In what might well (have) be(en) my favourite album of 2018 (if it weren't for Florence, that is), Lykke Li changed gears again, towards a genre that's not really my cup of tea, but that I ended up greatly enjoying. This end-of-summer I had the "pleasure" of going through a tough breakup at a tough time of year, while busy with an exam I spent the whole summer preparing, getting cut off by the person I needed the most... it hasn't been easy, but surprisingly I breezed through things much more lightly that I throught I would. As I told many people, I was ok in a moment when I should've been running naked and screaming in the streets pulling my hair. I've had my fair share of "bad womanhood", as my special one did, and as we all do at times, I guess. No one's perfect and relationships are hard work, and it takes two to tango. And tango takes a lot of effort, energy and dedication. It happens that the dance stops working, but when the dancers stop respecting each other, things are really not ok, even when they need each other more than they know, as Lykke suggests. And then, to close the year beautifully, she gifted us with this beautiful acoustic version. Sounds like an appropriate end of an intense and heartfelt 2018.
You know, when you are guilty of something you often get that feeling that makes you try to stay away from everything related to your guilt and makes things even worse. It's not like it was/is my duty to post on this blog, but what happened to it, or better, what didn't happen to it (i.e. me not posting anymore) makes me feel bad, a little bit because of what it represented for me, a little bit for the (few) people that I hope I reached out to and entertained with my stories and especially "my" songs. Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and so it is for blogs. I tried to carry 'A song or two per day' on and on as much as I could, but at one point I lost the necessary motivation to carve 10-20 minutes (almost) every day to devote to it. Be it for (finally, yay!) being involved in a serious relationship, be it because the new school is eating out most of my "free time", be it... I don't know what other reasons, but it just happened that I slowly stopped posting. One thing I can reassure you about is that I haven't lost my passion for music, even if I haven't found a way to keep sharing it here! Rather, this 2017 has been a great year for new music, I am so excited about many of the new albums and songs that have been released! I have been (with my special one) at Lollapalooza Paris, seen a bunch of very nice gigs! Life goes on, I have been having a rough month: school gets more and more stressing, and however much I like doing a PhD and the road it is projecting me to, I often stop to wonder whether it's really worth the insane amount of stress and huge effort I am putting into it. Special one went to study abroad for a couple years, which makes things incredibly harder, so I'm having a bit of a tough time, hoping for things to be better in the future. Let's say I am in investment mode...! Music becomes even more important at these times, as it really is the one thing that brings me forward sometimes. So here I am, back on the blog. I just wanted to let you know I'm alive and well, notwithstanding the hardships of life, and that... well, you never know! I might pop up here every now and then and share something, if I find it in myself to write something else that is not academic thoughts..! I'll leave you with a brand new songs released by liv, the "super-group" founded last year by Lykke Li and a bunch of other Swedish famous singers and musicians. The song seems to come at a perfect time for me, so I hope it can help those of you who are also having it a bit rough lately! Wish you the best!!
I've been listening to Lykke Li a few times these past days, today I've listened to a new song released by one of her backing singers (Kiki), and I just found out that she had released another song under "liv" band a few months ago! It seemed appropriate to end this hectic and very tough week with her, especially with rich kids blues which kind of makes a lot of sense for me now. The next couple of weeks will probably be even worse, and I'm anxious already about all the things I'll have to do, but well, again... better to be too busy than too bored! Have a great new week!
Clockenflap has finally begun after a pretty busy week for me, so I wish I had a couple more days to recover in preparation of it, but you know... life goes its own way! Last night I enjoyed Sigur ros, even if I practically didn't know their music. The concert has been powerful and enjoyable, so it's been worth it. Today is the main dish for me, the main reason why I bought the ticket: Jose Gonzalez and London Grammar are awaited on the stage, and I can't wait any longer! I'm about to get out and enjoy, will tell you how it goes later, hoping it won't rain (too much)!!
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!!
I guess we all get one of those days every now and then, those days when you just feel like sh*t for no particular reason, but for a lot of particular reasons. Stress builds up, especially when you are just starting a new chapter of your life or when you are going through a particularly intense period. Even worse when these two things happen together. Add in the fact that you thought were through with your mid-youth crisis but well... you know that answers don't just fall from the sky and solve all of your problems at once. Anyway, I think I conveyed my malaise well enough! Then I go to take a walk and find myself doing yoga exercises in my favourite reading spot in the park nearby (the corner for old people to exercise), past midnight, Lykke Li in my earphones and voilà! Feeling sooo much better. Sometimes it's so easy... not to solve your problems. You never solve your problems (for good). What you need to do is to regain your balance, and I've managed to do that. For today. Thanks Wii Fit, thanks music (once more)!
I got to know him thanks to the Walter Mitty soundtrack, so it kind of made sense since the beginning that I would end up posting this at one point, didn't it? Well, anyway here it is! He's been probably the most influential musicians on my musical tastes in the last months/year, and I still have to get to the real beef of his solo career. He is also coming to Hong Kong for a festival in November, which I reeeeally hope I'm gonna attend! For the time being, I can just wish you all a great weekend!
My first real week of lectures has come to an end and it's been... well, not really what I expected nor what I came all the way here for. I guess I'll just have to grow my way around not being a regular student anymore and just being able to get rid of these quite useless burdens with the minimum effort possible so as to focus as much energy as possible on the real reason why I am here. Anyway that's kind of part of the whole process of learning and evolving, which I'm supposed to go through methinks. Still haven't decided how I'm gonna fill up my weekend, but given that I've come to the end of the Flash's and Arrow's past seasons, I'm gonna try and focus on useful things like cleaning up and/or exploring the city (weather permitting). Now let's just enjoy some José González to end this Friday night on a high note.
I have proclaimed my love for Junip's music quite a few times on this blog, and now I have moved to the solo work of the soul of the band, Mr. José González. I feel that this song is very Junip-like and of course I couldn't not like since the first listen. Plus, the storm is a concept that has been quite present in my life lately, which is the reason why I'm sharing this song with you now! Things here in Hong Kong are starting to fall into place step by step, but the adjustment process is not over yet (if there ever existed something like adjustment)! I am starting to create my daily routine and to identify my reference spots though, which is an incredibly important part of the settlement process for me, so things are definitely going in the right direction! Tomorrow and the day after I will have two lunch gatherings here in uni, and then the lectures will begin, so I guess that the intro-time is coming to an end. I hope I'm ready to start this new challenging adventure, sure enough I'm more ready than I was 2 weeks ago!
Do you tend to jump into situations head first or feet first? That's the question Junip are asking today and, well... personally I wouldn't know what to answer. I tend to be a very rational human being from time to time, but when it comes down to taking decisions, I mostly base my choices on guts rather than logical judgement. The few times I've tried to take important decisions rationally, I couldn't come to a straight answer and in the end I always relied on my feelings. Does this make me a head-first kind of person? Might as well be... and where I am now would just confirm that! Cheers from Abu Dhabi airport, where I am in transit!
I'm wishing you a great night from one of my favourite cities, which I have the pleasure to be in once again! I'm talking about Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. This time it is only a stop, part of a more comprehensive trip (which I've been wanting to undertake for quite a while), but I really do love it and I'm so very pleased to get the chance to spend some time in it again! I am also very happy to share with you what has been one of my absolute favourite songs in this beginning of 2016, once again a great tune by Junip. I hope you'll enjoy the combo!
Lately I have been having a lot of time (like, a lot) to think about my life, where it is going, how I am trying to shape my future, how to fill my present... of course I'm receiving a lot of pressure from society (i.e. my parents, my family, my friends and so on), as we are all, but at this time of my life in particular, being back at home after my first job experience went... not so well... I don't know, it's weird. I'm very, very happy that I got a plan sorted out and that, if everything's gonna go well, I'm gonna start a new path in September, so I can't even say or be told that I'm uselessly wasting my time. I'm just wai(s)ting my time! And I know it and I have thought about it and I have kind of made peace with myself, saying that I will do travels I've been wanting to do for quite a long time, and trying to use this time to do things that I won't have time to do in the next future or that I didn't do in the past. Yet these things are not so numerous or time-consuming, and I end up having loads of time that goes into TV series, movies, wasting time on the internet and so on. Plus, the less you do, the least productive you get; this is very true for me. I'm trying to keep it up and doing my best filling this time, but it hurts whenever people say that I'm wasting these months, acting like a "parasite" (my mother's words), because it's partly true, but it's also true that it doesn't make sense trying to invest my time into things that I know I won't pursue, as I already have my plans... All of this just to say, never forget that it's YOUR LIFE, it's YOUR CALL! Needless to say, this song has been stuck in my head for weeks!
As I've told you many times lately, I've been listening to a lot of new music in the last few weeks/months, but undoubtedly the best music, which has quickly entered the olympus of my favourite music (if such thing even exists), is Junip's. Some magic has happened, the right music coming at the right time, or maybe it's just great music that I was lucky enough to find out now. I don't know... it didn't happen often that some artist's lyrics really seem to speak your mind, and it mostly happened with Florence + the Machine and maybe Tori Amos to me (but I already told you that methinks), and it happened again with Junip, with a few songs of theirs, especially out of their latest album, released in 2013. This is the opening track of it, a track I've immediately grown fond of and that has already become one of my favourites. Give it a chance, and it will enter your own personal olympus too!!
Hey guys, this sunday I'm sharing with you one of the anthems of 1990s pop/soul music, which has also went on to become an anthem for women throughout the world! I really love this song by Neneh Cherry (whom I just found out is Swedish!) and it always brings me back instantly to the times when I was a little child (I was 6 when it came out) and it's a sweet and nostalgic feeling. I really like to go back and listen to songs that I remember from the old 90s, it is a listening experience that always has this special, magic aura of seeing again the world with a child's eyes for a few moments...! Do you also have any songs from your past that you love to go back and listen to from time to time?
I've been intensively listening to Junip in these past few days, but I don't feel like posting two songs of theirs in a row...! So I'm gonna go back to the last song I had among my drafts from two playlists ago (it sounds like ages ago, it's been maybe 2 weeks...), and this is Lykke Li (she's Swedish too in the end). This is a bonus song of her 'Youth novels' session, and that is probably my favourite album of hers. I can really relate to the lyrics of 'Everybody but me', as it doesn't happen seldom that I don't feel like doing things that many people do or think like most people. It's not a... necessity of being different, it's probably just that I don't really like to do things just to "belong" to a group, so I turn out to be the weird one more often than not. And then I do things most people don't, but that's another pair of sleeves (as we say in Italy)! Today for instance I bought tape to stick a couple of cork boards to the walls of my room. I've been having them around for years, one of them with all the most relevant tickets of my 4-month exchange in Montréal (and all the travels I made from there) and the other one, which I started filling out today, with concert tickets and public transport tickets (from cities I've been to) from 2013 onwards. I'm really happy I finally did hang those two girls, I've been meaning to for ages but never found the right moment!
When you have to close something, to put an end to something that's not making you feel good, you just gotta do it. Try to be fair and square, honest but resolute, and hopefully things will go better for all of the parties involved. I've had to say "that's enough" to things quite often in the last dew months and it's never an easy choice, realising (first) and then accepting that something is not making you better off and is not likely to even in the long term, taking the decision and (the hardest part), making it effective. That's the most difficult part when there are other people involved, but you gotta do what you gotta do, be it leaving a job, ending a relationship, saying goodbye to a place or else. Goodbyes and adieus are sad but inevitable, and even when you immediately feel happier and more relaxed, there's always this kind of melancholy that makes you sad for things not going the way you hoped for. That's exactly what this song is to me, the feeling it talks about and evokes.
As I placed my last CDs order on Amazon recently, I realised that I had on AutoRip (Amazon's service that gives you access to MP3 files of the albums you have bought and are going to be delivered to you) a few extra songs, bonus materials and b-sides that were missing in my library, so I immediately downloaded them. It was mainly music coming from Lykke Li's first two albums, and the songs are actually quite good!! I already added a couple of them to my current playlist (which I'm actually enjoying a lot!) and so I thought that you might want to give them a try to!
I'm closing in with Junip's debut album 'Fields' (for now) with this other pearl of a song. I really need some happiness and positive vibes today, as the day is as gloomy as can be: cold, rainy, hazy, monday, "depressy" and so on and so forth. I'm finally starting to feel the lack of purpose in my life after more than one month of "idleness" (idleness filled with winter holidays, travel, hanging out and other pleasant experiences). It's one of these limbo times and I wanna enjoy it, as I have the opportunity of doing things that I wouldn't be able to do while working or being else-how employed. My goodness, life is hard indeed, even when you have to decide how to enjoy it!
The year has almost come to an end and I wanna take a further chance to post music by what has been my favourite new discovery of 2015, i.e. Junip. After finally watching the Walter Mitty movie after people had been suggesting I should watch it for quite a while, I have been enchanted by their debut album 'Fields', both the album itself and the CD2, which practically consists of a couple of their previous EPs. I cannot recommend them enough, I can't wait to listen to their newer album released in 2013 and then finally start to approach Jose Gonzales's solo music. This last Junip post of 2015 is 'Without you', a beautiful, beautiful song off the CD1 of 'Fields'; I chose for you an astounding performance live on KEXP, so that I take another chance to thank the guys who work there and give us the opportunity to enjoy such great performances of live music! Go on and listen to it now, before it's too late!!!
