This is the day in the life of a geezer
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
20.08.04 : Anthem - Less Than Jake (2003)
Another album I knew nothing about - but surprisingly that's in the minority for this round! I spent some time wondering whether the artist was "Less Than Jake" or "Less Than" Jake - and then decided I'd probably be better off just listening to it. And yeah, I didn't mind it at all - it's not earth-shattering but the tracks barrel through their toe-tapping verse-chorus structure nicely and they also sound like they're having a fun time. Gin Blossoms were the obvious musical similarity for me, but there's a bit of Green Day in there as well - so no complaints from me here!
The channel had a load of random reaction emojis and then a mid-life crisis from the person lined up to pick tomorrow's album. Wikipedia has a surprising amount on the album but very little of actual interest, although I did chuckle at this - "Their main motivation for recording in New Orleans was partially due to the recording budget they had, and Cavallo's (the producer's) interest in a restaurant in the area". The album did pretty well commercially though, getting to #45 in the US charts.
"Customers also listened to" Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish and Big D And The Kids Table - none of whom I can tell you the slightest thing about. This album was a pleasant find though - I enjoyed tapping my toes to it.
20.08.05 : OK Cowboy - Vitalic (2005)
Somewhat surprisingly, I actually own this album - I think it was bought on a whim because I quite liked the cover, but I remember enjoying it. However, I've not revisited it in a looong time, so was pleased to be reminded to do so. And yeah, I enjoyed going back to it - although I'll be the first to admit that if I was coming to it for the first time, there's every possibility I'd have dismissed it as a bleepy mess. Life's just not fair you know though, so deal with it!
The channel was very positive about this, from a position of complete ignorance in a few cases. It also reiterated how good M83 was from a couple of days ago as people caught up! Wikipedia has remarkably little to say about the album other than noting it was given gold status by some random organisation recognising sales of 75,000 across Europe 7 years after it was released, which suggests it didn't exactly sell by the bucketload, which makes it somewhat surprising that I own it!
"Customers also listened to" a load of people who look extremely French - and I suspect there's a good reason for that. But I really enjoyed revisiting this - it's a fine album indeed.
20.08.04 : Original Pirate Material - The Streets (2002)
And another album I own - what's the world coming to? I remember loving a few tracks on it but not being quite keen enough on the album to revisit it often (and particularly after A Grand Don't Come For Free came out, which I think is a fine and under-rated album). So again, I was pleased to be reminded to revisit this. And yeah, I enjoyed it - particularly the title track, "The Irony Of It All" and "Let's Push Things Forward". He has an interesting vocal style, delivering relatable and humorous content with an odd mix of sounds and styles in his songs which somehow hang together nicely. And it's got a cool album cover to boot!
The channel really liked this album (and AGDCFF as well!) - lots of positive comments. Wikipedia has a fair bit on the album, mostly praising the lyrical content - the critics LOVED this album. It did pretty well commercially as well - getting to #12 in the UK in the year of released and #10 two years later (presumably as people caught up with AGDCFF). It also mentions the fact that the lyrics were recorded in Mike Skinner's wardrobe, which seems a very UK garage version of Dave Grohl's garage that we had last time.
"Customers also listened to" Roots Manuva, Dizzee Rascal and The Mitchell Brothers (which made me chuckle because I immediately imagined those Mitchell Brothers producing some crap UK garage). I like this album and was pleased to revisit it (but I still prefer AGDCFF).
Another selection of albums from a narrow period of time and I'm struggling to decide between them. Less Than Jake suffer in comparison for me because of a lack of familiarity, but the other two are both good and so different - how am I supposed to split them? So I won't and will declare it an honourable tie - but The Streets get the blog post title lyrics because there's just so many more lyrics there to choose from!
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