Keane – “Strangeland” (2012) Review. 3/5

This review was originally posted on ciao.co.uk on 03/06/2012

When Keane first hit the scene nearly a decade ago, they were famed for being the band without guitars. I was initially sceptical, with the rock fan in me not believing that anything good to happen without guitars. But sheer musicianship won me over and, given that their debut “Hopes & Fears” was the second best selling album in the UK in 2004 and won the Best Album Brit Award in 2005, I clearly wasn’t alone.

Since then, Keane have followed a more traditional path through the music industry. They’ve had a member in rehab, they’ve changed a band member and they’ve had an album which was a departure from their usual sound. They’ve managed to retain their fan base throughout everything, with “Strangeland” being their fifth consecutive Number 1 album in the UK charts, something even bands like Oasis never achieved.

The album opens with the jaunty synthesiser line to “You Are Young”, which gives the song a pop feel and reminds me of the quieter moments in 1980s period U2. Once the piano comes in, the song expands into something quite anthemic and the U2 comparison remains, even down to the “Woah…” lyric towards the end of the song. As I vastly prefer U2’s older output to their more recent songs, this isn’t a bad way to start as far as I’m concerned.

Next up is “Silenced By the Night”, which again has a jaunty beat which helps to move the song along quite nicely. This tracks doesn’t quite have quite the same pop edge and reminds me a little of Snow Patrol or early Killers songs. Part way through it does descend into a strange break, which did disrupt the flow of the song and my enjoyment of it slightly.

The third track, “Disconnected” has a slightly gentle opening that reminds me a little of The Beatles in places, such is the vocal delivery. Once the chorus kicks in, however, the song gets more of a heavy pop feel and it feels a little more like an Orson song. I quite like Orson, so this isn’t a problem for me, but there is again a slower middle eight that disrupts the flow a little.

After quite an upbeat start to the album, it’s a slight disappointment that “Watch How You Go” doesn’t just sound like the kind of thing my mother would say, but also turns out to be the kind of thing she might listen to. This is a piano led ballad that, thanks to the vocal delivery, sounds a little like some of Paul McCartney’s solo work, thanks to the pop ballad feel. It’s a decently put together track, but it’s a little bland, especially compared to what has come before. Still, at least this time there’s no awkward middle eight to disrupt the rhythm of the song, although maybe this time it would have been more welcome.

Fortunately, we’re back to the upbeat tracks for “Sovereign Light Cafe”. There’s a decent beat to the song, driven along by the drums, but the synthesiser adds to this and it’s a well rounded heavy pop song that bounces along quite happily. It’s a decent track and possibly one of my favourites on the album, at least up until this point.

“On the Road” is another upbeat song, with a driving drumbeat behind it. This one has the anthemic heavy pop feel of 1980s U2 or Simple Minds, particularly as the vocals do evoke Jim Kerr’s, especially during the verses. There’s a big sing along chorus that really cements that feeling into place. As I’m very much a child of the 80s, at least in musical terms, this is definitely a good thing as far as I’m concerned.

There’s an interesting intro to “The Starting Line” before it changes tone slightly and has the piano led ballad feel of “Watch How You Go” return. However, this time around, when the chorus kicks in, it expands musically and turns into something far more impressive than that earlier track, getting some of the stadium ballad feel that you can imagine a whole crowd waving lighters aloft along to. Although it’s another pop ballad, it’s certainly a vast improvement on the previous effort.

The synthesiser and what sounds like a programmed rather than live drumbeat open “Black Rain”. It’s quite a downbeat track, much darker in tone to anything that has come before and whilst it’s got that about it to help it stand out, unfortunately there just isn’t enough about the track as a whole to make it anything other than somewhat bland. It’s a dark pop ballad with a falsetto vocal that just seems to shuffle its way past you all the way to an unmemorable end.

There’s another interesting synthesiser opening to “Neon River”, but the opening verse is strangely dark and disappointing after that. Fortunately, as the song gets going, things do liven up a little and it soon develops into the kind of stadium heavy pop that, not for the first time on the album, evokes 1980s U2. The longer the song goes, the more this feeling takes root, as it adds a few more layers and a little more depth and by the end of what is the album’s longest track, especially during the musical break about 3 minutes in, I can picture Bono’s “Joshua Tree” era mullet standing at the microphone singing this one. How you feel about this song is more about how you feel about U2 than how you feel about Keane, but fortunately I was and remain a fan of U2’s older work.

By contrast, “Day Will Come” is a little all over the place. It starts with a synthesiser that New Order might have been proud of, before developing a U2 style drum beat and then having a more indie-pop vocal reminiscent one again of the Killers. Once the song does finally settle down to its final anthemic feel, it turns out to be an upbeat and enjoyable track and certainly sticks out as being one of the more exciting tracks on the album. Potentially thanks to it being the shortest song on the album, it is one of the few tracks here that seems to be over too soon.

“In Your Own Time” has an interesting synthesiser beat to it, but this is overlaid by nothing especially interesting, which feels like a bit of a waste. It’s a pleasant enough song, but it drifts by with little to stand out and whilst it’s a decent enough pop song, there’s little that you can grab onto it with and it drifts harmlessly by, albeit fairly quickly thanks to its up-tempo nature.

In ending the album, “The Fog” eases things out quite nicely, but sadly it’s another piano based ballad and whilst it does have an eerie sound and a nicely downbeat feel in the chorus, I can’t help but want to sing McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre” over the intro and the opening verse, which for me completely ruins any ambience Keane were trying to put onto the song.

“Strangeland” isn’t a particularly bad album by any means, but it is a little bland and, following on from the departure from Keane’s norm that was “Perfect Symmetry”, it feels like something of a backward step. If your favourite Keane album was “Hopes & Fears”, then you’re more likely to get something out of this than if you enjoyed “Perfect Symmetry” much more. Of course, if you never liked Keane at all or, for that matter, 1980s era U2, this album will do little to change your mind.

Pot Noodle Fusions Thai Green Curry Flavour Review. 2/5

You generally know what you’re going to get with a Pot Noodle, a snack that is ready in a very short space of time and which won’t be classy and may be of questionable taste and nutritional value, but will be incredibly basic.  So when Pot Noodle came out with their Fusions range, which sought to bring more exotic tastes, at least by Pot Noodle standards, to the traditional pot, it seemed like a bit of a reach.

The Pot Noodle Fusions Thai Green Curry appealed immediately, as I do like a decent Thai Green Curry, if only because I’m usually too much of a wimp to have Thai Red Curry, which is a bit hotter.  Pot Noodle may have figured they had heat covered in their Bombay Bad Boy flavour and a Thai Green Curry is a lot further in taste from their usual fare.

The Pot Noodle Fusions pots are larger than the normal size, closer to the larger pots they have offered in recent years and they have a black lid and background which separates it from their normal flavours.  First impressions on opening the lid are good, as you get the aroma of green beans and sweetcorn, with a slight hint of coconut underneath that you would expect.  The ever-present flavouring sachet is there, offering the same soy and ginger sauce that I’ve enjoyed in the Sticky Rib Pot Noodle, but the aroma suggests that a lot of the taste is actually in the noodle mix rather than in the sauce sachet.

Making this version of the Pot Noodle is as you would expect, pouring a kettle of water into it, waiting a couple of minutes, stirring and adding the sauce sachet and then waiting for a couple more minutes.  Adding the hot water does something to the flavour mix, as the aroma you get from the heated version owes more to the lime leaves and coconut than to the vegetables, but either way it’s a smell distinctive of the recipe, so it’s no bad thing.

After the strong aromas coming from the pot, the taste afterwards is a touch disappointing.  There is a hint of green beans and a touch of the lime leaves coming through, although the latter may be a taste encouraged by the aroma more than an actual taste sensation and the whole taste does resemble a Thai green curry, but in a fairly weak and toned-down way.  It feels as if a lot of the taste has been absorbed with the water into the noodles and stayed caught there, unable to get out and you have to get a long way into the pot, to the excess water at the bottom, to really get much strong taste out of it.

Given that I have recently stumbled across a Pot Noodle I particularly enjoy because of the strong flavours and that this is part of a new range, I wasn’t prepared for disappointment.  The aroma is fantastic, but the taste has all the blandness of a Pot Noodle and none of the excitement promised by the Fusions.  It may be that they’ve aimed too high with this one and selected a taste a little too subtle to really work when surrounded by noodles and others in the range will be better, but this isn’t an overly inspiring start.

Crazy Hills Putting, Weston-Super-Mare Review. 4/5

Of all the things I didn’t expect to be doing when I spent a day in Weston-Super-Mare, crazy golf was one of those things. But we were walking along the sea front with some time to spare and happened to pass Crazy Hills Putting and as my wife is a huge crazy golf fan, we thought we would give it a try.

It’s a very easy place to get to, as it’s on the road which runs straight through the seafront on Weston-Super-Mare, slightly away form the centre of town towards the Marine Lake. I’m not entirely sure how the place got its name, as there aren’t any hills in that area of town or in the venue itself, but there is at least crazy putting to be had.

In terms of the course, it doesn’t offer anything much different to the vast majority of crazy golf courses around, as many of the holes are on a flat plane. There are the traditional obstacles of windmills, curved ramps and the changes of levels you find at most crazy golf courses and the course tend to rely more on physical and static obstacles than moving ones for the most part.

The course is 18 holes, set out on a quite compact course that doesn’t allow much space for too many people around a hole at any given moment and could fill up at busy times. But this does mean movement between holes is quite quick, as they follow on easily from each other and the whole site can achieve some shade from the trees around a couple of sides of the venue, depending on where the sun is at any given point in the day.

At only £3.50 for a round which can take between 45 minutes and an hour, with the possibility of a reasonably priced coffee or ice cream before or after, this is as good a place as any to play crazy golf, should you be in Weston-Super-Mare. It won’t go down as one of the more memorable crazy golf experiences I’ve had, but it was enjoyable enough and it’s a cheaper way to spend an hour than some places in Weston-Super-Mare.

“Behind the Bastards” Podcast Review. 2/5

Apparently, depending on which quote you have happened across, genius is either 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration, or it is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. However, in these days where anyone can write a book and have it self-published or can set up their own podcasts with just a little technical knowledge, it doesn’t take even that much inspiration to get your work out there.

In the case of Robert Evans, he might have had just enough inspiration to come up with the idea for “Behind the Bastards”, as well as plenty of follow-through to bring it into being and keeping it going with twice weekly episodes since April 2018, but not enough talent to make it any good. Having listened through his novel podcast “After the Revolution” and finding something that was long on word count, but short on originality or execution, I thought I knew what might happen here, and I wasn’t far wrong.

The basic idea is that Robert Evans has gone through large numbers of history’s nastiest characters, from obvious ones like Hitler and Saddam Hussain, to slightly more obscure ones like Bobby Fischer and Coco Chanel, who may not have carried out comparably despicable acts themselves, but who supported those who did. Evans doesn’t just look into individuals, but also groups, like the Illuminati and the CIA.

One of the main issues with “Behind the Bastards” is that whilst Evans does his research in huge detail, he doesn’t seem to know what to leave out. Most episodes run between 60 and 90 minutes and many of the subjects are spread over 4 episodes and some go further than this, as far as 6. This means that there are characters who have between 4 and 8 hours going over their lives, many of whom have already had plenty of words spoken and written about them. Indeed, this is where Evans seems to get much of his information from, as he’s clearly well-read, but just because he is a detailed and enthusiastic researcher doesn’t make him a great writer.

For each character, Evans invites a guest along, usually someone who makes their living in a comedic profession of some kind, but very few who have broken out of local or national level into the international mainstream such that I’ve heard of them. Not only have I never heard of them, but for the most part, we don’t get to find out if they’re any good at what they do, as their role seems to be largely to sit there and listen to Evans lecture them for several hours about the biographical details of someone not very nice and they are rarely given the opportunity to speak, whether they know anything about the subject matter or not and they seem to be there so Evans can find himself funnier than he really is.

There are only a couple of things that were even vaguely original about “Behind the Bastards” and even there, the novelty wore off very quickly. The way he leads into the adverts was quite funny the first few times, but after 5 years it’s losing its charm and seems to be placed to confuse the guests as much as to lead into a break. The basic idea is very good as well, having an exclusive focus on some of the nastiest people in history, but with such poor execution, especially when compared to most other biographical and historical podcasts around, the idea wasn’t really worth having in the first place.

Even after listening to his novel podcast, which was poor in both idea and execution, I really wanted to like “Behind the Bastards”. Had it gone into the same detail as some true crime podcasts, looking into motivations as well as actions, or used soundbites and reconstructions rather than merely having Evans lecture his way through his, admittedly detailed, research, it would have been better. But what we have here is around 5 years worth of lectures about some really horrible people, delivered in such a way as to have no redemption from the relentless nastiness that it gets tiring much faster than it becomes anything you would consider educational or worthwhile.

“Green Lantern” (2011) Review (Film Only). 1/5

This review was originally published on ciao.co.uk on 29/07/2011

Another summer at the cinema, another comic book adaptation. Not being much of a fan of comic books, the Green Lantern wasn’t one I’d heard of before now. But given that a number of the comic book adaptations have been pretty good, especially in recent times with the “X-Men” franchise and the updating of the Batman, Superman and Spiderman characters, I figured it couldn’t be all bad. And it wasn’t, but it certainly paled in comparison to what has gone before.

Having been imprisoned by the Green Lanterns many years before, the evil being Parallax has escaped and is aiming to take his revenge. He succeeds in killing the Green Lantern warrior Abin Sur, who first defeated him. Abin Sur crash lands his spacecraft on Earth and sends his special ring out to seek his replacement. The ring finds Hal Jordan, a cocky, over confident test pilot, who certainly seems to have the lack of fear the job demands, but struggles with the physicality of the job.

Hal is taken to the planet Oa, where the Green Lanterns get together and he starts training. Unfortunately, there has never been a human Green Lantern before and he is derided, especially by the Green Lanterns leader, Sinestro. Meanwhile, having infected the scientist who did Abin Sur’s autopsy, Parallax is heading for Earth to destroy it. Hal Jordan either has to convince Sinestro to help, or fight the battle to save Earth himself, whether he’s ready or not.

It’s tough to know where to start with this film, as it was pretty bad in almost every single aspect. The first issue I found was with the story, which wasn’t substantial enough to support the film. The pacing of what is there is horribly off as well, as there is too much time spent looking at the relationship between Hal and Carol and not nearly enough time spent on the Green Lanterns. This means that the threats to Earth that Hal supposedly has to fight off and the training he’ll need to achieve this are skipped over way too quickly. You never get the feeling that the Green Lantern has grown into the character he needs to be before the time comes where he has to be and the ending of the film itself is so blink and you’ll miss it, that it’s barely worth waiting for.

The special effects on the film, usually the best part of any action film, are also seriously lacking here. Many of the alien Green Lanterns look like they’ve either been put in very bad costumes, or drawn on by someone more used to working in cartoons. The Green Lanterns’ arch enemy, Parallax is little more than a swirl and the details that film fans have become used to thanks to the advancement in Computer Graphic Imagery are absent. Some scenes involving Parallax look so badly done I wished this film had been a cartoon, as it would have fitted in better.

The acting performances, never a strong point in action films, weren’t here either. Ryan Reynolds may look decent as a superhero, but that’s about all he does, delivering his lines with all the emotion of the original comic book Green Lantern. Blake Lively as Carol is nice to look at, but there is never any chemistry between the two of them. Tim Robbins, who has put in some excellent performances over the years, is wasted here and seems to be largely going through the motions. For the second time in recent memory, Mark Strong as Sinestro is the stand out, although here, as in “Robin Hood”, he’s not got any real competition. His performance wasn’t markedly excellent by any means, it was just significantly better than anyone else’s here.

The one minor saving grace to the film was some of the script. Admittedly, it slowed down in all the wrong places and was completely wrongly paced, but it did deliver some good lines. Unlike “G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”, which seemed to be trying too hard to get the laughs, the jokes in the script here felt a lot more natural. Some of the moments where Carol and Hal are sniping at each other are snappily written and Hal’s attempts to get the Lantern to charge his ring are quite amusing.

Apart from this minor saving grace, however, this is a poorly put together film. There’s really nothing here to recommend spending money on it. Nothing here is worthy of seeing on a big screen or with an impressive sound system and there’s not really a lot here to even recommend seeing it on a small screen either, but at least then you’ll be satisfied in the knowledge that you’ve not paid anything extra to watch such a poor film.

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro – “10th Anniversary (Women’s Murder Club 10)” (2011) Review. 2/5

This review was orignally posted on Goodreads on 03/11/2018

The 8th and 9th novels in James Patterson’s “Women’s Murder Club” series provided hope that he and co-writer Maxine Paetro had finally found their range with the characters. Sadly, the 10th in the series, “10th Anniversary”, suggests that this was a momentary blip and the quality of this novel has taken a drastic nose-drive back into the lacklustre area inhabit by most of the previous seven novels.

Lindsay has finally married Joe, but there is little time for respite as immediately after her return to work, a teenage girl is found badly injured by the side of the road, talking about how she has lost her baby and claiming to have been drugged. She could be the victim of the same person who has also left several women in various places around the city, apparently raped, but with no memory of the past few hours. At the same time, Yuki is prosecuting the case of a Doctor who supposedly murdered her husband in front of their children, although she is claiming otherwise. The case looks like being a win for Yuki until the defence attorney manages to pique Lindsay’s interest and have her look into it further.

After a couple of books where the plot was suddenly more interesting, this has all fallen apart in “10th Anniversary”, with so much of it making next to no sense. For one thing, Homicide are involved in two cases which, by rights, they shouldn’t pay any attention to; the case of the girl with the missing baby has nothing to do with murder and the case of Yuki’s is so far advanced that Boxer should not have been touching it with a barge pole as it was way beyond her station. The crimes part of the cases are strewn around all over the place and only the rapist one really carries on until the end of the book and that’s largely due to it being ignored for the majority of the novel.

The quality of the crimes have dropped considerably here and the characters seems to be hugely change from the characters that there had been before. Lindsay, having recently married, seems to be baby obsessed, despite showing no interest in the baby Claire had only a novel ago. She is suddenly hormonal and bursts into tears at any situation involving the baby case, completely at odds with the strong woman she has been thus far. Yuki is acting differently, refusing to listen to Lindsay when she sticks her nose in where it shouldn’t be, but is more focussed on her career than being a decent person, which is again entirely out of character thus far. Then, having been entirely absent for most of the novel, Cindy makes an ill-judged decision and acts impulsively, which is more Lindsay’s role in the novels so far.

In the previous novels so far, the crimes have been weak and the writing of the characters has been very poor, with the relationships between them being unbelievable. This time around, the crimes are very weak and entirely out of place for a Homicide department and the relationships between the characters are virtually non-existent, with there being very little interaction whatsoever. Somehow, Patterson and Paetro have come off the back of their best novels in the series with one that not only has dropped back down to the previous low levels of the earlier novels, but has also made things worse.

Burnham & Highbridge Parkrun Laughs Run Report: Part 2

Not long after the previous meeting my parkrun Facebook group had, there was another. Unlike the previous occasion, I hadn’t taken my wife along, but having written my own report, everyone in the group decided my wife’s perspective was funnier than mine, so I also wrote a report from the perspective of someone who hadn’t actually been there. Again, it was generally accepted that this perspective was much funnier than mine.

This piece was originally posted on Facebook on 20th May 2019.

A non-saddo’s non-meetup non-run report…

After my wife’s run report from Pontypridd was such a hit, she has had requests to do more. Here is her run report from last Saturday’s meetup, which she was too wise to attend.

06:30 Zzzzzz

07:15 Zzzzzz

08:30 Alarm goes off. Wake to an empty bed. Wonder if I just dreamed having a husband.

08:35 Head downstairs for breakfast. What is that smell?

08:37 Can barely breathe! Husband was definitely not a dream! Possibly a nightmare… Or, judging by the smell, possibly a dead body in the downstairs toilet I’m not going to check!

08:38 Start writing long list of things for husband to do this afternoon when he gets home. Assuming he’s not a dead body in the downstairs toilet.

08:39 Item 1: decontaminate downstairs toilet

09:30 Friend comes to pick me up.

10:00-13:00 Make progress on making my dress for an upcoming wedding. Which, thankfully, is on a Saturday, so I get a week off from husband’s parkrun obsession.

13:00:15 Husband should have picked me up at 13:00. He’s late. There will be retirbution!

13:01 Text from husband saying he’s getting petrol. Probably means the idiot got lost 5 minutes from home again!

13:03 Husband finally arrives. Offers McDonald’s for lunch. Tell him that’s not the way to keep running sub-24.

13:03:30 Just kidding, I only thought that. What I actually told him was that he’s paying. Hope he doesn’t have the joint account debit card to hand…

13:05 Husband says that Sam asked after me. That was very sweet of her.

13:06 Have no idea who Sam is. Husband explains she was Naked Girl With Tail. Makes sense now…

13:07 Husband proud of going to Burnham & Highbridge like I told him to. Idiot clearly wasn’t listening again. What I actually told him was to do a long parkrun off a short bridge…

13:59 Arrive home after lunch. Husband sits down and announces he needs a nap

13:59:10 Produce list for husband. Tell him he can nap when he has completed all the items on the list. Figure he won’t sleep until about Thursday…

Amy Winehouse – “Lioness: Hidden Treasures” (2011) Review. 5/5

This review was originally published on ciao.co.uk on 08/01/2012

Thanks to advances in storage technology, meaning that out-takes and unused recordings are rarely disposed of, the death of a recording artist no longer means the end of their output. This is especially true when an artist is taken in the process of recording something new, such as with Michael Jackson and, more recently and at an even younger age, Amy Winehouse. However, rather than just benefitting her estate, some of the profits from “Lioness: Hidden Treasures”, are to go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which was set up by her father.

Winehouse was certainly a rising star, with her second album “Back to Black” winning 5 Grammy Awards in the United States, reaching platinum status for sales in more than 20 countries and being the best selling album of 2007 in the United Kingdom. As her musical success soared, so her personal life became more difficult, with a troubled marriage, several arrests for common assault and various addictions troubling her. Her death prompted renewed sales interest in her two albums, as it had for Michael Jackson’s back catalogue and so a final collection seemed inevitable.

This final album opens with “Our Day Will Come”, which is a reggae influenced track, played at a mid-tempo but with a very soothing, laid back beat. The backing vocals make it sound a little more like a soul song, but the combination works well and it’s a very relaxing start to the album.

The relaxed feel continue with “Between the Cheats”, which has another laid back doo-wop feel to it. Indeed, the whole song sounds as if it could have been lifted from the “Grease” soundtrack, until you listen to the lyrics. Once again, this is a gorgeous track, hugely laid back and Winehouse’s vocals work very well within the musical style.

“Tears Dry” is the original version of a track called “Tears Dry on Their Own”, which appeared on her second album “Back To Black”. Unlike that version, this is a very down-tempo song and despite the lyrical content, it never somehow manages to be downbeat. It’s a lovely pop-ballad with the vocals adding a soulful feel to it, again making it feel lifted from the 1960s and once more it’s the perfect song to relax to with the lights low at the end of a tough week.

As soon as I heard the opening to “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow”, I thought it sounded like something a 1960s Motown girl group would do, even without knowing which song was playing. Although the song is played at a slower tempo here than the original Shirelles version, thanks to Winehouse’s vocals, it still works beautifully. There are a few parts where the music threatens to overwhelm the vocal, which is a shame given how good Winehouse’s voice is, but this works beautifully and doesn’t feel out of place with the album as a whole so far.

Given the laid back retro feel of the album thus far, the next track does feel a little out of place. “Like Smoke (Featuring Nas)” opens with the familiar feeling of an old soul or 1960s doo-wop song, but when Nas comes in with the rap sections, it takes a little away from the style. That said, he does work the rap in nicely with the 1960s beat, but the modern language doesn’t quite work with the setting that the music has given the track.

My favourite Amy Winehouse song has always been the version of “Valerie” she did with Mark Ronson, so it’s good to see a version of that track here. This is a slower beat than the best known version and it’s not quite as effective as a pop song for me, but it does add an extra soulful feel to it that was missing from the final version. I do still prefer the more famous version, but this is a very decent variation on the theme.

Next up is a version of the classic “The Girl From Ipanema”, which is performed with a lovely bossa nova beat, which makes it one of the more up-tempo songs on the album. It’s a simple little song, with a lovely beat to it and some sections showcase how good Winehouse’s vocals really were.

The pace slows down again for “Half Time”, which opens with just Winehouse and a guitar before the rest of the instrumentation comes in. Once again, this is a down tempo song, but the beat in the background is a simple, but far more modern than much of the album, pop-R ‘n’ B sound. This gives the track a feel not too dissimilar to Alicia Keys or Corinne Bailey Rae, with the modern simple beat and the vocal soaring over the top. Once again, this is a lovely relaxing song to be listening to at the end of the day.

Next up is a demo version for the song “Wake Up Alone”, which originally appeared on her “Back to Black” album. Once again, it’s a very simple song and the production values certainly show that this is a quickly recorded demo version, but that doesn’t harm the song in any way, as the most powerful part of the song is the vocal and that’s as good as ever. Although it has more of a pop feel than much that is here, it’s still a lovely and relaxing down tempo song.

“Best Friends, Right?” is one of Winehouse’s earlier recordings and it’s one of the few up-tempo songs on the album and one of my favourites here. It’s got a nice pop-jazz feel to it and whilst it’s more mid-tempo than up-tempo, it grooves along quite happily, yet still retaining the laid-back feel that characterises this album as a whole.

Next up is “Body and Soul”, which is a cover of a 1930s jazz song as a duet with Tony Bennett. Once more, this is a lovely down-tempo jazz influenced number with a hugely relaxing feel. The style of the song makes this feel more like a Tony Bennett track, but his smooth vocals work very well with Winehouse’s slightly rougher tones and showcase how good she was, as well as how well her voice can fit different genres. It’s a shame to think that something this good is the last thing Amy Winehouse would ever record.

Winehouse’s recording career comes to an end with “A Song For You”, a cover of a Donny Hathaway number. The album closes with the same feel it has maintained all along, with a lovely relaxed, soulful groove. Although once again down-tempo, the soaring strings make it feel as if there’s more going on here than meets the ear. A spoken section at the end feels a little incongruous as her spoken voice has a rough edge that seems at odds with her singing voice, but it also shows her passion for the music, which is a lovely way to remember her.

This wonderful album shows two things that really stuck out to me. The first was the tone of many of the recordings here. Most of the songs are down-tempo tracks with a very relaxed groove. This makes this the perfect album to be listening to on a dark evening after a tough day, with a glass of wine by your side and the lights turned down low. It seems strange that someone with such a hectic and disordered life outside her music could produce something so laid back and chilled out as this album.

The second thing that grabbed me at the end of the album is what a talent we have lost. Winehouse may have hastened her own downfall and upset a number of people along the way, but this album remains as proof that she had a wonderful voice. This album takes 12 tracks and 45 minutes to truly showcase how good she was and how good she could have continued to be, had she only lived. If you’re a Winehouse fan, or a fan of relaxing music, this is the perfect album for you. She will certainly be missed, but what a legacy she has left here.

Cadbury’s Curly Wurly Review. 2/5

It’s rarely my first choice of chocolate bar, but a set of circumstances resulted in my needing a Cadbury’s Curly Wurly. Indeed, I didn’t purchase it for the express purpose of eating it in the first place, but to have in my hand as a ran a 5 kilometre route on the grounds of a former Cadbury’s factory where the Curley Wurly bar had been made.

There is the old theory that everything used to be bigger when we were younger and that certainly seems true of the Curly Wurly bar. It is currently a bar of roughly an inch across and maybe 7 inches long, but my memory has it as being a lot wider when I was younger, even if I only have vague memories of exactly how long it was.

Whilst the size may be different, the chocolate bar itself has not changed over the years. You get thick strands of coffee, plaited together in a curly pattern and covered in a thin layer of chocolate. I’m not generally a big fan of toffee, as I’ve not got great teeth, but with this being a Cadbury’s product, the chocolate is of good quality and the aroma of the bar is full of chocolate more than the toffee.

However, biting into the bar is a messy experience, as the chocolate layer doesn’t flex nearly the same way as the toffee, which means it can easily flake off and make a mess, so this is a chocolate bar best eaten with something in your lap or not wearing anything white. Despite the chocolate layer contributing most to the aroma, the balance of ingredients weighs heavily towards the toffee and it is this which comes through most strongly in the taste and in the texture, which is incredibly chewy.

Cadbury’s Curly Wurly will never be a favoured chocolate bar of mine, as I’m not keen on the toffee texture or the taste. I’m a big fan of chocolate, but there isn’t nearly enough of it here and it just feels like a larger, slightly more decorative version of the toffee finger you get in Quality Street. I’m not a fan of it there, preferring all the other options to that one and I’m not a fan of it here, either.

Bevendean Down parkrun Review. 5/5

One of my easiest parkruns and one of my hardest have taken place in the same city.  Brighton is a cosmopolitan city at the best of times, but it seems their welcome to anyone regardless of interests or gender or sexuality also extends to topography and geography.  For whilst Hove Promenade runs entirely on pancake flat tarmac at the seafront, when you move away from the coat, you come to the area of Bevendean Down and their parkrun couldn’t be more different.

If you head away from Brighton seafront on the A270, you eventually come to the hilly Bevendean area of Brighton.  In the middle of a largely residential area there is Bevendean Down, a hilly grass area that you would have to know exists if you are to find it.  Being a natural grassy area, there are no facilities, but the local meeting point at The Bevy is open for toilets before the run and for post-run meeting and breakfast.  Parking is on street and so can be a little patchy as there isn’t a huge amount of parking at The Bevy and there is no vehicular access or parking directly on Bevendean Down itself.

The course is tough, but well worth the effort.  It’s 2 and a quarter laps of the down and the field is entirely on an angle, which means you get one side of the route uphill, one side downhill and two across.  Being entirely on grass, the surface can be very uneven in any weather, but additional care is required after wet weather, as the slippery grass or mud at the turn at the bottom of the downhill section could be rather dangerous.

However, what you don’t get in flatness, you get back in the atmosphere.  The view from the top of Bevendean Down is spectacular, as you can see the whole of the city, including all the landmarks down by the coast and way out into the sea itself.  Then once you have done all the hard yards, the welcome you get at The Bevy is incredibly warm and the breakfasts on offer are large and filling and it also hosts frequent markets and events for additional interest.

Whilst there are bus routes and a train station not too far away, Bevendean Down is one of the harder Brighton parkruns to get to, even by car and it’s the toughest one you can find.  But the views and the welcome make it worth hunting out if you’re in town, as it’s one of the newer and quieter Brighton parkruns.  Whilst it doesn’t have the history of Brighton & Hove parkrun, the personal best chances of Hove Promenade, or the talking point of being the Brighton Marathon start line like Preston Park parkrun, there is enough about it to leave you with a story to tell about the experience.