I stop and stare at you

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

06/10/96 : Natural - Peter Andre


From what I've seen, I like Peter Andre as a person (and he deserves an award for services to tabloid journalism) - but I'm very much not expecting to like this.

And, well.  Hmmm.  It's not great, but it's not as hateful as I was expecting.  He's definitely trying to channel Michael Jackson on most of it but not really getting there, which just leaves it feeling very inessential.  With the notable exception of "Mysterious Girl" (which Wikipedia amusingly describes as "cod-reggae") - what a bizarrely hateful yet still somehow enjoyable track that is.  I can only assume it's responsible for the album's success because I didn't hear anything else which might have caused it.  And no, we've never owned it - 2/13 (I imagine that news has surprised you massively and you probably need a bit of a sit-down now).

Somewhat surprisingly (with the benefit of hindsight anyway), we're at #1 with a new entry this week at the start of a 26 week run, which feels very generous of the UK record buying public.  The rest of the top five this week are made up of Kula Shaker, The Fugees and two new entries from Nirvana and Sheryl Crow (I like Sheryl's eponymous sophomore effort - Nirvana's cash-in, not so much).  That's it for new entries in the top ten, but I'm going to call out the next highest one at #18 which is The Cardigans' First Band On The Moon because it's a very fine album indeed (and was obviously nowhere near as success as Pete's offering).

Wikipedia explains it was a bit of a struggle getting the album released due to various record label troubles.  But well, it was - and was surprisingly popular across Europe.  But most popular here, with it selling 309,456 copies.  Approximately.

"Customers also listened to"  911, Color Me Badd, Another Level and Blazin' Squad - some amusing (and mostly forgotten) names from a certain era there.  As I suspect Peter might be had he not found a way to extend his shelf life - whether it's been worth all the effort only he can say, but I'd certainly have taken anonymity.

29/09/96 - I might be biased here
13/10/96 - I didn't mind this at all

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