Essie Summer Mini Collection 2012

As I said previously I was so excited to pick up some of the polishes from the new Essie collection. I decided to go ahead and get some this week and I have not been disappointed.

 

Marina and the Diamonds{Electra Heart Review}

After being lucky enough  to have seen Marina and the Diamonds live I feel I should review her new album Electra Harts after seeing her (amazing) concert.

 'Electra Heart' is the follow up album to her debut 'The American Jewels'. The album was released on the 27th April 2012, becoming her first number one album in the UK.

Tracks

1.	Bubblegum Bitch
2.	Primadona
3.	Lies
4.	Homewrecker
5.	Starring Role
6.	The State of Dreaming
7.	Power & Control
8.	Living Dead
9.	Teen Idle
10.	Valley of the Dolls
11.	Hypocrates
12.	Fear and Loathing

13.	Radioactive*
14.	Sex Yeah*
15.	Lonely Hearts Club*
16.	Buy the Stars*

* Deluxe album

Personally when her first album was released I was not a huge fan. It could have been my age and taste at that point but I had little interest. When 'Electra Hearts' was released I was advised by my friend to buy it as it was "absolutely amazing", they weren't wrong. It rarely happens to come across an album which every song is a standout but there really is not one song on this album I dislike. The album is described as an 'ode to dysfunctional love'.

 Primadona was the first single off the album which debut in the UK #11.This is one of the lighter tracks on the album referring to the egotistical side of the character. With a strong elctropop beat and addictive lyrics, Primadona is easily one of my favourite songs on the album.

The album also has serious songs, describing the feelings of betrayal and rejection. Lies, Power and Control, Living Dead show the darker sides of love. I personally like Lies the best. I feel its one of the more emotionally powerful songs off the album. You can really feel the biter emotion tied to the song.

I am finding it hard to find a song that I actually don't like which is pretty impressive for a 16 track album. I would say the standout tracks are Primadona, Lies, Homewrecker, Teen Idol if you are looking for a sample of the album first I would certainly try these songs.

Overall this is a absolutely amazing album.Every song is enjoyable and the album manges to flow the storytelling concept throughout without any faults. I would highly recommend this to loyal fans and newbies to Marina and the Diamonds, as I liked this album so much it encouraged me to go to her concert.

10/10

 Lastly I would say to listen to this album right away! But be warned you will have the lyrics stuck in your head for a very very long time.....luckily this is not a bad thing.


Thanks for reading! We'd love to know what you think of our blog.

Lauren x

Maroon 5 "Overexposed" Album Review

In the spirit of today being the release of Maroon 5's 4th album Overexposed I thought it was fitting to give my thoughts on a band I can still remember first hearing way back when they released Songs About Jane. Neither of their following albums really reached the heights of Songs About Jane but what Maroon 5 have always been able to do is adapt their style to appeal to whatever sound is 'current' and popular with the masses at that particular moment.

Overexposed hits exactly at just that with it's strong pop and disco/dance vibe. Normally that is not what I listen to but there is just something about Maroon 5 and Adam Levine's vocals in particular which keep me coming back for more and at the same time hoping for better. Adapting their style is what has kept them successful but with that any uniqueness that glimmered from them has slowly dimmed to nothing following their initial success. They are now just simply a measure of what modern pop music currently sounds like.

Tracks

1. One More Night
2. Payphone
3. Daylight
4. Lucky Strike
5. The Man Who Never Lied
6. Love Somebody
7. Ladykiller
8. Fortune Teller
9. Sad
10. Tickets
11. Doin' Dirt
12. Beautiful Goodbye
13. Moves Like Jagger

For the reasons above and for the first time ever with Maroon 5, I have found it extremely difficult to pick out any standout songs. 'One More Night', their next single, is the type of repetitive pop song which will ensure it some commercial chart success but will also ensure it be completely forgotten in a few months. The success of their current single 'Payfone', another typical pop song of the moment, containing a segment from a guest rapper (Wiz Khalifa) is a clear demonstration of what the necessary ingredients, in general, of chart success are at the moment: repetition, repetition, repetition oh and the obligatory random guest rapper.(Obviously there have been some exceptions such as Adele or Ed Sheeran but they are RARE)

All that aside, the main issue I personally had was keeping my attention focused on each track. The main reason for that has to be that most of the tracks were just too similar to each other. The only tracks which stood out to me were 'Sad' and 'Beautiful Goodbye', which had quite a prominent bass riff throughout.

I think my fairly negative review is due to the fact that I am not interested in whether a song sounds 'current', I just like because I like! The other main issue is the general lack of soul in this album compared to their previous. I am always looking for Maroon 5 to be what they were for me when I obsessed about Songs About Jane at age 12 and 13 but unfortunately I think it's about time I accept that will never be and appreciate them as they are now.

6/10

Thanks for reading! We'd love to know what you think of our blog.

Emma x

Eleven by Mark Watson Review

The review will be free of spoilers and will therefore be quite a general explanation on why I enjoyed this book.

Eleven is premised on some of my favourite concepts: that everyone is connected and that one action can cause an unimaginable chain of events. The idea that everyone is connected is also known as the six degrees of separation and basically means that everyone is, on average, approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth. The author makes use of these concepts through one event that scars the main character's, Xavier Ireland, life having an unintentional knock on effect on the lives of 10 other people.

The good 

• The writing style of the author is fairly casual, chatty and informal
• The third person narrative allows for much observation and humour to be contained in the text
• The writer does lay hints for what the life changing event in the main character's life was but are really only noticeable on a second read
• Following on from that point, to build to the reveal of what started the chain of events the writer litters the present day narrative with 'flashbacks' to the main character's live where he seemed to be, contrastingly, very happy. This helped maintain interest and curiosity over what could have possibly happened to make him lose that life.
• The book is also littered with crazy little passages, which sort of come out of the blue, like this one after Xavier says goodbye to a woman he met the previous night: "[T]his is the last time they will ever see each other. She will return to Australia in eight months, sleep with ten more people, then meet and marry an orthodontist named Brendon. She will have two children and  work part-time in a tanning salon once they have grown up. She and the orthodontist will retire to Tasmania and die within a few weeks of each other. Xavier watches the cab disappear, a streak in the dark, and turns back to the house."
• The author does also spend some time with each of the other people in 'the eleven' once the chain passes along to them. Stylistically this may sound odd but it really works in bring clarity to the story progression.
• Also, without any spoilers, the way that everything culminates in the novel allows Xavier to put his past behind him in a very satisfying way. Although it does also sadly emphasis that well known phrase that you can't go back.

The bad

• There really is not that many negative things to say about the novel.
• The main issue I had was it took me quite a few chapters to really get into the novel and empathise with the characters. Certainly I do advise people to push through the slow start because once I did I was completely hooked. I'm not really sure why I felt this way but I imagine it could be that I was not exactly sure where the story was going until Xavier met the person after him in the chain of eleven.
• My only other complaint, which is a minor one really, is that there were a few characters in 'the eleven' that I would like to have had a little more resolution on.

Overall I thought this was an excellent book which I would definitely recommend which is why I will award in 9/10. 

Thanks for reading! We'd love to know what you think of our blog.

Emma x

Top 5 GlossyBox Products

This month's GlossyBox was the 6th I have received since signing up to the service so I thought it's be interesting to look back over all the products I received and pick out my favourites. The choice has ended up being much more difficult than I imagined it would be but here they are anyway:

Top 5 Favourite Summer Nail Polishes

In inspiration of the 20th June being the official start of summer in the UK (not that the weather seems to have taken any notice of that) I thought I would name and review my favourite summer nail polishes. Some are recent discoveries and others have become old favourites. However, they may well change once I get my hands on some of the polishes from Essie's Summer Collection 2012.

Left to right: Barry M Peach Melba, Essie Lilacism, OPI Fly, Essie Turquoise&Caicos and Models Own Indian Summer

GlossyBox June 2012

This is possibly the 6th GlossyBox I have received so far and funnily enough (since I've chosen to write my first post on it) it is probably one of my least favourite boxes. This most likely isn't helped by the fact that last month's 1st birthday box was my definite favourite so far though...
Also the products this month are supposed to be all suitable to achieve your desired summer style but in all honesty the products I received do not do that for me. This is unfortunate since I could do with something that gives me "that summer feeling" considering the terrible weather we're having at the moment.

Anyway, inside the box there is: