Five is the rhythm of life

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

25/04/25 : 5ive - Davido 

I first thought this was Five getting back together and I was TERRIFIED of what it would sound like. But the good news is that it's some guy called Davido that I've never heard of, so things have got to be better, right?

Well, yes they really are, but I couldn't really tell you what we've got here. It's something of African origin, but whether it's Afrobeat, hiplife, jùjú music, highlife, azonto music or naija beats (I may referred to Wikipedia here) I couldn't begin to tell you. But what I can tell you is that it has a decent beat to it and is perfectly listenable and I was actually reminded of South American sounds - so maybe it's West African (he says, using his very limited global geography knowledge). I fully accept I'm not the man to judge such things (or, in fact, anything) but I can see this has some merit, without really understanding who would listen to it. It's a cool album cover though...

For a change, we're not in the top five this week - we're all the way down at #7, obviously with a new entry. The top five this week are, sigh. Taylor Swift (because it's a year since it was released), Sabrina, the Ed Sheeran live album, a Fleetwood Mac best-of (336 weeks in the chart) and The Weeknd best-of (a mere 220 weeks). And there's a peculiar mix of other new entries this week, I can tell you...

- Hawkwind (#46)
Their first album charted in '71, although their current line-up "only" features members from '89 at the earliest - I'm not expecting to like it, but I'll not be surprised if I turn out to be wrong. Actually, musically I thought it was alright, if not exactly my thing - I wasn't convinced by the vocals though (the first song in particular just sounds like someone's grandad having a moan).

- Penfriend (#76)
This is either going to be terrible hip-hop or bearable female indie - no other options are even possible. And I'm right, because it's bearable female indie - this album isn't available on Amazon, so I can't comment on it but I know I'd like it because (I'm amazed to learn) I've actually seen her play live supporting Throwing Muses back when she was known as She Makes War (11 years ago now!).

- Julien Baker & Torres (#94)
I knew I recognised Julien's name but had to check the internet to remind me she's another member of boygenius - along with Lucy Dacus who we met recently and liked. And this is good too, if maybe a bit more country than I was expecting.

And this week's weird re-entries are a most coincidental mix of a Dire Straits best-of (#99) and a Mark Knopfler best-of (#100). Last week, I said that Those Damn Crows would drop to #85 but suspected they would disappear and my suspicions were confirmed because they're totally outta here. I've absolutely no idea about the depth of support for Davido out there so I've cheated and checked out what his last album did and it dropped from #10 to #40, so let's guess #55 (somewhat randomly). And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top one and six in the entire chart - the return to the top looks to be a blip, but we'll see.

Wikipedia tells us this is his fifth album and features guest appearances from YG Marley, Odumodublvck, and Chike - and that's your lot really, although I was tickled to see that the strings were arranged on one track by someone called The Chordinator. There's no word on the critical response, but I was surprised to see that it's only charted here - it feels quite a global kinda sound.

"Customers also listened to" JP Save, Wiz Khalifa, Isabel LaRosa and Priesst - well, I've heard of Wiz, but that's all I've got there. And I can't really say I know anything more about Davido than I did beforehand, but I didn't mind his music at least - although I'll not be rushing back to it.

18/04/25 - I didn't mind this
02/05/25 - Fine, if not exactly earth-shattering