It's been three years since Fall Out Boy's previous album 'American Beauty/ American Psycho' with 2018 ushering in a new and refreshing sounding new album
'M A  N   I    A'. The feedback from fans has definitely been mixed with a new, more electronic Fall Out Boy sound, which for me works incredibly well.

Artist: Panic! At The Disco   Album Title: Death Of A Bachelor   Genre: Rock Release Date: 15 January 2016   Buy It: iTunes | Amazon

Death Of A Bachelor is Panic! At The Disco's anticipated fifth album - especially as Brendon Urie (vocalist) is the only member of the band remaining. However, don't let that mislead you, the album in it's entirety was written and produced by Brendon himself! Despite this, under the Panic! At The Disco name, Brendon has released another incredible album.

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Coasts are a rock band, originally from Bristol, that I have been loving for most of last year into this year. The band's eagerly awaited debut self-titled album is due to be released on 22 January 2016, including tracks such as A Rush Of Blood and You.

Artist: Years & Years   Album Title: Communion   Genre: Electronic Release Date: 10 July 2015   Buy It: iTunes Deluxe |  Amazon

Communion is the debut album from electro-pop group Years & Years, released on the 10 July 2015. The band are most well known for their singles King, Desire and Shine, all reaching high places in the charts. I wasn't hooked on the band straight away - I liked their music but I wouldn't actively seek it out to listen to it. Therefore, I wasn't sure what to expect from Communion but nonetheless I was blown away upon release day.

It has been another wonderful year for new music as well as previous albums making a return. For this instalment of 2015 favourites, I will be sharing my favourite albums from throughout the year. Like last year, I found this really difficult but have finally come up with my top six albums from the year. These albums are ones that I have loved throughout the year (or since their release) and therefore albums release in the past few weeks can't fall into this category - I have also decided that the albums chosen do not have to be released this year.

Artist: Sigma   Album Title: Life   Genere: Dance   Release Date: 4 December 2015 Buy It: iTunes Deluxe | iTunes Standard   Listen: YouTube Playlist | Spotify | Deezer

Life is the debut album from electronic duo Sigma and an album that I have been looking forward to for months. Unfortunately for me, the album fell short of my expectations leaving me slightly disappointed - I do like the album but I don't love it. Life shows many different sides to the duo's sound including more melodic tracks such as Life contrasted with more full on drum and bass ones such as Lighters.
I particularly like Life because of its melodic sound, making it the calmest track on the album. Despite being calm, there is still a slight build up to heard despite there never actually being a drop. This left me slightly disappointed because I really liked how the track was being set up and yet there was nothing that followed. Having said that, I really like the vocal (Bartoven) and found that it worked well with the slower pace of Life and therefore meant that the song was often in my head.
A track that I thoroughly like is The Reason, featuring the vocal of Nicole Jackson. The track hits it off straight away and maintains the pace throughout most of the song, slowing briefly in the verses to enable the build up to the chorus to be set up again. The Reason captures the drum and bass element that I originally loved from Sigma as well of reminding me of other drum and bass songs I used to listen to.
Another favourite track off the album is Broken Promises featuring the vocal of Maverick Sabre - an artist I like anyway. Similar to The Reason, Broken Promises embodies the drum and bass sound that I love from the duo. However, there is a brief section of the song I'm not keen on but is outweighed by how much I like the rest of the song.
Overall, I do like Sigma's album but I found it a bit of a let down to what I had been expecting from previous releases and their live shows. Having said that, there are tracks on Life that I do like such as a The Reason and Good Times (featuring Ella Eyre, track I have mentioned before) but many of the tracks lack for me or I eventually find them quite repetitive. As always, this is only my opinion and you may completely disagree so please do listen to the album yourself to make up your own mind!

Artist: Ellie Goulding   Album Title: Delirium   Genre: Pop   Release Date: 6 November 2015   Buy It: iTunes Deluxe | iTunes Standard

Delirium is the eagerly awaited third album from British pop princess Ellie Goulding. The album includes the single On My Mind as well Outside, a collaboration with Calvin Harris on the deluxe version of the album (although also released on Calvin's album, Motion). The album shows Ellie's growth as an artist and therefore is fairly different to her previous album Halcyon Days - often the change in sound works, others not so much. I particularly like the introduction to the album using a sort of operatic tone to set the album, similar to Halcyon Days, before flowing into the first track on Delirium - Aftertaste. Aftertaste kicks up the tempo from the slow introduction into a much more upbeat and ultimately uplifting track - a theme throughout most of the album.
Something In The Way You Move is the first track on the album which falls into my favourite tracks. I think it's really catchy and makes you want to move around - that sums up everything I love about it.
Following on is my next favourite, Keep On Dancin'. It opens with quite a distorted sounding sample as well as quite calm and to a certain extent possibly seen as a bit eerie. The track then begins to build up before the climax and change of pace for the chorus - this momentum is then carried throughout the rest of the song. There is a brief section in the bridge in which the track slows again before returning once again to the faster pace that the listener has become used to.
Codes is possibly my favourite of the tracks on Delirium because it follows the upbeat, catchy and feel good theme throughout. I also particularly love the lyrics which add to the catchiness but also are relatable to lot of people when it comes to relationships and possibly even can be applied to friendships. I think Codes is the most upbeat track off the entire album - even when it slows from its usual speed, it's still quite upbeat.
Other tracks I particularly like on Delirium are; Holding On For Life and The Greatest.
Tracks that I'm not so keen on are; Around U, Don't Panic and I Do What I Love. I find these three tracks quite repetitive and therefore more annoying than any of the tracks. I Do What I Love is a track I definitely do not love, vocally and production wise it sounds so different and therefore doesn't work for me.
Overall, I really like Delirium but some tracks really let it down for me.

For this edition of themed playlists, I have decided to put one together of artists to watch (formally known as the up and coming artist series). The playlist includes artists that I have previously mentioned since running the series as well as others that I am yet to write about.
Spotify links are below.


If the embedded version of the Spotify is not working, click here.

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Anne-Marie is probably most known at the minute for being on the singers that tour with Rudimental. However now she is on her way to creating her own music career away from Rudimental. She features on many of the tracks on Rudimental's second album We The Generation as well as Wretch 32's latest single Alright With Me.
Anne-Marie released her debut EP Karate in the summer of 2015, including tracks Karate, Gemini and Stole. Since she has released Do It Right and more recently, Boy. Her debut album is in the works through Rudimental's label, Major Toms.



I have be fortunate enough to see Anne-Marie perform live with Rudimental at last years V Festival in which she maintained the high amount of energy that previous Rudimental artists have bought such as Becky Hill, Ella Eyre and Sinead Harnett. I definitely think that Anne-Marie is going to be one to watch in the next few months and years to see how see attacks the music world through her own music.
On a final note, I want to mention All That Love - my favourite track from We The Generation that Anne-Marie featured in. To read more about that, click here.

Artist: Rudimental   Album Title: We The Generation   Genre: Dance    Release Date: 2 October 2015   Buy It: iTunes Deluxe | iTunes Standard | Amazon

We The Generation is the all important second album from Rudimental. For their second album, Rudimental have clearly tried to experiment with different sounds to develop themselves, something that I can say that I think they have done effectively. Despite the experimentation with new sounds, certain tracks still have the presence of the old sound with the beats and all important trumpet. I'd say the new sound is much lighter than the previous and as an album as a whole tries to capture the goodness of life.
The tracks feature the new artists that Rudimental have taken under their wing such as Anne-Marie and Will Heard as well returning artists like Ella Eyre, Sinead Harnett and MNEK. I love many of the tracks on the album with two or three that I'm not so keen on but for an album of 18 tracks, I'd say that is not bad at all!
Excluding the singles as I usually do, my favourite tracks from the deluxe edition of We The Generation as All That Love (ft Anne-Marie), Run (ft Will Heard) and Too Cool (ft Ella Eyre). These are all tracks that are in the later part of the album - only Too Cool being available on the standard edition.
All That Love is, in comparison to other tracks on the album, quite chilled out in that it is much slower with a much deeper sound. The opening section of the track uses a beautiful strings section which I thinks sets up the track so well. This enables Anne-Marie's voice to really shown, especially in the verses, as well as allowing the listener to pay even closer attention to the lyrics of the song.
Run on the other hand, is a lot more upbeat and energetic - clearly noticeable in the chorus. This is an obvious contrast to the verses which are much slower and what I'd call more performance based - hopefully you'll see what I mean when listening to it! The verses provide an anticipated build up to the chorus before once again returning afterwards to its original pace. This track might not be as popular as others, I know it took me a few listens to really pay attention to it before Run got stuck in my head for days on end, but please give it a chance!
Other tracks that I want to mention that are singles from the album are Love Ain't Just A Word, Rumour Mill and I Will For Love.
Overall, I'd say that We The Generation has definitely enabled Rudimental to progress their sound at a great level but still capturing the old sound. Although every track isn't for me, a great majority are loved and therefore the few that I'm not keen on. I'd highly recommend We The Generation as it is such a feel good and dance album!