An Ocean of Noise 2.0

When this blog was originally started all those years ago I had such big plans for it, I loved writing about music and wanted to be able to project my highly questionable opinions onto the rest of the world. Unfortunately real life got in the way, with a super stressful Masters and a year of being completely lost in life I kind of lost my enthusiasm for a lot of things, being broke certainly didn’t help either. However after a couple of years of working and having money to actually buy music (vinyl is my new addition) and go to concerts, I feel like I’m ready to again start making sense of the noise that is music.

Oh and Ashley is going to be posting too and we’re going to try our best to deliver regular quality content, so please join us on our journey and enjoy the relaunch of An Ocean of Noise, almost like a phoenix rising from the ashes you could say…that gives me an idea for our first new review!

And because I probably should relate this post to music in some way here’s the current playlist I’m listening to, not hard to guess what I’m currently in the mood for

Lovestarrs – Life is a Bitch
Charli XCX – You (Ha Ha Ha)
IamamIwhoamI – Fountain
Phantogram – Black Out Days
FKA Twigs – Two Weeks
MØ – Pilgrim
Banks – This is What it Feels Like
Purity Ring – Amenamy
Grimes – Genesis
Chvrches – Gun

Review – Charli XCX – True Romance

I can’t believe I’m finally writing this review.

Let me back up.  Maybe I haven’t shared with you all my intense love for Charli XCX.  Maybe I’ve been too busy trying to spread the gospel of David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine and Wampire.

If that’s the case, I apologize, because it means that I spent less time sharing with the world the magic that is Charli XCX.

I suppose the reason that I have sort of hung back in making much mention of Charli XCX is that it’s just taken so long for her debut album to come out.  I’ve literally been waiting well over a year for this bad boy, after running into her music early into 2012 (may have even been late 2011).  I ran across “Nuclear Seasons” on, what I believe was, an NME list of bands to watch in 2012.  And watch I did.  I jumped on every single, followed on Twitter/Facebook/etc.  I had never gone this hard for an artist I’d only heard one song of in all my life.

Top 5 New Artists of 2012

For a while, I thought this year was a little devoid of new music.  New artists.  The hip new cats on the scene.  The movers and shakers, the trend-setters, the fresh sounds, the modern beat, the….oh you get the idea.

Fact is, it really wasn’t until the last few weeks/month that I began to find these bands and I’m glad I did.  These five bands all had debut albums this year that will be appearing in my top 50 albums list.

That, for the record, is my rule for this list: You must have had a debut album out in 2012.  So even a band that may have had a previous EP out is still eligible for the list.  On the flip side, an EP is not enough to get you on this list.  More on that later.