Girls Aloud - Twelve

The history of Girls Aloud is pretty much a series of events that shouldn’t have happened the way they did, ridiculous ideas that turned out great, blessings in disguise and misfortunes that ultimately helped them, all these little contradictions. To begin with, they shouldn’t have a fan like me, a guy who spent the last 20+ years listening to the likes of Depeche Mode, The Cure, R.E.M., New Order and The Smiths. But for me, they fit in there perfectly – pop music at its best, with a bit of a twist, something that makes it unusual.

Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell era

The album. The singles. The songs. The tour.

My generation

Well, my chosen one, to be precise, I'm slightly younger than them. There might be several great solo artists, but the acts that had the biggest impact on me are bands, and I couldn’t help but notice that quite a few of my favourite bands are made up of guys who are roughly the same age, which could be more than just a coincidence.

The coolest popstar on Earth

For me, it’s Nicola Roberts. (I try to come up with a less bombastic title next time, I promise.) I’m male and heterosexual, so I have to start with this: she’s incredibly beautiful. Now with that out of the way, we can concentrate on what makes her so cool.

The best band ever

Depeche Mode. I was born on Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday, but unlike him, I didn’t want to keep you in suspense for too long. They happen to be my favourite band as well, but that’s not the same thing: choosing a favourite is based on emotional response, calling something the best in its field is more of an evaluation, but I won’t pretend to be objective or unbiased, and I have my reasons.

Innocence

I’m quite sure that anyone reading this is already aware that U2 has released a new album a few weeks ago. The method they chose to do it is a little unorthodox, and for some reason, an awful lot of people felt they should comment on the case, so I’m just jumping on the bandwagon.

REMTV

Yesterday, R.E.M. announced a massive new release for November this year: a 6 DVD-collection, compiled from the MTV (once known as Music Television) archives. The format seems somewhat outdated, but we have to keep in mind that the footage included was filmed for television broadcast, probably not shot on film, so the majority might not be HD anyway. When no longer active bands pull stuff from their vaults like this, it’s usually seen as an easy way to cash in (I deliberately avoided the term “to make a few bucks”), but I don’t think that applies here – no casual fan will buy a 6 disc collection, it’s clearly for the hardcore fans, collectors and completists. I’ll share some of my thoughts about the content below.

Some Great Reward 30

30 years ago today, the 4th Depeche Mode album, Some Great Reward was released. I don’t think it was considered a musical milestone at the time, and even today it’s not necessarily seen as a crucial point in their career, but looking back, it was probably the point where they stepped up a level after the initial success of their previous works.