You take in the blackness of air

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

25/08/23 : Unreal Unearth - Hozier 

I don't hate Hozier, but I can't help but feel the guy is a very lucky pub singer - one decent song and he suddenly finds himself a global star.  I don't blame the lad - why wouldn't he run with it?  But he ain't that great - is he?

Well, I've listened to this and well - no, he ain't.  I mean, it's all perfectly listenable and if he was playing the King Will down the road I'd certainly give him some applause and I might even buy him a pint.  I also admire his use of the Irish language - but does this album deserve to be #1?  No - it does not.  A load of the songs scream "tortured poet" - but I can't help but feel that everyone who cares understands exactly how sensitive the lad is and the rest of us just don't give a monkeys.  I don't really know what else to say - I'm just a bit perplexed by the whole thing.  As I am by the album cover as well...

We're at #1 with a new entry on the chart this week with the rest of the top five being The Weeknd (WHO is listening to this?), Taylor, Travis Scott and Taylor - she's not quite fading away yet, is she?  We also have two more new entries in the top ten - The View (#6) and Renee Rapp (#7) and I'm sorry but I can tell you absolutely nothing about either of them.  So, last week I guessed The Hives would drop to #53 and I'm not surprised to tell you I was wrong, but I'm quite surprised at how wrong I was, because they've dropped out of the chart entirely - #2 to absolutely nowhere is weirdly impressive.  I can't quite see Hozier doing the same, but my hopes aren't high for the lad - I'm going for #75.  But someone who has done pretty well this week is Taylor - THREE in the top ten, six in the top twenty and nine in the overall chart.

Wikipedia tells us that Hozier wrote the album in response to Covid-19 and it's based around Dante's Inferno - I have to admit this somewhat passed me by.  The critics suggest that maybe I should have listened to it a bit harder because he brings all that through - but what do they know eh?  It's done pretty well commercially though - you might not be surprised to hear it made it to #1 in Ireland, but it's got to #2 in The Netherlands and New Zealand and done better than you'd expect elsewhere.

"Customers also listened to" David Kushner, Bear McCreary, Victoria Canal and Holly Humberstone - I've heard of Holly but that's it.  This album is perfectly fine, in fact it pretty much screams "perfectly fine" but I really wonder who's going to care enough to listen to it again.

18/08/23 - Fun, but not enough to convert me
01/09/23 - So far out of my frame of reference

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