The Best of Iggy Pop Live
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Pop Trash
Following the criminal disregard that British record labels showed their previous album Medazzaland you could have been forgiven for thinking that Duran Duran were over and done with, reduced to touring a greatest hits package to nostalgia fans who survived the fashion crimes of the 1980s. Yet the start of the new millennium saw them bouncing back with another studio album, and with it a few hints towards a new direction. There are some tracks that are undeniably Duran Duran–the sublime wistful balladry of “Pop Trash Movie” and the rousing choruses of “Mars Meets Venus”, but these are countered with some bizarre shifts in style–to the shades of Elliott Smith on “Starting To Remember” and an attempt at Smashing Pumpkins light on “Last Day On Earth”. It all makes for a very mixed but highly likeable bag, with the notable exception of “Hallucinating Elvis”, complete with appalling fake American accents, but this is the exception to the rule. Pop Trash is a return to form with some unexpected extras. –Helen Marquis
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Customer Review: Mmmmmm?………this ain’t good
Nearly 3 years on from the disappointing ‘Medazzaland’ album, Duran Duran released ‘Pop Trash’, their first album of the 21st century. The pre-release gossip about this album was that it was going to have a much heavier guitar sound. That sounded very appealing to me, but would it work? Answer: Yes (once)….and….er….mainly no?!?! Waiting with great anticipation for some grinding and loud guitars….!!!???…..No, there not here. The opening track and first single ‘Someone Else Not Me’. This is not a great start. The song was played to death on Radio 2, but it couldn’t really help the single, which stormed into the UK charts at #53 and didn’t go any higher. This song was NOT a good choice as a single. A nice pleasant enough song, but should only be listened to whilst drinking Horlicks. It has absolutely no punch. If you can’t sleep, stick this on. Languid and totally uninspiring and if I may suggest……DULL. [Interesting to note that on the Japanese version of the 'Pop Trash' album, Simon LeBon sings this song in French and Spanish!?!?] Up next ‘Lava Lamp’ and this is just horrible. This is in my Top 5 least favourite Duran Duran songs. The melody is cheesy and nasty and the lyrics are dire. “Lava lava lava lamp…I’d love to turn you on”. MMmm? thanks for that Simon!? ‘At this point ‘Medazzaland’ is sounding like a masterpiece. No sign of the guitars?!?! ‘Playing With Uranium’ hurts my brain. What is that noise?? Is it a guitar or maybe a cat being strangled underwater?! I tell you what this is. It’s ‘Big Bang Generation’ slowed down and it’s even worse. I need a doctor! ‘Hallucinating Elvis’ is up next…..and it is just fabulous!!! No, no sorry not fabulous. The word I was looking for was ridiculous!. “I was hallucinating Elvis, Hawaii to Las Vegas, Special treatment all the way”. Okay, that’s great!. This is truly awful. On the bright side when they played it live Simon LeBon dresses like Elvis?!, nice. We do here AT LAST have some guitars!!!!! And then like a bolt out of the blue we have a tune!!! ‘Starting To Remember’ is a laid back, acoustic and dare I say Beatle-esque strum. Love it. Hang on, things are looking up. ‘Pop Trash Movie’ was written by Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo and originally given to and recorded by Blondie. Simon LeBon loved it and they used it here and it’s a great song. Only downside is the cheesy “Yeah!” that LeBon gives out near the end that makes me cringe. You get the feeling that when he says it he punches the air at the same time. Worrying. ‘Fragment’ [Instrumental]…….50 seconds of not much. Nothing you can say really. ‘Mars Meets Venus’ is a strange attempt at an upbeat catchy song, that doesn’t really work. A song about love, planet alignment, frogs and meeting people. Sounds great? No? Suffers from dodgy lyrics and cheesy melody. Very odd. ‘Lady Xanax’ sees Duran Duran go all dark and mysterious. I actually think that this is a bit ‘Bowie’. One of the better songs on the album. Here it is…..’The Sun Doesn’t Shine Forever’. Oh yes, for me it is the worst Duran Duran song of all time. It is so bad that I actually enjoy listening to it. [*** Note to Bryan Adams fans. You will absolutely LOVE this song ***] ‘Kiss Goodbye’ [Instrumental]…….a minute or so of not much. Nothing you can say really. ‘Last Day On Earth’. At last the guitars have finally shown up!!! It’s easily the best song on the album. Crunching and grinding guitars and a great LeBon vocal. Duran Duran have never sounded so good. It is one of those songs you want to play to someone and say “You’ll never guess who this is?”. Finishes off a poor album in style.
Customer Review: Blown away on the first listening
How anyone can slag off Big Thing is a complete mystery to me, but anyway… I’ve finally gotten hold of this CD and all I can say is, wow! This is as good, if not arguably better than Astronaut. The track that hit me the most first time around was Playing with Uranium. There aren’t any massive singles on this album, like Come Undone on the Wedding Album, but every track is of such a high standard, that doesn’t matter one bit. All in all, one highly polished and recommendable album.
Scholl Goes Pop
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Customer Review: Pop, but not as we know it
Andreas Scholl can almost do no wrong in my opinion but I admit to being pretty dubious about the oft-mentioned pop songs, having heard a few snippets here and there of his pop efforts. It’s something he’s been interested in his entire life but of course is a genre far removed from his other fifty-odd CDs - and there’s the problem. I would never normally buy a CD of pop music (and whether it is actually pop music at all I discuss below) but I’m buying it because it’s Andreas Scholl and I love his CDs. Probably most of the people looking to buy this CD are Scholl fans, not pop fans; we’re probably not the people he wants to buy this CD, we’re the wrong market, and reviews like this from lovers-of-baroque may not serve him well. Still, this is a foray into reviewing a genre in which I don’t usually review and a CD that’s not going on any of my current Scholl playlists, mainly because it doesn’t fit. He’s an utter master at baroque singing but I’m afraid for me he doesn’t work as a pop singer, although the quality of the singing, instrumentation and some of the songwriting means I give it four stars. Firstly I think the title of this CD is a misnomer. This isn’t pop as I know it - I would place it much more in the ‘Easy Listening’ genre. It is easy to listen to, it works well as background music but it isn’t the full, brash, in-yer-face type of bouncy music that I think of when I hear ‘pop’. Perhaps this is because pop is more of a British thing and few Germans seem to have been able to crack it (or at least crack the British and American pop charts) and I’m a Brit so coloured by this, but for me this would be better titled “Scholl Goes Easy Listening” - but it’d probably find itself stuck in the discount bins of music shops almost immediately if it were. Anyway, the album is a live recording from a concert including a large orchestra (the N?rnberger Symphoniker) and Orlando (Roland Kunz), another baroque countertenor who also releases music with his band Die Unerl?sten. Scholl has worked with them before on a DVD and many of the songs that featured on that DVD have already been available elsewhere with slightly different arrangements. There’s no doubt that all the contributors are excellent musicians/singers but somehow the overall feel is slightly disengaged - the rawness that I expect in pop isn’t there. 1. “Overture & Unredeemed” - the beginning sounds like a film soundtrack, then Orlando comes in singing with Andreas Scholl in the background, continuing the film soundtrack feel with some high whistling pipes. 2. “Beauty Pleasure” - Another song with Orlando (Roland Kunz) in the lead and Andreas Scholl singing harmonies. It’s another smooth, inoffensive listen but doesn’t stay in the memory very long. 3. “Never Again” - this song has appeared before in a few places and this version is more smooth and languid. It sounds a little like you’d hear as background live music in a restaurant. This is a song penned by Scholl (as are several others on the CD) and the lyrics tend to be rather clich?d and cheesy but I do like it! 4. “His Voice” - this song has both Andreas Scholl and Orlando singing and sometimes it’s hard to distinguish which is singing. Initially it sounded like background music for a James Bond film but then became more lively before going back to James Bond backing music. 5. “All Beauty Must Die” - this is another song penned by Scholl. It starts off sounding more like classical music before a drum beat comes in and it becomes rather forgettable. 6. “Occhi Del Alma Mia” - this is more ‘traditional’ Andreas Scholl, making the most of his stunning voice with minimal instrumentation and with much more of a baroque flavour to it than the preceding songs. This is the one I like most so far through the CD. 7. “Everything” - another song penned by Scholl with rather cheesy lyrics (he sings “ain’t” but with such good diction, as always, that it sounds rather comical). The tune isn’t particularly memorable until the chorus which is much more lively and makes the most of Scholl’s upper register when he sings. 8. “Blue Woman” - this song has Orlando as the lead and it’s good! It has a slightly mysterious air about it which resolves into a major key for the chorus (where Andreas Scholl does backing vocals) and has a catchy tune thread running through it. 9. “Virtual Girl” - This one is a surprise to start with as Scholl sings the verse in his baritone voice and the chorus in his alto register. He composed the music and lyrics for this song and this song works better than some of the others with more simple arrangements at the beginning. 10. “Love Winged My Hopes” - another film soundtrack song at the beginning but then it livens up with lyrics written by Robert Jones in 1610. However the overall impression is rather 70s disco to me. 11. “Sunset Bossa Nova” - with lyrics and music by Andreas Scholl (who has said in an interview how much he likes the bossa nova beat) this song has a section when Andreas Scholl talks rather than sings and I wasn’t sure how well that worked. Still the overall feel is cheerful and it would sound good as background music sitting on a balcony looking over the sea on holiday with a good drink in your hand… 12. “After Great Storms” - This is for me the highlight of the album. The music was written by Orlando to fit lyrics from Thomas Wyatt written in 1540 and it’s an atmospheric song with Orlando singing baritone and Andreas Scholl singing alto. 13. “The Pearl” is another Orlando/Thomas Wyatt collaboration (spanning 4 centuries that’s quite impressive) with the music rather higher up in the mix than some of the other songs. Andreas Scholl sings most of the song with Orlando providing some backing in the baritone range. This is another good song. 14. “Nives” - another good song to round off the CD with music by Orlando and lyrics by Horace (I presume, the CD inlay says “Horaz” which I assume is the German version of Horace, he of Odes fame). In conclusion, probably a lot of the people buying this are fans of Andreas Scholl and who want to hear his pop as it’s something he frequently talks about in interviews. It will probably be a disappointment to many but it does have its own charms. The “pop” label to my mind is a misnomer but it’s not a bad CD for the Easy Listening genre and has a good variety of styles and singing. I hope that the people for whom this genre of music is their thing will find this CD and enjoy it and be introduced to this man’s amazing voice; for the baroque Scholl fans it’s probably one to miss unless you want a complete Scholl CD collection!
The Matrix: Path of Neo (PS2) Customer Review: An acceptable yet oddly off-putting take on the Matrix films.
This game is initially very entertaining, and looks pretty cool too. The in-game graphics when fighting are impressive, with hugely destructable environments and nice-looking attacks etc. When we get up close, however, the character models are often crude and angular, and the cinematics can be frankly embarassing in terms of the lack of realism(eg. smith’s death at the end of matrix 1). The gunfighting is also relatively poor. The game is fun, but it has a distintly cheap look about it that distracts from the better aspects. Some crucial fights are handled badly ( the burly brawls lets you fight only about 6 agents at a time, and the end battle with smith is boring and dissapointing) and the wild changes in tone from serious to sometimes completely ridiculous are off-putting. There are many situations not seen in the film and most are baffling and so strange that I wonder what is actually happening(the section where Neo tries to escape from the Merovingian’s mansion is the most boring and pointless section in the game). That said, the sound is fine, the voice acting is good and the fighting system is well handled. An acceptable yet oddly off-putting take on the Matrix films.
Graphics - 3
Sound - 3
Fun - 4
Gameplay - 3
Duration - 2
Customer Review: Amusing But Short
Ok, first off lets make it clear that I’m no gamer; I lose interest in games very quickly, and so understand that when I say this game is short, I MEAN it’s short.
Lets start with graphics, seeing as everyone seems obsessed with them, the in game graphics themselves are not great, but they are definitely an improvement from Enter the Matrix, and the cutscenes are actually quite impressive. Basically the graphics are nothing astounding but they’re good enough to keep you feeling ‘part of the game’.
Next, gameplay, the game is quite easy, and I completed most levels without too many deaths, and as I’m not a great gamer that means that more experienced gamers might be dissapointed. The moves are moderately easy to master, and after a while it just becomes dodges and pressing buttons in the right order to pull off cool attacks, which in themself are impressive but tend to be repetetive. Not much puzzle solving, its more about running into room, shooting someone, fighting someone else, leaving room.
The fact that the gameplay isn’t too demanding meant that a lot of the time I could relax and just enjoy beating the cr*p out of anyone who came near me and funwise this was very enjoyable; I must admit that the Burly Brawl scene which I expected to be very difficult was very enjoyable, I just grabbed a pole and smacked the Agents around. So basically while it’s not too hard it’s quite fun.
Now, my problem, the length! I bought the game 3 weeks ago for ?8 from HMV (it looked like a bargain!), I spent the first week playing, left it the second week and then lent it to a friend for a week, who incidentally has just bought the game, but my point is when he returned it today I carried one from the beginning of the second film part of the game, and have almost completed it, in one night! So any avid gamer could have the game completed in 3 days or less, as the thrid film section is simply the Last Battle between Smith and Neo! So it’s not very long, not long at all, I expect to have it completed by Monday (still remebering I’m no gamer!).
Well for those who this didn’t help (I expect I confused you) here’s the lowdown:
Graphics: 4/5 Not great but still good
Gameplay: 3/5 Too easy; no puzzles to solve ect.
Fun: 4/5 Because it’s every kid’s dream to beat the cr*p out of someone with a big metal pole! Gets a bit reptitive though.
Length: 2/5 If I’e completed it by Monday that means it will have only taken me two weeks (at 2 hours a night, meaning it took me 24hours, pathetic!) and so it will take an avid gamer even less (even less than 24 hours, not worth the money!).
So basically only get it if you can find it somewhere cheap and you’re a true fan; it will take one to get anything out of the game!
Hope this helped.
Finding Nemo Platinum (PS2)
