… although looking at the page count of Kanye West’s humbly-titled forthcoming book, it seems he’s only got half a book in him; he involved a co-writer.
For a book which totals 52 pages.
Is that even a book? More like a novella, surely. Then again, releasing it in a spiral-bound format will make it look a bit more substantial an item.
Coming in August, order now. It’s clearly the perfect Christmas gift!
For people you don’t really like that much, I mean.
Rooting through some old CD boxes this morning, I found my much-played copy of Electronic’s Getting Away With It, and was driven to wonder the following:
Am I utterly delusional, or is that one of the most simple yet elegant record cover designs of all time?
I’m sure there’s a whole world of funeral (or, indeed, funereal) music which I’m blissfully unaware of, but surely this album is going a bit too far?
A nice touch is the way a lot of the tracks are listed as being ‘made famous by’ one person, but the version on the compilation is performed by someone else (to my mind, the most egregious example being track two).
The non-original artist nature of some of the tracks (quite a few of them, actually) puts me in mind of the old Top Of The Pops LPs that you see in charity shops or at boot sales – you know the ones, they usually featured a smiling woman in a bikini on the cover.
Or is it just me that recalls that aspect of those LPs? Ah well.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Melody Gardot’s work. It reminds me of the music of Madeleine Peyroux, with the vocals of Rachael Yamagata, and that blend is very pleasing to the ear.
However…
Well, the problem is, the style of the promotional material for her releases, as pictured here, makes me hear one thing, and one thing alone, in my head.
“Designer frames now 2 for 1 at Vision Express.”
I’m not proud of it, I’m just being honest.
Whilst Neil Tennant is the most obvious example of someone crossing over from writing about music to performing it (from Smash Hits to being in the Pet Shop Boys), it looks as if he may not be the only one.
Presented for your comparison: Roger Daltrey of The Who, and David Hepworth of The Word magazine (a very good magazine – even if it does go on about The Wire to the extent that I sometimes wonder why they don’t just change two letters of the mag’s title and be done with it).
*Apologies to Eric Arthur Blair.
When I was a long-haired lout of a student (as opposed to my current long-haired fop status), the Cocteau Twins were very popular amongst the NUS/NME fraternity.
I don’t know if you remember the group, but they were – like the Thompson Twins – comprised of more than two members, and were not twins. Anyway, one of the things which made them rather distinctive was the way that singer Elizabeth Frazer would sings lyrics in a fashion which made them almost impossible to understand; like a radio tuning in and out, there were flashes of clarity, when you could make out several words in a line (sometimes even consecutive words), but a lot of the time it was as if she was speaking in tongues.
It was, nonetheless, quite effective, and it was certainly pretty popular. I was reminded of this style of singing the other day when I heard, on the radio, the Leona Lewis cover version of the Snow Patrol song Run, where the vocal performance seems to waver in and out of coherence.
For instance, I know that the chorus goes pretty much like this:
Light up, light up
As if you have a choice
Even if you cannot hear my voice
I’ll be right beside you dear
But when Leona sings it, and blurs one word into another and then on into another, I hear something more like:
Liar, Liar
Andy you have my toys
Evey nifoo cannar ear mavoy
Arby rarby sardoo dear
…It’s probably just my contrary and snarky streak that hears it that way, of course, but on the other hand it could mean that we should dismiss 80s-style synth-pop as the next big thing, and look to glossolalia as the way of the future.
If so, it’s probably for the best that Smash Hits is no longer a going concern, as it would have been a nightmare trying to reproduce songwords, especially in these days of Spellcheck.
Speaking of things religious and music-related, is it just me, or does the genuine group The Priests look alarmingly like a storyline from Father Ted?
Jeffrey Beaumont from Blue Velvet and Rick Deckard from Blade Runner heavily influenced Kanye West’s distinctive eyewear.
As Steve reported back in November, he and I went to see The IT Crowd being filmed. Afterwards I pretty much forced Matt Berry, one of the stars, to shake my hand as he left the Green Room, and I rather stumblingly congratulated him on a good performance that evening. He was very pleasant about this, and seemed like a nice chap.
Flashforward to now, and as if to emphasise his decency, Matt’s made a free download of his new album Witchazel available on the interweb. Look, there’s a picture of it above. And it appears that none other than Paul McCartney is featured on one of the tracks. Crikey.
I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but I’ve just looked out of the window and it’s rather rainy, so why not stay in, get yourself a cup of tea (or coffee, or even absinthe if you prefer), and listen to some music?
You can download it here.
It’s bedlam in Johnworld today, so I won’t stop, but let me just point you towards what, by any measure, must be a terrific bargain of a deal:
99 well-known pieces of classical music for £3 – might be a pricing error, so grab it while you can.
And then play them loudly. Nessun dorma, and all that.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
