New CDs February 13, 2008

A few new CDs were added to the Hornsby collection over Christmas.

Sol Seppy ‘The Bells of 1 2′: Mrs H-to-be and I saw this band supporting Sparklehorse last year (or was it the year before?) and they upstaged him. I’ve been listening to them on Last FM and have been hooked by a couple of their songs, and thought it would be a good thing to play when friends with more middle-of-the-road tastes come to dinner. It probably is, but I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t say for sure. It hasn’t stood up to much serious solo listening though – it’s a bit too lightweight, and the lyrics are sometimes saccharine-drenched. Some decent pop tunes though, and a singer with a very emotive voice.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy ‘Ask Forgiveness’: My mate Jim gets annoyed with Mr Oldham for messing around too much in between proper studio albums and doing too many cover versions. He’d probably hate this then. It’s an almost solo, acoustic EP. It’s ok I guess, but I’ve tired of it quite quickly. Danzig’s “Am I Demon” and a cover of R Kelly’s “World’s Greatest” are the stand out tracks for me. As always, there is a diverse range of songs on here from many genres. I was interested to see that he’s covered a Bjork song from the film ‘Dancer in the Dark’, but it’s a wee bit dour.

Neil Young ‘Chrome Dreams II’: I had a go at a Guardian critic a little while ago on this blog for his review of this album. He really liked the 18-minute epic ‘Ordinary People’. I think it sucks. It sounds like it was written in his 1980s Reagan-supporting days, and is a tedious, way overlong, stadium rock song. It’s got saxophones and a brass section in it, and not in a good way.  Thankfully, Mr Young redeems himself with many other songs on this album, his best since Greendale.  (I don’t go with the general media view that Living with War and Prairie Wind were good albums).  My particular favourite is his song to his late producer and mentor, David Briggs ‘No Hidden Path’.  Now that has a proper Crazy Horse sound to it, and when you hear it, you know he’s moving closer to the source.

It’s still a couple of weeks until payday, so I’m back onto Last FM and Pandora to get some new tunes.

Ken vs tractors February 12, 2008

It’s rare that I think that a politician has done something brilliant, but London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone is one of those people whom I frequently find myself saying “Well done son” about.  I did it again today when Mayor Ken announced that he would be increasing the London congestion charge from £8 to £25 for high-polluting vehicles.

Listening to the predictable uproar from owners and sellers of such vehicles, I could not help but notice that not one of them was able to justify their stance in anything other than selfish terms.

Excitement in Bexley February 6, 2008

I seem to have strayed away from writing about Bexley, on the whole, but it would be wrong of me to let the “Dezza-gate” affair (as they seem to be calling it around here) pass without comment.  (In case that doesn’t make any sense to you, I’m talking about the recent media scandal caused by my local MP, Derek Conway, paying his sons a rather tidy little salary out of public funds whilst not gathering any evidence of work that they may or may not have done).

Firstly, and on a positive note, my hat goes off to fellow, much more productive Bexley blogger Duncan Borrowman for leading the charge against Mr. Conway.  I wish his campaign every success.

And, well, go on then, hats off to Derek Conway too.  It’s been ages since we’ve had a really decent political sleaze scandal.  The Tories really know how to do it in style.