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The music we listen to keeps us afloat and fills us with good and lovely feelings. It helps us to remember that WE ARE NOT ALONE. Here are our reviews of some of the songs inspiring us right now.

Read these reviews simply because you’re looking for the perfect soundtrack for your perfect day.

Or look at them more closely and learn:

1) how to use verbs as sentence starters.

2) how to write completely yet concisely.

3) how to use those core review ideas as inspiration for your own original thinking about ‘Othello,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and other exam texts.

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

BEEA: Oh, Wait

So this is what it sounds like when things get better. Locked – as we are – in a COVID-fuelled half-life – it’s hard to remember the feeling of being absolutely free. But BEEA’s ‘Oh, Wait’ captures that exact sensation perfectly. Listening to it will make you feel super-charged.

LINK TO: Offred’s feelings when she escapes Gilead; Othello’s feelings when first married to Desdemona; Romeo and Juliet’s feelings as they fall in love; Mickey Johnstone’s childhood.

Mustafa: Ali

Singing with a quiet but devastating intensity, Mustafa’s latest will leave you weeping. Just make sure not to drown in your tears. Written after an 18-year-old boy was shot dead on his own doorstep, yes, ‘Ali’ is heartbreaking – but now is not the time to fall apart. Now is the time to take Ali’s story and build a better world from its parts.

LINK TO: Gatsby’s death; Othello’s death; Desdemona’s death; the death of the Johnstone twins.

Felicity: Hit and Run

Playing Hit and Run could be the most important thing you do today. Yes, like any good metalcore band, Felicity are ferociously emotional and unmitigatedly heartbroken – but they also know how to fuse those darker feelings with a pace and positivity more akin to pop-punk. Listening to this band is a bit like receiving a lesson in how to face the darkness in our lives without actually losing ourselves in it. Which is exactly the kind of learning we’re interested in.

LINK TO: Offred; ‘Sonnet 116’; the narrator in ‘Blood Brothers’; the theme of duality in ‘Jekyll & Hyde’.

Olivia Rodrigo: déjà vu

Obsessing over your ex? Olivia Rodrigo knows exactly how you feel. She can’t even eat an ice cream without falling into a black hole of bitterness and regret. Not that we’re complaining. Hurtling into our own pit of misery will feel a lot less terrifying with this playing on our headphones! Beautiful.

LINK TO: Romeo; ‘Non sum qualis…’; ‘Who so list…’.

SKILLS WORK

We would love you to write your own review of a song that you’re loving RIGHT NOW. Aim to show evidence that you’ve concentrated on using the skills below – and we will publish the best work! Send your reviews here.

Skill 1: verbs as sentence starters

You will see that the reviews above make use of a whole range of verbs as sentence starters: Listening; Singing; Written; Playing; Obsessing; Hurtling. Aim to use verbs at the beginning of at least two sentences.

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 100 words or less.

We can’t wait to read your writing!!!!

Struggling to learn to key quotations? We will help you here!