Music Monday - What I've Been Listening to This Week

Hello there, 

So I guess it's been a frightfully long time since we've seen each other, and I take full responsibility for that. How are you? I've been having a mental few weeks trying to organise where I'm going with life, and as standard, I've let my writing slip. I regularly have this great thing called 'writer's block' and rather than just type something horrific and meaningless, I just stop writing, so sorry about that. It's difficult because sometimes I do have things I want to say, but often don't have the confidence to write them... So sorry about that!

Something I don't worry about writing about, though, is music. And I know a lot of people do this, but I thought I'd give you a little insight into what I've been listening to this week. I guess if people like this, I'll keep doing it, but in some ways it'll also be a nice little diary for me so I can look back and see what I was listening to a particular time.

First off, if you know anything about me at all, you'll know that I adore One Direction. I can't help it, it's happened, it's a thing and it's not going away. And I'm happy about that. This week I have been listening to an awful lot of One Direction, in particular their most recent album, Midnight Memories. I have the deluxe edition, and I just find it a really feel-good CD. You have a couple of classic ballads, but I've really been enjoying the upbeat numbers because they sound like summer. 

Don't Forget Where You Belong is a favourite of mine because lyrically it's so beautiful. It was written by another group of my favourites, McFly, and you can tell. It sounds a lot like something they'd perform, and I think 1D do it justice very nicely. I've been loving Happily, Does He Know?, Little White Lies and Half a Heart this week.

Now it's been a while since we last saw anything from this guy, but Conor Maynard crept back into my life this week. Occasionally I will leave my iPhone on shuffle while I'm getting ready, and one morning four Conor Maynard tracks played in a row, which was unsuspected and actually quite odd. Apparently my iTunes wants new music from Conor as much as I do. I really loved his first album so I'm super excited to see what's next for him.

There have been a few tracks I've had on repeat this week. Sometimes a song will come on shuffle or I'll hear it on TV and I'll realise I've missed listening to it, or it's new and I become obsessed with it. Here are some I've been loving...

John Legend - All of Me

I heard it again on Dancing on Ice this weekend and fell back in love with it. It's such a beautiful song and I love the depth of John Legend's voice. I don't think there's a track of his that I dislike, purely just because I love his vocal on anything.

Karl X Johan - Never Leave Me

Occasionally I find myself going through my Shazam tags looking for music that I want to rediscover and I came across this. I can't remember how or when I originally found this song, but this week I've been loving it. It's chilled and I just fell in love with the beat.

Jonah Green - Cocoa Butter Kisses (Chance the Rapper cover)

I really like the original of this track, but I just adore what Jonah has done with it. I've been watching his videos for a long time, and I particularly like his covers, even though there aren't that many. It's a tough song to cover, but I think he's done it justice.

Bruno Mars - It Will Rain

Following his win at The BRIT awards last week, I've been listening to an awful lot Bruno. I was lucky enough to see him last year on his Moonshine Jungle tour at the o2 arena and he is honestly one of the best performers I've ever seen. He is a true showman with such passion for the industry, and his vocal performance is always right on point. His lyrics have the power to move me to tears, and often do, and that is a quality that not a lot of artists these days have. His music has the potential to lift a bad mood, send me to sleep or hype me up when I'm having an already brilliant day.

Thanks so much for sticking around for this one. I've really enjoyed writing about music this week, so I'd like this to be a thing. Maybe I'll do this every now again. I'm looking for new music to listen to at the moment, so help me out. I like most types of music, and I'm open to new things so give me a shout if you know of something I might be interested in.

Hope you're all well.
Take care, stay beautiful and dream big.
Thanks for stopping by,
@amyjcollins
xox

McFly - 10 years until forever.

Hiya Peeps!

So I'm quite surprised in myself that it's taken me this long to even mention McFly on my blog. Now, anyone reading this who is a friend of mine / followers me on Twitter will know the extent of my love for McFly. For those of you who don't know me, I'm going to try and express it all here, which might be the most difficult thing I've done for a long time. There aren't really enough words to describe McFly and I don't suppose any of the ones I do use will really do them justice.

I'm passionate about a lot of things, but music is the thing that stands out above anything else. It's the driving force behind my life and keeps me sane when everything around me could be falling apart. I turn to music before I turn to people, and that's a huge thing. I don't really know where my love for and dependency on music started, but I've always been around it, and it's something that I've been bought up with.

Which brings me to McFly... I was 10 or 11 when McFly first hit our radios and TVs but never did I think my love for them would last this long. I remember watching their first video on TV in my dad's old flat, and I haven't looked back since. I just remember thinking them climbing into a Television was really cool and that if I tried hard enough, I might be able to do it too. It didn't work. I remember my sister, Lucy, being in love with the song 'Obviously' and using her cheerleading pompoms to make up a routine. My real love didn't start until I was 14 and I went to my first McFly gig the same year. Lucy was always too young to go on her own without a parent and I didn't want to experience it without her. We saw them at the Brentwood Leisure Centre back in 2007 on their 'Up Close and Personal' tour. We were proper little fan girls and got there at like 4pm even though the whole show was standing; we even went as far as to buy t-shirts and wear them for the whole show. I don't remember much about it, but I do remember them playing 'Broccoli' from their first album, and not many people in the crowd knew it. Lucy and I sung at the top of our lungs and we felt really important.

It got a little bit crazy after the Brentwood show. We started talking about McFly all the time, and if any music was on in the house, it'd be them. We even drove to France one year and had the Motion in the Ocean album on repeat... the whole way. We didn't become these crazy super fans who followed them around everywhere and practically went on tour with them (although we would have liked to). It was just at the point where whenever they announced a tour, we'd save up all of our money to be there. I haven't worked out how many times I've seen / met them, or how much money I've spent on the band (which would be a completely frightful amount, I imagine), but for me it's not about them. Whether you've seen McFly 3 times or 300 times, if you're a fan, you're a fan. I've seen them quite a few more than 3 times, though!

But beyond anything else, it's about the music. It's about the four boys (who are now men) who have gotten me through so much over the past ten years just with their lyrics and their power to make you smile at any given moment. I've got through my GCSEs, my A Levels and now a degree with the help of McFly. I even got through a migraine on Christmas morning because Lucy came and played their music to me (I'm sure that was psychological, but I'm going with it being the boys). It's the amazing, overwhelming times I've had at their gigs, not to mention the immense amounts of fun and laughter and just the general loving of life at that particular point.

I write this now as I've just finished reading McFly - Unsaid Things... Our Story. I've never cried so much at one book. Not because it's sad (although some parts of it really are) but because I love them so much. I'm so proud of what they've achieved and so happy to be able to say that I've been a part of it since it begun. Not in the sense that I was there with them when they recorded the album or went with them on tour, but I've been there. I've been at the shows, I watched Harry run a Marathon (and met the other boys in a pub) and I've bought all the albums. I know I haven't changed anything for them, but they've changed something for me. If ever I'm having a bad day or need cheering up, I know there's always a McFly song that can fix me. Subsequently, if I'm ever having a good day, I know listening to Star Girl or Surfer Babe will make my mood 10x better!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that I love McFly, and I'm not ready for any of this to be over. Ten years isn't long enough. As the legend (Tom Fletcher) once said, 'It's not always easy, but McFly's here forever'. Well, I certainly hope so, Tom.

Thanks for sticking with me and reading this one. I know it's a bit different and some of you won't like it, but it needed to be said. I was having a McFly moment and I wanted to share it. 

Remember, take care, stay beautiful and dream big! <3.

Thanks for stopping by, all the love in the world. 

@amyjcollins