Friday 18 February 2011

Pleasant Sounds And Pretty Pictures

The third thing i want to write about today is a more light hearted thing, something of little overall importance but much personal interest.

The prospects for Music in 2011 look very good. The new White Lies album is brilliant, capturing the epic quality of the first album with if anything a greater control and a higher frequency of strong tunes. 'Bigger Than Us' is a great single, a powerful chorus supplemented by a melodic hook which sticks in your brain in a way which is surprisingly enjoyable. On first listen the Bright Eyes album is every bit as good as the previous ones, though i need to give it a couple more listens before i can really judge it. The Boxer Rebellion's new album is a definite grower and i'm beginning to really love that album. The new Strokes album sounds promising, at least based upon the new single, 'Under the Cover of Darkness'. I've got a definite soft spot for The Strokes, ever since i first realised just how damn good their first album 'Is This It' was. Elbow's new album sounds amazing, "Lippy Kids" and "Neat Little Rows" are both brilliant tracks and if 'The Seldom Seen Kid' is anything to go by, this album will be awesome. My friend Kara posted the video of the new single by Radiohead, 'Lotus Flower' , on my facebook page, it's the first song from the new album which in true Radiohead style has crept up on everyone and is being released for download this weekend. Frank Turner has also confirmed he'll be releasing a new album in the summer. All in all a very promising start to 2011 music wise. I'm a happy guy in that particular respect.

Similarly Film in 2011 has some serious potential. I'm currently in full on geeky excitement mode over two particular films. First up, released on March 23rd is "Battle Los Angeles", a film i've wrote about previously. An alien invasion film told from the perspective of one isolated Marine squad in LA trying desperately to hold back the tide of a technically superior alien force. The most efficient way to describe quite why i am so excited about this film is to use the director Jonathan Liebesman's own words from an interview in the March issue of Empire, "Black Hawk Down with aliens". If it does justice to that claim it could be an incredible film. The other film i'm very excited about is "Suckerpunch", due for release on April 1st. Made by Zach Snyder, the man who brought the world 300. It promises to be epic, utterly stupid and stunningly shot, everything i like from a big budget action film. I love the fact that all the lead characters are female, giving it a slightly different dimension to so many other action films out there. I love that the plot revolves around one of those girl's imagination, a girl who, unfairly, has been placed in a mental institution. It all looks so very promising as something dramatic, exciting and pleasantly different.

There are many things wrong in the world in the early stages of 2011, several of which i have written about or will write about in the future, but it would appear that the escapism of film and music will be in fine form at least.

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