Sunday, October 26, 2003

New Dawn Fades

The new Strokes album has failed to topple Dido from the top of the UK album charts despite a narrow lead at the midweek point. Elsewhere in the chart, Basement Jaxx limp in at a feeble number 17 despite an immense pre-release buzz on the net for Kish Kash, while Suede's greatest hits compilation can only just nudge ahead of the much-derided Myleene Klass classical project at numbers 31 and 32 respectively. Difficult to see where Suede go from here aside from splitting up, which is a shame as their first two albums were terrific and there are few better frontmen in Britain than Brett Anderson, but ultimately since the absence of Bernard Butler their songwriting has steadily become more one-dimensional and predictable and really no-one's interested anymore.

Given all the hoo-hah in NME, Guardian etc. about what a great music scene we have at the moment, this week's album chart in full makes for sobering reading. Jostling with Dido and The Strokes are two Rod Stewart compilations and the likes of Sheryl Crow, R Kelly, Robbie Williams, Hayley Westenra, Delta Goodrem, Daniel O'Donnell, The Eagles and Jamie Cullum. Some of this season's most-touted rock albums from the likes of BRMC, Jet, The Rapture and Spiritualized have all long since left the building and the latest Muse record seems close to following them out of the door. It seems New Rock Revolution = Same Old High Street Apathy.

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