This week, in my consumption of media:

• Vampire Weekend - Contra. (music) It's a bit less immediately awesome when compared to their first record. The style is familiar now, so simply putting a quasi-African song behind some smart lyrics isn't enough to trigger that "wow!" anymore. They changed things up a little, though - many of the new songs substitute keyboards for that twittery guitar, and hence it sounds a bit more polished in places. There are still a handful of really catchy songs, and the bulk of it isn't exactly bad; it's just more of the same. It was fantastic the first time around. Now it's just good.
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• Roberto Bolano - 2666. (book) This was my first Bolano book, and I didn't know what to expect; I only knew it that it was critically acclaimed. So, what did I get ? I got nearly 900 very densely-set pages of wonderfully written (especially for a translation!) prose. It's hard to call it a story - it's a dozen stories, all linked, more or less, to a long string of murders in the (pseudonymous) Mexican city of Santa Teresa. It starts off with the story about a group of European academics who are researching an obscure German author. Their research brings them, eventually, to Santa Teresa where they meet a bunch of people (there's the first couple of hundred pages). Then we learn about some of those people (another couple hundred pages), and from them, we eventually learn about a couple of police officers, etc.. Along the way, we get to read dozens and dozens of gruesome accounts of the murders - Bolano loves lists, he put countless lists of things throughout the book: jokes, species of seaweed, phobias, classic bad lines from literature, countries, ways in which women have been murdered, etc.. And all of this is taking place across different time spans and through the eyes of different characters. After the Mexican section (with hundreds of pages left to go), the book spins back and forth through time, and across the world, through a half-dozen more characters.

  Which sounds like it must be a tough read. But it's not. For the most part, Bolano handles these changes in time, space, and subject almost seamlessly. One of his typical methods: a new character appears on the scene, hangs around for a few pages, eventually gets into a long conversation with someone, starts talking about his past and then, three pages later you suddenly find you've left the old scene completely and are now in the new character's world. And, more often than not, it's pleasantly surprising at how smoothly the transition happened. Sometimes that leaves you hanging though - you might never see the previous main character again. Then again, you might. A lot happens in those 900 pages.

  But without giving it away completely, I really can't really say anything more about the plot of the book. About the most I can say is that it's a book which, maybe, is best enjoyed as it moves along, page by page, scene by scene. Bolano was a great writer: witty, clever, insightful and daring. So, there's a lot of good stuff in there. So enjoy it, and don't be surprised if, in the end, 2666 doesn't turn out the way you think a book should.
  Four raquos » » » ».

• Spoon - Transference. (music) It's in the same vein as their Gimme Fiction or Kill The Moonlight records, and not a lot like their last, GaGaGaGaGa. Most of the songs are unpolished and sketchy in that Spoon half-finished way - very little of that GaGaGaGaGa sheen. And while there is nothing as diabolically catchy as Spoon's best songs, "Written In Reverse", "Trouble Comes Running", and "Got Nuffin" are all good and could each be the 2nd best song on most Spoon albums - believe me, that's high praise.
  Four raquos » » » ».

• Jesse Ball - The Way Through Doors and Samedi the Deafness (books). Jesse Ball is a clever writer. He writes surreal, brain-twisting books in which his characters jump from one absurd surreal scene to anothe - across time, space, realities, dreams, etc.. And that can be quite disorienting. It's intentionally disorienting - that's what keeps it fun! You're expected to go through it not knowing exactly what's going on all the time. But he gives you just enough clues throughout the books to allow you to eventually figure out the structure behind it all, if you pay attention. Luckily, they are short and compact books, written with a poet's ear for prose, so it's fun. And while they are puzzling, they don't require superhuman mental capabilities to keep things straight. You only need a bit of willingness to go along on their strange journeys.
  Four raquos » » » ».