New day, new song! Today I've been taking a trip to Bergamo with my parents, very pleasant, nice city (the old part on the top of the mountain especially), and now I'm back in Milan, ready for another calm and relaxing night and another trip tomorrow!
In contrast with the nothing-to-do that's been happening in my life in the last few days (nights actually), I choose another happy song for the summer, again from Foster the People's debut album (yes, I did take a liking for it). This time it's the opening track, the cheerful Helena beat. Happy saturday night to y'all!
I apologise with you guys if I'm being redundant, but Tori's concert in Milan is approaching and I don't have anything better to post than that at the time being. This is what I've been listening to and this is what it makes sense for me to post now. I'm listening to Tori a lot and her latest album is speaking to me, and I like that! I put ideally this song in a threesome with the ones right before and right after, but there's time for just one at a time, so here it is!
I'll also get the chance to celebrate a victory for Tori in my personal music listening: last night I've been computing how much time I've been spending listening to music just on my own devices and, well... Tori is the single artist I've been listening to the most. Almost 900 hours! It's quite a lot, impressive! This is to hundreds more hours!
So, here we are! I'm late again, my bad. But I'm making it up! This is a post I already had in mind yesterday: I wanted to post something by Lykke Li, as I've been listening/watching her new performance on KEXP (go check it out here) and I loved it. Given that I haven't listened to (the whole of) her new album yet, it made sense to post a song from her previous work. I had a couple of others in mind, but then, after listening to all of them, this is the one that stuck in my head and it is the one I'm posting for you now.
Funny fact: I was just about to start writing this post when I heard the song playing in my aunt's room. I thought it was like the soundtrack of the movie she is watching and it would've been the weirdest of coincidences!! She was just listening to it via a video I posted on Facebook instead. Life is weird!
Here we are again! The heat wave is still striving to reach us while my headache keeps bothering me from time to time. It's been a good last few days, would've been great if it wasn't for these two factors that still are not going as they should. But the world is not perfect, is it? We just have to enjoy what we have day by day. The Ting Tings say that too!
Summer-like days, so you exist! I was starting to doubt that you would make your appearance at all this year! And summer is not the only thing approaching, my concerts are coming closer and closer too! The first one is gonna be Tori in about a week and I feel compelled to post this one, even though it's not from her latest album, because I've watched a video of her playing it live in the Netherlands and I really, really hope she's gonna play it in Milan too! Virginia is one of my favourite songs on Scarlet's Walk, I love the songs in itself and the meaning it holds for the USA-wide journey of (the fictional character) Scarlet throughout the album. It is also a great one for summer time!
Hello people, sorry for skipping yesterday's post, but I've been carrying around a very annoying headache all day long and I used all of my free time to stay in bed and rest. Today it's going better, even if I still have some annoyance from time to time. Not enough to skip another post anyway! Picking again from my playlist, this time I'm choosing a song from Lana del Ray's eponymous album (yes, she spelled her name with the "A" still). I must say I've not been enjoying this album nearly as much as Born to die, but some songs on it are quite ok. This is one of the few I'm saving, probably my favourite. Hope you enjoy!
I am coming from a happy sunny saturday in the countryside, at grandma's and from a birthday party last night, so I really think it's time to stop for a while with the insightful, thoughtful and kinda-sad songs. I start picking again from my playlist, again from Foster the People and again from the set of songs I'm in love with right now. Happy saturday night to you!
Ok, ok. I know this is not a fitting song for a thoughtless, carefree and cheerful friday night, rather... Neither is it a good song for the wonderful sunny day that today turned out to be here in the end. Yet it is one that made a lot of sense last night (it was already today actually) and I decided it would be my post. You already got an anticipation (on social network pages) with a quote pic, where I wrote my favourite lyrics of this song. What more to say?
This song is part of Imogen's project for her 4th album, in which she has been writing during the past 3 years (I believe) one song every three months, getting different kinds of inputs and inspiration from fans. The album is gonna be named Sparks (methinks) and should be distributed shortly (in a few weeks/months). This song was released in 2011, it was one of the first songs to be composed and, I must say, it's my favourite for the time being. The lyrics are just great and, supposing that not everybody will have a cheerful, carefree friday night (goodness knows how many thoughtful, depressing ones I've had), I think that some of you will be able to enjoy it anyway! Otherwise it might work as a hangover song tomorrow morning!
In this stormy thursday I'm starting to post a song outside from my playlist. Last night, after a weird day, I was having a bit of a sad moment and I went back to listen to some of my best songs of last year's playlists and I got (Neil Young's original version of) the song after a couple of others and it made perfect sense, especially regarding the thoughts that were crossing my mind.
Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning,
Just find someone who's turning and you will come around.
It made so much sense that I decided already I would post it and here it is! This morning I started listening to it again and then I reverted to Annie Lennox's cover and I ended up listening to her whole album Medusa. Thus I didn't know which version to post and, well... I'm posting them both! Choose the one you prefer or, even better, listen to them both!
Ok, I know it's almost summer and I am not doing anything that is helping me in this regard, but it happened already: I started losing track of weekdays. Today I'm particularly confused, I keep thinking it's thursday while it's not. It's wednesday. I'm confident I'll remember that at least until I finish writing. And it's wednesday, of course, because it's the third song I'm posting from my playlist! Makes sense. I can do it. I love this time of year, but it always gets me a bit confused! Anyway, back to us. This is kind of an "old" pick, as I got to notice this song when I was still working, as it was in the office playlist. I got it then and kept it aside for my next playlist moment, and here it is! It's one of the (many) music highlights of these past days and it couldn't escape its moment of glory here! I'll be keeping it next to me, don't worry!
Next song from my (once) brand new playlist! It's Tori's turn, so let's talk about Unrepentant Geraldines for a bit. I AM HAPPY! I am so glad that it finally looks like Tori got totally back to her sense and gave us a more than decent album! Don't mistake me, I found lovable stuff in most of her latest albums too, but things didn't feel completely right. Now, it's too early to say but this album sounds very very good as of now (with respect to its immediate predecessors). Tori got a good voice again, no more barbie-like high-pitched tones, it's all very pleasing to hear. Ok, some songs are not unforgettable, but maybe they will grow into me anyway. Some others are pretty, pretty nice! Amongst them I must quote the title-track, which has stuck in my head in the last couple of days. It is a very non-classic song in terms of format, but it is not so very unusual for Tori: the first half of the song, more catchy and up-beat gets you up and then she stops and start the second half with just her and the piano, singing what could be a different song (but it isn't, as the melody and lyrical elements link the two pieces together). And I love it when I get to start singing the song in my car, screaming "Unrepentant Geraldines" as if I were at a rock concert. I mean, what other artist allows you to do that? To have super deep and inspired lyrics with an intellectual tone, put together with very pleasing pop/rock music? Very few, methinks. And this is the real Tori in my opinion, the one that is able to sing about the big problems of life or important issues of society or again artsy/intellectual stuff in a way that talks out the very essence of the problem/issue and lets you analyse it and think about it with her songs, with very pleasant pop/rock music (I know, I'm repeating myself), with the "girl and a piano" thing that (almost) only she has. Unrepentant Geraldines (song) really embodies that Tori and this is almost always a sufficient condition for a great song to come out. This one is no exception. Welcome back Tori!
Hey hey hey! New week, new series of blog posts coming for you! Now that the weekend is over I can finally start posting songs from my new playlist that I really really really like! I'm only a bit sad of having built it now as it's not summer yet, but I'm sure it will put me into summer mood in the blink of an eye (and then hopefully real summer will come too)! This is the first extract of my playlist and it is also (not) coincidentally the first track on it! I've come to love Foster the People in a very very short time and, beyond Pumped up kicks, I'm already in love with 3/4 songs, the ones I put in my playlist. This is the one I'm liking the most as of now, and it's the perfect time to post it! Don't stop enjoying! (Great video by the way, be sure to check it out, it's super fun)!
Being a bad, bad blogger I forgot to take my time and post today too...! Now, thanks to the blogger mobile app I'm writing via my cellphone (goodness bless Google!) and maybe I'll be able to get ready to post (kind of) in time! Today I spent a veri nice, warm and sunny day in Milan at the park, attending a tech festival organized by the Wired magazine, nice day! Now I'm off for an aperitivo with my friend and some colleagues of hers, even if I'm a bit tired! My pick for this sundayrevival, given that I've been listening to a new playlist (that I adore), is a hard one! I think I'll put my trust in PJ's debut album!! Enjoy!
Finallyyy! Mission completed! Last night karaoke it was! It's been very nice (my performances apart)! A very very cheerful night in a super small but very nice karaoke bar close to my home with some friends and it was all super nice (again, my singing apart). We had a very good time, at least I did! I really can't wait to do it again!
Soo for today I'm picking one of the songs that I "performed" last night. This was a duet with my dear very-well-able-to-sing-so-thanks-for-covering-me-up friend, and (even though we didn't remember how the song goes for the whole of it) it's been quite nice! Good (humiliating) memories that go in the back of my head together with the the lots that I already have! Still, I would probably dare say that Skye & friends's version is "a bit" better!
Hello guys! Today finally (hopefully) hopefully (finally) I will be going to the karaoke, after more than 3 years that I've been willing to! I won't celebrate until I'm there, as it happened a few times already that I had plans and then they blew up for one reason or another. So I won't linger on that topic, I'll tell you more tomorrow about it. What I wanna linger on today is Arcade Fire's new video (with Andrew Garfield) for the song We exist on their latest album, a video that just came out today. I'm not super eager in following new video releases generally, so I don't have that many to compare it with, but I must say that this is my personal 2014 favourite to date. I love the concept of the video, even if the story is not 100% clear to me yet (which is actually another positive factor, meaning the video has got multiple levels of interpretation), and I think it's a perfect fit for the song. The message is not particularly complicated, rather it feels to me just like two words that discriminated people, belonging to any kind of minority, oftentimes want to scream to the world. Let's stop judging people by how they are, let's give everybody equal opportunities (to study, to work, to rights, to be happy!) and let's stop being afraid of what's different. Because we are all different, and that's why we should all be given equal opportunities.
I drew a map of Canada, oh Canada, with your face sketched on it twice...
A case of you - Joni Mitchell
I think today is the perfect day for posting my favourite Joni Mitchell song, which was playing in my head when I woke up (two minutes ago). Last night I stayed up until past 3 to finish watching the last season of Desperate Housewives and I must say that now I am feeling a bit sad. In fact after 8 seasons of series it would've been quite impossible to not tie with the characters and now I feel that hole inside of me that I always feel when getting to the end of a great and engaging book or series, feeling like a part of your world has ceased to exist. This is the good thing about music, that it doesn't tear you apart like this, because you can always go back and listen to a song or an album! Anyway, this last DH season was not the best one in my opinion, I didn't like some plot twists and it's probably good that they put an end here; yet the finale is fulfilling and satisfactory, if a bit sad, as it reminds you that nothing is forever and that you have to keep moving with your life, you can't take for granted that anything will always be there... remember though that every life is "oh, so wonderful" no matter what!
She ran the risk of passing by unnoticed (and she almost did), but luckily enough this didn't happen! As you might recall, I started listening to Joan just before her concert in Exeter which, for various circumstances (mainly my laziness and not sufficiently developed interest), I didn't attend in the end. I'm not regretting this decision, I wasn't ready for a concert of her then and most probably I wouldn't be now. Yet I'm not implying that I didn't like her music, rather... Ok, she didn't strike me so strong in such a little time, but the number of singers/bands who did is very, very limited. I have just been listening to one album by her (2011's The Deep Field) and some songs did catch my attention after a few plays. This is one of them, actually the last one that got in my mind and one that I still enjoy (a lot) after a few weeks, making it probably the single most important reason why my listening to Joan has been a positive experience. So, well... stand up and be heard!
Here we are, back in Milan! I came back today to finish up some bureaucracy with university and to have dinner with some friends. Weird day today! There has been this storm hanging on our heads all day long, it seems like it's ready to start a disastrous thunder and flood, but (for the time being) it looks like we're good (I even got out without an umbrella and survived without big problems). I'm remembering what it was like one year ago: I was attending my last lectures before the summer break and was waiting for the Kasabian free concert here in Milan, thus listening to their (then) latest album, Velociraptor. While driving down here I got to listen to last year's June playlist and this song was on at one point and it really made sense for me to post it, given that I posted some Kasabian songs but not my favourites yet. Days are forgotten is one of them, and finally here it is given a slot on the blog! Don't forget to sing along: Aaaaaaaaaah aaaahahahahaaaah!
There are so many good songs on Imagine Dragons' debut album Night Visions that I still didn't post, and given that I've been listening to it quite a lot today, it looks like this is a good time to write about one of them at least! This is the closing act of the standard version of Night visions (b-sides and bonus material apart) and it's one that really grew into me with time! I think it's also a great choice for closure, both in terms of message/lyrics and of music. Just don't think this is a way I'm saying goodbye to you, I'll be back tomorrow as usual, I promise!
PS: After a 1 minute break you'll find also the ghost track Rocks, a very good way to make you understand that it doesn't end here!
It's a typical home sunday: at home, Formula 1 GP (such a boooring one, again), football matches, a brief but strong rain followed but a perfect blue sky with a chilly strong breeze... Summer is coming but not fast enough! And then I will complain about the excessive heat, but now this chilly nights are really freaking me out and not helping me recover from my flu at all! All the context is anyway perfect for a sundayrevival post and, given that I've still been focusing on music that I can't post (yet), I decided to go back back back in time to one of the first loves of my "young-adult" musical adventure (i.e. Alanis) and to the album of her I really used to love and now has a little bit faded in me (just a little bit), i.e. So-called chaos. And I'm gonna throw myself on the song that gives the title to the album, one of my favourites on the CD and in the whole music career of Alanis, I dare say. I love everything about this song: the music, the lyrics (I wanna be naked running through the streets, I want to invite this so called chaos, that you’d think I dare not be I want to be weightless, flying through the air , I want to drop all these limitations and return to what I was born to be), the message, the need for total freedom outside the schemes of society, the power in it (a thing that might be lacking to some other tunes on the album) and... I could go on forever! Just listen to it and improve your sunday! See you next week!
The weekend and blogging don't go well together, I always end up having little or no time to write a decent post! Anyway, I'll just pick a great song that doesn't need any comment: an instrumental one, the opening track of Neil Young's debut self-titled album. 'Cos on saturday we all feel the emperors of Wyoming, don't we? (Well, ok, maybe not...!)
Hello guys, hope you are all well (better than me at least)! My health conditions are still not so great, I really hate having the flu, it debilitates me and leaves me weak, dull and weary. I hope the nice, warm sun will speed up the recovery process, as I've had enough already! Today I drove back home and had a nice aperitivo with some friends, so the day was not a bad one all in all. I was then speaking with one of my friends about working in Italy and the possibility/willingness to go abroad and try building a life somewhere else. We say that all the time but then it's easier said than done! Well... never lose hope anyway! Now that our working life has just begun or is about to begin, I think it's the best time to consider stuff like that! The same happens to the guy in the song I'm posting today. His father wants him to go work in the factory, but he wants to see the world. Well... I hope we'll all get our chance to go around and explore!
Hello people! Today's not a good day for me to write a blog post: I'm (hopefully) starting to recover from the flu/cold that struck me a couple of days ago and I feel like my head is the size of a balloon, with every muted sound I hear echoing throughout it. If that was not enough, the music I've been listening to today and I wanted to post has not been released yet, so there's no way for me to find a decent video to put here. So I will just exploit this moment of not-being-well-ness and post a tune that made me feel a little bit the same. Lana released the audio of her new single a few weeks ago, but the official video got out just in the last couple of days. I must say I was not impressed (at all) by it the first time I heard it and the feeling of uneasiness persisted during my second listening yesterday. I'm not saying everything is lost, as I've been practically hating Lana's songs at the beginning, before falling for them, so maybe it's just a matter of time. Anyway this West Coast doesn't get through to me for now: some parts of the verses are nice, but the chorus in particular... it is quite disturbing to me. The video doesn't tell me that much either, and this doesn't help... Hopefully I will get past this and fall in love with the song soon, in the meanwhile I'll leave it here for you to decide whether you like it or not!
Hey guys! I think I enjoyed my first days back in Italy a bit too much... In particular I think I overestimated the weather and temperature gap, with the result than now I got a (kind of) flu going on. Well, I hope I'm gonna get past it quickly, I don't wanna waste a minute of this super enjoyable spring-time! Back to the music. I got to know Sia while I was staying in England in the past months because she contributed to the soundtrack of the Catching Fire movie. I tried to listen to a couple of her older albums on Spotify, they were enjoyable but didn't light up any spark in me, probably I have to devote a little bit more attention to her. This is very new instead, it's the leading single of her upcoming album. The first time I listened to it (in the lyrics video version) I didn't enjoy it that much either, but now, be it because of the amazing video, be it because I got into the song or be it whatever else, I am starting to really enjoy it! I hope you will enjoy it too!
I think we all have some albums that we associate to a particular time of year. Well, when spring starts to be on its way to summer and the days get pleasantly warm, I have a favourite album to listen to. Given that this (awesome) time of year has come for me again now that I'm back in Italy, the urge to listen to my springy album is irresistible! The album I'm talking about is Lonely Letters by the swiss band Lunik, a CD that I utterly love and that always reminds me of my favourite time of year (this one, indeed). Do you love me? has been the first song I got to know by Lunik, I remember it was playing on the radio in the time just before my high school graduation and I've been listening to it ever since! The lyrics feel particularly accurate today as I found myself lingering in some thoughts about past times... I know you will love it too!!
Hello everybody! Strange as it seems, today I'm finally posting on time! This morning I woke up with a song in my head, a very weird one picked by my subconscious (of course it is the one I'm posting about)! My relationship with The Raveonettes has always been quite weird: I remember that PJ Harvey was having a concert in New York one of the few times I was there and I really wanted to go. When I asked the group of people who were coming with me whether there was anybody willing to come with me (I believe it was 2011 and I was taking part in a United Nations simulation program), somebody told me that the Raveonettes were playing too in the same night at a different club. Out of curiosity I started listening to them (I think that happened in Canada, so almost a year later) and I didn't dislike their album Chain gang of love, though not feeling so inspired by it to listen to other stuff from them or so. Yet sometimes it comes back, like today, and what the hell, why not post this song? There are actually two of them I really like, one is this and the other one is my favourite. I wanted to post the other one, but I decided it will have to wait a little longer, as today is the Love Gang's day!
Shame on me, it's not even two days since I got back home and I already forget to post on time...! In my defense, first I still haven't gone to sleep, so it counts as yesterday and second I've been a bit dazed and confused by the whole moving back thing (lame, ain't it? ok, let's get to the post)!
I've been almost running out of the whole string of songs I had ready to post (almost, but not yet!) and I'm drawing from there for this post. I don't know exactly why I've recently been getting back to some sad songs from albums that I used to listen a while ago... it's probably because I was about to leave new great friends and so they made good sense. This one actually is more love-life oriented, but it is still a great one that I didn't value enough until a few weeks ago. Try not to get too sad too and more news to come soon!
Here we are! Back to Italy, back home! I am practically done unpacking and I'm taking advantage of the whole moment and mood ti put some order in my wardrobe(s), to change clothes for the warm season, to give something away and to throw some stuff away! The feelings are weird and mixed still, it feels like I'm still in Exeter with my new friends, that I'm gonna see them in the next days, but it also feels like I've never felt Italy (even if none of my friends are around this weekend). Weird feelings that are actually all overwhelmed by my crises of abstinence of (piggy) food! It's really hard to stop when you're used to eat the whole day long...! I'll do my best to close the mouth of my stomach anyway! And I'll try to be happy with just the crumbs...! (And I really feel blessed for being so lucky to have all the food I want at hand).
So, here we are. When this is gonna be posted it means I'll have found a goodness-blessed internet connection while walking through Bristol or at the airport, ready to take my flight back. I am writing in advance because of course I will not have time in the crazy day that.. today is. (Wow, that sounds weird, I'm messing out with the temporal factor again!).
EDIT: [Actually not, I'm posting live now! I didn't take into account that I would go to sleep so late!]
Anyway, my British experience has ended (for now at least), and I must say it has been much better than I thought it would've been! Ok, I'm still kind of stuck with the sides of my life I was stuck in already before leaving, but this doesn't mean I enjoyed this beginning of 2014, rather... I really did! Especially thanks to the wonderful people that have shared these moments with me! Now it really does feel like the circle is closing and my student time is really going to come to an end very soon too...! I don't know if I'm ready for that, but I think it has already started happening, so I need to come to terms with it!
Anyway, it's weird how I just noticed this song now: first I have to say I really like it and its kind of sad tone and turning-the-page lyrics are matching quite well my current feelings. Moreover, I was listening to this album when I came back from Canada two years ago, so here we are! Circle is closed, let's turn the page and start a new chapter!
Thanks to all of you who made the last one a great and super enjoyable one!
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