Would you like us to assign someone to butter your muffin?

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

15/04/22 : Wet Leg - Wet Leg



There's been lots of buzz about Wet Leg and I think I've heard a couple of their tracks on Radio 1 and found them interesting enough, so was looking forward to listening to this one.

And yeah, I'd heard "Chaise Longue" (their first single) and "Ur Mum" (their latest) because I recognised them from the album - the other track that jumped out at me was "Wet Dream" (their second single), but it's all pretty cool buzzy stuff really.  Other reviews out there often call back to The Breeders and there's certainly a bit of that in there, but Lush came to mind more for me with a similar Miki-like archness to the vocal and disco/shoegaze/indie mix of music.  It all feels very wry and knowing, even though you have a sneaking suspicion the lead singer is only ten years old or something.  One other thing (that I probably should have mentioned before now) is that I like it a lot - it's right up my street.

We're at #1 in the charts with a new entry (of course) - it probably won't hang around for long, but it might catch a wave if it's lucky.  Other new entries in the top ten are Father John Misty (#2 - I might make an effort to check this out), Jack White (#3 - I can live without this), Kae Tempest (#8) and Camila Cabello (#9 - I bet she was hoping for better than that!).  One other thing I noticed of interest - #11-#30 include 13 albums which have more than 100 weeks on the chart (8 of them have more than 400 weeks!) which suggests to me that the middle reaches of the chart are somewhat stagnating.

Wiikpedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album, but what it does have is very positive - the critics loved it (and that doesn't surprise me in the slightest).  What was slightly more surprising was how well it's done globally - top ten in Australia (#1), Belgium, Germany and New Zealand.  And #14 in the US, which is a fine effort indeed because it doesn't feel a very US kinda thang at all.

"Customers also listened to" a load of people that don't seem to have a great deal in common - beabadoobee, Kurt Vile, Belle and Sebastian, Yard Act and Bloc Party.  All indie-ish, but coming at it from very different angles.  But I really liked this offering from Wet Leg and am looking forward to catching up with them some more (maybe at a festival sometime over the summer?)

08/04/22 - A supremely inessential offering
22/04/22 - Just not for me



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