Today has been a very Dido day: as we all hoped last night, thyphoon Haima passed quite close to here and so the weather observatory issued the typhoon signal and all day activities have been cancelled! No lectures, no conferences, so I've had quite a bit of time to... well, work on papers and assignments of course! Busy life, but with the colder season slowly coming in (is it actually?), the rain and the quiteness of working in front of my computer, Dido on the soundtrack... it's not been a bad day in the end! I've produced some output and hope I didn't deplet my energies so that I can keep on being productive! Not time to enjoy the weekend yet, but maybe Sunday I'll be able to put my papers aside for a while! I hope you'll be having a more entertaining weekend than me anyway!
Hey guys, this sunday I'm sharing with you one of the anthems of 1990s pop/soul music, which has also went on to become an anthem for women throughout the world! I really love this song by Neneh Cherry (whom I just found out is Swedish!) and it always brings me back instantly to the times when I was a little child (I was 6 when it came out) and it's a sweet and nostalgic feeling. I really like to go back and listen to songs that I remember from the old 90s, it is a listening experience that always has this special, magic aura of seeing again the world with a child's eyes for a few moments...! Do you also have any songs from your past that you love to go back and listen to from time to time?
I'm getting past my playlist #5 of this year (I'm actually already well into loving the #6, even if I'm listening to them in parallel because I love the songs on them soo much!) and I still have loads of great stuff on it to post here!! Well, I've already mentioned how 'Smoke and mirrors' has a big chance to enter the top list of my favourite albums of this 2015, even if it's still early and I expect many more great releases in the next few months! Anyway I couldn't not devote a little space to the title track, which is methinks the best representation of the main feeling the album gives me, that is... I'd say it reassurance. Let me explain. What I mean is that many songs, after a few listens, have given me the idea that I knew them already, that they have been part of my musical background for a long time, like mid-90s classics... I don't know why I got that feeling, if they are plagiarising (parts of) some of my favourite songs without me noticing, or if they just have been able to create this beautiful atmosphere that makes me enjoy the songs great because they're fresh and to feel comforted by them at the same time! I'll be positive and say bravo to Imagine Dragons!! Have a nice weekend!
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.
Ok, it's time for another great great song. I know this post won't be popular, and I'm sorry, but it is the music I love and the whole point of this blog is for me to share the music I love! I've got to know PJ Harvey thanks to the guys of the Italian Alanis Morissette forum, who also got me close to Tori Amos (goodness bless them for your influence)! I have approached PJ in 2010 and something happened with her that doesn't normally happen when I approach new music: I liked her debut album instantly. She's the one I started to approach with a rigorous chronological order and I think this helped me appreciate her even more, given the great difference that exists between her albums... seeing her evolutionary path really helps you get the best out of her music. Together with her debut, Dry, my most favourite album of her is the one titled after this song. I've been growing a special link with this album, as I always (and I mean always) use it as soundtrack when I'm practicing yoga with Wii Fit: today I started doing yoga again after more than one year, and I also started to listen to this awesome album again. Most people don't like it, I know, and I wouldn't expect anyone to understand how it fits with yoga (I don't understand it myself), but... here it is, and I enjoy it immensely and that's what matters!
I have been going to the swimming pool today, big strength of will put in play to get out of the bed, get the stuff ready and get going, under the rain... yeah ok, I drove to the pool, so it was not so hard, but it's just the idea... anyway, while driving the short (but busy) road, I got the chance to listen to a few (great) songs. The last one I listened to today is this one, which started when I was already back in my garage (which, by the way, has been in full dark for a few days now, it looks like the set of a horror movie)! I have been deeply in love with this song since I started listening to 'Automatic for the people' (R.E.M.'s best album imho) back in 2011, and I chose it as one of the (for now) two songs that I wish will be played at my funeral, as the lyrics are very meaningful to me. Sad thought? Well, maybe... but it's nice to have a few songs that you feel represent you so much that you would like people to listen to them and remember you, isn't it?
Well... this is gonna be one of the most enjoyed sundayrevivals I think, especially by those pop and dance lovers out there who never despise a nice good song from the 90s! I have been developing my relationship with Cher especially thanks to my thesis: my knowledge of her songs moved from just this one and Strong enough (which are so similar I tend to swap them) to something more, as I am now approaching (one of) her best of collection(s). I mentioned my thesis because one of the things I'm most proud about it is that I have inserted a screenshot of the price category division of one of hers concerts in the US. And of course at the top of the image there is her, wearing a police-hat. I mean, how cool is it to have a sorta S&M Cher in your master thesis?!
Well, I don't know about Anastacia, but my conditions have worsened... yesterday is taking its toll and now I am utterly feverish and weak and aching and shivering... well, the regular temperature stuff. Spent the whole day in bed sleeping and resting, now I got up for a while but soon enough I'll be back methinks. Now it's all about listening to Lykke Li, getting 'depressish' and waiting for it to end... gosh, how I hate this! I hate the flu, I hate temperatures, I hate feeling weak and dazed, I hate winter and its freaky cold! I really really want to move to some place tropical to start working next year, I'm more and more convinced of this. Well, enough with complaining, let's talk a little music. I promised you the last piece of my beloved week of 90s music, and here it is. I had something else in mind to close up this week, but given the circumstances I guess that this is more appropriate: relaxing, soothing, you can feel the waves... I already feel better!
It's time to merge these two fabulous initiatives, i.e. posting 90s music AND posting music I have been loving for a long time! Well, and how could I have done this better than by posting the song that has been my absolute favourite for so so many years?! Dido has been with me since the late 90s, with this CD that my father had ripped on a musicassette and we listened to it from time to time in the car... then I bought Life for Rent as xmas gift for him a few years later, the first album I ever bought, and then... well Dido has been my fav singer throughout my teenage years! I have literally lived on No angel and Life for Rent, I have listened to them so many times that I lost count, but none of them as much as this. Here with me was the most listened song on the laptop computer I shared with my parents before I got my own computer for my 17th birthday, and it is now crossing the 100 plays threshold on my current iTunes too. I don't think I can describe with words my bond with this song, so I'll just play it for the 100th time again and enjoy it as I have done for a long long time!
Here we are with the second post of today, even if it's tomorrow already... (and we're also getting back to solar time, to add to the confusion)! Anyway, here I am! Today has been a full day too, but not nearly as full or exhausting as yesterday has been. The "good" news is that my stomach ache has quite completely gone away, while the sore throat has come in, calling for a coming flu/cold/whatever/Ihatewinter hallelujah! That was unavoidable methinks, and actually I'm been kind of jinxing it to myself in the last few days, saying that I never happened to me in recent times to get through to November without a flu/cold/whatever/Ihatewinter, and I think it's not gonna happen this year either, yay! Anyway, now I really have to focus a little bit on my thesis, which I have been pretty much neglecting today, and then off to bed. Not before posting another 1990s masterpiece though! I have been anticipating this in yesterday's post by mentioning a couple of the adjectives in the title of the song, so here it is in full glory! Enjoy!
Yesterday I did not post, I am aware of that and I am sorry, but unfortunately it has been a crazy, crazy day. It started in the late morning, when I had to do a Skype interview but the guy I had to speak with was not there, so I waited in vain. Then I moved with my father to reach my mother's school, driving him there. I was then ready to drive to Milan to have lunch with a classmate of mine, but the highway was completely blocked because of a car crash, so I decided to come back, have lunch with my parents and stayed there with them a couple hours more to let the traffic move away. When I got to Milan, I helped my aunt with the cleaning up a little and then we went to buy a new vacuum-cleaner, then shower and out for dinner and drinks (drink actually, just one). And that's when the real problems began: that freaking thing dulled me more than it should so I threw myself on the bed and fell asleep (it was 2.30 AM) only to wake up at 6 for a short trip at the toilet and not being able to fall asleep again, with a mess in my stomach and nausea. Well, that was the nice start of my day! I'll post twice today to compensate yesterday's loss, and I am posting about a lesson I should really learn...!
"You gotta be bad, you gotta be bold, you gotta be wiser
You gotta be hard, you gotta be tough, you gotta be stronger"
This is a special song I'm posting, one of those you don't really get to love madly and deeply (or at least I don't), but one of those that you get to listen to from time to time, maybe casually, and then you realise each time how much you like... maybe it's the good thing about it, only listening to it from time to time and not... how to say it?... exhaust it. Keeping it fresh every time. And then, well... as all the songs I'm posting this week, it reminds me of times from my childhood, one of these songs that break into your heart when you're a child and stay there... forever!
I hope you all have enjoyed this first year of music blogging, I sure did. To further celebrate the blog's birthday that happened yesterday (check out here if you missed out), I decided to start a week dedicated to 90s music: yes, you got it right! For this new week I will only post music out of my favourite decade, the magical, poppish, trashy, dancy, alt-rocky 1990s! I take this chance to celebrate the part 2 of 'The my 90s' playlist, which I complied recently; you have already had a taste of it with the last sundayrevival (here), and I can't wait to give you more!
The first glimpse of this fabulous week that is ahead of us is one of my absolutely favourite songs ever (and I'm sure I'm not alone in this, rather...), which needs no introduction! Enjoy and stay tuned for more great 90s music tomorrow!!
