She was so impressed I could make so many things catch on fire

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

#44 : For The First Time - Black Country, New Road

You don’t tend to get many Top 5 charting albums from bands who blend klezmer, post-punk, jazz and prog with lyrics about failed romance at a science fair, but Black Country, New Road managed it. That success is testament to how particular and fresh their sound is amid the ordinary boys of British indie, further helped by a really arresting frontman, Isaac Wood. Whether it’s really him or a persona, he is haughty, easily hurt, lustful, clumsy and incurably romantic – a wonderful, flawed character.

This passed me by, despite being nominated for the Mercury Prize (my days of making sure I at listened to all the nominations are long gone, unfortunately).  And I had to look up what klezmer was as well - it's like I know nothing (obviously I won't need to tell you what it is - you're far cleverer than me).  The album reminded me of Beirut in places and the lead singer has definitely been listening to some Jarvis Cocker as well - although I wasn't quite as impressed with him as The Guardian was.  It has some interesting lyrics and I suspect quite a few people have wasted far too long analysing them - "I'm more than adequate, leave Kanye out of it".  And the supporting musicians are tight and provide an interesting range of styles - it's all sounding pretty well done.  So, did I like it?  Well, not really.  Next!

Wikipedia has quite a large entry on the album - certainly the biggest so far.  It doesn't really say an awful lot about it though - other than that the critics loved it and the public got into it with it reaching #4 in the UK.  "Customers also listened to" Squid, black midi and Dry Cleaning - none of which I really see the connection to, but then again this is quite an odd record so I'd struggle to connect it to anything.  But it's admirable rather than enjoyable for me.

#43 : Made Out Of Sound - Chris Corsano and Bill Orcutt

For this album, made remotely last year, guitarist Orcutt improvised to Corsano’s drum tracks, observing the waveforms as he recorded “so I could see when a crescendo was coming or when to bring it down”, he said. It’s reminiscent of a surfer’s mentality, and Made Out of Sound feels thrillingly like the trusty unpredictability of broaching the sea: absurdist guitar begets quieter contemplation; burnished riffs harden and soften, then collapse. Throughout, the open-ended sense of beauty is undimmed.

Never heard of either of these guys, but i don't mind a bit of guitar and drums and what could be nicer than some open-ended beauty reminiscent of a surfer's mentality, so I was looking forward to this.  But what we have hear is not what I would describe as "open-ended beauty" - I would instead describe it as a "fucking awful racket".  I'm sure they're both extremely talented musicians, but it sounds like they got back from the pub (separately) and decided to annoy their neighbours and then just decided that wasn't quite annoying enough, so combined their efforts and sent it off to their label just for a laugh.  I actually recommend you listen to this just so you can re-read what The Guardian wrote above and just have a chuckle about what a load of utter bollocks it is.

Wikipedia has nothing on the album and I didn't feel the need to research it any further on that there internet.  I can imagine that it might make for a thrilling live experience for people of a certain disposition but I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why anyone would ever want to listen to a recording of it.  The only good thing I can say about it was that it was 29 minutes long, but it still felt like half a day.  Just no.

#46/45 - Two pretty good albums

#42/41 - Two good examples of "that sort of thing"