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Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 18/07/10 :  Eliza Doolittle -  Eliza Doolittle She's been very unlucky not to be picked for the past five weeks (all of which were spent in the top five), so I thought the least I could do was give her a sympathy listen.  And, to be honest, I was expecting to enjoy it more than most of the albums that pipped her to a review - I remembered her being a bit Cockney sparrow, chirping about various facets of modern life in a pleasingly youthful style. And yeah, that's pretty much what we've got here.  It's a bit like a cross between Katie Melua and Lily Allen - she's not as arch as Lily, but she's certainly not got Katie's rose-tinted specs on either.  "Skinny Genes" is the one everyone knew but I liked most of them - "Mr Medicine" also jumped out at me as well.  I won't be rushing back to it but it's nicely of its time, but still perfectly listenable now.  That's a very MySpac...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 18/07/10 :  Aphrodite - Kylie Minogue Who would have thought that when Kylie first burst on to our screens in '86 as Charlene Robinson and then into our ears in '87 with "I Should Be So Lucky" that, over 35 years later, she'd still be hanging around - we met her last album in 2020 but this will be only our second visit with the lass.  I admire her longevity, but can't say there's been too much of her output I've loved (although I admit there was one single I couldn't get out of my head) - I'm expecting this to give us some pleasant enough but forgettable electro-pop (I think that's the phase she was in at this time). And yeah, that's where our little Aussie electro-dance sex poppet was.  It's all perfectly fine, but five minutes after listening to it I couldn't tell you anything about any of the tracks.  But none of it hurt my ears though - it's all pretty inoffensive o...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2022 #39 :  Noche de Fuego (Prayers For The Stolen) A heart-rending study of the traumatising life experience of a Mexican woman trying to ensure her daughter escapes the attentions of rapists and narcos who can apparently operate with impunity. A foreign language film on the list that's not in French?  What is going on?!?  I somehow doubt this was a film I'd have otherwise come across - and I can assure you that even if I had, there would have been no chance of me watching it.  It's going to be bleak, isn't it?   Hmmm - it's not a barrel of laughs.  We follow Rita and her daughter Ana as they try to live as normal a life as possible under somewhat trying circumstances.  Not only do they live in a village so remote I can't even comprehend it, they also have men from the cartels coming to the village on a frequent basis to steal girls - just because they can.  And well, some stuff hap...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 25/07/10 :  Alive Til I'm Dead - Professor Green The Prof is an odd one - he's not really my style, but he has flashes of skill and humour that mean I'm intrigued as to whether there's something there for me.  And you can't argue with "Read All About It", his duet with Emeli Sandé (which obviously isn't on this album) - so let's see what we've got. Yeah, we've got flashes but not really enough to convince me, I'm afraid,  It's hip-hop-pop, I guess - with an admittedly good line in guest artists.  The delivery is very Eminemesque, but less angry and considerably more Lahndan - I can imagine that it could get quite catchy and sing/shoutalongable if you were into this sort of thing and gave it enough listens, but that will not be happening, I'm afraid - although I did like "Just Be Good To Be Green" and "Monster". We're at #2 this week with a new entry a...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1978 :  September - Earth Wind And Fire Seriously?  There's got to be some social media nonsense going on here, surely?  I'll be interested to see how well this did in the charts - I don't remember it being that successful.  It's also the first one in some time I've felt the need to listening to - I remembered the chorus, but the rest of it kinda slipped my mind.   And well, the reason for that is that there wasn't really a "rest of it" to remember - it's 3:35 of sameness.  Not unpleasant sameness, but very much sameness - it's also somewhat more underwhelming that I remembered, with me expecting quite a few tracks from this year that I would pick above this one. Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the song, but does have the following amusing anecdote " (songwriter)  Willis was initially bothered by the gibberish "ba-dee-ya" lyric (vocalist) White used th...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 01/08/10 :  Praise & Blame - Tom Jones Another of our eternal chart veterans (although he doesn't pop up quite as often as Cliff, Rod or Ozzy) and  last time I met him I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome - I didn't love the songs, but it was interesting musical journey and had a surprising degree of heft to it.  No idea what I'm getting here though... Oh look - it's an interesting musical journey with a surprising degree of heft to it.  As with his 2021 offering, this is a version of stripped back covers, but he's gone way further back in the songbook for this collection with gospel and early rock and roll mostly supplying the input (although both have Bob Dylan covers present).  It's very steeped in mortality and redolent of later Johnny Cash in mainly places - it feels like a man weighing up his life's choices and trying to justify or understand them.  If I didn't know better, I'd sa...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 08/08/10 :  The Defamation Of Strickland Banks - Plan B Finally - an album I own from this year!  It's actually the second one we own, but funnily enough I don't particularly claim  Take That  as one of mine.  I remember liking this album but, with the exception of "She Said", I've not listened to any of it in many a long year - I'm expecting an enjoyable reunion though. And yeah, this is a fine album indeed.  It features some much better than expected Motown style singing (The Temptations would have worked wonders with some of the songs) nicely combinedwith some more up-to-date rappy bits.  It also has a good sense of story that runs through the album, which is pleasingly easy to follow - it's like a "soul opera" album and it has a pleasingly ambiguous ending.  I think "She Said" is still my favourite track, but they're all very listenable  - if you've not heard this then I...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2022 .   #12 :  House Of The Dragon Fire, frenemies, fights and foot fetishes … the Game of Thrones prequel certainly scratched the itch for many fans. Matt Smith became TV’s most lovable villain of the year, while Emma D’Arcy gave us another Targaryen queen to root for. Together, they were the incestuous power couple we never knew we could be so invested in. All 10 episodes were thick with plotting, backstabbing and building a world about to be torn apart by civil war. And just when your attention was about to stray … DRACARYS! Judging by the fiery look on Rhaenyra’s face in that final scene – right after she’d been told <SPOILER ALERT> – all hell is about to be unleashed in the confirmed second season. Let it burn. We're skipping over #11 for the time being - it's a second tier choice, but will involve watching four seasons, so I feel it's unlikely to make the grade before the end of the year.  B...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 15/08/10 :  The Suburbs - Arcade Fire This is our fourth trip with the Canadian multitude - I always appreciate the sound they're trying to make, without necessarily appreciating the actual sound.  So I'm expecting another "well, it's OK" this time around. Yeah, that's pretty much where are.  "Ready To Start" did jump out at me, but the rest of it all kinda blurred together on first listen.  I can, being reasonable, accept the argument that it's a grower - but I suspect if they were going to grow on me, then they would have done so by now.  If you like Arcade Fire, then I'm sure you like this album but there was nothing here to drag me into it, I'm afraid. We're at  #2 in the charts this week on their second week of a 36 week run, which was way longer than I was expecting - and it debuted at  #1 as well!  It's actually their most successful album over their 18 year career (whi...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 24/03/23 :  Songs Of Surrender - U2 I don't mind a bit of U2 - but their last album I enjoyed (at least in places) was All That You Can't Leave Behind.  Which was, obviously, all the way back in 2000 - which was a LONG time ago.  I know this is them re-recording some of their older songs - and, to be honest, I'm not expecting it to be great. And, well, I can assure you this isn't great.  It's not terrible either, but it REALLY isn't great.  The songs are in two categories (those I knew and those I didn't) and we really have to consider them seperately - but before then we need to discuss how many tracks there are.  FORTY!  (10 points if you can guess what the last track on the album is).  Yes, there's over 2.5 hours of the thing - I have to admit to not listening to all of the tracks all the way through. So, of the forty tracks, I previously knew 25 of them and, of those 25, I think I wou...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 22/08/10 :  The Final Frontier - Iron Maiden This is our fourth visit with the Maiden and all times previously I've appreciated the skill involved, whilst not being able to differentiate one song from the next.  And I have absolutely no expectation that things will be any different here. Sigh - 76 minutes.  And it's only ten tracks - there are two over nine minutes and it ends with one that comes in at over eleven minutes!  There is, however, more variety here than I remember on their previous efforts - it's not variety I particularly enjoy, but I can appreciate the skill involved and I didn't mind "The Talisman" (but if it had only been, I don't know, a mere seven minutes long then I would have liked it more).  If you don't like this kind of thing, then you're not going to like this - if you do like it, then you're not going to care that I don't particularly.  So let's just leave i...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1977 :  Dreams - Fleetwood Mac Another song off Rumours - and another one I'm not sure if I ever knew it was a single (this was the follow-up single to "Go Your Own Way" ), but here it is checking in at a lengthy 4:18.  I wouldn't have guessed it was the winner this year, but I'm not surprised to see this one taking it - TikTok went mad for your guy on his skateboard and I have to admit it is a pretty cool video . Wikipedia has a lot on the trauma that the group were going through at the time - and Stevie Nicks took herself away from it all to noodle down the basis of this track.  She played it to the rest of the band who immediately went "meh" about it but Lyndsey Buckingham did some more noodling and got people on board.   And well, it's been quite successful over the years.  In the UK, it's charted in '77 (getting to #24 - it's highest position), '11, '2...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 29/08/10 :  Recovery - Eminem Our fifth visit with Mr Mathers (and we've studiously ignored a couple of best-ofs on plenty of occasions) - I've heard this album is decent enough and drew him out of a bit of a slump, but I've not heard much of his from this period so can't state anything with certainly.  So let's see, shall we? Hmm - it's OK, but doesn't seem like his best stuff to me.  The rapping is still top notch - he really can spit those words out in a hurry, but the tracks don't seem quite up to his best with the obvious exception of "Love The Way You Lie", which is a very fine track indeed (and well followed up with a Part II on this album ).  The rest of them aren't dreadful and seem to display less rampant misogyny and homophobia  than some of his other stuff, but there wasn't anything obvious to drag me back.  I do like the album cover though - it feels very poetic. We...