The best songs, the ones that really lodge themselves deep in the very heart of who we are, and to which we return whenever we need to feel something, really feel something again, are those that combine great music, meaningful lyrics and a sense of personal investment by the artist. Continue Reading
Music
Songs, songs and more songs #35: Billie Eilish, Sylvan Esso, 070 Shake, joan, Emily Burns
Love, life and the universe can be profoundly exhausting. That doesn’t mean it’s awful or negative, though it can be; simply that on any given day or week we can be pushed and pulled in all kinds of exhausting directions, making figuring out which way is up a real issue. Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs: My current 5 fave video clips – Rejjie Snow, Jessie Ware, Astrid S, Reyko, Paradis + #Eurovision update
Video clips are a brilliant way to promote a song. If the artist can’t be where you are, and let’s face it that’s more often the case than not given the burdensome constraints of corporeality, they are the perfect means of bringing the artist to you. Not at all video Continue Reading
Weekend pop art: You’re never too old to recreate an iconic album cover
SNAPSHOTThe photography project – recreating Classic Album covers, with the Residents and Carers has raised awareness globally but with no funds for the home which was my original intention. Elderly people will remain in lockdown for a long time, and I want to make their time as happy and full Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #34: Tei Shi, Glass Animals, Jordana, Ella Vos, Ralph Castelli
There is a real art to expressing what you feel in a song. Unless you plan to write a magnificent, hours-long opus, which to be fair is unlikely to gain you too many listeners (except those of The Atlantic-reading ilk), you are usually limited to 3 to 5 minutes of, Continue Reading
Retro movie review: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
“Be excellent to each other.” “Party on dudes!” You may not think those two pieces of California stoner dude life advice would be sufficiently worldchanging in scope or intent to form the basis of a future Utopian society but then you are not Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) or Bill Continue Reading
Movie review: Tenet
On the surface, time might seem a beguilingly simple concept. There is a past, a present and future and all things being equal, and an enormously talented and imaginative British-American film director not being involved, time moves forward, quickly and smartly, one event leading reasonably sequentially to another. Nice and Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #33: Cut Copy, Jónsi, River Boy, Myd, Motez + #Eurovision update
Feeling alone? Goofy? thoughtful? Out of control? In love but fearful? Yep, that’s a lot of emotional states coming together all at once but then this is a big messy, emotionally jumbled up year so it all fits together. Even more so, when you listen to these five talented artists Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #32: Reyko, Jany Green, No Joy, Marshmello, Idolising Nova + Eurovision news
LOVE! It exciting and scary at the beginning, glorious in the middle and poignantly sad at the end (let’s try to avoid that shall we?) but it always, ALWAYS makes for great music. Such as the five songs below, three of which were found by this reviewer thanks to YouTube Continue Reading
Take an animated trip through history – the history of cartoon music
SNAPSHOTThe evolution of cartoon music from 1928 to the present day. Many of the cartoons and animes started as comic and mangás. (synopsis via Laughing Squid) Cartoons, like any visual medium, benefit beautifully from well-judged, mood, humour and narrative-inducing music. One person who appreciates this more than most is pianist Continue Reading