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Maypoles themselves go back in this country at least to, er, 1400

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  As I come to the end of my time with 2017 album charts, I've been having a dig around various sites to see what decent albums the charts were in no danger of presenting to me - and I noticed that The Guardian did a year-end top 50 albums , which I've written up for the past five years now. So it would seem rude not to start another list - even though, in order to complete it before I get to the end of '17, I'm going to have to do three albums a day, which may prove to be a challenge.. #50 :  Ladilikan -  Trio Da Kali and Kronos Quartet The Malian group and the San Francisco-based quartet came together for this adventurous collaboration, which blends experimental western strings with African traditional sounds. Trio Da Kali specialise in west African griot-style music, but on Ladilikan they spread their wings, inspired by gospel singer Mahalia Jackson on a reworked God Shall Wipe All Tears Away. I never like African style music (and yes, I realise this is a massive ove...
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Come on - dance away the heartbreak

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 28/04/17 : Tears On The Dancefloor - Steps I can't claim to be Steps' biggest fan, but I'm actually quite pleased to see a bit of cheese this year - we've been surprisingly Stilton free. Yeah, this is pretty cheesy, but it's well done cheese. They're definitely going for an ABBA vibe and I've got absolutely no problems in saying they do a pretty decent job with it - no, none of it screams musical genius but if you just want a bit of fun with a dancefloor beat then this may hit the spot nicely for you. Or you may well hate it, but I think it's safe to say no-one is going to be surprised this. I'm obviously never going to listen to it again, but it does exactly what's expected of it and I don't have any problems understanding why people would listen to it. We're at #2 with a new entry on the start of an eleven week run, which is amusingly exactly the same as Gorillaz managed and that...
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I switched my robot off

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 05/05/17 : Humanz - Gorillaz Repeating the theme from the last album, we have another fifth visit to a group of whom I like their best material, but struggle to understand the overall appeal. However, Gorillaz have the added disadvantage that they absolutely bored me stupid when I saw them live at Glastonbury, whereas Kasabian were reasonably entertaining - so my expectations are not high for this. Hmmm - it's an interesting one. On a track by track basis, this easily exceeded expectations - they're all well put together with some interesting sounds (but no, Damon singing does not fall into this category). But, as an album, it's such a kitchen-sinky mish-mash (it's a technical term) that I really struggle to see who would be interested in this - and I also struggle to understand how they don't have the phrase "cultural appropriation" thrown at them. So, I liked it - but I also didn't, which feels a...
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You're telling me about this, I tell you about about that

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 12/05/17 : For Crying Out Loud -  Kasabian Our fifth visit with Kasabian - who expected that? It's fair to say my expectations are not high for this period Kasabian, but I'm happy to give it a go... Hmmm - I guess it's OK if you like that general Kasabian sound, but just not quite as good as their best stuff. It's all performed well enough though and does have a lovely clean production to it, so I guess it might be a grower - but there's no danger of me giving it a chance. I've no idea what they were thinking with the album cover though - it screams Year 8 PowerPoint presentation to me. We're at #1 with a new entry in the charts this week on the start of a surprisingly lengthy 23 week run - I'm somewhat amazed to see they've have SEVEN #1 albums, so we can expect to see them again at some point. The rest of the top five were  Ed Sheeran ,  Rag'n'Bone Man , Blondie (a new entry) and Gorill...
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That night we met, I can't forget - we talked until the morning

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Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 17/04/26 : We Will Always Be The Way We Were - Jack Savoretti  We've met Jack once before and I declared his songs to be   "desperately uncool...laid-back Euro-lounge-singer kinda stuff" (which surprisingly got to #1) , so I can't say my expectations are massive here. Hmmm - I feel he's got more of a 70's retro style going on here. The songs are decent enough and they're performed well, but I'm really unclear as to who on earth who be interested in this. And that's all I've got to say really - it's not unpleasant but it's completely mystifying. And I'm further mystified because we're at #2 with a new entry in the chart this week with the rest of the top five being  Olivia Dean  (her eighth week at the top),  Raye , Holly Humberstone (another new entry) and  BTS  (that's hanging around a lot better than I expected, pushing  Harry  down to #6). And after the last two...
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I hear you makin' all that noise about the world you want to see

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 19/05/17 : After Laughter -   Paramore Our second visit with Paramore and I really quite liked the last one, so I'm looking forward to this. Yeah - I liked this. It has the same bouncy indie-pop vibe of our previous visit but this seems more lyrically upbeat - it's all got a slight weird reggae-ish beat to it which takes a bit of getting used to, but all in all I'd say it works quite well. I was strongly reminded of the MUNA album  which I really like, so I suspect they must have been listening to Paramore in their formative years.  We're at #4 with a new entry in the charts this week on the start of a ten week run, which pleasingly features a drop in every week - and they followed it up a month later with a three week run, all of which were spent at #91. The rest of the top five were Harry Styles (a new entry),  Ed Sheeran ,  Rag'n'Bone Man  and Paul Weller (another new entry) with the next highest new...
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You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky

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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 26/05/17 : Harry Styles -   Harry Styles Our fourth visit with Mr Styles brings us back to where it all started (after it all had ended) - I'm not sure I've ever listened to the album but I suspect I've heard most of it over the years because the lovely Mrs Reed is quite the fan of Harry. With the benefit of hindsight, this "just" sounds like a Harry Styles album but, given his solo success wasn't a sure thing at the time, I suspect the slightly quirky, downbeat tempo, retro nature of a lot of it was probably quite a bold move. There's no danger of me actively seeking it out again, but I didn't mind it at all because I think it sounds like quite a mature album and there's a decent amount of variety. I also have to admit that I positively like "Sign Of The Times" but I always forget that it's Harry. We're at #2 in the charts this week on his second week of a 37 week run, which ...
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