SundaySongs

I do like a meme which plays with book titles, and Karen has started this one – I’ve also seen it done by Harriet, Claire, and Jane.  A few of these will be appearing in my Top 15 of 2011 (yes, it’s gone up to fifteen – there were just too many good books.)  Have a go yourself, if you like…

My Day in Books

I began the day with A View From Downshire Hill

On my way to work I saw The Town in Bloom

and walked by People on a Bridge

to avoid The Perfect Pest

but I made sure to stop at A House in the Country.

In the office, my boss said, “How Can You Bear To Be Human?“

and sent me to research Life Among the Savages.

At lunch with Two Serious Ladies

I noticed The Gingerbread Woman

under The Skin Chairs

then went back to my desk, A Kind Man.

Later, on the journey home, I bought The Amorous Bicycle

because I have To Tell My Story

then settling down for the evening, I picked up Gin and Ginger (The Double)

and studied Exercises in Style

before saying goodnight to People Who say Goodbye.

Enjoy that?  Well, here’s a song to finish off, courtesy of Our Vicar:

Time to get festive with Sunday Songs – and the next couple of weeks will be suggestions people have emailed me (feel free to pop a link to your favourite alternative Christmas song in the comments.)  Ruth sent me a link to Christine Guldbrandsen’s ‘Surfing in the Air’:

Hope you enjoyed this take on ‘Walking in the Air’!

Despite being twins, my brother and I don’t share our taste for books, music, films… we used to like more or less the same TV shows, but even that seems to have diverged (how can anyone not love Samantha Who?? – first question mark in the title; second question mark in my question, y’all…)  However, when he likes female singers or I like male singers, we tend to agree.  And he introduced me to Amos Lee’s beautiful song ‘Colours’.  A quick peak at Wikipedia suggests Mr. Lee is now doing rather well for himself, so you might have heard of him, but this song has been on my iTunes for years now…

Have a good day :)

After four and a half years, it felt like time for a little face-lift.   I have made myself a Blog Header for the first time! I hope you like it – the pictures I chose felt appropriate, and the paper-background is actually from a page of A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee – the copy I own signed by David Garnett!   That’s the same paper that forms my new background.  I have waved goodbye to my dots… for now, at least.

(Comment facilities back to normal, after all that kerfuffle, so I hope it works.  Or works as well as anyone else suffering the vagaries of Blogger, that is!  As always, if you have problems, let me know…)

Enough of that – let’s have a song, shall we?  To be honest, I’m running out of unusual artists to feature… so you might well have come across Aimee Mann before, but ‘Wise Up’ is too beautiful a song to ignore.  Over to you, Aimee:

All previous Sunday Songs here.

I recently got a lovely covers album called Birdy and, er, by Birdy.  This is the first song she released from it – a cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’.  She has such a nice tone to her voice, it’s a bit weird to discover that she’s only 15 years old.

To watch other Sunday Songs, click here.

I bought Juliet Turner’s album Burn the Black Suit on a whim in 2004, whilst on holiday in Devon, getting ready to face the big, scary world of university…  Well, seven years later I’m still a student, and I’m still listening to Juliet.  This song, Belfast Central, is rather lovely – I especially like Juliet’s authentically thick Irish accent while singing.

There isn’t an official video – this was homemade by someone on YouTube.

For other Sunday Songs, click here.

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to feature Beth Orton…  To be honest, Beth Orton sounds best when listened to for a whole album – and I reckon Central Reservation should be on every discerning listener’s CD rack – but to give you a taste of it, here is the first track from the album: Stolen Car.  Enjoy!

All previous Sunday Songs are here.

You might well recognise Darren Hayes’ voice as being one half of Savage Garden, but this song isn’t hugely like their stuff.  I think this song is quite moving, and I like the lyrics of the second verse especially.  Have a listen on your Sunday!

I spent most of my waking hours yesterday baking (pictures and recipes to follow – but not for Paul Hollywood’s foccacio which did not work, chuh) and quite a few of them listening to this song.  Florence and the Machine aren’t (isn’t?) as obscure as most of the artists I feature here, at least in this country, but this new song ‘Shake It Out’ is too good not to share.  Enjoy!  (And don’t try to delve too deeply into the horse metaphor… I had no idea what she was singing about.)

This suggestion for a Sunday Song comes at least third-hand – Carly told Clare; Clare told me; I’m telling you.  I suspect soon a lot of us will have heard of Lana Del Rey, who (quite accurately) describes herself as “a gangster Nancy Sinatra” – this song took a couple of listens before I loved it, and now I’m addicted.  Over to you, Lana, and ‘Video Games’: