MUSIC

“Swan Song” by Dua Lipa is the song of the week. I usually listen to the radio a lot and this song is on heavy rotation now. I like it a lot and I find it kind of relaxing.

“Swan Song” is part of the soundtrack of “Alita: Battle Angel”, a film directed by Robert Rodriguez and written and produced by James Cameron, starring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Skrein, and many other actors. The film was released two days ago in the United States.

In the video, directed by Floria Sigismondi (I love her works, she directed great videos, like “The Beautiful People” by Marilyn Manson) and Dua Lipa plays the role of the female character of the film, a cyborg warrior. And she looks pretty stylish, I love her chunky necklaces. 

Last November Bob Sinclair and Robbie Williams announced they teamed up and Williams revealed their collaboration could happen because the families of the two musicians go to the same French school so they got to know each other and decided to make a song together.

That’s how “Electrico Romantico” happened.

Weezer just released an album of covers titled “Weezer (The Teal Album)”, which features huge successes of different music genres from different decades. “Take on Me”, a 1984 song by Norwegian band A-ha, is one of the songs the band covered.

A-ha was one of the most famous and successful bands of the ’80s and “Take on Me” is their most famous song. The video was directed by Steve Barron and it took four months to make, because of all the hand-drawn drawings. But the big work paid off. In 1986 “Take on Me” won six MTV Video Music Awards and it’s still considered one of the best music videos ever. 

Here’s Weezer’s cover of “Take on Me”.

And here’s the video of A-ha, which have more than 824 millions view. If Youtube existed back in the ’80s this video would have billions of views, for sure.

“I’m Still Here” by Sia is the song of the week. This song is aired very often by one of my favorite radios and I could listen to it on repeat. The lyrics are so beautiful. “Lost youth where we did wrong” are words that make me think so much.

In case you didn’t know, Sia teamed up with Repetto, the iconic brand that makes shoes, accessories and athleisure taking inspiration from the world of classical ballet. The result is Repetto by Sia, a collection of three ballerinas named Sophia. You can see them at the feet of the sketched version of Sia, in this audio video of “I’m Still Here”.

The song of the week is “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, which I recently searched on YouTube after listening to the beautiful, even sweeter cover by Renée Dominique. The song is from Keane’s first studio album “Hopes and Fears”, released in 2004.

A comment under the video of this song drew my attention. It says “% porn, 0% bad word, 100% talent”. So true. 

Danish musician MØ teamed up with American indie band Foster the People to produce a new version of the singer’s song “Blur”, from her latest album “Forever Neverland”.

MØ is the stage name of Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen, a musician and producer whose music has been defined “electro with guts”. Foster the People is an American indie band formed in Los Angeles in 2009.

The video of “Blur” has been directed by Lauren Sick. MØ sports a couple of pretty stylish outfits, those over the knee glitter boots can’t go unnoticed and I also love the chain belt. And the way MØ’s moves. The black dress with balloon tulle sleeves is cool, too, with its ’80s vibes. Mark Foster from Foster the People makes a printed unbuttoned shirt worn over a white tank look kind of cool.

The song of the week is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Trevor Horn and Robbie Williams, which is a cover of a 1985 song by Tears for Fears.

Trevor Horn is an English musician, singer and producer who worked with musicians like Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Simple Minds, Genesis. He has already worked with Robbie Williams, which is one of my favorite singers, in 2009.

“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” has been used as soundtrack in many films and TV series and it’s among the most famous songs of the ’80s.

Since I’m kind of biased when it comes to Mark Ronson “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart”, is the song of the week. At first, I was a bit distracted by the video to appreciate the song, then I saw, and heard, Ronson and Cyrus performing live at The Graham Norton Show and I totally liked the country-pop song.

The video was directed by creative duo We Are From LA (they also directed “Happy” by Pharrell Williams) and shot in Kiev, on the New Darnytskyi Bridge. There’s a lot going on during Miley’s wild ride (as it’s described by the TV news) and the video is full of references to Cyrus’ career (like a miniature of her on a wrecking ball hanging from the rear-view mirror) but also to our society as we see children shooting, the NFL’s “take a knee”, priests in a strip club.

Ronson looks dapper as usual and Cyrus looks super stylish, I love her silver lamé minidress.

“How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths. What a song, I like it so much! This song was released first in 1984 and then again, in 1985, as a single. It’s considered one of the most famous songs by The Smiths. I listened few days ago and I needed to share it here on the blog.

“Falling Down” is such a beautiful song and the fact that both Lil Peep and XXXTentacion tragically died before it was released makes it kind of melancholic. In case you don’t know, Lil Peep died of an accidental overdose in November, 2017  while XXXTentacion was shot dead during a robbery, last June. They were only 21 and 20 years old. And it’s so sad.

The two musicians didn’t recorded this song together, they never worked together while they were alive. The song was originally titled “Sunlight on Your Skin” and it was an unfinished song, result of a collaboration between Lil Peep and singer and rapper iLoveMakkonen. XXXTentacion recorded his verses as a tribute to Lil Peep.

I love rain and I love songs that talk about rain, or mention it. So, “come let’s watch the rain as it’s falling down” sounds so sweet, to me.