Watching the people get lairy - it's not very pretty I tell thee

Continuing my trip back through the 2006 album charts.

26/02/06 : Employment - Kaiser Chiefs

Wow - two in a row that we own.  I've not listened to this as album in years, but the singles pop up from time to time in my playlist and they romp along enjoyably and I even saw them live last year at one of the premiere festivals out there (OK, it was Pub In The Park).  I have a suspicion that the non-singles may prove to be slightly weaker, but I'm expecting to enjoy at least half the album.

Yeah, that's a fair enough description - "Everyday I Love You Less And Less", "Oh My God" and "I Predict A Riot" are all fine tracks which barrel along nicely.  The rest of them are either slightly inferior or very inferior - the album does get to be a bit of a drag by the end.  But the overall feeling is a load of fun - it manages to both hark back to both the 60s and Britpop whilst also sounding pretty contemporary, with the lyrics being both relatable and amusing.  And ownership takes our count for the year up to twelve!

We're at #4 in the charts this week on its 51st week of an 80 week run - it was way more successful than I remembered.  It debuted at #3 in March '05 but peaked at #2 nearly a year later (the week before this one) and it managed another 21 weeks across 4 more runs, last being seen in '08.  The rest of the top five this week were Jack Johnson, Arctic Monkeys, KT Tunstall and a somewhat surprising new entry of Neil Diamond.  And the veteran theme was continued with the next three new entries - Dolly Parton (#35), Ray Davies (#36) and Johnny Cash (#76).

Wikipedia doesn't have a load on the album, but there is a trebly interesting fact hidden in there!  The motorbike at the start of "Saturday Night" was owned by Graham Coxon (Blur's guitarist) and he "plays" it on the album - but my favourite bit is that it's a 1935 Kaiser 'Chief' 750cc Manx TT Works Racer.  How cool is that?  The critics were very nice to the album - the most amusing comment is "Hot Hot Heat have got serious competition".  Poor Hot Hot Heat.  The album didn't really set the world alight - it went down well in Ireland (which didn't surprise me) and got some lower placings across Europe, but nothing in the US.  But we loved it over here with it being #4 in the '05 year end and #32 in '06 - and I guess global sales of over 4 million is nothing to be sniffed at.

"Customers also listened to" The Zutons, Hard-Fi, Razorlight and Franz Ferdinand - varied levels of taking themselves seriously in that list!  Which Kaiser Chiefs never overdid, but they took the music and entertaining the fans seriously and it was nice to see them still around last year playing quite a few tracks from this fine album.

19/02/06 - Well, I like it anyway
05/03/06 - A very fine album indeed

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