Music

As you might (or might not) know, I am going to spend the whole summer break in the UK this year. For this reason I am currently trying to put together a summer playlist. Music is very important for me whenever I go abroad because it makes spending hours on planes, trains and busses less boring. Also I will connect it to memories of the places I have been, so whenever I listen to a holiday playlist later on, I will be taken back to this place and the feelings that are connected with it.

I wanted to take this chance and introduce you to some bands whose songs will be part of my playlist.

First of all, there are The Naked and Famous. They are a band from New Zealand that has only released two albums so far. I think it is difficult to define music by certain labels, but if I had to, I would say theirs is synthpop or indie pop. Many of you will know their songs Young Blood or Punching in a Dream from their first album, Passive Me, Aggressive You. Here is a video from their new album, In Rolling Waves, which I will put onto my playlist:

By the way, I am looking forward to seeing them live in June! :-)

The second band on my playlist are Crystal Fighters. When I saw them live at a music festival in 2011, I did not like them at all - actually I thought they were just a group of drug addicts that make crappy music. However, a while ago a friend re-introduced me to them and I started to like their new album, Cave Rave. The video is for their song At Home, which is not on their new album, but still on my playlist because it is wonderful and dreamy.

One band, or rather collaboration, that deserves more attention in my opinion is Volcano Choir. I called it a collaboration because it consists of the members of an instrumental band called Collections of Colonies of Bees and Justin Vernon from the band Bon Iver as a singer. I especially like their songs Comrade, Byegone and Alaskans. Altough, if you decide to listen to Comrade, promise me to listen to the whole song. I did not like the beginning when I heard it for the first time either and was about to skip the song when the refrain started and got me caught.

A band that never ceases to amaze me is Alcest. Every album they release sounds so different from the last one, yet they never fully abandon their typical dreamy style. I love Away from their newest album, Shelter. It is one of the few songs with English lyrics they have. Their lead singer is French, so obviously the lyrics are usually French too. Promise me to listen to Tir Nan Og, which is by far their most brilliant song. You cannot deny that it makes you feel as if you were riding a unicorn through a haunted forest! As far as I know, though, the lyrics are based on an old Irish tale and are in Gaelic.

I think I have given you enough to listen to for a while, but maybe I will let you know more about the bands and singers I like at a later stage.