Nite Songs

  And so we come to the bit everybody's been waiting for - it's our Top 10 albums of the year. Did your favourite make it? Read on to find out... *** 10.     THE THE - "Ensoulment" A new album from Matt Johnson definitely wasn't something I was expecting in 2024 but it's to  Ensoulment 's credit that it stands up with the best of his work from the 1980s. Casting a caustic eye over the modern climate, the likes of  Kissing The Ring of POTUS ,  Some Days I Drink My Coffee By The Grave of William Blake  and  I Hope You Remember (The Things I Can't Forget)  prove that while Johnson may have been away for many years, he certainly hasn't lost a step in terms of sharpness. Comeback of the year? Could well be. *** 9.     THE VIRGINMARYS - "The House Beyond The Fires" The fact that the Virginmarys are a band who seem to keep getting stronger with every release is especially impressive when you consider how many hurdles they've had to navigat...

  20.     DEXY'S - "The Feminine Divine" Since he resurrected Dexy's a decade or so ago, Kevin Rowland has been on a good run of form and  The Feminine Divine  continues this purple patch. Slinky and soulful, it sees Rowland getting to grips with the passing of time, making peace with his past and celebrating the women in his life while sounding as if he's genuinely loving life to the maximum. The sound of a man who's happy with his lot and making the most of every passing day.  *** 19.     THE HANGMEN - "Stories To Tell" Now in their fourth decade of existence, it’s to the Hangmen’s immense credit that Stories To Tell stands up with their best stuff - 33 minutes of the sort of lean, fat-free rock ‘n’ roll that there’s depressingly little of in this day and age. Simple straightforward scuzz-punk howling at the moon on a lonesome night outside some dive bar, this is the sound of a band on top form. *** 18.     DUNCAN REID & THE BIG H...

  It's weird to think that it's now 28 years since CJ first split from the Wildhearts to form Honeycrack with Willie Dowling. Of course, he's reunited and split again with Ginger on a few occasions since but it's probably fair to say that the guy's definitely earned the right to release a greatest hits album, freshly re-recorded in the aftermath of the Wildhearts' recent decision to go on hiatus. Kicking in with the brutal riff-fest of State Of Us  from last year's Siege  album, Lives is a good summary of the last three decades of CJ's solo work taking in new versions of his Wildhearts songs ( Little Flower , Hit It On The Head , Allein ), Honeycrack ( Go Away  and the evergreen Sitting At Home ), the Jellys ( Lemonade Girl , your correspondent's old favourite  Milk 'n' Honey ), the Satellites ( Girl's On Fire ) and his four solo albums to date. The latter selection definitely remind you that CJ's come up with some pretty good stuff i...

I suppose one of the few bright points of the Wildhearts going on an indefinite hiatus earlier this year is that it's given all of the members a chance to concentrate on their solo projects and tonight is a good opportunity to catch up with three ex-'Hearts as they get back on the road. The number of familiar faces, some of whom I haven't seen in years, tonight really makes this feel like a bit of a special occasion and you know it's going to be a good one. The last time I saw Grand Theft Audio  live was at Bradford Rio's way back in about 2001 but as their Pass Me The Conch  album earlier this month showed, they've picked up without missing a beat and moved their sound forward well. With Jay and Ritch joined by new members Ben Marsden (The Main Grains, the Spangles, Modern Day Dukes, Warner Hodges Band) and Rob Lane (Teenage Casket Co, Ryan Hamilton, Bulletboys), tonight's set is a good mix of new ( Scrub Up , The Gods Of Rock , Ici Mon Decree ) and old ( W...

  So here we go - the first Nite Songs end of year summary. It's been a very weird year and I'm sure I'll deal with some of the oddness when I come round to doing the first part of our Albums of the Year list tomorrow - certainly I don't think any of us ever envisaged 2020 turning out the way it did. One side effect of the changing nature of the music business and the circumstances brought on by the pandemic though is a massive increase in the number of bands putting out EP's and mini-albums this year. Extra time on people's hands? Quicker and more cost-effective than having to devote time to making a full album especially when you're stuck indoors and having to record it on your own equipment rather than using a professional studio? Dictated due to band members having to work remotely? Probably a bit of all the above. But either way, there's been some crackers come out which weren't quite long enough to be a full album and it seemed only right that ...

  In keeping with this month's Nite Songs theme of clearing the decks for the end of the year, I've decided to split the Singles Bar into three parts this month with parts 1 & 2 (which hopefully you've read already!) dedicated to single track releases and the third and final part to EP's and mini-albums so I can talk about these in more detail. In case anyone's wondering, the Nite Songs definition is an EP = 4-6 tracks and a mini-album = 7-9 tracks and less than 30 minutes' run time. Hope that's cleared everything up. Anyway, let's take a look at what's in here, shall we?  *** CJ Wildheart - "Siege" The lack of new material from the extended Wildhearts family this year has been a bit of a bugger but thankfully, just in the nick of time, CJ has come along to give us some new material and it might just be one of rhe angriest albums you hear this year. CJ's last album Blood was a ferociously heavy effort and on the evidence of the fero...