Nick's Albums Of The Year

I'm always slow to kick of January. This is largely because the first half of the month is always awash with Best Of The Previous Year lists and so ends up with people searching backward rather than the forward I prefer.

I can tell you that 2017 was one of the better years for the music that we like and knowing what's coming, 2018 promises to be exceptional. So as I don't feel out of kilter, here's Nick's Best 15 albums of 2017. It's also heartening to look at other writer's lists and see that we haven't missed much.

I've mentioned previously that Nick Fletcher is essential to what has become a surprisingly popular Blog. We talk about the new a lot and get excited when we hear something that we haven't heard before.

For every gem that I come up with, Nick responds with another. Our tastes sort of meet in the middle. He's into Country, Americana and AOR and I'm Psych and Prog, but the Pop and Rock middle ground is where we collide and you see the benefit's here.

Nick now lives in Sweden and so whilst I am left battling with the frustrations of shouting loudly in an empty UK room, he's busy chasing Elks. So here you have Nick's 15 Best Albums of 2017. The list is alphabetical, not position related. So any of these albums is the winner.

Captain Wilberforce – Black Sky Thinking

Cheap Trick - We're All Alright!

Daisy House - Crossroads

Dream Machine – The Illusion

Fastball – Step Into Light

Per Gessle – En Vacker Natt

Boo Hewerdine – Swimming In Mercury

Ian McNabb – Star Smile Strong

The Mono LPs – States Of Decay

The Popguns – Sugar Kisses

Chris Price – Stop Talking

John Southworth – Small Town Watertower

Sparks - Hippopotamus

The Sunset Spirit – From The Top

Pete Wylie – Pete Sounds

Album Of The Year Delayed Announcement

The plan was to announce the IDHAS Top 10 Albums Of The Year tomorrow night in a sort of simulcast with the KOR Radio show. This has now been postponed until next Friday (5 January) due to technical problems at my end.

The KOR show was to feature songs from the ten best albums with explanations from me as to why I chose them. But the elaborate Mic System here has gone down and the commentary using internal Mics on PC or Mac sounds dreadful.

A replacement Mic will arrive tomorrow, but the deadline for me preparing tomorrow's KOR Radio Show is 8pm UK Time tonight. So I will move the announcement fanfare back a week. Tomorrow night's show on KOR will be a normal new stuff edition, a sort of swap as that would have been broadcast next week.

Everything else remains the same. On New Years Eve there will be a Mixcloud Special with the albums you have as your Album Of The Year with an explanation why from the nominator.

On New Years Day night, it will be the IDHAS Oscars winners posted on the Blog. This will be spoof style a la NME / Smash Hits of years gone by. I'll post the playlist of this week's radio show on heare as usual tonight.

So the excitement and buzz of how wise we are will just be delayed, frustrating, but unavoidable. This is the third Snowball Mic that has gone down this year.

I Don't Hear A Single Album Of The Year

2016 has been a strange old year. The deaths have been well covered elsewhere and here at ASH Towers, we've had an unusually chaotic second half of the year that has put our lives in perspective. After a quiet first half of the year music wise, the second half of the year exploded and coincidentally, the I Don't Hear A Single Blog was here to cover it after going public in July.

People who know me, know I don't do lists. Part of me doesn't see the point, but more relevantly, my favourite albums change weekly, daily, hourly, so any list would be a snapshot of that particular time of day.

I would say that anything that has appeared on here is worthy of anyone's record collection. We only review what we like and if it does appear on here it's because it's a great offering from the artist involved. The Blog isn't sycophantic, we just don't review what we don't like.

I've always made an effort to name my own album of the year and I give it great thought. This year has been the most difficult. due to the quality. The likes of Greg Pope and The Nines have produced stunning albums. Sugarbush Records has had an outstanding year and those vinyl releases have been a joy.

For the first time ever I couldn't decide between two albums and after much consideration, I've copped out and gone for joint albums of the year. I must emphasise though that anything on here was in serious contention and I urge you to browse through the archive to listen to the artists featured.

It has been the year of Michigan, fantastic albums from Ryan Allen, The Legal Matters and Nick Piunti have ensured that, but my joint album of the year has to be Nick Piunti's Trust Your Instincts. The third in a trilogy of albums that have threatened to breakthrough and bring Power Pop to the masses, Trust Your Instincts should finally achieve mainstream success for Piunti and appears to be doing so. It's an object lesson in how to write and perform great Power Pop.

You can read the review here.

The joint selection is because one other album grabbed these ears just as much as Nick's album. New Jersey's Somerdale released their third album and it's the kind of record that people seem not to make any more. Pop Rock from a bygone age that would stand up with any album from that mid 70's genre.

Shake It Maggie is getting lots of attention in the UK and Europe but deserves a much wider audience.

You can read the review here.


The great news is that there's far more great stuff to come. I'm so far behind on reviews, that there's plenty more great stuff to recommend.