Johann Hari wrote a terrific book recently called “Stolen Focus” on why people can’t pay attention anymore, and it comes to mind when I reflect on the past 12 months having again failed to zone in on entire albums, but it has to be said that some of the music which has come through our virtual doors has been the best I’ve heard in a long time. For me, it was a vintage year for Americana, particularly around its quirky fringes, the bit that I have always liked best. We start off today with numbers 20-11 which I realise only has one female artist in it and probably makes me look like a (gay) male chauvinist pig, rest assured things get more varied in 10-1!
20. Birds of Play ‘Aftermath’ Our review of the album from which this song was taken from described this Roots quartet based in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado as “the traditional string band updated for the 21st century” – it’s a great album but some of the musicianship on this particular track is just killer. The aftermath of me listening to it is I go into an immobile state for four minutes, ruminating over its message: “We’ll dance in the sunshine, Shake off this lingering dread, May we all seek a little bit of tenderness, For the years we have left.”
19. Lucero ‘Time to Go Home’ Lucero have been around for years, my good friend John often waxes lyrical about them and I’ve actually seen them live at Black Deer, but the penny still didn’t really drop for me until this their most recent album “Should’ve Learned By Now” which is probably their most consistently americana-esque album to date – several tracks could have made the list but it’s the accordion on the closing track which is about as good a closer to an album as you’ll hear this year. There is not enough accordion in americana.
18. Gintis ‘Requiem for Sc2’ So this is kind of a cheat but it came out too late last year to be included in any end of year lists – Gintis are a local band from both Liverpool and North Wales which my dear friend Scott introduced me to and if you have ever missed Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and aren’t satiated enough by Euros Childs’ involvement with Teenage Fanclub then this band is the nearest you’ll get to them and this is just such a good song with a great reprise at the end. Also how many songs have the words “chicken pox” in them?
17. Sam Outlaw ‘Do You Really Love Me?’ My introduction to Sam Outlaw was the after-show for one of the first AMAUK Awards a few years back by which time he’d already recorded one of my favourite songs of all time ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ which I still struggle to listen to without becoming a snotty mess. One of my colleagues described Sam Outlaw’s last (80s-themed) album as “difficult to love” and while it was a fair enough description for the americana community (although to be fair, I did love some bits of it), his return to the genre is welcome. That melody! “I’m just wasted and stoned paranoid and alone.” We have all been there Sam.
16. Joy Oladokun ‘Taking Things for Granted’ My quota of LGBT artists which appeared in my Spotify Unwrapped was fairly high this year, and I didn’t seek them out as such, they came to me. One such artist is Arizona’s Joy Oladokun who was nominated in the Emerging Act of the Year category of 2021’s Americana Awards (theirs not ours) and whose most recent album “Proof of Life” deals with trauma, culture, growing up, and everything in between in. In ‘Taking Things for Granted’, the highlight of the record for me, she experiences her own rebirth so to speak, with the spiritual connotations of being submerged in water, which can also of course make people drown. She veers towards the more pop end of country but is none the worse for it.
15. Susto ‘My Entire Life’ So Susto are another of those artists who have hit my radar from time to time, in a positive way, but this year’s album “My Entire Life” was their crown jewel of recordings – as our writer said, it’s a “life-affirming collection of inspiring and moving songs” – particularly following a period of time in which he coped with the death of a parent, as well as becoming a parent himself, which mirrors my recent life. This is such a joyful song without feeling trite.
14. Teenage Fanclub ‘Tired of Being Alone’ When I heard the already mentioned Euros Childs was joining the also already mentioned Teenage Fanclub, I have absolutely no interest in footy but can imagine it must be like that feeling when one of your favourite players starts to play for your team. I think Teenage Fanclub songs these days are less immediate but all the better for it, and the guitar solo in the middle of this is probably my favourite of the year. May they never stop making music.
13. Chris Williams and Kid Reverie ‘Half a Mile’ I absolutely love this song, the arrangement in particular is so innovative with its tempo changes and swirling instrumentation. It has a really foreboding feel and some of the lyrics are incredibly evocative: “Dragging heavy heels, Crows out in a field a murder wide”. His promo describes this song thus: “combines lilting banjo rolls and an upbeat Flying Burrito Brothers country rock tempo with soaring symphonic strains and transcendent vocals” which is spot on.
12. The Milk Carton Kids ‘All of the Time in the World’ The joint most entertaining live act I’ve seen in recent years, the Milk Carton Kids are just consistently reliably great with their material, although for some reason I always think they’re called the Milky Bar Kids which given they’re not, is a great name for a band if anyone wants to transfer me £1000. The lowkey delivery, the harmony vocals, the introspection – and is there a better opening line to an album this year than “The world won’t end the way you think or when you think it will”?
11. Darlingside ‘All the Lights in the City’ The other most entertaining band I’ve seen in recent years, Darlingside’s music consistently breaks my heart into a thousand jagged pieces and their move away from democratic harmonising for their latest album “Everything is Alive” hasn’t stopped them producing some of the best material of their career including this crushingly beautiful song, musing on “the halcyon days in the twilight of empire.” It’s as twinkly and understated as ever.
