Oh, it was Sinner. 

Sinner is far and away the best track on the album. Even if we remove my issues with Nothing Matters, Sinner pisses all over it from a great height. This will be up there for song of the year.

This seems a bit like 2024's Wet Leg to me. It's the sort of thing that I should in theory like, but I simply can't fathom why everyone is going apeshit for it. I can pull Amanda Palmer/Dresden Dolls, Alphabeat and Kate Bush out of this, so I don't know why that doesn't coalesce into a fully fledged like.

9. j Mascis - What Do We Do Now 3/4/23




This was lovely to listen to, it's some real nice indie pop, and then, yes, let's let the guy absolutely pop off on guitar, which is awesome.

The problem is it's not much more than that, and I'm not sure there's anything worth a relisten apart from yo this is nice sounding. There's definitely an age on the voice now which makes me feel the passage of time and also makes some of the songs have a bit more weight but this overall felt like good noodly music by a nice guy. [6]

42. The Last Dinner Party - Prelude to Ecstasy (2024)



Would've been rude not to give it a go.  I didn't think much of it though, unfortunately.  Sinner is a great track but even that's not something I'd want to listen to regularly.  I couldn't shake the feeling that they're a bit of a novelty act and a grandiose mix of Katzenjammer, Lana Del Rey and Kate Bush isn't really my thing anyway.  Lots of energy, lots of fun, plenty of shrugs from me throughout. I've seen plenty of Amanda Palmer mentions recently and I get it, but the spark is missing imo.  I'll stick to The Jeep Song thx.

Listened to loads recently, some bits and bobs but haven’t written much of it down!

Bombay Bicycle Club - My Big Day
Indie Pop - 2023



Wonderful stuff! Started a second listen-through immediately after ‘Onward’ finished, mainly because I couldn’t decide which track I wanted to add to my ‘Must Listen’. The collaborations are for the most, excellent (including one of my songs of 2023, Tekken 2 (yes really) featuring the legendary Chaka Khan. The non-collab stuff works well too with some sounds that I wouldn’t expect from an Indie Pop band (‘Rural Radio Predicts the Rapture’). My main regret here is that I didn’t listen to it on release and left it until now.

Must Listen: Onward.

Another day, another person reviewing The Last Dinner Party.

I'll be honest I came in predisposed not to like this. The sheer weight of hype had led me to regard them almost sight unseen (ear unheard?) as a kind of indie Spice Girls - which on having actually properly listened to them is wildly unfair, they're clearly very talented indeed.

And, yes, Dante's right. Sinner is the track. Have you heard a lot of it before?  Sure - but it steals from all the best places, Kate Bush meets Queen meets Sparks is a pretty great recipe.

Other highlights for me are Burn Alive (which made me wish that Wild Beasts were still around), and Beautiful Boy, which had me from "the best a boy can ever be is pretty..." 

Elsewhere however it feels a little overproduced.  This is not a subtle record, even when it should be, and at times it feels reluctant to sit back and just deliver on the quality of the songwriting.  Like a writer who can't help adding metaphors when their opening line was already perfect.

I found myself admiring the skill, enjoying much of it, but also wondering whether they might not have been better still had they been left out of the limelight to develop for a while longer...  (Though I appreciate that's the death of many a wonderful band, so what the Hell do I know?)



Sadness Sets Me Free - Gruff Rhys

I feel like I need to give this a little longer as at first listen l felt it was a little flat, but by the third or fourth play through I'm starting to feel it may actually be a work of genius.  This is, of course, often the way with Gruff. Both on the Super Furries, and his solo works, I've often found myself going through the same "I'm not sure...Oh! This is amazing!" journey.

If nothing else, it's a record that tells you exactly what you're going to get in the title alone.  This is an an entire album about sadness, loneliness and the general shittiness of the world in which we live - set to music that makes you feel anything but.  

"Cover Up the Cover Up" is a gently twinkling epic that also happens to be a quietly whispered call to burn everything down and start again. "Celestial Candyfloss" is the track for the Super Furries fans, with lush orchestration over a lovely layered pop melody, whilst  "They Sold My Home To Build a Skyscraper" is a toe tapping samba number that is every bit as depressing as the title indicates it's going to be, albeit with a small nugget of hope.  "Bad Friend" meanwhile is the song I feel I need to send to everyone I care about with a hand written note saying, "I'm sorry I'm shit, but I love yer".  

Having complained that Last Dinner Party sometimes feels a little overproduced, I guess I should make the same observation here - though the sheen that's been applied feels very purposeful here, all in the spirit of making the shittiness shimmer.

Sorry this is not a review but my brain seen Face post about jazz and a drummer was mentioned so I'm just dropping this dude here for him

https://www.instagram.com/isacjamba?igsh=c3VyNDZhYzcza2tj

Can't remember if I've put you on him before or not, but God, he's sensational. A broad smile on my face hearing him go, every time.

44. Tim Dog - Do Or Die (1993)



Posted a track from a different album in the Hip Hop thread forthelols, then stuck around because I had nothing better to do.  It's OK.  I tend to like the way this sort of stuff sounds (constant raps over hard, repetitive loops), but if you listen to the lyrics it's 90% bollocks really.   

Has a track with KRS-ONE on it (I Get Wrecked), where both of them seem to be trading bars in the big-dogs-proving-our-skills zone, but they can both get rekt in this particular instance as - with all due respect to Kris for his service to the game - neither of them set the world alight as much as they think they do.  Timothy Dawg has a prominent lisp, so he gets an extra point for tenacity, but most of the record sees him either delivering weak homophobic/misogynistic/canine related wordplay (in one instance eventually adding 'mo' to the end of the word 'ho' to cover two bases at once) or literally rapping about how much he loves his Timberland boots.  It ends (after over 50 minutes) with a rollcall track, where he sends shouts out to literally dozens of superior artists.  Then goes on to thank 'all the female rappers out there', without actually naming any. 

Not awful, with some genuinely excellent beats in places, but I won't be digging any deeper.  Unfortunately we lost Tim Dog (to death) in 2013

Future Islands - People Who Aren’t There Anymore
Synthpop/Indietronica (2024)



Seen this featuring on a few lists for 2024 already. While it’s classified as Synthpop, it may well be but I prepare mine a little more upbeat than this and while some of the arrangements are accomplished, I just can’t get on with the male vocals - reminds me a bit of The National. Glad I tried it but happy to move on.

Must Listen: King of Sweden.

That Little Simz EP is on my listen-to list this week. Currently finishing off my second listen of The Last Dinner Party so will be able to add it to the log soon.

There were two to choose from on Tidal yeah

49. Tim Dog - Penicillin on Wax (1991)



I said I wouldn't, but then I did.  I'm fascinated by how mediocre some of the lesser-known 80s/early 90s era rappers are, especially when it comes to wordplay.  Granted, the whole scene was still in its infancy, but all this guy really seems to offer is the beef.  As far as I can tell he's not got the voice, the flow, the words, the style, the charisma or anything else you might care to judge rappers by (admittedly his always-back-yourself swagger stats are off the chart).  You'll hear him say 'Tim Dog' relentlessly over the course of the record - which course is over an hour long - and I get that reinforcing your brand is most definitely a thing in rap (there are many like it, but this one is special)....but it's such a rubbish name?  I'm not belittling it as an ExBox fanboy moniker because it fits the GAMES GAMES GAMES vibe, but I'm not having it as an appropriate handle for a GUNS GUNS GUNS guy who repeatedly calls out the entire city of Compton on maybe 65% on his tracks.  

Example of a Timbo's bar: 'I was mad, I was getting upset'.  He follows this up with a line about being strapped with gats, but the damage is done because in my head he's already cuddling a Cabbage Patch with his bottom lip sticking out. From the stupendously awesome/awful prison drama 'Goin Wild in the Penile': 'left, right, left, right, left left right! And he was out for the night'.  For context, he's describing his combos during a fistfight with a huge chap called Bruce (who was moving to the comparatively Tiny Tim in a potentially rapey way).  Also: 'you wanna fuck with the D.O.G, but you could never ever ever fuck with me'.  Never ever ever, Timmy?  Gold.  It's not the size of dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog (sorry T Dawg, Mark Twain said that one).  Elsewhere he says he'll flip someone like a pancake if they step to him, which was appropriate because I listened to it on Tuesday, but as far as smacktalk goes it can't hold a candle to Jo Malone.  It's all on that sort of level - at one point it sounds like he searches the word 'energetical' on rhymezone.com, then proceeds to spit out the results back to back (for the record: theoretical, copacetical, alphabetical, hypothetical).  Yes they all rhyme, but one of those isn't even a word m8.  Most of the skits are either Tim dissing the N.W.A, or west coast women associated/affiliated with N.W.A members discussing how good he looks.  I get that fanning the flames under the beef was big business, but it's all a bit desperate at times.

Tracks have titles like Fuck Compton, Step to Me, You Ain't Shit and I'll Wax Anybody, all of which do more or less exactly what it says on the tin.  Less menacing titles such as 'I Ain't Takin' No Shorts' and 'Secret Fantasies' might sound more like Drew planning a trip to Vegas, but the content is along similar lines to the rest.  BTW, Secret Fantasies is, without hyperbole (absurdily, superbally....cyberbully?) one of the worst tracks I've heard for years.  Absolute guff.  Also, I'd imagine this album would have been controversial in 1991 because he kills a cop on 'Bronx Nigga', which was surely a touch problematic.  

I tried to dislike it, but it's infectious and the beats on most of the tracks he's codswalloping over are great.  I'll probably do the rest now (I'm halfway through his smol doge discography already).  TiL that he was in the Ultramagnetic MCs for a time from 1989.  I've only got the album he's not on, coincidentally, but I think it's great (Critical Breakdown), so maybe I'll check the rest out to see if he ruins them.

Must Listen: Goin' Wild in the Penile, for sure.  Also: You Ain't Shit, which successfully teases an Average White Band sample throughout, without ever delivering more than a snippet.  Can't knock the DJ here.

Jalen Ngonda - Come Along and Love Me
Soul - 2023



Another discovery from my Discover playlist. Comparisons to Marvin Gaye/Smokey Robinson are inescapable. Silky smooth vocals, some toe-tapping guitar hooks make this a great listen and at under 35 minutes, an album that doesn’t outstay its welcome. With most of the songs at a similar length though, a small criticism would be that I’d like to have heard what he could do with a bit more time at his disposal (or maybe a guest appearance or two in a duet). Nit picking really as this was impressive for a fairly young lad. If he ever toured in the area, I’d be tempted to check him out!

Must listen: Come Along and Love Me

I guess. I’m assuming it didn’t perform as commercially as Blue?

50. Frontier Ruckus - On the Northline (2024)



Really enjoyed this but it's absolutely killed me this morning as I've been left trying to remember the name of the band I thought they were.  I've got a Frontier Ruckus album from 2010 (Deadfalls and Nightfalls) but it turns out the song I was thinking of isn't on that, and it's been so long I doubt I'll ever be able to place this other band now, unless I dig out my now ancient external hard drive.  The album cover looked a bit like this (but at night maybe?) And it was jangly wordy poprock with banjos iirc.  They were maaaybe from Portland - if not, it was just after that whole indie era anyway.  It would've been from 2009ish maybe.  I thought they had Frontier, or maybe Prairie in the title.  Did the song have a state name starting with O in it?  Who fucking knows. Welcome to my life.

Idles - Tangk



Really enjoyed this. It’s a lot “softer” than previous albums, but no less enjoyable for it.