With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

Mayhem’s Top 50 Albums Of 2025 (Part 5) – The Final Countdown! December 20, 2025


The revelation of Mayhem’s Top 50 Albums Of 2025 is now nearing the top. In past years it has only ever been a top 20, but it was hard to whittle the original list of 60 down to 20, so we kept 50 of them! So far we have given you parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 which cover positions 11 through to 50. Now we reveal the numbers from 1 to 10 in the final instalment, the top 10 or part 5.

Have your favourite albums made the Mayhem cut? Check out the list below and check out parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. (Just click on the numbers). There is, as promised, a 50 song play list, bringing you nearly three hours of great sounds (check below)! For information the whole top 50 is printed below as well. Here comes the top ten!

1 Service Station At The End Of The Universe – Antony Szmierek – “Perfect spoken word poetry set against sublime beats, like the bastard northern son of Mike Skinner”
2 Der Traum Über Alles – Avalanche Party“Without a doubt the finest British band of their generation. I am gutted that they decided to call it a day”
3 More – Pulp“A flawless return to form from one of Sheffield’s finest bands”
4 Panic Shack – Panic Shack – “Personal tales of truth and life from a superb band”
5 Rave Immortal – ALT BLK ERA“A musical phenomenon that gets better with every release!”
6 black british music – Jim Legxacy – “Can anyone combine rap, R&B and electro pop better than Jim Legxacy? Probably not!”
7 Reflecting Light And Causing Chaos – Dead Rat Society“Perhaps a little short, but this is a genuine example of an album that is most definitely all killer no filler“.
8 Suspects – The Dead Zoo“A band that is standing on the threshold of true greatness”
9 Never Enough – Turnstile“Who can write a hook-laden chorus better than this lot?
10 Who Let The Dogs Out – Lambrini Girls“Perfect punk energy switched up to 11”

THE FULL TOP 50

1 Service Station At The End Of The Universe – Antony Szmierek
2 Der Traum Über Alles – Avalanche Party
3 More – Pulp
4 Panic Shack – Panic Shack
5 Rave Immortal – ALT BLK ERA
6 black british music – Jim Legxacy
7 Reflecting Light And Causing Chaos – Dead Rat Society
8 Suspects – The Dead Zoo
9 Never Enough – Turnstile
10 Who Let The Dogs Out – Lambrini Girls
11 Cut & Rewind – Say She She
12 West End Girl – Lily Allen
13 Parasites & Butterflies – Nova Twins
14 Bin Juice – The Lovely Eggs
15 The Clearing – Wolf Alice
16 Lotus – Little Simz
17 MAD! – Sparks
18 Euro-Country – CMAT
19 Pillow Talk – Party Nails
20 Antidepressants – Suede
21 The Passionate Ones – Nourished By Time
22 Can’t Lose My (Soul) – Annie and the Caldwells
23 Showbiz! – MIKE
24 Who Is The Sky? – David Byrne
25 Getting Killed – Geese
26 YHWH Nailgun – 45 Pounds
27 Lux – ROSALÍA
28 Golliwog – Billy Woods
29 Only Dust Remains – Backxwash
30 I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me – Lorna Shore
31 A Paradise In The Hold – Yazz Ahmed
32 Essex Honey – Blood Orange
33 EUSEXUA – FKA Twigs
34 DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS – Bad Bunny
35 Addison – Addison Rae
36 THE BPM – Sudan Archives
37 Like A Ribbon – John Glacier
38 That’s Showbiz Baby! – JADE
39 The Bad Fire – Mogwai
40 A Complicated Woman – Self Esteem
41 The Sky, the Earth & All Between – Architects
42 Music Can Hear Us – DJ Koze
43 The Collapse Of Everything – Adrian Sherwood
44 Sad And Beautiful World – Mavis Staples
45 Metalhorse – Billy Nomates
46 A Fine African Man – Knucks
47 Faux Animaux – Blue Violet
48 Lost In Good Intentions – Fishing 4 Compliments
49 Dreaming In Stereo – Jellybricks
50 Naked Truth – Autumn Dawn Leader

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The Mayhem Charts – February 2025 March 12, 2025


Here is the Mayhem chart for February 2025. Regular readers know the chart is based on my streaming listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. After a slight blip last month my taste in music remains 99% 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 Gene, Roy Wood and Kate Bush. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for January and they are Liz Davinci, Not Now Norman and Kindelan. After being in the chart for months Delilah Bon dropped out last month, but she returned in February at number 9 in the artist chart.

An artist who featured in our latest Mayhem Virgins post, abs, sits at number 10. Top of the artist chart for February is a great favourite here at Mayhem Towers and a band we have championed for a long while. It is the wonderfully original and uber talented Jellybricks. Only one artist in the artist chart remains from last month and that is herorangecoat. Sitting at number two in the artist chart is my favourite living band, Avalanche Party. They are one of two artists to appear in the artist chart and the song chart. The other is the Last Of The Fallen Angels. Kindelan was number one in the song chart last month. She stayed in the chart for February, dropping to number 5. Push Puppets hit the top of the song chart with the stunning track “All Together On 3”. So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the Spotify link below to listen to the famous (or infamous) five! Nearly twenty minutes of great tunes!

Mayhem Artist Chart February 2025

1 Jellybricks
2 Avalanche Party
3 Antony Szmierek
4 Bowling For Soup
5 Rumer
6 The Last Of The Fallen Angels
7 Kendrick Lamar
8 Herorangecoat
9 Delilah Bon
10 abs

Mayhem Song Chart February 2025

1 All Together On 3 – Push Puppets
2 John Coltrane’s Moscow Skyscraper – Avalanche Party
3 BLOW – Kety Fusco
4 Amsterdam Flight – The Last Of The Fallen Angels
5 Drowning The Killer – Kindelan

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‘Der Traum Über Alles’ – Avalanche Party February 3, 2025


As a friend of mine once said, “there ain’t no party like an Avalanche Party” (thank you Mr. P) and now it is time for another huge party with the AP boys. Their sophomore album is upon us, well it will be this Friday. It is called ‘Der Traum Über Alles’ which I believe translates to “the dream above all”. Their debut album hit the world in 2019 and they toured like fuck until that big disease with a little name (to paraphrase Prince) stopped them. When the world began crawling out of that bad Covid bubble they hit the road again. This time across Europe in support of …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. Eventually the band found themselves in the Joshua Tree National Park in California at Rancho De La Luna studio in 2022 to record their new album. The record was engineered and produced by Dave Catching who has previously worked with Queens Of The Stone Age, Iggy Pop and the Arctic Monkeys.

The album opens with the towering (no pun intended) “John Coltrane’s Moscow Skyscraper”. the song starts in an almost chilled, subdued way and then transforms into an absolute monster as it moves to a mountainous, manic, maniacal conclusion. This is 100% psych-metal with a slight hint of LCD Sound System, but much, much darker. Jordan’s voice sounds like it might be careering up from the depths of hell and the sound might be the band smashing Satan into tiny pieces. Next up it is “Nureyev Said It Best”. This is a humongous tune. It has dance, it has rock, it has psych, it has funk and so much more. It kicks off with mountainous drumming from Kane which seems to be influenced by native American and African Burundi drums. This band sounds like no other right now, Jordan’s vocal take here is perhaps his best yet. Jared’s guitar work feels like it has travelled here from the 1970s and he has then turned it into a 21st Century master class in axe-manship. The whole track is cinematic in scope and it rocks like an absolute bastard. “No Neutral” is classic Avalanche Party and I can see this becoming a regular in their live set. The drums are thunderous and the warped psych guitar and keys give the track a depth that would hit the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

With “Shake The Slack” the band have uncovered their talent for dirty garage blues. It has a punky psychedelic dance edge. This chorus will rock the fuck out of every venue they play this year and many years after! The metronomic drum beat and languid bass and guitar that opens “Ecstasy” is hypnotic and Jordan’s vocal makes the song sound like U2, and I mean that in a good way, like back when U2 were fucking good. The first single to be released from the album was “Serious Dance Music”. You probably wouldn’t play this song at a work event! I sense an Amazing Snakeheads influence in this fast-paced, frenzied, frenetic, funky, feral, fest of a song. The band all seem to be in top form, especially Kane’s drumming. The music on “The Noise Between Us” is frantic and Jordan’s vocal is urgent and emotional. It has an 80s dark rock feel that borders into goth territory. It slows briefly about two thirds of the way in and then has a magnificent long fade with some simple but perfect keys from Glen. This is one of my favourite tracks in this collection.

Joe’s bass feels ready to punch the fuck out of you when it opens glam blues stomper “Slinky”. The brass has a kind of T. Rex vibe and the counterpoint vocal adds a layer of dark weirdness. The 60s psych organ sound and freak out saxophone bursts make this one really stand out. “Chainz” opens with a series of explosive sounds that might make it a rock ‘n’ roll equivalent of Tchaikovsky’s ‘1812 Overture’. But then it moves into a slow groove which would be a perfect soundtrack to one of the creepier scenes in a Wes Craven horror film. The band show their punk and post punk credentials on “Target”. With maybe a bit of added Tin Machine. This is another banger that I believe will be a staple of the band’s live set. The album closes with “Collateral Damage”, a danceable slice of weird twisted pop. It has a deeply dark stygian funk underpinning it through bass and drums that feel like they emanate from somewhere on Dante’s journey below. The keyboard hooks mesmerise while the guitar riffs overpower the listener with ease. Jordan’s vocal is magnificent. The track takes some of the finest tranches of alternative 80s rock and early goth and repurposes them into a shape that perfectly fits the 21st century.

I know it is only February, but Avalanche Party have set the bar for album of the year and they have set it higher than the peak of Sagarmatha! There is no sophomore slump for these boys. ‘Der Traum Über Alles’ is even better than their debut album ’24 Carat Diamond Trephine’. I will be playing the hell out of this album. Especially after my hand made coloured vinyl version arrives!

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Wow That’s What I Call Mayhem – Volume 5 January 3, 2025


I send my continued humble apologies to the creators of the iconic NOW series. Their compilations began in 1983. I posted and compiled the first WOW That’s What I Call Mayhem collection back in March 2024. Volumes 2, 3 and 4 followed in August and September. So you must be ready for volume 5, right? I certainly hope so, because here it is! This includes the last 20 singles we reviewed in 2024 in another maniacal eclectic playlist for your listening pleasure! With nearly 70 minutes of music, click the Spotify link below and lose yourself in the music!

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The Mayhem Charts – December 2024 January 1, 2025


Here is the Mayhem chart for December 2024. Regular readers know the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits. These are gathered over the last month by obscurify.com. Apparently, my tastes have fallen by four points to 92% more obscure than the rest of the UK! It must be all the Christmas standards I have listened to last month. Incidentally no Christmas songs are included in the chart. But the most popular Chrimbo tune was Mr. Strange with “Santa Clause Hates The Poor”. 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, Cat Stevens and Wham! Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to for November: Liz Davinci, Sleuth Gang and Carol Hodge. Carol also appears in the artist chart and the song chart. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including three that were in the top ten last month. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds went up from number 2 to number 1. Herorangecoat is staying at number 7. Delilah Bon is staying at number 9. Delilah has been in the artist charts now for 13 months! Two artists appear in both lists for December: Delilah Bon and Carol Hodge. The number one song comes from HANDSHAKE IN SPACE. 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 December 2024

1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2 Carol Hodge
3 Cassyette
4 Taylor Swift
5 Lana Del Ray
6 Du Blonde
7 HerOrangeCoat
8 Mannequin Pussy
9 Delilah Bon
10 Bobbie Dazzle

Mayhem Song Chart December 2024

1 Let’s Control It – HANDSHAKE IN SPACE
2 Not The President – Delilah Bon
3 Shake The Slack – Avalanche Party
4 Hunt You Down – ALT BLK ERA
5 Manoeuvres – Carol Hodge

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Mayhem’s Singles Round Up Number One 2024 December 29, 2024


This is the first, and last, singles round up for 2024. We have reviewed many other singles this year, but all individually. This post draws together five of the best that we missed in the run up to Chrimbo!

“Shake The Slack” – Avalanche Party – some dirty garage blues. It has a punky psychedelic dance edge. This music comes from the finest band on the planet. This chorus will rock the fuck out of every venue they play next year!

“Hunt You Down” – ALT BLK ERA – this starts off with a deliciously dark vibe. It builds into something that would make Depeche Mode jealous. Every time I say that a new track from ALT BLK ERA is their best, they take it as a challenge. They push themselves to create something even better. This is their best yet and the album will be a contender for album of the year next year. I would love to hear a dance remix of “Hunt You Down”. The “hunt you down” chant towards the end of the track is intoxicating

“Not The President” – Delilah Bon – When Delilah is angry, she is a force of nature. While musically this is quite acoustic and almost soft, the lyrics are aimed at the orange moron in the USA. Vocally it is reminiscent of Pink but within even more passion! When Delilah stands up for the downtrodden, persecuted and ignored the world is a better place. Be more Delilah!

“Let’s control it” – HANDSHAKE IN SPACE – a truly uplifting electronic dance anthem. This is 21st Century disco in it’s most perfect form.

“Burning Up” – Blair Gilmour – Blair is reminiscent of Sam Fender on steroids. This song is a mountainous banger of a tune. I was hooked very early on. Now, I am so excited for whatever comes next from this extremely talented Scottish artist.

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Mayhem’s Top Songs Of 2024 December 28, 2024


A couple of weeks ago you will have read all about Mayhem’s Top 20 albums of 2024. Well here are our top 10 songs of 2024. What were your favourite songs this year? Some of these artists also featured in the top 20 albums list too.

1 Life’s A Fucking Miracle – James
2 Maverick – Delilah Bon
3 My Drummer’s Girlfriend – ALT BLK ERA
4 Two Years This May – Molly Rymer
5 Ipecac – Cassyette
6 Millions Of Heartbeats – Kate Nash
7 I Really Fucked It Up – girli
8 Best Junkie You Adore – Jazmin Bean
9 Age Of Stupid – Jellybricks
10 Collateral Damage – Avalanche Party

You can find them all on a playlist below too 🙂

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Live At Leeds In The City – Saturday 16th November 2024 November 25, 2024


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!)

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National Album Day 2024 October 19, 2024


I must confess that National Album Day, which has been running for 7 years, has kind of passed me by. I am much more keen on Record Store Day. It feels like just a chance for the major labels to reissue loads of back catalogue under the guise of a special day. Yes, I know there is an element of that on Record Store Day. But RSD is targetted at independent record stores, not the likes of HMV. On top of that releases are generally quite limited which makes the whole day more interesting in my opinion. It seems that not too many independent labels are involved in National Album Day compared to RSD. The theme of the day today, 19th October is British Groups.

Back in 2019, I celebrated the tenth anniversary of With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, and part of that celebration was a list of my top ten favourite albums. I have extended that to a top 25 and ignored the British Groups theme (although my list does include 8 British Groups). These are simply my favourite albums of all time! What are yours?

1 Live At The Lyceum 1975 – Bob Marley and the Wailers – If I had a time machine I would go back to 1975 and be there for this gig. Probably the finest live album ever.
2 Diamond Dogs – David Bowie – My favourite Bowie album changes depending on my mood, but more often than not it is the dystopian tale of Halloween Jack and Hunger City
3 Dog Man Star – Suede – I loved Suede’s first album but this took them to a whole new level. Were they Britpop? If so then they were one of the best Britpop acts by far.
4 The Kick Inside – Kate Bush – Choosing the best Catherine Bush album is very difficult, but I go back to this one regularly.
5 OK Computer – Radiohead – There are still some people out there who don’t like, or maybe don’t get, Radiohead. Why the fuck not? This LP is a work of genius.
6 What’s Going On? – Marvin Gaye – Probably the best protest and message album in history and one which is sadly still very pertinent today
7 Delilah Bon – Delilah Bon – possibly the finest debut album of the century so far
8 The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill – is a great modern R&B record which makes Beyonce look like an amateur
9 The White Room – KLF – dance, trance, chill, weirdness. This has everything. But they should have paid PP Arnold!
10 24 Carat Diamond Trephine – Avalanche Party – Without a doubt, the greatest living UK band right now
11 Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboy – Elton John – In my opinion this autobiographical masterpiece is easily the greatest album Reg Dwight ever made
12 Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – How can anyone put so much emotion, empathy and sadness in a small collection of songs? I have no idea but Nick Cave certainly achieved it with this album.
13 Abbey Road – Beatles – I love many albums from the Fab Four, but this is the one I always come back to.
14 Never Mind The Bollocks – Sex Pistols – An incendiary début from one of the best punk bands ever. What might have happened if they had stayed together? Who knows but an album like this as your legacy is a great thing!
15 Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too – New Radicals – There is not a track I would skip on this album. The band is effectively the genius that is Gregg Alexander who wrote and produced all the songs.
16 Back To Black – Amy Winehouse – stunning voice, sensational performance, what a sad loss to the world
17 Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morrisette – A wonderful album with not a duff track in sight. She never surpassed this, but how can you beat perfect?
18 Ramones – Ramones – The high point and possibly the birth of punk, certainly in the USA
19 Songs In The Key Of Life – Stevie Wonder – So good I can forgive him for that bloody awful “I Just Called To Say I Love You”
20 Quadrohphenia – The Who – An absolute opus which I believe knocks the pants off Tommy
21 London Calling – The Clash – The album that showed they were not just a punk band
22 Sign O’ The Times – Prince – Forget Purple Rain. This was Prince’s Mona Lisa
23 The Lexicon Of Love – ABC – I often feel that music was really overproduced in the 80s. But this is sublime
24 Grace – Jeff Buckley – another great talent we lost too young. This is a monumental magnum opus
25 My Merry Go Round – Johnny Nash – This man, for me, has the most beautiful voice that I have ever heard in my life. This album from 1973 has remained among my favourite albums since its release.

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“John Coltrane’s Moscow Skyscraper” – Avalanche Party October 18, 2024


The new Avalanche Party song has arrived and as with all recent singles, it makes me think that their long-awaited sophomore album could easily become the album of the year. It is called “John Coltrane’s Moscow Skyscraper”. It starts in an almost chilled, subdued way and then transforms into an absolute monster as it moves to a mountainous, manic, maniacal conclusion. This is 100% psych-metal with a slight hint of LCD Sound System, but much, much darker. Jordan’s voice sounds like it might be careering up from the depths of hell and the sound might be the band smashing Satan into tiny pieces. Probably the best Avalanche Party single this year, and probably one of their best ever too. The video is spectacular too.

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