Ursula in 2024: Tomes and Tunes

Hello! Cleo, Archie and Rollo greet you from Germany.

And I do as well - I'm Ursula, 52, an American who has been living in western Germany since the end of March 2023 (previously living in a bunch of other places but most recently Istanbul). In addition to the cats, I live here with my mathematician husband Morgan, who will very soon be 43. We share a few reads from time to time, and we share listening to a lot of music!

In books, I tend toward "serious" fiction book - by which I don't necessarily mean ones that are supposed to be Real Literature, just that I'm not likely to read a lot of funny, happy books ("uplifting" is not a descriptor that draws me!). It's not entirely intentional, because I don't really read reviews or blurbs so I rarely know what I'm getting into. I guess I'm just attracted to the covers for that sort of book. I read a little in the mystery/thriller and a little in the science fiction areas occasionally. I try to get some nonfiction in there too but I've been less successful than usual in recent years.

Last year I started posting my weekly listening roundups and I will continue that as well. I am usually listening from a variety of lists (the big one is the 1001 Albums before you die list - I'm starting this year in 1977) in addition to whatever things I just enjoy and new releases (yes, I still listen to new music).

I may also post photos of stuff around here, my cats, and maybe even some of my drawings.

Favorite reads of 2023
(in order I read them)

          

New Animal by Ella Baxter
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
Ducks by Kate Beaton
Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Devil House by John Darnielle
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall
The Wager by David Grann

Favorite listens (new releases) of 2023
(in alphabetical order)



I'll post about these in some detail later.

Currently reading


Travelers by Helon Habila


Network Effect by Martha Wells


The Doll Collection by Ellen Datlow

Read in 2024

Januar

    
Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck
My Soul To Keep by Tananarive Due
Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki
The Club by Takis Würger
Wool by Hugh Howey

Februar

    
Dear Child by Romy Hausmann
The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya
The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig
The Promise by Damon Galgut
Gaza by Norman Finkelstein

Noooo! Typo in the title, my worst fear. Sigh.

>5 ursula: I think Lisa can fix that.
Very handsome cats!

Welcome back to Club Read, Ursula! I love your threads' fun mix of books, music, and cats. I look forward to following along and hearting more about your new life in Germany.

P.S. I fixed the typo, as you can see.

>6 dianeham: Yes, I realized it could be fixed with a little help, thank you! Also thanks for the compliment to the kitties, they are here for it. :)

>7 labfs39: Thank you for the welcome back and thank you for both the group setup and for fixing my mistake (what mistake, there was no mistake, nothing to see here!). Looking forward to another year of everything.

>1 ursula: I really need to learn how to post photos here on LT....

>9 WelshBookworm: Laurel, you might try looking at The New How To Do Fancy Things In Your Posts thread.

>9 WelshBookworm: First you need somewhere to host them. A lot of sites restrict that kind of usage so at this point I'm uploading the photos here, to my junk drawer. Then the link in >10 labfs39: is probably a good resource.

Hi Ursula! In addition to enjoying your book reviews, I've been having fun with your music posts—both the old favorites (or on-the-fence albums) that they inspire me to revisit and stuff that's new to me. I've been following a few "new music for older tastes" newsletters lately—what a wonderful world where those exist!—and I'm going to take a look at the albums you listed above and see what appeals.

Hi to your lovely kitties from Iris, Alice, Mama, and Spencer! And of course Jasper, who's generally a little scared of cats unless they want to play with him.

>12 lisapeet: I'm glad you've been enjoying the music as well! I always welcome hearing about anything you have to say about whatever you're listening to!

I'll be writing up some sort of thoughts about each of the albums I picked too, and hopefully link to a youtube of a song or something.

Awww, poor sweet Jasper and his (slight) fear of cats!

My top 10 albums fall into somewhat-natural pairings so I'll take them on two at a time.

First up: Female-led indie rockers

Lucky for You - Bully

Big 90s vibes on this one. I could almost imagine some of these songs on the soundtrack to Singles. Shoegaze-adjacent with a fair amount of distortion, but the vocals are riding high over everything. A more melodic Courtney Love, a little Breeders-adjacent. There's an in-studio performance of one of my favorites from the album on YouTube here: Days Move Slow. Other favorites on the album are Hard to Love and Change Your Mind.

The Window - Ratboys

This was an album I fell in love with instantly. This is more a country-/folk-tinged indie; I'm not surprised they've shared a bill with Wilco. It's got some sparkly guitars, an occasional violin, and a singer with a voice that's mostly on the soft side of things but definitely belts it out when required. My favorite song is The Window, which is from the point of view of the singer's grandfather - her grandmother died in the hospital during Covid when no visitors were allowed. The official video for that one is here on YouTube. Other favorites are Morning Zoo, Black Earth, WI and No Way (which has the lyric "I'll take a penny for your thoughts and I'll throw it straight to hell" that always gets stuck in my head).

Love your cats. I’m curious about The Book of the Goose. Wish you a great 2024, and look forward to your book and music posts.

Greetings Ursula and the cats, happy new year!

I just got that Izumi Suzuki book too.

>15 dchaikin: The kitties are sweet! (When they're not complete terrors.)

As for The Book of Goose, if you missed my comments about it last year they're here - not that I write anything particularly profound about it. ;)

Happy new year to you too!

>16 LolaWalser: Hello! We all appreciate the new year greetings and toss them back to you. :)

Have you read anything else of hers? I have not! I'm almost done with the 2nd story - they've been pretty long ones.

>3 ursula: Happy New Years!

Susuki seems like a talented writer for sure. Enjoyed the first and last story from this collection the most, but never jiibed with translation by committee approach. It is a shame that her other collection translated into English follows the same approach. She led such an interesting life and certainly had talent for the short story, can't help but feel that her writing deserved just a single translator with a real understanding of her voice.

Happy New Year Ursula.
I’m interested to see you have read Kairos. Did you like it? I’m interested as you live in Germany. I’ve read every Erpenbeck I could get but was disappointed in Kairos as she seems to have moved on in an unexpected way.

I’ve recently read two books about Geermany by an Australian - Anns Funder and was unimpressed. Has she gotten any press in Germany?

Happy new year! Looking forward to your book and music reviews in 2024.

>18 stretch: Thanks, happy new year to you too! I went back and skimmed your 2023 thread, which had fallen off my radar somehow. We had some overlap I wasn't aware of. I'll keep up better this year. (hopefully)

>19 kjuliff: I am currently reading it, I'm only 25% into it. I couldn't say what's gotten press in Germany as I can't read it. :) But aside from that, I don't read about books in general.

>20 AlisonY: Thanks Alison, always happy to see you around.

Okay, I'm back at my top 10 albums of 2023, and here's the next category: Sad folks with instruments (my usual category would be "sad bastards with guitars" but since Elliott is female and she also often has a piano, that doesn't quite work here)

Elliot Green - Everything I Lack

Her voice reminds me of another singer I enjoy immensely - Julien Baker. But she's better than a simple comparison - she's a singer-songwriter whose voice sounds amazing backed by spare instrumentation like a piano or guitar, but she can also kick it into high gear with a full backing band. My favorite tracks: Friendly Advice, Second Try, and Bottom Line. There are no actual videos up on YouTube, but here's the audio for Second Try.

The National - First Two Pages of Frankenstein

The National have been around for quite a while, and they actually released 2 albums in 2022, this being the first one. A lot of people didn't like it very much! Too downbeat for a National album, or something. On the other hand, I've seen it end up on some year-end best-of lists so maybe there was a reevaluation at some point. I enjoy the mellow vibes of the album, and I enjoy the specific-yet-universal lyrics. I think it was written about/during a divorce so the snapshots of moments are relatable even if the specific places and events aren't. They also have the rare (very) deep-voiced singer I like. Favorite tracks: Eucalyptus, New Order T-Shirt, and Alien. Not a video again, but this is the official visualizer for New Order T-Shirt.

Nice songs on both those CD's

>21 ursula: Which Anne Funder are you reading?

>24 kjuliff: I'm not? I'm reading the Jenny Erpenbeck. I don't know anything about Anne Funder.

>23 baswood: 👍

>25 ursula: Sorry, I misread your post or confused it with another. In any case Erpenbeck is a much better writer than Funder.

First one of the new year!

WEEKLY 5x5



Complete Discography - Minor Threat [hardcore punk] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
40 Greatest Hits - Hank Williams [country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list), partial album
Birds, Bees, the Clouds & the Trees - Harrison [jazz] (2023 lists)
American Heartbreak - Zach Bryan [country] (2022 lists) ♥
The Score - The Fugees [hip hop/r&b] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

Panama 77 - Daniel Villareal [psychedelic] (2022 lists)
RAT WARS - HEALTH [noise rock] (2023 lists)
Guy - Jayda G [r&b] (2023 lists)
Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam - The Comet Is Coming [dance/electronic] (2022 lists)
”Heroes” - David Bowie [rock] (1001 Albums list)

Skinty Fia - Fontaines D.C. [post-punk] (2022 lists)
Hindsight is 50/50 - Ghostwoman [noise rock] (Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)
Timeproof - Ital Tek [ambient electronic] (Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)
The Modern Dance - Pere Ubu [rcok] (1001 Albums list)
Food for Worms - Shame [post-punk] (2023 lists)

Gemini Rights - Steve Lacy [r&b/soul] (2022 lists)
Good Living Is Coming for You - Sweeping Promises [indie rock] (2023 lists)
Lust for Life - Iggy Pop [garage rock] (1001 Albums list)
The Idiot - Iggy Pop [art rock] (1001 Albums list)
Purple Rain - Prince & the Revolution [funk] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)

Psychonautic Escapism - The Ephemeron Loop [darkwave] (2022 lists)
Objects Without Pain - Great Falls [screamo] (Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)
One World - John Martyn [experimental pop] (1001 Albums list)
Myopia - Mizmor & Thou [doom/black metal] (2022 lists)
Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan [country] (my top 10 of 2023), partial album ♥

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Oxygene - Jean-Michel Jarre (1001 Albums list)
  The Man-Machine - Kraftwerk (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list)
  less - deathcrash (Morgan's top 10 of 2023) +
  The Rime of Memory - Panoptican (Morgan's top 10 of 2023)
  When No Birds Sang - Nothing & Full of Hell (Morgan's top 10 of 2023) +
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Low- David Bowie (1001 Albums list)
  Rumours - Fleetwood Mac (1001 Albums list)
  Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk (1001 Albums list)
  21 - Adele (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  The Joshua Tree - U2 (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
  


• Let's briefly take stock of where I am as the year starts:
  
  On the 1001 list, I'm nearing album #400, and firmly entrenched in 1977.
  On the Rollilng Stone 500, I've got a lot of albums I can skip because I've listened to them recently from other lists, but I'm hovering right around #100 there.
  On the 80s list, I'm (almost) done! I listened to most of the top 10 last week but had Minor Threat still waiting, and I have one more Kraftwerk album which I thought I had listened to but I was mistaken. The number one album was Purple Rain, so as soon as I get through the Kraftwerk, that list is done and dusted!
  I'm essentially through the 2022 lists, just finishing up some top 10 albums from straggler lists.
  And of course, now it's time to start the 2023 lists, so that is underway.


• Morgan and I shared our favorites of the year with each other so I've been working my way through his. He challenged me with some electronic, some metal, some screamo. My favorite of his choices so far was definitely When No Birds Sang, a collaboration between Nothing and Full of Hell, so sort of shoegaze/metal. In finishing up the 2022 lists, I finally went back and finished up the last 10 songs on American Heartbreak by Zach Bryan - I liked the album, but 34 songs is a lot all in one go, and then I got distracted. Anyway, so much good stuff on that one.
  
  A couple of albums sent me down memory lane: Hank Williams reminds me of the little electronic keyboard my Nonna had - I desperately wanted to learn to play. What she had to play from was a songbook of Hank Williams, so that's what I played. Eight-year-old me ended up learning a lot of Hank Williams songs very well!
  
  The other story involves Purple Rain for having to involve my parents in my purchase because it was ground zero for the "parental advisory" battle. My mom said I could have it, but she wanted to hear the objectionable material. Which meant I sat there while she listened to Darling Nikki with its story about Nikki masturbating with a magazine. Then she turned to me, shrugged, and said, "I've heard worse."


• The worst thing I put in my earholes this week: probably Jayda G - the lyrics were terrible, the music was terrible. Shame was also bad, but forgettable. The Ephemeron Loop was like ego death through primal scream therapy set to music but it wasn't boring.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

If you're new here, I welcome comments of whatever sort! (I also welcome them if you're not new here, but you know that already.)

I appreciate the text on the album covers. Any thoughts on the Iggy Pop albums?

>29 dchaikin: They were interesting, a huge departure from The Stooges obviously. I had known he and Bowie had gone to Germany to record together but I didn't realize that was these albums. Early on, I thought "it's crazy, this sounds like a Bowie album" and then realized Bowie was also singing backup. I will listen to them more, I'm curious what I make of them after more than a first listen. Your opinions on them?

>30 ursula: I’ve only listened to Lust for Life (and whatever Stooges album is on the RS500). I thought it was a bit too experimental for me. Some stuff works wonderfully, but not everything.

Lust for life is up there with my all time favourite albums.

Lust for Life is a DNA album for me—even though I've gotten rid of most of my vinyl, I still have my copy from high school with Iggy's lips painted in red nail polish. We had a ritual that we had to pass the album cover around and kiss Iggy whenever we put it on. I still listen to it, or at least cuts that fit my mood. "Fall in Love with Me" will forever conjure up being 16, 17, 18 years old and stomping around the East Village on snowy nights.

I wasn't as hard into The Idiot, but it was very much a downtown NYC college album for me, as was Heroes. Such good music times.

I re-listened to Lust for Life today because it was a little mixed up in my head with The Idiot since I listened to them on sequential days.

>31 dchaikin: I'm interested in your comment that it felt a bit too experimental. I was surprised about the middle section of Bowie's Heroes, which does spin off into some experimental stuff, but I didn't feel there was any of that on Lust for Life.

>32 baswood:, >33 lisapeet: I can imagine what it would have been like when it was first released.

While I wait for some book content to present itself (I'm a few days from finishing anything, still), here are some stats on my music listening last year:

Amount:


(scrobbles = songs played) I think it said it was 60 days' worth of music.

Genres:


Basically, most varieties of rock were my top genres - indie rock, classic rock, plain old indie, plain old rock, blah blah. Other things peeked out here and there but those overwhelmed everything else in the long haul.

Date released:


I ... did not expect this to be quite so skewed!

Happy new year, Ursula, and happy upcoming birthday. I'm new here and quite intrigued by your musical selections. I sometimes have a hard time finding new things that I like, so I'm looking forward to trying out some of these. Plus I'm learning new vocabulary: I'd never heard of "shoegaze," and it doesn't quite sound like my thing, but at least now I have some idea what it might be.

Which 1001 list are you using? I found one on rateyourmusic.com and determined that I've listened to 30 of the first 100.

>36 Jim53: Happy new year and welcome!

Shoegaze can cover a pretty wide range of music, and be combined with a lot of other genres, or have overlap with them (particularly dream pop). I've learned so many genre names and characteristics over the last 5 or 6 years, since my husband and I started listening to the "best of" lists together.

The version of the 1001 albums list I'm using can be found here. I didn't go through beforehand and figure out how many I'd listened to in my life, I just started at the beginning and have been listening to everything.

Look forward to your reading and listening of 2024.

>38 AlisonY: Good to see you here!

Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

I finally finished a book! I really hate it when I end up with books started so close to the end of the last year, it's a long drought until I finally finish something.

First line: Will you come to my funeral?

Katharina, 19 years old, meets Hans, 50-something, by chance one day on the streets of Berlin. They begin a love affair. The book is a retrospective of that affair and that time; a much older Katharina is looking back after she receives word Hans has died.

The story happens mostly in the couple of years before the Berlin Wall came down, but a little bit afterward as well. The end of east and west tends to be talked about in terms of freedom, but it was also unmooring. That comes across well here. Power, control, and the illusions of both are big themes. Hans is unlikable, and Katharina is not entirely sympathetic, so if you're looking for characters to root for, this is probably not your book. It's also pretty slow-paced, so the combination was sometimes kind of challenging for me (this was my before-bed book, maybe not the best choice!). But overall I enjoyed it, and found myself reflecting on it for a while after I finished.

Quote: Even a lie must be properly engineered for it to be believed, thinks Katharina at night in Berlin, alone in her apartment. The lie as the preferred form of power for those who have no power.

Great review of Kairos, Ursula. Jenny Erpenbeck is one of my favorite writers, and I'll read this book soon.

>40 ursula: I was looking for a new audiobook last night and came across this as an interesting option. So your review is timely for me, and helpful. I’m interested and glad you enjoyed it.

>41 kidzdoc: I don’t know anything about Erpenbeck other than this title and review. What do you recommend? 🙂

>42 dchaikin: The two books of hers I liked best are Visitation and Go, Went, Gone.

>43 kidzdoc: thanks. Visitation is short! (5 hours on audible)

>40 ursula: "The end of east and west tends to be talked about in terms of freedom, but it was also unmooring. That comes across well here."

You know - that may be enough to make me want to read the book. Wonderful review. :)

>43 kidzdoc: >42 dchaikin: I agree with Darryl - those two novels by far surpass Kairos in literary merit and in relevance to Europe today.

>40 ursula: I really liked your review. I was disappointed in Kairos and am an Erpenbeck fan.

Your differentiation of the break from the Stasi/communists regime in terms of freedom and unmooring is so apt. As is your description of the characters. I didn’t like or empathize with either of them, which is unusual for me with an Erpenbeck novel.

Thank you for your review; it’s a while since I read Kairos and your review has helped clarify what I thought about it.

>44 dchaikin: I listened to Visitation on audio. I can remember the book but not the human narrator, which is a good thing.

>41 kidzdoc: I'll be looking forward to what you have to say!

>42 dchaikin: I always wonder how things would be in audio book format - there's not a ton of dialogue, which I think would make it better for me, but YMMV of course.

>43 kidzdoc: I thought my libraries didn't have any other Erpenbeck books available, but I did find Go, Went, Gone, so I'll be reading that at some point later in the year.

>45 AnnieMod: It was a perspective I'd never thought about before, honestly. The part after the wall is relatively short, but the whole book is really a lead-up and background for that, the personal and the political reflecting each other.

>47 kjuliff: I did empathize with Katharina in a lot of ways, though I didn't always understand her behavior. Hans made me want to throw things at him.

As I wrote in my response just above, I had never thought about the end of East Germany in that way - as if you're cleaning a stage and suddenly the curtain drops, and you're under bright lights, exposed to an audience.

I have a few of Erpenbeck’s books on the shelf, including Kairos—I’m interested in that time/setting. Thanks for the good review.

Weekly 5x5



The Wall - Pink Floyd [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
40 Greatest Hits - Hank Williams [country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list, partial album)
When we were that what wept for the sea - Colin Stetson [jazz] (2023 lists)
My Life - Mary J. Blige [r&b] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
We’re Still Here - The Hirs Collective [punk/hardcore] (2023 lists)

Ramona Park Broke My Heart - Vince Staples [hip hop] (2022 lists)
The Clash - The Clash [punk] (1001 Albums list)
Hold On Baby - King Princess [indie pop] (2022 lists) +
Exit Simulation - Niecy Blues [r&b] (2023 lists)
like dying stars, we’re reaching out - Runnner [emo] (Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols [punk] (1001 Albums list)
Music from the Penguin Cafe - Penguin Cafe Orchestra [pop] (1001 Albums list)
Peter Gabriel [I - Car] [progressive rock] (1001 Albums list) ♥
Colder Streams - The Sadies [country rock] (2022 lists) +
Un Verano Sin Ti - Bad Bunny [latin trap/reggaeton] (2022 lists, partial album)

We Cater To Cowards - Oozing Wound [metal] (2023 lists)
Eulo Cramps - Call Super [house] (2023 lists)
Lust for Life - Iggy Pop [rock] (self pick) ♥
everything is alive - Slowdive [shoegaze] (Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)
Hallelujah Hell Yeah - String Machine [indie] (2022 lists) +

Psychonautic Escapism - The Ephemeron Loop [ ] (2022 lists, but it shouldn’t actually be here)
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers [rock] (1001 Albums list) ♥
Rattus Norvegicus - The Stranglers [punk/new wave] (1001 Albums list)
Maggot Brain - Funkadelic [funk] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Computer World - Kraftwerk [electronic] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the list:
  Aja - Steely Dan (1001 Albums list)
  Suicide - Suicide (1001 Albums list) ♥
  The Blue Hour - Shara Nova & A Far Cry (2022 lists)
  Nature Morte - Big Brave (2023 lists) ♥
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Talking Heads: 77 - Talking Heads (1001 Albums list) ♥
  Dummy - Portishead (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  1999 - Prince (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  A Night at the Opera - Queen (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, Vols 1 & 2 - Ray Charles (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)


• Let's see ... first up, The Wall. I'm not a fan of Pink Floyd and as a result I haven't listened to this album in long enough that some of the less well-known songs didn't sound familiar to me (although on the other hand, my mind could fill in the transitions between many others). This is a better album than I remembered it to be. I still can't imagine putting it on, but it was a better experience than I expected. Finished the second half of the Hank Williams album. Good stuff. Colin Stetson was pretty interesting, although I remember nothing beyond that. I think the Sex Pistols are just impossible to put into context for me. I found it boring. Peter Gabriel is one of my all-time favorite artists and this album is maybe my favorite? Here Comes the Flood is just brilliant, and let's not even talk about Solsbury Hill.


• Added a few things from the 2022 lists, King Princess, The Sadies and String Machine. We'll see if they stick around in my library on re-listening. One of Morgan's picks from 2023, Slowdive was a super-mellow and dreamy version of shoegaze. I was kind of surprised he chose something without any hard edges. I've listened to the Suicide album before, but the contrast of that with the Sex Pistols in the same week made a big impression, with the Sex Pistols coming out sounding even thinner and less punk.


• The worst thing I put in my earholes this week was probably Call Super. It's not my kind of thing anyway but ugh. The Hirs Collective is pretty abrasive for me, but it is a prominent collective of and for trans and queer artists, so I support that, and it's great to see the guest artists they pull in.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

>51 lisapeet: Cool, if you're going in with an interest in the time and place, you're a leg up on me. :)

It's just occurred to me that 25 albums in a week is a whole lot of listening time. How do you get through it all?

>54 AlisonY: Well, I've never thought about it! This is what my listening for the last month looks like (horizontal axis is number of songs played)



I am at home alone a lot, I don't tend to watch anything during the day (tv, youtube, whatever), I can listen while I draw. Morgan puts up similar numbers even though he's at work M-F because he can listen while he works - aside from meetings and whatever interruptions, research doesn't require a lot of face-to-face or phone interactions with his colleagues.

I’m glad you enjoyed The Wall. Lots of little lesser known gems. I think I need to listen to Gabriel’s Here Comes the Flood.

Any thoughts on The Clash?

My Soul To Keep by Tananarive Due

First line: Though his steps are not silent, no one hears the man walking down the darkened wing of Windsong Nursing Home in Chicago, his heavy soles echoing across the polished vinyl.

I read this because I have seen the author's name around and I thought it would be horror, based on the cover and the blurb by Stephen King. I guess I would more likely classify it as a supernatural thriller, though.

David and Jessica are married, and they have a young daughter, Kira. But there's something strange about David - for example, he avoids doctors like the plague and shrugs off every injury as nothing. And quickly (way too quickly), they are nothing. Pretty soon you get the backstory, and David is actually ancient and immortal, though Jessica doesn't know that. If you're trying to keep a major secret though, I would suggest that you choose a wife who is not an investigative reporter. 😉

David's big failing is that he isn't happy to stay with others like him and study for eternity. He seems to get too involved in the lives of humans (this is not his first marriage or long stay with a family), which endangers everyone else in his group of immortals. And when that happens to one of them, the Searchers of their group are sent out to find them and bring them back to their original home.

I almost put this down never to be picked up again around page 30 or so. Why? I'm not sure - maybe because I was expecting horror and it felt ... fluffy. And then I realized that I read and enjoyed (some number of the) Interview with the Vampire series way back when, so it was possible I could enjoy this too. And after getting a little farther into the book, I was pretty drawn in. It's a series, and I don't know if I'm invested enough to continue with that, but for as a novel on its own, it took some unexpected turns and was something I was looking forward to getting back to in my rotation of reads.

>56 dchaikin: I felt like The Clash s/t was ... okay? Honestly, nothing really stood out to me. How about you?

Great comments on Kairos, Ursula. I started it last year and had to return it to the library before finishing it. It was a really slow start for me. Because I really like Erpenbeck, I will give it another try. That time period is interesting. I think the relationship stuff was not credible for me, and there was too much mooning at the beginning.

>59 BLBera: I agree with you about the relationship stuff in Kairos. Unfortunately it took up much of the book. As an Erpenbeck follower I was disappointed and think she strayed out of her territory. Romance is clearly not her thing.

>58 ursula: i don’t know whether I have listened to that specific album by The Clash. They’re hit and miss for me. But adore their hits.

>59 BLBera: I can understand, it was a very slow start, I agree. The pace overall is pretty slow, but it became more interesting to me as I read.

>59 BLBera:, >60 kjuliff: I didn't see it as a romance, or at least not entirely. In modern parlance, I would say Hans is lovebombing Katharina in the beginning, and his true colors show up more and more as the book continues. As I said above, power, control and the illusions of those were the things that I found myself thinking about, and that applies both to the relationship and to the greater backdrop of East Berlin. Katharina believes she understands a great deal that she actually doesn't (typical 19-year-old!) and the difference between her and Hans is not only in romantic experience but also experience of a world beyond East Germany - she was born into it, while he was not.

>61 dchaikin: Overall they hold up for me but they're not something I go back to very often.

>57 ursula: I've been on the fence about thi one for so long. Never really my type of horror. I think I'll finally take it off the list. I suppose everyone is compared to King at somepoint but for me that has never been much of a selling point.

The next pair from my 2023 favorite albums.

Category: Emo-tastic

Oblivion Will Own Me and Death Alone Will Love Me (Void Filler) - Short Fictions

Loose-sounding, distorted guitars, personal, often meta lyrics. Relistening, I realized it often reminds me of 60s garage rock, but with an emo and math rock twist. Although they also veer into indie rock and screamo territory here and there. My favorite songs are Self Betterment in a Time of Loneliness, Reno Nevada, January 2020, Wasting, Anymore (In Praise of Ann Elizabeth). Here's the audio for Reno Nevada, January 2020 on YouTube.

The Whaler - Home Is Where

More typical emo - a voice that might set your teeth on edge even before she starts screaming, twinkly guitar riffs, glimpses of country rock. My favorites on the album are Lily Pad Pupils, Yes! Yes! A Thousand Times Yes! and Floral Organs. For audio, I'll go with Floral Organs on YouTube.

>64 stretch: I don't know if she's been compared to King, I just know he blurbed the book.

>52 ursula: Hey, greetings! I finally found your 2024 thread. Your musical journeys have moved past my era of rock/pop fandom for the most part, so unless you start getting more into jazz, I'll likely have fewer comments to make on the music side. That said, though, I do very much love Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers. "Road Runner" is one of my favorite rockers ever!

Happy reading and listening in 2024.

>67 rocketjk: Hi! There are sometimes jazz records, though infrequently - either from the 2023 "best of" lists or whatever turns up on the 1001/RS500.

Road Runner is a great song, and I like The Modern Lovers in general although as I told Morgan when I finished listening to this one (again): man Jonathan Richman is a judgy bastard!

>50 ursula:

You may find Erpenbeck's Not a novel : a memoir in pieces further enlightening on the ambiguities in "Kairos", if interested. The German picture is much more complex than the sketches of it one reconstructs in translation can be, especially given the tedious biases and prejudices they pander to.

>52 ursula:

Your story about learning the Hank Williams songbook as a wee 'un cracked me up. :)

I like Kraftwerk much more now than in the 1980s. Back then they scared me. Took me a long time to get them.

>69 LolaWalser: Interesting, but unavailable to me (libraries). I did see and automatically translate a review of Kairos in German that pointed out a lot of references (places and place names in particular) that did and would sail right over my head.

Re: Hank Williams - yeah, it made my husband laugh that I knew so many of the words by heart. Pure repetition from plonking through them 45 years ago, haha.

Kraftwerk is definitely something I didn't get back when I was young, and now that I'm older I get it but it's not for me. :)

Well we got "extreme danger" emergency alert notifications on our phones for black ice - avoid driving. And now we're supposed to get a decent amount of snow in the next couple of days (and maybe rain interspersed, I'm not sure). So it seems like it's going to suck out there, but in a new way.

Also I still haven't written anything about the other book I finished the same day as My Soul To Keep, I hope to come back and do that a little later this evening.

>71 ursula: Stay safe in the inclement weather, Ursula. Black ice is the worst. We had torrential rains followed by freezing temps last week, and now are getting 3-6" of snow on top of that. Fortunately I don't have to drive a lot, and can opt for stay home days with my nieces.

>69 LolaWalser: Thanks for mentioning Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces, Lola. I'll read it before I start Kairos.

>72 labfs39: We're supposed to have similar, but starting with snow, then warming up to rain, then freezing and more snow. Currently -5, then hitting a high of 7 at midnight tomorrow night, and dropping all day on Thursday till it hits the low of -7 in the late afternoon. Doesn't sound promising!

We don't drive at all, but it doesn't seem like a time to chance the buses if they're running either!

Morgan has a cousin who lives in Maine, but I didn't realize you'd had rain recently.

>73 kidzdoc: I’d read any of Erpenbeck’s other novels before reading Kairos which is not typical of her literary work. But Not a Novel: A Memoir in Pieces isa good read. I really liked Visitation

Terminal Boredom by Izumi Suzuki

I think I've been avoiding writing about this collection of short stories because I just don't know what to say. The stories were all rather long, and all set in a variety of different future scenarios. In the first one, society is all women. They live together, raise children together, etc. The men are kept in some sort of camps, kind of like prisons.

Another story involved something about getting implanted into someone else's dreams. One had a woman married to a being from another planet (Earth had made contact with several other planets). The title story is about too much tv watching. One interesting idea in that one was a twist on representative democracy where people would vote for a celebrity, who would then vote for leaders, although you didn't know how they would vote.

After I finished the collection I read that her writing is considered a sort of proto-cyberpunk, which makes sense. It's not my thing, and the stories felt too long for me (and I tend to think the problem with short stories is that they're too short, apparently we've hit the barrier on the other side of that complaint). I could appreciate some of these stories for their ideas, but I didn't enjoy reading most of them.

>76 ursula: I had a similar reaction, they are all long and rather forgettable. The multiple translators didn't help. I came away with that Suzuki had a lot of interesting ideas, with forgettable stories.

>66 ursula: Sorry confusing threads, her latest book the Reformatory has her compared to King, which makes no sense but lazy marketing.

>74 ursula: Morgan has a cousin who lives in Maine, but I didn't realize you'd had rain recently.

We had a snowstorm, which dumped over a foot here in southern Maine, and then winter storm Finn brought torrential rains, but not the winds they were predicting, then today we got 4 more inches of snow. If Morgan's cousin lives in the northeast section of the state, they might have gotten snow not rain with Finn.

>77 stretch: I didn't really care about the multiple translators although I suppose I can see how it could prevent someone from getting a sense of her voice. I'm used to Murakami, who has a number of different translators he uses for his books. I spent a while on a train the other day explaining one of the stories to Morgan, trying to see if he could understand what the point was, haha. He didn't have any insights (to be fair, I might have explained it badly).

And yeah I think you're right in some ways that an eventual comparison to King is inescapable because 1. it's lazy and 2. at this point he's written a bunch of different types of books.

>78 labfs39: I had to look since I don't know any sort of Maine geography! Looks like she lives pretty much in the middle of the state, though closer to the coast, not in the middle middle. I think they did get snow instead of rain.

It's supposed to be snowing right now, and all morning, but instead it's a misty rain that freezes when it hits the ground. As usual, firmly non-awesome weather!

Hmm, now I'm even more curious about Suzuki... Sounds like the chosen title unfortunately panned out for you two! :)

I think Japan is so repressive to women (or was, anyway) that any act of rebellion on their part, of going against convention no matter how mildly (but even better when wildly), for me basically creates half the interest in itself. Maybe this isn't a good comparison (or maybe it is), but I recall Tsurita Kuniko as a similarly marginalised figure (in her case trying to make it as a comic artist in a completely male-dominated business) and how much even the limited and biased context provided by the edition (The Sky is Blue with a Single Cloud) helped to understand or even see her work.

>80 LolaWalser: Yes, I think there is definitely some context there, I did read a bit about her and it's part of the reason that I was turning over the one story that I couldn't seem to make head nor tails of with Morgan. I think I did it a bit of a disservice too by reading the stories spread out over several days, more concentrated reading would probably have helped. (or not ;))

Weekly 5x5



Back Home - Big Joanie [post-punk/indie rock] (2022 lists)
This Year’s Model - Elvis Costello & The Attractions [new wave] (1001 Albums list/Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) (vinyl) ♥
Even God Has a Sense of Humor - Maxo [hip hop] (2023 lists)
Immutable - Meshuggah [groove metal] (2022 lists)
Paul’s Boutique - Beastie Boys [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥

good kid, m.A.A.d city - Kendrick Lamar [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Achtung Baby - U2 [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Another Music in a Different Kitchen - Buzzcocks [punk] (1001 Albums list)
Let the Festivities Begin! - Los Bitchos [alternative] (2022 lists)
Fire Worshipper - The Stargazer’s Assistant [electronic] (2023 lists)

Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen [rock] (1001 Albums list)
At Budokan - Cheap Trick [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Meant Like This - Rezzett [techno] (2023 lists)
Out:Side - Runkus & Toddla T [modern dancehall] (2022 lists)
Oblivion Will Own Me and Death Alone Will Love Me (Void Filler) - short fictions [emo] (2023 releases) ♥

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers [rock] (1001 Albums list) ♥
No Place Like Home - VACATIONS [indie] (2024 releases)
Moondance - Van Morrison [soul] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Homenaje a Remedios Varo - John Zorn [jazz] (2023 lists)
Pastel Blues - Nina Simone [jazz] (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list) +

Love in Exile - Arooj Aftab, Vijay Ayer & Shahzad Ismaily [jazz] (2023 lists)
Attack on Memory - Cloud Nothings [indie/post-hardcore] (self pick) +
6°30’33.372”N 3°22’0.66”E - Emeka Ogboh [ambient/experimental] (2022 lists) +
The Ruby Cord - Richard Dawson [freak folk] (2022 lists)
Heavy Weather - Weather Report [jazz] (1001 Albums list)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Ambient I: Music for Airports - Brian Eno
  Agriculture - Agriculture (2023 lists) +
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Parallel Lines - Blondie (1001 Albums list)
  Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Stand! - Sly & The Family Stone (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  Hotel California - Eagles (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Disintegration - The Cure (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  
  Skipped for Kanye:
  Late Registration - Kanye West (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  


• I got to listen to some things I already loved this week: Elvis Costello, for example. It's funny when I think "hm, I don't think I listened to this album much" and then realize I know it by heart. Guess I listened to it more than I thought! That's what happened back in the day when I only had 50 albums and 50 cds. Beastie Boys have some questionable lyrics like every hip hop act of the day, but I do still love this album. Of course, the short fictions album, which I relistened to in order to do my writeup for my favorite albums of 2023 (above at >65 ursula:). Tom Petty self-titled is really good, aside from one unfortunate song.


• Other stuff that I liked: Even though I usually don't like live albums, Cheap Trick was pretty good. Mostly no-nonsense, and I loved hearing them introduce Surrender as their new song from their upcoming album. There are some great songs on Moondance, but I don't listen to Van Morrison anymore. I had a song by the Cloud Nothings in my library, so I went and investigated the whole album and loved it! And finally, Agriculture was just a wonderfully weird album - starting off sounding kind of like country rock and then the metal vocals kick in? I don't even know how to describe this one.


• The worst thing I put in my earholes this week was probably Meshuggah. When Morgan listened to it he asked if they were all playing their instruments with hammers, haha. (And we all know how I feel about Springsteen, so.)

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

Springsteen’s best album cover photo. 🙂 I’m very curious what the unfortunate Tom Petty song is.

>83 dchaikin: Strangered in the Night. It's a story song, although I'm not sure what the actual story is aside from a confrontation:

Well I didn't see them shotguns
Oh I didn't see no knife
But I saw this crazy black guy
With a demon in his eyes
And I heard him say "white man"
I've seen that silver cue
You don't remember me well
But I remember you

Well the sound just split the night
Like it hiding from the light
Like strangers in the night
Strangers in the night

Well the knife just left his fingers
As the black guy took his aim
White guys head exploded
Black guy howled in pain
And then everybody scattered
I heard some woman scream
"God damn you old black bastard
Well you've blown away my dreams"

I mean, it's not I guess overtly awful in the first person aside from "crazy black guy" but nevertheless the whole thing rubs me the wrong way.

And I'll agree, it's an iconic album cover for Springsteen!

>84 ursula: i see. Borderline. It makes me uncomfortable.

>85 dchaikin: Yeah, exactly.

Hi Ursula. I've been catching up on your thread and really enjoying the music posts. You might be interested: Pitchfork recently hosted a wonderful discussion on the origins of Brian Eno's Music for Airports. There's a nice, longform text version too, here: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/brian-eno-ambient-1-music-for-airports/. I actually listen to that album every time I am in an airport.

>87 rasdhar: Thanks for that article! Both Morgan and I enjoyed it. I'm going to have to try out listening to the album again when I'm next in an airport.

The Club by Takis Würger

First line: In the south of Lower Saxony is a forest called the Deister, and in that forest there was a sandstone house where the forest ranger used to live.

The club in the title is the Pitt Club at Cambridge. How we end up there from the opening sentence is honestly not that interesting. The main character, Hans, is orphaned and although he has an aunt named Alex who lives in England, she does not step in to raise him. In fact, he doesn't hear from her until he's of an age to start college and she contacts him to tell him that she would like him to attend Cambridge and help her solve a crime by getting into this Pitt Club.

Hans of course goes and wiggles his way into the club with the help of the father of a young woman he's met. There's boxing, and

Look, I'm getting bored all over again writing this. Don't read this book. It is the typical bullshit about an exclusive club for privileged, obnoxious boys and keeping secrets for bro code and mistreating women. There was nothing about Hans getting into this world and being accepted that was believable. The woman he gets involved with, Charlotte, was not believable as a female human being. There were shifts to points of view that added literally nothing to the story, including multiple times to one student who desperately wants to get into the club and I guess maybe he does? I don't know, it was unimportant whether he did or not. I guess the author just wanted to put in a character who would list his breakfast, time and location of masturbation, and aphorism every day. There is the egregious, repeated use of the r-slur, not just by the mustache-twirling villain. Avoid.

>89 ursula: Avoid. I think I will :-D)

I think I’ll follow your instructions on this one too.

>89 ursula: Look, I'm getting bored all over again writing this
I know the feeling! Though I would not have finished such a book. I rarely read a book to the end if I get nothing from it after 50% of reading. Enjoyed your review though. Thanks for the warning.

>90 Dilara86:, >91 dchaikin: Glad to save you the trouble!

>92 kjuliff: It depends why I'm reading a book and how I feel about it while I'm reading it whether I finish it when I hate it or not. In this case, I'm reading books by German authors and there are not a ton of them in my libraries so I'm taking what I can get. Also this was a fast read since many of the POV changes took up a lot of space on the page (gap, heading, gap, 3 sentences, repeat).

>93 ursula: I get it. It all depends I suppose on one’s reason for reading. Nowadays I read purely for enjoyment. Even though I can’t read printed books and use audio, even, even there I’m dependent on reading text - reviews, LT etc. so. One day these too will not be possible so I can’t afford to spend time on reading for other than pleasure.

Also I’ve always been a somewhat picky reader. I’ve never wanted a”beach read”. So now I expect good writing plus something to hold my interest. I had to give up on The Singularities even, though it’s wonderful book, and I appreciate its cleverness, I needed some sort of plot.

Wool by Hugh Howey

First line: The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death; he could hear them squealing as only happy children do.

I read this now because several months ago we watched the first season of the AppleTV adaptation of this, called Silo. I remember some time back that everyone seemed to be reading this series (and loving it) but I wasn't interested. I decided to see what the fuss was about after the show.

So since everyone's already read this one, I'm not going to bother with a synopsis beyond: dystopia, humans living in a silo underground with the usual problems of humanity (power hungry people, lies, manipulation, etc), the outside is uninhabitable ... or is it?

This was fine. I mean, it was slightly better than fine but I wouldn't go beyond that. The writing occasionally bemused me ("She laughed at the switch, at having gone from counting the seconds in her life to fending for each and every one of them." - I've never seen "fend" used in that way, and I'm not convinced it should be), and the rest of the time was mostly serviceable. I'm not mad I read it, but I doubt I'll go on with the series unless something in the next season of the show makes me want to see how it went down in the books.

I also read Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells - a mostly pointless short story that was included with one of the Murderbot books at some point. It fits in with where I am in my reading of the series, so I breezed through it. Now on to the next book.

Next pair from my favorite 2023 albums:

Category: Familiar, in the very best way

Summer Moon - There Will be Fireworks

This is like a (probably) less depressed Frightened Rabbit. Scottish indie band that describes themselves as "making music at a glacial pace" (their last album came out in 2013). The music just feels so good, for example in the soaring guitar tones of the first song on the album, Smoke Machines (Summer Moon). I'd describe this as feel-good music with kinda not feel-good lyrics, while still not being too sad. More like lyrics about getting old and feeling uncertain about your role in the world. My favorite songs: the aforementioned Smoke Machines, Our Lady of Sorrows, Something Borrowed, Classic Movies. Here's the video for Something Borrowed on YouTube.

Infinite Spring - Superviolet

Apparently the guy behind Superviolet is from a band called Sidekicks that I've never listened to, or even heard of. This reminds me of some bands I have loved, like The Shins and Apples in Stereo, in the sense that it just feels like music that scratches some itch in my brain, it connects exactly right. This is what makes a "comfort album" for me, one that just always seems to draw me to put it on again. Favorite songs: Angels on the Ground, Blue Bower, Overrater, Locket, Infinite Spring. The video on YouTube for Overrater is kind of terrifically absurd.

(previous writeups of my favorite albums are at >14 ursula:, >22 ursula: and >65 ursula:)

>95 ursula: is the Apple TV series any good?

>97 dchaikin: I would say it was pretty decent. Both Morgan and I felt like it moved pretty slowly for the first few episodes, but it picked up speed after that. We almost quit in the beginning but ended up being glad we stuck it out.

>89 ursula: Thank you for suffering in order to bring us that entertaining review. I would have also picked it up because the author is German, so I appreciate it very much.

>95 ursula: Dirk and I watched Silo and it was fine -- my husband loves science fiction in all forms so we end up watching a lot of those shows and I wasn't bored.

>99 RidgewayGirl: My pleasure! Kind of. ;) I am still toying with reading another book by the same author (glutton for punishment?) because it's available to me. Who knows.

I was bored for a few episodes but then I was intrigued by where it was going. Maybe if I'd read the book first I wouldn't have felt that way, but since I had no idea what was going on .... Morgan also goes for science fiction and this was wayyyyyy better than Invasion (also on AppleTV), which I mostly hate-watched.

>100 ursula: Ha! I got so bored with The Expanse (imaginary politics in space is surprisingly dull) that Dirk is now only watching it on nights when I'm not home.

>76 ursula: I listen to a podcast about Japanese literature and recently the presenter was raving about Izumi Suzuki, but in a way that made me think she might be more interesting in theory than in practice. So it was really good to see your take.

>89 ursula: Hahaha. I have thumbed your review.

>96 ursula: Enjoyed the videos. The vocals on There will be fireworks were good.

>101 RidgewayGirl: Haha, that's bad. We tend to watch everything together so it's a matter of getting a consensus about it. I will definitely steer clear of The Expanse though!

>102 wandering_star: That's really interesting that Suzuki came across that way on the podcast too. Glad you also enjoyed the review of that dumb book!

>103 baswood: Cool! Yeah, I like the singer's voice there - I was startled by his accent the first time listening to them but I've gotten used to it. :)

>62 ursula: Thanks, your comments have helped me to reframe my thinking about this. I will give it another try.

>76 ursula:, >89 ursula: Thanks for the comments. I will avoid these. Life is too short. And there are too many good books.

>89 ursula:

Takis Würger

This reminded me that Syriza (in Greece) put forward an openly gay (and married) Greek-American finance dudebro so full of himself he actually declared that he and husband (a chiselled blond clone too) are planning to have sons because (according to him) father's personality is transferred to sons. (One of the future sons is to be named "Apollo(n)"--I guess "Narcissus" would be too on the nose.) When asked what that meant re: possibility of having daughters, he replied he couldn't (wouldn't?) raise daughters, something something lack of empathy with the opposite gender, and in general it went downhill from there...

And, "Würger" means "strangler" in German. Associations killed this book and your review buried it!

>99 RidgewayGirl:

Ha, probably second only to "religion in space" (I'm almost finished with Deep Space Nine, what a slog...)

>105 BLBera: It may still not be for you, but I'm glad you have another way to think about it.

>106 LolaWalser: Ha, well I certainly didn't know that! Also, that is quite the story about the guy in Greece - I looked him up, that is wild.

Weekly 5x5



Shook - Algiers [alternative] (2023 lists) +
Marzipan (Habibi Funk 023) - Charif Megarbane [Lebanese/funk] (2023 lists) +
Cave World - Viagra Boys [punk] (2022 lists)
The Loveliest Time - Carly Rae Jepsen [pop] (2023 lists)
Vento De Maio - Elis Regina [MPB/bossa nova] (1001 Albums list)

Good Person - Ingrid Andress [country] (2022 lists)
Real Life - Magazine [post-punk] (1001 Albums list) +
Visitor - Empath [noise pop] (2022 lists)
Live Through This - Hole [grunge/punk] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
Special - Lizzo [pop] (2022 lists)

Is This It - The Strokes [indie/garage rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
HELLMODE - Jeff Rosenstock [punk] (2023 lists)
Music from Big Pink - The Band [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
Loose Future - Courtney Marie Andrews [folk] (2022 lists) +
When the Pawn Hits the Conflict He Thinks Like a King… - Fiona Apple [art rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

En Letra de Otro - Goyo [pop latino] (2022 lists)
Honky Tonk Masquerade - Joe Ely [country rock] (1001 Albums list) +
Hard Again - Muddy Waters [blues] (1001 Albums list)
This Is Why - Paramore [pop punk] (2023 lists)
Dub Housing - Pere Ubu [post-punk] (1001 Albums list)

Little Rope - Sleater-Kinney [punk] (2024 release)
Dire Straits - Dire Straits [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Furling - Meg Baird [psychedelic folk] (2023 lists) +
Summertime Blues - Zach Bryan [country] (self pick) ♥
Marquee Moon - Television [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list/1001 Albums list) +

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf (1001 Albums list)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Third - Big Star (1001 Albums list)
  Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! - Devo (1001 Albums list)
  One Nation Under a Groove - Funkadelic (1001 Albums list)
  The Man-Machine - Kraftwerk (1001 Albums list)
  Here, My Dear - Marvin Gaye (1001 Albums list)
  The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Control - Janet Jackson (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Transformer - Lou Reed (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  At Fillmore East - The Allman Brothers Band (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  3 Feet High and Rising - De La Soul (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  The Clash - The Clash (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)


• Progress note: The Band is album 100 on the Rolling Stone list; we’re closing in on the end!


• I don't think I'd even heard of Magazine before, but I liked the album. Also in looking them up I see that a couple of them came from the Buzzcocks and one of them went on to join Siouxsie and the Banshees, so that's interesting. I got to listen to two albums I loved but haven't listened to in quite a while: The Strokes - Is This It and Hole - Live Through This. They both hold up quite well, I think. I listened to the brand new album by Sleater-Kinney; it's pretty good! I'll have to listen to it again to have much of an opinion about it beyond that. This is the second time I've listened to a Fiona Apple album and thought, "hey, I don't hate this as much as I remember hating this." Overall I had a pretty good listening week, a fair amount of stuff that was new to me that I enjoyed.


• The worst thing I put in my earholes this week would normally be Paramore. I'm not a fan of theirs anyway but this was not pop punk so much as it was just pop, and not good pop at that! However, Jeff Rosenstock swooped in and saved them from the title with a single line in one of his songs. He talks about running into Aaron Carter in a Target (Aaron Carter in a Target screamin'/“Is it a mistake?”) and it was just like ... why would you do a no-context name-check of someone like that after his death? I feel like you leave that out, or provide more context, or something. So I searched up an interview where he talks about it, and he had this to say: "Obviously, Aaron Carter passed away, and it's really sad, and I was like, people are regular people, we all live, we all die. It doesn't matter if you were famous for a little bit or rich for a minute, we all have our struggles—and I'm not saying that to empathize with billionaires or anything like that. Dude was going through some shit! He's also Aaron Carter, teen sensation. I thought more about how to explain it since he passed away, of course, because I figured I would have to. But at the time, I just liked how the words sounded, and the imagery was interesting." So, he's just an asshole.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

>108 ursula:

For once I've encountered more than a couple off of that selection... Am fan of Sleater-Kinney and Pere Ubu. Dire Straits--first rock concert I went to, at fifteen. Listened to tons of Muddy Waters in the wonderful blues-discovering phase around that age too. I liked what I heard of Fiona Apple but at the time, strapped for cash, I sacrificed all else for classical plus some jazz.

Grunge, supposedly THE defining music of my generation, bypassed me completely. However, I remember well the stick Courtney Love got for the usual reasons (how could any woman ever be worthy of Saint Kurt?) Apparently she too had talent.

below: Meat Loaf... is fun. There, I said it. Yes, I did once drive in the rain on a lonesome strip of highway with Bat Out Of Hell on full blast. We were leaving Pensacola, need I say more?

Marquee Moon is a favourite album of mine and I like most of Pere Ubu's albums. The Muddy Waters is a bit too electric blues for me, but the voice is still great. Music from the Big Pink - of course

>109 LolaWalser: I had never listened to Pere Ubu before last week, when I had a different album on the list. I'd seen their name around obviously, but just never crossed paths. I don't know what it is with Dire Straits - as I was listening to this album I recognized a lot of the same vocal style from Mark Knopfler as Tom Petty or Bob Dylan, but I just don't connect with Dire Straits at all.

And also that Kurt supposedly wrote Courtney's songs? I've paid attention to those lyrics, there's no way a man wrote them!

I've never intentionally listened to Meat Loaf before. I have no judgments to make about listening to something like that on full blast - fun music is okay by me. :)

>110 baswood: Yes, Marquee Moon is quality. And yeah, I didn't need to listen to Music from Big Pink again but of course I did it anyway!

The conversation about author gender on Lisa's thread made me go look at my tracking of that. My reading has consistently skewed heavily male - partially because of reading from the 1001 list, but not entirely. The bottom line was that my reading was still pretty tied to what was most visible, which was books by men. I've been consciously choosing more books by women, but only achieved reading more by women last year for the first time.

>112 ursula: That looks similar to my own changing pattern. The year people were declaring that they would spend one year reading only women, I started to make an effort and, at first, it was an effort. But like when I decided to work on reading more diversely, it paid off in discovering new authors and in a richer reading life. And given that it's harder to get published when you aren't a white man with a specific educational background, it turns out that the quality of what does get published is higher. The downside is that there are now more books that I want to read and somehow my time has not expanded to compensate.

Pretty. I guess you started consciously adjusting in 2016?

>113 RidgewayGirl: i still have to be selective. Lots of bad stuff from all categories 🙂

You've inspired me to look at my reading... of the 2 books I've finished and the 6 I'm currently reading, I have a 3m/5f split. I'm inclined to think I read more women over all. I'll have to look at last year. I know I made a conscious decision when planning the books for my Daytimers Book Club to choose all women authors this year.

>113 RidgewayGirl: Funny how that works about time! Last year it was interesting to me because I was trying to read authors from Japan, and it felt like I was finding a lot more books written by women than men. So that definitely contributed to the bump in the last year.

>114 dchaikin: I had to go back and look at what I was reading at the time because I didn't think I'd started that early - but there's a definite pattern that year of reading female authors from the 1001 list so I was trying to split the difference between the two goals, for sure.

I too made a conscious effort to read more women in 2018 and 2019 with my dis-incintive campaign, that worked super well. Built up my total of women read from like the mid teens to the 33% this last year. Now I don't even need to think about to get a more 50/50 split. Took a little effort by I think it has been more than worth it in the uptick in finished and qaulity reads as well.

>111 ursula:

Dire Straits--it was entirely due to the efforts of two schoolmates that I went, I was this 15 yo opera-going weirdo and didn't listen to rock except insofar it couldn't be escaped in general. It was an experience! Heyyyy... omg. here. it. is THE EXACT DATE! I WAS THERE! Dire Straits - Live in Split, Yugoslavia - 04/25/1985 (First concert of the Brothers in Arms Tour)

note--bad bootleg rec from the audience

>112 ursula:

Yeah, I fail, too much nonfiction. Doing better than historically, though.

>116 WelshBookworm: For me this year so far, I've read 4 women and 2 men. Currently reading 2 women, 1 man so it's holding steady at 67%/33% so far.

>118 stretch: I agree about not having to think about it so hard now. I feel like my decision to stop reading blurbs/synopses helped a lot. They almost always make a book sound awful to me, and then I fall back on names I know ... which tend to be male names.

>119 LolaWalser: What! The actual concert, that's amazing! Also cool that it was the first show for that tour, which was a monster.

Hmm, nonfiction does throw a wrench into things.

I'm not going to finish and post about any more books today so here's the info on January:

Completed: 5
Gender: 3/2 (female/male)
Nationality: 2 American / 2 German / 1 Japanese
Average year published: 2014

Kind of a slow start, but I'll finish one of the books I'm working on tomorrow, so hopefully that'll give a little boost to February.

I've also been doing a daily drawing challenge called "birbfest", so I've been balancing drawing a bird every day which, although the drawings themselves don't take a lot of time, does take time in finding reference photos, falling down a rabbit hole reading about the bird of the day, etc.

I like the idea of Birbfest! I started a 30-day drawing challenge in January and got spotty around day 17 because of workload stuff and then a conference—even though I was ambitious and packed a little folder of drawing and even watercolor materials. But I'll finish it up eventually, because it was fun and freed up my creative brain in a good way.

Magazine is a fun band, very evocative of the day. Have you listened to The Correct Use of Soap? That's the one I had and played to death. Also the Hole, Television, Sleater-Kinney, and—because I'm an old punk with hippie '70s roots—Songs from the Big Pink.

Just a note from Synchronicity City--Amoeba's latest video features... Sleater-Kinney! and the first pick was... a Dire Straits album! (but not bros in arms) ((that would've been too much))

I'd love to see what people are drawing.

>122 lisapeet: Oh nice! Drawing challenges can be a lot of fun, especially if you don't get too bogged down in feeling let down when you miss a day. It's like building any other routine - it's unlikely you'll do it every day right away, but you can pick it back up. I didn't do my birds all on the appropriate days, but I did manage to finish them all (and miraculously, by the end of the month).

I had literally never heard of Magazine before, so no! But I'll check out that album. All good albums that you've played a lot there!

>123 LolaWalser: I'll definitely go take a look at the Sleater-Kinney Amoeba video. And the stars aligned with Dire Straits, too funny. I'll post my birbs in a minute.

Birds: Groove billed ani, evening grosbeak, green crowned plovercrest, oxpecker, cerulean warbler, blue throat, scarlet ibis.



Birds: King penguin, white crested helmetshrike, curl-crested aracari, crested caracara, eclectus parrot.



Birds: Brown hooded kingfisher, Egyptian goose, bluejay, bateleur, violet cuckoo, diamond firetail, grandala.



Birds: Little bee eater, pyrrhuloxia, paradise tanager, California sage grouse, crimson chat, Polish chicken, European goldfinch.



Birds: Pukeko, red and yellow barbet, snow bunting, harpy eagle, white browed tit warbler.

>125 ursula: Nice!

>125 ursula: Very nice!

Lovely, Ursula! The hints of color are very effective

I love your birds! And yeah, I'm not too compulsive about missing days—my days are just too packed to be too strict about something that I'm doing to bring me pleasure. But it's been a great jump-start to getting back in the drawing habit.

>126 kidzdoc:, >127 Julie_in_the_Library:, >128 labfs39:, >129 lisapeet: Thanks, all!

I love your bird drawings. I usually can't identify birds, but here in Florida we have white ibis in our yard all the time eating bugs (I think) out of the grass, and once some Egyptian geese showed up in my mother's yard in Houston. They were so exotic looking we thought they were escapees from the zoo or something.

I love your birds, Ursula!

Back to gender - last year I read 85% women, which is pretty consistent with the last few years since I started reading the VIDA stats. The Women's Prize for fiction has introduced me to many new-to-me writers, and I've found that trying to be more diverse also helps.

Lovely conference of birds!

>125 ursula: Lovely!

>131 arubabookwoman: The ibis eats a bunch of things, I think - stuff found in your yard is probably insects, snails and frogs. We have some Egyptian geese in our local city park. But I don't like them because I saw one of them chasing a mama mallard and her ducklings, trying to kill one of the babies.

Dear Child by Romy Hausmann

First line: On the first day I lose my sense of time, my dignity, and a molar.

The cover of this thriller says it's a "nightmarish and high-tension Gone Girl-meets-Room thriller" from the arbiter of taste, Parade magazine. On the other hand, I enjoyed Gone Girl. So anyway, this is my third novel from Germany of the year and it is the second terrible one.

In a snapshot: cabin in the woods, woman held prisoner by a man with two children. She escapes and gets hit by a car, therefore ending up in the hospital. Meanwhile the parents of a woman who disappeared 13 years earlier expect that this will be their missing daughter - she goes by the same name, Lena. But somehow it's not her.

There was potential here but it was squandered on plot holes, confusing narration and some patented Villain Monologuing at the end.

>132 BLBera: Thanks! Definitely diversity helps. For whatever reason I frequently find more books by women when reading books from other countries.

>133 LolaWalser:, >134 rasdhar: Thanks! This month is a cat challenge but I won't do one a day.

Weekly 5x5



Red (Taylor’s Version) - Taylor Swift [pop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
The Forever Story - JID [hip hop] (2022 lists)
Asha’s Awakening - Raveena [experimental pop] (2022 lists)
Duck Stab / Buster & Glen -The Residents [art rock] (1001 Albums list)
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams [alt country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +

Multitude - Stromae [French language pop] (2022 lists)
Crazymad, For Me - CMAT [pop] (2023 lists)
I Play My Bass Loud - Gina Birch [alternative] (2023 lists) +
Perfect Picture - Hannah Diamond [hyperpop] (2023 lists)
The Liar - John Fullbright [country] (self pick)

Automatic for the People - REM [alternative] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
The Scream - Siouxsie and the Bansees [post-punk] (1001 Albums list)
Bandwagonesque - Teenage Fanclub [alt rock/power pop] (self pick)
All Mod Cons - The Jam [power pop] (1001 Albums list)
DeAnn - Zach Bryan [country] (self pick)

Lighten Up - Erin Rae [indie pop] (2022 lists) +
Mid Air - Romy [dance pop] (2023 lists)
More Songs About Buildings and Food - Talking Heads [new wave] (1001 Albums list) ♥
Crossing the Red Sea - The Adverts [punk] (1001 Albums list)
Z1 - Zora [pop] (2022 lists)

Spiritual Cramp - Spiritual Cramp [punk] (2023 lists)
The Only Ones - The Only Ones [power pop] (1001 Albums list) +
Give Up - The Postal Service [indietronica] (Morgan’s pick / vinyl) ♥
Family Ties - Charles Wesley Godwin [country] (self pick) (partial album)
Master of Puppets - Metallica [metal] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Not on the chart because the lastfm bot doesn’t allow the cover to be displayed:
  Morbidity Triumphant - Autopsy (2022 lists)
  
  Below the chart:
  First Issue - Public Image Ltd. (1001 Albums list)
  Superache - Conan Gray (2022 lists) (partial album)
  Desolation’s Flower - Ragana (2023 lists)
  Quiet, Heavy Dreams - Zach Bryan (self pick)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  The Cars - The Cars (1001 Albums list) ♥


• Let's see here - love me some Lucinda Williams and Postal Service. I'm doing a thing listing 20 albums that influenced my taste in music and The Postal Service is on it. I never knew it was possible for me to like something full of bleeps and bloops, but I love that album. Talking Heads, of course. Still not my favorite of theirs but it's grown on me. I could say the same for Automatic for the People, which I've always thought of as the album where I started not liking REM anymore, but it's got some good songs on it. Red was the first Taylor Swift album I really listened to and although she's obviously matured since then, this is a good album. Master of Puppets is my second-favorite Metallica album, but I would probably only listen to a few songs off it in general. I've heard it so many times and I think it's just sucked the marrow out of it for me.


• The Only Ones was totally new to me but I really liked it. Gina Birch was in The Raincoats, and this album was weird and wonderful, totally dug it. An online friend is into Teenage Fanclub and suggested I listen to this one. It is totally fine, and I can't imagine ever choosing to play this over anything else.


• The worst thing I put in my ear holes this week was ... hmm. There's a lot of aggressively boring stuff here and not much totally terrible, but I guess I'll say it was Zora.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

Well as usual I don't recognize most of the artists. I have heard of Taylor Swift, but couldn't't recognize any of her songs, and I could recognize a few of REM's more famous songs. But I love Lucinda Williams and especially that album. Back when my middle son was in his "trying to be a rock star" phase, he was working for a ticketing agency and moonlighting at various clubs in Seattle. When Lucinda was to appear at a very small club in Seattle, he got us free tickets, in VIP area so we had a table to sit at. It was a very intimate show, as the club was so small.

Automatic for the people got me through college, (along with Wish You Were Here). I could read, study or relax to them over and over. After Automation REM is hit and miss. Their hits collection is terrific. Monster, the next album, ok. But the remaining albums are terrible in their whole. 🙂

Enjoyed your update. I’m onto a live album by The Who on the RS 500 list.

>119 LolaWalser: BTW I went back and watched that Sleater Kinney Amoeba video. Goodness can Carrie be annoying. But it was interesting to see their picks - Corin's pretty expected, Carrie's less so!

>139 arubabookwoman: An experience like that is always memorable! Love those small shows, and having the "in" is special.

>140 dchaikin: It was REM's earlier albums in college for me - Green was the newest one at the time but I probably listened more to Reckoning. And yeah, there was a fair amount of Wish You Were Here for me too!

The Who (Live at Leeds?) was okay, I think.

The Only Ones - nice to hear a shout for them, they released three great albums. I must have played The Scream by Siouxiee and the Banshees to death when it was released

To all tose music lovers out there, I have a question. I have never knowingly heard Taylor Swift sing, but my son who is an adult and a music lover scoffs at her. Not at her looks or actions, but at her music. He will not explain, but I’d like to know. He won’t discuss music with me as I once said the Beatles were more influential on modern music than Kurt Colbain.

>142 ursula: I’m enjoying Live at Leeds. They’re so young and free there.

>144 kjuliff: There are a lot of possible reasons. Swift started as a country singer, then moved into pop; both genres are often dismissed by a music/critical world that is, on the whole, very rock-oriented. And she's a white pop singer at a moment when the pop scene is largely dominated by soul/R&B/hip-hop/rap.

She reached fame at an unusually young age, with songs about adolescence, and some folks never got past their early dismissal of her to give serious consideration to her more mature work. (Or recognized that even when her subject matter was strongly teen-focused, she was already displaying some serious songwriting craft.)

There is a tendency among some "I'm a serious music fan" types to believe that popularity is inherently to be suspected. In their eyes, popularity and quality are, by definition, mutually exclusive.

And we can't ignore the most obvious thing: She's a woman.

>146 KeithChaffee: Thanks. The fact that she’s popular could well play a part. I hadn’t thought about the woman thing. Hmmm.

I’ll probably never know, and you have described Swift’s work and its development so now at least I have some idea of her diverse popularity and worth.

>146 KeithChaffee: I never had explored Taylor Swift's music much, despite all the popularity, but my wife and I decided to go see her concert movie, just for curiosity's sake. I'm sorry to say that we left about an hour and a half into it. Simply put, we were bored by the music. But that's OK, though. Her music is not written for me, and just because I don't particularly care for someone's music doesn't mean I think it's bad. It's just not for me. (Yes, there is some music I think is bad. That's a different issue, though.) Obviously, she's very good at what she does. Part of her success with her fans has to do with her persona and her celebrity, but also with the fact that she seems clearly to celebrate and appreciate her fans, rather than to look down on them.

Music aside, I have complete respect for the way she's taken control of her career and her image, and done things on her own terms. For me she's analogous to Madonna, another artist whose music I've never cared for much, but who carved out her own lane and didn't care what anybody else thought about it.

Anyway, that's my take on it. But that was just from an exposure to that concert film. Maybe if I sat down with a few of her more recent albums I'd see things differently.

>143 baswood: Nice to know about The Only Ones! I'll check out the others. Siouxsie completely passed me by at the time, but it's interesting to hear it now.

>145 dchaikin: Yes, what Keith says. Much like the conversation about author gender and how men tend not to read books by women, men tend not to value personal songs written by women. That said, she has definitely grown as an artist and her albums Folklore and Evermore were from different points of view.

Also, anything that young women love is not to be respected, we see that over and over.

>148 rocketjk: I don't think I'd enjoy a concert film by anyone I wasn't a super fan of either.

Interesting that you brought up Madonna, my daughter was actually asking me if I thought the recent, and growing, antipathy expressed toward Taylor is similar to Madonna in the 80s/90s. It's hard for me to say since I feel like so much of what Madonna did was meant to be provocation and Taylor seems to be doing the opposite of that. Which made me tell my daughter that Taylor seems to be mostly hated for taking up space and being visible, and visibly successful, as a woman. And that is very depressing to me.

(And I'm talking about the weirdos who are incredibly mad about her being at a football game or being shown dancing and singing along to Tracy Chapman at the Grammys, etc. Or who are mad at their wives/girlfriends for being Swifties. There's always been some "god I'm so sick of Taylor Swift, her music is everywhere" and that's a constant for just about anything that's as popular as she's been.

Sorry, this got long. I had fun writing it, though, if that cuts any ice with anyone.

>151 ursula: "I don't think I'd enjoy a concert film by anyone I wasn't a super fan of either."

I enjoy a well-produced concert film if the music resonates with me, even if I'm finding out about the artist(s) for the first time. But the real point for me was that I didn't know if I was a Taylor Swift fan or not. I hadn't been tracking her music much at all. I went to the movie hoping I'd be impressed by what I heard and be inspired to go back and investigate her albums and I was kind of sad that I wasn't. Maybe if I'd stayed to the end of the movie what I heard in the later stages of the film would have struck me differently.

I agree that Madonna's image and Swift's are significantly different. But, really, what would "provocative" even look like these days, given the lyrics, dance routines and wardrobes that are at this point prevalent at the Grammys and on shows like Saturday Night Live? To be clear, I have no problem with any of that. What I'm getting at is that the point that Madonna was making has by now been made. It seems to me that Swift's only hope for becoming provocative (if she even wants to, which I'm not saying she should) is to become more outspoken politically. As outspoken, for example, as her detractors on the right are saying she is which, as far as I can tell, so far she really isn't. Again, that's not meant as a criticism and I am aware of her tweet that got 35,000 of her fans to register to vote. It will be interesting to see whether she does, in fact, begin to take an active role in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

For me the comparison between Madonna and Swift is that they are both extremely talented women artists who used their cultural and business acumen to ju-jitsu their way past the power of the music industry or pop culture as a whole to pin them down or control them. And the differences in their personae and/or messages, I think, springs from this as well, as they both had/have the acumen to identify the key stress points of their own individual times. In Madonna's case, the time was right for someone to push past gender limitations and take control of her sexuality in a very in-your-face manner. In Swift's case, she caught lightning by perceiving a cultural desire for reassuring and uplifting community in a technologically and politically fractured time, fused to a determination to take control emotionally, not to allow anyone to victimize her, or to rise above such attempts, in her relationships. It seems to me that that's proved to be a powerful combination for her fans. Anyway that's my two cents, and worth every penny.

>151 ursula: "And I'm talking about the weirdos who are incredibly mad about her being at a football game or being shown dancing and singing along to Tracy Chapman at the Grammys, etc."

Yeah, the football resentment is just nuts. She's not the one telling the camera person to point the camera at her or deciding to put the shot of her they're getting on the air. Though I admit I had a bit of discomfort about the dancing at the Grammys episode, because she wasn't only just doing that during the Tracy Chapman performance, which was inspirational indeed and which I could understand would evoke that sort of response. It seemed like she was up and dancing and hugging people throughout the night. To me there was an element of preciousness to it, on the one hand, as if the great Taylor Swift was bestowing her approval, but also of privilege. Hey! Taylor Swift can get up and dance whenever she wants! I kept thinking about the people sitting at the table behind hers who got to look at her back instead of at the performers onstage.* But I also understand that the perceptions I had while watching the whole thing on TV are not reality. I don't know if any of what I "saw" was really so, because I don't know her! But people do, often, internalize such perceptions and calcify them into opinions. I also don't know what the artists at the front tables (the biggest stars and their pals/family) were told beforehand by the show's producers or directors. Were they encouraged to get up and boogie to make the proceedings look more like a party to the celebrity-loving viewers? Or were they encouraged to be more considerate of the people sitting behind them and keep their seats? My strong conjecture would be the former. The whole production, at its core, is a TV show, after all.

>151 ursula: "There's always been some "god I'm so sick of Taylor Swift, her music is everywhere . . . "

For me it's not that her music is everywhere. It's been easy for me to avoid it (and I'm not even trying to avoid it). It's that her celebrity is everywhere. But, you know, by now (age 68) I can shrug that off, too. In the immortal words of Paul Simon, "Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts." Although I will admit that sometimes the curmudgeon in me reacts via another set of Simon lyrics:

Get these mutts away from me
You know, I don't find this stuff amusing anymore

On a New York City cultural blog that I scroll through occasionally, I recently fell for the clickbait headline promising an article highlighting the NYC restaurants that Swift and her pals had been spotted at lately. And sure enough, the blog's culture reporter had actually gone from restaurant to restaurant trying to suss out the individual bartenders and/or waiters who had served the Swift entourage to find out how she/they had behaved. Friendly? Aloof? Well, I read this article, didn't I? And that's on me, isn't it? Nobody had anything much they were willing to say, and certainly no establishment was going to cut off their own nose by saying something negative about Swift. My favorite response was the maitre de at an Italian restaurant who, contemptuous of the whole idea behind the questions the reporter was asking, said, "She ordered, she ate, she paid her bill, she got out." (And it says something about my own decrepitude that I can't recall the name of a single one of the restaurants mentioned. Sorry, Swifties!) Anyway, it's not Swift's fault that online publications send reporters around to restaurants she's been seen at.

So, bottom line for me, I respect her, I feel like I need to make a further investigation of her songwriting before I assemble an opinion about her as an artist, boring (to me!) movie or no, and I'm interested to see where she takes her music over the next decade or so.

>151 ursula: " . . . and that's a constant for just about anything that's as popular as she's been."

I know! There are some people who don't even like Bruce Springsteen! :)

_______________________________________________

* I'm extra sensitive to this, maybe. I always seem to be sitting behind the people at the concert who think that they're so special that it's OK for them to stand up and block the view of everyone behind them.

>152 rocketjk: It's cool, I know you like to be precise in what you say. I tend to use more shorthand.

Concert films: I definitely didn't mean if I knew I was not a fan, I meant if I didn't know if I was a fan as well. I'm not watching a concert movie when I don't know if I like the artist - I really have very little interest in an entire recorded concert of a band I do like. It's like watching recorded, time-delayed sports for me. Obviously we have different points of view on that one!

As for the awards shows, look: the Grammys are like the Golden Globes, it's an awards show where everyone's seated at tables and the alcohol is flowing. It's supposed to be a party. I'd rather see people up and dancing rather than sitting and staring at the performer. There's a reason Miley Cyrus said "come on, why are you guys acting like you don't know this song?" during her performance. And from what I've seen of day-after footage of this one and in the past, Taylor goes with her friends and they dance and sing (particularly for the other female performers) and she knows all the words. I think she is just a woman who likes to give visible support. SZA said something like "Hi Taylor, I love you" when she was onstage receiving her award and the cameras showed Taylor excited leaning over to whoever was at her table (Lana Del Rey? Jack Antonoff?) and saying "I got a shoutout!").

Now, the other comments I've seen about this are that although it's not Taylor's choice to center herself in these discussions, she doesn't take any pains to de-center herself, and I can see that point of view.

Switch "music" for "celebrity" in my comment, sure. Like I said, shorthand. Plenty of other people are seemingly everywhere as celebrities and I see a lot less pointed vitriol about it.

Madonna vs. Taylor, yep. It's hard to compare times.

Standing up in general - people have complaints about literally everything at shows. I have some of my own.

Excellent Paul Simon quotes. I especially enjoy how "man shakes fist at cloud" the one from You Can Call Me Al is.

Thanks for your understanding! I'll just say that your points regarding Swift at the Grammys are well taken. As a side note, it's kind of funny that what we think of as "The Grammys" is really just the front several rows of tables. Behind them are many rows of theater seats, and then there's multi-row balcony as well. My cousin is a business manager for musicians who had a couple of clients nominated, so he and his wife were there, sitting up in balcony seats. So I guess, and to your point, the celebrities (and I'm sure all of the nominees) sitting at those front tables are part of the show to a significant extent to the folks in back in the theater seats and certainly to the TV audience.

>154 rocketjk: I would not have known that about the theater, I would have assumed everyone was at tables, except I saw Jason Isbell's acceptance of his award online and he must have been seated next to your cousin .... it was a loooooong walk from his seat to the stage!

>155 ursula: >154 rocketjk: Oh what a can of worms have I created. It’s been fun reading the back and forths.

>152 rocketjk: I'm extra sensitive to this, maybe. I always seem to be sitting behind the people at the concert who think that they're so special that it's OK for them to stand up and block the view of everyone behind them.

I was at a concert once (Bruce Hornsby and the Range), and Bruce was nervous because everyone was sitting in their seats. He made a comment to the effect that it didn't seem like we were enjoying ourselves and please get up and dance. People jumped up and began dancing, and the energy level in the building went through the roof, effecting the performers as well as the audience (in a positive way). To me a rock concert is a synergy between band and crowd. I'm not there to watch, I'm there to participate.

>157 labfs39: I don’t think I’ve ever been to a real rock concert. I’ve been to Dylan concerts three times. The time I went to see him in Manhattan people were openly smoking joints and no one stood as they were all stoned, except me, and maybe I was too, from breathing in the air.

>157 labfs39: I sympathize with your comments overall. In the old days (or, I should say, in my youth), it was just expected that everyone would be up and out of their seats more or less during the whole show. And I agree with you that the energy level goes up when the audience is up. But I think it depends on the particular crowd. If everybody is sitting, then maybe it's not OK to be that person who wants to be the only one standing, regardless of what the people in back of you think of it. In that case, that particular person is always going to be right in front of me! That's my superpower. If a band member exhorts the crowd to get up and dance, then, yes, all bets are off. But I've also been at concerts where the musicians asked people to sit down and be courteous to the people behind them. In cases like that, there will generally be two people who ignore that, and they will generally be right in front of me! As long as it's you in front of me, though, that's OK. :)

However, and to your point, I've been on the other end of that. I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert at an arena one time where half of the arena was up on their feet and the other half was staying in their seats, more or less section by section. My buddy and I were in one of the seated sections, but the music was so good (we are both longtime Springsteen fans) that we were moved to stand. A woman two rows behind me was upset and her boyfriend basically wanted to fight me if I didn't sit down. He actually grabbed hold of my shirt. I said to him, "Look at the faces of the people who are standing up over there. And look at the faces of the people in our section who are all sitting. Can't you see how much more the people standing up are enjoying themselves?" I mean, it was obvious. He said, "I don't give a s--- about that!" All he knew was that he and his girlfriend had spent a lot of money for these tickets and, for whatever reason, she wanted to enjoy the show sitting down and he was on a mission to make her happy. As far as he was concerned, it was only OK to stand if everybody in front of you in your section was standing. So I said, "So everything is up to what the people in the first row of the section decide to do?" Yes, that seemed right to him. I wasn't that interested in getting into a fistfight, I figured somebody had to be the adult, and also I saw the woman's point, so I sat down until the encore, when everybody in the place roared to their feet.

>138 ursula:

I don't know what Taylor Swift sounds like but that will all change as I lined up a few of her albums on hoopla and intend to buy her entire discography regardless. Any woman who throws dudebros into a tizzy must be doing something right, but also when I see the nature of "arguments" against her, and the level of hatred she elicits--I'm talking about the swamp messages that followed such things like her simply saying "Vote", and the deepfake crap, and how-dare-she-attend-football-matches crap... and god knows how much that preceded it and what's more to come... I raise a big gnarly turkey leg in the general direction of the murderous stinkers and say rock on, Tay-Tay.

>151 ursula:

my daughter was actually asking me if I thought the recent, and growing, antipathy expressed toward Taylor is similar to Madonna in the 80s/90s.

I too was thinking about this recently, as I read comments on Swift on Reddit and Shitter (don't do it if you value your cardiac health). I can't remember similar hatred toward prominent women musicians (although always there's Yoko Ono) but then, we didn't have this enormous platform and connectivity. So the hatred may well have been there (and it's no secret that women musicians struggled to make it since forever everywhere) but it wouldn't have been trumpeted and amplified so much. As I remember the eighties, Madonna and Michael Jackson were stars brighter than the Milky Way, MTV was avidly watched and if you, like me, didn't read pop/rock criticism (another white male domain), you probably wouldn't have come across anything negative worse than this or that individual's opinion.

>141 ursula:

Ha, that was the first time I listened to them talking and had no preconceptions. And since so much of that music is foreign to me, it's all good I guess.

Re: standing in seated areas of concerts - yes, it depends on the crowd in general, but it also depends on the show. Like at Bruce Hornsby, I might expect that more of the crowd is sitting. But at Springsteen, come on now - that's not a sitting-in-your-seat-tapping-your-toe type of show. Be the change you want to see!

I am going to a show in March and we're in the seated area. I'm glad we're on the aisle because I will be up and dancing, any judgy Germans can stuff it.

>160 LolaWalser: Yes, all of that. Also, for everything pre-Lover, be sure to buy (Taylor's Version) and keep the money out of the hands of Scooter Braun. Her first album and Reputation have yet to be released in (Taylor's Version), but they will be, so I'd avoid those for the time being.

It's a good point that we weren't subjected to everyone's opinion all at once. Having it all gathered in one place lets people 1. stop forming their own opinions and 2. creates a critical mass of whoever's opinion is holding sway. Also we were less aware (speaking for myself and the other privileged dummies like me) that we were seeing everything filtered through a white, male lens.

I didn't really have preconceptions about the women of Sleater-Kinney although I had read Carrie Brownstein's memoir. Often a lot of the music is foreign to me too! People often like to pick up the obscure stuff they find, so I'm happy when they tell me what kind of music it is. This morning we were watching the What's in My Bag video from The Armed (a favorite of Morgan's) and I don't think I recognized anything.

>158 kjuliff: Never been to a real rock concert? I'm sorry! I mean, I know it's not important to everyone so sympathy is quite possibly not in order. But I love going to shows, even if I haven't been able to do it as much as I would have liked to.

The Lonesome Bodybuilder by Yukiko Motoya

Can we just assume I'm not enjoying my reading a ton this year? I'm reading for other reasons than pleasure, I'm realizing. And that maybe sounds like a negative thing, but it's not really. I'm continuing my exploration of books from Japan to some extent, and I'm reading from Germany, and those are a mixed bag. And I'm continuing to expand my reading of short stories, a format that definitely does not always work for me ... but on the other hand, I've read a few amazing collections over the last year or so.

So yeah, this was a book of short stories. They started out all right and just got weirder and more off-putting. The title story is about a woman who becomes interested in/fascinated with/obsessed by being a bodybuilder. She gets larger and larger and everyone in her life notices - except her husband. There are a lot of stories that take relationships as their starting-off point, often in surreal contexts (one woman is married to a bundle of straw, for example). I'm not sure if I need to understand more cultural context to know where these stories might arise from, or if that wouldn't make any difference at all.

There are many different reading paths. Interesting about The Lonesome Bodybuilder.

I love the Taylor Swift discussion but I don't have much to add. My daughter and granddaughter love her and I think it's great the way she has been able to be successful on her terms. I think a lot of the vitriol is because she is a successful woman -- are we EVER going to get past that? I've listened to some of her songs, but I don't think I am her audience. She has some great metaphors, but she doesn't speak to me like a Joni Mitchell, for example.

>136 ursula: You are having bad luck with German books, Ursula!

>162 ursula: I’ve never been into heavy rock. I could never really afford to go anyway when I was in Australia, and the artists I liked rarely had shows there when I was of an age to go to big concerts.

I did see the Beatles and Dylan there annd a couple of local groups. In the US I’ve seen Dylan (twice) Tracey Chapman, Michelle Shockd, Kate Miller Heidke, Paul Kelly and ELO. ELO only because I have friends in Lynne’s band.i think that is the only truly rock concert and as I was seated in the VIP section, no one stood up.

So my taste just isn’t rock though I did like the Stones and still like Springsteen.

>161 ursula: I have such mixed feelings about the Taylor's Version re-recordings. I understand and sympathize with her reasons for doing them. But a lot of the charm of those early albums is her youth and innocence; an older Swift simply can't re-create that. The original version of "Mean," for instance, is sung by a 20-year-old for whom adolescent bullying is still a fresh memory; the TV version is sung by a woman in her 30s for whom it's nostalgia. To be sure, the 30-ish Swift who did the new version has her own experiences with bullying, but of a different sort that changes how she understands, interprets, and performs her own song.

And it's not just about perspective, which can't help but change her vocal interpretation. The voice itself changes with time. No matter how precisely she may work to duplicate the instrumentation and arrangement, it's physically impossible to duplicate the original vocals. It's not the same thing; it can't be. And asking fans who loved the original precisely because of that youth and innocence to give those things up for the benefit of her pocketbook is asking for a lot; it's a sign of how devoted those fans are that they've largely been willing to do so.

>158 kjuliff: The one Dylan concert I attended was in a grassy amphitheater, where the people who wanted to dance and stand up were at the front and (I presume) the people who wanted to sit were in the back.

>159 rocketjk: The only rock concert I ever attended where everyone was not on their feet through the whole thing was the time when I was a teenager and a friend got us inexpensive tickets to a U2 concert in Los Angeles through a fan club. We drove out there from Phoenix, AZ and were pretty sure that given how cheap the tickets had been, we'd be in the nosebleed section. We ended up on the floor, five rows from the stage in the dead center, which was thrilling. Of course, we were then seated with the rich nabobs who honestly expected to sit quietly through the concert. We, on the other hand, danced and ignored the seated killjoys. I admire Jerry's willingness to sit down when asked, but you're not going to get two overexcited 18 year olds to do that.

>160 LolaWalser: The other example is The Chicks, but they were overtly political (and correct) while Taylor Swift simply exists as a woman who visibly controls her own career and love life. And I think that they may have assumed Swift to share their own views, given that she's blonde, has roots in country music and is from the South.

>167 KeithChaffee: I agree there are bound to be differences, and I also agree that she is going to great pains to avoid them. I see purchasing and streaming them less as being about putting the money into her pocketbook and more about keeping it out of Scooter Braun’s, though.

And finally my last pair of 2023 favorite albums.

Category: country-adjacent and country

Weathervanes - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

I've been a fan of Jason Isbell for a few years; he was maybe the first artist that made me wonder how it was possible I liked any country music. Maybe because he has a voice that just feels so comfortable and he's a great storyteller/songwriter, go figure. He just won a Grammy for "best Americana song", which is funny since his social media bios say "rock musician"!
Anyway. This one is another album full of songs I love. My favorite and the one that first grabbed me on this album is King of Oklahoma (written while he was there filming his part in Killers of the Flower Moon). But other standouts are Middle of the Morning, Cast Iron Skillet (the one he won the Grammy for), and White Beretta. The one I'll highlight here is called When We Were Close, and it's generally about losing someone to addiction but specifically about Justin Townes Earle, who he used to play guitar with. I don't normally share live versions but here he is playing When We Were Close on Jimmy Kimmel.

Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan

I heard a song from Zach Bryan a while back (in 2020 I guess), Heading South, and I really liked it but I didn't dig any further into who he was. Then his 2022 album American Heartbreak was on our lists and I was like "hey, it's that guy" and I really liked it. So when his self-titled album came out last year, I was ready to enjoy it. But I was not prepared to be obsessed with it, and the EP he surprise-released just a month later. His voice, I rarely say that I could listen to someone sing me the phone book, but yes please. My favorites from the album are East Side of Sorrow, Ticking, Tourniquet, El Dorado... I could go on! I really can't decide which song to share from here, but I think I'm going to choose Ticking, it has most of the things I love about his voice (aside from higher notes, I think) - there's a lyric video up on YouTube. And here's a bonus song from his EP, Nine Ball. The video just came out a few days ago and it stars Matthew McConaughey.

(previous album writeups are at >14 ursula:, >22 ursula:, >65 ursula: and >96 ursula:)

>170 ursula: I have spent woefully little time listening to Isbell, but every time I do listen to him I'm extremely impressed. I will check out Bryan.

One last (from me, anyway) point about Taylor Swift is that, for whatever ice it might cut for folks, the Philanthropy section of her Wikipedia page is extensive and pretty impressive. She's also been vocal in favor of abortion rights and LBGT rights as well.

>171 rocketjk: Listen to more Jason Isbell! He's awesome.

Taylor obviously has more money than any human needs, but she also does seem to spread it around. Philanthropy, and in closer-to-home ways. I remember seeing that she gave the truckers who drove all the equipment for her Eras tour in the US a $100,000 bonus, each.

Nice 5x5. The Jam Old Mod Cons brings back a few memories. As a tween I was heavily influenced by my modette sister and her mod boyfriend, who I thought was the epitome of cool with his parka, dogtooth trousers and Vespa. She bought me this album for either a birthday or Christmas and I thought I was the bees knees owning my own Jam album.

I don't recognise any of the tunes off that particular Siouxsie and the Banshees album, but I always had a soft spot for their track Dear Prudence.

The REM album casts me back to my first term at university. Ahhh, isn't it great how music really is a soundtrack to your life.

The Jam wasn't something I was ever aware of but I love that story! What a great visual you bring up too.

I didn't realize Siouxsie & Co had covered another Beatles song, Helter Skelter was on this one. I'll look up their version of Dear Prudence.

It is great - it does take you right back. Green was my REM college album.

Weekly 5x5



Take Care - Drake [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Supa Dupa Fly - Missy Elliott [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Live and Dangerous - Thin Lizzy [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Paul Bunyan’s Slingshot - Liquid Mike [indie] (2024 releases) +
Baduizm - Erykah Badu [r&b] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

Letter to Self - Sprints [post-punk] (2024 releases) +
Heyday - The Church [alternative rock] (self pick)
Axis: Bold as Love - Jimi Hendrix [psychedelia] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
Eternally Yours - The Saints [punk] (1001 Albums list) +
Traditional Music of South London - Dale Cornish [electronic] (2022 lists)

D.O.A. The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle - Throbbing Gristle [industrial] (1001 Albums list)
I’ve seen a way - Mandy, Indiana [experimental rock] (2023 lists) ♥
After the Gold Rush - Neil Young [folk rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) / vinyl ♥
The Window - Ratboys [indie rock] (self pick/my top 10 of 2023) / vinyl ♥
Walk the Wheel - Truth Cult [punk] (2023 lists)

Van Halen - Van Halen [rock] (1001 Albums list) ♥
Highway to Hell - AC/DC [hard rock] (1001 Albums list)
Blue Öyster Cult - Blue Öyster Cult [psychedelic/progressive rock] (self pick)
Cheb Terro vs DJ Die Soon - Cheb Terro vs. DJ Die Soon [experimental hip hop] (2022 lists) +
The Serpent’s Egg - Dead Can Dance [neoclassical dark wave] (self pick)

The Swan - Nwando Ebizie [experimental/afrofuturism] (2022 lists)
Stardust - Willie Nelson [pop] (1001 Albums list)
Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) - Jaimie Branch [jazz] (2023 lists) +
This Stupid World - Yo La Tengo [indie rock] (2023 lists)
everything is alive - slowdive [shoegaze] (2023 lists / Morgan's top 10 of 2023) ♥

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Black Pearl - 50 Foot Wave (2022 lists) +
  American Rituals - Cheri Knight (2022 lists) +
  Funhouse - The Stooges (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Siembra - Willie Colón & Ruben Blades (1001 Albums list)
  Orbweaving - Midwife & Vyva Melinkolya (2023 lists)
  Tøyen, ’13 - Flight Mode (2024 releases) +
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Risqué - Chic (1001 Albums list)
  Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Hunky Dory - David Bowie (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)


• This was a week for weirdness, but I'll get to that in a minute. First off, I listened to Axis: Bold as Love again because the last time I listened to it, it was on the 1001 list and that meant that the Hendrix albums were in rapid succession - in that case I found this album my least favorite of them, and thought it was a little too far into psychedelic for me. Anyway, this time around I really liked it. Also, while listening to If 6 Was 9, I heard Jimi say "I'm gonna wave my freak flag high" and it made me wonder when that phrase originated. As it turns out, this is the first documented use of it! I'm never mad about listening to After the Gold Rush. Gave my new vinyl copy of The Window a spin, that was fun. I'd never heard of Jaimie Branch, but I loved this album. I was sad to see that she died before this album's release. Anyway, I'm no connoisseur of jazz but I enjoyed this a lot.


• I've been listening to some albums from social media where people are talking about various ones - mostly in the context of albums that influenced their musical taste. That's where most of these self-picks come from, they were all new to me. So as I said at the beginning, this was the week of weird. One of those albums from social media falls into that category: Dead Can Dance. I'd heard the name before but I didn't know what to expect - I wouldn't have known to expect new age-y (not like Enya, more like Cirque du Soleil) music, chanting in other languages and an orchestral atmosphere. Same story (had heard the name but didn't know anything) with Throbbing Gristle, which was also intensely weird. Reading that they were a musical and visual arts group put a lot of that in perspective. I don't even think I can describe this album. The Mandy, Indiana and Cheb Terro albums were weird, though in different ways (electronic experimentation vs. Arabic horrorcore (I think, I obviously can't understand it), and I'll need to give them another listen to really decide how I feel about them.


• Also really weird was Cheri Knight. It was a lot of repetition of words and seeing how they merge or create new sounds and meanings. It's really hard to explain but I was reminded of a video/sound/immersive art exhibit we saw in Mannheim last year. Super interesting but also not something for every occasion.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

Some rs500 albums to look forward too. Also, I adore the first Van Halen album. And i have some fondness for Blue Oyster Cult. Some remnant of them played small bars around South Florida when i was in high school (roughly 1990) and I would hunt these cheap shows down.

>176 dchaikin: Yeah, how are you doing on the list? I guess I'm around #85 at this point.

I used to listen to the first Van Halen quite a bit, but I hadn't heard it in a while. It holds up! I had never listened to an entire album of BÖC before, so that was interesting.

Jerry Lee Lewis #325 🙂 Although I couldn’t find the collection on thr list - All Killer, No Filler.

Seems odd you have missed Dead Can Dance until now (if I got that right)... I had this impression they were quite well known. My best friend and next door neighbour introduced me to them mid-eighties--looking back, he was the main reason I wasn't completely out of touch with the zeitgeist. Throbbing Gristle, yay, talk about crazy diamonds...

By the way, I listened to about half the tracks on Taylor Swift's 1989 album and, noooooo... it definitely ain't for me; but, I found a young Swiftie to benefit from my protest splurge.

>168 RidgewayGirl:

Sounds almost like Dolly Parton but I'm not seeing the same hate toward her. Maybe she's enjoying that Older Woman's Invisibility Cloak. :)

>179 LolaWalser: Dolly has ascended into sainthood. Nobody would dare.

>179 LolaWalser: Quite well known by people who listened to weird music in the 80s, probably.

How did you find the Erykah Badu album? I downloaded this after loving her on one of Jools Holland's shows but it never grabbed me. I found it a bit dull.

Sorry, I was just flying by yesterday, let me elaborate a little!

>179 LolaWalser: I feel like there are 2 things here: 1. I listened to top 40 music exclusively until about 1987. And even after that, when I started listening to the "alternative" station, there was a lot of catching up to do. And I was more interested in 10,000 Maniacs, REM, The Replacements, things in that direction - and I believe that's the majority of what they played, I can't say for sure they wouldn't have played Dead Can Dance. But if the earlier part of their catalogue sounds anything like The Serpent's Egg, it doesn't feel very radio friendly. 2. I didn't have friends who listened to this sort of thing. I had a friend who listened to a lot of Depeche Mode, New Order, etc. but not this.

Okay and 3. I don't see any sort of real visibility in the US from their Wikipedia - their highest-charting album is from 2012 (46), their two previous albums were at 75 and 122. Charting is obviously not everything but it does say a bit about how much exposure they got here (well, there).

I'm not surprised Taylor is not for you - my daughter likes her as a concept but finds that every song she hears has one thing that irks her - whether it's a musical or lyrical choice. Personally I enjoy a good amount of her music, although I think that folklore and evermore are the best albums for the non-pop listener. She collaborated with Aaron Dessner from The National and wrote songs from different points of view and overall showed some range. I'm glad you found a Swiftie to benefit from your purchase!

>180 RidgewayGirl: Saint Dolly, indeed!

>182 AlisonY: I wasn't that crazy about this particular album. It was all right, but I much preferred Mama's Gun.

Interesting discussions here as usual! You made me revisit Siouxsie and the Banshees. I used to have two of her albums in vinyl but one of them (my favorite of course) got scratched. I wasn’t sure but after listening to it again I can confirm that it was The Scream. I still like it now, but I it’s a little too much for me to listen to the whole album in one go.

I tried Taylor Swift too but didn’t go very far. I might try Folklore or Evermore.

>180 RidgewayGirl:

Ha. Well I'm sure she deserves it!

>183 ursula:

Oh, I didn't really have any great expectations with Swift--and I also don't want to make it seem like I'm judging her terminally on, what, the basis of six or seven songs--it's just that her sound doesn't grab me, even as I salute her messages. For example, I do like what "Shake it off" says, and can imagine it being soothing and supportive when I recall how beleaguered and accused and attacked from all sides I felt as a girl (which is still the rule as far as I can see), and it does it so nicely casually... that sort of thing was lacking in my youth. Plus, it's clear that what she means to fans is something larger than her songbook, there's the whole personality, character, sayings and doings that one should take in account.

But yeah, such bland/blank pop voices just aren't my thing. Also, and this is totally an idiosyncrasy of mine, heterosexuality depletes me, I become depressed very quickly listening to songs about hetero yearnings in this fucked up misogynistic world and, well, hetero romance is like THE major theme, understandable ofc, just not a good fit.

I did like the song/a video I saw where she's dressed like a dude in a subway or something. And hey, now I KNOW!

>184 FlorenceArt: I love that it got you to go back and listen to Siouxsie!

>185 LolaWalser: Totally get that, about it not being your thing musically. Also, ha to the issues of hetero romance depleting you. Not an angle I'd considered but one I can see now. It depletes all of us. ;)

It's cool that now you know! I'm always happy when someone listens to anything new, whether or not it's ultimately for them.

The Short End of the Sonnenallee by Thomas Brussig

First line: Life abounds with opportunities to divulge your home address, and Michael Kuppisch had found that whenever he mentioned the Sonnenalle, the street where he lived in Berlin, people responded warmly, even sentimentally.

This book immediately had two strikes against it: 1. it's a German comic novel, and 2. it is a revised translation by Jonathan Franzen, who also wrote the introduction.

The street of the title is sectioned off during the division of Berlin so that both sides have some of it, but the East German part is just a short little stub. This means that the main character and his family live under the eyes of West Germans, who draw some conclusions based on what they see. Of course, the East Germans also draw some conclusions. Michael and his family have another view of the West, provided by Michael's uncle Heinz who lives in the west and always "smuggles" in some items for them.

Michael is a teenager, and there's all the usual angsty stuff teenagers are concerned about, but with a "humorous" attitude about it and of course with the added problems of the Stasi and such.

This one was not for me. At least it was short.

>185 LolaWalser: Our music tastes are largely formed, for better or worse, in our teenage years. I remember my best friend and I listening to The Pixies or something similar and her wondering what our children would possibly be able to play that we'd be appalled by. Some years later, I first heard Britney Spears and thought, "Yeah, that's how."

>181 ursula:, that's how DCD has always struck me -- only well known in certain circles and very niche IMO until female vocalist Lisa Gerrard branched out to film projects and is more famously recognized for the Gladiator film score. Funny story about how I discovered them in the early to mid 90s. I was watching a program about the cosmos on either Discover or The Learning Channel (back in the days when they actually had educational programming!) and was struck by the mysterious background music. I watched the credits at the end to figure out who did the music, which was of course Dead Can Dance. Back in those days you had to look for music at an actual record store, so I hunted down a few albums and was hooked on them. I've actually never heard them on the radio, but I assumed they were well connected to people in artistic circles, particularly in the music and film industries.

>187 ursula:

Well, still interested. But then I would be.

>188 RidgewayGirl:

Haha! that reminds me of that Calvin & Hobbes strip where Calvin drives his parents crazy playing muzak--"real softly too".

>189 ludmillalotaria:

I think it all depends on one's context. Bulgarian folk music is regular stuff in Bulgaria but becomes "mysterious" in the West. Dead Can Dance may sound differently to someone exposed largely to, say, nineties hitlist pop and to someone listening to a lot of Philip Glass, Jarre etc. I grew up in places removed from a homogenising central influence, exposed to an odd mishmash of musics, and to me Dead Can Dance didn't sound more or less strange than Queen or Boy George, other musicians the same friend introduced me to.

We talked about this in another group, in the Gothic music thread. How different pathways may abut on the same thing, lending it different aspects.

>188 RidgewayGirl: Soulja Boy was very popular when my kids were in middle school.

>189 ludmillalotaria: Yeah, exactly. If you had certain kinds of friends, sure, but it wasn't that easy to run across the fringes of music otherwise. I didn't realize Lisa Gerrard had done the score to Gladiator!

>190 LolaWalser: As you should be! I don't do comedic very well, so as soon as I realized what this was going to be my heart sank. But that's a me problem.

Absolutely about context. I was thinking about that after the conversation - if I hadn't been in the US at the time, my pathways to music would have been more wide open in some ways. (Things might have been less accessible overall, but there would have been less guidance about what everyone was listening to.)

Also if I had spent longer than 8 months in a college environment, I might have found my way to more of the edges of things.

>187 ursula: I think you need to stop reading German novels, Ursula. You are not having much luck.

Weekly 5x5



Tusk - Fleetwood Mac [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Blonde - Frank Ocean [r&b] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Boxer - The National [indie rock] (self pick / new vinyl purchase)
Armed Forces - Elvis Costello & The Attractions [new wave] (1001 Albums list) / vinyl ♥
The Pleasure Principle - Gary Numan [new wave/synth pop] (1001 Albums list)

Old-Time Folks - Lee Bains & The Glory Fires [southern rock] (2022 lists)
Forgiveness - Girlpool [indie] (2022 lists)
Games of Power - Home Front [post-punk] (2023 lists)
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band - John Lennon [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
Maloo - Maylee Todd [dance/electronic] (2022 lists)

Hit with the Most - Ribbon Stage [pop punk] (2022 lists)
A Legacy of Rentals - Craig Finn [indie] (2022 lists) +
Living Proof - Drain [hardcore punk] (2023 lists)
Duran Duran - Duran Duran [new wave] (self pick) ♥
Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division [post-punk/gothic rock] (1001 Albums list) ♥

The Greater Wings - Julie Byrne [indie folk] (2023 lists) +
One More Thing - Lime Garden [indie pop] (2024 releases)
Murder Ballads - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds [alternative] (self pick) +
Eye on the Bat - Palehound [alternative] (2023 lists)
The Rhythm of the Saints - Paul Simon [singer-songwriter] (self pick) ♥

Quiet Life - Japan [new wave] (1001 Albums list) +
Broken English - Marianne Faithfull [new wave] (1001 Albums list)
Bitches Brew - Miles Davis [jazz] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
The Serpent’s Egg - Dead Can Dance [neoclassical dark wave] (self pick)
The Rime of Memory - Panopticon [blackgaze] (2023 lists / Morgan’s top 10 of 2023)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Street Life - The Crusaders (1001 Albums list)
  Movies - Holger Czukay (1001 Albums list)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Entertainment! - Gang of Four (1001 Albums list)
  The Doors - The Doors (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  Back in Black - AC/DC (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Dusty in Memphis - Dusty Springfield (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Sly & The Family Stone - There’s a Riot Goin’ On (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  Hold The Girl - Rina Sawayama (2022 lists)
  
  Started but couldn’t bring myself to finish:

  Give or Take - Giveon (2022 lists)
  777 - Latto (2022 lists)
  Bell Bottom Country - Lainey Wilson (2022 lists)
  Hood Hottest Princess - Sexyy Red (2023 lists)


• Let's see here - this part of the 1001 Albums list is pretty good for me (Elvis Costello, Joy Division) and also not my thing at all (Fleetwood Mac, Gary Numan). I recognized the cover of the Japan album but I had never listened to it. I noticed that the guy on the front looked just like Nick Rhodes to me, so imagine my surprise when the album also sounded a lot like the first Duran Duran album! A little googling turns up that this is a known fact - lots of people talking about how Duran Duran ripped off Japan wholesale. 🤣 But it seems that it's maybe a case of shared influences/time periods and DD knew and appreciated Japan. Anyway, that's why I put on the Duran Duran - for my own comparison and also because Morgan and I were listening together and he isn't intimately familiar with the DD discography!
  
  Who doesn't love Murder ballads? And who doesn't love Nick Cave? It's obviously a match made in heaven, or hell, or somewhere. I really liked the Craig Finn album. He's from The Hold Steady, a band I've seen people evangelize about but I've never listened to. Expect an album or two of theirs to show up next week. Fun to see one of Morgan's picks of 2023 (Panopticon) show up on one of the "best of" lists we're doing. One of mine will show up next week.


• The Julie Byrne album didn't completely grab me although I thought it was pretty good. I've had a recommendation for another album of hers to try, so I'll check that out soon. I maybe had higher expectations because I heard a collaboration song she did and I really loved it. But not everything puts me under a spell on a first listen.


• The worst thing I put in my earholes this week (that I finished) was maybe Lee Bains & The Glory Fires. It just felt like some soulless, Mumford and Sons business.

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

And bonus, here's my new National record!

I've got a few favorites in this week's 5x5.

Marianne Faithful is a musical hero of mine. My wife and I have seen her several times in concert and all of her albums (or at least those that I've heard), starting with Broken English, are, to my mind and ear, excellent. There is a savage live album from 1990 called Blazing Away that I love. At one show at the Fillmore in San Francisco, someone called out a request and she responded, "Do we look like we need help deciding what to play?" That cracked me up.

Rhythm of the Saints is my favorite Paul Simon album, to my mind his real masterpiece (although I do love Graceland as well).

I could listen to Bitches Brew twice a month and never tire of it: a power-blast electric jazz tour de force, in my book.

Duran Duran reminds me, very fondly, of my ex-girlfriend's 14-year-old daughter from my 1980s New Orleans days. Because of her (and only because of her) I became aware of the early MTV stars, some of whom I enjoyed. Adam Ant comes to mind. Alas, Duran Duran was not really in that category for me.

>194 rocketjk: Marianne Faithfull seems like a really cool person, honestly.

I hadn't listened to The Rhythm of the Saints for quite a while and it was simultaneously very familiar and a new experience. I love listening with new ears!

The Promise by Damon Galgut

First line: The moment the metal box speaks her name, Amor knows it's happened.

This was sort of aggressively okay to me. Very middle of the road. South Africa, Booker Prize etc. I don't think I can say anything interesting about it, so I won't bother.

Am i wrong to read a whopping critique there? I think i liked it better, but i remember some of the issues I had with it. The odd light humor and playful satire clashing with non-humorous stuff. And wondering whether the sacrifice was meaningful or just played into the contradictions.

>197 dchaikin: I don't think you're wrong about that. I wasn't happy with the way following multiple people turned out. It felt like he was most interested in Anton; might as well have stayed with him the whole time.

Anton did seem central. Maybe

>199 dchaikin: Everything okay there? 😂

I was thinking everything was ok until i read your comment. 😁 Did i do something weird? (I don’t see it. Really)

>201 dchaikin: You seem to have left off at the beginning of a sentence? Or it's an otherwise orphaned "Maybe" there in your comment?

Or did you just mean that as "Maybe" in agreement that Galgut might as well have stayed with Anton? The lack of a period at the end threw me and made me think something got deleted or misplaced after that word.

>202 ursula: i was lazy. Sorry. Your last guess was my intended meaning. “Maybe” was my attempt to hedge my previous comment. It was its own single-word sentence.

Haha that’s totally fine, it was /gen as the kids say (a genuine inquiry).

Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom by Norman Finkelstein

Completed.

>205 ursula:

I would read that.

>206 LolaWalser: 👍

It was sometimes repetitive in the name of being thorough, especially because he wanted to use quotes as often as possible as opposed to characterizing things in his own words and being accused of making things up wholesale. But the biggest takeaway, maybe, is that without dates this could easily have been about the current situation in Gaza, which is so depressing.

>207 ursula:

Yes, exactly, that is the worst of it, and the worst shame of it--that it has been going on for so long. I didn't want to push you to comment, especially as Finkelstein is deeply hated (what the liberal press calls "controversial") by the "Israel, right or wrong" crowd.

Weekly 5x5



Esquemas - Becky G [Latin] (2022 lists)
Beyoncé - Beyoncé [pop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
touched by an angel - Klein [classical (?)] (2023 lists)
Germ Free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex [punk] (1001 Albums list) +
Blu Wav - Grandaddy [indie rock] (2024 releases) +

Good Lies - Overmono [electronic] (2023 lists)
Bird Wood Cage - The Wolfgang Press [post-punk] (self pick)
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette [alternative] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Machine Gun Etiquette - The Damned [punk] (1001 Albums list)
Where we’ve been, Where we go from here - Friko [indie rock] (2024 releases) +

What Do We Do Now - J. Mascis [rock] (2024 releases)+
Loveless - my bloody valentine [shoegaze] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +
Harvest - Neil Young [folk rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
Fear of Music - Talking Heads [new wave] (1001 Albums list) ♥
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco [indie rock] (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list)

Tinta y Tiempo - Jorge Drexler [pop latino] (2022 lists)
Off the Wall - Michael Jackson [disco] (1001 Albums list)
Infinite Spring - Superviolet [power pop] (2023 lists, also my favorites of 2023) ♥
Something to Give Each Other - Troye Sivan [pop] (2023 lists)
Fade - Yo La Tengo [indie] (self pick)

The B-52’s - The B-52’s [new wave] (1001 Albums list) +
Who’s Next - The Who [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
We Are Family - Sister Sledge [disco] (1001 Albums list)
This House Is Made of Corners - Brigitte Calls Me Baby [alternative] (self pick)
Boulder blues - Staraya Derevnya [alternative folk] (2022 lists) +

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Inti Watana (El Retorno del Sol) - Luzmila Carpio (2023 lists)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  The Wall - Pink Floyd (1001 Albums list)
  Pretenders - Pretenders (1001 Albums list)
  Metal Box - Public Image Ltd. (1001 Albums list)
  London Calling - The Clash (1001 Albums list) ♥
  Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Superfly - Curtis Mayfield (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Lady Soul - Aretha Franklin (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♥
  Renaissance - Beyoncé (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Straight Outta Compton - NWA (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Blue - Joni Mitchell (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list)
  
  Skipped because Kanye
  The College Dropout - Kanye West (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)


• All right, let's see here. I've often had the experience of thinking I didn't listen to an album that much when it came out and then realizing I know every note. This week I had a slightly different experience. I felt like I had listened to Jagged Little Pill endlessly - but after hearing it this week I realize I must have used the skip button pretty liberally. There are songs on here I would believe I'd never heard in my life. Of course I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to listen to Harvest, even though I actually have listened to it endlessly. Off the Wall is probably my favorite era of Michael Jackson (not counting the Jackson 5) but there are definitely some songs here that don't suit him very well. I was pleased to run across Superviolet, one of my favorites of the year, on a list and took the opportunity to listen again.


• The Wolfgang Press is a band I'd never heard of but a friend is doing a run through bands on the 4AD label, and this one came out. It's from 1988 but doesn't really feel like it. I listened to My Bloody Valentine - Loveless again. I love shoegaze but I have never really caught the flame from MBV although they are one of the originals. Sometimes I think you had to be there. This is a good album, but I still haven't fallen in love with it. Listening to the B-52's again made me contemplate just how incredibly weird they were. Fun. Good. And deeply, deeply weird. Ooh! Speaking of deeply weird, I really enjoyed Staraya Derevnya but it is weird.


• Also weird but interesting was the Luzmila Carpio. It's like Andean music combined with modern guitar and electronic music. Okay so, the worst thing I put in my ear holes this week was ... this is hard, almost everything on here was either good or interesting, and boring seems inoffensive enough to not get the worst title. But I'm going to call it a tie between Overmono (boring) and Brigitte Calls Me Baby (felt like it just wanted to be The Smiths).

+ = added to my library
♥ = already in my library

>208 LolaWalser: An official saying in 2016 "next time needs to be the last time" feels a certain way.

And yes, "controversial".

I saw that the NYT interviewed Motaz Azaiza and I can only assume they felt they had to since he has something approaching 20 million followers. But it's taken this long.