#sundayrevival City with no children - Arcade Fire

City with no children - Arcade Fire

Hello guys, I hope your week had been fine. Mine, as anticipated, has been pretty hectic among new workshops that required a shitload of work in and especially out of class, Valentine's dinners, the usual uni life, hunting for Gen.2 Pokémon in Pokémon Go, dumplings dinner with friends, cleaning and more...! It's been a super full week, but somehow I manage to (more or less) reconcile all my activities and efforts requests! Now I am expecting a Sunday afternoon in front of the computer, reading and writing and coding (what a change...!), but first of all I wanted to share this with you, as I'm feeling in a really Arcade Firey mood today! Hope you enjoy and have a great Sunday!

#sundayrevival Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains) - Arcade Fire

Sprawl II (Mountains beyond mountains)
- Arcade Fire

Yesterday I thought I would be posting something by Arcade Fire for this sundayrevival, but don't ask me why, as I really can't remember...! Whatever, I thought I would and I will. Staying on topic with yesterday's events (the first Gay Pride in my home town, followed by today's news that we are going to have a left-wing mayor for the first time since... ever), I remember I thought about Regine dancing with ribbons in the video of this song (maybe that's why I thought about Arcade Fire) and that is a thing I always feel like doing too while listening to this song. Not being able to move graciously (at all), I'd better refrain from that, but who knows whether sooner or later I will give way to my ideas...?

Porno - Arcade Fire

Porno - Arcade Fire

I had already started writing my post for another song, then I saw on my Fb wall that AF's Reflktor-soundtracked movie is about to be released in theatres and that they released a video out of it for Porno, and given that I hadn't posted the song yet and that Reflektor was one of my (if not the) favourite albums released in 2013, it seems like the timing for posting it is perfect!! Even more so thinking about the fact that I have been mentioning Montréal quite often lately and that a weird willingness to go back there in Canada after quite a few years already is getting stronger these days...! Who knows...?! Travelling is so easy these days! It just takes a song to start the journey already...

It's never over (hey Orpheus) - Arcade Fire

It's never over (hey Orpheus) - Arcade Fire

As I have mentioned many times, my friends are a constant inspiration for me in terms of music (and many other things), and lately I have been exchanging suggestions with my friend B. in particular. This is an album that I bought online 3 copies of, one for me and two for two friends of mine, her and E, as we all loved Arcade Fire. The album is quite tough, but after a few listens I got the hang of it and started loving it a lot, while I didn't get much positive feedback from them. She recently told me she was about to approach it again, and she did this morning, thus making me willing to listen to it again while I was taking a shower and getting ready to get out of home for the first time after some 10 days! Needless to say, I enjoyed it a lot, but I am kind of at a loss as I posted already practically all of the songs I love on it, and that I would love to share with you again. The real pity is that I posted them at the beginning, when the blog still had virtually no audience, so it's been kind of a waste, but well... when I decide it's time to start re-posting some stuff, I'll advertise them again! For now I'm playing my trump card, that is Orpheus! This song is quite long and heavy to digest, but the guitar riff is quite catchy and will stick in your head like candy syrup, I'm sure!

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.

Keep the car running - Arcade Fire

Keep the car running - Arcade Fire

I'm back home after a very intense last few hours! Lots of kilometers (or miles, if you'd rather) stacked up with my pretty little one (my beloved car), good company and an amazing destination. In the end all of my fears were (almost completely) unfounded: the weather has been quite good for the whole duration of the concert, actually the dark sky heavy with clouds and sliced through by lightning has been an amazing and scenographic frame for the concert! The irony lays in the fact that we got flooded by raindrops as big as apples in the 3 minutes when we were running back to the car after we left the venue...! In the end we got super wet anyway, but it happened at the best time possible.
About the concert, well, it's been a great experience and it was worth the trip to (near) Verona: beautiful venue (though with a not-as-good sound), beautiful setlist (with a couple of not-so-strong songs maybe) and a band in good shape (even though I felt less adrenaline rushes than I expected to). All in all a good to great concert, I'm happy I've been there and that's what matters! The highlight for me has been a super performance by We exist, their latest single, mainly thanks to a very powerful introduction by Win (something like "This song is about a gay guy not being accepted by his father, I'm sure you all have been in this situation in one way or another, but don't worry, you are perfect the way you are now!") and... well, I could've asked a little bit more from Neon Bible but we got a few and another one of the songs I enjoyed the most is the one I chose for this post, so keep your car running!

Neighborhood #3 (Power out) - Arcade Fire

Neighborhood #3 (Power out) -
Arcade Fire

The time has come! Second concert of my summer, here I come! The circumstances of our trip are not forecasted to be the best ones (we're leaving around the traffic jam time and the storm that's supposed to rage out on the concert is more and more strongly confirmed by the weather forecast), but I'm still thrilled by the whole experience, I hope it's gonna be unforgettable. Actually, I hope that the storm won't cause a 'power out'!!

#sundayrevival Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire

I have been quite busy doing nothing lately and well, it's time to post! In this weird moment of tiring nothingness interspersed with super busy days I almost forgot that my second (and last for the time being) concert of this summer; almost, but not completely! I have started listening to Arcade Fire's whole discography to get ready for the gig and to get in the mood! It's just two days away and I still have to finalise the arrangements: the thing that is worrying me the most is that a storm is forecast to rage out on the place exactly before and during the gig... it's gonna be like being at a british festival I suppose! Well, we'll see how it goes, in the meanwhile let's enjoy the opening track of their debut album, Funeral, in this sundayrevival post!

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) -
Arcade Fire

We exist - Arcade Fire

We exist - Arcade Fire

Hello guys! Today finally (hopefully) hopefully (finally) I will be going to the karaoke, after more than 3 years that I've been willing to! I won't celebrate until I'm there, as it happened a few times already that I had plans and then they blew up for one reason or another. So I won't linger on that topic, I'll tell you more tomorrow about it. What I wanna linger on today is Arcade Fire's new video (with Andrew Garfield) for the song We exist on their latest album, a video that just came out today. I'm not super eager in following new video releases generally, so I don't have that many to compare it with, but I must say that this is my personal 2014 favourite to date. I love the concept of the video, even if the story is not 100% clear to me yet (which is actually another positive factor, meaning the video has got multiple levels of interpretation), and I think it's a perfect fit for the song. The message is not particularly complicated, rather it feels to me just like two words that discriminated people, belonging to any kind of minority, oftentimes want to scream to the world. Let's stop judging people by how they are, let's give everybody equal opportunities (to study, to work, to rights, to be happy!) and let's stop being afraid of what's different. Because we are all different, and that's why we should all be given equal opportunities.

Down on their knees

Begging us please

Praying that we don't exist

But we exist

#sundayrevival Rebellion (lies) - Arcade Fire

Rebellion (lies) - Arcade Fire

Hello guys! Yesterday has been a pretty intense day, so good enough that I posted just after midnight rang before going to bed! I took a very nice trip south of Exeter with some friends and, even though the weather was not so good, I really enjoyed it! But it didn't end up there... after a swift dinner we went to have a goodbye-weekend party at some friends' house and then out to dance in an alternative rock club, our favourite in Exeter (I'm not a fan of discos but this one is enjoyable from time to time). I had a good time once again, just a little bit sad because it's gonna be the last one. It's not time for goodbyes still, but I'm starting to realise that my time here is coming to an end... And it has been very funny to kind of close a circle: this song is the first one I've listened to as soon as I arrived in Montréal two years ago and the last one that played last night in the club, kind of the goodbye to Exeter and to my university times abroad. I'm a bit scared, but mostly curious to see how my life's gonna develop in the next few months! But for now, let's just enjoy the present!

Intervention - Arcade Fire

Well... my day didn't start in the best way possible, let's say. Actually, the bad beginning of today was the aftermath of last night, the last message I got before leaving work was not... well, nice. And this morning didn't turn out to be much better: other (mildly) bitter messaging, wrong data, non-working Internet and so on... the little things that all summed up together make your day unpleasant. Well, I'll face it and survive it (hopefully, as given how crazy British drivers are you are never sure you'll make it at home on your own two legs! And they say that we Italians drive badly, I found out... well... what can I say?).

Intervention - Arcade Fire

Been working for the church

While your life falls apart

Singing hallelujah with the fear in your heart

Every spark of friendship and love

Will die without a home

Hear the soldier groan, 'We'll go at it alone'

Hear the soldier groan, 'We'll go at it alone'

You already know - Arcade Fire

Last night I kept on going on with the shuffle and I thought about picking up for the post of today one of the songs iTunes gave me at least a couple of times. Yet right now I made up my mind and I decided I will pick another song instead! Running the risk to be boring, here is another one from what I can now safely assume will be my favourite 2013 album, i.e. Arcade Fire's Reflektor. The song is called You already know and it's another masterpiece brought to life by the Montréal-based band. Enjoy!

Half light II (No celebration) - Arcade Fire

Hey guys! Hope you're well and a little less stressed than I am! Anyway, all the small pieces seem to be slowly going each to their place, let's hope everything's gonna be good and done in 10 days! Last night I was having issues with the Internet connection and so some precious time went lost. Obviously in such a moment of dismay I didn't have the clear mind to do some offline work! So I got into a loop of wasting time and there I got obsessed by a "trio" of songs: one of them has been already featured up here (Cristalysed), the other two are on the same album, one of them is my current phone ringtone and the other one was the previous ringtone. I just have space for one now, so I'll pick my favourite out of the two, which I consider as kind of sisters. This one is just fabulous in my opinion, so all of this pamphlet was just to fill the space, as it needs no introduction!

Joan of Arc - Arcade Fire

Originally another post was programmed for my arrival in Avignon, but things happen and due to some circumstances I had to publish that sooner. But don't worry, you'll get something good too! I'm actually not gonna get very far from the original idea: this is Joan of Arc, another one of my favourite songs out of Arcade Fire's new album. As many of the others, it's pretty long and it takes time to be liked (in my opinion). Yet, give it the benefit of some 5 plays and it'll grow into you, I swear, and very soon its fire will burn inside of you even brighter than the one that burned poor Joan!

[Unfortunately there is no decent quality video on YouTube for now, so I'll just leave you the link to a funny fan video on vimeo]

Normal person - Arcade Fire

I've been having a few issues with this damn CD, I pre-ordered 3 copies (for me and my friends) and I only got one! Hope the distributors will remedy to their lack of efficiency soon! Besides that, I dare say that Arcade Fire's new work is pretty hard to digest but pretty satisfactory (when digested!). It often happens (to me at least) that at the beginning I found hard-to-love many of my (now) favourite albums. So maybe this is a good sign for Reflektor! Anyway, one of the songs that I digested pretty quickly is this one; maybe you can digest it pretty quickly too (it's even live!), who knows?

Reflektor - Arcade Fire

New Arcade Fire album, Reflektor, is out today (well, yesterday actually)! I just downloaded the digital version thanks to my pre-order, I'm waiting to be able to pick up the physical copy and I'm really excited. They have been making a good deal of promotion for it, most of the songs have been made available before the release in various ways (live videos, videos, a movie...). The beginning of it all was the release of Reflektor, a very peculiar track with a sound that calls back to the 80s. The band has released a regular video for the song + an interactive video, which is really amazing (you can find it here).

Afterlife - Arcade fire

What's the point of pre-ordering an album when they make most of the songs available on youtube before it gets delivered? Well, probably one of the few bands that you can forgive for that is Arcade Fire! Their new video is now online, check it out and be waiting for the new double CD that is being released next week!