scaryblog

Continuing my trip across the output of Athens' finest... Up (1998) I listened to this quite a lot at the time, but have barely been back to it in the intervening years - I remember a lot of it being quite samey but the good tracks are very fine indeed. Side one – "Upside" 1.  Airportman It's quite lowkey and shimmery and feels it should probably go somewhere, which it patently didn't. 2. Lotus This would have been a better opening track - a bit more upbeat and it's got a chorus.  It's not a great song, but it'll do to be going along with. 3. Suspicion Hmmm - this is a bit lowkey as well.  Next! 4. Hope Well, this is more like it!  It's very electronic, but for the first time on the album we have the cryptic lyrics that we know and love - this manages to sound REMish whilst sounding completely different as well.  A guitar based version in their earlier style would be very interesting to hear. 5. At My Most Beautiful And so, on one of my least favou

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts. 30/09/90 : X -  INXS   INXS were big back in the day but they don't seem to get mentioned much these days, do they?  This was one we owned (5/14), but I seen to recall it wasn't as good as Kick, so it didn't get listened to very much. Well it opens with "Suicide Blonde" and "Disappear" - there's nothing wrong with them as tracks!  And it's not like any of the tracks that come after them are bad - but it just doesn't feel like they go anywhere.  It's all perfectly fine but it doesn't show much variety or build into anything - it also does some annoying unnecessary stereo twiddly bits if you're listening on headphones. We're at #2 with a new entry this week on the start of an impressive 32 week run, with another nine week later in '91.  The rest of the top five were The Three Tenors,  George Michael , AC/DC (a new entry which I'm quite happy not to listen to) and Bet

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 27/10/23 :  Hackney Diamonds - The Rolling Stones Our squillionth visit with them old geezers - I'm expecting this to be perfectly bearable, but not to possess anything that would make me want to listen to it again. Yeah, I think that's a fair enough description but, if you're a Stones fan, I would think there's plenty here to keep you happy.  I actually quite liked "Whole Wide World" - it had a Sam Fenderesque vitality to it (certainly much more than I'd expect from a bunch of septu/octagenerians).  "Dreamy Skies" also had a nice nod back to their bluesy roots - the rest of it certainly didn't grate, but I suspect it would have been utterly ignored if put out by anyone else.  I was also surprised to hear someone else singing on "Tell Me Straight" - apparently it's Keith and I'd have to say he does a decent job.  Overall, I didn't love it but also, unlike a lot

A couple of new things this time - a matinee gig in a church! I've seen Throwing Muses live three times, back in the days before write-ups - I wonder how many historical gigs I'd remember enough about to write more than a few sentences on?  The most memorable TM gig was at Trinity Church in Bristol which is a lovely venue and they played alongside Tanya Donnelly and She Makes War (a local female singer-songwriter) - the music was great but the venue was hotter than the surface of the sun!  But I've never seen Kristin Hersh live solo though - I knew she was on tour here and read a really positive review but the tickets were sold out in London, so assumed it wouldn't happen this time either.  But then, due to popular demand, they added an extra matinee show - so I was in.  And, quite frankly, the idea of not having to catch a train back from London late on a Saturday night was extremely appealing. So I headed to the wilds of the East End to go to St John on Bethnal Green

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts. 07/10/90 : No Prayer For The Dying -  Iron Maiden   Our FIFTH visit with The Maiden - my opinion has tended to be that I can appreciate the skill involved, but it all sounds a bit similar to me and a lot of the tracks are way, way too long.  And no, we never owned this one (4/13). I actually didn't mind "Tailgunner" (the opening track) and it was only 4:13 so that's a good start.  The rest of it is pretty similar, although I was amazed to recognise one of them - "Bring Your Daughter...To The Slaughter" which I remember got to #1 because they released it in the third week of January or something.  Overall, I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" this but I do think I found it more bearable than their previous offerings (but I'm not going back to them to compare) - I was quite reminded of some of Gary Moore's rocky stuff that I used to enjoy in my schooldays.  And you certainly can't fault the

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts. 14/10/90 : Enlightenment -  Van Morrison   Our third visit with Van the Man, and my previous experiences with him have been a mix of well-crafted tunes and aimless Celtic noodlery so I'm expecting this to be one or the other.  And whilst I do own one Van album, it's not this one (4/12). Hmmm - it's somewhat of a mix of craft and aimless noodlery.  The songs are generally well put together, but the man just doesn't know when to stop a good thing - two of the tracks are over six minutes long and "In The Days Before Rock And Roll" is a very tiresome eight minutes.  When he gets it right though, as he does on "Real Real Gone" and "Memories" they work really well.  There's also some fantastic musicians supporting him as well - they really elevate the songs.  I like the album cover as well - it's nicely mysterious but does suggest enlightenment. We're at #5 with a new entry in the

Continuing my trip across the output of Athens' finest... New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996) I think this is probably the most undeservedly ignored and under-appreciated R.E.M. album - they scared a lot of people off with Monster but I think even those that weren't scared off didn't quite know what they were listening to.  It's not a perfect album (and I recall it has a lot of tracks on it) but it has imho some of R.E.M.'s finest moments on it - and I think you know that's not an idle boast.  To be fair, I do count a LOT of moments as their finest moments. Side one – "Hi Side" 1.  How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us It's not an immediate opener but it's nicely broody - although you do think it could have done with more of an ending than it got.  It goes on for ages and goes absolutely nowhere. 2. The Wake-Up Bomb I like this one - it has a fine beat to it and some nicely confident lyrics (" I had to knock a few buildings over -  I made a

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts. 21/10/90 : Some Friendly -  The Charlatans   I like The Charlatans but I actually don't think I've heard this album - which is a shocking omission which I will put right immediately.  And so you can probably guess that we don't own it - 4/11. Yeah, for me it's pretty good but I can see it won't be for everyone.  It's on the slightly shoegazey/psychedelic side of baggy and it's definitely looking back to the 60s, but affectionately so without being too derivative.  "The Only One I Know", "Opportunity", "Them" and "Croston Green" were my favourites, but that's just down to familiarity because they're all on Melting Pot, their best-of.  The rest of them sound like the sort of thing I'd get into, although "109 Pt2" was a bit odd.  Isn't that album cover very much of its time though? We're at #4 in the charts this week on its second week of

Continuing my trip back through the 1990 album charts. 28/10/90 : New Kids On The Block -  New Kids On The Block   I'm not a huge NKOTB fan but I know this isn't their massively popular album, so my expectations aren't massively high.  And no, of course we never owned it (4/10) Ooooh dear.  This is bad - it reminds me of my last visit with Mr Bieber .  It's mostly horrible synths and nasty falsetto but it's got some dreadful rapping in places as well - the title track stands out for plain awfulness, which is really saying something.  Overall, it's just terrible - avoid this at all costs.  But frankly, the album cover should be enough to put you off... We're at #6 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of a ten week run - which coincidentally is exactly ten more weeks than it deserved.  The top five were  Paul Simon , Pet Shop Boys (a new entry), Status Quo, The Three Tenors and, quite obviously, Jimi Hendrix and we have one more new entry in

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1997 :  Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve This is a fine track but I actually struggle to imagine too many people think "hmmm - I need a bit of that bitter sweet track because that would fit my mood right now!".  But we know how believable this list has been so far - so let's just run with it, OK?  I do reckon we'll get some decent cover versions though. I don't think I ever saw the video but it's actually pretty memorable - it's 4:35 of Richard Ashcroft walking down the street and not stopping or deviating from his path for anything, except for a nice Jag (he steps over another car at one point - I think it's a Metro, but I'm not sure). Wow - internet diversion.  It IS a Metro but it's not a Jag, it's a Daimler - and i know this because of imcdb.org .  Yes, it's internet movie cars database dot org - a list of which cars have been used in film/TV/videos.  It