Listening To This Week Playlist 30 June

 

22 songs make up our 5th LTTW Playlist of the month.  As well as the traditional version, we have put the playlist on Spotify and you will see the link below. Remember this is early days on Spotify, so the following there is nowhere near our one here. 

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 the artists who appear here. 

The Spotify Version

Link To Spotify

The Jimmy C - The Back Roads To Ruin

Caper Clowns - Strange Boy

Endelouz - Eggs & Steak

The Girlheads - Waiting On A Lonely Planet

Joe Giddings - Pandora's Brand New Box

Charlie Hannah - Iceberg

Ponta Preta - These Days Are Gone

Jeremy Serwer - Horns And Stars

Kevin Robertson - Kings Of Most Of Yesterday

The Rallies - Love

The Bret Tobias Set - Happiness Writes White

The Noisy - Twos

vverevvolf - Laughing Til I Cry

vverevvolf · Laughing Til I Cry

Janus 4-14 - Tattered Dreams

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Lake Crook Mouth - Boring Jobs

Damien Baby - Boys In The Back

Fortitude Valley - Video (Right There With You)

Alien Eyelid - Vinegar Hill

Max Rauch - Waste More Thyme

Jaime Orr - Somebody Like You

Jaime Orr · Somebody Like You

Tom Henry - Close Your Eyes

Chris Roach - Man In The Sky

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The Jimmy C - Refreshing

 

As a log time of Jamie Coghill's Jimmy C adventures, this is a great concept as he hits his third decade in music. He approaches his songs from his formative years between 2004 and 2009 and can now use modern recording techniques rather than 4 Track and Computer software in its infancy.

The Melbourne multi instrumentalist was initially known more as a drummer for the likes of Lava Fangs and Fez Perez, but during his solo career, he has become a mainstay in Power Pop. However these songs show a much wider genre area.

A prime example of this variance is the wonderful meandering West Coast Rock of Your Corpse Is A Bore which is all Crazy Horse-esque. All Nite Ride is melancholic and stoner. Yet there are also big hints at what was to come.

The Back Roads To Ruin is magnificent with its killer riff and Guitar Pop sensibility. I Want Her is pure Classic Rock, indeed a lot of what is on show here fits that direction. There are also a couple of darker brooding instrumentals that show a completely different side to Coghill.

Just A Fool is built around another outstanding riff and The Boy In The Suitcase mixes a Road Song with a more Psych Pop feel. Refreshing is special in that it shows another, equally excellent, side to the Power Pop Icon that The Jimmy C recordings has since provided. 

You can listen to and buy the album here. 

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Pet Symmetry - Big Symmetry

 

I am 62 and there are many of my peers who look at my interest in Emo and Pop Punk over the past three decades plus as a mid life crisis. They think I sit at home in my half pants wearing my cap backwards. What they don't realise is that as the better of these bands have matured, they are now excellent at offering up music that is not a million miles away from the stuff that they like.

Pet Symmetry are a living breathing example of this. So many look at those two genres and run for the hills. Just as Modern Prog is not all about 8 minute drum solos and weird time signatures. Psychn Pop is not about backward recording and hippie tableaus. Music listeners should open their minds as much as their ears. 

I Don't Hear A Single started as a reaction to these attitudes, those who said all new music is crap and I suppose we've proved them wrong. It has been four long years since the band's third album, Future Suits, and it has been worth the wait. Big Symmetry is such a wonderfully positive album.

The Chicago Trio are still locked in instrumentally, almost a Power Trio, yet whilst this album still has hints of Emo, the sound is much nearer to the new breed of Power Pop and it takes it to a whole new level. Songs are not about lost love, more about the world now, but providing hope.

Offering up 12 songs that with titles that all begin with Big tells you about the aims of the album. Big Symmetry don't come up for air, but the songs are melodic, never in your face, all perfectly formed, they get near to Indie Rock without ever trying to blow the doors off.

Songs are beautifully arranged, all big choruses and big riffs. I've deliberately not wrote about individual songs, because this is an album to be listened to from start to finish. However, I have embedded my favourite three to lead you there. Big Symmetry is the sound of three friends, happy with their bond and their lives. We should get more of this sort of vibe.

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

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Caper Clowns - Without The Aid Of A Safety Net

Having been with Caper Clowns since the early years, it is a delight to see how they have grown and now have the world at their feet. Many more Reviewers and DJs now claim them and rightly so. It is getting nearer to the time when their acclaim from the more mainstream will leave us behind.

But we don't want to let them go yet and will hold on for dear life. We are door openers, but the Danes are a lovely band and as they have gotten bigger, they have gathered fellow musicians to start a scene that is delightful and they have never ever forgotten us.

They've been regularly compared to Crowded House, fairly so, and Anywhere Is Home on this album is a great example of that. Without A Safety Net is a prime example of how constant touring and their encouragement of others has led them to the experience that makes this album so great.

The marked difference to what has gone before is that this album is a much Rockier affair. The songs are still built on great choruses, but the sound is bigger and the pace much quicker. It suits them really well as they have come up with a tour de force, a beautifully arranged and performed affair.

Little differences mark this growth. The Guitar solo on Tight Ship, the Psych Pop of the standout Strange Boy. The instrumental arrangement on Martyr's Dream which is unlike anything they've gone near before. Behind The Waterfall (Ayahahoo) is all Indian Tableau, very hippy trippy.

A Silhouette Of Past Regrets is epic, a little Scouse Pop feel at times, Space maybe and edging into Brit Pop, but sounding like no one else. Quixote is a great Pop song, Jaunty to the extreme with a wonderful Jangle. 

Dawn's First Light and Reset The Sun point to Caper Clowns' past, but Without The Aid Of A Safety Net has moved the band into a much wider sound, a new level of arrangements and performance, a proper band album. 

Having seen them so far, I was still gobsmacked at the giant steps that have been taken here. Complicated arrangements, surprise departures, yet still incredibly melodic. If you like Pop Rock, you MUST listen to this. It is a great example of how music can affect the soul.

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

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The Electorate - By Design

 

What a trio, Sydney's The Electorate are. Forgetting about the actual songs for one minute, instrumentally they are built on a locked in Rhythm Section that drives songs and angular unexpected riffs that cross genres. Then there is the vocal that links the instrumentals perfectly in a sort of Kilbey-esque manner.

This is the band's second album, five years on from that outstanding debut and this time there seems more space for songs. The first three songs underline the variance on show. End is built around a wonderful Psych Pop riff and a driving bass line.

Peace Love And Kindness is built on more of an Indie Rock vibe and I just can't help thinking of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire on the verse. Sleeping On The Job is wonderfully angular, but the vocal is uncannily close to Neil Finn. These three songs are not even the apex of this stellar album. 

Unfamiliar is slower, darker and splendidly Post Punk with a hint of Will Seargent on the Guitar sound. Summer Of Cicadas sounds more front porch and yet Ten Times Round is more IRS, 90s College Rock even, with a mesmerising Guitar sound.

Don't Go Out is much noisier, a real thrash out at tines, yet remains a cross between The Church and 80s King Crimson. Face Of A Giant returns to Psych Pop with a jaw dropping riff and a hypnotic rhythm section. This may even e my favourite here and it is the closing track.

This is the sound of a band at the top of their game. By Design has hooks and riffs that just grab a hold of you, but there are also Pop elements mixed with incredible arrangements. You just don't want the thing to end, it is a magnificent listen.

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

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Fuzziliers - Most Fun (Free Download)

 

I love Fuzziliers, we were there from the early days with their debut EP,  Would You Believe, and followed up with the quartet's debut album, Sail The Seven Seas. So as we reach their second album, it is interesting to hear how they have developed.

Whilst Most Fun has parts that are significantly theirs, particularly the Psych on the title track that even gets a little Primal Scream, there are also changes in direction. This sounds a more Indie Rock album. It Rocks as well as ever, but there does seem a more commercial slant.

Future Society is great Pop Rock, almost Brit Pop. In The Morning is splendid Jaunty Pop with some great harmonies and an ace Brass arrangement. Amsterdam remains a great single, again a little Brit Pop, but also a little Folk with another stunning Brass arrangement. 

Amplification is beautifully restrained Classic Rock that simmers without ever boiling over and is dominated by a meandering riff and some wonderful organ playing. Fake Dancer is a reminder where the band's beginnings started, a great Psych Pop feel to proceedings.

I don't criticise the change of direction in any way. The band are incredibly good at what they do and the arrangements are as strong as ever. The Brass also adds something different and that works too.Fuzziliers are a band on the move, time to jump on and enjoy the ride.

You can listen to the album here. It is a free download and little now is free, particularly nothing as good as this album.

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Charlie Hannah - Tortured Genius.

 

The first point that should be made is that this is a great Singer Songwriter album. Charlie Hannah has a mastery with lyrics that is something that you don't hear as often as you should. These are storytelling songs that are incredibly effective.

Hannah's way with words makes you listen to the story as much as the song in a way that Ward White manages to do the same. Tortured Genius is beautifully arranged, gentle Pop Rock, very 70s in feel and vocal arrangement wise.

A song like Kansas is splendid Piano Pop with a Brass Arrangement that is very Peter Skellern like. Don't Confuse The Singer With The Song benefits from another fine score, this time sounding a little Kid In A Big World era John Howard.

Wyatting is part Folk, part Jazz and Lower The Bar gets a little funky. The Greatest Role I Ever Played enters McCartney Pop. with another great Brass arrangement. But the album isn't all self reflection although I am reminded of Al Stewart at times.

Iceberg is a wonderfully jaunty Pop song. On the verse, it sounds very Nick Heyward, yet the chorus gets all poptastic in a Nick Frater sort of way. Tortured Genius is the sort of album that used to come along regularly, very British Pop.

This album sounds even better due to the absence of competition. Hannah encapsulates a time when we marvelled at quality songs that delivered joy in a laidback way. It is a cracking listen and a refreshing change from big choruses and crashing chords.

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

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