Imogen Heap - Ellipse

Artist: Imogen Heap

Album: Ellipse

 Year: 2009

Length: 48 minutes, 36 seconds

Genre: IndieElectronica

Why I picked it up: Fan of the artist

Favourite tracks: Canvas, Little Bird, Swoon, Aha!, 2-1 (it's hard to decide which ones I like best!)

Purchases: Amazon | iTunes | Check your local music store!

I remember shopping at West Edmonton Mall in the summer of 2009 with my sister, walking through HMV, wondering Who still shops here? when I saw Imogen Heap had a new album out and I thought to myself I should buy that! but I didn't. Well, look, two years later I've gotten around to buying Ellipse, and I'm glad I waited because I absolutely adore this album and I'm not sure I would have appreciated it's nuances this much back then.





The overall impression I got from this album is that it's a little heavier, maybe a little darker (in sound, not subject matter), more emotional than her previous two albums. When I want to listen to something relatively chill and fun to mouth along with, I put on iMegaphone and Speak for Yourself. These albums don't come with any emotional baggage for me. Ellipse, however, feels like it's on a completely different level. For me, I feel something digging a little deeper. Consider songs such as '2-1', 'Aha!' and 'Canvas' for what I'm trying to describe. Songs such as these make me emote, whereas no songs on her previous albums did that for me. (This is entirely a matter of my own bias, though.)

Speaking of an overall impression, for an electronic artist, Imogen's music sounds very natural and down to earth. I do enjoy a variety of electronic music, but what I love about Imogen is this earthy sound. This has a lot to do with her lovely voice. I especially love when she uses her voice as a backing instrument on a few tracks for this album, most notably on 'Earth.'

On that note, a lot of my favourite songs on this album are the more intense ones. I know that 'Canvas' is my absolute favourite, the rest are all tied for second. I like 'Canvas' because of the simple lyrics and the slow build. I think it's the most beautiful track on the album. The video (above) is beautiful as well (and I never watch music videos!). Even songs I didn't list as my favourite, such as 'Bad Body Double', I enjoyed for different reasons ('Bad Body Double' is easily relatable and catchy to sing along with).

A final comment unrelated to the actual music...I was surprised to find I couldn't buy this album on BandCamp, or through some other way more directly connected to the artist. I'm so used to buying music from Amanda Palmer or Zoe Keating or Tom Milsom or Sufjan Stevens through the site, I thought for sure Imogen's music would be there. But, alas, I had to buy through iTunes. Only the Heapsongs (her latest project) were available for digital download through a website. I wonder why not the rest of her discography?

So, in conclusion: I enjoyed this album even more than I thought I would; I think it shows a lot of growth and maturity. Imogen's sound has really become her own on Ellipse and that is a good thing indeed.

Extra Books - to November 27

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Published: September 2011
• Genre: Magical fantasy
• Why I picked it up: Intensely hyped book with a premise that intrigued me
• Rating: 3.5 stars
• Challenges: 100+
• My Thoughts: 
• This is the only book I have ever purchased solely based on the hype surrounding it. In fact, I hadn't seen any of the hype, only the discussion of the hype. But I was intrigued, especially by the fact that it started out as a NaNo and features a magical circus, so I picked it up. I finished reading it month and a half ago but school killed my blogging habits.
• I had hoped this book would live up to the hype and in many ways it did. The prose is fantastic. Morgenstern's style is lovely; she chooses precisely the right words in the right amount. It is for this reason that I will likely read whatever else she chooses to publish.
• The many characters had lots of promise (I loved the twins and Chandresh), but none of them were quite as developed as I would have liked to see them. Frankly, I despised Celia and Marco. Well, perhaps despise is a strong word, but they were such flat, dull characters, I didn't feel any hint of romance between them with was the central point of the story. 
• Which brings me now to the reason why I was so disappointed by this book...the plot. For me, the plot was nothing interesting, nothing exciting. I felt no suspense or worry for the characters caught up in it. As I mentioned, the romance between Celia and Marco was greatly lacking and so prevented the final climax from being interesting or dramatic whatsoever. I found the final events to be a little confusing and rushed (but perhaps it was because I was getting sick of the story and rushing through the end of the book...)
• I think I would have enjoyed this novel a lot more had I been able to connect with Celia and Marco. I enjoyed Celia's introduction and thought she would be a character I would like, but unfortunately, no. The prose is the redeeming aspect of this novel and why I would recommend you give it a shot if you're looking for something to read.
• Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist by Stephen Batchelor
• Published: June 2003
• Genre: Non-fiction memoir/religion primer
• Why I picked it up: Label of 'Buddhist Atheist' may apply to me, wanted to read about the guys ideas
• Rating: 3 stars
• Challenges: 100+
• My Thoughts:
• This book is sort of a sequel to Buddhism Without Beliefs. I knew they were related, but it wasn't until I was a great deal in to Confessions that I realized how much of a follow up Confessions is to Buddhism. I think I would have been more comfortable with this book had I read the first book first!
• It was hard for me to swallow a lot of what Batchelor wrote about, even if I logically agreed with him. However, I'm not familiar with Buddhist texts (I'm still a novice here) and I can't just accept whatever he decides to pick out from the texts and whatever he decides to ignore because I don't know what's accurate. 
• The purpose of this book is to explain how he came to his beliefs in his first book. I am interested in reading his first book, and I think that might help aid my understanding in this book.
• I like the memoir segment of the book, where the author illustrates his progression through Buddhism.

Tom Milsom - Explorers 6 'Fibreglass Baby'

Okay, this isn't going to be a proper music post like all my other album/song reviews and look, it's not even near Tuesday but I never wrote anything hear about Explorers 6 which is not very appropriate given how much I love the EP and what each song means for me. On Tumblr a couple of months ago I wrote this rambling blurb about Fibreglass Baby that sort of explains why I like Tom Milsom and why I like Fibreglass Baby so I've decided to repost it here because I want something about Explorers 6 on this blog.

***

i was sitting in the back of the car as my family drove to the lake and i had my headphones on and i listened to fibreglass baby over and over and over for about an hour. just sat there with my eyes closed, paying attention to the song and listening properly, in a way i’ve never really listened before.

the song (i don’t know if ‘song’ is the right word for this, but i can’t think of anything better so i’m going to stick with ‘song’) grows with every listen. at first, i only paid attention to the rhythm and the flow. then i would focus on the music, then the story, then the words, then the how the music and the words work together, and then maybe i would pay attention to more specific cadence, precise words, and then finally i would just listen to the song as a whole, hearing all the pieces that make it a song, that make the piece come to life.

i feel like i haven’t articulated this very well, but i hoped you (unknown and likely nonexistent, reader) understand what i’m trying to explain. how each time you listen to a song, you hear different aspects of it, and finally, after awhile, you’re able to really hear the song as perhaps its’ creator intended, as a whole piece of art.

i understand this in theory, i listen to songs i love and listen to the different parts that make up the whole, but listening to fibreglass baby, that was the first time i truly listened, worked at listening and paying attention. i can do this with tom’s music because it’s not what i listen to all the time, it’s not yet what my ears have become adjusted to. i haven’t been exposed much to spoken word pieces. i like it. it’s a form of music that pushes and expands the boundaries of what i like.

and, while i’m on the subject, that’s ultimately what i like about tom, why i follow him on tumblr and subscribe to him on youtube and all that. he says and does and creates things in ways i haven’t become bored with or adjusted to and so when i hear what he has to say and it’s different from what i think or from what i’ve heard before, then i’m able to compare those new-to-me ideas/thoughts/opinions/whatever with my own values and beliefs and grow in some small way. of course, tom is not the only ‘internet person’ who does this for me but he’s the one who seems to make me most self-aware. and now this has turned out to be quite a bit longer than i intended it to…i don’t know if i properly said what i was trying to say but ah well. i’ll just publish this now.

Jaclyn Moriarty - The Ghosts of Ashbury High

 Author: Jaclyn Moriarty

Title: The Ghosts of Ashbury High (Dreaming of Amelia in Australia)

Published: June 2010

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Length: 480 pages

Genre: YA fiction

Why I picked it up: Love the series
Rating: 4 stars
Challenges: Global | 100+  

Buy: IndieBound | Chapters | Check your local bookstore!

It is always a rare treat to find a YA novel that I can enjoy and devour. There are a very few YA authors that I love. In fact, there are two: John Green and Jaclyn Moriarty. Green has a very prominent internet presence, whereas Moriarty does not and this is how I did not know she had a new Ashbury novel out until over a year after it was published. I am a bad fan.

I first encountered Moriarty in grade six or seven when I received The Year of Secret Assignments as an Easter present. I adored it, for its writing style, the narratives that build on one another through little clues, distinct characters and increasingly dark plot. The novel was a hit among my friends. A few years later, The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie was published. I did a book report on it in high school. It was with this second Moriarty book that I saw how all her books interconnect - major characters in one novel have minor roles in another, past events may be hinted at, characters you've heard about in the past novels finally make proper appearances, etc. Finally, I realized there was another Ashbury book, the first one: Looking for Celia. I read that one as well (though I didn't think it wasn't quite as great as The Year of Secret Assignments). Now, five years after I read the last Ashbury book, I have stumbled across a new one and I think this one is the best yet.

All the aspects of The Year of Secret Assignments (writing style, characterization, plot twists, increasingly dark plot, interconnected but distinct narratives) I adored so much come into full play in The Ghosts of Ashbury High. Moriarty has perfected her craft and method. It is lovely to actually be able to see an author's improvement over a series of novels. Secret Assignments was great, but Ghosts feels like story that contains highly refined elements that are Moriarty's trademark. The characters were all so well-written with subtleties that made them feel real (I'm not sure if that makes sense but it's the best way I can think of to describe the character aspects that I loved seeing so much). Also brilliantly written was the subtle intertwining of the character's narratives. Come to think of it, what I loved was the subtlety of Moriarty's writing. Everything she does, she did so well in this story in such a subtle, quietly tucked into the story way. the story and the characters build, build, build, so steadily; Moriarty sucks you into the book like a slow moving whirlpool might put suck you down to the ocean floor (It's exam time, don't expect good descriptive sentences from me now =.=). 

Finally, I would like to add: Don't let the ugly cover (or the vague, teenage-y description) fool you! I suppose the cover is meant to capitalize on the trend of the love for all things supernatural? I loved the old American/Canadian cover designs (see The Year of Secret Assignments with the fire alarm, and The Murder of Bindy MacKenzie with the locker). As for the description, if I wasn't already so familiar with Moriarty's work I definitely would not have picked up this book. This also happened with Secret Assignments: when I received it as a gift my first thought was 'Why did parents think I would like this book??' [Coincedentally I also received American Idiot as an Easter gift, thought the same thing, now Green Day is one of my favourite bands.] I wonder how many other readers are out there like me who could potentially love these books but were put off by the cover or description...