This year has been absolutely fantastic for new music. So far, we’ve had Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric, The Sounds, Imogen Heap, Mika, Muse, Spinnerette, Cobra Starship, Owl City, Meg & Dia, and Lily Allen. Now, we have Lights.

Any synthpop lovers out there? Did you just nod yes? Then you should know Lights. Think Donna Lewis vocals mixed with surreal new wave synths—all wrapped up with cute lyrics and infectious melodies. Her debut album, The Listening, gives us fifteen generous tracks. Here are a few of my favorite.

River — I want to go where you’re going, a follower following, changing but never changed, claiming but never claimed — One of my favorite tracks on The Listening, if not my favorite. The production for this song just sounds so much different, louder, and slightly more sophisticated than that of the rest. The pulsing, buzzing electronic music of the chorus is quite powerful sounding and fits the song nicely.

Lions! — lions make you brave, giants give you faith, death is a charade, you don’t have to feel safe to feel unafraid — Another one of my favorites. Not going to lie, the lyrics of Lions! reminds me a bit of World of Warcraft (which Lights is a player of) or Chronicles of Narnia (or any other fantasy story, to be honest). I know I’ve read of others having similar feelings. It’s definitely not a bad thing, though. This song is cute sounding and sort of encouraging/empowering in a nerdy/childish way.

Ice — what I mean is, all I need is, just a little emotion — This, along with Drive My Soul, February Air, and The Last Thing On Your Mind were tracks included on the album that also appeared on her first EP. While the other stayed the same, Ice saw a bit of a makeover. Certain synths sound a little less stringy and a bit more abrasive. Also, it sounds like there is a hint of vocoding/robotizing on the vocals in the chorus. In the end, most people probably wouldn’t notice a difference, but if you pay attention to those sort of things, you can appreciate the dancier approach this time around.

Saviour — stand me up and maybe I won’t be so small, free my hands and feet and maybe I won’t always fall — The lead single off The Listening. I was highly addicted to this track when it was made available for download before the album dropped. Now that I have a whole list of new songs to listen to, Saviour has slowly slid away. It’s still a great listen though. Actually, scratch that. After listening to it just now, it crawled back towards the top.

This is me as of lately. Just enjoying the autumn weather.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year. I’m ready.

Nice, soft designs by Belinda George Architects of New Zealand discovered through desire to inspire. Absolutely love the large sliding doors / windows that make home open to the outside world.

I’ve gotten so lazy lately when it comes to actually writing blog entries. I have other things on my mind. Rather, I’ve just been spewing out a bunch of photos and I think that’s how I’m going to continue for a while until I get back on track with blogging.

Here are some random homes I found on the Skona Hem (a Swedish magazine, if you couldn’t tell by the excess of white, woods, and colors) website that I fell in love with.

These make me extremely happy.

Feet First by Tom Robinson

Zenvironments: The Work of Zach Johnsen

Wow guys, I am terrible when it comes to updating this thing. There are about a dozen half-finished posts in the drafts folder of wordpress just waiting to turn to real-life. This was one, and i’m finally wrapping it up. This has literally stood still for 3 months.

Just when I thought the kids packaging from method couldn’t get any cuter, I was proven wrong. I discovered these familiar otters were being phased out.

Say hello to the new face of methodkid products. A penguin!

Now see, if I had a child, I would have a legitimate reason for buying this stuff. That hasn’t stopped me though! I’ve picked up the little guy in fuzzy peach just for the package’s cuteness. It worked nicely as shampoo and smelled deliciously also!