Thank the glitter-splattered moose in the sky (my deity of choice) for music. While I didn’t need an amazing soundtrack to cushion the harshness of a long train commute, it was pivotal to my morning exercise routine which, as the only time I was allowed out during COVID, became incredibly Continue Reading
Music
On 12th day of Christmas … I listened to I Dream of Christmas by Norah Jones
While it’s not necessarily the case for everyone, Christmas usually has the aura of an up close-and-personal holiday in which friends and family draw cheerily near, chestnuts roast on an open fire (Northern Hemisphere, at least; in the Southern, think a turkey on the Weber BBQ) and we can finally Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I listened to A Sentimental Christmas with Nat “King” Cole and Friends – Cole Classics Reimagined
It is possible for a Christmas album to actually feel like the season after which it is named? Almost as if Christmas has taken on some sort of gloriously heartwarming, reassuring form and come to us complete with all the love, happiness and hope of the season decanted into a Continue Reading
On 2nd day of Christmas … I listened to When Christmas Comes Around … by Kelly Clarkson
Coming back around for a second go at creating a warm-and-huggable Christmas vibe – her first festive record Wrapped in Red (2013) made quite the seasonal impression when it landed, anchored by that powerfully emotive voice and a gift for somehow sounding traditional and original all at once – powerhouse Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more Christmas songs: ABBA, Michael Bublé, Meghan Trainor, Gary Barlow Manchester Orchestra+ The Muppets get Animal-istically festive
Christmas music is wonderful. Granted it may wear thin when you’re in retail and listening to the same tracks day after tinsel-saturated day, but for a great many of us, music adds some extra whimsically charming, emotionally uplifting specialness to a season already brimming with a magical sense of hope Continue Reading
Already listening to Christmas music: Quick reviews of new albums by Josh Turner, Darren Criss and Kristin Chenoweth
It’s a question as old as time, or at least the festive season, anyway – when should you begin listening to Christmas music? There are some, of course, who will quite seriously question why you stopped at all, wholly convinced, and honestly after the hellscape of the last two years Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #60: UPSAHL, RÜFÜS DU SOL, Barrie, AURORA, Smile (feat. Robyn)
For the final song round-up of the year, it seemed only fitting and right, after the weight of a long and sad COVID-saturated year, to feature five songs that carry some element of hope with them. The way this hope is folded into the songs may not be conventional but Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #59: Child of the Parish, Little Boots, Annie, Akurei, Glass Animals + thoughts on #ABBA “Voyage”
COVID has done a number on us. We know it, our friends and family know it, and while I could be ascribing more sentience that is deserved, the virus knows it too. As we climb our way tentatively out of the hole the pandemic has dug for us, and start Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #58: Agnes, The Regrettes, iamnotshane, Running Touch, Flight Facilities (feat. BROODS) + new ABBA single + Eurovision 2022 update
What a year! So much pressure and exhaustion and dashed hopes and expectations as COVID once again trashed its way across normal life and left us wondering which way is up and what is time. Thankfully, while we have felt trapped in a prison not of our making, some very Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #57: Austen, Shallou, Yoste, Skylar Grey, Nina Nesbitt
Life, huh? Honestly, that’s a two-word phrase that has ricocheted through my mind over and over the last 18 months as one life-interrupting curveball after another has come screaming down the existential pike, adding to the already messily complicated business of living with a host of added things that I Continue Reading