Song for Sunday

Vampire Weekend – Ya Hey

A bit late this week, but it's still Sunday somewhere in the world ...

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Delay Trees – HML

Song for Sunday

Young Galaxy – Pretty Boy

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: Burial – Hiders

Books of 2012

Been thinking about my favourite books of the year (and records, but more of that later) and realised that I never made a list for 2012. I don't think I did one for 2011 either, but that seems like an eternity away, and for some reason 2012 feels like it just finished. Probably something to do with the speed that 2013 seems to have passed by at.

Anyway, here is the top ten, with basic statistics underneath. Apparent again is a heavy bias towards fiction, male authors and books published in the last three years; although with an interesting peak from the early noughties mainly due to my Russell Hoban obsession.

Top 10
1 That Summer – Andrew Greig
2 Sightlines – Kathleen Jamie
3 Open City – Teju Cole
4 Gods Without Men – Hari Kunzru
5 Hawthorn and Child – Keith Ridgway
6 The Emperor of All Maladies – Siddhartha Mukherjee
7 The Gone-Away World – Nick Harkaway
8 Not the Last Goodbye – David Servan-Schreiber
9 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson
10 Backroom Boys – Francis Spufford

Statistics
Total: 41 books
Fiction: 29 titles
Non-fiction: 12 titles
Number of authors: 36
Male authors: 31
Female authors: 5
Published in 2012: 6
Published in 2011: 16
Published in 2010: 4
Published in 2009: 2
Published in 2008: 0
Published in 2007: 1
Published in 2006: 1
Published in 2005: 0
Published 2000-04: 8
Published 1990-99: 2
Published 1980-89: 1
Published before 1980: 0

And because I love a good graph, or three, here is the last three year's reading broken down month-by-month:

Which looks all right, not hitting my target of 52 books a year, but still not too bad for someone at my stage of life, with a heavy iPad Scrabble habit.

However, things start to look a little less rosy when you compare this to the number of books acquired over the same timeframe (noting the different scale on the y-axis of course):

And then the really scary one:

Assuming I manage to survive for another 30 years what this tells me is that I need to stop buying any books (or asking for them as Christmas presents) in about 10 years. Either that or start to read quicker.

Song for Sunday

London Grammar – Strong

And if you like that I can heartily recommend this three song session recorded last month for KEXP.

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: Young Galaxy – Talk to Her

Song for Sunday

Mogwai – The Lord is Out of Control

Oooh, this is exciting. First track from the new Mogwai album due out on 20 January 2014.

Band/artist of the week: British Sea Power
Song of the week: Manic Street Preachers – Show Me the Wonder

Song for Sunday

Camera Obscura – New Year's Resolution

Band/artist of the week: Frightened Rabbit
Song of the week: Manor – Architecture

Song for Sunday

Manor – Architecture

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Manor – Architecture

Song for Sunday

For a Minor Reflection – Kastljós

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Young Galaxy – Talk to Her

Song for Sunday

Dean Wareham – Love is Colder Than Death

Band/artist of the week: Rodriguez
Song of the week: Young Galaxy – Talk to Her

Songs for Sunday

Lou Reed – Strawman


Lou Reed – Pale Blue Eyes

It was the South Bank Show that first introduced me to the genius of Lou Reed. It was 1986 I think and I was in my final year at high school, still 16 but beginning to explore backwards into the history of rock; mostly prompted by reading interviews with R.E.M. where they were talking about their influences. Peter Buck was talking about the Velvet Underground and a song called Pale Blue Eyes that R.E.M. had done a cover of and I must have seen a trailer for the programme, so I got my parents to video it. 10.30pm on Sunday was too late to stay up and watch it live, even with the sparse and flexible timetable of Sixth Year Studies.

The documentary opened up a whole new era and cast of musicians to explore and resulted in the purchase of White Light/White Heat. Even though my musical tastes had long before expanded beyond a weekly diet of Top of the Pops to The Old Grey Whistle Test and later The Tube, it is safe to say that I hadn't experienced anything remotely close to The Velvet Underground. The documentary stayed with me for a long time, but I never got that into the Velvet's music – although there was plenty to enjoy it was always off-set by those tracks which seemed designed just to test the listener's patience. An extension of the attitude outlined by John Cale in his famous quote, 'The only reason we wore sunglasses onstage was because we couldn't stand the sight of the audience.'

My next real encounter with Lou came with his 1989 solo album New York, which got a lot of plays in the EUOC minibuses to events. His fifteenth solo album, he clearly made a lot of music between leaving the Velvets in 1970 and this album, but for some reason I didn't ever get to hear much of it. I liked New York, especially the furiously vitriolic Strawman, but there were plenty other bands and albums that I liked a lot more. Apart from New York and a handle of other songs it just seemed like the further away from he got from the late sixties the less relevant he became.

So, I hadn't really thought much about Lou for a long time, but last Sunday we were watching a documentary about Paul Kelly and Lou's name came up as another famous rock survivor who managed to get through the heroin addiction and live a fairly long and happy life (undoubtably helped by his marriage to Laurie Anderson). Then on Monday the news that he had died at home and all the endless media that accompanies the death of someone so iconic and influential. These two songs may not be his best known or well loved, but they are two that mean a lot to me and I think show what a fine and talented songwriter he was.

Song of the week: Suede – For the Strangers
Band/artist of the week: Moby

Song for Sunday

East India Youth – Looking for Someone

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Mogwai – How to be a Werewolf

Song for Sunday

Lanterns on the Lake – Another Tale from Another English Town

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Moby (feat. Wayne Coyne) – The Perfect Life

Song for Sunday

Moby (with Wayne Coyne) – The Perfect Life

Band/artist of the week: Moby
Song of the week: Moby – Going Wrong

Song for Sunday

Chvrches – Recover

Band/artist of the week: Chvrches
Song of the week: Sebadoh – I Will

Song for Sunday

Manic Street Preachers – Show Me the Wonder

On holiday, so no song or band of the week. Normal service will be resumed next week.

Song for Sunday

Sebadoh – I Will

Band/artist of the week: Manic Street Preachers
Song of the week: Manic Street Preachers (feat. Richard Hawley) – Rewind the Film

Song for Sunday

Gang of Youths – Riverlands

Band/artist of the week: Glasvegas
Song of the week: London Grammar – Hey Now

Song for Sunday

Hoy – Get Some Sleep

Band/artist of the week: London Grammar
Song of the week: London Grammar – Hey Now

Song for Sunday

Suede – For the Strangers

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Suede – For the Strangers

Song for Sunday

Glasvegas – If

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: The National – Demons

Song for Sunday

Camera Obscura – Break It to You Gently

Band/artist of the week: Mogwai
Song of the week: Placebo – Nancy Boy

Song for Sunday

Rodriguez – Crucify Your Mind (Summer with Monika)

Band/artist of the week: Deptford Goth
Song of the week: Deptford Goth – Union

Song for Sunday

Little Green Cars – My Love Took Me Down to the River to Silence Me

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Manic Street Preachers (feat. Richard Hawley) – Rewind the Film

Song for Sunday

Phosphorescent – Song for Zula

Band/artist of the week: The National
Song of the week: Lykke Li – Velvet

Song for Sunday

David Lynch and Lykke Li – I'm Waiting Here

Band/artist of the week: M83
Song of the week: Frightened Rabbit – Holy