Kicker of Elves’ Favourite Things from 2022

As it is definitely still tradition, let’s start 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 – and, well, it’s not every year that a song you co-wrote 34 years ago gets covered by, as Chorizo Garbanzo correctly points out on the podcast, not only a proper musician, but a “rock star”.

Good grief, it’s Hercules Fence!!

(If you’re so inclined, you can hear the original on this podcast, about 25 minutes in.)

Top 25 Albums

1 Simon Love – Love, Sex And Death, Etc

We wizards fucking love Simon Fucking Love, and this might just be his best record yet. Combining brilliant storytelling with a suitably cynical view of the world, and yet somehow remaining life affirming, these songs tick all our boxes, including the one marked ‘gratuitous swearing’. A clear winner of this year’s Kicker. Llongyfarchiadau, Simon!!

2 The Vat Egg Imposition – Shop Tones

3 Telefís – a hAon / a Dó

4 Robyn Hitchcock– Shufflemania

5 Yard Act – The Overload

6 Dumb – Pray 4 Tomorrow

7 Half Man Half Biscuit – The Voltarol Years

8 The Cool Greenhouse – Sod’s Toastie

9 The Humdrum Express – Forward Defensive

10 Rodney Cromwell – Memory Box

11 Guided By Voices – Crystal Nuns Cathedral / Tremblers And Goggles By Rank

12 Royal Chant – Anyways And Also Sorry

13 The Bug Club – Green Dream in F#

14 Elaine Howley – The Distance Between Heart And Mouth

15 Cassels – Gut Feeling

16 Martha – Please Don’t Take Me Back

17 New North Wales – Minor Birds

18 Good Grief – Shake Your Faith

19 Aldous Harding – Warm Chris

20 Personal Trainer – Big Love Blanket

21 Birds In The Brickwork – Recovery

22 Fieldhead – Engine Idling, Around 5am

23 The Cleaners From Venus – That London

24 Helen Love – This Is My World

25 Pixy Jones – Bits N Bobs

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

Apta – Echoes; The Balloonist – The Balloonist; Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There; The Burning Hell – Garbage Island; Bill Callahan – YTI⅃AƎЯ; Courting – Guitar Music; Death Of The Neighbourhood – Death Of The Neighbourhood 3; Deliluh – Fault Lines; The Delines – The Sea Drift; Derrero – Curvy Lines; Fragile X – Human Condition; Held By Trees – Solace; Human Concept – The Machine That Made Eternity; Joseph Airport – Vector 23; Love, Burns – It Should Have Been Tomorrow; Stephen Mallinder – Tick Tick Tick; Kevin Morby – This Is A Photograph; The Nightingales – The Last Laugh; Red Setter – Water Feature; The Reds, Pinks & Purples – Summer At Land’s End; Graham Repulski – Zero Shred Forty; The Smile – A Light For Attracting Attention; Luke Steele – Listen To The Water; Test Card – Patterns; Working Men’s Club – Fear Fear

Top 5 Compilations

1 Keep It In Motion: A Tribute To Guided By Voices, Circa 20 Something And 12 (Silly Moo Records)

I mean, these songs are great, aren’t they? Here given a fresh take from a load of excellent bands form all over the globe (probably just the UK and US, tbf – TTW Accuracy Ed). If I had to choose a favourite, I would have to go with the stellar efforts from Sleepy Kitty and bLUSH, but, frankly, it’s all great.

2 Participation: Volume 1 (Castles In Space)

3 Give Us A Clue – 10 Years Of Clue Records

4 Un-Scene! Post-Punk Birmingham 1978-1982 (Easy Action)

5 Signals, Wires & Amplifiers 2 (Next Phase : Normal Records)

Top 5 EPs

1 The Declining Winter – I Remember

The title track opens up my disc of favourite instrumentals despite not being an instrumental. This is a moving collection of songs that simultaneously makes me feel happy and sad.

2 Helpful People – Broken Blossom Threats

3 Nosdam + Rayon – From Nowhere To North

4 Ffion – The Way Of Birds And Their Voyage Into Radiance

5 Pigbaby – Palindromes

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

1 Jenny Mae – Singles & Unreleased Tracks 1989-2017

Put together by her friend Bela Koe-Krompecher, these songs just underline what a lost talent Jenny Mae really is. Having read Bela’s ‘book ‘Love, Death & Photosynthesis’ last year, it’s clear she really didn’t have a clue how great she was. You just need to listen to this collection to see for yourself.

2 Guided By Voices – Scalping the Guru

3 Dexys Midnight Runners – Too Rye Ay (As It Could Have Sounded)

4 Helen Love – Songs From Under The Bed Vol 2

5 Babybird – King Of Nothing

Top 5 Live Albums

1 Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan – Live at Fox Fest

The standout set for me from a great day of electronic music (see below), and all done with such huge hands!

2 Craven Faults – Live Works

3 Yard Act – Use Your Nut, It’s YA For Yard Act

4 Black Country, New Road – Live From The Queen Elizabeth Hall

5 Neil Young – Citizen Kane Jr. Blues (Live At The Bottom Line)

The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup

Guided By Voices – Devil Between My Toes (reissue on grey/clear);Crystal Nuns Cathedral; Tremblers And Goggles By Rank; Scalping the Guru (EP comp);Alex Bell (7”); Thank You Very Much For Absolutely Nothing (DVD)

Robert Pollard – Our Gaze

Two tribute albums: Keep It In Motion: A Tribute To Guided By Voices Circa 20 Something And 12 (Silly Moo Records) – curated by Bunnygrunt’s Matt Harnish (see elsewhere) and All Good Kids – A Tribute To Guided By Voices (Phonophore Records)

And from the wider GbV family, we had the always rocked to the max, Mitch Mitchell’s Terrifying Experience – Appalachian Tontine and the very Circus Devils sounding Moonchy & Tobias – Golem

Top 2 Books (Read This Year)

One a musician’s autobiography, the other a novel by a musician. Both incredible tales.

Vashti Bunyan – Wayward: Just Another Life To Live and James Yorkston – The Book Of The Gaels

Other books I have read this year:

Matt Berenson – Secret Stars: The Greatest Underdogs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era ***; James Bowen – A Street Cat Named Bob *; Anthony Clavane – Moving The Goalposts ***; Ron Ferguson – Black Diamonds & The Blue Brazil ***; David Grossman – A Horse Walks Into A Bar **; Sarah Hall – The Carhullan Army ***; Helen O’Hara – What’s She Like ***; Robert Harris – The Second Sleep **; Phil Hay – And It Was Beautiful ***; Greg Healey – Not In Front Of The Children **; Mick Herron – Real Tigers **; Mick Herron – Spook Street ***; Mick Herron – London Rules ***; Mick Herron – Joe Country ***; Mick Herron – Slough House ***; Mick Herron – The Drop & The List **; Mick Herron – The Catch **; Charlie Hill – I Don’t Want To Go To The Taj Mahal **; Salim Lamrani – Marcelo Bielsa *; Alan Lane – The Club On The Edge Of Town ***; Bob Mortimer – The Satsuma Complex **; James Norman – Micro Record Label **; George P Pelecanos – A Firing Offence ***; Stephen Rule – Welsh And I **; Richard Shepherd – Unnatural Causes ***; Willy Vlautin – The Motel Life ***; Willy Vlautin – The Free ***; Ben Wardle – Mark Hollis: A Perfect Silence ***; Martyn Ware – Electronically Yours ***

Top 5 Music Films Seen (But Not Necessarily Released) This Year

1 This Film Should Not Exist (Country Teasers, Datblygu, The Oblivians, The Rebel)

So good, I have now watched it three times. Diolch yn fawr, Gisella!

2 Guided By Voices – Thank You Very Much For Absolutely Nothing

3 Made In Sheffield: The Human League, Heaven 17, ABC, Cabaret Voltaire, Pulp

4 Martin Newell – The Golden Afternoon

5 Who Killed The KLF

The Stephen Jones One Man Domination Of Record Shelf Space Award

Just the 262 tracks released by Stephen Jones this year under various guises:

Babybird – Kids Gun / Pop Gun / A Selfie Cam EP / Selfie Cam / Shepherds Bush, 09.03.19/ I Don’t Want To Be In Love, But I Am / Life, The Brutal Monster, And How To Defeat It / Influencer / King Of Nothing (vinyl)

Baby Bird – Good Shave

Stephen Jones – My Favourite Songs/ The Soundtrack Of A Face / The Happiest People I Know Are Blind To The Concept Of Existence

Death Of The Neighbourhood – Death Of The Neighbourhood 3

Black Reindeer – Truss

Musical Sources Of The Year

Castles In Space

Subscription Library: Endangered Species 1998; Nurse Predator – Music For Low Luxury; Ffion – The Way of Birds and Their Voyage Into Radiance; Twilight Sequence – Looking At Lifeforms (7”); Salvatore Mercatante – Mysteries And Prophecies Of The Strega; Kieran Mahon – Eternal Return (dl); DJ Carlos – Castles in Space Vinyl Mix; Yves Malone – Upon Chrome Skies Rides A Pale Horse; Everyday Dust – Deadham Ridge; Wealdham – Complex Systems; Luke Requena – Mirror Stage;Kösmonaut – Transgressive Transmissions;Soulless Party – Macrocosmic Thinking; v/a – Participation Volume 1; Concretism – The Concretism Archive: Volume 2; Rieux – The Gestalt Manifesto;The British Stereo Collective – Tomorrow The Stars; Monochrome Echo – The City And The Stars.

Werra Foxma Records

Subscription: Chris Prine – Glacier Locked; Glinca – The Mould; Fields Of Few – Calm Before The Norm; Onepointwo – Atlantis; The Metamorph – Exploded View; Synthetic Villains – Through A Crack Of Light; Oceanographer – Modern Prophecies; Letters From Mouse – Engrams; v/a – One Shot; Gribbles – Digressions; WFR Dark (comp);Autumna – This Isn’t The Love You Promised; Mike K Smith – Landfill

The Wedding Present – 24 Songs (Monthly Singles)

We Should Be Together; I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You; Go Go Go; Monochrome; X Marks The Spot; Once Bitten; We Interrupt Our Programme; Each Time You Open Your Eyes; We All Came From The Sea; Astronomic; Science Fiction;

Optic Nerve 7”s 4.0:

The Bluebells – Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool; The Suede Crocodiles – Stop The Rain; Josef K – Sorry For Laughing; Article 58 – Event To Come; The Monochrome Set – The Jet Set Junta; The Wild Swans – Revolutionary Spirit; Black – Human Features; The Wake – On Our Honeymoon; The Times – I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape; Dolly Mixture – Everything And More; The Chefs – 24 Hours; The Avocados – I Never Knew

Top 3 Gigs

To be fair, the only 3 gigs I went to. And one was online. This is what happens when your knees go, kids, never play cricket!!

1 Spare Snare – The Hug and Pint, Glasgow, 19 September

2 Hap & Damwain – Victoria Hall, Lampeter, 4 June

3 FoxFest livestream festival, 21st May 2022:

Scanner, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, Everyday Dust, Sulk Rooms, Cholly, Dohnavùr, Faex Optim, Letters From Mouse, Mike K Smith, Apta, Bendu, Eonlake

Favourite Music Related Moments (Outside of Everything Above)

As well as being covered (see above), my old band Tom Violence were also included on the Castles In Space – Participation Volume 1 compilation made available to subscribers (see above, but further down). However, perhaps the most exciting musical development came in form of long-time hero and prolificacy’s proliferator supreme, Stephen Jones, aka Babybird, who went and wrote a song about me and my son. I can’t listen to it without crying, but you might be able to:

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: