Connolly’s Corner

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.

𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡 – 𝙑𝙞𝙭 20

Charles goes wireless…

I am speaking to you through a website. I am not with you in person. Or AM I…? No. I am not – your paranoia can rest easy for now. My words are not printed in a newspaper or magazine. You cannot see me, you cannot hear me. If you’ve got this far, your literacy skills are probably beyond the average these days. If it were not for a humble internet connection, I could not be with you now. So I AM with you…? No, not in person. I saw you looking over your shoulder… The internet has brought us rather a lot of good things. It has also brought us a rather large chunk of bad things. But we won’t be going into those, because, well, why sully the tone? We always look back on “the good old days” with such fondness and many of us resent the newer eras that stomp their loud shoes with increasing frequency, but for the most part modernity has done a lot of good. It has mainly brought choice to the fore. We used to watch television. Many still do, but maybe as a sideline to the many YouTube videos and Netflix shows that see us through life. We can now choose what we want to watch, and when we want to watch it. In terms of YouTube, we can go into detail like never before. It almost feels tailored towards each of us, because various clever “algorithms” make it so. Before the internet we had newspapers and magazines. We had television. But what was before television? Well, something that truly brought the world together. In a way, the earliest version of the internet. Something that gave us news, “talk shows”, interviews, plays, music and more. Most of this was live, and if one’s reception was good enough, one could “tune in” to many different areas of the world. You’ve probably guessed by now: radio. SO simple compared to what we have these days, but in a way, very similar.

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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.

𝙄𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 – 𝘽𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙖

Charles sees the relevance in longevity…

The fun and games are over. Well, the games are over. The Olympics is done for another 4 years. The fun continues however, for we are still alive. Who were YOU rooting for? No doubt your own country. The only bit of the tournament I actually watched was the volleyball. Because Great Britain was playing? Nope. Because Poland was playing. My girlfriend is Polish and she wanted to see it. I suffered the ordeal for a minute or two, before realising that I was actually really enjoying it! Poland ended up with a shiny silver medal, by the way. Not bad at all! The pesky French got the gold. Huh! Zut. But you know what was missing in the Olympics? Cricket. Cricket, which hasn’t been part of the Olympics since 1900. In fact, 1900 was the only year it was ever included! Why? Apparently lack of participation… Bit weird, but okay. The good news is, it is due to make a grand comeback in the 2028 L.A. Olympics! Which is perfect timing because this week I scored a double century! The problem being, it’s just not cricket!

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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.

𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 (𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩. 𝙀𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙮) – 𝙎𝙖𝙣𝙤 𝙃𝙞𝙡𝙡

Charles is only pretending…

It’s been a while since I wrote about love here. Used to do it all the time. Writing, I mean. And it’s always tricky. Well actually, it wasn’t ALWAYS tricky. At the beginning it was quite easy, because it was new. But after a while, there is little more I can say on the matter. Admittedly, most of you will either not remember my earlier articles, or will not yet have joined the New Artist Spotlight community at the time they were published. Shall I just rehash one of my old ones, then? I mean, that’s what everyone else does these days, right? The thing is, I don’t like doing that. I never do that. I never do that with anything. Newness is “like my thang”. The funny thing is, we do it in songs all the time; this love-ad-nauseam doohickey. Admittedly less so these days as I think young people have been too anxious to learn how to love. Probably far too much like hard work. Okay, so I won’t concentrate on the very young ones (as if I ever did). Do we maybe just take love for granted? It’s a big old thing, don’t ya know. Love, I mean. We’ve all heard the stories. We’ve all been through it. It’s either beautiful and tragic. Or starts one way and ends the other. Actually, usually. “She’s the one” – how many times have I told myself that?? We so desperately want THAT one to be THE one. We all want the happily ever after. Some genuinely get that. Lucky sods. But more often than not, it just ain’t the way. Bit of a bugger, if you ask 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.

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.

𝙈𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙘 – 𝘾𝙚𝙧𝙪𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙤𝙣, 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙇𝙚𝙚 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙨𝙤𝙣

Charles casts a spell…

It’s a new dawn; it’s a new day; it’s a new life for me… And I’m feeling good. Hopefully your bodies and minds have recovered from the copious amounts of shandy booze, and I trust your ears have stopped ringing from the relentless colourful cannon fire. Some of you might have been saddened or even offended by having not received a New Year message from me. Even in the public chats, I was completely absent. But then again, most of you probably couldn’t give a monkey’s. Quite right. For those of you who have nothing better to do than to frown and weep and mourn the lack of a review for an entire week, have no fear: CC is here! Do not worry your pretty little head. I was simply saving that message for this here public broadcast. I have also been truly enjoying life without screen. There’s a whole world out there, ya know…! What did YOU all do between the festives (24th/25th) and the bing-bangs (31st/1st)? Did you read that book you were given for Christmas? Did you drink yourself into oblivion? Did you resent having to work between the two significant dates? Perhaps you just pigged out while listening to whatever Spotify told you to listen to? Well my favourite day was so simplistic it might even barely bear mentioning. But it is so often the simple things in life that we cherish the most. It was December 30th. I was heavily hungover from the night before – don’t ask. Feeling groggy can be awful, but it can also make you feel cosy at home. Like a yawning puppy. I knew I wasn’t going to get any work done. How could I possibly judge the balance of audio when I couldn’t even remember to put on trousers… Think of it as a duvet day. Yes, I know this is starting to sound like a teenage girl’s slumber party, but I assure you it wasn’t. My girlfriend and I did a jigsaw puzzle from start to finish, while listening to music. It was as simple as that. And a highlight of the music was Kaminski’s album from 2022 (no longer “last year”). We both had such a special time despite there being pretty much nothing to it. I suppose this is what love is all about. It is the magic of it. How something so simple can be so special.

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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.

𝙉𝙤 𝙋𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨 – 𝙍𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝘼𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣

Charles thinks of others this Christmas…

So! I thought I’d break with tradition. Which is very unlike me. Next Tuesday is Christmas Eve, and I will not be posting any reviews over the festive period. This gives me time to enjoy the festivities. But more importantly, it gives YOU time to do the same. I don’t want to spoil that for anyone by giving you the chore of reading whatever I might have chosen to natter about. What this means is, this is my last review of 2024. So far, this is no break from tradition. I always pause for a week or two over this season – remember, I’ve been doing these reviews since 2020…! Every year I make a point of writing a fun festive review just before Christmas. Here’s where the break with tradition comes in to play. There will be no holly, no tinsel, no elves, no glitter, no glamour, no baubles, no Santa, no reds, no whites, and no pinks. But plenty of blues. You see, the meaning of Christmas has changed over the years. It has become strangely sterile and commercial. We hunker down to a cosy time with the family, if possible. It was never supposed to be a time of gluttony and of excess. It was supposed to be a time of celebration in being grateful for what we have. A time to think about those less fortunate. Those who cannot revel in said festivities. Those going through the toughest of times. As the Christmas carol goes: In the Bleak Midwinter…

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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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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.

𝙉𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮’𝙨 𝙇𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 – 𝘼𝙫𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙖

Charles is in a similar boat…

Who remembers a British band from the 90s called Republica? Those who do, what’s the song that springs to mind…? Is it “Ready to Go”? Here’s the chorus: “It’s a crack, I’m back, yeah I’m standing on the rooftops shouting out. Baby, I’m ready to go”. That’s me right now. I’m standing on the rooftops shouting out. Baby, I’m ready to go! Yep, it’s that time of the week where I please some and bore others. Woo-hoo! I’m ready to go. Not ready to leave, you understand. Ach, and some of you got your hopes up. Well, tough. Baby, I’m ready to stay. But despite my hoarse vocal cords from that echoing decibelage, I’m wondering if I’m being acknowledged, or even noticed… Every week I write about this or that, and sometimes even the other. But I wonder, if I were to copy and paste a great big chunk of the Oxford English Dictionary instead, how many would actually notice…? Would the comments still read “good song good review keep up the good work cant wait for the next one emoticon emoticon”? Possibly. Probably. Definitely. The internet’s a funny place, after all. I won’t be copying a chunk of the Oxford English Dictionary, though, as I’m not a fan of alphabet soup. These pieces go out to potentially every single living person on this Earth. The same goes for our music… Every single person can read these peculiar articles of mine for free. Every single person can listen to our music for free. Yet, most do not. I can’t understand why. Is it all terrible? Is it really all that bad?? Of course not. The real reason is that nobody knows. But the more important reason is that nobody cares. Why WOULD you?? Some random bloke on the internet writes about music and other random junk. Some unknown artist releases yet another song. Pah.

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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.

𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙬𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙧 – 𝙏𝙤𝙙𝙙 & 𝙆𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙣

Charles stares at the sun…

The wait is over. It finally happened. We hoped, we prayed. We were ready for disappointment. But we always quietly had our fingers crossed. What it is is, Summer. England is not known for sun. Not to foreigners. It is known for miserable rain (as opposed to lighthearted upbeat rain), despite not really having that much rain these days. Well, of course I speak only of London, for that is all I know. I’m sure up north is as grim as ever. But then again, maybe I’m doing what the foreigners do. Assuming, due to what people say. Maybe I’m wrong. Let’s check. Today in London it’s sunny and 26 degrees. Huh! Turns out it’s exactly the same up north! So there ya go. Completely wrong, due to my assumption, based on very little. What’s that sound…? Sounds like a chuckle… It seems to be coming from the southern states of the Ewe Ess of Aye. Now look, I know 26 degrees is not a great deal to you lot – positively chilly, no doubt! But we in mainland Europe don’t live on the edge of a desert (or even indeed in the middle of one). Besides, it did reach 30 over the weekend in London. Which was enough to make me feel very heavy indeed. But good lord, I enjoyed it. We Britonians never know what we’re going to get. Could be chilly and wet and windy. Could be dangerously high temperatures with sun so strong it looks more like Arizona than Hyde Park. Grass bleached to dust. But despite all the worry and concern over climate change, we English always hope to get burnt fast. It is terribly childish and incredibly unsophisticated (not to mention downright stupid), I will admit. But it is the English way. Quick! Sun’s out! Flip-flops at the ready! Let that proud belly hang, flop and wobble to the beat of one’s own personal step. I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, too sexy it hurts. I mean, it HURTS! It is painful to look at. But, this is the nature of these people. To get toasted, and not give a tan about what others will have to look at. One might say they are blinded by the sun… I’m not really selling the place, am I… The good thing is, God invented sunglasses. And if you get ones dark enough (you know, those ones more suitable for viewing a rare solar eclipse) you won’t have to see all this ghastly stuff. Then you can concentrate on your OWN tan (and on not walking into lampposts or passing cars – no matter how amusing this might be to the other bellies).

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