If only there were a way to get to the sixteenth letter of the alphabet without referencing the immortal Blockbusters joke, “I’ll have a ‘P’ please Bob” But there isn’t, so I did. Obviously the above reference may mean nothing to you, particularly if you didn’t watch the quiz show Blockbusters in the 80s and…
Category: review
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 15: On
And so to ‘O’ that most circular of letters. And when you think about the great albums of the nineties, there really could only be one choice for the letter ‘O’. So it’s almost beyond belief that I’ve gone with a different one. But I stand by today’s choice. It was an album that I…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 14: 1977
And so we are officially in the second half of what really is a self-indulgent set of posts about the music I liked when I was younger. If you’re just joining me, then welcome. Although you are going to have to work hard to keep up with the others. If you’ve been with me since…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 13: The Man Who
The halfway point of the alphabet lies somewhere between ‘M’ and ‘N’. Which is where we’ll be at the end of this post. For we are on ‘M’ today. I’m not sure if the fact that we’re almost halfway there is a source of comfort or distress really. M is for The Man Who Yesterday’s…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 12: Laid
And so we’re at the time of our A-Z journey through nineties music nostalgia when we ask, what the ‘L’? And ‘L’ is coming, make no mistake about that. But what fresh ‘L’ is this? L is for Laid I could hardly do a series nineties nostalgia posts predominantly about indie music without including a…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 11: K
We’re up to ‘K’ in the A-Z of albums that I listened to a lot in the nineties. I’m not sure if there’s anything more to say. I’ll throw in this sentence as a bit of ‘filler’ before we get to the ‘big reveal’. Although I always reveal the album in the title of the…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 10: Jollification
And so to ‘J’ in this self-indulgent amble down the memory lane of my music-loving youth. ‘J’ was a pretty hard one to select, because, frankly there wasn’t much to choose from. And I didn’t expect that to be the case, because while I anticipated ‘Q’ and ‘X’ to be problematic, I expect more of…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 9: I Should Coco
Day 9 of this A-Z malarkey and it is time for ‘I’. The letter ‘I’ obviously. Not me. If it was me I’d have said ‘it is time for me’. Because ‘me’ would be the correct pronoun to use in that sentence. That’s just basic grammar. But it’s not time for me, it’s time for…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 8: How To Make Friends And Influence People
It’s always been my personal belief that the eighth letter of the alphabet should be ‘H’. Which it is. I’m not saying I’m responsible for that fact. That’s not for me to say. If others wish to credit me then that’s up to them. But, which album has the honour of representing ‘H’ today? H…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 7: The Great Escape
And so to the seventh letter of the alphabet. Which was ‘G’ the last time I checked. And it’s probably safe to assume it still is. G is for The Great Escape No-one enjoys a bit of pedantry more than me, but I think it’s reasonable to ignore the definite article in the album’s title…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 6: Fuzzy Logic
And so on to day 6 of this alphabetised meander through the musical memories of my youth. And what the ‘F’ have we got today? F is for Fuzzy Logic The Super Furry Animals were a Welsh band, who sometimes had the audacity to sing in Welsh, but the commercial nous to mostly sing in…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 5: Everything Must Go
And so, on the fifth day of ‘James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young’ we arrive at ‘E’. And for this there were a few contenders. But there was one that invokes so much nostalgia it was ultimately the only choice I could make. E is…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 4: Definitely Maybe/Different Class/Dookie
As is the case most years, today is my birthday. But there’s no time to implore you to wish me Happy Birthday in the comments section below. I’ll just have to leave it to you to do the right thing. No, I must get on with the important business of letting you know which album…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 3: Coming Up
Day 3 of the A-Z challenge and who would have imagined we’d be dealing the letter ‘C’? So we’d better head off to 1996 and ‘C’ what we can find… C is for Coming Up Given that some people credit Suede for paving the way for many of the bands that were part of the…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 2: The ‘Blue’ Album
Day 2 of the A-Z Blogging Challenge and thus today’s album of the nineties must begin with the letter ‘B’ And I may have taken a bit of liberty with today’s choice. Because it doesn’t really begin with ‘B’ at all. Because today’s album is: B is for The ‘Blue’ Album Weezer’s 1994 debut was…
James’ Shamelessly Nostalgic A-Z Of Albums That He Liked To Listen To When He Was Young – Part 1: Attack Of The Grey Lantern
And so here we are in April, which means I can stop writing about the terrifying worldwide pandemic and start writing about some albums I liked when I was young (and mostly still like now if I’m honest). Because today is also the beginning of the 2020 version of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, which is…
The (Fairly Predictable) James Proclaims New Year’s Eve Review Of The Year That Was And Indeed The Decade That Was
As this is very much the last day of 2019 it behoves me to write about the year that has just happened. But because 2019 ends in a ‘9’ it behoves me to write about the last decade too. There is always some debate that the new decade doesn’t start until the beginning of a…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 24
And so The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films comes to an end. But what film could be lurking behind door 24? Why it’s only the utterly brilliant 2019 superhero movie Shazam!. When it comes to superheroes on the silver screen, there’s no denying that Marvel/Disney have had considerably more success in recent…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 23
Time for door 23 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films, which, thankfully means we’re almost done with my delusions of film connoisseurship for another year. Probably. I have been known to throw in the odd film review that has nothing to do with Christmas in the past. But it’s hardly a…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 22
2015’s Run All Night is the third (of four to date) collaborations between director Jaume Collet-Serra and senescent superman Liam Neeson. Like all their other collaborations (Unknown, Non-Stop and The Commuter) it’s a pretty ‘by the numbers’ action flic. This is fine if you like that kind of thing. Which I do. Unfortunately, Run All Night…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 21
Barry Levinson’s 1982 directorial debut, Diner is an eminently watchable film. Although nothing much really happens. Set in 1959, it’s a sort-of coming-of-age story about a group of twenty-something guys who spend quite a lot of their time in a diner. Notionally focussing on the build-up to the imminent wedding of one of their number,…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 20
Door 20 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films brings us 1985’s Better Off Dead. Which is quite a strange film. At first I thought it was an 80s teen comedy in the mould of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Which would be no bad thing because that is a great movie. But, although…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 19
1998’s Soldier seems like exactly the kind of film I would have been watching in the late 90’s. It’s as generic a sci-fi action flic as you could hope to find and it was made at a time when I was watching little else. Somehow, however, it passed me by. Which was no great loss really. Because…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 18
It’s December 18th, which means we’re now only a week from the big day. Probably time to start wrapping the presents. Be careful with those scissors though. Particularly if your name’s Edward And the scissors are your hands. Yes, behind door 18 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films is none…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 17
If yesterday’s entry, Love Actually found me conflicted over my feelings about Richard Curtis as a filmmaker, then his directorial follow-up The Boat That Rocked did little to help resolve those conflicts. The Boat That Rocked is a ‘sort-of’ love letter to the pirate radio stations of the 1960s. I wasn’t alive then, so have no recollection…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 16
Richard Curtis is a man who divides opinions. Specifically he divides my opinions. In some respects the man achieved a God-like status in my esteem in my formative years, because he was one of the people responsible for bringing the world Blackadder. No-one linked with that peerless television programme could ever do any wrong in my…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 15
Door 15 of The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films reveals the third in this year’s collection, which is an adaptation of a novel by Brett Easton Ellis. And of the three it is by far the best. It’s also the second film in this year’s ensemble to have the word ‘psycho’ in…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 14
We’re up to door 14 The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and it’s as if time is literally flying by as we head toward Christmas. Maybe we could do with a time machine. Like the one in 2002’s The Time Machine. Although it doesn’t seem to be the most reliable of…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 13
It’s Friday the 13th. Which is considered unlucky by some. And possibly it is for the entire population of the UK who might well be waking up to find out that someone truly awful is now their prime minister. I wouldn’t know as I’m writing this in the past. Although given that both of the…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 12
It’s December 12th and, if my understanding of current events is in any way accurate, then I believe there is a general election happening in the UK today. I don’t think too many people are feeling very optimistic about the outcome of that election. Hopefully we won’t all feel the need to throw ourselves off…
The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films – Door 11
11 days into The Third Annual James Proclaims Advent Calendar of Christmas(ish) Films and we arrive at 2002’s About a Boy. Which is about a boy. And also some other people. Adapted from the 1998 novel by Nick Hornby (an author who occupies God-like status in my esteem) About a Boy is not really like…
