Love songs of spring ♥

 Hello!

 Since I last posted on here, in January, spring seems to have come to Manchester! There is blossom on the ground, the birds are singing... And I just can't help feeling happy.

 A few other things have happened since I last posted: I have turned 20, I have had several important University exams, and I have made big steps in trying to become a published novelist. Re. the novel, watch this space: I really hope to have good new for you one day!

 2014 is going scarily fast - I really hope it slows down a bit so I can enjoy it while it's here, and make it a year to remember.

♥

 What music have I been listening to? Well, I've been listening to On ira, a French song by Jean-Jacques Goldman.

 I first discovered most of Mr Goldman's music when I was at sixth-form college, and listening to his songs always brings me back there. Sitting in the infamous "Islands" computer area, with my earphones in, waiting for my bus and supposedly doing some work while actually just listening to the song. Happy days.

 If you speak French and are interested, I wrote a piece in French about Jean-Jacques - click on the link to read it, or click his name above the video to read another piece I did about him in English. (Yes, I'm a huge fan!)

 ♥

 There's also All Out of Love by Air Supply. 

 I heard this for the first time in a long time on the radio last year, and assumed it was a woman singing the choruses - I was in for a surprise!

 The radio DJ described this as "one of the best love songs ever written," making it sound, as DJ's have a tendency to, like this sentiment were universal. When it played, I thought, it isn't that amazing. 

 However, I did like it and I started listening to it on YouTube, and one day I heard the beautiful simplicity and sadness of the opening bars and realised it is an incredible song. One of the best love songs ever written? Quite possibly. I'm really glad I heard it on the radio that day.

♥

 After I listened to All Out of Love on YouTube just now, Right Here Waiting came up in the suggested videos, and I decided to share it here as it fits my developing theme of simple but beautiful love songs.

 This was one of the first songs I ever knew. It was on a compilation album called "Bitter Suites" that my parents used to listen to when I was very young. It was probably the first song on the album that I learned to recognise and to like. 

 The words meant little to me and I couldn't understand his accent a lot of the time, so the song was less a story, something with meaning, than a beautiful series of sounds and - in my head - colours and patterns. 

 Soon I knew most of the songs on the album, and I think I might do a blog post about it (so again, watch this space!) but Right Here Waiting was always, and will always be, special to me.

♥

 Another song that follows in a similar vein is In Too Deep by Genesis.

 I heard this on the radio in the car late last year. I liked it. I was pleased, as I was looking out for Genesis songs I might like, having spent a vast amount of 2013 listening to what was undoubtedly my song of the year, Follow You, Follow Me.

 For a while, In Too Deep was nice but not mindblowing. Then something changed. I realised it was playing in my head at random times. I dreamed of singing it at karaoke. While it will never replace Follow You, Follow Me in my affections, it has become another song whose simplicity, for me, makes it a classic.

♥

 I'll end this list of simple but effective love songs with one of my favourite such songs: I Want You, by The Silencers.

 My parents used to play this at home, and I quite liked it. Then when I was at sixth-form I played it to myself and I realised I really liked it. It has become one of my favourite songs. So simple, so beautiful. It's near the top of my list of "songs I will learn to play first if I ever master the guitar." It would be just wonderful to be able to play it and sing it with joy and pride and so much love.

♥

 I've just realised that I have managed to collate a song each from France, Australia, the US, England and Scotland. This wasn't intentional and just shows that all over the world people are writing simple, beautiful love songs - it is a genre that spans continents and cultures and that we all can enjoy and respond to.

 Well, night's coming in and it's nice and cool, and people are milling about outside, probably unable to believe their luck that spring seems to have come overnight. I certainly appreciate this change in the weather - good weather really can lift your mood. Time for spring, for blossom, for lighter nights and birdsong and feeling great ♥

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: On ira - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1998

All Out of Love - Air Supply - 1980

Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx - 1989

In Too Deep - Genesis - 1986

I Want You - The Silencers - 1991

Still following...

 Hello, my dear readers!

 I'm sorry that I haven't been able to post much recently, but I've had a very busy summer with various projects to complete and two wonderful holidays in Wales and Germany.

 I'm looking forward to the start of the new academic year - my second year at Uni! I remember my first post on this blog after I started Uni last year. How time flies! It really doesn't feel like a year ago.

 I wanted to share with you a song that has sort of defined this summer for me - I discovered it in May or June and have been listening to it since.

 It is... Follow You Follow Me by Genesis.

 It stirs up such emotion in me... It's so beautiful. The words, the singing, the music and the production are all brilliant.

 Listening to it now, I've realised just how many memories are now attached to it for me. I think it will always make me happy and remind me of the summer of 2013.

 I hope you enjoyed this post; you can look forward to me posting much more often in the weeks to come.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Song: Follow You Follow Me - Genesis - 1978

JSC: Happiness is...

 Hello!

 You are maybe wondering what JSC stands for. It stands for July Song Challenge, and is a challenge I have invented for myself using the daily prompts of the Fat Mum Slim July Photo Challenge.

 Basically the original challenge is to take a photo each day of the month on a specific theme. I decided to twist it to pick a song that I feel suits each theme and share it with you, my readers, along with the story of why this song is important to me, and why it fits the theme if it isn't obvious.

 The story of my challenge is that I decided I wanted to choose a song a day for all of July, and that each song must have a theme. I wanted the themes to come from an external source rather than me making them up as I wanted a real challenge where I may have to really think to find a song that fits.

 My friend Kylie (click green link for her blog) had done the FMS photo challenge a previous month which was how I had heard of the monthly challenges and I decided it would be a good source of a daily theme. So, please note: I don't have any links or endorsement with Fat Mum Slim or the photo challenge; I'm simply using it as a source of daily themes.

 Day 1's theme is "Happiness is..." I had to think for a bit, as there are many songs that make me happy but in the end I settled for Love Changes (Everything) by Climie Fisher.

 This was my second-favourite song for a bit - my favourite being Is This Love? by Alison Moyet. The reason why the latter is not my happiness song is that I just feel Love Changes (Everything) is more upbeat and therefore better fits the theme.

 It a song that makes you happy and hopeful and you just want to get up and dance to it! Well, I do; who knows, I may be in a minority, but you cannot deny that it is a song that fills you with hope - even if things are going badly, love can change everything.

 Plus it is a beautiful and well-produced song that is simply nice on the ears and I think would make enjoyable listening - and make you happy - even if you couldn't understand English, because the tone of the song is just so positive.

 I wrote a post about this song when I first started this blog two years ago, at which time I was obsessed with the song; feel free to check it out.

 So, I intend to pick a song a day. I probably won't post daily, as I once did that for a bit and I saw these posts got less views than others on the blog, which suggests that people maybe don't have time to see each daily post before the next one arrives. So I'll probably be posting three or four days worth of songs at a time.

 I hope you enjoy them! Also, watch out for none-song-challenge-related posts as there will be some of them as well. I have a post linking royalty and music planned to celebrate the birth of the royal baby, who is due some time this month, so watch this space!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Song: Love Changes (Everything) - Climie Fisher - 1987

Alison Moyet

 Hello my dear readers (whom I love very much),

 I am currently in the middle of a busy exam period at college, so I have been doing lots of work and revision. But I have also tried to find time to listen to some music as well, to help me stay as relaxed as possible and not get too stressed by all the extra work.

 At the minute I am listening to a lot of music by Alison Moyet; I have already mentioned her in this blog a while back because her song "Is This Love?" is one of my favourite songs of all time.

 It is just so happy and can always make me smile, and the video is lovely as well because it is a group of people having a really good time together (in Cornwall apparently; I've just looked it up) without too much of the melodrama, acting and posing that you get in a lot of music videos, especially ones from the 80s which was when this song came out. (I do love the 80s though! And 80s videos. I just like this one particularly for daring to be a bit different.)

 Another song of hers which I adore is "Invisible." I first heard this on the radio and was surprised when at the end they said that the song was by her - I had thought I would have recognised her voice, but I just hadn't. I'm not saying it doesn't sound like her; I just didn't make the connection.

 The first twenty seconds of this record are so exquisitely beautiful - the musicianship is amazing, and it justs sounds sublime. One of those musical moments that has been toned absolutely perfectly. Just fantastic. And the song goes on to be lovely as well - a very sad story, with a bitter-sweet melody; they just match so well while managing to still form quite an upbeat song. 

 "Like a merry-go-round, I'm going up; going down..."

 I must also mention "Only You," a gorgeous song she sung as one half of the duo Yazoo (the other half being Vince Clarke, who wrote the song). There was also a famous cover by the group, The Flying Pickets, which was sung a capella, and is truly amazing. But I still prefer the original, because I adore Alison ♥ 

 There are various versions; I like this orchestral one but there are more synth-based versions so I would give them a listen to as well.

 I remember being set a task in art at high school; to produce a piece of art based on a piece of music; as Kandinsky did a lot. I chose this song, and my picture was a pastel drawing of circles and dots and swirls of pink and blue and red. I just find the sound so magical, yet peaceful. I love it. The bit where she sings, "And I need you..." and she sounds like she really means it. That's my favourite lyric.

 So, I hope this has been nice for Alison Moyet fans to reminisce - and also to celebrate her, as she has until recently still been producing new material, so she is by no means a singer of the past. She is a singer of the past, present and maybe of the future - and certainly her songs are timeless and the themes in them - mainly different views on love - will always be relevant. 

 And if you are new to this singer and her music, I hope I have provided a good introduction to her, and that I have done her justice. The three songs I have chosen to highlight are only the tip of the iceberg; she has so much great music out there, so I recommend you have a listen and see what you think. You may find you have a new favourite singer.

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Songs: Is This Love? - Alison Moyet - 1986

           Invisible - Alison Moyet - 1984

           Only You - Yazoo - 1982