First of all, I have a little bit of explaining to do.
The last post I did was about a month ago, so I have been away for quite a
while. The reason for this absence had been the start of the new scholastic
year for me. I started my Masters in translation at university and the amount
of work kind of overwhelmed me so much that I couldn’t put myself to write for
my blog. Now however, I’m settled a bit again, and I decided to start again
this weekend and what better way to start then by telling you about my
favourites of the last month(s).
Well, it’s almost the first of November and therefore
the perfect time to make a favourites list. For a while now I’ve been using the
music scrobbler from Last.fm to keep a record of the music I listen to. This
program – easy to install! – keeps track of what you listen to on your computer
– in the windows media player as well as in iTunes (you can even let it
synchronize your iPod to scrobble the songs you listened to on
there). On your online profile you then can see what artists you have listened
to the most – over the last week, the last year or overall, but also
(important!) over the last three months. This has given me the idea to, at the
start of every new month, make a list of the 10 artists I’ve listened to the
most over the previous 3 months – with a bit of extra info on the why?
These are the lists (artists and songs) of the months August,
September and October.
The artists:
Counting down to 6
The final spot in the list
these months is occupied by two artists. I’ve listened to these two in an equal
amount: Joss Stone and Jason Mraz. Always when I’m busy, I put
all the songs I have in one playlist. This way I can listen to some music
during doing my homework, without having to decide which artist I want to
listen to! I always have a problem choosing xD. For this reason I heard a lot
of songs from Jason Mraz. I have 80 Mraz songs on my laptop, so it’s not a
surprise that he passes in the playlist. The same thing explains why Joss Stone
is here, but there’s another explanation for hew presence: she released her new
album quite recently, so I listened to that a few times over.
These two great artists are
followed by Róisín Murphy. I rediscovered some oldies from my earlier
musical experiences and I heard the song: Sing
it back by Moloko again for the first time since a few years. This got me
curious about the band and their music, so I searched them on the internet. What
did I find? The lead-singer of Moloko had made some solo-albums and after
downloading them I immediately listened to them and therefore she’s in this
list – but I do like her! Her music is quite peculiar, but very nice.
Number 7 is reserved for Pitbull.
The reason for this resembles that of the number 8: I was curious about his
albums, and as it turns out he had already made like 6 albums. So I downloaded
those and I’ve listen to two of them up until now. That’s the reason why he’s
on this list. Plus: I really like his song Fuego
and I’ve listened to that song a few times over.
The next one is another
artist who features a lot in that playlist I mentioned. I’m talking about Jamie
Cullum. I’ve been listening to his music for a while now and I haven’t
grown tired of it yet!
Numbers 4 and 5
It’s a bit of a boring list of reasons this post, I
must say. With the numbers 4 and 5, it’s the same case as with Jason Mraz and
Jamie Cullum. I’ve been listening to the playlist, so the artists of whom I
have the most songs, will be in this overview.
Number 5 is Michael Bublé! I have 107 (!) Bublé
songs, and I love to listen to him, especially when I’m studying, because all
of Michael’s songs are fairly known to me, and not to “invasive” – they don’t
distract me to much from the work I have to do.
The same thing applies to Rihanna, who’s on
number 4 this time. For her still slightly brief career she has already made 5
albums, and the sixth is on the way! I can’t wait for it to come out.
Runners up
This month’s runners up are Jessie J in third
place and Lady Gaga in second place. These two ladies are fantastic!
When I really have to chose an artist, they often come up in my mind! That’s
the reason why their probably almost always in this overview. Especially Who you are by Jessie J is a great album
to listen to in its entirety and therefore it’s a great choice, when you maybe
can’t choose. Besides that, I really love the song that Lady Gaga has sung along side of Tomy Bennett! It's amazing what good singers they are, and the song is amazing (like the clip!)
The #1
Well, the number one this time doesn’t come as a big
surprise, like last time ;). Last September the 23rd my favourite dutch
artist released his third album: Lohengrin.
Of course I’m talking about Wouter Hamel. This album contains 12 new songs, and
they’re all amazing yet again. The day the album fell on the doormat at home I
already listened to it like three or four times! It’s fantastic, so it’s not
strange that Wouter Hamel is on #1 (with 119 songs listened to, opposite Lady
Gaga in second spot with 74 songs).
I would say: everyone has to listen to this album, but
I can’t order anyone to do this of course! Still, listen to it, and let me know
what you think!
The songs
The list:
1. Wouter
Hamel – Demise
2. Wouter Hamel – Touch the stars
2. Wouter Hamel – Finally getting closer
4. Jessie J – Abracadabra
4. Wouter Hamel – What’s left
4. Wouter Hamel – Kings & queens
4. Wouter Hamel – Rue Damremont
4. Wouter Hamel – Lohengrin
4. Wouter Hamel – Toronto
4. Wouter Hamel – Skimming in the skies
11. Joss Stone – Don’t start lying
11. Wouter Hamel – Little boy lost
11. Wouter
Hamel – GiuGiu
11. Wouter
Hamel – Zhavaronki
15. Jessie J – Stand up
There should be only 10 songs on this list, but some
songs I put on as many times as others, so it’s a little bit bigger this time!
Again, no surprises here: I listened to Wouter Hamel’s
album so much, that all of his 12 new songs are in the top 10 listened-to-songs-list.
Some I listened to a few times more, because I would start to listen to the
album, and then have to stop – to eat, or to go to university, or some other
reason. And usually I would put it on again, starting from the first song!
The Joss Stone song is, in my opinion the most
interesting song from her new album LP1, so that’s why I listen to this songs,
a little more then to the other songs from that album.
Jessie J, I explained earlier, I put on a lot so it’s
not strange that’s she’s in this overview, but there is a explanation I can
give for why Abracadra is so high up,
despite Wouter Hamel’s dominance the last few months: I have a tendency to
listen to the music on my Ipod in alphabetical order. However I sometimes
forget where I was, so I start again, and most of the time (especially in the
playlists I make) it means I start with Abracadabra.
That’s it’s for this post, so now you know what I’ve
been listening to! What did you listen to this past month?
(There's a link to my Last.Fm online
profile in the right column)
