I get obsessed with certain songs and bands and when I really like an album I tend to listen to nothing else for weeks on end. It becomes the soundtrack to my life, to so many tube and train journeys, runs along the nature trail, hours spent at my desk writing, and all the happy moments in between things when I have music playing in my ears.
Here are some of the songs that have accompanied me this year...
(N.B. The videos aren't all proper music videos - I've just included them so you can hear the songs. You can click on the names of the singer/bands to be transported to their websites)
January: Kim Boekbinder, Anyone at all
Kim Boekbinder is the Impossible Girl. She self-funded an album with money donated by her fans. She has pink hair and sprinkles sequins as she whirls around the world. Her music is built out of gorgeous layers of guitar and random objects and held together with the sweetness of her voice. I listened to it lots at the start of the year when the country was covered in snow, on trains that sped past fields and sleeping trees. whose empty branches formed perfect black lace silhouettes against the fading pale pink sunset sky...
February: Amanda Palmer, In my mind
One half of the Dresden dolls and a force of nature, that's Amanda Palmer. This song comes from her album of songs about Australia and New Zealand. Normally I like her better when she's bashing out angry/epic ballads on the piano, but there's something rather special about the simplicity of this ukelele song. I listened to this as I walked up the steep hill to my local library in the cold months of February, longing for spring to come and bring some sort of enlightenment with it...
April/May: Alela Diane, Man of many colours
Alela Diane has one of the most wonderful voices of this generation. She sort of yodels in a beautiful way, and her earlier albums were just simply her and a guitar. This spring she released her new album with a full band and the new songs have a different sort of upbeat lively confidence that is refreshing. I love this song the most. My man is a man of many colours too :) I listened to this as the leaves emerged on the tree branches and on Welsh hillsides and as I walked past gardens suddenley flowering back into life and at home, tap-tap-tapping my toes...
June/July: Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
I discovered Fleet Foxes somewhat late in the game. Their debut album has been out since 2008 and I didn't know about it until this Spring. Massive fail on my part. But that's ok because I have made up for it with abundance this spring/summer and I got the double whammy of two albums all at once. Their music is full of gorgeous harmonies, a wall of sound built up of so many ridiculous instruments and lyrical bliss. It's hard to pick a favourite song because I love them all and they really are an album band that require attention from start to finish - I just press 'play all' on my little mp3 player and then get whisked on a journey that takes me up and down through each and every song. But Helplessness Blues is probably one of my favourite songs. I have listened to this on every train ride I've been on since May, speeding through green fields, I danced to it the morning before I gave a conference paper in Ireland, twirling around my room with a happy carefree heart, I didn't hear this song at Glastonbury because they didn't play it but I sure did sing my heart out and dance like a fool to all the other ones, and then when I got home and unpacked all my muddy belongings I played this song loud to drown out my post-festival blues....
August: Bon Iver, Calgary
I loved Bon Iver two years ago when their debut album For Emma, forever ago came out. Songs like Skinny Love remind me of twirling round and round, dancing by myself in the hazy light on early summer days, feeling full of hope in that way that only seems possible in early summer when the world is about to burst back into life. That whole album was written about a breakup and is therefore chockablock full of nostalgia and beautiful sadness. So they had a lot to live up to with their second album and to be honest I wasn't really that bothered about hearing it, fearing I'd be letdown. But I've been listening to it on repeat in the background as I work on the latest chapter of my thesis: that is not really listening but letting the unknown melodies hum along as I try and write something profound (ha!). I can't listen to things I know all the words of when I write because it's too distracting, so this new album has been perfect. Initially I wasn't too keen on a lot of it, as it has some weird synthy noises going on, but every time this song comes round I pause for a few moments and listen to it. And then the other day it suddenly started pouring with rain after a sticky humid morning that was weighing down on me and I got up and opened the window and held out my hand to catch raindrops as this song started up and it was perfect... the Bon Iver happy/sad nostalgia fix of old. I might even have twirled...
August onwards: Laura Marling, Sophia
I'm really excited about Laura Marling's new album. It's coming out in a few weeks time and this is the first new single from it. I've been blasting this out a fair amount over the last few weeks getting excited about seeing her in concert in October :) She is really amazing live - even bringing a tear to my eye when I saw her at Glastonbury. I love the way this one builds from something so small and quiet into such a powerful song. I don't have a particular memory associated to this song yet, but I'm quite excited to watch the leaves change colour and drift to the floor (where I can kick them into a colourful flurry) and see my breath puff out in the cold morning air, and wear warm cardigans and sip warm vegetable soup all the while listening to this song....
What songs have been the soundtrack to your life lately? Share a gem with me if you will...
x
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