Album Review: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

Elbow recently won a Brit award for being Britain's Best Group. I'm no proponent of the Brit awards, or indeed very much of the music that it features or glorifies.

For example, in my opinion it's a travesty that Duffy beat Radiohead to the best album award. Duffy's album is very middle of the road. She sounds like she has a cold throughout the entire recording, and the songs are overrated and overplayed. I do have a copy of Rockferry, so I'm not completely biased.

Conversely, Radiohead's album In Rainbows is one of the greatest albums of the past few years. It's beautifully composed, beautifully arranged and marks the return of Radiohead to the same planet Earth from which we watched as they took a tour of far away worlds in their past few albums, squinting our eyes and covering our ears as their confusion created sounds which distanced themselves from so many of the fans who had followed them from childhood.

Listening to In Rainbows gives me the same warm feeling you get when someone you have missed comes home, an inner satisfaction that Thom Yorke and friends have realised that their earliest recordings were in fact their greatest, and that to progress without taking steps backwards into their past, they should fuse their recent recording style with the magic of their grass roots.

So when comparing the likes of 'Nude' to 'Mercy', I struggle to see the merit in recognising Duffy as having produced the greatest album of the past year.

Finally, to the point. With this mistrust of the judgement of the voting public in mind, when I saw Elbow receiving the Best British Group award I was a bit perplexed, because I didn't really know much about them. But when they played back a montage of their songs, I immediately understood. So many of the tracks which Elbow have produced are songs which I've loved, and yet never known who they belonged to.

As a result, I've been listening to The Seldom Seen Kid, and it's absolutely brilliant.

It's aspirational and lyrically brilliant. So good that I can listen to certain songs from the album (Starlings, Mirrorball, One Day Like This), get shivers up my spine and immediately play them again. Parts of the album sound like a mix of Sigur Ros and (oddly enough) Crowded House, where others sound totally unique.

I think one of the things I like most about it is that it sounds 'pure', like it hasn't been too heavily interfered with in post-production, as if it will sound exactly the same when you hear it live.

I love those occasions when you listen to an album that's so good you can get a little excited about it, especially when you consider that there'll be more albums coming your way which are of a similar calibre.

So throw those curtains wide, get a copy of The Seldom Seen Kid, turn up the volume and let the Vino Di Vici flow like a river in spring, and sit back and enjoy the uplifting experience.

After all, it's perfect weather to fly.

Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Versatility is a quality which I think seperates great actors from good ones. Kevin Spacey, Edward Norton, Johnny Depp: all have demonstrated that they will forgo appearance and the 'cool factor' to make a movie with integrity. Another one I'd add to that list is Brad Pitt. Some may object, but look at some of his filmography:

Se7en

Fight Club

Snatch

Ocean's Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen

Burn After Reading

I doubt many could argue that his performance in Se7en turned the film into a classic. Fight Club, I think was simply the epitomy of cool. Both of these films are so good that no matter how many times you watch them, you will probably spot something you hadn't seen before. Of course, that can't be attributed solely to Brad Pitt: but it makes for a pattern of brilliant films that are so good they become timeless.

In each of those films, he tries to body swerve the 'dumbass pretty boy' image with intelligent dialogue, sophisticated plot and character developments, and by putting a distance between himself and the viewer in an attempt to come across as mysterious. I think it works.

And to prove that he isn't fussed about simply pleasing the hordes of women who scream at him everywhere he goes, he is happy to take the role of the gormless idiot (Burn After Reading) or the pathetic old (young) man. Take the example of his recently released film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, directed by the same man as Se7en and Fight Club - David Fincher.

I saw this in the cinema recently, and went into it expecting something very different. That's probably because I hadn't even seen the trailer and had no idea what the film was about, but it was still different.

The film begins in 1918 with an unknown baby, born to a mother who dies in childbirth. At first he appears to be horrifically disfigured, but in actual fact he was born old. The film follows this character throughout his life right into the 21st century, as he grows younger with time, as the people around him grow older. It's a bizarre plot in a way, because no attempt was made to explain why Benjamin found himself in this situation, and nobody around him ever seemed to display much surprise or interest in his apparent age-reversal. But if they had tried to explain that, the film would have been far too long.

Cate Blanchett is brilliant in the film, providing a beautiful constant in a story with an ever changing series of characters, as the plot follows Benjamin through his varied life across the United States. Blanchett plays Rosie, the love of Benjamin's life whom he meets when they are both children (though Benjamin looks 90), and they oscillate round each other, finding themselves back together at various intervals throughout their lives.

It's an excellent story with a few really exciting moments (though there could have been more of those), which really envelopes you and you can't help buying into the plot - even though it's not without its holes.

Brad Pitt continues his long list of great performances in this movie. At no point throughout the story, as a nine year old who looks eighty, or an eighty year old who looks nine, did he ever compromise his character by showing 'too much of himself' - he was believable at all times while showing the occasional flash of brilliance.

Mobile Phone Review: Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic

How times have changed. In 1999 when I was 15, I plucked up the courage to spend £40 (all the money I had in the world) and went into the Vodafone shop and got my first mobile, a little Trium Astral:

At the time, in a world where not too many people had mobile phones, I was absolutely dumfounded by its features. The fancy little flashing green light at the top to alert you of a call or a text, the extending aerial and the impressive three lines of text you could fit on it's 'giant' screen. Let's see how it stacks up to modern phones:

Camera: No
T9 Predictive Text: No
GPS: No
GPRS: No
HSCSD: No
EDGE: No
3G: No
WiFi: No
Bluetooth: No
Infrared port: No
USB: No

Hmm, 'No', then. Conversely, a phone which answers 'Yes' to all of those bullet points and many more is the Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic:Touted as Nokia's answer to the iPhone, the 5800 is a touch screen mobile rammed to the gunnels with features. It's terrifying, actually. I remember back in the dark days when using the early, crappy WAP sites that I thought how great it would be to have mobile phones with colour screens, which could connect to the Internet and let you browse in the same way as you would using your PC.

Now, that's become a reality and you could be miles away from home or a WiFi connection and still order your ASDA shopping or upload your latest photos to Facebook. Some of the 5800's main features are:

• 3.2 inch touchscreen display with response feedback
• 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual flash
• Integrated GPS and Nokia Maps application
• 8GB memory (via upgradable MicroSD card)
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, EDGE, HSCSD etc
• An accelerometer which tilts the screen depending on which way up you hold the phone.
• Nokia's 'ExpressMusic' feature which gives you an impressive one year's unlimited music downloads (you even get to keep the stuff you've downloaded after the year is up!)

I won't write about its specifications in a huge amount of detail, since loads of others have reviewed it. I just wanted to record my thoughts on it so far.

The 5800 is a lot smaller than I thought it'd be. It's actually a very neat little phone which isn't embarrasingly large, and won't make you look like a twit when you whip it out to see where the nearest pub is when you're lost. It comes with a decent protector which you slide the phone in and out of, which is good because if you left the phone in your pocket or bags with keys or coins, you'd have to make a claim on your insurance. There's a stylus clipped into the back of the phone, but for those who don't like to be seen using them, you can prod at the screen with your fingers (I found it's not really all that responsive to touch, particularly on small web page links etc), or attach the little 'plectrum' which comes with it and use that instead.

The operating system is Symbian OS (all Nokias are, as far as I know), and this is where I was a bit disappointed. I was hoping to see a completely revamped system which would be able to compete with the iPhone in terms of usability and design. But it's just a scaled up version of what you find on smaller Nokia phones, with extra features added to support the larger screen and touch response. I'd rather they'd pulled out all the stops to make the animations and transitions as sleek and smooth as the iPhone, since for me that's one of the iPhone's greatest selling points. But unfortunately, they've just done enough to make it acceptable and I don't think the menus or navigation are particularly intuitive or user friendly.

The screen also looks a little bit grainy and dull to me, and doesn't seem to glow as brightly as other phones (even the meagre 6300 has a brighter, clearer screen). I think it would've been better to bump the price up slightly, and use an OLED screen instead, like in the N85.

However, it's a very nice phone and Nokia have done a lot to convince people to choose the 5800 over the iPhone. And avoiding an exclusivity deal with one of the UK networks was a good idea, since many who were considering switching to O2 to get an iPhone will be convinced to take a 5800 instead, to save the hassle of switching providers and phone numbers. The one year's unlimited music download feature is absolutely brilliant, and sploshes Apple into a big yellow, steaming puddle of shame for charging their ridiculous prices.

But even though the 5800 is pretty excellent, I'm still holding out for an iPhone when I can wriggle my way out of my Orange contract.

Laptop Review: Dell Studio 17

Being an I.T. boy, if you believe in stereotypes you might think I'd have loads of computers everywhere, whirring away, lights flashing. But since my PC blew up last year, I've only had my work laptop to use.

So the time came when I got sick of typing my password into the encryption program, then waiting five hours for it to boot up and then to get logged into the laptop, only to forget why I switched it on in the first place. Grudgingly at first, I decided that now was the time to get a new computer all of my own.

It took me ages to choose a laptop. I wanted a fairly high spec machine, since I'll be using it for software development as well as some image editing, and I didn't want to have to replace it after just a year. Plus, if I decide to buy a PC game or two I'd like it if it could run it (even in lower resolutions).

After hours poring over which machine to choose, it came down to a short list between the Sony Vaio VGN-AW11M/H, the HP HDX18 and the Dell Studio 17.

I was tempted by the Sony, but the Vaio brand comes at a premium and the reviews said it was too slow to be a proper desktop replacement machine (plus, it's just a big black slab of a thing). The HP machine was very nice to look at and very quick, but too expensive (a rip off, actually), and in the end I decided an 18 inch screen was a little too large anyway. So I spec'd up my machine at Dell:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB cache)
Display: 17in Widescreen WUXGA with Truelife - CCFL (1900x1200)
Memory: 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
Storage: 500GB Serial ATA (5.400RPM) Dual Hard Drive (2x 250GB)
Graphics: 256 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650
Optical Drive: Slot loading Blu-ray Disc (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM) Drive
Network: WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n), Bluetooth, built in Vodafone mobile broadband
Other: Backlit keyboard, 2.0 megapixel webcam

I plumped for the spec above, and managed to get 16% off the cost by using my 6% Employee Discount (because I work for a company who buys thousands of Dell machines), and by calling and asking them for another 10% off.

The spec is very similar to that of the HP HDX18, but cost me about £200 less. When it arrived on Friday, I was immediately impressed by it. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to like the appearance of the machine too much since Dell's previous offerings have been as dull as a day locked in a room with John Major. But it's nice. The very solid build quality, the nice plastics, the backlit keyboard, a glossy screen and a decent pattern on the lid come together to form a handsome machine.

Working for a InvestCo, we're still using Windows XP on all of our machines, so my contact with Windows Vista had been minimal. Obviously I'd heard that people hated the OS, that it was too sluggish and constantly bombarded you with irritating popups (from User Account Control) and convoluted menus. Fortunately, I quite like Vista. The first thing I did was turn UAC off, and delete all the crap which Dell preinstalled on the machine. And so far, I'm more than happy with the performance.

Most of the other Vista machines I've seen (none have been particularly high spec, to be fair) have shown signs of poor performance when loading up the windows sidebar, and some of the property screens on Control Panel, among other things. But this machine doesn't do that - it loads pretty much everything nice and quickly, fast enough to avoid an irritating wait for windows to render. One benchmark test I had concocted was to see how fast it could convert a 70*40cm GIMP XCF image I'd been working on from RGB to Grayscale. On my work machine (Dell D610, 1.8Ghz CPU, 2 GB RAM), it took about twenty seconds, but on the Studio 17 it took about half that.

I paid a bit more and got the upgraded screen (the 1900x1200 WUXGA with Truelife one), and I was not disappointed. It's incredible. Being an extremely high resolution panel, everything on the screen is small, so you can fit a lot on it. Some people hate that, but I like it since I have loads of windows open at once. When playing a video or looking at photos, it really comes into its own, and if you were considering a Studio 17, then I'd upgrade the screen every day of the week. If you don't like the small text of the high resolution screens, you can increase the DPI settings to make everything a bit bigger (but this kind of defeats the purpose of having the high res panel!).

The battery life is alright, but I didn't expect much from a machine of this size. I think I'm getting about an hour and a half from the battery, which is acceptable to me since it'll be plugged in most of the time anyway.

It's heavy though. Heavier than Michelle McManus leaving McDonald's on a JCB. So it's not really all that portable, but I think if you get a decent messenger bag style case, you'd be able to carry it about without any problems. The weight doesn't really bother me since I don't intend to travel around with my laptop too much, just when travelling sometimes and maybe the odd client visit.

My only gripe with it is that there's too much light leakage from underneath the keys, it gets a bit irritating when you're working on the laptop when its on a desk. But the backlit keyboard is still worth the extra cash.

So in summary, it's a fast, well built machine with a stunning screen and nice features. Fortunately, with my wallet being several hundred pounds lighter, I'd recommend it to others.

Chuff!

I recommend the trailer for Terminator Salvation. It looks like a brilliant film.

Bobbing Along the Bottom?

According to Jamie Robertson at the BBC, some people think that because equity markets don't appear to be reflecting the negativity towards the current financial situation, we have hit the bottom of the downward spiral.

I'm not sure about this, and want to make my prediction so that I can come back and read this post in a year or so and see how far off the mark I was!

Through my limited knowledge of the financial markets, it's clear that most equity investors flee the scene at the first sign of trouble. When bad news surfaces on Bloomberg or the secondary news channels, share prices tend to fall as people sell up, afraid that their investments are going to fall in value. At this point, they become like lemmings, jumping off the proverbial cliff one after the other, leaving the 'danger' behind.

The devastation which the 'lemmings' recently left behind them on the Global Equity markets is clear to see

The graph above is a short term view, but illustrates the willingness of individuals to abandon any investment plans they had in particular firms in bad times, and the effect that this has when everyone gets the same idea.

However, apparently if you look at a graph of the same indexes over one year you would see them levelling out along the bottom of the chart. I looked this up and came up with this:

One year FTSE-100 Index (Blue) vs Dow Jones

I suppose if you blur your eyes a bit, then the performance of the equity market in the UK and the U.S. has been 'bobbing along the bottom' for a few months.

But does this reflect that from here, the only way is up? Personally, I think not.

My view is that some people think that the worst is over, and that those investors are therefore more willing to hold onto their stocks because if the prices don't go down, they will go up and that obviously means profit. Others are stepping into the market, buying up shares in companies whom they think have hit rock-bottom, in the hope of making a few quid when their share prices recover.

This is all very nice, but the equity markets aren't the defining factor in how the world's financial system performs. Many BigCo results are showing this in full, bright technicolour for all to see.

Take Toyota, who posted their first loss in history recently. That's not all down to equity markets.

That's mostly down to Joe Public not being able to buy a car because he can't get credit. Joe was made redundant recently, and his bank can't afford to risk lending him the money because the bank itself hasn't got as much available credit as before. That's caused by the interbank lending market falling to lows which are unheard of, so ordinary high street banks have a lot less cash to lend to people in the first place. And because of the gung-ho lending of the past few years (which caused the 'Credit Crunch' in the first place), reducing risk is now the number one priority of every lending company in the market. So because Joe is 'between jobs' he is too risky to lend to.

If Joe Public can't buy a car, then the chances are that tens of thousands of other people will be in the same position. So Toyota sell a crapload less cars than they thought they would, they have a lot less cash to pay the manufacturers who make the car parts, they can't afford to repay the huge debts they've run up because they thought they were going to keep making profits and weren't worried about cash flows, and their entire business and all its dependent companies begin to struggle.

The manufacturers then have to make redundancies of their own, and the whole vicious circle begins again. This domino effect has been seen throughout the world, and I don't think we've come to the end of it, unfortunately.

Everyone knows that the key goal of most governments is to get the banks lending to one another again, and to pump money into economies - and small businesses in particular. I think this will take time, so my prediction is that we'll begin to come out the other end of this downturn sometime in the middle of 2010, after you first see reports of growth in the UK's GDP (therefore officially marking the end of the recession).

So for me personally, it's a case of battoning down the hatches, trying to hold onto my job and trying to manage what little resources I have as best as possible. But it's important to try not to stop spending completely. If everyone is ultra-careful with their money and never buys anything except life's necessities then there won't be enough money flowing around the economy, and the situation gets much worse.

Of course, spending money like a crazed person is not good - but if everyone tries to act normally and spend money if they can then businesses will begin to recover and the economy will strengthen once again.