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Listened to this week's Like Clockwork show and want to get your hands on something you heard? We know a place! Each week we'll be posting the playlist from the show and links to anything we have in stock in the shop so you can own that record that you just can't get out of your head. Missed the show? You can listen again here Like Clockwork Playlist - 30th January 2024 Ducks Ltd - The Main Thing Jane Weaver - Love in Constant Spectacle Katherine Priddy - First House on the Left Yard Act - Dream Job Adrianne Lenker - Sadness As a Gift Record of the Week: Red Hot Chili Peppers - It's Only Natural Orbital - Chime (Live) Tambores En Benirras - Generadora de Rayos Nightmares On Wax - Nights Introlude Massive Attack - Five Man Army Liam Gallagher and John Squire - Just Another Rainbow Ride - Peace Sign Gruff Rhys - Celestial Candyfloss The Smile - Wall of Eyes Black Grape - Pimp Wars (Edit) Record of the Week: Red Hot Chill Peppers - The Heavy Wing The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work Beth Orton - Stolen Car Thea Gilmore - She Speaks In Colours

As far as debut albums go Prelude to Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party has been the most eagerly anticipated debut album for quite some time. Since the release of Nothing Matters, the debut single, in April last year there has been an incredible amount of hype and excitement for this album. There has also been a lot of rubbish written about the band, phrases including “Industry Plant” have been unfairly thrown around. Firstly all that has done is add to the hype and secondly, and most importantly, the term industry plant just shows that people do not understand the music industry. Just because you may have friends in other bands who might suggest a venue to play in or suggest a person to get in contact with does not mean you are an ‘industry plant’, that is simply how it works and has done since year dot. The other question to ask is would a five-piece male guitar band be accused of being an ‘industry plant’ in quite the same way as The Last Dinner Party have? The answer to that question is a big fat NO!!  Everyone just get over yourself, an indie guitar band can be all female, can look and sound as amazing as The Last Dinner Party do. The fact they are all female should not be a talking point, they are just simply an amazing band who are leading the way in music right now. After that opening paragraph, I think you may have worked out that in my humble opinion Prelude to Ecstasy has more than lived up to the expectation and the hype that have surrounded The Last Dinner Party. From start to finish this is a theatrical, cinematic, grand, creative album full of inspirational pop songs that will hopefully inspire a new generation of friends to get together write songs, fall in love with the arts and literature and do what makes you happy. The orchestral overture title track that opens the album instantly lets you know you are in the presence of greatness; in 96 seconds this piece of music will instantly take you away from the mundane and transport you to a magical place full of colour and imagination where anything is possible. Burn Alive arrives next with a very dramatic opening before exploding into a chorus that inspires and makes you feel glad to be alive. Caesar on a TV Screen is another perfect modern day pop song, with shifts in time signatures that will ensure this is a song that will live long in the memory. The song is rousing and defiant “Just for a second / I could be one of the greats” “When I was a child / I never felt like a child / I felt like an emperor with a city to burn.”.  Every song on this album is truly a piece of genius, The Feminine Urge has so many melodic indie pop hooks that will get you dancing whilst singing powerful lyrics that conjure up some very interesting images “I’m a dark red liver stretched out on a rock”.  On Your Side, which at the moment is my favourite song on the album, I love the sweetness in the melodies and the lyrics “When its 4am and your heart is breaking / I will hold your hands / To stop them from shaking / If it takes all night / I will be on your side”.  There are also parts of this song and Caesar on a TV Screen where the lyrical delivery reminds me of The Long Blondes, yes there are more obvious comparisons throughout the album (Florence and the Machine) but there are Long Blondes comparisons to be made which is very high praise indeed. Beautiful Boy continues to show the softer side of the band, musically it is very theatrical, lyrically it deals with how we can be envious of others “What I’m feeling isn’t lust it's envy”.  Gjuha opens with lyrics being sung in Albanian, and then builds into drama and suspense that will have you hanging on tightly to everything you hear. Sinner will of course be familiar due to the radio play it has received, it is another perfect pop song, that will have you singing along, smiling, punching the air with joy. Lyrically it captures simple times and seems to deal with sexuality and religion “I wish I knew you / When touch was innocent / I wish I knew you before it felt like a sin”. My Lady of Mercy was written for a big audience, the way The Last Dinner Party turn opera into pop music truly is something to cherish. Portrait of a Dead Girl is moving, intelligent, taking inspiration from art, dealing with vulnerability, power dynamics in relationships and turning all of that into a great pop song that will resonate with and inspire many. I love the fact that they have left Nothing Matters for the penultimate song on the album. It shows the confidence of The Last Dinner Party as a band that they did not have to include their breakthrough single early in the album. The album proves they have more than one trick up their sleeve and are not dependent on that incredible debut single. But what a song Nothing Matters is, this is a song that will outlive us all. It is inspiring and uplifting, and has some great guitar riffs. Lyrically it is up there with the greats, yes there are radio edits, but it is powerful and important to hear a female sing “I will fuck you like nothing matters ”, to be in control and not to be submissive. Although as a male who first listened to this album at 6am on my morning run, I did find myself singing aloud and may have got a few strange looks from the early morning dog walkers. If you listen to Matt Everitt’s New Album Fix show on 6Music and believe in the importance of an album you will be familiar with the view that the last song on the album is very important.  How it is a song that is very rarely a single, it is a song that is put there to bring the curtain down on the album and tries to capture everything the album has been trying to achieve. The Last Dinner Party have chosen Mirror to end the album, and this is a perfect example of the importance of the closing song. It is a dramatic curtain closer and summarises everything we have heard throughout the previous eleven pieces of music. The music is suspenseful, and the lyrics appear to be a reflection on fame and fortune “ And lately I’ve been thinking / What if I keep sinking? / If I drown will they make me a star? / When you drown do they know who you are?” as with the start we are also treated to an orchestral ending to leave us in no doubt that we have listened to a very special album. Let's all be grateful we have a band like The Last Dinner Party, a group of friends formed during university who love and support each other, and make the music they believe in. This is a band who we hope are going to be with us, creating music for a very long time to come.  Lets all enjoy Prelude to Ecstasy, show the band how much we love and appreciate them and follow them on their next chapter of what I am sure is going to be a very interesting and fun journey ahead.

On a very cold and frosty January evening in Nantwich 30 hardy souls braved the frost and snow to see Bill Ryder-Jones in possibly the most intimate venue he’s ever played, at least in recent years anyway, Applestump Records. We’d been excited for this moment for the last 9 months, ever since I cheekily messaged Bill on Twitter asking if he’d consider coming and playing in our little town in Cheshire. We’ve been huge fans of his music for a few years and have seen him in all kinds of venues, imagine if we could persuade him to come to Nantwich? You can guess how excited we were when he came back to say he’d be up for it. Fast forward to a week last Thursday and I’m standing in our shop, packed with people, watching Bill play an acoustic set featuring songs from his new album Iechyd Da, that’s a really surreal sentence to be writing. He’s been a busy man since that initial message; his singles have been played repeatedly on 6Music and Iechyd Da debuted at number 30 in the album chart and number 2 in the vinyl chart, and it’s all thoroughly deserved. The new album is by far the most beautiful record I have heard in a long time, it’s delicate and feels like every note and arrangement has been meticulously orchestrated to create an album where every track brings something new. It really is a masterpiece, it’ll take something amazing to shift it from my album of the year top spot. Even from the sound check, we knew this was going to be special, this man’s voice is something else. Once everyone was in out of the cold Bill took his seat, very sportingly donning the Nantwich Town FC hat we bought him (he pulled it off very well) and after some chat with the crowd, launched effortlessly in to  “I Hold Something In My Hand”, the last song to be released before Iechyd Da hit the shops. The album is full of strings and orchestration that create such a beautiful foundation for the record so I was intrigued to see how they would translate to an acoustic set and I wasn’t disappointed, the pared back sound of Bill’s voice and his guitar gave the song a completely different dimension. Songs like “If Tomorrow Starts Without Me” and “This Can’t Go On” and set closer “Thankfully For Anthony” that you think could lose something in an acoustic set gained a fragile, delicate tone with Bill’s songwriting and lyrical genius being placed front and centre for everyone to hear. It feels like he’s really comfortable and genuinely enjoying performing his new material and it’s so nice to see. New tracks like “I Know That It’s Like This” and “Christinha” were perfectly interwoven with some crowd favourites including “Wild Roses” and “By Morning I”, it was a lovely varied set of old and new. Although it’s difficult to pick out stand out moments when everything about the performance was amazing, personal highlights for me were "A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart Part 3" from the new record and "Seabirds", a song that has a really special place in my heart and that always brings a sneaky tear to my eye, this time being no exception. I’ve heard Bill talk about how he wanted Iechyd Da to be almost a sister album to 2013’s A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart and links between the two are woven in to the new songs, noticeably with A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart Part 3, with its themes of love and the painful end of a relationship. The version we heard in the shop was filled with emotion and as the song built beautifully to its heartbreaking crescendo of “Oh how I loved you”, no one in the crowd made a sound, we were all completely captivated. It’s very rare you get to be part of something so unique and special, it’s not lost on me how lucky we were to be able to put this on, seeing Applestump Records, Nantwich up there on the in-store tour poster under Rough Trade, Spillers, Monorail and Piccadilly Records is something I still can’t get my head around. They say you should never meet your heroes but last week definitely disproved that. Bill was just such a lovely bloke, he stood and signed everyone’s records, made conversation with each and every person who queued up to meet him and even thanked us for having him. We’re so proud to have played host to him and this is a moment that we’ll definitely struggle to top. Thanks for letting us be part of it Bill, Iechyd Da!

In a year where over 2 billion people are eligible to vote, elections being held in more than 60 countries, a year that is going to be the biggest and most consequential election year in history, having Green Day back with a reignited fire in their souls, passion raging through their every move, taking swipe at the ills in our society is something to treasure and inspire people to not stand for this rubbish any longer, use our votes and try and make change happen. The build up to the release of Saviors talked a lot about the links with American Idiot and Dookie which are without a doubt Green Day’s most loved and important albums of their entire catalogue. Dookie for launching Green Day to the masses, becoming the anthem for the MTV generation and American Idiot which tackled Bush era America. Twenty years on from American Idiot the world remains in a very bad place, Saviors references many of the things that are wrong in the world today and stands proudly next to American Idiot as an album that will inspire people to get together and do something positive.  The American Dream Is Killing Me opens the album and instantly sets the tone for what’s to come. It's insanely catchy, it sounds like Green Day, it says enough is enough. We have put up with this crap for so long, we have been sold a dream full of lies, designed to let the rich get richer “People on the street / Unemployed and obsolete” “Don’t want no huddled masses / Tik Tok and taxes.”   Look Ma, No Brains combines some great guitar riffs which leads us into a sing-along chorus that ensures this song will be one to make you smile whilst leaving you with so much fire and energy. Bobby Sox is a melodic sweet song about finding love “Do you wanna by me girlfriend / Do you wanna be my boyfriend”.   Those opening three songs are Green Day doing what Green Day do best, everything you have ever loved about the band are captured within those songs. This no re-invention of the wheel, this album is not pushing the creative boundaries of music. It arguably sounds like every Green Day album of the last thirty years, which is a criticism I am sure some will throw towards Saviors. However there are some things that should never change, and having Green Day back sounding like Green Day is something to cherish. Further highlights on Saviors include Dilemma with guitars and drums up to the max and lyrics that tackle nightmares, getting drunk, sobriety and like with a lot of this album thinking about where the world is at right now “Strange days are here again / And its getting weirder”.  1981 which is full of nostalgia, a song that captures that feeling of being young, hearing a song for the first time, falling in love with what you are hearing, feeling 10ft tall, feeling that the world is yours for the taking “she’s gonna bang her head like 1981”. If, like me, you crave to go back to a world where people are not putting their every move on social media then you are going to fall in love with the lyrics on Suzie Chapstick “Will I ever see your face again / Not just photos from an Instagram / Will you say hello from across the street / From a place and time we used to meet” Strange Days Are Here to Stay is, at the time of writing, my favourite song on the album. It is the song that captures everything this album is trying to achieve. Every lyric on here makes you reflect; think about the sociopolitical mess we find ourselves in and what if anything can we do to get out of it.  “Ever since Bowie died / It hasn’t been the same”  “Well this is how the world will end / When superheroes play pretend / They promised use forever / But we got less”.  Living in the ‘20s follows and continues to perfectly capture what life is like right now, “Another shooting in a supermarket / I spent my money on a bloody soft target” every chord that is played, every drum skin that is hit, every lyric that is sung is done so with an incredible amount of belief and passion. Bille Joe has always been an emotional lyricist, and that emotion is beautifully conveyed in Father to a Son, a song that captures parenthood, the worries we have about children especially growing up in today's world “Well I made a few mistakes / But I’ll never break your heart / A promise, father to a son / I never knew a love could be scarier than anger”.   Goodnight Adeline is another song on the album that gives the album a tender anthemic moment, this song easily sits next to When September Comes and Good Riddance (Time of your life). Fancy Sauce closes the album and is the perfect ending, summarising everything we have just been listening to throughout Saviors “Watch the evening news / Cause it’s my favourite Cartoon” Green Day welcome back, your commentary on the state of the world has been missed.  There may be some critics who say how can people who are wealthier than many of us can ever dream of, who since Dookie was released thirty years ago have not had to worry about where the next meal is coming from, how can people like this relate to those who experience normal life today? Well the answer to that is in Saviors, this album shows what we have known all along, despite their success Green Day are still relatable, still understand and have a great deal of empathy for the struggles people face in life due to evil politicians and are determined to keep using their music to bring people together, to have a good time whilst trying to make the world a better place.

Sadness Sets Me Free is the 25th album Gruff Rhys has been involved in during his 35 years of creating music.  Those stats alone take prolific to a whole other level.  When it comes to Gruff it is not just the numbers, it is the boundaries that he breaks through, it is the creativity, his passion for music, trying something different, the influence he has had on other musicians and the lives he has changed. I am sure he won’t see himself as a life changer, but he is. For many in Wales in particular Super Furry Animals were the start of everything, they broke down so many doors, reimagined what pop music should sound like and led the way for hundreds of other bands to follow.   Thirty five years later to have an album in Sadness Sets Me Free that can certainly be held as one of his greats, shows that Gruff is not a man to stand still. He is a song writer who takes inspiration from the world around him, captures everyday life and emotions and wraps all this up in a collection of the most beautiful and hopeful pop songs you are likely to hear all year.   Lets take Bad Friend as a starting point, I could attempt to write a thesis on how perfect this song is. I first heard this song on the radio and have not stopped thinking about it ever since.  It is a song that has captured so many feelings I have had myself over the last decade. When you reach a certain point of life and have other commitments friendships drift without even realising it. Gruff has captured all of that and more in such an honest reflection on how it feels to let friendships drift “Though I can’t promise you / Every hour of every day / I need to feed the kids / And take them to the park to play / They say its impossible / To be everything to everyone”.  Gruff goes on to make us realise that even though friendships drift we can still be there for each other when needed and “maybe bad friends are still friends”.  The melodies and the production throughout the song are also second to none. I also need to mention the humour in Bad Friends which will be sure to bring a smile to your face “You know I’m as reliable / As asking a seal to deliver the post / Or a random pokemon to remember the number of your phone” Another thing that jumps out on this album is how much Gruff seems to be enjoying himself.  The title track which opens the album comes at us with some very cheerful melodies, slide guitars, harmonies that will make you sway and you can almost hear Gruff smile as the song’s subject is dealing with a mid-life crisis “In the nightclub of my mind / I’m doing cocaine in the cloakroom”.  There is so much love in this song as the subject wants that special person to set him free “For in the gemstones in your eyes / I see stars that shine for ever / So come and set me free / From my vain and selfish ways”   They Sold My Home to Build a Skyscrapper is a wonderful social commentary of the times we are living in. This is a story of how cities are being destroyed, how our cultural institutions are being knocked to the ground, all that history, all those lives shared, all those memories being driven to the ground and handed over to property developers so they can make money.  “On the dancefloor where we met / Now stands a luxury development”.  This line is so relatable, we all walk through our cities and towns and see the places where relationships were formed, being replaced by new offices and houses. What this song does like with so much of the album is to give us hope and reminds us “To be the beacon in the gloom / Be the mammoth in the room” Those feelings of hope and optimism continue in Cover up the Cover up. Gruff Rhys has certainly been keeping up with the news, the horrors of this evil government who can’t help themselves from lying “For the government lie / When they just can’t win an argument” and has written the most melodic, beautiful, and sweetest protest song that you are ever going to hear.   It is not your usual way of delivering a protest song but it is absolute genius. The hypnotic melodies ensures that you listen to every word, the song gets deep inside your head and you will be inspired to stand for this rubbish no longer. It is time for change and make sure you do something about it   “Reinvent the government / Lets do it on Monday / Reinvent the government / The whole institution”   And while we are at it lets not stop with the government lets tackle the other institutions that fail us “ Overthrow the monarchy / And the private school system” One of the many things that I love about songwriters is how they find different words to express themselves. They use language in a way that we might not always associate with certain situations and manage to make us think about how we use words and can find different ways to express emotions. I Tendered My Resignation does exactly that. That statement is something we usually associate with leaving a job, Gruff has taken that phrase and used it in such a genuine, heartfelt way for the songs subject to come to the realisation that a relationship has to end “I tendered my resignation / As I felt I was undeserving of your love / I tendered my resignation / As I felt I had gone beyond what’s respectful in a relationship”. Perhaps I should have warned you before quoting those lyrics but this song should come with a warning that it will make you cry. You can feel the heartbreak throughout the lyrics, the strings and the percussion that all combine to take us on a very emotional journey. I am going to conclude this review with a very bold statement, it might be recency bias playing a big part but I am going to go as far as saying that Sadness Sets Me Free could well be one of, if not the, greatest albums that Gruff Rhys has given us. It seems perfect for these times, it captures the darkness yet leaves us with hope and optimism for the future and that human beings will come together, fill the world with love and push the evil out.

Fifteen Years is the latest album from Welsh singer songwriter Al Lewis, an artist who we have loved and followed for a very long time. Back in the days of writing for AMP magazine we would write about how talented a musician Al Lewis is. How his lyrics and melodies have you hanging on every word and sound you hear. From the Skin and Bones EP he recorded with Sarah Howells (Bryde), through to the albums Battles and In The Wake these are songs that have soundtracked my life since 2009.  If you have not had your world brightened by these recordings firstly enjoy the new album Fifteen Years, then dive into the back catalogue. What I love when you have followed an artist for several years, is when a new album arrives that treats the world to a new collection of songs that affirm your love and belief in the song writer. Fifteen Years does all that and more, this is one of the most important albums you can listen to this year. It is important for a number of reasons, firstly the importance is how it has enabled Al Lewis to talk about the grief he has experienced in his life and secondly through doing so Al has given us listeners a voice to a subject it is never easy to think about, to allow feelings that we often keep buried inside to come to the forefront of our minds (especially men).  Al has talked openly about how Fifteen Years has been his way of communicating his grief following the passing of his father fifteen years ago. Like so many of us Al felt unable to fully talk about this and kept these feelings to himself for fifteen years. Grief is something that is always there, it is not something we should be expected to get over, it is something we all live with and we learn to live with it so things get easier over time but it is never something we simply “get over” and we should never feel the need to “get over it”. Al has given us a beautiful, honest collection of songs that will help anyone who has ever lost someone close.  It is a way of using music and creativity in general to allow people to live on. Al’s father will live on through this album, this is a permanent reminder of his father as a person, the impact he had on Al’s life and how he lives on through family members. Again, something we can all relate to. Every song on this album will move you, please allow yourself to cry. I certainly have shed several tears listening to this CD in the car. The title track is the key to this whole album, this was the song that provided the catalyst for the rest of the album. During lockdown, 15 years following the passing of his father, Al got round to clearing out the house, going through his dad’s possessions and this beautiful song poured out. The things we keep, the plans we have but don’t get to fulfil. Reminding us of the importance of living life, doing as much as we can whilst we are able to do so. How things live on after we have gone and finding comfort in that “But our apple tree’s still standing and it makes me feel like crying”. Sunshine In Sorrow is written from Al’s father’s perspective and that longing to have a conversation that can’t happen in person but can happen through the magic of song writing.  This is a gorgeous recording that opens the album in a very magical way. Never Be Forgotten shows how life is fragile, life passes in a blink of an eye and we have to appreciate everything the world gives us. The line “In another life you would have met my children” is heartbreaking and comforting. The song reminds us that we should not stop talking about people who no longer physically occupy spaces in our lives and homes “As long as there is breath in my lungs / You will never be forgotten”.  In My Daughter’s Eyes sees Al paying tribute to his father and acknowledging the impact he has had on his life “Who am I / I am the man you helped me discover”.   The song shows how people live on through others. As a father myself I look at my daughter and as much as she is her own person, I often see other people within her “You are the glint in my daughters eyes”.  In My Daughter’s Eyes also reminds us the importance of telling people how we feel, and not being afraid to say I love you “I still wish that we said I love you / And that we had just a little more time”. Fatherly Guidance continues with Al reflecting on what he learnt from his father, “Remember when you taught me how to play rugby on the beach / And you always told me I should tackle just below the knee”.  Reflecting on my own life, and the last eleven years I wonder what my daughter will remember from these days? Will she remember me teaching her how to ride a bike, helping to kick a football, reading books, learning times tables, climbing trees? These are precious moments that we need to hold onto and hope they live on when we are no longer here. Like with every song on this album Feels Like Healing is a song that will be of comfort and help to everyone. This song deals with how anniversaries and significant moments in life can often be triggering and shows that it is ok to feel that way, it acknowledges how difficult a Father’s Day can be if you have lost a father. Then life continues and we can enjoy those days again.  It may be through becoming a parent ourselves and whilst enjoying those days again it does not mean we forget those that are no longer here. It gives us permission (not that we need it) to continue to grieve, live life and heal “I know I’ll never be done with grieving / But this feels a lot like healing”. Fifteen Years is an emotional and essential album. It is an album that I will be returning to on a very frequent basis for the rest of my life.  Life is both beautiful and fragile. I know there are great days ahead and there will be more sad and heartbreaking times to get through. This album will be there to soundtrack those times, to show we are not on our own and we need to talk to each other and heal.   “The love you left / I can now address / It’s the light that lifts the gloom / I’m beginning to find you / In everything that I do / I’m beginning to find you / So I can find me too” – Beginning to Find You

Bill Ryder-Jones is a national treasure, lets get that out of the way at the start of this review.  If Bill ever reads these words, I am sure he will be embarrassed and humbled to be thought of in that way. In all interviews and his music to date he always comes across as a gentle, humble, honest, vulnerable soul and he might not see himself as a national treasure.  However, I think it is important to share how much Bill Ryder-Jones means to us. For those of us in particular who have followed his journey since The Coral, who have fallen in love and been deeply moved by each of his solo albums, he is a human being who we all adore and treasure.  We are still in the infancy of 2024 and Bill has released Iechyd Da (Good Health in Welsh, an album title that Gruff Rhys gave the thumbs up to), an album that will simply be loved by everyone and will be at the top of almost everyone’s album of the year charts come the end of the year. This album although unlikely to launch Bill into Harry Styles territory I feel confident in saying this will win him new fans and introduce him to a new audience. It feels like the most complete and accomplished album that Bill has recorded. It feels like the album he has been waiting all his life to create, the path his journey has been destined to reach. From start to finish Iechyd Da is an absolute masterpiece, it is an album that will be enjoyed by everyone, an album that you will fall in love with on first listen, an album that you will return to indefinitely and hear something new, and something beautiful each and every time. Like with all great albums Iechyd Da is an album you can get lost in, it is an album that is welcoming and comforting. If you have had a bad day and you want to escape from the world, if you have a thousand questions running through your head, trying to figure out who you are, where you are going in life this is an album that you can put on and instantly the world will make more sense to you. You will find comfort in the lyrics, the orchestration will make you feel safe, and the album will become a friend who will never leave you.   Bill Ryder-Jones has always been one of the most honest lyricists this world has had. He has written deeply moving songs about his life, challenges he has been through, mental health and trauma that no one should have to go through. Music has been a constant that has helped and enabled him to keep going. Listening to his songs feels like writing them has helped Bill a great deal, and to share these deeply personal moments with the listeners is something we should never take for granted. Iechyd Da continues with these themes, including falling in love, relationships breaking down, mental health, lockdown, whilst at the same time offering us hope and optimism. The album shows us that even in the darkest of times, there is light, the world is beautiful, we should never stop living, never stop believing in better days ahead and find joy and appreciate what we have in life.  Every song on this album is an absolute stand out song, just give up 48 minutes of your time, listen to the album in the way it was intended and I guarantee you will love every second of it. That said, all reviews love to draw your attention to certain songs and this review will stand by that format. One of the key moments on this album for me is “If Tomorrow Starts Without Me” which sees Bill reflecting on a world without him which, being in my mid 40s, is something I have thought about myself quite a bit in recent times. Hopefully I have got many years ahead but you reach a point in life where you realise you are not indestructible and the end will one day come. There are so many incredible lyrics in this song and the album as a whole but two lines that jumped out to me were “If the monsters call you names / Then I’m with you / I’ve had monsters play games with me too”. An honest lyric that captures friendships, and showing you are not on your own. The other line I love in If Tomorrow Starts Without Me sees Bill reflecting on life “Well I’ve had a good one / I’ve scored a few”. When the end does come that is what we can all hope for. Bill has spoken in interviews about the breakdown of his relationship during lockdown. This appears to be captured in the albums opening song “I Know That It’s Like This (Baby)” which captures the highs and lows of a relationship from the loving tender moments “Baby, one kiss and I’m in Heaven” to the heartbreaking crashing moment where Bill comes to the realisation that “Well I’m too much / I’ll never be enough for you”.  A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart Pt. 3 is of course a nod to Bill’s 2013 album, this is a wonderful moving piano ballad that also appears to be reflecting on past loves “Oh how I loved you”. There are further nods to A Bad Wind Blows In My Heart with characters from this album re-appearing in Iechyd Da, Thankfully for Anthony is the Anthony from Anthony and Owen. Thankfully for Anthony is a song about friendships and how important it is to have people in our lives who have been with us for a long time, know our history, where we come from and are there for us no matter what. “But I felt loved / I was lost / But I knew love”.  The strings in this song are some of the best ever recorded.  This Can’t Go On is epic, it is a song that will live long in the memory. It is a song that captures the sense of loneliness, reaching that point where you know there has to be changes, “I walked all night to the Killing Moon / Got to get it right / Got to get it right and soon” sings Bill which is reference to him walking alone through the night listening to Echo and the Bunnymen trying to make sense of the world. The lyrics continue to reference the need to find hope, the need to find something to bring us back from the brink “Got to get myself together because this can’t go on”.  This song will give hope to many, the passion, the production, the arrangements all combine to create a song that is so emotional and inspiring that will help to lift many out of the darkness. The addition of the children’s choir throughout the album is a stroke of genius. Being around kids, who just don’t care, who don’t take themselves seriously, who want to live life and experience as much as they can is something that we all can learn from. Remember what it's like to be a kid, those carefree days without having to worry about adult things is something we need to get back to. The choir gives the album an uplift and no more so than on It’s Today Again, a song that fully captures the importance of life, and despite the troubles we all face “There is something great about life”.  There we have it, those are some of my thoughts on Iechyd Da, there is still more I could say but I feel the need to be respectful of your time. Thankyou for taking the time to get this far.  Bill’s words are far more important than mine, I hope I have managed to capture and convey some of what Bill was hoping to achieve with this album. The final mention must go to the artwork, get yourself a physical copy so you can fully appreciate the artwork which captures a painting of a moonlit, pastel pink house in the Scottish fishing village of Crail. The painting is so warm, inviting, and homely and instantly makes us all feel at home which is everything this album is trying to achieve. It is one of Bill’s if not his greatest achievements to date, the album makes us all feel safe at home, gives us a sense of community and fills us with hope and optimism for the future.

Sometimes, I wonder what Jimi Hendrix would have achieved had he lived. Patti Smith recently told a story about meeting Hendrix less than a month before he died. Smith sat on the steps of the newly opened Electric Lady studios on August 26th, 1970, too shy to go inside and mingle with the assembled press and fellow musicians. After a few hours, Hendrix himself came out of the building and spoke to Smith on the street, acknowledging her reserved nature and revealing his. At that point, Hendrix explained to Smith what he wanted to do with his new, state-of-the-art studio: ‘He told me he wanted to travel the world…get musicians from all over…and sit in a field for, like, a month playing until they churned like butter and they found one language…the universal language of peace.’ I believe that Hendrix’s legacy would have belonged to Jazz. I tell you all of this because New Blue Sun , the new album by André 3000, not only has a title that feels like it could have belonged on Hendrix’s ultimately unfinished fourth album, The Cry of Love/ First Rays of the New Rising Sun , but that it has a sound that can only be described as ‘the universal language of peace’. Flash-forward into the tail-end of 2023 and ‘Jazz’ has started to emerge as the dominant creative genre of the modern age, capable of nurturing a head-spinning array of sub-genres and catering for post-radio generations. In terms of a listening experience, Jazz can delight vinyl aficionados, streamers and enthusiasts of live music in equal measure, sitting itself comfortably in living room spaces from a turntable, offering imagination during a lonely commute or in gatherings that can showcase glorious improvisation and expression. New Blue Sun is not a hip-hop record, it’s a Jazz record. André 3000, now 48 years old has not released a full album since 2006 - Outkast’s Idlewild . So to come back now, in these times, and not churn out yet another piece of turgid nostalgia, the kind that makes you need a shower afterwards, the kind that many commercial artists now rely on, is beyond refreshing. The record features eight tracks across ninety minutes of music and it largely embraces the rise of New Age, meditative Jazz - never in a hurry, languishing in early morning sunshine, a state of catatonic bliss. Even the song titles seem to wrap endlessly around the lower part of your phone, never-ending and seemingly meaningless. Granted, André 3000 has been known to spend some of his time playing flute in the ‘organic cafes’ of Venice Beach and experimenting with the effects of taking Ayahuasca - but these are the pursuits of the artist. Hendrix pursued the same things, albeit whilst attached to a very different scene. New Blue Sun is a record that has captured a moment in time for André 3000, a period of his life where he has questioned, experienced and mused upon the nature of freedom. During the lockdowns, I turned to ambient music for the first time in my life and, over the course of two years, I let it in - and I’m not the only one. I felt prepared to listen to this record, willing to traverse the tightrope of enlightenment and bullshit that we walk on whenever we choose to engage with music like this. It was worth stepping out onto the high wire for and I would highly recommend it. Ambient, meditative music - be it Jazz, electronica or whatever else, treads a fine line between spiritual curiosity, music that can cater for the damaged psyche of the audience consuming it, the slow rise of a mainstream drug culture and, it has to be noted, outright pretentiousness. To be fair, what from that list could be excluded when embarking on a search for the universal language of peace?

Every now and again a band releases a debut album, and you can’t escape the feeling of it being ‘their time’. That is the exact feeling I have had over the last week listening to Ask For Angela the debut album from Chroma. It is one of those moments where it feels as though the planets are aligning and the world is going to be taken over by this incredibly exciting three piece from the South Wales Valleys. The band were also announced as the support act for The Foo Fighters UK stadium dates next summer. That was before the release of their debut album. That combined with the important messages within the songs that Chroma write gives further weighting to the argument that the world needs Chroma right now and they are ready for world domination. Ask For Angela took its title from the not-for-profit safety initiative rolled out to bars and clubs for people who feel unsafe, vulnerable, or threatened can approach venue staff and ‘ask for Angela’. It is vital that people know about these campaigns, and that we can create safe spaces and have initiatives like this to protect people when they are out. By using Ask For Angela as the album title Chroma are raising awareness and using the power of music to help create safety within our communities. The album deals with so many important topics including mental health, masculine toxicity, poverty, violence, positivity messages, standing together with LGBTQ+ Community. These are songs that need to be added to the school curriculum, play kids these songs, sit down together, talk to each other about the importance of standing up against the evils of this world, the importance of accepting difference, and ensuring that people don’t feel isolated, don’t feel alone and feel they can go out into our society, into our communities and feel safe. After reading the above don’t go thinking that this is an album that is any way hard to listen to. Ask For Angela takes all of these important topics and rams them down your throat in some of the most exhilarating pop songs you are going to hear this year. The songs are uplifting, inspiring and will make you feel ten feet tall. Will make you feel that you won’t to do more and that it is never to late to stand up and make a difference. Ask For Angela is one of those albums where in some respects it is easy to review as it is so important and so good but is also hard to review as picking highlights seems pointless as the album is one big highlight. However, before leaving you to have the experience of listening to the album I will pick out a few highlights including the opener Don’t Wanna Go Out which sets the tone in the opening seconds. It’s loud, melodic, unbelievably catchy and a chorus that captures a feeling we have all had at times “I don’t wanna go out / But I’m going out anyway”. By the time the opening song finishes you will be swept off your feet and find yourself completely and utterly breathless. Girls Talk is full of messages of positivity, the importance of loving yourself and not caring what people think. “Who are you to tell me I don’t own my body / Who are you to tell me I’m a nobody”. Remember what I said about putting these songs on the school curriculum, letting the kids hear songs like this could do so much for their own self worth and belief in themselves. The other thing to mention about this song and every song on the album is how Katie, Zac and Liam sound like they were all born to be together in this band. There has always been something special about a three piece, and when you get three musicians like this who just instinctively seem to know what the other is going to do you have the perfect combination for a band. Don’t Mind Me is centred around mental health, how we all need to do more to talk about this, the need to support each other. The world we live in right now is in a very dark place. The services are not out there to provide the support that is needed, we all need to be kinder to each other, accept difference and everyone has mental health and we need to look out for each other. Woman to Woman is a call to arms, a call to solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, its about standing up against the TERF culture, calling out those that claim to be a feminist but then oppress others “Woman to woman / That’s some strong allegations / Gonna fight until we know the truth / Gonna fight until we know what’s better than you / Trans women are women / And you can keep your letter”. The video was filmed in the toilets in Newports finest Le Pub. I Wanna Be Where You Are is another moment of relentless, energetic pop music that needs to be played as loud as possible. Life’s A Bitch opens with a moody, dark sound that instantly gets inside your soul. The lyrics seems to be dealing with inequalities in the world “How can you be in your position of power”, and how often people get into power who should never be there, and they don’t care about doing what’s right. Look At Me is another powerful song which raises the issues of masculine toxicity “Look at me Look at me Look at me, I’m a big man”. Final mention goes to Over The Hill an anthemic ending to an album that will be sure to be featured on many end of year lists, and a definite contender for the Welsh Music Prize in 2024. Ask For Angela is quite simply an album that needs to be in everyone’s album collection. It is fun to listen to, whilst making you stop and think. I have attempted throughout the review to pick out some of the important messages, I may have mis-interpreted some of the lyrics, which if I have I can only apologise. The one thing I know for sure is that this is an album that needs to get the world talking and make us all want to do more to make this world a better place.

Abbie Ozard is a singer songwriter from Nantwich who many of you will be familiar with as she has been releasing music since 2019 when her debut EP Growing Pains was released through Modern Sky. Abbie’s music has been played on Radio 1, 6 Music and several local radio stations including The Cat in Nantwich who all certainly know great pop music when they hear it. I am new to the wonderful music that Abbie writes, my introduction to her came through the Like Clockwork show on The Cat and instantly this was a name that I wrote in my notebook to ensure I remembered to find out more. I have spent time listening to the EP’s Growing Pains, Lets Play Pretend and Water Based Lullabies, all of which contain gorgeous pop songs that deal with the trials and tribulations of being young, figuring out who you are, trying to find your place in the world whilst dealing with the challenges and anxieties of the world today. One of the many things that I love about Abbie through listening to her music is the time she seems to have allowed herself to grow as a song writer. It is refreshing to hear an artist who has not rushed to get an album out. Abbie has taken time through releasing three EP’s to define her sound, to write the songs she wants and not feel under pressure to get an album out, to not feel under pressure to release songs just for content. Abbie Ozard certainly comes across as a true artist who wants to do things her way and be recognized for the talented singer songwriter she is. Abbie has recently released a new single Days Like These which contains some joyful, sweet melodies that ensure the song becomes firmly rooted inside your head. After listening to Days Like These you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night whistling the melody and there will be nothing you can do to stop it. Lyrically Days Like These is such an important song which needs to be heard by as many people as possible. The lyrics deal with the subject of spending too much time online, how we now have a generation of people who have not known life without the internet “I’ve been scrolling all my way through lunch”. The song reflects on the harm this has done to people “Its causing all our brains to rot”. Listening to Days Like These is like holding a mirror up to society, allowing us to reflect on the damage that the internet has done to the world. Yes, the internet has done a lot of good, but there is no getting away from the fact that spending too much time scrolling, arguing in comments, believing everything has to be filmed for content. Growing up and aspiring to be what you see online and thinking that you have to hit this level of perfection is truly damaging “And all the girls feel like they can’t be loved because their faces aren’t tuned enough” . The impact all this is having on society is frightening, Abbie, thank you for writing about this in an amazing pop song, that should make people stop and think and go back to living life in the real world. Abbie has recently recorded a live session for Applestump Records, please spend some time and watch these sessions. Here is a live recording of Days Like These, watch / listen pay attention to the lyrics, get swept off your feet by the melodies and I promise you will want to hear more from this exceptionally talented artist. If that isn’t enough, if for some reason you are still not convinced have a listen to I Don’t Know Happiness Without You. Another perfectly crafted pop song “I can hold my head up high and squeeze your hand until we die / I don’t know happiness without you.” . This is a beautiful, honest love song written straight from the heart. Pop music is meant to move us, it is meant to stir emotions and there is so much genuine warmth and love within this song it is impossible not to be moved. Hopefully these words I have written, and more importantly the songs that Abbie has written, will be enough to pique your interest and you will find yourself wanting to hear more from Abbie Ozard. If so, you are in luck, there are tour dates including a couple of European dates before the end of the year and there is a debut album planned for release in 2024, which will certainly be one of the hotly anticipated albums of 2024.

Dollar Lizard Money Zombie is the third studio album from HMS Morris a band who have always pushed the boundaries of creativity within pop music. Yet, what they have done with Dollar Lizard Money Zombie is push the boundaries as far as you could possibly imagine anyone going. There is an unbelievable amount of genre breaking pop music within the sounds of this album. Every time I listen to the album, I hear something new. I find myself in complete awe at the sheer talent and imagination of the musicians that come together to form HMS Morris and to treat us to music that will inspire, inform, make us question the wrongs in the world, lift our mood and make us believe that anything is possible. House opens the album with so much drama and sarcasm that means I am more than justified in using the word genius to describe HMS Morris. The song deals with the subject of people who are bored with too much money buying up second homes in Wales “You don’t even rent it out / You don’t know what’s life about”, and preventing people in the local area from being able to buy a home where they live and not get on the housing market “My friend Mari wants to buy a house / She works really hard”. Balls is next reminding you of the importance of believing in yourself, you can set yourself goals in life, grab life by the scruff of the neck and take on whatever is thrown at you. Balls is a great example of the power of music, how melodies and lyrics can inspire you even if you don’t speak the language the song is sung in. Balls is sung in the beautiful language of Welsh and you honestly don’t have to be able to understand Welsh to feel inspired by this song. How many times is it acceptable to use the word genius in one review? When it comes to a band like HMS Morris and an album like Dollar Lizard Money Zombie I think it is more than ok to use the word genius several times. Guess what, the next song Ceredigion is another example of the genius of this band. Ceredigion is such an enthralling song with mesmerizing melodies that take you on a journey from which you will never want to return. The lyrics perfectly capture life in a small town, where everyone knows each other and the tales are passed on through generations of families “”They know your Gran, they know your dad, they know how many lives you’ve had”. We all know places like this, many of us live in these towns, and there is something quite comforting about the familiarity of communities like this “The Ceredigion gossip highway its secret but its profound / a mycelium that’s all knowing / running underground”. Family Souls is a big slice of funk and soul that gets deep inside your soul. Its another seamless pop song that needs to be heard by the masses. Cockapoo is a sweet, melodic and sarcastic song about middle class life and how this is not achievable for so many. How the Cockapoo has become the symbol of middle class family life “I could have had a swimming pool a cockapoo”. Bach+Dwl appears to be full of darkness and rage with every sound you hear and every lyric that is sung coming straight from the heart. The collision of the sounds within this song is another wonderful listening experience. Success appears to be full of reflection of what success looks like. The emphasis we put on success and pressure being put on people to achieve what society determines to be successful, how comparing ourselves to others makes us question paths we took in life; “ Now back to me / when I see you on my screen / You make me doubt every decision I made before 30”. 110 swaps from drama and passion within the musical sounds to the sweet vocals and in so doing ensures that the listener is fully captivated and can’t wait to hear what comes next. Bingo is full of emotion, wit, and lyrics that allows us to join the songwriters on a journey back to our past. Reflecting to those days of being a young adult, the decisions that were made and how it is those past experiences, those formative years that may be embarrassing at times to look back on, but it is those times that helped to shape and make us who we are today. “I’ve been sitting on a pack of lies / sealed them up with cable ties / lets get the snips out and lets get pissed / airing out the bits we missed”. As we are now approaching the end of the album, I am going to use the word genius again to describe Books as once again HMS Morris have recorded a song that is full to the brim of the qualities of a genius. The theme of Dollar Lizard Money Zombie is how capitalism has in many ways destroyed the world, destroyed societies, make us think we need things we don’t. How the power is with the rich. Books sums all this up in such a beautiful and elegant way. How being rich does not guarantee you a place in heaven and the poor don’t go to hell. This song needs to be played everywhere with the aim of inspiring people to come together, to say enough is enough, humans are all different and we need to respect that, we need to make the world more equal and how the world would be a better place if the rich were not in charge. The album closes with Datganiadu with twinkling melodies and vocals that will leave you feeling warm, happy and hopeful for better days to come. Even after writing these words, listening to Dollar Lizard Money Zombie several times I still feel I have not done the album justice. I have only scratched the surface of the depth, quality, and brilliance that you can find within this album. I urge you to please don’t waste another minute get yourself a copy of Dollar Lizard Money Zombie, form your own opinion, which I am pretty sure will be one of love and respect for the album and HMS Morris.

Javelin is the tenth studio album from Sufjan Stevens, an artist who has pushed the boundaries of creativity throughout each and every release. If you have followed his journey, you will already have a ridiculous amount of love and respect for this wonderful artist. You may not have liked everything you have heard from Sufjan and that is ok. There have been so many twists and turns and no two albums have been the same. It is ok to not love everything he has created, and you will no doubt have your favourites. My favourite Sufjan Stevens album has been Carrie & Lowell released in 2015 which is a masterpiece of an album which saw Sufjan dealing with the loss of his mum and his relationship with his stepdad, whilst trying to make sense of the world around him. Javelin is probably more aligned to Carrie & Lowell than anything Sufjan has released before or since so it is no wonder that I am already head over heels in love with this album. Javelin opens with Goodbye Evergreen, a song that is a perfect example of what you get when you challenge yourself when it comes to song writing and creativity. What you hear within these opening four minutes will blow your mind. It is as though you are hearing the full evolution of the song, from the hushed vulnerable opening lyric of “Goodbye Evergreen you know I love you / But everything heaven sent must burn out in the end” which will make you stop dead in your tracks, through to the vocal harmonies, and the cacophony of sounds that will soon fill your ears. This is just truly remarkable and will leave you in awe at the genius that is Sufjan Stevens, but you knew that already right? A Running Start is next with some gentle acoustic melodies and vocals that instantly make you feel at peace with the world. We all need a comfort blanket at times, and there are so many moments throughout Javelin where it feels like we are being wrapped up in the biggest and most comfortable blanket we have ever known. The climax to A Running Start will leave you feeling happy from the inside out. As he showed with Carrie & Lowell, Sufjan Stevens has never been one to shy away from vulnerability and pouring his heart out. That vulnerability is back with a bang in Will Anybody Ever Love Me. The voice and the lyrics are full of fragility and if you are not moved by Sufjan’s longing for somebody to love him then you must have a heart of stone “Cos I really want to know / Will anybody ever love me / For good reasons / Without grievance / Not for sport”. Everything That Rises, sees the guitar and vocals weave around each other with so much grace and honesty. The song builds with harmonies, melodies and a kaleidoscope of sounds that holds your attention with a very firm grip. Genuflecting Ghost will send shivers all over your body with the opening finger picking guitar melodies and haunting vocals. As with Goodbye Evergreen, the start Genuflecting Ghost is another example of how, when an artist has full control of their song writing, masterpieces can be created. The different directions this song takes, building up to the ending that makes you feel like anything is possible is something the entire world needs to hear. Red Fox continues with some of the most gentle and beautiful melodies you are likely to hear all year. Songs make us feel glad to be alive, listening to these melodies and harmonies is a blessing and something we all need to feel grateful for. So You Are Tired has delicate, heartbreaking piano and guitar led melodies together with lyrics that continue with the honesty and vulnerability that dominates this already classic album “So you are tired of me / So rest your head / Turning back all that we had in our life / Well let me turn to death”. Javelin (To Have And To Hold) is a perfectly crafted two minute song, which appears to see Sufjan full of regret and remorse “Searching through the snow / For the Javelin I had not meant to throw right at you”. Shit Talk follows with eight minutes of lyrics delivered with belief, honesty and meaning together with musical sounds that clash and combine in a way that will fill your world with so much colour, hope and optimism. You may think eight minutes is too long for a song and especially in todays world where people’s attention spans are diminishing, but honestly when it comes to the creative mind of Sufjan Stevens eight minutes is not too long. Forget everything you are doing and devote your time to every sound you hear in this song and the album as a whole and I promise you will feel more fulfilled for doing so. The album ends with a cover of Neil Young’s There’s A World and given all the troubles in the world over the last few years it is a timely reminder to be unique, be yourself, and live your life the way you want to “There’s a world you’re living in / No one else has your part”. If that’s not the best piece of advice to end this album on then I don’t know what is. Sufjan Stevens, thank you for being unique, thanks for being you, sharing your vulnerability with us, making us believe in who we are and reminding us to just be ourselves. Javelin is released on 6th October on Asthmatic Kitty Records.