As those of you who’ve been coming here for a while know (all eight of you) one of my favorite annual pastimes is the scanning of various people’s/outlet’s year end lists to see what new discoveries I might find so I can add them to the arsenal. I always find something, and while this year’s been a bit disappointing so far (though I’ll note a fair number of mine have shown up on others’, giving the eight of you validation to keep returning here #allkillernofiller), I have managed to find one home run worth sharing — the Liverpool duo King Hannah, whose sophomore album Big Swimmer caught my ear and has captivated it ever since.
The band is a relatively new one, having just released their debut I’m Not Sorry, I Was Just Being Me three years ago, but they’ve followed that up with another batch of moody — and at times sexy — songs to pique your interest. Comprised of singer Hannah Merrick and guitarist Craig Whittle, they wrote the album as they toured the US for their debut, capturing images from the road that resonated with them. Merrick is our somewhat deadpan narrator throughout, singing about happily aimless afternoons in NY and half-lit Denny’s signs in El Paso or ominous undersides of a Philly bridge with almost the same amount of energy. That flat, cool sense of exhaustion could be off-putting over time, calling to mind buzz bands like Dry Cleaning with its similarities, but these guys have a lot more melody and mystery to keep you engaged.
Sonically they’re a bit of a chameleon, coming across as a mix of bands, including several favorites. The primary echo is for their fellow countrymen, the Bristol legends Portishead, but the duo also folds in elements of Austin’s Sun June and UK titans Radiohead, shifting effortlessly across the album’s 11 tracks. Songs like “Milk Boy (I Love You)” and “Somewhere Near El Paso” call to mind Portishead with their skittering beats and slight sense of menace. (The former has a hammer getting swung at a kid’s face, the latter an ominous admonition of “that was a baaaaaad deciiiiiisioooooooooon” before both erupt in flames.) The soothing title track or the dreamy, blissed out shuffles of “Suddenly, Your Hand” and “This Wasn’t Intentional” sound more like Sun June, channeling that group’s more sedate sensuality and warmth. (The latter two positively drip with it and are so potent I think I missed my period.) And when Merrick cranks the anxiety up lyrically as she does on “Lily Pad” they remind me more of Radiohead. (She spits, “I think I’m going insane” before a ripsh#$ fireworks display at the end from Whittle makes the song explode.)
Whittle and his guitar are the band’s secret weapon, punctuating a number of songs with fiery little runs that are as unexpected as they are powerful, scorching your pleasure centers as he takes the songs into the stratosphere. Aside from the aforementioned outburst in “Lily Pad” there’s the taut flurry at the end of “New York, Let’s Do Nothing” or the smoldering run to close “The Mattress,” which provide additional examples. Time and again he drops in to hammer an exclamation point on an already solid sentence, making you immediately want to rewind and listen to it again. His harmonies are also effective (albeit much more scarcely deployed), as shown on the back half track “Davey Says,” juxtaposing Merrick’s voice nicely and giving the song a warmth belied by the life or death lyrics. (Sharon Van Etten shows up on a couple tracks as well, serving the same purpose from the female side of the spectrum.)
They end on a sweet note, closing with the lovely “John Prine on the Radio,” which leaves behind the eerie vending machines and overarching sense of danger to paint a picture of domestic bliss, cooking at home with a loved one while listening to your favorite tunes. (In this case the late, great man from Maywood mentioned in the title — another echo of Sun June.) It’s a nice partner to the equally inviting opening track, bookending the sensual menace in between and allowing us to go out on a sunny note. I really enjoyed this one — give “Milk Boy” a try and see if you can resist:
To close out the first post of the new year we’ll do some cleanup from the last, clearing out some things that either have been sitting in my queue to talk about for a bit or come from albums that didn’t make the cut for my year end list, but still have a few things worth listening to. We’ll start with the latter and an album that came out right before the end of the year, yet still made a bunch of best of lists (including Joker’s), Father John Misty’s latest, Mahashmashana.Â
His sixth overall, it’s his second in a row I found disappointing, unfortunately rendering him a 50/50 act at this point. (Two of his first three made my lists after discovering him a year or so after his debut, landing at #5 in both 2015 and 2018.) He’s still in his somewhat ridiculous showtune phase, opening with a rambling nearly 10 minute opener that while pretty, doesn’t seem to get anywhere important. The bulk of the album feels like that, like you’re driving around aimlessly in a limo — it’s luxurious, sure, but the driver’s a bit of a downer and you feel like you should get more for the cost. (There’s only eight songs on the album, most suffering some form of bloat.) Two of them are worth a listen, though, the twitchy, skronking howl of “She Cleans Up” and its moody, mellow follow-up, “Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose.” Give both a listen here:
Another one that landed on a load of year end lists was MJ Lenderman’s fourth solo album, Manning Fireworks, and while I thought his contributions on Waxahatchee’s Tigers Blood were a revelation, providing the perfect counterpoint to her amazing voice (it landed at #2 on this year’s list), his solo stuff still leaves me cold. There’s still too much Kurt Vile to his voice and Pavement to his vibe when it isn’t blended (or rather, diluted) by others around him, be it his Wednesday bandmates or the aforementioned Ms Katie. That said, there were a pair of tunes that kept popping up as spillovers on the Spots that I ended up enjoying. The grungy, yet melodic lead single “She’s Leaving You” and the more stately “Joker Lips” (which would actually sound pretty great as a duet with Ms Katie) are both worth a listen — do so here:
Up third is an album that showed up on far fewer wrapups, but was one I’d thought about including for a while, as it came from another long running band back for another surprise spin. This one was from NY’s Nada Surf, returning with their tenth studio album and first in four years. These guys have been churning out relatively reliable pop tunes since the mid-90s, albeit never reaching the heights they achieved on their debut, High/Low. (I’ll always prefer its follow up, Let Go, though, a perfect slab of pop confections.) The band sounds just like you remember and there’s a handful of good tunes within, but similar to other nostalgic acts that returned last year like the Crowes, PJ, and Libertines, they fell just outside the rungs of my writeup. That shouldn’t stop you from giving it a spin and enjoying several of the songs, though, like the bright leadoff “Second Skin” and the wistful “Losing.” Check both of them out here:
We’ll wrap up the front four with one that showed up on people’s lists last year, but I wound up revisiting it based on the band from the lead, which reminded me of them. I’m referring to Sun June who released their third album Bad Dream Jaguar in 2023 and while it was another pretty, woozy affair, it was too monochromatic to me and thus was left off my list. (I was a huge fan of their first two, which for whatever reason seemed more varied and thus hit a little harder, despite cooking with the same ingredients.) My assessment hasn’t changed upon revisiting it this month, but there were a couple of tunes I’d remembered liking and felt were worth sharing, given the opportunity. Give “Moon Ahead” and “Easy Violence” a listen here:
For the back half of the closeout we’ll shift to some extras from a handful of artists who did make the year end list — either this year or previously — and as such pare it back to a single song from each. (I don’t want to bore you, after all…) We’ll start with a pair of B-sides from albums on this year’s version, the first of which comes from one of its biggest surprises, the return to form from former White Stripes frontman Jack White, whose album landed at #4 last month. This track didn’t make that album’s cut, but easily could have as it continues the fiery riffage of its best, marrying the sludgy stutter of his Stripes’ “Little Cream Soda” with another gloriously feisty earworm that would make White’s pal Page proud. No muss, no fuss, just another fun foot stomper from someone who used to do em almost better than anyone. I really hope he keeps this up — we need simple pleasures like this to hold onto…
The second half of our B-side buddy system is another gem from perennial fave Ms Katie (aka Waxahatchee) and an extra from her excellent album Tigers Blood, which came this close to claiming the top spot on my year end list last month. It’s a song from the same sessions that spawned that album and therefore carries much of the same magic, including contributions from its talisman, the aforementioned MJ Lenderman. She started sneaking it into her sets while on tour this year and it fit in perfectly, its carefree country vibe nestling in nicely alongside the others as its lyrics of characteristic uncertainty and self-critique were carried home as always by that angelic voice. (“Tell you to lose my number and then I call you twice…light me up with one spark, relish the anarchy.”) Another blissful beauty from one of my faves — give it a listen here:
We’ll shift from B-sides to bedsides and a series of intimate performances from former list mates to soothe your frazzled nerves. For whatever reason the algorithm has been pushing me stripped back live stuff from some of my faves the last month or so (maybe it sensed the dire, growing need for peace and tranquility bearing down on us…) and there are several worth sharing here. The first comes from the last of our current year’s crop of artists and Alabama’s Red Clay Strays, who landed at #6 last month. They recently got to do one of NPR’s Tiny Desk sets and it was a good one. They start out uptempo before settling into some of the album’s slower fare and frontman Brandon Coleman shines, both for his voice and humble demeanor. Really nice set by the whole band — give it a ride here:
The last of the live shots comes from a former champ and it’s also one of the best. It comes from the great Gregory Alan Isakov and a rendition of one of the songs off his 2013 masterpiece The Weatherman. (An album I didn’t discover until a year or so later, thanks to Mad Dog, but I’ve loved him ever since, showing up at #8 in 2018 and #1 in 2023.) It shows Isakov and his band huddled around a single mic as they often do to close their shows, only this time from a barn in rural Arkansas. It’s every bit as spellbinding as when they do it live, with banjo man Steve Varney’s backing vocals sending a shiver down your spine here. Beautiful stuff — brace yourself for an absolute knee-buckler here:
That’s it for now — it’s been a hell of a week and there’s no reason to think it’s going to slow down or get any better. As a result, I’ll keep digging for pockets of respite in the music and sharing any solace I find so you can do the same. In the meantime be good to each other and remember that integrity, excellence, and compassion matter and will more broadly again someday…
Until next time, amici… –BS