Sound Seekers: Leo
Introducing you to our weekly new feature Sound Seekers. Each week we will hand over the rains to one of you to take us on a musical journey into the tracks that mean something to you. What’s fresh and new, what are the bangers that you just can’t live without?
Young Reporter Leo is kicking us off on this musical quest. Take it away Leo!
Music is cool and I’ve been listening to it for too long now, so I just got to scream out some recommendations. So here it is my Ultimate List for Music Bands which are Awesome or ULMBA if you will.
Number 5 : Baccara
Baccara were musical duo from Madrid, they’re Spanish but they sing in a French accent and where huge in Germany, when the were still two Germanies, so yeah not a very modern band but still a good one, their debut album “Baccara” came out in 1977 and was part of the disco genre and contains one of their best songs in my opinion “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” a certain song I can boogie to all night long 😉.
There are certain eras of Baccara, Original Baccara (1977-1981) then the duo split and there where two Baccaras Mayte Mateo’s Baccara (1981-Present) AKA Baccara 2000 and Maria Mendiola’s Baccara (1985-2021) AKA New Baccara, then sadly Maria passed away and her musical partner agreed to carry on in her memory thus starting Cristina Sevilla and Helen di Quiroga's Baccara (2021-Present).
So surprisingly Baccara is still realising new songs with the funky disco beat such as 2021’s “No Sir, Don’t Say Goodbye”
Number 4 : The Pillows
They say music is the universal language which must be true as I like this band songs even though I haven’t got a clue what they are saying, The Pillows are a band from Hokkaidō and are a part of the J-Rock genre. What’s J-Rock ? Well it is basically means Japanese Rock, a sub-genre of Alternative Rock which is a sub-genre of Rock, so J-Rock is a sub-sub-genre of Rock. Their debut album “Moon Gold” came out in 1991 however this album is much different to the rest of their discography as it is more punk inspired than rock. Personally I would recommend their 1998 album “Little Busters”, this album has their classic hits “Little Busters”, an upbeat track which makes me want to go for a jog, and “One Life”, a slower track which makes me nostalgic for a time I wasn’t even born.
The Pillows is super niche outside Japan, which is such a shame as I think they are a very good band, they’re were quite popular in the early 2000s as they made the soundtrack for FLCL which was very popular and spread the reach of this band within Japan and The US.
They are still releasing music and recently celebrated their 30 Anniversary and released their new Album “Rebroadcast” in 2018, this band has a large backlog of songs to enjoy.
Number 3 : The Coral
From J-Rock to like normal rock I guess, genres are hard to identify. The Coral is a local band formed in Hoylake so I’ve got to support a band from Wirral. Their debut album “The Coral” came out in 2002 and had the song “Simon Diamond” which is less of a song and more of a story about a man called Simon Russell turned himself into a plant, all of The Coral songs are pretty good and if you like guitars in your music you will definitely like them
This is Band is the most modern on my list and I like them because they show if your from Wirral you can become successful and that’s a message which I think is good
They are still regularly making music with them releasing an album in 2021 “Coral Island”
Watch out boys here’s Number 2 : Hall and Oates
Now you may think this pick is “out of touch” but “I can’t go for That ” because Daryl Hall & John Oates are a great musical duo don’t you know? Their debut album “Whole Oates” came out in 1972 and surprisingly it wasn’t made solely by John Oates 🤯this album got like a nice soft soul touch to it, which kind of goes against their more mainstream stuff, “All Our Love” is completely different to “Maneater” I guess you would say they are pop rock. The amazing thing about Hall and Oates is that they’re most popular songs were made pretty much a decade after their debut album, showing if you keep on trying you can succussed. I would recommend “Big Bam Boom” released in 1984 it contains one of my favourite song from them “Out of Touch” which is a timeless classic, and a love song?
Halls and Oates are have recently released an album “Marigold Sky” even though they are the oldest band on this list.
Number 1 : Pulp
Pulp is an amazing band they debut album was “It” and came out in 1983 but they didn’t see much success. In 1992 they started to move into the genre of Britpop with their album “Separations” and then in 1995 they hit it big with “Different Class” which had great songs like “Disco 2000” and “Common People” their music is super catchy and another great thing about them is their music videos, they are some of the weirdest things I have ever seen, but then again most Britpop music videos where weird.
They aren’t that relevant as Britpop is a dead genre and they haven’t released a song since 2013’s “After You” but I like them and I don’t think Britpop gets enough love.
Oh yeah If I got to recommend a song try 1997’s “Help the Aged”, its not as ionic as “Common People” or “Disco 2000” or even “Babies” but its neat.