Following on from my albums of the year list, the following are my final lists for 2021.
I don’t have a top gigs list for 2021 as I only went to a handful at the start of the year not realising what the year had in store. Though The Wildhearts, Backyard Babies, The Interrupters, Savage Cut and Outstandifold & the Wettygrippers were a pretty good start to what should have been a great year of gigs..
Re-Releases
- Bob Mould – Distortion (1989 – 2019) – what can I say, Santa was good to me this year. What a fantastic box set this is. 24 (count ’em) CDs covering the Hüsker Dü guitarist/vocalists solo career, including Sugar albums. And while I’m at it, this years Blue Hearts album really deserved to be in my top 20 of the year…
- The Bluebells – Sisters – remastered and re-released on Last Night From Glasgow this version sees an entirely different version of the opening track Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool and additional tracks Aim in Love and Some Sweet Day . If you have forgotten just how great this album is, remind yourself now, or if you thought The Bluebells were only Young at Heart, think again…
- The Bathers – Marina Trilogy – One of my treats for this year was picking up the three re-released 1990s albums by The Bathers – Lagoon Blues, Sunpowder & Kelvingrove Baby – that made up the Marina Trilogy. Chris Thomson’s unique soothing vocal atop wonderfully beautiful textured rhythms was a perfect reassuring soundtrack for lockdown
Live albums
- Goodbye Mr MacKenzie – A Night in the Windy City – Anyone who knows me knows how much the return of Goodbye Mr MacKenzie meant to me. This is a tremendous document of a memorable night as the band returned to play a triumphant gig in a sold out Barrowland Ballroom (There is also a DVD documentary of the event available from the band)
- The Carvels NYC – Live at The Cutting Room – In the absence of being able to make a trip to NYC in 2020 or indeed anytime soon in 2021, this live album filled a gap in living a Carvels NYC gig vicariously. Pure pop punk, punk rock guitars bolstered by one of my favourite instruments the saxophone, and Lynne Von Pang’s belting vocals take some beating.
- The Twistettes – Live at Capture Works – This powerful duo released a live album of tracks from across both their albums, throbbing bass, pounding drums and blistering attitude aplenty.
Compilations
Three compilations for three very worthy causes and a host of fantastic tracks
- The Isolation Sessions – March & April 2020 – Last Night From Glasgow’s idea that grew arms and legs and became a sumptuous double album of the labels artists covering songs by other artists on the label all recorded under lockdown conditions. A wonderful listen and worthy of any album of the year lists.
- Solidarity with Displaced Humans – The Refugee Benefit Compilation 2016 – 2019 – A triple CD with over 50 tracks by a variety of artists released in support of an amazing cause and continuing the work Liz has done over the last 4 years putting on benefit gigs in Leith Depot prior to lockdown putting the kybosh on things
- Whole Lotta Roadies – Whole Lotta Roadies – another compilation from a variety of Scottish bands recorded for the benefit of the unseen hordes without whom gigs couldn’t happen, but saw their livelihoods completely halted by COVID 19
Singles of the Year
The following are my top 40 singles of the year. Number one is the hard hitting We Live Here by the remarkable Bob Vylan. The rest aren’t in any particular order, all are my most played songs of the year.
I’ve put them on a Spotify playlist (where they are available) for your sampling convenience but as someone who detests Spotify, if you hear a song you like I’d urge you to track down the best way of purchasing the track from the band, be that via their own website, bandcamp or or link to purchase.
2021 loading…
Already, 2021 is shaping up well (for music at least). Arab Strap have a new album coming, so do Teenage Fanclub. I’ve also been fortunate enough to hear upcoming releases from Maximo Park, The Hold Steady, Randolph’s Leap, Kiwi Jr, Gold Needles, Brick Briscoe and Teen Creeps.
Two singles have already caught my ear as we head into 2021.
Released today is the new single, Forever in My Heart, from Nordic/Celtic folk singer Mark W. Georgsson in a collaboration with Tino MacDonald. The timing of the song release is perfect. The song is one of hope, grounding yourself and considering all the little things that are important, steel slide guitar and banjo add an element of romanticism to the song, as does the addition of the bagpipes towards the end, giving a sense of home without being overly patriotic or cheesy.
The other is a single to be released early in the new year but has a video the band launched on Christmas Day. It is a song I’ve already shared a couple of times on social media, the country tinged and touchingly beautiful Paint and Feathers by Dumb Poets, which in many ways has a lot of similar sentiments to the Mark W Georgsson song.
Here’s to a better 2021 for all of us. I fear live gigs may still be some time away, but I hope to see many of you at some point in 2021.
Peace and Love. Lang May Yer Lum’s Reek.