You're a pussy-boy

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Catherine Feeny - 'Hurricane Glass' - While flicking around the music channels prior to turning in the other night, I happened upon a rather lovely track, 'Mr Blue,' by Catherine Feeny. Now, I've since found out that it was used on The OC, which is enough to put me off virtually anything, but as I've already got the album and found it to be excellent, I don't need to concern myself with such trivial concerns. It's a collection of fairly laidback folk music, with clear late Sixties/early Seventies influences. When the word 'fuck' popped up I was almost shocked, but having played it a few more times since, it's quite clear that Feeny has made the album she wanted to make and the fact that it suits all kinds of marketing ploys is just a happy, financially beneficial coincidence. There's a spiffing vinyl edition available for a little while. Follow this clickage, then select 'video' from the bottom, to watch various stuff, including a charming acoustic performance from Glastonbury.
Richard Hawley - Just the bloke himself, if that's ok? I'm a bit fucked off with certain aspects of the press deciding that it's time to have a go at Richard for having a few albums with a similar sound. It is, let's be honest, to be expected. Very, very few artists will make dramatically different sounding consecutive albums. More likely is the case that Hawley was one of their 'finds' because of the Mercury nomination for 'Coles Corner', despite most of us knowing about him for years prior to that, and now they've moved on to somebody new. Well, balls to them. The new album is great, much like everything he's done as a solo artist. Likewise the Super Furries. If I read another review that says they're standing still or lacking in enthusiasm when they've made a record as perfect as 'Hey Venus!' I'm going to... well, get annoyed and pace up and down a bit. But you understand the sentiment.
Candie Payne - 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' - Now I get it. When I heard the opening track from this album a few months back I was decidedly unimpressed. Something didn't click. It didn't sound particularly well thought-out or particularly innovative. However, constant recommendations from people whose musical taste I can trust caused me to finally purchase a copy of the vinyl. It's a feel good pop/soul album that sounds just a little bit weird. Weird in a good way, I hasten to add. Kind of like the songwriting team can make pop gems, but have a habit of getting absolutely smashed when doing so and so they come out a little bit psychadelic or just a little screwed up. That said, putting fake crackle on something is just silly. It becomes all the more silly when you're listening on vinyl and the crackle fades out at the end of the track to complete silence!

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - This is now reasonably established on More4, despite everybody knowing that it's already been junked by the American networks and won't make it to a second series. The writing is just as sharp as one might expect from the man brought us The West Wing, but Sorkin's slight problem here is that it's hard to be convincing without being a little bit 'in-jokey' and it's hard to be endearing if you're being that convincing. It's all rather neatly polished, and Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford are outstandingly good as the two leads, but I can kind of understand why it wasn't a huge success. That's not to say that I'm not sad that that was the case. It makes a change to have something that accepts an audience can be intelligent on the TV, and I'll be savouring every episode.
Apple and Mango Juice - Delightful
Tony Wilson - The way he spoke, you almost believed he was invincible. Hard to quantify his impact on the music scene at various points in his illustrious career. He'll be greatly missed.