It pays to do your best - do it better than the rest

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

05/02/06 : Keep On - Will Young

I've never minded Will - he seems like a decent enough chap and he's pushed on through some challenges with an admirable openness (it's weird now to think of the fuss about him being forced to "come out" after winning Pop Idol before a paper outed him).  I've never really loved his music though - it's fine, but doesn't really push any buttons for me.

And yeah, it bounces along nicely enough and he's got a nice enough voice, but I can't say too much really stood out for me, although I did quite like "Ain't Such A Bad Place To Be" and "Madness".  If you like Will's stuff and don't know this, then there's absolutely no reason why you won't like this but I struggle to imagine it converting many fans.  What more do I have to say on it?  Pretty much nothing other than that I'm intrigued as to what's going on on the album cover.

We're at #4 in the charts this week on his eleventh week of a 38 week run, having peaked at #2 in his debut week.  And then, for no obvious reason, it popped back in another four weeks in '07 - which is nice to see because it's so rare.  The rest of the top five this week were Arctic Monkeys, Richard Ashcroft, James Blunt and Hard-fi and the highest new entry was good old Bublé (#25).

Wikipedia has very little on the album - it was his first album not to get #1, but is his second best selling album.  The critics quite liked the variety he offered and it did pretty well commercially - #34 in the '05 year-end chart (despite only being released in November) and #38 in the '06 year-end.

"Customers also listened to" Matt Cardle, Darius, Daniel Bedingfield and Matt Goss - a definite talent show vibe going on there.  But there's a reasonable argument that Will was the most talented of that particular brigade and he has certainly managed his longevity better than most.  But there's not a lot of evidence how he's managed that here I'm afraid - it's perfectly tolerable, but little more than that.

29/01/06 - One that takes me back nicely
12/02/06 - Perfectly fine

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