The fiction we're living in says I should pull the pin

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

05/03/21 : For Those That Wish To Exist - Architects



I've visited Architects on my travels before and I remember initially thinking I liked them but then being somewhat taken aback by the (and I quote) "bloody awful racket" that greeted me.  So you can imagine what my thoughts on approaching this were...

...but - hold on a goddam minute.  This has all the ingredients of another b-a-r including the shouty-growly singing style, but I quite liked it.  What's happening to me?!?  I suspect they've just toned down the stuff I really object to - it's just some decent expansive rawk.  Yes, it takes itself far more seriously than is strictly necessary but there's a lot more variety across the album than I was expecting - all in all, it was a very pleasant surprise.  I particularly like "Animals" with its amusingly singalong but very child-unfriendly chorus.  And I like the album cover as well.

Once again, we're at #1 with a new entry - just the two weeks on the chart for it before disappearing.  Other new entries in the top ten are Maximo Park (#2 with a blast from the past), Digga D (#3 - never heard of it or him, but I suspect it's not my thing), Alice Cooper (#4 - really?) and Lucy Spraggan (rounding off the all new top 5).

Wikipedia has more on the album than I was expecting, but most of it is concerned with which genre should be used to describe it - I'm going for "metalcore than Jason surprisingly doesn't mind".  The critics mostly didn't mind it either and the public were surprisingly keen - #1 here and Australia, #3 in Germany and it even reached the dizzy heights of #80 in the US.  A fine effort, lads!

"Customers also listened to" Bring Me The Horizon and a load of other groups I've never heard of.  Nobody expected that now, did they?  What I also didn't expect was to even be able to tolerate this album, so I'm very confused as to what's happened - am I getting more reasonable as I get old?  (my family will confirm this is very much not the case).

26/02/21 - Much more enjoyable than expected
12/03/21 - More enjoyable than expected (just)

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