Beat Poet Nova: The Sorrowjoy (Recording) Underwhelms

The Good: One or two lines are interesting
The Bad: Ambient music is a real mixed bag, Vocally unimpressive, Musically uninteresting
The Basics: Heather Nova's vocal presentation of The Sorrowjoy is a surprisingly tough sell from the usually fantastic singer-songwriter.


Last year, when Heather Nova began her PledgeMusic.com campaign, I put in a request directly with the artist for one of the items that could be bought to support the new album (which comes out this month!). One of the artifacts of hers that I have long sought is her book of poetry, The Sorrowjoy. I was pretty psyched when Nova responded by making available digital copies of the audio version of The Sorrowjoy. After listening to The Sorrowjoy, I am far less enthused and a little more trepedatious about actually ever getting my hands on one of the copies of her book.

The Sorrowjoy is a forty-four track album of Heather Nova reciting her poetry from The Sorrowjoy to ambient music. The music ranges from hints of a keyboard rendition of "Sugar" to back up Nova's abuse-themed poetry to computerized sounds to accompany a poem about the disconnect between the protagonist and her friends, despite having more communications devices.

Each of the forty-four poems is read by Heather Nova and part of my issue is with the performance (something I never thought I'd say about Nova!). Most of the lines are presented with surprisingly little emotion, so there is a droning quality to the recording that makes one envision a smoky, depressing, beat club with a chronically-depressed poet reciting in monotones to a bored audience. Between that and Nova pronouncing "capillaries" in a way I had never before heard, the recording is more off-putting than inspiring.

Thematically, The Sorrowjoy meanders from travel to relationships to memory poems and for an artist who has always captivated me with her lyrics, the surprise of the album is that none of the lines are so incredible as to stand out and be memorable. In fact, thinking of The Sorrowjoy, the only line I can instantly recall is one from an anecdote poem wherein the narrator's grandmother tells the narrator it is okay to live with a man before marriage, before abruptly changing her mind.

The result is an auditorily dull experience and the most complete dud Nova has ever produced. The Sorrowjoy might read better on the page, but as recited in The Sorrowjoy, Heather Nova completely fails to impress as a poet.

For other Heather Nova album reviews, please be sure to check out:
These Walls
Glowstars
Oyster
Blow
Live From The Milky Way
Siren
Wonderlust
South
Storm
Redbird
The Jasmine Flower
300 Days At Sea
Live In Cologne 2/26/2014

.5/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for a comprehensive listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Leaving Poems In The Glade: Leaves Of Grass Is A Perfect Book Of Poetry!

The Good: Lyrical style, Quality of thought, Organization
The Bad: Some dated poems
The Basics: The ultimate emotive collection of poems exploring the nature of humanity. Will enhance ANY reader who puts in the work!

In the giants of American poetics, Walt Whitman is the reigning Goliath and Leaves of Grass is the undefeatable bastion of language that endures from the artist.

9 out of 10 Americans can't stomach poetry and of the remaining ten percent perhaps one in a hundred will actually pick up a book of poetry outside of an academic setting and read it. Invariably, Leaves of Grass is one they get in college or experience. So, why should the rest of the population appreciate or want to read a book of poetry? And why Whitman's Leaves of Grass?

Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass represents the highest order of lyrical accomplishment in American English. If every single musical artist were required to read Leaves of Grass before penning their first lyrics, the radio waves would be devoid of the common, droll, meaningless songs that populate them now. That's the magic of Leaves of Grass; it is music. It takes a critical mind, intelligence beyond the ordinary to read something that is essentially musical. Unlike Finnegan's Wake or other experiments in the auditory, there is nothing artificial here; Whitman is saying something.

Leaves of Grass is the quintessential exploration of the relationship between humanity and nature. Perhaps even more, the poetic collection is the definition of man within nature. What it means to be a human, what the body is, what our place is in the world these things are explored with the open eyes of a child and combined with the reasoning of an adult. Reading Leaves of Grass is like opening yourself up to a second childhood, one where you're smart enough to see what's going on and understand it.

In fact, the only drawback of the poetic collection is that some of the poems are dated. There are specific references to the Civil War and some of Whitman's feelings of patriotism and belief in the Republic are hard to swallow whenever politics are so corrupted as they have been of late.

I've often called Leaves of Grass "socially acceptable Freudian exploration" and that's probably the most accurate description; a collection of poems that view the world with innocence and yet a sense of sexual awareness uncompromised by social mores.

For other books of poetry, please check out my review of The Complete Poems Of Audre Lorde!

10/10

For other books, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2001 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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An Homage To An Amazing Poet: The Collected Poems Of Audre Lorde!

The Good: Lyrically superior, articulate, poetically supreme!
The Bad: Minutia - mostly a few poems that get lost
The Basics: A definite buy! Great for any library, especially one lacking poetry! Audre's magical voice enhances all of her views!

The vast majority of people who are not in college in an English/literary degree program haven't read much poetry and outside of a feminist literature class, odds are most haven't experienced Audre Lorde. Nothing could be more unfortunate. Audre Lorde spends a lot of time exploring the different facets of who she is as a woman, cancer survivor, lesbian, and woman of color.

To simply ignore genius because it is originating from someone we don't know or because we might not be the same demographic is foolish. A lot of that idea comes out in The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde, the most complete collection of poems by one of the United States' unsung literary icons. Indeed, Audre wrote before the popularity of such authors as Toni Morrison and poet Maya Angelou.

Audre Lorde displays a profound understanding of the English language that is enviable, especially in such illiterate times. She brings voice, more than to any group that she is a part of but, to the individual. That is, while Audre was a woman, cancer survivor, etc., her poetry emerges as a work of an essential Human. She is the voice of individuality and so much of her poetry explores the isolation as a result.

The only significant drawback (I do not consider having to actually think about what you're reading a drawback) is that some of Audre's longer poems get lost. It's not so much that they're long to the point of losing their point, but rather that in some of her poetic endeavors, she gets off track, starts with a point and never comes back to it or takes the poem in a different direction and it simply doesn't work.

Largely this is an amazing collection of poetry enviable by anyone who enjoys poetry. It's also the ideal volume for those looking for something different or to overcome a long-held fear of poetry.

9/10

For more book reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
and the index page!

© 2001, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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