I Don't Hear A Single News

 

The main news is that after thinking about it for most of the lifetime of I Don't Hear A Single, the plans to start our own label have advanced over the last few months. It will be on Bandcamp and begin slowly and gradually. More details are to follow as we discuss with the early artists to appear. All monies will go to the artists, IDHAS is just the middle man. There will be no contracts, all is planned to open doors for the relevant artists. The plan is to have the first release in the middle of January.

Why January? Simply because of the volume of Reviews still to be completed. The 31 in 31 in October will have the most Reviews ever. But there is still enough to fill November and a lot of December. We then  move on to the Best 100 Albums of 2026 which is always a big piece of work.

Talking of the 31 in 31, it has been one of the most popular ever with over 300,000 views anticipated before the end of the month. People have asked about a couple of albums that have been expected to be reviewed so far. These have been saved until towards the end of the month and will appear soon. 

As well as the start of the label, a couple of old features will be back in January. Here Is The News and The Garden Of Earthly Delights will reappear. The former informs you of upcoming releases. The latter covers albums that wouldn't normally fit our remit. The rest of the year concentrates on Reviews and the Listening To This Week Playlist.

Finally a reminder to submitters for the LTTW Playlist. We don't do Spotify or any similar streamers. Our embeds are via Bandcamp, Soundcloud or You Tube. It is always really helpful to provide any social media links for tagging. Most of our time is spent searching out such links and freeing up that time allows more time for Reviews.

Thanks as ever for your continued support, it is never taken for granted.

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Joy Cleaner - Laugh A Minute

 

Joy Cleaner bring back memories of those great 90s days when Guitar bands decided to banish the I am really miserable Grunge days and embracing the College Rock and Bar scene when you could watch a great band any night of the week.

Economies and the internet have banished those days, so it is great to be reminded them by a band who know what they are about. Full on Guitar riffs and solos with big choruses, melodic, yet just a little bit noisy.

What you have hear is a great mix of Slacker Rock and Power Pop, never more so than on the splendid Ego Death, a song that is like early Teenage Fanclub doing Power Pop. The whole album wraps you in a whirlwind of engaging Guitar Pop Rock that allows you admire those magnificent Riffs.

World Of Good is anthemic as is Screwball. The choruses will soon have you singing along. Spiralling is a rare slow down and even sounds a little Elvis Costello. Postcard is great 80s Indie, a little Plimsouls and Something Like 25 Hammers is very Bob Mould.

Laugh A Minute may be a splendid Guitar album, but if you can concentrate on the lyrics, there is a sad sadness and reflection around. Not that you can really get to them with all this wonderful Guitar work taking over your mind. Superb!

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

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Snatch The Snail - Full Wet

 

I was introduced to Snatch The Snail via a Listening To This Week submission and headed over to the album, only to be surprised and enthralled. It is a wonderfully engaging listen, all over the place and incredibly inventive. 

It is hard to define genre wise, but why does it need to be labelled? It is definitely defined by our Intellectual Indie examples of the past, there are tons of ideas, all within songs that rarely go beyond 2 minutes. 

I'd love to know what goes through Zachary Sullivan Carson's head, but it is inspiring. Between the adventurous arrangements and slight cacophony, there is catchy Pop and some incredible Guitar solos. There is also a feeling of him raiding the instrument cupboard.

The brevity of the shorter songs could give the impression of throwing ideas at the wall, but you sense it is more saying what you want to say and then getting off. From Slacker Pop to an inkling of 90s Rock, Psych Pop to Alt Rock, darkness to the light, the journey is an amazing one.

Some of the arrangements are bizarre, take unusual directions, but the man also gives the impression that he can really play. It is also Zappa like in parts. I've deliberately not mentioned individual songs to encourage you to listen to the whole thing. It won't take you too long and I hope you will be as delighted as I was.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Hamlet - The Breaking Point Is Grieving.

 

I adored Hamlet's 2025 album, Light Under Repair, (review here) and the follow up is even more interesting. Appearing again on my good friend Darrin Lee's Subjangle label, as you might expect the trademark Indie Pop and Jangle Pop are all shipshape and ready.

But this is much more than that. The string arrangements at times, make the album more Baroque Pop. As I mentioned in the previous review, the trio format fits Chris Wales like a glove, but the guest appearances add much too.

Travis Talbert's Pedal Steel on Blocked At The Bank turns the gentle Guitar Pop into something more Americana and the killer chorus is anthemic. Kate Wakefield's Cello on Borrowed Time is hypnotic, nourishing a great Pop song.

Mike Fair's Guitar on the closer, Columns is incendiary and enhances and embraces a song that shows another side of Wales, a darker vocal, a little Talking Heads in style and the arrangement is wonderful. On the vocal side, Wales's mellow laidback vocal suits the material perfectly.

There is great variety too. Looms Large is great Power Pop, While You Were In The Window is splendid pastoral Psych Pop. The Story After is great Guitar Pop, built on a killer Riff. Emptying Pockets is a little IRS and adds yet another string to the bow.

Obvious comparisons will be made to Flying Nun and Sarah Records, but at times, the album is a little more muscular, for want of a better word. The arrangements are exemplary and admirable. You just have to sit back and admire what Hamlet have come up with.

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

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Steve Robinson And Ed Woltil - Temporary Sun

The third album from the North Carolina duo. We've followed Steve Robinson for quite a while and the duo have likewise offered up really enjoyable albums. Robinson has generally been the more  Pop orientated, Woltil, a little more towards the Rock.

Here, they meet in the middle more. Nearer to Robinson's Folk and Americana roots at times. Dave Gregory is here again, playing on 7 of the 12 songs and Dave Mattacks also appears on 4 of the songs. Both add great things.

Temporary Sun is much more laidback, really easy to listen to. Gregory's Electric Guitar adapts beautifully to the material, coming in much more for variety of songs rather than those solos. With that in mind, his playing shows a much greater range than he is usually noted for.

I do miss the previous work's Psych Pop and Jangling, but the songs are beautifully constructed. The more mellow material works really well and both have great voices that lend to the quality of the material. There are plenty of stand out moments.

Junk Drawer Heart is great Pop Rock with a killer chorus. The Man With The Interrupted Heart is particularly jaunty with a slight ska feel to the rhythm. Outrun The Sun is a rockier affair with a Guiar sound that reminds me of John Miles's Zaragon era.

Although the album falls into the Pop Rock genre, the Acoustic touches and Americana adventures work superbly and Gregory's Guitar work on the closer, Squint, is superb. An album to curl up to in these Darker, Colder, Nights.

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

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Tommy Keene - Songs From The Film : The 1984 Reflection Sessions

 

When I first came to the internet for Reviews, I was largely noted for a long time as a Power Pop writer. My music social circle became largely about the genre and although there was far more to my listening habits than that, the reputation kinda stuck for a long time.

For me, the king of Power Pop was Tommy Keene. From the first time that I heard Places That Are Gone, that was it and in the Power Pop scene, I could now wax lyrical. He is still the King in my eyes and ears and material like this getting an official release is wonderful.

To get to talk to Tommy was a thrill and those conversations had surprisingly little mention of Power Pop. They were about our dogs, a shared love of Prog and a big Be Bop Deluxe connection. I used to joke about getting a UK gig together with him and Dom Mariani on the bill.

This album had a Record Day Vinyl release this year, but is now available to all. It isn't a set of demos. This was a finished album, produced by Don Dixon and T-Bone Burnett in 1984. The record was shelved when Geffen came to call and was re-recorded for the major label's 1986 release.

The Jangling on Faith In Love stands out on an album full of Jangle Pop. The hillbilly shuffle on We're Too, the AOR of They're In Their Own World. The Storytelling and bigger Rock of Gold Town. This is a great document of where it all began.

You can listen to and buy the album here. 

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Listening To This Week Playlist 26 October

I do say it regularly, but this week's playlist is one of our best ever. A perfect example of what we do. Every song deserves your undivided attention. The maximum 30 songs this week. Quality throughout and another storming closer that beats a different path.

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. 

Flavour - Topaz Stone

Canned Pineapple - Done With Everything

The Anderson Council - How Did We Get It So Wrong?

The Anderson Council · How Did We Get It So Wrong?

Future Clouds And Radar - Wooden Soldiers

Alex Pester - Una Stubbs

2:19 Special - Big Black Truck

The Dahlmanns - Ride On

King Black Acid - Ready For Magic

The Rainlamps - True Superheroes

B.C. - Everybody Lies

B.C. · Everybody Lies

Good Vibes Rollercoaster - Sunset Tripping

Joe Normal - Autumn's Closing In

The Low Priorities - Ruler Of Venice

The Friends - Quiet Piggy

Lonely Android - Everything In Time

Yuppy - Action Bastard

Dad Hats - Goth Boy Scout

The Vumms - In My Sleep

Snatch The Snail - Pop Hit

A.M. Slingers - Knock It Off

Dennis Davison - Opposites

Archi Deep - Wanna Be Free

Svenssen - Carry On Flat

The Don't Look Nows - The Boat Song

Youth Of Tomorrow - Braindead

Flottwegs - High End Goods

TwoMinutesHate - Call That A Comeback

DirtyCute - Lemon Zest

DOT DASH! - Queen Of The World

DOT DASH ! · Queen of the World

Das Phaedrus - Mad In The Hills

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Flavour - Zip It Up

 

Talking of Glam Rock, this is the real deal. Flavour are from Troy in New York and remind you of Butterfly Collars, Flares and Platform shoes. Wonderfully so, the quartet seem to revel in the glory of 1974, a year when singles were so important, particularly to myself in an industrial town. 

It felt like you couldn't wait to grow up and go to the Bright Lights and the Stardust. The album was led in by two great singles, both are here. Radiation Boogie is like Marc Bolan having the two Thin Lizzy Guitarists in his band.

The Tingler again sounds like Bolan, but this time the pace is much quicker, still very Glam, but rocked up towards the 1976 Time bomb with a slight Wizzard instrumental feel, particularly at the stop signs. These two songs are just a showcase of the full album, where the accompanying eight songs, don't let the quality drop.

Zip It Up is wall to wall Theme Park like joy. It reminds me of that time, but also demonstrates how much the generations that followed have missed. The beauty of Flavour is that they rock the songs with big riffs and top notch solos.

Every song is a sure fire winner resulting in a wonderful debut album and the best is left until last, all 7 and a half minutes of it. Flavour, Flavour has hints of The Darkness, but also evokes memories of the original period, a mix of the then and the Rock and Roll that preceded it that came from the likes of Wizzard and Mud.

But the closer takes you much further, with an extended groove that adds Barrel Piano, it will become a great closer at shows. The second half Jam is superb. Many try to hark back to the age, but few, if any, master it as well as Flavour.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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