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If The Bird & The Bee prompted me to write a short little review, then certainly Imogen Heap’s Speak For Yourself deserves a few paragraphs.

First of all, I love what little of her story I know. The gist of it is that Heap made this incredible recording completely on her own, after a bad experience working with one or more record labels. She got 10,000 copies of the CD made her way and they sold out quickly, enabling her to stroll in and have Sony BMG distribute it more widely than she ever could have, hopefully on her terms. It’s a testament to the staggering writing, performance, recording and production on this disc.

Early in the CD is “Goodnight and Go,” a wistful and touching love song (I think) with a wonderful little beat and a guitar track from the incomparable Jeff Beck. I have a weakness for cute little pop songs like this, and this is as good as they come.

But it’s not just cute little pop songs. Take “Hide and Seek,” the most emotionally powerful recording I think I have ever heard. It brings tears to my eyes, gives me a chill and a cold sweat, pretty much every time I give it a serious listen. And I don’t even quite know what it means.

Technically as well as lyrically, this song is a masterpiece: the use of a harmonizer seems to intensify the emotion instead of crush it, which almost always happens when high-tech gadgets are used so prominently in a recording. This song has been used in the TV show “The O.C.” at a moment of extreme emotional impact (I gather, having seen the clip but not the show). This inspired a very funny send-up of the song’s dramatic power–and how easily it is misused–on Saturday Night Live.

“Daylight Robbery” is another great one in that it shows that a song can sound very “electronic” and still have undeniable artistic value. This tune uses some tricks that remind me of dance artist BT. The difference is that BT’s tracks generally lack subtlety or meaning (take “Knowledge of Self” from Emotional Technology for example: not a bad track but not in the same league). This is why I’m a Pixar fan: sure I like whizzy computer graphics, but the point is the storytelling.

(This isn’t an official video; it’s a Doctor Who montage, but I like it!)

And so the album goes, showing off Heap’s lovely voice, her complex and mysterious lyrics and the amazing layered productions. Most of all I love Speak For Yourself’s range of styles, from sing-song silly to thick, intense overdriving power, sometimes in a single song (”Loose Ends,” for example).

Not since Poe’s Haunted have I become so attached to a CD. Speak for Yourself is Post-Rock at its best.

I just picked up Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason. I’ve shared my passion for this general topic before, but Sagan, Dawkins and Harris are all atheists, and this may cause their message to fall on a certain number of deaf ears.

But Al Gore believes in God. And he’s passionate about the importance of reason to the survival of our society. This isn’t the first time I’ve wanted to shout from the rooftops that people should listen to him, but this time he puts a crystal clear call to action right at the beginning (p. 10):

We Americans must resolve to repair the systematic decay of the public forum. We must create new ways to engage in a genuine and not manipulative conversation about our future. We must, for example, stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of psuedostudies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public’s ability to discern the truth. Americans in both parties should insist on the reestablishment of respect for the rule of reason.

Fight for reason. It’s the real way to be patriotic. Who’s with me?

UPDATE 5/28: Here’s the letter I mailed to Al Gore today.

UPDATE 2: Online versions are freely available of the Introduction and Chapter One.

It was hard to say goodbye to this dazzling book, the most delicious food my brain has had in ages. It’s so touching, so real. My favorite books are the ones which seem painfully true, even (especially) when they are built upon an impossible concept. Having only just finished it, I’m speechless. If you love fiction and love the way great fiction makes you feel, you have no choice but to read The Time Traveler’s Wife.

I recently enjoyed Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Uncompromising, logical, compelling, convincing; great stuff. But there’s something exquisite about Carl Sagan’s The Varieties of Scientific Experience. Sagan’s magic—in the words of his wife and collaborator, Ann Druyan—“was his extraordinary combination of principled, crystal-clear advocacy coupled with respect and tenderness toward those who did not share his views.” (p. xiv) This is a tremendously important book, and I think everyone should read it. And everyone can read it. There’s no heavy physics or math here, just a very smart guy who’s studied a great deal on a wide range of subjects telling you what he thinks about truth. Naturally, I think he’s spot-on.
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I’ll take this over some random comedy any day.

Funny, touching, awkward, poignant, devastating. Amazing cinematography, unbelievably great music, and a dead-serious storyline.

And this really cool deranged dog.

Heather says the book was even more lighthearted and funny in the beginning, and even more disturbing nearer the end. So I may have to check that out too.