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Sara - Fleetwood Mac
I had forgotten this song and I have no idea what happened and it came back to the stage of my mind. I guess this is music anyway. The voice of Stevie Nicks is a crystal made to shutter crystals. Listen to Sara a Saturday morning while the rain falls silently outside. You 'll love it.
Over the hill - Monika
You may not know Monika if you live outside Greece. Monica is an extremely talented young performer and music writer and such a song, Over the hill, is a song many musicians would wish to write one day. Do search for it in YouTube and you 'll see why.
I believe she should go abroad and try not to belong here in Greece. She is too good for us.
Ultramarine - Michael Brook
Ultramarine is a storm, is a rhythm that makes your heart stop beating for a moment. I discovered this instrumental song in the Heat soundtrack (De Niro, Pacino - remember?) and since then there is not any single fall I don't stick to it. It requires a decent sound system because you won't want to miss a beat.
Wild horses - Mazzy Star
OK, I love Hope Sandoval's voice. Especially during falls. Wild horses, yes the song of Rolling Stones, performed by Mazzy Star is such a warm and beautiful song that you feel the band playing only for you. Even the darkest moments can be a bit sweeter because of Wild Horses.
It’s a brand new spring and I selected 4 brand new (or not new, it doesn’t matter) songs to take with us when we go out or stay in, to share them with others or not.
Your love alone - Manic Street Preachers feat. Nina Persson
I like Manic since years. It is always nice to listen at their music and read their lyrics. This song lifts you up, it is the perfect company these days while you drive your open car. Nina Persson makes it even better. I love her voice.
Portishead - Magic doors
Portishead are back. It took them 10 years to bring us new music and I don’t know many artists who dare to do so. Furthermore, it always takes time to deeply understand their music. Magic doors is one of the tracks I like, it reminds me the style of old Portishead. It has this beat that punches your belly and makes you remember it forever. The voice of Gibbons is as adorable as ever.
Toto - Africa
This is an old song but it seems to me I listen to it for the first time. Each year during this period and the whole summer I play it again and again. It is the hot days of July, it is what you ‘re looking for, what you left behind and a childhood that never comes back, but at least you still remember it.
no-man - Truenorth
no-man is a duet by Steven Wilson and Tim Bowman. I can’t give a name to their style, it is not easily distinguishable. Anyway, Truenorth is a song of their new album which is expected this May. It is a dark and at the same time crystal clear ballad, a music diamond. Nobody must have heard no-man before. Who cares? As long as I listen to such music I can be optimistic about our future.
Sigur Ros create music which can’t be described or categorized. Even worse, they sing in their own language. They come from Island but they don’t sing either in icelandic or in english. Instead they use their very own language “hopelandic”.
The first song I listend to was Staralfur. It was a very hot and difficult summer and this song made it bearable. Sigur Ros offer much of their content at their website so it worths the visit.
Recenlty, Sigur Ros announced their film, Heima. Heima means both “at home” and “homeland”. As they say, going back to their home is something they urge to do. They may be famous enough to play anywhere in the world, but playing at home is their real need.
Heima is a patchwork of shows they gave in Iceland. Instead of concert halls they chose to play in deserted fish factories, sylvan fields, darkened caves etc. Being among their friends and inhabitants, following the landscapes, fire and ice, they created a great film in a breathtaking atmosphere. I ‘d love to be there for once.
I knew where I wanted to go but I didn’t know how. So I got lost.
The whole trip should last no more than 3 hours but it finally took me 6. I was running out of fuel. But in the end it was fun.
Towns and villages
As the cheerless towns pass my window
I can see a washed out moon through the fog
Then a voice inside my head breaks the analog
Dazzling lights
And the whole damn place goes crazy twice
and it’s once for the devil and once for Christ
but the Boss don’t like these dizzy heights
we’re busted in the blinding lights
Nobody on the road
Ohh, can’t anybody see
We’ve got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say
It was late and cold outside
Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear
And finally…
Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you
The soundtrack
Lazarus - Porcupine Tree
Closing time - L. Cohen
Roads - Portishead
Run - Snow Patrol
Fix you - Coldplay
This is the second part of what started the previous fall.
Intervention - The Arcade Fire
I liked this song for a while now because of its rythm. What I most like is an inner heat which becomes prominent by the end of it. It is always my favorite from Neon Bible. When I read the lyrics I adored it.
Heartattack in a layby - Porcupine Tree
That’s a diamond. I can’t listen to it any other season but fall.
A man drives his car, he pulls off, lights a cigarette and contemplates. He knows he doesn’t go along with his spouse. He believes everything is going to go well in the end. Or maybe not.
Closing Time - Leonard Cohen
This song winks and smiles you. When I listen to it I think of nights of falls where I am going to be in that bar and take the place of Cohen at the video clip.
Ah we’re drinking and we’re dancing
and the band is really happening
and the Johnnie Walker wisdom running high
And my very sweet companion
she’s the Angel of Compassion
she’s rubbing half the world against her thigh
One of these mornings - Moby & Patti Labelle
This song reminds me the scene in Miami Vice, the movie, where C. Farrell takes Gong Li from Miami to Havana just for a Mojito. The ones who have seen the movie get my point.
Moby made a great song. The voice of Labelle makes it dark enough to fit the season.
Some years ago, an afternoon in late December I was in Athens like every year. It was just about Christmas. I was heading home and the traffic was intolerable. I still remember the exact moment when the radio played a new song from Passengers aka U2 about the war in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.
The voice of Bono was smooth and I remember myself trying to understand the lyrics. At a moment Pavarotti started singing in italian. The way he performed made me start trembling. Suddenly everything was gone. The traffic, the cars, the holidays, time, everything. I remained still trying to realize what had happened.
When I returned to Thessaloniki I searched the Web about Miss Sarajevo. I couldn’t find many things but most of all I couldn’t find the English translation of the Italian lyrics. So I decided to learn Italian. I did all I could in order to understand these lyrics.
When I learned the basics I searched my dictionaries for the missing words. In the end I made to put everything together. I listened to the song once more I chilled to the bone. All these meant to change my life and helped become a better man.
Today I heard (again in the radio) Pavarotti died. I remember him as a smiling man and as someone who didn’t act like a typical tenor. They said a lot of bad things about his life. What I do know is that thanks to him I listened to opera and when I hear his warm voice I think he ‘s performing only for me.
So here they are these lyrics. The translation in English made by me.
Dici che il fiume
Trova la via al mare
E come il fiume
Giungerai a me
Oltre i confini
E le terre assetate
Dici che come fiume
Come fiume
L’amore giungerà
L’amore
E non so più pregare
E nell’amore non so più sperare
E quell’amore non so più aspettare
They say that like the river
Finds its way to the sea
And like the river
You ‘ll come to me
Beyond the borders
And the dry land
They say that like the river
Like the river
The love will come
The love
And I can’t pray anymore
And I can’t hope for this love anymore
and I can’t wait for this love anymore
(I don’t particularly like YouTube, but this time it worths the visit: Miss Sarajevo)
This spring is probably the best of the last years. I may like it so much because I now live a bit closer to the country. Like I did for this fall here they come 4 songs I like a lot this period.
Doves - Ambition The background sounds remind me everlasting nights. With good company, drinks and talking about the universe and the stars. You are waiting for something which is going to come along with the summer. It may be nothing but the summer anyway.
Alanis Morissette - Crazy I like this version more that the original one because it is stronger and the bass drills you. You play it as louder as you can. It comes with the times when you are stuck in your car and you want to go up to the hood and start dancing. All the rest of the drivers do the same.
Secret Garden - Bruce Springsteen You drive in the highway. You start by the midnight to reach to your destination the morning. You drive to find her. The lyrics tell the rest of the story.
Roads - Portishead Absolutely lonely. Beth Gibbon’s voice shatters you. We ‘ve got a war to fight. Never found our way. Regardless of what they say. Hey buddy, we ‘ve got a war here.
I listen to Porcupine Tree since 1997, the era of Signify. Their new CD, Fear of a Blank Planet, was the most difficult for me to grasp it and realize what I was listening to. It took me more than 10 times to play it again and again and still I am not very sure I get the details.
First of all I have to say I believe that these guys are remarkable. After Deadwing, their previous work, a contract with a new label, more audience and more money they don’t take the easy way. On the contrary, they make difficult to listen to music and acid lyrics.
This work has to do with a single thing: how kids grow up in modern cities. Total boredom, pills and drugs, guns, shopping therapy and a long term denial. All these are reflected in their music too. Rage and intension most of the times, chill and void some others.
The music
Porcupine Tree keep changing their music and keep producing new music. How many do the same? This group is a team, not some musicians who play their part and that’s all. None of their work is a habit and most of all this one.
Fear of a Blank Planet is harsh. Guitars sound harder than ever before, sometimes you think you are hearing thrash metal music. But you ‘ve got to notice why it sounds like this. If you do this, you ‘ll understand and you ‘ll want more of it.
What hasn’t been changed is their style and melodies which can be found even at the hardest riffs. R. Barbieri, the man behind the keyboards, does his magic again. He can make a song sound chilly or warm an unsurpassed way.
Wilson keeps experimenting with his voice and that’s very interesting especially during some “sensitive” parts of songs. I do believe he is one of the most important musicians of his era. End of story.
The lyrics
What’s inside a teenager who is growing up in New York, London or Athens? How does he treat school, his parents or his everyday life? These lyrics are not smooth.
X-box is a god to me
A finger on the switch
My mother is a bitch
My father gave up ever trying to talk to me
The boredom of having tasted everything and there is nothing new, the dull of TV, the elusiveness, the longing of escaping. It doesn’t matter how, you just want to go away.
Let’s sleep together right now
Relieve the pressure somehow
Switch off the future right now
Let’s leave forever
You go the mall. You get bored. You steal. You get bored. You watch porno and you get bored. You find a gun. You take pills to change your routine and in the end you get bored.
We’re lost in the mall, shuffling through the stores like zombies
Well what is the point?
What can money buy?
My hands on a gun and I find the range, God tempt me
Well what did you say?
Think I’m passing out
Two words for the end
Fear of Blank Planet is a difficult and amazing CD. You first realize it is not easy and then you discover its beauty. Of course this is not music for everyone. It doesn’t matter.
I am glad Porcupine Tree are not mainstream. I am glad they change and they become better. You see, there is this creeping music lowness which engulf us day by day. I am glad these guys are still alive and kicking and their music makes our days and nights better.
Is it the sweetest voice of Hope? Is it the clear sound of the guitar? Or the tambourine that holds the rythm? I can’t choose. I ‘ve learnt this song more than a decade ago when I was a radio producer. Since then there isn’t any fall I don’t listen to it again and again. It is just one of my precious.
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me - Smiths
The song begins with a sound of a dream. Do dreams have sounds? Sometimes they do. Among the heart-breaking voices emerges the amazing Morrissey’s voice. No hope, no harm, just another false alarm. This song is a diamond.
Where we would be - Porcupine Tree
The song begings with sound of birds singing happily somewhere. Things are not the way they seem. The story between a man and a woman does not have a happy end. You would paint - I would wrote my songs. But we don’t. Probably the best guitar solo of Steven Wilson. Magnificent.
Another day - This Mortal Coil
Violins and keyboards. And the voice of Elizabeth Fraser. A story with a cup of Tibetan tea, two speechless people, one wants to stay - the other to score. A fairy tale from nowhere for people like anyone. Difficult to describe the sounds, magical.
The voice of Bono was smooth and I remember myself trying to understand the lyrics. At a moment Pavarotti started singing in italian. The way he performed made me start trembling. Suddenly everything was gone. The traffic, the cars, the holidays, time, everything. I remained still trying to realize what had happened.
I listen to 
.