Don't need a vacation, I need a replacement
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
Well, well, well - this is a surprise. I've written about U2 in general and about The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby specifically, but never in a million years did I expect to see this as their first (and only, so far) album on the list - I remembered it being, well, not very good. And having revisited it, I'd struggle to argue with my previous opinion - "Vertigo" and "City Of Blinding Lights" are perfectly acceptable tracks, but the rest of it is just very insipid. As far as I can tell, it's the sound of a band quietly weeping as they half-heartedly musically masturbate to the sound of their former glories - without really knowing why they're bothering. I mean, I'd listen to Pop before I listened to this again (Pop's really not that bad, honest! well, not ALL bad, anyway)
So I'm very interested to see what the channel had to say on the matter (although I'm expecting them to be slightly more polite than me) - turns out it was mostly a polite silence with three thumbs up and one mildly controversial opinion that this is U2's best album, which was immediately disputed by the very person who'd offered it. Wikipedia has a massive 299 milliPeppers on the album, but that's not all that surprising given the amount of hot air Bono can create at the best of times. I'm afraid I only read as far as the bit where it said they spent 9 months recording stuff and then Steve Lillywhite spent another 6 months "reworking songs and encouraging better performances". Oh dear.
Everyone in the world disagreed with me though (obviously) with the critics loving it and it debuting at #1 in 34 countries, selling like a gazillion copies in the process. Oh well - I can't always (or ever) be right. "Customers also listened to" The Verve, REM, Simple Minds and INXS - some proper 80s/90s nostalgia going on there. But if you're going to go for 80s/90s nostalgia, can I suggest you listen to U2 from that era as well?
I am aware of Travis obviously - I'm SUCH a fan of all the Kardashians and their respective partners! And he's also popped up on various albums I've listened to, but I've never (as far as I know) listened to any of his albums, so was intrigued to do so but wasn't really expecting to like it. But actually, I didn't mind it at all - no idea how I'd describe it though. Hazy hip hop? Wikipedia goes for psychedelic rap - I see where they're coming from but it's not really very psychedelic, so it's not a great description. But he's obvious got some vocal skills and pairs them with some interesting noises, so I liked it much more than I was expecting.
The channel gave this one blue siren, two chilled parrots, two thumbs up and one positive comment. Wikipedia has a even more massive 309 milliPeppers on the album and it's surprisingly informative, with my favourite bit being that the album was supposed to sound like "taking an amusement park away from the kids" (I'm not entirely sure I picked that up on first listen). A lot of the entry is just involved with listing all the famous people involved in the album - it's quite an eclectic mix including The Weeknd, Stevie Wonder, James Blake, Phil Bailey, Tame Impala and a million others. The rest of it tells us how much the critics and public loved it, with it getting to #1 in the US but only #3 in the UK.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I vaguely recognise the names of, but couldn't tell you much about them. And the same is still true for Travis Scott, except that I now know there's one of his albums that I really didn't mind at all.
No idea about this one - I have heard of Quantic, but what it means when he/they? get together with a combo barbaro, I have no idea. And hmmm - it's more samba, which does seem to be a bit of a niche favourite of the channel. However, I'd have to say this one went down better with me than previous samba efforts, possibly because it has a bit more variety across the album - I can't say it's something I'd search out, but it was well done and they all sounded like they were having fun and were pretty skilled to boot.
The channel gave this eight nice1s, two thumbs up, one dancer and one positive comment. Wikipedia has nothing on the album, but it does have an entry for Will Holland aka Quantic and it tells me he's churned out 25 albums in the last 20 years under 10 different guises - he's a busy lad!
"Customers also listened to" Kid Loco, Baba Sissoko and Baba Zulu - well, I've heard of Kid Loco at least. And whilst this isn't really my sort of thing, I didn't hate is nearly as much as I was expecting (he'll be leaving here with the praise ringing in his ears!)
So, the winner is obviously U2. Or maybe not - to my complete surprise it's going to Travis Scott - well done, Trav!
21.04.27 - Not the strongest round for me
21.05.05 - A most pleasing introduction
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