Sunday 20 September 2015

Ten Things Learnt from the First Ten Episodes of Dragon Ball Super

If you were to tell my younger self that Dragon Ball GT wouldn't be the end of Akira Toriyama's magnum opus and that a new series would take it's place, I'd probably write you off as one of the gullible idiots who believes in Dragon Ball AF and all the obviously fake recolours of Super Saiyan 5 (although ironically, a recolour does now make up a new power up).

If you were to tell myself that at your near thirties, you'd write an article on it because you have nothing better to do, I'd probably take up that drug addiction that always seemed out of my grasp, but alas, here we are, in 2015 with a 'sort-of' new Dragon Ball storyline in the form of Dragon Ball Super with ten points, observations and opinions of the new series (not for each episode, because we'd be here all day).

The Libertines - Anthems for Doomed Youth Review



The Libertines sit in a bizarre state of overexposed and mythical. The only band that I can think of to even come close to them is The Smiths and even that feels weird.

The foursome exploded on the NME scene with all the hallmarks of headline grabbing escapades away from the stage with the occasional glimmer of musical brilliance on it. Of course, I say foursome, but it was the song writing partnership of BarĂ¢t/Doherty that was most intriguing.

Like their forefathers Lennon/McCartney, Marr/Morrissey and Sylvester/Tweety, it couldn't last and by the time their self-titled second album hit the big time, the working relationship of the pair had spectacularly exploded for all the world to see.

In the post Libertines world, the band struggled to either break their previous shackles or live up to them. Whilst it only took two years before the NME ditched their previous prodigal sons in favour of the Arctic Monkeys, Doherty kept the press entertained with his beleaguered, drug-induced antics until, they too, grew bored with him.

Sunday 13 September 2015

The View - Ropewalk Review



The biggest fault I had with 2012's Cheeky for a Reason was how familiar everything felt and in-turn, how everything had been done better before it.

Three years and a greatest hits album later (normally a death rattle unless a jealous record label cash grab), The View are back again with album five. Ironically within a week of The Libertines' long awaited return who arguably had the biggest impact in the band's aesthetic prior to Hats off to the Buskers, you know, the one that everyone likes.

Despite my...reservations due to Cheeky for a Reason, I had hopes for Ropewalk. Kyle Falconer went to rehab which from a heartless listener standpoint, meant that we might get some introspective songs regarding his condition instead of another iteration of Wasted Little DJs (that and obligatory best wishes etc).