Architecture In Helsinki - In Case We Die

It feels like this album has been part of my life for ages, for AiH have been omnipresent in the Melbourne music air in the last few years, but the truth is that till recently I'd never listened to it all the way through. Still, my impressions are accurate - it's bright, whimsical, colourful, peppy, charming. v.g.

Give Listen Help

A benefit cd (double cd actually), and one with an impressive roster of acts contributing remixes or previously unreleased cuts; attempting to list the most famous in descending order, one might end up with a list something like this, depending on the sphere within which the fame was being measured: Oasis, Garbage, Jack Johnson, Radiohead, Bloc Party, Rilo Kiley, CSS, the Decemberists, Ladytron, the Faint, Bat for Lashes, the Dears, Of Montreal - and that's not the half of it (there are also several acts whose names I hadn't heard before). Covers about the sort of ground that one would expect it to given that kind of rollcall (with a fair number of folk-tinged offerings from those that I didn't previously know), and does it well despite the 'odds and sorts' nature of the contributions.

Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

F-U-N! Not so much a step forward from Alright, Still as one sideways and in a slightly different direction, but plays to her strengths despite some cosmetic changes, and plenty likeable.

Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost

I think that maybe I've just read too much of this kind of novel; of course, making that statement is a lot easier than fleshing it out by identifying exactly what 'this kind' of novel is. Behind the Scenes at the Museum is one, and probably Human Croquet as well; so too The Sorrows of an American (soon to be reread for one of my book clubs, incidentally - looking forward to it!), and perhaps The Blind Assassin, in a slightly different way, and many others that I can't call to mind right now. What they all have in common is that, apart from being written in the last ten or fifteen years - which is certainly relevant - they're about loss (also, it only now strikes me, they're all by women, which may also be relevant), and they all deal with that subject in a certain way, characterised by attention to relationships, memory, and, especially, history --

-- and so it is with What Was Lost. O'Flynn's writing is clear, and has an understated quality which suits the story she tells - that of the disappearance of Kate Meaney, junior detective (age about nine, I think), and the effects of that disappearance on the later lives of several others from her town, much of it taking place in and around the shopping mall where her image is seen some nineteen years later by a security guard on the security camera screen at night, after the mall has closed.

There's a quiet sadness to it, balanced by intimations of hope, particularly in the way some of the characters relate to each other, but somehow it didn't catch alight for me, though I appreciated its craft and what it was doing. I can't entirely put my finger on what it is that didn't quite work (although something of it probably comes from a failure to adequately reconcile the generally low-key nature of the events and tone of the novel with the gaping absence which gives What Was Lost its key narrative and structural figure, leading to (a) the introduction of a culprit about halfway through who I picked in about two pages and (b) a rather forced reappearance of a relatively minor character near the end to knit things together. For all that, though, this is a good novel, particularly for a first novel (as it is), and I oughtn't fault it too much for being just the kind of thing that I know.

L.A. Confidential

Really excellent. Star turns from Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe - the kind that really make one realise just how good they are - and perfectly tuned performances from all the other key figures, too, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell and Kim Basinger most notable amongst them, set within a ceaselessly exciting story with mood, unobtrusive but all-surrounding, to burn. I've seen it before, probably close to a decade ago now, and it's aged very well. Not particularly flashy, but does what it does - being a period L.A.-set hard-boiled crime flick - impeccably.

I Am Not An Animal

Somehow I didn't quite get into this one, a show about a group of animals who, having been genetically modified to take on human traits (and ended up with the worst of those), are broken out of the research facility in which they're comfortably ensconced by a group of animal liberationists, and are then forced to attempt to survive in the wilds of British suburbia. The satirical element is obvious, and downright cutting at times, but the protagonists were just too unappealing and the tone too flippant for me to really enjoy the show.

China Miéville - Looking for Jake: Stories

Still very good, ideologically consistent (and coherent) and often genuinely unsettling.

(last time)

Taylor Swift - Fearless

I heard "Love Story", the lead single from this album, in a car in Elmira, NY on the way to a local shopping mall; Craig and Shellie ID-ed it for me, and I decided to pick up the album when we arrived at the mall, which turned out to be a straightforward affair, as it was prominently displayed as the number one selling record in the store. Having now listened to Fearless, I can understand why it and Swift are so popular in the States - the 'pop' part of the equation is more prominent than the 'country' (I'm reminded of Kelly Clarkson at points, not least in the way that practically every song has an anthemic quality to it), and it's produced with a kind of golden gloss which smooths any rough edges while Swift sells the songs, lyrics included, with conviction, investing them with a personal feeling. Like many pop records, it's heavily frontloaded, the first three songs, "Fearless", "Fifteen" and "Love Story" a clear notch above the rest for mine, but it doesn't fall away too badly, and all up it's pretty impressive even if not one that is really likely to grow with me too much.

Jolie Holland @ the Corner Hotel, Friday 13 February

For sure, the most distinctive - and best - thing about Jolie Holland's music is her singing, and over the course of this show, the idiosyncratic phrasing and voice that I've come to know so well through repeated spins of Springtime Can Kill You, The Living and the Dead and (to a lesser extent, so far) Escondida was in full evidence, translating clearly and expressively in the live setting, as did the subtleties and underlying arcs of her songs, which all added up to a very good show indeed.

Jolie has been the closest thing to a soundtrack that the last two or three months have had, and the timing for her concert was perfect for me - still on the crest of enthusiasm, but having had enough time to live with her music for a bit - and it was wonderful. She did all of the songs that I wanted to hear and then some, refashioning them in small ways but retaining whatever it is that makes them so great in their recorded versions. The band was tight; the show was loose; and it was all very warm while hinting at the starkness that's always at least implicit in her music. It made me happy.

(w/ Michelle)

X-Men

Pretty watchable, if nothing special. Fun enough that I'd quite like to see the others.

Guy Gavriel Kay - The Darkest Road

The series really hits its straps with this one, the final in the trilogy. By this point, Kay has done the work needed to set up the characters and the mythology with which he's working, and the result is easily the strongest book of the three - the climaxes hit hard, one after another, and it picks up pace and scope as it goes forward. That still, it's still only good rather than getting anywhere near greatness as far as this kind of thing goes.

(previously)

Poor Boy (MTC)

For me, the contrast to Grace is striking. Whereas that other was neatly, smoothly constructed literally to a fault, and sorely lacking in anything that might have made it real, Poor Boy is uneven - 'lumpy' was the first description that came to mind - and flawed in many ways, but nonetheless I enjoyed it far more, for it has a spirit, a dash, a vision maybe (I don't think it's unfair to compare the two in terms of vision despite the comparatively cerebral nature of Grace, for if you don't have that, whatever form it may take or focus it may have, you ain't got much) which the other lacks. For all of its failings, Poor Boy touches upon something, both in moments and as a whole.

Much of the lumpiness comes from the lack of connection between the music and the action of the play; the songs were written by Tim Finn - some, at least, were old ones (possibly all of them were) - and they're well sung by the cast, Guy Pearce far from the least amongst them, but not meaningfully integrated with the story in any real way. That said, the story would have been quite thin without the musical interludes to break it up, which is another (and of course related) weakness.

But for all of that, as I said before, I responded very favourably to this one. The staging has a shadowy, nocturnal feel which goes well with the play's underlying conceit - the mysterious supernatural return - and there's a kind of creative energy to it for which I'll forgive a lot. Well worthwhile.

Thumbs up to the new venue, by the way - from the inside, at any rate (I'm not entirely sold on the exterior, but it may grow on me).

(The MTC group for this year, incidentally, comprises, including both full and part subscriptions, Steph, Sunny, Ben, Wilfred, Dakshinee, Christine L, Bec P and Gia - and there've been a couple of MS types, D and R, also present at these first couple.)

Sukiyaki Western Django

A delirious hyper-real spaghetti eastern swirl, colourful, violent and not shy with the Shakespeare references. Two Japanese clans, one in white, one in red, fight it out in a town called Nevada, into which comes a gunman in black, setting off a chain of events that eventually culminates in all-out pitched battle and a series of pistol/machine gun/samurai sword showdowns (did I mention that all the dialogue sounds as if it's being rendered phonetically) - it's a homage to the western but done over in style and given a thousand tiny and several large idiosyncratic twists, totally bonkers, and lots of fun.

iTunes snapshot

Current top 25 most played:

1. "23" - Blonde Redhead (70)
2. "Godspell" - The Cardigans (61)
3. "Ode to LRC" - Band of Horses (57)
4. "Modern Love" - The Last Town Chorus (47)
5. "Out Loud" - Mindy Smith (47)
6. "Slow Show" - The National (43)
7. "Breakaway" - Kelly Clarkson (39)
8. "Fake Empire" - The National (39)
9. "No Bad News" - Patty Griffin (39)
10. "Is There A Ghost" - Band of Horses (36)
11. "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" - Manic Street Preachers feat. Nina Persson (36)
12. "Blue and Gold Print" - Mates of State (34)
13. "Crush in the Ghetto" - Jolie Holland (32)
14. "Ride the Wind to Me" - Julie Miller (32)
15. "Dr. Strangeluv" - Blonde Redhead (30)
16. "What You Said" - Laura Cantrell (30)
17. "California Dreamin'" - The Mamas & The Papas (29)
18. "Guest Room" - The National (28)
19. "Kaifuku Suru Kizu" - Lily Chou-Chou (28)
20. "Late Nite" - Slumber Party (27)
21. "Back to Black" - Amy Winehouse (26)
22. "Pumpkin Soup" - Kate Nash (26)
23. "I'm a Lady" - Santogold (26)
24. "Communication" - The Cardigans (25)
25. "Green Gloves" - The National (25)

(I've had it since mid 2007-ish.)

Cocteau Twins - "Peppermint Pig" & "The Spangle Maker" eps, "Snow" cd single & "Dials / "Crushed" / "The High Monkey-Monk" / "Oomingmak" cd

A bunch of stuff I picked up secondhand in a store called Amoeba in San Francisco, most of which I've heard before but still.

Paprika

Colourful and vivid - a 'what if' type anime in which dreams begin to bleed into reality and the expected mayhem ensues. I was kind of distracted while watching this, and it's certainly not as intense as Perfect Blue (by the same director), but I still liked it a lot. It has a light touch and an energy which neatly offsets its heavier impulses, and the spurts of imagination which characterise it are delightful.

China Miéville - Iron Council

Definitely weaker than Perdido Street Station or The Scar though it is (the characters don't compel even though plenty of time is devoted to them, the scenes are less vivid, the pace of events is wrong, the politics doesn't come to life), Iron Council is nonetheless still ferociously readable even on a second pass. I hear the next one's going to be set in a different world, which I reckon is a good move on Miéville's part.

(last time)

Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans

It must be said, this one loses something in the absence of Kate Beckinsale (by contrast, Scott Speedman is no loss at all); still and all, it's not too bad.

[1], [2]