CallumsBlog: Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Post 8
10/4/15

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley

Crazy was the debut single by American duo Gnarls Barkley. The band was formed by singer Cee-Lo Green and producer/keyboardist Danger Mouse (real name; Brian Burton). Crazy was released in 2006 and was featured heavily on Radio 1 especially by Zane Lowe who is famed for finding the newest and most exciting bands in the world. The song was used by the radio station as the background to one of there adverts.


Crazy managed to achieve a double platinum rating in the UK as it was featured at number 1 in the charts for 9 consecutive weeks, the first song to do this for 10 years. Rihanna was the first person after Gnarls Barkley to beat this record with her own debut single "Umbrella" which was released late in 2007. The song also managed to make it to the number two slot on the US Billboard 200 as well as this Crazy won a Grammy for "Best Alternative Performance" in 2006.

Crazy also managed make history in the UK by being the first single to make it too the number one spot in the charts on download sales alone. This was a monumental time in UK music as it was the first glimpse of what was to become of the music industry, moving away from physical album sales and into downloads. Crazy showed that people were beginning to look at easier and more efficient ways of obtaining music and that method was downloads.

Gnarls Barkley were worried about the song. They believed the song would become tiresome and they did not want this to be the case. The band and it's record label attempted to pull all of the physical copies from shops in an attempt to stop the song from becoming hated due to how overplayed it had become. In any case the attempt had mild success however people continued to play the song constantly due to the constant stream of download sales of the song.

The song has managed to maintain it's impact on the music industry however with it's near constant appearance on "Greatest Songs of All-Time" lists. It is featured on Rolling Stones list as well as well as Pitchfork Media and NME's lists.


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Callum

CallumsBlog: Hozier - Hozier

Post 7
9/4/15

Hozier - Hozier


Hozier is the self titled debut album of Irish folk artist Hozier.  Real name Andrew-Hozier Byrne he was picked up by Universal music in 2012 whilst studying Music at University. The Album was released in September 2014 with the debut single "Take Me To Church" went viral on Youtube leading to the album becoming supremely successful. The album placed number 1 on the Irish Itunes charts and number two on the national charts and incredibly the album also managed a top 10 place in the US Billboard charts.


Hozier was nominated for the prestigious "Song of the Year" award at the 57th annual Grammy awards with his track "Take Me To Church". Sam Smith eventually walked away with the award for his track "Stay With Me". The award ceremony showed Hozier performing a medley of his track "Take Me To Church" along with famed Scottish artist Annie Lennox who performed Nina Simones track "I Put A Spell On You". The video as of writing has 5.2 million views on Youtube.

Hozier was met with critical acclaim. The album was described as a "Strong debut release" by AllMusic. Hozier's passionately deep soulful "whiskey-soaked" voice was also met with acclaim with critics picking up on his ability to push emotion through his lyrics with confidence whether he was near whispering such as on the track "In A Week" or whether he was preaching such as on "Take Me To Church". 

The album in my personal opinion is absolute triumph. Hozier manages to mix and match between genres throughout each of his tracks, from the R&B of "Jackie and Wilson" to the blues underline on the track "Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene". Hozier's voice manages to make listeners experience a wave of emotions throughout the album and in turn has created one of the best albums of 2014 and in my opinion the decade. 

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Callum

CallumsBlog: The Hoosiers - The News From Nowhere

Post 5

7/4/15

The Hoosiers - The News From Nowhere

The News From Nowhere was the 2014 release from the band "The Hoosiers". The band made a name for itself back in 2007 with the release of the album "The Trick To Life". The album was a commercial success due to the singles "Goodbye Mr A" and also "Worried About Ray" unfortunately for the band this is still the most successful album they've had. "The Trick To Life" was popular due to it being chock full of earworm style songs that after one listen were stuck in your head for days!

The band decided to separate from Sony (Their record label) after becoming frustrated at the lack of promotion their 2nd  album "The Illusion of Safety" received, as a result the band re-released the album under a new name and included a four extra different in the new re-released version. The unfortunate thing for the band was that neither release was particularly successful.

"The News from Nowhere" was released by the band without a record label which meant the band had some issues. Recording, manufacturing, promotion etc were usually all paid for by the record label however not having one means the band would have to find a way of financing the album. The Hoosiers decided the best method of doing this was by crowdfunding the various aspects of creating an album. The band used the fan email list to obtain the help of their loyal fans with financing the album. They used offers of being in videos, touring the studios, signed merchandise etc in order to entice the fans further. In 2014 after obtaining enough funding the band finally released the album "The News From Nowhere".