(via Shutterstock)
Life is fast … and noisy … and unceasing in its demands and challenges.
No news flashes there, of couse.
So, in amongst all the tumult and chaos and cacophony of everything seemingly happening all at once, we need moment, many moments in fact, where we just slow down, then stop and just ruminate on the world, and our place in it.
Or maybe we just stop with no agenda.
However we play it, having some to just chill, and to chill with some music, is a gift and hopefully these five tracks will give you the respite you need … now breathe in … and out …
“See You Soon” By Hollow Coves
(courtesy official Hollow Coves Facebook page)
Hailing from the sunny climes of the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, Hollow Coves is comprised of Matt Carins and Ryan Henderson.
Sporting a lushly beautiful folk style, theirs is music in which to happily and peacefully lose yourself; case in point being “See You Soon” is a remarkabley touching track that NETTWERK describes as embodying the “[the] pin-drop aura with chiming guitars and those glistening Gold Coast harmonies that Matt Carins and Ryan Henderson call their own”.
It speaks to how the bonds created between two people outlast the time in which they were formed and they don’t simply have to remain a thing of a very special slice of the past:
So you have made a new best friend somewhere in the world and you’ve shared so many great memories with them. Your time together comes to an end and you go your separate ways. Life gets busy and your communication together gets more and more distant. Eventually, you forget to ever contact them or call them but you always have moments in your life that remind you of them or the memories you shared together. This song is all about this feeling and trying to encourage the listener to reconnect with those people. Just send them a message or give them a call and see where they’re at. I’m sure they’d really appreciate it. (NETTWERK)
“Can’t Stop Me Now” by KAZIMI
(courtesy official KAZIMI Instagram page)
There’s a chilled urban edge to “Can’t Stop Me Now” which stands in glorious contrast to the city backdrop of NYC which fills the promo clip which fits neatly with the idea that sometimes finding peace is simply carving out your own quiet piece of it in the middle of the usual humdrum and busyness.
The song from the New York-based singer-songwriter, which is lifted off her debut album, River Run, out today, feels like a release of some kind which is precisely what the artist intends.
This song is like the light at the end of the tunnel. It is a joyous release that is playful yet fierce. It’s about getting to the other side of troubled waters and feeling that heady sense of relief. (Loud Women)
Channeling a Dido-eseque whimsicality, KAZIMI imparts an emotional intimacy to “Can’t Stop Me Now” which is perfectly suited to that interior sense that seizes us all to some extent when we finally slow down, sit down and let the world come to us instead of the other way round.
“breaking news” by flowerovlove
(courtesy official flowerovlove Instagram page)
Flowerovlove hails from South London and when she’s not posing in catwalks and in front of black-clad photoographers for Gucci, the 18-year-old “bedroom pop prodigy” is creating some truly unique music.
Take the lightly bouncy retro fun of “breaking news” which feels like a light and breezy cloud of musicality that wafts around you while imbuing wherever you are with a heady sense of loveliness and happiness which makes sense since it’s all about the giddy joys of being in love.
Following her 2022 EP A Mosh Pit in the Clouds (“… dreamy, roving guitar and hazy vocals”) and 2024’s singles “Love You” and “Coffee Shop”, “breaking news” is one of those songs that, in ways intagible and impossible to adequately and defintively explain, feels like love.
It’s an absolute slice of delicious joy that will put a smile on your face, have you skipping happily along and feeling maybe, just maybe, life is going to be pretty sweet, after all.
“The Girl That I Call Home” by Tears For Fears
(courtesy official Tears For Fears Facebook page)
One of my favourite things in the world is when a classic, or, UGH, heritage musical act releases new music and it recalls who they were in their usually much-loved heyday but also feels like something fresh and new and now.
Duran Duran and the Pet Shop Boys have done it more than once to brilliant effect, and now Tears For Fears (Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal), which formed in 1981 in Bath England and are known for iconic songs like “Mad World” and “Shout”, are bringing it home with the track “The Girl That I Call Home”.
As the title suggests, the songs is a love song to the glories of being in love and the way in which the person you love more than any other becomes the one who defines where you belong and not houses or a town.
It’s a beautiful, heartfelt song that, says Discover, uses “floating choirs, complex bass rhythms, and powerful drums and guitars [to] create an ethereal, mammoth soundscape”.
If ever a song captured how wonderful it feels to find a home and a cosy sense of truly belonging with someone, this is it.
“I Am” by Kalandra
(courtesy official Kalandra Facebook page)
If there’s a region that keeps producing interestingly idiosyncratic music that defies the usual paradigms of cookie cutter pop, it’s Scandinavia, and in particular, countries like Finland and Norway.
It’s toward Norway that we turn our attention this time, focusing on the progressive folk rock band, Kalandra (composed of four Norwegian and Sedish musicians), who bring a gloriously lovely ’70s vibe to their luxuriantly meditative song “I Am”.
It’s a real thing of beauty with its hauntingly thoughtful and emotionally resonant vocals, courtesy of singer-songwriter Katrine Stenbekk and its stridently ruminative guitar-driven music, thanks to Florian Döderlein Winter on guitar, Jogeir Daae Maeland, also on guitar, and Oskar Johnsen Rydh on drums (information courtesy of mukken).
Complete with an imaginative stop-motion clip which is all kinds of colourfully, whimsically wonderful, “I Am”, lifted off new album Frame of Mind” is a soul soothing and then stirring song that takes you to somewhere quite marvellously reflective and empowering.
MORE EUROVISION 2025 NEWS!
According to the very good people at Aussievision, there are currently 31 countries who have currently committed to performing at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2025. In addition,
Armenia, Australia, Croatia, Estonia, Ireland, Netherlands and Poland are likely to participate but haven’t yet formally said so publicly (while they had to have let the the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs the event, that they would take part by 15 September, they don’t have to make any statement to that effect just yet).
Given the events of 2024, which saw the Dutch entrant, Joost Klein, disqualified right before the grand final for allegations now dropped, with Swedish police citing lack of evidence, the Netherlands has yet to confirm they will turn up in Basel, pending ongoing discussions with the EBU. Countries that have definitely said they won’t be there are Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia. One bright spot is that Montenegro is back for the first time since 2022 when they competed with the song “Breathe”.
As far as Australia, this blogger’s home country, is concerned, SBS, the national broadcaster which coordinates our participation has released a statement to Aussievision, which essentially says we love Eurovision but can’t confirm anything about 2025 at the moment.