Top 5 Favorite “Into The Unknown” Covers!

Howdy!

I love Frozen! I only decided to watch it after seeing the SacconeJolys on YouTube. The elder children: Emilia and Eduardo were first obsessed with it and something about them dressing up as Elsa and Anna, just reminded me of my own childhood and how much I still love Disney Princess movies. Afterwards, I had so much joy inside of me and now I am as obsessed as they were, and love knowing they have influenced their younger siblings Alessia and Andrea.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the second film and I’ve been really jealous of every and anybody that have seen it. I’ve done the same things I did before watching the first film, which is only knowing about a couple of the characters’ backgrounds and learning one song from the soundtrack! The main theme: “Into The Unknown” sung by the beautiful Idina Menzel, who plays Queen Elsa and Norwegian singer-songwriter AURORA.

I have been thinking about doing this post since the end of January, which is significant because at that time I had found my third favorite cover of the song! In all, I have picked out a good mixture and wanted to share them with you. However, I do not include the band, Panic! At The Disco’s cover because it is on the soundtrack.

1.) Claire Crosby

So, this was the first I found and it started on this mini adventure! Little Claire is seven years old, and at this age she loves everything, especially Disney films! She and the rest of her musical family created a version of their own and I was stunned on how fast they were able to get things together to create this amazing footage!

The video is absolutely adorable as you have Miss Claire walking around this beautiful landscape of broken trees and this eerie lake that definitely gives you those Frozen vibes! She is dressed as both Princess Anna and Queen Elsa throughout the video.

Since this was my first time ever hearing Claire sing before, I was in shock on how much control she has in her voice at such a young age! Of course, she has the help of her parents to keep her voice in a way that will hopefully help ease and make her vocal chords stronger as she continues in age.

2.) Malinda Kat

So, when I found this next video, I actually wasn’t looking, I just stumbled upon it when I was in the mood for choir music inside abandoned churches or Cathedrals because sometimes I enjoy listening to them while I read, and I did find an artist who has two different videos and her name is Malinda. I just fell in love with her voice.  I’d say she has definitely had singing lessons in the past. I found out she had recorded an acoustic version of the Frozen track with some friends Hannah and Tobias and I was just like, “okay, let’s check this one out too!”

This video feels more casual, almost coffee house inspired. Sometimes I like acoustic music, but when it is mixed with a song that is supposed to sound so powerful with Idina’s voice and the orchestra in the background, to see it basically strip down to only an acoustic guitar and what looks to be like a speaker that Hannah is tapping on to sound like drums was really interesting! Another part that I enjoyed was that even though it was so chilled, they kept on belting out the high notes throughout the song and I was surprised on how much it worked together, because I didn’t think it would sound that great keeping that in with this new tone, but like with most things, I was wrong!

3.) Connor Engstorm

This one pulled me as I was busy listening to Malinda’s reindintion, but I think the main reason why I wanted to listen to it is because the title of it said “symphonic metal” and I thought to myself, “this is going to be awesome” and after my first video was over, I switched it to this one.

This video is cute, it really is. It takes place at Grant Central Station in New York City at the beginning of December so there are Christmas lights up all around and everyone is bundled up in heavy jackets and have mittens over their hands and you hear a little bit of heavy metal blaring through your speakers as these two characters are playing cat and mouse on screen! The vocals featured on the song are Anthony Niccolo and his wife Val while Connor is in charge of everything else.

As someone who absolutely loves symphonic metal, I felt as both a critic and lover of this cover. I didn’t know how it was going to sound like at first and I will say, I did not love it right away. This didn’t happen until I actually finished. Anthony and Val have two different styles in their voice. Anthony definitely has that almost glam rock tone about him but Val is more demure to him but not where they are belting out those high notes, that’s when she really shines! I was a bit wary of this transition but ultimately I ended up really enjoying it!

4.) Acapop! KIDS

For this video, you have a fairly large of kids that are singing in acapella, which means there really is no music in the background, but for this performance the kids are creating the beat along with singing; they take turns in the role of singing and becoming the various  instruments. I thought it was very cool to go in this direction, because they made it into a very clear pop song and I think that was the main reason why I liked it so much because they managed to completely change the genre of the song!

5.) Musicality

This cover is the newest to be released to the world, and it resembles the previous video because of the amount of people involved in the project. Here you have teenagers instead of children, so they’ve probably already went through their puberties and their voices have changed and sound older.

One thing that I liked about the video is the look of the space they’re in, it looks as though they are in a newly painted warehouse in all white and they are dressed in winter colors of white, grays, and baby blues. It looks so dreamy and lovely! I think fashion helps bring out the mood of the song especially in the way of the previous group, where they are singing in acapella. The phrase of “less is more” really shines here!

So, I think that is it! If I find any more or you have a cover or video that is not featured above, please send me the link to check it out! Most importantly, you should definitely check out the other videos that everyone I have featured in this post too. Before I go, I’d also like to know your overall thoughts of the new Frozen movie too, just don’t spoil everything for me, okay?

October Playlist

Howdy!

October is almost over, like tomorrow is Halloween people! It doesn’t real that 2018 is fading away slowly and it’ll be 2019 in no time, but let’s not dwell on that right now. This past month has brought a lot of new music with it. I’ve been trying to listen to as much as I can in these last couple of weeks, since I’ve been sort of preoccupied with album releases that came out in late September. I want to complete those on here before I really attempted to dive in with October’s offerings!

At the start of the month, I was really in the mood for Britney Spears. It was so bad that I was listening to her older albums on my iPod (because that’s all I have on there!) just before bed and I was so impressed with my dad when he actually guessed her on the fly, and he admitted that he’s always liked her voice. I didn’t actually know that, but in my defense he hasn’t really liked any of my sister and I’s music! If you like Britney Spears growing up, which album is your favorite? Mine is either “Britney” or “In The Zone”

I wish I could say that the music has changed to fit the new season, but that’ll never happen so half the songs I’ve been listening were released sometime in the summer but since nobody really wants to embrace the colder temperatures outsides, they’re the only things keeping the fun times rolling just with the warmth of pumpkin spice lattes keeping us in those summer days. I have been looking into raggaeton musicians lately and I’ve been collecting a vast amount of songs to keep me dancing and of course, happy too!

Here are my Top 10 songs for October!

Taki Taki by DJ Snake featuring Ozuna, Cardi B, & Selena Gomez
Rare by Ruth B
I’m A Mess by BeBe Rexha
Barbie Dreams by Nicki Minaj
Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne
Raggaeton Lento (Remix) by CNCO featuring Little Mix
Done For Me by Charlie Puth featuring Kehlani
Happy Now by Zedd featuring Elley Duhe
Happier by Marshmello featuring Bastille
Eastside by Benny Blanco featuring Khalid and Halsey

If you’re a Spotify user, you can go check out the WHOLE playlist here right now!

I was pretty proud of myself since I was able to go back to reviewing music again. I only talked about five albums by different women. I thought it was just International Day To Be A Girl the other day and I managed to do this on accident! I feel like they made me embrace the changes of the season, except for maybe the second one I did. They each had their share of happy but dark and gloomy songs on the albums. So, if you’re not at that point to celebrate fall yet, but you want something to take you there mentally, maybe you should check out the music below with their reviews!

Dogviolet by Laurel | Heart Of The Hurricane by Beyond The Black | Sign by RAIGN | Ancient Land by Celtic Woman | Infections Of A Different Kind (Step 1) by AURORA

At noon, I will be publishing a second batch of songs over on my blog’s Facebook page and my personal Twitter. I would like to stay at ten songs for these posts so I’m looking forward to feature bonus content to post on those sites. I hope you enjoy all of the playlists I’ve shared with you today. 🙂

What were you listening to in this October? Is there a specific type of music to get you in the mood for the colder months, if so, name a few down at the bottom for me.

Album Review: “Infections Of A Different Kind (Step 1)” By AURORA

This will hopefully be my last album review to have come out in the month of September! I am so excited to talk about this new release though, I love Aurora a lot. She is an interesting artist, she has a beautiful voice and the music she creates is usually right up my alley. If it’s not too much to say this, she’s like the Scandinavian version of Ellie Goulding! The reason why I say that is because they both have similar styles but I think Aurora brings out more emotion than Ellie, but of course that’s my opinion!

When I realized she had a new album out, I was really curious on what the “Step 1” meant at the end of the title. Does that mean, we’ll be getting another release or more in 2019? Technically, what I’m reviewing fits the normal standards of an extended play, as it only consists of eight tracks, but the songs themselves are all fairly long in length so maybe that’s the reason why it is called an album instead. I guess we’ll have to see later on what it all means.

We start off with her first single “Queendom” and I absolutely adore this song so much! I find it really empowering, but also it has like an unique take of what we think how fairy tales should sound like in a way too. It breaks out of the norm and the music makes it sound really fun and there’s no way you’re able to stop dancing or singing along to it. Next is “Forgotten Love” and the beginning started off softly but it grew a little in the tempo and became a bit upbeat during the choruses. I like the fast drumming, it gave the whole another edge. It went from this little frail thing into something stronger, but it wasn’t overwhelming, it was still very gentle like falling snow and dancing in it afterwards.

Third is “Gentle Earthquakes” and I’m not going to lie, but I kind of fell in love with the title first. The introduction is somewhat mysterious, you hear a statically voice in the background in the first two seconds before hearing Aurora’s voice coming forth, The broken voice stays throughout the song, so it adds another curious element. What I really enjoyed was once you got to the choruses, her voice would become very sharp and powerful against the pop-y beat. There’s a lot in this song, but it does sound like a gentle earthquake to me. No pun intended! We move onto “All Is Soft Inside” and the first thing you hear are these different bells, they’re in different pitches but they give a sort of exotic vibe to the song. I also love the usage of the orchestra in the background as well, I think it plays well in the story of the track. I’s all so good as it has this dreamy environment with all of these different sounds and tempos, I think it may turn into a favorite of mine!

Everytime I see this track “It Happened Quiet” I always want to put an “ly” at the end because it doesn’t make sense this way! Anyways, it’s not my song so I’ll just shut up. This has a gorgeous beginning with only a harp. It’s one of my favorite classical instruments ever. I think it’s very graceful and matches well with Aurora’s voice, but this is very quiet song, you can finally hear her at her finest without any interruptions. This is loving and sweet, ugh! I really can’t get enough of it! Next there’s “Churchyard” and I was wondering about this one too. When it starts out, she sings the words in a capella monotone type of way. This has a real gospel feel to it, because of the male choir in the background but the beat changes after a while into this synth-drum beast. The only way I feel like I can describe it is like how Madonna’s song used to sound in the 1990’s! It just has that type of vibe to it and even I thought it was strange, but I say that in a good way!

“Soft Universe” is another track that has an exotic take but the sound as a whole is actually pretty gentle. Although those high pitched “bam-bam” drums you hear throughout give it another layer, it still retains that softness but they also give it a fun edge to it too. I like the dark electronica feel it has, it’s just good! And last but not least, we have the title track “Infections Of A Different Kind” and I really enjoy hearing only her faint voice peeking over the piano in the background. I think the song in itself is very moving but while the song played out, I kept seeing a ballerina dancing elegantly in a studio full of mirrors in her light pink tutu, she looks so beautiful telling her story along with it. It’s that kind of song to see a prima ballerina dancing her best to something like this.

I have to say, I’ve listened to a lot of music over the years, but nothing has ever made me seen so many beautiful images before. I kept seeing different scenery like country sides covered with blankets of snow and then various types of dancers expressing themselves in such a neat way. Aurora has that way about her. She is just at one with music that there is hardly a separation between them. I have to say, not many musicians can do that nowadays! This was the purest sound I’ve found in a really long time. If she does plan on releasing anything else, I hope they sound a bit like this, if not better!

Have you heard of AURORA’s new album “Infections Of A Different Kind” yet? What was your favorite thing about it? Is there a song you love the most?

Tune Tuesday | Norway 2016

Hey guys,

This week we discuss musicians from Norway! I am slowly running out of Norwegian acts for these posts. I only have one for next year’s so I’m going to need some help in figuring out who to use for 2017! I’m thinking ahead of myself, so let’s get back to this year as we are heading to the end of this year’s summer theme! I hope you guys are still enjoying these posts every week!

This first singer I found through fellow blogger, Steve Says, music section. It is Elizabeth Kostova. From what I’ve gathered after hearing her music on YouTube, she’s a pop singer. I thought she’d be a little darker in her music, but this is good too! The songs she has up on the channel sound very sultry! If you want to look into her more, beware, there’s an author with the same name!

Second is somebody that has a bit of a bigger audience: that is Aurora. I was a bit shocked when I found out that she wasn’t American! Aurora is pretty young, I think she’s like 19 years old! I like her music, it’s right up my alley honestly! Sometimes all I need is something dark, but whimsical to get me out of my depths of my mind.

Do you know any more Norwegian acts that I need add or check out, let me know!