Bless his cotton socks

Musical Revelations Of The Week:
Bruce Springsteen - 'Live In Dublin' - A joyous 2CD (and DVD if you're willing to spend the extra) set that simply encapsulates the atmosphere of an excellent gig. Live albums are nearly always a crock of shit, but this one sounds like the crowd were having a riot and The Boss sounds on good form. Mainly drawn from the 'We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions', a fine album in itself, this is the most vibrant that Bruce has sounded in yonks.
Manic Street Preachers - 'Assorted B-sides' - As I think I mentioned, I'm currently attempting to buy up the Manics singles that I missed out on first time around. Hearing tracks like 'Hibernation', 'Too Cold Here' and 'Love Torn Us Under' it makes me wonder how the hell 'Lipstick Traces' ended up with the tracklist it did. Well worth hunting down these increasingly cheap old CD singles to hear some lost gems. And a shit live version of 'Drug Drug Druggy'.
Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black (vinyl pressing)'- This album finally got a vinyl release recently, and as I said back at the start of the week, it really does improve the listening experience on this one no end. An extra mention in the weekly round-up in the hope that it will spur a few more people on in terms of registering the sonic differences.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week
The work of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David: I sort of stopped watching season six of Seinfeld on DVD around the time the Michael Richards (Kramer) story broke about offensive comments made during a stand-up gig. It's what Google's for, kids. Anyway, up till then I'd been devouring the series at a fair old pace but it took its place on the shelf and dozens of other things moved ahead of it. However, a bargainous offer over at Amazon whereby you get £5 off if you buy two TV DVD boxsets from a certain selection allowed me to get Seinfeld season 7 and Curb season 5 for £18.50 delivered. An offer not to be passed up, and thus I felt obliged to finish off season 6 prior to 7's arrival. And what a delight it was. I didn't watch Curb's fifth season as it went out on More4 because of its late-Sunday slot, so I have the delights of that ahead of me too. If you've not bothered with either series, it's not too late. In fact, it's bloody cheap to get up to speed now.
Jekyll - Plot all over the shop, delightfully menacing performance from James Nesbitt and Michelle Ryan looking eerily like Kylie at one point, this was the latest Saturday night offering from the Beeb. It's ace, although I'm not sure why. So much unexplained, although I guess that's the point. The cast is particularly well chosen - Paterson Joseph as the slightly OTT bad guy was a sublime idea. Written as it is by Steven Moffat it was unlikely to be shite, and sure enough it wasn't. Charmingly bizarre, I hope it doesn't get an intellectual panning in the press to blight its run.
Simon Ambrose - If only I was a betting man...

Can't think why they tried to make you go there

Ah, The Winehouse, or Majestic, as we call it round here. 'Back To Black' remains one of THE pop/soul albums of recent years, containing as it does, not a single duff track. I always thought the CD sounded a little too mashed, even though the plan was always that it should sound like the compressed to hell vintage Motown singles of the sixties. It made those annoying clicking noises that you get with over-compressed records. It's not hugely noticeable, but when you're obsessive about these things it becomes an issue. Thus, I was pretty chuffed to discover that a vinyl release was finally upon us and that it sounds a lot better than the CD.
Now, as far I'm concerned that statement is true. A copy arrived in the post today, and it sounds wonderful. The album breathes, as well as swinging, bounding and seducing. It's hard to pin down what is so much better about the vinyl, but then I've always been like this. I love the sound of a good piece of vinyl - currently, Terry Callier's 'What Colour Is Love?' - but short of 'it's analogue', I don't really have any reasons why. Naturally, it looks pretty, but even I'm not shallow enough to buy a format for that reason alone. Anyway, this vinyl. If you have the means, track yourself down a copy and treat yourself to just over half an hour of soul indulgence. It's a modern classic, and I don't bandy that phrase around willy-nilly. (I appear to writing this live from the 1960s, based on some of my language choices this evening. Anyway, it's been a long, long day, my hay fever is ridiculous and I'm knackered.)
Till tomorrow.