These streets will make you feel brand-new - big lights will inspire you

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts.

04/07/10 : The Element Of Freedom - Alicia Keys

Our second visit with Alicia and whilst I'd heard of the last one, I have to admit I've never heard of this one - I'm sure it will be skilful, but I'm not sure I'll love it.

Yeah, it's all very skilful stuff - nice melodic songs with some cracking piano and a fine voice.  She's quite like a female Stevie Wonder, I guess - but with the exception of "Empire State Of Mind", I can't say any of them really jumped out at me on first listen, but I can believe that they might be growers.  It feels like my wife would like it - she's likes a song you can sing along to and there's certainly some of them here.

We're at #3 in the charts on her 29th week of a 51 week run - I'm annoyed for her she never made it to a year.  She did, however, spend two weeks at #1, 23 weeks in the top 10 and she had another 18 week run eleven years later in '21 - not a bad effort at all.  The rest of the top five were Eminem, Scissor Sisters (a new entry), Plan B and yet another Oasis best-of (this was their fifth, and currently, thankfully, their last) and there are no more new entries in the top ten - the only other one in the chart was a Zero 7 (who we last saw in 2006) best-of all the way down at #61 (and this was the last time they were seen in the UK charts).

Wikipedia has way more on this than I was expecting (330 milliPeppers) - but most of it very inconsequential filler about her "journey" and "process".  Yawn.  A couple of big names pop up on the album in Drake and Beyoncé - and names don't get much bigger than that!  It was also nice to see Carlos Alamar (best know for his work with Bowie) on there as well.  The critics were mostly nice enough about it, although a lot of them insisted it was a "pop" album and I'm not sure I totally agree with that.  There is also, unusually, a large selection of negative reviews included - many of which complain about the bland lyrics, which I must admit completely passed me by (maybe because of their blandness).  No matter what the critics thought of it, the public went mad for it with it making the top ten in most countries (although it only made the top here and in Switzerland), getting to #2 in the US and selling four million copies globally (with over a million sold here, which seems like LOADS!).

"Customers also listened to" Beyoncé, Leona Lewis, Christina Aguilera and Andra Day (who I've never even heard of).  I admired rather than enjoyed this - it all just felt a bit too smooth for its own good, but I guess that was a large part of the appeal for many.

27/06/10 - Really very bad indeed
11/07/10 - Much more enjoyable than expected

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