Mojo music magazine started and ended 2013 with Stevie Nicks-related issues. If you can get a hold of the January issue, you'll find a terrific tribute album that takes on every song from Rumours. Of particular note: Pure Bathing Culture's hypnotic cover of "Dreams" and The Staves' gloriously beautiful "Songbird." Some bookstores are still selling the December 2013 issue since it came in special packaging and its info will never expire. In that issue you can catch an interview with Stevie Nicks. I never realized that Prince played synth on her solo hit "Stand Back."

 

Books make Monday better! :)

The last I just added because I can be in the foulest mood and Tom Jones always makes me feel better! :)

If music were a person, it would be my constant companion, the love of my life.

I'm listening to Stevie Nicks' "Ooh My Love" and it gets to me, as always. It's my favorite song of hers...haunting and sad and pretty and deep. And it hurts me, even though it's not my story.

Almost every song I love is steeped in emotions I've never lived myself. But, they become my emotions while I'm in the music.

I guess, then, you could songs are not just emotional infusions. When you're at heartbreak's door, songs save you as if they were emotional transfusions.

Smother, by Wild Beasts, is perfectly titled, evoking stifled cries and what it’s like to be suffocated with so much longing that even whispers barely come out.
 

I have always been attracted to albums with the potential to break your heart. I don’t know why. I don’t particularly enjoy wallowing in sad music; I just know that when I hear a really good sad song it floods through my soul, like laughter or chills. It’s cathartic the way a really good cry is. You kind of feel better afterward.

Wild Beasts sensational album, Smother, which ended up on several “Best of 2011” album lists (including music magazines Under The Radar and Uncut), is a beautiful creature. The lead singer has a distinctive voice; I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else sing like he does. Songs like "Albatross" and "Bed of Nails" are so gorgeous and heart-wrenching they should come with warning labels.

 I was hesitant to believe their new album Present Tense could possibly stand up to its predecessor. I'm still taking it all in and I still prefer Smother, but there's something about this present I like.

<<<I saw this the other day and it really struck a chord with me. I put the book on hold at my local library and can't wait to read it, hoping it will help me lots!!