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!

 It’s been another funny old year for music…. 

Live music emerged slowly from hibernation only for it to look like it’s about to go back into hiding again

BandCamp Fridays became an essential part of our monthly routine and it does seem the EP (especially of covers) is very much back in favour.

I honestly can’t remember a year where I’ve bought so few albums but so many EP’s – therefore this year’s best of list is a combination of the two formats 

So in alphabetical order here are my top ten for 2021:

A.A. Williams – Arco EP (an achingly beautiful set of orchestral re-recordings)

Abrasive Trees – Without Light EP (could have been either of the EP’s from this year, but I love the atmosphere created on this)

Angel Olsen – Aisles EP (another set of covers but this time 80’s pop songs taken in strange and unsettling directions)

The Lost Trades – The Bird, the Book and the Barrel (lush vocal harmonies and a great set of folk tunes)

Mayhem – Atavistic Black Disorder / Kommando EP (3 original songs, 4 punk covers all in the inimitable Mayhem style)

Mork - Katedralen (the most brutal album of the year)

Public Service Broadcasting – Bright Magic (another outstanding concept album, a touch more danceable and electronic than before)

Tamarisk – Suspended Animation (80’s neo-prog bought bang up to date)

Then Comes Silence – Pestilence EP (a set of really well done gothic covers)

Sepultura – Revolusongs (only taken since 2003 for this to be officially released but what a set of covers)

 Its very likely that this week I watched Fish play live for the last time nearly 32 years after I first saw him.... It's sad because the big man has been such a presence in my life over the year (Exhibit A - I have a daughter called Kayleigh!)

As such I thought I'd look back at the gigs I've seen and some memories

1989 - Octagon Centre, Sheffield. Very brave to start your first solo tour in camouflage gear and with a cover song (Faith Healer). The set was still top heavy with the Marillion hits (Lavender, Kayleigh, Warm Wet Circles) and great to see the flying Brzezicki Brothers!

2004 - Carling Academy, Bristol. Skip forward to the Scattering Crows tour and we are down to one Marillion number (Market Square Heroes) in the encore. A very muscular set with Bruce Watson on guitar

2005 - Bierkeller, Bristol. The Return to Childhood tour and probably my favourite gig. Plague of Ghosts and the whole of the classic Marillion album. First tour I saw where a female backing singer was used and it really added to top rate band.

2007 - Phoenix, Exeter. First home town gig and the opening video for the Clutching at Stars tour was brilliant. A set list of my favourite solo album and favourite Marillion album was always going to be a winner

2010 - Orange Box, Yeovil. Strange little venue but rare outings for some songs from Suits (Jumpsuit City, Somebody Special)

2011 Thunderbolt, Bristol. An Acoustic Fishheads gig but my least favourite venue probably.

2012 Phoenix, Exeter. Slightly hazy on this one but I do remember a fair few songs from 13th Star

2013 Wharf, Tavistock. The Moveable Feast tour and early outings for songs from that album. Memorable for the impromptu rendition of Lavender after the PA blew!

2014 Phoenix, Exeter. The back end of the Moveable Feast tour and the songs are now tight and sounding great. 

2015 O2 Academy, Bristol. The Farewell to Childhood tour and unfortunately Fish's voice sound shot and the venue is too packed to be fun. My least favourite gig

2021 Cheese and Grain, Frome. And so to the farewell tour. His voice is much improved (though the lyric stand suggest the memory isn't) and a set list taken from Weltschmerz and Vigil is superb. The final encore of the Company is a fitting end for band and audience

So thankyou Fish for all the memories and slainte