Single Review - The Courtesans, 'Genius'

Hello!

Welcome to blog post 24! Today I am letting you all know about a female indie/alternative four piece band that are hitting the music business hard and not being portrayed as you're typical girl band. These girls are throwing the book out of the window on 'how to be the perfect girl band' by twisting and bending it in such a spectacular fashion that its caught the attention of many people. 

The Courtesans are Sinead Le Bella (vocals), Saffire Sanchez (guitar), Agnes D. Jones (bass) and Victoria Brown (drums). The single is the first song off their new album that will be released on 8th September called '1917'. Until then, the latest single 'Genius' is looking at the portrayal of the 'perfect girl' and that never ending search for her. Thus seeing young teens falling for the cheap lipstick, botoxing, slimming pill versions rather than one of those less genuine natural girls that get hidden in the darkness. 

From the first couple of lines in this song, you can tell this isn't your average girl band song. 

"Holding a gun to his head, she says

Do you love me? 

Do you love me?

Counting down the bullets she says

One for you, One for me

One for you, One for me"

Now, does that sound like something that Little Mix or The Saturdays will sing!? I love this dark side to the such loved cliché for a band. These girls have a fantastic image too that'll have you looking twice...once in shock and two in awe of their adventurousness. Their hair style is brilliant for the band image. Thick, long hair that has colours of red, bright blue, blonde and black, the perfect mix!

The start of the song, sounds like something from any ordinary song and then the struck of a chord on a guitar changes the mood completely. I do like the fact that all the girls in the band play a different instrument and don't all just sing otherwise that wouldn't make this band so unique. I do think that in recent years, girl bands are making a comeback for the greater good and The Courtesans are setting a great example to bring back the image in style!

Don't just take my word for this band, here are some other people's thoughts too:

"...dripping with a melodrama, intellect and wispy mystery not heard around these parts since early Garbage and Shakespeare's Sister" God Is In The TV Zine
"they're tight, they're funky and they’re absolutely terrifying" Never Enough Notes
"a sensual 4 piece audio and visual experience", Hellhound Music
"..saw The Courtesans live and still have not recovered" The Von Pip Musical Express

 Looks like that's all I've got time for today! Do go check the band out and watch the video down below. Another quick thank you to everyone who has been viewing my blog and got it over the 2000 milestone! Amazing, I cannot thank you enough! 

If any artist/managers want to contact me for reviews, then my email is in the 'contact me' section up the top of the page, these guys came to me with open arms and of course I agreed! Yours could be next too!?

Until next time!

Lewis

Wesbite: http://www.thecourtesans.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecourtesans

Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_courtesans

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CatrionaVillenhardt/videos

No Sinner "Boo Hoo Hoo"

If anyone knows me personally I'm a big fan of blues music and this band have certainly delivered a fantastic hard rocking blues album with grit, style and grace.

I have only been introduced to this band for about a month now thanks to my good friend who knows everything and anything about blues music (I'm not kidding either!). He told me to listen to just the first track and see what I thought. I was blown away.

This 4 piece Canadian band have come together to produce an album that is one heck of a roller coaster. Colleen Rennison (vocals) has one of the best female voices I have heard for a long time. She puts a lot of passion into her vocals and boy does it shine through! She pushes the boundaries of her vocal range and strength. The track "Boo Hoo Hoo" is a great example as this track demonstrates all of her experience. This is the best quote to sum her up nicely. "She is a force of nature, a post modern soul belter and queen of rock".

The album takes you on a journey to show the world what 'No Sinner' is made of. There are a couple tracks that really love to pack a punch from the off such as "Devil on my Back"and "Runnin'". One track that stands out as one of the masterpieces along with "Boo Hoo Hoo" is called "Rise Up". The emotions that run through that song are just gorgeous. The guitar tones at the beginning of the song breaks up the hard rocking songs in-between the album. This is one of the strongest performances from Colleen on the album too. The soul, rock and blues all come out of her in one song. The lyrics in the chorus are "Lay down your burdens...and rise up", this to me sounds like a calling to the band to put everything into this song.

This band seem to know what they're doing with the arrangements of the songs to keep them interesting throughout and keeping their genre knitted tight to the album. You always hear one or two songs that don't really fit on an album which can be disappointing, but not this one I am glad to tell you. The guitar riffs and licks are one of the reasons this album flows really well. Without the guitar it definitely wouldn't pack the same punch the album does already."Work Song" is definitely one that is a great example.

So No Sinner love to make some fat tunes and leave it with you wanting more! I'm looking forward to following this band in the coming months and years to see how successful they can become, I have high hopes for these guys! I'll leave you lot a link below of my favourite song on the album "Boo Hoo Hoo" and let me know what you thought of the song/album! If you're not keen on spending money then the band have very kindly put a free 3 track EP on Noisetrade which I'll link below. 

Thanks for reading and until next time!

Lewis 

Noisetrade Link: https://noisetrade.com/nosinner

Website: http://nosinner.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoSinner

Bandcamp: http://nosinner.bandcamp.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoSinnermusic