Sound of Friday pt. III

This weeks post will be a short one, because of the Roskilde Festival going on right now!!
So you will get some of my "Sound of Friday". Please enjoy!

1. The Old School:  Chinese Man – I’ve Got That Tune

2. The Legendary: Lana del Rey – National Anthem

3. The Electronic: SBTRKT – Wildfire

4. The Soundtrack: Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack – All Is Love

5. The Hip Hop: Rizzle Kicks – Mama Do The Hump

Freja

Where to find the wild things

Hi there everyone!
Last week I talked about my big love for Alt-J and their songs - lyrics and beats. Well, today I’m going to talk about this movie that I got to know, thanks to Alt-J: Where the wild things are! Actually I heard a little about this movie from a friend of mine before, but I had never actually seen it, only heard some songs of the soundtrack from the movie. But no matter what, it is an amazing, adventurous and very creative movie!

The movie is based on the book “Where the wild things are” by Maurice Sendak, and it is about this boy called Max, who seems to be very lonely. His alone mother works a lot, and he does not see much of his sister, which results in a lot of daydreaming, imagining and wild games in his wolf suit. He creates great things in his mind, and has a big talent of making up stories and also lies. But one evening, when he wants attention too bad, and his aggressions get too big, he runs off, leaving his nice and safe home and family.

It seems that he finds a boat, and sails all day until he finds this land, where he goes on board. But the land is not like any normal kind, because on this land some wild creatures live, and that is ‘the wild things’! It is to these 'monsters' or so, who are controlled by their lust and inner child, Max tells a lie, because he was going to be eaten by them otherwise. So he tells them, that he once was a great king in another land, and the wild things decide to make him their king, because they hope that a king could bring them out of their unhappiness and miseries.

Max is a great king to begin with, he knows a lot of funny games and he even figures out this great castle of them to live in! But it is very hard to keep all of the creatures happy at once, and in the end, when the wild thing that Max might end up loving the most, Carol, hears that Max is a fraud, everything goes wrong. Carol gets so hurt and aggressive, that he almost ends up eating Max, and in the end Max decides to leave.  

Everything about this movie is so magical, and still it is not like the same old usual romantic story, which is all happiness and rainbows. This movie, it being a children’s movie or not, has this very fine harshness to it, and the boy who plays Max captures this role so perfect, that this harshness is absolutely beautiful. Also the soundtrack created for this movie, is amazing! I have listened to all of the songs a lot, and they are all so full of suspense, just in their sound, that I can’t help listening to them in excitement! 

I would definitely recommend this movie to any movie lover, any adventure lover, any soundtrack lover, any children’s worlds lover or just any lover of the creative, there might be. Watch it; I don’t think you will regret it!

Love, Freja

Photos: Unknown sources

Alt to the J ∆

As funky as my title may sound, as funky the subject! Or almost.. Because it is not quite funk I want to talk about today, but instead my favorite band at the moment: Alt-J (∆).
If you do not know Alt-J, you may wonder what their name means. It’s actually kind of cool!

If you know your Macs, you would know that when you push the “Alt” and then the “J” key, it is a shortcut for the ∆ sign. (I must say I did not know before I got interested in Alt-J, since I don’t own a Mac). Also; if you know your mathematics, you will know that the ∆ sign is called “delta” and means change or difference, which can be either positive or negative.

Photo from AOTY

To say a little more informative about the band, I can tell it consists of 4 English men, who play guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and of course sing.  

The first time I heard them was on the radio (of course, too much radio). Their song “Tessellate” was played a lot for a period, and I fell totally in love! Their sound are kind of indie meets rock meets alternative… ish. They are such an artistic band, with a great talent of timing, experimenting with sounds and the singing is nothing but amazing!

Where the wild things are

But the thing I love the most (besides the amazing sounds) is their lyrics. Every piece of lyric contains so much emotion, history and feeling. They make their own universes, sometimes by lending a piece of others. For example Breezeblocks, where they are referring to the children’s book Where the wild things are by singing "I’ll eat you whole", or in Matilda, where they refer to the movie Léon throughout the song.

Matilda from Léon

They have gotten a lot of critique for their song Fitzpleasure though, because the song is about a gang-rape scene from a rather harsh book called Last exit to Brooklyn. I think the critique is absolutely unfair. Such a subject as taboo as rape should definitely be discussed! I think it is very noble of them to make a spotlight on the very serious subject, and I do not believe that they praise the horrible subject; they rather make it a subject for discussion, which is the way forwards.

But since I could talk about and analyze all of their songs to death, I think I’d rather stop that talk here.

To end with some positive energy and good karma, here’s a picture of me with a necklace I got from one of my best friends at my birthday. She bought it in Alt-J’s merchandise, and it is of course their ∆ sign. To top it, I have made their hand-sign, which I believe they have invented themselves! (That just confirms how well thought through the band is, doesn't it?). 

I hope you enjoyed my post, and if you thought that at least some of this sounded interesting, you should check out their debut album An Awesome Wave – it is definitely worth it!!

Loads of love!

Freja