O. Ford's profile

Epic and Diverse, 6 Aug 2008

Say Anything's third full length album pleases on many levels. The catchy, vocal-driven and hook-laden sound of Is A Real Boy remains, but the songs are more varied and expansive. If you enjoy rock music, don't mind a healthy dose of pop, and have some sense of fun then In Defense of the Genre is for you - hopefully that should cover quite a lot of people.

The album starts aggressively with Skinny, Mean Man, and the following track No Soul is similarly angry - the lyrics confrontational "I'd rather spend an evening giving birth / than see how your eyes are glued / on everyone except the person you talking to." This track, whilst reminding us of the honest (and at times… Read more

Capable of more, 5 Aug 2008

James Meek's latest book, We Are Now Beginning Our Descent is a more contemporary narrative than that of his previous novel, The People's Act of Love. Adam Kellas, a British journalist reporting from Afghanistan, falls in love with the enigmatic Astrid, only to be separated from her. His love for her and other doubts lead him to abandon his old friends and set off in search of Astrid. At the same time, Kellas is attempting to push through a glossy war-thriller novel for publication, but questions its artistic credibility.

This latter narrative strand, along with Meek's own journalistic past, means that it is tempting to view We Are Now Beginning Our Descent as autobiographical… Read more