// Pop Music
Chess in Concert
Courtesy of the sparkling form of Sebastian Crawford I was, on Tuesday night, to be found merrily ensconced in the Royal Albert Hall enjoying the second and last night of “Chess in Concert“. Anyone who know me will know that it is my personal favourite musical – let’s face facts: Benny and Bjorn of ABBA are the finest tunesmiths ever to grace this earth – and so when faced with the offer to attend it was the moment of but seconds to go “well, duh – yeah!”
It was a night not without its problems for many of the attendees apparently. The Royal Albert Hall, oddly enough, seems to be a difficult venue for sound. I keep hearing reports that most gigs or concerts have dead patches where the acoustics are so bad you just hear an indistinguishable wall of sound, and the two nights of this event were apparently no exception for many of the attendees.
Thankfully I wasn’t one to suffer from this. Apart from some dodgy amplification on Idina Menzel (as Florence) for her first couple of songs, it was all crystal clear and hugely enjoyable from where I was sat and just re-enforced my feeling that it is truly one of the richest scores I know.
For me, Josh Goban as Anatoly and Adam Pascal as Frederick put in what I consider to be the definitive performances of “Anthem” and “Pity the Child” respectively. And David Bedella gave a richly satisfying performance as Molokov, with Idina Menzel and Kerry Ellis putting in a fantastic “I Know Him So Well”. Menzel’s “Heaven Help My Heart” and “Nobody’s Side” were also particularly of note, as was Ellis’ wonderful rendition of “Someone Else’s Story”.
I’m really hoping this gets a West End revival soon. Its about time this cult musical finally made it back in a definitive version after its varied history.
That said, they were filming it so hopefully a DVD release is on the cards which will keep me going in the interim.
Posted on May 15, 2008 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
How much?
Just finished re-organising my MP3 collection (tidying it up and consolidating it and so on) in part of a migration to iTunes. This is due, in part, to my purchase of an iPod Nano the other day.
Why did I buy the Nano? Well, for one thing I’ve had an unutterably shit few weeks (doubtless I shall reveal all at some other juncture when the dust has settled) so I needed a new toy. And for another I have decided to get myself a MacBook Pro, so I needed something compatible with it.
So… what has this consolidation and sorting out taught me? Well, for one thing it’s taught me that I have about fifteen gigabytes of MP3s in total.
Fifteen. Count ‘em. Fifteen.
It’s also just underlined that I am one of the campest men alive. Just a random sampling reveals 64 ABBA tracks, 138 Pet Shop Boys tracks and 49 PWL Remixes (that’s just the official PWL remixes, not the songs originated by Stock Aitken Waterman themselves).
Even the 105 episodes of I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again – it’s far funnier than bloody Python – and the appearance of a few guitars in the odd unexpected place can’t normalise this curve.
Perhaps I should just hang it all and start wearing glitter on my cheeks.
Posted on February 20, 2008 | Filed Under My So-Called Life, Pop Music | 4 Comments
Rob’s Top 5 Albums of the Year
Okay… I know we haven’t reached the end of it yet, but I doubt that anything else amazing is going to be released so now seems as good a time as any.
In reverse order:
5) Readers Wifes – Gaslight
Sleazy but melody-heavy synthpop/rock from the Duckie DJs. Okay, “Bitch at the Brits” is missing, which two or three of the final tracks could easily have been replaced with that and the sublime B-side “Endless Night”, but otherwise it’s amazingly textured piece of work. Download only, it seems, but hey. That’s the future. Key tracks: “Nostalgia”, “Cheap Dress”, “25 Floors”, and the stompingly brilliant “Boy Ain’t Right”.
4) Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Trip the Light Fantastic
An overlooked gem. It lacks the punch and stripped-down electronica of her debut, Read My Lips, but improves on the lacklustre Shoot From the Hip by actually including some genuinely beautiful songs. Some definite sixties soul influences on some of the arrangements too. Key tracks: “Me and My Imagination”, “Today the Sun’s On Us”, “Supersonic”, “If I Can’t Dance”, “What Have We Started” and “The Distance Between Us”. (Yes, several of those are slow numbers and yet I like them. She’s that good.)
3) Girls Aloud – Tangled Up
An assured astonishingly cohesive album, almost one that seems to be definitive Aloud. Punchy, powerful, noisy arrangements, with the usual “let’s throw a few choruses at it and not bother with the verses” in parts and a smattering of “what the fuck does that mean?” lyrics. Key Tracks: “Call the Shots”, “Close to Love”, “Sexy? No, no, no”, “Girl Overboard” and “Can’t Speak French”.
2) Dragonette – Galore.
I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard a debut album like this. It’s a slutty collection of songs: “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me” is arguably the benchmark with it’s riffing on the subject “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll” so it’s definitely an album about abandoned excess and yearning for something more. Key Tracks: “I Get Around”, “Jesus Doesn’t Love Me”, “True Believer” (the real standout track for me), “Black Limousine”, “Get Lucky”, “Another Day”, “You Please Me” and “Get Lucky”. (And since this is 8/11 of the tracks you may as well get the whole thing.)
1) Matinee Club – Modern Industry.
If this hadn’t finally got out then Dragonette would have been number one, but here’s another band whose career has been somewhat stymied by the fact that Mercury Records are just unutterably shit at promoting pop. Due to their various label woes I’ve had many of the tracks for about four years but finally they’ve been released on download (with a physical CD arriving January). It’s an album of slick, glamorous electronica which managed to sum up the ethos of “Future Retro” beautifully. Key tracks: “Discotheque Francais”, “Sometimes”, “Jane Falls Down”, “Seven Oceans”, “Goodbye Means Forever” (there’s a sound glitch on the download though) and “Fool in the Name of Love”. But even the other tracks hold their own so there’s not really a bad bad track. (“Nothing Special”, however, is one which is summed up by its title. Ho hum.)
Posted on December 23, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
Kylie Minogue – X
I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m going to get my Gay Licence endorsed for this, I can tell, but?¢‚Ǩ¬¶
I must confess I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve found it hard to get excited by Kylie albums for a few years now. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve long considered that the singles off Light Years were by far the weakest parts of the album, but I was generally dismayed to find that they provided the template for the successors Fever and Body Language which both largely failed to deliver much beyond cool beats and polished production.
The most I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve sat up and taken notice of late was with the simple but soaring melody of “I Believe In You” or the hypnotic and buzzing “Giving You Up” which made me think that Kylie might deliver the goods from now on, but sadly X really is a dispiritingly hit-and-miss collection of tracks which either promise much but fall at the last hurdle, or else spend their time in a seemingly hopeless search for a melody.
It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s an amazingly soulless album all told, and Kylie has never seemed more of an anonymous guest vocalist on other people?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s tracks. Even on “2 Hearts” where the original Kish Mauve version just has the vocal wiped and redone with no other changes whatsoever to give it a bit of Kylie sparkle. (I mean… yes it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s a solid enough track, but let?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s face it: it was three years ago.)
Most of the other songs are upsettingly melody-light, attempts to compensate for their anaemia made with jitteringly beat-heavy productions or slices of by-numbers-electro. “Like a Drug” is one of the few occasions when these styles and the song actually work properly and make a satisfyingly uplifting little groover. By contrast, on “In My Arms” these production styles cripplingly overwhelm what could have been quite a nice song. A lot of the time it just seems to be achingly hip, with a few Fever-lite tracks thrown on as a token bit of fun.
It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s not all bad though, and despite showcasing some of the most appallingly spiky or lacklustre offenders X still also has some of Kylie’s best work in years such as the stunningly beautiful track as “No More Rain” which is a definite highlight. “Sensitized” too has more than a little character and feels oddly like an Impossible Princess throwback (which is no bad thing).
Of the others “The One”’s chorus feels vaguely phoned in to start with, but it soon builds up to be a wildly superior and satisfying moment on the album. Only slightly less successful is “Wow” which is a deliberate nod towards “Love at First Sight” from Fever but holds its head above water accordingly.
So, for me it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s basically all about: “Like a Drug”, “2 Hearts”, “No More Rain”, “Sensitized”, “The One” and ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú if you got it on iTunes – “Magnetic Electric” which is a baffling omission from the final tracklist considering what did make it.
If I were you I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d take these six tracks, hit the internet and bolster them up with some of the leaked tracks from early in the year which are far superior to the remainder of the official release.
Then if you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re still feeling a bit empty go and get Rachel Stevens’ Come and Get It to see how a stunning pop album with an anonymous vocalist should be done.
Posted on November 26, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 2 Comments
Readers Wifes – Gaslight
It’s been a few years in coming, but finally the Readers Wifes are about to release their debut album “Gaslight” on the 10th September via all the usual digital download outlets. And – without wanting to over-egg the pudding – it’s a bit of a corker.
The title sums it up perfectly. It’s an album of murky light and dark shadow, the sort of palette that seems perfectly suited to describing both the dangerous back-streets of Victorian London and a world of grim 1960s/70s squats, and that’s a feel that pervades the album through and through.
It’s also a quintessentially English affair, the sort of thing the Pet Shop Boys might come up with if they became punks and swapped their irony and bittersweet melancholy for songs about dangerous sex, sleaze and self-hatred.
Former single “Nostalgia” (featuring Justin Bond of Kiki and Herb fame in fine scandal-mongering form) is a highlight, with its gossipy anecdotes of Candy Darling’s and Charles Hawtrey’s last days. It also features probably my favourite lead-out of a track ever. Similarly “Boy Ain’t Right” is a brilliantly punchy, scathing track with a rolling disco beat with echos of Divine’s “You Think You’re a Man” and “25 Floors” is possessed of an irresistible saw-tooth disco-octave bassline.
There’s a few rockier, more mosh-pit styled tracks in the mix too. The punchy “Black Silk Stocking” and the list-based sleaze of “Gays In Suits” are probably the least interesting parts of the album for me, but the formula works brilliantly on “Cheap Dress” which features a surprisingly angelic ending.
There’s some more delicate arrangements here too like “Shiner”, whose disturbing lyrics are belied by a languorous delivery. There’s also the sensitive and battered feeling of “The Women who Went to the Chair” and the paean to lost youth that is “16″ (although for me this is by far my least favourite track).
All of this is book-ended by two simply lovely tracks: “I Love You at 200,000 Feet” feels something like a slowed down “Light Years” with its pulsing bass and twinkly arpeggios; and the final track: “Weekend Colder, Brighter” feels like stepping into the dawn of a new day after a night of serious excess and heartbreak. For an album which seems so bitter at times, the hesitant hope of this track is a really nice touch.
To be honest, Gaslight is easily one of the two best albums to be released in what has been a fairly barren summer pop-wise.
Posted on August 26, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
Jos?ɬ© Galisteo
Hmm. I think I may be in love.
Seems an openly gay, and yet extremely hunky, guy won the Spanish Pop Idol-equivalent and has just released an album of fairly retrotastic cover versions entitled “Remember”.
It’s a fairly solid, dependable set of arrangements (his version of Rick Astley’s “Together Forever” only strays from the original in a few extra bleeps) and done with some nice slightly accented vocals. But uninspiring as that may seem, I think I’m willing to forgive him anything.
Especially since his video for the lead-off single is probably the campest thing I’ve seen in ages:
I am enjoying him enormously, I must say.
Posted on July 27, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
Army of Lovers / Alcazar / BWO @ G-A-Y
I’ve long harboured a dislike for the club / empire known as G-A-Y (not least because of my disdain for the self-appointed saviour of the fay scene Jeremy Joseph – a man whose self-importance grates on me no end). Indeed, I haven’t set foot in the venue for several years. But last night, I was finally lured back for a “one-night-only” reformation of Alcazar and Army of Lovers in order to help launch BWO in Britain.
All three acts have been founded / membered by Alexander Bard and it was ostensibly a celebration of his 20 years of high-campery in pop music. Obviously I’d seen BWO live the other month so I wasn’t too fussed about seeing a cutdown version of that set, although it would have been sing-a-long-tastic. I was, however, quite keen on seeing Army of Lovers and Alcazar, particularly the former since I’ve got heavily into “Les Greatest Hits” of late, so Paul, Chris and I decided to brave it.
I quickly wished we hadn’t. G-A-Y was in some respects the same as ever. There were minty queens – old and young – in crop-tops; the music often veered off fun and cheesy pop into tedious and lengthy remixes; and as ever the acts didn’t come on until 1:30 in the morning and only did a couple of tracks. This, coupled with the bar prices, the overuse of smoke effects and so on made it a level of hell which Dante would have been reluctant to write about.
There were two differences I noted, however. One that it was empty until about 12 (is it’s popularity on the wane?) and the other was that with the smoking ban in place my nostrils were instead belaboured with the scent of poppers and rampant body odour which I’m fairly certain I find more offensive to be honest. Ho hum.
So by 1:30, I was somewhat tired of the place anyway. But looking forward to the show.
Sadly Army of Lovers did one song. And mimed it all. I mean, the performance was camp as tits, surreal and hysterical with it (the black sex doll getting a good flinging round for one thing) so it was a good performance, but they only did “Crucified”. There was no “Sexual Revolution”, no “Israelism”, no “La Plage De Saint Tropez”, just one track from the band I had in fact been hoping would be the highlight of the evening. So already I felt a little deflated.
Thankfully Alcazar did a good turn. Andreas is a damn good little mover – and hot as hell to boot – and despite the eneregctic dance moves they all sang live which was quite an impressive feat. Tracks such as “This is the World We Live In” (Yay!), “Start the Fire” (Meh!), and “Crying and the Dicotheque” (Yay!) made an appearance and things hotted up quite nicely for BWO’s entrance.
There was a slight uncomfortable moment when Jeremy Joseph tried to persuade Andreas to commit to Alcazar permanently reforming. Perhaps unsurprisingly given he’s trying to work on his solo career, Andreas was having none of it, but seeing Joseph trying to bludgeon him into it was a bit squirm-inducing.
The BWO set was predictably good, if a little less energectic than its predecessors by comparison. “Chariots of Fire” got two airings to bookmark the set (well it is out on Monday), and the current Swedish single “Save My Pride” and an old favourite “Temple of Love” were all well recieved. Martin Rolinksi is an enthusaistic performer it must be said and played happily to the audience by covering himself in water and stripping to the wait during the course of one song, which was certainly welcome.
But all told I couldn’t help but feel, as I queued with aching feet and ringing ears, that the mere fact it was G-A-Y took rather too much of the joy out of it really. Given how run-down the venue has become and how obnoxious the club itself actually is I can’t help but feel that attempts to save it from demolition by the Crossrail project would be better off failing.
So an odd evening all round.
Girls Alound – Sexy? No, No, No…
… has been on constant repeat on my PC since it recieved its first airplay this morning and – inevitably – found its way onto Edison’s All Electric Interweb.
Frankly it’s another winner from the guys (and girls) of Xenomania: another pounding, funky, glorious mess of hooklines that shouldn’t work by any standard rules of songwriting and yet, somehow, does.
Absolutely love it. It’s going to be stuck in my “d-d-dirty mind” all day, I can tell.
Posted on July 20, 2007 | Filed Under Pop Music | 0 Comments
Eurovision
Well, no of course I didn’t watch it. Bad enough was the fact I am no great lover of the contest anyway (although the flatmate kept me updated with various Woganisms which were entertaining enough) but also the fact that Doctor Who got delayed for a week because of it.
Bastards.
I did, however, tune in for Scooch’s performance once I heard the strains of it emanating from the flatmate’s room just to see what the big twist for the performance on the night would be.
Oh yes: two extra dancers and all the eurovision flags over the trollies instead of just the Union Jack – inspired!
To be fair I don’t think it deserved the place it did. As a song our entry has rather grown on me and it is everything a traditional eurovision song should be: simple, infectious, meaningless and chirpy, but given our standing on the world stage at the moment I’m not sure a song about British nationalism was ever going to do wonders.
I honestly think we should give up.
Posted on May 13, 2007 | Filed Under Film, TV, Theatre, Pop Music, The World we Live In | 3 Comments
Trademark – Raise the Stakes
Finally the new Trademark album “Raise the Stakes” has arrived at my door. And very good it is too.
2004’s “Want More” was a rather nice little album, but a little “art-school students playing with synths” at times. By that I mean it seemed a little too pretentious in places and lacking in focus. It did, however, contain such gems as “Hold that Thought”, “Sine Love”, “Interim”, “Stay Professional”, the Depeche Modeish “All Too Late” and “Trust in What You know” which is a good chunk of solid album by anyone’s standards.
So what of the new one? Well, it’s a definite progression. “Come to Love” has been around for ages now and is an excellent slice of simple solid electro-pop, a furrow which they continue to plough with “Toe the Line” and “Where You Went Wrong” and “Stuck in a Rut”. But there is more too. Choirs appear on various tracks, adding an additional colour and flavour to “Stuck in a Rut” – otherwise a sister track to the ones previously mentioned – and giving an extra mournful quality to the simple melancholy of “More Than I Deserve” and “Self Pity”, the latter of which starts unpromisingly enough but develops a soaring quality in its alloted minute and a half.
“The Circle I’m In” is a pleasant enough ditty if a tad bland for my taste (you all by now know my feelings towards slow tracks) and instrumental opener “Raising the Stakes” leads into “Come to Love” effortlessly, again starting simply enough but soon soaring its way towards the segue. “Over and Over” is a favourite from their live shows and is a chunky stomper designed for a good hard moshing.
All told, the only tracks that really don’t grab me are “It Wasn’t Right” (it seems to be trying to hard really), “How Times Change” (shorter and more shimmering than “Self Pity” but less interesting) and “Three Strikes” which doesn’t half go on (that said “Trust in What You Know” did as well, but this one just doesn’t work for me).
Still, three out of twelve tracks is still a good hit-rate. And the others are so polished and assured that it seems hard to imagine why Trademark haven’t yet achieved greater fame.
But there we go – when they finally do at least I can say I was in at the beginning!
Highly recommended.