Joe Can't Dance

Best thing they've done since Viva. Much better than Music of the Spheres, a real complete album

Had an enjoyable night at the ABBA Voyage show in London in September 2024. The arena is clean and well laid out, lots of food and drink options (though nowhere really to sit down and eat). I've heard bad things about the food but ours was perfectly fine, washed down with the usual overpriced booze, but hey this is London! The show arena is fairly spectacular when you enter it, with clever lighting. It's quite intimate despite holding 3000 people a night. Our seats were on the very far left of the stage, which as it turned out wasn't ideal. So, you are essentially watching a long animated video. From our angle, the 3D effect of the band is rather ruined as you can clearly see them as a 2D back projection (and not mobile holograms as you might think). Coupled with large screens, the effect is more Playstation 5 than photorealistic, though it has to be said it's still mightily impressive. But it does wear thin fairly quickly. There is a live band and they do an admirable job. There are long segments of the show with Cartoon Saloon type animated movies, playing to songs from the recent ABBA album (this is when people run to the bar/bathroom). Not being a big fan, I've never heard this album, and a run of three songs from it in a row did nothing to quell the odd atmosphere. By the third of those songs, the chatting from the dancefloor was drowning out the music... But then they hit you with one you know, and things go back to normal. The light show was very impressive, really vividly coloured laser lights swept the arena, and the use of mirrors and teardrop lights coming from the ceiling worked really well from our vantage point. Overall though, it really took something to get people out of their seats, and then they sat straight down again afterwards. It was a strange experience. Clapping for virtual avatars makes you look at your friends and go, why am I clapping again? A live action video of the real Abba coming on at the end was also very odd. The live band deserved the plaudits and thankfully got their moment in the sun though. Overall, it was a good night, good friends, everyone was there to enjoy themselves, and I'm sure everyone did to varying degrees. Someone told us they had a friend who had been 50 times. Don't see the second time appeal myself. But I am glad to have seen it. For me the virtual Abba are probably the least impressive part, but it may be better to think of it as less of a concert and more of a musical art installation where every multimedia bell and whistle has been flung at the stage. Worth a look, definitely. Worth repeating? Hmmm, not so sure....

There was a very disappointing book, which makes very little sense, isn't really explained in any way and features a bunch of unrelatable and frankly unlikeable characters. It tries to blur reality around the making of a movie, the manuscript of that movie, and the aftermath, with a rather predictable premise that builds up to a "couple of sentence" reveal that is stupendously underwhelming. I get the feeling I'm missing something but trust me, you're not missing out by not reading it

Quite honestly the most depressing book I've ever read. I just wanted a chink of light to shine through but it just gets worse and worse and worse. I understand that's the concept, that this is going on in other countries but in reality, did we need to read about it on our doorstep. I can see why it won awards, but as a librarian I won't be recommending it to my patrons. This is simply dour misery masquerading as art

While this is undoubtedly a book virtually impossible to put down, it does pose some rather unrealistic scenarios regarding communication between superpowers, and leans towards a storybook approach for some of the protagonists which are a little far fetched. It's definitely a difficult read, but it's not heavy on jargon and is somewhat repetitive in it's use of description. I can recommend it but some reviewers sent to think it's far more important than it actually is. The simple truth is there are no winners in nuclear war, and you probably don't need a timetable of events to understand that

The reclusive duo reach their nadir on this record and Reach for the Dead is definitely up there as their best track ever. This is also a great starting point for people who have perhaps found their previous work a little too esoteric, which is not to say that the BOC trademarks are still not there. Will we ever get another album though?

The best book in the Culture series, hilarious, hugely creative and deeply moving