It's that guy again, with
Bad Habits - Ed Sheeran
which was Number 1 for 11 whole weeks in the summer of 2021, only to be replaced at Number 1 by a song called Shivers by a little feller called ... Ed Sheeran. What about competition?
I don't like this song really. It's thematically similar to Ed's previous entry, Beautiful People - he's ill at ease and regretting the social whirl he's found himself in. He needs to get back to who he really is. But this time I don't care.
Clearly this song was more of a hit and struck more of a chord, and I can't really explain why I warmed to the other and not this.
Obviously, I noticed I don't write with particularly insight about the actual music of music, and try to avoid it if necessary, almost as a matter of principal. It is interesting to me the way, even as musically uneducated people, we can make our minds up about two similar in some ways but different in other ways songs almost instantly. We have a collection of triggers and preferences we can barely, or not at all, put words to. That's really the part of pop music I love.
I can try to explain why, unlike almost everyone else, I was always completely indifferent or antagonistic to Purple Rain, when it sounds so much like the style of music I like, but, really it's a matter of mystery.
So it is here. I don't really like this song, There it is. I mean, comparing it to Beautiful People, it's like, realistically, that's about my 35,000th favourite song of all time and this is about the 85,000th, so it's not some huge dividing line, but still.
Summer of 2021 was still strange, but less strange than 2020. I had my second vaccine, we went on holiday, still masked up in public, but the fear was slightly easing.
They held the Euros, which felt like too much congregating, they held (though almost didn't) the Olympics behind closed doors in Tokyo. It was still very much the age of Covid.
Massive in 2021 were Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X's 'Montero', Adele's Easy on Me, and Elton John had three Number 1s, unbelievably. He just really got the hang of the modern world.
Elton, Ed and LadBaby was Christmas Number 1. Glad my birthday's not at Christmas.
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