Here I am, back to my beloved blog after one week of absence! Well, half of this absence has been justified by the breaking down of the modem at home, which left me with no comfortable Wi-Fi access, but I have also been relatively busy, partly planning for this weekend's getaway! I am finally taking my ass out of Hong Kong for the first time since I came here, and it was about time, right before going back home for xmas! My life is of course still relatively messy (and interesting), but filled with indecision, as usual. I hope I'll figure out things over the change of year, as if that could bring fresh air into one person's life...!
After starting listening to Kiasmos and C Duncan, I think that an ambient parenthesis in my musical discovery is about to open, also because reading papers 24/7, I could really use some background music that helps me focus, that entertains me without distracting me too much from my "main task" (and what is that between the two, I sometimes wonder...). I actually happened to stumble upon a 'Pitchfork' article on the best 50 albums in ambient music, which reeeeally looked like it popped up just for me! I then went on to compile a Spotify playlist with what I could find of the top 10 mentioned by them, and I must confess I haven't been extremely enthusiastic about it so far (well, I guess that's the point of ambient music in a way...); anyway, I'll be sharing with you what I AM liking for the time being, and then we'll see...!
I don't think I need a further reason to share this song besides the (genius) band name, but well... I'm gonna give a couple: they have been playing live on KEXP, which is most often a guarantee of great music, and, well... their music is indeed great! I have fallen in love with a couple songs off their KEXP performance in particular, and after listening to their debut album, I would even dare say that the live sound is even better! So that's what I'm sharing with you, and if you think that chill-out / electronic music with a Mexican taste isn't for you, well... think again!
Today I found myself singing a couple of songs in my head, i.e. 'Trespassing' by Adam Lambert and 'Boulevard of broken dreams' by Green Day, but both of them have already been posted on the blog, so no chance to get inspiration from them... I'm gonna have to revert to something I've been listening to more recently, and well, I guess the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, as Zayn's music genre isn't that much far away from the other singers I mentioned, especially Adam. I'm sure you guys are gonna be just fine with this one too, it's the first song of his debut solo album that stuck with me.
Today has been a bit of historic day for my hometown, as it hosted the first Gay pride ever. Being born in a pretty conservative town, inhabited by a lot of mostly narrow-minded people and not a great love for diversity (just to use an euphemism), I have had the luck of being born in a cool family and then able to surround myself with "alternative" people like me, whom I could relate to and share vision, values and good time with. It's been nice to see in the last few years that more diversity has been spreading out in the streets too, and today has been kind of the confirmation that there actually are quite a few of weird guys around here too, and of that I can only be happy! Let's not care about the thunderstorm, rain-pour and (almost) hail that I got while running back home...! I hope that these bigots and (false) "defenders of morale and tradition" will soon see that they are on the wrong side of history and that, in the end, they are on average no better (or worse) than any of us.
"Some people go to church just to sit in the fire trying to make a date with a neighbour's wife
Brother let me tell you just as sure as you're born, you better leave that woman alone"
Scrolling down my Facebook feed (as I do multiple times every day, damn me) I found an article posted on Janis Joplin's page about 10 of the most difficult songs to sing; apart from feeling satisfied as I could count 7 of them among my favourites, I couldn't do without noticing that n°1 was one of my favourite Björk songs, namely 'It's oh so quiet' and I watched the live video featured in the article, a (great) performance of the song she delivered at Jay Leno. Given that I had already posted the song on the blog in its early days, I went on looking for something else to feature this sunday, and I decided to look back at what I was listening to 5 years ago, back to my June 2011 playlist. And what do I find there? Well, if it isn't Björk herself..! And with one of her best songs, probably my absolute favourite of hers. I think the poetry in the lyrics (and melody) of 'Unravel' is unmatched by any other song of hers, and that's a quite remarkable thing to say. I take my leave to this first week of June 2016 with this gem, which I hope you will appreciate as much as I do!
A while ago I started listening back to some Moby and a couple of weekends ago I found myself reading an article about his biographic book that is just being released and I put him on in the car while driving with my mum to my cousin's first communion. The iPod in the car was my father's (and the car too), so there were just a few famous tunes, some from Buddha Bar and this one song, that I didn't know before (did I?) and that I found myself liking quite a bit. Following a friend's suggestion that was given quite a while ago, I downloaded the whole of the album it is featured in, i.e. 'Play', and added it to my 'Pick and catch' playlist, the one I use to collect all the new music I am currently listening to. The song of course went directly in my current playlist, and tonight I am sharing it with you, hoping that it can make your weekend better!! Don't forget, people are sh*t, so protect your heart as long and as strongly as you can!
Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. I was about to skip today too but then I decided to make an effort...! I got some hideous thing, probably a sunstroke or something like that... the strong wind hasn't been helping either, anyway I've got a fever (I think), a bad headache and some general malaise... not the best way to end this holiday in such a beautiful place as Algarve, but I got the best of it anyway! I've decided to post this song that has been there as a draft in my post list for a month and a half because it really feels like the perfect one to summarise how I'm feeling. I discovered it at the end of a 'Queer as folk' episode a few years ago and loved it immediately, and now it's time to share it with you! It's a little gem, so make sure you don't miss it out (the video is amazing too)!
Another work week is coming to an end, nowadays it's the only thing that pushes me to go on... I can't wait to be home after the long drive and just relax. I need to put a stop to the life I'm leaving as it's not good for me, like Adam's chains are not good for him. The difference is that he "kinda likes the pain" and is feeling good; I am not. I need to start running away and to stop running around.
I am feeling weird today, my head is spinning somehow and it's like I feel an emptiness inside it, I hope it's gonna go away, I hope I just need to get some rest. Because I really do. Before I choke.
Hello guys, I know I've been silent for the past few days, I have been quite busy with a weekend trip in Florence! Finally when meeting foreigners and telling them I am from Italy and having them tell me how nice Italy is, and that they've been to Rome, Florence, Venice... I won't feel ashamed anymore! It really looks like I'm gonna have to drop my line "You've seen more Italy than I did!", even if this keeps probably being true for many lovers of our country coming from abroad. Music has been present in my weekend of course, but just while travelling and while chilling on Saturday night, and of course this morning while driving to work. And I'm actually taking inspiration from this last moment, posting a song I've just listened to, one that always reminds me of my last year of high school, as I kept getting it play on the radio while I drove to school at that time of my life....
Recently I chose Imagine Dragons' 'Dream' as my wake up call, as I've had a new falling in love with it after Sky Sport used it as the soundtrack of its cover for the F1 Belgium GP at Spa a few weeks ago. It's my favourite song out of ID's new album I think, and in these days I got an irresistible feeling to listen to it, so I went back to listening one of my older 2015 playlists that is featuring it. Besides enjoying it and other great songs by ID, I got to think back to other great music that I was listening to a few months ago, and I realised that there are quite a few songs among them that I haven't posted yet! This little beuatiful pearl is one of them: it's the opening track of Hundred Waters' debut (and eponymous) album, a really beautiful musical gem! Shame on me for not sharing it sooner!
I didn't even realise yesterday was Sunday and it would have been appropriate to post a sundayrevival, but it's ok as I didn't have anything I was particularly eager to put on here. I did today. So what is that, a mondayrevival? A late sundayrevival? A regular post? I don't know myself, but this is one of the songs that I loved the most when I was a teenager, that I loved the most at the time my music clock started ticking in 2007 so... well, it is a pity, but it doesn't feel right to post it as anything else but a regular post. So it is and so it should be. My life is particularly messy at the time, I'm confused about what I want, I would like to settle, I would need to settle... I don't know, I think things are starting to spin out of control and I need to take them back before it's too late. Anyway, I needed a cheer-up, and that's the reason why since I saw this song posted on Facebook by one of my friends, I started playing it in loop today. Life me up!
(Giving that I'm moving back to Vodafone as a mobile services provider and that this song in Italy got big about 10 years ago [seems like a lifetime ago] because of a Vodafone spot, it makes it all even more sense!)
It's being too long since I posted a sundayrevival so I have to do it now and do it well!! Last night I was taking a shower and I decided to play Alanis in the meanwhile: it immediately brought back to 2008, when I started listening to her massively and when her album 'Flavors of entanglement' (one of my absolute favourites of all time) came out. After a few songs I really enjoyed, I turned off the speakers just as this song was about to start and I found myself singing it by heart walking through the house, so I then got to listen to it and decided it would be a perfect post for a sundayrevival! Although it is not a particularly Alanis-like song, it was quite in front of the strongly-produced electronic-pop music that has been going strong since the beginning of the new decade. Moreover the lyrics were really powerful, I realised while singing them "acapella". I'm sure you're gonna love it too! Have a happy sunday!
I came in late with Björk's (not anymore) latest album, Biophilia. I actually started approaching it just a few days ago, as her new work came out. I think I needed a pause with her, as after her first three albums (that I loved), it's been pretty hard for me to get through her later discography, but you know that already, it's not the first time I'm telling about this difficult relationship! Fast forwarding to now, I felt ready to approach her new work and I must confess that I didn't devote much attention to Biophilia yet, but after a couple listens I didn't feel a block as I did with Vespertine or even somehow with parts of Medulla and Volta. It's not straight-forward, accessible music of course, but I think I can get it through with a few more listens. I'll keep you updated about that, for now enjoy the one song that got through to me already!
