scaryblog

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  Top 50 Movies of 2020... #28 :  Vitalina Varela Austere, compelling film from Portuguese auteur Pedro Costa, following the Cape Verdean immigrant of the title as she makes her way to Lisbon to try and find her errant husband . Oh good - an austere, compelling film from an "auteur".  It's all gone very, very Guardian for the past however many films it's been now - I wonder when the Adam Sandler "comedies" are going to kick in?  (spoiler alert - there is actually an Adam Sandler film on the list, but thankfully it's not one of his side-splitting efforts).  Anyway, a woman looking for her husband for 2 hours sounds like a right riveting ride, so let's buckle up and get on with it. I'd have to say it starts well - an intriguing and beautifully shot trail of people out walking at night.  Where are they going?  Oh, they're going home - I guess that makes sense at that time.  But they're doing it very qu

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 21.01.13  : Song For Alpha - Daniel Avery (2018) No idea about the album or artist, but my rule of thumb is that guys who use their real name are either singer/songwriters or guitar maestros.  The other thing you need to know about my rule of thumb is that it's often wrong - as it is here.  I liked this - it reminded me of Jon Hopkins (who also rudely uses his real name, so just maybe the rule of thumb needs updating).  In places it becomes slightly repetitive, but that's a risk you face with this kind of thing - and thinking about it I have no idea what this kind of thing should be referred to as (and Wikipedia totally fudges the issue with "electronic music"). The channel gave this six thumbs up and a lot of positive comments, particularly around its suitability for listening to whilst working.  It did scare one person off though, so it's not to everyone's taste obviously.  Wikipedia has very little on the album exc

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 21.01.08  : Ordinary Corrupt Human Love - Deafheaven (2018) No idea on the album or the artist - and the name feels it could cover a multitude of sins, so was going in without any preconceptions.  And what an odd track the first track is - some pleasant low-key female vocals over some top notch guitar work, backed by what appears to be satanic chanting.  Errr - OK.  And that, my friends, is pretty much the last we see of the pleasant low-key vocals.  Oh dear.  I actually generally liked the tracks, but the vocals were not my cup of tea at all - very jarring for my sensitive ears.  Except for "Near" and "Night People", which are perfectly acceptable because no-one attempts to summon his Satanic Majesty at any point during either of them.  I'm also very unsure what's going on on the album cover. The channel gave this one thumbs up and one nice - and some discussion as to what the musical genre should be called with &q

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  Top 50 Movies of 2020... #29 :  System Crasher ( Systemsprenger) German drama about an out-of-control child, featuring an astounding performance by then-nine-year-old Helena Zengel as a violent, rowdy kid with whom the established social-work systems simply cannot cope. And, following on from our first Austrian film, we hop over the border for our first German film - and who's not going to love a film about a violent, rowdy kid that the system can't cope with?  I was expecting a worthy, challenging but totally depressing and ultimately pointless watch - would I be pleasantly surprised?  Well... As a parent, it's certainly a challenging watch - most kids (and certainly nearly all those in films) don't get to be violent and rowdy without a helping hand from some charming adults along the way and they're certainly present here.  Additionally, there's obviously plenty of worthy adults working within the system, so that box g

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 21.01.05  : Humbug - Arctic Monkeys (2009) I admire an awful lot about Arctic Monkeys - their witty, wry and intelligent lyrics, their evident skills and their continuing and varied musical journey, which they have successfully encouraged their fans to travel along with them.  However, the problem that I have is that, for all their musical evolution, I still like their debut album best.  And yes, I realise if they'd just remade their debut album six times then I'd have totally complained about that as well - life's just not fair.  So, this is a fine album but for me, whatever you say it is, it's not as good as Whatever You Say I Am... The channel gave this eight thumbs and a comment from the nominator about this being one of their less popular albums which was immediately greeted with "well, it's MY favourite" as required.  Wikipedia has more on the album that I was expecting (155 milliPeppers) - with it being rea

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.12.17  : Nixon - Lambchop (2000) I've heard some Lambchop stuff and seem to remember I quite like it, but don't think I've experienced a whole album yet.  And yeah, it's perfectly pleasant, if a little fey in places - I remembered "Up With People" from the dim and distant past and the rest kinda just drifted by me.  Until "Butcher Boy", the last track where they decided to turn the guitars up and it quite woke me up - but not in a good way.  I did like "Petrified Florist" as a track title though. The channel gave this three thumbs up and lots of positive comments - but mostly from the album's nominator, so that's just cheating!  The description of the strings as "lush" though is very apt.   Wikipedia  basically says that everyone loved it - particularly in the UK.  It then also says that it got to #60 in the UK charts - so I'm not entirely convinced EVERYONE loved it.  Fair

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.12.14  : Home Of The Brave (Deluxe) - PROSE (2016) Never heard of the album or artist, and whilst I was somewhat suspicious of their use of upper case, I was willing to go with it and not judge them too much.  I'm pretty much a perfect human being, aren't I?  I'm not entirely sure about the album though - it's kinda "acoustic hip-hop" so it's certainly different from the usual fare.  I liked it in medium-sized doses, but the whole album did sorta drag towards the end - it would be interesting to see if a relisten made things better or worse.  It's not going to happen though, of course. The channel gave this no emojis or comments like the previous album - does having opinions stop being a thing in the run up to Xmas?  Wikipedia has nothing on the band or the artist - a very brief Google tells me they are from Manchester and this was their debut album.  To get any more information than that just feels like I&

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.12.09  : Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - Aphex Twin (1992) I like a bit of ambient and I like Aphex Twin - and then I remember the Windowlicker album cover and I go right off him.  But I managed to get through this and enjoy it without thinking about it too much.  But seriously, what was he thinking and why didn't someone stop him? The channel gave this eight hearts, one nice, two relaxed, three thumbs up and one sunglasses - I think five different emojis might be the most we've seen so far.  A load of positive comments, some discussion about this being " the racer end of ambient",  a couple of new joiners and nobody mentioned the Windowlicker album cover - what more could you ask for?  Wikipedia goes on a lot about how highly regarded the album is by absolutely everyone - apparently it's generally regarded as the best IDM album of all time.  Which of course meant I had to look up what IDM was - "intelligent dance

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day... 20.12.04  : Sehnsucht - Rammstein (1997) I thought I had a reasonable idea about Rammstein so was expecting some average heavy-ish rock which would blend together as it blurred past me.  But, boy was I wrong.  Imagine, if you can, Bill Bailey generating a very bad parody of German rock, but failing to make it amusing.  Well, that would still be preferable to this - I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would willingly submit themselves to this album.  Oh, and by the way (in case it's not clear) I didn't like it - I really didn't like it. The channel gave this five thumbs up, three guitars and one this emoji - it's certainly right up the street of a certain section of the channel.  Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album, but manages to cram some nuggets of information in there - " It is the only album entirely in German to be certified platinum  by the RIAA  in the US " and (my favourite) &quo