I know that the bar closes at 11 but I hope you never finish that beer

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

19/06/26 : you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love - Olivia Rodrigo 

This is our third visit with Olivia and I've liked her previous two, so I imagine I'll like this as well.

Yeah, nothing wrong with this, although it's a bit of style departure from the previous two, feeling more grown up (she's getting old, I guess). It's maybe lacking the instant bangers of the previous two on first listen, but I suspect it wouldn't take more than another visit or two for me to change my opinion there. It's quite a good album title because a lot of the tracks are about being in love and also not being entirely happy about it or the aftermath, but she avoids the Taylor Swift-esque general moaniness - there's a general "it's complicated" vibe to it (which for me is a much better starting point than "it's all his fault"). I think there's a decent amount of variety on there with some serious 80s throwbacks in places, but not excessively so - it's also very cute that it both has a track called "The Cure" and features a duet with Robert Smith.

We're at an unsurprising #1 with a new entry this week - her third chart-topper, so she's doing alright for a 23 year old. The rest of the top five are a Michael Jackson best-of, Harry Styles (back up the charts because he's touring), Olivia Dean and (quite obviously) Embrace. Huh? Time to check out them new entries, I guess...

Embrace (#5)
This is their ninth top ten album and our second visit - I never think I like them, but then when I actually listen to their stuff, I think it's OK. And I quite liked this - they're churning out stuff that their fans want, but that's what they gotta do!

Angine de Poitrine (#19)
There's a lot of fuss around this lot but I'm not sure I've actually ever heard any of their stuff. Hmmm - well, now I have.

Sonny Federa (#20)
I've never heard of this dude, but Sonny's gonna be an R&B guy, ain't he? No, Sonny's a DJ - think Mark Ronson or Calvin Harris. And he seems to be decent enough at doing that sort of thing, but there's just so much of it out there that it really needs to be special to cut through immediately - and he's not quite that good on first listen. 

Angine de Poitrine (#23)
Well, this is odd. OK, OK - I'll try to describe it this time. It's very repetitive art-rock - they sound like they're pretty skilled musically, but they're very much not making a sound I like.

Yes (#43)
Old dudes! Their sound isn't something I go for, but it's all done well and if you like this sort of thing then I think it'll be right up your street. The mid-week album chart update featured Cream, Hawkwind and Def Leppard as well, but unfortunately (maybe) those dudes didn't make it through to the proper chart at the end of the week. 

Bebe Rexha (#71)
This sounds much closer to Sonny's offering than I was expecting - again, I didn't mind it but it didn't exactly cut through, except for the track that "was inspired by" Darude's "Sandstorm" - which seems a curiously well known track to rip off.

There are a few re-entries this week, but Linkin Park (#90 - Meteora) is the highest so there's nothing particularly amazing going on. Last week I said that Niall would be at #25 and it's fair to say I got that massively wrong because he's a "one and done" - which feels harsh on the lad. Olivia is definitely not going to suffer such a fate, but will she hold on the top spot? I'm going for a no, but I think she'll hold up well at #3.

Wikipedia tells us this is her third album (and her third #1) - there's loads of stuff on there about her inspiration and stuff, but who cares about that? However, I will tell you that the album cover is inspired by Jean-Honoré Fragonard's Rococo painting The Swing - which was vaguely familiar to me, but I had no idea why. So I checked out its entry and it told me I obviously recognise it from Frozen where Anna is walking through the art gallery - I've seen that film so many times that I know it all without remembering any of it. Critically, it's been very well received with a lot of people loving the maturity and the 80s vibe. And commercially it's rocked, getting to #1 everywhere except Norway and Lithuania (#2) and Japan (#21 - but that's pretty decent for Japan).

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a CD copy for £15 but, of course, there are a million vinyl versions available which will cost you more with hot pink, pink & blue starburst, blue splatter and pink marble versions all available for about £80 - I'd obviously go for the pink marble version because it's got a lenticular cover. I'd like to remember to revisit this because I actually suspect I could really like it. I certainly think it's done enough to win album of the week on most weeks, but there was surprisingly weak competition this week - Embrace or Yes would grab the second spot but they're definitely doing what's expected of them (even if I have to admit they're doing it well).

12/05/06 - Decent enough, if not aimed at me