And tonight you can cry if you want to, but it won't help you

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

04/10/24 : Liquid Gold - Shed Seven

Well, this is a surprise - a second visit for Shed Seven this year! If you'd ask me to pick any band from that era that I'd be seeing once, let alone twice, in 2024 I think we'd have been here for quite some time before I got to these guys. I'd have to say I'm not entirely sure that anyone was crying out for them to orchestrate their songs, but I'm certainly intrigued as to what they've done with them.

You know what? They've done a pretty good job with them - I didn't know most of the tracks, but they all sounded decent. I did recognise "Chasing Rainbows", "Going For Gold" and "On Standby" and the new arrangements all add something into this mix and, of those I didn't know, "Waiting For The Catch" and "Disco Down" jumped out at me as quality.  For me, what this album particularly has going for it is that whoever did the arrangements didn’t take "orchestral" to mean "slowed down" or "no electric guitars or drums" - they concentrated on giving things a bit more depth and I think it's worked well. No, it's certainly not an essential listen by any means but if you remember any of their stuff with fondness then I certainly think it's worth checking out - it's considerably better than it has any right to be.

And, somewhat surprisingly, we're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week, making them only the twentieth act to have two #1 albums in the same year - which sounds low to me, but that's from the official chart website, so it must be true! You'd probably guess most of the other acts to have achieved it but I doubt too many of you would have come up with Blue ('02), Diana Ross ('94), Mike Oldfield ('74), The Monkees ('63) or The George Mitchell Minstrels ('57). Three acts have done it in three separate years - you get ten points if you can name two of them (coz that's easy) but twenty points if you get all three.

The rest of the top five are Bring Me The Horizon (a re-entry that we mentioned in passing back in June, but physical copies have pushed it back up the chart), Sabrina Carpenter, Nines and Ed Sheeran (both new entries). And boy, do we have a load of new entries to talk about this week!

Nines (#4)
Rap music stands a much better chance with me if it has understandable lyrics which tell a story, decent backing tracks and a mix of male and female vocalists - and I'm pleased to report this delivered on all fronts. I'm quite happy to admit I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Ed Sheeran (#5)
This is a live album and I didn't listen to it - I sure it's all perfectly fine but I just don't need more Ed in my life. 

Ezra Collective (#7)
Some surprisingly stylish trumpet-heavy jazz-funk, which isn't a phrase I ever expected to type. It's all well put together but I just don’t see why anyone would actively choose to listen to it.

Pale Waves (#13)
This is mildly shoegazey indie with a female vocalist - obviously I was going to love it. And I did.

Maximo Park (#21)
There's nothing here to scare if you like them - they’ve changed remarkably little over the years.

Nina Nesbitt (#46)
This is quite Laura Marlingesque or Taylor Swiftian in places. At first listen, it's nothing amazing but nice enough - but the more I heard of it, the more I liked. Intriguing.

Alex Warren (#47)
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting because he’s got a nice voice - I was reminded of Joshua Bassett. If you like James Arthur then I suspect you’ll like this - apparently he's a ridiculously talented and good-looking influencer, so obviously I hate him.

Michael Bublé (#53)
A best-of that I'm sure those that love Bublé will also love, but not need in the slightest.

Lady Gaga (#59)
It’s mostly jazz/cabaret standards which are done well enough as you’d expect from Gaga - but I really can’t say it’s encouraging me to go and watch the film (particularly alongside the reviews that have been very harsh!)

Sophie (#98)
A posthumous album from the highly regarded and apparently very influential artist. It’s a little too experimental/avant-garde for my liking but it’s certainly not dull!

Last week I said that Blossoms would drop to #78 and I'm very pleased to say I'm wrong and they're at #52 - feels like a decent effort for these days. Shed Seven feel like they won't do quite so well, but I reckon they'll hang in there - so let's go for #78 again. And this week's Taylor stats are NONE in the top ten (yes, Tortured Poets is "only" #11), a mere two in the top thirty and eight in the entire chart.

Wikipedia doesn't have anything on the album other than a brief mention in passing in their entry - it's "re-imagined/re-recorded versions of their songs" apparently. Their entry tells us they pretty much gave it all up back in '03 - if you told them they'd have two #1 albums in '24, I suspect they might not have believed you.

"Customers also listened to" Dodgy, The Lottery Winners, The Seahorses and Cast - three obviously veteran bands and one surprisingly more veteran than you'd think because The Lottery Winners formed in 2008. Shed Seven are undoubtedly enjoying their second (or is it third?) wind though and there are still plenty of people out there appreciating it - and this album is well done and, certainly for those of us of a certain age, really very enjoyable indeed.

And the three acts that have two #1 albums in a year on three separate occasions are obviously The Beatles ('63, '64', '65) and Taylor Swift ('20, '21, '23) and, less obviously, Elton John ('73, '74 and '90).

27/09/24 - Not bad at all
11/10/24 - Less annoying than expected