scaryblog

I'd given up buying music by this time, so it was interesting to see what we've got here. I'd say the year did well enough across the board, introducing me to some albums I really should have previously heard, but it didn't exactly sparkle. I wasn't expecting the ownership ratio to be high, but I thought there might have been a few bought by the lovely Mrs Reed or the lovely Misses Reed  might have bought  - however it would have been 0% if we hadn't met Olly Murs in the very last week of the year, bringing us to a measly 2%. Or we can stretch it to 6% if you want to include both Ed Sheeran albums we'd previously met.  Looking at the best selling albums of the year, I don't think it will surprise anyone that the top spot was taken by  Ed Sheeran  - it was released in March, spent nineteen weeks of the year at #1 and never dropped any lower than #6. The #2 spot was taken by Rag'n'Bone Man , which was hardly a slouch in the grand scheme of things -...

Completing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 06/01/17 : 24 Hrs - Olly Murs Well, we've waited a long time but we've finally met an album that "we" own because our youngest went through a huge Olly phase -  amusingly, one of the family still goes to see him live and I can assure you it's not her (or me). This is our third visit with Olly - w e often listened to the CDs in the car but a quick skim of the track titles suggest this wasn't one of the albums we listened to often, but I'm sure it will all be perfectly listenable. Ah, yeah - I actually recognised "You Don't Know Love", "Years And Years" and "Unpredictable", with the rest of the album being pretty much in the same vein. He's either in love, wants to be in love or has just split up (but quite possibly still in love) but there's a decent amount of variety here (within limits, obviously). As usual, this isn't going to convert anyone but it was de...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 13/01/17 : Night People - You Me At Six Our second visit with YMAS and last time  I didn't like it as much as I thought I would - hopefully I'll be more in the mood for it now. Hmmm, yeah - it's fine, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of "rawk" but at least they generally sound like they're having a good time, even if I'm not. This lot just sound a bit pedestrian really - it's skilful enough but it doesn't raise the pulse at all. Maybe they're better live (I certainly hope so) but this just sounds like some guys going through the motions. We're at a surprisingly high #3 this week on the start of a surprisingly brief three week run - yes, this was as high as it got. The rest of the top five were  Little Mix , Pete Tong & The Heritage Orchestra and best-ofs from George Michael and David Bowie with it being three weeks since the former and a year since the latter died - we also had an El...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 20/01/17 : I See You - The XX Our second visit with The XX - again! I listened to this about a week ago as part of The Guardian's list before I realised I was going to meet it as part of this list, so had to rewrite that post - but fortunately I kept the text to be reused now, so this will be a quick one! And basically I liked it - it's got the dreamy XX kinda sound which just drifts past you, but it's not quite insignificant enough to be ignored. And I think that's pretty much all I have to say on the matter - it won't be for everyone, but it worked well for me. We're at a somewhat surprising #1 in the charts this week on the start of a fifteen week run. The rest of the top five were  La La Land ,  Little Mix , a George Michael best-of and Bonobo (a new entry) and we have two more new entries in the top ten for Rick Wakeman (#7 - which seems surprisingly high) and Wiley (#9).  Wikipedia tells us it was ove...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 27/01/17 : Return To Ommadawn - Mike Oldfield Our third visit with Mike and it's fair to say I've not been all that impressed with our previous visits - I just don't see the point to Tubular Bells and, considering the fact that this is two twenty-plus minute tracks, I believe this will be in a similar vein, which doesn't fill me with confidence. Ah yes - this is very much in the same vein with a pretty decent musical hook which he then plays around with to greater and lesser effects. However, whilst I'm not going to get all gushy about this, I do have to admit that he's less wedded to the hook here than he is on Tubular Bells and he's also less concerned about doing weird stuff obviously different from the hook - both of which are to the album's credit. It also some lovely clear production on it - it sounded absolutely gorgeous in places. So it was definitely better than expected, but there's no...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 03/02/17 : Glory Days - Little Mix Our fourth visit with them Mixers and I've generally been positive about their output - and I've no reason to imagine that will change here.  It opens with "Shout Out To My Ex" (which is totally not about Zayn, obviously) and "Touch" which were strong singles - "Power" was the only other track I recognised, but the rest of the album continues with a similar female power/solidarity message presented in a well-done, radio-friendly manner, with enough variety across the album to stop it getting too repetitive. Like many albums we've seen on the list, it's really not aimed at me - but as a girl parent, there are far worse things they could have been listening to.  We're at #3 in the charts this week on their eleventh week on the start of an impressive 133 week run with it having peaked at #1 in weeks 1-2 and 6-8 and it was back again several times in ...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 10/02/17 : La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists I remember enjoying the film and that the songs seemed to work well within it, without really remembering any of the details - so it will be interesting to see how this works out. Amusingly, two bars into "Another Day Of Sun", I'm immediately remembering the film intro which was really well done.  With the exception of "City Of Stars" (which I like, but I'm not sure I needed three versions of it), the rest of the album didn't jog many memories (although it did remind me John Legend was in the film, which I'd completely forgotten) but I did recall the general vibe of things - which, for me, was just a little too jazzy to enjoy a full album of. But I do have to agree it's not all jazz and it's all done pretty well so it did make me think I should watch the film again. The only other thing I have to say is that, hav...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 17/02/17 : Little Fictions - Elbow For a band that have had four #1 albums and eight top ten albums, it's somewhat surprising that this is only our second visit with the lads - I've also seen them live a couple of times and they don't make the grade either! I have listened to this though - I remember quite liking it, but also remember it not being exactly essential (particularly within the context of Elbow having already made a load of great tracks).  Yeah, I think that's fair enough, but I also feel the need to say the tracks on this are still pretty decent - particularly "Magnificent (She Says)" which is a fine opening track. I'm still not convinced I'd describe it as essential, but it's certainly worth a listen or two. We're at #2 in the charts this week on their second week of a twelve week run with it having debuted at #1 in its debut week. The rest of the top five were  Rag'n'...

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts. 24/02/17 : Under Stars - Amy McDonald Our second proper visit with Amy, but I also skimmed one of her albums as a new entry and both times KT Tunstall was mentioned, so I can't see I'm going to have any problems with this. Yeah, we've not strayed far away from such territory. She's got a decent enough voice and they're decent enough songs with a decent enough amount of variety - but I'm not sure I'd describe any of it as stellar. It's all perfectly listenable though. We're at #2 with a new entry in the charts this week on the start of a decent enough nine week run. This was her second consecutive to just miss out on the top spot - fortunately, her debut album did make it there though. The rest of the top five were  Rag'n'Bone Man  (his second week at #1, which was then followed by 21 weeks in the top five), Ryan Adams (a new entry - his most successful and yet currently his last charting ...