SOUNDTRACK: EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL-“Ballad of the Times” (1985).
In Stuart David’s book, In The All-Night Café, he lists the songs on a mixtape that Stuart Murdoch gave to him when they first met.
Although I’ve been a fan of Belle & Sebastian for a long time, I knew almost none of the songs on this mixtape. So, much like Stuart David, I’m listening to them for the first time trying to see how they inspire Stuart Murdoch.
In the book, David writes how much he does not like “rock,” especially music based around bluesy rock. Most of these songs, accordingly, do not do that. In fact, most of these songs are (unsurprisingly) soft and delicate.
Of course I know of Everything But the Girl, they really took off a few years after this album came out. Indeed, their sound changed quite a lot since this first album.
But I never really listened to them. Of course, I knew their song “Missing” (“like the deserts miss the rain”) which was pretty ubiquitous in mid 1990s. But in the mid 1980s, the band’s sound was very different–characterized by jangly guitars and a more upbeat feel.
Love Not Money was the band’ second album. The first song on the album “When All’s Well” has a very distinctive feel like The Smiths–with the picked echoing guitars and louder grooving bass. But “Ballad of the Time” is a bit more downbeat (as a ballad should be). There’s some big overdubbed guitars on top of the pretty picked melody. It’s catchy in a very “of its time” way.
Interestingly, this album apparently sounds unlike anything else in their collection, which makes me think Stuart wouldn’t have pit a later song on the mix.
[READ: December 29, 2020] Solutions and Other Problems
Seven years ago I read and loved Hyperbole and a Half, Allie Brosh’s first book. So I was pretty excited that Allie Brosh had a new book out. Apparently she has gone through some stuff in the last seven years which I won’t go into.
Instead, I want to talk about how freaking funny this book is.
I hadn’t considered or realized that her art style had changed much since the last book. Although comparing the covers, I see that her drawings do seem more sophisticated–which somehow makes her characters look even crazier. I love that that yellow oval on her head is her hair. And the massive eyes. And that crazy smile. It’s bonkers and hilarious.
This book starts out with a bang–a very funny story about a young Allie getting stuck in a bucket. But the best part is that she was in the bucket because she felt the need to get her whole body into the bucket. She looked at the bucket and looked at her body and decided that one needed to be in the other. The look on her face (and then later on her parents’ faces when they find her in the bucket) makes me laugh just thinking about it.
“Richard” is all about a person who lives next door. Young Allie couldn’t quite grasp the idea that someone lived not in their house. She never even thought about the next door house until Richard walked out of it one day. So she snuck in through the cat door and started investigating the neighbor, She would also steal trinkets on each trip. And occasionally leave a “gift” (like a creepy drawing). When her parents found some things, they asked her about it and she said she was “hanging out” with Richard. This obviously made her parents…uneasy. Poor Richard. She went too far when she stole Richard’s cat. (more…)
