We are all coincidences accepting idiosyncrasies

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

02/06/17 : Different Days - The Charlatans

I've listened to a few albums from The Charlatans over the years and generally enjoyed them and been pleasantly surprised by the variety they provide, but I've never listened to this one, which is only our second ever visit with the lads.

And this provides a bit more variety with some melodic, backward-looking pop taking in multiple influences from mostly (I would say) the 60s to the 80s - there's also a decent amount of variety across the album. I'd say it's interesting rather than loveable on first listen, but it's nicely jaunty and feels like it would be a grower which I imagine the fans love - it's always a challenge for a band which has released a load of albums to get the mix of "more of the same" and "something new" right and The Charlatans seem to manage this better than most.

We're at #4 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of very brief two week run - how is this not doing better than that? The rest of the top five are, quite obviously, The Beatles (very nearly a re-entry, but actually up from #85 last week), Ed Sheeran, Rag'n'Bone Man and Harry Styles with the next highest new entry being The Amazons (#8 - I didn't remember this lot but I apparently I met them in passing as a new entry last year).

Wikipedia tells us this is their thirteenth album (and currently their penultimate one, with only last year's We Are Love having been released since). The only other interesting information is the list of guest artists involved which includes Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Gillian Gilbert and Stephen Morris (from New Order), Ian Rankin and Sharon Horgan - that list takes a swift left turn halfway through! Critically, people were nice enough about it with The Guardian declaring it "their best album in 20 years" (which feels like a stretch) but commercially, it didn't do much away from here, with #35 in Ireland being the only activity noted.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version for a fiver but if you want a white label test pressing then it's going to set you back £65 - which doesn't seem that bad for something which is obviously rare. I liked this album without loving it, but it did nothing to challenge my overall view that The Charlatans are one of the more reliable bands in repeatedly producing decent music with enough variety to keep things interesting - they've deserved to outlast many of their contemporaries.

09/06/17 - For the most part, pretty decent