This seems like the perfect song to close the year!
"I will never sing again and you won't work another day,
I will never sing again, with just one wave it goes away
It'll be our swan song..."
Swan song - Lana del Rey
Putting a closure to all the things that I don't wanna carry forward from this 2015 - a large part of Lana's new album being among those (not this song though) - I really feel like I'm singing the swan song! And what else can I say...? A lot of things actually. I think 2015 has been the year I had been waiting for since 2011, maybe sooner, under some point of view. I broke through many things I really needed to break through, I got a great, great year in music (the best of the last few), a new album by Florence + the Machine (last one was indeed in 2011), I started working (and finished already for now), understood one more path I don't wanna walk, possibly directing myself towards one I would like to walk, who knows if I'll get the chance to...! It's been the year I almost moved abroad for an indefinite period of time, but also the year I open the door of South East Asia for the first time. It's the year I started spending again much more time alone, travelling alone both for work (kind of alone) and for pleasure, and I must confess I didn't dislike a single bit of it. Yeah ok, apart from the going back and forth to Veneto and to Bangkok, and everything, but I didn't dislike being alone, I've had many things to do: the blog to take care of, Japanese studies to bring forward, TV series to watch and more...! Ironically 2015 has also been the year I got to know much more new people, most probably a lot of people that I will never see again in my life (many colleagues, all the people that travelled with me thanks to Blablacar and some other new acquaintances), so a lot of pretty superficial connections... is it normal? I think that at this point of my life it is, being out of school and not sticking to a job for too long, it's ok. All in all I think 2015 has been the year when I finally became an adult, and also the year I understood that being an adult mostly sucks, as I already suspected!! I guess Lana came to this same conclusion... "Why you work so hard when you could just be free?"
Anyway I'm ready to take it to the next level in 2016, or maybe I'll just be stuck or even go back... who knows? What I know is that I'm excited (and anxious and a little frightened, but let's focus on the excited part!) to face all the new challenges that will appear on my path and to discover a whole lot of new things and places and people! Happy 2016 to you all, I wish you the best. Cheers!
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!
To celebrate the first post of this 2015 (late, of course, it wouldn't be me otherwise!) I decided to go back one more year instead, back to 2013. I mean, it was not an explicit decision, but my inspiration took me back there. I was skimming through my library for other new year's day-themed songs (besides U2's New Year day, that I posted one year ago already), and I was not very hopeful to find any. One of them was actually on Dido's latest album (taking away her best of), but it was the song on the album I like the least, and I don't count myself among the big fans of the album, so... it wasn't the right one. But given that I was on topic already, why not post something else from there, something I like way better? Girl who got away is the track also giving the title to the album, and its lyrics sounded like a good message to start the year, maybe a bit revisited!
In this new year I'm carrying with me old hopes and resolves, whose realization I keep putting my faith in, but also a great excitement for a new chapter of my life, whatever and wherever it will be... I wanna meet more interesting people, keep in contact with the ones I met already, do new things and especially visit new places!
If only for 2015 I wanna be the boy who got away, the one who took on a new path, the young man who had to become a little wilder. If only for today I wanna be the girl who got away, the lover who really loved, the dancer who danced 'til the last dance.
It's the end of the year and I don't why this song got stuck in my head after lunch! Given that not only is a new day coming, but also a new year, it would make sense to use Celin Dion as my last post of the year! It's been somewhat funny, as after preparing liquorice gelato last night, just a few minutes ago I was making a mascarpone cream for pandoro to eat after midnight while listening to this song and, after it, to my May 2008 playlist that it was featured in. Moving from Eagly-Eye Cherry to Keane, from R.E.M. to Alanis Morissette... I figured that I was already listening to good music 6 years ago!! I didn't move too far away from my at-the-time favourites in terms of genre and singers, so here is one more proof that the year change is only nominal, but time goes by evenly...!
Yet, it wouldn't feel right to end the year without a little summary: for me 2014 has been the year I worked for the first time, the year I lived a few months in England, the year I travelled quite a bit around Europe and also, and maybe most importantly, the year I graduated, putting and end to my career as a student! Quite big things! I'm hoping for more exciting events to happen next year, as I will start working for real, getting money out of it (it's funny to think that the first money I "earned" stemmed out of this blog, just a few weeks ago!). For A song or two per day 2014 has been a very important year: I started the Google+ page of the blog, which helped me greatly increase my audience and my interaction with you guys, I started Pinterest (with limited success for now), I finally got recognized by Google and embedded in its systems, but it has also been the first full year I completed and the year I realized I was going through with this blog, that it was not going to slowly die out a few weeks or months after I started it. And that is mainly thanks to you all who are reading my posts, so a big thank you goes out to you all and I wish you the best for 2015 and all the time to come!!
No post again yesterday, I'm getting bad at fulfilling my duties as a blogger! Yesterday has been a sleep-day actually, I think I've passed more time in bed than out of it...! But, whatever... the new year has been underway for a few days now, but (at least here in Italy) for many people today is the first day of work after the holidays, so it's symbolically another "beginning of the year". To celebrate this I'll post something unusual for this blog, that is strictly related to the real new year's day. Let's get into some classical with the super traditional new year's day concert in Wien.
Hey guys, I hope you all started this new year in the best way possible! It strikes me to think that two years ago I was on my way to Montréal, ready to start my exchange semester, waiting for everything to change. It didn't happen, yet everything changed in a way that I was not expecting! Anyway, this revival moment brings me back to the post of today. I know I promised you a story yesterday, I will keep my promise as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow, but for today... well, enjoy a wonderful New Year's Day!
Hey guys! Last post of the year! This is one of my favourite songs out of (one of) my favourite new band of 2013, San Cisco, so it still makes perfect sense with the 2013 best project! Well, I still have another 2013-best song to tell you about, but I will do it tomorrow, as it also has a pretty entertaining story behind it! For the time being, enjoy San Cisco, enjoy new year's eve and happy 2014! See you next year!
