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Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 24/01/10 :  Turn It Up -  Pixie Lott Pixie is another one of those random female singer-songwriters who was always being mentioned around this time without me ever be aware of any of her songs.  I think she's on the poppier side of things, but I'm not entirely sure... Yeah, on the poppier side of things would be a fair enough comment.  None of it's horrible and some of the songs are pretty catchy, but I'd struggle to describe it as memorable.  I was often reminded of Girls Aloud or Little Mix - I thought that some of the songs would have benefited from having more than one voice on them.  Apart from that, I've got nothing! We're at #7 in the charts this week on her 18th week of a frankly astonishing 84 week run, with it having peaked at #6 in its debut week.  84 weeks!  The top five this week were  Florence ,  Paolo , Lostprophets (a new entry which I didn't have to decide whether to...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 31/01/10 :  Only Revolutions -  Biffy Clyro Our third visit with Biffy and without being massive fans of theirs, they hit a sweet spot for me as being rocky enough - there's some weight to the songs without them taking things too far.  It's the sort of thing I would have appreciated much more when I was a young thing - I'm just too old these days (and I'm not allowed to play my music loud enough to truly enjoy such things).  But I've got a reasonable level of expectation for this and I'm sure they won't let me down. Nope, they didn't.  I did actually recognise "Many Of Horror" - it's actually their second most successful single (after "Mountains" - which is also on this album and I didn't recognise at all!) but the rest of it hit the said sweet spot.  There's also a good amount of variation on the album - all in all, it's a decent listen. We're all the way down...

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2022 .   #13 :  Yellowjackets A stellar cast of retro greats – including Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci – were on fine form in this menacing survival story about a girl’s high-school soccer team in a plane crash that you could never quite put your finger on. Was it a modern-day Lord of the Flies? A cannibalism-packed story of blood-hungry forest spirits? A whodunnit revenge thriller featuring drugs, murder and shady politicians who’d do anything to survive? You never knew – and that’s what made it so gripping. I've heard this is good, but I've also heard it's tricky to describe - and The Guardian doesn't do anything to disabuse me of that notion above.  So let's see what kind of a job I manage. Well, it's not easy to describe - and, yes, The Guardian is partially right that that's what made it so gripping.  At times you are completely intrigued - whilst at other times it is all a bit confusin...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1983 : Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)  - Eurythmics This is another surprising winner - but in a completely opposite way to the "mighty US track steamrollering all UK opposition" issue we've seen previously.  I'm really pleased to see this here, but intrigued as to how it's emerged from what must be a very crowded field.  Let's hope I do a better job at understanding the situation than I managed last time... But first, let's enjoy all 3:36 of the track and its official video!  Firstly, we have to consider Annie's look and remember how much of a fuss it caused at the time - particularly combined with Boy George outraging everyone, everyone got VERY confused about how they were supposed to tell boys and girls apart and the end of the world was likely to result.  It feels like a different time (it was 40 years ago, after all!), but also still depressingly contemporary in terms of ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 07/02/10 :  The Sea -  Corinne Bailey Rae The ladies are on a roll here - they've had seven of the last eight entries, which has got to be one of the best runs we've ever seen.  This is our second visit with Corinne - last time was the one that everyone knows and loves, but I'm not sure I've ever even heard of this one which isn't exactly a great sign... Hmmm - it's OK, but I struggle to imagine it would have gone anywhere without the love generated by her eponymous debut.  This one has a rawer, jazzier sound - in a lot of ways it's a more interesting album, but that doesn't make it more enjoyable.  I can't recall one track jumping out at me - it feels like it would take several listens to dial into it enough to see if there are nuances worth investigating (which I suspect there are), but I'm afraid that ain't gonna happen. We're at #5 on the charts this week with a new entry startin...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 14/02/10 :  Soldier Of Love -  Sade Our third visit with Sade after the totally expected Diamond Life and the not so expected Love Deluxe - this is another one that I don't know (although I have heard the title track and seem to remember it's OK, but not great).  I quite like a bit of Sade, but I have to admit my expectations for this aren't super high, mostly because I suspect I'd have heard it at the time if was all that good. And it's OK, but a bit forgettable on one listen.  Maybe I would get into the groove given enough dinner parties, but that feels unlikely to happen given that I don't  go to any dinner parties these days and, even if I did, they probably wouldn't play thirteen year old albums.  Her voice has matured nicely and it's the same old smooth sound but the songs didn't quite stick for me - I can't see me rushing back to this.  It was a nice album to meet on Valentine's ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 21/02/10 :  Ocean Eyes -  Owl City Coming to you from the group who is a common pop quiz answer because no-one ever remembers who sang that firefly song, an album that I suspect might prove to be a little too much - but I'm happy to be proved wrong. But, before we get there, we have an interesting one to consider before ultimately rejecting - Forever Vienna by Andre Rieu.  At this point, Andre (a Dutch violinist/conductor) had been doing his classical music schtick for years and was very popular globally, drawing huge audiences from across the music spectrum - but we'd been completely oblivious to his charms.  Until this album happened, which somehow got to #2 - and since then he's been somewhat of a fixture to this day (six of his last seven albums have made the top ten).  And I was so intrigued as to what this album has that I checked it out - and I can declare it to be perfectly fine.  But quite why ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 28/02/10 :  The Family Jewels -  Marina & The Diamonds Yay!  I'm so pleased I've gotten to see this album - I never imagined that would happen.  The eagle-eyed amongst you might argue that I've already written about it - but I don't care, I'm writing about it again (and the format was somewhat sketchy back then, to say the least!).   I love this album and listen to it reasonably frequently - I saw her playing these tracks at Glasto wearing some VERY fetching orange dungarees.  It does have a high degree of quirk ( " We are the spoons, metal-ly mean - w e scooped our way into your dreams.   To knock the knives out bloody cold a nd lead you down the unforsaken road" ) but it's a quirk I like - she's got a great voice (although not as trained as later Marina) and the songs generally have a good hook to them.  "Hollywood" is the one everyone knows - I think "I Am Not A Robot...

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's   top 50 films of 2022 #36 :  A Banquet Social-comment body horror from debut feature director Ruth Paxton, with Sienna Guillory as the apparently perfect single mother with two daughters, one of whom develops a mysterious eating disorder. I've heard this is a bit weird, but can't tell you anything more about it. Oh yes, it's most definitely "a bit weird". There are lots of very strange camera angles and the sound is very strange as well with the weirdest bits being accentuated for no obvious reason.   And f ood is a constant theme throughout the film - filmed in close-up and often in very stark colour (reds and greens are a favourite).  But mostly, there's .  Very. Stilted.  And odd. Dialogue.   And for a long time, there's no obvious plot.  Yes, as The Guardian says, one of the daughters, Betsey, develops a mysterious eating disorder and there's obviously some kind of supernatural/horror element to ...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 21/04/23 :   72 Seasons  - Metallica Our fourth visit with Metallica - they've been a mix of "better than expected" and "absolutely as expected", but it's fair say I'm not a massive fan.  I'm expecting some fine guitar work though - whatever I think of the lads, they certainly know how to shred those axes. Yup, no axe is left unshredded here, certainly.  The songs sound fine if you like that sort of thing but personally they all sound very much the same to me - "I like bad things.  I've done bad things.  Yeah, bad things are my kinda thing" .  Do I have anything more to say about this?  Not really - I struggle to imagine this is going to too many people's gateway album to Metallica, but those that are going to love it will probably love it.  Oh, one other thing - it's 77 minutes long which I really didn't need. We're at #1 with a new entry this week - it will be...

Continuing my trip up the list of the most streamed songs for each year.   1982 :  Africa - Toto This is another surprising winner for me - it feels like there's a reasonable amount of love for it, but tempered with the realisation that it's absolutely loaded with cheese.  It's very similar to last year's winner, but without (as far as I'm aware) the extra Glee push or anything similar (although it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Glee had done a version of it - we'll find out soon enough).  But first, let's see if it's as cheesy as I remember... Oh yes - it's 4:21 of mega-cheddar.  And, for kinda the first time on this list (if we ignore Bohemian Rhapsody's effort), we have an official video to consider - and what a load of nonsense it is!  The lead singer is in a library - which appears to have made him remarkably sweaty, but maybe it's the presence of a lovely lady, who is obviously black (because, like, Africa!) and obviously...

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts. 07/03/10 :  Lights -  Ellie Goulding Our third visit with Ellie over the years - and so far none of her albums have delivered the kinda stuff of hers that I thought I liked.  Is this going to be the one that does?  I'll be honest - my expectations aren't high becase  I think it's the next one that delivers the goods, but let's see. Oh no - I'm totally wrong.  It's this one with "Starry Eyed", "Under The Sheets" and "The Writer" - three of the first five tracks which totally rock.  Yes, her voice is totally wrangled beyond belief but it's been wrangled to sound wrangled which works well.  The rest of it isn't quite so memorable - but hey, who cares?  I'm amazed I've not heard more covers of "The Writer" - it's actually a really well put together song. We're at #1 with a new entry this week - on the start of a somewhat impressive 33 week run.  Aft...