Wonder // A Shawn Mendes Special

He really knows how to make a return right?

Of course, I’m taking about Shawn Mendes, and the absolute scene he’s made with his latest single, Wonder.

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The song itself, is beautiful. It’s so cinematic and full, with so many different elements that bring it all together. Absolutely perfect driving through a tunnel kind of music if you ask me. The music, combined with genuinely emotionally weighted lyrics, come together to create, what I believe to be one of Shawn’s greatest songs to date.

That said, the true gift here, obviously aside from the existence of the song itself, is the music video. I never thought I’d ever see Shawn Mendes do choreography in my life, yet here we are, and it just fits so perfectly .The scenery, the story-telling, the movement and flow and how everything seems to blend together in this cinematic universe he’s created. You’ve got Polar Express, he’s giving you Harry Potter, there’s some Twilight.

It all fits.

I’m just super impressed. I’ve always enjoyed Shawn’s music, his concert was a highlight of mine last year, and if this is any sort of hint towards the things he’s set to deliver us in the future, I’m hyped.

Have you watched the music video or heard the song? I’d love to know your thoughts! Let me know in the comments.

x

Priya

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A Bit Of Shawn Mendes With The Girls // Live

Hello hello!

Hope you’re all well! It genuinely seems like time seems to be speeding past and the end of the year is hurtling towards us, which was highlighted by this particular concert rolling around, tickets for which we booked over a year ago!

Honestly, Shawn Mendes. What a man.

I used to listen to his music when he was fresh off Vine, and then it kind of fizzled out for me. However, the music he’s been releasing in the last two or three years has been right on my radar, so when he announced he was doing a tour that would feature a few shows in Melbourne, I was a little bit on the fence about if I should go.

However, when my sister and her best friend decided to go, it was brought up that they’d need someone to take them. My mum’s past experience with my friends and I at the first One Direction concert in 2013 was enough for her to shut down the idea straight away, but when my best friend Kate mentioned she was interested in going – it all just clicked perfectly into place, and a few days later, we had four tickets.

The concert arrived on one of the warmer days of Melbourne’s undecided October, which made for a great time catching the train together and walking to Rod Laver from Richmond station with the huge cluster of concert goers. Kate and I were probably amongst the oldest people we saw at the concert, aside from a few parents and groups of older adults.

We made two quick pitstops, one so my sister could buy herself a T-shirt from the merchandise stand, and another to grab some food, which we ate before heading inside.

Dan + Shay were the opening act, and I was pleasantly surprised. I never listened to them much before, despite how much I’ve been told to by numerous people, so hearing them for the first time in a live arena setting was a treat. The vocals were incredible, so many people knew the words to nearly every song and they were definitely one of the best opening acts I’ve seen thus far.

When Shawn finally stepped on stage, I sweat to God, I had war flashbacks from the One Direction concerts I went to in high school. The shrieks were insane, and Kate and I spent a good half of the first song, laughing at my fifteen year old sister and her friend screaming and singing their heads off.

Lost In Japan is one of my favourite songs from his latest album, and it was arguably the best song to open with. It was so groovy, and I should have seen the foreshadowing for the rest of the show in that song along. Every little nuance of Shawn’s voice is super interesting to me, but there was also this added element of jazz and RnB that I never knew to expect, and the music arrangements probably would have impressed most music nerds.

Highlights for me definitely included Stitches, which had my throat sore and aching from screaming along with the girls. It got to a point where we became that annoying group of girls who you sit in front of and can only hear them singing horribly for the entire show.

He moved to a little B Stage, where he performed a Whitney Houston cover, as well as a medley of songs from all of his albums, and one of my favourites, Ruin, which delivered my favourite guitar solo on the album. I had seen videos of him doing it live the night before, so I was eagerly anticipating it the entire night.

I loved Where Were You In The Morning, as well as Particular Taste, where he decided to actually pop off with his falsetto. If you follow me on Instagram – @priya_francis you’re welcome – you’d have seen my Instagram story just obsessing over the control and range he had and how good everything sounded. He screamed and went into his higher register with such ease, it was a very rock-star moment, and everyone couldn’t help but lose it each time he did an unexpected note.

Mercy went off, and the final song, In My Blood was such a beautiful finish, with the giant rose that had been rising and falling throughout the show being covered in confetti from canons that heralded the end of the show.

Look, I don’t know what I was expecting from that show, but he blew all my expectations out of the water. My sister and I literally sat for half an hour after the concert downstairs with our parents, showing them different clips of him singing, our favourite parts and songs. It was such an enjoyable concert, and I’m glad I went with the gals I did.

x

Priya

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An Awaited Album

Hello my friends!

Today’s post will be an album review/chat post, on an album that I uncharacteristically found myself really, really waiting for.

Over these past few months, I’ve been kicked into a slight obsession with Shawn Mendes’ recent songs. If you’ve read any of my recent posts, especially my monthly favourites and playlist posts, he’s definitely featured on there quite a few times.

I’ve never been a massive Shawn Mendes fan. I enjoyed his music, but not to the point where I faithfully followed his every move on social media and waited his next song to drop. But, I’ve definitely been far more interested in his recently, to the point where my cousin and I were seriously considering going to his concert together.

Due to how much I found myself enjoying his new songs, like enjoying them way more than I’ve ever enjoyed any of his old songs, I was eagerly awaiting his new album.

The marketing for this album has been insane as well. The album art, the merchandise that’s being realised specified for particular songs and singles on the album. It’s been done incredibly well, and I’ve been patiently waiting in anticipation, so was very pleased to jump on Spotify today and listen to the whole album.

Lost In Japan was my favourite of all the singles released in the lead up to the album, just because of different it is to stuff he’s released before and because of how good his voice sounds. I’ve gone into detail in my April Tunes, but there are a couple songs on this album that are close competitions. One of them being Nervous, the second song on the album. My dudes, the story-telling in this song is so straight forward and to the point, but it’s such a fun song, the bass line is consistent and funky, and I get major Pharrell Williams vibes. I love it.

Where Were You In The Morning is another favourite. The guitar in it makes your head bob without your control, and I don’t know what the boy has been doing, but his voice has become so much more stronger and raspier and amazing to listen to. His falsetto levelled up overnight apparently, because he uses it a lot throughout the album, and it’s always so clean.

QueenQueen is another bop. I get such amazing old school 60’s vibes from the entire album, especially his choice of guitar tones and rhythms, and I for one, am here for it. I can’t wait to see how he performs these songs live because it’s quite different to anything he’s done before.

While his song featuring Julia Michaels is fantastic, there’s something about Khalid’s feature on Youth that makes me sing along to it as loud as I can whenever I’m in the car or at home alone. I don’t know if it’s the beat, the lyrics or how much I love their voices individually and together, but it’s been one of my favourite songs since it was released.

Perfectly Wrong and When You’re Ready are the last two songs on the album, but they’re up there with my favourites. The stories in them are distinctly different from each other, and there’s a obvious contrast, especially if you listen to the album in order, but they’re both equally as beautiful, though because I seem to enjoy breaking my on heart and listening to songs, Perfectly Wrong comes out on top for me between these two. His voice, the lyrics, the arrangement, it’s all beautiful.

I won’t comment on every single song because I personally feel like it’s one of those albums you need to listen to yourself, because you’ll probably draw your own conclusions on it, especially lyric and content wise. I’ll have my own interpretation, and yours might be different. All the songs, as well as the album are linked throughout this post so you have no excuse! Let me know what you think, I can guarantee I’ll be listening to this album quite a lot!

x

Priya

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alicelk

Hey friends!

I actually haven’t sat down and blogged, yuck I low-key hate saying that but I love it at the same time, in a hot minute, just because of how far ahead my scheduling ‘game has been. Again, ew, excuse that, I’m never saying that again.

So I thought while I have a day or two off uni (more like I have one class and I refuse to travel an hour either way into the city for a single one hour class that I definitely nearly fall asleep in anyway) I’d write up some posts for you guys. I also have an essay that I could very well start writing too, but priorities. Am I right?

Side-note; I’m also three coffees into my day, so you’ll be receiving the full affect of that in this post.

Tonight’s post is gonna be dedicated to sharing the literal ray of sunshine that is Alice Kristiansen. If you don’t know who Alice Kristiansen is, please pay attention. That was slightly aggressive but I’m passionate about this chic and the music she’s putting out into the world so I don’t regret it and I won’t be taking it back.

I first discovered her on YouTube. Kind of the unexpected avenue for Alice, considering how much her Instagram has been popping off lately, I mean, Shawn Mendes is surely trying to hit her up or something because it seems as if he’s liking her pictures and videos mere seconds after she uploads them.

 

 

Besides the point.

I discovered her through YouTube, thanks to, once again, Daniel Caesar. I swear, that man leads to all things good. I was listening to an acoustic guitar cover of his song Blessed and lo and behold, there on the side bar is a video of Alice covering the same song. I don’t know what made me feel inclined to check it out because as much as I attribute some of my greatest finds to YouTube recommendations, I don’t click on them all that often, but for some reason I did. Thank god.

I can’t accurately describe the honey that is embedded within her voice, specifically in that video, so to avoid embarrassing myself, the only rational thing to do is to share the video below. You’re welcome. Enjoy.

Let’s talk.

• The vibes. The vibes are unreal and I can’t fathom how beyond incredible this video feels, let alone sounds.
• Not only that, but how effortless is it? This song is not an easy song to sing. Trust me. I won’t attempt to prove to you how hard it is to sing, but it’s not easy and she just…does it. Like that. Kinda rude, but bless her.
• Not sure how, but you can literally feel the emotion in her voice. It’s probably down to how little is going on in the video, but it’s still so much more emotional that 90% of YouTube covers I’ve ever watched. The amount of chill, combined with the filter, combined with her voice which is out of this world, get me emotional as heck.
• Also, can we talk about how annoyingly symmetrical her face is? People who look this good shouldn’t be this talented, please take one and move along. Cheers.

But yeah. That video kinda had me obsessed with Alice Kristiansen for weeks on end, until I followed her on Instagram and discovered the treasure trove of short covers, aesthetic as heck pictures and videos of a gal I just wanna be, to be quite frank with you.

 

 

Did I mention Shawn Mendes earlier? Yeah? Well I don’t know but if something’s going on there, I’m calling it now, because after several people brought it to her attention that the dude was liking all her Instagram vids (I’m also sure that no-one needs it brought to their attention when Shawn Mendes likes their video but there were a lot of comments so Idontknow, don’t hold me accountable for my words please), only a few short days later, she posts this on YouTube.

 

Tell me you can’t watch this video, without turning into a literal sunflower. You can’t, and if you can, you’re lying.

The Lord is good, and if you search Alice Kristiansen on Spotify, you’re blessed with her artist page, which features not only more covers, but originals as well. Currently, my absolute favourite song is In The DarkIn The Dark and let me tell you, it’s a vibe. Not what I expected from Alice at all, especially because what I knew prior to that discovery was all that I had seen on her Instagram and YouTube, but I am loving it. The acoustic versions that are there also show the insane versatility of her voice. Have a listen.

Let me know if you listen to anything that I’ve linked or done any of your own searching for Alice, because it’s definitely worth your time. I’d love to know what you think!

x

Priya

PS:
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