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Of all the people who have been on the TV talent shows and released albums, Olly Murs is by far my favourite. I didn’t watch him on whatever show he was on but I’ve enjoyed many of his songs and I like him when he’s on The Voice. He seems like an ok dude.

He released his debut album ‘Olly Murs’ in 2010 which means it was around in 2011 and made it to 47 on the top 100 at the end of 2011. That’s down 20 from the 2010 end of year charts.

This album is also ok. It’s not got his best music on it but to be honest, I think it’s a bit sad if you release more than one album and everyone is like ‘You had your best music right at the beginning of your career. Any development or training or support you’ve had hasn’t made anything better’. I mean, that’s depressing, right?

So good work, Olly on getting better over time. Which is what we should all aim for.

Nope, nope, nope

I did not listen to an album today. I’m ahead of the game with the 2001 albums so it was a 2011 album day. Except the next album on the top 100 albums from 2011 was ‘Alfie’ by Alfie Boe and I’ve had enough of him and his nonsense. One of his albums is enough for my lifetime. Who were the people buying two of his albums in this year? This album, Alfie, was released in October 2011 and features some Christmas songs, so it feels to me that people bought this album for relatives they don’t know or like that much.

And I like me very much and I will not hurt myself by making me listen to this album!

Nothing wrong with it

Last year when I listened to ‘Bushfire Fairytales’ by Jack Johnson, I said ‘ I’m going to put it on the playlist because there is nothing wrong with relaxing with music and maybe I should get into it. Let’s see if it makes it to the end of the year.’

Spoiler – it didn’t. (This is sort of the opposite of a spoiler because it happened last year).

I stand by many of the things I said last year. It’s not a bad album. It’s not my type of music. The song ‘Better Together’ is played everywhere for everything.

I also agree with the last year’s me who took this off the playlist. I was far too easygoing at the beginning of the year with putting anything I didn’t absolutely hate onto the playlist.

Don’t let me get me

I was back in 2011 today and listening to a Greatest Hits album. Now, Greatest Hits albums were banned from the 2001 album listening the first time around and I’ve been even stricter and removed albums which featured new versions of songs or a couple of new songs.

However, the 2011 listening criteria is simply that it’s on the top 100 albums from 2011 based on the Official UK Charts Company’s information.

So I had to listen to 19 of the songs that Pink felt were the best 19 of her songs in 2011.

Out of the 19, I have heard of 10 of them, which is over 50%. Out of the 10 I’ve heard, I like 2 and absolutely hate 4.

I can legit remember her first single ‘There You Go’ being released and I loved that song. That song is on this album. I absolutely hate ‘Get the Party Started’ (don’t @me). It’s awful.

There are two songs on this album which I believe deal with domestic abuse (three if I count ‘Just Like a Pill’ but I’m going to ignore it because it’s main subject is not the abusive relationship).

‘Family Portrait’ is sung from the perspective of a child witnessing parental domestic abuse and I find it incredibly powerful. It speaks about a child apologising for the mum’s behaviour to stop the dad from being so angry, it speaks about how the child has a view that there are good times in the family and wants to find a way to keep the good times, it shows that witnessing domestic abuse is incredibly traumatic for children.

And I listen to it and it hurts, because I know that the times a child see as ‘good’ are the times when the victim is the most controlled; when the victim is the most in pain. When the child is seeing/hearing arguments is when the abuser is fearing a loss of control and needs to regain the control.

And that can be so difficult when the victim leaves. The child is heartbroken to leave the abusive parent and remembers all the good times and questions the victim ‘why couldn’t you stop making them angry?’

And then the family courts step in to allow the abuse to continue because the child is saying they want to see the abuser and the abuser knows the children are an excellent way of controlling the victim.

The second song is ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’.

I’ll be honest, there are so many songs which are portrayed as ‘romantic’ songs which are actually abusive songs, that I am unsure if Pink knew she was singing an abusive song. (For example, One Direction – Steal My Girl)

‘I forgot to say out loud
How beautiful you really are to me
I can’t be without
You’re my perfect little punching bag
And I need you
I’m sorry’

This song contains an abuser explaining how much they need the victim. It includes an explanation of all the things they do wrong in the relationship. It includes an apology.

But please not, the only apology in the song comes after ‘I need you’.

‘I need you, I’m sorry’

No apology for the actions. No, in fact, the actions are the fault of the victim

‘How did I become so obnoxious?
What is it with you that makes me act like this?
I’ve never been this nasty (da-da-da-da-da)
Can’t you tell that this is all just a contest?
The one that wins will be the one that hits the hardest
But baby, I don’t mean it’

The abuser describes their terrible actions, acknowledges the terribleness of their actions. The abuser questions ‘what is it with you that makes me act like this?’ I don’t act like this with other people, just you. You make me act like this.

But I don’t mean it because I need you. And I’m sorry that I need you but I do. So don’t leave me. I need you to stay because, if I’m honest, I like how it feels to be able to treat you this way.

Domestic abuse is so often hidden behind the disguise of romance and it’s not taken seriously because the disguise is so good.

When a couple breaks up and one party won’t let it go, and keeps trying to woo the other one back, through grand gestures, through conversations with friends ‘tell them, i love them, I’ll do anything’. It’s seen as romantic. There’s a term for this now which is good, when we have labels we can have better discussions ‘love bombing’ -like Kanye is doing. It’s abusive. It can happen to initiate a relationship, it can happen when a relationship ends. It makes victims of the primary victim’s friends and family by deluding them that the abuser has good intentions, it also means that the victim’s friends and family become abusers.

When a partner wants the other all to themselves, ‘oh, you’re going out with friends tonight? I wish we had more time together’, it’s romantic….or is it controlling?

Domestic abuse is so intertwined with gender stereotypes that the misogyny of it is overlooked. I think this is very clear in domestic abuse within gay/lesbian domestically abusive relationships as well. The idea that even in same-sex relationships someone should be subservient and that person is the ‘woman/femme’.

Domestic abuse is huge and mostly hidden. Even when it’s in plain sight, it is excused away.

Don’t let it be.

Don’t fall for the excuses. Don’t fall for love bombing.

Also, meh for Pink. If this is the best you had over 10/11 years, it’s not great.

Write down your lyrics

I think when I listened to Caedmon’s Call last year, I was mostly interested in the story about who Caedmon was and what his call was about. Interesting story. I highly recommend you look into it (Alien children, you can cross-reference to 25th April 2021).

Anyway, I think I was so distracted by the story of Caedmon that I accidently put this album on the playlist.

It’s another not bad album but it’s not good.

The best song is ‘God of Wonders’ but that’s not Caedmon’s Calls’ song. And this isn’t the best version of it.

Anyways, I was very right to remove from the playlist.

Slightly confused

So today I listened to Ocean Colour Scene’s 2001 album ‘Mechanical Wonder’.

This album had been on the playlist and then at some point was removed from the playlist. When listening to it, I initially thought ‘Why did I remove this? It’s not bad. No! the playlist isn’t for not bad albums, it’s for the greatest albums’

So I re-read what I wrote about it last year, thinking I would have said something about it being ok but no, I said I loved this album. I claimed to have been dancing from the first song.

This isn’t a dancing album! I’d be worried that I’d fall asleep listening to this album and to be honest, that’s probably why it got removed from the playlist for making me too sleepy.

Going Rogue

Today I listened to an album released in 2019.

This is clearly not on any of the lists of albums I’m currently working through – currently three lists – Albums from 2001 that originally made it to the playlist, Albums from the top 100 albums from 2011 according to the UK Charts company and Albums from this year that sound interesting.

The album is Sparkle. Pop. Rampage by Rend Co. Kids and Rend Collective.

So yeah, it’s a kids album but sometimes, I honestly feel you get some deep lyrics in kids songs – not that Bob the Builder album from 2001 though! That was terrible!

I mean, ‘Not Afraid’ is beautiful:

‘If You say I’m an overcomer
I will overcome the monster
I may be small, but I’m a fighter
‘Cause You are strong and fear’s a liar

I’m not afraid of the dark
The dark’s afraid of me
I’m not afraid ’cause Your heart
Is shining bright in me
Be bold, be strong
Be brave, hold on
I’m not afraid anymore
Your love glows in the dark’

‘The King of Me’ has been a favourite song of mine for a while. It was one of the first songs I recorded for my church to use during the first lockdown. It’s a good theological song – it stands a premise and that backs it up with three different bible texts.

This album also contains a version of the excellent ‘My Lighthouse’ with a talky bit in it which is very Irish and I love it.

I once went to a church (the once is very important) where they sang a song called ‘I’m K.I.D not a monkey’ which was honestly the worst thing I’d ever heard. I can’t find it on the internet and I’m wondering if someone in that church had written it themselves when they couldn’t find any anti-evolution children’s songs suitable for church.

Anyway, this album has the song ‘God of Science (Our Great God)’ which instead of casting science as the energy suggests that God created science – which I think is a much better perspective.

Sometimes I consider the miracle of turning water into wine. Every day, water is turned into wine. It is a natural process which we understand and can manipulate. In that miracle, the creator of the process which turns water into wine, turned water into wine.

In the same way, just because there is a scientific process explaining how a thing is done, doesn’t mean it’s any less miraculous.

As the song says

‘You made apple juice, sunflowers
Penguins and rhinos
Pineapples, Jupiter
Elbows and geckos
Broccoli, Mercury
Sunshine and weirdos
Pandas and nostrils and trees
Bumblebees, polar bears
Raptors and eyebrows
Wildebeests, moustaches
Earlobes and wormholes
Mountain goats, volcanoes
Turtles and big toes
Pandas and nostrils and trees
Puppy dogs, waterfalls
Kittens and rainbows
Galaxies, mushrooms and
Badgers and pharaohs
Elephants, great white sharks
Music and mangos
Pandas and nostrils and trees
Pandas and nostrils and trees?’

What I also enjoy about this song is that mushrooms and badgers are next to each other, which I think demonstrates the age of the writer. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about you were a teenager on the internet in the early 00s. Google Badger, mushroom, snake)

I predicted it

Today I listened to ‘All About Chemistry’ by Semisonic.

Last year, when I listened to it, I said this was the type of album which would grow on me and I was absolutely not wrong. This is a great album.

Listened to it twice.

It’s a beautiful album.

No doubt.

Sadly, this is currently their final studio album although they released an EP in 2020, so potentially there may be more music from them.

A lot of doubt.

Leave him there

Somehow I feel obligated to listen to an album a day although there’s no contract holding me to this.

Obviously, there have been days when I haven’t listened to an album but I’ve been able to write about why.

Today, I didn’t have to listen to Alfie Boe’s album ‘Bring him home’ but I wouldn’t have anything to write other than I don’t want to listen to Alfie Boe.

I don’t understand why anyone listens to Alfie Boe. This is number 46 on the top 100 of the year 2011. Why were people listening to this?

It’s a guy singing show tunes worse than the original show tunes. I love Matt Lucas, but why was he on this album? To be honest, I did enjoy the song because it sounded as if Matt Lucas was learning how to sing while recording a song. He’s got a good voice and he’s singing nicely, then Alfie does his wannabe opera singer impression and then Matt Lucas does a wannabe opera singer impression. It is a good time to be fair.

This is an album of good songs sung badly.

Apparently, lots of people enjoyed it.

Ich

I don’t really have anything to add to what I said last year about ‘Mutter’ by Rammstein.

It’s still in German and I still don’t understand it. However, I still enjoy it.

I’ve looked up some of the lyrics in English.

I mean, nothing says death metal like

‘Now, dear children, pay attention
I am the voice from the pillow
I brought you something
Have ripped it out of my chest
With this heart, I have the power
Blackmail the eyelids
I sing until the new day comes
A bright light in the heaven’s sky’

I’m thinking that even though it’s been translated from German to English, it’s still better than Example.