scaryblog

2003 was picked somewhat randomly with middling expectations - how did it do? Generally OK, I'd say - a lot of it felt quite new because there were a lot of albums I either didn't remember or were quite the big thing but I somehow never caught up with. The ownership ratio was surprisingly low at 10%, which is considerably lower than the 48% of 1999 and 29% of 2005. This could be bumped up a bit for previous visits, but not by much - I'm not quite sure why it's so low because I was definitely buying quite a bit of music around this time, but I guess not so much from the top of the album charts. Looking at the best selling albums of the year, we met it a long time ago now but the runaway winner was  Dido  which sold 2.2 million units, which is comfortably ahead of the 1.4 million that  Justin Timberlake  sold at #2, with the top five being completed by  Christina Aguilera ,  Daniel Bedingfield  and  Norah Jones . Other albums of particular interest ...

Completing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 05/01/03 : A New Day At Midnight - David Gray And we end the year with another album I own, bringing us to a measly five for the year, which feels surprisingly low because I was still buying albums at this time. I remember quite liking this one but I've not listened to it in many a year. Well, this is an odd game of three thirds! I remembered and enjoyed the first third, didn't remember the second third at all and then remembered the last third fine. It wasn't that the middle was terrible (although I'd say there was a bit of a drop-off in quality) - it's just that it didn't ring any bells. So I was somewhat perplexed for three or four tracks - how peculiar! I generally liked the sound of it though and thought it compared well with White Ladder (how have we not listened to this yet?) - "Dead In The Water", "Freedom" and "The Other Side" were my favourite tracks, but he's got ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 12/01/03 : One Love - Blue Having recently had our second visits with P!nk and Sugababes this year, we now have our second visit with Blue - it's safe to say my expectations are rock bottom for this. OK -  to be fair to them, the opening and title track is actually pretty bearable, although I think it's the production that makes it so rather than their actual contribution. And, taken a track at a time, I actually think this is a vast improvement on our previous visits - there's just more oomph to it all (even if there's far too many "oh yeahs" and "come ons" thrown into the mix - we even get an "I say Blue, you say what" at one point). But fifteen tracks lasting 53 minutes is just way more than I had the patience for I'm afraid. T heir cover of "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" is also completely unnecessary - given they had Stevie Wonder as a guest star and they've...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 19/01/03 : Angels With Dirty Faces - Sugababes Our second visit with Sugababes this year - like last time , I'm expecting this to be decent enough with some high quality singles present. Well, it starts with "Freak Like Me", soon followed by "Round Round" so that's the high quality singles ticked off. And the rest of it is indeed decent enough - like a lot of albums in this vein I've seen this year, it's not something I feel the need for in my life but there's nothing wrong with it. None of it approaches "Freak Like Me" for quality though, which got added to my general playlist - I'd forgotten quite how good it was. We're at #10 in the charts this week on their 21st week of a decent 42 week run, with #2 being as high as it got in its debut week. The top five this week were  Avril Lavigne ,   Justin Timberlake ,  P!nk ,  Daniel Bedingfield  and  Busted   and the highest new e...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 26/01/03 : One By One - Foo Fighters Our sixth visit with them Foos and generally it's been a case of admiration rather than enjoyment, but I've no problems with checking another one to see if I actually like it. You know what? In parts at least, we do make it as far as "like" - it certainly doesn't hurt that it's got "Times Like These" on it, which is probably my favourite Foos track and "All My Life" is also a very decent track. And the rest of it has a nice muddy, heavy yet still tuneful sound to it which plays nicely with the sunshine we've currently experiencing. I felt like it did tail off in quality towards the end (or maybe it was just all too similar) and i certainly didn't need the closing track "Come Back" to go on for 7:50. Overall, I didn't mind this at all and definitely liked it in places, but it still left me feeling that the Foos are really a ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 02/02/03 : M!ssundaztood - P!nk Our fourth visit with P!nk and our second this year - like last time , I've no reason not to think this is going to be perfectly listenable, without necessarily being something I need in my life. The singles feature early in the album with "Don't Let Me Get Me", "Just Like A Pill" and (particularly) "Get The Party Started" all being pretty decent tracks. And the rest of it is pretty decent as well - there's a enough variety across the album, she's got a decent voice and there's some positive enough messages in the lyrics for the kdis. As expected, it's not something I need in my life but we've met far worse albums this year. And doesn't she look so young on the cover! We're at #7 in the charts this week on her 53rd week of a 71 week, with it peaking at #2 in her 50th week in the middle of 25 week run in the top ten, so she was unlucky ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 09/02/03 : 200 Km/h In The Wrong Lane - t.A.T.u I remember this lot getting various people in a tizzy with their lesbian antics and I also remember the single being both dreadful and catchy at the same time. So I suspect I'm either going to hate this or grudgingly enjoy it. Well - that's a surprise because, for the most part, it's just a bit boring. None of the songs are what I'd call great, but quite a few of them have a kernel of a good idea which, if worked upon, could probably have worked out well - but "they" (and I'm pretty certain t.A.T.u had very little to do with it) just couldn't be bothered, so they just repeated it over and over. It's all very East European Eurovision and super forgettable.  There is one decent song on there - yup, they've included a cover version. I think you'd be guessing for quite some time though before you began to suspect they'd have gone for The S...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 16/02/03 : 100th Window -  Massive Attack This is our third visit with Massive Attack and I quite like a lot of stuff they've done over the years, but I'm not sure I've ever listened to this - so I'm looking forward to it. In a year when we've not had too many interesting albums, this has somewhat stood out for me - yeah, you've probably got to be into that trip-hop vibe to get into it, but I liked it. It's just got a nice moody feel to it, with some decent bleeps and vocals on it. They always do an excellent job in picking female vocalists to work with (Tracey Thorn's work on Protection is sublime) and here they've gone with Sinead O'Connor and her voice works so well, particularly on "What Your Soul Sings". I'm also going to call out the hidden track "LP4" for an impressive display of minimalism - there's very little to it, but it's nicely atmospheric. All in...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 23/02/03 : Simply Deep -  Kelly Rowland Our second album this year from a Destiny's Child graduate - I'm expecting this to be perfectly fine but not something I feel the need for in my life. And for some strange reason, I'm only allowed to listen to the clean version on my streaming service of choice - I struggle to imagine the original was littered with expletives... I was surprised to recognise "Dilemma" which has a nice chorus, but there's remarkably little else to it (and it underlines this by repeating the chorus about a million times). And that theme is repeated in a lot of the songs - they've got a decent enough hook to them but they just use it over and over. Across the album there actually feels to be enough variety, but it's just that I got bored with a lot of the songs - which isn't exactly a great situation to be in. If you like Destiny's Child then I can't see any reason wh...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 02/03/03 : Everything's Eventual -  Appleton This is the album the Appleton sisters recorded when they left All Saints - I don't mind their voices, but I can't help but feel we're going to be up there with Dannii Minogue for the absolute inessentialness (inessentiality?) of it all. Well, that's a surprise - it doesn't hit the heights of Dannii's superfluousness! Yeah, this is merely on the Melanie C upper plains of pointlessness - their voices are actually OK and the songs aren't dreadful, with the exception of "Ring A Ding Ding" which is absolutely awful. If you like a bit of All Saints then I struggle to imagine you'd hate this - I actually thought of it as a female Robbie Williams album (who Nicole was engaged to before she traded him for Liam Gallagher - what a taste in men that girl had!). Overall, I tolerated it a lot more than I expected to but I didn't need 50 minutes of it....

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 09/03/03 : Ether Song -  Turin Brakes Turin Brakes were always one of those bands I wanted to like but, whilst I never hated them, I could never quite get into them. I'm not sure I've ever listened to a whole album of theirs though, so let's see if I experience a (somewhat late) Damascene conversion. Hmmm - no. It's got a lot of the ingredients of stuff I like - slightly fey (but not overly so) guitar-based indie with an interesting vocal style and decent enough lyrics. And I do quite like it, but it's just not clicking for me - maybe multiple listens would do the trick, but that ain't gonna happen. None of it's horrible, but it's also not that loveable for me - I do like the album cover though! We're at an amazingly high #4 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of a surprisingly long 16 week run - well done lads! The rest of the top five were  Norah Jones ,,  Christina Aguilera ,...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 16/03/03 : Reason -  Melanie C This is a peculiar one because I loved Northern Star which is the only Spice Girl album I've ever owned - I still listen to it from time to time and it's stood the test of time pretty well. But as far as I know I've never ever listened to this, the follow up. I don't remember ever being scared off it - it just never happened, so I'm intrigued to see what we've got here. Well, it's not Northern Star and that's for sure. The songs seem to have the same set of ingredients so none of them are horrible, but they've all just less of everything - it's just not that interesting on first listen. It probably had enough for the hardcore Melanie C fans but I just don't see it wasn't going to convert anyone and is a disappointment after what came before. We're at #5 in the charts this week with a new entry on the start of a very short five week run - Northern Sta...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 23/03/03 : Neon Nights -  Dannii Minogue I always thought Dannii was somewhat fortunate with her pop career - having a more talented sister doesn't really feel like it should be the basis for success. I'm expecting this to be tolerable but lacking in any obvious talent and absolutely inessential. Oh yes - and then some. Kylie's hardly a vocal powerhouse but Dannii's voice just sounds so weak and all the tracks are very unmemorable - you can quite imagine her only being given those that Kylie had already rejected. None of it's terrible but, for the avoidance of doubt, this is not an album anyone needs (and the version I listened to was 150 minutes long - I managed an hour of it!). As well as being lucky to have a career, she was also very lucky to get a write-up because we're all the way down at #8 with a new entry this week, having skipped over several other albums to get there. She managed an eight week run...

Continuing my trip back through the 2003 album charts. 30/03/03 : Home -  Simply Red Our fourth visit with the lads and so far their offerings have been a mix of bad, bland and surprisingly enjoyable - looking at their timeline, it seems like bland is the mostly probably outcome here. Actually, it's much closer to surprisingly enjoyable - there's a lot more variety here than I was expecting and some nice surprises. "Sunrise" samples Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" and it's nicely done, even it it really made me want to stop the album and play that instead. I also wasn't expecting to hear them cover "You Make Me Feel Brand New" (originally by The Stylistics) but I have to admit they do it well. Don't get me wrong, no-one needs any of this in their lives but there's far worse musical wallpaper out there. We're at #2 in the charts with a new entry this week on the start of a 23 week run (with this being ...