One Direction - Little Things

Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson all together formed One Direction – a British-Irish boys band - in 2010, in London.

By the time of the 7th series of The X Factor, the 5 auditioned as solo candidates but failed to pass to the “Boys” category at “judges’ houses”. After a suggestion by Nichole Scherzinger (a guest judge) they formed a band at Wembley Arena during the “bootcamp” stage and qualified for the “Groups” category. They end up finishing in the third place.

After the success in this contest they signed with Simon Cowell’s record label Syco Records and later on signed with Columbia Records in North America.

The debut studio album was released in the same year and it’s called Up All Night and made them popular everywhere, mainly due to their pop-hit What Makes You Beautiful. This year they launched their second album, Take me Home. They are basically what we can call a 'money machine'.

So far they won a BRIT Award and 3 MTV Video Music Awards.

This song is not like the ones most known from them. Little Things was written by Ed Sheeran (
Get to know more about him in another post we made one year ago: http://www.fymstories.com/2011/10/ed-sheeran-lego-house.html).

It was written about the best things about someone, kind of like the things you wouldn't expect. (…) Those 'little things' include all those seeming imperfections and idiosyncrasies, like the 'crinkles by your eyes,' and 'that you talk in your sleep'.

Your hand fits in mine

Like it's made just for me

But bear this in mind

It was meant to be

And I'm joining up the dots

With the freckles on your cheeks

And it all makes sense to me

I know you've never loved

The crinkles by your eyes

When you smile

You've never loved

Your stomach or your thighs

The dimples in your back

At the bottom of your spine

But I'll love them endlessly

The Wanted - Chasing The Sun

The Wanted are a British/Irish band formed in 2009, until now they have already released 2 albums (The Wanted & Battleground) and 1 EP.

Chasing the Sun is the third single from The Wanted self-titled EP released this year.
The song was co-written by Alex Smith and singer Example, and is one of two theme songs for the 2012 film Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Chasing the Sun is a dance anthem, the chorus' voices are addictive and the lyrics are simple (that's what is asked for this kind of music).

I'm better

So much better now

Look to the skies, gives me life

We're together now

Check this cover from Coldplay's hugest success Fix You by The Wanted:

The XX - Angels

This is the new song by The XX, a British indie-pop group. The song was released on July the 16 as the lead single of their second and new album called Coexist, to be released next month.

Jamie Smith (known by the stage name Jamie xx): The majority of stuff I'm working on now is The xx stuff. We're just about to start recording. Hopefully we'll get it done in time for most festivals next year, because that's the most fun. (...) We've all come back off tour and been partying a bit more. We left when we were 17 and we missed out on that chunk of our lives when everyone else was partying. Club music has definitely had an influence on the next record. (December 2011)

Coexist comes after the very well aclamed debut album XX, which was part of the "best of the year" lists, placing second for NME.

And everyday

I am learning about you

The things that no one else sees

And the end comes too soon

Like dreaming of angels

And leaving without them

News - Michael Kiwanuka wins the Sound of 2012!

Sound of.. is an annual BBC pool of music critics to find the most promising new music talent.
The first edition was in 2003. Since then artists such as Keane (2004), Corinne Bailey Rae (2006), Mika (2997), Adele (2008) and Jessie J last year were distinguished.

But there were other artists that are now very famous that didn't won: Florance and The Machine stayed in third place 3 years ago. In that same year Lady Gaga deserved the 6th. Last year James Blake was placed in second.

This year the winner is Michael Kiwanuka.

He is a soul musician of Ugandan heritage who was born in England.
He supported Adele on her Adele Live 2011 tour and her iTunes Festival gig also in 2011.

His debut EP Tell Me A Tale was released last year, in June. His first album will be released this year at the end of March and will be titled as Home Again.

His music is very calm, very "soul". Let's hope to see more of him. He has now the lights pointed at him.

Here is his single Home Again: