Lightning Reviews: January

Bowie, Hornsby on Prince and Dickens, Pink Floyd, and an Office Space reference

Jan 31, 2023

∙ Paid

1. “Sound and Vision (Moonage Daydream Mix),” and “Word on a Wing (Moonage Daydream Mix),” David Bowie.

Some say that music is “happy” when it moves through sound space the way a happy person moves through real space. This is probably false, but on these two mixes of these two tracks it sure seems true. “Sound and Vision” has a baseline that wiggles and leaps with uncontained joy. “Word on a Wing” is stately by contrast; the melody, on piano, outlines the I and IV chords, and calmly ascends from E-flat to D-flat and V, in a light and effortless motion of quiet bliss. The final leap of a major seventh is a bird alighting on a high bough.

2. Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius, Nick Hornby.

Horsby is inspired:

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