Tell me that I'm special, tell me I look pretty

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

13/12/24 : Rosie - Rosé

I know Rosé is part of BLACKPINK, so I'm expecting this to be somewhat strange - but I couldn't tell you in what way it will be strange...

Well, I'm completely wrong! It's pretty straightforward really in a Taylor/Olivia/Sabrina kinda style. It's all pretty well put together, whilst also being all very inessential - for me, anyway, but I suspect others may contest that point of view. I do have to admit she's got a good voice, I quite liked "two years" and "stay a little longer" and there's nothing wrong with the rest of it - I was just expecting to be a bit more challenged than I was. But obviously if I'd been more challenged, I'd have just moaned about it - so let's accept this is a well done example of something we've seen an awful lot of this year.

We're at #4 in the charts this week with a new entry and the rest of the top five are Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Michael Bublé and Sabrina Carpenter again (with a new entry) - given it's less than two weeks to Xmas, we've got quite a few new entries to experience this week

Sabrina Carpenter (#5)
This is a 15 minute, six track Xmas EP - and I take back everything I said about Rosé being inessential, because this is the very definition of inessential. It's not dreadful (except for her version of "White Christmas") but it's all very cheesy. I also don't think it should be valid for the album chart, but I guess there are rules for such things and they're there to be used for some people.

Andre Rieu (#29)
I've no idea who buys these, but buy them they do! I listened to some of it and it all sounded well done - I'm not the man to say that they've added anything new to any of the Strauss-based bangers. But I suspect anyone who buys it isn't looking for something new anyway...

Dua Lipa (#45)
This is an orchestral live album - they all sounded to be done well enough, but I don't think I'll be revisiting it. Her other three albums re-entered the chart this week as a result, so I suspect it just reminded people how good some of her stuff is.

Lauren Mayberry (#49)
This is a solo effort from the lead singer of Chvrches - often such efforts are so close to the output of the group that you wonder why they bother saying it's a solo effort. She veers dangerously close to it here, but some of the tracks are different enough to be of interest.

White Denim (#65)
This is kinda funky indie rock - I can see some people would like it but it didn't hit the spot for me. Weirdly, it often reminded me of Prince without really sounding anything like him - it just uses the same sorts of rhythms that he often did.

Jethro Tull (#73)
A Jethro Tull Xmas album - seriously? Apparently this is a remix of the '03 original - and I can't say I listened to it all, but I found it surprisingly bearable. If you fancy a flute-based prog Xmas (and who doesn't?) then this is going to be exactly what you need.

It's a strong chart for the ladies this week, with Rosé, Taylor, Sabrina, Charli, Billie and Chappell occupying seven of the top ten places. Last week I say that Juice WRLD would drop to #47 and I was in the right ballpark because he's at #30 - I feel I'd be foolish to predict such a drop for Rosé but I can't see it sticking in the top ten, so let's go for #15. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten, four in the top forty and eight in the whole chart.

Wikipedia has loads on the album (211 milliPeppers) - it's her debut solo offering and is supposed to show us that she's a perfectly normal twenty-something who's had her heart broken like everyone else (I was completely convinced, I can assure you). The critics were surprisingly nice about it all and it's done well commercially, getting to #2 in South Korea and Australia and #3 in New Zealand. I also learned that Rosé's name is Roseanne Park, which isn't exactly the most K-pop name ever now, is it?

"Customers also listened to" BABYMONSTER, LISA, BLACKPINK and KATSEYE - those K-popsters do love their upper-case, don't they? But this isn't a particularly K-poppish album - it's not something anyone needs, although even I have to admit it's done well.

06/12/24 - A dull mess
20/12/24 - Well done, but not required