scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts. 27/09/59 : Gypsy Campfires - 101 Strings I've no idea about any of this - I'm guessing it'll be a string section playing some gypsy songs, but let's see, shall we? Yup - pretty much, although I think I'd go as far as calling them an orchestra because there are a lot of strings here (considerably more than 101, I suspect) along with a few other instruments as well. B izarrely, one of the tracks is called "Two Guitars" when it seems to feature all the stringed instruments except guitars.  It's not terrible and I did find my toes tapping along at times, but it's intriguing that people actually chose to listen to this sort of thing - it's what you hear when you're put on hold on the phone these days. We're at #9 in the chart this week on their second week of a two week run, with this being as high as it got although it did manage another four random weeks in '60. The top five this w...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2024 #7 :    The Substance One for the body-horror heads! French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat follows up her visceral, rage-filled rape-retribution debut Revenge with this equally extreme exploration of female competition, aging, beauty standards and more. Demi Moore gives perhaps her most vulnerable, full-throated performance ever as Elisabeth Sparkle, a middle-aged fitness TV show host who injects herself with the mysterious titular concoction, birthing a new, younger, better version in Margaret Qualley’s Sue. Fargeat’s world is precise, hyper-stylised, and revels in the grossness of all things bodily – especially in the bonkers, blood-soaked final act – and the film manages to be thought-provoking throughout, and then gloriously cathartic in its pulpy, B-movie-esque ending. Respect the balance. Try the Substance. I'm not entirely sure what a body-horror film is, but I do know that I very rarely like anything that's describe...

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts. 04/10/59 : West Side Story - Original Cast I thought I'd already done this one, but I've done the film remake - I originally assumed this was the soundtrack to the original film, but it's the Broadway recording (there's also a London recording that we might meet on our travels, but I suspect it won't need a separate write-up). I liked bits of the film but it was all a bit too much for me - it will be interesting to see whether things approve without the distracting visuals. Yeah, I think maybe they did. I actually thought that (unlike plenty of other musicals) the plot was reasonably straightforward to follow just through the songs and they're all well done here, with decent sound quality. It's never going to be one of my favourite musicals, but this was an enjoyable visit - I particularly liked "Gee, Office Krupke", the various versions of "Tonight" and it was weird that this partic...

Continuing my journey across the output of The Bard Of Barking... Live Albums Well, there's quite the combination of offerings here - I suspect there are plenty other less official versions out there, but I've just attempted to listen to the ones listed on his Wikipedia discography Billy Bragg and The Red Stars Live Bootleg (1993) This was recorded at the Phoenix festival and  The Red Stars seem to be a random bunch of his mates including, of course, Cara Tivey and Wiggy. The album  covers material up to Don't Try This At Home , including a few tracks that I don't recognise (he mentions one is a cover and I suspect the others were b-sides - remember them?). It's not a proper bootleg because the recording quality is decent - all in all, I'd say it gives you a good feel for the Bragg live experience with his inter-song banter and adapted lyrics. It is, however, not available on streaming services and is sold out on his website - I listened to it on YouTube. Mermai...

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts. 25/10/59 : Look To Your Heart - Frank Sinatra And after Elvis popped up, Frank had to put in an appearance, didn't he? This is our fourteenth visit with Ol' Blue Eyes - once again, I'm sure it'll be perfectly fine. I actually couldn't find the album on my streaming platform of choice - further investigation reveals that this was one of four best-ofs he put out this year (which is not even close to the EIGHT he put out in '58) and there are only so many Frank best-ofs that Amazon can be bothered to store. In any normal year, I would have given up on it but this is not a normal year, so I found the tracks on yet another best-of, which was a mere 4.5 hours long. And it's mostly in his crooning mode - nicely done, but none of it really stood out from the (rat) pack. However, most of these tracks were apparently recorded between '53 and '55 and it's interesting how much better the sound quality i...

Continuing my trip back through the 1959 album charts. 01/11/59 : A Date With Elvis - Elvis Presley Well, it's taken us nine weeks, but we've finally bumped into Elvis or Frank - I've almost missed them! This is our sixteenth visit with The King - I'm sure it will be perfectly fine, if pretty inessential. Yeah - perfectly fine, but pretty inessential is where we are. I liked "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care", "Is It So Strange" and "I Forgot To Remember To Forget" but overall the s ound quality was surprisingly poor and the musicianship surprisingly basic - it's interesting to compare the skill level involved here with that shown by The Drifters backing Cliff . Elvis is obviously having a good time, but it's not a classic album of his for me. It's also only 23 minutes long! We're at the bottom of the charts at #10 this week on his last week of a fourteen week run, with #4 being as high as he got - were we no lon...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 14/03/25 : MAYHEM - Lady Gaga You never quite know what you're going to get with Gaga - there's going to be skill involved, but the results could still be quite unlistenable. And there's only one way to find out... Well, it's definitely not unlistenable - I didn't mind this at all. In some ways it's quite Gaga, but it also harks back to olden times - yes, the 80s and 90s! And even the 70s at times - scary. I was impressed by this because it reminded me of Taylor Dayne, mostly because I've not thought about her in many, many years. Madonna, Bonnie Tyler and Blondie also popped into my head at times, but "How Bad Do You Want Me" deserves a special mention because I thought it sounded like Taylor Swift covering a Yazoo track, which is something I want to hear now. At times she slows it down for some ballads, which don't work as well for me and I thought her Bruno Marrs collaboration ...