A God-awful Small Affair

She's hotly-tipped by various outlets to be big in 2011, and NME have ranked this album #8 on their 'best of 2010' already (though that may be because, as things stand, she's currently unknown by the mainstream sphere...). But who is Zola Jesus, and why that name? Well I can tell you this much: she's an American soloist whose real name is Nika Danilova. She's in a band called Former Ghosts (who're described as very Joy Division-esque) and has been making music since 2007/8. So to the album. Hmm. 3D gimp masks. ANYWAY. What's immediately obvious about Jesus (I'm going to use the surname for accidental humour) is her voice. It has very obvious comparisons to the likes of Florence Welch, Marina Diamandis and Siouxsie Sioux, in that kind of throaty, ambitious and powerfully emotional sense. The music on the other hand is perfectly pitched for today's indie market: with bands such as The XX, These New Puritans and White Lies very much the music du jou...

Just a little review I did on another site... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #50: Jamiroquai - White Knuckle Ride From what I make of him, he's quite an easily hateable personality - what with the fast cars, numerous conquests and rich lifestyle. But he's pretty much a dance music legend, and whilst this year saw a slightly eggfaced comeback thanks to the musical pariahs that are The X Factor female judges, this song was just bloody cool. #49: Neon Trees - Animal They never really took off this side of the Atlantic but I'm told they've cut it in the US. But Neon Trees' debut single this year was this, a ridiculously catchy and endearing song. #48: Belle and Sebastian - I'm Not Living in the Real World Anyway - their sound is usually a lot more self-glorifyingly indie and downbeat, but this album's proved a lovely turn of events - vibrant, singalong, happy. #47: Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill I thoroughly ...

Perhaps the foremost reincarnation of soul-pop we have, Cee-Lo has every right to be cherished. Going against the grain of soulless, bland pop, he's delivered and produced some of the recent times' best music: Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy", TLC's "Waterfalls", The Pussycat Dolls' "Dont'cha" (maybe not that one), Kelis' "Lil' Star"...my point? He's rather lovely. So to the solo career. He's already released two albums to modest success, but he's now very much a big name and with the first single "Fuck You" (later censored to "Forget You") proving to be a global smash hit, he's on top of the world. 'The Lady Killer' begins with an intro that's something from a Bond movie - complete with pantomime evil villainry (some vague cackling about killing...ladies...) before descending into a manic frenzy of what I hereby dub "DnBr" - drum 'n brass. It's exciting and...

For those hoping for Rihanna poring over her Rated R era and the personal issues that came forthwith, look away now. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me." Rihanna is back as the dance/r&b princess she's internationally renowned for. Gone are the vulnerable emotions of "Russian Roulette", but in its place is opening track 'S&M', from which the above quote is lifted. The tune is brash and grabs attention, and it's an interesting way of kicking off the proceedings. 'What's My Name?' follows and, as her second single from the project, you'd be right to assume it's one of the catchier numbers. The steel drum tune is subdued and Drake's guest appearance cements its hook and marketability, but it's Rihanna's vocals and the chorus' persistence that make this a track that'll eventually latch onto your subconscious. Similarly, 'Cheers (Drink to That)' (rumoured to be the t...

I'm not going to give this the courtesy of a full review. Instead, I'm going to borrow from Will.I.Am's work ethic and just rehash a lot of criticisms. I have to say, I had bad expectations in this after 'The E.N.D.' which was just...3 good songs and then 45 minutes of what I can only liken to floating around, facedown, in a swimming pool full of urine. But Christ Almighty. The Beginning makes The END look saintly. From the offset, with new single "The Time (Dirty Bit)", it's all repetitive, soulless, boring, generic electronic crap relying on a clumsy, embarrassing hook (Time of My Life, from Dirty Dancing) to try and sell records. There are brief rays of sunshine in "Somebody" and "Whenever", with alternative influences and vibrant sounds eventually being drowned out by this oil spill. Words cannot express how much I loathe Will.I.Am. For the past 5 years he has literally just sapped off of what's hot and current - Cheryl Cole...

Nicki Minaj is coming... She's already featured on chart successes by Christina Aguilera, Trey Songz, Jay Sean, Ludacris and Lil' Wayne, and on Kanye West's "Monster" she proudly boasts "$50k for a verse? No album out?" But the time has come for hip hop's hottest new commodity to make her debut. Her style is interesting - both sexy and frightening, she dabbles in alter egos and this shows in her music. Switching from sweet-as-pie Harajuku Barbie to the intimidating Roman Zolanski quicker than you say Slim Shady, her image has been executed perfectly. So what of the music? Pink Friday begins with "I'm The Best", a high-rolling proclamation of confidence and the perfect kick-off to a career. A cute synth hook persists, whilst Minaj declares "I just woke up, out the door; all the girls will applaud". The track is followed with single 'Roman's Revenge', providing back-up in the unknown form of Eminem. Performing as the...

I'd like to think the 'Extras' syndrome has taken effect here. It would certainly appear so - since the show's main actor, and writer, Dan Clark, cites The Office, Arrested Development, The Larry Sanders Show and The Young Ones as some of his favourite shows. So there is an air of ill logic, upon viewing his show, How Not To Live Your Life . The show is full of obvious physical gags (the most recent episode featured Clark, who plays main character Don, in S&M gear), awful jokes ("What's the Queen's name?", "That's easy...'The'.") and the worst character development since Peter Griffin. The characters themselves are drawn from the most tired of stereotypes - a grouchy old woman who lives next door, a lazy 20/30-something, a scornful love interest - but it's the extras who really shine. One of the other main characters, Samantha (said love interest), has a boyfriend who is somewhat older and a University lecturer. So it'...

Let's not beat around the bush - Ke$ha is not a serious artist. Whether or not she intends to be divides opinion: there're those who take her and embrace her for what she is, but there are those who'll continually attack her for her music. I until recently was of the latter category. "Cannibal", the follow-up to 2009's "Animal" (technically 2010 courtesy of a January 1 release, but I think many were already well aware of her by then), comes at a time of peak popularity for Kesha Rose Sebert and you can almost visualise the board meetings demanding that she capitalise on this. "We R Who We R" was therefore announced to be a new single and released in late October - just 3 months after her last album's final single, 'Take it Off'. It's not exactly unfair to say there's been a bit of a rush to carry on. But what of the music itself? The single is more of the same: very David Guetta, very synth-heavy electropop. But it's...

I don't think I need to fill you in on the backstory of Take That - various hysterical outlets have already nailed the Robbie Williams dramas, culminating in a 'glorious comeback' and 'what we've waited 15 years for' on Sunday night's The X Factor. But I'm trying to step back and assess what Progress, the third album since Take That reunited in 2007, means for the band. By name and the artwork alone, Barlow & co. are trying to assert a level of evolution for the band - and you can see what they're getting at. Starting off as a cheesy boyband with leather trousers and jelly on their bottoms, they were anything but credible. Then 2007 saw the return with 'Patience', which rocked adult contemporary playlists to the core. This continued with montage-perfect ventures such as 'Shine', 'Rule the World' and 'Greatest Day'. But where have they evolved to now? Upon release of 'The Flood', one would immediately assume...

If you mention the words Kanye West to anyone nowadays the responses are endlessly varied. But everyone knows his name. Whether that's for his rapping credentials, his appeal to the pop masses, or his infamy with a certain Swift, is irrelevant - his star power in music is unrivalled, and both commercial and critical acclaim has not rained but poured. And so with West's 5th studio album comes a great deal of expectation. Previous releases The College Dropout, Graduation, Late Registration and 808s and Heartbreak have impressed critics worldwide, and spawned a series of hits for West, including 'Stronger', 'Love Lockdown' and 'Touch the Sky'. What's immediately noticeable with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a retraction from the world of electronics. Gone is his controversial venture into autotune, and the sound is fresher as a result. The opening track, 'Dark Fantasy' features a gospel-like presentation of Kanye's collaborators, befo...

There have been signs of progress. - One - I'm applying to University. Plus side of this? I'll actually be doing something, living the Uni life, semi-independent, doing only subjects I enjoy, meeting new people, etc. The application stage is really quite worrying, particularly defining myself in the 'personal statement'. It's difficult to write about yourself when you do virtually nothing in an extracurricular sense, so I've thrown in what I perceive to be mundane things, but others assure me are good, such as the fact I tutor my brother in French and German, and I blog (yes, albeit sparingly...here anyway (that's my excuse)). - Two - Musically, I'm much more conscientous of listening to albums now. I remember when I started writing reviews back in 2006, I would write about singles and include rather silly things like rumours, release dates and the such, rather than artistic values, the music itself... So the more I listen to, the more I'm inclined...

My first worry is that it's been so long since I last blogged. I say I want to be a journalist and then I don't write. Not really sure what's up with that. Bigger worry right now though, and it probably relates to the one above, is how compulsively lazy I am. I have had hundreds of examples where I've told myself "I really need to do something now" and yet here I am, at 4 in the morning, running a bath to go and read in, instead of sleeping. I've got nothing wrong with me in terms of health (that I'm aware of); I'm not an insomniac. I just have a horrible sleeping pattern - one that I glamourise in the Summer because it's fine then to do nothing and stay up late watching movies. But it's affecting how I perform at college - I am aware that I yawn a lot whilst I'm there, and whilst I do contribute in classes it's not nearly as much as I'm able to. I wonder sometimes if I am unlocking all of my potential. But then I also wonder if...

It's not exactly a new craze. In fact, it failed spectacularly in the 50s. But with the continual bombarment of blockbuster epics such as Avatar, animated franchises such as Toy Story and a range of opportunistic gimmicks like Final Destination - 3D is most definitely back. Looks good, doesn't it? No. No, without a pair of glasses this looks like a fucking blur. But if the media industries continue to go as they are presently, this'll be a regularity to those not wearing the appropriate headgear. But what's wrong with it? Is it damaging cinema directly? No, not really. However - my beef with the idea is down to a variety of reasons. Primarily - necessity. The whole point of it was that it was a novelty - something you can go "ooh" at, and don't particularly make a habit out of. Cinema and television have enjoyed almost (over) a century of magical moments - would Metropolis have been better with a few of those mechanical cogs sticking out? Would Goodfellas ...

The current popular music climate is drowning in electronic synths that all blend together into one repetitive and boring strand. Step forward Scissor Sisters, purveyors of camp, infectious and feel-good anthems. Their previous two albums have topped charts worldwide and springboarded phenomenal songs such as I Don't Feel Like Dancin', Take Your Mama and Filthy/Gorgeous. Now with a change of musical scene you'd expect them to thrive given the rather stereotypical view of a group of homosexuals from New York and its supposed experiences with dance music. And they do. "Night Work" is jam-packed with what most current albums and artists are not: memorable tunes, poetically outrageous lyrics (no disco sticks or show me where your dick's at here) and consistency. The titular track is an immediate fast-paced reflection on the mood of the album, keeping with their quirky and honky-tonk lyrical delivery that Jake Shears is able to slip into with ease. "Wh...

I've often felt a slight apprehension to those who complain too much. Sure, I may be a misanthropic and hateful cynic, but there have to be lines and unfortunately the wrong things fall into the line of fire. So, the NHS. My experiences with it have been relatively small - having only required to attend hospital for my own ailments aged 6 (hearing problems) and a few other problems even prior to that (heart murmur, lovely), I've never had much knowledge of the environment. However, my record with being a visitor is rather woeful to say the least. Last year, I went to visit both my sick older brother and father (months apart, not at the same time) and both of them died the next day. So that was a rather bad omen for my hospital visits. BUT ALAS - I needed to make one today. Waking my mother up at 8am, I forced her to take me to A&E (on the recommendation of an on-call doctor via phone) and there we went: directed to a side office of the A&E department called "Devon ...

I'm not even going to try and make a pun-title given the failure of the "rainbow - bung(le) it in the bin" thing. Not sure what I was smoking there, sorry. Formalities out of the way - attention was drawn this week to an episode of "Miranda" that I happened to have the misfortune of leaving my television on and open to such atrocities. If you're unfamiliar with the show, it's fronted by a Ms. Miranda Hart. In researching her I've just discovered she was born in Torquay, the same as I. Well, the more you know. She's got a pretty impressive history of appearances; in shows such as French and Saunders, the Vicar of Dibley (whether that's something commendable I shan't say), wrote for Smack the Pony and appeared on Celebrity Fame Academy and Have I Got News For You (one such performance I witnessed, and believed she was rather funny in). But it's her very own vehicle that draws my attention. It's certainly drawn others - she won the R...

M.I.A. - /\/\ /\ Y /\ With two previous albums that earned more critical attention than public, Maya Arulpragasam finds herself inbetween a rock and a hard place. There's going to be the inevitable expectations to continue making the artistic and pointful music she's earned such praise for (Arular and Kala both performed highly in end-of-the-decade critics' lists). But a surge in public attention due to the genius single "Paper Planes", showcased in more films and promotional pieces than you can shake a stick at, has made her music a whole lot more mainstream. Indeed, her media presence thus far this year has not been ignored. She's inescapable - one week she's ranting about the state of Lady GaGa, the next she's producing Christina Aguilera songs. The video for her single "Born Free" has drawn millions of complaints and controversy with its depiction of ginger-haired people enduring the same kind of genocide and army persecution that other r...

Yeah, lame title. Anyway - with a fresh new background (I fear that changing it will be a regular occurance) comes a new idea for a blog. So, the rainbow. It's a rare but pretty natural occurance. Every time I see one I'm firstly almost always in a vehicle - but ignoring that, I always crane my neck and make the effort just to see them more. Odd glimpse of good-naturedness aside. Everyone's familiar now with the connotations a rainbow (that is to say, the colours in a flag, or an emblem or logo) carries. There's a sense of unity in that the colours blend together and that's all very swish and dandy. So, in that sense it's understandable that the rainbow flag has been seized by the LGBT community. But is it really? Call it a shallow observation but surely the blending of colours into one attractive, multicoloured collective has more of a resonance with racial campaigners than the sexuality. Speaking of this, why is it only the LGBT community and not a collective ...

Well I did create this a few months ago with a view to making this a regular habit, and, as you may notice below, it didn't exactly take off. So, Shaun. You're going to have a self-evaluation. You haven't slept all night and are currently eating jam on toast for what is the first time in YEARS. You're listening to the radio on your TV, for fuck's sake. What's wrong with you, and why have these circumstances led to your blog-revival? Well. It was chance. I clicked someone else's blog and saw odd and angry musings and it irked me. So I decided to make more of my own, just to spread a little more rational and lovely and self-assured giddiness. But you can't just be wallowing in how amazing you are? Whilst it's something I do do often, not this time. In fact, I'm going to moan about the nature of blogging itself. Now, don't get me wrong - it has its uses and it's had its success stories. Diablo Cody's screenplay for her story was picked u...

unless you own a last.fm account and have me as your 'friend', though I should think companion shall suffice, you are dead to me. find me at http://www.last.fm/user/omgface excuse the name. 16, again.

I don't remember a lot of blogging from my previous encounters. I was 16, naive, and generally a little extreme with my opinions, that, if I were to show you now would make even Karen Matthews blush. But alas, since then I've decided upon a life of writing. I often cross people who assert that journalism is a very cliché career choice and to be quite honest I think they're right. My knowledge of the field is minimal to say the least. I don't know who Pulitzer was, I rarely read newspapers (let alone broadsheets, good heavens) and 3 articles of the Opinions section later on and it's dozing off from Shaun. And then I discovered my main passion in life - music. I can rant and rave about music until the cows come home; I enjoy all sorts of genres, all shapes and sizes of artist and immerse myself fully in the most exploration one can muster. I break laws in the process, something which I am unsure whether is a sign of the times or a personal display of laziness and depr...