Filling up the teacup with gin in your secret postcard life

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's 50 best albums of 2017.

#26 : After Laughter - Paramore

The perpetually feuding emo band returned last spring with a surprisingly jovial collection of tropical house-tinted powerpop. Revelling in the funky guitars and frantic synths of the 80s, the trio channelled their emo roots into the lyrics, which retain the raw drama of their previous work and share stories of romantic tension and torturous experiences with depression.

Finally, almost halfway through the chart, we get to the first album we've already met - and I liked it and have no problem with its position on the list.

#25 : Sleep Well Beast - The National

Music designed to soundtrack a midlife crisis was injected with unexpected exuberance on the Ohio band’s seventh record. From Turtleneck’s gnarly guitar-shredding to the breakneck tapestry of beats backing I’ll Still Destroy You, Matt Berninger and co transformed the sorrows of middle age into something strangely rapturous.

And another one we've previously met which I liked and have no problems seeing here.

#24 : Relatives In Descent - Protomartyr

Gothic post-punk is fuelled by a blast of fury on the Detroit rock band’s latest. Vocalist Joe Casey airs his disgust at contemporary life – “I don’t want to hear those vile trumpets anymore” – backed by a heavy, unyielding rhythm section that is satisfyingly cathartic.

And we move from a pair of albums we've previously met (from a pair of artists we've met several times) to an album we haven't met by an artist with one previous mention. With that one mention being an artist that "people previously listened to" for the delightfully named Tropical Fuck Storm - so my expectations are somewhat uncertain here.

Well - it's certainly something. I didn't hate it nearly as much as you might expect from the "gothic post-punk" label (particularly since it's an accurate label) but it's very much a game of two halves. The backing music is surprisingly upbeat and skilfully performed but the lyrics, whilst still obviously skilful in terms of content (if not necessarily, to everyone's ears, delivery) are much more downbeat and confrontational - which, in theory, could be an interesting juxtaposition. However, they take the whole thing a bit too far for me by rarely making any effort to have the words match the music - so whilst I was quite surprised I didn't completely hate it, I can confirm I definitely didn't love it. It reminded me of Fontaines D.C., so if you're a fan maybe check this out - but I suspect most people are happy without this in their lives. 

Wikipedia has more than I was expecting and it tells me this is their fourth album and "much darker and more philosophical than its predecessors". Apparently, part of this is that they decided Michigan was too cold so they recorded this in California, which somehow enabled them to write more complex songs. Another major influence was the fact that Joe's house had recently flooded, so it no longer just smelled of smoke and dust but now had a hint of mildew as well - I guess you have to take your inspiration wherever you find it. On a slightly lighter note, the album cover shows Maude Fealy, an American silent film actress whose career spanned from 1913-1958, which I imagine showed quite a few changes.

Critically, the album was very well received, particularly in terms of the lyrical content and it made quite a few year-end lists and even a few decade-end lists. Commercially, we have some minor chart action to report from here, with four weeks in the Record Store album chart, peaking at #4, but it did get to the dizzy heights of #144 in The Netherlands.

discogs.com tells us you're going to have to spend £24 to get a copy of this (possibly making it the most expensive standard album of the year) but if you want the limited edition pink and white starburst vinyl then it's going to set you back £79 - and if there was ever an album that doesn't feel appropriate for a pink and white starburst version, this is it. I can see that certain fans of the dreaded "post-punk" genre will love this but for me, whilst there are certainly admirable components, the way they've been combined is too off-putting for me.

So Protomartyr aren't going to take the round, but the other two are both very decent albums so it feels like another two-way tie is the order of the day - I've given the blog title lyrics to The National because they feel like more of a lyrical band (but I imagine there are some doozies available on the Protomartyr offering). 

#29-27 - Three decent and different albums