MUSIC

I was waiting for a new song by The 1975 so much! I started to listening to them last year and I immediately liked their sound and their videos.

“Give Yourself A Try” is the first single of the band’s upcoming album, titled “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships”, which could also be the title of a sociological essay. The album is supposed to be released in October.

The song is about aging and Matthew Healy (who is 29) sings “I found a grey hair in one of my zoots/like context in a modern debate I just took it out” and “what would you say to your younger self?” so I guess even cool musicians don’t feel comfortable about aging.

The video has been directed by Diane Martel.

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division is the song of the week because I can’t believe some people have never listened to this song!

The song of the week is “Farther Away”, a song by singer and songwriter Sam Valdez. I find it so dreamy (dreamy is a word I often use to describe a song, I know!) and relaxing. It makes me think of peaceful summer nights, even if the song is about the way unexpected life shifts can change and shape our life.

Sam Valdez is a musician who grew up in Nevada and is now Los Angeles based. Her music is a fusion of shoegaze and American folk to which she adds her own sound.

In the video, directed by Nicholas Petty, there’re just Valdez and the desert.

This song, “You Don’t Own Me” by Grace featuring G-Eazy, is a cover of a 1963 song originally sung by Lesley Gore, who is famous most of all for “It’s My Party”. I guess a song like this, in the ’60s, sounded very rebellious. “Don’t tell me what to do / and don’t tell me what to say”… in a certain way it’s still rebellious.

You may remember “You Don’t Own Me” because it’s part of the soundtrack of “Suicide Squad” and when the film was released this song was aired a lot.

Because Arctic Monkeys are back. Nothing further needs to be said written.

I admit at the beginning I chose “Modern Woman” by Tennis as the song of the week most of all because of the video but then I realized I definitely like the song and its sound.

Tennis is an American band formed by husband and wife Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore. On their Facebook page they describe their music as minimalist and pop.

The video is by Luca Venter and Kelia Ann. And it’s visually beautiful.

I recently watched (again) “The Beach”, the 2000 film directed by Danny Boyle and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillame Canet and Tilda Swinton. I don’t know if you saw it but there’s a scene, when DiCaprio, Ledoyen and Canet arrived at the beach where DiCaprio looks at that (apparently) heavenly place and there’s “Porcelain” by Moby as background music.

I found out A$AP Rocky sampled the song for his “A$AP Forever”. I don’t particularly like rap so to me, A$AP is most of all the cool guy in Lana Del Rey’s video of “National Anthem”, even if I obviously know  he’s one of the most relevant and coolest singers of the music business.

The video of “A$AP Forever” has been directed by Dexter Navy and I find it kind of mesmerizing. The visual effects are amazing.

If you haven’t listened to “Porcelain” by Moby, please do!

I listen to music many hours a day and I love listening to the radio. Right now, “IDGAF” by Dua Lipa is on the air many times a day and I totally love this song.

At the beginning I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics so it sounded quite happy to me. Then I decided to watch the video, which I find pretty cool, and then I focused on what Dua Lipa sings, realizing it’s a song about the “I’m moving on and I feel fine” stage which comes after a painful breakup.

The lyrics of “IDGAF” makes me think “finally a song that it’s not about being desperate and wanting somebody back at any cost“. What a breath of fresh air/music!

The video, directed by Henry Scholfield, is definitely to watch more than once because the moves and the choreography are so interesting. Pay attention from minute 0:30, when the two Dua Lipa sing “I’ve been done/I’ve been movin’ on/since we said goodbye/I cut you off/I don’t need your love”. I love the way these words are accompanied by the movements.

Beautiful video, beautiful art direction (by Scholfield and creative label Mosaert) and beautiful song.

I found “Just Friends” by Morgan Saint a bit by chance (that is to say browsing from song to song) on YouTube and I think it’s such a relaxing song. The musician released her first EP, titled “17 Hero”, last year. It contains five songs, which I find perfect to listen to while calmly getting dressed or doing the makeup. Do you have a “getting dressed/doing my makeup song”? I have some favorite ones.

Anyway, the video of “Just Friends”, directed by Morgan Saint herself (her real last name is Gildersleeve) and Nathan Crooker, is relaxing, too. The lightening is beautiful and, talking about fashion, Morgan Saint has a pretty interesting style, most of all when it comes to jewelry. Kate Branch wrote an article about her for Vogue last year so you may like to read it.

But first, listen to “Just Friends”.

If you love both fashion and music from the ’90s, you probably know that one of the steamiest videos of that decade is “Wicked Game”. The video, shot in Hawaii and directed by Herb Ritts, features singer Chris Isaak and super model Helena Christensen spending time on the beach, rarely taking hands off each other. Compared to what we’re used to see now, the video is almost chaste but I guess there’s a reason why it’s still considered beautiful and sexy.

“Wicked Game” is a beautiful ballad about unrequited love. Isaak sings “what a wicked game you played to make me feel this way/what a wicked thing to do to let me dream of you”. The song is part of Isaak album “Heart Shaped World”, which wasn’t successful at all when it was released in 1989. Then, after David Lynch used an instrumental version for his 1990 film “Wild at Heart”, starring Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, the song became a hit.

Few days ago I found a beautiful cover of “Wicked Game”, sung by London Grammar. It’s sweeter and, maybe, even more melancholic. If you watch “Peaky Blinders” you may know it as it’s been used in the trailer of season 4.

A beautiful song is timeless. “Wicked Game” is, for sure.

In case you haven’t seen the video with Isaak and Christensen, here it is. When music and super models were a perfect match.