Blended Paramore Wallpaper

As usual, if you want any of these in any other resolutions, contact me and I’ll whip one up. Also, keep checking my blog and cityintheclouds for more Paramore wallpapers in the very near future….

Preview:

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Enjoy

Elliot Minor - Elliot Minor - Album Review

I’ve been waiting for Elliot Minor’s album now for what seems forever. Holding the album release until just now [April 2008] after four single releases probably didn’t actually help matters. What it has done however, is build up a lot of hype for the band. The quintet are possibly the next Fall Out Boy - not in terms of music style or visual appearance, but in the way that most people have a strong positive or negative reaction towards them. You will probably either love them or hate them. Their blend of classical music and rock is no where near the quality (or style) of Nightwish, nor is it as original as people think - however, between them they play the violin, piano, clarinet, cello, double bass, saxophone, and of course, drums, guitar, bass and keyboard. So, no doubt they have enough talent to be a success. I’m not loving them just yet - their posh accents and general “jolly ho” attitude hasn’t won me over yet - but having generally liked the singles that have been released, I took a punt on the album and had a listen.

Elliot Minor’s début and self-titled album begins with a mellow, upbeat song which is very reminiscent of Simple Plan called ‘Time After Time’ before launching into the familiar ‘Parallel Worlds’, which includes two contrastingly brilliant guitar solo’s as well as being the fastest song on the album. ‘The White One Is Evil’ is a song full to the brim with orchestral instruments/keyboard effects, which are emphasised for most of the song. It makes it a little dragged out, but nevertheless keeps it memorable for the style if nothing else, and is in fact one of the best songs on the album. ‘The Liar is You’ was a surprise as its really slow and doesn’t excite me much, although it has grown on me since. ‘Lucky Star’ is better and more like what I was expecting Elliot Minor to produce, it takes a while to get going however so ends up being a short song. ‘Jessica’ is another most people will be familiar with, although it’s not one of the better singles, to me anyway. ‘The Broken Minor’ is my favourite song from the album and is even better than ‘Parallel Worlds’. The complexity of the song and the variety of instruments used is slightly over-whelming at first, but when you sit back and listen to it, it sounds great all mixed in together. Guitars, drums, keyboard and vocals all seem to have their own little segment, and the beginning and end of the song are purely instrumental, leading seamlessly into the next. Great stuff. ‘Still Figuring Out’ always makes me laugh because I can’t help but sing along to the opening in a posh voice. A bit cruel maybe, but the song itself is very good, making good use of an up tempo drum beat and is probably one of the better songs on the album. ‘Silently’ is poor, mainly because it’s so similar to ‘The Liar is You’ which makes it even slower and just as dull. The penultimate song on Elliot Minor’s début album ‘Running Away’ is excellent, and is another of the better songs on the album, but the final song ‘Last Call to New York City’ is just overkill on an average song. While initially it’s quite good, it goes on and on, and at 6 minutes long, it feels like the boys were trying to create an anthem for crowds to sing along to at gigs, but they ultimately fail because its just not that good a song to begin with - I think they were trying to create another type of ‘Broken Minor’ - although the fireworks at the very end of the album are a neat touch indeed. Similarly, most of the tracks have a synth/keyboard intro/outro at the beginning/end of the song which is a good idea to link between songs so you hardly notice the change.

The band have toured with Simple Plan, Fall Out Boy, and, errr McFly (best not spread that around eh boys), and are playing at this years Download Festival, so Elliot Minor’s future is looking rosy. The album itself is slightly disappointing really. A lot of the hype and promise shown in early singles ‘Parallel Worlds’ and ‘The White One is Evil’ is not apparent on the album, and the songs tend to be very hit and miss. Their sound is not as consistent as I imagined it to be, and some songs don’t fit in very well (too many chill out songs for me). I was expecting much more from Elliot Minor but the album is still going to please fans, but won’t win over many people listening to them for the first time. So, if you’ve loved the singles so far then go get it, but I suspect everyone else will want to stay clear. Some songs are too similar to each other, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - Broken Minor, Parallel Worlds, White One Is Evil and Jessica are all brilliant, but similar in sounds and style, as are the slower songs. So chances are you will either like all, or none, of the songs on the album

As a fairly big/growing Elliot Minor fan, I really like the album but suspect it will vary greatly from person to person.

Overall - 8/10

The Golden Compass - Film Review

Before I even started to watch The Golden Compass I was nervous. The Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman are among the best books I have read, and only a handful of novels come close to the imagery described in the book. Since film conversions from books are never as good as you expect (think Jurassic Park, Sphere, James Bond, and of course Harry Potter) you could understand my apprehension. Not only that, but from what I had heard beforehand, changes to the script ranged from slight to drastic in some places, not to mention the fact that the title has been changed - the book which the film was based on is called ‘Northern Lights’. Pullman was fine with these changes in script apparently, saying that “every film has to make changes to the story that the original book tells - not to change the outcome, but to make it fit the dimensions and the medium of film” which is OK in theory, but it’s a sure fire way to annoy those (like me) who have already read the book, and know what the outcome will be.

Not unlike the Harry Potter films, huge chunks of plot are missed out and you will never have the same connection with the characters. You can’t imagine the settings the same if you see it on a screen in front of you, and the characters are never what you expect. Still, this is obvious stuff so onto the actual film.

The casting of Nicole Kidman was spot on as the devious and spiteful Mrs Coulter, and she plays the villain part very, very well indeed. I think Mrs Coulter is the only character who looks, sounds, and acts almost exactly as I had imagined. Superb casting. Daniel Craig plays Lord Asriel, although he only plays a bit part, at least in this film - if he does any sequels (as predicted) he will play a much more important role. The lead character Lyra Belacqua is played by Dakota Blue Richards and was surely a daunting task for such a young and inexperienced person. Making your début in such a highly publicised and well known book adaptation was never going to be easy, especially at only 14, and having never acted before - ever. With this in mind, Richards does a decent job. The language differs slightly from the book, probably another minute script change a lot of people won’t notice. In the book, Lyra’s accent is more similar to Eliza Doolittle’s cockney accent from Pygmalian, but there’s only the occasional word in the film. The acting is generally very good. The cast stick well to their characters, and the voices for the Daemons are equally impressive (more on them in a moment) I thought Iorek the armoured bear (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen) was done superbly well, and the animation was top notch. At times his voice didn’t really match though, and it wasn’t what I had imagined. There was not a deep, growling or aggressive tone at any time, even in the fight and action scenes.

The Daemon’s are the key to the book, and thankfully the director realised this and did a great job in capturing the way a Daemon and character react to each other, and as it was all done using CG effects, credit goes to the actors and actresses as well. The bonding sense that a human and Daemon comes across very well, although the whole taboo of touching someone else’s daemon is not mentioned. The relationship between Lyra and Roger is also not explored very well. You don’t get the impression that she particularly cares about him, but is just bored at school so she decides to go after him. Finally on the subject of Daemons, Mrs Coulter’s Daemon the golden monkey was not as scary as he was supposed to be, even in the books I was creeped out, but the film does a poor job of conveying the terror and horror that the monkey conveys.

The diluting of religious elements from the book was not really a surprise given it is essentially a children’s film. The film shows the Magesterium as a general religious organisation with a sinister side to it. The book goes into much more detail, and Lyra has the meaning of Original Sin and what is essentially Christianity taught to her, and why it has a sinister side to it. It’s a huge difference, and you can see why the Catholic Church was up in arms about the book. Despite the morality of using Catholicism in the book, it is an essential part to the story (more so in the final book/film) so it will be interesting to see how the script is changed for this.

The ending to the film was so sudden I was shocked. It just sort of, stops. No conclusion to what happens to the other characters, although it does set up the sequel nicely it has to be said. To get the most of the film(and inevitable future releases) you simply MUST read the books. This goes for Harry Potter, and all the other book to film releases - no matter how good the special effects, sound, music, cast, settings etc, you will never get the same definition to a persons character, you cannot form your own vision of what someone or some place looks like, and you will never get the whole story crammed into an hour and a half.

The Golden Compass while a decent enough film, rushes through most of the story and it’s hard to follow at times. However, the acting and special effects are generally very good, and so is the sense of magic and wonder. It’s not the northern Lights however, and it never will be, but it is worth a watch if you’re into your fantasy films, and I’m sure that kid’s will love it, so it is a good family film to watch.

Overall - 6.5/10

I Always Wondered If There Was A God….

And now I know, there is - and it’s me!

OK, so I ripped that line from The Simpsons Season 6 episode 115 ‘Homer The Great’, but when I opened the Lurpak in the fridge today I wasn’t expecting to see this! It seems I am to join the likes of Zeus, The Ancients and Anubis - only not as their equal or accomplice, but as a compliment to their meat and potato pie. Well, if I am to be made into a creamy part of a main course to be served to the Gods on a plate, it beats getting hit by a bus.

(And shouldn’t Lurpak be advertising something like, oh I don’t know, butter, instead of mash potato?)