It’s time for us to YELL about our favourite songs of recent times. Have a read of the four reviews below, and remember: it’s not always about using BIG words – sometimes you just need to find the words that feel like YOU!

Further info re: the skills work can be found at bottom of this page.

DE’WAYNE: Walking To Work

A song like ‘Walking To Work’ is worth making a HOO-HA over. It’s got genuine OOMPH. Enough even to make you forget that the world’s out to get you. Or maybe it’s more that – even if life is hard – SO WHAT? DE’WAYNE’s not going to get his KNICKERS in a twist. And nor are we. NO WAY.

Holding Absence: Celebration Song

Let’s talk about the opening song on the best album of 2021. The title of ‘Celebration Song’ speaks for itself – and it feels pretty great to be reminded that being alive is actually AWESOME. Sure, we’ve been driven HALF-BONKERS by EVERYTHING over the last year, but now is DEFINITELY the time to begin prepping for the future. HA’s music – at once humble and grand – is going to serve as the PERFECT soundtrack for our fresh start.

ElyOtto: SugarCrash!

There’s something really meta going on here. ElyOtto’s latest is the musical equivalent of drinking a can of Coke in one GULP. It’s not just hyperpop, it’s hyper-hyper-hyperpop. And if that doesn’t already sound EYE-POPPINGLY exciting enough, then just wait till you hear the guest vocals as provided by Kim Petras. This is almost too MUCH fun. Almost, but not quite.

Against The Current: weapon (acoustic)

With their fancy production and cute tricks, some songs want you to notice them SOOOO badly. They want to WOW you with their fancy production and cute tricks. ATC, though, NEVER need to resort to gimmicks. They remain a band we can all believe in. Listen to this stripped-back version of ‘weapon’ for evidence. Even without the frills, it stands up as one of the best songs of 2021.

TASK 1

We would love you to write your own review of a song that you’re going crazy for RIGHT NOW. Aim to show evidence that you’ve concentrated on using the relevant core skill: a personalised vocabulary. We will publish the best work! Send your reviews here.

Skill 1: personalised vocabulary

All those words in capital letters were chosen to give the reader a sense of our personality and our passion. What words will you choose to inject your essay with a sense of character and energy? Aim to use 2 or 3 in a review.

Skill 2: be concise

If you can find a way of squishing a zillion feelings and thoughts into one short review, you’ll certainly do a better job of writing essays within the limited time available to you in exams. Aim, then, to make your piece of writing 100 words or less.

TASK 2

Consider the ideas that we’ve explored within each review. Which of your course characters do each of these ideas feel relevant to?

We will publish the best work! Send your reviews here.

Finetune your use of similes here and your use of verbs as sentence starters here.

Or maybe you’re struggling to learn to key quotations? We will help you here!