Songs of Mass Destruction by Annie Lennox

One of the interesting things about Lennox’s singing is that when she uses different tones in her songs, she summons different perspectives and it is as if we are hearing different aspects of the singer’s self. Her chanted litany in “Love Is Blind,” a litany of exhaustion and frustration, is as fierce a sound as any in popular music.

The Incomparable Streisand: Barbra Streisand’s Live in Concert 2006 and The Movie Album

Streisand is a classicist: she is informed by European classical music, and is part of the modern, popular tradition of the art of song that found its place on Broadway, and in jazz and Hollywood musicals. Is she working from memory, nostalgia, or great regard for the art form? She has been true to a tradition in which intelligent, loving, and witty words and beautiful melodies are central; and it is a tradition in eclipse thanks to the dominating noisy rhythms and rage to be found in rock and hip-hop.

A review of The Cat Empire – So Many Nights

They’ve stayed down-to-earth, innovative, and intimate despite their first two albums making platinum status and their third receiving an ARIA. This is a band that refuses to be pigeonholed. Listen to them, and I dare you not to smile and dance, even if you’re feeling glum. Their latest, So Many Nights is just a bit smoother and sweeter – maybe pop-ier than their last four.

A review of Magic and Grace by Chad Hautmann

Unlike Billie’s Ghost, the magic in Magic and Grace is all metaphorical. There are visitations though. Chapman’s father materialises temporarily to give Chapman his blessing, there are the ghosts of the ancient Calusa buried below the city of Naples where the book is set (and the ghost of the city as it changes progressively), and of course the ghost of Keats from Chapman’s first novel.

A review of The Confessions of Owen Keane by Terence Faherty

The stories are indeed rather special and they develop the crime genre in a fascinating direction. Owen Keane fulfils many of the roles of a priest – he offers pastoral care to his “parishioners” and feels an imperative to save or rescue them. More often than not, it is he who decides when and how to offer help, responding to a need that is not apparent to others.

Interview with Tony Nesca

Tony Nesca, born in 1965, is the author of many books of fiction and poetry. As the reader will perceive, he is a writer who believes in the primacy of the unfettered imagination and the untrammeled life. In this candid interview, he talks about Winnipeg, Italy, influences, conventional publishers, on the neglect of Canadian authors, and much more.

A review of Aphelion by Emily Ballou

Ballou has created a much more complex novel in Aphelion than in Father Lands, but it’s no more difficult to read as a result. The complexity of time, place and multiple view points is dealt with sensitively and with a sophistication that is always tempered by Ballou’s great love of character and language, and an undercurrent of enduring humour that’s never far beneath the surface.