Bigger than Jim Colosimo - more reservoir dogs than Tarantino

Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...

20.03.30 : Permission To Land - The Darkness (2003)

I remember this album quite well - not because I listened to it often, but because I didn't listen to it all.  Despite liking "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" I knew there was little danger of me liking the rest of the album, so I never went there.  And so, having finally listened to it after 18 years, am I going to announce that I've realised the error of my ways and it's actually a great album?  Am I bollocks - it's not my thing at all.  I don't consider them a joke band - they do that thing they do well, but I'd just prefer them not to do it, thank you very much.  Although, unfortunately they did become a bit of a joke band after Justin ate all the pies (and drank all the beer to go along with the pies) and still tried to fit into his skinny catsuits - that was not a pretty sight.  I still like "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" though - it's a fine track with some excellent falsetto vocals and fine axework.  The channel's opinion is that this is a "fun" album and I'm happy for us all to take our fun where we find it - but you're welcome to this particular fun-sized package.  It brought 2 people to the channel though - there's no accounting for tastes!

Wikipedia tells me that "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" made it to #2 in the charts, which is my favourite chart position because it allows me to investigate what terrible track kept it off the top - in this case it was "Where Is The Love" by The Black-Eyed Peas, which isn't a terrible track but it's somewhat mystifying that it was in the middle of a 6 week run at #1.  I remember that "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" also peaked at #2, kept off the top by "Mad World" by Gary Jules and The Darkness were amusingly pissed off by the whole thing.  The album did make it to #1 though - and also won the Best British Album Brit Award for that year, which I'd completely blanked from my mind.  It also got to #36 in the US, so it was a decent enough global success for them and they invested the proceeds wisely - in pies, it appeared.  And yes, as those of you that know me can testify, I'm definitely throwing stones from my glass house here.

"Customers also listened to" Franz Ferdinand, Killers, Weezer, The White Stripes and MIA - which is a somewhat eclectic mix and no mistake.  But no, it's not for me, I'm afraid.

20.03.31 : Psyence Fiction - UNKLE (1998)

I vaguely remember liking UNKLE from back in the day (although I didn't realise it was quite as long ago as 23 years ago) but couldn't remember having ever listened to an album.  And I generally liked it - it reminded me of DJ Shadow and David Holmes (and that was before I learned that DJ Shadow was in the band at the time and wrote most of the songs).  There are some annoying noises in places, but you have to accept that comes with the territory and they never get too unbearable.  I liked "Celestial Annihilation" with its lovely strings, "Lonely Soul" with Richard Ashcroft's voice working very well, "Rabbit In The Headlights" with Thom doing the business and "Be There" with Ian Brown on the mic - I was less convinced by Badly Drawn Boy's contribution to "Nursery Rhyme/Breathe" though.   And I actively didn't like "Chaos" - too insubstantial for my liking, particularly given the surrounding tracks.  The comments in the channel were generally positive, although it did turn into a bit of a DJ Shadow love-in.  And it also resulted in one person leaving the channel, so he definitely wasn't a fan.

Wikipedia tells me that Alice Temple who provides the vocals on "Bloodstain" is "notable for having been the first female UK and European BMX champion" - admit it, you didn't know that.  It also, quite frankly, amazes me by informing me that the "Ball Buster" advert featured in "Getting Ahead..." is real - the 70s in the UK really were a very strange time.  I was also somewhat amazed to see it got to #4 in the UK - I didn't remember it having done that well commercially.  It wasn't a huge success with the critics - it feels like it was a victim of its own hype, but their views have softened over time and personally it doesn't feel like it's aged too badly to me.

"Customers also listened to" DJ Shadow (nobody expected that), Lamb, Tricky and Massive Attack - in the same ballpark, I guess but not quite the same (except for DJ Shadow, obviously).  Overall, I enjoyed this and was pleased to catch up with it - I count it as a miss on my part from back in the day.

20.04.01 : Greatest Hits - Black Lab (2013)

Never heard of them (so was a bit surprised to be listening to a greatest hits album) and the name doesn't really give you too many things clues as to what you're going to get, so going in blind again.  And I wasn't entirely smitten at first listen, but it's certainly not dreadful and there's something in there.  However, I'm not convinced there's enough in there for them to stand out from a very crowded field for me - with the songs being nice enough in isolation, but somewhat blurring together in album form.  Other artists that sprang to mind for me were Alanis Morissette (but a slightly less bitter male version), The Frames (and that reminds me I really don't listen to The Frames often enough) and Longview (and it took me AGES to drag their name from the outer reaches of my memory).  The channel was pretty mute on the album - "nice easy listening" is pretty much the extent of the views but it did cause one person to run away screaming.  It also mentions that Your Body Above Me was actually the album of choice but it's not available on streaming - but it actually is available on Amazon (and usually it's Amazon that things aren't available on, so I was quite surprised).

Wikipedia doesn't even acknowledge the presence of a greatest hits album - but it does tell us there have been 6 Black Lab albums over the years, so they've put the hard graft in to earn their shot at a greatest hits.  They've done OK on soundtracks - "This Night" alone has been used on The Shield, House MD and Banshee (and if you've never seen Banshee, then you've missed some slightly violent fight scenes, I can tell you.  And Black Lab on the soundtrack as well, apparently).  One final internet based comment on Black Lab - at first glance, you'd imagine it's a fine name for internet searches and then you try and search for them and all that comes back is information on black labradors.  "Ah, ha!" you think "Black Lab group will do it" - and then you find there's a company called "Black Lab Group".  Sigh.

"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've never heard of - and I scrolled a long way down and there wasn't a single flicker of recognition.  Not one.  And whilst I didn't hate this, I'm pretty certain that in no time I won't be getting a flicker of recognition at the name Black Lab either - there just wasn't enough there to drag me back.

A third easy win in a row then - this time for UNKLE, which I generally liked a lot.

20.03.25 - Three artists I've never heard of
20.04.02 - A whole lot of ignorance on display