It's looking so much brighter now

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

24/07/20 : Brightest Blue - Ellie Goulding


I don't mind a bit of Ellie (and think she comes across well as a person in interviews and on Bake Off, which I watched last night!), but I'm not aware I've ever actually listened to a whole album of hers which feels like a bit of an omission - she's had three #1 albums since she arrived on the scene on 2010 (yes, it really was that long ago).  I was expecting to find this bearable, but maybe a bit samey across a whole album.

But it's not all that samey - there's more variety than I was expecting, although I'm not sure I really liked it.  There are more slow numbers than I was expecting and I'm not she carries them off all that well.  None of them are dreadful and they're all put together well enough, but for an album that lasts nearly a whole hour, there aren't nearly enough stand-out tracks for me.  Bizarrely, the three tracks I liked most were the last three on the album which seems like an odd way to sequence things - but I guess it's all down to personal preference.  I also wonder if she might possibly be channelling Joni Mitchell on the cover (her cover of "River" was the last UK #1 of the 2010s).

We're at #1 with a new entry - she managed four weeks before disappearing, which is somewhat less successful than her previous albums which all managed at least 48 weeks.  Other new entries in the top ten are The Chicks (#5), Lianne Le Havas (#7) and Massive Wagons (#9).  There's also a very interesting re-entry at #6 which was Joy Division's Closer, with its joint highest chart position ever equalling its position in August 1980 - so yes, it had been re-released as a 40th anniversary celebration.

Wikipedia tells me it's an album of two halves, which might explain why I liked the end of it more than the start (although I'd struggle to say I noticed).  Apart from that it doesn't have a lot to say - the critics liked it and it did well enough globally, being top 30 in most countries including #29 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Juice WRLD (who I wasn't expecting to see, but his appearance on the last track explains it), Halsey, The Kid LAROI (who pops up a lot in these things) and Bebe Rexha (ditto).  I found this perfectly pleasant but somewhat anodyne - can't say I'll be rushing back to it.

17/07/20 - A disappointment
31/07/20 - A somewhat pointless album

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