Shallow graves and deepest fears

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

07/10/22 : The End, So Far - Slipknot


So who out there doesn't spend their Sunday afternoon listening first to a David Cassidy album and then following it up with Slipknot's latest offering?  My Alexa must be so confused.  I've never had the pleasure of experiencing a Slipknot album - for some reason I'm not expecting it to be exactly my sort of thing.

Hold on - this is Slipknot?  The opening track wasn't at all what I was expecting - I had to check I was actually listening to the right album.  But the second track told me I was firmly in Slipknot territory - complete with the vocals that I really don't get with.  However, I actually didn't mind the music at all and when they're not doing the shouty-growly thing, they're pretty Muse-like ie preposterous but enjoyable.  So, to my complete surprise, I will state that I actually liked "Adderall", "Heirloom" and "De Sade" and even the shouty-growly ones were much more bearable than I was expecting.  WHAT IS GOING ON?!?

We're at #1 with a new entry this week, with the rest of the top five coming from George Michael (a reissue with some bonus material which means it weighs in at 4.5 hours), The Snuts (with another new entry, but I liked their previous album), D-Block Europe and Harry Styles.  Loads of new entries this week - Craig David (#7) and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs (#10) make it into the top ten, with Bjork (#11), K-Trap (#12) and Pixies (#13) just outside.

Wikipedia has a surprising amount on the album most of which seems to basically say "it exists".  But I did like this bit though "The original vinyl and cassette releases of The End, So Far are printed with the wrong title, The End For Now.... In a Reddit AMA, Corey Taylor said that The End, So Far was always the album's intended title, and that the misprint had been caused by "somebody [who] fucked up and didn't double check" with the band".  The critical reception was pretty positive with several people noting the new musical direction, so possibly that's why I can tolerate it.  The commercial reception has been very positive - #1 in a lot of countries and it's even got as high as #11 in Japan and very few foreign albums do that well over there.  Only #79 in Lithuania though - shame on them Lithuanians!

"Customers also listened to" Vended, Soulfly, Code Orange and Ho99o9 - none of whom I can tell you the slightest thing about (which I'm sure surprises you).  But, beforehand the only thing I could have told you about Slipknot was that there was no danger of me liking anything they ever did - but it turns out that was not at all correct.  Wonders will never cease.

30/09/22 - Very boring and very bland
14/10/22 - A bit of a mystery

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