Hi Hucbald! I’m Luc, a first-year who’s new to this whole thing, but I’ll try my best. I’ve been lent the digital pen to write about my musical journey the last 31 days. On y va!
With memories of Brat Summer still fresh in our minds and presents already being bought for the holiday season ahead, October finds itself in a strange (and, in my opinion, underappreciated) position. It’s the time of blocked noses, rainy days, and, of course, the first period of the academic year coming to an end. This means deadlines. This means exams. This means inevitable procrastination (guilty as charged). And, in my case, it means relying on music to stay up and running. Recently, our good friends (or overlords, you tell me) over at Spotify bestowed luck and wisdom upon us in the form of the daylist, which gives us a scarily accurate indication of our musical moods throughout the day. So, without further ado, please let me take you through a day in the life in October with me 🙂
MORNINGS
That damn alarm again… It’s time to wake up properly this time. I’ve found myself listening to Fleet Foxes (as pictured) a lot in the mornings last month. Actually, that’s a lie. They were in my earbuds pretty much at any given point throughout the day. But it’d be lame to discuss just one artist here, so we ball.
Their ethereal, harmonizing vocal layering combined with cryptic lyrics (their book of lyrics and annotations is the best thing I’ve purchased this year) and pleasant folksy instrumentation (who the hell uses a mandolin anymore?) scratches my indie folk itch just right. But it’s their bittersweet melancholy that makes their songs so applicable to autumn. Songs like Helplessness Blues and Going-to-the-Sun Road (featuring Brazilian singer-songwriter Tim Bernardes, who adds his saudade flavour to the song in Portuguese) make you yearn for the greener grass of spring and summer, whilst I’m Not My Season and If You Need To, Keep Time On Me try to make up for the out-of-placeness this month provides. Blue Ridge Mountains, Ragged Wood and Bedouin Dress are the folkiest of the bunch – perfect for your fall forest walks – whilst I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar, a buy-1-get-2-free package deal, inspires you to keep on keeping on. If you haven’t before, give these Seattle folksters a spin by clicking on the playlist on the bottom of the page.
AFTERNOONS
It’s afternoon now, which means it’s time to get locked in. It’s time to become absolute academic weapons, folks. No, this is a no-procrastination zone from now on. And who else to offer us a pulse than Tom Misch or Mr. Jukes?
Both are London-based beat flippers with an affinity for funky bass and gentle guitars. Strip the hiphop-inspired drums from Tom Misch’s songs, and he’ll sound like a singer-songwriter who can hold his own, but add them back, and you’ve got something to bop your head to. Need proof? I got you. The intro to Insecure should speak for itself. But it’s the combination of rap and the jazzy guitarwork on Water Baby (featuring Loyle Carner) and It Runs Through Me (featuring De La Soul) that seals the deal for an afternoon study sesh, sounding carefree and ready.
Mr. Jukes is the solo/side project of Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman, which he started after their 4-year hiatus nearly 10 years ago. Swapping out his guitar for the life of sampling, he created songs like Leap Of Faith and Blowin Steam (Open Up Your Mind) with De La Soul & Barney Artist, respectively. Both tracks offer great vertical neck muscle workouts as well as a great pulse to walk on during your inevitable study break. The same can be said about Ruby and Vibrate (the latter featuring Barney Artist once again) – taking your stride without a care in the world, onto a successful exam period.
EVENINGS
After having our musicologist’s dinner (a deserved break from Adorno), we should shift our attention back to studying. This is it. This is the final stretch. This is where a 5.4 becomes a 5.5. To put our minds at rest, and to prepare for a good night’s sleep (which in the end is more important before an exam than anything!), 11 mind-easing songs could do the trick. I’m thinking of songs like Amsterdam and Dandelion Wine by Gregory Alan Isakov, two melodic gems from Nick Drake’s Pink Moon (Place To Be & Which Will), and Beirut’s Postcards From Italy & Perth. The latter is a great recommendation if you’re into European folk, which is impressive, given that it’s an American band. Furthermore, there’s two acoustic tracks from Mr Jukes’s main project, Bombay Bicycle Club, in the forms of You Already Know and Let You Go. Two soothing and soft tracks from a band I hold very dear. We can end things on low intensity with Ben Howard’s What A Day, which sounds like a fitting name for the day we’ve just had. Now we’ve gotta get ready to do it all again tomorrow. Go us!
That’s that! Thank you for reading and listening. All the best now for November!
You can listen to all (and more) mentioned tracks down here;
