Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Scream (Funk My Life Up) (Single) - Paolo Nutini

It has been a long time since Paolo Nutini last released an album – nearly five years in fact. His debut album These Streets was a solid first release, which established the young Scottish musician as a genuine talent with a voice that was well beyond his years. I was a fan of the album; in fact it was one of the albums I listened to a great deal around the time I was starting to learn how to play the guitar. I remember being excited around the release of the follow-up album Sunny Side Up in 2009 – more new songs to learn – and bought it the day it was released. At the time I was surprised by how different it was from the first album, but it was a fun and lively record that gained more than its share of accolades.

In the space of a couple of years Nutini had gone from singer/songwriter to the lead singer of a jazz/soul band. It was a pretty big step, but apparently it was the type of record he truly wanted to make. Having therefore established his new style one would think he’d stick with it for the third.

The upcoming album Caustic Love will likely see yet another dramatic change in direction, as this lead single seems to suggest. The first few seconds of the track seem to be suggesting a more electronic/trance music feel, but then the drums kick in, accompanied by a funky bass-line and Nutini’s familiar voice (sounding completely at ease within this new style).

The title "Scream (Funk My Life Up)" is as good as its word, as the tune delivers both (soulful) screaming as well as a rhythm that is ‘oh-so funky’ it’s hard not to want to move along with it. Nutini has become much more of a risk-taker with his lyrics, as the song has heavy sexual overtones as well as a title that is just begging to be misheard by casual listeners.

I’m not sure if I’m completely won over by this new sound, but the song is very enjoyable and I have already listened to it several times. Perhaps I’m just adjusting to yet another change. I’ll hold off making a definite decision until I hear the full album.


Sunday, January 26, 2014

New York Morning (Single) - Elbow

I, like many others, discovered Elbow in 2008 around the time of their breakout success The Seldom Seen Kid. I can claim a faint glimmer of elitism when I say that I got my copy of the album several months before it brought monumental success to the group, but such a claim doesn’t really mean all that much. I was just excited to have discovered such a solid and accomplished band, and more than that a group who seem like genuinely nice guys behind the scenes and in interviews. I was therefore very pleased for them when they won the Mercury Prize and began receiving much wider recognition – being called one of the UK’s best bands. It was an accolade that they had worked towards, and one that they accepted with an all too rare sense of humility. Here is a band who are ‘in it’ for the right reasons.

The huge success of The Seldom Seen Kid didn’t affect the quality of their output, and any fears that this would have been the case were laid to rest with the release of Build A Rocket Boys! in 2011. The album was a worthy successor to The Seldom Seen Kid, with a mature yet accessible sound – and Guy Garvey’s beautiful poetic lyrics and sincere vocals grounding the ambitious and varied arrangements. There is a real sense of the everyman about Guy Garvey, which for me is something I find so appealing about Elbow as a band. He always comes across as very genuine and very real in interviews, as opposed to being pretentious or repellent.

This year Elbow are set to release their sixth album: The Take Off And Landing Of Everything which is preceded by the single ‘New York Morning’. The song describes the feeling of the famous city waking up and coming to life, whilst the narrator sits in a cafĂ© and watches it all go by. The joys of people watching in “modern Rome”. Although the band have found success within America they have not forgotten their roots, punctuated early on through the use of the quintessentially British phrase “oh my giddy aunt”.

The track starts with a gentle fade-in – much like the sun slowly rising over the city – but very quickly builds up a head of steam as industrial drums and deliberate punctuated piano chords create the sense of great buildings and skyscrapers all around. Meanwhile the lyrics are very much a stream-of-consciousness-style outpouring, as the poet surveys all that he sees and shares the thoughts and feelings that are evoked by all of this.


It is a very uplifting track, one that ponders upon the possibilities that come with the start of every new day: “Oh my God, New York can talk/And somewhere in that talk is all the answers”. It is very well crafted, conjuring up the image of a New York Morning very fittingly. It also has me feeling optimistic about the new album, as if there were ever any doubts!

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Refugees (Single) - Embrace

It has been such a long wait for fans of Embrace. The band’s last album was released in 2006 – not long after the group’s previous ‘long awaited return’ – and since that time the band seemed to vanish without a trace. Did the band split up? Was it just a very long hiatus? It was hard to say for sure, because for years and years there was no word to go by. Then, last year members of the band began to release encouraging statements on their facebook page, indicating that a new album was not only in the works, but that the band were ‘champing at the bit’ to make it the best possible. They knew that fans were eager for them to return, and they wanted to return in a major way.

Somehow knowing that a return was imminent made the waiting even harder, because a lengthy silence would often follow on from each big announcement – and fans would grow impatient, worrying that they had been deceived. But then the secret gigs began – offering fans the opportunity to hear some of the new material before anyone else, and within highly immersive settings. The response from fans who were fortunate enough to attend these gigs was incredibly positive, increasing the anticipation even more.

Then at long last the album was finalised, a release date was set, and the first single was made available – the first single in eight years.

‘Refugees’ showcases the band’s ambitious new sound: it is a surging track that races along with a strong sense of urgency, like a rapid heart-beat. The track builds up a strong head of steam, before erupting into a grand anthemic chorus, which successfully makes it abundantly clear that “Embrace are back!”

Both McNamara brothers share the lead vocals on this track, Danny sounding more confident and assured than ever before, and Richard also doing a fine job (hearing him perform lead vocals was always something of a rarity).


The album is set for release on April 28th, and I know for sure that I will be getting it. Having heard ‘Refugees’ I am very excited to hear the rest of the new material, especially since the band have claimed that this album will be their best since ‘The Good Will Out’! 

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Sherlock - Series Three: His Last Vow

The series finale; a new nemesis for Sherlock; the bar raised incredibly high by ‘The Reichenbach Fall’… what did this episode have in store?

The extended opening scene was a rather puzzling one, but it introduced and established the character of Charles Augustus Magnussen, a highly unsettling character – played very effectively by Lars Mikkelsen (who previously played Troels Hartmann in The Killing). The most significant aspects of his character were his ability to identify anybody’s pressure point simply by looking at them – not unlike Sherlock himself – and also the fact that he has a ‘very good memory’.

With a compelling villain established, the stage was set for a memorable finale, but the storyline didn’t quite play out the way that I would have expected. The stakes were raised during the first half hour, with Sherlock going to extreme lengths to take on the case, and also through Mycroft’s intensity whilst warning Sherlock off the case. There was then a confrontation between Sherlock and Magnussen which justified Sherlock’s bold claim that Magnussen is the only criminal who ‘turns his stomach’.

After an enjoyable scene in which Sherlock and Watson infiltrated Magnussen’s offices the episode suddenly shifted into a completely different gear. All of a sudden Magnussen wasn’t the issue anymore, as the attention was then placed onto Mary. It turned out that there was a lot more to her character than simply being a love-interest/wife for John. She had infiltrated Magnussen’s office ahead of the others, and had him held at gunpoint, before turning the gun on Sherlock and shooting him in the stomach.

There then followed a very lengthy hallucinatory sequence – vaguely reminiscent of the scarecrow sequences from Arkham Asylum – where Sherlock journeyed into his ‘mind-palace’ to prevent himself from dying of his gunshot wound. During this he also conducted an investigation of Mary, and was revisited by his true nemesis James Moriarty – who was even more insane than ever before: appropriately dressed in a strait-jacket, and chained to the walls of a padded cell inside Sherlock’s subconscious. In spite of all his efforts he very nearly died, and it wasn’t until the mention of Watson’s name that he found the strength to fight his way out. This was another reminder of just how significant the friendship between Sherlock and Watson truly is.

It seemed that Mary was now the villain – as it turned out that she had a very dark and mysterious past. The details of her past, including her true name and identity were never discovered, because John made the decision not to find out. Mary is the woman he fell in love with and married, and he decided to keep it that way. So it turned out that Mary wasn’t the villain after all, so we shift the focus back over to Magnussen.

Although Mikkelsen did a very good job portraying Magnussen I couldn’t help thinking that the character had become something of an afterthought in amongst all of the confusion. Nevertheless I was pleased with the reveal that he was wearing ordinary glasses and had no vaults filled with information; he simply was a genius with an incredible knowledge and a ‘very good memory’. It actually appeared as though he had bested Sherlock on an intellectual level, and Sherlock’s shooting of him can be analysed in a number of ways. I personally see it as rather out of character for Sherlock, as it seems like too easy a victory for a man of supreme intellect.

I enjoyed this episode, but to me it really felt that the writers were trying too hard to out-do the finale from series two. I felt at times that I was being bombarded with too many twists and reveals, and was hoping for a more linear narrative. With the twist involving Mary, it seems to me that the whole series will require a second viewing - in order to pick up on any little hints. This is both a good and bad thing; it's good because the writing of the show is still very clever, but at times it can get a little too clever for its own good, and consequently becomes very difficult to follow. 


With that said, the return of Moriarty was done very effectively; the episode appeared to have ended with Sherlock’s plane taking off, which felt a little underwhelming, but then the end credits were interrupted with Moriarty’s grinning face and the caption “Miss me?” It made for a perfect cliffhanger teasing another series (which has already been commissioned). Magnussen was an intellectual equal – perhaps even superior – to Sherlock, but Moriarty is the villain who fans of the show really want to see.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Game Of Thrones - Season Four: Trailer

Ever since the third season ended I’ve made an effort to not think too much about when the next season would start. I’ve gotten invested in other shows (such as Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead) and found all manner of distractions to occupy my time until the fourth season is released. This is a strategy I have also been employing whilst waiting for ANY news whatsoever on when the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire series will be released! But now the first full trailer has arrived, I find myself drawn right back in to the excitement and intrigue of the world of Westeros.

The trailer starts off with a very large dragon’s shadow, gliding above an undetermined city. Daenerys’ conquest looks set to continue this season, as her dragons continue to grow in size (much like her army and her followers).

The trailer then reintroduces everyone’s least favourite King: Joffrey, who wastes no time in taking all the credit for winning the War of Five Kings – but then it cuts to his uncle Jaime (sporting a shorter hairstyle) who points out that “the war is not won”. This is an exchange that doesn’t take place in the books – much like the exchange between Tywin and Joffrey last season – so I will be very interested to see this particular scene when it occurs.

In addition to his shorter hair, Jaime Lannister is seen being fitted with a new golden hand in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it frame of this trailer. His character underwent some significant changes during season three, and it will be interesting to see how he interacts with the rest of his family now that he is back in King’s Landing (and not forgetting that he is also Lord Commander of the Kingsguard). There have not been any scenes between Jaime and any of his relatives (Tywin, Cersei or Tyrion) since Season One, so there is a lot of potential there.

Jon Snow is back at the Wall, and appears to be warning the Night’s Watch of all that he has seen and learned about Mance Rayder’s army. Another returning face, conspicuous by his absence since the first season is Owen Teale as Alliser Thorne – the Man at Arms for the Night’s Watch – who is seen rallying his sworn brothers together for battle. I’m always pleased to see the same actors reprising their roles after lengthy absences, it wouldn’t feel the same with a different actor (I am aware that some roles have been recast). There were a lot of tensions between Jon Snow and Alliser Thorne in the first season, so that will be another interesting dynamic to see now that the Wall is under threat and they have to fight together.

“There’s good and evil on both sides in every war ever fought” says Jorah Mormont, the loyal protector of Queen Daenerys. It’s very true, and it impresses upon one of the most intriguing elements of the show. In season two the Battle of the Blackwater took place, and good men fought on both sides – it wasn’t a straightforward case of good against evil. It looks as though there will be several battles during this season, where this factor will come into play once more.

Another factor is that we’re further into the series by now, and more time has been spent with all these characters, so whenever a major battle occurs there is a greater sense of risk that we could be saying goodbye to some of our favourites.  

Elsewhere there are several sightings of a new face, Pedro Pascale as Oberyn Martell “The Red Viper” of Dorne. We have seen very little of House Martell up until this point, but they are another powerful house who have a significant part to play in the Game of Thrones. He is seen meeting with Tyrion when he arrives at King’s Landing, and boldly states that the Lannisters aren’t the only ones who pay their debts.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Gregor Clegane (The Mountain) has been recast once again, but from the glimpses seen in this trailer I think they’ve done a very good job. There is a very significant duel that will take place this season, which I couldn’t get quite so excited about when Ian Whyte was playing The Mountain, as he never looked right for the part.


Many characters also show face within this trailer, but just fleetingly: there are brief glimpses of Arya, Stannis, Davos, Bran, Hodor, Theon, Yara and others. Not a great deal is given away about what their storylines will be this season, but this is just the first trailer, and since its purpose is to create intrigue, I would say that it most certainly succeeds. There is a lot more within this trailer which I haven’t covered, but there will be plenty of time for that before the season itself arrives in April.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Sherlock - Series Three: The Sign Of Three

It’s the day of Watson’s wedding, and Sherlock has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing a Best Man’s speech to remember. He certainly delivers, in a highly entertaining episode.

For quite some time the episode seemed to be focussing entirely on comedy; the lengthy pre-credits sequence unfolded with Lestrade growing increasingly frustrated at a highly elusive criminal gang, before eventually pinning them down whilst they were in the middle of a bank robbery which looked rather reminiscent of the bank robbery from The Dark Knight. However, just as Lestrade was set to make the arrest he received an urgent text from Sherlock which forced him away from the crime scene. Frantically Lestrade rushed to Baker Street, calling for as much back-up as possible, before arriving to find Sherlock struggling with his Best Man’s speech because he couldn’t think of any funny stories about John. I think that everyone saw the punch-line coming a mile off, but it was so well delivered that the long build up was worth it.

The case to be solved within this episode did not materialise until at least half an hour in, which initially had me thinking that the entire episode would be dedicated to the comedic possibilities of Sherlock’s speech. In a way that was actually the case, but there were plenty of deviations which built up intrigue very effectively, and all tied-in together, ultimately leading to the threat that someone was going to be murdered during the wedding reception.

‘The Bloody Guardsman’ and ‘The Mayfly Man’ were both skilfully integrated into Sherlock’s speech, and when they were revealed to be unsolved cases all of the pieces started to come together. Then the full attention of the audience was required as Sherlock began solving the case, whilst continuing with his speech – which involved a lot of jumping back and forth from Sherlock’s mind to the reception room. The metaphysical trial which Sherlock was conducting in his mind saw many characters swapping in and out, including Mycroft as the presiding Judge and even a cameo from Irene Adler – The Woman.

There was a lot within this episode that seemed to be hinting at the series as a whole potentially drawing towards an ending, while simultaneously playing against that notion by having Watson and Mary both make reassuring statements that “nothing’s going to change” and “it will be just like it always has been”. Who are we to believe? During Sherlock’s speech a montage of scenes played out of cases the two friends have embarked on together, which seemed a lot like a ‘greatest hits’ collection (of sorts), perhaps indicating that this will be the final series. There were some excellent throwaway moments here, which included one of the most inventive uses of an “elephant in the room”.

Additional heavy implications that this may be the end of the line for the Sherlock/Watson partnership came from a bizarre confessional speech from Mrs Hudson about how marriage changes people, and Holmes’ confessional statement that he is “the most unpleasant, rude, ignorant and all-round obnoxious arsehole that anyone could possibly have the misfortune to meet”. Such statements don’t emerge casually!

Then there was of course the final deduction that Mary is pregnant and that consequently there will be a new ‘baby’ for the newlyweds to look after. The episode then concluded with Sherlock slipping away into the night.

Both episodes in the third series have placed a large focus on comedy, so perhaps next week’s finale will be a more serious affair. Will they be able to out-do the finale from series 2? We’ll find out next week…

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Sherlock - Series Three: The Empty Hearse




A two year cliff-hanger; a collection of wild speculations and theories; a highly emotionally-charged reunion – Sherlock is back!

In many ways the new storylines that were introduced in The Empty Hearse play second-fiddle to the old ones that people tune in to see resolved. With two years standing in between the iconic detective’s fall, fans of the show will undoubtedly have collated numerous amounts of theories and ideas as to how Sherlock was able to fake his death. Luckily for those fans the writing for Sherlock is as sharp as it has ever been, and some of the most elaborate (even far-fetched) ideas were able to make their way into the show itself.

The writers were clearly aware that no matter what they did, there will always be detractors, and so they threw in a couple of intricate fake-outs which openly address that notion before the eventual big reveal. And even at the point when the big reveal came there were still elements of scepticism thrown in for good measure. The titular ‘Empty Hearse’ was revealed to be a fan club/discussion group, in which the methods for Sherlock’s fake death were scrutinised (in almost farcical detail). This episode – more than any other in the series thus far – was filled with fan-service. Not only were the theories and responses integrated into the narrative, but there was also an open questioning of Watson’s sexuality as well as an ‘almost-kiss’ between Sherlock and Moriarty. Clearly someone must have asked for that, and so it was delivered!

The episode also delivered a very uneasy reunion between Sherlock and Watson, the arc for which was the main focal point of the episode. There was no way that things could go straight back to being normal again between the two friends, especially since Watson had grieved and moved on. Sherlock didn’t help matters either with his timing, intercepting Watson’s attempted marriage proposal to Mary, played by Martin Freeman’s real-life partner Amanda Abbington. Something that was nice to see in that scene was the effort that Sherlock made to surprise his friend (a sign that he really does care, despite his distant nature) and some excellent comic moments emerged as a result. Watson didn’t see the funny side, however, and took out his frustration both verbally and physically.

As the episode unfolded though, it became clear that they are both equally dependant on the other. There was some highly complex trickery going on, through which Sherlock managed to gain Watson’s forgiveness, albeit begrudgingly (and dishonestly). There will always be bickering between the two, but that is the dynamic they’ve had since the start so why change it now?

The big problem with the episode is that it is such a tangled web of fake-outs and double-bluffs; it became highly difficult to follow at times. I was primarily focussed on finding out the answer to ‘how did he do it?’ as I’m sure many other people were as well. But the actual case itself got me wondering whether it was real, or just a grand ruse orchestrated by Sherlock to gain Watson’s forgiveness. After all, the reveal that there was an off-switch on the bomb (!) played out just after the demonstration of Sherlock and Mycroft’s capabilities. What was real and what was not? 

I think that this episode in particular requires a second viewing, due to the sheer amount of information to take in. It may be more comprehensible at the end of the series to re-watch it a third time, as more information about Sherlock’s new rival will be revealed.

Overall I was pleased with it, as I believe the episode rose to the challenge that the series had set for itself. The writers are ready for a wide spectrum of reactions from their audience, and this episode acknowledges them wholeheartedly.