scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 10/07/88 : Roll With It -  Steve Winwood Our second and a half visit with Steve - once as a solo artist along with half a visit for Traffic, both of which I quite enjoyed. I don't remember this at all though, so I'll be interested to see what I make of it. Hmmm - this is an interesting one because I was unable to decide how interesting it was. It's all well put together with decent enough songs which are well played but, on first listen at least, it just wasn't that engaging. It's certainly not bland in a Huey Lewis kinda way, but I just didn't care about it - I was like "yay, well done Steve - you did good" in a tolerant parent kinda way, without really caring. I'm interested as to why he's gone for the Terminator T-1000 look on the album cover though... We're at #10 in the charts this week on his third week of a sixteen week run, with it having peaked at #4 for its first two weeks....

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 17/07/88 : Popped In Souled Out -  Wet Wet Wet They've been mentioned quite a bit but this is our first visit with WWW and somewhat surprisingly,  I don't think I've ever listened to this. I'm quite intrigued to see what I make of it - I'm expecting it to be bearable, but something I'm not sad I've avoided up until now. Actually, I'd say it reaches the dizzy heights of "better than bearable" and whilst I can't say I'm sad I've avoided it, I'd forgotten how decent "Wishing I Was Lucky", "Angel Eyes" and "Sweet Little Mystery" were (they were all top ten singles). For the most part, this album feels very "blue-eyed soul" and, whilst it stays in that lane, I'd say it's a decent example of it - there are a few tracks where Marti's trying a bit too hard and it borders on the offensive, but fortunately they are few and far betwee...

The journey continues... Natalie Merchant (2014) I remember listening to this one and quite liking it - but don't remember ever listening to it again, so it will be interesting to revisit it. 1. Ladybird A song about a woman in a relationship that isn't working - it's decent enough and builds nicely throughout, but I really didn't need 6:39 of it. 2.   Maggie Said And here's a woman wondering what the point to her entire life was. I like this one - it harks back to the Ophelia era. 3. Texas And this one has a similar sound to it, along with some lovely guitar. 4. Go Down Moses She's getting a bit blues-y on this one - we've not heard too much of that over the years. It's OK, but maybe needs a bit more content in its 5:03. 5.   Seven Deadly Sins This is a nicely subtle song about the end of a relationship - an understated melody with barbed lyrics. Yeah, I like this. 6. Giving Up Everything Some lovely strings on this - I had no idea what it was all a...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 24/07/88 : Tunnel Of Love -  Bruce Springsteen Out eighth visit with The Boss and this is one I think I quite like (and nearly bought many times, but never took the plunge) but haven't heard in ages, so I'm looking forward to checking if I actually do. Yeah - I think this is a good mid point between his upbeat rawk and downbeat blues, with a decent helping of mid-life crisis thrown in for good measure. The songs are well put together and feature decent lyrics which merit several proper listens. I like the singles "Tougher Than The Rest", "Tunnel Of Love" and "Brilliant Disguise", but I particularly like "Spare Parts" although the version here does suffer in comparison with the live version , which I remember hearing first whilst driving the car on a gorgeous summer evening with  the concert being played on Radio 1  - and that's absolute peak Springsteen for me.  We're at #10 i...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 31/07/88 : Small World -  Huey Lewis And The News I never understood the appeal of Huey over here - there's nothing wrong with any of it, but it's dreadfully bland in a "middle America" kinda way. Maybe this will convince me I'm wrong? (spoiler alert - it won't). Actually, this is quite an interesting one because it's got more variety across the album than I was expecting - but somehow the songs still all sound exactly the same. How did he manage that? Apart from that, there's absolutely nothing of interest about this album - it all seems competently put together, but I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would actually choose to listen to it. We're at #12 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of an eight week run with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Now! 12, Hits 8,  Tracy Chapman ,  Michael Jackson  and  Kylie  with the next highest new...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 05/09/25 :  Man's Best Friend  - Sabrina Carpenter  Our second visit with Sabrina and after I confidently stated her last album would go nowhere, I'm obviously a bit of an expert on all things Carpenter. I have however heard that things get pretty spicy on this one, so maybe the moral outrage will keep me engaged. What?!? I don't seem to have worked up any moral outrage at all - what's going on? I actually didn't mind this at all - it's surprisingly 70s (quite ABBesque, in places) a nd a lot more orchestral than I was expecting. Comparing this with Short'n'Sweet, I think it's lacking an "Espresso" highlight and it has less zingers lyrically, but it has an overall higher quality level and better constructed songs - "Never Getting Laid" in particular made me chuckle. I'm still not a fan of her baby girl voice but I thought this was a lot more interesting than I was exp...