2021 - A year in vinyl
Every January I plan to make lists by December. Best albums, best singles yada yada…. I never do. I kind of think of myself as a wannabe music journalist, but with a mere 12 months notice for a deadline, I rarely make it. This year however….
Vinyl is such a strange concept. A physical medium that just refuses to go away. Even just paying for recorded music in this day and age is a strange concept, but people the world over insist on paying more than they need to for a medium that hasn’t changed much in 100 years which offers less versatility than digital in return for a handful of perceived romantic notions.
My journey into vinyl started when I was about 10. I’d read and loved Lord of the Rings and been told by an Uncle that Led Zeppelin used to sing songs about it and my dad had the vinyls in the loft. I badgered my dad into getting them down and then that was me. I had a big wedge off music history to sit and study. The Beatles, The Stones, The Who and everything in-between. I can’t quite describe what this was like to the post-youtube generation. All other music we had access to was curated. You could put on the radio and hear what they wanted you to listen to. You could beg borrow and steal cassettes and CD’s that parents and family had. This dearth of access to music created the lovely idea of mixtapes. We all became amateur DJ’s convinced that we could create the ultimate playlist for a moment or a person by making 2nd and third generation copies of cassette tapes. Entire weekends would be spent with a big box of cassettes'; often taped from the radio. I can hear the hiss of dogs cassette recordings from here.
At the time CD’s were the new shiny format which offered everything and let the music industry convince you to buy all your albums again with a very low production cost. I had nothing against CD’s but they were as expensive as 18 quid for a double album - IN 1990!! That’s £40 in todays money. Vinyl on the other hand had become an odious relic of the past. About as cool as prog rock doing the punk era. I’m not often in the right place at the right time, but for the next few years or so I would scour jumble sales, outdoor markets and record shops for what we now consider to be some of the best albums of music history. With an initial investment of a fiver, I’d turn up once a week to buy ten albums, and then return this next week to sell back the ones I didn’t like. It was a habit that paid for itself and before long I was able to recognise what was worth having and what wasn’t. I filled the holes of my dad's record collection and discovered a few musical cut-de-sac’s that resulted in a swift U-turn. The whole time, I was augmenting this voyage of discovery with a love of music biography to give me some pointers in what to look for.
By 1991/1992 grunge was coming out of the Pacific north west, and suddenly there were people making music that sounded like the bands I loved and dressed like the photos I loved only… they weren’t dead…. it was like a revelation….. the rest(well all of that really) is history.
So I dunno when it happened, maybe around 2005(ish) , the internet and digital music distribution had reached a sufficient mass that various annoying people around the world with romantic notions decided that vinyl still had something to offer. It was like they they wanted to pay more for a physical format. They wanted to unwrap something and hold something instead of saying “Alexa. Play music I don’t know but you know is suited for my browsing history” so now my 50 pence albums are £25 but on the other hand I have a benchmark for the success of local bands and musical colleagues - the Vinyl album release.
Getting a vinyl out as a band is no mean feat. It basically requires you to know about 500 of those nutters that are willing to drop £25 on something that they know they can get for free in a more convenient way. At low pressing numbers, the profit is at best minimal and at worst results in boxes of product in your parents loft with fingers crossed against water damage. Not only that, you have to convince your band mates that such a frivolous investment in fan service is worthwhile. If you can get all that together as a band, I think it’s a real achievement.
So in no particular order, here are ten vinyl albums I’ve bought in the past year. It has seen me move house and even get my own room devoted to music making which even includes a vinyl listening couch.
We might as well start with the statistical winner. They won the Scottish album of the year with this one and received plaudits across the board. “A return to form” etc. etc.
I don’t really get it. I think it’s every bit as good and interesting as everything else they’ve done. I don’t think it’s to do with Mogwai, I think it’s to do with the human race. I think sometimes they are in the mood for Mogwai and sometimes they aren’t. 2021 was another Mogwai year it seems. Whatever that means.
I’ve listened to them since the late 90’s. Before that it was only super cool people that listened to them and I thought it was all a bit too Belle and Sebastian fan for me. I think I found them off the back of starting to listen to Sigur Ros around the Ágætis byrjun time. I fully got on board with Rock Action in 2001 and ever since, I’ve thought of them as one of the Scottish bands I’m most proud of.
They manage to be wonderfully original by kind of staying the same. They mix “loudest most abrasive thing you’ll see live” with “who hurt you son?” emotion. I’ve seen them live numerous times and it’s a wonderfully emotional experience. I’ve been in close quarters with Stuart Braithwaite at a variety of industry events and he comes across as a lovely chilled guy. When I’m not using their music as the background for getting some non-audio based work done, I spend most of the time wondering what it’s like being in a band with no singer. It’s such a simple concept, but it throws a proper googly. I kind of imagine this kind of chilled environment of equality where no one needs to bang their cock on the table. I’m 99% I’ll be wrong.
Anyway…. I said nothing about the music cos it’s just as good as all their other stuff.
Possibly the biggest stylistic jump in this list. Having outlined that my love of music and vinyl started with Led Zeppelin, I clearly spent a lot of time taking back second hand copies of Robert Plant’s solo work in my formative years. It was awful. He was kind of the embarrassing uncle of 80’s music. He must have been happy though cos he didn't seem dissuaded. The fantastic Page and Plant stint in the mid 90’s only seemed to confirm that Jimmy Page was the talent in that band.
Plant continued plugging away at various genres while onlookers had the constant fear that he might do a hip hop album or something. It was a wonderful surprise when one of the finest albums ever produced landed in the form of 2007’s Raising Sand.
Sadly I don’t remember discovering that album. It’s just been there so long. I can’t remember if a single came out, or if I was already in one of those periodic phases of listening to country or I tried to be polite by dipping into Robert Plant’s latest solo work. Whatever happened, it became a mainstay of my vinyl collection. My red wine stained copy would immediately get replaced if I lost it.
When they announced a followup, I as on it like green on peas.
What it offers is just more of the same. They are essentially covers albums. They’ve curated this lovely slice of country music that lets you bypass gingham shirts, nudie suits and Garth Brooks. The mainstay of this is Everly brother’s covers. They’ve then put it through the T BoneBurnett production filter to give this result that it just use smokey valvieness.
When I put on the new album. I didn’t get an instant hit, but within about 3 listens, it just merged with the original, so now it’s just a quadruple album.
I saw the 2008 tour and it was phenomenal. Hopefully life doesn’t get in the way of me seeing them in 2022.
So ‘finger on the pulse’ McKenzie has managed to back two horses so far. The Scottish album of the year and the followup to a platinum album made by multi platinum album makers. If you came here for genius underground music journalism and inside tips - turn back now.
One of the reasons for this is what I said above. It’s not that easy to put out a vinyl album when you aren’t as established as young upstarts like Robert Plant. Helping to bridge this gap is Last Night From Glasgow who manage to avoid profit in their non-profit record label by putting out more and more albums every year.
To further discredit my music journalism credentials, I made music videos for two of the tracks of this album. When I make a music video, I listen to the track way too many times. The real test is that these two songs don’t annoy me when I listen to the vinyl. They are just wee traffic islands on the journey.
I think it’s Sister John’s third album. (My journalistic abilities are directly proportional to how much information the band has on wikipedia). It’s a real grower for me. It hops across various genres without banging a square peg into a round hole. Amanda’s vocals are front centre for most of it with a confident clarity. The backing is minimalist lo-fi without being shite and has lovely flurries or organ and guitar.
So if you’re not from Scotland/Glasgow my top tip is to follow Last Night From Glasgow and show off how cool you are and how much you have the finger on the pulse by uncovering bands that are hitherto unknown in your neck of the woods.
Last night from Glasgow’s sister project is “Past Night From Glasgow” where they take ‘fan favourites’ from yesteryear and give them a new lease of life. This leans heavily on Scottish acts and leans heavily on the indie pop boom of the late 80’s/early 90’s. This point on the list could have been taken by Bluebells’ Sisters, but I thought I had more to say on this one.
The ‘intelligent pop’ genre of Scottish indie is a weird one for me. I was aware of it at the time, but it was a bit too cerebral for my early teen mind. Bands like Trashcan Sinatras were competing for my attention with more exotic direct hits like Nirvana. People’s big brothers* would tell you how good Trashcan Sinatras and Teenage Fanclub were and you’d have a listen and remain unconvinced. By the time my tastes had matured, there were cooler ways to listen to underground obscure bands playing intelligent pop. PNFG becomes a really nice way to give it all a second go and redress the balance.
I have more to say about Trashcan Sinatras because we’re both from Ayrshire. The big brothers would point out they were from Kilmarnock(I think they are actually from Irvine). The idea of anyone doing anything in East Ayrshire and it making a dent in Glasgow, never mind the world was alien to my teenage mind, but people would continually reiterate the same thing. They are dead good and they are local. The name has always stuck in my head as a result.
The album does what I expected. Intelligent pop that takes a wee while to notice. Lovely lush 12 string textures. Scottish accented vocals that are far less annoying than Biffy Clyro. I kind of want a hit. It’s a pleasurable listen and I love the idea that it was recorded in Scotland, never mind Ayrshire. I still don’t really find them indispensable. This said, the album is incredibly timeless. Much more so than just about anything that was coming out at the same time.
Eventually Trashcan Sinatras were well known enough that folk would point out Shabby Road Studios to you on sojourns to Matalan in Kilmarnock. I was roughly aware that it was warp zone to the music industry. It’s hard to describe to pre-google people that you just kind of played in bands and entertained yourself. You’d play to 200 people made up of friends, friends of friends and local music supporters and it felt amazing, but there wasn't any concept of where it went after that other than a tacit knowledge that it was nowhere near Ayrshire that it would be happening.
I have a sketchy memory. At some point for some band, I either visited Shabby Road or phoned them. I could have been 14 or I could have been 18. I have been in hundreds of studios and practice spaces in my life, so they kind of blend into one. I can’t remember if I was enquiring about rehearsals or recording. Either way I wasn't made particularly welcome. Someone grumpy shooed away my gangly teenage form as I asked some annoying question. Jim Monaghan the spoken word artist from Cumnock was their roadie at the time, and would fit my memory of the person I interacted with. It’s hardly a claim to fame, but it does nothing but improve the listening experience of imaging these rough Ayrshire folk making shimmery pop and navigating their way through the music industry.
*The musically cool big brothers would also try and convince you that everything Morrissey said was gospel … so who’s laughing now?
Album number three from Barrie James, formerly Barrie James O’Neill who was formerly Nightmare boy, who is sometimes known as “Him from Kassidy that used to go out with someone famous”. Either way I think it’s his best yet.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time with Barrie and I find him wonderfully inspiring. He talks openly and passionately about various aspects of his career and songwriting and music history. It makes drinking with him an infectious experience which I suspect isn’t healthy for either of us. I’ve sat watching him in close quarters playing an out of tune piano while I nursed a whisky and those performances are up there with the best gigs I’ve seen. His talent reminds you that you don’t have to pretend you like all the cool stuff out there that you are meant to like. He’s the real deal and he’s local.
His first solo album Cold Coffee was crafted in LA. I see it as a reaction against the cheery indie-folk of Kassidy. I love it, but it’s a difficult one to convince people of cos he bares his soul through emotional piano and tortured guitar and a voice on the edge of cracking. I love Joy Division, but it’s not background music. Cold Coffee sits in that area. Once that was out the road, he did Psychedelic Soup which went even deeper down the Frank Zappa inaccessible route. Once you gave Psychedlic soup a bit of time, it sits well with Cold Coffee and they compliment each other really well.
2021’s Strange Desire came as a bit of a surprise. It’s almost jolly for Barrie. After a cracking opening single of Angry Man that made country cool again, the album didn’t disappoint. There’s a foot in all three camps of Kassidy-pop, tortured-soul ballads and “How many chords can I fit in a song” experimentation. Some of the songs(i.e. Pretending not to Breathe) sound like you’ve been listening to them for years.
Check it out.
Footnote - I’ve had a good look at the full print of the 12 inch cover and I’m 99% sure you can’t see his winkie, so either he had pants on in the photo shoot or they’ve added some shading.
It’s been some year for Barrie. Kassidy were the most successful local band in the Glasgow scene when I arrived back from 10 years in Amsterdam. Unsure if the ‘backwater’ of Glasgow had a sufficient talent for me to build a career out of my hobby, Kassidy were a great soundtrack that gave me a lot of confidence in the decision I’d made.
Their heyday was before local bands were confident about investing in vinyl. This release remedies that. I always preferred it to the second album. The second album always felt like it was a bit of a victim of of industry polish and too many cooks spoiling the broth. Not long after the second album they went their separate ways and they became the “what could have been” of the local music scene. Barrie’s recollection of this has varied over the year’s depending on what we've been drinking, but it’s always made a good story. Maybe one day someone will turn it into a screenplay. The rest of the band got involved in various projects and were weel kent faces as managers, producers, songwriters and musicians in the local scene.
The release coincided with a reunion gig at the legendary Barrowlands. It was planned to be one of my work nights out for the year, but sadly it got Covid Postponed to June. Until then I get to stick on the vinyl and enjoy harmonies and pop melodies and 70’s revivalism.
There’s not many albums on here that can be described as “Neil’s top tips”, but if you don’t know about Peat and Diesel I would urge you to get involved. They are…. A trad influenced, lo-fi punk band from the Isle of Lewis?? Accordion punk? They are awful and wonderful in equal measure. The result is one of my favourite “pre-drinks” albums ever. It never fails to put a smile on your face. Questionable rhymes. Heavily accented vocalist that can’t really sing. Some of the covers are admitted some aren’t. Guitar tones best left in the mid 90’s. All rendered over super catchy tunes with an energy and smile on the face. It sounds like some sort of Wildhearts side project that Ginger came up with after a particularly obscure bender. Honest. Uncomplicated. Get on it.
Apologies for a third LNFG release, but they are my main source of vinyl. Gracious Losers is the one I play most often. Fronted by Jonathan Lilley who also contributes to Sister John, it’s a proper smorgasbord. It opens with something sea-shanty-esque, which given lead times and recording schedules I would imagine it pre-empted Tik Tok’s appreciation of the same genre. From there there are dalliances into alt-country and indie all while not letting the need for a good tight 3 minute pop song get in the way of showing off their musical chops. I think I play it a lot cos I’ve not managed to pigeon hole it yet. I quite often get Beatley/Wings songwriting vibes in places when I’m listening to it. Hats of to the mixing and production cos this big bucket of stuff never sounds disjointed or meandering off into tangents.
I’ve not managed to see them live yet. Life keeps getting in the way.
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats are one those bands that I will order the vinyl for before I hear it. For my tastes I think it’s as good as contemporary bands get at the moment. Wonderful songwriting, wonderful production, horn sections, Soul revivalist and the whole thing is coupled with enough Van Morrison styled singer-songwriter hooks to not just be a lesser version of a Stax greatest hits compilation.
Nathaniel Rateliff is a great demonstration of how now one cares about “one man and his acoustic guitar” any more. The prevalence of open mic nights and people’s need for an excuse to go to a music pub mid-week has meant that everyone and their dug will now bang out a self-penned number while they bash an acoustic guitar. Nathaniel Rateliff was battling this environment as he toured the world for a decade playing basement venues and trying to get traction. YouTube is full of phone videos of him in busy pubs trying to get noticed above the babble of uninterested punters. Eventually he got some cool musicians behind him and people sat up and noticed.
While I never knew who he was when he was a singer songwriter playing the bars of Sauchiehall street, my people discovered his current iteration when he was still small enough that we could have used our connections to argue for a support slot. Sadly we didn’t get our arses in gear in time, cos he blew up quite quickly. I’ve seen them live a few times since, most memorably at a free outdoor concert at SXSW in Austin Texas.
Even being in a field full of music fans with outdoor music blowing on the wind feels like something from another life. The older I get, the harder it is to add music memories to your top ten, but a new Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats album is an event that takes me back there. On about the third listen to this album every track sounds like a classic that you’ve been listening to for years.
This is definitely cheating. I play on a track of this album(Angel of the Reckless) and I took the photo that got used for the cover. I’ve watched them develop for years and the album is the culmination of all that. Not only have I got my pinkie toe in the Byson Family bath, it’s also phenomenal as an album and right up my street of 70’s inspired songwriting dripping with harmonies and great choruses. It’s an utter pleasure to listen to and it’s definitely my most played vinyl of 2021. I moved house and supported my partner through making a daughter this year and I would drive band forth from Glasgow to Greenock listening to the tunes. Like a warm hug they were a great Soundtrack for new beginnings and new adventures.
Go out and listen to this album - its just fantastic.
Onwards to 2022
Well there you go. Should anyone have read this far, that was my foray into music journalism which aimed to be one thing and turned into another. I can’t imagine 2022 topping that list come the end of the year, but it will be fun seeing it try :)
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