Daddy went to law school - could have been an architect

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

11/07/25 : So Close To What - Tate McRae 

This is an album we met in passing as a new entry but my youngest confidently predicted we would get a full visit at some point - and it did look possible for a bit, but seemed less and less likely as time went on. However, somewhat surprisingly, we're getting a proper visit this week (and you're gonna be surprised when you see how long it's taken and how far down the chart we are).

Basically, if you're looking for a decent pop album, then you can do far worse than listen to this Tate offering. It's grown on me the more I've heard it - the tracks I'm most familiar with are "Miss possessive", "2 hands" and "No I'm Not In Love" (I've heard the last two a LOT!), but it's all pretty decent. Both daughters saw her live recently and thoroughly enjoyed the show - as my world-weary nineteen year old put it "Dad, she's restored by faith in pop stars". Unless you are a certain age, it's not something you're ever going to need in your life, but there are far worse offerings out there you could be torturing your ears with. 

We're all the way down at #24 in the charts this week on her twentieth week, with it having peaked at #2 in its debut week (kept off the top by Sam Fender) and this is as low as it's been so far. One reason that we've had to go so far down the chart this week is demonstrated by the top five - the Oasis best-of, Oasis, Sabrina, Oasis and Ed Sheeran - people really have gone a bit mad for their tour haven't they (and they're at #59 and #89 as well). Another reason is the lack of high profile new releases this week, although we do still have some to talk about

Kae Tempest (#25)
Considering Tate was at #24, Kae was unlucky to just miss the cut - especially since this is a very decent album. It reminded me of The Streets, but coming at things from the trans viewpoint rather than the geezer viewpoint - there are some exceptionally clever (and honest) lyrics on it and the musical accompaniment is very well done.

Kesha (#43)
I was vaguely aware of Kesha and must have heard some of her stuff, but my expectations were low for this. However, I really quite liked this - there's a load of variety on there including funk, country and electro pop and whilst the lyrics don't quite reach Kae levels of sophistication, they could be a lot worse. I was reminded of MUNA and Robyn, who are two artists I really quite like - so this massively exceeded expectations.

Big Special (#53)
I'd no idea what to expect from this, but the album cover of a fried breakfast made me think it was going to be indie. And it's along those lines with a strong post-punk vibe, which would generally have me running for the hills - but I actually quite liked it because there's some clever lyrics and some interesting sounds on it. All in all, a pleasant surprise.

Claudia Brücken (#78)
Going on the name along, I imagined a woman with an angular face and short blonde hair making electro-pop with sad and cryptic lyrics - so imagine my surprise when she turned out to have long hair! Apart from that I was spot-on, with the album giving me strong Propaganda vibes - so imagine my further surprise when she turned out to be the lead singer from Propaganda (she's 64 now and looking very good on it). I liked this - I'm slightly surprised it's charted, but I'm pleased for her that it has.

We have a particularly fine wild and wacky re-entry this week - Hard-Fi's Stars Of CCTV is at #18 with a 20th anniversary version. Last week, I said that Lorde would be at #11 so I'm taking her presence at #9 as a victory for my forecasting skills - I feel Tate will continue a slow drift down the chart so let's put her at #27. And this week's Taylor stats are her current usual none in the top fifty and five in the entire chart, but the lowest is at #93 so she's definitely in danger of fading to obscurity.

Wikipedia tells us that this is Tate's third album, there have been singles released from it and there was a supporting tour - that's some pretty wild stuff going on there. Critically, it was well reviewed with several people comparing it to early Britney, which I can see and commercially, it's done very well, getting to #1 in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Switerland and the US - it also made the top three in eight other listed countries.

discogs.com will get you a CD version for £17 or a vinyl version for £25, which is pretty much par for the course these days, but if you want to splash out you can go for an unopened white translucent vinyl copy with a signed poster for £71.20. I don't mind this album at all, but if you need it in your life you'll probably have already played it to death and made sure it's going to be appearing on your year-end lists. Picking an album of the week is so tricky this week because they were all surprisingly good in their own ways - Kae's is probably the "best" album, but I preferred listening to Kesha and Claudia and I also feel I have to mention Big Special as well because I enjoyed it so much more than I was expecting to. So take your pick - or check them all out. 

04/07/25 - Giving the fans what they want