Airborne toxins actually quite pleasant

Musically, May is turning out quite interesting, with new downloads from The Airborne Toxic Event and Jamie Woon (both on recommendation of my new friend the Sunday Times iPad App's culture section), Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky (they just fit together, with thanks this time to eMusic) and Fleet Foxes.

The TATE (as I will abbreviate the first-named band, not being arced to type their full title, which incidentally reminds me of the very odd Mark Wahlberg/M Night Shyamalan movie, the Happening - coincidence?) album 'All at once' is actually really good, even it it does feel like a compilation of stuff by other people, if mainly good ones. The opening title track sounds very Nationalish, with anthematic reach and cool drums (see below), and I really like the following 'Numb', particularly where the rush of the music takes a breath for the line with the title.





'The graveyard near the house' was really nice until my son pointed out how much it sounds like 'Hey there Delilah' by the Plain White Ts. Some songs have a touch of Pogueishness about them, and the singer's voice seems too mutable to get a good grasp on, sounding very different in different songs ('Changing' sounds like a different band entirely, more at home in the UK than the US).   'It doesn't mean a thing' (slightly different version below) ranges from the Pogues to Elvis Costello very cooly within a little over 2 minutes, which is quite an achievement.



It does sound really nice on 'All for a woman' (below), which builds up like a Ryan Adams epic (something like 'Meadowlake street' springs to mind) and 'Half of something else' is really good too.



The album got a very tough review in Uncut for Arcade Fire clonism, but I don't really get that, although I agree that 'The kids are ready to die' is pretty weak. Overall, though, this is one of the best albums I have heard in a while.

Jamie Woon was always a bit of a stretch for me, as the reviews made it sound quite low-key and ambient for me, but a preview on iTunes made me interested, and I quite like his voice, but I am still struggling to really engage in the music, which seems a bit too backgroundy for me, although 'Night air' does stand out.

I didn't get quite as excited as many folks and folkies seemed to about Fleet Foxes' debut, although 'White water hymnal' and 'Mykonos' (first heard on an Uncut CD) were gorgeous, but I did divert some of my eMusic subscription their way based on the reviews of the new album. I really like the simpler more acoustic ones, like 'Helplnessness blues' itself and 'Montezuma', although some of the rest is a bit noodley and dense for me.

I haven't given Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai enough aural attention to review yet, but maybe next time.


Movies-wise, I downloaded 'The girl who played with fire' on Apple TV (first straight download, no PC required!) and made the mistake of picking the English-dubbed version, on which the voices are simply crap, and make taking the whole thing seriously almost impossible. My internet connection dropped around two-thirds of the way through and when it reattached the movie was no longer saved (although I should have had it for 48 hours) but to be honest I don't think I will bother to pay for the rest.

I have also started watching 'Centurion' (I liked Neil Marshall's first two films, 'Dog soldiers' and 'The descent' a lot), and it actually looks pretty good, with some very impressively visceral action, and accents and characters far like the protagonists of Dog Soldiers than what I would have expected for the Roman Empire's finest. 



TV-wise, we have been enjoying 'Boardwalk empire' a lot, and I have watched the first episode of 'Game of thrones', which looks very interesting if a bit mad in the head and off the wall (metaphorically speaking).

Books-wise, just finished Joseph Wilsons book on the nasty tactics of the Bush administration (what a shocker) and just started 'Unscientific America' by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, as I loved Mooney's scary book about how the Bush adminsitration also gave scientists a very hard time, and not just ex-ambassadors ('The Republican war on science').

That's all for now, folks!



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