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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...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 10/02/17 : La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists I remember enjoying the film and that the songs seemed to work well within it, without really remembering any of the details - so it will be interesting to see how this works out. Amusingly, two bars into "Another Day Of Sun", I'm immediately remembering the film intro which was really well done.  With the exception of "City Of Stars" (which I like, but I'm not sure I needed three versions of it), the rest of the album didn't jog many memories (although it did remind me John Legend was in the film, which I'd completely forgotten) but I did recall the general vibe of things - which, for me, was just a little too jazzy to enjoy a full album of. But I do have to agree it's not all jazz and it's all done pretty well so it did make me think I should watch the film again. The only other thing I have to say is that, hav...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 17/02/17 : Little Fictions - Elbow For a band that have had four #1 albums and eight top ten albums, it's somewhat surprising that this is only our second visit with the lads - I've also seen them live a couple of times and they don't make the grade either! I have listened to this though - I remember quite liking it, but also remember it not being exactly essential (particularly within the context of Elbow having already made a load of great tracks).  Yeah, I think that's fair enough, but I also feel the need to say the tracks on this are still pretty decent - particularly "Magnificent (She Says)" which is a fine opening track. I'm still not convinced I'd describe it as essential, but it's certainly worth a listen or two. We're at #2 in the charts this week on their second week of a twelve week run with it having debuted at #1 in its debut week. The rest of the top five were  Rag'n'...

Continuing my trip up  The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017 . #17 :  More Life - Drake Very much not an album, according to Drake – instead this “playlist” gave him an opportunity to show off his taste by teaming up with his favourite artists. Baritone London rapper Giggs makes multiple appearances, as does silky-voiced Brum singer Jorja Smith. Thanks to solo tracks like Passionfruit, More Life is also proof that Drake’s tropical-tinged blend of rap and R&B is as seductive as ever. If Drake says it's not an album, I'm happy to take his word for it - so this doesn't count, right? Either way, it doesn't matter because we've already met it . #16 :  Pure Comedy - Father John Misty Ever since his 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear, Josh Tillman’s wry surveys of contemporary America have felt increasingly indispensable. Clever, funny and usually despairing, his scabrous social commentary takes on a less arch and more heartfelt tone here, with acidic lyrics cushione...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 01/05/26 : The Great Divide - Noah Kahan  Our second visit with Noah and this is one I think I've heard most of over the last week thanks to my youngest who is, it's fair to say, quite the fan. My first impressions are that it's all a bit samey, but let's see what a proper listen brings.  Hmmm - a bit samey feels a bit harsh, so I guess it's more than possible that my daughter was just playing the tracks she likes which all happen to be of a certain type. It is, however, generally more downbeat than Stick Season and not obviously graced with the instant hits of that album, but I do feel that multiple listens (like someone in the house has given it) could result in some tracks settling in there more than others. And it would, in my opinion, benefit from losing some tracks - the standard album is 17 tracks/77 minutes and the deluxe version (which is surprisingly already out) is 21 tracks/96 minutes.  My other...