My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
1802. William Wordsworth
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“I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles, threaded together by wires. I counted one, two, three.....nineteen telephone poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn’t see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.” (Sylvia Plath -The Bell Jar p 118)
Do you really want to save up for a whole summer.. living like you did when you were 17 with your rents...then go travelling spend it all then come back and be in square one again? It would be totally amazing though.
Need to figure out a future and make it happen. While trying to actually pass this degree. Feel like pulling the duvet over my face for days at a time. Need to man up.
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Jay Z - Empire State of Mind
When it comes to chart topping hip hop albums and being an influential music personality this man has all the world renowned success money can’t buy. Jay Z is cherished for his swaggering powerful presence in the industry since the beginning of his career and is the face behind some colossal anthems that bring everyone to their feet, not just hip hop fans.
A great collaboration can be a priceless asset for an artist’s year, album or indeed entire career if done with such seamlessness and grace that makes this track what it is. Empire State of Mind features the unmistakably supreme vocal talents of Alicia Keys, which makes for a blinding chorus. Her presence transforms this from a bragging and fiercely self-important rap record to a prodigious song about New York and big city living that is sure to make you more familiar with replay or repeat buttons.
This refreshing track will infect and inspire, making the eagerly awaited for new album The Blueprint 3 a definite must hear.
Local Natives are a Californian band who seem to have taken on the UK in an effortless stride in recent months. When the Guardian featured them as their “New Band of The Day” back in June, they described them “almost too good to be true”.
There is no denying that to discover Local Natives is to discover a pot of gold under the inescapable rainbow of pretentious samey indie rock. This is a fresh new band who wear all the atmospheric musical integrity of The Arcade Fire on their cardigan sleeves and who’s music oozes all the confidence and poise that would expected from a band with at least a couple of releases under their belts.
However these chaps’ debut album Gorilla Manor has only been in the shops for a matter of days yet it has been stamped by many as a gem of 2009. This is thanx to their appearance at the Suffolk’s much loved spoken word and music festival Lattitude this summer, and an eager online anticipation most bands can only dream about.
From the first few seconds of Airplanes, track two of the album it is clear Local Natives not afraid of a three part harmony, or out of the box orchestral embrace. The enticing vocals this track transports will send any low expectations packing and take you to a place the current music climate might just not have prepared you for.
Put Gorilla Natives to the top of your to-listen-to list now.
