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?!

#sundayrevival A whiter shade of pale - Annie Lennox

A whiter shade of pale - Annie Lennox

My goodness, I thought I had posted a couple days ago instead... it was just last month! Time is flying by so fast in these days!! I have finally moved to my new apartment, which is (potentially) quite nice, though there are still a few things that need to be put in order (by the landlord)...! In the last couple of days (or even more than a couple, I can't even tell now) I have been strolling around the city to get stuff for the house, and I'm quite good as of now, just missing a few things in the kitchen (cutlery and dishes mostly) to be finally ready for a serious food shopping and to put an end to eating out (which has going on for... almost a month now)!! Can't wait to do that, but then tomorrow is Monday and lectures are starting for real, so it's gonna be even harder to find the time to do everything! I'm doing my best but I'm feeling a bit worn out now, I would need some rest, while it's gonna get even harder in the near future I guess! Again, I'll keep it up and give it my best! Forgive me if I'm not taking good care of the blog as of now, I hope I'll be able to create my routine soon and to find time for it with more regularity. In the meanwhile enjoy this great cover by Annie Lennox which describes perfectly the colour of the Hong Kong sky 90% of the time I've been here!

#sundayrevival Somebody's down somebody's name - PJ Harvey

Somebody's down somebody's name -
PJ Harvey

Even if this is one of my favourite PJ songs, a b-side of the 'To bring you my love' era, I never really understood the meaning of its title. What does that mean? According to the lyrics, it would seem to me like somebody has been shot down, but what is somebody's name? Or is it something like somebody going under somebody's name? Well, I am utterly confused by that, but the music and other lyrics of the songs are so enchanting that I can't help feeling totally wrapped in its guitar loops each and every single time. Well, if any of you English mother-tongues (or else) can help me figure this one out, I'd be forever grateful!

Lewis (mistreated) - Radiohead

Lewis (mistreated) - Radiohead

I am really glad that I devoted some time to listening to the extra materials of Radiohead's 'The bends' too, even if I am not the biggest fan of the album. This song is part of my current playlist and I've felt connected with it lately, today in particular when I found it playing in my mind with a strength I didn't think possible. I understand it's way of telling me it wants its post here now, so I won't oppose in this gloomy and grey Monday, a placid and apathetic day that feels like the going down of a spring board, a low moment that comes before something great!

Fake plastic trees (acoustic) - Radiohead

Fake plastic trees (acoustic) - Radiohead

In these hours Radiohead have announced that they will embark on a world tour in the next few months, doing so in support of their forthcoming 9th album. I am lagging "just a little bit" behind, as I'm only going through with the CD2 of their second album, 'The bends'. Radiohead 2.2, while in real life they're almost at 9.1... well, I'll get there (sooner or later). I am glad I devoted a little more time the 'The bends' by listening to the extra material, even if I didn't go crazy for the album. I didn't go crazy for the extras either, but there are a few things here and there that made this effort worth it. This beautiful acoustic version of 'Fake plastic trees' is one of them.

#liveweek Mary Jane (Jagged Little Pill live) - Alanis Morissette

Mary Jane (JLP live) - Alanis Morissette

I couldn't leave Alanis out of this #liveweek of course! Hers has been my first "real" concert as an adult in 2008, and I still cherish the memories linked to that moment, what a great feeling...! The pick of today is one of the songs featured on her record-selling pop-rock debut 'Jagged little pill', which just turned 20 this year and has been re-released with demos and previously unreleased material. This is my mother's favourite album and the only musicassette we've had in the car for years and she's the one who "introduced" me to Alanis "for real", even though she's not a big music fan generally! Mary Jane is an awesome song and this live performance is astounding, you really can't miss it... I feel like going crazy together with the audience! It seems a good cherry on the pie of a nice couple of weeks I just spent in Milan, and tomorrow I'm gonna post the last liveweek entry from a little further away...! Stay tuned and stay curious!

On my way home - Enya

On my way home - Enya

Double Enya post! With this one-two I am finally putting an end for real to my time in Veneto (for now at least, never say never!) and I am all set to start the travel back home! After bringing in a couple cakes at work to celebrate my last day and saying goodbye to all the colleagues, I am now ready to stop by the main office to leave this very computer, cellphone and all the stuff I had been endowed with, and to head west.
I will just leave you (and Veneto, can't underline it often enough!) with a quote out of this song, which I think tells perfectly my story and my current feelings, as they are often the same when you put an end to a part of your life to go back home!

"On my way home I remember only good days.

On my way home I remember all the best days.

I'm on my way home I can remember every new day."

The bends - Radiohead

The bends - Radiohead

I am going on, slowly but I'm going on with my acculturation process of NIN and Radiohead! After getting through their sophomores, I'd say that this time it's a tie. NIN won the debut match, while it proved harder and harder for me to approach their subsequent music, which I finally have been able to somehow appreciate, while Radiohead have improved a bit from 'Pablo honey'... all in all it's a tie. I'm quite curious to listen to their respective third albums, even if I pretty much lost the push I had at the beginning, with other music that is sparking much more interest in me... anyway I won't go as far as saying there's nothing good for me there, rather... this is a quite good one!

#sundayrevival Thin line between love and hate - Annie Lennox

Thin line between love and hate -
Annie Lennox

My dear friend B., who I mentioned multiple times on the blog, is about to sing a song at an event with one of her singer friends and she wanted to sing something by Annie, so she asked me if I could suggest some song she could sing. In the end, I think she decided to cover something by the Beatles, but I ended up stuck with Annie for a few days anyway! And so, I am taking this chance to post yet another song out her (most beloved by me) cover album 'Medusa', which reminds me of my Easter 2012 in Toronto every time I listen to it. Can't wait to be back in that magic city (maybe not in winter!), for the time being I'll just cherish my memories and wish you a great end of the week!

Street spirit (fade out) - Radiohead

Street spirit (fade out) - Radiohead

Back to Italy once again, already fully immersed in this autumn weather that kills me each and every single time, physically and psychically... gosh, I wish I were back in the tropics... anyway I'm gonna be strong and have to deal with it for a good while at least. It's not all bad to be back, as I can get the chance to rest. Not that this makes me extremely happy, but I really need to recharge my batteries, after these last two very hard weeks and after an overall very tough year for me. I really need to take a break from this stressful life one way or another before it gets me down too badly. I don't wanna fade out from my own well-being like a spirit!

Bones - Radiohead

Bones - Radiohead

Today I have been to not one, not two but three medical visits! I took a day off work just for this, and it filled up my day (together with a refreshing session at the swimming pool)! First I had my knees checked, as they are hurting quite a bit lately, especially when I spend a lot of time in the car driving, and the result is that... I have to do another test to check better! Then I went to my doctor to get a paper for this other exam, and finally to get my heart checked again. Seems like it's working fine for now, but I still don't know if it has undergone a bacterial attack in the past few months... anyway, I hope I'll feel better in the coming months! You guys, be careful not to break your bones either!

#sundayrevival The rebels - The Cranberries

The rebels - The Cranberries

After the awesome Cyndi Lauper post on Friday (new +1s record, thank you guys, I'm so happy you're as happy as I am about marriage equality!!!), I hope I'll keep it up with another good post! Today some uni friends from Milan came to visit at my grandma's in the countryside, we had an awesome time with the pool and the sun and the company and everything, so great, it's so awesome to spend time with friends, makes you forget about what you would like not to think about (like going to work on a summer Monday or trying to understand what the f* is going wrong with your damn, old body) and enjoy life at the fullest! Concerning music, I wanna go back to what I told you on Friday, so I'm posting one of my old Cranberries favourites, a song that I haven't been listening to for more than 2 years and which lyrics I still know by heart...! "Seems like yesterday we were 16, we were the rebels of the rebel scene..." I've never been a rebellious, violent or politically involved / aggressive guy, but I like to think that I've always been thinking outside the schemes, in my own way, being weird in my own way (which meant even being mainstream, maybe when the people close to me didn't think I would be), which today is quite a rebellious approach to life methinks. So this song resonates with me, it always has resonated and even more today that I started working and I somehow miss those times when I had the whole summer free to enjoy... who knows? Maybe it's gonna happen again in the future! For the time being, I'm alright with getting the most from what I've got, which is always a good thing! Have a nice new week you all!

The memory of trees - Enya

The memory of trees - Enya

Due to the very annoying fever and general illness that has been affected me in this week in Thailand (in particular, but throughout the whole of 2015 actually), and the headaches deriving from it, I ended up listening to a lot (more) of Enya (than usual), and I must say that it works, her soothing music often helps me relax and feel less pain in my head. In turn, you have been seeing a lot of Enya on the blog, and my feeling is that for some time you're gonna keep seeing more of her! In the meanwhile let's all enjoy this beautiful instrumental piece of music, one of the first songs of Enya I loved, as it is included in her best-of 'Paint the sky with starts', her first album I started listening to! Hoping that you're feeling better than I do, I wish you a pleasant whatever-part-of-the-day-is-fitting (here in Thailand it's almost bed-time)! Cheers!

Send his love to me - PJ Harvey

Send his love to me - PJ Harvey

Thanks to Tom Breihan for reminding us that today is a very special day in terms of music anniversaries, i.e. one of PJ Harvey's most acclaimed and loved albums (my personal favourite!) turns 20 years old! To bring you my love is... well, as the very good article by Tom (read it here on Stereogum) points out, the album is unique in its genre, I couldn't think of anything to compare it with neither could I easily find adjectives to describe it. Well, I'll try. The first one that comes to my mind is 'intense', as the feelings it generates are... well, intense! The music is also intense, both when it is fast-paced, more "rocky" and when it is more subtle, "floated and sighed" to quote the article. This song, 'Send his love to me', which is probably my favourite (another point I share with Tom) together with the title track, is the perfect example of this, I can't do without dancing every time it plays when I'm alone in the house. Well, another word that could be used is 'alone', let me explain: personally I mostly enjoy listening to this album when I'm alone, both because none of the people close to me seem to like PJ and because... it's very personal to me, it's music that looks inside, that aims within. The third thing that I associate with TBYML, and it might not make any sense but that's how it is, is 'yoga', as this is the album I always, always listen to when I'm practicing yoga with the Wii Fit. Don't ask me why, but I seem to find my own balance better when I listen to it.
Well, I could go on forever praising this album; unfortunately I haven't been doing a very good job so far, as I haven't converted anyone to 'PJism' yet, but I'm not losing hope!! Anyway, happy birthday to one of the best and most underrated albums of the 90s decade!!

Carnival - The Cardigans

Carnival - The Cardigans

I have just come back from Venice, and today was the last day of Carnival, mardì gras! Being based so close to Venice it would've been a pity to miss it, and I'm happy I got the chance to go, even if just for a quick dinner and a couple drinks, as tomorrow we have to be at the training at 8.30 as usual! Thanks goodness a few friends from the training were planning stuff with friends of theirs and I happily joined them for a few hours! Even got a last-minute (quite nice) cat mask today during lunch-break (the perks of having a mall close by!), which is even more appropriate, today being the World Cat Day (or something like that)...! Anyway, I hope I'll get the chance to go to Venice again during daytime in the next few days, for now I'll just think about celebrating carnival, probably for the first time in my life!

Train in vain - Annie Lennox

Train in vain - Annie Lennox

This morning I drove down to Milan with my mum, I had to come down today and she needed to be here in the morning to sign her contract as a school director, so I woke up early to make the trip together. It's always hard picking music when some relatives are in the car, but last night the Annie Lennox idea came to my mind and it seemed a good one, it indeed worked! I am also training myself on a new song with the harmonica, Eurythmics' There must be an angel, so that is probably how I got the inspiration and the Lennox-mood! I think my favourite album of her solo career is Medusa, which is actually a collection of covers. Funny fact is that I ended up knowing many of the songs as sung by the original artists in other ways! Still love Annie's versions better most of the time!

To bring you my love - PJ Harvey

To bring you my love - PJ Harvey

Ok, it's time for another great great song. I know this post won't be popular, and I'm sorry, but it is the music I love and the whole point of this blog is for me to share the music I love! I've got to know PJ Harvey thanks to the guys of the Italian Alanis Morissette forum, who also got me close to Tori Amos (goodness bless them for your influence)! I have approached PJ in 2010 and something happened with her that doesn't normally happen when I approach new music: I liked her debut album instantly. She's the one I started to approach with a rigorous chronological order and I think this helped me appreciate her even more, given the great difference that exists between her albums... seeing her evolutionary path really helps you get the best out of her music. Together with her debut, Dry, my most favourite album of her is the one titled after this song. I've been growing a special link with this album, as I always (and I mean always) use it as soundtrack when I'm practicing yoga with Wii Fit: today I started doing yoga again after more than one year, and I also started to listen to this awesome album again. Most people don't like it, I know, and I wouldn't expect anyone to understand how it fits with yoga (I don't understand it myself), but... here it is, and I enjoy it immensely and that's what matters!

Paranoid and sunburnt medley (Rise up - 100 ways to be a good girl - Little baby swastikkka) - Skunk Anansie

Paranoid and sunburnt medley -
Skunk Anansie

Going on with the few songs worth posting from my recent playlists, tonight I want to feature Skin's band on the blog, as I have been recently listening to their debut album recently and well... I didn't really fall in love with it, but with time I came to like a few songs on it. It is really hard for me to pick one representative, as there is no one song that stood out among the ones featured on the album, so I decided... why not pick up a few of them? Let's experiment a bit with non-standard posting!


Rise up - this one is probably my favourite song on the album in terms of melody and music, so it deserves a mention here.

100 ways to be a good girl is the choice in terms of lyrics ("I know 100 ways to be a good girl, still I'm alone, I'm alone, I'm alone").

Little baby swastikkka lays a bit in between, it struck me because of the strength of the message it carries, and it is also musically catchy at one point.

Take me to the river - Annie Lennox

Take me to the river - Annie Lennox

Hello guys and girls! Our Dubrovnik holiday has finally completely set off and we started enjoying the local beauties and perks: yesterday we had a walk in the area close to our apartment towards the sea and I took a short bath in the sea, while today we had a small cruise to three small islands close to the city, the best of which is called Lopud. We enjoyed our time in one of the few sandy beaches of Croatia there and I bathed again. One issue of the whole trip is being the weather: after a sunny and exceedingly hot day yesterday, today we got quite crappy weather, which was ok in terms of survival but not best in terms of beauty... After a mixed start of the trip, rain started to pour down in small (and then bigger) drops, up to the point when we stopped enjoying the whole exploring thing. The worst part of it all is that according to the forecast we're gonna have 3 more crappy days from tomorrow to the end of our journey here, so no good news... let's hope that things are gonna turn for the best! We're not letting our spirits down anyway, we just came back from a very nice pizzeria where we ate very well and, while there, we got this song on the radio, which makes it a great occasion for me to post it here too! It's one of my favourites out her covers album Medusa, I'm sure you'll enjoy!

Don't let it bring you down - Neil Young + Annie Lennox

Don't let it bring you down -
Annie Lennox

Don't let it bring you down -
Annie Lennox

In this stormy thursday I'm starting to post a song outside from my playlist. Last night, after a weird day, I was having a bit of a sad moment and I went back to listen to some of my best songs of last year's playlists and I got (Neil Young's original version of) the song after a couple of others and it made perfect sense, especially regarding the thoughts that were crossing my mind.

Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning,

Just find someone who's turning and you will come around.

It made so much sense that I decided already I would post it and here it is! This morning I started listening to it again and then I reverted to Annie Lennox's cover and I ended up listening to her whole album Medusa. Thus I didn't know which version to post and, well... I'm posting them both! Choose the one you prefer or, even better, listen to them both!