Heard – mostly old blues records, especially a great 2 CD compilation of Excello Records – £3 in Fopp.
Read – Johnny Marr’s autobiography. It was ok, but I could have done with some detail on his guitars / amps – there was very little there. Sped up once he left the Smiths. Not much depth, I felt.
Watched – The Nice Guys – anything from Shane Black is worth a watch and I thoroughly enjoyed this, slightly daft private eye comedy thriller.
AOB – I may have mentioned before that I’m a fan of the Fleshtones. I saw them last night in Edinburgh, and it was a joyful, uplifting garage rock gig. Great to see them again – they are on tour now, Gateshead tonight then Leeds, London and on to mainland Europe. If they are in your area go and see them – I’m still smiling.
Heard
It’s been a great month for new tunes for me. I am mightily impressed with the new Beth Ditto album, as well as storming new tracks from PJ Harvey, Alvvays, The Last Dinosaur& Cold Specks. I have also spent the last few weeks with the Big Thief album which I think is excellent & will definitely be an album of the year contender.
Read
A bit slow on the reading front recently as I have moved back to Manchester & now have quite a wuick commute so not enough time to get stuck into anything. As such I am slowly working my way through Jeremy Paxmans book which is fantastic. Some great anecdotes* & his views on journalism I find pretty much spot on.
*my favourite being about John Major in a meeting with Boris Yeltsin
Major: ‘Well Boris, in a word how is Russia?’
Yeltsin: ‘Good’
Major: ‘And in more than one word’
Yeltsin: ‘Not good’
Watched
The Handmaids Tale is the best TV since Mad Men. Brilliantly acted & totally gripping. I don’t think I breathed for about 20 minutes of the latest episode.
Me & my partner also discovered ‘Catastrophe’ with Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney which is brilliant. We did all 3 series in June & cried & laughed numerous times. (on more than one occasion it was proper ‘losing your shit’ laughter)
AOB
Being back in Manchester means being close for the Manchester International Festival. There is an exhibition called True Faith which I am aiming to get to this weekend which looks fantastic.
I have written about my two big nights out here already, Thea Gilmore at Union Chapel and Bat Out of Hell at the Coliseum – both fantastic and life enhancing, but for very different reasons. The local fest on Saturday sneaked into July so John Cooper Clarke and the Blockheads will have to wait for my verdict.
On TV The Handmaid’s Tale is terrific, and for the first time in a while I’m sorry to see the back of a series of Doctor Who. I binged on series 1 + 2 of Pulling in a couple of nights when I found a box set in a charity shop. The Detectorists has been on iPlayer, which is obviously a very good thing, and that’s how I experienced most of Glasto too, but I’ll put that in ‘heard’.
I’ve also been rewatching The Prisoner, because we went to Portmeirion for The Light’s birthday last week. We didn’t actually stay there, we’re not nearly well off enough, but it’s a fantastic place, especially if you are hell bent of buying up half of the shop in what used to be Number 6’s cottage, as she was.
Read
David Sedaris’ book of essays Theft by Finding seems set to enhance his status as ‘the American Alan Bennett’, but probably isn’t the best place for newcomers (try Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim or When You Are Engulfed in Flames first).
Heard
Listening has been dominated by Thea and Steinman, which makes a surprisingly complimentary mix (speaking of which I just had a Genius playlist on my iPod which followed Shonen Knife’s Cycling is Fun with Pink Floyd’s Bike. Inspired.)
The acts I expected to quite like at Glastonbury on the box I did quite like – Laura Marling, First Aid Kit, Songhoy Blues, London Grammar, you get the picture. Radiohead and The Foo Fighters both won me over, though I’m in no hurry to hear their albums. Ed Sheeran was enough for me to hit the red button after half an hour when my hit of the festival was Kano. Never heard of him (them?), would never have sought them ought, but after Ed’s insistent mediocrity seeing something with real life and art felt like being reborn. Thank you Kano.
Some decent new releases came out this month, not the least of which is Afterword favourite Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound. It’s chock full of Isbell’s particular brand of Americana, and on a couple of tracks rocks out more than he has done for a while. Album of the year contender, or these old ears of mine are made of cloth. The new Buckingham / McVie album is basically Fleetwood Mac without la Nicks, and sounds a bit like Tango In The Night-lite, and lacks the harder edge of 2003’s Say You Will. But anything from the Mac is welcome as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a joy that all 5 members of the Rumours line-up are still with us.
Also out this month, Fleet Foxes Crack-Up sounds disappointingly like a lot of clever harmonies in search of a tune, and Thea Gilmore’s The Counterweight like a bunch of decent songs badly arranged on a computer. Meanwhile, Nigel Stonier (aka Mr Thea Gilmore) has released Love And Work on download only, but it’s a far better effort than his missus’s, featuring a similar kind of clever wordplay, decent songs and classy instrumentation. Last up, Steve Earle’s So You Wannabe An Outlaw is his best album since God knows when. He might be clean these days, but he’s still a serial divorcer – which often coincides with his best work.
Seen –
Twin Peaks – The Return has received almost unanimous critical acclaim, even if most of us – critics included – haven’t a clue what is going on. Much harder edged and violent than the original, after 7 episodes it was starting to gain a rhythm and momentum of its own until David Lynch veered into pure Eraserhead meets Inland Empire territory in episode 8. Wilfully designed to confound expectations at every turn, the new Twin Peaks has the potential to influence television just as much as the original series did. Not to everyone’s taste admittedly, but unmissable in our house.
Read –
My bucket list project of reading (or re-reading) all of Shakespeare’s plays has gathered momentum this month with Henry IV Part II, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest. I originally read many of them as part of my English degree in the early 80s, but quickly realised all those years ago that there’s nothing like the pretentious theorising involved with an English degree to kill any natural enthusiasm for literature. It’s also funny how the passing of the years also brings a greater level of understanding of Shakespeare without the need to resort to dusty literary pontificating. Other opinions are, as the Bard never said, available.
In other news –
New next door neighbours have moved in. Outdoor types (surfboards and skateboards), and on the evidence of a very casual acquaintance not the slightest bit interested in music. Stereo obligingly turned down a notch – just for now.
Nonsense. There isn’t a person living in the world, even people starving in rural North Korea, whose lives have not been touched by the music of the Fabbermost Four.
Toni Erdmann – Kaisfatdad posted about this last year but it is a truly brilliant German comedy/drama(!). After 20 minutes I wasn’t sure where it was going but it keeps evolving into something strange, moving and deeply affecting. Best film I’ve seen in a long while.
Lego Batman – Only lasted 30 minutes before bailing. Hyper-frenetic, ADHD-esque assault on the senses. Seemed to have none of the charm of the original.
I Am Not Your Negro – James Baldwin’s personal account of black America in the sixties and seventies. Quite revelatory for me.
Heard
Big Thief – Capacity
Agree with Seanioio. One listen to ‘Mary’ and I was smitten.
Angel Olsen at Glastonbury – Rock and swoon.
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens
Surpising techno/ambient electronica.
Richard Dawson – Peasant
Just cannot get into it despite the plaudits. Have tried.
Peter Perrett – How The West Was Won
Like a grade C Only Ones album. Good enough?
Lorde – Melodrama
Deft, sparkling, idiosyncratic pop at its best.
Read
Robust 3D Shape Correspondence in the Spectral Domain – Varun Jain, Hao Zhang
A potboiler of a plot. As impenetrable as Twin Peaks.
‘Toni Erdmann – Kaisfatdad posted about this last year but it is a truly brilliant German comedy/drama(!). After 20 minutes I wasn’t sure where it was going but it keeps evolving into something strange, moving and deeply affecting. Best film I’ve seen in a long while.’
My review with lots of SPOILERS:
A busy German business consultant in Bucharest is visited by her annoying father as she tries to finish an important deal.
This has to be one of the most bewildering films I’ve ever seen. It’s very hard to know what effect they were going for. Perhaps there’s a massive disconnect between my sense of humour and the German comic sensibility. It’s over two and half hours long and it seems to be made up of long, awkward improvised scenes of cringing encounters. It might be aiming for The Office (UK version) comedy of embarrassment and discomfort but there are no jokes. It’s just awkward. Her father is supposed to be a prankster or at least someone funny but he’s not funny. He’s humourless with nothing witty to say. The only ‘amusing’ thing he does is put on a bad wig and false teeth. Grating cheese on his head is very, very far from funny. Is he meant to be unfunny? Is his humourless whacky shtick meant to be funny to the audience or not? I honestly don’t know.
The ending with the nude party was just weird and what was funny about the mask almost suffocating him? I really don’t know what they were trying to achieve. Did cinemas full of Germans rock with laughter to these long drawn-out scenes of nothing happening? I just can’t picture anyone laughing out loud to any of this.
As a comedy it’s very bleak and unfunny. It’s far more art house than funny – the ending with the long-held glum look on her face as she stood alone in the garden owes everything to depressing art movies and nothing to any comic film I’ve ever seen. Who makes comedies that are over two and half hours long? The film could easily be shorter with many pointless scenes cut (the sex scene in the hotel, the visit to the oil field, the visit to the house to paint eggs). I guess the scenes are so drawn-out because they wanted to keep all the awkward dead air as people struggle to find anything to say to each other. There’s a particularly bizarre sex scene in the middle that seems distractingly out of place and needlessly odd and kinky for no good reason. It was a very odd film. Perhaps the oddest film I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe it wasn’t a comedy? Maybe I’ve been misinformed and it’s a serious art movie? It’s possible. Certainly the film isn’t funny. It slowly goes nowhere and fails to be funny or insightful. Somehow it was watchable, probably because its sheer bizarreness made me want to keep looking. A very strange film with many weird, unconventional artistic choices. If Joana Hogg (the awful writer-director of Archipelago (2010) and Exhibition (2013)) ever made a comedy this is the sort of thing she’d make. It’s even filmed in a similar docu-drama style as Hogg’s films – visually drab camera in a corner observing the action, although Maren Ade cuts to other angles more than Hogg does.
———–
From IMDB:
‘Maren Ade does not view her film as a comedy because she told her producer she was making it “sad” and “super-serious”. The actors had the same feeling as well.’
Glad you enjoyed it, Husker, It is definitely odd and decidedly marmite. What it is not is a comedy, even if there are some very funny scenes. If you go expecting that, you will be sorely disappointed.
I can easily see why people do not like it. I thought it was a very moving portrait of a relationship between a father and his daughter.
Must be the fall-out from the Referendum but I’ve gone European film crazy at the local posh cinema.
I too loved “Toni Erdmann.”
Also recommended: “The Olive Tree,” “My Life as a Cougette” and “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki.”
The last one is about a Finnish boxer who fought a World Championship fight v. Davie Moore in 1962 ….. the same Davie Moore whose death in the ring in 1963 inspired Dylan to write “Who Killed Davie Moore?”
Into latest series of House of Cards, Handmaid’s Tale (agreeing with all positive comments previously), just digging into Narcos and also the Ken Burns series on the American Civil War on Netflix. Saw Midnight Oil earlier this week – knew nothing about them and was slightly taken aback by the Hammy Odeon (it will only ever be the Hammy Odeon) being rammed to the roof with a majority Aussie crowd pouring pint after pint down the neck with an endless line to the bar and back, everyone singing along, everyone standing up from the first number, fights breaking out….madhouse. The music left me slightly cold which may due to never having heard them before but I was slightly nonplussed at the response. One little perk was that the mate I went with had an in with the Front of House so we were shown to a (free) private bar with its own access to the auditorium, available all night! I took some snaps of the signed posters in there which I’d post if Photobucket hadn’t gone bastard on us. And I saw Jackson Browne, which I discussed at length elsewhere.
Heard
Brainlessly listened to the best of and a few live albums from Cold Chisel in the mistaken belief that I was going to see them (see above). I mean, how many Aussie bands are there after Acadaca? Dug into David Lindley’s back catalogue – “Nice and greasy” is too white guy ska for me but “Win this record” is a joy, fun, great songs and sterling playing especially on lap steel as you’d expect. Gave the latest Clapton a spin, which is mellow and reflective and hard to dislike or get too excited about either, though I had a tremendous sense of relief to finally discover the song whose hook has been tormenting me for years due to my inability to place it is called “I will be there” which I probably know from the Jackson 5, Google suggests. Dug into the Crusaders back catalogue especially with Larry Carlton, which is splendid if you like a bit of LA pop jazz funk (and I know those by name here who queue up to tell us they don’t. Spare us, we know).
Read
“I am pilgrim” by Terry Hayes – unputdownable. I agree with @Carl ‘s review completely. Lee Childs’ “Night school” – Reacher is Reacher, innit. “Black echo” by Michael Connelly, gripping stuff, now I have to read the rest of them. Skimmed the Mickey Moody book which took about an hour but it was a fun hour. Now onto the Anthony Beevor on the Ardennes offensive which, already, is a lot less gigglesome. Oh and finished “Do you do any Wings” by our @skirky which is great fun.
It just dawned on me that the version of “I will be there” which was bugging me is by Mary Black. It’s a duet actually, with Paul Brady and is very fine too. Phew.
Heard:
Loads of tunes out this month, many of which have been covered elsewhere on this site. Sufjan et al’s Planetarium is bonkers and proggy and too long, but strip away some of the nonsense and there’s a really good 50 minutes in there. Saint Etienne’s Home Counties is also perhaps slightly long, but really good, and I may be alone in this opinion but I think they are getting better with age. Jeff Tweedy’s acoustic album is probably for fans only, but shouldn’t everyone be a fan? I have been on a Jason Isbell bender since reading about him here in the last while. The new album isn’t quite as good, for me, as the previous one, but there’s not much in it. A great find. As is Bedouine, a new artist on the reliable Spacebomb label with a hint of a female Nick Drake about her. The new Phoenix doesn’t seem to be getting the traction of previous releases, but I think it’s a delight. And much of the new Matthew Sweet is mighty fine. Just to show I don’t love everything, I’m not quite getting the new Fleet Foxes either.
Watched:
Like many others here, spellbound by The Handmaid’s Tale. I knew nothing about the plot, came to it completely fresh, and have been transported into its world. Also really enjoying Fargo Series 3 – Thewlis is brilliant – and Jimmy McGovern’s typically bleak Broken is deserving of more praise too, I have never seen Sean Bean so good. (Note: I am a bit behind on this one…)
Read:
Joseph Heller’s Something Happened. A misnomer, because nothing much happens. He can write, but this is far too long. Impossible not to compare unfavourably to Catch 22. Anyone else out there read any other Heller apart from Catch 22?
Read quite a bit of Heller. Found Something Happened, in its own way, just as impactful as Catch-22. The length is kind of the point of it, like having a nine inch nail slowly tapped into your skull. I was 17 the first time I read it, and it scared the shit out of me.
Not heard too much new stuff, just the upcoming Santana/Isley Brothers collaboration really.
Otherwise mainly reissues at this time of year – Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood, the final two ELP albums, Radiator by SFA and a 10cc box are probably the most noteworthy.
Reading – trying to work my way through the remaining unread novels in Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series.
Another month into the Write Here, Write Now project and I so enjoyed doing a complete album with Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen that the idea took over the whole month.
First, June Tabor – Aqaba, because of her name and the month, and, while I like some of her songs, i don’t know that many of them – on this album, only The King of Rome was familiar. A bit of a chalk and cheese experience – some songs were spectacularly traditional folky narratives with unaccompanied voice which I found hard to stomach Bogies Bonnie Belle, I’m thinking of you here. Others, like the title track, a tribute to Lawrence of Arabia, were very moving expressions of feeling. In particular, Mayn Rue Plats, a song about a 1911 fire in a New York factory building which killed hundreds, was so poignant, so powerful. And then a few days later the Grenville fire took place – these atrocities persist.
Second, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, I calculated there were enough days in the month to tackle the 18 song cultural behemoth that is Exile on Main St. I’d listened to it through a few times, but nothing had stayed with me apart from Tumbling Dice. There were an awful lot of songs I didn’t like, from the outset with Rocks Off. But I found enough to make half the album enjoyable, while discarding 9 songs, even with Jagger’s voice, which I find hard to endure. The best songs seemed to be ones with the most involvement of guest artists and the least involvement of the regular band (notably Bill [Why oh] Wyman).
Should you be interested, here’s the best of:
Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice, Torn and Frayed, Sweet Black Angel, Loving Cup, Ventilator Blues, I Just Want to See His Face, All Down the Line, Shine a Light
And the ones I’d remove:
Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, Shake Your Hips, Sweet Virginia, Happy, Turd on the Run, Let It Loose, Stop Breaking Down, Soul Survivor
This month, I’m taking the lead from @Hawkfall‘s ’14’ thread and playing tracks from 1982/3. And, where possible, doubling up with inspiration from @Madfox‘s ‘Different songs, same title’ thread, to choose another song with the same or similar name.
As ever, suggestions of songs or themes are welcome, as I continue trying to fill the rest of the year with a nightly song-driven blog.
Kraftwerk. Technically brilliant show, of course, but never been a fan and this didn’t convert me.
Am three episodes into Jimmy MCGovern’s Broken and it’s superb, the second episode in particular. Brilliantly written and superbly acted and directed.
And hooray, it’s Tour de France time again.
Read
Am halfway through Peter Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money. Fascinating stuff. Have started to read last year’s Booker list. Otessa Mossfegh’s Eileen is a mannered sort of thriller; really didn’t rate it at all. On the other hand David Szalay’s All That Man Is was really enjoyable. It’s really nine short stories, each one about a man (in ascending age – the first is 17, the last in his seventies) struggling to know what to do next, and wondering quite what life is all about. It’s more entertaining than that makes it sound.
Heard
The number of new records that have impressed me this year remains very low, but re-listening to Courtney Marie Andrews’ Honest Life it sounded much better than when I first heard it.
Reading the Doggett has taken me to the Fabs early solo stuff. I’d never listened to Ringo’s Semtimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues before and enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. Low expectations and all that, but they’re really not bad.
Read:
Swedish author Stefan Spjut recently came out with his second novel in what I suspect will become a trilogy; Stalpi, which reminded me that I had bought the first one – Stallo – when it was published and hadn’t found time to read it yet. So I finally sat down and read them this month. Real page-turners both of them, in a (growing) genre that you could call “folklore fantasy horror” or something…so if you’re keen on trolls – big scary ones and small shapeshifting ones – and similar creatures, this is definitely one (well, two) to read. The first one was better plot-wise, the second one has wolves/werewolves as well (which was a minus IMO). It’s all a bit bonkers, as it should be!
Now I’m reading A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, but I’m not far enough into it to want to give it a definitive review – but so far, so good.
I finally took the plunge and took out a subscription to the Swedish music mag Sonic, after buying it in the shop for many years – hopefully that won’t be the kiss of death for them…it’s happened before! The latest issue has live music as its theme and I’m only half-way through it yet. No live music for me though, unfortunately! My festival is taking a year off, the gigs I wanted to go to sold out, and I keep missing the ads and only finding out about things when I read the reviews the next day. At least I’m saving some money…
Seen: The Same Sky was a pretty good German cold war drama set in East & West Berlin, with a sub-plot familiar to anyone who’s either read the old Greek classics or seen any modern soap opera. I mistook it for a mini series but it was yet another never ending regular series, ending season 1 with a proper cliffhanger as that classic sub-plot climaxed (quite literally), so to see how that unfolds I will have to watch series 2 as well. 🙁 Sofia Helin from The Bridge is in it as well, but (SPOILER) was killed off fairly early.
Am I the only fan of Aussie comedy/drama series Please Like Me ? We’re a bit behind here, so watching season 3 now, and it’s still great. I love the combination of really silly/really dark humour, even about serious subjects like mental illness and suicide.
Oh, and I’ve seen the fourth and final series of Norwegian youth drama Skam (“Shame”) of course – it’s the law you know! 😉 (And also very very good) Very satisfying final episode, and how often can you say that?
Heard:
Between making my monster playlist for my upcoming 50th birthday, making the 12 track CD for the AW swap, and not ordering any new albums until just recently, I’ve mainly heard a lot of old this month as well! The few new albums I’ve bought and received from friends have been played perhaps once or twice each only, so I can’t really say much about them. This will change in the next month, as I’m collecting a gigantic box of new stuff tomorrow and I’ll have plenty of time to listen to them when my holiday starts, if not before.
What I have listened to this month, when I needed to get away from playlists, was podcasts. Season 3 of My Dad Wrote a Porno is so much better than s2, almost back to first season highs. I’ve also recently discovered the wonderful Swedish podcast Hemma hos Strage, where Sweden’s best music journalist invites different artists to visit him at home and ask him questions – which of course is a clever way to get a great conversation going. They bring along records as well, and play them to each other and discuss them. Wonderful!
And it’s the time of year when every Swede dips into the box of chocolates that is Sommar, where a new famous person each day of the summer get 90 minutes on air to talk about anything they want and play music. And these days when you can listen to it at any time as a podcast, you can read the reviews of all of them first and only pick the ones that are good, without the horror of biting into the nasty piece of chocolate with the rum raisin centre (AKA Maude Adams talking about buying, renovating and selling properties in LA). With all of this talking going on, no wonder I haven’t had time to listen to any new music!
It hasn’t been out long in Swedish yet, so give it a few months! It’s not anywhere near as bad as it might seem as if I’m saying, but I suspect that it’s a typical “middle-novel-of-a-trilogy” – when you finally get to read the third one it will all make sense!
Warning: may include scat singing. There’s been a slack handful of decent jazz vocal albums over the last couple of months – some established names and an interesting newbie. Quercus – the June Tabor/Huw Warren combo – had a few followers on here for their first ECM album a couple of years ago. The second album is a seamless follow-up – a mix of folk-inflected traditional stuff and American songbook all immaculately recorded live and quietly lovely.
Same for Dwight Trible who possibly could have gone down the Gregory Porter route but has instead pursued his own idiosyncratic path with a Leon Thomas-style wayward approach to melody and tempo. In Matthew Halsall he’s found a sympathetic musical partner – his “spiritual jazz” approach provides the perfect backing for again a mix of standards and new stuff that has the feel of a 60s Impulse album.
Then there’s Jazzmeia Horn – sounds like I’m making these names up – whose new album on the revitalised Prestige label is an absolute belter. She can really sing – dark and political on a raucous clattery take on the Stylistics “People make the world go around”, pure and quiet on the ballads and gospel shouting on a terrific version of Mary J Blige’s “I’m going down.” Then there’s Eliane Elias’s new album – stunning summery Latin jazz that is just so effortless and joyful. Leaves Diana Krall’s new album sounding very pedestrian – which it is – albeit a welcome return to singing standards after a couple of real duffers.
Also very much enjoying the new Don Bryant album – the veteran Memphis soulman returning to the Hi studio for the first time in decades – think this track is ace.
Read:
God’s son Jesus is pretty well known. His daughter Mabel less so. But in leafy Bedford in the 1920s/30s she gathered around her a staunch set of disciples to spread the word about the forthcoming apocalypse and the new Jerusalem that would be built in and around the small community of Edwardian villas where they all lived. According to Mabel – renamed Octavia to add to the mystique – this area just off the High Street was also the site of the garden of Eden. She spent most of her time prophesising – and breathing on small bits of cloth which were sent out until actually not that long ago to people around the world as a cure all for everything from acne to cancer.
You can visit this shrine to English eccentricity – it’s now a museum dedicated to the Panacea Society and several houses are preserved as Octavia left them on her death in the 1930s…awaiting a second coming…there’s also a café selling a full range of Tunnock’s confectionary. It’s all weird and wonderful – a mix of studious seriousness and unintentional hilarity – and I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of her biography – “Octavia – Daughter of God” – which has occupied most of my reading time these last few weeks. The society also has a sealed chest full of prophecies handed down over the centuries hidden somewhere in Bedford – the very epicentre of English esoteric religiosity…almost signed up to join. It’s just opposite the excellent Higgins art gallery and museum.
June Tabor has had Huw Warren as her touring pianist for many years now. Saw her back in 2001 touring her “Rosa Mundi” album and he was playing.
She is still in very fine voice and he’s a superb player who surely knows her well enough by now to bring out the best. Wasn’t aware they’d recorded for ECM. That’s a real seal of approval if there ever was one.
Bit of a binge month….
WATCHED: Series 2 Fear the Living Dead: Big improvement from series 1 and everything the Living Dead is no more, like entertaining, gory and in colour. (Then they want money for series 3 so I will have to wait a year!)
Series 3 Better Call Saul: Terrific!! Just gets better with a cataclysmically bleak closer.
Twin Peaks: Must see to can’t see the point and back again. Long haul guaranteed for me.
LISTENED: Carried on Wobbling, picking up the collaboration with Julie Byrne (Lonelady): Psychic Life, and Spinner, the collaboration with Eno. I picked up the new mark Lanegan before I went to see him (Nights Out/elsewhere), necessitating the subsequent acquisition of 2 Duke Garwood records, Heavy Love and Garden of Ashes, support act and 2nd guitar on the night, and his Lanegan collaboration, Black Pudding, the best of the 3. Peas from a similar pod, atlantic notwithstanding, Garwood is a slightly less structured and unformed version, with fuzzy guitar and breathless vocal. Glastonbury triggered my greater love for Vulpine faves The National, getting a further couple of their output, High Violet and the superlative Trouble Will Find Me. The new London Grammar and the latest XX were also deemed must haves after watching highlights, neither disappointing. As others have discussed elsewhere, the new e-music site has made choosing difficult, meaning the questionable pleasure of listening to Pop and then NarcoPop by GAS during one long drive to Manchester airport. Good for that sort of journey but made me laugh about the learned reviews talking about the progression between the 2. I dare anyone to listen to snatch of either and say which it is from without knowing. A bit like listening to Luxembourg with even worse signal than you remember from under the covers. The new Justin Currie (Del Amitri) I have just listened too and it is great. Finally, from what I can recall or is worth recalling, a brace of Alejandro Escovedo’s to round things out, 2001’s A Man Under the Influence and last years Burn Something Beautiful, both well worth a punt.
Watched:
Game Of Thrones seasons 1 through 6 in a massive week-long binge watch. Absolutely stunning. After I got to the end of season 6 I actually found that I was sad that the experience was done. Now looking forward to seasons 7 and 8.
Listening to Led Zeppelin, and can confidently state that ‘Presence’ is not as bad as the “critics” on the internet would have us believe.
The Top 4 is pretty much a given (in varying orders), but Presence sits comfortably at Number 5
Reading: Tim Moore travel books
(1) Don Not Pass Go – going round London in accordance with the Monopoly Board (tip: don’t buy the stations (too low a return), go for the pink or orange set (value wise, they are the winners)
(2) You Are Awful But I Like You – visiting unlikely UK “hotspots” (Hull, Hartlepool, Leysdown On Sea, Bracknell etc) in a 1982 Austin Maestro – with a premise like that, how can it fail (answer: it doesn’t)
Seeing: Trailblazers series on SkyArts continues to be worth a watch (although I think they’re starting to hit the repeat phase)
Afterword CD Swap a-go-go: just put mine in the post, and received 2 CDs this morning. That’s the weekend sorted (unless it is two disks of Belgian Jazz with a couple of Patagonian Nose Flute tracks thrown in)
Heard – Been enjoying the new National tracks that are on Youtube. Lorde too.
Thanks to the discovery of a free (pirate – sorry) online comic site, I’ve read lots this month. Southern Bastards by Jasons Aaron and Latour is as good as anything written ever. Tom King’s current run on Batman has the Dark Knight a wee bit too emo for my taste, but the Batman/Elmer Fudd crossover is fantastic – told as a gritty noir, revenge tale and featuring human versions of all the WB cartoon characters – Fudd is out to bump off Bugs for murdering a dame, but the buck toothed guy tells Elmer the hit was ordered by … Bwuce Wayne.
Seen – need to get back on to Twin Peaks and Handmaid – seen a couple of episodes of both, but i only watch TV when ironing and i hate ironing.
Music- Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine is perfect for pottering around the house- so infectious. Muse ( not a band I had ever paid much attention to ) – Drones. Really enjoyed this. Full blast in the car.
Books – Bill Bryson´s In a Sunburned Country for some light relief as I continue to trudge through Robert Caro´s The Power Broker. While an undeniably fascinating portrait of Robert Moses, urban engineer extraordinaire, it is way too long.
TV / Movies – loved Veep and Silicon Valley, funniest show on TV. Search Party was quirky, weird and very funny and may have just about the most satisfying ending ever. The Lost City of Z was charmingly old-fashioned, Alien Covenant was much better than the last one and I came across Tremors while late night channel-hopping and loved it all over again.
HEARD:
Another bumper month. Two fabulous albums that could loosely be described as Americana if people haven’t tired of that tag. Big Bad Luv by John Moreland and Zero Moon as championed by @contraryarticle. The Moreland album is very impressive – he has a voice very similar to Springsteens but completely different song arrangements. Corley’s album is initially darker than its predecessor Available Light but I think has more shades and reveals different elements with each repeat listen.
I didn’t watch much of Glastonbury but the best bit I saw was Songhoy Blues and bought their new album Resistance as a result – fabulous stuff – there is one track with great interplay between Guitar and Violin that recalled AW favourites Mahavishnu Orchestra.
One of my favourite current British bands is Danny and the Champions of the World. So I was delighted that their new release Brilliant Light is a double. It didn’t disappoint and I look forward to catching them live in September.
Jeff Tweedy Together at last isn’t introducing us to anything new but is great all the same.
Tom Russell – Play one more – the songs of Ian and Sylvia is a pleasant diversion while we wait for his next studio album Folk Hotel out in September.
Prince -Deluxe edition of Purple Rain was a little disappointing. Ws expecting disc 2 to be extended jams but was a little heavy on the linn drums and more on the disco side of Prince’s output. The 3rd disc of b’sides was more interesting – really like 17 Days which I had never heard before and another example of great Prince songs hidden away.
SEEN: No gigs in June but have 4 or 5 in July to make up for it. Watched The Affair which is compelling viewing. Have 3 episodes left in Season 3 which is altogether more darker than the previous 2. There is a 4th Season but not yet on Sky.
Like others I have been very impressed with Broken. Not previously a fan of Sean Bean but think he was fabulous in this. Some genuinely heartbreaking scenes and Jimmy McvGovern once again highlights how good a writer he is.
READ: Very slow this month -about 100 pages short of finishing Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes – the number of books I have in the waiting room is ridiculous. Need to up my ante.
AOB: Came back from a week in St.Emilion thoroughly refreshed -within 3 days of being back at work was off to Canada on a pretty intensive business trip. Feel like I need another holiday now.
Seen
Cold in July is a great little film that slides between genres, from twitchy thriller to splattery exploitation flick via unlikely-buddy movie. Sam Shepherd speaks in monosyllables, Don Johnson gets mileage from his role of as a good ole boy detective / hog farmer and Michael (Dexter) Hall rocks a truly horrible mullet / tash combo.
Nightcrawler is an unsettling drama about roving cameramen who – armed with their cameras and police scanners are looking to score the most lurid footage of car wrecks and crime scenes which they can then hawk around ratings hungry television studios. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, new to the game and eager to learn. Gyllenhaal is outstanding as Bloom, a man with an innate understanding of human nature and who has the psyche to allow him to exploit this understanding to his advantage. Great support too from Rene Russo as a desperate studio boss, Riz Ahmed as Bloom’s reluctant protégé and Bill Paxton as a fellow ‘crawler.’
Caught Full Metal Jacket for the first time in many years. It’s watchable but unsatisfactory – the opening movement set in the training camp is great, but everything after this feels anti-climactic. Vietnam looks like what it is, a series of sets built in England; everything looks flimsy and insubstantial.
Read
Really enjoyed Waugh’s Decline and Fall; it’s scabrous, jaundiced, funny and fantastical. Currently struggling with Lincoln in the Bardo. Centred on the death of Lincoln’s son, Willie, the story is told by a polyphony of voices. It has received some rapturous reviews but I am finding it hard to engage with.
Heard
Been listening to OK Computer for the first time since the 90s. Some of it still feels worthy in a sort of ‘eat your greens’ way, but Airbag is a huge, roaring, wailing beast of an opener isn’t it?
Heard
Unthanks – Diversions 4, the Songs of Molly Drake
Delightful
Linda Thompson – Dreams Fly Away
Having mainly heard her later work (still v enjoyable), I was blown away by the power of her voice when she was younger.
Bedouine
From the Spacebomb production team. Another unique talent, really enjoyed what I’ve heard so far.
Jimmy Lafave
Decided to seek out more of his earlier work after his sad passing recently. Such an emotive singer, you can tell what a sweet and gentle soul he was
Charlie Dore – Dark Matter
Have blogged about this earlier. Terrific
Laura Nyro – Live! The Looms Desire
Also mentioned this one on blog. A compilation of her later concerts at the Bottom Line. V intimate, small groups of soulful backing singers, her on piano. Any fan of Laura and It’s Gonna Take a Miracle should have a listen, though this is more chilled out than Miracle and also has more of her later songs.
Watched
Morocco to Timbuktu
This was a fascinating North African travelogue by a woman explorer who was dauntless and spoke fluent French and Arabic into the bargain.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Luckily I had forgotten this enough to be able to watch this great Hitchcock film again. There was with the feeling of familiarity but thankfully I didn’t recall the entire plot. Interesting to see scenes set in Morocco after the previous documentary.
Amazing Hotels with Giles Coren.
The episode of the Ice Hotel in Sweden (built out of ice in the snowy wastes of North Sweden) was very cooling to watch during the recent heatwave. Not that I’d ever want to stay there though!
Read
Arundhati Roy’s new book The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. I didn’t technically read it as it was on Book at Bedtime but it was beautiful, sad and joyous and had poetry in every line.
AOB
Been too hot and have been wilting generally but two recent Radio 4 returns have given much delight, Dead Ringers and David Sedaris. There was even a spoof of David Sedaris on Dead Ringers having a Biscuit-Off with Alan Bennett. Although my favourite character on the show is “Brexit Bulldog” David Davis who rings up Theresa May in terrible scrapes pleading to rescued, due to his hopeless negotiating skills.
This is I’m a Dreamer by Linda Thompson, from the compilation, the finest version of song I have heard.
1. Yes, that Bedouine album sounds interesting. I shall have to investigate further.
2. “Dreams Fly Away” is indeed a terrific compilation. I love it when Kate and Anna McGarrigle add their vocals to that song “Sisters”.
3. A friend of mine stayed at that Ishotellet place in Jukkasjärvi. His main comment about the stay was “It was expensive”.
Yes, Sisters is lovely, duco. You can’t mistake the McGarrigle vocals for anyone else. I did boggle at the IceHotel prices too. It must cost a lot of money to keep everything “on ice” so to speak. They also have a reserve hotel which is heated. I remember Caitlin Moran’s husband bought them a surprise stay in the Ice part which she later wrote about. They only lasted an hour or so in the frozen room, shivering, called it quits and went to the reserve one instead!
Quietest months in ages for me – nothing live since early May, partly due to domestics commitments, and a very low intake of CD’s. The lure of Fopp saw me cruelly deceived by Lambchop FLOTUS and St Etienne Home Counties = smug drivel? By contrast the latest Omar Souleyman is very jolly – ideal for putting on when the bit-racist in-laws call round and you can pretend you are sitting in a cafe somewhere with Reapers overhead.
Nothing on tv (for me).
Read Tim Shipman’s All Out War – engrossing. A good test for your BREXITeer family & friends is what they think of Dominic Cummings. If they have never heard of him you can roll your eyes and LOL.
By the way, Pains of Being Pure at heart (my last night out) have album out soon – sure it will be ace.
el hombre malo says
Heard – mostly old blues records, especially a great 2 CD compilation of Excello Records – £3 in Fopp.
Read – Johnny Marr’s autobiography. It was ok, but I could have done with some detail on his guitars / amps – there was very little there. Sped up once he left the Smiths. Not much depth, I felt.
Watched – The Nice Guys – anything from Shane Black is worth a watch and I thoroughly enjoyed this, slightly daft private eye comedy thriller.
AOB – I may have mentioned before that I’m a fan of the Fleshtones. I saw them last night in Edinburgh, and it was a joyful, uplifting garage rock gig. Great to see them again – they are on tour now, Gateshead tonight then Leeds, London and on to mainland Europe. If they are in your area go and see them – I’m still smiling.
seanioio says
Heard
It’s been a great month for new tunes for me. I am mightily impressed with the new Beth Ditto album, as well as storming new tracks from PJ Harvey, Alvvays, The Last Dinosaur& Cold Specks. I have also spent the last few weeks with the Big Thief album which I think is excellent & will definitely be an album of the year contender.
Read
A bit slow on the reading front recently as I have moved back to Manchester & now have quite a wuick commute so not enough time to get stuck into anything. As such I am slowly working my way through Jeremy Paxmans book which is fantastic. Some great anecdotes* & his views on journalism I find pretty much spot on.
*my favourite being about John Major in a meeting with Boris Yeltsin
Major: ‘Well Boris, in a word how is Russia?’
Yeltsin: ‘Good’
Major: ‘And in more than one word’
Yeltsin: ‘Not good’
Watched
The Handmaids Tale is the best TV since Mad Men. Brilliantly acted & totally gripping. I don’t think I breathed for about 20 minutes of the latest episode.
Me & my partner also discovered ‘Catastrophe’ with Sharon Horgan & Rob Delaney which is brilliant. We did all 3 series in June & cried & laughed numerous times. (on more than one occasion it was proper ‘losing your shit’ laughter)
AOB
Being back in Manchester means being close for the Manchester International Festival. There is an exhibition called True Faith which I am aiming to get to this weekend which looks fantastic.
Gatz says
Seen
I have written about my two big nights out here already, Thea Gilmore at Union Chapel and Bat Out of Hell at the Coliseum – both fantastic and life enhancing, but for very different reasons. The local fest on Saturday sneaked into July so John Cooper Clarke and the Blockheads will have to wait for my verdict.
On TV The Handmaid’s Tale is terrific, and for the first time in a while I’m sorry to see the back of a series of Doctor Who. I binged on series 1 + 2 of Pulling in a couple of nights when I found a box set in a charity shop. The Detectorists has been on iPlayer, which is obviously a very good thing, and that’s how I experienced most of Glasto too, but I’ll put that in ‘heard’.
I’ve also been rewatching The Prisoner, because we went to Portmeirion for The Light’s birthday last week. We didn’t actually stay there, we’re not nearly well off enough, but it’s a fantastic place, especially if you are hell bent of buying up half of the shop in what used to be Number 6’s cottage, as she was.
Read
David Sedaris’ book of essays Theft by Finding seems set to enhance his status as ‘the American Alan Bennett’, but probably isn’t the best place for newcomers (try Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim or When You Are Engulfed in Flames first).
Heard
Listening has been dominated by Thea and Steinman, which makes a surprisingly complimentary mix (speaking of which I just had a Genius playlist on my iPod which followed Shonen Knife’s Cycling is Fun with Pink Floyd’s Bike. Inspired.)
The acts I expected to quite like at Glastonbury on the box I did quite like – Laura Marling, First Aid Kit, Songhoy Blues, London Grammar, you get the picture. Radiohead and The Foo Fighters both won me over, though I’m in no hurry to hear their albums. Ed Sheeran was enough for me to hit the red button after half an hour when my hit of the festival was Kano. Never heard of him (them?), would never have sought them ought, but after Ed’s insistent mediocrity seeing something with real life and art felt like being reborn. Thank you Kano.
Gatz says
Sedaris essays? I meant diaries of course. That’s what distinguishes his new book from most of his previous ones.
bungliemutt says
Heard –
Some decent new releases came out this month, not the least of which is Afterword favourite Jason Isbell’s The Nashville Sound. It’s chock full of Isbell’s particular brand of Americana, and on a couple of tracks rocks out more than he has done for a while. Album of the year contender, or these old ears of mine are made of cloth. The new Buckingham / McVie album is basically Fleetwood Mac without la Nicks, and sounds a bit like Tango In The Night-lite, and lacks the harder edge of 2003’s Say You Will. But anything from the Mac is welcome as far as I’m concerned, and it’s a joy that all 5 members of the Rumours line-up are still with us.
Also out this month, Fleet Foxes Crack-Up sounds disappointingly like a lot of clever harmonies in search of a tune, and Thea Gilmore’s The Counterweight like a bunch of decent songs badly arranged on a computer. Meanwhile, Nigel Stonier (aka Mr Thea Gilmore) has released Love And Work on download only, but it’s a far better effort than his missus’s, featuring a similar kind of clever wordplay, decent songs and classy instrumentation. Last up, Steve Earle’s So You Wannabe An Outlaw is his best album since God knows when. He might be clean these days, but he’s still a serial divorcer – which often coincides with his best work.
Seen –
Twin Peaks – The Return has received almost unanimous critical acclaim, even if most of us – critics included – haven’t a clue what is going on. Much harder edged and violent than the original, after 7 episodes it was starting to gain a rhythm and momentum of its own until David Lynch veered into pure Eraserhead meets Inland Empire territory in episode 8. Wilfully designed to confound expectations at every turn, the new Twin Peaks has the potential to influence television just as much as the original series did. Not to everyone’s taste admittedly, but unmissable in our house.
Read –
My bucket list project of reading (or re-reading) all of Shakespeare’s plays has gathered momentum this month with Henry IV Part II, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet and The Tempest. I originally read many of them as part of my English degree in the early 80s, but quickly realised all those years ago that there’s nothing like the pretentious theorising involved with an English degree to kill any natural enthusiasm for literature. It’s also funny how the passing of the years also brings a greater level of understanding of Shakespeare without the need to resort to dusty literary pontificating. Other opinions are, as the Bard never said, available.
In other news –
New next door neighbours have moved in. Outdoor types (surfboards and skateboards), and on the evidence of a very casual acquaintance not the slightest bit interested in music. Stereo obligingly turned down a notch – just for now.
Moose the Mooche says
“not the slightest bit interested in music” – what does this even mean? Do such people exist? What do they talk about?
bungliemutt says
I’m afraid they do exist, and they are both living next door to me. They appear to talk in grunts and have probably never heard of The Beatles.
Moose the Mooche says
Nonsense. There isn’t a person living in the world, even people starving in rural North Korea, whose lives have not been touched by the music of the Fabbermost Four.
bungliemutt says
True. Kim Jong Un has been sporting that cuddlesome mop-top look for quite a while now.
huskerdude says
Watched
Toni Erdmann – Kaisfatdad posted about this last year but it is a truly brilliant German comedy/drama(!). After 20 minutes I wasn’t sure where it was going but it keeps evolving into something strange, moving and deeply affecting. Best film I’ve seen in a long while.
Lego Batman – Only lasted 30 minutes before bailing. Hyper-frenetic, ADHD-esque assault on the senses. Seemed to have none of the charm of the original.
I Am Not Your Negro – James Baldwin’s personal account of black America in the sixties and seventies. Quite revelatory for me.
Heard
Big Thief – Capacity
Agree with Seanioio. One listen to ‘Mary’ and I was smitten.
Angel Olsen at Glastonbury – Rock and swoon.
Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens
Surpising techno/ambient electronica.
Richard Dawson – Peasant
Just cannot get into it despite the plaudits. Have tried.
Peter Perrett – How The West Was Won
Like a grade C Only Ones album. Good enough?
Lorde – Melodrama
Deft, sparkling, idiosyncratic pop at its best.
Read
Robust 3D Shape Correspondence in the Spectral Domain – Varun Jain, Hao Zhang
A potboiler of a plot. As impenetrable as Twin Peaks.
LOUDspeaker says
‘Toni Erdmann – Kaisfatdad posted about this last year but it is a truly brilliant German comedy/drama(!). After 20 minutes I wasn’t sure where it was going but it keeps evolving into something strange, moving and deeply affecting. Best film I’ve seen in a long while.’
My review with lots of SPOILERS:
A busy German business consultant in Bucharest is visited by her annoying father as she tries to finish an important deal.
This has to be one of the most bewildering films I’ve ever seen. It’s very hard to know what effect they were going for. Perhaps there’s a massive disconnect between my sense of humour and the German comic sensibility. It’s over two and half hours long and it seems to be made up of long, awkward improvised scenes of cringing encounters. It might be aiming for The Office (UK version) comedy of embarrassment and discomfort but there are no jokes. It’s just awkward. Her father is supposed to be a prankster or at least someone funny but he’s not funny. He’s humourless with nothing witty to say. The only ‘amusing’ thing he does is put on a bad wig and false teeth. Grating cheese on his head is very, very far from funny. Is he meant to be unfunny? Is his humourless whacky shtick meant to be funny to the audience or not? I honestly don’t know.
The ending with the nude party was just weird and what was funny about the mask almost suffocating him? I really don’t know what they were trying to achieve. Did cinemas full of Germans rock with laughter to these long drawn-out scenes of nothing happening? I just can’t picture anyone laughing out loud to any of this.
As a comedy it’s very bleak and unfunny. It’s far more art house than funny – the ending with the long-held glum look on her face as she stood alone in the garden owes everything to depressing art movies and nothing to any comic film I’ve ever seen. Who makes comedies that are over two and half hours long? The film could easily be shorter with many pointless scenes cut (the sex scene in the hotel, the visit to the oil field, the visit to the house to paint eggs). I guess the scenes are so drawn-out because they wanted to keep all the awkward dead air as people struggle to find anything to say to each other. There’s a particularly bizarre sex scene in the middle that seems distractingly out of place and needlessly odd and kinky for no good reason. It was a very odd film. Perhaps the oddest film I’ve seen in a long time. Maybe it wasn’t a comedy? Maybe I’ve been misinformed and it’s a serious art movie? It’s possible. Certainly the film isn’t funny. It slowly goes nowhere and fails to be funny or insightful. Somehow it was watchable, probably because its sheer bizarreness made me want to keep looking. A very strange film with many weird, unconventional artistic choices. If Joana Hogg (the awful writer-director of Archipelago (2010) and Exhibition (2013)) ever made a comedy this is the sort of thing she’d make. It’s even filmed in a similar docu-drama style as Hogg’s films – visually drab camera in a corner observing the action, although Maren Ade cuts to other angles more than Hogg does.
———–
From IMDB:
‘Maren Ade does not view her film as a comedy because she told her producer she was making it “sad” and “super-serious”. The actors had the same feeling as well.’
———–
It’s on Amazon Prime for ‘free’ in the UK.
huskerdude says
It’s obviously a Marmite movie 🙂
Moose the Mooche says
I’ve seen a couple of Marmite movies.
– >Oh dear, I think you meant “something you either hate or love” didn’t you?
….Move along, nothing to see here!
Kaisfatdad says
Glad you enjoyed it, Husker, It is definitely odd and decidedly marmite. What it is not is a comedy, even if there are some very funny scenes. If you go expecting that, you will be sorely disappointed.
I can easily see why people do not like it. I thought it was a very moving portrait of a relationship between a father and his daughter.
deramdaze says
Must be the fall-out from the Referendum but I’ve gone European film crazy at the local posh cinema.
I too loved “Toni Erdmann.”
Also recommended: “The Olive Tree,” “My Life as a Cougette” and “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki.”
The last one is about a Finnish boxer who fought a World Championship fight v. Davie Moore in 1962 ….. the same Davie Moore whose death in the ring in 1963 inspired Dylan to write “Who Killed Davie Moore?”
Twang says
Seen
Into latest series of House of Cards, Handmaid’s Tale (agreeing with all positive comments previously), just digging into Narcos and also the Ken Burns series on the American Civil War on Netflix. Saw Midnight Oil earlier this week – knew nothing about them and was slightly taken aback by the Hammy Odeon (it will only ever be the Hammy Odeon) being rammed to the roof with a majority Aussie crowd pouring pint after pint down the neck with an endless line to the bar and back, everyone singing along, everyone standing up from the first number, fights breaking out….madhouse. The music left me slightly cold which may due to never having heard them before but I was slightly nonplussed at the response. One little perk was that the mate I went with had an in with the Front of House so we were shown to a (free) private bar with its own access to the auditorium, available all night! I took some snaps of the signed posters in there which I’d post if Photobucket hadn’t gone bastard on us. And I saw Jackson Browne, which I discussed at length elsewhere.
Heard
Brainlessly listened to the best of and a few live albums from Cold Chisel in the mistaken belief that I was going to see them (see above). I mean, how many Aussie bands are there after Acadaca? Dug into David Lindley’s back catalogue – “Nice and greasy” is too white guy ska for me but “Win this record” is a joy, fun, great songs and sterling playing especially on lap steel as you’d expect. Gave the latest Clapton a spin, which is mellow and reflective and hard to dislike or get too excited about either, though I had a tremendous sense of relief to finally discover the song whose hook has been tormenting me for years due to my inability to place it is called “I will be there” which I probably know from the Jackson 5, Google suggests. Dug into the Crusaders back catalogue especially with Larry Carlton, which is splendid if you like a bit of LA pop jazz funk (and I know those by name here who queue up to tell us they don’t. Spare us, we know).
Read
“I am pilgrim” by Terry Hayes – unputdownable. I agree with @Carl ‘s review completely. Lee Childs’ “Night school” – Reacher is Reacher, innit. “Black echo” by Michael Connelly, gripping stuff, now I have to read the rest of them. Skimmed the Mickey Moody book which took about an hour but it was a fun hour. Now onto the Anthony Beevor on the Ardennes offensive which, already, is a lot less gigglesome. Oh and finished “Do you do any Wings” by our @skirky which is great fun.
Twang says
Here’s a bit of Lindley. Makes me pull silly faces and sing harmonies. And that lap solo (at 1.08 for the impatient!
Twang says
BREAKING NEWS
It just dawned on me that the version of “I will be there” which was bugging me is by Mary Black. It’s a duet actually, with Paul Brady and is very fine too. Phew.
Blue Boy says
It is indeed. Lovely version, that.
monsignorbonehead says
Heard:
Loads of tunes out this month, many of which have been covered elsewhere on this site. Sufjan et al’s Planetarium is bonkers and proggy and too long, but strip away some of the nonsense and there’s a really good 50 minutes in there. Saint Etienne’s Home Counties is also perhaps slightly long, but really good, and I may be alone in this opinion but I think they are getting better with age. Jeff Tweedy’s acoustic album is probably for fans only, but shouldn’t everyone be a fan? I have been on a Jason Isbell bender since reading about him here in the last while. The new album isn’t quite as good, for me, as the previous one, but there’s not much in it. A great find. As is Bedouine, a new artist on the reliable Spacebomb label with a hint of a female Nick Drake about her. The new Phoenix doesn’t seem to be getting the traction of previous releases, but I think it’s a delight. And much of the new Matthew Sweet is mighty fine. Just to show I don’t love everything, I’m not quite getting the new Fleet Foxes either.
Watched:
Like many others here, spellbound by The Handmaid’s Tale. I knew nothing about the plot, came to it completely fresh, and have been transported into its world. Also really enjoying Fargo Series 3 – Thewlis is brilliant – and Jimmy McGovern’s typically bleak Broken is deserving of more praise too, I have never seen Sean Bean so good. (Note: I am a bit behind on this one…)
Read:
Joseph Heller’s Something Happened. A misnomer, because nothing much happens. He can write, but this is far too long. Impossible not to compare unfavourably to Catch 22. Anyone else out there read any other Heller apart from Catch 22?
Bingo Little says
Read quite a bit of Heller. Found Something Happened, in its own way, just as impactful as Catch-22. The length is kind of the point of it, like having a nine inch nail slowly tapped into your skull. I was 17 the first time I read it, and it scared the shit out of me.
Bargepole says
Not heard too much new stuff, just the upcoming Santana/Isley Brothers collaboration really.
Otherwise mainly reissues at this time of year – Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood, the final two ELP albums, Radiator by SFA and a 10cc box are probably the most noteworthy.
Reading – trying to work my way through the remaining unread novels in Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther series.
salwarpe says
Another month into the Write Here, Write Now project and I so enjoyed doing a complete album with Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen that the idea took over the whole month.
First, June Tabor – Aqaba, because of her name and the month, and, while I like some of her songs, i don’t know that many of them – on this album, only The King of Rome was familiar. A bit of a chalk and cheese experience – some songs were spectacularly traditional folky narratives with unaccompanied voice which I found hard to stomach Bogies Bonnie Belle, I’m thinking of you here. Others, like the title track, a tribute to Lawrence of Arabia, were very moving expressions of feeling. In particular, Mayn Rue Plats, a song about a 1911 fire in a New York factory building which killed hundreds, was so poignant, so powerful. And then a few days later the Grenville fire took place – these atrocities persist.
Second, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, I calculated there were enough days in the month to tackle the 18 song cultural behemoth that is Exile on Main St. I’d listened to it through a few times, but nothing had stayed with me apart from Tumbling Dice. There were an awful lot of songs I didn’t like, from the outset with Rocks Off. But I found enough to make half the album enjoyable, while discarding 9 songs, even with Jagger’s voice, which I find hard to endure. The best songs seemed to be ones with the most involvement of guest artists and the least involvement of the regular band (notably Bill [Why oh] Wyman).
Should you be interested, here’s the best of:
Casino Boogie, Tumbling Dice, Torn and Frayed, Sweet Black Angel, Loving Cup, Ventilator Blues, I Just Want to See His Face, All Down the Line, Shine a Light
And the ones I’d remove:
Rocks Off, Rip This Joint, Shake Your Hips, Sweet Virginia, Happy, Turd on the Run, Let It Loose, Stop Breaking Down, Soul Survivor
This month, I’m taking the lead from @Hawkfall‘s ’14’ thread and playing tracks from 1982/3. And, where possible, doubling up with inspiration from @Madfox‘s ‘Different songs, same title’ thread, to choose another song with the same or similar name.
As ever, suggestions of songs or themes are welcome, as I continue trying to fill the rest of the year with a nightly song-driven blog.
Blue Boy says
Seen
Kraftwerk. Technically brilliant show, of course, but never been a fan and this didn’t convert me.
Am three episodes into Jimmy MCGovern’s Broken and it’s superb, the second episode in particular. Brilliantly written and superbly acted and directed.
And hooray, it’s Tour de France time again.
Read
Am halfway through Peter Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money. Fascinating stuff. Have started to read last year’s Booker list. Otessa Mossfegh’s Eileen is a mannered sort of thriller; really didn’t rate it at all. On the other hand David Szalay’s All That Man Is was really enjoyable. It’s really nine short stories, each one about a man (in ascending age – the first is 17, the last in his seventies) struggling to know what to do next, and wondering quite what life is all about. It’s more entertaining than that makes it sound.
Heard
The number of new records that have impressed me this year remains very low, but re-listening to Courtney Marie Andrews’ Honest Life it sounded much better than when I first heard it.
Reading the Doggett has taken me to the Fabs early solo stuff. I’d never listened to Ringo’s Semtimental Journey and Beaucoups of Blues before and enjoyed them much more than I thought I would. Low expectations and all that, but they’re really not bad.
Locust says
Read:
Swedish author Stefan Spjut recently came out with his second novel in what I suspect will become a trilogy; Stalpi, which reminded me that I had bought the first one – Stallo – when it was published and hadn’t found time to read it yet. So I finally sat down and read them this month. Real page-turners both of them, in a (growing) genre that you could call “folklore fantasy horror” or something…so if you’re keen on trolls – big scary ones and small shapeshifting ones – and similar creatures, this is definitely one (well, two) to read. The first one was better plot-wise, the second one has wolves/werewolves as well (which was a minus IMO). It’s all a bit bonkers, as it should be!
Now I’m reading A General Theory of Oblivion by José Eduardo Agualusa, but I’m not far enough into it to want to give it a definitive review – but so far, so good.
I finally took the plunge and took out a subscription to the Swedish music mag Sonic, after buying it in the shop for many years – hopefully that won’t be the kiss of death for them…it’s happened before! The latest issue has live music as its theme and I’m only half-way through it yet. No live music for me though, unfortunately! My festival is taking a year off, the gigs I wanted to go to sold out, and I keep missing the ads and only finding out about things when I read the reviews the next day. At least I’m saving some money…
Seen:
The Same Sky was a pretty good German cold war drama set in East & West Berlin, with a sub-plot familiar to anyone who’s either read the old Greek classics or seen any modern soap opera. I mistook it for a mini series but it was yet another never ending regular series, ending season 1 with a proper cliffhanger as that classic sub-plot climaxed (quite literally), so to see how that unfolds I will have to watch series 2 as well. 🙁 Sofia Helin from The Bridge is in it as well, but (SPOILER) was killed off fairly early.
Am I the only fan of Aussie comedy/drama series Please Like Me ? We’re a bit behind here, so watching season 3 now, and it’s still great. I love the combination of really silly/really dark humour, even about serious subjects like mental illness and suicide.
Oh, and I’ve seen the fourth and final series of Norwegian youth drama Skam (“Shame”) of course – it’s the law you know! 😉 (And also very very good) Very satisfying final episode, and how often can you say that?
Heard:
Between making my monster playlist for my upcoming 50th birthday, making the 12 track CD for the AW swap, and not ordering any new albums until just recently, I’ve mainly heard a lot of old this month as well! The few new albums I’ve bought and received from friends have been played perhaps once or twice each only, so I can’t really say much about them. This will change in the next month, as I’m collecting a gigantic box of new stuff tomorrow and I’ll have plenty of time to listen to them when my holiday starts, if not before.
What I have listened to this month, when I needed to get away from playlists, was podcasts. Season 3 of My Dad Wrote a Porno is so much better than s2, almost back to first season highs. I’ve also recently discovered the wonderful Swedish podcast Hemma hos Strage, where Sweden’s best music journalist invites different artists to visit him at home and ask him questions – which of course is a clever way to get a great conversation going. They bring along records as well, and play them to each other and discuss them. Wonderful!
And it’s the time of year when every Swede dips into the box of chocolates that is Sommar, where a new famous person each day of the summer get 90 minutes on air to talk about anything they want and play music. And these days when you can listen to it at any time as a podcast, you can read the reviews of all of them first and only pick the ones that are good, without the horror of biting into the nasty piece of chocolate with the rum raisin centre (AKA Maude Adams talking about buying, renovating and selling properties in LA). With all of this talking going on, no wonder I haven’t had time to listen to any new music!
Kid Dynamite says
oooh, I read Stallo a little while ago, and enjoyed it. No sign of Stalpi over here yet, though (sadface emoji)
Locust says
It hasn’t been out long in Swedish yet, so give it a few months! It’s not anywhere near as bad as it might seem as if I’m saying, but I suspect that it’s a typical “middle-novel-of-a-trilogy” – when you finally get to read the third one it will all make sense!
Morrison says
Heard:
Warning: may include scat singing. There’s been a slack handful of decent jazz vocal albums over the last couple of months – some established names and an interesting newbie. Quercus – the June Tabor/Huw Warren combo – had a few followers on here for their first ECM album a couple of years ago. The second album is a seamless follow-up – a mix of folk-inflected traditional stuff and American songbook all immaculately recorded live and quietly lovely.
Same for Dwight Trible who possibly could have gone down the Gregory Porter route but has instead pursued his own idiosyncratic path with a Leon Thomas-style wayward approach to melody and tempo. In Matthew Halsall he’s found a sympathetic musical partner – his “spiritual jazz” approach provides the perfect backing for again a mix of standards and new stuff that has the feel of a 60s Impulse album.
Then there’s Jazzmeia Horn – sounds like I’m making these names up – whose new album on the revitalised Prestige label is an absolute belter. She can really sing – dark and political on a raucous clattery take on the Stylistics “People make the world go around”, pure and quiet on the ballads and gospel shouting on a terrific version of Mary J Blige’s “I’m going down.” Then there’s Eliane Elias’s new album – stunning summery Latin jazz that is just so effortless and joyful. Leaves Diana Krall’s new album sounding very pedestrian – which it is – albeit a welcome return to singing standards after a couple of real duffers.
Also very much enjoying the new Don Bryant album – the veteran Memphis soulman returning to the Hi studio for the first time in decades – think this track is ace.
Read:
God’s son Jesus is pretty well known. His daughter Mabel less so. But in leafy Bedford in the 1920s/30s she gathered around her a staunch set of disciples to spread the word about the forthcoming apocalypse and the new Jerusalem that would be built in and around the small community of Edwardian villas where they all lived. According to Mabel – renamed Octavia to add to the mystique – this area just off the High Street was also the site of the garden of Eden. She spent most of her time prophesising – and breathing on small bits of cloth which were sent out until actually not that long ago to people around the world as a cure all for everything from acne to cancer.
You can visit this shrine to English eccentricity – it’s now a museum dedicated to the Panacea Society and several houses are preserved as Octavia left them on her death in the 1930s…awaiting a second coming…there’s also a café selling a full range of Tunnock’s confectionary. It’s all weird and wonderful – a mix of studious seriousness and unintentional hilarity – and I couldn’t help but pick up a copy of her biography – “Octavia – Daughter of God” – which has occupied most of my reading time these last few weeks. The society also has a sealed chest full of prophecies handed down over the centuries hidden somewhere in Bedford – the very epicentre of English esoteric religiosity…almost signed up to join. It’s just opposite the excellent Higgins art gallery and museum.
Seen:
Fargo and First Dates.
Tiggerlion says
*sighs*
My wallet seems to be leaking.
Mike_H says
June Tabor has had Huw Warren as her touring pianist for many years now. Saw her back in 2001 touring her “Rosa Mundi” album and he was playing.
She is still in very fine voice and he’s a superb player who surely knows her well enough by now to bring out the best. Wasn’t aware they’d recorded for ECM. That’s a real seal of approval if there ever was one.
retropath2 says
Bit of a binge month….
WATCHED: Series 2 Fear the Living Dead: Big improvement from series 1 and everything the Living Dead is no more, like entertaining, gory and in colour. (Then they want money for series 3 so I will have to wait a year!)
Series 3 Better Call Saul: Terrific!! Just gets better with a cataclysmically bleak closer.
Twin Peaks: Must see to can’t see the point and back again. Long haul guaranteed for me.
LISTENED: Carried on Wobbling, picking up the collaboration with Julie Byrne (Lonelady): Psychic Life, and Spinner, the collaboration with Eno. I picked up the new mark Lanegan before I went to see him (Nights Out/elsewhere), necessitating the subsequent acquisition of 2 Duke Garwood records, Heavy Love and Garden of Ashes, support act and 2nd guitar on the night, and his Lanegan collaboration, Black Pudding, the best of the 3. Peas from a similar pod, atlantic notwithstanding, Garwood is a slightly less structured and unformed version, with fuzzy guitar and breathless vocal. Glastonbury triggered my greater love for Vulpine faves The National, getting a further couple of their output, High Violet and the superlative Trouble Will Find Me. The new London Grammar and the latest XX were also deemed must haves after watching highlights, neither disappointing. As others have discussed elsewhere, the new e-music site has made choosing difficult, meaning the questionable pleasure of listening to Pop and then NarcoPop by GAS during one long drive to Manchester airport. Good for that sort of journey but made me laugh about the learned reviews talking about the progression between the 2. I dare anyone to listen to snatch of either and say which it is from without knowing. A bit like listening to Luxembourg with even worse signal than you remember from under the covers. The new Justin Currie (Del Amitri) I have just listened too and it is great. Finally, from what I can recall or is worth recalling, a brace of Alejandro Escovedo’s to round things out, 2001’s A Man Under the Influence and last years Burn Something Beautiful, both well worth a punt.
ruff-diamond says
Watched:
Game Of Thrones seasons 1 through 6 in a massive week-long binge watch. Absolutely stunning. After I got to the end of season 6 I actually found that I was sad that the experience was done. Now looking forward to seasons 7 and 8.
Rigid Digit says
This month I have mostly been:
Listening to Led Zeppelin, and can confidently state that ‘Presence’ is not as bad as the “critics” on the internet would have us believe.
The Top 4 is pretty much a given (in varying orders), but Presence sits comfortably at Number 5
Reading: Tim Moore travel books
(1) Don Not Pass Go – going round London in accordance with the Monopoly Board (tip: don’t buy the stations (too low a return), go for the pink or orange set (value wise, they are the winners)
(2) You Are Awful But I Like You – visiting unlikely UK “hotspots” (Hull, Hartlepool, Leysdown On Sea, Bracknell etc) in a 1982 Austin Maestro – with a premise like that, how can it fail (answer: it doesn’t)
Seeing: Trailblazers series on SkyArts continues to be worth a watch (although I think they’re starting to hit the repeat phase)
Afterword CD Swap a-go-go: just put mine in the post, and received 2 CDs this morning. That’s the weekend sorted (unless it is two disks of Belgian Jazz with a couple of Patagonian Nose Flute tracks thrown in)
ruff-diamond says
Presence is a great album!
In Through The Out Door, on the other hand, is dogshit.
Izzy says
I beg to differ.
badartdog says
Heard – Been enjoying the new National tracks that are on Youtube. Lorde too.
Thanks to the discovery of a free (pirate – sorry) online comic site, I’ve read lots this month. Southern Bastards by Jasons Aaron and Latour is as good as anything written ever. Tom King’s current run on Batman has the Dark Knight a wee bit too emo for my taste, but the Batman/Elmer Fudd crossover is fantastic – told as a gritty noir, revenge tale and featuring human versions of all the WB cartoon characters – Fudd is out to bump off Bugs for murdering a dame, but the buck toothed guy tells Elmer the hit was ordered by … Bwuce Wayne.
Seen – need to get back on to Twin Peaks and Handmaid – seen a couple of episodes of both, but i only watch TV when ironing and i hate ironing.
On The Fence says
Music- Christine and the Queens – Chaleur Humaine is perfect for pottering around the house- so infectious. Muse ( not a band I had ever paid much attention to ) – Drones. Really enjoyed this. Full blast in the car.
Books – Bill Bryson´s In a Sunburned Country for some light relief as I continue to trudge through Robert Caro´s The Power Broker. While an undeniably fascinating portrait of Robert Moses, urban engineer extraordinaire, it is way too long.
TV / Movies – loved Veep and Silicon Valley, funniest show on TV. Search Party was quirky, weird and very funny and may have just about the most satisfying ending ever. The Lost City of Z was charmingly old-fashioned, Alien Covenant was much better than the last one and I came across Tremors while late night channel-hopping and loved it all over again.
SteveT says
HEARD:
Another bumper month. Two fabulous albums that could loosely be described as Americana if people haven’t tired of that tag. Big Bad Luv by John Moreland and Zero Moon as championed by @contraryarticle. The Moreland album is very impressive – he has a voice very similar to Springsteens but completely different song arrangements. Corley’s album is initially darker than its predecessor Available Light but I think has more shades and reveals different elements with each repeat listen.
I didn’t watch much of Glastonbury but the best bit I saw was Songhoy Blues and bought their new album Resistance as a result – fabulous stuff – there is one track with great interplay between Guitar and Violin that recalled AW favourites Mahavishnu Orchestra.
One of my favourite current British bands is Danny and the Champions of the World. So I was delighted that their new release Brilliant Light is a double. It didn’t disappoint and I look forward to catching them live in September.
Jeff Tweedy Together at last isn’t introducing us to anything new but is great all the same.
Tom Russell – Play one more – the songs of Ian and Sylvia is a pleasant diversion while we wait for his next studio album Folk Hotel out in September.
Prince -Deluxe edition of Purple Rain was a little disappointing. Ws expecting disc 2 to be extended jams but was a little heavy on the linn drums and more on the disco side of Prince’s output. The 3rd disc of b’sides was more interesting – really like 17 Days which I had never heard before and another example of great Prince songs hidden away.
SEEN: No gigs in June but have 4 or 5 in July to make up for it. Watched The Affair which is compelling viewing. Have 3 episodes left in Season 3 which is altogether more darker than the previous 2. There is a 4th Season but not yet on Sky.
Like others I have been very impressed with Broken. Not previously a fan of Sean Bean but think he was fabulous in this. Some genuinely heartbreaking scenes and Jimmy McvGovern once again highlights how good a writer he is.
READ: Very slow this month -about 100 pages short of finishing Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes – the number of books I have in the waiting room is ridiculous. Need to up my ante.
AOB: Came back from a week in St.Emilion thoroughly refreshed -within 3 days of being back at work was off to Canada on a pretty intensive business trip. Feel like I need another holiday now.
Marwood says
Seen
Cold in July is a great little film that slides between genres, from twitchy thriller to splattery exploitation flick via unlikely-buddy movie. Sam Shepherd speaks in monosyllables, Don Johnson gets mileage from his role of as a good ole boy detective / hog farmer and Michael (Dexter) Hall rocks a truly horrible mullet / tash combo.
Nightcrawler is an unsettling drama about roving cameramen who – armed with their cameras and police scanners are looking to score the most lurid footage of car wrecks and crime scenes which they can then hawk around ratings hungry television studios. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Louis Bloom, new to the game and eager to learn. Gyllenhaal is outstanding as Bloom, a man with an innate understanding of human nature and who has the psyche to allow him to exploit this understanding to his advantage. Great support too from Rene Russo as a desperate studio boss, Riz Ahmed as Bloom’s reluctant protégé and Bill Paxton as a fellow ‘crawler.’
Caught Full Metal Jacket for the first time in many years. It’s watchable but unsatisfactory – the opening movement set in the training camp is great, but everything after this feels anti-climactic. Vietnam looks like what it is, a series of sets built in England; everything looks flimsy and insubstantial.
Read
Really enjoyed Waugh’s Decline and Fall; it’s scabrous, jaundiced, funny and fantastical. Currently struggling with Lincoln in the Bardo. Centred on the death of Lincoln’s son, Willie, the story is told by a polyphony of voices. It has received some rapturous reviews but I am finding it hard to engage with.
Heard
Been listening to OK Computer for the first time since the 90s. Some of it still feels worthy in a sort of ‘eat your greens’ way, but Airbag is a huge, roaring, wailing beast of an opener isn’t it?
Carolina says
Heard
Unthanks – Diversions 4, the Songs of Molly Drake
Delightful
Linda Thompson – Dreams Fly Away
Having mainly heard her later work (still v enjoyable), I was blown away by the power of her voice when she was younger.
Bedouine
From the Spacebomb production team. Another unique talent, really enjoyed what I’ve heard so far.
Jimmy Lafave
Decided to seek out more of his earlier work after his sad passing recently. Such an emotive singer, you can tell what a sweet and gentle soul he was
Charlie Dore – Dark Matter
Have blogged about this earlier. Terrific
Laura Nyro – Live! The Looms Desire
Also mentioned this one on blog. A compilation of her later concerts at the Bottom Line. V intimate, small groups of soulful backing singers, her on piano. Any fan of Laura and It’s Gonna Take a Miracle should have a listen, though this is more chilled out than Miracle and also has more of her later songs.
Watched
Morocco to Timbuktu
This was a fascinating North African travelogue by a woman explorer who was dauntless and spoke fluent French and Arabic into the bargain.
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Luckily I had forgotten this enough to be able to watch this great Hitchcock film again. There was with the feeling of familiarity but thankfully I didn’t recall the entire plot. Interesting to see scenes set in Morocco after the previous documentary.
Amazing Hotels with Giles Coren.
The episode of the Ice Hotel in Sweden (built out of ice in the snowy wastes of North Sweden) was very cooling to watch during the recent heatwave. Not that I’d ever want to stay there though!
Read
Arundhati Roy’s new book The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. I didn’t technically read it as it was on Book at Bedtime but it was beautiful, sad and joyous and had poetry in every line.
AOB
Been too hot and have been wilting generally but two recent Radio 4 returns have given much delight, Dead Ringers and David Sedaris. There was even a spoof of David Sedaris on Dead Ringers having a Biscuit-Off with Alan Bennett. Although my favourite character on the show is “Brexit Bulldog” David Davis who rings up Theresa May in terrible scrapes pleading to rescued, due to his hopeless negotiating skills.
This is I’m a Dreamer by Linda Thompson, from the compilation, the finest version of song I have heard.
duco01 says
1. Yes, that Bedouine album sounds interesting. I shall have to investigate further.
2. “Dreams Fly Away” is indeed a terrific compilation. I love it when Kate and Anna McGarrigle add their vocals to that song “Sisters”.
3. A friend of mine stayed at that Ishotellet place in Jukkasjärvi. His main comment about the stay was “It was expensive”.
Kaisfatdad says
That¨s an inspiring list, Carolina. Several things I’d like to investigate further. The Laura Nyro is on Spotify as is Bedouine!! Lucky me!
Carolina says
Always good to be able to try before you buy, Kaisfatdad 🙂
Carolina says
Yes, Sisters is lovely, duco. You can’t mistake the McGarrigle vocals for anyone else. I did boggle at the IceHotel prices too. It must cost a lot of money to keep everything “on ice” so to speak. They also have a reserve hotel which is heated. I remember Caitlin Moran’s husband bought them a surprise stay in the Ice part which she later wrote about. They only lasted an hour or so in the frozen room, shivering, called it quits and went to the reserve one instead!
anton says
Quietest months in ages for me – nothing live since early May, partly due to domestics commitments, and a very low intake of CD’s. The lure of Fopp saw me cruelly deceived by Lambchop FLOTUS and St Etienne Home Counties = smug drivel? By contrast the latest Omar Souleyman is very jolly – ideal for putting on when the bit-racist in-laws call round and you can pretend you are sitting in a cafe somewhere with Reapers overhead.
Nothing on tv (for me).
Read Tim Shipman’s All Out War – engrossing. A good test for your BREXITeer family & friends is what they think of Dominic Cummings. If they have never heard of him you can roll your eyes and LOL.
By the way, Pains of Being Pure at heart (my last night out) have album out soon – sure it will be ace.