The sinking sands fell through the net

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

12/02/06 : Keys To The World - Richard Ashcroft

Let's forget that Richard is a bit of a silly boy these days and just concentrate on what he was like back then - I enjoyed the stuff he did with The Verve back in the 90s but when I listened to his first solo album (which I don't think was this one, but couldn't tell you without looking) it found it to be perfectly fine, but not adding anything to what he'd already done so I kinda gave up on him.  So I guess "perfectly fine" is pretty much what I'm expecting here.

And yeah, that's pretty much where we are - it passes by pleasantly enough but is almost instantly forgotten on a first listen (and there isn't going to be a second I'm afraid).  I would say that there is something slightly different to The Verve output here - Bob Dylan was brought to mind at times.  But obviously with a much finer voice - Richard certainly had a fine set of pipes on him back in the day.  So, if you think you might like it then I'd certainly recommend giving it a try - but there's nothing here to drag me away from the two or three Verve singles I listen to from time to time.  Doubly so given his recent behaviour, but I do like the album cover, so he gets some credit for that.

We're at #3 in the charts this week on his third week of a nineteen week run, having spent his previous two weeks at #2 - all of which feels incredibly generous from the record buying public.  The rest of the top five are Arctic Monkeys, James Blunt, Will Young and Kelly Clarkson (I'm hoping I get to listen to Kelly).  The highest new entry is from Belle & Sebastian (#8) - coincidentally, I'm listening to the Stuart Murdoch episode of Adam Buxton's podcast at the minute and he's a fascinating fellow.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say on the album - it's his third solo album and it was a decade before another one came along.  The critics were kinda "yeah, it's OK I guess" about the whole thing, but it went down better in Europe than I was expecting - #6 in Ireland and Germany and #7 in Austria and Switzerland.

"Customers also listened to" Beady Eye, The Charlatans and Ian Brown (another vaccine conspiratorial idiot) - definitely all in the same vein in some way, but not in others.  I thought this was a reasonable example of "this sort of thing" but it just somehow missed chiming with me - maybe on another day I've have got into it.

05/02/06 - Another perfectly fine album
19/02/06 - Well, I like it anyway

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