scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 05/08/79 : Replicas -  Tubeway Army Not one I've ever heard, but having read the reviews of Gary Numan earlier this year that said his solo stuff wasn't as good as Replicas, I have high hopes for it. Yeah - I didn't mind this at all. It feels like it needs multiple listens, but on first listen, it seems to have a bit more variety than The Pleasure Principle did. And it's got "Are 'Friends' Electric?" on it, and you really can't argue with that now, can you? I don't really have anything else to say about it, but I'm hoping I get round to giving it another go at some point. We're at #4 in the chart this week on their tenth week of a 28 week run, with it having hit the #1 spot in its seventh week (as part of a four week run in the top two). The rest of the top five this week were  TBDAITW ,  ELO ,  Supertramp  and Blondie  with the highest new entry being The Sex Pistols (#6) which su...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 12/08/79 : I Am -  Earth Wind And Fire Our first visit with Earth Wind And Fire - they're a group I don't really know much about. I'm expecting a very US-centric, 70s sound without really being able to describe what I mean by that... Yeah, it's kinda funky-disco-soul -  "Boogie Wonderland" is probably the track people know best and it's a fair example of the sort of thing we've got here, but I was  surprised to also recognise "After The Love Is Gone" because I didn't know it was by them. I won't be rushing to listen to this again, but it was considerably more enjoyable, skilful and undated than I was expecting. It's quite the hippy album cover though, isn't it?  We're at #5 in the charts this week on their ninth week of a 21 week run, with this being as high as it got and the rest of the top five this week were  TBDAITW ,  ELO , Supertramp and  ABBA  (shame on Supertra...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 27/06/25 : Idols - Yungblud  Somewhat surprisingly, this is our third visit with Yungblud and he's been interesting and enjoyable so far, so I've got high hopes for this. We've also got a lot of new entries in the top ten to investigate - there were some heavy hitters at play this week! Hmmm, well. I guess this isn't dreadful, but I'm not sure it quite gets up to the dizzy heights of interesting or enjoyable. It's all well put together and feels like it should be good, but, well - it's just a bit boring. And if there was one thing I wasn't expecting Yungblud to be, it was boring. All a bit odd really - it's quite an IggyPop-esque album cover though, isn't it? We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week (his third #1 album) and the rest of the top five are Loyle Carner (another new entry), HAIM (ditto), Benson Boone (ditto) and (of course)  Sabrina . So let's check out tho...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #5 :    3 Body Problem The sci-fi book series Remembrance Of Earth’s Past by computer engineer-turned-fiction author Liu Cixin was once claimed to be “unadaptable”. Given there will soon be multiple adaptations (including a Zhang Yimou-directed film and an animated series), that word is increasingly and hilariously wrong. But it does not take away the considerable achievement from Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss and True Blood’s Alexander Woo with this big-budget English-language take on the book. The eight-episode show streamlines and simplifies some of Liu’s hardest concepts but retains its sense of ambition and its wilder moments (Dehydrated aliens! Nuclear bombs in space! The entire universe winking!). It is not without its flaws, and there are some who prefer the original Chinese adaptation (now on Prime Video), but there is more than enough to whet the appetite for the — now-confirmed...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 19/08/79 : Breakfast In America -  Supertramp Our first visit with Supertramp and they're not a band I know much about - I think the title track of this album is their only song I know. In my head, they're like ELO in that they have a very distinctive sound with those that like it, liking it a lot - but I've never really investigated them to find out whether I'd like it. So let's give them a go, eh? I don't mind the title track, but the more you listen to it, the odder it becomes - there's all sorts of instruments on there and the lyrics make absolutely no sense at all. I was surprised to also recognise (and quite like) "The Logical Song" and "Take The Long Way Home" - they're a bit less weird, but not a lot. There's definitely an ELO-esque "prog pop" feel to it, with vocoded voices and prominent keyboards, but I feel it manages to keep itself separate enough from th...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #6 :    The Day Of The Jackal A story of 'analogue spycraft' based on Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel (a book which previously inspired Fred Zinnemann’s same-named 1973 genre classic film), Ronan Bennett’s extraordinarily tense and taut ten-part thriller The Day Of The Jackal sees Eddie Redmayne on mercurial form as The Jackal, an elite assassin who — having just pulled off a spectacular kill in Munich — finds himself contracted to kill a tech billionaire with a God complex (Khalid Abdalla). At the same time, MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch) tails the hitman every step of the way, dangerously spinning the plates of her spiralling family life and increasingly desperate attempts to catch the Jackal. Reminiscent of David Fincher's The Killer in places, yet indelibly infused with Bennett's keen eye for exploring criminals existing on society's margins, this contemporary take on a genre classic brill...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 26/08/79 : The Best Disco Album In The World -  Various Artists Yes, I know we don't do compilation albums except under exceptional circumstances - and what could possibly be exceptional about a selection of disco tracks under a corny title which just screams overselling? Well, there's two exceptional things - there's a good argument it's not overselling things and this week it's finishing a six week run at #1. So it gets a listen! Except that, of course, it doesn't because it's not on any of the streaming services, but it was easy to get hold of the tracklist online and recreate - and what a tracklist it is! It includes Chic's  "Le Freak" and "I Want Your Love",  Amii Stewart's  "Knock On Wood",  Chaka Khan's  "I'm Every Woman",  Sister Sledge's  "He's The Greatest Dancer" and "We Are Family", Candi Staton's  "Y...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 TV shows of 2024 #7 :    Rivals Star-studded as it is, with a cast including David Tennant, Danny Dyer, Aiden Turner, Katherine Parkinson and many more, the series adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s much-loved novel was one of the most pleasant televisual surprises of the year. Yes, there’s lots of sex, and garish 80s fashion, and soapy melodramatic conflict about winning the rights to a regional TV franchise that we still don’t really understand the mechanics of. But Rivals also delivered sharp writing, skin-tingling romantic tension, surprisingly hard-hitting moments, and one helluva cliffhanger. Not to mention the gentle chemistry and slow-burn start of an affair between <X> and <Y> (spoilers removed), which catches you completely off-guard in the best, sweetest of ways. It’s brash, a bit silly, and riddled with bare arses – but it’s also an incredibly entertaining ride. We’re crossing our fingers for Season 2. Before we ge...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 02/09/79 : Voulez Vous -  ABBA Our fifth visit with ABBA, although two of them have been best-ofs and there was also the Voyage cash-in , so there's an argument this is only our second proper album from them -  this must have been around their peak, mustn't it? The problem with ABBA albums is that you're so familiar with the singles that it's hard to judge the other tracks - are they not so well known because they're not as good or do they feel not as good because they're not so well known? Having said that, I've never really liked "Chiquitita" but "Voulez Vous", "I Have A Dream" and (particularly) "Does Your Mother Know?" ( "I can't take a chance on a chick like you" ) are all great. Of the non-single tracks, "Angel Eyes", "If It Wasn't For The Nights" and "Kisses Of Fire" stood out as decent enough, but  "The K...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2024 #43 :     Hollywoodgate Fascinating insight into the Taliban’s insular world by documentary-maker Ibrahim Nash’at, revealing the fighters’ lack of purpose after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. I'm skipping over A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things (#44) but only because I can't find it - I actually wanted to watch it because it's "lovingly eccentric" and " idiosyncratically persuasive"  and the last film I watched about a forgotten painter was surprisingly enjoyable, but it wasn't to be (yet, at least). So instead we come to this which promises to be slightly less lovingly eccentric, following the life of some Taliban soldiers for a year.  Well, a lot of it is, to Western eyes, very eccentric - but there's not a lot of love on display. The first thing to say about this is that it's an incredibly brave piece of film-making - I suspect Ibrahim was only allowed to show a very smal...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 09/09/79 : Slow Train Coming -  Bob Dylan Our fifteenth visit with Bob, moving him into equal second with The Stones. Do you think he had a disco phase and if so, is this it? It's certainly not a very disco title... Well, the opening track "Gotta Serve Somebody" isn't disco, but it's way more soulful than I was expect - it's got quite the groove to it. And that theme kinda continues - it's kinda mellow US rock which isn't a sound I feel the need for in my life but, for the most part, it's all done well enough and there are some decent musicians involved. However, I really don't like his voice here so that's a bit of a problem - I also have the suspicion that if anyone else had come out with this, it would have sunk without a trace. We're at #3 in the charts this week on his second week of a thirteen week with it having peaked at #2 in its debut week. The rest of the top five were Le...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2024 #45 :     Wicked The Wizard of Oz musical prequel is brought to the big screen with sugar-rush energy by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande-Butera. Skipping over Evil Does Not Exist (#47) which is an "enigmatic eco-parable" from Japan (I have to be in the mood for "enigmatic")  brings us to another musical - this time, based on an actual musical! The rest of the family have all seen the musical at least once but it never appealed to me - but a family trip to the lovely Odyssey cinema roped me in to watch this, which is the first half of the story in film form.  I have to say I'd have been fine without going to see it - but I also didn't massively fight against it, so at least part of me was happy enough to experience it.  Film versions of musicals are tricky to do - when they work, they work well but when they don't they're a bit "what's the point?"  Additionally, those of yo...

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts. 16/09/79 : In Through The Out Door -  Led Zeppelin Our SIXTH visit with Led Zep (they only made nine albums) and it's been a very mixed bag, so who knows what we're going to get here... Hmmm - it's a peculiar one. There's an argument it's not really an album because it doesn't have actual songs on it - most of the tracks are just extended riffs with a few random words thrown in for good measure, with the one obvious exception to this being "Hot Dog", which is a weird country/rock and roll thing which wasn't very Led Zep at all. However, the extended riffs are all pretty good extended riffs with some impressive musicianship on display and I particularly liked "All Of My Love". So if you're in the mood for some late 70s rock noodling (which I rarely am) this feels like it would hit the spot nicely - but you probably already know that if you're the sort of person who'd listen...