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Natasha Khan recommended Post by Bjork in Music (curated)

Post by Bjork

2006 | Rock

7.3

(3 Ratings)

Album Favorite

"I think it's because when I was 12 I had Debut and I really liked that because I was just dancing around singing and enjoying it, quite an innocent record that had some beautiful moments. But really for me Post is an album I heard that was unlike any other at the time which was combining electronic and organic elements and I just really enjoyed delving into that sonic universe that she created, it's so experimental and forward-thinking and unique to her, but it perfectly fit into that time and landscape. I think it's really timeless. I think she has become a certain thing now but on those first four or five albums, for me, she was such a pioneer and so fiercely dedicated to her art and so unique and so closely linked to themes of nature and passion and love and the body and raw childlike feelings, and using all these really exciting instruments and sounds to put across her pop songs. 'Army Of Me' was the first single that came out - [sings intro] - POW! Clanging, massive drums and Michel Gondry was making the videos and I think the album just sonically draws in so many amazing, London early to mid nineties influences. But then having songs like 'Cover Me'. I remember hearing an alternately recorded version of 'Cover Me' which she actually did in a bat cave! You can hear the bats squealing and flitting about, so there's all these kind of sub-bass, deep 808 beat noises that I got really excited about, but she's got like bloody harpsichords and harps and stuff like really archaic chamber music sounds mixed with really heavily electronic digital sounds. So that was a real education, combining those things, because for me, if it's too much of one or the other I miss them a bit. Even on Berlin there's a lot of real instruments but there's synths and stuff going on too - I love it when people combine those things. Also, the eclecticness of the record: she's not afraid to travel from songs like 'I Miss You' which is that type of fanfare to 'Army Of Me' which is dark and techno and 'Hyperballad', which is like fucking four-to-the-floor, but just with all these strings it's super-emotive, a Technicolor dream."

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BookInspector (124 KP) rated The Woman with Wings in Books

Sep 24, 2020

The Woman with Wings

James MacManus | 2019 | Contemporary, Science Fiction/Fantasy

4.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Alison works in the international advertising company as an IT specialist, and she loves bird watching. During one of her trips, she falls off the mountain but survives. I liked Alison as a person, she is a loner, and she is doing what she loves. She is like every other female in London, only she gets wings from somewhere. Alison has a great friend Jed, who likes and supports her, and a rich executive of the company named Doxat that fancies her, so this book could’ve been a great romantic novel, and those wings ruined it for me. The story was told from multiple perspectives, but the transition between those perspectives was quite blurry, I would’ve liked if different thoughts started as a different chapter.

Alison talks a lot about birds and their migration, it is great to know about this, especially because Alison’s true passion is birds, but I was skim-reading them because I don’t like copy-paste material. I am sure, bird enthusiasts will enjoy the information, and I can see the research put into that, but those parts were not for me. Another thing that did not make sense to me were parts about Kurt Godel and his mathematical calculations regarding time traveling. There were pages and pages about the same thing, which was well researched and very philosophical, but at the same time repetitive and felt like pasted there out of Wikipedia. :/ I liked the way Alison was interacting with other characters, and there was an interesting love triangle going on in there, but that’s about it.

I was not a very big fan of the writing style of this novel, it seemed well researched, and poetic, but at the same time, it felt raw and unfinished. The setting of this book was changing between London and remote places of the UK like Skye, and I enjoyed its picturesque views. The chapters were quite long, and the narrative quite jumpy. The culmination of this novel didn’t make any sense to me and left me with million of questions instead of answers. :/

So, to conclude, this book was not for me. It has interesting characters, and I enjoyed their relationships with each other, and this book has great potential, but the plot didn’t really impress me. I think this book might interest a bird-loving community as well as people who enjoy philosophy.