We’re on our way, slowly but surely, to the end of 2025.
Instead of starting to think about this year’s best LPs,
let’s go back to 2024 and listen to TUTV‘s 20 Best Albums
again and look back on what we wrote about each one
of them.
The Guardian (English newspaper) wrote: “Chippy hauteur meets six-string pyrotechnics.
On this textbook collaboration that’s anything but, the Oasis singer and Stone Roses guitarist rearrange the DNA of their former bands to intriguing effect”
TUTV: This first Mancunian collaboration sounds as if it was made about 30 years ago.
Most tunes could be leftovers from The Stone Roses‘ 2nd and final 1994 LP Second Coming, the one on which Squire played his guitar exactly the way Jimmy Page did in Led Zeppelin for years. And Liam is Liam. Arms together on his back and letting his pipes do the talking. The two heroes just did what they wanted to do, making an album together and having fun doing it.
Before I was aware of it I had played the album about 10 times in 2 days.
Mind you, this is not a masterwork whatsoever, but all 10 tunes are top-entertaining
and stick faster than I can say “The Stone Roses should support Oasis on their reunion tour”?
Orchestrator Robert Smith about
their supreme new opus.
TUTV: In the past 16 years Robert Smith lost his mother, father, and brother.
All these painful events led to this extraordinarily touching record. It’s one
long, emotionally layered lament that works liberating in the end.
Strong sentiments of heartache, grief, and sadness are omnipresent, but you
hear and feel frequently that Smith has accepted humankind’s inevitable destiny.
Live and die. Life and death.
Sonically, it feels like if you’re part of a funeral march that progresses in slow
motion. Almost every song starts with a long instrumental intro of waves of
mourning synths and weeping guitars, and every time when Smith‘s feverish
voice joins in, the sense of tristesse augments wondrously heavy-hearted.
5-star masterpiece!
SINGLE
ALBUM
. Instagram – All Albums
________________________________________________________________________________________________
TUTV: Musically, tattoo artist Carter and his accomplices have left their angry punk days behind them and moved closer to classic rock on this surprising and bold longplayer.
And it’s a truly staggering result with several melodramatic power ballads that generate goosebumps, and some stoner rock ebullitions to keep balance. Carter sings his heart out with monumental vivaciousness. A vocal tour de force throughout, dealing with up and down emotions.
Lias Saoudi (voice/face/wordsmith/poet/writer): ‘Forgiveness Is Yours,’ is about life as eternal contingency… about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you… but somehow, you’ve smashed enough
of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it… you accept it.The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still.”
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt their most startling, and most creative/inventive accomplishment. Sounds like FWF have written/recorded the bone-chilling soundtrack
for an entertaining Doomsday party. Enigmatic reflections, dark deliberations, distressing vibes, a John Lennon tribute and Saoudi as the foreboding messenger and sinister poet in the middle of it all. It’s the end of the world, as we know it, and it feels like Fat White Family.
Cave: “There’s no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves
you. I love that about it. I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it.”
TUTV: Cave is the God of cloak-and-dagger balladry. Now here’s a God I can believe in. Again he shows why he’s one of the best ever crooners in the universe. And lyrically it
feels as if, after so many devastating, heart-crushing years, with the loss of two sons,
he lets sparks of light back in his life. God bless Nick Cave.
TUTV: White returns to his punk blues roots of the early days. Swipe after swipe,
blue stripe after blue stripe, kick after kick, clap after clap. A total of 13 thunder
strokes. High-wired electricity. Dope stuff.
TUTV: The charismatic Lia Metcalfe‘s singular voice, both anxious and bewitching,
is all over this new, awe-inspiring full-length. Overall the sound is even more gloomy
and spine-chilling than on their debut from 2022.
It fits Metcalfe‘s introspective reflections on her turbulent past terrifically well.
They’re embedded in arresting songs that send shivers down your spine.
But, eventually, there’s a light shining
at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
One that illuminates their future
and your stereo.
TUTV: The star duo made an album with lots of bright pop tunes and some blues light
ones. The licks/riffs and hooks – about a thousand – haven’t that BK’s raw and rough edge as we are used to, but I don’t miss it whatsoever.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones). I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 (!) years with a pretty different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. I played Ohio Players more than their whole catalog together. Say no more.
TUTV: The three main elements that make this album special are Jeen’s remarkable
voice, her high-quality songwriting expertise, and the heart-and-soul passion that streams throughout it. Whether Jeen rocks out, muses, or swings moods, she always holds your aural attention.
TUTV: With Interplay their shoegaze past goes into the dustbin. Ride came up here
with a multi-layered pop LP stuffed with arousing tunes, alternated with pepped-up reveries.
All songs are sublimely orchestrated and bathe in a psychedelic jacuzzi,
while vocalist Mark Gardner‘s velvet vocals match the radiant atmosphere
exquisitely. It’s a new ride, and it’s a gratifying one.
TUTV: This first Mancunian collabortion sounds as if was made about 30 years ago.
Most tunes could be leftovers from The Stone Roses‘ 2nd and final 1994 LP Second Coming, the one on which Squire played his guitar exactly the way Jimmy Page did in Led Zeppelin for years. And Liam is Liam. Arms together on his back and letting his pipes do the talking. The two heroes just did what they wanted to do, making an album together and having fun doing it.
Before I was aware of it I had played the album about 10 times in 2 days.
Mind you this is not a masterwork whatsoever, but all 10 tunes are top-entertaining
and stick faster than I can say “I want the Stone Roses support Oasis on their reunion tour”?
SINGLE
ALBUM
. Liam Gallagher – John Squire
________________________________________________________________________________________________
TUTV: The Other Side is a concept record about a “mysterious couple” having
adventures in an otherworldly America. The by-now 76-year-old Burnett translates
their journey in lovey-dovey lullabies, heartfelt musings, and amourus ballads.
This is the perfect record for daydreaming and relaxation. Soft, mellow, and tender.
His slightly hoarse Americana voice enchants and entices all through this sepia-colored album. Pure romanticism. Pure songsmith.
Artist: JUJU (Italy)
Brainchild of Sicilian multi-instrumentalist
and producer Gioele Valenti. Album: Apocalypse Is God’s Spoiler
Photo by Turn Up The Volume
TUTV: Valenti is a jam champ and a groove master creating electrifying, trance-like vibrations that transfer you to the dark side of your mind where you can freely
fantasize and explore your own psyche.
Circling Krautrock-like psychedelia is all over the place. Choir chants and spacey percussion cause a tribal atmosphere à la The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Mind-bending and dream-triggering. As always.
TUTV: After the turmoil, chaos and drugs addictions (especially Doherty) of the early
years, the side-projects, solo records and getting clean and healthy the Libs are back, again. They’re not the boys in the band of yesteryear, they’re now grown-up men who
enjoy a stable life and still are obsessed by making music.
They became notable, experienced musicians who left their hedonistic lifestyle behind themselves for several years now. Not one dull moment, not one dull song on the eastern esplanade.
TUTV: The Irishmen have become first-class songwriters (which they already proved on previous LP Skinty Fia– – still my favourite one). Frontman Grian Chatten‘s lyrics show (again) his observative view on this modern-day, confused world and how it affects
his inner-self.
This is not their masterpiece yet to my ears, but it’s only a matter of
time that they will come up with a longplayer that will blow us all away.
Turn Up The Volume: Old skool punk ‘n’ roll? Absolutely. Any good? You betcha! Amyl and her loud buddies made another roasting riff-manic-monster of a hell fucking
hell yeah record. Pogo madness is back. Sturm un drang from start to finish. HOLY MOLY!
Band:THE SMILE
Sort of supergroup featuring 2 radioheads, Thom
Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and drummer Tom Skinner.
Album: Cutouts.
Their 3rd LP in just 2 years
(Radiohead 8 in 31 years).
TUTV: By far their best to my ears. On the previous 2 ones they tried too hard
to not sound like Radiohead (which they did frequently anyway) and did it with
too many redundant orchestrations, too many unnecessary layers and a bit of
arty farty structures here and there.
Mind you these are good LPs but on this one they keep it far more simple resulting
in 10 very compelling pieces of mesmerizing music. Trippy fast ones alternate with slow
musing ones and throughout the arrangements are subtle, direct and most entertaining with Thom Yorke sounding, yes, at ease, not forcing his compassionate voice/vocals. Bingo.
TUTV: Nostalgia is the keyword all over this fully devoted 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’s more than just his hometown.
It’s the place where he experienced all things good and bad, happy and sad. It leads
to yearning renumerations, fanciful daydreams and wistful meditations. With his soft-heartened voice and late-night stories, the late great Roy Orbison comes to mind on
several occasions.
SINGLE
ALBUM
. Instagram – All Albums
________________________________________________________________________________________________
– 18 –
Artists:DEAD ANYWAY British duo combining the dark lyricism of Kate Arnold
against the music and soundscapes of Marc Symonds. Album: Tough, Listen
TUYV: Slow/mid-tempo/fast trip-hop tunes are wrapped in layers of
distortion and feedback, creating an eerie and at times sinister ambiance.
Massive Attack, Tricky, Arab Strap and Mike Skinner’s The Streets
and Laurie Anderson‘s latest opus Amelia come to mind.
DA resonates as EBM for people who come alive when the darkness sets in, far away
from our 24/7 suffocating life and the world’s destructive nature as we experience now, again.
Kate Arnold‘s spoken word stories evolve on waves of chilling synth soundscapes that actually ease one’s confused mind (mine, for sure) and transfer you to your space of imaginativeness. Trance massage it is. You’ll feel alive anyway.
“The singular mixture of classic punk/hardcore and electronic styles result in 12 frantic tracks of postmodern pop for the genreless future. Painted with a broad pallet of only the most extreme hues of emotion, each track is marked by a distinctive danceable mania.”
TUTV: Let your head kicked in with schizophrenic disco sledgehammers for illegal raves in batcaves where dropouts, misfits, loners, eccentrics, bohos, and other related outsiders gather to move in mysterious ways, far away from the normal world.
TUTV: It’s vintage Shellac/Steve Albini with its wayward song structures, its
capricious and minimalistic approach, its broken riffs, edgy hooks, sinewy
drumming, Albini‘s firm vocals and the raw and rough post-punk dynamics.
Absolutely weird to listen to, knowing
that the noise wizard is here no more.
He passed away on May 7, following a heart attack.
Only 10 days before the album release. Sad loss.
TUTV said: “With tensely emotive singles Man Of The Hour and Brambles, tattoo artist Carter seemed to let his angry punk days behind him and move towards classic rock.
This album confirms that surprising, bold move.
And it’s a truly staggering record, filled with several melodramatic power ballads that generate goosebumps and some stoner rock ebullitions. Carter sings his heart out with monumental vivaciousness. A vocal tour de force throughout, dealing with mixed love emotions. Dark Rainbow will impact your ears for a very long time.”
Lias Saoudi, voice/face/wordsmith/poet/writer, about the LP: ‘Forgiveness Is Yours,’ is about life as eternal contingency… about no longer suspecting, but knowing that this shit will never get any easier… in fact, it’s about to get a whole lot worse, your body’s going to go into decay and the people you love will slowly start dropping dead around you…but somehow, you’ve smashed enough of your expectations thus far in life, you’re sort of fine with it…you accept it.The overarching aesthetic themes at work here are torpor and further torpor still.”
TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt their best, most startling, and most inventive accomplishment. Sounds like FWF have written/recorded the bone-chilling soundtrack
for Doomsday. Poignant vibes, ominous reflections, dark ballads, and frontman Lias Saoudi as the foreboding messenger and sinister poet. It’s the end of the world, as we know it, and it feels like Fat White Family.
TUTV said: The star duo made an album with lots of bright pop tunes and some light
blues ones. The licks/riffs and hooks, about a thousand of course, haven’t that BK’s raw
and rough edge as we are used to.
The overall sonority leans more towards power guitar pop (slow, mid-tempo and only
a couple of fast ones). I never thought that the tandem would come up after 23 years (yes, twenty-three years!) with a different sounding, coherent longplayer, without ignoring their blues roots that is. Ohio Players will be the album that I’ll play more than their whole catalogue together.
TUTV said: It sounds as if the two rock stars made this record about 30 years ago when Oasis and The Stone Roses had both a glorious debut LP out. It sounds as if the 10 songs here, didn’t make those masterpiece albums, because they’re somehow lazy tunes. That’s what my ears told me at first. Two famous Manchester lads had some time to kill.
But I’ve played it countless times by now. All tracks are infectious and electrifying. Liam & John didn’t look back in anger and may be adored for this easy-peasy, but oh-so-effective psych-rock-blues longplayer. Touchdown.
TUTV said: 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.
There’s always a light shining at the end of the Mysterines tunnel.
The 4 scousers are ready up for a triumphant future.
TUTV said: The three main elements that make this album special are Jeen’s remarkable
voice, her high-quality songwriting expertise, and the heart-and-soul passion that streams throughout the record. Whether Jeen rocks out, muses, or swings moods, she always holds your aural attention.
The cliché is accurate here, ‘no fillers, all killers’. 10 intoxicating, 10 solid gold songs.
This first-rate longplayer should get at least the same attention as Sheryl Crow‘s
new one.
TUTV said: With Interplay the shoegaze past goes into the dustbin as the present Ride are fabulous. They come up with some terrifically arousing tunes, alternated with pepped-up reveries.
All songs are sublimely orchestrated and bathe in a psychedelic jacuzzi, while vocalist Mark Gardner‘s velvet vocals match the sonic atmosphere exquisitely. Ride have mixed emotions about today’s restless times, me too, but not about this record. Lots of five-star stuff.
TUTV said: It’s vintage Shellac/Steve Albini with its wayward song structures, its
capricious and minimalistic resonance, its broken riffs, edgy hooks, sinewy drumming, Albini‘s firm vocals and the raw and rough post-punk dynamics at play. Absolutely weird
to listen to it, with the incredible knowledge that Albini is here no more.
He passed away on May 7, following a heart attack.
Only 10 days before the album release.
Sad, really sad.
The album closes with the ominous track I Don’t Fear Hell, including these lines “I don’t fear hell. Their baseball team is undefeated. If there’s a heaven, I hope they’re
having fun. ‘Cause if there’s a hell, I’m gonna know everyone.” Sounds quite bizarre and macabre at this very moment. Maybe, just maybe, Albini is happy, wherever he might
be. Rest in peace.
TUTV said: Monoscopes made an ideal record for the midnight hours, to relax
and escape from the daily rat race and lose yourself in your thoughts of choice.
Heavy-hearted lullaby pearls such as ‘The Electric Muse (I Wanna Know Why?)’, Hey Atlas and The Things You Want To Hide should be hits in a normal world. Imagine the moody musings of Evan Dando (The Lemonheads) interwoven with the shadowy electricity of NYC’s celebs Interpol.
And when they turn up the temperature and the amps, now and then, like on top-tier tracks ‘It’s A Shame About You’ and ‘Quite Life‘ you feel the mixed emotions coming through your speakers making their way to your heart and to your soul. Top!
TUTV: As a solo artist, he recorded/released several LPs. As a producer, he worked
with Los Lobos, Elvis Costello, Brandi Carlile, and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and so many
more. He toured with Bob Dylan and other famous friends and he won a bunch of Grammys.
The Other Side is a concept record about a “mysterious couple” having adventures
in an otherworldly America. The by-now 76-year-old Burnett translate their mixed
emotions experiences in lovey-dovey lullabies, heartfelt musings, and nostalgic
ballads.
This is the perfect record for daydreaming and relaxation. Soft, mellow, and tender.
His slightly hoarse Americana voice enchants and entices all through this sepia-colored album. 12 bittersweet serenades for the midnight hours, away from our hyperbenthic reality. Pure compassionate romanticism. Pure songsmith.
The flabbergasting energy these ear-splitting loud Irish beatniks develop on their ace debut LP Letter To Self is off the charts. The opener Ticking is what these 4 Irish indies
do on repeat. Building a near-unbearable tension and exploding insanely along the rough ride.
Since this Australian punk tornado released their 2nd
longplayer Comfort To Me back in 2021 they’re on an
endless tour around the globe.
Yet, in between all gig mayhem they found some time to write/record/release
two new searing sucker-punches with U Should Be Doing This as my favourite.
Amyl: ‘This song makes me laugh, but it’s also in a way poking fun at the shock that
people still feel at a little bit of skimpy clothing, and the bitchy high school way that
the music community still is.’
Washington‘s flamboyant guitar pop quartet release
their 3rd LP, baptized Wearing Out The Refrain next
September.
On Hallelujah they rage against the anti-LGBTQ
machine with knives between their teeth and an
unstoppable drive.
“To express oneself, now expressly forbidden/ That’s a spiritual hell, that’s
a new prohibition/ And they’ll boil you down to reproductive function/ When
they see you as a vessel and not as a person!”
The feminist-punk duo went nuclear the past year following their
amazeballs 6-track EP You’re Welcome and this year’s bulldozing
and gender-themed missile Body Of Mine.
Irish indie stars FONTAINES D.C. will share their 4th LP,
named ROMANCE with the world on August 23rd.
The lead single Starburster is a feverish corker
with a bone-chilling gush and frontman Grian
Chatten rapping all over it with his characteristic
uptight parlando.
Last March the Dandys came up with their 12th album, named Rockmaker.
Lead single Danzing With Myself features Pixies‘ general Frank Black and
is a gloomy and doomy groover. With its poignant progression, this piece
creeps under your skin in an eye/ear blink.
UK’s rock/hip-hop team Rapturous invite us to scream
our lungs out on their avid anthem that celebrates freedom.
“The song was inspired by the old blues style of call & response, we wanted to create something that could be easily sung back to us by the crowd. The song is about being free from anything that is getting you down, be it your job, finances, the world, or the weekend’s football scores. Freedom from misery, that’s the idea.”
Think Cypress Hill fronted by Zack de la Rocha,
rattling like a rapid-fire riot-gun.
This Norwegian band specializes in a dark and distinctive blend
of post-punk, shoegaze and psych-noir. So far they released two
albums.
On this new, superb single drums and bass team up for an
incessantly beat that carries this instantaneously sticking ride,
along with a magnetizing Cure-esque guitar riff that gets you in
a trance.
Truly hypnotizing from start to finish with velvety vocals
and darkwavish synths in the back adding a twilight tone.
This hepped-up EBM duo conjure their influences of EBM, techno and electropop,
their sound is an intoxicating mix of analog synthetics and seductive vocals, touching
on themes of desire and despair, domination and submission.
They have a new 3-track EP, titled Inservio out, with opener Lights Down Low
as my favorite. An electro booster with a mindblowing techno beat à la The Prodigy
that rotates irresistibly, non-stop.
Lead single Softer is a psychedelic shoegaze stunner, a multi-layered symphony
propelled by about a thousand guitars, a mindboggling bass riff, and combative
drums, while Rebecca Dow‘s ghostly vocals scrape the sky. A titanic thrill.
19. ‘I Don’t Understand What Any Of You Are Doing’ by DEAD ANYWAY (UK)
This British duo combine the dark lyricism of Kate Arnold
against the music and soundscapes of Marc Symonds.
They caught my attention with last February‘s top album Partially Eaten By Animals.
Highlight ‘I Don’t Understand What Any Of You Are Doing’ dives into trip-hop-pop territory with Arnold‘s crystal clear voice floating all over shiny synth dynamics. Catchy as hell.
20. ‘Welcome Tou Your New Future’ by LEG PUPPY 2.0 (London, UK)
This madcap techno act scored their best (so far)
album with Humanity 2.0 which came out last May.
You can shake your (p)elvis to single Welcome To Your New
Future while getting nervous about the unknown tomorrow.
What’s in store for humankind. Nuclear war or peace and free love?
Or will we be just another brick in the wall? Whatever happens,
never stop pirouetting yourself dizzy to manic music .
We don’t need your education
We don’t need no your thought control
Just Like Everybody Else is a glorious, full-orchestrated pop gem, that transfers you in an eye/ear blink to a sonic dreamland with its affecting melodiousness, riveting chorus and warm-hearted vocals. Three highly-entertaining minutes and twenty seconds with Spielmann
New star tandem Gallagher-Squire produced/released their debut LP last March.
The lead-single Just Another Rainbow is partly Oasis, partly Stone Roses. Liam sings like Liam (who else?) and Squire does his psychedelic 6-string Stone Roses thing.
Stress Dolls is the musical moniker of songstress Chelsea O’Donnell.
Last May she released her enchanting debut album Queen Of No.
Close Enough is one of my favorite tracks. A captivating pop song.
Tantalizing tunefulness, glistening guitar sparks, and gratifying vocals
combine for a top tune.
Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds have canned album number 18.
It’s baptized Wild God and will show up on August 30.
The title track is a sublime composition. The first part is crooner Cave as we know him,
but quickly the vocal passion and goosebumps intensity go up and from halfway on, this diamond turns into an orchestral masterpiece, with a zealous hallelujah choir and an opera-like majesty.
Spotted in London last week (when Liam Gallagher played Oasis debut LP Definitely Maybe in the O2 Arena in London).
A fan wrote this long message on a Service Information Board
in the London Underground featuring all song titles (underlined)
of theLiam Gallagher & John Squire album. Supersonically cool.
Manchester‘s superstar duo LIAM GALLAGHER and The Stone Roses‘ JOHN SQUIRE unleashed their much-anticipated self-titled, collaborative at the beginning of last
month.
It’s a retro psych blues record stuffed with catchy tunes. Nothing more, nothing less,
but oh so laid-backly addictive. Must have played it for about 100 times so far. It topped the UK Album Charts.
The duo played a handful of gigs in Europe/UK, and flew over the ocean yesterday
to perform on The Tonight Show With Jim Fallony. Surprisingly, they didn’t go for one of the two singles, but for an energetic rendition of mid-tempo blues rock burner I’M A WHEEL.
LIAM GALLAGHER and JOHN SQUIRE are about to release
their self-titled collaborative album. It’ll happen on March 1st.
Daft album artwork designed by John Squire
So MOJO put the Manchester rock stars on the cover
and in the spotlight of their new issue #365.
Also features about: Steely Dan – their 30 Greatest Songs; The Rolling Stones ’65-’66; Marvin Gaye gets sexy; Beth Gibbons returns from the wilderness. Plus: Waxahatchee; Lenny Kravitz, Michael Head; Ramones; Can; Dion; Studio One; Mary Weiss; St. Vincent; and the peak weirdness of Butthole Surfers!
This month’s free CD, titled, The North Will Rise Again contains 15 killer tracks
from Manchester and environs with The Fall, James, Black Grape, Magazine, A Certain
Ratio, The Durutti Column, A Guy Called Gerald and more.
You can purchase a copy and let it be sent to your home. Info HERE.
Liam: “I think John’s a top songwriter. Everyone always bangs on about him as a guitarist,
but he’s a top songwriter too, man, no two ways about it as far as I’m concerned. There’s not enough of his music out there, whether it’s with the Roses or himself. It’s good to see him back writing songs and fucking good ones. The melodies are mega and then the guitars are a given. But I think even when you take all the fucking guitars off, you can play the songs all on acoustic and they’ll all still blow your mind.”
The fab Mancunians shared the 2nd, easygoing and gluey
single MARS TO LIVERPOOL a couple of weeks ago.
In order to not miss a beat Turn Up The Volume scans the musical
horizon daily (doing it for years now, actually) to stay in touch with
all new things sonically great and shares the results on a weekly
basis.
Check the 10 new rad cuts just
added to this rad 2024 playlist.
ALL TOGETHER
.
TRACK BY TRACK
Photo credit: James Alexander
Artist: SUKIE SMITH Who: Artist from London who has collaborated widely with artists, musicians and writers creating cross-disciplinary sonic work, exhibiting and performing internationally. She has released three critically acclaimed albums with her band MADAM and toured throughout the UK and Europe.
New track: INTO THE LIGHT
Piece from her upcoming 4th album, named ‘The Glass Dress and a Ringing Bell’
and will land on 8 March via Sukie Smith’s own label Shillingboy Records.
A song about leaving a turbulent relationship Smith found herself trapped in during lockdown, as Smith succinctly says, “I wrote this, then escaped,” with its focus a celebration of the jubilation felt in newfound freedom and the liberation found in the enlightening processes of recovery.
Into The Light grooves and moves pushed by dynamic eurythmics from the get-go and keeps on cruising throughout its ablaze 3.07-minute duration. Glowing jingle-jangle guitar play, rock-solid drumming and Smith‘s impassioned vocals combine for a striking juggernaut. Top-tier score.
Artist: FRANKIE FLOWERS Who: Singer/songwriter from Ontario, Canada. She creates a genre-bending sound
by merging her love for dark-wave and post-punk music, as well as combining elements
from other genres.
Band: DIE HARD HABITS Who: Texan outfit that draws inspiration from the pioneers of post-punk, infusing
their own restless creativity to forge a sound characterized by angular guitar riffs, pulsating basslines, and propulsive rhythms. Their music conveys a sense of urgency, reflecting their desire to challenge norms and provoke thought.
Arkansas is my ears’ favorite track. It rocks, it rolls, and it rattles with
vivid vehemence, fueled by greedy guitars, a robust drum/bass duo and
firm vocality. Bang-on.
Who: It’s the pseudonym under which French musician Hugo Carmouze chose to release his solo albums at the age of 13, marking the ordinary chapter of a garage rock fan born into the internet generation… Well, not quite, as the young Occitan has never stopped producing an impressive number of albums since, reminiscent of his great master Ty Segall.
Track: HYPERGLAM
Piece from upcoming album Horrible, out 23 February.
Grungy chaos, glammy disturbance, fuzz and buzz stir.
Yep, Ty Segall would like this riff-ripper.
THE SMILE featuring two radioheads – Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood – and
drummer Tom Skinner — just launched their new album WALL OF EYES, only 11
months after their compelling debut A Light For Attracting Attention.
Mesmeric and magnetic track READ THE ROOM is a fascinating highlight.
Band: CROW BABY Who: Berlin-based duo featuring Jean-Louise Parker and Cherilyn MacNeil – both born and raised in Johannesburg,
South Africa, and each a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
with their own projects.
Pity Party is a multi-layered art-pop tingle swinging forth and back,
left and right, around an infectious guitar/drum groove with high-pitched
vocals adding a bouncy vibe.
The self-made video features both Cherlyn and Jean-Louise
as children as well as their animated adult selves.
“The song came from a train-ride down to Brighton with friends with the scenery whizzing
by the transient flashes as things come in and out of focus. It is built around this two-chord pattern that kind of chugs along and motors through, picking out these jolts of feeling or memory that rush by.”
Super Manchester duo LIAM GALLAGHER and The Stone Roses‘ JOHN SQUIRE have their collaborative longplayer, simply titled LIAM GALLAGHER JOHN SQUIRE out on March 1, followed by a 13-date tour (see all below).
Daft album artwork designed by John Squire
Liam: “I think John’s a top songwriter. Everyone always bangs on about him as a guitarist,
but he’s a top songwriter too, man, no two ways about it as far as I’m concerned. There’s not enough of his music out there, whether it’s with the Roses or himself. It’s good to see him back writing songs and fucking good ones. The melodies are mega and then the guitars are a given. But I think even when you take all the fucking guitars off, you can play the songs all on acoustic and they’ll all still blow your mind.”
Following the lead-single, psych-pop treat Just Another Rainbow, we get appetizer number two. MARS TO LIVERPOOL is an equally easy-going tune, you’ll sing/whistle/hum along after a couple of spins. Both doing their familiar thing. Exactly what I expected, no more, no less, except for the daft artwork. Manchester rules, once more.
. 3/13 – Glasgow, Barrowland 3/14 – Wolverhampton, Civic Hall 3/16 – Dublin, Olympia 3/18 – Newcastle, O2 City Hall 3/20 – Manchester, O2 Apollo 3/21 – Manchester, O2 Apollo 3/23 – Leeds, O2 Academy 3/25 – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town 3/26 – London, Troxy 4/2 – Paris, Salle Pleyel 4/4 – Berlin, Columbiahalle 4/6 – Milan, Fabrique 4/11 – Brooklyn, Paramount
