The Brits

Tragedy struck this evening, my PVR totally died. I had set it to record the Brits and Survivors but when I came to watch them I found it had totally frozen, none of the button worked and it refused to do anything. It's not the most reliable of machines by any means and often has the occasional hissy fit but usually it only extends to refusing to change volume and hasn't gone much further than that. Even then it normally sorts itself out after a reboot but apparently not this time. It doesn't help that the box itself makes so much noise that I have to unplug it every night and without a proper shutdown, I'm pretty sure pulling the plug on a machine with a hard disk in it isn't good. The upside is that if it does totally break then I have an excuse to buy a canvas enabled one when they are released later in the year.

So whilst I didn't get to watch the Brits - and from what I hear I didn't miss much - I can safely say that I probably would have skipped through most of it. I only really agree with a couple of the awards but then of course I cannot really complain because I didn't vote (it required registration and I couldn't really be bothered). Peter Kay was almost definitely better than last years incompetent hosts (Horne, Corden and Minogue).

My nominations for the night are as follows:
International Female Solo Artist - Ladyhawke
British Breakthrough Act - La Roux
British Female Solo Artist - I actually agree that Lily Allen should have won this one!
British Group - Muse, obviously
British Album - Another one I agree on, Lungs.
British Single - In For the Kill, La Roux. Tune of the summer and spawned an amazing remix.
Critics Choice - Should have been Marina and the Diamonds, Ellie already got the BBC award.

I have no opinion on the other international categories and can't as I haven't seen the live performances, cannot comment on that either. Whoever decided that Joe XFactor McElderry's cover single should even have been a contender should be sacked, it didn't even reach No1 in it's first week. As for the lineup of best album of the last 30 years, the nominee list is appalling so I refuse to pick from such a poor lineup.

As this is a music posting, I may as well append my at last decided single of the week. As I still haven't found out whether my planned decision complies with the rules, I have gone back to the days of old, two years ago in fact for this week's choice. It only came around by chance when I heard it during Monday night and something clicked in me that made me realise just what a great song it is. The version I have been listening to this week is the High Contrast remix and bizarrely I absolutely despised it when I first heard it. The song is Hometown Glory by Adele and the original is one of my all time favourite songs. There aren't many songs that go from hate to love but this remix has found a place in my heart. Either my musical tastes have changed since then or I have just got over the fact that it potentially ruined the original song. There is always a danger that when you love the original and someone changes it and makes it so very different then you are almost predisposed towards dislike. In this case, the original is such a beautiful and emotional song that when it is remixed into something upbeat and happy it takes something important away.

In fact, I will post both versions and you can make your own mind up. I suggest you go for the upbeat version first because then you shouldn't immediately hate the original. No videos again this week as they don't exist in any decent format on YouTube so we7 again.

Free music - Hometown Glory (High Contrast Remix)

Free music - Hometown Glory (album)