You got the style, got the moves - all the haters, cut 'em loose

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

23/04/26 : You Got This - Skindred 

We've met Skindred in passing as a new entry at #2 in '23 with an album I described at the time as "certainly quite something" - but this time they get a full write-up, so I'd guess I'll have to find a better way to describe it.

Ah yes - this too is certainly quite something. It's quite heavy rock with various other influences, notably reggae but there's all sorts in there thrown together with a large number of pop culture references. It's all done skilfully enough and appears to take itself seriously musically, without taking itself too seriously culturally - which feels like the right way round to me. I can't say I'll be rushing back to it, but I admire them for doing what they do and I imagine they're a whole heap of fun live.

And they're at #1 with a new entry - well done them! The rest of the top five are Jessie Ware (another new entry), Olivia Dean, Zayn (a third new entry) and a Michael Jackson best-of (undoubtedly boosted by the recent biopic). And there are quite a few new entries this week, but I suspect I won't be able to listen to quite a few of them.

Jessie Ware (#2)
I actually quite like Jessie - she's a kalmer Kylie. And I liked this album too - it's very decent indeed with good tunes done well. And I think that's all I've got to say on the matter.

Zayn (#4)
I'm surprised to see this quite so high because I wasn't sure there were many of his fans left - but I'm obviously wrong (as always). I didn't mind this, but it didn't really stick in there - I couldn't quite decide if it was laid back or just boring. 

Tomora (#16)
I've no idea who this artist is (it's also their first mention) - I'd guess K-pop or indie from the name, but am expecting to be widely off the mark. Ah yes, it's Tom Rowlands, half of Chemical Brothers and Aurora, the Norwegian singer doing some hard-to-describe trippy techno something. Both my daughters have specifically requested that they go on the record that this is awful, but I have to disagree - yes, the first track (which was the only one they heard) is indeed "somewhat challenging" (it's mostly Aurora screaming) but things do then calm down and there are some lovely sounds in there (but I couldn't convince them to give any of the rest of it a listen).

Blur (#77)
This far down the charts, I guessed (correctly) we were in Record Store Day territory, so was suspecting this wouldn't be available to stream - but it's got quite an interesting release history, having originally only being released in Japan in '96, but then made available on streaming in '14 before being re-released for RSD. I'm afraid I didn't listen to all 96 minutes of it, but I'm sure you can imagine what it sounds like.

Madness (#81)
Another RSD release, this is various snippets from BBC sessions - and only available in physical format, but I suspect you can imagine what this sounds like as well.

Muse (#84)
Another RSD release, but this is a re-release of a six track EP from '99 so is available online - I'd not heard it before and I like this period Muse, so I thought it was decent listen, if not exactly essential.

Laufey (#94)
And another RSD one - this is a live version of her latest album that we met in passing as a new entry. It's not available online but I imagine her live performances are quite the thing.

Jeff Buckley (#100)
And one final RSD entry - this one is re-release of his live album from '01 and I'm afraid I didn't listen to it because I've just run out of time for the week!

With all those RSD releases, we've not so many re-entries this week - Paramore (#74) have the highest one with their debut and I had absolutely no idea why. And obviously five seconds of research tells me it was because of RSD, so don't ask me why that counts as re-entry rather than a new release - the same is also true for Madonna (#78).

Last week I said that Jack Savoretti would be at #85 and I was on the right lines but too optimistic for the lad because he's completely dropped out - I suspect the same is going to happen for Skindred. And this week's Taylor stats are one in the top forty and three in the entire chart, but Folklore is at #98 so she's in trouble.

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album yet, but their entry tells us they've been going since '98, this is their eighth album and their first #1 (their previous album got to #2) and they're highly regarded live.

discogs.com tells us that you have a choice of two different colour vinyls - the orange one will set you back £26.99 but the green, yellow and red striped one will cost you £65. This album isn't really my kind of thing, but I have to admire a band who've put the hard yards in and have obviously built a loyal fanbase in the process, so I'm happy for them to at least share the album of the week award. From a personal point of view, Jessie Ware and Tomora are much more my sort of thing, so I'm going to give them a share of the spoils as well - just make sure you get further than the opening track of the Tomora album.

17/04/26 - I don't understand who was asking for this