Turns out the gods we thought were dying were just sharpening their blades

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

16/05/25 : Even In Arcadia - Sleep Token 

We've mentioned Sleep Token once before when they had a new entry at #3 back in 2023, but we weren't listening to all the new entries back then, so I never had the pleasure. And I'm not aware I've ever come across them in any other circumstances, so I'm completely in the dark - on the name alone, I'd guess at ambient or rawk.

Hmmm. It all starts off very sedately, but I couldn't help but things were going to kick off big time - and about three minutes in, they certainly did. But then, about thirty seconds later, it seems like they thought better of it and settled in to going for some kind of epic soundscape kinda thang. And, I mean, it kinda gets that vibe I guess, but that doesn't make it any good - it's not (to my limited ear) obviously skilful with none of the songs feeling particularly well crafted. None of it's horrible, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it - I was just left a bit perplexed by the whole experience.

We're at #1 in the charts this week with a new entry and the rest of the top five are Sabrina (38 weeks in the top five and counting), Pinkpantheress (another new entry), Ed Sheeran and The Kooks (another new entry) - an interesting selection of new entries, so let's check them out!

Pinkpantheress (#3)
This is dance-y club stuff in a Charli XCX style - it's not extending the genre in any way, but it's all done well enough and I particularly liked all of the second half. Apparently it's a mixtape rather than an album - and at nine tracks in 20:35 (with one of them only being 24 seconds long) it really doesn't hang around.

The Kooks (#5)
I'm not entirely sure who was asking for this, but it could have been a lot worse - if you liked that Kooks sound growing up then you might well like this.

Arcade Fire (#18)
I'm not the biggest fan of Arcade Fire, but when it works for me, it's down to their joie de vivre and just throwing everything into it - and they just don't do that here. So it was all a bit dull - I like the album cover though. 

The Amazons (#26)
From their name, I so wanted them to be a female indie band - unfortunately they're all blokes, but it is indie-ish rock and does feature some female voices, with some quite nice harmonies to it. I didn't mind this at all and feel it could be a grower - I bet they're great live as well.

Mark Pritchard & Thom Yorke (#43)
Hmmm. It's got some nice noises on it, but unfortunately for me none of them are Thom's voice - so that puts it at somewhat of a disadvantage.

Kali Uchis (#53)
We've met Kali twice before and "Latina Jessie Ware" has been the general vibe I've got. And it's similar here, but the Latina bit seems to be reduced - I got quite a SZA vibe to it all. It's nothing particularly special but would be a nice accompaniment to drinks in the sunshine.

Counting Crows (#81)
The problem with Counting Crows is that they've never hit the heights of August And Everything After - and that continues here. It's all nice enough though if you like US country rock kinda thing and it's got some decent lyrics, but it didn't grab me on first listen. It's got an interesting title though - Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!

Shaboozey (#93)
I'm vaguely aware of Mr Boozey as having a similar sound to Lil Nas X so have never checked him out because it's not kinda thing - and having checked him out, I can confirm it's not my kinda thing, although it seems to be done well enough. I also learned from Google that "A Bar Song (Tipsy)" jointly holds the record for the longest #1 single in the US (19 weeks) - also managed by Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road", so they really go for that sound over there!

This week's weird re-entry is The Weeknd's album from January (#25) - I assume some kind of deluxe re-release is involved. Last week I picked the wrong album to guess for and said that Pink Floyd would be a "one and done" album and I was doubly wrong because it's at #64 - so it wasn't my best week. Sleep Token have to be a "one and done" though, don't they? And this week's Taylor stats are the usual one in the top thirty and six in the entire chart.

Wikipedia had a pleasing 100 milliPeppers on this album and has a doozy of an introduction - telling us the album "garnered significant media attention amid an unorthodox marketing campaign that has included a weatherman at WRAL in North Carolina providing hints to release dates and album singles". I'm sold, I can tell you! And, for reasons of space, I'm not going to give you all the details of their marketing campaign, but it was pleasingly complex and I imagine massively satisfying to solve for the fans, with plenty of opportunities for engagement. The critics were pretty nice about it (except for Pitchfork and Sputnikmusic who ripped into it) but commercially, it did way better than I expected also getting to #1 in Australia, Austria, The Netherlands, Germany and New Zealand - they've been a real blind spot in my knowledge! Their entry also tells me they wear masks on stage and no-one knows who they are - oooh, how mysterious! Well, it is until you go to sleeptoken.com where all the band members have biographies including their names...

"Customers also listened to" Backlit Canopy Official, Sleep Theory, Dayseeker and Bad Omens - ah yes, them. I didn't know beforehand what to expect from Sleep Token and, having listened to it, I didn't really know what they delivered - it just all seemed a bit average to me. Pinkpantheress and The Amazons were much more interesting offerings.

09/05/25 - Perfectly inoffensive
23/05/25 - Just far too long