Charles Connolly

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙖𝙙𝙚 – 𝘿𝙤𝙢 𝙋𝙞𝙥𝙚𝙧

Charles proverbially quotes: Many hands make light work…

“Help! I need somebody. Help! Not just anybody. Help! You know I need someone. Help!” Where would we be without a little help from our friends? What would we do without a helping hand? How much worse off would we be without that leg up from people and things? I think most of us would be pretty useless without stuff and people. Sure, we would still have our wonderfully tailored minds and expertly honed skills, but could we do it alone? What are doctors without medicine? And could they deal with critical procedures without nurses? With all that knowledge and experience, they can’t ALL just say “you’ll get better soon”, because they won’t. Not without help. Does that mean the doctor is not needed if we have medicine and nurses? Of course not. Can’t just pop pills with the hope that one will do the trick. And what about a humble cobbler? For those of a foreign nature or those less endowed with knowledge, a cobbler is not someone who cobbles, but someone who mends shoes (just so you know). Surely this would be a solitary affair and would need no help from others? Well, yes, this is true. But take away their hammer and anvil, and ultimately all you have is a worn booty admirer. So with these tools at hand, is there really a need for said cobbler? Well unless you’re content with hurty feet and hurty thumbs, there is.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙁𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙣𝙚𝙩 – 𝘿𝙤𝙢 𝙋𝙞𝙥𝙚𝙧 (𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩. 𝘾𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙨 𝙍𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚)

Charles is all at sea…

Last week, I somewhat misjudged things. I didn’t do anything wrong or bad, I just simply made an error of judgement. Call it a misunderstanding. I wrote an entire mini-episode of the TV sitcom, Cheers. I thought it was a safe bet, and that perhaps 80% of my readers would know the show. It turns out it is more like 30%, including people from America, Canada and Britain. Which amazed me. I thought it was possibly the most popular TV comedy after Friends. Evidently I was wrong. What amazed me more however, was certain people completely misunderstanding. HUGELY. Three people thought I had simply copied and pasted the script of an episode. Two of those three said they remembered the episode!! And then there was one chap who thought I had actually been given the opportunity to write a new episode of Cheers, and that I had decided to show the whole script in a review of a song. Yep, that sounds totally plausible…! The nice thing about all this, is that it shows I evidently wrote it realistically. The sad thing is, some people evidently don’t read properly. Due to popular demand (I assume), I will NOT be writing a whole episode of another TV show most of you have never seen. I put the “NOT” in uppercase for the skim-readers who might have thought I meant the complete opposite.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨 – 𝙆𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙠𝙞

Charles finally has his Europe in the Summertime…

Who knew he’d talk about his holiday?? Quite impossible. Surely not! Well, surely. Predictability, with a twist.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙊𝙪𝙩 – 𝘼𝙡𝙘𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘

Charles has just the one…

Temptation is… Well, what IS temptation? Something that lures. Something too good to resist. Something that sits on your shoulder refusing to allow you to forget. But is this a bad thing? That’s what’s interesting. Temptation tends to err towards the negative. There is usually the feeling of “I really shouldn’t, but…”. Like when you’ve already had two slices of chocolate cake, but now there’s only one slice left… It would be a shame to waste it… And wouldn’t it be more satisfying for that plate to be rid of remnants…? And so, like a wild animal, you pounce and devour. Crumbs a-plenty! Face like a used pig pen. And the plate has relinquished its duty to hold and present. Do you now feel the purest satisfaction? Do you now feel replete? Not really. You feel guilt, and you have a stomach ache. That final slice wouldn’t have had to go to waste. You could have had it the next day. And now you WISH you had had it the next day. But it’s too late. The deed is done. At least you have learnt not to do this silly thing ever again. At least you know now to be abstemious, should this predicament arise in the future…

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙄 𝘿𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙚 – 𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙍𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙤

Charles can’t help but care…

Sometimes, being topical is unavoidable. This is one of those times. The world has not been a lucky place in the last couple of years. Back in 2019, everything seemed to be bumbling along oh-so averagely. #MeToo was still very much a thing. Trump was being Trump. Brexit was on people’s lips. Notre Dame was in people’s hearts. Theresa May stepped down, and Boris Johnson tripped up. Then a great big pandemic came along. George Floyd lost his life and rose to fame, as the world’s people proudly showed their masked faces and threw their fists to the air. Prince Philip passed away at the age of 99. So did Eddie Van Halen, admittedly not nearly so old. It has been a hard and bitter time. Era, you could call it. So unique and unprecedented were the times, that the collective feeling was that of being lost.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙄’𝙙 𝙍𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝘽𝙚 𝘿𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙖 𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙚 – 𝙮𝙖

Charles wonders if decrypting the enigma is a wise choice…

Life is a big old thing. Or moreover, the world is a big old thing. A world chock full of billions of beings and trillions of things. We’re not put here to understand every single one of them. Even if equipped with the best of brains, it would be quite literally impossible. Just not enough time, and not enough interest to do so – not to mention the diverse cognitive ability to undertake such a task. It would hardly be a doddle or a walk in the park. The simplest things can baffle me, but I simply and naturally learn to accept it. I urge you not to be a pedant or an irritating little blighter when reading and possibly commenting on this article. Chances are, you are cleverer than I, and that you should be proud of this knowledge. Quietly proud. Allow me to be simple and unknowledgeable. Permit me to be contentedly lost in a world of people and things.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙪𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙚 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙏𝙤 𝘿𝙧𝙮 – 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧

Charles won’t leave you hanging…

Do you ever get that feeling when you’re so totally alone? I don’t mean being lonely. I don’t even mean some sort of fear of isolation. I just mean when you see and hear everything around you, but it feels like no one else is speaking the same language… Does that seem familiar to you? Or how about when nothing specific has happened, but you feel abandoned, or even spat upon? Do you ever get that feeling? It could be personal; it could be very distant, yet still affecting. Sometimes I think about my country and my government, and they don’t seem to mesh. Sometimes I think about my health service that doesn’t work. Sometimes I think about my work and how previously good clients have shown a darker side in more recent times. Sometimes I think about my landlord and my neighbours refusing to do the right thing. Sometimes I think about the artists I have reviewed, refusing to do the right thing. And sometimes, I just think.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙏𝙤 𝙎𝙖𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 – 𝙋𝙖𝙪𝙡 𝙈𝙘𝘾𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙠

Charles reviews Paul McC…

I’ve been thinking about niceness recently. Niceness, politeness and good will. Kindness and honesty. Selflessness. I’m quite nice, but I’m no saint. I will quite naturally be good, but I won’t be a pushover. I will put up a fight if I believe in something strongly enough. But then again, sometimes I will lose that battle either because I’m not strong enough, or because I don’t have the energy, or, because my opponent is simply stronger; or stronger willed. And this is how I came to thinking about niceness. Are nice people too nice? Are they too good for their own good? Can being too nice be unhealthy or even detrimental?

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙣 – 𝙒𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙞𝙣𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙋𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙨

Charles realises that practice makes perfect.

Teenagers have been known to occasionally learn the odd new word (I know, astounding!) and use it over and over again, usually in the wrong way or wrong context. Any teenagers reading this, feel free to take offence: I gather you’re rather good at that – winky smiley face. I went to school with someone who would constantly say “I don’t know… It’s a little bit dubious. I dunno man, I’m a little bit dubious.” Or “jewbyus” was actually how he used to say it. Confused me at first, then made me laugh, then inevitably drove me crazy. This went on for years. The same can be said for artists when they start to mix their own music. Not meaning that they say “jewbyus” at any given chance, but that when they find “the answer” in terms of mixing and production, they use it everywhere. Badly.

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Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly – an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙃𝙤𝙤𝙠𝙨 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙄𝙣 – 𝙁𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩

Charles fishes for compliments…

Today, I’m going to be talking about sport. Which may come as a surprise from someone who neither plays nor enjoys it in the slightest, save the odd game of badminton on a balmy sunny summer’s day. But since we don’t get many of them in London, even those feeble serves are slim. I am not going to talk about something so common as football or tennis (Happy Centenary, Wimbledon), but rather something altogether less taxing. In fact, it involves little movement at all. Most would even struggle to bring themselves to call it a sport. And no, it’s not golf. Golf would maybe seem positively exhausting compared to this. It could be considered a team sport, though it is quite often and maybe usually achieved solo. And when I say solo, I mean there is no human opponent. But this does not mean victory is easy. In fact, it can be pretty brutal, usually resulting in multiple deaths…! Strangely enough, the sport is very often accompanied by a dozen bottles of beer. I know, this is really starting to sound peculiar. What is this drunken violence?? It involves a great deal of sitting, and very often in the rain. Suddenly it sounds rather less crazed and rather more stupid. The player has a long slender stick (more violence?), but much of the time said stick rests alone and remains untouched by human hands. From the stick’s narrowest point, a string dangles downward (as only a thing can dangle). It is kept taut by a weight at the end. This is starting to sound less like a weapon and more like an ancient mathematical instrument for measuring earthquakes. But earthquakes are difficult to measure in the water. Oh yes, did I not mention? This thread dangles below the surface of the water. It still sounds rather scientific. But what with the beer and the Kangol hat, it all starts to look like a bit of a practical joke. Oh, did I not mention the sun hat? But of COURSE! What else are you meant to wear whilst sitting in the pouring rain?

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