I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2024 : 81-90

 

For the last eight years We have compiled annual Best Of 's  because these posts seem so popular and the aim of this Blog is to get exposure (and Sales) for the artists. A reminder that anything reviewed on I Don't Hear A Single is highly recommended. A reminder that only new albums are included among these 100.

Narrowing things down to this 100 has been really difficult. The 100 albums are posted in reverse batches of 10. For each album, A song is embedded from the album and a link is provided to the IDHAS Review where you can find further details and how to listen or buy the album.

81 Shenanygans - On Monte Verita      IDHAS Review

82 Mothboxer - Timelines      IDHAS Review

83 Lions Of The Interstate - Strange Empires      IDHAS Review

84 The Toms - Rock Paper Scissors      IDHAS Review

85 Bottlecap Mountain - Electric Love Spree     IDHAS Review

86 Them Elephants - Come Calling       IDHAS Review

87 Mountain Movers - Walking After Dark      IDHAS Review

88 Swiftumz - Simply The Best      IDHAS Review

89 Wesley Fuller - All Fuller No Filler      IDHAS Review

  

90 StoneDog - About Time     IDHAS Review

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Bottlecap Mountain - Electric Love Spree

 

We do love Austin Texas's Bottlecap Mountain. This is album Number 7 and as we've covered the previous three, there was no way we were gonna miss out. The band are one that evolves constantly and were as O! Fantastic Melody revealed their rockiness in parts, this new one again takes a different route.

The theme here is love, respect and kindness and that offers up a more laidback vibe. The songs concentrate on lower key arrangements. There is more simplicity, building compositions on a melodic strength that allows them to breathe. 

There is a Poppier feel, songs are built more on vibe and the strength is the sheer catchiness of the whole thing. Electric Love Spree may be the band's Summer Of Love album, but they do sound an act that is entirely comfortable in their own song.

The songs may be less complicated in sound, but they are just as engaging as what has gone before. In fact without the blasts, the album achieves much more than less, it underlines what a great band this is. Even the great Classic Rock of I Need Love could have let go, instead it washes itself in splendid Hammond Organ.

Peace Of Cake is a wonderful heartfelt storytelling song about family that may be Stewart German's finest songwriting moment, at over 7 minutes long, it feels more like 4. I've Got Loving For You is exactly the opposite, a chorus singalong that is a real altogether now 70s Pop song.

Tsarina Tsarina is all 80s Groove Smooth Pop and Freedom! 24 is more a campfire Bo Diddley Beat affair driven by more great Organ. There is even time for another 7 minute song in Really Gone which masters a Southern Rock direction. You just know that the next album will be very different and that is the beauty of this splendid band.

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

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Here Is The News

 

Nada Surf - Moon Mirror

A new Nada Surf is something to celebrate and of course we will do just that.  Moon Mirror is released on 13 September and is available on Vinyl, CD and as a download. The Vinyl and CD releases have a bonus 11 Track Demo Disc included. You can Pre-order the album here.

A new single, In Front Of Me Now, has been released from the album and you can listen to that below and buy it for just 1 dollar here.

Bottlecap Mountain - Electric Love Spree

Austin Texas's Bottlecap Mountain return with their 7th album on 4 June and the band are long term favourites of ours. We have reviewed the last 3 albums and this will be the fourth. They mix what's essentially Indie Pop Rock into all sorts of directions. A great example is the new single below.

You can pre-order the album here and buy the single, Freedom! 24 here.

Quivers - Oyster Cuts

Melbourne's Quivers's last album, Golden Doubt, was No 21 in our Best 100 Albums Of 2021. You can read the review here. The new album is released on 9 August on Merge Records. The band offer up beautifully written, arranged and performed Indie Pop, but are not afraid to spread into other areas.

The real strength is the vocals, all four sing and this leads to jaw dropping vocal harmonies on songs that are not your everyday affairs. You can pre-order the album on Vinyl, CD or as a download here. There are some great variations. It is worth noting that some prices are in US dollars, others in Australian dollars.

The first track from the album, Apparition, can be bought for 1$ here. You can also listen to it below.

Dropkick - Dot The I Expanded Version

Scotland's finest have being zipping up their boots and going back to their roots. Following on from the Expanded Version of Patchwork, 2008's Dot The I gets similar treatment with a release on 21 June. 14 Bonus Tracks (count 'em) are added in what is the first physical release of the album for 16 years. 2008 was the most prolific time for the band's recordings.

Dropkick are one of those bands that get many comparisons in reviews of others, maybe second only to Teenage Fanclub maybe in that department. Their blend of great Pop Rock that leans towards both America and the more recent Scottish scene. Often compared to Crowded House and long term favourites here.

You can order the CD and the download here. My favourite track from the album is below.

Nick Piunti & The Complicated Men - Bottle It

I was only thinking of Nick Piunti when reviewing the new Extra Arms album, which has been really popular on here. I do feel that Ryan Allen's lot have got nearer to what Piunti is noted for lately. Lo and behold, Ryan adds backing vocals to the new Nick Piunti single.

It really is great to have Piunti back, you forget how much you miss his melodic Pop Rock built on big choruses and tasty riffs and this is a fantastic reminder of how damn catchy his songs are. You can buy the song here and listen to it below.

Charming Arson - Saving Chelsea

One of the unexpected delights of Listening To This Week has been adding a younger audience to what we cover and in turn discovering new artists. Maybe the best example id Boston's Charming Arson, a band who perhaps a little rockier than normal.

They have a new single out and it is a cracker. Saving Chelsea can be bought for 1$ here. Trust me, this lot are going places. You can listen to the single below.

Pantomime Horses - Forever Polyester

I've been fortunate to have the album for a while and have been dying to tell you all about it. That will come as a review when the album is released on the 31 May. I have bored people rigid telling people face to face and on the phone etc, remember kids you can still do this, rather then pretend you've got loads of mates because of Facebook.

People who have heard the singles thus far, compare the Portsmouth Trio to Elbow, which I don't really see. There isn't the big arrangements and the album is far more lyrically adept. It reminds me at times of the intelligent Indie of the 80s and even our beloved Derrero and you know how much we adore the Welsh wonders.

The album will appear here. But, you can listen to the singles off it thus far there. I've just Lily Molita from those singles but any of the three suffice. The trio says that the album is just about tying up loose ends. Here's hoping that there is more to come than this gem.

Finally, a reminder that Here Is The News will now become a fortnightly thing, but it will contain up to a dozen articles. I simply just can't fit in a weekly edition with everything else that goes on around IDHAS.

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I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2023 : 71-80

 

For the last few years We have compiled annual Best Of 's because these posts seem so popular and the aim of this Blog is to get exposure (and Sales) for the artists. A reminder that anything reviewed on I Don't Hear A Single is highly recommended. 

Narrowing things down to this 100 has been really difficult. The countdown is posted in reverse batches of 10. For each album, a song is embedded from the album and a link is provided to the IDHAS Review where you can find further details and how to listen or buy the album.

71 It's Karma It's Cool - Thrift Store Troubadours      IDHAS Review

72 Phantom Note - Out Of The Shadows      IDHAS Review

73   Bennett Wilson Poole - I Saw A Star Behind Your Eyes, Don't Let It Die Away      IDHAS Review

74 Inner Circle Club - Do-It-Yourself Propaganda      IDHAS Review

75 Doctor Mother Father - Feelin' Fine      IDHAS Review

76 Billy Tibbals - Stay Teenage      IDHAS Review

77 Bottlecap Mountain - O! Fantastik Melancholy      IDHAS Review

78 Jonny Swift - Kalimera      IDHAS Review

79 The Housing Crisis - Astral Apartments       IDHAS Review

80 Bone Apple Tea - Bone Apple Tea      IDHAS Review

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Bottlecap Mountain - O! Fantastik Melancholy

 

I have become quite a fanboy of Bottlecap Mountain for no other reason than what a fine band they are. I'm not a great mingler with musicians, I'd have no time for reviews etc if I was. Since I stepped back a lot from Social Media, it has been even less. So music now is even more on what I discover myself, but there is the happy sound of a siren when returning heroes continue to deliver.

This is the Austin Texas quartet's sixth album and I came in at album Number 4. The IDHAS Review for Dismayland is here and the review for Fib Factory here. Both albums revealed an ability to offer variety without ever losing the quality.

Essentially an Indie Pop Rock band, they had no problem in stepping into Americana, Rock or Power Pop. Whilst doing this the lyrics were much deeper than you would expect and there was a social conscience that was always there in the background and sometimes right up front.

I hear something different here and I suspect it is down to natural progression. There is a much Rockier side to the album. They've always had this, but it has usually involved a looseness, here it is much more focussed without ever losing what the band are good at.

Fear not, there is nothing here to frighten the horses, there is plenty of what you might expect, but the departures invite even more applause at the range they can cover. My Little Demon is a wonderful joining of late 60s Rock and more than a dash of Metal with a Farfisa fighting to get in. It is superb.

The Ground even gets into Dylan And The Band territory yet still contains a wonderful piano accompaniment and you sense Blue Collar Rock fighting to get a turn without succeeding. Unicorn has a driving Bass line that dominates an awesome slice of 70s Mid West Rock. 

But there is plenty of beauty on show. Out On The Road is built on a riff that hooks you and contains a fine string arrangement. Ascension is built around a top notch motormouth delivery, but drenched in a meandering Americana melancholy.

Then there is the Pop Rock and probably the stand out song here, Canoe. It has a great Pop Vocal, matched by a booming riff and a surprisingly ace twee keyboard riff that breaks in. War Has Begun is short, heartfelt and charming despite its message

Dream On Come On is just about as Pop as Bottlecap Mountain will ever get and Astral Funk does indeed get funky.  Resurrection Blues is haunting and lonesome, a song that you expect to be sung in desert isolation by a cactus tree. Highly Recommended!

You can listen to and buy the album here. You can find out more about Bottlecap Mountain here. 

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Bottlecap Mountain - Fib Factory

 

The fifth album from Austin Texas's Bottlecap Mountain and a follow up to the excellent Dismayland which made the IDHAS Best 100 Albums of 2019. You can read the review of that album here. There are still traces of Country / Americana, but Rock dominates the album, wonderfully so.

Stewart Gersman reveals a lyrical excellence that wasn't obvious on Dismayland. The album sounds more than a bit 70s, particularly Tsar Tsar. Captain Boothroyd has a killer riff, again very 70s Pop Rock. Zihuatenejo is like a sort of Calypso funk.

Kool is all 70s New Wave Power Pop, Tin Can Belief is big Southern Rock and Big Dumb is very U2. The Country is still present, but in a much reduced volume. Bottlecap Mountain still do that incredibly well on Loser's Blues and It's Nothing New, but Fib Factory is all about the band's Indie Rock chops.

Just My Memories sounds like a 60's Death Ballad, Gene Pitney springs to mind. Tin Can Belief has a real College Rock vibe with its big chorus. Then there's Mr Mouse. a song about a errrrrrrrrr mouse, but with lots of hidden meaning.

My main take on the album is the strength of the song writing. It is big sounding and beautifully produced, but the lyrics are loud and clear. Those and the killer riffs make this a pleasure to listen to. A band at the top of their game! Highly Recommended.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2019 : 61- 70

It's been difficult to get these choices down to 100. I'm also not a believer in saying one album is better than another. Most of the time you are comparing Apples To Oranges. I'm not a List person, I just think what's the point.

However, for the last couple of years I have compiled Best Of 2019, normally I just said what my favourite album of the year is. I've done it again, because these posts seem so popular and the aim of this Blog is to get exposure (and Sales) for the artists.

There is no meaning or judgement on an album that is Number 1, Number 100 or not on the list. Anything that I review on here, mention on Social Media or play on the Radio Show is as highly recommended.

I would also add that the Top 100 includes albums available as Download Only. To suggest that they are anything less than equal to a Physical release is patently nonsense and omits many wonderful albums.

I will compile a Top 20 of Reissues and Compilations combined after all this is complete. For each album, I've posted a song from it and a link to the review, where you can find further details on how to listen or buy the album.



61 Traffik Island - Nature Strip      IDHAS Review








62 Rainbow Danger Club - Treehouse Empire       IDHAS Review








63 Mannequin Pussy - Patience       IDHAS Review








64 Doug Tuttle - Dream Road       IDHAS Review








65 The Gold Needles - Through A Window       IDHAS Review

66 Big Eyes - Streets Of The Lost       IDHAS Review

67 Bottlecap Mountain - Dismayland      IDHAS Review 

68 Fangclub - Vulture Culture       IDHAS Review

69 The Greek Theatre - When Seasons Change       IDHAS Review

70 The Needs - You Need The Needs      IDHAS Review 








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Bottlecap Mountain - Dismayland

Dismayland is the fourth album from Austin Texas quartet, Bottlecap Mountain and it rocks along or I should say Pop Rocks along. Both Indie Rock (an irritating tag that captures the man, the dog and the bus they came in on) and Austin are crowded market places. Hopefully, something great will rise above the mediocre and Bottlecap Mountain seem to have it.

The hooks and choruses work beautifully in these beautifully arranged songs, but what is particularly great is the looseness of the material. This is partially exaggerated by Stewart Gersmann's top notch drawl that really matches itself to the material.

There's a looseness that's not quite as all over the place as the Black Crowes matched with an almost Van Morrison feel, not in the actual vocal, just the feel.  They could certainly do Country Rock, but rightly don't, so we'll settle on The Jayhawks at times.

Having said all this, the album opens up with a stomper in Dismayland, a real in your face blast. The pace slows a tad after this, but it's still all at pace. This allows the band to show what they can do. For instance, King Of Almost is wall to wall Power Pop with a splendid Cars like Keyboard break.

The stand out here is the magnificently moody The Big Sleep, it is a crackerjack of a song. Golden Heart even veers into a Deacon Blue vibe, particularly in the chorus. Compliments And Such is a fine Jangling Pop song.


Dismayland is a fine fine listen. A step away from those never ending love songs. Wonderfully unconstricted, these are ten songs to sing along and toe tap to. It's a really accomplished set of songs. You will be delighted to have this album in your collection.

You can buy the album via the band's website here and everywhere else. You can listen to the album here. 


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