I Don't Hear A Single Best 100 Albums Of 2025 : 51- 60

The IDHAS Best Albums Of 2025 reaches the halfway point.

 

51 Glowbox - Bland Ambition      IDHAS Review

52 Fib - Heavy Lifting      IDHAS Review

53 Cream Soda - Serving You      IDHAS Review

54 Dropkick - Primary Colours      IDHAS Review

55 The Convenience - Like Cartoon Vampires      IDHAS Review

56 Soft Hearted Scientists - The Phantom Of Canton     IDHAS Review

57 Melin Melyn - Mill On The Hill    IDHAS Review

58   Iain Hornal - Return To The Magic Kingdom    IDHAS Review

59 This Will Destroy Your Ears - Funland     IDHAS Review

60 The Easys - Feeling 101     IDHAS Review

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Iain Hornal - Return To The Magic Kingdom

 

We are big fans of Iain Hornal. He seems to be on a four year cycle of album releases as his third arrives after 2017's The Game Begins With The Lights Out and 2021's Fly Away Home. Both of those albums featured high up in our Best Albums Of The Year. You can read our reviews here and here.

This is Pop Rock of the highest quality. At times there are comparisons to Hornal's sideman jobs in Jeff Lynne's ELO and 10CC, but it should be remembered that these are bands that celebrate their past, new material is a long time ago. Here you have the now, new songs that delight.

The centrepiece is The Magic Kingdom, the jauntiest of jaunty affairs, that even sideswipes the ELO vocoder and offers up a real wonderland listen. But throughout, the melody smashes through, massive choruses, beautifully sung.

There are surprise interventions and slight changes of direction, but these never detract from the song. There are also footprints into other genres. Just My Personality gets close to Psych Pop at times and Over And Out mixes Jangle Pop with Prime Time 70s Pop Rock.

There are nods to what has gone before. Already There is prime time Andrew Gold and the single, Positive People still sounds as wonderfully Glam as ever. But that song and many of the others makes you realise that this is not just about the singalong.

There is a lyrical adeptness throughout, unusual in Pop Rock when easier rhymes are lazily used. Return To The Magic Kingdom. however, is a tribute to the power of the Chorus and the album is chock with them. When you have finished singing along, you can head off and buy this bundle of joy.

You can listen to the album here. You can buy the CD and Download here. The CD is available at all good Record Shops.

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I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2021 : 31-40

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 few years I 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. 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.

There are few rules. All albums have to have been reviewed on IDHAS. Reissues and Live Albums are not included. Previously unreleased albums are included, but Best Of's are not. For each album, I've posted a song from it and a link to the IDHAS Review where you can find further details and how to listen or buy the album. 

No 31 : A.M. Slingers - A.M. Slingers    IDHAS Review

No 32 : The Gold Needles - What's Tomorrow Ever Done For You        IDHAS Review





No 33 : The Junior League - Bridge And Tunnel     IDHAS Review

No 34 : Iain Hornal - Fly Away Home          IDHAS Review

      

No 35 : Ex Norwegian And Friends - Sing Jimmy Campbell     IDHAS Review

No 36 : Peter Hall - Light The Stars      IDHAS Review


  


No 37 : Mark & The Clouds - Waves      IDHAS Review

No 38 :  The Legal Matters - Chapter Three    IDHAS Review

  

No 39 : Byron Rimes - Byron Rimes Greatest Hits   IDHAS Review 

 
No 40 : Steve Robinson - Swallowing The Sun       IDHAS Review

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Iain Hornal - Fly Away Home

 

It seems like only yesterday that I was singing the praises of Iain Hornal's debut album, The Game Begins With The Lights Out, so I was a bit gobsmacked to discover that it was four years back. You can read the IDHAS Review here and that debut still sounds great.

There were quite a few guests on that album and I mentioned that Hornal would be just as good without them and that gets proven here. Working essentially with Jo Webb, his fellow touring bandmate in Jeff Lynne's ELO and Paul Stewart on drums, this was a lockdown album. But what is most admirable is that it sounds like a studio album despite all involved being in different places.

That enhances the enjoyment and affect because Pop Rock should be big sounding and the past 12 months or so hasn't seen too much melodic pop because of this. Iain Hornal is also in 10CC, being Eric Stewart if you like. On the quieter numbers here, he does have more than a touch of Stewart. 

It'll be no surprise then to hear that Fly Away Home, as an album, occupies the sweet spot between 10CC and ELO. There are some real hooks present that demand the choruses be sang along with. Try A Little Love, for instance, starts all Paul Carrack moodiness only to burst into the catchiest chorus imaginable. You can't get the thing out of your head. 

Fly Away Home has another killer chorus and Everybody Else is wonderful McCartney Pop, very Graham Gouldman-ish with a touch of Philly. How Much It Means is spot on Soft Rock and Find A Home is a beautifully constructed, almost west coast, piano ballad. There's also a co write with Gouldman on I Can't Tell You.

The stand out here though is the opening Wake Me Up, Drop Me Out, a song that contains everything that you would ever need. My one slight criticism is the running order. Hornal does fast or slow equally well, but the album does seem to have too many of the slower songs at the back end of the album. 

It almost becomes a Side Chirpy and Side Cry. The quality of the songs is fantastic, it is just the sequencing that seems a bit out. I really can't recommend this second (definitely NOT saying Sophomore!) album more highly.

You can listen to and buy the album here.

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Hornal - The Game Begins With The Lights Out

Iain Hornal has been a long in demand Session Musician as well as part of Jeff Lynne's ELO and 10CC's touring outfits. He was also excellent solo support on last year's The Feeling Tour. He steps out of the shadows with Hornal's excellent solo debut.

For a blog that states that they don't hear a single, I know I know, it is ironic, I'd like to think that I know a great single and any debut album needs one. Well this has got just that, the fantastic She Doesn't Have Anyone is simply poptastic.





She Doesn't Have Anyone will get comparisons to The Feeling, but to these ears it's more like Robin Zander's Reactionary Girl. The guest appearances add a lot to the album and it's wonderful to hear Graham Gouldman and Kevin Godley on the album closer, Say The Word.

In fact it's like a dream for IDHAS and ASH followers with Matt Berry doing his spoken word Stephen Toast bit. The lead guitar is also a cross between 10CC and ELO. It's an epic six minutes.




Dan Gillespie-Sells and Ciaran Jeremiah guest on Pictures Of Past, a song that sounds nothing like The Feeling, it's more Simon and Garfunkel. Anna Krantz's guest vocal can only take Different Places down the Country / Folk route and it does beautifully. You'd expect Billington And Quinn to do something similar, but Jennifer is more Take That.

It's not about the guests though, Hornal don't necessarily need them. Caledone is McCartney at the piano and beautifully moody, Quit You is so West Coast, Staring At The Sky could be The Alan Parsons Project. Any Other Way could be Paul Carrack in his heyday.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor is really underrated as a solo artist and the two songs that she appears on are ace. Dangerous Men starts with a Chic like Intro, has a Bowie like verse and then a dramatic chorus. Running Away is a splendid duet, very different to what surrounds it.




The Game Begins With The Lights Out is a wonderfully constructed debut album. The guest appearances add to the album, but don't detract from whose album it is. It is a cracking album, well worth getting the card out of your wallet. It's superb.

You can buy the download at the likes of i-tunes here. It is also available as a CD or on Vinyl here.