The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, illustrated by Tove Jansson

Whilst I've read The Lord of the Rings multiple times over the years, I don't think I've sat down and read the Hobbit from cover to cover since I was small. When this edition was announced, featuring illustrations created by Tove Jansson for the Swedish edition of the book, I couldn't resist. I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the adventures of Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves on their trek to the Lonely Mountain to reclaim their treasures from the mighty dragon Smaug.

The illustrations definitely add to the story, with a unique perspective on familiar characters. I particularly loved this version of Gollum that Jansson produced because it wasn't clear (at least from the text that she was working from) how big the character was supposed to be! All of the illustrations have been collected here but I highly recommend buying this book to see them in context.

 

Night Chill

Awake in darkness
Too scared to turn on the light
Frozen by night chills

Green by R.E.M.

This is an unlikely candidate for one of the biggest selling albums of the 80s. It’s an archetypal example of the Athens, Georgia sound, with jangly guitars, Michael Stipe’s distinctive, plaintive vocals and some nice touches on some tracks with mandolins, cello and pedal steel guitar giving a touch of country/Americana.

The thing that really sets this album is the utterly baffling nature of the lyrics, with gnomic allusions turned into sing along hooks. I had no idea what lines like “I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush” meant at the time and I’m still not much clearer even after reading the wikipedia page.

Does it matter if it doesn’t make sense? Maybe, maybe not, but perhaps that’s where its charm lies.

Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

I’m a sucker for a good concept album, and it doesn’t get a much higher concept than a series of albums each devoted to a detailed history of one of the American states. Sadly we only got Michigan and Illinois before the project was abandoned.

There was a lot that I enjoyed about this, particularly the ambitious scope of the music which reminded me in places of the minimalist operas of composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, crossed with the breezy jazz of Vince Guaraldi and even a nod to the Cure’s “Close To Me” on the title track “Come on! Feel the Illinoise” (which was a lost opportunity to cover Slade).

What I didn’t like was a piece about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy dressing up as a clown to murder people. Seriously, this should have come with a content warning. This one track was enough to almost put me off listening to the rest of the album. Seriously, skip this one or don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The rest of the lyrics are a lot more interesting with what sound like autobiographical insights into Steven’s life and beliefs, and they are quite moving in an obtuse way. I think I’d like to read a commentary about what he’s alluding to on some of these.

This would have been five stars, but minus one for Killer Klowns and minus another one for giving up after two states. Lazy, lazy Sufjan Stevens.

Frost

Start of October
Twenty degrees, no frost yet
I'm sure this is fine

Haystack

Carefully climbing
Then a leap of faith into
A handy haystack

Closer by Joy Division

This album was a difficult listen back in 1980 and the passage of time hasn’t made it much easier. Knowing how desperately ill lead singer Ian Curtis was during the recording and then hearing lines like “Gotta find some therapy … gotta find my destiny, before it gets too late” hits home in a way that very few songs do. Perhaps he could have been helped, but there are too many ‘what ifs’ to answer.

The sound of this album defined the 80s for me, being the antithesis of plastic pop for yuppies. Without this album we wouldn’t have had so much of the music that exploded from the Manchester scene throughout that decade and beyond. As with Bowie’s Blackstar, this deserves to be listened to properly and not shuffled or playlisted.