Tag Archives: Music

Erasure Binge

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After hearing Erasure on the radio yesterday morning I embarked on a major Erasure binge via the wonderful Spotify. What started this was the pure emotional response to hearing Sometimes being played – it took me back in a moment to sitting in the sunshine at Sandown on the Isle of Wight at a Radio 1 Roadshow. It was just about the coolest thing I EVER did as a child/teen. I was not the most hip and happening girl, as I may have mentioned before – I was quiet, a bit of a swot and not at all fashionable. So going to a Radio 1 Roadshow (first and only one for me) while on holiday in the Isle of Wight was the most amazing thing. Me & my sister had a great time as I remember … I believe it was Gary Davies … remember the jingle? “Oooh Gary Davies, oooh Gary Davies, oooh Gary Davies, on my ra-a-di-o!” … and Bits & Pieces! Anyone remember that? They’d play a load of snippets of songs and you had to try and identify them.

So I started listening to Erasure tracks … started with their 1989 album “Wild!” which was the one I had on tape back then when I was sweet 16. Funny feeling listening to it – really quite emotional! Took me back. Feeling like I was 16 again. I listened to this album over and over and over on my tape walkman. Loved it so much. But I’d forgotten. Now listening to it again – it rushes back. The power of music!

Grumpy but Grateful

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I’m having a grumpy day today. At times like these it’s important to pick out things to be grateful for and be happy about and not dwell on the stuff that makes you grumpy. Well that’s the theory. Not sure I’m any good at putting it into practice.

So here is an attempt at a list of some things to be thankful for today:

  1. Music – I have been soothed by it today – in particular, Sting, this evening
  2. My job – I have one – it may be frustrating at times, but I have one, and generally speaking I  like my job very much indeed.
  3. Enthusiastic users – related to point 2 … when I train people who are keen and enthusiastic, it is very rewarding
  4. Beauty – even when grumpy it is possible to appreciate beauty … like dreamy photographs changing my opinion of Weston Super Mud :)
  5. My children – especially when they come and hug me for no particular reason and tell me I’m the best Mummy anyone could have (even if I don’t believe them!)
  6. Chocolate – I just have to be grateful for chocolate – what would we do without it?!
  7. Books – I can go and lose myself in a book (on my lovely kindle) and the world will fall away :)
  8. Tea – it makes everything better :)

Actually it turned out to be quite a good list :)

Musicality

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I love music. Fact. Now as a getting on towards 40 year old though, my tastes are far more eclectic than ever. I used to have something of a chameleon tendency with music … by which I mean I would pick up on other people’s tastes and adopt them as my own. I remember years and years ago way back when I started Uni, there was this boy I liked, and he loved REM … so naturally (well, naturally for me, maybe others are different) I developed an interest in REM. After a while it felt totally like it was my own musical tastes that had led me there, but I suspect not … the same thing happened with future boyfriends. I remember a long phase of Deacon Blue appreciation which developed from one particular boyfriend waaaay back! Anyway, my point, if I had one, was that nowadays I am rediscovering my own tastes, no one else’s. This is kind of related to yesterday’s post where I mentioned rediscovering myself and old hobbies – in the last year or so I have really got back into music in a big way after years of mainly just listening to the radio and occasionally buying CDs. This time it’s not a band or musical genre adopted from a person I like – this time it’s truly my tastes. The great thing these days is the ease with which you can discover new music and find out what you like. I’ve mentioned Spotify before, and I have to mention it again – I love it! I’m a Spotify Premium member and that way I don’t get the adverts, but get all the pleasure of listening to a massive catalogue of music of many different styles. I check out related artists to ones that I know I like, listen to bands that get interesting reviews in Q Magazine, try out music that friends recommend, and listen to other people’s playlists. The result being I discover tons of new music that I’d otherwise have never heard. There’s so much out there! Clearly I don’t like it all, but there’s an awful lot of stuff out there that I do like, and I’m so glad I live in an age where it’s so easy to find and listen to music. After all, what would life be without it? Sitting back and listening to music is bliss – relaxing maybe, or uplifting, making you want to get up and dance, making you cry, or just bringing pure pleasure of beautiful harmonies or the perfect hook.

Oh and if you’re interesting in webby musicy things there’s also last.fm which is also fab for discovering new music you might like and you can keep a record of what you’re listening to using a thing called scrobbling.

If you want to vist me on Spotify or Last.fm there’s links over to the right in the menu bar – feel free to drop by :)

Discovering New Music

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I love music, I love Spotify, and I love Q Magazine … so this is why I have been publishing Spotify playlists of Q50s for the last few months. Basically each month, Q Magazine publishes a list of the “Q Magazine’s 50 Essential Tracks to download”, which is full of new (and sometimes old) interesting and good music. I really enjoy listening to the tracks and often it leads me to listen to a whole album by someone I’ve never heard of before. Great way to discover new music. So anyway, for the last few months I’ve been making a Spotify playlist for each Q50 and sharing it on ShareMyPlaylists.com.

If you’re interested these are my playlists on ShareMyPlaylists.com

My profile on there allows you to see any other playlists I have up there at the moment.

Also on ShareMyPlaylists.com, iamnottheenemy puts up his own playlists monthly which I also really enjoy – his latest is The Soundtrack to May 2010.

If you’re interested in discovering new music, other options are last.fm and mflow which are also very good. I have a profile on both: last.fm profile, mflow profile.

mlog & plog

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My definitions:

mlog = blogging through the medium of music

plog = blogging through the medium of photography

I suppose if the word blog orginally came from web log, then I’ve got it wrong … should it be clog from music log and ylog from photography log … or should the b still be there … so maybe cblog and yblog? Or maybe I’ll just shut up now…

Anyway my point is, that you (my gazillions of readers, ha ha ha!) may have noticed the mlogs that have begun to appear. Hopefully one day there will be an easy way to share a flow on mflow on WordPress.com, but at the moment I’m doing it manually. It seemed like a good idea as I was flowing tunes based on my day, and what I was doing or thinking about. So the mlog was born. I’m sure I’m not the first to do it. The plog thought is something many people do already but tend to call it photo-blogging or something like that. I’m just being weird and calling it plogging. That’s just the way I am. So plogging will be done probably via mobypicture when I see something I want to share and mlogging from mflow. My blog is actually coming back to life! Shocking!

Surf & music

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Surf have grabbed me again with their latest advert. And I’m still addicted to the smell of Surf Sunshine Lemon & Bergamot

And in case you are enjoying the song, like me, and wondering who is singing, it is Lisa Mitchell

At just 17, Lisa Mitchell is shaping up to be a new kind of singer-songwriting protégé. She’s a teen, and the music is pop, but rather than teen-pop, this talented young woman is fast finding a voice all of her own. It’s candy-coated folk-pop with a fierce and often dark heart.

This is the full song: