Musical Recap: February

Even though February is a small month compared to the others, this year's February held a few impressive new releases. In this issue we'll continue down the same road as we did last time. Let's kick it off!

100% Song Of The Month
In 100% song of the month I'll list 5 songs that surprised me in the last month, and compare them to the #1-song in order to rate them. That way you know if a certain song is really great or just "ok, but nothing special". Here is this month's 100% Song Of The Month!

05 Kyla La Grange - Cut Your Teeth (Kygo Remix) (76%)
I'm using this one to wake up. Beautiful chilled-out track with beautiful vocals. Free download available on Kygo's Facebook page!

04 Mako - Our Story (Original Mix) (81%)
Another free download which sounds better than most EDM-songs that come out these days! Get this incredible danceable tune at Mako's Facebook page!

03 Paradise Fears - Fought For Me (Acoustic) (86%)
As someone who loved the original edit of their "Battle Scars"-album, which came in a difficult time for me, the acoustic version of this song and album was a nice trip down memory-lane.

02 Rezonate - Canvas (95%)
If other EDM-artists would take a bit more time to work on music we might have a lot more of songs like this one. Unfortunately, that's not the case, making this track's mix of analog and digital instruments almost unbeatable. Almost.

01 Paradise Fears - What Are You Waiting For? (Acoustic) (100%)
Without any doubt I have to give this month's number 1 spot to this awesome song. Great adaptation of an incredible song with some of the most beautiful lyrics I've ever heard. I can't wait to see this band grow and release new music. I'm a fan.

Album Review
We Are The In Crowd - "Weird Kids"

The album review takes an album or an EP and reviews it. Easy. Here's how I liked listening to We Are The In Crowd's "Weird Kids"

1 - The album starts off slow, with both "Long Live The Kids" and"The Best Thing (That Never Happened)" not being able to really surprise me. I can't say these are bad songs, but the lyrics aren't really doing it for me. I do have to say that the songs sound well-engineered, which is something I also noticed when I bought their previous album, "Best Intentions".

2 - The biggest kick the album provides can be found in track 3. The chorus of "Manners" hits hard. Incredible vocals, great lyrics anyone can relate to and an incredible use of effects, both on the vocals and the instruments. A huge amount of detail to be discovered as you listen to it once again, which I'm sure you will. They did a great job in releasing this one as one of the 5 singles leading up to the actual album.

3 - After "Manners", unfortunately, things get a bit boring. Everything from "Come Back Home" until  "Don't You Worry" sound a bit "been there, done that". It lacks inspiration and (most importantly) heart. "Remember (To Forget You)", song number 7, is the only song in this list that manages to break away from the downwards spiral the album seems to get in, by adding another good example of lyrics I like to yell along.

4 - The end of the album picks up a bit of quality that was left out of the previous 5 tracks. It's not nearly as great as "Manners" is, but "Windows In Heaven" is a song of which I can feel that a lot of emotions went into the details. It's a great story, the music builds up nicely. Absolutely worth a listen. The last song, "Reflections" continues the upward spiral, making the album end on a positive note.

Overall I'd have to say that 3 songs really stand out, meaning that you can just pick out the ones you like on iTunes and save some money to go eat a hamburger. It's a big improvement compared to the last album, in which I thought their cover of "Grenade" by Bruno Mars was the only great song on the entire album. They are moving forward but seem to forget that except for catchy melodies you also need some words to sing. If the pop-genre is where they want to be they will have to work on that.

1 - Manners
2 - Windows In Heaven
3 - Remember (To Forget You)

Overall Album Score: 33%

Upcoming
Let's have a look at the most anticipated releases of next month. Remember that it is possible that a release might be released sooner or later, depending on the country you're living in.

3 March
[Pop] Pharrell Williams: "G I R L"
[Rock] Rufus Wainwright: "Vibrate - The Best Of Rufus Wainwright"

4 March
[Electro] RAC: "Strangers, Pt.1"

7 March
[Alternative] Blaudzun: "Promises of No Man's Land"

10 March
[Alternative] Elbow: "The Take Off and Landing of Everything"

14 March
[Alternative] Foster The People: "Supermodel"
[Pop] Kylie Minogue: "Kiss Me Once" (both Standard & Special Edit)

17 March
[Electro] Tycho: "Awake"

21 March
[Country] Johnny Cash: "Out Among the Stars"
[Alternative] My Chemical Romance: "May Death Never Stop You" (both Standard & Deluxe Edit)
[Pop] Shakira - "Shakira." (both Standard & Deluxe Edit)

31 March
[Alternative] Kaiser Chiefs: "Education, Education, Education & War"

That's it for this month's issue! Let me know which EP or Album you want me to review next month by tweeting suggestions @BirdReview and obviously it's recommended to follow us there, since we've got regular one-tweet-reviews right there!

I see you all next month!

Michiel

Musical Recap: January

Hello, and welcome to something new! This is Musical Recap, where I take a look back on the music that surprised me last month. Before we start I want to point out that you can download a new track by U2 for free on iTunes. By downloading you support the fight against HIV & AIDS. I've got 3 cool segments lined up for you, so let's just kick it off!

100% Song Of The Month

In 100% song of the month I'll list 5 songs that surprised me in the last 30 days, and compare them to the #1-song in order to rate them. That way you know if a certain song is really great or just "ok, but nothing special". Here is this month's 100% Song Of The Month!

05 Wet - No Lie (39%)

Wet (yes, that is the name) has surprised me with soft vocals supported by chilled out guitar riffs, cool electronic drums and an amazing bass. "No Lie" was the first song I heard of this project and I was hooked in the blink of an eye. We'll see Wet a few more times in this edition of Musical Recap. Absolutely awesome if you want to chill out.

04 Wet - Dreams (45%)

Didn't think we'd see Wet this soon again? Don't worry, it's the last one in this list. I love the rough feel of this song and the way it switches from this full-atmospherical sound to something like just vocals and drums.

03 Butch Clancy - Russian Lullaby (Candyland Remix) (48%)

Candyland was pretty generous, since they did a week of freebies on their Facebook page. Most of these tracks didn't really catch on, but the first song they released was an amazing mix of both dubstep and trap. The first drop blows me away each and every time again. Amazing song and a must have for everyone who thinks Skrillex is the only one who can do dubstep right. Also, did I mention it's free? Go get it!

02 Rameses B - Transformations (feat. Laura Brehm) (52%)

The combination of sweet vocals, sweet piano and heavier electronic elements made this a big favorite on my iPod for the last month. This is the good kind of dubstep, and in my opinion you can hear the days of work that went into this song. It's constantly looking for ways to surprise you and to provide that extra kick of energy when the song drops once again. It's almost 6 minutes long and it doesn't bore a single second. Amazing. Get ready to fly.

01 Feint & Veela - The Journey (Original Mix) (100%)

Even though all of the songs above are extremely awesome to listen to, nothing comes even close to this track released back in 2012. I discovered this one mid-January and up until this moment I believe it's one of the best tracks I've heard in the last year. The vocals move me, the music contains a huge amount of energy while not forcing itself onto you. I always liked Drum&Bass, but this is much more than just "liking" a track. I'm 100% in love with this track. Can it get any better? Yes, it can, 'cause Feint is coming to Antwerp in February. On his Facebook page he promised to play a new VIP-version of this track. It better be 10 minutes long, 'cause I'll be in the crowd.

Album Review

Wet - "Wet - EP"

The album review takes an album or an EP and reviews it. Easy. Here's how I liked listening to Wet's "Wet - EP"

The EP starts of great with "Dreams", but the intensity drops a bit with song #2, called "You're The Best". This song feels a teeny tiny bit forced to me, and I also don't believe the lyrics as much as I do with the other 3 songs. Fortunately the EP reaches a second climax at the end with "No Lie", meaning that both the start and the end of the EP are easy to enjoy. It makes me want to forgive the tiny dip in the middle. For being an amazing debut and showing a lot of potential I'm giving Wet's "Wet - EP" a solid 80%

Upcoming

Let's have a look at the most anticipated releases of next month. Remember that it is possible that a release might be released sooner or later, depending on the country you're living in.

3 February

[Electro] Boys Noize: "Out Of The Black - The Remixes" 

10 February

[Alternative] Band of Horses: "Acoustic At The Ryman (Live) [Bonus Track Version]"

[Pop] Katy B: "Little Red" (both Standard & Deluxe)

14 February

[Pop] Intergalactic Lovers: "Little Heavy Burdens"

18 February

[Alternative] We Are The In Crowd: "Weird Kids"

28 February

[Pop] Foxes: "Glorious" (both Standard & Deluxe)

So there you are! The first edition of Music Recap is done! Keep an eye out for the launch of our BirdReview Youtube Network later today! Let me know which EP or Album you want me to review next month by tweeting suggestions @BirdReview and obviously it's recommended to follow us there, since we've got regular one-tweet-reviews right there!

I see you all next month!

Michiel

[Games] Velvet Assassin

Hey there,

This is the first real blog of BirdReview, and I'm pretty excited. To open I wanted to discuss a game that caught my attention earlier this year. I'm a so-called casual gamer. I can pick up a game, play a few hours and step away from it for a while. Since I've only got a Playstation 2 next to my Macbook it's very likely that almost every gamereview from my side will be about games that were released on the Mac.

Anyway, I had just finished all scenarios on the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum - game and was about to fall in this black hole you have when your game's finished and all that's left is to play without boundaries. Everyone who finished a game of GTA eventually fell into this "What now?"-feeling. This is such a weird thing, 'cause it makes you invent your own rules, like behaving as a good citizen for as long as possible. I owned that stuff. Anyway, I'm getting lost here.

I found a new game in the app-store called "Velvet Assassin". The promo-pictures looked a bit dated, so I doubted for a few minutes if I should give my money to this game that wasn't a shooter like Call Of Duty nor a game like Assassin's Creed. In the end I believe the price of the game (€4,49 in the Belgian App Store) pulled open my wallet. Best move ever.

The game starts out pretty slow, it also takes a while to get used to some weird controls, which I didn't manage to change (either that or I didn't bother, I can't remember). We learn that we play as Violette Summer, a British secret agent who's infiltrating through the barriers set up by the Nazi's (In case you're not sure by now, this game is set in World War 2), forcing her to go deep into German terrain. I didn't mind that for once a girl played the main part of a game. I don't say it isn't cool to play as Ezio, Mario or a famous Pokémon trainer you decided to name "Shithole", but this game forces you to play as a girl you'll frequently see in her underwear, which is always nice.

First of all I have to say that the graphics are really decent for their price. There went a lot of detail in things as simple as the sky or trees and the characters and the way they all move look pretty natural as well. The game tells its story in a nice constructive way, though from time to time I missed the feeling that I was in charge of the character. Every mission is actually the same. You have to get from point A to point B, as stealth as possible and there's only one way to do it. It would be cool if there were all kind of different paths to find, 'cause that way you could increase the amount of times I would play this game. This isn't a deal-breaker at all, but it would be a nice addition, though for 5 euros I didn't expect this.

This game's main focus is of course being "Stealth", and you have a good reason to be as stealth as possible. I think throughout the game (last missions not included) I've had a maximum of 17 bullets at one time, and in a lot of mission your knife was the only weapon you had. If you get caught in a room with 4 German Soldiers with nothing but a knife you're dead as one can be. Because the game doesn't autosave often (manual save is impossible) your death will in some cases put you a 3 to 4 rooms back, which (in a game where patience and focus are important) is a long way back. I've cursed out loud many times because of this, but in the end I believe this is what makes this game good. It's like it's saying "I may be cheap, but you're not going to just win this thàt easily".

So, the graphics are good, the story is great, your character is pretty hot and when you shoot a gun it sends sounds and looks sooooo fucking good. What are the downsides? 

First, this game doesn't have a multiplayer. Get Assassin's Creed or Call Of Duty if you want that.

Second, it's pretty weird that the German soldiers often say the weirdest things. For example, you can easily get detected, but if you manage to escape and hide for a while the guards will "forget" you were there. This isn't unusual for these kind of games, so that's not the real problem. I do think it's strange that they, even after they saw you, say sentences like "Ah, nothing happens here anyway!" and it even gets funnier when they start to sing out loud. Though these soldiers follow predictable patterns it sometimes takes a lot of time to build a strategy to take one out, since often one soldier indicates that others are watching somewhere.

Last of all I believe that the system of finding collectables in exchange for upgrades don't really show. I didn't have the feeling that these updates did a lot to strengthen my character (apart from extra health, that one seemed to work). Also the limited choice was a small weakness to me.

Overall I believe this game is good. Yes, it has its flaws, but at least it doesn't leave you with an empty wallet and still a lot of gameplay. Once you finished the game the fun's pretty much gone, since I couldn't get myself to play it a second time (though I tried for several times). The end of the game is beautiful, though I don't want to spoil it for you. I just can't imagine the last time I felt this sad about the game just ending. I really liked this game, and I'm sure that if you're up for the stealth-genre and you've got a few hours a day you want to spend cursing at your screen while you're bonding with your character this is a fantastic game for you. Unless you have a playstation or a wii. This game is available for PC, XBOX360 and Mac.

Graphics: 6/10 (due to dated)

Character: 8/10 (due to the little "SHIT!" and "FUCK!" that are yelled each time you get detected)

Opponents: 6/10 (due to predictable, but also because "SHIT FLAMETHROWERS!!!!")

Freedom in game: 4/10 (due to A to B in only one possible way and limited ways to move and kill in game.)

Story: 8/10 (due to intriguing, exciting and based on real WW2-agent, Violetta Szabo!)

Freakin' awesome. Nothing more to say.

Welcome!

Hey there, and welcome to what is called BirdReview!

First of all, no this is not a second NSFWtv, though it features both Quentin Debode & Michiel Vossen, the two last members of the project.

The problem with NSFWtv wasn't the fact that we didn't like what we did. I'm sure I speak for both Quentin and I that NSFWtv has been an amazing project, and letting it go was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The problem might've been the fact that the project started to feel as a full time job. We spent a lot of hours on creating the content that a lot of people loved, but almost didn't have time to do our own things. That's where this will be different!

You see, this network won't be about writing gigantic blogs or making a lot of awesome videos. In fact we don't even have a schedule. The main focus of this project will be Twitter. Yes, the birdthingie. On Twitter we'll give reviews no longer than 1 tweet every time. This will result in us being able to just quickly mention a game, movie or album, give our opinion on it and rate it. That's quite a lot to do with just 140 characters, but we're absolutely in for that challenge!

So, why do we have this blog?

Yes, great question! Sometimes we might feel like we wanna talk a bit more about something we tweeted about. In that case we can either write a blog right here or upload a video to our Youtube-channel. Either way we'll find a way to tell you what we couldn't in one tweet. Once again: this doesn't mean we'll upload on a regular basis. Quentin and I will both keep doing our own stuff and by taking a slow approach to this concept we'll be able to not stumble and fall. For now Quentin and I have agreed that we both try to make at least 1 blog and 1 video a month. Doesn't mean we have to be shot if that doesn't happen, because once again, that's not the main purpose of this small purpose.

I'm pretty sure It's all sounding rather minimalistic at this moment, but I have to assure you that we can't wait to kick this project off. Where it'll take us? We don't know. But we sure love the idea of creating a dynamic platform in which you find your way towards us. There also are plans to do videos together for this project, together with Livestreams in which we take live suggestions or questions and give live reviews or opinions (a great way to get feedback if you're in a band!).

Now the first two tweets are out there we officially kicked off this project.

Let's do this.

Quentin & Michiel