Therion: Les Fleurs du Mal - Review

CD reviews are not a regular feature on this blog, but I like making an exception for this album: Les Fleurs du Mal by Therion. On sale since yesterday at the shows of their "Flowers of Evil & 25th Anniversary" Tour, and shipped yesterday to the fans who pre-ordered the album, it is a special case. Unlike for regular albums, no previews were given, no promotional copies were sent to the press. There were only some rumors the album would consist of covers of French chansons.

I didn't know what to expect - in fact, I only knew it'd be on sale during the tour, so I ran to the merchandise booth when I arrived to the Effenaar venue yesterday to see their show. I bought it, and put it in my purse right away to go and secure a good spot for myself (in fact, I ended up leaning against the stage for this show). After their regular opening song "O Fortuna" from the Carmina Burana, they continued with the opening song of the new album "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", I was very surprised. I immediately recognized the song, and I thought they played it for a joke (Sabaton made the entire audience do a YMCA during their show a few weeks ago, and I've heard a good deal of funny covers by now). But no - it turned out to be part of their new album. They played 3 or 4 songs of the new album during their concert, and then I listened to the entire album on my drive back home.

My first impression of the album was that it's just weird. French chanson with Therion's symphonic metal - hmmm. It's not the best album for a nocturnal drive on the highway either. I thought playing the new album would provide me some blasting metal to keep me awake while driving back from the gig, but it turns out to be more an album which requires you to sit down with a cup of tea or wine and enjoy it. After a few sessions of listening to the album, I'm still in doubt on how to rate it: I like it in a weird way, but I miss up-tempo songs. Lori's vocals are outstanding though - I remember the first time I saw her performing with Therion live (5 years ago I think), and I thought then I should retire as a vocalist and just do engineering. Of all singers I've seen performing, in metal, rock and classical music, she's by far the best - she has an incredible vocal range, a brilliant stage persona and she sings flawlessly. I don't expect this album to become my favorite Therion album - it's lacking the dark richness - but my ears appreciate the sound.

Here's a track-by-track review of the album:

01 Poupée de cire, poupée de son
This song was the first song of the new album that I heard during their show yesterday. It's a weird rendition of the song, and in a way, it makes the idea of a doll (poupée in French) even more vivid. Vaguely reminiscent of "La Chanson d'Olympia" as well.

02 Une fleur dans le coeur
A song which I can only describe as "beautiful", in all its aspects. It's sung beautifully by Lori, and is also part of their set during the tour.

03 Initials B.B
The sound of this song is more metal-oriented. The intro is great, the rest didn't really work for me as of now. The vocals are deep and bring a sense of 60 sexiness into the metalworld.

04 Mon amour, mon ami
The rendition of this song is very delicate and experimental - I associate it with the first CD by the former Norwegian band The 3rd and the Mortal (Tears laid in earth). After an atmospheric intro, some Gregorian-like chanting is added and then the structure turns into a power ballad - with a twist.

05 Polichinelle
The sound in this song is more familiar to the previous Therion albums.

06 La Maritza
This track is fully centered around Lori's vocals again - but the result is too much "napkin waiving wedding kinda song" in my opinion.

07 Soeur angelique
A song which didn't really catch my attention.

08 Dis moi poupée
After many slower songs with mostly female vocals, this song brings more versatility and a great change in sound.

09 Lilith
Great dark atmosphere (but that's what you'd expect from a song titled "Lilith").

10 En Alabama
Weird again, a song with a stint of Americana in it?

11 Wahala manitou
Here, the sound is more circus-like and vaguely reminds me of The Doors' second album "Strange Days"(although that could be related to the artwork of that album)

12 Je n'ai besoin que de tendresse
An uptempo song, with some great screaming after all the soft and beautiful singing in French. Even though it sounds weird and funny, I like this song a lot.

13 La licorne d'or
Best feature of this track are the backing vocals that add darkness and depth to the sound.

14 J'ai le mal de toi
A very good and layered song which they also perform during their tour. After a few listening sessions, I really appreciate the song. The video that is released for this song adds to the dramatic feel.

15 Poupée de cire, poupée de son
A reprise of the opening song.

16 Les sucettes (Bonus song)
I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun recording this song - and it's mostly just that: really funny.

Reading loads: Keeping up with the output

In a previous post we looked at the different levels at which you can be reading during your PhD studies. This post focuses on keeping up with the mass of output that is being published.

Flickr picture under CC license by thejester100

It's absolutely important to be up-to-date with your field as a researcher, but the multitude of papers can make it a daunting task. Here are a few ways on how to manage your reading load.

1. Use an RSS feed of your search item

You can use an RSS feed for a few keywords, to get automated updates of papers that are published using these keywords. As of now, I haven't been using this possibility, since I prefer to read per journal - but I am planning to implement this method into my reading strategy some time soon.

2. Subscribe for updates of your favorite journal

So far, this has been my go-to method. I have my clear and preferred journals in structural and bridge engineering, and I keep track of their new publications through e-mail updates. For example, as an ACI student member, I get an update when the latest ACI Structural Journal, latest ACI Materials Journal and Concrete International are published, including abstracts and links. I make it a habit to skim through these mails for interesting papers, and immediately print and save these for future reading.

3. Don't forget to explore the history

While trying to keep up with the present, it is important not to forget to read up on the roots of your field. I enjoy reading articles from the 1960s or earlier by pioneers in the field, and I'm always surprised at how many useful ideas can be found in there.

4. Don't just pile, actually read!

A challenge for myself: not letting all the unread papers accumulate into a massive pile, but actually read consistently. Currently, I have about 3 evenings per week that I have set aside some time to catch up with my reading, in which I try to read at least 2 to 3 papers to have that giant pile decrease.

Which strategies do you use to keep up with your reading loads?

Reading loads: understanding different levels of reading

Part of my off-campus summer reading

A recently came across the interesting Storify on reading loads in a PhD course

While I do not have PhD level courses in my program, and focus on research only, the topic of reading loads itself is interesting enough to discuss.

The question "How much should we read?" is always related to "Should students read deeper or broader?"

In my opinion, it really depends on which stage you are at in your reading, and for which purpose. In a way, I've dealth with the phases of reading in an earlier post, but let's just elaborate on the significance of reading in depth as well as reading in breadth.

1. In-depth reading

In-depth reading is, in my opinion, very similar to studying. If you have skimmed through a paper, and found a gem in there for your research, you need to sit down and work through the material until you fully understand it. In my case, that means a lot of sketching and seeing if I can derive the formulas myself. Reading like this (for technical work/derivations) can go as slow as only 2 pages an hour (on average, I'd say 10 pages if it's very well detailed in a thesis, and much less if you need to go and hunt in other references to figure out why the others took a certain step in their derivation).

2. Reading for a broader understanding

My EndNote PhDBibliography library is holding a little under 600 references at the moment - all of which I have read (and a few more piles in my office on shelves to work through). I have read about shear in reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete beams (with and without web reinforcement), punching in slabs, live loads on bridges and design of reinforced and prestressed concrete bridges. I wanted to broaden my understanding and background knowledge of these topics, so I read as much as I could lay my eyes on. Also, when I need to discuss a "new" topic (for example, sustainability aspects related to the possible outcomes of my research), I gather as many references as possible and get into sponge-mode. For that purpose, I spend about 20 to 30 minutes per paper, trying to understand the main ideas, the implications, and have a deeper look at the abstract, conclusions and figures - and see if it refers to other interesting work.

TEDxDelft: Never grow up - October 5th

"We are very proud to announce the second edition of TEDxDelft: 5 October 2012 we will open the doors of the Aula Congress Centre again to celebrate TEDx with you once more. 

This year TEDxDelft theme is ‘never grow up‘. Never stop asking questions, never stop wondering, always think of other ways to face challenges, always question why things are the way they are, keep wondering, keep on learning, always stay young, never stop dreaming, never stop doing, creativity by playing, work=play, gamification, living the dream, what do you mean, this cannot be done?

We were inspired by the story of Peter Pan, some quotes:

•  All children, except one, grow up. Every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
• All you need is trust and a little bit of pixie dust!
• I’ll teach you to ride on the wind’s back, and away we go!
• So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned.
• I ran away the day I was born. It was because I heard father and mother talking about what I was to be when I became a man.
• If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!
• All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again
• Forget them. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never never have to worry about grown up things again" 

Tickets are sold out, but you can still join the waiting list.

For those of you that live far away from Delft, there will be live stream for the event, accessible through the TEDxDelft website.
Also, keep an eye on the website - there are frequent updates about the performer, and a group of enthusiastic bloggers (including yours truly) will be writing and updating the site during the event as well.

On morning routines

I've been toying with and fine-tuning my morning routine quite some over the past months. The ultimate goal is simple: I want to be energized, ready to dive into the day, and with as little friction and time-loss as possible.

The first routine I had consisted of waking up at 7am sharp, getting ready, taking breakfast as fast as possible and then head out to university. I like being in my office by 8am, and this one made me arrive between 7:55 and 8:10.

Then, I thought I had a better idea. I'd skip breakfast at home, rush out as fast as possible and then eat in at my desk while reading my mails. The disadvantage is that I found myself chewing through my breakfast way longer than when I eat at home, and that I couldn't really make the shift from reading mails to getting into research. However, on some days I was in as early as 7:40.

Now, I've changed it all over again, and so far enjoying it. Since I now practice sports every evening, I can be a little faster in the morning by leaving the shower for the evening. With my sleep cycle alarm clock, I now wake up at a moment during 6:50 and 7:15 that corresponds to an up in my sleep cycle pattern - it basically wakes me up at a moment when I think I'm half awake, quite a pleasant way to wake up I must say. All I need to do then is get dressed, and head to the kitchen. I am back into a slow breakfast, with a cup of coffee (my coffee at home just tastes better than the Douwe Egberts from the machine at the university), but at the same time I use my smartphone to already throw out some unwanted mails, catch up on blogs and social media. If I need to cook up a long reply for an email, I use the time on my bike to think about it. And I still try to be in by 8am (or between 8:00 and 8:15). The advantage of this method is that I can get started with research right away, or if necessary, reply an email for which I already know what to write, which saves me time as well.

At the moment I arrive to my office, I exactly know what to get started with for the day. Typically, I write a sticky note to myself at the end of the day to remind myself where I had left and what to start with the next day. When I'm working in a document, I write a quick note to myself and my train of thought in italic, so I know in the morning exactly what to continue with.

How do you make sure you get your day started off in the right way?