Nite Songs Best Of 2020 - Top 50 Albums (Part 5 - The Top 10)
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...
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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 album designed to offer some comfort with positive thoughts in these troubled times (the gentle My Favourite Teacher and the heartfelt Once Upon A Time being particular highlights), The Unforeseeable Future was a stark stripped down effort recorded in lockdown with BOT just trying to make sense on what the hell was going on via songs like Human Contact, Trying To Keep The Lights On and Save The Music. Beans on Toast really are a national institution and these albums show exactly why we should treasure them.
Described by Hamilton as his self-discovery album, Nowhere To Go But Everywhere was written while road-tripping across the States following his divorce and the overbearing need to get away from everything for a bit. Veering from the pure pop of Jesus and John Lennon and Oh No to quite beautiful downbeat numbers such as We Gave It Hell and Don't Fall Apart, this was Ryan channelling his feelings through his music to superb effect and proof that this guy is definitely going to be in it for the long haul.
With their fifth album, Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions have come up with arguably their strongest offering to date. Split almost half and half between their traditional punk aggro on the likes of Hard As Nails and This Is Fucking Shit and a more melodic almost power-pop sensibility emerging on tunes such as Broken Hearts Make Better Songs and Football In The Sun (Ossie Ardiles), this is the sound of a band really drawing on their experience to take things to the next level. Make no mistake, the Eruptions have definitely established themselves as power-pop-punk masters with this one.
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Baby Chaos' fourth album (and their second since reforming) might just be their best to date. It mixes all the best bits about their old sound on The Wild Beast and Everything I Counted On Has Been Proved Wrong to the more melodic heartfelt stuff which they made a name for during their years as Deckard such as I Belong In Battle and the quite lovely Cut Through The Ocean. Supremely varied but with killer hooks and tunes throughout, this is the sound of a band well and truly hitting their peak.
A worthy follow-up to the SGC's 2013 debut A Postcard From Britain, Get Back Into The World was Captain Sensible and Paul Gray letting their love of garage rock and psychedelia loose and creating a great album while doing so. One minute they're sounding like a psychedelic Madness on the title track and the next they're kicking out the jams with the Who-indebted So Long. It brims with ideas but although it goes on more twists and turns than a rollercoaster, it never loses its focus throughout. Cap and Paul can congratulate themselves on a job well done here.
London post-punks Girls in Synthesis are basically Idles but even angrier and more discordant. Now Here's An Echo From Your Future is anything but an easy listen but the sheer fury and frustration at the world contained within its grooves makes for one hell of a compelling listen with The Images Agree, Scrapped and They're Not Listening being particular high points. It'll leave you probably needing to catch your breath from the sheer ferocity afterwards but rest assured you'll be wanting to cue it up for another listen as soon as you're ready.
It's good to see Hastings' noisiest back in the fray after a slight hiatus and with Live Fast Or Die, Maid of Ace might just have come up with their strongest effort yet. It's certainly their angriest with the riffs given an extra dose of heaviosity and songs like This Is War, Repent and Energy burning with a white hot fury that scorches your ears through the headphones. Maid of Ace are continuing to get better all the time and with this one they've established themselves as one of the best punk/metal crossover bands in Britain today.
With 2018's Bombs Away, Duncan Reid reaffirmed himself as one of the best power-pop songwriters in Britain today and with Don't Blame Yourself he's very much done it again. While Little Miss Understood, To Live Or Live Not and the Monkees-referencing Ballad of a Big Head bring the sheer pop rush, the more measured Oh What A Lovely Day, Tea and Sympathy and Dave show that Reid can vary the pace up with the best of them.
Foul-mouthed, ferocious and with a sense of humour as black as coal, the emergence of Dead Sheeran was probably one of the few positive things to come out of the lockdown as his initial EP followed by the A National Disgrace album was a searing inditement of the nation every bit as furious as Bob Vylan and Idles came up with on their releases this year. However, DS knows that sometimes when you're staring in the face of meltdown all you can do is adopt the gallows humour approach and he does so to brilliant effect. It's rare that a song can make you absolutely incendiary with rage at what the bastards in power are doing to this country and then make you belly laugh just a few seconds later but the likes of Can Things Get Any Worse?, Pick For Britain and Keep Your Distance definitely manage it. A much welcomed voice of protest, hopefully we'll be hearing more from him in the year ahead.
2020 has given us more than its fair share of state of the nation addresses and will probably be remembered as the year when alternative music really did go properly political again. Yet it was an experienced campaigner in the form of Jim Bob and his first album for seven years which really seemed to capture the zeitgeist like no other. Harking back to his halcyon days with Carter USM but with a more measured approach in line with his solo albums, Pop Up Jim Bob really was the best of both worlds with the ferocious 2020WTF rubbing shoulders with the more measured fury of Ted Talks, #thoughtsandprayers and If It Ain't Broke. Yet while the closing statement of resignation You're Cancelled And We're Done seemed to be a statement of "fuck it, it's not worth it", the likes of Kidstrike and Truce at least attempt to hope for a scenario where we might just find our way out of this. Quite simply, this is Jim Bob at his ultra-observant best with a good mix of old and new and that's why it's my Album of the Year for 2020.
10. BEANS ON TOAST - "Knee Deep In Nostalgia" (Bandcamp) (Review)/"The Unforeseeable Future" (Bandcamp) (Review)
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9. RYAN HAMILTON & THE HARLEQUIN GHOSTS - "Nowhere To Go But Everywhere" (Bandcamp) (Review)
Described by Hamilton as his self-discovery album, Nowhere To Go But Everywhere was written while road-tripping across the States following his divorce and the overbearing need to get away from everything for a bit. Veering from the pure pop of Jesus and John Lennon and Oh No to quite beautiful downbeat numbers such as We Gave It Hell and Don't Fall Apart, this was Ryan channelling his feelings through his music to superb effect and proof that this guy is definitely going to be in it for the long haul.
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8. SPUNK VOLCANO & THE ERUPTIONS - "Barry Milner Is Thick" (Review)
With their fifth album, Spunk Volcano & The Eruptions have come up with arguably their strongest offering to date. Split almost half and half between their traditional punk aggro on the likes of Hard As Nails and This Is Fucking Shit and a more melodic almost power-pop sensibility emerging on tunes such as Broken Hearts Make Better Songs and Football In The Sun (Ossie Ardiles), this is the sound of a band really drawing on their experience to take things to the next level. Make no mistake, the Eruptions have definitely established themselves as power-pop-punk masters with this one.
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7. BABY CHAOS - "Ape Confronts Cosmos" (Review)
Baby Chaos' fourth album (and their second since reforming) might just be their best to date. It mixes all the best bits about their old sound on The Wild Beast and Everything I Counted On Has Been Proved Wrong to the more melodic heartfelt stuff which they made a name for during their years as Deckard such as I Belong In Battle and the quite lovely Cut Through The Ocean. Supremely varied but with killer hooks and tunes throughout, this is the sound of a band well and truly hitting their peak.
***
6. SENSIBLE GRAY CELLS - "Get Back Into The World" (Review)
A worthy follow-up to the SGC's 2013 debut A Postcard From Britain, Get Back Into The World was Captain Sensible and Paul Gray letting their love of garage rock and psychedelia loose and creating a great album while doing so. One minute they're sounding like a psychedelic Madness on the title track and the next they're kicking out the jams with the Who-indebted So Long. It brims with ideas but although it goes on more twists and turns than a rollercoaster, it never loses its focus throughout. Cap and Paul can congratulate themselves on a job well done here.
***
5. GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS - "Now Here's An Echo From Your Future" (Bandcamp) (Review)
London post-punks Girls in Synthesis are basically Idles but even angrier and more discordant. Now Here's An Echo From Your Future is anything but an easy listen but the sheer fury and frustration at the world contained within its grooves makes for one hell of a compelling listen with The Images Agree, Scrapped and They're Not Listening being particular high points. It'll leave you probably needing to catch your breath from the sheer ferocity afterwards but rest assured you'll be wanting to cue it up for another listen as soon as you're ready.
***
4. MAID OF ACE - "Live Fast Or Die" (Bandcamp) (Review)
It's good to see Hastings' noisiest back in the fray after a slight hiatus and with Live Fast Or Die, Maid of Ace might just have come up with their strongest effort yet. It's certainly their angriest with the riffs given an extra dose of heaviosity and songs like This Is War, Repent and Energy burning with a white hot fury that scorches your ears through the headphones. Maid of Ace are continuing to get better all the time and with this one they've established themselves as one of the best punk/metal crossover bands in Britain today.
***
3. DUNCAN REID & THE BIG HEADS - "Don't Blame Yourself" (Bandcamp) (Review)
With 2018's Bombs Away, Duncan Reid reaffirmed himself as one of the best power-pop songwriters in Britain today and with Don't Blame Yourself he's very much done it again. While Little Miss Understood, To Live Or Live Not and the Monkees-referencing Ballad of a Big Head bring the sheer pop rush, the more measured Oh What A Lovely Day, Tea and Sympathy and Dave show that Reid can vary the pace up with the best of them.
***
2. DEAD SHEERAN - "A National Disgrace" (Bandcamp) (Review)
Foul-mouthed, ferocious and with a sense of humour as black as coal, the emergence of Dead Sheeran was probably one of the few positive things to come out of the lockdown as his initial EP followed by the A National Disgrace album was a searing inditement of the nation every bit as furious as Bob Vylan and Idles came up with on their releases this year. However, DS knows that sometimes when you're staring in the face of meltdown all you can do is adopt the gallows humour approach and he does so to brilliant effect. It's rare that a song can make you absolutely incendiary with rage at what the bastards in power are doing to this country and then make you belly laugh just a few seconds later but the likes of Can Things Get Any Worse?, Pick For Britain and Keep Your Distance definitely manage it. A much welcomed voice of protest, hopefully we'll be hearing more from him in the year ahead.
***
1. JIM BOB - "Pop Up Jim Bob" (Review)
2020 has given us more than its fair share of state of the nation addresses and will probably be remembered as the year when alternative music really did go properly political again. Yet it was an experienced campaigner in the form of Jim Bob and his first album for seven years which really seemed to capture the zeitgeist like no other. Harking back to his halcyon days with Carter USM but with a more measured approach in line with his solo albums, Pop Up Jim Bob really was the best of both worlds with the ferocious 2020WTF rubbing shoulders with the more measured fury of Ted Talks, #thoughtsandprayers and If It Ain't Broke. Yet while the closing statement of resignation You're Cancelled And We're Done seemed to be a statement of "fuck it, it's not worth it", the likes of Kidstrike and Truce at least attempt to hope for a scenario where we might just find our way out of this. Quite simply, this is Jim Bob at his ultra-observant best with a good mix of old and new and that's why it's my Album of the Year for 2020.
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