St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club - Into Your Heartbeat

 

St Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club are a five piece from Stockholm. They've featured regularly on Listening To This Week and now we have the resulting second album and it is really rather good. Essentially Guitar Pop, but a swirling organ takes them in different directions.

Those directions take many paths through UK Beat, New Wave, 80s Indie Guitar Pop, Mod Pop and Brit Pop. The keyword is catchy and with big riffs, Brass and memorable choruses, the pop element rings true. Until We Meet Again is one of the singles that you've heard and that may be the best example of what they do.

Led by Jimi Sebastian, but very much a sum of their parts, the band have an ability to speed things up or slow them down perfectly aided by surprise twists and turns instrumentally and vocally. Songs change moods part way through in unexpected ways.

Lemonhead Cabaret is almost Music Hall and a little Steve Marriott Small Faces cheeky chappie. Golden Parachute even gets a little Housemartins in vibe and Penguins Of The Ghetto mixes 60s UK Beat with Brit Pop in the style that made the latter genre great.

Sailor Girl closes the album and goes all Folk song with a big hint of sea shanty. Into Your Heartbeat is an album that underlines the glory of intelligent Pop demonstrating that it does have to be one thing, it can branch off. What a fine album!

You can listen to the album here. It is available on the excellent Beluga Records label on Vinyl here. You can find out more about the band here.

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Mythical Motors - Seven Is Circular

 

Our adoration of Mythical Motors knows no bounds. Regularly reviewed on here, deservedly so, culminating in Upside Down being our Album Of The Year last year. That album takes some following, but MattAddison is so prolific that we knew it wouldn't be long before we got to know if it could be.

Mythical Motors have a reputation of being a more melodic, chirpier Guided By Voices and I get that, but there is far more contained within than that. His Power Pop is second to none and when he ventures into our beloved Psych Pop, he nails it. 

However, he is not afraid of stepping well outside his box. Here, for instance, on Queen Domino, he gets very Lindsay Buckingham and follows that with a magnificent Baroque Pop affair on Slow March To Clown City, sounding a little Adam Faith vocally.

That is the beauty of a Mythical Motors album, no two songs are the same and here you have 20 and the quality is consistently high. Not many exceed two minutes and that say what you wanna say and get off attitude means that if one song doesn't quite take your fancy, you know the next one will.

The Psych Pop of Sister Blank brought a massive smile to my face. Apollo's Ashes is wonderful Power Pop and Impossible Symmetry goes all C86 with a wonderful Jangle part way through. The Tunnel Keeps Moving is another example of how well Addison masters Psych Pop.

I can't ever recall a bad Mythical Motors song. It is deliciously lo-fi at times, but incredibly inventive with the Pop never far away. The delicate vocal is a great antidote to the complex unexpected arrangements. I've started to get excited whenever a new album arrives and I couldn't give a bigger compliment as down at heart, I am a cynical miserable old git.

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

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Ell Freeman - A Hard Place

 

Sometimes, in fact too many, I look at how regional the UK has become and despair. I see and hear what is happening in the States, Australia and Europe, I despair for us here in Brexitland, so when you hear something refreshingly great, you should hold and treasure it.

London's Ell Freeman is such an example. His debut EP, pushes all the right buttons and thankfully isn't another version of the same thing. The EP is also another example of how the Listening To This Week Playlist is opening up the longer player releases. It was what we always wanted to achieve, but it has took a while to get there.

A Har Place opens up with a big slab of UK New Wave in Cold Shoulder. It is a cracking melodic shake your fist sort of thing that owes just as much to the Classic Rock of the 70s. Uptight goes one step further with big Glam Rock overtones.

Even when the pace. is slowed down a little on Middle Finger Moments, the song can't help bursting out. The whole EP is built on big choruses, riffs and unexpected directions. This particular song, jangles a bit, but also steps into Psych Pop instrumentally.

Music Only Knows closes the album with a more Acoustic gentleness, but also contains a magnificent Verden Allen like Organ run. A Hard Place is beautifully performed and arranged, really really listenable. I just can't wait for more.

You can listen to and buy the EP here. I say EP, but there are almost 24 minutes of music here, so this is more of a mini album. You can find out more about Ell Freeman here.

https://ellfree.bandcamp.com/album/a-hard-place

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Listening To This Week Playlist

Packed out this week with 33 songs. Everyone a winner!

I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here. 

Tamar Berk - You Trigger Me

Sunbuzz - Desiree Today

Ben Newgard - Mind Eraser

Shake Some - Every Little Noise

Curling - Radio King (Stereo)

Slowly Slowly - Forgiving Spree

Librarians With Hickeys - Hello Operator

Zulitas - Why Don't You Love Me

5606 - Are You Happy Now?

St. Jimi Sebastian Cricket Club - Stockholm Central Station

Shining Bird - No Silver Lining

RedPrint - Inner Court

Owen Marchildon - Weather Girl

Velociraptor - Falling

Collly - The Shakers

Peacebone - Never Run Away

ABOE - Same Old Sound

Paper Space - Plastic Limbs

Dan Cook - When The Morning Comes

Emunclaw - I'm Scared I'll End Up All Alone

Object Unto Earth - Plea To The Abjurative Warden

Slung - Neurotic

Sound Thing - Something

Holotropics - Open

Andy Alexander - Gilded

x2 fast - Chameleon

Kelsey Montanez - Kick The Habit

Baccuda - The Beach

Duckboi - I Don't Want To

the small house movement - Coffee & Tea

Eleanor Henderson - Screaming Out Of Neverland

Futura Free - Folded

265 South - Looking To The Clouds

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Mountain Movers - Walking After Dark

 

New Haven's Mountain Movers are well into their second decade and the phrase "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" was ready made for them. Over the last eight years or so, they have grown and grown an audience as they moved away from the Jam Band scene into something much more deep.

I spent a good while in the Jam Band scene in the late 90s / early 00's and although it was a fine place to be, with really engaged and great people, it was a bit self fulfilling, all self contained, no one sort of broke away from that scene. It was dominated by bootlegs and live performances.

Part of my remit has been to show that we are not just about crashing chords and big choruses nor angular Indie and gently, bit by bit, brick by brick, guide followers to the joys of music outside of our comfort zone. This has worked in a way, particularly with Psych and Prog.

Mountain Movers are a quartet who fit into both of those genres, yet are also quite a few steps away at times. You are likely to hear Bongos, but also synths. The music is more of a soundscape, ethereal in a way. A mixture of instrumental and vocal.

They aren't afraid to tread into Folk or even gentle Space Rock. Songs are built around riffs that are never gonna burst an amp, but are incredibly melodic and hypnotic. At times, there is a real chill out feel to proceedings, yet the Psych, in particular, is incredibly engaging. 

A double album may not be the best to place the start, but it is where the band are currently at and they move on quickly. Thought the long and short songs, I would urge listeners to make the time to listen to Walking After Dark from start to finish, Listening as such underlines the joy of the album format.

You will note that I haven't embedded or chosen any of the songs for this post. That is deliberate, hopefully encouraging you to listen to the whole offering.

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

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Deer Tick - Contractual Obligations

 

I adore Deer Tick. I would admit that if they had only ever released Sea Of Cloud, a song for the generations, that would do me, but they just get better and better. I mentioned during my review of last year's Emotional Contracts that the song selection was pared down from many more.

You can read that review here. Contractual Obligations consists of 8 of the songs that didn't make that album. Suffice to say that these songs would match others' fresh offerings. The band have such a fine ability to mix genres seldom seen elsewhere.

Deer Tick mix Indie, Rock and Americana in such a melodic way. I can only think of The Successful Failures who are able transform Americana into something nearer Guitar Pop. Here, though, only Goodbyes enters Americana territory and that adds a great orchestral like close.

This is a great Rock album, at times Indie Rock, built on big choruses and riffs, you can sing along and still shake your fist. Sacrosanct isn't a million miles away from Power Pop. Waisting Time has a real Brandon Flowers feel to the vocal which is matched to a killer riff. 

The Last Book On The Shelf is great Classic Rock, even Blues Rock at times and Life Insurance sort of mixes The E Street Band with Ska, I Know!, but it works so well. Big Black Hearse could be a Revue song, very The Commitments.

Die On A Hill is more 12 Bar, but adds an interupting Flute that makes you think that Ian Anderson is guesting. Then there is On Fire, the strangest thing here and it is short but enthralling, almost Robert Plant 70s mode with psych overtones. I don't hear a better Rock band around than Deer Tick presently.

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

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Tamar Berk - Good Times For A Change.

 

I  have mentioned in the past that I consider Tamar Berk to be one of the best female singer songwriters around, if not THE best. As she reaches her fourth solo album here, the previous three have all appeared in our Best Album Of The Year lists,

Berk can be gentle, scathing, laidback or in your face and provide you with a song that just engages you. There can be some lazy comparisons to Sheryl Crow or Aimee Mann. Neither is really true, but she can do both. She certainly has Crow's way with a chorus and Mann's emotional depth, but there is much more on show.

Coming from an Indie background allows a willingness to be angular, but also there are killer Guitar Pop songs. If we were using a Crow / Mann meter, the dial would flick more to Mann, but we are not. Certainly, the heart that is constantly on Berk's sleeve is most relevant here.

The variety on show is best explained by the two songs that bookend the 12 here. Good Impression is a wonderful upbeat Pop song about the mid 80s obsession with workouts and self improvement. But the real killer song is Comin' Around To Me Again.

That closer is a song of two halves. The first part is a breathy emotional affair, beautifully sung, but then the song just explodes into a Psych Feedback Guitar sensation that just shakes you up and makes you realise what a talent the lady is.

Compare those songs to what is contained inside. I Don't Mind is more straight ahead, melodic West Coast Pop Rock of the highest order, a song that gets better and better and catchier and catchier as it progresses. But compare that to Sorrow Is Hunting and the stunning Guitar lines and moodiness.

Overall, the album may appear a little quieter than those that precede it, which is not a criticism because Berk always masters melancholy and excels on Millennium Park where moody meets a wonderful Baroque Pop, almost European arrangement.

The quirkier moments resonate best with these ears. The Indie 90s joy of You Trigger Me, a song that you can dance to sounds so fresh.Artful Dodger is part Power Pop, but also enhanced by a splendid Brass arrangement that is more 60s Studio in feel and all this chipperness is matched by lyrical putdowns, the type that Berk does so well.

Good Times For A Change just enhances Tamar Berk's reputation further, no easy task four albums in. Through all the mighty arrangements and surprise directions, the lyrical strength shines through. Listen to this and then buy it. Talent deserves reward!

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

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Listening To This Week Playlist

Shorter than usual at 25 songs, but quality oozes from every pore.

I do hope that you can listen to all the songs across this week. The last listed is as great as the first and you have plenty of time to listen. This weekly playlist is solely for submissions, not the usual stuff that we dig out ourselves. 

All embeds open in new windows to aid scrolling. Links to the artists will also appear on I Don't Hear A Single Social Media sites over the next 24 hours. This will help you to discover more about the artists who appear here. 

I Do You Do Karate - Peanut Carter

John Wlaysewski - Running Out Of Time

Emy No Joke - Keep On Partying

McGet - Hundred Versions

Blue Orchid Reaction - Tiny House

Loopole - Candles

Caldwell - Love Confessions

October Man - Vessel

Tom Emlyn - Kafka

Charles W Hammell Jr - Peace

Dear 25 - Belgium

Sister Ghost - I Bite Back

Happy Accidents - Dog Day

Touchdown Girl - Fallen

Neato - Quiet Thing

The Backfires - Dressed For A Funeral

An Overnight Low - Between Is My Keep

Chas Leman - The Last Boy To Be Picked At Football

Grumpy Custard - Kleptomania

Michael Barrow & The Tourists - Over It

Gary Twinn And The Long Shadows - I Know, I Know, I Know

The Stone Souls - Small Stone

Hard-Ons - Buzz Buzz Buzz

Bunchy's Big Score - Scrapbook

Sol Feo - Lucy

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