They say we're in danger but I disagree

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

20/01/17 : I See You - The XX


Our second visit with The XX - again! I listened to this about a week ago as part of The Guardian's list before I realised I was going to meet it as part of this list, so had to rewrite that post - but fortunately I kept the text to be reused now, so this will be a quick one!

And basically I liked it - it's got the dreamy XX kinda sound which just drifts past you, but it's not quite insignificant enough to be ignored. And I think that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter - it won't be for everyone, but it worked well for me.

We're at a somewhat surprising #1 in the charts this week on the start of a fifteen week run. The rest of the top five were La La Land, Little Mix, a George Michael best-of and Bonobo (a new entry) and we have two more new entries in the top ten for Rick Wakeman (#7 - which seems surprisingly high) and Wiley (#9). 

Wikipedia tells us it was over four years since their second album and they made a conscious decision to move in a new direction as a result of Jamie XX's solo album, In Colour - and that's pretty much all it's got for you. Critically, people were very nice about it and it featured on TWENTY FIVE year-end lists and even a couple of decade-end lists (which feels generous to me). Commercially, this did waaaay better globally than I ever imagined, also getting to #1 in Australia, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Ireland and Portugal and #2 in the US - well done them.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a CD copy for three quid, but if you want the deluxe limited edition boxset which consists of a vinyl LP and 12" and 2 CDs, then you can pick the whole lot up for £30, which seems like a bargain. I'm quite surprised this did as well as it did, but I don't begrudge them their moment in the spotlight, even if I'm not sure they're really into such things.

27/01/17 - Considerably better than expected



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