Listening To This Week Playlist 27 April

The last LTTW Playlist of the month offers up 27 Top Notch songs for your aural enjoyment.

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. 

Dave Cope And The Sass - Swedish Film

Bullseye - Dangers Of The Heart

Deadbeat Beat - Dying On The Hill

Cape Crush - Train In Motion

Fierce Friend - Blood Red Hills

Rural France - Heart Pyramid Scheme

The Fiery Lights - The River

Bad Keys Of The Mountain - Released

Zuffalo - Digging A Hole

Fascinations Grand Chorus - Chroma Eyes

Onesie - Twilight Years

TIFFY - Scam Likely

The Man Himself - Money In The Book

Palm Ghosts - A Limited Hang

The Danphes - Jacqueline

The Danphes · Jacqueline

Doug Gillard - Face Of Smiles

The Afterword - An Illusion

The Danphes · Jacqueline

Wooden Maria - The Witness

Dead Summer - Take It Or Leave It

Tory Silver - Your God

DAME - Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Sumos - Honesty

Parent Teacher - Timeline Rabies

Adam Gafney - Don't You Cry

Band Of The Year - Get The Money

Band of the Year · Get The Money

Citizen Smith - Summer Magazine

Citizen Smith · Summer Magazine

PHYSCO - Arrival Of The Apex

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Ambulance - Factory Second

 

What a cracking album this is. Finland quartet, Ambulance, have nailed it. I was originally tipped off by our great friends at Add To Want List. Digging deeper, I found out that Erik Lintunen is Guitarist and Keyboard player. Erik is responsible one of my favourite albums ever, 2022's Maine Coon by Have You Ever Seen The Jane Fonda Aerobic VHS?

Factory Second is incredibly inventive, all over the place at times, the influences are many. But the album is so damn melodic at times. Woods may be the best thing that you will hear all year and treads heavily into the likes of Brit Pop.

Bad News is another great example of how a song doesn't seem what it appears to be. Verses that are all New York Street and a chorus that just blasts off in a wonderfully shouty way. Yet Vile sounds more Post Punk or Krautrock instrumentally, but still manages to find a great chorus.

The Perfect Cure is much darker, very Goth and built around an hypnotic Guitar riff and pounding Bass. Antigravity is pure early 80s Post Punk. Yet both Summer and Rubber Kitten show how accessible the band can be, great Guitar Pop.

Factory Second is a great opener, anthemic, but the closer Babylonia is very different. Approaching 11 minutes, it is an extraordinary piece of genre mixing work. Factory Second is an incredible listen. Album Of The Year material, quite possibly!

You can listen to and buy the album here. It cries out for a physical release.

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David Brookings And The Average Lookings - Exposure

David Brookings reaches his 10th album and the third with The Average Lookings. The 2016 self titled debut from this lot was one of the earliest reviews on here and we've stuck with him and then ever since. This is Nashville Power Pop at its very best.

The quartet aren't afraid to veer off into other directions and the difference to Brooking's solo recordings is  that the arrangements are even more filled out. Big Riffs, killer choruses and some really crunchy solos light up this album.

The diversions are really fascinating. Jose, for instance, starts all Spaghetti Western and then heads into melodic Folk Rock. Yet, My Last Little Shred Of Youth is a mix of early 60s Pop, Everlys even and Country with its barrel piano in the background.

Exposure is a much longer affair, almost 6 minutes, a meandering joy and as the title suggests a hit out at the constant requests for artists to play for free. Brookings vocal has a great drawl and the extended instrumental outro works really well.

The Van Gogh Plan even gets very West Country Rock. But it is the Power Pop that resonates most. The likes of Encore, Coldwater Canyon and the superb Time Bomb master the genre. Songs and choruses that live in the memory.

Brookings has a lyrical depth that transcends the I lost my girl, I love you, yes I do mediocrity that the genre can be accused of at times. At times, there is a Nick Piunti feel and both have stayed with us over our past decade, when many haven't.

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

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Janus 4-14 - All The Kids Are Doing It

Janus 4-14 are a trio from Mount Airy, North Carolina and happen to be one of our finest discoveries of last year. We reviewed both 6 Track EPs which were available at Name Your Price. Ghosts From Your Past here and  Blue To Infinity here.

You can read the Reviews, but the embeds are no longer available, because the two have been collected as a Vinyl album, All The Kids Are Doing It. You can still listen to and download the 12 songs, but Vinyl is the key. They are a band made for that format.

Both EPs were exceptional and so the album is. These three have a way of mastering whatever they turn their hand to which ranges from Americana to Brit Pop, College Rock to 89s Indie Rock. Guitar Pop to Blue Collar. Gentle to Heavy, Pop To Rock.

In my three embeds here, I've gone for the more Guitar Pop songs, simply because that is what we are known for and what many followers expect. However, the whole album will take you all over the place with a defined excellence.

Of my three choices, I Never Wanna See You Again has been a long time favourite, played at a rapid pace. Modern Girl is splendid Guitar Pop with a little feel of Van Morrison. Blue To Infinity is slightly noisier 80s Indie Rock, a little UK C86 and possibly my fave.

You can listen to and buy the album here. As previously mentioned, it is available on Vinyl and as a download.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 20 April

A little earlier than usual, here are the 29 songs on the new LTTW Playlist. Much more of our wider tastes are included, but also plenty of the Guitar Pop for which we are noted. The weekly playlist is largely for submissions, not just the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

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. 

Phenomenal Cat - The Little Islanders

Ambulance - Bad News

High On Stress - Over / Thru

The Violet Twilight - Fade Away

The Second Summer - I Should

Livingmore - Ready To Escape

The Get Alongs - Come On

Eroica - I Remind You Of Your Mother

The Yummy Fur - New T-Shirt

Third Time Luckie - Heart Break Summer

White Marble Statues - Stars In Paradise

General Chaos - The Idiots Have Taken Over

Noah Colton - Stuck Here On The Ceiling

Brown House - Total Dive

Suneaters - Home

Little Billy Lost - Tonight

Linn Cervell - Zelda (Sweet And Sour)

Christina's Trip - F.B.A.T.

Heart Sauce - How Many Tears Does The Human Race Cry In A Year?

Maureens - Oceans Apart

The Paisley Daze - Tell 'Em Where To Go

Kerosene Cocktail - Polaroids

Dead Reynolds - Hideaway

Dead Reynolds · 08 - HIDE AWAY

The Fast Camels - Lost To This World

Amped Up Alley - Thinking About Thinking About You

Krooked Tongue - I Know A Place

OK Goodnight - 22

The Rockerati - Little Black Book

Odd By Midnight - The Digit (Tempus Meum Fugit)

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Phenomenal Cat - Dreamland (Supermarket Is A Warhol Painting)

Samuel Carney is a wonderful lyricist. He builds characters in the way Ray Davies, Andy Partridge and Daman Albarn did. Very British, very reflective in a way that suits multi genres. His takedown of the typical Brit on 21st Century Englishman is truly exceptional. 

He fronts the six piece Phenomenal Cat, who haven't released anything since 2017's Pop Wasteland. The band are described Psychedelic Power Pop, but with two of the members being on Brass you get much more than that.

The lyrical intent is matched beautifully, by the instrumentals. Brass helps of course, but there is Angular Guitar and a Power Pop vibe at times, as much as there is Toytown and UK New Wave and even a cracking synth run.

Seatown® is the most Power Pop, but there is a Brass burst akin to XTC's Smalltown on the chorus. The Little Islanders is part UK New Wave and part Toytown. a celebratory dissing. Everything + Nothing is pure Brit Pop with a stunning arrangement.

Don't Wanna Be Alan No More shows the benefit of the Brass matched to some Killer Guitar work, something that could have easily been On Blur's The Great Esape, but for the splendid Psych towards the end. You've heard the wonderful title track on the IDHAS LTTW Playlist and sounds even better surrounded by the other 7 songs. Very UK 70s Glam Rock instrumentally.

The band are named after a song on The Village Green Preservation Society which fits beautifully with what they do. This is a wonderfully inventive album, a joy to listen to and it will feature heavily in our end of year best albums.

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

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Brass Camel - Brass Camel

Get ready to Rock! We covered Brass Camel's second album last year (here) and hot on its heels comes the third and it is every bit as good, if not better, than its predecessor. The Prog scene has sort of left behind the whimsical of recent years and rediscovered the Rockier element with much more melody.

11 minute plus opener and closers bookended Camel, there's none of that here, just 8 songs that only touch 5 minutes on a couple of occasions. The Prog is present, but not as often upfront as this feels more Classic Rock at times, but they are not afraid of adding a Prog interruption into those.

The funk is still around, wonderfully so, particularly on Ice Cold. But the Pop Rock is around too on the splendid Why Bother which is very early Queen, particularly the harmonies and Careful What You Wish For gets close to the genre.

Everybody Loves A Scandal starts like something from The Mommyheads, before turning into a Classic Rock monster. Last Call breaches AOR. Overall, there is a Led Zeppelin feel, but the harmonies and Guitar work do resemble Queen I and Queen II.

There is still plenty of room for Prog, especially on the opener, You've Got Time. which mixes prime time Yes and early Rush. A bit like Geddy Lee fronting Yes. What Are You Doing is Prog Funk, the whole album is a scorcher.

The band sound more commercial without losing their street cred. Songs change genres unexpectedly and are packed with unexpected diversions. The biggest take is the strength of the harmonies and proof that Canad isn't only about Guitar Pop.

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

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