She looks physically fine - guess it's something benign

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

02/06/23 : The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte - Sparks 

I am, of course, aware of Sparks - I admire their dedication to their art, but I can't say I love them (although I do want to watch Edgar Wright's documentary about them).  I knew we'd met them before, but couldn't have told you it was their 1974 album - FORTY NINE years ago!!  I'm expecting this to be remarkably similar (despite not really being able to remember what it sounded like).

And, yeah - it sounds pretty Sparks-y to me.  I actually like a lot of the tracks (and the opening title track is indeed a fine track with some great lyrics), but as a whole the album didn't have enough variety for me - but I suspect that it's giving their fans exactly what they want and there's obvious plenty of skill on display as well, so I feel I can't be harsh about it.  If you like Sparks, then I see absolutely no reason why you won't like this.  Reading that back, it all feels a bit negative - so let me just say there's actually a lot to love here, with some fine tunes and some great lyrics.

We're at a surprisingly low #7 in the charts this week - I couldn't tell you the last time we were this low in recent charts.  I don't expect it to hang around, but I'm pleased for the lads to do so well.  The top five this week are Lewis, Taylor, Harry, Ed and The Weeknd - that's a pretty heavy hitting top five and Beyoncé's at #6, who's no slouch in the success stakes (and back because she's on tour, I guess).  And we have two more new entries in the top ten - Simply Red (#8 - nobody expected that!) and Arlo Parks (#9) and I guess I also need to mention Elton at #10 a) because that completes the top 10 and b) we saw him this week and he was ACE!  I've got a couple more of interest from the top twenty - Tina Turner's best-of at #17 (thanks for all the songs and the attitude) and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells at #18 (what's that doing there?).  I'm also going to mention that Taylor has EIGHT albums in the top 100 (Ed has 4, and Harry, The Weeknd, Oasis, Lana and Eminem have 3).

Wikipedia tells me this is their 25th album, Cate Blanchett appeared in the video for the title track and the critics LOVED it (which doesn't overly surprise me).  And, for quite a long entry, that really isn't a lot of content, is it?

"Customers also listened" Dexys, Matt Berry, Devo and A Certain Ratio - well, that's a peculiar mix, isn't it?  But Sparks are a peculiar bunch and no mistake - there's no-one really like them and for that I appreciate, if not exactly love, them.  There's no doubt that music needs people like them and I certainly think this is worth checking out - even if, like me, you don't love the whole thing.

26/05/23 - Giving the people what they want
09/06/23 - Fine, I guess