Word: phrasings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Investment banking. The phrase conjured up images of the roaring `80s, "Bonfire of the Vanities," Michael Douglas with his hair slicked back in "Wall Street." All I knew was that investment bankers bought and sold things and made obscene amounts of money doing it. Who could ask for anything more...
...tell myself I haven't changed; I just think more realistically. You can be different and be successful, I say. Then I realize that I picked that phrase up from the Procter & Gamble flyer...
...slot on Billboard's album chart, above Nirvana and the other pricey rockers half Meat Loaf's age (46). Somebody must like this stuff, someone who remembers what rock once did -- and still could -- sound and feel like. Three, maybe four chords; an amoral homily twisted into a catch phrase; adolescent yearning and ecstasy so confused that they become harmony...
Most critics praise Colwin highly for her prose, which they rightly credit with wry, elegant clarity. When she merely narrates, Colwin's unusual voice charms the reader. But she puts this remarkably stylish turn of phrase in the mouths of her less-than-remarkable protagonists. Stilted, unnatural dialogue results...
...songs with one-word or one-phrase choruses ("Spitfire," "Sunday") slide into my head and won't let go; the songs with more complicated lyrical setups ("Noelle, Jonah and Me") actually have to be deciphered, but it's worth it. The Spinanes have something to say about restraint, about the blank spaces--in a band, in a life, in a romance--that pop up where you expect music, or words, or approval, or love, to be; anyone who thinks pop music can't be emotionally subtle needs to hear this record yesterday. Lately its less hummable songs have been reminding...