Opinion – Page 2 – JMAC- The Blog Experience

Music Artists of the Decade

Hozier

Okay, maybe not the biggest artists but still, iconic. You probably only know one of his songs, ‘Take Me To Church’. In fairness it is an amazing song. However have you heard his new album? Yes in 2019 this man released his second album and boy did it deliver. Go listen to ‘Dinner and Diatribes’ or ‘Talk’ and you will understand. Please let him come back in 2020. I need it.

Harry Styles

Out of all of one direction Harry has made the best music. While the rest of the boys music is good, you remember Harry’s. On his first Album all of his songs are amazing enough to be the top song though ‘Only Angels’ and ‘Ever Since New York’ are my favourite. Then theirs Fineline. While I personally prefer the first album Fineline is still an amazing album. This man has had 2 albums and not a single bad or forgettable song. Talent. Then theirs lights up. All I need to say is go listen to lights up. Now. Even if you’ve already heard it, just go listen.

P!NK

P!nk has been around since the 2000’s and we aren’t mad. She opened the decade with her album ‘Greatest Hits…So Far’ then released ‘The Truth About Love’, ‘Beautiful Trauma’ and ‘Hurts 2B Human’. She can be enjoyed by parents and their kids. ‘Try’, ‘What About Us’, and ‘Just Give Me A Reason’ are just 3 of the highlights.

Lewis Capaldi

Our very own Scot. Do I need to say much more? This man broke out with his song ‘Grace’ and took over the music world with only two EPs in his back pocket. He’s since released ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent’ where every song, like Harry Styles album, is good. Most albums have one song you’d skip, not this one. ‘One’, ‘Hollywood’ and’ Bruises’ are my favs but it was hard to pick out just 3. And how can we forget ‘Someone You Loved’ and the music video with Peter Capaldi. His album is the first number 1 Album for 2o20. It’s a sign.

Yungblud

We had to get a little bit goth. This list has been far to pop friendly. Although I only found out about Yungblud a couple months ago he’s my 2nd most listened to artist this year on Deezer. Because I have problems. Yungblud released his album ’21st Centaury Liability’ in 2018 and honestly its what we needed. ‘Machine Gun’ and ‘Kill Somebody’ where my favourites. This is not to mention his singles like ‘Tin Pan Boy’ and all his collabs like ‘7 Minutes’ with Halsey and ‘Original Me’ with Dan Reynolds to name a couple.

Bands Of The Decade

Black veil brides

Started out Goth, black veil brides was the angst we needed for this decade. Started out with ‘We Stitch These Wounds’ in 2010 BVB realised 5 albums and an ep over the decade. Highlights of these albums are ‘Knives and Pens’, a classic, ‘Wake Up’, and ‘The Outsider’. This is without mentioning Andy Black blessed us with his solo career which gets an honoury mention on this list.

Imagine dragons

Pop rock band Imagine dragons gave us 4 studio albums, 6 singles and 4 live albums. ‘Evolve’ was easily the best album out of the lot. Not to be a ‘fake fan’ but theres a reasons ‘Radiotactive’ and ‘Believer’ are so popular. Sucker for pain made me a sucker for this band and lets not even mention Dan’s collab with Yungblud for the song Original Me.

5 Seconds of Summer

Although they didn’t join us till 2014 5sos came out strong with their first album also named 5 Seconds of Summer. Sounds good feels good joined us in 2015 much to our relief but the boys forced us to wait till 2018 to get Youngblood, their new album with their modern sound. Highlights include their tour with one direction, ‘If walls could talk’, ‘Amnesia’, and, of course ‘English Love Affair’.

Fall out boy

We already knew Fall out boy was here to stay after their first 2 albums in the 2000’s but they hit bacl hard with Save Rock and Roll. American Beauty/American Psycho was realsesd in 2015 and Mania in 2018. No matter their age or the trends FOB is here to remind you that your emo at heart. ‘Centuries’, ‘Uma Thurman’, and ‘My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark’ were just three of the bangers that made us think back to the good days of Infinity on High, truly the best album of FOB.

One Direction

Despite the alternative influence of this list one direction was the band of the decade. Point. Blank. Period. To say One Direction helped shape the generations growing up in the 2010’s is an understatement. 5 Albums in 6 years. They broke 6 Guinness world records and kept breaking the charts. 28 Teen Choice Awards, 7 Brits, 7 AMAs, 6 Billboard Music Awards, 5 Billboard Touring Awards, and 4 MTV Music Video Awards among others.

Is this a surprise? Even non-1d fans were surrounded by their music and accepted it. Sure there were crazy fans and the reaction to Zayn leaving was ridiculous but 1d was the best band of the 2010’s.

To finish this list here are some 1d hits; ‘Happily’ (acoustic version), ‘Perfect’, ‘Best Song Ever’, ‘One Way or Another’, and ‘Rock Me’.

Book Series Review- The Raven Cycle- Maggie Stiefvater

When I first bought this book it was really just to tick boxes for a deal considering the synopsis doesn’t exactly sell it to me ( I’ll let you check that out in your own time its too long to paste in here).

I read it on a camping trip and was hooked from day one, I’ll tell you why.

Maggie Stiefvater has a wonderful way of using character development, so much so that you can easily fall in love with every character and relationship. These books in particular make you want to find a really close mismatched group of friends and go a walk in a ~magical~ forest to discover dead welsh kings , go a drive late at night in a bright orange 63′ Camaro, street racing, visit large stately homes or go travelling for a year.

Basically the way this friendship group -Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah- evolves over the next four books is what kept me obsessed with this series.

One character in particular is my favourite to read about. Ronan Lynch, the rebellious teen who inherited a lot of money off his dad when he was brutally murdered for essentially selling magical objects on the black market. Ronan hates school and only turns up to see his friends once in a while, other than that he spends most of his time harnessing his dreamer powers at his family estate or mulling over the fact that he is in love with his best friend- Adam Parrish. He shows these emotions by rescuing Adam from his abusive dad, paying his rent etc.

The second book in the series- Dream Thieves- focuses quite heavily on these aspects of Ronan and how he copes with his traumatic childhood and poor relationship with his brother. We shortly meet Ronans enemy- Kavinsky- in this book, as in the end- after an explosive ‘battle’- he dies. We see a weird relationship form as the boys bond over their love for street racing and their shared ability to create objects in their dreams. Kavinsky is an angsty, confused teen who has had a similarly bad childhood and also faces some feelings towards Ronan which he squashes in a cruel way in order to not lose his ‘status’.

The third book- Blue Lily’ Lily Blue- is my least favourite. It’s relatively slow and the characters spend most of the time in caves looking for the dead welsh king and Blue’s lost mother. What I do like about this book is that we find out more about Gansey’s anxiety and how it affects him. He takes a panic attack at school and ends up finding comfort in his new friend Henry Cheng who teaches him how to deal with his anxiety and face his fears. The team also make a massive discovery about Gansey towards the end of the book but I wont spoil it too much. This book also develops one of the main relationship in the series (Gansey and Blue).

The final book-Raven king- is a satisfying end to the series however only in the last few chapters does it get exciting. The book follows the ‘unmaker’ the villain of the series which only appears in physical form in this book. The villain poses a threat to Ronan’s dreaming abilities and also the magical forest. It plans to completely wipe out all of society and start afresh, itself as the overlord. I’d be completely spoiling the whole plot and sub-plot if I told you what happened in these last few chapters, so i’m just going to hope I managed to sell this series to you and you decide to give it a chance and not judge a book by its blurb.

P.S- if you like Ronan’s story the most then Maggie has just recently released the first of the three books in the Dreamer trilogy- a series centred purely around Ronan. The book is called ‘ Call down The Hawk’

Another Month, More Music

It’s November, therefore no Christmas songs from me yet- well except the tunes forced into my brain through band-. This past month I’ve become addicted to ABBA, Queens Of The Stone Age and early 2000’s hits. Quite varied I’d say.

I Can Talk- Two Door Cinema Club. An oldie but a goodie, after seeing them in concert at the beginning of October (which was excellent might I add). TDCC is just one of those bands where you can easily dance to any of their songs and this one certainly fits that criteria. I Can Talk
American Boy- Estelle and Kanye West. I’m pretty sure every Gen Z and Millennial can agree with me. This.Is.A.Bop. I think I know all the words and that’s perhaps one of my proudest achievements. American Boy
Falling For U-Peachy! and mxmtoon. Tik Tok is addictive and also sometimes a good way to find new songs. Such as this one. A bit of a change up this is a slow chilled out song. Falling For U
Does your Mother Know- ABBA. Dancing Queen is the theme of St. Aidan’s Sixth year but this one is probably my favourite ABBA song of all time. Does Your Mother Know
No One Knows- Queens of the Stone Age. I first discovered this song playing Band Hero on my DS Lite about 8 years ago and have only now grown to appreciate it in my teenage years. Give it a listen if you haven’t heard it before and prefer a bit more rock. No One Knows

BONUS SONG!!!

It Gets Better-Rex Orange County. Out of all the songs on his new album-Pony- this one (or Pluto Projector) has got to be my fave. Probably one of the more upbeat tunes on the album but I highly recommend any of his songs. I’m soo excited to go see him in concert next week! It Gets Better

Top 5 Best Things About Halloween

October is here and spooky month is upon us!! And that means Halloween, truly one of the best holidays. And here only the top 5 best things about Halloween though there are many.

Decorations

Let’s be real, when a house puts out a single bowl of sweets with a sign saying ‘take one’ disappointment doesn’t begin to describe that house. Pumpkins litter people’s doorsteps with carvings from the classic pumpkin face, to witches hats, to intricate designs, to pumpkins throwing up their guts. Get creative.

And then there’s the inside. Houses begin to put up fake cobwebs, hanging ghosts, and skeletons. A parties cool and all but a Halloween party with skeletons, frozen hands as ice, hanging ghosts, and fake dead body outlines are the best.

Trick or treating

Okay maybe it’s a ‘kid thing’ but it’s also amazing. Dressing up, going up to strangers houses, asking for sweets and getting them! For free! As someone who grew up with 2 brother’s close in age we were set for weeks. Imagine a pile of sweets, nuts, fake tattoos, and even sometimes a juice spread across your living room. For free! Some people even home baked treats for the trick or treaters.

And there’s the jokes. Oh the jokes. Although I’m ‘too old’ to trick or treat answering the door and hearing the jokes is spooktacular. Who doesn’t love a dumb Halloween pun? And sometimes they get creative with their jokes

If this spooky season you’re too old to go trick or treating find a brother or sister or even a cousin to take round! It’s worth it. It’s one of the perks of having a two year old brother.

Pets in costumes

This had to be its own category. Pets can be cute. Cats, dogs, even snakes can all have there moments. But on Halloween?

What better thing is there than when you answer the door on Halloween and it isn’t a bratty kid but a bratty kid and a dog? And that dog is a pumpkin! I don’t even need to say anything else.

The aesthetic

Halloween is an aesthetic. Fall colours, Halloween parties, spooky movies. Plus since its autumn you have the bonus of fall. You can watch scary movies with a blanket and hot chocolate since its October and who cares?

Recently October has become its own aesthetic. Orange, pumpkin spice, Halloween makeup. Instagram floods with ‘scary’ makeup. Carving pumpkins is becoming a trend. Every country has its own little extra like Americas candy corns just to make it even better. The Halloween aesthetic is own of the best.

Costumes

Best for last, am I right? Pet costumes aside it’s the human costumes that are the best. You can do your own thing, a family costume, a couple costume, a group costume, or even where a shirt saying ‘this is my costume’, though that is a let-down let’s be honest.

And costumes cater for all types. Minimal effort people draw six lines on their face and call themselves a cat and spooktacular people bust out the latex and fake blood and look like they got lost on their way to the hospital. Costumes aren’t even just scary any more. Punny costumes, political costumes, cute costumes, and much more. Some people are using body paint to morph themselves into something not even human.

Who doesn’t want to be someone else for a day? Okay maybe not completely but still. Halloween gives you that (kind of). You can at least dress like whoever you want and act like them with little to no judgement.

So get your costume, get your trick or treat bags ready. It’s Halloween this Thursday and the Victoria Park Halloween party is tonight, it’s not a drill. Its spooky time

MINECRAFT

Just in this may this masterpiece of a game turned 10 years old and in this game has spiked in popularity and lost its popularity to rising again to be the most bought game in the world. But why? well that’s an easy question to answer its a game where you can do anything and everything.

The game randomly generates a world completely unique to you. So, can go in survival and try and survive and beat the bosses or you can just build until your hart contents. There is also sense of adventure and discovery with more than 60 biome variants, 3 bosses, and 2 other dimensions.

There are loads of other mini features like the ability to feed a dolphin and they’ll lead you to treasure. Or you can give a wolf a bone and they’ll become your dog this is amazing because the dog will fight with you and if you get two you can have pups.

Daphne’s Top Five Tunes August 2019

I can’t really describe my music taste,so I’ll leave it for you to decide. These are my top five tunes of August 2019.

TIME BY LUCKY FRUIT – a small artist I discovered over Instagram, really chill and amazing vocals. [ I would add a picture but it wont let me :-[ ]

2. SOFTLY BY CLAIRO- I’ve been listening to Clairo’s new album a lot recently because I’m going to see her live in November but this song is so chill and has such lovely vocals that I couldn’t help but share it.

3. CAVORTING BY COURTEENERS- I’m a bit late to the bandwagon with this one but It’s just such a good song to bop away to.

4.DO I MAKE YOU FEEL SHY? BY CONNAN MOCKASIN- I love everything about Connan’s songs but they do take a rather particular taste so give any of his albums a listen and see how you feel. (He’s brilliant live as well)

5. BELLARINE BY ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER- these up and coming Australians have a brilliant first album and I’m so excited to see what else they have up their sleeves. Another feel good tune you can easily sing along to, I’d say.

My Review Of The REACH And Accelerate Law Programmes

During June I spent two very different weeks at two very different universities, University Of Strathclyde and the University Of Glasgow. I attended the accelerate law challenge at Strathclyde University and the REACH Law programme at Glasgow University.

Through these programmes I was able to experience mock court trials, visit the sheriff court, participate in a practice LNAT test, listen to lectures about what the university has to offer and hear about current and former students experiences at the universities and what career path they followed with their law degree whilst also taking part in many different work shops.

I enjoyed both programmes but I felt we worked a lot more independently at Strathclyde and formed a better connection with the current law students as they were our mentors for the week. Glasgow focused a lot more on the academic side of things and the requirements for applying to Glasgow University in the future. At the end of both weeks I had made great friends, explored more of the universities and the surrounding area of Glasgow and I also further cemented my interest in pursuing a Law degree. I would really recommend applying to both programmes as they benefit you in many ways.

My Top 5 Favourite Songs of January ’19

My music taste is pretty great if I say so myself. I like nearly every genre of music so here is a handful of my favorites, coming monthly for you dudes.

Continue reading “My Top 5 Favourite Songs of January ’19”