A new day has come - Céline Dion

It's the end of the year and I don't why this song got stuck in my head after lunch! Given that not only is a new day coming, but also a new year, it would make sense to use Celin Dion as my last post of the year! It's been somewhat funny, as after preparing liquorice gelato last night, just a few minutes ago I was making a mascarpone cream for pandoro to eat after midnight while listening to this song and, after it, to my May 2008 playlist that it was featured in. Moving from Eagly-Eye Cherry to Keane, from R.E.M. to Alanis Morissette... I figured that I was already listening to good music 6 years ago!! I didn't move too far away from my at-the-time favourites in terms of genre and singers, so here is one more proof that the year change is only nominal, but time goes by evenly...!
Yet, it wouldn't feel right to end the year without a little summary: for me 2014 has been the year I worked for the first time, the year I lived a few months in England, the year I travelled quite a bit around Europe and also, and maybe most importantly, the year I graduated, putting and end to my career as a student! Quite big things! I'm hoping for more exciting events to happen next year, as I will start working for real, getting money out of it (it's funny to think that the first money I "earned" stemmed out of this blog, just a few weeks ago!). For A song or two per day 2014 has been a very important year: I started the Google+ page of the blog, which helped me greatly increase my audience and my interaction with you guys, I started Pinterest (with limited success for now), I finally got recognized by Google and embedded in its systems, but it has also been the first full year I completed and the year I realized I was going through with this blog, that it was not going to slowly die out a few weeks or months after I started it. And that is mainly thanks to you all who are reading my posts, so a big thank you goes out to you all and I wish you the best for 2015 and all the time to come!!

Scream my name - Tove Lo

Scream my name - Tove Lo

The soundtrack of two Hunger Games movies has played a very important role in my 2014 in music. One of them (Catching Fire's) has been a totally unexpected but incredibly pleasing and enjoyed discovery, the other one (Mockingjay's pt.1) was not a total fiasco but anyway has been the brightest example of unmet expectations (by my part) of this past year. I've told you that many times already, but you see me keep posting songs out of it, so I guess the soundtrack is not as bad as I perceive it to be, it's just that I had set the bar too high after Catching Fire. Most likely this is gonna be the last song you'll see up here out of Mockingjay pt.I OST, let's see what they're gonna do for the last movie of the saga! In the meanwhile enjoy this pretty song by Tove Lo and get ready to celebrate the new year!

The garden - PJ Harvey

"There was trouble taking place.

Trouble taking place."

The garden - PJ Harvey

I woke up this morning with this lyric in my head and I knew instantly that it had to be the song I would post today! My temperature has (hopefully) gone, even though my throat is still sore. I think I can say that also because after sleeping from about 2 AM to past 2 PM and from about 5 PM to past 10.30 PM yesterday, last night I couldn't fall asleep, it took me quite a long time, thus further messing out my sleep-wake cycle but (methinks) showing that I didn't need anymore healing sleep. So here I am, getting through the late phases of this brief sickness in this sunny winter day with PJ Harvey, listening to music, watching TV series and reading books...! What else would you wanna do on the 29th of December?!

Someone new - Hozier

Someone new - Hozier

Hello there! No, I didn't disappear again, this time my missed post was kinda justified, as I have been struck by the usual winter temperature yesterday. I'm feeling better already, after sleeping almost the whole day through, so I hope tomorrow I'm gonna be back on my feet completely tomorrow! Well, not that I have that much stuff to do... I just hope I'll be back in shape by new year's eve! For today I'm gonna leave you with another Hozier song I fell in love with! Enjoy!

I can dream, can't I? - Annie Lennox

I can dream, can't I? - Annie Lennox

It's so very hard to find good songs to post during the holiday break, I'm doing my best! I started listening to Annie's latest work, Nostalgia, just before xmas and I found it pleasing and enjoyable for now, with no particular emotional peaks, but still pleasing. Besides eating like a pig, lately I have been playing around with my new smartphone that I got as a graduation gift. I downloaded a few apps and among them a couple of dating apps. I'll tell you that my experience with those things in the past has been far from satisfying and enjoyable, as it seems that asking to meet somebody face to face before taking any further step is not a very popular way of behaving... anyway, after bitter disappointments every time, I get a long break and then usually try again, especially when I have quite a bit of free time in my hands, such as now. So I'll keep dreaming that some day I'm gonna be able to finally meet somebody for real, can't I?

Santa Claus is coming to town - Michael Bublé

Santa Claus is coming to town - Michael Bublé

I am somehow at a loss about what to post now, after such a christmasy christmas as this one has been! I woke up quite late, actually I woke up pretty early but got up quite late, opened the presents with mom and dad at home, rushed to grandma's after a shower for lunch, which lasted from about 1 PM to about... well over 4 PM, with a few presents opening breaks and then a little dinner and stuff, mainly eating and staying together! Coming at home I tried to give a better look at my presents, feeling that xmas has come twice this year since I got gifts galore just a couple weeks ago for my graduation! I am feeling very blessed as of now, I hope the future will bear even more great moments like the ones I've been getting lately! Well, by now I'm kind of sure about what I'll post: I must say I'm not a Bublé fan, meaning I don't dislike him but I've never invested any time in willingly listening to his songs, but today when we were in the car driving to lunch a christmasy song of his (don't ask me which one) started in the ipod shuffle and well... it does make sense to post something christmasy of his, and this is the one I probably like the best! Hope you had a great day too!

Christmas must be tonight - Scala & Kolacny brothers

Christmas must be tonight - Scala & Kolacny brothers

At least on xmas eve let's keep on with the themed music! As I have been doing every year since I can remember, I have been counting christmas trees on our way back home from grandma's house, this year they added up to a satisfactory 57, not like the golden years but better than the last few! We have arranged all the stuff needed for tomorrow's lunch, I prepared the table with my usual paranoia, everything is perfectly aligned (now, who knows about tomorrow when we get back there...) and ready for lunch! Now what else? I will just be waiting for Santa Claus to come, say hello and go to bed, ready for the presents time tomorrow morning and then for lunch at grandma's! This year is probably the one I've been feeling the holidays the least, but it's still a magical time, especially thinking about all the challenges and changes that are awaiting me in the future!

Pata pata - Miriam Makeba

Pata pata - Miriam Makeba

What a tough and intense day this 23 December 2014 has been! I devoted it all (well, almost, in the afternoon I also had a quite long and weary phone interview with business case annexed) to the annual xmas dinner I have with my friends in Varese; given that we are all very busy, someone started working, some others are getting to the end of university and so on, this year it has been very hard to arrange it all, one of us couldn't be there and two other friends just met each other for a few minutes, just the time to exchange our secret santa gifts (go watch 'The perks of being a wallflower' if you don't know what I'm talking about) and take a picture all together...! Not-even-so exhausting and very rewarding, it's always a happy time of year, when we can all gather together (something that happens more and more seldom now) and rejoice each other's company! Of course this involves playing games, and the last one we just quit playing was Trivial pursuit, media edition. Out of the many impossible and crazy questions, one was about which song Miriam Makeba became famous with, and after (of course not guessing and) reading the answer, Pata pata, we all started laughing like 'what the hell?!'...! Only after a brief search on Spotify we realised we all knew the song but had no idea about the name of it or of its singer! See, that's an example of how many things you learn with Trivial pursuit...!

Angel of small death and the codeine scene - Hozier

Angel of small death and the codeine
scene - Hozier

I've been listening to Hozier's album lately, after falling in love with his hit Take me to church back in the summer. The album is very pleasant and vibrant, I'm enjoying it more and more every time I listen to it, the songs are starting to stick in my mind, they are a good halfway between catchy and meaningful, I'm really really pleased! It's also an album that fits well this time of year, with me wandering around doing things, visiting grandparents, buying stuff, eating out, organizing xmas 'lunchers' (this year is pretty complicated!) and so... So, get ready to celebrate, whatever you believe in take this time of year to stay with the people that mean the most to you (I think I wrote that last year too....!) and try to find joy in it!
I chose this Angel of small death and the codeine scene, a great track that struck a chord (or two) in me already, the video I am attaching is a live official video, but it's so flawless you couldn't tell the difference between it and the recorded version on the album! Kudos!

Spectrum - Florence + the Machine

Spectrum - Florence + the Machine

I'm back home, I travelled full of luggage (two trolleys, something like 5 big paper bags and a shoulder bag) full of clothes, papers and xmas gifts, both mine and my aunt's... Yes, I started transferring back my stuff from Milan quite seriously, it made sense after living these last few days there with a nostalgic vibe. The moving has been quite tough, especially as I've been doing it alone, and the worst part is finding room at home for all the stuff I brought back, but things are slowly taking a new shape! Of course I wanted to live my 1-hour drive back home at the fullest, and my music pick has been, as you can imagine, Florence + the Machine! Overlooking the fact that my singing in the car was probably comparable to that of Britney Spears at her concerts, it's been very rewarding and moving as usual, even more than usual I'd say, given the aforementioned nostalgic vibe. Of course one of the songs which I was singing myself hoarse was this one, Spectrum, big feelings, powerful singing, I'll never forget my times with Florence in the car... just chills, nothing else!

Comfort me - Feist

Comfort me - Feist

Weird winter days are these...! Yesterday I took a very pleasant walk through Milan, around the Castello, the park and the beautiful neighbourhood of Brera. I wanted to try out my new camera I got as a graduation gift in the beautiful winter pinky-blue sky that was out there yesterday, and it was worth it. Living these last "university" days in Milan I had to take a walk there, and meeting with my friend M. for it made perfect sense, as we already had a greatly pleasant and even longer walk more than one year ago in the same area of the city. It's kind of saying goodbye to my favourite spots of the city, at least the ones that are still there! And then today, except for a short trip to the supermarket I haven't been out of home (yet), anyway I'm super cold and lazy, with the city immersed in a cloud. Listening to Feist songs is a perfect fit for this moment!

Wake up - Arcade Fire

Somethin' filled up

my heart with nothin',

someone told me not to cry

Getting to the end of a long book or a TV series (as it is my case now, I just finished True Blood) always leaves you with a feeling of emptiness inside you when that parallel world did mean something for you, at least at one point, if it taught you any lesson, if you felt like being a part of that world...

Children wake up,

hold your mistake up,

before they turn the summer into dust

I stand here with a fixed and empty stare at the computer screen, trying to process things, tearing up with that parallel world, getting out of it once and for all, making sense of reality, of my reality once again and realising that this will be a part of it no more.

I guess we'll just have to adjust

Wake up - Arcade Fire

I am spending these days in Milan as if they were my last, I have no idea what will be of my life, but chances are I will be spending at least a bunch of time here, be it for the people who gravitate around here, be it as it is so close to my hometown, be it for the relationship I built with city, be it because it's the one place in Italy I would choose to live my life in. Yet, whatever comes next, it's not gonna be the same. Things are changing already, as I mentioned in my latest post, and I am changing too. I am slowly realising that this very relevant and long chapter of my life is ending, and I am getting some closure, I am actually willing to get some closure because behaving like this helps me get so many memories of the time I spent there, the things I've done, the places I've loved, the people I've met... but everything comes to an end, and something new starts! I guess we'll just have to adjust.

My december - Scala & Kolacny brothers

My december - Scala & Kolacny Brothers

Last January the first piece of my Milanese heart was torn away, when fnac was bought by Trony and was selling out all the stuff before the take-over took place. At the time I didn't even know what would have happened, but when I came back from England my second Milanese mother was not there anymore. Or it was, same structure, but different looks, and a different heart. A couple of days ago another piece of my heart went missing, when I got to know that Mondadori, another one of the main multimedia retailers in the center, has closed down its store to move somewhere else. And today I found out that part of what used to be fnac, including the events area, where I first met Dolores O'Riordan right before I moved to Milan and later Caparezza and Nathalie, has become a gym. It really is time for me to start fresh somewhere else, as sometimes I have trouble recognizing the Milan I got to know... Anyway, back to last January, among the CD bargains that were there I bought a couple albums, and one of them is December, the one featuring this song. I came to start listening this CD in the summer and then I realised it was a collection of covers of christmas-related songs, so I waited until now to start getting to know it for real!

If you wait - London Grammar

If you wait - London Grammar

And to find just one other seems to be the goal of everyone

From the search to the hurt I believed I could take you on

We would drink, we would dance and you would watch me whenever you want

And can you give me everything everything everything

Cos I can’t give you anything

And if you wait, if you wait

I will trust in time that we will meet again

Today one of my dearest friends graduated and I'm so happy for her!

Unrelated to that, I have started a random play of London Grammar's debut album, and while this song was playing I was casually paying attention to the lyrics I quote up here, which struck me quite a lot, I feel them very close to my personal experience. I never paid them enough attention, nonetheless I have been utterly in love with the song and, being it the title-track of the album, I think it's a good post representing what has for sure been one of my top 3 albums in this 2014!

Train in vain - Annie Lennox

Train in vain - Annie Lennox

This morning I drove down to Milan with my mum, I had to come down today and she needed to be here in the morning to sign her contract as a school director, so I woke up early to make the trip together. It's always hard picking music when some relatives are in the car, but last night the Annie Lennox idea came to my mind and it seemed a good one, it indeed worked! I am also training myself on a new song with the harmonica, Eurythmics' There must be an angel, so that is probably how I got the inspiration and the Lennox-mood! I think my favourite album of her solo career is Medusa, which is actually a collection of covers. Funny fact is that I ended up knowing many of the songs as sung by the original artists in other ways! Still love Annie's versions better most of the time!

Run - San Cisco

Run - San Cisco

Here we are, the craziness is slowly settling and this are going back to normal, yeah normal, because as of now I am not feeling any different, even if I'm not a student anymore! Well, it really is true that labels are just labels, what matters is what's inside. Anyway, being back to 'normality' I am finally finding the time to post the last song I wanted to share with you out of my older playlist. San Cisco are back, this is the first single out of their coming album, which I guess will be released at the beginning of next year, if I remember correctly. I must admit that at first I didn't really like the song, and actually it never occurred to me that I started liking it, but I did. Notwithstanding this mysterious process, what matters is the outcome, so here is their new song, hoping for a great sophomore album!! Enjoy the 80s-like visual effects in the meanwhile!

#sundayrevival Love love love - Of monsters and men

Love love love - Of monsters and men

I've been meaning to post this yesterday (well, actually on saturday), but then the preparatives for graduation celebration got the best of me, and well... today it's been even worse, with coming back from Milan for a great lunch party with family and friends here in my hometown! This weekend has been overwhelming, absolutely CRAZY, I'm feeling so many emotions that it took me days to even start processing them! I'm full of joy for the celebration of the end of this chapter of my life, the amazing people that were around me, the support they gave me, the things we have done together! This same things also overwhelms me with sadness, as I started realising that it's really the end, it's for real. It's the first time in my (conscious) life that I'm not a student, and who knows what I am now! I'm really curious to get to know what is waiting for me, but also sad to leave this all behind. I really hope that the people who mean a lot to me today will keep occupying a relevant place in my life, and I'll dedicate this to them all, as representing a memoir of one of the best moments of these past two years!

My name - Ilaria Rastrelli

My name - Ilaria Rastrelli

GRADUATED!!! With the best score! I'm so happy and proud, it's been a great day! So many people I care about and love around me to share this moment with me, so much stress and everything but everything went great and I couldn't be happier! It really is an unforgettable day! But not everything revolves around me...! Last night there has been the final of this year's X Factor and, if the winner was the announced teen idol, I noticed a few very interesting singers I started liking a lot! One of my favourites is Ilaria, a young girl (16 years old!) from Tuscany, and this is her own song. She finished third, so a good result, I hope she will have a long and great career in music!

Run-time - Imogen Heap

Run-time - Imogen Heap

Minus 1 to graduation, anxietyyyyyy!!!! Ok, I'm processing all this anxiety that struck me yesterday, today has been quite long and wearing, I hope at least this will help me sleep a bit tonite. I still have to try my speech once more, as today I didn't have the time to. I can't wait to get done with tomorrow morning's event so that I can finally start this weekend of celebration and wash away all the doubts!! I hope I will have time to come and write how things will go during the weekend, otherwise... let's get the party started!

I bet my life - Imagine Dragons

I bet my life - Imagine Dragons

Minus 2 to graduation. I promised and, sooner or later, I keep my promises! This is one of the couple of songs I've been meaning to post for a while, so here I am now! I'm betting the last and most meaningful result of my whole (academic) life on what will take place on Friday morning, i.e. me defending my master thesis. Today I carried on with practicing with my speech and I think I'm getting close to a decent and satisfactory result in terms of timing and content. After a couple of repeats I had to stop as anxiety was starting to mount inside of me, and it's a bit too soon for that methinks! About the song, as it happened with ID's first album, at first I didn't really like it, it rang no bell in me. Now I'm not saying that it's my favourite song, but I have slowly grown a liking for it, so I can keep my hopes high for their coming, sophomore second album! I bet my life!

What the water gave me - Florence + the Machine

What the water gave me -
Florence + the Machine

Minus 3 to graduation. Yesterday I promised I would post a song out of my not-so-current-anymore playlist, and of course here I am, not keeping my word as usual! But when Florence calls, I can't help answering. Today I brought my car to the tire repairer to change my tires into the winter ones and I took the chance to walk around a bit through the city center. Unfortunately I found no good inspiration for presents, which ain't that good a thing. While getting home I started listening to Ceremonials and I realized it will soon be the fourth year since its release, it seems like it has been released yesterday but also that it has been with me all my life. Well, it is an album I really consumed and it means a lot to me, so I will patiently wait for another masterpiece overcoming it to be released soon! It has also been a long time since I poster Florence, so I hope this will bring about a good vibe for exciting news to be announced soon, like, I don't know... a new album?!

Just like Jesse James - Cher

Just like Jesse James - Cher

Graduation day is getting closer and closer, just 3 days before the end of my career as a student! It feels huge thinking about it, so I'd better focus on something else...! Today I started preparing for the discussion when I'll defend my thesis, but I haven't tried the speech yet, I'll do that tomorrow. A trip to the city center is also awaiting me, I hope I'll get some nice inspiration for xmas gifts as I'm pretty stuck for now! I'm also completing a new playlist, the first one for December and I will give you this as a sneaky peak of it, even if I still have a couple things I need to share with you from my current playlist! Get back to you tomorrow with that!

#sundayrevival Silent all these years - Tori Amos

Silent all these years - Tori Amos

Well, living at night, here I am! Today I got up at the shameful time of 4.15 PM. In my defense I went to bed late, at about 5, and I was woken up in the morning and couldn't fall asleep again for a while. Ok, that's a petty defense, I acknowledge that! Well, given that, the central event of my day has been taking a very hot bath and while doing that I was listening to some good music. First I put on Feist's The reminder and felt my bond with the songs I already loved on that album grow stronger. Then, after the water cooled down enough for me to get in the tank without burning, I put on the first CD of Tori's A piano: the collection, which is basically an extended version of Little earthquakes. I didn't get to listen to all the songs on there (which I anyway know by heart), but it still helped me find an inspiration for this (late) sundayrevival post. Silent all these years is maybe the most renowned song out Tori's debut album, it is also a worthy component of what is one of my favourite albums overall.

Army dreamers - Kate Bush

Army dreamers - Kate Bush

Saturday night comes again, this time I'm going out (it took an effort reaching out for my "network" and finding somebody who was in town and doing something, but I made it), so I just came out of the shower, still have to dry up my hair, and then I'll meet with my friend E. and one friend of hers to go and attend a gig by a local band covering blues and soul classics... well the gig actually supposedly began a few minutes ago and we will go out in some time, so I guess it's gonna be finished already when we get there, but at least we'll get a drink and hang out! To celebrate the current wintery but classy time of year, this tune seems the right one. Hope you enjoy it, now let me go dry my hair before I get a stroke!

Dead air - Chvurches

Dead air - Chvrches

After the awesome collection of songs for the soundtrack of Catching Fire, I had very high expectations for that of the following chapter, the soundtrack curated by Lorde for the lately-released Mockingjay part I. The taste of it, with Yellow flicker beat, did live up to my expectations, but then... just before going to watch the movie I got to listen to the soundtrack and... well, it kinda sucks. Especially if compared to its predecessor. Given how much I came to love Lorde in the past year, I was expecting a work at least as good as the previous one, but I have been highly disappointed. My faith in Lorde as a composer and singer is unscathed, but as far as music tastes go... well, we're not really on the same page I think! This Dead air is one of the few songs I really came to like on that OST, so I'm quite happy to share it with you. Yet my excitement about the whole thing has very much cooled down... especially after listening to The hanging tree and realising it has not been included in the original soundtrack!

Cycle song - Imogen Heap

Cycle song - Imogen Heap

A couple years after the release of her album Ellipse in 2009 (wow, so much time ago?!) Imogen started off a project according to which she would record and share a song every three months, getting inspiration and background sounds from fans, so that in three years she would have had a 12-track album. The deadline shifted a bit and in the end not all the songs (at least as I recall) were created in this way, but many of them were and have been around for a few years now (e.g. Neglected space, which is still my favourite on the album, was released in 2011). It is always rewarding to follow such creative and innovative artists like Imogen, as in parallel to the development of great music they also develop interesting ideas on how to make music. Listening to the whole album, released a few weeks ago, is rewarding and positive since the beginning, also because I was already familiar with some of the songs on it. My reaction to the whole project is positive, kudos to Imogen and best of luck to her with her coming baby! This Cycle song has been written together with one of her sisters on the album, Climb to Sakteng, for the soundtrack of a documentary on Bhutan and was released last summer; it is one of my current favourites, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

Trains and winter rains - Enya

Trains and winter rains - Enya

I have been having a hard time feeling christmas time this year -  that until today. Notwithstanding the nice markets, trees, lights and stuff in Brussels, I was feeling cold and detached, not at all within that cheerful mood associated with one of the nice things of nice not-really-nice time of year. But it comes, as it does every year. This afternoon I have been working on the xmas tree at home and, even if I'm not fully satisfied with the result, I must say it turned out nice and it really helped me get into the xmas mood. Putting on some on-topic songs while decorating, it felt right to post one, which is actually one of my fav winter songs since it came out and which I've not posted yet, so here it is, enjoy Enya, trains and winter rains!

All I want - Kodaline

All I want - Kodaline

Hello everybody! No, I'm not gone, I'm still here! After everything that I went through in these past few days, I'm still here, stronger than ever! So, first of all my trip to Bruxelles: after a rough start embodied by the breaking / stopping / whatever of the train that was taking me from the airport to the city and being left for 1 hour and a half not far from our final destination, being evacuated from the train in the middle of a forest and walking back to the (luckily very close) previous station, and meeting nice people in the meanwhile, I finally reached and greeted my friend who was waiting for me! The rest of the trip has been quite nice, biting cold but nice, we walked through the main sightseeings and also through a nice art-nouveau itinerary not really in the center. We also spent a few nice moments at home, singing and listening to music. At one point I came back from the bathroom and got into the kitchen while this song was playing, so I started singing it out loud and in my mind for days, still today. But that's not the end of the whole thing! (Otherwise I would've posted yesterday, after a very intense weekend, or maybe even sooner). On saturday night my computer was plugged in for charging and I heard a sudden 'crack', the lights went out in a part of the house and then my charger didn't work anymore. Still haven't understood what caused what, but I had to wait until today to be able to buy a new cheap and not official charger (thank you Chinese guys in Milan's Chinatown for avoiding me the wait for an Amazon delivery), so then we come to now! I've updated you with all the main events of my long weekend, so I'll be back tomorrow!