Well done you - and us. And well done, the entire universe.

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

04/11/22 : Actual Life 3 (Jan 1 - Sep 9 2022) - Fred again


I think I've heard some Fred Again stuff - it's kinda dance-y, isn't it?  I expect I'll quite like it, but not feel the need for a whole album's worth.  But before we consider that, I need to describe an album that wild horses would not drag me to listen to.

Yes, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe are back together again and last time it was an ABSOLUTELY AWFUL experience.  This time they're doing Las Vegas Rat Pack staples, which I suspect will be a slightly better than their Xmas massacres but I can assure you I have absolutely no intention of finding out.  So that leaves us with Fred.  Again.

Hmmm.  It's good in a “choonz in the club” kinda way (as much as I can remember what that feels like) and it sounded very good over headphones.  But, a whole album is a bit too much and it's hard to see exactly what any of it adds to the genre - it's pretty cliched with your Weeknd-style vocoder employed regularly.  And it even uses that annoying airhorn sound - I've no idea why anyone thinks that's needed in any scenario.

We're at #4 with a new entry in the charts this week - I struggle to imagine he's going to be around for long.  The rest of the top five this week are Taylor (her first of SEVEN albums in the charts), The Beatles' Revolver (the highest new entry with a remixed and expanded version, including a stereo mix), Michael and Alfie (another new entry) and Arctic Monkeys (I would have preferred to listen to this, despite not being their biggest fan).  And we have three more new entries in the top ten - Massive Wagons (#6), Tom Odell (#7) and Foo Fighters (#10).

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry on the album, but it does tell me this is his first solo album to chart (although he did have some success with a collaboration with Headie One).  It also tells me he's British (I just assumed he was some kind of Euro DJ dude) and he went to Marlborough College, so I'm guessing there may be a bit of money in the family.

"Customers also listened to" TSHA, Vantage and Zhu - ah yes, them.  I liked most of the sounds on this but put them all together and it didn't really add up to any more as a result.  It wasn't horrible (for me, at least - but I realise not everyone's gonna be a fan) but it also wasn't great, I'm afraid.

28/10/22 - #justiceforlana
11/11/22 - sigh

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