Nada Surf - love goes on cover, 2010

"There's something about a band recording an album of covers that sends up a red flag in the minds of many listeners, as if the musicians are acknowledging they've run out of ideas and must sift through other folks' material in order to pad out their repertoire. This might seem particularly troubling to fans of Nada Surf, since their continued existence after the flash-in-the-pan success of "Popular" in 1996 has had so much to do with their growing strength as idiosyncratic pop songwriters, but for whatever reason, the group has chosen to interpret the work of 12 other acts on their sixth studio album, If I Had a Hi-Fi, and they've done it in a way that avoids sounding like a holding action."

Fait-divers by Kathryn Schulz

"However disorienting, difficult, or humbling our mistakes might be, it is ultimately wrongness, not rightness, that can teach us who we are.” (Kathryn Schulz)

Fait-divers on silence

Every place of silence is invaded by noise. Everywhere we see the ravages of this on our thinking.

Fait-divers on fear

Fear is a darkroom where negatives develop.

Fait-divers by Niels Bohr on reality

“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” (Niels Bohr)

Fait-diverson metaphors

Metaphors close gaps in understanding by linking new ideas to what is already known.

Fait-divers on the neutrinos

Neutrinos are everywhere. Every second, 100 trillion of them pass through your body unnoticed, hardly ever interacting.

Fait-divers

Stress creates activity, but it destroys creativity. It causes smart people to do stupid things.

Fait-divers by Matthieu Ricard on happiness

"To Ricard, the answer comes down to altruism. The reason is that, thinking about yourself and how to make things better for yourself all the time is exhausting and stressful, and it ultimately leads to unhappiness. "It's not the moral ground," Ricard says. "It's simply that me, me, me all day long is very stuffy. And it's quite miserable, because you instrumentalize the whole world as a threat, or as a potential sort of interest [to yourself]." If you want to be happy, Ricard says you should strive to be "benevolent," which will not only make you feel better but also make others like you more."

Fleet Foxes - lorelai, 2011

"So the deeper “Lorelai” gets into its story and starts adding instruments (some backwards), and harmonies, the further it gets away from its influences and comes out the other side being very much its own thing."

The Flaming Lips - evil will prevail, 1995

"this song was a key factor in Ronald Jones, who played guitar with the band at the time, leaving the band, as he perceived the message as a negative one, conflicting with his happy-clappy spiritual views. I think, although he was a wonderful guitarist and probably a lovely guy, that he missed the point. God only knows where the magic bullet and glowing mothership fit into all though..."

Nada Surf - whose authority, 2008

"An album as a whole that I love is Lucky by Nada Surf. "See These Bones," that to me is a person, and an album, and a song. My girlfriend, Courtney, is completely embodied in that album. Every time I listen to it, it's like she's there, and that's really helped me a lot. It's really strange to have an album be a person. It's the first time I've kind of thought about it in that way, but it's true, and that brings a comfort in itself. The music is super comforting because it's got amazing harmonies. The thing I love about Nada Surf is you don't give a shit what year it is, they still sound like 1995. They've done it on their new album (You Know Who You Are) as well. I love that band."

Slowdive - don't know why, 2017

"It’s strange to call Slowdive a comeback album, because it seems so sure of itself. Instead, it feels like a completely logical next step in their discography. The record fits snugly inside the band’s canon, so much so that it makes the 22 years since Pygmalion all the more difficult to believe. The band have delivered a fresh dream-pop sound that is still uniquely Slowdive. Perhaps they’re fortunate that their return does not follow their magnum opus, but Slowdive delivers nearly everything their fans desire in a return: familiarity, innovation, and vast atmospheres to get lost in."

Belle And Sebastian - i want the world to stop, 2010

"Mainly, though, what impresses about Write About Love is its consistency, both within the album itself and within Belle & Sebastian’s work at large. Song for song, it’s as strong as any of their records - if anything, these 11 songs are the tightest they have ever been - and Stuart Murdoch remains faithful to the aesthetic he essayed at the outset of his career, finding sustenance in the fine details, his obsessions carrying the weight of passion."

Slowdive - no longer making time, 2017

"There is the occasional moment when the mix seems a little off, most notably the tinny drums on "No Longer Making Time," but mostly the album delivers exactly what a Slowdive fan would want. Lots of songs to dream to (the ethereal, Cocteau Twins-sounding "Don't Know Why," the calming "Sugar for the Pill"), get lost in (the noisy "Go Get It"), and swoon along with (the positively dreamy pop song "Everyone Knows")."

Fait-divers by Kierkegaard on boredom

"Adam was bored because he was alone; therefore Eve was created. Since that moment, boredom entered the world and grew in quantity in exact proportion to the growth of population. Adam was bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored together; then Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel were bored en famille. After that, the population of the world increased and the nations were bored en masse." (Kierkegaard)

Fait-divers on attitude

Give more than is expected, love more than seems wise, serve more than seems necessary, and help more than is asked.

Fait-divers on education and forgiveness

The two most powerful forces in the future are education and forgiveness.

Fait-divers by Thomas Merton

"What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forests, at night..." (Thomas Merton)

Fait-divers by Camus

"Nous finissons toujours par avoir le visage de nos vérités." (Albert Camus)