SOUNDTRACK: LATETIA SADLER–“There’s a Price to Pay for Freedom (And It Isn’t Security)” (2012).
What a treat to see Latetia Sadler as the song of the day from The Current (Minnesota Public Radio). Latetia Sadler is the voice of Stereolab. She has a new album coming out called Silencio and this is the first single.
It’s hard to say whether or not the song “sounds” like Stereolab, because Stereolab sounds different all the time. But this is definitely not your bubbly Stereolab.
The song opens with some dreamy slow synths which morph into some dreamy guitars. There’s no vocals for over a minute (which makes it seem like it might be an instrumental. When Latetia’s voice comes in (backed by a deep male voice (very un-Stereolab) the music pulls back almost entirely and Latetia’s peculiarly inflected words [ree-uh-li-TEE] come to the fore. It’s hard to believe that such a dreamy song would be about what the title suggests it’s about. But how about this for a stinging (if oblique) final line: “Happy to identify with a reflection in merchandise.”
I prefer Stereolab’s bubblier music to their more dreamy, languid songs. This one is nice, and because of her voice, it’s intriguing. But I’d need a beat more oomph to want to get a whole record.
[READ: July 6, 2012] “An Abduction”
Tessa Hadley is rapidly turning into one of my favorite authors. I only know her from reading New Yorker stories and I really must expand beyond these glossy pages.
This story was really fantastic. I loved how the title has one meaning–the obvious meaning, which is even stated in the story–at the beginning, but by the end, the meaning changes to something else.
And what a great opening to a story: “June Allsop was abducted when she was fifteen, and nobody noticed.” Shocking! Then Hadley contextualizes this oversight: “This happened a long time ago, in Surrey, in the nineteen-sixties, when parents were more careless.” Hmm.
So Jane was home from boarding school–her older brother was studying for college, her younger sister was not yet in boarding school and still had friends locally. So, yes, Jane was bored. She tried her best to have fun, but was really stumped. When her father drove down the driveway past her and she accidentally hit his car with the ball from her Jokari set (paddle ball), the only fun she was having was destroyed. Her father drove off in a huff.
Driving past him on the road was a two-seater convertible with the top down and three long-haired boys driving. Her dad scowled at them, but paid them no mind. Which is a shame as they are the abductors of young Jane. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 