It's No Time To Be Young

It aint no time to be young kids. In the last year I have regularly been heard complaining about getting old, be it the stiffness in my bones or an increasing propensity to wear cardigans I just don’t enjoy the feeling of losing my youth. It’s easy to become distanced from this idea of what is fresh and new by the simple additions of all the trials and boring mundanity that adult life throws your way but with the new found maturity that growing older has granted me I can honestly look back and see that being young aint really all it’s cracked up to be and in this day and age they really are gunning for you. With the proposed raising of the fees chargeable to students we saw an uprising of the youth and with the planned scrapping or at least reorganising of the EMA scheme the young un’s where once again left hopping mad. But I don’t really have a heartfelt compassion for the plight of the student and some of their arguments where laughable and unsurprisingly childish, it’s the bleakness of the future I empathise with them about. I know it’s the same future that we also share but we have chosen our paths and are fighting through the storms cast on the industries and careers we have chosen but to be at the start of it all trying to choose between the devil and the doomed now that could be worse than the occasional mug of coco and the wearing of slippers.

It seemed like everyone had their hands out this week squabbling for scraps from the table of a government with a dwindling budget and a insatiable desire to cut, every day there was a different organisation, service or lobbyist popping up to tell us how jolly well important they are and how chopping their money would be of grave danger to us all. I soon became de-sensitised to the bleating and moaning even more than my callous self usually is, I mean you can’t please all of the people all of the time and as much as It pains me to agree with ‘The Man.Plc’, no I don’t think the £30 a week to poor students will be being spent appropriately I mean notebooks I ask you. But the poor mites there is a damned if you do damned if you don’t kind of feeling about growing up today and it seems no matter who you are or what decisions you make your going to get screwed maybe this is a sad and bleak outlook or maybe it’s a real education in how life will feel.

Now before I get to music I must praise one bit of cinema and one bit of TV, firstly my first visit to the big screen to see 'The Kings Speech' although the hordes flocking to see this film would usually put me off I’m very glad I ignored my usual  frowning at whatever popular culture is up too and got in on the action, this film was a real joy a genuine, interesting and very engaging story that got people in a very real and sympathetic way, and odiously no surprise that Colin Firth has been nominated for an Oscar, I mean he didn’t go 'full retard'. And on the smaller screen we had the start of the eradiate witty and brilliant '10 O'clock Live', with the pithy banter of Jimmy Carr, the scalding cynicism of Charlie Brooker, the Kid in a sweet shop politician come geography student David Mitchell and Some Blonde useless baby bag filling segue. The tone is so left wing it occasionally flicks right over into fascism and points the finger directly at 'The bad people' but I always revel in the fact that we live in a country where such political dissent is not only broadcast but is so entertaining.

Now I have been finding it hard to listen to new music this week, not only because of the misplacing of my headphones but mainly due to the state of my life making me need old friends, I needed Biggy to cheer me up, I occasionally needed to wallow in Mr. Cohen and sometimes I needed to thrash angrily to The Volta. But there has been some great releases firstly and mostly ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will' by Mogwai Nobody holds bombast at their fingertips like these boys, the deepness of the sound they have always created gives them a quite addictive quality and when you've bought into it your clucking for more and hanging on each fraction of riff like it could be your last. Atmospherically they are the kings and this album doesn’t disappoint, there's a warmness to the sounds that is very comforting and the songs are as massive as they are delicate. Describing Mogwai albums is like trying to put into the words the feeling of riding a train when you have no idea where you’re going and you’re loving it, stepping out into the cold night with the sounds in your ears making you feel invulnerable. Put on some headphones and walk in the night even if you haven’t got anywhere to go and this album in your ears will make you feel like you can break through walls - its powerful stuff

With great power comes great responsibility and here are another bunch of Celts wielding power and volume with reckless abandon 'The Big Roar' by The Joy Formidable after the start of the first song you can see that the title is no lie this is indeed a wall of sound something big full and possibly scary. The shallowness and breathiness of the vocal does help to cage the beast but when the full force of the guitar halo is unleashed it really is something to behold. I like it, I like it a lot but at times I can’t help feeling that it lacks direction which is fine if they aren’t searching for any but I think there is a hint of the poet being hidden behind the roar, but what a roar. In Guitar terms it’s very textural with layer upon layer of repeating patterns soaring together towards cataclysm. Even in the more lyrical moments the guitars seem to hum in the background like angry indie punk bulldogs waiting to smash everything else out of the way and administer their dominance.

To continue the theme of overpowering noise we have 'Rolling Blackouts' by The Go Team! Don’t adjust your stereo's ladies and gentlemen the lo-fi dance crew are back to pump you continually up into some kind of modern soul bloc party frenzy. I can see why this is good, I can see why you might like it but I just don’t, I feel like I’m a fish being forced to listen to Junior Senior 'Don't Stop' over and over again through the glass of my tank. They do make me want to party and have a good time but not listening to their music, whack on some Budos Band or go back further and get The Furious Five out on vinyl and listen to the crackle and pop of music originating not stagnating - actually fuck I’m halfway through the album now and I feel like I’m stuck on a very long journey with 'The Wiggles' and they have been fucking cheerful for hours and all I really want to do is reach over to the car stereo put on 'Debaser' and smack them all in their grinning gobs.

On that note i will leave you for now, in the process of sorting out a brand new life for myself so i will return when the dust has settled and the internet connection has been returned with more ranting and possibly even a little bit of raving. Be good to each other.