We should take this back to my place

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

27/10/17 : Flicker - Niall Horan


Our third visit with Niall, and they've been generally bearable so far, but I seem to recall he started out aimed squarely at the Irish granny market, so I'm a bit worried as to what we're getting here.

Well, Irish granny music is a bit harsh, but there's not a lot to scare the horses here. It's quite an interesting album in some ways because it's the opposite of the normal stuff that the young male poppy singer-songwriters churn out - it's mostly laid-back, slow-tempo soft rock with a few (slightly) faster numbers in there to give some variety. I guess it's well done if it's what you're looking for (and I actually almost like "Slow Hands") and he gets some bonus points for doing something different, but it's fair to say it's not aimed at me. He looks amusingly young on the album cover though - that beard's not going to stop him getting carded anywhere.

We're at #3 with a new entry in the charts this week on the start of a somewhat generous fourteen week run, with this being as high as it got. The rest of the top five were George Michael (a re-entry, only the third one we've seen at the top), P!nk, Liam Gallagher and Ed Sheeran with three more new entries in the top ten for Krept & Konan (#6), Jessie Ware (#7) and Krept & Konan (#8 - huh?!?). I also have to mention the re-entry for The Smiths (#10) - weird things were going on this week. Amusingly, we also have a re-entry for Michael Bublé (#30) - yup, it was coming round to that time of year again!

Wikipedia tells us it's his debut solo album and is the third most successful 1D solo debut (both Harry and Zayn got to #1 with their debuts). There's remarkably little else of interest in there, so I delved into his entry and learned he's the only coach on The Voice US with a 100% winning record - fascinating, eh? I'd no idea the program was quite so big over there - they're on to their 28th season (in a mere 15 years!). Back to the album, the critical reviews were nice enough with several praising him for doing what he wanted, although others said it could have been a bit more interesting - all of which I find hard to argue with. Commercially, it did surprisingly well globally, getting to #1 in Canada, The Netherlands, Ireland (who knew?) and the US.

discogs.com tells us that you can pick up a decent copy of this for three quid, but if you want the tan vinyl it's going to set you back £150 - all of which begs the question "who exactly decided that a tan coloured LP was a good idea?". I didn't mind this though and admire him for doing what he wanted to, but there's no danger of me ever listening to it again.

03/11/17 - Interestingly forgettable


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