5 BEST ALBUMS Of The Month – JUNE 2024
29 June 2024
Band: THE MYSTERINES
Album: AFRAID OF TOMORROWS
The Scoucers 2nd one
Lia Metcalfe (vocalist/guitarist/songwriter): “I think it’s easy to look back and feel
judgmental about your younger self, but we’re past that now,” We feel like we know
who we are as a band.”
Louder Than War says: “It’s everything and so much more than you would expect
as the band’s maelstrom of creative energy extends their sonic boundaries deeper
into new, darker and unchartered corners of your mind.”,
Press photo by Steve Gullick
TUTV: The charismatic Lia Metcalfe‘s singular voice, both anxious and soul-stirring,
is all over this awe-inspiring new record. So instrumental for the band’s sound that resonates more poignant, gloomier and spine-chilling than on their debut.
It fits Metcalfe‘s introspective reflections on her turbulent past terrifically well,
with haunting and goosebumps-causing songs that have an imposing impact.
Jagged riffs fly all over the place and the charged intensity at play here creates
a doom-laden atmosphere. So far, I returned the most to the two closing candlelight ballads (Inside A Matchbox / So Long) and the acoustic, folky campfire chant Afraid Of Tomorrows with Metcalfe sparkling in the shadows.
There’s always a light shining at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
The four Scousers are gearing up for a triumphant future.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Linktree
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Artist: JOHN CALE
Album: POPtical Illusion
UNCUT Mag says: “He returns in double-quick time with more selections from
his 80-song lockdown splurge, but this time in a gentler, almost uplifting mood.
Radical optimism rather suits him.”
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Press photo
TUTV: This is the Welshman‘s 18th solo LP, only 18 months after the previous one, named Mercy. Cale is still facing his demons as he did on Mercy but here it sounds as if he knows how to beat them.
The layered-synths atmosphere and the rich orchestrations resonate more sanguine here and there, like on Davies And Wales, How We See The Light , and All To Good , songs you can hum along. and hypnotizing single Shark-Shark you can move and groove to.
But the overall tone still is pensive and meditative, no traditional rock ‘n’ roll for Cale,
with past/present reflections like on Calling You Out, Edge Of Reason, Setting Fires and the closing piano ballad There Will Be No River. At 82 his voice hasn’t aged whatsoever, still instrumental and a indispensable factor in his arrestingly crafted work. Remarkable.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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JC: Linktree
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Artist: ALAN VEGA (1938-2016)
Album: INSURRECTION
Another previously unreleased album following the splendid 2021 Mutator LP.
Liz Lamere (Vega’s widow and collaborator): “Insurrection was created in the time
period around 1997/98, after Mutator and prior to Vega’s 1999 release of 2007 and
captures the intense energy of NYC in the 90s rife with crime, killing, hate, fascism,
racism, and moral bankruptcy. You can hear the tortured souls floating through this
album.”
Pitchfork: “Unearthing 11 lost recordings from the late ’90s, the Suicide co-founder’s
newest posthumous release frames him as a doomsday prophet of the information age.
This newest collection is an oppressive, nauseating roller-coaster ride. Once you get off,
you’ll want to do it again.”
TUTV: Uncanny percussion, ghostly vocals, other-worldly vibes, jagged jams, capricious synth loops. It’s Alan Vega alright with another lost treasure. Modern day art from last century, showing once again that Vega was a musical visionary, an absorbing noise crusader, and a doom and gloom prophet.
SINGLE
ALBUM
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Linktree
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Band: SPAMMERHEADS
Duo from Valencia, Spain
Album: DISCLAIMER
Press info: “Spammerheads reaffirm their predilection for industrial sounds, firmly in line with old school ebm, but consolidating a sound that they have already made their own. Disclaimer is a forceful work, with frenetic energy, where the tracks hit with intensity, fun, black humour and a desire to make the dancefloor move through powerful rhythmic sequences, thick and decisive bass lines wrapped in memorable melodies.
As has become a trademark of the band, in Disclaimer the vocals and lyrics lead us
through different states, passing through fury, emergency, dissatisfaction and bad blood, to culminate with the last track of the album in a better place.”
It takes two tango, it takes two Spammerheads to techno
TUTV: Looking for your 24-hour Ibiza beach party soundtrack? Here ls the ones.
Disclaimer offers you a salvo of EBM dance-floor uplifters. Imagine Chemical Brothers producing their intoxicating bloc rockin’ beats and Nine Inch
Nails adding industrial thunder and lighting hammering with Trent Reznor spewing his lyrics.
The Spanish duo deal with all sorts of bad signs of this time as we know it.
Let’s shake them all off mind-hypnotizing and body-activating electro master blasters.
It takes only two to tango,
it only takes two spammerheads to techno.
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Instagram
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Artist: RICHARD HAWLEY (Sheffield, UK)
Album: IN THIS CITY THEY CALL YOU LOVE
NME:“The songwriter captures a sense of aching beauty through vivid odes to
the characters and architectural quirks of his hometown. His ninth LP, ‘In This City
They Call You Love’, elegantly represents what it means to be so entwined with one’s
locale; even in a place rich with musical history, Hawley remains a singular figure
for the way in which this fascination has permeated his songwriting.”
Press photo by 📸: Dean Chalkley
TUTV: Romanticism is written all over this sepia-colored record. As we already know
for a long time Hawley is a romantic at heart who’s in love with his city Sheffield since
he was a child. It feels/sounds like it’s more than just his hometown.
It’s the place where he experienced all things good and bad, happy and sad. It leads to melancholic musings, gripping daydreams and wistful reflections. With his soft-heartened voice and late-night lullabies, the late great Roy Orbison comes to mind on several occasions. A candlelight pearl.
SINGLE
ALBUM
