One tune that really excited me

I was really surprised when I found myself listening to the new Mavi Phoenix record Boys Toys and liked it from the first moment on. Normally I’m not really into Cloud-Rap, Trap or too much auto-tune. I’m much more of an indie girl. But there is something about the new record which just really got me. Especially the track 12 Inches where he sings about prejudices towards transgenders. The whole album is about Mavi transforming from a woman to a man and how hard this step has been for him. It’s probably the mix of catchy pop-and raptunes with strong and honest lyrics what really got me. Although I can never really imagine what Mavi experienced I feel like through his music I somehow could. Give it a spin if you can.

One wonderful (re)discovery

Recently I talked to a friend about the German pianist Martin Kohlstedt who I interviewed a few months ago. During this chat we found out that we both used to listen to the album Small Hours by Marbert Rocel about 8 years ago (it’s a band project in which Kohlstedt has been involved for some time). As I forgot about the fact that this album existed over the last few years, I decided to listen to it shortly after the conversation. And I must admit, it was pretty nice! It’s still a great and soulful electro-pop record which you should definitely give a try.

One thing that really annoyed me

I am probably risking a few haters now, but I really don’t know why people hype the music by The Weeknd so much these days. Maybe it’s me who is the weird person here. Until today I also can’t understand the hype around Frank Ocean’s music. For me, those two kind of fall into the same musical direction to which I can’t really get access. You can believe me, I tried, but I failed. So, the new The Weeknd record After Hours hasn’t been a nice musical experience for me, admittedly it just annoyed me somehow. Yeah, the production is great, but Abel Tesfaye’s voice just doesn’t please me at all. To me it sounds like he constantly complains about something and wails in a pretty annoying voice. In my imagination such a hyped and popular artist can’t have many reasons to complain about. Especially the new single Until I Bleed Out is one of those songs I will never understand. I mean it’s catchy and everything, but yeah, still don’t understand the hype.

One thing that really surprised me

Woodkid is finally back! Already seven years have passed by since the release of his terrific debut album The Golden Age which I really enjoyed back in those days. The French director and musician spent these seven years working on other projects, including recording a movie soundtrack and directing videos for other artists with no sign of new Woodkid music. But now Yoann Lemoine is finally back with new material for the second Woodkid album which will be released soon (the date is not official yet). His first new single Goliath comes along with a pretty epic video. As I really loved his first record, I’m very exited about his second one. And I think you also should be!

Just a random thought

Admittedly, at first it was pretty hard for me to choose music which mattered to me during the last few weeks. These days, I find myself using music only as a background thing. Pretty often I only click “play” on Spotify and an algorithm plays music that fits with my taste. Most of the time it really does, so I got kind of lazy in that matter. Even in this quarantine situation, I don’t actively listen to music. Only when I take a run. Yeah, even then I don’t only listen to music because I obviously run, but I kind of fall into this tunnel where I forget about the fact that I’m taking a run and find myself just listening to the music. That’s also when I discovered that new Maxi Phoenix record. When I normally go to work or to the university I must travel quite far with the train and that’s also the perfect situation for me to listen to whole records. Just looking outside the window and concentrating on the music. But like everyone I spend most of the time at home now and there’s no travelling. I don’t know how everybody else listens to music these days, but I can imagine that many people also do something else while checking out new music. I am part of this, but sometimes I think how great it would be to just sit in front of the record player and listen to some albums. Like my parents did. And even though I could do it (I have a record player and some vinyls), I decide to take the “easier way” of letting an algorithm and bluetooth do the work for me. In my eyes, with this development, the appreciation for music somehow gets lost. We should take a step back and reserve time for things which deserve our valuable time. And that’s what I’m planning for the next few quarantine weeks – taking the earned time to actively listen to music without any distraction. I can imagine it’ll be a whole new experience for me, as I didn’t do this for a long, long time.

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