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.

𝙄 𝙂𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙄 𝘿𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙔𝙤𝙪 – 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙣

Captivated, Charles stops staring at the screen, looks up and discovers a true shining star – in his most in-depth review yet.

The telephone. The humble ring-ring telephone. A simple, everyday tool we have used for many decades, well, every day. Of late, however, you might have noticed that they are somewhat different and more habitual these days than of those. In fact, rarely is the thing to leave one’s hands for more than a few moments, before being swiftly whipped up again. Or swiped to ground with the aim of a clumsy child – thank goodness for cases and carpets! What exactly are we staring at this entire time? What are we actually doing? Does that thumb of yours get tired? Do you ever wonder if in years to come, one thumb will be horrifically disfigured when compared to the other? Should we be frequently swapping hands to avoid this concern? Maybe using the little pinky from time to time…? Phones have in many cases taken the place of a laptop. Hell, in a lot of cases they have taken the place of LIFE! They are capable of just about anything you can think of. We have come a long way from texting. Keyboards have disappeared entirely (R.I.P. Blackberry). The blower has moved on from being a handy tool to being a way of life. It is all about consumption. Not meaning the phone will give you tuberculosis…! It forgoes conversation and closeness and replaces with content. One can also take beautiful (or inane) photos and videos in breathtaking resolution. One can use A.I. to pretend one has a puppy – I’m not that lonely yet. One can beam one’s location to another on the other side of the world – should one wish to. Even 3D graphics can be cast and rendered on these tiny little devices. They are how most people watch and listen to anything and everything all over the world. Tens of millions of songs at your fingertips. Hundreds of billions of videos to go blind to. And then there’s gaming – God help us. One of the most handy things for me is the Voice Memos app – what with coming up with some sort of musical idea every few hours… What is your most used app? What do you use your phone for the most? I’ll bet isn’t making a phone call… Let me know in the comments below!

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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’𝙡𝙡 𝙃𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙖𝙢𝙚 – 𝙅𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝘽𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨

Given the choice, Charles is unimaginative…

Choice is a wonderful thing. It is something with which we are all so familiar these days, to the extent that we might feel spoilt rotten. We have choice in everything. So many options. Say you’re in a shop and you need to buy shampoo (or hair soap, if you’re far too macho to use such a frilly word). When you eventually find the section for degreasing those soiled roots – that in itself is quite a task – you are confronted by banks and banks of ugly white plastic bottles (or black, for said macho types). Why is shampoo always hideously designed, and oh-so outdated…? Good question. You look among the labels and start to read. Who said reading was a thing of the past…? “For dry, dull hair”. “For fine, flat hair”. You’ve got to admire the alliteration here, but who wants dry, dull, fine or flat hair?? This confused me for years. I mean YEARS. Should I opt for the one that boasts 50% more volume? Or should I maybe opt for the one that boasts 50% more volume, with added keratin and argan oil. I am slightly concerned that this much volume might be just a tad too loud and may cause damage to my sensitive ears. Ah, here we are. “For sensitive skin” – definitely not one for the machista. What would the girl at the checkout think…? If you’re thinking about that, you ain’t no macho man. So this one for my sensitive skin boasts what it DOESN’T have. No parabens. No phosphates. No paraffins. Again, the marvellous use of alliteration, but… Headache pills? Toxic gas? Flammable liquid? There is evidently so much I don’t know. So am I to assume that all the other shampoos contain these fearful ingredients?? Well if this simplistic hair soap is free from almost everything, it must at least be mighty cheap. But no. It’s the most expensive one! Quel surprise. 10 minutes have passed, and I am still staring at ugly bottles… I think I’ll get it online, where everyone isn’t staring at me.

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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’𝙡𝙡 𝙌𝙪𝙞𝙩 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 – 𝙈𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙣 𝘼𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡

Charles packs it all in…

Each week comes with private messages from artists wishing me to review their latest single. While some might think I find this annoying or tedious, I am actually flattered. It suggests that my Corner is somewhat of an aspiration. Something special for which to strive. Like a poor man’s Mercury Music Prize, but weekly. Which makes the whole thing rather difficult. The more popular my Corner gets, the more pressure there is on choosing the “right” artist and song. Back when I started, it was getting only a handful of views, then rather quickly it started taking off. Soon it was reaching something like 60-80 views. In recent months however, it is now being read by around 300 people per week. Which astounds me. Having said that, the New Artist Spotlight currently has close to 1,000 members, so therefore more than two thirds of them are not even glancing at it. Seems a shame perhaps, but I am certainly content with a few hundred views. My goal has always been to popularise a certain song by a certain artist. A song which I feel deserves that spotlight. This could be a relatively unknown artist who’s been with us a while, or it could be one of the notoriously talented top dogs of the community. Lately, however, I have been trying to review artists I have never reviewed before. Incredible talent that very few know about. It’s fair, and it’s right. It can also help to coax a quieter artist out of its shell. But it’s also a gamble. What I do is so much more than picking a decent song and briefly telling you it’s good. It involves a lot of work, time, effort and thought – which in a way I hope does not come across when reading them – I like them to seem effortless and natural.

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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’𝙢 𝙉𝙤𝙩 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙛𝙚𝙘𝙩 – 𝙎𝙖𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙖 𝘽𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙤

Charles aims for perfection…

Any anti-royalists may turn the page now – I don’t want a whole hunk o’ junk in the comments.

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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 𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙔𝙤𝙪 – 𝙀𝙙 𝙀𝙖𝙜𝙡𝙚

Charles is Ed’s brother from another mother…

We are all born much the same. A cute, squidgy blob that dribbles. As time goes by, some of us change little. But for most of us, we all end up different. What makes you, YOU? Now, I’m not talking about your preferred hairstyle or your penchant for baggy flares, but something less tangible. Our being. The way we do things. Our voice, our manner, our gestures. Was it all picked up at school? Was it an obsession with a character from a Netflix production? Maybe you’re NOT so different and you prefer to blend in with the crowd… Even if so, you will still be different. To figure this out, one has to go back to the start. We are all born much the same. A cute, squidgy… Yes yes yes, we’ve done this. The point is, we were born. We were not manufactured on a production line. We were born as the eventual outcome of a couple’s canoodling. Eurghh! I don’t want to even think about it. Despite the severing of the cord, there is (almost) always the strongest connection between blob and makers. Not only is said blob born, but so too is a family. The messy young blighter embiggens the household by one. For many years, this wriggly thing knows nothing outside parent one and parent two. These two “carers” ARE the world of this wispy-haired giggler. And so it is only natural that over time it should start to take on characteristics and maybe even sentiments of its elders.

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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.𝙊.𝙐. – 𝙋𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙥 𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣 𝙇𝙚𝙬𝙞𝙨

Charles gets the feeling he owes you…

Ordinarily, yesterday would have been just another day. The start of a new week. A humble Monday. For me, it is the day that I write my weekly “review” (or article/piece/column/chunk o’ woyds/cushion of praise). And in this respect it was no different. But this time around, the day of the week was somewhat irrelevant. It was Valentine’s Day. Or probably soon to be called International Love Day – for fear of offending the dumb-dumbs who just don’t understand. Love Day was traditionally the day that forced men to go out and buy a bunch of flowers and a cheap box of chocs from the petrol/gas station, for the woman waiting at home for a bunch of flowers and a cheap box of chocs from the petrol/gas station. Nowadays, of course, due to equality and our modern culture shift… little has changed. Perhaps these days the “other half” is equally moved to “show their affection” in a similar manner. And so, we end up with two bunches of flowers and two cheap boxes of chocs, that frankly no one wanted in the first place. It takes a very clever society indeed to play on one’s guilt, where it is not so important what one does, as the feeling of guilt if one doesn’t do. It is a tick box.

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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 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙠 𝘼𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 – 𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙠𝙖

Charles has been down this road before…

More and more increasingly I find myself alienated. This is a common thing in age. Always has been. And as this happens, the older generations huddle together to both chit and chat about the good old days, and to chuckle at what is now the norm, to the younger ones. The older ones were always allowed to live out their life the old fashioned way. But I am not 60 or 70. I am not even 40. And I find it increasingly difficult to find like-minded lost individuals. In fact, I am finding 25-30 year olds equally struggling to keep up with an obsessively progressive world, but unhappily they do seem to manage. They seem to feel the urge to change with the times. This seems to be the difference between myself and the younger mob. We all seem to be feeling out of touch, out of date and unhappy, but they seem to feel the need to go with it all. I, on the other hand, am not partial to being bullied, and I care more for things that matter. And if I even so much as mention anything slightly different to the modern way, I get “the look”, as if I am to be mentally reported to the Thinkpol by the Party (Orwell reference, should you have wondered). You see, I didn’t want any of this. I never asked for it. And neither did anyone else. We were all quite content, as is often the case throughout the decades. It is clear to me when something is wrong and needs work. And it is clear to me when something is fine and should therefore be left alone. But we insist on change. Constant, ill-thought out, cheap and nasty, ugly change. And an obsession with ease. Ease makes laze. Laze makes civilisation fall apart.

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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’𝙢 𝙖 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙈𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙚 – 𝙎𝙩𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙊𝙠𝙬𝙤𝙧, 𝘼𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙖 𝙆𝙖𝙮

Charles cooks up a hot mess…

This week, you are going to be in my shoes. You are going to be like me and think like me. You are going to realise the absurdity of what I do on a weekly basis. Pick a song and write about it. Sounds easy enough. But it’s not. Not the way I do it. You all know my big little intros… Well, they all have to relate to the song or the artist, or the wherecumference of the artist. There has to be some sort of link between article and review. It has to be interesting or entertaining, or both. And I don’t ever write an intro then try to find a song that suits the intro. It always has to be in order of importance: choose music first, write drivel after. So when I come up against a song with the title “I’m a Heat Machine”, I am plagued by thoughts and quandaries.

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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.

𝙄𝙛 𝙊𝙣𝙡𝙮 – 𝙅.𝙃.𝙈

Charles does an embarrassing little dance…

An old school chum of mine used to pronounce the word “Only” as “O’ly”. For 20 years he thought it was a silent ’N’. I never found out why, and I only recently stopped laughing about it. To thi’k of him pro’ou’cing this word wro’g si’ce we were childre’… I just thought you should k’ow.

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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.

𝙄𝙜𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 – 𝙊𝙜𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙩, 𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙤

Charles remembers that life is for living.

I rarely go into the topic of the virus. Very rarely. Many reasons. It can be boring. It IS pretty boring. It can be lowering. We are all sick to death of reading about it. Maybe “sick to death” is a poor choice of expressions, in the circumstance… I just wanted to get something off my chest, as it were. It’s about cycles. Neither of the bi- variety nor the menstrual kind, however to a certain extent it does involve the cycle of life – but not as we know it. When we speak of the cycle of life, we are really speaking of life and death; the being and the not being. I am not so interested in the not being, for there is nothing much to discuss there. The idea I had in mind is more in the way of cycles throughout our living. This time last year, things were very grim indeed. A vaccine had been approved, but it was not yet available to the general public. We waited with bated breath for the clock to tick past midnight, into a completely different year altogether. Good riddance to nasty 2020, and good morning fresh, golden ray of sunshine, 2021. To quote our festive friend: “Ho Ho Ho”. It did make me chuckle; the cynical, sadistic bastard that I am. The soiled cycle of the old year was complete, and the shiny, cling-film covered new one was just to be unwrapped. What joy! Santa is by this point joining me, rolling on the floor, laughing. ROFLing, I believe is the term these days. Well it wasn’t much of a change, was it. There was hope, however. We had a vaccine soon to keep us company. It can only be a good thing. But close to a year on, less than two thirds of London is vaccinated. Bravo! Variants came and went throughout the year. Many people became terrified and worried, regularly. Another variant means it is a journalist’s duty to terrify and worry. Spiffing! Every time we had a new variant, the press (and the people) would discuss whether it was particularly dangerous, and whether it would be immune to our sainted various vaccines. Immune to immunity! Who woulda thunk. We all so casually speak of science these days, not knowing the slightest thing about it. We are not scientists. Neither is the press. So we bring in the experts. They are very good at arguing with one another, and at being wrong. Eventually, even the journalists get bored of writing about the same stuff, and move on to something much more important. Like Prince Harry. Pahahaha! Santa’s having a grand old time now. So do we ever find out if various variants were able to beat the vaccine and win over our souls…? Nope. By this point, it is old news.

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