You, you're such a big star to me

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts - 2006 this time to celebrate the birth of our eldest (and because I've not done a naughties year yet)

31/12/06 : Beautiful World - Take That

Of course it was going to be Take That, wasn't it?  That'll teach me to pick the year without checking what I'd get first.  This is actually only our second visit with the lads, and last time was their greatest hits, so that doesn't really count - I'm expecting this to be surprisingly bearable, which means I'm going to have actively search for ways I can be rude about it.

Yeah, it is indeed annoyingly bearable - I'd struggle to say most of it reaches the dizzy heights of "actually good", except for "Patience", "Shine" and "Ain't No Sense In Love" which are, I have to grudgingly admit, pretty decent.  The rest of it is pretty samey but they were just giving the fans what they wanted, so I can hardly fault them for that.  I can confirm however that it was very much owned by the Reed family - can you guess which one of us might have bought it?  I have a suspicion I'd stopped buying albums by this time, so I'm not expecting a high ownership percentage for this year but so far in 2006 it's standing at 100%!

We're at #1 this week in their fifth week on the charts, all of which have been spent at the top.  It managed one more week at the top, before returning back there for a couple more weeks in the middle of its first run, which lasted 42 weeks.  It then continued to pop back into the charts from time to time over the next few years, last being seen in 2011 having spent 132 weeks in total - so far (and I wouldn't be surprised to see it appear again at some point).  This is actually their most successful studio album - only bettered by their second greatest hits album which came out in 2005.

The rest of the top five are Oasis, Snow Patrol, Razorlight and The Beatles - all of which we'll either be listening to or pointedly ignoring very soon.   Given it's that special time of year in the charts, there are no new entries this week but there are 23 re-entries - quite a few of which were Christmas present requests, no doubt.

Wikipedia has a surprisingly small amount on the album, only really talking about the singles released from it and how massively popular it was with everyone.  And very popular it was too - it's shifted nearly 3 million copies in the UK and was the second best selling album of 2006, the fourth best selling of 2007, still the 33rd of 2008 and just crept in as the 93rd in 2009!  And "Patience" won the Best Single Brit Award in 2007 and "Shine" won the same in 2008 - it was like they'd never been away.

"Customers also listened to" Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow and Mark Owen - but no Jason or Howard albums.  The main reason for this is that neither of them have released any solo albums - bizarrely Wikipedia lists an unreleased single for Howard, but that's it for solo works for the pair of them.  If you like Take That, there's no reason you're not going to like this album - but if you're not a fan there's nothing here to convert you (except possibly the lack of Robbie Williams).

24/12/06 - It's just getting better
1973 - Another year finished