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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 01/09/17 : Villains -  Queens Of The Stone Age Our fourth visit with QOTSA and my previous reactions have been indifference, aversion and mild appreciation - so we could be anywhere with this! Hmmm - they sound like they're going for a David Bowie/T Rex 70s-ish sound on this. And, whilst it's certainly not a sound I know that well, I feel like they've achieved a certain amount of success with it. I can't say I loved it, but it was an interesting enough listen which I can see people could get into (and possibly even me, given a few more listens) - whether the QOTSA fans did is less clear to me, but I guess Wikipedia will let me know. We're at #1 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of a nine week run, which feels about what it deserved. The rest of the top five are  Ed Sheeran , The War On Drugs (a new entry), PVRIS (another one - and I like a bit of PVRIS so might check this out) and Shane Filan...

The first one I've never listened to... Peace In Our Time (1988) I've no idea why I never bought this. I remember a couple of the singles and quite liked them, but for some reason I just never got round to it - so I'm intrigued to see what I think of it. 1. King Of Emotion I remembered liking this - it wasn't as enjoyable as I was expecting, but it's not dreadful. It doesn't sound very Scottish compared their previous stuff though and the drums are ridiculously high in the mix. 2. Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys) This was another one I remembered I liked - and this one has stood the test of time better (and it sounds more Scottish). It's still pretty understated on the guitar front - maybe they were given them a rest on this album. I wasn't expecting the pan pipes at the end though 3. Thousand Yard Stare Fine, but a bit repetitive - and that's all I can remember about it. 4. From Here To Eternity This starts with some ambient pan pipe-y things as well...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 08/09/17 : Freedom Child -  The Script For some reason, my default position on The Script is to be a bit sniffy about them, but then whenever I hear some of their stuff I don't mind it - so I'm trying to go into this with an open mind. Hmmm. I didn't like it, but I'm not entirely sure why - I think I feel it's just trying to be Snow Patrol (with bizarre Police-ish reggae notes in places) but without really having any understanding as to what that involves or even whether it's a good thing. It was all intensely forgettable without suggesting that repeat listens would make any better impression. We're at a somewhat surprising #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a decent twenty week run (god knows how). The rest of the top five were  Ed Sheeran , LCD Soundsystem (a new entry), OMD (another one) and Queens Of The Stone Age, with two more new entries in the top ten for Mogwai (#6) and J...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 15/09/17 : Sleep Well Beast -  The National This is our third visit with The National - I liked their early stuff but feel they somewhat lost their way after that, although the two visits from '23 were certainly listenable enough. I don't believe I've ever listened to this one, so am intrigued as to what I make of it. Yeah, this is pretty decent - it was the laid-back National sound that I like, but it has a load of interesting twiddly bits layered on top of it. It very much hit on first listen but also suggested that multiple listens would reveal more hidden jewels - and I would actually like to give it multiple listens (but obviously I'll report back in my end-of-year write-up that I've totally failed to manage to do so). We're at a somewhat surprising #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a five week run - this has been their only album to make it to the top (so far, at least). The re...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 27/03/26 : Arirang - BTS  How do BTS let you know that one of One Direction called? Yup - Arirang.... I've met the lads a couple of times and found them interesting without being a-maze-ing - but let's see what we're got here after their recent hiatus. Hmmm. Yeah, I guess it's interesting in parts but the first half just sounded like some people who've been away and they wanna stay down with the kids. But I, probably to your surprise, am not down with the kids so I get it was all just a bit try-hard and not that great as a a result. And the second half was just wishy-washy and boring - I didn't hate it, but I really didn't love it either. We are, somewhat to my surprise, at #1 in the charts this week with a new entry - do that many people over here really love them that much? (I guess the answer is - yes, they do). The rest of the top five are  Harry Styles ,  Olivia Dean  (her first time out of the...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 22/09/17 : Concrete And Gold -  Foo Fighters Our seventh visit with the Foos and, although my last visit was probably my favourite, my expectations are pretty low here - but you never know! Actually, I didn't mind this at all - the tracks are all well crafted (which is generally the case, even for tracks I don't like) and there's enough variety across the album to keep me engaged enough, although I wouldn't claim too much of it stuck in there on first listen. I'll be interested to see whether the proper Foo fans liked it because it wasn't as rocky as I was expecting, but I thought it was all decent enough (if unlikely to get a revisit). We're at #1 with a new entry this week - either our fifth in a row or our eleventh in a row if you include  George Michael  as a "new" entry. It hung around for a somewhat surprising 19 weeks (which suggests word of mouth reviews were positive) and the rest of t...