You're one in a million - you got to burn to shine
Continuing my trip up #album-of-the-day...
I'd not listened to this in a long time despite not minding Counting Crows - and it's OK, but there's not enough there to drag me away from August And Everything After or Across A Wire. My channel comment was
Seem to recall listening to this a loooong time ago and feeling it continued the increased variability in quality across the album shown between A&EA and RTS. And on relistening maybe I was being a bit harsh - it might be a step up in consistency from RTS but I'd have to revisit that in order to decide. I think A&EA and Across A Wire will remain my go-to CC albums though…
The channel gave it five thumbs up and a lot of love for both this and A&EA. Wikipedia has less on the album than I was expecting but does have an interesting section on the original vinyl release - it was a double album, with the original ten tracks on the first three sides and the fourth side marked up as "do not listen". BUT - it had two hidden tracks on it. Sneaky, huh! If somewhat pointless because you can't really hide tracks on vinyl, can you? And - if you have a copy of it, then you're sitting on something pretty valuable, I can tell you. The album was pretty well received both critically and commercially - #8 in the US and #19 in the UK.
"Customers also listened to" Matchbox Twenty, Gin Blossoms (who I quite like and hadn't considered the connection, but it's definitely there) and a load of other people I've never heard of. I liked this more than I remembered liking it - I feel like I should maybe check out their "best of" to cover all the albums that I've avoided. Of course I won't though.
21.11.05 : Rivals - Kensington (2014)
I remember these guys were Dutch and I didn't mind it, but couldn't tell you anything more about it. My channel comment was
A pretty smooth sound - but a bit too mid-80s St Elmo's Fire for my tastes for a full album of it, I'm afraid.
The channel gave it three thumbs up, a lot of love for the Netherlands, one new joiner and one leaver. Wikipedia doesn't have anything on the album, but does have an entry for the band - which has some text on all the albums. Except for this one - which gets a single mention as being recorded between two other albums. Which is odd.
"Customers also listened to" a load of people I've unsurprisingly never heard of. This is done well enough, but it's not really my thing.
21.11.08 : Exile On Cardharbour Lane - Alabama 3 (1997)
I remember not minding this, but the rest of the album was somewhat over-shadowed by "Woke Up This Morning". My channel comment was
I was aware of "Woke Up This Morning" but hadn't ever investigated further - and yeah, I liked this. I was amazed to see they're British though.
The channel gave it two thumbs up, one fire, a lot of love for the band and "Woke Up This Morning" and a new joiner. Wikipedia has a few sentences on the album, including the following amusing comment on Coldharbour Lane (in Brixton) being "best known for containing several after-hours clubs and not a few drug dealers". It also contains a bizarre statement about "The Old Purple Tin (9% Of Pure Heaven)" where it explains the song is about Tennants Super which apparently "makes its consumers appear purple". And that all lead me down a bizarre rabbit-hole where I found out that Tennants Super is apparently very popular in Italy.
"Customers also listened to" Fun Lovin' Criminals (who I've seen live when they bizarrely played in St Albans), Ian Dury, Seasick Steve and William Shatner. Which is an odd mix, to say the least. I liked this at the time but I must admit to not remembering anything about it other than one track - and I think we all know what track that is. But I won't avoid it if I find myself listening to it again.
So - not Rivals, but which one of the other two? Hmmm - tricky one. Alabama 3 obviously have the best track, but the fact that I can't remember any of the other tracks isn't a great thing. But the Counting Crows offering isn't a "great" album either - so let's have an honourable draw. And I think you can probably guess where the lyrics are coming from.
21.11.01 - Two previous visits
21.11.09 - Three albums very much of their time
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