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Jarvis Cocker recommended Basement Five by Basement Five in Music (curated)

 
Basement Five by Basement Five
Basement Five by Basement Five
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That was from John Peel, where I discovered load of music when I was younger. It was a free album given away with their first album. I remember John Peel didn't really play the proper album, he just played the dub version. I had taped most of the tracks off the radio but I didn't have a copy, and ended up finding it at a market about ten years ago. To me that's like Thatcher Music - it came out about the time that Thatcher came to power and in some ways you can hear that, it's got this cold harshness, like its anticipating the shit that's going to go down, especially the track called 'Paranoia Claustrophobia', it's great but it's pretty dark. I got told off for playing that. In the aftermath of Margaret Thatcher dying you weren't supposed to mention her. I was doing the show at the time, I thought it was a big event and didn't really like the fact that we weren't allowed to mention it. Tony Benn had died a few months earlier and as soon as that happened everyone was going 'loony left' and stuff like that, nobody seemed to take much care about whether they were going to upset his family, but as soon as Margaret Thatcher died it was 'oh don't speak ill of her, have some respect'. So you weren't allowed to play records that referenced her and you weren't supposed to mention her, but I played that Basement Five and said something like 'music from the Thatcher era' and ten minutes later somebody came down and said 'don't say things like that'. Tory governments are always going on about how the BBC is a hotbed of socialism but I got told off for that so I don't think there's much truth in it."

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Keeper - Single by Olivia Nelson
Keeper - Single by Olivia Nelson
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
Olivia Nelson is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter based in East London. Not too long ago, she released an honest R&B tune, entitled, “Keeper”, the third track from her upcoming EP.

“I hope he cracks your back and treats you better than he did to me. I hope he builds a bridge and gets over his insecurities. I’m so over the complications, over the not letting go. I’m ready to move on, ready to open the door. And she’s a keeper if she can deal with all your sh*t. No, I wasn’t the one, wasn’t no fun to play with.” – lyrics

‘Keeper’ tells a straightforward tale of a young woman who sends her ex-beau an evergreen message.

Apparently, not too long ago, the once budding couple called it quits. Their breakup occurred because she lived in a fairytale world while he simultaneously dated someone else.
Later, after healing from her heartache, she tells her ex to keep his new girl close because she’s the only one who will deal with his shenanigans.

‘Keeper’ contains a bittersweet storyline, ear-welcoming vocals, and funky instrumentation flavored with contemporary R&B and neo-soul elements.

“It’s a message to his new girlfriend. A warning of what’s potentially to come.” – Olivia Nelson

Olivia Nelson blossomed after releasing her collaborative debut, “Someone That You Love”, which has amassed over 15M streams; and her standalone single, “Smother Me”, has over 1M streams online.

She is labeled one of British R&B’s most exciting new talents and set to perform on the BBC Introducing Stage at Reading & Leeds Festival this year. Followed by her own headline show at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen in London on October 15, 2019.
  
Wild Rose (2018)
Wild Rose (2018)
2018 | Drama, Music
Three Chords and the Truth.
BAFTA named Jessie Buckley as one of their “Rising Stars” for 2019, and here she proves why.

Buckley plays Glaswegian Rose-Lynn Harlan, a decidedly wild child electronically tagged and released from the clink but straight down to some very public cowgirl sex with her erstwhile boyfriend. Only then does she have the afterthought of going round to the house of her Mum (Julie Walters) where two young children live. For Rose-Lynn is a single mum of two (#needs-to-be-more-careful-with-the-cowgirl-stuff), and the emotional damage metered out to the youngsters from her wayward life is fully evident.

Rose-Lynn is a frustrated ‘country-and-weste’… no, sorry… just ‘western’ singer, and she has a talent for bringing the house down in Glasgow during a show. The desire to ‘make it big’ in Nashville is bordering on obsession, and nothing – not her mum, not her children, nothing – will get in her way.

Rose-Lynn has no idea how to make her dream come true. (And no, she doesn’t bump into Bradley Cooper at this point). But things look up when she lies her way to a cleaning job for the middle class Susannah (Sophie Okonedo) who sees the talent in her and comes up with a couple of innovative ways to move her in the right direction.

Will she get out of her Glasgow poverty trap and rise to fame and fortune as a Nashville star?

Difficult to like.
Rose-Lynn is not an easy character to like. She is borderline sociopathic and has a self-centred selfish streak a mile wide. As she tramples all over her offspring’s young lives, breaking each and every promise like clockwork, then you just want to shout at her and give her a good shaking. It’s a difficult line for the film to walk (did the ghost of Johnny Cash make me write that?) and it only barely walks it unscathed.

Memories of Birdman.
A key shout-out needs to go to director Tom Harper (“Woman in Black 2“, and the TV epic “War and Peace”) and his cinematographer of choice George Steel. Some of the angles and framed shots are exquisitely done. A fantastic dance sequence through Susannah’s house (the best since Hugh Grant‘s No. 10 “Jump” in “Love Actually”) reveals the associated imaginary musicians in various alcoves reminiscent of the drummer in “Birdman“. And there are a couple of great drone shots: one (no spoilers) showing Rose-Lynn leaving a party is particularly effective.

The turns.
The camera simply loves Jessie Buckley. She delivers real energy in the good times and real pathos in the bad. She can – assuming it’s her performing – also sing! (No surprise since she was, you might remember, runner up to Jodie Prenger in the BBC search for a “Maria” for Lloyd Webber’s “Sound of Music”). She is certainly one to watch on the acting stage.

Supporting Buckley in prime roles are national treasure Julie Walters, effecting an impressive Glaswegian accent, and Sophie Okonedo, who is one of those well-known faces from TV that you can never quite place. BBC Radio 2’s Bob Harris also turns up as himself, being marvellously unconvincing as an actor!

But I don’t like country music?
Frankly neither do I. But it hardly matters. As long as you don’t ABSOLUTELY LOATHE it, I predict you’ll tolerate the tunes and enjoy the movie. Followers of this blog might remember that – against the general trend – I was highly unimpressed with “A Star is Born“. This movie I enjoyed far, far more.
  
A Single Source
A Single Source
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Veteran BBC reporter William Carver is in Cairo, bang in the middle of the Arab Spring. 'The only story in the world' according to his editor. But it isn't.
There's another story, more significant and potentially more dangerous, and if no one else is willing to tell it, then Carver will - whatever the consequences.
A Single Source tells two stories, which over a few tumultuous months come together to prove inextricably linked. There are the dramatic, world-changing events as protests spread across North Africa and the Middle East, led by a new generation of tech-savvy youngsters challenging the corrupt old order. And then there are two Eritrean brothers, desperate enough to risk everything to make their way across the continent to a better life in Europe.
The world is watching, but its attention span is increasingly short. Carver knows the story is a complex one and, in the age of Facebook, Twitter and rolling news, difficult stories are getting harder to tell. If everyone is a reporter, then who do you believe?

I have to say this book was a complete departure from the types of books I've been reading recently.
A Single Source is set in 2011 in a time that came to be known as the Arab Spring. Carver and his producer Patrick are in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to report on the January 25th uprising. There are three strands to the story the one set in Egypt, another revolving around the foreign office and the third set in Eritrea. Gradually these three strands are woven together..
A slow starter which I found very difficult to get into maybe because this is not my usual type of reading material.
This book is well written and descriptive and the author has done a lot of work and research.
Unfortunately just not my cup of tea but do recommend if political thrillers is what you like.

Many thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to review this book.

Review copied to Amazon UK but link not available yet.
  
One Little Lie
One Little Lie
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Yep, one little lie is all it takes for it to snowball out of control and turn into a humdinger of a white, furry monster. By the way there are no yetis in this story, that was just me trying to be clever…
Onwards and upwards… You know you want to…
Psychologist Connie’s patient, Alice Mann has a son who is a murderer. Alice’s son killed Deborah’s son and is desperate for her forgiveness. Connie wants Alice to leave it all alone and to not get involved with Deborah, however, in an effort to redeem herself, Alice starts up a support group for the parents of murderers, but there’s one little lie she’s told which is about to snowball out of control.
Confused? You should(n’t) be. But stick with me…
Tension grows between Alice and Deborah and a young girl goes missing. Soon the police are suspecting not only foul play, but that maybe the wrong person was locked up for Deborah’s son’s murder and still out there. (Slaps head, I mean, how thick are these policemen?)
After a slow start (there are several characters and it does jump around a bit) I found the twists and turns of this story really had me on edge. At times I felt I was walking on eggshells around Alice and Deb, just waiting for it all to explode. In my minds eye I can see this as a really good film or BBC drama! Visually I don’t think it would be so complicated. But then, maybe that’s not what I should be taking away from all this.
Incidentally, this carries on from Bad Sister, featuring the same psychologist Connie, and DI Lindsay Wade, but can easily be read as a standalone story. Actually I really liked this aspect, I wasn’t expecting that when I picked up the book.
Once I got into this, I discovered it is actually cleverly written so when you reach the end of each chapter, you’ll not want to stop!