Blacked out like a phantom - me phone keeps having a tantrum

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

05/12/25 : Rebel - EsDeeKid

Well, this is a surprise. We met this album 2.5 months ago when it was a new entry in the lower reaches of the chart - and when I say lower reaches, I mean #97. My comment was "it's fair to say it's not for me" but that wasn't a full listen and so, after some steady climbing up the charts (which is pretty rare these days), here we are giving it a proper going over - I'd love to say I expect my view to change but I very much do not.

I think "it's fair to say it's not for me" is still a reasonable statement, but I can see why it has its fans. It's very "rant along with me" rap (which I believe the kids like) and it's nice to hear a regional accent - although it's so strong that a) I often struggle to understand and b) it strays dangerously close to parody at times. It's also odd because for the most part it has the simplest (and very repetitive) backing track, but in places it gets quite intricate so he obviously knows what he's doing. It's also 11 tracks in 20 minutes so there's no danger of it outstaying its welcome.

We're at #9 in the chart this week on his twelfth week and this is as high as he's got (and he's not going to get any higher, is he?). The top five this week are Olivia Dean, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Michael Bublé (still the only Xmas album in the chart) and Tate McRae - another good week for the young ladies. So - where are the new entries this week?

Jessie J (#19)
I suspect she had no idea how her first album in seven years would be received, so she'll take this (to be fair, she doesn't have a lot of choice, does she?). And she's certainly still got a lovely voice but, whilst all the songs are perfectly fine, none of them are the absolute bangers she's produced in the past. It's nice to have her back though. 

Pink Floyd (#80)
Errr - this is The Dark Side Of The Moon. I've given it a Google and I'm no clearer what's going on as to why this is a "new" entry.

Role Model (#92)
I'd never heard of this artist - they sound like they should be an indie band, but instead he's a male singer-songwriter from the US who really wants to be Noah Kahan. And he doesn't quite make it for me, but it's all perfectly listenable. It is interesting as to why this is charting this week though because it was released in July '24 and the deluxe version was released in February '25.

Madonna (#95)
This is "Bedtime Stories - The Untold Chapter". Seriously? What's going on this week?!? This at least is an official 30th anniversary release (coming some 31 years after the original was released) but I can assure you I didn't listen to it again.

We're not exactly drowning in re-entries this week either - Wolf Alice (#39) are back because they're on tour and Madonna's Bedtime Stories (#61) is back for obvious reasons. There are a few more further down the chart but the only one that made me go "huh?" was a Jamiroquai best-of (#68) back for the first time since '22 and on its fifth one week run since '08 - weird. Last week I said that Aerosmith would be "one and done" and I'd be amazed if I was wrong - and I'm pleased to say I'm not amazed. EsDeeKid is an odd one to guess - I'm going for #13 but I've absolutely no idea. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top ten and FOUR in the entire chart - Reputation snuck back in at #100.

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album but his entry is actually pretty interesting - if only for its lack of information. No-one knows who he is, how old he is, where he lives or what he looks like, which obviously resulted in a wild internet theory that he is - go on, guess. Yes,  Timothée Chalamet obviously has so much time on his hands that he's invented a Scouse rapper personality to confuse people. I'll love it if it is him though - and amusingly neither of them have denied it. 

I also learned that this is cloud rap (also known as trillwave) and critically, he's been pretty well received, particularly by The Guardian in a very "look at us paying attention to the provinces" kinda way (sometimes it's very hard to remember they started as The Manchester Guardian). Commercially, it's done much better globally than I suspected from his accent - even managing to get to #1 in the musical powerhouse of Lithuania, although I suspect #67 in the US might have resulted in slightly more exposure for the lad (and I'm intrigued as what they make of his accent).

In what I believe is a first, discogs.com doesn't have any copies at all - because there aren't any physical versions out there for sale anywhere. That somewhat rains on this parade, doesn't it? There's no danger of me revisiting this, but he's obviously giving quite a few people what they want and I grudgingly admired at least some of it and enjoyed hearing a regional accent. Jessie J easily wins the album of the week for me though - particularly given it was the only proper new release in the entire chart. 

28/11/25 - What exactly is the point to this?