Week #10 - Opposed Positions ¦ Food

For me Opposed Positions is two short stories in the one. The first deals with Aislinn Kelly's family relationship, mostly Aislinn's interaction with her father. He is an abusive man, physically with Aislinn's mother and mentally with Aislinn and her brother. Although bereft of detail the psychological harassment of the siblings by the father is spellbinding and scary and beautifully mastered by Gwendoline Riley.

The second 'story' deals with Aislinn's other relationships, her mother, her friends and her 'boyfriends'. This part of the book has little or nothing going for it. Oh, the prose might be wonderful but all you really get from this part of the book is pain having to look up words in the dictionary to find their meaning. Its pompous and pointless. A shame, the book promised so much.

This is the first and last book by Riley I will read. Most of what I can gather online about her is that the second half of this book is a true reflection on what she has written before and that should be avoided. Also she whines a lot.
2/5

Food by Kelis is her first album since Flesh Tone in 2010. An album I missed at the time and haven't caught up. Like most my first introduction to Kelis was her single Caught Out There with the memorable and powerful scream "I hate you so much right now. I hate you so much right now". Still as brutal today as it was back in 1999.

Food on the other hand doesn't have the screams but has a lot of other great stuff going for it. Its part a throw back to the seventies, part soul and part R&B. All this combined along with Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio producing and co-writing and you have a very strong and lingering album. There are many highlights but from the first few listens you just cannot go past, Cobbler, Friday Fish Fry and the outstanding Hooch.

Give it a listen. You will be justly rewarded. Food is set to be released on 18 April 2014 and can be pre-ordered.
4/5