Mapping the stars for a while

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

12/03/06 : On An Island - David Gilmour



I'm not their biggest fan, but I don't mind some bits of Floyd from time to time and obviously Mr Gilmour is a big part of what they've achieved over the years.  But the only solo album I've heard from the band's members is Roger Waters' Radio KAOS (which I actually really like - it's one of my favourite "concept albums") - I'd struggle to say my expectations are sky-high for this.

And my expectations were just about met, and certainly not exceeded - it's some average vocals on some average songs which feature some above average guitar playing.  Exactly what I what I thought - not terrible, but I struggle to imagine who would check this out other than Floyd fans.  And I couldn't single out any one track as standing out - and neither could you, I imagine.

So, obviously after such an underwhelming verdict, we're at #1 in the charts this week on its first week of a NINETEEN week run.  What?!?  The rest of the top five are Corinne Bailey Rae, Jack Johnson, Andrea Bocelli (another new entry) and Arctic Monkeys - well, that's a bit more of a mixed top five than we've seen in recent weeks, isn't it?  And we've got another new entry in the top ten which is different again - Van Morrison at #9 (not for me, thanks).

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say on the album other than noting all the famous people on it - Robert Wyatt, Guy Pratt, Jools Holland, Georgie Fame, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Richard Wright.  Why am I not surprised they're all old and white?  There's no comment on critical reception, but it did surprisingly (to me, at least) well commercially - his first solo #1 over here as well as hitting the top in Norway and Italy and making the top five in a lot of countries, but "only" #6 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and Nick Mason - nobody expected that!  And this album will have delivered exactly what Floyd fans were looking for - I struggle to imagine it will have converted many people to Floyd fans, but I guess it could act as a bit of a gateway drug.  It's certainly a harmless enough introduction - but also not very interesting.

05/03/06 - A very fine album indeed
19/03/06 - Some lovely mellow warbling

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