Album of the Week.

I mean you all should have seen this coming.

I've listened to the album whole a couple times and this is what I've gotten from it so far.

One - I think this song was a great first track for the album. I feel like it's very similar to the way the first album sounded and in a way it's a bridge bringing the two together.

I'm A Mess - Is it just me or does have a band sound to it ? Listening to this one my mind immediately thought Paramore, (old Paramore) like he took one of their songs did it acoustically and killed it, in a good way !

Sing - The song also known as his new identifier. When this sing first came out I was very glad that he decided to experiment with a different sound, but like all singles I also thought I would get sick of it. Surprising I'm still enjoying it like I just heard it for the first time.

Don't - At first I was really nervous because I fell in love with the live version of this song, then I heard a clip of it from the Beats commercial and didn't know if I was gonna like the studio version as much but when I did get to listen to it whole it lived up to what I expected. Also if you listen carefully it has a bit of his older sound in it, the "before + days" so he's staying true to himself.

Nina - I personally don't really know what to say for this song. I don't know how I feel about it yet. Its probably one of those that I either have to let grow on me or that I just won't really have an option on it. I do like the last 1/3 of the song, I'm a sucker for stacking, to me it adds layers to the song.

Photograph - Another one of the songs that remind me of the older album but blends in well with the newer sound.

Bloodstream - This is one of the darker ones on the album and it's the one that I have gravitated to. It's dark but has beauty to it.

Tenerife Sea - Another song that I fell in love with the live version and the studio version lives up to it. It's beautiful and I can see some people wanting it to be their wedding song.

Runaway - Reminds me of old school Justin Timberlake and after hearing this song I want Pharrell and Ed to do a whole EP or album together. I could see this song being a single, if the lyrics were more "cheerier". It's a beat that's very radio friendly.

The Man - This is another one that I don't really know how I feel about yet. I'm just glad to see that he's rapping on his album, especially knowing that Hip Hop is his first love, music wise.

Thinking Out Loud - This is another beautiful one that could possibly be somebody's wedding song. You can feel all the soul and emotion in this one especially around 2:55 of the track.

Afire Love - This damn song pulled on all my heart strings, I may or may not have cried a little. Reading up on the process of how he came to write the song just made it even worst (if you like it, look it up). Personally I think it's one that everybody can connect to, I know I did. It's just beautifully written and beautifully made.

Deluxe Version :

Take It Back - I love how this song sounds like it's just a recording of a live performance. And I love that theirs another song of him rapping on the album. And you can't deny it, he has a nice flow.

Shirtsleeves - Very reminiscent of the material that was on his 'Songs I Wrote With Amy' EP.

Even My Dad Does Sometimes - A song that would have been suited to end the album, in my option. One of the slower and darker songs, lyrically speaking.

I See Fire - I have never seen the Lord of the Rings whole and I honestly don't plan to anytime soon but from what I've seen and heard this song fits the movie perfectly and I'm happy that he added it as a bonus track on the album.

Physically Deluxe Version :

All of the Stars - I wish this was in the digital version but I guess it's an incentive for people to actually buy the physical copy. This movie I actually did see and the song fit perfectly with it. It was this song that almost made me lose it in the movie theater.

My standout tracks are I'm A Mess, Bloodstream, Runaway, Afire Love, and Take It Back, but as I keep listening I'm sure it will change up. 

Overall I give this album a 4/5.

I'm enjoying the new sound and I love that his experimenting with the sound.

Majority of the songs are a lot darker compared to the last album, but overall it's a great album to listen to whenever, where ever.

Have you listened to the album yet ? What do you think ?

What's your favorite song(s) of this album ?

What other albums are a must listen to this week ?

- JustANewYorkGirl

EP of the Week.

If you're a fan of the Ed Sheeran or the Singer/Songwriter vibe, then this is definitely the EP and artist for you. I found about Lewis Watson a couple months ago playing around with the iTunes Radio and I'm so glad I did. I'm just waiting for the day he releases a full album cause based on what I've heard so far, I know it's gonna be really good.

Asides from this EP he has 4 others that you can check out here,

 and you'll be very glad you did. 

'Some Songs With Some Friends' has 3 songs featuring "some friends" and 1 that was orignally on 'Another Four Sad Song' EP, but this version sounds a little different. Each song bringing something different to the EP.

Here are 2 songs from the EP for you to check out.

What do you think ?

What are some other artists in the singer/songwriter category that I should check out ?

And I hope you all had a very Happy Holidays !

-JustANewYorkGirl

Tunes Tuesday !

I knew that today was gonna be a pretty big music release day, but I don't think I actually realized exactly how huge and all over the place, genre wise, it was gonna be. 

First up are a couple of albums and EPs that have been released that I'm really feeling.

I'm so glad that Tori is finally getting recognition and more original music out. I've been following her from her YouTube for a couple years now. Now she's releasing her first, signed to a label, EP, but second EP. You can check out the first one here. Self-written and produced, she can only go up from here.

I really love all the songs on this EP but definitely the ones that I find myself playing back again are 'Rocket' and 'Paper Hearts'.

But 'Dear No One' will still have a very special place in my iTunes library. And this song is actually iTunes Single of the Week, so you can check out the song before you check out the EP here.

           
                           

3 years since Teenage Dream, Katy Perry has definitely made this album a step up. If she wanted to, any one of these songs on her album could be a hit single.

And with that being said I'm finding it really hard to pick one song of this album that I would call my 'favorite'. Even though I've listened to the album a couple times, I still feel as if I haven't actually heard it all thru yet. With a couple more listens I know I'll be able to pick a favorite.

As of right now, I'm really liking this album, and you can see the growth from her last album to now.

She deserves all the success she's has and will receive with Prism.

You can get Prism here.

This one is dedicated to the luck people in the UK that were luck enough to get not just one but basically two albums from Lawson, and rest of us around the world that are just sitting and waiting. Chapman Square Chapter II is basically a super deluxe version of Chapman Square. Containing the original 14 songs, the group has added 6 new songs, and 3 new acoustic versions of their songs.

These new 6 songs are definitely a different sound for them giving them a more Pop/R&B kinda of sound, especially with the song 'Love Locked Out', which I have to say is one of my favorites from the new 6 songs.

And if you haven't heard Chapman Square you can check out the original songs and the new songs below.

  

Next up are my picks for singles of the week.

First in this section is Fifth Harmony, 

And yes I do realize that they also released an EP today as well.

But I was just excepting something a little different, I thought it was gonna be a bit more mature but I just feel like it's aimed more towards their younger fans. But out of the 6 songs on the EP, the one song that stood out to me is 'Leave My Heart Out Of This'. To me this is what I expected in terms of it sounding mature. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Check out the rest of the EP and let me know what you think.

Was it what you expected or where you looking for something different ?

My next pick for single of the week is Trevor Jackson with his new single, 'Superman'.

Okay, so I don't even remember how I stumble upon him but I'm glad I did. The first song I heard was Drop It, and I just gravitated to his voice. And for some reason he reminds me of a mash-up of Chris Brown and Trey Songz (vocally). But this is an artist that I can see big things happening for them in the near future. But I definetly recommend checking out both songs, if you haven't heard of either.

Superman - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/superman-single/id725115546

Drop It - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/drop-it-single/id673524838

And their's probably so many others that I haven't mentioned like Love Don't Die from The Fray, Long Live Rock & Roll from Daughtry, The Keeper from Kina Grannis & Marie Digby and a bunch of others. But if I did add everything else, this may just become the world's longest post in blog history.

Let me know of some albums, EPs, or singles that you think I haven't check out.

Damn this was a busy Tuesday,

But,

Until next time,

JustANewYorkGirl

Single(s) of the Week.

Making up for my lack of posts recently with 2 singles this week,

The first song being, Old School Love by Lupe Fiasco featuring Ed Sheeran. Now usually I'm turned off of rap music because a vast majority of today's rap music is all about "fucking bitches" and "getting money". I don't know about anyone else but after awhile that all gets really old, and I'm not trying to say that's all rap music (because it's obviously not) but because of song like that I'm not usually a fan. So I decided to check this song out for 2 reasons, 

1. I know that Lupe Fiasco isn't that kind of rapper.

And 

2. The song features Ed Sheeran, who is one of my favorite artists.

It took me a second listen to determine whether I actually liked it or not, but every time I listen to it now I find and hear something that I didn't before that I really like.

You can give the song a listen here.

I am what they would call an undercover belieber, (well it ain't so "undercover" NOW is it) and this is  another song that I've been feeling this week, Heartbreaker from Justin Bieber, and yes I do realize that the song was released last week. 

This song is apart of a 10 week song release, "Music Monday", leading up to the release of his movie.

But this song to me is different that what he's released before, and I really like the new sound. I'm really liking this song right now, and i genuinely can't wait to see what else he has to offer within these next 8 weeks.

If you haven't heard Heartbreaker yet, you can listen to it right here.

 

What are some songs you've been listening to and loving lately ?

Until next time,

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single of the Week.

Beautiful Life - Union J.

The beautiful thing about music is that when it speaks to you, it's something special, and this song spoke to me. Now I swear that when it comes to hearing a song for the first time I'm a bit backwards to most people. I hear the words first then pick up on the beat,  everybody I know does it other way around.

With that being said the part that stuck out most to me was the chorus,

"Get up off the dark

Open up your eyes
You’ll discover there’s a world outside 
You have to try
Pick it up, pick it up
It’s a beautiful life"

You can either take it literal or leave it up to your interpretation, but there can be so much power behind the words.

The simplicity of the song works as well, there's no huge production of sounds. Throughout the verses you can hear the acoustic guitar, and as it moves on into the chorus you get the electric guitar and some drums. Every simple but effective, gives you a chance to just listen to the words. Which isn't that difficult when the members of this group have some pretty good vocals. A stand out member, whose vocals in this song are powerful, is Jaymi. His strong vocals helps to give the song a bigger sound. 

But it's up to you to decide that, so check out the song right here.

Until next time,

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single(s) of the Week.

This week I have 2 songs from The Mortal Instruments movie soundtrack.

I don't know what it is about this soundtrack but listening to it makes me want to see the movie.

One of the songs that I love from this album is Magnetic by Jessie J.

She's one of those artist that you hear one song and you just love their voice, as goes for her songs. There's hardly any song that I don't like from Jessie J. This song is no exception. To me it has a futuristic beat to it, which I feel is fitting for the movie and all (at least from the trailers I've seen because I haven't actually read the book), and to an extent I feel like the lyrics match the movie. Overall I like how versatile the song sounds, it's something that can be featured on a soundtrack but at the same time it's a song that could be on her own album and it be able to blend in with the rest of the songs perfectly.

The other song it Heart by Heart by Demi Lovato, and I've heard snippets of this song floating around the internet from April and I just knew that it was for a movie. One listen to this song and you just get a soundtrack vibe from it, (or maybe it's just me.) Ever since I heard the full version of the song, I randomly find myself humming it, even as I'm typing up this section of the post i've had it on repeat. I think Diane Warren did a great job at finding the words to capture the movie and feeling of love. But this song is so beautiful, and again from what I've seen from the trailers, I feel like it fits the movie so perfectly. This song to me is one of Demi's strongest songs vocally, I honestly can only imagine how she would kill it if she was to sing it live. Some of my favorite lyrics from the song are, 

"Someone comes into your world,

Suddenly your world has changed forever."

and 

"No one else's arms can lift,

Lift me up so high,

Your love lifts me out of time,

And you know my heart by heart."

Until next week,

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single(s) of the Week.

There's 2 new singles this week.

I have a new "drunk" song for you guys this week. It's "We Own The Night" from The Wanted. I really like this song, it's different from what the Wanted usually release but the song still screams them. This is one of those "feel good" songs that remind you to live it up while you can. And as the summer dwindles down and comes to an end, I find this song so fitting. My favorite line is "I'm a little drunk but I've got something to say." With a single comes a video, which I absolutely love. Before this video came out my favorite video from The Wanted was Warzone, but now seeing this video it's definitely a tie. You hear the song and you automatically envision what the video would be like and I can say that this video lived up to what I envisioned. If you want to check out the video, you can watch it below and if you want to buy the single click here.

 

And then Roar by Katy Perry, which I look at as another feel good song. All about be knocked down and getting back up and coming back better than ever, which seems extremely fitting considering it's been awhile since Katy has released any new music. This is one of those songs that when your feeling down, will lift you back up. And with all the teasers thats coming out for this video I'm excited to see how it turns out, but until then you can enjoy the lyric video that was posted on her Vevo page below. I don't know if it's just me but i find these lyric videos that Vevo has been posting really creative and cute. I so excited for Katy and her new music and I can't wait for Prism to come out. For now you can get the single here.

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single of the Week.

Baby I - Ariana Grande

 

I've been following Ariana for awhile on YouTube and Twitter and her vocals are absolutely amazing. I'm not gonna lie at first when she came out with her song "Put Your Hearts Up" I was nervous for her about how far she would go because her voice is so powerful for what I'd call "just another pop song". But when she came out with "The Way" and now this song "Baby I", I can see the route that she's going is a 90's R&B kinda feel and I think its perfect for her voice and exactly what the industry needs right now. The only way to describe her vocals is a baby Mariah Carey but with an Ariana Grande twist. When I first heard this song I had a strong feeling that Babyface had something to do with it, which was confirmed in the credits. And I love the key change towards the end because that definitely reminds me of 90's R&B music. I'm really looking forward to the rest of Ariana's album, her song "Almost Is Never Enough" with Nathan Sykes, which has a Boys II Men and Mariah Carey feel to it, which you can hear a preview here and whatever else she might have in store for her fans.

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single(s) of the Week.

This week I have 3 songs that I have been obsessing over,

The first one is Miss Movin' On by Fifth Harmony.....

I've liked Fifth Harmony since they were put together during Season 2 of The X-Factor, and with that I can see how much they have grown since their first performance together to now. Honestly these girls can sing, check out there cover of Lego House by Ed Sheeran, here. But this song is so good and catchy for a first single, it's also good enough to be a hit single but you can also see that it wont be a one hit. With this song we'll be able to see their growth vocally and them grow as a group. This maybe a comeback for Girl Groups.

The next one is a bit different, its Trampoline by Tinie Tempah and 2 Chainz.......

I heard this song about 2 weeks ago on Capital Fm and just couldn't get it out of my head. Then when I saw that lyric video I just knew that the song was going to sick with me. I'm actually excited to see how that actual video turns out considering I thought that the lyric was that real thing. But it's such a catchy song and it's just one of those songs that makes you want to dance because of the party/club beat that it has to it. I, personally, have a hard time listening to anything rap related but I know a good song when I hear one and this is one. I feel that this song could be a huge summer hit as well as Tinie Tempah's chance to come back and do something big over here in America again.

And last but not least Zendaya's Replay.....

I was honestly very skeptical about giving this song a listen because I've seen so many good singers that sign to Hollywood Records (aka Disney's label) and the songs turn out to be annoying cheesy songs. But honestly when I heard this song I was impressed. I really like Zendaya's vocals on this song and I love that the song can be taken in different ways. Depending on how your listening to it, it can sound like a mature song, by the end of it I actually forgot that she was signed to Hollywood Records because it sounded so different from what they usually make their artists release. All in all, I love this song and if this song is anything what her album is gonna be like then she may just go very far, for a Disney signed artist.

-JustANewYorkGirl

Single of the Week.

Burn - Ellie Goulding

I am some what obsessed with this song. Since I heard it and saw the video Sunday night I've pretty much had it on repeat ever since. I love the beat of this song and I love Ellie's voice on it as well. I really love the video as well because it matches the song spot-on. This song to me is what I'd like to call as a "night out anthem", one that when your enjoying a night out you can't help but belt out with all your friends at the top of your lungs. I can't wait to hear this song live and see what she does with it and how amazing her vocals will sound.

Hopefully you'll love this song as much as I do.

-JustANewYorkGirl

Up And Coming : Rixton.

So I just gonna say this now, I have a thing for male singers; solo, groups, bands. And one band in particular that I have been in love with lately is Rixton. If you haven't heard of them they are a 4-piece Pop/R&B band from the UK who went from posting covers on youtube to now being managed by Scooter Braun and working on their debut album. 

But until any kind of original music is released they still post covers on their YouTube page.

These are 2 of my favorites ......

And.....

                                       I honestly see big things happening for these boys.....
                                                        This is just the beginning.

                                                             -JustANewYorkGirl

Native.

Okay, yes I know this album didn't come out during this past week but it's one I keep coming back to and I've been listening to it a lot since I got it and it is most definitely in my list of Top Albums of 2013.  But I absolutely love this album and it's one of the few that I can listen to from start to finish and not skip a single song and as much as I've had it on repeat you'd think that there would be at least one song by now that I hit the skip button on.

And these are my Top favorite songs on the album,

1. Counting Stars

       Hands down my favorite song on this album and possibly one of my favorites from OneRepublic, it's really catchy and this song has a Train vibe to it. Favorite Line : "Everything that kills me makes me feel alive." And you can listen to the song and check out the video here.

2. Burning Bridges

       This one is a very close second one the album, this is my belting song, my shower song. I'm not even sure what it is about this song but it so simple but in the right way. Favorite Line : "There's no filling up you spaces with fictionary places, Imaginary faces they don't work at all." Listen to the song here.

3. Feel Again

       To me this song kind of reminds me of their first album but it fits so well on this album. Favorite Line : "I reached out tried to love but i feel nothing, Yeah my heart is numb." Check out the video here.

And,

4. I Lived

       I absolutely love the message of this song and after hearing the back story of the song it made me love the message even more. It's just one of those feel good songs that reminds everyone to live there life to the fullest. Favorite Line : "I owned every second that this world could give, I saw so many places, The things that I did." You can listen to the song here.

Overall I just love this album and if you want you can check out the whole deluxe version of the album here on youtube or here on iTunes.

-JustANewYorkGirl