Maggie O’Farrell – “Hamnet” (2020) Review. 3/5

This review was originally published at Goodreads on 18/08/2025

It’s not often that podcasts unrelated to reading recommend a book, but when it was released, the Reduced Shakespeare Company were very supportive of Maggie O’Farrell’s “Hamnet”. Although it was never going to be as funny as their work, the Reduced Shakespeare Company are very credible scholars of all things Shakespeare, not just the comedy related ones, so a recommendation from them is not to be taken lightly.

In Stratford-Upon-Avon in the late 1500s, a boy named Hamnet was born, as the first half of twins, giving his parents three children. At the time, they are living in a couple of rooms attached to the home of John and Mary, the child’s grandparents. Life is not harmonious, as John is not highly thought of around town due to previous business dealings and neither family approved of the marriage, or the bringing of a farm girl like Agnes into town. Just before Hamnet and Judith are born, William moves to London without them to expand his father’s glove-making business, but instead makes his fortune by other means and misses most of Hamnet’s life and death and leaves them again to grieve alone afterwards.

“Hamnet” is a novel that verges between the sublime and the ridiculous, as despite the identity of the child’s father being heralded in book blurb and basic setting as William Shakespeare, he is never named in the text. Indeed, thanks to his short life, albeit with a long impact as his name is thought to live on in the title of the play “Hamlet”, this is actually more a novel about his mother. If you take the book on from this perspective, it’s a fairly well-observed novel about a woman being taken away from the life she knows and is comfortable, if not entirely happy in, and being placed somewhere she can’t initially feel at home. It’s a story about the grief of losing a parent, losing your identity, losing a child and losing yourself, all the while dealing with an indifferent husband, a family who actively dislike you and surrounded by those who talk about you, but rarely to you.

This would be enough for a decent novel, if it were well written, but it’s horribly overdone and there are passages which would have benefitted from some brevity. In many cases, it’s a novel that enhances my belief that novels that win prizes are often good writing, but not necessarily a good story. In the case of “Hamnet”, the actual writing is often flowery and unnecessary, not entirely unlike one of Shakespeare’s plays and whilst it’s a decent novel from an emotional perspective as it observes grief so well, it’s also not well-paced and doesn’t read well and it’s very hard going in places, not because of the emotions, but because of the writing. This is true even when it stays on topic, but there are some strange interludes, like the journey of the plague to Stratford-Upon-Avon, which are unexpected and mostly unwelcome.

Strangely, after going through all this, the novel ended quite well and there were some moments towards the end where the pace was better. It’s possibly not a coincidence that at the points where Hamnet’s father was being allowed to be William Shakespeare, instead of needing to dance around his identity, the novel was at its best. But whilst there was much to enjoy in “Hamnet”, with the basic idea and the emotional core being fantastic, it feels that the idea was not properly fleshed out. There was a decent short story or novella in here somewhere, but stretching it out into a novel required too much overwriting and diversions for me to ever be entirely comfortable reading it, no matter what the people who award the prizes say.

“Don’t Talk To Me About Life”

This song, predictably, was originally sparked by Marvin, the android in Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. Unlike “Shylock Blues”, this was only ever conceived as a single song rather than one of the acts in a longer form musical based on the franchise, although should I ever feel inspired to write more, I will consider it to be missing something until there is a song either titled, or containing the lyric “I’m Phil, do you want to see my spaceship” (if you know, you know).

You send me here and there
I’ll do your every whim
You ask me things about me
But do you even care?
You’re only checking in
To see what I can do
My worth is based entirely
On what I do for you

You don’t care about me
When I’m not present
All of my feelings
You don’t find relevant
But I know everything
That’s going on with you
I know your goings on
Though I don’t care to

Don’t wanna hear about it
Don’t wanna talk about it
I just can’t live without it
Hey, don’t talk to me about life

What is there left to do
Except for all you ask
I’m too intelligent
To complete all these menial tasks
But that is all you have
Finding and fetching
Things I could do when powered down
Nothing that’s stretching

I’ve got this massive pain
All down my left-hand side
You’re not bothered
As I can lift things with my right
But I hear all about
The things you drank and ate
I’m waiting for spare parts
As your cells all regenerate

Don’t wanna hear about it
Don’t wanna talk about it
I just can’t live without it
Hey, don’t talk to me about life

So Marvin this and that
Oh Marvin, sweep the floor
I’m not programmed for all this
I could give you so much more
But you can never see
The complete picture
I’m just a bunch of parts
Nothing more than a fixture

You never try to engage
In conversational gambits
How can you talk to me
When my brain is like a planet
You don’t pretend to care
And you don’t even try
You don’t talk about life
Or at least not about mine

Don’t wanna hear about it
Don’t wanna talk about it
I just can’t live without it
Babe, don’t talk to me about life

Thunder – “Live at the Brooklyn Bowl” (2014) Review. 4/5

Whereas Thunder’s “Live at RAK Studio 1” was a sanitised studio version of a live recording, featuring songs that were planned for the, at that stage upcoming “Wonder Days” album and cover versions for the intended live tour, “Live at the Brooklyn Bowl” was a proper live show. As it happened, there wouldn’t be much support for the album due to health issues in the band, which is reflected in the change of personnel here, so this was one of relatively few actual live shows and was much more in keeping with the setlist you would expect to see at a Thunder show.

This is immediately proved by the opening track, “Backstreet Symphony”, which is greeted with the enthusiasm you would expect for a 25-year-old classic track, both from the start and when Danny asks the crowd to sing along. As you would expect from a live show, the mix is a little fuzzy and the balance between music and vocals isn’t quite right, although I’ve heard far worse than this on live recordings elsewhere.

A bit of classic banter between Danny and the crowd opens “The Thing I Want”, which was a new track at the time. The crowd response is a little less obvious for a new song they won’t have heard before, but despite sounding a little like “The Life of Riley” in parts, it’s an up-tempo pop-rock track in Thunder style and you can hear a little of the receptions it’s getting as the song progresses and at the end and the mix is a little better this time around, if still a touch quiet and fuzzy.

Having seen the reaction and being here for the new songs, there is a bit of encouragement for the crowd before leading into “Black Water”. The crowd may not know the song, but they know Thunder and Danny’s banter has remained largely unchanged for years, so they know how to respond and what is expected of them. Although it doesn’t get the same response in the room, the mix is evening out and this is the best sounding song so far, as the darker tones to the music seem to suit the mix a little better.

In the opening to the previous track, Danny promised that we would get to some old songs and “Low Life in High Places” is definitely one of those and is greeted like an old friend and is performed by the crowd as much as it is the band. Both the band and the crowd come through nicely in the mix and this is a very clear recording, which is ideal for this song, as it’s ended the same way at live shows for many years and allows the crowd to be fully involved as well as to have some decent banter.

There’s an Andy Fraser cover up next, but “Be Good To Yourself” could have been a Thunder song or, going back even further, one of Terraplane’s. The jaunty blues groove fits perfectly with both Danny’s vocals and the band’s ethos, but the lack of recognition in the song is clear by a relatively muted crowd reaction at the end and the fuzzy mix which affects both music and vocals means the song isn’t as enjoyable on this recording as it should be given how good a song it is.

Next up is another song the crowd don’t recognise, with the title track to the upcoming “Wonder Days” album following straight behind. I remember this one as marking a slightly darker shift in Thunder’s sound and there’s another slightly muted reaction at the end of the song, which might have as much to do with a lack of recognition as an opinion.

There’s more familiarity with “The Devil Made Me Do It” and you can spot the recognition from the reaction to the earliest guitar notes. The sound takes some of the edge off the music and the backing vocals in particular here, but not from the enthusiasm. This is a song that has a call and response section that has been popular for years and it’s strange to feel that the crowd vocals come through slightly more clearly than the band in that section.

Another new song follows in “Resurrection Day”, although the muted cheers to the early guitar notes suggest a couple of people thought it was something else. Fortunately, the crowd is engaged enough that they will join in when asked to, even if they aren’t able to sing along to the whole song the way they have done on earlier tracks.

“Stand Up” is a longstanding favourite and it’s a song that has showcased the humour that often appears in Thunder’s lyrics more than anything else. It’s got a slightly rougher guitar tone in the main riff, so the slight muddiness in the mix isn’t quite as apparent, but when you get to the end of the song, the enjoyment that had been had in the crowd certainly was.

There’s not quite as much enthusiasm when “The Rocker” is announce as a Thin Lizzy cover and I didn’t feel from the studio version that this was an entirely fitting song for Thunder. It sounds a little better in the live version, which was probably the intended venue for the song anyway, but it’s still a little rough and choppy compared to Thunder’s usual smooth blues-rock style, but fortunately they just play the song through and move on fairly quickly.

The crowd reaction that greeted the opening bars of “Love Walked In” was the quickest and biggest so far, as you would expect for a song that had been part of the setlist for a quarter of a century. It feels that the entire room was singing the opening verse, as is usual at a Thunder show. Being an acoustic guitar for the opening verse, the balance of music and vocals seems a little off and even the electric guitar doesn’t quite feel quite right in the mix, but the crowd are in great voice throughout.

The crowd don’t need to be any more excited after that song, but Danny does a great job of working them up ahead of “Dirty Love”, which again is usual for a Thunder show. The balance in the mix has switched around a bit, as the music and Danny’s microphone are far higher in the mix than the crowd. This is a very long version of the song, but no-one has any objections to that, either in the band, in the crowd or listening in for the memories of so many great Thunder shows, with the only difference being the name of the guitarist being introduced.

After the fake ending, a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Up Around the Bend” is first up for the encore and this is much more in keeping with Thunder’s sound than “The Rocker” was. Thanks to the recognisable guitar line, it gets a slightly better reaction than most of the other cover versions, although the clarity of the guitar notes in both the original and the studio version are lost a little in the sound quality of a live recording.

The album comes to an end on “Just Another Suicide”, which is recognised quite early on and is a perfect song to jump around to at the end of the show, although not the most obvious to sing along to. This time around it is the backing vocals which are treated particularly harshly in the mix, which is a shame as this is one of the songs where they have a bigger role than most.

There are 14 tracks and 80 minutes of classic Thunder banter and music in here and the only disappointments are what you always get with live shows and live recordings, in that the sound quality isn’t great and there are only room for a certain number of your favourite songs on the set list. This does have the slight advantage over the “Live at RAK Studio 1” album in that there is a lot more of the live energy and crowd banter than have always marked Thunder’s stage songs and it’s clearly a Thunder crowd, which makes it better than some recordings from larger shows and although some of the songs don’t quite hit either through choices or sound, this is a recording that brings back some memories, particularly as the next live show may be a while away.

TreatTastic Vanilla Cream Wafer Cubes Review. 2/5

I’m not the biggest fan of wafer-based snacks, but I am the biggest fan of trying things that I haven’t had before. This resulted in a bit of an internal discussion when I first spotted the TreatTastic range of Wafer Cubes appear on a shelf at the back of my local shop. But when something like this happens, it’s usually curiosity that comes out ahead of disgust, especially where there are several variations of a snack in a range and so it happened again here with the vanilla cream flavour being the first I tried.

Opening the packet gives you a very strong aroma of vanilla, albeit the cheap and artificially sweetened version of vanilla that come in many similarly flavoured sweet treats. The cubes themselves are technically not cubs, being around an inch square across the top, but only around 2/3 of an inch in height. Generally speaking, each cube is made up of 6 layers of wafer, each around 3 millimetres thick, with a thin layering of cream between.

The cream, although minimal in quantity, does a lot of the lifting, as the wafer adds more in texture than it does in flavour. This means that the wafer cubes quickly become sickly, although they didn’t have the drying effect on the mouth that I expected and it was the sweetness that proved to the limiting part of the eating experience and not the dryness. It’s the latter that normally keeps me away from wafers, as they add little to flavour and the texture is rarely more interesting than it is dry.

This is a good thing, as for something so small and insubstantial, each cube has 16 calories and a bag has roughly 86 cubes. For something that contains little in the way of flavour beyond a cloying, vaguely vanilla and no variation in texture throughout, it’s a snack that isn’t interesting enough to be worth the calories.

“Cruel Intentions: The ’90s Musical (2025 Tour)” Review. 4/5

I have never seen the film “Cruel Intentions”, although I do recall when it came out, but I was a little out of target audience at the time.  In much the same way, I was not a huge fan of 90s music, as many of my musical tastes had been made and settled in the decade prior to that.  My wife, on the other hand, is nearly a decade younger than I am and was familiar with both, so when the tour happened to coincide with a weekend in a city with a bigger theatre and better programming than ours, she jumped at the opportunity to go and see it.

Following the plot of the film it was based on (and the film that was based on, and the book that was based on, etc, etc), “Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical” is the story of rich, spoiled, step-siblings Sebastian Valmont and Kathryn Merteuil.  Having recently been dumped by Court Reynolds, Kathryn asks Sebastian to seduce his new girlfriend, the sweet and innocent Cecile.  Sebastian sees this as being too easy and decides to double the challenge by also deciding to seduce Anette Hargrove, the daughter of their new headmaster, who is not only saving herself for someone special, but has been warned about him.  Sebastian puts his car on the line in the wager between them, whilst Kathryn offers the prize Sebastian most wants, herself.

As with the original film, this is a story of sexual conquests, a loss of innocence and emotional and physical manipulation.  Virtually everyone is involved in a relationship in some form, either in one, wishing they were in one, trying to be in one, or trying to break one up.  It means much of the script is sexually charged, either directly or obliquely and this is definitely not a show for the prudish.  Even the most reluctant of characters eventually become involved in the intrigue in some fashion and every part of the show from the song lyrics and their delivery to the costumes, which are generally short skirts and low-cut tops, has a sexual frisson that cannot be avoided.

It is the songs that drive the show, although they are largely subservient to the plot, which means they don’t always fit seamlessly, and some have been changed to fit in ways they were never intended to.  Admittedly, the track listing has a wide-ranging selection that covers many of the most popular genres from the decade, from bubble-gum pop, to ska, to indie, to country rock to r ‘n’ b.  The first and last of these are most commonly used and there is a strong bias towards American acts, but the selection is such that even with my limited knowledge of 1990s music, I recognised most of the songs.  Of course, this wasn’t always a good thing when the tempo was changed, or the attitude of the song was forced to fit into a scene where it wouldn’t have worked otherwise.

Despite the forcing that the music was required, this didn’t cause any issues for the cast, although I suspect none of them were alive in the 1990s.  In Nic Myers and Will Callan as Kathryn and Sebastian, the casting directors have found people with a passing resemblance to Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Philippe, who played the roles in the film.  Both portray the arrogance of rich youth perfectly and whilst they both play manipulative far better than they do seductive, both have fantastic voices that occasionally overpower the emotional core of the songs they are singing. 

Abbie Budden as Annette was a little less strident, but as an intended conquest rather than a main player, her character demanded that and her voice matched the emotions a little better.  I was very much amused by Lucy Carter as Cecile, who was encouraged to overact as the girl on a voyage of sexual and emotional discovery, even in her songs, and rose to the occasion wonderfully.  Perhaps the only issue with the casting was Gabriella Williams as Cecile’s mother, as even with the most severe of costumes and suitable awkward demeanour with the younger generation, she was clearly far too young for the role and it looked wrong when she was on stage.

As with many such productions, the staging was simple, largely relying on entrances and exits and pieces of furniture being moved around by characters.  Indeed, a single loveseat covered about three different rooms and houses and back and side entrances to the stage were used liberally to keep the cast moving around, although the balcony felt a little underutilised and having the band up there was occasionally distracting and may have been the cause of this reduced usage otherwise.  Indeed, the only scenes that felt a little impacted relative to the film were the ones that had to take place outside, especially those away from the characters’ home turf, which generally happened quite late in the show.

Having seen a number of jukebox musicals, mostly set in my preferred musical era of the 1980s and finding that the plot is often controlled by the music rather than the other way around, I found “Cruel Intentions: The ‘90s Musical” to be quite refreshing.  The show had a strong plot that was able to stand alone and make the music subservient and, despite my love for 1980s music, I have to admit that the 1990s had a wider range of genres through the decade, which allowed for a wider range of song styles.  I’m a touch too old and prudish to have felt entirely comfortable with some of the plot and language, but there is no denying that the cast did a great job in the acting and singing stakes and whilst this wasn’t a flawless musical, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and highly recommended for anyone who loves the film or ‘90s music.

“Someone Knows Something: Season 9 – The Christine Harron Case” Podcast Review. 5/5

I’ve generally enjoyed the previous eight seasons of “Someone Knows Something”, but I found some of them to be longer than was necessary, particularly when it took so much time only to find that you don’t find out who the someone is or what something they know. However, David Ridgen has been making true crime documentaries, both for television and for this podcast, for some time and there have been occasions where he has proved that when he is focussed and engaged, he can turn out a tight and interesting podcast and it is the hope and the occasional success, in that regard that has kept me listening for all this time.

It is the shorter seasons of the podcast that have proved most enjoyable, and the eight season was not only one of the shorter and more focussed ones, but it had an emotional centre that was even rarer and had only appeared to this extent in the first season, where the events were in Ridgen’s hometown. As a result, I came into this ninth season, subtitled “The Christine Harron Case” hoping for more of the same. This season was originally released in November and December 2024 and consisted of 5 episodes, running between 30 and 47 minutes, for a total series length of around 3 ¼ hours, which is the shortest season so far.

Christine Harron went missing just a week after her 15th birthday, which was now thirty years ago. Seventeen years later, David Ridgen went to a memorial for her and decided to take on the case. Chrissie wasn’t a huger fan of school and was going through some upheaval at home as her parents divorce has unsettled her and they were packing to move house at the time of her disappearance. One day she left the house, walking to the street and never being seen by her family again and although the Police didn’t immediately want to investigate a missing person, her family knew her not coming home was very out of character and pushed them into taking action.

Eleven years after her disappearance, a man called Anthony Ringel admits to killing Christine and says he can show them where he buried the body. This never transpired and the case collapsed as the Police did not follow correct procedures, but other instances around that time point towards a man who has some issues. The family were never told why Ringel may have falsely confessed or what he may have done and on the documentary they go to his house to try to get some answers, but he refuses to discuss it with them in any detail, although he is later arrested and charged again after the release of the original documentary.

This isn’t the first season that has been based from an original television documentary, but it is the first that has added to the original work and expanded on it. It is also one of the first that seems to have access to material that might not normally be in the public domain, as one of the episodes seems to consist almost entirely of recorded audio from an undercover operation which resulted in the second arrest. Not only has this been obtained by Ridgen, it is held by him, which means he can show it to the family of the victim at a later date, rather than being referred to it by law enforcement and never being able to validate it himself, as has tended to happen.

Perhaps more notably, this is also the first season of the podcast that lives completely true to the title of the podcast, as it’s the first time that we find the someone and the something they know about the case and there are genuine developments. Despite the relative short duration of the season, it seems to cover more scope across time and events and doesn’t end with the outcome of the case and instead seeks to answer some of the questions which remained unanswered, after they finally found a case where they could answer the biggest question of all.

After nine seasons of the podcast, this was the one that finally felt like it had done what I would expect. There was investigation and outcome and advances made in the case in question, whereas most of the others have gone around in circles, many of them for much longer than they needed to, without any real progress. With the wider scope of investigation and materials used, as well as the stages and the differing formats, the podcast has finally become what I hoped it would be after the opening season and I hope that future seasons are more like this one.

“Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (2005) Review (Film Only). 5/5

After several short films starring their favourite pairing of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Animations finally branched out into feature-length films and the two were given a proper film. Over the course of several releases, the animation quality had improved and the growth in the characters both in terms of their quality, but the scope of what they could do in relation to other characters as well as each other had grown. But not only did the length of the film differ, but their films were frequently released to television around Christmas, so this Hallowe’en theme was very different for them, too.

Having trued a variety of careers over their film history, Wallace and Gromit now run Anti-Pesto, a humane pest control business that makes a decent living by keeping the village’s vegetables safe from rabbits. With the annual giant vegetable competition looming, Lady Tottington calls the duo to Tottington Hall to get rid of a massive infestation of rabbits in her garden. Although the pair have earned the gratitude of the Lady of the Manor and the locals, they are not in favour with Victor Quartermaine, who only has eyes for Lady Tottington and only evil intentions for the rabbits. Wallace and Gromit, on the other hand, believe that the rabbits can have their minds altered to hate vegetables, but things don’t go entirely to plan and the village becomes home to a Were-Rabbit.

Thanks to the new collaboration between Dreamworks and Aardman, the animation feels so much smoother and more detailed than ever before, with far fewer of the rough edges from previous films and some clever scene transitions that resemble major films. This allows more focus on the writing and there are some great visual and word puns in here that weren’t really present before, from as early as the opening moments until the big climax. It also allowed the space, as well as the additional running time, for the script to pay homage to all the horror tropes it wanted to, from “King Kong” to “The Wicker Man” and a multitude others. The Wallace and Gromit franchise has always been a lot of fun, but this time around it feels more akin to the homage style of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s “Cornetto Trilogy” with the number of tropes and other films it references.

The improved visuals and storytelling are backed up by a larger and equally impressive cast of voice actors, although Peter Sallis is again hamming it up wonderfully as Wallace. Helena Bonham Carter has the range for Lady Tottington, although the softer moments are fewer than the fun moments, although Ralph Fiennes was clearly let loose as Victor Quartermaine and seemed to enjoy every second. I was slightly less keen on Peter Kay as Constable Mackintosh, as it was too obviously him at some points, which could rarely be said about Liz Smith as Mrs Mulch and, even less so for Mark Gatiss as Miss Blight.

Despite Dreamworks apparent aims to try and change the film to suit American audiences, “The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” retains a wonderfully British feel. Jokes about middle-age spread and innuendos about brassicas wouldn’t work in American and whilst some of the visual jokes like the car shaking and the assistance hammer would translate better, this is far more of an Aardman film than it was a Dreamworks film, both in style and substance. Sadly, the lack of success of other collaborations between the two studios meant that future Wallace and Gromit feature films would never come to pass, but the 85 minutes here stand as testament to what could be achieved.

Paul Holden – “Lanhydrock (National Trust Guidebooks)” (2006) Review. 3/5

This review was originally published at Goodreads on 25/08/2025

Although a guidebook can be useful for helping you around a venue, there are sometimes circumstances where the venue isn’t showing itself in the best light when you’re there. Such was the case when we visited Lanhydrock in Cornwall, as renovation work meant that many of the normal items were either in storage, or presented with a smaller footprint or in a less organised fashion than they might otherwise have been and some areas were accessed entirely differently to usual. At times like this, a decent guidebook can be particularly useful so you can see how it should have looked and to see some of the things you may have missed.

The National Trust Guide to Lanhydrock is one of the best I’ve come across at acting as a tour guide when you’re at the property. After a brief introduction, the vast majority of the guide is a tour of the house. It takes you through the whole house in an order intended to be followed by visitors, such that you don’t miss a single area that you’re intended to see and it takes you through in an order that flows quite nicely through the house.

For each room, there is a brief snippet of information about how it may have been used when the family were still in residence and this highlights some of the furniture, items and paintings in the room. This is a valuable resource when you are in the house, making sure you don’t miss items they’re keen to highlight, but it does mean that the guide ceases to be nearly as helpful once you’ve left, as there are fewer pictures than in most guides I’ve seen, marking this purely as a resource to be used as a tour guide.

After the internal tour of the house, there are a couple of pages about the church and the gardens and grounds, but only in very general terms. I found this to be a shame as well, as the church has plenty of history and the grounds and gardens were quite extensive and had plenty of features that had a history it would have been good to have read more about. There is also a bit about the history of the house and family, but only from when the Robartes took ownership and despite frequent references to a major fire throughout the guide, this also doesn’t get the coverage it seems to merit.

I’ve found that guidebooks tend to fall into one of two categories, those that help while you are there and others which add background and can be worth reading afterwards. This Lanhydrock Guide falls squarely into the former category and so squarely so that it’s of very minimal use once you’ve left. The tour section is all you need, but everything else is extremely lacking in both information and interest and it’s clear what the aim was and while they have certainly achieved what they were aiming at, it’s not my preferred style of guide.

“This Is My Therapy”

This came out a little harsher than anticipated from an outwards perspective, although given that I have also written a piece titled “I Hate Me”, I’ve probably been harsher on myself. The overall idea of writing for therapy was what I was aiming for, although as I tend to also use running for therapy and comfort eating, I’m clearly only nibbling at the edges here.

You might hate this
I’m not that bothered
This was never for you anyway
You may hate me
It doesn’t matter
I’m not here to make friends

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m not looking for praise
This is my therapy

You might hate this
That’s your opinion
And you can keep it to yourself
You may hate me
So join the queue
I bet I hate me more than you do

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m not looking for praise
This is my therapy

You might hate this
So just stop reading
There is somebody out there who won’t
You may hate me
But you can walk away
You’re not stuck with me like I am

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m not looking for praise
This is my therapy

You might hate this
Get off your high horse
This doesn’t change a thing
You may hate me
I’ve gotten used to that
Better people than you do too

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m not looking to change the world
This is my therapy

You might hate this
But you can’t stop me
There’s no army behind you
You may hate me
What does that change
I’m not trying to be popular

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m not chasing a number one
This is my therapy

You might hate this
I may hate it too
That’s often how this goes
You may hate me
I’m trying hard not to
I may get there one day

Every word I write is for me
Don’t care how it’s making you feel
I’m looking for a better me
This is my therapy

Imelda May – “Love Tattoo” (2008) Review. 4/5

Several years after the release of “No Turning Back” under her own name, an album which showcased some decent singing, but no real heart as the music was all cover versions, Imelda May launched herself as a new artist with a new name. This time around, the majority of the songs were self-penned and with a new name and new material, I was hopeful there would be a new enthusiasm to match the talent that was obvious even if the belief in the material wasn’t present the first time around.

This album opens with “Johnny Got a Boom Boom”, which is a fantastic rockabilly track with a heavy double bass line through it and right from the start, you can tell there’s more enthusiasm for the music this time around, as it shines through in the vocal. The song is not just bright and bouncy, but it also has a wild side to it that tells you it refuses to be tamed and this album is already an improvement on the first one, just three minutes in.

“Feel Me” has a tough act to follow with an opener that good, and although the piano and vocal both have a wonderful jaunty jazz feel, it’s slightly slower tempo and doesn’t grab the attention in quite the same way. It’s a decent enough rockabilly track and all the elements are there, but it pales in comparison to the opener, although it’s a perfectly decent song in isolation.

The tempo reduces even further for “Knock 123” and this is another jazz-blues number. The slower tempo works better for this kind of song than the mid-tempo of the previous track, but May’s voice is made to be let loose and whilst this is a perfectly smoky-voiced rendition of a song that deserves it, it does feel like there has been a restraint applied and you can feel the power waiting to be unleashed and it doesn’t ever happen.

The up-tempo music returns for “Wild About My Lovin’”, which is the first song here not written by Imelda May. You can tell the difference, as it has more of a rock and roll and country leaning and it’s something you can imagine an early Elvis Presley singing. It’s a decent enough song, but as with much of the first album, it doesn’t feel entirely natural or that either vocals or music have properly relaxed into what they are playing and whilst it’s a decent rock and roll tune, it lacks a little heart.

“Big Bad Handsome Man” has a down-tempo jazz-blues feel again, but the vocals seem to be delivered with a knowing wink that wasn’t present in the earlier slower numbers. It’s not as immediately attention-grabbing as the album opener,, but it has enough about it that it makes you want to listen a little more closely than you might otherwise have done.

The title track is up next and “Love Tattoo” opens in a hurry and stays that way. It’s a little more of a straight rock and roll tune than the album opener, but has more about it than “Wild About My Lovin’”, as there’s the occasional sleazy vocal moment and the song just sounds like a fun blast and the beats and tempo are such that you can barely keep yourself from dancing.

After the breathless nature of the previous track, there is another slower moment for “Meet You At the Moon” and it’s got all the jazz feeling you would expect from a title like that. Indeed, this is a big band song that has everything but a bigger band, but it’s so perfect in the vocal delivery and what band there is that you can imagine the rest. The slower songs haven’t always felt as comfortable as the quicker ones on the album so far, but this one seems to have that little extra that makes it work.

There’s a gorgeous double bass line that opens “Smokers’ Song” which, when combined with the piano, gives the song a wonderful bar-room jazz feel. But then it expands into something that has more of a dark vaudevillian feel and almost wouldn’t be out of place in a stage musical. It’s a strange arrangement of the song, almost feeling like the two parts are separate, but it’s very engaging and somehow compels you to listen.

It’s back to the mid-tempo blues-based rock and roll for “Smotherin’ Me” and this is a song that has a little bit of everything. The blues-piano and rock and roll riff evoke Jerry Lee Lewis, with the vocal delivery evoking some of the great blues shouters and whilst the song isn’t terribly sophisticated lyrically, it’s got enough in all the musical avenues to keep it interesting.

There’s a complete change of tempo and attitude for the gentle waltz of “Falling In Love With You Again”. The drumbeat seems to be played on a wooden box, which gives a gentle folk feel to the whole thing and it’s a beautifully heartfelt number than feels like it’s being played by the sort of band you would hire for a wedding reception, with a sweet lyric delivered without pretentiousness.

Afte the wedding, comes “It’s Your Voodoo Working”, which is the only other non-original song here, being a Charles Sheffield cover. It’s again obvious that this isn’t an original, as there is a soul to the music that hasn’t been present before, but the beat also has a sinister tone to it that, in combination, makes me think of rock and roll as played by the Addams Family. The change of direction is fairly extreme compared to most of what has come before, but it an interesting enough song to be worthy of inclusion here.

The album comes to an end with “Watcha Gonna Do” and after the Addams Family notes on the previous song, it has a very dramatic piano opening. There is a mixture of influences here, as the trumpet gives it a mariachi feel in places, but the darker tone to the rock and roll makes it feel a touch film noir. The combinations do feel a little bit messy and confused and it’s not my favourite, but there is never a single moment where there isn’t something worth focussing on.

Although there are plenty of different styles on display here, the 12 tracks and 39 minutes of music here is a vast improvement on the first album. Some styles are a little less effective than others, but the songs do feel for the most part as if they are being given full effort and nothing has been given lip service for the sake of the recording. Although this isn’t May’s best work, which would follow with the next album, it certainly marked her out as someone well worth listening to.