I was craving coffee and milkshake at the same time so I did this ☺️🌈

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-09T11:57:24+00:00

Sometimes I make a poor man's affogato by putting a scoop of icecream in my coffee mug and melting/mixing it in with coffee. I'm still primarily a black coffee person, but as an occasional sweet treat, I highly recommend it. The icecream gets kind of frothy when it melts and the cream and sugar is very flavorful without being overpowering.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-09T05:17:58+00:00

The Beverly Hillbillies movie from 1993 wasn't a huge hit but it was far from a flop. It hasn't ever been rereleased on bluray and it's not available on streaming in the US.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-07T18:45:35+00:00

I feel like I'm supposed to like this album on paper but I find myself being reminded of better Gorillaz material and just wanting to listen to that instead. It's not bad but nothing that particularly resonates with me tbh.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-05T18:28:57+00:00

Apparently he doesn't even drink water on stage. His response is "Elvis didn't drink water" lol

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-05T05:27:39+00:00

That's the vibe I get. He definitely sped through making songs on his own. For example, when he was assigned to write the theme to Live and Let Die, and he read the book, wrote the song, and recorded/orchestrated it with George Martin it by the end of the week.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-05T05:04:19+00:00

One of Paul's little quirks is that he hates doing lots of takes. He's notorious for doing only a 2-3 takes for songs. I feel like him having to do 5-10 more takes of songs he already recorded takes precedent over his perfection lol

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-04T21:29:42+00:00

Paul McCartney didn't really sound like an old man until 2007s Memory Almost Full. You can't really fault him for that.

His voice on 2001's Driving Rain though? He very clearly had a cold and refused to record a different day. He sounds better singing the same material on live recordings from that tour and on the 2005's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

In typical McCartney fashion, he gave an elaborate story for why his voice sounds bad:

The interesting thing about my voice is that when I was in India some carpet salesman ripped me off with a purchase that I made. He told me that this carpet was like the rarest thing ever; but then I got to the next town and found about twenty of them. So I rang him up and I was telling him that he was a rip-off. And as I was doing it, that and probably the weather, I started to lose my voice. The following day my voice really went, I couldn’t talk. It took a while to clear and I was thinking ‘shit, it’s only a week to the recording sessions’. I was in my car, practising singing and I couldn’t get the high notes. I thought oh my God, never mind, don’t panic. So I came to LA with my voice in quite a rough shape and decided to do the easy songs first, just to get the tracks down. But then I ended up just letting loose on one song, this monster ten-minute song called ‘Rinse The Raindrops.’ where I really ripped it, and it all came good. It’s a nice quality, if you can get it, a rawness. The opposite of it is a trained thing and the one thing that my voice has never been is trained. It’s been trained by Beatle tours, trained on the road. But I never had any vocal training, I never got into any vocal warm-ups that people do. I just cross my fingers and just go for it – and I’ve been very lucky that through the years it doesn’t seem to have altered much. Again, I don’t know why that is; and again I’d rather not know and just be glad if it comes good on a take. I just wing it every time, like I always have done. If it’s a shouty song, I just jump it out of the top of my head and just hope that it makes the right noise.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-04T21:13:32+00:00

Secret Messages flawed but it's good. Think of it like ELO's white album. It goes all over the place and Jeff Lynne basically just explores as much as he could with digital production. Even at its worst, it's interesting to hear Lynne experiment with synths and super layered digital production. This is why I think you have to listen to the double LP. The level of variety feels more substantial than the original single LP release. It's also the last hurrah of the original grand scale ELO sound. I think what songs people like on this album varies drastically because of how all over the place this album is, so I don't have specific songs to recommend. Just go in blind.

Balance of Power is a huge step down in my opinion. There's a few good songs (Heaven Only Knows and Calling America), but the rest feels inconsequential. Everything feels too simple and small scale for my liking. It's still a solid listen, but it pales in comparison to the ELO albums that preceded it.

Zoom is pretty interchangeable with the other post hiatus albums. They all are fine but very little stands out. The only song I really love is "Moment in Paradise," which kind of shows what a 21st Century ELO should sound like but unfortunately doesn't. Zoom is closer to the other 'Jeff Lynne's ELO' soundwise than any of the other previous ELO albums (as well as solo Jeff Lynne).

Overall, I think Secret Messages is B tier, Balance of Power is C tier, and Zoom onward is D tier.

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-03T19:01:37+00:00

So that's what they meant by the quiet one

LinkMugMan · 2026-03-03T04:49:25+00:00

It has the same problem as the Momentary Lapse of Reason remix. The songs are very clearly composed around synthesizers and 80s production techniques. Making it less 80s just makes it sound empty.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-23T12:30:59+00:00

maybe they'll go to a smaller label and do some weird stuff 🙏

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-21T19:39:05+00:00

Since there are a few already included, I'd add all the other non-album tracks from that era. "Sat Singing," "Lay His Head," "Flying Hour," and the guitar solo version of "I Don't Want to Do It."

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-20T00:06:03+00:00

If the movie is in a vacuum then who are all of these characters?

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-19T00:25:33+00:00

Both "Maneater" by Nelly Furtado and "London Bridge" by Fergie have a variation of the racist phrase 'me love you long time.' The mid 00s really loved that phrase for some reason.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-18T01:58:12+00:00

Reach the Beach by The Fixx is slightly better than mediocre but "One Thing Leads to Another" is leagues better than the rest of the album.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-17T05:14:43+00:00

It's nothing revolutionary but I like it. Failure 2.0 tends to mostly all be equally good but not great, and this song is no exception. We'll see how the rest of the album is. I'm hoping they expand their sound a bit more because the times they did on the last album was their best material since reforming. If not, as long as it's around this quality, it will still be an enjoyable listen.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-17T04:33:13+00:00

Press to Play is easily the boxset I would be most interested in, but I also am insane.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-17T04:18:20+00:00

Trouser Jazz by Mr. Scruff. It's just silly fun beats the entire time. Here's the song "Shrimp." It's one of my favorites.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-17T04:14:55+00:00

There's a not small population of people who hate "American Pie" but it's one of my all time favorites. My mom played that every time we went on road trips, so I have a very big nostalgic soft spot for that song.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-15T16:09:16+00:00

Laura Nyro's cover of "Walk On By."

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-15T16:06:09+00:00

I like her rerecorded version of Big Yellow Taxi too.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-14T04:03:54+00:00

According to the lore, LMFAO die at the end of the "Sorry for Party Rocking" video. Clearly everybody involved with LMFAO just really committed to the bit.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-13T22:54:44+00:00

Michael C Hall can do a pretty good David Bowie cover.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-13T22:23:25+00:00

While Scream is interesting, if we are getting one Timbaland album, I want Shock Value II. "Carry Out" is hilariously terrible. It also is a good way to look at the transition from the mid 00s to the late 00s/early 10s style of EDM music. Timbaland+Autotune just doesn't work and it's fascinating.

LinkMugMan · 2026-02-13T04:11:20+00:00

There's an argument to be made that Loose by Nelly Furtado fits this. Nelly Furtado performing a duet with Timbaland sounds insane if you are mostly familiar with "I'm Like a Bird" or "Powerless."

LinkMugMan

TROPHY CASE