Twenty million steps with a computer inside

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

06/10/23 : Autumn Variations - Ed Sheeran 

Oh good, it's BEBS again (Bloody Ed Bloody Sheeran) - the second time we've seen him this year.  Although, to be fair, I didn't mine the last one at all so I'm not dreading this - although my expectations aren't exactly sky high.

Well, it's all perfectly "fine".  But it's also astonishingly average - for each track I reckon Ed had a thought, jotted down a few words about it, did some nice strummy stuff and went "that'll do!".  They all sound pretty much the same, or at least I think they do because I really can't remember a thing about them.  I think it's safe to say I won't be revisiting this...

We're at #1 (of course) with a new entry on the chart this week and the rest of the top five are Olivia Rodrigo, Jorja Smith (another new entry which I may well check out), Steven Wilson (ditto) and The Weeknd.  We have one more new entry in the top ten for Black Stone Cherry (#6) and there's a rather peculiar re-entry for Lana del Rey (#7).  Last week I predicted that Kylie would fall to #26 but she's hung in there at #8 - I suspect Ed will do something similar so let's go for #8 for him as well (although he in no way deserves it).  And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten, five in the top twenty and nine in the chart.

Wikipedia tells me the album is vaguely based on Elgar's Enigma Variations in that each of the tracks is based on something that happened to one of his mates.  The critics were somewhat mixed on it - some of them loved it, but I side with The Guardian who ripped into it as "another occasion to despair at the colossal popularity of such proudly unimaginative, staunchly unoriginal and intellectually bereft music".  And yet it's obviously done well commercially - #1 in Australia, The Netherlands and Germany as well as here.

"Customers also listened to" Shawn Mendes, Lewis Capaldi, Camilla Cabello and Lukas Graham - a slightly odd mix.  Despite my rudeness towards the man, I can admit that he has produced some decent tunes in his time but there is absolutely no evidence of that on this album I'm afraid.

29/09/23 - Enjoyably forgettable
13/10/23 - Bearable until you listen to it

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