W/e 01/11/24 - Amyl & The Sniffers, Underworld, Pixies, AK/DK, Hard Fi

A top week - whilst not quite the highest this year it was the most popular set since the class expanded.

Congrats to Pixies who sneak into the top 10 for the year, just outside the overall top 50 – in which their previous offering Doggerel sits at #7.

Amyl just misses out on a 2024 top 20 spot but entertained most of us.

Pixies also have the TOTW for Oyster Beds.

Justin had his best week yet, Jim his equal best, yet both were behind Annette who steamed in at the end to take her second 😀.

Phil has a hat-trick of ☹️ although Erol wasn’t far ahead. We may have to introduce a “not quite so sad” face for the runner up.

Hard Fi were an enjoyable trip back to the mid noughties for most and land in our classics top 40, alongside The Prodigy and Tom Petty.

Great to have Adam’s first reviews, and we look forward to Steve’s next week.

Guy

Amyl and the Sniffers – They were excellent when we saw them and did a full run through of the new album then. This is a post-punk band that is so full of energy. Yes, it’s shouty but there is a tuneful thread running through all their songs which gives them an edge over other exponents of this sound. Jerkin and Chewing Gum offer a superb start to the album too - 8

Underworld – I wouldn’t say there’s much new here sound-wise. In fact when I heard Denver Luna I thought I was back in the 1990s listening to a remix of Born Slippy. But it’s still good quality music and an enjoyable, if long, listen. They should have stopped earlier as the second half went very weird. – 6.7

Pixies – Seems a little sedate compared to some of their classic stuff. They’ve mellowed and added a lot of slower stuff. Whilst lots of it is decent, it lacks a punch. When they speed it up and thrash it out, like on Oyster Beds, it massively improves. – 7

AK/DK – It felt like it was going to fall between two stools when the album started. It was electronic but punky and neither was great. But it really picked up and there were plenty of good tunes. Better for being a bit different – 7.4

TOTW – Techno Shinkansen - Underworld

Hard-Fi – Good pick Annette. I played this so much in the 2000’s. Loads of great tracks including Hard to Beat, Living for the Weekend and Stars of CCTV. Just nudged in under the 1 hour mark too, which made me :-). Lovely – 8.5

Andy

Amyl and the Sniffers - Starts inauspiciously (ooh, a rude word) but the endearingly shambolic punkiness combined with a solid Aussie pub rock sound wins through. Not sure they’ve progressed from their previous album but fun stuff nonetheless 7

Underworld - OK sounds if a little bit all over the shop. The main issue is they seem to have realised everyone likes Born Slippy so why not just knock out over an hour of that. Can you plagiarise yourself? 6

Pixies - At times it feels like Frank’s gone soft in his old age but then some good old Pixies sounds break through on the likes of Oyster Beds. Pretty good 7

AK/DK - Quite the mixed bag this. Occasionally alright, at times rubbish and then once in a while absolutely great 5.5

TotW - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost by AK/DK

Hard Fi - Cracking stuff this, especially considering you never thought you’d want to hear songs about life on the Reading to Waterloo line 8

Sam

Amyl and the Sniffers : Fun , spiky Oz Rock . 7.7

Underworld: odd mix of proper bangers and complete weirdness. 6.9

Pixies : they still pack a big punch . Most enjoyable:8.2

AK/DK : odd mix of clever , banging and wtf ? 6.5

TOTW plenty of contenders .. Oyster Beds by Pixies

Hard Fi : cracking first choice by Annette, really zips along with a bit of Oasis swagger . Nice one ; 8.5

Justin

Amyl and the Sniffers - good fun pop punk. 7

Underworld - no one does moody synth rave like Underworld. This gets better on every listen. 8.4

Pixies - classic Pixies. Almost feels to me like a missing album between Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. 8.5

AK/DK - I love a bit of electronic noise pollution. It's like a good electronic version of Sleaford Mods. 7.5

TOTW The Vegas Suite - Pixies

Hard-Fi - a real album of its time. An incredible out of no where debut. I played this continously at the time. The songs are all classics albeit they get very little airplay. 8.5

Phil

Amyl and the Sniffers

I’ve tended to avoid Amyl and the Sniffers, since I find rock’n’roll exhibitionism (from either sex) a tad off-putting. But as pop-punk goes, this ain’t bad. The breakneck tracks, where the vocals are frantic and shouty are a bit wearing. When they take the tempo down a notch, as on Big dreams and Chewing gum they connect better 6.5

Underworld

I’m far from an Underworld fan but I did like Born slippy and I even have one of their albums (Beaucoup fish, in case you’re interested). This is slightly more listenable than most of the electronica I’ve listened to whilst being a Hannah but even so the only tracks I’d go back to are the ones that consciously mirror Born slippy, like King of Haarlem 5.5

Pixies

I had no idea that the Pixies have now put out more albums since reforming than in their heyday. I have all the early albums but I’ve never really been tempted to check out the newer stuff. As a consequence, my expectations were not high but the album surpassed them. It did start slowly, with the band showing a softer side than on classic Pixies. Things started to pick up with Motorolla. Then we got to the thrashier tracks, like Oyster beds and Ernest Evans, which recall the band’s heyday. There aren’t enough examples of Frank’s uniquely droll vocal style, sadly, although the final track comes close 7

AK/DK 5

More electronica but this time with the added attraction of actual drums. Sadly the novelty soon wears off leaving me with the usual feeling of “what’s the point”? 5

TOTW – Pixies – The Vegas suite

Classic

Hard Fi 6

Never heard this at the time and although Hard-Fi are far from your average guitar band I wasn’t blown away. I was amused by the idea of “Feltham is singing out” however 6

Adam

Amyl & the Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness

Massive Amyl fan (the band, and the compound) - can see the evolution from their first couple of albums - still retains some epic Aussie pub rock tunes but also delves into tracks like Big Dreams for a more mellow take. I do think they/her voice excels more on the heavier stuff. Got hooked on ‘U should not be doing that’ a while back and can only image what this will be like at Finsbury Park next year. 8

Underworld - Strawberry Hotel

Good listen through, enjoyed Techno Shinkansen. Problem with this album is maybe the home listen just doesn’t do it justice. May need a sweaty club and some big speakers to get the most out of some of the headline tracks. 6

AK/DK - Strang Loops

First track on the album I felt like I was listening to Late of the Pier and was transported back to early 2010’s electronica - maybe getting a tiny bit heavier throughout the album thereafter but enjoyed. 7

Pixies - The Night the Zombies Came

Haven’t listened to any pixies stuff outside of their 88/89 albums. Some good guitar work and occasional crooning vocals at times. All in all, pleasant on the ear alt rock. Will need to go back and check out some gaps between now and 88. 7

TOTW - u should not be doing that - still obsessed with this one, worth checking out the associated music video

Hard-Fi - Stars of CCTV

Annette, what an album to pick. Staines finest. Wonderful trip down memory lane. Upbeat indie rock and came back to tracks I don’t remember listening to with solid offering throughout - ‘Living for the weekend’ - feeling that one this week. Score boosted due to nostalgia bias. Long live indie rock! 8

Erol

Amyl and the Sniffers - tuneful punky shouting (mostly). I’m not as much a fan of this band as I know some of you are, but I admire their energy. 6

Underworld - similar views to everyone else. They were great at BBK in the summer but this was a bit disappointing. There’s not much new here, just (what sounds like) a few rehashed versions of earlier material and some weird stuff towards the end. 6.5

Pixies - this was all rather tame and lacking in bite. There was the odd moment of flare (eg Motoroller) but on the whole, this was not what I was expecting. 6

AK/DK - hints of Sleaford Mods and/or Yard Act here and there. Not sure what to make of this but it’s different for sure. Some of it is mental electronica but occasionally it’s really good. ‘Wholes’ had me bouncing in the gym.

TOTW - Motoroller, Pixies

Hard-Fi - a great choice. Haven’t listened to this for ages. Cash Machine and Living for the Weekend are two of my favourite indie rock numbers from the early noughties. It’s just a really sold album with no filler or duff tunes. 7.9

Jim

Amyl and The Sniffers 8

Great fun, simple rocking tunes, funny lyrics with effective digs at the patriarchy. Me and the Girls, ha!

Underworld 7.5

What a game of 2 'halves'. Up to King of Harlem it's cracking, classic Underworld, in 8+ territory, with I thought way more variety and nods to a range of their back catalogue than some of you heard. Then it goes all a bit wierd for the last 25 mins, shame really. Plenty of TOTW contenders, and the colour red and Hilo Sky in particular would grace their already rocking live sets.

Pixies 8.5

Terrific. Had plenty of listens this week and it brewed nicely - like the FDC album, each listen I heard another couple of jems. At their best they are THE best. The run from Hypnotised to Oyster Beds is pretty much perfect. Bravo.

AK/DK 8

A step up from the last one - I thought it was excellent throughout, albeit the last track could have been halved in length or just removed. Strange Loop and Wholes were particularly good.

TOTW - at least a dozen candidates this week, but Pixies Oyster Beds takes it, and is straight onto the 24 for 24 list.

Hard Fi 9

Remembered loving it at the time but had forgotten that there's just no filler all the way up to the title track. Middle Eastern Holiday was the one i'd most forgotten about, awesome.

Simon

Amyl and the Sniffers: don't think it's as strong overall as the blistering Comfort to Me, but once you get past the couple of novelty tracks at the start it settles down into a pretty solid selection of raucous pop punk tunes. 7

Underworld: another sprawling, widescreen epic from Underworld - they've got the full palette out for this, from the moody acid house of and the colour red to the meditative Iron Bones, with a fair chunk of their trademark euphoric house in-between. This will be getting plenty more airplay. 8

Pixies: difficult to ever imagine the Pixies releasing a bad album and this is no exception, although perhaps understandably it doesn't quite have the same amount of fire in its belly as their glorious first three albums. The songs on here aren't as memorable but would still put plenty of other bands' efforts to shame. 7.5

AK/DK: another excellent slug of driving electronica from the Brighton duo - big fan of the motorik beat so this is right in my wheelhouse. 8

Hard-Fi: didn't think I'd listened to Hard-Fi before but some of this seemed vaguely familiar - good album for a debut (sounds a bit like they were influenced by the Clash) but it didn't set my world alight. 7.5

TotW: Underworld - Hilo Sky

Mark

Amyl & The Sniffers - terrific no holds barred rock n' roll, bit of Ramones, bit of Stooges, fronted by a budget Debbie Harry, great stuff - 7.5

Underworld - a mixed bag, could definitely have done with some editing as it dragged on three or four tracks too long but there was some quality stuff in there. Love that distinctive thumping kick drum that propels their best stuff along, and tracks like 'And The Colour Red' and 'Denver Luna' ace, it just loses a point for meandering a bit towards the end though - 7

Pixies - just more great music from them, impressive that they can still be turning out stuff this consistently good after nearly 40 years on and off. Okay, it's maybe not quite as unhinged as their early classic stuff with fewer trademark quiet/loud explosions, but as indie rock goes this is right up there - 8

AK/DK - didn't like this quite as much as their previous one, veered a little close to Sleaford Mods in places, but still enough interesting edgy electronica to float my boat - 6.5

TOTW - could have been several off the Pixies album, I'll go for You're So Impatient

Matt

Amyl & The Sniffers - Enjoyable enough pub rock rowdiness. Better when they stopped trying to be aggy. 6.8

Underworld - Loved the big swooping, brooding sounds. 8

Pixies - It's no mean feat to release an album that could have been from your musical hey day that doesn't sound dated. I'm not the biggest Pixies fan but this was consistently good. 8

AK/DK - Started a bit Casio organ. Possibly the best bit. 6

Hard-Fi - Superb choice for a recent classic. I had a bit of a blind spot for Hard-Fi but this a selection of terrific indie rock bangers with a kind of soulful undertone, mixed with very English small town lament you hear in the Jam and the Clash. 9

TOTW -Pixies, Oyster Beds

Annette

Amyl &The Sniffers: 8.5

Underworld: 7.5

Pixies: 8.5

AK/DK: 8

TOTW: Pixies - Oyster Beds and AK/DK- nobody shouts

Classic: Hard-Fi. Glad to hear this was a good 1st classic choice. Its a 9 from me! 🤟