With his debut American tour starting in four weeks’ time, Ben Howard has a very promising chance at becoming an international triumph if the current number of his sold out gigs are anything to go by.
Having just celebrated his 24th birthday, the Devonshire based singer-songwriter found success in the UK after his first album Every Kingdom got to No. 7 on the album charts last October, spending 23 weeks in the charts in total.
Currently doing dates in Europe, Howard has performances in Germany and France lined-up before taking his tour over to the US, starting with weekend dates at Sasquatch Music Festival in Washington.
Worryingly though, a recent announcement (Friday 27th April) on his website confirmed at least four cancelled locations on the last stretch of his European gigs due to illness, although the post goes on to say performances will be back on “asap”.
With a month still to go, Howard already has four of his nine US gigs set to be filled to the rafters with fans, including three sold out performances in Los Angeles and San Francisco.…(Read more.)
As fellow avid followers of the UK Top 40 charts may also have observed, and therefore can’t deny, there has been a slow but sure and steady rise of acoustic music in the higher rankings of the charts, battling it out amongst some of the mightier contenders from rivalling pop genres.
Now, readers may disagree, but then again we feel we’re justified in this claim and surely cannot be completely alone in thinking this.
And albeit a seemingly minor insurgence we consider ‘tis an uprising nonetheless and one which is most welcome too.
With the current charts full of squeakily cleaned tween-boppers all the way through the spectrum to gangsta rappers, why does everyone think it’s acceptable to auto-tune the crap out of every viable syllable?
We, for one, think it’s refreshing to hear something music that has that element of spontaneity and sounds like the musician actually feels something for what they’re singing about, so much so they invoke a genuine excitement in their audience as the story unfolds with the often found profoundness of their lyrics…(Read more.)
This song has come up three times in the past day in the most random of circumstances.
It’s like divine intervention is prompting me to write about it so I feel compelled to comply…for both the truly awesome nature of the song, and partially for fear of the universe turning against me.
So on that note…
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Originally a song by Swedish synth-pop duo The Knife, Jose Gonzalez released his acoustic version of Heartbeats as the lead single of his debut album Veneers.
The album, which received global critical acclaim, was first released in Gonzalez’s home country of Sweden in October 2003 before making it to the UK and the rest of Europe two years later.
After being featured on an advert for Sony (the one with all the bouncy balls falling down the street), Heartbeats became a huge hit around the world, most notably for its exquisitely smooth melody coupled with Gonzalez’s obscenely serene vocal grasp of the song’s troubled yet eloquently haunting lyrics.
Peaking at No. 9 in the Top 40, the Heartbeats cover spent a massive 33 weeks in the charts in January 2006…(Read more.)
Acoustic Sound Hole 