scaryblog

1999 was the year of our wedding - have all the albums aged as well as we have?  The answer is most definitely a resounding "No!", but there were still quite a fine albums across the year. Once again, we didn't start the year off with a Take That album (they were on a break!) with  Travis  taking the honours - but don't worry, we still got to see a load of boy bands and an ex-Take Thatter (twice!) during the year.  The music was, as always, a bit of a mixed bag but there were quite a few albums that I've forgotten about which it was very nice to be reminded about.  The ownership ratio was also pretty high this year - 40% which is easily the highest we've seen so far and we'd have got close to 50% if I'd included albums we'd previously met which included (but probably isn't limited to) Shania Twain, ABBA,  Madonna   and   Lauryn Hill Looking at the year-end list, the best selling album of the year was  Shania Twain 's Come On Ov...

Completing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 03/01/99 : 5ive  - Five Whereas Savage Garden's  bad album  later in the year gave me hope for their previous one , Five's  absolutely appalling album later in the year gives me absolutely no hope for this one.  So no, we never owned it which takes us to a final total of 21/52 for the year - it was looking like we might hit 50%, but a final run of seven unowned albums put paid to that. Well, I guess the opening track "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)" isn't absolutely dreadful - but it's still pretty rubbish though.  And the rest of the album does at least feature some singing and tunes and stuff (unlike their next album) - but it's still pretty rubbish though.  Who likes/liked this shit?  And there's 66 minutes of it as well. We're at #9 in the charts this week on their 28th week of a 37 week run, with it having debuted at #1.  The top five this week were George Michael's best-of (just finishing off...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 10/01/99 : B*Witched  - B*Witched I can't claim I was ever a huge B*Witched fan but I do know that a lot of people have very fond memories of them - I'm expecting a load of bearable Oirish Cheddar.  And whilst it's the sort of thing I can imagine the lovely Mrs Reed having succumbed to, I believe she resisted their charms so we never owned it (21/51). Well, "C'est La Vie" and "Rollercoaster" are a load of fun nonsense, aren't they?  And, to be honest, the rest of them are similar, if slightly less fun - there's very little that stands out and t heir voices aren't exactly the strongest, but who really cares about that?  They looked like they were having fun and they wanted other people to have fun as well - there are worse things people can try to achieve with their lives! We're at #13 in the charts this week on their pleasing thirteenth week of a 37 week run - the top five this we...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 17/01/99 : Savage Garden  - Savage Garden Our last visit with the Antipodean duo was earlier this year and it was a dreadfully wishy-washy affair despite featuring the single that everyone liked - strangely the disappointment of that album has pushed my hopes for this one up because I feel that they must have done something decent at some point for people to have been interested in that one.  At times, my mind works in very strange ways - but its never worked in a strange enough way to buy this album (21/50). I didn't mind the opener "To The Moon And Back" - it's very 80s (and I am most definitely an 80s music child) and I actually recognised "I Want You" the next track as well, so I guess it was a single.   And then we have "Truly Madly Deeply" which I'd completely forgotten about, but has a claim to actually be the track that everyone liked - all of which is a relatively strong opening. ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 24/01/99 : Big Willie Style  - Will Smith Will Smith has, in his time, produced some pretty decent tracks but I have a sneaking suspicion that this album isn't going to consist of only decent tracks - and if I'm unlucky with my "choice" of album it may well feature zero decent tracks.  I'm also expecting it will go for far too long - and I would NEVER have bought this (21/49). Well the good news is that it definitely features some "decent" tracks (and we'll come back to those quotes later) - "Gettin' Jiggy With It", "Miami" and "Men In Black" can all be included in that category.  The rest of it is OK I guess, but it very much doesn't stick in the mind on first listen.  They are, however, works of genius when compared with the spoken interludes with Keith B. Real "keeping it real" - whoever thought these were a good idea needs to have a good think a...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 31/01/99 : There It Is  - 911 Oh great - another boy band.  And whilst Backstreet Boys, Robbie and even Boyzone have provided surprisingly bearable efforts, I'm expecting this to be properly shit.   And no, we've  never owned it (21/48). Well - I certainly wasn't expecting it to open with a very 70s cover of Bee Gee's "More Than A Woman".  Followed by the same idea with Tavares' "Don't Take Away The Music - they've not murdered it, but it's very inessential.  Ah, hold on - next up is Dr Hook's "A Little Bit More" (originally recorded by Bobby Gosh, Wikipedia tells me).  Is this all completely pointless 70s covers? Why no!  Next up is "Never Gonna Give You Up" - a pointless 80s cover (and this one really is very pointless).  But, yes - the whole album is covers, mostly 70s R&B/disco.  They don't really ruin any of them, but they certainly don't add an...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 07/02/99 : Americana  - The Offspring I vaguely remember the lads did something I found quite annoying, but can't remember what - I'm not expecting to like this, but I may be pleasantly surprised.  Either way, it's certainly one we've never owned (21/47). Ah yes - "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" - that was the one.  And I actually didn't find it that annoying - probably because I've not heard it in years.  When I started this album, my immediate thought was "the guys soooo want to be Green Day", but I initially thought they didn't have the wit, intelligence or skill.  But, as time went on, maybe I didn't come to think of them as Green Day but I did think I'd been a bit harsh - there's certainly some wit and intelligence involved, but not consistently throughout the album.  They also make some "interesting" musical choices - the mostly instrumental sitar-based prog...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 14/02/99 : Where We Belong  - Boyzone My wife has plenty of Take That and Robbie Williams albums, but I can assure you that no Boyzone albums have ever darkened our door (21/46) - I'm expecting this to be pretty rubbish, but bearable. Well, "Picture Of You" isn't a terrible track - it has throwbacks to 60s Motown (with worse singing, obviously).  And "Baby Can I Hold You" is a decent track, even if the lads' cover is somewhat cheesy.  And cheese is a major component of most of the tracks on the rest of the album, but I have to admit I found it way more bearable than either of the previous visits in '96.  And the quality of the singing has definitely improved as well - I guess that's what intensive lessons do for you and thankfully they only really let Ronan and Stephen have a go.  The whole thing is, for me, utterly inessential but at least it's not hateful - I didn't need 68 minutes ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 21/02/99 : Life Thru A Lens  - Robbie Williams One I suspect I've heard because "we" own it (21/45) - I can't say I remember too much about it, but I'm sure it'll come back to me.  I'm also, after my last experience with  Robbie , not totally dreading it - in fact, after my previous experience with Blondie , I'm almost looking forward to it. Well, it's got "Angels" and "Let Me Entertain You" on it, so I can't be totally rude about it - but actually I don't really feel the need to be rude about it at all.  I would say that I don't think it took anyone very long to write "One Of God's Better People" but to balance that I'd forgotten about "Old Before I Die" which I quite like.  A lot of it is surprisingly Lightning Seeds-ish and there's obvious Oasis influences as well, both of which I'd have accepted without a second glance at t...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 28/02/99 : No Exit  - Blondie I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not going to like this - like Cher a couple of days ago, I feel it will have the one decent single on it and that will be it, but let's see shall we?  And no, I've never owned it (20/44) - and somewhat bizarrely it appears that Amazon Music doesn't own it either, so I had to listen to it on YouTube. Unlike Cher, they make the foolish error of not opening the album with the good track with the one they went for sounding like a Madness track sung by Lene Lovich - by the way, this is not a good thing.  The good track ("Maria") doesn't turn up until track three and I was somewhat surprised at how good it isn't - it's remarkably average and Debbie's voice is well dodgy.  Also, unlike Cher, the title track is particularly rubbish - it's Debbie doing a dreadful rap (a la Atomic) along with Coolio over Bach's Toccata & ...

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts. 07/03/99 : Beaucoup Fish  - Underworld This was the album I bought at the same time as Orbital's offering  (taking us to 20/43) - I've not heard it in ages, but I remember liking it so I'm looking forward to revisiting it. Yeah, for the most part I liked this - there are lots of interesting sounds and rhythms on this, although they don't always work for me.  I think "Winjer" and "Cups" are my favourites - it does suffer a bit of a mid-album slump with "Skym" and "Bruce Lee" really not being great tracks, but things pick up again after that.  Like Orbital's offering, it won't be for everyone but I like it (although this is less dance-y than Orbital). We're at #3 in the chart this week on their first week of a fifteen week run, which was a lot longer than I expected (and they managed another 7 weeks across three more runs) - this is actually their highest charting al...