Favourite Music Thursday: Stay On These Roads

“Stay On These Roads” (1988), by a-ha, remains one of my favourite songs. I grew up with a-ha and to still love a song after listening to it hundreds of times over more than twenty years goes to show what staying power it has. (The lyrics are below the video.)

The cold has a voice
It talks to me
Stillborn, by choice
It airs no need
To hold

Old man feels the cold
Oh baby don’t
‘Cause I’ve been told

Stay on these roads
We shall meet, I know
Stay on – my love
We shall meet, I know
I know

Where joy should reign
These skies restrain
‘Shadow your love’
The voice trails off again

Old man feels the cold
Oh baby don’t
‘Cause I’ve been told

Stay on these roads
We shall meet, I know
Stay on – my love
You feel so weak, be strong
Stay on, stay on
We shall meet, I know
I know
I know, my love, I know




Morten Harket / Magne Furuholmen / Paul Waaktaar-Savoy

© 1988 Warner Chappell Music Ltd.

Favourite Music Thursday – The Mute by Radical Face

I only recently discovered Radical Face’s music on Noisetrade and was intrigued by the concept behind the music. On his website, Ben Cooper says:

“I just wanted to write a family saga. It's something I'd wanted to do for a long time. But I was timid at first. Family is a big topic from me, being from a large and atypical one, and I was hesitant to start for fear I'd do a shitty job of it. But once I started writing for it, it all kinda poured out. I started writing for it in 2007. I came up with a fictional family tree -- a Frankenstein of random genealogy charts, my own family history, some of my personal experiences and plain old fiction -- and used that as the basis for the songs. When I started organizing the record in 2009, I had over 45 songs to work with, even after ditching the ones I wasn't so sure of.”

The songs Ben Cooper wrote, are poignant, bittersweet, dark and sometimes very sad. But there is such a quality to them that I can’t stop listening.

For more about Radical Face, click here for the website, here for Noisetrade, and here for SoundCloud. In SA, the albums are available on iTunes.

The one I especially keep returning to is “The Mute”. The song is haunting and beautiful, and I adore the music video. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Matt Hires - Forever

Here’s a song for the countdown to the weekend. I really love the album ThisWorld Won’t Last Forever, But Tonight We Can Pretend. Find his Facebook page over here.

Inspiration for the day: NEEDTOBREATHE - Keep Your Eyes Open

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Proudly South African Monday: Commercial Love by Ice Project

Music: Josh Groban - Falling Slowly

SafetySuit - These Times

Bookish Things: A Special Day for Buying a Book

Most of you who often visit my blog know that my mother tongue is Afrikaans. And today, 14 August, is Koop-‘n-Afrikaanse-boek-dag, (“Buy an Afrikaans Book Day”).  With nearly 7 million South Africans who speak the language at home, Afrikaans is the third most-spoken language in South Africa. (English is the home language of approximately 5 million South Africans.)

If you’d like to check out some of the literature, try the translated books by Karel Schoeman, Dan Sleigh or Dalene Matthee. Afrikaans is a young language, but it is the language I grew up with, and it is the language of my heart…

As most of the readers here are English, I’ve decided to add a video of one of my favourite (bilingual) songs to help you get over that midweek slump. (Yes, this is quite a departure from the usual Early Music I listen to!)

For the Afrikaans readers, head on over to Kammastories!

Music Monday: "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers

It's not every day that I tweet a thanks to a radio station for playing a song I love, but when RSG* played "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers it really made my day a LOT better.

So, I hope that you're not having a blue Monday, but, if you do, I hope this will make it a bit brighter!

Please enjoy this great song and music video -

* For those visiting the blog for the first time, followed the link and wondered why I'm listening to an all Afrikaans radio station - English isn't my first language, Afrikaans is :D
Also, I just love the radio station. *insert another shameless plug*