"The tape winds on into empty space. Inside the headphones I hear the rise and fall, the surf beating in my lungs. Reach for the bottle. Watch the lights."
My favourite passage is actually the end. And fortunately quoting it here also won’t spoil it.
As far as I can recall this was a random bookshop buy and I’m so glad I read it.
"Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes they just get worse. Sometimes all that happens is passing time."
There are actually quite a few more positive sounding quotes from the book. I just haven’t picked them. I’m only picking a few.
"It's asking for trouble to listen to music alone."
Read this book in 2017 and for whatever reason forgot to pull any quotes from it. Re-read again recently so I could correct that. It’s a really good book, really unique.
Asides from spelling center incorrectly this could be my sleeper album of the year. I’m 100% in love with it.
I can’t remember where or when I first heard of Phoebe Bridgers, but it was probably 6music. I gave Stranger in the Alps a listen (I love it; It’s utterly depressing, but I love it) and then moved onto Better Oblivion Community Center. I probably didn’t like it as much on first listen, but the more I listen to it the more I love it.
My favourites are (most of it):
Hands up who wants to stay up ‘til dawn, getting drunk and listening to music?
Yeah, I don’t really have anything to say about it despite liking it a lot, sorry. These aren’t album reviews though. These are feelings
"Women who drink champagne when there is nothing to celebrate can look like that: their straw hats with broken brims are often askew; they nod in public places; their shoes are undone."
To my shame I’d never heard of Toni Morrison until her recent passing so decided to read something of hers and Beloved was in the bookshop. Not knowing the background of the book (aside slavery) and that it was based on a true story made it all the better (because I didn’t know what was coming) so ignorance worked in my favour here; As a rule I skip forewards and any blurb until the end for this reason. On it’s own this quote is not at all representative of the rest of the book, but it stood out to me as I was reading it and it wasn’t until someway past this point in the book that I realised this was the pivotal moment.
Scathing. But absolutely true.
You can read news articles or watch the news, but there is something about speech set to music (Shamen: Re:Evolution springs to mind) that works well.
I’m still struggling with an album of the year this year despite there being lots of good ones so far, but this presented an ideal opportunity to do an EP of the year in the meantime; Although this is a little bit risky with one on the way from Lucia.
Sepia Spectres is sublime. My favourites being The Message, Beds and Grenade.
Discovered OK Button accidentally a few months ago when looking for gigs to go to; I’m hopefully still going. Wasn’t sure about the name initially, but glad I gave them a listen as they are really good. This is not some scrappy garage band - not that I have anything against those - as the production quality on these tracks is really high. The vocals are to die for.
"Most liberating for him was the fact that other people were so far away."
Belatedly posting a quote from this. I read it in January as a result of watching the Netflix series of the same name (and inspired by this book); That Netflix series is GOOD. Picking this quote since it’s relatable - which is also slightly disturbing.
I also read The Pigeon which is just bizarre.
"white laced branches dripping rain holes in the crust"
I wanted to read The Goldfinch, but the book shop didn’t have it so went for this instead. There are (probably) quite a lot of good quotes hidden in there, but seeing as how it’s pretty verbose and I didn’t have a pen with me when reading on holiday they are lost below my memories of risotto.
This one is quite apt though seeing as snow features heavily.
"There are more beginnings then there are ends to contain them."
Holiday reading. Choosing the obvious quote. It reflects both the book itself and the story within the book (if that makes sense?). It’s really good, but confused the hell out of me initially as it doesn’t really have a start, it’s a bit like watching a film half way through and then watching the beginning on +1 at the end. I liked it though - I thought it wasn’t going to wrap things up due to the nature of it, but it actually does so pretty well (pretty grim though).
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