Derrero - Breezing Up

 

If you've been paying attention, you will know how much we adore Derrero. Brit Pop botherers, but always more Cymru giants. They underline how effective intelligent Indie is with unexpected arrangements and prove you don't have to blow the bloody doors off to master Guitar Pop.

The two albums since their 2020 reappearance have both featured in our Best 100 Albums Of The Year, Time Lapse reaching Number 2 and looking back, it should have really been Number 1. They've even had an exhaustive interview with our Mick Dillingham which you can read here.

There is no doubt that Breezing Up, their sixth album in all, will feature high up in our Best Of 2024 Edition, not out of any favouritism, but because it is so damn good. Ferrero are a band that push boundaries with continued excellence.

The arrangements and harmonies continually catch you buy surprise. They can provide mellow West Coast Rock such as A Line In Space, yet also offer up glorious Pop with Catherine and its stunning Brass arrangement.

Yet they can rock out on the likes of the title track with a massive sounding instrumental which is one of the best things on here, very Psych at times, which is a strange thing to say bearing in mind what a wordsmiths, the band are.

Mile After Mile gets all Americana with its all together now harmonies and Painting With Sound goes well into Teenage Fanclub territory. Creepy Crawlies is hypnotic Psych and Mile After Mile again showcases the outstanding harmonies of the trio, a foot tapping joy. What a glorious album!

You can listen to and buy the album here.  It is available on CD and as a download. Treat yourself and own an album by possibly the best trio in the world right now.

.....................

Shenanygans - On Monte Verita

 

Swiss based, but including two Irish brothers, Shenanygans are a quartet that sound like days gone by, but often their own take on the genres and it has to be said that they are refreshing as this sort of material isn't as widespread as it once was,

Similar line ups all seem to want be King Lizard And The Lizard Wizard, as if that band don't release enough stuff under the own steam. On Monte Verita is very 60s and 70s, but beautifully performed and arranged.

They cover the likes of West Coast Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Pop Rock and a fair bit of Classic Rock. The harmonies really stand out and for that reason the 60s sounding material is their speciality. But they are not afraid to tread on many toes. 

The vocals are wonderfully gentle and clear. For instance, Where I've Been isn't a million miles away from Stealers Wheel. Brings Me Back Again is wonderfully Swinging Sixties and So Hard To Get By is very close to Country Rock.

Nothing Was Giving To You is ace Psych, yet Count On Me gets all Merseybeat and Over You goes drop out Hippie. All The Trippin' Around is very Beach Boys and highlights those splendid harmonies. Like Strangers could easily be one of those great 70s Pop Rock albums.

Songs are built on riffs and tasteful solos and there are some real hooks. Beautifully arranged, the album touches all bases, but it is those stellar harmonies that grab you most. On Monte Verita even edges into The Coral land, but it also stands up superbly on its own. One hell of a debut album.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

........................................

St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club - Into Your Heartbeat

 

St Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club are a five piece from Stockholm. They've featured regularly on Listening To This Week and now we have the resulting second album and it is really rather good. Essentially Guitar Pop, but a swirling organ takes them in different directions.

Those directions take many paths through UK Beat, New Wave, 80s Indie Guitar Pop, Mod Pop and Brit Pop. The keyword is catchy and with big riffs, Brass and memorable choruses, the pop element rings true. Until We Meet Again is one of the singles that you've heard and that may be the best example of what they do.

Led by Jimi Sebastian, but very much a sum of their parts, the band have an ability to speed things up or slow them down perfectly aided by surprise twists and turns instrumentally and vocally. Songs change moods part way through in unexpected ways.

Lemonhead Cabaret is almost Music Hall and a little Steve Marriott Small Faces cheeky chappie. Golden Parachute even gets a little Housemartins in vibe and Penguins Of The Ghetto mixes 60s UK Beat with Brit Pop in the style that made the latter genre great.

Sailor Girl closes the album and goes all Folk song with a big hint of sea shanty. Into Your Heartbeat is an album that underlines the glory of intelligent Pop demonstrating that it does have to be one thing, it can branch off. What a fine album!

You can listen to the album here. It is available on the excellent Beluga Records label on Vinyl here. You can find out more about the band here.

............

Mythical Motors - Seven Is Circular

 

Our adoration of Mythical Motors knows no bounds. Regularly reviewed on here, deservedly so, culminating in Upside Down being our Album Of The Year last year. That album takes some following, but MattAddison is so prolific that we knew it wouldn't be long before we got to know if it could be.

Mythical Motors have a reputation of being a more melodic, chirpier Guided By Voices and I get that, but there is far more contained within than that. His Power Pop is second to none and when he ventures into our beloved Psych Pop, he nails it. 

However, he is not afraid of stepping well outside his box. Here, for instance, on Queen Domino, he gets very Lindsay Buckingham and follows that with a magnificent Baroque Pop affair on Slow March To Clown City, sounding a little Adam Faith vocally.

That is the beauty of a Mythical Motors album, no two songs are the same and here you have 20 and the quality is consistently high. Not many exceed two minutes and that say what you wanna say and get off attitude means that if one song doesn't quite take your fancy, you know the next one will.

The Psych Pop of Sister Blank brought a massive smile to my face. Apollo's Ashes is wonderful Power Pop and Impossible Symmetry goes all C86 with a wonderful Jangle part way through. The Tunnel Keeps Moving is another example of how well Addison masters Psych Pop.

I can't ever recall a bad Mythical Motors song. It is deliciously lo-fi at times, but incredibly inventive with the Pop never far away. The delicate vocal is a great antidote to the complex unexpected arrangements. I've started to get excited whenever a new album arrives and I couldn't give a bigger compliment as down at heart, I am a cynical miserable old git.

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

........................

Ell Freeman - A Hard Place

 

Sometimes, in fact too many, I look at how regional the UK has become and despair. I see and hear what is happening in the States, Australia and Europe, I despair for us here in Brexitland, so when you hear something refreshingly great, you should hold and treasure it.

London's Ell Freeman is such an example. His debut EP, pushes all the right buttons and thankfully isn't another version of the same thing. The EP is also another example of how the Listening To This Week Playlist is opening up the longer player releases. It was what we always wanted to achieve, but it has took a while to get there.

A Har Place opens up with a big slab of UK New Wave in Cold Shoulder. It is a cracking melodic shake your fist sort of thing that owes just as much to the Classic Rock of the 70s. Uptight goes one step further with big Glam Rock overtones.

Even when the pace. is slowed down a little on Middle Finger Moments, the song can't help bursting out. The whole EP is built on big choruses, riffs and unexpected directions. This particular song, jangles a bit, but also steps into Psych Pop instrumentally.

Music Only Knows closes the album with a more Acoustic gentleness, but also contains a magnificent Verden Allen like Organ run. A Hard Place is beautifully performed and arranged, really really listenable. I just can't wait for more.

You can listen to and buy the EP here. I say EP, but there are almost 24 minutes of music here, so this is more of a mini album. You can find out more about Ell Freeman here.

https://ellfree.bandcamp.com/album/a-hard-place

.........................

Listening To This Week Playlist

Packed out this week with 33 songs. Everyone a winner!

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. 

Tamar Berk - You Trigger Me

Sunbuzz - Desiree Today

Ben Newgard - Mind Eraser

Shake Some - Every Little Noise

Curling - Radio King (Stereo)

Slowly Slowly - Forgiving Spree

Librarians With Hickeys - Hello Operator

Zulitas - Why Don't You Love Me

5606 - Are You Happy Now?

St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club - Stockholm Central Station

Shining Bird - No Silver Lining

RedPrint - Inner Court

Owen Marchildon - Weather Girl

Velociraptor - Falling

Collly - The Shakers

Peacebone - Never Run Away

ABOE - Same Old Sound

Paper Space - Plastic Limbs

Dan Cook - When The Morning Comes

Emunclaw - I'm Scared I'll End Up All Alone

Object Unto Earth - Plea To The Abjurative Warden

Slung - Neurotic

Sound Thing - Something

Holotropics - Open

Andy Alexander - Gilded

x2 fast - Chameleon

Kelsey Montanez - Kick The Habit

Baccuda - The Beach

Duckboi - I Don't Want To

the small house movement - Coffee & Tea

Eleanor Henderson - Screaming Out Of Neverland

Futura Free - Folded

265 South - Looking To The Clouds

......................

Mountain Movers - Walking After Dark

 

New Haven's Mountain Movers are well into their second decade and the phrase "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" was ready made for them. Over the last eight years or so, they have grown and grown an audience as they moved away from the Jam Band scene into something much more deep.

I spent a good while in the Jam Band scene in the late 90s / early 00's and although it was a fine place to be, with really engaged and great people, it was a bit self fulfilling, all self contained, no one sort of broke away from that scene. It was dominated by bootlegs and live performances.

Part of my remit has been to show that we are not just about crashing chords and big choruses nor angular Indie and gently, bit by bit, brick by brick, guide followers to the joys of music outside of our comfort zone. This has worked in a way, particularly with Psych and Prog.

Mountain Movers are a quartet who fit into both of those genres, yet are also quite a few steps away at times. You are likely to hear Bongos, but also synths. The music is more of a soundscape, ethereal in a way. A mixture of instrumental and vocal.

They aren't afraid to tread into Folk or even gentle Space Rock. Songs are built around riffs that are never gonna burst an amp, but are incredibly melodic and hypnotic. At times, there is a real chill out feel to proceedings, yet the Psych, in particular, is incredibly engaging. 

A double album may not be the best to place the start, but it is where the band are currently at and they move on quickly. Thought the long and short songs, I would urge listeners to make the time to listen to Walking After Dark from start to finish, Listening as such underlines the joy of the album format.

You will note that I haven't embedded or chosen any of the songs for this post. That is deliberate, hopefully encouraging you to listen to the whole offering.

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

.......................