The Afterword

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New Father John Misty!

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Some new songs have emerged, the best of which is attached below. New album (Pure Comedy) out on 7 April. Sounds even more Laurel Canyon than before.

Lyrics may be familiar to anyone who’s spent time on social media ever.

Naturally the dying man wonders to himself: Has his commentary been more lucid than anybody else? And had he successively beaten back the rising tide Of idiots, dilettantes, and fools On his watch while he was alive Lord, just a little more time

Oh, in no time at all This’ll be the distant past

So says the dying man once I’m in the box Just think of all the overrated hacks running amok And all of the pretentious, ignorant voices that will go unchecked The homophobes, hipsters, and 1% The false feminists he’d managed to detect Oh, who will critique them once he’s left?

Oh, in no time at all This’ll be the distant past

What he’d give for one more day to rate and analyze The world made in his image as of yet To realize what a mess to leave behind

Eventually the dying man takes his final breath But first checks his news feed to see what » Continue Reading.

The One True Tune To Rule Them All – RESULTS!

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It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for, no doubt.

After a week long process of intensive debate, and a voting process that has baffled pollsters, tried the patience of the electorate and lead to the permanent shattering of several friendships, and at least one marriage that we know of, we have finally arrived at the very Apex of all Afterword culture: The One True Tune To Rule Them All.

Henceforth, from this day on, when we discuss music let us do so united in the common recognition that there is one song that stands apart from all its brethren. A tune that pleases all ears, and confounds none. A song that has the entire Afterword singing along, arms aloft, with nary a nay-sayer in sight, and only brotherly love and bonhomie in evidence.

There are those who said it could not be done. That such a tune, quite simply, did not exist – COULD not exist. To those people, I say: Ha! Read herein, without your own eyes, the evidence that musical consensus is not just an arcane theory, or an ancient rumour, but an actual, practicable science, with results you can touch and feel. Recognise that man can » Continue Reading.

The One True Tune To Rule Them All Thread – Vote Now!

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The bell has now rung on the “Is there a song that no one dislikes” thread.

We appear to have rounded up a surprisingly long and varied list of tunes against which nobody here is willing to speak out. So, we know they’re not disliked: but are they truly loved?

We now shift into the second and final phase of our mission to find the song most likely to unite the Afterword. The rules are simple. Select from the list below the one song you love the most, and post its name.

At 5pm on Wednesday 22 Feb, voting will close, voting will be collated, and we will identify, once and forever more, The One True Tune To Rule Them All.

One vote per person, please, all multiples will be discounted (tigger). In the event of multiple votes in a single post, the first named song will be counted.

If you’re struggling to decide, I recommend this mental exercise: imagine you’re in a vast room, with all the other inhabitants of the Afterword, drinks in hand. Suddenly, the tannoy sputters into life, and begins to play a song. What song would you most want it to be?

Looking » Continue Reading.

Is there a song that no one dislikes?

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The Afterword is a broad church, running the full gamut of musical tastes from A to D.

Over by the fireplace, you have your “course, it were all green fields round here in my day” types, trading stories about the Incredible String Band and the Summer of Love.

By the pool table gather the sneering 90s kids, who don’t, like, believe in genre, and still sometimes listen to music that gets reviewed in Pitchfork. They’ll never get old and closed-minded, no sir.

Propping up the bar, drinking real ale and comparing vintage tour t-shirts, are the vinyl obsessives. They like music you’ve probably never heard of.

And, of course, there’s the car park. Where deramdaze is busy shouting at pigeons and trying to work out whether or not he should like The Doors just now.

Many tribes. Many ways of consuming music, many ways of seeing the world. But is there a single song that can bring them together and bond them? A piece of music that, when played on the jukebox, will see everyone in the pub stop what they’re doing, link arms and perform a stomping karaoke singalong that threatens to tear the roof off the sucka? » Continue Reading.

Bingo’s Best of 2016

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As has become something of a personal tradition, at this time of year I like to lovingly collate my favourite tracks of the previous 12 months, provide a little narrative around them and then fire them off out into a cold and indifferent universe. Slim chance of the temperature rising above absolute zero this time round as – hey – I had a bit of a hip hop year for the first time in a very long time. With that in mind, here we go…

1. Ether – Mogwai

Barnstorming opener to an album that further solidified the Gwai’s burgeoning rep as soundtrackeurs par excellence. To my ears, one of the finest tracks they’ve produced in maybe a decade, and hopefully the shape of things to come. Saw them live in the Summer, and while the sounds were lovely, I thought the movie to which they were appended was underwhelming, which is a shame.

2. Nikes – Frank Ocean

I suspect I’ve waxed lyrical about this for quite long enough now already.

3. Guwop – Young Thug

Another tune I’ve already hyped on another thread. Love the production, love the flow, love the total inability to decipher anything he’s » Continue Reading.

Frank Ocean In Nine Tracks/Excuse Me While I Quietus This Guy

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First off, let me get the excuses in early; I’m absolutely terrible at writing about music, so this is probably a bad idea from the off. It’s also going to end up extremely long, so there’s a high chance of tl:dr.

Secondly, let me forewarn anyone still reading that if you don’t like modern music, this will be a slog and you’d be best off ducking out now before I really start talking bollocks.

With those pleasantries out of the way…. Sewer Robot recently asked me to write a review of Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” (all hate mail to SR for what follows). I demurred, on the basis that (a) I’m not very good at music reviews, because I tend to just like what I like and not wish to think too deeply about it all; and (b) it took me a very, very long time to get my head around FO’s last record (the wonderful “channel: Orange”), and I therefore thought it might be a little too early to venture a view on Blonde. Ocean’s albums are not renowned for their immediacy, and I often change my mind.

Having made my cowardly excuses, I slunk away and realised that – » Continue Reading.

The Best Albums of the Decade (So Far)

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I was on my way home yesterday when I found myself wondering about the best records to have been released so far this decade. Never one to shirk a list-based challenge, I gave myself 15 minutes to come up with a top 10, on the (enormously dubious) basis that any album that didn’t jump to mind in those 15 minutes couldn’t be much cop anyway.

Enclosed below is what I came up with – I’d be interested to hear what others here would have on their own lists.

Before we go any further, I want to clarify that I am well aware that modern music is for the birds, that there was a 6 year period between 1963 and 1969 (or whenever) that shits all over this stuff, that Deafheaven have never had a top 10 hit, and all that other great stuff we must always be treated to when new(ish) music is raised on the blog. You’re fascinating, and ever-so-discerning and special and I’d love to hear more about all of it, just maybe on another thread.

With that out of the way, and without further ado – here we go….

1. “Have One On Me” – » Continue Reading.

Brexit Vote – Your Predictions

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Right – we’re about 3 weeks out, so close enough for an Afterword forecast.

Personally, I’m starting to think there’s a real chance we’ll end up out. The tone of the debate has been really troubling: Cameron has deployed the same scaremongering tactics which, to be fair, served him well at the last election; Corbyn has made absolutely palpable his distaste for being forced to agree with a Conservative Prime Minister on anything; and the Leave campaign have assured us that there is literally no downside to leaving the EU (really?!?) and that we should just ignore the numerous world leaders, economists and historians who have lined up to tell us otherwise, because they’re all just, like, the Man.

I can’t help feeling that, given the gravity of the issue, we deserve a little better than this. It seems to me that what we’re being asked to decide here, once you burn away all the ephemera and misinformation on either side, is between remaining part of a profoundly anti-Democratic and often dysfunctional body politic, or otherwise rolling the dice and risking all manner of foreseeable and unforeseeable aftershocks. Basically, a choice between long term and short term, heart and » Continue Reading.

In Here? Doom…

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A few weeks ago there was a thread about the acts which defined each of the preceding decades. During the course of that thread, as is the way of the Afterword, the mighty Nirvana were once more traduced as being not all that great. Obviously, I – and, I’m sure, all right thinking others – harrumphed righteously at the very notion, and then promptly disappeared down a months-long rabbithole of Nirvana listening which has lead me to emerge more convinced than ever before that they’re fanfuckingtastic and shit all over your favourite band, so there.

However, in what is a sure sign that I’ve now spent too much time with all the misty-eyed, retrowanking nostalgics who patrol these halls, I did more than just listen to Nirvana. I also went on a major early-90s culture jag: maybe it’s the dual-effect of the Cerebus thread, but suddenly I experienced a burning desire to go back and re-tread much of the music, film and literature I was discovering at aged 14, circa 1993.

If I may go full-Hepworth, for a moment, the exercise served to clarify for me that 1993 was a wonderful year for music if you were young and » Continue Reading.

The Afterword Canon – Movies

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Soooo…. this worked pretty well for music, let’s give it another spin for movies and see if there’s a similar amount of fun to be had.

Similar rules to last time: nominate the movie or movies which you think would be a shoo-in for an Afterword celluloid canon. Please note the following:

* It’s movies you think are reflective of the blog’s tastes en masse, or which couldn’t be left out without disenfranchising a significant section of the Massive.

* The tricky bit: one movie per actor/director. If someone else is getting Alien, you can’t have Bladerunner. It’s going to be Sophie’s Choice like a motherfucker up in here.

* Remember to spare us a few words on why your nomination deserves a place in the pantheon.

Over to you…

Bloodborne

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As noted elsewhere on the site, the single best thing I bought in 2015 wasn’t an album, or a movie, or even a book. It was From Software’s absolute masterpiece of a video game, Bloodborne. Caveat: before you go any further – yes, I’m going to geek out here, and very few of you are likely to be interested in what follows.

What is Bloodborne? It’s a third person adventure game, set – initially, at least – in a weird Victorian-looking city named Yharnam, wherein people are doing very strange things with blood, citizens are suddenly morphing into horrendous lycan creatures and most folk are simply hiding behind locked doors while vigilantes known as “Hunters” attempt to cleanse the streets. So far, so video-gamey. What’s unusual is how the story progresses. You’re never really told what’s going on. There are clear plotlines, and themes, but zero in the way of real exposition, and you’re left to piece it all together at your own pace. As you proceed through the game, you discover the ancient catacombs under the city, in which were found the remains of dead gods, and all manner of other » Continue Reading.

The Afterword Canon – Music

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I’ve been spending a bit of time recently listening to a pretty good podcast called “The Canon”.

The premise is very simple: each week movie critics Devin Faraci and Amy Nicholson pick a film and debate (often hotly) whether it merits entry into “The Canon”. Occasionally, they’ll do a head to head (e.g. Rocky vs First Blood) with only one movie being granted entry.

The hosts have pretty good chemistry, they clearly love/hate the movies they’re discussing and they also get some decent guests to help them out: Henry Rollins on Apocalypse Now being a recent highlight.

I’d recommend giving it a listen if you’re a movie fan Details below.

http://thecanon.wolfpop.com/audio/playlists/3968

Anyway, the thought this lead me to was that this concept would probably make for a pretty decent thread or two on here. So, I propose we start with music: which albums do you feel are worthy/unworthy of gaining entry to the Afterword Canon? Feel free to debate with all the snark and vim evident on the podcast itself.

A couple of quick ground rules:

* We’re looking for consensus choices. I think Revolver is a load of old cobblers, but it’s clearly going to » Continue Reading.

Oh my goodness

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I’m in a large, soulless shopping centre in South West London. They’re only playing Marquee flipping Moon over the PA.

Is this how 2016 is going to be?

Utterly glorious, had to share this wonderful news.

Farewell, Alan Rickman

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Just heard that one of the UK’s best-loved acting talents has passed, after a battle with cancer. Horrible, horrible news. Not much more to say than that.

Here’s a very dramatic video of the great man making some tea.

Friday Night Listening

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So, I’m doing a bit of cooking here, and listening to this for the first time in a very long time, and just now it sounds absolutely blooming magnificent.

Please do feel free to chip in whatever tune is warming your cockles at the end of the first working week of 2016.

Hope everyone is having a pleasant Friday night, whether you’re giving the Bowie that difficult fifth listen, or swigging industrial strength cider in the park.

The Best Tracks of 2015

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I don’t think we’ve done this yet.

As is the tradition, I’m sure many of us have been busily compiling our “best of” end of year playlists to trade with our friends and foist upon our enemies. Here’s a link to mine, and a few words on some of the more beloved tracks.

1. “What’s Normal Anyway” – Miguel

“Too opinionated for the pacifists, too out of touch to be in style, too broke for the rich kids”. Word.

2. “My Baby Don’t Understand Me” – Natalie Prass

The first time I’ve heard one of Matthew E White’s gorgeous productions truly mesh with a song and a vocal. Everything in perfect harmony.

3. “White Out” – No Spill Blood

Ferocious album opener from the excellently monikered Dubliners. The sound of a gang of cavemen playing metal on a busy Heathrow runway.

4. “Feeling Good Tonight (UNKLE Reconstruction)” – Therr Maitz

With thanks to Poppy for the intro.

5. “Hurache Lights” – Hot Chip

The year’s number one rump-mover, bar none. Drew many an “ooh – what’s this” in the » Continue Reading.

LIST! The Afterword’s Favourite Xmas Movies

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Like most of us on here, I prefer to experience reality through the filter of the mass media wherever possible. This means I can’t truly feel like it’s Christmas until I’ve watched a bunch of Xmas movies.

Posted below are my top five, but I implore the rest of you to chip in with your faves. I look forward to learning about the new wave of Eritrean festive cinema.

Merry Xmas everyone!

1. Home Alone 2. It’s a Wonderful Life 3. Die Hard 4. Batman Returns 5. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation