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Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 03/07/88 : Heaven On Earth -  Belinda Carlisle I liked "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" and "Circle In The Sand" but there would have been absolutely no chance of me having chosen to listen to this at the time. Fortunately, I'm older and wiser now - although I have a sneaking suspicion that a whole album is going to be too much Belinda. It opens with HIAPOE and, whether you like it or not (and I still do), you have to admit it presses the "building to a rousing chorus" buttons it's aiming for. I actually think CITS is a better track - it's got strong Fleetwood Mac Tango In The Night vibes. The rest of the album isn't quite such quality but there's nothing dreadful about any of it. A lot of the tracks are the sort of average US soft rock that plenty of bands were churning out throughout the 80s, but they are made a bit more interesting here by having a female vocal. It doesn't feel l...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 10/07/88 : Roll With It -  Steve Winwood Our second and a half visit with Steve - once as a solo artist along with half a visit for Traffic, both of which I quite enjoyed. I don't remember this at all though, so I'll be interested to see what I make of it. Hmmm - this is an interesting one because I was unable to decide how interesting it was. It's all well put together with decent enough songs which are well played but, on first listen at least, it just wasn't that engaging. It's certainly not bland in a Huey Lewis kinda way, but I just didn't care about it - I was like "yay, well done Steve - you did good" in a tolerant parent kinda way, without really caring. I'm interested as to why he's gone for the Terminator T-1000 look on the album cover though... We're at #10 in the charts this week on his third week of a sixteen week run, with it having peaked at #4 for its first two weeks....

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 17/07/88 : Popped In Souled Out -  Wet Wet Wet They've been mentioned quite a bit but this is our first visit with WWW and somewhat surprisingly,  I don't think I've ever listened to this. I'm quite intrigued to see what I make of it - I'm expecting it to be bearable, but something I'm not sad I've avoided up until now. Actually, I'd say it reaches the dizzy heights of "better than bearable" and whilst I can't say I'm sad I've avoided it, I'd forgotten how decent "Wishing I Was Lucky", "Angel Eyes" and "Sweet Little Mystery" were (they were all top ten singles). For the most part, this album feels very "blue-eyed soul" and, whilst it stays in that lane, I'd say it's a decent example of it - there are a few tracks where Marti's trying a bit too hard and it borders on the offensive, but fortunately they are few and far betwee...

The journey continues... Natalie Merchant (2014) I remember listening to this one and quite liking it - but don't remember ever listening to it again, so it will be interesting to revisit it. 1. Ladybird A song about a woman in a relationship that isn't working - it's decent enough and builds nicely throughout, but I really didn't need 6:39 of it. 2.   Maggie Said And here's a woman wondering what the point to her entire life was. I like this one - it harks back to the Ophelia era. 3. Texas And this one has a similar sound to it, along with some lovely guitar. 4. Go Down Moses She's getting a bit blues-y on this one - we've not heard too much of that over the years. It's OK, but maybe needs a bit more content in its 5:03. 5.   Seven Deadly Sins This is a nicely subtle song about the end of a relationship - an understated melody with barbed lyrics. Yeah, I like this. 6. Giving Up Everything Some lovely strings on this - I had no idea what it was all a...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 24/07/88 : Tunnel Of Love -  Bruce Springsteen Out eighth visit with The Boss and this is one I think I quite like (and nearly bought many times, but never took the plunge) but haven't heard in ages, so I'm looking forward to checking if I actually do. Yeah - I think this is a good mid point between his upbeat rawk and downbeat blues, with a decent helping of mid-life crisis thrown in for good measure. The songs are well put together and feature decent lyrics which merit several proper listens. I like the singles "Tougher Than The Rest", "Tunnel Of Love" and "Brilliant Disguise", but I particularly like "Spare Parts" although the version here does suffer in comparison with the live version , which I remember hearing first whilst driving the car on a gorgeous summer evening with  the concert being played on Radio 1  - and that's absolute peak Springsteen for me.  We're at #10 i...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 31/07/88 : Small World -  Huey Lewis And The News I never understood the appeal of Huey over here - there's nothing wrong with any of it, but it's dreadfully bland in a "middle America" kinda way. Maybe this will convince me I'm wrong? (spoiler alert - it won't). Actually, this is quite an interesting one because it's got more variety across the album than I was expecting - but somehow the songs still all sound exactly the same. How did he manage that? Apart from that, there's absolutely nothing of interest about this album - it all seems competently put together, but I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would actually choose to listen to it. We're at #12 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of an eight week run with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were Now! 12, Hits 8,  Tracy Chapman ,  Michael Jackson  and  Kylie  with the next highest new...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 05/09/25 :  Man's Best Friend  - Sabrina Carpenter  Our second visit with Sabrina and after I confidently stated her last album would go nowhere, I'm obviously a bit of an expert on all things Carpenter. I have however heard that things get pretty spicy on this one, so maybe the moral outrage will keep me engaged. What?!? I don't seem to have worked up any moral outrage at all - what's going on? I actually didn't mind this at all - it's surprisingly 70s (quite ABBesque, in places) a nd a lot more orchestral than I was expecting. Comparing this with Short'n'Sweet, I think it's lacking an "Espresso" highlight and it has less zingers lyrically, but it has an overall higher quality level and better constructed songs - "Never Getting Laid" in particular made me chuckle. I'm still not a fan of her baby girl voice but I thought this was a lot more interesting than I was exp...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 07/08/88 : Raintown -  Deacon Blue This is another one I owned (bringing us up to five for the year) and I was very much not alone in owning it because it felt like everyone at uni owned a copy. It's also one I revisit from time to time - so I'm looking forward to showing it some love here. Yeah, I still really like this. It starts interestingly with "Born In A Storm" which segues nicely into "Raintown" and just continues stylishly throughout. Selected highlights for me are "He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now" (which I learned is about Harold Agnew - this is an interesting article), "Loaded", "Chocolate Girl", "Love's Great Fears" and "Riches" but   it's all really well crafted with decent tunes and lyrics throughout.  However, t he absolute highlight has to be "Dignity" which is a lovely song about wanting better things, crystallised into...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 14/08/88 : Push -  Bros Johnny Hates Jazz and now Bros - 1988, you're really spoiling me! I am, however, expecting some grudging admiration here though - they did what did well, didn't they? First up is "When Will I Be Famous?", which I can't claim to be my favourite track, but I have to admit it pushed exactly the (pre-)teen buttons it intended to - as does "Drop The Boy", which immediate follows it. It's interesting to compare this album with Johnny Hates Jazz, because Matt & Luke's voices come out surprising well in comparison - they're hitting the notes they want to rather than being somewhere in the vicinity of them. However, as a whole, this is just SO much more annoying - it just got totally grating after three or four tracks and the "quality" quite obvious dropped off towards the end. Working on the principle that this is what they wanted my reaction to be, then I g...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 21/08/88 : Turn Back The Clock -  Johnny Hates Jazz Well, I can't say I'm expecting to love this but I am wondering whether I'll find it nostalgically bearable... Yeah, it starts with "Shattered Dreams", "Heart Of Gold" and "Turn Back The Clock" which aren't the biggest musical crimes from this era, so there's a bit of appreciation there, but not loads - however, I would definitely say I preferred this to any Jason Donovan albums I've met. As a whole, I don't get the impression they're the most talented bunch and the album does drag but it certainly wasn't aimed at me, so let's just move along - I imagine it brings back fond floppy-haired memories for quite a few out there. We're all the way down at #10 in the charts this week on their 32nd week of a 39 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its debut week and it spent its first ten weeks in the top ten - w...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 28/08/88 : So Good -  Mica Paris Only our second mention ever for Mica, with the only other one being, obviously, because she appeared on David Gilmour's last album . I'm expecting to like this, if not exactly find it to be something I need in my life. "Like" is probably going a bit overboard, but I'd certainly go for "don't mind". She's got a nice voice, which is particularly shown on  "One Temptation" and  "Sway" but as a whole the material doesn't strike me (from a position of limited knowledge) as anything more than fine, so I can't say any of it stuck in there. But it's certainly not hateful and there's plenty worse examples of such things out there. We're at #6 with a new entry in the charts this week at the start of an impressive 32 week run, with this being as high as it got. The top five this week were  Kylie , Fairground Attraction , the Now! ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 04/09/88 : The First Of A Million Kisses -  Fairground Attraction This is one I nearly bought on several occasions, but I'm not sure I ever actually listened to it. I'm expecting to like it (particularly compared with what I had to suffer last time).  Yeah, it's pretty decent - a  lot of it felt pretty familiar, so I suspect I must have heard it at some point . "Perfect" is obviously the track that everyone knows and it's stood the test of time pretty well, but I also particularly liked "Fairground Attraction", "The Wind Knows My Name" and "Allelujah" which are slower tracks.  None of it is exactly challenging (and I  can see that some would claim it's a bit twee) but I liked it - it's all perfectly listenable and glides past nicely. We're at #2 in the charts this week on their sixteenth week of a thirty week run, with it taking Xmas off and coming back for another...

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts. 11/09/88 : ...And Justice For All -  Metallica Our sixth visit with Metallica (one of NINE artists on six visits) and I think it's safe to say I think I'm unlikely to ever become a fan - but here we go again anyway... God that was boring. Yes, they obviously know how to play their guitars and (especially) the drums but I'm afraid I need a bit more than that. The only spot of interest for me was trying to remember the track sampled in "The Frayed Ends Of Sanity" - I had to revert to whosampled.com to learn it was "March Of The Winkies" from The Wizard Of Oz and I'm not sure I ever knew the witch's guards were called Winkies. Apart from that - yaaaaawn. We're at #4 with a new entry in the charts this week at the start of a six week run, which is probably the shortest run we've seen this year - and this was as high as it got. The rest of the top five were  Kylie , The Smiths (a new entry...