I'm not a music journalist

I'm not a music journalist.

I love music and have an eclectic taste in bands and songs (my favourite artists range from Ludovico Einaudi to Queen) but I'm far too ignorant about the technicalities of music to ever be a successful music journalist.

My journalistic experience has always been in news and reporting rather than features or reviews but I've always loved writing about music: about my favourite tracks, my favourite artists and about the stories behind the songs.

On a train back to my student house in Exeter, while listening to my mp3 player, I started writing reviews in my head for the songs I know and love so well. Without a knowledge of musical technicality and with a background in literature, the focus of the reviews I've written are usually on lyrics. So, in my imaginary reviews, I began noting beautiful phrases, literary allusions, imagery and poetic words.

I start a Newspaper Journalism MA in late September and have the whole summer ahead of me. I'll have a full time job but I want a creative project and reviewing songs based on their literary and lyrical qualities will, I think, be a fun and interesting project this summer.

The title of the blog comes from Wordsworth and Coleridge's famous poetry collection, first published in 1798. Although Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote poetry, their 'Lyrical Ballads' had a musical quality. Like ballads, their poems told stories and tried to be in the same vein as the oral story-telling tradition and the 'lyrics' of the poems convey those stories simply and elegantly.

The first review will be Fleet Foxes' 2008 "White Winter Hymnal," which was the first single from their debut album. I'm not sure when it will be published but hopefully, it won't be too long.

Yes, I know it all sounds a bit pretentious. I'm going to try and minimise pretension wherever I can.

That's about it really! Hopefully, it will make for a good read.

IB