July Favourites

Hi Everyone!

Frank is great ok

So, July happened and with it came lots of train journeys, lots of music listened to, lots of money spent and I moved from halls into a house/flea pit. It's been pretty blooming busy to put it briefly. I've not had much time to do a lot, hence inconsistent and pretty lame blog posts (sorry about that, but I was so drained everyday I wanted sleep more than food and if you know me you'll know that's not right at all). It saw my stress levels grow, as I was averaging 30+ hours a week at work (boo to overtime but heyooooo to money amirite?) The anxiety was real, depression hit in mysterious ways and I overall felt like the little poo emoji, smiling to hide the fact everything was getting a bit too much. Luckily, I have great friends who helped me through it all and it's August now and I've taken some good steps to take control of my life again - I gave in my letter of resignation and I'm doing more guided meditation, using candles instead of bright lights to chill me out, my colouring books have come in hella handy and I'm genuinely enjoying stuff a lot more. Enough about me, let's talk about all the cool things and favourites from the hellish July shall we?

Vinyl:

As always, I'm gonna start with the vinyl because it's pricey but beautiful. I went to Wales with Jordan and bought vinyl there, and then we went to Brighton and I got more there, so vinyl from two countries, spoilt for choice and poorer than ever. I got my hands on some absolute steals and here they are.

Brilliant album for a brilliant price, who could say no

The Vaccines - English Graffiti

The Vaccines are one of my favourite bands, and I've seen them live twice now which makes me very happy - but this was my first album of theirs on vinyl and that's a tad odd because I love them dearly. I got it from Spillers Records in Cardiff, which is the oldest record store in the UK, for the grand total of £9.99, cheaper than the CD when I first got my hands on it (Buddha bless the sales) and absolute bargain for such a good little album. It's got some really catchy tracks on it, and throughout the albums The Vaccines have done you can really see their progress as a band and in the music industry itself which I always find really refreshing. Although it's not the best album of theirs (What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? has a special place in my heart and Norgaard never fails to make me dance) it's got tracks such as 'Handsome', 'Dream Lover' and '20/20' that capture the same feeling behind successful songs from their first album, and again, make me want to dance around in my room. If you haven't given it a listen please do, The Vaccines are also at Reading and Leeds this year so if you're going check them out, they're such a good band live and I always get so excited when they go on tour.

The cover is a tad discoloured but the album itself is just as vibrant as ever

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

This album is iconic and I don't really feel I need to try and sell this to anyone. If you don't know Fleetwood Mac then go and listen to some of their earlier stuff first and then hit up Rumours. Rumours was the album that took all of the tensions and anxieties within the band and made them great again. This was a turning point for the band, and is their best album, I won't take no for a answer here. With songs like 'Dreams', 'Don't Stop', 'Go Your Own Way' and 'The Chain' (Formula One is the hint here) which have become textbook Fleetwood Mac anthems in their own right, you'd be mad not to give this album a listen. We would play Fleetwood Mac at house parties in college and they were some of the best times I've ever had, belting out 'The Chain' after two ciders (I'm a lightweight and proud) with all my friends without a care in the world. The album means a lot to me, mainly because my mum and my Auntie Di would play this all the time and it reminds me of them and they are two of the best and my favourite people on this planet. Plus, I got this in Off The Tracks in Brighton for £14.99, which is a steal for the original with no scratches in good condition. It even had the little insert inside so I feel like I have another little bit of history to add to my somewhat large record collection.

This is most probably one of my top ten favourite films, and it got BFI funding so yeah check it out 

Frank OST

The first time I watched Frank, I was having a bit of a bad mental health day and I wanted to lock myself away in my room with copious cups of tea. This film got me out of the bad place and I felt so many things watching it. If you haven't already seen it then please go ahead and watch it on Netflix because there's a reason it's in the 'Critically Acclaimed' section right next to Shawshank Redemption. The film is about a band with Frank as their lead. Frank has a huge head, probably made out of newspaper and paint like you would do when you were a kid, painted beautifully. Frank hides in his head inside this huge cartoon-like head and leads the band, striving for the best experimental music the band can produce. They spend months in a house in the middle of nowhere recording the album and then more things happen and they land a gig. The soundtrack to the film is incredible, and it had me hooked from the very first track. I stumbled across it in my favourite record store back home called Music Mania for £10, an absolute bargain compared to the £25 people wanted online from other countries. I got it home to find that it was green vinyl, and came complete with the Frank mask like new. I always get so excited over coloured vinyl, because it always looks and sounds different to standard black vinyl. The soundtrack is actually on Spotify so you can go listen to it there, and the film is available on Netflix and all good streaming websites such as putlocker for those who refuse to give Netflix their money (I fully support you all)

I'm aware I'm only using one wall, it's my favourite wall in my room no judgement please (also this album cover is so nice)

Joy Division - The Peel Sessions

Joy Division are one of those bands that you either discover if your parents play them a lot, or if you go through a bit of a bad patch growing up. They have a specific melancholy  sound to them which is unlike any other, and they were one of the most talented and experimental bands I've ever had the joy of listening to (no pun intended) because there's a song for however you feel in that moment. I got Joy Division's first Peel Sessions from 1986 on vinyl for £10 in Music Mania again (that shop is brilliant and if you're ever in Worthing check it out because oh me oh my it's brilliant) and it's the recording from John Peel's show which was originally transmitted on 14th February 1979, recorded by the BBC a month beforehand. The four songs 'Exercise One', 'Insight', 'She's Lost Control' and 'Transmission' had not been released before the transmission. I've wanted some live recording of Joy Division for some time now, because I have always been a bit mad that I was born in 1997 and was therefore never going to be able to see them live myself. This is one of the most beautiful recording I have heard of theirs, Ian Curtis' voice will forever send shivers down my spine and give me chills, but this was a must-have for my collection.

Sneaky peek of my bookcase - I'm gonna do a room tour next week so check out my new student digs then

Books:

The cover itself is perfect, it's too pretty to open all the way because cracking the spine would be a sin

The Complete Lyrics of Nick Cave

Nick Cave is such a gifted artist, his ability to write such beautiful and heartbreaking lyrics is incredible. I've always loved his music, so when I saw this in a bookshop in Brighton I almost wept with joy because it contains every lyric from the beginning of his career until 2013, for the very student-friendly price of £4.99. I had seen this before online when a friend sent me the link, but it was £15 and being a student that's a weekly shop and a beesting at the pub for me. I hate that books can be so expensive, because being a literature student and book fanatic all I want to do is read everything and anything I can get my hands on, but the student part means I can barely afford my course books let alone books for my own enjoyment. This book is beautiful, and I often find myself flicking through it to look at the lyrics from random songs. I wish more artists had their lyrics available in a book because it's so much nicer to actually engage with the lyrics at times and not fall for the music accompanying them. If you haven't listened to Nick Cave then go do it because he's so talented and his voice is beautiful and his lyrics even more so.

This book is huge, like it hurt my hand to take this picture *pain is temporary, art is forever*

The Complete Works of James Joyce

This may come as a shock to some of you, as I recently wrote in my June favourites how much I despised reading Ulysses for my course, but I really do enjoy the way in which Joyce writes, despite it making my head hurt at times. I saw this in the same bookshop as the Nick Cave lyric book but I don't recall the name of the shop (it's near the Rooftop cafe in the laines if that helps any Brightoners out) and it was only £5, an absolute steal considering the other complete/collected works I have on my bookshelf cost at least £12 each. Joyce's other works have been of interest to me, as I have learnt they are far shorter than Ulysses, and much easier to read. I cannot wait to get stuck into reading these, and I hope to get at least one of his novels finished before I have to start reading the rest of the books for my university course.

Docs are heavy, so bad quality image is to be expected really, trying to be an artsy piece of trash isn't easy y'know

Obligatory 'my docs on their box' photo to showcase their size (I managed to get a 9, I haven't been a size 9 in years)

My Docs

I got my first pair of Doc Martens in July and I was so excited because everyone talks about how comfy they are (after you've worn them in, before your feet want to die if I'm honest) and they always look so nice. I decided to opt for canvas ones to avoid leather because I don't like the feel or smell of leather, plus I'm a pesky vegan so morals and whatnot. I chose these because I wanted my first pair to be really loud and adventurous because I'm never really bold with anything I wear I tend to just play it safe and attempt to blend in, so this is me trying to get out of the crowd as such. They have been worn in and are now my favourite shoes and I want to wear them everywhere. They are a really ugly pattern but I think that just makes me love them more - they're like Hawaiian shirts for my feet and I didn't even realise they had skulls in until afterwards, but I just love them. 

These were my favourite things I got in July, I don't know if I'm doing this right or not but hey ho I'm enjoying it and this way I get to show my friends and family what I've been up to and wasting my wages on. I'm aware my blog hasn't really been that good on my behalf lately but I'm working on it and I intend to have two posts a week going up. If you've got any ideas on what I can blog about let me know, I'd love to hear some ideas or suggestions because half the time I just tend to go with the flow.

It's been real,

B x