I can sting like a butterfly and sink like a bee

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

18/02/22 : FTHC - Frank Turner

I have met Frank on my travels before and liked him - and had absolutely no reason not to expect to enjoy this one as well...

...oooh, that first songs a bit shouty, isn't it?  Hmmm - quite a few of them are a bit shouty actually.  All in all, it's quite an interesting one because I listened to the deluxe version which includes four demo versions at the end and normally I'm totally yawn about such nonsense - but on this album I preferred the demo versions, except for "Haven't Been Doing So Well" where I liked them both.  And part of the reason that I liked them both is that you can still hear his lyrics on the main version - he can pen a decent set of words and on a lot of the other tracks they were somewhat harder to identify because of the shouting.  Yes, I'm sure if I sat down and listened to it multiple times then I'd get to the sing-along stage but I'm afraid that's just not going to happen.  So, the tracks barrel along energetically and sound like they're probably fine but I'm ultimately left feeling somewhat let down - sorry Frank!

We're at #1 in the charts this week for Frank's first ever week at the top of the charts - well done to the lad.  I'm not sure it'll be hanging around for too long, but time alone will tell on that front.  Other new entries in the top 10 are Alt-J at #3. (sorry, Andris - but no review this week!), Slash at #5 and James Morrison's Greatest Hits at #6 (and I was somewhat surprised to see that has 15 tracks on it, when he's only ever had 9 singles that have charted).  Surprisingly, there are 4 greatest hits albums in the top 10 which proves my comment from a recent post that no-one bothered with them any more to be somewhat inaccurate. 

One thing that's been bothering me for the past couple of weeks that I've only just got around to investigating is that "We Don't Talk About Bruno" has been #1 in the singles charts for 5 weeks now, but the Encanto soundtrack album is nowhere to be seen in the album charts, which feels wrong to me (especially since it's been at #1 in the US for 4 weeks).  And I knew there had to be a reason, but hadn't got round to finding out what - until now.  And the reason is - in the UK, it only features in the compilations chart, where it has been #1 for 7 weeks.  Which feels odd to me given that Encanto features mostly (if not all) original songs - yes, I don't want to see Now 765 in the album charts, but that feels a lot more worthy of the description "compilation" (and hence exclusion from the main chart) than the Encanto album does.  Having said that, there are some odd statistics around the compilation chart eg The Suicide Squad soundtrack has been in the chart for 183 weeks, so maybe it's safest to just tar them all with the same brush.  

Getting back to Frank, Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album other than noting it is "sonically aggressive",  which sounds better than "shouty" doesn't it?  There are some interesting guest artists on the album - Jason Isbell, Dominic Howard (Muse) and Ilan Rubin (Nine Inch Nails), amongst others. There's also a nice quote about how "Miranda" is about Frank's father having transitioned and how their relationship has subsequently improved - "Miranda is a really nice person – my dad wasn't".  We all need to find our happy place, people!

"Customers also listened to" Skinny Lister, Beans On Toast and Pet Needs - none of whom I can tell you anything about.  I can see that Frank fans will probably love this album (and possibly even be pleased to see the sonic aggression) but I struggle to imagine it getting him too many new fans (except amongst dyslexic Spurs supporters).  I could, of course, be completely wrong about that though - stranger things have been known.

11/02/22 - Nothing really wrong with it, I guess.  But...
18/02/22 - A Brucie bonus for Andris