2022 Album Highlights & Shows # 966, 965, 964

For our annual albums of the year episodes, Revolution Rock once again did not rank any of the albums with any specific number. The following selections for the two episodes posted here feature a mix of albums from 2022 in no specific order, but all of them were albums that we enjoyed. Below you will also find six write-ups from albums that were released in 2022, three written by Dave and three written by Adam. Following these words are playlists and download/listening links to two episodes featuring music released in 2022.

2022 Album Highlights:

Written by David Konstantino

The Sadies - Colder Streams 

Colder Streams is the 11th studio album by The Sadies. Produced by Richard Reed Parry and recorded by Pietro Amato in his Montreal studio Skybarn, the album was made between 2019 and 2021. Colder Streams was completed and ready to go prior to the unexpected passing of Dallas Good in February of 2022. The album is the culmination of the decades of the bands work and combines their mixture of country, garage, punk, surf and bluegrass music so seamlessly. Lyrically, the songs dig deep, as The Sadies often do, but there is something special found in the songs here. Songs such as “Stop and Start” brings forth waves psychedelic and fuzzy garage music as lyrics “The sadness comes like a setting sun/The war is won when the fight is done” delve into themes of hope, despair and spirituality. “Message To Belial” points towards bleak, apocalyptic imagery that reflects our modern times while musically the mid-tempo, trippy and psychedelic number is an example The Sadies in their musical element. “More Alone” is a folk/cinematic surf inspired track. It is an intense and lyrically poignant track, as it is believed to be about the passing of friend Justin Townes Earle. With lyrics it goes further “I learned to accept that there’s nothing anyone can say/It hurts me to think about what could have been/And everything that won’t ever be,” “I feel more alone/Then when I’m alone,” and “In this day and age/Rage has become all the Rage,” which also touches on social commentary. 

“All The Good” is a folk/Americana track sung by Travis Good. More depth is revealed throughout the lyrics “When I search for answers/Questions are all I find/I wish I knew what I needed to do this time,” “Better Yet” jumps into garage and punk featuring fuzz guitar from Jon Spencer, “Ginger Moon” is an uptempo number, “Cut Up High and Dry” blends garage, psych and bluegrass, while “End Credits” fittingly ends Colder Streams with a moving instrumental in a cinematic, Ennio Morricone-inspired fashion. The Sadies have been a part of the indie and underground music scenes in Canada and throughout other parts of the world for quite some time now. They have often been called “unclassifiable rock” due to the sounds that they create. Colder Streams has been said to be their strongest album to date. It is hard to argue with that since everything found here captures all the best elements of The Sadies live dynamic. With the tragic passing of Dallas Good, Colder Streams serves as a document and an important moment in the bands history as they forge a new path ahead into the future.

Dion Lunadon - Beyond Everything

Beyond Everything is the second full-length album by Dion Lunadon. Previously of The D4 and A Place To Bury Strangers, the album was released via In The Red Records in June 2022. Pulled from a large collection of songs written between 2017 and 2019, Beyond Everything adds more of a dynamic element to Dion’s sound building on components of his 2017 album, while not forgetting them completely. “By My Side” begins with a drumbeat and wild, unhinged guitar sounds. Lyrically the words in the song lend themselves to the interpretative side of things as they rise and waver between the guitars, drums and distortion prevalent throughout the vocals. “It’s The Truth” cuts through with distorted guitar, thrashy sounding drums and a smooth bassline that glues it all together. This untamed injection of garage and psych rock balances itself with lyrics that evoke a feeling of absence that makes the heart grow fonder. “Screw Diver” is one of the longer tracks found on Beyond Everything. With pummeling drums and guitar riffs, the song contrasts this with a calming, yet unnerving vocal melody. “Elastic Diagnostic” is another highlight found on this album. Starting with a fuzzy, driving bassline and the lyric “Hungry just to be alive,” the song builds around the hums and tones conjured by the guitars on this track. As it captivates with its deep spellbinding groove, noise and abstract lyrics “Close my eyes/Get lost in the fall,” the song gets lost in the moment as Lunadon summons up shades of a Fun House-era Iggy Pop vocally. “Glass Doll” attacks with a distorted punk rock fragility as “Too Hard To Love, Too Young To Die” digs into a 60s garage pop meets punk atmosphere. With its repetitive lyrics, use of space and undeniable intensity, lyrically it seems to address a desire to overcome difficult hardships. 

The press release for Beyond Everything reads: “Beyond your skin, beyond your screen, beyond what you think you know. What lies in this area? An area with no opinions, motives, sides or divisions. An area where governments and capitalists have no currency and the absolute truth reigns supreme.” The songs that make up this album don’t adhere to any specific theme other than themselves. They illustrate a use of space that only adds to their intensity, melody, noise and overall impact. Beyond Everything resonates in more ways than one. 

Ghost Woman - Self-Titled

Ghost Woman’s debut self-titled album was released in July 2022 on UK label Full Time Hobby. The album was recorded, produced and played entirely by musician Evan Uschenko, a Canadian born musician, who for the last while has been a touring musician as part of Michael Rault’s touring band. Touring with the likes of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Jacco Gardner and Mild High Club, the insight he gained inspired him to create this debut album. Although they did release the Lost Echoes EP in 2016, this album is their first full-length album. Ghost Woman simmers with the embers of 60s garage nuggets compilation tracks, while at the same time it has a hazy laidback groove that is reminiscent of 60s and 70s music. With references points in the press release such as Kurt Vile and The Black Angels (I’d also add The Kinks, Captain Beefheart, Jefferson Airplane, Can and Jon McKiel), “All the Time” starts off Ghost Woman’s debut album with a hazy kaleidoscope of 60s rock grooves. The listener gets sucked into the song and album as Uschenko’s vocals captivate when combined with lyrics such as “I haven't felt this cold in days/The wind it blew your name away,” and “But I can't get you off my mind/And lately someone's leaving all the time,” the bass groove on “Do You” combined with the psychedelic and 60s early Rolling Stones vibe present on the guitars float within the dynamics found on this album. 

Songs such as “Behind Your Eyes” are indebted to The Byrds and garage rock, lyrically the lo-fi hooks in the chorus “But you won’t understand me this time/Not much there behind your eyes” paints a mood and hazy picture that are abstract and haunting, “Dead and Gone” (originally on 2016’s Lost Echoes EP) is a fuzzy, lo-fi uptempo number that drives forward with an incendiary fashion, “Jreaming” is a lackadaisical song. It sounds like the tape was left rolling and this song was captured by accident, the song is unique and entrancing with its hallucinatory lyrics dealing with the complexity for the sense of being free while also being in need. With a second album coming in January 2023 (Anne, If) and live shows, Ghost Woman’s debut is a mosaic of sounds that could be called modern vintage. However, Ghost Woman’s kaleidoscope of hazy musical dynamics leaves the listener in a trance that is fleeting, yet stirring.

More 2022 Album Highlights:

Written by Adam Peltier

Black Country, New Road - Ants from Up There 

Ants from Up There may be the single greatest album about failure ever recorded. Isaac Wood’s intimate lyrics are less poetry than a confessional: personal insecurities, social anxiety, and isolation paint the landscapes of Black Country, New Road’s world. The portraits presented are intimate and yet elliptical: crumbs of toast scattered in a bed are the insidious signs of a relationship’s dissolution; tabletop RPG characters become stand-ins rejecting English nationalism; wet dreams of Charli XCX are portents of masculine insecurity; while a song about messing up cooking while following a YouTube tutorial evokes fears of failure and inadequacy. These probing psychological explorations are propelled by one of 2022’s greatest musical evolutions: the Slint-meets-klezmer band sounds of their debut are completely uprooted, exchanged for lusher chamber pop compositions that evoke the likes of Talk Talk, Sufjan Stevens, and Wolf Parade. There are even nods to pre-rock popular music such as the music hall touches on “Chaos Space Marine” and “Bread Song.” Then there is the band’s use of space on these compositions, which results less in songs than worlds to inhabit (see the masterfully sustained tension on “Snowglobes” or the near-ambient passages of “Good Will Hunting”). While this appears to be Isaac Wood’s last album with the band he helped to found, he is leaving on a high note, with Ants from Up There acting us Black Country, New Road’s magnum opus.

Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You

In a year of incredible double albums, none seemed as sprawling or as satisfying as Big Thief’s whimsically titled Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You. The album acts as a revelation in many ways. We see Big Thief eke away from their usual somber bleary-eyed folk to embrace noisy indie rock, country sing-alongs, orchestral pop, and rhythmic trip hop. Yet the even bigger reveal is just how fun the band can be. Sure, Adrianne Lenker still can break your heart and make you weep on the more intimate cuts, but tracks like “Spud Infinity” and “Blue Lightning” are just plain fun, complete with non-sense lyrics and in-between band banter. This is the sound of a group letting their hair down, taking their selves slightly less seriously, and coming across all the better for it. There is nary a dud across these twenty songs, and the overall experience shows Big Thief to be more than just another maudlin indie folk act: this astonishing turn shows the band to be one of the most versatile and ambitious acts working today.

black midi - Hellfire

Jazz-rock. Prog-punk. Baroque-noise. There are a dozen labels one could cast on black midi, each feeling somewhat right yet ultimately off. The greatest compliment to pay a band these days is to admit nothing else quite sounds like them, and while there are elements of Scott Walker, Captain Beefheart, and King Crimson in the London trio’s sound, there is no mistaking the group for anyone else. Like the shifting visceral hellscape of the album cover, Hellfire’s sound is constantly in flux. This Heat style postpunk breaks down into Jacque Brel theatrics. Laser focused punk rhythms morph into acid jazz. Geordie Greep’s vocals threaten to shift from wavering baritone to barked shrieks at a moment’s notice. The album’s a constant reminder that, hey buddy, don’t get too comfortable: everything changes, nothing is free from mutability. Considering the comfort we seek in the assurance of patterns and predictability, it only makes sense that black midi compose a hell from an ever shifting wasteland. Yet give yourself over to it, embrace the pull of the flux, and you may find the hellfire not too bad to drift in. For all it offers, and all the album refuses to do, Hellfire is one of the most startling and original works of the year.

Show 965 Playlist (Originally Aired On December 17th, 2022)  (Best of 2022 Albums Part Two):

1.  The Chats - Ticket Inspector (Get Fucked - Bargain Bin Records - 2022) 
2.  Osees - Funeral Solution (A Foul Form - Castle Face - 2022)
3.  Fruit Tones - Don’t Speak A Language (Pink Wafer Factory - Alien Snatch Records - 2022)
4.  Fake Palms - Visions (Lemons - Hand Drawn Dracula - 2022)
5.  Susans - Nine (Susans - Painters Tapes/Tedious Medium - 2022)
6.  Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Magnificent Hurt (The Boy Named If - EMI/Capitol Records - 2022)
7.  Fontaines D.C. – Jackie Down the Line (Skinty Fia - Partisan/Rough Trade - 2022) 
8.  White Lung – Date Night (Premonition - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022) 
9.  Kamikaze Nurse – Boom Josie (Stimuloso - Sub Pop - 2022) 

10. Dumb – Gibberish (Pray 4 Us - Mint Records - 2022) 
11. Soul Glo – Thumbsucker (Diaspora Problems - Epitaph Records - 2022) 
12. Animal Collective – Dragon Slayer (Time Skiffs - Domino Records - 2022) 
13. Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Gettin’ to the Point (Reset - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022) 

14. Cate Le Bon – Harbour (Pompeii - Mexican Summer - 2022) 
15. The Burning Hell - Birdwatching (Garbage Island - You've Changed Records - 2022)
16. Steven Lambke - Sea Level (Volcano, Volcano - You've Changed Records - 2022)

17. Status/Non Status - When They Were (Surely Travel - You've Changed Records - 2022)

18. Tim Swaddling - Real Gone (Manifests - 2022)
19. Juliana Riolino - Why Do I Miss You (All Blue - You've Changed Records - 2022)

20. Kevin Morby - Disappearing (This is a Photograph - Dead Oceans - 2022)
21. The Paranoyds - Lizzie (Talk Talk Talk - Third Man Records - 2022)
22. Black Angels - History of the Future (Wilderness of Mirrors - Partisan Records - 2022)
23. The Volebeats - You Get Closer (Lonesome Galaxy - Mad Bunny Records - 2022) 
24. Ghost Woman - All the Time (Ghost Woman - Full Time Hobby - 2022)
25. The Sadies - Ginger Moon (Colder Streams - Dine Alone Records/Yep Roc Records - 2022)
26. Aldous Harding – Tick Tock (Warm Chris - 4AD/Flying Nun Records - 2022) 
27. Alex G – Runner (God Save the Animals - Domino Recording Co. Ltd. - 2022) 

28. Yves Jarvis – Bootstrap Jubilee (The Zug - You've Changed Records - 2022) 
29. Wilco – Mystery Binds (Cruel Country - dBpm Records - 2022) 

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.

Show 964 Playlist (Originally Aired On December 10th, 2022) (Albums of 2022 Part One):

1.  Alvvays – Pomeranian Spinster (Blue Rev - Polyvinyl - 2022) 
2.  Wet Leg – Supermarket (Wet Leg  - Domino Records - 2022) 
3.  Beach House – Once Twice Melody (Once Twice Melody - Mistletoe Records - 2022) 
4.  Angel Olsen – Big Time (Big Time - Jagjaguwar - 2022) 
5.  Big Thief – Blue Lightening (Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - 4AD - 2022) 
6.  Ty Segall - Over (Hello, Hi - Drag City Records - 2022)

7.  Big Rig - Crying in a Corn Maze (Big Rig - Peaceful Tapes - 2022)
8.  Bloodshot Bill - Spitfire (Songs From The Sludge - Hi-Tide Recordings - 2022)
9.  Apollo Ghosts - Acid Jenny (Pink Tiger - You've Changed Records - 2022)
10. By Divine Right - Fuzzy Empires (Otto Motto - Fortune Stellar Records - 2022)
11. Wolfmanhattan Project - H Hour (Summer Forever and Ever - In The Red Records - 2022)
12. Jon Spencer & the HITmakers - Push Comes to Shove (Spencer Gets It Lit! - In The Red Records - 2022)
13. Dry Cleaning - Conservative Hell (Stumpwork - 4AD - 2022) 
14. black midi – Welcome to Hell (Hellfire - Rough Trade Records - 2022) 
15. Destroyer – Tintoretto, It’s For You (Labyrnthitis - Merge Records - 2022) 
16. The Smile – We Don't Know Tomorrow Brings (A Light for Attracting Attention - XL Recordings - 2022) 
17. Black Country, New Road – Good Will Hunting (Ants from Up There - Ninja Tune - 2022) 
18. Preoccupations - Slowly (Arrangements - Flemish Eye - 2022)
19. Viagra Boys - Punk Rock Loser (Cave World - Year0001 - 2022)
20. CLAMM - Monday (Care - Chapter Music - 2022)
21. Dion Lunadon - Living and Dying With You (Beyond Everything - In The Red Records - 2022) 
22. Weird Nightmare - Lusitania (Weird Nightmare - Sub Pop - 2022)
23. Sloan - Dream It All Over Again (Steady - Murder Records - 2022)
24. Kiwi Jr. - Parasite II (Chopper - Sub Pop Records - 2022)
25. Weak Signal - Spooky Feeling (War&War - 2022)
26. Baby Giant - Brightside (All Day Dreaming - 2022)

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.

JSD 2022 (Show # 966)

Every December 22nd, CJAM FM holds a 24-hour radio marathon entitled Joe Strummer Day. Its purpose is to confront poverty and homelessness in the Windsor/Detroit area all wrapped around the music of Joe Strummer and The Clash. This year featured an astonishing and revealing amount of interviews addressing concerns in the area by CJAM station manager Walter Petrichyn, but it also featured some great music and other interview programs (many of them combined interviews and programs about poverty and homelessness related issues with music. Some were just music). For Revolution Rock we decided to do a program that was mainly a music program, but one that also brought up different places in Windsor for people in need during this time of year. We called the program Time and The Tide. Named after the B-Side to the Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros single Tony Adams and also found on the newly released Joe Strummer 002 box set. We featured a selection of tracks from this new box set in addition to some rare Clash live recordings featuring Keith Levene in 1976, bands associated with The Clash and some Clash/Joe Strummer covers.

Find the full schedule here and a link to Revolution Rock’s episode below the playlist.

JSD 2022 Playlist (Originally Aired December 22nd, 2022)(Covers, The Clash w/Keith Levene, Joe Strummer 002):

1.  Thee Mighty Caesars – 1977 (Caesars Remains - Hangman Records - 1992)

2.  Catbite – White Riot (Catbite/Omnigone split - Bad Time Records - 2020)

3.  Babyshambles & friends – Janie Jones (Strummerville - B-Unique Records - 2006)

4.  The Kowalskis – Complete Control (Backlash - Tribute To The Clash - Dwell Records - 1999)

5.  The Clash - I Know What To Think of You (Live at the 100 Club 08.31.1976) 

6.  The Clash - I Never Did It Live at the 100 Club 08.31.1976) 

7.  The Clash - How Can I Understand the Flies Live at the 100 Club 08.31.1976) 

8.  The Clash - Mark Me Absent Live at the 100 Club 08.31.1976)  

9.  The Clash - Deadly Serious (Dig A Hole) Live at the 100 Club 08.31.1976)  

10. The Joy Zippers – Hitsville UK (White Riot Vol. Two (A Tribute To The Clash) - Uncut - 2003)

11. Lucinda Williams – Straight to Hell [live] (A Song for Joe: Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer - 2020)

12. The Sparks – We Are the Clash (White Riot Vol. Two (A Tribute To The Clash) - Uncut - 2003)

13. Steel Leg V The Electric Dread - Haile Unlikely by the Electric Dread (Steel Leg V The Electric Dread - Virgin Records - 1978) 

14. Big Audio Dynamite - V.Thirteen (No. 10 Upping St - CBS/Columbia - 1986) 

15. Joe Strummer - When Pigs Fly  (Joe Strummer 001 - Ignition Records - 2018/When Pigs Fly Soundtrack - 1993)

16. Joe Strummer - Junco Partner (Acoustic) (Assembly - Dark Horse Records - 2020)

17. Joe Strummer - Outta Space (Permanent Record Outtakes - 1988)

18. Joe Strummer - X-Ray Style (Demo) (Joe Strummer 002 - Dark Horse Records - 2022) 

19. Joe Strummer - Time and the Tide (Joe Strummer 002 - Dark Horse Records - 2022)

20. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Get Down Moses (Outtake) (Joe Strummer 002 - Dark Horse Records - 2022)

21. Kensington Hillbilly’s - London Calling (The Crooked Beat - 2012)

22. The Hold Steady – Washington Bullets  (A Song for Joe: Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer - 2020)

23. Jeff Tweedy – Death or Glory  (A Song for Joe: Celebrating the Life of Joe Strummer - 2020)

24. The National – Clampdown (White Riot Vol. Two (A Tribute To The Clash) - Uncut - 2003)

25. Johnny West – Bankrobber (Bankrobber - 2010)

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.

2021 Album Highlights & Shows # 917, 916

For our annual albums of the year episodes, Revolution Rock once again did not rank any of the albums with any specific number. The following selections for the two episodes posted here feature a mix of albums from 2021 in no specific order, but all of them were albums that we enjoyed. Below you will also find six write-ups from albums that were released in 2021, three written by Dave and three written by Adam. Following these words are playlists and download/listening links to two episodes featuring music released in 2021.

2021 Album Highlights:
Written by Dave Konstantino

Paul Jacobs - Pink Dogs On The Green Grass

Paul Jacobs latest release is Pink Dogs On The Green Grass is out via Blow The Fuse Records. With just thirteen tracks, this album follows 2020’s outtakes/demo collection Portrait of George (Demo & Songs I Forgot About) and 2018’s EASY. Already having several albums in his discography (and two releases as part of post punk group Pottery), Pink Dogs On The Green Grass shows Paul Jacobs branching out by finding a new way of approaching his music. Musically, references have been made to Cass McCombs, Kurt Vile, early Beck, but you can also hear the influence of 60s psychedelia and bands such as The Byrds and Lou Reed. Lyrically, Jacobs words are at times surreal. They are sometimes about different characters or observations and often take on cryptic meanings. While some have said that the lyrics reveal unwanted moments that stick with you, Pink Dogs On The Green Grass is much more than that. With Pink Dogs On The Green Grass, Paul Jacobs reveals that the grass sometimes turns yellow on the other side and that sometimes the green grass can be found in the every day moments we find ourselves in. 

The Garrys – Get Thee To A Nunnery

Get Thee To A Nunnery is the fourth full-length album by Saskatoon’s The Garrys. This three-piece sister trio features Erica Maier (guitar/vocals), Julie Maier (bass/vocals) and Lenore Maier (drums/vocals). They first started appearing on underground music radar with 2017’s Surf Manitou, which brought their prairie inspired surf dynamics and combined them with folk-like tales of Manitou Beach, SK, a family vacation spot that the Maier’s visited when younger. They also sung of sea monsters that lurked those parts. In 2020, The Garrys released their score to the 1922 silent film Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages, which was performed and recorded live as the film played in a theatre. They describe their music as “dreamy blood harmony surf rock doom-wop on morphine.” Surf, psychedelia, doo-wop, garage and cinematic sounds of composers such as Ennino Morricone influence the music, but it is so much more than that description. Produced by Dallas Good of the Sadies, Get Thee To A Nunnery presents The Garrys capturing that nostalgic feeling that they do so well, that exists both in the past and the present, as it questions topics relating to family roots in Saskatchewan, isolation and decay of rural life, worldviews and faith in different generations and oppression. It doesn’t just address the past saying everything is great because that isn’t how it was. While also taking influence from Shakepeare’s Hamlet, Get Thee To A Nunnery goes further in The Garrys’ songwriting abilities. It explores new and old themes placing them in larger contexts that drift out beyond the borders that we once knew.

Chad VanGaalen – World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener

World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener is the follow up to Chad VanGaalen’s 2017 album Light Information. If we are counting the two outtake albums that were released in 2020 (Odds & Sods 2, Lost Harmonies), it is his ninth studio album. Released in March 2021, World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener is an eclectic collection of songs from VanGaalen. The music that he creates while it is sometimes folk, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes indie rock, sometimes strange, is really its own thing. The universe in which the songs of Chad VanGaalen belong is a strange, wonderful, kind of messed up, cosmic place at times. As we enter these worlds we find ourselves absorbed by the sounds and stories that he produces. World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener offers more variety musically than ever before on one of his albums, but still has the same feel of the best of Chad VanGaalen’s work. Like his illustrations and animations, the songs that Chad VanGaalen creates capture a sense of something of the unknown, the otherworldly, visually and sonically. With World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener, Chad VanGaalen digs deep to show us a world that is dark, multifaceted and sonically captivating.

More 2021 Album Highlights:
Written by Adam Peltier

The Weather Station – Ignorance

Tamara Lindeman's past albums have displayed keen observations into human relationships, but her latest offering shifts the songwriter's insights to the relationship between people and the world around them. It would belittle Ignorance to think of it only as a “climate change” album; its exploration of complex themes and the intricacies existing between personal and ecology trauma refuse such a simple interpretation. Take the opener “Robber” - it may be about man-made environmental devastation, but it also evokes ideas of colonialism, capitalism, and meritocracy. However, there is no denying Lindeman's identification with nature on this album, from the pleading “Wear” to the cathartic closer “Subdivisions.” There is an artfulness to how Lindeman handles such themes, which in the wrong hands could be ham-fisted or pedantic. Instead, she offers an emotional vulnerability to her performance and lyrics, while never falling into fragility. In fact, the Weather Station has never sounded more confident or emboldened than on this record. Part of the album's charm is easily the band Lindeman assembled, whose performance incorporates elements of folk, baroque pop, and jazz, a combination which has led to many mid-70's Joni Mitchell comparisons. Certainly, Ignorance shares a lot of the warmth of albums like Court & Spark and Hissing of Summer Lawns, but distinguishes itself through its propulsive grooves and the immediacy of its lyrics. Rather than wallow in the environmental collapse of our world, Ignorance offers a passionate response to the societal apathy (and “ignorance”) that has led us down this path.

Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

“Do everything feeling nothing.” Is there a greater distillation of how 2021 felt than this line? Florence Shaw's deadpan intonation is the perfect vessel to deliver this and the dozens of other quotable lyrics on New Long Leg, the debut album from the much hyped UK band Dry Cleaning. Unlike majority of other great white hopes touted by the British music press, Dry Cleaning delivered not only a solid album of grunge-tinged post-punk, but introduced the world to one of rock's most understated intense performers in Shaw. Her laconic delivery and dry observations imbue her lyrics with a mixture of dread and humour, reflecting the burned-out ennui felt by so many during the thick of these late-era capitalist pandemic years. Whether riffing on casual misogyny, Brexit, or eating Twix, Shaw should go down as one of the most unique and timely voices of the year.

Black Country, New Road - For the First Time

Long-associated tour mates of black MIDI (another band who released a fantastic album this year), the debut album by Black Country, New Road offered a breath of fresh air to the often hegemonic world of post-rock. While comparisons can be made to recent releases from Swans or Slint (who are name-checked on the track “Science Fair”), For the First Time is also indebted to klezmer music, free jazz, and noise. There probably isn't a greater crescendo this year than on the track “Sunglasses,” while the reserve of “Track X” shows the band also knows how to wring intensity from quieter compositions. Black Country, New Road have given listeners one of the most eclectic guitar rock releases of the year, and with a forthcoming sophomore album promised for 2022, continue to entice fans with wonders of where their sound will go next.

Show 916 (Originally Aired On January 8th, 2022)(Albums of 2022 Part Two):

1. King Khan Unlimited - Narcissist (Opiate Them Asses - Bargain Bin Records - 2021)
2. Visibly Choked - Third Time’s The Charm (Visibly Choked EP - Mothland - 2021)
3. La Luz - Watching Cartoons (La Luz - Hardly Art - 2021)
4. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy & Matt Sweeney – My Popsicle (Superwolves - Drag City Records- 2021)
5. Snail Mail – Automate (Valentine - Matador Records - 2021)
6. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – OK Idicts (Theory of Ice - You've Changed Records - 2021)
7. The Weather Station – Robber (Ignorance - Fat Possum - 2021)
8. black midi – John L (Cavalcade - Rough Trade - 2021)
9. Black Country, New Road – Sunglasses aka The Guest (For the First Time - Ninja Tune - 2021)
10. Motorists - Surrounded (Surrounded - We Are Time - 2021)
11. TUNS - Double Down (Duly Noted - Murder Records - 2021)
12. Anxious Pleasers - Suck (Anxious Pleasers - Neon Taste Records - 2021)
13. Mononegatives - Living In The Age (Apparatus Division - Big Neck Records - 2021)
14. Jesse Fellows - Mail Bomb (The Four Oranges EP - 2021)
15. Ty Segall - Waxman (Harmonizer - Drag City Records - 2021)
16. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Fire at Static Valley (G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! - Constellation Records - 2021)
17. Low – Days Like These (HEY WHAT - Sub Pop - 2021)
18. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Hand of God (Carnage - Goliath Records - 2021)
19. Chad VanGaalen - Nightwaves (The World's Most Stressed Out Gardener - Sub Pop/Flemish Eye Records - 2021)
20. Parquet Courts - Homo Sapien (Sympathy For Life - Rough Trade - 2021)
21. The Garrys - Sintatula (Get Thee To A Nunnery - Grey Records - 2021)
22. Viagra Boys -Ain’t Nice (Welfare Jazz - Year0001- 2021)
23. Paul Jacobs - Day to Day (Pink Dogs On The Green Grass - Blow The Fuse Records - 2021)
24. Paul Jacobs - Your Last Words (Pink Dogs On The Green Grass - Blow The Fuse Records - 2021) 

DOWNLOAD/LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE.

Show 915 (Originally Aired On January 1st, 2022)(Albums of 2022 Part One):

1. Dry Cleaning – Scratchcard Lanyard (New Long Leg - 4AD - 2021)
2. illuminati hotties – Knead (Let Me Do One More - Hopeless Records - 2021)
3. Julie Doiron – The Letters We Sent (I Thought of You - You've Changed Records - 2021)
4. Andy Shauf - Spanish On The Beach (Wilds - Anti- - 2021)
5. Courtney Barnett - Sunfair Sundown (Things Take Time, Take Time - Mom + Pop - 2021)
6. Bill Jr. Jr. - Renaissance Man (Homebody - 2021)
7. Snake River - High Rides (The Lost Album - 2021)
8. Sunshiny Daze - The Night Knows (What The Day Don’t) (Clouds Melt Away - 2021)
9. Neil Jarvis - Time (Get The Band Back Together - On the Grind Records - 2021)
10. Danny Kroha - Come Out The Wilderness (Detroit Blues - Third Man Records - 2021)
11. Daniel Romano’s Outfit - Nocturne Child (Cobra Poems - You've Changed Records - 2021)
12. Hot Garbage - Sometimes I Go Down (RIDE - Mothland - 2021)
13. PONY - Couch (TV Baby - Take This To Heart Records - 2021)
14. Souvenir - Circles (Collapse - 2021)
15. Squid – G.S.K. (Bright Green Field - Warp - 2021)
16. Idles – When the Lights Come On (Crawler - Partisan Records - 2021)
17. Iceage – Dear Saint Cecilia (Seek Shelter - Mexican Summer - 2021)
18. Ryley Walker – Axis Bent (Course in Fable - Husky Pants Records - 2021)
19. PRIORS - VideoDrome (My Punishment On Earth - Brain Gum Records - 2021)
20. Wine Lips - Get Your Money (Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party - Stomp Records - 2021)
21. Matt Ellis - My Neighbourhood Is A Dump (Full Moon Fever - Surfing Ki Records - 2021)
22. Amyl & The Sniffers - Security (Comfort To Me - Rough Trade/ATO Records - 2021)
23. Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - (Are You) Ready Freddy (Swing From The Sean DeLear EP - In The Red Records - 2021)
24. Packs - Cling Film (Take the Cake - Fire Talk/Royal Mountain Records - 2021)
25. TEKE::TEKE – Barbara (Shirushi - Kill Rock Stars - 2021)
26. Kiwi Jr. - Maid Marian's Toast (Cooler Returns - Sub Pop - 2021)
27. Ducks Ltd. - 'Twas Ever Thus (Modern Fiction - Carpark Records/Royal Mountain Records - 2021) 

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