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Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2021 .   #10 :   I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson In its second outing, Tim Robinson’s absurd comedy sketch show scaled new heights of surreal, laugh-out-loud greatness. Its meme-friendly skits somehow managed to cram subplots into scenes shorter than most ad breaks, often managing to draw belly-laughs through cleverly wrong-footing the viewer. At its best, it felt like it was reinventing what a sketch show should be in the internet era – and it was often at its best. The first series of this was highly recommended by The Guardian and so I checked it out - and really didn't understand what the fuss was about.  So what are the chances of the second series being vastly different?  Yeah - that's what I was thinking... And no, I still don't understand the fuss - although I completely agree that "absurd" and "surreal" are most definitely applicable words.  And yeah, the sketches often ...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 09/07/21 :  Greatest Hits - Queen I'm not sure I really needed to listen to this, but I did anyway.  I was intrigued as to whether there would be any tracks on it I didn't know though... ...and yeah - I didn't know "Now I'm Here" (and it's really not very good).  I also needed my memory jogged for "Save Me" and "Play The Game", but all the rest I could happily sing along to without the album playing.  I don't think I really need to provide an opinion - Queen are just Queen, aren't they?  Utterly ridiculous but that's the appeal (if such things appeal to you) This was at #2 this week - ostensibly because it had been reissued for its 40th anniversary, but it had already been in the top 30 for the previous year and a half, so it's not like it was ever really away.  All told, it's been in the charts for 986 weeks so far so I suspect it will be in the news in anothe...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 16/07/21 :  It Won't Always Be Like This - Inhaler Not an album or artist I was previously aware of - I'd guess indie-rock from the name, but I'm usually wrong with my guesses on that front... ...ah - having heard your man singing, I am reminded that I am aware of them because he sounds like his old man.  Yes, it's baby Bono and the apple hasn't fallen far from the musical tree - particularly his singing style.  And the overall musical style isn't a million miles away either - I'd say the songs reminded me more of Simple Minds than U2, but it's not like there was a huge difference between them in that era.  If you like that sort of thing (and I do), then there's absolutely no reason why you wouldn't like this (and I did) - there's a potentially interesting discussion to be had as to how successful this would have been these days without the familial attachment, but it won't achieve ...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 23/07/21 :  Faith - Pop Smoke I wasn't aware of Pop Smoke beforehand but I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn't going to like it (and it really didn't help that I first read his name as Poop Smoke). Oh no - it didn't take me very long to decide I really didn't like it.  US rap at it's worst for me - dreary in sound and content.  With the exception of "Demeanor" which Dua Lipa manages to elevate (as she has a tendency to).  Otherwise just no. We were at #3 in the chart this week with the highest new entry - it managed to hang around for 6 weeks before disappearing from view, which astounded me.  Ahead of him in the chart were KSI   and  Olivia  and the only other new entry in the top 10 was John Meyer at #4 and I would have hated that as well, so this ain't the best week for me, is it? Wikipedia has a huge amount on the album (342 milliPeppers) and tells me it's his second posthumous album (o...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2021 .   #9 :  Starstruck In New Zealand comic Rose Matafeo’s lovable romcom, her character Jessie is having a strange old time living in London, with a titchy flat, tedious jobs – and the fact that she can’t stop bumping into a movie star named Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel) that she had a one night stand with. I've heard this is smart and cute, which is exactly what you'd expect from Rose Matafeo - who I'd never heard of until I saw her on whatever season of Taskmaster she was on, where she was smart and cute. And it's a neat set-up - and yes, it's very Notting Hill, but it explores/subverts the notion of fame and expectations pretty nicely with a lot of very neat and subtle touches.  And it's funny - which is always a good idea for a comedy, isn't it?  He doesn't really need to be a movie star - it's just a nice comedy about the awkward nature of relationships, both friend and romantic.  I ...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 30/07/21 :  All Over The Place - KSI Another celebrity Goggleboxer for you - and if you've never seen him and S-X discussing whether bread-bins are a thing or not, you're in for a treat .  On the music front, I've heard a couple of his singles and suspect I'm not really going to get into this album and everyone will be absolutely fine with that state of affairs. Yeah - it's not hateful and there are some nice enough noises in places, but I can't imagine any other scenario where I'd listen to a whole album of it.  It all feels a bit "US rap wannabe" but is more bearable than a lot of of the US stuff for me and some of the lyrics suggests he's well aware of which sides of the Atlantic he hales from - for instance on "Silly" he's " sipped up on Tetley" .  I'd struggle to say the album is my cup of Tetley though (and other brands of tea are available). We're at...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 18/02/22 :  The Dream - Alt-J Despite what Andris might think, I'm not running a request show here - but this came up in the #AOTD channel at work and I'd never hear the end of it if he found out someone else had made me listen to it and I hadn't written about it.  Anything for a quiet life, eh? I liked An Awesome Wave (their debut album) when it came out (nearly ten years ago now) but when I revisited it as part of #AOTD, I found it a bit bland - which was pretty much the last thing I was expecting.  And I 've heard that Relaxer, their previous album was, shall we say, "not good" so I wasn't exactly rushing into this with a huge amount of expectation - but let's see, shall we... And well, hmmm.  There's a lot of stuff in here - some of which goes together nicely and some of which doesn't.  I certainly didn't find it dull, but I did get the impression it was all a bit messy - I di...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 06/08/21 :  Therapy - Anne-Marie Well, I like Anne-Marie (or "Anne-Marie-singer-over-there" as she's known in our house) - even if it's probably more for all the other stuff she does than for her actual music (she's amusing with Tom Jones on Gogglebox, although somewhat less so with Ed Sheeran).  But I don't mind the stuff I've heard, so - was I going to like this? Yeah, I thought it was not bad at all - I'd even go as far as saying I enjoyed it.  There's more variety there than that I was expecting - it feels like it would go down well in the US (but obviously went nowhere - possibly because there's too much variety?).  I liked "Kiss My" and "Don't Play" - possibly due to familiarity with them being singles, but I don't like "Our Song" (too soppy for the likes of me!).  Although, having said that, I actually really liked "Breathing" which i...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2021 .   #8 :  Alma's Not Normal Sophie Willan’s autobiographical show about the childhood she describes as being “the baby in Trainspotting, if she’d lived” won a comedy Bafta for the pilot alone. So this six-episode series, which saw her move from a job in a sandwich shop to becoming a sex worker and finally joining a theatre troupe, was an absolute riotous delight. I've heard this is good and was looking forward to something I could have a giggle at because they've been a bit lacking on the list so far - although we're about to start a run of four comedies, three of which I have high hopes for, so maybe I'll be chuckling for a month or two. And yeah, as you may be able to guess from the above, this basically follows Alma on her less than normal life - which is populated by many larger than life characters, most of whom have a nice line in "telling it how it is".  But the dialogue is actually...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 13/08/21 :  Crying On The Bathroom Floor - Will Young Well, I wasn't expecting to come across Will on my travels, I can tell you (or not this soon anyway!).  People can get quite sniffy about the man, but I've generally got a lot of time for him - whilst not necessarily being a huge fan of his music (the lovely Mrs Reed is quite a fan though!).  But he does have a nice voice, so I was perfectly happy to give this a go... ...but it turns out it's not his music anyway.  It's an album of cover versions of female artists he likes (and that's a good a reason for picking them as any, I guess).  And yeah, there's nothing wrong with this - I'd struggle to say any of the versions are exactly essential but they're all perfectly listenable (and he still has a nice voice).  I'd go as far as saying I liked "Daniel" (Bat For Lashes), "Crying On The Bathroom Floor" (MUNA), "Indestruct...

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts 20/08/21 :  Pressure Machine - The Killers Some groups produce a first album of such quality that the only way they can go is down - and then there's The Killers.  With Hot Fuss, they produced a first side of the first album - "Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine", "Mr. Brightside", "Smile Like You Mean It", "Somebody Told Me" and "All These Things That I Have Done" - of such superb quality that they really left themselves with nowhere to go.  Which was unfortunately completely proven by "Andy, You're A Star" being the next track... I haven't minded any of the stuff they've done since, but from what I've heard every album has got more laid back that they just feel like a different group from those early days - I was expecting this to be "perfectly fine" but hardly essential. And so it very much turned out.  Brandon has a fine voice (it definitely fee...

The third in a (very) occasional series of musical reviews... I n my previous posts in this series, I mentioned that I was generally more of a fan of classic musicals, with a few notable modern exceptions.  What I'm certainly not a fan of is them new-fangled musicals, based on a band's music (no, I did not like Mamma Mia), TV (although I have heard that Spongebob Squarepants is surprisingly enjoyable) or film.  So, obviously yesterday I found myself watching Heathers: The Musical... Funnily enough, it wasn't my choice - our eldest has been obsessing about the show for some time now and so it was offered up as a birthday treat (slightly early, since yesterday was originally supposed to be its last day in London, but it's since been extended to 1st May).  I wasn't overly fussed on seeing it, but sometimes parental responsibility means having to do what you're told (and I'd been bribed with the promise of some food out afterwards).  So, yesterday afternoon at 3...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 18/02/22 :  FTHC - Frank Turner I have met Frank on my travels before and liked him - and had absolutely no reason not to expect to enjoy this one as well... ...oooh, that first songs a bit shouty, isn't it?  Hmmm - quite a few of them are a bit shouty actually.  All in all, it's quite an interesting one because I listened to the deluxe version which includes four demo versions at the end and normally I'm totally yawn about such nonsense - but on this album I preferred the demo versions, except for "Haven't Been Doing So Well" where I liked them both.  And part of the reason that I liked them both is that you can still hear his lyrics on the main version - he can pen a decent set of words and on a lot of the other tracks they were somewhat harder to identify because of the shouting.  Yes, I'm sure if I sat down and listened to it multiple times then I'd get to the sing-along stage but I'm...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   Top 50 Films of 2021   #38 :  Nuevo Orden ( New Order) Director Michel Franco leaves no room for sympathy or redemption in this violent, cynical thriller, a brutally unforgiving attack on Mexico’s super-rich that delivers a vivid warning against the consequences of inequality. Never heard of it, but I'm not going to complain about being asked to watch a violent, cynical thriller - in fact, I'm positively looking forward to it... And so, it obviously starts with a totally naked woman standing in the rain with a stripe of green paint down her body.  And then some more stuff with green paint being thrown about the place.  And then we're in hospital with a load of bodies, some of which are green in places - hmmm, odd.   But then we're at a posh wedding in a very nice house and everything looks to be back to normal - but, hold on a goddam minute, what colour is that water coming out of the taps? Anyways, we're back to ...