Change the economy, give me the currency

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

21/07/23 : Beautiful and Brutal Yard - J Hus 

Our second visit with J Hus - last time I found myself surprised by how much I enjoyed it, so let's hope for more of the same this time.

Hmmm - not quite, unfortunately.  I like the general sound and there's certainly enough variety on there, but I just found myself zoning out when I tried to listen to it.  I'm sure it's my fault - maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it and if I tried again, then maybe I'd get it.  But that ain't gonna happen, I'm afraid.  If you like Dave's stuff, then check this out because you might well like this as well - but it just didn't hit the spot for me.  It's got a cool album cover though (and quite a cool title as well - BABY for short).

We're at #1 with a new entry this week, which somewhat surprised me - but it probably shouldn't because his last album got to #1 and his debut album spent 102 weeks on the charts.  The rest of the top five are Taylor, best-ofs from The Weeknd and Elton John and, oh look, it's Taylor again and there's one more new entry in the top ten for Rita Ora (#6).  We've actually got a couple of interesting new entries just outside as well - Lauren Spencer-Smith (#11 - I thought I'd never heard any of her stuff, but she did "Fingers Crossed") and Gerry Cinnamon (#12 - the BJSS #AOTD lot loved him).  This week's Taylor stats are four in the top ten (this is getting silly now), six in the top twenty and nine in the chart - last week I boldly stated she'd hold on to the #1 spot and, depending on how you look at it,  I was either the closest I've ever been because I was one off or the furthest away I've ever been because I was 100% wrong.  My guess for J Hus next week would normally be a reasonable top ten hold, but allowing for the Taylor factor, I'm going to drop my guess to #12.

Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album, although there is an interesting section on the promotion campaign - they put up billboards stating "Don't Say Militancy" and included a phone number, which when you called it told you he had a new album coming out.  I can only imagine how many people rang it and went "Ah - OK.  Who?".  Most of the entry tells us how much the critics loved it, which does not surprise me - I bet none of them went "I can't get into this".  There are also some pretty heavy hitting guest artists on this - Drake, Burna Boy and Jorja Smith are the ones I recognise.  It's also got to #21 in Norway - his last album did OK over there as well!

"Customers also listened to" Byron Messia, Nate Smallz, Steel Banglez and BandoKay and I can assure you I can tell you absolutely nothing about any of them - unlike my encyclopaedic knowledge of J Hus, obviously.  I can see this album has been put together with some skill and it has a lot to recommend it, but it just didn't click with me - sorry, J!

14/07/23 - Her again...
28/07/23 - A fine album

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