Nice busy week!

Ladies and gents - I am ill!

Yes, that's right, a sore throat that i had been nursing since Friday/Saturday decided to mutate into full blown flu by Sunday, and I felt so rotten that I really couldn't be bothered to try and write some of the things that I'd planned to do in the past week.

Talking of that past week, it had been nice and busy for a change! The Jubilee bank holidays meant that we had extra 'family time' and myself, my Mom and my step-dad decided to travel to the countryside for a day out, but that pretty much failed due to our having a useless sat-nav and our getting place names/post codes wrong!

I've been to the cinema a few times this week, first on Tuesday to see Prometheus (good, but not quite great!) and then again on Saturday to see Snow White and the Huntsmen, largely so me and my bestie, Di, could oggle Thor and his mighty arms, although Kristen Stewart's one facial expression annoyed me quite a bit; she did - just about - crack a smile at the end, but you could tell it was painful!

Wednesday, myself and a few friends trekked around some guitar shops in Birmingham. I didn't try any myself, I admit to feeling a tad intimidated by the place! It was here that we got drenched in a June (!) monsoon - I have not been so soaked in my entire life! No part of me escaped!

Thursday a few of us went around town, and Di met baby Alice for the first time - so cute!

Apart from that, I've been recuperating! Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly this week.

Rapid Review.. Japanese Voyeurs - B-Sides and Rarities

The other day, I said that I'd most likely write a review of the Japanese Voyuers' 'B-Sides and Rarities' limited CD that I purchased, however since then my computer pretty much exploded whilst it was ripping the CD to iTunes, so that prevented me from listening to it as much as I'd have liked, I've had to dig out my rather old portable CD player. I'm writing this on the family laptop. Anyway, here it is, along with some nice photographs of the content!

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Japanese Voyeurs are a British grunge band, combining screechy schoolgirl vocals - courtesy of frontwoman, Romily Alice, with aggressively heavy guitars; quite a juxtaposition - but it works nicely. Unfortunately, the band, decided to split earlier this year, but have released a limited (250 copies) B-Sides and Rarities CD due to fan demand. 

There are a few songs on the disc which stand out. The opening track, 'Godzilla', for example, is a short, angsty burst of energy and would have been at home on their 2011 debut album, 'Yolk' and is probably the best and most immediate track found here. It's successor, a demo version of  'The Heart is a First' is perhaps the best of the demos, made interesting due to it being quicker and livelier than the album version and I far prefer it to the original. These 2 songs - along with the cover of Nine Inch Nails classic, 'Closer', taking what Japanese Voyeurs does best and applying so well to the song that it sounds like it could be one of their own - are the CD's highlights. 

                                     

The rest of the demos aren't quite as thrilling - 'Double Cheese (Demo)' is without vocals for example - and 'Milk Teeth' does not vary that much from its 'Yolk' album counterpart in anything but quality. The other B-Sides - 'Ah Ah Shame', 'Hand Me Down' and 'Scare Bear' are very enjoyable - though not quite as brilliant as 'Godzilla' in my opinion, though the 'Cry Baby (Remix)' is far too clumsily edited to be good and better off skipped. The album closes with further classic Voyeurs affair in the shape of 'Live Doom'.

For fans (yes, I'm quite the fan!) of the band, this album is well enough received simply for the desire to have more songs from the band. However, naturally,  it's not quite a showcase of what the band can do.

If you've never listened to the band before, I suggest you check out the vids below and their debut album, 'Yolk'.

3.5/5

http://www.japanesevoyeurs.com/
http://www.facebook.com/japanesevoyeursofficial

'Dumb'

'Cry Baby'

'Milk Teeth'