I wasn’t initially going to write about this one but having just raved on about Natasha Bedingfield’s album I think it’d be wrong not to talk about the second listen of this one. I heard about this album relatively late, I think – I really didn’t have any idea it was coming till a couple of weeks ago, if that – but in the short waiting time I’ve had, I was extremely excited about it, a sort-of concept album from Tori sounded just terrific. My first listen, though, was a bit iffy. It’s cool to hear just about every side of Tori’s style in one place, it’s a great showcase for her, but as a result, obviously, it’s not an immediately easy listen and it doesn’t flow as an album as perfectly as, say, “Under the Pink”. It’s basically as sonically schizophrenic as it sounds, Tori singing 23 songs as 5 different characters about just about everything under the sun.

On a second listen though, even though I still don’t think it flows great as a whole, and there are too many songs as far of my idea of a perfect album goes (but that’s just me) ... on a song by song basis, I really can’t complain. There are definitely gems here – even the kind-of obvious “Yo George” demands further listens, and at least she gets it out of the way early and quick (just over a minute in length – I guess when even I’m getting tired of Bush-gibe songs, though, it must be pretty darn trite). I won’t be listening to this all in one go many more times, but I think just about every one of its tracks are tracks I’ll never skip while shuffling iTunes.

BTW I realise I’ve given this 4 ‘discs’ (I promise I’ll think of a less cheesy rating system than this in the future, lol – I have to use a separate thing from the movie ratings ‘cos of how WordPress nests my categories) and Natasha Bedingfield’s 5 while this goes to the top of the year’s list, that’s just my crazy working – I just personally got a huge kick from Nb, while this is just more of a song-by-song, production-wise, etc perfection and it’s no “Under the Pink”, ‘cos, like, y’know … what is?

Firstly, I need to say, this album definitely made me love Rufus again. I’d sort of gone off him recently in one of those sort of stupid, “actually, he’s okay, it’s just the majority of his fans that piss me off, so I’m out,” sort of deals. That combined with the concert I went to of his that was just very disappointing in a lot of ways (again, not entirely to do with the man himself). What I’d hoped for from this album, following the extremely self-indulgent “Want” project (“Want Two” in particular – not saying they weren’t great albums, but sometimes the classical stuff was a little overwhelming), was the most unabashed pop Rufus is able to deliver. For the most part, I can’t complain. It starts brilliantly – “Do I Disappoint You” sets the hairs on the back of your neck on end within seconds, and it’s followed by my absolute favourite by far on the album, “Going to a Town” (“I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down – I’m so tired of you, America …”)

The first half of the album is better than the second half, which ends on the hugely disappointing title track, which is about the most pointless song I’ve ever heard – the title of this record evokes so many things, and what the song turns out to be about is just … really, really, pointless. Maybe if it wasn’t the title track, maybe if it came somewhere in the middle of the album, sure, it’s an okay song … but not a title track or finale, not by a long shot. But like I said, for its highlights, I really can’t complain about this album. For better or worse, it’s the best album of the year I’ve heard so far, and I’m sure people will want to crucify me for saying so, but it only narrowly beats out the new Avril Lavigne record in my books.