Harvey

One of the joys of living where I do is the proximity of the canal to my flat, it's only a couple of hundred yards away (thats about 0.18 km for anyone who is living in this century and has accepted the metric challenge willingly or 1000 furlongs (approx) for those who like their measurements even more archaic) and if I lean back on my chair now, yup, I can see it from my makeshift kitchen table workstation. It's a great resource, should the council ever decide to do anything monstrous with it that's it, I'm leaving town.

Enough waterway-related yabber, on with the task in hand...

Album #5:
PJ Harvey Let England Shake

Now this was an album that I was so looking forward to, and when I first heard it I remember thinking how there was unlikely to be a better album all year. So here ,she is now, sitting in the, er, 5th spot. Without wanting to sound like summat you'd read in Mojo magazine, this is probably the most superbly crafted album of the year, there's no doubting the songwriting, musicianship and production, just that other albums have consequently excited, surprised or otherwise wowed me more (I'm listening to one of them now in the background in fact). But, in the end Peej remains one of the artists that I admire most in this big wide world of ours and I've been with her right from the start, bought all her records, seen her live loads of times and will continue to support her until I'm old and grey. Until my hearing packs up completely and I'm no longer able to be captivated by that trademark Harvey holler. Sample track: The Words That Maketh Murder

Film #5:
Submarine

There's someone I know (and this is someone who really knows his films and is in a position to actually distinguish between cinematic wheat and cinematic chaff) who really dislikes this movie because he thinks it tries far too hard and is far too pleased with itself. Now, I do respect this man's opinion, but for me the reasons that he doesn't like the film are the reasons that I like it very much, namely, the flights of fancy and the characters' idiosyncracies which to me are very unforced and give the whole piece a real sense of identity. I'm loathe to use the word quirky but it is more than a little bit this way inclined, but without being annoying and irritating as these so-called 'offbeat comedy dramas' often are. It's a charming rites-of-passage film that has real heart and several lovely performances, as well as a gallery of supporting fools, most noticeably Paddy Considine's ridiculous mullet-sporting new-age guru. Well worth checking out on DVD if you missed it at the cinema *adds to lovefilm list for re-watch*