My body's not a temple, more a bachelorette pad

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

29/05/26 : Florescence - Maisie Peters 

Our third visit with Maisie (and somewhat surprisingly, I've also seen her live twice) and I've generally liked both her and her music, so here's hoping for more of the same.

Well, it's not more of the same - she's switched from a poppy sound to a more folky kinda thang. And I like it - there's definitely a relationship theme going on but there are good relationship and bad relationship songs so it doesn't get too tiresome one way ("yay, men are the best!") or the other ("boo to all men!"). I was reminded of, and I mean this in a nice way, Ed Sheeran - back in the day when he used to just make decent songs with simple but heartfelt lyrics, so don't let that put you off.

We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week - she's had three albums out and she's had two #1s and one #2, so well done her! The rest of the top five are a Michael Jackson best-of, Drake, Olivia Dean and Michael Jackson's Thriller. So how are we doing on the new entry front this week?

Michael Ball (#9)
I'm often very rude about Michael and his mate Alfie for their habit of absolutely murdering decent songs. However, it wasn't all that long ago that I was actually pretty nice to Alfie for an album that consisted of songs he'd written - and stone me if I'm not having to do the same for Michael. Don't get me wrong, I don't actually like this, but it doesn't make me want to kill anyone (or everyone) so that's a bonus.

Bleachers (#18)
From the name, they're either going to be indie funsters or post-punk unfunsters - and fortunately it's the former. They reminded me of The National, but with a slight 70s style retro twist to them - I didn't mind it at all. Google tells me it's Jack Antonoff's band - and a quick search of the blog tells me I knew this already but had completely forgotten.

A (#42)
A? A?!?!? What kind of a name is that - particularly in these internet search friendly times?!? It certainly didn't allow me to guess what I was going to get - and I absolutely wasn't expecting UK-based grunge, including references to Tesco and CenterParcs. It's not really my thing but I didn't mind it - Google tells me they were formed in '93 and this is their first album in 21 years!

Billy Lockett (#50)
Going on the name and the album cover, I was guessing we had another sensitive male singer-songwriter and I was right on the money - imagine Sam Fender if he wanted to be Coldplay. It's done well enough, but not something I need in my life.

Ed O'Brien (#73)
Ed is in Radiohead and this is pretty much what you'd expect - but slightly more accessible. It's certainly well done and I enjoyed listening to it but I can't quite decide if I actually liked it - if you're a serious beard-stroking muso type with maybe a leaning towards Pink Floyd (because I know so many of them) then I suspect you should check it out.

Marmozets (#87)
Another lot I thought I'd never heard of, but this is actually my second visit with them. Last time I thought it was a bit noisy but didn't mind it and that's pretty much where we are again - I suspect I'd prefer them live. Google tells me apparently they're part of the mathrock genre, they were formed in '07 and this is their first album since '18 - I also have to admit I thought Co War Dice was an odd name for an album until I ran the words together.

The highest re-entry this week is Yungblud (#19) - I've no idea why this is back, but fair play to the lad. And that's it apart from a few in the 80s and 90s - The Beatles Red Album at #100 is probably the most surprising reappearance. Last week I said that Drake would be at #14 and we already know I got that wrong because he's at #3 - I often get the women hopelessly wrong so let's just randomly guess that Maisie will be at #14 because it saves me thinking. And this week's Taylor stats are just one in the entire with The Life Of A Showgirl at #60 - which means that, after nearly three years, it's time to retire this stat (at least until she brings out her next album). But it's worth revisiting the Taylor stats from the first week I reported them in June '23 because she had four in the top twenty and nine in the entire chart - and completely coincidentally, it was the last time we met Maisie!

Wikipedia has loads for a new album (160 milliPeppers) but most of it is to do with her change of style (which most people liked) and how the album has come about because she's now in a good relationship and it's given her the opportunity to consider her previous, maybe-not-so-good relationships (when I saw her at Glasto she commented on her "terrible, terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE taste in men"). Juila Michaels and Marcus Mumford feature as guest artists and I also learned that floresence is completely different from fluoresence, meaning the state of flowering - which I guess fits in nicely with her relationship status. 

There's also a nice bit on the album cover about how she looks peaceful in the picture, but she looks a lot more pensive if you rotate it 180 degrees (and yes, I turned my laptop upside down to check). Critically, it's been well received although The Arts Desk notes that it would fail the Bechdel test, which I learn is now called the Bechdel-Wallace test because Ms Bechdel fessed up that Ms Wallace came up with the idea. Commercially, it's done well in English speaking countries, getting to #1 in Australia, #9 in New Zealand and #10 in Ireland - but it's also got to #10 in Germany.

discogs.com tells there are all sorts of versions available with four different covers and six different vinyl types and you can spend anything from a tenner to £60 on it! I'm not sure I'd go that mad for it, but I liked this considerably more than I expected - enough for it to win the album of the week award. But I'd say all the new entries this week with into the "well done that sort of thing" category - Bleachers and Ed O'Brien were my other favourites but I will generously allow others to have different opinions.

22/05/26 - Not for me (x3)