August 2007's list

Books

1. Cloud Atlas – DAVID MITCHELL. I must have bought this book somewhere in 2005 in Waterstones’ and left it to collect dust since. It still has it yellow ‘Buy 3 for 2’ sticker on the front cover; an impulse buy, a book I bought to make myself feel better. I finally picked it up two weeks ago and haven’t been able to put it down since.

The book opens with the diary of one Adam Ewing, an American making a hazardous journey across the Pacific in the nineteenth century. Things get a bit hairy for the God-fearing Ewing as he crosses paths with criminals, cut-throats, warring Maoris and an alleged brain-eating parasite.

Ewing’s diary ends abruptly on page just as I was wondering if he would survive with brain intact and we skip next to a one-sided correspondence from an impoverished, bisexual rake to his ex-lover while attempting to compose his musical masterpiece in 1930s Europe. Again, his breathless biting story stops short and we move on to three more subsequent characters, each many years in the future of its predecessor, each with a different story to tell but all somehow connected to every character previous to it.

I’m not normally enthusiastic of novels with so many characters in disparate story lines but David Mitchell brings such depth and atmosphere within pages of each new chapter that it’s hard not to get sucked in almost immediately. Every character comes fully formed and each new environment so convincingly realised, it was easy to imagine myself smelling the snow in Sonmi-451’s post-apocalyptic future or the ink and sweat in a 1970s newsroom.

A true page-turner, a delight from start to finish.

2. Life of Pi – YANN MARTELL. It seemed like a scene set for a quirky comedy – a shipwrecked boy adrift on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a 450 pound Royal Bengal tiger.

The first half of the book certainly seemed to set the scene for it: a rather quaint telling of how our eponymous hero received his name, his devout following of 3 different religions simultaneously, much to the consternation of his parents, and an idyllic upbringing in an Indian zoo. All these quirky vignettes lull the reader into the pleasing world of Pi Patel until the second half of the book when Pi gets shipwrecked and things don’t seem amusing anymore, especially when you are told in the beginning that this tale was inspired by real life events.

A bittersweet quaint story that twists into horror in the end, yet leaving you terrifyingly awed at the story of one man’s will to survive.

3. Never The Bride – PAUL MAGRS. After reading the two books above, Magrs' offering seemed incredibly simple and child-like by comparison. Actually, no, it is simple and child-like with plotlines you could see a mile off. His ageless mysterious heroine comes off rather flat and uninspiring while the various 'dastardly villains' feel like they could have walked off a Scooby Doo set. Maybe that was what Paul Magrs was aiming for but I didn't see the funny side of it.

Music

1. An End Has A Start (album) – EDITORS. It’s hard to comprehend why critics label Editors’ music gloomy (Nick Cave singing about love – now that’s gloomy). Editors might sing about death and cold-blooded mammals but their upbeat drums, power-packed basslines and hopeful sentiments surely transform their morbid subject matter into punchy pop-rock.

Their debut album ‘The Back Room’ was full of concise singles with catchy hooks, obscure lyrics and stark one-word titles like ‘Blood’, ‘Bullets’ and ‘Munich’. In AEHAS, the single word titles have morphed into phrases, the lyrics have become less opaque and the insular tunes have evolved into expansive anthems. A bit of piano tinkling has been thrown in to the mix but the catchy hooks are still there. Together with Urbanowicz’s trademark guitar sound and Smith’s heartfelt baritone swooping you off your feet, this is unmistakably a product of Editors.

The songs here may not necessarily grab you instantly but soak in on repeated listens and lodge in a corner of your brain till you find yourself singing about hospitals while walking in a park on a beautiful sunny day. Not that I mind at all because the Editors are beautiful and they make beautiful music. And there’s an elf in Editors, which makes them infinitely more lovable.

The only gripe I have though is that in their effort to sound bigger and more open, some of the enigmatic tension palpable in their debut is missing from this latest album. A bit of a shame since it was the aura of mystery surrounding them that made them infinitely more interesting to me. It’s a bit like a friend suddenly telling you unexpected things about their love life. But I suppose you can’t be insanely successful and still be secretive. That’s just being difficult. So I gave myself a big slap and enjoyed the album for what it is – which is friggin good.

Favourite tracks: Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors, An End Has A Start, Bones, When Anger Shows, The Racing Rats.

2. Logic Will Break Your Heart (album) – THE STILLS. My love for 80s-tinged pop hasn’t entirely abated which is why this 2004 release by Canadian band, The Stills, has slowly become one of my current favourites.

It's a rather mellow affair, interspersed with catchy poppy tunes but it has enough good tracks to keep you interested. 'Still In Love Song' is a good sing-along made more interesting by the ascending bassline in its chorus, while 'Allison Krausse' sounds uncannily like a cross between Badly Drawn Boy and an early era Radiohead B-side.

Like any good pop album, its theme is love and its pitfalls, evident by its rather delicious album title, Logic Will Break Your Heart; five words which for some reason I find aesthetically pleasing. The jilted lover in the album is never vitriolic but at various moments, cutting(The sordid way her loaded phrases infiltrate your skull in 'Gender Bombs'); defiant (I hate my best friends in 'Changes Are No Good'); stumbling drunk in 'Animals and Insects' and suddenly clear-headed (Loving you is a black hole in 'Ready For It').

Favourite tracks: Love and Death, Still In Love Song, Allison Krausse, Animals & Insects, Yesterday Never Tomorrows.

3. Neon Bible (album) – THE ARCADE FIRE. I feel a bit of a dunce listening to this band, as I don’t quite get all the musical cleverness that they are purported to have. There are some bands’ records that you fall in love with, and then there are some that just intimidate you into thinking they must be good… or else. Neon Bible falls into the latter category. There are a few interesting tracks here but I think I’ll leave the doom and darkness for now.

Stand out tracks: Black Mirror, Keep the Car Running.

4. Closer (single)- TRAVIS. I thought Travis were dead. I thought they couldn't write more of the same plinky-plonky gentle tunes without the world at large losing interest. But they wouldn't be Travis if they didn't write pretty melodies that sneak up on you and make you tear up now, would they?

The first single off their latest album 'The Boy With No Name' is one of those dastardly songs. Starts off all nice and samey then when Fran Healy's crooning chorus kicks in, you'll find an involuntary smile cracking across your face. And you'd probably go 'coochie coochie coooo!' to an ickle baby too even though you promised you'd stab yourself in the eye first before you'd ever do such a thing.

Oh and please don't watch the video as well because Healy's smiling eyes and dimpled face would make you wanna sell your gas-guzzling car, wear flowers in your hair and sing 'Kumbaya'. Oh what the heck! They're just too darling for words. Let's just listen to the record and be happy and smile at everyone all day.