Here it is, we are finally ready to reveal Mayhem’s Top 20 Albums Of 2024. This is part 1 which covers positions 11 through to 20. Have your favourite albums made the Mayhem cut? Check out the list below and check out part two which will reveal the top 10 very soon! I had the list almost complete and then just to make life difficult Not Now Norman and Carol Hodge both released new albums and they appear at number 16 and 20 respectively. Are you looking forward to part 2? There will be a 20 song play list when Part 2 arrives!
11 Cartoon Darkness – Amyl and the Sniffers – Perfectly crafted cartoon punk. 12 What Now – Brittany Howard – What a fucking voice! 13 POST HUMAN: NeX Gen – Bring Me The Horizon – They have evolved into something very special! 14 Where’s My Utopia? – Yard Act – A stunning sophomore release. 15 The Past is Still Alive – Hurray For The Riff Raff – This captures the simplistic beauty of great music! 16 Go HARD or Go HOME – Not Now Norman – They went very hard and we didn’t go home! 17 EELS TIME! – Eels – Mr E once again produces a sublime collection. 18 66 – Paul Weller – He is my age and can still turn out a great album, unlike me! 19 Another Nice Mess – Curtis Eller’s American Circus – A gorgeous slice of American music. 20 EffortLess InSecurity – Carol Hodge – The Hodge pulls off yet another towering album.
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On December 7th 2015, just a few weeks before his death, David Bowie made his last public appearance when he attended the opening night of the Lazarus musical production at the New York Theatre Workshop in Manhattan. Tickets to the entire run of the musical (which ran until 20th Jan 2016), sold out within hours of being made available. I was lucky enough to see the musical, starring Michael C Hall when it was performed for a few weeks in a pop up theatre in Kings Cross in London in 2016.
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Here is the Mayhem chart for November 2024. Regular and constant readers know that the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits over the last month gathered by obscurify.com. Apparently, my tastes have fallen one point to 96% more obscure than the rest of the UK! The chart remains contemporary-ish (but if a classic artist releases something new they might feature in the chart). However, last month’s top three “Legacy” artists were David Bowie, U2 and the Four Tops. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for November: Liz Davinci, Vaquelin, and Sleuth Gang. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including two that were in the top ten last month; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Up from number 10 to number 2), and Delilah Bon (falling from number 8 to number 9). Delilah has been in the artist charts now for a whole year! Three artists appear in both lists for November: ALT BLK ERA, Joshua Idehan and the artist chart toppers Sleuth Gang. The number one song is “Age Of Stupid” by the Jellybricks. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five!
Mayhem Artist Chart November 2024
1 Sleuth Gang 2 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 3 Joshua Idehen 4 Stress Dolls 5 Blue Violet 6 ALT BLK ERA 7 HerOrangeCoat 8 tiLLie 9 Delilah Bon 10 Not Now Norman
Mayhem Song Chart November 2024
1 Age Of Stupid – Jellybricks 2 Falling – Apollo Junction 3 Pity Party – Sleuth Gang 4 My Drummer’s Girlfriend – ALT BLK ERA (featuring Wheatus) 5 Mum Does The Washing – Joshua Idehan
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Bob Marley brings together the two competing political candidates Michael Manley and Edward Seaga at the Smile Jamaica show two days after the attempt on his life. Manley won the election on 15th December 1976.
At 8:30 pm on the 3rd of December 1976 an assassination attempt was made on Bob Marley when seven gunmen burst into his home at 56 Hope Road, Kingston, Jamaica injuring Marley his wife Rita and manager Don Taylor, the attack was believed to be politically motivated. Current conspiracy theories suggest that the CIA might have been involved. It took place two days before Marley was to stage a concert (Smile Jamaica) in an attempt to quell recent outbreaks of politically related violence. Politicians from across the political spectrum hoped to capitalise on Marley’s support. Thankfully he survived, but sadly cancer took him a few years later in 1981.
The whole of the Smile Jamaica show. Film quality is poor, but the sound is ok
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This is the fifth issue in our fun newish series where we share the latest post with the most views for a given month and the archive post with the most views. This one covers November 2024. The biggest read post was my review of “Age Of Stupid” by the Jellybricks posted on 10th November. The most-read archive post was “Billy liked to peel the labels from his bottle of Bud”, the fourth ever post on this blog, from way back in February 2009. It was an on this day trivia post, just like much of my early stuff and it featured the A Team, Bobby Boris Pickett, Boy George, Captain Pugwash, Ian Dury, Jay Z, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow (obviously given the snippet of lyrics in the post title), and the Smiths. I would like to think that my writing has improved, but I am not so sure!
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After teasing us with some sublime tracks over the last few months HerOrangeCoat has now released those songs along with a couple of new ones to form her 5-track EP ‘Ballads For This Age’. It kicks off with “Ballad 1 (Sorry)” a toweringly, transcendent and heavenly song. The emotion in her voice and the sparseness of the instruments made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, not in fear, but in awe of such a gorgeous piece of music. Apparently, the song is not a cry for help, but rather a resolute, resigned defeat. It speaks to the vast mental health emergency, whilst detailing HerOrangeCoat’s own personal journey with anxiety. Next comes “Ballad 2 (Skin Off My Back)”. It is a divinely dark slice of modern folk which feels like a deeply personal song and Georgia delivers it with controlled emotion and finesse. This is a majestic and heavenly tune.
“Ballad 3 (Jamaica ’59)”, is my current favourite. It flows like a river enriched with Joni Mitchell’s essence. The music is understated, but excellent, and Georgia’s voice is spectacular and perfect. It has folk, jazz, and soft rock entwined throughout. Incidentally “Ballad 1 (Sorry)” and “Ballad 2 (Skin Off My Back)” made it into the Mayhem song chart hitting number 2 and number 1 respectively. HerOrangeCoat once again proves that she is not afraid to use the gaps between notes in the dark, mysterious “Ballad 4 (Second Nature)”. The simplicity draws you deep inside the song and then unveils its mesmerising complexity. The EP ends with a song that doesn’t have the Ballad prefix. It is, appropriately, entitled “Postscript” and the simple and beautiful harp sound carries you into an ethereal Valhalla of music. Georgia’s voice and backing vocal is emotional, soulful and glorious. This is a stunning EP and one which I will be playing often. You need this music in your life.
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#It is hard for me to believe that Echobelly formed 32 years ago, how can that be? How are the 90s more than 30 years ago? Anyway enough ramblings from this old bloke, earlier this week I had the privilege of witnessing Echobelly playing live for the first time since I saw them at the Old Trout in Windsor back in April 1994. That doesn’t account for a number of times I saw them at festivals though. Are they still good? You will have to read on to find out, first I need to give you the low down on the rather excellent support band Blue Violet.
Blue Violet – Photo taken by me using my very cheap android phone
Blue Violet released their debut album ‘Late Night Calls’ in 2022 and their sophomore release, ‘Faux Animaux’ is scheduled for early in 2025. They have been championed by some influential radio stations including BBC 6 Music whose Steve Lamacq described them as “a cocktail of Iain Banks and Jane Austen”. I can see where Steve was coming from having witnessed Blue Violet for the first time. If I was remaining on a literary comparison theme I might add Douglas Coupland. Their music has a dark and mysterious pop rock style and is loaded with great hooks. Vocally Sarah McGrigor and Sam Gotley where on top form in York. The material from the first album has a slightly electro feel, but they add a rockier element to it on stage. There were, I think, three songs from their debut album in the set; “Undercover”, Hard Rain” and “Asylum”. The stand out of those older songs was “Hard Rain” for me. one of their 2024 singles, “Imagine Me” seems like a stalking song and has some synth riffs that evoke the Sisters Of Mercy in a pop goth style or even Kylie applying loads of Kohl eye makeup and going full on Goth-Kylie. The highlight of a set full of peaks was probably current single “Fire”. Although I loved “Human After All” so much I bought the t-shirt! The band were incredibly tight and Sarah is a great performer who seems to love engaging with the crowd, she does that like she was born to it. I think the new album could be a classy collection of songs and having seen Blue Violet live and frankly, on fire, I am looking forward to new music from them.
Photo by Eddie P – The man who puts the Eddie into Vinyl Eddie!
Finally it was time for Echobelly, let me say up front that Sonya Madan has aged far better than I have, does she have a Dorian Gray style picture in her attic? Whether she has or not the music is the main point here and what a point it was. You could sense it was going to be a great night as soon as the opening bars for “I Can’t Imagine the World Without Me” from 1994’s debut album ‘Everyone’s Got One’. The crowd were excited for every song but the buzz went up a gear when the band hit us with “Car Fiction” four songs in. This is one of my favourite Echobelly songs and comes from their 1995 album ‘On’. The whole audience was bouncing for that and the next couple of songs. Mid set Sonya announced that the band would be taking it down a little, to be fair I needed a rest at that point. We were treated to gorgeous and perfect acoustic takes on “Insomniac” from 1994 and “Worms And Angels” from 1995. There was a huge singalong element to the set which might have peaked with the magnificent “Great Things”, what a great song that is!
Another Photo by Eddie P – The man who puts the Eddie into Vinyl Eddie!
The three song encore was immense and probably loosened the rafters on the Crescent’s roof. “King Of The Kerb” just smashed it with everyone in the band firing on all cylinders and turning everything up to 11. A little more introspection was on offer with “Giving It All” (originally a part of Glenn and Sonya’s side project Calm Of Zero) and finally we were hypnotised into total submission with “Dark Therapy”. Echobelly have been around a while and they will be around for a hell of a lot longer too. A great show!
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On 29th November 1983, some 41 years ago, ‘Now That’s What I Call Music’ was launched in the UK with a mission to anthologise the biggest chart hits of the day. The first track on the first album was the Motown cover “You Can’t Hurry Love” by Phil Collins and also contained hits like “Karma Chameleon” (Culture Club), “Red Red Wine” (UB40) and “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” (Bonnie Tyler). The series took its name from a 1930s advertising poster for Danish bacon, featuring a pig saying. “Now, That’s What I Call Music” as it listened to a chicken singing. The most successful volume to date is 1999’s Now That’s What I Call Music 44, released in 1999, which sold 2.3 million copies and is the biggest-selling compilation album ever. The latest volume was released earlier this month, ‘Now 119’!!! That is an average of nearly three per year!
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Just over a week ago I had the opportunity to cover Live At Leeds In The City 2024 for those cool, weird and wonderful folks at Soundsphere and The Modern Record click on each to read the review which was written by me with some rather excellent additional pieces from Rock Photographer Extraordinaire, John Hayhurst. Simon Pattinson, working with York Mix, joined us for the ride, and what a ride it was this year! We witnessed close to twenty bands between us. My personal favourites were Neckbreakers and Avalanche Party. Were you there? Who were your favourite acts of the day? There are some ace photographs in both of the above links all by John Hayhurst apart from an Avalanche Party pic by Lucy Joy Pembroke. (All her four fabulous Avalanche Party pics are in the collection below!)
Avalanche Party by Lucy Joy PembrokeAvalanche Party by Lucy Joy PembrokeJoe and Glen of Avalanche Party by Lucy Joy PembertonTom from the Blinders guest with Avalanche Party by Lucy Joy PembertonHungry by John HayhurstGravy by John HayhurstCasisdead by John HayhurstMarika Hackman by John HayhurstRuby Duff by John HayhurstEnglish Teacher by John Hayhurst
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It is a while since the mighty Not Now Norman have featured on these pages, but with a new album hitting the streets very soon it is that time! The album is out on 29th November and is called ‘Go HARD or Go HOME’. It kicks off with the rather strange and at times scary (well you try listening to it through your headphones in the dark) “Norminius Sanctus”. It has a dark, monastic feel that would be perfect to soundtrack the opening credits of a Hammer Horror film. The title track starts a full on metal assault with epic scale AC/ DC style riffs that support Taylor-Grace’s pitch perfect rock vocal. At times she sounds like Joan Jett on steroids with some Ozzy Osbourne vocal chords spliced into her own voice box. The current single “Feral” is next and it has a great 80s rock hair metal feel to it with some hooks that Madonna in her prime would have been incredibly envious of. “WHO I AM” is another single and it has riffs forged in rock heaven and drumming that could smash mountains and vocally this is one of my favourite tracks on the album. If you love prog style power ballads you are going to find yourself in a relationship with “Family Photo”. This will be the next single released on the same day as the album. Taylor-Grace says this about it “This track is one of the toughest I’ve written. When I was born, a relative disowned me for being a girl. I’ve heard people praise this person highly to me, saying ‘they’re still your relative’ when they’ve never deserved it. I didn’t realise how it affected me until I started writing it. It’s for all those people who have been disowned for reasons they can’t control.” I have been on this planet a long while and it baffles the hell out of me that people with these kind of opinions actually exist.
The emotion in “Mama” is palpable and Taylor produces perhaps her finest vocal performance to date. It is huge in sound and cinematic in ambition. The band prove their funky skills on “Midnight Sun” the guitar work and drumming makes you want to move. It also has an early 70s rock vibe, like Medicine Head on speed. The rock just don’t stop on this brilliant set of songs as “Mister Know It All” takes things up another gear with a stellar, rip-roaring riff rampage. Everyone knows a Mister Know It All, right? I certainly do. There is a great blues mood on “King Of A Wasted Land” which has an occasional but wonderfully haunting vocal double track from Taylor-Grace. The guitar solo toward the end of the track is one of the best on the album. I am not totally certain who this is directed at, but my take is King Charles III, or any one of the recent UK Prime Ministers. It doesn’t matter to me I despise all of them. Just when you thought an album could get no heavier this one hits you with the titanic tower of metal that is “Bad Liar”. I was transported back to early Suzi Quatro with “Why Don’t You Like Me?”, particularly the chorus refrain which I doubt I could shake from my brain even if I wanted to. The punkiest sound on the album is probably “Green Light” which evokes Motorhead playing with Girlschool, a roaring tiger of a song. I have heard many great and interesting covers before, and Not Now Norman’s take on Britney’s “Toxic” is phenomenal. It retains the pop tropes of the original but give it a hugely harder rock edge.
This sophomore album from Not Now Norman hits all the spots perfectly and scratches music itches that you never knew you had. Am I disappointed with anything about this release? Yes, that it is about to be released just when I thought I had completed my top 20 albums of the year list! Now I need to go away and have a rethink, yes this album is THAT good!
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