"I Buried All The Answers" by Fink

Another gorgeous, moving track from English singer-songwriter Fink (previously here). "I Buried All The Answers" is from his forthcoming ninth studio album "The City Is Coming To Erase It All" available June 5th, 2026.

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

I know I should be richer than I am
But I spent it all like tomorrow isn't real
I should be yearning for more but I'm full to the brim

I should be in a hurry but I'm not
As I watch the sand of the hour glass
I should get ready but the moment has already passed

I should be busy as hell
But sometimes doing nothing is enough
I should be running from myself but I buried all the answers here

I should be sorry but I'm not
Now I'm standing on my own two feet
I should be bitter but the memories they taste so sweet

And here is a beautiful live version...

https://finkmusic.net/

"Why I Love The Stars" by Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson is a national (and international) treasure and living legend. She is responsible for some of the most innovative music and musical inventions in the last one hundred years. I have seen her live many times over the last many decades (I saw her perform her "United States I-IV" in the 80s!) and whenever she is performing live in an area near me, I make an effort to attend. And I am always blown away by her storytelling, her presentation, her uniqueness, her musicality, and her astonishing ability to pinpoint aspects of culture and life from a new perspective, cutting to the heart of things in a devastating way (in the video below, she introduces herself as being from the former United States of America...).

So I am extremely grateful that we get to virtually attend this recent concert of hers. Filmed at the Chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-D'arc in Paris for a private concert as part of the Arte series, she titled this show "Why I Love The Stars." She assembled a marvelous group of musicians who are clearly skilled at improv. This is an hour and ten minutes of magic. Please enjoy.

"You know the reason I really love the stars?
It's because
we cannot

hurt them.

We can't burn them
or flood them
or make them overflow.
We can't blow them up
or turn them out.

But we are reaching for them.
We are
reaching
for them."

https://laurieanderson.com/

Laurie and Lou's Three Rules For Surviving Our Current Times (When There Is No Time To Think)
Rule #1: Don't be afraid of anyone. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you weren't afraid of anyone?
Rule #2: Get a really good bullsh*t detector...and learn how to use it.
Rule #3: Be really...tender.

"Krigsgald" by Heilung

How fascinating that there is a whole sub-genre of music dedicated to pre-Christian Northern European culture! Heilung are a band from Denmark who play a very specialized kind of music. Their official information says:

"Heilung is sounds from the Northern European Iron Age and Viking period. We used everything from running water, human bones, reconstructed swords and shields up to ancient frame drums and bronze rings in the songs.

The lyrics contain original texts from rune stones and preserved spear shafts, amulets and other artifacts. Furthermore poems, which either deal with historical events or are translations/ interpretations of the originals.

Every attempt to link the music to modern political or religious points are pointless, since Heilung tries to connect the listener to the time before Christianity and its political offsprings raped and burned itself into the Northern European mentality.

Heilung means healing in German and describes the core of the sound. It is supposed to leave the listener eased and relaxed after a sometimes turbulent musical journey."

I can see a wide audience for their music: people who listen to ethnic music or folk and neo-folk music, people who listen to spiritual music, people who listen to alternative music or even Goth music... I get a bit of a Dead Can Dance (previously here, here, and here) vibe too.

Fascinating.

Take a look at this video of the group singing "Krigsgald" live in concert. Believe it or not, this spectacle is their first live concert performance ever. Filmed at Castlefest, a medieval/fantasy festival in the Netherlands, the live recording album called "LIFA" is available.

https://www.facebook.com/amplifiedhistory/
https://heilung.bandcamp.com/

"Before The Dawn Live"

Released today in the UK: the live recording of "Before The Dawn," Kate Bush's now-legendary 22-night residency at the Hammersmith Apollo in late 2014. (We here in the US must wait until December 2nd.)

The first single to be released is "And Dream Of Sheep," the opening song to Kate's concept suite "The Ninth Wave," a story about a woman lost at sea, waiting to be rescued. If you have missed it, please read a detailed exploration of this powerful piece of music here. The video below shows Kate signing this song live while floating in a tank at Pinewood Studios--this film was projected on a large screen during her live performances of "The Ninth Wave" as part of the entire "Before The Dawn" stage show. The film crew actually spent two days filming and Kate got mild hypothermia after the first day!

Little light shining,
Little light will guide them to me.
My face is all lit up,
My face is all lit up.

If they find me racing white horses,
They'll not take me for a buoy.
Let me be weak,
Let me sleep
And dream of sheep.

Oh, I'll wake up
To any sound of engines,
Ev'ry gull a seeking craft.
I can't keep my eyes open--
Wish I had my radio.
I’d tune in to some friendly voices
Talkin' 'bout stupid things.
I can't be left to my imagination.
Let me be weak,
Let me sleep
And dream of sheep.

Ooh, their breath is warm
And they smell like sleep,
And they say they take me home.
Like poppies heavy with seed
They take me deeper and deeper.

And here is the audio for the "Prologue" to the second half of her "Before The Dawn" show, which is the start of another concept suite called "A Sky Of Honey." If you missed it, I have written an exploration of that piece as well here. Unfolding over 24 hours on Midsummer, the entire suite takes place under the sun or stars and moon, in a sky filled with birds (which is, not coincidentally, the opposite of the claustrophobic water setting of "The Ninth Wave"). It is all about the sky, the “aerial,” the direction “up.” Listen as the throbbing synthesizer and piano act as the afternoon sun, and Kate sings a litany of names of birds in this dream-like song.

And lastly, if you are wondering what all the fuss is about Kate and her epic "Before The Dawn" shows (The New York Times called the performance 'Dense, cathartic and physical.' New Musical Express observed: 'It is no ordinary artist that can tackle life, death, synchronicity, identity, spiritual transformation, empathy and the chaos of relationships with idiosyncratic ease in the space of a few hours,' and the U.K.'s Independent said, 'Undoubtedly the most ambitious, and genuinely moving piece of theatrical pop ever seen on a British stage.'), please read my own complete firsthand review of the stage show here.

http://katebush.com/

Kate Bush is magic. Kate Bush taught me how to fly.