MUSIC: Review - 'Bad Blood' - Nao

Tonight is different.  

NOTE TO READER: DO NOT READ the next few paragraphs if you are disinterested by my reasons for writing a music review, or by the future of this blog. PLEASE SKIP them to read the blog alone... [No, please don't!] 

Why is this night different from any other night? Unlike my usual posts, this evening and tomorrow I will be publishing "cultural" reviews - all of which I have written or updated since I 'took my place' on the Young Journalists' Academy (YJA) Summer School one week ago. 

And tonight is also different because I am making a pledge - to you, my readers. Simply put, I promise to write more 'cultural' reports, reviews, and interviews. This will, I hope, fulfil a potential which I have yet realised. As I look forward to 'university life', I will write all the cultural journalism I told myself I would but haven't over the past couple of years.

Before I do so, let me say - or write, or type - some thank-you's. Firstly to Jonny Ensall: yesterday I wrote my first  - and perhaps my last - music review in an interactive masterclass by the culture critic, whose cool and calm serenity allowed me to engage with my 'cultural element lost.' Whether I continue to write music reviews or not, Jonny's authenticity ("I couldn't fake my middle-class, white man profile", he told me) has inspired me to equally use my own voice. 

Secondly, I want to say thank you to my YJA group and YJA friends. I entered the group - most of whose members are from different but similar backgrounds than my own - with a judgement; and I will leave it with that judgement proven wrong.

Thirdly - but most importantly - I express my appreciation to Viv Regan. Whacky, crazy and one of the kindest and sharing people I've met - Viv accepted my application to the programme, gave me advice, let me be me. As she tells us all, Saturday will be the "End...or just the beginning."

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Nao - 'Bad Blood - THE REVIEW

This reviewer feels no bad blood listening to the upcoming artist's latest release. For this is the new song for the summer; recline over the ocean, dip into the pool, and sip that 'glass of ocean'. A swift change from Taylor the Polemicist, the expert graduate of Guildhall School of Music and Drama tingles with the emotions, evokes the muse within, gives oxygen to the soul. For all we know, you could be in Cyprus listening Nao.

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So, as this evening spreads itself against the sky, sit back and etherise your soul against your bed -

and let us go then, you and I...