SOUNDTRACK: THE DUCKWORTH LEWIS METHOD-Sticky Wickets (2013).
The cricket-loving songwriters are back with their second disc. Although I bought their first disc because I love Neil Hannon, I found myself enjoying the songs by Pugwash’s Thomas Walsh even more. (Which led me to get some discs by Pugwash, a great, sadly unknown band).
I’m inclined to say I like Walsh’s songs better on this disc as well–his title track has a groovy classic ELO-inspired guitar riff and Walsh’s great falsetto vocals. But I also love the bouncy fun of “Boom Boom Afridi” (written by Neil Hannon). So maybe I just like the two of them together.
These are followed by the amusing “It’s Just Not Cricket” which features a group of rowdy indignant cricket fans singing along. See the awesome accompanying picture below which shows the kind of sort of naughty but not really way the sport is portrayed on the disc. 
“The Umpire” gives some real sympathy to the Cricket umpire (who eats his eggs and soldiers) as his position is taken over by machines.
I don’t know much about cricket, so I don’t claim understand what most of these songs are about, but the awesomely bouncy and catchy “Third Man” is a total mystery to me. But that doesn’t stop me from singing along. It’s like a classic lost Pugwash song. It even has a (weird) narration from Daniel Radcliffe. “Chin Music” is a pretty, carnivalesque instrumental.
“Out in the Middle” is a slower Walsh song which is also very pretty. “Line and Length” is a silly song which (in spoken word) explains how line and length are used in cricket. It has a very discoey chorus which differs nicely from the formality of the verse. “The Laughing Cavaliers” is a march with a big choral vocal line. “Judd’s Paradox” has a lengthy spoken section by Stephen Fry (at his most formal). It’s a very enjoyable song with an interesting perspective on cricket and history.
“Mystery Man” is a pretty, sixties-sounding song with bouncy jaunty keyboards and a catchy chorus–except that the verses are all about how he’s a tough bowler. It’s also got a hilarious spoken word section read by Matt Berry “trod on wicket.”
“Nudging and Nurdling” ends the disc and is more or less 5 minutes of people saying the words “Nudging and Nurdling” set to a boppy silly melody. The list of contributors is extensive, although I’ve only heard of Daniel Radcliffe, Neil Finn, Joe Elliott, Matt Berry, Graham Linehan, an Michael Penn (!) who sounds so American. I love they way they build something so simple (and kinda dumb) into such a big song by the end.
Hannon and Walsh know how to write gorgeous songs (even if they can be rather silly). This is a great collection–even if you don’t know anything about cricket. You too will soon be shouting along with the Laughing Cavaliers.
[READ: November 9, 2014] In Real Life
I was pretty excited when I saw this book. I really like Cory Doctorow and here was a comic of his published by First Second, one of my favorite graphic novel publishers (I need to make a category for them…there, done). I didn’t know Jen Wang’s artwork, but that hardly mattered as the cover was gorgeous.
So the story is an interesting one. It begins simply enough with Anda, a young girl who has moved from San Diego to Flagstaff (of course, we don’t learn that she moved to Flagstaff for a few pages, so the fact that we are introduced to Flagstaff by a snowfall was confusing to me–I assumed she was on the East Coast). However, this was not as confusing to me as the other character in the book who doesn’t know where Flagstaff is. What high school aged person doesn’t know that Flagstaff is in Arizona?
Anyhow, we see Anda in school and her class is given a presentation by Liza the Organiza, a woman who is introducing the class to an online virtual game called Coarsegold (I’m also confused as to why this woman would be allowed to give this presentation in school, but maybe I’m too nitpicky here?). Incidentally, I really enjoyed most of the art in the book, but the picture of Liza the Organiza on this same page is quite disturbing to me. In fact, a few pictures in “real life” seem a little “off” to me, and I was worried that I wouldn’t enjoy the visual aspect of the book. But when we get into the game, the pictures are simply fantastic, so I don’t know what that’s all about. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 