SOUNDTRACK: AND THE KIDS-When This Life Is Over (2019).
I’ve seen And the Kids twice and they put on a fantastic live show. I highly recommend seeing them when live shows start again.
The core of the band is Hannah Mohan on guitar and vocals and Rebecca Lasaponaro on (fantastic) drums. For this record they were a four piece (although no names are included on the disc).
“No Way Sit Back” starts the record with a slow swinging song that features the wonderful wordless hook of Mohan singing “oooh oh oh no.” Midway through, the song shifts gears to a kind of glockenspiel melody over the lyrics “the world is never made for us.” Even though lyrically this album is dark, musically it is really lovely.
“Butterfingers” lopes along at an unusual pace before a really catchy guitar melody kicks in midway through. There’s some more catchy melodies as the two vocals line intertwine with each other. Then comes “Champagne Ladies” a remarkably catchy song right from the get go. The quietly rumbling guitar and the great vocal melody is nicely mimicked by the bass. It’s a really fantastic song and should have been a big hit, even with the uplifting chorus: “life is a bastard, it wants to kill you don’t let go.” But if the lyrics are too dark, there’s another fun wordless “ah ah ah” melody near the end.
“2003” opens with a penny whistle introduction (when I saw them live, Mohan played the whistle and then just tossed it aside before she started singing). There’s some excellent unusual and complex drumming at the top of this song.
“The Final Free” has grooving guitars and a cool part in the middle where the guitar follows the vocal line in a quiet but catchy melody. “When This Life Is Over” has a kind of hawaiian feel to it with guitars and choral vocals. “Special For Nothing” is a quieter song that builds into a gorgeous soaring chorus. When the song shifts to the middle part and the music all falls back except for the vocals, it’s really quite lovely. I love when the backing vocals do counterpoint over the refrain
“Get To That Place” is a short song, less than two minutes and sounds like a bedroom recording (lots of hiss) but as the song gets bigger there’s some cool vocal tricks (so much soaring highs) and glockenspiel. It’s followed by another short song. The mellow “Somethings (Are) Good” is just over two minutes with more overlapping vocals and a dynamite melody.
“White Comforters” sounds bigger and more full sized. It’s much slower with a bouncy guitar melody and a lot of spare playing. It starts a little too quietly but it builds very nicely. “Religion” brings back the rocking guitars with a loud opening and a simple but catchy guitar melody, the joyous vocals with two layers of oh ho ho s really makes this song soar to glorious heights.
The disc ends with “Basically We Are Dead” a longer song that opens with a quieter guitar melody and vocal. Atmospheric keys fill in the backing moments along with a bouncy synth melody and some joyful bah bah bahdahs. But before the song ends, some familiar chugging guitar chords enter the song and they sing the chorus to “Champagne Ladies” one last time before it’s all over.
And the Kids play wonderful indie pop with plenty of unexpected twists. And they are terrific live, too.
[READ: November 5, 2020] The Divided Earth
This is the final book in the The Nameless City trilogy.
The book opens with the leaders of the city agreeing that their sacred fire, Napatha, must be destroyed, lest it be used by one of the splintering factions. But one copy of the recipe spared–given to the monks to hide for as long as was necessary.
Then we flash forward.
Kaidu is sitting with Rat and the others, resting up for what’s to come.
We see Mura, the woman who was abandoned by the monks as a little girl, receiving that copy of the book from the monks (they are hesitant). She has every intention of learning the formula and creating the Napatha again. She imagines giving the formula to all of the other Dao generals for maximum production against the Yisun. But Ezri, who has forcibly put himself in charge of the Dao people, wants to keep it under wraps. Being a treacherous person, he anticipates treachery from everyone else as well.
The Yisun army is marching on the city. Ezri hopes to have the Napataha ready to use against them. He has just enough to show how powerful it is. And it has the desired effect.
When Rat and Kaidu see what happened, Kaidu announces that he is going to steal the book from Mura’s clutches. How? Well, that’s where most of this book’;s adventure comes in. It’s clever and stealthy and very exciting with switches and crosses and trouble everywhere. They even get help from their minstrek friends (it’s always nice to see minor characters come back).
At the same time, Kaidu’s parents (Kata and Andren) are (unbeknownst to Kadi and Rat) planning to negotiate with the Yisun army to save the city Kata explains that she is in charge of the Dao tribe Liuvedao and she is no friend to the Dao regime currently ruling.
The soldier in charge of the Yisun army scoffs at this idea. Until Kata’s secret weapon (which she didn’t know she had) steps forward and explains why the Yisun leader might want to hear them out. Kata proposes an dambush on the city, using an equal amount of Kata’s forces and the Yisum army.
None of the attacking plans go smoothly. Rat and Kaidu face very difficult odds (and many soldiers) and the ambush team literally walks into a dead end and needs to be rerouted through a sewer tunnel (ew).
There is a terrific showdown between Rat and Mura, two women whose lives began in a similar way but who took very different paths. And there are many many pages of battle scenes. Hicks does a great job of keeping the action exciting and clear, with lots of one one one combat as well as an army of warriors.
The story has an epilogue set three years later, which is fun. It’s neat to see Kadi and Rat grows up some, although I could have used a dozen more pages of epilogue to see what things are like now. And to see them catch up (there’s no Facetime back then).
But even so, this was a great series, full of excitement and very emotional moments,.
