Desert Island Discs

Hi everyone! How you doing? I've been well thanks, eating a bit better than usual, learnt how to make at least one full meal and properly moved house which is nice, we painted! Some got on my nails and I'm still chipping it off. I bought a plant! Though I'm worried he's not getting enough sun or water. Usual stuff.
Today I wanted to go back to the music thing a bit, not a pop playlist, but a collection of albums I think are incredible, and maybe a couple of singles thrown in for good measure. This isn't in any particular order, and I'm certain some of you will disagree, but share your top album picks too! The more the merrier!

The English Riviera
Metronomy, 2011

I first heard Metronomy at Leeds Festival 2011, they played Radio Ladio and The Bay and I danced with my friends in mud. I have since seen Metronomy three more times, making them the band I have seen live the most amount of times. I love them. The English Riviera is in my opinion, flawless. I can listen to the entire album start to finish, and not skip one track. I love Nights Out and Summer 08 too, but for me, this is peak Metronomy. The songs are beautifully put together, the lyrics are that perfect blend of pop and dirt and the music videos are some of the best I've seen. The Bay is my favourite. That 60's sleazy James Bond riviera sun bleached trope works so well, it's pure electro pop filthiness.

Best tracks - The Bay, The Look, Corinne, Loving Arm

The Kick Inside
Kate Bush, 1978

Is it any surprise there's a Kate Bush album on this list? Anyone unfamiliar with me might not know about the deep love I have for Kate Bush, but I truly do. Her voice is unlike any other, and she is up there for me with Stevie Nicks, Adele and Aretha Franklin as some of the most incredible voices I've ever heard. Of course, The Kick Inside is the album that features Wuthering Heights - my go to dance number every time I'm at Pop Confessional at The Bodega. When I say I know the entire dance routine, I do not miss a step. Phenomenal.

Best tracks - Wuthering Heights, The Man With the Child in His Eyes, L'amour Looks Like You

Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen, 1975

I'm gonna start by saying this is my favourite album of all time, by my favourite musician. Bruce Springsteen is, for me, beyond all words. That is how much I love Bruce Springsteen. He has shaped who I am entirely and when I can't sum up how I feel about something, there's a Bruce song that can. Born To Run also features my favourite song of all time, Thunder Road. I heard it when I was 15 and have never been so sure of anything. It's an album that makes me smile, cry, heal, hurt and feel a part of something. I saw Bruce Springsteen once and touched him. I am still not over it. This album is a must listen.

Best tracks (apart from all of them) - Thunder Road, Jungleland, Backstreets

Whitney
Whitney Houston, 1987

With no apology, dear reader, I must tell you this. I Wanna Dance With Somebody is the best pop song of all time. It has everything. Synth, a great and recognisable opener (that "doo de doo doo") and most importantly, Whitney Houston. A special, happy, universal album isn't easy to achieve but a duet with Cissy Houston and the way Whitney woo's in lots of songs makes this a stellar album. Plus, that cover! Look at her. Fun, slightly unrelated fact, my mum went to see Whitney Houston in the 90's and was seated so far away she bought Whitney Houston branded binoculars. Also Sasha Velour won Drag Race to a lipsync of So Emotional so there's that.

Best Tracks - I Wanna Dance With Somebody, I Know Him So Well, So Emotional

Purple Rain

Prince, 1984

How could I not include this? It's an item on my bucket list to front a band named Darling Nikki! My dad bought me Purple Rain on vinyl one birthday accidentally because my mum had sent him to Urban Outfitters to buy Beyoncé's self titled album and instead he came out with this. My mum rolled her eyes but to his credit, Adrian, this was a great shout.

Best tracks - Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, Darling Nikki

The Very Best of Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton, 2008

Judge me all you wish for choosing a compilation album, but I did it. Because it's Dolly Parton and she has released thousands of albums and I cannot keep up. She's incredible. I love Dolly Parton. My boyfriend even got me a framed illustration of her that sits on my dressing table. One of the first examples of strong, talented, intelligent females I think of. Who else is that unapologetically themselves? It takes a lot of money to look that cheap and to me, she's worth every penny.

Best tracks - Joshua, Islands in the Stream, Here You Come Again

From Under The Cork Tree
Fall Out Boy, 2005

Typing out that this album is now twelve years old makes me feel so old. I had to include it. The first mp3 download purchase I ever made, and the first song I listened to through my crackly Toshiba headphones was Of All The Gin Joints in All the World. Is it a critically acclaimed masterpiece? No. Is it Number 1 in a list of albums to hear before you die? Probably not. But it is for me. I have no memory more vivid than being twelve, tying the laces on my Converse trainers, purposefully chipping my Claire's Accessories nail polish, wearing the tightest All Saints t-shirt I could source on eBay and listening to From Under the Cork Tree. I didn't think anyone understood how displaced I felt until I heard this album. Also Pete Wentz remains my forever crush.

Best tracks - Dance Dance, A Little Less Sixteen Candles a Little More Touch Me, Of All the Gin Joints in All the World

Other notable mentions for great albums, Beyoncé by Beyoncé, Broke With Expensive Taste by Azealia Banks, Help! by The Beatles, I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty, Days Are Gone by Haim, The Queen is Dead by The Smiths, Several albums by The Cure

Brave New Girl

I'm six deep into a bag of mini Daim's. I've not long ordered a twelve pack of Tony Moly facemasks on Amazon. A van driver made a comment about my legs as I walked home today and I flipped him the bird.
Any normal day, I'd be alright with this. Yet as I got back from work, dumped my lunchbox on the kitchen counter and got a glass of Ribena, I felt uneasy. Sad, even. I call myself strategic online. Twitter is where I release my inner monologue, though an edited version. It's full of feminism, Drag Race references, pictures of Jeremy Corbyn and questions about what Kanye West song is the best. Answer - Devil in a New Dress. My Instagram is pictures of my boyfriend, gigs I went to and nice views from a riverside bar in Berlin. My social media presence is me, but a carefully constructed version. Even in my blog, where I've spoken about mental health, I've been careful to not give the game away. So when - after about three minutes after finishing my glass of Ribena - I cried this afternoon, I felt good. I had released something pent up inside me, something I couldn't put my finger on. Ask anyone who's seen me do it, I am an ugly crier. That Kim Kardashian crying meme has nothing on the red faced, puffy eyed, messy haired animal/beast hybrid I become when I cry. And not just when I'm sad. I finished a book and enjoyed it so much I cried. I listened to a podcast with a nice, moral ending, and welled up at my desk. I am a crier.
But today it struck me that, whilst I can admit to myself that the reason I'm always so dehydrated is that I sob so much, that I carefully skirt around the issue when online - somewhere, arguably, I am at my most Hope-like. So why do I do it? I know I'm not the only person. We all have habits of putting forward idealistic versions of ourselves so people who are equally enveloped in their own lives think we're cool or happy. I could skim back to December on my Instagram, and still see the same Louis Theroux screenshots and punny coffee shop A boards I still post now, and I was in a bad place then! But you wouldn't have known that.
What's especially funny to me is my emo days, the period between ages 12 and 15 where I thought I was edgy and cool because I had all the My Chemical Romance albums, watched Kerrang and had seen Fall Out Boy (I wasn't cool, I saw Fall Out Boy with my dad). Back then when everyone had Bebo, Piczo, or if you were especially trendy and your mum let you dye your hair, MySpace. Then, everyone would gladly say how sad they were. It was the DONE thing. I am sad, I am gonna tell you about it and you're gonna say "same". Or maybe "rawr". Where did that go? The days of sharing your teenage angst and emotional complexities on social media via images of Emily the Strange or Pon and Zi illustrations.
This isn't some massive announcement to let you know I'll be tweeting whenever I've had a bad day at work or that I'll live stream with mascara stained cheeks when my favourite jeans don't fit me anymore. This is, as always, a rambling mess of at least one pun (idk search for it) and pop culture references that I hope make some kind of sense somewhere down the line.
But I feel braver now, because having an emotional range that causes me to bray like a donkey regardless of if I'm in a good or bad mood doesn't make me weak. It doesn't make me silly, or childish to be myself, wholly. It makes me myself, and that's something that I'm going to think about later and probably cry about. I'm a brave girl and I cry and that's okay.