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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.
Clik here to view.
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.