Saturday, March 21, 2020

Sticks and Stones by Cher Lloyd free essay sample

Cher Lloyd is a spunky, upbeat girl with a lot of attitude. From appearing on the UK’s version of The X-Factor, coming in behind One Direction and Matt Cardel, she has become a musical sensation (admit it, you sing Want U Back when your in the car!). Her debut US album, called Sticks and Stones clearly defines both her talent and her personality. The album starts off with the song Grow Up featuring rapper Busta Rhymes. This track has got another bouncy and bold beat. The song is all about how â€Å"we don’t wanna grow up, we just wanna get down†. The track shows off Cher’s adorable persona and her amazing rapping ability (watch out Busta!). Some have compared it to the sound of the Black Eyed Peas, but a better singing ability and a song you actually want to hear on the radio. Will.I.Am has got nothing on this party song. We will write a custom essay sample on Sticks and Stones by Cher Lloyd or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Following that, is Cher’s radio single Want U Back. It’s boppy, it’s fresh, and extremely catchy. Not to mention, it makes you feel so confident! Whenever I hear that song, I feel like the coolest person ever. Cher says this song really describes her musically. This song has multiple versions. The UK has one with rapper Astro and the US has one with Snoop Dogg. The radio US version usually only features Cher though. People on you have often criticized the UK version, mostly because of Astro’s appearance. Comments on YouTube say that he â€Å"ruins the song†. With Ur Love is Cher’s third radio single (UK) and it features Mike Posner. A little bit slower than her other tunes, With Ur Love keeps a steady beat and words that you easily sing along to. It’s a song that you’ll sing in the shower, but can’t dance too. Mike Posner makes a very quick show in the song, with simple lyrics that make me wonder who wrote them. Was it a fifth grader or just unoriginal? Posner: You got it yeah, yeah you got it I could slow it down Speed it up How you want it girl All night long And I dont even care If you sing my songs wrong 1st date, 1st base 2nd date, 2nd base 3rd date, youre looking at me funny You got a hard shell But the middles so yummy The fourth song is Swagger Jagger. This song was intended to be Cher’s second US single, but after its huge flop on YouTube, I strongly doubt it will be. It received 168,843 dislikes on the video. Maybe its because the word ‘swagger’ is so dead (I’m talking to you Beiber), or maybe because she’s addressing all her ‘haterz’ but this song received horrifying reviews from the public. It starts off with a heavy techno beat, and transfers into a soft, almost childish melody, and cotinues to switch off throughout. This song often gets Cher compared to artists such as Nicki Minaj, Karmin, and Lady Gaga. At Number 5 on her track is Beautiful People. Beautiful People features singer Carolina Liar. While it is the slowest song on Sticks and Stones, it is undoubtedly one of the best. The music is strong yet still conveys a somber, low mood. The lyrics seem to be intended for a bad romance but could also be interpreted in multiple ways. The only way I can describe it is as a â€Å"soulful, strong Taylor Swift† Cause its beautiful people like you, who get whatever they want And its beautiful people like you, who suck the life right out of my heart And its beautiful people like you, who make me cry Cause nobody else could be nearly as cruel as you The next song is Playa Boi. This song moves back into Cher’s usual territory of ‘sassy but classy’. Cher has her standard techno dance-y beat, with her classic Cher sass. Although the message is a bit overdone (another song about thugs and ganstas) she puts a unique twist on it. Not just anyone can win her love, they have to fight for it. I highly recommend this song. Tracks seven and eight my favorite. Superhero and Over The Moon are two totally different songs but have such an edge and uniqueness about them, its impossible not to love one of these two. Superhero is very fast paced, but not really a dance-y tune. It’s more of a jamming-out-in-your-car-with-the-volume-on-high song. Over the Moon has a very vintage sound with a modern twist. And, of course, she raps in both of them. (I actually can do the rap of Superhero. I’m so proud!) The ninth song is pretty self explanatory. This high energy dubstep song features Mic Right eous, Dot Rotten Ghetts . Dub on the Track is exactly what it sounds like. The words are basically â€Å"I’m the kind a g-girl to put d-d-d-d-d-ub on tha track†, *Insert guy rapping here* , â€Å"I’m the kind a g-girl to put d-d-d-d-d-ub on tha track.† The last song is another great one. A lower energy End Up Here is all about discovering you have been cheated on. The sound is like a mix of P!nk, Katy Perry and a hint of Nicki Minaj. An easy beat, and sing-a-long lyrics, this song is sure to be one you’ll sing in the shower. Cher Lloyd is an amazing artist. Known for being cute, fun and a little bit sassy, Cher’s career is only getting started. Her album is released officially in the USA on September 18th of this year. I give this album 4 out of 5 stars. I am completely proud to be one of her â€Å"Brats†.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions

12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions 12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions 12 Misunderstood and Misquoted Shakespearean Expressions By Mark Nichol The plays of William Shakespeare provide a wealth of pithy sayings many of which he likely popularized rather than produced himself, though we may still be grateful to him for sharing them. Unfortunately, sometimes the original sense is adulterated by careless usage, so that the eloquent force of the expression is weakened. Here are a dozen of Shakespeare’s phrases with comments about their original wording and meaning: 1. â€Å"At one fell swoop† This phrase from Macduff’s grief-stricken lamentation about the murder of his family in Macbeth uses the archaic word fell, meaning â€Å"fierce,† to extend the metaphor of the perpetrator (who he calls a â€Å"hell-kite†) as a bird of prey. Modern usage is generally more casual and even comical. 2. â€Å"Brave new world† This phrase from a speech by Miranda, daughter of the wizard Prospero in The Tempest, naively uses brave in the sense of â€Å"handsome† when she first lays eyes on other men. The subtext in Shakespeare is that those she refers to are superficially attractive but substantially deficient in character. The sense is the same in the phrase as it appears in the title of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic. Unfortunately, the dark sarcasm is being dulled by use of the phrase to blithely herald a bright future. 3. â€Å"Foregone conclusion† From Othello, this phrase means literally something that has already occurred (it has â€Å"gone before†); now, the phrase often refers to a conjectural event. 4. â€Å"Gild the lily† This misquotation from King John, which actually reads, â€Å"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily . . . is wasteful and ridiculous excess,† confuses the metaphor, because lilies are white, not gold. 5. â€Å"Lead on, Macduff† This misquotation from Macbeth, in which the title character baits his nemesis to attack him by saying, â€Å"Lay on, Macduff,† is now a variation of â€Å"After you† quite a diversion from the original intent. 6. â€Å"The milk of human kindness† This metaphor, employed in the service of a heartwarming connotation, would rouse the wrath of Lady Macbeth, whose reference to the virtue in the play named for her husband was contemptuous. 7. â€Å"More honored in the breach than the observance† This phrase from Hamlet has been twisted by time to mean an admirable custom that is neglected more often practiced. Shakespeare’s sense was of a deplorable custom that should be halted. The expression immediately follows another well-known but oft-misunderstood phrase: Hamlet refers to himself as one â€Å"to the manner born,† meaning â€Å"brought up to follow the custom,† but some people believe the phrase, when expressed out of context, to be â€Å"to the manor born,† referring to one raised in the opulent surroundings of a manor house. 8. â€Å"Neither rhyme nor reason† The modern focus is on the second element of this phrase from The Comedy of Errors, but the intent is to express a lack both of sense and of eloquence. 9. â€Å"Sea change† This expression from The Tempest refers to a deadly shift in weather, but now the sense of peril has been replaced by a connotation of significant transformation. 10. â€Å"Third degree† Shakespeare’s humorous reference in Twelfth Night to someone â€Å"in the third degree of drink† harks to the principle of degrees in natural philosophy, which assigns the third degree to the penultimate level of intensity. The modern sense is of merciless interrogation, though it’s usually employed in a lighthearted tone. 11. â€Å"What the dickens† Some of those unfamiliar with the origin of this expression The Merry Wives of Windsor assume it has a Victorian provenance and refers to Charles Dickens. But dickens is an Elizabethan euphemism for the devil, and Shakespeare employs it as an oath. 12. â€Å"The worlds mine oyster† The usual assumption is that one can easily lay the world wide open and extract its contents. But the boast in The Merry Wives of Windsor goes on to say, â€Å"Which I with sword will open,† expressing the partaker’s more active and more violent role. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Passed vs PastThe Four Sounds of the Spelling OU45 Idioms with "Roll"