Songs of the Week [49]

Hello everyone!

Hope you're all well and enjoying the run-up to Christmas.

This week's playlist is a quieter one again. I reckon these grey and cold November days are just the right setting for some quiet, somehow mysterious and beautiful music.

So without further ado, here are this week's Songs of the week.

alt-J // Autumn Tour 2015

So this was the last gig for this year then. And my "concert season" ended on a high.

I have already told you about Alt-j and their music here last year and also about how great it was seeing them at Southside Festival 2015.

Hence, I don't think I have to say a lot. It was even better seeing them on a proper concert of theirs comparing it to their festival set.

Musically they really are geniuses, it's very different from everything else I've heard so far and very, very cool. And the light show is stunning. If you're not totally amazed by how it works with the music and rounds up the show just perfectly, you probably won't be happy about any gig...

Here's some more pictures, that don't even show properly how great it looked in reality.

Songs of the Week [48]

It's Monday!

No, I'm not as excited as it sounds about that fact, but I actually am excited about this week's songs.

I've found some quite new artists for you this week on a little hunt on Soundcloud. I enjoy listening to the suggestions I get due to artists I already like.

Most of the time I've got the music playing in the background and once in a while there's this one song that makes me stop and listen keenly. And it's exactly these songs then make it onto lists like this one. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

15 Questions About SPECTRE

I've been to the cinema to watch Spectre yesterday. It's been fun, I really liked watching it.

I'm not going to write a proper review. I'm quite sure all of you, who are interested in the James Bond films, have read loads of opinions already and/or seen the film.

But whilst watching it and afterwards I asked myself some (partly strange) questions... And I couldn't resist writing them down for you, so here we go:

1. Is this 007's Happy End now?
2. When did I start liking Daniel Craig as Bond?
3. Why wasn't Andrew Scott more of a psycho and why couldn't I stop thinking about him as Moriarty?
4. Why did Daniel Craig get the line "Did you miss me?"? Isn't that Moriarty's question?
5. Is the punctuation in the question above right?
6. Why is it bothering me that Christoph Waltz is dubbing himself?
7. Is he really evil or why is he never playing a nice guy?
8. How did Madeleine get undressed whilst sleeping when they were at L'Américain?
9. Was the rat a real rat or a drone?
10. Was Q really surprised that Bond stole the car?
11. When did Ben Whishaw get so cute?
12. Why was I not able to stop thinking about him murdering all those women for his perfume?
13. Why did it take me till the end of the film to realise that I really don't like Ralph Fiennes' German voice?
14. What happened to Monica Bellucci's character? Was she really picked up by someone?
15. And above all: Is James Bond a Timelord? And if so, when will he finally meet the Doctor?

Alright, that's it. An insight into my weird mind. I hope you enjoyed that. I'm off to watch last night's Doctor Who now, maybe Bond's already in it...

If you've got any questions to add to the list, let me know.

Love
Julia x

Artist Rendezvous: Some Kind Of Illness

Today it's your chance to discover a new band: Some Kind Of Illness.

They are an Indie band from the North of England consisting of the brothers Paul and Mark Hinks.

The sound of their self-titled album is ambient, relaxing and calm. Some parts remind me of meditation music whilst some others are a bit more uptempo (really just a bit) with more guitar sounds and rhythm, but still unwinding. The long instrumental parts during the songs are calming and the mystic vocals give the songs a special touch.

Songs of the Week [47]

Another week, another playlist. I really enjoy going through the new releases and the radio playlists on the search for fresh music.

Hit play on this one and have a read about why I picked exactly these five songs.


Eyes Shut - Years & Years



This is the newest single release of the British electronica/pop band from their album Communion, that made it into my Top 3 albums of July. I'm so glad they choose this song, because it's one of my favourites. I love the piano and especially all the emotions that are put into this song. Also the voice of singer Olly sounds brilliant in this one and I can relate to the lyrics a lot.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Initially I wanted to write about something else today, but then I saw this wonderful film last night and I've just got to tell you about it now.
Some of you might have seen The Perks of Being a Wallflower already or read the book, but if you haven't, read what I've got to say about it.

The film is a tale ofsome teenagers and their struggles when growing up. The story is told by Charly (Logan Lerman), who's struggeling a lot with his start at a new school. He's gone through a lot already in his life and is very shy and introvert due to that. Therefore it's not easy for him to find new friends. But eventually, he connects with a group of other students, who all have problems fitting in. But amongst themselves they feel comfortable and have fun together. However nnot everything works out well and Charly keeps getting haunted by his dark memories.

Song Advice of the Week [46]

I hope you have enjoyed the premiere of this new feature last week, because here comes another one.

I really enjoy doing this little playlist of the week. I listen to a lot of radio during the week and of course to my own albums and playlists and now I've got something to do whilst listening - searching for the songs that stick out.

I've also put all the songs on a Spotify playlist, so you can listen to all of them easily, just click here. And there's a playlist where I'll add all the songs of this years Song Advice posts, so you can follow that one to keep up to date with my recommendations.

That's enough wittering, here are this weeks songs:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

I'll be honest with you: I have bought this book simply because I fell in love with the cover. It was different to all the others in the crime section of my local book store. And therefore I hoped for a likewise different crime novel. Also the blurb emphasised this first impression. Have a read:

"For very nearly eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery - especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened.

Soon Flavia discovers something even more shocking in the cucumber patch, and it's clear that the snipe was a bird of very ill omen indeed. As the police descend on Buckshaw, Flavia decides it is up to her to piece together the clues and solve the puzzle. Who was the man she heard her father arguing with? What was the snipe doing in England at all? Who or what is the Ulster Avenger? And, most peculiar of all, who took a slice of Mrs Mullet's unspeakable custard pie that had been cooling by the window...?"

Song Advice of the Week [45]

I thought it's about time to get a new feature. As you might have noticed I'm talking more about music lately. This is happening due to too little time for reading and watching films because of me working on my final paper for uni...
But I hope you like hearing about music and from today on every Monday will be Song Advice of the Week day.

I'll try to come up with those five recently released songs you shouldn't miss. And maybe now and then add some good "oldies", that are worth a little time travel to former days.

So here's this week's five songs you shouldn't miss: