A Rush Of Blood To The Head

I took a couple of days to think about how to start up this blog. I will write as much as I can and as often as well. I think it is safe to say that I will start off writing about my 25 life changing albums and when I say life changing, I mean LIFE CHANGING!

These albums are heart and soul to me, these albums changed my way of thinking, it changed my way of listening to music, it changed the way I felt, it changed me completely. A lot of these albums were all about life lessons. I'm a big believer of experience as I expressed on my first entry. I always found myself listening to albums or songs that revolved around my feelings. The music, lyrics and the overall feel of the songs were me basically going to counseling all the time. It was a type of release in my mind I had going on after a hardcore music session. That is how serious music and someone else's words meant to me from the beginning of my childhood.

Now, I have 25 albums I'll be blogging about and they aren't in any specific order.

Album #1:

A Rush Of Blood To The Head

I always think it's better to listen and when I mean listen, I mean REALLY listen to an album when you're completely alone. I think the music speaks to you differently when you're alone. At least for me, I felt spoken to after listening to this album. I felt like I was in a dream in every song. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first played this album. I was in that room alone all night repeating the album over and over again.

This was Coldplay's second album and personally their best. The first song that everyone fell in love with was "Clocks" -I'm pretty sure of it, it was all over the radio and it was an instant Coldplay classic. That song put me in a psychedelic dream which I never wanted to wake up from. From that point on my goal was to search for more and more songs like this. One thing I will always say is I researched my music like a crazy person, finding new music was my goal everyday and when I did so I felt like I found gold. When I didn't I would hardly sleep until I found something worth my interest.

I think every song had meaning to me, I went through phases where a specific song would talk to me and it had deep meaning. The song that still to this day speaks to me and often at times makes me cry is "God Put A Smile Upon Your Face" 

One thing I will say is that when I talk about a songs meaning I'm speaking specifically what it says to me. That is what music is to me, everyone has different minds, different feels, and different views. Take my meanings with a grain of salt, love it or hate it this is me.

The main thing I think about listening to this song is grace. I think this song describes us perfectly as humans. We all collapse, we all fail, and we aren't perfect but we have grace and we have meaning.

"Where do we go nobody knows?
I've gotta say I'm on my way down
God give me style and give me grace
God put a smile upon my face."

I think the lyrics say it all mostly. This albums sounds like heaven, some songs will haunt you and some will enlighten you. I will say that a lot of Coldplay's older stuff has the best detailed sounds I have heard. The smallest beat can make the difference and they do a fabulous job doing so in this album. That's honestly one of the reasons I love this album, the beats make this album for me, his voice has such a echoing, haunting and lingering tone. This album is easily on a lot of "greatest albums of all time" lists. So it's safe to say that you should listen to it if you haven't already. 

My top 5 songs off this album are:
1) God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
2) A Rush Of Blood To The Head
3) Daylight
4) Politik
5) A Whisper 

Take some time when you're alone and listen to this goodness. 
Tell me what you think- tell me why you love it or hate it. What do you feel when you close your eyes and feel every beat to this song? What do you feel when Chris Martin is singing his heart away during the chorus? 

Enjoy /m\

Inspiration

I will be perfectly candid and say that I did not find inspiration through a person. Because this is my first music blog I should probably explain a little background and what made me music possessed.

I'm a strong believer of childhood experiences. My memories aren't playing dress up with friends and playing pretend "Disney Princess". I remember sitting in my room with a notebook, pencil, a walkman (remember those?) and a bunch of CDs. I remember waking up one day at the age of 8 and becoming solely obsessed with music and what it had to offer me. And what that gave me has been life changing, I saw music as education. Music gave me the power to let my mind wander, I took whatever the lead singer had to say to heart and carried it with me everyday. Music let me dream, let me create and let me feel.

Growing up, my weekly "wish list" at home was usually a new CD. Growing up also had its downsides, as I got older becoming popular and fitting in was a must. I was a big people pleaser and wanted to be desperately liked by all of my peers. But what that meant was leaving behind my interests because they didn't fit into the norm. I felt like two separate people everyday, I was the Sheila everyone would like in person and then at home I was THE Sheila, me, naked soul, open, out there, and weird at times.

The Verve's final album changed my life! Yes, I'm dramatic but no this isn't me being dramatic. It's not everyday I walked into a Walmart and saw a life changing album laying on the floor with pretty legit clouds on the cover screaming "GET ME" in my head.  I would love to elaborate on every song in that album but that'll come at a later time. That album led me to believe that if something could make you feel THAT intensely about life- there's a reason.

Now this is ALL about music. But I'm going to be talking about a huge inspiration in my life and that's
Lester FUCKING Bangs.

Lester Bangs, wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazine. Basically he's one of the BEST rock critics out there. Why does that fool inspire me? He was blunt, he was real, when that man felt something he said it exactly how he felt. That's what music needs now in my opinion. I'm sick and tired of seeing the music of today becoming popular just because the beat makes you dance, I hate seeing zero authenticity with these new artists. Are most new uprising artists talented? Sure. Will they become popular? Of course. But at the end of the day will that specific track change you? Will that artist get into your soul? Will you think far beyond a "this sounds cool" comment? Personally, music was made to change you, to make you think deeper.

This Lester Bang's quote says it all:
“Rock 'n' roll is an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's a way of doing things, of approaching things. Writing can be rock 'n' roll, or a movie can be rock 'n' roll. It's a way of living your life.” 
― Lester Bangs

My goal? I want this blog to be that weird blog that you come across but deep down in your soul you know you agree with. Music has become such a mainstream popularity contest it's absurd. I want music to go back to what it was years ago. Tough thing to dream about in today's world huh? But when I leave this earth one day that's how I want to be remembered; as the girl who WOULD NEVER give up on the power of music and keeping it alive! And that's the point of my blog, it's for those that need that small push of inspiration, I want people to feel again BUT REALLY feel.

So when I write and when you read the rest of my blogs from now on, my foundation to start all those blogs and the root of all of those topics, people, and albums all come back to this very FIRST blog I first wrote.

My root to music is this.

Enjoy \m/