(via Shutterstock) What, what, you say, you have yet more ornaments to place upon the tree? Why yes, yes I do; every year I tell myself I’ll stick to 9 or 10 new ones, just the best of the best and yet every year, 50 to 60, sometimes more make Continue Reading
Music
On 5th day of Christmas … I listened to A Christmas Album by Matthew Ifield
(courtesy EMI Australia) Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Matthew Ifield is an up-and-coming 18-year-old singer who has the gloriously lovely voice of an old soul. He brings his nuanced and warmly emotive vocals to full winning effect on A Christmas Album which comes the singer fervent love of the season. I Continue Reading
On 2nd day of Christmas … I listened to Seth MacFarlane & Liz Gillies’ We Wish You the Merriest
(courtesy Verve Records/Republic Records) Granted it’s not a hard and fast rule, but like so much else when it comes to Christmas, the music of the season is supposed to have buoyant joyfulness to it, as if all the weight of the past year, soaked in banality and adulthood and Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #100 – Christmas 2023 singles – Andrea + Virginia Bocelli, Michael Bolton + Mickey Guyton, One Republic, ASTN + DITA + Ingrid Andress … plus new Ingrid Michaelson song
(via Shutterstock) There are Christmas albums without number, and while it’s fun to listen to a whole roster of songs from one artist which bring the season musically alive, there’s also something rather wonderful about a song here or there which give a few minutes of magical joy before they Continue Reading
Ring in the festive season with Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas
(courtesy IMDb (c) AppleTV+) Christmas is an inherently exuberant time of the year. Whether you choose to lean into that exuberance is another matter entirely, but regards of whether you’re a tinsel addict or a Scrooge, there’s no escaping the fact that the most wonderful time of the year is Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more birthday songs #99: Retro favourites including “Pop Muzik”, “Born to Be Alive”, “I Eat Cannibals”, “Video Killed the Radio Star” and “Elaine” by ABBA
In my early years of discovering music in the 1970s, all I really listened to were the bands/artists my parents liked like The Seekers and Nana Mouskouri, and of course ABBA who were HUGE in Australia at the time. But then somewhere around disco bursting onto the scene, all kinds Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #98: Baby Queen, Cat Burns, Tom Walker, Bonnie McKee + Jade LeMac … and Eurovision 2024 update
(via Shutterstock) One of the lovely parts of life is that we set out expecting everything to be wonderful. Fuelled by the innate optimism of youth and free from the scars of bitter experience, we naturally assume, because why would we think otherwise, that life will be one long moment Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #97: Jantoje, Ukiyo + Maver, AJR, Grace & Moji and The Chainsmokers
(via Shutterstock) Creativity is often portrayed as a solo pursuit, something a lone soul in a cloistered ivory tower just for the love of creation alone. But the truth is that while letting yourself loose in your own passion and imagination can lead to all kinds of wondrously good things Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #96: Jacob Collier, almost monday, Peggy Gou, Dorian Electra + Jhariah … and Eurovision 2024 news!
(via Shutterstock) Music has the power to move us in ways that perhaps we don’t always understand. The really good stuff is near impossible to ignore or dismiss, and honestly why would you want to when it makes you feel so alive, and these five songs from a group of Continue Reading
Songs, songs and more songs #95: Calum Scott, Yuna, Lauren Mayberry, Fujii Kaze + Matilda Mann
(photo by Te NGuyen on Unsplash) Love may indeed make the world go around but it also has a profoundly impressive influence on the types of songs we get to hear. Case in point are these five gems from artists who know their way around a beautiful song, forging intimate Continue Reading