scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 25/02/01 : Onka's Big Moka -  Toploader Have any band ever done quite so much and yet quite so little on the back of one decent single ? Plenty probably, but I've never heard this - I'm expecting it to be perfectly pleasant but somewhat inessential. Actually, I'd say I'd be happy to describe this as pretty decent but somewhat inessential. Obviously, everyone knows and loves/hates "Dancing In The Moonlight" but the rest of it isn't noticeably worse, it's all played well enough and your man has a distinctive but not overly annoying voice. And if I caught them on a sunny afternoon in a festival/pub in the park/random beergarden I'd certainly enjoy the vibe and stay around for an extra pint or two - but there's absolutely no chance of me ever listening to this album again.  We're at #4 in the charts this week on their 40th week of a both surprising and unsurprising 58 week run with this...

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews... Dara ó Briain : Eventim Apollo I like my comedians to be quick thinking, allowing good audience interaction whilst also having good narrative ability in delivering a tale that stays with you after they've left the stage. In his 20+ year tenure on Mock The Week, Dara has demonstrated a certain speed of thought but I wasn't aware of his story-telling abilities until I caught his previous tour So Where Were We? when I randomly stumbled across it on BBC2. This told the somewhat incredible (but apparently true) story of him tracking down his birth mother and it was beautifully pitched with moments of suspense, frustration and joy - I highly recommend it and it's available here if you fancy it.  So, when I saw he was doing a follow-up tour (can you guess who he's tracking down this time?) and playing in quite a few venues around me including the mighty St Albans Arena, I thought I'd fancy a night out which didn...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 04/03/01 : Loco -  Fun Lovin' Criminals Fun Lovin' Criminals were quite big for a bit, which made it all the more bizarre that I saw them live in the mighty St Albans Arena around this time - I seem to recall everyone was a bit perplexed as to why they were there, but a good time was had by all. I vaguely remember listening to this album, but it's the one after the one after the good one, so returns were definitely diminishing by this time. Yeah, they're diminishing but this really isn't bad if you're in for some woozy hip-hop - it's only real problem is that it doesn't contain a "Scooby Snacks" or "King Of New York", although "Bump" and "There Was A Time" are pretty decent tracks. There's also an argument that 58 minutes is a bit long, but it doesn't overly drag - it's just that there's probably only so much FLC you need in your life and the fi...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 11/03/01 : All That You Can't Leave Behind -  U2 Our eighth visit with them Irish funsters, bringing them level with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, Neil Young and Manic Street Preachers - and this is one I own taking us to eleven for the year. And I remember loving it in places, without that affection being transferred to the album as a whole, so it will be interesting to see what I think of it now.  Actually, it's not bad at all - it's a bit of a "back to basics" effort after the nonsense with Zooropa (which I actually quite liked) and Pop (which I didn't). It starts very strongly with  "Beautiful Day",  "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Elevation" and "Walk On" (which were the four singles released from the album) and, whilst I'd struggle to say it maintains the quality level throughout, it doesn't descend into dross. My main niggles would be...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 18/03/01 : Just Push Play -  Aerosmith Our third visit with Aerosmith and it's fair to say my expectations are not high. Well, I wasn't expecting it to start with sitars but most of the rest of it is pretty much as expected - although not as bad as it could have been. They know their way around their instruments and Steve Tyler makes the sounds with his voice that he wants to, even if it's not exactly the sound I enjoy. It's all very much looking backwards, so if you like that 70s US rawk thang then you'll probably like this. My main complaint would be that it doesn't feel very well produced with the levels of the various instruments changing randomly - I can imagine them all constantly arguing that they need to be higher in the mix and the producer just agreeing to shut them up.  I also had to laugh at "Just Push Play" including the phrase "walk this way" in the chorus - some definite ha...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 25/03/01 : Renaissance -  Lionel Richie Our third visit with Lionel and I'm expecting this to be bearable, whilst at the same time in no way improving the quality of my life. Hmmm - well, it's certainly bearable and I actually found it a surprisingly interesting listen. Not because I liked the music (although I didn't hate it) but because I couldn't for the life of me think who was supposed to like it. It felt like Ricky Martin kinda music, but slowed down for grandad so he doesn't put his hip out whilst trying to grind away to it. I can't fault the production because it's all very clear sounding and the musicianship is also pretty good - I just don't see why anyone would actively search this out.  We're at #6 in the charts this week on his fourth week of a decent 22 week run, with this being as high as it got - however, somewhat peculiarly, this was his third run. It first popped in for five wee...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 01/04/01 : Know Your Enemy -  Manic Street Preachers Our eighth visit with them Manics, which puts them level with Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Neil Young - which is pretty illustrious company. I quite liked them around this time, but not enough to buy this - I'm not sure I've ever heard it so it will be interesting to see what I think of it. Hmmm. For the most part, I'd say it's a fine, if somewhat underwhelming Manics album - it feels like they've made an effort to be a bit rockier than their preceding (massively successful) albums. Which is fine if that's what they wanted to do but they need the tunes to back up such a move and nothing really jumped out at me (but conversely, nothing jumped out as dreadful either). The only tracks that did jump out were the ones where they've tried something completely different eg there was a disco number somewhere in the middle of it all which I certainly rai...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 20/02/26 : Wuthering Heights - Charli XCX Well, I don't think this is a controversial choice - but there are certainly questions to be asked as a result of meeting it. More on this later! Well, this is quite an interesting one. I actually quite enjoyed it because it's a decent soundtrack album and yet not really a soundtrack album at all - which is probably something I need to explain a bit further. The music doesn't sound particularly typical for Charli XCX, but it does sound like the sort of thing you'd want for a contemporary take on Wuthering Heights. As far as I'd know anyway - I'm not an expert on such things but it's swirling and emotive (although "House" is a bit of an odd track, but it features John Cale so that's not a huge surprise). However, all the tracks have lyrics, which I wasn't expecting for a soundtrack - I suspect they mostly don't feature in the film (and I...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2025 #19 :     The Brutalist In his attempt to make a movie monolith (itself about the making of a monolithic structure), filmmaker Brady Corbet intentionally went… well, monolithic. Captured in big, beautiful, blocky VistaVision, a three-hour behemoth with an in-built intermission and a multi-year-spanning narrative sprawl, The Brutalist is evocative of the structure whose creation it depicts. The story of Adrien Brody’s renowned architect László Tóth – fleeing the Holocaust and attempting to build a gigantic brutalist structure for a wealthy American client (Guy Pearce) – appears to be cold, imposing, sometimes inscrutable. And yet it’s also breathtaking in its construction, its concrete walls revealed to contain a major emotional punch come the final reel. Impeccably performed, laudable in its grand ambition, engrossing across its extended runtime, it’s a major work – entirely by design. I know this was critically well r...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 08/04/01 : Gorillaz -  Gorillaz Our third visit with Gorillaz and this is one where I liked the singles and was intrigued by the whole concept, so bought it (taking us to ten for the year) - I seem to recall I didn't mind it, but maybe there wasn't quite enough content for a whole album. Yeah - the singles are very much the high points with "Clint Eastwood" and "19-2000" easily being the stand-out tracks.  "Clint Eastwood" also has the distinct advantage that it doesn't overdo the Damon Albarn content - his voice is really quite annoying on a lot of this album. The other tracks are generally OK and have some quite interesting bleeps and rhythms involved, but there's not enough variety across the whole album to stop it getting repetitive -  56:56 is just too long, I'm afraid. We're at #3 in the charts this week on their second week of a surprisingly long 53 week run, with this be...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 15/04/01 : Songbird -  Eva Cassidy Yes, there's an argument this shouldn't be here because it's a compilation album but I think it counts as significant enough for us to include it and she's had three compilation albums that got to #1, so I feel we should include the original (and probably best). She opens things with "Fields Of Gold" which I think is a particularly fine cover version because, for me, it just adds something to the original - complimenting Sting on his songwriting ability, whilst also subtly drawing comment on his performing ability. Which is interesting when you compare it with her cover of "Songbird" which is possibly what she's best known for - don't get me wrong, this is still a very decent version but it doesn't really add anything to the original. The other tracks are all very much in the same vein and most of them are cover versions, but I'm not aware of the...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 22/04/01 : Popstars -  Hear'say Well, it will be interesting to see how this stood the test of time! And let's just leave it there for the time being. Actually, "Pure And Simple" isn't dreadful - it's very S Club and bounces along acceptably. And for the most part, the rest of the album tries to do the same, but falls somewhat short - it's all very forgettable in a SAW kinda way. However, the cover versions are an exception because they absolutely MURDER The Mamas & The Papas' "Monday Monday" and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" - they're impressively bad. The only other thing I took away is that the ladies have such obviously better voices than the lads that you wonder whether this was an artistic choice - it's all quite bizarre. We're at #2 in the charts this week on their third week of a pretty undeserved 25 week run with it having spen...