scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts. 26/03/06 :  Journey South - Journey South Having said last week that I couldn't remember Journey South at all, I find myself with the perfect opportunity to remind myself.  I've no idea what to expect - for some reason my mind couldn't get past the band Journey, but the lovely Mrs Reed reminded me they were X Factor refugees, so I suspect they're unlikely to sound like Journey.  But let's find out, shall we? Oh.  OK.  Let's not then.  This album isn't available on Amazon, Spotify or even YouTube - which is somewhat unusual.  Their other album is available in various places, but not this one - looking at the contents I suspect it's because it's an album of covers and so not really worth anyone's while to bother getting it up there (but it's always possible I'm wrong).  I nearly gave it a miss altogether, but I thought they deserved me putting in some effort, so I managed to track down ...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2022 #45 :   Vortex Split-screen dementia drama from Argentine provocateur Gaspar Noé, starring Dario Argento and Françoise Lebrun as an elderly couple whose lives are dogged by the latter’s cognitive decline. Another French film, making it the most common language we've seen on the list so far.  I am vaguely aware of Gaspar Noé (mostly by reputation - more on this later) but haven't had to endure one of his films yet - luckily I've heard that this is completely different from his previous assaults on the senses, but I still suspect it's going to be a bit of an endurance test. Well, bizarrely it starts with the full credits for the film - it takes you 2.5 minutes before you get to see anything approaching acting and then we  have approximately one minute of film in a small window in the middle of the screen featuring an old couple in their flat.   And then we have two mins of what looks like a 60s Frenc...

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts. 02/04/06 :  This New Day - Embrace A special week this one what with it marking the arrival of our first born - so it's fair to say that the music charts weren't uppermost on our minds at the time, so I shall make sure to give it due consideration now.  It's not a cool thing to admit but I don't mind this kind of thing at all ("music for bedwetters" was how Alan McGee famously referred to it).  I owned The Good Will Out, their debut album, but am not aware I ever listened to anything after that - and I was somewhat surprised to learn this was four albums and eight years later, but I was still looking forward to it. And yeah, I enjoyed it although it was a bit rockier in places than I was expecting.  Not "rock" obviously, but it did at least speed up from time to time.  It's all very Coldplay, so if you don't go for that kind of thing then steer well clear - but at least we don't have ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts. 09/04/06 :  Ringleader Of The Tormentors - Morrissey Ah - Steven Patrick Morrissey.  What are we going to do with you?  At least back in the heady days of 2006, he was only merely problematic (although questions had been asked about his general character since the early 90s) and most people were happy to let the music do the talking for him.  I seem to recall liking this, but I've not revisited it in years (as is the case for all of his solo albums). And yeah, there's a nice full sound to it - it's lush!   "You Have Killed Me" is a fine track, but all of the first half are pretty decent efforts.  However, e ither the album is front loaded with the quality tracks or his voice just gets a bit tiresome because I did find it was getting to be a bit of a drag towards the end.  But if you're going to make one half better than the other, it makes sense to go for the first half and then you can just t...

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts. 16/04/06 :  In Between Dreams - Jack Johnson Earlier this year, I blamed James Morrison for all the pointless male singer-songwriters around these days, hanging around just annoying me - but, having listened to his album, I had to take it all back because it wasn't that bad at all.  However, I am now expecting THIS to be that bad. And oh yes, Jack is very much to blame for a lot of today's ills.  This is a very lightweight offering - it's some stoner surfer lazing around on the beach strumming on his guitar and singing nonsense lyrics.  I didn't mind the chorus of "Good People" but I also very much blame it for making everyone buy this album and just encouraging him.  So, it's a "no thank you very much" from me, Mr Johnson. We're at #4 in the charts this week on its 51st(!) week of an 81(!) week run, which strangely wasn't its first run, having had a six week run on release in March ...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2022 .   #5 :  The Responder Tony Schumacher spent 11 years as a night patrol officer in Merseyside. Night after hellish night he worked the job that ended up giving him a nervous breakdown and PTSD. He took all the carnage, trauma and humour and packed it into The Responder, one of the most raw BBC dramas in recent memory. Martin Freeman played Chris Carson, a constable heading for certain collapse, possibly death. Freeman put in an astonishing stint as the officer whose every act was either hard to stomach, ethically questionable or entirely reprehensible. Here was a man who had to sift the motorway’s edge for body parts. Who regularly attacked the people he was meant to protect and serve. Who stole a flask of soup and pack of cigs from a woman who’d not long since died. This was television so morally murky it made for fascinating, challenging viewing – but it kept up the propulsive pace of a thriller. This...

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts. 23/04/06 :  The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living - The Streets Our third visit with Mr Skinner, but the only one of those two you need to worry about is his  debut .  But we've yet to visit my favourite - his "difficult" second album, A Grand Don't Come For Free, which turned out very well for him and I like a lot.  I don't remember ever listening to this one though, which seems odd because it was only two years later - either the singles were rubbish or it just somehow passed me by.  Either way I'm intrigued as to what it sounds like. Hmmm - it's a similar sound to AGDCFF, but it doesn't have a "Fit But You Know It" or "Dry Your Eyes" to instantly drag you in, although I do remember the fuss about "When You Wasn't Famous" which is about him (unsuccessfully) trying to a pull a female celebrity who had taken a large amounts of drugs.  Which of course resulted in l...