BLUE REV BY ALVVAYS
ALVVAYS have been building up to being this good over 2 previous albums and 8 years. This is certainly the most confident and assured they have been. They sound like they really believe they belong now. Big, bold brassy shoegaze lo-fi dream pop delivered with their signature light-hearted art-pop aplomb. The outstanding Molly Rankin on vocals.
Favourite Track - Belinda Says.
ISLAND FAMILY BY THE PICTISH TRAIL
Follow up to the equally magnificent Thumb World, this is the Isle of Eigg resident and founder of Lost Map Records, Johnny Lynch's deeply personal, at times turbulent ode to the nature, isolation, the unpredictability of island life off the west coast of Scotland. Written and produced during lockdown this is the sound of living on the edge and the verge, and of no man being an island. Yet it too is about resilience, perseverance and belonging, all deeply personal themes to wheelchair life of course.
Favourite Track - The River It Runs Inside Of Me.
BIG TIME BY ANGEL OLSEN
I'm in love with Angel Olsen's voice, as well as Jonathan Wilson's production on this, her sixth album, and follow up to the magnificent All Mirrors. It's all about the joy and loss in relationships. Tenderness and fragility big time! It's as honest as every great country record is but it's also a rangy, breathy, echoey swoon-fest. Puts me in mind of one of my favourite albums of all time - Mary Margaret O'Hara's Miss America. It's up there!
Favourite Track - Big Time
NYR - to hear Angel sing live...
FOSSORA BY BJORK
Bjork can do wrong in my ears so this is Biased (with a capital B) Always inventive, surprising, pushing boundaries, and absolutely obsessive compulsive, Fossora is all of these things without ever being predictable which Bjork never is. It's arrangements are bafflingly absorbing, playing with your head with rhythmical absurdities which for the most part work and often soothe. Bjork just doing Bjork things and being utterly compelling once again.
Favourite Track - Ancestress.
THE DANCE BY AIR WAVES
Air Waves was completely new to me in 2022 and my favourite new to me act of the year. This album from the off is full of hooks. it's everything Flaming Lips have been wishing they could be be over the years (my opinion) and no gimmicks. Nicole Schneit sings with almost a reluctance, definitely a fragile vulnerability over sumptuous jazz tinged electronica. Each track short and sweet, It's captivating and all endearing.
Favourite Track - Treehouse.
ENTERING HEAVEN ALIVE BY JACK WHITE
Entering Heaven Alive knocks the spots off any previous Jack White album in my opinion. It's been my most played album of the year and with strong justification. It's amazng from start to finish. Subtly hinting at the best of McCartney, Beck, Prince, White manages to avoid pastiche and stamp his own authority all over his legendary peers. He is that good on this!
Favourite Track -If I Die Tomorrow.
ALPHA ZULU BY PHOENIX
Recommended by a pal, Phoenix have been missing from my life for far too long (they formed in 1995) on the evidence of Alpha Zulu. I like it for being upbeat and positive about our lives, the most welcome antithesis to how we are all meant to be feeling, if you choose to believe the press and the media narrative? Straight up great pop tunes while never cheesy.
Favourite Track - After Midnight.
EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL BY SPIRITUALIZED
Jason Pierce man! Pulls at every sinew of your physical and emotional being with his deep cuts of catchiness, dreamy spacewalk vibes and earworm-laden choral symphonic melodies. This never ever gets boring despite it being ever so Spiritualized. Get this in your lugs! Long live Spaceman!
Favourite Track - The Mainline Song/The Lockdown Song.
DRAGON NEW WARM MOUNTAIN I BELIEVE IN YOU BY BIG THIEF
20 ambitious, inventive and beautiful songs and 1 hour and 20 minutes of sitting by the metaphorical camp fire and letting Big Thief warm your heart. Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek pull at your heartstrings on vocals, almost eavesdropping on their intimacy through these songs, while I personally cannot ever get enough of jaw harp and mandolin - used to great effect here, always very comforting. An amazing album.
Favourite Track - Spud Infinity.
NIEMANDSLAND BY PYROLATOR
This year I have stumbled upon the Hamburg based record label Bureau B. They tend to release artists in the finest traditions of Kraftwerk, Can and Neu! and Pyrolator is one of numerous artists on the label I have been impressed by. This is the 6th album in Kurt Dahlke's 'Land' series. It's overall gentle formulaic ambience is occasionally interspersed with chaos, mirroring our vulnerable lives, most apt for vulnerable times. Written during lockdown it's clear where the influence for this excellent record came from.
Favourite Track - Yukatan.
It's hard to ignore someone who you has your measure, who seems on your own wavelength, who can help you out of a tight spot with some spot-on lyrics. One of very few musicians I have felt the need to reach out to. It's also nice to see your name on the sleeve! Great range of styles on this showcasing Warren's songwriting versatility. A highlight of my year meeting the man himself too!
Favourite Track - On The Beach.
My late Grandads local features on the sleeve and times have changed. The Laurieston was all cloth cap and scallywag back in the early 80s when he'd take me and his dog Shep out for a walk - he'd have his pint here before we'd walk along Paisley Road West to The Old Toll Bar for his dram before home. Now The Laurieston is an ideas lab for music as good as this! I think he would still approve seeing the enjoyment written on my face. ♥️
Favourite Track,- Transmissions From The Moon.
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