Irrelevant title

When you don't feel like saving up tonnes of money to buy an iPod that will inevitably stuff up somehow, you usually save up less money and buy an mp3 that will do the same, but in a cheaper way. When you get sick of scrolling through the list on your mp3 to listen to the artists and albums you want, you usually just shrug it off and tell yourself to suck it up.

Not me. I decided to go on eBay and buy a diskman or Walkman or whatever you want to call it. Now instead of scrolling through an annoyingly long list of tunes on a really dodgy mp3 I flip through my CD case and choose my favorite albums to listen to. My collection is coming along nicely and I have no regrets. Well, occasionally the music jumps a bit but I mostly have no regrets. Here are some of my favourite albums and why they are my favourites.

Angus and Julia Stone's album 'Down the way' is fantastic. I may have mentioned the advanced awesome levels of this album in previous posts. The songs are just so calm and laid back and relaxing I can't help but enjoy it. Also it reminds me of the snow.

 One track in particular that I have been adicted to on this album is 'Draw your swords' because it is amazing. Unfortunately it is also the only Angus and Julia Stone song I have ever heard that has a swear word in it. Mum doesn't like me playing it and there is not a single censored version on the internet. I have to settle for listening to it on my Walkman alone. Still, it is great.

Florence Welch is just plain inspiring. I don't own the 'lungs' album myself but I have all the songs on a mix CD. Not in the right order but I have all the songs. The songs are so good. Half of them tell a story and I love it when songs do that. 'Bird song', 'My boy builds coffins', 'girl with one eye', 'dog days are over', and 'swimming' are a few that I can't seem to stop listening to from this album. Can't help but love the music and quirky lyrics.

Saint Motel's EP 'Forplay' is absolutely fantastic. For $5 and $4 postage I got Saint Motel's first ever CD with 6 songs, 6 music videos and even full lyrics for every one of them. And just because it came all the way from LA, I put the packaging on my wall with all the other interesting junk.

It really is quite a miracle that I have heard of them at all. They are a band based in Los Angeles that hasn't gone mainstream yet. They are not played on any radio station in Australia. In fact, the only reason I heard them at all was because I am a Castle fan and a couple of their songs were on a video Stana Katic and Seamus Dever were apart of called The Alternative Travel Project. Stana Katic and Seamus Dever play Detectives Kate Beckett and John Ryan on Castle, if you didn't already know.

Anyway back to Saint Motel. On their face book page under genre it says "You tell us" because you really can't pick a single genre for all their songs. Except for alternative because that is the genre for when all else fails. I feel like mentioning their song 'Pity Party' which has an extremely happy sounding tune that is contradicted by lyrics such as "Your ship's sinking now. Go down with it." and "Can't clean out your wounds with rusty knives so why do you try". I love it and can't get enough.

 I would try to name my favorites off this album but they are all my favorites so I really can't. The first ones I heard on YouTube were 'Butch', 'To my enemies', 'Dear Dictator', and 'Pity Party'. Those are all links to the actual videos so go for it. If I saw Saint Motel live I'd be one happy literary rockstar. It would have been cheaper and faster for me to buy this CD off iTunes but I live in the 80's so I got it by mail.

The Juno sound track. I really like this movie because it is weird and I'm into weirdness. It's another CD that I don't actually own but I own a burnt CD containing all the songs. Because my brother bought it on iTunes like a normal person.

The songs are unusual and strange but the accustic guitar work is beautiful. The songs are, for want of a better more literate and descriptive word, adorable. There are many on there that I absolutely love but my favorite is 'all I want is you'. Why? The lyrics. "If you were the wood, I'd be the fire. If you were the love I'd be the desire. If you were a Castle I'd be your moat and if you were the ocean I'd learn to float." It is just plain adorable!

Nirvana's Greatest Hits. Another reason why I should be in the 80's. Nirvana is the band that stopped before it's time. 'You know you're right', 'Silver', 'Come as you are', 'Lithium', 'Smells like teen spirit', and  'Heart shaped box' are my favorites from this album at the moment.

 Hey God? Can we trade Kurt Cobain for Justin Beiber? . . . .  What do you mean Justin Beiber will only get us Michael Jackson? . . . . Fair enough. What about Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus? . . . . Yeah I guess heaven wouldn't really be holy after that. Worth a shot.

This one is my brother's CD but I made a copy for myself. Mumford and sons Sigh No More CD is brilliant. I can't listen to mumford and sons without feeling inspired. Not sure what I'm inspired to do, their music is just inspirational. My favorite tracks are 'The cave', 'Little lion man' and 'Thistle and Weeds'. That last one I have been listening to the most because it has the same sort of feel to it as 'Draw your swords' by Angus and Julia Stone which is like my song of the month or something. The whole album is increadible though and it is proof that there is room for banjos in the music industry today.

I serendipitously stumbled upon this at the library yesterday and just had a Matt Costa session. 'Mr. Pitiful' is still my favorite of his but there are other songs on there that I quite liked and will enjoy more of in the future.

                                    
Paramore, The Final Riot! live in Chicago. Listening to this on the way to Sydney to see Paramore perform at Sydney Arena psyched me up so much. Watching the DVD always makes me wish I could re-live that concert. Paramore sounds amazing and are a band that sounds even better live. You know how you get those bands like Fall Out Boy that have a singer that doesn't sound as good live? Definately not the case with Paramore.
 
Hayley Williams has an amazing voice. When I saw them at Sydney Arena in October, Stan Walker randomly joined them for Misery Business. I'm sure Stan Walker has a lovely singing voice, but in comparison to Hayley Williams he was just. . . . Miz Biz didn't suit him. I'll leave it at that. That concert was amazing and the only thing that would have made it fifty million times as awesome is if they had played All I wanted and Let the Flames begin. I mean fair enough though with all the songs they played I don't think even Hayley Williams would have the vocal endurance to play those songs too. Want to know what I mean?
 
Here's a link to all I wanted from the album Brand New Eyes and here is a link to the video of Let the Flames Begin from the Final Riot Album. If you only watch one video of the two, watch let the flames begin. You will then understand why I so desperately wanted to see the performance of that song live. And just because I can and it sounds good, an intro paramore did at a concert that wasn't the one I went to but sounds awesome dispite the terrible quality in video. It's called The lies we want to feel. 
 
Just to clarify, that was the greatest experience ever for me. It was the first actual concert I went to ever (let's face it, the big Exo day doesn't count) and it was epic. I want to do it again.
 
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There you have it. The CDs I have been listening to quite a bit, not including the mixes I've made. I make an awful lot of mixes.