Welcome Distractions
New music, book reviews, short stories and more from blog this week
Plus lots of links to other good stuff that didn’t get there (yet)Is this a useful email? Forward it to a friend who might like it.
Hi! You’re here! Thank you.To new subscribers: this isn’t indicative of the newsletter. Between the Canadian holiday on Tuesday and July 4 today, I’m keeping things simpler than usual.
Instead of big new things, I did a series of ‘best of 2025’ things and called it ‘Recency Bias’ (a name I’m pretty proud of). Here’s the homepage for it, you can hit the individual pages on the links below.
Got something to share? Lay it on me. And now:
Off the blog: links you shouldn’t miss
The Death and Live of the Straight White Man’s Novel is made more interesting by the subhead: “The seeming decline of a certain type of novelist is much discussed and debated in the literary world. But the bigger question is whether it matters.”
Here’s another take on why it doesn’t matter: The Real Reason Men Should Read Fiction in The Atlantic made me feel very, uh, ‘seen’:
I am reminded that everyone is unexceptional and everyone is exceptional. Facts can sometimes tell us this about humanity, but fiction does this best of all.
Here’s a silly game where you solve crosswords like you’re playing Metal Gear Solid.
In this piece about crediting writers on book blurbs, John Warner also goes into the trickiness of referencing AI conversations in bibliographies.
I didn’t like the new Ocean Vuong book, and when that happens, sometimes I feel like I missed something. Tom Crewe felt the same, and I felt better after reading his take.
The Emperor of Gladness appears to have been edited from space, with the result that it is inordinately long and almost entirely filler.
Chris Dalla Riva writes about the AI band that’s gained 300,000 Spotify followers. It’s full of insight and answers a lot of the ‘how did this happen?’ that I didn’t see elsewhere.
Andrew Potter comes at it from a different angle, writing about a guitarist who was faking the funk. And he points to a Rick Beato interview with Billy Corgan (ugh) that actually makes me like Billy Corgan (ugh ugh!)
The Globe and Mail published a bad list of essential Canadian music. I know these things are clickbait, but even the readers’ responses left out some of the greatest Canadian hip hop of all time.
What got your attention this week? Got a hot take on something? Hit reply and let me know.
On the Blog
Reading:
Endling by Maria Reva: a story aout the Ukraine war that just blew me away
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong was not great.
Recency Bias: Here are the favourite fiction, favourite nonfiction and favourite short stories of the first half of the year.
Got a short story? Send it my way
Listening:
After London’s debut record is retrofuturistic music from a band named after the first dystopian novel. It feels like it was conceived as ‘future badass music’ in 1995.
The Setlist: 24 tracks, about 75 minutes. Standout tracks by Ganser, Niles and WEBB ft. Jay Feelbender. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.
Recency Bias: Ten of my favourite albums of 2025 so far. Nine favourite EPs of 2025 so far. Thirty favourite singles you should hear. Each of those posts has playlists if you want ‘em.
What’s on your playlist? Send me your faves
Next week: Back on my bullshit. We’ve got books from artists that have been featured here! New records from Dead Anyway, Bimbo and Velvetine.
Thanks for being here.
-hugh
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