18
MUSIC
Freshers’ Issue 2009 www.seren.bangor.ac.uk
Music Editor, Aaron Wiles, brings you what’s hot and what’s not in music this month
Leona Lewis - Happy
Woo! Leona is back with her new single Happy. It’s about being unhappy, but listening to it makes me happy. Woo!
Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind A song from his new album featuring Alicia Keys, she shines whilst Jay-Z rhymes.
The Temper Trap Sweet Disposition From start to finish, this song exudes the relaxing summery feel, either that or I’ve spent way too much time watching people frolocking to it at festivals.
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions (Feat. Beth Ditto)
I’ve been rocking to The Gossip and raving to Simian Mobile Disco quite a bit recently, so no surprise I’m a huge fan of this
Mika - We Are Golden
Teenage dreams need a teenage circus.... eh? And put some clothes on, cheers.
Cheryl Cole - Fight For This Love
Oh we do love a bit of Cheryl, that’s why it’s even more disappointing that Fight For This Love isn’t very good. Gutted.
The Dolly Rockers They don’t get on radio playlists because they care about real issues apparently, nothing to do with how rubbish they are then?
Girls Can’t Catch Keep Your Head Up Girls can’t catch but they can apparently play croquet with some boys in a scrap yard. Interesting. The song is rubbish too.
YOUR
This Month:
Rated & Reviewed
Missgiggles28
Track
Stevens by Aaron Wiles and Liz
Times played
Anastacia Scissor Sisters
2,900 1,157
Paolo Nutini
484
Regina Spektor
450
Lady Gaga
410
Pink
398
Britney Spears
396
Pussycat Dolls
285
Fall Out Boy
260
Rihanna
256
Wiles’ comments:
Serious points lost for the excessive listening of Anastacia; shocking. Regina’s quite good though, which reassures me of your music taste. Backed up with Lady Gaga and Rihanna; good stuff!
Music Taste Rating: 6/10
Welcome to Bangor! Tonight you’re going to be playing to 2000 people, which is quite a small audience. Do you prefer playing to the bigger or smaller crowds? Will Rees: I think they’re all good Blaine: Yeah we’re happy to play anywhere. You know, 1 man and his dog can be better than 10,000 girls screaming . Do you feel under pressure to keep your name out there with the music industry being such a fickle thing? Will Rees: Personally no, I like how Radiohead do it, they can spend 3 years between albums but by the time it comes out you’re desperate for it cause you know it’s going to be good. If you’re always in people’s faces you become wallpaper. Also I think if people like you, if you deserve to be there then people will come back to you. You recently parted with (old record company) for Rough Trade. Why was that? Will Rees: We weren’t sure if we
A
ge Ain’t Nothing But A Number and at 39 Jay-Z proves that he is still one of Rap’s elite artists in a genre dominated by younger artists that the fans can relate to. People often criticise rappers about the substance and topics they choose to rap about, in JayZ’s case ultimately his present surroundings and the circumstances he finds himself in have changed dramatically from the ’99 Problems’ and ‘Big Pimpin’ situations that were his themes in previous albums. Half of the album is produced by Kanye West; other notable contributions come from Swizz Beatz, The Neptunes & Timbaland. The hype surrounding ‘Off That’ a track produced by heavyweight Timbaland and features Drake who supposedly is the next big thing in Rap comes off sounding luke warm and ‘Run This Town’ which sounds more like a Rihanna featuring Jay-Z collaboration and seems to be more Umbrella-esque and aimed at radio spins, which is a tactic that most artists make use of nowadays to help overall album sales. Stand out tracks on the album include: ‘Empire State Of Mind’ featuring Alicia Keys is a nice melodic ode to New York. ‘So Ambitious’ featuring Pharrell, unfortunately the only track produced by The Neptunes, which on previous albums has been a successful pairing, (Allure, Excuse Me Miss).
2009 was host to the best Summer Ball Bangor has ever seen. Headline act Mystery Jets rocked PJ Hall and found time to have a chat with Seren on a sunny lawn outside Main Arts. Here’s what happened...
wanted to stay on a major label, but in the end we decided we wanted to. It was quite a long process and in the end the English label signed everything and sent it to America, who said they couldn’t afford to do it. It was hard ‘cause everyone had worked so hard on our second album and were pushed aside by people who work in an office in America who’ve never even heard our records and everyone in England was really disappointed. We went with Rough Trade who wanted to sign us right from the start, they’re a pretty prestigious indie label. We’re really lucky that they were still there for us, they’re really excited about making an album so we’re going into the studio in about a month (July). Erol Alkan produced your last album, is he going to be helping out again? Blaine: Yeah quite possibly Was it good working with him? Blaine: It’s great working with Erol, he become like a 6th member of the band. He’d come to all the
rehearsals and let us sleep round his house and sleep with his girlfriend, all that kind of stuff. It was great. Will Rees: That goes a bit far! Do you ever get bored of playing the same songs? Blaine: I don’t know, we’ve been touring Twenty-One for about a year and I don’t think I’m bored of it yet. Whereas on the old record theres a lot of stuff that I don’t ever want to go near again. It’s a little bit sad cause they’re songs that you laboured so much over and you know you’ll never play some of them again. A little part of you dies. WR: I’ve found that there’s songs that I’m really excited about when we record them but they just never work live. We’ve got a song called MJ on the second album which never works in front of a live audience. That’s one of my favourites on the album Will Rees: Really? Well there you go. We could play it for you tonight but I wouldn’t want to spoil it.
‘Already Home’, ‘Hate’ and ‘Reminder’ are aimed at the critics and naysayers which Jay-Z has had to endure plenty of over his career and always comes out on top “10 Number One Albums / Maybe now 11” – a line from ‘Thank You’. ‘Young Forever’ featuring Mr Hudson, the track samples ‘Forever Young’ by Alphaville and for most die hard rap fans is either a Love It or Hate It track; simply because it isn’t a typical Rap song and is reminiscent of ‘Beach Chair’ featuring Chris Martin. However, it is about more than Hip Hop with Jay-Z. ‘Star Is Born’ featuring J. Cole, where Jay shouts out rap’s top artists from the mid nineties to the present day and reminded us how some have come and gone and yet he has still remained relevant over the years and ask if the younger artists will be able to carry the torch.
People will always compare any new album by Jay-Z to the Critically Acclaimed ‘Reasonable Doubt’, ‘The Blueprint’ and ‘The Black Album’ but lyrically he is still at his peak and has been there since the earlier efforts, its just that the subject matter has now progressed further as he has moved upwards in his career and could now be considered a Musical Icon, not just to fans of Rap but of music in general. This might come across as a weakness to hardcore fans of Rap music. He addresses that on the opening track, ‘What We Talkin’ About’ (featuring Luke Steele). Overall The Blueprint 3 is a solid B+ mainly due to poor production some complacent rhymes from Jay-Z due to the lack of grittiness and hunger that made the original Blueprint an instant hit with fans and critics alike. However, lyrically Jay-Z proves that he is still one of the best by showcasing his flow and although not a classic offering, is still on par with his last two albums and lives up to the hype and is definitely one of the best Rap albums of the year. “Hov on that new sh*t, they be like how come. Say they want my old sh*t, buy my old album” – Jay-Z
Anthony Welch & Keeno
: Seren recommends Kanye West College Dropout eThe Official Mixtap e. ak Dr
The Blueprint 3 - Jay Z