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- Some Favourite Albums
Well I’ve been thinking I’m boxing myself into a corner with this website of mine focusing primarily on tech stuff. That’s not all I do! So for a change I’m going to write about some of my favourite albums because why not.
Now I’m no music journalist, this is totally subjective and personal. So go easy on me!
A lot of these albums have links to Bandcamp by default as I reckon it’s the best way to support the artists. For those not on Bandcamp, I have links to Deezer instead (see my post on why Deezer?)
The most recent album in this list is easily one of my favourites. I got (really really) into Rolo Tomassi shortly after the release of their second album and have listened to them going from strength to strength.
While their earlier material leaned heavily into a jazz-infused, syncopated flavour, their more recent efforts have settled on a more accessible sound. That’s not too say it’s for everyone, still highly technical and very, very heavy in a lot of places, this album presents itself as the unintentional final chapter of a trilogy of albums beginning with the excellent Grievances.
Every song on Where Myth Becomes Memory is eminently listenable, rich with technique and catchy hooks. I love it, and even more than two years after release I can’t get enough of it.
No, this isn’t an album about depressed adolescents. The title comes from a weather report during a particularly tough time for lead singer Keith Buckley. The story behind aforementioned tough time sets the stage for this album, in my opinion the best material in their back catalogue, and it is a a strong back catalogue.
Personal highlights include the crushing track Petal, a reflection on the fragility of life and how this could have gone wrong, and Awful Lot which shines with tremendous energy in an already highly energetic album.
These days Vessels are more of a club electronica band, but in the beginning they were firmly in camp post-rock and this is easily one of the finest post-rock albums I know of. I don’t like to throw the word “masterpiece” around too much but when every single track on an album is great in its own right, it’s hard to say no to. With beautiful piano hooks and soaring guitar riffs, even two drum kits jamming in tandem (more of this please), this album is a spectacle from beginning to end.
It’s hard to pick highlights from such an exceptional album, but I would recommend giving A Hundred Times in Every Direction a listen.
The first of three albums from Reuben may not have the consistency of latter instalments but it does have a banging selection of tracks. I was fortunate enough to see Reuben a number of times before they split, catching them first shortly before the release of Racecar when my mates supported them in a small venue in Aberdeen. As far as I was concerned, they were an instant hit and have cemented themselves as one of my all time favourite bands.
Racecar has not long turned twenty and sounds just as fresh as it did when I bought it way back in 2004. Reuben were a band that sounded like nothing else I’d heard at the time, and even now I only recognise a small handful of influences when I listen to them. Frontman Jamie Lenman was clearly the driving force behind the band’s sound and there is no mistake, he is a musical genius.
There was a small window of time between about 2000 and 2005 where British alternative music was absolutely punching, and this is one of the most exemplary albums of that period. Stacked full of energy, soaring vocals and crushing screaming, most excellent guitar hooks and a sound you only hear from a band thoroughly enjoying what they’re doing. This is an album that has the profound ability to lift me up from even the deepest of funks.
These guys were sold to me as “Scotland’s answer to Hundred Reasons”, but as much as I love Hundred Reasons, that is doing them a disservice. I was blown away when I discovered that there were only three members in the band, I did not get that impression at all while listening to their debut album, Blackened Sky. I was a little bit obsessed, so when they announced their second album, I was positively brimming with anticipation.
And it did not disappoint. In my opinion, The Vertigo of Bliss is Biffy Clyro at their finest. Outrageously experimental but perfectly accessible, it’s a real treat for the senses from beginning to end. Of course I have a lot of love for All the Way Down, and perhaps my favourite Biffy track of all which didn’t make the album but was relegated to a B-side (so, same era, good enough for me), the magnificently titled “…And With The Scissorkick Is Victorious”
Probably better known these days for providing the spectacular procedural soundtrack to No Man’s Sky, these chaps have been churning out excellent music for a couple of decades. Wild Light is in my opinion a standout album of theirs, a culmination of their experimentation over the years resulting in an album that is infinitely re-listenable.
Black Spots is a particular highlight, a real punchy beat that instantly gets me motivated. Their outstanding live performances have firmly cemented themselves as one of my top three favourite live bands to see, and I was fortunate enough to catch them in Brisbane performing tracks from this album.
This one came along when I was just getting the hang of heavy music, and what an album to get into! Listening to it is a journey, starting out reasonably upbeat and shifting moods halfway through, descending into something much darker. And at the end, relief with the uplifting title track What It Is To Burn.
Imagine my surprise to find this track in a catalog of songs in a karaoke bar in Busan, well I couldn’t resist but subject my new Korean friends to my awful faux-screaming.
Alright, so they’re basically the biggest band in the world now but back in the day, this album changed my life. It did, it did! Hearing Learn to Fly was a turning point, it opened my eyes to other great music and helped me find my way. It made a change from binging videogame soundtracks anyway. This album has been on rotation the entire time, I will never tire of hearing it.
By all measures I should not have enjoyed this album when I first heard it, but it struck something within me that nothing else had ever come close to. Brutal, discordant, abrasive, downright horrible but I friggin’ love it. It’s difficult to choose a favourite track when every single one on the album is rip-yr-face-off excellent.
Doom metal, sludge metal, stoner metal, I dunno what to call it but to me, despite how heavy it is, this is the ultimate comfort album. I was listening to it a lot during early morning bus rides in Scottish winter, so it often reminds me of those dark, cold days. I don’t miss them, but there is something comforting about it. Maybe it’s the wall of sound that wraps around you as you listen to it? COZY.
Anyway, it’s epic, from beginning to end.
Oh man, where to even start with this one. Like nothing I ever heard before. Nonsensical lyrics, hard-hitting and heavy riffs, catchy and whimsical hooks, it’s all over the place. I love it! Go and listen to One Armed Scissor right now.
© Copyright 2025
Phil Watson
Last updated
Thursday, 29/May/2025 09:38 +1000
