I Don't Hear A Single Albums Of The Year 2022 : 91-100

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. A reminder that anything reviewed on I Don't Hear A Single is highly recommended. 

This year, the standard has been the highest since I DHAS began six and a half years ago. Narrowing things down to this 100 as been really difficult. 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 91 : Starter Jackets - Dead Malls       IDHAS Review

No 92 : Phil Angotti - Once Around Again          IDHAS Review





No 93 : The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness - The Third Wave Of        IDHAS Review

No 94 : The Airport 77s - We Realize You Have A Choice          IDHAS Review

No 95 : The Confusions - Black Silhouettes      IDHAS Review

No 96 : Bigger - Les Myosotis     IDHAS Review

 

No 97 : The Stroppies - Levity      IDHAS Review





No 98 : The Smivets - Mountain Highway     IDHAS Review

No 99 : Fontanarosa - Are You There?   IDHAS Review

No 100 : The Wheel Workers - Harbor    IDHAS Review

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The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness - The Third Wave Of

 

The collaboration between Dropkick's Andrew Taylor and Gonzalo Marcos of El Palacio De Linares reaches a third album. You know that anything with Andrew Taylor in it is gonna be good and to be fair there is a lot with Andrew Taylor in it. 

Through Dropkick, this, solo and his work with The Harmonizers, his warming vocal is always a pleasure to hear and in this and The Harmonizers work, there are differenet directions. The latter was a little more Americana and Country, The Boys With Perpetual Nervousness head towards Big Star at times. 

It is a more polished Big Star, but there is something magical when the material gently rocks out. Look Back is a great example of this, it is still melodic and harmonic but a greater pace and there's also a nice little keyboard addition.

Old Pictures Of Ourselves is very Del Amitri, wonderfully so, whilst In The Right is particularly Posies, again beautifully done.  Isolation is a lovely lovely song with a fine Country Twang and benefits greatly from the addition of Mary Lou Lord and a wonderful Psych Pop like jangle.

Old Ways is beautifully stripped down and aches splendidly whilst Out Of Time jangles along soothingly with an extended instrumental Outro. The album default is unsurprisingly somewhere between Dropkick and latter day Teenage Fanclub and there is something really reassuring about this.

There have been a lot of TFC references around in the past decade, thankfully these have slowed considerably as they were becoming as cliched as XTC mentions. However if one person deserves comparison, it is Taylor. The man is never involved in anything that is less than great and this album is certainly that.

You can listen to and buy the album here and here.

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Kool Kat Musik Weekly New Release Update

Welcome to the Kool Kat Weekly New Release Update. Kool Kat are distributed in the UK and Europe by I Don't Hear A Single as part of our aim to keep CDs available and affordable. The Kool Kat Links with each album take you to further details on each release.

THE KOOL KAT 10% OFF SALE is now on and runs until Sunday, February 28!   Over the years the sale has been held traditionally in January, but due to delayed delivery issues within the US Postal system, Kool Kat decided to hold off until the system was running a little smoother.  If paying by credit card, the discount will be applied to your order at checkout.  If paying by PayPal, you will be refunded the difference upon receipt of the order.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS SALE APPLIES TO NEW CDs, AND USED CDs.  ALL MULTI-PURCHASE DISCOUNTS (2-FERS, ETC) AND ALL NEW RELEASES ANNOUNCED IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY 2021 ARE NOT ELIGIBLE.  YOU MAY WANT TO ACT QUICKLY – WHEN KOOL KAT RUN THESE TYPES OF SALES, A LOT OF TITLES SELL OUT AND ARE NOT RE-STOCKED.  IF THEY ARE OUT OF A SPECIFIC TITLE OR TITLES, THE DISCOUNT WILL STILL BE APPLIED TO ANY THAT CAN STILL OBTAINED IF YOU WISH TO HAVE THEM KEPT ON BACKORDER.

Please place all UK and European orders by following the details here. Links to Kool Kat's Entire Stock can be found here. Without further ado, here are seven new additions to Kool Kat Musik this Week.

The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness - Songs From Another Life (Kool Kat Musik) 2021  $14   

NEW RELEASE ON THE KOOL KAT MUSIK LABEL – AVAILABLE FEBRUARY 19 – ACCEPTING ORDERS NOW!  The band's second album opens up the range of influences, more American, more exuberant and present a powerful sound with arrangements that make us dream of better days.  Never hurried, never wavering, without the quirky inflections that much musical modernity insists upon in their frontmen, Andrew Taylor’s is possibly the most perfect voice in jangle Power Pop at present.

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

Beachwood Sparks - Beachwood Deluxe (Curation Records) 2021      $15

                                                   

A companion piece to the 20th Anniversary reissue of Beachwood Sparks’s eponymous debut album, “Beachwood Deluxe” is a rare sonic glimpse at where the band was in 1999.  Electric 12/6 string jangling guitars, sonic exploration and soft country psychedelia. The tracks are some of the only proper studio recordings to feature original guitarist/singer, the late Josh Schwartz.

Kool Kat Link

Apple Music Link

The Lickerish Quartet - Threesome  Vol.2 (Stranger Danger Records) 2021      $12

Three Quarters of Jellyfish offer up stellar performances and once again, they blaze a trail that reminds you of the previous days, but is certainly not a retread of the old sounds.  Great Pop Rock that trades on hooks and melody.

    

Kool Kat Link

Apple Music Link

Vanilla - Limerence (Charlatan Record Cartel) 2020      $12

The fourth album from Vanilla, turns a years worth of digital-only monthly releases from 2020 into one full-length album.  The melodic indie-pop band from the US Pacific Northwest features Jayson Jarmon (formerly of Liar's Club), Sean Gaffney, and Mark Simmons. Beautifully written, chorus driven gems.

Kool Kat Link

Bandcamp Link

The Beachers - 1963-1966 (Gothenburg Sound Sweden) 2020      $18

Relative to the size of the country, Sweden had a ridiculously large number of 60’ s beat groups: The Beachers, The Beathovens, The Beatmen, The Shakers, The Shakemakers and The Shamrocks to name a few.  With only eight million Swedes it feels like half of them must have owned a guitar back then.   Along comes the extremely cool 23 track CD anthology by The Beachers, a great beat/R&B group from Gothenburg. Once billed as “Sweden's ugliest group”, their complete 1963-66 recordings are here.

   

Kool Kat Link 

Adam Marsland - Go West 2CD (Karma Frog Records)      $10

NEW LOW PRICE!!  2009 2CD offering from the former Cockeyed Ghost frontman that was hailed at the time as his best ever effort!  It’s an undertaking that operates logically in two ways: it's a highly engaging Pop Rock conception or dig a little deeper and it is an engrossing journey from hope to despair and back to hope. 

Kool Kat Link

Soundcloud Link

Adam Marsland - Daylight Kissing Night – Adam Marsland’s Greatest Hits (Karma Frog Records) 2008      $8

NEW LOW PRICE!!  A handsomely packaged, 2008 collection of 20 pop songs now offered at an artist-breaking budget price, that heralded Adam Marsland's return to full-time music making. Not so much a retrospective as a reintroduction, all the previously released songs are remastered along seven newly recorded tracks that are exclusive to the collection.

 Kool Kat Link  

Bandcamp Link

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