Hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have, but I have it - Lana del Rey

Hope is a dangerous thing for
a woman like me to have, but
I have it - Lana del Rey

This song strikes a chord, especially in these days as I seem heavily immersed in nostalgic thoughts being back in Hong Kong after a while (and watching videos of strangers answer questions about their first loves, lost loves, painful life moments, etc.). I have spent a large part of my young adult years feeling a lack of something in my life, mostly in the domain of romantic relationships. As time passed and the situation didn't change, I went on to envision more and more realistically the possibility that I would spend my life without someone on my side, which left me distraught at first, but which I have learned to live with in a way that allowed me to still be serendipitous. My mind and approach to life have been shaped by these feelings to the point that I (still) have an instinctive, baseline tendency to consider myself as single, even when I am not. Be it when I listen to a song or relate to other people's stories and experiences, often I empathise with others' words and feelings and stories with a "I know what you feel, I'm in the same boat too!" attitude, to then realise it is actually not true. As I have been spending more and more time in relationships, this feeling has been slowly fading to the back of my mind, but sometimes still emerges. I used to think that my case was hopeless, but it wasn't. If I made it, you can make it too. Be it because you have had too many experiences and it seems that no one would wanna stick with you, or that you have barely had any experience and it seems that no one even wants to give you a chance, if you want to have someone on your side, don't give up! Someone is out there and you never know what life has planned for you. If you have no desire to have (just) one person next to you and the world seems to push back all the time to the socialised concept of the stable, monogamous relationship, don't give up! There are other people out there who feel in the same way. Either way, life changes and what we want changes. Sometimes we "change what we want" based on what is available to us, and sometimes this can be good, you can fins happiness where you didn't look for it. But be honest with your feelings and desires, and don't settle for something that doesn't really make you feel good about the present and about the future! It will be hard, but if you pick the good card from the deck, it will have been worth the wait 🙂. Don't give up on hope, even when it's painful to keep it. Hope is a dangerous thing to have for people like us, for people with our past. But we have it.

In my feelings - Lana del Rey

Countdown to 2019: -1 (but, well... Happy 2019!)

In my feelings - Lana del Rey

This last song comes in late (but it's still 2018 somewhere), and it's actually from 2017, so it's already 2 years old, but who cares! It took me a while to approach Lana's most recent album, but there were some hidden gems that I really came to appreciate in the past months. This song in particular really resonated with me for some events that happened in this 2018. I have been unapologetic for feeling all my (fu*king) feelings (like Lana), coming out of a relationship with communication problems in which I was the one who expressed all the feelings (maybe even too much), and especially realising I am living in a city surrounded by people who do not show (and claim not even to feel) their emotions, a fact which is starting to make me not feel at home in Hong Kong... Cultural differences are undeniable, and I left Italy as a "not-very-affectionate" person to end up in Hong Kong feeling like an emotional spinning top. I tried to find the middle way, but unsuccessfully so far, and I decided to indeed be feeling all my fuc*king feelings. Good ones, bad ones, I'd rather be alive than feel like a straight line on an ECG, even if being alive means facing problems, absoring negative events and emotions, and being emotionally unstable. I'm feeling all my fu*king feelings, and I'll keep doing so in 2019 too for sure. I wish you all a new year full of feelings (hopefully mostly good ones, but don't underestimate the bad ones, because they offer a much needed reference point for us to feel happy in other times) and of course of great music!

Cheers!

Lolita - Lana del Rey

"Kiss me in the D-A-R-K, dark tonite, D-A-R-K do it my way"

Lolita - Lana del Rey

I have finally been able to spend a few days outside HK just before going back home for the holidays, and the destination has been Singapore, which I should start calling the eternal second-best choice of my life: it was the second choice for my undergraduate exchange, but I ended up in Montréal; it was my second choice for the Master exchange, but I ended up admitted to Sydney (even if I didn't go in the end); it was the second choice after Toronto for my PhD and when I got admitted only there and in Hong Kong, I ended up picking HK anyway! It's really been a long time since I wanted to go there, and I must confess that, notwithstanding some perks (slightly better English and much nicer supermarkets than HK), I am quite satisfied with my choice. I spent quite a nice weekend anyway, and I am sharing with you what maybe has been the most meaningful soundtrack of it!

"Kiss me in the P-A-R-K tonite, P-A-R-K let them all say"

Hey lolita, hey!

#sundayrevival Radio - Lana del Rey

Radio - Lana del Rey

Hello my dear readers, another week has com to an end and it's time for a new sundayrevival post. Today it hardly feels like Sunday, as I have left with my parents for a couple days at the sea (who the hell leaves on Sunday? Only people who do smart vacations! Or people who look for good weather). The drive has not been too long, just over a couple of hours, but at one point I felt the need to enliven it with some music; in particular I had this song on my mind (goodness bless this inspired week and may it have more of them to come in the future!) and so I put on Lana's whole debut album (under her current art name). The trip has been more pleasant for sure after that! I hope this song can make your end of the week more enjoyable too!

Terrence loves you - Lana del Rey

Terrence loves you - Lana del Rey

On the one side I am tempted to ride the Bowie wave and share something of his in the day he left us; on the other side, I must confess I have never followed his music eagerly, I just know (and love) 'Heroes' and probably happened to crush into a couple of other songs of his. The importance of his legacy is undoubted and I am greatly grateful to him, if only indirectly for inspiring many of my favourite music composers, performers and so on. Never say never, maybe the day will come when I'll research into his discography, but for the time being I'll politely wave goodbye from the back of the crowd and go on with my life and with my blog. I don't know why, but lately I always end up posting Lana del Rey's music when events with worldwide resonance happen! Anyway, this is the last song of her (by now not so) new (anymore) album 'Honeymoon' that I really liked, it is a perfect post for me now and I hope you all enjoy it! Remember, the power of music is so strong that it lasts well after people who create it and share it leave this planet and most importantly it is reborn into new generations' singers! Let's be grateful and stay positive!

Swan song - Lana del Rey

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!

Federico

Burnt Norton (Interlude) - Lana del Rey

You might remember how I'm not a big fan of Lana's last work. I still retain my opinion, but this is another one of the few exceptions! I really like this short song, I love the lyrics (don't know if they're hers or if they're a quote from some piece of poetry or else; EDIT: yes, just found out they're from a work of T.S. Eliot called indeed 'Burnt Norton'), so tonite I'm leaving you with this!

"What might have been and what has been point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory down the passage which we did not take, towards the door we never opened, into the rose garden."

Art deco - Lana del Rey

Art deco - Lana del Rey

I must confess that I've been somewhat disappointed by 'Honeymoon'... it has always taken me quite a while to appreciate Lana's music, but some time has passed now, and her newest album still sounds like the b-side / bonus track / CD2 of  that masterpiece that 'Ultraviolence' is. The songs are generally ok, nothing is particularly bad, but nothing is particularly good either ('The blackest day' and maybe a couple more excluded)! What gets me even more frustrated is that I'm not even disliking the music, it just is leaving me pretty much indifferent, which is probably the worst. Anyway, something good (a little, but it's better than nothing) is coming out of it for me, maybe my problem is just that I'm so art deco!!

God knows I tried - Lana del Rey

God knows I tried - Lana del Rey

The awful news coming from Paris last night were not the reason I didn't post, actually I got the news from my grandfather while dining out with family and friends celebrating a birthday, after the usual long drive back home. The good news for me is that I am officially (going to be) unemployed (in a few weeks), and I really am happy about it, I need a break, I need to reassess everything, take a step back and have a fresh start for the new year. Goodness knows I tried to make this whole thing work, but I couldn't, and when you realise that, you know you just need to cut the rope. Back to Paris, I don't want to fall into clichés, even if I think I will whichever thing I say... I'll do my best. Among the many posts and pictures and stuff, the best thing I've read today is an article by a girl of Somali origin who was, to sum it up, claiming that the best thing we can do is to do our best and live normally, don't hate each other, don't answer to violence with violence and intolerance, to destroy the figurative and actual barriers among ourselves and to fight the violence with unity and peace. I agree, and I think that as EUROPE, we need to get closer and closer together, if we want to effectively be able to defend ourselves against this hatred and also to play a role in the geo-politics of the next (say) 50 years. My last, provocative comment refers to a picture I've seen on Facebook and immediately shared; quoting it, "don't pray for Paris, fight against hateful religious ideology." That's why I chose this song, as it mentions god (in a non-standard way) and as it relies on the meaning of doing our best, which is what we all need to do now!

The blackest day - Lana del Rey

The blackest day - Lana del Rey

Here I am, at the end of another work week, ready to undertake my 4-hour drive home. Then it's gonna be two weeks in Thailand and then... who knows? The situation at work has been, if possible, even more messed up and uncertian this last week, at least as far as my future is concerned. I don't know what will be of me, I will be flexible and ready to accept the path that my destiny has shaped for me. And then we'll see. In the meanwhile I'll keep enjoying some good music, and I'll keep sharing it with you all. Today I'm getting to post the first song out of Lana's new album since it has been released. After a couple of listens this is my favourite, and I think it actually kind of makes sense with my current situtation, even if I'm living it all with a perfect zen attitude, that is the main learning I've done in these past months!

Aviation - Lizzy Grant (aka Lana del Rey)

Aviation - Lizzy Grant

For the series 'Before they were famous', tonight we feature (again) miss Lizzy Grant a.k.a. Lana del Rey with her 2005 debut album 'Sirens'. The songs are practically all voice + guitar in a style that reminds a little bit the early Joni Mitchell and, well, the usual American country/folk/pop/rock female singer. I'm not saying that her current style is on the complete opposite of the music spectrum, but it's not next to this one either. All in all evolution is key, especially when you still haven't found success. I dare say that her vocals used to be better then (like in this song) than they are now, but well, she is composing great music today, more produced than her first songs for sure, that's her recipe for success and it works well, but it's always nice to go back and see how it all started. The songs are anyway greatly enjoyable, so it's quite a pleasant trip!!

Goodbye kiss - Lana del Rey

Goodbye kiss - Lana del Rey

You might remember that a few days ago, on Valentine's day, I posted the original version of this song by Kasabian. While I was looking for the official video of it (which I didn't find), I found out that Lana had recorded a cover of it in 2012. Curious about it, I went on to listen to it and have immediately been captured by its magic. The voice and style of Lana fit perfectly the lyrics and melody of the song, up to the point that one might think that it's a song of her own, should they not know the original version! I thus wanted to share this pearl with you to start the weekend in the best way possible!

I can fly - Lana del Rey

I can fly - Lana del Rey

Hello guys, sorry I disappeared for a couple of days but it's been crazy since I came back... I had to leave for Marrakech this morning with a friend but I had to cancel the trip due to a bad fever I got, the one that probably started on my flight back from America... It makes me very sad and angry, especially for my friend who had been anticipating this trip, but even if I was undecided until the last moment, I wouldn't have actually been in a condition to travel safely, also because I would've strained myself while I need to rest. It's a bit ironic to post this song from the Big Eyes movie soundtrack today, as I actually couldn't fly, but... I hope it can prove true to you!

Pretty when you cry - Lana del Rey

Pretty when you cry - Lana del Rey

Day 2 in Dominican Republic, actually day 1 of real full-time holiday as we arrived last night just in time for dinner! I am already emitting heat from all over my body, even if I just exposed my skin to the "sun" this morning and the weather was pretty cloudy and quickly changing, so not much exposure at all! And quite a bit of sun-cream too! I hope it's gonna be alright! My baggage is still lost somewhere around the world and the situation is getting hard with clothes and stuff (bring me my stuuuuuuff!!!!), I hope everything's gonna turn out fine! I've been listening to some last summer playlists on the beach and Lana's seemed a pretty fitting music for the context, so I also listened to her whole album Ultraviolence, which you know BY HEART by now (I hope you do, with all the posts I wrote about it!!). This is one of the few songs I love on it that I haven't posted already, and it finds its time and space here and now, hope you enjoy, bye bye!

#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!

Ultraviolence - Lana del Rey

Guess who is the singer featured in today's post? Wow, you're amazing! Not only that... it's also me being 'a bit' redundant. But, come on... it's a brand new video, it's the title track of what is probably gonna be my favourite album of the year, it's right on cue! The negative side is that I'm running out of Ultraviolence songs, the positive one is that it means I kinda posted almost all of them, at least all of the good ones! Back to the title track: it has been one of the first songs to find its way into me, together with the opening track and its predecessor on the album (Cruel world), which I have posted more than one month ago. Circumstances and loads of other (Lana and not Lana) songs I started to love in the meanwhile have brought me to not posting it until now, which (as I believe) has been a nice touch of destiny, as the official 'Ultra video' has been released yesterday. So, what better moment?

Ultraviolence - Lana del Rey

I love you the first time
I love you the last time
Yo soy la princesa
Comprende mis white lines?

Cause I'm your jazz singer
And you're my cult leader
I love you forever
I love you forever...




PS: I love the quite quote to 'Fucked my way up to the top' in the last refrain ("Lay me down tonight in my linen and curls, Lay me down tonight Riviera girls"), I think I subconsciously noticed it already but I took full conscience of it just now!

Old money - Lana del Rey

Old money - Lana del Rey

Hello there, my readers! Today I'm posting another song I got on my mind yesterday, and also another one whose lyrics made me think (and laugh a bit, especially thinking about a Facebook group...). The theme is quite the same as yesterday's, with Lana singing of a person ready to leave everything and run to the beloved one in every moment, a beloved one that doesn't seem to correspond the sentiment though... sad story.
[...]
So, the time has finally come for this song! The introduction here above, I had already written it a few days ago, when I ended up posting Video games. Of course today I'm late with posting again, I promise I'll do my best to improve under this point of view (but being in summer and having no restraints nor timetables, I tend to live my life at night...). This song has been growing in me on the sly until I started finding myself pleased and happy when it started and singing it as it went on, almost even without remembering its title and the lyrics. As mentioned already, the 'loving someone with no ifs and no buts' theme makes its appearance here once again, and maybe this is one good reason why I can relate to it and I ended up liking it... I think it actually went on to become one of my Ultraviolence favs, so I'm sure you're all gonna enjoy it!
PS: Another goal reached yesterday that I forgot to notice! We reached 300 posts with yesterday's and, well, thinking about it, the next hundred target is gonna happen after the first birthday of the blog! Sounds exciting, ain't it?

Video games - Lana del Rey

Video games - Lana del Rey

Funny story... I was about to post another Lana song, one that I thought about yesterday and then, after writing the first half of the post about it, I mentioned a purchase I made today and, well... I realised that Video games made much much more sense with the story of this post, so here it is! Down here is the second half of the supposed-to-be-another-song's post, other song which will be featured here soon, don't worry!
Well, to make the day and the post a bit happier I'll share with you the news that I bought a new baby! Yeah, you find them in supermarkets now! Jokes apart, I made my final purchase decision after a few weeks of thinking and, well, I brought home a PSP. Quite anachronistic, isn't it? Well, with loads of games selling at 10€ I couldn't resist... and now that I'm playing Tekken on mobile devices too, no one can stop me!

Florida kilos - Lana del Rey

Florida kilos - Lana del Rey

I wanted to post this yesterday already, but I didn't want all of these Lana posts too close to one another. This is the opening track of my new playlist I was mentioning in yesterday's post and I confess I've been getting quite addicted to this song, especially in the last couple of days. Today the invasion of the clouds has begun... actually it's not clouds, it's more what we call "cappa" here, this kind of high white haze that covers the sky, filters sunlight and increases humidity like crazy, creating a sorta greenhouse-effect. Well, thanks goodness I'm gonna leave tomorrow (even though the weather forecast for Croatia is not completely rosy), hopefully before the storm forecasted for here will rage out! It really is like being in Florida: heat, humidity, sun and tornados!

Brooklyn baby - Lana del Rey

Brooklyn Baby - Lana del Rey

Hello there! I am really enjoying my summer now! In the last 24 hours I have enjoyed the sunshine a lot! Since I came back from Amsterdam, I have placed myself on the lounger and have been sunbathing like crazy! My bathing-suit mark from Valencia had almost disappeared due to this shitty summer, so I need to get a little bit of colour! And it finally looks like I'm gonna be able to, at least for a few days before I leave for Croatia! And with sunbathing comes music of course: I was listening to Patti Smith yesterday when my parents asked for something more enjoyable and known to them, so I suggested Lana del Rey and they agreed and here we are! (That's a lie, I have been waiting to post this one for days, it's just that other songs came first!!)