Nite Songs Best Of 2021: Top 50 Albums Part 3 (30-21)

 

On into the Top 30 we go then. Brace yourselves...

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30.    RICKY WARWICK - "When Life Was Hard And Fast"

When Life Was Hard And Fast sees Ricky Warwick back to the no-nonsense rock music he's made his name with first in the Almighty and more recently with Black Star Riders. Veering from fired up punk to more moody reflective moments, this is straight ahead fist-in-the-air singalong rock anthems done by a master of the craft. Great stuff.

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29.    BEANS ON TOAST - "Survival Of The Friendliest"

Jay McAllister aka Beans On Toast is one of those songwriters who can make you see the light in even the most dark of times and Survival of the Friendliest was a much needed ray of sunshine as the bleakness of December and the prospect of yet another lockdown set in. Working with a full band for this one, it's an album full of songs of hope to put an arm around your shoulder and see you through your long dark night of the soul.

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28.    PENFRIEND - "Exotic Monsters"

Having put her She Makes War project to bed a couple of years ago, Exotic Monsters was Laura Kidd's first album under her new Penfriend alias. It's the sound of her exorcising the demons brought on by Covid and lockdown over the last couple of years and most of the themes in here are the sort of thing most people can relate to after that. From grungy angst to more minimalist stripped down electro, it also shows Kidd's versatility as a musician and will hopefully be the first of many excellent Penfriend albums in the times ahead.

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27.    IDESTROY - "We Are Girls"

Having spent a few years honing their craft on the Camden scuzz-punk circuit, We Are Girls was the sound of Idestroy announcing their arrival in fine style. Similar to Dream Nails' excellent debut last year, We Are Girls has plenty of righteous social anger and grungy self-loathing but there's a sly sense of humour bubbling away in there too not to mention a keen ear for a good tune and hook. Huggy Bear meets the Ramones? It's not a bad place to be put it that way.

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26.    KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD - "LW"

Now with no less than three albums to their name in the last 18 months, LW was a worthy follow-up to last year's KG and showed King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard being just as playfully crazy as ever. Swinging from funked-up dancefloor fillers through BOC/Sabbath style doom riffs to Middle Eastern sounding psychedelia, this is an absolute rollercoaster ride of an album which you'll be rushing to cue up again as soon as you've finished.

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25.    WATTS - "Shady Rock 'n' Rollers"

Heavily influenced by power-pop and glam, Watts came up with one of the best albums of the year in either genre. Shady Rock 'n' Rollers takes a few cues from the New York Dolls but the sound is very much in the vein of the foot-stomping '70s Brit-glam of Slade and the Sweet. Packing killer tunes and enough changes in tempo to ensure they well and truly put their own stamp on the formula, this is an impressively self-assured debut.

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24.    SAM FENDER - "Seventeen Going Under"

Every so often we get an artist or group that's hyped up to the heavens and actually deserves it and Sam Fender is definitely one such individual. Seventeen Going Under comes across like a Geordie Gaslight Anthem with its no-punches-pulled tales of a youth less than well spent and some viciously unbridled anger lurking beneath the heart-on-sleeve stories. Well written, thought provoking and with some great hooks to reel you in, Fender really is a hell of a talent and the fact that he's managed two number one albums dealing with such bleak lyrical matter is an impressive feat.

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23.    JAMES SULLIVAN - "Light Years"

The debut solo album from More Kicks frontman James Sullivan is an endearingly down to earth DIY effort recorded in his flat over lockdown and it's this no frills honesty and knack with a decent tune and a lyric to pull at the heartstrings as well as the fact that Sullivan turns his hand to a number of different musical styles and carries all of them off with aplomb that made it one of the unexpected triumphs of the latter days of the year. A real eye-opener.

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22.    BLACK SPIDERS - "Black Spiders"

Back after a frankly much too long hiatus, Black Spiders' third album was the sound of them well and truly reasserting their authority in with the Britrock hordes. An album that, while it acknowledges its influences, twists them into fascinating new shapes while packing in some suitably kick-arse riffs to seal the deal. In a year where we've seen the dreary onwards march of po-faced NWOCR bores, the Spiders are a welcome and much-needed antidote to the buzzkill brigade.

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21.    POISON BOYS - "Don't You Turn On Me"

This second album from Chicago nogoodniks the Poison Boys is everything you'd want a suitably scummy trashy rock 'n' roll album to be - one part Dead Boys, one part Ramones with a sneer, a swagger and a razor-sharp ear for a tune and a riff. There may well have been a good few bands trying to nail this formula passing through the pages of this webzine throughout the year but the Poison Boys are definitely one of the superior bands in this field.

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