It’s fantastic when someone I know wants to share a favourite song with me and, more so, when it’s one of my teenage daughters. I’ve watched (and listened to) their musical meanderings for many years now and I can see how their music preferences reflect their different personalities and sensibilities, or is it the other way round? One of the things I’ve learnt is that they each have their own taste and the joy is in their own discovery of a song or an artist (without me hanging around forcing Radiohead on them). We have been to quite a few gigs together, usually with them in the mosh and me up the back somewhere. The last concert was alt-j and this is the song we all hold tightly to:
One of the things we love are our long roadies to the mountain – usually five or so hours on a Friday night in winter. Our routine is 30 minutes of headphones and 30 of chat. There is tacit agreement to being cocooned in a car with filmic music flooding through our senses as the world whizzes by outside. It’s a given that we will all listen to this song on every road trip (and often I wonder if we’re all listening to it simultaneously):
One of the bands we love is Bombay Bicycle Club. They feature on all our playlists, so we were equally gutted when we found out they’d gone on hiatus. If you’re ever stuck with what to listen to, put one of BBC’s albums on in this order: A Different Kind of Fix; So Long, See You Tomorrow; Flaws; I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose:
So, my girls have allowed me to share their playlists, the songs they love and listen to on a daily basis. Do listen, theres a lot of great music on each of these lists. Perfect for the weekend – and, hallelujah, it is here!! I’m off to see The Chills and Tiny Ruins tomorrow night – might see you there….
In the mid-2000’s a Seattle-based band, the Fleet Foxes, was garnering attention with gorgeous harmonies, acoustic arrangements and pure four-part hymnic vocals. Their sound was an eclectic mix of folk, choral baroque and americana, interwoven with references to Crosby, Stills and Nash, Neil Young and the Beach Boys. Fleet Foxes released a five-track EP, ‘Sun Giant,’ in early 2008. This was followed by a full-length album, ‘Fleet Foxes’, in June. Music media and listeners alike immediately flew into overdrive, firing out rapturous remarks such as: ‘a landmark in American Music, an instant classic’ from The Guardian; ‘It’s like watching the sun rise over the distant mountaintops, over and over, familiar and captivating all at once’ from Paste Magazine; and, succinctly, from Q Magazine, ‘a pure pleasure’. I think the painting by Bruegel on the album cover says it all. With quaint song titles like ‘Meadowlarks’ and ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’ plus lyrics to match, the album feels ye olde worldely. This is not a sparse album, unlike Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ released the same year. Instead, it’s jam-packed with lushness and depth – there’s a lot going on. Lead singer, Robin Pecknold, has a voice that I feel very safe with (unlike the uncomfortable vulnerability I experience when watching a contestant on ‘X-Factor’ or ‘Idol’ – it’s the price you pay). Robin is fully in control of the vocals and is supported beautifully by the rest of the skulk (ah, that’s a great word) of foxes.
Musicblock 