Lots of things to be aware of today! For a start, it's National Clean Air Day 2026...
The Hollies - The Air That I Breathe
Let's hope the air stays clean, because it's also International Picnic Day...
Mickey & Sylvia - Let's Have a Picnic
Suede - Picnic By The Motorway
Doubt you'll get much clean air if that's your picnic spot of choice, Bret.
Modest Mouse - It Always Rains On A Picnic
There always has to be someone who spoils it before we even get there, eh?
Let's not bother. We'll stay in and embrace some clean water instead, for National Clean Your Aquarium Day. Any excuse to play something from these guys... ooh, wait - looks like they've got a new song out!
15. A fetching skyline.
Bring Me The Horizon - Avalanche
14. Definitely not The Numbers!
They're not numbers - they're free men!
13. Frankie in a submarine.
Frankie Valli goes deep...
12. Shades of sadness.
11. Their story's seldom told.
"I am just a poor boy, though my story's seldom told..." is the opening line of The Boxer.
10. Imprisoned businesswoman found in lad's navel.
Martha Stewart ended up in the nick. "Lad's navel" was an anagram...
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - Heatwave
9. Stargazing tools.
8. This fishtank's in a right state!
State, as in United States...
7. Important component in both telecaster and stratocaster guitars.
TeleCASTer and stratoCASTer...
6. Lancaster con man invests in Lou Reed libretto.
Burt Lancaster played the religious con man Elmer Gantry. Lou Reed was in the Velvet Underground. A libretto is the words from an opera.
Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - Volcano
5. Luggage for a German Underground singer.
Still with the VU, that would be a Nico case...
4. Cook up some Manchester rat recipes.
"Manchester rat recipes" was an anagram...
Manic Street Preachers - Tsunami
3. How Travolta expressed his love for Cortinas.
John ❤︎ Ford.
John Hartford - California Earthquake
2. Bloodsuckers move across your eyeline.
Transvision Vamp - Landslide Of Love
1. Turn the terrible page...
"Terrible page" was an anagram...
Peter Gabriel - Here Comes The Flood
Here's what the web of lies tells me the best of songs 2024 are. I can't say I've heard most of them, although I do quite like the one at #3 in the UK list (thanks to Sam)...
Benson Boone - Beautiful Things
Other than that, it's good to see Cliff is still popular... (We Don't Talk Anymore is #4 on the Billboard list?!)
We shall now conclude my own list, featuring two artists who haven't troubled the charts at all this year... or ever... and one act that is doing slightly better.
3. American Aquarium - The Fear Of Standing Still
My favourite Americana / rock band of the last few years return with another exemplary set of mature, emotive and occasionally devastating tunes. As frontman BJ Barham explains...
Ultimately, "The Fear of Standing Still" is a record about growing up and growing older. I am not the wild partying 21 year old rock n roll front man that I used to be. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I've been sober for a decade now. It's a record that proves you don't have to always be going 100mph to find success in this business. It's a record that says "it's ok to take a minute to reflect on how far you've come, not worry about how much further you have to go". For the longest time I thought that if I took my foot off the gas for even a second, I would lose all the ground that I had gained. Fatherhood changed that. I've found a really beautiful balance between rock n roll and family and I wanted a record that showcased that freedom.
And I've featured it here before, but this one may well be my song of the year...
2. The Indelicates - Avenue QAnon
Fortunately, I've been writing blogs a long time now, so I'm able to take you back in time for a little journey through the Indelicates discography, starting with their debut record, American Demo, back in 2008...
1. The Indelicates - American Demo
And finally, a band who - if there were any justice in the world - would have enjoyed similarly Elbow-like heights of glory in 2008. You're probably all sick of me going on about The Indelicates - but somebody has to! And if all my wittering has made them just one extra fan, it'll be worth it. I've said it before; I stand behind my opinion... Band of the Year - Album of the Year - Debut of the Decade. Nuff said.
1. The Indelicates - Songs For Swinging Lovers
They did it again.
Scoring my favourite album of 2008 with their debut, American Demo, the Indelicates returned to prove there's no such thing as Difficult Second Album Syndrome (and they're already working on their third). Broadening their musical horizons in all kinds of different directions (if I were a true muso, I'd namedrop Kurt Weill and the like - but what do I know about these things?), this is further proof of their genius. Witty, angry, iconoclastic, tender, surprising, joyful, intense, uncompromising... etc. etc. etc.
The most exciting band of the 21st Century.
Why aren't you listening to them?
2. The Indelicates - David Koresh, Superstar
1. Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Apologies to The Indelicates then, it would have been nice to let them win three albums in a row, but brutal honesty must give the award to Frank Turner this year. Truth is, any one of the albums in the Top Five would have been a worthy victor in less exciting years.
16. The Indelicates - Diseases of England
Considering every previous Indelicates album has made my Top 3 come the end of its release year (and their debut is still my favourite album of the 21st Century), Simon and Julia will probably be disappointed at a Number 16 placing (yeah, like they give a shit). Diseases of England was a fine record by anybody else's standards, but a little too all-over-the-shop to form a cohesive whole (it didn't help that they released it in three chunks due to financial hardship). Still great: just damned by comparisons to its predecessors.
11. The Indelicates - Elevator Music
A new Indelicates album is always a source of great excitement in this house. This is the band who, with their debut single, created - if not my favourite song of the 21st Century, then certainly the one against which I measure all others. "I love it... but do I love it as much as We Hate The Kids?" The answer is invariably no.
Five albums in and things have changed a lot for Simon and Julia Indelicate. They're no longer the darlings of the blogosphere, as they were back in 2006/7. Those kids they hate won't ever hear their music nowadays... and neither will many other people, save the devoted few. They're not cool anymore (where they ever?) and despite running their own record label, and recently becoming parents, you get the feeling time has passed The Indelicates by. Which is one of the greatest tragedies in "popular" music, if you ask me. But you didn't, did you?
All that said, there's really nothing to stop them making their latest album another (totally unhip) concept album, based around a mind-stretching sci-fi story about "the singularity, virtual realities and the generation stuck between space ages". If nobody's listening, you can be true to yourself and do whatever you like: and thus is true art born.
Anyway, I've listened to this record quite a bit and while I don't quite agree with the band's pronouncement that it's their best yet (if I did, it'd be Number 1, not Number 11), it's certainly their most varied and experimental. While their last concept album, 2011's excellent David Koresh Superstar, shared Trey Parker and Matt Stone's unabashed loved of huge American musicals (along with a splash of the South Park boys' irreverent humour), this one goes for broke with earthy folk songs, lush piano instrumentals and (as on previous records) huge rock numbers that sit firmly in the Venn diagram intersection between Bertolt Brecht, Carter USM and Jim Steinman. Beyond the moments which echo Public Service Broadcasting's lamentation for the death of the space race, I've no idea what any of this is truly about, but it is the most honest and individual record you'll hear all year, completely unconcerned with the vagaries of fashion. A lot is written these days about the death of indie, but that's just hogwash. The true spirit of indie will live on as long as the Indelicates are making their own music their own way.
1. The Indelicates - Juniverbrecher
The death of Little England through Brexit, parochialism and Saville. This staggering musical banishing spell urges hope.
The Indelicates remain my favourite band of the 21st Century. They are responsible for the most exciting single of the millennium so far (We Hate The Kids) and a series of albums that are always surprising, witty, literate and fun. They embrace a wide range of musical styles, from guitar pop to glam, embracing Brelian theatrical pomp and Jerry Lee Lewis piano. They're not afraid to admit to loving Jim Steinman. They're also indie in its most pure sense, having proudly resisted any kind of record deal since 2009, setting up their own label (Corporate Records) to promote their work and that of like-minded souls. They won't suck up to the music press (30 years ago, the NME would have been all over this band: the fact that they ignore them now is testament to what the NME has become) or radio (I'm always amazed that Lamacq doesn't support them). They are a cottage industry who rely on a loyal fanbase and word of mouth from the blogosphere to get their music heard... and I'm happy to play my (miniscule) part in helping promote their new record, Juniverbrecher. Because it's a record we need now more than any other.
1. Yard Act - Where's My Utopia?
So. After devoting so much blog-space to the record at #2 this year, how can I honestly justify placing Yard Act's second long player one space higher?
Is this album just at Number #1 in a desperate attempt to appear relevant and vaguely "cool" in the eyes of the cognoscenti?
Am I voting for Yard Act purely because they're from Leeds and they shoot their videos in Huddersfield?
Didn't Yard Act have the unfair advantage of having released their album back in March, while The Indelicates only put theirs out in late October?
All the above is probably true.
What can I tell you?
On the other hand, none of that should detract from the fact that this is a very fine record indeed, equal parts Pulp, Happy Mondays and... well, JC says The Fall, so I'll go with that.
The only complaint I have about Where's My Utopia is that they couldn't find room for the stand-alone single which preceded it, Trenchcoat Museum, because that's in a bitter fight with The Curse of Growing Old to be my song of the year (even though it was released late last year).
Even if they lose that battle, Yard Act still win Album Track of the Year for this...
Before we start this week's Coffee Break... I need your help.
Louise was telling me last week about a record her dad used to play when she was a kid. Apparently, towards the end of the track, you can hear the sounds of police knocking on the door and the band quickly flushing away the illicit drugs they were smoking before the rozzers knocked. Despite extensive google searching, I've been unable to work out what this song might be... so I'm throwing it out to you guys. Any ideas?
Half Man Half Biscuit - Oblong Of Dreams (#1 in 2022)
For as long as I've had a blog, I've filled most of December with a year end countdown of my favourite albums (and on my old blog, I used to do films, books, TV shows and comics too).
Frank Turner - I Haven't Been Doing So Well (#2 in 2022)
Since 2018, I've been doing a list as long as the final number in the year - 18 for 2018, 19 for 2019... last year, it was my Top 22 of 2022, but I think it's fair to say that the top four at least were all better records than anything I've heard this year.
Craig Finn - Messing With The Settings (#3 in 2022)
That's not to say it's been a bad year for music. A lot of my favourite artists have put out new discs (or, in Kevin Morby's case, not bothered to put them on a disc at all, just plonked them on the interweb), but none of those records felt like they came from performers at the very top of their game. Unlike the ones I selected by Half Man Half Biscuit, Frank Turner, Craig Finn and American Aquarium this time last year.
American Aquarium - Chicamacomico (#4 in 2022)
I'm also frustrated by the fact that December is never the best time to decide your favourite albums of the past year, since you're still listening to half of them and haven't even heard a bunch more. A good example of this is that I just managed to squeeze the most recent First Aid Kit album into my Top Ten last year after only a few listens. I then continued to listen to it well into the summer, by which time my appreciation had rocketed - it's equally as good as any of the records mentioned above.
First Aid Kit - A Feeling That Never Came
Anyway, the way I feel right now is that there's been a lot of great songs this year, but not as many great collections of songs. (This opinion may well have changed by next March.) Many of the old faithfuls delivered, but didn't quite scale previous heights. That doesn't bother me - I'm not one of those people who expects every record to be better than the last one. But I just didn't think I could subject you all to 23 reviews of 23 albums I liked, but didn't quite love. I managed to cobble together a Top Ten, just like in the old days (sometimes I have to remind myself what this blog is called), but the rest of the time between now and the end of the year, I'm just going so share some of my favourite songs. Like this one...
Spanish Love Songs - Lifers
4. American Aquarium - Chicamacomico
I’ve posted a couple of tracks from the latest American
Aquarium record this year, and the response has been deafening tumbleweed. Undaunted,
here they are again…
I’ve been running in circles most of my days
And I still can’t find a path that keeps me out of my own way
From a long line of losers with bad luck in their veins
Carrying the weight of a lifetime of mistakes
They say time is the cruellest trick of all
You’re riding high, next thing you know
Your back’s against the wall
You can’t take it with you when you go
And we’ve all got to die someday
When it all turns to black, we’ll be left looking back
At all the things we lost along the way
For what it’s worth, the new American Aquarium record is very good. I’ve had it on rotation in the car since June and by now I know the words to every song and sing along at full pelt when they come on. You know, like we used to do when we were kids. This might sound insane (or maybe not: see above) when you consider that songwriter BJ Barham lists the themes of this record thus: “Loss, Death, Darkness, Suicide, Divorce, Losing A Child, Losing A Parent, Losing A Spouse, Addiction, Recovery.”
I swear I’m gonna lose my mind
If I have to hear about God’s plan one more goddamn time
I’m just staring at the sky, begging for an excuse
I never knew hard until I took apart
That room that never got used
Hardly sounds like a rousing singalong collection, does it? And yet, this is an amazingly uplifting album. BJ has obviously been through a lot this past couple of years, but not all the above stories are from personal experience. Barham has a Springsteen-esque skill of creating very believable characters that blur the lines between fiction and autobiography. Even the most emotional songs are tinged with hope though. The key word in that list then is “Recovery”. It’s a hugely cathartic album. Maybe that’s why it meant so much to me.
As I was writing this review, I did something I haven’t done
in a long time. I was pootling about on the band’s website, gathering info for
some of the above and I noticed they were playing in Manchester in February. On
a Friday night! So, I bought a couple of tickets. I don’t do that sort of thing
any more, and I certainly can’t afford it. I might not even go. But I wanted to
give something back to American Aquarium, because they’ve certainly given me a great
deal over the past couple of years. More than most, they understand the
cathartic power of music.
It was a spiritual change
I’m no longer the same, I’ve turned a page
In one afternoon, a three minute tune
Was my coming of age
