A Rarity Is Born:A Singer Who Can Actually Sing & Songs That Say Something

Forget the hair (and it's pretty cool too). This young woman is pure energy and pure talent. Part retro, part futuristic, her style, her music, the dance, the sound are all one onrushing breath of fresh air.The video for Many Moons had me but I first had a WTH-moment when I saw her Tightrope video. Both her albums, The ArchAndroid and Metropolis:Chase Suite I tell a larger story. It's like listening to scifi poetry put into music.

The entire chant sequence in Many Moons is just beautiful. My fave track is Come Alive (War of the Roses), an absolutely electrifying short piece. I also particularly enjoyed Cold War and Dance or Die but don't ever not listen to the whole album although the later part of ArchAndroid slowed down tremendously and sounded tepid but then don't take my word for it because the brisk pace of the first part had me hooked.

Want to listen to a new sound? Go Janelle Monae. Maybe I'll tire of her sound soon but right now, I just can't get enough of it!

Dying by Seeing

Okay, Mr Saramago, so you had to die a week after I finished your book, Seeing. This is the first Saramago I've read and it's a good (not fantastic, good) book. The latter part was fine especially as Jose Saramago learnt towards genre-bending. However, this could be because by then I was getting used to the lack of punctuation and formatting structures (maybe, it looked good on paper but those ultra-long paragraphs and absence of quotation marks stood in the way of the story, hear?, no, you can't again). The last few lines were, however, great and for once I almost clapped.

This is most likely not Saramago's best work (it isn't, I've heard) but it didn't lift off until the middle of the book. If this was from a lesser known writer, it wouldn't get so much attention. So, I'll give Seeing 3/5 but then Mr Saramago waited till I finished the book, so I can make that 3.5/5 and lets hope that will gladden his heart. Thanks very much and good bye, Jose.