Take off your shoes. Sit a spell. Kick back and let your mind wander to things big and small. Or if you’re the five artists featured in this week’s post, ponder the many and varied ways life happens to us and how beautifully and profoundly they can be expressed. Whether Continue Reading
music
Songs, songs and more songs #16: Dizzy Fae, DUCKWRTH, Soaky Siren, Dillon Francis, Bombay Bicycle Club + Eurovision 2020 update
Great songs are often, though not always, a beguiling mix of insightful, meaningful lyrics and a great supremely-catchy melody. All five of the songs in this week’s post fit the bill and then some, reflecting the fact that while you can capture ears easily enough with an irresistible melody, capturing Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #15: Aisle, Jhay Cortez + KAROL G + Haze, Estherlivia, Whosah, Haute + Eurovision 2020 host city
We’re zipping around the world with this instalment of Songs, songs and more songs, racing from Denmark to Puerto Rico and Colombia back to Sweden before touching down in the USA and then France. Some serious figurative frequent flier miles clocking up there. One thing that becomes clear with all Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: Aligned with the Sleeveface project
SNAPSHOTSleeveface is an amusing participatory photo project in which people from all over the world strategically pose with matching album covers, creating the illusion that the original picture is complete. The photos bring the inert photo to life, much in the same way that has been done with books and Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #14: DIIV, Blood Orange, Kongos, The 1975, Bat For Lashes + most iconic Eurovision opening acts
Distinctive musical artists are such a joy. Standing apart from the crowd, and possessed of a sensibility that doesn’t march in lockstep with the unthinking mainstream, they offer incisive thoughtful insights, interesting melodies and a sense of uniqueness that makes their songs truly something to savour. These five artists epitomise Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #13: Demob Happy, TR/ST, Mabel and Jax Jones, Oliver Tree and Whethan, Zak Downtown
Feeling things deeply Feeling things deeply can be hard but it can also be amazing. For all the dark and awful feelings that weigh down the soul, there are those moments that elevate it, that send it soaring, the duality representative of life in all its contrary, messy glory. These Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #12: Avicii, Agnes, Lil Nas X, bülow, Au/Ra + Eurovision 2020 update
If you’re paying attention, and not everyone does, life has some pretty big lessons to teach us. Whether it’s stepping away from the manic fray when you’re existentially on the edge or wanting to let loose but not sure now is the time to do it because of the people Continue Reading
Christmas in July ’70s festive songs: Paul McCartney, Slade, Wizzard
INTRO “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney No need to introduce Paul McCartney, an artist who has found success in every decade of his artistic working life, not least, of course, with The Beatles. But it’s his Christmas song as part of Wings, “Wonderful Christmastime”, that long captured my festively-inclined heart Continue Reading
Christmas in July … listening to Christmas With Friends by india.arie and Joe Sample
If Christmas ever gave you a great big gorgeous warm and fuzzy chestnuts roasting over an open fire Family all around you hug, it would sound a lot like India Arie’s Christmas album, Christmas With Friends. Released in 2015, this is a lush, masterfully-arranged album thta captures the intangible sound Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #11: Florist, Cross Record, Dominic Fike, Gashi, Slenderbodies
It’s tempting to think of pop music as throwaway music that entertains briefly, shimmers and shines for a moment before ebbing away into nothingness. That’s not true, of course, but nowhere is this better illustrated than in the artistic efforts of the following five artists who blend sparse, elegantly-beautiful melodies Continue Reading