Playlist- I open at the close.

Some of the songs I’ve been listening to lately…

• The Call by Regina Spektor
• Down the Line by Julia and the Doogans
• Renegades by X Ambassadors
• Dreams by The Cranberries
• Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap
• Unsteady (Erich Lee Gravity Remix) by X Ambassadors
• Us by Regina Spektor
• The Sound by The 1975
• Nighlight by Silversun Pickups
• Not Today by The Imagine Dragons
• For Your Love by Josh Record

p.s I adore Regina Spektor, X Ambassadors and Julia and the Doogans. Please check them out 🙂

p.p.s Me Before You has a wonderful OST

 

Songs- Little Jewels

My disappointment with pop music as of late has been nothing short of abysmal but a glimmer of hope remains. Here are some of the songs I’ve been listening to, latest or not…

• Cecilia and the Satellite by Andrew McMahon in the Wildnerness
• Let it Go by James Bay
• Say by John Mayer
• Catch and Release (Deepend Remix) by Matt Simons
• Re:re by Asian Kung Fu Generation
• Sound of Your Heart by Shawn Hook
• Don’t be so Hard on Yourself by Jess Glynne
• HandClap by Fitz and the Tantrums

Art Journal- Lyrical Lulls (Part 1)

Don’t you love those moments when you’re listening to a song and a certain lyric just sings out at you?

Art journalling is such a mindful and expressive process but the wonderful part is when you open a blank page and have an idea about what you want to paint but along the way, it turns into something else entirely, the synapses firing as watercolours drip and merge. I’d begun with the idea of painting the entire page but the way it shaped was far better by adding a lyric to a song I was listening to. This was my most in-the-moment art journal page.

Swallows, some tea and burnt edges gave me this…

 

 

Movie Review- Begin Again

Rating: 4/5

If you’re looking for a feel-good movie centred around the magic that is music, then look no further because John Carney’s Begin Again really delivers. This past week, I’ve watched it around three times but before you judge, let me tell you this…it really makes you appreciate music differently (Granted I haven’t seen Once and Begin Again is said to follow along the same lines.)

Begin Again follows the story of a down-on-his-luck record label executive Dan Mulligann (Mark Ruffalo) who discovers an occasional and fiercely independent song writer named Gretta James (Keira Knightley) who’s just broken up with her boyfriend and song-writing partner Dave Kohl (Adam Levine). The two set off to record an outdoor album all around New York City, fixing up some old wounds and tying up loose ends along the way. If you think Dan and Gretta get together, think again. This isn’t a ride-off-into-the-sunset rom-com and I love it. Dan and Gretta’s platonic relationship made the movie what it was and I would have been sorely disappointed if it had become anything slightly romantic.

I think that’s what helped make the characters feel real. Ruffalo pulls off the drunken-mess-sort-of-charm that defines his character and Knightley does well to represent the musical integrity that Dan is looking for, probably wouldn’t have survived without, in fact. Musicians like Adam Levine and Cee Lo Green are welcome to the melange and James Corden is the perfect comedic buffer in a movie of heartbreak and bourbon.

The moments between Dave and Gretta where the music did all the talking and they didn’t have to say a word were some of my favourites. This happens a few times in the film, once in the beginning and again at the end. The best scene, however, is when Gretta and Dan plug in a splitter and listen to the music on her iPod, aptly saying you can tell a lot about a person by the music they listen to (a friend of mine is even doing research on that fact).

Undoubtedly, the soundtrack accounts for most of the film’s appeal. With songs like Lost Stars, Tell Me if You Wanna Go Home, Coming Up Roses, No One Like You and A Higher Place, the soundtrack is undeniably good. Knightley did a decent job for someone who hasn’t sung before and you know it’s not going to disappoint when Levine is on the tracks. I suppose watching how Gretta’s tracks get recorded around New York with no filtering made it even more interesting. I enjoyed the part where the kids are singing ‘hold on hold on’ in ‘Coming Up Roses’ in some alleyway and the entire scene where they play ‘Tell Me if You Wanna Go Home’ on the rooftop with the city lights in the backdrop. Magic.

Ultimately, the movie makes me want to stroll down the street listening to my favourite playlist or cycle through the streets pondering about life and that feeling is what makes me want to revisit the movie time and again. Just watch the movie and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

(Oh and on a completely unrelated note, I would also like to steal Keira Knightley’s entire wardrobe from the film.)

Exam Music Therapy

I’ve been MIA for for so long and I blame my final year at college. Medicating with an overdose of books, TV and music has been the result of an overload of work and the past two weeks wrapped up in end of term exams have really left me in need for some music.

Here’s the latest scrip:

• Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld
• Statues by Alexandre Desplat
• Pitter Pat by Erin McCarley
• Don’t Look Down by Martin Garrix
• Your Type by Carly Rae Jepsen
• The Night is Still Young by Nicki Minaj
• Classic by MKTO
• Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight and the Pips
• Valerie by Amy Winehouse
• Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
• Confident by Demi Lovato

Tinsel, Lights and Songs to Hum

“You stare, seeing yet not

but feeling all the same.

And the streets are lined with tinsel and lights,

the beating of a drum running in your veins.

What a time to be alive,

When your soul is slowly reined.”

So this month has gone by in a whirlwind and with it came tidings both good and bad. Mostly an internalized juxtaposition but projected nonetheless in less than elegant means. If there is such a thing as a quarter life crisis, rest assured that is what I’m going through. Too many questions about the future are making my head ache.

Nonetheless, here’s some music to ride the wave, if like me, you chose to use music as salvation from what can be best described as a monotonous routine. You’ll find it just as jumbled of a mess as my thoughts, I suppose.

1. Alive by Sia
2. Dance of Dragons by Ramin Djawadi
3. Believer by American Authors
4. Lay it All on Me by Rudimental feat. Ed Sheeran
5. Happiness by IAMX
6. Infinity by One Direction
7. Stay Alive by Jose Gonzalez
8. Hiding by Florence + The Machine
9. Never One to Complain by The Night Terrors of 1927
10. R.I.P 2 My Youth by The Neighbourhood
11. Desire (Gryffin Remix) by Years and Years

Music Maketh the Film/Show

The movies and TV shows we watch would be nothing without the music featured in them. Music adds so much to the visual medium, invoking emotions in the audience that would otherwise have been inaccessible to us. I relate so much more to the movie because of the soundtrack and vice versa. Besides, it makes the film and music so much more memorable when you associate the two so quickly. Once, I was sitting in the cafeteria at college with music playing on the speakers in a loop and suddenly the Dark Knight soundtrack starts playing and I nearly jump out of my seat when I recognize where I’d heard it before ( I go insane if I recognize a song and can’t remember it’s name and then get extremely psyched when I do remember).

I adore the Disney soundtracks (particularly Pocahontas and Aladdin) and those of the Harry Potter series. Some of my favourite composers are Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Alan Menken and Alexandre Desplat. I don’t know what if my favourite films would have been as wondeful without them so I thought I’d write about the music that made movies what they are.

Anyway, this post could go on and on if I typed out every single score and OST I loved though so I’ll stick to the ones I’ve recently been listening a lot to.

Inception

This is my favourite movie of all time, more so because of Hans Zimmer’s music. I love the booming effect of it and how it gets you so invested in the film. I can easily imagine playing Mombassa on my iPod and getting into the chase scene zone when I’m running late for my early morning classes! I’ve watched the movie enough times to remember which song plays in which scene(s).

Fifty Shades of Grey

This was an atrocious movie but then again, it’s based off an atrociously written book so what can you expect? Well, I didn’t expect a great soundtrack but that’s what we got. The music was the only thing that made the film less painful (more painful than the BDSM the books revolve around) to watch. One of my favourite tracks is One Last Night by Vaults and the Beyonce tracks.

 

 

InuYasha

Although it’s not an official OST, the opening and ending themes of this anime are one of the best. Even those who despise the show have to admit that the music is spot on. I can safely say that I love 95% of this anime’s music. Besides, if you’re a fan of the anime, you’ll love these songs even more in how well they go with the show. These are the opening and ending themes I loved:

3 Great Android Apps

On more than one occasion I browse through the play store in the hopes of finding new apps that I would never have thought I could survive without. Here are some of the android apps I think are brilliant and not talked about as much they should.

Duet

Category: Games

Duet is one of those games that can make you really shut out everything else going on around you. It’s a challenging game about controlling co-dependent spheres and it’s engrossing because of the trance music playing in the background. It’s recommended to plug in your earphones to get the full experience and believe me, it’s worth it. Duet has various levels under five stages of grief in the Kübler-Ross model, and you gradually work through all the stages, surviving against all the odds and keeping calm through out. The graphics are clean and non-distracting, simple yet effective. Beware of the ads every three minutes though!

Telegram

Category: Messaging

Admittedly, this messaging app seemed redundant to me what with WhatsApp being so popular but once I tried out Telegram after months of nagging from my tech obsessed friend, I understood it’s appeal. The secret chat mode is great for people who have conversations they don’t want to scroll through and cringe about later (if you know what I mean). You can set a self destruct time limit on the messages and after that they disappear. An added bonus about Telegram is the security. The company has offered $200000 worth of Bitcoins as a reward to the first person who can crack its encryption. That’s  a good sign that your privacy is assured.

Manga Rock

Category: Books

 

I used to read manga on mangapanda.com on my laptop until I discovered Manga Rock. Since I installed the app, I’ve been able to read much more and it’s so convenient. You can choose the scrolling direction be it left to right or up- down. It has a wide variety of manga  available and you can save your favourites. There’s also the option of downloading some chapters although the number of download slots are severely limited so the app isn’t useful in offline mode. However, if you love reading manga and don’t have the money to buy them, this app is a real life saver!

Perfunctory Playlist #2- Hopeful Opus

When your head bends low and conflicts collude, or when it’s time for your mind to wander to places that make tomorrow seem less monotonous and grating.

p.s Yes, the name of the playlist is a play on an Imagine Dragons song title.

 

Perfunctory Playlist #1- Metronoma

For the days when the rain beats down upon the dusty ground, the days when the sun shines amidst smiles and frowns and when you don’t know what type of music you’re in the mood to listen to. Welcome to my chaos.