Cat Stevens - Don't Be Shy

I was listening to Cat Stevens the other day and was amazed at how well his music still sounds.  He has so many good songs and they truly are timeless.  It's all the more impressive when one considers all the songs that are playing currently on the radio - I wonder just how many will still be relevant twenty years from now.

Don't Be Shy is a song from the early 1970's, originally part of the movie soundtrack for Harold and Maude.  If you have not seen the movie, it may be well worth the time.

Please see the video below for music and lyrics.


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Massive Attack - Paradise Circus

Great song by Massive Attack.  I think the song is about giving into one's desires regardless of the consequences and just saying, "Oh well, the devil makes us sin but we like it when we're spinning in his grip."

What a scary album cover!!  If you don't have clown phobias, the picture will definitely help you in developing an aversion to clowns.

Please see the video below for music and lyrics.



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Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten

Interesting song - background vocals remind me of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.    Days Are Forgotten is from their fourth album,  Velociraptor!  It was a good album that charted well in Europe but for some reason seemed to fizzle on the US charts.

Please see video below for music and lyrics.


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Milo Greene - Perfectly Aligned

This is a really simple and beautiful song by Milo Greene, a rock group from California.  None of the members of the group are named Milo Greene.  Instead, it sounds like Milo Greene was a fictitious character that the group created to promote their music.  Read more about that here at jambase.com.

I think the cover for their self-titled album is pretty cool - the stuff of nightmares!!

The video below contains music and lyrics.



If you like the song, please support the artists and buy their music!!!

Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror

Biffy Clyro is a Scottish band that's been around since the mid-nineties.  Many of Horror is from their fifth album, Only Revolutions.  It's quite good with intelligent songs that are dark in nature.  

I think Many of Horror speaks of an abusive relationship evidenced by the line "cause when my back is turned, my bruises shine."  At first, it sounded like a parent/child relationship but I think it's about man who is abused by his partner.  In any case, I'm not sure what "Gilligan's eyes" means - if there is any relationship to the old television show, Gilligan's Island, I cannot see it.

The video below contains the music and lyrics.

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Jónsi - Sinking Friendships

This song held my attention from the moment I first heard it - definitely interesting but I'm not sure that I have all the lyrics down correctly. Jónsi's vocalizations make it difficult to identify some of the words.  Searching on the Internet didn't help a lot either.  One line especially puzzles me: Nigh misfortune...unlively like a glue.  It's what almost every website that specializes in song lyrics state are the words but I'm not convinced.

I think the song is about the impermanence of friendships (not much deep thing required there when considering the song title).  More importantly, in his line, "Our sinking friendships...We drown them all," I think he's singing that relationships end through our own actions/inactions that drive people away.  It's sad but true - how many lifelong friendships ever exist or is it really just an oxymoron?  Maybe friendship is a transient thing that changes over a period of time and "we should wear two lifesaving layers...since no one knows you till it's over...you know no one true till it's over."  I'd like to think that's not the case!

I don't know much about Jónsi except that he is from Iceland.  I must have a soft spot for music coming out of there, given that I love Of Monsters and Men and The Sugarcubes so much!

Below is the video containing music and lyrics.

If you like the song, please support the artist and buy his music!!!

Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi - Two Against One

Two Against One is a song from Rome, an album collaboration from Danger Mouse and Danielle Luppi.  The song features Jack White on vocals.  It's a great song, definitely one of the better ones on the album.   There are some great lines on there like "I keep my enemies closer than my mirror ever gets to me."  One can feel the complete self-hatred the person has for himself - it's rough when you lose arguments to yourself!

Please see the video below for music and lyrics.


If you like the song, please support the artists and buy their music!!!

Little Dragon - Twice

I like this song by the group, Little Dragon, though I'm not completely sure what it means.  My best guess is that singer has fallen in love twice based on the line where she sings that she "thought [she] had an answer once but your random ways swept me along"  and is now confused by the turn of events.

I found the official video to be clever and entertaining but not all that useful in providing more clarity about the lyrics.  While it tells a story, I'm not convinced it's the story that the lyrics convey.  You can find that video here.

The video below contains the music and lyrics.


If you like the song, please support the artists and buy their music!!

Jason Walker - Midnight Starlight

It's hard to choose just one of Jason Walker's songs as a favorite.  I don't think there is a single song of his that I don't like.  He's only had two albums but both are excellent and I highly recommend them.

Midnight Starlight is representative of his music.  All the songs are filled with intelligent lyrics and great accompanying music - he's truly gifted!!

Please see the video below for music and lyrics.



If you like the song, please support the artist and buy his music!!

Book - Life Of Pi (2003)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel was an interesting read.  I started reading it before I knew that a movie based on the novel was coming.  If I had known, I would have read it much earlier, since everyone knows that only really good books get made into movies (sarcasm intended).

The author’s introduction raises the reader’s expectations, at least indirectly, by having one of the characters state that this is “a story that will make you believe in God.”  I’m not sure that this story convinced me one way or the other but it kept my attention.  I tried hard to keep spoilers from being part of the summary – there are flashbacks and interludes to the present that make the story non-linear.  Even so, I will be sparing with the details.  The book is separated into three parts.

Part One was the most enjoyable section for me and takes place in India, mostly in the territory of Pondicherry (or now called Puducherry).  This was a former French territory that is now part of India and still retains some vestiges of French colonization.  The reader is introduced to Piscine (Pi) Patel and the narrative runs through zoo-keeping, religions, Indian history, regional cuisines and many other fascinating topics.  It was engaging and connects the unlikely dots through which Pi becomes a practicing Hindu, Christian and Muslim.  And, yes, we do get an explanation for why the main character is named Piscine.

Part Two was a study in survival techniques onboard a raft in the Pacific and can be quite gruesome in some parts.  The monotony of being a castaway adrift on the Pacific and surviving for seven months or so with one other companion (Richard Parker) is an unbelievable tale that is made possible through the vivid detail given by Martel.  While the monotony and repetition bled into the reading experience, it was a necessary device to ensure that the reader shared in the pain.

Part Three was the section least interesting to me.  The eventual landfall and investigation seemed like a bolt-on to allow Martel to envelop the story in symbolism and make this larger than itself  - a choice of stories that gives the atheist and the religious something to grasp and leaves the agnostic purposely without answers, as the author believes is deserved.  As Pi says, “It is not the atheists who get stuck in my craw but agnostics…to choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”  However, I think the conclusion falls flat and is not as powerful as it should have been, for two reasons:

• The criticism against agnostics is harsh.  Ask any woman who has been trapped with a man who will not stop to ask for directions when lost and she will tell you that movement for the sake of moving is worthless - far better to stop and get more information.  The agnostic may simply be waiting for more information.
• Martel's allegory has Pi providing two separate stories which means one is patently false.  It's a poor representation of searching for truth from multiple sources, all of which may contain some part of the truth.

While I was drawn to the religious discourse through the book, I found the possibility of a Hindu who also became a practicing Christian and Muslim more difficult to believe than some of the other parts of this tale.  I do not believe that one can pick and choose parts of a religion and still be an adherent.  If idolatry is proscribed by both Christianity and Islam, how can one still be either of those and also be Hindu?  I once met an Indian physicist who claimed to be both Christian and Hindu - I walked away from the conversation thinking that he drew spiritual insights from both religions but could not honestly be called a follower of one or both.  I think adding in a third religion in the mix is beyond my ability to suspend disbelief. 

In any case, I truly enjoyed reading the Life of Pi.  I learned a lot from it and hope that I have it with me if I ever find myself floating on the Pacific in a raft or need to train a tiger for a circus.  I would strongly recommend the book.  It's very entertaining; however, I don't believe this is a book that will change your life, regardless of the hype you may hear based on the movie.

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