I love music – all kinds and at all times. It is the literally the soundtrack to my life, making my exercise sessions more bouncy, melodic and upbeat, my commutes feel almost fun (and that takes some doing!) and those times when the world seems a little (or a lot) Continue Reading
Music
On 9th day of Christmas … I listened to Debbie Gibson’s album Winterlicious
Put your own festive shine onto Christmas standards, honestly even new tracks you pen, is an often thankless task. Go too far towards what’s known and loved, and while you’ll likely end up with a perfectly pleasant collection of festive tracks, you’ll quickly get lost among the crush of retro Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #80: Christmas singles 2022 – Salem Ilese, Rachael & Vilray, Sigrid, Ingrid Michaelson & A Great Big World + Chord Overstreet
It’s almost Christmas people – like just two days to go woohoo! – and so, it seems fitting to end this year’s selection of songs I love with a selection of festive singles by artists who may not have an album but who have declared their love of the season Continue Reading
On 5th day of Christmas … I listened to the Estefan Family Christmas
The idea of a family recording a Christmas album, especially across multiple generations, is an enticing one since the season is, like many religious festivals, a communal one. This delightful idea finds perfectly warm and cosy form in the Estefan Family Christmas, the second Christmas album from the seven-time Grammy Continue Reading
On 2nd day of Christmas … I listened to Snow Waltz by Lindsey Stirling
Christmas is supposed to be a thousand good and wonderfully light-as-air, joyously uplifting things. And while it often is – all that tree trimming, laughing with friends and brightness of decoration can only make you feel like a million festive bucks – there are at times when the actuality may Continue Reading
It’s the Little Things … ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus knits with Sir Ian McKellen again for Christmas
Ever since ABBA released Voyage, their first album in 39 years last year, and with it the daintily beautiful and highly emotive loveliness that is “Little Things”, Christmas has felt a whole lot more Swedishly festive than it used to do. That delightful feeling of ABBA in the heart of Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #79: P!NK, Kinder, Forester, John Legend, UPSAHL + Eurovision 2023 update
DANCE! No, that is not a piece of passive-aggressive instruction giving; rather, it’s a joyful injunction to step away from the day-to-day, switch on some great upbeat music that speaks to your soul and just let loose. But which music to choose? What will bring about this soul-restorative escapist state Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #78: Sigrid, Amy Shark, Alok + Sigala + Ellie Goulding, LASTLINGS, Garbage + “Money Money Money”, the new ABBA lyric video
Laying your heart on the line is a hard thing to do. We might want to express the deepest, least-known parts of our love but we fear saying it wrong or being misunderstood and simply having all that honesty treated not in the way we intend. But these five artists, Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #77: Felix Jaehn & Ray Dalton, half•alive, Tove Lo, George Ezra, Aidan Bissett + Eurovision 2023 update!
Love is, most of the time, at least a buoyantly fizzy and wondrously good and uplifting thing. But as we all know, often from bitter experience, just because something is notionally wonderful doesn’t mean that’s how it’ll play out in real life; in fact, sometimes it feels like love is Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #76: Munan, Lupa J, Hayden James, Tegan and Sara Wongo + new ABBA lyric video “The Name of the Game”
Being emotionally honest is not a big thing in our society. Oh, all the Oprah moments and talk-show confessions might convince you sometimes that’s the case but the truth is that people put a great deal of effort into personal PR and convincing the world, whether in person or on Continue Reading