When you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

04/07/25 : Virgin - Lorde 

Our third visit with Lorde - I'm expecting some decent songs and musicianship, but maybe not a huge amount of variety.

Yeah, I think that's fair enough. I enjoyed listening to this, but I'd struggle to say any one track stood out. If you like that general Lorde sound, then I'd guess you're going to be happy enough with this and I suspect repeat listens will also increase your enjoyment. But I'm afraid it's not going to be getting multiple listens from me.

We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week and the rest of the top five are Bruce Springsteen (another new entry), Sabrina, Ed Sheeran and Rod Stewart (another new entry) - let's have a look and see what those old men (and others) have got up to...

Bruce Springsteen (#2)
A mere stripling at 75, this is a small collection of tracks that haven't previously seen the light of day - I mean, how many could there be? Ah - this is a seven CD collection with 83 tracks on it, lasting nearly 320 minutes (and it's a follow-up to a previous such exercise which was similarly sized). I'm sure it's a fascinating collection if you're that way inclined, but I have to admit I couldn't face it - it's also pretty pricey if you want to own it, setting you back £220.

Rod Stewart (#5)
A proper veteran at 80, what has everyone's favourite Farage-loving "Scotsman" come up with here? This is a much more straightforward best-of - and considerably cheaper at the bargain price of £14 on Amazon. I didn't feel the need to listen to it, but there seems to be a decent selection from across the years - I would however point out that this is his seventeenth best-of to have charted in the UK, so you do have to wonder how many people actually bought it rather than just streaming some Rod tracks before his Glasto teatime slot.

Teddy Swims (#13)
This isn't really a new entry at all, but a combination of his last two albums - we met the first one properly last year and briefly passed over the second one earlier this year. So I view it as a bit of a cheat really - especially since the first half of it is also in the chart at #98.

Barbra Streisand (#40)
Making Rod look like a youngster at the grand old age of 83, this is a collection of duets with various randoms, some expected (Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, James Taylor) and some not so expected (Hozier, Sam Smith, Laufey). I'm sure it's fine if it's what you're looking for but I was quite happy not subjecting myself to it.

KATSEYE (#55)
Finally - one I'm actually going to listen to because I've never heard of them. And the reason for that is that they're much not aiming themselves at my section of the market - they're an "international girl group" aka selection of randoms thrown together and given some "edgy" material in the hope they'll appeal to as many pre-teens globally as possible. It's not dreadful, but it does sound like they played Charli XCX to an AI and said "more of this please, but catchier" - and the AI did OK, but could only manage five tracks, so they went "that'll have to do". It's also somewhat weird that the last track, "M.I.A." definitely harks back to the sound of the artist M.I.A. - why would you do that?

BC Camplight (#61)
A name I vaguely recognise, but I'm completely lacking in any actual detail. He's a US singer-songwriter who has obviously lived quite the life, but managed to get to a position of relative stability - I was reminded of Bright Eyes musically, with a definite Jarvis Cockeresque wryness to the lyrics and I quite liked it. Wikipedia tells me we was struggling with life in the US in the late '00s and a fan on social media suggested he relocate to Manchester - so he did!

Motorhead (#62)
This is long lost tape from '76 - the early days! And I think it's safe to say it's one for the completists - you can hear initial traces of how they were going to end up, but they're very rough drafts and the levels are all over the place.

The re-entries aren't particularly wild or wacky, but it's worth mentioning Lewis Capaldi at #15 and #30, Alanis Morissette at #39 and #78, Raye at #65, and The Prodigy at #87 - Glastonbury appearances are unlikely to have done them any harm, I suspect. Last week I said that Yungblud would be at #35 and he's at #21, so I'll take that as a partial success - I reckon Lorde will do better than that, so I'm going for #11. And this week's Taylor stats are none in the top fifty and four in the entire chart - she's just about hanging in there. 

Wikipedia has quite a lot for a new album (167 milliPeppers) but a lot of it is surprisingly pretentious nonsense, with a lot of it talking about how she was bruised by the reception to Solar Power, her previous album and this was an attempt to take things back to where she came from. The most interesting thing for me is that the physical CD is transparent and it looks very cool - but unfortunately it just doesn't work in some older players, which isn't exactly ideal for a CD. Critically, it was well received and it's done well commercially, getting to #1 in Australia, Belgium and (of course) New Zealand.

discogs.com has quite a lot of copies for a new album and most of them are reasonably priced, but the limited edition picture will set you back £90. I didn't mind Lorde's offering - I can't say it grabbed me but she does at least have to be given credit this week for having presenting us with original material because that's more than most of the other new entries did. Her and BC Camplight are the only albums there's any chance of me listening to again, with BC taking the album of the week for me.

27/06/25 - Surprisingly boring