Dream on - Amy MacDonald

Dream on - Amy MacDonald

After a disappointing 2016, 2017 kicked off with a good start already. One of the reasons is Amy, who is coming out with a new album this year. Maybe over the years she failed to remain relevant to the international/European pop/rock scene, especially by failing to keep up with her huge debut 'This is the life', but one thing I really appreciate about her is that she hasn't changed her music recipe much over her first 10 years of career, remaining loyal to her folk-rock classic ballad style. One could say that her songs all sound alike, and I could buy that argument. I wouldn't go as far as saying this is a bad thing though, especially at a time like this when pop has become very much "electronified" and synthesised, with a lot of singers (and songs) sounding exactly like each other because of auto-tuning and heavy production. I am always happy when I realise that artists I like keep on doing what made me like them. Go on like this Amy!

Wings of love - liv

Wings of love - liv

This is my new obsession and I've been meaning to share it with you guys for a few days now, but being busy has actually turned out to be a good thing this time around, as Lykke Li just released the official video for this song on her channel. liv is a so-called "supergroup" featuring Li herself and a few other Scandinavian/American music business known names. This is the first song they released for this new artistic project, and I can't wait for more music and parts of this "installation" to come out if this is a good representation of the quality of the stuff!!

The greatest - Sia

The greatest - Sia

It goes without saying that I consider Sia to be one of the greatest talents in the current pop music panorama, and I don't think I am alone out there...! She came out with yet another great tune, just a few months after releasing her latest album, a tune that probably is going to be the first taste of her next full work. With the video for this song she came back to the beginning of her fame exploit in 2014 with Chandelier: we have once again Maddie Ziegler dancing around weird moves in a creepy setting, this time around with other (little and great) guys and with a stronger link to reality, in particular to the Orlando shooting, which the song is linked to. You really don't wanna miss out on this one. Go and check out the greatest!

The orange monkey - PJ Harvey

The orange monkey - PJ Harvey

Today I finally have been able to open the swimming season at my grandmother's pool, where I spent a big chunk of my past summers. I can hardly remember later openings than the 22nd of June, except maybe for the shitty 2014 summer, which I hope won't repeated this year, even if this June has not been far from the one of two years ago so far. Today the weather has been perfect and I enjoyed a really, really good day there. Then I came back home to enjoy a little bit of football (Euro 2016), a couple nice matches in the late afternoon and then with my parents we went at some friends' house to watch the Italy match together. Disappointing (and meaningless) output of that match, not that I care as I am no strong Italy supporter! Closing my day with music, after a couple of Game of Thrones older episodes, I am sharing with you the latest single off PJ's new album. Good night!

Wherever I go - OneRepublic

Wherever I go - OneRepublic

The fact that I am literally going everywhere in this year, and I am about to leave again, seems like a good reason to post this. Besides, OneRepublic are one of my favourite bands and... well, I'm not gonna lie by saying that I don't like bragging about the fact that I've been following them since "before they were famous" (if we can say that somebody out there didn't/doesn't know 'Apologize'), because I do. I loved their first album, and then the second, and then... well the third a little less. So I don't have hyped expectations about new music, but given the sh*t that goes around in these days, in my taste their pop/rock is still in the top 5/10%, even with the worse songs. Now they have released a new single and I suppose that in the next few months we're gonna get a new album too, so brace yourselves: good pop is coming!

Cheap trills - Sia

Cheap trills - Sia

"It's Friday night and I won't be alone" sings Sia in this awesome new tune. It's been incredibly hard for me not to be alone this Friday night, as I've been trying to arrange a night out with friends for more than a week (and failing). I'm just gonna gonna see a couple of friends for a dinner out here in Milan and that's it. It's really frustrating, and it's been a bad day for me overall, but I don't have any big reason to complain, just the small little things of life that pile up and make you wanna scream at the world sometimes. Let's cheer to a happy Friday night for us all!

"Baby I don't need dollar bills to have fun tonight(I love cheap thrills)"

Roots - Imagine Dragons

Roots - Imagine Dragons

Here we are!!! The big day has come, once again! Maybe I don't get as excited about concerts as I used to get, but still... it's been a while! And first times are always exciting, especially when you go listen to bands that you utterly loved in the last couple of years!
I'm also excited because we're re-creating the concert team of my first concert in Milan, that is Cranberries in early 2010 with my friends C. and E! Seems like a kind of circle is closing... I used the be the excited boy who just started university and was leaving his "big city" life alone and independently for the first time, but who hadn't bloomed yet and now I am practically a man (it sounds weird, yeah) who graduated, has been abroad alone multiple times, has already had his first job, his first resignation... practically a full grown-up! And that fact is, I still get so excited every time I come back to Milan... maybe because it's like I'm going back to my roots every time! Happy concert to us and to all of you who are watching or have watched Imagine Dragons live lately!!

Alive - Sia

Alive - Sia

I've been waiting for a while to post this song, as I wanted to post it with the official video. The official video came out today and I'm not a big fan of it. Ok, I know 'Chandelier' was hard to top, but I have been pretty disappointed with this new one. Then I found out there was a lyrics video I missed out, which I like way better than the one released today (and I'm not the only one on the big Y). Anyway I like this son and have big expectations for the whole new album, which is supposed to be released next January. The second song released recently out of it is quite good too, so let's keep it up for Sia!
Turning points.

Night swimmers - Foals

Night swimmers - Foals

For the second week in a row I went swimming on Wednesday, when the pool opens at 21.00 for free swimming, I'm still not sure I figured out the whole dinner thing well enough, today I ate a "late merenda" just before 7 when I got back from work and then ate dinner (+ okashi) afterwards, like until a few minutes ago. I guess I'm gonna have to stay up for a while still to get everything go down. Today was also our first day in the new office, which is way less worse than I expected! Tomorrow I'm gonna head to the HQ to talk about my situation, so I hope I'm gonna know something more about it soon. In the meantime I'll keep enjoying my night-swimmer life!

Mountain at my gates - Foals

Mountain at my gates - Foals

I'm so glad I haven't posted this song yet, as I can do it now! And today's the right day! I'm so in love with this one, even if I haven't listened to it too much so far. I can't wait for Foals' new album, as the material they released in advance is pretty good! And this one in particular, I'm in love with it and I get all turned up every time it starts playing! The video is very cool too, I suggest you should go watch it (and interact with it, most importantly)!! This song gives me a good charge, and it's just what I need on a gloomy and rainy monday that represented my going back to work after two weeks of summer vacation! I hope it can be of help to you too!

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..."

What went down - Foals

What went down - Foals

Hello my dear readers (or should I say sa-wad-dee-krap?), this year my sicknees feels like it's never going away, and I'm almost tired of feeling pissed, I'm moving towards resignation... I really don't know what's wrong with me and my getting temperatures all over the place when I travel by plane, I understand that the air in an aeroplane is not the best and healthiest around, but come on...! Yesterday I almost fainted during a factory visit, today I decided to stay in the hotel and rest, and even if my fever is not strong (in the mid 37s°C), I have been feeling an annoying headache and diffused malaise. I still don't know what I'm gonna be doing tomorrow, but I hope I can muster up my strength and go to work, as it is a pity to travel so far away and then waste time in the hotel... anyway, apart from my problems, I want to share with you the brand new song that Foals just released in anticipation of their new, coming album! What went down... for the time being, I went down! I hope that soon enough it's gonna be my illness to go down!

Ship to wreck - Florence + the Machine

Ship to wreck - Florence + the Machine

As you all know, I have been greatly anticipating Florence's new album for... well, for ages. When 'What kind of man' came out I wasn't exactly blown away, but I was quite excited and the song did grow in me, even not as much as most Flo's songs have done in the past. When I got to listen to a raw recording of a live where she performed a few of the new songs, I was quite blown away and couldn't wait for the album to come out! Then 'St. Jude' was released and that was quite a big disappointment, as I didn't love the song nearly as much as I did when I watched the live performance. So my expectations drastically plunged and 'Ship to wreck' came out! My judgement on it is still pending because I have only listened to it a few times, but I think it has the potential to become the best among the songs released up until now, after a few listens. It didn't make me scream for joy (yet), but I hope it will (soon)!!!
Listen to it and to the other songs posted on the blog on the Aprile 2015 playlist on Spotify!! Stream it here!

Snake eyes - Mumford & Sons

Snake eyes - Mumford & Sons

Finally!! Let me say: finally!! They have dropped their banjos and I was afraid their talent had also gone away with them, but thanks goodness it seems like I was wrong. Their second pre-new-album release (The wolf) was already a step in the right direction, but with this last release before the album goes out in a few weeks, they finally conquered me back and raised up again my interest! Ok, I've seen some people online commenting that this song sounds the same as many others by them, and I can agree with that. But when a song is so compelling and so distinctively peculiar of a band's style, well... being within that style is not always bad. Not at all in this case (especially if the alternative is that Believe-thingy).

Big girls cry - Sia

Big girls cry - Sia

Well... besides thanking Sia for writing amazing music, I have to be particularly grateful tonite because with the release of her brand new video, she took me away from the embarrassment of deciding which song to post! The official video for 'Big girls cry' features the usual "little Sia", Maddie Ziegler, but this time her dancing skills are not in the foreground, rather we see her moving and shaking before a black background. I'd say the video is nice because it keeps a coherent atmosphere with its predecessors from the '1000 forms of fear' album, but is not particularly cool or inspiring (to me) as Chandelier and Elastic heart were. Very good song anyway!

Too much time together - San Cisco

Too much time together - San Cisco

I've been exposed to a lot of new music in the last few years and I must admit that San Cisco are one of my favourite bands belonging to this category, I really connected with their music and I enjoy it quite a lot! After discovering them thanks to a 'Get lucky' cover posted on Fb by the olympic diver Matthew Mitcham (thanks Matthew!) I got interested in their music and I loved their EP and debut album!! Now they're on the verge of releasing their sophomore and a couple songs have already been out for a while. This is the brand new video for this 'Too much time together' that I just got to hear/watch and that I do love already!! Can't wait for the whole album!!

What kind of man - Florence + the Machine

Florence + the Machine

I've been waiting for this moment for YEARS! It's been since 2011 that Florence + the Machine haven't released a new album, that's before I even went to Canada, before I started my Master of Science, long before I went to England and about three times the time that passed since I've started this blog!! Just to get an idea about it...
Yes, she did release new music, mainly movie soundtracks and yes, I did see her live twice in 2012, but... an album is still an album, it's a whole different kind of story. After giving us hints and tracks in the last few weeks and days, today they FINALLY premiered the first track out of the new album, that's gonna be called 'How big, how blue, how beautiful' and that's coming out in June. They also premiered the video of it, and I must say that, even if it usually takes me a while to appreciate F+tM music (and maybe also because I know that), I am absolutely in love and not at all disappointed with this first piece of art they released! It's not really like the "typical" F+tM song (us such thing even exists), I takes you by surprise, both musically and also visually, it's raw, much rawer than the poised Ceremonials, but it's her, it's them, it's Florence and it's the Machine, and I love them especially when they're raw! Soo, while anticipating the album, let's enjoy the first new Florence + the Machine music since 2013!!! I hope you'll love it too!

Sedated - Hozier

Sedated - Hozier

Better not forget the good music I put in my playlist (and then almost paid no attention to, but it's always like this when I interrupt my daily routine, it's very hard to focus on new and current music)! One more Hozier song for you from Dominican Republic, where the colours are beautiful, the weather is warm and where I touched a stingray, swam through fish and on the coral reef (?), or so they say, and where the sunsets are... Caribbean! Really, beautiful colours!

Elastic heart - Sia

Elastic heart - Sia

Just a few days after I picked Elastic heart as my favourite song of 2014, Sia released for it an(other) awesome video with Maddie Ziegler and, this time, also Shia LaBoeuf. I already professed my love for this song more than once, so I don't think I need to say anything more about it, and the very fact that I picked it as my fav in a year which has been of great musical inspiration for me should be enough to tell you how much I care for it! The version of the song featured in this video is the one found on Sia's album '1000 forms of fear', while the one I posted last February (and my favourite, probably because it's the one I fell in love with) is the one featuring Diplo and The Weeknd, used in the Hunger Games: Catching Fire movie soundtrack. What more? I think you'll just love the video, I'd love to hear your interpretation of it so feel free to comment anywhere and start a discussion! Cheers!

Angel of small death and the codeine scene - Hozier

Angel of small death and the codeine
scene - Hozier

I've been listening to Hozier's album lately, after falling in love with his hit Take me to church back in the summer. The album is very pleasant and vibrant, I'm enjoying it more and more every time I listen to it, the songs are starting to stick in my mind, they are a good halfway between catchy and meaningful, I'm really really pleased! It's also an album that fits well this time of year, with me wandering around doing things, visiting grandparents, buying stuff, eating out, organizing xmas 'lunchers' (this year is pretty complicated!) and so... So, get ready to celebrate, whatever you believe in take this time of year to stay with the people that mean the most to you (I think I wrote that last year too....!) and try to find joy in it!
I chose this Angel of small death and the codeine scene, a great track that struck a chord (or two) in me already, the video I am attaching is a live official video, but it's so flawless you couldn't tell the difference between it and the recorded version on the album! Kudos!