Too much information

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

17/09/06 : Empire - Kasabian

I wasn't their hugest fan but I didn't mind a bit of Kasabian around this time - I don't think I bought this one because I had their debut and the singles didn't strike me as though this was going to offer anything particularly different or better - and when I saw them at Glasto, that was pretty much borne out.  But I'm expecting a fine 00s indie-rock sound from this if you like that sort of thing.

And yeah, that's pretty much what it delivers.  I liked the title track and "Shoot The Runner", but it all sped past me pleasantly enough - there's a bit more variety there than you might expect.  If you hate this sort of thing then there's absolutely nothing here to convert you, but it was a nice enough trip down memory lane for me.

We're at #5 in the charts this week on their third week of a 30 week run, having debuted at #1 - slightly more successful than I remember them being.  The rest of the top five are Justin Timberlake, The Fratellis (another album that enjoyed more success than I remembered), Lemar and Snow Patrol - with the top three all being new entries.  And that was it for new entries until Lionel Richie and Diana Krall at #28 & #29.

Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album other than noting that Serge Pizzano took over songwriting duties after Chris Karloff quit during the recording of this album - with hindsight that maybe doesn't seem like the best choice (Chris leaving, I mean - not Serge writing!).  The critics were a bit mixed on the album - most of them accepted the band were at least trying (which maybe wasn't so true for some of their contemporaries), but I did like the comment that "their audacity just proves them to be, unsurprisingly, more geezer, less Caesar".  The album did well here and in Ireland, but didn't really set the rest of the world alight.

"Customers also listened to" Reverend And The Makers, Hard-Fi, The Futureheads and The Pigeon Detectives - all very 00s names for you there (I do like a bit of RATM).  But I probably like Kasabian more now than I did then - I get a warm fuzzy nostalgic glow when I hear them, although I was quite surprised I didn't get bored with the album as it went along.  What higher praise could they expect?

10/09/06 - A surprisingly controversial album
24/09/06 - I liked this a lot more than I was expecting to

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