Dar and Civ4

Though I was a bit harsh on Dar Williams' latest album when I discussed it last fall, I have definitely started to come around to it. Between my daily commute to work and my weekly drive to Atlanta, I am in the car between five and ten hours every week. So I have plenty of time to listen repeatedly to an album (and maybe soon, to one of The Great Courses). The familiarity that comes with repetition has inspired another look at an album I initially found disappointing.

My Better Self still does not live up to the consistent greatness of Dar's best album, Mortal City, but it has enough smatterings of the old Dar to make repeated listenings worthwhile. The opening track, "Teen For God," does not rise to the level of "Alleluia" or "The Christians and the Pagans," but at least it is in that ballpark. And "Empire" is definitely one of the better political folk songs of recent years.

I've also finally decided to give her credit for her cover of Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." At first I was disappointed to see so many covers, when Dar's poetry is usually the main event. But after all, my favorite song she sings is a cover of The Kinks' "Better Things," so credit where credit is due. The Neil Young original is better, but I won't deny singing along to Dar's version.

Strangely enough, my favorite song on the album is one which has gone largely unmentioned in most reviews I've read of the album: "Beautiful Enemy." I love the upbeat tempo and the oh-so-Dar playfulness with words, seen in the written lyrics and heard in the quirky vocalizations:

Oh, my enemy, beautiful enemy
Hail to your vast hegemony
You're not innocent
I'm not innocent
No one's innocent

Speaking of vast hegemonies, I have been spending way too much free time playing Civilization IV. I bought it in January while I was at Fort Lee, hoping it'd be a nice distraction in the evenings. Unfortunately, my laptop did not have sufficient graphic power to run the game, and I did not get a chance to install it on my desktop until this last week. Man, it is a great, great game.

I have played every version in the series, dating back to a copy of the original that a friend made for me (he had to make me a copy of the manual too, since the copy protection scheme required you to identify which symbol appeared on a particular page of the manual before you could play). And this is the best of the series, which is saying a whole lot considering the quality of the earlier games. Every aspect of the game is improved, from diplomacy to combat, scientific research to resource allocation, and it has never looked or sounded better.

Hopefully I will tire of it soon so that I can return to my real life.