You're ninety-nine percent an embarrassment

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts.

18/07/10 : Eliza Doolittle - Eliza Doolittle

She's been very unlucky not to be picked for the past five weeks (all of which were spent in the top five), so I thought the least I could do was give her a sympathy listen.  And, to be honest, I was expecting to enjoy it more than most of the albums that pipped her to a review - I remembered her being a bit Cockney sparrow, chirping about various facets of modern life in a pleasingly youthful style.

And yeah, that's pretty much what we've got here.  It's a bit like a cross between Katie Melua and Lily Allen - she's not as arch as Lily, but she's certainly not got Katie's rose-tinted specs on either.  "Skinny Genes" is the one everyone knew but I liked most of them - "Mr Medicine" also jumped out at me as well.  I won't be rushing back to it but it's nicely of its time, but still perfectly listenable now.  That's a very MySpace album cover though, isn't it?

I won't revisit the charts for the week, but I will tell you that the album managed a run of 46 weeks - a fine effort.  And let's take a look at how Ms Doolittle (or Eliza, as she's simply known now) has done in the intervening years - not so great chart wise, with the follow-up managing a two week run and that's been it but she's still putting out an album every five years or so.

Wikipedia has more than I was expecting on the album, but most of it is telling us how the critics mostly liked it - although The Guardian's comment that "as soon as it is over it has disappeared without a trace, but do picnic soundtracks really need to be weighed down with pretensions to significance?" feels a little harsh.  It did better than I expected commercially away from these shores, even if #38 in Denmark was the highest it actually reached anywhere else - but at least some people bought it!

"Customers also listened to" Mark Ronson, Pixie Lott, Rizzle Kicks and Lenka - and I've never even heard of Lenka.  And probably a lot of people these days have never heard of Eliza, but, back in the day, for about a year, she was a big thing.  And, to be honest, this was a lot better than many of the other albums I've had to endure this year - I'm glad I gave her the sympathy listen.

11/07/10 - Much more enjoyable than expected
18/07/10 - Not exactly essential