Can we just switch to the chorus now?

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

08/05/20 : The New Abnormal - The Strokes


Seriously?  I'm never a fan of people trading on past glories, but in The Strokes' case, my view of Is This It? is so meh, that I don't even consider them to have past glories to trade on.  So it's safe to say I was not looking forward to this one bit.

But, credit where credit's due, I didn't hate it nearly as much as I expected.  There were even bits I quite liked - but there were also bits I really didn't like (obviously) and it's fair to say your man's singing is not the best.  A lot of it remind me of The Bravery's debut album - they were tipped as the next big thing way back in 2005 and it's fair to say I was one of the ten people on the planet that liked them.  I'll never listen to this album again though - but if forced to endure some output from The Strokes (which I admit isn't the most plausible scenario) then I'll take this over Is This It? any day.

We were at #4 in the charts this week, in their fourth (and last) week on there.  Somewhat bizarrely, its run went #3, #40, #86, #4 and then gone - I assume some kind of delayed physical release was involved.  The only new entry in the top ten this week was Drake (#1) - the next highest was the curiously monikered Yxng Bane at #11.

Wikipedia has more on the album I'd expect, but I didn't bother reading most of it because I'm sure it's pretentious nonsense (I've said more than enough nice things about them already, so I'm letting my entirely unfair assumptions take over now).  The critics mostly liked it (but they liked ITI?, didn't they?) and I was astounded to see it won the Grammy for Best Rock Album - I mean, I graciously said it was OK but it's no more than that.  It did surprisingly well across the world though - I would have thought most people would have given up on them by now.

"Customers also listened to" loads of albums either by The Strokes or by one of their members - none of which I've listened to except for THAT album.  But, being fair, this album isn't hateful and if you like that sort of early 00s indie rock, then there's every chance you might like this.

01/05/20 - A terrible omission on my part - until now
15/05/20 - A very enjoyable change from the rap

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