scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 28/03/71 : Elton John - Elton John Well, this is a bit of a surprise with our seventh visit with Elton coming one week after our previous visit - I'm expecting this to be pretty enjoyable in the same vein. Yeah - he really hit the ground running in those early days with another very decent set of heartfelt songs showing a good amount of variety across the album. It opens up with "Your Song" which is up there with his very finest and I was also vaguely aware of "Border Song" because me and the lovely Mrs Reed saw him play it live on his farewell tour  - I didn't know any of the others but still found them enjoyable. Once again, this is an album which hits on first listen but is also going to grow on you with multiple visits - it's a very accomplished piece of work. We're at #11 in the charts this week on his ninth week of a thirteen week run with it having peaked at #5 in its fifth week - this wa...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 11/09/26 : Act III  - Kasabian  Our sixth visit with Kasabian (the 35th artist to reach this milestone) and it's their eighth #1, so they haven't finished with us yet - I suspect it will be fine if you like that sort of thing, but I only ever really go as far as not minding it. Yeah, I don't mind it and I'm sure Kasabianites will love it (although I suspect some might consider whether they absolutely need it in their lives), but I really struggle to see it's going to get them any new fans. And I think that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter - you're welcome to it if you want it, but there's absolutely no chance of me revisiting it. As previously stated, we're at #1 in the charts this week with a new entry and the rest of the top five are Adela (another new entry),  Olivia Rodrigo , Michael Jackson and President (another new entry) - and boy do we have a load of new entries for you...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 04/04/71 : Tumbleweed Connection - Elton John Our sixth visit with Elton but we've met a few of his from around this time which were pretty decent, so I have reasonable hopes for this. Yeah - there's nothing wrong with this in the slightest. It's decent songs from Elton and Bernie, which are all played well and showing enough variety across the album to keep you engaged. It doesn't have any of his generally recognised top tunes on it, but it exudes a similar level of quality and feels like multiple listens wouldn't get dull. We're at #13 in the charts this week on his thirteenth week of an eighteen week run, with it having peaked at #2 for its seventh to ninth weeks. The top five this week were Andy Williams (his second of two weeks at the top, but that's not enough to tempt me to investigate it),  Jimi Hendrix ,  Simon & Garfunkel , and Jethro Tull  and a Burt Bacharach compilation with the highest ...

One I have no clue about at all... No Place Like Home (1991) I believe this features yet another stylistic swerve, but have absolutely no idea which direction it takes. 1. We're Not In Kansas Hmmm. There's a germ of a song (or several) in there but it's not really full formed - it features weird lyrics and tempo changes for no obvious reason. It's also not very well produced with the guitars distractingly high in the mix. Overall - would not recommend. 2. Republican Party Reptile Whereas this has a weird ZZ Top feel to it - were they actively trying to drive their fans away? 3. Dynamite Lady At least this has hints of Big Country to it, but it's definitely lacking the passion of their earlier work - it's very much done by the numbers. 4. Keep On Dreaming Well, at least we continue to head in the right direction - but we ain't there yet! 5. Beautiful People This is weirdly stompy almost country with some dreadful lyrics. Under any other circumstances, I would...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 11/04/71 : Death Walks Behind You - Atomic Rooster So who expected us to see two albums from Atomic Rooster this year? Last time I was pleasantly surprised - here's hoping for more of the same. Yeah, I quite liked this despite it not really being my sort of thing. It's "heavy prog" with some serious guitar and Hammond organ riffs, with some proper skills on display. It acts as a nice bridge between prog and rock and it makes me somewhat surprised that Atomic Rooster aren't really talked about these days - maybe it's a longevity thing? In this guise anyway, because the band are still going, but all the people who played on this album are no longer with us - if you like a bit of Deep Purple or Led Zep and aren't aware of this, then maybe check it out. We're at #12 in the charts this week on their third week of a seven week run with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Motown Cha...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 18/04/71 : If Only I Could Remember My Name - David Crosby So we've had Stills (decent enough) and Nash (better) earlier this year, so it's only fair we give Crosby a listen - and yes, we've obviously already met Young  (surprisingly decent) because Rolling Stone LOVE him. So let's see how Dave does... Oh dear - it starts with a very wishy-washy number and then follows it up with an 8:11 track which goes on far too loooong. And, yeah, I think "unstructured" is probably a reasonable description for everything here - it just sounds like he wandered into the studio and went "today I'm gonna strum along and sing "doo doo doo" and see what happens". I wouldn't say it's dreadful (and there are some very interesting, almost choral harmonics in places) but it does feel like it could have been a helluva lot better if he'd just put some thought into it. I also have to say that...