It is written that on the other side of this pain there will be a renewal

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts

18/09/26 : Here Because Of Hope - Ezra Collective 

We've met EC once in passing as a new entry and I said it was surprisingly stylish, but I struggled to understand why anyone would listen to it - let's see if the mystery resolves itself with a proper listen.

Hmmm. Well. Yes and no. It's all very stylish and well played and it has an interesting mix of various global rhythms and sounds to it, so I'd go as far as saying I did enjoy it. But I really can't say I'd ever actively choose to listen to it - it was too lively to be described as musical wallpaper, but it still kinda drifted by me and I don't remember any of it. I also imagine there are plenty of other musical groups who can do this sort of thing just as well, so quite how they managed to hit the heights isn't clear to me.

But hit the heights they have because they're at #1 with a new entry in the charts this week, so well done to the lads. The rest of the top five this week are Michael Jackson (he's really hanging in there), Olivia Rodrigo, Sienna Spiro (her eleventh week in the top ten - well played to the lass) and the Oasis best-of (this is seriously back just because they announced they're touring next year?). So what other new entries have we got this week?

Bloc Party (#6)
I've heard rumours this is awful - so let's see, shall we? Hmmm - well, it's certainly not great. "Helicopter" is obviously the best Bloc Party track and I can assure you that none of the tracks here possess anything like the energy of that - they are weird noodly things over which Keke badly warble-speaks nonsensical platitudes. It's hard to imagine anyone liking this.

RØRY (#8)
Never heard of them - and Wikipedia doesn't help by telling me that she does "acoustic, dancepop, rock, hard rock, alternative rock, power pop, pop-punk,indie rock, sadcore" stuff. Errr - OK. Hmmm, it's a bit of mish-mash certainly - done well enough but a bit heavy for my liking. However, I also have to say that anyone who's into heavy stuff is very unlikely to like this - I'm not entirely sure who it's aimed at.

Bonobo (#11)
Our second visit with Bonobo and last time I enjoyed it but struggled to fully engage with it - I suspect we'll have more of the same here. Well - I have to admit I listened to this while cooking the dinner, so I didn't engage with it as much as I should have, but what I did hear I quite liked - it's got some nice beeps on it.

Green Lung (#25)
I suspect I'm not going to like this, am I? Well, it is heavy, but it's not as heavy as I was expecting and I actually didn't mind it. It had quite a distinctive sound to it which I thought felt a bit like futuristic rock from the 70s, but Wikipedia tells me is known as stoner or doom metal (and, for once, these are actually decent genre names).

Jhene Aiko (#41)
Another one I have no clue on. And well, I didn't mind it but I've not really got any idea how to describe it - poppy but intelligent R&B? It's quite a different sound without really sounding all that different and it's well put together - Wikipedia tells me her last album (Chilombo in '20) got to #2 in the US and got three Grammy nominations, so she's obviously a talented lass. 

Meffs (#42)
A hippy-hop type, surely? Ah no, it's rocky post-punk stuff - I was reminded of Green Day, but didn't particularly enjoy it.

The Proclaimers (#85)
I don't mind them Reid twins, but can't say I've heard any of their stuff in decades. And it's fair to say they haven't exactly evolved far - which I suspect is actually exactly what their fans want. I didn't mind this at all, but can't see I'll ever revisit it.

The highest re-entry this week is the Celine Dion best-of (#75) - I assume this is because she's been back on stage in France. There are a few more in the lower reaches of the charts, but nothing of particular interest, except for Taylor Swift's Folklore (#100) - the comeback is back on! Last week I said that Kasabian would be at #64 and I'm sorry to tell the lads that I was completely wrong because they've had a "one and done" mare. And I'm going to be very, very surprised if Ezra Collective do any better than that.

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album but their entry is entertaining enough, telling us that they took their name from "the Biblical prophet Ezra and his practice of studying the works of the greats who came before him - something the band wished to emulate within jazz", which seems like a good viewpoint to take. They're done pretty well for themselves since they formed in '16, winning the Mercury Music Prize in '23, playing Glastonbury a couple of times and their '24 single "God Gave Me Feet for Dancing" was chosen by Barack Obama for his list of 25 favourite songs of the year. And with this album, they have become the first UK male jazz group to get to #1 - which is really something pretty special (and quite surprising it's taken this long).

discogs.com also somewhat surprises me by telling me you're going to have to spend £100 on this, but that's because they've only got signed white label copies for sale - I suspect cheaper versions are available on other sites. This isn't really my kind of thing but it's all very well done and I think they've done enough to take the album of the week award in the face of the competition which (mostly) isn't bad, but doesn't obviously outshine them Ezra Collective boys - but I do want to give Bonobo another listen when I'm not cooking.

11/09/26 - Fine if you like that sort of thing