Future Clouds And Radar - Big Weather

 

Fantastic album though it is, almost three decades on, every Robert Harrison review since has to mention it. He must get a little fed up of it. Kontiki hit a perfect spot of Brit Pop height and the again growing following of Psych Pop.

But Cotton Mather had released great albums before it and albums after it have been every bit as great. Indeed, 2001's The Big Picture is a storming album and contains one of my favourite songs ever in 40 Watt Solution when that Psych Pop twin Guitar attack of Harrison and Whit Williams continued to be such a force. 

Future Clouds And Radar was a bit of a reaction to move away from the traditional four piece format, but just as interesting. As it has been 16 years since the last album, it is really interesting to hear the new take, although Harrison is never involved in anything that isn't incredibly interesting. 

Indeed, contained within, is a song that would grace any Cotton Mather album. The Man Who Would Be King is magnificent, a cross between Brit Pop and Psych Pop again with an absolute blast of Guitar Heaven. One of the best songs of 2025.

Chicken Out underlines the fact that when Harrison treads into Power Pop, there are few better. A lot in common with the new breed of youngsters, but something unmistakably Not Lame, with more absolute killer Guitar.

Yet Cabbage Town has a real Americana feel and a hypnotic twang and Brass Tacks is more funky, a little 80s, a little New Wave with a driving bassline.  The Hype moves at pace with a more Classic Rock feel to the Psych Pop. 

Going To Meet The Big Man has a wonderful arrangement surrounding a more Acoustic feel. It build and builds, great Singer Songwriter territory. That leaves the closer, The Copy Cat and what a song. Psych Pop of the highest order with a comforting Twang, loser than what's gone before, but hypnotic and an absolutely jaw dropping Guitar solo. 

Harrison remains as lyrically adept as ever. My one observation, is that the 7 songs feel more Cotton Mather than Future Clouds And Radar. But I will always take either. 34 years on from that Cotton Mather debut, the man is as essential as he ever has been. Absolutely Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can order the Vinyl here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist 12 January

 

 

After a week of the Flu, that goes and comes back with venom, we can properly get January started and what a start! 25 songs that have possibly resulted in our strongest playlist ever. This one is definitely one to be listened to from start to finish. 

Beginning with a new band who want to do things the old school way, no social media, no promotion, just a reliance on good old word of mouth. I know that there are none better than you lot at spreading the word. I've just re-listened to all the songs again and Wow!

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. 

Western Union Hall - Paranoia

Daily Worker - The New Insincerity

Dewey - City Has Come To Crash

Camp Trash - Between The X's

Daniel Feinberg - Take That As A Win

Jack The Lad - I Don't Need

Melancholy kings - Victoria

The No Good Crowd - Headlong (Feat. Emm Gryner)

Vanilla.6 - Never(ending) Love

Red Skylark - Sweat Off Your Soul

Livien - Trouble On The Water

Livien · trouble on the water

My Best Unbeaten Brother - Sometime's Life's Too Short For Jazz

Little Fang - White Muslin Summer Dress

The 425's - Look At Me Now

Uni Boys - I Don't Wanna Dream Anymore

Small Yards - Heartache

Rogues Gallery - Run To You

Rogues Gallery ( Mad Weasel Music ) · Run To You

Johnny Sapphire - Don't You Hate That

Constant Greetings - Late Bloomer

Guv - Chasin' Luv

Lunchbox - Letter From Overend

Haley Nemeth - Close To You

Tony Poole - Faith In Us

Oski XD Doski - Hunny Blubber

Duncan & The Dragonslayers - Revolution

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The Plan (Updated)

Updated 11 Jan.

Apologies, the Flu has still got a hold of me. Hopefully, may be some Reviews up later. Maybe more likely tomorrow. The Listening To This Week Playlist will go up tomorrow, but may be a bit later than usual.

I've been struck down with the Flu since early this week (PM Me Babe), so the Best 100 Albums of 2025 is delayed. The 100 have been chosen, but not the order yet. So the plan is to review 4 or 5 more albums over the weekend, posted in the evenings (UK Time). 

Then there will be Monday's Listening To This Week, which will be back to normal size as submissions have flooded in this week. From Tuesday, the Best 100 Countdown begins. It will be posted slightly differently this year. 

In the past, we've posted 20 daily in two lots of 10. This time we are posting just 10 daily. We feel this will help all 10 to get more attention than in the past. As always, a link to our review will be posted and a song from the album. As mentioned earlier, we will also post the Top 20 EPs of the year.

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Camp Trash - Two Hundred Thousand Dollars

 

I am a big advocate of waiting until the end of the year for Best Of Lists, many go way to early, magazines have deadlines that force this, but so many albums are missed that won't get on 2026 lists, no matter how great they are. Camp Trash are maybe the best example this year.

Released on Halloween, I started listening in December and I haven't stopped listening since. It may be one of the last 2025 albums that I've reviewed, but I can intimate that it will be high up on our Best 100 albums.

I think I know what our followers like, but at times we do get accused of being a little mellow,  rubbish I know, but this second album from Camp Trash is exactly what we are about. It is noisy and brash, but incredibly melodic. Fist shaking at times, but incredibly singalong stuff.

It does feel very 90s, but the good 90s. I think of Indie Rock, Power Pop and the non robotic Pop Punk. Indeed it reminds me a lot of one of my favourite albums of all time, Tsar's debut album. Certainly instrumentally and vocally.

Two Hundred Thousand Dollars is a concept of sorts, about losing and gaining the money. But the whole thing is so engaging, the studio chatter makes you feel like you are there. But the thing that grabs you most are the awesome chunky riffs, they crash in at will, wonderfully so.

The band are not stuck to a template though. No Vision is so damn heavy, superbly so, Guitar heaven. Alibi is anthemic, Biker Bar is stripped down Acoustic and the closer, Heaven Or Wisconsin is splendidly melodic, yet still manages to add some Noise Rock.

But it is the short win all songs that will grab you most. Signal Them In, Between The X's and Bigger Better Drug are absolute winners. The latter could easily have been on that Tsar album. Camp Trash have made us save the best till last. I couldn't find the words to praise this enough.

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist 5 January

 

Slowly coming out of the Christmas and New Year period with 20 songs this week. With the odd exception, the playlist feels more about what we are known for. Pop Rock and Guitar Pop. A few more album reviews over the next couple of days, then we take a couple of days off to sort the Best 100 Albums Of 2025, We have whittled the selections down to a hundred, but there is plenty of listening needed before we are ready to go.

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. 

Boy Wonders - Dreaming In B/W

After Geography - Hear Me Out

Fruition - The Deceiver

Superstar Crush - Venus In The Drywall

Small Yards - Strawberry Summer

The While - Crispy Blue

The Happy Somethings - Meanwhile

Beddy Rays - Red Lights

The Invisible Man - She's Gone

The Toxhards - Beatrice

Snakeheads - Entropy

SNAKEHEADS · Entropy

Rhynos - Daze Pass

The Pomps - Rubber Room

Hey Colossus - Cannibal Forecast

Atticus Roness - Ludwig Van

The Belair Lip Bombs - Again And Again

Weakened Friends - Lightspeed

Cheap Tobacco - Lonely

The Rise And Fall - Starts And Ends With You

Kellan - Roulette

Kellan · Roulette

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Happy New Year

 

It has been a great musical year in 2025. Celebrations of the new and returning heroes. Less joyful for the world. As a student of history, hard to believe what is going on in the States. I thought that we had seen the end of the divide and conquer nonsense. But the cult continues unabated and threatens to happen here too.

2026 will be a quiet celebratory year for I Don't Hear A Single. It is our 10th Anniversary year, I never felt this would go on so long and get so big. Amazingly, we will hit 3 million hits in the early part of the year. The gobsmacking thing is that the third million will have been attained in around 8 months. A real reaction to those who were saying all new music is crap in 2016.

There'll be a few more 2025 Reviews, not too many, whilst we knuckle down to the Best 100 Albums Of 2025 which will begin around 8 January. Due to the volume reviewed, there will also be a Best EP version this year. Listening To This Week continues onward, it hasn't missed the removal of Spotify after its trial. Quite the reverse.

It only leaves me to wish you all a prosperous 2026 and thank you for your continued support. The loyalty to this place is purely heart warming.

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Boy Wonders - Character Study

 

Fancy some great Power Pop? Well let me tell you about it. Pittsburgh Trio offer up a great melodic collection of songs for their second album. There's a fair amount of Jangle to enjoy, but also a good deal of variety.

All the prerequisites are present, big choruses, killer riffs and small, but beautifully formed, solos. We Could Be Yours opens up with a Jangle Pop entry and a top notch middle eight, but elsewhere there are wider departures.

The Trio are locked together tight, never so more than on Polygraph which has more of a Post Punk, slightly Noise Rock departure and is built on a Billy Duffy like Riff. Enfant Terrible is much more Merseybeat and Sister Suzie goes all UK Beat.

Little Black Shadow is more of a reminder of the Scouse Pop headed by The La's and Loss Adjustment may be the best thing on show. It mixes UK New Wave with a Psych Pop Riff and achieves its aims wonderfully well.

Dreaming In B/W slows things down beautifully as the closer. Slightly 70s Pop Rock, well arranged and performed with big hints to 60s Guitar Pop and another ace outro that takes the song past the 7 minute mark.  

The Song is such a mesmerising listen that you wonder excitedly about future direction.of the band. The     album flirts around the history of Power Pop and is produced in a Guided By Voices manner.. What's not to like? A cracking listen!

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

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