I saw you tie your shoe laces - you look so very pleased

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

28/08/26 : Jenius - Paul Heaton 

We've met Mr Heaton once with The Housemartins, three times with The Beautiful South, twice with Jacqui Abbott and now twice solo - I suspect he's the front man we've met in the most different guises across the years. And I'll be amazed if this isn't well written tunes with intelligent lyrics...

Yup - that's exactly where we are. I particularly liked "Favourite Kind Of Idiot", "I Want The Job" (which is a beautiful love song) and "A Son A Father" (which is nicely spiky), but they're all pretty decent with more variety than I was expecting (although I'm not sure we need 15 tracks) and they'd certainly benefit from multiple listens. He's a proper national treasure that Paul Heaton and that should be more widely recognised - this is well worth a look if you've not seen it.

I'm pleased to say we're at #1 with a new entry in the charts this week - his first solo #1. The rest of the top five are Michael Jackson, Brandon Flowers (a new entry), Olivia Rodrigo and Westside Cowboy (a new entry) - so let's see how them new entries (and others) are doing

Brandon Flowers (#3)
We've seen a surprising amount of Brandon across the years and I've never really known quite what do with anything since Hot Fuss (and, at a push, Sam's Town). And this continues that run - it's quite well done, but it doesn't know if it wants to be Springsteen or country. And so ends up being not quite either. 

Westside Cowboy (#5)
I know these are the latest hot young indie things but don't know anything more than that, so I'm quite looking forward to listening to it though. And yeah, I liked it - The Killers, Interpol and Silversun Pickups all came to mind at various times (but they've actually got A WOMAN involved!). It's not gonna change the world, but I suspect they're fun live.

DMA's (#9)
This lot have been around for fourteen years and five albums, but I'm not sure I've ever listened to any of their stuff. It's alright though - a bit too much like Oasis maybe, but at least it's like good Oasis.

Jorja Smith (#17)
I think I quite like Jorja without really knowing what she sounds like - this is like a dance-y Raye, with Dua Lipa also springing to mind in places. And I did indeed quite like it - it's a well put-together and she's got a nice voice.

Sam Smith (#20)
Imagine Jorja beating Sam in the battle of the Smiths! And I'm not sure why this one hasn't done so well (all of their other albums have made at least #2) - interestingly, none of the six singles previously released from it have done anything. And I'm not sure why, because there's nothing really wrong with any of them if you like that general sound - maybe they've just fallen out of fashion?

Antony Szmierek (#30)
Never heard of the dude - I'd guess he's an indie singer-songwriter from his name. Ah, what I'd never have guessed is that he's a poet who performs over electronic beats - it's certainly different and I didn't mind it at all.

Weezer (#45)
Are they still going? I've never loved the Weezer sound, but if you do this sounds like the sort of things you'd like.

Mystery Jets (#65)
Are they still going?!? I've generally liked any of their stuff I've heard, but it's never been enough to make me seek out anything more from them. I liked this though - maybe even enough to seek out some of their other stuff!

Stella Lefty (#77)
I'm guessing we've got another young female songstress here, haven't we? Yup, pretty much - although it's a bit more country than I was expecting. It didn't hit the spot for me, but I guess plenty will like it.

K-Trap (#86)
Some UK drill which I feel no need for in my life.

Twenty One Pilots (#96)
And finally a live album which I have to admit I didn't check out - but I think I've done pretty well this week, haven't I?

Sadly, the highest re-entries this week are Dolly Parton best-ofs (#6 and #46). To be clear, I'm sad because she died, not because she's back in the charts, but the messages and stories on social media have been a joy to read because she was an incredible person - I was lucky enough to see her at Glastonbury in '14 and let me tell you that was a BIG crowd (up there with Paul McCartney and Elton John in terms of just everyone being there). Last week I said that Phoebe Bridgers would be at #73 and it's fair to say I got it completely wrong because she's at #12 - unfortunately, I think Paul will be a one-and-done but it deserves better. And the only other point of interest that jumps out at me is that the only Taylor Swift album in the chart is at #100 - could next week be the week?!?

Wikipedia has two whole sentences on the album - it's by Paul and it's his first solo #1 album. The only other thing I've got for you is that Rianne Downey appears on the album and it was produced by Ian Broudie, which was also true for his previous album, The Mighty Several. Critically, it's been well reviewed but, somewhat unsurprisingly, it hasn't charted anywhere else.

discogs.com tells us that you can pick up a cassette version for a tenner, a CD version for £11 or a vinyl version for £25 but somewhat to my surprise, there are some colour vinyl versions available - you can get a white one for £34, a gold one for £95 or a black & white yolk/splatter one for £95 (all of which feels very un-Heatonish!). I enjoyed this and would happily listen to it again so he's certainly done enough to claim the album of the week award, but I'm also going to give shout-outs to Jorja Smith and Mystery Jets for a couple of very decent efforts.

21/08/26 - A well put together album