Why don't you drive me down that rough and twisted road?

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

17/07/26 : Foreign Tongues - The Rolling Stones 

We had Madonna last week - but we get some even older pensioners this week. This is our seventeenth visit with the lads (I reckon they'll end up in first place) and whilst I can't claim to be their biggest fans, our last trip wasn't too bad and this one's got good write-ups so I'm interested to listen to it.

Yeah, this isn't bad at all. It's a nice mix of old-style and later Stones, whilst swerving their slightly dodgier times. I thought it sounded decent enough (and I'm not a Stones fan), but when you consider how old these dudes are, this is really very decent indeed. I was also surprised to hear a cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" - they do a good job with it. If you like a Stones thang, then I think this is well worth checking out - they're on a strong run after their last album also doing well. I'm not convinced by the album cover though.

We're at #1 in the charts (their fifteenth) with a new entry this week and the rest of the top five are My Chemical Romance (a re-entry), Olivia Rodrigo, Michael Jackson and December 10 (a new entry) - and there are quite a few more new entries for us to experience this week.

December 10 (#5)
I listened to this and remarked to my eldest that this sounded very like One Direction (which is a band she knows something about). And it turns out she knows something about December 10 as well, because she informed me that they've been put together by Simon Cowell to be the new One Direction. So I don't think I need to tell you anything more about this.

Bring Me The Horizon (#6)
I don't mind BMTH - so I was somewhat surprised to hate this shouty, noisy mess. But it turns out this isn't really a new entry at all, with a quick Google telling me this is re-recording of their '06 album - so it turns out I just don't like old BMTH.

Future (#27)
I know Future is a rappy dude, but I seem to remember I don't mind him. But, on the back of this, I think I might have to be re-evaluate my opinion - because I really quite liked it, as did my eldest. It's got some very interesting sounds on it.

Jack White (#29)
I like Jack White as a man (as much as I can really know him) and admire him as a musician, without really loving much of the music he's made. And that's the case here - it's well done blues-rock, but it's not something I need in my life.

The Specials (#30) 
This is a recording of one of their '19 shows at Coventry Cathedral and is apparently their final album. I can't claim to be an expert on their stuff, but the sound quality seems pretty decent and I'm sure you'll like it if you like them.

Adam Lambert (#98)
Adam will have wanted better than this, surely? I didn't mind this, but I was somewhat surprised to be reminded of Gary Numan. 

The highest new entry is obviously My Chemical Romance which is a deluxe edition of their '10 release - amusingly it had previously peaked at #14. The next two re-entries are System Of A Down's debut from '98 (#58) and My Chemical Romance's '04 offering (#82), so it's obviously one of those kind of weeks. Last week I said that Madonna would be at #6, but she's at #9 - so you can either say I was on the right lines or 50% wrong (I'm going to take it is as a partial win). I suspect The Rolling Stones will do something similar, so let's go for #8. And Taylor's back to only one album in the charts at #72 - how long before we have a Taylor-free week? 

Wikipedia tells us this is their 25th album and it was produced by Andrew Watt and features contributions from Steve Winwood, Robert Smith (the second time we've seen him guesting this year), Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars and Chad Smith, which is quite a curious mix (and it appears there are no women playing on the album at all). It also features a track recorded with Charlie Watts before his death. Most of the rest of the entry is pretty ignorable, but I was amused to see that the artwork involved one artist and two "art directors" (whatever they are) - "the artwork has met with a divided reception, with Euronews dismissing it as "retina punishing"". Critically, the album has been very well received and commercially, they continue to be of interest globally, getting to #1 in Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a boring version of the album for £15, but if you've got more money than sense then you can spend £85 on a red vinyl, £100 on a green vinyl, £100 on a limited edition cassette (seriously?), £100 on a baby pink & red smash with clear splatter vinyl or £125 on a picture disc. Assuming it's the album artwork on the picture disc, I would pay money not to own it but I think the audio content is well worth a listen if you like this sort of thing. I'm obviously never going to listen to it again but I still reckon they've done enough to win the album of the week award - I'm also going to give Future a shout-out because that was way more enjoyable than I was expecting.

10/07/06 - Decent enough