Jelly and ice cream

I can never quite get my head around the fact  some people thing it bad manners to speak ill of the just departed. To my mind it's just hypocrisy, and I'm no hypocrite. Time will tell whether it has any impications for Manchester United, the club, but good riddance, you cunt, Malcolm Glazer, you were a fucking rotten human being.
Of course we can't forget Manchester United, and the takeover that our laissez faire worshipping regulators allowed, but if we could, the fact wouldn't change that Malcolm Glazer was the type of capitalist who helped bring the events of 2008 about. Flirting and skirting around the edges of the law in a completely amoral way. The taking of his own siblings to court over his mothers will, just about sums him up for me.
As United fans, I suppose we can only hope that those rumours of sibling squabbling were on the money, and that the three we've never heard of, want, need even, the money a sale would bring, fingers crossed.




Music

Angel Olsen - Burn your fire for no witness: Her third solo album, the first I've heard, it's a pretty  good indie/folk singer/songwriter record, she seems equally at home when she rocks out or when she does her brooding acoustic folk thing.

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots: He doesn't really make duff records does he, downbeat, not much hint of the harder sound of Blur. If you've liked the things he's done recently, for instance the Bobby Womack album, though it's not as good as that, you'll probably like it.

Elbow - The take off and landing of everything: Another outfit that don't make duff records, even if they aren't the coolest of bands anymore, they still deliver the goods for me. In fact I'd have this down as a slight improvement on their last effort Build a rocket boys.

Illum Sphere -Ghosts of then and now: Another Mancunian act, different genre though. It's a decent listen, atmospheric electronica, can't wait to hear the follow up.

The Notwist - Close to the glass: A bit of a departure from their last album, which , a good six years old now was ahead of the game, a kind of indie/krautrock. This is more half indie, half experimental electronica. It's a good album, but The devil, you and me was a better listen.

The war on drugs - Lost in the dream: I love this, it's one of my favourite albums of the year so far. It's a grower, there's a lot going on in each track, but the more you listen, the better the reward. The music is a kind of dreamy progressive indie/rock, all it's influences hail from from the US side of the pond.

Wild Beasts - Present tense: Not everybody's cup of tea, I would imagine, but I've got a fair bit of time for them. Since they burst on the scene, their early 80's influenced sound has had a few imitators in this country, quite a few of them from around the Manchester area, but none of them are up to their standard.

Keano has a pop!

I'd presumed our new manager would have been announced ahead of yesterday's conference call, and i feel pretty sure that must have been the plan. Not having a great time Woodward is he, Keano's remarks were timed beautifully, and obviously were spot on the money about the hapless one. For once he was spot on the money about almost everything else as well, I don't think Rio was really one of his favourites was he.


Beck - Morning phase: A downbeat acoustic album and also a bit of a corker.

Broken Bells - After the disco: The second album from the collaboration between Danger Mouse and The Shins James Mercer delivers the indie/pop goods again.

Cornell Campbell meets soothsayers - Nothing can stop us: Modern Soothsayers meets reggae main man and the result is this excellent album.

Damien Jurado - Brothers and sisters of the eternal sun: The first time I've heard this US indie singer/songwriter, and it won't be the last, this is a pretty good album, it's far more than one man and his guitar. At times it has a real laurel canyon west coast vibe to it.

David Crosby - Croz: Speaking of west coast vibe, this is the ex Byrds, CSNY's first solo album in a decade and it shows that he can still cut the mustard, it's a good album with a couple of real stand out beauts on it.

Neneh Cherry - Blank Project: I loved her last album with The Thing an Acoustic Ladyland type jazz rock album, this carries on the edgy vibe, but discards the jazz element for a stripped back groove, which proves just as effective, another cracking album.

Psychemagic - Presents Magik Sunrise:  This is a superb compilation that goes all over the shop, there are some great lost classics and should have been classics on it, a must hear.

Ty Segal - Gemini: Yet another album from the prolific US indie guitar man, it's not one of his best, but it's still well worth a listen.

Southampton 1-1 Manchester United

This won't be much of a report, i couldn't watch the game live, I've only seen short highlights, so can only go off what I've been told.
When Giggs was handed the reigns, this was the one fixture that i thought might be a struggle, I can't have been on my own in that, who the fuck saw that Sunderland result coming. So I'll be honest, given the fact there wasn't really anything realistic at stake and taking into consideration they are not a bad team nowadays, I would have took a point as a decent result.
It seems it was a bit of a jekyll and hide performance, going through the motions first half, in control for most of the second. The goal conceded should obviously have been disallowed, whilst Mata's free kick was a thing of beauty. I've read some some reds lambast United's players for not taking the game seriously. I can't really go along with that, it's human nature that the 5 to 10% edge you need to really be on top of your game will be missing when there's nothing at stake. Add to the mix players with a world cup to look forward to and you could argue we were lucky to get second half fight back. I actually expected a few more end of season games like yesterday and I'm fairly sure we would have got them, but for the sacking of Moyes. I'm old enough to remember the 70's and 80's, we had whole second half of the seasons like that at times, ah the memories.
Anyhow the fun starts now, how long will Van Gaal take to be announced, who's out and who's in, will Woodward show something like competence in the transfer market this summer. It seems as if Shaw is on his way in. That's one of the positions that desperately needed sorting done, let's hope for more of the same, not the Woodward quoted "star" signings, that we don't actually need, ie, Cavani. Central midfield is an absolute must, at least one, preferabbly two, and if that rumour that Fabregas will be target again is true, he does not count as central midfield for me, so I hope that's bollocks.

Music

BEAK - BEAK: A side project from Portishead's Geoff Barrow, it's a decent, krautrock infused effort, before it became fashionable again.

Grizzly Bear - Vecktamest: I suppose I should have listened to this much accliamed album before listening to their last album Shields, which was a good album, but I couldn't really understand the fuss, I undertsand it better having now heard this excellent album, superb,

Lee Bannon - Alternate endings: A US techno/hip hop goes drum and bass, it's a good album though it doesn't take the genre anywhere new.

Pixies - EP2: Even though they have now brought all the new albums out in album form, I'll sstick with experiencing them as EP's. I loved the first and love this second effort, it starts with a bang, Blue eyed Hexe is a stonker, though the rest don't quite live up to that, it's still another more than solid effort.

Stephen Malkmus and the jicks -Wig out at jagbags: Though i have only got into Pavement over the last five or six years, i love them. This Stephen Malkmus effort is very good, though i wouldn't bracket it at Pavement level.

The Souljazz Orchestra -Inner fire: First time I've heard this Canadian band, there's a lot going on, soul, jazz, latino, world music, but it all swings, cracking album.

Various artists -  Divided and united - the songs of the civil war: This really grew on me, I expected to like it, I love the incidental music on those American civil war documentaries, especially Ken Burns celebrated epic. But i never realised how many well known tunes were born of that bloody conflict.

Warpaint - Warpaint: It's a reasonable follow up to their debut album Fool, but despite some crtics thinking this was a move forward, it's not as successful an effort as that post punk Joy Division inspired disc.

Manchester United 3-1 Hull City

Once I heard the team, I couldn't wait for the game, this was the kind of thing I have been waiting for all season. I had actually given up on seeing James Wilson getting a start this season, he seems to have been carrying some kind of injury, or so I thought. For the last few games whatever the position of the match, he seems to have brought off early in the second half. And with an under 21 final to come at Old trafford on Wednesday next week, I thought he would have been saved for that. I'm glad I was wrong. Without playing anywhere near as well as he can, he still managed to bag two goals, showing that he's just a natural in front of goal. On the negative side we saw that he still has work to do in his work outside the box, hopefully that will come, if it does, what a player we have on our hands.
The big surprise was the inclusion of Tom Lawrence. I have to admit that he has not been on my radar at all. I have seen him play for the youth team and for the under 21's and whilst he did seem to have talent, he was one of those players, where you couldn't really see what their position was. But I had read that he had done very well on loan, scoring an outrageous solo goal at Carlisle, albeit at a much lower level than the premier league. That changed a touch when I saw his performance at Liverpool during the under 21 semi final last week, all of a sudden he looked first team material.
On the night I thought had a reasonably assured debut, for the most part, nice and tidy in possession, but showing occasional glimpses of a special talent. He could have capped a special night with a glorious goal with a great shot in the first half, but the keeper made a fine save. A right footer on the left hand side, he wanted to cut in most of the time, which is the fashion, but if he is to really make the grade, he'll have to learn to go down the outside from time to time.
Of course we don't really think of Januzaj, as a novice anymore, but he is only 19 still. But as the game wore on, especially in the second half, he showed what a really special talent he is and how criminally underused he had been during the latter part of the season under David Moyes.
As for the actual game, it was a pretty mundane first half as United tried to break down a packed defence with a pretty inexperienced attack and once more an underwhelming central midfield. But right from the off in the second half, United really showed a lot more urgency, and in the latter stages got their game together, especially when a rejuvenated Van Perise came onto the pitch.
Kagawa got a bit of stick for his performance for his performance around my part of the ground. But I thought he did alright, unlike Carrick who, once again, had a very sub par performance, or maybe that should be a par performance for this season. As for Fellaini, what's left to say, I suppose Giggs was giving everybody a chance, and he played to Fellaini's strength's, even if that wasn't exactly to the strength of United's overall performance, playing him further up the pitch. Still we got a few glances of that much spoken about chest control, wow.
The injury a pity for Jones, but boy, is he injury prone, he really has to get over this, if he is ever to realise the potential Fergie saw in him. I've been pretty critical of Smalling this season, but he was noticeably improved against Hull City, obviously the opposition wasn't that strong, still he sniffed out what little danger there was on the night.
Last word goes to Giggs, the difference he made to the quality of a midfield when he came on in the second half, was no surprise. I have often wondered whether when he looks back on his career, whenever that may be, whether he would regret the fact he didn't play the majority of his career more centrally. The speech at the end was word perfect, hitting all this Manchester United fans G-spots, giving youth a chance, playing attractive football, god knows what Moyes would have said, it was almost as if Giggs was trying to say something.    

Manchester United 0-1 Sunderland

Even with Moyes out, the season continues its one step forward, two steps back pathway. If you'd told me at the beginning of the season we would end up playing Sunderland four times in the season, and would lose two of them, i would have struggled to believe you. I was as confident as you can get ahead of the match, I suppose that made the result and the performance that much more annoying, I never saw this one coming.
I wanted Giggs, in fact, even after yesterday's debacle, I still do want to see Giggs handed the managers job. But if Moyes had have sent out that starting eleven, we'd all have been shaking our heads and given him some shit. My only hope when I saw the team was that Giggs would be able to do a Fergie and get them to play above themselves. And to be fair, I thought they played alright, up until the goal, not as good as we would like to see, but not as ponderously as we have seen for most of the season under Moyes.
But once that goal went in, heads dropped, I wouldn't say the tempo dropped, but we struggled to make any headway against a packed Sunderland defence. It was a terribly soft goal to give away, the cross was got away far too easily and Larsson found himself alone and seemed to have all the time in the world to hit the back of the net. We have conceded so many soft goals this season, it beggars belief.
After the substitutions had been made, and the only argument i would have had with them was that I would have taken Young off before Nani, I felt confident that we would at least get a point. Nani didn't do that much, but he did more than Young, who was completely ineffective. But with Januzaj, Welbeck and Van Persie up front, I thought we would at least start to create chances. But it just never really happened did it. There were some poor performances from United, and plenty of problem areas once more. But I'd have to single out central midfield, Carrick has had a season to forget, and yesterday was possibly his worst performance of the season, his passing was abject. Alongside him Fletcher was just as bad, his first touch was non existent, in fact it almost cost us a couple of goals. I suppose the most damming fact from the performance, was that when we were chasing the game and we should have beating a path down to their goal, it was the visitors who looked more likely to score, hitting the woodwork a couple of times and missing a sitter.
Will it be any better on Tuesday for the last home game of the season, it would take a brave man to confidently predict that it will.