Listening To This Week Playlist 18 May

A shorter 22 selections this week. A really strong playlist with some real eye (should that be ear?) openers and one of the best kick offs that we have had in a long while.

The song order is not about song preference, but how the playlist flows.  All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about those who appear here. 

Good Reverend - Fine

The Get Alongs - Sunday Afternoon

The Pretty Graves - Nothing Passes Like Time

Joy Vibes - Someone To Open Up My Eyes

Amateur Ornithologist - I See Faces

TV Star - Reality Cheque

Proun - Miracles

Soft Girl - They Bugged Our House!

Thee Windows - Um Something

Vanilla - Black Saturday

Swive - Fading Out

Rusty Shackle - Your Arrows

Rusty Shackle · Your Arrows

U.S. Highball - Copenhagen Chemistry

Tim Gambles - Through The Sound

Elephant And Stars - Take It All

Foliage - U Love Me

Ram Vela & The Easy Targets - Zoloft Rock City

Ram Vela & the Easy Targets · Zoloft Rock City

The Hollywood Stars - I'm Not Broken

Blueboy - Stardust

Girls Are Waiting To Meet You - Zombie Girl 

Go Sports Team! - Screen Time

Sunny Jim - It's No Joke

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Amateur Ornithologist - The Haunted Life Of Architecture

 

It is very rare for a debut album to reach our Top 10 albums of the year, 2024's Hide did just that and could have been Number 1, but for the quality ly original. on display from that year. You can read my review here. I've been dying to tell you about the follow up for ages and now I can.

The Haunted Life Of Architecture is every bit as good if not better. Daniel Clifford is up there with the likes of Andy Partridge and Stephen Duffy and when Clifford brings the songs home to Sunderland and the other five band members, they become arrangements of the highest order.

Amateur Ornithologist summon up the soul of XTC and the beauty of The Lilac Time. Stunning Orchestral Pop with extraordinary gravitas. Soulful, blissful and incredibly arranged. Songs that are not afraid to take unusual directions when they are already gobsmacking. 

It isn't just the arrangements, the vocal harmonies and rhythm section enhance the joy. This is one incredible listen. At its heart, it is Guitar Pop, but the six take it so far as to be incomparable to that, each song takes you in a different direction.

But, more often it is Pastoral Psych Pop, something that is hard to master, hence my comparison to Partridge and Duffy. Complex arrangements married to vocal harmonies and unique arrangements that are just jaw dropping.

I could have written reams and reams about these 10 songs, but similar to whenever I discover such a great album, I prefer to direct you to a full album listen. I've picked my three favourites that will probably be different tomorrow. Prepare yourself for an extraordinary listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Good Reverend - Sweet Tea And Cigarettes

 

We don't venture into Guitar Rock too often, too often it sounds too good ole boys and come on girl. It isn't that we don't acknowledge the ability, it is just that lyrically, it gets too samey and all Guitar Solo hell. There are exceptions and Columbus quartet, Good Reverend are certainly one.

Yes, they can't half rock, but it is done with such variety, melody and style. Tongue in cheek at times, a little like The Darkness without the high pitch. Across these nine songs, there are so many styles incorporated without ever losing the fact that they are a rock band.

Damn Good Time edges towards Chinn and Chapman Glam Rock. Apple Core Face gets very close to Prog. Icarus even adds Queen like harmonies to something that isn't a mile away from Queen I. My words suggest something that isn't ordinary. It certainly isn't.

Then there is Fine which is absolutely off the scale in weirdness and sheer invention. Rocked up Pop Rock that completely surprises you and makes you halt the album listen to hear it again. Two and a half minutes of sheer joy.

Chocolate Fingers is heavy Psych Pop, totally incomparable to the all out Rock of Mosquito. There is also a surprise 7 minute song halfway through as Whatever You Want meanders on a hypnotic groove that is totally absorbing.

The lesson of the story is don't believe what you initially think. At face value, Sweet Tea And Cigarettes would appear another of those Classic Rock affairs, but one listen and you realise you are in the court of greatness. What a welcome surprise and what a totally splendid listen.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can buy the album on CD or as a download.

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Future Teens - Still Life

 

Still in Boston, this time with the mighty trio Future Teens who reach their fourth album and it is an amazing listen. A decade on, they termed themselves as Bummer Poignep largely due to the souls searching and self reflection of their lyrics.

They sound like two bands in one with Amy Hoffman and Daniel Radin's songwriting splitting the vocals, 5 each and both taking slightly different directions. Hoffman sounding more in your face, wonderfully so, whilst Radin is more Slacker Pop and mellow. They complement each beautifully.

With both alternating on Bass, there is a locked in rhythm section with drummer, Colby Blauvelt, the three are one hell of a band. Both Radin's Half Loser and Adjust Failure are great Guitar Pop, a little 90s Slacker, but expertly put together.

You'll have heard Unmade Bed on the Listening To This Week Playlist and it remains my favourite here. Confessional, lyrically adept and passionate and wonderfully honest. Yet Still Life shows a completely different side to her skills.

It is a hypnotic slowed down joy. Superbly arranged, more laid back, the arrangement is superb. Mourning Time is a tribute, very singer songwriter, almost Folk and Bad Faith is fuzzed up dynamite. Hoffman responds with Harm Production.

This is a song that blows the doors off, intelligent Lavigne but much more grown up, slightly angry with a heartfelt roar. Future Teens have hit the point where they don't have to prove anything, they follow their own course and rules. The yin and the yang are perfect. What a great album!

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can buy the vinyl here.

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The Northern Line - The Northern Line EP

 

Straight outta Boston, but sounding more like a band from 90s Northern England, come The Northern Line. The driving Bass and Inspiral Carpets like Organ provides the groove, but there is no fear of a great guitar solo.

Throw A Fist is totally Baggy Madchester, all groove, Guitar music that you can dance to with a killer riff. Lightning Strikes is a cracking opener that has as much in common with Brit Pop as it does with 60s Beat with a splendid Guitar solo.

Out In The Drift is moodier, built on a meandering riff. hypnotic instrumentally, story telling lyrically, a little more Indie Rock in feel. Let's Roll On sounds a little Northern Uproar without the celebration, a groove (and what a groove) that lets in a wonderful Guitar solo to its driving rhythm section.

You sense that The Northern Line could be any sort of band that they wished to be, the parts are all there. However, they choose to celebrate the UK 90s in an a really original way. So few take this direction, particularly towards Madchester, that it is so refreshing to hear someone do it so well.

You can listen to and buy the EP here. 

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I Don't Hear A Single 10th Anniversary Planning

It is a crazy time here at IDHAS as the 10th Anniversary approaches in July. We will hit the 4th million view before that and that is a little frightening. The place was only ever meant to be a small reaction to people of my age constantly banging on about how all new music was crap before they went and listened to Badfinger for the 10th time that week.

Nothing at all wrong with Badfinger at all, I love 'em, but there has been music since. So as I begin to think about the milestone, I wanted to celebrate in some way. It isn't something we normally bother with, I don't put myself about much and allow modesty to hold back self congratulation. So, the answer was to let the artists do the talking, simply because this place has always been primarily about them. 

So the plan is to have a week of Live sessions from artists who have made the biggest splash here over the decade. The last time we did this, it was incredibly popular and led to some surprise associations that continue to this day. That was for the hundredth edition of the Audio Extravaganza. 

The planned feature will be a week of sessions, three a day, totalling 21. The format will be 4 songs, one of which will be a cover. The cover was thought of with not doing any on the LTTW Playlist and that it would be nice for the newer to celebrate the older. 

I'll be going through the 10 years to note artists who have made an impact. It will be Guitar Pop heavy of course, but there will be Prog, Psych Pop, Rock and other diversions. I'll be inviting artists over the next month to finalise a line up.

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Vanilla - Psychedeli

 

I am a big fan of Vanilla and they do release an exhausting amount of stuff, although this is a positive thing in these days of three year cycles. I first got into Vanilla, via my adoration of Liar's Club which began in the days of Anything Should Happen.

Their Come And Go album was a real favourite on ASH and still is in these parts. That album is still available on Bandcamp, expanded as a Name Your Price and is highly recommended. You can get to it here. Vanilla had released a self titled album in 2006, but largely carried on where Liar's Club left off.

The Tacoma lot release great Guitar Pop, but here is an anthology, not of their career, but of the Psych Pop recorded throughout the band's two decades. It is an inspired collection and many of you know that the easiest way to my heart is via Psych Pop. A genre that I adore more than most.

I say inspired, because Psychadeli works beautifully as a stand alone Psych Pop album with the emphasis on Pop. The band's lyrical wit and adeptness shines through, as it always does, but the complete celebration of the genre here is totally engaging.

I don't intend to talk about the songs too much as I really want you to go off and listen to the whole thing. Amidst the Andy Partridge like Pancake Hat and the Jangle Pop and Brass instrumental extravaganza of Swinging London are 9 other equally splendid songs. I've embedded my three current favourites. I urge you all to take in the whole thing.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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