SoS Weekly Jams #6

By Euradio

Week Six: Past, present, future

This week, we begin and end with older songs about loss. Shangri La’s Beethoven-inspired « Past, Present, Future » is probably the saddest love song ever sung. Fairuz’s Rodrigo-inspired « Le Beirut » is a mourning song for a city destroyed by civil war. Tragically, it has just experienced destruction again.

In between these two, we make do and navigate between sweet memories, a difficult present and an uncertain future. Argentinian-English Malena Zavala tells us about the past and remembers breezy Havana. French Ezekiel Pailhès takes us for an outdated and groovy « Cakewalk ». Spanish Melenas stomps dreamily, they have a music-box-like keyboard in the back, as obsessing as a memory. The present is messy and painful. Italian Bee Bee Sea’s are confused about a love affair and we can imagine that Tara King Th. and Brisa Roché want them to shut up. Swiss Sophie Hunger tries to convince herself that everything is good. Gastone is left alone crying under a magnificent moon (this song is an Italian classic). English Gentlemen’s Dub Club and Kiko Bun cover a Bill Withers classic: a heartbreaking blend of love and resignation. Greek Danai Nielsen tells the sad story of one kiss turned into love sickness (a folk song). Hungarian Péterfy Bori & Love Band  mention an « evil drummer », they might be talking about time, so relentless in its movements forward. So the future may seem a long way off, but it’s just on the horizon. Irish Fontaines DC reminds us that life isn’t always empty and English The Heavy presses us with useful questions : « Can we make it different / Can we make it better / Can we make love reign supreme ? » Bad girls, of course, are forever, and we thank Mancunian PINS for reminding us this uplifting truth!

Every Friday for Summer of Solidarity, the Euradio team picks 15(ish) cool tracks out of its recent airing list to showcase the best of what European sound has to offer.