If it's bad then let those tears roll down

Continuing my trip back through the 1977 album charts.

25/09/77 : Show Some Emotion - Joan Armatrading

A woman - finally!  Our first one this year - well done. Joan!  I don't think I've ever listened to one of her albums, so I'm quite looking forward to it - although I've no real idea what I'm going to expect.

It's mostly perfectly pleasant and well-crafted songs showing a reasonable mix of musical styles and it has some nice guitar work on it.  I didn't like "Woncha Come On Home", the opening track which has a bluesy-calypso style to it, but I quite liked "Show Some Emotion" and "Willow" - apart from that none of them really jumped out at me, but I found it them decent enough.  One other comment is that I don't know if it's intentional but the sound quality isn't as pure as I'd like it to be - it's quite a "fuzzy" sound and I would have preferred more crispness.

We're at #6 with a new entry this week on the start of an eleven week run, with this being as high as it got.  The top five this week were the Diana Ross best of, Jean Michel Jarre, Elvis Presley, A Star Is Born OST (which almost got a listen) and Fleetwood Mac and the next highest new entry was Linda Ronstadt (#15) - her most successful album over here whereas she's had 3 #1 and 9 top ten albums in the US.

Wikipedia tells us this is her fourth album - and that's pretty much it!  The critics were a bit mixed on it - I feel I am closest to Trouser Press (whoever they are) who said it was a "casual-sounding album of songs that, if not among her best, are more than presentable and occasionally captivating".  There are some interesting names on the personnel list - Georgie Fame played piano, Clarke Peters provided some backing vocals and it was produced by Glyn Johns.  All of whom are still with us with a combined age of 231 years - and you can add on another 73 years for Joan as well, so it was a good album for longevity.  It also did better than I expected in the US, getting to #52.

"Customers also listened to" Elkie Brooks, Colin Blunstone, John Martyn and Judie Tzuke - I can't say I really know very much about any of that lot except that Colin Blunstone was in The Zombies who hailed from St Albans.  I can't say I know loads about Joan either - I don't get the feeling this was her best work but I'm still hoping I'll come across more of her stuff on my travels (and there are four more top ten albums across the years, so it may well happen).

18/09/77 - Astonishingly average
02/10/77 - Disappointing

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