April Update - A Neon Colored Life

Another month flew by way too quickly.

The fun has ended. From now on the studies and exams' got the upper hand...

Did you do anything exciting?
This month I've been home for a couple of days to visit friends and family. I even got to go to my good friend Sara's eighteenth birthday. I've also been to a christian youth-camp just outside Bergen together with Simon, Jonas, Ole and Benjamin. The camp was even better than I expected and I got to know lots of new people! I even got to know some girls... What? It might come as a shock for some of you, but I don't only ever talk to guys!

Funniest thing that happened?
This is always the hardest question! Too many great moments to choose from...
But one moment that made me laugh the most was probably during blind man's buff. Simon, Jonas, Benjamin and his brother Tom and myself was visiting a guy named Robert. After playing various childhood TV-games for a while we suddenly decided to be even more childish and play blind man's buff. We turned off all the lights in the entire apartment, removed anything that could easily get broken and turned on some scary "haunted house"-music. One person then got blindfolded and the fun could begin! Let's just say that screaming, laughing, pushing, running and falling quite a lot was all a part of the game. Throwing mattresses at people and turning on vacuum cleaners was perfectly within the rules too. Being the only girl, it was quite a challenge not to reveal my identity too easily, but all in all it was some of the best hours of fun I've had in a while! You aren't fully grown-up until you dare to be childish...

Best Movies you've seen?
Shockingly enough I've actually only seen two movies during all of April. Luckily they were awesome! The first one was The Amazing Spiderman and it was so much better than I expected. The second one was Casino from 1995 (reviewed here), and it was just like watching a masterclass in both acting and moviemaking...

Favorite edible thing?
Again the winner is Zupperia! It's starting to become a favorite restaurant of mine. This time I had deep fried scampi. Even for a person not too fan of seafood this tasted heavenly!





Which songs have you listened to the most?
This month it's definitely been all about punk-rock and other alternative sub-genres. I had a week of walking down memory lane with Panic! before the brilliant and fantastic thing that was FOB's Save Rock And Roll (reviewed here) was released. Now, however, I need some new bands and artist to listen to so I wouldn't go tired of the ones I already love. I also see myself drifting towards the more "quiet" genres of music... I guess it is required to keep up the musical balacne or something? Of Monsters And Men, Ben Howard and Birdy became my saviours...

"The Phoenix" - Fall Out Boy

"cute as a button" "avenue maintain" "mint candy apple"

"Young Volcanoes" - Fall Out Boy
"Life In Color" - OneRepublic
"Little Talks" - Of Monsters And Men
"Trade Mistakes" - Panic! At The Disco
"Miss Missing You" - Fall Out Boy
"Burning Bridges" - OneRepublic

Favorite material thing?
Bright and flashy colors is not usually something that can be connected with me. But this spring I decided to give it a try and bought sweaters in neon-orange and mint-green and bright blue. And nail-polish! (From Essie of course. Where else?)

Something that made you proud?
This blog actually... I've invested quite a few hours designing and improving both the layout and the content, and I actually feel like I've got it just how I wanted it to be in the first place. That's a great feeling!

What did you learn?
That strangers are just friends you haven't gotten to know yet.

What are you looking forward to?
Well... First I have three exams... But after those I get to go to London with my amazing best friend!

Copyright: Bente (thebenteway.blogspot.com)

Save Rock And Roll (Fall Out Boy) - Album Review

Details: "Save Rock And Roll" by Fall Out Boy
Released: April 15th 2013

Review: Since I've already written a quite long blog post about Fall Out Boy I'll actually dig right into what I thought about this album... (click here to read the other post, though!) After a hiatus lasting more than three years they suddenly surprised the world when they announced that they had finally come together again and made their fourth studio album. I'f you like their facebook-page you probably know that they actually made their entire album available for free streaming through SoundCloud last week already? Due to this joyous surprise I've been able to listen through the entire thing a lot of times already, and I can't stress enough how truly great it is!

If you've been reading my monthly updates for the past couple of months you've probably figured that I've been obsessed with the first two singles from the album, so I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for when I was finally getting to listen to the rest of the tracks. A lot of it was just as awesome as I expected, but there were also some surprises in there like the song Young Volcanoes. Someone mentioned that it sounded like Fun. and that's not someone you'd normally associate with FOB. But both that one and some of the other ones were standouts both despite and because of the new and different vibe they'd put into it.

Some have argued that despite the album title not all of these songs are actually rock... But that doesn't really seem to be FOB's intention either. To me this album feels like their statement to the world that they want to bring back the rebellious and groundbreaking form of music that once changed and defined generations, but that to accomplish that they also had to make it new and current. Both they and the music world has changed over the past couple of years, and that's the way it has to be. Change is always for the better. To me Save Rock And Roll proved what can happen when a punk-band grows older, braver, wiser and better.

Maybe they didn't exactly save rock and roll? But they totally made something fresh and exciting by giving an old feeling a new sound. Even though some tracks were just a tiny bit weaker than the rest of them it's not even worth mentioning, because for me this is actually one out of a very few albums where I honestly love and enjoy the entire thing from beginning to end. Fall Out Boy and Save Rock And Roll has saved a place on my all time favorites from now on...

Favorite tracks: My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark,
The Phoenix, Young Volcanoes, Alone Together,

Rating: 9/10 - AWESOME