Bungliemutt

Elderly gent serves up a slice of ragged glory, 2 Nov 2012

Let's examine the facts, ladies and gentlemen. Close to fifty years into a career of wilfully divergent highs and lows, 66 year old Neil Young dishes up his second album of 2012 with long-time partners in crime Crazy Horse, the world's most famous band that cannot play. The first album (Americana) was either `interesting' or `rubbish' depending on your perspective. The second, on the other hand, is a different animal altogether. A quick recap may be useful here. Crazy Horse last participated in a Neil Young album back in 2003 with the `concept' album Greendale, albeit without the services of Frank `Poncho' Sampedro. Prior to that the band last fully convened on a studio project with the… Read more

Kathleen's change of direction is just an Empty Threat, 26 Jan 2012

Let your humble reviewer declare a personal interest here; Kathleen Edwards's fourth album has been more anticipated than almost anything else since she released the exquisite Asking For Flowers, four long years ago in 2008. That album, and its two predecessors, Failer, and the sassy and rocking Back To Me without a single misplaced or duff note, pitched Kathleen Edwards somewhere in the hinterland of Americana between rock, country and folk. Her songs the perfect blend of everything good about the genre, her voice an instrument of intense pleasure, by turns mournful and sad, sarcastic and mocking, wistful and longing; the whole package adding up to an artist of immense talent and promise… Read more

Bleak Expectations, 30 Dec 2011

It was inevitable that the bicentennial of Dickens's birth would be marked by a plethora of filmed adaptations of his novels. Hot off the starting blocks comes the BBC's latest attempt at the masterful Great Expectations. A crowd-pleaser certainly, Sarah Phelps's adaptation is not in the same league as Andrew Davies's readings of Bleak House or Little Dorrit, but is beautifully photographed, wonderfully lit, and darkly atmospheric. The first episode starts strongly with the bleakness of the grey marshes filmed almost in monochrome, and a credible encounter between Young Pip and the convict Magwitch. Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham is also a bit of a revelation, albeit one which will… Read more