Top Albums of 2017 (So Far!): Part 4

We made it to the end of another year! Whilst 2017 sure as heck hasn’t been an easy one for a lot of people, at least we’ve been blessed with some amazing music from our favourite artists. If you’ve not seen Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series for 2017, be sure to scroll through my blog to check them out. Now on to the round up of some of my favourite albums from the last part of the year. Hope you enjoy!

Kelsea Ballerini – Unapologetically

Why it made the list: Kelsea is such a joy to listen to, with lyrics that speak to the millennial generation (and I’m sure others), in the same way that early Taylor Swift did in her country era, and continues to do now. In Unapologetically, Kelsea again toys the line between country and pop with plenty of drum beat, and yet differentiates herself from mainstream pop with lyrics that actually mean something. High School details the story of a boy still stuck in his glorious past; Roses of a fast paced but beautiful romance, and the sultry Music of someone speaking to you just like a song does. My favourite track, however, has to be I Hate Love Songs, a satirical track with brilliant lyrics – definitely give it a listen. Sophomore albums are always a challenge, and Kelsea had a lot to live up to with the fantastic The First Time, but she’s certainly done herself proud with this one.  I have no doubt she’ll be giving the likes of Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert a run for their money in a few years time. Check out my review of Kelsea’s concert here.

Top Tracks: I Hate Love Songs, Roses, Miss Me More 

Kesha – Rainbow

Why it made the list: I know, I know, a bit different from the usual types of albums I talk about, but I’ve really enjoyed listening to Rainbow over the past few months and I’m sure you will too, regardless of what genre of music usually floats your boat. And yes, for my country fans out there, there’s even a duet with Dolly Parton on here too! I’ve long been a fan of Kesha from back in her electro-beat party pop era, but this album is truly something else. After years of hardship and legal battles with her producer, Kesha has used both the pain from the fight, and the relief on getting out the other side to create a truly stunning album. There are still some great party songs, but even these have evolved. Take Woman for example, which can easily be screamed out loud on the dancefloor, but take a closer listen and you’ll find an empowering anthem. The real stars are where you can feel raw emotion, three of which follow each other almost chronologically. First up is Hymn, both about losing faith and finding it again (and covered by Maren Morris which encouraged me to check out this album); followed by Praying about wishing not pain on those who have hurt you, but hoping they find redemption within themselves. Finally we have the liberating Learn To Let Go, whose title speaks for itself. Kesha is undoubtedly a phoenix, rising from the ashes as something even brighter than before.

Top Tracks: Boots, Learn to Let Go, Hymn

Walker Hayes – boom.

Why it made the list: Dan & Shay first told me about Walker Hayes as one to watch, and I’m glad they did because boom. certainly suggests we should keep our eyes open for him. The album is full of refreshing songs which deserve a call out only because of their interesting titles – Shut Up Kenny, Halloween (listenable at any time of the year) and the simply titled Craig. This isn’t easily recognisable as country music, with plenty of similarities with the likes of Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz as Hayes almost sing-talks and raps more than sings as we know it but if you’re looking for something that’s certainly very different to your usual, you might just find in this.

Top Tracks: Beckett, Beautiful, Mind Candy

Chase Rice – Lambs & Lions

Why it made the list: Chase Rice’s gravelly voice and anthem type songs certainly lend themselves to raising a glass or lighter, and this is clearly evident on Rice’s latest album. The album begins with Lions and On Tonight which set the tone for hard rocking hands up tracks before shifting year into some actually quite sweet songs like Unforgettable and Eyes On You. There is of course the obligatory drinking song (Jack Daniel’s Showed Up) but also very personal songs like Amen. For this reason, this is an album hard to define that, as aforementioned, would easily work in a stadium as well as in an intimate venue, which is where I first heard most of these songs (read my review here). If you like Sam Hunt, you might just like Chase Rice too.

Top Tracks: Eyes On You, Unforgettable, Three Cords & The Truth.

Did you agree with my list, and my top picks for 2017 (don’t forget to read the other parts elsewhere on my blog!) I’d love to know what albums you enjoyed listening to this year, so drop me a comment below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry. No doubt there’s plenty of great music I missed out on this year so be sure to let me know what you loved, and what you’d like to see in future blog posts. Thanks for reading!

TRAVEL: Crete, Greece - swim, eat, relax, repeat

I'm typing up this blog from my private balcony overlooking the calm and inviting waters of the Sea of Crete. Honestly, there's no better place from which to blog. My location: the Radisson Blu Beach Resort in Milatos, Crete, an all-inclusive resort with more pools than I can count, but more on that later.


An easyJet flight from Luton (officially named the UK's worst airport) brought us to Heraklion, the main airport on the island. After wandering around the airport for a while, we finally found our transfer driver who seemed not to have realised he was taking us to the hotel in spite of holding a sign with our name on it in one of his hands... An hour later and we arrived at the coastal town of Milatos. By this point, it was dark outside meaning there were no views to be admired but that left something to look forward to in the morning.


The rooms at the resort vary from standard hotel rooms, to those with a beach-view balcony like mine, and some with their own private mini pools (I told you there were a lot of pools here). It's a very expansive space too, and I was pleased they'd given us a map or else we would have undoubtedly gotten lost walking around in the hot Grecian sun. And yes, in spite of it being late in the year it's still over 30'C here with glorious blue skies and sunshine. A nice break from the Autumn rain back home. Plus, since the kiddies have now gone back to school, the only sounds I can hear is the water lapping at the sides of a nearby pool and the tapping of my keyboard. Pretty nice.
 

Day one started with breakfast in the Mosaic restaurant in the main lobby building. With the 'Ultra All Inclusive' package we're on (your other options are Bed & Breakfast or Half board), breakfast, lunch and dinner are included, as are snacks, ice cream, drinks and a small selection of drinks available in your mini bar. With this much on offer, it's easy to take advantage of it all but I'm trying to pace myself to ensure I still fit into my swimsuit by the end of the week!


We made our way around the resort for a while (with map, of course) before heading over to the 'Adults Only' pool on one of the upper levels. One benefit of sun-seeker resorts like this is that guests seemed to be more interested in soaking up the rays rather than swimming, which meant that while there were only a few loungers left, the pool was completely abandoned. And yes, blissfully cold and refreshing for a mid-morning dip.


I headed down to one of the many pool bars down by the beach to grab some nachos and (free!) ice cream before settling down with a good book for a few hours. At 3pm, we bee-lined for one of the resorts organised activities - Greek cooking. Well, I say cooking but it was really more assemblage of a snack called Dakos, literally hard bread, tomatoes mixed with olive oil, and feta. Nice and all, but absolutely no cooking involved and took literally 30 seconds to assemble.


The afternoon continued with more swimming, eating, and relaxing, as well as a quick trip into one of the nearby towns, Milatos to check out life outside the resort. In the evening, I headed to my second activity of the day - crystal healing. I hadn't a clue what this involved but thought it sounded exciting! It turned out to be an introductory session to what crystal healing is, and how natural stones can be used to activate our different chakras like heart and intuition. As the sun began to set over the island, we headed for a buffet dinner at Mosaic which offered a variety of Italian, Greek, Asian and American cuisines. Somehow a busy un-busy day trying to get into the swing of resort life!

The following day started earlier for yoga with Dmitry at 8:30 down by one of the pools - quite a gruelling session but I was glad to get a bit of exercise in! We raced for breakfast before it finished at the Pool Front Restaurant which had slightly less of a selection than Mosaic but a nicer and quieter atmosphere.


Our first swimming location of the day was the gorgeous Cretean Sea which changed from lovely clear water close to the shore to a deeper blue further out. It was surprisingly pretty freezing but a pleasant change from pacing up and down in pools. Plus, there was a small selection of fish circling below the surface which you (hopefully) wouldn't see in any of the resort pools!


After lunch and a Nutella filled crepe at the Olivia snack bar, we decided to leave the safety of the resort (shock horror) and walk along the road to the closest village, Sissi, about 5km away. The heat was at times pretty uncomfortable but the hillside route offered some lovely views and the town seemed to have some good options for coffee and Greek restaurants - one of the downsides of being all-inclusive!

Once back, I couldn't wait to try out the water park where splashing straight into a deep pool at the end offered a huge relief from the heat. I don't think I'd ever visited a water park before either, so it was great to experience some good old childhood fun.

Dinner was at On The Rocks, a BBQ Grill overlooking the sea. We decided to head down slightly earlier than our 7:30pm booking to catch the sunset, and I was glad we had as I got a wonderful timelapse as the sun set right in front of us with stunning colours filling the sky. I'm a sucker for sunsets. Dinner was pretty good too, with a large selection of salads and hot foods as well as having whatever meat or fish you fancied grilled up on barbecues right in front of you.

I decided to forgo yoga the following morning to save my energy for a later session of TRX which is an exercise class based around those large elastic bands - I thought it sounded interesting. However, after a rushed breakfast to make sure we were there on time and waiting a further twenty minutes, it became clear that no instructors were going to turn up. It transpired that the activities sheet we had been given was incorrect and TRX was not occurring on that particular day which I found mildly annoying - what else was wrong, or what had we missed if it wasn't printed on our sheet?


After plenty more swimming and relaxing, we headed down to the pool bar close to the shore for an activity we hoped would be on - Greek language lessons. I love foreign languages, so this was something that I really enjoyed and thankfully picked up very quickly. Whilst being based in a resort meant that I couldn't see myself using my new skills in the near future, I guess it gives me reason to come back and practice!

 We continued our Greek day with dinner at the resort's Greek restaurant, Ariadni. They certainly don't let you go hungry here, and dinner consisted of a variety of starters brought to our table including dolmides, Greek salad (mmm, fresh feta...) rabbit, lamb and squid; followed by a main course of skewered meats and grilled vegetables; and finally a selection of Cretan desserts. Mid-dinner entertainment was also provided in the form of a kids disco occurring in the mini amphitheatre below the balcony we were eating on. Who doesn't love a bit of limbo to accompany dinner?


We had big plans for the following day, and after breakfast, began a 5km walk to Milatos Caves. I'm sure anyone who passed thought we were mad to be walking in the heat (and to be honest, we were but hey, you have to make sacrifices when you don't have a hire car). However, the (sweaty) walk did provide an opportunity to walk alongside pretty olive groves, typical Greek houses and little statues of churches that lined the route.


After an uphill struggle we arrived at the cave (my mind had convinced me that we'd be going DOWN to get to a cave, but no, it turned out it was at the top of a hill). The generator didn't seem to be working on this particular day, so I was glad for my mobile phone light to guide the way through the cave. Inside, I was surprised to find a small chapel which looked out through a large hole in the rock to provide pretty panoramic views. What a place to hold mass! The cave was pretty much free to be explored as much as you wanted, and I wiggled my way along some of the cavities to marvel at the way the rocks had broken and joined together. A much more pleasurable experience than my last time caving, where I squeezed through holes no human should fit through in the Yorkshire Dales.

The return journey seemed quicker, probably because we knew how far we had to go, and that it was mostly downhill. We decided to make things even quicker by taking a shortcut around the village.


THIS IS WHERE IT ALL WENT WRONG.


As we walked along the rough surface on the shortcut, I lost my footing, cutting my hands and legs. Although only about a kilometre from the resort, it was a painful one at that. Eventually we arrived at reception and I was given first aid by a guest passing by who so happened to be a doctor, including having a stone extracted from under my skin (ouch!) and getting everything bandaged up. Worse than the pain though was the knowledge that I wouldn't be able to go swimming for the rest of my time at the resort. Now that hurt.


However, the Radisson staff, and in particular Customer Relations Manager Danai, made sure that I was well looked after, and we were offered lunch in the resort's Italian restaurant as opposed to one of the snack bars, which I thought was very kind of them. I spent the rest of the day moping by the pools and wishing I was in them, before we headed back to the Italian for dinner. Again, no one was going hungry as we were served a selection of antipasti followed by a second starter of risotto; followed by meat, fish and pasta; and then brownies for dessert. Calories don't count on holiday, right?


We took our final breakfast of the holiday back down at the pool bar which felt a bit less chaotic than Mosaic. I headed back to reception to get my bandages changed and be told I still had stone fragments in my hand (why?!) but would be allowed to paddle in the sea as the saline water had the potential to help healing (yay!). Before that however, I wanted to try out a new activity - Greek dancing. Unfortunately however, no other guests showed up to the activity, and my injuries meant that I couldn't join in so the activity was cancelled. A shame, as I think that would have been good fun.



After lunch at the Italian again, complete with the freshest fresh pizza this side of Italy, we took our second Greek lesson of the week. Some newbies meant we had to go through the basics again, but a bit of reinforcement was no problem at all, and we then moved onto some more advanced vocabulary. I'll be doing my Greek GCSE in no time I'm sure.


My favourite activity of the week occurred afterwards - Mandala stone painting. This involved painting lotus flower designs onto rocks. Extremely relaxing, and a lovely souvenir to take back home with us (along with my standard snow globe that I collect from every destination). In fact, it almost made me forget about my injuries - that is until I went to see the doctor who told me my hand had become infected (noooooo) and would require antibiotics which we could only get with a hefty medical bill in order for her to prescribe it. I felt awful! Not the way I'd wanted the holiday to end, but hey, these things happen.

After a final yummy dinner at Mosaic (try the Asian station - they know how to cook up a mean stir fry) we got into the transfer bus to take us back to the airport (via the pharmacy) to head back to the colder shores of England. Barring the post-accident days, this was a pleasant and relaxing holiday. I'm not sure how much longer I could have spent chilling by the pool, but I can't say I don't feel refreshed after it. The Radisson had all we needed, and most importantly, friendly staff who dealt well with mishaps and know how to make their guests feel special. Thank you, Radisson staff - I'm sure we'll be back.


My tips for Greece (well, more for resort life): If the resort you're staying at offers activities, take advantage of them. It'll provide you with an opportunity to do something different from relaxing, and you might learn something in the process, be that a new form of exercise or cultural skills. If, like me, relaxing isn't your forte, I'd recommend considering a hire car, or looking into public transfer to take you away from the safety of your resort. For instance, the ancient ruins of Knossos were in our vicinity but out of walking distance, but I would feel like I could more say I'd 'done' Crete if we'd gotten out of the resort more. Finally, although this is easier said than done, relax. That's what you're here to do and you deserve a break. Enjoy yourself!

Have you visited Crete or Greece? I'd love to hear all about it - let me know what you got up to on Twitter @CiarasCountry! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this blog too, so feel free to leave a comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

Concert Review: CHASE RICE, The Borderline, London

I’d always thought that handmade signs were made for stadium shows, but they were out in force for Chase Rice’s intimate gig at London’s Borderline venue, with Sharpied ‘London Loves You’ and ‘It’s My Birthday (Follow Me On Twitter)’ carefully sketched onto cardboard. Whilst never having toured the UK before, Chase clearly has many a loyal fan this side of the pond.

The crowd last night was lovely – strangers took selfies with each other, and we all joined in for a collective chorus of Maren Morris’ My Church. I stand by my opinion that country music has the best fans so it was good to be surrounded by kindred spirits for a night of good music.

At 8pm, opening act Twinnie took to the stage. She’s very much an artist for the millennials with plenty of fun songs like It Won’t Stop and Better When I’m Drunk. Nowhere was this more clear than during self-penned track Social Babies, probably the only song out there to use ‘iOS’ (as in Apple) as a lyric. I preferred the more heartfelt songs like Looking Out For You, interestingly written from the point of view of her grandfather, and Superhero, written with the brilliant Lucie Silvas. Whilst some of the crowd chatted away at the bar, it was nice to see others easily picking up the words to her songs and singing along.

Chase’s set started in a way reminiscent of the man himself – with no fanfare as he walked silently on stage and took a seat in front of the mic. No ‘how you doing London?!’ or ‘you ready to party?’ that other artists would be tempted to do, but the ideal entrance for a no holds barred artists like Chase. He began with Do It Like This, occasionally pulling his head back from the mic whilst singing to create a sense of depth, difficult to do in such an acoustic setting.

As he began How She Rolls, I found myself thinking that whilst his style worked well in such an intimate gig, I could see easily how he could play the same songs to arenas full of screaming fans as the opener for the likes of Kenny Chesney. No doubt the songs would sound very different, so I would be interested to see how he would perform in situations like this. We were told last night that he’ll be returning next year with a full band, so I guess we’ll see then!

A lot of his songs are what I would call ‘Saturday night songs’, party anthems like I Like Drinking, Cause It’s Fun and Jack Daniels Showed Up, which even if you’ve never heard before, you can guess what they might be like. Nevertheless, if you wanted an artist to get the party started on a Tuesday night, you’d be hard pressed to find one better than Chase, with glasses raised all round.

As well as his drinking songs, Chase is far from a PG-13 artist, as evidenced by songs like 50 Shades of Crazy and Ride. However, whilst the crowd may otherwise feel awkward singing some of those lyrics in a room full of people, Chase helped to diffuse the atmosphere, inviting a girl from the front row up for the latter song and jokingly instructing her boyfriend to sing it to her at some point.

I must admit, my favourite songs from the night were the less usual ones that showed what he termed his ‘sweeter side’ and I think as well, his vocals. On softer tracks like Three Cords and the Truth, Carolina Can, his favourite song that he’s released, and the romantic Eyes On You, about missing all the sights the world has to offer because you can’t take your eyes off the one you love, his raspy voice took on a different tone to the ‘new country party sound’ of many of his other tracks.

He finished his set with some of his successful hits, including Gonna Wanna Tonight (easy to sing along to!), Ready Set Roll, and one of the most successful country hits of our time, which I was unaware that he had written, Florida Georgia Line’s Cruise. Whilst certainly not an artist I imagine is to everyone’s taste, Chase has very loyal fans and some great party tracks. For a Tuesday night, he sure put on a good show.

Interested in more reviews like this? Make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry and let me know of any upcoming concerts you'd love to see a review of!

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