You’re Getting Cynical

Today I listened to the current number 2 album ‘The Car’ by Arctic Monkeys.

I listened to it in the car because that felt right and also because I went on a 40-minute round trip today and the album is 37 minutes long.

I wonder if Arctic Monkeys, Taylor Swift and Brian Eno have all been hanging out in a sad and depressing place while writing their sad melancholy albums.

This is another album I expect to drop out of the top 100 immediately and never return, unlike Arctic Monkey’s album AM which is still in the charts this week.

Do You Really Care?

Today I was back in 2001 listening to The Living End ‘Roll On’.

This is how you do a protest album! You take what has happened in the past, you discuss what is happening now, and you link them together.

As some very famous and wise person or people once or many times said ‘if you don’t know your history, it will become your future’.

Also, in weekly news

1. The ex-prime minister, in her previous job, was a security threat and the ex-ex-prime minister covered it up so she could become prime minister. This is hardly news to be honest. This is pretty normal for the current political climate. And it worries me how normal it all is. Do you know that the government used Gary Glitter music in one of their promo videos and when people said ‘that’s Gary Glitter’ they all said ‘no, it’s not’. That’s exactly how things work now. It’s not even lying anymore.
2. Twitter had a new owner and now people are being homophobic to Darren Hayes. There are openly transphobic threads. This is free speech so I’m obviously super happy about it. It’s almost as if people have forgotten there are consequences for your speech. And thankfully, twitter has also forgotten this.

A short reign

Good news! After one solitary week at number one, the 1975 aren’t even in the top 100 anymore. I guess it got to number one because everyone listened to it and then people stopped listening to it because they remembered that the 1975 suck.

Even Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott have managed to remain in the top 100 for 3 weeks!

Today I decided to listen to the current number one album ‘Midnights’ by Taylor Swift and I highly doubt this’ll be in the top 100 next week either.

Some people are saying this is a more grown-up sound for Taylor and unlike when they said it about Britney, they don’t mean more sexy. What they appear to mean is she’s more boring and predictable. You know, like an adult with a job and bills to pay.

It’s 44 minutes long, 13 tracks of all the sameness.

Tis bland.

I haven’t listened to any of Taylor Swifts albums before. She had a live album in 2011.

I know that she is re-recording a bunch of her old songs in order to gain ownership of them. Very smart of her to do that. Pretty annoying that it’s necessary.

Microscopic Worms

‘Foreverandevermore’ by Brian Eno was number 32 this morning when I listened to it.

I ignored number 42 which was Kodaline’s album ‘Our Roots Run Deep’ because it’s a live album and I’m not really a fan of live albums.

The Pitchfork review says that Brian Eno has taken an unconventional approach to this album and boy! unconventional is right!

This album is about climate change and how we really need to sort ourselves out which is a good message and you know how much I love protest songs!

I was listening to Moist Cr1tical (because I’m young and hip like that). He was talking about how obviously climate change is a problem but climate protesters who do stupid stunts do more to turn people away from talking about climate change. If climate change conversations become something only the crazy do, then people aren’t going to do anything about climate change.

‘Foreverandevermore’ is a depressing and maudlin album. I suppose that’s how Brian Eno is feeling about the environment and the world at the moment.

Unfortunately, it didn’t make me sad, it made me bored. And that’s not going to save the microscopic worms either. We need to be having proper conversations, unfortunately, we don’t have a representative in the global environmental talks but our Prime Minister sucks (I’ve decided not to name the Prime Minster because it doesn’t matter the last 5 (at least) have sucked). Why doesn’t someone glue themselves to him and then force him on a plane to Cop27?

Pure and Simple

Did you know that Betty Boo wrote the song Pure and Simple which was one of the biggest song of 2001 made popular by Hear’say?

She didn’t write it for Hear’say though and she was a bit annoyed by it. Apparently, she doesn’t like manufactured pop but she’s written a lot of it!

The only thing I know about Betty Boo is the song ‘Doin’ the Do‘ which sucks but it is stupidly catchy.

And you might be wondering why I’m talking about Betty Boo?

It’s because today I listened to her new album, ‘Boomerang’ which is currently number 45 on the UK album chart.

71 minutes and 20 tracks. This includes a new version of ‘Doin’ the Do’ which is absolutely what the world needs.

I don’t understand songwriting especially when it’s just nonsense lyrics. You sit down and think today I’m going to write a song but only using three words that I’ll repeat. I don’t know why you’d do that.

Flying and Landing

Today I was back in 2001 listening to ‘Take Offs and Landings’ by Rilo Kiley.

I had forgotten about this album and forgotten that Rilo Kiley was not a person but a band. I was confused by the two different lead singers.

Apparently, Rilo Kiley broke up in 2013. They had 4 albums and this one was their debut.

It is a good album, I liked it but is it a great album? I’m not sure. I definitely liked it last year but I wonder if it was just because I was going through a bad run of albums.

Don’t Shoot

Today I listened to number 52 on the UK album chart – ‘The Calton Songs’ by Gun.

It’s not quite a Greatest Hits album but it sort of is. There are some new songs and some new versions of their favourite songs.

I was most surprised to find the song ‘Word Up’ on this album in an acoustic way. I loved it. It’s a great song so why not slow it down and take it in?

Again, this is another super old band that I’ve never heard of.

The album is perfectly 1 hour long, however, it has 14 tracks.

I had no problems listening to this album. I sort of enjoyed it. I still can’t work out how any albums get in the charts, to be honest with you. Who is listening to this? And why? And how did this get higher in the chart than Darren Hayes? (I know I didn’t like that album but it’s Darren Hayes…I’ve listened to it 5 times and I don’t like it.) I like this album by Gun but I’m not going to listen to it again.

Tear it down

Today I listened to the current number 67 in the UK Album Chart ‘The Gang’s All Here’ by Skid Row.

You might be asking how I’m choosing albums if I’m working from the bottom. Good question! Basically, I’m going for new albums in the top 100.

Skid Row were formed in 1986 and have had a number of lineup changes which you would expect from a band of this age.

They’re a very cool heavy rock band and this was a truly awesome album.

In the world of politics, people continue to lie and play games as if the world is a game of bop it.

I’m Not Crazy If I’m Right

Today I listened to the number 89th album on the UK top 100 albums.

There are two reasons for this. The first is the reason I made up to justify the real reason which is the second reason.

The first reason is because of the album ‘Homosexual’ by Darren Hayes. It entered the chart in the 80s and disappeared the next week. I would never have listened to it. I only found it by accident and that’s unacceptable! I mean, honestly, some of the best albums from 2001 were weird things that no one knew about. To be honest, even things outside of the top 100 deserve a listen and so, only listening to the top albums means that I am missing out on great music.

The second reason is that The 1975’s new album is at number 1 this week and I hate the leader singer so much. Like, so much. And I know you may be thinking ‘how can you hate someone who you have never met?’ and this is a fair point. What I mean, is that I hate the part of him that he presents to the world. I’m sure he’s lovely one to one (I’m not entirely sure of this at all). Anyway, I absolutely refuse to listen to anything by The 1975 and so I’m starting from the bottom.

My blog, my rules.

So I listened to the album ‘Young Forever’ by Nessa Barrett.

And I’m super glad I did. As an album, it’s depressing and very samey-samey. However, there are some individual songs of awesomeness.

To be honest, the first and second songs on the album are the ones I like best. I wonder if I’d listen to two others first I could have also enjoyed them the most.

‘Gaslight‘ is an excellent song. So often I’ve discussed songs which are effectively gaslighting. So it’s good to find an anti -gaslighting song.

‘Tired of LA’ is also an excellent song about looking for realness in an artificial way.

So, the only thing that the horrible lead singer of The 1975 has done right is making me listen to some good music. Even though it’s 13 tracks and lasts only half an hour and I only actually like 2 tracks, it’s still awesome compared to me listening to anything by The 1975.

Trouble

Today I was back in 2001 listening to Stevie Nick’s album ‘Trouble in Shangri-La’.

Her voice is awesome and I did enjoy listening to the album. I very much recommend that you listen to it. However, I don’t think it’s the greatest.

I think, for it to be the greatest, at least one song has to remain in your brain. Like you’re singing it or you’d recognise it if it came on the radio. And I don’t think that’s true for this album.