Picking up boxes with our teeth

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

12/06/26 : Dinner Party - Niall Horan 

Somewhat surprisingly, this is our fourth visit with Niall - he's building quite a solid solo career out there. I'm expecting this to be a solid offering if not exactly something I need.

Yeah, that's fair enough, although I think I'd generously describe this as better than solid - there are some pretty decent songs on here with a bit more variety than I was expecting. It's interesting to compare this to Harry's latest offering, which was a bit of a letdown (for me, at least) - this feels like it might fill a void for people who had a similar reaction. No, I'm never going to listen to it again but I've experienced plenty worse offerings in my time - I quite like the album cover too, it has a nice 70s feel to it.

We're at #1 with a new entry this week - his third #1 solo album (which puts him level with Harry). The rest of the top five are Michael Jackson, Drake (seriously?), Olivia Dean and Overpass (a new entry) - the second of four new entries in the top ten.

Overpass (#5)
I've never heard of this lot - I guessed they were indie types and I'm not a million miles away because they're indie rocker types. I didn't mind the general sound, but it got a bit samey over the course of a whole album - I suspect I'd enjoy them live though.

Jeff Goldblum & The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra (#8)
I bumped into him last year and declared it sounded like it was probably decent jazz but I wasn't the person to judge it - and that's exactly where we are again. It's a bit twee for me, but if you like this sort of thing, then I guess you'll like this.

Evanescence (#10)
Yes, they're still desperately chasing the high of "Bring Me To Life" and not quite making it - but they're making decent enough sounds though.

Pink Floyd (#17)
This is a bizarre one - it's eight random Floyd tracks from '71-''79. I'd say they're a pretty decent selection and I enjoyed them, but quite who is going to buy this is very uncertain. The thing that impressed me most "Wish You Were Here" which has some very weird surround sound effects on it which sound like they're behind you.

Malcolm Todd (#19)
Never heard of this dude either - and what am I supposed to guess for that name? It's actually the sort of thing we're quite probably going to be seeing in The Guardian's year-end list - think Steve Lacy or Perfume Genius. However, it seemed considerably less annoying than those guys at first listen - but there's still no chance of me checking it out again.

Prospa (#24)
I assumed this was a rappy dude, but they're actually an electro duo. They're quite like Rudimental, who I don't mind but have to be in the mood to listen to - and Prospa seem to very much fall into the same category.

Jalen Ngonda (#29)
And another unknown artist, but looking at the album cover he's definitely an R&B dude. Who I didn't have high expectations for, but I actually really liked this - it's a really well done 60s/70s Motown sound. It's skilful and very enjoyable.

Barry Manilow (#34)
You're not gonna make me listen to this, are you? You are?!? Well, thanks for that - but I guess it could be worse, It could, however, also be better.

Death Cab For Cutie (#89)
I think it's fair to say that DCFC are a band whose time has passed - I guess if you're a fan then this is there for you, but #89 suggests there aren't many of you about. Although, coincidentally, their last album also made #89 so I guess maybe their fans have bottomed out. I didn't mind it, but I also didn't love it.

Just the two re-entries this week - Zach Bryan (#94) and Linkin Park (#100), neither of which are the slightest bit interesting. Last week I said that Paul McCartney would be at #25 and he's at #18 which I'm taking as a partial victory - I reckon Niall will do something similar so let's go for #25 again.

Wikipedia tells us it's his fourth album and he's been inspired by Damien Rice (which I can just about hear, I guess) - the only other fact of interest is that "End Of An Era" was written about Liam Payne. Critically, it's been pretty well received, with The Irish Times going overboard and declaring it "a joyously moreish collection of mid-tempo pop" and commercially it's done well getting to #1 in Australia, The Netherlands, Germany and (of course) Ireland.

discogs.com tells us there are quite a few versions of this available with porcelain, wine-glass, candlelight, shoreline, key lime pie and olive options costing anything from £23-135 depending upon exactly how mad you are. It probably won't surprise you to hear that I ain't gonna be spending any money on this, but it's perfectly listenable and interesting enough - it actually (to my surprise) stood a chance of getting album of the week. However, Jalen Ngonda's offering was actually proper good so I feel I have to give it to that to get people to pay attention to it - it's nicely retro but super skilful and done in a really nice way, so I'm giving it to him.

05/06/26 - Not his worst