As the anniversaries of 20-year-old albums continue to roll in, it dawns on me: was there ever a better year for popular/indie music? Consider that 1991 saw the release of Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Loveless, Blue Lines, Ten, Out Of Time, Trompe Le Monde, Girlfried, Gish, and, incredibly, Metallica's Black Album. Clearly, U2, Nirvana, RHCP, Pearl Jam, Matthew Sweet, and perhaps REM, were never better, and My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica and Massive Attack achieved career highs that year, too.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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