I Can't Hold On!

How many songs have THAT lyric? Too many to count. The first one that pops into my mind is from Squeeze's 1982 album Sweets From a Stranger, which also features the adult radio charmer "Black Coffee in Bed."

If my opening paragraph gave you a taste to revisit that melodic gem by Squeeze - sadly, you won't find it at DPPL. Or any other library in our CCS consortium, which can be searched through our Catalog. What do to when faced with such a quandary?

Expand your search via WorldCat. First, to backtrack a little: when you want a CD or any item from our Library, you search for it in the online catalog. If you know the title of the album, best way to search: type in the full title or at least a good portion of the beginning part (don't start in the middle!), click the "Browse" radio button, and choose "Title" in the dropdown menu. Oh, and leave off any initial articles, like a, an, the. So, Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head" would be simply "rush of blood", Browse, Title. Voilà.

If DPPL does not own the item, expand your search, going back to the search screen and changing the Library: option to ALL. Remember: you don't have to travel to these area libraries to borrow their materials. When you find what you like, click the blue "Place Hold" button, put in your library card number and password. We'll call you when the items arrives here at DPPL, you come in and pick it up just as easily as if we'd had it in our own collection.

Still empty-handed? That's when you can harness the power of WorldCat and expand your borrowing privileges to libraries across the country, across the world. (We have yet to master "across the universe," but we're trying.) Again, if you know the CD title, I recommend entering it in the Title search box. (WorldCat is less fussy about articles, etc.) So, if our Library and our neighboring libraries didn't own that Coldplay title - more than 800 other libraries do. While in the record for a specific item, look for the link that reads, "Borrow This Item From Another Library (Interlibrary Loan)," click, fill in the form, we'll take care of the rest. Specifically, Mike in our Circulation department will take care of the rest. We'll call you when the CD arrives.

It's that easy. You may have to "hold on" for a bit until the item arrives, but placing holds and interlibrary loans puts more music at your fingertips. Try it next time you're stuck on a song you can't find anywhere else.

Tastes Like Chicken

If "tastes like chicken" is the bane of gourmands everywhere, then "If you like Kate Bush, you'll love...(fill in the blank)" is the unimaginative music fan's killer catchphrase. I'd just been thinking that when I read an interview with Florence Welch, of Florence + The Machine, in which she was asked, "Is it lazy journalism to compare you with Kate Bush?" She responded both yes and no. I haven't heard Florence + The Machine's latest, but I bet it won't remind me of Kate Bush.

With that in mind, I gave a listen to Bat For Lashes' (aka Natasha Khan ) "Two Suns." It reminds me of Kate Bush here and there, mostly vocally - Khan likes to make big octave leaps and has a little of Bush's Brit-sweet affectation. Occasionally, on a song like "Sleep Alone," you hear an echo of Bush's most electronic recordings, such as "Joanni" and "Sat In Your Lap." Tender, piano-driven pieces like "Moon and Moon" do seem influenced by Bush's earlier albums. Bat For Lashes is often compared to Stevie Nicks as well, and validly, in the sense that as a lyricist, Khan seems to inhabit her own private world (do you often find yourself listening to Fleetwood Mac and wondering what the heck Nicks is talking about? I say that as a huge fan, not as a critic). Khan is not as commanding as either Bush or Nicks as a vocal artist, however. I found myself tuning the songs out pretty quickly, poppy 80s background music, sweet but a little too light to divert my attention. You might also hear the influence of people like Annie Lennox, Sinead O'Connor (the 80s years) and the Cranberries, but while Khan's overall range is impressive she doesn't ever sing with much power or theatricality. Scott Walker's cameo on "The Big Sleep" does nothing to help the Kate Bush parallels, reminiscent as it is of those odd moments when Kate's brother Paddy would guest star as a "heehawing" demon or what-have-you.

You might expect to hear this music during a rave scene in a hipster movie or on the catwalk at a fashion show. It's not terrible, it perhaps just feels too derivative to seem new and exciting, and the artist lacks a virtuosic talent for singing, playing or writing that might make you overlook the lack of originality.

Does your mileage vary? If you're a fan of "Two Suns," convince me a little bit so I'll give it a second listen. :) Best tracks to my ears: "Glass," "Pearl's Dream," "Travelling Woman." You can find "Two Suns" in our Catalog.