Albums of 2008

…or at least those according to Phil Seaman

10/Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazerus Dig!!!

Continuing in the same vein as Grinderman, this album continues Nick Cave’s recent success with an uptempo, aggressive stomp through the American post-grunge wilderness

9/British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

Poor sales figures could not distract critics from loving the latest album from British Sea Power, daring to walk the line between string-laced pomp and melodic introspection with more than a passing reference to Arcade Fire

8/TV On The Radio – Dear Science

Funky, dancable and yet highly listenable whilst chilling out, Dear Science has a depth that is often lacking in full length dance albums as a result of great songwriting and passionate performances

7/Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Thrust from the States with more than a little help from African music, basic melodies and simple instrumentation is the basis for one of the few highly original indie albums released this year

Leonard Cohen’s Christmas Wishes Come True

You’ve got to feel for Leonard Cohen, because he certainly hasn’t had things go his way over the last five or so years. The Canadian singer-songwriter and writer had probably been looking forward to a nice little retirement, quietly seeing out the rest of his days in the way that he spent most of the rest of his life.

Recognised as an introspective man capable of complex lyrics that could possibly touch on sex, religion and personal loss, or all three things at the same time, Cohen has, for right or wrong, been described many a time as the razor to cut those arteries.  Maybe this is because the man himself suffered for depression through much of his life.

Popular Music 2009 and beyond

Phil Seaman idly speculates

It’s probably true when looking at mainstream music, the mid-to-late 2000’s have been the worst years in music for a considerable time in terms of originality, long lasting appeal and progression.

Justice

It’s probably worth a book in itself to cover previous supposed lulls in musical creativity; for every person who thought that the mid-Eighties were full of synth pop with mullets and bad dancing, there’s a person who loves the fact that the mid-Eighties were full of synth pop with mullets and bad dancing.

Probably the last period that is referred to as being absolutely dire is, according to critic Tim Page, 1974. This is the period between Glam and Punk, between post-Motown soul and Funk/Disco, a musical no-mans land. Manufactured, soulless pop ruled supreme and the singer songwriter earned his/her reputation as being an overly emotional, twee twat.

The worst year in music since then is definitely 2006, in which manufactured pop under nobodies such as Shayne Ward flourished, James Blunt won TWO Brit awards, Hard-Fi held the key to success for Indie and even Leo Sayer managed a #1 hit. It was the same old, same old and whilst Electro flourished under the cover of darkness in up and coming seedy bars, there appeared to be no future, no brilliance and no individuality to anyone in the business.

Where the hell do we go from here?

Bloody Bendtner

By Phil Seaman

Bendtner: Not Good Enough

Arsene Wenger is well known for standing by players through thick and thin, and sometimes it pays off – take Flamini, an average utility player suddenly became one of the most composed defensive midfielders of last season from seemingly nowhere.

Indeed, Wenger has a proven talent for turning seemingly average players into world beaters – Viera, Henry et all – but surely a line must be drawn at Niklas Bendtner. Lets look at his stats.

2007/8: Played: 35, Goals 8
2008/9: Played: 17, Goals 4

Pretty pitiful stats for a striker who only recently demanded that his pink shoes should be seen more reguarly in the first team. That could be forgiven if he actively contributed to the team cause – however he has managed just FOUR assists in his entire arsenal playing career.

The number of times his blundering frame has caused a swift move to break down, or he has hit a tame shot straight at the keeper whilst in a one-on-one position has cost Arsenal this season. Surely, Arsene, you can’t continue to keep faith with this prune!

Bizarre censorship hits ‘The Simpsons’

By Phil Seaman

A current topic of debate across many blogs is the idea of ‘public outrage’, and who actually gets offended by seemingly inoffensive material that has been socially acceptable for years in the past, but now sees political and media figureheads speaking out about seemingly mediocre issues. Now, another tv show has fallen victim to the PC crowd.

The Simpsons: Not suitable for teatime TV?

Channel 4 is officially described as:

“The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:

• demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;
• appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
• makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and
• exhibits a distinctive character.”

The key points to take from this are ‘distinctive character’ and to show innovation, experimentation and creativity in their program making. However, over the last few years, their once cutting edge (no pun intended), irrelevant programming has become less and less relevant beside numerous reality TV programs and the occasional shockumentary.

They have now gone one step too far! A oft-repeated episode of ‘The Simpsons’ has been censored in a most ridiculous manner, presumably for fear of offending several old women in a bungalow filled with Mary Whitehouse memorabilia who still think Eric Morcambe is alive and all young people are junkie murderers.

Music Piracy: Like Stealing From A Baby

By Phil Seaman

The first part of Music Editor Phil Seaman’s look into the affects of modern technology upon the British music industry asks the question “How easy is it to illegally download music and get away with it?”

It’s always quite amusing to read about a story surrounding a 89 year old woman who has been subjected to a lawsuit from the BPI, aka the British Music Industry. Allegedly, the woman has been systematically downloading the latest Hardcore/Rave tunes illegally over the last 4 years. In fact, this woman, who doesn’t even own a computer, has allegedly downloaded over 600GB of the latest underground smashes in this period, and the BPI will settle out of court for a tiny £10,000 fine.

This is one of the rare ‘lets-make-an-example-of-somebody’ cases that the music industry actually takes against people in the UK. Usually, they manage to get it wrong, as a clever music pirate has been pretending to use the old woman’s daughters IP address proxy as cover for their acts.

When someone gets labelled a music pirate, there is a romantic image attached to their predicament. They sit at their computer with a hook for an arm and a beard that has residue of parrot droppings and liquor in it, naturally accompanied with a skull and bones poster on wall, the sick, twisted people.

However, the fact of the matter is most music pirates are normal, boring people (although there might be the odd person out there who manages to fit the prior description, usually having their recently downloaded 128kb/s advanced copy of the new Megadeth album.)

39 percent of music fans currently download songs from illegal sites in the UK, and possibly some don’t even realise that their download of ‘Because We Want To’, the renowned Billie Piper classic available for p2p download from limewire is actually an illegal copy; its almost too easy to steal.

Music Review: Glasvegas: A Snowflake Fell (And It Fell Like A Kiss) EP

By Phil Seaman

Glasvegas: Christmas without the cheer

After their debut album put razors in the wrists of many depressed people across the country earlier this year, Glasvegas continue to (try to) rip off Phil Spector by doing a christmas album. Whilst the album failed on the fact that is a depressing, overhyped collection of cliques and overused melodies, this EP succeeds for exactly the same reasons. At a time when most christmas songs are overly sentimental and cheesy, this release succeeds in being the perfect anti-christmas relief.

Almost certainly unintentionally, Glasvegas have delivered a hilariously over-the-top, ridiculous mini album that made me burst out in laughter. From the ridiculously titled ‘Fuck You, It’s Over’ to the minor key choir laden version of ‘Silent Night’, this brings out the scrooge in us all. Good for a post-xmas dinner laugh over drinks and humbugs, and should be brought out again next year when Argos start blasting out ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ when they start advertising their xmas selection next august.