Nite Songs

  So here we go - the inaugural Nite Songs Top 50 Albums of the Year. And what a bloody weird year it’s been... Twelve months ago I was genuinely convinced that I was done with music journalism for the foreseeable future. Pure Rawk, the webzine I wrote for at the time, had just gone into prolonged hibernation (soon to emerge though hopefully...) and I'd also just moved back to my native Bradford after a decade living in the south east. The plan was that I was going to get out and start living again, start going to gigs as a fan and enjoying them for what they were, finally get a new band of my own going seven years after the last one split up, learn to enjoy life as a music fan again really. And then Covid happened. Gigs stopped. In fact, social life as a whole pretty much stopped. Bang went the idea of starting a new band, of going to gigs, of pretty much doing anything really as I also lost my job as the company I worked for cut costs (thankfully my spell on the dole would only l...

  If 2020 is going to be remembered for anything musically, it's the "recorded during lockdown" album - a collection of heart-on-sleeve songs often written with just a sparse acoustic guitar for accompaniment. And it's not really a surprise to see TV Smith, always a man with an ability to cast an acerbic eye over the current political climate dating right back to his days fronting the Adverts in the punk era, adding his effort to this particular list. As the name suggests, Lockdown Holiday was written by Smith while isolating and ill and the themes cover the bewildering events of the last year. While Bounce Back  offers a message of hope to those struggling to cope with the isolation and confusion, the vast majority of songs here contain his trademark righteous fury against ignorant politicians both over here ( I Surf The Second Wave , Let's Go Back To The Good Old Days ) and across the pond ( Send In The Clown ) and those who allow them to get away with such hein...

Now a decade and a half into their career, the Urban Voodoo Machine have very much become an institution of the British alternative music scene in recent years. Their style of throwing everything from New Orleans ragtime to East European folk influences into the melting pot really does mark them out as a one-of-a-kind band and their legendary Gypsy Hotel club nights in North East London were a regular haunt of this writer during his first year or two living in the capital. Indeed, if anything, this tribute album to the UVM is a fond throwback to those long wasted nights at places like the Lexington near Kings Cross or Barden's in Dalston watching whoever the Voodoos had decided to book this month. The Great Malarkey (always a personal favourite) get things off to a fine start with a suitably chaotic tear through Orphan's Lament  followed by Jim Jones' swampy blues take on Killer Sound and the Future Shape Of Sound (another band whose last album really deserves a look if you...