Week #11 - A Sixpenny Song ¦ Transitions EP

I am getting really sick of this. Another waste of my time. Is it just me? Am I been too critical? Reviews of A Sixpenny Song by the Guardian and Independent are positive reviews, the Daily Mail (I know) review by Victoria Moore is more in line with what I think "I had to start it six times because its mundane personalities and writing style kept dropping straight out of my head. Not recommended."

Things like "She turned and walked bravely towards the staircase." or "She felt cold. Nothing to do with the weather; it was the story that had frozen her." I mean, come on.

There is also about four pages of dialogue quoted from a conversation made years ago between Kevin and Jude. Word for word. It's ridiculous and so utterly corny.

If the blurb at the back is to be believed "Roddy Doyle called (Jennifer) Johnston the best writer in Ireland", then Irish literature is in a world of shit. But we know that back-cover blurbs are not meant to be believed.
0.5/5

Transitions takes me back, all the way to the late eighties, acid house, techno, 808 State and the Second Summer of Love.

There may be nothing new here but as a homage to that time and the artists this is great. I have heard of SBTRKT before but not too much. If what he/they do is all like this I might become a fan.

For it's nostalgic value (if you are old enough to feel nostalgic) then give it a listen.
3/5

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

Week #09 - A Meal In Winter ¦ Broods

A Meal In Winter is a very brief crisp book. I understand that this is the first of  Hubert Mingarelli's novel to be translated into English. I pray it is not the last.

Three soldiers Emmerich, Bauer and the narrator wrangle there way off base for the day under the guise of hunting down jews in the frozen wasteland around where they are stationed. The writing is so astute we feel the cold as we walk with these three, looking but not too hard for anything in the bleakness.

In the bitter Polish they find a jewish man in a hole in the frozen forest and as they march him back to camp, to be shot, they happen upon an old abandoned home. It is hear that they make soup, their meal. While the soup is slowly cooking a Polish man enters the house and the tensions between the five men builds. The three soldiers have no lust or will for the killing of the jewish man and only choose this mission to get away from the base where the killings take place.

As I said it is short book but that does not distract from the vivid pictures and tension that is built in the pages. It is so staggering in its simplicity, so beautiful its prose I welcome all to read it.

4.5/5

Broods are a sister-brother duo from Auckland, New Zealand. Broods is their debut release and its very strong. In fact all six songs are good. Very good. Bridges, their first single, is probably the weakest song on the EP and Bridges is a great song.

There of course will be comparisons with Lorde as these are a new NZ band, I guess very young as well as having the same co-writer in Joel Little. I cannot give an opinion on Lorde as I only heard Royals which hasn't inspired me to hear her voice for awhile again.

Broods are good and could be big if the Lorde comparisons don't overshadow what great music they make.

4/5

Week #08 - The Adult ¦ Silversun Pickups singles

I looked at the back cover of The Adult in the library (intrigued as i was by the cover) and it said "It's England, 1989-2009. So expect a little history." I love anything 1989 so I got it. Never believe the blurb, there was very little about 1989 in the book but that's not to say I was disappointment. Quiet the contrary, this is one of the best books I have read in a very long time.

This is the first (and probably only as the library does list any more) Joe Stretch novel I have read and it is so wonderful. Jim Thorne is growing up in the nineties and through the new millennium. He is the son of a famous mother and three even more famous aunts(the Albright's).

His life in growing up in the shadow of his mother and her sisters and through an important (well it seemed at the time) time in history all seem to be too much for him. His father (a shell of a man) and his sister all have the same problems in living in the famous Albright shadow.

The little snippets of history dotted throughout plays the nostalgia card very nicely without being over used. Lots of "I remember that" moments.

The story revolves around Jim's coming of age but really he never seems to reach that point. In a family of doers, he tries but never really succeeds. His one moment of fame seems more of a burden the older he gets and it never resulted in him getting what he wanted.

4.5/5

The Singles Collection is a compilation album comprising the 10 previously released Silversun Pickups songs and a new song Cannibal.

Although a fan of Silversun Pickups there are some tracks here I have heard before but never paid them much attention. My bad! The opening track Kissing Families is a very typical SP song with some great screaming from Brian Aubert near the end. Lazy Eye has always been wonderful. The tracks from Swoon of course speak for themselves, they are outstanding.

The one new track is Cannibal, a bit more electronic than normal but it's still load and hard and Aubert is, as always, in fine voice.

If you like Silversun Pickups then you probably heard most of these before but they are selling this collection as a six-disc 7" vinyl box set. For those new to SP, this is a great collection with some great great songs. Listen and enjoy.

5/5

Week #07 - Turning Forty ¦ A Walk Across the Rooftops

Turning Forty is the follow up to Mike Gayle's Turning Thirty. It is fine by Gayle's standards. It all worked out in the end.

Mike Gayle has always fascinated me. Not so much what he writes as his fiction is very basic as to not stand out from anything. Gayle writes G rated fiction, no sex, no swear words, no graphic violence nothing.

What I find fascinating about him is that he is one of the leading black writers in Britain yet not one issue that effects black people in England is ever mentioned in his work (and I have read all of his fiction books). It may be that Mr Gayle has never experienced anything untoward in England but surely someone within his network of friends, family has. Why would someone with Gayle's exposure not want to tackle issue that are still so prevalent in the UK.

Mike Gayle writes almost exclusively about relationships, between men and women, yet no sex (some kissing) and no swear words. I don't think any group of adults go through there relationships (especially breakups which are everywhere in his books) without the odd curse word. Or like most adults with lots and lots of them.

Mike Gayle is fascinating his fiction not so but it is nice and easy to read and occasionally something insightful is said and even less occasionally something funny.

2.5/5

In 2012 The Blue Nile released a Deluxe edition of the seminal debut album A Walk Across The Rooftops. I only managed to get a copy of it in the last week.

There is not much I can write about the first seven tracks (the original album release) that hasn't been written already. Suffice to say it is one of the best album of the 80's, one of the most outstanding debut of all time and it still holds its own among any of the more recent great albums.

There are a few songs I hadn't heard of I Love This Life, St. Catherine's Day, The Second Act and Regret which compliment the original music very well and the mixes of Heatwave, Tinseltown in the Rain and Stay are wonderful (they didn't do any damage to the originals - thank god).

The album is still one of my favourites and these new songs and updated mixes make it even better. I cannot give it more than 5 so I will give it:

5/5

Week #06 - The Shock of the Fall ¦ none

I borrowed The Shock of the Fall because it had just won the 2013 Costa Book of the Year and it was also Nathan Filer's debut novel. I like my debut novels. They are either great or exceptionally pretentious. Thankfully this falls into the former.

Spoilers (for want of a better word) contained in the review.

Matthew is 9 when his brother Simon dies in an accident. Matthew blames himself on it which leads to his battle with his mental health that gets worse and worse as he gets older. Not only has Matthew lost a brother he loves he also feels the responsibility for his brothers death.

This story is about the power guilt has to lay waste to a life. Because there is no tangible link between this accident and the downward spiral of Matthew, no one puts it together. His parents, good people, don't understand either. They know Matthew had nothing to do with the accident, however they don't notice that Matthew is all consumed by it.

We follow Matthew in the downward spiral through his trips to different psychologists, before his eventual incarceration into the mental health system. The place these sick people are put into never helps "There is literally nothing to do" only the drugs can do that.

3.5/5

Music this week: I listened to lots, none new, just to get my head back into loving music again. Next week an oldie with a new twist.

Week #05 - A Thousand Mornings ¦ EP2

Poetry has always been a great love of mine. I am no purist in the art and only read what I like, hence I have struggled for years and years to find any new poetry that I do like. That could be due to the fact I really only like free-form poetry (all else seems contrived), however it has to be simple, very simple. My search has finally ended with Mary Oliver's A Thousand Mornings.

This is my first introduction to Oliver, as our library is somewhat bereft of poetry books. There is so much to like about this collection. From the first to the last, the poems are concise, simple yet they all project stunning imagery.

The poems are very earthy, full of the natures wonder and most (if not all) have been written around her home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Oliver has a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry among her raft of honours.

By the first poem (below) I was hooked.

I GO DOWN TO THE SHORE
I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.

4/5

EP2 by the Pixies is the second EP they have released in the last couple of months. The first (weirdly titled EP1) was a shock to my ears. I have been a fan since 1988 and what EP1 offered was nothing like the classic Pixies sound. I was hoping EP2 would be different and unleash the rawness that the Pixies are about. Alas I was disappointed again.

This new music is released under the Pixies name but there is no Kim Deal. I know that she was just the bass player in this band but going by the sound she must have had a greater influence on the initial noise of the Pixies than anyone gives her credit for. I mean she does some wonderful music as a now solo artist and previous with the sublime and ridiculously brilliant The Breeders. I miss her on these new songs. I used to think the Pixies was all about Frank. Oblivious not.

1/5