Almost a year ago now, I wrote a blog post about the songs that have changed my life. By changed my life, I mean the songs that have impacted my life in some way whether it reminds me of a happier day, a place a lot brighter than home or even about a certain someone. I have decided that I should write exclusively about some of the albums that have changed my life (in no particular order of course!)
1. The Young and Hopeless by Good Charlotte
When I was 12, my friend Amy in the year above was my inspiration. I'm not sure if it was because she was older than me or purely because she was my best friend at the time, but I always wanted to be like her. I wore all black for about 2 years because of her, so if anything, she owes me!
One day, just before I went away on the Year 7 school trip to Calais, Amy came round to mine and decided to look through my iTunes library. Prior to this point, my iTunes library had been filled to the brim with pop compilation albums (You remember Pop Party? I had every single one of those albums!) She looked back at me in disgust and with that, she plugged her iPod into my iTunes and synced all her songs onto my iPod. Her iTunes library was a little bit of contrast to mine. It featured the likes of Green Day, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace and Linkin Park. Of course, being the wannabe 12 year old I was, I listened to them all on repeat but the one album that really stood out for me was The Young and Hopeless by Good Charlotte. That album taught me all about guitar music and what it meant to sing about real life problems and let out pure teenage angst via the beautiful medium of music.
That album also introduced me to the world of pop punk which I was fully submerged into until I was about 14 when Justin Bieber floated into the airways and messed my entire life up!
2. Language. Sex. Violence. Other? by Stereophonics
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Back in my primary school days, as well as all of the Pop Party albums, I also owned a lot of Now That's What I Call Music CD's. In fact, I pretty much collected them until I was about 12/13. The first one I ever remember owning was Now 60 which came out in 2005 when I was a mere 10 year old. One day towards the end of the school year, my year 4 teacher asked us all to bring in our favourite CD's, and of course, I bought in Now 60.
I had only listened to the first disc, at this point the second disc was a complete mystery to me. I remember my teacher playing Dakota by Stereophonics, which was the 3rd track on the second disc, and just being completely mesmerised by it. The guitars, the abruptness of it, it's enormity. It really was all too much for my little 10 year old, un-neutered mind to handle. That night, I went home and listened to the album Dakota sources from, Language. Sex. Violence. Other? which my Dad in fact owned on CD and just got even more mesmerised and slightly baffled as to how there was more to music than tween bop music. You can essentially say that Now 60 changed my life, but is that too much to admit?
My ultimate dream is to hear Dakota live.
3. The Balcony by Catfish and the Bottlemen
Now, this may be coming across as incredibly biased with the amount of times I have mentioned my admiration for Catfish and the Bottlemen, however The Balcony as an album revolutionised my life in a slow and gradual process. Back in my college days of mid 2014, song recommendations and new musical obsessions amongst people spread faster than rumours. If there was a new song that one person was loving, by the end of the week, the whole college would have known about it too. I remember one day whilst in college, there was this sudden buzz around a song called Cocoon by a band called Catfish and the Bottlemen, a band prior to this beautiful rumour I had never heard of. It wasn't as big of a hype as when people discovered house phenomeon Breach and their chart topping single "Jack" but it still managed to circulate around college pretty quickly.
Up until last November, I had listened to them occasionally. Last November, as some of you may know, I saw them live for the first time and to say I was blown away would be a massive understatement. The entire gig was simply magical - the guitars, the noise, the way you could almost feel everyone's problems in their lives fade away at the drop of the beat, it was mesmerising.
4. Total Life Forever by Foals
Although this album by indie front-runners Foals is not up to some fans' taste, it is the first album I heard of theirs and for that reason will always have a special place in my heart. I remember listening to Blue Blood and thinking "wait, music can be tHIS good?!" The world of "indie" music was a world my musical horizons had not quite touched yet and I remember being so excited that I could find solitude in such a talented collection of people from a brand new genre I was yet to delve into. I also saw them live last November and the several year wait was more than worth it.
5. Angles by The Strokes
Unlike most of the albums have impacted my life, I cannot remember the exact moment I fell in love with The Strokes. I just remember it being through their fourth studio album Angles, it just kind of, happened. It is now my favourite album of all time. I think I was on my infamous Spotify crawls and decided to finally give the band a listen after many Twitter folk banging on about them - a simple yet effective move by me. Angles is my favourite Strokes album of them all because it was the album that made me realise what a genius Julian Casablancas is, the album that made me discover a love for electro-pop, the album that made me rediscover music.
*****
There are many more albums that have changed my life one way or another, this is merely just a pick of the bunch, a little insight into the kind of music I adore.
In other music admiration related news, I've recently made a new Spotify playlist which features all of my favourites. I will constantly be adding new songs to it so make sure to give it a listen!
Stay jazzy folks,
Hayley
1. The Young and Hopeless by Good Charlotte
When I was 12, my friend Amy in the year above was my inspiration. I'm not sure if it was because she was older than me or purely because she was my best friend at the time, but I always wanted to be like her. I wore all black for about 2 years because of her, so if anything, she owes me!
One day, just before I went away on the Year 7 school trip to Calais, Amy came round to mine and decided to look through my iTunes library. Prior to this point, my iTunes library had been filled to the brim with pop compilation albums (You remember Pop Party? I had every single one of those albums!) She looked back at me in disgust and with that, she plugged her iPod into my iTunes and synced all her songs onto my iPod. Her iTunes library was a little bit of contrast to mine. It featured the likes of Green Day, Papa Roach, Three Days Grace and Linkin Park. Of course, being the wannabe 12 year old I was, I listened to them all on repeat but the one album that really stood out for me was The Young and Hopeless by Good Charlotte. That album taught me all about guitar music and what it meant to sing about real life problems and let out pure teenage angst via the beautiful medium of music.
That album also introduced me to the world of pop punk which I was fully submerged into until I was about 14 when Justin Bieber floated into the airways and messed my entire life up!
2. Language. Sex. Violence. Other? by Stereophonics
Back in my primary school days, as well as all of the Pop Party albums, I also owned a lot of Now That's What I Call Music CD's. In fact, I pretty much collected them until I was about 12/13. The first one I ever remember owning was Now 60 which came out in 2005 when I was a mere 10 year old. One day towards the end of the school year, my year 4 teacher asked us all to bring in our favourite CD's, and of course, I bought in Now 60.
I had only listened to the first disc, at this point the second disc was a complete mystery to me. I remember my teacher playing Dakota by Stereophonics, which was the 3rd track on the second disc, and just being completely mesmerised by it. The guitars, the abruptness of it, it's enormity. It really was all too much for my little 10 year old, un-neutered mind to handle. That night, I went home and listened to the album Dakota sources from, Language. Sex. Violence. Other? which my Dad in fact owned on CD and just got even more mesmerised and slightly baffled as to how there was more to music than tween bop music. You can essentially say that Now 60 changed my life, but is that too much to admit?
My ultimate dream is to hear Dakota live.
3. The Balcony by Catfish and the Bottlemen
Now, this may be coming across as incredibly biased with the amount of times I have mentioned my admiration for Catfish and the Bottlemen, however The Balcony as an album revolutionised my life in a slow and gradual process. Back in my college days of mid 2014, song recommendations and new musical obsessions amongst people spread faster than rumours. If there was a new song that one person was loving, by the end of the week, the whole college would have known about it too. I remember one day whilst in college, there was this sudden buzz around a song called Cocoon by a band called Catfish and the Bottlemen, a band prior to this beautiful rumour I had never heard of. It wasn't as big of a hype as when people discovered house phenomeon Breach and their chart topping single "Jack" but it still managed to circulate around college pretty quickly.
Up until last November, I had listened to them occasionally. Last November, as some of you may know, I saw them live for the first time and to say I was blown away would be a massive understatement. The entire gig was simply magical - the guitars, the noise, the way you could almost feel everyone's problems in their lives fade away at the drop of the beat, it was mesmerising.
4. Total Life Forever by Foals
Although this album by indie front-runners Foals is not up to some fans' taste, it is the first album I heard of theirs and for that reason will always have a special place in my heart. I remember listening to Blue Blood and thinking "wait, music can be tHIS good?!" The world of "indie" music was a world my musical horizons had not quite touched yet and I remember being so excited that I could find solitude in such a talented collection of people from a brand new genre I was yet to delve into. I also saw them live last November and the several year wait was more than worth it.
5. Angles by The Strokes
Unlike most of the albums have impacted my life, I cannot remember the exact moment I fell in love with The Strokes. I just remember it being through their fourth studio album Angles, it just kind of, happened. It is now my favourite album of all time. I think I was on my infamous Spotify crawls and decided to finally give the band a listen after many Twitter folk banging on about them - a simple yet effective move by me. Angles is my favourite Strokes album of them all because it was the album that made me realise what a genius Julian Casablancas is, the album that made me discover a love for electro-pop, the album that made me rediscover music.
*****
There are many more albums that have changed my life one way or another, this is merely just a pick of the bunch, a little insight into the kind of music I adore.
In other music admiration related news, I've recently made a new Spotify playlist which features all of my favourites. I will constantly be adding new songs to it so make sure to give it a listen!
Stay jazzy folks,
Hayley
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