For many years, Ilse de Lange was the most important female country artist of the Netherlands. However, her popularity outside her home country and the Dutch speaking part of Belgium was a bit of limited. With the more pop-alike album Changes, this changed significantly and she could at least expand it to the German speaking countries of Europe. Even though I struggled with the album, she played sold-out shows in Germany. Her recent theater tour through the Netherlands was sold out as well. On 3rd May 2024, she is back with a new album, Tainted. As especially as it was announced to have m ..read more

I feel this is the first album review I ever did from a band in China. Ou (spoken as “O”) release their second album 蘇醒 II: Frailty on 26th April 2024. When I received the album from a promotion agency, I just felt to take this musical trip to Asia with you.   Ou – About The Artists Ou is a Chinese progressive metal quartet. 蘇醒 II: Frailty is their second album so far, after One released in May 2022. Lynn Wu is the singer of the band. She is accompanies by Jing Zhang (guitar), Chris Cui (bass) and Anthony Vanacore on the drums. Their debut album one just got rather limited atten ..read more

Snow in April! After I had some snowfall after the Swiss Floorball Superfinals (my coverage of the women’s match / men’s match), I am in Sweden this weekend. Does not feel like warmer weather as well. On the music side, quite a lot of the songs I enjoyed were rather on the rock music side of life. The leading track of my Songs of the Week, though, comes with some spring vibes. Sunshine is urgently needed.   Tors – Still Life Alongside their six track EP Miracle, the British band Tors released their new song Still Life on Friday. The song is a nice folk-pop track with some r ..read more

Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam and many more – this weekend is packed with great new album releases. Nonetheless, the week was also full of really interesting single releases as well. Time for a new Songs of the Week episode. My album coverage will be reduced until mid-May 2024, majorly as the floorball season is going into crunch time. However, there will be quite a lot of concerts ahead. From 19th April 2024 to 21st May, I am planning to be in the photographers’ pit seven times.   Fabian Kuhn – The Only Thing Fabian Kuhn released his debut EP Constellations in February 2024. I f ..read more

It is more than ten years ago since singer-songwriter Diane Birch released her latest album. On 12th April 2024, she shared her third album overall, Flying on Abraham. I enjoyed a first brief listen and decided to share a deeper look into it with you.   Diane Birch – About The Artist Diane Birch is an US-American singer-songwriter. Born on 24th January 1983 in Michigan, she is nowadays doing music, which is influenced by soul, blues and rock elements. She turned into a professional artist in 2009, when she also released her debut album Bible Belt. In 2013, she added her sophomore alb ..read more

It’s been quite tough for me this week to keep Flyctory.com up and running. I had a stronger cold this week and had to relax a lot. Made it over the finish line for this time – might be a bit of trouble for next week, though, as my backlog is rather empty. My Songs of the Week this time are rather pop-ish. Not too many songs again – but I feel that there are some real gems in it.   Perrie – Forget About Us I was absolutely amazed when I looked in the high early morning streaming figures of this debut single. However, Perrie is well-known already as former part of Little Mix. Going so ..read more

I featured Maggie Roggers twice so far, in the Songs of the Week editions as of 3rd June 2022 and as of 9th February 2024. After these individual song sharings, I am having a major release by the US-American artist at the first time. On 12th April 2024, Rogers released her new album Don’t Forget Me. Here are my thoughts. Maggie Rogers – About The Artist Maggie Debay Rogers was born in Easton, Maryland, on 25th April 1994. She is doing music in the sphere of pop, art pop and folk-pop. Rogers started releasing self-released albums in 2012, just in the year she enrolled to New York Univ ..read more

This week, I am returning from a really cool Pittsburgh Penguins ice hockey trip along the East Coast. Maybe that’s one reason why the Songs of the Week this time are a bit more energetic. There were quite many releases this week, but finally, my list of songs I wanted to share is not one of the longer ones. Quality over quantity. Hope you enjoy listening to the tunes.   Stia – Ms. Perfect Stia is an emerging artist from the German Saarland region. Her new single release Ms. Perfect is a really cool pop-rock track with a lot of energy. Hope you enjoy this song as much as I do ..read more

Jenn Bostic’s show in London in February 2024 was an outstanding experience for me. During the show, I decided that one song by the US-American Christian music artist definitely deserves a new episode of the Songs of my Life. Let me introduce you to one of the most touching songs I have ever listened to.   Jealous of the Angels – The Story of the Song Jennifer Christiana Bostic was born on 3rd January 1986 in Philadelphia. However, her family moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, so that she in fact grew up in Waconia, Minnesota. Her father James Regan Bostic worked as a musician. He was ..read more

Time for some music from France: Johnnie Carwash are doing indie-pop songs with a touch of rock. While the band already gained some popularity in their home country, the more and more roll over to other European places. Maybe their new album No Friends No Pain is helping with that? I had a listen to the 29th March 2024 release.   Johnnie Carwash – About The Artists Johnnie Carwash is an indie-trio from France, which has been founded in 2018 in Lyon. They mix punk, rock and pop elements to their music. In 2020, they released their first EP Mom Is A Punk!, followed by their 2022 debut ..read more