Human behaviour - Björk

Human behaviour - Bjork

I don't think my life could be summed up in any way better than with this song right now! Having a rollercoaster week, and the more stress kicks in, the more extreme mood changes are. Still, so frustrating and irresistible to approach the definitely definitely definitely no logic!

"If you ever get close to a human

And human behaviour

Be ready to get confused

There's definitely, definitely, definitely no logic

To human behaviour

But yet so, yet so irresistible

And there's no map

They're terribly moody

And human behaviour

Then all of a sudden turn happy

But, oh, to get involved in the exchange

Of human emotions is ever so, ever so satisfying"

The modern things - Björk

The modern things - Björk

In the last few days I've been listening to the whole Björk discography because, again, I had her in my head for no particular reason. I must say that listening to all her songs randomly made me appreciate a bit more also the music she released after the turn of century, which has always been very hard on me. Then I went on to take a nap this afternoon - after getting up very early (for my standards) this morning - and waking up from it, I had in my head the looped lyric she sings at the end of "The modern things", which is in Icelandic; after searching the Internet I think she's singing something like "Engin sér við mér", which means "Nobody gets the best of me", but I am not 100% sure I got it right, as her pronunciation seems slightly different... It's amazing how things that are (supposed to be) unintelligible to our brain given our knowledge pool, still have such a big influence on us, isn't it?!

Bent - Kiasmos

Bent - Kiasmos

Another week has almost flown by, another busy one but I'm quite happy about it, I brought to completion what I was supposed to and kind of enjoyed the process too. The only problem is the sleep quality I've been getting lately, worst of all last night (thanks Coca Cola for not reminding me I shouldn't drink you at night...), but I'm kinda getting used to it. More good news, I bought the tickets for the music festival that is gonna happen in Hong Kong in late November, whose complete music program has just been released, with a late addition of one of my favourite bands of the last few years, which I can't really wait to see live for the first time! So excited!! (No, they're not Kiasmos, but I still love this one quite a lot)!

Looped - Kiasmos

Looped - Kiasmos

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...!

Fresh off the boat - Nelly Furtado

Fresh off the boat - Nelly Furtado

My goodness, I haven't been posting for 5 days straight and I didn't even realise it! I just thought I missed a couple of days... anyway, quite a few things have happened in these past few days. First of all I have to mention the most recent, i.e. Island victory over England in Euro 2016, a great and unforgettable sports moment! Then again, do I need to speak about the Game of Thrones season final? I stayed up until 6 in the morning to wait for it to be available and watch it and it's been worth every second of my time! Put in a few days enjoying the summer sun at my grandma's pool, some sightly disappointing news about my future that will require me to make an extra effort, nothing exceptionally relevant anyways. And of course summer music, which is what I'm leaving you with tonight, fresh off the boat!

#sundayrevival Unravel - Björk

Unravel - Björk

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!

#liveweek Satisfaction (live @ Brit Awards) - Björk & PJ Harvey

Satisfaction (live @ Brit Awards) - Björk & PJ Harvey

By now we're in the second half of this #liveweek, which has been going quite well up to now! Yet I wanna take it to the next level with these last few posts. This is a song that immediately came to my mind when I thought about the whole idea of a set of blogposts about live performances and I feel I cannot leave it out. So, the recipe is quite simple: take a great and underestimated singer/songwriter from England; take a crazy singer/songwriter from Iceland who is ages ahead her current time; take a glorious rock song by the Rolling Stones; mix it all together and... voilà! I dare you to find a 4-minute music video more powerful than this one in its simplicity!

Backyard - Of Monsters and Men

Backyard - Of Monsters and Men

Lately I've been posting little or no songs out of the music I'm currently listening to (aka my playlists), so I guess the time has come to put remedy to that! I'm gonna do that with Of Monsters and Men, whose new album I really like now, after it took a while for me to really get it under my skin. This, I believe, is one of the bonus tracks, or extra materials of the album, but it stands perfectly fine together with the rest of the music! After a (so far) boring week at work and prospects of a less boring life here in Veneto, I'll leave you and devote to my Japanese language studies! Oyasuminasai! - おあすみなさい！

Slow life - Of monsters and men

Slow life - Of monsters and men

By now, thanks to 'Human', I have obtained the key to open the lock of 'Beneath and skin' and have been able to greatly enjoy it and fall in love with it! The process has not stopped of course and I am accessing the heart of other songs on the album (and they are reaching mine), and this is one of the three or four that this process of discovery took place about and has been the most successful! Given that I'm not really sure I understand what's going on with my life now and what I'm supposed to do with it, I'm trying to throw myself into what I know will help me understand it and comfort me in the process, i.e. the reason why I started writing this blog: music!

Wolves without teeth - Of Monsters and Men

Wolves without teeth -
Of Monsters and Men

While creating my current playlist I have noticed that the (wild) animals theme was pretty recurring, so I thought that it would have been nice to recreate it on the blog too! In the end, you have to take your chances when they come! But today, given that it's not so late already, I wanna tell you a bit about Bangkok, some facts in random order: be careful when you go get a Thai massage, as I did for the first time today and I had muscles moved that I didn't even know were in my body, quite tough an experience but hopefully rewarding in terms of wellbeing!; Japanese manga in Thailand cost very little in Thai (about 1.5/2€ on average), about double of that in Japanese and more than 5/6 times so in English, learn the languages or pay the price!; today I got scolded by the ladies we are working with because I made the air conditioning not cold enough (there were 25°C in the room, and outside it wasn't even that hot); you can eat countless varieties of (food in general, in particular) curry and rank them clearly in order of preference!

Human - Of Monsters and Men

Human - Of Monsters and Men

Today I maybe hopefully had the first breakthrough with OMAM's new album, 'Beneath the skin' (the title coming from this song's lyrics), and I had it with this song actually. After the end of this (short) working week (2-day working weeks should be the rule, not the exception!) I got back to my B&B and took a walk around, as the sun was up high in the sky and there are a few green areas around here. Eating an ice-cream and then reading manga, while walking I was listening to the album and it feels like it started to get into me after a few listens...! Apart from 'Empire', I hadn't really felt a particularly strong connection with any of the songs, but now it feels like they're starting to pierce through! And usually the album I take a while to like, are the ones that I end up loving the most... let's see what's gonna happen with this one!

Hunger - Of Monsters and Men

Hunger - Of Monsters and Men

I find OMAM's second album very different from their debut, and I still haven't understood if it's a good thing or not...! I haven't found any hit song yet (like Little talks, for instance), the songs are more intimate, more hard to understand, to familiarize with and to interiorize, which might be a very good pro in the long term, meaning that the music is good and lasting, as it needs many listens for the listener to penetrate all the layers of interpretation (melody, lyrics, etc.) and the whole mixing up of them all. Anyway, today my friend M. came to my hometown to visit, we explored some old (for me) and new places and it's been a very pleasant day. It's just that when we are together, we are a dangerous love-for-Japan combo, and we always end up buying well too many mangas... anyway, that's one of the good things of life and I will just enjoy it. Now let me go, I have mangas to read..!

Empire - Of Monsters and Men

Empire - Of Monsters and Men

Today for the first time I travelled to work from home directly, without coming to Veneto on Sunday, and it's been a great choice: besides enjoying my Sunday much better, I quite enjoyed the trip too (though it was quite hot) and I also was, for some reason, hyper-active, very productive and very awake (and very wet)! After work I reached my B&B, which lays at the top of a hill: to reach it I had to climb a crazily steep road, but the location is quite fascinating! The worst thing is that I realised I left both of my Mac chargers home, meaning it's gonna be three (long) weeks without them! Stupid! Thanks goodness I have the work-pc that I can (supposedly) use at home!! After all of these adventures in such a long day, I'll leave you with one of the songs that are featured in my latest playlist, and I'm sure you're gonna love it as much as I do! It's the first song I'm posting out of OMAM's new album, which is going to be released very soon!!! (Or is out already?! No, it's tomorrow! Well, great timing, kudos to me!!)

Crystals - Of monsters and men

Crystals - Of monsters and men

"2015 is gonna be a kick-ass year for music". That's what's on my mind now. I'd be tempted to just leave that as a blog post, but I don't think it could be defined a blog post! Anyway, I quite like this already, so can't wait to fall in love with it and also for the whole album to come out of course! It's awesomeful that I'll start getting a wage this year, as I'll spend it all on CDs!! Omam's sophomore is coming out in the summer, Florence in June, PJ Harvey sometime before the end of the year, we have the brand new Imagine Dragons... and that's just the beginning! I'm really so excited! But I'll leave you be and enjoy this new pretty work of art!

#sundayrevival Lakehouse - Of monsters and men

Lakehouse - Of monsters and men

Another week has come to an end, so it time for a sundayrevival again! Tonite I took a hot bath (+ hydro) and, as you know, baths are a great source of musical inspiration, especially because in the bathroom where the tank is I have a CD-playing radio and in the next room my CD-collection, so that I almost always end up listening to old favourites! This time I actually decided to play the last physical CD I bought, that is OMAM's debut album. Their sophomore album is scheduled to be out this year and I didn't even know that until I found out that they are headlining a Milan festival, which unfortunately I won't most likely be able to attend...! As the record was playing, I remembered when I went to their concert with my friend B. almost two years ago and how she was trying to teach me how to sing on the way back in the car, with pretty poor success (not because of her)! Well... it was also the time when I started being schooled in singing and... ok, I won't go as far as saying that I can kinda sing now because it's not true, but sure I did improve since then, also thanks to my playing the harmonica! But that night in the car, singing la la la la las endlessly... I'll never forget about it!

Thunderbolt - Björk

Thunderbolt - Bjork

People have been referring to this as "keyboard farts", stating that "the end of Thunderbolt sounds like a fart machine". I don't feel like easily dismissing these comments as worthless, because there is some truth in them. I mean, the end of this song and the idea of a fart machine are not the most different things in this universe. But not even the closest. Because, notwithstanding the result that can be more or less enjoyable, with more or less "artistic" value and gaining more or less the favour of listeners, the research behind is commendable. Taking new roads (and the risks that come with them), making use of the latest tools and even creating new tools to produce sounds is a great way to progress. And, come on, how cool is it to make music with a Tesla coil (a.k.a. as fart machine)?!

Crystalline - Björk

Crystalline - Björk

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!

Big time sensuality - Björk

Big time sensuality - Björk

A few days ago Björk surprisedly released her brand new album, Vulnicura, months before the expected release, about 4 years after her latest album Biophilia (it seems like yesterday that it came out). In between the release of these two albums I completed my getting-to-know the discography of the most famous Icelandic singer-songwriter, not without difficulties. My uncompromised love for her first three albums (from Debut to Homogenic) is in total opposition to my questionable and partial appreciation for the three next releases, in particular Vespertine, which I have always had a very hard time to process, and whose (to me) unremarkable melodies annoy me more than Medulla's crazy, metallic and electrical noises. To the point that I had never listened to Biophilia yet. Until today. Well... the experience has not been unpleasing, but I can't deny it has been tough. I think there is potential for this album to grow in me more than at least a couple of his three predecessors. I haven't got the chance to listen to Vulnicura yet, but I hope I will soon and I will close my personal bjorkish circle. Yet the raw and powerful but clean musical strength of her first triad still remains unmatched in my ears...! Here is one of my favourite examples of it! And, come on, just how brilliant is this video? Genius!

Dirty paws - Of monsters and men

Dirty paws - Of monsters and men

After being in love with their music for quite a while and also attending a concert of theirs, today I finally bought OMAM's debut album, 'My head is an animal'!! I entered the multimedia store in Milan with the aim of wandering around the CDs area and this was my first aim, but I couldn't find it in the pop/rock section, the same way as I couldn't find any of the other albums I was looking for. And then I found myself in the sales aisle and... voilà! Here it was, at 6.99€! Took it and brought it home! One less CD in my list of items to buy! Yay!

#sundayrevival Love love love - Of monsters and men

Love love love - Of monsters and men

I've been meaning to post this yesterday (well, actually on saturday), but then the preparatives for graduation celebration got the best of me, and well... today it's been even worse, with coming back from Milan for a great lunch party with family and friends here in my hometown! This weekend has been overwhelming, absolutely CRAZY, I'm feeling so many emotions that it took me days to even start processing them! I'm full of joy for the celebration of the end of this chapter of my life, the amazing people that were around me, the support they gave me, the things we have done together! This same things also overwhelms me with sadness, as I started realising that it's really the end, it's for real. It's the first time in my (conscious) life that I'm not a student, and who knows what I am now! I'm really curious to get to know what is waiting for me, but also sad to leave this all behind. I really hope that the people who mean a lot to me today will keep occupying a relevant place in my life, and I'll dedicate this to them all, as representing a memoir of one of the best moments of these past two years!