Birthday!

I turn 17 today, so I thought I'd make a little update on how this has improved my musical life (or, you know, something like that). First off, my aunt and her husband sent me a happy birthday card from Iceland with puffins on and it immediately sent my thoughts in the direction of the The Sugarcubes' 'Birthday'. Lovely Icelandic pop, featuring a young Björk, who, as always, shows off her perfect vocal antics.
In other news, in the gifts area, I got five CDs - '( )' by Sigur Rós (more Iceland!), 'The Reminder' by Feist, 'Deep Cuts' by The Knife, 'Disintegration' by The Cure and 'The Beatles' by The Beatles (better known as the white album). Some of them records I've heard and wanted, but haven't bothered buying and some completely new and undiscovered. Quite a good mix, I think. Also, I finally got a gramophone - time to start my vinyl collection, I guess.

On a last note: a friend of mine has called me the dancing queen an awful lot over the years. ABBA are definitely a guilty pleasure of mine and now my age finally fits with the lyrics! so there you go:

Track of the day #3

Graham Coxon - 'In The Morning'

I haven't listened to Graham Coxon's solo stuff for a while, but on my last outing to Leicester Square's HMV just before flying home from London, I bought his latest album, 'The Spinning Top', and I'm liking it more and more. It is definitely a departure from the later albums - this record is quite far away from the garagerock of 'Love Travels At Illegal Speeds' and 'Happiness In Magazines' - instead, it takes a much more acoustic and laid back approach to things. I've liked Graham's solo records, but I find this record much more appealing in a way, in particular the eight and a half minutes long bliss of 'In The Morning'. It's so lovely and pretty, while still maintaining an edge - though I quite like the album as a whole, I just like this song so much that I'm tempted to have it on repeat. As soon as the summer weather (hopefully) returns, I'll be outside in shorts with a book and this filling my ears.

5 things I listen to at the moment

Chairlift - 'Chairlift'
I have yet to decide whether this is actually a really good record or just an album with some lovely, likeable tracks on it. I won the album on a Danish music website called Undertoner.dk and I don't think I would have bought it if I hadn't won it - but as it turns it, there are some tracks on I that cannot seem to get out of my head. 'Planet Health', 'Evident Utensil', 'Territory' and - my favourite, just for it's playful French vibe - 'Le Flying Saucer Hat' - are all quality eletropop tracks that make you want to dance all night long with some colourful drink in hand.


Patti Smith
When I was in London in May I went to Rough Trade and HMV and bought myself a big lovely pile of CDs. In HMV I finally found the first The Smiths album which I had been wanting for quite a while but had a hard time finding in my local record shop. In HMV, it was part of one of their '2 for £10' offer and I thought 'that's cheap, why not get an extra CD with it?' - at first I didn't find anything I really needed or had been looking for, so I did what I sometimes do when I feel like buying new music - I grabbed a classic, Patti Smith's 'Horses'. Before buying it I hadn't heard much of her work - if any - so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for it to be as good as I had heard it was. So when I got home I listened to it, the first few tracks and slowly realised just how good and powerfully raw it was. It's rock and roll with songs like 'Gloria', 'Free Money' and 'My Generation' (a quite fantastic The Who cover at the end). Then, on other tracks, especially the epic 'Birdland', I realised just how much of an impact Patti Smith has had on one of my favourite newer musicians, Regina Spektor. I have seen Patti mentioned as an influence a lot of times, but I wasn't exactly sure how Miss Spektor was influenced by Miss Smith - but when listening to especially the earlier Regina stuff on '11:11' and 'Songs', I can definitely hear a resemblance. But anyway, with Patti, I feel like I've got lots more to discover. Now I just know that 'Horses' is a fantastic record. Oh, and that lady's got one hell of a special (and recognizable) voice.


Florence And The Machine
Now, with this band, I almost feel like a proud mother watching her daughter growing up. I started listening to FATM about 19 months ago, when the amount of coverage of the band on the web and everywhere else was minimal - at that point Florence Welch and her ever-changing Machine hadn't released anything properly yet, but had some demos on their MySpace and other recordings floating around on the net that nowadays seem quite rare. Also, the Last.fm description said 'Born in a military tank in Ukraine, Florence eats nothing but tobacco. Rumours have it that she is to be adopted by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.' Over those many months that since have passed, Flo has been hyped just about everywhere - and this week she finally released her debut album, 'Lungs'. The reviews I've read have been mixed, but mostly positive, and as for my own opinion, I do think it's a very nice album. Sometimes I miss the rawness and simplicity of those old demos, but I'm trying to focus on the album as a different chapter in the FATM story, because nobody takes away those demos and if the album consisted only of old songs recorded exactly like they were, I doubt that I wouldn't be disappointed. The album definitely sounds produced, but not too produced. It's a new universe, and luckily Florence hasn't completely left her old one - my friend and I saw her play an acoustic Rough Trade instore last Monday when the album came out and it was quite simple and lovely, almost like in the old days.


Blur
Well, duh. The Blur gig in Hyde Park on July 3 last week was probably one of the wildest things I've experienced - 55.000 people gathered in a park, throwing bottles, being off their faces drunk, crushing each other while shouting 'WOOHOO' and 'PARKLIFE'. And still it was an absolutely brilliant gig. I managed to get quite close to the front, actually, in the middle when all four support bands played. Lovely atmosphere, friendly water-sharing crowd and pretty good support acts as well (though four might have been just one too many) , but then, when Blur actually came on stage, I think I managed to get through three songs before realising that I couldn't enjoy the gig if I couldn't stand still or breathe because of the amount of people going apeshit in the front. So I got pulled over the barrier and got out, found myself a more calm area to stand in and enjoyed the gig more than I thought I would be able to when having to watch it mostly on the big screens. Watching Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave, it was as if they'd never been apart, as if I'd never stopped having Blur as my favourite band - it was really, really damn good. I'm not fan of singalong gigs and I would have liked more of their newer material (my favourite album of theirs is '13'), but that night it just felt right and I sang along to every word I could remember while absolutely loving the fact that Blur were there on stage, playing together once again. And yes, I'm afraid I did shed a tiny little tear when the played 'The Universal' by the end.


My Brightest Diamond - 'Inside A Boy'
I'd heard the name mentioned a few times and my Last.fm profile had been recommending me My Brightest Diamond for a while before I actually got to hear any of the music. When I was in London in May, another one of my buys was the excellent compilation 'Dark Was The Night' and when listening to the first disc in the box I came across My Brightest Diamond's version of 'Feeling Good' and was pretty fascinated with what I heard. Big, dramatic, orchestral - and with a deep, soaring voice sealing the beautiful deal. I instantly knew that I had to check out what else this Bright Diamond woman had done. And so I did, checked the MySpace and fell in love with the video and track 'Inside A Boy' - it carries some of the same strengths as 'Feeling Good', but in a much more rocking and heavy way. And that voice - I adore Shara Worden's voice. After hearing that particular track I had the title stuck in my head for days without remembering how the song itself sounded - just the fact that it was a good song and that I needed to hear it again. So on my latest trip to London - I came home on Wednesday this week - I bought her to albums 'Bring Me The Workhorse' and 'A Thousand Shark's Teeth'. I just need to get over the gooodness of 'Inside A Boy' before I can really focus on whether the albums are quality or not.

Well, hullo again.

Woah, this is embarassing. I haven't written anything here for ages and ages - even though I might actually have had a lot to write about. I've been to those two gigs (Blur and Final Fantasy, both in London) I've been obsessed with over the last few months, I've heard lots of new albums, new bands, all kinds of new and old musical activities have filled my life with joy and happiness. I guess I've focused too much on just enjoying and experiencing the music around me to actually take the time to sit down and write about it. And, you know, when you haven't done something with a project like this for a long, long time - it does feel kind of weird trying to continue with it again. But music is still my passion, my favorite thing in the world - so now, when the summer is here, I feel like the time has come to try and get this blog thing going again, even if might only be for my own sake. So, over the coming few days I'll try to cover as much of the music that interests me at the moment as I can - and then we'll see what happens.