Future Of The Left: So, when should we tell him we need a ceiling first before we put in the lightbulbs?
The week in ADM
Michael Palmer reflects on the week's notable action in the ADM chart
Would you look at that. There we were, marvelling at London band
Teeth Of The Sea for storming their way to the top
of our Current Chart. "How impressive," we all thought. They pushed
aside a wave of new albums and took a seat on our throne, but
before they even had time to shift their weight and get
comfortable, along come Future Of The Left.
BAM! 10/10 from The Skinny. KAPOW! 10/10 from God Is In The TV.
ZLONK! 10/10 from FasterLouder. EEE-YOW! Another fistful of 9s.
Those are all genuine "sound effects" from Adam West's Batman, by
the way. And it looks like all the other albums in our chart are
going to need some kind of Bad Review Repellant Bat Spray to even
come close to the 8.6 that the Cardiff band have mustered. Their
score is so good, in fact, that they sit in our All Time Chart Top
10, only one place behind the last Arcade Fire
album.
Speaking of Arcade Fire: how is the Reflektor rating getting on?
That was a brilliant transition. Seamless. The best bit is that
there's no way for you to know that I just went back and added the
last bit about Arcade Fire just to make it seem like a good
transition. And it's not really "speaking of" as I'm not actually
talking. Should it be "typing of…" instead? Anyway, 7.1. That's how
it's doing. This time last week it had a 6.7, so critics seem to be
warming to it. It also has 51 comments from passionate ADM readers.
So at least they've made an album that people like to talk about.
Or type about. Ach, it's that again.
In Bottom-of-the-Chart news, James is
Blunt alright, with a paltry 4.1 for his new album
Moon Landing. His last album got a 3.8 though, so one could argue
that this one is a giant leap. Five different 4/10 reviews, along
with a 2/10 from The Observer relegate his fourth album to the very
bottom of our Current Chart, a whole 7 points behind previous
bottom dweller Dizzee Rascal. The Evening Standard
made a decent effort to save poor James from this week's wooden
spoon with an 8/10 review, claiming "there's craft akin to
The National or Bright Eyes" in
one particular album track. Nobody else buys that though - wooden
spoon it is.
Two other new albums made a decent effort at the top end of our
chart this week. Firstly, Los Campesinos! get
themselves four 8s, an 8.5 and a 9 which allows them a seat at the
Top 10 for now. Our weighted average system puts their overall
rating at a 7.9, an improvement on their last album's 7.2, which
itself was an improvement on their album before's 7.1. Getting
there. Just outside out the Top 10 sits Omar
Souleyman, whose album Wenu Wenu is either his 1st or
501st, depending on whose facts you believe. A decent spread of
praise gives him a 7.7 rating, with only The Observer offering less
than 7.
Elsewhere: Laurel Halo charts with a 7.4,
Kevin Devine releases two albums at once for a
combined 7.0, Motörhead's 21st album can only
manage 6.6 (one 6 away from a pretty metal rating, it has to be
said), Katy Perry slips to a 6.1, and had it been
any other week James Blunt's wooden spoon could've gone to
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip (5.8) Best
Coast (5.6) or CFCF (5.5).