Quick Reviews and the Pitfalls, or Otherwise, of Returning to Old Favourites

Kitty backside became kitty stomach. Amazon package remained unopened until after lunch. Worth the additional anticipation, it turns out.

Neko Case, Blacklisted, resonates with reminders of Julie Cruise, The Cocteau Twins, Vaya con Dios/Purple Prose (i.e. Dani Klein's vocal style). It's certainly going to end up on the repeat-play-list (picked out every so often and played continuously for several days).

The Connells' old-school dropouts is typical Connells and therefore very fine, but not quite lighting up the heavens. It'll grow on us, certainly. Is this the first time they've had piano on one of their tracks quite so obviously? Further investigation may be required.

Meanwhile, in a fit of daring, we risked re-reading an old favourite. Having been badly stung years ago revisiting Jude the Obscure (once a favourite, thenceforth decidedly not), we're always a little chary about doing this. But it became necessary to go back to Villette for Charlotte Bronte's handling of the apparent mystery ending. Wow! The joy of such a tricksy, untrustworthy first-person narrative, the dislikable elements in every character, the great drama in the small events. We'd really forgotten how great a book it is (in our defence, it probably is 20+ years since we last read it).