♫ “Looking Glass (featuring Shaz Sparks)” - BCee [Beat the System]

Epic, epic, epic tune.  So much love!

I may or may not have said here that I was going to get this album for myself at some stage.  It’s a good thing I didn’t, because check out what my best friend managed to do for my (late but still mindblowingly awesome) birthday present…

Definitely did not see this one coming.  Day, week, month, year—pretty much made :D

♥

“Me and My Cello (So Happy Together Cover)” - Steven Sharp Nelson of “The Piano Guys”

I have never seen anyone so in love with their instrument to the point of taking it sky diving before.

Yes, I am in love with The Piano Guys.  If you haven’t followed them yet, shame, shame, shame!

♥

Dear Modern World,

This is the perfect way to do a song on heartbreak.  Listen and learn from the masters.

♥

(Source: yellowflamingo)

♫ “Gravity (John Mayer Cover)” - Tyler Ward

Now the original’s already pretty chilled, stripped back and what have you but this cover is just…beautiful.  I don’t even have the proper words to describe this that would do it justice.

So buy the track—support the amazing talent that is Tyler Ward—and enjoy.

♥

“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” - Daryl Hall and Rob Thomas

I love Daryl Hall.  I love Rob Thomas.  I love this song.  Need I have any other reason to post this?

I love these sessions at Daryl’s home, they’re absolutely amazing and raw.  I love it when musicians jam like this.

“Hide and Seek” - Imogen Heap and Antoine Darfur Mix

I love this song—and Imogen for that matter—because it’s entirely vocal and I love Antoine Darfur…just because.  Guitar extraordinaire. Th3D4v1d is a genius for merging the original and the cover this way.

Enjoy!

“My Funny Valentine” - Kristin Chenoweth and Joshua Bell [Joshua Bell at Home with Friends]

This is a beautiful album and this is my favourite rendition of this song.  The introduction is just so evocative of the melancholy in the song.  You almost don’t recognise it until Kristin starts singing (her technique here is amazing). I believe Joshua is definitely up there with Itzhak Perlman in terms of knowing how to really play the violin and give it a voice.

Enjoy :)

♥

This came two days ago and suffice it to say, I was very surprised because I was expecting it to come much, much later (the first single came nearly a month and a half after it was dispatched :P).  I still have to get used to the—I’m not sure if this is the word for it—grittier sounds of “Problem Child” but I most definitely love “Sweet Little Supernova”.  It is currently on loop.  And yes, album art does not disappoint in the slightest.  My first pieces of vinyl and they’re Blu Mar Ten ^_^

I am very excited for the entire album to come out, guys!  Also, I’m not sure why I didn’t know about this earlier but they’ve got a tumblog too so head over here and follow them for updates to your dash!

“Playing Love (from ‘The Legend of 1900’)” - Yo-Yo Ma and Ennio Morricone (Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone)

I think I’ve mentioned somewhere here before that I think Yo-Yo Ma is a musical genius and that I love him to bits and beyond.  He just knows how far to push the melancholy or strength according to the mood of the piece.  If I had a do over and could pick any instrument to learn to play it would be the cello.

I have both this version and the original piano one from the film.  Though they are absolutely captivating, I find the cello and orchestral version to be my favourite.  There’s just so much more longing and melancholy in it, largely due to the cello.  The Yo-Yo Ma and Ennio Morricone album is one to definitely track down and own.

Enjoy my dears.

♥

“Hold My Heart” - Sara Bareilles [Kaleidoscope Heart] (Walmart Soundcheck Performance)

I never meant to be the one to let you down
If anything, I thought I saw myself going first
I didn’t know how to stick around
How to see anybody but me be getting hurt

…

Does anybody know
How to hold my heart?
How to hold my heart?
‘Cause I don’t wanna let go
Let go, let go too soon

I wanna tell you so
Before the sun goes dark
How to hold my heart
‘Cause I don’t wanna let go
Let go, let go of you

_____

I’ll just say it again—Sara Bareilles = amazing.  I love what she did to the intro, I love the change of key in the chorus, the arrangement.  Reminds me of ‘City’ and ‘Between the Lines’ in Little Voice.

I love the desperation in this song because at one point not too long ago, this was exactly where I was and I only realised this after I heard the song in its entirety.  It’s what makes it sad.  I think she knows that there is no way you can really tell anyone how to ‘hold’ your heart—how to take care of it, how to love your soul—and yet she still wishes and begs and calls out not just to the person she loved but to anyone who’s listening to try.

I was in a relationship where I desperately wanted him to hold me, to ‘hold my heart’, but he didn’t know how.  It was partly my fault, obviously I could have told him how.  A part of me wanted him to work to find out, I wanted to know that he loved me enough to pursue me.

I believe we all desperately want to find someone who knows how to hold our hearts.  To love us enough to fight to try and know how.  We want to know there’s someone out there who knows exactly how to love us, and that one day we’ll meet them and we won’t have to open our hands and let go like I had to.

The thing is there already someone who knows exactly how to hold my heart.  To hold everyone’s hearts.  To love it, nurture it, protect it.  God has always been there, waiting for us to simply turn around and see Him.  Talk to Him about how we’re feeling, what we’re struggling with, our needs and desires.  And He has been desperately wanting to show us how He can be our knight in shining armour—the one who can really hold our hearts and love us.

I have since learned to accept that no matter how much I loved that particular man, he didn’t know and I can’t force him.  He was born to know how to care for someone else.  In me is the key to holding a different man’s heart.  And of course someone’s listening, someone’s already holding my heart, and one day He will be able to help me find the half that will make me whole.

♥