I saw your mum - she forgot that I existed

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

22/12/23 : Stick Season - Noah Kahan

Well, this week surprises us on a couple of fronts.  Firstly, and probably the least expected, this is possibly the album I've heard most this year - because obviously I'm a massive Noah fan.

Well, it might not surprise you to hear it's not me but my delightful daughter - but you might be surprised to hear just how much my youngest absolutely LOVES Noah, particularly given his folkiness.  She's got tickets to see him next year and (excluding festivals) they're the most expensive gig tickets I've ever bought.  But despite having heard the album loads, I've never actually listened to it, so I'm interested to see what I make of it on a one-on-one basis.

You know what - the headline is that, having actually listened to it I can report that, at least in places, I liked this way more than I previously did.  I listened to it over headphones for the first time and there's some lovely instrumentation on it and the lyrics (which I knew were, in part at least, pretty good) are much clearer when you've actually listening to the thing - who knew, eh?!?  I do think that 55 minutes is pushing things a bit (83 minutes for the expanded version!), but the good bits are really pretty good - "Northern Attitude", "All My Love" and the title track are all pretty fine tracks with some lovely guitar work.  And the rest of it isn't terrible, but I do think it could do with a bit more variety because a lot of it is a bit, well - wet, at times.

We're at an interesting #6 in the charts this week on his 28th week of a run where this is as high as he's been - in this week and his 22nd week .  What makes it interesting is that it debuted at #17 and looked to be heading out of the charts pretty quickly, but it spent ten weeks in the 50s and 60s and has since crawled back up the charts.  To be honest, I'm pleased for him and pleased for my youngest - it's good to find your thing and run with it.  

So, what's in the top five this week then?  Well, quite obviously the #1 album for Christmas is The Rolling Stones - that album's really stuck around with it not having left the top ten in its nine weeks on the chart and I'm pleased for them, as well as being pleased that last week we had Rebel Diamonds at the top and this week it's Hackney Diamonds.  The rest of the top five are Bublé, (of course!), Taylor, Nicki Minaj and Cher's Christmas offering (which it's just occurred to me I should have listened to, but I just don't feel the need to subject myself to it).  The rest of the top ten are actually also quite interesting - Olivia Rodrigo has still to leave the top ten in her nineteen weeks on the charts (and Sour is still hanging around at #22), Andre Rieu is at a very unexpected #8, The Weeknd best-of is STILL here (it's not been out of the top twenty in two years) and Eminem's best-of provides some festive cheer to complete things (597 weeks on the charts!).

Last week I said that Nicki would drop to #10 and we already know I got that wrong - I made too much allowance for Xmas randomness.  For a change, I'm going to guess that Noah goes absolutely nowhere - if I'm wrong it's because my youngest is too busy entertaining family to listen to him on repeat.  And this weeks Taylor stats are one in the top ten, four in the top twenty and nine in the total chart.

Wikipedia tells me this is his third album and is different musically from his previous indie-pop offerings.  He's also released versions of several of the tracks with quite the list of guest artists - Post Malone, Lizzy McAlpine, Kacey Musgraves, Hozier and Gracie Abrams.  The critics have been nice enough about the album and it's done well commercially - #3 in the US and, to no-one's surprise, #1 in Ireland.

"Customers also listened to" Hozier, Gracie Abrams, Lizzy McAlpine and Zach Bryan - I've never heard of Zach but I can imagine what he sounds like.  I didn't mind Noah at all - I'm slightly surprised it's been as successful as it has, but I can't fault the lad for doing what he likes and am pleased people have found something they like about it.

15/12/23 - Better than I was expecting
22/12/23 - Well, I wasn't expecting her!