Nite Songs

  So here we go then, our favourite ten albums of 2020. Big thanks once again to everyone who's given this site a read over the last six months since we set it up and taken an interest in the demented gibberings within. And quite frankly, I think we can all agree, good bloody riddance to this awful year. We'll be back in 2021 with the usual mix of reviews and features but we're going to take a few days off to recuperate after how insanely busy December has been here. We're just about caught up with our review backlog now so we figure we deserve a bit of a break! Have a great New Year whatever you do folks and we'll see you on the other side... *** 10. BEANS ON TOAST - "Knee Deep In Nostalgia" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review )/"The Unforeseeable Future" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Released on the same day, these two albums show the two different sides of Beans on Toast. While Knee Deep In Nostalgia , produced by Frank Turner, was a warm and gentle full studio a...

  Getting close to the top of the chart now as we enter the alliteratively alluring Nite Songs' Top 20 albums of 2020. Some crackers in here and no mistake. 20. SPARKS - "A Steady Drip Drip Drip" ( Review ) Scary to think that Sparks are now almost half a century into their careers. And scarier still that they're still putting out albums as great as A Steady Drip Drip Drip  way after most of their contemporaries had given up the creative ghost. Taking in the group's formative glam stomp as well as excursions into everything from samba rhythms to music hall stylings to pure pop, this is just as much of a joy to listen to as ever. Great stuff. *** 19. DIABLOFURS - "Neon Satellites" ( Review ) With controls firmly set to the new wave era of the early '80s. Nottingham glitter merchants Diablofurs came up with one of the best debut albums of 2020 mixing Tubeway Army style electronica with pure power-pop sensibilities to great effect on tunes like Rival Gr...

  And so we reach the halfway point of our Albums of the Year rundown. Bring on the Top 30... 30. HELEN LOVE - "Power On" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Still as endearingly enthusiastic about everything as ever, this latest album from indie veterans Helen Love provided a much needed dose of sunshine, sherbet and singalongability when the world needed it most. Songs such as Debbie Take Control Of The Stereo  and Dead In My Head  were a real delight with the band putting their stamp on the material in their own inimitable style. Long may they reign. *** 29. FAZ WALTZ - "Rebel Kicks" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Still Italy's premier exponents of '70s style bootboy glam, Rebel Kicks  is another good offering from Faz Waltz. Sure, the influences are nothing you won't expect - Slade, T-Rex, Mott The Hoople but when the result is cracking tunes like the Stonesy Born In  The Wrong Time  and the strutting Chuck Berry style riff of Last Train To Nowhere , it's well and ...

  So here we go, part 2 of the end of year rundown as we reach the Top 40. Cue up one of the old Top of the Pops themes if it helps with the atmosphere for this bit. Anyway... 40. PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS - "Viscerals" ( Bandcamp ) Unquestionably the heaviest album on this list, it's easy to get put off Pigs x7 (as I will refer to them here to save space) by the hipster-ish name but lurking within Viscerals  is a brutally heavy guitar assault with Sabbath-heavy sludge-metal riffs on tunes like Reducer , Crazy In Blood  and Hell's Teeth  which sink their teeth into you and refuse to let go. Slightly terrifying on your first listen, oddly addictive by your fourth. *** 39. RIZ AHMED - "The Long Goodbye" ( Bandcamp ) Best known for his role in the excellent film Four Lions , The Long Goodbye  proved that Riz Ahmed is a hell of a talent as a musician as well. A furiously angry diatribe from the point of view of a British Muslim which compares his relati...

  So here we go - the inaugural Nite Songs Top 50 Albums of the Year. And what a bloody weird year it’s been... Twelve months ago I was genuinely convinced that I was done with music journalism for the foreseeable future. Pure Rawk, the webzine I wrote for at the time, had just gone into prolonged hibernation (soon to emerge though hopefully...) and I'd also just moved back to my native Bradford after a decade living in the south east. The plan was that I was going to get out and start living again, start going to gigs as a fan and enjoying them for what they were, finally get a new band of my own going seven years after the last one split up, learn to enjoy life as a music fan again really. And then Covid happened. Gigs stopped. In fact, social life as a whole pretty much stopped. Bang went the idea of starting a new band, of going to gigs, of pretty much doing anything really as I also lost my job as the company I worked for cut costs (thankfully my spell on the dole would only l...