Listening To This Week Playlist 22 June

A day later than usual, here is this week's LTTW Playlist. 23 songs that sum up pretty well what we are about. Maybe a bit of Prog would have been a complete description. I've just re-listened to it all and it sounds really ace.

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. 

The Blusterfields - Mr Secretary

Elephants And Stars - Of Halfway Houses And Ambulances

Thee Windows - Linen

The Hanging Stars - Show Me The Way

Bramwell - Standing On Stones

Onesie - In Your Dream You're Every Character

Radio Weekend - Circles

Charming Arson - The Wednesday Of My Discontent

The Allwells - Any Day Now

We Are Dust - The Third Door

Astrologer - Drug Of Choice

St. Davis - More Or Less

King Black Acid - Dialling 911

Scott Gagner - Sugar Rush

Tom Minor - Bureau Of Change

Tom Minor · Bureau of Change

Adult Magic - Drift Dive

Mo Troper - Let's Get Back To Music

Your Friend, Death - Oh Come On!

Your Friend, Death · Oh Come On!

DTDR - The Dirty Robot

Shredded Sun - Skyscraper

Radio Days - I Won't Give Up

Oddfellows - Draw The Line

Grant Morriss - World's Collide

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Onesie - Way Thousand Bump To The Sky

I joined the Onesie party in 2019 as they released their second album, Umpteenth. That album hit our Best Of Year. 2023 brought Liminal Hiss which hit the Top 10 of that year. Here's the Brooklyn Trio's fourth and it is a stormer.

You might call them Power Pop, because they can be, however they often aren't. When they are it is usually a noisier version of the genre, but they are also Slacker Pop, without the my life is shite bit. Then again they aren't much of these things.

Incredibly Inventive, with quirks a la Andy Partridge, at times they remind me of Ash, the wit is the same, but there is far more depth to Onesie. They are noisy, but in a good way that never loses sight of the melody. Chorus led joy.

The riffs are what make them most, unusual at times, often coming out of nowhere, but completely hitting the sweet sport. There is also a lyrical adeptness to aid these great arrangements. Tryptophantastic is so XTC, even like Blur doing XTC. 

Yet, Maybe Life's Just A Monitor Gig is a great Guitar Pop song with a Rush like riff. So Darkside is very close to a Toytown song. Superlative could be The Sugarplastic and the 100mph of Doing A Band sounds a little Sugar.

The closer, In Dream You're Every Character, is an astonishing song. Very like another band that I hold on a pedestal, The Mommyheads, almost a doppelgänger. Adding Sax, it shows a completely different side to the trio.

Onesie sort of catch people by surprise. On the face of it they appear to be a slightly noisy Indie band. But listen to this and you will realise the work that goes into an album and how spot on they get it. Not like any one else, totally themselves. Way Thousand Bump To The Sky is a masterpiece.

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

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The Get Alongs - Second To None

 

We do travel around the genres, but always know when we are at our home base and The Get Alongs are there to welcome us home. The quartet are from Toronto, where else? and Second To None is wonderfully right up our street.

Great Pop Rock that mixes everything that you think of from tied to the genre put together in one handy 10 track offering. There's the looseness of 70s Rock, Power Pop and even Psych Pop. Songs are built on a rhythm led groove.

Sunday Afternoon is all let's do the show right here, but catches you with killer Psych Pop Riffs and an extraordinary solo. Secret Shopper is built on a Rock and Roll instrumental, Sound is great 70s Pop Rock, but hints at both Primal Scream and Brit Pop.

One And Everything sounds a little Madchester, but is also great noisy Psych. Merry Way is top notch jangling 60s UK Beat. On And On enters Garage Rock with another killer riff, the heaviest that they get here and they do it so well.

Then there is the monster closer, all 6 and a half minutes of it. 232 is off the scale. It broods and broods and you know that you are waiting for the explosion to come. When it does, it just grips you completely. You know that the song is gonna close live sets for years and years.

We are fortunate that the last couple of years have been a great time for Guitar Pop. But Second To None is much much more than that, it moved, it shakes, the riffs just grab you and the songs are performed so well. This is The Get Alongs second album of many more.

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

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The Hanging Stars - Just A Day

Welcome to the sixth album from The Hanging Stars. More recently, I've reviewed the last two albums. Hollow Heart here and On A Golden Shore here. A decade or so, these type of albums were predominant, less so now, as if the best have surprised and the potential return of The Vapour Trails.

The Hanging Stars are a quartet that are up there with the best of them, they know what they are great at and take it a step further with each album. Initially, more noted for Americana, they are now more based with the likes of Dropkick and the more recent mellower, Teenage Fanclub.

They are never gonna blow the bloody doors off, that isn't what they are about or want to do. Although, they are some band when the pace picks up, most noted here on the wonderful Show Me The Way. There is always gonna be something a bit special from an album produced by Gerry Love in Edwyn Collins's studio.

The songs are beautifully played, built on riffs and keyboards. When the keyboards kick in, there is an instrumental feel of The Band, when they Jangle, you think of The Byrds, so there is still a very West Coast feel.

What marks them out most from their peers are the four part harmonies, demonstrated perfectly on Time Is Nothing with its I Can't Let Maggie Go vibe. Sister Of The Sun underlines those harmonies splendidly, great California Pop Rock. The Hanging Stars are masters of what they do and long may it continue.

 You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Thee Windows - Out And Down

 I have previously noted that there seems a surplus of bands wanting to call themselves Thee at present in a flagon of your finest ale stout yeoman of the bar way. Just a general observation! I forgive Baltimore's Thee Windows as they build an ever interesting developing career.

Out And Down is the quartet's second album bisected by an EP and the growth is really obvious. Previously known as Indie Pop, I question that as the genre should maybe reserved for chart bothering wannabes commerciality. Guitar Pop seems a more apt starting base.

But even that genre doesn't do justice to the band's scope. The songs are beautifully arranged and performed with complex arrangements that are far from obvious and instrumentation that is as at home with the Organ as the Guitar and the band raid genres at will with ease.

You can hear so many different directions across these 11 songs. There is Pastoral Pop, Shoegaze, Psych Pop, 80s Indie and Brit Pop. The rhythm section nail every song down, allowing the songs to drift in any direction that you wish.

The stand out is the magnificent Linen. In other hands, this would be a straight ahead affair, but these four turn it into an extravaganza instrumental. This may be Indie, but it fully explores areas that show that that can be just a catch all description.

Owl Song is splendid Psych Pop, So Long is Brit Pop and Losin' It is jaunty rhythm led Guitar Pop. The whole album is cohesive, a rarity in that it gets better and better as it proceeds, no front loading here! Out And Down is highly Recommended to all.

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

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Listening To This Week Update

 

I've gone with the old logo as this isn't the new LTTW Playlist that traditionally goes out on Mondays. As a one off, the new Listening To This Week will go out on Tuesday next week, totally a one off. A simple explanation is that I am not around tomorrow for the tagging that goes out after the Playlist goes out.

Rather than going early tonight, it makes more sense to delay the post until Tuesday. Tonight, I am writing Reviews in draft, to be posted tomorrow to keep you all occupied until Tuesday. There are some great albums to tell you about.

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Ben Auld - Loserdom

 

I thought that I had lost my frustration that great artists don't get the attention that they deserve and that they are pushed forward more by fans, reviewers and even themselves. I haven't because I feel that way about Ben Auld's second album.

It is an incredible album that takes up the States' slant of DIY and Lo-Fi and moves it in all directions. At its heart , it is great Power Pop, but is Fuzz laden, built on incredible riffs, the type of album that we really hear recorded by a Brit. It is also a testimony to the joy of the Guitar.

Auld is from Norwich and he is supported by Guitarist, Conor Etteridge, Drummer, Duncan Baker and Bassist, George Witty to form a twin Guitar four piece. The Guitar Riffs are Glam laden and the songs are more than a little Slacker.

The Fuzz is totally engaging offering up a delightful noise. At times, I'm reminded of Weezer and Teenage Fanclub, but there's a real 80s feedback to proceedings. The songs are short, most not much over 2 minutes and just have you think you've heard the best song, the next one beats it.

There is a real energy to the whole thing and Auld's sweet-ish vocal is at one with the instrumentals, but blends perfectly with the material. Loserdom is heads down and onwards, but those unique riffs light up the album and the rhythm section provides a great platform to take off.

A special mention should also be made for York's Safe Suburban Home label. What a year, it has been for them, with this, Labrador, Rural France and Sumos. But the focus here is on this storming wake up album. I can't wait to hear more from Auld in the future.

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

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