Tonight the conversation takes the fall

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts.

27/04/03 : Couldn't Have Said It Better - Meat Loaf


Our second visit with Mr Loaf - I'm not sure I was even aware this existed but I'll be surprised if ventures too far from the true path of MeatLoafiness, without ever approaching the heights of Mount BatOutOfHell.

Actually, the title (and opening) track is pretty decent, with Patti Russo doing a good job in the obligatory duet with a female singer. And the rest of it isn't terrible, although "Do It" is a peculiar track being a weird combination of heavy metal axe-grinding and, errr, something else. In fact, there's a reasonable argument that the worst thing on it is the live version of "Bat Out Of Hell" - not because it's bad, but it's just so unnecessary! There's no danger of me ever listening to this again, but it could have been far worse.

We're at #4 in the charts this week on the start of a surprisingly long fourteen week run, with this being as high as it got. The rest of the top five were Madonna (a new entry), Justin Timberlake, The White Stripes, Busted with, somewhat surprisingly, there being no other new entries in the entire chart.

Wikipedia tells us it's his eighth album and was a hit over here despite his record company putting absolutely no effort or money into promoting it (which feels like an odd choice). There's no word on critical reviews but it did OK in various European countries including #5 in Denmark and #6 in Germany, but only #85 in the US.

"Customers also listened to" Cher, Status Quo, Slade and UB40 - a somewhat peculiar mix, but I guess Mr Loaf is quite an odd one in that lots of people know his stuff without probably particularly considering themselves a fan. However, given this did so well, he's obviously got quite a few diehard fans over here - and it feels like this delivered pretty much what they were looking for.

20/04/03 - Nice, but...
04/05/03 - A bit rubbish, really

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