November Favourites

Although November has been a relatively slow month for me I have still found some gems that I want to share, so long and behold my first favorites!  

While I Stay Secluded - Knuckle Puck 

Knuckle Puck is one of my all time favorite bands so needless to say I was overjoyed when I heard they were releasing a new EP. I adore every track on this EP, they certainly did not disappoint. The EP has the same trademark style which is punk but still very raw, which I adore.   

In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith 

Now not to sound 'hipster' or whatever you want to call it but, i'm one who tends not to care for Western mainstream music or mainstream artists for that matter. You've probably heard Sam Smith's Stay With Me or I'm Not the Only One on the radio as I did. I liked 'Stay With Me' when I heard it first, I thought it was a pleasant change from all the songs about ass. Prior to downloading 'In The Lonely Hour' i'd heard a few live performances from Smith and I was admittedly startled by how much talent he had, so I guess you could say that was the tipping point for me to download the album. This was one of the best decisions iv'e made in a while. Sam Smith's voice is something so special, full of love and soul. 'In The Lonely Hour' is a devastatingly beautiful album, every track soulful and blatantly beautiful. If I could recommend only one thing my list of favorites, this would be it. If you haven't already checked it out do yourself a favor and please do.  

First Sensibility - B.A.P

As far as Korean pop groups go, B.A.P was sort of on the back burner for me. I really enjoyed Warrior and No Mercy but that's about as far as I ventured. I had most of their music in my iTunes library but I never really touched it. After scrolling through episodes of Eric Nam's After School Club I found an episode featuring B.A.P so I thought what the hell, I like some of their songs so why not watch. After absolutely falling for them as people especially Daehyun *wink wink* I went straight back into my music and starting listening to First Sensibility. 'First Sensibility' is they boys' first ever full length album and most mature sounding for that matter. The album is light and fun certainly not as hardcore as 'Warrior' or any of their earlier tracks, but it's a refreshing change and iv'e been enjoying listening to this album throughout November.

Bad Gays Club 

'Bad Gays Club' is a mini series on YouTube starring many popular gay youtubers including Miles Jai, Kingsley and Davey Wavey. The series seems to be a mock of a reality type of show in which all the youtubers live in a house together. The series is absolutely hilarious and so clever. Each episode runs for about 5-10 minutes and they are all equally entertaining. If you need a bit of a laugh I would highly recommend this series as it is my favorite series/videos on the entirety of YouTube. 

Watch it here: 

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air 

I usually like to keep a short 20 minute sitcom recorded on my Foxtel for something quick to watch in the mornings while i'm eating my breakfast. I had Full House on series link for a while, but as time progressed it became corny and painful to watch, needless to say I grew out of that one quickly. 111Greats had advertised they were going to start showing 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' and a few friends of mine watched it and enjoyed it so I thought it might make a suitable replacement for 'Full House' The show follows Philadelphia teenager Will Smith (and yes Will Smith is played by the actual Will Smith) who gets into a fight and is then sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air to stay out of trouble. The show is light, funny and actually has a lovable protagonist for a change. So far i'm really enjoying the series and i'm keen to see more.

CL

A little random but I though why not include a human favorite? My months human favorite is none other than k-pop goddess, CL from 2NE1. 2NE1 is by far my favorite Korean girl group and of course CL is my bias not just from 2NE1, but out of every female artist from Korea. I was starting to watch interviews featuring 2NE1 and I really began to resonate with CL as of late. I love everything that CL stands for, In Korea, plastic surgery is very common for not only female artists but male artists to undertake, CL's refusal to partake in altering herself for the business is something I really admire. CL promotes confidence within women through her solo music as well as within 2NE1 which I think is really important. CL discusses how she wants to be a "confident" icon that represents women and I think she's doing a damn good job. CL's longing to not keep herself in a box, break the norm and push herself to her limits is another among many amazing qualities she has. CL truly is the baddest female. 

There’s always a message in our songs. we want to let everyone know that there are people who sing about the power of women. We’re not saying to throw away one’s femininity, but to know that we’re not all delicate just because we’re women.

GD X TAEYANG - GOOD BOY M/V Review

The release of G-DRAGON and TAEYANG's collaboration with 'GOOD BOY' was an incredibly highly anticipated project as it is hyping up for the release of new BIGBANG music. Scrolling through the YouTube comments I was quite shocked at the amount of problems people had with the track itself and the music video.

The dancers in the video were not Korean, nor of any Asian decent for the most part, most of the dancers appeared to be American. Reading through the comments many people felt as though this was to connect with the American commercial market. Personally, I do not see an issue with using dancers that are not from your native country, it shows diversity. Would it be bad if BIGBANG wanted to break into the American market? Well that's debatable.

As well as this, many people felt the dancers in the video weren't up to YG Entertainment 'standards' was the dancing amazing? no, was it bad? no.

Because YG advertised 'GOOD BOY' as a hip-hop project many people felt let down by the track. Agreeable, GOOD BOY more than anything sounds like a dance or club track. This disappointed many people in the comments as they were not getting the track they'd hoped for. Although this is misleading, I actually really liked GOOD BOY.

Personally, I actually really enjoyed GOOD BOY even though it wasn't the hip-hop track YG had proclaimed it would be.

Straight away you either love or hate G-DRAGON's musical aesthetics, he is definitely not one for everyone. Although I love GD, some of his music is a little far out even for me. With GOOD BOY I feel GD wrote a very fun, dancy type of song, with a beat that's easy to move to.

The music video itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary or anything risqué but it was still incredibly fun to watch, what not with GD's glowing hair and all. The music video was full of fun fluorescent lighting, dancing and all that good stuff.

Whenever TAEYANG and G-DRAGON get together for a colab they're always great, GOOD BOY was no exception.

Death Note Review

If you watch anime, you've probably seen Death Note. If you have friends or family who watch anime you've probably heard of Death Note.

The plot trails incredibly intelligent teenager Light Yagami, who stumbles upon a peculiar notebook that he soon realizes has the power to kill people, simply by writing their name in the book. Light soon uses the power of the 'Death Note' to cleanse the world of criminals and re instate himself as the 'God' of the new world free of impure people. To the world he is known as 'Kira'

During Light's crusade, he finds himself being perused by quirky, genius detective 'L'. To create an alibi for himself, Light joins the Japanese task force who are in pursuit of Kira, along with his father who is the chief as well as L.  

Light's true identity is known to few, one being Misa Amane. Misa, a famous, love-struck model who worships Light and his persona as Kira. Misa gains Death Note of her own and decides to track down Kira to help in his quest for a purer world and to thank him for killing the man who murdered her parents. Misa becomes a valuable asset to Light, as she traded half her lifespan for the Death God eyes, meaning she can see anybody's name and lifespan just by looking at them, except someone who is in possession of a Death Note.

Because of how much hype Death Note had I was expecting this series to be amazing. A few episodes in I was hooked, The series was clever and intriguing. From episode one to about eighteen, I was absolutely flawed by how gripping the series was. I found myself not being able to put my laptop down and telling myself "just one more episode" at 3AM.

A few friends warned me as time went on the series started going downhill, and well they weren't wrong. After around half way I found it becoming a little bit repetitive and draining, plus the integration of lots of new characters so late in the series was sort of off putting. I then didn't have the urge to continually watch. You know how sometimes you really love a show to begin with but then you sort of loose interest and you feel obliged to watch? Death Note was like that for me,

However, in places it did spark my interest and pick up, slowly buy surely.Death Note was clever and concise with plot twists wherever you looked. Overall I did really enjoy watching Death Note and I wasn't entirely let down and I can see where the hype came from. Death Note wasn't my all time favorite anime but I thoroughly enjoyed watching.

Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Haikyuu!! Review

Hello lovelies, long time no post! With the encouragement of my fabulous beauty blogger friend I have become determined to post more, so today I bear a review of a slightly new obsession of mine.

Now, I have been an anime person from a very young age (Sailor Moon anyone?) but, I haven't been watching anime for a very long time. I suppose the initial spark of interest came from my new found obsession with Asian popular culture, as I am now a crazed k-pop fangirl. But also I have found that shows now are failing to keep me interested and all around I was incredibly bored to say the least, so I thought I might shake it up and try some new anime, then I found Haikyuu!!  

The plot follows Shoyo Hinata, a high schooler who sees a volleyball tournament on TV while riding his bike and due to this gains a passion for volleyball and wishes to become the 'ace'. Hinata shows his passion all throughout junior high as he is the sole member of the volleyball team until late when five members join for a tournament, Hinata's team is defeated in their first game, the opposing team has Tobio Kageyama as their setter, the proclaimed 'King of the Court' Due to the trashing of Hinata's team, he vows to defeat Kageyama, until high school when they are put on a team together.

Now I will be honest with you guys, I was sceptical at first because anyone who knows me could tell you I have a deep rooted hate for sports and anything sport related, so I even surprised myself with enjoying this series. The sole focus of the series is not all sport related, relationships and friendship is a major theme throughout and how even the most seemingly opposite people can bring out the best in each other (as corny as it sounds) The show possesses clever wit, which makes it highly enjoyable to watch. If you are considering watching Haikyuu!! I would encourage you to watch it in Japanese with subtitles of your own language for some hilariously random remarks and sounds that will have you laughing.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★