#32 Kronos Quartet, Rinde Eckert, Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ: Mỹ Lai

~ Lex Leeson ~ 3 Comments

God, the Vietnam war was so cool, wasn’t it?? Cool, young, handsome Americans taking drugs to the strains of The Doors?? Yes please! Gooooooooood moooooooorning the 1960s! Aww, but it made the American soldiers a bit sad though, so make some movies out of that as well. But it was still the coolest war, it had the best soundtrack and it made the best movies. Didi mao! Didi mao! Who were the Americans actually fighting again? . Were they fighting Marlon Brando? Because, trust me, you’re gonna need some heavy artillery to take down that sizable landmass. Doesn’t matter – they were fighting the bad guys, and it made them sad. The end. Pretty sure Mỹ Lai’ – the soundtrack to an opera of the same name – just tells that story. And tells it very well!

ARE YOU *SURE* THIS TIME?

#33 Backxwash: HIS HAPPINESS SHALL COME FIRST EVEN THOUGH WE ARE SUFFERING

~ Lex Leeson ~ 4 Comments

They’ll pay respects in the fire and brim,

Elijah and kin the violent things

Jesus will need to annihilate me

The Jesuits will sing from the highest of peaks

Beezlebub brought to his knees

Asmodeus, gon leap from the tallest of trees

Satan won’t feel so forsaken

Now that the lord has awoken and brought all his grace in

ZIGOLO

Ouch! Feel that? Oooh! There it is again. Bit of a stinging… ah! Bit of a stinging pain, no? Well… hang on, here comes another one: ouch! Well that, ma dudes, are the sharp throbs from this album going so fucking hard.

Well, what did you expect? It’s fucking Backxwash. I’m sorry, were you looking for some inoffensive muzak to play in the background at your latest ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ style upper class orgy? Firstly, you should never play inoffensive muzak at those events, your clientele are largely ruling class leeches looking to live out their furry fantasies to take their mind off the millions of victims that the current gross power structure they benefit from. You don’t think they might be a little shy if it’s their first time? Play something to lighten the mood, ease the conversation a bit, loosen people up. I’d personally recommend Adam Sandler’s ‘They’re All Gonna Laugh at You’. Food Innuendo Guy?? Guaranteed to start a conversation.

I’VE NEVER SEEN ‘EYES WIDE SHUT’

#34 FKA Twigs: CAPRISONGS

~ Lex Leeson ~ 6 Comments

Hey, I made you a mixtape
(Work hard, get my body-body weak)
Because when I feel you, I feel me
(Love play called hide and seek)
And when I feel me, it feels good
(That’s why I’ve been standing in the bright lights, for you)
(You wanna get a bit of my mystique-stique?)
I’m still that mysterious bitch
(Play ooh-là-là, très chic)
‘Cause no one does it like I do
(Gets lonely in a studio week)
I keep it moving, keep on dancing
(Think about you all week)
For you

Ride the Dragon

Oh my fuckin God. Don’t you just love that for her? Yes, Twigs, fucking yes. You slay, babe, you slay.

I think it’s fair to say that Ms Twigs has had a lot to deal with in the last few years. There was her struggles with fibroid tumours, and the “fruit bowl of pain” the experience necessitated. Formally a rather reserved an private artist who was extremely cautious with how much of her personal life she revealed to the press, her honest and unashamed opening up about her medical struggles was amazing brave. And, yes, dumb fat knacker males such as myself weren’t even previously aware of the condition, so her honesty and openness was important.

Throw it in the fire, Ego in the fire

#35 Saba: Few Good Things

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

Hustlin’ candy bars to play basketball
I still get nostalgic seein’ houses that my family lost
They wished upon a star, I caught it like I’m Randy Moss
When granny fought for her property, she would turn down any cost
I’m the grandson of Carl who lived across from the fosters
Then fostered me to spread love through holiday poverty
Hand-me-downs I was given, I thought they were bought for me
A tale of two Chicagos, this gets confused commonly
‘Cause one, you’re commemorated if you’re the hot commodity

Free Samples

Comrade Saba!

Is there an industry less concerned with ethics and more damaging to the general populace yet still so accepted as the real estate market? I’m not going to delve to deeply into it here, but the correct position to take is that all landlords are scum. If you own more than one house, you’re at the very best low key scum. Property development and large landlord associations are actually beyond scum and actually evil. I may be against the death penalty in its current widely accepted form, but we as a society need to seriously look at what horrors are accepted in our current decaying capitalism and make big decisions to punish the minority for their crimes against humanity, especially if it benefits the vast majority. That’s all I’m going to say right now. Unless there’s an album coming up soon that I can’t think of anything to say about. I will always reserve my right to go off on a massive far left tangent. Here’s ‘Britain’s Road to Socialism‘ again, give it a read (or a listen).

AND NOW BACK TO OUR SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

#36 METHYL ETHYL: Are You Haunted?

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

OK, again, I’m not 100% sure who this band are. They made the 2019 list after I’d spent the entire year thinking they were someone else. I have no idea how I got into this band, I have no idea where they came from, I have no idea why I ever got that last album. Are they haunted? Is this some spooky shit going down? Did METHYL ETHYL die, on this very night, on this very spot, ten years ago today? Also, have they always stylised their name IN CAPITALS like that? I’m not gonna lie, I’m scared.

What I do know though, is that these mysterious Aussies (to a British person, aren’t all Australians a little mysterious? Like, why are they like that?) just keep producing banger after banger after banger after banger. ‘Are You Haunted’ is perhaps even poppier than their last album – which, I feel I must stress, is absolutely a good thing – and is full of standout tracks.

HOW MANY TRACKS CAN LOGICALLY ‘STAND OUT’?

#37 Stella Donnelly: Flood

~ Lex Leeson ~ 3 Comments

I always… liked… Stella Donnelly. I literally first got into her because I liked the cover of her debut EP ‘Thrush Metal’ (and, yeah, the title, because – hurhurhurhurhur – geddit?), and it contained one of the most gorgeous and powerful indie ballads of recent times. That same song was included on her 2018 debut album, which was… good… Really good, in fact. Not amazing, but really good. I thought the cover of ‘Beware of the Dogs’ was an allusion to the wonderfully freaky 1924 novel ‘The Story of the Eye‘. I asked her about it on Twitter. She never got back to me. So fuck her, right?

‘Flood’ though, is on some real good shit. Firstly, it sees a talented young songwriter strive to make changes for their second album and not just introducing synthesizers! That alone is a notable achievement. Musically, Stella (Stellaaaaaaaa!) decided to centre songwriting around her piano playing rather than her acoustic guitar, and encouraged her bandmembers to similarly try instruments that they didn’t feel as comfortable with. This gives the album a much looser and less fastidiously tight sound to its predecessor, it sounds alive and almost improvised in places. The biggest change and improvement, however, comes with the lyrics. You know why? Yeah, that’s right, the spectre of Communism again, that’s why!

CHRIST, HERE HE GOES AGAIN

#38 Mitski: Laurel Hell

~ Lex Leeson ~ 3 Comments

Sometimes I think I am free
Until I find I’m back in line again

Everyone

Ma dudes, Mitski’s sixth record is really fucking depressing. We’ve already seen plenty of records on this year’s list that deal with weighty and emotionally devastating subjects. But ‘Laurel Hell’ is different. It doesn’t just contain sad lyrics, but it’s very sound is beaten, dejected, empty. Like, total bummer, you get me?

It might just be me. I am, as you might have noticed, a total bummer merchant. I’m sure most people would still find it depressing just knowing the general story behind it. Mitski had sacrificed everything in order to do music for a living (“I will neglect everything else, including me as a person, just to get to keep making music”), and with the wider acclaim and success of ‘Be the Cowboy‘ she seemed to have lived her dream to the extent that she no longer needed to do it. And, having realised the sacrifices such success entails, she decided to chuck it all in. She wrote one of her greatest ever songs Working for the Knife in late 2019 as a spectacular and self-explanatory goodbye to the business (“I always thought the choice was mine/And I was right, but I just chose wrong”). Whereupon her label said, erm, no, you’re still contracted for one more album. Get back out there and dance for us. ‘Laurel Hell’ is that album. I’m sure Mitski was overwhelmingly happy to make it

I START THE DAY HIGH AND IT ENDS SO LOW

#40 Arlo Parks: Super Sad Generation

~ Lex Leeson ~ 1 Comment

I talk to girls that sing about asphyxiation until their beer goes flat
I talk to girls that bring their switchblades to the function and dye their buzzcuts black

Shut your mouth and take your vitamins
Bite your nails and sell your Ritalin
I feel like the world is on my back

Sophie

Firstly, Arlo Parks was in the year 2000. So fuck her, right?

The wasn’t even born when Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator’ was released, co-starring an actor who was then still known as ‘River Phoenix’s less successful brother’. Bizarrely though, the number 1 movie when she was born was ‘Hollow Man‘. Like, nobody saw that movie! Was Arlo born into an alternative universe where Paul Verhoven movies were still popular into the 21st century?? The number one single when she was born was 7 Days, which – yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah – kinda tracks in so many ways. The crowd do indeed, say “Bo selecter”. That wasn’t 7 Days though, that was an Artful Dodger song….

IS THAT ENOUGH #AGEBANTZ YET?

The NE2022 Half-Time Show: Kitty Aurora’s Counterpoint

~ Lex Leeson ~ 2 Comments

As all of my loyal readers know, what I say goes and I am the absolute and only authority on what equals good music. I’ve written this blog for almost a decade now, my lists go back to 2007, it’s clear that I know what I’m talking about, these pages deal solely on facts and not on feelings, and everyone else’s takes are merely ‘opinion’ and are generally invalid. But is that always the case?

Yes, obviously. But I am a fair and balanced broadcaster, and will at a push accept that there might be some music that I’ve missed. So, so the halftime show, I’ve invited my good friend, fabulous artist and – most importantly – the absolute oracle of underground British rock music that is Kitty Aurora to show us all what other weird and wonderful music deserves our attention.

SMOKE ME A KIPPER I’LL BE BACK FOR BREAKFAST