I will haunt you 'til you're lying still
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
21.03.01 : Ruby Red - Suzanne Santo (2017)
Never heard of album or artist, but I was hoping for a singer songwriter, because that's pretty much up my street. And yes, that's what we've got here - I liked this. Good songs, good lyrics - it reminded me of Jenny Lewis who I have a lot of time for. She has an amusingly bitter and twisted outlook on life - I think a man might have done her wrong (and it feels like he must have been either very brave or very foolish).
The channel gave this three thumbs up but no comments. Wikipedia has nothing on the album or the artist, other than a brief mention that she's half of honeyhoney and a musician/model/actress. A brief sympathy Google tells us she's 36, born in Cleveland and that's about it - it feels like a bit of work on the self-promotion front wouldn't go amiss.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people that I'm not in the slightest bit surprised I've never heard of. But this was a fine introduction - I'll listen to this again.
21.03.02 : Hail To The Thief - Radiohead (2003)
I'm not a huge fan of Radiohead post OK Computer, but this is the one that the people that don't love Kid A claim as their best album from their "interesting" period. And it's one I've never even attempted to listen to, so let's see what I think (I'm not expecting to like it though). But actually, I didn't mind it - it's still a bit of a challenging listen in places, but not as bad as some of their other later stuff for my sensitive ears. And I actually liked "Where I End And You Begin", "I Will" and "Scatterbrain". Will I ever listen to it again instead of The Bends or OK Computer? No, of course I won't - but if I'm ever forced under threat of death (or worse) to pick a third best Radiohead album, then it's certainly in contention. I also like the album cover as well - although I suspect it's trying to tell me something which I'm just not getting.
The channel gave this three hands up, five thumbs up, two heart eyes and a lot of discussion about where this fitted in to the ranking of Radiohead albums. It also turns out that the channel contains the one person in the world that likes Pablo Honey - I wasn't expecting that. Wikipedia has a huge amount on the album (294 milliPeppers) - as you can probably imagine, a lot of it is extremely earnest and introspective. But basically, the album was well received both critically and commercially - #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. The biggest critics were probably the band themselves who thought it was all a bit rushed and should have been pruned down. And apparently, the album cover is a roadmap of Hollywood featuring words taken from roadside advertising seen around LA - I'm not sure I'd have guessed that.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I'd never heard of, which somewhat surprised me. I liked this more than I was expecting, but it's still not their best offering imho (although I think that's quite a high bar to be aiming for)
21.03.03 : Adlestrop - Gilroy Mere (2020)
No idea about this one - I'm not even sure whether Gilroy Mere is a name, a place or what, so I'm going in completely blind. And hmmm - it's fine, but a bit insubstantial for my liking. It just kinda drifted past me and before I'd noticed, it was gone. Not hateful, but not really anything.
The channel gave this seven thumbs up and some very positive comments. Wikipedia has nothing on the album or artist again, but does mention it in passing on the entry for the poem "Adlestrop" which is used on the album and informs me that the album is "themed around rural train stations that were closed in the 1960s" (and, to be honest, I'm ashamed I didn't pick this up). A quick sympathy Google tells me that Gilroy's real name is Oliver Charer, whilst making this album he visited a load of shut down railway stations and he's also made an album about buses (which I will not be searching out).
"Customers also listened to" "no similar recommendations" - which doesn't happen often, but I'd have to say I'm not completely surprised it happened here. An odd one in my book.
So whilst the Radiohead offering was better than expected, I don't think they need the additional fame (and they won two rounds of the Rolling Stone exercise) so let's give this one to Suzanne who I will be checking out some more, so thanks for that recommendation.
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