No Frills Reviews

For my first No Frills Reviews post, I thought I’d highlight some of my favourite songs from 2022. I didn’t call it a ‘Top 5 songs of 2022’ as it was more like the 5 I managed to get written up in amongst working out how to set up a blog.

---

Life – Poison

Hull’s LIFE continued an excellent streak with third album, North East Coastal Town. It’s their most musically diverse and experimental to date, although Poison is very dry much in the vein of their early punk sound; driven by stuttering guitars, machine gun drumming and an explosion of a chorus.

As a boring mid-30’s dad, I find that lyrics about parenthood tend to hit me the most these days. The chorus of “A warm embrace, my child’s face, My poison” captures how priorities change – old vices being pushed out to make room for those little moments. The lyrics offer an open outpouring of emotion, contrasting with the hard-edge of the music; a vulnerable punk banger.

Paolo Nutini – Through The Echoes

Having a ‘good’ voice is overrated. It’s not something I’m really looking for in music. Mariah Carey hitting the high notes or Michael Bublé-style crooning; I just don’t get it – as technically impressive as it might be, it doesn’t actually sound good and feels particularly dated now, like it belongs on mid-2000’s reality shows. So someone having a good voice isn’t particularly going to convince me to listen to them.

But, saying that, Paolo Nutini has a fucking good voice. The type that can elevate an average song to good. He can do smooth, but it’s the imperfections – the accent coming through, the cracks as he changes notes – that make everything feel more authentic and interesting. And he’s a great shouter/screamer.

This is the lead single from latest album, Last Night In The Bittersweet. I was slightly underwhelmed when I first heard it. For someone who hadn’t released new music in nearly a decade, it’s quite a low key comeback. But it’s a definite grower, and the perfect showcase for Nutini’s voice. Lyrically, it’s nothing special – the opening “I’m always wondering what it would feel like to die” contrasts with laid back strumming and hints at something darker, but it’s a little generic after that.

But that’s where his voice elevates things, and makes you feel like this is proper meaningful, even if the lyrics aren’t quite at that level. With a less interesting singer this would probably fall flat. Musically, it builds sneakily, with that laid back strum carrying it, there’s touches being added throughout – little riffs or piano lines, which you might miss initially but catch your ear on repeated listens. And Nutini’s voice builds from the soft opening verse, escalating into his signature shouts in the “over and over” refrain, and suddenly this feels like the most important shit ever.

Epic doesn’t quite seem right for such a laid back and relatively short song, but you come away feeling like you’ve listened to something big – a low key epic from a fucking good singer (and a decent backing band).

Kendrick Lamar – Father Time (feat. Sampha)

I had to have some Kendrick Lamar in here. Kendrick is in the top tier of, not just rappers, but musicians generally now. He’s one of the few artists where it really feels like an event when they put something new out, like Kanye pre-red cap. His latest album, Mr Morale & The Big Steppers, was good – full of different ideas and sounds, deep and interesting; when Kendrick raps you make sure you’re paying attention. Even when he’s basically just telling you why he hasn’t done anything in 5 years, that shit feels important.

But, it doesn’t have any King Kunta or Humble style bangers. And, although it’s good, it’s not an album I’d naturally return to. Father Time is no banger, but it’s maybe the most accessible song on the album and the one I went back to the most. Easing in with a sort of collage – a snippet of conversation where Kendrick instinctively dismisses the idea of therapy, some piano, and a tap dance rhythm building. Kendrick bursts in, almost reminiscent of the Humble opening. When he says “I got daddy issues”, the conviction makes me wonder whether I have, even though I don’t think I have any reason to. The best artists aren’t just relatable, but somehow make you relate to things you’ve never thought about or that you have no business relating to.

The song takes you through Kendrick’s thought process on his ‘daddy issues’. How his dad was harsh on him which made him behave certain ways, but that also shaped who he is, and his friends without dads had it worse. Ultimately, whatever variation of ‘daddy issues’ these men are working through, it tends to be the women in their lives that suffer the consequences.

This isn’t just generic ‘we need to talk more about mental health’ stuff. These topics can end up being preachy, but this is thoughtful and nuanced. Kendrick is aware enough to think about these things but that doesn’t mean he’s perfect or has all the answers. I know being open about your feelings is a lot more acceptable in general now. But it still feels pretty significant for one of the biggest rappers in the world – from Compton, who first got big with lines like “I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower” – to be this open.

When I said it was accessible, it’s because of the catchy Sampha chorus, which only actually comes in twice – about half way through and then briefly at the end. But that’s enough, cooling things down after the intensity of Kendrick’s verses. And those verses are about a minute long each, yet they don’t feel long; they’re strong enough to keep you listening intently rather than just waiting on the chorus to kick back in.

Kendrick, maybe not knocking out bangers, but still the best

Billy Nomates – Spite

Billy Nomates is a songwriter with a kind of toned down electro-punk sound. She’s done a couple of collaborations with Sleaford Mods, so they’d be an obvious comparison, but her sound is a bit less minimalistic – backed by slightly bigger and cleaner beats.

Spite is a post-break up song, but there’s no post-break up sex on the cards; instead there’s not even a temporary truce, it’s big ‘fuck you’ energy all the way. The ‘don’t you act like I ain’t the fucking man’ line would probably be terrible if it was coming from a man, but it works perfectly here.

It’s fairly minimalistic musically, but the strength of the chorus gives it a big anthemic energy. It’s probably the wrong genre for this to actually happen, but it should really be racking up streams on all those female empowerment/boss bitch style playlists.

I mean, I’m a bloke and in a pretty happy relationship, so this isn’t really speaking to my life situation. But it’s still one of those tunes that makes you want to shout along and then tell someone to go fuck themselves.

The Bug Club – Six O’Clock News

The Bug Club are a trio from Caldicot in Wales and they released their debut album, Green Dream In F#, this year. The best description I could think for them is Indie weirdos (in a good way)

The album packs in a load of different styles and ideas to its half hour runtime; you can’t really pinpoint a particular sound as there’s so much going on. There’s melodies and hooks throughout that make me think they could probably be really big if they polished things up a bit. But that misses the point; it’s the weirdness that make them interesting.

It was a toss up between this and Love For Two – which sounds like early Strokes with stranger lyrics. But I went with Six O’Clock News as the line that carries it (I’m not sure whether it quite counts as a chorus) is daft but also feels weirdly insightful. I’m not sure I quite get the meaning, but I’m still thinking ‘fuck yeah, the six o’clock news is only news to the silly, the wicked, and lazy’.

The male vocalist (Sam) has a deadpan, Lou Reed thing going on; except if he was from small-town Wales instead of New York. And the music never really rises above a relaxed pace with the guitar and drums chugging along. But the female vocals (Tilly) bring the song to life, and this is a lot catchier than it really has any right to be.

---

More from No Frills Reviews