Beverley Knight comes back with some Music City Soul on CD...
Beverley Knight seems to be a singer on the permanent comeback trail, never
quite hitting the heights of her contemporaries, but
DVDfever.co.uk reviewer Elly Roberts
believes this is an album that must be heard and is "quite breathtaking".
Stuck for something to do this weekend? The list of the films showing at
Manchester Showcase Cinema
can be found on this page, and won't differ much from what's on in the rest
of the country.
The new films out include: Shrek The Third and
Hostel II.
Bobbie Gentry was an icon of the '60s era and, as
DVDfever.co.uk reviewer Elly Roberts
confirms, she had a great talent in her field with classic tracks such as
Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head, Ode to Billie Joe and I'll Never
Fall In Love Again.
Although this DVD has been out a while, and even been shown on Film4 in its
original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, it's well worth a look if you haven't seen
it as Max (Jamie Foxx) is a cab driver just trying to make a living,
while Vincent (Tom Cruise in another excellent turn) is a businessman
who has five stops to make in one night and will pay handsomely for Max's
time, even though he's not meant to be tied to one customer of an evening.
However, Vincent's business activities are something that Max couldn't have
imagined in a million years and when he gets wind of exactly what's going
on, it's already too late to back out...
Collateral
is online and out on DVD now in a 2-disc Special Edition.
Elliott Smith's new CD is New Moon...
Elliott Smith became a cult artist in the USA and had songs featured on such
film soundtracks as Good Will Hunting and American Beauty, but,
tragically, he committed suicide in October 2003 at the age of just 34.
One of my favourite tracks of his was Son of Sam, which made just No.55
back in July 2000, and which was also used in a trailer for the first series
of The Office on BBC2 before that became a success, but this 2-CD set
contains 24 tracks from a man who, according to
DVDfever.co.uk reviewer Elly Roberts,
is an acquired taste, but his music will grow on you.
CHARTS: Catch-up to date with the best and worst singles of the past few weeks...
Not a full chart run-down yet - that will return next week, but a catch-up
on what we've missed from the past few weeks as to what was worth a listen
and what was a complete waste of plastic (or a download if that's your music
method of choice).
Check out the
music chart analysis page
which is online now and, to bring things up to date, Rihanna (right)
has just retained her No.1 position for the 6th week with Umbrella.
The release dates for singles and albums will continue when normal service
resumes in due course.
New DVDs out this week...
This week's new releases are as follows:
After The Wedding (19.99, Columbia)
Are You Being Served? Series 7 (15.99, VCI)
Arthur and the Invisibles (19.99, Momentum)
Blood and Chocolate (19.99, EIV)
Bogie and Bacall Signature Box Set (30.99, Warner)
Thanks to
DVDfever.co.uk reviewer Elly Roberts
for the following piece about Macca's new album, Memory Almost Full, which is released tomorrow:
Paul McCartney:
"I actually started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard (released September 2005). The first
recording session was back in the autumn of 2003 at Abbey Road with my
touring band and producer David Kahne. I was right in the middle of it when
I began talking with Nigel Godrich about a brand new project (which became
Chaos And Creation In The Backyard).
When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just
got the Grammy nominations (2006) I realised I had this album to go back to
and finish off. So I got it out to listen to it again, wondering if I would
enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. All I did at first was just listen
to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track -
now, what is wrong with it?' And it might be something like a drum sound, so
then I would re-drum and see where we would get to.
I took it from there and built it up. I went through, track by track, making
changes as I went along. I fixed things I wasn't too keen on and it just
evolved from there. Without me knowing, or really trying, it started to get
its own theme, a sort of thread that holds it all together. So I suppose
it's about half new stuff and half old stuff from 2003.
In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective,
drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from
summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really
sum it up in one sentence.
There is a medley of 5 songs towards the end and that was purposefully
retrospective. I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life,
but then I think about the times I was writing with John and a lot of that
was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' -
I'm still up to the same tricks!
I know people are going to look at some of the songs and interpret them in
different ways but this has always been the case. The thing is that I love
writing songs, so I just write and write. I never really get to a point
where I start thinking I'm going to write about specific subjects.
Inevitably though, what I am thinking is going to find its way into what I'm
doing.
The opening track of the album is 'Dance Tonight'. I recently got myself a
mandolin and I was just playing about with it and came up with the basis of
this track. A couple of weeks ago we made the video, which was great fun.
It's directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) and
stars Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook. I'm not going to give the plot
away. You'll have to go and watch it for yourself, but we had a good time
doing it.
The album title came after I had finished everything. For me, that's when
they normally come, with the exception of maybe Sgt. Peppers, otherwise I
don't think I have ever made an album with The Beatles, Wings or solo where
I have thought of a title and a concept. I was thinking about what would sum
the whole thing up and 'Memory Almost Full' sprung to mind. It's a phrase
that seemed to embrace modern life; in modern life our brains can get a bit
overloaded. I realised I had also seen it come up on my phone a few times.
When I started bouncing the idea round with some friends they nearly all got
different meanings out of it, but they all said they loved it. So the
feedback helped solidify the title.
After completing the album I then started thinking about the album artwork
and how I'd want it to look. I really wanted to make the CD a desirable
object. Something that I know I'd want to pick up from the shelf, something
that would make people curious. I hope our final concept has done that. The
album sleeve itself includes an etching by a friend of mine, Humphrey Ocean.
As with the album lyrics, I'm looking forward to seeing how people might
interpret the artwork.
Currently I'm just starting out on the promo trail and beginning to get the
first bits of feedback about the album and so far so good! It's interesting
now as I'm getting to hear what other people are making of the songs and
what their feelings are. I'm also talking about the album myself and I'm
really enjoying the discovery process.
I really enjoyed making this album with David Kahne and I'm proud of all the
songs. We had a great time. I hope that the fun we had will communicate
itself to the people who are going to listen to it."
All the best,
Paul McCartney, April 2007
Full Track Listing
1. Dance Tonight
2. Ever Present Past
3. See Your Sunshine
4. Only Mama Knows
5. You Tell Me
6. Mister Bellamy
7. Gratitude
8. Vintage Clothes
9. That Was Me
10. Feet In The Clouds
11. House Of Wax
12. End of the End
13. Nod Your Head
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
