Plastic cups, neon signs - I still live at the borderline

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

27/02/26 : Prizefighter - Mumford & Sons

Our third visit with Marcus and his mates - I generally don't mind their stuff in small doses, but it doesn't take a lot for it all to get too much. But let's see what we've got here...

Actually, I think I really quite liked this. It has a general US country/folk vibe to it, but there's enough variety within the genre with parts of it reminding me of Johnny Cash, Jason Isbell, The National and Noah Kahan - and probably about a million others, but in a good way. The whole thing benefits from being not overly busy (there are certainly reduced levels of banjo) with some interesting lyrics which feel personal but are also mildly cryptic and some nice tunes and harmonies - there's also a fitting selection of guest artists involved which I'll be interested to read about when we get to Wikipedia. I like the album cover as well - simple yet classy. 

We're at #1 with a new entry in the charts this week - their fourth #1, with their other two albums getting to #2. The rest of the top five are Olivia Dean (of course), Leigh-Anne (another new entry), George Michael (a re-entry because of a vinyl reissue) and Hilary Duff (another new entry - her first in 11 years). So let's check out them new entries...

Leigh-Anne (#3)
This is the third Little Mixer solo album we've stumbled across (although Jade is the only we've properly met) - I was under the impression that Leigh-Anne had a decent voice but didn't really have any facts to back that up. But I'm pleased to say she's very much backed it up, this is a decent album - it's got a strong black vibe to it but there's a decent amount of variety across there with some strong reggae and R&B feels in particular. Beyoncé was brought to mind in several places, which seems like a strong recommendation - although admittedly this is from someone who knows very little about Beyoncé.

Hilary Duff (#5)
I know Hilary was Lizzie McGuire, but that was a long time ago now - I imagine she might have grown up a bit (but I have no real clue, because I've no idea what Lizzie McGuire actually did or when she did it). But I can report that whilst she was growing up, she certainly listened to Taylor Swift. Yes, there's a definite "mom vibe" to it (she's ten years older than Taylor) but it's well done and I can imagine her fans will relate to it because I suspect they've probably grown up as well. I didn't hate it, but there's no danger of me listening to it (or anything else she's ever done) again. 

Elvis Presley (#17)
This is the soundtrack to EPIC which is an interesting concept - and a great film title. And it's perfectly fine, but not one I felt the need to listen to all the way through - I'm sure the visuals help, but I doubt I'll bother watching the film.

Baby Keem (#29)
My general rule is, if the artist has "lil" or "baby" in their name, I'm not going to like it - and this album is in no danger of being an exception to that rule. But, I can see the fans will like it and I'm happy enough that they do - there is at least some skill involved here. 

Megan Maroney (#67)
I'd no idea about Megan but she's very much a country gal - it's quite clichéd (she's been done wrong quite a few times) but it's well done and it's often quite amusing. The whole album was a bit much, but there's a lot to like about it - much more than I was expecting. 

So George is obviously an interesting re-entry at #4, but that's pretty much it with the next highest being a Neil Diamond best-of at #89 and the only others being Frank Ocean (#99) and a Madonna best-of (#100). Last week I said that Charli XCX would be at #27 and I was pretty wrong because she's at #8 - I'm going for #16 for Mumford & Sons, but I have no confidence I'm not going to be way off. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top twenty (just - #19) and five in the entire chart (just  - with two at #92 and #94). 

Wikipedia tells us this is their sixth album, it's produced by Aaron Dessner (of The National - go me!) and the guest artists are Chris Stapleton, Hozier, Gigi Perez and Gracie Abrams - but we've also got some interesting guest writers involved including Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Brandi Carlile, Finneas and a couple of other dudes I don't know. There's no word on critical reviews but a quick internet search suggests it's gone down well and commercially it's done pretty well globally getting to #5 in Australia, #4 in The Netherlands and #3 in Germany and Ireland.

Interestingly, discogs.com has only one copy available - a black and clear vinyl version (which I'm intrigued as to what it looks like) for 89 Euro (plus probably quite a hefty shipping charge from Greece, of all places). 2026 didn't start brilliantly but it's delivered me two decent albums in two weeks, both of which I might have avoided otherwise. Mumford & Sons take the album of the week award but Leigh-Anne's offering is well worth a listen if you think you might like that sort of thing - and that's also true for Megan's album as well. 

20/02/26 - Yeah, I liked this
06/03/26 - I struggle to see the appeal