Every lie was a beautiful sound

 

Continuing my visit to the top of the album charts with another new entry straight in at #1

28/01/22 : Night Call - Years And Years



I'm aware of and like Olly Alexander as a person, but I'm kinda meh about his music.  I'm expecting something slick but soulless here - happy to be wrong, but not expecting to be.

And yeah, it's all fine and has some very nice bass on it but it all feels like it's been written by an algorithm based around "what would Olly's fans want to hear?".  None of it is horrible (and I'll go as far as saying "Sweet Talker" is well put-together track) and I'm sure his fans love it (so the algorithm worked) but it's just a bit generic for my liking.  Although you certainly couldn't accuse the album cover art of being bland - I'm not entirely convinced the mermaid thing totally works for him though.  I suspect Olly and his fans won't care in the slightest about my opinion of any of it though...

Like the previous offering from The Wombats, this album came straight in at #1 on the back of a loyal fanbase - I expect it to hang around slightly longer than The Wombats managed, but not a lot (I doubt I'll remember to check though!).

Wikipedia has a small amount on the album - noting this is the first Years And Years solo album (and I'm not sure I approve of him keeping the name and ditching his mates), the four singles already released from it, the three different versions released (all on the same day - why would you do that?), the general critical approval (although my favourite comment was "for all its merits, this is a selection of pop songs that have no meaningful connection and which one could hear anywhere") and the positive commercial response (hence me writing about it!).

"Customers also listened to" Anne-Marie, Becky Hill, Ella Henderson and Little Mix - all reasonably standard pop fare which I would take over this when I'm in the mood for such a thing.  This just feels all a bit too - well, going back to my initial expectations - slick and soulless.

21/01/22 - Growing up isn't always a good thing
04/02/22 - An antidote to the blandness


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