CD TIP

i/o

Peter Gabriel

It’s been two decades since Gabriel’s last solo album, and I’m not suggesting he spent every waking moment of that time working on this record. Maybe he DID. It’s certainly a polished, creative, thoughtful and continually listenable album. It’s a great album. Two albums, actually, inasmuch as the Gabe Man presents both “bright-mix” and “dark-mix” versions. Engineer Spike Spent handled the bright side and Tchad Blake the dark side, and each have strong sonic moments. Frankly, it starts to confuse me; I suppose if I have to pick one, I’ll go with the bright — although it wouldn’t surprise me if any given listener would ultimately prefer whatever mix they heard first. That would be the one against which the other mix would be compared to. ANYWAY, Gabriel has one of the most distinctive voices in modern music and he’s a brilliant composer for whom the world provides plenty of creative spark. Either — both — versions are superb.

— Rick Koster

BOOK TIP

My Name Is Barbra

Barbra Streisand

You will learn a LOT about Barbra Streisand over the course of this 992-page tome. You’d expect no less than detailed examinations of her work by this renowned perfectionist, right? She gets into the nitty gritty of shooting films like “The Way We Were” and “A Star Is Born” and recording her albums. She’s forthright about a lot of her romantic relationships. You understand she’s been to therapy, too, with the way she speaks about her difficult relationship with her mother and stepfather and how it informed the way she dealt with some things later in life. But unlike, say, Elton John’s memoir “Me” or Viola Davis’s “Finding Me,” you don’t get much of a sense of her personality. But you certainly understand her smarts, her talent, the drive and her strength of self.

– Kristina Dorsey

BOOK TIP

Wellness

Nathan Hill

With his first novel, “The Nix,” Nathan Hill was instantly ushered into the Modern White Dude Giants of American Lit (Generation II) Club. His brethren include Chad Harbach and Garth Risk Hallberg and they follow all those Chabon, Franzen and Safran Foer people. Hill’s new book will only elevate his place amongst these writers. It’s a 600 page examination of modern culture through the prism of the ongoing relationship between Jack and Elizabeth. Reading “Wellness” is, to me, the literary equivalent of a Weather Report or Mahavishnu Orchestra concert — all dazzling chops and flights of virtuosic fancy. But it gets tiresome. Hill is funny as hell, and there’s no disputing the sharpness of his satiric observational skills. Frankly, I don’t like Jack OR Elizabeth, but that’s OK because I don’t think Hill likes them, either. But they provide a fine chord structure, if you will, over which the author can solo his brains out — and it’s up to you whether that’s enough for a satisfactory reading experience.

— Rick Koster