Renting DVDs by Post

We've started renting DVDs by post, and it's not bad. It started because, a couple of weeks ago, The Times on Saturday was wrapped in plastic (so I couldn't see inside) and proclaimed a free copy of Amélie (one of the most gorgeous films I've seen in a long time). I figured it would be a voucher to take to Blockbuster or something, so parted with my quid and bought it, only to find out when I got it open in the car that you had to sign up with ScreenSelect's free trial to get it. "Sod it," I thought, "may as well give it a whirl." And that's precisely what I did.

ScreenSelect has somewhere close to 7.2 trillion DVDs to choose from, it seems. There's masses of things you wouldn't think of; so much stuff you'd never see in a rental store, along with everything you would see as well. One of my first rentals was 808 State's Optibuk, for example - just to see what it was like. (Took me back 15 years to the days of The Chart Show, I tell ya!) I can confidently state that if that's available in a regular rental store, I will eat my own pelvis.

The way things work goes like this: you pay a monthly fee of between £10 and £15, depending on the number of DVDs you want at any one time. We've gone for the £12.50 deal, getting up to two at a time. Then you have a massive list of DVDs you want to see, and they work through the list depending on how you prioritise things, sending them to you as they're available. You watch them, send them back, and other DVDs from your list come along. The only limit to how many DVDs you get to see in a month is a combination of the efficiency of the Royal Mail and the deal you select for the number you can have out at a time. They all get sent to you first class, and the return envelope is first class as well, and so far everything has arrived the day after dispatch.


The DVDs arrive in thick, sturdy envelopes like this one.


Open it up along the edge, and you're greeted with this - the DVD in a smart little protective case, tucked inside what will become the return envelope.


This can then be inserted into your DVD player. (Be sure to remove from the plastic case.) After being watched, it can be inserted into your PC for DVD Shrink to make a *cough* back-up *cough*.


Then, back in here, back in the post, and wait for the next one to turn up. Simple!

So far I've been very impressed by the service. The DVDs are well packaged when sent, the range is mind blowing and the speed and efficiency - top notch. If I were to give them a score, it would be a good one.

Gorillaz - Demon Days

Last week saw the release of the second proper Gorillaz album, Demon Days. I'm dead chuffed, because I loved the debut album and was afraid the band was never going to move beyond those songs - especially when you consider the odds against them; a cartoon band side-project of Damon Albarn and his mates.

The two albums released between the eponymous debut and Demon Days, G-Sides and Laika Come Home, whilst being good, haven't given us anything new. G-Sides was a collection of singles' B-sides, and Laika Come Home was a rather excellent dub remix album by Space Monkeys - good tracks throughout, but nothing new to get excited about.

Then, at the start of 2005, a white label 12" appeared in DJs' record boxes. This was Dirty Harry, the first new material to appear from Gorillaz in a gazillion years - and it was splendid. This was followed by their most recent single proper, Feel Good Inc, where De La Soul joined in on rapping duties and Albarn crafted a song reminiscent of The Kinks in places. And now... the album it has all been leading up to.

And it's a cracker.

Absolute most favourite track of all is DARE, a bizarre little pop song featuring Shaun Ryder on vocals, and without a doubt a candidate for a single release. On the album this is followed by a deeply bizarre collaboration - Dennis Hopper provides his voice to the narative in the spacey, dreamy Fire Coming Out of a Monkey's Head. This track flows into Don't Get Lost In Heaven, and then into the title track, Demon Days (the final track on the CD). These last two tracks have shades of Mercury Rev about them, and are gorgeous.

Other favourites are Kids With Guns, with a lovely, chugging bass and Neneh Cherry providing backing vocals in the chorus, and the aforementioned singles. That said, like the first album, there isn't actually a single bad track. This time, however, the album feels like a whole 'thing', whereas the first one was more varied in genres. And a few tracks sound so much like tracks from Blur's Think Tank you can tell that Albarn wasn't sure which group should get to perform them.

The whole album is topped off, for me, by the very first track (simply called Intro) which is based around a loop taken from the track Dark Earth by Jack Trombey. This track would mean nothing to anyone except for fans of either deWolfe's library music or the film Dawn of the Dead - I fall into the latter category, and I knew that Albarn does as well from the quote at the start of the video for Clint Eastwood. The track gets used in the version of Dawn of the Dead most (UK/US) viewers have seen - George Romero used a ton of library music on his version of the film, which was replaced in European versions by a soundtrack recorded by the Italian prog-rockers Goblin for Dario Argento, who created the continental cut.

If I had to give it a score, I would. It'd be a high score as well. But this is my blog, so I'm not going to bother =)