Introducing Mt. Desolation

Currently Listening To: Mt. Desolation - Bridal Gown

Initially I wasn't planning to listen to Mt. Desolation, since they classified themselves as 'alt-country', but after hearing their single State of Our Affairs I guess I changed my mind.

After all, Mt. Desolation is the brainchild of Tim Rice-Oxley and Jesse Quin from (my favourite band ever!) Keane so I should give them a chance, right? Well I'm glad I did cos their debut album is actually pretty decent for 'alt-country'. I can't stand wannabe-country music (blergh Taylor Swift), so I guess I should say that I'm quite impressed with the Keane boys! I mean, Keane doing country is just odd on so many levels. Strangely enough it works.

Not to worry, the band is made up of more than just the two of them. Members of The Killers, Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons and The Staves provide Mt. Desolation with their backing band, and there are other backup singers too (including Jesse's mother!).



I really wouldn't say that they sound very country, safe for a few songs but it's close enough with only slight hints of Keane-ish music. All of the songs in the album are composed by Tim and Jesse, so good job guys.

If you're not a country music fan, stay away from this album. If you're a diehard Keane fan, then go ahead and give it a listen. It's interesting to see them doing something different for a change.

One more thing - Tim should leave the singing to Tom Chaplin and Jesse. It's not that he sounds bad, it's just...well Tom and Jesse are the better singers. I was watching some live videos of Keane's recently completed tour to the USA and Tom is just amazing! That man has a wonderful voice with a great range and a lovely falsetto, and I really hope that one day I'll get a chance to see them live.

I can now happily cross out Adam Lambert from my 'Must See Live' list, and now the only one remaining is Tom Chaplin - both of them are my favourite male singers ever.

Overall: A much better side project than say, Chester Bennington's Dead by Sunrise or Mike Shinoda's Fort Minor, despite the fact that it's COUNTRY music. 8/10
Recommendations: State of Our Affairs, Bitter Pill, Bridal Gown, Another Night on My Side.

Glamnation Tour Malaysia 2010

Currently Listening To: Adam Lambert - F-F-Fever

Three days later...

I'm still hungover from seeing ADAM LAMBERT LIVE IN MALAYSIA OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!
I CAN'T BELIEVE I SAW THE REAL GLAMBERT!
That man is absolutely GORGEOUS IN PERSON! AND OMG HE SOUNDS FREAKING AWESOME!
Can you believe that I screamed and jumped like mad person in that hot, stuffy pit? Well I did! I didn't realize that there were 13000+ people in that freaking stadium. Seriously, it didn't seem that packed! But the pit was definitely cramped, I think there was at least one thousand people in that tiny area. So glad that I got in the pit early or I wouldn't have seen anything! Thank you Xian Na and her parents!
(The queue to the pit was maddeningly crazy, the seating areas were definitely less populated, sadly!)



Some photos of the concert...
(taken from Wai Yee-Sama and hotxpress.com)

Guess who was spotted at the Glamnation Tour"> ;)











To all those people who protested outside, for all your talk about bad morals and all, at least Adam respects you enough to follow your silly restrictions. You guys on the other hand, have absolutely no respect for another human being and saying all sorts of insulting things about someone you don't even know is just plain classless.

Putting that aside, I really enjoyed the concert! When he comes to Asia again, I'm so going to another country to watch it.

A Thousand Suns

Currently Listening To: Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over

I used to be such a big fan of Linkin Park, so I am very shocked to discover that they've just not-that-recently released a new single, and their fourth studio album is actually out TODAY. I mean, I only found out about their single while watching the VMAs earlier, where they performed The Catalyst. As for the album, well, Google's my best friend.


What a cover? No album title, no band name...?

Anyway, I've just finished listening to the album and...wow. It is very...underwhelming. It's a bit better than Minutes to Midnight I suppose but I don't know. At any rate I am not impressed. Three years ago, I gave Minutes to Midnight a fairly bad review. I rated it 3.5/5 back then, but you know what, I have not listened that album ever since...well, 2007. If you were to ask me right now how I would rate Midnight, I'd gladly give it a 1/5. There are a few nice songs in there but I really dislike that album in general. In fact, I think it's one of the worse albums I've heard in the past three years or so. I still listen to Hybrid Theory and Meteora occasionally, but Midnight is a big no no.

Now, A Thousand Suns, I really have no idea how it got 5 out of 5 star reviews. It may not be a bad album but it definitely does not deserve a full star rating. I don't see what's so artistic about it, to me it's like random melodies and lyrics. I can't even judge the songs individually cause everything sounds the same! Not to mention all those random ridiculous interludes/instrumentals. What's up with that? There are about 5 or 6 of them, and they serve no purpose as far anyone can see.

Seriously, I can safely proclaim that I am not really a fan of Linkin Park anymore. I still love their older songs, but their new music is just no longer appealing to me.

Overall: 3/10, I will definitely not listen to this all over again.
Recommended: Iridescent, The Catalyst...and that's about it?

P.S.: Florence and the Machine's performance at the VMAs was totally awesome! I've never really listened to her songs before, but I'll definitely try it out now.

It's Like A Dream Come True...

Currently Listening To: Jojo - Can't Take That Away From Me

I never thought that I'd actually get a chance to do this but....

I'VE GOT THE PITT TICKETS TO ADAM LAMBERT'S GLAM NATION TOUR IN MALAYSIA!!! 14h OCTOBER 2010!!

Like OMG!


Le tickets!!!

Wheeeee! Malaysian Glamberts unite!

A September Day

Currently Listening To: Bruno Mars - Just The Way You Are

Dear abandoned blog,

It is no longer a trend to blog I suppose, seeing as no blogs have been updated recently. That includes me, obviously. I haven't forgotten my blog at all and I do click on the link -almost- everyday but I'd look at it and then...I just don't have anything to say.

I still don't have anything to blog about but thought I'd say a few words about the lack of activity in the blogdom.

So what am I doing now? Nothing actually. The last few days of my one week study break (study break my foot! No studying done for the past whole week). Client brief for Marketing Professional Practice still untouched. Tutorial that was due last week untouched as well. I pretty much spent my whole 'study break' playing games on Facebook hah!

Need to get my ass moving soon before it gets too big.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Currently Listening To: Adam Lambert - Strut

I've been listening to relatively unknown bands and singers lately.

Local Natives








Fleet Foxes





A.A. Bondy





Our very own Yuna.



Do support her by buying her new album, Decorate when it's available.

Lissie's amazing cover of Kid Cudi's Pursuit of Happiness.



~*~

I just bought the soft cover of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol last week, finished reading it within 2 days. Can't say I'm impressed with the book, cos honestly it's extremely disappointing and rather boring. Compared to his other books, The Lost Symbol reads like it's his first ever serious work or something. The problem is...it's not his first book. Nor is he an amateur writer. Heck, he has sold millions of books by now so he should be a lot better than the crap in The Lost Symbol. Terribly disappointing.

Bought Audrey Niffeneger's Her Fearful Symmetry as well. She's the author of The Time Traveller's Wife, which I've never read before, even though it's an international bestseller, with a movie and all. Just bought the book cos there's 20% off if I were to buy two books instead of one.

And they've just reprinted Agatha Christie's books! There's a 3 for the price of 2 offer in MPH on all her books, so I'm really tempted to buy. I don't know if I should though, I mean, I just bought those two other books last week and also new bags and shoes and clothes so...gah. Spending way too much money lately.

That Feeling...

Irritated.
Annoyed.
How to get rid of this feeling?

Aphrodite

Currently Listening To: Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite

First blog entry for July!
It has been a while since I've reviewed any music, so I thought I'd start things off for July with a review of Kylie Minogue's new album Aphrodite.

I don't think I've mentioned this to anyone before but I'm actually a fan of Kylie. Unexpected? Haha.

Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite

Anyway, before I left for my KL trip I listened to the album and I must say I really enjoyed it. Much better than her previous album, X. Also, I was seriously delighted when I found out that one of the tracks on her album was written by Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley. More reason for me to love Kylie and Keane!

If you're looking for fun pop songs, Aphrodite's the album for you. It's mostly dance/electro pop stuff - very typical of Kylie, and that is why it works so well. She isn't trying too hard to be someone different (Xtina anyone?) or aiming to shock audiences (ahem Gaga).

Overall: A great album, in my opinion. 8/10
Recommended Tracks: All The Lovers, Get Outta My Way, Aphrodite.

~*~

SPAIN won the 2010 World Cup!

I can't even begin to tell you how nervous I was when the finals kicked off. Watched it at my uncle's in KL at 2.30am Monday night. Can't say that the actual match was exciting, cos it wasn't, but it sure was intense. I was watching with such intensity, my mum actually asked me 'Why the hell are you so tensed?' (AND YES my mum watched the second half of the match!). And when they won, I was absolutely delighted! In fact, I'm still excited now, two days after the finals! I was really impressed with the Spain squad, I've been supporting them all this while without watching them play.

Although I've been a supporter of both Germany and Spain since the start of the world cup, I was secretly rooting for Spain more cos they've never won the cup before. And after watching the Spain vs Germany match, I was sold - Spain all the way! I feel really bad about Fernando Torres though, I'm a huge fan of his (bahahaha not just for his looks, or the fact that he plays for Liverpool) and to see him play so half-heartedly and then getting that injury...ouch =( Here's hoping he'll recover soon AND that he'll stay at Liverpool FC...if he leaves I think Liverpool's screwed. At any rate, I'll be a Torres fan no matter where he goes...

A few hours later...

I think my obsession with Fernando Torres just went up about two notches, after watching vids of his amazing goals. Sobs, please recover well! You can't let all that talent go to waste!

~*~

My results came out last night, and I'm proud to announce that I've passed all the four subjects, including a distinction for Entrepreneurship! That was unexpected, I had been afraid of not doing well for the assignments. And not surprisingly, Strategic Management was my worst subject, but at least I got more than just a Pass for that! Congrats to me =D

On a side note, I finally found Diana Wynne Jones' Year of the Griffin in Kinokuniya after searching around for it in other shops for...two years? I did see the book two years ago, when I was at Kinokuniya, but the only copy they had then was in terrible condition. Thank god they had a new copy in stock this time around!