Feet don't fail me now - take me to the finish line
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts
27/12/24 : Born To Die - Lana del Rey
This album was released nearly thirteen years ago, so seems a peculiar album to visit in the last chart of the year, doesn't it? There is a nice symmetry to it though because I rejected it as unsuitable to start the year with, so I guess we just have to give in and go with what the rules are telling us. I remember there being a whole load of fuss about "Video Games" and "Blue Jeans" which I didn't really understand - my expectations are fairly middling about the whole thing.
Actually, I didn't mind this at all - it's got considerably more variety than I was expecting but it all hangs together in a very lush and vamp-ish style. It's all well done - I don't know why I've been avoiding it all this time. I particularly liked "Summertime Sadness" but there wasn't really a track I didn't like. You know what - I might even listen to it again in the next thirteen years!
We're all the way down at #36 in the charts this week on her 88th week of this run, with it having first charted in Feb '12 on a 74 week run (including two weeks at #1) and it's also managed runs of 21, 41 and 42 weeks over the years along with odd weeks here and there, bringing it to a grand total of 282 weeks on the chart so far - all of which is pretty impressive. The top five this week are Michael Bublé, Sabrina Carpenter (HOW?), SZA (up from #32), Chappell Roan and Charli XCX - and Billie Eilish is at #6, so the ladies have ended the year strongly. We also have a couple of "new" albums in the chart which are Xmas offerings from Bing Crosby Xmas (#92) and Kings College choir (#95) - I didn't bother listening to either of these because you'll know if you're going to like them or not.
Last week I said that Teddy would be at #20 and I'm pleased to report I've ended the year with a win because he's at #19. My thinking on Lara is that she'll rise slightly because all the Xmas albums will drop out and there won't be any new entries, so let's go for #32. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten (just - #9), four in the top forty (just - #37, #38 and #40) and a mere seven in the entire chart.
Wikipedia has a massive amount (464 milliPeppers) on the album and it tells us that it's her second album, but her major-label debut and is about her first love - alcohol, with her having been sent away to a boarding school at the age of 14 to sober up. The critics were very mixed on it initially, with some loving it and some being very harsh about it - there was also a lot of "debate" as to how much her image was manufactured. Retrospective reviews have re-evaluated their opinions - it's amazing what some commercial success will do, isn't it? Although, looking at a lot of the successful ladies in the chart today, there's an easy argument to be made for its legacy which wasn't at all obvious in '12. But it's definitely been very successful commercially, getting to #1 in quite a few countries, but only #2 in the US - although it's spent over 500 weeks on the chart over there.
"Customers also listened to" Lorde, The Neighbourhood, Taylor Swift and Lilith Daughter - it's very easy to see the link to Lorde. I found this much more enjoyable than I was expecting though - I've no idea whether I would have enjoyed it when it was first released, but we'll never know, will we?
And that's 2024 done with (apart from the review of the year, of course) - it will be interesting to see what random album we start 2025 with!
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment