Album Afterthoughts: Sounds Good Feels Good

I felt like I have written a lot of album posts before, but I just spent twenty minutes going through all my old posts to discover that I haven't. Ever. So, here is the new series. Album Afterthoughts. I think the biggest thing that I missed while I was gone was 5SOS's new album. Therefore, it seems suiting that Sounds Good Feels Good is the first album to be featured on Album Afterthoughts. Enjoy!

*Note: I decided to do the deluxe edition because like who doesn't want more 5SOS?

Sounds Good Feels Good (Deluxe Edition)

1. Money
I like this song, I do. I think it's a good song to dance and party to. However, I don't know if this is the first track I would have put on the album. It belongs here, don't get me wrong, but I think it just isn't a true statement of what this album is like. It's catchy and it gets you hooked, but I'm not sure everyone would stick around to listen to the rest of the songs. I think most would, just because it's so catchy and universal, but I feel like it lacks the raw and intensity of their other songs.

2. She's Kinda Hot
I did a song spotlight on this song, so I feel like you guys have heard me talk a lot about this, and, probably, if I talk any more about it then you will probably stop listening to me at all. So,  go listen to it. It's fucking rad.

3. Hey Everybody!
The beat of this song. It's catchy and I immediately start tapping my foot and bopping my head the minute it comes on. If you don't listen to this song when you are trying to get pumped or when you need to let some energy out, then you're doing something wrong.

4. Permanent Vacation
Okay, let's establish this first: I really like this song. They performed this song on their Rock Out With Your Socks Out Tour, and I didn't even know if it was going to be on the album. I'm glad it is, but I think I like it just a little better in concert (duh), but the song is such a catchy beat that it's fun to dance to. I like the song, don't get me wrong, but it's just not the best lyric wise or for the feels. 

5. Jet Black Heart
This song is Mikey's song. He has the most lead parts and this song was always the song he talked the most about. And, it's so freaking good. The lyrics are amazing and I think they are pretty dark and deep. You have to take a minute and think to really understand them. The tune is great and like honestly, I don't think these boys could do anything wrong so. (Bonus: the music video is awesome.)

6. Catch Fire
Okay, so this song is one of my two favorites off this album. I fucking love this song to the ends of the Earth (even though the first couple of words remind me of the National Anthem). I will go to my grave saying that this song will always cheer me up. I will always play this song literally anytime someone gives me control of the music, because, like with these lyrics and with this beat and tempo, how could I not?

7. Safety Pin
This song is the anthem that I think knocks She's Kinda Hot down a spot. The meaning can be confused to be about love, and it is, but it doesn't have to be all about love. There is so much "fuck the norms" and "this is my life" attitude in this song that it's hard not to love it. The angst. And you all know how I feel about angst.

8. Waste the Night
This song is going to be amazing in concert. I can already tell. Like I just know it is going to be. It just has that feel. The lyrics are so loud they could fill a stadium, the instruments are going to fit into every nook. I'm sure that since Sounds Live Feels Live has already started you can see a video of them performing this. If the CD track isn't doing it for you, go check that out.

9. Vapor
I think this song is so fucking cool. They've written about something that is experienced worldwide. It's such common experience that people can relate too. It's cool that just by listening to the first minute of the song you could put yourself in that spot and know exactly how it feels: you just want to be a part of them. It's a cool feeling and this song captures how that feels: from the beat to the lyrics to the pitch.

10. Castaway
I think this is such a cool concept for a song. It's a cool metaphor or analogy or whatever it is. This song reminds me of the 5SOS that I know and love. It combines their old album/sound with this new one and it's really cool. Also, the lyrics are great.

11. The Girl Who Cried Wolf
It starts off slow and something just happens, you are glad you are listening to the song. And if you have listened to it you know what I'm talking about. The lyrics are awesome and are very relatable. They are about a topic that I think can be hard to put into words and they did a really good at doing just that.

12. Broken Home
This is another song about a topic that is hard to put into words and make a song about it. It's a song that I feel like a lot of people can relate to and I think that's what is amazing about it. It's one song that can connect thousands, maybe even millions, of people. Plus, this song is in a cool style and I really dig it.

13. Fly Away
This song is amazing. It makes me so freaking happy. It always makes me dance and smile. There isn't much about this song that sticks out greatly, but that doesn't mean it's not a good song. I'm just saying that sometimes I pressed the next button in the car. (But those guitars, though!)

14. Invisible
This is such a unique song. It's so cool how they took this relatable and universal feeling of being invisible and feeling like nobody cares and turned it into a song people would listen to and be proud of. Like Jet Black Heart is Mike's song, this is Calum's song, and he fucking rocks it and I don't think any other person could sing this song like he does.

15. Airplanes
I think this song is the song that not a lot of people pay attention to. It's in between two drastically new and different songs. However, this song is not the song to look over. It's a great fucking song. These boys know what they are doing. Trust me. This song catches you right from the beginning and keeps you enthralled. Plus, it has some kickass lyrics and a badass beat.

16. San Francisco
This song is so good. It just has that vibe of nostalgia and regret and it's just wonderful. I don't really know what else to say, because it's just that good of a song. It makes me smile, so what else can I ask?

17. Outer Space / Carry On
I don't know what to say about this one. Like I honestly don't. I love this song so much that I don't think I can put it into words. They combined two different songs into one that works so wonderfully. That's what I call talent. In addition to Catch Fire, I think this song is one of my favorites off the album.

-Laur

"I don't ever wanna wait for this, I believe that I was made for this / I won't fade into dark / I'm not gonna say that I'm sorry, gonna see the end of this story / I won't fade into darkness." Airplanes, 5 Seconds of Summer

The Beginning of 2016 In Terms of Music

You could call this Part 2 of last Thursday's post. This is hopefully catching up on everything else that I missed out on while this blog has been in the back of my mind. It's very similar to the 2015 music post, so let's just get into it!

*Note: In no particular order!

The Beginning of 2016 In Terms of Music

1. Worlds On Fire: Zerbin
This song is so fun. It makes me want to dance. (Also, it reminds me of that one movie LOL with Miley Cyrus where her best friend--and true love, obviously--was in a band and this song sounds like music he played.) The lyrics are pretty good and the tune is catchy. This is a must-listen.

2. Figure Me Out: The Summer Set
This song is so fucking good. The lyrics are some of the best I ever heard and I lowkey want to get all of them tattooed on my body. Like who still needs to figure themselves out? Everybody, right? And that's what this song is: a song for everybody. It's so raw and amazing and I just love it, wow. The song has so good beat drops and some piano solos and like pretty much everything in between. The Summer Set just released an album and it's so fucking good, and their will be a post on it very soon! The music video for Figure Me Out is awesome and you all should definitely check it out.

3. Discover Weekly Playlists
This isn't a song, artist or album, but it's worth talking about. Spotify (if you don't have an account, you can sign up for free here) creates playlists every week on Monday tailored directly to your taste. It mainly bases it on what you listened to the week before and what artists/bands/songs you listen to the most out of all time. My songs almost always fits my taste, and it's a great way to discover new music!

4. HOT: POWERS
This song is what I play when I need to be in a better mood. This song is kind of 70s inspired (which who doesn't want to be a part of the 70s), and it's fantastic. This song is so catchy and so upbeat and fun it's hard not to dance and to not find yourself singing it in your head in class.

5. Paris: Magic Man
Oh my. This song is so good. This is one of the songs that you play really loud on a night in August with your windows down driving down the freeway. This song is the song you play at 2 am in your best friend's basement when you're getting into trouble. This song is the song you play when you're sad and you need to be happy. This song is the song you play at at time at all. Seriously.

6. You Are Not Alone (Live At The Greek): Walk The Moon
Okay, so the thing about this album is that it's going to be different for every person. Some people really don't like live albums. I used to be one of those people, but I've changed. The best feeling in the world is when you can play a live version of a song that you heard in concert and you can feel how you felt when they played it however long ago right in front of your eyes. This album can do that and it does that for me. I don't know if everyone will respond the same way, but give it a shot.

7. Your Type (Young Bombs Remix): Carly Rae Jepsen
Can we talk about relatable? Because that's what this song is. I'm usually not a big fan of remixes, but this is the first version of the song I heard and I just can't seem to not listen to it anymore. This song is so good. The beat is good, the lyrics are good, the singing is good. What's not to love?

8. Catch: Allie X
I think Allie X is amazing. Her songs are so upbeat and happy and make you want to dance, but her lyrics are very dark and raw. It's a cool thing to make a song sound so different (in a good way) from the lyrics. I think this song is my favorite of hers, so go check it out!

9. Running With the Wolves: AURORA
This song is so good. The lyrics are good, the beat is good, the vibes are good. It is literally so good. I don't even have words. Like, seriously. Just go listen.

10. The Maine
So, by now, I'm thinking that you guys know about my obsession with these dudes. Like, it's real. Lately, I've just been listening to them even more than I usually do. I went through a couple of weeks where I just didn't have a lot of stuff I wanted to listen to, and these guys are my go-to, so they got a lot more play time. Recently, I've been obsessed with Vanilla and Whoever She Is.

-Laur

"We held on through the war / Watching as our world crumbled / And we grew braver than before / We were holding up our scars / When we stumbled / And, oh, it's still such a beautiful life." -Worlds on Fire, Zerbin

The Music of 2015 // 2015 Favorites

Hey guys! We're back up and running! Since I've been gone for so long, I figured I could do a post and just sum of the end of 2015, which this blog seemed to miss out on. I can't cover the whole period of time that I missed with just this one post, which means look out for some posts about new album releases and some new current favorites. However, I believe that the first real post in 2016 should be about the music of 2015, even though we are well into 2016 and plenty of new music has been released with the time stamp of 2016. So, I'm going to be talking about just a bunch of random music-related things that I loved throughout all of 2015, so enjoy!

*Note: In no particular order!

The Music of 2015

1. Badlands: Halsey
Why not start with the queen, right? Honestly, this album blew my mind. Like it just exploded and made everything different, just like Halsey did on the music scene. On my last couple nights of summer, I blasted this album driving with the windows down, and as cliche as that sounds, it's very true. My favorites off this album are Castle, Coming Down, Roman Holiday, and Young God. This album is so good, so you will definitely here more about it!

2. Hands To Myself: Selena Gomez
Holy Shit. This song is a jam. This song never fails to make me dance and blurt it out at the top of my lungs. Selena did it again with her album (Revival) and the others songs on Revival prove that. But this one is by far my favorite and deserves recognition. If you're going to listen to one song off this album, listen to this one!

3. Sounds Good, Feels Good: 5 Seconds of Summer
Okay. You guys know how I feel about 5SOS. So, I think you can imagine how I feel about this album. Therefore, I'm not going to go overboard, because I'm promising you right now that this album and probably a couple of its songs will have their own posts dedicated to them. My favorite songs off this album are Catch Fire, San Francisco, and Outer Space/Carry On. I'm going to leave it at this: listen to this album. I mean it. Listen to it. Listen to it with your eyes closed laying in the darkness. Listen to it blasting out of your speakers driving 70 down the freeway. Listen to it at 2 am when you can only have the volume on 1 so you don't wake anyone else up. Listen to this album. You will not regret it.

4. Justin Bieber
I don't know what was in his water for the last two years, but this guy grew up. I'm not saying his perfect (nobody is anyway), but he has made some progress. Purpose is a great album and in my opinion (which I'm sure some will agree with and some will not) I think this is his best album right behind My World 2.0. But, then again, I kind of jumped over Believe and Journals. My personal favorite song is obviously Love Yourself, and I never thought that one of my favorite songs would be by Justin Bieber, but it is.

5. Demi Lovato
I am a big Demi fan. I always have been. La La Land has been a long time jam since the 6th grade, Here We Go Again is on my party playlists, I spent an entire summer listening to Unbroken (aka Skyscraper is my shit), and Demi is one of my favorite albums ever (as the songs sometime reappear in my monthly playlists even now). Confident was very different than what I was expecting. I'm not going to lie, Cool For the Summer didn't get me that excited for what was coming. And, although I don't think Confident could ever beat out Demi or Unbroken, it's a good album. Demi is growing as an artist and I think that's pretty good. Not to mention that she has the confidence that almost anyone, girl or guy, would kill for.

6. Made In The A.M: One Direction
I don't know if One Direction is over. I don't know if the so-called "hiatus" will really only last for a year or until they are 50 and show up on the VMAs for a performance to put in the history books. I also don't know if Zayn will be in that performance. However, I do know that Made In The A.M. is a pretty good way to go out (of they are, in fact, going out). The album shows how they grew up, and if you play it right after you play What Makes You Beautiful, Kiss You, or Steal My Girl, I think you will agree with me. One Direction was my tween years. I'm not afraid to admit that, and I don't care if some people think that I don't know what the hell I am talking about just because I like them. They are all talented singers (including Zayn) and they deserve the fame and the recognition they received, no matter what other people think. As a fangirl from the beginning, this album made me cry (and their video of History). It literally made me break down in tears. So go give it a listen. It's worth it, even if you are just going to deny that you listened to it afterwards. My favorite songs are End of the Day, What A Feeling, Temporary Fix, and Wolves.

7. Twenty One Pilots
I know I was probably a little late to the party, but honestly there are one of my favorite bands ever. ("Welcome, take a seat behind The Maine, All Time Low, and 5SOS.") Blurryface is how I got through my first couple weeks of junior year and I don't think that's an easy task, so props to it. My favorite songs by them are Tear in My Heart, House of Gold, Car Radio, and Johnny Boy.

8. DNCE
Dude. This band is great. I mean from the start they had the makings of a fantastic band: a catchy single, a rocker girl guitarist, and a Jo Bro as the lead. What else would you ever need? Probably nothing. You've probably heard Cake By The Ocean by now, but their EP is amazing and you should definitely check out Pay My Rent, and Toothbrush.

9. Troye Sivan
Yup. Blue Neighbourhood speaks for itself, so I'm literally not going to say anything but what my favorite songs are (Youth, Lost Boy, for him, Suburbia) and that you should go listen to it.

10. Pierre: Ryn Weaver
I found this song off of some video edit on Tumblr. I immediately looked it up and jammed to it for a good ten minutes. Like just this song. On repeat. For 10 minutes. This song is so good and so worth the listen to. Trust me. I don't think anyone could sing this song the way she does (but I think seeing people try would be pretty damn funny), but I would definitely try at karaoke night.

11. Stitches: Shawn Mendes
This song was everywhere, and let's be honest, still is. I feel like every time on I turn on the radio I hear this song come on. Normally, that would drive me nuts, but there is never a bad time to listen to this song. I'll swear on it to, and if you don't agree fight me on it.

12. It Wasn't Me: Shaggy
You're probably thinking, "Laura, what the fuck is this song doing on your list. Have you ever listened to a song without a guitar solo in your life?" Actually, I have. This song was introduced to me by my best friend and I really fucking enjoy this song. My best friends and I jam the fuck out to this song together and apart (if we are apart, we have to send a video of us dancing to our group message). So, this song is a good time. Listen to it.

This is just the end of 2015, but, don't fret, because the beginning of 2016 music is coming. Hold on!

-Laur

"We're speeding through red lights into paradise / 'Cause we've no time for getting old / Mortal bodies, timeless souls / Cross your fingers, here we go." Youth, Troye Sivan.

It's Been A Long Ass Time (I'm Back and What's To Come)

It's been a long ass time since I've talked to you guys. Life just kind of happened? School started and people changed and time flew by. And all of a sudden I'm laying in bed in 2016 before Prom and two months away from summer and I realize that I haven't posted since August, like 8 months ago August. So, I'm back. And things are going to change a little bit if I want to stay back. Life is busier between the months of September to June, and I spend a lot of time working and a lot of time studying and a lot of less time writing. However, I don't spend less time listening and jamming to music, so it's not just like I ran out of things to talk about. Because, in fact, it's the exact opposite.

So what's changing? Well, posts used to come every three days, which wasn't my best idea I'm going to admit. Some weeks it would be Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday and the next week it starts on a Tuesday and then it's Friday and Monday. AKA, they were all over the place and in a way inconsistent and just not very easy to me to keep track of. Now, posts will be every Tuesday and Thursday. Two set days a week will just be a little more consistent for me and make my life a little bit easier while providing steady content for you guys. It's the best of both worlds and everybody wins.

The content will stay mostly the same, and I will always try to think of new ways to write posts and new post ideas. This is a music based blog, and it's going to stay that way, promise.

And, of course, I'm still going to end every post with some lyrics.

-Laur

"And maybe we will never figure it out / I got a feelin' that's what life's all about / I'm learning anything is possible now." -Rockstar, A Great Big World