Reviews and stuff

How come it's de rigour to record one's album in the USA at the moment? New York, Chicago, . . . they're all at it. It's not like there aren't recording facilities in the British Isles. And surely it's nothing to do with inspiration - because the album should already be written, to a large extent, before the band even gets to the studio.

Anyway.

I saw Control - the Ian Curtis biopic - yesterday evening, and found it to be superficial and disappointing. It really made sense to me that it had been directed by a rock photographer (Anton Corbijn), because there was no depth to the film at all. There was no sense of the tragic in the film at all, and no over-arching narrative either: it seemed to be a series of unrelated events, rather than a story. If there were some themes there, then I didn't find them, and Heather said that she spotted loads of anachronisms in it too: a modern No Smoking sign and a modern litter bin.

There were so many directions that someone could have taken this film, but it did nothing. A music film should have you coming out of the theatre wanting to go home and write songs, but all that was in my head as I walked out was, "Ian Curtis: what a prick." I don't think I should've been thinking, "When's he going to bloody hang himself? I wish he'd get on with it."

All four of us felt this way, which is absolutely contrary to all the reviews, but there you go.

I've also just invested in two new albums: Gulag Orkestar by Beirut (who I'm going to see in Leeds next month) and Fur and Gold by Bat for Lashes.

I already knew and liked some Beirut songs, and while Zach Condon's voice grates on me after an album's worth of songs, there's enough changes in tempo and style to keep you interested. He seems interested in innovation, rather than being quirky for the sake of it, which isn't how Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes strikes me. Ian had told me that he thought I'd find it very derivative of Bjork and P J Harvey, and he was completely right. Her whispered Standard English voice on EVERY song quickly drove me mad, and I don't think anything she's done struck me as new or interesting. Then again, I haven't bought either Volta by Bjork or White Chalk by PJ Harvey, so perhaps I'm just not into dark, meandering (tuneless?) female vocals at the moment.

What I am looking forward to buying, however, is the new Radiohead album. Like the geek that I am, I will probably part with the £40 required to get the proper boxed edition with all the extras, rather than paying the 49p minimum for a download. I know a lot of less ardent (or less moneyed) fans are annoyed about the lack of a middle-way, but the reason Radiohead are doing this release is to avoid having to wait another few months until their fans can hear the album. A "normal" CD will be out sometime next year, having gone through the usual procedure.

Can't wait.