I'm sorry I won't make it to your party

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

14/04/17 : Memories...Do Not Open - The Chainsmokers


I know I don't mind stuff from The Chainsmokers, but I couldn't name any of their tracks if my life depended on it. Maybe this will jog my memory (spoiler alert - it won't).

I stand corrected - I actually did remember "Paris", but would never have remembered it was by this lot. I was expecting the album to be a general dance-y thing in a Disclosure or similar style, but it's actually more poppy - think something like a One Direction album but with guest vocalists. It's not dreadful, but it's all very samey and gets pretty dull pretty quickly - I can understand people bought it on the strength of a couple of decent singles, but I suspect the number of re-listens wasn't all that high.

We're at #3 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of a sixteen week run - easily their most successful album. The rest of the top five were Ed Sheeran, Rag'n'Bone Man, Drake and Take That (I'm amazed we didn't get them this week, and we're not getting them next week either) and we have three more new entries in the top ten for the obvious combination of Deep Purple (#6), Father John Misty (#8) and Mike & The Mechanics (#9).  

Wikipedia tells us it's their debut album and they had to announce it's imminent release because Chris Martin tweeted about it, which is kinda rubbish on Chris's part. There's remarkably little of interest until we get to the critical review section and boy, are there some doozies in here! The Guardian said it was like Donald Trump because it was "shallow, always betraying its influences, with a third-grade vocabulary and ambition that runs no further than emptying the nearest wallet", USA Today asked "is this the worst album of 2017?" and Pitchfork said it was "a lifeless, anodyne pop record that wallows in basic feelings of regret and narcissism". People REALLY didn't like it - and to think I thought I was being harsh! And so, obviously, it did very well commercially globally making the top three in a load of countries and getting to #1 in Canada and the US.

discogs.com reflects the above views by telling us that you can pick up a decent version for a couple of quid and the absolute most you can spend is £18 on a, wait for it, Walmart exclusive edition - nothing screams class like a Walmart exclusive edition, does it? I actually didn't think this was as bad as the critics did because it didn't make my eardrums bleed, but if it had then I might have remembered it more - it's all completely gone from my mind already.

21/04/17 - Nope, I still don't understand the appeal

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