Croatia, summer 2016. Before the trip I didn’t think much of this song at all, I might even have found it a little meaningless. Hearing it every day in the hotel room watching VH1 in the morning or before going out to dinner changed my mind, however. It totally fit the spirit of a summer trip in Croatia what with the music video showing the cliffs and crystal clear water and all. Whenever I hear This Girl now I’m immediately filled with happy thoughts. It holds great meaning to me nowadays.
I find it impossible to stop listening to You With Me by Jimmy Eat World because it has one of the best choruses I’ve heard in years. Just one hell of a song, really:
I also find it impossible to write about this song without mentioning the elephant in the room: Jimmy Eat World were clearly influenced by Eros Ramazzotti while writing You With Me:
Right?
Just one more thing… Is it weird that I kind of like You With Me even more thanks to the intro being very, you know, Ramazzottian? Jimmy Eat World goes Italian pop made for moms. That’s cute.
But seriously, I feel like the You With Me intro also reminds me of yet another song. Perhaps this one?
Maybe. I’ll update this post if I find I was actually thinking of something else than Badly Drawn Boy.
(Hey, what if Jim Adkins, Eros Ramazzotti and Damon Gough got together to write a song? Or start a band, even? And they were called Eros Eat Boy? Isn’t that what parallel universes are actually for? I’m just brainstorming over here.)
Update January 29: I think I’ve found it:
kent – Ingenting
Yet another similar intro. Too bad this Vevo upload isn’t HD, because Ingenting is a beautiful music video. You might as well watch it and hope to find it in better quality later on.
Besides being a great movie, This is England has a terrific soundtrack. Clayhill covering The Smiths, Since Yesterday by Strawberry Switchblade, Come On Eileen (you can’t deny it’s catchy!)… But most of all: Toots and the Maytals. Has anyone ever had enough of 54-46 Was My Number? I highly doubt it.
I’m a big fan of documentary music videos; those featuring live footage and the band/artist just hanging around or being on tour or whatever. Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars is one of them:
Why does this give me the chills? It’s neither a band nor a song I listen to a lot. Weird how the mind works sometimes.
When people ask me about my favorite songs of all time and I mention O-o-h Child by The Five Stairsteps they are usually quite surprised. I was actually very young when I first heard it, because at age 11 or 12 a friend introduced me to Tupac who he had borrowed the chorus from O-o-h Child in his song Keep Ya Head Up. Of course I wasn’t aware of this back then, but I did like Tupac’s song very much. Years later I was watching a skate video and – unexpectedly enough – there it was: O-o-h Child. The chorus I was so familiar with thanks to Tupac. The original version was an instant favorite, and it still is.
Some weeks ago I watched Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since then. I just can’t stop thinking about the tragedy that was her life. I found three scenes particularly painful to watch:
An interview with Amy after her debut album Frank was released. Someone asks her if she thinks she’ll become famous, and her answer is that she’s sure she won’t because she’s a jazz singer and that is not a commercial genre. Hearing this was just painfully ironic, knowing the influence her work would end up having in the music industry and knowing fame would end up playing a big role in destroying her.
A brief moment about 1:22 into the movie. Amy’s standing by a car. A few paparazzis are circulating around her. They are all hidden behind their camera lenses and constantly taking photos. Amy doesn’t look at them even though they are inches away. This scene resembles predators approaching their victim, except this is grown up human beings. Approaching another grown up human being, who they know is in deep trouble and in desperate need of help. I cannot emphasize this enough: they know about her situation. Yet they keep disturbing her, comfortably distansed by their cameras. How can a paparazzi photographer sleep at night or even spend money they’ve earned without feeling sick to their stomach? They are literally – in many cases such as this one – stressing people to death. You can never justify something like that by saying that you’re “just doing your job” or “if I don’t do it someone else will”. What also strikes me while watching this documentary is that all paparazzis are men. Enough said.
The Belgrade concert. Despite having been in very bad condition for a long time, and despite currently being passed out at home, Amy is driven to the airport and put on a flight to Serbia to perform. The documentary shows Amy on stage. She’s apparently too drunk to do her job. Some people in the audience start booing. The look on Amy’s face is devastating. It is the face of a confused and horrified child. My thoughts watching are: “Seriously? They are booing a fellow human being who is clearly agonized and broken? Who does that?” Some people are even laughing at her. Everything about this scene is so tragic. What her life became. How people treat other people.
When you’ve got a couple of hours to spare, I would really recommend watching Amy. If you have a heart the movie might exhaust you, like it did with me. But it will be worth it, because improving your empathy is always important.
Only a few weeks ago, kent – Sweden’s biggest rock band – officially disbanded. Their final tour was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen on a stage. Truly unforgettable. I went to three of the shows, including their funeral on December 17. Of course it’s sad that kent broke up, but I’m glad they stayed together for so long and made a lot of very good music. This is one of my absolute favorite kent songs:
MakeDamnSure by Taking Back Sunday gives me the chills. I remember one summer as a teenager – it must have been 2007? – listening to this song over and over again. Of course I listen to it during other times of the year as well, but since my teen years no summer is complete for me without blasting MakeDamnSure.
There’s also this acoustic version that is pure magic, much thanks to Matt Fazzi’s performance:
This spring Cymbals Eat Guitars are coming to Stockholm. That means I’ve recently been trying to get friends to buy tickets for their show by recommending tracks such as this one:
Two screenshots from my Last.fm page to sum up what I’ve been listening to in 2016:
kent decided to stop being kent which made me listen to them more than usually; I welcomed a new blink-182, Silvana Imam released one hell of an album; The Hotelier’s Goodness grew on me and became one of my favorite records of the year; Tiger Lou were finally playing shows in Sweden again and released their first full-length since 2008; I spent weeks listening to Promise Everything by Basement on repeat (mostly on CD, though).
More stats from Last.fm:
I found these quite interesting, because – as I’ve stated many times before – I like discovering new music and this is my receipt that I’m pretty good at not just listening to the same bands or records over and over again but seeking something fresh. Not necessarily “fresh” as in recently released, but fresh to me. Not sure whether 21 % new artists or 38 % new albums are high numbers in comparison to other people interested in music, but that’s not very interesting, is it? What will be interesting is comparing these 2016 stats with 2017 a year from now.
fuck yeah! sounds! 