2015 Archive
POST
Title: Goodbye 2015.
Published: 2016-01-04 19:02:54
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[gallery]nTop 10 Albums 2014nnn1/ Ghostface Killah - Twelve reasons to die IIn2/ Miley Cyrus - Miley and her dead petzn3/ Chemical brothers - Born in the echoesn4/ Brandon Flowers - The desired effectn5/ Tame Impala - Currentsn6/ Lana Del Rey - Honeymoonn7/ Marilyn Manson - The pale emperorn8/ Madonna - Rebel Heartn9/ FFSn10/ In This Moment - Rise of the blood legion (bit of a cheat as it’s a greatest hits but I only just discovered them last year)
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POST
Title: Rebel Heart.
Published: 2015-12-21 09:46:33
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[gallery]nI’m not going to write an in depth review because my brain is fried but Madonna really blew my expectations out of the water last night. nnI was excited for the show when I bought the ticket and I love the album but I’ll be honest by the time it rolled around I was pretty meh about it. I’m so, so glad I went. She even got me up and dancing in the face of vertigo. nnThe staging and set pieces were great and all that (especially the obligatory religious section at the start) but she was just a joy to watch. I don’t think I ever expected see a Madonna tour where the highlights were just her singing on a stage with little else going on. Watching her skip around like a 15 year old to Like A Virgin or sit girlishly swinging one foot whilst singing Edith Piaf were things that just shouldn’t work - but they so, so did. Also, some genuinely wonderful live vocals. Who knew?nnThe new material felt solid amongst the hits and in many cases were stand out highlights. Madonna will not go quietly into heritage act status and it was great to see the crowd go genuinely wild for several of the Rebel Heart tracks.nnMuch will be made of her coming on late and having the power shut off on her and whilst I’m generally in the ‘just get onstage on time’ camp watching her come back on to perform Holiday with the lights up and no mic whilst the whole audience sang along was an A grade Pop Moment that I will cherish (pun intended) forever.nnThe last tour was fun in a big pop show way but this one for me was really special. Bitch made us wait but my god she was worth it.
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POST
Title: Love shows in the dog ears and scratches.
Published: 2015-12-09 07:53:14
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Love shows in the dog ears and scratches.Ten, fifteen years ago when I was going through an evangelical digitisation and minimalisation phase I would have disagreed strongly with this piece but in recent years I have found myself falling back in love with physical media all over again.nnLike the author I discovered so many delights in my parents record and book collections and as an adult have learned to reapreciate the beauty of putting the needle down at the start of the record and listening until the end - metaphorically and literally. nnWhere once I had a collection of magazine clippings now I have a pinterest board and he is right, it’s not the same. It’s not the fact it’s printed that makes it special, it’s not even the keeping hold of it - it’s the wearing down of love. The blue tak marks, the creases, the finger prints, the glorious decline of an object that has been important to you.nnIn truth that period of material abstinence did me a lot of good because I was likely on my way to becoming if not clinically a hoarder then something just a bit too close for comfort. Now I find myself able to be more selective - I own the things I truly love, that mean something to me. The things that I would like someone else to discover by poking around in my collection one day.
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POST
Title: I picked up my crown, put it back on my head. [Review: Rebel Heart by Madonna]
Published: 2015-03-13 12:33:52
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Despite being a lifelong fan Madonna’s last two albums have been, if not terrible, at least a case of lowering expectations for me so I will freely admit that my hopes for her most recent release ‘Rebel Heart’ were not high. Perhaps that’s why on my first listen I came away with with a verdict of ‘ok, but nothing special’. However unlike it’s predecessor MDNA (you can read my review of it at the time here) Rebel Heart is a grower not a show-er. Where MDNA started as a force-yourself-to-listen-to-it-because-it’s-Madonna 6.5/10 for me (and, in all honesty, three years later has ended with me only being able to listen to a few tracks from it) Rebel Heart took just a few spins to become one of those albums that I can’t stop playing. The biggest difference for me between this and MDNA is that it feels well crafted, well considered and cohesive. It also feels like an album made by an intelligent, functioning adult - by which I mean when there are saucy bits, bratty bits or sweary bits that make me guffaw out loud it feels finally like I am laughing with not at her again.Along with the ‘outrageous’ it’s worth pointing out that the ‘heart’ in Rebel Heart is very much present too. In fact for me this is her first album since American Life to offer genuinely heartfelt emotion and vulnerability. MDNA and Hard candy both had flashes of it but always with a caveat or a wink. Here there are many moments I find moving without feeling shoe-horned in or like they occupy the place of the obligatory label-required ballad. There are issues with the album - there are a few duff tracks (most of which are frustratingly lumped together at the start of the album) and most obviously, and sadly, her voice itself. She has in recent years lost much of the warmth, depth and tone to her vocal range that made it so beautiful and she now generally sounds rather shrill, thin and pitchy on most songs. There are flashes of what she is still capable of throughout the record but in most cases, on a technical level, it could be any of the big pop girls - and at times, arguably it would sound better if it were.That said, what Rebel Heart does give us once again that has been missing for so long is a big, high voltage kick of the Madonna spirit - saucy, smart, irreverent, iconic, and frequently ironic. And for that reason alone it really could be no-one else. Where only a few years ago she seemed desperate and aimless I feel like she has thankfully found her feet again - her sense of humour and soul with it. Rebel Heart is a very good record in it’s own right but also, almost more thrillingly, leaves me once more properly excited to see what she produces in the future. Something which I now confess (bless myself and genuflect) I thought was gone for good.Track by track1. Living For Love - 6/10Why do I hardly ever like anyone’s first single? I find artists often have a habit of releasing underwhelmingly ‘safe’ tracks as lead singles only for there to be a wealth of more exciting material on the album. No-one seems to be immune to this from Bowie to Britney and Living for Love is another one of those for me. It’s not a terrible song and the backing vocals give it some enjoyable flourish but it’s at best a mid-range album track for me and no doubt I will come to love it much more as that than I do at the moment. That said, I will probably never be able to listen to it without visualising that moment at the Brits :/2. Devil Pray - 6/10I feel like I should like this song more than I do as it’s reminiscent of some of my favourite songs on Music but it just doesn’t quite hit the spot somehow. 3. Ghosttown - 8/10One of the few songs on the album where we get glorious chunks of thevoice we grew up loving. Melodic, melancholic and catchy in the right places.This is also set to be the second single, a great choice I think.n4. Unapologetic Bitch - 4/10This is the only track on the albumnthat plumbs similar depths to MDNA for me and has the same icky ‘dancing withnthe kidz’ vibe that put me off most of that album. Plus it’s a bit UB40.n5. Illuminati - 5/10A fun and lyrically amusing track butnultimately musically unsatisfying – should provide for some excellent tournimagery though. n6. Bitch I’m Madonna - 10/10To say this song is divisive amongnfans would be an understatement but it’s one of the album highlights for me andnthe only of the teaser tracks I played constantly before the album release. Tonme this song is everything MDNA attempted but done properly – a brash, ballsy, bangernwith a cheeky sense of humour. It, unlike similar tracks on MDNA, harnesses bothnher current vocal range and her featured artist as highlights rather than hindrances.nPlus there is some excellent yelling. And Nicki does this ‘ooft’ noise that isnone of my favourite sounds of the year. n7. Hold Tight - 7/10A pretty, melodic mid-tempo with annanthemic chorus that for me achieves a similar feeling to Living For Love more successfully.n8. Joan Of Arc - 7/10One of those rare moments likenDrowned World or Easy Ride where we are allowed to peek behind the curtain andnsee that maybe she is actually ‘only human’ after all. A beautiful song that,nalthough it will likely never happen, I think could make a great late-campaign single.n9. Iconic - 9/10One of the most addictive tracks onnthe album for me. A massive, empowering stomper. This is also one of the songsnthat signals the (almost impossible to describe) shift from dance pop thatnfeels like it’s struggling to be ‘cool’ to a sound which feels far more effortlesslyncurrent as well as somewhat tougher and more confrontational. n10. HeartBreak City - 8/10It’s great to hear genuine emotion innher delivery again and this song has it in bags - bitter, sad, regretful and anothernexcellent mid-tempo, anthemic almost-ballad.n11. Body Shop - 10/10The absolute stand out track on thenalbum for me. So totally unexpected and really quite unlike anything she’s donenbefore - though the closest reference points for me might be some moments of Eroticanor Music. Her voice sounds wonderful, wistful and intimate and I dream of ever gettingnan entire album of songs of this level of ingenuity and sensuality from hernagain. Beautiful.n12. Holy Water - 8/10One of those songs that seems utterlynawful until you realise halfway through that’s it’s completely won you over withnits stupidity and sleaze. Hilarious in all the right ways.n13. Inside Out - 8/10One of my first favourite songs onnthe album – catchy and melodic again with the shade of melancholy that runsnthrough most of Rebel Heart.n14. Wash All Over Me - 9/10A beautiful and slightly funerealnballad that somehow ends up feeling far more uplifting than it should. I can’tnhelp thinking it would make a wonderful mashup with Rain.n15. Best Night - 7/10There are a clutch of songs on this albumnthat call to mind the Erotica album and on this track it seems to be a knowingnhat-tip on her part, particularly during the spoken section. A very wellncrafted and more-ish album track.16. Veni Vidi Vici - 9/10I just can’t get enough of this song.nBeing as lyrically self-referential as this can go either way but she pulls itnoff and for some reason I actually find the chorus strangely moving. Absolutelyncannot wait to see this one live.n17. S.E.X. - 8/10Madonna has spoken quite openly over thenlast year or two about her horror at the media treatment of women in her age bracketnand most specifically the notion that they shouldn’t be sexual or sexualised. While this is ancomplex issue that I don’t want to tangent into here I will say this - If you’rengoing to be our ambassador for screwing after 50 Madge then this is how to donit. Continuing the trend on this album of managing finally again to be sexualnin a way that reads as ‘adult’ rather than simply desperate or puerile, I feelnlike she has at last struck the right balance of ‘fuck you’ and ‘fuck me’.nLet me caveat that by saying that there is a tendency to forget that she hasnalways been somewhat puerile (even on the aforementioned Erotica she served usnthat unforgettable Colonel Sanders line) however in later years it has oftennfelt to me that she was trying to be shocking whilst in fact wimping out ofnever really going beyond playful or camp. All innuendo and no follow through ifnyou will. What I love about this song is that it actually is quite dirty. And itnsounds dirty. Yes, there is humour in it – but it’s definitely a sleaze jamntoo. So now I’m thinking SEX book v2.0? That really would be fabulously shocking..n18. Messiah - 8/10A swooning, slightly gothic unrequited-lovensong with some of the better lyrics on the album.n19. Rebel Heart - 8/10 A lovely, catchy salve at the end of the album and another surprisinglynhonest piece of self-reflection that leaves me feeling all kinds of warm andnfuzzy for our lady and her Rebel Heart.nnnnnn.Overall score: 8/10 (and nudging towards an 8.5 as the days go by)
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