Random acts of music

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

One more. Didn't watch this video until later so didn't include it above. Janet Devlin is an Irish singer-songwriter who came to fame in the UK on The X Factor. She has a new album looming and this song is the latest release from it. It's a dark, moody song and video and I love it.

Her voice is very unique and one of the few where the accent still shines through. I remember seeing her on the X factor and being mesmerized by the profound simplicity and beauty in her singing.
 
Another release from Faouzia and it opens with a clip of her singing as a child. She's clearly been a musical person for a long time. This is one of her best originals. The album is now in the pipeline.

 
I have not yet warmed up to Billie Eilish, however her award total at last night's Grammies was stellar. 5 trophies, 3 shared with her brother Finneas O'Connell, who produced, engineered, and co-wrote her album. In addition, Finneas picked his own awards for the production and engineering. Given that Billie is only 18 (the youngest ever to sweep the major categories) and Finneas is 22, this could be the beginning of something big. Or a flash in the pan. Her second album will be eagerly awaited.

A sampling of Billie's work. As I said, I have yet to really get into her music. It just doesn't grab me. But that doesn't mean I can't celebrate her success. Clearly, a lot of people do like her.



 
Oh, and she landed the contract to write (with Finneas) and sing the theme for the next Bond film. She's the youngest artist to land that gig in the series' 50+ year history.
 
That same strong "post-MeToo" feel.

Interesting. Finneas actually talked about the album being about "depression, suicide, and climate change" or something like that. Her style certainly fits the first two and apparently she has been there, done that.
 
I haven't even watched this yet, but I'm posting it. It's Cohen (from the posthumous album). What more justification is required?

 
Former Pentatonix bass Avi Kaplan continues to chart his own very personal course and, wow, I am glad to join him on the ride. First single from an upcoming EP.

 
I have posted a lot Shane Ericks' covers on the cover songs thread, but I think this is the first Ericks original that I have found. She isn't as strong a songwriter as she is a singer, but it's a nice song and very much in the spirit of the seventies and eighties pop tunes she covers.

 
Oh, and she landed the contract to write (with Finneas) and sing the theme for the next Bond film. She's the youngest artist to land that gig in the series' 50+ year history.

Okay, I owe Billie and Finneas an apology. I was very skeptical of them doing a Bond theme. I was wrong. They knocked this baby out of the park.

 
She appears to have quite a flexible (style, tone, timbre) voice. She really captures the Bond "sound" in this one. I wouldn't have guessed from her hits that she could reach such pure high notes.
 
Not particularly random as the lullaby is a proven phenomenon.

I'm the most popular night-time tucker inner of late and my track record is gaining rave reviews in the house.

Number 1 and 2 bedtime hits for the Qball are "Into the West" from "The Return of the King" and "The Last Good-bye" from "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies"

Both were a smidge easier to memorize than was Durin's Song which I have not used for ages so I don't know if it would still work.
 
One of the reasons I go to Starbucks is because I always like or really like the music there. I was in another coffee shop earlier today that was independent, local organic coffee, etc., but they were playing radio with commercials. Music was fine but the ads were annoying...

They always have at least one good random song at Starbucks that doesn't get air-play often. Tonight it was this one.


And this. It's a matter piece that I never appreciated before. I guess they're playing a Marvin Gaye "record".

 
I think Inner City Blues is now one of my very favourite songs. There's a more intense political version by Gil Scott Heron. Marvin Gaye's original is the best version, imo. It's exquisitely composed. Back in the 60's and 70s, everything was recorded in studio, with the musicians actually playing real instruments (and singing) and laying down tracks on tape (wasn't straight to vinyl was it? It was analog, and real live recordings, though) instead of electronically, like so many today.
 
Last edited:
wasn't straight to vinyl was it?

No. Recording to tape was the norm even in the sixties. In fact, analog multitrack recording and mixing started in the late sixties (the Beatles were pioneers) so recording live to tape was starting to be replaced by laying down individual tracks and mixing them long before digital recording came along (eighties). I think a lot of Motown, like Gaye, was still live to tape
 
Odd note: I was actually in a studio (tour, not recording) just last week. Our tour of Kingston, Jamaica included Bob Marley's house, which is still owned by the family and run as a museum. Apparently, his sons have used, maybe still do, the studio Bob built in one side of the house. Five of his seven sons are musicians, with Ziggy being probably the most famous. Part of the studio is very old school, restored to a seventies era analog studio as it would have been in Bob's day. The other part where the sons worked has some more modern digital gear. Also saw the porch where an attempted assassination occurred (someone took a shot at Bob in 1976, leaving a bullet lodged in his elbow).
 
Back
Top