Nite Songs

  And so we reach the halfway point of our Albums of the Year rundown. Bring on the Top 30... 30. HELEN LOVE - "Power On" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Still as endearingly enthusiastic about everything as ever, this latest album from indie veterans Helen Love provided a much needed dose of sunshine, sherbet and singalongability when the world needed it most. Songs such as Debbie Take Control Of The Stereo  and Dead In My Head  were a real delight with the band putting their stamp on the material in their own inimitable style. Long may they reign. *** 29. FAZ WALTZ - "Rebel Kicks" ( Bandcamp ) ( Review ) Still Italy's premier exponents of '70s style bootboy glam, Rebel Kicks  is another good offering from Faz Waltz. Sure, the influences are nothing you won't expect - Slade, T-Rex, Mott The Hoople but when the result is cracking tunes like the Stonesy Born In  The Wrong Time  and the strutting Chuck Berry style riff of Last Train To Nowhere , it's well and ...

  Ahh welcome back to the Nite Songs Singles Bar dear reader. Take a chair, pull up a glass and let's see what we've got on the menu here for October... Well, it looks like the big hitters are out in force this month as  The Damned of all people have a new EP out in the form of The Rockfield Files (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑). Having been a bit disappointed by their Evil Spirits album a couple of years back, I was a little bit apprehensive going into this one but it's actually decent enough with opening track Keep 'Em Alive  sounding like a punked up Pink Floyd of all things (or like an out-take from the excellent Strawberries  album which was also recorded at the titular studio back in the early '80s). Manipulator  meanwhile is a faster number with an agreeable woah-oh-oh  hook line and some strong vocals from Dave Vanian while Spider & The Fly  starts off with a sinister piano-led intro harking back to the band's mid-'80s goth phase before going into a driving g...

  I have to be honest, the initial omens for this, the second album by London sleaze-rock stalwarts Neon Animal since they evolved from their former incarnation of Bubblegum Screw, weren’t overly promising. I mean, look at that album cover fer fook’s sake! Somewhere out there is a Swedish hair metal band from 2005 or so that wants its artwork idea back I reckon... Hold yer horses though because you definitely shouldn’t judge this book (or rather album) by its cover. Neon Animal are one of those bands who seem to have been slowly improving album by album since that first Bubblegum Screw album a decade or so ago and Make No Mistake is comfortably their strongest showing to date, finally achieving that scummy Stooges-meets-Dolls nirvana that they seem to have been aiming for since day one. Right from the feral call to arms of superb opener Rock ‘n’ Roll War , this is the sound of a band firmly firing on all cylinders as if they’ve properly worked out their strengths and are well and ...