Nite Songs Best Of 2021: Top 50 Albums Part 5 - The Top 10!

 

So here we go...the big moment...who's won our Album Of The Year award? Read on to find out!

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10.    L.A. GUNS - "Checkered Past"

A real return to form for L.A. Guns and arguably the best album that's come out under this band's name in nearly three decades. Checkered Past sees them retaining the heaviness of their recent efforts but applying them to the big fist-in-the-air template that they made their name with in the late '80s, veering from strutting AC/DC riff-fests through ferocious thrash to more moody introspective moments. Phil, Tracii and the rest of the guys can congratulate themselves on a job well done here.

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9.    THE CORAL - "Coral Island"

One which escaped our attention at the time, Coral Island might just be the Coral's best album to date. Almost a world within a record, side one is pure blissful summertime psychedelia set at the titular seaside destination before side two sees winter roll around and things take a more sinister turn into dark and twisted skeletal territory which perfectly captures the claustrophobia of the colder months. This was clearly a labour of love by the band and it's well and truly paid off - a genuinely breathtaking album.

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8.    RICH RAGANY & THE DIGRESSIONS - "Beyond Nostalgia & Heartache"

With their second album, Rich Ragany & The Digressions have really spread their wings and come up with an absolute corker of a record. While there's plenty of the sunny power-pop you'd expect from Rags here, the album also takes in trippy psychedelia, darker more claustrophobic laments and even the odd foray into doo-wop to make a well-rounded and genuinely impressive effort. The sound of a band growing in confidence, trying new things but keeping the killer tunes and earworm choruses throughout, this is simply a must-have album.

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7.    SAMI YAFFA - "The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind"

Amazingly the first solo album from Sami Yaffa in his four decades in the music business, The Innermost Journey To Your Outermost Mind really shows off the guy's full range as a musician, varying from strutting Hanoi style rockers through fired up punk fury to gentle acoustics and even the odd reggae influenced number. A real feast of an album which always keeps you guessing and will draw you in for listen after listen.

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6.    THE MIDDLENIGHT MEN - "Issue 1"

The Middlenight Men came almost from nowhere to deliver arguably the best debut album of 2021. Taking in rocket-fuelled Britpop, glam rock stompers, Wildhearts-style Britrock inventiveness and a whole lot more besides as well as killer tunes, singalong choruses and the odd cheeky nod to those who inspired them, Issue 1 is a real triumph of an album. Where the Middlenight Men go from here only time will tell but it's certainly a journey we're looking forward to making with them!

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5.    CHRIS CATALYST - "Kaleidoscopes"

Proof positive that Chris Catalyst is one of the great underrated songwriters in the UK music scene, Kaleidoscopes was a more than worthy follow-up to his debut solo album Life Is Sometimes Brilliant. With a definite air of disquiet informed by last year's lockdown, these were alternately angry and reflective songs but wrapped up in exactly the sort of punchy earworm tunes that you'd expect from the guy. And with Happy he arguably came up with one of the best songs he's ever put his name to - pure aural prozac.

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4.    THE STRANGLERS - "Dark Matters"

The prospect of a new Stranglers albumt this year was definitely a bit of a surprise especially given the tragic passing of Dave Greenfield last year but Dark Matters was arguably their strongest effort of the 21st century mixing everything we've grown to love about the band over the years - punk anger, dark psychedelia and the feeling of a band reflecting on their four decade plus existence. If this really does turn out to be their final album then they've picked a hell of a high note to go out on. 

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3.    ALICE COOPER - "Detroit Stories"

For a couple of minutes there it was looking a little bit ropy for the Shockmaster General. After the decidedly underwhelming Paranormal and the rather aimless Hollywood Vampires side project, we were starting to wonder if the fire really had gone out this time. But if history's shown us anything, it's that you write the Coop off at your peril - Detroit Stories was a real powerhouse of an album, part influenced by the twisted garage rock of the original Alice Cooper band albums and partly by the gleefully OTT theatrics of Welcome To My Nightmare et al and somehow capturing all the best bits of both to come up with something genuinely awesome.

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2.    THE STREETWALKIN' CHEETAHS - "One More Drink"

Now here's an unexpected comeback that well and truly exceeded all expectations. Having made their name as a no-nonsense scuzzed up garage-punk band in the early noughties, the Streetwalkin' Cheetahs have clearly picked up some new skills during their time away and One More Drink was a real banquet of an album veering from AC/DC style riff fests through Ramones style pop-punk singalongs to Supersuckers style full on assaults and big arena-filling lighters-in-the-air moments. Quite simply, if you're one of the people who properly get what good rock 'n' roll is about then you need this album in your life. End of.

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1.    THE WILDHEARTS - "21st Century Love Songs"

Fair cop, you probably saw this coming - I've never made any secret of my Wildhearts fandom in this 'ere webzine for the last 18 months. But by any standards, 21st Century Love Songs might be Ginger and co's most ambitious record to date and is a real mind-bender of an album. A very different beast to 2019's equally excellent Renaissance Men, it often sounds like the band are trying to cram a whole side's worth of material into one song. Yet the key is that it remains packed with classic Wildhearts singalong material with more killer hooks than a night on the town with Jason Voorhees from the pummelling riff of Splitter through the slow-building anger of Sort Your Fucking Shit Out to the way My Head Wants Me Dead builds from its sunny power-pop opening into a full-on raging riff-fest by the end of it. The sound of a band chucking everything but the kitchen sink into an album and still carrying it off with aplomb, this had to be our album of the year really.

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And so that's it for 2021 - our first full year as a functioning webzine no less. Thanks to all the bands who've sent us awesome stuff to review and most of all to you readers for continuing to take an interest in these unhinged scribblings for whatever reason. Hope you all had an awesome Christmas and have a top New Year - we'll see you all in 2022 for whatever that may bring but hopefully it won't be dull! Cheers.