It could all end tomorrow - where would I be?

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

02/09/73 : The Plan - The Osmonds

So last time, I graciously agreed to consider a compilation album - partly because it met my somewhat superficial reasons for consideration, but mostly because it meant I didn't have to listen to this one.  Like I could avoid the will of the album chart gods that easily!  I've no clue what I'm going to find here, but I'm very much not expecting to enjoy it.

Hmmm - well, I didn't HATE it, but it's not exactly great either.  It's very much a mixed musical bag - it all sounds like a lightweight band trying to prove there's more to them than anyone expects by proving their musical versatility.  However, unfortunately all it does is just prove their critics right - which just leaves us with an album that no-one feels the need for, I'm afraid.  They also make some very odd sonic choices in places - for example, does "Movie Man" REALLY need a swanee whistle on it?  And whilst I admit there are some nice strings on "Before The Beginning", they then go and put a crying baby on it as well.  Going back to "Movie Man" it really sounds on this like they want to be The Beatles, so they include some ropey singing in a ropey British accent.  WHY?  In fact, there's surprisingly ropey singing throughout the album which I wasn't expecting at all - the whole album is really very "what is the point to this exactly?".

We're at #6 in the charts this week on their third week of a 21 week run, which feels remarkably generous of the record buying public - I can see the fans buying it anyway, but I really struggle to imagine this being a word of word-of-mouth hit.  What do I know though, eh?  The top five this week were Rod, Peters & Lee, The Carpenters, Bowie and Bowie - bizarrely, there are no new entries in the chart at all this week, but there were FIFTEEN re-entries (which considering the top was only fifty albums at this time is quite incredible).  Three re-entries were from The Beatles, so they must have done something newsworthy in the week before, which is perfectly credible - and two were from John Denver, who always seemed somewhat less of a news hog to me, so who knows what he got up!  Dianne & Karen were obviously the top women, but Diana also put in a good showing this week at #7 - we can also mention Fleetwood Mac (#37) in passing because Christine had joined the band at this point, although their days of an obviously strong female presence were yet to come.

Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album other than noting its musical diversity which the critics mentioned as both a strength and a weakness.  It also notes that the group's popularity was fading because of "increased teen idol competition from The DeFranco Family".  Who?!? (apparently they were big for a bit in the US, but never did anything over here).  

"Customers also listened to" various Osmond related nonsense and the Davids Cassidy and Essex - you can keep the lot, thanks very much.  Whilst I can understand the appeal of some of their output, I'm afraid this just wasn't a very good album.

26/08/73 - Seriously - why?
09/09/73 - Nothing to surprise anyone here