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Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 27/07/03 : Innocent Eyes -  Delta Goodrem  I vaguely remember Delta existing (she was a Neighbours or Home & Away graduate, wasn't she?) but couldn't name one of her songs if you gave me the rest of the year. I'm expecting a female Daniel Bedingfield - nothing hateful about it, but completely inessential. Firstly, I have to admit she's got a nicer voice than I remembered, but there's not a lot that's particularly memorable about any of this - I didn't mind the title track and I even recognised "Lost Without You" and "Not Me, Not I" but apart from that it all just slid past me pretty much unnoticed. I'm a fan when stuff like this is done well (Nerina Pallot's Words is one that springs to mind) but there's an awful lot that ends up as musical wallpaper - I suspect a few more listens might convince me this is pretty decent wallpaper, but it's not going to get the chan...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 03/08/03 : Dangerously In Love -  Beyoncé  Our 5.5th visit with Queen B (the .5 being a Destiny's Child album) - I think it's safe to say that so far I've generally been impressed by the craft involved without loving the results. This era B feels like it stands the strongest chance with me, but we'll see. Well, she certainly doesn't do herself any harm by starting things off with "Crazy In Love" which even I have to admit I like. And, once again, I'm impressed by the craft involved throughout the rest of the album - she's got a lovely voice with great control and there's more variety there than I was expecting. Yes, it's all some sort of R&B but it covers various forms and uses guest artists wisely including Jay Z (of course), Missy Elliott, Sean Paul and Luther Vandross - for me there was too much of the hip-hop stuff, but each to their own. Did I love it? No, but I think that'...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #16 :    House Of The Dragon After a strong first season that established the pre-Game Of Thrones Targaryen rule, and set up the fight for the throne between Team Black (Viserys’ daughter and named heir Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy) and Team Green (led by new Queen Mother Alicent Hightower, played by Olivia Cooke), the next stage of the fantasy epic unfolds. Thanks to several misunderstandings – including a cryptic death rattle, a beheaded baby, and the Targaryen’s insistence on calling multiple offspring Aegon – both sides are heading for a war doused in dragon-fire. The new season ticked all the boxes a successful return to Westeros requires, with the political moves becoming increasingly intricate, the character drama more intense, and the battle scenes taking things up a notch. I caught up with Season 1 a couple of years ago and thought it was considerably better than I was expecting, with a very strong endi...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 24/01/25 : Balloonerism - Mac Miller Our second posthumous visit with Mr Miller - last time , I found it to be an interesting and different sound, if not exactly something I loved (and I've never listened to it again). It feels kinda weird that we're back five years later because you have to wonder exactly who has been spending so much time on it, but I'm interested to hear it. As much as I remember, the sound is similar - last time I struggled to describe it, but the phrase that I came up with here was "psychedelic jazz hip-hop", which I suspect would be more than enough to scare me off normally. But I didn't mind it at all and there were some interesting lyrics in there - as much as I could understand them anyway because it's a bit mumbly at times. I'm not all that sure how many people would claim they love this, but it doesn't feel like the lazy rip-off that quite a few of these hip-hop...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 10/08/03 : Magic And Medicine -  The Coral  Impressively and unexpectedly, this is our fourth visit with The Coral - they generally make an interesting, pleasant enough sound so I'm perfectly happy to see what we've got here. Yeah, this is indeed an interesting, pleasant enough sound - some might find it a bit twee, but I can see there would be times it would just hit the spot for me, although it feels more of a summery sound than something to listen to with Storm Eowyn kicking off out there. I particularly liked "Liezah", "Secret Kiss", "Bill McCai" and "Pass It On" (which I remembered) but it was all a nice enough sound for me and something different from the usual fare, without really being something I feel I'm likely to search out again. It's also a surprisingly creepy album cover for a very non-creepy album. We're at #2 in the charts this week on their second week of ...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2023 #4 :    How To Have Sex British independent cinema is in the rudest of health right now, and Molly Manning Walker’s feature debut is a standout example. An energetic drama about the trials and tribulations of teenage girldom and female friendship, it follows Tara (an outstanding Mia McKenna-Bruce) as she goes on a pivotal holiday to Malia with friends Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis). They drink, they dance, they drink again – but when things heat up with their hotel neighbours, Tara is pushed to (and beyond) her limits. It’s a riveting, emotional, stomach-churning story of one girl’s discomfiting experience with sex and consent, but has had such an impact because of how deeply it resonates with so many. The highs and lows of the trip are executed in equal measure, euphoric club sequences and drunken laughter giving way to quiet, sombre reckonings. It’s a sign of incredible things to come from Manning Walker and M...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 17/08/03 : Gotta Get Thru This -  Daniel Bedingfield  I remember both Daniel and Natasha making one or two decent singles but mostly producing distinctly average fare - but I don't think I've experienced an album from either of them, so I might yet come out of this realising the error of my ways (I'm not expecting to though). Well, I guess the title track, "If You're Not The One" and "I Can't Read You" have pretty decent hooks to them, but beyond that they are pretty repetitive - and that's true for the rest of the album, but often without the hooks. He's also got a very drippy voice and I get the impression he thinks he's much edgier than he really is -  a bit like the album cover where I feel he's aiming for a hard man look but comes across as a junior accountant. No ne of it is hateful, but I struggle to see why anyone would subject themselves to an album of it - I was very...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 24/08/03 : Busted -  Busted  Our second visit with the Busted lads - I didn't mind them last time and I'm expecting much of the same here. Yeah, for the most part, that's what we've got here - some cheeky chappy pop (or punk, as the Americans bizarrely like to call it). "Year 3000" is obviously the high point - I love that song way more than I should, even if I'm still annoyed that there's no way my great-great-great-granddaughter is still going to be alive in 3000, let alone be pretty fine. The rest of the album is pretty much along similar lines but I do have to say that "What I Go To School For" is surprisingly creepy and "Losing You" and "Without You" both veer dangerously close to Westlife territory. I feel I preferred A Present For Everyone, but they're both fine for what they are, although I thought this was less fun than I was expecting. We're at #2 in...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #17 :    Doctor Who Having made a triumphant return to Doctor Who with last year’s spectacular anniversary specials, Russell T. Davies’ first full series back as showrunner breathed new life into the world’s longest-running sci-fi series. Driven by the magnetic central pairing of Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson as the Doctor and his companion Ruby Sunday, Davies’ new-look Whoniverse — now backed by a Disney-sized budget — took in Beatles, space babies, bird-brained cosplayers, and literal Gods, effortlessly switching up genres whilst telling an emotionally resonant tale of foundlings and belonging. Standouts ‘Boom’ and Welsh folk horror diversion ‘73 Yards’ offered up some of the year’s best episodes of, well, anything, while an ambitious two-part finale saw Davies take some impressively big swings – and stick the landing. What’s more, it still seems the regenerated show’s best is very much yet to come. Empire has a b...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 31/08/03 : Take Them On, On Your Own - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club I don't believe I've ever listened to a BRMC album - I feel I don't like them, without being sure whether that's actually the case. So maybe it's time I found out one way or the other... Well, there's nothing wrong with this if you're in the mood for some 70s inspired classic rock - which, fortunately for them, I pretty much was when I listened to it. Along with  The Darkness  and Iron Maiden , the '03 charts are going through a bit of a rawk phase at the minute - and I'd also say that they've all been better than most of the other stuff I've had to endure. I wouldn't say I loved this but it's a decent example of that sort of thing and I really didn't mind it at all - I also got the feeling Kasabian might well have listened to this whilst they were recording their debut album (which came out in '04). We...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 07/09/03 : Dutty Rock - Sean Paul I'm very much not a fan of Sean Paul's kinda thang, but I have to admit I suspect there are far worse proponents of this kind of musical torture out there so I'm actually slightly intrigued as how tolerable this is. Hmmm - I wouldn't say it's hateful and I do recognise there is some skill involved in it, but it is quite repetitive and often impossible to understand (to my delicate ears, anyway). I've also got no idea what I'm supposed to do with it - it doesn't feel very danceable and there doesn't seem enough content of interest to warrant actually listening to it. I also definitely didn't need 74 minutes of it - I'm just a bit perplexed by it all. And I'm definitely perplexed by whatever they're trying to achieve with "Dutty Rock Intro" - it's very odd indeed. We're at #2 in the charts this week on his (wait for it) 21st week o...

First gig of the year! And it's my second visit to one of my favourite Disney channel graduates, Mr Joshua Bassett  - it might not surprise you to hear that I wasn't attending this show on my own, being accompanied by a very excited youngest daughter, who's had to wait a long time for this because it's been moved from its original September date .  It was also my second visit to a fine venue, the Kentish Town O2 Forum - which, being on a direct trainline from St Albans  is very conveniently located for me. Unless, of course, there happen to be engineering works occurring which meant we had to travel into London and back out again - fortunately we realised this in time to prevent any disasters. However, it did mean we rocked up slightly later than we planned to (approximately 40 minutes after the doors opened) but we were still met by a queue snaking well away from the doors - apparently people had been queuing outside for hours (and it was really rather chilly, so he ce...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 14/09/03 : Dance Of Death - Iron Maiden Our sixth visit with Iron Maiden - this is going to be the same old, same old, isn't it? Well, actually - it isn't. It's more like mere rock than metal (with the exception of "Journeyman" which is surprisingly orchestral) - for me it's all a lot more bearable than usual (without being, you know, actually enjoyable) but I'll be interested to see what the critics and the fans thought of it. And that's all I've got to say about it really - except that, as usual, loads of the tracks are too long with nine of the eleven tracks being over five minutes. It's not an album for me, but it's more for me than any of their other albums we've met so far. It's really not a great album cover though (and the original designer agreed because he asked for his name to be taken off the album because they used a butchered version). We're at #2 with a new en...