Yeah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two

Continuing my trip back through the 2015 album charts.

03/05/15 : Title - Meghan Trainor


Yes, I know and don't mind her being all about that bass, but I can't help that a whole album of it will get very tiresome very quickly.

Oh yes - this is very much not aimed at me. I'd struggle to say that any of the tracks taking on their own is terrible (although I'm not a fan of her voice and choice of harmonies) but it's just relentless as a whole album - it gave me a headache. To be fair to the lass though, there are a load of positive message scattered throughout the album - but that doesn't make it any more bearable.

We're at #5 in the charts this week on her fourteenth week of a 53 week run, with it having debuted at #1, all of which seems incredibly generous. The rest of the top five are Blur (a new entry), Taylor, James Bay and Josh Groban (avoided because it's a collection of Broadway songs) with the next highest new entry being a somewhat unlikely The Proclaimers at an equally unlikely #26. Interestingly, every album in the top ten this week had been #1 at some time - they certainly hung around longer back in the halcyon days of 2015!

Wikipedia has a frankly unbelievable amount on the album (381 milliPeppers!) - this is achieved by including an incredible level of detail on every single one of the songs multiple times. Did I read all of it? No, I did not but I can tell you she was offered a scholarship to the Berklee College Of Music (which is a big deal) but turned it down to concentrate on songwriting and was doing OK for herself, but wanted to make her own mark - and then she and Kevin Kadish wrote "All About That Bass". It got to #1 in 58 countries and was the best selling song of the '10s by a female artist in the US (spending eight weeks at #1). And apparently there was some controversy because it "body shames thin women" - seriously people, do you have NOTHING to worry about?

Anyways, back to the album, the critics weren't overly impressed with the repetitiveness of it all and confidently opined that she'd never make a career out of it - six albums later and a multitude of other profile raising roles would suggest they might have got that slightly wrong. Commercially, it did OK I guess with it getting to #1 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US - it's funny how some albums do well in all the English speaking countries. It did pretty weel elsewhere but they didn't go for it in Belgium or Italy though, with it not making the top 50 in either country.

"Customers also listened to" Charlie Puth, Little Mix, Kelly Clarkson and Jason Derulo - with Jason being someone else who just gives me a headache. There's a lot to admire about this album, it's just unfortunate that the music is not one of those things.

26/04/15 - Enjoyably weird
10/05/15 - Something of a missed opportunity

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