I had wanted to do those monthly music reviews for a little while, and, well, doing it in the new year seemed like a good idea. January 2017 has been a strong, solid month for music with great albums, exciting new tracks and even excellent tours announced. (I need to win the lottery now, but, you know).

TOURS 

The first half of the year will see some quite frankly brilliant tour line-ups. It all started when You Me At Six announced Australian outfit Tonight Alive as main support for their UK tour, alongside Exeter natives Black Foxxes. There will be tears everywhere, let me tell you. I can't make it through a Tonight Alive set without crying my eyes out at some point, and I have a feeling You Me At Six will become one of these bands that I can cry to at the most unexpected moment.

Brits Deaf Havana announced Dinosaur Pile-Up as main support for their upcoming UK tour, taking place next month, and that's a combination that will probably work like a house on fire. Come to think of it, I struggle to remember a time when Deaf Havana didn't have incredible supports on their tours? 

Finally, the tour that will be like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one this spring will definitely be While She Sleeps alongside Australian metalcore band In Hearts Wake. I was desperate to see In Hearts Wake announce shows around Impericon Fest, and this tour is beyond my wildest dreams. (Also, shout out to Fizzy Blood. May this tour be the time I see them with decent sound) Someone send money my way, please and thank you.

Reading & Leeds Fest have also announced their next wave of names and... Jimmy Eat World! The Amity Affliction! And that's it. I think that was probably my reaction when I saw the list. I'm not too massively fond of the line up at the moment, and I think I was hoping for something less predictable and more exciting than Kasabian for a headliner. It seems like the holy trinity of "we're headlining every single festival, ever" (Kasabian, The Killers and Kings of Leon) is back. I don't know how I feel about that. 

ALBUMS & EPs

Five albums have stood out for me this month.
You Me At Six haven't changed that much. They're still able to produce extremely catchy songs (Plus One, Swear), Night People undeniably sounds like a You Me At Six album and Josh Franceschi still has the strong set of pipes you know he has, but now, they're a band who wants to take on the world (no pun intended). Night People is a no bullshit, straight in your face record, with big choruses, enticing intros and saturated guitars all over the place. The London boys are slowly but surely saying goodbye to the scene that made them famous and are embracing their new alt-rock sound with conviction and confidence. It's a really good, really solid album with stand-out tracks (Spell It Out followed by the tearjerker Give are a wonderful way to close a record) and it feels like great things are to come for You Me At Six. At their Dingwalls show, Franceschi announced the band would be headlining the next Reading & Leeds festivals. Maybe they're not exactly there yet, but thanks to Night People, they'll definitely be on their way.

Brighton pop-punks As It Is have released their sophomore album, okay. From the über-catchy get go, it's a deceiving album. Yes, it's bouncy and sugary-sweet, yes, you're going to have a boogie to the bonafide bangers that are Pretty Little Distance or Okay, yes, the artwork is really pretty and pastel, but you're also going to sing along to lyrics about mental illness, family issues and ending relationships. The band's obvious early 2000s influences allow them to steer away from the traditional pop-punk sound of their previous work, and because it's As It Is we're talking about, everything you will hear during the thirty-six (quite frankly great) minutes that okay. lasts is heartfelt and genuine. (There's also a nod to their hometown, full of nostalgia and longing, in The Coast Is Where Home Is. I've rarely missed Grand Parade that much before)

Four years after Old Souls, Deaf Havana come back with their fourth full-length, All These Countless Nights. It's Deaf Havana at its finest, quite simply put. Frontman James Veck-Gilodi is baring his soul and dealing with his demons (namely depression and heavy alcohol consumption), but the album is far from being depressing - it ends up being quite comforting and uplifting, as if the most beautiful things could come out of that much pain. Veck-Gilodi hasn't lost his knack with words and his talent as storytelling (Seattle, Pensacola 2013), and his lyrics are honest and real, sensitive and relatable, yet not cliché. All These Countless Nights is a wonderful piece of work and a beautiful evolution in the band's career. It's everything that makes Deaf Havana "Deaf Havana", with a lot of riffs added to the mix. It's utterly and completely Deaf Havana, and yet it's nothing like they've done before. 

Modern Ruin, by Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, is possibly everything I've ever wanted from an album of the heavy side of the spectrum. It's hardcore, but it doesn't follow the traditional structures of hardcore songs. It's punk, but it's modern, it's not trying to be something it's not. It's rock n roll, but it's not outdated, and it's not trying to revive something that is long dead. It's heavy and it's moshing material, but it has a whole lot of heart and words that aren't clichés. Wild Flowers, about a love story that ends badly, is a masterpiece and miles away from the classic break-up songs. Thunder, written about the wars and the evils of our world, is insanely powerful. There's a sense of longing all throughout the record, drums that build up into something big and massive, and closer Neon Rust is the pinnacle of everything, a pure explosion that ends on something hopeful.

Irish duo Greywind have just put out their début album, Afterthoughts, and it's quite frankly hard to believe it's only a début album. I'm not going to beat around the bush : I am fully in love and I find it flawless. Frontwoman Steph O'Sullivan's voice is heaven, strong and powerful at times yet delicate and intimate. Every song is carefully crafted and precise, and it makes you feel like you're on top of the world, or in a car driving at full speed, or in the middle of a storm, or maybe watching a forest catching fire - feelings brought to you by the incredibly vivid songwriting. Afterthoughts is a unique album, going against all the trends, it's unlike anything I've heard before, and it's surely unlike anything I've heard recently. Every song is an explosion of sound, of colour and of sensations. I fear I'm running out of positive words. I'm in love.

An EP I loved was Dashboard Confessional's Covered and Taped. Emo legend Chris Carrabba dropped it as a surprise on the 20th of January and gives us his interpretation of Sex by The 1975, Sprained Ankle by Julien Baker, Love Yourself by Justin Bieber and, my personal favourite, Using by Sorority Noise. It's stunning from start to finish.

The two albums that left me with a "meh" taste in my mouth were, first, Red, Green or Inbetween by WSTR. I'm usually on board with pop-punk and brush off the naysayers that call everyone generic, but this time, I'm the one calling it a little too generic to my taste. Most of it feels like a Neck Deep tribute act, except for Eastbound & Down, which reminded me too much of Your Best Friend by Seaway.
I also felt compelled to give a listen to Selfish Age, As Lions' début album. The band, born from the ashes of metalcore outfit Rise To Remain, is growing fast and making their mark, but on my end, I feel it lacks the originality, the enthusiasm and the sharp edge I loved so much about Rise To Remain.

MY FAVOURITE BAND

The band I've listened to the most this month isn't a band that has released music in January - it's just a band I'm slightly late to get into. Ever since YouTube recommended me their feel good pop-punk track Voldemort, I've been on the obsessed side when it comes to With Confidence, spinning their début album, Better Weather, pretty much on repeat, day in, day out. Their music is upbeat, catchy and positive, which is pretty much everything my life needs, those days. 

The truth is, even though I love my gnarly, I hate my hometown, give me some pizza pop-punk, there isn't a day I don't miss the times when the most popular kind of pop punk was the happy, upbeat one à la We The Kings or Hey Monday. I'm glad a band like With Confidence has exploded in my life out of nowhere, thanks to a Harry Potter reference, because their feel good music (with a little twist, still) was exactly what I wanted to hear. 

THE PLAYLIST

This month's playlist includes :

• a taste of the "albums that stood out"
• some of the "album that knocked me off my feet thanks to a Harry Potter reference"
• old favourites making me excited for their upcoming albums
• that one Ed Sheeran song that sounds like Ace of Base. I mean, I love Ed Sheeran (and he seems over his "airing his dirty laundry in music" phase), I love Ace of Base and nineties throwbacks, this is the best of both worlds.
• some sassy pop music in the form of Little Mix's newest single and Nelly Furtado's come back.
• the single reason why I live a lifetime of defending Jonny Craig. 
• the French track I have wanted to hear since 2008.