still-breathing MediaShelf

Dream No. 7 by Reamonn

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:27:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Come and Go
2. La Trieste
3. Everytime she goes away
4. C Inside
5. Picture of Heaven
6. New World
7. Flowers
8. Only when you sleep
9. Life is a Dream
10. Weep (Bonus Track)
11. Saving an Angel (Bonus Track)
12. Jeanny (Bonus Track)

Review Since I loved their previous album "Tuesday", I bought "Dream No. 7" when it was released, although I had not liked the single "Weep" very much. The first time I listened to it, I was extremely disappointed. I thought it was a terrible album. I hadn't put the CD in my player for years until, to write this review, I listened to it again. I was surprised to find that I remembered some of the songs. Maybe it is not an entirely terrible album. The songs are strong and try to be more rock than pop. Maybe they fail at that, maybe it simply is not my thing - which is doubtful, because I am a rock fan. After "C Inside", I have trouble telling the songs apart and I find the ballads to be rather uninspired. Apart from that, I thought the cover of "Jeanny" was unnecessary, not to mention the fact that I strongly dislike Xavier Naidoo. I lost my interest in Reamonn after this album and it isn't one I will listen to again for the next few years.

Recs "Come and Go", "La Trieste", "New World".

Tuesday by Reamonn

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:58:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. 7th Son
2. Supergirl
3. Swim
4. If I Go
5. Josephine
6. Head In My Hand
7. She's So Sexual
8. Torn
9. Stripped
10. Waiting There For You
11. Just A Day

Review I got to know Reamonn as an opening act to HIM. Reamonn is a fantastic live band. I went and bought their debut album and I absolutely loved it. I still do, while I will admit that the nostalgia factor is high and it might contribute to my fondness for "Tuesday". Is it mainstream? Perhaps. Though at the time nobody I knew listened to music like this. "Supergirl" was popular, but it is by far not the best song on this album. It's full of fine, refreshing pop and rock that never gets boring and is actually fun to listen to.

Recs "7th Son", "Head In My Hands", "Torn", "Just a Day".

For Sale by Fool's Garden

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:53:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Who Are You?
2. Allright
3. Suzy
4. Missing
5. Save Me
6. She's So Happy To Be
7. It Can Happen
8. Interlude
9. In The Name
10. Still
11. Pure
12. Monday Morning Girl
13. Noone's Song
14. Happy

Review n/a

Recs "Suzy".

Dish of the Day by Fool's Garden

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:18:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Ordinary Man
2. Meanwhile
3. Lemon Tree
4. Pieces
5. Take Me
6. Wild Days
7. The Seal
8. Autumn
9. The Tocsin
10. Finally
11. One Fine Day

Review A very fine, almost perfect album. Some great pop, some The Beatles, some U2. I can only highly recommend it. I like "Lemon Tree", but Fool's Garden is so much more.

Recs "Ordinary Man", "Lemon Tree", "Pieces", "Wild Days".

Let Love In by Goo Goo Dolls

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:57:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Stay With You
2. Let Love In
3. Feel the Silence
4. Better Days
5. Without You Here
6. Listen
7. Give a Little Bit
8. Can't Let It Go
9. We'll Be Here (When You're Gone)
10. Strange Love
11. Become

Gutterflower by Goo Goo Dolls

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:50:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Big Machine
2. Think About Me
3. Here Is Gone
4. You Never Know
5. What a Scene
6. Up, Up, Up
7. It's Over
8. Sympathy
9. What Do You Need?
10. Smash
11. Tucked Away
12. Truth Is a Whisper

Dizzy Up The Girl by Goo Goo Dolls

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:34:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Dizzy
2. Slide
3. Broadway
4. January Friend
5. Black Balloon
6. Bullet Proof
7. Amigone
8. All Eyes on Me
9. Full Forever
10. Acoustic #3
11. Iris
12. Extra Pale
13. Hate This Place

Review It probably is mainstream, but that doesn't change the fact that there is basically not one really bad or boring song on this album. I can listen to it again and again, it doesn't get old. It also features some remarkable songs, especially "Acoustic #3" and, of course, "Iris".

Recs "Dizzy", "All Eyes on Me", "Acoustic #3", "Iris", "Extra Pale".

A Boy Named Goo by Goo Goo Dolls

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:25:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Long Way Down
2. Burnin' Up
3. Naked
4. Flat Top
5. Impersonality
6. Name
7. Only One
8. Somethin' Bad
9. Ain't That Unusual
10. So Long
11. Eyes Wide Open
12. Disconnected
13. Slave Girl

Read My Sign by Bell Book & Candle

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. Hurry Up
2. Read My Sign
3. Still Points
4. Heyo
5. Imagine
6. Realize
7. Rescue Me
8. Dark Moon
9. Rhapsody In Blue
10. See Ya
11. Hear Me
12. So Right
13. Destiny

Review I got this because I really liked "Rescue Me". It's a solid debut album featuring catchy, while unfortunately not that original pop music. Jana Gross has a good voice and I like it, but as is commonly noted, on this album she often sounds like she is copying Dolores O'Riordan.

Recs "Rescue Me", "Read My Sign", "Imagine", "Hear Me".

Highlands by Various

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:30:00 +0200

Tracklist
1. The Mummer's Dance (Loreena McKennitt)
2. The Voyage (Christy Moore)
3. Runaway (The Corrs)
4. Fields of Gold (Daughters of the Celtic Moon feat. Lisa Lynne)
5. Mna na h-eireann (Kate Bush)
6. Incomplete (Fish with Elisabeth Antwi)
7. Breaking the Waves (Avalone feat. Sarah McRoann)
8. The Man is Alive (Luka Bloom)
9. M'Ionam (Capercaillie)
10. The Inner Child (Mike Oldfield)
11. In a Lifetime (Clannad feat. Bono)
12. My Special Child (Sinead O'Connor)
13. Abhainn an t-sluaigh (Runrig)
14. Eden (Sarah Brightman)
15. Belfast Child (Simple Minds)
16. Greensleeves (Blackmore's Night)

Review I bought this CD back in 2000 because I liked "Runaway" by The Corrs. While those days are gone, I still have a weakness for Celtic music. There are some lengths and songs that are not my thing, still the album features great musicians and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to listen to sometimes dreamy, sometimes melancholic and wistful music.

Recs "Mna na h-eireann" (Kate Bush), "Incomplete" (Fish with Elisabeth Antwi), "In A Lifetime" (Clannad feat. Bono).

The Conjure Woman and Other Conjure Tales by Charles W. Chesnutt

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:06:00 +0200

“The stories in The Conjure Woman were Charles W. Chesnutt's first great literary success, and since their initial publication in 1899 they have come to be seen as some of the most remarkable works of African American literature from the Emancipation through the Harlem Renaissance. Lesser known, though, is that the The Conjure Woman, as first published by Houghton Mifflin, was not wholly Chesnutt's creation but a work shaped and selected by his editors. This edition reassembles for the first time all of Chesnutt's work in the conjure tale genre, the entire imaginative feat of which the published Conjure Woman forms a part. It allows the reader to see how the original volume was created, how an African American author negotiated with the tastes of the dominant literary culture of the late nineteenth century, and how that culture both promoted and delimited his work.
In the tradition of Uncle Remus, the conjure tale listens in on a poor black southerner, speaking strong dialect, as he recounts a local incident to a transplanted northerner for the northerner's enlightenment and edification. But in Chesnutt's hands the tradition is transformed. No longer a reactionary flight of nostalgia for the antebellum South, the stories in this book celebrate and at the same time question the folk culture they so pungently portray, and ultimately convey the pleasures and anxieties of a world in transition. Written in the late nineteenth century, a time of enormous growth and change for a country only recently reunited in peace, these stories act as the uneasy meeting ground for the culture of northern capitalism, professionalism, and Christianity and the underdeveloped southern economy, a kind of colonial Third World whose power is manifest in life charms, magic spells, and ha'nts, all embodied by the ruling figure of the conjure woman. Humorous, heart-breaking, lyrical, and wise, these stories make clear why the fiction of Charles W. Chesnutt has continued to captivate audiences for a century. ”

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:03:00 +0200

Star Wars Chronicles by Deborah Fine

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:23:00 +0200

“The Star Wars Chronicles documents the mythical galaxy of the Star Wars movies, includes behind-the-scenes information on the making of the films, and provides other Star Wars related information on comics, spin-off novels, and more.”

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:09:00 +0200

“July 1209: in Carcassonne a seventeen-year-old girl is given a mysterious book by her father which he claims contains the secret of the true Grail. Although Ala�s cannot understand the strange words and symbols hidden within, she knows that her destiny lies in keeping the secret of the labyrinth safe...
July 2005: Alice Tanner discovers two skeletons in a forgotten cave in the French Pyrenees. Puzzled by the labyrinth symbol carved into the rock, she realises she's disturbed something that was meant to remain hidden. Somehow, a link to a horrific past - her past - has been revealed.”

Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:05:00 +0200

“The play features Catherine Holly, a young woman who seems to go insane after her cousin Sebastian dies on a trip to Europe under mysterious circumstances. Sebastian's mother, Violet Venable, tries to cloud the truth about her son's homosexuality and his death, as she wants him to be remembered as a great artist. She threatens to lobotomize Catherine for her incoherent utterances relating to Sebastian's demise. Finally, under the influence of a truth serum, Catherine tells the gruesome story of Sebastian's death by cannibalism at the hand of local boys whose sexual favors he sought. Both his mother and later Catherine were only devices for him to attract the young men.” (wikipedia)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:59:00 +0200

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Other Plays.

“As mirrors of his emotional and imaginative life, the plays of Tennessee Williams explore the darker side of human nature and are haunted by the pervasive theme of loneliness that is humanity's inescapable destiny.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, one of his masterpieces, seethes with the family tensions, suppressed sexuality and the less-than-secret whisper of scandal that lie beneath the civilized veneer of the American South. The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore is a passionate examination of a woman's life as she recounts her memoirs in the face of death. In The Night of the Iguana a group of diverse people are thrown together in an isolated Mexican hotel, all imprisoned in their own way.”

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:54:00 +0200

A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays.

“Tennessee Williams's sensous, atmospheric plays transformed the American stage with their passion, exoticism and vibrant characters who rage against their personal demons and the modern world. In A Streetcar Named Desire fading southern belle Blanche Dubois finds her romantic illusions brutally shattered; The Glass Menagerie portrays an introverted girl trapped in a fantasy world; and Sweet Bird of Youth shows how we are unable to escape 'the enemy, time'.”

Hawthorne: A Life by Brenda Wineapple

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:46:00 +0200

“Mercurial and double-edged as his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne stands before us as a strangely modern figure - darkly handsome, obsessed with family secrets and guilt, self-conscious, charismatic, a man of endless complexity, and an artist of incomparable genius. His intimates included Melville, Emerson, Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Franklin Pierce - yet even among his closest friends he remained elusive.
Brenda Wineapple succeeds as no other biographer has in giving us the man in full - the tender husband and father, the tortured scion of a once great New England family, the loyal friend, the towering but ultimately tragic writer. Written with passion and grace, dazzling in its insights, Hawthorne: A Life paints a stunning portrait of a quintessential American author and of the age he helped create. A model of the biographer's art, it will stand as one of the great literary lives of our day. ”

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:24:00 +0200

“In the 1840s Nathaniel Hawthorne spent several months in a Utopian socialist community outside Boston, an episode he claimed was the most romantic of his life - 'essentially a daydream, and yet a fact'.
Miles Coverdale, the narrator, flees the city for Blithedale Farm, where he and a group of like-minded companions intend to begin reforming a dissipated America. But the group - Coverdale the prurient bachelor, Hollingsworth the furious philanthropist, Zenobia the voluptuous feminist, Priscilla the vulnerable seamstress - are a powerfl mix of competing desires and drives, and the idealism which inspires them finds little satisfaction in hard farm labour. Instead of dropping bad old habits and changing the world, the members of the community individually pursue egotistical paths which must lead ultimately to tragedy.”

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0200

“In a sleepy little England village stands a dark, weather-beaten, many-gabled house. This brooding mansion is haunted by a centuries-old curse that casts the shadow of ancestral sin upon the last four members of the distinctive old Pyncheon family. Mysterious deaths threaten the living. Musty documents nestle behind hidden panels carrying the secret of the family's salvation - or its downfall.
Hawthorne called The House of the Seven Gables "a Romance", and freely bestowed it with many fascinating gothic touches. A brilliant intertwining of the popular, the symbolic and the historical, the novel is a powerful exploration of personal and national guilt, a work Henry James declared "the closest approach we are likely to have to the Great American Novel."”