Harrison Rimmer - Cheaper Than Therapy

 

Harrison Rimmer is from Fleetwood, a town that is only about 50 miles from me. I remember Blackpool being a bit grim in Winter, I did a relief for 4 months there at the beginning of my career, but the people of Cleveleys and Fleetwood were incredibly welcoming. 

Enough about me. Harrison Rimmer's second album is great Indie Pop Rock. Jaunty at times with pace. It is a little more modern than we normally cover, but the songwriting and arrangements suit us really well. The songs are stories and Rimmer is a fine storyteller.

This is an album built for a mass market given half the chance. It may fit America more than the UK sound wise, particularly as it is so hard to grow any talent in the UK at present. The majors are so London centric when all the talent is regional.

Rimmer is a singer songwriter that knows what he is about. There is a commercial feel to what he performs and the arrangements reveal this, but these 10 songs are beautifully performed suited to the everyday streaming listeners.

There's a lot to like here such as the Celtic tinged ballad, Be Reet and the quartet thrive on the rockier, Cold. Ripped Up Magazine is great Power Pop with a much faster pace. I maybe wish there was a bit more of this. Rimmer masters mellow, but when you hear how great he rocks, you want more.

Shores adds some great Brass and a splendid chorus. The song itself is storytelling at its finest. Dave's House gets near to Americana and that works well too and adds a great Twang. Hopefully, the future is bright Harrison Rimmer, this album shows that it should do and would be well deserved.

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

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Block 33 - The Promised Land

Enfield's Block 33 are noted as Mod Revivalists and this debut album has been highly anticipated. It even hit the UK Top 30 and with the return of The Spitfires, that scene hints at a much welcome revival. Mod Pop has always had a live reputation, but it has been sadly missing from the airwaves.

This quartet though are not a Secret Affair copy band. They are much crunchier and enter many more areas. Yes there are glimpses of The Jam and the better UK New Wave and 60s bands from the genre and they do align with The Spitfires, but they thrive in the splendour of their own space.

At times, they sound R and B, Feelgood like if you prefer and even a little Punk. They can also perform Pop Rock and Lose Your Way may be one of the best songs from that genre this year and Drift Away is pure Brit Pop, almost Robbie Williams.

They do mellow just as well as the Up And At 'Em. Indeed the second half of the album is much slower in pace than the first, but still manages to add the wonderful Alive & Dangerous which drives through at a fine pace. The closer, Keep On Smiling, is an absolute epic, beautifully arranged and performed across the full 6 and a half minutes.

Despite the second half gems, it is the first half that grabbed me most with its sheer energy that shows me how much that I have missed this sort of stuff. You hear Mouth Organ and Organ and songs are delivered thrillingly.

The title track simply rocks your socks off and Lost In The Crowd is the sound of Woking 1977. There is another epic to open proceedings, Breakthrough, a wonderful sprawling meandering heavier example of what the band can do. What an absolutely splendid album.

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

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The Campbell Apartment - (510)

 

San Francisco's The Campbell Apartment never ever disappoint. I suppose that you might call the trio, ;ed by Ari Vais, Indie Rock, but they cross genres into Pop Rock, Power Pop, Alt Rock and IRS joy. Here though my prevalent take is how Brit Pop they sound at times.

Not the bombastic headline grabbing Pop Rock, but the cleverer stuff that was on the edges. Melody driven with nods to the back end of the 60s. They allow well arranged and written songs to breathe. They never sound ordinary all through the variety.

But is not all about Pop Rock and Brit Pop. Words With Birds is superb Classic Rock and Grudge is all 90s Alt Rock with a big hint of Garage Rock. Life On An Oil Rig is somewhere between Acoustic Country and Americana with a switch of vocal from deep to McCartney Pop.

There is a nice mix of Acoustic and Electric, but it is the Guitar Pop that will light up people's eyes most. Winter 2028, featured on the current Listening To This Week Playlist is top notch Power Pop and 30,000 Days sounds like The Supernaturals in their prime.

Tululah Says is 90s Slacker Rock of the highest order and Ambulem could be Blur with a better vocalist than Damon Albarn and adds a wonderful Psych Pop solo to the great great Pop. An absolutely splendid album, yet I suspect that Ari has already moved on to the next one.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Rocket Rules - immediately and without hesitation EP (Bandcamp Name Your Price)

 

The follow up EP to their self titled debut EP from last year finds the Melbourne duo in wonderful form. A short by sweet three songs that reveal the splendour of what they do, Rocket Rules are an example of an act that is crying for a full length release.

The sugar sweet vocal is the voice of an angel, a vocal that you would expect to feature on the Subjangle label, ideally suited to Dream Pop and all things 80s, but instrumentally, there is far far more. These ditties are soundscapes.

They mix shoe gaze with something that comes across as a far less angst ridden and more Poptastic Garbage. add up all the chances is pure 80s Gold Pop to an almost gentle Psych arrangement. the weight, bursts out of the blocks with the even gentler vocal meeting a Great Wall of sound.

It is the mix of the soft and the hard that makes this EP. Chalk and Cheese maybe, but both complement each other wonderfully. By the time draynor village ends with its slower, more restrained backing and an ace instrumental break, you are convinced that these two have a future as bright as the stars.

You can listen to and buy the EP here. It is at "Name Your Price", so what have you got to lose?

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Listening To This Week Playlist (Spotify Version)

 

Our first ever Spotify playlist which is the translation of the new Listening To This Week Playlist from earlier today. This will now be an additional feature weekly, but from next week, it will appear as an embed in the main LTTW Monday post.

We are purposely latecomers to Spotify and we do this only to benefit the artist. We do not want to be Playlist Gurus. I Don't Hear A Single is primarily a Review site and will remain so. Anything we do is solely to benefit new and under appreciated artists.

Safe Houses - Someday Is Starting Now

Tablefox - Digging In

The Blackburns - The Video Den

The Campbell Apartment - Winter 2028

The Speedways - Visiting Hours (Replaces Now That I Know How which is not on Spotify)

The Jetglows - Daisy

The Supernaturals - Don't Let The Past Catch Up With You

Miracleworker - Set Your Aim

Grooblen - Like A Gator Does

The Electorate - The Great Divide

Harrison Rimmer - Ripped Up Magazine

The Last Post - 1999

Milk For The Angry - Yeah, Yeah OK

Bryan Estepa - Version Of Me

Tugboat Captain - Thank God

Rare Phantom - isolamento

Secret Monkey Weekend - So Much Joy

HLLLYH (fka Mae Shi) - Dead Clade

Don't Worry - Middle Finger

Black Moon Howl - Bad Bowl

Fluung - Starvin Heart

Fawn Breaks - Sharpened Eyes

Direct Spotify Link

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The Probies - Time To Pay

 

If you read the blurb about the Seattle quartet's debut album, you might think that Time To Pay is a return to those self anihilation days of the early 90s. However, this is a great album, but I don't hear much Grunge at all. Personally I'm thankful for that.

I never really connected with that genre. It was all a bit woe is me, riddled with dirge and the majority was terminally slow. Here you have pace, melody in an area somewhere between Indie Rock and Classic Rock. The results are very melodic and can hit you both harder and softer.

Behind The Door is great Pop Rock, but that can be contrasted with the much noisier, almost shouty So Far. I Don't Know Why isn't a million miles away from the slightly louder new wave of Power Pop and even skirts Punk.

'Til The End Of Time is agin great Pop Rock, this time very 70s and close to Classic Rock.Your Slave even treads into the 60s with its Garage Rock slurred vocal, sort of Noo Yawk street at times. Like A Bird sounds more modern, the rockier end of Brit Pop maybe?

The quartet don't come up for air, so don't expect any ballads. They even close with a song that gets into Psych territory and may be the best thing on the album. All in all, this is exceptional Indie Rock, beautifully performed and here to rock your socks off. Great stuff!

 

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Listening To This Week Playlist

A day later than usual, here is the new LTTW Playlist.  22 songs to make your week. After constant cajoling, a Spotify version will be organised within the next 24 hours. Remember that that is an addition and will start from scratch as we avoided that platform until now. Therefore, it will not have the following that we have elsewhere until it builds.

The Spotify version will be posted separately for this week and will then have a link on the weekly post from next week. It has been added as a precursor for I Do Hear A Single and is simply and only started to help artists to get a further audience. 

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. 

Safe Houses - Someday Is Starting Now

Tablefox - Digging In

The Blackburns - The Video Den

The Campbell Apartment - Winter 2028

The Speedways - Now That I Know How

The Jetglows - Daisy

The Jetglows · Daisy

The Supernaturals - Don't Let The Past Catch Up With You

Miracleworker - Set Your Aim

Grooblen - Like A Gator Does

Rare Phantom · isolamento

The Electorate - The Great Divide

Harrison Rimmer - Ripped Up Magazine

The Last Post - 1999

Milk For The Angry - Yeah, Yeah OK

Bryan Estepa - Version Of Me

Tugboat Captain - Thank God

Rare Phantom - isolamento

Rare Phantom · isolamento

Secret Monkey Weekend - So Much Joy

HLLLYH (fka Mae Shi) - Dead Clade

Don't Worry - Middle Finger

Black Moon Howl - Bad Bowl

Fluung - Starvin Heart

Fawn Breaks - Sharpened Eyes

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