All of these have been reviewed on here by me, but everyone loves a good list, especially at the end of the year.
10 🔖 Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms @ Stephen J. Golds
10 🔖 Shadows Slow Dancing In Derelict Rooms @ Stephen J. Golds
A voyage into the psyche of Vincent as he alternates between maudlin expressions of sadness, anger at everyone and everything (especially himself) and the odd moment of euphoria. He is a frustrating narrator who can test the reader’s patience. However, it’s important to remember that depression can be much deeper and entrenched in the mindset than you think. An intense, frustrating and (at times) harrowing read. But one that lets you see how it’s impossible to “snap out” of depression.
9🔖 404 Error @ RG Vasicek and Zak Ferguson
Described in the press notes as an anti-memoir, 404 Error goes hell bent for leather into the technological/cyberpunk aspect and ramps up a heavily chopped narrative in order to show the speed of consumption in the 21st century as well as the type of material that the grandchildren of those created by the computer (to paraphrase Richard H. Kirk). It can be exhilarating, blurry in terms of boundaries and frustrating. But it’s never boring.
8 🔖 The Mound @ Brian G. Berry
Running to a mere 62 pages, The Mound tells the story of Clint Blackwell. Speaking from Death Row, the Butcher of Jackson Springs (as he’s referred to in the press) gives the reader his version of the events that led to the gas chamber. Because the tale is told in first person, Berry has tremendous fun not only with the plot but with the implication that Clint might be a liar (partly because he is such an engaging narrator). Long live pulpy trash horror.
7 🔖 Willoughby, New York @ Carson Pytell
Only 30 pages long, it acts as a collection of short stories involving an unnamed character looking back on his youth now that he is a parent himself. And what a traumatic time it was, with ICU visits, disillusioned parents, no good friends and humiliating attempts at sexual relations. All of this in spite of his own attempts to keep his head down as he realises early on that “All there was to life was to ignore living. That way you're never hurt, proud, hated or loved.”
6 🔖 Make it Stop @ Jim Ruland
With a plot that straddles a fine line between ‘bleak speculation’ and ‘reality’ (the notion of sport teams being taken over and renamed after pharmaceutical brands), the characters have to come to life to help give these dire predictions a fantastical and engrossing element for the reader to latch onto. Infused with the anger and positivity that punk rock can offer, Make It Stop is both an excellent comic book style romp and a frightening look at what, potentially, lies ahead.
5 🔖 Ex-Cetera @ HLR
Recently shortlisted for the Bridport Prize 2023 and the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award 2024, HLR’s second book of poetry is another triumph. Looking at the rise and fall of Dolly and Man, it becomes apparent why they didn’t work out with the passage of each page as we get nosebleeds, dining and dashing, depression, self-harm and alcohol. Tender but bleak, dirty but glamorous, rebellious but traditional, Ex-Cetera is the quintessential doomed modern romance.
4 🔖 After All @ Michael Gerard
Opening with a fire in a ranch before descending into bomb attacks, the city shutting down and a general inferno, After All depicts a city where local law enforcement are outsmarted and out gunned on a regular basis, the mental toll on the individual who lives there and the decay of language under such circumstances. Due to the lack of a concrete plot, each segment is akin to a howl from the wilderness. Bubbling with complex emotions and viewpoints, this is the first great Covid novel.
3 🔖 Lost in Room: Mark Perry, Alternative TV and Related, 1977 – 1981 @ Richard Johnston
Instead of being a standard rock n roll memoir, the book is a series of conversations with Johnson and ATV main man Mark Perry. Both have a great rapport, allowing for a free-flowing nature which leads into some brilliantly entertaining segue ways on Killing Joke, Brexit and the state of music today. What comes through is Perry’s determination to follow his own path, regardless of how far it takes him. Forever the outsider, bending the world to his will.
2 🔖 Conform To Deform: The Weird & Wonderful World Of Some Bizzare Records @ Wesley Doyle
Wesley Doyle deserves a huge amount of credit for, not only getting Stevo to sit down and talk with him, but also for helping set the groundwork for a new generation to be inspired by the label and its output. Stevo himself is a frustrating narrator (quelle surprise, I hear you say) as he either talks in riddles or self-aggrandisement. As a result, the label doesn’t get enough credit for its work, so full credit to Wesley Doyle for helping to rectify this situation.
1 🔖 Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party @ Michael Cragg
Told as an oral history, with each chapter focusing on an act/label/programme, it’s an exuberant read as Cragg observes everything from the tensions, the highs, the many lows and the aftermath. Reading about Pete Waterman still being bitter over Belle and Sebastian beating Steps at the Brit Awards, Craig David still blaming Leigh Francis for his career downturn and the Sugarbabes admitting that someone should have advised them to smile a bit more gave me hearty chuckles.
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist.
Great round-up. Your Friday columns are like a portal into other worlds, I always look forward to them.
ReplyDeleteI think you may have mentioned Marc Almond's autobiography in the Bizzare Records review, which I then bought and read.
Steveo really is a character.
Think I'm gonna give Reach for the Stars a whirl.
Brandon,
Deletethank you. That's a really nice thing to read.
'Tainted Life' is an excellent read. He's been threatening to update it for some time now, and I would gladly read it as he's had quite the varied career in the last 20 years, as well as a few brushes with death in that time.