left, right, whatever...

Albums of 2010 [Part 1: 30-21]

2010-12-09T04:17:00.003Z

30. Girl Talk – All Day [Illegal Art]

Whilst not as strong as previous effort Feed the Animals, the general premise remains intact. Three hundred and seventy three different samples used, of which the segue from Rihanna’s Rude Boy to Fabulous’ Can’t Deny It is especially enjoyable.

29. Belle & Sebastian – Write About Love [Rough Trade]

B&S are not going to write another Tigermilk or Boy with the Arab Strap. Nor should they – these records are almost inextricably tied to the period in which they were written, recorded and received. Unfortunately, almost fifteen years after their début, whatever they release will undoubtedly be compared to that succession of albums. In one sense this is fair – an artists’ back catalogue is obviously going to be one of the first points of comparison for listeners and critics alike. However, by lamenting that Write About Love finds a band seemingly disconnected from any obvious contemporary reference points (compared to, say, Me and the Major, a celebration of otherness that immediately resonated with the prevailing mood of the late nineties), one can easily overlook the boldness of their eighth studio album. Whilst the lyrics tend to veer towards the universal rather than the unique, the instrumental ability of the band itself takes the lead, displaying dominant melodies and hooks that an earlier B&S might have done their best to derail, if only out of bashfulness.

28. Kylie Minogue – Aphrodite [Parlophone]

This is a Kylie good pop album. Not a Kylie dance/electronic pop album, which would have been better. Not a Kylie bad pop album either. That would have been worse. In the absence of a Girls Aloud album this year (if, indeed, there will ever be another one) it’ll do.

27. Field Music – Measure [Memphis Industries]

Quite a lot of good songs, bit long.

26. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs [Mercury]

See above. However, whilst Measure has the excuse of being a double album, the length of The Suburbs’ (sixteen tracks - and, this being Arcade Fire, there aren’t many two minute belters) largely serves to detract from what otherwise would be a coherent concept album, gently pushing its lyrical subtexts rather than relentlessly twatting the listener round the head with them. As one might expect, the album toes the usual party line - alienation, globalisation, modernisation and other words in that rhyming sequence. Nonetheless, The Suburbs reveals a band able to tackle such themes without, as was perhaps the case with Neon Bible, getting caught up in the expectations often associated with bands that tread a grand-mal narrative. The dance-pop synth which underscores The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) and the handclap-happy City With No Children demonstrate that Arcade Fire are not (and probably were never comfortable with being labelled) ‘the next Radiohead.’ The Suburbs is a solid album which, had it been more ruthlessly edited, would have been superb.

25. Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can [Virgin]

*Insert generic comment about Marling demonstrating “lyrical maturity beyond her years.”* What pisses me off most about such lazy journalism is that if Laura Marling was a bloke, I don’t think as many people would be queuing up to point out that she’s a youngster who can write a good lyric and doesn’t talk like they think Kate Nash does. Journalists don’t tend to patronise young male musicians like that.

24. Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here [XL]

The genius of this record lies in its production, carried out by XL owner Richard Russell. Part dub, part electro and thoroughly gritty, it helps construct an album which updates the spoken-word and blues genre and reinvents Scott-Heron for a previously unacquainted generation. A reworking of the album by Jamie XX (of The XX fame) entitled We’re New Here is due early 2011 – whether it will improve or add anything to the original remains to be seen, but such a collaboration is evidence that the parameters in which Gil Scott-Heron operates have, not for the first time in his career, shifted dramatically.

23. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy [Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam]

An album which, had it been released earlier in the year, would probably be much higher in this list. Instead, its late release means that many of the songs haven’t had the repeated listens they merit (and probably require). However, after the relative train-wreck that was 808s and Heartbreaks, it’s immediately obvious that this record has points to prove – the lyrics reveal a political drive that was conspicuous only by its absence on its predecessor and, perhaps more importantly, a man who feels the need to assert his identity, respond to criticisms of his character (“I was the abomination of Obama’s nation”) and take the piss out of himself along the way - on bonus track See Me Now, Kanye giggles, “Imma let you finish, but not ‘til I got Beyonce on the track.” Aside from the album cover, there’s very little to criticise. The cover is fucking hideous, but at the same time, kind of apt – once Kanye thought it might be rejected by the label or retailers there was absolutely no way he was going to back down.

22. Pantha du Prince – Black Noise [Rough Trade]

A bit like being at the bottom of the ocean (somewhere in the Caribbean, say, not Skegness) whilst someone plays the xylophone and dances around a bit for you in a way that’s both comforting and somehow still a little bit sexy. I’d imagine anyway – I’ve not been to the Caribbean.

21. Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma [Warp]

Shit, your sea-floor soiree just got gate-crashed by a group of older boys who brought a much bigger amp and all their old Nintendo consoles. It’s alright though, because you quite like Nintendo, and after a few minutes they’re far less abrasive than you feared. They’re actually kind of quite pretty, and about seven tracks in they invite Thom Yorke round. This is more than a little exciting, even if you’re a tad concerned about what you’ll say to him. Turns out he’s dead nice - just “needs to know that you’re out there, needs to know you’re listening.” I might drop this extended metaphor now - probably for the best.

20-11 to follow... Nx

Politik

2010-04-28T23:08:00.007+01:00

There is a week to go until the 2010 General Election, and the polls are currently suggesting a hung parliament, albeit one in the Conservative's favour. Whilst a hung parliament is beneficial in terms of bringing about electoral reform, the fact that it now seems pretty clear that Cameron will benefit from a large swing towards the Lib Dems, probably the party most distant from his own political views is rather nauseating. For me, the ideal situation would be for a Labour and Lib Dem coalition:

1. Both parties strongly advocate voting reform - there is no guarantee that the Lib Dems will be able to strike a deal with the Conservatives on this, especially if the Conservatives has as strong a mandate as looks probable following the TV elections and Gordon's 'bigoted woman' remark earlier today.

2. Labour have massively improved the UK over the last thirteen years: Sure Start, minimum wage, civil Partnerships, an NHS with four week maximum waiting lists and now a one week guarantee for cancer scans, record investment in education, with especially strong results at primary level. Yes, they've made mistakes. Tuition fees are often cited, but the mistake was promising not to implement them, not necessarily the fees themselves. Several universities desperately needed extra funding to accommodate the huge influx of students (in itself a brilliant thing, displaying that higher education is becoming gradually more diverse and less of a white middle-class institution) and I haven't come across a feasible solution that doesn't rely on heavily increasing taxes. The war of course, is the obvious one - but it seems the country is perfectly happy to accept a Conservative party who also strongly backed the war. PFIs, a good idea in principle, took too long to implement properly, meaning private firms took advantage of the schemes, something which Labour have slowly but successfully spent the last parliament rectifying. The recession was a global crisis, caused by the collapse of the American banking industry, and a crisis in which Brown took the lead in America and Europe. More prudence in the years of huge economic growth would have held us in better stead for such a crisis, but then spending stimulates growth, that's how a free-market capitalist economy works. I wouldn't advocate it if we were redesigning our economy from scratch, but it's the economy in which the majority of the world operates, and the UK Labour party weren't at all alone in exploiting it. And at least under the Labour government a great deal of that economic growth fed back into public-sector funding.

3. However, it perhaps is healthy for a party not to remain in power for more than three terms - but, what alternative? The Tory party, whose regard for human rights, working-class and diversity is well documented by their past and still evident in their present. Attacking the poor on benefits, whilst quite happy to cosy up to wealthy beneficiaries who contribute nothing towards our economy. Cutting back on public services whilst giving massive tax breaks for the wealthiest few. Oh, and the prejudice too - wondered why Cameron's the only Tory doing the rounds? It's because the rest of them can't hide their archaic views for longer than ten minutes, a la Chris Grayling willing to discriminate against people on the grounds of their sexuality.

The Lib Dems, despite the massive surge in popularity (or maybe just the media deciding to take them seriously - they did get a quarter of the popular vote in the last election, after all), cannot win anything like enough seats to form a majority. A Labour government able to utilise the talents of the Lib Dem party (something Gordon Brown actually championed when he first became Prime Minister, rejected by Vince Cable), and a Lib Dem party there to encourage the party to push through more progressive legislation, and block some of the more foolish Labour proposals (i.d. cards) would be an ideal compromise.

----

Just a quick note on the TV debates - whilst they have undoubtedly boosted interest (which is good), they have furthered the misconception that we are voting for a Prime Minister rather than a local MP (which is bad). The obsession with 'winning the debates' by massive swings in the polls afterwards have lead many people to wrongly believe that Lib Dems have a chance of winning this election. I would have few qualms at all if they did (although their manifesto is simply a more cosy version of Labour's), but it simply isn't possible. The damning statistic is that, because of our electoral system, if the Lib Dems poll first on about 32 points, they will still only get about 99 MPs, compared to the 200-odd Labour and the Tories will get on about 28 and 30 points respectively. I think a lot of people are going to be confused, disappointed and disillusioned when they see that, despite all the polls they've been reading and the hype on social networking sites, the Lib Dems are still the third biggest party. This is why politics needs teaching as a core subject in secondary schools.

Finally, these debates have allowed the press a grossly exaggerated role; the debates just help them build up their own predetermined narratives, excessively hyping the significance of the debates, and in doing so spreading their inherent bias. Those reading most of the papers the following day are told Cameron has 'won' by the omnipotent evil Murdoch media empire - anyone who actually watched can easily see that Cameron was, despite his confidence going into the debates, extremely poor in both, and even got rather stroppy in the first one as the limelight switched away from him. Brown has been solid, and talked the most policy. But of course, as Blair showed, policy is nothing without reliable PR and charm. And Clegg has these. He's not actually been that amazing, but, you know, he's got a nice smile, and a TV debate is pretty easy when you've two easy targets who have little ammo to throw back at you.

And so, with one debate remaining, Clegg probably has 'won' these debates, whatever that means. I hope they're going to get him a trophy or something after the final one, because these 'wins' certainly wont reward him with the keys to Number 10. More fool those who think it will.

A Sunny Day in Manchester

2010-03-11T10:39:00.006Z

Whilst I work strenuously on my Summer 2010 playlist, which will undoubtedly be compromised of exactly the same songs I put on the last four summer playlists (basically good brit-pop, Painkiller by Turin Brakes and Steal My Sunshine by Len) I thought I'd create a little something to whet our collective appetites whilst the nation, if not the world, waits patiently for the afore mentioned playlist to materialise...

Basically it's a sampler of some songs from the first quarter ("I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man!") that I would highly recommend to anyone foolish enough to listen to me.

The playlist is here: 2010: January to March

Just a few points:

Just one track per artist, them's the rules.
No Gil-Scott Heron - as pretentious as it kind of is, he keeps banging on about 'treating the album as a whole' and this 'no distractions' listening experience thing. So I'll conform. Mainly because I hear he's in Manchester in April and I'm a bit scared he'll come round to my house and kick me really hard in the shins.
Beware of Beach House - the album is a bit repetitive, the tracks actually work better individually. In my humble and irrelevant opinion...
Turin Brakes should be in here - the new record, Outbursts is very good, predominantly because Turin Brakes work best when it's just the two of them rather than with a host of session musicians drowning them out. It's not here though, because Spotify hates them, and me...
I got Paul Simon's Graceland for a pound on vinyl yesterday. I don't have a record player (yet), but still... Speaking of Graceland, I think Josh Rouse might have listened to it a few times before making his new record. The song I've selected, I Will Live on Islands is a good example of this.
I've got to stop ending sentences in ellipses. I blame Los Campesinos! You will probably only find one record better than Romance is Boring so far this year...
Which is Gorillaz' Plastic Beach. Snoop-Dog aside, the collaborations are perfect but none of the guest stars manage to overshadow the fact that this is very much Damon's album. Deservedly venerated by all corners of the music media.
The Internet Forever and Ellen and the Escapades tracks are taken from EPs from last year, but you'll forgive me that as they are both pretty immense.
That's it.

The tracklist is as follows:

Los Campesinos - Letters From Me to Charlotte (Romance is Boring)
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Me and Jane Doe (IRM)
Internet Forever - Pages of Books (Cover the Walls EP)
Ellen and the Escapades - Without You (Without You Single)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow - So Bloody, So Tight (Nitetime Rainbows)
Club Smith - Lament (The Loss EP)
Fyfe Dangerfield - When You Walk in the Room (Fly Yellow Moon)
Field Music - Them That Do Nothing (Measure)
Four Tet - Angel Echoes (There is Love in You)
Beach House - Used to Be (Teen Dream)
Goldfrapp - Rocket (Head First)
Josh Rouse - I Will Live on Islands (El Turista)
Gorillaz (feat. Little Dragon) - Empire Ants (Plastic Beach)
Vampire Weekend - I Think Ur a Contra (Contra)

2010: January to March

I hope you enjoy! Nx

"You wanted good schools, and friends with pools; you're not a contra..."

You've Done It Again, Virginia

2010-02-13T00:24:00.003Z

I have a small cut above my left eyebrow, and I don't know what caused it. I also discovered a very small and sharp strip of metal in the pocket of last night's jeans. I hope that the two things aren't related, and that, at some point, having had a thoroughly enjoyable night, I thought it would be particularly fitting to mutilate my forehead and stain my pillow in the process.

Other than that, I'm grand, cheers. The impending return of January's substandard essay aside, I'm feeling rather content with my lot. I've been researching and people-watching in the most beautiful library in the world today, Chetham's. Leafing through nineteenth century ordinance survey maps of Salford and Manchester, temperance propaganda and a beautiful little notebook in which an amazingly helpful Victorian collected press cuttings reporting drunken and lewd behaviour. My dissertation is going to be entitled 'Beyond temperance: the representation of drinking culture in late-Victorian Britain.' Or something like that.

What else? Well, I'm very much enjoying the music of Charlotte Gainsbourg, Field Music and Internet Forever. I've got an amazing new pair of shoes. I'm getting my hopes up that the Tories might be forced to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, or, even better, the Liberal Democrats and Labour form a coalition to remove any chance that I'll have to live in a Conservative Britain. Shudder. I've played a great deal of football recently, and watched a lot more, and still Grimsby haven't won in twenty games. I'm hoping to steward at a festival this summer, so anyone also interested should definitely get in touch. I'm even quite financially stable, if you ignore the fact that I have to start paying back my loan at a ridiculously high rate as soon as I finish this course. I have a million gigs lined up, including the XX, LCD Soundsystem and Japandroids. I went to see Hayden-White lecture at my university yesterday, and understood about half of it. I had rice pudding for tea.

So there you go. The purpose of this blog was just to let all three of you know that I haven't dropped dead or anything, and that, excluding mysterious bruises, I'm in good shape. kthnxbye

My Very Best

2010-01-02T01:23:00.004Z

Welcome, one and all, to 2010. The Guardian have kindly determined that it is pronounced twenty-ten. I have to admit, it was worrying me greatly.

This New Year's Eve was spent quaffing cider and paella, discussing celebrity deaths and contracting pneumonia outside York Minster. And, naturally, drawing obscenities in the freshly laid snow. I've also realised that it's probably better not to text at all than to send a generic message to everyone in my phone book. It was probably the most relaxed New Year I've had since I first developed a fondness for only drinking beverages that contain a percentage sign on their label. The people, the food and drawing phalluses in the snow all contributed towards a really enjoyable evening. New Year's Day too was fantastic, particularly Doctor Who. It was a bit rude of Bernard Cribbins to show Tennant up quite as much as he did though, it being Tennant's final episode and all.

Very brief reflections of the decade gone by. Twelve to twenty-two. My biggest regret is not watching the Bashir interview with Micheal Jackson, and that wider feeling of never being quite 'in the loop' in the first half of the decade. For the record, I don't think I'm 'in the loop' now - it's just that at some point, probably about sixteen or eighteen, 'the loop' ceases to exist. I could have done with growing my hair long a few years earlier as well, short back and sides really didn't do much for me. Erm, I have little else to say of interest - I did everything that the average person these days does in their formative years. Pass a few exams, go to uni, end up with a 2:1. Follow embarrassing trends. Meet new people, forget old people. Fall out with friends you thought you never would, become close to those you were once indifferent to, and discover who is your everthere. Fall in love. Break up. Mope about in self-pity and become prone to frequent bouts of introspective over-analysis. Get over it. Repeat ad infinitum.

I'm not sure whether I 'do' resolutions. I prefer the term, 'ambitions'. In 2010, as with every year since for-fucking-ever, I'm going to learn to play guitar or speak French fluently, or both. Going to more gigs and exploring more cities in the UK and Europe would be brilliant, especially if and when I could combine the two. Maybe a European festival. Study and subsequent employment/training towards employment is rather important. I think something about changing my work ethic would be a pertinent ambition. Making more effort to keep in contact with friends. Being bolder and less self-conscious. I really want to get a proper head massage, and own a typewriter. I should read more widely, both within and outside my course literature. Probably, more than anything, I'd like to write an entry this time next year where I can confidently explain where I am, and where that is going. Some people may shun that philosophy, but I personally feel I've meandered along for quite long enough. See: Teenage Fanclub.

OK, I've rambled on enough now. A new year and a new decade: I hope they find you well, and leave you even better. TTFN x

Hooting & Howling

2009-12-31T11:40:00.001Z

Facebook is making my head hurt. I simply cannot comprehend the purpose of joining a million and one different groups or fan pages to express mundane empathy with others who have also experienced the life affirming emotion of having 'left the bath water running too long', or 'liked you, but you don't like me.'

What appears to have started as a few harmless and sometimes humorous fan pages joined by people with a slightly loose definition of irony has now mutated into a grotesque cancer rabidly chewing away at the sanity of my homepage, or 'livefeed', or whatever they call it now. It now appears to be beyond irony, and instead a mass movement of facebook users desperate to join each and every group possible, in order to do what? Belong? Assert that they, in their unique experience of finding someone 'fit but hating your personality' are actually part of a bigger collective, amongst whom they can trade stories of the time they remember 'laughing when someone got hurt.... until they realised it was serious :-(...'

Or is it far less conscious - is it simply an instantaneous reaction, preceded by a split second of thought, or recognition of awareness? Is there any further thought once that button has been clicked? Has the said fan page even been looked at? And what will this lead to? We have already seen the delusions of democratic significance in one popular online campaign, despite the fact that several people participated towards that campaign little more than clicking 'accept group' upon invitation. Will this lead to (or is it a result of?) a completely distorted concept of democracy or means of testing popularity amongst a generation? Will people become so accustomed to making split-second decisions, to be made and left within that split second, that it becomes the norm?

But for all my semi-apocalyptic raving, my concerns do not lie with those who perpetrate and perpetuate this trend. Nor, necessarily, does it lie with the trend itself. Instead, my concerns are purely introspective. If this is indeed individual empowerment via subconscious assimilation to a collective experience, or a twenty-first century split second democratic opinion generator, then I remain numb and isolated from its overarching reach. And if, as I suspect is more likely, it's just a joke, just a nothingness, just a form of entertainment, for the second, for a laugh, then that makes me feel much worse. Because I don't get it. And there's nothing worse then not getting the joke.

Oh. I appear to have fallen asleep on my keyboard again. Here’s to the end of a decade tonight. It’s been alright you know. Six out of ten...

Lisztomania

2009-12-24T19:24:00.005Z

Albums of the year 2009

So, having written my list many weeks ago in November, I obviously decided it would be a good idea to refrain from publishing it until several of the leading music journals and websites had revealed theirs, just so it would look, to the cynical reader, as if I had shamelessly plagiarised in an attempt to look cool. Hopefully I have confronted and resolved this issue by making reference to it, thus proving that a) my list was created almost entirely independently and b) I’m not cool. Right, good, enjoy the list, for what it’s worth:

15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz

14. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

13. Girls – Album

12. Metric – Fantasies

11. Grizzly Bear – Vekatimest

10. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains

9. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns

8. James Yuill – Turning Down Water For Air

7. The xx – The xx

6. Emmy the Great – First Love

5. Noah and the Whale – First Days of Spring

4. St. Vincent – Actor

3. Animal Collective – Merryweather Post Pavilion

Another sublime record from Animal Collective – as arresting and euphoric as any of their previous work. My Girls builds in to a swirling cacophony, culminating in the band harmonising, “I don’t mean to seem, like I care about material things, like social status/I just want, four walls and adobe-slabs, for my girls.” Elsewhere, Lion in a Coma begins with an aborigine sound and beat, but by the end of the track has transformed into stomping chant, following the brief intervention of a breakdown chorus fuelled by glittering synth. Brother Sport is probably the highlight though – the album closer, it chaotically collapses mid-track into an incessant rave, before gathering its senses and concluding with a chorus that, despite sounding overwhelmingly joyous, lyrically concerns dealing with a father’s death. Each individual track shift incorporates so many tangents, but the record remains coherent – in a way, it is the consistent desire to explore and surprise that gives the album its uniformity, and from that its majesty.

2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

A big step up from their previous records - even after the best part of a year, this remains an album where upon each listen, each track seems to trump the previous one. Lisztomania and 1901 are quite immediate, but supremely catchy, with recognisable spiky guitar taking the lead on each. Rome is lyrically superb, dealing with the dilemma of being in the most beautiful of locations and not being able to think about anything else other than a love-interest. Love Like a Sunset is a completely different prospect, building gradually to a blissful conclusion that never fails to give me goosebumps.

1. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

It is impossible to explain how much I immediately fell in love with this album. The initial two short sharp beats and the opening refrain , “Spent a week in a dusty library”, set a precedent of brilliance which the album maintained throughout. James is hauntingly beautiful, The Sweetest Thing is pop-perfection, and Honey in the Son is sublimely joyful as an album closer. This record contains some of my favourite lyrics, the pick probably being the aforementioned intro to French Navy and, “When you’re lucid you’re the sweetest thing/I would trade in my mother to hear you sing”, and “I would walk for a hundred miles/for a glimpse of your northern smile.” Just superb, that’s about as best as I can put it really.

Gigs of the year

5. Coldplay/Jay-Z/Girls Aloud @ Wembley Stadium, London

4. James Yuill @ Trinity Church, Leeds

3. YACHT @ Deaf Institute, Manchester

2. Los Campesinos! @ Deaf Institute, Manchester

1. Blur @ Glastonbury

I don’t really need to explain this, do I?! The acoustics of James Yuill in a tiny church venue, with everyone sitting in pews. YACHT’s energetic and highly entertaining routine (involving heavy use of sarcasm and PowerPoint). Jay Z playing the hits before performing Lost+ with Coldplay, only the second time he has ever done so. Los Campesinos!, well, just being as close as a band can get to absolute perfection, as usual. None of these things, however, are ever going to beat something I’ve wanted to see since I was about twelve – Blur playing This is a Low on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Sorry everybody else.

Best re-issues:

3. St. Etienne – London Conversations
2. Stones Roses – Stones Roses
1. R.E.M – Murmur

Single of the year:

Shakira – She Wolf

Howl. Enough said. Jim, my one wish for New Years Eve is to dress up as a wolf and dance to this song. Can you fix it for me?

Most disappointing album of the year:

Regina Spektor – Far

It wasn’t a bad album, and The Calculation was one of my favourite tracks of the year, but it just didn’t particularly push any boundaries. That in itself isn’t a crime – but if you’re going to play it safe, make sure that the record at least matches up to your last one, which it didn’t. None of the raw character and wry humour so prominent in Soviet Kitsch era Regina really comes through here, and as a consequence the whole record is rather mundane in comparison.

Artwork of the year

Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Rage Against the Campaign

2009-12-15T02:21:00.001Z

or, Reasons why the Rage Against The Machine/X Factor campaign is a FAIL.

I apologise profusely for the title of this blog.

This debate has already been covered far more effectively (and concisely) on popjustice and the Los Campesinos! blog (on which you can also download free goodies from several amazing bands), but, for what it’s worth, I’ll chip in with my five cents worth (I’m American now, evidently). I’m fed up of having the same arguments with so many people (in real-life and on message boards) (OK, mostly on message boards) that I thought I might as well do a blog and just link people to it when I want to prove I’m right.

Firstly, as has been widely publicised, Rage Against The Machine are signed to a subsidiary label of Sony, so ultimately the profits are returned to the same major company. Which rather quashes the argument that the campaign is aimed at breaking the monopoly and power of the big labels.

Secondly, ‘Killing in the Name of’ has supposedly been chosen because of its ‘subversive’ qualities, because, as the creator of the campaign told NME.COM, the song challenges everything that the X Factor stands for. Except it doesn’t – ‘Killing...’ is possibly one of the most calculated songs ever written – it was manufactured and marketed to appeal to its core audience just as much as the X Factor single. Perhaps it’s worse, because it hides behind a layer of pretence that it’s being rebellious, challenging the authority, whilst directly funding and perpetuating the same established authority it purports to ridicule, making the whole song a great big ball of irony that I’m not sure the band themselves are aware of. And even if indeed they are, it’s definitely lost on the creators of the campaign.

Thirdly, (and this is my main point), the very logic behind any sort of campaign to get a song to number one as a protest against another is flawed on every level. If indeed it is ‘all about the music’ (man), then buying a song simply because it isn’t something else is entirely backward. Choose music because you like it, not because it negates something else.

If you’re arguing from a more muso-political perspective against the dominance of major labels creating, continuing and exploiting the consumer market, that’s possibly even worse. Yeah, let’s protest against capitalist/consumer culture, by, er, buying things. And buying things that we don’t really want on their own merit, just buying it because someone else is buying something else and it offends us. LOGIC FAIL, is, I think, the phrase the kids these days are using.

Also, what really are you achieving? These campaigns are never going to succeed, because of the huge popularity of X Factor (which is FINE, people are allowed to choose what they watch – more on that later). You end up with a scenario where the true might of the TV programme is revealed, as with last year when, because of the X Factor, three different versions of ‘Hallelujah’ ended up in the top 10. Without Alexandra Burke’s single, there would have been none. And to top it all, Burke’s single outsold the other versions by miles. Can anybody see how any of that in any way represented a ‘victory’ against Simon Cowell? Because I can’t.

Those arguing that the RATM campaign is superior for supporting a good cause (Shelter, but only if you buy from certain outlets I believe) are also on to a non-starter. Over the course of a series X Factor will definitely raise more for its various charities through a share of the phone line proceeds and the charity single they release each year. Not to mention that the producers of X Factor will be taxed a huge amount, which is then used to fund our state services and some of the charitable contributions our government provides each year.

People are not ‘sleepwalking into buying X Factor material’, or being brainwashed by ‘THE BIG BAD CORPORATIONS’ into purchasing something they don’t want to. People like the format of the TV programme; it’s classic Saturday night entertainment. Yeah, it’s trashy, but if it’s not your thing don’t watch – don’t elevate your own taste to the extent that you attempt to start dictating to others whether it’s right or wrong for them to enjoy something.

Co-incidentally, people mainly like the programme because of the characters on it – essentially, as corny as it sounds, people from all backgrounds of life are given the chance to shine on a national stage, even if just for ‘15 minutes’ (urgh). Of course their stories are manipulated, their personalities caricatured, but what it boils down to is ‘normal’ people enjoying watching other ‘normal’ people doing something ambitious, and I think that’s kind of comforting in itself. And if you’ve read that and snorted at the idea that going on X Factor is ‘ambitious’, well, for several million people it obviously is, and again, it’s not your right to turn your nose up at that because you don’t feel the same.

Also, people like the X Factor singles. People like well-written (if often overly produced) pop music. Pop is not a dirty word. There’s a huge whiff of indie snobbery in all this, in which people think that because they’ve got a less mainstream or ‘alternative’ music taste they have the superior authority on what people ‘should’ listen to.

(And by ‘alternative’, I mostly mean: 1. Those who read the NME and think that the artists it promotes are all ‘indie’, fully unaware that in the original sense of the term such bands are anything but. Or, 2. Those who think they’re the bee’s knees because they once saw Animal Collective play a tea-tent in Bognor Regis and once got Patrick Wolf’s phone number at a house party five years before he got signed.)

Furthermore, the charts are always full of commercial popular music, be it X Factor-related or whatever, BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THEY’RE REPRESENTATIVE OF! The irony is that if the acts that dominate the charts were replaced by ‘real artists’, the original fans of those ‘real artists’ would immediately disown such artists for ‘selling out.’

So, the charts are always full of overly commercial music - but even more so at Christmas. Way before X Factor, way before Popstars. Way before the Spice Girls. Way before East 17. Way before Mr. Blobby even. Christmas number one has always been seen as the most significant number one of the year. ‘Cynical’ marketing (or people just doing their job, perhaps) and the Christmas chart race have always gone hand in hand, but, you know what, so has the Christmas chart and great pop songs. Pop songs that many of those people who slag off the X Factor for being so consumerist would automatically label ‘classics’. Well, all those ‘classics’ are remembered as such because of their commercial success too, so there’s a nice bit of double-standards going on there. Every time you drunkenly sing along to Mariah Carey at your indie-disco (whether you claim it’s ‘ironic’ or not) you’re championing the same commercial pop culture you claim to be rallying against, so, yeah, well done you.

Maybe what this actually boils down to is some sort of exclusion complex, because some people can’t stand the idea that they ‘don’t get’ something that is immensely popular and ubiquitous, or feel left out because they haven’t been targeted by such music. Maybe your average Portishead fan suffers an overpowering sense of loneliness every time they hear Will Young in Sainsbury’s. Maybe. I don’t, but then I like both Portishead and Will Young.

Finally, a few people have suggested to me that whatever your opinion the campaign has been a success/is important because it has engaged people in debate. Which I’m perpetuating now. I sort of see this point (debate is always good), but by the same measure, mass-murders get people chatting about all sorts of socio-economic-psycho-political issues, and nobody’s championing mass-murders as a good cause. Well, I guess the song is called ‘Killing in the Name of’...

And, for the record, I will be buying neither song. I already have ‘Killing in the Name of’, and I prefer Miley Cyrus’ version of ‘The Climb.’ Instead, I’ll be saving my money and buying the new Animal Collective EP, ‘Fall Be Kind.’ Thank you, and good night.

(Love Nothing)

2009-10-12T03:23:00.006+01:00

A lyric from an album that will undoubtedly make my best of the 2000s list:

"Now I do as I please, and I lie through my teeth
Someone might get hurt, but it won't be me
Should probably feel cheap, but I just feel free
And a little bit empty."

Bright Eyes, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn

This is a bit like viral marketing.

She Wolf

2009-10-12T02:53:00.002+01:00

As promised (see previous blog):

1967

The Beatles released Sgt. Peppers.
Harold Wilson in power, making moves towards Britain joining the EEC, nationalising the steel industry.
Male homosexuality decriminalised.
Abortion legalised.
Radio 1 launched, the first BBC initiative to attempt to (and arguably succeed to) tap into popular youth culture.

1987

Sarah Records was formed.

Apropos of Nothing

2009-10-05T03:21:00.003+01:00

1. In the previous post, I accidentally typed "cultural shit." Although the post has now been edited to include the necessary 'f' in the latter word, I thought it amusing enough to justify pointing it out.

2. In the time it took to write the previous post, I could have probably just got on with the explanation for the years and got the whole debacle over and done with. Sorry.

Hearts & Crosses

2009-10-05T02:31:00.006+01:00

Those of you who avidly follow my movements on such popular social networking sites as Facebook and Twitter will have noticed that this evening I declared the best years to be alive ever were, in reverse-chronological order: 2005, 1997, 1987, 1967, 1897, 1536 and 98. All AD.

I promise to provide entries on here in the near future (ambiguity intentional) expanding upon my decisions. All of which were made after prolonged analysis, and are not at all adventitious numbers plucked from my sub-conscience.

I realise that making such commitments on this site is a risky business. I have made promises before, and not fulfilled them, consequently (undoubtedly) leaving a large proportion of the online community with a bitter sense of betrayal grinding away at them, omnipresent, internally stationed within their very existence. A feeling impossible to physically remove, like a fish bone between teeth in the upper region of the jaw, one which not even the most flexible brush strokes will alleviate.

I am aware of this, and I don't ask for forgiveness; it's too late for that. You, you of all people know how truly sorry I am; it's too late for that. I only ask that you allow me to fulfil these new promises, over (an undefined) period of time, and that we can just try to forget and move on.

Meanwhile, in a vague Bad Science theme, this headline from The Guardian (05/10/09) is quite misleading:

'Cocaine drug of choice for under-25s, NHS figures suggest'

The figures concern the number of people coming to the NHS for treatment for some form of dependency or misuse of the drug. Therefore the figures reflect an increase in younger people needing medical attention as a result of cocaine compared to other drugs, rather than conclusive evidence of a cultural shift amongst a rather broad, crude grouping of people. A grouping that fails to identify differentiation along the lines of gender, class, income, sexuality, religion; basically any of the aspects which would render the study with a sense of detail and would later aid arguably the most important analytical aspect of any such study: why this is so.

Having somehow criticised both the Guardian and the NHS, two of my favourite institutions in the entire world, I am going to bed to contemplate my actions and question my rationale...

100,000 Fireflies

2009-10-04T04:30:00.006+01:00

Having read this I feel vaguely cooler than I did three hours ago...

Night. x

Lougborough Suicide

2009-10-04T02:36:00.003+01:00

For the past couple of years I've compiled a music-related round up of the year, satisfying both my need to force my views upon a readership of about two, whilst also wittering away several hours tinkering with lists. 2009 is just about over musically; the majority of releases remaining are rereleases or greatest hits compilations for the Christmas market. Retitled, repackaged and re-marketed with a couple of new tracks compared to that 'best of' compilation from a couple of years back. It's also over because the Los Campesinos! album got put back til next year: bitter.

With that in mind I've drawn up a list of possible contenders, and am currently in the process of ranking them, with the hope that this arduous task will be completed by the end of '09, and not sometime in February of the following year, as with previous efforts. Whilst my lists always contain some alternative stuff, there's usually more than a sprinkling of mainstream indie/pop. However, this year the most commercial album in contention is probably Yeah Yeah Yeah's It's Blitz, and even that is looking like it'll miss out on top ten status. I'm sure Karen O is sobbing into her pillow at that prospect right now. I'd quite like to be that pillow. I'd soak up her tears, make some tea and explain that it's alright to be shunned by an anonymous armchair-critic every now and again. Then I'd ask her if she wanted to have sex. She'd politely decline and we'd instead spend the evening playing scrabble and discussing the merits of post-punk and twee-core, whilst getting slowly inebriated on dirty cheap vodka. I imagine she's hardcore and drinks it straight from the bottle. Where am I?

So, the list is currently devoid of Big Names. I don't think (I hope) that this reflects an increasing pretentiousness on my behalf; there just haven't been many major releases this year. Oh, and the u2 album doesn't count as a music release; it's more akin to the release of a new Dulux colour scheme (stick with me on this). One so formulaicly designed (and thoroughly marketed) that it attracted a broad range of consumers, but, after the second coat, most realised their bedrooms remained exactly the same as the previous decor, except slightly blander. Kind of like the Emperor's new clothes, but in paint form. And the paint is U2. Where am I?

To (hastily) conclude this meandering and slightly (extremely) incoherent entry, here is a selection of artists in the running:*

(in the order on my coffee stained piece of paper):

St. Vincent
YACHT
Camera Obscura
James Yuill
Metric
Grizzly Bear
Pheonix
Animal Collective
Bat For Lashes
Ben Folds
The Antlers
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
Noah and the Whale
Nerina Pallot
Wavvves
The xx
Others. (Not The Others - they were truly terrible)

*Subject to change dramatically at my discretion...

Black Swan

2009-10-02T04:27:00.005+01:00

What will grow crooked you can't make straight.
Buy a ticket and get on the train.
You cannot kickstart a dead horse.
I am your black swan, black swan.
And other sentiments from Thom Yorke.

http://meandwhosearmy.blogspot.com/

Reasons to be fearful, No. 1

2009-10-02T04:09:00.002+01:00

1. I've got an odd ache on my lower ribcage, getting progressively sharper towards the centre of my chest. I don't know what has caused it; I thought it was lack of food and/or sleep, but I have since rectified both these issues, and the pain persists. How inconvenient.

2. I am, once again, as ever, in the midst of some pretty heavy insomnia. Again, inconvenient.

3. I would quite like a nice man or woman (or gender-neutral) from a big bank to give me a career development loan quite soon. Thanks.

4. I don't like people deleting their past. Not at the same time as claiming it still means something.

5. The earthquakes/tsunamis in Indonesia/Samoa are a bit rubbish really. Also, I'm in political limbo, and I will not come out until I'm ready. Besides, it's nice to comment from a less involved perspective for a bit. It's comfy here.

6. My Internet at home at the moment is 'borrowed' from our neighbours, with their consent, whilst we get ours sorted. The connection is poor, except after 3 in the morning. This is either convenient or actually a subconscious/conscious cause of my insomnia.

7. That'll do for now; I don't want to go on for ages and add substance to the accusations of pessimism that have sometimes been levelled against me.

Reasons to be cheerful, No.1

2009-10-02T03:43:00.002+01:00

1. Thus far my Masters degree is going well. Having had my first 'proper' contact this week (I am, of course, discounting the introductory lectures one has to endure in reading week, in which we are reminded that plagiarism will result in certain death) I am encouraged - initial discussions triggered thesis ideas, many of which were scribbled down in a semi-drunken haze in the small hours of Thursday morning.

2. Good people on course. People are good. Good people I knew already in Manchester. People I love in London. Doing good.

3. I have a large room, and am paying £42 pounds a week. OK, so the carpet may not fit said room and the bathrooms are akin to the night toilet in York city centre, but I have a relatively cosy and extremely cheap base for the year.

4. I am going to see Los Campesinos! at the end of October. Their new track 'The sea is a good place to think about the future' is epic - much darker than their previous stuff, both lyrically and musically.

5. Er, I bought a new razor. Is that good? It only cost me £4. That's good, right?

6. Yeah, I've run out of things to say. I like how the posts got progressively shorter. I didn't think this through.

Sparrows Over Birmingham

2009-08-28T00:49:00.005+01:00

I was 22 yesterday.
I spent the day trawling through the depths of various hard drives, collecting all the stray music files and assimilating them to my new laptop.
I'm now rediscovering the joy of shuffling through my entire music collection.

Ash are on right now. I remember when Ash brought out Free All Angels. Moments on that album still make me shiver now. The key change in 'Candy', the bit where the guitars kick in on 'Walking Barefoot'. Probably other bits too.

Lambchop are on now. I saw them at York Barbican when I was in sixth-form. It was one of the worst gigs I've been to. No atmosphere. Volume issues. Calling their double album, Aw C'mon and No, You C'mon was rather magnificent though.

Longview are now, in aural terms at least, blasting in my ears. Other than 'Further', which they released roughly eight million times, they didn't have too much going for them.

I'm starting my MA soon.
Victorian Studies. Manchester University.

I've been waiting so long to start, with great impatience, and now, days away, and I'm inexplicably anxious. I worry too much and I lack courage, in certain situations. It's not that I'm incapable, it's more that I'd resolve situations a lot more convincingly if I had the confidence not to care, or over-analyse perceptions. I guess this rather juvenile blog format isn't going to help that.

I'm going to sleep now.
I promised music advice and a Glastonbury write-up many moons ago.
Broken promises/lack self-motivation/must try harder.

And finally:

Divine Comedy - 'National Express'. Great song.

All Your Keyfabe Friends

2009-05-12T02:03:00.012+01:00

A brief reflection upon the current political climate; the matter of MPs' expenses has elicited the following personal responses, which I shall hopefully recount as concisely, precisely and potently as is possible:

The Culprits

1. Although press coverage ensures that all MPs will be tarred with the same brush, or paved with the same tarmac, it my opinion that it is possible to split MPs into certain camps concerning this issue.

a) There are those who have been making claims from the second home allowance which do not at all comply with either the motive of such an allowance, and/or contravene the legislation underpinning such a system. These people are thieves, and should be investigated as such, either by an independent tribunal or by the police. In truth, this group is the smallest, largely thanks to the following point/group.

See: Keith Vaz

b) There are those who have made claims which, although may pass as 'legal' (largely due to the ropey wording of the expenses legislation and the subsequent loopholes) are morally corrupt and/or contradict the idea of such a system - to provide an allowance for those MPs from constituencies outside of London to live or travel to Parliament when necessary. Also included in this group are those who have played the system in order to make a profit from the property market, using the allowance to improve their property and increase its value. It also includes those who have purchased a second home using the allowance (as they are entitled to) but then neglect to use the home (or do so only just enough to justify the expenses claim) and are thus using the property as an investment.

See: Margaret Moran

Legally, there isn't really ground for police intervention (thanks again to the shoddy legislation). Therefore it is the jurisdiction of party leaders to take the action that they deem necessary. Although this is unlikely to happen, in my opinion the firmer the action the better, from all political groups. However, it is especially pertinent that Brown acts swiftly and sharply; as leader of the governing party, the focus is quite rightly on him, both in terms of allowing this to happen under his watch and in terms of his reaction. From a personal point of view, a cull of the chief culprits from the party is fundamental to restore face to both the party and politics in general.

To surmise, none of the MPs who fit in either of the above groupings have the moral authority or reputation to represent and make decisions for the electorate.

I am reminded of a poster on many bus shelters in Manchester at the moment, a piece of government/police propaganda to which I take great offence. It portrays a stereotypical 'working class' or 'chav' family scowling menacingly accompanied by a tag line claiming that the government are clamping down on benefit thieves. It reeks of classism. Anyway, I feel it would be much more pertinent were it to keep the tag line and replace the 'chavs' with an image of Keith Vaz, Derek Conway et al, looking rather smug about themselves stood outside their 'second homes'.

The Victims

1. The British public. It's easy to look at the whole affair and be shocked at such claims, but when you remember that the funding for such costs came directly from the taxes we all pay (or shall have to pay for those of you who are still students) it becomes abhorrent.

2. New Labour - final nail. MPs from all parties were involved, but Labour will be remembered as the sole culprit by the public whereas the foul play within other parties is already being glossed over and shall soon be forgotten. And for once I'm not going to complain about that - Labour let this happen on their watch. In fact, despite promises to clean up promises, next to no legislative bills or Commons proposals have been made to attempt to achieve that goal. Instead, spin was just used to cover or distract from the sleaze and corruption.

I'm not completely opposed to political parties engagement with the media; because of the culture and society in which we live having a brand image and smart PR is necessary (although meeting that need ultimately only serves to perpetuate that culture). However, using the media to mislead the public, or to protect the guilty from prosecution, is an abuse of that relationship.

3. There are those MPs who have not abused their power and have not illegal or morally questionable claims. The nature of the press coverage and subsequent public reaction has not, and will not, reflect this. One feels for those MPs, whichever party they represent, who will have lost the trust of the electorate due to the actions of their peers. Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson, who were already being touted as possible future leaders of the Labour party appear to have kept expenses to a minimal, and Hilary Benn has been particularly frugal.

4. Politics as a brand suffers. Those of us engaged with or intent on pursuing a career in politics are already aware of the stigma attached to admitting such interests and ambitions; this whole scandal exacerbates this - dream evidence for the cynics, a kick in the teeth for those who are involved in politics because they truly feel that they can make a difference.

Furthermore, such bad press discourages future generations from becoming associated with politics - America's political renaissance was brought about by an active decision/need by both parties to communicate to the younger generation, but scandals like this actively deters from developing politics as a brand which young people of Britain feel is 'cool' (or at least acceptable) to engage in.

The Outcome/Questions/Solutions

1. The Conservatives will win the next General Election. This much was apparent long before the current crisis. However, Labour's reaction to this situation will determine how much of a landslide the 2010 election is, and how many years they spend in opposition. As previously mooted, swift, decisive action is needed - something which in truth has not been a factor of Brown's leadership.

2. The Allowances system needs changing. I have two queries/suggestions on this.

a. We need to determine how an abuse of the current system occurred unchecked. The House of Lords, as an unelected chamber, is to act as a check for the laws proposed by the Commons. Whether one agrees with the idea of an unelected chamber or not, surely it could also be the role of the Lords to monitor good practice of all MPs.

b. A new system is required. Plans to implement a European-style attendance allowance were discarded before any in-depth debate was possible, largely due to a combination of their association with the European Parliament (which sadly still remains unpopular in Britain) and the fact that, when described as an attendance allowance, the notion that MPs could attain further money simply for turning up and performing the duties outlined in their job description was never going to sell well with the British public.

c. My proposal here might seem naive, but I would appreciate any feedback clarifying why it is not feasible. The main issue appears to be that of reimbursing those MPs who represent areas of the country outside the Greater London area who need to spend time both in their constituencies and at Westminster. At the moment this is done by allowing them to reclaim costs spent on transport to Parliament and towards accommodation spent on a second home within the city.

Transport costs are hard to avoid, although I do believe that MPs have a environmental duty to use public transport whenever possible. However, in terms of housing, surely a large housing complex within the city could be built/renovated, and all elected MPs could be allocated a room at the start of their four or five year term; they could even be relatively luxury rooms or a swish city apartment - I think the whole development would be cheaper than the amount paid out each year in MPs' expenses - it certainly would be in the long term. Furthermore, if only a small added bonus, the development would create a fair few jobs, thus contributing towards aiding our struggling economy.

The argument that MPs need larger houses to accommodate their families doesn't wash - if the family intends to live in London then you can't really claim it is a second home. Of course exceptions can and must be made for those with young families, especially working mothers, but the housing complex could even cater for these issues, with childcare provision. Security might be an issue, but I'm sure the Met can provide sufficient services - it manages with Parliament and Downing Street security rather adequately on a regular basis.

3. A final suggestion, but not one I can take claim for. Jonathan Freedland, in 'Expenses abuses make deselection the natural choice', (Guardian, Monday 11 May 2009) proposes a change to the electoral system to allow deselection of MPs, whilst also unleashing a pretty sweet Darwin pun. The best argument for this, which I have abridged from his article, is as follows:

Margaret Moran, one of those shamed by the expenses revelations, will probably stand as the Labour party candidate for Luton South in the next General Election. The only option for the electorate of Luton South not to re-elect this corrupt politician will be to vote for the Conservatives. However, Luton South is traditionally Labour, and so by voting Tory to avoid Moran, the electorate have had their true 'choice' diminished - they may well be sacrificing their political leanings or beliefs. A primary system similar to that used in the USA would allow the public to elect who they wish to represent each party in their area, and then in the General Election, to select which person from all the competing parties they wish to represent them in Parliament.

The article is an interesting read, and comes highly recommended. By me. And if you've read this far you obviously value my opinion. Or are lost.

I'll leave it at that. I'll write about some music next time. I have lots to say about that too.

Until then...

The Needle and the Damage Done

2009-04-13T04:21:00.002+01:00

The early hours arrive but sleep does not. I could lie and say that I was kept awake by an overwhelming desire to document advances in my life, but in truth I slept in far too late yesterday and am consequently not tired enough to sleep now. I've been predominantly working nights this week, which may explain the distorted sleep patterns.

It's been rather sunny in Manchester of late. Maybe over the rest of the United Kingdom too. I do not know, and nor do I mind. I've not made the most of it, I've become quite bad at fitting other activities in outside of work. Excluding sleeping and eating bowls of pasta. And downloading great quantities of music. More on that later. But anyway, weather. It's over a year since I wrote the above sentence for the first time in my blog (and then preceded to use the phrase a rather unnecessary amount of times in that same entry) and much has happened. I avoid using the word changed - too dramatic, and highly misleading. Most things are indeed constant, not just over the course of a year, or five, but a lifetime. Maybe 2015, when I undergo gender reassignment, tragically go through the change twenty years earlier than is the norm, and adopt two Malawian orphans called Rolf and Ralf, then I can probably correctly define my year by change.

Anyway, enough of this nonsense. Less context, more content. Working at Varsity: fine, if a little monotonous. My house: very homely, thanks. Although, alas, just over three months remain of the contract. I have been accepted onto my Masters, and subsequently applied for funding (however unlikely it will be awarded, it is worth taking a chance on). My priority should now be to sort out housing for next September. Halls do not appeal to me, unless I can become a hall tutor and save money/get some much needed CV content. However, I don't know many people who will be around Manchester next year, so it will probably living in a house with random people. This could be risky, but having spoken to other people who have done the same thing, it could equally be brilliant. Very exciting, whatever the outcome.

I've been listening to Neil Young a great deal; although I've always liked what I knew of his work (predominantly Harvest Moon), I felt it pertinent to delve deeper into the extensive back catalogue before Glastonbury this year. The line up for that is turning out to be immense - also confirmed are Doves, Elbow, Blur, Animal Collective, Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. I'm reading Jude The Obscure, flicking through The Economist and watching Doctor Who repeats religiously. And I've found time to grow a bit of facial hair. Wizard.

And so onto music. That Franz album I've mentioned in earlier blogs - awful. Download Katherine Kiss Me though, brilliant song. And then wake me up when they finally do an album of semi-acoustic numbers. Yeah Yeah Yeah's It's Blitz had to be a classic with such a title. It's probably their best work, and certainly their most immediate. Hysteric is the highlight, the refrain "You suddenly complete me" and accompanying synth making it the most unashamedly emphatic romantic song of the year. (So far). It's far removed from YYY's earlier punkier incarnations, but their ability to write brilliant songs should really transcend the boundaries of their traditional fan base without compromising any of the way in which they are revered by the critical media.

Bat For Lashes' Two Suns is equally fantastic; it seems to be channeling Kate Bush through haunting, quivering, almost breathless vocals, sporadic drum beats, and a heavy use of synth. Not to mention the constant astronomical references which appear in almost all the tracks, and give the lyrics a certain thematic consistency, if not quite the status of a concept album. Sirens and the opening track Glass are good starting points - I find the new single Daniel to be slightly anomalous.

Finally, Doves' Kingdom Of Rust marks a very strong return for Manchester's most atmospheric indie-rock outfit. Whereas Elbow's strength lies in Guy Garvey's lyrics - acute observances of character traits and the subtler aspects of situations - accompanied by a band desperate to experiment with sound to match these intricate details rather than drown them, Doves set out to create a soundtrack for the vast expansive cityscape. Powered by an amazing rhythm section, certain tracks are also inspired by aspects of the late 80s/early 90s Manchester rave scene, and the Doves' earlier outfit Sub Sub. The opener Jetstream employs the beats and bass akin to those of early New Order, and slowly progresses to an amazing crescendo. Elsewhere, Winter Hill morphs a potentially depressing content (love lost etc etc) into a resounding celebration of what has been, with no sense of remorse or regret. 10.03 spins on its axis from a slow intro to a pounding drum solo and heroic climax adorned with the distorted yelp of "I'm coming home..." As a celebration of homecoming, it's right up there with Elbow's Station Approach.

I'd also recommend a band called Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, who I've been listening to quite a bit. I hate the statement, "If you like x, you'll love Y", but insert The Postal Service into that sentence and we'll pretend I never thought or implied it.

I'll leave you be for now. Just for now though.

Au revoir. x

On Stupidity

2009-03-06T20:17:00.007Z

A particularly offensive feature on BBC News inspired me to vent my anger on here tonight. The story concerns a young child, aged four, who keeps running away from his school. Essentially, the teachers have been instructed not to chase him or pick him up, but simply to follow him and, if necessary, let the police ensure he is collected safely. Cue uproars from small minded fellows and some groups of parents that this represents the oh-so-real culture of “PC Gone Mad” or “Idiotic ‘Elf and Safety.”

These people aren’t thinking of the children (although they’d like to think they are, hand in hand with their offspring as they stroll down the street followed by TV cameras) – what they are actually thinking is, “If I can keep this up I’m definitely going to be on TV tonight.” Either that or some sense of inclusion in a stupid public outcry, even when it doesn’t at all involve them (as far as I can see it only involves the actual child and his relatives, not the other random mothers from the school who put their best boob tube on to try and secure a vox pop on BBC news). Pat on the back to all of you, you’re really part of something important. You’ve really standing up against something. You’ve got the support of the Daily Mail. What an achievement!

If people actually listened to the statements from the school and council, and applied logic, maybe they’d understand why that policy is in place. For a start, to those up in arms that the teachers aren’t allowed to chase after the child when it’s left the gates, let’s see – what does a four year old child (especially one who has a tendency to explore and wander in the first place) do when chased? That’s right, it runs away from you. Especially someone he knows, he’ll think it’s a game. And where does he run, straight into that big busy road you were worried about in the first place. Well done, you’ve just chased your child under a bus!

Far better to follow at a distance, don’t excite the child into any more danger, liaise with the police, who are trained in protecting people (that’s their job you know) and if necessary they can then close the road off or secure the area and then the child can be picked up safely.

Partly culpable was the dreadful BBC coverage. People say the BBC is biased, but they usually refer to Politics (with a capital P). I’d disagree, but that’s for another time. They’re definitely biased when it comes to ‘public outcry’ stories over foolish little things. Some of their reporting is almost Mail-like, designed to inspire and perpetuate the calls of “Britain’s gone daft” from the same people who believe the headlines about immigrants in the Daily Express.

As recently happened with a friend of mine, the BBC edited the clip to sympathise entirely with the mothers-up-in-arms, with a reporter using a tone of voice which dictates the reaction of the viewer – incredulity. It edits the council’s response to cut out all explanation which might have rendered the feature with a sense of balance. It then fills the remaining few minutes with vox-pops of mothers spouting either absolute bullshit, or fear mongering statements (because nothing impresses upon the mind like fear, unfortunately) based upon absolute bullshit.

Take the panic inducing question posed by one woman (a question which magnificently manages to avoid the actual issue and introduce a far bigger threat: that of schools being infiltrated by people who wish to harm children) which reads as follows:

“If a child aged four can get out, this raises the question of just who can get in?”

This accompanied by calls for improved fencing around the school, which sadly the school has now yielded to. There’s nothing more depressing than huge fences and gates around schools. We’re not America. They’re illogical. Futile. They are put up, at great cost (money that should instead be spent on educating the pupils) because people like Mrs TV personality of 6^th March (she’ll never forget this day, she was on da telly, innit) think, or are led to believe that they will keep dangerous people out of the school. Well, I’ve got a shock for you. The chances of a rapist, gunman, whatever, coming into the school, are the same with or without such things. People who perform such deeds are sick minded, and if willing to do something that sick, are going to have a lot of resolve. Do people really think that John Smith with his pistol and a hit list will get to the school, stop at the entrance and think, “Oh fuck, didn’t realise it was surrounded by a fence and gates. Guess I’ll just go home and watch Countdown then.”?

If a school, or hospital, or whatever, is unlucky enough to be targeted by someone who is planning to do such an extreme thing in the first place, then a security fence will not make one bit of difference – they will find a way.

A second quote was also particularly funny:

“At the end of the day, it’s an infant school, and they should be securely locked in.”

Whilst we’re at it, let’s take the windows out. Because that’s what I want from my schools. That’s what’s best for encouraging a child’s development and creativity. Schools like prisons. It’s the way forward.

And I’m just waiting for someone to comment with the immortal line, “You wouldn’t understand, you don’t have a child.” There’s a very funny comedian who points out the idiocy of people who say such things.

Sometimes I wish the general public weren’t just so foolish. They destroy my faith in democracy.

Strangeways to Holcombe Hill in 4:20

2009-02-09T06:53:00.004Z

To set the scene: it's approaching seven in the morning. I'm perched on the left hand side of my bed (not quite a double), tilting my neck roughly forty-five degrees away from my laptop towards a extremely obtrusive and unsightly computer monitor, which was manufactured sometime between the optimism of '97 and the anticlimactic political lethargy of the post-Millennium decade. The laptop set before me is barely fifty percent functional, its main default being the blank broken screen that irritatingly flickers for split seconds at irregular intervals. Hence the ugly monitor, awkward head tilting and my anomalous bitter tone. I do apologise.

Radio 4 is reporting on the devastating fires in Australia and three sets of headphones (admittedly an excessive amount) are strewn across the floor of my new bedroom in my new house in Manchester. And, whilst I'm glad to be back, my experience thus far can also be described as new. It feels very different being here and not being a student, and because of work I've not yet had the chance to rediscover various aspects of the city I love.

My transfer from Varsity York to Manchester seems to have gone reasonably smoothly, and I will not jinx the matter by providing any further details - details which would probably be banal, tedious and boring anyway. Why use one word when three with very similar definitions will make you look more pretentious, eh?! It's rather odd to be away from Varsity York. I suppose having spent so much of my time in that one building over the last four months, alongside a really decent set of people, went under-appreciated until I moved away. I didn't get as much time to say goodbye to certain people in York, but fear not, I like trains. Trains are mint.

The new house is fantastic, if a little cold at times. Such is the disadvantage of having laminate flooring, as sophisticated as it looks. My bedroom overlooks Yew Tree Road, which is a relatively busy route running parallel to Oxford/Wilmslow Road, and gets reasonably busy in the morning. At night the edges of my curtain blind are tinged with a crimson glow (crimson, how cliché...) from the street lights, and this makes me immensely happy. One negative thing is that there appears to be a pigeon lodging in our roof, which irritatingly taps thrice every ten seconds, repeatedly, for the first few hours of sunlight. You can't have it all.

I've just finished reading Engleby, by Faulks, which is rather magnificent. Much like Atonement, the twist may have been rather obvious before one feels the author intended, it is executed most superbly, in one of the most chilling (and simplistic) sentences I have ever read. (A second slight surprise is actually very similar, nay identical to Atonement.) Furthermore, although in terms of plot predicting the twist may seem to hamper its impact, as a concept overall (having read the final chapter) the style in which it is written is essential to perfecting the concept. I remain deliberately vague in the hope that you will be driven by intrigue to read it for yourself. You deserve to.

Music-wise, I shall not burden you with overlong reviews, especially not at this early hour. Starsailor's fourth album, All The Plans, finds the band entrenched in familiar territory, but given the strength of their previous album, On The Outside, this is no bad thing. If anything, their songwriting has gained a degree of subtlety, and the band revel in the removal of public expectation or demand for them to take up the mantle of the next Coldplay (itself partly a result of changing popular musical tastes, alongside the fact that Coldplay have redefined their sound far away from that which saw bands such as Starsailor come to the fore of the British music scene in the early 2000s).

Animal Collective's Post Merryweather Pavillion is exquisite. The new Lilly Allen record, much like its predecessor, contains some very strong tracks, expertly written and produced, alongside a number of filler tracks. As with her debut, it does not hold together at all as an album; this is not a massive criticism as one imagines Allen's appeal (both for the majority of fans and her record label) lies in individual tracks (that can then be packaged as singles, or exist purely to sell the record) rather than as an 'album artist'. However, I would like to see Allen strive to make a coherent album rather than just a collection of songs, as I think she has the musical intelligence to do so. Furthermore, she sometimes centres on themes, which, if they were allowed to shape and develop over an album rather than now and again on a single, could create an album which she deserves to be remembered by, rather than the unavoidable greatest hits collection. Allen's at her best when she's being introspective rather than abrasive about others - which is why The Fear works, and why Such A Shame seems removed from any unique personality Allen has; it could be any Allen/Nash/faux-local-accented female artist.

The jury is still out on the new Franz Ferdinand album. It's not looking good for them though. Expect a scathing review in the next blog, whenever that may be.

Thanks for reading. Sorry this one's been a bit pretentious.

For Emma, For Ever.

2009-01-18T23:40:00.003Z

Good evening. Welcome to 2009, and indeed to my 'blog', for those of you privileged enough to have stumbled upon it for the first time. Entries are sporadic, usually parenthetical and always self-indulgent. Please forgive me this.

I will endeavour, however, to ensure that this entry contradicts the latter two descriptions. I've been a-reading through correspondence written long ago, times that have long since been condensed in my mind into a series of images upon a timeline, occurring at rather neatly designated points equidistant from each other. Linear seems a good word to insert here. It's a good word.

I've been packing and tidying and sorting and sifting. And I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I've unearthed a lot that I'd forgotten about - about other people and about myself. The activity made me realise that I have changed since I was 16. Other than having much better facial hair now, as opposed to none then.

I have a gorgeous house in Manchester. I move soon. This is all very good.

I made an end of year music blog, but I gave up trying to put it on here. I don't have the time to play around on computers like I did when I was 16. That's a difference. Anyway, the list is here.

I got a Casio watch for Christmas and it is bleeping all over Bon Iver. It's stopped. The watch, not Bon Iver. Christmas and New Year were enjoyable - I worked a lot but that was fine. Saw close friends, although nowhere near as much as I would have liked.

Anyway, that's it for now. Take care.

Escape

2008-11-18T01:12:00.003Z

February 1st 2009 is a significant date. It's Laura Marling's twenty-ninth Birthday. It's the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. It marks forty-nine years since the Greensboro sit-ins.

It's also the day I intend to return to Manchester.

I've recently started a job at Varsity, which is a vast improvement on my summer position at the hospital, although probably not as profitable. Although my first few shifts have been daunting, they've also been enjoyable and fellow employees are all really sound so far. I do have to wear a shirt that engulfs me though, and a bum bag. But I'm dressed entirely in black, which does give me an edge of sorts.

I travelled down to London last week to see Kanye West, who, one rather unnecessary rant concerning critics aside, was magnificent. The gig itself was more akin to a slightly camp musical, with West the universe-travelling protagonist, stranded on Earth and looking for the means by which he could escape. His space ship was called Jane too. She almost stole the show (Kanye: "I need some pussy, man!"... Jane: "Maybe... I.... Can... Help..." - Cue Gold Digger), but unfortunately for her Mr. West has written some pretty impressive songs. He debuted a new track, Streetlights, which continued in the same vein as Love Lockdown; although it could only politely be described as "extended" (with much of it appearing to be improvised), the lyrical content was deeply personal and his singing voice outstanding. Also, the track gave us the first of several shout-outs to Barack Obama's victory.

Congratulations to Mr. Obama by the way.

Estelle turned up to sing American Boy, got into the juvenile spirit displayed by Mr. West by yelling out the rather blunt command for us to, "Fuck the critics" as she bounded off stage. At this stage I dropped my amazing blue shutter shades and spent the rest of the gig worrying about them. I didn't miss too much - Love Lockdown was a poor choice for a closer, and Kanye's voice struggled with the quieter verses. Our collective of fine young persons muscled our way through crowds and caught a train to Kent. I'd never been to Kent before. I didn't see much of it due to the fact it was dark though. Shame. Hanging around in London the next day was really pleasant, and Leon is one of my new favourite eateries. I love the term eatery. I also got an Oyster card, which I found rather marvellous, although I'm not sure why. It could well be the stereotypical male side of me emerging, presenting itself in the form of an instinctive affinity with any small device with a computer chip inside it.

What else to tell? I'm single but the only person likely to read this blog will probably have heard about that by now. My financial situation is hard to assess; I'm out of both of my overdrafts and have a reasonably steady income coming in (assuming I manage to hold down this Varsity job), but I know Christmas time will probably be quite expensive. I'd also like to have roughly five hundred pounds saved before I move to Manchester, just to cover the first month so there's no pressure about having to take the very first job I am offered.

Sorry that this blog has been predominantly about me. I hope I'm not too self-absorbed at the moment. I do feel I need to get away from this area (i.e. East Yorkshire), it's not really home for me anymore, and there's quite a lot here that I'd like to leave behind. That sounds harsh on my family and those friends that still live here - both will always be home to me, no matter where geographically they or I may be. But I do miss Manchester so much, it's just the only place I've been where I've felt entirely at home, and certainly the only place that I'm happy to be defined by.

A record by Elbow sums up how I feel really - it's called Forget Myself. It encapsulates how I feel about Manchester. I'm in awe of many cities, and I love the knowledge that I am so small in comparison to them in many terms - their population, their function, their history, their economic importance, I could go on. Cities are civilizations' greatest achievement - a melting pot of cultures, teaming with attitude, vast economic powerhouses, with thousands if not millions of humans sharing the experiences and amenities designed by people for the welfare and betterment of people. However, in Manchester, unlike other cities, I never feel dwarfed or insignificant. I always feel a part of the city, a vital part of its DNA, along with everyone else there. The city, whilst flexing her muscles and proudly showing off her grandeur, is equally happy to let you own it, as much as it owns you. That's what the Elbow lyrics mean to me - it's subjective I guess, as most art forms are, but I would imagine that Elbow had the country's second city in mind as well. They're from Bury by the way.

I've blogged on a bit now. I'll draw it to a close. More news:

I renewed my Labour Party membership following Gordon Brown's handling of the economic crisis. It's almost (hush, don't say it too loud now) socialism in action. At least capitalism appears to be on its last legs. Bad for all those that rely upon such a system (including Britain to be fair), but at least a fairer and more sustainable economic system can now be introduced.

OK, that is all. I'm tired.

February 1st 2009. Big day that.

Antidotes

2008-02-20T01:05:00.000Z

It's been rather sunny in Manchester of late. And indeed throughout this country, or so I'm led to believe. This has resulted in an entirely predictable yet still amusingly irrelevant frenzy in the right-wing media. Pictures of adorable blond children licking ice creams or straddling donkeys (or, if one is lucky, doing both) adorn the front pages of some less-reliable (to put it politely) tabloids. A cynic might view such pictures as disturbing. Aside from unashamedly promoting an Aryan ideal of British identity, one could read inappropriately sexual perspectives of such photos - they usually replace the spaces left in such papers for the middle-aged middle or upper-class totty (sometimes alive - again, only as a bonus) and the subjects of such photos are usually scantily clad and obviously enjoying themselves. They're a paedophile's dream. But then Freud would probably argue that the appeal of such images to less explicitly deviant readers of the Mail and the Express is a subconscious sexual arousal or attraction to the youth which these subjects exude, alongside the attraction of enjoying viewing such unattainable (read: forbidden) prey.

That analysis may be harsh on the readership of such papers. These photos may truly be of delight to such people, either by inducing nostalgia of 'those good old days', or maybe seeing the much derided 'Youth Of Today' (admittedly a tiny minority of it - you know, the ones who aren't gay, killing themselves, killing others or being offered free holidays for misbehavior in school - in fact, just the ones who are white, blond and not old enough to either smoke or have unprotected sex) enjoy themselves truly makes these people happy. A more believable possibility is that these pictures are symbolic - the girl smiling (with melting vanilla ice cream slipping slowly from her lips) represents optimism, overtly about the weather but perhaps also generally about the state of the country. The latter concept can be scrapped immediately - we're talking about the doom-mongering right-wing media here. The former is plausible, but then when one views the accompanying shock headlines or scare stories, (more prominent in the Express than the Mail, it has to be said) one gets the notion that such extraordinary (read: mildly surprising, easily explicable) weather fronts are yet another tool with which these papers wish to evoke fear amongst gullible people living in Northern Yorkshire and the Home Counties. The use of such seemingly optimistic photos displaying young girls having fun seem to contravene this policy - thus one searches for an ulterior motive. Thus we can conclude, Mail and Express readers are either a) racist or b) paedophiles or c) both. That's it Nathan, fight extremism and unsubstantiated polemic with the like, except in a less-influential internet blog format.

That, dear reader, wasn't the conclusion - it was just me attempting to cut short my ramblings; at one point, I can remember thinking I was going somewhere with this topic.

Ah yes.

It's been rather sunny in Manchester of late. And indeed throughout this country, or so I'm led to believe. And this has presented me the opportunity to do several things which make me happy. I've been traipsing around the various parks of Manchester with my new friend Kevin, consuming kettle chips and making vague, ambitious but fundamentally significant and desirable plans for the future. I've been sitting atop double-decker buses, listening to Josh Rouse and watching the world go by, choosing to ignore the fact that the chances of arriving at the lecture theatre on time are growing increasingly slim. I've fished out all my light-coloured polo necked t-shirts from the bottom of the wardrobe, and hung them up to try and air out the creases. I've sat on the grass outside my university building, working the pretentious laid-back look, whilst inwardly shitting myself about the progress I am (not) making on my dissertation. I'm leaving my blinds open some nights, so I'm woken up by bright sunlight. I'm finding new areas to sit in the libary, which face west so that when the sun sets the room turns amber, then darkens to crimson and the book I'm supposedly engaging with drops out of my hand as my attention wanes. And this atmosphere reminds me of all that I have to look forward to this summer, and of summers gone by, and, oh, just summer really.

Then I hit an invisible wall, an airbag envelops me, on the centre of which someone has helpfully printed the motif, "Get The Fuck On With It." Metaphorically. Both in terms of the wall, the airbag, and the message. 'It' is predominantly my dissertation, which is going pretty well. It can be tedious and daunting, but that is the nature of such a beast. I'm fascinated by my subject, and that bodes well. My other courses are also enjoyable, although I am aware that everything I study revolves around either death or sex. Fascinating though these topics undeniably are, the former has evoked some rather morbid and discomforting visions in my mind. I should daydream less.

Money is still an issue, but I'm returning home to try and resolve this. There are lots of significant birthdays coming up for people whom I love and owe a lot to. I'll try my best to do these people justice, always. Football is a highlight of my week again, as incomprehensible as this may be to those who don't share my passion. I've scored a fair few recently too, which is always a bonus. I still don't know what I want to 'do' or 'be', except that I would quite like to be happy. Please.

So, that's my news really: It's been rather sunny in Manchester of late.

Game Over

2008-02-04T04:36:00.000Z

Isn't life a bitch sometimes?

"I once read that the most widely understood word in the whole world is "okay," followed by "Coke," as in cola. I think they should do the survey again, this time checking for "Game Over."

Game Over is my favorite thing about playing video games. Actually, I should qualify that. It's the split second before Game Over that's my favorite thing.

Streetfighter Two--an oldie but goldie--with my friend Leo controlling Ryu. Ryu's his preferred character because he's a good all-rounder--great defensive moves, pretty quick, and once he's on an offensive roll he's unstoppable. My brother Theo's controlling Blanka. Blanka's faster than Ryu, but he's only really good on attack. The way to win with Blanka is to get in the other player's face and just never let up. Flying kick, leg sweep, spin attack, head bite. Daze them into submission.

Both players are down to the end of their energy bars. One more hit and they're down, so they're both being cagey. They're hanging back at opposite ends of the screen, waiting for the other guy to make the first move. Leo takes the initiative. He sends off a fireball to force Theo into blocking, then jumps in with a flying kick to knock Blanka's green head off. But as he's moving through the air he hears a soft tapping. Theo's tapping the punch button on his control pad. He's charging up an electricity defense so when Ryu's foot makes contact with Blanka's head it's going to be Ryu who gets KO'd with 10,000 volts charging through his system.

This is the split second before Game Over.

Leo's heard the noise. He knows he's fucked. He has time to blurt, "I'm toast," before Ryu is lit up and thrown backward across the screen, flashing like a Christmas tree, a charred skeleton. Toast.

The split second is the moment you comprehend you're just about to die. Different people react to it in different ways. Some swear and rage. Some sigh or gasp. Some scream. I've heard a lot of screams over the twelve years I've been addicted to video games.

I'm sure that this moment provides a rare insight into the way people react just before they really do die. The game taps into something pure and beyond affectations. As Leo hears the tapping he blurts, "I'm toast." He says it quickly, with resignation and understanding. If he were driving down the highway and saw a car spinning into his path I think he'd react in the same way.

Personally, I'm a rager. I fling my joypad across the floor, clench my eyes shut, throw my head, and yell abuse at anything within abusing distance.

A few years ago I had a game called Alien 3. It had a great feature. When you ran out of lives you'd get a photo-realistic picture of the Alien with saliva dripping from its jaws, and a digitized voice would bleat, "Game Over, man!"

I really used to love that."

Alex Garland, The Beach

I love those coded references. I also love that I will win my bet, and be at the library by 7.00. Super February will be intense, but ultimately it will show my stubbornness, and perhaps more prominently my stupidity.

My mother once told me, "If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say it at all." She didn't, but for the purposes of this paragraph introduction, it was her defining maxim. Anyway, in light of such advice, I wont mention money. Except for then. Instead, I'll muse on aspects of my life about which I have plenty of nice things to say. After what may be an intensive week of work, both in terms of quantity and the micro-history on which I shall be focusing, I have an extended weekend of rewards, respite, great company and succulent langoustine to look forward to. Football is also going well at the moment; although I have lost fitness over the Christmas period, it's not as bad as I feared. Two weeks in the sun at the Benicassim festival during July are possibly the most exciting event to contemplate, and I think such enthusiasm will only build to possibly insufferable levels as time progresses. Super Tuesday is entirely deserving of the hype it is generating, and although the language and focus of the American media's interest is slightly sickening, the focus upon it, for whatever reason, is both justified and a healthy sign that the apathy which has recently dictated the disastrous political climate of the USA is finally fading. And yes, by using the term 'Super Tuesday' I realise I am perpetuating the "sickening" language used by the American media. On a similarly geeky note, I intend to write an essay on Bram Stoker's Dracula later this term. Well, it excites me anyway.

Been kept awake tonight/this morning fascinated by Melina Mercouri, and in particular her 1968 speech, A Greek Patriot. Have been trying to find a transcript for this blog, but unfortunately to no avail. There's a pretty poor selection of audio combined with some quite poor general commentary on the Greek political environment during it's fascist military rule here, but it doesn't do the speech justice, nor does it illustrate my point of interest- that several aspects of her speech, especially her concerns of the U.S governments' official stance towards the fascist rule, could be applied to contemporary conflicts and regimes. If you have both time and patience, you could use the 'listen again' feature on BBC Radio 5live, which played the speech in full at roughly 03.30, 04/02/08. If not, this posthumous Mercouri foundation is 'a Good Thing'.

As always. Take care.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

2008-01-21T03:22:00.000Z

I'm consistently sporadic nowadays when it comes to writing these. Straight in there with the oxymoron. You usually only get treated to two or three of these a year, so sit back, put your feet up, get yourself a drink and enjoy a few paragraphs revealing pretty pointless nuggets of information about my life.

I'm currently in the middle of exams. That sounds more impressive than it is, bearing in mind I just have the two this January. However, they are both finals, so that makes my situation appear slightly more ominous.

My recent contemplations centre around potential careers. Next year, having hopefully obtained a decent degree, I will either be undergoing yet further education hopefully leading towards a career, or taking a gap year, predominantly so I can figure out what I want to do with my life, and in the meantime haul myself out of the black hole that is my overdraft. I'm finding it hard deciding what I want to do with my life, as although certain prospects entice me, I'm not sure that I'm 100% committed to any. This bothers me on two accounts - primarily, I don't want to spend more money on courses, be it a journalism qualification or Post Graduate Certificate of Education, so I can be a secondary school history teacher, when that might not be the right path. Obviously, I have a large interest in both these areas, but I'm only about 90% interested in either, and I'm not sure that, as high a percentage as that may seem, that it is enough for me to fully commit to either. The second thing that bothers me, is that I could be taking away places on courses, or government grants that could go to somebody who is ultimately decided on their career.

There's one thing I would love to do, but I'd be living on cloud-cuckoo-land.

I'm thinking the best issue at the moment is to have a gap year, earning in a casual high street store job whilst doing a bit of work experience, probably in schools, both to look good on my CV and also to help me figure out. I think that I will end up living in Manchester, though with whom and for how long, I really couldn't say.

Whilst this may sound a bit bleak, in reality, it's very exciting. I'm just not sure I appreciate it yet - it seems extremely premature to think about such things when I should in fact be focusing on getting a decent degree.

In other riveting news, I am about to start researching my dissertation, 'Railways in the Victorian Imagination', studying perceptions/fears of the railways in popular culture of the nineteenth century. Don't wet yourself with excitement too much.

This is all sounding very depressing, which is not at all how I intended to come across. In happier news, I'm going to Spain in the summer, which is pretty much confirmed now, which is going to be fantastic. I'm extremely happy, if indeed that means anything these days. Everything's running along very smoothly, with a few issues, mainly university work/stress/debt related to iron out. And the new British Sea Power record is as fantastic as the reviews have suggested, which pleases me greatly. And my friends all seem happy, which is equally important.

I'm pretty much addicted to the US elections. The process to decide the candidates is extremely prolonged and complicated, and of course, given the hype they are causing almost a year before they actually occur, one can only imagine how insane it is going to be when November finally arrives. I'm backing Barak Obama at this point. I find the lack of policies being laid out quite frustrating, but then this is a US election, and it's always going to focus on personality and celebrity to a larger extent then it does policy. Still, Barak for me signifies a greater, more sustainable change than Hillary, although this is based purely on his public performances, and that he appears to have a stronger rapport with younger voters in America then Clinton. Which I suppose is all carefully spun rhetoric anyway.

What is important is that the debate becomes removed from whether people would prefer the first Black or the first Woman President of America, as that is irrelevant, and undermines the fact that they are standing for such a position based upon the change they represent, not the progression of society they represent. Great for modernity that neither race nor sex no longer seems to be a disadvantage even in the great right wing beast that is America, but entirely irrelevant when it comes to whom voters should elect. And yes, I'm aware that by discussing that very issue here I am, in part, perpetuating the issue.

Another long day of revision ahead of me tomorrow, with hopefully a break in the evening to watch some football. I'm 'jogging my memory' on the proposed (and rejected) County of London Plan. It was so good, so progressive, ahead of its time. But it was rejected. By conservatives I belief. To be replaced by a capitalist led initiative, which failed to address the issues of wealth divide which effectively were (after the need to renovate areas affected by bomb damage following the war) a primary cause for proposed developments of London in the first place. As one clever historian said, London lost ground to most other major Western capitals, until the 90s when it started to implement some of the suggestions of the County of London plan, some 50 years after initially proposed. Ace. None of you care. Right.

Night night all. (and one) x

Mathematics

2007-10-21T23:50:00.000+01:00

Fred Dibnah once said, "Teaching boys to bake cakes? That's no way to maintain an industrial empire." That has no relevance to the rest of this blog, but I hope you enjoyed it.

It's late, and in the absence of any determination to read the material for next weeks seminars, I've turned to another form of procrastination. It was only a matter of time.

Of late I've run into some financial difficulties, those being that I have £2.40 to last me 9 days. As a third year student, I'm well aware of the irritation some people find in students complaining about lack of money, and I'm also well aware that some students complain when in fact they have no real problems, but feel the need to live up to the stereotypical student profile. I've always tried to avoid this as much as possible, mainly because even though at times during university I've had less money or foreseen a cash flow problem, the fact is my loan from the government and small (but necessary) amount earned during the summer months has always been sufficient. However, this summer I earned very little, and only got the minimum loan from the government, which barely covers my rent for the year, let alone bills, food and recreation.

I can be more positive about music, and, if you don't mind, I'd like to recommend some artists/albums. Noah and the Whale are an acoustic indie-pop act from London, not dissimilar to Peter Bjorn and John, although this feels like a lazy analogy. '5 Years Time', which they released on the Young and Lost Club record label earlier this year is a good starting point, and indeed in an alternate universe it could well have attracted the attention of the mainstream - Jo Whiley evidently missed a trick. Whilst '5 Years Time' is their most immediate, with its contagious whistling and sing-a-long chorus, Noah and the Whale's songs are consistently impressive, their lyrics often provocative and musical direction unpredictable. 'Mary' turns on a six pence mid way through, from a slow, plodding strumming and disarming lyrics ("when I last saw Mary she lied and said it was her birthday") into to a lively jig. 'Rocks and Daggers' displays the bands ability to combine folk and pop majestically, ending in the repeated refrain "There's no need to break my heart" and a jaunty violin solo. The band cite Bonnie 'Prince' Billy as an influence, and this debt is evident in their songs.

Interpol's third album, 'Our Love To Admire', has been released for a while now, and whilst it is probably their worst, the innovation, energy and promise of 'Turn On The Bright Lights' and the perfection of 'Antics' meant that improvement was always going to be a challenge. The album as a whole lacks consistency and perhaps the flow of their previous two, but some of the songs stand up among their best - the middle section of 'Mammoth', 'Pace Is The Trick' and 'Rest My Chemistry' is formidable, and opener 'Pioneer To The Falls' displays the direction the album may have taken had the band perhaps deterred from the style so brilliantly employed on 'Antics' - it takes time to get going, but is even more powerful for doing so. Recommended, although newcomers to the band would be better going for the earlier albums.

'In Rainbows', Radiohead's seventh studio album has obviously had a huge amount of media attention, because of the way it has been released, and the fact it is Radiohead, so I'm not under any allusions that I'm 'recommending' it to anyone as such. Still, I'll give my opinion - for debate and all that jazz. It's brilliant. Of course. Whilst the sound quality of the free copy isn't perfect, it is a much better album than 'Hail To The Thief' in that it manages to mix together different musical incarnations of the band without appearing disjointed, which was very much the downfall of 'HTTT'. The highlight is the trippy 'All I Need' and the swirling climatic closer, 'Videotape', which despite its morbid theme ("This is my way of saying goodbye, cos I can't do it face to face, I'm speaking to you on videotape.") actually inspires hope rather than pessimism in the listener, something Radiohead excel in throughout.

I'll leave it at that for tonight. Comment Is Free.

This is a very good website, which I occasionally contribute to: Newsworthy?
These are a Very Good Thing.

And as always.