I sit and wait for you like so many others do

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 chart this week on the start of a not so surprisingly short six week run. The rest of the top five were P!nk (a new entry), Liam Gallagher, Ed Sheeran and Beck (a new entry) with the next highest new entry being St Vincent (#6) with an album I seem to remember quite liking.

Wikipedia tells us this is his eleventh solo album and uses his backing band, the Sensational Space Shifters - and that's your lot! I can at least tell you some of the stringed instruments used - guitar, oud, bass, fiddle (played by Seth Lakeman), viola and cello (but I bet there's a few more on there). I could dive into his entry to provide some further info, but there's a load of shit there man and we ain't got time for that. Critically, the album was very well received with everyone being very nice about it and it also did very well commercially, making the top thirty in most countries and getting to #7 in Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland, #2 in Czechia and even a very decent #14 in the US. 

discogs.com tells us that you'll have to spend at least a fiver to get a decent copy of this, but if you want the etched (no, I've no idea what this means) double vinyl gatefold LP which does the weird thing of only having three sides of music, then it's going to set you back £50. But let's just end this here by saying that whilst I can see this album has plenty of skill involved, it's just not for me.

27/10/17 - Fair play to the lad for doing what he wanted


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