#47: Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Dark Fantasy (West, Diggs, Wilson, Bhasker, Dean, Jones)
Gorgeous (West, Wilson, Dean, Jones, Smith, Woods, Mescudi)
Power (West, Griffin Jr., Dean, Bhasker, Gardner, Lewis)
All Of The Lights (interlude)
All Of The Lights (West, Bhasker, Jones, Trotter)
Monster (West, Carter, Reynolds, Roberts, Maraj, Vernon, Bhasker)
So Appalled (West, Wilson, Dean, Carter, Thornton, Young, Kasseem Dean, Diggs)
Devil In A New Dress (West, Harrell, Dean, Roberts, Jones)
Runaway (West, Haynie, Thornton, Bhasker, Dean, Jones)
Hell Of A Life (West, Caren, Wilson, Dean)
Blame Game (West, Franks, Mitchell, Dean, Stephens)
Lost In The World (West, Bhasker, Vernon)
Who Will Survive In America (West, Bhasker, Scott-Heron)

Produced by Kanye West, The RZA, No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean, S1, Andrew Dawson, Plain Pat, Bink!, Emile, Mike Caren and DJ Frank E.

Kid Cudi - guest on 'Gorgeous'
Raekwon - guest on 'Gorgeous'
Jay-Z - guest on 'Monster' and 'So Appalled'
Rick Ross - guest on 'Monster' and 'Devil In A New Dress'
Nicki Manaj - guest on 'Monster'
Bon Iver - guest on 'Monster' and 'Lost In The World'
Pusha T. - guest on 'So Appalled' and 'Runaway'
Prince Cy Hi - guest on 'So Appalled'
Swizz Beatz - guest on 'So Appalled'
The RZA - guest on 'So Appalled'
John Legend - guest on 'Blame Game'

Label - Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam

Prior to the release of this album, Kanye West had released the awful auto-tuned to the point of being completely unlistenable '808s & Heartbreak' (that it charted above 'Chinese Democracy' by Guns N' Roses is still a crime), and several controversy-courting incidents had threatened to destroy his career in a simultaneously fascinating and embarrassing explosion of self-parody. Mr. West needed to remind the world why it was everyone cared about his antics in the first place. Luckily, 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' is a true return to form for one of hip hop's current shining lights. It doesn't quite reach the heights of 'The College Dropout' and 'Late Registration', but it blows his previous two albums out of the water.

This is not your average hip hop album. Kanye is one of the few people working in the genre today who is willing to experiment with the formula that was established by N.W.A. over 20 years ago. It's as big and overblown as a 70's rock n' roll album, complete with a 9 minute track with an extended instrumental section that no one but Kanye would ever attempt. A reminder that before he was the superstar he is today, he was one of the most original producers in the genre. His willingness to experiment is probably the only redeeming factor of his previous album, and is really what sets this one apart from the competition.

I obviously do listen to hip hop, otherwise this record wouldn't be included by me, but as most people should know it's rock music that is my main passion. A hip hop artist has to have some serious crossover appeal to be able to impress me, and at this time Kanye is one of the few able to do that for me - along with Jay-Z, Eminem and Saul Williams.

As for the aforementioned antics, and ego? I choose to believe it's all deliberate and tongue-in-cheek. But this is probably because I don't want to believe anyone can be as deluded as he acts.

Listen Here: Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

#48: Imicus - Animal Factory

 

Animal Factory

Visceral

Inveigle

An Isolation Dawn

The Butterfly Effect

Wither

Killer Lies

Veiled Oedema

Keep Your Halo

Icarus Principle

All songs written by Imicus

 

Miller - vocals

Dale Chapman - guitar

Dan Baker - guitar

Steve Parker - bass

Mark Weatherley - drums

 

This is a band that you probably wouldn't have heard of. I caught them at Download Festival in 2010, where they played the Red Bull Tent just before the band I was in there to see - Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders. They impressed me with their performance, though they'd probably have gotten a lot more attention from people if they'd been around in the mid-to-late 90's than now. I was surprised to find that not only are they from Luton (the city closest to where I live, yet strangely also the city I find hardest to get to), but one of the guitarists is actually the boyfriend of one of my wives roommates from university. She'd asked her to go and see them, and completely forgot about it until they saw each other there by coincidence. I was relieved to be able to truthfully say that I enjoyed their performance when we were asked. The album is along the lines of Deftones, Korn, etc. Definitely worth a listen.

 

I realised that I should have been putting links on where to listen to the albums I talk about here, so the first two posts in this series have been edited with Spotify links.

 

Listen Here: Imicus – Animal Factory

#49: Alter Bridge - AB III

Slip To The Void
Isolation
Ghost Of Days Gone By
All Hope Is Gone
Still Remains
Make It Right
Wonderful Life
I Know It Hurts
Show Me A Sign
Fallout
Breathe Again
Coeur d'Alene
Life Must Go On
Words Darker Than Their Wings

All Songs Written By Alter Bridge

Myles Kennedy - vocals, guitar, keyboards
Mark Tremonti - guitar, backing vocals, bass
Brian Marshall - bass
Scott Phillips - drums, percussion
String arrangements by Michael Baskette and Dave Holdredge
Produced by Michael Baskette

Label - Roadrunner Records

I'd never really listened to Alter Bridge properly until the release of this album. After hearing Myles Kennedy's vocals on Slash's solo album, and not being impressed I didn't really see much need for listening to them either. Especially not with the only other thing I knew about them being the rest of the band are all members of Creed (hardly a positive).
It turns out that free of Scott Stapp, Alter Bridge are a bona fide sensation of a hard rock band. And that on this album at least, Myles sings what is appropriate for the songs, instead of his seeming to compete with the guitar like he seemed to on Slash's album. When Myles goes high, it's because he needs to go high.
As album openers go, 'Slip To The Void' is one of the best in recent memory, and they hardly let up from there.

I immediately listened to their first two albums and found that those are equally as strong, so it wasn't just a one-off. I'm not going to call myself a convert to being a big Alter Bridge fan, but they're definitely great to listen to.

Listen Here: Alter Bridge – AB III

50 Best Records Of The Decade So Far: #50 Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - III/IV

The last 20 months has seen the release of a lot of good music. So much so in fact, that I've already got 50 favourites from this decade so far... I thought I'd write a little bit about each over the coming days.



Disc One
Breakdown Into The Resolve
Dear Candy
Wasteland
Ultraviolet Light
Stop Playing With My Heart
Lovely And Blue
Happy Birthday
Kisses Start Wars
The Crystal Skull
Users

Disc Two
No
Numbers
Gracie
Icebreaker
Sewers At The Bottom Of The Wishing Well
Typecast
Star Wars
My Favourite Song
P.S.
Death And Rats
Kill The Lights

All Songs Written By Ryan Adams

Ryan Adams - vocals, guitars, piano, bass, synth
Neal Casal - guitars, background vocals
Jon Graboff - pedal steel, 12 string guitar
Brad Pemberton - drums, percussion
Catherine Popper - bass, background vocals
Jamie Candiloro - piano, organ, synth, drums, percussion, keys
Norah Jones - background vocals on 'Typecast'
Produced by Jamie Candiloro
Label - PAX AM

I'm not a fan of Ryan Adams. In fact, the majority of music I've heard from him has ranged from boring mediocrity to flat-out awful. I admittedly haven't heard everything he's put out, but I had no reason for thinking that this album would be any different. It's a pleasant surprise then, that 'III/IV' (named on the basis that the band's debut album was volumes I/II) is just over an hour of laid-back rock 'n' roll that's actually fun to listen to. Instead of the dreary country-tinged music Adams is accustomed to, this actually has more in common with mid-to-late The Replacements and early Soul Asylum.
I find that Ryan's voice is far better suited to songs like this to the countrified ones he put out earlier (and his frankly bizarre attempt at metal that also came out last year... avoid that at all costs). Highlights include 'Breakdown Into The Resolve', 'Wasteland' and 'Kisses Start Wars'. None of the 21 tracks break or rewrite any of the rules, but they are all very enjoyable.

Ryan isn't the only person I'm not a fan of to impress me despite the odds recently... more on some of the  rest at a later date.

Listen Here: Ryan Adams – III/IV

Punishment For The Police Policing + Scum Of Society = Anarchy In The U.K.

It's a hot summer's day in July 2005, two days after the bombings that took place on 7/7. Armed police spot a foreign man in a large coat jump over the barriers at a tube station. When they approach him, he runs, and the police give chase shouting multiple times for him to stop. Finally, as he is about to board a train, they open fire, killing the man.
It turns out the man was in fact not a suicide bomber as the police officers had feared, but an illegal immigrant from Brazil who didn't speak English and was afraid he was about to be deported. There was a public outcry, the man's family sued, and the officers involved were fired.
I'm not sure what the police were supposed to do here. Were they supposed to hold back because this man in the middle of July and wearing a huge coat that could easily conceal a bomb two days after the worst terrorist attacks the UK had seen in years might not be what they thought he was? Suppose they did this, and it turned out they were right and countless more people were killed in a bomb blast? The big scandal then would have been "police have bomber in sights but let him go".

Fast forward a few years. There are riots in London. Nowhere near as bad as the riots the country is experiencing right now, but riots nonetheless. Riot police hit a man over the head with their batons who unfortunately dies shortly afterwards. This is caught on video, and sent to newspapers. The man was not one of the rioters, but an innocent looking to escape the area. There is a public outcry. The police are sued. The officers involved are fired.
The public outcry over this one is a little more understandable, but I have been in the area during an admittedly small riot before. The one rule for everyone to follow, whether you're one of the rioters or not is do exactly what the police tell you to do. The police don't have time to assess every single person to see if they are involved in the riots or not, so they have to rely on instinct and training. If you don't do as you're told in this situation, you are going to get a baton to the face. End of story. It's unfortunate that an innocent man was killed, but the police were doing their jobs.

It's July 2010, and a man named Raoul Moat has gone on a rampage with a shotgun. He shoots two people, one of which dies, and the other - a police officer - is permanently blinded. He then threatens to shoot more people. After a frantic manhunt that lasts days, they finally track him down and enter into a standoff which ends in Raoul Moat's death. There is a public outcry. Raoul Moat's family appear on TV claiming that he was not dangerous. A police investigation not only results in lawsuits and disciplinary hearings for the officers involved, but gets the tasers that they had used to attempt to bring him in alive permanently decommissioned.
If you need an explanation about why that situation is ridiculous, then I don't know what to say... but one thing is clear. There was only one way that story was going to end.

It's August 2011, and police in London raid the home of a group of drug dealers. No one is sure who shot first, but the result is the death of Mark Duggan. The only fact that we know other than his death, is that he had a gun. The only people disputing this fact are his family. There are protests in Tottenham. I say 'protests' instead of 'riots', because as stupid as the protest was, it was peaceful and passed by largely without incident. It was when a bunch of mindless thugs heard that there was a protest nearby and decided to take advantage of the situation that this current situation arose.

I've seen a lot of people trying to intellectualise this current turn of events, and wax philosophical about the causes over the last couple of days. In short, their reasoning is that the youth of the country are not content with the way the UK is now, and after years of attempting to get things done peacefully, they have resorted to violence as the only way to voice their discontent.
I'm sorry to call you on this, but no. That is not the case. You can see it in their eyes. All of the other riots that have taken place around the world this year (people claim they are peaceful protests, but when you're burning buildings down in Cairo, that's anything but peaceful), you can tell that these were people unhappy with their situation rising against the powers that be. You can see on their faces that they are discontent, and things have got to change. Now look on the faces of the rioters all across the UK over the last four days. The only thing you can see on their faces is fun. They are enjoying themselves.

The people involved in the riots up and down the country have been a growing problem for many many years. More and more people who care for nothing and no one, terrorize their neighbours whilst walking around town in large groups, etc. have become commonplace. The riots are no different to the stealing and wanton destruction that these groups take part in in their hometowns on a nightly basis. The only difference is now they're doing it en masse. Why? Because they've realised that they outnumber the police by a frightening margin. It proves a major point about the human race... by and large people only abide by the law through fear of being caught. Take that fear out of the equation, and you get the chaos that has gripped the streets of London, Birmingham, Manchester, etc. These are not political riots by a disaffected youth by any means.

A lot of people on the news were asking where the police were. Well they were around, but they were holding back, which allowed the situation to get out of control. And the reason they were holding back? Because every time they do their job as they have been trained to do it, they face a huge internal inquiry, lawsuits and the possible loss of their jobs. If you don't let the police police, this is what you get. If the biggest threat to underage offenders is an ASBO that is waved around their social group like a status symbol, this is what you get. It is not the lack of "opportunities" in the country. It is not the severe lack of jobs... most of them don't even want jobs. Why would they when a combination of illegal activity and Jobseeker's Allowance gives them all they need to survive? And it's not because people are fed up with not being heard. How many of these people who are old enough to vote do you think actually did so at the last election? It is purely and simply a combination of vile people, and the lack of effective policing.

I Got Married!!!

Yep... that's me on the right, next to my new wife, Katy, taken at our wedding on July 1st 2011. I didn't get to take any photo's myself, so I was waiting until enough people had posted their photo's before posting this blog. The wedding took place at the Mansion House in Old Warden, Bedfordshire:







My brother Andy was the Best Man:



And the bridesmaids were Katy's best friend Mel, her sister Georgi, and my four nieces, Kacie, Ellie, Eloise and Jessica:





There were also some very special guests in attendance... our friends Alan, Sophia, Janean and Mary Beth both had a long way to travel, with Janean and Mary Beth both coming all the way from the United States:


There we all are... note Janean on the right in pose mode.

The girls and I have a very bipolar relationship... one minute it's all cuddles:



And the next, they're literally kicking my ass:



The cake (which to our specifications was not white, and did not feature any flowers) was made by Katy's mother, Sally, with assistance from Georgi.



Cutting it was both a shame, and far more difficult than I've ever imagined cutting a cake should be:



There was much fun which involved dancing, and alcohol:


Lot's of alcohol...

I thought I'd give people a very brief summary of what happened, but there's a complete album on my Facebook page at this location:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150272436096181.374787.665996180&l=be0b427b43

 

If you know anything about Katy and I, you'd know of our love for music. If there is one thing that was going to make or break our enjoyment of our own wedding, it would be what music was played. Most wedding DJ's tend to ask what kind of music you'd like, and work bits and pieces of that if they think it will work in their usual set. So instead, we enlisted the help of Katy's brother, Olli, a music producer who also spends a lot of time creating tailor-made playlists for parties for fun. Perfect!
What we came up with was the kind of strict "can play/can't play" list that we wouldn't have even been able to attempt with anybody else, and whereas there was a bit of skepticism that our music tastes would work well for a party, Olli came up with a playlist that I think had a bit of something for everyone, and we didn't have to worry about whether or not the next song would be crap. Everybody else seems to have enjoyed themselves, so it couldn't have been a complete disaster. There were a few songs that weren't on the playlist that got played, but this was because there was less music on the finished playlist than Olli believed and we had to fill up time.

Ceremony
Howard Shore - Concerning Hobbits
Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Shigeru Umebayashi/Zhang Ziyi - Beauty Song
John Williams - Victory Celebration

First Dance
Savage Garden - Truly, Madly, Deeply

Reception
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
Wild Cherry - Play That Funky Music
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop Till You Get Enough
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
Christina Aguilera - Candyman
Derek & The Domino's - Layla
Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion
The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
Billie Piper - Walk Of Life (this was Katy's choice)
Sister Sledge - We Are Family (and this was my mum's choice)
Guns N' Roses - Welcome To The Jungle
Blur - Song 2
The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
Aerosmith/Run D.M.C. - Walk This Way
Aerosmith - Dude (Look Like A Lady)
Foo Fighters - Learn To Fly
Green Day - Basket Case
Goldfinger - Superman
Blink 182 - All The Small Things
The Offspring - Want You Bad
The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize/Imperial March
Kanye West - Gold Digger (this one I chose despite Katy's protest)
Jay-Z/Rihanna/Kanye West - Run This Town
Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Duff McKagan's Loaded - We Win
Korn - Word Up!
Juliette & The Licks - Hot Kiss
Louis Prima - I Wanna Be Like You (from The Jungle Book)
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Blink 182 - First Date
Smash Mouth - All Star
Ash - Girl From Mars
Duff McKagan's Loaded - Superman
Foo Fighters - Long Road To Ruin
AC/DC - Back In Black
Tommy Stinson's Perfect - Thing I Call My Life
Bowling For Soup - 1985
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
Tenacious D - Tribute
Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Florence & The Machine - You've Got The Love
The Presidents Of The United States Of America - Ladies And Gentlemen, Part 2

Here's one last photo of Katy, just because it's been a week and I'm still both very proud to be able to call her my wife, and bewildered as to why she'd want me for a husband..

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few years, you'll know about a literary phenomenon from Sweden called The Millennium Trilogy. A posthumous release by left-wing journalist Stieg Larsson following the adventures of a character who would surely lose any Mary Sue Litmus Test... Mikael Blomkvist is - wait for it - a left-wing journalist who founded a whistleblowing magazine called Millennium that is quite blatantly based upon the real life magazine, Expo, which was founded by none other than Stieg Larsson. And that's not all... despite not being particularly good-looking and charming, Blomkvist is portrayed as a James Bond like figure who manages to get every female character in the book into bed with him. Not by any trickery... they just find him irresistable.
The other lead character is the one that the books have become famous for - Lisbeth Salander, a goth with a troubled past who also happens to be a brilliant computer hacker.

My description of Blomkvist may have led you to believe that I'm not a fan, but that's not the case. It's a fantastic story with some intriguing twists and turns, and one of the most powerful and iconic characters of recent years in Lisbeth. Last year (the year before in Sweden) it also produced three highly successful movie adaptations starring Michael Nyquist and the soon-to-be-international-superstar Noomi Rapace.



The movies have since become Sweden's biggest export since Ikea, so it isn't surprising that writers in Hollywood decided that they needed to make their own version. It's a move that I would have found questionable if it wasn't for the fact that last year's Let Me In proved that a Hollywood adaptation of a Swedish novel that already had a Swedish movie could not only be done, but be done well, and that David Fincher was on board to direct.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a gritty murder mystery set in a rural era of Sweden. Who better than the man who brought us the likes of Seven and Zodiac to bring it to a Hollywood audience?

The Hollywood version is due for release on Boxing Day this year, and features Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist (who better to play a character who is basically the James Bond of activist journalism than James Bond himself, right?), and Rooney Mara - previously briefly seen in The Social Network - as Lisbeth Salander. A couple of weeks ago, a trailer and poster for the movie were released, and the purists decided to air their disgust. Apparently the fact that the poster features a naked Lisbeth with Mikael's protective arm around her is enough to prove that they've missed the entire point, and the movie is going to be terrible.

The first reason is the alleged "sexualisation" of the character of Lisbeth. Well, she's naked, I'll give you that. But she isn't in any kind of an erotic pose. If just being naked is enough to convey sexualisation, then we'd better stop letting children into art galleries. The people who say she'd never use her body like that? Well, she does have random casual sex with multiple people throughout the course of the books and movies, so she's obviously not entirely opposed to sexualisation.

The second reason given is the fact that Rooney Mara has breasts, when Lisbeth was clearly described as flat-chested in the books. I'm sorry people, but the reason she was flat-chested in the books is because she was also described as anorexic. If you're going to demand that the character looks exactly as described, then you'll practically be asking an actress to force herself into an unhealthy shape to fit your vision of the character... which when you are praising the character for her "liberated woman" portrayal sounds pretty hypocritical. Some actors - like Christian Bale - may be willing to go that far for a role, but it's not something I'd recommend to anybody.

The third and final reason is the fact that that poster makes her look vulnerable, with Mikael being the defender. I concede this is true, and this is not how she has been portrayed by any other media in the past... but you've got to remember this is only the promotional campaign. It's perfectly possible that this is an artistic representation of the mindset of one of the characters - ie: Mikael... the James Bond-style womaniser who thinks of himself as a champion of women's rights. It's made quite clear that his perception of his relationship with Lisbeth is that she is the weak and vulnerable damsel in distress that needs him to rescue her. The fact of the matter is that it's often the other way around, with him getting into scrapes that only she can get him out of. So yes, it's out of character if you take the poster literally, but if taken as a reflection of Mikael's viewpoint, it is completely in character.

Now why, I hear you ask, would the advertising campaign for a movie called The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo be from the viewpoint of Mikael and not the eponymous "Girl"? Well, here's the thing... the original title for the book and movie in Sweden was actually Men Who Hate Women. It was changed to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo for its English language release, and this combined with the focal point of the movies being Noomi Rapace gives the impression that the trilogy is her story. It's not, though. It is Mikael's story. The books follow his investigations, his life... Lisbeth plays a major part in this story, because she becomes a major part of Mikael's life. Funnily enough, with all of the cries of sexism regarding the Hollywood movie daring to depict a nude Lisbeth in the promotional material, sexism appears to have been a part of why Noomi Rapace became the focal point for promotion of the movie in the first place.

Noomi is a fantastic actress, and without a doubt the best thing about the Swedish movies, but I'm not sure she would have dominated posters and press coverage as much if she also wasn't an extremely attractive woman. As a result of this refocusing of the story onto this character, when the originally planned TV miniseries was cut down to three movies, the cut of the movies also placed more emphasis on the scenes with Lisbeth. The full length TV versions of the films reinsert a lot of material that gives Mikael more screentime.

The moral of the story is, do not base your entire opinion of a movie on promotional material (one person I've seen even said the movie would be bad, it seems entirely because they didn't like Trent Reznor and Karen O's cover of Led Zeppelin's 'The Immigrant Song' - which, by the way, is amazing). Don't base your entire opinion of the movie on whether or not it's a remake of a movie you already like. You may just be surprised... after all, watch Infernal Affairs and The Departed back to back and tell me which is the far better movie. I'm sure 9 out of 10 of you will pick Martin Scorsese's version, and for good reason.