It was only a smile but my heart, it went wild

Continuing my trip back through the 2015 album charts.

23/10/15 : Jamie Lawson - Jamie Lawson

Huh? Who? I don't know him, do I?

Ah - from the first seconds of the album, I realise I very much do. Although I have to admit I "Wasn't Expecting That" (do you see what I did there?). It's a song I really like because it introduces characters and tells a story about them with a distinct arc and a bit of a twist, which I think is a real skill (see also Suzanne Vega's "The Queen And The Soldier", David Bowie's "Space Oddity", Natalie Merchant's "Tell Yourself" and Barry Manilow's "Copacabana" amongst many others). And the rest of the album pretty much continues in that vein - unsurprisingly the quality dips after the strong opener, but it doesn't dip nearly as much as you might expect. It's all a very David Gray/James Blunt/Ed Sheeran kinda thing, but it's a good example of such a thing so I really quite enjoyed it.

We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a nineteen week run - obviously a lot better than I (didn't) remember it doing. The rest of the top five are Ed Sheeran, John Newman (another new entry which I seem to recall quite liking), Jess Glynne (she's got to have her turn soon, surely?) and Peter Andre (another new entry and what a shame we missed this!) and we have three more new entries in the top ten for Demi Lovato (#6), Nothing But Thieves (#7) and Jean Michel-Jarre (#8).

Wikipedia tells us this is actually is his fourth album, but there's a strong Ed Sheeran-related reincarnation going on here - his first albums ("Wasn't Expecting That" was on his debut) hadn't done anything outside of Ireland until his old mate Ed rang him to offer a support slot at a gig and then signed him to his record label. There's no word on critical opinion but it did OK commercially in Ireland (#5), Australia (#4) and New Zealand (#3).

"Customers also listened to" Passenger, James Morrison, James Blunt and Newton Faulkner - all of whom I quite like except for Newton who I've never understood the point to. I didn't mind Jamie at all though - it's not setting the world alight but it's tuneful and heartfelt and sometimes that's all you need.

16/10/15 - How had I never heard this?
30/10/15 - Less annoying than expected!

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