George's film and music reviews of the year

Brilliant stuff from the G-meister, providing an in-depth set of reviews of his fave raves in the music world from 2006 and his top three films from the year as well.

Without wishing to take anything away from his film comments, the music reviews are particularly good; some very in-depth indeed with lyric citations and commentary of the first order. It's the little asides that I love in his reviews such as this gem amidst his remarks on Regina Spektor's "Begin to Hope":

no need has Regina for living in the back of beyond with her harp and a gothic veil

Hmmm, that wouldn't refer to the opinion-splitting Joanna Newsom would it (who also gets an honourable if qualified mention in the records of the year list)?

I was also pleased to note this mention within G's review of the awesome Superqueens album 'Royal Shit':

My only regret here is that the album version of Rat Poison buries the siren effect far down in the mix whereas the BBC session take had it as a prominent feature, but really that's just splitting hairs when the quality level is this high.

since this had been my first thought on hearing the album version. It's also why I keep playing the original BBC1 session version.

All in all the music reviews are excellent: how could they fail to be with mentions of such cracking artistes as Nina Nastasia, Jarvis, and Tom Waits amongst others?!