#sundayrevival Blue - R.E.M. feat. Patti Smith

Blue - R.E.M. feat. Patti Smith

I've made a relatively big change in my appearance (upper body) that is related to blue: I've been thinking of doing this for years and now the time has come, I feel great about it, more myself than I've ever felt methinks. My mother told me that I should've done it before Florence + the Machine's concert (given that their latest album is called 'How big, how blue, how beautiful'), and it occured to me that she's quite right! I still have another chance for the next concert in April, but in the meantime I prepared a playlist called 'Blue' that features some of my favourite songs that are centered around what is one of my favourite colours. This is an absolute masterpiece included in it, probably R.E.M.'s final song (the last one of their last studio album) and legacy, a beautiful collaboration with Patti Smith that fits perfectly this sundayrevival post!

It's good to be in love - Frou Frou

It's good to be in love - Frou Frou

Today is another shameful day for my country: another edition of the "Family day" took place, this being an event where people manifest their unwillingness for other people to love each other and have their love recognized by the law. They also want to prevent other people from raising children just because they didn't procreate them. I don't want to explain here all my thoughts and my reasons why these ideas make me feel sick, I'll just tell you they do.
Today is also a very bright day for me! I have received news from one of the universities I have applied to that they selected me for a PhD program starting in September! I've been really really hoping for this to go right and it seems like it did! I'll keep you updated and give you more news about this in the future...!
Anyways all I want to do is to leave you with the following message:

It's good to be in love. With whoever and whatever you want. Love is never wrong when it makes people and things happy, and it usually does. Preventing other people from loving each other and caring for each other doesn't protect nor defend anyone, it's just a selfish excuse that people use to not try and understand how other people feel. Spread the love. Whatever kind of love. Because it's good to be in love.

Two steps, twice - Foals (live @ Reading 2010)

Two steps, twice - Foals (live @ Reading 2010)

Ok, getting back to the real world from Foals' concert last night has been relatively easy because my stupid iPod wouldn't work today in the car and we couldn't play their songs again on the drive back home, so we had to listen to other music... yet I realised I still hadn't posted this song and, once again, I feel compelled to do so. I've been watching live performances of it on YouTube as, great as the album version is, I think the energy level is completely different when they perform it live. They've been using it as a show-closer for as long as I can remember, and how can I blame them?! Ending a rock concert with this crazy stuff leaves you both in medias res and also as accomplished as can be. I don't think it's a feeling I can describe with words... just take a look at this, then go listen to Foals, learn the song, go to a concert of theirs if you have the chance and you'll know just what the f I'm writing about!!! Cheers!

Lonely hunter - Foals

Lonely hunter - Foals

The time has come, I am excited, tonight I'm going to see Foals play live in Milan, same lineup as last time (with my friend A.)!! I'm really happy about it, can't wait! I am excited about it, I've been singing this song in my head (and also aloud) for days and I think it's appropriate for me to post it now.

[concert]

What an experience once again, so awesome! Will tell you more about it tomorrow, now I'll go to sleep!!

Hang it up - The Ting Tings

Hang it up - The Ting Tings

Today I came back to Milan once again because of a couple of things I have to do here tomorrow, mainly Foals' concert to go to. I (quite randomly) met a friend from Uni who happened to pass by Milan in these couple of days and some of her friends for an aperitivo, a nice night out. Walking back home I really felt like I was living my university days again, the streets so familiar, the same feelings... it seems like yesterday but actually it's been quite a while and I've walked quite a lot of road... even if I feel it's been leading me exactly back to where I was then, just a different person, somehow more mature and more conscious of not knowing what I wanna do with my life at all!
In the meanwhile I found The Ting Tings' sophomore album at a very great price while walking around what used to be my favourite multimedia store and that's it, one more album off my to-buy list and I'm back to 2012 already!!

"Break it, make it, you can make the break

Back and forth saying just make it great

Intake, no fake, don't wanna let go

Make all the changes that you need to make

Stand back, give it up, ain't life a bitch

No war making, you just do that

Guess, guess that's the fame you maintain

Time for you to rearrange"

The music's no good without you - Cher

The music's no good without you - Cher

Today's been a busy day (for my current unemployed standards): besides other things, spent a big part of my afternoon chatting with a University classmate who needed to interview me and ask me a few questions about music for her final thesis. I'm always happy to talk about music business models, my own approach to music, digital vs physical music and the like; I am also happy to chat with my friends, so all in all it's been a very pleasant afternoon! The theme of listening to music as a primary vs background activity emerged and it struck me a little as I already touched it with another person a few days ago. I tend to do both, but sometimes it's true that music as a shared experience is way more intense than music experienced alone (and sometimes the opposite is true). What do you think about that?

Give it all - Foals

Give it all - Foals

My next concert is getting closer and closer and it's Foals time again! I remember how a few weeks after I started the blog (it was a couple of years ago I think) I started posting a string of Foals posts around the time of the concert. I can't promise this won't happen again, rather... brace yourselves as you might see them quite a lot on here in the next few days! I started immersing myself in their music a few days ago and now I feel like I can't get out of it, not that I'm complaining about it at all! No big news about the rest of my life, the big events are yet to come!

#sundayrevival Sand in my shoes - Dido

Sand in my shoes - Dido

Right after relieving my soreness with some eye drops, here I am, once again in front of the computer ready to perform my last couple of tasks of this long, long day. A long long day that started with our "usual" Abu Dhabi routine: walking to the beach, relaxing, eating out at night... then we packed our luggage and after sleeping some 1.5 hours we got up and left for the airport, our flight leaving at 6.25 local time (3.25 in Italy). After a Doha stopover, I slept another 1.5 hours on the plane and got here, enjoyed at best the little part of my day that was left, tried to rest a little bit more, had dinner and after looking for a few things (why do I always leave stuff around?) that I mostly found, I am posting this. I am posting one of the favourite songs of my teenage years, off what has probably been the album that has had the biggest impact on my teenage years in music, this being Dido's 'Life for rent', the first album I ever bought (as a xmas gift for my father, even if I ended up listening to it waaaaay more than he ever did). I cannot think of a better moment to post this lovely song than now: I literally still have sand in my shoes, I am back to wintery Italy after a glimpse of summer, I am dead tired and I am here in need to understand what to do with my life, a thought I could easily avoid on holiday.

"Two weeks away it feels like the world should've changed but I'm home now and things still look the same. I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack, try to forget for one more night that I'm back in my flat on the road where the cars never stop going through the night, to real life where I can't watch sunset. I don't have time. I don't have time."

PS: I already unpacked, first thing when at home! Aha!

Still true - Feist

Still true - Feist

Me and wifey are very sad as in a few hours we'll have to wake up (if we are going to get any sleep at all) and get out taxi to the airport in order to get back to Italy, where it's cold and ugly... why can't we stay here?! It's gonna be a shock and I think that instead of looking for a job I'll be planning the next trip (to somewhere hot)!! This week has been very very nice, somehow I wished we would've had more time... anyway we enjoyed it to the fullest, we transformed to "poor people" who were walking all over the place to "rich people" who took taxis even for short distances (but not all the time)! Yet the only thing that I can think about now is a quote of this beautiful song by Feist: "Take me anywhere with you"...

Talula - Tori Amos

Talula - Tori Amos

Today is the 22nd of January, not a particularly special day for many of us, but a very particular day for one of what I believe is one of the best albums of the 1990s, i.e. Tori Amos's 'Boys for Pele' who turns 20 today! I personally wouldn't say it's my favourite album of hers, but I think it's the most powerful one, the one that goes deepest and darkest, the one I immediately go back to when I'm feeling down and depressed. Don't mistake me, many of the songs are enjoyable even when you're not feeling that bad and it still is a great album, but personally I have been able to feel it most strongly during the darkest times of my life. Talula has always been one of my favourite songs off it and is one of those you can enjoy even if you're feeling happy, as I am now!

Blue lips - Regina Spektor

Blue lips - Regina Spektor

Will we ever stop walking?! It's funny how we have been mixing with the underground population of Abu Dhabi, i.e. the "non-locals", the workers and the (few) tourists who happen to not be on a Taxi in that moment. We're liking that a lot, it fells like being in a (rich and modernized) Indian subcontinent, we're mingling with the Indians and Pakistani and Filipinos and so on, eating asian food (from Lebanon to China) and living the heart of the city! Today we also visited the Emirates palace (from outside) and the biggest mall, to then enjoy the sunset on the beach and then went out to eat Lebanese! The blue and orange of the sky is so peculiar...!

Campaigner - Neil Young

Campaigner - Neil Young

Today we have gone to Saadiyat beach, a "trip" organized by our hotel (they take you there with a car, you get access and sun-beds and so on and they come pick you up). We didn't do much, just roast in the sun, venture in the not-so-warm waters a couple times with mixed success and read and listen to some music (including this song, that stuck in my head at one point). Plain and simple. Now I'm red like a pepper, but everything's under control (I hope). Still no plans about tomorrow, gonna keep enjoying our time here at our own (slow) pace! Cheers!

Dark lady - Cher

Dark lady - Cher

Greetings to you, my people, from the warm city of Abu Dhabi, a.k.a. the Arab New York (by us, as it really looks like the Big Apple sometimes)! I'm enjoying a nice and well-deserved honeymoon with my wifey about one year after our trip to Marrakech blew up because of me being sick. Not that this time I'm feeling so well, my cold is here with me and is not leaving, but I hope that the sun will make it go away soon! We're having a good time for now, and we are already trying to understand more about the Arab world: why do the ladies here all wear dark clothes in your opinion? We have our own idea...!

#sundayrevival Josephine - Tori Amos

Josephine - Tori Amos

Once again I'm ready to pack my things and fly, and few other times I've needed this so badly under a physical point of view because... once again I am badly struck by the usual cold and sore throat and... what the hell, how I hate winter!! Warm places are waiting for me, just a couple of flights away, just a few hours away... and then I'll finally be able to get rid of this hideous, annoying inability to do anything with my mouth without suffocating! There is a time for enduring this malaise without taking action to stop it, but not tonight. Not tonight, Josephine.

Flight #303 - Feist

Flight #303 - Feist

My dears, sorry for not posting yesterday but my day has been quite hectic and tough... I woke up at 7.15 to meet a friend for breakfast, talked with her a while before she went off to work, then went back to my aunt's house, rested a little and I was on my way to my (ex) University as I had a few things to deliver to some of my Profs. After a lunch with another friend I went back home, waiting for aunt and we came back together to my grandparents, where mom picked me up and took me home. I've been feeling unwell for the whole day: I cannot process coffee anymore methinks, for after breakfast I've been feeling sick in my stomach for the whole day, plus a sore throat started coming to me and got stronger and stronger, to the point that this morning it's very annoying. For this reason I went to bed at 22.30 yesterday and after waking up at 5-something I stayed in bed until a short time ago, more than 12 hours! Nonetheless my throat is still sore and, given that I have to take a flight tomorrow (yay!) I'm not really happy about that... at all!! My flight number is not the same as Feist's so I guess we won't see each other on the plane... maybe next time!!

Dark sky island - Enya

Dark sky island - Enya

I am in Milan tonight, after spending a very weird day between home and here, waiting for people to come and check household appliances, wasting my time and then choosing to spend some time with people who I care about and who made me feel better in a day that didn't start well. Waking up early is killing me, given my current sleeping times, but I need to go back a little...! Tomorrow is gonna be even worse, as I agreed to meet a friends for breakfast at 8, as she's going to work after that. What remains of me will see another friend for lunch and then probably go back home!

Sugar mountain - Neil Young

Sugar mountain - Neil Young

Hey guys, sorry for not posting anything new yesterday, but the day has been quite full and it ended with a 3-hour movie that ended very late, plus I was too emotionally involved with it and with the song that made me watch it that I couldn't find the strength inside of me to write about something else. The movie is 'Blue is the warmest colour' and I think it's worth all the time spent watching it, I really liked it, especially how the director has been able to make the characters' feelings pass through the camera and the screen and get to the viewer. The song that made me know the film is Alt-J's 'Nara', a beautiful masterpiece that I've been able to appreciate more and more last year to the point that it has probably become my favourite song of theirs. I've been listening to a lot of Alt-J today, but I'm posting something else because... of no reason in particular.
I am finally starting to get towards the middle of Neil Young's discography and listening to his (first?) collection 'Decade' I found a few songs I really like, this being one of them!

Terrence loves you - Lana del Rey

Terrence loves you - Lana del Rey

On the one side I am tempted to ride the Bowie wave and share something of his in the day he left us; on the other side, I must confess I have never followed his music eagerly, I just know (and love) 'Heroes' and probably happened to crush into a couple of other songs of his. The importance of his legacy is undoubted and I am greatly grateful to him, if only indirectly for inspiring many of my favourite music composers, performers and so on. Never say never, maybe the day will come when I'll research into his discography, but for the time being I'll politely wave goodbye from the back of the crowd and go on with my life and with my blog. I don't know why, but lately I always end up posting Lana del Rey's music when events with worldwide resonance happen! Anyway, this is the last song of her (by now not so) new (anymore) album 'Honeymoon' that I really liked, it is a perfect post for me now and I hope you all enjoy it! Remember, the power of music is so strong that it lasts well after people who create it and share it leave this planet and most importantly it is reborn into new generations' singers! Let's be grateful and stay positive!

To the grain - Junip

To the grain - Junip

I'm closing in with Junip's debut album 'Fields' (for now) with this other pearl of a song. I really need some happiness and positive vibes today, as the day is as gloomy as can be: cold, rainy, hazy, monday, "depressy" and so on and so forth. I'm finally starting to feel the lack of purpose in my life after more than one month of "idleness" (idleness filled with winter holidays, travel, hanging out and other pleasant experiences). It's one of these limbo times and I wanna enjoy it, as I have the opportunity of doing things that I wouldn't be able to do while working or being else-how employed. My goodness, life is hard indeed, even when you have to decide how to enjoy it!

Rapture - Antony & the Johnsons

Rapture - Antony & the Johnsons

This afternoon I went back to the cinema after a long while since the last time, I quite enjoyed my time there! We watched Macbeth, a nice one (I didn't recall the plot of the original play by Shakespeare but while the movie went on, it occurred to me that I pretty much knew the main events), very enjoyable and intense photography, sometimes maybe a little heavy but not as much as I expected! A nice dinner after that and here I am, with a full stomach waiting for a new week to begin! It's simple days like these that give you the rapture, especially when everything seems to go right.

Eet - Regina Spektor

Eet - Regina Spektor

After just one post of songs on queue, here I am already straying around with other music... I can't help it, and this is the meaning of the blog itself so I'm just gonna go with it! Thanks to 'The Leftovers' I approached again Regina's second latest album, the 2009 'Far' which I had listened to a couple of times at the time and then left on the side. I'm greatly enjoying it now, its time has come! This was the first single off it if I remember correctly and it's also one of the songs I'm already in love with! Wish you a happy weekend!

Echoes in rain - Enya

Echoes in rain - Enya

I have known that I am behind schedule with my posting with respect to my playlists and tonight I decided to quantify my delay! I have noted some songs off the last playlists of 2015 that have not been featured here yet and that really need to imho; all in all I have a week worth of posts, which not so bad, I can make it... (if I don't keep skipping posts or posting "older" songs that really really need to stay here)!! Well, in case I'll have to resort to some double posting, which would not be half bad given the name of the blog! Anyway, I'm just back from Milan where I spent the whole day, we went out for dinner to celebrate my mother's birthday and it's been nice (and cold). Will be back in town next week for a few things that need to done and a few people that need to be seen! For now I'll just leave you with one of my favs off Enya's new album, which is the beautiful 'Echoes in rain'! Enjoy!

Tennis court - Lorde

Tennis court - Lorde

I know I am incredibly late in posting the good music I'm currently listening to, but I have to take another deviation. Riding on the way of my recent purchase of CDs on Amazon (their delivery is due soon!), amongst which there is Lorde's debut, I wanted to post something of hers, as I am currently unable to move past 'A world alone' after listening to the whole 'Pure heroine'. I noticed that there are still a few great tunes that haven't found room on the blog yet, so I'm gonna put remedy immediately! Here is another one of my favourites, the album opener, I'm sure you guys love it too!

Cha-la head-cha-la - Dragon Ball opening theme (Hironobu Kageyama)

Cha-la head-cha-la - Dragon Ball theme

I'm gonna post something weird, something I don't usually post on this blog, but given that it is part of my music library, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't be here! Are you familiar with anime? Maybe you are but you don't know they're called like that: they are Japanese cartoons, usually transpositions of manga (Japanese comics). Here in Italy lots of them are "sold" as cartoons for kids, while oftentimes in Japan they are young-adult material. One of the most popular anime when I was a kid (and still now probably) was Dragon Ball and this is the opening song of Dragon Ball Z, the most popular (and best) series of the franchise. You can also hear it sometimes as soundtrack during the episodes, it is very hardcore and I'm gonna definitely enter the world of dorks with that... actually I've been living there my whole life!!

Dov'è l'amore? - Cher

Dov'è l'amore - Cher

I recently started listening to the CD2 of Cher's very best and I must confess I've been enjoying it as much as the first half. It's crazy, but it's already been one year since I listened to that one! I can't believe it... anyway after a few plays there are already quite a lot of songs I'm very much into, so expect more Cher to come on the blog anytime soon! She's probably not gonna sing anything in Italian as she's doing here, but I think we'll all be all right! Gosh, how funny it sounds when foreign singers put Italian phrases in their songs!

One year A.D. - Feist

One year A.D. - Feist

Together with two of my recent posts (Neil Young's 'Helpless' and Junip's 'Without you') this has been the last addition to my '2015 Best of playlists' playlist (sorry for the word-play)! It's currently my favourite song off Feist's debut album, which I'm in the process of listening to. This time of year feels weird, as I haven't started listening to "2016 music" yet, but it's not 2015 anymore and organizing my playlists based on years, it feels like I just have to get rid of the old stuff so that I can start with the new! It's also one of these moments when, even if I have a lot of new music to approach, I have a bit of a hard time listening to it and I'd rather browse old acquaintances of mine. Anyway, I'm enjoying this song and that's what matters! In a few days/weeks the transition period will be over and everything will be ok! We indeed got through 2015 years since 1 A.D., didn't we?

Helpless - Neil Young

Helpless - Neil Young

Tonight I went ice-skating for the first time in years, I already wanted to and when one of my friends asked if I wanted to join her, I happily accepted! Once again I scored a nice 0 in the chart of falls and I did quite ok, given my really bad relationship with sports! I'm genuinely helpless in many other physical activities, even if in the last few years, thanks to the Wii Fit and to my going back swimming once a week, I got somehow better! Not to the point where I could say I'm an athlete or even athletic. Not even close. Not gonna happen, I think. Not anytime soon! Yes Neil, stop saying that, I know I'm helpless!!!

A sorta fairytale (single) - Tori Amos

A sorta fairytale

Here we are with the first song of 2016 and to celebrate the beginning of the new year I picked one of my absolute favourite songs ever, the one I've listening to the most according to my iTunes count (taking into account both the original version and the single edit) and, really, one of the songs I love the most. It's magic, as after listening to it more than 300 times, it still hold its magic power as the first time I fell in love with it. The lyrics are beautiful, the melody soothing but with a great rhythm, the song can touch your deepest feelings and at the same time be a perfect soundtrack for a thoughtless ride in your car. The video is absolutely inspiring too, and the whole 'Scarlet's walk' CD is just awesome, I can't wait to be driving in the middle of America just to use it as a soundtrack, walking back on the steps Tori herself was walking while drafting the album. I really hope that 2016 will be like this song: as close to perfection as it can get in this world.

"Like a good book I can't put this day back, a sorta fairytale with you..."

And I rode along side till you lost me there in the open road...

#yearinmusic A song or two per day - Best song of 2015

Happy new year, you all people who follow the Gregorian calendar! I hope this 2016 will bring you (and us all) joy, happy moments and even more great music than last year!

Best song 2015

Here I am once again giving the last look back at this beautiful 2015 in music, this time looking at singles / songs. And this time too, there has been no contest. This past year was the time when I reached 100 plays for the first and only of all the songs that I started listening to from 2012 on, i.e. The XX's 'Crystalized' (which I started listening to in 2013). A few days later I reached 100 plays for a song that was released in mid-2015. And that is my song o the year, without ANY doubt. I'm talking about Florence + the Machine of course, and the song is 'Delilah', a beautiful masterpiece off their new album. I have fallen in love with this song immediately after it's been released, a few days before the whole album came out last June. I have no words to describe just how strong the connection with this song is and how quickly it built up. I will just give it its well deserved 1st place and go on!

Runner-ups (Best song 2015)

I decided to make a ranking of the best 10 songs of 2015 because there have been soo many great
ones! Some of them were released in (late) 2014, but they are all pretty recent!


10 - Mountain at my gates (Foals)
9 - I put a spell on you (Annie Lennox)
8 - Failure (The Ting Tings)
7 - The blackest day (Lana del Rey)
6 - Queen of peace (Florence + the Machine)
5 - Dream (Imagine Dragons)
4 - How big, how blue, how beautiful (Florence + the Machine)
3 - I'm so sorry (Imagine Dragons)
2 - London thunder (Foals)
1 - Delilah (Florence + the Machine)

I hope you can somehow relate to this ranking, please comment with your personal favourites of this past year!! I'll be back soon!