A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .

JE LEEST

Non-fictie

I have often wondered about the very curdled natures of our opinions so much so that the perch of imagination simply becomes a bystanding abstraction and real thoughts of genuine merit slip between the fingers. That is a human tendency, to beat arou...

#aletteredsoul #cinema #ideas #nonfiction #prose #wattys2017

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC : THE NAMES THAT MADE 2018 A WINNER

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door MadMenWearingFedora

ROSANNE CASH, whom I discovered in 2017 on the excellent yet underrated tribute album FOREVER WORDS dedicated to her legendary father JOHNNY CASH via her solo contribution WALKING WOUNDED, is the other veteran making waves with her own compendium SHE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING. The title track shares the patch of her wisdom and worldly concerns and the other tracks are just as sublime. The instruments have a minimalism and her singing is simple, supple and tuned to the emotional value of her songcraft, an inheritance she lives up to beautifully as on MY LEAST FAVOURITE LIFE employing an undercurrent of tension and ominous pall to portray the sum total of things or a quick snapshot of not bowing out with half hearted declarations of satisfaction when everything around is in disarray. The personal and universal get coalesced here. A woman's selflessness at the expense of self definition, over a lifetime of commitment to bonds, is specially poignant on EVERYONE BUT ME. It tugs at the heartstrings because it is so honest about the culture of invisibility that middle age traditionally bestows on us and in the lines addressed to her parents, 'now that you're gone', positing the great role of nurturers they play even in absence. Her vocals are beautifully rendered and will stay with you while in the pragmatic PARTICLE AND WAVE, the cosmic play of lifetimes captured in a moment of recognition flow with her words and gentle riffs. The guitar is the lifeline to all these pivotal tracks. Altogether, SHE REMEMBERS EVERYTHING is destined to be treasured and praised by afficianados for its spare, subtle universality.

HERE I AM, meanwhile, united two nightingales DOLLY PARTON and SIA FURLER to initiate an innately sweet, celebratory, old fashioned take on being bedrocks of inspiration, feature as it does on the DUMPLIN soundtrack. Pianos and guitars create that winsome country sound prominently used in the movie and it is reassuring to know that Parton's influence is ubiquitous as ever before, one of the greatest achievements for our era. The two singers ultimately have a wonderful duet where their collective voices flow into one another, almost indistinguishable from each other when in perfect harmony . That's how it should be in creative pairings as such.

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LORETTA LYNN is another endearing legend expressly distributing hope and a zeal to continue walking on the path to creating milestones, in her case mining a goldfield of musical interests for this generation, to know not just her exhaustive portfolio but also her present contributions.