Music of the Month: January | Zafira
Hey!
January has been a pretty gloomy month but one thing that has really lifted my spirits is the amazing amount of good music that's been released throughout the month.
If you've followed me for a while, then you'd know my music taste makes 0 sense. It's all over the place but I think maybe I've finally found a type? My January playlist is probably the most normal one out of them all.
Here’s my full playlist!
One of the best things released this month was James Blake's album 'Assume Form'. I cannot put into words how much I love this. I truthfully haven't listened to him since his Retrograde days just because I never was really into his stuff but this, this is amazing. He's very similar to Bon Iver who may just be the love of my life and I just can't get enough.
Some of my favourites from this particular album are
but honestly, they're all pretty wonderful.
You know how I just said James Blake reminds me a lot of Bon Iver? This song is the most vivid and fluorescent example of that. This song reminds me so much of 33"GOD" which when I first listened to, I think I had some sort of spiritual awakening. Listening to this song was exactly the same. I shared it on my IG stories a few days ago and said that it felt like a really good headache. I can't explain it. You just need to take a moment and really listen to it.
I said I was over my indie phase a long time ago but apparently 2016 Alex Turner and Oasis loving me has resurrected from the dead. I think I have always secretly loved the Japanese House, they're super chill and relaxing. This song feels like summer and I miss the summer a lot.
I found Yung Lean a couple of years ago and he's so weird but I love love love him. He's very similar to like Earl Sweatshirt and $uicideBoy$. He's really great and I know this is a song I'll never get bored of.
Okay. I have a lot to say about this, a lot of deep stuff. It's a sad song but January is a sad month. January is like a Monday but it's 31 days long instead of just 24 hours. Anyway, the song is about heartbreak and mourning an ex-lover. The lyrics are so sadly beautiful and so well crafted. My personal fave lyrics in the song are :
“I don’t want to be small, small, sad, I want to be big, big, sad”
“I want to make a pageant of my grief”
“I’m annoyed with clothes today,
I’d rather swaddle myself in sorrow today”
I've been obsessed and infatuated with Twin Peaks ever since I impulsively watched it when I was 12. It's probably the best thing to have ever happened to me (if you've ever watched it come be my friend pls i just wanna talk about it forever). You can imagine how I was feeling when I was sat in my soft office (my bed), working and then my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist plays what faintly sounds like Angelo Badalamenti's Laura Palmer theme. I was so confused.
This song is so good. It's all about Twin Peaks because the artist that wrote it grew up near Twin Peaks which is the coolest thing ever.
where he talks a bit more about it if you're interested.
This also another pretty sad song. This was in the movie Requiem for a Dream (read more about it and some other good, underrated movies here) and the amount of impact this song has is 1. heartbreaking but also 2. breathtaking. The movie would not be a masterpiece without this song.
A lot of my friends listen to Blood Orange and they've told me to listen to him countless times but I always end up forgetting. This came up on one of my Spotify Frank Ocean song radios and it felt like sitting in a car at like 3am in the morning when you're sleepy but awake because of all the streetlights that keep catching your eyes. I don't know. It's a very calming song. It's definitely a good song for the car.
I don't even know how this ended up on my playlist but it did. I'm not mad about it. I'm not really an Ariana Grande stan, I think she's an amazing person but her music isn't really for me but I've been listening to this on repeat so maybe I am an Ariana Grande stan?
I used to love Don Broco when I was in year 11 but like many of us, I grew up and got over them. This came up on my Release Radar and I actually thought it was a new Death Grips song because of the intro but boy oh boy was I far off. This is pretty good. It's very angsty and shouty but I like it. It's making me miss the old indie rock/alternative rock days so much.
I've decided that Florence is one of my all time favourite people. I just really want to be her honestly. I don't know how someone releases an amazing album and then shortly follows with an amazing single. I love her. I also think that regulars on my bus think I'm a bit crazy when I'm aggressively lip syncing this at like 7am every morning.
If you liked the songs I've mentioned in this post, there's a lot more over on my playlist. It's embedded near the top of this post but I will also leave a link right at the bottom with links to all my other social medias.
Thank you for reading! If you like these sorts of posts let me know and I'll start doing them more regularly.
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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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