My Top 20 Albums Of 2018

What a year it’s been. Yes, politically its been an utter shit show but musically my ears were treated to some amazing stuff that helped ease the pain. Or add to it in some cases (but then I enjoy that too because I’m a sicko). I really do think the quality this year has been really special and any of my top 5 are worthy of the number one spot, so much so I thought of putting them all in first place but that’s fence sitting of biblical preportions and I’m not religious. What am talking about? Anyway, here’s the list..

 

20: Doe – Grow Into It

A jangly yet punchy second offering from the London trio. It thrives of its indie sensibilities and with plenty of discordant guitars and catchy tunes is a lot of fun.

 

19: Liela Moss – My Name Is Safe In Your Mouth

This debut solo album from The Duke Spirit singer is far removed from the band’s bluesy rock n roll roots. The compositions are soulful and spacey. Its perfect for a listen by candlelight as you lay your head to bed. Let it wash over you.

 

18: Skating Polly – The Make It All Show

Grunge music it’s ok to love. There are still some abrasive moments (‘Camelot’ and ‘They’re Cheap (I’m Free)’ spring to mind) but The Make It All Show has a sense of maturity that runs throughout.

 

17: Spring King – A Better Life 

The Manchester based garage band threw away the keys to their lock up when they split late in the year. It’s sad news because A Better Life soundtracks anxiety with a blitz of frenetic energy. ‘Animal’ might just be the most rocking track of 2018

 

16: Black Foxxes – Reiði

Anyone who has heard Mark Holley’s guttural howl in a live setting knows the power that Black Foxxes thrive on. Sonically, album number two is an even more intense experience than ‘I’m Not Well’. The guitars sound like they’re closing in on you. The livelier moments are a joy, literally in the case of ‘Joy’ and ‘Manic In Me’ but there’s so much more in their canon. This is a sprawling, emotive epic.

 

15: Goat Girl – Goat Girl 

Off kilter and quirky ramblings in a nineteen track debut album (there are some pointless but thankfully short instrumentals). This is a sprawling mess of wonky anthems with plenty of subversive storytelling such as ‘Creep’ which is about one of those pervy guys we’ve all seen on a train. Sometimes harsh and sometimes pretty, it’s like Pink Floyd had an illicit affair with Throwing Muses and this is their baby.

 

14: Shame – Songs Of Praise

If you’re expecting Harry Secombe to make an appearance then you’ll be disappointed, maybe even offended. There are no chiors or prayers but there is blasphemy. Charlie Steen sometimes stops singing because “my voice ain’t the best you’ve heard” and speaks long bizarre diatribes (‘The Lick’). Punk that has a weirdly calm nature.

 

13: Juanita Stein – Until The Lights Fade

Her second album in twelve months from the Howling Bells singer and she has improved on her impressive debut. In places ‘Until The Lights Fade’ is country music put through a sexy instagram filter. It’s confident, melodic and lush. Juanita’s subtle vocals let the songs speak for themselves.

 

12: Slaves – Acts Of Fear And Love

In some ways it feels like a return to basics after the mad extremities of ‘Take Control’. This feels similar to their debut without reaching its highs. Being Slaves though, its still a riot of raucous thrashing about and tongue in cheek lyrics. Maybe if there were more than nine sings it’d be placed higher but either way, Slaves haven’t got a dud song in them.

 

11: She Makes War – Brace For Impact

Melodic, chaotic, grungy and light. ‘Brace For Impact’ is a mass of contradictions full of soul searching. ‘London Bites’ is full of suspense before a killer kick in. ‘Devastate Me’ is the greatest song Courtney Love never wrote. The softer moments are packed with pathos too, such as the lilting ‘Strong Enough’. A fourth album that enhances Laura Kidd’s reputation further.

 

10: Manic Street Preachers – Resistance Is Futile

After the biggest gap between albums in their history, the Manics returned with a pop sensibility. Does it feel like a backward step after ‘Futurology’? Yes. Is it a bad album? No .Even when you take into account they’ve incorporated the bloody millennial whoop into a couple of songs, most notably on the boring ‘Hold Me Like A Heaven’. There are plenty of great moments of course. ‘Liverpool Revisited’ is a lush love note to the city. ‘A Song For The Sadness’ takes the band’s melonchonic DNA to extremes. ”Brokem Algorithms’ could have been embarrassing considering it recalls ‘Generation Terrorists’ while slagging off the internet. Peak Manics? Nah, but it’s still better than most of the stuff out there. Thirteen albums in and refleshingly they still want to try new things.

 

9: Colour Me Wednesday – Counting Pennies In The Afterlife

The political stance of their 2013 debut takes a back seat and in comes a poppier, slightly noisier and more confident sounding band. Jennifer Doveton’s lush voice excels like never before over a summery soundtrack. ‘Boyfriend’s Car’ is all harmonies and uplifting chorus and perfect for a sun drenched road trip. ‘Exposure’ and ‘Take What You Want (And Then Leave)’ are both mellow slices of beautifulness. I think that’s a word. ‘Disown’ might be the highlight as clattering drums make way for a chorus of “I cringe at the memory of you”. While the lack of politics is missed by me personally, ‘Counting Pennies In The Afterlife’ is a band enjoying itself and they need much more time out of the shade.

 

8: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Wrong Creatures

Yes, BRMC are still going. Now that news has filtered through.. ‘Wrong Creatures’ is full of dusky brooding beasts. It’s easy to imagine it soundtracking a retro Netflix drama about serial killers. Lots of lighting of cigarettes and loading of guns could easily be done to ‘Spook’. Nothing is done too quickly here and that’s not to the detriment of the songs at all. It rolls along in its own sweet, morbid time. ‘Ninth Configuration’ and ”Question Of Faith’ are dirty sounding epics with staggering choruses. Whatever happened to their rock n’ roll? It got dark, man. Very dark.

 

7:  Kate Nash – Yesterday Was Forever

An album that probably fell under the radar to all but the most hardcore Kate Nash fans. Released early in the year to little fanfare or promotion, Kate’s first album in five years is ironically her poppiest work to date. There’s a mash up of different styles and the catchiness never relents. Things work best when she’s sdopting her own identity like on ‘Musical Theatre’ and ”California Poppies’. ‘Life In Pink’ is the closest thing to the Girl Talk era by far but with an added eighties power pop chorus. The closing ‘To The Music I Belong’ should be the ‘Thank You For The Music’ of our generation with its affecting soft piano and grand, hypnotic chorus. Kate Nash had released another underrated gem.

 

6: The Fratellis – In Your Own Sweet Time

In a year filled with Brexit and Donald Trump nonsense, respite came in the form of The Fratellis. They brought the party to 2018. In Your Own Sweet Time is a record out of its time. It leans heavily on rock n’ roll history to produce a modern pop classic. These are slinky, funky and flirty classics that will never escape your head once heard. Dismiss your cynicism and dance like no one is watching.

 

5: Reigning Days – Eclipse

A Devon trio doing the work of Muse while they’re holidaying it up in the stadiums of the world. Eclipse may sound like a mainstream rock revorein many ways but nothing feels cynical and there’s a hard edge at the core. For every pummeling riff and shrieking vocal there is unabashed melidim brilliance. inhaler, My Sweet Love and Renegade are full on assaults but there Reigning Days are tunesmiths who would be bothering the charts in a parallel universe that sadly we’ll never live in. Play loud, jump about and enjoy the fuck out of this record.

 

4: The Joy Formidable – AAARTH

A madcap, inventive return for the Welsh trio that is in turns rocking and bizarre in equal measure. ‘Y Bluen Eira’ is punk disco escapism. ‘Go Loving’ is an unpredictable wall of noise. ‘Cicada (Land On Your Back)’ is all medieval chanting and heavy power chords. The quiter moment surprise too. ‘Absence’ is a chilling piano ballad that flows with sheer beauty. Ambitious beyond words, The Joy Formidable have given us their best album yet. Embrace the madness.

 

3: Screaming Females – All At Once

“My life is a glass house, impossible to get out” warns Marissa Paternoster in the venemous opening track but musically their seventh album sounds liberated . ”All At Once’ is an electrifying collection of precise pop songs with hard edged riffs and plenty of soloing. There are unexpected key and tempo changes but they just add to the excitement. ”Black Moon’ is Black Sabbath but a Black Sabbath where bats are safe. ”Chamber For Sleep (Part One)’ skips about like a lost child at an indie disco. A special mention must go out to the stunning ‘Bird In Space’, for it is a flighty (yup) and soaring (yup) piece of understated beauty.  A truly special album that could just as easily soundtrack bright summer days as it could cold winter nights.

 

2: Estrons – You Say I’m Too Much, I Say You’re Not Enough

You’d be hard pushed to find a debut album with fiercer intent than this. Even the title has a confident swagger to it’s words. Self-belief runs through Estrons’ veins but it’s not arrogance. ‘Lilac’ opens with chugging bass and crashing feedback and the attitude never diminishes. ‘Body’ is an explosion of sexual energy and ‘Camera’ is a slow burning classic that almost collapses in on itself with the chorus and screeching solo that follows. Singer Tali’s voice battles with an unrelentingly powerful rythym section and everybody wins. This is a powerful opening statement, a pop punk classic in the making. You say this album shouldn’t be this high, I say you’re very wrong.

 

1: Idles – Joy As An Act Of Resistance

The step up from last year’s debut is an astonishing one. It’s records like this that prove albums aren’t going to die any time soon. JAAAOR feels like a complete work, not just songs chucked together, many times they fizzle and crack into eachother. The title sums it up, even through the anger and fully charged attacks there is a joy at play, helped of course by some hilariously oblique wordplay. The colossal   ‘Colossus’ (they have a better way with the pen than me) menacingly stalks you from afar before sticking needles in the back of your neck as it’s hairs stand on end. It then breaks into a FIDLAR style coda. ‘Never Fight A Man With A Perm’ bemoans toxic masculinity in the only way they know how – “You’re not a man, you’re a gland. You’re one big neck with sausage hands”. ”Samaritans’ covers the same topic with class “I’m a real boy, boy and I cry”. Danny Nedelko is the best pro immigration song The Vaccines forgot to write – “He’s made of bones, he’s made of blood, he’s made of flesh, he’s made of love. He’s made of you, he’s made of me, UNITY!”  The album could be in a gallery as contemporary work of art about the state of our culture. It’s angry, loud as fuck and it’s an uncomfortable pleasure from the off. There is one harrowing moment that hurts. In ‘June’ the line “Babies’s shoes for sale, never worn” is fucking heartbreaking, especially when you later find out it has a place in harsh reality. Mostly though you can shout things like “I’M SCUM!” and “FUCK TV!” while trashing you living room or a nearby Conservative club if you’re out and about. This is a masterpiece. Guitar music isn’t dead. Spread the news.

 

My Top 10 Albums of 2017

 

10): The Charlatans – Different Days

“I’m a known quantity / Too well known for The Machinery not to be interested”

The Charlatans are a band who continue to furrow their own brow and each time they come up with the goods. They survived Baggy, Britpop and everything else that’s come and go because they’ve never really been any of those things. Free of any such labels and with their reputation safe they are free to make the music they want. For  a band that has suffered so much trauma and heartache, Different Days is an LP covered in glorious sun rays. While the world at large stresses out, The Charlies have clearly been lying on a beach immersing themselves in rich, warm sounds.

There a hooks aplenty and even a bit of kookiness by their own standards. There are even spoken word segments, one read out by none other than novelist Ian Rankin. Johnny Marr and Paul Weller also make contributions, which is just showing off. Different Days embraces the listener with a warm glow and is a more than worthy addition to a thirty year back catalogue.

 

9) Idles – Brutalism

“The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich”

Idles have named their debut perfectly. It is fucking harsh. Coming across as the narcissistic love child of Slaves and Future Of The Left, the Bristol band have been bubbling under the surface for a few years. Their social commentary is straight to the point and with tongue slightly in cheek. Most of the songs are aggressive mantras that take potshots at people the Tories and people called Tarquin. Let’s face it, Tarquin is probably a Tory. While their approach is well meaning, there’s something about Brutalism that makes you feel sordid. That’s part of the fun though, right?

 

8): Juanita Stein – America 

“Gaze into the night again”

Juanita’s first solo exploration finds her cruising route 66 and other famous American roads I can’t think of. There are elements that sound like her band (Howling Bells) and that is not an insult at all for they are vastly underrated act. The big sounding, catchy Black Winds being the most prime example. When she does go off the beaten track and away from the indie, Juanita literally ends up in the country. Don your stetsons for a soulful, atmospheric album that compliments her soothing voice perfectly.

 

7): Spectres – Condition

“Milking my adrenaline / drink it all in”

Spectre’s second album is a discordant wall of noise which sounds full of rage at the world one moment and then apathy the next. The mood is dark, the tunes are mostly hiding behind metallic guitars and a pounding rhythm section but they are there. It’s an industrial sounding album that sounds like it’s trying to escape the factory.

‘The Beginning Of The End’ and ‘Dissolve’ are sprawling epics, jabs of guitar sporadically breaking out of the mire. ‘Neck’ and ‘Welcoming The Flowers’ are boiling furnaces of rage, unsettling and uncompromising. If you let Condition wash over you the splendour will seep into your soul. Just so long as you don’t want to be in a good mood.

 

6) Royal Blood – How Did We Get So Dark?

“You’re not so hard to forget with all the lights out”

The way Royal Blood dealt with the pressure of the hype and awards their debut generated was satisfyingly simple: If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The rough edges might have been blunted slightly but the result is still a treat to the ears. An element of glam rock on the likes of Look Like You Know and Where Are You Now? confirms album number two is a bit more pop in its mindset but they still make a noise though. The riffs of Lights Out are enough to cause tremors and Hook, Line & Sinker judders like a metal Stevie Wonder. Next time around, Royal Blood probably need to step away from the short, ten song album formula and they are certainly more than capable of causing surprises should they want to.

 

5): Shed Seven – Instant Pleasures 

“No spunk in your trunk and no fun in your funk”

Sixteen years is a long time ago. The world has changed so much that when Shed Seven last released an album George W. Bush was the worst president in history. In truth, Rick Witter’s band of merry men never truly disappeared as they’ve toured their hits on and off for years. Their greatest hits truly was the indie equivalent of ABBA Gold and anyone who disagrees is just plain wrong.

The biggest surprise that Instant Pleasures offers is that this is their best studio album to date – both instant and pleasurable. Even songs about depression, like It’s Not Easy have a joy running through them Hang On is another example, especially when it breaks out into a hybrid of Sympathy For The Devil and Boyzone’s Picture Of You. They can even be forgiven for aping The Killers with Enemies and Friends because they slay it more than Brandon Flowers has done for years. It’s a heart warming, fun, and beautifully melodic riot that shows Britpop shouldn’t be the swear word its become.

 

4): Trampolene – Swansea To Hornsey

“The silence makes the darkest sound”

“Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as PARKLIFE!” said the great philosopher Phil Daniels back in the day.  Confidence is also a key attribute for a debut album and Swansea To Hornsea walks the walk and talks the talk in the same way that Oasis and Artic Monkeys did first time round. Those comparisons are not made lightly. Here we have the swagger of the Gallaghers and the poetic sneer of Alex Turner. Singer Jack Jones even uses the album to get exactly those kind of compositions out there with three spoken word rants covering youth, drugs and Poundland. The holy trinity.

For the most part it’s energy is all consuming, Guitars that veer from jangly, heavy and everything in between. Solos that fly out of the speakers, Fantastic bass lines that are groovier than Austin Powers in a washing machine. It’s an unpredictable listen because the softer moments astound just as much as the bluster. Songs, especially those nearer the end, go down different paths to where they were hinting and unlike the album’s title, go off map. It’s youth, with all it’s highs, lows (and awkward fumbles with girls) soundtracked to near perfection. Today they may be at Hornsey but tomorrow it could be…I dunno.. Norwich? Keep believing and maybe, just maybe..

 

3): Wolf Alice – Visions Of A Life

“I dream of death, its violent breath”

The world is there for the taking for Wolf Alice but Visions Of A Life only serves to proof what contrite, perverse gits they are. When they could be stepping up their mainstream appeal in a bid to play arenas they’ve gone further into their own world. They seem oblivious to what’s going on around them musically and while the old school influences that ran through the debut are still here, it’s run through their personal filter. There isn’t a band out there who doing what Wolf Alice are doing. Visions Of A Life is more expansive, more ambitious and more unique. Ellie Rowsell’s ever changing voice fits Wolf Alice’s attention span perfectly.

Heavenward isn’t really shoegaze because  it reaches for the sky and when they aren’t blasting you with punk pop ditties such as Yuk Foo and Formidable Cool they serve up a rich soundscape of the future. Planet Hunter feels like being in a vortex until the bass breaks out at the end. Sky Musings is a Ryanair induced panic attack (and we’ve all had those). Sadboy and St. Purple & Green show off their quiet/loud tricks at their best. The former in particular is a devastating, surreal anthem for the forlorn. The title track’s dark guitars chime as if notifying us of the end of the world but no matter how bad 2017 might have been we survived it, Which is good. We can listen to Wolf Alice more.

 

2): Paul Draper – Spooky Action

“If medication’s no answer then is ignorance bliss?”

The Stone Roses? Elastica? They’ve got nothing on Paul Draper, who finally released an album that was fourteen years in the making. Inspired by an online petition, Paul went back to the drawing board, recorded his unheard solo material and even wrote new stuff, such was his regained passion. It’s magnificent to have his vocals back again and while he may not like his own voice, there are many who have missed it. I was fortunate to be at the first album playback in the summer and will never forget the goosebumps and joy that I felt listening for the first time. Spooky Action, as fans would expect, is an epic jumble of grand ideas, dark themes and utter silliness. There’s meaty prog rock beasts like Don’t Poke The Bear,  dirty disco stompers like Who’s Wearing The Trousers (which has the weirdest “solo” ever committed to tape) and late night, soul bearing epics like Jealousy Is A Powerful Emotion.

His voice sounds more soulful than ever before and as they’re on a record that covers a lot of the Mansun split in the lyrics, emotion coats everything in an HD gloss. It’s almost like watching a fly on the wall documentary of a band falling apart. The production is busy yet crystal clear. There are elements of Mansun’s different eras in the sound but there’s also a refreshing, new feel in the mix too. It’s been worth every minute of the wait but don’t tell Paul that because we sure as hell can’t wait until 2031 for the follow up.

 

1): The Franklys – Are You Listening?

“It started friendly but things got ugly”

Well, are you? If not then why not? This is everything a debut should be and more. Noisy, articulate and confident. It might not match the raw power of their live shows but these ten songs thrive off an adrenaline that would make Ed Sheeran shit himself. They are more than simply “garage rock” because thankfully they’re not The Hives. There’s plenty of snarling, sneering and deliciously squawking guitar solos. The songs batter you round the head with a punk rock energy that puts to shame Bono’s ludicrous “music has got too girly” statement. Since when did U2 rock anyway?

It’s an album that blitzes by pretty relentlessly. The “quieter” moments still stun though. Keeper chugs along, it’s melody barely disguising evil intent. Imaginarium (“I’m imagining a future we will never see”) wears a Sleater-Kinney top with pride and yet shows great ambition. With Bad News the whole thing ends up in a noisy racket of kick ass joy. In short, Are You Listening? is a riot and has more balls than anything Bono has dared inflict on the world. Actually, who needs balls? Bono, you can keep them. The Franklys are proof, as if it was needed that the music industry is actually too manly.

My full and (in my opinion) best of 2017 playlist is here if you want to check it out..