Listening To This Week Playlist

This month may be about Album Reviews on here, but we can't forget the Monday regular LTTW Playlist which has been one of the real success stories for us over the past couple of years. 33 songs this week and it is another cracker.

I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

The Rare Occasions - Mr. Bubbles

Nick Piunti - Rejection Letter

The Confusions - The Kid

I Do You Do Karate - Buckle Bunnies

Simon Chesterfield - Something

The Low Sixes - The Worst Is Yet To Come

Mavis - Holy Shit, I'm Sorry

Young Scum - Velvet Crush

Lofi Legs - Chain

Roger Songbird - FIREFIREFIRE!

Oceanator - First Time

Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy - Little Fears

Loser Demon - P.S. Don't Die

Lomma - Nicotine Submarine

NEPS - Good For Nothing

No Parking For Caravans - No Accident

Khaki (Oslo) - Of Course (2024 Remaster)

Unpacked Suitcases - Sandcastles

Lazy Sunsets - Cast Ashore

Pearly Gates - Sunny Sunshine Song

Mt. Misery - Hey

Orbis Max - Candy On The Hill

WAATT - Eggs

Idaho Green - Studs Up At The Suds Hut

Kwolek - Calliope Does The Hobgoblin Bop

Rocketsmith - Ride

The Hvnter - Bury The Dead

mtvkid - Ghosting

Karaboudjan - Revendeur d'écume

Trash Man - Ruin It

Pit Pony - Well Well

Camilo EG - Vines

The Deadly Beloved - Can't Go Under

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Nick Piunti And The Complicated Men - Up And Out Of It

 

I Don't Hear A Single seems in a much different place than when it started over 8 years ago. Nick Piunti has been with us throughout and in the Anything Should Happens days that preceded it. A reminder of our past, but still very much in our future.

When we celebrated the 100th Edition of the IDHAS Audio Extravaganza, a precursor to Listening To This Week, we celebrated with a week of Live Sessions and Piunti was the centrepiece being a specially recorded session that got the biggest reaction of a stellar week.

In a self effacing manner, he will call his music Dad Rock, but that is tongue in cheek because few manage to be as melodic as the man. Since branching out with The Complicated Men, he's gathered even more pace.

This is Power Pop and Pop Rock of the highest order. Sing along foot tapping songs built on harmony, big riffs, big solos and massive choruses. There is never a duff song in sight. Few manage his consistency. You know a little of what you are gonna get, but you just want more and more of it.

There his even rockier intent here, particularly on Rejection Letter.Above Water even gets all Classic Rock, a slight surprise, but expertly done. I'm Ready isn't as pacy, but stretches across almost 5 minutes and again shows a different side to Piunti, more West Coast than you might expect. 

Eyelids has a magnificent Twang and On The Ropes is more keyboard led than usual. The obligatory ballad, Long Way Down is also top notch with a crackerjack riff and solo.  Piunti serves up for what you want to hear, but also takes more chances than he needs to and would expect. It really really works!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and CD on the Jem Records label and as a download.

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Keeley - Beautiful Mysterious

 

Two albums today that I've been waiting to tell you about for a while. We start with Keeley, a band centred around Keeley Moss, although Keeley is a band project with Lukey Foxtrot and Andrew Paresi. It is an absolutely stunning listen.

The beauty of the 31 Reviews in 31 Days feature is that it allows us to stretch out into different territory whilst still satisfying the boundaries of our growing followers. Beautiful Mysterious is a soundscape that covers Indie Pop, Dream Pop and Shoegaze. but isn't afraid to step outside those genres. 

This is more Electronic, but not beats and synth lines, more symphonic taking in Shoegaze and Electro. Moss is also a fine Guitarist and so you get unexpected riffs, Guitar Pop and Jangle. Vocally, it is outstanding gentle and harmonic.

It is also a concept album, but before you run for the hills, this isn't in any way Prog. Just as with the debut album, the subject is backpacker Inga Maria Hauser, a German brutally murdered in Northern Ireland's Ballypatrick Forest in 1988.

This isn't a subject picked at random, Moss is known as the authority on the case primarily through the Radio Show, The Keeley Chronicles. This does sound like dark stuff, but the album is exactly the opposite, instrumentally it is incredibly harmony led and that Vocal just melts you.

There is also individual variety, although this is an album to be listened to from start to finish. You Were The Beauty is almost Americana, Inga Maria's Dream is wonderful 80s Indie Pop and Galloway Princess steps into Classic Rock and Rocks accordingly.

Forever Froze is splendidly poppy with its killer riff and Scratches On Your Face builds and builds instrumentally the arrangement into something akin to the Alan Parsons Project and listen to that solo. The whole piece is memorising, awe inspiring and incredibly listenable.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download.

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Young Scum - Lighter Blue

 

I am not the expert of Jangle Pop and Indie Pop, that title belongs to my great friend Darrin lee and his essential Janglepophub. If it Jangles, he will tell you if it is the Bees Knees. Having said that, I think many of my peers will agree that Young Scum's 2018 self titled debut album was a wonderful example of both genres.

The obvious question is why it has taken so long for the Richmond, Virginia quartet to follow it up. I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that Lighter Blue is a corking second album. It takes what is great about that debut and ventures a little further.

At its heart, it is still 80s sounding Jangle Pop, very C86, almost Glasgow, beautifully arranged, performed and arranged. Gentle to the extreme with winsome vocals, memorable choruses and gentle meandering jangled riffs.

There are also surprises. Didn't Mean To for instance has a great double vocal and starts all tame and beautiful before slipping into something much pacier and See It Through rocks out more than expected and Wrong gets close to The Supernaturals or The Housemartins and Jangles like a good 'un.

Away is another pacier song with a killer riff. in fact a killer song. But special mention goes to Velvet Crush, a song title that betrays some influence and adds a meandering solo that is very close to Everything Flows. Lighter Blue is as Jangly and Melodic as you would expect, but adds more than you might expect.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl from Pretty Olivia Records here. American Vinyl orders will be sent from Portland to allow cheaper shipping costs.

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Ways In Waves - Matters To Ash

 

This is essentially an Indie site, but quite a few of you know of my love of Prog and where I think it is appropriate and may fit here, I add it in here. Edmonton, Alberta's Ways In Waves are essentially a one man Project with the aid of Drummer, Joel Jescke and some great Backing Vocalists.

That one man is Brian Raine and what a musical virtuoso he is. At its heart, the album is Modern Prog, Neo Prog maybe and it is very melodic at times and sounds as close as I've heard to my beloved, The Mommyheads.

Raine's vocals is very close to Mommyheads land as are some of the arrangements, particularly the more poppy and angular moments. That vocal can also sound a little like a mellow Jon Anderson. This is most relevant when Matters To Ash gets more Classic Prog.

That Classic Prog adventures are spot on, time signature and changes of direction, but the album can also be incredibly mellow on songs such as Enough Of Nothing. Raine can also do Electronic when he gets close to the likes of 80s stalwarts such as a deeper Howard Jones.

The closer, Love Enough, is part Pop Rock, part Eastern, completely out of context with what has gone before and adds great Sax from John Sweenie. But it is Who In War that best encompasses all the strengths of Ways In Waves when Raine is at his most melodic.

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about Ways In Waves here.

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No Parking For Caravans - Say Hello EP

 

A quick detour to a 3 Track EP, but what a great EP it is. No Parking For Caravans are a loose collective of Songwriters and Musicians with a great band name from Beverley in Yorkshire. Currently, a trio, these three songs reveal a surprising variety across the release.

Say Hello is great 80s Indie Guitar Pop, the type that we love. Last Train To The Coast is a bigger arrangement, piano led 70s Pop Rock. Then there is magnificent No Accident with its incredible mix of styles.

That closing track starts all Psych Pop, but takes in Shoegaze, Baggy and even Brit Pop. The Bassline is absolutely hypnotic. The whole EP reveals a variety that promises much more. A visit to their Bandcamp site will provide you with other singles from their recording debut in 2018.

Indeed, their debut album from 2019, Where The Fire Escape Touches The Ground, is available at Name Your Price currently. This lot are a collective that certainly deserves your attention and ears. I will be adding a track to the next Listening To This Week.

You can listen to and buy the EP here.

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The Bad Ups - Life Of Sin

 

There was a post on a Power Pop Facebook Group that suggested that Power Pop fans don't like Pop Punk. That may be true of the dismal old timers who want to gatekeep that genre with all sorts of don't do this, do that rules. Thankfully there are fewer of that breed these days.

Pop Punk is so close to a more aggressive Power Pop when you weed out the robotic vocal stuff. Listen to The Bad Ups and tell me this doesn't get close to Power Pop, particularly the new breed of bands that are livening up the genre splendidly.

The Philadelphia quartet have fashioned up a crackerjack album with a twin Guitar attack that is a storming listen. They come with a Punk or Pop Punk reputation, but Life Of Sin is far more Power Pop than that, rocked up to the limit, but wonderfully refreshing.

There's even nods to Indie Rock, Garage Rock and of course Pop Punk. There's also a nod to lead singer Travis McKayle's Jamaican roots with a little Ska on Lowes, guitars up to hilt of course. The album is really melodic and delivered at pace, but it is full of riffs.

There's even a surprise Acoustic closer in NTB which almost drifts towards Americana, completely out of kilter with the 10 songs that precede it which rarely come up for air. The Bad Ups follow the fine tenet in saying what you want to say and getting off. No boring extended songs are present here.

Better Than You reveals their Pop sensibilities as proven on the latest Listening To This Week. With a killer Rhythm Section (Chris Slaughter's drums get very Motorhead's Phil Taylor at times) and a magnetic front man, this is an album that gets you singing along and shaking your fist.

You can listen to and buy the album here. It is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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