scaryblog

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 31/07/26 : Music, Fashion, Film - Charli XCX  Our fourth visit with Charli and our second this year and I'm expecting this to be the usual well put together likeable, whilst not entirely loveable, stuff. And yeah, that's where we are. It's a bit more backward looking and old school than I was expecting, but the girl certainly knows how to put a choon together. My only other comment would be that nothing really jumped out at me on first listen - so "likeable, but not entirely loveable" is a very fair comment. We're at #1 with a new entry in the charts this week which makes her the first British female artist ever to have two #1 albums in the same year. The rest of the top five are Michael Jackson, Olivia Rodrigo , Snow Patrol (a re-entry) and Olivia Dean  - the ladies are definitely winning the charts at the minute, with Sienna Spiro also doing well to hang in there at #6. So what other new entries ha...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 10/10/71 : Second Album - Curved Air This is only the third ever mention of Curved Air - both previous ones came on entries for Focus albums which were most peculiar things, so that pretty much sets the scene for some 70s weirdness. I believe they're viewed as pretty important these days though, so I'm slightly intrigued as to what I'm getting. Yup - it's pretty intriguing, if only because it features a WOMAN! How very enlightened for the world of prog. And it is very proggy, but it doesn't feel like your standard prog - partially because of the presence of the female vocals from Sonja Kristina but also, for me, because it doesn't seem to be taking itself quite so seriously. I liked this a lot more than I was expecting - I'd struggle to argue that it's not a load of old nonsense, but it is at least an interesting pile of old nonsense. I can also imagine it inspired quite a few artists across multiple...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 17/10/71 : Surrender - Diana Ross Our third solo visit with Diana (along with two Supremes visits) and what you get with Diana is very dependent upon the year in question - and I've absolutely no idea what sort of stuff she was doing at this time. I'm sure it will be done well, but whether I actually like it is very uncertain - it's nice to see an album featuring a named woman on it though (our first of the year). Hmmm. Double hmmm. This is a curious one. There's no doubting Diana's got skills, but this album very much does not show them off. Both the recording quality and the sound levels of the various instruments are really remarkably poor - I'd have guessed this was a mid 60s album if I didn't know better (particularly when you consider how decent some of the production has been on albums this year). And the songs are also decidedly average, with the exception of "I'm Still Waiting" (wh...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 24/10/71 : Fireball - Deep Purple Our second visit with Deep Purple and whilst I didn't love the last one , I could appreciate the skill involved and they sounded like they were enjoying themselves, so let's hope for more of the same here. Yeah - that's pretty much where we are. I'd certainly struggle to say I loved it and it's definitely dated, but there's plenty of skill on display along with more variety than I was expecting - I suspect there are plenty of gentlemen slightly older than myself that are instantly transported back many, many years when they hear the opening bars. I'm very unconvinced by the album cover though - but I imagine it fitted in well at the time. We're all the way down at #13 in the charts this week on their seventh week of a 24 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its second week. The top five this week were  John Lennon  (a new entry, which is rare in these times),  Ro...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 31/10/71 : Fog On The Tyne - Lindisfarne I know Lindisfarne were around for ages (are they still around?) but my only exposure to them that I'm aware of is the re-release of this album's title track with Gazza - so I think I can be forgiven for actively avoiding their other work in case it's just as bad. But it can't be that dreadful - can it? Hmmm. For the most part, it's not dreadful at all - it's in the traditional English folk style (whilst also reminding me of American folk in places) and the songs are mostly unremarkable, but pleasant enough with some interesting musical twiddles in places. And the playing is fine enough, but also pretty unremarkable - it has a strong local pub band feel to it and I reckon they'd be fun to catch there. However, what is remarkable is that, at times, the lead singer is so far away from any note (let alone the note he's trying to hit) that you just cringe - it...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 24/07/26 : Daughter From Hell - Gracie Abrams  Our second visit with Gracie and last time I quite liked her, despite her being very similar to one Ms Swift, who's never quite managed to cut through with me. And we're very much in the same place here - it's very Taylor-ish (she's obviously been having relationship issues) but, somehow, for me, just a bit better. I'm not sure I needed 56 minutes of it, but she's got a nice voice and there are decent tracks on here, most of which are written by her and Aaron Dessner (does that man have any time to spend on The National these days?) and they hang together reasonably well as an album. It's not going to be one I revisit, but I can imagine plenty of younger, femaler people will. We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week - her second #1 and her third top three album, which is a decent effort from the lass. The rest of the top five are Michael...