"Gotta throw some paint" - that's what bell would say

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

03/10/25 : The Art Of Loving - Olivia Dean

Our first visit with Olivia (although she's managed a couple of mentions) and I realise I've no idea what she sounds like - but that will soon change.

Well - she sounds nice. She's got a nice voice and she sings nice songs which have an all-round nice jazzy-soul sound to them. It's all very nice. And just a teensy bit bland. And very, very forgettable. I'd love to tell you more, but I'd have to listen to it again - and even then I doubt I'd have a lot more to say about it.

So obviously, we're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week and the rest of the top five are Sabrina, Perrie (a new entry), Robert Plant (another new entry) and Doja Cat (yet another new entry) - which is quite the mix, but it's a good week for the ladies and people with long hair. So what about them new entries then?

Perrie (#3)
Them Little Mixers are storming the charts at the minute but this one is a much straightforward affair than Jade's - and I really quite liked it. It's not going to set the world alight but it's decent pop and she's got a great voice. I'd describe it as sounding like a good Katy Perry album (with some UK references thrown in to confuse) which I mean as a compliment because, let's face it, Katy herself rarely manages produce such a thing. She also some has nicely pointed things to say about guys - "we’ve all been there baby, falling for potential - but he won’t do the basics and that shit’s essential"

Robert Plant (#4)
This is a collection of folky-rocky noodlings - exactly the sort of sound I was expecting. I could appreciate the skill, but was soon bored with it - I was surprised to read it was an album of covers, but was mostly surprised because I struggled to tell the tracks apart.

Doja Cat (#5)
This is that rappy, poppy stuff she does which I either quite like, don't mind or absolutely hate without really being to explain why. She does get bonus points for sampling the theme to Knight Rider though.

Geese (#26 - quite the gap)
This has been very well received critically, but I'm afraid my comment would be "a bloody awful racket" (although it does improve slightly after the first track) - it's US lo-fi indie which I rarely love, but this is a particularly challenging example. I am tempted to play it for my lovely wife some day though just to see her response - it will be most amusing.

Mariah Carey (#31)
I'm afraid there's nothing here to convince me that, with one notable exception, all she does is take average songs and then make them even worse.

Zara Larsson (#36)
I don't mind some of Zara's stuff from the past, but this feels to be not quite to that level - perfectly listenable but also perfectly forgettable (although not quite at Olivia levels). 

Polygon Window (#43)
This album is called Surfing on Sine Waves - if it's not prog then I'm going to be amazed! Well, colour me amazed - this is actually a '93 release by Richard James who is generally better known as Aphex Twin. It's been re-released in expanded form (taking it up to a hefty 75 minutes) and this is the first time it's charted. It gets a bit excitable in places, but where it's calmer it's quite like Jon Hopkins and I liked it - although it's not going to be for everyone.

Sprints (#50)
I'd never heard of this artist and would have guessed they were hippy-hoppy types, but they're an indie/goth kinda thing - think Siouxsie crossed with Pixies (Siouxsies?). I reckon I could quite get into this if I gave it enough time or I was considerably younger - unfortunately, neither of those things are likely to happen.

Young Thug (#84)
My relationship with hip-hop is weird because most of it I don't like, but some of it sneaks up on me and is really quite enjoyable. This, however, is not such a thing - I knew pretty instantly that I was going to hate it.

We have a great weird re-entry this week which is Genesis's '74 album The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (#35 - and we have yet to meet it) which is there because the 50th anniversary edition was finally released this week - only 11 months after the actual 50th anniversary! Last week I said that Biffy would get to #63 and they comfortably exceeded my expectations by getting to #40 - I feel Olivia will do a bit better so I'm going for #23. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top forty and five in the entire chart - I suspect that might change next week though.

Wikipedia tells us this is her second album and she's worked really hard on it (and she really hopes that people aren't just going to say it's forgettable. Ah.). Looking at her entry, she's British, went to the BRIT school and seems a very driven young woman (but in a nice way). This album has got good reviews from proper critics and has done very well commercially, getting to #1 in Australia, The Netherlands, Ireland and New Zealand.

discogs.com only has five copies for sale which are all numbered, limited-edition, white vinyl LPs and you can pay anything from £40-£70 for them, with absolutely no difference between them. If I was a "having dinner parties" type, then this would be the perfect musical accompaniment - but I'm not, so it isn't. Perrie and Sprints have both produced far more interesting offerings catering to your pop or indie requirements (if you have such things) so they are easily the albums of the week for me, but I was also intrigued by the Polygon Window offering.

26/09/25 - Decent enough, but I really don't need another Biffy album
10/10/25 - Decent enough, but also a whole load of nonsense