Maria
In the cold and bustling October, I’m craving something soulful, simple and absolutely beautiful. That’s why this month I am especially enjoying listening to great oldies like Kiss (Forever is timeless – no pun intended – classic of power ballads), Ken Hensley (I Close My Eyes is my favorite), and The Guess Who (These Eyes and Laughing, if you want my opinion). But the lines I am constantly repeating in my head are from a relatively new song Give It Away by Tinsley Ellis, terrific blues musician from America:
“If you want love all the time
Give it away.”
And if you want to talk about something brand new, young, popular and British – with great pleasure I'm listening to the extraordinary melodic Lights Up by Harry Styles, the rhythm of which can make you soar above the Earth, and the lyrics – cause you to ask yourself some life-defining questions.
And just a warning, it’s better not to show this song’s music video to children (* _ *).
Anastasiia
It’s only today over lunch that I heard The Curse by Agnes Obel, but I’ve already fallen so deeply in love with it. The song and this particular performance is so hypnotic, enchanting, dream-like and hauntingly beautiful that it sends shivers down my spine and evokes so many emotions in me that it almost hurts. It’s exactly the kind of song to listen to in late October with its dark dawns, icy drizzle, and the overall atmosphere of melancholy.
Ethan
We’re in the middle of autumn and what better song to feel it than My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion by The Flaming Lips. A flock of birds sing to introduce the song. The lead singer announces autumn, and the inevitable death of the leaves as they fall. You may think it’s a somber song but it actually addresses a fundamental truth about life. The search for light and the rebirth we see in many stories and myths like the phoenix. However, not everything is darkness, the song represents hope in a bird that did not leave to the south but stayed with the main character through winter. Wayne Coyne, the lead singer, explained this song as the following: ”It’s like I’m on the top of a mountain singing some truth or some philosophical gibberish.” One of my favorite parts of the song is the solo. Before the song takes this uplifting attitude, it drives you into a rumbling explosion full of drifting synths, cymbals and a distorted guitar with an almost silent choir underneath, truly exorbitant.
“This one bird didn’t leave you
You can hear it as it flies
It’s not very loud but you can hear it if you try
So don't you believe them?
Yes it's true someday everything dies
We won't let that defeat us.”
Catherine
There is a brilliant young man I want to tell you about, a singer-songwriter and a multiinstrumentalist, whom I only discovered in January this year, but trust me when I say my life has never been the same since. His name is Jacob Collier and I am extremely pleased to introduce you to him if his name doesn’t ring a bell now. One rainy morning in the beginning of October I was hurrying to work when Hajanga came up on my music app - and I could barely keep my lips from stretching into a wide smile, my feet from bursting into a waltz and my eyes from filling up with happy tears. This song has got me through terribly long days, through loads of homework and the occasional autumnal melancholy. So, as the last lines tell me to, I am ‘giving away the things I know’ and wishing you the merriest of days full of Jacob’s harmonies.
P.S. Can you believe he’s recorded and produced not only this song but his whole first album in his room?
Anna
I can show you the world, shining, shimmering, splendid… A Whole New World from the soundtrack to Aladdin by Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott resonates with me this autumn as the world changes colors and I have the travel bug. I look forward to every place to blow my mind, come out in some unexpected light, to entice me with new flavors or let me sit quietly and enjoy. Now the only thing I’m missing is the magic carpet.
