Sintonia imperfetta - Carmen Consoli

Sintonia imperfetta - Carmen Consolicarme

Don't hate me for that, but I would feel bad not sharing a few more songs from Carmen's new album, which I really really like! If everything goes right, I will go see her play live on friday night near Padua while driving back home, I just have to make sure I'll be able to get my hands on a ticket, but I don't think the event is sold out! I'm really thrilled at the idea, as she's one of the few Italian singers I really wish to see live, and this would be a great chance! This song I'm sharing with you, whose title could be translated in English as 'Imperfect harmony', is about a relationship of a married woman with her husband, with her singing how he just lays on the sofa, sleeping in front of football matches and she has to take care of his mother, the dog, cooking and stuff. She recalls how she was charmed by him when they first met, but she's regretting her decision, complaining with her younger self, who should've realized immediately what kind of men she was getting engaged with, the one she know is planning of leaving.

Lothlòrien - Enya

Lothlòrien - Enya

This morning I woke up at 6.15 to undertake a 4-hour drive to get to work... not the worst thing in the world, but not the best way to start a new week either. I have been feeling lousy all day, and now a little bit of headache is getting onto me. But the trip has been fine, luckily there were some clouds filtering the direct sunlight, so I didn't get too hot and sweaty in the car. Plus, I put on Enya music (as I have been doing often lately... damn stressful, adult people's life!) to soothe my head and to wake up gently. It worked once again, so that's been a good move! In the second half of the trip I moved to my current playlist to get going at full speed, and this was actually the only song I listened to twice, as it is also featured in the playlist. It's peculiar, as while listening to Enya, some Lord of the Rings movie soundtrack songs sung by her popped out and I was dancing at their epicness, so it's funny that she was already composing music inspired to Tolkien's book even before it got (even more) famous with the early 2000s movies. I hope you all, Enya's fans, LOTR's fans, music fans and bloggin fans can appreciate this post, which is number 600 for me and my blog!!

#sundayrevival The rebels - The Cranberries

The rebels - The Cranberries

After the awesome Cyndi Lauper post on Friday (new +1s record, thank you guys, I'm so happy you're as happy as I am about marriage equality!!!), I hope I'll keep it up with another good post! Today some uni friends from Milan came to visit at my grandma's in the countryside, we had an awesome time with the pool and the sun and the company and everything, so great, it's so awesome to spend time with friends, makes you forget about what you would like not to think about (like going to work on a summer Monday or trying to understand what the f* is going wrong with your damn, old body) and enjoy life at the fullest! Concerning music, I wanna go back to what I told you on Friday, so I'm posting one of my old Cranberries favourites, a song that I haven't been listening to for more than 2 years and which lyrics I still know by heart...! "Seems like yesterday we were 16, we were the rebels of the rebel scene..." I've never been a rebellious, violent or politically involved / aggressive guy, but I like to think that I've always been thinking outside the schemes, in my own way, being weird in my own way (which meant even being mainstream, maybe when the people close to me didn't think I would be), which today is quite a rebellious approach to life methinks. So this song resonates with me, it always has resonated and even more today that I started working and I somehow miss those times when I had the whole summer free to enjoy... who knows? Maybe it's gonna happen again in the future! For the time being, I'm alright with getting the most from what I've got, which is always a good thing! Have a nice new week you all!

True colors - Cyndi Lauper

True colors - Cyndi Lauper

Today it's been a pretty important day in terms of marriage freedom for gay people in America, so I felt that this fact needed celebration! I had planned to post a different song, as I have been listening to the Cranberries in these days and today in the shower I ended up listening to a few songs that (I realized later) I hadn't been listening to for more than 2 years, and I still knew the lyrics by heart!! But don't worry, they would make great sundayrevival posts so I think I will keep them on the side for a while! Today it's all about making a step forward in terms of respecting each others as human beings, valuing our differences and celebrating them instead of being scared by what's different.
I have been a bit uncertain on which song to post, but at the risk of being cliché, I wanna play it safe and choose a perfect anthem for this occasion! Happy US gay marriage day and pride week/month to you all!!

Hunger - Of Monsters and Men

Hunger - Of Monsters and Men

I find OMAM's second album very different from their debut, and I still haven't understood if it's a good thing or not...! I haven't found any hit song yet (like Little talks, for instance), the songs are more intimate, more hard to understand, to familiarize with and to interiorize, which might be a very good pro in the long term, meaning that the music is good and lasting, as it needs many listens for the listener to penetrate all the layers of interpretation (melody, lyrics, etc.) and the whole mixing up of them all. Anyway, today my friend M. came to my hometown to visit, we explored some old (for me) and new places and it's been a very pleasant day. It's just that when we are together, we are a dangerous love-for-Japan combo, and we always end up buying well too many mangas... anyway, that's one of the good things of life and I will just enjoy it. Now let me go, I have mangas to read..!

The one that got away - Katy Perry

The one that got away - Katy Perry

My car, which I am very very fond of and who's been in my family for more than 15 years now (yes, I am conscious I am personifying it, it's my little one!) has been having some "health issues" lately (I feel like we are connected by a file rouge, we are feeling sick together) and, even if I brought her to see a "car doctor" during my first trip to Thailand, her problem has not been solved, rather it has worsened since the visit, so I am having her checked again. So I went to catch my father's car at the station today and while I was connecting my ipod into its on-board computer, the radio started playing this song and given that I was about to listen to some summer songs on my playlists from last years, this one seemed pretty fit for the case! I just let it go, then started the ipod and now I added it to my 'Eté' ('Summer' in French) playlist! Do you think it's a good summer song? I think it is!

Official - Junip

Official - Junip

It's official now... I finished watching Game of Thrones season 5, I have to disagree with people who have been unsatisfied with this season, I must confess I liked less the previous one, as this year interesting pairings have been made and interesting developments have taken place. It's also been nice, after being in Dubrovnik last summer, to recognize some of the places where they shot the scenes! Ok, I understand all the people (see girls) whose hearts are torn apart because of the end of the last episode, but well... weren't we expecting it all the way? Yeah, ok, there was that little hope in (y)our hearts that things might go right, but if you like things that go right... choose another TV series to watch! Or listen to some great music, like this awesome tune by Junip.

The wolf - Mumford & Sons

The wolf - Mumford & Sons

Hey my people! I'm sorry again if I have been posting once every two days lately (and here I was thinking about changing the name of the blog into 'A song per day (or two)', it would've been a good idea!), but it's been getting down quite hard on me in the last few weeks, just know that last night I laid on my bed at 18.30 to relax for a while and I got conscious again at 4.30 in the morning, with my clothes still on...! Thanks goodness my parents convinced me to take some time off work to rest and recover from my long-lasting malaise, also to start taking some more medical tests. So I will have the chance to use this week to watch some TV series, to collect my ideas about work, to read some of the (many) manga I recently bought and of course to listen to many new albums that just came out and to older ones I am just discovering! To the former lot belongs the new work by Mumford & Sons, out of which I'm posting one of the songs they posted before releasing the album, the one that gave me back some hope after the false step of Believe!

Queen of peace - Florence + the Machine

Queen of peace - Florence + the Machine

I am back to Italy after one of the toughest weeks, in which I showed more strength of will than it was wise to, my health was not particularly bad but has never been good either, I didn't enjoy Bangkok at all as I hardly got out of my hotel room except for going to work (when I have been fit/crazy enough to), and overall I am very tried and weakened by the life-style I've been (compelled to be) taking lately, with no home and many flights and so on... I think my body was already weak, it has been since the beginning of the year, and this effort I require of it is not helping for sure... One more strain (a bit more pleasant) has been to buy the tickets for Florence's concert in Milan just before xmas, me and some friends have been tracking them and waiting for them to go on sale, but we didn't manage to get parterre tickets, it was actually even hard to get the B ring... well, whatever, we got them in the end, I hope I'll be able to go and enjoy it just as much as I did with her last one in 2012, one of the best nights of my life!! In the meanwhile I share with you another pearl out of the new album, 'How big, how blue, how beautiful'! This is 'Queen of peace', enjoy!

The memory of trees - Enya

The memory of trees - Enya

Due to the very annoying fever and general illness that has been affected me in this week in Thailand (in particular, but throughout the whole of 2015 actually), and the headaches deriving from it, I ended up listening to a lot (more) of Enya (than usual), and I must say that it works, her soothing music often helps me relax and feel less pain in my head. In turn, you have been seeing a lot of Enya on the blog, and my feeling is that for some time you're gonna keep seeing more of her! In the meanwhile let's all enjoy this beautiful instrumental piece of music, one of the first songs of Enya I loved, as it is included in her best-of 'Paint the sky with starts', her first album I started listening to! Hoping that you're feeling better than I do, I wish you a pleasant whatever-part-of-the-day-is-fitting (here in Thailand it's almost bed-time)! Cheers!

What went down - Foals

What went down - Foals

Hello my dear readers (or should I say sa-wad-dee-krap?), this year my sicknees feels like it's never going away, and I'm almost tired of feeling pissed, I'm moving towards resignation... I really don't know what's wrong with me and my getting temperatures all over the place when I travel by plane, I understand that the air in an aeroplane is not the best and healthiest around, but come on...! Yesterday I almost fainted during a factory visit, today I decided to stay in the hotel and rest, and even if my fever is not strong (in the mid 37s°C), I have been feeling an annoying headache and diffused malaise. I still don't know what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow, but I hope I can muster up my strength and go to work, as it is a pity to travel so far away and then waste time in the hotel... anyway, apart from my problems, I want to share with you the brand new song that Foals just released in anticipation of their new, coming album! What went down... for the time being, I went down! I hope that soon enough it's gonna be my illness to go down!

Ottobre - Carmen Consoli

Ottobre - Carmen Consoli

Hey there, guess what?! I'm sick again... This time not even the air of Thailand (ok, I agree, Bangkok's air for sure is not among the best in the world) saved me from my post-plane illness. I hate being sick and I hate that this cure the specialist doctor gave me doesn't seem to be having any tangible effect for now, even if I'm taking in more meds than the average grandpa... Anyway, I have been meaning to post this a few days ago, than got carried over by the events, I will do it now: I apologise again for posting an Italian song, but I am really in love with it and actually I am really in love with Carmen's new album! This song 'Ottobre' (October) is about teenage years and spending time in Carmen's native Sicily in October, the "sweetest month". She sings a few lines that I interpret as describing a lesbian love, as two girls "got back into the scene with red cheeks and a good excuse", but it is just my own interpretation. My idea actually gets stronger with the chorus, when she sings that she would rather have chosen hell rather than the limbo if this was the price of freedom, and that heaven could wait if this was the price of freedom. A very sweet song anyway, hope you can enjoy!
PS: Ok, the Internet just gave me the final confirmation that my hypothesis is right!

Bad habit - Foals

Bad habit - Foals

Hello my dear followers!! I am in Bangkok again, and oh my my, what a... I don't even know how many hours it has been! On saturday I have taken a super intense and super rewarding trip around Veneto: first I climbed up Monte Grappa, the worst road I've ever driven, to reach the cemetery-like monument that lays at the top to remember the soldiers who died during World War 1. It's an amazing place, with an immense power, totally worth the harsh way there! Then I went to Bassano del Grappa, a very nice town at the foot of the mount with a famous wooden bridge. I stopped in a very very nice bar close to the bridge to eat a couple of small sandwiches, and then on the road again to Possagno, to visit the Gipsoteca of the famous sculptor Antonio Canova, where you can visit his home and his study, with a collection of the stamps of his most renowned works of art, an amazing place too! Final stop has been Asolo, another nice little town at the top of a hill/mount (again), hard to reach, but very nice to roam around in. The highlight of the town is an old fortress at the very top of a mountain, which I went to with the very last energies I had left in me, and it has been very rewarding, as you can see from the picture I am attaching to this post. Finally I drove to Treviso to collect a colleague of mine and to Venice airport to catch a flight to Abu Dhabi, and finally to here! Notwithstanding everything, I'm very happy about my bad habit of going to the end of one thing when I'm determined to do it, not minding what all the people say: it's the time when the adventures happen and when the stories to tell are built! Now I just wanna sleep, pity that I have to wake up in about 7 hours already, I don't know how I'm gonna make it!! Wish me luck!!

Fire under my feet - Leona Lewis

Fire under my feet - Leona Lewis

Soon enough Leona is gonna be out with a new album, and I missed out her new single release while I was spending my (first) two weeks in Thailand last month. Luckily I quickly caught up and here it is, a very nice part of my current playlist! I like the turn that Leona's music has taken, with this kind of dance r&b, on the shadow of 'Forgive me', and I'm sure she's gonna have the usual (nice) ballads too on the album. Can't wait for it to be out, in the meanwhile let's enjoy a great track for the summer that has finally come!!

War - Kodaline

War - Kodaline

"There's a war between my head and my heart and I don't know which side to take..."
How often does that happen?! I think it's a daily fight between rationality and passion, between doing what's right and 'righting' what you do, between doing what the others think you want to and doing what you want to. Because yes, sometimes the others know what's best for you, and your rational part does too. But we decide to ignore it. In the end it's "just" the choice of which road will bring us the most happiness. And our own perspective about it changes all the time. And in the end maybe the best thing is the very same choice process... and listening to great pieces of music during it!!
"Life, it's just the way it is, yeah the way it always was and it's alright..."

Ain't nobody - KT Tunstall

Ain't nobody - KT Tunstall

I don't know if you guys ever post(ed) about music, so I don't know if it happened to you to feel what I have just been feeling now... it's not so unlikely methinks. Anyway, I was just about to open the page of my blog to write this post and a song started hammering on my mind out of nowhere... "ain't nobody... lalala...". I realised I just recently got to listen to a cover of the original version of 'Ain't nobody' (which I don't even know if I have ever listened to, but I presumed so because I already knew the song), and after a quick search on Wikipedia I found out where: KT Tunstall's 'Drastic Fantastic' DVD included in the deluxe edition of the album I recently bought on Amazon (and already posted about here). I couldn't not post it, especially because I'm falling more and more in love with it and because it is a great piece of music interpreted by a great (set of) musician(s). Don't miss out!!

As far as I could get - Florence + the Machine

As far as I could get - Florence + the Machine

My obsession with HBHBHB (of course) isn't over yet, rather I think it's just at the beginning! I've been pretty much taken away by 'Delilah' and the title track's demo in the past couple of weeks, but I didn't forget about this other great tune that was released as a bonus track (or a 'Ship to wreck' b-side, I still haven't understood), which was very much appreciated by me when it was released, even if it soon fell under the shadow of such masterpieces as the above-mentioned 'Delilah' and others. Nonetheless listening to it a few more time, I found myself liking it more and more, so there's no way it is not deserving of a post on the blog! I have also been updating my playlists on Spotify, you can find the June one here (with the other songs posted this month, unfortunately I couldn't find this one...): why don't you give it a chance (or two) [per day]?!

Empire - Of Monsters and Men

Empire - Of Monsters and Men

Today for the first time I travelled to work from home directly, without coming to Veneto on Sunday, and it's been a great choice: besides enjoying my Sunday much better, I quite enjoyed the trip too (though it was quite hot) and I also was, for some reason, hyper-active, very productive and very awake (and very wet)! After work I reached my B&B, which lays at the top of a hill: to reach it I had to climb a crazily steep road, but the location is quite fascinating! The worst thing is that I realised I left both of my Mac chargers home, meaning it's gonna be three (long) weeks without them! Stupid! Thanks goodness I have the work-pc that I can (supposedly) use at home!! After all of these adventures in such a long day, I'll leave you with one of the songs that are featured in my latest playlist, and I'm sure you're gonna love it as much as I do! It's the first song I'm posting out of OMAM's new album, which is going to be released very soon!!! (Or is out already?! No, it's tomorrow! Well, great timing, kudos to me!!)

#sundayrevival Until the day is done - R.E.M.

Until the day is done - R.E.M.

This weekend always holds a special meaning for me: ok, I agree, F1 has lost a lot of its appeal in the last years, but the Montréal GP always holds a special place in my heart (as do Montecarlo and SPA). The best year has been 2011 hands down: it was the 12th of June (thanks WIkipedia for a heads-up about the exact day) and I remember it being the night before a university exam early in the morning. I remember vividly my excitement in watching the GP as I already knew I would be spending a semester in Montréal starting January of the subsequent year. Then there was the whole mess at the beginning of the race, it being postponed for like 2 hours due to a crazy rainstorm. I was almost tempted to say "well, whatever..." and go to bed, but the conditions were all coming together so perfectly that I decided to keep it up. And it was worth it. Oh, if it was worth it! The best (and also longest) F1 race ever!! This year has been ok, but not nearly as great as 2011. Anyway for this sundayrevival I wanna share with you a piece of music that I was listening to at the time, and that was already kind of a revival at the time, being the album it comes from released in 2008. Hope you enjoy it!

Saving my face - KT Tunstall

Saving my face - KT Tunstall

We all know Amazon is the best when it comes to buying things at a good price and getting them home fast! I guess most of you are also familiar with the concept of free delivery if you spend more than 19.99€ (at least in Italy) that applies to most products sold by Amazon itself. So when I went on to buy Florence's new album HBHBHB, I have been taking a look at other albums I wanted to buy and found a couple of them at a very good price: one is Feist's 'Metals', and the other one is a deluxe edition of KT's second album 'Drastic fantastic'. I must confess it has been a very good bargain and a great purchase!! I am now watching the DVD that came with the album and I am greatly enjoying it! Besides the nice bits and pieces of interviews and life, there are also great performances of the songs of the album, some of them I never felt particularly close to and that I am "discovering" now. That's what I love about extra material (and also live concerts), that they help me take my relationship with songs to a whole new level, and I just love it! This is what happened with 'Saving my face' this morning, so here it is, I hope you can enjoy the post! Cheers!

How big, how blue, how beautiful (demo) - Florence + the Machine

"Between a crucifix and a Hollywood sign we decided to get hurt..."

How big, how blue, how beautiful (demo) -
Florence + the Machine

As you might have noticed (or maybe not), I have been quite obsessed with Florence + the Machine in the past week (well, let's say for the in the last 5 years...!), meaning that I have practically only been listening to their new album HBHBHB, more in particular to two songs on it in repeat. One of them is Delilah, which I have already posted and which is likely going on to become my favourite song of the year. The other one is this beautiful (and big and blue) thing I'm posting, that is the demo version of the title track. Don't mistake me, I have been mumbling "how big, how blue, how beautiful..." since the first promo video came out in February, and I love the original/album version. Yet this demo has something in it that I can't describe but that helped me connect with it at a more immediately reachable (but not superficial) level. I don't know, maybe by being a demo it has that kind of raw and undefined strength that catches you at the beginning and (maybe) is not able to keep you caught for long. Well... I'm gonna enjoy it while it lasts! Anyway I have just one thing I wanna say about this album: How Big, How Blue, How BEAUTIFUL.

PS: The first lyric of this song is just genius, it kills me every time!

Westbound - Lizzy Grant (a.k.a. May Jailer, a.k.a. Lana del Rey)

Today didn't start in the best way possible: the water plastic bottle I had in my consultant rucksack was faulty and poured a good amount of its content around. Result: flooded bag, including all the stuff that was inside (from pc to charger, from food to CDs and wires). I don't know how, but it seems like everything is working fine! Plus, I later realized I (of course) also flooded my shirt, pants and underpants with the water that was coming out from the rucksack. All of this in the small 2 minutes walk form the car to the office. Nice, ain't it? Thanks goodness I could hang all my stuff around to dry as the best housewives would, and I brought my rucksack back in the car to dry up (which worked perfectly, just to let you know how hot it is around here these days)! Anyway it looks like stuff about my future is moving up (again), now we'll have to see how long it takes for stuff to happen...! Anyway for now I'm not westbound as Lana in her song, yet I'm going to go so far away that east and west are kinda blurred, plus it isn't out the question that I'm just taking the long way west!

(To listen to the song click here or on the picture caption)

Westbound - Lizzy Grant

Love will set you free - Kodaline

Love will set you free - Kodaline

Summer has come and I'm so happy about it that it makes me forget all the other things that are not really working so well in my life! Let's just enjoy it and hope for the best to come. Because you can't not believe that when you're busy getting on with your life, lonely but not alone, still one day love will set you free!

Azaleadalen - Junip

Azaleadalen - Junip

It's hard for me today to post anything but Florence + the Machine, as I've been devoting myself almost completely to their new album which came out yesterday! I must say I'm pretty satisfied with it, there are a few songs that sound a bit to poppy and naif, but there are also powerful tunes that really are faithful to the band's style, history and talent, so I'll give it some more listens in the next few days to get a clearer idea about it, but I leave it after one day with a smile on my face. To take a break from it, today while driving back to Veneto from home, I (also) listened to Junip and so they are the only thing I can sense-fully post today. This is an awesome instrumental song I have been utterly in love with!! My car's steering wheel knows something about it, with me tap tap tapping all the times it plays!

Delilah - Florence + the Machine

Delilah - Florence + the Machine

It's been so nice being back to Milan that I didn't even have got time to post yesterday!! Moreover, I didn't even have time to download Florence's new album, WHICH FINALLY CAME OUT, on my ipod!! So what's the point of pre-ordering on Amazon and getting AutoRip and stuff?! Well, I did it now and I'm finally super ready to start listening, but not before sharing with you this last unbelievably great piece of music she shared with us a few days before the release and which I'm greatly in love with already (and falling for it more and more the more I listen to it, as with all the best Florence songs). I can't wait to share with you all the greatness of HBHBHB ('How big, how blue, how beautiful'), but one step at a time!!

"Too fast for freedom, sometimes it all falls down

these chains never leave me, I keep dragging them around"