LOVELY, LITTLE, LONELY REVIEW.

YIKES. It's been a while. In my defence, my final year of university has been kicking my derrière and I now have a lil' part-time job which means that any free time I have is somewhat short-lived. I love writing blog posts but for me they're a multiple-hours commitment (what with planning, writing, editing, more editing, making the graphics and all that jazz) and I just haven't had the time to really get down to writing something. Regardless, I am here right now with an album review and I'm excited to share it.

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing my very first album review on this blog. It was The Maine's 2015 release American Candy. Yet, time did that thing it does, and it took me to right here today, two years later, with a review of the band's sixth studio album, Lovely, Little, Lonely (released on 7th April). To say I was excited for the record would be a prodigious understatement. I love The Maine and everything they stand for with all of my cold-to-lukewarm heart and soul. However, this post is not supposed to be about my relentless admiration for the band as people (although let's be honest, this probably will feature fairly heavily), so how about we start with my track-by-track review?

2016 IN CONCERTS.

I've always loved taking photos at gigs. I used to sneak my DSLR into venues - sometimes even with my giant zoom lens - and never once got caught. One time I was fifth row at the Radio 1 Teen Awards and ended up with some great photos of One Direction and Taylor Swift. It seems funny now, because multiple times this year venue staff during bag-check have told me that my little Olympus E-PL7 isn't allowed because it has a detachable lens and that deems it 'professional'. (What does that even mean, anyway?) Nonetheless, because I am me, and am remarkably persuasive when I want to be, on every one of these occasions I managed to convince each staff member to let me bring the camera in regardless (mostly I exasperate them and they just give up, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do). With that, allow me to present to you some of my favourite photos from the various gigs I attended this year (fifteen in total, but only nine of them feature in this post), taken with the aforementioned ~forbidden camera~.

USA AND CANADA 2016: PART III

Here I am with the third part of my USA and Canada photo series. In this post you'll see my favourite photos from Syracuse, NYC, Milwaukee and a few spots in New Jersey. I also went to Philly at the end of this section of my trip but if I'm honest, for some reason all of my photos from Philadelphia are really bad, so you won't be seeing any of my pictures from there. (I posted a few of them on Instagram if you're desperate to see, but you probably aren't.)

Syracuse, NY - 14.07.16 & 15.07.16:

MONTHLY FAVOURITES: JANUARY 2016.

Hello! I thought I'd drop by and give you an update about what I loved last month.

YOU WERE DANCING TO YOUR FAVOURITE SONG.

Summary: a much longer post than really necessary about seeing The Maine in concert and getting to meet (4/5 of) them after the show. Also, hi, welcome to my first post of 2016.

A few weeks ago I got an email from Eurostar saying there was a sale on for travel up until the end of January. Within ten minutes I’d used my Christmas money to book a train and had planned a weekend trip to England at the end of the month. I’d been pretty sad about the fact that I couldn’t go and see The Maine while they were touring the UK but with this trip booked it meant I could finally go and see them live. I was PUMPED.

MONTHLY FAVOURITES: DECEMBER 2015.

HELLO! IT'S THE FINAL DAY OF 2015! It is time for my last monthly favourites post (and post in general) of the year. LET'S GO.

AMERICAN CANDY REVIEW.

I haven't done any music reviews on this blog so far but I'm hoping to change that with a review of The Maine's American Candy, released on 31st March 2015. I only really started listening to them in the past two years or so but I'm really glad I did. For those unfamiliar with their music, The Maine is a rock band hailing from Arizona, USA. They've stayed constant in their lineup since they began in 2007, and have been signed to various labels, though this album was released independently. American Candy is comprised of ten songs, all variants on the pop-rock genre (I'm always slightly reluctant to use the term 'pop-rock' but that's exactly what this is; a softer, more accessible variety of rock with definite hints towards their pop punk past). The track list is unusually short for a full-length album, but it packs a lot into its 35-minute runtime.