Gosh darn it all, humanity managed to survive another year. Okay so all that dystopian shit I love so much in games, films and sci-fi seems a little less quirky and escapist than it used to, but indulge me please; pause a while in your efforts to stockpile medical supplies, crossbow bolts and canned food because you are all invited to attend the annual 1537 awards*.
So welcome ladies and gentlemen from all over the world, sadly for obvious reasons this has to be a virtual ceremony again this year, so at least you only have to dress smartly from the waist up. Just remember please that maintaining decent formal standards of dress is not only paramount in order for humanity to prevail, but one of the main justifications for it doing so.
I have bought a lot of records this year, old and new, shite and brilliant. It wasn’t a vintage year for new releases, especially not rock releases but there were some real stinky rock truffles to be found if you snuffled for them.
The Sylvain Sylvain Memorial Award for LP cover nudity was not contested this year. For the first time in living memory I did not buy a single album with a cover featuring male or female nudity on it; a brief glimpse of Annie Clark’s stocking tops was as titillating as 2021 vinyl got. Ah well, maybe Iggy will get his wizened torso and his little chap out for us again in ’22.
Next up is the Burke Shelley Memorial Award for the best LP cover bought in 2020. This was a toughie and for the sake of sanity/lack of photography skills I have arbitrarily ruled out all the various box sets**. The runners and riders were Chubby & The Gang The Mutt’s Nuts with all manner of 3D-trickery pokery comic excellence ,Sword Age Of Winters RSD re-release with all manner of foil, side boob and embossing. The winner is The Wildhearts 21st Century Love Songs.
The artwork for 21st Century Love Songs is a brilliant recreation of 80’s video nasty covers. The attention to detail is superb, particularly on the lyric sheet. Real excellence and remember; be kind and rewind.
Which of course ladies and gentlemen brings us to today’s main event, the reason we have struggled through the last 12 months, it is the one, the only 1537 Top 11 LPs of 2021.
1. Godspeed You! Black Emporer G_d’s Pee At States End!
This is what we needed, this is what we got in ’21. Stately anthems and requiems for a purposely wrecked world. I got lucky here, I was a disillusioned hardcore fan, decidedly unmoved by anything they had released in the last 19 years and one night I sleepwalked my way into buying this one. Thank Crom I did.
This has all the best GY!BE tropes, impenetrable titles and ramblings, images that could simultaneously signify everything and nothing at all, awkward formats – an LP and a 10″. As though sensing we need something real, urgent and healing the band serve us up, amidst the radio static, pure balm for the soul – wired, sweeping melodic surges towards an unreachable horizon. ‘First Of The Last Glaciers’ is a beautiful thing, Sophie Trudeau’s violin playing is just painterly.
So strap yourself down for a world weary, emotional ride. Okay so optimism is too much to ask for but this LP is a real act of (mostly) gentle guitar-led defiance, with an amusingly crap title.
2. St Vincent Daddy’s Home.
Just pipped to the post, but I absolutely loved this LP. Ms Clark serves us a wonderful simmering platter of music that nods at Bowie, Prince, Floyd and Beck, but is purely her own epic creation. This is a less obvious, decidedly sensual LP that teases us into having a glimpse behind the net curtains, showcasing all manner of unruly urges being sated against a background of wood-effect wallpaper^; it can all get a bit David Lynch at times. From the swagger and satin of ‘Pay Your Way In Pain’, to the decidedly hazy ‘Live In The Dream’, to the funk soul of ‘My Baby Wants A Baby’, Daddy’s Home is a filmic treat. If I had a criticism it is that, ‘Live In The Dream’ aside, we don’t get enough of her incredible guitar playing.
3. Endless Boogie Admonitions
Stop me if I’ve possibly mentioned this lot to you before, maybe once before? No matter what shit may be raging outside it is reassuring to know that Top Dollar and his crew are hard at work refining and redefining their boogie, endlessly. Admonitions is an excellent LP, the 22-minute opener ‘The Offender’ is just great beyond the power of my pixels to describe it and ‘Bad Call’ is straight rock. The band sound energised, serving up real curveballs like ‘The Conversation’ with its spoken word sections and dread atmosphere. May they truly be endless.
4. Clutch Weathermaker Vault Series (Volume 1)
A real no-frills release, a compilation of re-recordings, refinements and covers by my very favourite band today. This is all so vital sounding, so real, from the re-rejig of ‘Spacegrass’ through to ‘Passive Restraints’ featuring the chap from Lamb Of God on vocals. Life = reaffirmed.
5. Public Service Broadcasting Bright Magic
Band reknowned for sampling spoken word archives and a very British outlook ditch it all and make a concept LP about Berlin. They end up sounding like a Weimar-era take on the Blade Runner soundtrack, with added lushness and echoes of their Late Night Final side project. I may be the only person who likes this LP, but that’s because I’m right and everyone else is wrong.
6. Def Leppard When The Walls Come Tumbling Down
The first Leppard release I’ve enjoyed since Hysteria and a timely reminder that they used to be fully paid up members of the rock brigade. This was a RSD release of a gig from Oxford in April 1980 and it is just superb. Leppard sound genuinely excited, charged and wired in the way only a young band can, as they blast through a great set of tracks with Joe Elliott in excellent voice.
7. Allen Ginsberg At Reed College
Brand new, from only 67 years ago! This is a great release of Mr G and the first recorded reading of Howl, the poem that changed everything I care about forever. The reading is tentative but strong, some stanzas charged with their own energy, some not quite there yet. Ginsberg gives up and trails off somewhere towards the end too. This a brilliantly curated release is manna for all of us angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection.
8. Low Hummer Modern Tricks For Living
I first saw this ludicrously young group from Hull supporting the Manics and I was captivated by their herky-jerky indie pop and occasional disco stylings. The LP is every bit as good as I hoped it would be. I really like the dual lead singers and the playing is great too. ‘Take Arms’ is a real treat but ‘Sometimes I Wish (I Was A Different Person)’ is even better.
9. Chubby & The Gang The Mutts Nuts
They’re back, they sound gruffer and less speed-obsessed and they chucked in a touch of 70’s glam rock beat to ‘Coming Up Tough’ which may be my fave track of ’21. It helps me get my rage on.
10. Mammoth WVH
Possibly only so low because it was a pretty recent purchase, I really like Mammoth WVH as a really charming pretty straightforward modern rock album. Mrs 1537 just flipped out over the track ‘Don’t Back Down’ and who am I to argue? regardless of Wolfgang’s family tree this is an LP I really enjoy, with great musicianship and tunes. The pic of him and his dad on the innersleeve made me well up rather unexpectedly too.
So just before I sweep up and put the chairs on the table just one last gong to bestow, the Dusty Hill Memorial Award for the best older stuff bought in 2021. This year it has to go to Neil Young for Home Grown and/or Hitchhiker, both of which have been soothing balm for my soul when needed throughout the year, reminding me that the man is a genius, as opposed to the daft old codger he sometimes masquerades as^^. If the man had pulled his finger out and released Barn a month or two earlier, that may well have made the annual list too.
So there you have it folks, thanks for reading all the way through to the end of this monumental rollcall of self-indulgence and trash. In fact, thank you for reading my nonsense in general, you make me feel mighty real.
1119 Down (still).
PS: I think he’s lying:
*recently hailed by music industry insiders as, I quote, ‘one of the most eagerly awaited and important award ceremonies on the planet. Sorry, you do mean the Grammys yeah?’
**Sorry Ace Of Spades and Kid A Mnesia; both of which were fricking awesome.
^our first house had wood-effect wallpaper covering a chimney breast – WTF?! who were they trying to fool? builders don’t tend to make chimneys out of wood, for some mysterious reason.
^^plus the version of ‘Powderfinger’ here must be at least the 23rd I own, but also the absolute best one too.
You have just given me some listening. Some I know and some I don’t know. One of the reasons I tune in is to get new sounds and you do that for me. Thanks.
Cheers fella. Clutch heading to a town near you in May/June this year.
My brother and i have tickets to see The Clutch with support from The Sword and Nate Bergman in May.
It should be epic. Then a few days later ZZ Top.
I’m jealous for Clutch Bop, I’d love to see them again. Is that the US band The Sword (Age of Winters dudes), because there’s a Canadian one too I think, or am I just getting confused?
Endless Boogie also hit the spot bigtime and Barn.
Yup, Barn came a bit too late for me this year, but there are some wonderful tracks on it. Neil’s best for ages, I’d say.
Yeah when I was listening to the first cut off the Boogie album, Youngs and CH’s T-Bone’ kept sneaking into the vibe. Keep that stuff coming, I for one eat it up.
Yes. It is The Sword from Texas. I have seen both Clutch(with COC and Lamb of God) and The Sword live and they both are awesome. Never together though so it should rule.
Montreal band Sword I have not seen but will someday rectify that.
I know the Lep one! Forgot to buy The Wildhearts one! Haven’t heard any of the rest of the stuff here! And that was my 2021.
How the hell did you cram all that into only 12 months?1
Made a lot of sacrifices but, you know… it was worth it!
Well I suggest for your own health you try and throttle it back a bit in ’22, spend a little time on easy street.
God’s Pee makes my list of top albums for the year. I’ve not listened to the Public Service Broadcasting album yet – I love Race for Space but that’s as much down to my passion for the subject so really should and that MVH album was a real positive surprise and a real strong one
I think this GY!BE was a wonderful return to form. I’d be interested to know what you think about the PSB too, I really like it.
Recognise some of the names here, Joe, but only one of your ‘Up to 11’ made it into the VC cave. Public Service Broadcasting. And I’ve only listened to one side. I’m afraid the double whammy of 71 From ’71 and the commercial gig have been rather limiting on discretionary listening. And don’t start me on boxed sets! King Crimson, Van Der Graaf, Undertale… overwhelming.
So how fortunate that we have you to cut through all the crapola and deliver the definitive list. Better go put some trousers on for when we stand to give you an ovation.
Get out of it Bruce, going commando to Zoom meetings is the whole fun of the thing!
I get listening pressures, it’s why I never do proper series here at 1537, much as I enjoy other peoples’ ones.
All new-to-me, the #1 and 2 sound quite promising in particular.
And Kid A Mnesia is definitely on my wish list too!
I bought a fancy pants version of Kid A Mnesia and I’m pleased I did. Did you have a look at the exhibition/game thing they put together for download? if you haven’t yet I cannot recommend it highly enough. Trust me I’m (a bit like) a doctor.
I haven’t yet – and key word, yet!
Weirdly I like to take credit for everyone buying the GY!BE album. You’re right, it was what we needed. As for the rest, very excellent insofar as I haven’t heard any of it lol. Well, except Uncle Neil. But I figure he just goes without saying.
You should do Aaron, you were definitely a factor in my buying it – I’d given up on them after a couple of LPs I hadn’t liked.
I am the champions… of the world! Lol man I totally get it, though. Sometimes it doesn’t hit right. But I find when you go back later, the ones you hadn’t dug before you dig now. So it’s always worthwhile to buy it and have it anyway.
He sure is lying, which makes that song even more awesome.
It is a cracking tune Matt.
Agree on Mammoth and Leppard, both great releases. I have heard the St. Vincent was awesome, but never got around to it. I ‘ll keep it on the list to get to it one day. Great list sir, lots of fun.
Thanks John, I think St Vincent is great – she’s a wonderful guitarist too.
Guitar player? Cool! She deserves getting listened to then.
That Leppard 80 show is the best thing they have put out in the live catalog. (next to the live 83 show) Like you said they were paid up members of the Rock Brigade at that point.
Nice to see Mammoth on this list Joe. Such a great album and proves that WVH is his own man…
St. Vincent is definitely not for the old rocker next door, but I like “Daddy’s Home”. The album is great and composed of many layers that have to be discovered first. Annie Clark is one of the most talented artists right now.
Agreed, she’s such an amazing guitar player too. I’d love to see her live, not managed it yet.
My assertion is that Neil refused to release Barn just to miss the awards.
That’s exactly the sort of thing he’d do. He’s a right little tinker, as my gran would have said.
More for me to buy. I did not buy Wolfie’s album. Not sure why.
Godspeed did not resonate with me. I only played it once and shelved it. Maybe I need to re listen to it 1537 times or so.
Interesting, I really got to love the GY!BE album, there’s a widescreen sadness in it that I don’t find in their other stuff.
Perhaps I need to adjust my aspect ratio to suit widescreen.
I might go downtown and look for mutts nuts.
Then later look for a Chunbby & The Gangs new album.
Remember: always ask the owner’s permission first and you can’t go wrong.
Do you mind sir?
That reminds me we are out of walnuts and kiwi.
I think I’ll go downtown and look for Mutts Nuts.
Then after buy the new Chubby & The Gang album