I normally love the changing of all the seasons, yes even the freshness of winter – and spring is normally a time of new beginnings, new hope, new love and a couple of wild birthday parties thrown in too for good measure. This year, it’s harder to be happy with a terrible war raging just a few hundred miles away from my cozy living room. Hard to be happy with the “cost of living crisis” and hard to be happy when doctors and specialists telling you you need to watch your own mental health…but happiness is here, if you look for it, it’s all around, and like always normally it’s being here in nature, feeling free in the wild, that means the most to me. City life, i love you and I love visiting you, but my God I’d be so lost if I didn’t live in the countryside with all it’s intoxicating charms and freedom. Nothing can beat being free and being brave. I don’t think you can live better than by being free and being brave.

One thing I’m also incredibly happy about is the easing of all restrictions. It means I’ve been able to visit Germany already a few times this year, and I’ve had the most beautiful and fun times over there. I take back goodies too to remind of these good times when I’m missing my “big boys”. It means I can drink cool stuff like organic “spring” tea (Frühlingstee) and read little Conni books to the little kids here. I told someone in Germany that my 4 year old daughter probably knows more German than I do just from watching Conni cartoons.

Sometimes though it’s good to just embrace the melancholy, and Angel Olson cetainly does that in her new song “All the Good Times”. It’s a haunting epic breakup song, one of the best songs I’ve heard this year. Don’t be afraid of the sadness. The video is great too. If you looking for happy scroll down to the next track….

When I was sick with a fever and in bed for 2 days with covid earlier this year, I had Virgin Radio on all the time. I’d drift in and out of sleep waking up to some 80’s power ballad. Something comforting about Virgin Radio especially when you’re ill, it’s like tomato soup. The presenters don’t really talk much they just play feelgood college rock. This song by Morgan Wade is super pop, but it’s rich and she tells a great story in this little tale of a young girl dating an older “reformed” guy without it sounding cheesy or creepy but somehow pure.

Sticking with the radio stuff, when I head to the city my car radio picks up NME radio. They play a real eccentric mix of songs, old and new. This one came on today, and I’ve just been humming it all day long and singing it to my confused kids.

Soccer mommy is someone I’ve recently “discovered”. I think I read an interview with her and she sounded totally nuts, which is how you want rock stars to be, and I was pleased to see that I really also enjoyed her music. She’s got a new album out that looks cool, but I’m going back to this little one from a few years ago before she became “cool” it’s all about lost love and a boy who broke hear heard whose name happened to be Jacob. It’s raw and it hurts but that’s where it’s power is.