Intro - ∆ (Alt-J)

Intro - Alt-J

"Triangles are my favourite shape, three points and two lines meet..." says the song I'm listening to now... guess who wrote the lyric? Well, by answering to that you will also answer to the question asking what I have been listening to steadily yesterday and today! Need a little help? Don't think so, but anyway yes, it's them, ∆ (or Alt-J if you wish). Yesterday I listened to their brand new album, This is all yours, for the first time and I have already fallen in love. Of course I got back to their 2012 debut, An awesome wave, and interspersed songs of the two albums steadily. Given that I have already posted practically the whole of AAW here and that the other album is brand new, it makes sense to post something from TIAY, in particular the first song, which, as it was on their first album, is called Intro. The atmosphere is similar to the one created by the AAW intro, but the theme is different, not any less enjoyable anyway! I'm sure you'll fall in love soon too and, well... brace yourself because lots of ∆ is on the way!!

Eye of the needle - Sia

Eye of the needle - Sia

Hello folks! I am back, finally and sadly. Yesterday the trips has been quite tiring, so I didn't have the strength to sit down and post when I got back at about 1 AM, but here I am now! I'm not gonna talk much about Sicily anymore, as I think you already noticed these two weeks have been awesome and intense! I'm a sad to be back, but it is also good to start again with my regular life, I am quite thrilled with my thesis as I can see the end of the tunnel close to me and I really can't wait to get done with it now! Music is also a good topic, during the trip I have been mainly listening to old stuff, 90s hits, Florence + the Machine, Coldplay, OneRepublic... Today I got back to more current stuff and I'm posting one of my favourites out of the latest playlist, and also another great song out of Sia's latest album!

Speed of sound - Coldplay

Speed of sound - Coldplay

It feels weird to be posting again after such a long time! It's been almost a week and I'm sorry, but life here has been full of events and the Internet connection not very reliable, so I didn't get a chance to post until now... I'm gonna make it up for you, don't worry! Our days at the sea have been great and it's been a real shame they're over, we really had a great great time! Not that here is bad, rather... great food, more trips on unbelievably crazy routes and nice places, I really couldn't ask for more, I don't wanna come back and start working for real on my thesis, I'd stay here one more month but well... I'll just enjoy the time I have! And that comprises great music in the car, which would have given me tons of songs to post here if only I had the time, I'll just stick with what we've been obsessing with today, i.e. Coldplay! Speed of sound is my favourite song of them, so enjoy!! I hope I'll be able to write again before we come back on Sunday, anyway I will start again to post regularly next week! See ya!

Leave my body - Florence + the Machine

Leave my body -
Florence + the Machine

Hey people! Here I am again, sorry for irregular posting in these days but I'm really enjoying Sicily!! Now we're at sea and it's great, we bore an unbelievable route through the mountains to come here, all curvy and uneven, but we made it! And it's great: nobody on the beach, warm sun, warm water and great bathing in the sea, awesome! And how could I forget about the food? Sweets, fried stuff, fish, everything Sicilian is just great! I don't ever wanna come back!!
During that awful trip at least we have great music as a soundtrack! It was mainly Florence and this song was particularly heartfelt by me, being meaningful as usual and even more than usual. As being in a great place, having a great time doesn't take away the problems. It just helps a lot forgetting about them!

I don't need no husband, I don't need no wife

One grand moment is all I ask

Geronimo - Sheppard

Geronimo - Sheppard

Hello everybody! Yesterday has been a crazy day, waking up long before dawn to get to the airport, a mess like I've never seen before at 5 AM at the check-in gates, a crazy journey, waiting times, the car... we finally got here and started touring relatives of my friend, eating here and there, it feels like I'm exploding and... wow, so intense! I didn't even have time to sit down a while! Last night there was also a big holiday for Saint Anthony, the patron of the city, crazy crazy!! I really feel like I'm immersed in the pure Sicilian life, and notwithstanding the looks full of mistrust and suspicion of the locals in the streets, I'm enjoying it to the fullest! I don't know ho often I'm gonna be able to update the blog, but I'll keep telling you my stories as soon as I can! For the time being I'll leave you with one of my latest successes, a summer song that came late here, like summer itself! Say, Geronimo, a line that perfectly fits how I'm feeling now!!

Matilde odiava i gatti - Carmen Consoli

Matilde odiava i gatti -
Carmen Consoli

So... here we are! I didn't even advise you about my oncoming trip (for a reason), but the time has come! Notwithstanding all the obstacles and difficulties, we are (almost) ready to leave! I'm going to Sicily with my wife and another friend of hers (that I know too) to visit her relatives there! I mean, put like this sounds like a serious thing, but given our platonic marriage it couldn't be otherwise!! She has not been going down for a few years now and I/we will more than gladly go with her and, hopefully, enjoy a nice holiday between the mountains and the seaside! Given the beautiful days we've been having even here lately, maybe going in September has not been a bad idea at all, with this summer's crazy weather! Anyway, to start getting in the Sicilian mood I'm gonna share with you a great song by my favourite Sicilian songwriters. Lucky you, she sings in English too (you can find the English version of the song on Spotify, link here).

The water + The park - Feist

The water + The park - Feist

Good [fill in with the part of day it is when you're reading this] folks! It's time for a combined post again! Yuppie! I wasn't sure I would post any of these two songs but, given that they have been going hand in hand since I started listening to them up to the point when I put them in a playlist close to one another, I am sure it really does make sense to have them together in a post! They are two very quiet and relaxing songs almost at the beginning of The Reminder, two songs of the kind that you usually don't pay much attention to, but that work perfectly as the soundtrack of so many moments. So, guess what? I am sure you'll enjoy them both, even better if played one after the other!

Words (between the lines of age) - Neil Young

Words (between the lines of age) - Neil Young

I'll start off this post by stating that this is not the song I meant to post for today, it has not been until like 2 minutes ago. It's not something new anyway. I was planning to start posting the first highlights out of the new shift of stuff I'm listening to, but well... I decided not to. Funny thing, one of Neil Young's albums is part of this new shift, ok it's the last thing I've started listening to and I haven't familiarized with any songs yet, anyway... I was watching a series of short movies and the last one I've seen (Lucky Blue) was about a kind of romance growing between two teenagers in the context of a touring karaoke act. In a very romantic open air environment, with the stage filled with light bulbs and couples dancing together, one of the two guys start singing that song that goes "Words don't come easy to me...", I love you but this is the only way I'm able to tell you and so on like this. I'm not posting that one, yet it made me think of another "Words" song, which is the exact reason why I'm posting this now!

[Animal] - Hundred Waters

[Animal] - Hundred Waters

I must admit today I am kind of at a loss about the choice of a song to post... or maybe not! I am being saved by one of my latest discoveries, Hundred Waters, which I believe you have already been introduced to! I wanted to post this song close to Sia's 'Free the animal' (for obvious reasons, and also as they are close to one another in my playlist), but I ended up choosing 'Broken blue' for that other post. Well, so the time be a little more wild and "animalish" has come again! This is probably gonna be my last Hundred Waters post for a while, as I have been moving on to new music (that, to be honest, doesn't excite me as much as the last lot of albums did, at least for the time being). Or maybe not. Who knows? You just enjoy them while they're here!!

EDIT: Funny how I finished to write this post more than one hour ago and then I got a moment of inspiration and started working (again) on my thesis until now! I'm even getting lost in the middle of other activities!

King and Lionheart - Of monsters and men

King and Lionheart -
Of Monsters and Men

This post has been inspired by the picture coming with it. I'm not eager of showing my face on here, but I had this moment of creativity (yeah, plenty of that while writing the thesis, it's a shame that most of them are not related to it!!) and I created this, which ended up being my most liked profile pic on Fb. Well, I confess I love it too...! The name of the lion is Lionheart, as me and my aunt got it for our home in Milan in the period while I was eagerly listening to Of Monsters and Men and, well... it kind of was supposed to happen! So after having this moment it made sense to listen back to the song (and the whole album, yeah) and, well, given that I also picked back up the harmonica, I have also looked for the tabs of some OMAM songs! I'll let you know how it goes...!

On the radio - Regina Spektor

On the radio - Regina Spektor

So here we are, time for the second song I mentioned yesterday, one that has been going on in my head for the last few days. It's quite unusual, as typically I don't get Regina's song stuck in my head, even when I like them. The pace of most of her songs is quite irregular and they do not follow a clear pop-song structure, so that for many of them it's harder to find a catchy part to mumble under your breath. This is not a clear exception, but I keep singing the beginning of the chorus in the back of my head! I can't be helped, it's time for it and so I hope you like it too!

#sundayrevival This is the day - The Cranberries

This is the day - The Cranberries

Hello dear folks! Of course I must begin by apologizing again for missing another post yesterday, I've been relatively busy and especially distracted, I came back to Milan and days of travel always tend to steal away time that then makes me forget to post... I have realised lately that I have been kind of ditching my sundayrevival posts and I had a couple of songs to post, a regular one and one for sundays! It's not sunday anymore actually, at least not in this part of the world, but given that I'm posting late quite often in the last few weeks, let's make this post count for sunday and get it like it is! The song is one of my all time favs of The Crans, even if it's not usually that much loved by fans... it came to my mind between two days ago and last night as I though that chances were opening up for a big step in my life, but the day has not come yet. I'll just post this in advance for when it's really gonna be the day!

PS: Now that the post is complete and ready to be published I have a very strong feeling of dejà vu! That's quite crazy when these things happen, isn't it?

Cellophane - Sia

Cellophane - Sia

Time for blogging, time for Sia again! Ok, I am kinda tired, my eyes are tired, I've been compiling a database for my thesis and now I'm re-writing each word three times cause I can't get my eyes, brain and hands to coordinate and I keep on hitting the wrong keys... Yeah, that's how bad I'm getting! I was hoping for a quick hang out with friends tonite, just an ice-cream or so, but no one of them was available so I put myself to work again and now I'm going crazyyyy!!! As if I'm being wrapped in the cellophane! Oh, wait... that was Sia. Yeah, I think she's been going through some rough stuff too, actually probably much worse than what I'm going through now... let's not steal her idea so and just share her artistic greatness with the world!

All I want is you - Barry Louis Polisar

All I want is you - Barry Louis Polisar

I hope you have seen my latest quotes picture on my Facebook or Google+ pages, I am quite proud of it (so to say) and I really felt the need to make it. I have been watching Juno tonight and the soundtrack of the movie really reminded me of John's Song by San Cisco, so I went on to listen to the song and, eventually, to the whole album! Having posted that masterpiece of simplicity already, it just makes sense to draw from Juno OST! I must confess there is no song that struck me particularly, but all of them together made a quite homogeneous and sensible set, in tune with the environment of the movie. Being forced to choose one, I'd get the opening track, the one that gave the start to everything!

Edit - Regina Spektor

Edit - Regina Spektor

Things are getting more and more heated up with my thesis and I am quite excited about it! Today I had my first interview with the CEO of a New York-based startup wearing just my robe as, after I tried to call him a few times in vane, he called me back right after I stepped out of the shower! Well, it's been a fiery and rocky start, but I hope I handled it at my best and I have for sure learned how to handle my next interviews better (note to self: never shower again before thesis is completed)! Later I have been proof-reading what I have already written (more than halfway through) and I have been keeping on with contacting other people for new interviews, so I'm keeping myself real busy! But don't worry, there's always at least a little time for music (hey, come on, I'm writing my thesis on live music and I listen to music all the time while writing and researching, so there is a LOOOT of time for music in my days!!!) and for A song or two per day! Today I have a lovely lady keeping me company again with a great song I've been obsessing with in the last couple of days (come on, it's not hard to get obsessed with an obsessive song like this)!!

A world alone - Lorde

A world alone - Lorde

This thesis is sucking all the energies out of me, but at least I'm feeling good about how it is turning out! Just think that a few minuted ago I closed the file and I surprisingly realised I am in my hometown and not in Milan anymore (I just drove back home a couple hours ago). I am really drained but happy! And also doubtful. I'm listening to Lana del Rey but, come on, I already posted so much good stuff of hers! I'd have more, but for this time I think I'll stick to my current playlist, which I also deeply love, and post one that I was singing out loud with rapture (even if I don't know the words, thanks goodness there is a mumbling motive in the background)!!

Broken blue - Hundred Waters

Broken blue - Hundred Waters

Happy day for me today! I think I am finally starting to get on the right track with my thesis, a clearer vision of what I have to do, support by the professors involved, plus I started getting answers by some people I contacted to interview, I'm finding new motivation to keep on with a new step of the job! That's pretty much it, plus trying out a new (very good) Japanese restaurant close to home and spending time in uni with friends reviewing stuff for an exam they still have to take. Today really flew away in a heartbeat! But it's nice, it's nice, beginning of the new month, everything is slowly starting to get back to work again! But don't forget you need to relax sometimes, and this song is here for that!

Free the animal - Sia

Free the animal - Sia

For the last post of the month I'm picking my current obsession in Sia's album 1000 forms of fear (a great one, go listen to it now!), which is also one of my highlights of my new playlist for the coming month. I have been developing my knowledge of and relationship with Sia's music in the last months by a kind of conjunction of events, the main one being the presence of her great song Elastic heart on the soundtrack of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (a version with just her is present on the album, it's as good as the soundtrack version with The Weekend & Diplo). Add to that her great part in David Guetta's hit Titanium, the awesomeness of her single Chandelier with its amazing video and a great rest of the album and you have one of the best surprises of this 2014! And don't worry, you're gonna hear more of her very soon!