Pungent smells, they consummate my home

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

11/02/96 : The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes - Babylon Zoo


I remember "Spaceman" from the Levi's advert and from the fact that most of the track sounded nothing like the ten seconds used in the advert.  I have absolutely no idea what the rest of the album is going to sound like though.

Hmm - well it's fine, if a bit samey., I guess.   "Spaceman" is the stand out track (and I'm actually glad it doesn't all sound like the advert or this would be a challenging album indeed) - the rest of it isn't quite so good although I quite liked "I'm Cracking Up I Need A Pill" as well.  But a whole album of it doesn't feel required to me - it's a bit slow and plodding mostly.

We're at #6 with a new entry this week - it managed six weeks in all before it, and he, disappeared from our lives forever (amusingly his last single was titled "All The Money's Gone").  The top five this week were Oasis, Status Quo (another new entry), M People, Alanis and Radiohead and we also have two more new entries in the top ten - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (#8 - this is supposed to be quite good) and Marion (#10 - and I don't remember anything about them at all!).

Wikipedia is interesting because it's all about the critical reception - which was generally surprisingly positive at the time (although I did like ""a mime troupe unable to keep quiet").  However, it's fair to say it's "suffered" a re-evaluation since - "fatally flawed", "one of the most hilariously terrible albums ever made", "being thumped on the head with a large chunk of wood then dragged backwards through thick sludge".  It did surprisingly well in Europe though - top 20 in quite a few countries.

"Customers also listened to" - go on, guess.  Suede, Vic Reeves and Skunk Anansie - quite obviously.  Despite the critical mauling, I think this is "fine" (it's better than the Quo album) but there's no danger of me revisiting it - maybe if I did I would realise how dreadful it is, so let's just leave it there, eh?

04/02/96 - An enjoyable half album
18/02/96 - Please stop!

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