The Blue in the Air
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Review
Marcello Carlin lures or impels us through an astonishing maze of music, much of it very likely unfamiliar with, from radical free improv to one off novelty pop, via every imaginable sheeptrack or rat run or scenic bus ride. --(Mark Sinker)
Product Description
A former widower whose life was saved by writing about music spends a year waiting for his new wife to fly over from Toronto and join him in London. While he waits he observes that the world is subtly changing and that music has played a key part in these changes. A galaxy of characters, ranging from Marty Wilde to Jay-Z via Glenn Gould, Dorothy Squires, Britney Spears, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Patrick Cargill, Orson Welles and many forgotten others, conspire to alter his perspective, leading to a climax where he is finally united with his wife and the world chooses a new and better leader. The Blue in the Air is a gesture of defiance from a tiny but meaningful tugboat of resistance. At a time when we are repeatedly encouraged for reasons of demographic convenience to believe that music can change nothing and mean nothing, this writer demonstrates comprehensively that for those who stay awake, alert and alive, music still retains the power to change the fabric of the air we choose to breathe.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
So, why would you want to read a collection of short essays about a bunch of tracks you've mostly never heard of? There are several reasons. Firstly, Marcello Carlin has a way of writing about these tracks - a wildly eclectic selection, ranging from Dorothy Squires to Stockhausen via Britney Spears and Mott The Hoople - in a vividly descriptive way, that instantly has you reaching for YouTube or Spotify to check your reactions against his. Secondly, the range and depth of Carlin's knowledge is unparalleled in contemporary music writing; this is a man who has dedicated his life to the appreciation of music in all its forms. Thirdly, the intensity of Carlin's passion - he truly loves all these tracks, and he wants you to feel the same - lifts The Blue In The Air clear of any reference-book dullness.
And fourthly - and perhaps most crucially - this is a writer who is unafraid of framing his observations within a deeply personal context. As the preface makes clear, these essays were written during a crucial period of change in Carlin's personal life. Widowed several years earlier, with devastating consequences to his state of mind, music became his lifeline, and writing about music became his means of re-connecting with the world. After striking up correspondence with a reader of his pioneering music blog (The Church Of Me), his friendship converted to love, and love to marriage. While waiting for his second wife to join him in the UK from her native Canada, Carlin's formerly bleak worldview brightened, and his new-found sense of joyful redemption and optimism pervades the whole collection. Thus it doesn't take too much work to read between the lines of his text, re-casting it as an extended love letter, and a prayer for a better future. Music can serve no higher purpose, and Carlin's music writing - incisive, idiosyncratic, passionate, and bursting with life - is a glorious reflection of how art can serve life.
And fourthly - and perhaps most crucially - this is a writer who is unafraid of framing his observations within a deeply personal context. As the preface makes clear, these essays were written during a crucial period of change in Carlin's personal life. Widowed several years earlier, with devastating consequences to his state of mind, music became his lifeline, and writing about music became his means of re-connecting with the world. After striking up correspondence with a reader of his pioneering music blog (The Church Of Me), his friendship converted to love, and love to marriage. While waiting for his second wife to join him in the UK from her native Canada, Carlin's formerly bleak worldview brightened, and his new-found sense of joyful redemption and optimism pervades the whole collection. Thus it doesn't take too much work to read between the lines of his text, re-casting it as an extended love letter, and a prayer for a better future. Music can serve no higher purpose, and Carlin's music writing - incisive, idiosyncratic, passionate, and bursting with life - is a glorious reflection of how art can serve life.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Marcello Carlin has written for some music magazines but is primarily known as a blogger. His old blog 'The Church Of Me', which discusses music through the prism created by the death of his wife, was an amazing piece of work, which can still be read online. It would make a fantastic book but is probably not one that the author feels capable of editing down to a coherent single volume. Carlin's knowledge of popular music since the sixties is encyclopaedic and his insights are entertaining and thought provoking. There are blogs where he writes about every single chart hit of a year (I think a friend's print out of 1969 was where I first came across his work). 'The Blue In The Air' is his post Church Of Me blog, which covers diverse musical topics, from American Music Club to Jay-Z via Billy Fury. The fifty plus essays here have been chosen and rewritten from the first two hundred entries on that blog. Why buy this, rather than read it on the net? Because these are pieces well worth rereading and retaining. Because you can dip into a book while listening to music in a way that the net doesn't allow. Because you'll want to persuade the author to keep writing about modern music. If you need convincing, check out Carlin's essay on Mel Torme and Was Not Was, or the Faces' last single, or the fine piece on Roy Harper's 'McGoohan's Blues' - when it first appeared online I sent a link to Harper, who, like Carlin, is a notorious curmudgeon, particularly where critics are concerned, and he wrote back to say that it was a good read. So is this whole book. Order it now.
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