Nite Songs

  And so the end is near...we present to you the ten best albums of the year just gone in our humble opinion... 10.     BEANS ON TOAST - "The Toothpaste And The Tube" Another regular presence in my end of year lists in recent years, The Toothpaste And The Tube  sees Jay McAllister aka Beans on Toast returning to the fray in fine form and taking on everything from the joys of life on tour ( Back Out On The Road , The Golden Lion ) through laments at the state of the country ( Hope & Glory , The Greenwash ) to enjoying the simpler things in life to get you through ( Swimming In The Sea , The Dragicorn ). McAllister is quite simply one of the best lyric writers in the country today and The Toothpaste And The Tube  is a fine place to start for those wanting to discover his work. *** 9.     CYANIDE PILLS - "Soundtrack To The New Cold War" Soundtrack To The New Cold War sees Leeds pop-punks the Cyanide Pills well and truly coming of age. The group have ...

  It might just be me but I could've sworn that Iggy's previous album, 2016's Post Pop Depression , was meant to be his last. Ah well, can't keep a good chaos engine down I guess and you're certainly not gonna find me complaining about a new album from the lord of misrule in my inbox. Especially when they kick in with a slice of prime Iggy foul-mouthed aggression like Frenzy . Ig might well be in his seventies now but on this evidence, he's still got an aggression that'd be impressive in a frontman half his age. But if you think this is gonna be Iggy going into heritage mode then Strung Out Johnny  quickly puts paid to that with an almost Sisters of Mercy style goth vibe to it before a big soaring chorus. With a backing band (Duff McKagan on bass, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Chad Smith on bass and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Watt) locked in and tight, this is Iggy proving that even after five decades in the game he's got the capacity to surprise. New...

  "The tools I see on my TV, can't stand it when they fake. A prick's a prick at any age, why give one a break?"  - Iggy Pop , I Wanna Live I mentioned in the Jesus & Mary Chain GDR a couple of weeks ago how as a teenager I very much considered myself to be living in the here and now when it came to music. Very little from pre-1990 or so was on my stereo back then apart from maybe a couple of Hendrix, Doors or Queen albums that I'd copied off my parents and the odd Smiths, Mary Chain and New Order track that cropped up on the odd compilation etc. To be honest, it would've taken something pretty damn special for me to start following any music from outside my time frame that my youthful arrogance considered to be "old git music". Something, for example, like this. I watched the Iggy Pop TV performance above round at a mate's house one Friday night from a taping of the Channel 4 music show "The White Room" presented by Mark Radcliffe...