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Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 02/09/56 : Mel Tormé With The Marty Paich Dek-Tette  - Mel Tormé (With Marty Paich) Well that title is certainly something, isn't it?  I'm really looking forward to finding out what the Marty Paich Dek-Tette might possibly be... Well I'm no nearer knowing but I didn't mind this at all.  It's a bit like Frank's album but looking back rather than looking forwards - it's definitely more 40s than 60s.  It also contains a version of "The Lady Is A Tramp" - it's interesting to compare it with Frank's.  The album surprised me by being a bit long, but I had a special deluxe edition which, rather than the original 33, was 84 minutes long - which absolutely nobody needed.  But apart from that, it swung along nicely - no complaints from me.  It's a quite bizarre album cover though. We're at #5 in the charts this week on their last week of a four week run, having peaked at #3 in its second ...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2022 #15 :  Bones And All <redacted> romance with Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell, who dazzle in Luca Guadagnino’s blood-soaked parable of poverty and rebellion. Hmmm - "<redacted>" (for sake of spoilers, but do Google it if you're not going to watch the film) and "blood-soaked parable" aren't phrases designed to draw me towards a film - but even so, I'm quite surprised I've never heard of this.  We have met a Luca Guadagnino film before but I'll be amazed if this is anything like that. Well, that's quite some start to the film - it starts off looking like a very average American high school drama and then things take a very weird turn.  The Guardian slightly spoiled things for me with their review but even so I was pretty shocked by what happened because I totally didn't see it coming.  And the thing that happens means that Maren (Taylor Russell) has to leave he...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 09/09/56 : The Eddie Duchin Story OST  - Carmen Cavallero Another week skipped, with Carousel at #1 and TKAI a new entry at #4 being the only information of interest.  Which brings us to Eddie Duchin - I have absolutely no idea who he is or why I should be interested in his story and I'm wondering whether the album is going to help with that. Nope - it's just some dude playing the ol' Joanna.  He's obviously more talented than I am, but I had absolutely no interest in hearing him - it was all very twiddly and flowery.  A lot of it sounded like the incidental music on the version of Paddington they used to show on telly when I was a child.  It also, somewhat bizarrely contained a version of "Chopsticks" - just no thank you, Mr Cavallero. We're at #5 in the charts this week at the end of a four week run with it having reached the dizzy heights of #3 in its second week - the rest of the top five were   Ca...

Continuing my trip across the output of Athens' finest... Out Of Time (1991) Their seventh album and this is the one where it all really kicks off.  Big time.  It's another one I bought at the time and I think it was the first one I bought on CD.  I can't say I listen to it often but it will be interesting to revisit. Side one – "Time Side" 1. Radio Song Another fine opener - they're definitely continuing their path to mass appeal because you can actually understand the words! 2. Losing My Religion Maybe it's suffered somewhat from ubiquity, but I still really like this.  It's got a freaky video and has inspired some fine cover versions - Tori Amos and Applewood Road are both on my general playlist (and the original, of course).  This was the first single off the album and surprised everyone by getting to #4 in the US.  It's also absolutely nothing to do with religion. 3. Low It's a bit creepy, but it builds nicely to the end. 4. Near Wild He...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 23/09/56 : Salad Days OCR  - Various Artists Another week skipped over - Oklahoma! was #1 and, for some strange reason, there only seemed to be four albums in the charts, which I can assure you I'm not going to investigate.  Which brings us to a curious one - I am aware of Salad Days but I've no idea know why and I don't think I'm aware that it's ever been revived.  Maybe listening to the album will explain why... Errr.  Not really.  It does sound dreadfully dated, but I suspect there's enough there for someone to work with - but the technology employed for the recording is so basic that it's really hard to get a feel for any of it.  Unlike Carousel, the sound quality is actually fine but it just sounds like they put a microphone in the theatre miles from the stage, pressed record and just left it there.  You can hear that singing is going on but it's often impossible to work out the words (and som...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1996 :  No Diggity - Blackstreet Ft. Dr Dre and Queen Pen I know the refrain but I'm not sure I'll recognise the rest of the song and I also don't think I ever knew this featured Dre (or Queen Pen, for that matter).  I'm also not expecting a lot of cover versions when we come to that bit.. The video is 4:30 of hip-hop cliches - cars, clubs, girls shaking their booties, etc - but it doesn't take itself too seriously by including some puppets in there.   The song was actually better than I remembered and it mixes hip-hop and R&B elements well although I'd completely forgotten Queen Pen's bit.  But what was the main thing I remember from it?  Well obviously it was the bit where they were all wearing white dungarees and I instantly thought "well, they don't look very practical". Wikipedia tells me the song was a bit of a hard sell, it was offered around several people an...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 07/10/56 : Songs For Swingin' Lovers!  - Frank Sinatra We've skipped over two weeks to get here (with Bill Haley and TKAI having had the #1 spots) and I'm really looking forward to this - I like a bit of swingin' Frank. Oh yes - this is very much of its time, but because someone big always brings out a swing album every couple of years, it really hasn't really dated.  "You Make Me Feel So Young", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "Everything Goes" are my favourites off the album but that's probably due to familiarity as much as anything else - all the tracks slide by very smoothly indeed.  He had a great voice, but the arrangements are also very well done here as well - minimal to complement him when required and then really going for it when they get their chance.  This is a fine album in a somewhat oversubscribed canon - I'd say Bublé is the only one who comes close in ...

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... The Effect  : Lyttleton Theatre A random choice based on the fact that it was written by Lucy Prebble (who worked on Succession) and stars  Paapa Essiedu (who was in Gangs In London, but turned out to not be the guy I thought he was).  Which, let's face it, isn't exactly the best reason to go and see something, but there's so much out there you have to make choices based on something - I've also not been to this theatre (which is part of the National Theatre). Well, that doesn't really give the game away much, does it?  I also had to give it a double-take to see whether the people behind the stage were actually real people or a very big mirror (they're real people!).  Funnily enough as the house lights go down, the stage lights go up both in luminosity and elevation - otherwise we'd be in for a very odd show indeed. And four people come on stage - two in the middle and two at the ends in an obvious int...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2022 #16 :  Mass Jason Isaacs and Ann Dowd are among the cast of a drama about the “healing” meeting between the parents of a high-school shooting victim, and the parents of the perpetrator. I have heard of this, but there's absolutely no chance I'd have watched it - it just screams "GRIM!" at me.  And The Guardian really aren't helping with their use of inverted commas either.  I'm sure it'll all be well acted and very worthy though - but I suspect it's unlikely to change my view on high-school shootings. Oh yes, it's very well acted.  And yes, it's very, very grim - particularly so if you have kids.  Basically, the meeting goes exactly as you'd expect it to go - there's just a load of hurt and anger on both sides.  It maybe tries to engineer a little more closure than is probably necessary, but I can forgive it because it doesn't go overboard.  It also manages to have quit...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 28/10/56 : Rock Around The Clock  - Bill Haley And His Comets The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I've missed out three weeks - I had a bit of a think about how to deal with weeks where I've reviewed every album in the charts and I decided that simply ignoring them was probably the easiest option.  The only thing I think I will say is that TKAI spent two of those weeks at #1 and  Elvis  took the other one (the one week it spent there).   Considering Bill Haley, I obviously know the title track - I'm hoping the rest of it is more like that than our previous visit  was. The title track does somewhat stand out but I was also aware of "Shake Rattle And Roll" and the rest of it doesn't stray too far from the formula.  Under other circumstances, I might complain it's a bit samey but having experienced what happened when they tried something a bit different, I think I prefer this and it...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 22/09/23 :  The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We - Mitski   Apparently, I didn't mind her last album at all, but I'd have to say I don't remember it in the slightest - maybe my memory will be jogged when I listen to this. Nope - but considering I described the last album as pretty 80s I suspect she changes her sound around, but this is very much not an 80s sounding album.  It's medium-fi (a step up from lo-fi) singer-songwriter stuff - not unpleasant but not particularly memorable.  Which is a bit of a shame - I was hoping for more.  That's quite some font she uses on the album cover though! We're at #4 with a new entry this week - seems like a decent effort for the lass.  The rest of the top five are Busted (a new entry for a best-of - I recognise three of the fifteen tracks), Olivia Rodrigo , The Weeknd and other Olivia Rodrigo and the next highest new entry is Ash (#14).  Last week I sa...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 25/11/56 : Oklahoma!  - Various Artists The first album of the year I can claim to be even vaguely familiar with and that's all because of an "interesting" night out we had earlier this year .  It will be interesting to compare the original recording with both the version of the musical we saw and the recording of Carousel I recently endured. Well, this was far better than Carousel - yes, it still sounds old fashioned but it has way better tunes and the sound quality was also far, far better.  I really like  "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", "Kansas City", "I Caint Say No" and the title track and these are all fine versions of them - properly musical theatred up in the way they weren't when we saw them recently.  Overall, I'd say this is probably the most enjoyable album I've listened to this year - the only thing that annoyed me is that some of the tracks end in very bizar...

Continuing my trip back through the 1956 album charts. 02/12/56 : Carousel OST  - Various Artists I know that Carousel includes "You'll Never Walk Alone" but that's all I can tell you - I'm expecting it to be pretty old-fashioned with some decent tunes. Well, it's certainly old-fashioned but it's a bit lacking decent tunes - I recognised "YMWA" but that was it.  The songs seem to be mostly about love, but there's one about a man who smells badly of fish and another one where a guy sings about how much fun he's going to have with his son, which makes you immediately think "it's going to be a daughter, isn't it?" - and it duly is, before we even get to the end of the song.  Having listened to it, I have absolutely no idea what the musical is about - it will be interesting to see what Wikipedia has to say.  It all sounds VERY old-fashioned and the sound quality is dreadful - yes, 1956 was a long time ago but this makes The ...