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.

𝙉𝙤 𝙋𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝘼𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙙 – 𝙆𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙠𝙞

Charles is the cat with one eye open…

Let’s clear this up, once and for all. Last week’s review. I received a barrage of messages, comments and posts about it, from the people who didn’t quite understand. I was informed that I had linked to the wrong song multiple times. That no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find the song “Polar Foil”… On the flip-side, I had people telling me how much they liked the song… Lord knows how they heard it… Despite most of these confused people realising it was posted on April 1st, it still didn’t quite click for some. Every single part of the article was made up. There is no such song as Polar Foil. There is no such Amazon product as Polar Foil. There is no block of ice that melts in the form of a cold hourglass. Both Polar Foil and Lila Proof are anagrams of April Fool. And Lila’s single released next month was called Yam because it’s an anagram of May (next month’s month). The cat’s out of the bag. Some of you may think it a shame that I have now “explained the joke”. I know one artist who REALLY can’t stand that. But I thought it necessary for those who felt perhaps uncomfortably incomplete, or “left out of the loop”. The thing is, this was entirely my own imagination. A vivid imagination that is so natural to me that I almost started believing it. In fact, there were times when I truly forgot, and went to my phone to listen to ”again” to the track – quickly remembering (rather embarrassingly) that it never existed. I gather many of you were also a little let down as you really wanted to listen to it. It sounded like it might have been amazing, I admit. The thing is, you can still do this. Close your eyes and do what I did. Imagine. Make the piece of music in your head, based on what you’ve read. Imagination is an incredible thing. And I do believe that if your mind is free from worry, and if you allow yourself, imagination is literally limitless. It’s a conscious dream.

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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.

𝙉𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙍𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙣’ .2 – 𝘼𝙡𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙤 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙞, 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙡 𝙃𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨

Charles shows good sportsmanship.

A couple of days ago, there was a game of football. Or soccer, if you prefer. One team wearing white, the other, blue. I rooted for white. Sometimes, things just don’t go to plan. They did however for the blues. I am not a football fan, but this was one of the few times when an Englishman is allowed to be patriotic. It is seen as okay. The way to be. The thing to do. The hopes were high, but eventually, after much sweaty tension, the feeling was low. A big shame. But someone has to win, and someone has to, well, come second. It has always been the way. 22 men fought like brave soldiers; courageous yet civil and respectful. My only real CONCERN about England coming in ‘second place’, was the possible aftermath. English football fans have something of a reputation for acting, shall we say, a little less gentlemanly than they maybe should. Which is why I am of the opinion that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join em’”. Not the fans, but the winners. Let’s all come together and celebrate a joyous occasion. Not as joyous as one would have hoped, of course, but let’s simply take part in the festivities and good vibes, rather than turning the good vibes to bad. Let us enjoy and revel in the good times we’ve had over the weeks, and just understand that the result of a game of football must not be taken as a personal attack, but simply an outcome that had to go either way.

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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.

𝙉𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙏𝙤 𝘿𝙖𝙮 – 𝙎𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙮 𝘿𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙨

Charles catches the sun and puts it in his pocket…

The sun is a wondrous thing. It shines bright from behind the blue. It both creates and eradicates shadow, turning dark into light, and light into darker. Leaves and yolk-filled petals bask, as we burn and cower. Said scented blooms will turn in synchronisation with its beam, always to be head-to-head with the god of the sky. Those of us who do wish to confront its rays will do so with a youthful pride. Head held high, arms glistening with salty beads. What is it about these golden rays that makes us smile? A simple thing of brightness and warmth. Can it be as simple as that? Could it be the Vitamin D that our bodies make, much like a human equivalent of photosynthesis…? It is more powerful than chemistry, surely. We have learnt of solar power relatively recently, but have felt it within ourselves for millennia. This is where nature competes and wins every time. Everyone benefits. Well, almost everyone. Farmers with their droughts, skin cancer sufferers, people whose land regularly deals with forest fires, even little freckle-faced Billy who can’t go out to play because of his sensitive skin… There are negatives. Oh and then there’s the big old climate change stuff… But on the whole, The sun is a wondrous thing.

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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.

𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙡 – 𝙀𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙎𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙣

Charles pinches himself…

Isn’t it funny, the way we are these days. The things we do, and the way we do them. Yet I believe most of us don’t think about it. At all. Let’s look at how an average person starts an average day. Were you awoken by an alarm clock? It almost certainly was your phone – and yet no one rang you. In getting up on a cold morning, the house is cold. But it isn’t. On account of the automatic heating that switches on at your desired time. Do we then grind the coffee beans in order to wake up? Why bother when at the press of a button it can all be done for you! A “pod” is all that is required. Or maybe you have that on a timer too? Perhaps the machine even senses you being awake and starts the whole process while you’re busy attempting to open your eyes… While sipping black goodness, you read the news. In a newspaper? It’s doubtful. Your screen will be scrolled as you squint more and more like Lennon every day. Then you have to start the laborious task of replying to letters from the previous day’s post – or today’s post, if you’re that efficient. But in fact, you have to tap the “mail” icon and reply to emails instead. That little (or large) rectangle rarely leaves your hands from the moment you leave your cosy bed. Now comes ACTUAL work. Got to dress yourself in “work gear” and drive to the office – if you remembered to fill the tank. Or maybe your company is fine with you wearing jeans and a tartan shirt. Did you remember to charge the car? Perhaps you don’t really need to “go” to work at all. Just pop on a top of some sort, don’t bother with the bottoms, and start up the laptop. With a fresh flagon of coffee, you’re basically “at work”. Seeing and chatting with your colleagues and your clients in an instant. No traffic, no rush, no abysmal weather. Or rather, it is all avoided. No tie, no trousers. What bliss! It’s all so funny how things change so smoothly without you really noticing. Fluid autonomy. This, is the new normal.

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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.

𝙉𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙚 – 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧

Charles is dressed for the occasion…

Being a Londoner has had various effects on me. One of those is confidence. Not arrogance in the slightest, but the confidence to be me. The confidence to not really care what others think of me, while still retaining enough modesty and manners to respect them. The other day I went shopping with my girlfriend. Clothes shopping. Something I detest – how typically “man” of me. Navigation is key, here. There’s the Tube (London Underground) to navigate, with its many lines, branches and hot platforms. Eventually, we came up for air at the recently modernised Tottenham Court Road Station – ugly. Here we were, standing on the corner of Oxford Street. God: Oxford Street; I have not been here in years. And so we sauntered. It has changed a lot. I assumed that it would be a nightmare, but surprisingly it was actually rather exhilarating and fascinating. I felt like a tourist, marvelling at everything and everyone! We navigated in and out of various shops, stopped for a bite to eat in Soho Square, then continued navigating. Despite being busy, it was never too much. I never felt panicky or claustrophobic. It was simply enjoyable. “But Charles, what has this to do with confidence?” – good question…

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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.

𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘, 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙃𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙚𝙨 – 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙠 𝘼𝙝𝙡𝙢

Charles measures life…

My weekly musings often cover the wisest philosophy. Or rather, they ramble on about this or that for several paragraphs. Something that has happened to me recently. Something in the news. My general random observations. A sad thing. A happy thing. Ya know: stuff. Basically, something in the artist or song that will give me something to blether about for a little while. But this time, let’s go deeper. Let us philosophise about one the biggest conundrums known to man: the meaning of life. I will not be littering this with Monty Python quotes, just in case any of you got excited. This will be deadly serious. Well, as deadly serious as I can get anyway. Which isn’t very.

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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.

𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙉𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙨, 𝙇𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙑𝙞𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤 – 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙨

Charles goes back in time to lose his mind once more…

There is a chunk of my life that none of you knows about. Not one. I used to a be a woman. No, no: with this beard, that would be most silly and quite unrealistic. Although I have always been quite proud of my eyelashes. I am going to tell you about that chunk. Cue dream-scene wavy lines – doodly doodly doo. And we’re here. The year is 2006. I am 22. My hair is quite long and naturally blonde. My beard is straggly and thin in parts, which makes me look somewhat like a terrorist stereotype. Nah, I can’t do this in the present tense – all too real and freaking me out. Let me tell you about the time anyway. Having recently obtained my music degree, I thought it best to have a lot of fun. And so I did. I was out every night of the week. Girls, parties, pubs, girls, drink, smoke, girls, drink, smoke, drink, smoke – ahem. I was YOUNG!! Leave me alone. So, there was all of that, as per usual. But as with today, there was one constant. Music. Always listening, always discovering, always playing, always going to gigs. But always PLAYING gigs. Good old giggity-gigs. I was in several bands through the years, but there was always one particular one that stays with me. We were really rather good – if you like that sort of thing. A simple four-piece consisting of guitar, bass, drums and vocals. Joe King was the incredible bassist. Yes, his real name was Joe King – his parents must have been having a laugh. Blah was the guitarist, and other blah was the singer. I say Blah because we didn’t particularly get on in the end, and the other blah was his girlfriend and so backed him up on everything he said or did. She also couldn’t sing and didn’t understand the concept of a melody. It was more of a drunk croon from someone occasionally walking on hot coals. You know these medic types (for that was what she was studying at the time)… This guitarist though – he was good, but his fingers were like spider legs. The simplest movement on the neck of the guitar made his hand look contorted like someone suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. Basically, his fingers weren’t as good as his brain. He came up with really good licks, but couldn’t quite play them well enough. And then there was me. I was on drums.

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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.

𝙈𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙢’𝙨 𝙈𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙪𝙚 – 𝙆𝙚𝙡𝙚 𝙁𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜

Charles isn’t yet brave enough…

Hands Up who’s sick to death of Spotify…? Who is absolutely fed up with everything it has become in recent years? The way it is less a music listening platform, and more a social media platform…? Oh, but it goes so much deeper than that. It ain’t just an ugly interface. Sorry, you can all put your hands down now; I saw “y’all”. Spotify has become a fully-fledged greed machine. It has no scruples or morals of any kind. It does not care about a single artist. It does not care about the music industry. It does not care about music. It is (only recently) trying to look like it is doing something about HAL (A.I.) – but even that is all a ruse. It is widely known (though not officially proven) that Spotify is not only adding HAL music to its own editorial playlists, but actually making fully HAL playlists, to the extent that there isn’t a single human-made track on such playlists (again, not proven, but known). Spotify has been punishing innocent independent artists for quite a while now, having whole artist catalogues removed due to one song unknowingly having been placed on a rogue bot-playlist (a playlist that is streamed automatically by robots in order to accrue streaming royalties). The artist did nothing here. And Spotify gives no warning. Because Spotify too is run by robots. Everything is automatic, and humans have little or nothing to do with its running. This is art, baby! And what about royalties? What does the artist get in return for someone listening to their song once? Let’s just say it would take about 300 plays of that song to buy the artist a Mars bar. So, not very much.

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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.

𝙈𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚 𝙆𝙡𝙚𝙞𝙣 – 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙠 𝙅𝙤𝙨𝙝𝙪𝙖

Charles analyses the situation…

There has been an increasing rarity of something in my reviews lately. Please don’t all shout at once: “Rap! Death Metal! Brevity!”… I know, I know. I’m more talking about something that used to be quite common in these parts. But has only come up maybe three or four times this year. We’ve had plenty of the rock, the indie, the alternative, the folk, the classical, the soul, the pop, the prog, and even the reggae. So, what am I talking about? What is missing? It’s something that is actually relatively common. But rarely of a high standard, because it’s bloody hard to do well; notoriously so. It has to sound polished. It has to sound classic. It usually has to sound professional (but there can be a certain charm when it’s not). It can be peaceful, but usually it’s sad; and it can be heart-wrenching. I’m talking about ballads.

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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.

𝙈𝙖𝙣𝙝𝙖̃ 𝘿𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙖 – 𝙅𝙤𝙖𝙤 𝘼𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙝𝙖

Charles is just being nice…

I’m a bad man. Rotten to the core. Cruel and sadistic. Horrid horrid horrid. This is what everyone says about me. Okay. This is not what everyone says about me. At least, not to my face anyway. Then why say it here? Because sometimes we have thoughts. Irrational thoughts. Absurd and fictional thoughts, based on absolutely nothing. It was also a punchy way of starting the article. Ahem. Negative thoughts of oneself can easily creep in when surrounded by negative, bad and ugly. Take last week’s article, for example. I decided not to comply. I decided not to embrace a thing called HAL. I decided not to see the potential positive effect of it on art. While I won’t be changing my stance any time soon, this negativity can lead to heavier things. If one sees only doom and gloom, one feels only doom and gloom. And it is easy to slide down the slippery slope of “I’m no good”. These days, I would have said my thoughts and views are pretty balanced. Also, these days I think I’m pretty comfortable with who I am, and what I’m like. Am I bad? Am I mean? Am I cruel? Am I dishonest? Am I a criminal? No. Am I perfect? Pahahaha! No. Very far from it. While being in a generally healthy state of mind, I could always be better. We all could. But I’d just like to give the good guys a pat on the back for being so good. While we could all be better, just think how much worse we could be? All those liars and fakers and cheaters out there. We could be like that. We could be going around, spitting on grannies and tripping up children. I saw you, laughing at the idea of the kid falling over. I chuckled too. Because it’s funny. Okay, the kid isn’t laughing, but we mustn’t lose our sense of humour. Stifle that natural laughter, then help the kid up. For most of us, good enough, is good enough. Don’t try to be a positive drone. If it ain’t natural, it ain’t natural.

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