My ‘little’ cousin and her husband visited Amsterdam from the deep south of The Netherlands. They wanted to give me a present for staying over at my place and I couldn’t think of an object that was missing from my life. 

We walked through a quaint area of Amsterdam called the ‘Jordaan’ where I showed them one of my favorite music stores. Just when we walked in and I was explaining that I could spend hours sitting there listening to their excellent music selection, I stopped halfway during a sentence and said “I know what I want”. The object of my desire was the CD that they had on play and I heard less than 10 seconds of it.

In Australia, the home country of Angus & Julia Stone, their music is everywhere: the official tune on any JetStar flight,  every mainstreet shop has it on their playlist, and it is a perennial favorite of Australian cover bands. In my book these symptoms typically mean crappy mainstream music. However, the wisdom of the crowds seems to have worked this time. Even after hearing the tune countless times. Subtle voices, great lyrics combined with the bizarre realization that it’s actually brother and sister singing together keep the music thoroughly entertaining.

The cousin her husband and I finished off the weekend with an amazing boat trip through the Amsterdam canals.