Every day I'm awake I've been thinking about you

Continuing my trip back through the 2015 album charts.

06/11/15 : Another Country - Rod Stewart

Oh joy! I assumed that I'd be able to skip this because it was going to be a load of rubbish covers but no - Rod decided he had to write a load of original songs and so I can't think of any reason to avoid it. Let's just say my expectations are not high for it...

Well, he's certainly thrown the kitchen sink at this one. We've got Tartan Rod, Rocker Rod, Reggae Rod, Anthem Rod, Ballad Rod - even Nursery Rhyme Rod! I can't say I particularly liked most of it (although bizarrely, a couple of songs I thought I'd probably quite like if they were done by Big Country) but I do have to give credit to the lad for giving his fans some new songs. The only people that need this in their lives are Rod's uberfans, but it appears they were very happy to get it.

We're at #2 with a new entry in the chart this week at the start of a surprisingly successful 22 week run, with it spending the first eight weeks in the top ten. The rest of the top five were Elvis (a new entry), Guy Garvey (another new entry for a relative spring chicken - this isn't a bad album, but not really very different from Elbow), Ed Sheeran and Jess Glynne (she's been mentioned quite a lot this year, but has yet to have her moment in the spotlight). We have three more new entries in the top ten for James Morrison (#7), Jack Pack (#8 - BGT escapees) and an Erasure best-of (#9).

Wikipedia tells us this is his 28th album and he had a hand in writing ten of the songs, often with Kevin Savigar who he first worked with in 1978. The critics were pretty mixed about it, but more were nice about it (and particularly his vocal work) than you might expect. It also did surprisingly well commercially globally - #4 in Ireland, #7 in Germany, #9 in Australia and #20 in the US.  All of which suggests there are a lot more Rod fans out there than I was expecting.

"Customers also listened to" Jools Holland, Paul Carrack, Neil Diamond and Michael Bublé - a definitely middle-aged-plus crew there, but none of them have lasted as long as Rod. Unlike his early 70s stuff, this very much isn't my cup of tea but I can't help but admire the lad for his longevity and it's not nearly as bad as it could be!

30/10/15 - Less annoying than expected!
13/11/15 - Doesn't quite hit the spot

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