Nite Songs

  Welcome to the second part of our end of year rundown as we look at those albums who agonisingly missed the Top 50 by a whisker. *** 60.     THE CURE - "Songs Of A Lost World" Okay so I'll admit it - when I first heard this album, I didn't get what the fuss was all about. This is very much the Cure in their less accessible mode with the 8 songs on  Songs Of A Lost World  clocking in at over 50 minutes. Yet persevere with this album and its highlights start to reveal themselves as the dark fug surrounding the likes of  Warsong ,  Nothing Is Forever  and the epic closer  Endsong  slowly dissipates to reveal a band who are still capable of surprising you in the fifth decade of their existence. *** 59.     JOE SOLO - "Sledgehammer Songs" Scarborough's finest left wing troubadour Joe Solo keeps on his good run of recent form with Sledgehammer Songs , another heartfelt collection of socialist anthems in waiting. From angry diatribe...

  So here we go then. It took a lot of head-scratching, a lot of re-listening to albums that I'd reviewed months ago and at least ten rewrites but I'm happy to present the Nite Songs Top 50 Albums of 2021. Enjoy! *** 50.      DESPERATE JOURNALIST - "Maximum Sorrow" Desperate Journalist's fourth album sees them on good form with plenty of the same swooping dream-pop epics that recall the Cocteau Twins at their most ethereal as well as a few unexpected diversions into other waters that provide a welcome change of pace when it's needed. One of those groups who definitely deserve to be much better known than they  are. *** 49.      LUKE HAINES - "Setting The Dogs On The Post-Punk Postman" Setting The Dogs On The Post-Punk Postman   sees Haines on typically acerbic form whether he's skewering his targets or writing sinister whimsical odes to failed historical regimes. He's also on good form musically here veering from gentle folk through atonal po...