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Showing posts with label Quivers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quivers. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 January 2025

I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2024 : 11-20

 



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.

The Top 10 appears tomorrow.


11 Custard Flux - Einsteinium Delirium     IDHAS Review



12 Feet - Make It Up      IDHAS Review



13 Log Flume - Splash Hit     IDHAS Review



14 Quivers - Oyster Cuts    IDHAS Review




15 Tom Minor - Eleven Easy Pieces On Anger & Disappointment     IDHAS Review



16 Tamar Berk - Good Times For A Change        IDHAS Review




17 The Vegetarians - Space Age Pagliacci      IDHAS Review



18 Custard - Suburban Curtains      IDHAS Review



19 Steve Robinson - Window Seat      IDHAS Review

  


20 The Trafalgars - About Time     IDHAS Review



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Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Quivers - Oyster Cuts


2021's Golden Doubt is beloved here and marked out the Melbourne Quartet as one to follow again and again. The album featured high up in our Best 100 Albums Of 2021, so there is a fair amount of excitement about the follow up.

The move to a bigger label, Merge Records, is totally deserved. All four offering vocals adds to the variety and they still do chirping up melancholic lyrics really well.but Oyster Cults sounds even more pensive. There is a depth that few manage without sounding maudlin.



The magnificent six minutes closer is mesmerising, hypnotic, yet sensual with its mood and weeping guitar. But this is just one part of what they do. Fake Flowers gets close to the intelligent Indie of the likes of The Sugarplastic.

Quivers are never going to rock your socks out, but when they stretch out and let loose a little, the results are just as outstanding. Apparition is the best example of this, wonderful slightly noisier Indie Guitar Pop par excellence with even a bit of Stones swagger instrumentally.



The title track starts all 80s Pop Rock with a vocal that is Stevie Nicks without the squawk. Grief Has Feathers even enters Paddy McAloon territory and Never Be Lonely is a great Pop song, maybe an 80s Pop song with a splendid laidback vocal.

Screensaver is so moving, instrumentally and vocally, almost Dream Pop. Oyster Cuts is an absolute gem, lyrically adept, soothing for the soul and beautifully arranged and performed. Intelligent in its aims and at ease with making the sad melodic. A band at the top of their game!



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


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Sunday, 19 May 2024

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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Friday, 28 January 2022

I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2021 : 21-30



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 21 : Quivers - Golden Doubt    IDHAS Review




No 22 : Kid Gulliver - Kismet      IDHAS Review





No 23 : The Green Pajamas - Sunlight Might Weigh Even More    IDHAS Review


 


No 24 : Tamar Berk - The Restless Dreams of Youth         IDHAS Review




No 25 : The Wry Dogs - Pigs Might Fly  IDHAS Review


 

No 26 : The Harmony Motel - Topical Depression       IDHAS Review


  


No 27 : The Successful Failures - James Cotton Mather     IDHAS Review




No 28 :  Electric Looking Glass - Somewhere Flowers Grow    IDHAS Review


 


No 29 : Chris Catalyst - Kaleidoscopes   IDHAS Review





No 30 : Surreal Prismatics - Conscious Dreams       IDHAS Review

  


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Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Quivers - Golden Doubt

 

Golden Doubt is a master class in writing and performing Indie Pop. After hearing the opener, Gutters Of Love, you think surely everything else on the album can't be as great, well it is. The concern whenever I see the Indie Pop label, part of me hopes that isn't going to be another earnest twee affair. Again, this isn't any such thing.

The Melbourne based quartet consist of Sam Nicholson, Bella Quinlan, Michael Panton and Holly Thomas. Nicholson is the lead vocalist, but all four sing and this is particularly relevant in the Backing Vocals of Quinlan and Thomas.



This vocal variety and interplay is one of the reasons that the album appeals so much, but the major strength is how the boundaries of the genre are stretched. The band have a reputation for Jangle Pop excellence, but the actual Jangling content here isn't that high.

When it does Jangle on a song like the splendid When It Breaks, it hits the spot and more, but it is the variety that hits home most. The title track is a melancholic man at the piano thing that is very Paul Heaton. You keep expecting it to break out, which thankfully it doesn't. That would just spoil the mood.



Videostores is part nostalgic, part regret and chugs along and mesmerises and Hold You Back could be Philly Soul. Nostalgia Will Kill You is a gem of a Pop song that would in most cases be the album stand out, but then there is Gutters Of Love.

Everything that you need to know about Quivers is contained in these precious four minutes. Initially, the song sounds very Deacon Blue, but then breaks into an incredibly chipper instrumental break and returns with an all sing along chant. An incredible song on an incredible album that will be up there in the IDHAS Best Of Year. 



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


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