At last! One of the many odd things that has been bugging me for several months was the withdrawal some time ago of all couscous from my local supermarket. It's a small Tesco store with limited shelf space. Rather than stocking a reduced range of staple goods though, the management have opted for a slightly more eccentric approach — stock a completely random range of produce that changes on a monthly basis. While the latter approach ensures plenty of variety, it's also really annoying as whenever I discover an item I like, chances are it will be gone in a week and won't appear again for another 6 months or so. Couscous was one such casualty of this scheme; having been in stock for as long as I can remember, it suddenly vanished one day, replaced with packets flavoured rice. But now it's back! I bought a lot today, just in case it sprouts legs overnight and goes wandering off again.

This week is turning out to be a pretty odd and exhausting one work-wise. It began quietly enough then suddenly got very busy. Now, not only do I have about twice as much work as I'm reasonably able to do over the next week and a half, but today Boss announced that he'd like me to accompany him on a business trip to Scotland (Glasgow to be exact) on Friday. I'll have to get up at 4am or so to catch the flight and don't expect to get back until late. I think I'll reserve Sunday as a whole-day-in-bed day.

I got back from my family get-together in the south west last weekend, but I've been quite busy with work since so only got around to sorting through my photos yesterday. I thought I'd share one more example of the spectacular coastline around Devon and Cornwall, this time a view of Marazion (or Marghasyow if you prefer) taken from St. Michael's Mount. You can see the causeway connecting the island to the mainland which is covered from mid to high tide. It's amazing how quickly the tide comes back in; my boots are still drying out.

At some point last week, the visit counter (that thing by the map on the right-hand side) passed 10,000 visits. Quite a few of those seem to be rather dodgy bots with spoofed user agent strings; since removing the search engine blocks in January when the new site went live, I seem to be getting quite a few of those. To the few strange humans who stop by, thanks for visiting. I promise to try to blog about topics that might be a bit more interesting in the not-too-distant future.

A rather handsome horse built from driftwood. A sculpture by Heather Jansch.

Greetings from sunny Falmouth. Sadly the weather isn't expected to last. The Cornish water was remarkably blue and clear today though so I snapped a couple of photos, one of which you see above.

I've had This is the One for a week or so now and have had time to listen to the album and digest it properly. Her second English album (third if you want to count Precious) is quite different to Exodus, her previous attempt to break into the American market. I won't babble on about the production differences since you can read Wikipedia for those. Suffice it to say that This is the One is more in-tune with the musical styles that the target market is familiar with than Exodus was when it was released. While I am sorry that TITO doesn't include as many interesting musical experiments as Exodus did, I am hopeful that Hikki's latest album will be more widely accepted.

It's certainly quite easy to listen to. I think the word "safe" describes it best. Some of the tracks in Exodus were probably a little too experimental for the target audience - they sometimes sounded a little uneasy, which might have been an artistic success but didn't seem to sell very well. For the most part, TITO takes an entirely different approach; thanks to Hikki's partnership with Stargate et al., the songs feel as if they should slot right into the current US popular music scene.

I'll run through each of the tracks on the album and then sum up briefly at the end.

 
1 — On and On
A good track to open the album with, I think. It's a solid, upbeat song with quite a rich soundscape, if perhaps a little bass-heavy. It's softly R&B with a very contemporary western feel, so I can see it being fairly popular among Hikki's new target market. My only real gripe is the sample in the background of the man who... well... I really don't know what he's doing. Copulating? Being very ill? Whatever he's doing, he's doing it very loudly. Sadly, now that my attention has been drawn to his manly moans, I find it hard to listen to this track without them being drawn to the foreground, rather ruining what was otherwise a reasonable, bouncy song.

2 — Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - FYI
"Like Captain Picard, I'm chillin' and flossin'" A little slower than the opening track. This one is based around Ryuichi Sakamoto's famous Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, originally written for the film of the same name. Not my favourite track on the album, but it's not bad.

3 — Apple and Cinnamon
I really like this one. It takes a simple but effective background track, solid lyrics and Hikki's vocal talents (which thanks to the nature of the song she is able to make good use of without being forced to do anything unnatural) and packages it all up into a great song.

4 — Taking My Money Back
Hmm. Not so sure about this one. It lacks a certain something when compared with some of the other songs. It's not bad exactly; it just isn't particularly adventurous or interesting. It feels a lot like filler.

5 — This One (Crying Like a Child)
The slow, mellow melody that this song opens with lends it a pleasant, laid-back tone that carries on throughout the entire track. Nice and easy to listen to.

6 — Automatic Part II
The original Automatic has always had a place close to the top of my list of favourite songs. It was the first Hikki song I ever heard and listening to it always sends me back to that time, filling me with feelings of nostalgia. Calling a track "Automatic Part II" therefore fills one simultaneously with the idea of something potentially wonderful and the expectation that it will fail miserably to fulfil this potential. And that's pretty much what this track does, unfortunately. I'm not really sure what Automatic Part II was trying to do, but I don't think it succeeded.

7 — Dirty Desire
An interesting one. The lyrics are quite playful - "During my 9 to 5, I'm thinking 6 and 9s" and "I love you long time", for example. :) Most of the song is quite simplistic, but the lead-in to the chorus and the chorus itself help to make this quite an enjoyable listen. It also includes a "rapped" verse which is quite rare in a Hikki song.

8 — Poppin'
Another track I couldn't call a favourite, but I can't deny it's a fairly interesting auditory experience, helped a great deal by the backing track and samples used.

9 — Come Back to Me
The title track. To be honest, I wasn't too sure about this song when I first heard it, but it's grown on me. It's one of the richer songs on the album, combining a good backing track with another excellent vocal performance. I wonder if Adobe have had words with her about their trademark usage policy?

10 — Me Muero
And now for something completely different. The nature of the music behind this one makes it a little less easy to sit back and listen to than some of the other songs on the album. It reaches out and pokes the listener a bit more. I quite liked its quirky, upbeat, pseudo-Spanish style though. It adds some much-needed variety to the album, I think.

11 — Come Back To Me (Seamus Haji & Paul Emanuel Radio Edit)
Ah remixes. Not too much to say about this one. It works, although the heavy beat and slow song don't mesh as well as perhaps they should. Some of the synth parts over the verses towards the middle of the song add a splash of colour, but otherwise it's a pretty standard remix.

12 — Come Back To Me (Quentin Harris Radio Edit)
I was hoping for a little more variation in the remixes, but this one is quite similar to the first. It lacks the interesting bassy-synth elements of the Haji mix though, so ends up being quite unremarkable.

 
I have to say I enjoyed the album overall. It's quite different from a lot of the music Hikki has released previously. Even if some of the tracks on This is the One might not match my tastes perfectly, I'm glad to see her trying something new. As I mentioned earlier, it definitely has an "easy listening" feel to it - something to pop on in the background, pleasant but not too intrusive. It seems to be doing well so far, in terms of iTunes rankings and radio play, so hopefully it will be accepted by a wider audience than Exodus was. Maybe some of those people will investigate her previous works and broaden their musical horizons. :)

Note to self: Ignore all news websites for the next day or two.

I've been listening to This Is The One and will post some thoughts soon now that I've got to know the album a little better. Initial impressions are quite good. I don't think it's her best album, but it's certainly not bad.

In other music-related news, I finally discovered that the track from Requiem for a Dream that I had heard everywhere and quite liked was not actually from the film after all, but was in fact a new arrangement of the film's theme, Lux Aeterna, produced specifically for a trailer to promote the second Lord of the Rings movie. (Most confusing...) The track, entitled Requiem for a Tower, apparently saw a very limited release, so perhaps I'll keep an eye out on eBay. If you've never heard it before and are wondering what I'm waffling on about, click here for a Youtube sampler.