McFly- Motion In The Ocean

Hello, again! Did you miss me? First of all, you may have noticed that this blog has been moved to a new account. YES, it is still me! This is simply my normal account. Putting it on my main account makes it easier for me to get it written. And I can cross-promote my blogs easier as well ^-^ 

Release Date: November 6, 2006

Genre: pop rock, pop punk

Track Listing

1. We Are The Young
2. Star Girl
3. Please Please
4. Sorry's Not Good Enough
5. Bubble Wrap
6. Transylvania
7. Lonely
8. Little Joanna
9. Friday Night
10. Walk In The Sun
11. Home Is Where The Heart Is
12. Silence Is A Scary Sound (Hidden Track)

McFly is:
Tom Fletcher- lead vocals, guitar, keyboard, piano, ukulele
Danny Jones- lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, producer
Dougie Poynter- bass guitar, vocals, guitar
Harry Judd- drums, percussion

About McFly: A lot of this is copied from my post about their Greatest Hits album. They were formed in 2003, and have had the same lineup for a decade. They've released 5 studio albums: Room On The 3rd Floor (2004), Wonderland (2005), Motion In The Ocean (2006), Radio:ACTIVE (2008), and Above The Noise (2010). Their other albums are soundtracks, live, and compilations. Each of their CDs has a distinct sound. Room On The 3rd Floor, their debut album, actually broke a Beatles record in 2004. McFly became the youngest band whose debut CD debuted at #1 on the UK charts. A little obscure and seemingly unimportant, but it's a small victory. This album definitely has a Beach Boys vibe. 2005's Wonderland is definitely a lot more orchestral, and actually includes an orchestral piece composed by Tom. 2006's Motion In The Ocean & 2008's Radio:ACTIVE are the most similar of their albums, and are my personal favorites (Radio:ACTIVE is my personal favorite album ever). These two definitely showcase the band's rock side. Above The Noise, their 2010 release, is more of an electropop album, and the weakest, in my opinion.


My Opinion about McFly: (Once again, mostly copied from the last one) As I said on my last post, they're my absolute favorite band. Not many Americans know about them, but I love them. I actually first saw them when they were in Just My Luck. I forgot about them and then in 2007 (my Jo Bro obsession time) I was watching an interview with the JoBros where Nick said his favorite song was Transylvania by McFly. I watched the video and thought it was weird, and again, I forgot about them. (Transylvania is now among my all-time favorite McFly songs!). It wasn't until I discovered that the Jonas Brothers got their song, Year 3000, from the band Busted that I actually started listening to McFly. The Busted guys are close friends with McFly, which is how I really discovered McFly. And when I realized that they were the band in Just My Luck, everything really clicked. Anyway, long story long, it was a weird winding road to discovering them, but I really love them, and I love all of the members. Tom is my favorite, though. Yes, Tom of the wedding speech fame. I've told everyone for years that Tom is perfect, and now people understand. McFly is also the exception to the dumb blonde rule. Tom, the only natural blonde, is the brain, and Danny, the only one who's been brunette for 99% of the time he's been in the band, is the lovably dim-witted front-man. (OK, he's not really dumb, but it IS a running joke that he's the slow one... Because he thought an egg was a vegetable. Poor boy)

 About the CD:  It was released in 2006, just a year after they released Wonderland and the soundtrack to Just My Luck. Motion in the Ocean shows a relatively large change from the sound of Motion In The Ocean. In my opinion, the Motion in the Ocean sound is the one that they held onto the longest, and the one that I consider to be "their sound." Both this CD and their 2008 CD, Radio:ACTIVE, have more of a rock sound than either of the ones before or after.   

IMHO: It's my second favorite McFly CD, after Radio:ACTIVE. I do, however, feel that it has some really high highs, and some pretty low lows. For example, of the 12 songs, 4 of them are among my top 15 (if you want the breakdown, 2 of them are in my top 5, 1 is in 6-10, and 1 is in the 11-15 range). HOWEVER, about 3 of them find themselves among my all-time least favorite McFly songs... which still isn't a bad place to be, since I love all of their songs, but there is quite a distinct range there.

Favorite songs: Sorry's Not Good enough and Transylvania are both in my top 5 McFly songs ever ('Sorry' finds itself at #2, and Transylvania is #4). Star Girl is either 6 or 7. Bubble Wrap falls somewhere between 11 and 15, but I can't remember where. All four of those are just amazing. 

Other gems: I absolutely LOVE Little Joanna. Friday Night is also a fun one. I also like Please, Please and We Are The Young.

Video!

Sorry's Not Good Enough music video

Transylvania music video

Rating: 9.5/10. This is one of my all time favorite CDs. Some of my all-time favorite songs are on it, and it's just overall really awesome. Even the worst songs on the CD are really good.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Are you glad to see me back? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of McFly? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Hawthorne Heights- Fragile Future

Release Date: August 5, 2008

Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo

Track Listing

1.       The Business Of Paper Stars

2.       Rescue Me

3.       Until The Judgement Day

4.       Somewhere In Between

5.       Sugar In The Engine

6.       Desperation

7.       Four Became One

8.       321

9.       Disaster

10.   Let Go Of Everything You Know

11.   Corps of Corpses

12.   Come Back Home (Reprised)

On this CD, Hawthorne Heights is:
JT Woodruff- vocals, guitar
Micah Carli- guitar
Matt Ridenour- bass, backup vocals
Eron Bucciarelli- drums

About Hawthorne Heights: I don't really know a ton about them, but there are some important things I should talk about. They released their first CD, The Silence In Black and White, in 2004. Their first single off of this CD is also probably their most well-known song, Ohio Is For Lovers. Then, in 2006, they released If Only You Were Lonely. Their third album, Fragile Future, was released in 2008. These are the only 3 CDs I have by them, although they have released 2 CDs since- Skeletons in 2010, and Zero last month. There was a very abrupt lineup change between albums 2 &3, which I'll talk about in the "About The CD" bit, because it had an impact on the CD.

My opinion about Hawthorne Heights: I’m not a huge Hawthorne Heights fan, although I have 3 of their CDs. It’s kinda odd, but the bands that are more mainstream, as in regular people who listen to top 40 stations (bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco) often aren’t ones I like A LOT. While I may enjoy their music, I’m usually not a devoted fan. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post. It’s like this with Hawthorne Heights. While I like this CD and a lot of the songs on it, I only really like their singles on their other CDs.

About The CD: One thing that had a big effect on this CD was the sudden death of band member Casey Calvert. Casey did the guitar and unclean vocals for the band. While they were on tour in 2007, he was found dead in the tour bus. He died in his sleep of an accidental drug overdose. Two songs on the CD (Four Became One, Sugar In The Engine) were inspired by his death, and it brought the band closer together, and lead to this being, in my opinion, their best CD.

IMHO: This is my favorite CD by them. But it also holds a special place in my heart for another reason. I bought this CD back in 2009 when it was fairly new. When I opened the case, I realized that there was a second CD inside. This CD had a random selection of music videos by other artists on Victory Records (the label HH was on). I was really interested in listening to some new music, so I popped it into my DVD player. I really liked a lot of the songs, and still have a lot of them on my iPod now. These included “I Didn’t Mean To Interrupt…” by Jamies Elsewhere, a “Since U Been Gone” cover by A Day To Remember, “Still Dreaming” by Silverstein, and some songs by a band named 1997, a band that I never researched much further… but the songs on the CD are great! Anyway, among these songs, I found the music video for a song called “Warm Me Up” by The Audition. I had never heard of The Audition, but I really liked this song. The Audition is now one of my top 5 favorite bands ever, and I never would have found them without this CD.

Favorite Songs: Somewhere In Between is definitely my favorite song on the CD.

Other Gems: Sugar In The Engine, Desperation, Four Became One, 321

Video!

Music Video for Somewhere In Between

Four Became One

Rating: 7.5/10. There are a lot of songs on the CD that I really like, and the rest I just never really listen to.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Hawthorne Heights? Did you already hate them? I know a lot of people do. Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Apologies!

Sincerest apologies to anyone hoping for posts in the past week! Since I've had time off from work, my family has been in the Black Hills, seeing Mount Rushmore and such, and our hotel's wifi was seriously crappier than my campus' wifi at school. Which is saying a lot. It was literally nonexistent. So, I've only had phone internet, and even that only rarely worked and the blogger app is pretty limited. Anyway, definitely a post tomorrow, as I'm otw home now! See you tomorrow!