It hasn't rained for a month, the river's run dry

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

27/10/23 : Hackney Diamonds - The Rolling Stones

Our squillionth visit with them old geezers - I'm expecting this to be perfectly bearable, but not to possess anything that would make me want to listen to it again.

Yeah, I think that's a fair enough description but, if you're a Stones fan, I would think there's plenty here to keep you happy.  I actually quite liked "Whole Wide World" - it had a Sam Fenderesque vitality to it (certainly much more than I'd expect from a bunch of septu/octagenerians).  "Dreamy Skies" also had a nice nod back to their bluesy roots - the rest of it certainly didn't grate, but I suspect it would have been utterly ignored if put out by anyone else.  I was also surprised to hear someone else singing on "Tell Me Straight" - apparently it's Keith and I'd have to say he does a decent job.  Overall, I didn't love it but also, unlike a lot of Stones efforts, there was nothing here that made me think "guys - just retire now" which seems like quite a notable achievement for them.

We're at #1 with a new entry this week with the rest of the top five being Blink 182 (another new entry), Bombay Bicycle Club (a hat trick of new entries!), Olivia Rodrigo and Drake and the next highest new entry is the amusingly named Barry Can't Swim (#12).  Last week I was hoping Ren would hold on as high as #73 - so imagine my delight when I saw he was hanging in at #35, which is a really fine result for the last.  I suspect The Stones will do better than that, but not hugely so - I can't see too many kids bothering to check it out so I'm going to go for #23.  And this week's Taylor stats are three in the top ten, five in the top twenty and nine in the whole chart - and I suspect we might well be talking a bit more about her next week...

Wikipedia has a massive amount for a new album (278 milliPeppers) but that doesn't surprise anyone, does it?  And could I be bothered reading most of it?  No, I could not.  One thing that did jump out is the amount of marketing they've undertaken - they produced limited edition album covers in the colours of every MLB (US baseball) team and they also had a Barcelona kit tie-in designed as well.  I also learned what a "Hackney diamond" is - it's the smashed glass from a shop window after a robbery.  The critics were pretty nice about the album, with some declaring it their best album in decades - I can't comment on the accuracy of this, but I can quite believe it.  And obviously, it's done well commercially - X1 across most of Europe (but only #68 in Lithuania) and #3 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" The Who, Derek & The Dominos, The Steve Miller Band and Aerosmith - a list looking more backwards than forwards methinks.  As are The Stones on this album, but that's really no bad thing at all  - if you like them then I suspect this is well worth checking out.  On my part, I'm prepared to go way overboard with my praise and say I didn't mind it...

20/10/23 - An ambitious triumph
03/11/23 - Well worth checking out

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