First time I tried this I was free of doubt

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts.

18/03/22 : Who Cares? - Rex Orange County

I'm often out and about on taxi duty in the early evenings and Radio 1 often plays music at this time of day claiming "it's the next big thing and you really have to listen to it".  Generally, it's particularly average nonsense (at best) which they've obviously been paid to be excited about, but every so often something pops up which is at least a bit interesting - and recently Rex Orange County has been mentioned more often than not around such things.  And that's pretty much all I can tell you about them (pronouns carefully chosen at this point in time to hide my ignorance rather than for any particular preference on their part).

And having listened to it, I can tell you they're a he - but that's pretty much all I can tell you.  I liked it, but I'd struggle to describe exactly what I heard or why I liked it.  I was left feeling intrigued and pretty upbeat, but uncertain why.  Part of me thinks this is what Frank Ocean or Kendrick Lamarr want me to feel like after I listen to their stuff, but in their case I'm just left perplexed.  If you like "interesting" new stuff, then check it out - maybe you can do a better job of describing why you like it (or don't!) than I've managed (you can hardly do a worse job).  It's certainly an interesting album cover as well - what exactly is going on there?

We're at #1 in the charts this week with a record-equalling eight new entries in the top ten - are you ready?  Right, we've got Ghost (#2), Bryan Adams (#3), The Shires (#5), Lil Durk (#6), Franz Ferdinand (#7), Ella Henderson (#8) and Mysterines (#9).  Phew.  Of those, I think there's only really any chance of me listening to Ella who has just about enough talent to stand out in a somewhat crowded field.

Wikipedia has almost nothing on the album, but I was surprised to see how well it's done in the US, getting to #5.  It also went down well in Australia (#2) and New Zealand (#1).  I was also somewhat surprised to see this was his third album - I really should pay more attention to what's going on.  One bizarre thing that jumped out at me was that Tyler, The Creator is credited with vocals and Tyler Okonma is credited as composer on one track - which doesn't seem all that odd until you realise they are the same person.

"Customers also listened to" Alfie Templeman, Bakar, spil tab and Wallows - all of whom I can tell you absolutely nothing about.  Which doesn't surprise me in the slightest because this isn't really my kind of genre (whatever genre it is - Wikipedia lists him as jazz, hip hop, bedroom pop, indie rock, lo-fi and soft rock, which suggests they don't know either).  However, I found it an intriguing listen which I suspect would benefit from a revisit - which is probably not going to happen, but at least I'm not against the idea.

11/03/22 - Another Brucie-bonus!
25/03/22 - A good example of "this sort of thing"