2021 wasn’t a great year for me – my dad, show business broadcaster and journalist, John Hannam, died in late September, aged 80, after a short illness, and I had a lot to deal with, both emotionally and logistically.

I was very close to my dad and owe so much to him – he always supported me and offered encouragement, and he was responsible for getting me into music in the first place – when I was a child, he was always playing LPs in our house.

I can remember enjoying albums by Duane Eddy, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, The Shadows, Nancy & Lee and Scott Walker. I inherited my dad’s love of ‘60s sounds, twangy guitars, spy film and Spaghetti Western soundtracks and rich baritone voices.

Shortly before my dad died, he spent some time in hospital and I went to visit him in an end-of-life care ward. He was conscious, but heavily sedated – thankfully, we managed to share some precious moments  during the last few days of his life and listened to some music. There was a CD library in the ward, so I played him some albums that I knew we would both enjoy, including Paul Weller’s acoustic live record, Days of Speed, a ‘60s hits compilation and Best Of collections by Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

‘When I was a child, my dad was always playing LPs in our house. I inherited his love of ‘60s sounds, twangy guitars, spy film and Spaghetti Western soundtracks and rich baritone voices’

One of the songs that I played several times while sitting with my dad was Dylan’s stately twilight ballad, Not Dark Yet, which is from his 1997 album, Time Out Of Mind.

It’s a hauntingly beautiful track and has been interpreted as Dylan contemplating his mortality: “Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear. It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.  I was born here, and I’ll die here, against my will. I know it looks like I’m movin’ but I’m standin’ still…”

It’s a song I’ve always loved, but this time around, it took on added meaning and poignancy.

The last thing my dad said to me was “lovely music.” After he died, I took a few days off work and then decided to keep busy. I’m always getting sent new music to review and I threw myself into listening to a bunch of records that were due to be released in autumn / winter 2021.

The one that I kept going back to was Imposter by Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – a covers album by the Depeche Mode frontman and his collaborator, the producer / engineer/ musician, Rich Machin.

It’s a dark, intimate and moving record, which suited my mood, but, funnily enough, one of the 12 songs on it was a brilliant version of Not Dark Yet. Gahan and Soulsavers overhaul the track and make it more dynamic, much heavier and even moodier.

‘The one album I kept going back to was Imposter by Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – a covers record by the Depeche Mode frontman and his collaborator, Rich Machin’

As Machin said when I interviewed him a few weeks ago: “It’s about trying to go into different worlds with stuff, rather than just recreating the original version. Dylan did it his way, which is the definitive version, but I could hear it differently – I played around with it. Lyrically it’s a very dark song and I was going for more of a raw, ‘60s fuzzy psych guitar feel – there’s no bass on it. I felt it really worked.”

It certainly did, as did the rest of the record – Imposter is my favourite album of 2021 and one of the best covers records you’ll ever hear.

As I said when I reviewed the album for consumer magazine, Hi-Fi+ earlier this year, it’s an eclectic selection of songs, with Gene Clark sitting alongside Charlie Chaplin, Cat Power, Dylan, Neil Young and Mark Lanegan, whom Soulsavers first collaborated with in 2007.

There’s a pretty faithful rendition of the shadowy, infidelity-themed, country-soul classic The Dark End of the Street, albeit with some gospel stylings; a gorgeous, hymnal take on Gene Clark’s Where My Love Lies Asleep; a version of the jazz standard, Smile, as sung by Charlie Chaplin and Nat King Cole, among others; Cat Power’s Metal Heart; PJ Harvey’s The Desperate Kingdom of Love; the urgent, raw,  trad blues-rock of Elmore James’s I Held My Baby Last Night, with squalling electric guitar, and a stunning and dramatic reading of Neil Young’s A Man Needs A Maid, with the rich orchestration of the original replaced by atmospheric piano and unsettling, spacey sound effects.

‘Imposter is my favourite album of 2021 and one of the best covers records you’ll ever hear’

The majority of the songs on the record have been reinvented, which, of course, is the trick to making a great covers album. You have to bring something new to the party.

Writing in Hi-Fi +, I said many of the choices, which are often dark and full of pain and suffering, sound like they were written for Gahan to sing.

Married three times, he is a former drug addict – he overdosed on a lethal cocktail of heroin and cocaine at the Hollywood Sunset Marquis hotel in 1996 and spent at least six minutes clinically dead. He’s a man who’s seen some harrowing sights – so much so that he doesn’t just sing these songs, he lives them and inhabits them.

The title of the album may be Imposter, but Gahan was born to perform many of these compositions. In fact, talking about the record, he says: “When I listen to other people’s voices and songs – more importantly the way they sing them and interpret the words – I feel at home. I identify with it. It comforts me more than anything else. There’s not one performer on the record who I haven’t been moved by.”

Imposter moved me and it became my soundtrack to the last few weeks of 2021.

 

Following my dad’s death, my sister and I have inherited his extensive record collection – vinyl and CD. I’ve spent some time going through it and pulling out albums to listen to – so much so that, coupled with having to deal with my dad’s passing, I haven’t listened to as much new music as I perhaps should, however, there are still plenty of new records I’ve enjoyed, so here’s a rundown of some of them, plus a Spotify playlist to go with it.

Don’t worry – it’s not simply a list of intense, harrowing and miserable albums that I’ve liked during 2021. There’s still room for the odd power-pop song, jangly guitars, psych sounds and gorgeous harmonies. It’s not dark, but it’s getting there…

Say It With Garage Flowers: Best Albums of 2021

1. Dave Gahan & Soulsavers – Imposter
2. The Coral – Coral Island
3. John Murry – The Stars Are God’s Bullet Holes
4. Peter Bruntnell – Journey To The Sun
5. Dot Allison – Heart-Shaped Scars
6. Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth – Utopian Ashes
7. XIXA – Genesis
8. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis – Carnage
9. The Underground Youth –  The Falling
10. Hans Zimmer – No Time To Die (original motion picture soundtrack)
11. Whatitdo Archive Group – The Black Stone Affair
12. Starlight Cleaning Co. – Starlight Cleaning Co.
13. The Courettes – Back In Mono
14. Manic Street Preachers – The Ultra-Vivid Lament
15. Paul Weller – Fat Pop (Volume 1)
16. Matt Hill – Return of the Idle Drones (Greedy Magicians II)
17. Matt McManamon – Scally Folk
18. Brent Windler – New Morning Howl
19. Spearmint – Holland Park
20. Starry Eyed and Laughing – Bells of Lightning
21. Andrew Gabbard – Homemade
22. Departure Lounge – Transmeridian
23. Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – I Told You So
24. Cool Ghouls – At George’s Zoo
25. Matthew Sweet – Cat’s Paw
26. Bob Collum and the Welfare Mothers – This Heart Will Self Destruct
27. The Mountain Goats – Dark in Here
28. Steve Cradock – Peace City West (2021 remixed and reissued version)
29. Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade
30. Andrew Taylor and the Harmonizers – Andrew Taylor and the Harmonizers
31. The Boys With The Perpetual Nervousness – Songs From Another Life
32. M G Boulter – Clifftown
33. Danny George Wilson – Another Place
34. The Poppermost – Hits To Spare
35. Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders – Atoms and Energy
36. Ian M Bailey – Songs To Dream Along To
37. Nelson Bragg – Gratitude Blues
38. Tobacco City – Tobacco City, USA
39. Rose City Band – Earth Trip
40. Chrissie Hynde – Standing In The Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan
41. The Delines – The Night Always Comes (soundtrack to Willie Vlautin’s novel of the same name)
42. Dean Wareham – I Have Nothing To Say To The Mayor of L.A.
43. Triptides – Alter Echoes
44. Matt Berry – The Blue Elephant
45. The Blow Monkeys – Journey To You
46. O’Connell & Love – Will You Be There?
47. New Morning Blues – London
48. Dark Mark & Skeleton Joe – Dark Mark vs Skeleton Joe
49. The Mariners – Tales From The Great Central Line (Vol 1)–
50. Ryan Allen – What A Rip
51. Kevin Robertson – Sundown’s End
52. RW Hedges – Year After Year
53. Steve Drizos – Axiom
54. Star Collector – Game Day
55. Brand New Zeros –  Back To Zero
56. Mark & The Clouds – Waves
57. The Gary 7 – Three Of Our Agents Are Missing
58. Alan Tyler – Made In Middlesex
59. Steve Roberts – All Power to the Bookshop
60. Dean Friedman – American Lullaby

This year saw several of my favourite singer-songwriters release albums, including John Murry, Peter Bruntnell, Matt Hill and Paul Weller.

Like its two predecessors, The Graceless Age and A Short History of Decay, Murry’s The Stars Are God’s Bullet Holes was a surprising, brilliant and inventive record – rough and raw, dark at times, but also not without its fair share of black humour.

It opened with the funky dub-meets-country groove of Oscar Wilde (Came Here To Make Fun Of You) – an infectious pop song subverted with a disturbing lyric that referenced the Oklahoma City bombing.

The startling and moody title track, which started with the lines “Of course I’d die for you. You’d watch me, wouldn’t you?” rode on a wave of heavy, fuzzed-up guitars, over which Murry told us he’d been made in God’s image: “Born to die – to take love songs and crucify ‘em.”

Di Kreutser Sonata was a sparse ballad with haunting pedal steel guitar, which found Murry “stuck somewhere between a memory and a dream,” and wrestling with issues from his adopted family upbringing.

I Refuse To Believe You Could Love Me had a New Wave / garage-rock feel, and the atmospheric Ones + Zeros was based on a pretty piano line and featured guest vocals from singer-songwriter, Nadine Khouri.

Murry also threw in an inspired, spacey and psychedelic cover version of Duran Duran’s ‘90s comeback single, Ordinary World, which was driven by a throbbing bassline and electric piano – both were played by Bristol-based John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Sparklehorse), who produced the album.

Speaking about working with Parish, Murry said: “It was interesting – I’ve never made a record like that before. It was uncomfortable and nerve-wracking to begin with, because I didn’t know where we were going.

“It was like, ‘I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, or if this is even a record,’ but then suddenly, he played me stuff back and it worked – we did more and more stuff in an uninhibited way, without thinking about it.”

He added: “It was like we were both trying to figure each other out the whole time – that process created the record. I didn’t have a lot of the songs finished – I just wanted to bring them in and see what happened. John has an incredible ability to create a collaborative process and space.”

Peter Bruntell’s latest record, Journey To The Sun – his twelfth – was written and recorded during lockdown. It was more sparse and stripped-down than his last few releases – gorgeous, haunting and folky, but with some vintage electronica sounds and even a couple of spacey sci-fi instrumentals.

Opener, the stunning, Dandelion, was an atmospheric folk-horror song, like Matt Deighton, or Pink Moon-era Nick Drake being produced by Brian Eno; the lovely Lucifer Morning Star had warm, burbling synths and chiming 12-string guitar, while Heart of Straw was classic Bruntnell – an aching, acoustic, country-tinged ballad – and You’d Make A Great Widow was laced with his trademark wry humour and melancholy, but wrapped up in one of the prettiest melodies you were likely to hear all year.

Some of the songs were co-written with Bruntnell’s long-time collaborator, Bill Ritchie, while US musician and mastering engineer, Peter Linnane, laid down some Hammond and pump organ, concertina, Mellotron and piano, and Iain Sloan played pedal steel guitar on the track Dharma Liar.

 

Nine years after the release of his 2012 live album, Greedy Magicians, UK Americana / folk/ protest singer Matt Hill – the artist formerly known as Quiet Loner –  recorded the follow-up, Greedy Magicians II – Return of the Idle Drones.

‘Greedy Magicians II was a brilliant record – stripped-down and intimate, angry, acerbic, funny and moving, with musical nods to genres including folk, country, blues and European balladry’

Released on CD and download via his Bandcamp site, it was a collection of ‘live in the studio’ modern protest songs. Recorded in two days by Hill, long-time associate, James Youngjohns (Last Harbour, Willard Grant Conspiracy), and engineer Adam Gorman of The Travelling Band, in a Victorian mill in the historic Ancoats district of Manchester, it was described as ‘the sound of two musicians sat two metres apart, as they rip through the songs as if they were playing a concert.’

It was a brilliant record – stripped-down and intimate, angry, acerbic, funny and moving, with musical nods to genres including folk, country, blues and European balladry.

“My original plan was to do this as a ‘10 years on’ project recorded in front of a live audience in the same venue, with the same musicians,” said Hill.

“Sadly, the pandemic scuppered that, so we did it as a ‘live in the studio’ album with just me and James. It allowed us a bit more freedom and I’ve tried to channel some broader musical influences here, such as Randy Newman, Scott Walker or Glen Campbell.”

The song Strike was about the matchgirls’ strike of 1888, while Talking It Out tackled billionaires, oligarchs and the super-rich.

Aside from social commentary, there were personal stories too – the middle-aged person struggling to work whilst chronically ill (Times Are Getting Tough), or the soldier and his wife trying to settle back to normality in post-war Britain (Making Sense of the War).

Aside from putting a stop to him playing live, lockdown was good for Paul Weller. In just under 12 months, the elder statesman of Britpop released two albums – the summery and soulful On Sunset and its follow-up, Fat Pop (Volume 1), which, like its predecessor, was one of the strongest records he’d ever made.

It was the latest in a purple patch that started with 2018’s True Meanings – his stripped-back and orchestrally-aided, introspective folk-rock album, which coincided with him turning 60. That was a career highlight and, along with his self-titled solo debut, from 1992, it’s easily one of Say It With Garage Flowers’ favourite Weller records.

Some of Fat Pop (Volume 1) was cut from the same [three-button mod suit] cloth as the album that came before it. There was a strong soul and funk feel to a few of the songs, but there was also plenty of, er, fat pop.

It was a rich-sounding and eclectic record – vibrant and colourful – and, considering the wide range of influences and styles, it hung together really well and felt like a complete piece of work, rather than just a collection of songs.

Fat Pop (Volume 1) saw Weller continuing his working relationship with producer Jan ‘Stan’ Kybert, who has been at the helm since 2012’s Sonik Kicks.

Sadly, the first single and opening song, the psychedelic, synth-pop-meets-Krautrock of Cosmic Fringes, wasn’t about lockdown haircuts, although Weller was sporting long locks in the accompanying video.

Lyrically, the song concerned itself with a keyboard warrior: “I’m a sleeping giant, waiting to awake/I stumble to the fridge/then back to bed”, but to be fair, that did sound a lot like lockdown…

The punky True featured an unexpected jazzy sax break, as well as guest vocals by Lia Metcalfe of Liverpool alt-rock band The Mysterines, while the dramatic, soaring and symphonic Shades of Blue was co-written by his daughter, Leah, who shared vocal duties on the song.

The title track, a paean to the power of music, had a heavy, dubby bassline – Weller described it as “Cypress Hill doing something that sounds like a DJ Muggs production.”

Glad Times was beautiful and melancholic – space-age soul with strings – while Testify, with guest vocals by Andy Fairweather Low of ‘60s Welsh pop band Amen Corner, was a great, ‘70s-style, funk-soul strut, with flute and sax supplied by acid jazz veteran, Jacko Peake.

Pastoral and acoustic guitar-led ballad, Cobwebs/Connections, which could’ve come off True Meanings, featured a lovely string arrangement by Hannah Peel, who worked on that album. She also scored the gorgeous closing song, Still Glides The Stream – another reflective moment that was written as a remote collaboration between Weller and long-term guitarist Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene).

If it was angry Weller you were after, you needn’t have worried, as he hadn’t completely mellowed with age. On the choppy, ska-tinged rallying call, That Pleasure, which was written as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter campaign and was swathed in lush, ‘70s Marvin Gaye-style strings, he urged us to “Lose your hypocrisy… lose your prejudice, lose this hatred,” adding, “It’s time to get involved.”

Weller’s orchestral arranger, Hannah Peel, also worked on another of our favourite albums of 2021 – Dot Allison’s Heart-Shaped Scars.

On her fifth solo outing, the former vocalist in ‘90s Scottish electronic act One Dove, who, throughout her career, has collaborated with the likes of Massive Attack, Scott Walker, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty, went back to nature.

Several of the gorgeous, stripped-down, pastoral folk songs featured field recordings of birdsong, rivers, and the ambience of the Hebrides, where she has a cottage.

Musically, she cited Karen Dalton, Gene Clark, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Nick Drake and Brian Wilson as influences. There was also a nod to the soundtrack of ‘70s cult folk-horror film The Wicker Man, which is set on a remote Scottish island.

Heart-Shaped Scars was a long time coming – her last record, Room 7 1/2, was released 12 years ago. After that, she took time out to start a family.

Recorded at Castlesound Studios, in Edinburgh, with arranger, Peel, Heart-Shaped Scars was a haunting record, musically and lyrically – quite literally, as one of the album’s prettiest moments was called The Haunting and opened with the lines “Slip inside this haunted house – tip toe silent, not a sound.”

There was also a track called Ghost Orchid – a stately piano ballad with mournful cello.

In the past, Allison has dabbled with genres including pop, trip-hop, psychedelia, electronica and folk, but Heart-Shaped Scars was her most rootsy sounding album so far.

“I like to try and explore new sounds and styles, so as not to stagnate. I love the evolution of The Beatles – that’s a good model. I find it interesting to explore new areas,” she told Say It With Garage Flowers, in an exclusive interview.

Four of the songs featured a string quintet, and other instruments on the record included ukulele, keyboards / synth, piano, guitar, bass, drums, harmonium and Mellotron. The vocals and the ukulele were recorded together on a Neumann U 67 microphone – the album sounded hushed and intimate.

Allison usually writes songs on piano and guitar, but the first single from the album, the fragile, cinematic and dreamy ballad, Long Exposure – “Orchards of cherries lie bruised on the ground” – was one of the tracks she composed on ukulele, after picking up the instrument during lockdown.

‘Dot Allison has dabbled with pop, trip-hop, psychedelia, electronica and folk, but Heart-Shaped Scars was her most rootsy sounding album so far’

Lyrically, Heart-Shaped Scars referenced several of Allison’s interests, including literature, science and nature. “I wanted it to be comforting like a familiar in-utero heartbeat – a pure kind of album that musically imbues a return to nature,” she said.

In fact, one of the songs was called Can You Hear Nature Sing? It was autumnal folk and co-written with Zoë Bestel, who provided guest vocals.

The record’s most brooding and dark moment was Love Died In Our Arms, with dramatic strings and moody synth – a flashback to her trip-hop and electronica roots.

Matt McManamon, the former frontman of noughties Scouse ska-punkers The Dead 60s, put out his debut solo album, Skally Folk this year, but don’t expect to be able to skank to it, though…  His first release in 13 years, it was a strong collection of reflective and autobiographical songs that were steeped in the tradition of Irish folk music – Liverpool-born McManamon’s family are from County Mayo – as well as the jangly Scouse indie sound of The La’s, and the Wirral psych-pop of The Coral, who were former Deltasonic label mates of The Dead 60s.

Mulranny Smile was a haunting, folky ballad that was shrouded in Celtic sea mist, and if Lee Mavers had had tunes like What About You?, Out Of Time and Every Time I Close My Eyes up his sleeve, that second La’s album might’ve actually come out and been another classic.

For his latest record, Atoms and Energy, Daniel Wylie, the former frontman of late ’90s / early noughties, Alan McGee-endorsed jangle-poppers, Cosmic Rough Riders, reacted against his 2017 album, Scenery For Dreamers, which showcased his love of heavy Neil Young and Crazy Horse-like electric guitars and the chiming Rickenbacker sound of The Byrds.

The follow-up was much more stripped-down than its predecessor. Young was still an obvious influence, but it was the Young of After The Goldrush and Only Love Can Break Your Heart, rather than Cortez The Killer.

“I wanted to make a completely different album from [2015’s] Chrome Cassettes and Scenery For Dreamers. Both of those had a similar approach and vibe to them and I felt it was time for a change,” he told us.

“I wanted to write a classic ‘70s acoustic record, lyrically based around what was currently occupying my thoughts, and musically like my favourite ‘70s Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Cat Stevens and James Taylor records. That was the plan and I think we pulled it off pretty well.”

He certainly did.

One of our favourite country records of the year was This Heart Will Self Destruct, by Olkahoma-born, Essex-based Americana singer-songwriter, Bob Collum, and his backing band, The Welfare Mothers.

It covered lyrical themes including anxiety, hope, fear, humour, uncertainty, love, disappointment, redemption and faith.

Judging by the subjects he chose to tackle, you won’t be surprised to find that the record was mostly written during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Collum said the album “began life on the cusp, before the insanity of 2020”, and added: “I think it captures the last year quite well.”

 

The Welfare Mothers comprise Mags Layton (violin and vocals), Martin Cutmore (bass) and Paul Quarry (drums and percussion).

Honorary member, guitarist Martin Belmont (Graham Parker and the Rumour, Nick Lowe, My Darling Clementine) played the Fender Stratocaster and Fender VI bass on the album, adding a mean, Duane Eddy-style, twangy solo to the jaunty Shake It Loose.

Belmont’s ‘70s pub rock influence also came across on Giving Up, which was an infectious power-pop song – kind of New Wave meets country.

Elsewhere, there was tongue-in-cheek country (the title track);  echoes of early R.E.M (Second Fiddle); a sad and reflective country ballad inspired by the likes of Johnny Cash (From Birmingham) and a raucous, fiddle-fuelled rockabilly cover of Saved, which is an R&B-flavoured song written by Leiber and Stoller and first recorded by Lavern Baker in the early ‘60s. Elvis Presley and Joe Cocker have released versions of it.

Collum also dipped into blues (Tall Glass of Muddy Water) and soul territory (Spare Me). On the latter, he was joined by Peter Holsapple (The dB’s and R.E.M.), who played a mean Hammond B3 organ and also sang backing vocals. The song was an intercontinental collaboration between him and Collum.

 

2021 wasn’t just all about singer-songwriters – Say It With Garage Flowers fell in love with plenty of offerings from bands too – some old favourites, as well as new acts.

San Francisco’s Cool Ghouls turned 10 this year and released their fourth album, At George’s Zoo. It was their best and most diverse record yet – a mix of Byrdsy psych, ’60s-style garage rock and gorgeous, Beach Boys/Jimmy Webb-inspired pop, with harmonies, piano, horns and lush strings.

The opening track, It’s Over, was wonderful, with a great horn arrangement, a Beach Boys-like intro and some lovely harmonies. There was also a bit of The Notorious Byrd Brothers about it, with some psych-soul going on…

Surfboard was the song of the summer and I Was Wrong had a definite Pet Sounds / Surf’s Up feel, while 26th St. Blues sounded more like the Cool Ghouls of old – very ’60s garage rock.

There was more cool, summery psych-pop, but mixed with some far-out space rock, from L.A-based trio Triptides, on their album, Alter Echoes.

It was recorded prior to the pandemic, in Hollywood’s Boulevard Recording studio, which was previously the legendary Producer’s Workshop, where Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Steely Dan and, er, Liberace made, or mixed, records.

Speaking to Say It With Garage Flowers about the band’s sound, band’s frontman and multi-instrumentalist, Glenn Brigman, said: “There’s such a wide range of influences it can be hard to pin them all down – from Coltrane to Hawkwind. So many different groups. But I think being in L.A, working together as a band, touring together – it all influenced how the record came together. We knew each other’s strengths and made sure that we played to them.”

Meanwhile, back in the UK, ’60s-obsessed, East Midlands psych-pop band, The Mariners, released their second album, Tales From The Great  Central Line Volume One, which was less psych and more pop than its predecessor, The Tides of Time, but was essentially a similar trip down Dead End Street and Penny Lane, but with some added country rock and folk influences.

It contained no less than five songs with girls’ names in their titles – one of which, the first single, Dear Genevieve, was an irresistibly jaunty strum that was a love letter to frontman Luke Williamson’s young daughter.

The groovy, organ-led There Before Time was a close cousin of The Zombies’ She’s Not There, the gorgeous and reflective Catch My Breath was a stripped-down acoustic ballad, while Royston’s Lament was a yearning and melancholy tale of growing older by the day that lamented the loss of community and showcased a slightly darker side to the band’s sound.

In a similar vein to The Mariners, cosmic Scousers The Coral’s latest record, Coral Island, was the best thing they’ve ever done – an inventive and adventurous, 24-track double concept album, with spoken word passages narrated by 85-year-old Ian Murray (also known as The Great Muriarty), who was the granddad of band members James and Ian Skelly.

Coral Island was inspired by faded British seaside glamour, childhood holidays to North Wales, end-of-the pier amusements, pre-Beatles rock and roll, ‘death discs’ and jukebox pop.

Musically, its list of influences included Duane Eddy, Chuck Berry, Sun Records, Joe Meek, The Kinks, The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Change Your Mind was Byrdsy jangly guitar pop with a great melody and harmonies, while Mist On The River was even more West Coast – it sounded like Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Autumn Has Come, which brought the first half of the record to a close, was very haunting and melancholy song. You could imagine Scott Walker or Richard Hawley singing it…

Golden Age had spooky organ and whistling on it, as well as a Johnny Cash ‘boom-chikka-boom’ rhythm, and sounded like the soundtrack to a Spaghetti Western set in a haunted fairground…

In the age of streaming playlists or single songs, Coral Island was an album that needed to be sat down and listened to in its entirety, as a complete piece of work. It was available as a nice heavyweight, double vinyl package, with a book – truly an immersive experience.

 

A band who take the Spaghetti Western sound to a whole new level are guitar-slinging six-piece XIXA, from Tucson, Arizona.

Their second album, Genesis, was an extraordinary, exotic and often intense listen –  an intoxicating mix of Ennio Morricone, Gothic horror, psych, rock, Latin, ’80s glossy pop, desert rock and electronica.

Talking to Say It With Garage Flowers, band member, Gabriel Sullivan, said: “The inspirations that go into XIXA are always evolving. We started as a covers band playing Peruvian chicha and that was definitely the foundation for the band. From there each members’ personal influences and identities began to seep into the music. We’re always looking for new things to influence our music, from literature, mysticism, rhythms, guitar tones… We have no boundaries as to what can guide our music.”

The desert is also an influence on US duo Starlight Cleaning Co. (Rachel Dean and Tim Paul Gray) – hell, they actually live in the Mojave Desert!

Their self-titled album from this year was a wonderfully melodic record that was in love with ’70s/’80s New Wave guitar music, glossy L.A. pop, country rock, Americana and soft rock.

Opener, Don’t Take It Away, achieved jangle-pop perfection, with harmonies ringing out high over the desert landscape; the chugging, organ-fuelled and anthemic Train Wreck was like Tom Petty doing Springsteen’s Atlantic City; The Race was melancholy and reflective dream-pop, with a superb haunting guitar solo by the late Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Ryan Adams, Circles Around The Sun), and Joy Killer and The Current had the swagger and style of vintage Pretenders.

Hip, Reno-based recording collective Whatitdo Archive Group are also used to hanging out in the desert – in fact they recorded a promo video for their album, The Black Stone Affair, in one…

 

To describe an album as “the soundtrack to a film that doesn’t exist” has become a music journalism cliché, but in the case of The Black Stone Affair it was perfectly true.

They wanted to create a record that encompassed everything they love and admire about old Italian film soundtracks and scores and bring that energy back into the spotlight.

They certainly achieved it, as The Black Stone Affair was dramatic, atmospheric, exotic – even erotic at times – and very, very authentic.

As well as musicians and recording engineers, the members of Whatitdo Archive Group are voracious vinyl collectors.

They spent nine months of research, digging through their records and studying the works of composers including the legendary Ennio Morricone, as well as Piero Piccioni, Stefano Torossi, François de Roubaix and Alessandro Alessandroni, before composing their imaginary cinematic soundtrack and working with over 24 other musicians – there are some superb orchestral and brass arrangements on the album.

Talking to Say It With Garage Flowers, the group described the album as ‘classic Spaghetti-acid-western-spy-crime-blaxploitation-giallo-adventure-noir.’ What’s not to like?

‘The Black Stone Affair is dramatic, atmospheric, exotic – even erotic at times – and very, very authentic’

Finally, one of Say It With Garage Flowers’s favourite records of 2021 was actually 10 years old…

Singer-songwriter, producer and guitarist, Steve Cradock, (Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller and The Specials) kept himself busy during lockdown by revisiting his 2011 solo album, Peace City West, which he remixed and remastered for its first ever vinyl release.

Recorded in December/ January 2010 at Deep Litter Studios, on a farm, in rural Devon, it’s a lost gem – a collection of 10 really strong and highly melodic songs, from the infectious and jangly, Beatles and Jam-like power-pop of opener Last Days Of The Old World, to the ’60s psych of The Pleasure Seekers, the pastoral cosmic pop of Kites Rise Up Against the Wind, the gorgeous and folky ballad Finally Found My Way Back Home –  co-written with Weller associate Andy Crofts and ’60s soul singer P.P. Arnold, who Cradock produced a solo LP for in 2019  – and the country-tinged Lay Down Your Weary Burden.

After the original version of Peace City West came out, Cradock decided he wasn’t happy with the final mix of the album, or the psychedelic instrumental interludes that he’d put in-between the songs, so, 10 years later, he decided to do something about it.

“We mixed it badly on a laptop in January 2011 and then it was finished, but listening back it just sounded bad because of the mix,” he told us. “It was time to re-do that, get rid of the interludes, make it sound like it should’ve done and put it on vinyl – those were the three things that were missing for me.”

We missed out on this record the first time it came out, so we’re really grateful that Cradock decided to reissue it.

 

“The new version gives it more focus,” he said. ” I like the fact that it’s now simple – it’s just the songs. Hearing the vinyl test pressing made me smile, which was good.”

He added: “There was a lot of meandering nonsense on the old version, but, at the time, that was where my head was at – I thought it was interesting. There were bits of road music on it, from when I was in Egypt. I recorded a guy saying a prayer. I was enjoying that self-indulgence, but, in 2020, I wasn’t.”

At the risk of us being self-indulgent, here’s a playlist of songs from some of our favourite albums of 2021.

Please note: not all the albums are on Spotify, but if you want to hear them, you can support the artists by purchasing their music on Bandcamp etc. That would make their year.

Best of 2021 Spotify Playlist