Friday, February 24, 2006

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Reid

A review from New York magazine of the new albums from the Arctic Monkeys and Babyshambles.

I particularly like the closing lines:

"It takes a certain chutzpa to snort a line of cocaine through a page torn from a Paul Verlaine biography, as Doherty recently did for the benefit of a Mojo reporter. This is not breaking on through to the other side; it’s pure tabloid melodrama. Had crack been readily available in 1870, Rimbaud might have thought twice about the rational disordering of all the senses. The bohemian ideal has been outstripped by technology, and Doherty is a walking wake for it."

Only beaten by the Half Man Half Biscuit song, "Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo"

2 comments:

Reidski said...

New York magazine is absolutely correct, in my humble opinion, about Arctic Monkeys - i.e. very good, but not exactly ground-breaking.

And spot on on Babyshambles - i.e. utter pish!

And thanks for the link to Half Man Half Biscuit site - liked their Joy Division Oven Gloves (best song title ever) making that particular top 50.

John said...

Yep, it's my favourite track on Achtung Bono.