I remember flashbacks lighting up magic waves

Continuing my trip back through the 2015 album charts.

10/05/15 : The Magic Whip - Blur


If you'd asked me, I'd have sworn blind I'd never even heard of this album - but it turns out that would be a lie because I mentioned it when reviewing their last album because it was their previous effort. I'm absolutely certain I've never heard it though - and I've got a very strong suspicion I'm not going to like it.

Hmmm. It's a curious one. It does have some interesting noises on it, but a lot of it feels very lazy to me - like they did one take and went "that'll do" (although I'm sure they actually spent ages making it sound the way it does). I also really don't like Damon's voice these days, so I don't feel I'm really best placed to comment (unlike all the other albums that I comment on, obviously!). Having said that, I did like "Ghost Ship" and "Pyongyang" - to me, it feels like an album with unrealised potential rather than an essential listen, but I'm sure the fans have studied every aspect in great detail and love it.

We're at #2 in the chart this week on their second week of a longer than expected (by me anyway) thirteen week run with it having debuted at #1. The rest of the top five were Mumford & Sons (a new entry), Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Sia (as high as she ever got in an impressive 103 weeks in the chart) and the next highest new entry was JME (#12), a British grime MC. 

Wikipedia tells us it's their eighth album and their first since 2003 - the band were supposed to be playing a festival in Tokyo but it got cancelled at the last minute, so they spent a couple of days in a studio in Hong Kong and this album eventually came about as a result. The critics were very upbeat about it with Spin saying "Magic Whip is a fun album, nearly as much as any Gorillaz LPs" - man, some people have a weird idea of fun. Commercially, it did pretty well (especially considering how long it was since their previous album) making the top ten in a load of European countries, including #1 in Ireland.

"Customers also listened to" a load of albums relating to various Blur band members - nobody expected that now, did they? I "not hated" this more than I was expecting, and I also find myself surprisingly annoyed that I didn't like it more - which was not at all where I suspected to end up.

03/05/15 - It's all about that headache
17/05/15 - Fascinatingly uninteresting

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