Ursula: Moving through 2023 with Books and Music (pt 4)

Konstantin-Basilikum, Trier. This was Constantine's throne room, built in 310. It is the largest surviving single room not supported by pillars.

Hello from Germany! I'm Ursula, 52 years old. I've been married to my husband Morgan for 12 years. We're both native Californians, but we have moved a lot beginning in 2013 due to his job as a mathematician in academia. We left Istanbul at the end of March and moved to Kaiserslautern, Germany.

In 2022, I managed to read 62 books. That's just slightly short of my hoped-for goal of 65 but you know, that's how it goes sometimes. Morgan and I also do various album-listening projects together, we are currently working through best of 2022 lists and a "best albums of the 1980s" list. On my own, I'm doing various other lists including the 1001 Albums to listen to before you die and the Rolling Stone 500 best albums. I post an update on my listening weekly, and on my reading whenever I manage to finish something.

Books Read in 2023

     
.... January .... Ocak .... Januar ....
Pines by Blake Crouch ☆☆☆☆
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan ☆☆☆☆
New Animal by Ella Baxter ☆☆☆☆1/2
At the Edge of the Woods by Masatsugu Ono ☆☆1/2
The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, translation by Robert Graves ☆☆☆☆
The White Mosque by Sofia Samatar ☆☆☆1/2

      
.... February .... Şubat .... Februar ....
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner ☆☆☆☆
Kaçırılan Çocuk by Robert Louis Stevenson ☆☆☆1/2
The Italian by Shukri Mabkhout ☆☆1/2
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia ☆☆1/2
Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet ☆☆☆
The Simple Art of Murder by Raymond Chandler ☆☆☆1/2
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca ☆☆☆

     
.... March .... Mart .... März ....
Our Wives under the Sea by Julia Armfield ☆☆☆☆
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen ☆☆1/2
Death on Gokumon Island by Seishi Yokomizo ☆☆☆
Wayward by Blake Crouch ☆☆☆1/2
Ducks by Kate Beaton ☆☆☆☆1/2
Ghost Eaters by Clay McLeod Chapman ☆☆☆1/2

   
.... April .... Nisan .... April ....
Walking Practice by Dolki Min ☆☆☆
An Unlasting Home by Mai Al-Nakib ☆☆☆
Cyclopedia Exotica by Aminder Dhaliwal ☆☆☆ 1/2
Spare by Prince Harry ☆☆☆☆☆

    
.... May .... Mayıs .... Mai ....
Death Is Hard Work by Khaled Khalifa ☆☆☆☆
The Teller of Secrets by Bisi Adjapon ☆☆☆
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey ☆☆☆☆
Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka ☆☆☆ 1/2
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy ☆☆☆

       
.... June .... Haziran .... Juni ....
They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib ☆☆☆
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li ☆☆☆☆
The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji ☆☆☆
Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris
Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell ☆☆☆
I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury ☆☆☆
Universal Harvester by John Darnielle ☆☆☆ 1/2
Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi ☆☆☆ 1/2

Abandoned
John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin

      
.... July .... Temmuz .... Juli ....
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai ☆☆☆☆
Kitty Language by Lili Chin ☆☆☆ 1/2
How To Be a Rule-Breaking Letterer by Huyen Dinh ☆☆ 1/2
Things We Found When the Water Went Down by Tegan Nia Swanson ☆☆☆
Glow by Ned Beauman ☆☆☆
Where Are Your Boys Tonight? by Chris Payne ☆☆☆☆ 1/2
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa ☆☆☆

      
.... August .... Ağustos .... August ....
The Golden Bowl by Henry James ☆☆☆☆
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai ☆☆☆☆ 1/2
No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed ☆☆☆
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson ☆☆☆☆☆
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa ☆☆☆☆
Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami ☆☆ 1/2
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson ☆☆☆ 1/2

     
.... September .... Eylül .... September ....
Devil House by John Darnielle
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

  
.... October .... Ekim .... Oktober ....
Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill
Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis
The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro

Currently Reading


We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I by Raja Shehadeh


1,000 Coils of Fear by Olivia Wenzel


The Absolutes by Molly Dektar


Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

First line: They all look the same, hotel bars, even when they don't.

Our main character is a food critic. She is also a serial killer who eats part of her victims. She's telling her story from a prison, so we know right off the bat that she eventually gets caught.

The main thing I found interesting about this book is how deeply uncomfortable it can be reading a book like this written from a woman's point of view. There are so many topics, and methods of talking about those topics, that we're used to hearing from male characters but feel distasteful coming from women. Here you have the dispassionate, condescending attitude of a sociopath combined with frank descriptions of everything visceral - food, sex, murder, the workings of our bodies.

It was kind of interesting reading this while we are also working our way through the last season of Hannibal, because it kept making me think about the reception of a man who is convinced he knows everything versus a woman who feels the same way. Anyway, that may or may not be the point of the book, so let's just talk about it as a horror/thriller: it kept me turning the pages. It sometimes strained my disbelief-suspending muscles, but that's how it goes with this type of thing.

Quote: I thought it would be unappealing; rather, the hustle was energizing. I did some fancy strategizing and managed to monetize my blog - and can we for one moment ponder the violent deformity of that phrase, “monetize my blog”; it’s so grotesque that Diane Arbus could photograph it.

>5 ursula: Interesting start to your new thread. I hope autumn in Germany is treating you well.

>6 rocketjk: Thanks! So far it's the good part of autumn, temperatures are a little lower but it's not dark and raining all the time yet.

Weekly 5x5



Clube da Esquina - Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges [MPB (Música popular brasilera)] (1001 Albums list)
Singles Going Steady - Buzzcocks [punk rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Brand New Soul - Angel Du$t [alternative] (new releases) +
American Idiot - Green Day [pop punk] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
John Prine - John Prine [singer/songwriter] (1001 Albums list) ♡

There Will Be Fireworks - There Will Be Fireworks [alternative] (self pick) +
The Meadowlands - Wrens [indie rock] (self pick) +
Mr. Money with the Vibe - Asake [afrobeats] (2022 lists)
#1 Record - Big Star [rock] (1001 Albums list) ♡
In Utero - Nirvana [rock] (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list) ♡

Laugh Track - The National [rock] (new releases) +
Music for the Masses - Depeche Mode [synth-pop] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
Transformer - Lou Reed [rock] (1001 Albums list)
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We - Mitski [indie] (new releases)
Rite of Suffering - Moon Phase [rock] (new releases) ♡

Pink Moon - Nick Drake [folk] (1001 Albums list) +
This Nation’s Saving Grace - The Fall [post-punk] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
Illusory Walls - The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die [emo] (2021 review) ♡
Harvest - Neil Young [rock] (1001 Albums list) ♡
Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling - Slaughter Beach, Dog [folk] (Morgan’s pick, new releases)

Love Deluxe - Sade [r&b/azz] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
The 7th Hand - Immanuel Wilkins [jazz] (2022 lists)
Antisocialites - Alvvays [dream pop] (self pick) ♡
Pool Kids // POOL - Pool Kids & POOL [emo/punk] (self pick) ♡
Oblivion Will Own Me and Death Alone Will Love Me (Void Filler) - short fictions [emo] (new releases) / partial album ♡

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Home Is Where the Music Is - Hugh Masekela (1001 Albums list)
  Honky Chateau - Elton John (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  


• Listened to the John Prine again even though it was previously on another list because I wanted to revisit it. And then there are Big Star, Paul Simon and Neil Young, all of which I know and love; I listened to them just for the pleasure of it.


• I really liked the Nick Drake, again. (I had never in my life listened to any of his albums before so this is a discovery.) I hadn't listened to American Idiot in years and years - it has its interesting points, and some good songs. But I just don't know that there's any reason for 9 minute long progressive Green Day songs. Transformer was like a study in contrasts, it was almost exactly one incredible song alternating with one ridiculous/terrible song all the way through.


• There Will Be Fireworks is a little like Frightened Rabbit with less self-loathing, and not just because of the heavy Scottish accent. I liked it. The National dropped a surprise second album for the year. Consensus seems to be that 1. this one is better than the first one and 2. you can combine them and cut out a lot to create a single good album. I dunno that I fully agree with that; I was one of the dozen or so people who liked the first album, and this one also seems pretty good. But I'll need to listen to it a couple of times to solidify my opinions. The new Mitski bored me to tears.

+ = added to my library
♡ = already in my library

Big Star was new to me. Loved it.

>9 dchaikin: I actually just asked Morgan if he would be okay with me getting a tattoo that said "Would you be an outlaw for my love", haha.

I am not (very?) serious, I'm not really into text tattoos and also am ambivalent about lyric tattoos in particular. But I love that line.

Oh and I forgot to mention in my music post that I've hit a few milestones on my lists: I passed the first 250 on both the 1001 list and the RS 500. I'm also down to the last 75 on the 200 albums of the 80s.

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami

First line: If you want to know how poor somebody was growing up, ask them how many windows they had.

Natsuko is a single woman, living in Tokyo and making her way as a novelist. She is originally from Osaka, and much is made about Osaka accents at various points in the story. In the first part, she is visited by her sister Makiko and Makiko's daughter Midoriko. Makiko wants to get breast augmentation surgery, Midoriko is suffering a teenage crisis, and Natsuko is simply adrift and unable to relate to either of them. Natsuko wants to have a child, but she doesn't have any real options since Japan's laws about adoption etc. mean that she can't do it on her own.

In the second part of the book, it's some years later and the interest Natsuko had in the first part - having a child by donor conception - is a full-blown obsession. She's at a standstill in her career, she rarely sees her friends. She spends her time googling information on donor conception and through that, attends an event where she hears the experiences of people who were conceived by sperm donation. Events finally kickstart Natsuko into assessing her life up to that point and what her future will look like.

I found this book very interesting. Sometimes the actions of the characters were hard for me to understand; I chalk at least some of it up to cultural distinctions I don't get. The near-impossibility of a single woman having a baby in any way in Japan and the attitudes toward the expression of a desire to do so were enlightening (even if those attitudes were unenlightened themselves!). And I felt like Natsuko was a character I don't often read about, for reasons I won't get into here, but I'll just say it was an interesting viewpoint.

Quote: Hey, everyone loves surprise parties, right? One day you open the door, and everyone's there waiting for you, ready to surprise you. Here are all these people you've never met, never seen before, congratulating you, big smiles on their faces. Parties are different, though. You can go back through the door behind you, but when you're born, there's no leaving. There's no door. There's no way back to how things were before. I hate to say it, but not everyone likes surprise parties.

ETA: I just looked at the Wikipedia page and I saw this under "Reception":

Writer and then-governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, who himself won the Akutagawa Prize in 1955 and was a sitting member of its selection committee, criticized the selection of Kawakami's novel for the prize. In Bungeishunjū he wrote, "The egocentric, self-absorbed rambling of the work is unpleasant and intolerable."

Also separate comments about the English translation being flat and the second half being "rambling and chatty". I don't know, I reacted to both of those things somewhat differently I guess.

>10 ursula: that would be cool. 🙂

>11 ursula: "The egocentric, self-absorbed rambling of the work is unpleasant and intolerable."

I do love that criticism. Captures a lot of literature the last 1000 or so years.

>13 dchaikin: Fair point in the general sense, although I read it with a lot more misogyny in this specific case.

>14 ursula: oh yeah, i got that aspect too. (And maybe an anti-western-literature-influence intent in there. ??)

>5 ursula: Great comments on this one, Ursula, even though I don't think it's for me. I got a little queasy just reading your comments.

>12 ursula: And more great comments although this is one on my WL.

My son loved American Idiot. I did like some of the tracks he made me listen to, but it has been years.

>15 dchaikin: Maybe! I definitely get the impression that this guy probably would think that reading excerpts from a teenager's diary about her mother's interest in breast augmentation and her own changing body is egocentric. Ew, women's stuff.

(Also I believe he said that about the original version of the book, which was novella-length, haha.)

>16 BLBera: The first one does definitely sound like not one for you. And if/when you get to Breasts and Eggs I'll definitely be curious what you think.

I feel like I remember liking American Idiot at the time too, I guess it was just sort of that moment. I'm not sure it totally stands up, but I'm not mad about listening to Billie Joe sing more!

>8 ursula:

As usual, I have no business commenting on the music really, but I'll echo the love for Lou Reed.

There was a law in Japan (it was supposed to change last year) that divorced women must not remarry until a certain period post-divorce, to prove they are not taking away the ex-husband's child. Maybe there's some justice in that a country still that horrible to women is struggling to keep growing.

>18 LolaWalser: Business or not, you're always welcome to comment!

It's a weird mix of laws I think, because on the other side of it, a friend of Morgan's family had all kinds of problems when he divorced his Japanese wife. She took the child back to Japan and he had no rights to her whatsoever.

>19 ursula: That was similar to a German law. My ex-SIL refused to let my niece see her father in Germany because he would have been able to keep her had he chosen to -- the workings of the legal system meant that she would have been 18 by the time the court had decided on the issue.

Weekly 5x5



Antisocialites - Alvvays [dream pop] (self pick) ♡
Travellers in Space and Time - The Apples in Stereo [indie rock] (self pick) ♡
Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Red Headed Stranger - Willie Nelson [country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Untrue - Burial [ambient/electronic] (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list) +

The Long Way, The Slow Way - Camp Trash [emo] (self pick) ♡
Straight Out of the Jungle - Jungle Brothers [hip hop] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
…Is an Evolving Mess - Cubfires [emo] (self pick)
De todas las flores - Natalia Lafourcade [pop] (2022 lists)
PAINLESS - Nilüfer Yanya [indie] (2022 lists) ♡

Never Before Seen, Never Again Found - Arm’s Length [emo] (self pick, vinyl) ♡
Drone Mass - Jóhann Jóhannsson [classical] (2022 lists) +
Cobalt Desert Oasis - Marco Shuttle [electronic] (2021 review) ♡
Will the Circle Be Unbroken - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band [country folk] (1001 Albums list)
Paul Simon - Paul Simon [folk rock] (1001 Albums list) ♡

EVERGREEN - PVRIS [electropop] (new releases)
New Standards, Vol. 1 - Terri Lyne Carrington [jazz] (2022 lists)
Uprising - Bob Marley & the Wailers [reggae] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
Only Constant - Gel [punk] (new releases) +
How Do I Keep My Head Above Water? - Indigo Moiré [emo] (self pick) +

A Way Forward - Nation of Language [indie pop] (2021 review) ♡
Roxy Music - Roxy Music [art rock] (1001 Albums list)
Slayed? - Slade [glam rock] (1001 Albums list)
Can’t Buy a Thrill - Steely Dan [soft rock] (1001 Albums list)
Talking Book - Stevie Wonder [soul] (1001 Albums list)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Loaded - The Velvet Underground (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Blue Lines - Massive Attack (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Juju - Siouxsie & the Banshees (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
  Axis - Helm (2021 review)
  Air - Sault (2022 lists)
  Boys of Faith - Zach Bryan (new releases) +
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Sail Away - Randy Newman (1001 Albums list)
  Heaven Or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♡
  Odessey and Oracle - The Zombies (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♡
  Live at the Harlem Square - Sam Cooke (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♡
  Criminal Minded - Boogie Down Productions (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Like a Prayer - Madonna (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
  Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
  
  Skipped for refusing to give even $.03 a play to:
  808s & Heartbreak - Kanye West (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)


• The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was the worst thing I put in my ear holes this week. Also, although I have liked past releases by Sault, this one did not connect with me.


• I listened to a couple of albums by Indonesian emo bands this week; apparently there is a big emo scene there. Anyway, Cubfires was okay but not great, while I really liked Indigo Moiré. The new Gel was pretty fun (all 17 minutes of it). I had previously listened to and liked the Nilüfer Yanya and it was just as good on a relisten. Paul Simon is well, Paul Simon. And I've finally learned to like "Duncan", a song I've never really liked in all the years I've listened to it. Zach Bryan surprise-released an EP almost immediately after his album, and there's a song on there that's been stuck in my head ever since ("Deep Satin").


• If you see Apples in Stereo on my chart, there's probably been a stressful day or two in the week! It's my all-time favorite comfort album. In this case, it's coupled with Camp Trash, so you can tell it was a very stressful day!
  
  And my Arm's Length record finally arrived! I had to wait for the release of the Boris record Morgan had ordered along with it. Anyway, I was super excited to put it on the turntable.

+ = added to my library
♡ = already in my library

>20 RidgewayGirl: From the quick glance I did, there is no such thing as joint custody in Japanese law, and the mother is just about always awarded custody, so he really didn't have anything to say about it.

I'm not surprised that it would have taken an eternity for something to work its way through the legal system here, everything takes forever.

>21 ursula: Not much there for me this week. I do agree with you about that Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album. I'd had it sitting in my record collection for years, finally took it out and listened to it one night while we were still in California, and immediately transferred the record to the Goodwill bag. And, yes, that first Paul Simon album was definitely a revelation when it came out. "Peace Like a River" has always been a favorite of mine, plus "Run That Body Down" and "Congratulations" ("Love is not a game, love is not a toy, love's no romance.")

I don't remember where you stand on Steely Dan. Can't Buy a Thrill is a favorite for me. On the other hand, I've never really understood the adulation for Willie Nelson, though he has certainly written some good songs.

Talking Book to me is a masterpiece. That era of Stevie Wonder's music never gets old for me.

Cheers!

>23 rocketjk: High five on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band! Gone to the great Goodwill in the sky.

Steely Dan: I haaaaaated Gaucho (I listened to it for the 80s list and it was the worst thing I put in my ear holes that week) but this one was okay. It also obviously had the songs I'm most familiar with.

When I was a kid, my aunt was big on country, and huge on Willie Nelson. I didn't like it then, and I wouldn't say I'm a fan now, but it was fine.

Totally agree, really enjoyed the Stevie Wonder.

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

First line: 'Could you,' said the inspector, 'run it all by me one more time, Mrs Sutherland?'

This is a furthering of the Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. We find out in the first few pages that the narrator's great-uncle was named Victor Frankenstein, and when she finds some of his notes, she and her husband start working on some research of their own. They are both scientists, although only her husband has any standing in the scientific community, of course.

The main character (named Mary, again of course) and her rather hapless husband Henry move in with his sister in her dark and gloomy house in Aberdeen to work on their secret experiments. Of course a lot of intrigue ensues. This was a good continuation of the Frankenstein story, a page-turner for me.

>25 ursula: Sounds like fun!

You've done some good (to me, anyway) listening in the last couple of weeks! Transformer is another one of those DNA albums—I'd put it on late at night and it would still be playing the next morning. It so much evokes being in my first apartment in 1981 downtown NYC at age 18.

Funny about that Big Star tattoo—I once seriously considered getting one of just that star from the album cover. Didn't do it.

I'm a Steely Dan fan but never warmed up to Gaucho either. Love Can't Buy a Thrill, but I had forgotten how absolutely awful that album cover is.

>27 lisapeet: "I'm a Steely Dan fan but never warmed up to Gaucho either."

Gaucho was Becker and Fagen's first shot at scratching their jazz itch. They went the opposite way of most of us in that generation, I think, in that they started out as jazz fans who only turned to rock when they became professional musicians. I think that's the story. Anyway, at the time that album came out I was in college and just beginning my own explorations into the jazz realm (and only because I wanted to do a show on the campus radio station and the shift that came open was a jazz shift). All that to say that I never cared much for Gaucho either. It seems neither fish nor fowl to me. "Time Out of Mind" is the only song on that album that I really like.

>26 FlorenceArt: It was a pretty fun read!

>27 lisapeet: I just read your comments about Hunky Dory vs. Ziggy on my last thread, and I get what you mean about DNA albums. I think being tied to that experience/time would definitely cement Transformer in your being! And I love that you considered getting the star tattooed, even if you didn't end up doing it.

Thanks to you and >28 rocketjk: for the comments and context about Steely Dan!

>8 ursula: This is a much better week than the following one. One of the three Nick Drake classic albums. I am one of the few people who saw him live, playing at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank London, probably in 1971. Sandy Denny was top of the bill and both artists were soon no longer with us.

No mention of one of the Falls most approachable albums? - This Nations Saving Grace.

As for Steely Dan - I admit to being a bit sniffy about them back in the 70's, thinking that the music was over composed and so typical radio fodder. I have re-llstened to all their albums recently and now think they were an exceptional band. Goucho is a fine album.

And Lou Reed too - what a week

>30 baswood: Well if it makes a difference I think I probably enjoyed both weeks equally. ;)

Very cool that you saw Nick Drake (and Sandy Denny). I'm sure that is a pretty exclusive club.

I didn't like The Fall, I regret to say.

Weekly 5x5



Exile on Main St. - The Rolling Stones [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Ever Loving - Dogbreth [power pop] (self pick) +
Discovery - Daft Punk [electronic] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +
Crispy Crunchy Nothing - Packs [indie rock] (new releases)
ANTI - Rihanna [pop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

The Slider - T. Rex [glam rock] (1001 Albums list)
Growing in Strange Places - Thank You, I’m Sorry [indie] (new releases)
Never Before Seen, Never Again Found [emo] (self pick, vinyl) ♡
Metallica - Metallica [metal] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Heavy Rocks (2002) - Boris [metal] (Morgan’s pick, vinyl)

Bad - Michael Jackson [pop] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
Marchita - Silvana Estrada [singer-songwriter] (2022 lists)
Deceit - This Heat [experimental rock] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list) +
moving forward - absinthe father [indie] (self pick) +
Eagles - Eagles [rock] (1001 Albums list)

Oblivion Will Own Me and Death Alone Will Love Me (Void Filler) - short fictions [indie rock] (new releases) +
Boys of Faith - Zach Bryan [country] (new releases) +
Drink the River - Gabe Lee [country] (new releases) +
Damn the Torpedoes - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers [rock] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) ♡
Nozhet El Nofous - Nancy Mounir [experimental/Egyptian] (2022 lists)

Mole - Poolblood [alternative] (new releases)
All Directions - The Temptations [r&b] (1001 Albums list)
Master of Reality - Black Sabbath [metal] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +
Giant Steps - John Coltrane [jazz] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +
Untrue - Burial [electronic] (TrebleZine 100 all-time favorite albums list)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  The World Is a Ghetto - War (1001 Albums list)
  Close to the Edge - Yes (1001 Albums list)
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Something/Anything? - Todd Rundgren (1001 Albums list)
  Little Earthquakes - Tori Amos (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Ace of Spades - Motörhead (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)


• The T. Rex was fun; the War was good. My favorite Daft Punk album has always been Homework, but of course Discovery is probably the more accessible album. I liked the John Coltrane, like with all jazz I feel like I’ll have to listen to it more to have any sort of handle on it. I love Tom Petty, I love Damn the Torpedoes. This Heat was really weird, but in a really interesting and fun way.


• Exile on Main St. is not my favorite Stones album, though I’m not sure what would be anyway. Ditto for ANTI and Rihanna. Another really great album from Black Sabbath this week. Morgan’s long-awaited Boris record arrived and we listened to that.


• I listened to Zach Bryan's EP Boys of Faith, which he released right after his self-titled album and one of the songs just got me in a stranglehold and has just now maybe started to let up. Maybe. Morgan listened to the EP and tried to guess which song it was - he was torn between two but guessed correctly (it was "Deep Satin", you can listen to the audio here on YouTube if you're curious.

+ = added to my library
♡ = already in my library

You mentioned all the good stuff this week in your comments.

>33 baswood: That's gotta be a first!

But I'm always happy to hear any particular stories/connections or just generalized chiming in. :)

The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro

These are mostly longer-form short stories and I really enjoyed them. I don't always (often? ever?) fully enjoy a short story collection, but this one really worked for me. Such a variety of female characters in a variety of relationship situations. I have previously read another Munro, Hateship, Friendship, Loveship, Courtship, which I didn't get along with as well. One of my favorite stories in this collection was the last one, My Mother's Dream. In it, there is this description of the husband and father:

The sort who never let people alone, who whipped them up to laugh. At his own expense occasionally, but usually at other people's. Jill recalls when she looks at him how he drank but never seemed drunk and how he occupied himself getting other drunk people to confess to him their fears, prevarications, virginity, or two-timing, which he would then turn into jokes or humiliating nicknames that his victims pretended to enjoy. For he had legions of followers and friends, who maybe latched on to him out of fear - or maybe just because, as was always said of him, he livened things up. Wherever he was was the center of the room, and the air around him crackled with risk and merriment.

Nice to read about an Alice Munro collection. Love the quote.

A few for me, working from the top of your list downward:

Exile on Main Street always has been one of my favorite Stones albums. I like the spared down quality of it and the strong blues flavor. Plus, Mick Taylor is still there playing lead guitar.

My friends and I didn't realize it at the time, but Eagles in retrospect was a sign of the demise of Country Rock, the sub-genre that my friends and I in high school grew up into. The band's soft glossy sound should have come as a warning to us, but we missed it, then. Frey and Henley wanted to be rock/pop stars, not country rockers. Bernie Leadon, ex-Flying Burritos Brothers member, was the purist. Eventually they replaced him with Joe Walsh and released Hotel California, and that was that.

Damn the Torpedoes: I've never really delved into any of Petty's LPs too deeply. The hits are very good, but I've always thought of that band as just a good, solid rock band. Nothing particularly groundbreaking or, really, exciting. I understand why other people love Petty and the Pretenders, and I generally turn the hits up when they come on the radio. For me it's a case of "good/not great" though I do respect the long, consistent run they had.

Giant Steps: Not only great music but an important milestone along the road of modern jazz.

>36 dchaikin: I liked all of them, which is miraculous for me!

>37 rocketjk: Hmm, I don't think I have a favorite Stones album.

I don't have any opinions at all on the Eagles, I think. I grew up hearing them of course, so the big hits are familiar. Aside from that, listening to this album I was surprised to discover that Frey's voice was not very good, really. On the My Chemical Romance tour last year they sometimes did a semi-improvised song, the lyrics of which would change but included "everybody hates the fucking Eagles". 🤣

I don't think that everything needs to be totally groundbreaking. Tom Petty was a great songwriter of songs that felt right, and the Heartbreakers were some great musicians.

Re: Giant Steps, how/why is it a milestone? I don't know anything about jazz.

>38 ursula: To answer your question about Giant Steps as best I can, there some technical stuff about the compositions that makes other jazz musicians consider the album groundbreaking and iconic that had to do with the complexity and nature of the chord changes. This is stuff that's over my head for the most part. But more generally, I think it's widely agreed that the intensity and quality of the soloing on that album, and particularly of course Coltrane's soloing, plus the degree to which the compositions were built around that soloing, set a new standard for the music that other musicians then had to work to catch up with. I can give you some links to more authoritative descriptions of all that if you like.

But all that is only meant to answer the question you asked. I don't want to give you the impression that you need to know and/or understand any of that stuff to enjoy the music. I really understand very little of the technical part of it. For me, it's just exciting, wonderful music. The knowledge that musicians and historians consider Giant Steps to be a groundbreaking piece of work just adds a little extra spice. The album, for me, stands on its own right out of the box, as it were, as fun, exciting and rewarding music. That sort of jazz maybe is an acquired taste, but for me the rewards have been great. You don't really have to "study" it, you only have to expose yourself to it, if that sort of thing seems worthwhile to you. Sorry if I've gone overboard in my reply. My bumper sticker should be, "Honk and I'll be enthusiastic about jazz!"

>39 rocketjk: No, this is actually exactly the kind of thing I am looking for! I don't naturally connect with jazz, and when I like something it's not likely to go beyond exactly that: "I like this". So it's good to know 1. that it doesn't necessarily have to be any deeper than that, but at the same time that 2. this is considered an important record for technical/musical reasons as well.

Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

First line: Amber Kivinen - drug dealer, lapsed evangelical Christian, my girlfriend of fourteen years - is going to Mars.

Basically that, yeah. Kevin is narrating that part of the story, and Amber has joined a reality tv show competition to be one of the first pair of people sent to Mars. She will not be coming back if she wins. It's a shock to Kevin's system to realize that 1. she would just join this competition without telling him, 2. she could actually win, and 3. she might even want to win.

Amber and Kevin grow weed in their house in Vancouver; she's got the plant know-how and he's ... got the time to sit around and sell to people? I'm not sure what he brings to the endeavor, or to the relationship, often. They met and started dating in high school, and they have stayed together in spite of having very different personalities. Amber was an aspiring Olympic gymnast who hurt her shoulder, ending her chances. Since then she seems to have been adrift. Kevin, on the other hand, seems to prefer being adrift. He lost his mother and seems to be cultivating, besides cannabis plants, some serious agoraphobia.

Sometimes I read a book and wonder if I read the same book the author wrote, if you know what I mean. Am I missing the point? Am I finding points that the author didn't intend at all? Recently when I talked about Devil House I said that the book was not the book I thought it was as I was reading it. In that case, I know that's what John Darnielle intended. Here, I'm not sure what book Deborah Willis was writing. If it was supposed to be a comedic sendup of reality tv, that didn't work for me at all. If it was supposed to be a scathing indictment of billionaires and how little their principles and ideals actually mean to them, I guess it hit the mark but it's an easy one. What I got out of it was a lot deeper than it feels like the book intended to go, though - thoughts about what it means when your purpose in life has been imposed upon you by others, maybe so deeply that you're not sure it's not your own will anymore. Thoughts about wanting to back out of something, and how to know when the voice in your gut is trying to keep you out of trouble versus just speaking out of fear. Thoughts about living, and dying, and what they both mean in how you carry on through your days.

Honestly, I had a really great conversation with Morgan about all of these things after I finished the book - I'm just not sure any of that was what it was supposed to inspire. It might have just been intended to tell you reality tv is fake, Elon, Bezos and all the other billionaires suck, and you can't just spend forever stoned on your couch.

Based on the thoughts the book inspired within you, it sounds terrific. (Although the plot summary is not a draw for me.)

>42 dchaikin: Yeah, exactly. I think I got more out of it than she put into it. (But maybe I'm selling her short - I tried looking up some reviews and the ones I saw seem to think it's a comic take on reality tv? But it's ... not very comic.)

I'm just going to leave a link to this piece my daughter sent me about Palestine/Israel: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/have-we-learned-nothing/

It's there for whoever may need to read it.

The variety of responses i have come are both fascinating and discouraging. Naturally i have my own and feel strongly about that. But I’m bothered by the simplicity in many responses. I appreciate the theme in the link, and the effort of thinking it through. I don’t exactly agree, but acknowledgement of the complexities goes a long way.

>45 dchaikin: Yes, the essay has some strong points. As you say, Dan, acknowledgment of the complexities is important. There are two or three historical simplifications in the piece and a bit of disingenuousness, but that's OK. I never expect perfection in opinion pieces. (I don't feel like going down the rabbit hole of offering specifics of what I'm getting at right now. Things are more than a little bit raw here in NYC, especially around the nearby Columbia University campus.) The fact that above the essay on the web page we see, not a photo of anything that happened in Israel, but instead an image of a building being shelled and exploding in Gaza, gives a hint at the editorial position of the magazine's editors. I do agree with a lot in that essay, but it's important to understand the context of where the writer is coming from.

Weekly 5x5



De La Soul Is Dead - de La Soul [hip hop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Critical Beatdown - Ultramagnetic MC’s [hip hop] (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)
Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography) ♡
Ray of Light - Madonna [pop] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)

Fly - The Chicks [country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
A Light for Attracting Attention - The Smile [indie] (2022 lists)
Plans - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography) ♡
The Definitive Collection - Patsy Cline [country] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
You’re the One - Rhiannon Giddens [americana] (new releases) +

Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers - The National [indie] (Morgan’s pick/90s list)
Aladdin Sane - David Bowie [rock] (1001 Albums list)
Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography) ♡
Something about Airplanes - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography) ♡
i don’t know who needs to hear this … - Tomberlin [indie folk] (2022 lists)

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco [alternative] (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list) +
Warm Chris - Aldous Harding [indie folk] (2022 lists)
Billion Dollar Babies - Alice Cooper [hard rock] (1001 Albums list)
The Photo Album - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography)
We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes - Death Cab for Cutie [indie] (discography) ♡

Auto Locator - Del Paxton [emo] (new releases) +
Ugly Season - Perfume Genius [art pop] (2022 lists)
Javelin - Sufjan Stevens [singer-songwriter] (new releases) +
Catch a Fire - Bob Marley & the Wailers [reggae] (1001 Albums list)
God’s Country - Chat Pile [rock/sludge metal] (2022 lists)

----------------------------
******Notes on this week:

• Below the chart:
  Future Days - Can (1001 Albums list)
  Made in Japan - Deep Purple (1001 Albums list)
  Faust IV - Faust (1001 Albums list)
  Ride the Lightning - Metallica (200 Best Albums of the 80s list) ♡
  The Redshift Blues - Dispirited Spirits (new releases) +
  
  Skipped for recency:
  Here’s Little Richard - Little Richard (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - Derek and the Dominos (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Imagine - John Lennon (Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list)
  Zen Arcade - Hüsker Dü (200 Best Albums of the 80s list)


• First off, I’m doing a Death Cab for Cutie discography run because with the 20th anniversary of Transatlanticism, I keep seeing rankings of their albums popping up and I didn’t feel like I could even decide how I felt about them without a re-listen (and a new listen to at least one of the ones still left to go). Aside from that, I finally got around to the Rhiannon Giddens, which was fun, and the new Sufjan Stevens, which was not. It was good, but not fun - it’s steeped in loss. He came out on release day, saying that the album was dedicated to his partner, who had died in April. Heavy enough on its own, but recently he also said he has been battling Guillain-Barre and has had to relearn to walk.


• Normally I would expect that the worst thing I put in my ear holes this week would be The Smile, seeing as how it’s a Thom Yorke (Radiohead) project. But honestly the Perfume Genius album was probably the worst thing this week.


• Not a ton to say about everything else - the live Deep Purple album was all right, as that sort of thing goes for me, Ride the Lightning is my favorite Metallica album so that was good, and for the rest, there were some good songs here and there but no back-to-front great albums for me.

+ = added to my library
♡ = already in my library

Deep Purple did not make the RS 500. 🙂 (No burning Swiss arenas…).

>48 dchaikin: This is the 3rd one on the 1001 list. They have more room, obviously, but I don't know that they needed all 3. Also I feel like RS has saved so much space by choosing a bunch of greatest hits/complete collections of artists that they probably could have thrown one spot to Deep Purple if they were so inclined. Guess they weren't!

>49 ursula: my biggest issue is no Toad the Wet Sprocket. (Album: Fear) 🙂 The biggest surprise to me is not including the first Boston album (presumably because it’s out of fashion). I also noticed no Moody Blues (apparently RS hates them) or Graham Parsons Project (much less criminal). I haven’t looked at the 1001 list.

>50 dchaikin: And I haven't looked at the entirety of either list. I go through weekly and add in somewhere between a week and 2 weeks' worth of songs to my playlist from where I am. I don't look ahead beyond that.

I like Toad, but I'm not sure I would expect them in the top 500 albums ... on the other hand it's not like I haven't already run across some things I would not have put anywhere near the top 500!

Rhiannon Giddens and Patsy Cline in the same week. I recently discovered Allison Russell, which would fit in there somewhere.

>52 RidgewayGirl: Yes, although I admit I did not listen to the entire "definitive collection". I am annoyed at Rolling Stone's inclusion of those sorts of albums and I just don't need to listen to every single thing ever recorded.

I haven't heard anything by Allison Russell, I'll check her out!

>52 RidgewayGirl: & >53 ursula: I, too, am a big Allison Russell fan (as well as Rhiannon Giddens). Check out the album "Songs of Our Native Daughters" sometime. It features Giddens, Russell, Layla McCalla (another favorite, and she went to the same high school I did! "A Day for the Hunter, A Day for the Prey" is my favorite of her albums so far.) and Amythyst Kiah. Russell's first solo album, "Outside Girl," is stunning--lush and beautiful--though the subject matter is rough stuff. I see she has a new album out this year, "The Returner," that I haven't listened to yet.

Oh I was wrong, I have listened to some Allison Russell - Outside Girl. It wasn't for me.