Glastonbury’s a mudbath and the A37 is at gridlock. It can only mean one thing; the festival season is really getting into full swing, so it seems like the perfect time for Live4ever to revisit ten of our favourite albums from 2016 so far which we really do think you should be taking into those long summer nights.
Clicking on the links will take you through to our full album reviews, and any other half-year recommendations can be shared by leaving a comment below.
10: Eagulls – ‘Ullages’
“With time enough on their hands to not care much for all the easy allusions their music might substantively attract (The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Chameleons et al), there’s clearly sufficient room for them to become more studied, more fragile, but stronger for it. ‘Ullages’ finest moment is that, the blindingly carefree, wildly dissolute ‘My Life In Rewind‘, five and a half minutes of gloriously overwrought post punk pop, it’s a window thrown up onto accessibility street, more Morrissey than Curtis and a shimmering kiss goodbye to the chattels of looking any other way than straight ahead.”
9: Unloved – ‘Guilty Of Love’
“Holmes and co. take us on one hell of a ride, delivering powerful 60’s girl group pop on a massive psyche downer. It’s as if Phil Spector’s wall of sound was built to house a truly messed up psychopath and the wrongness is slowly starting to seep through. The record is big, actually very clever, and also extremely charming in a mistress of the damned kind of way. This dark beauty allows ‘Guilty Of Love’ to move past simple Jack Nitzsche and Italian easy listening worship/pastiche. It gives the lush orchestration of these sounds a new shade and texture. The record is all paranoia and pearls, every moment dark and delicious. One very special concoction indeed.”
8: The Coral – ‘Distance Inbetween’
“Throughout ‘Distance Inbetween’, The Coral leave no stone left unturned. Everything they try is natural, unforced and wonderfully detailed. It’s fascinating to listen to. While Skelly’s vocals are often restrained, tempered even, the music is pushed to its total extreme. This is far heavier psyche than The Coral usually put out. They’ve taken the powerful pace and potential of their self-titled debut and bent and warped it to its limits. Stripped of all of its commercialism and ‘pop’ sensibilities, ‘Distance Inbetween’ hits hard like ‘Shadows Fall‘ on ‘roids. It’s a 1970’s rock wet dream – even down to the Led Zep tinny string synth sound.”
7: The Shaker Hymn – ‘Do You Think You’re Clever?’
“Stand out track ‘Baltic Heart’ sees Sherlock bemoaning a lost love: “I’m lost, I’m lost, I must be getting soft, it’s not like me to let you get away” while ‘Another One Of You‘ stings with the motif of small town attitude and alienation (maybe that road trip wasn’t so bad after all), delivering the killer line “I don’t want to be another one of you” amongst swirling guitars and upbeat vocals of realisation that excitement and worldly education is out there beyond the confines of your town and its shackles. The Shaker Hymn realise this and are playing their hearts out of these restrictions, a nod towards the fact that it’s a big, round world out there the last time they looked. ”
6: Wild Nothing – ‘Life Of Pause’
“‘Life Of Pause’ is a record inspired by observing both the minuscule and large changes in life during the steady constant movement of time. Things are always changing, whether we recognize the subtly of that change or not.
Just over the course of a half-decade, Wild Nothing have carved out a specific niche within the indie realm, yet Tatum has quietly developed as one of indie rock’s strongest artistic visionaries. With each subsequent release he has sharpened, built upon and expanded his artistic prose. ‘Life Of Pause’ is yet another outstanding document in craftsmanship and expression from an act whose journey has been mesmerizing to follow.”
5: Tuff Love – ‘Resort’
“There’s also something of a quiet thrill even now to hearing what they do so well; opener ‘Sweet Discontent‘ coaxes first then prickles with a rare energy, whilst the mid-tempo scuzz of ‘Poncho‘, and ‘Carbon‘s pastel wistfulness, give an eloquent lie to the bass/guitar/drums as a creative straitjacket. Eisenstein and Bear have clearly woven influences critics can hear, derived of their own less prosaic influences a sense of timelessness that a genre which is all about the thrill of sugar rushes rarely communicates. That ‘Resort’ appears so effortless is mightily impressive, that it has surfaces and guile which survive close examination even more so.”
4: White Denim – ‘Stiff’
“The fuzzy driving train pulse of ‘Holda You (I’m Psycho)’ sounds like a precisely jumbled dice roll, its festival-friendly groove and drum build-up adding tension as Petralli and Horn’s guitars convulse towards a blistering crash. The shuffling ‘Real Deal Momma’ and knarly southern riffage of ‘Mirrored In Reverse’, meanwhile, both offer spontaneous and vigorous rock n’ roll whilst displaying the four-piece’s delectable knack of musicianship. Rock n’ roll bands such as White Denim are a rarity to find. They’re true rock n’ roll disciples, believers of its ethos. But beyond this they are marvelous musicians, able and willing to tap into a diverse palette of sounds and structures.”
3: Frightened Rabbit – ‘Painting Of a Panic Attack’
“In many ways this is the struggle of a man coming to terms with both his life and its surroundings in amongst the anonymity of a soulless vessel. There are no happy endings in that world or any other of course, much less the one realised on ‘Painting Of a Panic Attack’s final chapter, ‘Die Like a Rich Boy‘. On it, the singer muses on the affectation of, “If we leave this world in a Rhinestone shroud,” whilst a soporific cello hums the valedictory. Seemingly at one level about the famous being more celebrated in death than in life, it’s a coda which speaks both to the heightened vulnerability of those having their fifteen minutes and the absurdity of wanting.”
2: Savages – ‘Adore Life’
“Savages aren’t, of course, the first outfit unafraid to find affirmational joy in life’s more primeval impulses, but ‘Adore Life’s greatest moment of candour is in the half-title track ‘Adore‘, a bipolar exploration of an existence in which the mundane has been jettisoned and only the white knuckles of pure emotion that are left is vital. The song itself writhes, passing through phase after phase, at one point stopping dead in its tracks before a crescendo that could also pass for the light of consciousness blinking suddenly out. Words like visceral, maverick and intensity are ones used too often in relation to music which doesn’t remotely warrant it.”
1: Treetop Flyers – ‘Palomino’
“This triumvirate push ‘Palomino’ into being something more, something special. The Treetop Flyers’ abilities add authenticity to everything just by plugging in and opening their mouths. Not many bands deliver this kind of integrity, or at least haven’t in a long time. And it’s this authenticity that works so well, and makes for so many moments of true power. It’s like a wonderfully powerful, emotive and moving cousin to The Stands‘ ‘All Years Leaving‘. Bringing that album’s style and beauty forward, only this is rawer and hungrier. Which is something you don’t expect from a band making folk rock, but then why shouldn’t you? Maybe this is what folk rock was always meant to be.”
