August Playlist

Hello my friends!

August hasn’t been one of the friendliest months; lots have happened, but as long as my niece decides to keep inside her cave just a tad bit longer, we’ll deal with it.

Speaking of her though, we had a nice baby shower for her, and we all had an excuse to dress up, Blondie wore a rose-pink dress, kind of fitting considering she wore a bright ocean blue for Nolan’s shower! Originally, I wasn’t going to want to wear a dress, I tried to talk my mom into getting a jumpsuit or romper, but she talked me out of it, and I found a nice olive-green Maxi dress instead. I’ve been really obsessed with my clothes in the color green these past two years and I have yet to figure out the reason for it! I was going to leave the leggings at home but even I saw right through that idea! Whenever I wear dresses, I tend to wear shorts underneath so I can talk verbally and physically with my legs without flashing the poor people in front of me. I have done this on accident in the past, so it is just better to wear leggings or something.

Anyways, we had a great time, celebrating my sister and my little niece. Nolan had a blast too! He absolutely adores baby socks and the “bow ties” (which are the hair bands!), hearing him “ohh” and “awe” over the gifts was so sweet! He is thoroughly excited about his baby sister, and I am thinking of placing bets amongst family members to see how long it lasts because he does not have the patience for things, so a lot of us know it’ll be an interesting adventure for him.

A week later, my little dude decided to grow up and start preschool!

The first day was a bit odd, he didn’t want Blondie to leave him, but it seems after she left, he had a great time! He came home with first crafts he had made in class, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing bits and pieces of his morning activities because he was playing with his toys in the living room. We’re all still trying to wrap our brains around the fact that he’s even old enough to attend “big kid” school, but nothing really prepared us for it like the second day, he pretty much told his mommy to go away as he walked up to his teachers and new friends. The other day they came over and brought his Spidey backpack inside to show us some of his assignments and a fairly large magazine full of book fair goodies! I definitely don’t remember this in my preschool days, but since with COVID, they just send home these catalogs for each student and my dad and I went through that whole thing on our own because that was our favorite thing about school, although I never bought books home, so to see Nolan point out certain books or magazines was very touching to me! He loves his books like his mimi and mommy!

And then all hell broke loose, my mom came home from work a week later not really feeling well, and as she tried to start her second shift on Sunday, she was sent home with COVID within half an hour later.

As much as we tried to quarantine in our house, it didn’t really shield us well enough, especially when one of us is like me and needs assistance on a daily basis. I had some sickly symptoms the same day she was tested but I didn’t voice it until that Monday because I was utterly terrified to say anything to my folks, they are both vaccinated but I chose to not get it. I am not one for needles/shots, but I also didn’t know what kind of side effects would present itself later on in life, so I just chose to forgo it entirely and my parents were very aware of my feelings toward it on both reasons, and they haven’t said anything about it. I know it contradicts my thoughts I wrote about in the post I wrote back when this mess started but even then, I still knew I wasn’t getting the vaccine.

My symptoms were mild in comparison to my folks, the one thing we all had was the disgusting taste in our mouths, and we found out it was caused by our medicine, and what seemed to make it disappear were fruity candies, especially Life Savers. I would keep them on my bookshelf so I can chew/suck on it for a bit of time and it would help so much for us! My dad was the last in the household to get it and he used those cinnamon candies and I remember thinking, “why torture yourself like that?!” and my mom would actually eat butter scotches and they worked, but I liked the fruity flavors to keep me occupied for probably 15-20 minutes. We were all thrilled to be done with everything and Blondie and Nolan were allowed to come over again. It was pure torture to be separated from him for basically two weeks, and as he started school too.

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All right, so everything aside, this month’s music has been somewhat interesting. In the beginning, I was trying to keep up with the newest releases and the first Monday afterwards, I went through my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify, and I proceeded to put every song onto the main playlist. I ended up listening to three albums, the first was Hollywood Undead’s “Hotel Kalifornia” which came out a couple of weeks ago. I loved it! I have like eight or nine favorites on it, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to! The second was found by accident and it is called, “Aventine” by Agnes Obel. This was also great but very different compared to HU though! And the final was Demi Lovato’s “HOLY FVCK” and I surprised myself with this because I did not think I would enjoy it, but I was wrong and it’s probably one of her best releases in a while.

Here is my Top 20 songs for August! If you would like to check out the entire playlist, click here.

Meteorite by BANKS
Hands of Gold by Delain
Weight of Everything by Ill Factor featuring Katie Garfield
Blow by Eva Under Fire featuring Spencer Charnas
Every Man Is A Warrior by Lena Fayre
The Promise by In This Moment
Valiant by Nightcity.
Thunder by Imagine Dragons
Cake By The Ocean by DNCE
How Soon Is Now by AG featuring Dresage
Dorian by Agnes Obel
This Is What I Live For by Graffiti Ghosts
Kings & Queens by Ava Max
The Champion by Carrie Underwood featuring Ludacris
Let You Down by Sleeping With Sirens featuring Charlotte Sunds
Crazy Train by Joseph William Morgan
100 Little Deaths by Lilith Czar
Pink Venom by BLACKPINK
Happy When I Die by Hollywood Undead
Sound of War by Tommee Profitt x Fluerie

What were you listening to this month?

April Playlist

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you were able to enjoy the month of April, and you might be a little confused as to why I didn’t blog last week. I am hoping to explain more on Friday but I honestly needed an extra week to not only come up with content but take one heck of a break as well. At the beginning of this month, I got really sick with the stomach flu; unfortunately it is making its rounds in my home town so we have been dealing with the lingering side effects for at least a week after I got better and since I always take a nice break for a number of weeks, I thought you wouldn’t mind if I didn’t publish anything last week. If you or someone you know has been going through the cycle, I am so sorry and hope you start to feel better soon!

As far as talking about music for this month, it was a bit slow obviously, but it wasn’t until the 18th that I actually started to listen to a bunch of music again. It was very odd when I went to make my list to post on here, I literally had less than 15 songs on the Spotify playlist! Honestly I wanted food more than music in the first three weeks than anything else. Once I was able to get over the hurdle, I was really looking for my Discover Weekly playlist that Spotify creates for me every Monday. If the list is really good and practically spot on to the aesthetic I am vibing at the moment, I will listen to the whole thing multiple times a week and of course include any great tunes to the monthly playlist.

Here are the Top 20 songs for April 2021! If you would like to check out the rest of the playlist on Spotify, click here to be transported back there.

Animals by Architects (Orchestra Version)
Numb by Carlie Hanson
Strong by Amaranthe featuring Noora Louhimo
Think Of Me by Verite
Save You by Manafest featuring Redlight King
Heavy Is The Crown by Daughtry
Forget Me Too by Machine Gun Kelly featuring Halsey
Goddess by Xana
Idol by Lauren Babic
Better Without You by Evanscence
Shameless by Biometrix featuring Bolshiee
Like You Love Me by Luna Vexa
Wildflowers by Ava
The Skeleton Key by Epica
Song Of War by KSHMR
Dancing With The Devil by Kitty Antix
Underneath by Zahna
Lay Low by Amy Guess
Genie In A Bottle by Oshri
Better Than You by Caroline Kay

I didn’t mention this last month, but we went up north earlier this month and surprisingly, I don’t remember the music we had playing in the car. However, in my defense, we had the volume low for Nolan but nobody really wanted to listen to anything special–I figured we’d be listening to Demi Lovato’s new album as we drove up there and going back home, which was the reason why I was going to wait to hear it because my sister wanted to hear it too, but now it’s been a while and I’ve only heard one song. I am hoping that I will be checking it out soon though because I am almost done watching the new documentary on YouTube and I will probably be gravitating towards it afterwards!

What were you listening to this month?

Album Review: “Liberation” by Christina Aguilera

Today, we’re going to be talking about Christina Aguilera’s new album “Liberation” and I have been looking forward to this since before she had her daughter Summer back in 2014. Her last album “Lotus” came out in 2012 so it’s been a good six years since she’s put out a good batch of songs so I was more than ready to see this pop up on my Spotify on June 15th!

Let’s get into this, shall we?

One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about listening Christina’s music, especially her albums is how she tells a story within each song, including little introductions that go with the next track. So when the album begins, you have the title track “Liberation” and all it is, is a very elegant, orchestral and you hear a happy little child in the background with it. It’s very mysterious but gentle too. Next is “Searching For Maria” and this is a great example to the real beginning to the song that starts afterwards. Again, it’s only a snippet of Christina’s voice in the softest quality. Finally, the albums starts with “Maria” and it has a sweet, string introduction but then turns into this sharp hip hop beat, which is really good. I like it!

Fourth is “Sick Of Sittin'” and I really liked it, but at first I was little weirded out on how it sounded, because it reminded me something that we’d hear from Joss Stone, not Xtina! However, I thought this was a different song and I actually like it. Next is “Dreamers” which is another introduction to “Fall In Line” but firstly we have to discuss how cute but powerful hearing those girls, in various ages, say what they wanted to be when they grew up and I thought was such a touching reminder to put in front of a popular song that “Fall In Line” has turned into, because you have both Christina Aguilera and Demi Lovato! They’re telling other little girls to not fall in line with what other people expect them to be. Personally, I don’t like the song, it starts off good, but towards the end, having both of their voices at full blast is kind of annoying.

As we discussed the musical direction of “Sick Of Sittin” when have “Right Moves” and it also has a different route than we’re used to hearing from her. This definitely has a smooth, slow Caribbean beat. You can dance to it, more like sway but still it’s good. This features both Keida and Shenseea too. Next there’s “Like I Do” and this has GoldLink in it. When I first listened to this song when it came out, I didn’t really like it and now as I am hearing it again, I still don’t know what I think of it. A part of me thought the beat is so chill that it doesn’t really mesh with GoldLink. I feel like he wasn’t needed for it, but I do think Christina’s vocals are okay, but I still don’t like the track as a whole.

The ninth track is “Deserve” and when this first started, I thought to myself, is this going to be dance beat? I was a little disappointed when I was wrong, but I do love the lyrics though so that made up for that. Afterwards, we have “Twice” which came out probably four days after the first single, and I absolutely love this one. I like the acapella beginning and the piano, it’s beautiful and raw.

Now she has also an interlude on this album, and it’s titled “I Don’t Need It Anymore” and I was fairly curious on what we would hear on this. The track is of her and her background singers, singing acapella and it’s so dreamy! I really wish it was longer, I had an issue with another of her many interludes on her Back To Basics album in 2007.

Her first single was “Accelerate” and it features both Ty Dolla $ign and 2 Chainz. I like the beat and I’m perfectly fine with the sexual messages mentioned in it, because if you call yourself a hardcore Xtina fan but yet you hate it when she talks about sex, you’re not a real fan! Sorry not sorry! I will say, I didn’t like either rapper on it. Whoever’s on the chorus with her, did a bad job! His voice cracked and it just sounds weird. “Pipe” is afterwards and it has XNDA I figured once we’d get through the interlude, we would see the sexy songs of the album, but I do like this one. I like the sultry, but chill tone of the track.

The final two songs of the album begins with “Masochist” and I’m not going to lie, but I had to look up what this word was, because I didn’t know it. So thanks to Google I now know that it means, “a person who derives sexual or other gratification from their own pain or humiliation.” After reading the definition, and begin to really listen to the lyrics, everything started on make a little sense to me. The beat itself is very light and sweet, despite the direction you take the meaning of the lyrics. And lastly, we have “Unless It’s With You” and I really liked the soft piano introduction. I really enjoy hearing a singer’s voice, especially ones like Christina Aguilera. She has such a large range, but here she is, in the smallest quantity. It’s so pretty!

I have to say I’ve actually only loved one of her albums straight through and that is “Lotus” so in a way, I knew there would be a 50/50 chance that would actually happen again. Overall, the album is good. There’s not a lot of heavy hitters, but I liked the many different musical changes she went through, but it’s not that bad, I just know how I am whenever I listen to her music, and unfortunately I don’t think that part will ever change about me.

Have you listened to Christina Aguilera’s new album “Liberation” yet? What did you think about it?

Childhood Dream Come True!

So…

My future brother-in-law just continues to spoil my sister everyday I swear! Like last year when he purchased her tickets to see an idol of hers, Taylor Swift; he might’ve outdone himself with this one! Back in March, he bought themselves two tickets to the Honda Civic Tour: Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato on August 3rd!

Before I actually start this post, I thought I’d explain the title.

Growing up, I had a thing for boy bands. I mean, early 00’s was the time for boy bands and all the bubble gum medleys. Fast forward about eight years later, a group of boys took that title of “boy band” to another level. Nowadays, the label has changed slightly. Teenage girls like when their favorite singers can play instruments – mostly the guitar or drums! My sister enjoyed Backstreet Boys just like I did, but she kept the legacy going by falling in love with the Jonas Brothers. She was really into Joe Jonas than Nick–he is mine! She had almost every album and then Camp Rock came on the Disney Channel and this produced Blondie’s deep love of Demi Lovato.

I would say she was a normal fan of Miss Lovato until everything happened in 2013, then she started to find real comfort in her songs. She become Blondie’s saving grace. At that time, Demi had released Unbroken. And that was the first album that I sort of fell in love, but I tend to drive people away from different music acts because I, too, can get obsessive! I’d say the last three albums have been her best work yet! As for Nick, you guys know how much I love his music! When I heard they were going to the concert, I told Brandon to take photos and videos for me of him as Blondie would be all over the Demi section.

They had a somewhat bad deal in the beginning, as they got scammed by Live Nation but after panicking for a couple of days, they got everything fixed and repurchased tickets through another site. I thought where my seats at the Shinedown and Five Finger Death Punch were pretty nice, until I saw she was like up in front about eight rows from the stage! I always thought my family should have started taking bets of whether or not she’d pass out! (..she didn’t faint unfortunately!)

I didn’t text neither one of them throughout the night, but my mom certainly did! Well, I’d say it was the other way around. Mom wasn’t the one doing the texting as much as sis was! I would say it was about 8pm that Nick went up on stage because somebody had taken a picture of him and my mom proceeded to show me how incredibly close they were to him! By 9pm, nobody was getting a text from the twins anymore. The next day, I was tagged in nine, NINE videos on Facebook! I still haven’t finished all of them despite the fact they’re only a few seconds long.

When they got home that night though, Chipper left them a homecoming present. No poop on the floor, but he did decide to tear up the couch… Now Blondie wants to go to the Louder Than Life tour in Kentucky with a group of her friends to see Skillet in October. We’ll see what happens with that!

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Song Review: “Irresistible” by Fall Out Boy featuring Demi Lovato

 Fall Out Boy is a band that i didn’t really like as much as everybody else did. i would like some of their songs on the radio, but not every single one like I’ve been doing lately! I’m probably going to get my butt in a lot of trouble when I say this, but I’ve noticed in the last two albums their music sounds more rock-electronica then their earlier stuff. Music is transforming and acts are becoming more adventurous with their sound. I like that, I really do but I keep pushing myself away from FOB because they’re branching out of their rocky roots.

When Fall Out Boy first released their album American Beauty/American Psycho last year, I actually took some time out of my day and listened to it from top to bottom. Surprisingly, I liked it more than I thought I would but then again I said the same thing about the album before that! The song “Irresistible” was one that I liked the way it was without Miss Lovato. So you should have seen my reaction when this was going to be the next single, but they were going to add Demi to it too! I was a little sad I’m not going to lie, but after I heard it, I was into it. There weren’t a lot of chances in it, she basically gave it another edge to it. She and Patrick singing together actually works and I think that freaked me out the most! I really like it this way, but I thought the original was good too!

What do you think of Demi Lovato leading her voice to the song? Yay or nay?