Music Monthly: September 2013

I am not even going to try and come up with an apology for this article being 2 weeks late. It just is. Deal with it :) Why not take a little mid-October brake from digging in the back of our closets, searching for where the heck are all the gloves and scarves and warm wolly sweaters, make yourself and nice cuppa of something warm and listen to a couple of songs I assembled last month. As always, it's a little bit of everything: mainstream, indie, folky... I hope you find something you like.

First up, yet again, Hudson Taylor. One more song and then I'll shut up about them. Haha, as if :D  First they would have to stop producing such lovely and heart warming music and that is unlikely. (New EP is out now, go get it on iTunes!) Anyway, this is about September and there was one song in particular that spoke to me more than the others. It's one of their oldies, from a couple of years back, and it's called "Concrete Walls". Sadly, I must say that a lot of the times I feel like this song very much grasps the nature of my life and how I feel about. This is not a pathetic attempt to provoke pity and sympathetic comments. I am simply describing what it feels like. Because there are times, recently there've been a bit too many times, when I have felt like I am trapped where I am and some mysterious evil power (which I may or may not be projecting into people around me) is keeping me locked up in my room and preventing me from going out and travelling and doing the things that I've always wanted to do. I am aware that this is probably not the objective truth about why my life is what it is... After all, this is my crazy head we're talking about and my head is well known for coming up with rubbish just to make me feel bad. Well, now I have a song to sing whenever this trapped and locked up mood hits me again. I can sing my lungs out and scream: "Get me out of this place!" And let's face it, everything in life is better if you have a song to go with it.

If you have been reading Music Monthly for a while, you won't be surprised to see this next band in here. It's Hurts and the song "Somebody To Die For". Let's face it, any time I hear a song of theirs I am blown away. I'm not exactly sure why, but I love the sound they make. It sounds a bit dark and mysterious to me... and I like that. Not to mention that Theo's vocal is to diiiiiiie for! See what I did there? ;) Oh, talking about mysteries... A peculiar thing happened the other day. I was, for some reason, researching Dylan Thomas on the internet and I came across one of his best known poems, which he wrote for his dying father and which starts "Do not go gentle into that good night"... Later that day, I was watching a music channel on tv, and this song came on, quite randomly. I decided that I really like it and then my jaw dropped at the very end of the track where, out of the blue, the very same poem by Dylan Thomas is quoted. Coincidence?

Moving on to something a little bit brighter and cheerier, here's some dancing for you. I mean it. The only reason I am putting this song in, is the music video and the dancing in it. The song itself: "Safe And Sound" by Capital Cities is... it's ok. It's not bad or anything, it's just average. But the music video, now that is something else! I've never seen anything like it! The special effects are amaaaaaaazing! Well first of all, it's a brilliant idea that all of these different styles of dancing and different dancers come together and join in one marvellous party of fun! Hats off to the people who made the video happen.

Remeber Bastille? Of course you do. I featrued them in April, when "Pompeii" was soaring high in the charts and it got them worldwide recognition and fame. Everybody loves Bastille, including me. And the great news is that I might actually be going to see them live next month, when they're here in Prague. It's not for certain yet, but I'm working on it and I'm super excited! I haven't been to a proper gig in ages. Also, from the videos I've seen, the quality of their live performances is unbeliavable! Sadly the way the music industry is today, is that you get overproduced records and albums and then hearing the artist perform live often leaves you disapointed. Well that seems not to be the case with Bastille. Their live performances are equally as precise and brilliant as the studio recordings, maybe even better. Wish me luck so that everything works out and I promise that if I go to the concert, you will be a getting a rather overexcited blog report afterwards. For now, let's listen to "Things We Lost In The Fire", the latest single from their debut album.

And now for the last one: I myself am surprised that I am putting this in. I caught a lot of hype online and on various radio stations about this new band - HAIM, an American rock band formed by 3 sisters. So I checked them out, listened to a couple of songs and it didn't speak to me. I wasn't impressed, touched or anything... So I thought I would leave it and happily forget about them. Well, that didn't happen. Because everybody else kept playing them, and this particular song that I'm giving you was haunting me and creeping up on me from everywhere. Turns out, that I like it now :) It was a grower. So I think I shall give the Haim sisters a second chance. Give it a listen (or a couple more) and tell me what you think. Here is "The Wire".

And that's for our mid-October flashback into September. What have you been listening to since the leaves are falling? Or do you plan on going to any gigs in the upcoming months? Let me know in the comments, I will be glad to read it :)

Wrap up warm, don't catch a cold and take care! xx