Review: Ed Sheeran's "X"

I have to say before I can say anything about this album, that I am such a huge fan of Ed Sheeran that this might just be a little bit of a biased review, and that as I am a huge fan I of course had to pre-order this album in the deluxe edition of course even if there was five like 5 additional songs that include "I See Fire" (which if you don't already know was recorded for the film "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug", and I'm also a fan of this series of films), and "All Of The Stars" (which if you don't already know was recorded for the film "The Fault In Our Stars").

And I have already heard some of the songs from the album...well it's impossible not to when "Sing" has already been released and is on the radio and that it seems like every other day leading up "X"'s release date of the 23/06/2014 Ed Sheeran has posted on his own Facebook page other songs from the album which if you ask me is good in a way as listeners can hear other songs off the album and make up their minds if they like those songs that get posted to this Facebook page and then buy the album which comes in either normal format, deluxe edition, boxset, download or in vinyl.

I of course liked "Sing" that he wrote with Pharrel Williams who you may or may not recognise from N.E.R.D or from more recently from his song "Happy" where he seems to have taken the world by storm with wearing that  misshapen Vivienne Westwood hat in the video.

 

This is just in case you hadn't seen it or if you like this song and just want to listen to the song again

 

 

I was as I had pre-ordered this like a kid at Christmas,-very excited-, and couldn't wait to get it come through my door and have the first listen to it and get to hear this song along with another song off this album which I love "One", (this may sound silly but I really like the floaty quality of the chorus in this song):

 



 

I have to say though that this album I thought does sound different to "+" as I thought that on that album the songs varied from sounding more just him and the guitar sounds, more acoustic sounding to songs that sounded a bit beefier with some production on like:

 

 

 

 

 

 



But I do realise that that is what makes Ed Sheeran so great, is it has always just been about his voice and his acoustic guitar and he is so great because that's all he really needs to make a song so great he can even beatbox or rap on the track and it'll sound of course acoustic because it is just a voice and a guitar but he has the ability to make the song so amazing just like that and there is no need to put any additional production on it or any additional instruments like you hear on other records because that alone sounds great, tracks like these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't want to put the whole of Ed Sheeran's "+" on here because you probably get the point, but also I don't want to put the whole of this album on here as if you haven't got it by now why not, well it's no matter these songs will just give you hopefully a little taster and hopefully it'll give you a reason to go out and buy it or download it now.

 

But, I thought with this album "X" or multiply that it maybe sounded like it had a more R'n'B vibe and that there was more production on these tracks and that there was more of a sound like there was additional instruments used on the tracks like:

 

 

 

 

 

But there are still songs that are still just Ed Sheeran and his guitar like:

 

 



 

 

 

But there are others depending on if your like me and have either pre-ordered the deluxe version, vinyl or the boxset version of "X" that have a different sound to them that you'll like just as much, but yet again I'm only putting these songs from the album up as you should really go get the album and these are pretty big reasons why with of course having the hobbit song on and the song to the film "The Fault In Stars", and of course the main reason that this is an Ed Sheeran album so you know it's going to be good.

 

And I also have to say that this is a well worth the wait album as I instantly love this album, and once you get it you'll want to listen to it all the time like me...probably but this album also does make good background music.

 





Maroon 5 are back!

You may or may not have already heard but Maroon 5 are back with a new song "Maps":

This song sounds like a poppy song to enjoy this summer, as all their other songs from their albums that came after "Songs About Jane" in my opinion are poppy, which could be a good starter for their new album "V" which according to the Metro Online is released on 1st September (UK release date, according to MTV the release date for this is 2nd September), but I just hope that it isn't like "Overexposed" where in my opinion there were some tracks that you liked more than others on the album, such as for me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



which I have to say did leave me feeling a little disappointed as I heard "Payphone" and I thought as this song was so catchy that there would be other tracks on the album that would be the same really good, catchy and likeable,- this may sound like I didn't know what I was expecting with having heard their other songs but I did know what I was going to get and I was really excited when I first bought "Overexposed" because I heard "Payphone" and "Moves Like Jagger" and liked them, as when I first heard other songs of theirs like "Goodnight, Goodnight" and "Makes Me Wonder" ,but I heard this (see below) which put me off buying their second album thus I only have two albums of Maroon 5's so I was just hoping that it would be better than this-.

 

 

Anyhew....Maroon 5 have teamed up with Ryan Tedder again from OneRepublic to write this song, and I have to say when I first heard about this new song of theirs I was really looking forward to hearing the voice of Gwen Stefani on the track as I read a headline saying that she would be on the track but it sounds like to me she is nowhere to be seen on the actual track...maybe she might be on the radio edit version? who knows.

 

The album was produced by Ryan Tedder (so this sounds like the album might sound really good), Benny Blanco, Max Martin and Shellback.

 

Also there will be an upcoming tour



Aaliyah gets a biopic...among others!

I read this on ryanseacrest.com and I have to say it piqued my interest.

According to ryanseacrest.com Lifetime TV will be filming over the summer and has fingers crossed pencilled in an upcoming autumn release date, according to ryanseacrest.com a biopic of the R 'n' B singer Aaliyah who's songs include these that you may or may not recognise:

 

 

Also she also sang many other songs which include:

 

 



 

And:

 



 

This video of "Rock Da Boat" was actually the video that Aaliyah had just finished production on hours before she died in a plane crash and died at the age of 22, at the moment this biopic has the working title of "Aaliyah: The Princess of R 'n' B" which will be based on the Christopher Farley best selling biography of her called "Aaliyah: More Than A Woman", and this film will document her life starting from where it all began on Star Search to her death in 2001...and the person they've cast to play this role is another Disney actress Zendaya Coleman who you may or may not recognise from the Disney series "Shake It Up" or you might have even seen her on series 16 of "Dancing With The Stars",-I've just thought that maybe the powers that be have given her this part in this role hoping that this could be her big breakout role so that she might be another Selena Gomez and make it big,-.

 

And it looks like I'm not wrong because according to ryanseacrest.com like all the Disney or Nickelodeon actresses Zendaya Coleman has tried to break into the music industry with according to ryanseacrest.com having a first song "Replay" that was a hit over in the USA spending 21 weeks on the Billboard Chart Top 100.

 

But this isn't the only biopic that Lifetime will be producing, it didn't take long for their to be a film done about the life and hits of Whitney Houston, and now Lifetime has done it according to ryanseacrest.com Lifetime has already started production on a movie that documents the life of Whitney Houston who will be played by Yaya Dacosta .

 

 





Your not going to believe this but there is going to be a 3rd Expendables!

How many more old aged action stars can you put into a film written and starring Sylvester Stallone?...quite a lot more it seems. No your eyes are not deceiving you, yes there is a 3rd Expendables film getting released that will of course star Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham along with some of the other ex-action heroes from the last two films Dolph Ludgren, Jet Li and of course Arnold Schwarzenegger...but with some new and old faces such as:

Wesley Snipes, this will be his first film since going to prison for serving a two year prison sentence for tax evasion, Antonio Banderas who's most famous role to date has to be for me Puss In Boots, Harrison Ford who you may or may not recognise from Star Wars as he played the part of Hans Solo and more recently in Anchorman 2:The Legend Continues as he played the role of Mack Tannen, Mel Gibson,-hopefully this latest movie role will mask over his recent outbursts-, Kelsey Grammer who you may or may not recognise from Frasier.

And some new faces:

Kellan Lutze who you may or may not recognise from the Twilight Saga of films who played Emmett Cullen and has been more recently in the newest film about Hercules, Terry Crews who you may or may not recognise from Brooklyn Nine-Nine who played Sergent Terry Jeffords and a mixed martial artist hopeing to become another Gina Carrano Ronda Rousey.

Here is the trailer for it:

The plot for this is that Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his team known as "The Expendables" come up against Mel Gibson's character Conrad Stonebanks who co-founded "The Expendables" but is now a ruthless arms dealer and is also determined to break the team up.

Thus I think it looks like from this trailer gives the perfect exuse to get more old guys involved in this movie including new actors to help take Mel Gibson down.

 In my opinion now that I've seen this trailer that this film has been kept the same as the other films as with the whistling in the trailer it feels very jokey a bit like M*A*S*H, not taking it very seriously, like their saying "here comes another one, just when you thought they ucklecouldn't come back their back  with some new faces and even more action than before".

This film is set to be released on 14th August 2014 so buckle up and get ready to see even more Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham!

More Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles news!

I saw this on Facebook this morning and as I am a fan of the Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles and got very excited when I first saw the first trailer for this film and heard that there was going to be a film made, and that Michael Bay was going to produce this which made me think that the film studios were hoping that this could possibly spark a franchise as Michael Bay has already reignited the Transformers franchise with another film Transformers: Age of Extinction on it's way with Marky Mark Wahlberg starring in it that is coming to cinemas on 5th July 2015.

If you haven't seen the trailer for this film yet why the hell not...anyhew here is the trailer for those of you in this predicament:

 

 



This film does look like from this trailer like it will be an action packed family friendly film for everyone to enjoy not just the kids, but there is also this picture of the new reimagined Michael Bay styled first look at Shredder the arch nemesis of The Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles who is also the alter ego of William Fichner (the guy who you may or may not recognise from "Batman: The Dark Knight" who works at the bank where all of Gotham's mobsters put their money but when it gets broken into by villain's working for The Joker he is the last baddy standing holding a rifle saying "Criminals in this town used to believe in something what do you believe in...!" when he gets shot in the shoulder by The Joker then has a smoke grenade put in his mouth before The Joker leaves the bank in a high school school bus) who plays the baddy of the piece.

To see the new Shredder go to the link below:

https://twitter.com/TMNT_Fansite/status/478996939091214337/photo/1

According to Empire Magazine this Shredder looks like:

"...coming off like the product of a torrid one-night stand between the Witch-king of Angmar and a garden centre..."

To me this Shredder does look like a Transformer but then again Michael Bay is producing so this look doesn't really surprise me as all the Tranformers and the computer effects from the other Transformer films that I've seen look really good.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out in the UK on 17th October 2014.

The Wachowski brothers are back with a brand new rap...Jupiter Ascending!

I heard that the Wackowski brothers were working on another sci-fi film called Jupiter Ascending, which made me think that they might be going back to their Matrix trilogy roots and saw a trailer for this new film with Mila Kunis and a blonde Channing Tatum and may I say what looks like a ginger beard.. .and I don't believe my eyes but Sharpe's Sean Bean has a role in it and it looks like for once he may be playing a good guy,-maybe or maybe not but most films I've seen him in he plays a bad guy-

 

including Eddie Redmayne who you may or may not recognise from the BBC's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" who played Angel who runs away with Gemma Arterton's character Tess at the end after she's killed her husband, will be delayed for 6 months because Warner Bro.'s say the Wackowski brothers need more time to complete their work on more than 2,000 special effects in the movie, meaning that the rather than the film coming out on July 18th 2014 it will get released on February 6th 2015.

 

I hope this is a bit like "The Matrix"as I absolutely love those series of films and hope that it is as action packed as "V for Vendetta" but now that I've seen this trailer it does look like maybe it will be a bit different than those films, and it definitely is different to cast Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum in this sort of film as he's normally in things like "Magic Mike" and it's sequel "Magic Mike 2",-which I heard was hoping to get all the cast members from the first film back together-, and other comedy films such as "21 Jump Street" and it's sequel "22 Jump Street"...but apart from this I do have to agree with BeyondHollywood.com even though there are short, sharp clips that have been edited together to show you some of the action in the film so you can get excited about the film, I do feel there is something missing though in the trailer because I got that there was a lot of action and now that I think about it,-this might just be me but I did get a vibe of "Fifth Element" when I saw the trailer-, but I didn't particularly think god that looks good I want to go see it...but knowing me and how I like sci-fi films I will probably go see this anyway when it comes out.

 



The hillbillies are back...Tucker and Dale vs. evil 2 is on it's way!

You may or may not have already heard this, but I heard this a couple of months ago and I must say that I was really excited about this when I first heard this because I think this film although it's said to be a cult favourite and that people say it really wasn't a favourite at the cinemas, I think it's not that bad a film and that the jokes in it are really funny...eventhough most of the jokes are either at Dale and Tucker and the way the college kids think they are hillbillies or at the ways that everybody dies.

Anyhew....Slashfilm.com reported on the 25th March that Tyler Labine (Dale) Alan Tudyk (Tucker, and if you've seen it he played Pirate Pete in Dodgeball) producers had contacted them in an e-mail to say that:

"We have an outline, we're honing in on who we want to write it, we really want to make another one..."

As I'm a fan of the movie I thought "...hell yeah, why not make another one?", there's so much you could do with the second movie, now I think about this you could pick the story up to see how Dale and Tucker's holiday cabin in the woods is looking after they went up in the first movie to do some renovations on it as it was falling down, it could look like a really plush palace totally unrecognisable from the falling down cabin it once was but they've still kept a few hillbilly habits like they have a built in jetty off the back of the plush cabin that goes onto the lake and Dale, Tucker and Allison are out on the lake one day fishing in what looks like a bit beaten up fishing boat and Tucker and Dale are drinking a few beers but while that's happening the psycho killer Chad from the last film who couldn't accept that he had hillbilly in his family had come back and broken into the cabin...I've just realised that I may have thought a bit too much about what the story for this sequel for this film could be but they did leave the last film open to Chad not being dead after they thought they'd blown him up so there could be a really good funny story that includes this,-and I might be on a bit of a coffee high so I do apologise for this rambling-.

And it looks like as this email came from producers not directors that it wasn't just me that thought that there was a lot more you could do that would warrant a sequel, as Slashfilm.com are taking this a solid evidence that there will be a sequel.

Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine have said that as they are fiercely protective of the property that they would never "...make a shitty sequel..." too right I think, and why would you ever think of making a sequel that wasn't as good or enjoyable as the last film?, but I have just thought though that many films I have seen are like that, they are trilogies or they have a series of films made including spin off films made but the only one in these are the first one and the other films in the trilogies or series of films including spin offs are either average or worst than the first one, but the only series of films that I think are consistent in quality and audience enjoyment or better the Christopher Nolan Batman series of films.

I haven't heard anything other than this but when I hear anything else and you can bet that there will  be more news to come on this I will be sure to let you guys hear this.