I guess I'm the problem and you're Miss Never Do No Wrong

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

23/05/25 : I'm The Problem - Morgan Wallen 

We've yet to meet Morgan but I know two things about him - 1. he's highly regarded and 2. this album isn't so highly regarded. So who knows what I'm going to think about this?

Oh joy - 37 tracks in a smidgen under 2 hours!!! I can't say that filled me with joy - no-one needs more than twenty tracks on an album so why not just make it two albums to give people like me a break?!? He's got a nice voice though and obviously knows his way round a country track - I liked the title track, "What I Want" (with Tate McRae) and "Number 3 and Number 7" (with Eric Church). And the rest of the album is all perfectly competent, but you get the impression he can knock this sort of thing out in his sleep - just make sure you get some lost love, whiskey and feeling sorry for yourself in there and it's job done. And having to listen to 37 tracks when none of them really said anything to me was really just a drag.

We're at #1 with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are Sabrina (will she ever go away?), Ed Sheeran, The Sherlocks (a new entry) and Sleep Token. WHAT?!? The Sleep Token that I said would drop out of the charts entirely?!? Nope, it's gotta be another Sleep Token, I guess. Oh well, let's move on to look at the other new entries, shall we?

The Sherlocks (#4) 
A band I've seen live and met as a new entry, but I don't remember in the slightest - apparemtly, I'm going to like it but let's see. Yeah - it's perfectly serviceable indie-pop which I'd enjoy on a sunny festival afternoon, but I struggle to imagine me ever going back to the album.

Peter Doherty (#7)
Peter? PETER?  Does that scream "take me seriously" or what? And yet, conversely, I'm expecting this to be better than it has any right to be. Hmm - no, I think it's more "not nearly as bad as it could be". He is taking himself seriously though - in a love-lorn English A Level student style. It's not great.

Avicii (#20)
Hmmm - he's been quite busy since he died seven years ago, hasn't he? And whilst that sounds harsh, it's obviously not his fault - I never really know what to think about posthumous albums because you wonder whether the artist considered the material to be gems that they were still polishing or just shite they'd firmly rejected. From my position as an obvious Avicii addict, I'd declare this to be "fine, I guess".

Bury Tomorrow (#33)
It's gonna be metal or rawk, isn't it? Oh yes, it's shouty-screamy metal - my favourite! Next...

Jin (#63)
He's a BTS-boy, isn't he? Assuming he is, I'm going to be bemused by it all. Actually, it's not nearly as mad as I expected - it's perfectly fine, but not something I need.

Damiano David (#68)
I've not even got a guess what we're getting here. Hmmm - art-pop? It's not a million miles away from Harry Styles, I guess - I didn't mind it and it's nicely quirky, but again it's not something I need. Google informs me he's the front-man of Maneskin - he's got quite the look going on.

And this week's weird and wild re-entry is (you're not gonna guess this) Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms which is quite obviously at #8 this week. Huh? Obviously it's an anniversary re-release which makes you work out the numbers and realise to your horror that it's FORTY years old. So I was in my first year of sixth form when it came out - just shoot me now.

As we've already seen, I called Sleep Token completely wrong (and I'm frankly mystified that it's held up so well) - I feel Morgan has enough fans to hang in there for a bit, so let's go for #46. And this week's Taylor stats are her usual one in the top forty and six in the entire chart, with the lowest being at #85 so she's got to be at risk of dipping to a new low.

Wikipedia has quite a lot for a new album (136 milliPeppers) and it tells us this is his fourth album. Nearly all the rest of it is background information about his previous album, which was #1 for 19 weeks in the US (it spent 28 weeks in the chart here, but only peaked at #40). As we've already seen, this one has done much better making him only the fifth country artist to have an album debut at #1 after Shania, Beyoncé, Taylor and Post Malone - it's also got to #1 in Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

I didn't hate this, but it did try my patience - maybe it's what the fans want, but it's not going to convert me I'm afraid. The Sherlocks is closest to my thing this week and Damiano David was also an interesting listen - but I might just go and listen to Brothers In Arms again (although it's possibly my least favourite Dire Straits album).

16/05/25 - Mystifyingly popular
30/05/25 - Enjoyably bonkers

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