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I realize I haven’t posted (nor found) my official Song For The Summer yet. Last year, I gave you Mika (with “Grace Kelly”), whom I discovered mere minutes before the radios did. So what about this year?

I found it. My Summer Song. It is “I’m yours” by Jason Mraz. It’s jazzy and smooth, occasionally Jamiroquai-ish and slightly Bob Dylanish, and even a tiny bit Bob Marleyish, and very summerish. It can be found on a CD with the catching title “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things”

I also highly recommend Jason Mraz’s website, which is downright awesome. Nuff said. Back to texting.

Word: Purgative
Form: diamond poem

purgative

cleansing cathartic

liberating redemptive tense fraught

strained fierce inhibited

costive

I’ve got a new favourite. She’s on constant repeat, on my computer, in my CD player, on my mp3-player, and in my heart. And of course, she’s Swedish again. Those frickin’ Scandinavians know how to make music.

I talk about Anna Ternheim (Here is her mypace account? with tons of music samples).

Anyone associating my music with hard beats, loud guitars, gothic and indie rock stuff only, be warned. As I previously said, my tastes are widespread.

Anna Ternheim is an exceptional talent. Her music is very emotional, soft and fragile. Her voice reminds me of no one, really, so unique is she. It goes slightly in the Norah Jones or Loreena McKennit direction, but the music is very different. It mostly reminds me of Nick Cave, especially his style in the Murder Ballads, but I’ve seen PJ Harvey and Suzanne Vega comparisons, too (though I tend to disagree with the later). Do not believe the reviews that label her “folkmusic”, they lie.

Her voice is, despite all its seeming fragility, strong enough to carry you throughout a song with ony a guitar or a piano accompanying her. Right now, she takes me to far, far places. That’s what she does.She entices? you and takes you away.

? I recommend to try out her debut album “Somebody Outside”, first. I got her second one, too (Separation Road), and it’s just as good – but start with the first one anyways.

It has surely happened? to you before: You listen to a song on the radio, and you’re hooked. The song has seeped through your bones and taken hold of you. You need to hear it again, you need to have it. And NOW.

It happens to me, too. But there’s a strange thing: Whenever it happens, there is a, let’s say, 80% chance that the song is from a Scandinavian singer or band.

What is it with these frickin’ Scandinavians? Why do they just make better music than the rest of the world?

In the 70ies, they gave us Abba, one of the most successful bands of all times.? You need not like them, but you cannot argue they were worth their money.

In the 80ies, there was A-Ha. And Björk. And many more.

And nowadays? Nighwish. HIM. The Hives. Kent.? The Ark. Madrugada. The list can be continued for hours, my newest additions being Lovex and ? Sunrise Avenue.

Those last two were a funny find. I was listening to a radio station and heard that song, “Guardian Angel“, and I thought “Wow, cool song, gotta check out the band. Googled them and voilá – they’re from Finland. While I was doing so, I listened to the radio again, and there was this other song, “Fairytale Gone Bad“. Very moody, intense song, great voice. Good, while I’m at it, I can check that out, too. Found the band: Sunrise Avenue. And guess what: Yep, right: Finland. What IS it with these frickin’ Scandinavians?

Needless to say that Scandinavia has an extraordinary amount of metal music, especially black metal, and many dark and gothic bands besides. But be it pop, rock, metal or goth? – it always seems to me those bands and singers have something in common. Some secret only those born under a northern sun know. A shared mood, some inner tune their heart murmurs when the sun goes down for months at a time? I don’t know. I just know they can enchant me with their music like no one else can.

AND they got the Roskilde Festival. Some things just aren’t fair.

Music post again.

I prefer women’s voices to men’s. There are exceptions, of course.

I really hate high men’s voices. There’s usually no exception. Except, naturally, Freddie, whom I will love till the end of time (but he doesn’t count as a high voice, he just had an incredible range).

There’s seems to be another exception now. The summer has started with a song that is all I usually abhor in music – and which I, for some reason, am addicted to.

It’s Mika’s “Grace Kelly“. The newcomer from Beirut lives in London, a city that hatches the best in indie pop. That doesn’t say that the song IS indie pop. It’s … fun. I haven’t listened to the whole CD yet, so I cannot say much about him as a musician, but I will.

Is it just me, or does the guy sound a bit like Freddie? That would explain it.

OK, Chrome grumbles that my Pirates Of The Caribbean trailer is ruining the page layout. Which is right. But I don’t care.

And as we were talking about the PotC movie, I’ll tell you about another music genre I have a soft spot for: Movie scores. I mean scores. Not soundtracks, which are a more or less random collection of the song titles found in a film, but scores, the real symphonies that make a film.

? Suits me, doesn’t it? As I said below, I am extremely manipulable by music. And the most manipulative music is found in movie scores. It is written solely to evoce emotion. It’s written to make you teary or thrilled or enthusiastic. And I like to be made by music.

When I was working as an author for the German TV, I used to have a little game. Try this out, its results are amazing.

You need a CD player in your car, or have some scores on cassette. Park your car anywhere in a busy street. And then play some different score titles: A love scene title, something soft and happy, a fighting scene title. And while listening, watch this very same street scene and see how differently you feel about it with the different score songs affecting you. It’s amazing.
A sunny, friendly spring morning in a busy street can suddenly turn into a brooding athmosphere with desaster threatening on the horizon, if you just put on Rob D’s “Clubbed to Death” while you watch it.

(Here’s song and clip on YouTube, just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about: Rob Dougan, “Clubbed to Death”)

I used this song a dozen times when I made films and reports for the TV, and it always worked as a catalyst for emotions.

OK, you gotta like them scores. They’re like classical symphonies in modern clothes and have nothing of the easy-going, soft pop music stuff flotsam washed ashore by your local radio station.

But if you are ready for some REAL drama and emotions, and for some unusual music, try out some of these – click “more” for my CD recommendations in Original Motion Picture Scores. (more…)

This was a discussion at my fave site, Worth. I heard some of my american Co-Worthians talk about Rammstein, which, of course, is a German band. Rammstein? *yawn* I admit the lead singer is a charismatic asshole, but an asshole neverthless.

? So, as I said in the Worth forums: If you wanna listen to some good hard beats AND some not-mainstream German stuff, go for bagpipes.

Here are the (pseudo-medieval inspired, hard-beat, wave, dark and/or gothic? bagpipes and drums) bands of the day:

In Extremo

Corvus Corax

Saltatio Mortis

Tanzwut

Schandmaul?

Subway to Sally? (a bit less medieval, a bit more gothic)

Qntal? (a compilation of Dark-Wave-Gothic-Medieval stuff)

Morgenstern? (I fear there’s no english version of their site)

Letzte Instanz

So, if you like Rammstein, you might enjoy these, they work very well as a substitute.

… said the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. And so I opened a new category today. Music.

I must admit that Master ‘Loot? has something to do with it, too. It seems he wanted me to write something about music, so I do.

I don’t think there is anyone in this wide world as influenceable by music as I am. Of course, music is made to manipulate our emotions, but with me, it works to the extreme.

I can be perfectly happy, but when I hear Freddie sing “Too much love will kill you” -? I will cry. I can be in a real deep depression – music will pull me out of it. (As depressions go, I don’t turn on my music when I’m depressive, but brood in silence – until I find enough strength to turn on the music).

I am doomed to fall in love whenever I hear Steven Tyler sing “I don’t wanna miss a thing” … my husband keeps the CD locked up at all times.

And when I’m really exhausted and my body refuses to work, give me some pushing music and I will continue until I drop, ignoring even my body functions. As said Master ‘Loot stated “Everyone has a price, and mine is a good beat” – so it seems to be for me, too. So here is my new music category, and I’ll put stuff in here from time to time. Enjoy.