July Playlist

Hello!

The music that came out in July was on another level.

I’m not sure if the Olympics in Tokyo were responsible for the increase of bangers but I am living for it anyways!

There were moments where I wanted to listen to every genre I could get my toes on, and then I back track it with just individual artists and I would be listening to their albums in two days, for example, one evening I started craving Linkin Park and I ended up listening to my favorite albums and I didn’t stop until the next afternoon and I was even looking up my favorite YouTube videos of them, and for like four days, I felt like I was in heaven. And then I realized that the date of Chester’s death was coming up and I became very sad quickly… but it was still great to get back into my favorite songs and sing them at the top of my lungs again.

Another band that I think was having a great month is Halocene. They are an unsigned band in Arizona and only have three members: Addie (vocals), Brad (backup vocals and guitar), and Joe (drummer). that love to do covers of songs in various genres. Personally, I tend to fall in love with their covers of rock and heavy metal songs. Addie does a terrific job of handling her voice against some of these darker and low vocals. The band itself released three covers and they were “Zombie” by The Cranberries/Bad Wolves, “Throne” by Bring Me The Horizon (featuring Ai Mori) and “In The End” by Linkin Park (featuring NerdOut). These are the ones on their YouTube channel but they also have another BMTH cover on Ai Mori’s channel and that song is, “Can You Feel My Heart” but I didn’t enjoy it as much and still drives me nuts!

They also released a brand new original song, called “When Demons Come To Life” and it is awesome! It has Lauren Babic and I really enjoyed the fact that she is singing on the majority of this song, because lots of people know she’s a damn good screamer but I think everybody forgets that she has this soft, child like voice too and it really works wonders against Addie’s vocals too. The music video is very creepy as they show like an asylum and it really draws you into the meaning of the lyrics and everything just works so good! They tend to do a lot of videos and they’re all different and exciting in their own ways but this has to be my favorite because it fits so well with the song and there are not many music videos like that.

I think it’s finally time to tell you my Top 25 songs are for July. If you want to check out the entire Spotify playlist, click here.

Writing’s On The Wall by Yale Out Of The Blue
Hurt by Christian Reindt featuring Lloren
Gravity by Sara Bareilles
Realm Of Dreams by J2
Rani Cypher by Raja Kumari featuring Dee MC, SIRI
Twisted by Carrie Underwood
Remember by Leah
Confessional by Janet Devlin
Weight Of Everything by Ill Factor featuring Katie Garfield
Take You Dancing by Jason Dersulo
Infected by Starset
Harleys In Hawaii by Katy Perry
Fallin’ (Adrenaline) by Why Don’t We
If It Makes You Happy by Sheryl Crow
Say You Love Me by Jessie Ware
The Messenger by Linkin Park
Harley by Letters From The Fire
All In by 2WEi featuring Marvin Brooks
Die With Me by Gemini Syndrome
Holy Roller by Spiritbox
Galway Girl by MALINDA
Hard To Kill by Beth Crowley
She’s Fire by Diane Warren featuring G-Eazy & Santana
Drinks by Cyn
Savage (bitmastr remix) by Bahari

I said this the other day on my Instagram but I love how different my music tastes are on daily basis. They are NEVER the same to the next and honestly, it makes things even more exciting because I absolutely love sharing what I am listening and loving lately with people. I mean, I wouldn’t be doing these posts for my personal enjoyment–although I have in the past!–without influencing somebody else to look outside of their comfort zone. I like a bit of everything and obliviously I’m not afraid to show it!

Now it is your turn, what were you into this month?

September Playlist

Hello!

September was not meant to have three music posts going up (the last one will publish on Monday!) but since stopping my main ‘Music Monday’ series, I had room to fill and I guess I took advantage of it. Thankfully, they are all different and have a large selection of music for everyone to enjoy!

For today, we are getting into the monthly playlist, plus a special dedication for an artist that sent me a message late in August for my services, so before I give you the top songs, I thought you should look into my thoughts on what I thought about Rad Luck’s song “Too Lit”.

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Rad Luck is an independent hip hop artist from North Carolina. Apparently he’s released several songs and mixtapes since early 2019, and what I really like about him is that everything he does, he does it himself. Nowadays, everybody is doing this, but I still appericate the passion, people are doing things without the help of record companies. Although, most artists still want to be a part of a famous label and blow up into a mega star, but there is no ganuertee that once you get there, how much power you will able to release what you want, so even though this way is time-consuming, at least you have creative control on everything you put out there for your growing fanbase.

Anyways, I actually liked the song. I didn’t love it exactly, but I thought the beat was good and totally gave me this vibe of everything that screams “summer” and though we are nearing the end of the season, everyone is trying their best to keep it in their lives right now, as part of a good aspect to this interesting year! The video itself is very trippy, which adds another part to the “good times” flare throughout the entire song.

Please before continuing with the rest of my post, listen to his track and check it out for yourself. I’d like to see what your thoughts are on it too! You can find Rad Luck on Instagram and Twitter.

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Okay, now we’re back to our regular scheduled post.

I think this monthly playlist is short compared to the others, but I think I know why. Since I was busy with my other posts and their playlists, I just forgot to add songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to throughout the month. I’ve tried my best to pick through the songs I could remember and continued to add more newer tracks afterwards. Here is my Top 20 songs that I just loved so much that I thought you should check out as well!

Exhale by Plumb
Master Passion Greed by Nightwish
Tears Don’t Fall by Bullet For My Valentine
Bad Guy by Conquer Divide
Barefoot In The Park by James Blake featuring Rosalia
I Hope by Gabby Barrett featuring Charlie Puth
I Did It by Raja Kumari
Goddess by Krewella x NERVO featuring Raja Kumari
Getting Over It by COUNTERFEIT
The Diary Of Jane by Freya Catherine
Blood Diamond by VERIDIA
All Around Me by Flyleaf
The Bleeding by Five Finger Death Punch
Good In Goodbye by Madison Beer
Whore by Violet Orlandi
Six Feet Under by Oshins featuring Leslie Powell
Brand New Thing by Zayde Wolf
Giant by ZZ Ward
Another Level by Oh The Larceny
Aerials by Halocene featuring Violet Orlandi and Lauren Babic

If you are on Spotify and want to keep taps on the other songs I listen throughout the day (and sometimes night!) you can click here to be directed to the playlist in general.

What were you listening to?

February Playlist

Howdy!

It is time for this month’s playlist and I am SO excited because I felt like this was such a big time for music! I did a lot of discovering new music and reading for February, and I actually enjoyed being able to multitask like this! I would go back and forth between wanting to read my books as you’ve probably seen with all of my reviews lately, but music has played a big part of it too!

This month’s playlist on Spotify is gigantic! I mean, I’m not really surprised but I wasn’t expecting the actual  number to be lower than 200! As I am writing this post, the amount of songs included is: 139!

I am definitely bringing back listing my Top 25 songs for this! I feel like I would have a difficult time making it smaller, so it’ll just make things easier on me so I can add all of my favorites.

Good In Goodbye by Madison Beer
Mambo by Nikki Vianna
Reckless by Yellow Claw x Fatman Scoop
Light It Up by UNSECRET featuring Manafest
Someone New by Astrid S
Gotta Make It by Trey Songz featuring Twista
Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera
Hi Bitch by Bhad Bhabie
So Thick by WHIPPED CREAM featuring Baby Goth
Noise by Nightwish
React by The Pussycat Dolls
Medusa by Jhay Cortez with Anuel AA & J Balvin
No Good by Ally Brooke
Supernova by Within Temptation
Billie Jean by The Civil Wars
Do Or Die by Amaranthe featuring Angela Gossow
Have You Ever Been In Love? XYLO
Out Of The Mind by Lawless with MXMS
A Thousand Years by Jasmine Thompson
Not About Angels by Jasmine Thompson
16 Shots by Steffion Don
I Do!! by Toya
Fuego by DJ Snake featuring Sean Paul, Anitta, & Tainy
Mirage by Nextro

As I mentioned above, I did a lot of reading this month too. How are you about music playing in the background while you clean or read? I honestly enjoy listening to instrumentals; it is my go-to every time. However, lately I’ve been wanting something different, because sometimes whenever I have instrumental music going on, it can make me want to go to sleep. For two days in a row, I used Spotify’s playlist called “Arabic Trap”. I love trap music but with very little vocals. There is another one I like to use and it’s called “Ethnic Trap” and this has both Indian and Arabic trap music included. I don’t use it very often, but since I feel like I have listened to all of the tracks in the first one, I may have to switch them around.

I know I haven’t done any music reviews lately, but that doesn’t mean I’m not checking them out though! I’ve heard Major Lazer’s new EP “Soca Storm” and Krewella’s new album “zer0” so far. I have three others left and I’ll try to get to them soon!

What have you been listening to for February? Do you have a favorite album and/or song?

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?

Album Review: “Reawakenings Vol. 2” by Hidden Citizens

I have been looking forward to this for over two months. I think in a couple of weeks, I’ll write a post about my favorite modern cinematic composers/producers, so you can see that there are many others out there that are really interesting. Hidden Citizens were probably the second act that I found once I started on this crazy journey. I look forward to every new single, EP that they release but here we actually have a new album. One thing to keep in mind with these guys is that they mainly reinvent older songs, so you’re hearing covers of generally cinematic and trailer music.

For this album, there are a total of 12 songs with some songs you may or may not recognize, plus some special guests that you might’ve heard on their previous releases. We have a long list to get through so I think we should just start it.

We begin with “You’re No Good” and I have to say, it’s the only song that I have listened to prior working on this review. It features Ranya, who has worked with them before and you will continue to see her throughout this album as well. I really like the strong introduction, Ranya has a strong presence on it too. I like the fact that we start very strong and have an oddly heavy metal sound. There are a few songs on here that I know to be in that genre, but with this one I’m not really sure about but I definitely like this version. The second track is “Shattered Dreams” and it features VE. To me, it’s a little bit more mellow but I like the softness of it. Whenever you have a large selection of cinematic songs, it is best to have a couple gentle ones in the mix to let everything breathe. So, it’s okay for my standard – I think I would have loved it more if it was down the list honestly.

Now this next one, I have heard before, but I had to look up who it was originally by, ahh Pat Benatar! Once I saw it on the tracklist, I instantly heard a female singing in my brain. It’s definitely more of an 80’s song than anything else, so to see it with a modern flare is very interesting! What’s even cooler is that instead of using a female singer for this, we have Adam Christopher. He has a high falsetto voice so it mimics what you remember, but with everything added in, he makes it ‘cooler’ for this generation. Now, unfortunately, if I were to let my parents–especially my mom–I don’t think they would approve but that’s expected sometimes! For anyone born in the 90’s, might remember this 2000’s pop classic “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt. I grew up on pop music so the fact that I knew the lyrics to this one, but could not figure out who it was by at the top of my head is somewhat sad. Anyways, this is actually very good and quiet too. Tim Halperin was a very interesting choice for this rendition, but I actually enjoyed it!

Our next song is “Paint It Black”, now I’ve heard R&B singer Ciara’s version of it for The Last Witch Hunter soundtrack but I haven’t found any others that I liked just as much. Overall, the song is pretty and dark, even Ranya’s voice is gorgeous on it, but I still prefer this other one right now! We move on to “Nowhere To Run” with Keeley Bumford. I really love this song! It’s fierce, ominous and pulls you right into the ride. I’ve always had a weakness to these types of songs!

We are nearing the end of our adventure with the last six songs, “Crazy On You” is where we go to next. Ranya is back. I really liked this one as it was fast paced and really strong. However that’s all I can say about it! Leave it to me to forget one while writing them out the list on my notepad. We’re back to normal now, and Adam Christopher comes back with “Everywhere” and I really liked the softness of it.Of course, it does branch off with a heavier tone later on but Adam has a really nice voice for all genres, it’s not overwhelming at all. It’s like smoke, it just flows away slowly. I never thought I woul ever have to use that metaphor but here we are right?

“No Easy Way Out” by VE is on now, and we have another still type of song but out of all the songs on the album, I think this is my favorite. It was very emotional and I have found out recently that I am a sucker for these types of songs now! I guess it’s a side effect of listening to a lot of epic music! This is our final track with Ranya and it is “Beware Of darkness” and I was really hoping for a desolate type of song and that’s exactly what I got, but instead of it being in your face at all times, it is still pretty mellow for the majority of it. I still loved it though!

Tim Halperin makes his last appearance with “We Are All Made Of Stars” and again, we have this rock sound but what I really like about it is that it gives the song this extra edge but it still has a nice beat to be used as part of your workout playlist. It’s a unique song! Lastly, we have “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be” now the singer on this track is a favorite of mine because she was once apart Celtic Woman: Chloe Agnew. I’m not really sure if this is a Irish song but I love the fact that it has this quiet almost like a lullaby but the built up gives it a nice mysterious flare. It’s really beautiful and exactly what I want for the perfect finish.

This album as a whole was good; unfortunately I can’t say I loved it either. I was a little torn with it, because I did this to myself on the fact that I expected it to be amazingly awesome, when in reality it really wasn’t. A part of me thinks it was because of the amount of times that some of the artists come back throughout the album. There wasn’t a variety of voices in the songs as maybe I would have liked, but don’t get me wrong the artists are really great but I wanted more than what we were given! Of course, this is only my opinion.

Are you a fan of Hidden Citizens? What were your thoughts on their new album? did you enjoy it just as much as their previous releases or not?