Thursday, 29 December 2016

Albums of the Year Pt 12 (15-11)

15. SUPERSUCKERS - "Holdin' The Bag"

Following frontman Eddie Spaghetti's brush with throat cancer in 2015, the Suckers returned in the early days of 2016 with a semi-unplugged album, kind of a follow-up of sorts to 1997's "Must've Been High". And thankfully with the tunes, hooks, attitude and swagger well and truly intact - this was a worthy follow-up to 2014's "Get The Hell" and proof that this band still have plenty of fire left. Full review here.

14. TONY WRIGHT - "Walnut Dash"

Following on from 2015's ultra-bleak and stripped down "Thoughts 'n' All", "Walnut Dash" saw Tony in a more positive frame of mind with "Music Is The Food Of Love" and "One Size Fits All" being two of the best songs of his post-Terrorvision career so far. On the flip side, the melancholy "Life's Too Short" and the sinister "Delete Repeat" provided a nice counterweight to the more poppy moments and ensured this was a good well-rounded album. Full review here.

13. SPIKE & TYLA'S HOT KNIVES - "The Sinister Indecisions of Frankie Gray and Jimmy Pallas"

After 20 years, the respective Quireboys and Dogs D'Amour frontmen finally got together to produce a follow-up to the excellent "Flagrantly Yours" and it was well worth the wait. Dare I say it, possibly even better than the actual Quireboys album that was released around the same time? Certainly the mix of Spike's more upbeat bar-room rave-ups like "Curse of the Day Time Drinker" mixes very well with Tyla's more downbeat nocturnal laments like "Enchanted" and "Anne Boleyn" and makes this a great listen from end to end. Full review here.

12. SONIC BOOM SIX - "The F Bomb"

SB6 have been at this game for quite a long time now and with "The F Bomb", they delivered one of their strongest albums to date. Fired up with plenty of political anger but with an over-riding positive message about rising above hate and staying true to yourself, this was SB6 at their best. Full review here and you can watch the video for "From The Fire To The Frying Pan" below.


11. TROPICAL CONTACT - "XS"

This album very nearly didn't get made at all - back in 2014, Tropical Contact announced that they were going on indefinite hiatus after a clutch of well-received EP's and it looked as though the world had lost yet another promising band before they filled their potential. Clearly they missed it as well though because 2015 saw them reform with a Pledge campaign for their debut album which they smashed quite easily. And it was worth the wait - full throttle Britrock with a wicked sense of humour lurking underneath - give the video for "Hero Brigade" a watch below.


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