Musing

An email circulating in Great Britain describes the sudden arrival of warm weather, something like our first glimpse of 80* a couple of weeks ago. This is one of those few forwards where I know or care what the writer is talking about. Crude language/subject matter warning. Reader discretion is advised. Ah, Tit Monday. It’s not that far off now, That glorious day when, heading into work on the bus, or walking to theTube, or sitting on the train, you find yourself suddenly chirpier than you have been in months. You find yourself smiling at strangers again. There is a mild involuntary tumescence in your trousers that comes and goes throughout the morning with the comforting regularity of a heartbeat. And then you get a text around lunchtime from a mate which says: “At last, Tit Monday!” And you instantly understand why you are so happy. For Tit Monday is that special day in the year when, for the first time, the temperature rises above that magical point which causes girls getting dres...

Album Review: The Alphabet of Hurricanes This fan review of AoH nailed something that I've had a hard time finding the words to explain. In the process, he loses the words to explain it himself. Thirdly: the songs. Usually, when I do this reviewy thing, I walk myself through the songs, but for now I'm not going to do that yet. Which is a very, very good thing. I like two types of music: music that I can't sit still to and music that makes you hold your breath, waiting for and at the same time dreading the end, because of its sheer beauty. Music has to move me, preferably beyond myself, if at all possible to that transcendent plane where you accidentally bump into spectres of words that don't exist or ideas you never had because you couldn't get a hold of them. TAoH strikes a great balance between tracks that are immediately and obviously great and tracks that are growers. This is probably the defining mark of any album that withstands the test of time - it has l...