A long overdue October post

It has been far too long since I updated (life too distracting, I guess) but I certainly have not become a cultural hermit nor lost the power of typing so time for even a quick update, as there has been quite a lot of good culture collected this October.

Music

Lots of CDs (or their virtual counterparts) this month, some of which I have tweeted about. Biggest surprise has been Kings of Leon's Come Around Sundown, which is really growing on me and is far better than anything they have done to date, in my view. Mary, Pyro and especially Back Down South are great songs, in a fairly shallow way, admittedly. This is pretty by-the-numbers rock stuff, but that doesn't mean it isn't catchy and highly listenable, and seems a little less effort-y than their last album, and a bit more laid-back, particularly 'Back down south', as seen below:

'Pyro' is one I first heard on the radio and really can't get out of my head (maybe the rare example of the use of the word 'cornerstone' in a song lyric was what snagged my ear most), and can be seen live below:



On an almost diametrically opposite track, I really like 'Invariable heartache' by Kurt and Cortney (no, not those ones, Wagner and Tillman, a.k.a. KORT), an album of oldish-style country duets (not sure if 'Invariable' is really a word, but it should be if it isn't!).  Kurt Wagner is of course the mainstay of cult alt-country ensemble Lambchop, who over last last number of years have released some of the most interesting music within that genre, always musically beautiful and complex and never commercial, and reaching their peak with the utter magnificence of 'Nixon'.  The new album takes Kurt's appropriately curt and clipped and typically understated vocals and mixes them with songs which are far more traditional (in tone and theme) than Lambchop's usual fare, but critically with a lovely voice in his new musical partner.  The songs are mainly slow in pace ('Incredibly lonely' fits the title perfectly) but occasionally less so ('Wild mountain berries').  There is a great trailer for the project below, and I thoroughly recommend it, perhaps as a quiet spot in the no-man's land between alt- and real country, where afficionados of either can meet in tentative truce.

I also liked the new Belle and Sebastian album 'Write about love', particularly and unexpectedly the absoultely gorgeous duet with Norah Jones (the splendidly named 'Little Lou, Prophet Jack and Ugly John'), which can be heard here.  I have always fallen into the trap of dismissing B&S as twee and harmless, but the new album contains a streak of steel and pop grandeur which work really well. 

Finally, for now, I was intrigued by the ads and reviews for 'The fool' by Warpaint (great name, great album cover, seen on the left). The album is growing on me, but I find it a bit dense and slow, mixing 80s-style markers that the reviews have mentioned like the Cocteau Twins and Souxsie and the Banshees with a strange girl-group vocal set-up, but with the vocals often buried relatively low in the mix, so as presumably not to over-emphasise the singing relative to the music.  Anyway, best track for me is 'Undertow', which is shown as a nice acoustic session below:

I have just downloaded a huge new Suede compilation, and have a few other downloads I haven't mentioned above (Antony and the Johnsons included) so lots more to talk about, hopefully after less of an interval than since the last update.

Movies

Saw 'The social network' (curiously underwhelming and obvious title for such a great movie) at the cinema and it did live up to the reviews, for once.  I have never been a huge David Fincher fan but the writing of Aaron Sorkin (the great god-like Aaron Sorkin) was as classy and sharp as expected, and I also loved the music, and overall it was thoroughly watchable and one of the best I have seen in a while.  Also took the kids to see 'Despicable me', which we all enjoyed, and I think the little yellow minions were brilliant and the best thing in it, although Steve Carrell's voicework was as funny as should be expected (great line about the neighbour's dog at the start).

On DVD or TV, got to see quite a few.  'Shutter island' was good but even wierder than I had expected, and I had sort of spoiled it by finding the twist on-line ages ago, so it seemed rather obvious when watching (I have really got to stop doing that).  Fell asleep during 'A serious man', as it was making no noticeable impression on me whatsoever, and not particularly interested in watching the rest, and 'Away we go' was sweet and nice and had fantastic performances by Maggie Gyllenhall and Allison Janney as completely mad and scary women.  I also thought 'Essence' was very funny and watchable, if not a classic, with some great performances (including the wonderfully deadpan JK Simmons and an almost thankfully unrecognisable Ben Affleck).  Have ordered my Apple TV on-line and interested to see how it will work, and will update on the next post (bit of an Apple product binge this autumn, but think my bank balance will bring it to a halt after this one).

I also got a tweet that the new trailer for the Benjamin Sniddlegrass movie is available on-line and it can be seen:

 Books

I saw Dom Joly as guest on an RTE (Irish state TV channel) comedy chat show and he was very engaging and likeable and spoke about a new book called 'The dark tourist', which I then downloaded and devoured with great interest.  It describes his travels to some less normal tourist destinations (North Korea, Iran, Beiruit, assassination sites in the US, Cambodia).  His writing is fluid and very funny, and he comes across as warm and curious, and the chapter on North Korea is absolutely fascinating as a shapshot of a completely bizarre and surreal (and thoroughly miserable) place of which we usually hear nothing, at least not through the lens and words of someone as witty and observant as Joly, while the chapter on Cambodia is mostly heart-breaking.  I also found 'Obama's wars' by Bob Woodward quite fascinating (I read all his Bush war books but found them quite boring by the end, so the change of administration being covered welcome, just was it was unbelievable welcome in real life!).   As before, I have no idea how Woodward got the access and permission that he has to write what he did, recounting what you would imagine to be top secret discussions and conversations apparently (but presumably with some liberty) verbatim, and at several points I wondered how the hell he had been allowed to write that in a book that was open for anyone (except presumably the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan) to read.  Now reading 'The accidental billionaires', on which 'The social network' was (remarkably closely) based.

So, that's it for now, but plan not to leave as long until the next update.  Heading to the US soon to visit Nebraska and Iowa for a work trip, and will actually be in Lincoln, Nebraska, but hopefully not with a sawed off .410 on my lap, so will update from there as part of new tour (total stops to date =1) of places mentioned in murder songs......