An cat dubh - U2

An cat dubh - U2

Last weekend the HMV branches of Hong Kong offered a bunch of sales on different categories of items, so I went to take a look (and of course bought [useless] things, among which one CD). U2's sophomore effort has been on my to-buy list for a while now and finally is no more. Probably related to that purchase, yesterday I woke up with their debut album on my mind, so I went on and listened to both of them during the day. I must confess that 'Boy' is among my favourite albums of them, most likely in the top 3, if not in the top 1! I always link the beautiful atmosphere of these songs to walking throughout lower Manhattan, as it was probably my soundtrack when I strolled there in 2011 during my second visit to New York. This song in particular always gives me that magical feeling in my guts that you only get when walking around Washington square park and Greenwich village. So I dedicate this post and what is probably my favourite U2 song to the magic of New York!

Little Amsterdam (live) - Tori Amos

Here we are! The day has finally come, I couldn't wait any longer! In a few hours I'm gonna be enjoying a (hopefully) great gig with my dear Tori and I must say I'm very excited about it (if ever you haven't noticed yet)!! She's been singing some of my favourites in the past dates and the new album is quite interesting too, so let's hope for a charming setlist!! Whoever has seen her live at least once or twice will know that her setlist is always very much different from one night to the next and this tour hasn't been different as of now, so fingers crossed! I am really at a loss now, wouldn't know exactly what to post... or maybe I do. Hoping that this will be a kind of lucky charm, I'm gonna post a song out of my favourite concert ever (too bad I was too young to experience it for real, but the videos are so powerful themselves!), that is the redhead's performance in New York for RAINN in early 1997. My suggestion for you is to go watch the whole thing), it's worth it! Happy concert (to me tonight and to you for whenever you're gonna go to your next one)!

Leaving New York - R.E.M.

Another milestone has been crossed in my long, long, never ending but super enjoyed music journey. Yesterday I finally finished listening to the whole discography of R.E.M. after more than 2 years since I started. It has been quite an interesting journey, one that sometimes has excited me a lot and some other times has bored me a little. I have anyway unforgettable memories that are tied to R.E.M. songs, the first one coming to my mind being my wandering in Boston a little less than a couple of years ago during a trip I took while doing my exchange in Montréal. Some other memories are more recent and some songs are rooted so deep in my (music) tastes that they have become an essential part of my (musical, but not only) baggage. Another factor that made the journey interesting is how it has been a super relevant part of a change in my way of approaching music: until 2010 I have practically been listening to one new "big" artist per year, while in 2011, when I was taking the same approach with Bjork and got kind of stuck, I started broadening my horizon and R.E.M., together maybe with U2 and, a little later, Patti Smith have been my main focus of the next couple of years. As I said already, I enjoyed every part of this journey, some parts more, some other less, but knowing that it has ended 

makes me a bit sad, especially because R.E.M. have disbanded themselves as a band just while I was 

Leaving New York - R.E.M.

through their discography, so this end feels kind of final. I really hope that they will be together again soon, at least for some live gigs, and to get the chance to see them perform live!

Anyway, all of this to celebrate my completion of their discography. Let me just spend a couple of words for the song though. Around the sun has been the last album I've been listening to, not one of my favourites I must say, but this song has always meant a lot to me, since actually when it came out. It has been one of the very first R.E.M. songs I fell in love with and, probably, the first one in my library. Its description of the sadness of saying goodbye to something that you love perfectly fits the occasion; moreover I have the feeling it is the one that pushed me to start this journey when I was listening to it just before leaving New York in April 2011. It all fits perfectly, doesn't it? Well, goodbye R.E.M., hope to get the chance to see you live soon!