I recently discovered Johnny Flynn’s music and I’ve been listening to it on regular repeat ever since. His songs have a folksy/indie vibe with a vocal melody that I always fail to predict (although that may well be down to my lack of a musical ear!). The lyrics are often surprisingly poetic with lots of imagery – for instance, here’s the first verse of Hard Road:

The sea came in and washed me out
The way was carved in ice
The tokens of a buried past
The shavings of a heavy life
The wind blows each and every way
It’s not for me, my heart, to steer
I cast up what I have each day
The river flows the whole long year

Someone commented on one of his YouTube videos that they always come back to his music in the autumn, which I’ve found is also quite fitting for Hamburg’s soggy winters. Another favourite of mine is Wandering Aengus, purportedly about getting in touch with nature (a theme that I can always get behind!):

Walking in my mourning in the morning
Let me tell you of the ashes of the great
Sun is ris’n for dawning, let the dawn in
Let me lift my heart and free my song from pain

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I’m the kind of person that watches very few TV shows, but when I find one I like, I re-watch the heck out of it. One such has been Lovesick on Netflix. I love the characters and their acting, and the premise is ridiculous when you think about it, but makes for good comic relief. The timeline alternates between present day and flashbacks and manages to include some meaningful insights into the characters. Johnny Flynn plays the lead role – that’s actually how I found out about his music (thanks, YouTube algorithm! It almost makes up for the aggravating increase in ads in all the videos nowadays!)

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Spotify recently reminded everyone of the impending end of the year with their “2020 Wrapped” showcase. Mine told me that I listened to 381 genres this year (I didn’t know there were so many!) and also that my top podcasts are all in German (which is curious, because not only do I only rarely listen to podcasts, but I also never listen to any on Spotify!). They do seem to have gotten my top artists down correctly, though I was probably expecting either Tool, Animals as Leaders, or Plini to be in there as well:

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I’m also back on Last.fm now (does anyone remember it?!). It integrates a lot better with Spotify now, which comes in quite handy since Spotify makes it really hard to find one’s listening history.

Time to listen to more music! 🎶