December 2018.
Here are some things I’ve been listening to this year; mainly new, but some gems have also tumbled back into my life https://open.spotify.com/user/charliegladstone/playlist/78OVq9pC0zVmkO1IIrfJe9?si=yMtRqCTIQuajCHSHaa619Q
I’m not sure what I make of William Boyd’s latest book Love is Blind. I mean, it’s good but it’s an odd one to pin down. Sometimes I wonder what the point of a novel is, which is perhaps a strange thing to say when I am constantly reading them. But part of me just asked ‘Why?” when I read this. And he’s written some great books. Geoff Dyer has published a new essay/short book Broadsword Calling Danny Boy which is a typically brilliant and hilarious guide to Where Eagles Dare.
In podcasts, all of the usual suspects have been honing their game and luring me in; Adam Buxton, Marc Maron, Sodajerker, Distraction Pieces (which I have a love/hate relationship with), Athletico Mince.
In Audiobooks; I am also sporadically dipping in and out of Michelle Obama’s book but, if I am honest, I found it rather boring and worthy. I am sure it’s great and I know she is more than great, but it just wasn’t for me. The Beastie Boys Book on Audible is amazing. I am not a particular fan of their music, though we did see them on their joint tour with Run DMC is the mid eighties, but this audiobook is recorded in such a lively, funny, creative and engaging way that I loved it.
In music the new Kate Bush remasters are out on vinyl. I think Aerial/Sea of Honey is one of the best albums ever made and so I’m glad to have that on vinyl although I think I might have over listened to it this summer. It’s making me feel a bit sick. I’ve been listening to the new The Good, The Bad and The Queen album a fair bit. It’s a rich and textured album and is perhaps a bit too monochrome for me to truly love but it’s a bold piece of work. James Blake keeps dropping new tracks into our lives. It’s time for a new album Mr Blake. There are bits on Thom Yorke’s soundtrack to Suspiria that I really, really like. It’s a melancholy, confident and subtle work. He’s so damn clever.
Narcos Mexico dragged me under its spell. It’s perhaps the best of the series, being a little more complicated than the Colombian ones (although the narrative arc is much the same). Ozark is really good. I didn’t love it, I think it’s a fraction too dark for me and I found no characters to warm to. The use of a full Radiohead song at the end of Episode 1 is -alone- worth the price of admission to Netflix. The Coldplay biopic is great too. I don’t care what you think, they are the finest stadium band in the world. Having seen War on Drugs resolutely fail to rise to the challenge of entertaining the o2 Arena last week (or even try to rise to the challenge), I could do with a bit of Coldplay in my life. It’s funny, War on Drugs and Coldplay make pretty similar music; at once old and new, comforting and innovative. But while War on Drugs are considered cool, Coldplay aren’t. I listen to the former a lot and not the latter but what Coldplay do live is without precedent and it’s brilliant. Watch the biopic and I challenge you to argue on that one.