COVID-19 – Will Garnett

Album Reviews: Wrap Up of 2020, June – December

December 16, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged A Celebration of Endings, A Hero's Death, Acoustic, Aesop Rock, Album, Album of the Month, Album Review, Albums of the Year, August, Backpack Rap, Biffy Clyro, Bring Me the Horizon, Bristol, Bronson, Country, COVID-19, Creeper, Death Of An Optimist, December, Deftones, Discover, Doves, Drum & Bass, Electronic, Emo, Emo Rap, Emotional Hardcore, Everything Everything, Existential Reckoning, Fairhazel, Fever 333, Folk, folklore, Fontaines D.C., grandson, hip-hop, I Sold My Sould For Fairhazel, IDLES, Indie, Indie-Rock, Irish Folk, Irish Rock, Juice WRLD, July, June, Kid Cudi, Lamb of God, Lament, Man on the Moon III, Marilyn Manson, Mental Health, Metal, Mike Skinner, Miley Cyrus, Moral Panic, Mosh Pit, Movements, Music, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Music Review, New Music, No Good Left To Give, None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive, Nothing But Thieves, November, Nu Metal, October, Ohms, Pandemic, Phoebe Bridgers, Phoxjaw, Plastic Hearts, Pop, Pop-Punk, Pop-Rock, Post Human: Survival Horror, Punisher, Punk Rock, Puscifer, PVRIS, Rap, Re-Animator, Review, Rock, Royal Swan, RTJ4, Run the Jewels, September, Sex Death & the Infinite Void, Spirit World Field Guide, Taylor Swift, The Chosen, The Streets, The Universal Want, Touche Amore, Twin Heavy, UK Garage, Ultra Mono, Use Me, WE ARE CHAOS, weird!, Willie J Healy, Wrap Up of 2020, Wrong Generation, YUNGBLUD3 Comments

I’ve been trying to think of something profound to say about 2020 as an introduction to this post, a wrap up of the rest of my month-by-month album reviews of the year, something I started during the first lockdown, and in synergy to how this pandemic has gone; those posts started with much fluster, meandered, and has now come back with renewed enthusiasm, and a new string (strain) to its bow. The new strings in this post are simply a more rushed approach to getting these album reviews done, or simply sharing what albums I enjoyed listening to each month, much like the UK governments approach to getting the Pfizer vaccine approved, or quickly hashing out a last minute trade deal with the EU.

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Album Reviews: My Top 5 Albums Released in May

November 9, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Album Reviews, JournalismTagged Album, Album of the Month, Album Review, Alternative, America, Art, Blackpool, Boston Manor, Britpop, Cloud Rap, COVID-19, Discover, Emo, Emo Rap, Feature, Freddie Gibbs, Glam, GLUE, Goth, Hayley Williams, hip-hop, Indie-Rock, London, May, Music, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Music Review, Musicians, Netflix, Paramore, Perfume Genius, Petals for Armor, Pop-Punk, Punk, Rap, Review, Rock, Sad Boys, Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, Soul, SoundCloud, Starz, Sweden, Synth-Pop, The Alchemist, USA, Yung Lean1 Comment

By the time May came around, each month had started to blur into one, and a feeling of doom and gloom lay rife in the air, as everything that we had looked forward to slowly withered away and was being cancelled, or rescheduled for what would be either the first or second time of many more. Completing a Netflix series had become the norm and no longer an accomplishment, and having walked the 5 mile radius surrounding my London flat a good ten times over, it all started to feel like a Deja Vu. New lockdown hobbies and interests started to fade, and the constant battle to stay motivated was a fortnightly crisis. Even new music wasn’t quite hitting the mark, and some of the albums in this post were listened to retrospectively.

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Feature: Top 10 Music-Related Things to Watch During Lockdown, pt. 2

October 23, 2020April 22, 2021Posted in Features, JournalismTagged (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, A Thousand Suns, Alicia Keys, Alternative, Behemoth, Big Night Out, Britpop, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Discover, Disney+, Dutch Hardcore, DVD, Experimental Rock, Extreme Metal, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Grime, GRM Daily, Hamilton, hip-hop, IDLES, KEXP, Linkin Park, Live At Home, Live In The K! Pit, Live Music, Lockdown, Los Cogelones, Maida Vale, Metal, Mexico, Music, Music Documentary, Music Feature, Music Journalism, Musical, Musicians, New Music, Noisey, NPR, NPR Tiny Desk Concert, Nu-Metal, Oasis, Poland, Polish Metal, Punk, Punk Rock, Quarantine Watches, R&B, Return To Rockfield, Rock, Theatre, Together We Rise, Ultra Mono1 Comment

Back in May when I wrote the first part to this I wouldn’t have believed that I would be writing a second part several months later. Time is a weird thing, and amiss of any live music, festivals and any significant trips away, apart from visiting the Motherland for a few weeks, the months have rolled into one and gone by in a blur. I’ve learnt to accept the situation and know that I cannot control what will happen, counting my blessings each day that the people close to me are safe, and that I’ve not lost anyone during this time. Having worked in music and live events since University, their absence has been hard to come to terms with, and with the Goverment response to this, asking people like myself to retrain, has been somewhat anger-inducing, to say the least. Finally we are now seeing some socially distanced shows happening, and being able to mark them into the diary. It’s great to see a venue that I’ve worked at for the past few years, The O2 Arena, having their first show back on the 5th of December.

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Feature: Top 10 Music-Related Things to Watch During Lockdown

May 20, 2020August 18, 2020Posted in Features, JournalismTagged Alternative, Andrea Bocelli, Astronomical Concert, Concert, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Delta 7, Disabled Not Defeated, Documentary, Duomo di Milano, Emo, England, Everybody's Everything, Film, Five4Five Fest, Foals, Fortnite, Gig, Grunge, History, Italy, Journalism, Kerrang!, Knocked Loose, Korn, Lil Peep, Live Music, Live Stream, Lockdown, London, Metal, Mini-Documentary, Movie, Music, Music For Hope, Netflix, New York Hardcore, Nirvana, Noisey, Pop, Post Malone, Punk, Review, Rock, Show, The Nothing, Travis Scott, USA, Vice, Video, YouTube1 Comment

The current situation with COVID-19 has left the world in lockdown, with venues closed and tours cancelled or postponed, a lot of artists have been forced to find new and innovative ways to stay connected wth their fans, such as live streaming performances from their home, going back through the archives and releasing footage of previous shows, or hosting Q&A’s and listening parties. Like many, I’ve had the extra time on my hands to watch a lot of these performances, and found it interesting to see the various ways in which bands and artists are approaching these difficult times.

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