Nite Songs

  We're well into the top half of our albums of the year list now *** 30. THE DIVINE COMEDY - "Rainy Sunday Afternoon" Neil Hannon's first album in six years and it sees him in a more reflective mood in keeping with the times. Yet even in his more downbeat moments, the guy's skill as a songwriter can't help but shine through from the political anger of Mar-a-Lago By The Sea  to the poignant The Last Time I Saw The Old Man  and Invisible Thread . The sound of a master of his craft at work. *** 29. DU BLONDE - "Sniff More Gritty" Honestly, I'd completely missed Du Blonde prior to this year but having been introduced to their work via Sniff More Gritty , I'm definitely going to check some of the back catalogue out. Mixing icy electro with a snotty punk anger, the likes of Dollar Coffee  and Solitary Individual  are angry diatribes on the superficiality of 21st century life. A confident blast of an album which is well worth a listen. *** 28. COME...

  The Len Price 3 remain one of arguably the British music scene's best kept secrets. Blasting out of the Medway a couple of decades ago, they hit their stride with their excellent second album Rentacrowd and have hardly looked back in terms of quality since even if they've remained very much a cult band. It's pretty clear from the opening ninety second blast of garage rock aggression Chav Squad  that the group are very much on form here - She Came From Out Of The Sun has an almost I Can See From Miles  style feel to it albeit a much more urgent and compact version before Mr Spong's Miraculous Leap  comes on like a garage rock version of Ogden's Nut  era Small Faces. Waiting For The Trouble To Come  drops things down a notch with a more downbeat reflective feel led by 12 string acoustic guitar before Bag Of Bones  whacks the aggression back up with a suitably scuzzy bastardisation of the You Really Got Me  riff. Billy The Quid  is a Kinks-sty...