Formed by ex-Sigue Sigue Sputnik guitarist Neal X, the Montecristos came up with a competent debut album featuring sky-surfing rockabilly guitars and gloriously OTT attitude. Reworkings of Sputnik's "Love Missile F1-11" and "Jayne Mansfield" plus a version of "Brand New Cadillac" featuring Marc Almond were good fun but originals such as "Hotel Pelirocco" suggested that this band had enough good material of their own to hold their heads up as well.
39 HONEY - "Weekend Millionaire"
Blasting out of Falmouth and recalling the early days of grunge, Honey are a band with a lot of promise. "Weekend Millionaire" was raw, angsty and packed with lurching riffs, sounding like the Breeders covering Therapy?. An assured debut - hopefully there'll be plenty more to come from this lot.
38 JD & THE FDC's - "Anatomy Of A Wolf"
Returning after a three year break, the FDCs' second album was a much darker affair than their first with the angry likes of "Hoying Bottles At The Moon" and "Stop, Look And Fuckin' Listen" being the sound of a band confronting their demons head on. Not comfortable listening by any stretch but definitely an album to listen to in your darker moments.
37 WEDNESDAY 13 - "Monsters Of The Universe"
Now this I definitely did not expect. The last Wednesday 13 album I genuinely liked was the Gunfire 76 "Casualties And Tragedies" effort way back in 2009 but with "Monsters Of The Universe", he proved that he still has the energy of yore with a full-on metal effort that showed him breaking out of his cycle of going through the motions for a wild and enjoyable ride. If he can keep building on this, who knows what his next album could be capable of?
36 DEAD DAISIES - "Revolucion"
Another one which took me by surprise a bit as I thought the first Dead Daisies album was terrible quite frankly - tired '70s retread rock which was just dull. However, the addition of the very under-rated John Corabi (singer on the best Motley Crue album that isn't called "Too Fast For Love" or "Shout At The Devil") to the line-up seems to have given them a new impetus and there's a real energy behind "Revolucion" that just wasn't there before. Fair play to 'em.
35 THE SPITFIRES - "Response"
A confident first volley from this Watford four-piece. There's a definite Jam influence there (not least due to the Weller-esque vocals) but the Spitfires are at least canny enough to not be mere copycats and "Response" contains elements of ska ("When I Call Out Your Name") and even psychedelia ("Spoke Too Soon", "Relapse"). Expect big things from this lot.
34 LOS PLANTRONICS - "Surfing Times"
A band describing themselves as "Mariachi death surf rock"? Sure, why the hell not, we seem to have had pretty much everything else round here in 2015. In fact, this was no less than these Norweigan nutters' sixth album and contained a mix of high-octane surf instrumentals and insane '50s cover versions which hit home to good effect. Just shows that sometimes the best music comes from the weirdest of places...
33 RICHARD HAWLEY - "Hollow Meadows"
Returning to the more wistful end of his repertoire after the much heavier stylings of 2012's "Standing At The Sky's Edge", "Hollow Meadows" was another good album from Richard Hawley. Not so much one to rock out to as to listen to on a quiet evening in with a drink but let's be honest we all need something like that sometimes and they didn't come much better than this one in 2015.
32 DESPERATE JOURNALIST - "Desperate Journalist"
A good first offering from this North London four-piece which owes a debt in its sound to early '80s goth and post punk (Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Order especially). In an era where a lot of indie music has simply sunk into a post-ironic complacency, Desperate Journalist's spiky energy sticks out like a sore thumb and they fully deserve the plaudits that have come their way this year.
31 THE SKINTS - "FM"
An album which in a just world would've been the soundtrack to the summer this year. A bit toned down in terms of volume compared to the Skints' previous offerings but "FM" was chock full of laid back reggae rhythms and top drawer tunes all round. Definitely a group thinking outside the box and they deserve a lot of credit for that.
Click here for part 2
No comments:
Post a Comment