The More You Live, The More You Love

Lovers of female vocals synthpop, with an eighties edge, for sure you can say they are living a marvelous and golden age. After Ladytron and Goldfrapp took off some years ago, it seems a new wave is coming from the UK again. To name some Little Boots, La Roux, Polly Scattergood and the stunning Marina & The Diamonds. After releasing the singles 'Mowgli's Road' and 'Obsessions' and the EP The Crown Jewels, expectations were very high for the Greek/Welsh singer Marina Diamandis. Hollywood was the next single a very strong synthpop song with Keane alike piano base, strong Hazel O'Conner alike vocals and wow what a sound. And just after releasing 'I Am Not A Robot' as a single, already available on last years The Crown Jewel, the album The Family Jewel is released. And what an album, all four singles are on it. But the album contains another nine great songs and to be honest the album rocks from start to end and asks for a replay at once. My highlights o...

Customs played the Paradiso, Amsterdam on 01 March. Customs is a Belgium combo of four retrofuturists, known for melody, atmosphere and mathematical edge. Influences detected by several journalists include: The House of Love, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Sound, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Cocteau Twins. and you can add nowaday bands like Editors and Interpol to that list. So tonight they played the small hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam. After the Kraftwerk intro the band opened with The Matador, their third single of their album Enter The Characters, which just has been released in the Netherlands, but already available for several months in Belgium. The sound was excellent, well balanced and very tight. From the start Customs were able to win the crowd for them. With a strong setlist, including the cover Shine On of The House of Love they played three quarter of their debut with a moving crowd from begin to end, which seemed to know more than their singles Justine and Rex. The sound ...

These days are filled with music and less internet. I'm not in the mood to wander through websites, read blogs or spend time on e-mail. I went back to my cabinet, opened it and took out the CD's I wanted to hear again after so many years. Music which filled up the free times of the past, when you lay on your bed studying, or reading a book while the records made their rounds. So yesterday I played mostly Toyah records. Started from Sheep Farming In Barnet and ended with Love Is The Law. Albums I hadn't heard for quite some time and which I enjoyed a lot to hear again. During the first part of the eigthies I was a huge fan of Toyah Willcox, having all her records and most of the singles. A school friend introduced me to her music, and I remember borrowing the records from the library of Haarlem. A cycle trip we undertook each couple of weeks with a small group of friends. Afterwards we visited the record stores, where I started to buy the Toyah albums and singles. Yesterday ...

Volume 15 The last volume of the year. 01. Blue Nile - I Love This Life 02. Human Sexual Response - Land Of The Glass Pinecones 03. League Of Nations - Fade 04. CCCP - American - Soviets 05. Howard Jones - Angels & Lovers (single mix) 06. Gleaming Spires - A Christian Girl's Problem 07. Profil - Berühren 08. Kim Wilde - Shane 09. Other Ones - All The Love 10. Flue - Fancy Free 11. New Math - They Walk Among You 12. Immaculate Fools - Immaculate Fools 13. Cook Da Book - Your Eyes 14. Simon LeBon - Grey Lady Of The Sea 15. Neon - The Same ritual 16. The Listening Pool - Where Do We Go From Here 17. Jon Astley - Jane's Getting Serious 18. Lax - Ronnie's Song 19. Den Harrow - Future Brain 20. Esquire - To The Rescue

The last day of the year brings me to the final list of the best albums for me over the year 2009. I have to say it was a good year. I discovered some nice new bands which turned out to become live favourites soon afterwards. Also this final list contains a nice mixture of new releases and re-releases. Because 2009 turned out to be a great year of re-releases. 01. (01) Editors - In This Light And On This Evening (2009) 02. (02) White Lies - To Lose My Life... (2009) 03. (--) No-Man - Mixtaped (2009) 04. (09) Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age Of Wireless (collector's edition) (2009) 05. (03) Muse - The Resistance (2009) 06. (--) Keane - Hopes And Fears (deluxe edition) (2009) 07. (10) Florence And The Machine - Lungs (2009) 08. (05) H2O - Faith (remastered) (2009) 09. (11) Ultravox - Lament (remastered definitive edition)(2009) 10. (--) A-Ha - Foot Of The Mountain (2009) 11. (04) Depeche Mode - Tour Of The Universe (Werchter) (2009) 12. (07) Porcupine Tree - The Incident (2009) 13. (--)...

Volume 14 01. Two People - Mouth Of An Angel 02. The Wild Swans - Bible Dreams 03. Rhythm Of Life - Soon 04. 39 Lyon Street - Kites 05. Robert Lloyd - Nothing Matters 06. Fiat Lux - Solitary Lovers 07. Pookah Makes 3 - Lucky Lucky Lucky 08. The Dolphin Brothers - Shining 09. Academy - Stand Up! 10. Our Daughters Wedding - Automusic 11. Boom Boom Room - Take Your Time 12. Win - Shampoo Tears 13. Alan Rankine - The Sandman 14. Private Lives - Break The Chains 15. English Evenings - Touch 16. Nik Kershaw - When I Grow Up 17. Buzzcocks - I Believe 18. Psychic TV - Godstar 19. Bill Pritchard - Tommy & Co 20. Camouflage - Love Is A Shield (extended) 21. The Big Dish - Faith Healer

Simple Minds & Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark Heineken Music Hall, 26 November 2009 An evening of music of two bands I follow since the early eigthies. I became interested in the Simple Minds with the release of New Gold Dream in 1982, and already knew Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark with their great album Architectury And Morality, which are both albums that I count in my list of top albums if the eigthies. So it wasn't hard for me to get some tickets, when I learned during the Lokeren Festival, where Simple Minds performed with Ultravox, another great eigthies band, that Simple Minds would return to mainland Europe with OMD as their secial guests. At half past seven OMD took of with a setlist mainly filled with singles. It was nice to see the band again after a two hiatus, at least for me. They are working hard on a new album for a release in late 2010, but meanwhile it was a nice surprise to see them on stage again although only for an hour. At nine Simple Minds took of...