You've got to understand the problem

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

25/02/96 : Expecting To Fly - The Bluetones


I know I should like The Bluetones - but I've never quite managed it, without really knowing why.  Maybe this album will convert me to a fan or make me understand what I don't like about them.  Probably not though, eh?

Well - I can't say it's made me a fan, but it has potentially given me a theory as to what I object to.  I very much like all the ingredients - jangly guitars, jaunty rhythms, slightly self-aware vocals - and when they come together well, as they very much do on "Slight Return", it's undoubtedly a thing of beauty.  But.  On the rest of the songs, they (for me) don't come together so well - they just don't deliver the desired effect. So it's not fair to say I dislike them - I just feel a bit disappointed in them.  Come on lads, you can do so much better!  It's a lovely album cover though, even if it's yet another one we didn't own - 12/45.

We're at #4 in the charts this week in their second week of a 21 week run, having debuted at #1 last week.  It actually managed another eight weeks across three more runs, but it only made it one week into 1997 before disappearing forever - other albums of theirs did chart over the next ten years, but this was very much their high point.  The rest of the top five were Oasis, Alanis, M People and Pulp (which is an album we've not mentioned so far this year, but we'll be seeing quite a bit for the remainder).  There are no new entries in the top ten this week - the highest one is Lou Reed at #26 with Set The Twilight Reeling, which is an album I've never even heard of.  The next highest one are The Corrs with the, with hindsight, incredibly ironically titled Forgiven, Not Forgotten.

Back to The Bluetones, Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album other than it was produced by Hugh Jones who did a LOT of classic albums from the time.  The critics were very favourable in their comments - it did pretty well commercially in the UK but didn't really take off anywhere else.

"Customers also listened to" Longpigs, Sleeper, Echobelly and The Charlatans - and there are some fine sounds produced by all of those bands.  As The Bluetones do - but, for me, the whole is less than the parts, which I find frustrating.

18/02/96 - Please stop!
03/03/96 - Not one for me

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