Kicker of Elves’ Favourite Things from 2023

Another year, another blog post starting with my favourite SONG OF THE YEAR – a full run down of all my favourite songs can be heard on one of our end of the year podcasts – the Kicker one – but this one is something of a first with a Welsh language song topping the Kicker charts.

You can follow along in either Welsh or English using the subtitles on the video – diolch i Aled a Stephen am eich help gyda nhw.

Top 25 Albums

1 Spare Snare – The Brutal

A second album recorded with Steve Albini and, dare I say it, the band’s best since Charm. High quality songwriting and musicianship throughout with added brass from Terry Edwards and Gary Barnacle make buying up all the different colour vinyl and different formats a no-brainer. Disappointingly, I missed seeing the band live this year due to illness, but even that was put right with the inclusion of a live set of tracks on the back of the cassette. What a band!

You can hear me and Jan talking more about the album here.

2 Hap A Damwain – Ni Neu Nhw

I saw Aled and Simon perform a short set last year as part of a celebration weekend for fans of Datblygu and was immediately impressed. I bought up their back catalogue and set about trying to improve my Welsh enough to fully appreciate the songwriting. I’m still working on that, but this album is as good a reason as any for keeping going. With a sound that mixes tipyn bach of Super Furries with ychydig o Datblygu, they are definitely a band worth learning a new language for.

3 Zimmerman – Wish You Were Here

A 46 minute song (actually two 23 minute songs on vinyl) about losing his brother. Remarkably, this requiem from Simon Casier manages to draw you in again and again with its mixture of jazz, electronica and even prog rock, where the repetition never feels repetitive and the melancholy is never miserable. A stunning record.

4 The Bug Club – Rare Birds: Hour Of Song

5 Circus Devils – Squeeze The Needle

6 James Yorkston & The Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Sea Eagle

7 Sparklehorse – Bird Machine

8 Graeme Jefferies – Canary In A Coalmine

9 Guided By Voices – La La Land

10 The Declining Winter – Really Early, Really Late

11 Guided By Voices – Nowhere To Go But Up

12 Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You

13 Swansea Sound – Twentieth Century

14 Kristin Hersh – Clear Pond Road

15 Brother Of Monday – Brother Of Monday

16 Craven Faults – Standers

17 R. Ring – War Poems, We Rested

18 Robert Forster – The Candle And The Flame

19 Oldfield Youth Club – The Hanworth Are Coming

20 Wurld Series – The Giant’s Lawn

21 Domenico Lancellotti – Sramba

22 Papernut Cambridge – Channel Suite

23 Guided By Voices – Welshpool Frillies

24 The Cleaners From Venus – K7

25 The Necks – Travel

…. and making up a top 50 albums, all of which you should own, are, in alphabetical order, 25 more:

Babybird – Dropping Dead Bouncing Back; Belbury Poly – The Path; Burning Ferns – World Of The Wars; Connections – Cool Change; Great Panoptique Winter – This Time Alone; The Handsome Family – Hollow; The Hermitts – Weight Of The World; Nabihah Iqbal – Dreamer; King Creosote – I Des; Jon Langford & The Men Of Gwent – Lost On Sea And Land; – Lankum – False Lankum; Lauds – Imitation Life; The Medusa Snare – What’s The Matter; Allan Murphy – Slow Life; Mythical Motors – Join Her Circus; The Reds, Pinks & Purples – The Town That Cursed Your Name; Sanam – Aykathani Malakon; Ryan Shirlow – Ullstair University Vol. 1; Sissy Space Echo & The Invisible Collaborators – From A Land Of Glass Without Mirrors; Smug Brothers – In The Book Of Bad Ideas; Soft Hearted Scientists – Waltz Of The Weekend; The Veils – …And Out Of The Void Came Love; Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – The Nation’s Most Central Location; Wreckless Eric – Leisureland; Veryan – Reflections In A Wilderness

Top 5 Compilations

1 Where Were You: Independent Music From Leeds (1978-1989 (Cherry Red)

2 Cool English Jumpsuit: A Tribute To Guided By Voices Circa 20 Something 13 And 14 (The Bert Dax Cavalcade Of Stars) / Poor Substitutes: A Tribute To Ricked Wicky (The Bert Dax Cavalcade Of Stars)

3 In The Light of Time – UK Post-Rock & Leftfield Pop 1992-1998 (Ace Records)

4 Signals, Wires & Amplifiers 3 (Next Phase: Normal Records)

5 Lo Fi City Compilation 10

Top 5 EPs

1 The Reds, Pinks & Purples -Dust In The Path Of Love / You Know You’re Burning Someone / Unloveable Losers / Inner Richmond / Build Love / Murder, Oral Sex & Cigarettes / We Can’t All Be Heroes

Too many to chose from, so I’ve chosen them all. Really looking forward to the Leeds gig next summer.

2 Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Building A New Town

3 David Boulter – Factory

4 The Wind-Up Birds – Pop.Thinking

5 Healing & Peace – Healing & Peace

Top 5 Reissues / Re-pressings / Remixes / Not Strictly Speaking New Stuff

1 Datblygu – Terfysgiaith 1982-2022

THE best Welsh band. This is a must have compilation for anyone who considers themselves a fan of independent outsider music. Also, another reason to learn Welsh, yn amlwg.

2 The Who – Who’s Next (50^th Anniversary)

3 The Replacements – Tim (Let It Bleed Edition)

4 The Teardrop Explodes – Culture Bunker 1978-82

5 Art Fact – Tape Works 1986-1993

Top 5 Live Albums

1 The Nightingales – Live In Balsall Heath

No messing about between songs. This is The Nightingales in full flight.

2 Mr Anyway’s Holey Spirits – Mr Anyway’s Holey Spirits Perform! One Foot in Bethlehem

3 Spare Snare – The Brutal (Live)

4 Urusei Yatsura – Southampton Joiners Arms, 1996

5 Dexys – The Feminine Divine Live! – Official Bootleg: Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 7 September

The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup

Guided By Voices released three new albums in 2023, taking it up to sixteen from the current line-up with La La Land, Welshpool Frillies, and Nowhere To Go But Up. We also had re-releases on Scat Records of Sandbox (in blue and black vinyl) and Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (in a couple of gorgeous yellow variants). We also had the very welcome return of Circus Devils with their album Squeeze The Needle and two tribute albums: Cool English Jumpsuit: A Tribute To Guided By Voices Circa 20 Something 13 And 14, and Poor Substitutes: A Tribute To Ricked Wicky both again curated by Bunnygrunt’s Matt Harnish. Perhaps most surprisingly we also had a second helping of Tobin Sprout‘s Demos & Outtakes with, er, Demos & Outtakes Two. Doug Gillard rightly made Rolling Stone magazine’s best guitarists of all-time list, but far to low down in my view, and he almost certainly appeared on loads of records that I have missed. Sorry about that.

The Stephen Jones One Man Domination Of Record Shelf Space Award

Just the 222 tracks released by Stephen Jones this year under various guises:

As Babybird we had the following seven albums: Bad Ideas, I **** Life, di’ sek-tid, To Express Happiness Without Sarcasm Is Impossible, Dropping Dead Bouncing Back (including a 4 disc version with the pictured painting), I Hate My Life But I Love Yours and, right at the end of the year, the now traditional Christmas album, this time being H**** Xmas. As Stephen Jones we were treated with Christmas: The Original Soundtrack (too late for last year’s list) and A Heartbreaking Album About Illness.

Top 2 Music Related Books (Read This Year)

Amy Rigby – Girl To City

John Cooper Clarke – I Wanna Be Yours (the highly recommended audiobook read by the Bard of Salford himself)

Other books I have read this year, including a fair few in Welsh, were:

Lois Arnold – Sgŵp***, Pamela Petro – Travels In An Old Tongue***, Wampus Reynolds – Way I See It**, Mick Herron – Standing By The Wall*, Dylan Thomas – Under Milk Wood**, Scott Murray – The Title**, Richard MacAndrew – Gêm Beryglus**, Mick Herron – Down Cemetary Road**, Pegi Talfryn – Cariad Pur*, Becca Brown – Gwers Mewn Cariad*, Evie King – Ashes To Admin**, JRR Tolkien – The Hobbit**, Helen Naylor – Y Llythyr**, Blake Morrison – As If***, Ewan Smith – Hen Ferchetan*, Zoe Pettinger – Croesi’r Bont*, Jacob Holm-Lupo – On Track: Blue Oyster Cult**, Mick Herron – Bad Actors**

Top 3 Music Films Seen (But Not Necessarily Released) This Year

1 Nothing Compares (Sinead O’Connor)

2 White Riot (Rock Against Racism)

3 Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Aye Live

Musical Sources Of The Year

Werra Foxma Records

Sulk Rooms – Evie (Official Soundtrack); Dohnavur Remix Project; Werra Foxma Remixes Volume One; 4T Thieves – Nomad’s Requiem; Nyorai – Harukaze; John Haughey – Flowline; Ian Boddy – Coil; Swansither – The Waken; Amongst The Pigeons – Embrace The Point Of No Return; Cognition Delay – Synapse Lapse; Yellow Belly – Spiral; Carter Takes A Train – Dronescape;

Top 5 Gigs

1 The Chills – The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 10 June

2 The Declining Winter + Epic45 – Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, 26 November

3 Kristin Hersh – Philharmonic Music Room, Liverpool, 1 October

4 Robyn Hitchcock – Philharmonic Music Room, Liverpool, 28 February

5 Dexys – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 7 September

Favourite Music Related Moments (Outside of Everything Above)

I may have mentioned this. The band I was involved in back in the late 80s released its first physicality this year, some 30 years on. You can read the full story here if you are so inclined.

You can also listen to, and buy(?!), all the tracks we released as Tom Violence / Redbrick Shithouse on Recordiau Prin (the CD has long gone, sadly)

But you can find more Tom Violence on Almost Halloween Time Records, where we still have vinyl available, housed in unique hand-painted numbered covers – explained here – and with proper musicians covering our best songs. Last year’s song of the year by Hercules Fence is now joined by Wio and Ed Nolbed as well as Jan off of Spare Snare re-editing a track too.

I also believe all the cool kids are wearing Tom Violence merch – we have very limited numbers still available here should you wish to join them.

Please help support all the wonderful musicians mentioned in the lists above by searching out their records, CDs, tapes and downloads and BUYING THEM!!!

Previous end of year podcasts: