Best of 2011

Most popular artists in my music library in 2011:

1. The Smiths
2. Morrissey
3. The Magnetic Fields
4. Suede
5. Madonna
6. Scritti Politti
7. Erasure
8. The Cure
9. Lady Gaga
10. Pet Shop Boys
11. Veronica Falls
12. Arcade Fire
13. Belle and Sebastian
14. Kronos Quartet
15. Siouxsie and the Banshees

Aren't I predictable?  The same old people in my top fifteen chart again. There are only two newbies - Scritti Politti, who grabbed me by the neck at the start of 2011 with this song, thanks to millionreasons including it in a mix CD, and Veronica Falls, who I discovered at a Dum Dum Girls gig not too long ago. I've downloaded Scritti Politti's Best Of album and love it - in particular "Absolute" because its music video includes someone I once worked with.  Veronica Falls' eponymous debut is very good and will always make me think of gray, depressing Vauxhall.  Arcade Fire's The Suburbs album was a thing of beauty that took me by surprise and will always remind me of going to Saint Yves with loveinsuburbia at the start of the year.  Madonna is far higher in the charts this year which can only mean one thing: I cleaned the house more often than 2010.

Most popular tracks in my music library in 2011:

1. Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
2. Beth Ditto – Open Heart Surgery
3. Propaganda – Duel
4. Veronica Falls – Beachy Head
5. Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
6. Lady Gaga – Born This Way
7. Lady Gaga – Judas
8. The Smiths – Hand in Glove
9. Japan – Gentlemen Take Polaroids
10. a-ha – Take On Me
11. Scritti Politti – Perfect Way
12. Veronica Falls – Found Love in a Graveyard
13. Frank (just Frank) – Cœur Hanté
14. Scritti Politti – Hypnotize (Short Version)
15. Scritti Politti – Absolute

Yes, I'm still very much stuck in the 80s. Beth Ditto did a brilliant performance at Lovebox this summer, though, and I just had to get her EP that features "Open Heart Surgery" - such a great track.  Come back soon to London, Beth!  I don't care what the haterz say about Lady Gaga - I thought Born This Way was a great, fun album. I also downloaded Japan's "Gentlemen Take Polaroids"  from 1980 this year, which has been remastered and is a perfect chilly New Romantic album I can't stop listening to.  Frank (just Frank) are french and armed with guitars that simulate early New Order and The Cure.  Love them.

My top tracks and artists for:
2009
2010

We Need To Talk About This Book

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel is the equivalent of driving by a fresh highway pile up. You go slowly past it, seeing all the bodies crushed inside, the blood on the cement, the sound of ambulances and police far off. You try to look away but you can't. You feel angry at yourself for choosing to drive on that particular time of the day, but later at night you think that maybe you've learned something from the experience.

The novel is made up of letters written by Eva, a successful businesswoman who gave up her career to raise a family, to her husband Franklin, about their young son Kevin who has been sentenced to prison for a killing spree at his school. They are written at the turn of the century, at the height of the epidemic of school shootings in America, just before the twin towers came down on 9/11. The first hundred pages were hard going, as Eva is quite wordy and adds, frankly, a lot of unnecessary padding to the story. But once you get used to her narrative voice, it becomes a compulsive read - a modern horror tale.

I'm not convinced though that it's as good as it's praised. It's popularity surely rests on its subject matter (mother fails to bond with son) rather than the story itself, which is quite tricksy and reliant on some unbelievable plot twists, though Shriver does have a fantastic way with words. It's hard to go into the story without giving things away, but suffice to say that I wasn't convinced Eva - in all her intelligence and perception - could have quietly stood by certain events in her life. Also, the novel's climax calls into question some of the novel's initial build up, making the behaviour of the neighbours towards Eva in the first hundred pages inexplicably bizarre.

I suppose that's the whole point of some horror - it's irrational and plays to the readers' fears. It gets its kicks from exploring our darkest imagination rather than trying to neatly tie things together. I do feel a little bit cheated out by Shriver, but I enjoyed the carnage nevertheless.

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