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 I wrote about each one
of them.
MOJO (British music monthly: “Hawley delivers more Steel City romance and Memphis
twang on his new album. He continues to enchant on hymn to his hometown. He has long repurposed the spirit of ’50s and ’60s balladry with style and great affection, his quiff, tailoring and fondness for the lonesome twang of a Gretsch guitar badges of nostalgic allegiance.”
Press photo by 📸: Dean Chalkley
TUTV: Nostalgia is the keyword all over this fully hearty 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 reflections, fanciful daydreams and wistful meditations. With his soft and warm voice and nighttime stories, the late great Roy Orbison comes to mind on
several occasions.
Hawley plays 2 shows (today and Wednesday) in the legendary rock club The Leadmill
in his hometown of Sheffield. After 45 years the club closes following a long legal battle with the building’s owner.
Ten years ago, in 2010, three great artists, three great voices performed
a magical version of Xmas classic SILENT NIGHT on Irish music show
Other Voices. A truly tender, intimate, and goosebumps moment.
Here are Jarvis Cocker, Lisa Hannigan and Richard Hawley.
The original version of ‘Silent Night‘ was written in Germany by an Austrian school
teacher called Franz Xaver Gruber and first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 at St Nicholas parish church in Oberndorf, a village in the Austrian Empire.
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.
Artist: T BONE BURNETT Who: Legendary American songsmith and lauded producer who worked
with many greats (Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, John Mellencamp and many
more) and scored movie soundtracks all through his long career.
LET THE FLOWERS GROW
The song was originally written by Boy George with its initial message being
“one of
personal acceptance about being gay. As the song developed, it took on a more expansive and universal scope with its lyrics extending beyond sexuality and embracing race, gender, creed and religion.”
Epic.
Boy George – Peter Murphy
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Artist: PETER PERRETT Who: Former frontman of legendary British new
wavers The Only Ones (1976–1982, 2007–2017)
“The song incorporates themes of longing and desperation I felt in my own
life at the time that found a home in anecdotes of the desert and its characters
experiencing these feelings for reasons far removed from my reality.”
Artists: THE GLASS HOURS Who: American songwriters Brad Armstrong and Megan Barbera.
Their music blurs between Sunday afternoon country-folk and
the golden age of the 1970s.
“It’s about that someone you’ll never be with and that you allow to remain
inside you as a perfect unspoiled thing, yet still you measure and hold your
real relationship up against it. It’s a dream, an illusion, an unfair fantasy.
Nothing and therefore able to be perfect.”
Back in 2022, Pulp‘s voice/face Jarvis Cocker and once-upon-a-time bandmate Richard Hawley, also like Pulp hailing from Sheffield UK, who has a successful
career for years now as a solo artist, wrote a song together named A SUNSET.
Last Sunday Pulp headlined Helsinki’s Flow Festival and
played it joined by Hawley. It’s a diamond of a song.
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.
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.”
.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
In This City They Call You Love’ doesn’t falter for its lack of invention; there is
just a feeling that these sonic quirks can be pushed even further, made even
bolder. But as the soulful, breathtaking inner-city vignette ‘People’ shows, he
clearly remains focused on the next great song he hasn’t written yet.” Score: 4/5.
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. Just added this candlelight music pearl on my best-albums-of-2024 list.
