http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L1cOIFWUho&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L1cOIFWUho&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L1cOIFWUho&feature=youtu.be

Posted three times for emphasis. Please follow the link – you don’t even have to watch it. But it’s for my mum

Every now and then, all true music lovers will despair over the state of modern music. One can only listen to Rihanna warble the line “we found love in a hopeless place” fifty-billion times in one song for so long, before questioning if there’s any beauty or truth left in music (or in my case, before contemplating ramming a pencil in my brain to make the sound go away…).

But then, just in time, looms hope on the horizon. One day you’re strolling through Camden on a winter evening, you stumble into an open mic night, and are suddenly presented with one man and his guitar, reminding you – ah yes…this is music. The man who did this was a Mr Jack Abraham. He walks on stage, not shy but still somewhat unassuming, and proceeds to dazzle me for a magical half hour. Months down the line I couldn’t get this song out of my head. Even when I tracked him down and got a copy of the song, I couldn’t stop listening to it. This is lyrical genius. This is melodic perfection. This is music.

Soundcloud (Stuff) - http://soundcloud.com/hairandglasses/stuff-wabi

and if you like what you hear, I recommend this track too:

Soundcloud (House) - http://soundcloud.com/hairandglasses/house

and here’s another one for good measure

Soundcloud (Do You Remember) - http://soundcloud.com/hairandglasses/do-you-remember

Here’s to the people with more talent than those on the radio.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been truly haunted by a song. I don’t mean the pleasant goosebumps caused by a soprano’s soaring moment in an aria, or the shiver of a trembling violin. I mean truly, truly haunted. This song plays out almost like an acapella soliloquy to encapsulate pain and despair and helplessness. Tracy Chapman’s vocal doesn’t just showcase her trademark timbre, it perfectly reflects the dark and tragic subject matter. I personally challenge anyone to not be moved by this song.

Youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iUoqTaowaI

Here’s to being moved by a stranger’s plight.

Every now and then a song comes on the radio that stops you in your tracks. I was driving along, scouring the airwaves for just one song which didn’t make me despair of commercial music…and then this appeared. Note by note it seeped out of my speakers and right through my veins, nestling in that nook of my heart that only beautiful music can ever find. This song is simply, gorgeous. Something about Lana Del Rey’s drawling alto moves me to my very core. There’s a delicate quality about the vocal in this track that, when layered up this deliciously macabre instrumental, creates a truly unique sound, setting Del Rey apart from every other singer-songwriter with a love story to tell. She’s not just another pretty American girl with a guitar; she’s a woman with a voice and a story. And personally, it’s a story I want to hear.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO1OV5B_JDw

Here’s to everybody loving somebody <3

Every now and then you stumble across a song which, when you first hear it, shuts out the world for 3 to 4 minutes and only it exists. Now if I’m honest, most songs by Brand New do this for me – their command over a lyric is pretty much second to none. But today it was this that made me stop and listen. This song, in my opinion, is lyrically perfect. Raw, emotional, bitter, enchanting – 5 and a half minutes that make you celebrate the union of real music and the English language. Give it a listen. Don’t miss a word. And then tell me when the world starts moving again.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5CodPJZXO8

This is heaven sent…

I have two very strong opinions relating to this song. One is that there are not even nearly enough truly gritty love songs in the world. The other is that Elvis Costello is one of the most under-appreciated geniuses to grace the modern musical world; a musical chameleon with a phenomenal voice and a knack for story-telling that rivals Dylan himself.

This song is anguish. The song is lust. This song is grief and resignation and desire and all the emotions that form the tiny particles of grit which make you choke up as the song draws to a close. The combination of a beautifully simplistic instrumental and the raw and personal lyrics create something truly special as the tale unfolds.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmlgCcdXaUY

Here’s to singing out the emotions some would wish to bury…

Summer is officially upon us, temperamental as the sunshine may be on the British Isles. Summer means long drives and beach trips and the parties of your youth that you’ll eventually tell your children about (when they’re old enough to hear what you actually got up to when you were their age). But more than anything, summer means summer jams – those tracks that you crank up as you’re cruising along the motorway because they just make you feel free.

This was the track that officially kick-started my summer. Sometimes a beat just makes you want to put your hands in the air and let the breeze dance through your fingers. And why shouldn’t you give in to that feeling?! So turn up this song and let summer course through your veins. Hell, make a playlist and just don’t stop driving ’til it’s over. And then turn around and play it again.

Coz you know when the best time to dance is? All the time! And you know when the best time to be free is? Right now.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMPF6lpM0XM

Here’s to the summers you’ll never forget!

The thing about relationships of any kind is that to let someone into your heart, you first have to let them under your skin. Isn’t that why people fight? The people they care about the most are unfortunately the ones who have to greatest capacity to hurt them or to rub them up the wrong way. And it’s in those moments that we forget. We forget to let that person know they mean the world to us. We forget that whatever has provoked us isn’t nearly as important as the things which make us care for them, in the grand scheme of things. It’s why we shout, it’s why we insult and lash out – we trust them, so the hurt is deeper. But it’s not okay.

Sure, we all say things we regret and wish we could take back. Unfortunately, once words are out they can’t be unsaid. So what if everyone took just an extra two seconds to gain some perspective before they spoke? What if we stopped hurting the ones dearest to us by looking beyond our hurt feelings to what our words can mean? Well, then we could probably spend less time being sorry and more time being happy. But it’s easier said than done. So in the meanwhile, a decent apology can go an awfully long way to making a situation right again.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77pb0WXAz-Q

Here’s to putting pride to the side and making things right…

Not a lot of modern music falls into the category of genuinely heartbreaking. Sad, yes. Emotional, often. But truly heartbreaking is something attempted by many, achieved by few and excelled at by White Lies. Something about the way the elements of this song combine – the minimal instrumental, Harry McVeigh’s vocal, the dark lyrics – creates something truly moving.

More than that, the song is (sadly) something many can relate to. So many people have an experience with that kind of goodbye which leaves you feeling so much smaller than you were before, like a person has taken parts of you with them that you never knew you’d miss. So many have been made to feel inadequate by the people who exit their lives day to day. And just about everybody has regrets about the build-ups to goodbye.

So some days, when it all feels a bit much and all the goodbyes come back to me at once, this song is perfect for getting it all out of my system. This song isn’t just emotional; it’s cathartic. And who doesn’t need to just let it out sometimes…?

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNJkSP5jUfQ

Here’s to everyone who feels they have nothing to give.

They say timing is everything; a split second can change everything. What if a person waited a moment too long to speak? What if two people met 2 years later than they did? These seconds, these hours, these days and weeks and months – they combine in patterns to form the fabric of everything we see around us…and it’s so delicate. One stitch out of place could change the entire pattern.

Sometimes this pattern seems to royally screw us over – beautiful things arrive in our lives, but in a cruel twist of irony they arrive too early, while we are ill-equipped to deal with them. But I guess that’s where patience comes in. Often, patience is the realisation that incredible things will still be just how we see them, maybe even better, after time has gone by; as some would put it, when the time is right. But patience isn’t easy. We, by instinct, act in the moment, live for now, often forgetting the promise of the future.

Well, I’ve been working on that recently. Patience. Some things, some possibilities, some people…well, they’re worth it. And I’m guessing it’s not just me and David Cook who think that way.

Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYWrVUz17VY

Here’s to everyone giving up “now” for the possibility of a beautiful “later”.