scaryblog

  Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with another new entry straight in at #1 28/01/22 :  Night Call - Years And Years I'm aware of and like Olly Alexander as a person, but I'm kinda meh about his music.  I'm expecting something slick but soulless here - happy to be wrong, but not expecting to be. And yeah, it's all fine and has some very nice bass on it but it all feels like it's been written by an algorithm based around "what would Olly's fans want to hear?".  None of it is horrible (and I'll go as far as saying "Sweet Talker" is well put-together track) and I'm sure his fans love it (so the algorithm worked) but it's just a bit generic for my liking.  Although you certainly couldn't accuse the album cover art of being bland - I'm not entirely convinced the mermaid thing totally works for him though.  I suspect Olly and his fans won't care in the slightest about my opinion of any of it though... Like ...

  Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with an artist who aren't global megastars - they do exist after all! 21/01/22 :  Fix Yourself, Not The World - The Wombats I've met The Wombats once before - and I enjoyed it (they were unlucky to be grouped with two slightly impressive albums in their round).  So I was hoping for more of the same from their latest offering... ...and it is, and it isn't.   It s ounds like they're trying to be more grown up, but I'm not sure I want them to grow up - I compared them to Arctic Monkeys in my previous review and they have followed a similar path in that they now produce music which is way more sophisticated, but I just don't like it as much.  Another p art of The Wombats problem is that "Let's All Dance To Joy Division" is such a perfect slice of upbeat pop that I worry they'll never better it.  However, t his album is still very listenable though -  "If You Ever Leave, I'm Coming With ...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #44 :  Shiva Baby Writer-director Emma Seligman’s debut about a young woman running into her sugar daddy at a family event is an amusing, transparently personal piece, a black comedy festival of excruciating embarrassment. I've not seen this (like every other film on the list so far - but we won't have to wait as long as last year to meet the first one I have seen) but I have heard it's good.  However, the phrase " excruciating embarrassment" is somewhat worrying me - I don't tend to do well with embarrassing films.  But here goes anyway... ...and we're done.  Wow - 77 minutes including credits.  Tight!  It has a very efficient two minute set up which establishes that the main character is "seeing" someone she probably shouldn't be and then they bump into each other at a shiva (I'm going to risk causing offence and simplify things to say it's a Jewish wake) and it becom...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #45 :  State Funeral The eerie last rites of Stalin’s Soviet Union are enacted as massed mourners hail the dictator’s flower-clad body in a film that gives long-lost footage, assembled by In the Fog director Sergei Loznitsa, a new and unnerving lease of life. Unsurprisingly, I know nothing about this film but I'm not expecting it to be a barrel of laughs.  And, it appears, 135 minutes of not a barrel of laughs.  I'm somewhat intrigued as to how it's gonna play out, but I'd struggle to say I'm looking forward to it. And it appears they're playing it straight down the line.  It's basically film of many different crowds of people stood around (in what appear to generally be freezing conditions) either listening to public service announcers read out details of Stalin death, reading newspapers about the man, paying their respects in various ways or actually attending the funeral.  In small doses,...

  Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with yet another little-known artist who desperately needs the exposure! 14/01/22 :  Dawn FM - The Weeknd The Weeknd, you say?  (yeah, yeah - enough with that already).  I've come across Mr Weeknd before and I liked his voice and his general sound but found some  of the content very objectionable indeed.  However, the singles I've heard from him since that album haven't seemed to be quite so rude, so I had reasonable hopes for this. And yeah, I really quite liked it indeed.  There was quite a Michael Jackson feel to it - well crafted songs with a tenor/soprano vocal.   "Take My Breath" is a very fine track indeed with a nice hint of disco to it and personally I think a hint of disco is all you really need - any more than that and it all gets a bit too much!  And the same comment applies for "Sacrifice" but referring to funk instead.   It all sounded very good over headphones...

  Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with another little-known artist who desperately needs the exposure. 07/01/22 :  30 - Adele Adele, you say?  Is she someone new?!? Ah no - THAT Adele.  Like Ed, she's someone who manages to appeal to both my wife and my daughters - I am somewhat less enamoured but can admit there is a lot of skill involved (and I must admit that I didn't mind 21 at all, with the high points being particularly high).  I can't say I was particularly fussed on 25 though and so just haven't bothered listening to this (unlike half the country, it appears).  I'm expecting some expertly sung, but slightly dull songs - so, let's take a listen, shall we? Well - I'd actually say it's not nearly as dull as I was expecting.  But not necessarily in a good way - a lot of it is a bit weird.  The opening track feels like it came out of a 1940s black and white film of the type they used to show on BBC2 on a Saturday aftern...

Right - I'm missing writing about music, so it's time for a new challenge!  I'm quite tempted by 1001 Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die, but suspect the biggest challenge would be remembering and then finding which ones I've already "enjoyed" on the Rolling Stone list.  I've also definitely preferred challenges which involve newer music, so I've put my thinking cap on and invented one! Starting at beginning of the year, I'm going to listen to the highest album in that week's UK album chart that I haven't previously reviewed.  So it'll definitely be #1 for the first week, but may drop down for subsequent weeks (and it will be interesting to see how far down we have to go in some weeks).  Also, d epending upon the time available and my promptness in writing things up, I'm going to make it to the present day at some point (probably soon) and when that happens I shall also start heading backwards in time, just to maximise the confusio...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #46 :  Titane Julia Ducournau’s follow-up to her smart 2016 debut, Raw, is a freaky Cronenbergian body-horror that facetiously explores identity with yucky flair. I've not seen Raw, but heard good things about it - this one seems to have been more divisive, although they loved it at Cannes apparently with it winning the Palme d'Or (but imho this is not always a great recommendation).  I'd have to say " freaky Cronenbergian body-horror " and " yucky flair " weren't exactly phrases to generate huge enthusiasm on my part, but here we go anyway... ..and, one minute in, we have reasonably graphic brain surgery being performed on a child.  Obviously.  And then we have the child grown up at some kind of motor show which involves women gyrating around on the cars with minimal clothes on.  And then, because this is a French film, they get naked in the showers.  And then she kills a guy by stabb...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #47 :  Last Night In Soho Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith star in Edgar Wright’s horror-thriller that takes a trip to the sleazy heart of London’s past and toxic 60s glitz. I like Edgar Wright - from the early days of Spaced, through Shaun Of The Dead (obviously) to, for me, his high point of Scott Pilgrim vs The World (controversial!).  Also somewhat controversially, I didn't particularly like Baby Driver - it had some fancy moves in it, but it  had a load of nonsense in it as well.  I was intrigued about this one though - I wouldn't say I was desperate to watch it, but I was expecting a stylish display nonetheless. And hmmm - five minutes in, I'm thinking it's going to be more a case of Edgar's love letter to 60s films than a film I actually want to watch.  Thomasin McKenzie's Ellie is a fashion student who has come up from Redruth to study in the bright lights of London ...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2021 .   #3 :  Mare Of Easttown So gripping was this twisty, compelling detective drama that for two months of 2021, Mare-mania took hold. Who killed Erin? Would anyone pay for her poor baby’s ear surgery? And was it OK to use the term Katenaissance to describe Kate Winslet’s finest ever performance? Mare of Easttown could easily have fallen into familiar tortured-cop-investigates-dead-teen territory. Instead, the depth and detail of every character arc and subplot was incredible, with even seemingly minor moments delivering some of the most horrifying TV scenes ever. By the end, as each character’s full tragedy was laid bare, it was a miracle anyone was still standing. And we come to the first one on the list I've seen - we were slightly late to it, but caught up quickly and pretty much watched the rest of it in real time (which is rare these days).  And yeah, basically it is that good.  At its hea...

   So I'm doing The Guardian's   Top 50 Movies of 2021  but I'm also feeling the need to show TV some love as well and we've (obviously) got this -  Top 50 TV Shows of 2021 .  However, a TV series is (potentially) a bit more of a time investment than a film, so obviously we need some new rules (which will undoubtedly change as we go along).  So firstly, I'm going to do the list in reverse order - there's no danger of me ever making it all the way through. Secondly, I'm allowed to give up on things after two episodes - I should give things a chance, but life's too short to stick with something I'm really not enjoying. And also, somewhat strangely, I'm starting at #2 - I'll get into trouble with Mrs Reed if I watch #1 without her.  But I will come back to it later... #2 :  The White Lotus Was it a murder mystery? A tragicomedy? A social satire on the way America contorts itself around the requirements of late western capitalism? Mike White’s im...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #48 :   Természetes fény  (Natural Light) Documentary director Dénes Nagy explores how conflict erodes loyalty, morality and human consciousness in his award-winning first feature about Hungarian troops occupying Ukraine during the second world war. Never seen or heard of it - and one of those facts continues to be true because I can't track it down anywhere!  I'd have to say it sounds somewhat niche, but I'm slightly intrigued - I shall continue looking! #49  - Impressive rather than enjoyable for me #47 - Not nearly as good as it thinks it is

  Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #49 :  Boiling Point Dizzying single-take drama featuring a potent lead performance from Stephen Graham as a chef enduring a nightmarish evening. Not seen this film, but I have heard of it because of its single-take nature - I wasn't expecting to like it because I believe it's quite stressful and I don't like stressful films (I'm a delicate flower, after all). And yeah, from the first five minutes you can tell it's going to be a stressful ride - he's forgotten an important event in his kid's life, the food inspector is in, the staff aren't up to scratch, the  restaurant is going to be full and someone threw out the turbot!  So I suspect it's going to take me a few goes to get through it... ...and yeah, it did.  It's just not the sort of film I like because there's just too much stress involved, although  I did get to the end - just!   But it did feel to me that at times that...