10 Reasons I'm NOT Into NYE.

Some people I know look forward to New Year's Eve like they look forward to their birthdays, to them I say no. I am not a fan of New Year's Eve and here’s a quick rundown as to why...

1.      Pressure to Plan!
Talk about pressure to plan; who are you going out with this year? Where are you guys going? What are you going to wear? Panic! Not to mention the few days before New Year’s Eve when everyone else is talking about their plans and you don’t have any yet. My favourite NYE so far was spent in with some close friends, cocktails and hot dogs. We danced, we drank, we played cards, we ate all kinds of food...What else do you need?

2.      Drink Up!
If you’re planning on going out this New Year, you’re sort of expected to be a certain level of drunk – a level that says you should be screaming out Auld Lang Syne along with the rest of them when the clock strikes. I’m all for a few glasses of fizz and a little wobbly moment when you realise that maybe that last cocktail wasn’t a sensible decision, but when you’ve had so many shots that you think it’s a good idea to lick spilt tequila off the bar maybe it’s time to call a taxi.

3.      Anticlimax?
Whether it’s 11pm, Midnight, 1am... everyone looks the same, her mascara is still running and he’s still got beer splashed on his shirt. Nothing’s new, nothing’s changed, and no one has suddenly developed all their moralistic resolutions.

4.      New Year’s Resolutions.
There’s always the standard ‘Oh, I’m going to lose ten pounds’ or ‘Yes, I’m going to go to the gym every other day!’ but most resolutions tend to circle work, love or finance. Resolutions are like horoscopes; vague, hard to stick to and a little bit pointless. Why make yourself have all of these goals, if the probability of sticking to them is so slim? Make yourself small goals throughout the year – they’re far more likely to be achievable and there’s no January pressure to guilt trip you.

5.      Crapuary.
Of course, January follows New Year’s Eve which can only mean a month of failed resolutions, expensive gym memberships, empty bank accounts, cutbacks left-right-and-center, need I go on?

6.      Phone Service/Taxi’s
Both are very hard to come by come NYE. Between 11pm and 1am there’s so much drama with who sent who a text because everyone is trying to get through on their phones it doesn’t always work. I always forget about Taxi’s being a problem until around 1am; I’m ready to go home, it’s cold outside and the whole of Winchester is having the same thoughts. Taxi’s are gold dust. Maybe just pre-book, if you can’t walk it? (Especially not in those shoes!)

7.      Endless 2014 Round-Ups.
How original, another top 10 images for 2014 list.
Or was it Top 10 YouTube videos?
No? Top 10 films/albums/singles of 2014?

8.      Spring Cleaning.
So you’ve bitten the bullet and taken down the tree – now everything is covered in glitter and dust so you might as well give the room a little spring clean, right? Well, if you’re going to do that room, you might as well do the whole house. Plus the bathrooms. And there you are, in your pyjamas, spending your Sunday spring cleaning your house for the New Year’s festivities.

9.      New Year’s Day Hangovers.
No stores are open, no matter what you need and if they do open, they only open in the morning and let’s face it no one is awake in the morning of New Year’s Day (Especially if you know that as you lay in bed, downstairs there is a plethora of empties and trodden in food waiting for you to clear up). Obviously, quite a large percentage of the population will be spending New Year’s Day either still drunk, or hung over, all putting off their vomit-inducing clear up, we need stores to be open.

10.  Christmas is officially over.
Until NYE, I can pretty much kid myself that it’s still Christmas and people are still wandering around wishing each other Happy Christmas – as soon as NYE is gone, Christmas is suddenly so far away again, and I’m a sucker for Christmas.

I’m sure you’re all judging me for not being the biggest NYE fan, but hey-ho.
It’s not for everyone. Feel free to let me know what YOU think, I'd love to hear what you're up to for NYE, or if you've got any set in stone New Years Traditions...
If you are headed out this Wednesday night please be safe; get home safe and above all have fun.

Happy New Year, buddy. 

REVIEW: 1989, Taylor Swift.

There are hundreds of people who have written Taylor Swift off as too-country, too-girly or simply just not their taste. That’s not their fault, they’re entitled to their opinion and this is mine – so let me have it.

Taylor Swift’s 2012 album Red sold 1.21 million copies in the US during it’s first week as well as debuting at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart. Receiving Grammy Nominations for Album of The Year and Best Country Album weren’t the only accolades; We Are Never Getting Back Together was nominated for Record Of The Year (Grammy) along with Begin Again going on to win Best Country Song (Grammy).

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you should know that Taylor herself is no stranger to awards and honours, having previously won;

7 other Grammy’s
15 American Music Awards’s
11 Country Music Awards’s
7 Academy of Country Music Award’s
12 Billboard Music Awards

...as well as two Golden Globe nominations, two back-to-back honours of being ACM’s Entertainer Of The Year and the first ever female to receive the Country Music Association’s Pinnacle Award which has only ever previously been awarded to Garth Brooks in 2005. She was also the first ever candidate to win Billboard’s Woman of the Year twice and when Rolling Stone calls you immortal, telling the world her songs will live on for years – you know you’ve pretty much made it. I

The point is, there’s so much hype every time she releases anything – and rightly. On October 27, 2014 Taylor Swift released 1989; the album she’s been working on for two years. That seems to be her formula now – every two years; we’ve learned to expect a new album.

*

Opening the new album with ‘Welcome To New York’ seems like the logical move – welcome to a new album; new sound, new producers, new style. However, aside from being a pretty cool LGBQT anthem with her discovery that in NYC you can be with whoever you want, the song IMHO is a little lacking. This song was also released before we heard the full album which bothers me. It didn’t fill me with confidence for the record.

Track Two, Blank Space blew my mind. It then went on to be the first post-release song to be given a music video. It’s cheeky and a little reminiscent of a ditty from way back – ‘Permanent Marker’. It’s strong because she knows you’re taking the piss out of her - that’s obvious in the track, even more obvious in the video. She’s more than happy to let you run with that while she sits in one of her five homes and counts her millions of dollars. Both pre-chorus and chorus are brilliantly written and shows that Swift has started to wear her backbone where her wishbone used to be.  The song comes complete with kitsch pen-click mid-chorus, telling you all she’s serious about scrawling your name into her next hit.

Oh my god, look at that face, you look like my next mistake. Loves a game, wanna play?
-
And I know you’ve heard about me, so Hey. Let’s be friends. I’m dying to see how this one ends.

So it’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna burn down in flames.
You can tell me when it’s over if the highs were worth the pain.
Got a long list of ex-lovers, they’ll tell you I’m insane
...but I’ve got a blank space baby – and I’ll write your name.

Out of The Woods was an awesome song – especially in terms of having it as a pre-release. ‘Not a single, but the song that most accurately represents my new record’ Swift said and she was not mistaken – Shake It Off & Welcome To New York give off a slightly younger vibe, but Swift brings back her song writing prowess with Out Of The Woods that has as much catchiness as I Knew You Were Trouble and maybe even more than 22. The vocals in her performance of OOTW on Jimmy Kimmel were so on point which just underlines that Swift is back from touring Red around the world with vengeance. Fans started casting out their theories on which of Taylor’s supposed flights of fancy this one was about; the predominance of them weighing in that Harry Styles was the main inspiration for the album – especially the track not so subtlety titled Style.

You’ve got that James Dean, day dream, look in your eye and I got that red lip classic thing that you like.
-
Long hair, slicked back, white t-shirt and I got my good girl faith and a tight little skirt.

Probably my favourite track of the album is track eight – Bad Blood. Slightly less beat-driven that the majority of the album, Bad Blood brings a similar anger to that of Better Than Revenge and questions her friends who hurt her beyond repair, when she thought they were fighting her corner all along. Betrayal and misplaced trust lace this song way down deep into the stripped bridge and way up into the chanting chorus, which I can only imagine stadiums of crowds roaring when the time comes for Taylor to tour again.

Oh my god, who is she? I get drunk on jealousy.
But you’ll come back each time you leave,
‘Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

Taylor treats us to her ninth track, singing with a smirk and a tone that sounds a lot like Lana Del Rey. A sunshine- dreamy track, full of breathy vocals, that tells us a story of his hands in her hair and his clothes in her room. 

Baby, I know places we won’t be found, they’ll be chasing their tails trying to track us down
 but I know places we can hide.
-
Lights flash and we’ll run for the fences.
Let them say what they want, we won’t hear it.
Loose lips sink ships all the damn time.

I Know Places, although thematically awesome, lacks in production for me – however, some of the best lyrics however are in the chorus – They got the cages, they got the boxes – and guns. They are the hunters, we are the foxes – we run.

It’s poker – you can’t see it in my face, but I’m about to play my ace.
-
The rumours are terrible and cruel, but honey most of them are true.

The DLX edition comes with three extra tracks plus three song writing voice memo’s – the new tracks include Wonderland, You Are In Love and New Romantics. New Romantics screams out the same up tempo pop anthem ways as 22 and begs you to jump up and down singing with your girlfriends to it. Wonderland features new vocal acrobatics for Taylor and it works – it’s a little darker, the lyrics are brilliantly whimsical and there’s a light peppering of Rihanna-esque ‘eh eh eh eh...’ going on in the chorus. What more could you ask for?

Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things?
Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me?
Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?
I should have slept with one eye open at night.

Unfortunately, Swift made a blunder by teasing fans with most of the best lyrics, so the remainder of the album, barring a few bits here and there, was a small anti-climax. However, songs like Bad Blood and Blank Space make up for it. 

Make no mistakes, this is a pop album. There’s no essence of country in there – although, there are still nuances of Swift’s journalistic writing which is highly apparent in her collaboration with Imogen Heap. All kinds of imagery conjure wine stained dresses, burnt toast, twenty stitches and keeping his shirt... 

A reminder of where Swift started and where she intends to go now she has the world’s attention and no intention of relinquishing it. 

(Disclaimer - All picture credits go to their respective owners, I don't own anything except every Taylor Swift album. So what? Bite me.) 

My Caffeine Addiction.

My boyfriend and I are spending Christmas with my Mum this holiday; my first Christmas with him and my first Christmas taking him home with me. I’m looking forward to it more than you could possibly imagine. However there is one thought at the back of mind that pipes up occasionally.
“Will Mum mind I’m drinking Monster all day?”

Monster being a 500ml can of energy drink with about 250 calories per can. It’s probably where I get most of my calorie intake from. And I admit, I have a slight addiction to it and the addiction to Monster has developed into an addiction to Caffeine. I definitely drink less of it than I used to, but I still drink over the recommended daily allowance I’m sure of it.

Caffeine is messing with my, already messed up, sleeping schedule. For example, on Saturday night I slept from 8pm till midnight, then I was awake for an hour but asleep again by 1am to sleep through till 730am when my alarm went off on Sunday morning. In contrast, last week I fell asleep at 8pm, woke up again at 10pm then cleaned the bathroom with bleach from top to bottom, followed by our bedroom and was still awake at 1am when my boyfriend got home from work.  

This morning I woke up at 1030am, was out of the house by 1 and now at 230pm I’m yawning at my screen. No rhyme or reason to anything anymore.
The withdrawal headaches and the sleeping stresses are enough to make me suggest something I never said I could do; I’m going to give up Monster for 2014. I’ll still have a caffeine intake, because I don’t think it would be safe to take such a staple part of my diet away so quickly, but it will only be from coffee and any painkillers cut with caffeine. I will drink more water, because I will never want to be dehydrated again. I will not buy four-packs of Monster from the shop on the corner.

Adding it up in my head, if I give up Monster I’ll actually save a substantial amount of money. Here’s a week of my life, and the Monster’s I consume.

Monday – One on the way to first class, before second class, one at home.

Tuesday  - One in the morning, two at night.

Wednesday – One on the way to work, one when I come home.

Thursday – One on the way to work, one when I come home.

Friday  - One on the way to class, one after.

Saturday – One on the way to work, one after.

Sunday – One on the way to work, one after.

So… at an average of £1.19 a can, I spend £17.85 on Monster a week. I could quite happily have an extra £20 to spend on something else; the winter boots I really need, next semester’s books, birthday presents…

Therefore I, Lex, proclaim that from January 1^st 2014 I will give up Monster. Unless shit really goes down, because in that case I’m a weakling little bitch and need to fall back on my crutches. Sorry.