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Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 05/09/71 : Deep Purple In Rock - Deep Purple Our third visit with DP and our second this year and my expectations are very much that I'll appreciate the skill, but not the noise that they make with that skill. Well, well, well. Not only did I appreciate the skill, but I also quite appreciated the noise - wonders will never cease. It's good old-fashioned 70s rawk and I don't really have anything more to say about it - so let's  just crank up the volume and rock out.   We're at a year low of #34 in the charts this week on their second week of a five week run - but that was its third run and the first one was definitely the most successful, lasting 54 weeks and peaking at #4 in its second and sixteenth weeks. The top five this week were  Simon & Garfunkel ,  The Who  (a new entry),  The Moody Blues , TOTP Vol 18 (the third one we've seen in the top five this year) and  Rod Stewart , with there bei...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 12/09/71 : Tarkus - Emerson, Lake & Palmer Our third visit with ELP and our second this year - I believe this is one of their better reviewed albums so I'm interested to visit it. Well, the opening title track is really quite the thing - over twenty minutes of prog pomposity which doesn't really do anything or go anywhere. I assume that was the A side and the B side is a very different creature with six tracks coming in at just under eighteen minutes in total! None of which are exactly great (there's a lot of musical noodling going on) and they don't hang together at all, but at least they don't outstay their welcome - overall, I think I'm fine without ever listening to this again. It's also a most peculiar album cover. We're at #23 in the charts this week on their last week of a fourteen week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its second week - it's weird that it dropped all the way out aft...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 19/09/71 : Everything Is Everything - Diana Ross Our fourth visit with Diana and our second in a week - and I'm hoping this is slightly better than her last offering . Yeah, I think it's better without being exactly great - the production doesn't sound quite so shoddy, but there's still a load of pointless cover versions. And some of them are really quite peculiar - she absolutely murders "(They Long to Be) Close to You" and doesn't do a lot better with "The Long And Winding Road" - somewhat surprisingly she does a much better job with another Lennon/McCartney composition "Come Together", which doesn't feel like it would suit her at all. It was a bit weird to hear "I'm Still Waiting" after we had on our previous visit and I also have to ask who thought it was a good idea to call a track "Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoobe, Doobedood'ndoo". Ove...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 26/09/71 : Man In Black - Johnny Cash Our second visit with the original MIB (and the last one was over five years ago!) - I'd struggle to say I'm a fan, but I admire the man for his dedication over the years, so I'm happy to listen to this. To my surprise, I didn't mind this at all! It's pretty straightforward guitar-based US country/folk, but it's well done - earnest but not overly so. And I actually liked the title track and "Look For Me" - the addition of June Carter Cash on the latter definitely lifts it. It's also nicely different from everything else we've heard so far this year, so that made for a pleasant change. And it's a pretty cool album cover as well. We're all the way down at #18 in the charts this week (skipping over a LOT of compilation albums) on his third week of a seven week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were  Rod Stewart , Deep ...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 07/08/26 : petal - Ariana Grande  Our third visit with Ms Grande and every time I've tried to get over her portrayal of Cat Valentine, but never quite managed it - third times a charm, eh? You know what - maybe it is. I obviously didn't love it, but I also didn't find it too annoying and at 36 minutes long, it can't be accused of overstaying its welcome. I actually think I'd go as far as saying I liked "Never Get Over Me" - what was I thinking? Our guest reviewer this week is my youngest and she declares it to be a great album (and she wasn't that impressed with the last one ) - I'm guessing Ariana will probably be more interested in her opinion than mine, so all is good. I also don't think I've have recognised her in the photo without the slight clue of it being on the album cover. We're obviously at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week - her sixth consecutive album to d...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 03/10/71 : Every Good Boy Deserves Favour - The Moody Blues To my surprise, this is our third visit with The Moody Blues - I don't remember either of the previous ones but my posts tell me they were both very strange, so it's hard to imagine we're not going to have some more strangeness here. Actually, there's not a lot of strangeness here - this sounds much more like I was expecting a Moody Blues album to sound. There's obviously a load of musical skill involved - in places there are many different melodies all going on at the same time and it makes a nice enough sound. But...the lyrics are (in most places) really quite bad and, despite the album only being 45 minutes long, it felt like it went on for hours, so it's a no from me. And what is going on with that album cover? We're at #12 in the charts this week on their tenth week of a sixteen week run with it having peaked, to my surprise, at #1 in its s...