Nite Songs

  Approaching the upper echelons of our end of year list now - read on to find out what's made our Top 30 albums for this year... *** 30. BEFORE VICTORIA - "Moving Forward" Stepping away from his career as a writer and bassist for the Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, Moving Forward  saw Marc Burrows' side project Before Victoria very much sprout wings of its own and fly. Mixing elements of grunge, goth, new wave and the odd disarming acoustic confessional, this is a hell of a varied album but one that never loses your attention throughout. Burrows can definitely congratulate himself on a job well done here. *** 29. THE LINDA LINDAS - "Growing Up" Having come to the public's attention with the blistering anger of their Racist Sexist Boy  single, Growing Up proved that the Linda Lindas were definitely more than just back to basics punk rock. Sounding like X-Ray Spex jamming with early Ash, this was a well crafted selection of songs with a lyrical m...

  Confession - this is an album that's actually been out for a few months (it first saw the light in the dying days of 2021) but we missed at the time. However, it just to say falls within our remit of "no reviews of albums more than 12 months old" so better late than never. Anyway, Monkey Mind are a bit of a north east punk supergroup featuring both Lee from Crashed Out and Olga from the legendary Toy Dolls among their number and this self-titled debut album is an enjoyably self-assured first shot across the bows from them. More than anything, they remind me a lot of the Descendents which is definitely no bad thing as the frenetic chugging riffs of Mr Wright  and There's Something About Lauren  get this one off to a good start. The vocals definitely remind me a bit of Billie Joe Armstrong as well but I mean that in a good way I promise. It would have been very easy for Monkey Mind to start repeating themselves but I think the big plus point of this album is that ther...