All the daggers in direction of an unfamiliar bloke who's worming through the punters in an old Ben Sherman coat

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

14/08/26 : A Love Letter To A Broken Town - The Reytons 

Our second visit with The Reytons - last time I quite liked them but thought they were maybe a bit too similar to The Arctic Monkeys. So let's see if they're still in that general vicinity...

Yeah, it's still pretty AM-ish, but it's definitely early AM so that's the best place to be - and it also brings Sam Fender to mind, which isn't anything to be sniffed at. I quite liked it on first listen and seems like it would be a grower - but it definitely feels like they'd be a great band live (complete with an absolutely devoted set of fans)

We're at #1 in the charts with a new entry this week - their second #1 and their fourth top five album. The rest of top five are Michael Jackson, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande and Flo (a new entry) - so let's start our relatively lengthy rundown of the new entries there.

Flo (#5)
That 90s female-lead R&B thang mostly passed me by - so I'm always surprised by how much I like any of Flo's stuff I hear. And I also found this well done and pretty enjoyable - just don't ask me why! I'm not sure I'll ever need a whole album of it though.

Role Model (#6)
We've previously stumbled across Role Model in the new entry section and I declared him to be perfectly listenable. And maybe I was just more in need of a role model this time around, but I think I almost quite liked it - it's slightly countrified indie-pop, which doesn't sound like it's gonna be my kind of thing but I thought it was OK. Chuck Timely & The Hourglass is not a great album title though.

Overmono (#12)
Our first ever mention of Overmono - I'm guessing dance or indie from the name. And it's pretty dance-y, which makes me think I might have already known that (they've been going for 11 years). And I really quite liked it because it reminded me of Orbital or Underworld who I've always had a soft spot for - I reckon I might well listen to this again.

Man/Woman/Chainsaw (#33)
Another first ever mention and they're going to be indie or rock, aren't they? Hmmm - well, yes but that's only half the story. The vocal duties on this album are split between a couple of band members and when the woman is singing, they reminded me of Wolf Alice and it was pretty decent stuff. But unfortunately when the man is singing, I'd rather listen to a chainsaw.

Keyside (#38)
And it's a hat-trick of first ever mentions - I've got no idea what this is going to sound like. Ah OK - it's jangle-indie, very reminiscent of Cast. And it's not bad at all - it'd be fun on a sunny festival afternoon.

The Anchoress (#41)
And another first ever mention - but I know what she sounds like because I listened to her last album and quite liked it. And I like this one too - there are definite Kate Bush vibes, both in terms of her voice and the obvious care that she's put into crafting the tracks, with some lovely twiddly bits in there. She also gets bonus points for calling a track "I Had A Baby Not A Lobotomy".

Electric Callboy (#62)
Five in a row for the first mentions - and once again I've got no idea what to expect. And having listened to it, I'm still not entirely sure what I've got because it's almost an electro-poppy backing track with a shouty-screaming vocal - Wikipedia tells me it's called electronicore, which seems as good a name as any. But, needless to say, I didn't like it.

Stray Kids (#80)
A group I know - once I remember we're not dealing with Stray Cats (and can you believe they're still going?). I don't hate K-pop, but I also don't get the hysteria about it and this does nothing to convince me otherwise - I'm sure it's great if you love this sort of thing, otherwise it's perfectly bearable.

This week's highest re-entry is Kylie Minogue (#26 - X), which is intriguing because she's also back in at #86 (Light Years) and #95 (Aphrodite) - the only other re-entry in the entire chart is Ethel Cain (#51). Last week I said that Ariana Grande would be at #5 and so I'm going to take #4 as a win - The Reytons have serious history as a "one and done" group with none of their seven charting albums having seen a second week, so I'd be mad to expect anything else for this one. And Taylor's one album in the chart is at #88 so she's going to have to hit the headlines soon if she wants to keep her streak going - August '19 was the last time the charts were Taylor-free.

There's no Wikipedia entry for the album - which seems odd because they're obviously good at self-promotion given they've had two #1 albums now. Their entry doesn't have anything of note either, but I did have to laugh at this entry in the update history log - "undid revision which changed the band's members to that of the Arctic Monkeys".

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a vinyl copy for £30, but if you want the limited edition picture disc it's going to set you back £150 - sheesh! I liked The Reytons and would be keen to catch up with them live, but Overmono and The Anchoress both gave me something I much prefer - and, of these two, The Anchoress feels like she's really put the work in so I'm given her the much coveted award of the week award.

07/08/26 - A hit with our guest reviewer