MUSIC

“Vertigine” is the first Italian song I chose for The Song of the Week. I’ve been listening to it pretty often and I looove it. You may know it even if you’re not Italian because it’s part of the soundtrack of the third season of the tv show “Baby”, produced by Netflix.

Levante is a famous Italian singer. She’s beautiful and stylish and I’ve been listening to her music pretty often, recently. For this track she teamed up with Altarboy, an Italian electronic pop duo. The result is this sweet song with ’80s vibes. 

Like every song by Levante, the lyrics are anything but obvious. The song starts with “Ho perso tutto, ho perso un po’ di me / Su una strada irragionevole / Andare in giro a cercarmi negli altri / E non trovare un cuore somigliarmi” which mean “I lost everything, I lost a bit of me / on an unreasonable way / Going around to look for me in other people / And not finding a heart similar to me”. Aren’t these words beautifully melancholic?

Carla Bruni is one of those women I admire. She’s for elegant, graceful, and cool at the same time. I recently read an interview with her where she defined herself adventurous. She’s definitely not a creature of the commonplace, which I love and admire.

Bruni is perfect when she dresses up and perfect when she wears a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. And she has this delicate, charming voice that I like so much.

Her song “Un grand amour”, from her sixth studio album titled “Carla Bruni”, is one of the songs I prefer to listen to, recently. I find it so sweet.

In the video of the song her family, except for husband Nicolas Sarkozy, makes an appearance. Her son Aurélien dances with Bruni’s mother Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, her sister Valeria Bruni Tedeschi dances with her daughter Oumy and Giulia Sarkozy also makes a brief appearance, wearing a lace mask and dancing while holding the family dog in her arms. Other people dear to Carla Bruni appear in the video, directed by Yann Orhan.

I prefer the video of a live session of “Un grand amour”, because Carla Bruni is so graceful and effortlessly cool.

YouTube reminded me how cool is “Cannonball” by The Breeders, a song that VH1 included in the list of the 100 greatest songs of the Nineties.

The video of the song was directed by Kim Gordon (of Sonic Youth) and Spike Jonze.

I recently found the beautiful voice of Birdy so the song of the week is “Wings”, a song by the English singer released in 2013, from her second album titled “Fire Within”.

The flamboyant video of the song was directed by Sophie Muller, one of my favorite directors, when it comes to music videos. 

I left this post in the drafts for more than one year, it was time to publish it! “Knock On Wood” is a 1966 song written by Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper which has been song by singers like Otis Redding and David Bowie, but Amii Stewart’s 1979 version is the most successful (I thought it was hers).

Doesn’t it make you feel like dancing? Also, Amii Stewart’s tone arms are sooo beautiful!

“ily (i love you, baby)” yes, written all in lowercase, by producer Surf Mesa and sang by Emilee is the song of the week. I immediately liked this song, I find it so sweet, a sort of synth-lullaby.

The song samples the iconic song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”, sang by Frankie Valli in 1967 and made super famous by Gloria Gaynor in 1990. She made it a super danceable track. You may remember this song also for “10 Things I Hate About You”, where Patrick/Heath Ledger sang to Kat/Julia Styles.

Enjoy this sweet track.

“Season of the Witch” is a song by Donovan and Shawn Phillips, released in 1966. Many artists covered it, included Lana Del Rey, who recorded her version for the soundtrack of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”, a horror film released last year.

I’ve always liked this song and Lana’s version is absolutely beautiful and mesmerizing. I post two videos, one from Del Rey’s official YouTube channel, with just the picture of the film, and one, which I prefer, with footage of “The Love Witch” a 2016 film I still have to watch. Written, directed, produced, edited and scored by Anna Biller, it’s the story of a woman who resorts to witchcraft to get men fall in love with her. Visually speaking, it looks like an old film, because it’s a tribute to Technicolor and films of the late ’60s and ’70s.

“The Love Witch” stars Samantha Robinson as Elaine, the beautiful witch of the title.

If you haven’t listened to Donovan’s original version of this song here it is.

“Bad Decisions” by The Strokes is one of my favorite songs right now. Italian radios often air it and every time I listen to it I turn up the volume (but not as much as I’d like to). I’ve always liked The Strokes, Julian Casablancas has such an amazing voice and he is impossibly cool.

“Bad Decisions” is the second single of The Strokes sixth studio album titled “The New Abnormal”, which is the way we could describe our life, now, don’t you think?

The first time I heard this song I thought it was kind of familiar, then I realized it sounds similar to a song from the ’80s I love so much, “Dancing with Myself” by Generation X, the band of rock legend Billy Idol, who actually co-wrote “Bad Decisions” with Tony James, a former member of Idol’s band. So the similarity was wanted. Take some time to listen to these two beautiful songs.

 

The song of the week is “Où va le monde” (where is the world going) by La Femme (the woman), a French psych pub rock band.

What can I say about “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd? It’s such a cool song, I love its ’80s vibes, it makes you want to sing and dance. Abel Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) wrote and produced it together with Max Martin, who produced the singer’s smash hit song “Can’t Feel My Face”.

“Blinding Lights” is the second single from The Weeknd forth upcoming album.