Top Albums of 2018 (So Far!): Part 2

Time flies when you’re listening to good music, and here we are again for the second instalment of my Top Albums of 2018! As someone who listens to music a lot (as you may have gathered from this blog) I find I often fall into a sense of ennui when sticking my iPhone onto shuffle, so a new batch of music is always more than welcome to spice things up, and the last three months have certainly helped – read on for my picks the best albums so far!

Charlie Puth – Voicenotes

Why it made the list: I like artists about whom you can say ‘yeah, that sounds unique,’ and that’s certainly the case with Charlie Puth. I don’t know of another male artist in my living memory who has quite used their range in the same way he has. Upon first listen to Voicenotes, I had the urge to dance to almost every song. It’s certain that this is feel good music, even when it deals with sticky issues like one night stands in How Long, or dating what sounds like a considerably older woman in BOY. Admittedly there are a few songs on here that after a few listens, I’m more than happy to skip (Change and Through It All being the notable examples), but the remainder provide hit after hit that I’ll be dancing to all the way home. The only downside? Charlie’s not yet announced UK dates for his Voicenotes tour!

Top Tracks: BOY, Empty Cups, Done For Me 

Keith Urban – Graffiti U

Why it made the list: When you think country music (if indeed, you do), you probably think of those who have maintained a legacy within the genre for decades – Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Tim McGraw – and no doubt Keith Urban fits this bill too. Now on his umpteenth album, Graffiti U is certainly a change from the country heavy albums of his past as we veer more and more into pop territory, only differentiated by Keith’s distinctive country twang. Urban is a man made for arena shows, and this shows on the album full of party-starters (Never Comin Down), singalongs (Coming Home), and anthem ballads (Parallel Line, Female).  This album leaves something to be desired from his previous releases for me, but no doubt this crossover record has opened him up to yet more potential fans discovering what modern country is all about

Top Tracks: Drop Top, Parallel Line, Same Heart  

Sugarland – Bigger

Why it made the list: Haven’t we been waiting long enough for a new Sugarland music? Well, our wish has been granted with Bigger, and as suggested in their debut single from this album, Sugarland are here to prove they’re Still The Same. Throughout the album, and as is often the case with Sugarland work, the duo tackle deep issues with their music, this time including the #MeToo movement with notes of female empowerment woven across a number of the songs, and school shooting and suicide on Tuesday’s Rain. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Sugarland album without a bunch of fun songs too (Stuck Like Glue remaining as one of my favourites of theirs) and tracks like Lean It On Back help them keep this identity. Interestingly, the duo who normally pen their own songs, called on the help of superstar Taylor Swift and Train frontman Pat Monahan for their song about moving on from a cheater, Babe (sorry to any fans who thought it was in fact about a talking pig). Some may argue that the use of a ‘Bigger’ (pun intended) name may have just been a push for more commercial success, but it’s a good song nonetheless, and pleasant return from the duo.  

Top Tracks: Let Me Remind You, Babe, Love Me Like I’m Leaving

Dierks Bentley – The Mountain

Why it made the list: With the news that Dierks Bentley is hosting the inaugural Seven Peaks music festival held in the mountains later this summer, it should really come as no surprise that his new album is entitled The Mountain. With his gritty voice, he does sound a bit like a mountain man too, which only makes it even better! And what an album – every song has the ability to evoke all kinds of different emotions. Goodbye in Telluride makes me want to take a road trip, Woman, Amen wants me to sing at the top of my lungs, My Religion brings tears to my eyes, and the rockabilly Travelin’ Light makes me want to start two-steppin’ (not that I know how to do that). This is an album that is a love song to Arizona, Colorado and being on the road, so for a wanderlustful traveller like me, I couldn’t have asked for a better record.

Top Tracks: Woman Amen, Burning Man, Goodbye in Telluride

I hope you enjoyed my round-up of the top albums of 2018 so far! Do you agree with my list, or are their other albums you think should have been included? Let me know either in the comments below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry as I’m always keen to check out new music! Stay tuned for further additions to this series, and make sure you have a look at my suggestions from previous years, uploaded every three months to this blog. More content coming soon!

TRAVEL: Oslo, Norway - fjords, figures and fancy food

On my quest for the cheapest Bank Holiday trip imaginable, I found myself back on a flight comparison site looking for ‘London to anywhere’ flights. The top hit? Oslo. Sure, why not? I’d visited the country many, many years ago on a Scandinavian camping trip, but was more than happy to go somewhere I couldn’t remember. Flight booked, Airbnb booked, I started doing my research on the city. Every website started with something along the lines of ‘A lovely city, but expensive’ or ‘A beautiful place to visit, if you can afford to do so.’ Ah.

The websites were right on both accounts, but even the cost wouldn’t have put me off what really was a lovely trip. At noon on a bright Saturday, I headed to Stansted airport, arriving around two hours later in Oslo. To get to the city, we had to take the train which cost a fairly hefty £10, particularly in comparison to the £2 bus tickets I’d paid in Riga a few months ago (you can read about that trip here!) Nonetheless, it was a comfortable and quick train ride and we chose to go slightly further than the Central Station, to the National Theatre stop.

Stepping out of the station, we were greeted with blissful sunshine and a gorgeous square complete with two fountains. Ten seconds into our trip, and I already loved the city. We were stood next to a street, Karl Johans Gate, which looked fairly reminiscent of the Champs Elysee in Paris, and was so lovely I didn’t want to head straight to our Airbnb, but instead have my first wander around the city, even though I was sure we’d be returning to this part plenty of times before the trip was out. We took a quick stroll up to the Parliament building and what I had chosen as our end point, a huge clock with the ‘Freia’ on it, which we soon discovered to be a popular chocolate brand; and that the clock had been heralded in days past by FDR as the most impressive thing in Oslo.

Turning around, we headed straight to the Royal Palace, which sits in the midst of a lovely park with a few interesting sculptures in it, including a colourful rainbow, and a statue with a sock puppet. Pretty cool! We wandered our way up into Majorstuveien where our Airbnb was located, a small room in someone’s apartment. Given the other cheap Airbnb option I’d looked at, where we would have had to have stayed in the same room as our host, I thought this seemed pretty decent, given that we didn’t plan to be spending much time there anyway.

Dropping our bags off and changing into much needed summer gear with the weather being in the high 20s, it was time to head out and do some more exploring. Oslo has the benefit of being situated on a fjord, meaning it’s very easy to find your way down to the docks, and so we headed for the cool area of Akker Brygge, a waterfront strip full of seafood restaurants and overpriced (but no doubt delicious) ice cream. A wonderful place to stroll for a minute.

Knowing that food was likely to be expensive, but undeniably good, I had consulted my trusty TripAdvisor to pick out some restaurants in the ££-£££ range, and settled upon the best Scandinavian restaurant in this price range, called Smia Galleri. It was pretty far out of the city, but we were up for it, and trekked off into the suburbs. As we became more and more surrounded by residential areas, I started to get worried we were in the wrong place, until we stumbled upon the orange painted building, reminiscent of those I recalled in Mediterranean countries.

The restaurant was gorgeous, and right next to a metal workshop which I assume gave the restaurant its name. Whilst almost 9pm, it was still beautifully warm so we opted to sit outside, with a lovely server translating the entire menu for us as they had no English equivalent. I liked the fact the restaurant had both a set menu of the day, but you could also choose just one dish from the set menu a la carte if you wished, which is what we did. My travel companion chose the ‘meat of the day’, tender duck with a creamy mash and vegetables; whilst I went for the only vegetarian option on the menu, a Japanese pancake topped with kimchi. And boy, was it delicious. I 100% would recommend this restaurant.

 Whilst we sat, I commented that everyone around us seemed to be ‘living their best life’. A lady a few tables over sat curled on a chair with a book, basking in the evening sunshine; and up on the hill we could see from our location, a few groups enjoyed picnics or walked slowly around the park. The right way to spend a Saturday evening, I think. The benefit of being so far up North was that the sun was only just setting as we made our way back at 11:30pm, and I was certainly glad we’d made our trip during the summer rather than the cold and dark winter!

The next morning, we made our way down to the Central Station for my favourite activity of any trip – a free walking tour of the city. We were told to meet next to ‘Oslo’s tiger’ but the group of people already there indicated we were in the right place. Unfortunately, the English-speaking guide had been delayed by the trains, so we had about 20 minutes to wander around. Luckily, the tourist office was right next door, and so I headed in to grab a map, and read on the digital screens about a Sunday market in somewhere called Bla, which I inquired about.

We headed back to be greeted by our guide, Anne Marie, an eccentric personality who makes balloon animals in her spare time. She was quite the character, and made everything she said totally exciting. We were hooked. Our tour lasted almost two hours, and took us to a variety of places across the city: the Communist hammer smashing a swastika outside the Central Station; the utterly stunning Opera & Ballet House with its sloped walls enabling visitors to walk up the sides; Akershus Fortress; Oslo’s three city halls, the most recent of which has glorious wooden carvings depicting Norse folklore around it; and back to Parliament where we finished up. Definitely the best thing to do on our first morning in Oslo.

Our itinerary evolved around the discovery of a Sunday market, and so we took a walk up along the river, which runs from the Central Bus Station (how convenient) in search of the market. A lovely walk, with a surprisingly end – the market turned out to be tiny, with only about 10 stalls in a narrow street. Nonetheless, I ended up buying some vintage collector cards, so worth the trip! Add to this the fact that the market was just a minute away from Mathallen Food Hall, which held a bunch of delightful food stalls with cheese, pastries, meats, and ice cream with a queue stretching round the corner.

With this, it was back into the centre and to the Nobel Peace Centre, one of my top hits for the trip. We were super lucky, arriving just at 3pm when a guided tour was starting – I couldn’t have asked for better timing, as we were taken around the Peace Prize part of the museum, which this year was dedicated to I CAN, fighting for the disuse of atomic weapons. This photo exhibition was also accompanied by an interactive room where standing in front of panels would tell you about all of the previous winners.

Downstairs was just as interesting, with a photo exhibit on ‘Generation Wealth’, examining the cult of celebrity, sex work, ageing beautifully, and those who had wished for wealth and grandeur but been negatively impacted by the economic depression. A fantastic and informative way to pass the time.

Alas, our day was far from over, and we headed all the way back up the city and past our Airbnb to Vigeland Sculpture Park, another ‘must’ for me. This park houses 212 sculptures by Gustav Vigeland, and we had great fun seeing as many as we could (thank goodness most are located within three main sections) and making up titles for what we thought they could be called. The strange nature of the sculptures just made this more fun, with babies balancing on their heads, people flipping each other over their backs, and the most famous angry baby.

Then it was back all the way through the city and near to the Opera House for the second best ££-£££ restaurant, Mirabel. This sits on a peninsula accessible by a small pedestrian bridge behind the Opera House, which inconveniently happened to be closed during our attempted visit. How inconvenient… Given the lateness of the day and the tiredness of our feet, it was decided we’d just go someone nearby, opting for Mamma Pizza which I’d seen on TripAdvisor too, a decent pizza joint where the dishes were importantly served quickly!

All too soon, we’d reached the last day of our trip, and so we packed up the room, said goodbye to our hosts and headed down to the waterfront where we’d booked a fjord tour. We boarded the Helena, an ancient looking vessel, and spent the next two hours floating along the fjord past the ‘She Lies’ iceberg sculpture next to the Opera House, cute summer homes on the islands, and occasionally being told interesting facts about what we were seeing. I approve.

Docked up at 12:30, we headed back to the Opera House where we’d booked a tour, again thanks to the helpful digital screens in the tourist office which notified us that such a thing existed. It was so worth it. We spent an hour being told about how the Opera House had been designed to be open to the public, which explained its sloped sides; the decision to leave the inner atrium bare of art because ‘the art was behind the auditorium doors’; the wood and chairs in the main theatre chosen to amplify music but less so vocals (but still being treated to a glorious song by one of the members of our group whilst in the theatre so we could hear the stunning acoustics); and even getting to go backstage to the huge workshops where set pieces sit and are being created. This was an absolute highlight of the trip for me.

Of course, we had to check out what all the hype was about with regards to walking up the Opera House, an idea I think is so fantastic. What better place to chill than the top of this gorgeous building, and for free, whenever you like, nonetheless? We cracked open a pack of aptly named Ballerina biscuits and revelled in the moment. What a joy it was to be there right then.

Always wanting to do as much as I can on any trip, I next suggested we head for Ekeberg Sculpture Park, on a hill a bit beyond the Opera House, in spite of my feet clearly stating that this was not what they wanted to do. Unfortunately, with all the redevelopment going on at the Harbourside, it was difficult to figure out where to go and a few wrong turns meant it took us longer than we’d hoped. Nevertheless, we made it there eventually, and it was at this point that I remembered it was a hill. My feet were not happy.

Eventually, I dragged myself up, and enjoyed the albeit strange sculptures held in this off-the-beaten-path park. However, it was truly worth it when we found a sculpture by none other than Salvador Dali of Venus de Milo filled with drawers; and the fact that this was supposedly the park in which Edward Munch was walking when he was inspired to paint The Scream. I certainly was inspired to go and rest my feet.

Our journey ended back at the Central Station with an overpriced but yummy grilled cheese sandwich, something I was glad to have stocked up on when we discovered our flight was delayed until midnight that night. What a weekend, what a trip, what a city. If you’re thinking of a sunny city break over the holidays, consider Oslo!

My tips for visiting Oslo: It goes without saying, but be mindful that it is an expensive city. Luckily, they have a currency which isn’t as easy to understand as pounds or euro, so I like to think I was ignorant of what I was spending. Nevertheless, it’s worth shelling out a bit more for fantastic meals like we had, so I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Find out what’s happening whilst your there with a quick trip to the Tourist Office or a chat to the locals – we never would have found out about the cute market or Opera House tour if we hadn’t done so. Finally, tours are great. I’m a true convert having got an inside look of the Opera House, and know that if the opportunity arises to do something similar on future trips, I’ll be sure to take it.

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog as much as I enjoyed visiting Oslo! I’m in the midst of planning my next trip, so be sure to stay tuned either on the blog or on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more travel blogs like this coming soon. If you have any recommendations for cities I should visit, please drop me a comment below as I’m always looking for new and exciting destinations!

Concert Review: DEMI LOVATO, The O2, London

Of course I was sad to find out that Demi Lovato had to reschedule her initially planned date at London’s O2 Arena due to sickness, but I know that this meant that on the postponed date, she would bring it 110%. This was to be the first time that I would see the singer perform, and her first London date for many years, having last played at KOKO, a venue I was surprised she had performed at as it’s often reserved for less well known artists.

However, the O2 was a worthy venue (although it did seem small in comparison to Wembley Stadium, where I’d seen Taylor Swift a few nights before – you can read that review here). We started on time with a very unassuming set with just a piano onstage for first act Joy. The soft spoken Australian singer played a set for us full of warbling music and high range including tracks from her new EP including Change and Hooked, as well as the song that had made her decide to write music in the first place, Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams.

The next set was equally as unassuming for Jax Jones, with a DJ deck and two inflatable bottles advertising some of his songs. Most of us knew Jax from his track with Demi, Instruction, but throughout his set, the House DJ mixed well known songs like One Kiss, As Long As I Got You, and You Don’t Know Me. I felt that the scene was perhaps more suited for Ibiza than the O2 as the arena briefly turned into some kind of club as everyone jumped up and down to the beat.

At 9pm, the lights dimmed and Demi appeared on the two screens either side of the stage alongside a voiceover talking about how ‘we are all searching for our story’. From the darkness, Demi rose from the ground to sing one of the ballads from her latest album, You Don’t Do It For Me Anymore. Whilst she was no doubt still recovering from her illness and chose not to hit all of the high notes in this song and some of the others, when she did it was truly magical.

As quickly as she’d arrived, she sunk back into the stage and we were treated to another video sequence, this time watching Demi as both therapist and patient, as they discussed her new love interest and how she was perhaps a little bit obsessed with him. This was the perfect introduction to my favourite track on her latest record, Daddy Issues.

At this point, she proudly proclaimed her bisexuality by following this up with Cool For The Summer (known for its super fun lyrics like “Don’t tell your mother, kiss one another, die for each other) in which she danced provocatively with some of the female dancers, telling the crowd at the end that it was okay to love who you love, and that everyone should in fact go tell their mothers about it.

The raunch continued with Sexy Dirty Love with plenty of chair dancing to keep the crowd entertained, and a dance heavy and super fun rendition of one of her older hits, Heart Attack. After this song, she properly greeted the crowd in what felt like an unscripted manner which you don’t often find at concerts like this which are so heavily rehearsed that nothing is off the cuff. She heartfeltly apologised for having to postpone previously, and declared her love for London and her wish to move here one day, which thrilled the crowd no end.

The next section was a highlight, as she performed Give Your Heart A Break complete with ‘Kiss Cam’ which scoured the arena for all kinds of couples – a really nice way to spread the love throughout the concert. As we watched the Kiss Cam, she disappeared briefly for a costume change, and the screens changed to a montage of her preparing for a boxing fight, after which she rose again in boxing attire for Confident, complete with a few boxing moves thrown in here and there.

There certainly was a lot of coming and going throughout the concert which I felt could have been smoother and less noticeable had there been a more simple ‘exit stage left/stage right’ strategy, but it did mean that she and set pieces could rise in a surprising manner, as was the case for next track Concentrate, where she rose from the floor on a large white bed clutching an electric guitar. Very much an apt song for that type of setting. 

Every couple of songs Demi would joke with the crowd and give us a hint that she's really quite down to Earth and doesn't take herself too seriously, as shown in her grin as backup dancers caressed her body in songs like Crybaby. It goes without saying that latest album Tell Me You Love Me is a bit more grownup than days of past! She joked again before Lonely that in spite of having been touring for almost a month by this point, she still had yet to find a European boyfriend or girlfriend, a comment which elicited plenty of cheers from willing candidates in the crowd. 

I found it easy to almost forget that she was playing live for us, as her vocals are on another level entirely - this girl has pipes and they are impressive to behold! Jax joined her onstage for the ever-catchy Instruction and the club vibe continued with the UK's current #1 single, her collaboration with Clean Bandit Solo. Pretty catchy stuff. She was joined virtually on stage by Luis Fonsi through pre-recorded video screens for Spanglish anthem Echame La Culpa with a few fiesty dance moves thrown in for good measure. 

She disappeared below the stage again and the screens lit up with a video montage of Demi's last decade. She certainly didn't hold back and images were flashed up relating to her eating disorders, addictions and stints in rehab. It's clear that for someone relatively young she's been through an awful lot and is not afraid to show it. One could have guessed that this would be followed by Warrior which she preceded, perched by the piano, with acknowledgement that she has had some rough times in life, and know that her fans have to, but that if they ever feel hurt, they can just put on her music because she will be there for them. A cliche sentiment, but one that does certainly ring through with music as a healer. 

The next song was undoubtedly her rawest yet, new song Sober. In it, she sang "Momma, I'm so sorry, I'm not sober anymore. Daddy please forgive me for the drinks spilled on the floor. To the ones that never left me, we've been down this road before. I'm so sorry, I'm not sober anymore." I felt this was a brave move to open up in such a way when many artists would gladly gloss over issues like this. With the line "I'm sorry for the fans I've lost who watched me fall again," a huge cheer went up to prove that whilst she may have lost some fans, we were all still there for her. 

Whilst we dried away our tears, the LED screens showed hate tweet after hate tweet directed at Demi, to which she arrived back on stage in a blaze of glory with Sorry Not Sorry to prove in a slightly different way to Warrior that such words don't affect her anymore. After a relatively short set of 1 hour 20 minutes, the show came to a close with tour title Tell Me You Love Me. She certainly doesn't need us to say it for her to know it. 

All in all, it was a simple enough show - no big pyrotechnics or snazzy choreography, and a bare set with the exception of a chair or bed here and there. If you've read some of my blogs before, you'll know I often forgive artists who lipsync provided they put on a good show, and I'd say I'll make the opposite forgiveness here for Demi - a fairly basic show but a spectacular voice. Would I have enjoyed it more had there been better staging? Yes. Did I enjoy it immensely nonetheless? Yes. 

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! I can't believe it's taken Demi so long to play the O2 in London, and I'm sure we'd love to have her back soon. Are you a fan of Demi? Let me know by dropping me a comment below or on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and make sure to give me a follow to be the first to know when a new review or interview goes live. Thanks for reading!

Gallery

Concert Review: TAYLOR SWIFT (Reputation Tour), Wembley Stadium, London

P.S Scroll down for a gallery of photos from the concert!

This truly was the tour of a lifetime. Three years after she’d last performed in the UK, and four since I’d seen her (no proper London dates on the 1989 Tour, grr!), I was going to see Taylor Swift perform at Wembley Stadium as part of the reputation Tour.

The trains being their usual reliable selves, I arrived 10 minutes before the show was due to start, but thankfully Wembley is a very efficient venue and it was simply a case of scanning my ticket through some intelligent turnstiles, pick up a lightup bracelet handed out to all attendees, and hurry to my seat. Easy.

If you’ve never been to Wembley before, let me be the first to tell you that it is massive. I picked the best seats I was comfortable paying for, but even being in level one, I was miles away from the stage and the performers appeared possibly even smaller than ants to me.

Right on time at 6:45pm, with the sun shining overhead, Charli XCX bounced on stage in a pink PVC raincoat contraption. I was really happy with the opening acts for the reputation tour – as Charli rightly said, “three badass women sharing the stage on one night.”

I found Charli’s choice of opening song interesting as she launched into perhaps her most famous song Boom Clap, made popular as part of the Fault In Our Stars movie soundtrack. However, in retrospect, a great way to get those who maybe didn’t know Charli herself involved, as you’d definitely know the song.

There’s a lot of space to use in such a large arena, so Charli used exaggerated movement throughout her set, running across the stage as she belted out songs like I Love It, Break The Rules and Unlock It. I was enjoying the show, but unfortunately felt that she wasn’t getting the reception she deserved as fans continued to mill around the stadium and chat.

She had a pretty decent duration for her set, with plenty of catchy songs like the gamified sounding Boys, new dance track 5 in the Morning and everyone’s favourite Fancy, which I found interesting given half of the track is sung by Iggy Azalea. Good set.

The reception for second opening act Camila Cabello was arguably warmer, although by this point the stadium had also filled up more. Her set began the same way as it did at her O2 Academy Brixton show (the review of which you can read here) with the large LED screen projecting a video of her eyes and the countdown before they opened and she came on stage to the initial chords of Never Be The Same.

Unfortunately for us at the back, the LED screens weren’t actually that big so even when they were projecting images of the ant-people on stage, it didn’t make them much easier to see. For this reason, I was glad to have seen Camila perform in a more intimate setting a few weeks ago!

Camila’s performance was full of slick choreography and stunning vocals on the likes of She Loves Control, Inside Out and personal favourite Bad Things. She slowed the set down with a touching performance of Consequences, showing that all that was needed to fill the arena was a piano and lilting vocals. She took this one step further with In The Dark in which the music was cut and it was only her voice which could be heard.

She was a great example for this edgier era of Taylor Swift with sultry lyrics like the clever start of Into It: “I’m not a psychic, but I see myself all over you.” I was sure there were many Taylor fans in the audience like me who had grown up with Taylor’s music, and appreciated these edgier opening acts rather than the sickly sweet pop stars I’m sure she could have had. Unsurprisingly, Camila finished her set with the irrevocably catchy Havana which certainly left the crowd wanting more.

The whole production of the night was well done, with only fifteen minutes between each act, giving enough time to leave your set to grab a drink but not enough to get bored. This was made even better by Taylor’s set being prefaced by footage from the ‘Secret Sessions’ where she invited fans to her various properties to hear reputation before it was officially released, as well as behind the scenes footage from the Look What You Made Me Do video.

I mean, is there even any point in me reviewing Taylor’s set? You already know it was great! Alas, we began with voiceovers from news sources talking about Taylor’s bad reputation, the alleged grudges she holds, failed relationships and getting to the top in a shady manner. Then ‘are you ready for it?’ You bet we were! The star strutted onto the stage to sing Ready For It dressed in a long sleeved leotard that probably costs more than my entire house, and a pair of what looked like Louboutin knee high boots which almost certainly do.

Fireworks shot off the top of the stadium as she continued with I Did Something Bad and her backing dancers lifted her up on their shoulders. It was at this point that she greeted the crowd with genuine gratitude that out of all of the things we could be doing in London on a Friday night (with a subtle nod to the fact that she spends a lot of time here with her British boyfriend) that we had chosen to spend it at the reputation tour. As if there was any other option!

She continued with the obligatory ‘you all look so beautiful tonight!’ which turned out to be a clever segue as she searched for a word that meant even more than beautiful. Could it be Gorgeous? I think so, and even her world famous cats Olivia and Meredith made a brief appearance on the screen as she sang “guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats, alone, unless you want to come along”

It wasn’t just reputation tracks that we got to hear throughout the concert, but also tracks from 1989 including Style and even some proper throwbacks to the Fearless era with Love Story and You Belong With Me which I greatly appreciated as they reminded us all of a very different Taylor Swift of yesterday.

We were swiftly brought back to the present era with snakes galore for Look What You Made Me Do, the staging of which included a literal tilted stage and a huge snake rising from behind the stage. I also appreciated that Taylor also had a snake microphone and one of many costume changes into a snazzy black and gold zipped dress. It’s the little things, you know?

We moved onto End Game and I’m sure I wasn’t the only in the stadium who was wondering if Ed Sheeran would make an appearance. Alas not, and Taylor made the most of the elaborate staging as she continued on with King Of My Heart as male dancers chased her onto the tilted stage, complete with massive drums rolled onto the stage.

Somehow in the midst of all of this, Taylor had time for another costume change, and she returned to the stage in a pretty rainbow dress for one of the coolest and most Taylor Swift-like moments of the concert – hopping into a flying cage to belt out Delicate as she soared over the crowd. She explained too that one of the benefits of playing stadiums in the summer was the transition from light to dark, explaining this as the purpose of all light up bracelets so she could see us all dancing throughout the concert. How sweet.

Her flying chariot landed her on one of the side stages in the middle of the floor, and huge rainbow snakes rose from the ground as she was joined on stage by Charli XCX and Camila for Shake It Off. If everyone in the stadium wasn’t dancing full pelt at this point, I’ll be surprised, and more fireworks lit off above us.

Again, I missed a seamless costume change which can only have happened whilst she was on stage as all of a sudden she was wearing a black leotard topped with a beautiful bedazzled reputation jacket which I really hoped they would have sold as merch, but undoubtedly cost about five million dollars, so… She produced a guitar for an acoustic rendition of Dancing With Our Hands Tied and a special performance of a song she had not yet performed live, So It Goes which I would have been disappointed not to have heard on the tour, so was pleased with that.

She then made a decision which in her position I never would have, to walk through the crowd across the stadium. In spite of fans left, right and centre grabbing at her arms, her smile didn’t fade and she made it to the other mini stage unharmed. Over here, she sang the sassy Blank Space which was her first foray in talking about her reputation before she wrote a whole album about it. We loved it.

Someone somewhere must have been producing costume pieces from behind the floor or something as she slipped on a dress for the sultry Dress with lyrics like “I only bought this dress so you could take it off” (yes, old Taylor well and truly is dead.) As she began Bad Blood, she stepped into a flying snake skeleton (of course) to return to the stage. I loved the decision to mash this up with Should’ve Said No, and her recognition that she came from country music so this nod to her past was not missed by me!

Her elaborate stage split into various different segment for Don’t Blame Me with bursts of flame erupting from the top of the stage. All the dancers left the stage as a piano appeared on stage at which she sat to sing Long Live. Her vocals sounded most beautiful here (not that they didn’t throughout the rest of the concert). This easily transitioned into reputation ballad New Year’s Day. She paused for breath and the applause and cheers picked up, and lasted, I kid you not, for a full five minutes. Taylor sat at the piano, a cute smile on her face as she basked in the well-deserved glory. What a special moment for us all.

The LED screens changed to a video of Taylor in the midst of a desert as a poem she had penned played out of the speakers, and she returned back to the stage in sparkly dress for Getaway Car with stunning scenic visuals projected onto the screens. Again, she stopped to chat with us, explaining how fantastic it was to be playing Wembley, and would we mind if she invited someone who had played Wembley many times on the stage? Of course we wouldn’t. To cheers, Niall Horan came on stage considerably more dressed down in jeans and t-shirt for a duet of Slow Hands before heading back off backstage.

Taylor and her backup dancers began to dance around a fountain on stage to Call It What You Want before we moved into We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. All too soon, we’d reached the last song and Taylor stood atop the fountain as she sang This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. But we can, and we did that night at Wembley.

Fireworks erupted across the stadium as the dancers, singers and Taylor bowed for their adoring crowd. It really was a faultless production – Taylor didn’t falter once, sounding perfect with every note, hitting ever beat and putting on the show we couldn’t have asked for more with. My final thoughts: what a night. And where can I find out Taylor’s lipstick manufacturer? I’ll be back for the next tour. Let’s just hope it’s not too far away.

I hope you enjoyed my review of Taylor Swifts reputation tour! Let me know what you thought in the comments or on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and be sure to drop me a follow for plenty more reviews like this coming very soon. If you’re a Taylor fan, I’d love to hear what your favourite song is too! I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for Enchanted! 

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An evening at Secret Cinema: Blade Runner (Things to do in London)

Photo credit: Secret Cinema

Secret Cinema rarely does things wrong. Here I was, off to participate in their version of a film I’d never seen, but I didn’t even care because having attended various other iterations, including Back to the Future and Star Wars, I felt confident it would a fun evening regardless. The film in question: Blade Runner. For the evening, I was to be Evelyn Zwiller, a Utopia Entertainment Performer, the role which had been assigned to me a week or so before the event.

As such, I dressed accordingly – bright trousers, a sparkly shirt, jangly bracelets and earrings, and a green bandana. Plus, of course, the items we were required to bring – a transparent umbrella and some goggles. I’d gone Steampunk like, reflective so no one could see my eyes or reveal my secrets… Sure, we probably looked very weird getting on the Tube in our getups, but that’s half the fun!

Arriving at Canning Town station, we were clearly in amongst our ilk, in the midst of a sea of people dressed like me, some as investigators in suits and trench coats, and some in boiler suits as technicians. The commonality? We all had umbrellas and visible excitement. We were directed by ‘LAPD officers’ across the street to what looked like an old warehouse with the words ‘World Terminus’ printed on the side. How ominous.

Showing our tickets, the games really began, and we joined a queue to be checked by LAPD officers and assigned a coloured wristband once we’d shown our Secret Cinema ID. Evelyn Zwiller got purple – what could it mean? Walking past LAPD Teslas (cool) we were ushered inside, into a completely different world. Entering through the black curtain, I was transported to China Town, at this time of night not too busy as we were one of the earlier ones to arrive. Around a central plaza lay a number of stalls selling food ranging from noodles and hot dogs to waffles and Japanese style sweets.

Clearly we looked lost, and were swiftly approached by a colourful lady who introduced herself as Luna, asking if we’d ever been ‘off world’ and who we were looking for. I’d been told at the entrance to look for someone called Felix, so this was my request, and she pointed us to a man with a tyre-track tattoo on his head standing by a closed door. He in turn took us into a smokey neon filled bar called the snakepit, where many similar dressed people milled around. Here, it was difficult to tell who was actor and who was attendee.

And so the show continued. We tried to help Felix steal something from someone’s stall in exchange for information, got caught up with the scavengers who were planning a ‘blackout’ to stop the upcoming replicant (ie android) ban, as why should human and robot not live together? It turned out wristbands unlocked different activities, as the scavengers all had white wristbands (I’m not sure we were supposed to be there!) and my purple wristband made me eligible for the Voight-Kampff test, where it was revealed that I myself was a replicant. How the plot thickens!

And the best bit? It rained – inside. Torrentially. The plaza interestingly had a grid floor which made sense as we stepped onto it into the midst of this rainstorm, swiftly putting up our umbrellas. How cool! At various times throughout the night this area turned into a sea of umbrellas as any activity where everyone congregated around didn’t mean that the rain had to stop!  

We headed upstairs to what I believe was Utopia, which housed the LAPD office, Dr Voight’s office, an icy cold laboratory, and Sebastian’s apartment; many of which it was revealed would be relevant to the movie later, but perhaps would have made more sense had I seen the film beforehand. Nevertheless, I certainly had fun!

However, after about an hour and a half of wandering around, we felt like we had seen and done all that there was to do, having visited the different locations and gone on various quests for the characters. This resulted in standing around not doing much for a while, but thankfully a scene started to play out in the plaza where the scavengers encouraged everyone to fight against the replicant ban, climbing an electricity pole and causing the blackout, much to the concern of the villain character who perched on top of one of the buildings, and who I would later find out was Batty.

At around twenty past eight, we were told to follow the actors who took us into the screening rooms. From our wandering around earlier, I had decided which of the three screens would be best and positioned myself close to where I thought the entrance might be, meaning that we were one of the first to get seats when we walked in. The first few rows had plush chairs and lots of legroom for those who had presumably paid much more than us, so we took the first available row behind. Unfortunately, the seats weren’t terribly comfortable, and legroom was not a thing, with my knees jammed in painfully in front of me. Not what you want for the next two hours.

And so the film began, interspersed every five minutes or so with characters actually playing out the scene in tandem with what was happening on the screen behind them. All of the main characters were represented by very good lookalikes, and I particularly enjoyed Sebastian’s toys who amusingly followed him around. All the key scenes were fun to watch both on the screen and in real life, and add to the magical nature of Secret Cinema.

As for the film itself, I thought it was a good choice being a cult classic. Although sceptical at first, the special effects in the film were very decent given the time so it didn’t seem ‘old’ or ‘outdated’, although I enjoyed the fact that the film was set in November 2019 and yet on a world very far removed from the one in which we currently live. Perhaps that’s for the best. I can’t say I fully understood the film at the time, but in retrospect it makes more sense to me the more I think about it. It’s very unique compared to anything else I’ve seen, and a great choice for this years Secret Cinema. I can safely say I’ll be back again to one of their next showings!

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog of something interesting to do in London. Have you been to Secret Cinema, or would like to go? Leave me a message in the comments below, or on Twitter @CiarasCountry. Thanks for reading!

Concert Review: CAMILA CABELLO, O2 Academy Brixton, London

If I had told you a year ago that I was going to see a Camila Cabello concert, I bet that a fair few of you would have looked at me blankly, assuming this was yet another of the up and coming artists that I occasionally go to review. However, I reckon I’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know her name today, or was at least familiar with Havana. Now as one of the most popular young female artists of our era, I felt blessed to see her perform at her first London headline show at the O2 Academy Brixton.

Brixton was a venue that I’d not yet visited (not for lack of trying – I’d wanted to see Kesha here a few years ago but was disallowed due to the area being ‘dangerous’ – pish posh!) and turned out to be much larger than I’d anticipated, with a capacity of around 5,000 people, when I’d expected something of similar proportions to Shepherd’s Bush. Furthermore, tonight’s show was sold out, meaning that there would be 5,000 of us crammed into the venue.

By the time I arrived after work, the queue to get in was, I kid you not, stretching the whole way around the block, almost completing in a square. Entering the venue, the floor had already filled up quite a way so I took a spot near to the back with somewhere to rest my reviewers notebook. First on was New Zealand band Drax Project, who played a couple of their own songs (including snazzy saxophone solos) and some covers, like Ginuwine’s Pony (Magic Mike, anyone?)

At 9pm sharp, the lights went down and a sea of mobile phones rose from the crowd – it seemed like almost everyone was recording the moment the superstar would step onto the stage. We were given a 25 second video countdown of Camila’s eye opening as we hit zero, before the lady of the hour herself stepped out on stage in a flowy trouser suit and corset combo. This being the Never Be The Same tour, she kicked off with the titular track. I love it when artists sound just as good live as they do on a record!

Before the first track was even over, she greeted the audience, something that I truly appreciated in a world where many artists just come on, do the usual ‘HOW YOU DOING LONDON’ bit in the middle of their set and that’s it. She actually cared. We moved on to Control, complete with slick choreography and a bit of break dancing (from back up dancers, not Camila herself – something I imagine would be pretty hard to do when singing at the same time!)

If you’ve read some of my other blog posts, you’ll know that I sometimes forgive artists for lip-syncing so long as they put on a good show in terms of choreo and visuals, so imagine how pleased I was to see Camila actually singing, as well as dancing her socks off! And all the while making sure to interact with the crowd, seemingly as happy to be with us as we were to be with her.

This was one hell of a hi-tech set, something I would have expected more for an arena show (of which I’m sure Camila will be doing many of in her future) with pretty much every song prefaced by a video intro. Given that she has thusfar only released one album, most of the songs came from that, but we also had added bonuses of songs she’d featured on, including a track I’m a big fan of – Machine Gun Kelly’s Bad Things; as well as a beautiful cover of Elvis’ I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You.

Did I mention Camila cut her teeth on the X-Factor USA? Yes, this girl can sing, and this was equally evident on the fast poppy tracks as the deep ballads like Consequences, which I found out a few months ago was written by a country songwriter (you canread more about that experience here). She has a beautiful vocal range which radiates across the venue, even more so than the thousands of fans screaming her songs back at her.

Her interaction with the crowd was stellar – she told us that All These Years was her favourite song off of the album, and prefaced Something’s Gotta Give by saying that it had been written at a moment in time when she had to choose between love and fear – loving herself enough to get out of a toxic relationship or staying in it because she was afraid to get out. Recently, she said, this song had taken on a different meaning to her, which became evident as footage from the aftermath of school shootings, Black Lives Matter and the March for our Lives played across the screen.

It seemed prevalent that her next song was entitled Scar Tissue because by that point it had become evident to me that her genuine nature and focus on issues bigger than herself was more than skin deep. It struck me that she is very much someone who will have the power to change things with her voice and status in society, and that seems to start with her fans, as at the end of this song she implored fans to make a promise to themselves to love themselves. In a world in which social standing and popularity has never been more important, it truly is essential that people that today’s youth listen to, like Camila, are there to be this voice and a reminder that things like this are important. Anyway, enough with my preaching, and on with the show!

We moved on to the catchy In The Dark (frankly, all her songs are catchy – I’m running out of ways to describe them!) in which she asked the venue to turn off all the lights, so we were singing along just with the light of those many, many phones – an apt moment for all of us, I’d say. Again, the genuine gratitude for her fans shone through on Real Friends where a group of fans were brought on stage to sing along.

She then brought on perhaps a more famous friend in the form of UK star Anne Marie for the latter’s hit Rockabye, much to the pleasure of the audience. Again, we had some more non-album songs in her collaboration with Major Lazer, Travis Scott and Quavo, Know No Better; and her soundtrack single with Grey Crown, which certainly provided me with some amusement as her backup dancers came on stage dressed not unlike dementors and seemingly unable to see as in spite of the slick choreo, there was some running into one another.

The show began to end with the sultry Into It in which we were treated with a mini speech about loving one another, in which Camila reached for a Pride flag from an audience member to make sure that each and every audience member was included. The penultimate song was her duet with Pharrell Sangria Wine (which interestingly comes up just as ‘sangria wine camila cabello’ when searched on YouTube) complete with the Sangria Wine dance which I’m afraid still has a bit of a way to go before it becomes as well known as the Harlem Shake or Gangnam Style.

Of course there was no song that we could end on except Havana, with the crowd going absolutely mental as Camila tested out some salsa moves on stage. And that was it – we’d heard all of the songs on her album and then some, and had a great time while doing so. As well as being an astoundingly good singer, she just seems like a genuinely nice person, and I can’t commend her highly enough for that. God knows how much that genuine attitude will help those fans that need it.

I hope you enjoyed today’s concert review! This month sees at least two more concerts with honestly some of the biggest names in the business (and I’ll be seeing Camila perform again soon – hint hint) so stay tuned to make sure you don’t miss any upcoming reviews! You can stay in touch by following this blog, or my Twitter @CiarasCountry, and make sure to drop me a comment below to let me know what you think of Camila!

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