scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 18/02/01 : Chocolate Starfish and The Hot Dog Flavored Water -  Limp Bizkit This was the first time I was made aware of Limp Bizkit and I seem to recall it wasn't something I felt the need for in my life - but maybe I'll realise the error of my ways when I revisit it after many years. No, it's all very tiresome. There's a definite "life's not fair for us kids so I'm just going so say fuck a lot" whiney vibe about it, which is somewhat ironic because Fred Durst was 31 at this time, so maybe he should have grown up a bit by then? I would say there is more musical variety across the album than I was expecting, but it wasn't an enjoyable experience which was far too long at 75 minutes (seven of the songs are over five minutes long and they really drag) - and it's a nasty album cover as well. However, the whole thing really wasn't aimed at me so I guess everyone is happy enough with the stat...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 27/02/26 : Prizefighter - Mumford & Sons Our third visit with Marcus and his mates - I generally don't mind their stuff in small doses, but it doesn't take a lot for it all to get too much. But let's see what we've got here... Actually, I think I really quite liked this. It has a general US country/folk vibe to it, but there's enough variety within the genre with parts of it reminding me of  Johnny Cash,  Jason Isbell,  The National and  Noah Kahan - and probably about a million others, but in a good way. The whole thing benefits from being n ot overly busy (there are certainly reduced levels of banjo) with some interesting lyrics which feel personal but are also mildly cryptic and some nice tunes and harmonies - there's also a fitting selection of guest artists involved which I'll be interested to read about when we get to Wikipedia. I like the album cover as well - simple yet classy.  We'r...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 25/02/01 : Onka's Big Moka -  Toploader Have any band ever done quite so much and yet quite so little on the back of one decent single ? Plenty probably, but I've never heard this - I'm expecting it to be perfectly pleasant but somewhat inessential. Actually, I'd say I'd be happy to describe this as pretty decent but somewhat inessential. Obviously, everyone knows and loves/hates "Dancing In The Moonlight" but the rest of it isn't noticeably worse, it's all played well enough and your man has a distinctive but not overly annoying voice. And if I caught them on a sunny afternoon in a festival/pub in the park/random beergarden I'd certainly enjoy the vibe and stay around for an extra pint or two - but there's absolutely no chance of me ever listening to this album again.  We're at #4 in the charts this week on their 40th week of a both surprising and unsurprising 58 week run with this...

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... Dara ó Briain : Eventim Apollo I like my comedians to be quick thinking, allowing good audience interaction whilst also having good narrative ability in delivering a tale that stays with you after they've left the stage. In his 20+ year tenure on Mock The Week, Dara has demonstrated a certain speed of thought but I wasn't aware of his story-telling abilities until I caught his previous tour So Where Were We? when I randomly stumbled across it on BBC2. This told the somewhat incredible (but apparently true) story of him tracking down his birth mother and it was beautifully pitched with moments of suspense, frustration and joy - I highly recommend it and it's available here if you fancy it.  So, when I saw he was doing a follow-up tour (can you guess who he's tracking down this time?) and playing in quite a few venues around me including the mighty St Albans Arena, I thought I'd fancy a night out which didn...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 04/03/01 : Loco -  Fun Lovin' Criminals Fun Lovin' Criminals were quite big for a bit, which made it all the more bizarre that I saw them live in the mighty St Albans Arena around this time - I seem to recall everyone was a bit perplexed as to why they were there, but a good time was had by all. I vaguely remember listening to this album, but it's the one after the one after the good one, so returns were definitely diminishing by this time. Yeah, they're diminishing but this really isn't bad if you're in for some woozy hip-hop - it's only real problem is that it doesn't contain a "Scooby Snacks" or "King Of New York", although "Bump" and "There Was A Time" are pretty decent tracks. There's also an argument that 58 minutes is a bit long, but it doesn't overly drag - it's just that there's probably only so much FLC you need in your life and the fi...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 11/03/01 : All That You Can't Leave Behind -  U2 Our eighth visit with them Irish funsters, bringing them level with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Neil Young and Manic Street Preachers - and this is one I own taking us to eleven for the year. And I remember loving it in places, without that affection being transferred to the album as a whole, so it will be interesting to see what I think of it now.  Actually, it's not bad at all - it's a bit of a "back to basics" effort after the nonsense with Zooropa (which I actually quite liked) and Pop (which I didn't). It starts very strongly with  "Beautiful Day",  "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Elevation" and "Walk On" (which were the four singles released from the album) and, whilst I'd struggle to say it maintains the quality level throughout, it doesn't descend into dross. My main niggles would be...