Category: Music

Ben Platt – Radio City Music Hall

by melissay1, posted in Music, Theatre, travel

Still continuing on my theme of blog posts from when I went to New York last month comes todays post about Ben Platt’s concert at Radio City Music Hall. It was quite a while ago now but I love Ben Platt so I really feel like I still wanted to post this up.

I have been a fan of Ben Platt for a while now after joining the fan train from his role as Evan in Dear Evan Hansen. However, in the UK I don’t think he’s popular enough yet to do a countrywide tour and when he did come to London earlier in the year I had already tickets for another event at the other end of the country so I couldn’t go – gutted was an understatement. So it’s safe to say when he announced a one off date in New York and it fell when I happened to be on holiday there at the same time that I was thrilled to finally get the opportunity to see him perform.

Radio City Music Hall is one of those iconic American venues. so many shows and award ceremonies have taken place in that venue. It’s somewhere that each time I go to New York I think about going on the tour of the building but for various reasons it’s just never happened. If you’ve never been to Radio City Music Hall before from the moment you step into the lobby you’re in awe. It’s a pretty spectacular entrance hall and from the second you step foot through the door its clear why this venue was chosen for Ben Platt’s one off show. It was certainly more special than your average concert venue which was only fitting considering that Netflix was filming the entirety of Ben Platt’s concert that night.

I had such high expectations from the concert and Ben Platt didn’t disappoint in the slightest. I love the slight awkwardness that he has on stage, I love how he engages with the audience between songs and I could listen to him sing for hours. His voice is phenomenal and it’s so refreshing to go and see someone perform live and they sound just as incredible as they do on the album without needing any fancy dancing or set to distract you from his voice. Vocally, Ben Platt must be one of the best around at the moment and hearing him sing in person truly gives you chills at various points.

Truthfully, I believe Ben Platt to be a lot like marmite. He has quite a unique voice and I think that you’ll even really love his music or not be a fan. I obviously fall in the really love his music category so for me I absolutely loved the concert from start to finish. Ben Platt performed songs from his Sing To Me Instead album and even through in a performance of his newly released single, Rain. My personal favourite from the night was the song, If I Don’t Live Forever, which is my favourite song from the album and somehow manages to come across even more incredibly live.

The set was simple, it was a small rounded stage – nothing flashy in the slightest. I expected more of an over the top production with it being filmed for Netflix but to be honest, Ben Platt doesn’t need it. His voice is all that is needed for him to put on a great show and the simplicity somewhat reflects the scenes in his latest Netflix show, The Politician, in which he sings at various points throughout. What I liked about the stage was that it also highlighted the talents of the band and backing singers as they weren’t pushed at the back, they even had a moment to shine themselves which I found quite refreshing for a concert.

I still can’t quite believe that I was lucky enough to be in the audience for this concert. Ben Platt has one incredible voice and it was fantastic to be able to watch him perform. What’s even more exciting that sometime in the future we’ll be able to watch the show on Netflix and I know I for one cannot wait to sit through the show again!

Album Review: Lover – Taylor Swift

by melissay1, posted in Music

First of all hello to all new followers! I blog mostly book reviews but every so often I’ll write about concerts or musicals I’ve been too or in this case an album that I really love. I’ll check out everyone’s blogs in a little while as I have quite a few to read and I want to take a good look at everyone’s blogs and read peoples posts.

Now on with today’s post…

At the time I’m actually writing this post it is Taylor Swift’s new album, Lover, release date. It’s absolutely no secret that Taylor Swift is my favourite solo artist (to the extent she’s probably the only person I’d cry in front of if I ever met her) and I have loved her music for well over ten years now so I’m at that stage now where I would just buy anything she released as I know that I’m bound to like it.

Taylor’s last album reputation wasn’t an instant love for me in the slightest, it was only when certain events happened in my life that I started to click with the lyrics and truthfully that era ended up being on of my favourites of hers so I’m somewhat anxious to hear the new music. I loved the message that the album had and the confident, independent, don’t care what people think about you feeling that reputation came with both from the songs and the powerful presence that Taylor had and from the singles from Lover I’m feeling this album will have a completely different vibe. It’s also worth mentioning that as I’ve been a fan for so long I still have a certain country Taylor expectation so her latest few albums have been growers more than instant loves for me!

I have held off listening to the album all day so I could sit down properly and listen and write this post so I can’t wait to finally get listen.

I’ve not really done many posts like this but here we go…my attempt to write my thoughts, track by track, of Taylor Swift’s Lover album –

1. I Forgot That You Existed

I think this song is the perfect track one on Lover. It’s the perfect introduction to the style of music that is on this album. I adore the way that Taylor speaks some of the lyrics too, it adds to the meaning of the song. It’s an appropriate first song too as it’s about moving on from the haters which reputation focussed largely on so it’s the perfect bridge between both albums. I think if you’ve ever been in the situation where people ever called you out for something or if you’ve hated someone and have moved on you will relate to the happy place you get to when you just move on.

2. Cruel Summer

From what I’ve seen on Twitter, this song appears to be a particular fan favourite! It explores a relationship taking place over the summer. I love the verses of this song as they’re so crazily catchy but personally for me, the chorus is going to be a grower. I can see this becoming a song that I really love after a few listens though. Also Taylor screaming about the devil in this song?! How unexpected was that! You can already imagine the crowd screaming this line back at Taylor when she tours this album.

3. Lover

Vocally Taylor sounds fantastic on this song. As with Cruel Summer I think this song with absolutely be a grower. I like it now but not to the extent that I would say it was a favourite from the album. The second half of this song however is so good and I could listen to that part on repeat so I can’t wait for the rest of the song to grow on me. This song you can already imagine the stage set up for this one. Adding to this one as I’ve just watched Taylor’s VMAs performance of this song. Listening to this song acoustic makes me love it a whole lot more – what a performance!

4. The Man

I think Taylor sums up what every single female has thought at some point during this song. It’s basically going on about how her life could be different if she was a man, would she have had the same stick if she was a man, would she have got to where she wanted to in life quicker etc? Taylor effortlessly weaves in parts of her life and writes about how she thinks things would’ve gone down if she was a man. The song is insanely catchy and definitely one of my favourites on the album. Regardless of the fact that I love this song, I think that it’s so important for someone with Taylor’s influence to do something that recognises gender equality and she does it so fantastically in this song.

5. The Archer

I’m so sad to say that this was my least favourite of the songs Taylor released prior to Lover being released. I do like this song and I know that I’ll look back at this post in a few weeks and think how did I not love this track. I think my issue is that so many people were comparing this song to All Too Well, and for me you just can’t compare these two songs. I’m very intrigued to hear Taylor to sing this song live too as I feel it could be one she strips back to an acoustic performance.

6. I Think He Knows

This song is Taylor embracing rap and it completely works! Its perhaps a different kind of song for Taylor for this reason but it still manages to contain moments that are so Taylor, for example it’s full of parts that you can instantly sing along to. When the song started I initially wasn’t overly sure but whilst writing this I’ve played this song on repeat about five times so it’s safe to say I like it! I have zero chance of ever being able to sing along to the rap part though!

7. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

I feel like this song is a nice combination of old Taylor and new Taylor, it fits perfectly on Lover but at the same time it would fit on her previous albums too. I like the lyrics, I like the catchiness of it – after first listen this is one of my favourites from Lover. Lyrically it has a nice nod to the old Taylor in terms of high school, marching bands, prom dresses but then on the other hand she’s singing about America losing it’s glory which brings us straight back into present day. I hope this song ends up being a fan favourite as I need to see Taylor sing this song live.

 8. Paper Rings

You know those songs you hear and within the first 10 seconds you know that you instantly love it? Well for me, Paper Rings is one of those songs! It reminds me of the catchiness of Stay, Stay, Stay from Red or a song that you’d hear in a teen movie. It’s a pure pop hit and is one of those songs that you can imagine dancing happily along to at Taylor’s next tour. It’s a toe tapping hit and if this doesn’t end up being a single I’ll be very disappointed as I think it’s the best song on the album. I’ve been stuck writing about this song longer than I should admit as I’ve just been playing this song on loop, I absolutely love it. I already know this song is going to end up being in my list of favourite Taylor Swift songs of all time.

9. Cornelia Street

I really like Cornelia Street. I can only assume this is the memories that happened when she lived here and I think that everyone can relate to tying memories to a certain place. Cornelia Street is one that I can so vividly imagine ok her inevitable upcoming tour, she’s obviously going to create the street in her tour graphics and walk the crowd through the story which makes me very excited. I know I’ve said this about a lot of the songs but I think this will become a firm favourite of mine. I’m assuming this song is about New York’s Cornelia Street so three guesses what’s just been added to my holiday visit list…

10. Death By A Thousand Cuts

I already know that this song is likely to be my surprising one of the album. That one where you listen and think ‘hmm yeah this one is ok, nothing special but it’s good’ and then within a week it’s suddenly become one of your favourites. Lyrically it’s fantastic and the song captures my attention enough but it’s absolutely going to be one of those songs that grow on you in the best possible way.

11. London Boy

I spent a number of years living in London and my geographical knowledge of the area absolutely stresses me out when listening to this song. Taylor’s idea of spending a day in London is a pure logistical nightmare and some of the places she name drops I just don’t understand why she desires to spend time there. I have a list a mile long of my issues with the places but for one…Camden Market in the afternoon?! I also don’t really like how this song starts with Idris Elba speaking, for me it just feels abit unnecessary and I don’t understand what it adds to the song. Don’t get me wrong this song is unbelievably catchy and if it didn’t feature London places I would love this song but for me at the moment I can’t detach myself from my place knowledge to fully enjoy the song.

12. Soon You’ll Get Better Featuring Dixie Chicks

This song is exactly why I started liking Taylor’s music. It’s so nice that even though she progresses as an artist and brings completely different sounds to each album that she is still able to provide songs that do a nod to the past. It has a very similar sound to The Best Day which is only fitting giving the subject matter of the song. This song is quite possibly the saddest song that I’ve ever heard from Taylor as she sings about her mum’s battle with breast cancer and the experiences she went through with that. I feel like this song will be quite underrated compared to the upbeat songs that are on Lover but I absolutely adore this song and I hope other people love it too as this song shows Taylor in her best, a great song that is tied with such powerful, relatable lyrics. I can imagine given the subject matter that perhaps this will be a song Taylor won’t perform live so much but I truly hope it isn’t the case.

13. False God

All albums have that song that you’re just not sure about and sadly I think False God is that song for me. The thing with Taylor’s songs is that I either love part of it that I get stuck in my head, or the catchy tune or I end up relating to the lyrics then love the song that way. Unfortunately at the moment I haven’t done any of that with this song yet.

14. You Need To Calm Down

You Need To Calm Down was my favourite of the singles Taylor released prior to this album being released. It’s so catchy and I know this will be one of my favourites to see her perform live (this was supposed to be just first impressions but I can confirm it’s one of my favourites to see her perform…did anyone see the VMA performance of this song, it was incredible) as is anyone able to listen to this song without dancing along? Throwing it out there early…Taylors tour is going to be full of so many people wearing gowns and crowns because of this song!

15. Afterglow

I feel this song is so heavily underrated. I’ve barely seen anyone say that it’s on of the favourites from the album but as of now I really love this song. This song deserves way more hype than it’s currently getting as vocally Taylor sounds great plus lyrically it’s a good song too!

16. Me!

I like this song but it’s been played so solidly on radio since its release that with this album its just a skip song for me at the moment. If you listen to a mainstream radio station you’ll have absolutely heard this song at some point. However, having heard the rest of the album now I can completely see why Taylor chose this song to be first single from the album, its a nice nod into the new albums sound. Going to have to google why the lyric, ‘hey kids, spelling is fun’ has been ditched from the album version though.

17. It’s Nice To Have A Friend

To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of this song its just a little too out there for my taste in music. Its ok, but its probably going to be a song I’m always feel indifferent about. However, what I do like about this song is that Taylor sampled a youth music program so they’ll be getting royalties from this song which I think is an incredible way to ensure the future of youth music programs.

18. Daylight

I think Daylight is the perfect end to Lover. reputation was all about how her reputation got tarnished and Daylight sums up so wonderfully how those things will always have happened but you can move on from that and start trusting and loving people again. The voice memo at the end too, what a lovely touch! I don’t think I’ve ever heard an album end with a voice memo weaved in a song but it really should happen more. Taylor’s speeches on tour are one of the things I love the most so the addition of this is fantastic.

In conclusion I like this album. A few of the songs on this album are absolutely incredible songs. However, I always find that the complete change in sound on every Taylor Swift album always takes a little getting into. Despite saying this, at the time of writing this blog it was solely based on first listen, now I’ve listened to the album a fair bit now and I’m very happy to report the more you listen the more you will love this album! What starts off with you think this song is ok rapidly turns into wow, I love this song!

Have you listened to Lover yet? If so, what tracks are you loving?

 

 

Sanctuary Tour – Aly & AJ

by melissay1, posted in Music

Changing it up from my usual Sunday book blogging this week as I recently went to see Aly & AJ in concert and I can’t wait to post this up, particularly as the European tour is very short so if you’re wanting to see them live you have to act fast as it’s sadly all over and done with on Wednesday.

Aly & AJ have been one of my favourite artists since I was at school, I was trying to pin point when I started liking the music and I think its probably a good 14 years ago now! I was definitely that kid who watched the Disney Channel 24/7 and one of my favourite shows at the time was Phil Of The Future which starred band member, Aly Michalka. Then when they started to make music together, Disney Channel used to play clips between shows and since then I’ve been a fan. I used to ask for their merchandise and albums for Christmas and birthdays as it just wasn’t sold in England at the time so its safe to say I’m a fan. Aly & AJ were the only band left on the list of artists I really wanted to see live and as they’d never done an overseas tour before I didn’t think it would ever happen unless I went to America to see them…well now I have seen them perform live and it was everything I’d been expecting it to be and so completely worth the wait to see them perform live.

I had a meet and greet ticket for the show. I have to mention this as I thought it would be like any other meet and greet, you know the drill, pushed in for a photo, a very quick small talk chat if you’re lucky but Aly & AJ kept the numbers low and made it the best meet and greet experience I’ve ever had. They took the time to talk to depth with every single person, introducing themselves, making an effort to ask your name and where you’d travelled from and they were genuinely interested in how you became a fan or just hearing about your life in general. They both made the conversation as if you were just talking to friends and must’ve spent a good 10 minutes talking with every single person, signing anything you wanted them to sign and taking countless photos. It was truly the best meet and greet experience and I have left with the greatest memories from it.

Tour support came from Audrey – to find her on social media search for @audreyismusic. I thought Audrey was such a great choice in support act, she was fantastic! Great vocals, a very expressive and lively performance and super catchy songs – what more do you want? Audrey performed all of her own music and I think if you like Aly & AJ’s music you will like Audrey which is why I feel she was a perfect choice of a support. My personal favourites from her set was Stampede which has only recently been released and Red Flag. Audrey got the crowd perfectly hyped up for Aly & AJ and I think a lot of people, including myself, will have watched her performance and gone straight home and downloaded her music. I know that I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on her social media pages and would certainly see her own show if / when she comes back to the UK.

You could feel the excitement building up in the room in the wait for Aly & AJ to come on stage. Everyone you spoke to had been waiting a very long time to see them perform and it was quite interesting how barely anyone was actually from Manchester and had travelled some distance to see the show. I think that alone proves how these few European tour dates were completely well overdue. Aly & AJ came onto stage and considering the relatively small venue, the amount of applause and cheers coming for them was like nothing I’ve heard before.

The first song of the night was Church, one of Aly & AJ’s latest songs from the Sanctuary EP. It was a great choice of an opening song with every single person in the crowd singing along word for word, something which continued throughout the night. Aly & AJ basically took a ten year hiatus between the first two albums they released and the two most recent EPs, but the set list was a great mix between both old and new albums. I had worried they wouldn’t perform any of the old music that I love so much so I was thrilled older songs were dotted in throughout the setlist, the first of these older songs that was performed was Closer, one of my favourites from the Insomniatic album.

The set continued with a number of songs from the two recently released EP’s. My personal favourite to hear live was Star Maps from the Sanctuary EP. However, every single song both old and new sounded incredible live and you can’t deny that Aly & AJ are really good performers. Vocally they’re both incredible and they know exactly how to work a crowd. I never thought that I would hear older songs such as, Like Woah performed live and it was such a wonderful experience to be a part of a crowd that thought the same thing but you couldn’t deny that the new songs were any less fantastic to hear live. For me, I didn’t realise how much I actually do love the new songs until I saw them performed live. The likes of Not Ready To Wake Up, Promises and The Distance saw the entire crowd dancing and singing along, loving every single second of the performance. Take Me was another personal favourite of mine to hear live, this was the first song Aly & AJ released after the hiatus and it is the perfect introduction to the new music and the chorus is particular was sung so loudly by the crowd. After performing an already jam packed set list, Aly & AJ left the stage after performing Rush. Although this song is from the first album they ever released, it sounds just as much of an anthem as it was when it was first released and for me it was my favourite of the older songs that they performed live.

Of course this wasn’t the end of the night as both Aly and AJ walked back onto the stage with the biggest smiles on their faces for the encore, I can only imagine it was just as good of an experience for them to hear crowds from a different country who clearly adored ever song they’ve every made as it was for the fans to finally see them perform. The encore consisted of an cover of Kacey Musgraves song Slow Burn, and although I have to admit I’ve never heard the original before I thoroughly enjoyed Aly & AJ’s cover. This led onto the title track from the new EP, Sanctuary, a song saying thank you to the fans which never seemed more appropriate as they were performing in a room full of people who had been supporting them for well over ten years. Sadly they only had time for one more song and of course it was Potential Break Up Song. I’m pretty sure that even if you’re not a fan of Aly & AJ that you will know or will have at least heard of this song so it only seemed fitting this was the final song of the night. Although the crowd didn’t stop singing and dancing along all night long, the mood somehow seemed to go from 100 to 110 during this song – to this day this song definitely seems to remain a firm fan favourite!

This tour was a long time coming and I really hope that Aly & AJ do come back to the UK one day. From the most perfect meet and greet experience, to the show that I’ve been waiting a very long time to see, to being part of a crowd that clearly shared my love of Aly & AJ…all this combined made this one of my favourite concerts that I have ever attended and if you get the chance you must try and see Aly & AJ in concert. I don’t think one person in that crowd walked out of the concert thinking anything less than wow, that was an amazing show.

Glastonbury Festival 2019

by melissay1, posted in Music, travel

Last week I could be found in the middle of a field in Somerset in a tipi (glamping all the way!) for Glastonbury Festival. I’ve been going to Glastonbury on and off since I was at school and to be honest I can’t imagine any festival in the world comes close to it. I mean where else can you see David Attenborough making a speech on saving the planet by reducing your usage of plastics, catch the likes of Liam Gallagher, Stormzy and Kylie on the same line-up and do a million and one things that isn’t seeing music performed, this year they even introduced Glastonbury On Sea!

I think I’ll probably do a few Glastonbury posts in the near future as I really want to write up my thoughts on glamping at the festival vs bringing your own tent on site, but for this week I want to talk about some of my favourite performers I saw at the festival.

Miley Cyrus

The minute the line-up was released Miley Cyrus was the name I was most excited about. I consider myself to be a massive fan of Miley and even went to see her on tour when she was still in her Hannah Montana days so she was always going to be in my favourite performers list. For me, I was intrigued to see her for the first time since her Disney days and boy has she progressed as a performer. Admittedly, Miley Cyrus is known nowadays as being quite controversial but you can’t deny that she’s a performer and vocally she is fantastic and has definitely massively improved since the last time I saw her. Her set list was littered with covers that the Glastonbury crowds knew, new songs from her latest album as well as her biggest hits, all whilst chucking in a few special guest appearances for good measure. Miley Cyrus well and truly got the crowds attention and I heard countless people declaring her as being their favourite performance from the weekend.

Lewis Capaldi

To be truthful I must’ve been one of the only people on the planet that hadn’t heard Lewis Capaldi’s music prior to Glastonbury. I have seen his face all around social media from videos he’s posted online and I have laughed at them but not once did I bother to check out his music. However, a friend constantly talked about how much she loves him prior to the festival so whilst I was there I figured that I had to go and see what the fuss was about. I went in to his set completely blind as to what his music / performance would be like and I absolutely wasn’t disappointed with what I saw. His music is exactly my cup of tea and I genuinely can’t believe I never bothered to listen before. I feel like he’s one of those people whose name has been hyped up so much that at fear of joining in with the latest popular trend you just never check it out but I enjoyed his set so much that his album was instantly downloaded the second his set had finished. Lewis Capaldi has an unreal voice, a personality that works so well on stage and I certainly have walked away from the festival as a fan and have told everyone how much I enjoyed his performance.

George Ezra

I have seen George Ezra a couple of times previously. I’ve always thought he was ok to watch at a festival but I’ve never really had an opinion on him more than he’s ok. Then last year I did a charity walk and one of the girls I did it with kept singing his songs including Shotgun as we were climbing up mountains, since then I just associate George Ezra with doing that walk and it brings back (somewhat!) happy memories. I’m not sure if that is the reason why I really enjoyed his performance or if he’s just really upped his game but George Ezra was one of my favourites from this years festival. Before seeing him at Glastonbury I’d only heard his most recent album either played on the radio or being sung half way up a mountain and I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it sounded. I actually would go and see George Ezra if he performed locally now as even with a sprained ankle he put on one hell of a show.

Liam Gallagher

I think that if you play any of the Oasis hits anywhere in the UK people will always stop and sing along, so when you put Oasis frontman in the field singing a lot of Oasis songs its safe to say that it’s always going to go down well. I think Oasis is just one of those bands where people at least love the hits and know every single lyric. I’ve seen Oasis live before they split but this was the first time I’ve seen Liam Gallagher perform as a solo artist so I was abit sceptical as to whether to could deliver a performance to rival that of Oasis. However, he most certainly did and although much of the crowd was definitely there for the Oasis songs, when he weaved his own songs in they didn’t sound out of place in the slightest. I think many people, including myself, will be checking out his solo material now we’re back at home.

The Killers

I have to be honest, when The Killers were announced as one of the headliners of this years Glastonbury I was ever so slightly disappointed. I’ve seen The Killers live on a number of occasions now and I think if you’ve ever been a fan of The Killers or have even attended festivals you’ve probably seen them perform at some point over the years. I used to really like The Killers music but I’ve not been so keen on the more recent albums, however I thought that the performance was fantastic. I’d been quite vocally going around telling people how they just aren’t as good as more but the new songs actually came across really well live and seeing the performance made me realise just how much I did use to love the earlier albums.

I think my list of top 5 is probably quite predictable as they’re all big names. In most years at Glastonbury I’d usually tire myself out running from stage to stage seeing the last known names but this year is was just too sweatingly hot to even consider moving far from the Pyramid stage, so I ended up seeing most of the big artists who performed on that stage that weekend. Despite this, I wasn’t disappointed with who I saw and the above five artists were my stand out performers of the weekend.

Did you go to the festival or even just watched on television? I would love to know which performances you enjoyed, if I didn’t see that one I’ll definitely have a watch!

 

Album Review / Half Way There – Busted

by melissay1, posted in Music

For me, Busted aren’t just that band that you get that nostalgic ‘oh I loved this band when I was younger’ kick from. They are the band that I’ve constantly loved since the early 2000s when they first appeared on the UK music scene. Basically anything they released, whether it was when they did individual projects or together, I was always guaranteed to love it because its Busted and I probably would be supporting them whatever but this album is genuinely an instant love at first listen.

Busted’s new album, Half Way There was released this week and it is basically everything you could ever have wanted from a Busted album. If you’ve ever been a fan of any of Busted’s music this album is for you, the guitars and unbelievably catchy songs are back. I absolutely loved the bands previous release Night Driver as it reminded me so much of band member James Bourne’s solo project Future Boy, but Half Way There is just a complete step up from that. I’d heard a very rough demo of Nineties, the first song released from the album back in September 2017 and when I’ve met the band since the last album they’ve excitedly said how much they love this album, so my excitement for this album has been around for a while but nothing could compete the with excitement I’ve had this week upon actually being able to listen to it.

Half Way There consists of ten songs all of which are such great songs. From the very Blink 182 sounding, Shipwrecked In Atlantis, to fan favourite (it was released on the McBusted album) What Happened To Your Band to the acoustic song, All My Friends which documents growing older and It Happens which documents the Busted journey – this album has something for everyone. What I love the most about this album is that Busted have gone back to exactly what made me love them in the first place even though this style of music isn’t something you’d really hear on radio anymore. To be honest, I think that’s the reason it charted so highly (amazingly hitting the number two spot in this weeks album charts) as people love the classic Busted sound. That being said although this album sounds similar to the first two albums, you can completely hear how the band have grown musically since the earlier releases.

I attended three of Busted’s album release week performances this week and I can honestly say this album is going to sound unreal on tour. Every song is just designed for a live performance and I can already imagine how fantastic this album is going to sound when they go on tour around the country in March. Plus this album will sound incredible at the summer festivals  – here’s me keeping my fingers crossed they do a Glastonbury slot, because how amazing would it be to hear It Happens, a song where they mention the festival there! Busted always manage to put on such a fantastic live performance and I feel like they succeed in making sure every single person in the crowd has a fantastic time. I know I for one always leave feeling the happiest person in the world after seeing them live.

My sheer love for this band makes it so insanely difficult to write posts like this as I am well aware I’m at a risk of sounding too much like ‘oh my goodness, I love them so much, I will literally buy anything they do so you should go do the same’. I know that to an extent that is true, I probably (definitely…) would buy anything they released but at the same time I’ve always been critical over things they do and I truly wouldn’t be writing this post if I didn’t really think it was a good album. So, my advice for Half Way There? If you ever were a fan you need to give them another listen as this album ticks all the boxes for a Busted fan. If you like your pop punk type of music, why not also give it a listen? My personal favourites are Shipwrecked In Atlantis and All My Friends if you only want to give a couple of songs a listen!

If you’re interested you can listen to Busted’s album Half Way There on all the usual streaming sites, download from iTunes etc or can buy a physical copy of the album from Busted’s online store by clicking here