Take a good look in your own time

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts.

23/05/99 : Magic Hour - Cast

Me and Cast have an odd musical history - I liked their early stuff, so obviously bought the following album which didn't have any of that on it.  And I then preceded to, as far as I can remember, NEVER listen to it.  And I don't think I was ever aware this album even existed (so no, I never owned it - 13/32), so who knows what I'm going to think of it?!?

Well, I did at least recognise "Beat Mama", but that was it, I'm afraid.  The rest of the album was a bit odd - it either sounded exactly like you'd expect it to (if you knew their earlier stuff - but not quite so good) or it sounded surprisingly orchestral (particularly "What You Gonna Do?", the closing instrumental number).  It's indie with orchestral pretensions and I'm not sure there's a huge market for that - I didn't hate it, but I'd struggle to say much of it stuck in the brain.  I'm really not convinced by that album cover either.

We're at #6 in the charts with a new entry this week on their start of a massive FOUR week run - yes, they did come back for another five weeks after a six week break but, come on, even Super Furry Animals managed a thirteen week run.  The top five this week are ABBA, Backstreet Boys (another new entry), Texas, Stereophonics and Fatboy Slim.  WHAT?!?  No Shania?!?  We actually don't see her for the rest of the year - the world's gone mad, I tell you!

Wikipedia tells me that "Beat Mama" and the title track were singles, the reason it sounds so orchestral in places is that David Arnold (of James Bond score fame) did the strings arrangement and "What You Gonna Do?" is an instrumental version of "Alien" (another track on the album) - which I totally missed at the time.  The critics' view of the album was "well, at least it's not as bad as Mother Nature Calls", although one retrospective review said "it all just lacks wit, imagination and conviction" - ouch!  It also probably won't surprise you to hear that it did absolutely nothing beyond these shores.

"Customers also listened to" The Seahorses, The Charlatans, Shed Seven and The Bluetones - I'm afraid I'd take any of those above this album.  It's all either a bit boring or a bit odd - it's hard to know who it's aimed at.

16/05/99 - Nope, I don't get this
30/05/99 - A very fine album indeed

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