I still believe it's you and me 'til the end of time

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 at #9 in the chart this week on its twelfth week of an amazing 82 week run, with it peaking at #3 in its 43rd week (obviously) - it's also managed another 19 weeks on the charts over four runs, last being seen in '14.  The top five this week were Paolo, Alicia, Florence, Andre and Gaga.  For some unclear reason, I decided against listening to Alvin & The Chipmunks' The Squeakquel at #6, which is how we ended up with Biffy (but to be honest, I'd have taken anything).  And the highest new entry is Hadouken! (#19) and if they're not heavy, I'll be amazed - and colour me amazed because they're dance-punk, whatever that is.  And somewhat bizarrely, the next highest new entry is a Del Shannon best-of (#25 - and he died in '90).

WIkipedia has way more on the album than I was expecting (120 milliPeppers) and it manages some interesting facts!  The album is named after the 2006 novel by Mark Z. Danielewski, the album features Josh Homme and the album cover is another one from Storm Thurgerson.  If you look at this, you might suspect he didn't put too much effort into this one - but apparently they were real flags, the size of an office block, flown on a windy day, which must have taken quite some organisation.  The album was very well received by the critics with many considering it a step up in terms of ambition and generally well executed - it was also nominated for the Mercury Prize (along with Corinne), losing out to The XX.  Commercially however, it wasn't nearly as successful as I expected - #16 in Ireland and #66 in Switzerland (it feels like the sort of thing that I thought they'd love in Germany and Austria, but I guess not!).

"Customers also listened to" Twin Atlantic, Athlete, Feeder and Maximo Park - which wasn't the sort of thing I was expecting at all.  I don't know Twin Atlantic, but the rest of them just aren't very Biffyish.  But this album feels peak-Biffyish to me (with my extensive Clyro knowledge) - I liked it and would hope I remember it when I'm in the mood for this sort of thing.

24/01/10 - Not aimed at me
07/02/10 - Not so smooth, but understandably so

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