Monthly Playlist: November 2015 & Taking a Break?

It's the last day of November, a month that has gone much too fast but also not fast enough because I can't wait to get excited for Christmas. This month has been quite uneventful in terms of music in my life, but I've still tried my best to put together a little something that's worth listening to. It's my usual mix of Western music and K-Pop. I've really been loving f(x)'s album '4 Walls', so there's a couple of songs off that on here, and I highly recommend you check out the whole thing! Enjoy and keep reading for a little housekeeping (or rather, blogkeeping) below.

1. Cliff's Edge - Hayley Kiyoko // 2. Something In The Way You Move - Ellie Goulding // 3.Take It To Reality (feat. SAFIA) - Alison Wonderland // 4. Kamikaze - MØ // 5. 4 Walls - f(x) // 6. Lightsaber - EXO  // 7. Papi - f(x) // 8. 으르렁 Growl (Stage Version) [Studio Version] - EXO

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS // LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

Now that you have something nice to listen to, on to the more serious stuff. I've decided to take a little break from blogging for just a little while. Shock-horror, I know. Finals have unfortunately seemed to suck all the creativity from my body (as they usually do) and, as you might have noticed, I've not come up with any great ideas or been really motivated to write recently. I'll definitely still be around to post little tidbits (for example, I fully intend on posting my December favourites playlist and a 2015 one as well), but I've decided to take the pressure off myself for a little bit longer until I get my inspiration back again, which hopefully won't take long!

So, I hope you've enjoyed this post, and I'll be back soon, I promise!!

xx

Monthly Playlist: October 2015

Hello and welcome to the typical mess that is my taste in music! I'm currently struggling through the stress of final uni assignments and exams, so I've not really had time to put much together or listen to a lot of new music. BUT I should be back to having free time soon! Meanwhile, enjoy this xx

1. On My Mind - Ellie Goulding // 2. The Trouble With Us - Marcus Marr & Chet Faker // 3. Can't Sleep Love - Pentatonix // 4. Same Old Love - Selena Gomez // 5. Levels - Nick Jonas // 6. Machine - EXO-K  // 7. Time Slip - Red Velvet // 8. Roll Deep (feat. Jung Il Hoon) - HyunA // 9. Transformer - EXO

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS // LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Playlist: September 2015

I've had quite a strange and wonderful musical month. I managed to get myself more enthusiastic about K-Pop that I already was (which was completely unnecessary, but we can't go back now). I think a lot of people view K-Pop as something foreign that can be really strange sometimes (that last point is definitely true), but if you actually take time to appreciate it, it can be pretty amazing. The videos are colourful and aesthetically pleasing, the choreography is excellent, and, most importantly, the songs are catchy enough to put on repeat for days on end and dance alone in your bedroom. Not understanding the lyrics to something shouldn't be a drawback. And while I know that K-Pop is manufactured and isn't the most highly regarded genre of music, it's nice to just enjoy something for the sake of having fun.

So, if you've not listened to any K-Pop before, the songs on this mix are pretty great ones. I always put them at the end of my mixes for those that aren't interested, but try sticking around for the ride. Maybe you'll like it!

1. Haunting - Halsey // 2. BITE - Troye Sivan // 3. Lies - CHVRCHES // 4. Hold Me Down - Halsey // 5. 90s Music - Kimbra // 6. Lion Heart - Girls' Generation  // 7. Holler - Girls' Generation TTS // 8. Heart Attack - AOA // 9. Dumb Dumb - Red Velvet // 10. Love Me Right - EXO

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS // LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

xx

Monthly Playlist: August 2015

Happy September! Winter is basically over now (not that it ever even really started properly. Thanks Australia.), and it's the season of hay fever and the infamous Green Day meme. Despite the itchy noses and irritated eyes, I love spring. Blooming flowers and sunny days really lift my mood.

Musically, this past month I feel like I've gone back to my indie/alternative trends (it's a genre that I've been having a constant love affair with for many years), and I think I've put together a nice collection to phase out the cold months and get excited about life for spring.

If you caught my most recent Favourites Friday post, you'll already know that I've been loving iamamiwhoami and CHVRCHES, but a lot of new amazing things have already come out since then! FKA Twigs' third EP M3LL155X was finally released (I love all of the songs on it, by the way), and Halsey's debut album BADLANDS only just came out a couple of days ago, and I've already listened to it multiple times and fallen in love with it.

And, of course, there's a little bit of catchy K-Pop at the end of this mix, because I just can't help myself.

I hope you like this playlist! Stay tuned for more in the future!

1. Ripple - iamamiwhoami // 2. Bodyache - Purity Ring // 3. Gasoline - Halsey // 4. We Sink - CHVRCHES // 5. Tap Your Glass - iamamiwhoami // 6. Castle - Hasley // 7. Figure 8 - FKA Twigs // 8. Leave A Trace - CHVRCHES // 9. Tête-À-Tête - Walk the Moon // 10. Sapokanikan - Joanna Newsom // 11. 행복 Happiness - Red Velvet // 12. You Think - Girl's Generation

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Playlist: July 2015

July was a good month; I had a birthday, I spent a reasonable amount of time on trains, and I was on break from uni, so I got to chill out and find some new music (one of my favourite things).

One thing that features pretty heavily on this playlist is Walk the Moon's album Talking Is Hard, which I fell in love with this month. 'Down In The Dumps' and 'Avalanche' are probably my favourites, but I love and listen to all of them.

I've also reverted back to 8tracks (sorry Spotify, I still love you), because some of my absolute favourites of recent times haven't been on Spotify. I guess that's what you get for listening to Asian pop all the time.

I hope you enjoy this playlist, and feel free to leave some of the songs you've been loving recently in the comments!

1. Gimme Gimme Luv - Tomomi Itano // 2. In The Stars - Icona Pop // 3. PARTY - Girls' Generation // 4. Avalanche - Walk the Moon // 5. Shake It - SISTAR // 6. Galaxy Supernova - Girls' Generation // 7. Down In The Dumps - Walk the Moon // 8. Closer - Tegan and Sara // 9. Bad Habit - The Kooks // 10. Go Slow - Tei Shi // 11. River - Ibeyi

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Playlist: June 2015

Another month has passed (we're halfway through 2015 now what the hell), so it's time for another playlist! This month I've started making my playlists on Spotify, because it's more convenient (soz, 8tracks). If you don't have a Spotify account then you really should get one. It makes it so much easier to find new music and figure out whether you like it enough to buy it. And it's legal! Yay!

You'll probably notice that there is again a lot of K-Pop on this mix, because I apparently just can't stop myself. Some of it's in Japanese this time though, which is fitting, considering that's a language I can actually speak.

If you caught my previous post about about my finals procrastination favourites you'll know that I've been listening to Muse and Florence + the Machine's new albums A LOT. Mercy, Reapers, Queen of Peace and Which Witch are some of my favourite tracks off of them (I loved Which Witch from the second I read the title let's be real), although there are so many more. I could basically put the entire albums on this playlist, but what would the point of that be? If you like the tracks on this mix, go check out the albums too!

I've been trying to become more of an "album person" by listening to whole albums in the order that it was intended by the artists. I'm very guilty of just picking some songs from albums and putting them on shuffle (which is cool and makes me happy), but I think albums can be viewed as a whole as works of art, and I want to appreciate that. So, whole albums will probably influence these little favourites playlists well into the future.

I just want to take a moment to talk about Hayley Kiyoko's "Girls Like Girls", because the US Senate legalised same-sex marriage nationwide at the end of this month. This is such an amazing step towards equality, and even though there's still such a long way to go (like the legalisation of same-sex marriage in so many other countries, like Australia, my own home), it's still something to be celebrated. "Girls Like Girls" is a really wonderful song, and I've seen the music video for it around quite a bit, and it's really wonderful. I recommend you go and watch it!

I hope you like some of the songs on this mix!

1. Powerful (feat. Ellie Goulding & Tarrus Riley) - Major Lazer // 2. Reapers - Muse // 3. Work This Body - Walk the Moon // 4. Queen of Peace - Florence + the Machine // 5. Bang Bang Bang - BIGBANG // 6. Mr. Mr. (Japanese Version) - Girls' Generation // 7. Birth In Reverse - St. Vincent // 8. Which Witch - Florence + the Machine // 9. Girls Like Girls - Hayley Kiyoko // 10. View - SHINee // 11. Mercy - Muse // 12. Oh! (Japanese Version) - Girls' Generation // 13. Growl - EXO // 14. Number 9 - T-ara

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Playlist: May 2015

Forgive me, dear listeners and readers, for this month has been crazy and has contained an abundance of K-Pop. This started with me hearing Girls' Generation's latest single on TV (thanks SBS), and then getting sucked into an internet black hole and inevitably finding 5000 other songs to play while I'm having study induced breakdowns (yes, it's finals time). I don't speak Korean so I have no idea what they're singing about, but hey, it's catchy as hell. And not everything has to be in English anyway. I personally find not understanding every word to be relaxing at times.

 K-Pop is of course not the only thing I've been listening to because TAYLOR SWIFT'S BAD BLOOD VIDEO CAME OUT (SO GOOD), complete with new version feat. Kendrick Lamar, because I needed to be obsessed with this song even more than I already was. Also, BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend came and went this month, and while I'm nowhere near the UK, I can still appreciate a good lineup. The 2015 Artist Mashup is amazing.

So, no more blab from me (I'm procrastinating, can you tell?), and on with the music!

1. Wolf - First Aid Kit // 2. Digital Witness - St. Vincent // 3. I Am the Best - 2NE1 // 4. 212 & Bust a Move - The Outfit (from Pitch Perfect) // 5. Bad Blood (feat. Kendrick Lamar - Taylor Swift // 6. Little Apple (with Chopstick Brothers) - T-ARA // 7. Catch Me If You Can (Korean Version) - Girls' Generation // 8. Gotta Be You - 2NE1 // 9. Panic Station - Muse // 10. Radio 1 Big Weekend Artist Mashup 2015

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

LISTEN ON 8TRACKS

xx

Monthly Playlist: April 2015

I've been slacking a little on my blog recently (thanks, uni), but of course I still found time to put this little nugget together. Hopefully life will get a little less hectic and I'll be able to put up some more posts soon. (Yeah, I know I keep saying that, but you know how it goes). Enjoy!!

1. Ship to Wreck - Florence + the Machine // 2. Too Much Time Together - San Cisco // 3. Cosmia - Joanna Newsom // 4. New Rush - Gin Wigmore // 5. Skulls - Bastille // 6. I'm a Fantastic Wreck - Montaigne // 7. Kingfisher - Joanna Newsom // 8. Pick Me Up - Perfume

LISTEN HERE ON 8TRACKS

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

xx

Monthly Favourites Playlist: March 2015

This month's playlist is a little mish-mash, which I think represents my tastes somewhat. From Joanna Newsom to Becky G, I love them all, and I hope you like something on this little compilation too.

1. Lean On (feat. MØ & DJ Snake) - Major Lazer // 2. One Last Time - Ariana Grande // 3. Good Intentions Paving Company - Joanna Newsom // 4. I Want You To Know (feat. Selena Gomez) - Zedd // 5. Collect Call - Metric // 6. Tonight I'm Getting Over You - Carly Rae Jepsen // 7. Problem (The Monster Remix) [feat. will.i.am.] - Becky G // 8. '81 - Joanna Newsom

LISTEN HERE ON 8TRACKS

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Favourites Playlist: February 2015

February has flown straight past (seriously where did it go?), and now it's basically over, which means it's time for a playlist. This month's is quite long, owing mostly to the fact I listened to the Triple J Hottest 100 on Australia Day and was inevitably introduced to a whole bunch of new stuff that I love. Have a listen. I hope you enjoy these songs, too!

1. Somebody's Talking - The Preatures // 2. Lighthouse - G.R.L. // 3. What Kind Of Man - Florence + The Machine // 4. L.A.F - Broods // 5. Sledgehammer - Fifth Harmony // 6. Fade Out Lines - The Avener // 7. Beating Heart - Ellie Goulding // 8. Gooey - Glass Animals // 9. Greek Tragedy - The Wombats // 10. Mother & Father - Broods // 11. Elastic Heart - Sia // 12. Shots - Imagine Dragons // 13. XO - Beyoncé // 14. 1998 - Chet Faker

LISTEN HERE ON 8TRACKS

LAST MONTH'S PLAYLIST

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Monthly Favourites Playlist: January 2015

I started making monthly favourites playlists a few months ago. I'm the kind of person who constantly seems to be on the hunt for new music, just songs that I can fall and love with and jam to until I get sick of them. Some of these songs are new to everyone, some are new to me and others are old favourites that I got back into recently. I like the idea of people listening to these and maybe finding something new that they really like. So, here it is, the first playlist of 2015!!

1. If I Could Change Your Mind - HAIM // 2. Can't Stop Dancin' - Becky G // 3. Novocaine - Fall Out Boy // 4. Falling - HAIM // 5. Tightrope - WALK THE MOON // 6. A Little Opus - Little Comets // 7. Bo$$ - Fifth Harmony // 8. Uma Thurman - Fall Out Boy // 9. Sun Goes Down (feat. Jasmine Thompson) - Robin Schulz // 10. Last All Night (Koala) [feat. KStewart] - Oliver Heldens

LISTEN HERE ON 8TRACKS

xx