A Head Full of Dreams Album Review

I love full albums. There are few things that I get more excited about. When a new album from an artist I like comes out, I make a concentrated effort to listen to the full thing as soon as possible. The release dates of the two most recent Coldplay albums have been among the most exciting days of my life so far. Today I'm going to be reviewing the Coldplay album that was released December 4th, A Head Full of Dreams.

First Impression: I'm going to be completely honest, I wasn't absolutely thrilled. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what I got. However, I could definitely see some promise in the album, so I downloaded two of the songs onto iTunes (which was a mistake, you can get the full album for free on the Amazon Music app if you have prime) and went to work. 

Second Time Through: When I got home from work, I had some homework to do so I opened up my laptop and started streaming the album through Amazon the second time around. This time, I started to catch the vision of the album, and I found myself loving every single song. It's definitely a unique album, and although it took a little bit of time to get used to it, it's really quite great. In fact, it has become one of my very favorite albums of all time.

Highlights: The two things that stand out most are the bridge in Up&Up, which is spectacular, and how absolutely incredible Chris Martin and Tove Lo sound together in Fun.

Favorite Songs: Honestly, it's just too early to know what my favorite songs off the album are. I can tell you that so far I've probably listened to Everglow, Army of One, Fun, Birds, and Up&Up more than the other songs. 

Do I Recommend AHFOD? I love it. Obviously I can't guarantee that you will too, but I definitely suggest that you give it a try and listen with an open mind, since it's definitely going to surprise you.

Until next time,

Rachel 

(I feel like having a song of the day would be a bit redundant, and I couldn't decide if I wanted to use a song from the album or not. Hence, no song of the day.)

Mood Board

I'll admit that college has put me in a bit of a creative slump. I've had so much homework and I've been making so many new friends, and it has all been wonderful. However, I get a lot of joy out of creating beautiful things of my own free will and I keep thinking that I need to get myself out of my slump.

Cue my wonderful friend Emma Heath. She has a beautiful poetry blog that I always love reading, and today she decided to write something a little bit different and shared part of her creative process. (Read it here: http://emmaheath.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-creative-process-part-1.html). She talked about creating a mood board, something that I used to do but haven't done in the past year. I was so excited by the idea of making another mood board that I started working on one immediately. If you didn't take the time to read her post (although you seriously should) a mood board is a collage of pictures that you put together to illustrate how you're feeling. Sometimes mood boards are very organized and have a central theme and other times you just throw whatever you love together and enjoy the way that it turns out.

The board that I made is somewhere between organized and disorganized. There's definitely a theme of peace and cool colors but the subject matter is extremely varied. I used images from Pinterest and I've linked to the pins below.

 1. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520203750055/ 

 2. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520204066491/ 

3. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520203755704/

4. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520204033005/

5. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520204054793/

6. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520203477972/

7. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510947520203859883/

There's nothing like creating something you love. It puts everything into perspective. What's your favorite kind of creativity?

Until next time,

Rachel

Song of the Day: Do it Now, Ingrid Michaelson

Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that Coldplay is releasing a new album TOMORROW? I'm absolutely beyond excited.