Wolves in the woods don't play by their rules

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

03/11/17 : Scream Above The Sounds - Stereophonics


Our eighth visit with the 'phonics (keeping them level with the Manics) - it's fair so say their output has been variable, so who knows what we're getting here. 

Hmmm - it's basically a Stereophonics album with the added "bonus" that they sometimes sound a bit bored with being who they are and they fancy being someone else. I noted down hints of Starsailor (quite often), Radiohead, jazz, yacht rock, Status Quo and The Sweet (which is quite the combination!) but there were plenty of other "oh, that reminded me of <X>" moments that I couldn't quite place. As a Stereophonics-agnostic I quite liked it as a "well, they're trying something a bit, but not too, different" effort so I'll be interested to read what the critics and fans thought of it.

We're at #2 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of a twelve week run, with this being as high as it got. It was a busy week for new entries with the rest of the top five being Alfie Boe & Michael Ball (another one), Gregory Porter (another one with a Nat King Cole based collection), George Michael (not a new entry, but back because of a reissue) and P!nk, with the next highest new entry being Chris Brown (#10 - the man's had eight top ten albums over the years but we have yet to meet him).

Wikipedia tells us this is their tenth album - and that's about it really, other than noting it was released 20 years after their debut (which coincidentally looks to be one of only two albums of theirs that we're not going to get to meet). Critically, it got pretty middling reviews, with Wikipedia bizarrely noting that it only received two stars from The Islington Gazette - checking the fan reviews on the internet, it seems like people either quite liked it or completely hated it. And commercially, it only troubled the lower reaches of the charts in a few countries, with the exception of here and Ireland, where it reached #9.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent copy for £4 but if you want an unplayed original vinyl then it's going to set you back £110 - lordy! I found this an interesting listen - but, of course, I don't remember any of it in the slightest.

10/11/17 - Could have been a lot worse

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