scaryblog

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 28/06/24 :  The Secret Of Us -  Gracie Abrams I saw this was in with a shout of #1 this week, so decided I'd take the risk and listen to it early - but I didn't really know anything about her other than she supported Taylor on some leg of the Eras tour, so I suspect she's not a million miles away. And no, she certainly isn't a million miles away. It's not obviously my thang, but I do like a female singer and every so often these things cut through with me - and I think this nearly does. It's odd though because it's so close to Taylor and I'm so "meh" about her that I don't really know why I'd like Gracie - my only conclusion is that my expectations aren't so ridiculously over-inflated. I do feel Gracie makes some more interesting noises though - I particularly liked "Felt Good About You" (a very intriguing opener), "Gave You I Gave You I" and "Norma...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 08/01/61 : The Fabulous Style Of The Everly Brothers - The Everly Brothers That's quite the album title and cover, isn't it? It appears the style they've gone for is "casual undertaker"... For a best-of, an awful lot of this album is completely unknown to me - with "When Will I Be Loved?" being the only track I recognised their version of. I obviously also know "Be Bop A Lula", but no-one needs The Everly's version (it occurred to me I had no idea who first recorded it - ten points if you know). The rest of it is all perfectly fine, but feels very inessential. We're at #9 in the charts this week on their last week of a two week run, but it did manage a seven week run in '60 with it peaking at #4. The top five this week were  Elvis ,   South Pacific ,  Cliff ,  George  and  Peter & Sophia  and we have one new entry in the chart for Bob Luman (#18) who was apparently a country...

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... People, Places & Things : Trafalgar Theatre Taking a very welcome break from musicals, I went to see this on account of the good reviews and, quite obviously, because Denise Gough was very good in Andor (which is, surprisingly, a Star Wars TV show that's actually worth watching - it's actually got some plot for starters!). Apart from that, I didn't have a clue what I'd let myself in for as I headed along to the Trafalgar Theatre for my second trip in as many months - and the stage didn't exactly go out of its way to help me out (excuse the blur, but several attempts did no better than this - and some were considerably worse). The play follows the central character (who goes by several names throughout the show, but let's call her Emma) who is an addict attempting to straighten herself out and it investigates the impact of her addiction and treatment on those around her. Or does it? A lot of the play i...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 15/01/61 : The Rhythms And Ballads Of Broadway - Johnny Mathis I'm quite happy to meet up with Johnny Mathis again - I have a slight suspicion this might be Broadway numbers, some up-tempo and some slower... Well, this was a surprise - it's a double album (the first one this year, I think). Each one features a different kind of music - can you guess what they might be? The ballads one was a bit too much for me - the tracks all demonstrate his lovely voice and good control well, but it's all a bit pedestrian and plodding for a whole album. It also features a bizarrely slowed-down version of "On The Sunny Side Of The Street" which does the song no favours at all.  I much preferred the rhythms album - it was pretty Frank-ish in its swinginess, but Johnny certainly doesn't disgrace himself when compared to such company. It was also somewhat surprising to meet our fourth version of "I Could Have Danced Al...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 22/01/61 : The Eddie Cochran Memorial Album - Eddie Cochran I obviously recognise Eddie's name and I know he did early rock and roll, but I'm struggling to remember anything he actually did - I'm assuming this is going to have his best known tracks on it, so let's see how many I recognise.  A few actually - "C'mon Everybody", "Three Steps To Heaven" and "Summertime Blues" (and it's interesting that he wrote them all, which is not something we've generally seen this year). The rest of it is all perfectly listenable in an early Elvis stylee - it's interesting to thinking what Eddie might have gone on to do if he'd lived longer. This isn't really my sort of thing but I didn't mind it at all - it was an interesting historical listen. We're at #15 in the charts this week on his final week of a nine week run with it having peaked at #9 - somewhat strangely it h...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 29/01/61 : The Fabulous Shirley Bassey - Shirley Bassey After our last visit , I've absolutely no complaints about bumping into Shirley again - I'm looking forward to listening to this. Oh yes, she really does have a lovely voice here - very strong and coupled with great control. It's just shocking to compare this with the rubbish churned out by Adam Faith or Anthony Newley - just no contest at all. And, as an added bonus, she does a version of "Cry Me A River" on here - I'm not sure it's quite up to Julie London's version but it's still really very good. Overall, this is a fine album, which is obviously of its time but also timeless. We're at #12 in the chart this week on her second week of a two week run which is just shocking - did people have no taste back then? Although I guess we have to be thankful they let it into the chart at all. The top five this week were  Elvis ,   South Paci...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 05/02/61 : Party Time - Russ Conway I recognise the name, but I've got no idea what I'm going to get here - from his name he sounds like he'll be crooning in a cabaret style but, as this year has shown, it could be absolutely anything. Well, there's no crooning - it's all piano instrumentals played on a real pub joanna which is barely tuned with absolutely no tone to it. It all sounds very like the sort of thing you hear when you get put on hold at the call centre - I can appreciate the skill involved, but that doesn't mean I like it and my ears soon started to bleed as my brain turned to mush. Did people really like this stuff back then? Or, in fact, ever?!? We're at #15 in the charts this week on his ninth week of a wholly undeserved eleven week run, with it having peaked at #7 for three consecutive weeks. The top five this week were  Elvis ,   South Pacific ,  George ,  Frank  and the Oklahoma! sound...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 12/02/61 : Plays Selections From The Film "The Glenn Miller Story" - Glenn Miller It feels a bit weird that we've already have the Buddy Holly Story album this year and now we have the Glenn Miller Story. I only really know "In The Mood" but I suspect the rest of it isn't going to sound massively different. No, it's fair to say it really doesn't sound massively different. I'm sure it's all very skilful, but I struggle to see quite what made it all so popular - it feels like the stuff that you'd hear a talented bunch of kids belting out at the school fete as you availed yourself of the insufficiently cooled lager to try and make it all a bit more bearable. There is no danger of me ever listening to this again, I'm afraid We're at #10 in the charts this week on his fourth week of a five week run with this being as high as it got, but it did spend another 22 weeks on the chart, w...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2023 #32 :    Oppenheimer Flawed but extraordinary, Christopher Nolan’s account of the physicist who led the Manhattan Project captures the most agonising of success stories. This is an interesting one on several counts - I generally like Chris Nolan's films (yes, I started with Memento), it feels like it's in my wheelhouse and it was a cultural touchpoint last year thanks to Barbenheimer. So, quite obviously, I've totally avoided it - and I've no real idea why because I'm quite looking forward to watching it. For those who don't know, the film gives us a broad telling of the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer - "the father of the atomic bomb". Unsurprisingly, it looks absolutely gorgeous and i t's a true work of art - but a very, very long work of art (2 hours 50 minutes). However, it does at least have a serious story to tell because there is a lot of content here - but none of it really makes...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 21/06/24 :  Midnight Butterflies -  Sea Girls Well this is an unexpected surprise - I have heard of Sea Girls, but can't claim to be an expert and it makes a pleasant change to have something I don't already know exactly what I'm going to get - and both quite high and quite low in the chart as well, but more on this later. Applying a generic tag to it, it's indie-pop-rock, the likes of which you've heard a million times before. But, it's very well done indie-pop-rock and it wears its numerous influences unapologetically on its sleeve - The Killers (the vocalist sounds very like Brandon Flowers at times) and Coldplay are the most obvious touchpoints for me, but I also heard hints of U2, Radiohead and The Vamps in there at times, so it explores more of the indie-pop-rock spectrum than you might expect. There's plenty of musical skill on display and considerably more variety than I was expecting - it a...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 19/02/61 : Adam - Adam Faith I was supposed to listen to a different Adam Faith album this week, but it's really tricky to find anything of his seven studio albums amongst all his best-ofs (Amazon must have about thirty of them) and whilst scrolling through a very long list, I came across this one which I'd failed to find earlier in the year and since it's still hanging around the chart, it get's a belated listen. Let's hope it's worth the effort, eh? Hmmm - not really. The songs are mostly OK and his voice is nice enough when he hits the note, but he's surprisingly off it on a regular basis which just annoys me. I also have to say that "Greenfinger" is a particularly bizarre song about a man who buys his sweetheart a cheap ring - which turns her finger green. All in all, I was just left with a slightly bemused feeling - and maybe an increased appreciation of Cliff. What is the world coming to?...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   2007 : Fluorescent Adolescent  - Arctic Monkeys This is an odd track because I know I know it, but I never recognise it from the title - ah yes, it's the "you used to get it in your fishnets" song. It's got QUITE the video with a load of clowns brawling with a load of non-clowns, also featuring flashbacks to one of the clown's youth - and you can tell it's him because he has the same clown makeup on! As far as I can tell, it makes absolutely no sense at all, but is quite fun to watch. Wikipedia tells me that the main clown is played by Stephen Graham (which is obvious when you're told but I missed it at the time) and the video was directed by Richard Ayaode and is loosely based on  the poem "Out of Control Fairground" by John Cooper Clarke - admit it, you didn't know that! It got to #5 in the UK chart at the time but has obviously been streamed an awful lot since - bu...

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts. 26/02/61 : Elvis Is Back! - Elvis Presley And following on from Frank, we have our fifth and final visit from the other guy that just won't leave us alone this year - although Elvis has offered more variety so I'm at least a bit intrigued as to what we've got here. As has generally been the case for Elvis and Frank this year, this is the better offering of the final pair - but as with Frank, I've really had enough of the guy so didn't pay too much attention to it. However, I would say that "Fever" is a fine version with sparse instrumentation, "The Girl Of My Best Friend" is also decent (Cliff would have done a good version of this) and "Such A Night" is some excellent Elvis cheese. It's also (for me) s urprisingly country/ballad because I was expecting more rock and roll on this - it's  all more Elvis than I need, but he does have to get credit for the variety he's deli...

The latest in a (this year, not so) occasional series of musical reviews... Guys & Dolls : The Bridge Theatre Another musical - that's four this year! I blame this one on the lovely Mrs Reed though - she didn't exactly drag me kicking and screaming to it, but I doubt I'd have gone and seen it on my own. I'd also say that the joyful experience of 90 minutes in the dentists chair earlier in the day also hadn't exactly improved my mood, but at least I knew isn't wasn't exactly mentally taxing because the we'd seen it in all the way back in 2005 featuring Ewan McGregor and Jane Krakowski - I remembered it being fun, but not exactly memorable.   As we walk into the theatre, it's obviously being staged in the round but there's no obvious stage and a load of the audience milling about where a stage might be, so it's not entire clear where the action is going to take place - funnily enough, all becomes clearer quite quickly, but more on this late...