Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

01/03/24 : Swing Fever - Rod Stewart & Jools Holland

It would be easy and perfectly justifiable for me to ignore this album but I have to admit it, I'm intrigued - it's either going to be surprisingly bearable or absolutely awful.  And, somewhat surprisingly, after my 1977 exploits, I'm actually expecting Rod to keep this on the listenable side - but we shall see.

Nope - I was wrong.  It's fine for a song or two, but after that it gets very repetitive.  Rod sounds like he's having a good time (whilst, somewhat unexpectedly, not really sounding like Rod) but no-one, and I mean NO-ONE, needs this album.  Well, when I say no-one, I mean no-one under the age of 75 - seriously, who was buying this?  

So, as penance for listening to something I probably shouldn't have, I'm going to listen to the next album down.  I liked The Snuts debut album which we've previously met so I'm happy to give them another chance - and it's probably more deserved that Rod & Jools.


Yeah, this is much better.  I wouldn't say it's great but it's perfectly listenable - last time I said they sounded like The Kooks and they're still very much in that area, but I'm getting hints of Arctic Monkeys as well.  But whoever they sound like, this is waaaay better than Rod and Jools.

We're at #1 & #2 in the charts this week with new entries and the rest of the top five are Noah Kahan (the lad's doing well and is now, somewhat surprisingly, my most read post), The Weeknd (if he's ever the only album in the top five I've not reviewed, I'm going to succumb to his charms) and Potter Payper (another new entry) and we have one more new entry in the top ten for Red Rum Club (#8).

Last week I said that Idles would drop to #23 and whilst I was some way off at #42, I'm happy enough it was a tricky one to call.  Rod & Jools feels similarly tricky so I feel like going for a similar number, but I'm going slightly higher at #37.  And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten, five in the top twenty and ten in the entire chart - for some unclear reason Fearless has popped back in for the first time in a long time.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on Rod & Jools, but I was surprised to see they've got to #4 in Germany - funnily enough The Snuts haven't done anything away from these shores.

For Rod and Jools, "customers also listened to" Solomon King, Malcolm Roberts, Joe Longthorne and Lena Zavaroni - what?  For The Snuts, "they" went for Alex Spencer, The Ks, The Lathums and The Reytons - I only know the last two but they're totally in The Snuts wheelhouse.  Seriously, all this week has taught us is that no-one knows nothing - but I'm still very surprised that Rod & Jools took the top spot.

23/02/24 - Surprisingly enjoyable
08/03/24 - Inessential and hackneyed, but well-done nonetheless

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