Young folks - Peter, Bjorn & John

Young folks - Peter, Bjorn & John

Hello people! It's the last day of my internship and things are spiralling into craziness! Tonight there's gonna be a goodbye meeting, I still have to finish packing, tomorrow I'm gonna be in Bristol spending my day exploring the city (under the rain probably) and... woah, everything's messing up even inside me, I'm excited to get back home but at the same time sad 'cause I don't wanna leave the people from here... it's a very messy and exciting day, but I'm confident everything's gonna turn out just fine. Luckily enough under the musical point of view I'm not having many problems, there are still lots of songs I want to post! Here is today's, which actually I started listening to together with yesterday's, as I found out about them thanks to the office playlist. Hope you enjoy, I'll be back in a hopefully less stressful moment! Cheers!

Pumped up kicks - Foster the people

Pumped up kicks - Foster the people

Hellooo! My time in England is coming closer and closer to the end and I start feeling a little bit sad for the things (and people... especially people) I'm gonna be leaving behind. This time of new beginnings is also characterized by a lot of new music coming to me all at once, overwhelming me once again! Not that I complain, rather... I'm only glad to find new sources of inspiration for stuff to share with you! This has been called for for quite a long time now: I've had some of you on Google+ suggesting I should listen to Foster the People, I've had some colleagues who asked me to put them in the office playlist and... here we are in the end! As promised, I started listening to them and, as expected, I already like them! Just enjoy their biggest hit for now and wait for more of their stuff to be featured here soon!

Happy - Pharrell Williams + blurs

Happy - Pharrell + blurs

Hello my dear crowd, I hope that your week started well! Mine (kind of) did, especially thanks to what I am posting now, which has been a very good tool to fight the sleepiness caused by the coming of spring! I have loads of songs that have been champing at the bit to be posted here, but they will have to wait for a while longer, as this post is due! Together with my (awesome) teammates and colleagues at my company we have been working on this project in the past few weeks and finally it is ready to share with the world! We have done our best lip syncing to Pharrell's hit Happy, doing our best to look happy be happy and, most importantly, make other people as much happy as we were while shooting! Whether we succeeded... well, it's for you to tell! Let us know what you think! Hope you enjoy!

You can watch the official video here.

#sundayrevival Rebellion (lies) - Arcade Fire

Rebellion (lies) - Arcade Fire

Hello guys! Yesterday has been a pretty intense day, so good enough that I posted just after midnight rang before going to bed! I took a very nice trip south of Exeter with some friends and, even though the weather was not so good, I really enjoyed it! But it didn't end up there... after a swift dinner we went to have a goodbye-weekend party at some friends' house and then out to dance in an alternative rock club, our favourite in Exeter (I'm not a fan of discos but this one is enjoyable from time to time). I had a good time once again, just a little bit sad because it's gonna be the last one. It's not time for goodbyes still, but I'm starting to realise that my time here is coming to an end... And it has been very funny to kind of close a circle: this song is the first one I've listened to as soon as I arrived in Montréal two years ago and the last one that played last night in the club, kind of the goodbye to Exeter and to my university times abroad. I'm a bit scared, but mostly curious to see how my life's gonna develop in the next few months! But for now, let's just enjoy the present!

Lover to lover - Florence + the Machine

Lover to lover -
Florence + the Machine

While making sure that I didn't post this song already, I noticed that I have been posting at least one Florence song every month since November (practically since the beginning of the blog), that making her probably the most constant presence here! Well, I must say I'm not surprised of that, given my utmost and endless love for her! Tonight, coming back home under the pouring rain (yes England, I know you're giving me your best just before I go away), I was listening to an old playlist and suddenly this song turned up. Well, it just did make perfect sense to do the only thing that can make you enjoy pouring rain at night: dance-walking and lip-syncing the songs, like if you were shooting a video (PS: more on that soon!). That is a thing I really really love doing, especially at night, when it's dark and (a bit) less embarrassing. Just a bit. But who cares? Enjoy music, enjoy your life, enjoy Florence (and enjoy your lovers, if you're lucky enough to have them)!

61 - The Kissaway Trail

61 - The Kissaway Trail

My day started weirdly under a musical point of view: I got to listen to a couple of songs from the office playlist that I had in my library and that were kind of lost in it. The first one was a country songs I found in a random Spotify playlist and I added (with many others) to my personal country playlist. The second one was actually one of Fifa 09 soundtrack songs, actually one (of the few) I still didn't have in my library! Listening to that unexpectedly made me want to listen to the whole playlist and this is the result, one of its sisters is on here today!
Problem is that I got a little bored even by listening to the Fifa 09 soundtrack playlist, which I usually enjoy a lot... Guess today is really not a good day for me!

We can, we're strong, we'll beat it

Spark - Amy MacDonald

Spark - Amy MacDonald

Hello guys! Hope you are all well, I am a bit dizzy but overall ok. Last night I went to sleep earlier than usual to rest better and this morning I felt even worse, with swollen eyes and a confused mind. What got me through this hard morning has mainly been good music, I've been gladly getting lots of songs from my personal contribution to the office playlist and this really helped cheer myself up! One of the songs we got this morning (and also quite often lately) is this one, so I felt like posting it wouldn't hurt at all! Moreover I was listening to Amy two years ago too, when I was about to leave Canada and get back home from my exchange, so things kind of come back!

After the sun always comes the rain

Followed by hurt and pain

After the light comes the dark

After the love comes the breaking of my heart

Big girl (You are beautiful) - Mika

Big girl (you are beautiful) - Mika

Lunch time, here we are! I'm soo hungry (as usual), and I must say I don't really care about consequences of my unconstrained and often not-so-healty eating! Ok, maybe that's not 100% true, but let's just say I am doing my best to exploit this phase of my life with a super-fast metabolism. All in all I can safely assume I tend to eat 24/7, there's no escaping! I just hope I won't become a big big girl soon, but still, I'd be beautiful anyway, right?

Music is the victim - Scissor Sisters

Music is the victim - Scissor Sisters

Hey ya! Finally here I am, ready to write a serious and decent post after a couple of convulse days! But first a few words about my London easter weekend: I must say the outcome has been mixed. Everything started well, it looked like my relationship with London was getting better, the premises were there and then... things stopped improving. It felt like I reached the limit of my liking, all the things I've seen and done were nice and ok but, to put it like this, the sparkle didn't light up. Well, at least now I feel safe in giving a more thorough evaluation of London after spending a few days there. Of course living there would be a totally different experience, but let's say it would also be a (very, very) expensive one! So here I am, back to Exeter in a limbo-like situation. Today was the last day me and the guys going away with me in about a week spent with our boss, as she's taking a trip abroad and this looks like the beginning of the end. Things are weird, I have been waiting for the time to head back home for a while and now I have a really hard time cutting (or at least loosening) the ties with the people that I've shared this time of my life with, and a little bit with Exeter too, for as strongly as I have tried to oppose my feeling at home here, I have probably dug some roots in this ground. And this is a good thing I guess, as it means I enjoyed my time here, so I am a bit sad that now my internship is coming to an end. Yet I don't have much time to feel nostalgic: I wanna enjoy my last moments here until the very end and spring is finally finding its way here too, with a warm sun and beautiful blossoming trees. From here my need to listen to cheerful music (i.e. Scissor Sisters), and this song in particular as the mentioning of San Francisco reminds me (a lot) of the nostalgic feeling that fills me up when I'm about to leave a place I love.

I left my heart in San Francisco...

Goodnight - PJ Harvey

Goodnight - PJ Harvey

Hello there! Weekend's over, I'm yet again late with my post but I am really really tired and need to go take some sleep, tomorrow I'm back to work (I have to hang on, just about 10 days and I'll be done with my internship)! I'll leave you quickly again and promise tomorrow I'll be back for real and tell you all about my London easter break! Have a good night with one of my favourite PJ songs!

Break it up - Patti Smith

Break it up - Patti Smith

Hello everybody, sorry for being late, happy (late) easter! My long weekend in London has almost come to an end and I didn't post today/yesterday, so I'll make it up now with one song that I already wanted to post earlier on: enjoy Patti and see you tomorrow/today!

Running battle - Kasabian

Chelsea, London (UK)

Today I've been wandering through London and I must say I'm slowly (even not too much so) fixing my relationship with it! I met my parents (and friends) again after a while, which was nice, and I really got the chance to get a hold of the main London spots, so that I have the time to explore thoroughly a bit more areas in the time I've got left! Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Leeds castle out of town and in the evening I'll hopefully be able to arrange dinner with some friends from work, so I guess I won't have much free time on the computer! Moreover I've been singing/mumbling this song for a great part of the afternoon/evening walk, so what better fit?
(Hoping that the lyrics of the song won't be happening to me anytime soon!)

All lyin across the ground

Try not to make no sound

When two men goin break ya down, I said

Two men goin break ya down, I breathe

Everybody wants to rule the world - Lorde

Everybody wants to rule the world -
 Lorde

Hello people, hope your easter weekend has started in the best way possible! I'm on my way to London (goodness bless wifi on buses) enjoying my trip and waiting to meet my parents after 3 months. It is finally the chance for me to review my relationship with London, a city that I've never particularly liked (even though I only spent an afternoon there) and that everybody (well, almost) has been telling me great things about. So here I am, with an open mind and trained legs ready to roam around for a few days! I hope I will be able to post daily, hopefully at night, as I didn't prepare anything for you in advance. Carpe diem, as they say!

For now, I'll just leave you with the song that just started playing on my iPod. I've actually been into the various versions of this song I know for the last couple of weeks: the original has been playing in the office, Patti Smith's is the first one I've listened to (and liked), this is the one I'm listening to the most lately, so here it is: go and find your way to rule the world!

Desert song - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

Desert song - Edward Sharpe &
the Magnetic Zeros

Another day, another (great) song. Today I've been listening to stuff quite randomly and after getting Home from the office playlist, I moved my attention to the Magnetic Zeros for a couple of (my favourite) songs (by them). And I realised I still didn't post one of them. Time has come for the desert song! I am realizing now I reached and passed another milestone (200 posts), I'm so glad that I've been able to find the strength of will to keep posting, and this is also (mainly, actually) thanks to you! So thank you for being such an awesome audience, can't wait to share a lot more great tunes with you! One step at a time. And today's step is a very good one. Don't miss out!

PS: More updates on my easter weekend to come!

Run to the desert, you will see all that you need to see

Run to the desert, you will be all that you need to be

Give it back - The Ting Tings

Give it back - The Ting Tings

Hi audience, I am feeling a bit lost today at work: LinkedIn, my main means of work, is in redirect loop and I don't know what to do! I'll get to post my article in advance so! The song has been ready since yesterday, so I'm super ready to give it back! It's been one of my Ting Tings' favourites (their whole second album, Sounds of nowheresville, is worth listening if you don't know it!) for quite a while now and since somebody added it to the office playlist and it's been on a couple of times lately, I kind of got back into it. Listen to it and spread the word!

Hunter - Dido

Hunter - Dido

Hey guys!! Premise: it should be illegal to set an alarm clock on your birthday. Apart from that, I must say my day has been good until now and the plans for its continuation sound at least as good! So, I am now faced with the dilemma of choosing a song for this special day. First I must say it doesn't feel real that it's mid-April already! Come on, time flies so fast sometimes and passes by so slow some other times...! Everything is weirdly messed up! The only certainty is that I'm getting older and older and this 24 is something it'll take a while for me to get used to...! It makes sense to pick a good one, a very good one so. Change of plans. I'll keep for tomorrow the song I wanted to post today and I'll give you one of my all-time favourites, one of the songs I've been in love with for a long long time.

Just take your chances and find your place in the world: this is the message I got from it, and I will do my best to follow the advice!

I want to be a hunter again

I want to see the world alone again

To take a chance on life again

So let me go

Let me leave

Let me go

...

Q magazine interview (May 1994) - Tori Amos + PJ Harvey + Bjork

I promised myself I wouldn't post this (again) until I finished listening to all of their discographies. Now a few years have past and, taking out Bjork's latest album (that came out after my decision anyway), I got through the whole experience.

I take the occasion and exploit this chance to make myself a birthday gift and I'll share this with you now! Also, almost 20 years have past since the article was written, but it is still so up-to-date and so relevant to their music and to the music industry panorama that it really makes you realize just how great and true their work has been and still is.

These ladies have been one (well, actually three) of the most awesome music discoveries and their songs will stay with me for my whole life. I hope you enjoy my favourite music-related interview ever.

Oceania - Bjork

Gosh, this day has been so weirdly intense that I forgot to post at all (until now)! Just in time! Ok, so it's been my first day off since I started working here in England and I must say it's been a pretty wise choice, a monday just after a weekend trip and just before my birthday, awesome choice! I still can't believe I'm getting older tomorrow...! Anyway, back to music. In the lat couple of days I have been listening a lot to songs that I have already posted here, so that puts me a little bit in a hard spot for picking a song, and it is the first time this happens even if I am well-inspired. Too bad I get into songs more than once. Of course I'm joking.

Oceania - Bjork

Well, I think that another big milestone has been past today with me barely noticing it. I have (kinda) finished listening to Bjork's discography (excluding her latest album, that anyway was released after I started). She has been the one who made me change my way of approaching new music (you might remember something about it in an R.E.M.-related post) and not in a positive way, as at one point I got stuck with her and for a long time I haven't been able to proceed. I have never processed her album Vespertine, which made me stop listening to her whatsoever. I have recently approached Volta and my impression was a little bit more positive, even though I'm not fully convinced I really like it either. Considering the fact the I had bought the album between these two (Medulla) even before starting with her and that I have listened to it sporadically (with more pleasure than the other two anyway), I feel safer picking from it, as a kind of beginning and end of a chain. This is one of the songs I can safely say I like on Medulla, it's still very experimental but, to me at least, enjoyable!

Tides - The XX

Tides. (St. Ives, Uk)

Hello everybody! Here I am again, after a very tiring (ok, come on, not THAT much) but very very enjoyable (yes, THAT much) trip! Cornwall has been quite different from what I expected it to be, or at least the tiny part of it I've visited has. I enjoyed the whole of the trip: the company, the towns that have disappointed my expectations (Penzance) and those that have overcome them (St. Ives), unforgettable places (Land's end) that stimulated my thinking about the big questions of the world and places that I still have not been to (but I hope I will, i.e. Falmouth). Yes, I enjoyed also the seagull that landed on my head and stole half of my cornish pasty. That's part of the experience too!
Anyway, the highlight of our short journey has been for sure St. Ives with its beautiful beaches and its astounding tides. Tides that have (of course) suggested to me the music to listen to on the train and (of course) to post on the blog now! I enjoyed tides a lot (both the water movements and the music), hope you will too! Have an awesome beginning of the new week!

Stay awake - London Grammar

Stay awake - London Grammar

As I already anticipated a few hours ago, the weekend in front of me is gonna be very intense and I won't access my computer anytime before sunday night, so I think I'd best post now for today and make peace with it. I'll just give you the song I'm listening to in this exact moment, which makes a lot of sense for the time it is (friday night) but not for me (as I have to wake up at 6.40 a.m., that is in too few hours!). Stay awake with(out) me and enjoy your night and weekend!

The magic - Joan as Police Woman

The magic - Joan as Police Woman

Another week is coming to an end so quickly! This coming weekend is gonna be hyper, I hope I'll get the chance to post a couple of songs anyway! But let's focus on today now, one thing at a time. I'm stumbling on the choice of the song for the first time this week, but I have many alternatives available, so I'll just pick one. I have started listening to Joan recently, after noticing that she is going to play a venue in Exeter at the end of the month. I still didn't make up my mind about whether I'll be going to this gig or not, but in the meanwhile I started taking a liking for her music, in particular a couple of songs, among which there is this! You never know where you can find your magic...!

Dirty day (junk day mix) - U2

Dirty day 

Hey everybody! My inspired week is going on (thanks goodness) and here we are today too! I've been listening to U2 kind of in parallel with R.E.M. but I am still a couple of albums away from the end of their discography. Nowadays I am focused on their b-sides and remixes of their 1990-2000 best and I must say I am quite enjoying it, especially the remixes. One of the songs I am liking the most is this remix of Dirty day, which has always been one of my liked but not super favourite tracks of theirs. The same actually applies to the album the original Dirty day is on (Zooropa), which I have always liked but never completely fallen in love with. I hope that these remixes are giving me the chance to develop my relationship with it once again, and then who knows? It might grow in me after all this time...!
Anyway not feeling very well today, a mix of flu, spring, general sickness, light headache... it really feels like a dirty day for me!

Happiness - Kasabian

Happiness - Kasabian

This morning I woke up (well, not really woke up, but got out of home let's say) with a song in mind, and when it happens it usually means that that is gonna be the post of the day, even though I had other plans. And so it is today too. I really have no idea why I found myself singing this song in my mind on the bus to work, but it has become my song of the day anyway, so here is the post for you! Hope you like it, enjoy!

Nepal - San Cisco

Hello readers, hope you are well! I feel a little bit like cheating, as I should have posted this song

Nepal - San Cisco

yesterday (actually I am writing 'yesterday'), but I wanted to give it the space, attention and commentary it deserves, being one of my last year's favourites. About San Cisco, I hope you know them (if you don't, run to listen their album on Spotify NOW!), as I have been trying to push them since the beginning of this blog. I have been gladly noticing they got a little bit of fame here in Europe and I really can't say how happy I am about that and how much I hope they'll increase their audience in the future. I think that their music is very meaningful and catchy in its simplicity, and this song is a perfect summary of that. I really DO love the lyrics, the music is good and the combination of all elements works perfectly. I don't know what else to say to convince you, if I still didn't already, so just go and try them out, you'll not repent it!

If you're gonna break his heart

could you break it gently, please?

'Cause he's all you got

You're all he needs

No rest for the wicked - Lykke Li

No rest for the wicked - Lykke Li

Time has come to start a new week of songs! This time I am more motivated and more inspired (I hope) and I am in fact starting with a song I've been willing to post for a while. When listening to the first songs released from Lykke's upcoming album I got confused (I thought it was only one, instead there were two of them) and I ended up putting first in my playlists the one I liked the least. That meaning I could keep the one I liked better for better times, and here it is now! It is No rest for the wicked and it really makes me impatient about the rest of the album, I really can't wait to listen to it! In the meanwhile, let's enjoy this very good one! Happy monday!

#sundayrevival Porcelain - Moby

Porcelain - Moby

There was only one way to end this week, i.e. by not knowing what to post for the #sundayrevival... In this gloomy, rainy, lazy and meditative sunday, lighted up only by a funny F1 Gran Prix, it is really easy for me to linger in the world of contemplative and emotional music.
Turning to my older playlists for inspiration is always a good idea, and this time too I got the song for today, which is not in the playlist I was looking at but it has been reminded to me by it. It is another one of the 90s songs that have been with me for a long time, one I have long loved and that means a lot to me, especially in a day like this. Out of Moby's 1999 album Play, enjoy a perfect song for you, if your sunday is similar to mine (or even if it's not).

Burn - Ellie Goulding

Burn - Ellie Goulding

Hello guys, I hope your weekend started well! Our friday in the office started with our new playlist, made up of a huge amount of songs (more than 600 for about 42h of play-time, quite a lot!). We have just barely the chance to listen to our own songs, but in the end it will be another good chance to discover new music! This change though also means saying goodbye to some of the guys and girls who have been taking us company (sometimes a little bit too often) during the past weeks. One of these, and actually one of the least annoying (thanks to a limited number of plays) has been this girl, that I have been getting to know with the Catching Fire soundtrack and then again with this song, written (as usual when it comes to pop songs that I like) by my dear friend Ryan Tedder!

Leaving New York - R.E.M.

Another milestone has been crossed in my long, long, never ending but super enjoyed music journey. Yesterday I finally finished listening to the whole discography of R.E.M. after more than 2 years since I started. It has been quite an interesting journey, one that sometimes has excited me a lot and some other times has bored me a little. I have anyway unforgettable memories that are tied to R.E.M. songs, the first one coming to my mind being my wandering in Boston a little less than a couple of years ago during a trip I took while doing my exchange in Montréal. Some other memories are more recent and some songs are rooted so deep in my (music) tastes that they have become an essential part of my (musical, but not only) baggage. Another factor that made the journey interesting is how it has been a super relevant part of a change in my way of approaching music: until 2010 I have practically been listening to one new "big" artist per year, while in 2011, when I was taking the same approach with Bjork and got kind of stuck, I started broadening my horizon and R.E.M., together maybe with U2 and, a little later, Patti Smith have been my main focus of the next couple of years. As I said already, I enjoyed every part of this journey, some parts more, some other less, but knowing that it has ended 

makes me a bit sad, especially because R.E.M. have disbanded themselves as a band just while I was 

Leaving New York - R.E.M.

through their discography, so this end feels kind of final. I really hope that they will be together again soon, at least for some live gigs, and to get the chance to see them perform live!

Anyway, all of this to celebrate my completion of their discography. Let me just spend a couple of words for the song though. Around the sun has been the last album I've been listening to, not one of my favourites I must say, but this song has always meant a lot to me, since actually when it came out. It has been one of the very first R.E.M. songs I fell in love with and, probably, the first one in my library. Its description of the sadness of saying goodbye to something that you love perfectly fits the occasion; moreover I have the feeling it is the one that pushed me to start this journey when I was listening to it just before leaving New York in April 2011. It all fits perfectly, doesn't it? Well, goodbye R.E.M., hope to get the chance to see you live soon!

Army of me - Björk

Army of me - Bjork

Hello guys! Finally the fates have turned in my favour and today I have a song for the blog, before I even start writing! Irony aside, I'm finally glad music inspiration is coming back to me! Today I've been listening to some old albums I love and to some brand new music too, like an iTunes + Spotify blend. And yet this song is not on any of the albums I've been listening to, it just started right after Bjork's debut album (Debut) because I didn't change song quickly enough. And I'm glad I didn't. 'Cause I found my song for today. Obviously I couldn't stop it after it started (it's too good!) and I enjoyed every second of it. Well, I can just hope that for the future an army of songs will come to me asking to get posted!

Animal instinct - The Cranberries

The week of hard choices keeps going on, and it gets harder and harder! I think the only solution for me is to pick some of my old favourites. Given that we have been asked to make a playlist for the music in the office (oh, yes!) I hope the task won't be too hard!

Animal instinct - The Cranberries

Well, here we are! I think this song also makes sense for the current time, so everything is in the right place once again! Last sunday we have been having a very nice picnic in the Exeter University campus and, provided with three guitarists and two guitars, we got the chance to experiment a little bit. Probably the best outcome of our playing was a cover of this song, which is incidentally one of my favourites ever! Of course this has gone straight in the office playlist and I can't wait to listen to it. It is (I'd say of course) one of the songs from my childhood and I've been in love with it for a very very long time! Hope you enjoy it, just let your animal instinct out!

Electrical storm (William Orbit mix) - U2

Electrical storm - U2

These are hard days for posting music, today too I'm not very comfortable with posting as I'm not really sure about which song to pick, buuut I am confident it will be a good one anyway! I was undecided between two songs and, given that the other one will probably find room here in the (near) future, today I will go for U2! I have almost got to the end of their discography, now I'm busy listening to their best of 1990-2000 (b-sides disc). I found out the original version of this gem that sounded quite familiar to me and I actually just found out that this remix is probably the more famous version. I love artists who produce so much material that, even with the passing of time, you keep finding new awesome stuff!