Nite Songs Best Of 2021: Top 50 Albums Part 4 (20-11)

 

Top 20 time then - hopefully a few albums on here you might have missed first time out and will enjoy giving a much deserved listen to. Tune back in for the Top 10 tomorrow...

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20.    CAROL HODGE - "The Crippling Space Between"

Hodge's third solo album sees her in good form, mixing light and shade to brilliant effect. Informed by the strange climate that lockdown brought on, by turns angry and hopeful, despairing and optimistic, it runs the full gauntlet of emotions that a lot of us felt during those weird months. She may still be one of the UK music industry's best kept secrets but on the evidence of The Crippling Space Between, it's really time that somebody changed that and she received the recognition she deserves.

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19.    MINISTRY - "Moral Hygiene"

Times like this provide rich fodder for Al Jourgensen and Moral Hygiene is arguably Ministry's strongest album for over a decade. As you'd expect, it doesn't let up on the heaviness throughout with Al howling like a deranged preacher from the mountainside while the riffs and beats pulverise your brain into burger meat. Sure, there's been a lot of angry political albums in recent years, and with good reason, but this is proof as to why Ministry remain front runners in this field.

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18.    JUSTIN SULLIVAN - "Surrounded"

With Surrounded, Justin Sullivan has produced an album which is an almost an escape hatch into another world to get lost in. Full of cinematic epics and the sort of evocative lyrics you'd expect from the New Model Army frontman, this is a record you'll be cueing up again and again to listen to. While NMA may now be approaching their 40th anniversary as a band, this is proof that their creative well is certainly in no danger of running dry.

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17.    JIM BOB - "Who Do We Hate Today?"

A more difficult proposition than last year's Nite Songs Album of the Year Pop Up Jim Bob, Who Do We Hate Today? nevertheless sees Jim Bob on good form. Even darker than its predecessor, aside from the odd more upbeat moment this is Jim doing what he does best and railing against brainless pack mentality and the injustices of modern society with a righteous bile and fervour. An album which wears its dark heart on its sleeve with no fear and is all the better for it.

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16.    THE ANCHORESS - "The Art Of Losing"

Catherine Ann Davies' second album as the Anchoress sees her taking the template of her debut and well and truly moving things up a notch. An album born out of loss, grieving and personal trauma, it makes for quite harrowing listening in places but the overall theme is of staring down your demons and rising above. With some genuinely lovely orchestration and some lyrics which are quite brutally personal, this is a great thought-provoking album which fully deserves its plaudits.

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15.    DANKO JONES - "Power Trio"

Very much business as usual for Danko Jones and co on album number ten but Power Trio is arguably the strongest selection of songs they've put out in almost a decade, hitting you with pin missile precision and with hooks that'll draw you back in for another listen time after time. Often imitated but never bettered, Danko is well deserving of his status as one of garage punk's elder statesmen and he and his group attack this set of songs with an energy and ferocity that'd impressive in a band two decades younger.

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14.    NINE POUND HAMMER - "When The Shit Goes Down"

Back after a decade long absence, cowpunk mainstays Nine Pound Hammer might just have put out their best album yet with When The Shit Goes Down. With long time Ramones mentor Daniel Rey supervising things, this is the sound of a band really kicking loose and showing what they can do from frenetic Dead Kennedys style punk through to honky tonk rave-ups to slower more reflective Merle Haggard style moments. An impressive return and no mistake.

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13.    THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS - "Shout It Out Loud!"

Sugar sweet power-pop from Norway with a definite nod to the UK indie-pop sound of the late '80s (Voice of the Beehive, the Darling Buds etc), Shout It Out Loud! definitely marks the Cocktail Slippers out as genuine contenders. With tunes ranging from full on glam stompers to gentle Ronettes style ballads and even the odd bit of hair metal riffage, this album is an absolute delight. Pure hook-laden singlong fun at its best.

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12.    SPEARMINT - "Holland Park"

A triumphant comeback that no-one was expecting from one-time Britpop almost-weres Spearmint. With a definite Bowie influence coming to the fore, Holland Park veers from glam stompers through Motown rhythms, string-drenched melancholy and the epic ten minute title track where Shirley Lee narrates the story of his dad's failed '70s band in a captivating Jarvis Cocker style. It may have taken them two decades but with this album, Spearmint have very much served up their masterpiece.

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11.    GRACE PETRIE - "Connectivity"

In the absence of a Frank Turner album this year, Connectivity did a fine job of filling the gap for those looking for some thought-provoking indie folk written by someone with a good ear for a catchy tune and a hard hitting set of lyrics. A genuinely great and touching album which pulls no punches in its tales of warts-and-all real life but does so with a sense of warmth and humanity that makes pure medicine for the soul for anyone who's found 2021 a bit of an uphill struggle.

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