She’s been to every show and every signing - she dresses like the two girls from The Shining

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

06/02/26 : Wasted On Youth - The Molotovs

I'm not aware of The Molotovs, but if they're not a punk/indie outfit, I'll be amazed.

Phew - no amazement required. I actually didn't mind this at all - it manages to hark back to lots of properly old stuff like The Clash or Ian Dury but still manages to sound pretty fresh and energised. Will I ever listen to it again? No, but I would go and catch them at a festival if we were in the same place over the summer (which isn't going to happen).

We're at a surprisingly high #3 with a new entry in the charts this week (I'm intrigued as to who's being buying this) and the rest of the top five are Olivia Dean (her sixth week at #1 and her thirteenth consecutive week in the top two), Lily Allen (the physical releases came out this week), Don Toliver (another new entry) and the Fleetwood Mac best-of. And it's quite the peculiar mix of new entries this week...

Don Toliver (#3)
I'm vaguely aware of Don's output - enough to know I don't like it without listening to this. I did anyway (just to make sure) and I have to admit he's not the worst of the hip-hop bunch with poetic pretensions but there's still more than enough dubious content to make me look elsewhere.

Cast (#8)
More looking back to the dim and distant past and this also harks back quite nicely. If you like your Britpop with a touch of Scouse, then I suspect you'll like this - they were never a top tier band for me at the time, but this sounds like they're still enjoying themselves and making some decent enough sounds.

Only The Poets (#9)
I wasn't previously aware of this lot, but they make some quite nice noises a la The 1975 or Harry Styles. It's nothing I'd search out online, but I can see I'd try and track them down at a festival because it would sound good live in the sunshine.

Kula Shaker (#13)
These guys were around about the same time as Cast, but they look even further back with their hints of Beatles-style mysticism/hippydiddyness (delete phrase as appropriate). But like Cast, they're making a decent enough sound here - I found this a bit more interesting, even if it feels unlikely I'll revisit it. 

Francis Rossi (#25)
I was going to say this is sub-par stuff from the Status Quo reject bin, but that's harsh because the Quo recorded some proper shite over the years so I'm not sure they left anything in the reject bin - so let's just say it's very average rawk, which you might well love if you like the Quo.

The highest re-entry is Michael Jackson's Number Ones which is at #7 after a break of three years (I've no idea what's caused that) and the next highest is Bad Bunny (#44) with everyone getting ready for his Superbowl half-time show. Last week I said that Louis would be at #47 and I was some way away because he's at #85 - I suspect The Molotovs are either going to be a one-and-done or manage to hold in there remarkably well, so let's randomly go for one-and-done. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top twenty and five in the entire chart, so she's managed to arrest the slide for the time being.

Wikipedia has nothing on the band or the album - the internet tells me they're a brother and sister still in their teens and they rock a strong mod vibe with Paul Weller having expressed his approval. They've got quite a reputation for their gigs, having played over six hundred of them and also supported The Sex Pistols and Blondie. Apart from that, there's surprisingly little out there about them - maybe they're too busy gigging to do interviews.

discogs.com tells us that you can pick up a CD version for thirteen pounds but you're going to want a pretty vinyl option, aren't you? Well, there's quite the choice - you can have pink, white, red, blue or a zoetrope picture disc - I love a good zoetrope, but I'll not be forking out £250 for it! On first listen. this is a perfectly decent album which is well worth checking out and does give you some hope for the future, but I'm not entirely sure what it's got that propelled it to the dizzy heights it's achieved. I'm happy for it to take album of the week though - I also think the offerings from Kula Shaker and Only The Poets are interesting and worth a listen and I'd be happy to see any of them on stage on a sunny festival afternoon.

30/01/26 - Perfectly pleasant, if not exactly memorable

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