Image Credits: Sound On Soundhea
Hey guys for this week’s Music Monday I decided to feature Ed Sheeran. I have heard so much about him over the past year but never actually heard his music before. I assumed he was an indie rocker and I always thought he seemed very sweet when I saw him on tv and in magazines. I also like hearing that he’s British. 😉
First I did a quick listen to his album, “+” on Spotify. I loved every single song. I was a bit surprised by his sound. He’s very mello. He reminds me a little bit of Jack Johnson. It’s nice though. One of the first songs that really stood out to me (and was recommended by some friends) was “The A Team”. This was the very first Ed Sheeran song I ever listened to. I was blown away  by the lyrics as well. It came to me like a beautiful form of poetry, yet it was sad. A beautifully tragic poem. The imagery Sheeran uses here is so strong and beautiful. It seems to chronicle the life of a struggling young woman who just could never catch a break in life. As sad as this song is it still seems a bit hopeful especially at the end where it seems like the young woman is still holding out trying to make things better for herself.
Video Credits: Ed Sheeran’s YouTube page
Another Ed Sheeran song that I really loved was “Give Me Love”. This is another tragically poetic song. This song is very difficult to listen to without at least feeling the strongest urge to start bawling your eyes out. Sheeran sings with a sense of pain and utter heartbreak in his voice. If you’re going through a tough break out at the moment, maybe you should avoid this song. You’ll definitely relate to the pain Sheeran shares, but it will make you feel worst. Great job on Sheeran’s half for capturing that strong sense of emotion. He even remembered to make the analogy of blood turning to alcohol…He really did think of it all.
Video Credits: Ed Sheeran’s YouTube page
I had to give “Lego House” a listening to. It has the word “Lego” in it — that right there told me this song was probably going to be extremely epic. I also thought it would be a little more upbeat than “Give Me Love” and “The A-Team” were. I wasn’t disappointed. With lyrics like “I’m going to pick up the pieces and build a lego house. If things go wrong we can knock it down”, this song was full of hope. This song sounds like a sweet tribute to Sheeran’s love. It sounds like he’s singing to her, that he’ll make her a lego house and that everything will be okay. My one criticism for Sheeran here though is the music video for “Lego House”. I thought it was extremely boring and lame. Yeah, Sheeran plays around a bit with Legos, but c’mon man, this song is LEGO HOUSE. I was expecting the video to be so much more fun and playful. Like I thought it should feature nothing but legos…
Video Credits: Ed Sheeran’s YouTube page
Overall though I really loved Ed Sheeran. I definitely want to hear more of his music and pick up a copy of his album. I think he’s a real true ARTIST in multiple ways and that’s rare to see in musicians these days. He’s bursting with talent an you can tell he really puts his all into his music. My only regret is that it took me this long to discover him…
Image Credits: Sodahead.comÂ
For this Throwback Thursday I decided to go beyond my traditional throw back Thursday photographs and post a blog containing my top 10 favorite songs from the 1990’s. I got this idea after seeing a post on Yahoo.com about songs that are now 10 years old. Their list made me feel incredibly old and nostalgic so I decided to choose 10 songs that I felt best summed up my childhood in the 1990’s time period. Here’s my list in order from 10-1 (1 being my top choice):
10. Smash Mouth – All StarÂ
Smash Mouth was all over the 1990’s. Their hit song “All Star” was all the rage for 90’s kids like myself. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing this song on the radio at least once. It was a bit of an anthem for us kids with a powerful message that encouraged us to follow our dreams. The lyrics brought along some classic lines such as “she was looking kind of dumb with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an ‘L’ on her forehead”. Admit it…you made this gesture at least once during your elementary years.
Image Credits: Fits NewsÂ
Smash Mouth simply created a trend and became a bit of a legend in the 90’s. Pretty much all of their songs sounded the same and the band seemed to fall off the face of the Earth in the early 2000’s, but man those days spent listening to “All Star” in the 90’s sure were glorious.
9. The Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch –
This song came out in 1999 when I was just 9 years old. At the time I had no problem belting out the song’s sex-infused lyrics such as “You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals so let’s do it like they do on the discovery channel” or “”Put your hands down my pants and I’ll bet you’ll feel nuts”. I was completely oblivious to the sex references. The video was equally obnoxious as it featured animal porn (only they could pull that off…), cages, dry humping, and even a few shots of the band members pretending to engage in doggy-style sex — and this was the censored version! 9 year old me just saw this video and thought, “Ooh! What a friendly little band dressed as monkeys! They look so funny!”
Image Credits: PerezHilton.comÂ
But now 23 year old me looks back and sees them for what they were: a bunch of horny animals with an extremely catchy song that somewhat disturbingly became an anthem of my youth.
8. Mandy Moore – Candy
In  an era where former mousketeers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera battled to become the reigning queen, Mandy Moore was often long forgotten. Sure, everyone knew of her, but very few people gave her the attention she deserved. She never makes it on top songs from the 90’s lists, except for this one. Mandy Moore was easy to forget with her rather shy and reserved personality. She was the girl next door, but unlike Britney she never allowed the media to turn her into a sex object. If anything Mandy became MORE reserved and conservative over the years. In fact Candy might just be the most sexual, provocative video Mandy’s ever released and that’s saying a lot since this video is really quite innocent. It oozes 90’s fashion though. Check out Mandy’s spikey messy bun! Those headphones!
Image Credits: Buzz Feed
And who can forget that 90’s era Volkswagon beetle?
Image Credits: imcdb.org
Listening to this song and watching the video that accompanies it is like a trip down 90’s memory lane. The song is extremely catchy and fun and will be stuck in your head for days — once you actually remember it exists. Poor Mandy. Never getting half the credit she deserves.
7. Jessica Simpson -I Think I’m In Love
Remember when Jessica Simpson wasn’t super annoying and could actually sing pretty well? This song is proof of it. I can’t help but feel a little bit sad when I hear this song and remember the 90’s when Jessica Simpson was actually tolerable and listening to her music wasn’t considered cruel and unusual punishment. This song was actually GOOD! Listening to it reminded me of my old grade-school crush that I was so convinced I was in love with since like Simpson, I found myself “doing silly things” when it came to him. Except I’m sure she did it with some sense of grace (after all, this was the era before her infamous ditzy blonde stage…). The video was pretty simple. Simpson wore a white blouse that tied above her midriff in true 90’s fashion but was much less memorable than the one Britney donned in the Baby One More Time Video.
Image Credits: YouTube
For most of the video Simpson was just kind of chilling around town on a bridge or singing in her friend’s jeep. Innocent and low key, similar to Mandy but somehow  more memorable.
6. BBMak – Back HereÂ
Few people will remember this trio of fine British men known as BBMak (their name was a play on the member’s last names… Barry, Burns, McNally. The band was only around for a short time from 1999-2003, but in that time the band enjoyed great success. “Back Here” was their most well-known and popular hit. The song served as a breakup anthem, but the video which showed a female love interest acting as a tourist and the band gathered around a train station help hint at the possibility that this song was about more than just a difficult breakup, but rather the breakup of a long-distance relationship.
Image Credits: FanPop
9 year old me didn’t understand the content of the song too much, but now 23 year old me understands it all too well. As I have been going through my own personal breakup of a long-distance relationship this song has served as a bit of an anthem for me. Remembering hearing it as a 9 year old is comforting, too. 9 year old me didn’t have difficult long-distance relationships. 9 year old me just had a major crush on the band’s lead singer, Christian Burns and a new obsession with British accents….
5. Limp Bizkit – Nookie
Okay, so if I didn’t get the sex references in the Bloodhound Gang’s The Bad Touch at age 9 I sure as hell didn’t get the sex references in this song at age 8. I just thought “nookie” sounded like a really cool, fun made up word and I liked telling people to stick that cookie up their ass (okay so Fred Durst never actually said where he was going to stick that cookie, but I felt it was a safe assumption to make). Listening to Limp Bizkit made me feel tough. Fred Durst was such a bad ass back then (he didn’t seem all whiny, immature, and annoying like he does now) and this band was always so angry and screaming, which I thought was kind of fun and quite a bit different from all of the pop music I usually listened to in the 90’s.
4. Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again?
This may very well be the only song on my list that people aren’t ashamed to admit they still listen to on a regular basis. Blink-182 wasn’t strictly a 90’s band. Blink-182 was REVOLUTIONARY, or maybe even a classic. I still remember the first time I ever heard a Blink-182 song. I was only about 8 years old and it was unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. Blink-182 was the first rock band I ever fell in love with and at age 23, I must say my love for them is now even more profound. I can also finally fully appreciate this song, “What’s My Age Again?”. As a 9 year old this song was fun to listen to, but as a 23 year old it all makes sense. It’s all about having fun, living carefree, and not taking life too seriously despite your friends constantly telling you to “just grow up”. It does a good job of summing up my 90’s childhood experiences, too. The video covers the band’s personality and shows them running around naked before being naked in music videos was considered “cool” or even “appropriate”. The thing is when Blink-182 ran around naked it was to have fun and get a laugh.
Image Credits: Last.fm
There was nothing sexual about it at all. They didn’t care about being sexy, they cared about having fun, and to me, that makes them sexy.
3. Christina Aguilera – What A Girl Wants
I never really knew who Christina was singing about here, but whoever it was I liked him. He was patient and he did everything a boyfriend should do! I didn’t really know what it was a boyfriend should do and Christina never got very specific, but whatever it was he did it. He knew exactly what that was and he did it. I hoped my future boyfriend would be like him — he’d just know exactly what to do and we would live in a bliss of happiness and love.
2. Britney Spears – Sometimes
Everyone was all over Britney Spears’s first single in the 90’s, Baby One More Time, but I always preferred Sometimes. I thought Sometimes showed a toned-down, more low key version of Spears and the song was a bit slower and well, almost “pretty”. Looking back at it now I miss this side of Spears. She doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Back then she was an innocent, young singer with a beautiful voice. Now she is, well, Britney Spears. ‘Nuff said, right? Christina was always the better singer, but Britney had something about her that made her so unforgettable (even before her 2011 melt down). Singing abilities aside, Britney always beat out Christina.
1. The Backstreet Boys – I Want It That Way
This song will forever define the 90’s. It came out towards the end of the 90’s right before the beginning of a new millennium (it was only fitting for the band’s album to be called Millennium). This song still gets it’s fair share of radio play in malls, 90’s themed parties, and well, anywhere it seems. The backstreet boys were THE band of the 90’s. Sure, there were other  boybands like N’sync (which didn’t make this list obviously since I’m team BSB and you can’t be team N’sync AND team BSB…it just doesn’t work that way), but they weren’t the same. N’sync ended when JT’s career took off on its own. They didn’t need to stay together. When the BSB’s tried solo careers no one really cared. It wasn’t the backstreet boys. The Backstreet Boy were meant to always stay together which is why now, over a decade later they are still going strong.
The lyrics and the video for the song weren’t all that special. As I look back on it now I realize what I knew back then — it still doesn’t make sense. “You are…my fire…the one…desire…” Seriously, what does that even mean? And the video? They’re just kind of hanging out in an airport…nothing fancy here.
Image Credits: La Weekly Blogs
But they are the Backstreet Boys. They ARE the 1990’s. They don’t need to make sense or have cool music videos. When it comes to the 1990’s the Backstreet Boys were simply untouchable.
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