Been a little quiet here, due in part to my being busy working on a short story for this, research for this and coming down with a nasty cold of the bone-chilling, head-squeezing variety. Started feeling a little better today, which is in no small part due to this rather brilliant video of Wilco’s Dawned on Me:
Apparently it’s ‘the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years.‘
You can find out more about it at wilcospinach.com (how cool is that url?)
Normal service will resume shortly with, amongst other things, the skinny on my actually making a start on my MA novel, the first of 2012′s My Life in Short Fiction posts, and some awesome news that I can’t wait to share. Until then, I might have to see if some spinach can get me back on my feet.
Wilco’s follow-up to the mildly disappointing Wilco (the album), is a return to form, an album of standout tracks that testify to a band finally comfortable with their sound. Tracks move between the spiky experimentalism of their Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/A Ghost Is Born days to the upbeat alt country rock of Being There-era Wilco, taking in everything in between, adding new tweaks and turns. This just might be the ultimate Wilco album, a greatest hits made up of new songs. It’s for albums like this that I have loved Wilco since way back. A great American band who keep churning out great music as surely as the music industry pumps out shit. As long as there’s a Wilco, all will not be totally lost.
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six
Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
2011 was the year Sam Beam pissed off a lot of folks by ‘going electric,’ and, worse still for some folks, ‘going Jazz.’ I have to say, while I love the early folksier Iron and Wine, this newer, fuller sound is just as good, if not better. The song writing is certainly as good as ever. The production of each track is spot on. This album came out the end of January and remains on heavy rotation on my iPod. It’s rootsy, groovy and there are few lyricists out there to match Sam Beam. I’m all for artists making big changes to their sound. I’d rather buy an album that moves on from the last than pay money for the same thing over and over. Like Wilco above, Iron and Wine haven’t rested on their laurels, rather they’ve released an album that marks the end of one era and the start of another. I’m eager to see where this album leads.
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five
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins – Diamond Mine
I’ve arrived late to the King Creosote party, receiving my invite via the nomination of this album for the Mercury Prize. This semi-concept album, which singer/songwriter Kenny Anderson describes as a ”soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a Scottish coastal village,” drew me in and made me feel. With forty on my age horizon I can start to relate to many of the lyrics that describe the aging process and, particularly, the sudden feeling of growing old that can hit when you’re not looking. You can stream the whole of this beautiful, elegiac and downright heartbreaking/warming affair over on The Guardian’s website. This is the kind of album that should be number one for ages and ages.
Had a pretty shit day today. Won’t bore you with the details, just thinking about them has me bordering on shuddering into a coma with sheer frustration. Suffice to say my writing time got hijacked by nitwits and nincompoops. On the plus side though, the new Wilco album has managed to lift my spirits. Jeff Tweedy and co do it again, another fantastic album that moves between playful and mournful and all the spaces in between. This track has been particularly helpful in cheering my scuffed self today:
Oh and the other plus, managed to fix a major problem with my latest short story. One more draft and this sucker, which has been kicking my arse for the last few weeks should be done. Looking forward to getting this one out the door, starting to feel a bit proud of it. Here’s hoping the editor whose desk it lands on likes it too.
Meanwhile……I’m off to relax with some of Nuala Ní Chonchúir’s short stories.
