You know I'm shredded by the time I'm home like polystyrene foam

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 sunshine.

We're at #3 in the charts with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are Harry, Olivia Dean, the Fleetwood Mac best-of and Tate McRae (up from #22 last week) - and we don't have an awful lot of new entries to consider this week.

YONAKA (#25)
I've never heard of YONAKA - I'd guess some kind of weird indie, but I'm sure I'm wrong. Actually, it's pretty straightforward goth(ish) indie - it's up my street and I liked it, but I didn't love it. I suspect it would be fun live though - the lead singer sounds like she's pretty fierce.

The Black Crowes (#37)
I never thought I liked TBC, but when we met their '94 album I didn't mind it (despite the dreadful cover) - and the same is true with this. It's a bit too much like rawk for me, but it's well done rawk - and they've been going since '84 so I guess they're gonna keep on rawking!

Lamb Of God (#48)
Only our second ever mention of this lot - part of me assumes they'll sound like Lamb, but part of me doubts that will be the case. And, oh boy, do they not sound like Lamb - it's roary-shouty-singing heavy metal. I'm sure it's well done if you like that sort of thing, but I can assure you that I very much don't.

Not only do we not having many new entries, we also lacking in re-entries with only two in the entire chart - the Gorillaz best-of (#94) and the Cure best-of (#99), which feels like a curious combination putting in an appearance for no obvious reason. Last week I said that Harry would hang around at #1 and I'm pleased to say I was right (and I reckon he'll manage a third week) - James will not manage to hang in there and I've no idea how far he will fall, so let's randomly pick #47. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top thirty and four in the entire chart - just, with Lover being at #100.

Somewhat unexpectedly for a reasonably successful artist, this album doesn't have a Wikipedia entry, although his entry tells us that he's left the Polydor label so that may well have something to do with that - but it also tells us this is his highest ever charting entry here, so he's not unduly suffering. Critically, the reviews I've stumbled across speak nicely enough about it but there's surprisingly little out there about it.

discogs.com has twelve copies and they're all "White Lightning" limited edition double vinyl editions and they vary in price from £31.99 to £39.99 with the exception of the signed version dedicated to "his #1 fan" which will set you back £120, but I can't help but feel that's cheating. I liked this album, but I'd like to like it more because it feels like repeated listens are required to really get into it. Which feels unlikely to happen, but I'm still giving it the album of the week award. 

13/03/26 - Meh