I heard you calling on the megaphone - you wanna see me all alone

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

10/10/25 : The Life Of A Showgirl - Taylor Swift

Our eighth visit with Taylor (moving her level with Bruce Springsteen) and apparently this one is, according to the reviews, pretty divisive. So I'm expecting some Scandi death-metal or Polynesian nose-flute solos at the very least...

Ah no - it's perfectly fine, if somewhat underwhelming, music aimed at someone other than me. I was at least intrigued by "Father Figure" which is a "reworked" version of the George Michael track - I'm not sure anyone was asking for that. The only thing I can think may be divisive is that she doesn't always sound exactly like Taylor and she's not complaining about her boyfriend - and boy is she really not complaining about her boyfriend. I really hope her and Travis stay together - partly because they seem like nice young people but mostly because I really can't face having to listen to the break-up album she comes out with afterwards. Musically, I remain mystified as to the immense popularity but, given this has sold something like three million actual physical copies in the US alone, the Taylor juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down.

We are, of course, at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week and the rest of the top five are Oasis (seriously?), Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter and James Morrison (another new entry) and we've got quite a few new entries to consider this week

James Morrison (#5)
This is, as expected, perfectly fine - and that's about all I have to say about it. He really sounds like he wants to be 1988-era Terence Trent D'Arby - but, bless his little cotton socks, he's really not that interesting.

Ash (#15)
Ash have been plugging away since '92 and I can't say I've paid too much attention to anything they've done in the last fifteen years - but this was actually a lot more interesting than I was expecting with it harking back to the 70s nicely. I might listen to this again!

Idlewild (#16)
Whereas this is perfectly fine, but not in the slightest bit interesting - I will not be revisiting.

Good Neighbours (#24)
I've no idea what genre this counts as but it reminded me of Bran Van 3000's "Drinking In LA" - Google tells me it's "indie rock" but that's not where I'd put it.

Dodie (#42)
She's one of them singer-songwriter types - and it's fair to say she goes for a minimalist kinda sound. I didn't mind it and got definite hints of Kate Bush in places - but I didn't quite love it.

Kettama (#43)
I was worried this would be heavy, but it's trancey-dancey - nice enough but it never feels like it quite gets going as much as it should.

Starsailor (#50)
This is a live album done with a string section - I didn't mind it, but found it a bit slow and felt the recording quality wasn't as high as I expected.

Deaf Havana (#71)
I quite liked this indie/rock offering - it reminded me of Snow Patrol when they were interesting

Daniel O'Donnell (#92)
This is Daniel's 41st album - and the first one I've listened to any of. I didn't listen to much of it though - if you like this, then you're welcome to it.

Hybrid Minds (#96)
I didn't mind this one either - it's low key DnB and pretty well done.

We have possibly the least wild and wacky re-entry this week ever - Taylor Swift's 1989 is back in at #88. Who expected that, eh?!? Last week i said that Olivia would be at #23 and I'm only twenty positions out, so I think we can safely say I could have done better - I feel somewhat more confident in stating that Taylor won't be going anywhere. And her stats this week are three in the top forty and seven in the entire chart.

Wikipedia has the expected huge amount already (375 milliPeppers) and I just couldn't be bothered with it - but I did notice that there are 27 different physical versions and seven different digital download editions (I feel this might be playing on the completist tendency of some people). Critically, the reviews were mixed with us Brits not liking it as much as the Yanks - Taylor was asked about people's reactions and very sensibly said that people were allowed their own opinions. Commercially, it's done OK I guess - it's sold a gazillion copies globally, is already the most streamed album EVER on Amazon and the most streamed album in a day in 2025 on Spotify and Apple.

discogs.com has many different versions from £18-130 and I'm not saying they have silly names, but one of them is described as "Pearlescent Cream With Splatter [Under Bright Lights Pearlescent], The Tiny Bubbles In Champagne Edition". Or you can have the "Blue Translucent With Black Marbling And Gold Glitter [Lakeside Beach Blue Sparkle], Baby, That's Show Business Edition" if you prefer. As Taylor says, everyone's entitled to an opinion and if you're going to have one about this, then I'm pretty certain you've already got one - I'm going to file it under "fine" with most of her other offerings. Somewhat to my surprise, Ash have the album of the week for me, with Deaf Havana and Hybrid Minds also offering up albums of interest. 

03/10/25 - Far too forgettable
17/10/25 - In which I re-evaluate my opinion