Music, Books, Beverages (3rd Edition)

I haven’t done one of these lists for a while (since March 8th apparently), so here’s a new, slightly longer one.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
REM – Accelerate
U2 – Zooropa
Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Jeff Buckley – Grace

What I’ve Been Reading:

Kierkegaard – Repetition & Either/Or
Ivan Illich – The Right To Useful Unemployment
George MacDonald – Fairy Stories
Michel Henry – I Am The Truth
David Held – Introduction To Critical Theory

What I’ve Been Drinking:

An unusual amount of tea, often with a few ginger biscuits
Bodegas Salado Fina Blanca Paloma – a dry white sherry (well, technically a fortified wine ‘cos of the region, but that’s being fussy), which my sister & brother-in-law brought back for me from Spain
Dry ginger ale, again in unusual quantity
Rock Mild – the best mild I’ve ever had, brewed locally in Nottingham
Courvoisier VS – a standard, but very nice, cognac

Wild Beasts

Another music tip. Saw this northern band for the first time on Later w/ Jools Holland on Friday night; then watched their performances back a couple times on the iPlayer; then looked for their album on iTunes and found it for £4 (astonishingly cheap), and snapped it up. They won’t be everyone’s “cup of tea” (whatever the heck that means… surely an old colonial English phrase, as it kind of presumes the “cup of tea” is universally adored and represents heaven-come-to-earth for absolutely everyone. Anyway…), but once you click into what they’re doing, their stuff becomes pretty interesting. So far (about 6 tracks through the album), I like them.

This is one of the tracks they did on Later. The best part is where one of the other artists on the show, Maxwell, is briefly shown doing a little jig, with a rather funny smile on his face. Enjoy.

Antony & The Johnsons @ Abbey Road

To my shame, even though he won the Mercury Prize all the way back in 2005, I’ve only just got round to listening to Antony & The Johnsons. Even that happened purely by chance when he and his current band turned up on the Channel 4 show Live at Abbey Road last Friday. Within a few days of being blown away while watching that, however, I had familiarised myself with most of his back catalogue, and decided that he was a musical genius – a modern day Bach.

Now, I’m pretty fussy about my music. There are a lot acts I like, but only about four or five that I truly love. The members of this prestigious latter category are distinguishable by the fact that, in spite of hours and hours of listening, I have never grown bored or indifferent to their music (or lyrics) and, even after the hundredth or so listen to a particular track, in it still hear something new and fresh and interesting. I have a sneaking suspicion that Antony & The Johnsons may eventually sneak into this category, as his music has a transcendental quality and a melodic and harmonic richness that seems unlikely to get old. This is only a hunch, though, as I could hate him in a few weeks.

Here’s one of the tracks from Abbey Road:

U2 Album Hierarchy, August 2009

Four years ago I stuck a list up on Amazon which put U2’s (then 11) albums into a hierarchy, from best to worst. The list looked like this:

1. Achtung Baby (1991)
2. Joshua Tree (1987)
3. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)
4. Pop (1997)
5. War (1983)
6. All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
7. Zooropa (1993)
8. Rattle & Hum (1988)
9. The Unforgettable Fire (1985)
10. Boy (1980)
11. October (1981)

My opinions have changed, however, over the last four years and so, with the addition of their latest album, here is my new list:

1. Achtung Baby (1991)
2. Zooropa (1993)
3. The Joshua Tree (1987)
4. Boy (1980)
5. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)
6. Pop (1997)
7. The Unforgettable Fire (1985)
8. All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
9. War (1983)
10. Rattle & Hum (1988)
11. No Line On The Horizon (2009)
12. October (1981)

You will notice the latest album (No Line…) down the bottom, in 11th place. That’s because, having tried and tried and tried, I cannot find anything on the whole album that I really love. Magnificent is the closest, but I’ve heard that whole jangly guitar thing so many times from U2 that it just doesn’t stand out to me. Shame. I’ve even put the horribly disjointed Rattle & Hum above it simply because there are three or four incredible songs on that, which I can’t find on the new album.

Achtung Baby and Zooropa though, taken together, are just incredible. U2’s darkest, most ironic, most existential albums; critical of modern society (consumerism, celebrity culture etc.), but not in the bombastic or (almost) self-righteous manner of some of their other albums. Boy has caught my attention more as well, as a complete album with some brilliant stuff, like An Cat Dubh, Into The Heart, Stories For Boys, The Electric Co., and Shadows and Tall Trees, in addition to the usually cited I Will Follow and Out Of Control.

Music, Books, Beverages (2nd self-indulgent list)

What I have been listening to…

U2 // No Line on the Horizon

Lindsey Buckingham // Gift of Screws

Lindsey Buckingham // Under The Skin

Fleetwood Mac // Rumours

What I have been reading…

Charles Taylor // A Secular Age

Augustine // Confessions

Stanley Hauerwas // A Better Hope (essay collection)

G.K. Chesterton // Orthodoxy

What I have been drinking…

Highland Park 12 year old (Single Malt Island)

Glenmorangie Original 10 year old (Single Malt Highland)

Hopping Hare (Golden English Ale)

Baileys & Hot Chocolate (Cadbury’s, of course)

The ‘Sistine Chapel of Popular Music’ – A Recommendation

The sound of one band will always remind me of my childhood. I grew up listening to the music of The Moody Blues because they were my Dad’s favourite band. I have seen them live three times – twice in Oxford, once in New York, and they have never disappointed. Indeed, I expect they are a primary reason for my love of good music. Nonetheless, I have rarely listened to anything beyond 15-25 of their ‘greatest hits’; songs such as ‘Nights In White Satin’ and ‘Question’ which are instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with the music of the late 60s or early 70s. That is, however, until recently when I have begun to realise how stupid it is to listen to odd songs of a band known for the brilliance of their albums (yes, their albums; whole albums from start to finish – a remarkable thought for the iTunes generation).

Music, Books and Beverages

What I have been listening to…

Leonard Cohen // The Best Of

The Killers // Day and Age

Joseph Arthur and The Lonely Astronauts // Temporary People

Pixies // Wave of Mutilation: Best Of

What I have been reading…

Alain Badiou // Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism

Michael J. Gorman // Cruciformity: Paul’s Narrative Spirituality of the Cross

Soren Kierkegaard // The Sickness Unto Death

…and some of E.E. Cummings poems.

What I have been sipping…

The Macallan 12 year old (Single Malt Highland)

Laphroaig 10 year old (Single Malt Islay)

Apostoles aged 30 years (Palo Cortado Sherry)

Fursty Ferret (English Ale)

Review of Snow Patrol’s New Album

I’ve never been a huge fan of Snow Patrol, but have for the last few weeks been enjoying their 2006 release ‘Eyes Open’, which has a bit more complexity and is a little more interesting than I first gave it credit for. On the wave of this new-found enthusiasm for the Northern Irish band, I decided to get their new album ‘A Hundred Million Suns’, which was released on Monday, while it was still nice and cheap in HMV.

It is another good release from Snow Patrol which I can see myself listening to for a few weeks yet. There are at least five or six songs on the album which are very pleasant to listen to; which make you feel all warm and fuzzy and reflective. And I suppose that is what Snow Patrol do best, warm, fuzzy pop rock – and fair play to them. If you’re looking for something groundbreaking or out of the ordinary look elsewhere, because A Hundred Million Suns is not all that groundbreaking or out of the ordinary, but then it doesn’t pretend to be. What it does, it does well. Out of 5? …3.617

EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO JOSEPH ARTHUR…

 

…he is, quite simply, a genius.

§

Here are some rather good live links:

Honey & the Moon – live (solo) [Late Late Show]

Too Much To Hide – live (band) [Late Late Show]

Slide Away – live (band) [Letterman]

In The Sun – live (band) [Letterman]

Good About Me – live (solo) [Bowery Ballroom]

A Smile That Explodes – live (solo, with a violinist) [Late Late Show]

KEXP Live at the Triple Door (w/Lonely Astronauts) [50 min. gig - {scroll down for video link}]

Sigur Ros live at MoMA

This is short, but a friend sent me a link to a fantastic video of Sigur Ros recently playing live at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Katie and I got the chance to visit MoMA on our honeymoon, so that adds to the personal interest, but the performance is superb and well worth a look! 

You can find it here.

And while we’re on the subject, may I also recommend Heima, quite simply the best and most beautiful tour documentary I’ve ever seen.

A Quick Update (and a few recommendations)

So since starting this blog I have posted, yes… absolutely nothing.

That is, until now! The reasons for my lack of activity include busyness, laziness and the fact that I have been trying to pull together a different blogging project with some friends, causing me to put this one on hold. Nevertheless, here’s a quick update AND ***added bonus*** some recommendations from my current music collection.

___________________________________________

OK, so in about two weeks Katie and I will be moving to Nottingham where we will be working part-time, and (from September) I will be studying part-time for an MA in Philosophical Theology at the University of Nottingham. I’m excited to have been accepted onto the course, as it will give me the opportunity to sit under (?) a number of interesting and well-known scholars. It is a slight change of subject so will be a challenge, but hopefully a good one.