It's a supernatural delight

Continuing my trip back through the 2001 album charts.

25/02/01 : Onka's Big Moka - Toploader


Have any band ever done quite so much and yet quite so little on the back of one decent single? Plenty probably, but I've never heard this - I'm expecting it to be perfectly pleasant but somewhat inessential.

Actually, I'd say I'd be happy to describe this as pretty decent but somewhat inessential. Obviously, everyone knows and loves/hates "Dancing In The Moonlight" but the rest of it isn't noticeably worse, it's all played well enough and your man has a distinctive but not overly annoying voice. And if I caught them on a sunny afternoon in a festival/pub in the park/random beergarden I'd certainly enjoy the vibe and stay around for an extra pint or two - but there's absolutely no chance of me ever listening to this album again. 

We're at #4 in the charts this week on their 40th week of a both surprising and unsurprising 58 week run with this being as high as it got, also in its 46th and 47th weeks. The rest of the top five were Dido, Anastacia, Eva Cassidy and Limp Bizkit with the highest new entry being Wheatus (#7) - I suspect I would have enjoyed that more. 

Wikipedia has remarkably little on it other than telling us it's their debut album, reminding me that "Dancing In The Moonlight" is a cover version (first recorded by Boffalongo in '71) and telling me that the album title comes from the 1974 anthropological documentary "Ongka's Big Moka: The Kawelka of Papua New Guinea" (but you knew that, right?). Critically, it generally received average reviews (but Select really didn't like it giving it only one star) and commercially it got to #6 in Ireland, but only skirted the outer reaches of the charts in a few European countries. 

Discogs.com tells us this is another fifty pence album but if you want a numbered limited edition vinyl version then it's going to set you back £110 - that feels maybe a bit toppy(loader) to me. However, I have to admit this is a lot better than I expected - it's certainly not musical genius but it has a decent enough vibe to it and I'm glad I caught up with it. 

04/03/01 - Perfectly fine, but not required

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