The end of love - Florence + the Machine

Countdown to 2019: -4

The end of love - Florence + the Machine

When I started these last (and first) five posts of end-of-2018, I already had in mind the five songs I planned to post. And here I am, on the second day, already posting something I hadn't planned to. Well, this seems like a good example of how life seldom goes the way we plan, and how it's important to be able to adapt to the flow sometimes. It's been a few years since Florence released a new album until 'High as hope' came out this summer. It took me a while to appreciate the new music, but I ended up being sold on it. As it often happens with F+tM's music, it ended up growing on me and I listened to some of the songs more and more in the later months of this year. This is one of them, one that I held particularly dear around the end of summer, when I was going through my own end of love, my problematic New York summer (indirectly), my ghosting and my (figurative) jump off the balcony (please don't jump from the balcony for real!). As usual, Florence speaks my life better than I can, even before events unfold. Can't wait to see her again live next March, hoping that after the end of love that came with 2018, new love will sparkle in 2019!

Conductor - Florence + the Machine

Conductor - Florence + the Machine

After an almost sleepless night yesterday, last night I finally made it up with about 12 hours of sleep and I woke up in this new year of the rooster (or cock, as one wishes..!) and checking Facebook, I saw a post by a fanclub that left me with Third eye's lyrics in mind. It's been a while since I gave a proper listen to Florence, so I really am not minding this start of day big, blue and beautiful! Hoping she will give me the right energy to start this lunar new year in the best way possible, even if for now the feeling I get is the one of being out of place and far from home when everybody else is celebrating... gotta put myself to study before melancholia gets the best of me!!

Wish that you were here - Florence + the Machine

Wish that you were here -
Florence + the Machine

Finally today I've been able to take a day off, off working, off papers, off school, off this life that has been consuming me for almost two months without giving me almost any room for breathing! Well, I confess... I read half a paper on the beach. Just to keep up the rhythm. But I was on the beach, come on! Thanks goodness this weekend has been good and I've been able to somehow find a good balance between duty of work and duty of keeping myself sane! Given that I've been devoting most of my time, day and night, weekdays and weekends to papers and assignments and lectures and stuff, I don't feel guilty in taking some time for myself. And I'm actually feeling good about being able to manage it all without going crazy or paranoid! Then we went to the movies and we ended up watching the latest Tim Burton's movie, for which Florence wrote this song (it's been nice). Could I post anything else on the blog? Of course not!

Too much is never enough - Florence + the Machine

Too much is never enough -
Florence + the Machine

I'm in one of my Florence moments, I'm supposed to go to bed but I can't stop listening to her... I've loved so many singers and so many songs but probably none of them as viscerally and deeply. In these moments it seems like all the rest of the musical panorama is just falling short, as if the other songs and singers are unable to touch me inside as she does. I don't know why, but I've got this special connection with her music and I cherish it and that's why music is such a big part of my life and also why I started writing this blog! I couldn't end this day without posting something of hers, and this one, I've been meaning to post it for a few days. She has just recorded a few new songs lately, this one (together with a couple of others) is featured in the soundtrack of the new Final Fantasy videogame.

Delilah (demo) - Florence + the Machine

Delilah (demo) - Florence + the Machine

Hello my dear readers, here I am after a couple of exhausting days I had to get through even if I'm not yet recovered by the toughness of my recent trip in Japan. An exhaustion that has been absolutely welcome on my side, as it was paired up with a Florence + the Machine concert in Bologna and thus with a couple of days spent with a friend from university that I haven't got the chance to see often lately as she lives near Bologna. I've been having an absolutely great time, seeing a couple of cities I hadn't got the chance to see before, enjoying yet another great concert by my favourite band and spending time with a friend! So, in order to celebrate the release of 'Delilah' as single in vinyl in occasion of the record store day (happening two days from now) and my latest concert, here is for you the awesome demo of 'Delilah' that is contained on the to-be-released vinyl! Hope you enjoy!!

#sundayrevival Only if for a night - Florence + the Machine

Only if for a night - Florence + the Machine

This week has come to an end so quickly! I didn't even realised it started yet, and here is a new one already! Quite a few things happened actually, but time is flowing by in a weird way lately..! Anyway, today I am sharing with you a very, very important song for me. 'Ceremonials' has been the album that converted me to the Florence + the Machine cause fully and completely, it's been one of the most significant albums of probably the most significant period of my life so far, when I blossomed, suffered and grew up, when I went to live abroad alone for the first time, when I learned (again) how to stand on my own two feet. 'Only if for a night' is the opening song of this album, one of F+tM favourites overall and one of those songs that... just gets carved into you. Whenever it starts, it feels like it's singing the story of a part of me, as if my body was giving voice to its own feelings.
Today has been a Florence + the Machine day, I have been practically listening just to their music and it's been a while since I didn't do that, probably since their concert in Milan last December. And it all started with this song. It was on my head, I don't know why, but as I told you it is just a part of me, so I'm not surprised that it just comes out like this, even without any perceptible trigger. I am sharing this piece of me with you, so please just treat it well (I know you will)!!

"And the only solution was to stand and fight"

#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!

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

Best album 2015

It usually takes me a little while for me to get ready and make this kind of decisions... the best album of the whole year, it's not so easy to say most of the time! In a year like 2014 the fight has been tight till the end... this year instead the winner was already kind of expected and what can I say... it even exceeded the expectations. I think I haven't been feeling any music as strongly as I did with 'How big, how blue, how beautiful' for at least 3-4 years. So many great songs on it, there's just a couple that I have not been overly excited about, but it happened with previous Florence + the Machine albums too. This doesn't take anything away from the greatness of their music, from the reverence that I rightfully devote to this woman and her fellow musicians. Their music is a perfect example of the incredible effect that music can have on our lives and of the reason why I started writing this blog. I cannot be thankful enough to them for sharing their art and work with us.

Runner-ups (Best album 2015)

But 2015 has been indeed a great year for music not only thanks to F+tM. There has been plenty of other albums that I've felt strongly and which have left a mark on me. Among others, I need to mention Kodaline, Of Monsters and Men, Carmen Consoli and Leona Lewis. Yet two albums in particular have been one step above the others to me, and (be it a coincidence or not), they are by artists that I have recently seen / will see in the next future live in concert. The first one in chronological order is Imagine Dragons' sophomore 'Smoke + mirrors', through which they absolutely confirmed of being one of the greatest new bands around: great music once again and a big following, I foresee a bright future for them and I'm happy about it. The other album, which would've probably won this year's contest if it weren't for Florence, is Foals' 'What went down'. I have been utterly in love with their 2013 'Holy fire' and I think that this new work is almost (if not) on the same level with it! Their songs have been the (only) ones able to make me detach from HBHBHB a few weeks after it came out, so thanks to them for putting a stop to my obsession (and giving me a whole new one)!! I really can't wait to see them live next month!

A few words about a couple of disappointments: Mumford & Sons and Lana del Rey. I have absolutely loved the Mumfords' first two albums, but I can't really process this new stuff they have put out... I just found a couple good songs on their album and that's it. I have completely forgotten about the rest. For Lana the situation is not very different: I have absolutely loved 'Ultraviolence' and I really had high expectations about 'Honeymoon', expectations that were mostly unmet. I know her music always takes a while to get under my skin, but a while has passed and I have only been able to feel some 4-5 songs (to be optimistic) on the whole album. Maybe she should have waited a little longer, anyway let's see if my relationship with it will change next year.

This is all for 2015, I can just say goodbye to this awesome year in music with the hope for many, many more like it in the future!

Bye!

Third eye - Florence + the Machine

Third eye - Florence + the Machine

My goodness... very rarely did I have to wait a few hours before writing a post that I had ready in my heart and (used to have ready) in my head for quite a long time. I noticed that the biggest highlight off 'How big, how blue, how beautiful' that I still hadn't posted here was 'Third eye', and I already knew I would post it in conjunction with the Florence and the Machine concert I've been waiting for SO LONG. But, my dears... I am messed up. I am messed up because of last night and I am just starting to realise it now and I don't know how much time it's gonna take me to get back on my feet. Hopefully it's holidays time and I will have other things to think about, but... my goodness. Last night right after the concert I just said to myself "Wow, once again what a great concert I've been to!". But now... after I drove back to my hometown with my friends, had lunch with them and got home alone, the whole mess in my head started. Apart from the fact that I've been having this song in my head since last night, so that's an even more compelling reason why I am posting it now... I keep on listening to all the songs, one after the other, than the first one again, then another one... How big how blue how beautiful, Queen of peace, Third eye... unbelievable. Let alone when I think about last night's 'Cosmic love', the first time in my life I've seen a whole arena fall silent in the middle of a song, when she paused singing for a few seconds... how intimate, how powerful, how simple, how fantastic. And then I started watching the videos of the concert... goodness gracious, I teared up again while watching HBHBHB, all of us with our blue balloons in hand... I started jumping around the house with the balloon I still have from yesterday, almost crying tears of joy and excitement. And then Long & lost, Mother... I'm gonna stop now because I realise none of you will still be reading at this point. All these words just to say that I am speechless after last night. This is the power of music. I feel alive. I feel my life is worth it.

"You don't have to be a ghost, here amongst the living.

You are flesh and blood,

And you deserve to be loved and you deserve what you are given!"

I couldn't find an album version, so I'm sharing with you the live debut of 'Third eye', a beautiful performance whose video came out a few months before the album was actually released.

#sundayrevival Drumming song - Florence + the Machine

Drumming song - Florence + the Machine

I've been waiting for this moment for about 3 years and it has finally (almost) come! Tomorrow Flo and her band will perform in Milan! I'm still arranging details with my friends, as unfortunately we have two groups of tickets in front of each other at the two opposite sides of the stage, but that's just coincidental! I am quite excited about it all, I've already got in the "totally-Flo" mood yesterday and today I had to take a break because I was consuming my enthusiasm and energies already, a bit too soon! But I'm fully charged up for tomorrow, can't wait to have an amazing night and to sing my lungs out! Speaking of lungs, this is an awesome one off their debut album. Awesome.

#liveweek You got the love (live @ MLNS) - Florence + the Machine

You got the love (live MLNS) - Florence + the Machine

Sometimes you gotta hate yourself, and there's just nothing you can do about it...! After all the excitement I created (in my head) about the #liveweek, I already forgot to post on the second day... I think I'm hopeless, but I'll make it up to you with a double post today (unless I forget to post again later... sigh)! This morning I had to wake up "very early" (at 10 AM) so as to buy the tickets for Florence's concert in Bologna in April, as I just got the news that she and the band will be back in Italy next spring! It's a bit weird to buy a ticket for somebody's concert when you already have another one in the pipeline, but I don't wanna miss any chances of watching them perform live!! In honour of this purchase, I'm gonna post one of my absolute favourite songs in one of my absolute favourite versions just for you! I hope you enjoy!

#sundayrevival Between two lungs - Florence + the Machine

Between two lungs -
Florence + the Machine

Ok, just now I found a great inspiration for today's post and also for something special I will do next week (or maybe the week after, I still have to think about it... stay tuned tomorrow and probably you'll find something special)! One of my (Thai) friends on Fb just posted a live version of this song, when Flo sang at the Oxygen festival in 2010 and it's just amazing. It made me remember the first F+tM concert I've been to: I was at the end of my study abroad semester in Montréal and given that I finished my exams early, I decided to embark on a fantastic journey through the US. First I went to Boston by bus to visit a classmate who was studying there, then I flew to Chicago and finally I got to Milwaukee by train, as this was the closest place to Montréal that Florence and the band were playing while I was there. It's been amazing, an amazing journey on my own, a journey that showed me once again and ultimately that I could travel around on the other side of the world and stand on my own two feet. And also enjoy it awesomely while I did that. I will never forget that night, and even if concerts are best experienced with friends, I vividly remember how this song was the only one they played that gave me shivers, and the only one of the setlist (together with 'Never let me go') that they didn't play in Milan a few months later when I went to see the concert with a big bunch of friends. Something that will happen again in a veeery short time, and I can't wait!
I'm sharing with you a demo / early version of this song, which is the first one I listened to and which I like a lot more than the one that ended up on the album. I hope you guys enjoyed this memory of mine, I wish you all a great new week, it will be special for me because it's gonna be my last week of work here in Veneto, and then I'll be officially unemployed (for now)! Don't forget to stay tuned! Cheers!

Dog days are over - Florence + the Machine

Dog days are over - Florence + the Machine

Sometimes you have to take firm decisions. I think that if you guys have been reading some of my posts lately,, you might have had the feeling I have not been extremely happy about how my life has been going on. Well, today I think that the decisive turn has been taken. In the last few weeks I gave signs of distress, then finally today I spoke with both my bosses and, after they made me yet another (interesting) proposal, I have been firm in my decision to walk away. As a person always living projected in the future, it has been hard for me to take such a decision, as the job and the opportunities were good. Yet, as you can imagine, I didn't wake up with the wrong foot today and take this decision, I have been feeling unsatisfied for... months. And lately the situation has become unbearable for me: lack of motivation, a job I didn't particularly like, opportunities that were always in front of me but never came to meet me for real, added to the toughness of having no home for the last 10 months, travelling back and forth from here to there and back... I couldn't make it anymore. I couldn't take it anymore. And I am happy I took this decision, as it means I am learning to care more about the present. It might turn out to be a crappy decision in the long term, but I will never know; it's what I needed to do in order to feel better now and so I did. And the fact that I haven't been feeling happier than this afternoon for a long time tells me that I did do what was good for me. The dog days are over, the dog days are done. I can hear the horses come and I'm running!

"Leave all your love and your longing behind.

You can't carry it with you if you want to survive"

Howl - Florence + the Machine

Howl - Florence + the Machine

Hey there, welcome back bad ol' habit of posting my post of the day after midnight! It's not like I'm getting back to my former lifestyle (in terms of sleeping time), not anytime soon at least. Even though I would like... well, love to! I feels so much better staying up until late at night and waking up late, I am so much more productive during the day, and feel better overall. Creature of the night. It's peculiar how, being such a creature of the night, I've never felt particularly attached to Halloween.... well, during my university years it was always exams time, this year I've spent it at home alone watching Arrow and The Flash (not a bad night at all)! We'll see if next year I'll be in a place and with people that will inspire me more in this sense. For now, I'll just be good joining Florence in wishing you all a great 'Howloween'!! Beware the howling creatures of the night!

Make up your mind - Florence + the Machine

"Make up your mind before I make it up for you!"

Make up your mind -
Florence + the Machine

Recently one of my best friends told me (for the nth time) that I should let things go and not try to have everything under control. Maybe it's true. But I don't really feel like I need control over things or people... I just need control over me, my life, what I do, what I will do, my plans, my transfers, my actions... thinking about the fact that my life is in fact embedded in the world and linked to many other people's, and especially depending on other people's decisions and moves (especially under the professional point of view), maybe she's not so wrong. What the hell, why can't people just make up their mind? Why can't I make up my own mind?

"Although the axe is heavy, it just sits in my hands

While you're changing like the current, not a shore on land"

Long & lost - Florence + the Machine

"Oh the queen of peace always does her best to please, is it any use? Somebody's gotta lose..."

Queen of peace / Long & lost - Florence + the Machine

I meant to post 'Long & lost' a few days ago, as I was falling deeply in love with it, but for one reason or another I had other songs to give precedence to. And it couldn't have been better!! Dear Flo just released her first video since the album came out, she posted a couple of teasers about 'Queen of peace' (which is the other song I'm utterly in love with nowadays), and well... to my (and I guess anyone else's) surprise, she just released a double video for QoP and L&L and.... oh my goodness, it's probably one her best videos to date, if not the best! Notwithstanding how much I am in love with her music, I've not been a huge fan of most of her videos to date, but this one is just amazing... you just have to watch it. It's beautiful. And amazing. I'm still trying to close my mouth as I'm still totally in awe. Do watch it, and you won't regret it! (If you're interested, there might even be some naked Flo body on top, just so...)!!!

"Without your love I'll be so long & lost, are you missing me?"

"It's been so long between the words we spoke..."

Which witch (demo) - Florence + the Machine

Which witch (demo) -
Florence + the Machine

Today two main things happened: first I finished reading Neon Genesis Evangelion (the manga). I had been reading it in parallel with the watching of the anime... well, it must be some 4 years ago or so, and given that now is the time it is set in, and most importantly given that now the manga has been finished (while when I was reading it there were still a couple of volumes due for release), it seemed like a good time to re-read it and take it to completion. And I'm glad I did that, it's a real work of art, very deep and philosophical, wondering about the meaning of life and the fate of humanity, with a dark and sad tone but very realistic and... I liked how it ended!
The second thing is that I bonded definitely with another song by the 'Queen of peace' (or shall I say 'Witch'? Which of the two?), that is this beautiful demo. I remember reading an article/interview where she was saying that while talking with her producer, she was very proud of this one epic song, which she had taken the vocals more than a hundred times for, etc. and then he said that he wanted to keep it simple on this album, keep her to the bare essential. And so this pearl (its demo actually) ended up (unrightfully imho) being a part of the deluxe edition, a bonus track...! Well... the song is very Florence + the Machine, very Florence Welch actually and I'm sure that all the hardcore fans can't not love it, even if (and even more because it has been left) in its rawer form.
A must listen!

Mother - Florence + the Machine

Mother - Florence + the Machine

In one way or another, we are all affected by the relationship we have with our mothers, oftentimes even more than we realise. I find myself quoting my own mother more often than not and I recently realised how many ways of saying and opinions I took from her.

"Mother, make me, Make me a big tall tree so I can shed my leaves and let it blow through me.

Mother, make me, Make me a big grey cloud so I can rain on you things I can't say out loud."

Mothers shape us, their influence on our character and our development is in many cases the strongest one for better or for worse, be it with their presence or absence (both physical and psychological).

"Mother, make me, Make me a bird of prey so I can rise above this, let it fall away.

Mother, make me, Make me a song so sweet, heaven trembles, fallen at our feet."

All in all mothers (and their parent-partner, whenever there is one) are the ones who make us big tall trees, big grey clouds, birds of prey and songs so sweet... and our link with them doesn't cease to be easily (even if sometimes we wish it would)! Mothers are the refuge, the pillar, the unwanted attention, the teacher, the educator, the lover, the carriers. They are big, blue and beautiful.

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!

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]?!