Lookalikes #43: Undercurrent by Bill Evans and Beneath This Burning Shoreline by Cherry Ghost

Lookalikes #42: Hats by The Blue Nile (1989) and Cocoa Sugar by Young Fathers (2018)

Lookalikes #41: Kamikaze and Licensed to Ill album covers

Another poor album from the once-great Eminem, Kamikaze's cover is a 'homage' to the classic 1986 Beastie Boys album Licensed to Ill, which I bought at the time on vinyl. I'm tempted to buy the Eminem on vinyl too, just to put them side by side.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Lookalikes
Album Cover Mash-up

Lookalikes #40: Terry Riley and Terry Nutkins

Terry Riley, born 1935, American minimalist composer, and Terry Nutkins, 1946-2012, much-loved presenter of The Really Wild Show, where Chris Packham got his break in 1986.

I love the liner notes on Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air, released in 1969:

And then all wars ended / Arms of every kind were outlawed and the masses gladly contributed them to giant foundries in which they were melted down and the metal poured back into the earth / The Pentagon was turned on its side and painted purple, yellow & green / All boundaries were dissolved / The slaughter of animals was forbidden / The whole of lower Manhattan became a meadow in which unfortunates from the Bowery were allowed to live out their fantasies in the sunshine and were cured / People swam in the sparkling rivers under blue skies streaked only with incense pouring from the new factories / The energy from dismantled nuclear weapons provided free heat and light / World health was restored / An abundance of organic vegetables, fruits and grains was growing wild along the discarded highways / National flags were sewn together into brightly colored circus tents under which politicians were allowed to perform harmless theatrical games / The concept of work was forgotten

Ah, the dream of the 1960s. It all seems pretty reasonable to me, but appears further and further away.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Lookalikes #1-40

Lookalikes #39: Henry Darger and Marcel Dzama

I've written about Henry Darger previously; Marcel Dzama is a contemporary artist who also works in scultpure, film and collage. His paintings have adorned album covers, he's had books published. Henry Darger, outsider artist, was a caretaker and hermit, creating his deeply personal art in his apartment at night. I love both Darger and Dzama, but almost can't imagine Dzama's art existing if it wasn't for Darger.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Lookalikes #12: Feels and Henry Darger

Lookalikes #38: High-Rise and A Clockwork Orange

From the movie's poster and the brutalist architecture featured in the film to its depiction of society breaking down and the class war leading to ultra sex and violence, Ben Wheatley's recent adaption of Ballard's HIgh-Rise, published in 1975, felt heavily influenced by Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971), adapted from the novel by Anthony Burgess (1962).

Do say: dystopian; prescient; Ballardian
Don't say: derivative

Elsewhere on the web:
Ben Wheatley's Bakers Dozen

Lookalikes #37: Robert Frank and George Michael

No, not Robert Frank himself but a photo he took for his hugely influential book of photos, The Americans, published in the States in 1959; and George Michael, around the time of his album Faith (1987).

Previously on Barnflakes:
Book cover: Robert Frank's Les Americains
Robert Frank's ridiculous ratios

Lookalikes #36: Three and Cadbury's purple creature adverts

Cadbury's Discover the Joy of Puddles and Three's When Stuff Sucks

I've written before about similar films coming out at the same time, and the same can happen with adverts: I've noticed recently there are a bunch of print ads out with images of maps of the UK made out of objects – one is for Heathrow and the other for John Lewis. Anyway, today's lookalikes are two adverts I saw at the cinema, almost back to back, and assumed it was for the same product: both begin with purple soft toys, alone, dejected and rejected in the rain. After numerous setbacks, things start to look better for both purple creatures – and the sun comes out. But no, it was for two different products entirely – chocolate and phones.

All the trillions of elements and billions of years in the universe combine for these two ads to come out playing at the same time in a cinema in Peckham in The Year Of Our Lord 2015, and for people like me to mix them up. They are both also completely over the top, irrelevant to the product, annoying, pointless and rubbish.

Watch the Cadbury's Discover the Joy of Puddles and Three's When Stuff Sucks.

Lookalikes #35: Bowie / Stezaker

David Bowie's 2013 album The Next Day, with cover designed by Jonathan Barnbrook ("...often in design it can be a long journey to get at something quite simple"), and collage by John Stezaker, who uses found material in his work.

Lookalikes #34: Meet the Beatles/Meet the Residents

The Beatles' first U.S. album cover has been parodied numerous times but I like the Residents cover best. Probably worth noting that The Residents are better than The Beatles. The website Deface Value features 'authentically found and intentionally altered album cover art'.

Lookalikes #33: Murderer's brain and teddy bear

Left: a teddy bear; right: brain scan of murderer Antonio Bustamante, spared the death penalty after a jury saw this image, feeling sympathy for the teddy bear-like image. Bustamante was deprived of a teddy bear as a child; clearly the motivation for his later crimes.

Though 'neurocriminology' still has connotations with the outmoded 19th century practice of phrenology, where criminals were judged by the shape of their head, it is slowly becoming more widely accepted. Read a Guardian article here.

Lookalikes #32: Syriana and Argo

Syriana is a 2005 political thriller set in the Middle East starring George Clooney as a CIA guy with a beard*. Clooney also produced it. Argo is a 2012 political thriller set in the Middle East starring Ben Affleck as a CIA guy with a beard*. George Clooney co-produced it.

It's taken me years not to hate Ben Affleck (and Matt Damon, his 10th-removed cousin, who had a role in Syriana). Then I had years of apathy. Now, I don't even mind either of them. Ben Affleck has proved himself more competent behind the camera than he ever was in front of it, directing Gone Baby Gone and The Town. Affleck and Matt Damon won an Oscar back in 1997 for their screenplay Good Will Hunting (though they did get help from Rob Reiner and William Goldman). They both have funny middle names: Ben's is Geza; Matt's is Paige. They both like to play poker, Ben being better; Matt never was very convincing in Rounders.

*Meaning they want to be taken seriously. And make people think of great 1970s American films directed by the kids with beards: Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Altman, Malick.

Argo: Not to be confused with Argo, the ship Jason and the Argonauts sailed on; Argos, the largest general-goods retailer in the UK.
Syriana: Not to be confused with Syria, a country in western Asia.

Lookalikes #31: arms on album covers

Clockwise from top left: The Hold Steady, Heaven is Whenever (2010); Spoon, Kill the Moonlight (2002); Spiritualized, Amazing Grace (2003) and Trust by Low (2002).

Three of these came out within a year of each other. It (sort of) reminds me of films with similar subjects coming out within a few months of each other, such as:
Dangerous Liasons and Valmont
The Prestige and The Illusionist
Twister and Tornado
Antz and A Bugs Life
Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line
Capote and Infamous
Tombstone and Wyatt Earp
Deep Impact and Armageddon
Dante's Peak and Volcano
The Truman Show and EdTV
Robin Hood and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

But like identical twin brothers or sisters, where one is usually more attractive than the other, one film is always a lot better than the other, and performs a lot better (though not necessarily the same one, of course.)

Lookalikes #30: Stonehenge & Sacrilege

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument constructed around 3100 BC and situated in the county of Wiltshire.

Sacrilege is a life-size replica of Stonehenge, made as a fully operational bouncy castle. It's lots of fun. It's been doing a tour of the UK since June and is now in its last week. Try to catch it if you can. Sacrilege is by Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, who has also done all kinds of other interesting and fun things, such as a documentary about Depeche Mode fans and a reenactment of The Battle of Orgreave, the confrontation between miners and police during the 1984 miners' strike.

sacrilege2012.co.uk

Lookalikes #29: wonky album covers

The Enemy's Music for the People (2009) and Orbital's Wonky (2012).

Lookalikes #28: Michelle Williams & Carey Mulligan

Never Let Me Go is a dreary 2010 sci-fi film based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro and starring Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan as a dowdy generic clone of Dawson's Creek era Michelle Williams. In the film, Mulligan wishes she was as glamorous as her American counterpart and travels from Hailsham to Massachusetts to track her down.

I waited in vain for the film to play Bob Dylan and Joan Baez singing Never Let Me Go together.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Dawson's Creek: better than The Wire?

Lookalikes #27: Black Sabbath Vol.4/Sleep Vol.2

Black Sabbath's fourth album, Vol 4 (1972) and Sleep's 1992 EP, Vol 2, which contains a live version of Black Sabbath's Lord of This World.

Sleep's classic Dopesmoker, containing the hour-long song Dopesmoker, has recently been reissued.

Previously on Barnflakes:
Lookalikes #24: Third Albums

Lookalikes #26: holiday adverts

It's not so much that advertising nowadays consists of nothing else but a Photoshop filter but, rather, that an attractive red-lipped woman will have much to do with your holiday. Maybe she will, especially in Amsterdam, but ads like these always manage to annoy me, highlighting as they usually do the most uninteresting aspects of a holiday (tourist, beach, building…). Besides, Agadir is a dump and Amsterdam isn't that much better.

Lookalikes #25: Cut Knee Album Covers

Romance is Boring by Los Campesinos! (2010) and Graham Coxon's new album, A+E (2012), whose title also resembles Songs in A+E by Spiritualized (2008).

Lookalikes #24: Third Albums

Portishead's, er, fourth album, Third (2008); Soft Machine's Third (1970); Big Star's Third (1978), also known as Sister Lovers; Led Zeppelin's III (1970).