scaryblog

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 30/01/26 : How Did I Get Here - Louis Tomlinson Robbie last week, Louis this - January is obviously the month that ex-boy-band members release albums hoping to get to #1. And (spoiler alert) - it works. Somewhat surprisingly, this is our second visit with solo Louis and last time he was mostly praised for singing in a Northern accent - let's hope he's kept that up! Well, I have some terrible news for you - the Northern accent has definitely been relegated from front and centre in favour of something more mid-Atlantic. Apart from that, this is actually decent enough - it's Harry-esque summer pop which is pleasant on the ear, without necessarily being particularly memorable. To me, at least although I suspect others may disagree with me - he gets bonus points for the Talking Heads reference though.  We're at #1 in the charts with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are  Olivia Dean , Megadeth (ano...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 08/07/01 : Devil's Night -  D12 Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before this happened. There's a lot to admire (I'm not sure "like" is quite the right word) about Eminem's albums around this time, but the contributions on them from D12 are, shall we say, somewhat unfocussed - so the idea of a whole album from them is not exactly filling me with joy. Hmmm. Yes. "Somewhat unfocussed" would be a very kind verdict on this indeed - it's very juvenile and (for the most part) decidedly average. Whether you love or loathe Eminem, there is definitely humour, intelligence and talent (particularly around song structure) present on at least some of his tracks - and all those qualities are noticeably absent here. I also think on his solo stuff Eminem can at least claim he's just acting the part of Slim Shady (and there are times when he uses that argument quite effectively) - but when you h...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 15/07/01 : The Invisible Band -  Travis Another one we owned (five for the year) and I remember liking it but I haven't listened to it in many a long year, so it will be interesting to see what I think about it now. Yeah, I thought this was decent enough, hasn't dated and, at a tight 45 minutes,  doesn't outstay its welcome.  Travis haven't exactly gone down in history as the most exciting band and this is, at least on a surface listen, a "nice" melodic indie pop album which doesn't have anything to frighten the horses.  with tracks like "Sing", "Dear Diary" and "Flowers In The Window" doing exactly what's expected of them . But it never, for me, strays into bland territory and there are certainly depths to explore there if you're so inclined. I'd say there are hints of Bowie or Radiohead throughout - Travis have definitely not chosen to take the songs in the d...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 22/07/01 : 8701 -  Usher It's fair to say I'm not a fan of Usher, which is compounded by the fact that he's made some tracks which are annoyingly catchy so I can't help but admire them. Well, the "good" news is that there are no admirably catchy tracks on here - it's very average. He so wants to be Stevie Wonder but he so isn't - going "na na naa" with some nice harmonies over some very simple backing tracks does not musical genius make. I also suspect he thinks he's a lyrical genius as well, but I'm afraid "Twork It Out" is not going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. I can see that if you're looking for some sexy time music then this is going to push some people's buttons, but I just find it annoying - and a whole hour was just way too much. We're at #2 in the charts this week on his second week of a 32 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its debut...

Next! Steeltown (1984) Side One 1. Flame Of The West A nice swirling anthemic start with quite a dark theme of false promises and betrayal - it sounds great loud. 2. East Of Eden Not a million miles away from the previous track, but we got some hints of hope here - it's not going to be all gloom and doom (but quite a lot of it is though). 3. Steeltown Yup - we're back in the land of false promises and betrayal again. The lyrics are particularly good here though - arguably some of his finest work, methinks. And yes, it's swirling and anthemic again, although a bit slower than the previous tracks.  4. Where The Rose Is Sown We've got a bit of hope here - the subject may have gone off to war but he believes he's on the side of the angels and he hasn't been killed yet. 5. Come Back To Me Oh dear  (spoiler alert)   - he's dead now and we're hearing from the woman who was waiting for him. We've got a bit of musical variety here with a slower, almost milita...

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 29/07/01 : Rings Around The World -  Super Furry Animals SFA are one of those bands I always thought I should like, but never got into at the time - and two visits here have done nothing to change the situation. Third time lucky? Well, third time luckier, certainly. I didn't love it, but I can see there's a lot to like here. It's very sixties tinged, harking back to The Kinks and later-phase Beatles and Beach Boys, sounding both lush and fuzzy which is quite a clever combination - The Flaming Lips would be another (slightly more contemporary) touchpoint. I was also surprised to recognise one of the tracks - "Juxtaposed With U" ( "you've got to tolerate all the people that you hate" ), which was one of the singles. I really quite enjoyed this album and can see if I'd bought this and listened to it a few times then I'd have properly got into it, which is a significant advance on our previou...