Holly Throsby - On Night

Nice - gentle and low key, and with a melancholy undercurrent, On Night has a late afternoon to evening feel, and the Australian-ness of Throsby's delivery (I think this was her debut) enhances the kinds of associations that her music summons.

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

This is a lovely album, richer and more expansive - not to mention more glossily produced - than The Big Black & The Blue (which isn't to disparage that first, comparatively rawer but still strikingly good lp at all). My favourites are back to back in the middle - first the dreamy, meandering "To A Poet", which starts with some pretty 'oooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-oooh'-ing and Joni Mitchell-esque verse trilling, and also shares with Joni (at her best) a captivating compellingness that coexists with the sense that the wending tune is almost being made up as it goes along, and then "I Found A Way", which invokes both Neko Case and Fleet Foxes; it's possible to hear bits of all three of those artists, and plenty of others (piquantly, "Emmylou" namechecks, as well as the obvious, Gram, June Carter and Johnny), throughout the record.

30 Rock 1-5

Amidst the unsettledness of the last few weeks (moving house being neither least nor greatest amongst the causes), have wound up watching this all the way through again - an easy way to distract myself, or as a companion while doing other things. Watching all five seasons in a row made me think that it has actually maintained a pretty consistent quality (on first pass, my impression was that seasons 2 and 3 were a notch above the others); all up, it continues to be high quality, undemanding but intelligent comedy, getting plenty of mileage out of its main characters' many foibles.

(previously)

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

What I knew about Lana Del Rey about six months ago: She was some kind of internet sensation, with the inevitable attendant backlash.

What I knew about her about three months ago: That sinuous, mournful-sounding, memorable song I heard one morning on the radio that made me think of Nancy Sinatra, Karen O (in downbeat mode) and Marianne Faithfull (if there had been a mid-period between her youthfully pretty tunes and the raspy, cracked voice with which she reemerged years later) - the sort of song that lingers in the mind and summons associations - and then looked up was "Video Games". If that's what the hype was about, the hype was justified.

What I know now: The lp doesn't live up to the promise of that first song. The strings and Del Rey's alto knit it together, but there's not a lot of substance to it.

Eilen Jewell @ the Corner, Thursday 22 March

An enjoyable show. Jewell is ace live, and - as someone called out at one point - a sweet talker into the bargain, and she was backed by a fantastic band (guitar, drums, upright bass) as she she ripped through a set that drew as much on her older work as on the more recent records that I've listened to, Sea of Tears and Queen of the Minor Key. Live, the bluesy/early rock and roll elements of her sound came through most strongly initially, but there was plenty of country in there too, put together crisply and satisfingly.

(w/ Rob)

The Lighthouse Keepers - Ode to Nothing

There are some songs for which the word 'charming' could practically have been invented, and the Lighthouse Keepers' gem "Ocean Liner" is one of them. For a long time, it was the only thing I knew about them, but now this compilation has come out (most of their one lp plus all-sorts) and it shows them to've been a pretty neat band in their time (early 80s), mingling influences in that Australian indie post-punk exemplified by the Go-Betweens (though probably with more variety, and less of a folkish streak).

"The Wild Duck" (Malthouse)

Apparently this was based on an Ibsen play, and while the names and a certain, possibly spurious, 'you see it because you expect it', Scandinavian sensibility to the drama attest to that, it felt very much like a contemporary work; moreover, while its themes and characters are universal, the setting is (for the most part) naturalistically Australian. Cass mentioned that one of her friends had described it as quite televisual and compared it to an HBO production, which I think is a good analogy, not least because of the transparent (glass or maybe perspex) wall behind which nearly all of the action takes place - a staging technique done to death nowadays, particularly by the Malthouse, but effective here.

It's tightly written and quite simple in many ways, drawing on familiar themes and dramatic structures (most notably, the reverberating effects of past misdeeds and trauma in the present day), but the structuring is elegant, and the events of its second half have a genuine emotional impact, including the final, quietly sad, out-of-the-box conversation between Hjalmar (Ewen Leslie - impressive) and Gina (Anita Hegh - equally so), which is partly due to the neat, unadorned way that it's pulled together and partly thanks to the very strong performances from the whole cast, who are able to carry the dramatic moments and convince us of the reality of their characters throughout. Also - there was a real duck on stage, which was more a novelty than anything else, but still kind of cool. It's by no means a perfect play (or production) - Gregers comes through strongly, but sort of just disappears after performing his main plot function of revealing the secret at the heart of events to Hjalmar, for example - but still, it was very good.

(w/ Cass and Erandathie)

Michael Lewis - Moneyball

A very enjoyable read - particularly impressive given its subject, although that said, despite my disinterest in baseball, I was probably a fairly sympathetic audience. Lewis' sympathies are clearly with Billy Beane and his willingness to bring 'efficiency' to the game - there's no suggestion that his statistical methods are anathema to the spirit of the sport, or that they suck the joy out of it - but much of the fascination of the book is the way it interweaves the tales of all of the 'players'...managers, fans (and fanatics), number-crunchers, and the players themselves.

(the film)

Game of Thrones season 1

Pretty excellent, though possibly it would've been more so were I not so intimately familiar with the books and the many twists and turns the series has up its sleeve. Season 1 covers the events of the first book and does a good job of it - I don't think it omits a single major plot event or character, and it's not too far off the mark in terms of mood and feel, either. Looking forward to more.

(w/ Rob - getting through the whole thing in a single all day viewing session)

Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Like the first one, but maybe better - kind of more widescreen (nearly always a good thing in my books) and deeper and richer-feeling. Favourites - "Montezuma", "Battery Kinzie", "Lorelai", the title track. Been listening to it for months now, on and off, but I'm pretty sure it penetrated with that pastoral-harmonic feeling of familiarity from the very first listen.

They Will Have Their Way: The Songs of Tim & Neill Finn

I know this is hardly an original sentiment, but there's something about Crowded House. Their music has always been there, but that's not what gives it its power to evoke feeling - that's something that comes from the music itself. Anyhow, the greatness of that source material was a large part of what made She Will Have Her Way so good (though many of the other Finn songs are also v. strong); it's now been repackaged with a couple of extras (including Seeker Lover Keeper's "Sinner") along with the male follow-up that came out a couple of years back; on that one, my favourites are the first three, and possibly the three most straightforward - Oh Mercy's "I Feel Possessed", Chris Cheney's "Distant Sun", and, especially, Boy & Bear's take on "Fall At Your Feet" (my favourite from the original She Will Have Her Way has ended up being Clare Bowditch's version of the same, which may not be all that surprising given that it's probably one of my three or four favourite Crowded House songs full stop).

Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

I think I'd read this one before, many years ago. It's amusing, fundamental interconnectedness of everything and all.

Bored to Death season 2

More of the same, in a good way. Smart, funny, sweet, just the right side of overly clever and self-aware, and just acerbic enough.

Inception

The other night, midnight, couldn't sleep, decided to watch Inception to distract myself. On a second viewing I was better able to appreciate the craft of the thing - how elegantly and tightly it's constructed, how smoothly it draws the viewer in. But the main impact of Inception remains the immediate one - the sheer breathtaking excitement of the visuals, the action, the plot, the resolution, and the of-the-moment pitch-perfection of the cast.

(last time)

Bored to Death season 1

What it says on the box - Jason Schwartzman as a writer who gets dumped by his girlfriend and begins moonlighting (via a craigslist ad) as a private detective. Much in the way of moderately deadpan literary NYC situation comedy ensues, with an undertone of the unlikely (even hints of the uncanny) that never quite blooms into the full-blown fantastic. Ted Danson's suave, somewhat unhinged magazine editor a highlight, along with the general literary detectiveness. Not as great as I'd thought it might be, but still rather enjoyable.

Lucinda Williams - Blessed

Williams seems to've hit one of those mid-late career sweet spots; since the classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) and then 2003's almost equally great Essence, she's released a new record every couple of years, each one satisfying and rewarding in its own right, and seeming to fit completely naturally within her large, rich stream of work.

Blessed is no exception. It has plenty of high points, and it never seems like Williams is simply retreading old ground, but in both its mellower, more cosmic moments and amidst the most energetic roots-rockers (often, as is her latter day wont, touched by the blues) that it has to offer, it sounds like nothing so much as Lucinda Williams, her voice as characterful as ever, although - surprisingly - a bit smoother on this outing than generally on her other recent albums.

"Dream about changing" & "Keep it like a haunting" (2010 & 2011 cds)

I never got round to putting the 2010 cd up.

Dream about changing (2010)

1. Stillness is the Move – Dirty Projectors
from Bitte Orca (Domino; 2009)

2. Heart Skipped A Beat – The xx
from xx (Young Turks; 2009)

3. Core of Nature – Midlake
from The Courage of Others (Bella Union; 2010)

4. Written in Reverse – Spoon
from Transference (Merge; 2010)

5. Half Asleep – School of Seven Bells
from Alpinisms (Ghostly International; 2008)

6. Dream About Changing – Sally Seltmann
from Heart That’s Pounding (Shock; 2010)

7. Bloodbuzz Ohio – The National
from High Violet (4AD; 2010)

8. Fraud in the 80s – Mates of State
from Bring It Back (Barsuk; 2006)

9. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) – Arcade Fire
from “The Suburbs” (Merge; 2010)

10. Coming Home To Me – Patty Griffin (feat. Julie Miller)
from Downtown Church (Credential; 2010)

11. House of Cards – Robert Plant
from Band of Joy (Rounder; 2010)

Others originally on the cd, but later taken off because they didn't really feel like part of the soundtrack to the year: Elbow - "Mirrorball", Florence and the Machine - "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)", Deerhunter - "Desire Lines".

* * *

And here is 2011 (along with notes about what the songs make me think of).

Keep it like a haunting (2011)

1. Joints – Holly Miranda
from The Magician’s Private Library (XL; 2010)
Things unfurling; a quiet mystery; a quieter wonder.

2. Committed – Jenny and Johnny
from I’m Having Fun Now (Warner; 2010)
Summertime, rock and roll.

3. This World Can Make You Happy – Amaya Laucirica
from Early Summer (Departed Sounds; 2010)
Every girl I’ve ever been involved with.

4. Sadness is a Blessing – Lykke Li
from Wounded Rhymes (LL; 2011)
Bells, melody, melodrama.

5. Even Though I’m A Woman – Seeker Lover Keeper
from Seeker Lover Keeper (Dew Process; 2011)
2011 in general – if one song soundtracked this year for me, it was this one.

6. Anne With Ann E – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
from Belong (Slumberland; 2011)
The memory of some hazy Sofia Coppola-touched dream.

7. Zip City – Drive-By Truckers
from Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians: Greatest Hits 1998 - 2009 (New West; 2011) [2001]
Bon Jovi crossed with Neil Young, in a good way.

8. Home To Me – Eilen Jewell
from Queen of the Minor Key (Signature Sounds; 2011)
Like the album as a whole: smoulder, smoke and heart-break, seedy dive bars, cigarettes and a hint of sex.

9. Abducted – Cults
from Cults (In The Name Of; 2011)
Wonderful, knowing abandon.

10. Chinatown – Wild Nothing
from Gemini (Captured Tracks; 2010)
Escape – maybe momentary, maybe something more.

11. What I Thought Of You – Holly Throsby
from Team (Spunk; 2011)
That gentle melancholy that settles like a cloak at the end of so many days, especially in summer.