Sunday CD Project 27/02/11

My, my! It's that time of the week again! I didn't actually buy a CD this week, due to a lot of expensive outgoings (house deposits etc), but fear not, keen reader! Due to that wonderful backlog a few weeks ago, I still have one last CD to review! Here we go:

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Advance Base Battery Life

Two things about this record:

Firstly, it's not actually and album; it's actually a compilation of various demos and b-sides from the last few years. It still flows amazingly well as an album, which is why I was surprised when I discovered this by reading the liner notes.

Secondly, as the name of the band might suggest, it is not recommended listening for Valentine's Day. Ahem.

There are some more poppy tunes (Lesley Gore On The T.A.M.I. Show), some faux-anthems (The Only Way To Cry - the unexpected highlight of the record for me), and even a tongue-in-cheek hip-hop track (Hot Boyz).

It's nothing ground-breaking, but if you like your slightly moody, lo-fi stuff, definitely worth a listen. On the whole, a very sound record.

In non-Sunday CD Project, but still music-related news, if you ever get the chance to see Ben Folds live in concert, take it! I took a trip up to London last weekend, and honestly, it was one of the best shows I've been to in a long while*. His support act, Kate Miller Heidke is worth checking out as well. Her live album is better than her studio one (she actually has several studio albums, but only one is available in the UK), and it's on Spotify, so go check it out.

j.r.

*That statement is somewhat difficult to categorise, as 65daysofstatic and Ben Folds concerts have a very different vibe, but I hope you get the idea.

The Predictions of Robert Zemeckis

[This post contains plot spoilers for the Back To The Future films; if you haven't seen them, why not? Go and watch them, then come back]

Last night I watched Back To The Future II (and III). Those of you who have seen it will remember that Marty and Doc Brown travel forward to 2015. Seeing as we're not far from that year, I thought I'd look at a few of the things that Zemeckis predicted we'd have, and whether he was right or not.

Welcome to geek central, by the way!

Okay, so let's start with the obvious:

Fashion: Mostly wrong. However, self-tying laces might not be so far off: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38884033/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

Flying cars and hoverboards: No. I wish, but no.

Inflation: At one point, Old Biff takes a taxi to follow the DeLorean out to the sticks. It costs him $170. If the USA is anything like the UK, that prediction wasn't far off really. Well, maybe a little, but frankly, it doesn't sound all that insane, does it?

Video games: This is the one that really spooked me. In the '80s nostalgia bar, two boys manage to power up an old arcade point-and-shoot game. Answering their musings as to how it works, Marty steps in and shows them, getting a perfect round. At this point, the boys turn to him and say "You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a babies' game!" and walk off in disgust. 8-10 years ago, when I first saw the film, I thought 'hah, that's funny, but totally wrong.' Now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the XBOX 360 Kinect. Think about that.

Flat-screen TV: Okay, so they probably filmed it using a projector or green-screen or something, but they had them. The future McFly family aren't that well-off, but still have at least two home cinema systems, which is a bit daft, and Marty Junior split it into 6 channels simultaneously, which is more daft, but not far off.

Communications: Future Marty gets fired from his job, and receives multiple faxes to that effect. Apparently there's a fax machine in every room of the house. The kids have TV and phone built (with caller ID, I might add) into their visors/glasses, but they still use fax. It seems no-one saw the internet coming, nor catching on in the way it did.

Just a few little observations for you to ponder. Leave a comment if you think of anything I missed.

J.R.

Sunday CD Project

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

My policy with new albums is that the first listen has to be uninterrupted end-to-end on decent speakers and as little background noise as possible (I'm a bit pretentious like that). This week's CD arrived on Tuesday, but I didn't get a chance to listen to it in this fashion until Wednesday afternoon. Since then its play count on iTunes is in the region of 7 for the main album, and 11 for the 23-minute ambient faux-symphonic piece on disc 2.

From those numbers, don't expect an unbiased review. Honestly, this is my favourite album of the year so far. Another review I read dubbed it a complete change of direction for Mogwai, but I have to disagree with that a little. For sure, there are more up-tempo tracks than the Scottish post-rockers are prone to (San Pedro and Mexican Grand Prix are prime examples), and the aforementioned 23-minute Music For A Forgotten Future (The Singing Mountain) is uncharacteristically drum-free - not that I'm complaining.

However, it's definitely still Mogwai. The long riffs are still there, the ambient delay noises are still there, and the occasional vocal samples, albeit now with a touch of auto-tune – used properly I might add – give a clear sense of familiarity for those who were expecting a safe bit of Mogwai.

I'm not sure if it's their best album yet, but it's certainly up there, and I'd say one of the most accessible, so if you've never given them a listen, I'd put HWNDBYW up as a good starter.

J.R.

Sunday CD Project

It is still Sunday for another hour or so, and I have just listened to this album for the third time in as many days:

The Streets - Computers And Blues

It's the fifth final album from Mike Skinner's hugely popular project that in the past brought us the hilarious 'Fit But You Know It', the tearjerking 'Dry Your Eyes' and the profound 'On The Edge Of A Cliff'. From a production aspect, there are couple of singing parts that I thought could've used re-recording, but knowing Skinner, it's probably what he was going for, so I'll let it fly. Musically, the beats have once again not failed to impress, being diverse throughout, and hitting the vibe of the lyrics again and again.

Lyrics are, of course, the central pivot of all the Streets' material, and my being someone who struggles with listening to lyrics makes reviewing this record harder than most. Suffice to say, though, that at least two songs have stuck out as being very poignant (I may even blog about one song separately in days to come), and the final track – 'Lock The Locks' – tells the story of Skinner shutting the proverbial door on The Streets for the last time so eloquently I wanted to cry.

The crying could be attributed to the unbelievable sleep deprivation I'm suffering right now, but even so, this is a nugget of an album.

J.R.

Sunday CD Project

You will have noticed a lack of album reviews of late. This is not because I have stopped buying CDs! On the contrary, it is because evidently the suppliers seem unable to keep up. Anyway, two parcels arrived today, and one a couple of days ago, so here is a review to whet your appetite for Sunday, when I will have listened to another and will review that.

TV On The Radio - Young Liars

Bought on the assumption that it was an album, this is actually the debut EP from the New York-based indie rockers. After an intensely frantic opening track that took me by surprise somewhat, it settles down for tracks 2 to 4. The title track is my personal favourite song, but the whole record is rather lovely, and frankly, any EP with a gospel-style a'capella hidden track is worth a listen in my book.

Perhaps a little overpriced for an EP, but a record worth partaking of.

More to follow

J.R.

Simon Peter; what a lad!

Simon Peter has often been one of those characters in the Bible I've had a dig at. He's the mastermind behind such hilarious concepts as:

'Hey Jesus, you're glowing and there are two dead prophets with you; should I build you some tents?' [paraphrased from Mark 9, which is honestly one of my favourite passages in the Bible - not just for Peter being a muppet but generally as well]

There are a few other places where Peter made some more severe blunders than just saying something totally daft:

Moments after having one of the Bible's biggest moments, in which Jesus asks him "Who do you say that I am?" to which Simon Peter answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" [Matthew 16:13-19], Peter promises Jesus that he won't let Jesus be betrayed and die, to which Jesus famously replies "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling-block to me . . . " [Matthew 16:21-23]

After Jesus had told the disciples that it was time for him to die, a band of men come to capture Jesus, and Peter, after three years of listening to Jesus' teachings, decides to cut a man's ear off. I think it's fair to assume that he was probably aiming for the guy's head and was just a bit lousy with a sword. [Luke 22:47-53]

Later the same night, after promising Jesus that he'll stay by his side, he tells three different people that he's never even met Jesus, to save his own skin. [John 13:31-38 & 18:15-18,25-17]

There are other examples, but I think you get the picture. Peter was far from perfect.

Of course, later on he becomes a major leader in the early Church, and does a good job of it too. Now, I thought this was something he gradually grew into as he went into the world after Jesus returned to the Father. But yesterday I read this in Acts 2:

¹⁴ Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. ¹⁵ These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
¹⁹ I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
²⁰ The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
²¹ And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Wow. Where did Peter learn that stuff and why haven't we seen him use that knowledge before?! I think the answer is in the context of that passage, and that is that it is Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has just made His first grand appearance, and the followers of Jesus are all getting whacked. Most are speaking in tongues, but I think Peter received the more appropriate gift of not being a muppet any more!

I guess the point I'm trying to get to (in a REALLY roundabout way) is that God uses all of us, regardless of intelligence, qualifications, and whether we are pragmatic theologians or just really keen muppets.

Thanks, Peter! You've set a perfect benchmark for us.

J.R.

A new STOP THE TRAFFIK video

I was just thinking the other day that it's about time STOP THE TRAFFIK released a new video. Apparently a company called Sparks Productions thought the same thing, as this video was released today.

It's pretty dark, as can be expected, but far less disturbing than the one set in the secondary school that came out a few years back.

Sorry there hasn't been a Sunday CD recently. There have been some issues with delivery of parcels. I'm hoping something will arrive by Friday so I can review it for Sunday. There are some new releases either just out or to be released imminently, so that's something to look forward to.

J.R.