: Band-aids don't fix bullet holes
9. Wildest Dreams: Say you'll see me again even if it's just in your wildest dreams
10. How You Get The Girl: I want you for worse or for better
11. This Love: This love is a life back from the dead
12. I Know Places: Lose lips, ships sink, all the damn time, not this time
    Just grab my hand and don't ever drop it
    My love, they are the hunters, we are the foxes
    And we run
13. Clean: And that morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean

Bonus Tracks: Ms Swift is releasing more songs to iTunes 

1. Wonderland: In the end in Wonderland we both went mad

This album is so fun, and well worth the wait... It's not on Spotify yet, or I would have linked the whole album, but seriously, go drop the $13 and get your own copy. You too could be getting down to this sick beat. 

The Lumineers: Album Review

The Lumineers (self titled album)

Point of Sale: iTunes
Price: $9.99

Every time I hear this band on the radio I can't help but smile and turn it up.  It's pretty mellow, and has a bit of a retro feel to it.

1. Flowers in your Hair: CAUSE IT’S A LONG ROAD TO WISDOM /BUT IT’S A SHORT ONE/TO BEING IGNORED
2. Classy Girls: CLASSY GIRLS DON'T KISS IN BARS YOU FOOL
3. Submarines:  I HAD NONE SO I WILL DIE WITH THE SECRETS OF THE SEA
4. Dead Sea: I DON’T GAMBLE, BUT IF I DID I WOULD BET ON US
5. Ho Hey:  AND LOVE, WE NEED IT NOW/LET’S HOPE FOR SOME/CAUSE OH, WE’RE BLEEDING OUT
6. Slow it Down:  ONLY LOVE CAN DIG YOU OUT OF THIS
7. Stubborn Love:  THE OPPOSITE OF LOVE’S INDIFFERENCE
8. Big Parade:  ALL MY LIFE I WAS BLIND, I WAS BLIND, NOW I SEE
9. Charlie Boy:  LILLIAN, DON'T HANG YOUR HEAD, LOVE SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD
10. Flapper Girl:  FLAPPER GIRL, FLAPPER GIRL/PROHIBITION IN CURLS/HAIR OF GOLD AND A NECK OF CURLS
11. Morning Song:  AND ALL THE PRETTY DAMES/THEY’LL HUG AND KISS YOU ALL THE SAME

Shakira: Shakira, Album Review

Artist: Shakira

Album: Shakira

Point of Purchase: iTunes

Price: $6.99
Description:  I wasn't super sure about this album at first, I'd pick it up every time I went to Starbucks, look at it, look at the price, then set it back on the shelf.  Then they sent me a code for a free download of one of the songs... Empire... and I loved it, I listened to the album on Spotify and loved it, then the album went on sale on iTunes, and I HAD to have it. (Impulse control? Minimal)

I don't even understand the lyrics to all of the songs, because I'm not bilingual, but even the ones that are in a different language are hypnotically beautiful. Her songs make me want to dance, sing along, I feel the pain in the sad songs, in short she gives you ALL THE FEELINGS. 

Track Listings:
1. Dare (La La La): Is it true that you want it, Then act like you mean it
2. Can't Remember To Forget You (featuring Rihanna): I left a note on my bedpost, Said not to repeat yesterday's mistakes, What I tend to do when it comes to you, I see only the good, selective memory
3. Empire: You're my wildfire every single night
4. You Don't Care About Me: Should have never helped, You become so powerful, But I saw a champion in your eyes
5. Cut Me Deep (featuring Magic!):I am covered in scars, Like a rose without thorns
6. Spotlight: And if they wanna make me pay now, Then go on, Cause loving you was never wrong
7. Broken Record: I've told you 700 times, I don't need to keep looking, My search is done
8. Medicine (featuring Blake Shelton): You make a war seem like such an easy game
9. 23: Just like an angel, so beautifully strange
10. The One Thing: My fairy tale comes true when I look at your face

I'm not sure what she's singing in these songs, language barrier and all, but I like how they sound if that means anything. 

11. Nunca Me Acuerdo de Olvidarte:
12. Loca por Ti

Album Review: Jack Johnson: From Here to Now to You

Artist: Jack Johnson

Album: From Here to Now to You

Point of Purchase: iTunes 

Price: $11.99

Thoughts: I almost bought the album earlier in the week at Target ($13.99 with two bonus tracks) but ended up putting it back because it wasn't on the shopping list (along with a lot of other impulse decisions that I decided against). The next day I found it on Spotify and listened to it... twice back to back. It's that good. It's probably one of my favorite JJ albums to date, and I love them all. 

Tracks:

I Got You: "Back when all my little goals seemed so important, Every pot of gold fill and full of distortion, Heaven was a place still in space not in motion"

Washing Dishes: "I want you to wonder what's my name, Because I need you to want me the same"

Shot Reverse Shot: "You're the rock and I'm the paper, You're the scissors I'm the rock"

Never Fade: "I tried to play it cool and attached no strings, But by the end of the day, I needed the whole thing"

Tape Deck: "We're just specks of love, directionless"

Don't Believe a Thing I Say: "Are we free or afraid, Of what we're told, Are we out of or under, Control"

As I Was Saying: "I've been erasing, Rewrote the second half like this, So my protagonist, Might find his way back home"

You Remind Me of You: "Your daddy gave you daydreams, And more cushion in your seat"

Radiate: "As you walk you believe, Every part of the dream"

Ones and Zeros: "In the future we'll be laughing at who we were right now"

Change: "Turning page after page after page, It gets stranger day by day"

Home: "this old trail will lead me right back to where it begins"

Album Review: Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1-4 Soundtrack, Various Artist

Album: Sons of Anarchy-Seasons 1-4 Soundtrack
Artist: Various
Point of Purchase: iTunes
Price: $11.99

I love this album, I think I listened to it pretty much exclusively for the first week I had it. I love Katey Sagal's voice (Gemma), I love how they took old songs and made them their own. I love how it fits the show so perfectly. The song "House of the Rising Sun" was rewritten for the show and it gives me chills. The song "Strange Fruit" is haunting. If you're a fan of the show this is something that needs to be in your music library.

I'm going to break from my usual quoting lyrics from each song, mostly because a lot of the songs should be fairly familiar to a lot of people, as for the ones that are unfamiliar, I'm not sure taking one or two lines out of the song would do any justice. My recommendation is to watch the show, then listen to the music they selected for the soundtrack. I have to say I was a little disappointed they didn't include the Dropkick Murphy's on the album because the Ireland portion of Season 3 was a pretty big deal, but overall I think they got it.


Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers – This Life
Katey Sagal & The Forest Rangers – Son Of A Preacher Man
Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers – Forever Young
Curtis Stigers & The Forest Rangers – John The Revelator
Lyle Workman & Bob Thiele, Jr. – Fortunate Son
Anvil featuring Franky Perez – Slip Kid
The Lions – Girl From The North Country
Billy Valentine & The Forest Rangers – Someday Never Comes
Paul Brady & The Forest Rangers – Gimme Shelter
Katey Sagal & The Forest Rangers – Bird On A Wire
Battleme – Hey Hey, My My
Alison Mosshart & The Forest Rangers – What A Wonderful World
Franky Perez & Los Guardianes del Bosque – Los Tiempos Van Cambiando (The Times They Are A-Changin')
Katey Sagal & The Forest Rangers featuring Blake Mills – Strange Fruit
Battleme & The Forest Rangers – House Of The Rising Sun
The White Buffalo with The Forest Rangers – House Of The Rising Sun - Season 4 Finale Version

Album Review: Fall Out Boy "Save Rock & Roll"

 

 

Artist: Fall Out Boy

Album: Save Rock & Roll

Point of Purchase: iTunes

Price: (special deal) $7.99

 

I've been a Fall Out Boy fan probably since 2005 when "Dance, Dance" hit the TRL airwaves, I wouldn't call myself rabid, but enough of a fan to purchase an album without much knowledge of it. I have to say I was NOT disappointed. The FOB team put out a fantastic new album, in fact it's pretty much all I've been listening to since I downloaded it a couple nights ago.  You can listen to the album in its entirety on Spotify if you're not someone who likes to purchase music without giving it a test run.

 

1. The Phoenix: "dance alone to the beat of your heart"
2. My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up): "you're the antidote to everything except for me"
3. Alone Together: "Let's be alone together, (yeah), We could stay young forever"
4. Where Did the Party Go: "You and me are difference between real love and the love on TV"
5. Just One Yesterday (feat. Foxes): "Find yourself a new gig, this town isn't big enough for the two of us"
6. The Mighty Fall (feat. Big Sean): "I'm drivin' and I can't stop staring at my eyelids, but
Even though my eyes closed, I still see you, I just hope when you see me I'm not see-through"
7. Miss Missing You: "Sometimes before it gets better, The darkness gets bigger, The person that you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger"
8. Death Valley: "What I've got will make you feel more alive,  I'll be your favorite drug, I will get you high"
9. Young Volcanoes: "Tonight the foxes hunt the hounds, And it's all over now before it has begun,
We've already won"
10. Rat a Tat (feat. Courtney Love): "If my heart is a grenade, You pull the pin and say: We're all fighting growing old"
11. Save Rock and Roll (feat. Elton John): "You are what you love, Not who loves you"

 

 

She & Him: Volume 3: Album Review

Album: She & Him: Volume 3
Point of Purchase: iTunes
Price: $9.99

I've recently discovered She & Him, I mean I know they've been around, and I've been a fan of Zoey's for awhile, but I've never really listened to their music until I got a free download from Starbucks a few weeks back and had to get the whole album for myself. It is different than the type of music I would normally listen to, but I have to say I've really been enjoying it, I've even added their other albums to my spotify playlists at work.



1. I’ve Got Your Number, Son: I’ve listened to enough of all your stuff to fill a book or two2. Never Wanted Your Love: All I know is I'm tired of being clever, Everyone is clever these days
3. Baby: As long as you need me you know I’ll never let you down
4. I Could’ve Been Your Girl: Cause I could’ve been your girl, And you could’ve been my four leaf clover
5. Turn to White: You’re a distraction from everything that I feel, And the good and the wicked things I do
6. Somebody Sweet to Talk To: You keep trying to forget about the good times
Does it make the fall a little better?
7. Something’s Haunting You: What’s a girl to do? 

When something’s haunting you

8. Together: And I like you but you think too much, And I don’t want to be your mother and your crutch
9. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me: But they never stood in the dark with you, love.
When you take me in your arms and drive me slowly out of my mind.10. Snow Queen: I’m the dark, I’m the night, I would bark but never bite
11. Sunday Girl: I know a girl from a lonely street, Cold as ice cream, but still as sweet
12. London: Oh London, I love you, Where the clouds never go away
13. Shadow of Love: You and I, we told a story of love from our hearts, but it never came true, There’s no tomorrow for me and you
14. Reprise (I Could’ve Been Your Girl)

Album Review: Green Day 1-2-3

All three of these albums are available to sample on Spotify in their entirety. I've had Uno for awhile now, but I thought I'd include it with the two I purchased today since the three go together. Green Day has been one of my favorite bands since I was in junior high, their album Dookie was one of my very first CD purchases, and there was even a phase that I went through where I wanted to dye my hair electric blue and move to Berkeley. Thankfully my mom talked me down from that cliff, I'm not sure how well I would have faired with all those hippies ;-). They been there for me for many events in my life, whether it be driving around at 16 with my windows down and all my best girlfriends in the car with me rolling to McD's on our lunch break, I still think the best birthday present a guy I was dating gave to me was two guitar books to learn how to play the songs from Dookie and 21st Century Breakdown and a new set of strings, listening to their music after my little brother died in 2009, being 13 and arguing over song lyrics with friends during class, this band has been by my side for more than half my life. They are the ONLY band in my top 5 that I haven't seen live, and I'm so bummed by that, hopefully that will change in the future...probably not this tour, but I hope there are many more to come.

This time around since there are 3 albums from the same band, I'm not going to post my favorite lines from each song, but my favorite lines from the albums as a whole. That doesn't mean I don't like each song, just that some are more lyrically striking than others. I hope you enjoy the music as much as I do. 

Point of Purchase: iTunes

Price: $9.99

1. Nuclear Family
2. Stay The Night "I gotta know if you're the one who got away even though it was never meant to be"
3. Carpe Diem
4. Let Yourself Go
5. Kill The DJ
6. Fell For You "I had a dream that I kissed your lips and it felt so true. Then I woke up as a nervous wreck and I fell for you."
7. Loss Of Control
8. Troublemaker
9. Angel Blue
10. Sweet 16′
11. Rusty James
12. Oh Love

Point of Purchase: iTunes

Price: $9.99

1. See You Tonight "Maybe the time is not right, I won't be seeing you tonight"
2. Fuck Time
3. Stop When The Red Lights Flash
4. Lazy Bones "I don’t want your sympathy. I don’t want your honesty. I just want to get some peace of mind."
   
5. Wild One
6. Makeout Party
7. Stray Heart "Oh oh I'll hold your heart and never let go"
8. Ashley
9. Baby Eyes
10. Lady Cobra
11. Nightlife
12. Wow! That’s Loud
13. Amy

  

 

Point of Purchase: iTunes

Price: $9.99

1. Brutal Love
2. Missing You
3. 8th Avenue Serenade
4. Drama Queen
5. X-Kid
6. Sex, Drugs & Violence
7. Little Boy Named Train
8. Amanda
9. Walk Away
10. Dirty Rotten Bastards
11. 99 Revolutions
12. The Forgotten