Tag: nao

#Review: James Arthur @ Brighton Centre, Brighton – 12/03/22

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On Saturday 12th March 2022, James Arthur arrived in Brighton to perform an incredible show in support of his latest album, It’ll All Make Sense In The End. With support from Sonia Stein, the evening was one packed with excitement and stunning performances. Here’s what we had to say about the show…

Sonia Stein

Sonia Stein was an interesting performer – she seems to eloquently blend funk and soul with contemporary pop, making for a really interesting sound. Think somewhere along a similar vein to Nao and you’re along the right track. She graced the stage in a bright yellow jacket, accompanied by just two band members, however between them, they produced a fantastically full-on sound. Between songs, she displayed an almost shy demeanour, yet her vocals were powerful, well-controlled and confident. If you’ve not checked her out yet, you can catch her live throughout James Arthur‘s current UK tour, or listen to her recordings on all streaming platforms.

James Arthur

He may have done something amazing simply by winning X Factor in the UK, but James Arthur demonstrated that he is so much more than just a talent show winner at his Brighton Centre show.

The singer/songwriter took to the stage to monumental applause from the packed crowd as he showed off not only his incredible vocals but his great guitar skills too, on opening track, ‘4000 Miles’.

From there, the artist proceeded to wow the audience with a mixture of his well-known hits, old cuts from previous records and some album-tracks from the recently-released, It’ll All Make Sense In The End.

The singer is undoubtedly a true professional, having spent 10 years in the industry, performing countless shows and releasing 4 albums to date, and his show appeared seamless throughout.

One thing that truly stands out in his performances though, is just how incredibly powerful and achingly beautiful his voice is live. Of course this is something you’d expect from having heard his studio recordings but it translates so well to his live performances as he shows off just how technically impressive his voice is…and it’s all done so effortlessly.

James Arthur engages with the crowd well telling little anecdotes here and there but particularly shows his gratitude to the crowd for their decade of support since winning the X Factor and how grateful he is to the show for allowing him to pursue his dreams, before launching in to the incredible single that started it all, ‘Impossible’.

Four albums in and nearly a couple of handfuls of tours down, it’s easy to see why this singer/songwriter has picked up such a fantastic following and just how wonderful his shows are. Whether you know each and every song or are relatively new to his music, I can’t recommend highly enough, seeing him live whenever you get the chance. He will not disappoint.

Highlights:

  • His vocals – I said it earlier, but his voice was truly remarkable – powerful and dynamic; something mesmerising to behold live.
  • The cruel joke he played on the audience by welcoming out Anne-Marie to perform an acoustic rendition of The Greatest Showman cover, ‘Rewrite The Stars’, before admitting she wasn’t actually coming.
  • The renditions of ‘Happy Birthday’ he sung to a couple of members of the crowd were hilarious, particularly when he couldn’t hear the name of one of them and had to keep getting them to repeat their name numerous times.
  • The addition of a section of ‘Ready Or Not’ in the middle of ‘Sermon’ made for a great crowd-pleaser.

📷 All of the photos in this post are credited to Matteo D’Ambrosio 📸
Why not give him a follow on Instagram.

 Setlist

4000 Miles
Medicine*
Sermon (including a snippet of ‘Ready Or Not’)
Falling Like The Stars
September
Can I Be Him
Rewrite The Stars (Acoustic)*
Safe Inside/Empty Space/Emily (Acoustic)
Naked (Acoustic)
Last Of The Whiskey
Always
Sun Comes Up*
Impossible*

Encore
Train Wreck
Lasting Lover*
Say You Won’t Let Go*

* These songs can be viewed in the YouTube playlist, below.

Finally, I want to say a HUGE thanks to Simon Blackmore for arranging this review for me and to both James Arthur and Sonia Stein for putting on such incredible performances.

Enjoyed this? Check out some of our other live reviews here:

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#Review: Ruben Dawnson – Echo Emotions (EP)

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Ruben Dawnson is a Norwegian indie star, notable for his unique style of hazy pop. To date, he’s had a string of singles, but 2020 see’s the release of his debut EP, Echo Emotions. Here’s what we have to say about it…

Ruben Dawnson - Echo Emotions.jpg

Ruben Dawnson has created what can only be described as the perfect indie pop debut – it’s infectiously intimate songs are a superb introduction to this Norwegian artist.

It all opens with the previously released single, ‘SAYIMGOOD’ – a very catchy indie-pop track that is teaming with upbeat, feel-good vibes – from strumming clean guitars to crackling drum beats. It is swiftly followed by the calmer, mumble-sung, R&B-esque ‘Still Moving’ (featuring Hannah Jadagu) which changes the pace and vibe of the EP, really maintaining the listener’s interest.

Next comes the acoustic-driven ‘Rain On My Umbrella’ – a beautifully honest and melodic track that reminsices of NAO with its use of deep vocal effects and urban drum patterns, once it kicks in. It’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Alone’ that really stands out on the EP – its catchy chorus and powerful verse vocals contrast the vulnerability of the lyrics wonderfully, and particularly during this coronavirus pandemic, the track really resonates with the listener.

It’s nothing short of a pure delight to listen to and actually an EP you can’t help but keep returning to.

The penultimate track, ‘FYALMA’ serves as an anti-anxiety anthem designed to, once again, contrast the sincere lyricism with upbeat melodies. It’s a track about fighting intrusitve thoughts as it navigates Dawnson’s unique brand of hazy pop atmospheres. This is a quietly catchy song that proves to be a track you can’t help but get moving to.

Ending the EP, is title track, ‘Echo Emotions’ – a calm, guitar-led, vocal-effect powered piece that quietly reflects Dawnson’s emotions throughout the EP before ascending into a futuristic indie-pop masterpiece, to close.

For a debut EP, Echo Emotions is brilliantly intimate – it’s a rather special collection of tracks that deserve to be listened to thoroughly and on repeat. It’s nothing short of a pure delight to listen to and actually an EP you can’t help but keep returning to; Ruben Dawnson should feel so proud of this debut release.

Speaking about the EP, Ruben Dawnson says that, “This is a very special and introspective project for me, a product of reflections and thoughts built over several years. Itʼs about confronting your true self, learning and acknowledging your inner fears, struggles, issues… honesty & fear. Learning to be honest. Realising itʼs okay to tell people. Opening up. Discovering new sides of yourself. Lessons. Change. Growth yet stillness. Itʼs raw, direct and as honest as it can be. Fear, mortality, loss, loneliness, anxiety, sexuality – hope & love. This is the truest expression of me in my moments of existence.”

I personally can’t wait to hear a full album from this guy! If this EP is anything to go by, he has his work cut out for him but should produce something brilliant for his debut record!

Rating
5

‘Echo Emotions’ is out now and can be downloaded from iTunes – https://music.apple.com/gb/album/echo-emotions-ep/1504707914

Echo Emotions on Spotify

Echo Emotions on YouTube

We hope you’ve enjoyed our review! What do you think of this singer’s debut EP? Are you as much of a fan as us? What would you rate it out of 5? Please leave your thoughts in a comment or via our social media.

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#EventSpeaks: LAUREL @ The Hope & Ruin, Brighton – 01/10/18

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On Monday 1st October 2018, LAUREL came to Brighton in support of her debut album, Dogviolet (check out our review here). Since her last, solo performance in Brighton, the songwriter returned with a full band to delight her audience with offerings from her recent record. She was supported by Another Sky and her guitarist, Polly Money.

Polly Money

It always amazes me how someone with just an electric guitar and their voice can produce such a big sound but Polly Money certainly achieved this with her performance. Just funky guitar riffs and her sugary-sweet vocal (somewhat similar to that of Leah McFall or NAO), wowed the audience. A very humble performance with some lovely melodies.

Polly Money Instagram

Another Sky

This band truly blew me away (and I believe the rest of the audience too!) – they have an incredibly full-on sound with excellent use of backing tracks as well as their live instruments. Each song of theirs was pretty unique – for example, the opening to their set was ambient and airy whilst their next song brought about a huge wave of excitement due to its intensity and just how tight their performance was. The vocalist’s voice is incredibly diverse, whilst mainly quite low-pitched, is capable of a wide range. The guitarist had some funky little moves too. Another Sky are definitely going to be a band to watch out for, and certainly recommend catching them live!

Highlight: The biggest highlight, was this one note the vocalist did, towards the end of one of their songs; it was so loud, high-pitched and perfect that it was all-consuming. It sent shivers down my back.

LAUREL

Having seen LAUREL play a solo set at The Green Door Store (review here) back in 2016, it was amazing to watch her performing with a full band. Although it was a relatively short set, it was amazing to see her playing songs from Dogviolet, with a full sound.

Some of the best songs were: ‘All Star’ for its wonderful guitar riff; ‘Lovesick’, which is just a catchy track to get the audience going, ‘Sun King’ which was beautifully intimate – just LAUREL with an acoustic guitar and ‘Life Worth Living’ – it’s just a downright tune!

Of course I won’t be the first person to say it, but there are great similarities between LAUREL and Lana Del Rey, however there is something much more vulnerable about LAUREL and it feels like she has more integrity about her.

It was also interesting to find out that she has recently released a book called, The Mutterings of a Laurel, which is a journal she kept during the writing and recording of Dogviolet – definitely worth checking out.

Having seen LAUREL perform twice now, I can assure you that she puts on a show you don’t want to miss. You really need to catch her now before she’s selling out bigger shows, especially since she just filmed her appearance for Later… with Jools Holland the morning of the Brighton show…sounds like the start of something big for this little star.

Highlights:

  • LAUREL is a very humble artist with an endearing awkwardness about her audience interaction, you can’t help but love.
  • The hilarious names she has for her guitars, which her manager proudly embarrassed her by announcing. It’s not my place to share them, but go see her live and you might find them out! 😂
  • Her ability to perform songs with such passion that you are drawn in by her every word – she’s a real star.

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Setlist

All Star
Lovesick
Hold Tight
Sun King (Solo Acoustic)
Same Mistakes
South Coast
Adored
Blue Blood
Life Worth Living*

* This song can be viewed in the YouTube video, below.

Finally, I want to say a big thanks to Chris (LAUREL’s manager) and Henry (in LAUREL’s PR team) for enabling this review to happen. A big thanks also to Polly Money, Another Sky and LAUREL herself, for putting on such an incredible, intimate show.

Enjoyed this? Check out some of our other live reviews here:

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#Two4Tunesday: Muzik Speaks’ 1st Birthday Playlist

Here’s a playlist of all the #Two4Tunesday songs we’ve featured during our first year…enjoy!

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Muzik Speaks is 1 year old this week and to celebrate this milestone, we’re giving you a themed playlist, for each day this week. The playlist will contain all of the songs we’ve featured on our blog during the past year, all themed around the corresponding day.

Today, it’s #Two4Tunesday and our playlist includes:

  1. Dappy  – Beautiful Me
  2. Frankmusik – Stabilizher
  3. Ellie Goulding – Love Me Like You Do
  4. Taylor Swift – Blank Space
  5. Conor Maynard – Talking About
  6. Marlon Roudette – When The Beat Drops Out
  7. Years & Years  – King
  8. Angels & Airwaves – Bullets In The Wind
  9. Jason Derulo – Want To Want Me
  10. Lucy Spraggan – Unsinkable
  11. Nick Jonas – Jealous
  12. Luke Friend – Hole In The Heart
  13. TEAM* – I Like It
  14. New City Kings – Change
  15. Omi – Cheerleader
  16. Deorro – Five More Hours featuring Chris Brown
  17. Taio Cruz – Do What You Like
  18. Life Of Dillon – Overload
  19. Britney Spears – Pretty Girls featuring Iggy Azalea
  20. Prides – Higher Love
  21. Maroon 5 – This Summer
  22. Walk The Moon – Shut Up And Dance
  23. Ryn Weaver – The Fool
  24. Ella Eyre – Together
  25. Aston Merrygold – Get Stupid
  26. Little Mix – Black Magic
  27. Passion Pit – Lifted Up (1985)
  28. Owl City – Verge featuring Aloe Blacc
  29. LunchMoney Lewis – Bills
  30. Dappy – 100 (Built For This)
  31. Frankmusik – This
  32. Years & Years – Shine
  33. Blonde – All Cried Out featuring Alex Newell
  34. Sigma – Glitterball featuring Ella Henderson
  35. Conrad Sewell – Hold Me Up
  36. Tinie Tempah – Not Letting Go featuring Jess Glynne
  37. Trevor Guthrie – Summertime
  38. Jerry Orbach & Angela Lansbury – Be Our Guest (Beauty & The Beast)
  39. Robin Williams – Friend Like Me (Aladdin)
  40. Adriana Castelotti – With A Smile And A Song (Snow White)
  41. Tommy Luske & Bobby Driscoll – You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly! (Peter Pan)
  42. John Newman – Come And Get It
  43. Stefano Pain & Maury Lobina – Take Me Back
  44. Flo Rida – I Don’t Like It, I Love It featuring Robin Thicke & Verdine White
  45. Cash Cash – Take Me Home featuring Bebe Rexha
  46. Prince Royce – Back It Up featuring Jennifer Lopez & Pitbull
  47. The Score – Oh My Love
  48. Prides – Little Danger
  49. Digital Farm Animals – True
  50. Robin Thicke – Back Together featuring Nicki Minaj
  51. Pia Mia – Do It Again featuring Chris Brown
  52. MOKS – Otherwise featuring James Arthur
  53. Dappy – Money Can’t Buy
  54. Ellie Goulding – On My Mind
  55. Pentatonix – Can’t Sleep Love
  56. Major Lazer – Lean On featuring MØ & DJ Snake
  57. Philip George – Alone No More
  58. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Downtown featuring Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee & Eric Nally
  59. KStewart – Ain’t Nobody
  60. Melissa Steel – You Love Me? featuring Wretch 32
  61. Aquilo – Good Girl
  62. Olly Murs – Kiss Me
  63. Sia – Alive
  64. Justin Bieber – Sorry
  65. Ben Haenow – Second Hand Heart featuring Kelly Clarkson
  66. David Guetta – Bang My Head featuring Sia & Fetty Wap
  67. LÉON – Treasure
  68. Good Charlotte – Makeshift Love
  69. Tinashe – Player featuring Chris Brown
  70. Fleur East – Sax
  71. St Lucia – Dancing On Glass
  72. Hailee Steinfield – Love Myself
  73. Craig David x Big Narstie – When The Bassline Drops
  74. Coldplay – Adventure Of A Lifetime
  75. The Vamps – Wake Up
  76. The 1975 – UGH!
  77. Coasts – You
  78. Matoma – Running Out featuring Astrid S
  79. Zara Larsson – Lush Life
  80. MKTO – Classic
  81. Walking On Cars – Two Stones
  82. Elle King – Ex’s & Oh’s
  83. Izzy Bizu – White Tiger
  84. ZAYN – PILLOWTALK
  85. NAO – Bad Blood
  86. Greyson Chance – Afterlife
  87. Fleur East – More And More
  88. KStewart – Be Without You
  89. Sigala – Say You Do featuring Imani & DJ Fresh
  90. Beyoncé – Formation
  91. Rihanna – Work featuring Drake
  92. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Kevin featuring Leon Bridges
  93. Halsey – Colors

If you want to download the songs and use a custom cover for them, here’s one we’ve made for you 🙂

Two4Tunesday Cover

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#Playlist: February 2016

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G’day fellow Speakerz!

So, February has been just as incredible as January was! We’ve done another interview, with singer-songwriter David Ford and been to review The Japanese House‘s gig at The Haunt in Brighton as well as shared a whole heap of songs.

We hope that you have enjoyed this month’s songs and you can find both the Spotify and YouTube playlists below!

We hopefully have a couple more interviews and gig reviews lined up for March too, including Lucy Spraggan and MEST, so keep your eyes and ears peeled.

As always, please keep sharing our posts and remember to share your song choices with us by commenting on our posts or talking to us on Twitter and Facebook.

OUR CONTINUED AIM

We’d like to ask you, to go ahead and ‘like’ our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/muzikspeaks) and ‘follow’ us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/muzik_speaks). Then if you could please post a status or send a tweet to your followers and friends to ask them to check us out, we’d be really grateful! We want to grow this community and we honestly can’t do it without your support!

Lastly, please, please respond to our posts on Facebook or leave comments on each of our blog posts with your own tracks for each of the daily themes – we want you to share what you’re listening to because we love music as much as you, and we really enjoy finding out about new tunes. Thanks so much!

Matt – Muzik Speaks
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#Two4Tunesday: ZAYN – ‘Pillowtalk’ & NAO – ‘Bad Blood’

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ZAYN – ‘Pillowtalk’

Zayn (Malik) has finally released his debut solo single and frig me, it’s blowing up! Zayn has opted for a modern house-style vibe, similar to that of Justin Bieber‘s new sound.

This song also marks a very clear departure from his One Direction days; not only is the sound so different, but the video is graphically more mature too! I truly think this could be his best move yet and predict humongous things from him as a solo singer – his voice is remarkable and the sound he’s creating is inspired.

I think he’s set to take on the world with this! Bring it on!

‘Pillowtalk’ is on iTunes for downloading now! – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/pillowtalk-single/id1078293237

WARNING: Explicit Content

NAO – ‘Bad Blood’

NAO is a London-based singer-songwriter known for her unique blend of alternative R&B and neo-soul.

NAO recently graced the Radio 1 Live Lounge with a performance of this song, alongside a cover, and she has also been pegged for big things throughout 2016 and quite rightly so I think!

The video for the song is unusual and worth a watch, but again, like Zayn’s is rather risqué! Enjoy!

‘Bad Blood’ can be downloaded off iTunes now – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/bad-blood-single/id1048085887

WARNING: Explicit Content

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