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!!

Flickers - London Grammar

Flickers - London Grammar

Toughest day, wasn't it today? Super tough, loads of rain pouring down form the sky with more or less strength but with absolutely no break whatsoever! Welcome to Hong Kong, the Britain of Asia! Pairs of wet socks at the end of the day: 4. Pairs of wet shoes at the end of the day: 2. New pairs of socks: 3. New pairs of shoes: 1. Soaked bones: 206. Was it worth it? Well... yes. Jose Gonzalez in the afternoon has been great!! London Grammar at night has been good but not as much, mostly "thanks to" drunk & high British teenagers everywhere and the multitude of umbrellas between my eyes and the set. All in all, tough day. Worth it? Yes. Would do it again? Well... the last of the festival is tomorrow!

What will - José González

What will - Jose Gonzalez

Clockenflap has finally begun after a pretty busy week for me, so I wish I had a couple more days to recover in preparation of it, but you know... life goes its own way! Last night I enjoyed Sigur ros, even if I practically didn't know their music. The concert has been powerful and enjoyable, so it's been worth it. Today is the main dish for me, the main reason why I bought the ticket: Jose Gonzalez and London Grammar are awaited on the stage, and I can't wait any longer! I'm about to get out and enjoy, will tell you how it goes later, hoping it won't rain (too much)!!

2shy - Shura

2shy - Shura

Clockenflap is approaching and in order to best enjoy my first ever music festival experience, I started listening to some of the artists that will perform besides the ones that I know and that drove me to buy the ticket. One of the new discoveries I made in this way is Shura, a UK-based new artist whose music didn't take long to enter my inner music soul. More people I can't wait to listen to and just 10 more days to wait!! So excited and not shy about it at all!

#sundayrevival Music - Madonna

Music - Madonna

Hello dear readers, sorry for being away from the blog again, I’ve taken a 20-some hours trip to Milan to celebrate a friend’s birthday and I took the chance to say goodbye to some people I might not be seeing for a good amount of time. I can’t complain about goodbyes as the life I’ve chosen for myself in this time of my life is not one of stability, so goodbyes have to be part of the game! The idea of not having close people around might be hard, but as of now I am more excited and eager to go explore, meet new people and stuff! New music is on my to-do list too of course, but today it’s Sunday so it’s time to look back, and what better looking back than one of my favourite songs by the singer whose music was on my mind when I got up this morning?!

Your life, your call - Junip

Your life, your call - Junip

Lately I have been having a lot of time (like, a lot) to think about my life, where it is going, how I am trying to shape my future, how to fill my present... of course I'm receiving a lot of pressure from society (i.e. my parents, my family, my friends and so on), as we are all, but at this time of my life in particular, being back at home after my first job experience went... not so well... I don't know, it's weird. I'm very, very happy that I got a plan sorted out and that, if everything's gonna go well, I'm gonna start a new path in September, so I can't even say or be told that I'm uselessly wasting my time. I'm just wai(s)ting my time! And I know it and I have thought about it and I have kind of made peace with myself, saying that I will do travels I've been wanting to do for quite a long time, and trying to use this time to do things that I won't have time to do in the next future or that I didn't do in the past. Yet these things are not so numerous or time-consuming, and I end up having loads of time that goes into TV series, movies, wasting time on the internet and so on. Plus, the less you do, the least productive you get; this is very true for me. I'm trying to keep it up and doing my best filling this time, but it hurts whenever people say that I'm wasting these months, acting like a "parasite" (my mother's words), because it's partly true, but it's also true that it doesn't make sense trying to invest my time into things that I know I won't pursue, as I already have my plans... All of this just to say, never forget that it's YOUR LIFE, it's YOUR CALL! Needless to say, this song has been stuck in my head for weeks!

The music's no good without you - Cher

The music's no good without you - Cher

Today's been a busy day (for my current unemployed standards): besides other things, spent a big part of my afternoon chatting with a University classmate who needed to interview me and ask me a few questions about music for her final thesis. I'm always happy to talk about music business models, my own approach to music, digital vs physical music and the like; I am also happy to chat with my friends, so all in all it's been a very pleasant afternoon! The theme of listening to music as a primary vs background activity emerged and it struck me a little as I already touched it with another person a few days ago. I tend to do both, but sometimes it's true that music as a shared experience is way more intense than music experienced alone (and sometimes the opposite is true). What do you think about that?

#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!

It comes back to you - Imagine Dragons

It comes back to you - Imagine Dragons

Soo, I'm almost ready to leave for Spain!! Well, I still have to get my baggage ready and set up the last things, but there's plenty of time, the perks of having a flight late at night! That gives me time to post on the blog too, and also the get a few posts ready for the next few days, in case (as I expect) I'll be super-busy enjoying my trip! But let's take a step in a present and focus on today and on Imagine Dragons, whom I know you all love greatly, and I am no exception! I'm really growing more and more fond of 'Smoke + mirrors' as each day goes by, and this is one of the songs that have grown the most into me. So, well... happy labour day to you all, enjoy your weekend trips, your time with your dears, your lonely and lovely adventures or whatever you're gonna be doing this weekend! And remember that it all comes back to you! Cheers!

#yearinmusic A song or two per day - 2014 in music

Hello folks! 2014 has gone by and I haven't summed it up musically yet, so I decided to do this directly on the blog, to share my best picks of this past year with you all in case you overlooked them or missed them altogether!
So, let's begin!

First there is the most difficult category, that is the best song of 2014, meaning the song that has been most meaningful for me last year. I will build a quadrumvirate, yet even if I don't feel comfortable picking one of them over the others, I dare say that Elastic heart would be the first pick.

Best songs 2014

Hey now is the first song I ever listened of London Grammar (goodness bless KEXP and their live recordings) and it started my path of love with them. London Grammar have been, probably together with Imagine Dragons, my "best new band" of 2014, and that gives you a measure of how much I grew to like them in less than one year. The story of America is very similar, I remember falling in love with it one time it was playing in the office early last year, in the period when I was listening to Imagine Dragons and getting to know them myself. Beautiful combo, which brought it to be my alarm call song for quite a long time!
Elastic heart is the representation of great soundtrack music: I obsessed over Catching Fire's soundtrack (as you might have noticed) and this is my favourite song out of it, together with Shooting arrows at the sky. I picked this one because it made me curious about Sia, and brought me to listen to her latest album, which I loved so much!
Lastly, in chronological order, Every other freckle has become kind of an obsession soon after Alt-J's sophomore album came out, it stood out immediately as my favourite in an album that I utterly loved and still love. The cat of the video has become highly representative for me (just check the cover image of the blog's Google+ page)!!

Moving on to albums, I am once again in a difficult position, as many great CDs have seen the light in 2014: U2, Tori Amos, Hozier, Lykke Li, Hundred waters and more have released awesome albums that found their way deep into my heart. Yet I decided to pick three albums that made it a step deeper than the others.

Best albums 2014

After scoring my favourite song of the year, Sia didn't disappoint me with her album either: it took me a while to appreciate Chandelier, which then went on to have a (deserved) huge success. I didn't fall in love with the other songs immediately either, but after a few listens the album pierces through your heart and won't ever leave. Great, awesome pick. Don't make the mistake to overlook it or to just stick to Chandelier. There are many other great(er) songs in there!
Same line of reasoning goes for Alt-J's This is all yours, a highly expected album by me (and many others) which, I am confident to say, didn't disappoint. I am still not sure whether the level is as high as An awesome wave's, but their debut album is so, so great that even being slightly less awesome than it, would make their sophomore one of the albums absolutely not to miss in 2014!
The last one of the three is the one that didn't score any song in my top ranking, maybe because they are all so good that none of them really stood out (if I were to choose I'd probably pick Florida kilos, one of the deluxe edition bonus tracks)! When West coast first came out I kind of hated it, as I did with practically all Lana songs. In this case, I didn't grow an utmost love for it, as I still think it's one of the weakest songs of the album, but let's say I don't dislike it. West coast aside, the rest of the album is... just wow! Just go give it 5 to 10 listens, it's gonna become your favourite album of 2014, as it did for me!!

Well, here it is! 2014 is gone, but its great music will stay! Now I'm hoping for a great 2015 in music, as I'm waiting for new albums by my favourite artists, mainly Florence + the Machine and PJ Harvey, both of whom have not released any albums since 2011! Don't keep us waiting too long girls!

Missing persons 1 & 2 - OneRepublic

Ups and downs... you can't escape them. And the moments of down are always so damn powerful and frequent. Luckily enough, there is a great weapon to help you fight them: music. The songs you love, the ones whose lyrics mean the world to you, the ones that are able to describe perfectly your current mood and you get to ask yourself how the hell the songwriter could make it so and if he/she is by any chance reading your mind.
Well, I want to thank you, music, for being of great comfort in these moments.

Special #2: Imogen Heap

Tonight I really feel the urge to do another special post. A few minutes ago I have been watching a couple of videos featuring one of the most inspiring and innovative artists (to me), i.e. Imogen Heap. She is very creative and I really like the way she tries to bring new life and new ideas into music, also thanks to her being outside the main music labels environment. In this particular video she is telling a little bit about the development of her musical gloves and showing a demo of their usage, followed by a song (Me the machine) she composed with them. The peculiarity of these gloves is that, according to the position and the movements of the person (singer usually) who wears them, they give you the possibility to play a whole lot of effects without needing any additional instrument + they also let you play with notes that you sing, such as holding them, making loops out of them and so on. I find this really brilliant and I wanted to share it, 'cos in my opinion it is really one of the ways in which music is going to evolve in the next future. Enjoy!

Intro + October - Dolores O'Riordan

Hey everybody,
I have decided to give it a try again, yes, I am starting a blog (again)! This time I decided to try to give it a structured shape and most of all to make sure I would be motivated to post frequently. I realised the only way to do it is to talk about something I am passionate about and that I like to talk about and share everyday. The solution seemed obvious at this point: music is the answer!
So that's it, I will try to create a sort of agenda/calendar/whatever/something that will (hopefully) give you a song (or maybe even more) per day, based on my tastes, new discoveries, revivals and whatever else. I hope you'll be interested in it, you'll follow me in this new trip and, most of all, I strongly hope that this will make my Facebook friends happier, since I probably will stop overfilling the walls with music videos! :)

So, let's start. Let's start in the most obvious way possible. Let's start with a revival. The song I picked for today (say, it's still October 18 for me, I am still awake!) is a revival. This is October (I guess you can find out yourselves the obvious reasons why it came to my mind now...) from her 2007 solo album Are you listening?

Enjoy!