The Angels of L19 is set in an evangelical church. It’s therefore concerned with the relationship between the spiritual and the material, or between transcendence and immanence. Music is one of the things the novel uses to explore this theme, for in listening (or dancing) to music, we experience transcendence through immanence. We rise out of our immediate circumstances, and we inhabit our bodies more fully, more authentically, than at other times. And since this experience can be solitary (listening through headphones – both my protagonists have a Walkman), or collective (listening to an album at a friend’s house, or attending a concert), it suggests another theme: the individual versus the collective. Our tastes in music are tribal: they both link us to others who share them, and separate us from those who don’t.
The novel takes place in 1984, and my two protagonists, Robert and Tracey, have both individual and shared enthusiasms. In particular, Robert is a U2 fan and Tracey likes New Order.
In early drafts of the novel, I named each chapter after a song: not all from 1984, but all songs that could theoretically have been familiar to the characters. I removed these chapter subtitles later – it felt like a superstructure I didn't need once the novel was sufficiently advanced – but I’ve listed these songs below, with the associated chapter numbers. There is an associated Spotify playlist above, and here.
There are several cases in which the indicated song, or its source album, is discussed directly in the chapter in question, or at least mentioned in passing. I've marked these instances with an asterisk, and included three short excerpts from the novel to illustrate how this works in practice.
1. U2, ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’*
Robert mouths in reply, ‘This song is “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.’ From the introduction to the live version on Under a Blood Red Sky. …
In the studio version of the song, the bass is the easiest instrument to follow, just to the right in the mix. Dur-der-der, der-dun; dur-der-der, der-dun. A five-note pattern, although it sounds like four unless Robert slows it down in his head and counts it out on his fingers. The guitar’s flat: dead chop. Marching forward, no time to waste. The cymbals spill everywhere, washing out to the edges. The violin cuts the song open.
2. The Smiths, ‘This Charming Man’*
3. This Mortal Coil, ‘Song to the Siren’
4. New Order, ‘Blue Monday’*
Robert seems to think that Larry Mullen Jr of U2 is Tracey’s favourite drummer. But if he’d ever thought to ask, he’d know it’s Stephen Morris of Joy Division and New Order. Listening to their records, she likes trying to work out which bits are Morris copying machines and which bits are machines copying Morris.
From the NME and Melody Maker, she knows that Joy Division’s producer, Martin Hannett, made Morris record each drum part separately, in isolation, but Morris couldn’t stop himself hitting the missing rhythms out on his legs; he had bruises after every session. ‘Blue Monday’ is different: it’s programmed on a drum machine. Tracey knows from Top of the Pops that when New Order play it live, Morris abandons his kit and fiddles about with synthesizers. So there’s no way for her to reconstruct the drum pattern by watching him move. Instead, she has to play the original recording on her Walkman in snatches of a few seconds, rewinding the same section over and over again. Like the VCR with a comedy sketch.
‘Blue Monday’ opens with a kick drum. She wasn’t sure at first, because the compression makes the pitch seem higher. But yes, it’s a kick, from the lower body. Except there’s no twitching foot on the record – only hers, here in the garage.
Dum, dum, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, dum, da-da-da-da-da-da-da—
It doesn’t even sound that fast, until you try and copy it.
5. U2, ‘Tomorrow’*
6. Simple Minds, ‘Book of Brilliant Things’*
7. New Order, ‘Age of Consent’
8. The Fall, ‘Eat Y’Self Fitter’
9. Peter Gabriel, ‘Intruder’*
10. The Teardrop Explodes, ‘Treason’
11. Bruce Springsteen, ‘My Father’s House’*
He puts his headphones on and plays an album Mark copied for him: Nebraska, by Bruce Springsteen. Folk songs. Mark says Springsteen recorded them at home. They were only supposed to be demos, but when the band tried to rerecord them in the studio, Springsteen decided he preferred the original versions. An acoustic guitar chug-chugs along like the bus engine throbbing under Robert’s thighs. The voice is echoey: maybe Springsteen’s house has really big rooms, but it sounds more like he’s playing in an empty church hall. You can hear when he breathes in; the smack of his lips shaping the words around the microphone.
They’re not soppy songs, which Robert likes. They’re about brothers and fathers and people who’ve forgotten how to love each other but keep trying anyway. Mark says love is a choice, not a feeling. You have to keep chug-chugging along – towards a destination you don’t even want to reach.
12. Kate Bush, ‘Get Out of My House’
13. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, ‘Maid of Orleans’*
14. The Mighty Wah!, ‘Come Back’
15. Echo & the Bunnymen, ‘Thorn of Crowns’
16. Joy Division, ‘Wilderness’*
17. Magazine, ‘A Song From Under the Floorboards’
18. The Kop Choir, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’*
19. R.E.M., ‘Camera’*
20. U2, ‘Wake Up Dead Man’
(chapter 20 is a kind of epilogue that takes place in 1997, the year this song was released.)
21. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ‘Wild Thing (live at Monterey Pop)’*
I’ve also written a series of posts on individual albums released in 1984, which I’ve been putting up twice a week for the two months around the novel’s publication at jonathanwalkersblog.co.uk.
The Angels of L19 is available here.