Ride around the wreckage on a horse knee-deep in blood
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
21.03.30 : Shotters Nation : Babyshambles (2007)
Oh dear - this is REALLY gonna have to go some to convert me because I was "lucky" enough to experience Babyshambles at Glastonbury and let's just say I have not been left with fond memories of the experience. But, having approached it with caution, I actually didn't overly mind the album - it reminded me of The Kinks (whilst they were in their bearable 60s phase - not this version). And Pete's certainly been listening to his early Arctic Monkey albums as well, which is never a bad thing. But I still can't forgive them for the Glasto experience though.
The channel gave this three thumbs up and then had a bizarre conversation as to whether he was or wasn't Northern - concluding he wasn't. Wikipedia confirms he was born in Northumberland, but lived all over because his dad was in the army - so I'm not sure who was right! He did manage to entice two new joiners to the channel though. Wikipedia has a collection of random unconnected sentences on the album - but it tells us it got to #5 in the UK, which feels somewhat generous on the album to me. Pete's entry features the following poignant snapshot from an interview where he claimed he'd like to be off the drugs - "I’d be a force to be reckoned with! I’d have money and self-respect and clean hands". I can't help but feel that aspiring to have clean hands but being unable to achieve such a thing isn't a great state of affairs.
"Customers also listened to" The Libertines and Pete Doherty - The Libertines run away with the competition for me with the moderating (it's all relative) influence of Carl Barat playing an important part. Having said that, I found this album a lot more tolerable than expected - it's always possible my mood was improved because I wasn't forced to wait an hour in the rain before listening to it.
21.03.31 : Sunny Side Up : Paolo Nutini (2009)
I own and like the high points of Caustic Love with the rest of it kinda blurring together - so was expecting this to pretty much give me the same experience. And it kinda does, but it's interesting when you actually stop and listen to it because it it's got so many different components (reggae, country, R&B, folk - there's all sorts in there!) which are pretty expertly mixed to make an unusual sound - but you do need to listen to it! It feels like it would be easy for the mix to be have enough in there to annoy everyone, but it seems to have the opposite effect in that there's something in there for a lot of people to enjoy. It's a somewhat odd album cover though.
The channel gave this three blob-yesses (don't ask!), ten thumbs up of different colours, four saltires and one sun - I'd have to say the channel has been at the top of their emoji game recently. And there were also some positive comments as well. Wikipedia also features a load of positive comments (although I obviously like the one that describes the opening track as "jaunty enough to make you retch") - the critics and the public liked this a lot. It got to #1 in the UK twice and was the eighth best selling album of 2009 and the sixth best in 2010, so it hung around for quite some time (I'm guessing quite a few people heard it at dinner parties).
"Customers also listened to" James Morrison, Newton Faulkner, Aloe Blacc and Daniel Merriweather - all acts that haven't crossed my ears in a long time indeed (and I'm happy enough with that situation). But I enjoyed this album - maybe not quite as much as Caustic Love, but it's still a fine listen, if somewhat strange.
21.04.01 : Fear Fun : Father John Misty (2012)
Father John Misty is one of those artists I feel I should like, but I've yet to find the track or album that converts me - would this be the one? We didn't get off to a great start because bizarrely it's not on Amazon (all his other ones are) so I had to try to remember my Spotify password (I OBVIOUSLY failed and had to reset it). But after that, all was good because I really liked it - it was much less lo-fi than I remembered and he's got a great voice. I wouldn't say any one track jumped out at me, but that was because they were all pretty good - i'm definitely going to try and make an effort to revisit. I'm also intrigued as to what the album title actually means and it's certainly an "interesting" album cover as well.
The channel gave this nine thumbs up, a lot of positive comments and offered up the fact that he was previously the drummer in Fleet Foxes (which I wasn't aware of, but you can certainly hear it on some of the tracks). Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album, most of which relates to his somewhat tortured mental state at the time - apparently he hated the music he was making as J. Tillman (as he was when he started on this album) and struggled to find his way to this album and becoming Father John. I'd tell you more, but if I'm being honest, I didn't really follow his train of thought. He seems to be happy enough with the way things turned out though - although Wikipedia gives us no idea what the critics or the general public thought of it (I'm guessing the critics L-O-V-E-D it though).
I'm unable to tell you what "customers also listened to" because of its absence from Amazon - but I'm guessing Fleet Foxes will be in there. I liked this album and furthermore I was pleased to like it because I always thought I should like him but had never found an "in" - which I now have, so thank you.
So, definitely not Babyshambles but I liked the other two. It's tricky to compare them - they both have their time and place, so I'm going for an honourable tie. Father John has to have the lyrics though - there were quite a few on there that jumped out at me.
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