The Go Team! - 'Proof Of Youth' - Ok, so they're not reinventing the wheel, but there were some quite sniffy reviews of this album in the 'serious' papers recently. It's meant to sound like it's all coming through a transistor radio. That's what made the first album so charming. This one's a bit more vocal-heavy than the debut, but still rides a wave of euphoria from start to finish. I wasn't convinced by the first singles initially, but I'm glad to say I was wrong and if 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' was a favourite, then take a punt on this too. Purchase early for a rather splendid free bonus disc of oddities.
Andy Lewis & Paul Weller - 'Are You Trying To Be Lonely?' - A cracking Northern Soul stomper that is a logical continuation of one of Weller's teenage compositions, 'Left, Right & Centre' having similar treatment at the hands of Lord Large and Dean Parrish not all that long ago. As I've said recently, Weller's voice has matured like a fine wine, and his covers album, 'Studio 150', demonstrated that he can apply it to a variety of styles. This is a resounding success, and far more heavyweight than the collaboration with Graham Coxon from a few months ago. Single out tomorrow.
Bat For Lashes - 'Fur And Gold' - I've already said a fair bit about this, but for anyone who likes their female singers quirky but affecting then this is for you. No peaks and troughs, just quality throughout. Still cheap at the moment due to excess Mercury-influenced stock in shops, but may not always be the case.
Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Argentina's rugby team: To be fair to myself, I'd had more than a slight hunch that the opening game of the Rugby World Cup 2007 might go against the home team, France, but what a bloody great game it was. I shouted myself hoarse cheering on the underdogs, despite the fact that I reckon France deserve their time. It blows Pool D wide open, with Argentina, France and Ireland all competing to get out of the group and on to the quarter finals. Gripping stuff. Unlike the England team who looked like there's a slight risk they may not come even second in their pool. As for my lot, it's a good job we finally managed to play well in the second half of a game of rugby for a change, as we were fucking awful in the first half. I fear for us against Australia. Here's a cool picture of Shane Williams from the BBC website, although likely to be from Huw Evans' Welsh Rugby Pics website, which is full of wonderful Welsh rugby photos to buy.
Sky News - This morning a slightly flustered member of the Sky team attempted to fill a huge chunk of airtime stood by the side of a road waiting for the McCann family to arrive at an airport. She spent much of the report turned sideways on to the camera as she appeared to also have the job of looking out for the relevant vehicles. It was one of the most pointless and ill-conceived bits of 'news' reporting I've ever seen. Quite what would have been gained by seeing the cars I'll never know. Such is the problem with rolling news. It's got to be filled with something. Rather charmingly, she was determined to make up for failing to being us live pictures of a moving car, so she showed us the airport, and how it would have been for the McCann family if they hadn't gone through the private entrance. So, in other words, here's some footage of an airport for absolutely no reason at all. Bizarre.Outnumbered - Some of it might have been improvised apparently, but who really cares, because it was funny. Starring Hugh Dennis and the delightful Claire Skinner, this was a comedy based around some brilliant child actors who spent the majority of each of the six episodes pushing their parents to the edge. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, and nothing less than chucklesome at others, this was another fine piece of telly from the team behind Drop The Dead Donkey.
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