Final review of 2022 and it's the big one - Best albums.

Now I didn't think there would be another good enough year where I could revert to a top ten but this year surpassed expectations with the quality of new music.

So in alphabetical order

• The Blackheart Orchestra - Hotel Utopia
• Josienne Clarke -  Now & Then EP
• Crippled Black Phoenix - Banefyre
• Hekla - Xiuxiuejar
• Indignu - Adeus
• Marillion - An Hour Before It's Dark
• Mortem - Slow Death
• Nerina Pallot - I Don't Know What I'm Doing 
• Emily Scott Robinson - Built on Bones EP
• A.A. Williams - As the Moon Rests

Most years it isn't possible to choose one album above the others but this year I can - and it is As The Moon Rests, the latest masterpiece from A.A. Williams 

 

First part of my 2022 review and let's start with my favourite half dozen stand alone singles - in alphabetical order:

• The Anchoress - Bizarre Love Triangle
• Jenny Colquitt - Soldier of the Modern Day
• Alex Henry Foster - Power of the Heart
• Maer - Sister
• Placebo - Shout
• Jo Beth Young - BRIGID

And my favourite gigs were:

Abrasive Trees at the Bread & Roses in Plymouth

Sulpher at the Cavern in Exeter

The double header of All Living Fear and Inkubus Sukkubus also at the Cavern

 Last review of the year and it's a short one..... 

As The Moon Rests by A.A. Williams - The review is you should/must own this album

One word constantly comes to mind when listening to this - SWOON

It's heavier than the last album Forever Blue but achingly beautiful and full of emotional longing. From the opening torch song of  Hollow Heart to the epic closing title track this is just a stunning album.

 

 First EP review of the year (and maybe not the last).... Built on Bones by Emily Scott Robinson is the story of Macbeth told from the three witches' perspective. 

It's an intriguing concept and with only six songs, very ambitious.

This is American Gothic writ large and based around some stunning three-part harmonies. Massive credit must go to Emily, Alisa Amador & Violet Bell for some of the best vocals I've heard this year.

The highlight is Double, Double which is the retelling of the famous witches' spell from the play. It's dark, sensual and menacing with beautiful sultry harmonies and ferocious blues guitar.

Some of the other tracks such as Men & Moon veer towards a more traditional country sound but are never predictable or safe.

For an EP it fits in a lot and not a minute is wasted. I would also recommend seeing the video for Double, Double which dials the gothic influence up to 11 and is visually perfect for the song.

An absolute certainty to be one of my albums of the year

The Blackheart Orchestra was a name I was familiar with via Prog magazine but not enough to fully investigate further so this time I thought I would give the new album a try.

Turns out I’d should have taken a chance earlier because Hotel Utopia is a fantastic album. For just a duo the sound they make is quite immense.

Under the Headlights was the first single and as good a representation as you need. The chorus just screams out to be played on commercial radio, as catchy as hell. Then, to change the pace a short-spoken word sample which leads on to section that I swear was lifted from an unreleased Hounds of Love track.

It has to be said that the spirit of Ms Bush does linger heavily in places – Safe wouldn’t be too out of place in one of her earlier eclectic albums

The chorus to The Warning is quite bonkers, “You, Me and the Holy Ghost and we all laugh like we get the joke” but again it just hooks you in.

With all the catchy pop there is also maybe a hint of Roxette to be found with the songs which is no bad thing.

Astronaut is the most straightforward rock song here while the closing epic 9 minute long The Flood gives the band plenty of space to musically indulge especially with a great guitar solo.

I probably should have given the band a chance earlier, but this is a great introduction so time to look deeper into the back catalogue

 A Crippled Black Phoenix album is always difficult to approach. The issue is you never get the same line up twice, apart from the ever-constant Justin Greaves.

This means albums ranged from some of my all-time favourites (I, Vigilante) to those that are just OK (Bronze)   

It’s a big old album of over 90 minutes with only 13 songs but it appears Banefyre is in the former category.

The opening track, Incantation for the Different, should immediately put off the casual listener consisting of a monologue about witches and Satan!

Ghostland with its ominous chanting and slow drumbeats sounds downright pagan and likely to summon the dead which I guess is the point  

The slow burning epic Blackout77 shows the best of Crippled Black Phoenix - full of brooding atmosphere, samples and pummeling drums.

Even the fairground organ from the earliest albums makes a brief return.

With three tracks exceeding 10 minutes there is plenty of time to indulge instrumentally and whilst sonically different, the shadow of Pink Floyd still hovers as large as it has ever done over this band. 

Put aside some time and indulge yourself in one of their best albums.

 And so we come to Still, the third album from Bryde – 9 meditations on the nature of love (and an epilogue).

First impressions are the album is less immediate than its predecessors, more downbeat and contemplative. The rock element has been decidedly turned down. 

Further listens reveal more lyrically, especially with some headphones and no distractions – Perhaps love has not always been Sarah’s greatest companion.

There are some great songs to be found - The propulsive Still (shadow) is probably one of my favourite Bryde songs already and the woozy dream like State We’re In (self) is another highlight.

This is an album that will probably get better and better with repeated listens.

I must also mention the artwork for the cover which is fantastic 

 

 Another one of those reviews that may as well be short as it is unlikely to get you rushing to the shops.

Author & Punisher is one man building his own drone / noise machines in an attempt to terrorise you ears.

Previous albums have sounded like factories collapsing topped with death metal like growls, so it was an acquired taste.

The latest album, Kruller does mix the formula up a bit. Firstly it introduces other musicians – Notably Danny Carey and Justin Chancellor from TOOL.

The music is also notably slower (and heavier) with more clean vocals. There is even a curveball cover is the form of Glory Box by Portishead.   

It’s all still a very marmite sound in that you either enjoy it or hate it - There's no middle ground really but it is a much more expansive and adventurous album than before.

I think more people would enjoy it if they gave it a chance

If anyone does read this blog you would be aware I wasn’t that keen on the last Nerina Pallot album, Stay Lucky was a bit too much wine bar jazz and ‘samey’ for me.

However I Don’t Know What I’m Doing is a thrilling return to form for the more adventurous and wilfully obtuse side of Ms Pallot.

Opening up the album with lush strings and a dance beat, Cold Places immediately suggests an album of wild variations.

The lead single of Alice at the Beach has a gorgeous summery groove and a nagging catchy chorus.

There are the more traditional Nerina style ballads, both piano (There’s a River) and guitar led (I Don’t Know What I’m Doing) but even then the use of the F word in both is bit of a surprise.

Master Builder could easily have come from the SoCal scene in the 70’s, even has a touch of Tiny Dancer about it. 

Packing 11 (and a bit) songs into 44 minutes nothing outstays it welcome and I can’t see you needing the skip button unless you find a particular bugbear

Maybe not quite matching my favourite album, The Sound and the Fury, but let’s give it time….

Seven albums in to her career and producing music this good is a fantastic achievement.

 Seems unfair to come to your first disappointing album this early in the year but it has to happen sometime….

It’s not that Manticore is a bad album but compared to the previous Shovels & Rope releases it is a bit of a let-down.

There are too many downbeat, almost pedestrian songs and it lacks the spit and sawdust feel of earlier albums. It’s almost like a polished AOR version of the band that you can chill out to at the end of a long day rather than the rowdy Americana they have previously treated us to.

On the upside the rollicking Domino which opens the album may be the best three minutes the band have committed to tape. It barrels along at a pace the rest of the album can only dream of and I dare you to sit still whilst it on.

The fantastic vocal harmonies are still there but I think I will need some evidence of a return to their bar room roots before I consider the next Shovels & Rope album

 Writing this review is probably a pointless exercise – Chances are if you hate the idea of a Black Metal album from then nothing I will write will change your mind….

Firstly Mortem were an early, influential band in the Black Metal scene but only recorded a few demos before all the members left for more well-known groups (Mayhem, Thorns, Arcturus). Now thirty years on they have reformed to properly record those demos as a new album, Slow Death.

Alongside the original five demo songs there is one other song from the same period and a cover of the Mayhem track Funeral Fog (sung in Norwegian).

With song titles such as Mutilated Corpse and Agonized to Suicide you can fairly well guess what it will sound like – a brutal hybrid of Death and Black Metal.

The album comes with original demo recording so you can compare and contrast. What the new recordings gain in better production and 30 years’ worth of learning to play their instruments, they lose in youthful energy.

This is a really good album IF you like your metal extreme and can live with the shrieking vocals but if that doesn’t sound like something you would enjoy then probably best to give this album a miss…

 Let’s restart the music reviews with a much anticipated release – The 20th (!) studio album from Marillion, An Hour Before It’s Dark.

This was never going to be a bad album but the big question was: Will it be as good as FEAR?

And the answer is very nearly.

The album is being described as the one where the guitars are bought back, but for me the star of this album is Mark Kelly. From the opening piano run in Be Hard on Yourself, his keyboard work takes centre stage and is quite brilliant.

The opening track of Be Hard on Yourself is state of the planet address but without the usual stilted sentiments. Lyrically superb it ranges from righteous anger (‘monkey need a new toy’) to breathless urgency  (‘we haven’t got long’) and the music drives along at quite a pace.

Reprogram the Gene is more of a stream of conscious lyric with an almost brutal change of pace between parts I and II before settling into an almost pop feel (reminiscent of the Holidays in Eden period)

Murder Machines is probably one of the best four minute tracks Marillion have ever recorded. A song about the pandemic with a bittersweet chorus to sing aloud and some soaring guitar from Steve Rothery.

The absolute jewel on the album though is the closing four part Care - a celebration of the NHS and those that helped us through lockdowns and Covid. From the almost funky opening to the choral crescendo where we learn ‘the angels of the world are not in the walls of churches’, it’s interspersed with lyrics and musical motifs from earlier tracks.  Fifteen minutes of perfection.

So why not quite as good as FEAR? Firstly the Crow and the Nightingale track, it’s not bad but there’s nothing in it for me to elevate it to the standard of the rest of the album. Secondly, I just don’t like the artwork – It looks like a child’s painting you would stick on a fridge 

To be producing music this good (number 2 in the album charts) when you are 20 albums into a career is nothing short of astonishing

 Thought it was a good time to restart the blog - there are already a load of great new albums to review (Marillion, Shovels & Rope, Mortem) and plenty more on their way (Bryde, Rosetta Stone, Nerina Pallot)

Rules are the same as before, no compilations, no re-issues and no live albums...  Just brand new studio albums that I buy this year.

Hopefully the first review will be up this week!