Music of the Month: October
Hi!
I can’t believe how cold it is and I’m so confused to how it’s November already! I don’t really remember what I’ve done this month other than be as miserable as the weather and spend waaay too much time of buses (many thanks to my local roadworks). I’ve had a lot more time to listen to new things and I’m excited to share them with you.
As always, here’s a link to the full playlist for this month: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/55WAJhoACEPXLOEMFpcD6g?si=ZHzcO6GaQlOwkehm4yyA7g
HUBERT LENOIR
I’ve been madly in love with La Blogotheque recently. I’ve followed them for quite some time now but this past month, I’ve been watching their videos on repeat because they are easily the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. If you don’t know who they are, La Blogotheque are a music channel on YouTube who film and produce incredibly unique covers by a vast range of artists.
This is how I found Hubert Lenoir. I honestly can’t tell if it was him speaking French, him singing or the way the video was filmed that made me fall in love but he’s easily my favourite person this month. Watch him perform Sucre et Sel for La Blogotheque here.
My favourite songs by him are Momo, Wild and Free and Fille de personne II. These are 3 songs are so different from each other. Momo is super chill, something you’d listen to whilst reading or when it’s raining outside. It’s like a soft jazz pop instrumental. That was a lot of words wow. Wild and Free is similar in the sense that it’s another chill, soft jazz kinda song but this has a slight melancholic tone. Fille de personne II however, is the perfect happy song that makes me want to dance around my room anytime I listen to it.
2. RAMI KHALIFé
I also found Rami Khalifé on La Blogotheque and was left speechless by his performance. He just goes completely wild on the piano on a beach and I love it. You can see how passionate he is and it’s beautiful. The way the video is shot too is breathtaking. You can watch it here.
Along with Resist, some of my other favourite songs by him are The Dangling Rope and Spotlight which are similar to Resist in the sense that they start off a little sad but get even more wild as they go on. It’s great.
3. LIGHTS UP - HARRY STYLES
I’m waiting to face some sort of abuse from my family and friends for putting this in here but I really do love Harry’s solo work.
I’m not ashamed to say I know the lyrics to this song off by heart. It’s just so good I have nothing else to say.
4. EDEN
Words can’t express how happy 16 year old me is because Eden is back with new music!
My favourite from his latest singles is definitely untitled. It’s so melancholic and reminds me a lot of his songs from i think you think too much of me. It’s the perfect song for the end of summer . I also really love 909 and his latest single, projector. These are a little more upbeat. Eden is my favourite person to listen to at this time of year because his music reflects this season and how I feel during it so well.
5. KEATON HENSON
When Keaton Henson announced he was releasing a new album this month I think I cried a tiny bit. Keaton has a really soft place in my heart because his music either makes me feel like I’m madly in love or about to cry my eyes out.
This album is a little different since it is a classical album. I don’t really listen to a lot of classical stuff except from Classic FM at insane times during the night but this is so good. The album explores various themes such as trauma, mental illness, stress and anxiety and you can hear it in the music. My favourites are currently Breathing Out, The Falling and Initium but I could listen to the entire album for days on end.
6. DHL - FRANK OCEAN
Words cannot even express my excitement for the return of Frank Ocean. It’s exactly what I needed this month to lift my spirits. I have phases throughout the year where I’ll listen to Blond on repeat for weeks and I was in a Blond phase when DHL was released. It was so so so heartwarming. I don’t have a lot to say about this but I’m over the moon that Frank is back.
7. JELANI ARYEH
I mentioned Jelani Aryeh in last month’s MOTM but he released a new album this month and I’m incredibly smitten with it.
The album is a beauty, his voice, the lyrics, the themes he explores are all just *chef’s kiss*. I’ve been listening to the entire album literally everyday and everyday I fall in love with a new song on the album. Today I’m obsessed with Earl Grey and Gloss. I personally relate to Earl Grey quite a bit because it sounds like he’s going through a little bit of a personal crisis which I mean, same. Gloss however is about fame and worth and even though the lyrics are a little mellow, it’s a very pretty song.
8. GENGAHR
I don’t think I’ve listened to Gengahr since my college days and I was going through a little bit of an indie phase. I remember listening to She’s a Witch and Bathed in Light on repeat and I still love listening to them now here and there because they are great songs.
Over the past month or so, they’ve released some new singles called Everything & More and Atlas Please and they’re amazing. They’re still the indie band I used to listen to but they’ve become so much better. I’m so excited to hear their new album. Also they’re on tour with Bombay Bicycle Club at the minute and I could not think of a better duo.
HERE’S A FEW MORE SONGS I’M LOVING…
If you’ve enjoyed this, go check out my full playlist for this October here.
Thanks for reading!
Lots of love,
Music of the Month: September | Zafira
Here we are, 2 months away from the end of the year! I said I’d start doing these more frequently so here I am with another edition of Music of the Month.
September has been a little bit of a wild month, uni started and that completely flipped my usual timetable and of course, I’ve been insanely busy. But one thing I have made time for this month is music. I’ll usually sit and do nothing for an hour or two and listen to something, it’s really helped to handle my stress and wind down.
Here are a few of my favourite songs this month! You can listen to my full playlist this month here.
DOMINIC FIKE
I think the first thing I even heard by Dominic Fike was ‘King of Everything’ and that was enough to make me fall so so so in love with him. The instrumental bit right at the beginning of the song might just be the prettiest thing I’ve heard all year. He’s a great mix of either very chill and mellow stuff or upbeat stuff that makes you want to dance around your room.
Some other faves of mine are ‘3 Nights’ which immediately put a smile on my face. It’s one of those songs that make you so happy and put you in the greatest of moods. I’m also loving ‘Phone Numbers’ which features Kenny Beats and the two of them together are a match made in heaven. This is another upbeat song and I love nothing more than listening to this in morning to wake me up and get ready for the day.
2. The XX - Seasons Run
Other than being impeccably named for this transitional time of year, this song has been a favourite of mine ever since it came out. The XX have played such an integral part of my teenage years so starting off my second year of uni without them would feel very wrong.
p.s this entire album is amazing.
3. JELANI ARYEH
These past few months, there has been one man and one man only I’ve had a vast amount of love for and that’s Jelani Aryeh.
‘The Garden’ popped up onto one of playlists around August time and I had it on repeat for weeks. It’s such a pretty song. It’s very calm and chill which is Jelani’s whole thing. It makes me feel like I’m in love and makes my heart a little bit warm.
I’ve also been loving ‘Patagonia’ which I can imagine listening to when I’m driving off into the sunset. Like ‘The Garden’, it’s calm and chill but also has a hint of mellowness.
I can’t believe Jelani Aryeh is the same age as me and is creating prettier things than I ever will.
4. CELESTE - STRANGE
Since we’re on the topic of mellow songs, this is probably the saddest song on my playlist this month.
Celeste has the voice of what I imagine an angel to sound like. I think she sounds a little like Amy Winehouse in the sense that she has such a strong voice and I love that.
This song is all about disconnecting with people and how you can go from knowing someone really well to not knowing them all. It’s about people changing and how the entire process of that is strange. It fits in perfectly with this time of year because when I think of September, I think of change. Everything is always changing in September whether that’s education wise or even the seasons.
There’s also a version she did for COLORS and it’s beautiful. You can watch it here.
5. FRANK OCEAN - BLONDE
I can’t even begin to explain how Blonde has impacted my life and how many times a week I go back to it. This month however, I spent a few days listening to the entire album on repeat and it feels like 2016 all over again.
This month I’ve been really into ‘Nights’ which I like listening to at night lol and ‘Godspeed’ because I heard it in the Waves trailer which is one of those A24 movies which always the best. I’m so excited to see it when it comes out. I have a feeling it’s going to be a good movie.
I’ve also been really loving listening to ‘Facebook Story’. I like the instrumental music in the background and obviously, the really obnoxious French accent but there’s something about it that makes me want to listen to it over and over again.
6. matthew dear - modafinil blues
I listened to a podcast this month called The Clearing which was amazing. It’s about a woman named April who suspects her father is a serial killer, the podcast focuses on what happens after she makes a call to a detective that leads to her father’s arrest and unwinds the truth behind several murders and explores whether her father was guilty or not. It’s wild. It might actually be the craziest story I’ve ever heard. You can listen to it here.
At the end of the podcast, they play Modafinil Blues by Matthew Dear and the song fits the story perfectly. It’s also a pretty good song. Very catchy.
7. bombay bicycle club
When I first heard of Bombay Bicycle Club I was like “wow finally I’ve found a great brand for a brown girl who’s white on the inside like me”. But in all seriousness, they're one of my all time favourite bands.
At the end of August they released a new song after 5 very long years called ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’ and it’s just as good as their old stuff. They’re still as wonderful as they were in 2014.
I’ve also been re-listening to the ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’ album on repeat for weeks now because it’s one of my favourite albums ever. The first three songs on the album which are ‘Overdone’, ‘It’s Alright Now’ and ‘Carry Me’ are my most listened to songs this month. I think they’re quite happy toned songs and make me smile whenever I listen to them.
8. BROCKHAMPTON - ginger
Now, is it really a music of the month without mentioning Brockhampton? They recently released Ginger and it’s changed my life a little bit.
My favourite songs on the album are definitely ‘SUGAR’ and ‘NO HALO’. SUGAR is very lovey dovey which I quite like whereas NO HALO is more about the band’s struggles with a lot of different things. I love the chorus of NO HALO so much. It was so hard to pick only a few songs off this album because the entire thing is so so so great.
HERE’S A FEW MORE SONGS I’M LOVING…
If you’ve enjoyed this, go check out my full playlist for this September here.
Thanks for reading!
Lots of love,
Music of the Month: September | Zafira
Hi!
It's been awhile since I've done one of these but I am back with the best list of songs and artists that I am enjoying this month!
Over the past few months, I haven't really been listening to a lot of new music. I don't really know why but I just wasn't into anything that had been released. It felt like I was just listening to old music that had been recycled in the worst way possible. It felt as if artists were just putting 0 effort into the songs they were releasing. But then September came around and out of nowhere, the most amazing songs and artists came spurting out of nowhere and it really was a blessing. There is nothing better than starting off the most stressful month of the year with the greatest playlist.
If you follow me on Twitter / Instagram you probably most definitely know who I'm going to talk about first. Brockhampton. They are the loves of my life and I think they're the best boyband out there right now. Everything they release is new and so exciting and I always look forward to their new releases.
It was hard to pick a favourite from the album since I love them all but these are my top 3:
1. LOOPHOLE
How and why is this only 53 seconds long.
2. TAPE
So this plus Loophole is revolutionary. They just go so well together and I love the whole calming instrumental bit (sorry for my terrible musical vocab). It's so cinematic I can imagine it so vividly in some sort of movie or film. I love love love it.
3. FABRIC
This gets me so pumped about the day. Even though the lyrics are quite deep and hard hitting, the beat and rhythm are quick paced and I feel like this would be a pretty decent song to work out to as well. It starts off quite slow but then slowly quickens. I also really love the chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-0NYnb-fh0
This song was on my Spotify discover playlist a few weeks ago which I had stopped checking for a while because I'm usually left disappointed. My discover playlist is filled mainly with soppy indie music which isn't really what I'm into these days but I ended up finding this jem which I am obsessed with. It's extremely catchy. It's a song definitely meant to stay in your head and is 100% a perfect song to sing in the shower. Not to be a complete weirdo but 'daunting' is such a good word right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOwlY9ITazA
So alt-J recently released a new version of their very loved album 'RELAXER' which is almost as good as the original. This newer version is called 'REDUXER' and features remixes and many different versions of the songs on RELAXER. This particular one features GoldLink who is so good. I love GoldLink a lot too and the mix of all of these people is such a perfect combination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9b4UvTeQxQ
I've mentioned $uicideboy$ quite a few times in this series but how can I not? They are just too good. This song is from their newest album 'I Want to Die in New Orleans' which is overall is pretty okay but this song is by far my favourite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uFv9Ts7Sdw
What sort of basic teenage blogger would I be if I didn't mention Lana Del Rey at least once in my posts? But I really do love her. I love her essence and her music and just everything about her. This is my most favoured from her latest releases because I love the lyrics. I also watched the music vid for this and it's so beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEiMnOr0-nM
I have never ever been disappointed by a Sticky Fingers song. This is their newest single and I wish this was released earlier because it is the perfect song for a summer's day. I love the lyrics and the nostalgic sort of feel to this song. It's just very very very good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzbRHsyjIzk
A lot of bands and artists released new albums this month and one of these bands was the Neighbourhood. Like many people, I fell in love with them when I heard Sweater Weather which was released 5 years ago. I like many of their earlier songs but when it comes to more recent songs, I've been a bit iffy with them and I'm not a big fan of many. However 'Paradise' reminded me a lot of their older songs and I fell in love instantly. I listened to a snippet of it on Jesse Rutherford's Instagram a few weeks ago before it was released and I knew it would be one of many faves this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGvS285hfjA
When listening to SYML I always get a very sad and mopey vibe, like I usually just want to lie in bed and cry when listening to his stuff but this song is so different. It's so upbeat and different. I like it a lot. I really hope he releases more stuff like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Qzzggn--s
This song changed my life. The music video stupidly amazing but song itself is so so good. I can defo see myself slow dancing (on my own) in the dark to this. It's perfect. I love Joji.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8LIRtPnuA8
Before many of you start questioning why I put this in here, take a moment and just listen to the song. It's iconic. Life changing. A masterpiece. There's a reason I've been listening to this since I was 6 years old. It's a song I'll always have in my head and I'll be listening to this for ever. I think we must have under estimated JoJo when this came out because she taught us so much in just one song.
That's all I have for this month but if you click here then you can access my entire playlist for this month. There's so much more on there for you to listen to if you enjoyed the songs I mentioned. I don't think this will be a monthly series just because the songs on my playlist don't change drastically but I'll most likely be posting one every other month or so.
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Music of the Month: January | Zafira
(the main reason I make playlists is so I can use my own pictures for the cover picture)
This. Month. Has. Felt. So. Long.
Hi! January is finally over and it's February. For some time now, I've wanted to do a post like this one because music is such a big part of my life. I'm always listening to music, whether I'm working or staring at the ceiling, there's always something playing the background. I have a playlist for every occasion and mood but, my absolute favourite ones are my monthly playlists. I have quite a wide music taste, it changes all the time and I thought it would be quite an interesting thing to share.
Here are some of the songs that I've really enjoyed this month:
After the whole 'whip my hair' thing, I was 98% sure I wasn't going to ever hear anything remotely decent by Willow but her newest music has proved me completely wrong. Some of my favourites are Wait a Minute, 9 and Israel. Her voice is so sweet and amazing. When I heard Jaden Smith's album SYRE a couple months ago and heard her on it and I was so shocked. She has the voice of a literal angel.
Wait a Minute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIYCHbOTab4
9:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usuHRa9MNIc
Israel:
When Saturation III came out in December, I was so hooked, the obsession carried on into this month. I had heard a couple of their songs here and there over the past couple of years but Saturation III was the first album of theirs that I had listened to all the way through. This month I've been trying to listen to couple more and so far I completely adore TOKYO, SWEET and BOOGIE.
TOKYO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLspqhIoJQQ
SWEET:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nDsnJH30fs
BOOGIE:
The Neighbouhood released a new EP this month and I fell in love with their stuff like I always do. I'm pretty sure I sat and listened to the entire To Imagine album on repeat for an entire week this month. It's some good stuff.
Jorja Smith recently released a song with Stormzy called 'Let Me Down' and it's insanely good. I never thought I'd ever be listening to anything with Stormzy in just because usually it isn't the type of music I find appealing. But, he was so good in this song and his voice goes really well with Jorja's. It's a banger.
Let Me Down:
I always thought BORNS was just another typical indie band but when I saw the lead singer in a dashing Gucci suit on the front cover of the Blue Madonna album, I was intrigued and couldn't help but give them a listen. They're so great. My favourite song of the album so far is Iceberg.
Iceberg:
One of Kevin's songs was on my Spotify daily mixes sometime last month and I loved it. It was Miserable America and I was enjoying it so much I forgot to add it to my songs. A couple of weeks passed and I was humming the song trying to figure out what it was. Turns out, all I had to do was type America into my Spotify search and there it was, waiting for me to listen to it.
Miserable America:
I used to listen to quite a lot of Pvris a few years ago and I remember being completely in love with their Spotify acoustic sessions. I don't really know why I stopped listening to them but when I was browsing through old playlists, I rediscovered them and checked if they had anything new out and found a couple of jewels. Same Soul is such a beautiful song, I listen to it so many times a day and I love love love it.
Same Soul:
Rejjie Snow came out with Dear Annie Pt 1 this month and it's some of his best stuff. I love the album cover, it's what made me want to listen to it even more. I know they say not to judge a book by it's cover but I can't help it. It's quite an aesthetic album cover. The songs on it are just as good as the cover itself, they're amazing. My no.1 fav is currently Egyptian Luvr.
Egyptian Luvr:
I think I first heard of Young Fathers from the Trainspotting 2 Soundtrack. I loved loved loved Get Out and I still listen to it pretty frequently now. It's just one of those songs that I'll never get bored of. In My View was on one of my daily mix playlists and the first few seconds made me immediately add into my own library. It's such a good song and I know I'll be listening to it for a very long time.
Get Out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7UmjvbmHQM
In My View:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQFPikYSalg
If you're interested in some more of my music faves this month, you can check out my January playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/11144523237/playlist/
I also post a lot of my favourite songs over on my Instagram stories so go follow me on there for more!
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