Nite Songs

  Pet Needs' debut album Fractured Party Music  was one of the unexpected triumphs of last year, taking the tried and tested punk blueprint and adding a 21st century stamp to it to make it sound both fresh and invigorating. Not bad for a band who were hawking a song about toothpaste as the lead off single! However, with the arrival a mere 18 months later of a follow-up, it's time to put the pedal to the metal and see if they've managed to keep that initial burst of form up... Primetime Entertainment  certainly gets off to a decent start with the barrelling Lost Again  which sounds like Ferocious Dog minus the folk influences and isn't a bad start at all. Ibiza In Winter and former single Get On The Roof both have a hint of solo Frank Turner in one of his punkier moments on them which is no bad thing while Tried And Failed  is a well written look at social anxiety. The pace varies up nicely throughout here as well from the frenetic anger of Spirals  and The ...

  Welcome to the July edition of the Singles Bar. The weather outside's a bit scorching so come on in and we'll fix you up with a cold one. Please peruse at your leisure... *** Well I guess the big news this month is a new single from The Cult , their first in three years no less. Pleased to report that Give Me Mercy  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a strong comeback from Astbury and Duffy with its swooping riff and haunting vocals harking back to the group's classic Love  album. New album due in September and hopefully this is a good omen for it. *** Another exciting development is news of a collaboration between Hi-Fi Sean  (aka Sean Dickson, formerly of the Soup Dragons and Nite Songs faves the High Fidelity) and David McAlmont  who have a new album out later in the year. Maybe  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a good first salvo from it too with Dickson's chilled out electronica and McAlmont's trademark sublime vocals combining to make something good. Recommended. Bandcamp link here ...

  Welcome to the first Singles Bar of the new year - we're officially open for business again! Last month we didn't really have enough stuff to justify doing a Singles Bar but we've chucked the few things from that month along with some newies in here so hopefully there should be something to suit your taste... Anyway, a proper welcome development to start us off as we welcome The Hellacopters  back with a couple of new songs. Reap A Hurricane  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) is a worthy comeback from Nicke and the guys combining a pounding Stooges style riff with a soaring chorus to remind you exactly why this band were so lauded back in the day. Similarly, Eyes Of Oblivion  is a full throttle stormer powered on by Dregen's spiralling riff and a killer chorus hook. The new album is due in April and on this evidence I think we could potentially have an Album of the Year contender on our hands. Also back with a new single are the U.K. Subs  with Sensei  (🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑) which cras...

  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...

  Signed to Xtra Mile recordings, Colchester's Pet Needs are another band who could probably be best described as "post-Idles". And in recent months, that genre has seen some great bands (Girls In Synthesis) and some unremarkable ones (TV Priest) spring up in almost equal measure. Pet Needs, I'm happy to report, definitely veer more towards the former - tracks such as the opening one-two of Outline  and Tracey Emin's Bed  definitely pack the necessary fight-or-flight anger brought on by smalltown psychosis while the juddering Sympathetic Accent Syndrome  is the sort of thing you can see igniting moshpits in the live arena. It's this anger which keeps Fractured Party Music  on the right side of good. Unlike some bands who use the "post-punk" handle as an excuse to throw out deliberately obtuse tunes which fail to grab your attention, there's a real rabid fury in here which grabs you by the throat and refuses to let you go on the likes of Overcompe...