Music Monthly: February 2014

Well hello, music lovers! So... it seems that this monthly thing is not working out very well this year. Soon my only regular feature will be as regular as Ben Cook's "weekly" series Becoming YouTube, if you know what I mean ;) It's starting to worry me. I should probably seriously re-think the strategy of how I put these together, or I need to put Music Monthly to sleep completely. Just let it die quietly without anybody noticing... And then maybe I could focus on all the other music posts and general life things that I want to blog about... Tricky decision this. If you have any opinion on the matter or any blogging advice, please leave a comment below!

Now for a bit of time travel: let's talk about February. February seems to have been very exciting month for me. ... Wait haven't  I been saying that for the last 6 months? Somehow I manage to make my life feel very exciting and that's without having a job. Imagine the excitement if I had one... :D On to the music though: I'll be starting with a couple of well loved oldies and then moving on to some newer stuff...

If you have been following my recent (and I'm using the term "recent" very loosely) music-related posts, I'm sure I don't need to explain why this is here. The Everly Brothers. (If you don't know what I'm talking about and why I'm trying to make it sound so important, read here.) Here's one of my favourite songs of theirs, "Let It Be Me", in a very special rendition from their Reunion Concert in 1983. It just resonates beautifully with the two men getting back together. The atmosphere of the performance is so powerful and the way Phil watches his brother... Pardon me, I need to reach for a tissue.

On the 15th of February, it would have been the 90th birthday of Jiří Šlitr. Teaming up with Jiří Suchý he was part of the double act that revived Czech popular music in the 1960's and brought a breath of fresh air to our ears, musically as well as lyrically. Šlitr had a law degree, but he never practiced the profession. He was a piano player heart and soul. His shy nature and clumsy public speaking translated into comedic gold and contrasted with his incredible, although self-taught, piano playing. He co-wrote a number of hits that became notorious and generations of people have been singing them. We celebrate him with a sad smile on our faces. His untimely death in 1969 (at just 45) came as a surprise to everyone and to this day the circumstances of his departure remain unclear and mysterious. (He died of a gas poisoning, but it was never confirmed whether it was an accident or suicide.) The only thing that we can do in face of this unexplained tragedy is, in fact, carry on singing.

left: Jiří Šlitr (photo source); right: Šlitr & Suchý on the cover of one of their records

Taking into consideration that international readers won't be able to appreciate much of the witty and playful lyrics nor the ones where striking social criticism hides behind poetry, I have chosen a song, which you can appreciate musically. The duo wrote it for another singer, who made it a successful hit, then in a TV recital Šlitr had a go at performing the track. He delivered it beautifully. Precisely one beat behind the music :D which was the intention, of course, it was all a joke. Funny thing is, that when I was growing up, this was the version that I knew and I just accepted it and learned it this way, one beat behind. Great was my surprise later when I discover a different version where everything was so weirdly on time :D

This was a very pleasant discovery that I made while watching the BRIT Awards ceremony on 19th Feb. For the first time ever you could watch the whole ceremony live streamed online. Legally, across the world. Yipeee! Thank you very much, BRITs people and ITV and the internet! Right, so my discovery is the winner of the Critics Choice Award, Sam Smith. I realize that I have raved about a song he sings before (La La La), but I didn't really pay much attention to the name (though I did like the vocal very very much). But hearing a snippet of a song during the broadcast, I was compelled to look him up. Here is an acoustic version of "Lay Me Down" and I dare your jaws not to drop. His voice is out of this world, perfect! So far I haven't got past this track, but I will have to check out the rest of his work.

Here's something Irish, yet again. I had come across the song before, which is why when I heard it on Grey's Anatomy recently, I instantly felt connected and then had to look it up. It was no surprise to find out it's Kodaline (a band that I heard of through Hudson Taylor). The song is called "All I Want" and I just randomly find myself listening to it (and singing) on repeat for ever and ever. There's just something about it... it's hard to explain, but it grabs the inside of me and holds tight, so much it almost hurts... Here for your listening pleasure, a live acoustic version.

Coldplay are bringing out a new album in a couple of weeks, did you know that? And if we can judge by what we've heard from it so far, it is going to be very different from what we're used to hearing from Coldplay. If not very different, then it is at least a significat step elsewhere,...  I'm guessing the new direction will divide opinions. There will be people who hate it and then people who could never stand Coldplay's music and now they'll start to like this. See (i.e. listen) for yourself what you make of it. I like it.

There we are. Forgive me, if you can, for the 3 bloody weeks it took me to put this together and wish me luck in figuring out how to solve this situation. Do you like any of my music picks? Or tell me what caught your ears recently. I might need some inspiration for March :D