The last few weeks have seen an explosion of British and American indie albums that are each jostling to sound more like a band from the 80s or early 90s than the rest. The latest group to arrive with a load of fun, upbeat and quirky tunes, marked out with a slightly more inventive look and style than most, is The Joy Formidable. Their debut single, "Austere", could hardly be more of a college rock response to the Coalition cuts if it tried - its zest and punchy flavour not austere at all, confirming there is fizz still in the broken vessels of the state.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
Comments