The kettle's boiled, forgot my toast

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

01/10/21 : How Beautiful Life Can Be - The Lathums


The only thing I know about The Lathums is that they've had a #1 album because they popped up as "customers also listened to" when I was writing about Jamie Webster.  So I'm kinda assuming they sound a bit like Jamie, but apart from that I've got nothing going in.

And well - they don't.  It's kinda bouncy-indie-folk-pop-rock - not terrible but not exactly great on first listen for me, I'm afraid.  I can imagine they're a great live band with loads of youngsters (well, younger than me anyway) jumping about and shouting the words but it all felt a bit content free to me.  I imagine they can live with me not being their biggest fan though.

We're at #1 this week - they've obviously picked up a strong fanbase, but the album only hang around for four weeks so it's not the biggest yet.  Other new entries in the top ten are Public Sector Broadcasting at #2 (it surprised me, and probably them, that they lost out to The Lathums) and Natalie Imbruglia at #10 (which completely disappeared from the charts next week) - I might check out the PSB album because they always make interesting enough sounds.

Wikipedia has nothing on the album and very little on the group - in fact, there's surprisingly little out there to give any clue as to their rapid rise to #1.  I did find a Guardian review of them live that was glowing and one of the album that was a lot more "meh", so maybe my instincts are correct.  I also learned you pronounce it "Lav-ums", so you can be down with the kids now - you can thank me later.

"Customers also listened to" The Snuts (I can definitely see the connection, but The Snuts were a lot more instant for me), The Sherlocks, Sea Girls and Vistas - and I can tell you nothing about the last three, but can hear them in my head already.  I didn't hate this, just don't really see what it has to make it stand out from the crowd.

24/09/21 - I enjoyed this more than I was expecting to
08/10/21 - Surprisingly listenable (and popular)

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