Old Times. New Times.

Work is very busy. Plus the little bit of time I have has been spent on late night hanging around news sites thanks to wikileaks ☺ But I don’t blog on work or politics so I will turn my thoughts briefly to music I recently blogged about. Partly because its been my background soundtrack for the past few weeks. Most of this has been a fair few rousing Decemberists songs. And can I say that if was 25 I might have entertained the thought of having a wee crush on its lead singer, Colin Meloy?!

Quite a few Decemberists songs are like old timey stuff made fresh. Like someone rummaged through old ballads, sea shanties, agricultural work songs and the like and made up whole new tales. Plus they love songs of doomed love. There is a degree of artifice and hyperliterateness about the lyrics of these songs for which I think the band has been criticised (as well as for its small degree of musical plundering) but I quite enjoy these new constructions from old materials. And Meloy's distinctive voice. Some of the songs are political but as always happens its when the personal seeps into a song that it becomes both simple and touching as in this song about the birth of his son.

Now in spite of the aforementioned potential crush, Meloy is no matinee idol. Johnny Flynn could be or well at the very least he needs to be put in a period film fast.

Flynn’s songs are also clearly influenced by British and American folk songs. His songs are also hyperliterate but unlike the Decemberists he is far more reflective and perhaps far more elegant in the construction of his verse. One of the reviews on the singer touched on his possibly being the best songwriter of his generation and this may well be true, I can't think of any other singer I have liked as much as Nick Drake. He is nowhere as well known as Mumford & Sons and Marling, perhaps his songs are not as accessible. Also they seem to be primarily poetry. And there do seem to be a few of his poems around, like this one. 

And keeping with the old timey theme, I have also been reading tweets of old sporadically and amusing myself. "Several at this place are becoming attached to the outside world by having telephones put in their houses" - indeed!

And last, it’s been ages since I bothered with the foreign Oscar winners. Too many seem intended for a bourgeois audience who can congratulate themselves on their good taste. I had Babette’s Feast somewhere in my chest of DVDs (!!) but dug it out just this Friday. Based on an Isak Dinensen story, it turned out to be both old timey and unexpectedly good. Maybe the slowness, the philosophical nature of the film was a welcome respite after a long week.