#02 Music

Once again this week, I've squandered all my cash on buying new music. It doesn't take long for the fresh, crisp new £10 note in my wallet to become a CD in a Virgin Megastores bag. Which is good, because it takes me one step closer to filling up my CD rack and my jukebox, but which is also bad, because I don't have any clothes to wear and I've not no money for anything else. I say all my cash... I literally mean £10. This week it went on The Ordinary Boys' second album "Brassbound". Unlike the debut "Over The Counter Culture", this album is clearly more influenced by ska and reggae. It's not got as many sing-a-long-a-summer tracks, but it's a great collection of music. You can actually hear how this band have grown, they've progressed, but it's still them, if that makes sense.

Growing up, I was always amazed by people who could listen to a song and pick out the influences of different bands or artists. Once, on holiday, there was a man staying in the same hotel as us who had an encyclopaedic knowledge of music. People would walk up to him, ask his opinion of a random band, and he'd be able to talk for hours on the music scene. His wife joked at the time- "If only he loved me as much as he loved music!". I would sit and watch this, and thought to myself how cool it would be to be like that man.

Well, I was listening to "Brassbound" yesterday, and as 'Boys Will Be Boys' started up, it struck me - this song sounds just like Madness! And 'Don't Live Too Fast' - it sounds like The Specials!! Oh my God, I've done it!!! OK, it's fairly bleeding obvious that this album is based on the alternative ska and reggae sounds of the 1980s, but it made my day.

I love it when you put your iPod or jukebox on random, or if you just tune to a random radio station, and all your favourites play one after the other. It's fantastic - you can just lie on your bed and soak it all in... brilliant. You need a boost, or you feel really Summery, and it's just good song followed by good song.

Then of course, there's the times when the opposite happens. I don't mean that all the bad, album-filler tracks come on, I mean all the songs that remind you of the bad times, or how crappy your life is, or anything by Keane. It's happened to me twice: once ages ago when I was feeling really guilty and upset with myself; and once this week...

The worst songs to play when you're down...

• Lemar - If There's Any Justice (In The World)
• S Club 7 - no, really - Never Had A Dream Come True
• The Streets - Dry Your Eyes
• James Blunt - You're Beautiful
• Coldplay - What If? (this song scares me to death!)
• Keane - entire back catalogue, but especially their version of The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore). I'm surprised they didn't re-name it The Sun Isn't Going To Shine (Anymore) (Because We've Started Playing Our Soul-Less, Guitar-Less Drivel)

"So why so sad?" as the Manic Street Preachers might say? Well, the exams didn't go great this week. English wen't badly (good job I don't need an "A" to get into university, eh? Eh? Oh.). And the hardest physics exam is next week...

I hate Science. Not physics, but the bloke in the Big Brother house. How can they stand that bloke? He pretends he's from the ghetto - THERE ARE NO GHETTOS IN ENGLAND. GET OVER IT. It's like the great debate over Live 8 - ethnic watchdogs etc. have moaned because black artists are under-represented at the British gigs. I challenge you to name enough British black artists worthy of appearing to fill a stage, let alone a running order. Lemar is the closest we get to a international black British superstar... Ms. Dynamite, anyone?

It's too hot to go on. While Glastonbury is under-water at the moment, it's still in the high 20s/low 30s here, so I'm just waiting for the thunder storms they keep predicting. It might be a long wait.

#01 One

What's happened this week? Let's find out, shall we?

I heard two fantastic albums this week. Starting right at the top, with Coldplay's third album X&Y on Monday. To be honest, there was a large part of me that wanted this album to be dire, just so I could rattle off loads of anti-Coldplay (OK, anti-Chris Martin) rants. Well fair play to the tree-hugging, no-drinking, rock-and-roll-less, "Make Trade Fair", "Save Africa", half-bit Bono rip-off, because it's pretty darn good. Yes, its pretentious, and some of the lyrics are a little bit suspect (how can you float on a tidal wave?), in terms of creating foot-tapping instantly-recogniseable tunes, you can't fault the man.

I didn't think I'd hear a better album all week. Boy, was I wrong! It's been out for quite a while, but somehow I'd managed to avoid the brilliant Maxïmo Park and their A Certain Trigger LP. This album rocks. It has all the ingredients for a perfect disk of music: There's the no-holes-barred screamers that you have to sing along to by law (The Coast Is Always Changing); the regional dialect (Geordie); all their singles; solid (but not great) filler tracks (I Want You To Stay); and one (no more, no less) sad, emotional, deep song (Acrobat). "I am not an acrobat/I can't perform those tricks for you" - a heartfelt apology and sense of desperate helplessness towards the one person you would attempt anything for - but in this case, just aren't good enough.

Also this week, my A-level exams 'proper' have begun. Physics was this morning (went quite well, no nasty shocks), and Business tomorrow morning. History and English loom on Monday and Tuesday... I know what I'm doing at the weekend! Attempts to revise are being made all the more difficult by the lure of 24-hour Big Brother on E4, and the arrival of my new digital camera, which arrived a week earlier than expected. Within three hours, I'd used up the batteries, so now my usage of the thing is limited to when the rechargables are ready!

Finally, this week I sent off the spare ticket I had for Damien Rice's solo gig in London to a random girl met on an internet forum. Well not totally random, (it was a Damien Rice fan site!), but still worth writing to add a little excitement. The arrival of the camera just makes me more and more excited about travelling to Paris the day after the exams finish to see him at Le Trianon. The Metro map has been printed, the euros are on order! Similarly, the arrival of a pair of cufflinks just makes me more excited about the Class of 2005 Ball for all us school-leavers. It's all just weeks away, but these exams really put a damper on things!!

That'll do for blog one, well done for reading this far!