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Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 20/01/17 : I See You - The XX Our second visit with The XX - again! I listened to this about a week ago as part of The Guardian's list before I realised I was going to meet it as part of this list, so had to rewrite that post - but fortunately I kept the text to be reused now, so this will be a quick one! And basically I liked it - it's got the dreamy XX kinda sound which just drifts past you, but it's not quite insignificant enough to be ignored. And I think that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter - it won't be for everyone, but it worked well for me. We're at a somewhat surprising #1 in the charts this week on the start of a fifteen week run. The rest of the top five were  La La Land ,  Little Mix , a George Michael best-of and Bonobo (a new entry) and we have two more new entries in the top ten for Rick Wakeman (#7 - which seems surprisingly high) and Wiley (#9).  Wikipedia tells us it was ove...

Continuing my trip up  The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017 . #8 : Drunk  - Thundercat When the world outside is weird, let’s hear it for an album that processes it with absurdist humour and George Clinton-shaped surrealism. Drunk is the third release by LA jazz dude Steve Bruner, AKA Thundercat, and has finally taken him from being a kooky bass-playing Robin to super-producer Flying Lotus’s Batman all the way to headline solo artist and one of this year’s breakthrough names. Our third visit with Thundercat and my opinion has gone all the way from "mediocre 70s funk" to "reasonably skilful mediocre 70s funk" - will the upward trend continue? Nope - but it doesn't get any worse either. There is indeed plenty of skill involved but I just don't see why anyone would want to listen to it. It does have a George Clinton shape to it, but it's merged with Shalamar and Christopher Cross to make some kind of smoothie-yachty-funky thang. And who wants that? It...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 27/01/17 : Return To Ommadawn - Mike Oldfield Our third visit with Mike and it's fair to say I've not been all that impressed with our previous visits - I just don't see the point to Tubular Bells and, considering the fact that this is two twenty-plus minute tracks, I believe this will be in a similar vein, which doesn't fill me with confidence. Ah yes - this is very much in the same vein with a pretty decent musical hook which he then plays around with to greater and lesser effects. However, whilst I'm not going to get all gushy about this, I do have to admit that he's less wedded to the hook here than he is on Tubular Bells and he's also less concerned about doing weird stuff obviously different from the hook - both of which are to the album's credit. It also some lovely clear production on it - it sounded absolutely gorgeous in places. So it was definitely better than expected, but there's no...

Continuing my trip up  The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017 . #11 :  Modern Kosmology - Jane Weaver Icily clear vocals provide a satisfying foil to the spacey psych-revivalism of Liverpool-born singer’s newest album – the latest chapter in a three-decade career that has taken in Britpop and folktronica. Modern Kosmology is at once earthbound and otherworldly, with mesmerising vocals balancing on a whirring undercurrent of steadily throbbing synths. Only the second ever mention for Ms Weaver, so I only have what's above to go on - and it's safe to say it doesn't really help. Hmmm - Goldfrapp or Roisin Murphy would probably be as good a ballpark comparison as anything, I guess. With the exception of "Ravenspoint" (which I REALLY didn't like), it's all bearable and I'd even go as far as saying I liked "I Wish", but a whole album of it was just a bit boring really - it was all very underwhelming and I've no real clue what this is doing a...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 03/02/17 : Glory Days - Little Mix Our fourth visit with them Mixers and I've generally been positive about their output - and I've no reason to imagine that will change here.  It opens with "Shout Out To My Ex" (which is totally not about Zayn, obviously) and "Touch" which were strong singles - "Power" was the only other track I recognised, but the rest of the album continues with a similar female power/solidarity message presented in a well-done, radio-friendly manner, with enough variety across the album to stop it getting too repetitive. Like many albums we've seen on the list, it's really not aimed at me - but as a girl parent, there are far worse things they could have been listening to.  We're at #3 in the charts this week on their eleventh week on the start of an impressive 133 week run with it having peaked at #1 in weeks 1-2 and 6-8 and it was back again several times in ...

Continuing my trip up  The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017 . #14 :  Common Sense - J Hus This was a bumper year for J Hus, who reached the Top 10 thanks to an irresistible blend of grime and Afrobeats. As Common Sense proves, it’s not just his infectious take on African sounds that have propelled the London rapper into the big league – it’s also his witty, inventive and refreshingly self-deprecating lyrics. Our third visit with J Hus - I enjoyed the first but merely admired the second, but at least I'm not expecting to hate this one. Yeah, it's certainly not a hate, but it's not quite a like either. There's a load of variety here and some amusing lyrics - he doesn't take himself too seriously and there's certainly intelligence involved. It's not aimed at me and there's loads of it that went over my head, but it at least kept me interested. Wikipedia tells us this is his debut album and he uses quite a few guest artists - most of whom I've never...