You give me your love, it's a curious love

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

#29 : Antisocialites - Alvvays

This Canadian crew channel the spirit of C86 with their jangly tunes – yet on their second record they embrace the slickness eschewed by their predecessors. Antisocialites might be a paean to indie’s formative years – In Undertow features Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake; Lollipop (Ode to Jim) is directed towards the Jesus & Mary Chain’s Jim Reid – but it is also a blast of fresh air.

We met Alvvays on a later Guardian list and I liked it, so I'm hoping to like this one as well.

Yup, this one was also definitely enjoyable. It's 80s style jangle-pop (think Lush or The Primitives) so it instantly takes me back to the old days, but there's not too many people making that sort of sound these days so it sounds kinda new as well (although Amazon Music played a Wednesday track after the album and the sound was very similar). If you like that kinda sound and haven't checked out Alvvays then give them a go.

Wikipedia tells us it's their second album and was recorded using a combination of ProTools and a TASCAM 488 8-track recorder - and that's your lot. There's actually considerably more information about the album in the group's entry but unfortunately none of it is the slightest bit interesting. Critically, it was well received although several people said it was darker than their debut, which suggests their debut must be super frothy because this is not a dark album - it also won the Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year in 2018. Commercially, somewhat surprisingly it did better here (#28) than it managed in Canada (#36) because they're normally very proud of their home-grown groups - it also got to #82 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you're going to have to splash out £15 to get a copy of this, but you get the choice of a CD, vinyl or cassette option at that price. If you want to spend more then you can throw £35 at a yellow 180gm or a white limited edition vinyl, but if you really want to throw cash at the problem then you can head to the US and spent $180 on a dark blue with light blue starburst 180gm vinyl! Whatever it looks like, I like this album - it's not going to change the world, but it's not trying to!

#28 : Slowdive - Slowdive

The Reading shoegazers last released an album in the mid-90s, when the genre was blighted by backlash and mockery. But the music world is again embracing spacey guitars and wispy vocals. Not that the band are resting on past glories: their fourth album unexpectedly ups the game, feeling more accomplished and engaging than anything they’ve done before.

I think this is the first album that I actually listened to back in the dim and distant past of 2017 - I always liked a bit of shoegazing and Slowdive were second only to Ride in my affections, so I felt I had to see what they'd been up to after their somewhat extended hiatus.

And I liked it then - and I still like it now. Basically, if you like Slowdive, then you'll like this and I think that's pretty much all I can think to say about it...

Wikipedia tells us this is their fourth album and their first in 22 years, with their entry giving us some further detail around the gap. Their third album didn't go down so well, with their label dropping them one week after its release and most of them then moved on to form Mojave 3. Slowdive then received an offer to reform for the Primavera festival in '14 - the plan was just to do that one show, but things kinda snowballed from there with more shows and a couple of albums (and they're still going). The album entry also tells us that the cover art comes from the 1962 avant-garde cut-out animation film, Heaven and Earth Magic - but you knew that, right? 

Critically, it was very well received with several people saying that this was the sort of thing they should have been doing all along - it also appeared on several year-end lists. Commercially, quite a few countries were obviously intrigued as to what they'd been up to - it did best here getting to #16, but it made the top forty in a few European countries and #50 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you'll have to spend £13 for a CD or £18 for a vinyl but if you want a sealed limited edition silver vinyl then it's going to set you back £120. I enjoyed this at the time and I enjoyed revisiting it - I also enjoyed catching up with them at Glasto in '23 and hope to do so again in the future.

#27 : I'm Not Your Man - Marika Hackman

Opening with the frisky but superbly droll Boyfriend, the second record by the Londoner saw her expand on the bewitching folk of her first album and journey into more startling and direct territory. As its arty cover suggested, I’m Not Your Man offered a compelling self-portrait, with Hackman frankly discussing her sexuality and her flaws.

Marika has popped up once before in a "people also listened to" section, but I can't say I had any expectations for this - and The Guardian didn't really help other than telling me this was "more startling than bewitching folk".

Hmmm - I guess it is more startling than something which isn't in the slightest bit startling, but I'd struggle to describe it as seismic. It is, however, pretty decent female singer-songwriter fare with decent tunes and lyrics (which probably warrant closer listening than I gave them) - it took me some time to work out who it reminded me of, but I eventually came up with Emmy The Great (who we'll maybe get to meet one day). 

Wikipedia tells us this is her second album - and that's pretty much your lot, although I did notice that The Big Moon play on over half the tracks, which curiously isn't mentioned anywhere other than the personnel section. Critically, it was very well received with plenty of people noting, in a good way, the difference from her debut (which I'm intrigued to listen to) and commercially, we have some main chart action to report with it having spent one week at #74.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy of the CD for four quid, but if you want the limited edition orange vinyl disc then it's going to cost you £72. I enjoyed this and can imagine that multiple listens would only improve matters - but I'm really rather busy at the minute, so that feels unlikely.

Three decent and very different albums - I think Slowdive is probably my favourite, but it feels a bit harsh to not recognise the efforts of the other two, so I'm going for a cowardly three way tie, with Slowdive given the blog title lyrics to just give them the edge.

#32-30 - Our first two-way tie