Ever since I was a child, my dreams were like a scripture

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

10/04/26 : The Weight Of The Woods - Dermot Kennedy 

Having completely coincidentally mentioned Dermot last week (in connection with the word "sonder"), we now have our second visit with the lad - last time I declared his album (Sonder) to be fine but forgettable and I've no reason to believe we won't get exactly the same here.

Well, it turns out he can't be completely forgettable because I do remember that the last album didn't really sound like this one. This is much more David Gray-ish, with definitely folky roots to it - I didn't mind it at all, but, once again, I'd struggle to say too much of it stuck in there with me. However, it's all nicely hummable and I do believe that multiple listens would improve matters - and I also like the album cover.

We're at #1 in the charts with a new entry this week - his third #1 album in a row, so it's a bit strange that his debut album only got to #76. The rest of the top five are Raye, Olivia Dean, Harry Styles and BTS - Dermot's doing well to hold them all off (and the next five are even more high powered, consisting of Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter and The Weeknd!). Compared to last week we have a very sparse selection of new entries to consider though...

Arlo Parks (#13)
I don't mind Arlo, but it's all a bit wishy-washy and forgettable (although somehow in a good way) - and that's what we've got here again. Fine for a summer's day, but it's all a bit cloudy today - so it didn't quite hit the spot. 

Thundercat (#76)
I've met him previously and declared it to be "mediocre 70s funk" - and this hasn't done a lot to dispel that notion, but I might upgrade it to "skilfully mediocre 70s funk" if I was feeling generous.

U2 (#87)
Despite their last album being an absolute abomination, they'd have been expecting better than this, surely? Ah - it's not really an album at all, but a six track EP, which hurts its ability to chart so maybe they'll be pleasantly surprised. And do you know what? - I was pleasantly surprised too, because this isn't terrible!

Not so many new entries means an absolute glut of re-entries this week, with fourteen in the entire chart but none of them are of particular interest, with Harry Styles (#77) being the highest - it's always amusing to see the Dire Straits (#96) and Mark Knopfler (#98) best-ofs pop back in though. Last week I said that Raye would hold on to the top spot, but I reckoned without the might of Mr Kennedy - I reckon he'll be dropping quite a bit further, so let's go for #27. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top thirty and four in the entire chart (but two are in the 90s).

Somewhat surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album and it isn't even mentioned on his entry. It appears he's quite a private fellow, but you do feel that maybe his promotional team might have got something sorted out. Google AI suggests it's been well received enough commercially, although it does quote The Irish Times - yet if you go read the actual review, it declares the album to be "a missed opportunity". 

discogs.com only has four copies available - they're all the black dust on green coloured vinyl offering and you can spend between $40 and €129 on it, so take your pick! He does win the album of the week award though with an offering that's decent enough, but certainly benefits from some pretty weak opposition - although it was nice that U2 managed to come up with something listenable.

03/04/26 - An ambitious album