Incredibly, January 2014 is almost finished! If you made resolutions, have you stuck to them, or has life gotten in the way a bit since then? No worries if you haven't, because a new month, means a new beginning, and it's Chinese New Year to boot! As we here at OrangeMouth love a good challenge, we've come up with a little something for February.

Starting Saturday, the first day of a fresh new 2014 month, we'll be focusing on a few emotional and mental health resolutions for the year. This of course involves all of you, as we cover different topics and subject areas like mindfulness for example (hint: this will be the first one). As we said in the very first OM blog entry, one of our goals for this blog (and the company)  is to address emotional and mental health and present it to you in a creative and engaging way, something we feel isn't really done at the moment.

You'll also want to keep an eye on our Twitter account as we tweet some pretty exciting things to get you through the day when we're not busy writing blog posts and rocking out trying to decide on the next Tunesday post! ...oh, and running the business of course! 

To everyone celebrating today: 春节快乐! Make it a great one! (:

Until next time...

 Graeme and Marla-Joy

So there's good news, and bad news. The good news is that our blogger Graeme has returned from his Caribbean Christmas trip! The bad news is that - and I blame the SPF 50+ sunblock for this -  he is disappointingly untanned. Beautifully bronzed or not, he's back and yet somehow, I've still been tasked with (read: fought with Fight Club level skills to write) today's Tunesday! To be fair, it's only because he's creating what could be considered the post to end all posts* (#nopressure) to go up on Thursday. Tell your grandma, your best friend, and your second cousin twice removed's neighbour's dog's hairdresser's regular encyclopaedia salesman!

On to today's pick "Flaws." Bastille has a more electronic/synthesised version of this song on their album Bad Blood, but: Hi my name is Marla-Joy, and I'm a straight-up sucker for an acoustic performance/set. That and the live version is beautiful regardless of personal musical inclinations. Everything about the soulful ballad enraptures you - the theme of 'flaws,' the emotion with which Dan Smith sings, the way the band creates the music with just a guitar and their bodies... It feels right. 

In addition to my love of the song, Flaws seemed like the perfect choice because of OrangeMouth's focus, however the band has so much good music (both of their own and covers) that it would definitely be worth your while to check them out if you haven't already! 


And that's me for the day!

Until next time...

M-J


* That may be the slightest bit of hyperbole... or maybe not! We'll see.

Happy Tunesday people!

When out shopping, or dancing, or just watching a tv show, have you ever heard a song playing and thought "What song is that?! I have to know!" and then did some frantic scramble to remember any one line from the song so you could search for it later? Or maybe now, it's more like 'pull out your phone and quickly type the words into Google...' or use Shazam. Well that's what happened to me waaaaaay back when the show One Tree Hill came out, the first time the theme song played. It turned out to be Gavin Degraw's 'I Don't Want to Be,' and I haven't really turned it off since.

Today's choice is from Degraw's most recent album, 'Make a Move.' It's an acoustic set of his contagiously upbeat blue-eyed soul, 'Best I Ever Had.' The way he and his band do this song live you see his passion, and how much he enjoys what he does, and he has a way that makes it seem as though he's performing just for you, and you just can't help but smile the whole way through.

It's probably a little much to promise you that you'll be singing this one for at least the next few days, but it'll be a surprise if you're not. (:

Until next Tunesday...

M-J        

If today's song doesn't at least make you nod your head to the beat or have a little dance break in your office chair (library chair if you're at uni), well... well you probably just have different musical tastes and don't like today's choice. No judgement! 

Today's choice is "Can't Remember To Forget You" a song Shakira posted on her Youtube less than 24 hours ago, and has already had over 3 million views. Whoa! Here's a breakdown of what will happen as you listen (your thoughts are in quotation marks): 

Step 1: Your desire to be drinking out of a coconut will increase at least tri-fold in the first few moments of the song, as the sweet Caribbean sound of a steel pan kisses your ears. 

Step 2: Shakira starts singing. You understand about one word in seven, but it doesn't matter because you're loving it, and your head is already going. 

Step 3: Whoa, syncopated rock now! "How do they make rock and steel drums sound like that together?! Doesn't matter, I'll take it!"

Step 4: "Why is Rihanna singing something about trains now? Ah well, it's catchy."

Step 5: Just straight up song appreciation here!

Step 6: "O_o That rock guitar! OH yes!" 

Step 7: You're already "singing" along, and currently fighting the urge to get up and dance regardless of where you are. 

Step 8: You realise that the song is done, and you have no clue what it's about besides the line "I can't remember to forget you (and that's kind of cheating)," so hit 'Replay' vowing to listen this time, then start all over again at Step 1. 

...or maybe that was just me. Let us know if those steps were accurate, or if yours were a little different!

Until next Tunesday...

M-J