Music of Hilary, Trinity, and Long Vac 2013

Well, it's been ages since I've done a music post, which is a bit of a shame, because I've discovered a number of new bands I quite like since my last post.

A friend of mine recommended Fleet Foxes and Bat for Lashes to me, both of which I quite like.  Fleet Foxes has a nice, throwback thing going and reminds me of classic rock, while Bat for Lashes has an indie/Florence + the Machine thing going on.

I might like 'Daniel' best of the Bat for Lashes catalogue, but 'All My Gold' is the one I get stuck in my head most often.  The Fleet Foxes song is 'Myknonos', which is great.



When we went to France, Florence + and the Machine released their song for The Great Gatsby soundtrack, 'Over the Love', so now I associate it with Amboise and the nice, modern kitchen in the top-floor apartment we stayed in in Avignon.  I sent Tim down to the grocery store for a bottle of very cheap Rhone wine and sang along (not too loudly, for the sake of the neighbours) until he came back.

Earlier this year, Fleetwood Mac rereleased Rumours with a bunch of live tracks from 1977.  This video is a 1976 live performance of 'Rhiannon', possibly my favourite song ever.  Mostly it was just nice to hear the song live again, but in a slightly different version to the one of the 1980 live album.  The bit at the end, with Stevie Nicks wailing/screaming and the guitars going, is one of the most viscerally powerful musical passages I know.  I have fond, fond memories of putting on Dad's double-LP of the 1980 live album and playing the live 'Rhiannon' with the volume on the amp turned way up.

(I also owned my own double-CD version, but that's not nearly as romantic as a double-LP in slightly worn cardboard sleeves, with the added bonus of the arcane ritual of switching the amp to the phonograph input, lifting the lid of the turntable, laying the record on, finding out the right track, and finally, carefully dropping the needle into the groove.)

More Lana del Rey.  This time, 'Ride' from the Paradise Edition of Born to Die.  I have to be careful though; sometimes this leaves me in a slightly sentimental mood.

I discovered London Grammar just as their debut album was about to be released, which is pretty good timing, if I do say so.  Hannah Reid's vocals are amazing and well-complemented by the generally pretty stripped back instrumentals.  It's tricky to pick a favourite song, but starting with 'Wasting My Young Years' isn't a bad idea.

And finally, a song that isn't actually out yet (but will be in less than a week!), 'Paradise (What About Us?', by Within Temptation and featuring Tarja Turunen, the former lead singer for Nightwish - two of my favourite vocalists on one song!  This is the first single off Within Temptation's next album and their first new song for quite awhile.  I'm mostly just really excited about the album, the upcoming single (which will be an EP with 3 album demos), and about seeing them at Wembley next April.  The only thing I'm sad about is that they delayed the album release by a few months - alas.

Here is a preview of the song on Dutch radio (will replace with music video next week).

Edited 27/09/2013: New video below!  The EP is fantastic.  I very much love the single 'Paradise', but I think my favourite song is 'Silver Moonlight', which is very heavy but rather dance-y at the same time, sort of like 'Sinead.'  It also sees the returns of Robert growling, which reminds me of Enter.  A very interesting return to roots, perhaps?  Cant' wait for the entire album to be released!