Move the kitchen table out to the lawn

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Albums of 2021

#36 : im hole - aya

This is the kind of slippery, funny, explosively creative record that perhaps could only be made in the UK. Yorkshirewoman Aya Sinclair mulches various bits of club culture in to a fetid, sweating mass – grime, breakbeat, drill, the off-kilter electronics of Autechre, the hyper-contemporary bass shudder of the late Sophie – and threads vocals through it, her surreal non sequiturs and body horror hovering on the edge of rap.

Never heard of album or artist - and from the description above, I'm not entirely sure what I was going to get.  And lordy, there's a lot to unpack here and I'm not sure I have the words to describe it.  It has quite a poetry feel to it - like an even weirder version of Kate Tempest (who can be quite weird enough when she puts her mind to it) and Laurie Anderson also popped into my mind at times.  I wouldn't say I liked it, but it was an intriguing listen - although one I'm unlikely to revisit.  I quite appreciate that most people will hate it though - but it has some ace track titles if nothing else with "if [redacted] thinks he's having this as a remix he can frankly do one" being my favourite.

Wikipedia has nothing on the artist or the album, but Google does throw up the following phrase - "im hole will physically manifest as a hardback cloth-bound book of lyrics, poems and photographs, designed in collaboration with Oliver Van Der Lugt, with single-use download code included".  Which sounds very Guardian, doesn't it?  I also found this errr, interesting description of the album from the woman herself - "im hole is an album about ketamine depression and fucking by the light of Emley Moor mast" (and I can only take her word for it that it provides an accurate depiction of either experience).

I was quite expecting "customers also listen to" to return a load of people I've never heard of, but Eris Drew turned up, which suggests I'm not the only person working their way down such lists - because that's the only thing those albums have in common.  I found this an interesting if somewhat challenging listen - but I'm really not sure what anyone is supposed to do with it.

#35 : A Touch of the Beat Gets You Up on Your Feet Gets You Out and Then Into the Sun - Aly & AJ

It’s one of pop’s sweetest narratives: former child stars escape the machine to make a great, offbeat record. Fourteen years after their last album, one-time Disney performers Aly and AJ softened their synth-pop pedigree in this dreamy collection of west coast pop-rock, a vision of Robyn-gone-Laurel Canyon that also might sate anyone left hoping for a bit more brooding from this year’s Kacey Musgraves album.

I've heard of them and had stumbled across some of their songs on the radio, but wouldn't have been able to point them out in a line-up.  And, having listened to it, I'm not sure the situation has massively changed.  I mean, it's OK and I quite liked "Slow Dancing" but I can't say any of the other tracks really jumped out at me.  It's harmless enough, but not a lot more than that for me, I'm afraid.  I'm not convinced by the album title either.

Wikipedia has a reasonable amount on the album, most of which says "they made an album".  It was well received critically, but didn't overly trouble the charts - which makes it odd that I'd heard some of their stuff on the radio.  But I had, OK?!?  "Customers also listened to" Hayley Williams, which has more in common with this album that Eris had in common with Aya, but not an awful lot.  I didn't hate this, but can't say it stuck - although I might play it for my wife because I suspect she'd like it.

#38/37 - The strong run from the ladies continues
#34/33 - One of these albums is longer than the other