West Indian Girl - 4th and Wall

This was unexpected. I've written before about being surprised how popular, in terms of comments and email, my music reviews have been, but I definitely did not expect to have music recommended to me by promoters on the basis of my reviews. When, therefore, just such a person recommended this album to me, I was skeptical. However, I gave the promotional track a listen, and was interested enough to check out the whole album.

Electronica and rock have enjoyed tenuous relationships in the past. I'm not exactly a music historian though, so in order to avoid doing any research, I'll just say that a long creative thread runs at least from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer through Madonna's "Ray of Light." It is a genre I enjoy, and though I no longer fall asleep to the Future Sounds of London, the formation of sound and art through digital means still speaks to this 21st century soul.

If in my last review I was complaining about how often mimicry passes as artistry, this album stands as a lesson to aspiring artists. You can work in a given style, but you need your own twist. Putting a twist on an old style for the sake of the twist is obnoxious (like Jet pretending to be the Rolling Stones), but when you do it as part of a coherent vision, like West Indian Girl is doing, it becomes worthwhile. While listening, I was trying to make comparisons, but winding up with absurdities in the process. Folksy Pink Floyd. The Shins meet U2. Perhaps it is best I am paid to be a doctor, and not a music reviewer. But it is true that I have not heard anything exactly like this crew before.

"To Die in LA," opens this album with a distant flute sound, but rapidly picks up, adding drums and synth until the singers (in their first clear words on the track) voice the listeners' own thoughts with a chorus of "here it comes." I'm not certain the lyrics on this particular track are meaningful. They aren't particularly important, as in most trip-hop, but they do get the album off to a fast paced start with a few cool vagaries. Even if I was rocking with the album, I wasn't truly impressed until the track "Solar Eyes," where electronic beeps and an acoustic guitar trade off without jarring the listener. It sounds impossible, but they manage to do it. Throughout the album, with transitions like that, the confidence with which the disparate sounds were melded struck me. Also, I admit (though it is no surprise to anyone familiar with my defense of Keane's first album) that I like songs with a tune. That's why X&Y didn't really do anything for me. But the tracks here are all hummable.

It's not a perfect album. The band struggles with ending their songs, dragging the otherwise strong "Sofia" on at least a minute more than truly necessary. And the lazy, psychedelic "All my Friends" will never rank in my favorite track list. Of course, the Goa-trance meets folk marriage here (there I go again) is bound to have some distinctive offspring, some more palatable than others. Still, there is quite enough to enjoy here, and this one is going to be the soundtrack to my commute for a while yet.

Said the Whale - Taking Abalonia

So I admit it, I first heard about these guys from perezhilton.com. Perhaps I shouldn't admit frequenting such places, but I figure if you haven't checked that site at least once, you aren't doing your part to be the "Great Satan" that Ahmadinejad sees in the world. Anyway, whatever I think about the color scheme and the content, Perez occasionally has good music taste, and this wasn't a disappointment.

The first song I heard from this album was "This Winter I Retire" which is the most distinctive track on the album. Check their Myspace page to get a taste here. I like upbeat songs with a minor feel, so musically I was predisposed to like it, though the lyrics are nothing spectacular. As I listened to the rest of the album, I was lured into just listening, and forgetting to be critical. But a few listens have me somewhat less enthralled. That first track is still distinctive, but the balance of the tracks are derivative sounding, with the most egregious being the second "Live Off Lamb" which James Mercer could probably sue for plagiarism over. The Shins, the Strokes, the Decemberists...an alert listener can place all of them in this album. None of which says that this is a bad album. It's not. But it mostly sounds like B-sides of bands you already like.

In short, there's potential here, coming out particularly in "Plans for the Future" and the already mentioned lead off track. But the potential has yet to be realized, I feel.

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

There's a lot to be said for the beer test. As in, which of two people would you rather sit down over a beer with? Certainly this factor played some role in the last American presidential election, though whether of not that was good is completely inseparable from political presuppositions at this point.

But enough about politics. Here's the question for this review: given your choice between the following attractive, brunette, female, Jewish, pop musical stars, who would you rather have a beer with: a)Regina Spektor or b) Amy Winehouse? Now the smart money's on Spektor, because if the British tabloids are to be believed, Winehouse would probably finish off a case, and then belt you over the head with a bottle, just for the hell of it.

But to make judgements on such grounds is not always the best course of action. And just listening to this latest offering from Winehouse is enough to make me want to write a review of it. It's the sort of music that makes me want to use trite music review words, like "rollicking" and "infectious." But I'll refrain.

The music is obviously influenced by Ray Charles and his contemporaries, that era where jazz could still be heard beneath the rock. But there's a modern edge too. So yes, saxophones, piano, and a nod to Phil Spector on the production, but we've got drum loops too. And her voice is pure soul.

There are on iTunes the "Explicit" and the "Clean" versions of this record, which should tell you something about the lyrics. But either way, when the first words on the album are "they tried to make me go to rehab, an' I said no, no, no" you know this is probably not a girl you take home to mom, no matter how poetic she is. She is poetic though, and clever too, stating in the title track "we only said goodbye with words," implying the end of a relationship that was more. In "I'm no good" she is frank about infidelities of her own.

This is the blues, and Winehouse is writing what she lives. But it's hard not to hum along, and it's that invitation to share in her musical catharsis which makes this a great listen.

The Weepies - Say I am You

It's been a while since I've written a music review, largely because I've been too busy either having fun on vacation or working 14 hour days to listen to much music. But after getting out of the hospital early yesterday, I celebrated by going to Borders and picking this album up, on the recommendation of several friends over the past few months.

I must say I am impressed. These guys (guy and gal, rather) toured with the Indigo Girls last year, and it's easy to see why. Largely acoustic, with tight harmonies. The guitar work, notably on "The World Spins Madly On" is very Indigo Girls in style. However, my limited exposure to the Indigo Girls gives me the impression that they are a lot more sad than the Weepies. Here we're mostly hearing stories about love, requited and not, but even the sad songs aren't devastatingly so. The music makes you feel that, despite the hurt, there is light around the next bend. Contrast, for example, the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" which despite the driving chords and thrilling harmony is shattering philosophically.

Though the Weepies may not be saying anything new, you have to love the way they say it. The chorus from "I've Gotta Have You" has been stuck in my head all day, even when listening to the rest of the album. "No amount of coffee/No amount of cryin'/No amount of whiskey/No amount of wine/Nothing else will do/I've gotta have you." The rest of the album continues in this vein, clever lyrics, pleasant harmonies. Song you feel along with.

Recommended.

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

Have you ever listened to an album that expressed, with almost every chord change, exactly your mood? I have recently listened to two albums which have done this for me, and one of them is this, the latest by the Decemberists. When I first tried to listen to this one a month or so ago, I wasn't real impressed, and I had bought another one along with it. So this was relegated to a drawer and I only pulled it out today while I was packing to leave my last away rotation and head back to what will only be home for a few more months.

I was blown away. The first track is still not a barnburner, but I should have left the CD playing. Track two is epic, rising from standard Decemberists ethereal guitars and drums to a sythesizer solo that probably makes Keith Emerson jealous, winding down to a beautiful guitar piece. That is followed by a duet with Laura Viers, and the hits keep coming. Great packing music, with energy and variation enough to keep this obsessive complusive medical student at least mostly engaged in his task.

And I was pleasantly surprised with the lyricism. Colin Meloy often has catchy lyrics, but often they are more than a little shocking. At least on Picaresque, but I should have expected it from an album with a song title Odalisque.

This one's going to be keeping me company on my long drive back to the metropolis. I have yet to make up my mind entirely about the lyrics, but there is nothing like a long car trip for close listening to an album.

Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country

When a guy wearing a plastic sword-shaped cocktail skewer as an earring, with the fingernails on one hand painted black and the those on the other natural colored, tells you an album is worth a listen, it's worth the try, right?

In my book anyway. What's more interesting is that this guy and NPR agree.

So do I. The album is definitely worth a listen.

When I first listen to a band I know nothing about, I tend to make comparisons to other bands. So when I first popped this one, I thought "the Shins, but with a female vocalist." On the next track however, I was thinking "the Beach Boys?" And I went through the Strokes, Over the Rhine...nothing fit. Because these guys are unique. Sure, they have elements of all those bands, but it's always a "not quite...ooooh, I like what they did there, how unexpected" kind of reaction. The summary I keep coming back to is that of 50's pop instruments (organ, guitar with that era of amplification, etc.) with a modern melody and edge. By the way, it probably shows that I'm not a real music critic in that I have no idea what "that era of amplification" means, hardware-wise. Gibson? Les Paul? No idea. Anyone who does, please, let me know.

Though I wouldn't describe the songs as "anthemic," they are largely melody driven, something I like because it is fun to listen to. The lyrics are fitting, but not stand out. But everyone can identify with songs about heartbreak and partings. "The first track here states over and over "Hey Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" which is a response to a pop song from twenty years ago asking (go figure) "are you ready to be heartbroken?" Tracy's voice is perfect here, quavering but still earnest. Though I can't pick favorites here, a counterpoint to that track is "Country Miles" with the refrain "I won't be seeing you for a long while/but I hope it's not as long as these country miles" where the earnestness in Tracyann's voice lends a poignant air to the song. No real downside to the album, in that I don't notice myself skipping tracks as I listen.

A fun listen, one I'll be keeping around for a while. Recommended.

Hem - Rabbit Songs

This isn't a new album. It isn't even the first time I've listened to the band. But I hadn't paid too close attention to them until I realized that this ad uses Hem's song "Half Acre." I thought the ad was rather touching, and it stands out from the crowd in that it doesn't appeal to prurient interests to sell you something. For that reason, I don't know if it will be effective, but that isn't really the point here.

The point is, I bought the album this song comes from today because of this reminder. And I've had it on repeat ever since. From the opening bars of the lullaby "Lord, Blow the Moon Out Please" through the beautiful "Half Acre" to the closing notes of "Horsey," I was entranced. Very few albums will hold my attention so well that I'm unable to do anything but listen as they play the first time. This is one of them. I don't pretend to understand all of the songs, but it's hard not to connect with lines like "Think of every town you've lived in/Every room you lay your head/And what is it that you remember?" when you're sitting in a hotel room far from home. And if you're given to pensive reflection, as most of the posts here demonstrate I am, it's hard not to agree with lines like "So we carry every sadness with us/Every hour our hearts were broken." And for those interested in the meanings of the songs, this website is a bunch of quotes from the band explaining them.

But the words are far from the only high point of this album. The music is well crafted, and well executed. Between the filigreed mandolin, piano and clarinet of "Half Acre" and the bluegrass-ish "Cuckoo" is wide variety of styles, bound together by the ethereal voice of Sally Ellyson.

The band tried with this album to write something quintessentially American. They've succeeded admirably. Highly recommended.

K. C. Groves - Can You Hear It

K. C. Groves is the one of the members of Uncle Earl, an all female bluegrass/old music band. Abigail Washburn, whose album I previously reviewed, is also a member of this group. I bought this CD at their concert, because out of all the very talented members, I was most impressed with Miss Groves. (As a side note, I now have a huge crush on her, so if you're reading this K.C., the contact info for the tall handsome guy at the back table is in my profile.)

Just kidding.

Anyway, live, Miss Groves sounds like Patsy Cline reincarnate. On her album she's a bit closer to Alison Krauss without the "I'm three years old" quality to her voice, but still really good. And she's a talented musician. On this album, she plays guitar and mandolin, and sings all the songs, which she wrote. Guest musicians include Tim O'Brien and Peter Rowan, so she's got some pretty good friends helping her out too.

The title track is a paean to old time music, with the repeating refrain "can you hear it, or is it just me?" She follows this with a few pensive ballads. Though by no means the most innovative lyricist, I was impressed with some of her poetry in these songs too. "You Think We're Friends" is rather clever at times, with the hook of the song being "you think we're friends/but I'm in love with you."

After several listens, the only song I'm not a huge fan of is "Pony Days" which is just a bit too cutsey. "I traded my ponies for new clothes and boys/and now that I'm older, I question that choice" is her theme here. What? No, thanks. Fortunately, the album picks up again from here and finishes strongly. The final track is a wistful reflection, with the best poetry on the album: "And the world turns around/The sun comes up and the sun goes down/questions abound/still the world turns around."

Like most albums, it is easy to find some fault with it. Unlike many, it rises above those faults to be a solid piece of work. Recommended.

The concert, as a whole, was amazing. Solid instrumentals, tight harmonies, Kristin Andreasson doing some clogging, and exceptional fiddle playing by Rayna Gellert. Abigail Washburn, whom I compared favorably to Emmylou Harris, has a bit of Mahalia Jackson in her as well. Most times, when a band is encored, they'll play a real rousing send-off to get everyone out on a high. But this one was different. Miss Washburn led an a capella call-and-response gospel tune titled "Keys to the Kingdom" and got the entire crowd singing the chorus. It was simply beautiful.

So if you're in an area where Uncle Earl is touring, go out and see them. You won't regret it.

Abigail Washburn - Songs of the Traveling Daughter

One of my residents asked me once how I find the odd bands I listen to. I couldn't really give her a straight answer, but I do know how I found this one. I was taking a study break, wandering the aisles of my local Barnes and Noble (not exactly the best place to pick up obscure music, I'll grant) and this cover caught my eye.

One of the great things about Barnes and Noble is being able to listen to CDs before you buy them, and it didn't take more than a short listen to be intrigued.

Abigail plays banjo in the old frailing style. She also sings, and has a pleasantly distinctive voice. And though in saying it I worry that I am repeating myself she does sound a bit like Emmylou Harris at times. However, this is almost never a bad thing, and Abigail's style is different enough that she does not sound derivative. Indeed, it would be difficult to sound derivative here, for what sets her apart from being just another old-time singer (aside from her great talent) is the fact that two of her songs are sung in Chinese. Oddly enough, it works.

She's also managed to attract some serious talent to back her up here. Bela Fleck plays banjo on several songs, and though he isn't credited on this album, Tim O'Brien played on her first EP. That's some serious bluegrass firepower. When (as far as I can tell) it is just Abigail playing, her banjo is competent, and though not displaying the complicated virtuosity of Doc Watson or Adam Hurt, it is solid.

Overall, the album is a great listen, with tearjerker ballads, gospel, and blues mixed together. "Rockabye Dixie" is an incredible lullaby. The Chinese pieces come late on the album. One is a bluegrass song translated into Chinese, and another is an original inspired by an old Chinese poem. Since speaking Chinese is not one of my skills, I can't judge the merits of Miss Washburn's linguistic abilities, but the songs sound great. Song of the Traveling Daughter, the title track, starts out like a ballad, but becomes a barnburner by the end. The Lost Lamb, the other Chinese track, would not be out of place on the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack. It's just her voice with a solo cello, and as I listened to it, I was reminded of the Xinxiang desert scenes in that movie.

The only minor quibble is that on at least one song, "A Single Drop of Honey", Miss Washburn has written the melody outside her range, and the strain to reach certain notes is distracting. Relatively minor, but it keeps the album from being perfect.

Still, she will be in concert near here soon, and I plan on taking in the show.

4/5 stars

Enya - Amarantine

I know, I know, it's Enya, for crying out loud. What are you, the sophisticated, indie rock listening, Irish trad-playing, classical music aficionado doing listening to Enya?

Well, ever since I heard "Orinoco Flow" about 15 years ago, I've harbored a secret liking for the ethereal one woman show. Overdubbing, synthesizers, and dead languages? What's not to love? Mostly I think I was attracted to something unlike anything else I had heard at the time. Enya's earlier work still stands as a great artistic achievement.

That said, Enya's career is effectively over, and Amarantine probably isn't going to resurrect it. This album contains only hints of her former greatness, and nothing nearly as catchy as her greater hits. The best music on the album is the title track, and this one suffers from her perennial weakness in lyrics. There are a few other good tracks on this one, but perhaps she's exhausted the possibilities of her distinct style.

I'm reflecting though, in writing this, that I don't know the best way to approach criticism of music. Do I ask, is it unique? Unique doesn't necessarily mean good (think Richard D. James using sandpaper on his turntables) and it doesn't necessarily mean bad (think Jet. Ok, maybe that's a bad example) Is it consistent with the artist's style? Why does this matter? Do I ask, is it technically proficient? Musically complicated? Tom Petty has proved you don't need that to succeed. It comes down to some combination of all these considerations, plus the intangible, "do I like it?"

As far as Amarantine is concerned, it certainly isn't innovative like her earlier stuff was, but it isn't bad. The balance of the album is just like those tracks from her previous albums which filled in the gaps between the hits. Atmospheric, sure. Great art? I don't know. Whatever it is, it works just fine as background music while I study. Which is where I'm going now.

Peggy Honeywell - Faint Humms

My current rotation is mostly classroom stuff, refreshing our tortured minds on the basics before we head out to conquer the world (or at least our residency sites) with a stunning display of medical virtuosity. At least, that's the idea. What it really does is afford the typical slacker medical student a wonderful opportunity to attend class for the required 8 hours (8 hours?! Joyous brevity!) and then catch up on outside reading, relaxing, and in my case, listening to new music.

Enter Peggy Honeywell.

I found this album because the recording company is the one the Innocence Mission used for their first album. And it is easy to see the consistency in style: soft, low key, simple melodies and production, thoughtful lyricism. The rising star of this label is the Swede Jose Gonzalez (no, that's not a joke) but I fell for Honeywell's style.

Faint Humms is her sophomore effort, and listening to the first one, she's fortunate to have gotten the chance. If nothing else, her first album proved you don't have to have technical mastery of your instrument to achieve "critical acclaim." The one gem on that album "Moon" is probably why "Faint Humms" exists. "Moon" shows a promise fulfilled in her latest work.

The musicianship is competent (certainly improved from her first album), but no more. There are no stunning displays of ability, no chord changes that tangle the mind's ability to follow. For the most part the only sound is Peggy and her acoustic guitar. But the album doesn't need anything else. Her voice is clear and unique, but reminiscent, as if she's channeling Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams simultaneously. In substance, she remains in the realm of the modern singer-songwriter, dealing largely with love and loss. The straightforward, guileless lyrics paint a shy narrarator either wondering at good fortune or accepting loss without surprise. Hence in "Drama King" she accepts her loss with "we both changed/the unchangeable change." But in Sing Sang Sung her rejoicing is the simple "Don't remember anything, other than it was perfect".

The album is a disappointment only in its brevity, but well worth the purchase. I'm going to enjoy this one for a long while to come.

Now I should go study.

Keane - Under the Iron Sea

When "Hopes and Fears" came out, I was a Keane apologist. Numerous reviewers compared them to Coldplay, and said terrible things like "derivative" and "guilty pleasure" about that album. I stand by my original assessment of it as a a wonderfully melodic album, and distinctive as a whole. Coldplay's albums tend to be largely ethereal, with an occasional hummable single like "Yellow" or the "Clocks" rising through the mist of sound, whereas "Hopes and Fears" is a whole album of singles. However, "Under the Iron Sea" is a lot like Coldplay. Imagine what the outtakes from"X&Y" sound like, and you've a pretty good idea of what this album is. The single everyone's playing, "Is it Any Wonder?" is a good song, a quite catchy and well written lover's lament: "sometimes I get the feeling that I'm/stranded in the wrong time/where love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme" but the rest of the album is largely atmospheric. In short, just like Coldplay.

I don't blame Keane for trying this formula, it garnered international superstardom for Chris Martin and his fellows. Chris even ended up married to Gwenneth Paltrow, and there are probably worse fates imaginable.

But the point is, I have to agree with earlier critics on this one and say yes, it's a good album, but you can't help but think of another band while it's playing.

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

I bought this album because of the music video for the single "Crazy". It's like an animated Rorsach test, wonderfully inventive. And that song doesn't disappoint either. It's a driving, catchy song, which is great for working out to actually. The beat is perfect timing for push-ups. But it's definitely the highlight of the CD. The first track, "Go Go Gadget Gospel" gets things moving, and "Crazy" brings the album to a fine point, but it's a decline from there, into the downright creepy "Necromancer," which closes a paean to a dead girl with "man bet she was alright /when she was alive." The album is definitely inventive, production is top-notch, and the sound is unique, but except for the catchy single, I just didn't get into it.

Music reviews

One of the most beautiful albums I've ever heard.

I'm not a music reviewer. I don't really have the time or poetic voice to say what it is I like about an album or artist in a way that makes any sense, and I think I'm no longer going to try to write reviews of what I'm listening to. So I'm just going to say I love this album.

5/5 stars

Tara Angell - Come Down

At the Matisyahu concert on Sunday, the local college radio station was giving away free CDs. Just a big box full of them, with no organization. Some didn't even have cases. But I did what any music lover would: grabbed a stack at random and said thanks. I've been going through them, and a few are ok, several are complete wastes of the plastic they're printed on. But this one is amazing.

I listened to this one the first time on my drive to work yesterday. And I was tempted to camp out in the car, and be late for my first patient, so that I could listen to the rest of this album. Tara's voice is rough, but real. Think Emmylou Harris or Lucinda Williams. In fact, my first thought was that this sounded a lot like Emmylou, but that's unfair, since that master performer has gone through almost as many style changes as Madonna, though with more grace. My next thought was Lucinda Williams. I didn't know anything about Tara at that point, but it turns out she has actually played with Lucinda, who apparently loves her music.

More to the point of the album though, this one has powerful lyrics, moving melodies, and perfect suited intrumental production. Spare, to balance the richness of Tara's voice. Just guitar, drums, some keyboards. Very melodic, not in the Keane, "I am going to be humming this for weeks" sense. More like the Decemberists, with less scandalous lyrics. Sombre, mood-setting, but not ambient.

The second thing you notice about this album is that it's an album in the clasic sense. The songs progress through naturally, and it makes sense to listen to them in order. From the rocking opening tracks to the last mournful note of the close, this is a single piece of art.

Excellent, excellent album.

5/5 stars

Matisyahu - Youth

It's a good day today. The sun is shining, I've just got classes to go to, and two songs from this album are running through my head.

Matisyahu is difficult to describe. He's a Chassidic Jew, who sings a sort of reggae/hip-hop amalgamation where the lyrics come from his deep religious convictions. This is his third album, though just his second studio effort. I've heard them all, and I'm actually going to see him in concert in a couple weeks. This is a more mature effort than anything he's put out yet. He deals more with social issues, and even touches on the powder-keg issue of Israeli politics here, in the song "Jerusalem." He emphasizes the importance of the issue:

"Don’t you see, it’s not about the land or the sea
Not the country but the dwelling of his majesty"

and with

"Jerusalem, if I forget you
May my right hand forget what it's supposed to do."

And takes a de facto approach to the question of Israeli immigration:

"They come overseas, yes they’re trying to be free
Erase the demons out of our memory"

Very melodic, powerful lyrics, overall an excellent song. The other new track which is most in my mind today is "Time of Your Song" a reflection on a life lived poorly. The narrator relates his downfall "I don’t mean to glorify/ Ate the apple of the tree and tried to lie, " and finishes with a warning to avoid his course. Fairly typical "don't do what I did" preaching, but quite well done, and the production, especially, is excellent on this track.

The album as a whole is good, and finishes with a new studio version of his hit song "King Without a Crown" sung a bit faster than on his previous album. I hesitate to be too effusive because there are more than a couple tracks that really drag the album down, but the excellence of the good tracks is impressive. Overall, I'd consider just downloading the three tracks I mention above from iTunes rather than spring for the whole. I'll have to revisit this one in a few days to make sure though.

3/5 stars, with three top notch tracks.

Addendum:
I found a great quote from a reviewer discussing his concert in the Chicago Tribune:
"Most impressive of all was Matisyahu's rapid-fire beat boxing. With guitarist Aaron Dugan providing melodic fills, Matisyahu sat on the raised drum set platform, legs crossed nonchalantly, and replicated a turntable on his microphone with stunning realism. If anything sounded more remarkable, it was the sound of a thousand jaws hitting the floor."

James Blunt - Back to Bedlam

I just picked up this album a few days ago, and overall, I'm pleased. He's good with words, and the music is pleasant, well-produced, and catchy. The second half of the album flags a little, and the closing track "No Bravery" is an awkward anti-war hymn, but when he sticks the the classic singer-songwriter far of love and loss, James is quite good. The single "You're Beautiful" which is getting some radio play now is a touching story of love at first sight, which, like most such stories, cannot be real. The speaker in the song realizes this, which gives the song a more real and less saccharine tone than other such works.
"Goodbye My Lover" is probably the most revealing song on the album. The title says a lot of what the song does, but James' high tenor and solo piano bring a lot of spirit to what could have been trite.
I'm impressed with his allusions too. Blunt quotes William Blake, and references Wilde intelligently. He's not terribly innovative, but solid, and I don't regret buying this one.

4/5 stars