In a world where we are all downloading music and losing the album art, I am glad limited edition books like this one are being made. This book is basically the cd case for Daniel A.I.U. Higgs latest album. I really didn’t know anything about his music (he is most known as the frontman for the punk band Lungfish) but I picked up this book because of his paintings inside. They are sublime and simple and seem so balanced with a very nice color palette. It almost reminds me of Miró’s paintings. I expected the music to compliment the art but instead it was kind of the opposite- noisy, scratchy and unorganized. Apparently it was made with all kinds of instruments- piano, guitar, banjo, jew’s harp- and then recorded onto cassette. Next to the art are acrostic poems- those poems where you write a word vertically and use each letter to start each line. Most of them are pretty uninteresting- ATOM- All Time Obeys Me. I’m also not sure why the cover art is so different from the interior art. This is the second limited book with cd put out by the Chicago record label Thrill Jockey. I’m hoping they continue to make more of these. It’s a nice way to rightfully keep music and art together.

© Julia Rothman 2007