I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: KATE BUSH-Lionheart (1978).

Something about the late 70s seemed to make artists very prolific (perhaps it was studio pressure to capitalize on an artist’s success, hmmm?) Here’s Kate Bush’s 2nd record in about 10 months.

And, yea, the cover shows off her budding theatricality (the tour that accompanied these albums (which is available on DVD) is crazy for the performance art).

There are some great tracks on the disc, although for the most part it feels like it was kind of rushed.  But despite that sense, there are some things that Bush introduced on this record that would remain with her throughout her career.  Her voice is layered a lot more (although it is still unbelievably high–the opening words of  “Symphony in Blue” are rather astonishing.)

She has also developed a wonderful ethereal sound.  Unlike new age artists whose ethereal style is without substance, Kate is definitely grounded (somewhere).  A song like “In Search of Peter Pan” with its twinkling pianos is absolutely suited to the fantasy she evokes (and when the chorus comes around, the real sense of foreboding in Peter Pan kicks in.  (So, yes, she may be out there, but she certainly knows what she’s doing).

And there’s the rather clever underpinnings of the seemingly trivial song “Wow.”  It’s another song where a sinister musical basis lurks underneath the seemingly silly chorus: “Wow wow wow wow wow, unbelievable” (which is actually pretty snarky in context).  But really it’s the cool vocals tricks (the deep almost subliminal “uh-huh” for instance) that introduces something new, and intriguing, and something she would explore more on later releases.

This is followed by the rocking (in Kate terms) “Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake.”  It has some pretty aggressive guitar in it which is matched with delay and echo.  It’s another element that foreshadows the kinds of sounds she would use extensively on future discs  (oh, and she really gets a good banshee wail later in the song).

And, of course, the final track “Hammer Horror” is fantastic, with a great sense of theatricality, befitting the song’s inspiration.

It’s Kate next album that blows me away every time, but I am still fond of these first two.

[November 5, 2009] North World

I really enjoyed the premise of this graphic novel.  The main character Conrad is a sword wielder straight out of Dungeons & Dragons (there’s even a panel which shows the same characteristics that you roll for in the game: Str–7, Agl–5, Stm–8 etc.).  He is a low level fighter (but he’s quite good and has defeated some huge animals) but he is seeking glory, fame and minstrels singing heroic songs about him.

And yet he dresses like a contemporary guy (button down shirt and jeans) and clearly lives in a twenty-first century world.

He is called by the guildmaster to go to Coeur de Lac and fight a demon summoner (his biggest adversary yet, and his best chance to prove himself). It turns out that Coeur de Lac is where he grew up and where he left 7 years ago with no intention of returning.  He had also just received an invitation to his ex girlfriend’s wedding.  And so, like a sort of Dungeons and Dragons-flavored Gross Pointe Blank, he returns home with a hit job to do, but mayhaps he’ll take in a wedding while he’s there.

The story was quite interesting.  There were some fun twists and turns and some intriguing character developments.  And the one time I was about to accuse the story of being maudlin and a little overly sentimental, Brown absolves himself by showing that Conrad had fallen under a spell rather than just being overly emotional.  Nicely played.

One problem I had with the book was that it was set up for a sequel (so the rather simple story line doesn’t end in the book.  That bugs me, but I’ll get over it.

The real problem I had was with the art work.  The art was very simple and it worked pretty well for much of the time.  Buildings, nature, backgrounds etc were quite good.  The cover art was really cool and compelling in that indie style that I like a lot.  But the faces of the characters within the story conveyed emotions that were not appropriated for what they were saying.  It seemed like simply poor drawing to make the characters seem angry when they weren’t (that was a common complaint).  And there were other times when the facial expression just didn’t seem right.  So it built up a false sense of emotion that I expected would pay off in someway, but which never did.  It felt like some kind of underlying/subliminal tension that wasn’t there.  It was just ineffectual artwork.  And that’s kind of a shame.

But that wasn’t enough to keep me from really enjoying the story.  And I’ll certainly be getting volume 2 soon.