Moominpappa at Sea

Tove Jansson's "Moominpappa at Sea" is a profound departure from the cozy, idyllic Moominvalley. Here, Moominpappa, feeling restless and yearning for a new purpose, uproots his family to a desolate island with a derelict lighthouse. The result is a distinctly melancholic and introspective tale.

Moominpappa grapples with an existential crisis, obsessed with providing for his family and taking on a new role of lighthouse keeper. Moominmamma struggles with homesickness - she tries (and fails) to plant a rose garden, so instead paints a garden on the walls of the lighthouse that she can escape to. Moomintroll experiences profound loneliness, rebuffed by the haughty sea horses and instead drawn to the enigmatic Groke, while Little My remains characteristically unfazed. 

The island and the surrounding sea are characters in their own right, with mysterious pools, flotsam washed up on the shore and wild storms to contend with. A particularly stark image is of the trees on the island uprooting themselves in fear and clustering around the lighthouse to escape from the threat of being frozen by the Groke.

Jansson masterfully explores themes of identity, purpose, the complexities of family relationships under strain, and the quiet struggle to adapt to change. The atmosphere is stark, beautiful, and hauntingly melancholy, and it's easy to see the links to the more autobiographical Summer Book that she wrote in 1972, looking at her own life on a small island through the eyes of a small child and her elderly grandmother.

Sand, plover

Today I learned that
Siberian sand plovers
Are chunky wee birds

Roses, Rage

Opening the tin Leaving boring fudge

Ducks

The troll raised his club
Thwack! Armour clanged. Feathers flew
The monster grinned, yelled "duck!"

Definitely Maybe by Oasis

Back in the 90s I was on a junior programmer on a work road trip with my boss at the time - a lovely posh, tweedy lady of a certain age - when Cigarettes & Alcohol came on the radio. “Oooh - I like this one, reminds of the music I used to listen to when I was your age”.

I’m not saying this is a bad album, but I have a slight contrarian tendency to avoid things that are popular without any particular reason. This definitely caught the public imagination during the height of Britpop, along with the media hyped rivalry between Blur and Oasis - for the record, I was a Pulp fan mainly because they counted as a local Sheffield band for me.

Listening back to this now I enjoyed bits of it more than I thought I might. However, as the saying goes, this album is both good and original. Unfortunately the parts that are good aren’t original and vice versa. It definitely captures the feeling of a live performance but apparently the recording process was anything but spontaneous. I also can’t quite get past the faux laddishness and Liam’s nasal Manc drawl that turns the word sunshine into “sun-sheeee-ine”

Oh well, after all it’s just rock ’n’ roll.

Lonely, Lightning

Lone tree standing tall
Sky shattered like broken glass
Burning heart of fire

The Slider by T. Rex

I don’t think I appreciated until today quite how much Tony Visconti was involved in shaping the glam sound of the early 70s. As well as his well known collaborations with Bowie, he produced all of T. Rex’s albums including string arrangements and backing vocals as required. This album has a notably heavier rock sound - even if Metal Guru couldn’t quite be classified as heavy metal, Chariot Choogle is most definitely heading that way.

The quieter tracks are probably a better showcase for Bolan’s unique and slightly fey vocals, and there are definite similarities with Bowie’s sound on the album closer Main Man. We can only wonder what sort of directions Bolan’s career might have taken if not for his tragic death in a car crash in 1978. As it is we are left with a fine collection of a songs and a haunting picture on the album cover (probably snapped by Tony Visconti rather than Ringo as the album credit has it).