Nuggets - 07 December 2006

Every Time I Die - Shit Happens DVD
By Laila Hassani
Every Time I Die are undoubtedly one of the best rock bands currently in existence, and also happen to be one of the funniest. Their dry, often sarcastic, humour in interviews makes for highly entertaining reading so if any band needed to release an behind-the-scenes DVD, it’s them. So they have. ‘Shit Happens’ is unlike most music DVDs in that more than just a few live/acoustic clips thrown together; it actually has substance to it. Sure there’s plenty of live footage as extras, but it’s the two-hour on-the-road rockumentary that provides the most amusement. Seeing such a humourous documentation of this unpretentious, genuinely witty band (plus crew, family & friends) is a rarity, and the antics they get up to (The Passout Game, Shinfo, minor thefts, much vomiting), soundtracked by their awesome music makes for classic viewing. Like an intelligent, unstaged take on Jackass - mixed with odd moments on sincerity and anecdotes aplenty - you need to witness ETID in action, and right now.

Thirty Pounds Of Bone - Homesick Children Of The Migrant Mothers
By Nick Roberts
Folk is a music type that has been bastardised more than any other over the years. There’s anti-folk, electro folk not to mention all the different regional and cultural varieties that crop up on the more obscure stages of the Glastonbury festival. Essentially, folk music should be heartfelt, honest and an expression of your roots, and Thirty Pounds Of Bone deliver with this wonderful record. ‘Homesick Children…’ is terrifically organic and intricately layered as lead singer and chief songwriter Johnny Lamb takes us on a trip from the wilds of the Irish grasslands to the picturesque bays of the Cornish coasts. Tracks like the beautiful instrumental ‘Uyeasound’ and the rawkus ‘Drinking With McGee’ transport you to simpler times.

Blue October - Foiled
By Jon Fletcher
There's still enough of August left in September to just about make it palatable. And November, you know where you are with November. Christmas in sight, proper cold days, no "shall I, shan't I" gauntlet with coats and scarves. But October, what the fuck is October? Now, you're probably way ahead of me here, but Blue October suffer from a similar lack of direction to their autumnal namesake on this latest full length. One minute they want to rock and snarl into the winter, as on the rather aimless 'Drilled A Wire Through My Cheek'. The next they want to play summer anthems to stadiums full of lighter-waving Mums - as on 'She's My Ride Home'. There’s even a kooky folksy partnership with Imogen Heap on 'Congratulations'. All this variety, and a tendency towards Let Loose levels of cheese, leaves you unsure quite which way to turn and renders what is for the most part a collection of very listenable songs more than a little uncomfortable.

Katie Price & Peter Andre - A Whole New World
By Adam Anonymous
Any dropkick unfortunate enough to view the fly-on-the-wall television chronicles of the monstrously tasteless debacle otherwise known as Katie ‘Jordan’ Price and Peter Andre’s marriage deserves everything they fucking got. Hopefully you got angry. It was, though, impossible not to feel a sniff of sympathy for Andre as he was mown down in the path of one of history’s most hatefully cold dead-eyed women. Christ, even her boobs are rubbish. Tears will be replaced by ones of laughter at ‘A Whole New World’, their collaborative ‘musical’ venture. Like a car crash slapped on plastic, one play is compulsory. Anything more is naturally only for nymphomaniac psychopaths who reckon pink wedding carriages are the preserve of anybody above 1980s Essex slappers. For the love of God, Peter, run…

All Saints - Studio 1
By Mike Haydock
Take That have made a comeback because loads of screaming 20-something girls wanted them to. Take That tested the water, and the response has worked in their favour. All Saints are too arrogant to really care about the public or test the water. This album is nothing more than a vanity project - a chance for four attention-seeking has-beens to try and make their lives mean something, to stop them getting bored. You’d think being a mum would be occupation enough. These songs are poor, preoccupied with reggae and urban beats that so many other artists nailed months ago, and All Saints have nothing new to say, still waffling on about boys and dance floors all these years later. ‘Studio 1’ is a waste of space, and a waste of everyone’s time.

Emmett Tinley – Attic Faith
By Jon Fletcher
Emmett Tinley is the ex-frontman of The Prayer Boat, an Irish band as perseverant as U2, but with none of the success. This solo collection shows Tinley’s feel for a good melody (as on ‘Snow Dome’ or ‘Christmastreet’), but also exposes his weaknesses. The lyrics can be clunky and one in three tracks veers into lounge singer anonymity, mainly due to some blasé arrangements of slow keys and strings. You’re left wishing Tinley had focused more on the hooks and less on the warbles; that he had treated his music as an equal partner to his vocals, rather than as an inconsequential support act. A great album may yet be within the Irishman’s grasp, but this isn’t it.