Johnny Flynn: Been Listening

Johnny Flynn is one of Britain's latest indie-folk acts, belonging to the Noah and the Whale-Laura Marling-Mumford&Sons "scene" (although he says they're really just a group of friends), .  
Been Listening is his latest work, and it sums up the main features of this singer-songwriter - who plays with the band "the Sussex Wit" - a slightly hoarse and soft voice, an array of various acoustic instruments, quirky lyrics and an almost childlike quality (think "The Moldy Peaches"). The title track is a haunting song - that's not only about music - which, along with "Amazon Love", shows the saddest side of lyrics that are sometimes melancholy even when the music is upbeat and lively (like in "Kentucky Pill"). Songs like "Barnacled Warship" feature Flynn on the fiddle - here with a motive slightly reminiscent of Dylan's "Hurricane" - and an almost country feel. "Sweet William (part 2)" is an example of his typically narrative lyrics (like "The Prizefighter and the Heiress") - in this case about a legend celebrating song and story-telling, with the accompaniment of fiddles that end in an Irish jig. "Howl" is one of the edgiest tracks, with Flynn on trumpet and electric (!) guitar, creating a more rocking sound that matches the angrier lyrics: "Stay in the light Joe / Stay with yourself / Put up a fight / Don't rest on the shelf".  There are two real jems in the album. The first is "The Water", featuring Laura Marling, whose voice blends perfectly with Johnny Flynn's, and both impeccable in delivering the simple message of the song "the water can't drown me, I'm done with my dying" in a way that's emotional, but not sappy. In concerts, Flynn has also performed the song with Marling's boyfriend, Marcus Mumford, of Mumford&Sons, in an almost as brilliant version. "The second high point also features a female voice - Lillie Flynn - whose delicate harmony adds depth to the heartwrenching "Amazon Love", which contains Johnny Flynn's best vocals, with a Tom Waits vein to them. The lyrics are his darkest to date: "Now quick to the cut are we waking / And seeing it all as the dream / The pillars that raised us is shaking / And Samson's wheel is the fiend".
The album also contains a second disc, with demos of five of the tracks, plus a version of "The Water" with Sofia Larsson as the female singer.
Johnny Flynn is one of the best folk singer-songwriters of his generation, and he has gained confidence and broadened his sound in this last effort, showing the full potential of the quieter side of British indie. His wonderful debut A Larum was considered "marvelous" and "buoyant" by Rolling Stone's David Fricke, and with this album it just gets better.

Muriel Barbery: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Am I the only person who didn't love this book? I picked it up at the airport a few months ago, inspired by all the hype from magazine reviews and blogs alike. I have to say I read it in a short time and I liked it pretty well in the beginning, but gradually I started to get annoyed with the protagonist and that ruined the book for me, since the whole story rests upon the sympathy it can encourage towards the main character. This is Renée, a middle-aged consierge of an elegant building in Paris, who outwardly is everything society expects from her - fat, addicted to television, totally alone except for her cat - but who actually is (supposedly) an intelligent, knowledgeable autodidact, who loves books, art, music and philosophy. The only other important character in the book is Paloma, a 12 year old who lives in the building and has decided to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. She is also very much misunderstood, by her family in this case, and spends time listing "profound thoughts" which generally boil down to reasons why everyone around her is stupid and life is not worth living. The two points of view alternate in first-person chapters as gradually the two characters get to know each other and find comfort in one another's understanding and esteem. The problem is that they are so busy scrutinizing their neighbors and criticizing their stupidity and their interest  in onlyfutile things that they end up sounding like complete snobs themselves. Of course the victims of their sarcasm are people who look down on them, while they are probably culturally and intelligently their inferiors, but still, by mocking their every word the main characters don't come off much better. And ok, Paloma is professedly a disagreable cynic who hates the world and all the people in it, but Renée is supposedly a sweet, insightful woman with an eye for beauty in all its forms. How are we supposed to believe this when she appears to consider herself better than anyone around her? The only time she is likeable is when we see her with the only other character besides Paolma that she likes, Monsiour Ozu. Finally in her relationship with him we see a more human, and humble, side of her, given all the insecurities of a 54 year old getting ready for a date. Monsieur Ozu is a very likeable character himself, and one of the three things I appreciated of this book, along with the quaint French atmosphere and the unexpected ending. The book's message is pretty obviously to dig deeper and not be deceived by the appearance of things, and the two leading ladies are different from what the other characters expect, just not in the way the author, I suppose, intended them to seem. As for the acclaimed deep philosophical reflections on art, time and the meaning of life, (which also are supposed to show the uniqueness and brilliance of the two ladies) they actually boil down to a bunch of pretentious platitudes and a few apparently erudite, but really clichéd, quotes.