Nite Songs

  We're well into the top half of our albums of the year list now *** 30. THE DIVINE COMEDY - "Rainy Sunday Afternoon" Neil Hannon's first album in six years and it sees him in a more reflective mood in keeping with the times. Yet even in his more downbeat moments, the guy's skill as a songwriter can't help but shine through from the political anger of Mar-a-Lago By The Sea  to the poignant The Last Time I Saw The Old Man  and Invisible Thread . The sound of a master of his craft at work. *** 29. DU BLONDE - "Sniff More Gritty" Honestly, I'd completely missed Du Blonde prior to this year but having been introduced to their work via Sniff More Gritty , I'm definitely going to check some of the back catalogue out. Mixing icy electro with a snotty punk anger, the likes of Dollar Coffee  and Solitary Individual  are angry diatribes on the superficiality of 21st century life. A confident blast of an album which is well worth a listen. *** 28. COME...

  Back after a short break, it's good to see Cheap Trick back again. The group seemed to be on a bit of a purple patch about five years ago with two great albums surfacing in the space of 12 months (2016's Bang, Zoom, Crazy...Hello  and 2017's We're All Alright! ) but have been quiet since then. However, once the pure sunshine pop of Summer Looks Good On You  kicks things into gear here, it's like they've never been away especially when it's followed up by the Kinksian stomp of  Quit Waking Me Up  and the Beatlesesque balladry of Another World . Now I've read a couple of reviews of this album which slated it on the ground that it wasn't really breaking any new ground and sure, the templates here are fairly obvious ones such as the Stonesy strut of Boys & Girls & Rock 'n' Roll  and the quite lovely Lennon-style balladry of So It Goes . But if you're one of those pencil necked geeks who've griped about this album being too obvio...