Some say love is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

21/01/96 : First Love - Michael Ball

We've met Michael before and it's fair to say it didn't end well - I actually think it's one of the worst albums I've been made to listen to.  This was 24 years earlier (and boy doesn't he look soooo young) so I'm hoping he wasn't yet at the stage that he could put any old shit out and people would buy it.

And yeah, it's not nearly as bad.  I mean, it's really not great but at no point did I want to murder anyone.  The most memorable track is "(Something Inside) So Strong" but only because it's not very good - you'd think it would suit his voice, but it comes off badly compared with Labi's original.  And, after a couple of days break from the album, I couldn't tell you anything about any of the other tracks - so it obviously was very forgettable.  But if you like Michael Ball then you'll like this album - and tbh I'm very surprised you're reading my thoughts on the matter.   And of course we never owned it - 12/50.

As a random aside, the old me would have commented at length about how he's, shall we say, considerably less physically imposing on the album cover than he is these days - but such behaviour is firmly rebuked by my eldest daughter, so I have learned to stop myself.  Sp you can teach an old dog new tricks - particularly one who's most definitely living in a glass house on such matters.

We're at #4 with a new entry this week at the start of a five week run - whatever you think of the man, he's certainly earned his success putting in the hard graft over the years, with his debut album having coming out 30 years ago.  The rest of the top five are Oasis, Pulp , R&J and Alanis with no other new entries in the top ten - the next highest one being St Etienne Daho all the way down at #50.  I assumed it was something to do with St Etienne and it's a collaboration between them and Etienne Daho - so it's a double case of the Etiennes.

Wikipedia has nothing on the album - there have been so many of this type of thing from him that they'd struggle to find something new to write about 90% of them.  So I looked at his entry and learned that his partner of 30 years is Cathy MacGowan who used to present Ready Steady Go back in the day (no, not Ready Steady Cook - that was Ainsley Harriott).  And she saved his life in 2000 by dragging him out of a house fire.  Woah - that got a bit more exciting at the end, didn't it?  (it's all relative!)

"Customers also listened to" Alfie and G4 - no surprises there.  And, as I said, if you like that sort of thing, then this is a perfectly acceptable example of it - although somewhat lacking in highlights to my untutored ear.

14/01/96 - Not hateful, I guess
28/01/96 - Some enjoyably odd noises