Treasured In… November 2020

2020, lifestyle

Hello!

I feel like I haven’t done a ‘favourites’ post for a while – I’ve been trying to reevaluate my relationship with feeling the need to buy new things to show and talk about in these posts but I think the format I’ve built for myself works quite well and with ongoing lockdown announcements and all the other stuff going on in a pandemic world, I think we can all use a post about nice things that make us happy! Especially with the festive season right around the corner!

purchase

Just talked about not feeling the need to buy new things and first category is my favourite purchase; I see the irony! I haven’t actually really bought anything for myself recently, but I’ve been doing all my Christmas shopping online as everything’s closed at the moment and I’ve made an effort not to use Amazon and to shop small and I’ve bought so many cute bits from Etsy! I’m not going to link anything specific for obvious reasons, but being able to search for literally everything, specify my price range and that I want to shop in the UK has been great. So far delivery has been mixed but I think it’s COVID making everything slower. And the one Amazon order I did make one of the items isn’t going to arrive until December 23rd, so it’s definitely not that much more convenient than shopping from independent creatives!

social media

A slightly strange category, but with applying for jobs in marketing and digital media, I’ve been thinking a lot more professionally about social media in preparation for potential interviews – I’ve been looking at view to subscriber averages on YouTube, trying to understand Instagram’s new layout prioritising shopping and forever pretending I’m young enough to use tiktok like I get how the app works. There are so many hashtags that I don’t get! I’d love to start making tiktoks but I’m a little overwhelmed with where to start… I mostly watch Harry Potter cosplayers and I’m loving just spectating too.

music

I drew the conclusion earlier this year that I’m not as into music as I thought I was, but as I’ve been needing sounds to distract me from my overthinking brain, I’ve been watching a lot more YouTube and listening to way more music!

I’m really enjoying working to instrumental music (I can’t concentrate when there are lyrics, I get distracted) so I’ve been listening to a pianist called Ludivico Einaudi who I loved when I was 16 but his album Islands is beautiful and you’d recognise some of the songs from TV adverts! I’ve also loved listening to the Avengers: Endgame soundtrack and a playlist called Cinematic Chillout.

And I’ve found a love for acoustic music as well? Hearing the raw instruments and stripped back vocals chills me out at the moment so my favourite playlist is Easy Acoustic, but I also love Calming Instrumental Covers and I’m looking forward to listening to Autumn Acoustic too.

YouTube video

I feel like I’ve been a broken record about how I’m behind on watching YouTube videos and have been for about five years now – I’m currently up to just over 200 videos on my watch later playlist and the videos are from about six weeks ago, but I only really watch YouTube when my partner is away with work because when he’s home I want to make the most of him.

So I don’t have specific videos, because they would be from months ago, but I’m really loving The Anna Edit‘s videos even though I’m 100% a different class to her and don’t have the money to and wouldn’t spend as much as she does on high end skin care, fashion or anything, but I just love how chatty and friendly she is. I’ve always said, I subscribe to channels based on the people, not the content.

The other channel I’ve loved for so long now is Fabulous Hannah – the same principle of liking the person not the content, but I also love the content. Hannah and I would get on so well – she has my same sarcastic, self deprecating humour, we’re kind of at similar points in life, and watching her videos just feels like I’m having a one way video call catch up with a friend and that’s the kind of cosy vibes I love on YouTube.

books

I finally finished The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas! I had eight months of an amazing reading habit that has now completely gone out the window, but I managed to finish the one book I had started. I liked it – I was apprehensive of the ending because I’ve seen the film, but I thought it really captured the perspective of a 9 year old boy. Apparently it’s a controversial book, but I thought it was interesting to express the naïvity of children in Germany, though I’m not sure how historically accurate it is.

I’m yet to start another book, but I definitely need to get back into the habit because I miss it.

snacks

I may have built up an unjustified anxiety about eating, but recently I’ve started getting my appetite back and with Christmas treats and the Great British Bake Off as inspiration for the last few weeks, I’ve enjoyed a few treats.

Cadbury Snow Balls are my favourite seasonal treat (though a special shout out to creme eggs), I’ve been very much enjoying Victoria sponge cupcakes and malted milk biscuits were all my anxious stomach could handle for a while.

I’m definitely a sweet snack kind of girl.

TV/film/streaming/stuff to watch

Speaking off The Great British Bake Off… it’s the only thing I’ve been religiously watching every week since it all began. Lottie was my favourite, I very nearly stopped watching when she went out, I think Dave was robbed in that final but the whole series was the light relief we needed amongst a new tier system and a second lockdown.

I’ve not really watched anything else to be honest – with catching up on 200 YouTube videos and Bake Off on a Tuesday night, I’ve not made time for anything else. I did start rewatching Harry Potter and a few Marvel movies of an afternoon though, which has been nice.

wedding planning update

We paid the first half of the venue deposit! There’s been a lot of back and forth since we viewed the venue in July, but with the pandemic they agreed to let us pay half the deposit and the other half in January, so the ball really is rolling! My plan before the New Year is to make a detailed list of everything that needs doing and when I need to start thinking about it over the next two years so I keep up with planning and we save enough money for the right times.

I think with all the new lockdown rules, it hasn’t really sunk in yet – part of my mind wonders if the pandemic will effect us by the end of 2022, but I have to stay optimistic and hope for the best!

I wasn’t sure about writing this post, because it all feels incredibly self indulgent, but talking about nice things that make us happy is what we all need at the moment. Do we need to share them all on the internet? Probably not, but I’m part of a generation that has an issue with oversharing online so here we are.

Thank you for reading – I hope you and your loved ones are happy, healthy and staying safe!

Sophie xx

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August mixtape

2019, music

Hello!

This month in music has been pretty slow – I’ve spent 90% of my ‘music listening’ time in someone else’s car not listening to music and long car journeys listening to Disney songs and good singalong tracks so new music hasn’t been the top of my list. But I’ve still got a few songs that I really like this month so let’s share!

Glimmer – Marianas Trench is one of those songs that I’m not sure how I missed. I’m a huge fan of Marianas Trench and I thought I’d listened to every song that I could but I fell in love with Glimmer as soon as I heard it.

House Key – Scott Helman – this one I found through my discover weekly playlist on Spotify. It’s the second time it’s appeared on my discover and on a second listen I was sold on it – the lyrics are so simple and a lovely summary of what happy life with your favourite person should be and it really hit home. The acoustic tones make it a really gentle song and it’s genuinely a really lovely experience to listen to!

Teeth – 5 Seconds of Summer – my history with 5 Seconds of Summer has been very mixed and highly varied! I kind of hate that I’m really into their music but I can’t help but really love what they’re making. I was watching a video on YouTube and the video came up as an ad (wasn’t thrilled – I was watching Charles and Allie’s baby name announcement video!) and I ended up sitting and watching the entire song. The video is weird, but the song is a proper tune – I’ve not stopped thinking about the bass line, it gives me such Stranger Things vibes and I’m just not acknowledging that it’s for 13 Reasons Why season 3 (not here for it lads). I think the lyrics are so beautiful and the whole song has just been stuck in my head, so it’s kind of my resentful guilty pleasure.

And my shoutout of the month has to go to Karma – Grayson DeWolfe – I was listening to my discover weekly on my drive into work the other week. I had just passed my driving test, it was my first time driving on my own, I was in my element and this song came on as I was cruising down a dual carriageway and by the second chorus I was singing along and I spent the rest of my journey to work repeating the title to myself so I didn’t forget to add it to my monthly playlist. It’s an official bop – wholeheartedly recommend turning this one up loud in the car.

My playlist is a bit shorter this month – up till July, I spent a fair amount of time on buses and that was my prime time listening to music but having spent most of this month getting a lift into work with my mum, I’m not listening to music as much but as I spend more time in my own car and find more time for music at home I’m definitely getting back into it, so September’s playlist should be much more diverse!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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July Mixtape

2019, music

Hello!

Every time I write one of my regular monthly posts like my goals or music posts it baffles me that another month has rolled around and this month is no different! July has been a whirlwind in every respect – I’m working the most I’ve worked this year to save for going back to uni, the weather has been uncomfortably hot and I’ve spent the whole month thinking it’s August to be honest.

Now that I’m not spending as much time on buses, I don’t have as much time to listen to my discover weekly playlist but I still have a decent amount of tracks to talk about this month that are pretty varied but all perfect for your summer bbq playlists!

I’ve not seen the new Aladdin film yet but I’m obsessed with ‘Speechless‘ – it’s a beautifully composed song with gorgeous lyrics and I cannot wait to see it in context. Aladdin is already a classic in both film and music history but this song will slot right in.

‘SAD (Clap Your Hands)‘ (Young Rising Sons) is the kind of song that I wouldn’t know what genre to put it in – it’s pop and fun but it’s something more experimental too. Maybe I just enjoy say songs that are masked as happy songs (name: Missing You, All Time Low) but it the concept makes me laugh and the song is catchy af.

I’m always getting into new musicals, but I always have this internal battle of if I want to listen to the songs without the context and the drama of the whole musical and then I here medley’s like Newsies Medley (Peter Hollens) and suddenly I want to listen to a whole musical. Peter Hollens acapella music will always blow me away – the musicality that man possesses is just inspiring, he oozes passion with every line he sings and the variety of music he makes is so much fun. Definitely going to listen to Newsies now!

And in a completely different vain – I first listened to Get Away (feat. Rama Duke) (Breathe Carolina) on my discover weekly and I’ve listened to a bit of Breathe Carolina before and it was a really mixed bag, but I don’t need to love every song an artist makes! I really enjoy this song – it’s a fun, summer bop and I love the electronic style they bring to a classic.

I’ve realised that a lot of the music I’m loving at the moment is ‘mainstream 1975 but not by the 1975’ and One That I Want (PUBLIC) falls exactly into this category. It’s light, it’s a little bit rocky but a pop hit at heart.

Promiseland (MIKA) is something completely different – it feels different even though it’s another pop song. The vocals feel almost comical with how swiftly they alternate between pitches and then it’s got guitar lines that feel very early-2000s rock/pop and I’m excited to get to know this song more as it only appeared on my discover weekly this week.

I think I knew this was a 1975 song but I’m trying not to think about how many signs I’m getting telling me to listen to the 1975… Give Yourself a Try (The Hunna) is a song that I really support the message of and a band that I love too. I was lucky enough to film The Hunna at Reading festival when I worked there in 2017 and my boyfriend and I have been listening to their music ever since.

Overall, this playlist has a few curveballs but is fully of boppy, upbeat summer tracks for all your summer playlist needs!

As always, recommendations are greatly appreciated! Where do I start with the 1975? I feel like I really need to give them a chance but it’s a bit overwhelming.

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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June Monthly Mixtape

2019, music

Hello!

This months mixtape feels really short – my discovery weekly playlists have been mostly rubbish, there’s been lots of new releases and there’s one song I’ve had on repeat for most of this month (that we’ll get to later) but I don’t feel like I’ve listened to a lot of music.

I do still have a few songs to talk about, so here’s some of my highlights from my June music playlist!

Easier (5 Seconds of Summer) surprised me to be honest – I have such a weird relationship with what I think about the band and my favourite 5SOS era was ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’, but I really like how experimental this song is. They’re trying something new again within the pop-electric realm and I actually really enjoyed it. Some of the lyrics are a bit forced but it’s fun!

Forfeit (Arrows in Action) is a band and a song I never would have heard if it wasn’t for my discover weekly playlist but it gives me major Alex Gaskarth/old All Time Low vibes and I’m 100% here for it. Definitely going to be looking into the bands other songs!

I’m Not Okay (I Promise) (Robyn Adele Anderson) is a refreshing take on the classic teenage emo song – I love jazz/swing remixes of pop chart songs and this one really took me by surprise. The vocals are astonishing, the arrangement is true to the genre and the original song simultaneously and it made me smile on the bus, which is the best kind of song really!

Outside Looking In (Jordan Pruitt) – this song is on the playlist exclusively because I remembered it existed and it was a banger when I was 12. It got me through tough times of no friends and difficult friendships and boy-o I would belt it at the top of my lungs and rediscovering it has been a blast.

End Of The World (Plain White T’s) was a song I literally added this afternoon – I was giving this week’s discover weekly a listen on the bus and this is the only song I liked enough to engage with at all. It was a cute, catchy bop – nothing ground breaking, but a fun listen.

My shoutout of the month goes to the song I’ve had on loop – the song that at first I was very ‘eh’ about, then the melody kept cropping up in my head and then I started really listening to the lyrics and really fell in love with Guiltless (dodie).

It’s been a mixed month for music, to be fair to Spotify I didn’t have as much time for listening to music as I usually do and with a new routine settling into place I need to figure out how to integrate music into the time I have but as always, I love writing these posts – if you have any recommendations let me know in the comments! This months challenge is listening to my Release Radar playlist as well as my Discover Weekly on Spotify!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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May Monthly Mixtape!

2019, music

Hello!

I’ve got a whole 20 songs that I’ve been loving this month to share with you! Between belting Heathers at the top of my lungs and listening to School of Rock and Dear Evan Hansen on loop (it’s been a very musical month) I have actually been listening to my Discover Weekly and adding music I’ve heard in general day to day life. So here’s the sound to my May!

Brand New (Ben Rector) and Flatliner (Cole Swindell, Dierks Bentley) are both songs that my boyfriend has on his playlist but I feel like I properly listened to them this month – Brand New is a really lovely, very romantic song that is bright and indie-pop-ish.

Flatliner has more of a story – one of my boyfriend’s assessments involved picking a scene from a film, recreating all the sound and essentially recreating all the sound for the scene. They picked Cars, the film famed for the most wonderful Rascal Flats song ‘Life is a Highway’, and to find a song similar to that – they found Flatliner. I now associate that song with a film it’s not in, but it’s properly catchy and it makes me think maybe I don’t hate country music? It’s fun, a lil bit rocky and you can imagine Lightning McQueen, what more could you want?

GUM (Jule Vera) is a song I found on my discover weekly – it’s a bit of a weird song, takes some twists and turns that don’t fit the stereotypical pop mould but that’s why I like it. I’d love to see someone with a proper creative eye for dance choreograph something for this song because I definitely can’t do it justice.

ME! (Taylor Swift, Brendon Urie) and I don’t care (Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber) are songs I added because I do actually somewhat keep up with new releases and Brendon Urie and Ed Sheeran are two of my faves. I think ME! is a fun, empowering tune and I don’t care isn’t what I was expecting at all. I thought it would be about being a cool kid that doesn’t care about the #rulez but it was actually a surprisingly romantic song, Sheeran and Bieber’s voices really suit each other and it’s just a nice, gentle song. Big fan.

Mark My Words (Doll Skin) feels like a little bit of a throwback – it feels like the kind of pop-punk/rock I listened to when I was 14 or 15, a little bit Paramore esque but more rocky and I love the chorus.

Alone Sometimes (The Mowgli’s) is another one that my boyfriend likes, but it was also on my Discover Weekly spotify playlist – I thought I recognised it but I also really enjoyed it! And I keep getting the lyrics wrong and singing alive sometimes instead of alone sometimes, which I think still fits but does somewhat change the meaning of the song. This is another indie-pop track with two lead vocals that fit really well together and a lovely message.

Shoutout of the month goes to a song that isn’t new and probably isn’t a lot of people’s first choice, but I’ve been loving The Way We Are by Alesha Dixon – I heard it in a performance at a dance convention I went to at the end of last month and thought it was such a catchy bop! It makes me smile every time it comes on and I genuinely think it’s really hard not to dance to, even if it’s just nodding your head – it’s happy, it’s upbeat, it’s fun. Love it.

If you want to have a nosy around my Spotify, I’ve got a bunch of badly organised and incredibly varied playlists you can have a look at here. I’m really enjoying writing about music at the moment, so as always recommendations are always welcome, all my social media is linked below!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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monthly mixtape – April

2019, music

Hello!

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post ever since my last monthly mixtape, if I’m honest!

Two things before I start chatting about the tunes – one; I haven’t had the chance to listen to my discover weekly playlists on Spotify this month because I haven’t had any time on buses or on my own at home, so I’ve not listened to a whole lot of new music in that way, but somehow this is my longest monthly playlist so far!

And two; I called the playlist Gray because I was watching the ‘Crisis on Earth X’ Arrowverse crossover (Supergirl, Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow) and without spoiling it, something significant happens to a character called Stein who is nicknamed Gray and I was feeling sentimental about it in the moment I made this playlist so that is literally the only significance of the playlist title this month, if anyone was interested!

Let’s start at the beginning – I was only interested in Lewis Capaldi because I’d seen ads for his song Someone You Loved all over my instagram and it gripped me because Peter Capaldi, yes the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who, is the main focus of the music video and I have a big old soft spot in my heart for Peter Capaldi. Then I properly listened to the song and I think the lyrics are just beautiful, I think it’s one of the saddest love songs I’ve ever heard but it’s so mature and melodically striking, I would love to cover it on my YouTube channel one day.

Next are a couple of songs from Simple Creatures as their EP Strange Love came out in the last month. Alex Gaskarth is hands down my favourite vocalist of all time, I’ll be perfectly honest – I’m really not mad about Mark Hoppus’ vocals, but I do love the sound of the band and it really reminds me how much I do love slightly heavier music (but only slightly heavier, I’m still a pop gal at heart). Strange Love and Adrenaline are Class A bops and I thoroughly recommend.

I don’t want to talk about every single song on the playlist, otherwise this post would be about three thousand years long, but next is a new single from Bash! and I’m so here for this band – they’re music students in Southampton, they performed at my graduation ceremony and that’s how I know them at all but their music is sick, they’re so funny and I really hope they get the break they deserve because they’re so professional and the lead singer is Pop Queen, she’s so cool.

The last four songs on the playlist I literally added yesterday – I saw on Instagram that The Vamps had released a new EP and they’re one of those bands that I know I like but then I listen to their music and I’m like a subconscious fangirl. I’ve followed the Vamps since before the bassist joined the band (shoutout to Carrie Hope Fletcher for featuring them on her channel like a hundred years ago) and Waves is a really sweet song.

Niall Horan is another one that I almost didn’t realise how much I like his music – he features on Julia Michaels song What A Time and it went straight on the playlist after one listen – it’s chill, it’s catchy, I love the sound of the sincerity in Niall’s voice.

We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel is a song that my dance teacher used to use as a warm up in my tap class and I really liked it but I never got round to asking her what the song was. Then it came on a radio when mum and I were at work and I wrote it down straight away because it’s been in my head for months now, I’m so pleased I found out what it’s called.

My shoutout of the month goes to leaving this (Danny Padilla) – I think this one was a discover weekly find but it’s a song that gripped me straight away. I love the fusion of pop and a more electronic sound with classical instruments but somehow it still sounds really stripped back? The melody is really catchy and I want to choreograph to it which is a sure fire sign that I instantly connect to a song (but I’m bad at choreographing so I probably won’t do that).

As always if you have any recommendations I’m all ears (literally! Geddit?) – I’d love to hear what you’ve been listening to so if you’ve got any songs or playlists drop them in the comments down below!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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little | monthly mixtapes

2019, music

Hello!

So far I’m doing well at sticking to my New Year’s Resolution of listening to lots of new music – I’ve been religiously listening to my ‘discover weekly’ playlist and making another playlist of the songs I like plus an additional playlist of the songs I like the most that are my go to.

And because the playlist was originally just three songs it’s called ‘Little’. It’s no representation of the songs that I’ve been listening to recently, but the playlist is a little shorter than last month. But we’ll get to that!

If you want to listen to the playlist (or just nosy at what songs I’m listening to) you can find it here!

I’m pretty sure I’ve been listening to Monster (dodie) for a couple of months now but I’ve recently just really identified with it. She’s said that the song is about watching someone’s opinion of her slowly deteriorate until they saw her as a monster and I love the lyrics. It’s catchy and it’s a full on bop.

Second Star To The Right (The Devil Music Co.) has a special place in my heart – it’s a reference to Peter Pan which I have recently decided is my favourite Disney movie and it’s a proper pop-guitar-heavy song that I would class as the definition of my genre. This one might make it onto next months playlist too.

The harmonies in Jealous (The After School Specials) are absolutely mind blowing – I think it’s a cover, I should really look into it but I just love the acapella voices together, it’s just beautiful.

Two of Us (Louis Tomlinson) and Ribcage (Plested) are songs I only added in the last day or two so I’m not fluent in every lyric yet, but they’re both lovely songs lyrically and I’m going to have a few days more days to really appreciate them before I start next months playlist, for sure.

I have to mention Seventeen (Heather’s OCR) because this song and the entire soundtrack has been a proper anthem for me this month. I posted my first cover in a very long time because I was so inspired by this song and this musical. I just can’t stop listening to it and it’s properly reignited my passion for the West End and I’m seriously considering ways I can get into musicals as a career because my desire to perform and sing at the top of my lungs is getting incredibly strong. And with that in mind…

This months favourite is actually an album that doesn’t feature on my monthly playlist at all but I can’t not mention it – I went to see School of Rock on the West End this month and I’m obsessed with most of the soundtrack, notably Stick It To The Man. It’s such an empowering song and I find myself jumping round the kitchen and wishing I was 12 again so I could beg my mum to let me audition for this show. I thoroughly recommend entering the lottery for £15 tickets because it’s genuinely amazing!

I love writing about music and I love finding new music but at heart I will always be a girl who loves a song so much she leaves it on repeat for at least 100 listens. As always, if you have any suggestions please do let me know!

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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February Music Favourites!

2019, music

Hello!

Today, I wanted to try something new – I love music and one of my goals for this year was to listen to more new music rather than listening to the same music I always listen to. The way I’m doing this is not by going searching for new music but letting Spotify algorithms do it for me and picking songs from my discover weekly playlist!

I then add songs I like to ‘Liked from Radio‘ playlist and when I’m done listening to my Discover Weekly for the week I generally put this playlist on shuffle in the background when I’m cooking or travelling or whatever!

If I’m wanting to listen to anything more specific I add it to my ‘Current jams‘ playlist and if I want slightly more familiar music that’s the playlist I go for and that’s the playlist I’m going to be talking about today!

Rather than doing a song by song review I thought I’d just have a chat about the playlist as a whole. None of these songs actually came from my Discover Weekly this time around – ‘On My Way’ is a new song from Sheppard that was their bid for Australia’s Eurovision entry that’s I’m obsessed with, Burned Out is my favourite song from dodie’s new EP ‘Human’ and the rest of the songs are mostly inspired by what I’ve been watching on music channels on the TV!

‘Come Along’ by Cosmo Sheldrake is the song used in the new iPhone advert and I think it’s really catchy and boppy – not enough for me to buy an iPhone but a good song regardless!

‘Exits’ (Foals), ‘Sweet but Psycho’ (Ava Max) and all three Billie Eilish songs on this playlist I first heard from one of those nights when mum and I just shoved on MTV music and tried to get on with some work.

‘Drug’ is the debut song from technically new band Simple Creatures, which is made up of blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and my all time favourite band All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth who is my favourite vocalist of all time. If I could describe my perfect voice to listen to it would be Alex Gaskarth. His voice is the entire reason I like this song but it is also an incredible song. Excited for more of Alex Gaskarth’s voice this year.

‘Blue Tacoma’ by Russel Dickerson actually came from a radio on my boyfriend’s Spotify and I thought it was a Busted song – it has a lot of original Busted vibes and I really liked it so it went immediately onto my jams playlist.

I’d love to make this music post a monthly series and I want to give it more of a structured format which includes having a shoutout of the month – this month it has to go to ‘Sweet but Psycho’ by Ava Max because gosh darn I’m obsessed with this song, I have it on loop most of the time and it makes me want to try covering it, I’ve got ideas so 100% no shadow of a doubt this is my favourite song this month.

So that’s my first music favourites! I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want this blog to be and I’ve seen so many ads on instagram and facebook about making my blog profitable and growing it but they all focus on such a specific niche that I just don’t think I want to put myself in. But I am making an effort to write about more of what I love – travel, organisation/bullet journalling, fitness/body positivity, outfits/fashion and music! If there’s anything you really like seeing on my blog please do let me know in a comment down below – I’d love to know what you like reading from me!

Also if you have any ideas for a series title for these posts any recommendations would be fab, something musical but maybe a little bit funny.

Thank you so much for reading,

Sophie xx

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playlist: Summer ’18

2018, music

Hello!

With the amount of new music that’s been released by a bunch of artists I really like this summer, I’ve been slowly adding to my Summer ’18 playlist for a couple of months now.

And I’m a huge music geek – I love how the algorithms work on Spotify, I love following music people on Instagram, my whole final uni project centred around music, I’m just obsessed. But building playlists is something I’ve seen a lot of people on twitter talking about but I’ve never really ‘designed’ playlists in the same way – I just chuck a bunch of songs that I enjoy belting when I’m home alone in one place!

Some may argue that those are the same things, but I thought I’d have a little chat about the new releases I was really excited about this summer and the playlist I’ve had on for the last couple of months.

Watching the Sky – Sheppard

Sheppard are an Australian band that my boyfriend found on Spotify through their song ‘Geronimo’ because it was inspired by Doctor Who. Since then, we’ve been eagerly anticipating every one of their releases and Watching The Sky is actually one of my favourite albums of this summer – it’s light and fun and the songs are catchy and ‘We Belong’ had us dancing around the kitchen whilst we cook dinner. Such a fun album.

Everything Is Fine – All Time Low

I mean, the band teased this song for maybe 24 hours before it was released and I was on holiday and I wasn’t ready and I love it. All Time Low are my absolute without a shadow of a doubt favourite band and have been for like 10 ish years so I was very excited when I saw this song had come out and I love it. I love the vibe, I love the sentiment behind it and Alex Gaskarth’s vocals are just stunning. I’m excited for the album that is likely to follow, though I don’t think anything has been announced yet.

Youngblood – 5 Seconds of Summer

I’ve got a funny relationship with 5SOS – I used to be a huge fan, had a tumblr blog that reached nearly 30k followers and built this amazing little community but then there was an article published that showed a side of the band that hadn’t really been exposed before and I’d just started studying journalism and a lot of people blamed the publication ‘for making them look so bad’ but reading into it I could tell that the writer was just working with what they had and my opinion of the band lowered so much. Saying that, I’d listened to a couple of the singles they released before the album came out and I was so frustrated by how much I liked it?

To be honest, Youngblood has been my most played album of this summer – the last five or six songs on the album are absolutely bangers and I really do love them! I think the way I’m settling it in my head is that I like the music but I’m not big fans of the people in the band and I don’t feel too bad supporting them because they weren’t doing terrible horrible things, they just aren’t the nicest people. I hope that’s okay?

Sunnyland – Mayday Parade

This album I added to my playlist on a bit of a whim – I loaded up Spotify one day and it popped up that Mayday Parade had released a new album. I’m not a huge fan of the band but I know I like a few of their tracks and their vibe is very me so I just dropped it in and I actually really like it! It’s a bit heavier than the other albums on the list but I really like that because the slightly heavier, more guitar based sounds are my absolutely favourite. I was pleasantly surprised but really enjoyed Sunnyland!

Pray For The Wicked – Panic! At The Disco

So, Panic! are up there as one of my favourite bands (after ATL in a Solid First Place, I have a group of joint second favourite bands which also includes S Club 7, ngl) and I was so pumped for this album. I preordered the vinyl as my post-FMP-hand-in-present-to-myself and I’m obsessed – the vinyl itself is actually stunning but the album is just so great. Death of a Bachelor was always going to be a difficult album to follow (and I think I do still prefer it) but Brendon Urie’s voice is just absolutely astonishing. Saturday Night, The Overpass and Hey Look Ma, I Made It are for sure going to become some of Panic!’s new anthems. Thoroughly recommend, it’s been on loop in the car for a while now.

Birthday – All Time Low

Two new tracks was very overwhelming and exciting? I’ll be perfectly honest, I prefer the first single out of these two but I stand by that All Time Low have never released a song that I don’t like and I do still enjoy and listen to this song (hence why it’s on the playlist!) – it’s fun and I can imagine it being played at a lot of birthday parties, for sure. Two new songs released so close together hopefully means a new album maybe by the end of this year, but it’s only just been a year since All Time Low’s last album came out, so I’ll be eagerly anticipating news that’s for sure!

Six – We The Kings

Like Mayday Parade, this is another one that Spotify popped up and told me had been released and I’ve liked a fair few of We The Kings songs in the past and I follow the band quite closely on social media, especially as their bassist Charles Trippy is King of the Daily Vloggers and he documents a bunch of behind the scenes music stuff which is 100% my jam, so I added the album to my playlist. It took me a few weeks to actually get round to listening to it and I really enjoyed it! It’s a great pop sound with some really fun riffs and catchy tunes, perfect for a summer party!

‘Lie To Me’ Spotify Sessions – 5 Seconds of Summer

Back to 5SOS again! I saw on Instagram that they’d done another version of ‘Lie To Me’ at their Spotify Sessions recording and I absolutely adore it – it’s not quite acoustic but it’s very stripped back, I love the indie tones in the lead vocals and the harmonies are just magical. I’m very much enjoying belting it at the top of my lungs when I’m home alone.

The playlist is linked down below and if you do want to follow me on Spotify, then you’ll never miss how often I’m listening to Youngblood!

I definitely need to get into making more playlists and writing more posts like these because I love finding new artists and writing about the music I’m loving! If you have any recommendations please, please leave them in the comments below!

Thank you for reading,

Sophie xx

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playlists: 2017 so far

2017, music, student

Hello!

One of my resolutions this year is to listen to more music – I pride myself as someone who has a really varied but passionate love for music and recently I haven’t felt like that and I want that passion back, so I want to talk about the playlists I’m loving right now!

I’ll put links to all the Spotify playlists and albums where I can, follow me on there if you’re interested!

work – this playlist I literally designed to plug into the aux cable at work and play in the store, as well as keeping us entertained while we work but I’m actually really pleased with the bunch of songs that are on it, it’s pretty varied and great to just put on shuffle and have in the background.

La La Land soundtrack – if you missed my review of this movie you can read it here but I love the throwback to the older musicals that I grew up with and it’s really catchy. It also reminds me of my orchestra days. The Fools Who Dream is my favourite song without a shadow of a doubt, but the Epilogue is definitely my favourite piece of music.

Ed Sheeran’s new songs – I’ve still got them on repeat because I’m still in love with them. I’m the kind of person who can listen to one song (or two, in this case) on repeat for days and not get bored of it because I’m just enamoured by it, I hear something new every time.

Night Driver / Busted – we all know how much I love Busted, but I’ve had this one on recently because not only is it a brilliant album but I’m hyping myself up because it’s a week today that I see Busted play new music live for the first time and I’m so excited.

Okay, I didn’t really need the help with hyping myself up.

And the last thing for this post (might make this a regular part of these blog posts if you want me to make another one?) – to listen to:

Night People / You Me At Six – a band that I’ve listened to fairly regularly for the past five or six years I’d say, I’ve never been ‘obsessed’ with them in the same way I have other bands and I won’t listen to a release on the day it comes out (because I’m not involved enough to know about it), but I saw this on Spotify’s Recent Releases today and I’m going to give it a listen in the next week or so.

So did you like this post? I don’t want to make it a monthly thing because I’ve already got a couple of ‘types’ of posts that I do regularly and I don’t want my blog to become month on month of the same content, but I could do this every couple of months or so? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy the playlist!

Sophie xx