I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2024 : 71-80

 

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.

71 Evening Standards - The Shining      IDHAS Review

 

72 Mythical Motors - Seven Is Circular      IDHAS Review

73 The Rare Occasions - Through Moonshot Eyes      IDHAS Review

74 Wild Yaks - Monumental Deeds      IDHAS Review

75 Mythical Motors - Upside Down World     IDHAS Review

76 The Dynamo Hymn - The Dynamo Hymn       IDHAS Review

77 Joy Buzzers - Shake On It!      IDHAS Review

78 Boyracer - Seaside Riot      IDHAS Review

79 The Blackburns - The Blackburns      IDHAS Review

  

80 Your Academy - #2 Record     IDHAS Review

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Boyracer - Seaside Riot

 

Nick at the excellent Add To Wantlist suggests that Boyracer were always destined to write about and he's right. I look at Indie and it has become a catch all term for anything and everything. This is an album that defines what Indie should be about.

It is wonderfully chaotic instrumentally. Guitar riffs all over the place, wonderfully muddy at times, but incredibly melodic. If you like the Guitar, you will love this. The vocals are deliberately lower in the mix which allows you to appreciate the wonderful Guitar attack.

Those vocals are shared excellently between Stewart Anderson and Christina Riley, sometimes separately, sometimes together and even delivered alternatively by verse. It is a crack 5 piece outfit that not only fleshes out the sound, but allows departures into surprising areas.

There is the ace mix of 60s Pop and R and B of You Don't Love Me as an interesting departure, all fuzzed up of course. The Garage Rock of Rails is superb, the instrumental on Larkin could be prime time Blondie and the Bassline on Unknown Frequencies is totally hypnotic.

Boyracer rarely come up for air and here save it for the wonderful closer Homemade Fireworks which shows a different side to the band, a restraint that works beautifully. Incidentally, I mentioned that I hadn't heard whistling on an album for a long time and I've heard it for the third time in a few days now.

I suppose that you would call the band veterans now. There is something apt about their 15th album containing 15 songs. To be fair though, every album sounds as exciting as a debut and for that they deserve a big round of applause.

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

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