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The first one I've never listened to... Peace In Our Time (1988) I've no idea why I never bought this. I remember a couple of the singles and quite liked them, but for some reason I just never got round to it - so I'm intrigued to see what I think of it. 1. King Of Emotion I remembered liking this - it wasn't as enjoyable as I was expecting, but it's not dreadful. It doesn't sound very Scottish compared their previous stuff though and the drums are ridiculously high in the mix. 2. Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys) This was another one I remembered I liked - and this one has stood the test of time better (and it sounds more Scottish). It's still pretty understated on the guitar front - maybe they were given them a rest on this album. I wasn't expecting the pan pipes at the end though 3. Thousand Yard Stare Fine, but a bit repetitive - and that's all I can remember about it. 4. From Here To Eternity This starts with some ambient pan pipe-y things as well...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 08/09/17 : Freedom Child -  The Script For some reason, my default position on The Script is to be a bit sniffy about them, but then whenever I hear some of their stuff I don't mind it - so I'm trying to go into this with an open mind. Hmmm. I didn't like it, but I'm not entirely sure why - I think I feel it's just trying to be Snow Patrol (with bizarre Police-ish reggae notes in places) but without really having any understanding as to what that involves or even whether it's a good thing. It was all intensely forgettable without suggesting that repeat listens would make any better impression. We're at a somewhat surprising #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a decent twenty week run (god knows how). The rest of the top five were  Ed Sheeran , LCD Soundsystem (a new entry), OMD (another one) and Queens Of The Stone Age, with two more new entries in the top ten for Mogwai (#6) and J...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 15/09/17 : Sleep Well Beast -  The National This is our third visit with The National - I liked their early stuff but feel they somewhat lost their way after that, although the two visits from '23 were certainly listenable enough. I don't believe I've ever listened to this one, so am intrigued as to what I make of it. Yeah, this is pretty decent - it was the laid-back National sound that I like, but it has a load of interesting twiddly bits layered on top of it. It very much hit on first listen but also suggested that multiple listens would reveal more hidden jewels - and I would actually like to give it multiple listens (but obviously I'll report back in my end-of-year write-up that I've totally failed to manage to do so). We're at a somewhat surprising #1 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a five week run - this has been their only album to make it to the top (so far, at least). The re...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 27/03/26 : Arirang - BTS  How do BTS let you know that one of One Direction called? Yup - Arirang.... I've met the lads a couple of times and found them interesting without being a-maze-ing - but let's see what we're got here after their recent hiatus. Hmmm. Yeah, I guess it's interesting in parts but the first half just sounded like some people who've been away and they wanna stay down with the kids. But I, probably to your surprise, am not down with the kids so I get it was all just a bit try-hard and not that great as a a result. And the second half was just wishy-washy and boring - I didn't hate it, but I really didn't love it either. We are, somewhat to my surprise, at #1 in the charts this week with a new entry - do that many people over here really love them that much? (I guess the answer is - yes, they do). The rest of the top five are  Harry Styles ,  Olivia Dean  (her first time out of the...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 22/09/17 : Concrete And Gold -  Foo Fighters Our seventh visit with the Foos and, although my last visit was probably my favourite, my expectations are pretty low here - but you never know! Actually, I didn't mind this at all - the tracks are all well crafted (which is generally the case, even for tracks I don't like) and there's enough variety across the album to keep me engaged enough, although I wouldn't claim too much of it stuck in there on first listen. I'll be interested to see whether the proper Foo fans liked it because it wasn't as rocky as I was expecting, but I thought it was all decent enough (if unlikely to get a revisit). We're at #1 with a new entry this week - either our fifth in a row or our eleventh in a row if you include  George Michael  as a "new" entry. It hung around for a somewhat surprising 19 weeks (which suggests word of mouth reviews were positive) and the rest of t...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 29/09/17 : Wonderful Wonderful -  The Killers Our fifth visit with The Killers (and we've got another couple to come because all their albums have hit #1 over here) and I'm sure this will be, as they all are, perfectly fine - but no Hot Fuss. Yeah, I didn't mind this at all. U2 are the obviously touchpoint, but I also got strong hints of Chris de Burgh and, in places, Bee Gees - so make of that what you will. It all takes itself far too seriously but somehow gets away with it - however, there's no danger of me swapping a minute of it for anything on the first half of Hot Fuss. Sorry dudes! We're at #1 with a new entry at the start of an impressive 20 week run with the rest of the top five being Foo Fighters,  Ed Sheeran , Van Morrison (another new entry) and Enter Shikari (another new entry for the St Albans massive). And we have two more new entries in the top ten for Black Country Communion (#7) and The Horror...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 06/10/17 : Now -  Shania Twain Our third visit with Shania - I've no reason to imagine this won't be bearable. but I've also very few reasons to imagine I'll love it.  Hmmm. Well, I didn't hate it - but... ...it doesn't really sound like Shania Twain, which isn't really a problem for me personally - but I can see that some people who bought it because it's a Shania Twain album might have been a bit annoyed. And, at absolutely no point is it absurdly catchy - again, not a huge problem for me, except that I'm left wondering why anyone would care about this. It's just, well, boring - yeah, pretty tuneful and not dreadful, but boring. We're at (quite obviously) #1 with a new entry in the charts this week on the start of a seven week run which featured a drop in every week. The rest of the top five was a new entry heavy selection of Wolf Alice (another new entry), David Gilmour (ditto),  Ed Sh...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 13/10/17 :  Wamp 2 Dem -  Giggs Now, I don't want to go in to these things with a closed mind - but sometimes I'm left with no choice because if ever there was an album title that screamed "you're not gonna like this" then this is it. Obviously, I could be wrong - but I ain't gonna be, am I?  Well, I guess it could have been worse because I didn't absolutely hate it  - but I certainly didn't actively like it either. The rapping (and yes, it's rapping, in case you hadn't guessed) isn't dreadful but the backing tracks are very, very simple so I struggle to imagine that there's been too much effort gone into it. Especially because all the effort has gone into making it offensive - the opening track features 18 N words alone, so I just ended up rolling my eyes. Yes, I know it's not aimed at me - but it's REALLY not aimed at me. We're at (quite obviously) #2 in the charts wi...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 20/03/26 : Trying Times - James Blake  I never think I like James Blake, but then I actually hear something by him and I'm like "ah, he's the one that actually does interesting stuff". And, for the first time, I'm actually going to document that - we've never met him before. Yeah, I didn't mind this at all. He's has a low-key but still interesting vibe - at times a less dramatic Sam Smith was brought to mind (his voice is a lot better than I expected), but at other times I thought it was more like a less dramatic Radiohead (there are some interesting sounds on here). And if you can take Sam and Radiohead but remove some of the drama, then that's got to be a good thing, right? I actually don't remember an awful lot of it (although I did recognise Dave, who blends in nicely), but I'd like to listen to it again to get more familiar with it - it feels like it would work well in the sun...

Continuing my trip up Empire's   top 20 films of 2025 #13 :     F1 It may not reinvent the wheel (sorry), but this nitro-boosted blockbuster is an old-school thrill-ride which successfully ports across much of Top Gun: Maverick’s vibes and style. One wonders if it was originally intended as a Maverick-style sequel to Days Of Thunder (’Days Of Thunder: Trickle?’), to star Tom Cruise. Instead, we get a laconic Brad Pitt as a 200mph underdog, vying against the cream of F1’s drivers — plus his own teammate, an excellent Damon Idris — and deploying all sorts of cunning tricks to out-velocity superior hardware. Bolting cameras onto 16 different parts of a car, Joseph Kosinski again delivers visceral spectacle, making you feel like you’re genuinely inside a modified Dallara F2 2018. But unlike Days Of Thunder, the off-track drama delivers too, with a bunch of likeable characters, and a hissable villain courtesy of Tobias Menzies. Plus, you get Martin Brundle and David Croft comm...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 20/10/17 : Carry Fire -  Robert Plant Our second visit with Mr Plant and "low key noodling" was my previous verdict - and whilst that may have been 34 years earlier than this album, I'll be surprised if we've moved too far from that situation. I think I'd go as far as describing this atmospheric low key noodling - it has a nice vibe to it, but it's really rather lacking in content. The main thought that drifted through my brain whilst it was on was "how many different stringed instruments are played on this?" - there are all sorts of interesting sounds on it. It's all well done I guess, but I don't like his voice and, whilst it's only 48 minutes long, it really did drag - so I remain unconverted to the charms of Mr Plant (but looking at the track ratings on Amazon Music, it appears that plenty are very much converted).  We're at a surprisingly high #3 with a new entry in the char...