Thursday, 28 December 2017

Andy's Top Albums Of 2017 (Part 3 - 40-31)

40. THE CHUCK NORRIS EXPERIMENT - "Chück Me" (Review here)

Simple old-skool rock 'n' roll from Sweden which backed up tightwire AC/DC/Thin Lizzy style guitar lines with a swaggering Stooges/Turbonegro style punk attitude to good effect. For those looking for good, fat-free rock 'n' roll like the Hellacopters used to do so well, this should serve you nicely.



39. WILD EVEL & THE TRASHBONES - "Digging My Grave"(Review here)

Unhinged garage rock from the dark streets of Vienna, "Digging My Grave" sees Wild Evel & The Trashbones resurrecting the cartoon ghoul school spirit of Boris Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers or Screaming Lord Sutch and giving it a bit of a modern twist to good effect. Similar to King Salami or MFC Chicken, this lot are another good addition to Dirty Water records' impressive roster.



38. CURSE OF LONO - "Severed" (Review here)

Downbeat acoustic barfly musings cut from the same cloth as groups like the Jacobites and early Dogs D'Amour, "Severed" was an accomplished debut from Curse of Lono with desolate skid row laments such as "All I Got" and "Five Miles" sounding like a cross between Nikki Sudden and Tom Waits. With this group's profile rising all the time, don't be surprised if they're playing much bigger venues in 2018.



37. BITERS - "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be" (Review here)

Recovering from a somewhat underwhelming debut album which was aiming for the middle ground between glam and punk but just kind of fell between two stools, "The Future Ain't What It Used To Be" saw Biters quietly discard the punk elements of their sound to produce a full-on '70s glam stomper of an album with nods to Suzy, Slade and Bolan. It's taken a while but with this one, it finally seems that this group are justifying the hype.



36. THE DARTS - "Me.Ow" (Review here)

Mixing the best bits of '60s garage rock with its 21st century counterpart, this was a good debut album proper from the Darts following their EP collection last year. Those with fond memories of the Breeders or the Von Bondies would have found plenty to enjoy in the likes of "The Cat's Meow" and "Don't Freak Me Out" while elsewhere there were hints of everyone from Jane's Addiction to the Doors. Definitely a band with a bright future ahead of them.



35. GENE LOVES JEZEBEL - "Dance Underwater" (Review here)

The first album from Jay Aston's incarnation of Gene Loves Jezebel in over a decade, "Dance Underwater" was a good example of an '80s goth band moving their sound forward into the 21st century. Veering between blissed out psychedelia and big anthemic choruses, this was an album that was much better than it arguably had any right to be and a very competent comeback indeed.



34. DEPECHE MODE - "Spirit"

Just as dark and sinister as we've come to expect from Depeche Mode down the years, "Spirit" was a good reminder that time hasn't blunted Dave Gahan and Martin Gore with the likes of "Where's The Revolution?", "Going Backwards" and "Scum" hinting at a newfound political conscience beating beneath the dark heart of this album. Good stuff.



33. LA GUNS - "The Missing Peace" (Review here)

An album I suspect many LA Guns fans thought they'd never see following a lengthy spat between singer Phil Lewis and guitarist Tracii Guns - however, 2017 saw the two reunite for their first album together in 15 years. After a slow start, the band find their feet and deliver a killer second half to reassure listeners that there's plenty of fire in the tank. Well worth a listen.



32. BASH & POP - "Anything Could Happen"

25 years after their first album, 2017 saw Tommy Stinson (Replacements, G'n'R, Soul Asylum) resurrecting his early '90s outfit for a second album which contained a lot of the laid-back effortlessly cool sort of tunes you'd expect from him. Veering from spiky punked up rebukes ("Unf**k You") to more laid-back almost alt-country efforts ("Anybody Else"), "Anything Could Happen" was an impressive effort and good proof of Stinson's songwriting calibre.



31. S*M*A*S*H* - "Goodbye WGC" (Review here)

Almost certainly the last thing you were expecting from reformed mid-'90s punk firebrands S*M*A*S*H*, "Goodbye WGC" saw Welwyn's finest adding a more thoughtful dimension to their songwriting, aiming for the ground between Echo & The Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs while the epic sprawling seven minute title track was a real jaw-dropper in terms of what this band were capable of.


No comments:

Post a Comment