It might seem like a long wait until the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which takes place on 12-16 May, but truth be told, it’s just 135 days until the grand final! In a busy month for organisers, the first tranche of tickets went on sale, and surprise, surprise, completely sold Continue Reading
music
Download. Play. Dance. Sing. My 20 favourite songs of 2019
I have often wished that I could have a big bold The Truman Show-esque soundtrack playing through my life, a musical accompaniment that helps to make my life feel more spectacular, emotionally uplifted and just feel plain cool. But alas that isn’t possible, at least not in the notes flying Continue Reading
Merry pop culture Christmas to all … and to all a goodnight!
Merry Christmas from the 25th Century … and also from me! Thanks for a wonderful year of pop culture goodness and here’s to an even better year of books, movies, TV, graphic novels and songs in 2020! But wait … this is the most wonderful time of the year so Continue Reading
On 9th day of Christmas … I listened to The Holiday Sounds of Josh Rouse
When it comes to summoning up the sounds, and more pertinently for this review, the sounds of Christmas, there is an understandably heavy bias towards evoking the sensibilities of a cold and cosy northern hemisphere Christmas. Thanks most notably to the classic poem A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement Continue Reading
On 6th day of Christmas … I listened to Idina Menzel’s Christmas: A Season of Love
Recording a Christmas album may often like an invidious proposition. You are wedged, rather uncomfortably as if someone has crushed a whole tray of glass baubles into the cushion of your seat, betweem those who crave the same old same old big band sound that has, for better or worse, Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I listened to Lea Michele’s Christmas in the City
If you really want to set the mood for a Christmas album, then kicking off with “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” is pretty the best way to do it. Which is what Glee alum Lea Michele does on her third studio album, and first Christmas album, Christmas Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #20: Galantis + Dolly Parton, Bishop Briggs, Silver Sphere, Meduza, Becky Hill & Goodboys, Daughters of Noise! + Eurovision update
Working to your own vision can be powerful but so can joining forces with other likeminded creative souls. Just how powerful is made manifestly plain in these five songs from artists who have joined with others, either in songwriting or production, to craft pop songs that make their presence gloriously Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #19: Ekali, Tei Shi, Halsey, Emotional Oranges, Astrid S + #Eurovision update
We are within 40 days of Christmas, and while I love this season far more than any other – the tinsel tattoos are a giveaway (I don’t really have them but I should) – it can get ridiculously busy. Manically, hectically, crazily, brain-numbingly, soul-sappingly BUSY. The best antidote? Some chilled Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #18: Overcoats, Grimes & i_o, MUNA, girl in red, Opus Orange + Eurovision update
Music is good for the soul. Especially, truthful music that combines catchy melodies with lyrics that say something richly meaningful. Never has this been more apparent to me than when a loved one, especially a parent dies or is close to death – my mother is dying of ovarian cancer Continue Reading
I ain’t afraid of no Ghostbusters #Halloween light display!
Who ya gonna call?! If you’ve got ghosts, it’s no contest but if you want a brilliantly-calibrated, all-in immersive light display, give a shout out to Tom BetGeorge of Magical Light Shows who decorates his home in Tracy, California every year in absolutely spectacular fashion. He’s assembled a chorus of Continue Reading