In my mind, I'm going to Carolina

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

13/02/26 : The Fall-off - J Cole

I'm aware of J Cole but this is our first meeting with the lad (despite him having had two #2 albums and two others in the top ten) - I believe he's a reasonably talented hippy-hoppy type but I suspect my days of actually enjoying such a thing are now long past me.

Yeah, there is some evidence of skill and intelligence here - I can't say I loved it but I certainly didn't hate it so it's a step up from plenty of stuff I get to experience from that genre. I do have to confess that I didn't listen to it all - 24 tracks over 101 minutes was just too much for me I'm afraid. I suspect if you like this sort of thing then you'll already have listened to it - and if you don't then I can't say there's anything particularly unusual to draw you in. It's not dreadful though, so he gets some brownie points for that. 

We're at #3 in the chart with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are Olivia Dean, Bad Bunny (up from #44 last week after his Superbowl half-time show, which certainly got people talking) and best-ofs from Fleetwood Mac (on a 378 week run but it's never been higher than #3, which it did earlier this year) and The Weeknd (on a 262 week run and it's peaked at #2 - seven times). And I know I say this every time but this week we really do have a most peculiar bunch of new entries!

Joji (#6)
I've never heard of the lad but apparently he first found fame on YouTube with comedy as FilthyFrank and then moved over into music, first as Pink Guy and then as Joji - with his fourth album being the delightfully titled Piss In The Wind (which doesn't sound too wise to me). And well, it's interesting, if somewhat hard to describe - skittery lo-fi trip hop? I didn't love it but I enjoyed meeting something a bit different.

Lorien Testard (#16)
Nope - never heard of him. This is the soundtrack to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is a very well received video game - and it seems to have some interesting music, although I have to admit I didn't listen to all eight hours of it.

Ist Ist (#21)
I've never heard of this lot either and they're given the dreaded post-punk label, but I really quite liked this - it reminded me of 80s indie goth. It's enjoyable stylised.

Marnz Malone (#36)
Someone else I'd never heard of but I wasn't surprised to hear he was one of them rappy types. He reminded me of Stormz - it's not my cup of tea but I can hear there's intelligence and skill involved.

Crystal Tides (#37)
Nope - no idea about this lot either. Apparently they're an unsigned indie band and no-one's quite sure how they've managed this, but they're all very pleased for them. And having listened to it, I'm pleased for them too - but I've absolutely no idea what they've got that made them stand out from the pack.

Big Big Train (#51)
This lot have been going since '90 and this is their sixteenth album - all of which means nothing because this is their first ever mention here and I've never heard of them. And it's very proggy, which isn't usually my sort of thing, but I didn't mind it at all - they know the noise they want to make and they're making it.

Djo (#66)
Finally someone I've heard of! This isn't really a new entry but the deluxe version of the one he released last April - I decided I could probably live without the 24 tracks and 90 minutes, but I'm sure it's perfectly fine.

Florence + The Machine (#96)
This is a random compilation of 39 tracks from their career - nearly three hours all told. All very peculiar and not one I felt the need to listen to - even though I know I'd enjoy most of it.

We only have two re-entries in the entire chart this week which are best-ofs from Nirvana (#97) and The Beatles (#100) - nothing particularly exciting to talk about there. Last week I said that The Molotovs would be a one-and-done and sadly I'm correct - I've got absolutely no idea how J Cole will do so let's randomly pick #45. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top twenty and five in the entire chart.

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount of text (175 milliPeppers) and it tells us it's his seventh album and it was "made with intentions to be [his] last". There's remarkable little of interest in there but he does have some impressive guest artists including Burna Boy, Erykah Badu, Future and Tems. Critically, people either loved it or were so-so about it and the same has been true commercially with it doing much better in some countries than others, but it has got to #2 in New Zealand and I suspect it will do pretty well in the US when their chart gets announced.

discogs.com doesn't have any copies for sale over here, but if you look in the US, you can get a quadruple 45 rpm vinyl "stealth edition" which will set you back anything from $180-$400 - fair play to the lad for doing something different! I'm sure this or Marnz Malone will be album of the week for plenty of them rappy types, but I'd say they're all decent examples of "that sort of thing" this week, where very different "sorts of things" are involved - I'd give it to the somewhat peculiar mix of Ist Ist or Big Big Train.

06/02/26 - The kids are alright