There are just so many great tunes on this album. I'd struggle to pick a favourite from the album but "Someone Great" just beats out "Sound of Silver" "New York I Love You..." and "All My Friends"
The critics always seem to be talking about bands melding together indie and dance/electronica, but nobody really does it better than James Murphy and his myriad of influences and sounds that somehow form into a coherent, toe-tappingly good album.
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Album 3 - David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
The album after the excellent Ziggy Stardust, and Bowie is too much of a shape-shifter to stick to quite the same formula. So Aladdin Sane has some of the same superbly written tracks, but adds some bizarre jazzy piano flourishes, particularly on the title track, which could otherwise have been a classic.
Bowie is never anything but theatrical, particularly on the album's masterpiece "Time," which forgoes most of the bizarreness of some of the previous tracks but keeps the strangely off kilter atmosphere of most of the album.
Bowie is never anything but theatrical, particularly on the album's masterpiece "Time," which forgoes most of the bizarreness of some of the previous tracks but keeps the strangely off kilter atmosphere of most of the album.
Album 2 - Radiohead - In Rainbows
A very different album to the two other Radiohead albums (OK Computer and Kid A) that I've listened to. It's just as good as both of them but not as bleak as the former and not as electronic music influenced as the latter.
The first track "15 Step" is one of the most interesting Radiohead tracks I've heard, with its glitchy beats but also clear and distinct sound.
There are points where the album becomes a very clean affair, less dissonant than either of their previous masterpieces, and it shows an interesting new direction whilst still building on the brilliance of their previous work.
The first track "15 Step" is one of the most interesting Radiohead tracks I've heard, with its glitchy beats but also clear and distinct sound.
There are points where the album becomes a very clean affair, less dissonant than either of their previous masterpieces, and it shows an interesting new direction whilst still building on the brilliance of their previous work.
Album 1 - Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
So this year it's albums, and coming home from Norwich in the car yesterday I got to listen to the first three new albums of the year.
I started with Houses of the Holy, an album which had a few decent songs on it, but was mostly ruined by the annoying singing voice of Robert Plant. Some people really love Led Zeppelin, and I can see why, because the record could be seen as pretty good, but it really wasn't for me.
I started with Houses of the Holy, an album which had a few decent songs on it, but was mostly ruined by the annoying singing voice of Robert Plant. Some people really love Led Zeppelin, and I can see why, because the record could be seen as pretty good, but it really wasn't for me.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
2011 TV - the good, the bad and what could go either way
The Good:
The 10 o'clock Show
Something with the quality of presenters/comedic talent that this has really can't fail, David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker are two of my favourite funny columnists/tv personalities; Jimmy Carr is actually quite funny despite occasionally being very annoying; and Lauren Laverne is my favourite radio presenter.
Put all of this into the irreverent current affairs show format and you have ample chance for rants, sarcasm and generally funniness.
Masterchef
"COOKING DOESN'T GET TOUGHER THAN THIS"
I love food, I love the whole feel of the show with the people desperately cooking at lightning pace, the look on Greg's face when he loves a dessert, some of the culinary catastrophes, the cooking in tents for the army, followed by cooking in Michelin starred restaurants and for Michelin starred chefs.
Episodes
I'm going to start with a disclaimer: I love Friends, and Black Books, and I think I liked something that Stephen Mangan was in once.
There isn't that much good comedy on TV at the moment, the good tends to be really good i.e. Peep Show and The IT Crowd, but the bad is terrible... I'm looking at you Miranda.
So when you put three people who have a pretty good track record along with the creator of Friends writing it, everything looks pretty promising
Doctor Who
As usual, the spring will bring with it a new series of Doctor Who. When David Tennant left the show I was deeply sceptical that anyone else could reach the brilliant standard of his doctor, but Matt Smith may actually have topped his efforts.
The great thing about Smith's doctor, is that it has the same crazy energy of Tennant's, but also a youthful innocence and glee, yet conversely a darker side is evident when it has to be.
The Christmas special (some dodgy time travel problems aside) was very promising, and the series - if Steven Moffat resists the temptation to turn to the Daleks and Cybermen too often and instead comes up with some new monsters/villains with some kind of moral ambiguity about them - looks set to be even better.
The Bad:
The Fattest Man in Britain
More C4 look at the fat person and laugh claptrap which was on last night - I didn't watch.
What could either way
Skins
Some shows start well and tail downwards, Skins started well, got even better in the second series, tailed downhill quite a bit in the third series, and fell off a cliff at the beginning of the fourth series.
The show went from being consistently interesting, dramatic, funny and containing some real emotion to a dried up husk of a thing with one or two good characters and episodes a series.
I still harbour some hopes for the new series, and I'll watch the first episode, but whether I go any further than that is quite doubtful.
The 10 o'clock Show
Something with the quality of presenters/comedic talent that this has really can't fail, David Mitchell and Charlie Brooker are two of my favourite funny columnists/tv personalities; Jimmy Carr is actually quite funny despite occasionally being very annoying; and Lauren Laverne is my favourite radio presenter.
Put all of this into the irreverent current affairs show format and you have ample chance for rants, sarcasm and generally funniness.
Masterchef
"COOKING DOESN'T GET TOUGHER THAN THIS"
I love food, I love the whole feel of the show with the people desperately cooking at lightning pace, the look on Greg's face when he loves a dessert, some of the culinary catastrophes, the cooking in tents for the army, followed by cooking in Michelin starred restaurants and for Michelin starred chefs.
Episodes
I'm going to start with a disclaimer: I love Friends, and Black Books, and I think I liked something that Stephen Mangan was in once.
There isn't that much good comedy on TV at the moment, the good tends to be really good i.e. Peep Show and The IT Crowd, but the bad is terrible... I'm looking at you Miranda.
So when you put three people who have a pretty good track record along with the creator of Friends writing it, everything looks pretty promising
Doctor Who
As usual, the spring will bring with it a new series of Doctor Who. When David Tennant left the show I was deeply sceptical that anyone else could reach the brilliant standard of his doctor, but Matt Smith may actually have topped his efforts.
The great thing about Smith's doctor, is that it has the same crazy energy of Tennant's, but also a youthful innocence and glee, yet conversely a darker side is evident when it has to be.
The Christmas special (some dodgy time travel problems aside) was very promising, and the series - if Steven Moffat resists the temptation to turn to the Daleks and Cybermen too often and instead comes up with some new monsters/villains with some kind of moral ambiguity about them - looks set to be even better.
The Bad:
The Fattest Man in Britain
More C4 look at the fat person and laugh claptrap which was on last night - I didn't watch.
What could either way
Skins
Some shows start well and tail downwards, Skins started well, got even better in the second series, tailed downhill quite a bit in the third series, and fell off a cliff at the beginning of the fourth series.
The show went from being consistently interesting, dramatic, funny and containing some real emotion to a dried up husk of a thing with one or two good characters and episodes a series.
I still harbour some hopes for the new series, and I'll watch the first episode, but whether I go any further than that is quite doubtful.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
The bottom ten - some of the few bad ones
100 - Johnny Mnemonic
The absolute worst film I've watched, in 1 hour and 38 minutes nothing good happened, the plot was garbage and the effects were just attempting to salvage that. The critics agree, with a 14% rating on RT (Rotten Tomatoes) that this film is just bad bad bad.
If I'm to borrow Roger Ebert's famous rant about the film North..
"I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it."
99 - Napoleon Dynamite
I didn't hate this one as much, I was just bewildered by it. I'm still waiting for something to happen, the film chugged by with lame dialogue, annoying characters and no semblance of any kind of direction.
Amazingly this has a 71% 'fresh' rating on RT, maybe I just don't get it.
98 - Paranoid Park
The main thing I take from this film is annoyance, from the fact that but for Guus Van Sant this film could have been pretty good. The direction of it ruined the film, from the shaky cameras, and lack of any kind of pace at all just giving it an annoying murky feel, not atmospheric like Blade Runner, just murky and pointless.
This one is 76% fresh on RT and for the life of me I do not know why.
97 - The Royal Tenenbaums
At the time I said there was nothing I really disliked about this film, I just didn't get into it. I would like to now change that verdict to that I hated the characters so much it spoiled the film.
Several really good actors including Bill Murray, Ben Stiller and Gene Hackman were given such awful characters that the film was doomed from the start.
But yet again the critics disagree with me, giving it an 80% fresh rating.
96 - A Scanner Darkly
The sort of half real and half animation of this film gave it a spacey feel, that combined with my tiredness whilst watching it made it almost completely impossible to follow, and it's annoying stoner feel just made it what seemed a really bad film at the time.
To be completely honest it was painful to sit through but its RT rating of 68% means that it may be my tiredness that puts it down the bottom rather than the film itself.
95 - Little Miss Sunshine
I just disliked the idea of the film and it struck me as one of those films that is too quirky for its own good, and most of the characters very much annoyed me.
The worst thing about it was the central premise, a beauty pageant for very young girls, just creeped me out and really saddened me.
Another film liked by the critics with an astonishing RT rating of 91%
94 - Sherlock Holmes
It's always difficult doing a new film or TV series about one of the most recognisable characters in the world, but this one was just pointless, with way too much action, too little plot and no sense of balance of the two.
Again the critics liked it (70%) but I really didn't.
93 - Heaven Can Wait
At the time I said this wan't a bad film, but since then I've watched a lot better. I'm not automatically biased against old films - I loved Casablanca - but old films with a pretty glib storyline and none of the action of modern films to make up for it don't really interest me.
The critics disagree again, giving it 89%... maybe I am biased against old films after all
92 - Smart People
Just not enough happened, the film floated through with some pointless storylines and poor acting (including a rare poor performance by Ellen Page)
One of those films that called itself a comedy drama but had little comedy or actual drama, and for once the critics agree, giving it a 50% 'rotten' rating.
91 - Saw VI
So, I technically watched it, but I don't remember it very much at all.
The critics disliked it, giving it a 40% rotten rating and I assume I would have hated it if I watched it properly, rather than drunk with people interrupting.
The absolute worst film I've watched, in 1 hour and 38 minutes nothing good happened, the plot was garbage and the effects were just attempting to salvage that. The critics agree, with a 14% rating on RT (Rotten Tomatoes) that this film is just bad bad bad.
If I'm to borrow Roger Ebert's famous rant about the film North..
"I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would be entertained by it."
99 - Napoleon Dynamite
I didn't hate this one as much, I was just bewildered by it. I'm still waiting for something to happen, the film chugged by with lame dialogue, annoying characters and no semblance of any kind of direction.
Amazingly this has a 71% 'fresh' rating on RT, maybe I just don't get it.
98 - Paranoid Park
The main thing I take from this film is annoyance, from the fact that but for Guus Van Sant this film could have been pretty good. The direction of it ruined the film, from the shaky cameras, and lack of any kind of pace at all just giving it an annoying murky feel, not atmospheric like Blade Runner, just murky and pointless.
This one is 76% fresh on RT and for the life of me I do not know why.
97 - The Royal Tenenbaums
At the time I said there was nothing I really disliked about this film, I just didn't get into it. I would like to now change that verdict to that I hated the characters so much it spoiled the film.
Several really good actors including Bill Murray, Ben Stiller and Gene Hackman were given such awful characters that the film was doomed from the start.
But yet again the critics disagree with me, giving it an 80% fresh rating.
96 - A Scanner Darkly
The sort of half real and half animation of this film gave it a spacey feel, that combined with my tiredness whilst watching it made it almost completely impossible to follow, and it's annoying stoner feel just made it what seemed a really bad film at the time.
To be completely honest it was painful to sit through but its RT rating of 68% means that it may be my tiredness that puts it down the bottom rather than the film itself.
95 - Little Miss Sunshine
I just disliked the idea of the film and it struck me as one of those films that is too quirky for its own good, and most of the characters very much annoyed me.
The worst thing about it was the central premise, a beauty pageant for very young girls, just creeped me out and really saddened me.
Another film liked by the critics with an astonishing RT rating of 91%
94 - Sherlock Holmes
It's always difficult doing a new film or TV series about one of the most recognisable characters in the world, but this one was just pointless, with way too much action, too little plot and no sense of balance of the two.
Again the critics liked it (70%) but I really didn't.
93 - Heaven Can Wait
At the time I said this wan't a bad film, but since then I've watched a lot better. I'm not automatically biased against old films - I loved Casablanca - but old films with a pretty glib storyline and none of the action of modern films to make up for it don't really interest me.
The critics disagree again, giving it 89%... maybe I am biased against old films after all
92 - Smart People
Just not enough happened, the film floated through with some pointless storylines and poor acting (including a rare poor performance by Ellen Page)
One of those films that called itself a comedy drama but had little comedy or actual drama, and for once the critics agree, giving it a 50% 'rotten' rating.
91 - Saw VI
So, I technically watched it, but I don't remember it very much at all.
The critics disliked it, giving it a 40% rotten rating and I assume I would have hated it if I watched it properly, rather than drunk with people interrupting.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
100 Films
I said I'd watch 100 films, but at many points in the year it looked doubtful.
Now there are two things on the schedule for this blog:
1) More categorising and reviewing of my 100 films, including a top 10 and overall rankings from 1-100
2) Listening to 100 new albums in 2011.
Now there are two things on the schedule for this blog:
1) More categorising and reviewing of my 100 films, including a top 10 and overall rankings from 1-100
2) Listening to 100 new albums in 2011.
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