Musical Spotlight: NZ Music Month Edition

Luke Thompson: Luke Thompson is an incredible musician. I’ve seen him live twice now: once with Avalanche City and once when he opened for Passenger. This song is a few years old but is a particular favourite of mine – I love it when singers really go for it in one huge, emotional note and he nails it in this song.

The Naked and Famous: Everyone knows The Naked and Famous because of “Young Blood”, which is a fantastic song, but they have plenty of other wicked songs too. I’ve always loved “Girls Like You” off their debut but lately I’ve been loving their new album “Simple Forms”. It’s some parts dancey, some parts dreamy, all parts awesome.

Broods: I saw Broods live (funnily enough, not in NZ) when they opened for Ellie Goulding in Canada. They’re an awesome live act because they’re so high energy, but they can do chilled vibes equally well – I adore this stripped down version of “Heartlines” because it really shows off their versatility. I’m actually planning on covering this song in a week or so, so keep an eye out for that!

Musical Spotlight: Québécois Pop

While Lox and I were driving through Quebec, we wanted to listen to music but didn’t feel like listening to our mixtapes or to Hamilton for the 784th time. We switched on the radio and I promptly discovered my new musical obsession: Québécois pop. Listening to songs in a language I don’t speak is glorious because it suppresses the snarky side of me that likes to make fun of lyrics. It also means I can’t sing along, so I’m forced to actually listen to the song. And damn, Quebec, your local artists are fantastic – the instrumentation of the songs is wicked and keeps me interested despite the fact I have no idea what it’s about. Here are my favourite discoveries so far:

• “Du bonheur dans les étoiles” by Marc Dupré
• “Les feuilles tombent” by Soul & Sister
• “La journée qui s’en vient est flambant neuve” by Avec pas d’casque
• “Souvenirs d’enfance” – by David Jalbert
•  “T’es ben mieux d’les ouvrir tes yeux” by Les sœurs Boulay

I couldn’t find all my favourites on Youtube (French music is surprisingly difficult to find there!) so definitely check out my Spotify playlist that has all of the ones I love!

Note: I’m classifying these artists as pop coz they were on the same radio stations that were also playing English Top 40 songs. I also don’t actually know if all the artists on the Spotify playlist are from Quebec as now Spotify is recommending so much French music to me. Apologies if I’ve mistakenly called someone Canadian when they aren’t (although is anyone actually ever offended by that?).

Musical Spotlight: Andrew Belle

I first discovered Andrew Belle in mid-2012 when my friend Chloe recommended I listen to “In Your Veins”. I fell in love with his chilled out vibes and sincere lyrics, and sought out more of his music. “Don’t Blame Yourself” quickly became one of my favourite songs and I would constantly jam to “Wants What It Wants”. But time went on and my tastes broadened and his music got lost amongst the 7000-odd songs in my library. The other day, “Pieces” came up on my Spotify discover playlist and I remember just how much I loved his music (so much so that it spurred me to record a cover of that song for my youtube channel!). I looked him up and was stoked to find out that he’s still making music – his new single came out a few weeks ago and he’s got a new album in the works. He’s a wicked musician whose music is both calming and exciting, and I’m fairly certain he has a song to cover every emotion you’re ever felt.

Musical spotlight: Kodaline

Hi wordpress! I have been neglecting this blog and I feel super bad about it, but I’ve been crazy busy and also had literally nothing of worth to talk about. I will get back into posting actual posts once I’m feeling a little less like a million birds are slapping me in the face*, but in the meantime you should totally check out this song by Kodaline. The video is so sweet and all their songs are perfection, so go fall in love with them too:

*this is how I feel when I’m stressed and busy. Birds are scary and I imagine that being slapped by one, let alone a million, would be very unpleasant.

Musical spotlight: Vance Joy

A friend introduced me to this band and I am so absolutely in love with them. Their songs are sweet, simple and such feel-good material. If you like indie-folk music, you should give them a listen because they are fabulous and deserve more recognition.

Musical spotlight: Bastille

I am perhaps a little late to the Bastille party, but overused sayings have me believing it’s fashionable to be late. I only recently learnt of their existence and am so far liking what I’m hearing. All their songs are pretty awesome, but “Laura Palmer” in particular is fabulous:

I could totally do with some more new music so if anyone’s got any recommendations for me, hit me up!

Musical spotlight: TOY

Because I am a Horrors’ fangirl, naturally I look into things that they recommend. Finally I got around to checking out TOY and I really like them. I love songs that are way longer than is typical and that still manage to be really good; “Left Myself Behind” is a great example of this. Their other songs are awesome too, their music videos are interesting and to further make me like them, they have two songs to download for free here. Basically they are just really good, go listen now.