The Nite Songs Singles Bar - April 2021


Welcome back to the Singles Bar as we look through this month's releases. A bit of a shorter than usual column this month with five singles and a mini-album to get through so let's get on with it, shall we?...

Rich Ragany & The Digressions are currently limbering up for their second album and on the evidence of Heartbreakers Don't Try (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑), a tribute to Johnny Thunders with its lyrical references to You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory unless my ears deceive me, it should be well worth the wait. A supremely tuneful slice of Tom Petty style power-pop (two Heartbreakers for the price of one, you might say) with some driving piano courtesy of ex-Shush man and all round production wiz Andy Brook, this is good stuff. Bandcamp link here.


 It's always good to see some Jesse Malin in the review pile although the jerky blues of The Way We Used To Roll (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) isn't quite up to the standard of his previous few releases like Ameri'ka or Todd Youth. It's still a decent effort though with some good guitar work from Malin and Derek Cruz, it's just let down a bit by the excellent run of form Malin's been on in the last 12 months or so. Still, there's enough here to keep the fans happy I'm sure and the almost reggae-style Time Robber on the B-side is actually the stronger track here and is well worth a spin. Bandcamp link here.

Penfriend (aka Laura Kidd, formerly She Makes War) have been another regular presence on these Singles Bar pages in recent months and Black Car (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is another strong effort, a creeping slice of lockdown paranoia which combines sorrow and anger over the climate of fear created by the last two years and the general government incompetence in dealing with the crisis, this is a genuinely good song, thought-provoking and desolate. The debut Penfriend album is due in the next couple of months and on this evidence, I'm very much looking forward to listening to it. Bandcamp link here.

It's been a while since we heard from London grime-punks Riskee & The Ridicule since their 2019 album Bodybag Your Scene but apparently Backwords 2 (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is their third single in the last twelve months so due apologies to the band for us missing the others. A well-placed diatribe against the herd mentality of people who read the mainstream media and swallow every line whole, it's a reminder of how much of a vital band Riskee & The Ridicule are in the current perilous climate we live in. Bandcamp link here.

Norwegian glam rockers Razorbats are another band gearing up for a new album release and Working For The Weekend (🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑) is a good taster, sounding like a poppier version of Total 13 era Backyard Babies with one eye on Slade's back catalogue. It could maybe do with a bit more of a kick to it in places but this is still a solid effort which bodes well for the imminent release of the group's third full length. Bandcamp link here.

***

MINI ALBUM REVIEW

SAINT AGNES - "Vampire EP"


Okay so hands up, Vampire isn't strictly a new release from Saint Agnes as all but one of the tracks here have been previously released as singles. That said, it's still a fine reminder of this group's ability and if you haven't checked these tracks out already then I strongly recommend you shell out on a copy post-haste. From the ferocious tribal drums-underpinned Repent through the pounding electro-goth of the title track and the lurching The World Ain't Big Enough to faithful covers of Grinderman's No Pussy Blues and the Nine Inch Nails' Wish, this is a good example of Saint Agnes at their furious innovative best, the musical equivalent of the devil on your shoulder whispering wicked thoughts in your ear.

The one unreleased track here, I'm With You Everywhere You Go is another goodie with the pounding drums, Jon's skittering guitars and Kitty's demonic snarl of a voice combining to create something pretty damn awesome. Saint Agnes have been slowly picking up quite a bit of momentum in recent months with the likes of Kerrang! starting to pay the group attention and it's good to see this excellent band finally getting the recognition they deserve. For those new to this rather awesome outfit (and those who haven't picked up these tracks already), Vampire comes heavily recommended.

Bandcamp link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 (8/10)

***

Anyway, that concludes our brief visit to the Singles Bar this month. Hope you enjoyed yourself and we'll see you all the same time next month.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Garbage Days Revisited #29: The Quireboys - "Homewreckers And Heartbreakers" (2008)

Image
  "I played my hand in a rock 'n' roll band, it was my ace, my jack and my king/I rolled the dice to see what Lady Luck would bring, salvation or sin..."  - The Quireboys  - One For The Road In a way, I'm quite surprised I haven't covered the Quireboys either on Sounds From The Junkshop or here on Garbage Days Revisited yet. Unlike a lot of bands who were slung in with the "hair metal" tag in the late '80s and early '90s, I actually was  aware of the band when they had their brief flirtation with chart success around the turn of that decade and had a couple of their singles in my collection - Hey You  on a Now compilation (which sounds incredibly incongruous all these years later!) and There She Goes Again/Misled  on cassette single. For whatever reason though, they never quite became the firm favourites of mine that their fellow Soho dwelling glam rockers the Dogs D'Amour did. I'm not quite sure why - I think I just thought the Dogs
Read more

Garbage Days Revisited #74: Silverfish - "Organ Fan" (1992)

Image
  "You can't kill what you're afraid of...are you afraid of me?"  - Silverfish  - Big Bad Baby Pig Squeal I guess the obvious place to have written something on Silverfish would have been in one of the very early Sounds From The Junkshop but I'm ashamed to admit that they were a band who, while I was sort of aware of their presence at the time, I wouldn't really properly discover until well after they'd split.  I can remember the band name from the occasions they'd pop up on the Indie Top 10 on the ITV Chart Show but it was only when their singer Lesley Rankine cropped up as a guest vocalist on Therapy? 's Troublegum album (on Lunacy Booth  and Femtex ) that I decided to try and investigate their output in a bit more detail. Only to find they'd literally split up a few months before. Bugger. Silverfish hailed from Camden in the pre-Britpop days back when it was still the grimy scuzzy end of North London and the sort of place tourists would act
Read more

Album Review: Ming City Rockers - "Lime"

Image
  Hailing from Immingham near Grimsby (hence their name), the Ming City Rockers briefly looked like quite hot property a few years ago with their debut self-titled album being a prime slice of howled smalltown angst which picked them up enough plaudits to get Steve Albini in to produce the follow-up, 2016's  Lemon . And then...nothing. Seven years on from that sophomore effort and the group have returned, slimmed down to a three-piece and with a very noticeable change to their image. But the sound is very much the same with the sort of angry three-chord garage punk that made their debut such a good effort. The change seems to be that Lime  sees the Ming City Rockers taking their worldview out of the smalltowns and over to the nation as a whole. The sarky lead off single Jill Was An Anarchist  was a definite marker laid down and there's plenty more on Lime  where that came from such as the snarling Poor Old Jim  taking a swipe at alcoholic F*r*ge-supporting boomers ( "He us
Read more