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Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 31/10/71 : Fog On The Tyne - Lindisfarne I know Lindisfarne were around for ages (are they still around?) but my only exposure to them that I'm aware of is the re-release of this album's title track with Gazza - so I think I can be forgiven for actively avoiding their other work in case it's just as bad. But it can't be that dreadful - can it? Hmmm. For the most part, it's not dreadful at all - it's in the traditional English folk style (whilst also reminding me of American folk in places) and the songs are mostly unremarkable, but pleasant enough with some interesting musical twiddles in places. And the playing is fine enough, but also pretty unremarkable - it has a strong local pub band feel to it and I reckon they'd be fun to catch there. However, what is remarkable is that, at times, the lead singer is so far away from any note (let alone the note he's trying to hit) that you just cringe - it...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 24/07/26 : Daughter From Hell - Gracie Abrams  Our second visit with Gracie and last time I quite liked her, despite her being very similar to one Ms Swift, who's never quite managed to cut through with me. And we're very much in the same place here - it's very Taylor-ish (she's obviously been having relationship issues) but, somehow, for me, just a bit better. I'm not sure I needed 56 minutes of it, but she's got a nice voice and there are decent tracks on here, most of which are written by her and Aaron Dessner (does that man have any time to spend on The National these days?) and they hang together reasonably well as an album. It's not going to be one I revisit, but I can imagine plenty of younger, femaler people will. We're at #1 with a new entry in the chart this week - her second #1 and her third top three album, which is a decent effort from the lass. The rest of the top five are Michael...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 07/11/71 : Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon - James Taylor We've only met James once before and, whilst I quite like his voice, I found the whole thing to be very "just OK" - here's hoping for more from this. Hmmm. He certainly does have a nice voice and I knew I liked his version of "You've Got A Friend", with "You Can Close Your Eyes" also being pretty decent. But the rest of the tracks are, on first listen at least, really very average - there's nothing wrong with any of it, but it's all very forgettable. And I'm really not convinced by that outfit... We're at #8 in the charts this week on his 25th week of an impressive 41 week run (which I think is the longest we've seen so far this year), with it having peaked at #4 in its debut and 19th weeks (which is a curious pairing). The top five this week were  Rod Stewart  (his first #1 album),  John Lennon , Hot Hits 7 ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 14/11/71 : Santana III - Santana Our third visit with Santana and, whilst I've not minded them, they're yet to even approach the heights of their '99 offering Supernatural. So let's see how they do here (some 28 years earlier!). Yeah - I didn't mind this at all. It certainly has a bit of the Supernatural vibe to it, with some similar rhythms and top guitar playing on it. It's interesting that I objected to the noodling on Yes's recent visit because this is also very noodly but I didn't find it at all annoying - and I've got absolutely no idea what part of my brain is deciding there's a difference. The other thing that I found interesting about this album is that I didn't feel it had dated in the slightest - all in all, it was an enjoyable listen and one that would benefit from multiple visits. We're at #6 in the charts this week on their second week of a six week run, with this being...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 21/11/71 : Meddle - Pink Floyd This is our seventh visit with the Floyd and I believe it's an album that divides the fans, so my expectation is that I'm not going to like it... Lordy, it starts quietly. I spent about forty seconds trying to work out why Amazon Music wasn't playing anything before I realised it was - but then the track went absolutely nowhere. And the going nowhere theme continues across the album, but I'd say it does so quite effectively (although I wasn't convinced by the dogs on "Seamus") - it's kinda pleasingly understated (even the 23:33 of "Echoes"), which isn't something I was expecting from the lads. All in all, I found this to be surprisingly enjoyable and it's another one that would benefit from multiple listens. We're at #3 in the charts this week on their second week of a twenty week run, with this being as high as it got. Over the years, it's h...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 28/11/71 : Fragile - Yes This is our second or third visit with Yes (their choice of name makes it very hard to search for posts that are about them) and I've generally quite liked their sound, even if it's not exactly my sort of thing. Hmmm. I don't mind the general sound (it's surprisingly funky in places) but it's all a bit unnecessarily noodle-y in places. I'm sure they'd argue they knew exactly what they were doing and every note was required, but I call bullshit on that. Things could have been far worse though and I particularly liked "Long Distance Runaround" - it also feels like one of those albums that multiple listens would bring out new things. But that doesn't mean it will be getting multiple listens. We're at #7 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of a three week run, with this being as high as it got - however, it did come back after a month's break f...

Continuing my trip up Empire's  top 20 TV shows of 2025 #17 :     Film Club Sometimes life simply calls for the TV equivalent of a warm blanket draped over you on a Sunday evening. Well, look no further. Aimee Lou Wood and Ralph Davis’s sweet tale of two friends, Evie (Wood) and Noa (Nabhaan Rizwan), brought together by a love of cinema, is exactly that. In an on-screen relationship that is intelligent, empathetic, and full of yearning – note to creatives: bring back yearning! – the series serves as a love letter to everything from Alien to The Shawshank Redemption, and even Bridesmaids. From your dad showing you his favourite action film to that cheesy rom-com you watched on your first date, Film Club understands the connective – and ultimately empowering – comfort of sharing films with one another, and it wears that heart beautifully on its sleeve. I've heard this is good, but didn't watch it because I thought it might be a bit twee - but I like Aimee Lou Wood and Nabha...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 05/12/71 : This Is Pourcel - Franck Pourcel I've never heard of Franck and a quick Google says I could probably ignore this because it sounds like it's going to be an album of musical wallpaper, but I'm intrigued enough about it to take the risk. Yeah - most peculiar. It's an album of easy-listening instrumentals, some of which I recognised and some of which I didn't (I suspect they're all covers, but don't have any way of verifying that). There's nothing particularly wrong with any of them (and some of them feel like quite a lot of work has gone into them) but I can't, for the life of me, imagine why anyone would want to listen to a whole album of it - it's still way better than the torture Wings put me through recently though. We're at #10 in the charts this week on his fourth week of a seven week run, with it having peaked at #8 in its second and third weeks - it seems mad that so many...

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...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 12/12/71 : Wild Life - Wings Whilst I accept that Wings did some decent stuff in their time, I've previously endured Macca's two solo albums from around this time and believe the group didn't exactly sprint out of the starter gate. So it's fair to say my expectations are not high for this. But even so, I wasn't expecting it to be this bad. The man has written some beautiful lyrics and songs in his times and, whilst I'm not the hugest fan of his voice, I do accept that he can sing. However, there is, unfortunately, absolutely no evidence of talent in any of those areas present on this album. The songs are rudimentary at best, the lyrics appalling (often reduced to non-words to fill in the gaps) and the singing ranges from mediocre to just horrible. All in all, I think it's fair to say I didn't like this - it does have a nice picture on the cover though! We're at #11 in the charts with a new entry ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts. 19/12/71 : Pictures At An Exhibition - Emerson, Lake & Palmer This is a live album, so would normally be excluded - but it will soon become clear this is not a normal live album. It's also only our second visit with ELP - and the last one was so peculiar that I struggle to imagine it's particularly representative of their work. I guessed at least some of it was based on Mussorgsky's work of the same name and Wikipedia confirms it's their interpretation of his ten piece piano suite with a couple of original compositions thrown in for good measure. I'm not familiar with the classical piece (although I was surprised to recognise the theme from "Promenade") but I'd be surprised if Mussorgsky would actually recognise too much of it either - it's very prog indeed. But enjoyably so (despite it not really being my sort of thing) and there's obviously massive amounts of skill involved - particu...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts (still running late!) 10/07/26 : Confessions II - Madonna  Our twelfth visit with Auntie Madge, taking her into equal fifth with Rod Stewart on the most visited artist list. This is a sequel to Confessions On A Dance Floor  which I enjoyed, so I have higher expectations for this than I normally would for her latest album. Yeah, I'd say I quite liked this. It's got a much more house-y feel than I was expecting and Madonna is happy to let the music take the spotlight, with her contributions being amazingly low-key on some of them. It's maybe a little long (just over an hour) but I think she's just about got enough variety in there to get away with it. I particularly liked "Betrayal", which is one of the less dance-y numbers, but there wasn't a single track that had me rolling my eyes - which for a recent Madonna album is almost unheard of! I'd say this is well worth a listen if you like that kin...