Tag Archives: Fruit Tree Records Of The Year

Records of 2023

Top Twenty Albums of 2023

20) Kassi Valazza – Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

A fine and captivating slice of cosmic Americana with added splashes of fuzz and crazy horse indebted wonder…

19) Joanna Sternberg – I’ve Got Me

Singer-songwriter fare with a style and range that harks back to the glorious seventies eloquence from the likes of Dory Previn and Gilbert O’Sullivan; there’s an almost musical theatre flourish built into their songwriting…

18) Quasi – Breaking The Balls Of History

A welcome return from this fuzz rockin’ duo on a set without any dips; just to hear Janet Weiss trashing her drum kit again in this exuberant way was a timely reminder of exactly what her former band Sleater-Kinney are missing in their most recent work…

17) Sunny War – Anarchist Gospel

This was a brilliant realisation of the punk/folk grain Sunny has been refining over the past five years. An assured album with a band that included David Rawlings and Alison Russell, highlights include a punchy and pounding ‘No Reason’ and a Ween cover in ‘Baby Bitch’…

16) Margo Price – Strays

Not the only Margo Price release of the year but the one that teared down the walls between the Alternative rebel rousers and the Country mainstream establishment, a place that should be proud to have an artist as naturally gifted as Margo among its numbers…

15) The Murlocs – Calm Ya Farm

This merry band of Aussie Psych-heads have impressed in the past, especially with their authentic garage rock rough edges but there was a pleasing adventurousness to this album, taking in country rock inflections and many a Brit leaning instrumental embellishment…

14) Oracle Sisters – Hydranism

An example of a band getting the basics right; they played a fantastic set at End Of The Road festival and I kept coming back to this album thanks to the many earworm melodies built within that were like sweet audio honey to these ears…

13) Zoe Rahman – Colour Of Sound

In a decade that is shaping up to be one in which Jazz as an artform is firmly re-establishing itself back into the mainstream, artists like multi-award winning pianist Zoe Rahman are enjoying a reciprocal canvas on which they can develop their sounds and ideas. The best of those, as heard here, are recording music that demands repeated listens and is surely built to last…

12) The Nude Party – Rides On

Not just an album highlight of the year for me but a live one too. I saw these psychedelic rodeos back at the Red Rooster festival and they brought the summer sun to the skies in every sense. I recall one audience member saying the singer was “just the right side of Jim Morrison” which made me wonder what the wrong side would be? Maybe just being Jim Morrison perhaps?…

11) Nick Waterhouse – The Fooler

Nick is an artist known for his authentic channelling of fifties and sixties production values, producing music with a delightful analogue warmth that would be easily passed over as retro were it not so classily executed. He brings these sounds into the modern vernacular alongside the many ghosts and fading memories of a bygone San Francisco that stitch these songs together so cohesively…

10) Aja Monet – When The Poems Do What They Do

As debut albums go this is one of the most eclectic, it belongs in a box entirely its own. The Brooklyn based poet and activist incorporates elements of jazz and experimental freeform brushes into sound and these are far from conventional poetry structures. They are a tumbling torrent of words, thoughts and emotions because, as Aja has said herself, “who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire”…

9) Esther Rose – Safe To Run

Here’s another artist building a reputation for dependably great album releases. This one is perhaps the boldest in her catalogue, there is evidence of more grit and dirt in this alt-country sound not to mention a heavy dose of climate crisis anxiety hanging in the air…

8) Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance

Whilst it was her fellow Irelanders Lankum who deservedly topped a lot of folk lists in 2023, for me it was this mesmerising album that demonstrated just why folk music appears to be in such a healthy place right now. Lisa is just so tuned in to the natural and spiritual worlds, her work is like a polemic for the way the human race has disconnected from the things that really matter with all this technology surrounding us. Some people just seem to exist in a better place…

7) Shana Cleveland – Manzanita

In which the La Luz lady cuts some solo rug and delivers a dream-like suite of hazy, wavy-gravy songs apparently direct from the twilight zone of her mind. It is hypnotic from start to finish and charming the whole way too. Somehow Shana has captured that brief moment of consciousness between our waking hours and sleep in a cloudburst of audio finery…

6) Lael Neale – Star Eaters Delight

It is no surprise that this one rated highly among the alternative-sixties type of crowd. It pushes all the right period buttons, not just in its Warhol factory freakbeat style but also in the girl-group look Lael pushed to the forefront in her music videos (all Quant minis and multi coloured umbrellas) and artwork. I am no fan of retro indulgences just for the sake of it but if the artist is creating great pop music and writing superb songs as the back bone, as is the case here, then I might just find the work as hard to resist as this is…

5) Say She She – Silver

It seems so obvious now, just marry the pop hooks of the Sugababes to the chic style of seventies Pointer Sisters, throw in some deliberately arch disco referencing production and dance shapes that look like they were worked up for a laugh in the back of a club and put it all together in a shockingly loveable album. This is class…

4) Peter Gabriel – i/o

Back in the eighties Peter Gabriel said in an interview he didn’t like easy listening, he preferred “difficult listening”, music that only reveals itself depth after a few plays. As these tracks arrived with every 2023 new moon, I would give them a listen and, to be honest, be a little underwhelmed. However, with the arrival of the full album at the years end and with the opportunity to experience the whole work on repeat in detail the fact became clear; this is a top drawer collection and Gabriel has retained the integrity present throughout his career…

3) Cleo Sol – Heaven

Everything Cleo Sol does is absolutely overflowing with quality. I have nothing but admiration for the way she has retained an air of mystery around herself, refusing to play the regular media game and never saturating her exposure in the usual way an artist would when promoting a new album as strong as this. This approach has the appropriate effect of making everything about the music which is crucial because this is soul music that harks back to the classic values of the sixties and seventies but sings in a language and wears a relevance entirely belonging in the modern day…

2) Cleo Sol – Gold

So the same artist occupies two of the top three spots in my list of the year but I cannot place it any other way. Cleo just happened to release two sensational albums in the space of a month and they both had ‘soul classics of the future’ written all over them. I am listening to Cleo’s two new albums almost every day at the moment and it has been that way for a month or more. When you listen to a lot of different music both new and old, I cannot exaggerate how rarely this actually happens. But there is an argument that says Cleo Sol is the best thing around at the moment, if quality of music were measured by sales and status she deserves the level of a Taylor Swift, although she appears to have too much integrity to ever let that kind of cultural monopolising ever tarnish the thing that matters to Cleo the most, the music…

1) Jaimie Branch – Fly Or Die Fly Or Die Fly Or Die ((World War))

If only I didn’t have to write that this is now a posthumous album, in all likelihood a final release. That Jaimie Branch passed in 2022 at the age of 39 is devastating, her music had been one of the most alive things in Jazz for a few years by then, infused with a punk attitude and a take-no-prisoners strength of character it seemed on a perpetual upward trajectory. We will never know how many doors she could have kicked open, how much life enhancing music has been lost but at least her family and collaborators were able to put together this final penetrating artistic statement, the third in a trilogy of thematically linked records that put the boot in on the state of America today whilst never losing sight of the desire to make things better aspect of the human spirit. “Don’t forget to fight…”

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Night Beats – Outlaw R&B

Jump back five years and the Night Beats were one of the bands offering up authentic rough edged Garage Rock infused with roadrunner Rhythm & Blues. The bands 2016 album, their third LP release, ‘Who Sold My Generation’ was one of the standout records of that year and, after catching them on their UK tour, I felt certain that they were headed into the same space as occupied by Jack White and the Black Keys. The Night Beats, since their formation in 2009, have always been the musical vehicle for singer and songwriter Danny ‘Lee Blackwell’ Rajan Billingsley and he has been the only constant member in an ever-rotating line up. This can be problematic for bands with this kind of set up (the Waterboys are a good example who spring to mind) because the elevation of the music can be dependent on the central artist finding a similarly tuned in group of players to bring his vision to life and let it fly. With that 2016 album he had Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bassist Robert Levon Been playing and producing and that combination in particular lead to the Night Beats really locking into something. But Been was not a permanent member and these constant changes resulted in a drop in momentum after 2016.

All this made it even more of a welcome surprise and delight that, with ‘Outlaw R&B,’ the Night Beats appear to have spectacularly locked back into their mojo. Written and recorded in the aftermath of wildfires in Blackwell’s hometown of California and lockdown, the singer says of the release that it is aimed at “those whose minds aren’t sold by perfect pitch and clean fingernails.” If by that he means it is a step away from the 2019 Dan Auerbach produced ‘Myth Of A Man’, a record made with more senior session hands and with a rather more polished sheen, then he is bang on the money. ‘Outlaw R&B’ is a return to the very sound and groove that gave the Night Beats their stand-out edge in the first place; sixties garage echoes, pounding aggressive bluesy grooves and melodious songs that leave the listener wanting more. It revs its engines from the off, ‘Stuck In The Morning’ crashing in propelled by a marching beat and punctuated by resonant, dramatic swings on the chiming electric guitar. Album openers are, generally, positioned to tempt you to dive into a record, if this doesn’t do exactly that then my recommendations are not for you; there is simply nothing not to like here.

‘Revolution’ is the first of many sugarcoated hooks, its lyrics celebrating the action of turning your heals and pushing a rebellion of the mind into real motion, the whole tune is brilliantly shadowed by wild fuzz guitar lines. ‘New Day’ has a break of day freshness while ‘Hell In Texas’ is the sound of fuzztone rock ‘n’ rollers crawling through the hot desert; in fact, it’s rather like a distant cosmic cousin of ‘Ghost Riders In The Sky.’ ‘Thorns’ prods your ear lobes with its insistent hooks and sharp twangy edges while there is more than a tiny hint of the Velvets white light and heat with ‘Never Look Back’ (a track which features Robert Levon Been). Again though, it is those sixties primitive brush strokes that make the tune a welcome nugget, those jubilant backing vocals, and the pure pop punch of the top line. ‘Shadow’ has a spooky drone vibe then ‘Crypt’ demolishes brick walls to emphasize that, in essence, the Night Beats have a rock ‘n’ roll soul. ‘Cream Johnny’ indulges in spiraling psychedelics, falsetto vocals and deep space squelches that disappear into orbit and make way for an acoustic guitar fronted section. ‘Ticket’ drives us off a cliff into the darkness and closer ‘Holy Roller’ sends the album off in a puff of Stooges-like acoustic/electric riff-toting smoke planting a seed of lingering fuzz guitar spreading through your brain. This is 40 minutes and eleven songs worth of pure, wild, raw, thumping goodness.

Find a vinyl pressing of this album here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19066471-Night-Beats-Outlaw-RB

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Greentea Peng – Man Made

The reason music lovers such as I get labelled as “snobs” is because we are dismissive of many (not all) of the big selling mainstream names who receive mass acceptance as representative of current tastes. And yes, I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to pouring cold water on Ed Sheeran’s acclaim or reacting with repulsion at the latest Coldplay offering. But hear me out, this is certainly not because I resent success or popularity, I am a massive Beatles fan for starters and you do not get more pop than that. The thing about the aforementioned is simply that, bleeding through every note of clinically clean music they produce is the sound of marketing. The stench of music created not because an artist was struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration, more the need to fulfill a criterion to supply new ‘product’ and from there on in, the overwhelming impression of demographic pleasing boxes being ticked is hard to ignore. In my opinion, it just makes for very predictable and dull music.

As for exciting pop and especially mainstream success, well I am all for it. There is nothing more delightful, even today when charts are all but irrelevant, than seeing a musician who has created something stunning, fresh, inspired and entertaining getting the recognition they deserve. I mention all this because in 2021 Greentea Peng made an album that did just that, it grabbed attention in all the right places by virtue of just being very, very good. This was an album bursting at the seams with ideas, both musically and lyrically. Wit and wisdom were in abundance and the whole record seemed to splash your face with its freshness. So, it was no surprise to me when reading an interview with the artist in The Guardian last year to see a prediction that, should her career ever become about anything other than music, she would take a step back from it.

Greentea Peng is the performing identity for Aria Wells, it was a name lifted from packaging of Peruvian green tea and includes the slang term for attractive, Peng, because a lady on there was depicted wearing only tea leaves. Aria was born in Bermondsey and to this day retains a kind of Amy Winehouse-like cutting edge that firmly places her in England’s capital, although she pointedly presents herself as a citizen of the universe, not belonging to just one location. Aria found her voice while travelling, literally when she got herself noticed at an open-mic night in Mexico and landed an invite to front a local covers band. She pretty much took that starting point and ran with it, having earned her living from music ever since. The journey took in an attention-grabbing TV appearance on Jools Holland and hot tips as one of the BBC’s sounds of 2021, but the real arrival has been with the debut LP ‘Man Made’.

If there is an over-riding vibe to ‘Man Made’ then it is mellow, with a soulful edge and a savage punch behind the blissed-out textures. It is very dubby, very London or at least what I think of as London. Wells did state in interviews around the time of the release that the theme could be summed up with the word ‘austerity’ which, for a creative artist, is suitably open-ended. That said though, dive into the grooves here and you do feel the realities of modern-day post-Brexit Britain seeping through, maybe more than the austerity it is the inequalities that stand tall. Opening number ‘Make Noise’ breezes in like a dream, floating on a bedrock of vintage vinyl crackle and right there in the middle of the deep bass and the cloud busting synths is that central, pure voice. A real sound, one that gets straight to the truth, dedicating what is about to come to those who stand alongside her and the dearly departed. An invitation, a throwing open of the door with an offer to make noise; what follows does just that with conviction.

Now I do not want to diminish credibility on my music critic credentials by admitting that I made my mind up about a record two tracks in, but that is exactly what happened with this one. From the second that juddering, funky bassline that beats through the heart of ‘This Sound’ rattled my ear drums all I could think was “yes, I’m having this!.” Greentea Peng is using the tune as a calling card for her music, but it succeeds in not actually defining the sound she makes, more throwing all the cards in the air and daring the listener to make sense of this if you can. It lifts you, it can be danced to, there are elements of jazz in the little trumpet fills and an urban nu-soul texture as she calls you to groove to it but really, what is this sound? It feels free, it feels boundless and that is what is so exciting. It is not trying to be anything, it just is; Wells may get a kick out of teasing us with suggestions like physical and metaphysical, but the real source is just a singular soul expressing herself with freedom and joy. Seriously, if your ears do not respond with positivity to this sound, you are going to need to check you are using them properly.

And that is the pure pleasure of this album in a nutshell. It is free, nothing is discarded in the pursuit of the right vibe. Be it open aired flute flourishes in ‘Be Careful’ or the smooth, keyboard touches that underpin ‘Nah It Ain’t The Same,’ a song that cannot stop evolving as a brilliant second phase introduces drum ‘n’ bass rhythm and an unexpected honky piano part. Even when things get real on ‘Suffer,’ a tune that brings acoustic textures and a nightmarish sonic template that recalls Tricky and his darkest Trip-Hop experiments, there remains at heart Greentea Peng’s healing hand, offered in solidarity to all suffering and collectively enduring these modern times. That is the key constant element throughout this wonderful album. Across eighteen tracks that rebound from the laid back to the urgent, Greentea Peng has built a psychedelic soundscape that will not pander to anyone’s rulebook, it simply shines bright by following its own thoroughly eclectic muse. Kick back and enjoy this.

Find a vinyl copy of Man Made here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19007347-Greentea-Peng-Man-Made

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Reigning Sound – A Little More Time With

It may only be 2014 since the Reigning Sound last released an album but still, ‘A Little More Time With’ did arrive in 2021 feeling like a reformation. Happily, unlike many bands who get it together again after a hiatus, this one returned strong and with barely a hint that they had ever been away. That can be attributed to the attitude which itself should be credited to main man Greg Cartwright. If ever there was a man with a healthy regard of success it is Greg. He remains singularly unphased by the trappings of acclaim and recognition, never losing sight of the thing that brought him to this place from the outset, the music. In the intervening years you were as likely to spot him around guitar and vinyl stores as you were a recording studio and typically, he did not countenance any return to record making until he hit a rich vein of songwriting. That is why this one stands out as an end-of-year highlight, it is because the songs are just so damn good.

One of the greatest things about pure Garage Rock is its simplicity. The uncomplicated directness of the music, the lack of fuss in lyrics that refuse to overcomplicate what they convey and the way Garage Rock never loses sight that its roots are in Pop music. Just look at the opening track here, a Greg Cartwright original ‘Let’s Do It Again’ wherein he eagerly anticipates the return of someone missed. Once they used to turn down the lights and play records all night and he knows they will be doing it again real soon. The music has a joyful bounce to it and you must assume there is a passing reference to the reformed Reigning Sound themselves and their collective enthusiasm for this new album. This is a mood that continues throughout an LP which features all, bar one, Greg Cartwright new compositions.

Of course, Garage Rock would not echo with so much lovelorn emotion if it did not feature a little heartbreak, something which appears immediately on track two ‘A Little More Time.’ The way the organ pattern swirls between a major and minor bedding before stabbing out a little peril when Greg goes for broke and lays bare the tragedy in the back of his mind, show what a musical maestro Cartwright has become in this song form. The album could never be an old boy’s footnote with songs like this to play. That said, even the cover of Chris Andrews ‘I Don’t Need That Kind Of Lovin’ kicks ass with its punky ‘Summertime Blues’ style riffing.

The pace eases for a moment of late-night spookiness on ‘I’ll Be Your Man.’ Is Greg dreaming as he sings about travelling between two points in space time, having set out by asking his driver to turn the car lights off at night and travel in the dark as the road disappears? It may not be as fantastical as that, maybe Greg is throwing all his cards in with this dark number as the refrain of “…and I’ll be your man…” repeats at the close? There are similar layers on ‘Oh Christine,’ far from a loving ode there is more overwhelming sadness on display. Greg is wrapping in blankets but still feeling the cold as he waits for separation tears to start flowing. The crying will start when he has stopped driving but for now the key detail is the “rind from your tangerine still sitting on my dash, speeding down the 1-15 counting cities as they pass. Oh Christine you are free at last.”

‘You Don’t Know What You’re Missing’ revisits a staple of the garage rock lyrical repertoire, the turning away from a good thing song. The pained shrug of the shoulders turning away from the girl who does not know what she wants. The music offers an arm around the shoulder to the narrator, who is certain he will be fine no matter what. It is all in the way Greg sings that title, making it clear that this is a pay-off not an ever-extending olive branch. The man is offering himself up, he is all ears but he cannot tell the object of his affections what she wants, that part is down to her. ‘Make It Up’ kicks the door down with guitar chugging intent and that organ sound that underpins the number is life blood. Again, the tune is tying itself in knots over everyday relationship tribulations. This time though the singer is focuses on making things right, “if I really broke your heart, let me make it up to you!”

After side one closed with ‘Moving And Shaking,’ ‘A Good Life’ is the albums second out-and-out, lush country ballad complete with yearning pedal steel as Greg sings to the simple pleasure of living the life you want rather than the life others would impose. The opening chords of ‘Just Say When,’ so crispy and brown in their semi-acoustic textures, could be trademarked as the sound of Autumn. This is clearly intentional as the opening salvo describes falling leaves and long shadows. It feels on this one like it is a song of retreating into the arms of love, a suggestion enhanced by the dramatic descending keyboard pattern in the chorus which carries a Bond-theme like punch.

‘You Ain’t Me’ has a deceptive sixties pop sheen glossing over a lyric that seems to be wrestling against depression. Greg is trading salvos with a partner, or just himself, to justify his handling of the problem. He argues that you can “cry while you’re laughing” and bats back efforts to pull him out of his despondency. So, if the you, who ain’t me, of the title tries to find a silver lining when waking to find the sun still shining, Greg does not need to know about it. He underlines this with “it’s hard to raise my head, but I’m trying.” Dig deep on that one and it is quite a dark moment, buried away as the penultimate number.

‘On And On’ closes the album with a universal truth though, for while the strains of Country remind the listener of the hurt and loss that is all around in life, the primary lyric states for certain that we can still believe in love if we let ourselves. “Yeah, love is still a choice” sings Greg and I do not take that to mean we can take it or leave it as if a commodity. What he seems to be saying is that love is still the thing that keeps us going, the air that we breathe because ultimately “we’ll still need love to carry on.” That is the thing I keep returning to when listening to perfect garage nuggets like this album, that the best things in life are the simplest and purest. And there are few greater things musically than three-minute pop songs built around electric guitars, bass, organ and drums, recorded with gritty analogue warmth and played with raw feeling. It does not get much better than that.

Find a vinyl copy of The Reigning Sound’s ‘A Little More Time With’ here:

https://www.discogs.com/release/18823081-Reigning-Sound-A-Little-More-Time-With

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Emma-Jean Thackray – Yellow

One of the most infectious Jazz based debut records of the year, ‘Yellow’ introduces itself with ever increasing waves of cosmic vibrations on opening track ‘Mercury.’ As a scene setter, this sort of tells the listener all and nothing simultaneously. Yes, you may well deduce that what will follow is going to be something of a spiritual journey, but no way in hell could you be anticipating the explosion of styles, tempos, moods and explorative diversions that are about to unfold. For that reason alone, Emma-Jean Thackray’s debut album deservedly caught lots of attention in 2021; it was a unique calling card, a showcase even, for a jazz artist with no respect for genre and a singular approach that placed her in a scene all her own.

As with so many releases in 2021, the gestation period for the album had occurred around the 2020 lockdown, you remember the one where people really could not go out? Emma-Jean had caught Covid in the summer of 2020 and found that this had negatively impacted her trumpet playing. It left her briefly having to alter her approach, blowing shorter phrases, something that can be heard on the album within some of the modalism and moments of Bop style experimentation. That though is far from the over-riding mood that pumps out of these grooves, there are a myriad of elements here such as the progression in her music displayed in the singing. This is an area in which Emma-Jean admits she had to overcome some hesitancy, eventually rationalizing that Chet Baker had done it so why shouldn’t she? It was a strong move, for the singing here shows a range of modes that you would not expect from one with such initial reticence.

It is in taking these instinctive strides forward musically that Thackray displays a sure footedness and independence. While she does acknowledge her association with the big names of the London Jazz Scene, she does not necessarily belong at around the center of it. She is originally from Yorkshire and in fact grew up playing marching music in a brass band. To this day there remains something of the outsider to Emma-Jean Thackray, a level head and a lack of showboating in her approach to music that sets her apart from the crowd. At the same time however, it cannot be ignored that the sounds she creates and the range of ideas incorporated are truly remarkable. Anyone who has seen her band live has witnessed the astonishing telepathy between her and her bandmates. This has found a way onto the record, released on Emma-Jean’s own label Movementt, by way of live samples woven into the mix. At this stage, those early outsider years around Yorkshire, when her interest in Jazz cast her into a solitary vein, are starting to pay dividends in the shape of a singular talent; time inside your own head can indeed brew an inner determination to follow your own path.

So, the highlights on this LP are many and the opportunities for comparison are plentiful too but Emma-Jean never allows them to submerge her own sound and vision. There is a hint of Alice Coltrane on the track ‘Yellow,’ which begins with an organ sound that is so fruity you can practically taste the juices squeezing out of it. ‘Rahu & Ketu’ is one of several celebratory numbers in tone, a strong element that gives the album its undeniable addictiveness. The out-and-out Funk sections take ‘Yellow’ into delightfully seventies sounding conscious Soul territories. At times, the album is so firmly focused on groove and movement that it crash-lands directly into a distinct house music and modern club feel. Now there is an area of music that so often leaves me disinterested, sounding too much like a genre that has hard locked into formula and abandoned any ambitions to creativity. It is so refreshing to hear new artists, primarily in the jazz world it has to be said, still determined to find ways of injecting these styles with forward momentum.

Emma-Jean Thackray’s net casts wider than most. One of the tracks at the dramatic heart of this LP is ‘Spectre,’ the way it pulls in strands of cinematic tension and teases the listener with mind-bending sci-fi style lyrics is captivating. Therefore, it is unsurprising that Thackray has confessed to being a fan of dystopian science fiction. The video for ‘Say Something’ was based on Logans Run and earlier in 2021 she had explained to Bandcamp about the accompanying video and song that “it starts off quite housey, then there’s a bridge to a different section where the time signature’s different and it’s a lot more raucous”. But having indulged the interviewer with a little insight into one of her passions, she reeled the topic back to the essential detail, the message of the song. “The message is really don’t say things for the sake of it, be real.” You could wholesale lift those sentiments and apply them to Emma-Jean Thackray and this swirling, head-spinning wonder of a debut album. If ever a jazz artist stood tall and firmly, independently, announced that they are the real deal it surely happened here. Setting genre aside because you simply must, ‘Yellow’ is simply one of the finest journeys in music heard in 2021.

Find a vinyl copy Emma-Jean Thackray’s Yellow here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19437127-Emma-Jean-Thackray-Yellow-

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Spellling – The Turning Wheel

Trying to keep your finger on the pulse of music, if your interests and tastes align to the Fruit Tree Records approach, involves casting your net far and wide. I am engaging daily with radio shows, internet mixes, magazine reviews, online reviews and navigating my way through many streaming platforms; in addition to all that I remain what I have been all my life, a vinyl record collector and crate digger. You would think that all these avenues merge into a well-oiled music finding system but oh no, really there is no such formular and it is the randomness that keeps this journey exciting. What I can tell you is this: stay open minded, do not limit your interests to one genre or era and I guarantee wonderful surprises will come into your life every single day. It really is mind numbing, impossible to comprehend, just how much amazing music is being created every year and even more awe inspiring is just how much made over the past century remains under appreciated. Of course, the opposite holds true as well, but if there were not so much attention seeking dross muscling its way into peoples ears all the time, there would be no thrill or reward in uncovering the good stuff. ‘The Turning Wheel’ by Spellling is one such hidden gem from 2021.

I genuinely cannot recall how I came across Spellling in 2021, I suspect I made a note after hearing something on a radio show or a DJ mix, something like that, which resulted in the album sitting in my ‘things to listen to’ pile earlier in the year. What I can recall exactly, is my incredibly positive reaction to hearing the album. Beyond positive, I was bowled over, left aghast, or high even on the discovery of something so wonderful. An album that seemed to tick so many of the boxes and styles of music I regard as important to me. These were great songs, incredibly strong on melody, heavy on impact and full of earworms that linger on and on. But it was showy too, not so much power ballads but theatrical concept pieces…on ice! I joke of course, but the music was a dizzying melting pot of ideas. Jazzy but not jazz; progressive but not prog, bluesy without a twelve-bar template in sight and there were even hints of the show tune to some of the emoting, but without the teeth and the jazz hands. Impossible to put in a box and yet undeniably fantastic. How could something as brilliant as this fly so far under the radar I wondered? Well, look around and it is not such a rare tale, the business end of the music world rarely values craftsmanship over easily marketable, immediately profitable product. Sometimes it feels like the only winners are us collectors, free to discover these wonders then share them out. But Spellling is hopefully aware that, if nothing else, these are the albums that endure over time. Those unaware of Spellling today that will surely not say the same tomorrow, for the good stuff does tend to rise to the surface eventually.

Spellling is the performing identity of Chrystia Cabral, she released this third album under the name in 2021. Entitled ‘The Turning Wheel,’ it is a mesmerizing song cycle packed with theatricality and magical pop wonder. A double LP well worth investigating on vinyl, the first record is the dreamier and more positive of the two, it has the collective title of ‘Above’ while the more somber, darker tones of the second disc are titled ‘Below.’ The fact that this is an expansive as well as expressive song suite, executing orchestral brush strokes and dynamic punctuation points leads to me recalling Kate Bush. And while this is an entirely worthy comparison, Spellling is an entity with its own unique grain. Cabral’s early influences were not contemporary, she has spoken in the past of how she soaked up the 70s and 80s sounds sourced from family record collections. One primary influence she has acknowledged is Minnie Riperton and there, amongst lush orchestral passages and wide-eyed sense of wonder, is a line towards Riperton’s own ‘Come To My Garden’ LP detectable. It is clearly a psychedelic reference point inside the Spellling mold, but the influences do not dominate at all.

Cabral has not arrived at this third album new to ambitious composition ideas but previously her tools were limited to electronics and synths. This time, with over thirty orchestral musicians at her disposal as well as a little extra lockdown time to develop ideas further, she has fine-tuned her vision into something incredible. It feels to me like there was a certain point in her career when she realized you do not need to follow a previously walked path, just being open to her own ideas and seeing where they lead would be enough. ‘The Turning Wheel’ seems like both a culmination and a definitive justification for following that instinct. It is a stunning achievement that I hope attracts the large audience it deserves. The albums stands as an elegant concept piece concerning life, life cycles, death, our hopes for the future, our fears and the constantly evolving nature of reality. A song like ‘Emperor With An Egg’ pulls at all those tensions while ‘Magic Act,’ a centerpiece on the darker second disc, simmers like a heavy thunderstorm forming in the distance.

Despite my having begun to pick out song highlights at this stage of the review, I must state that this is one of those records that must be sampled as a whole. That is how it has been constructed even though the songs are all melodically rich enough to stand alone as individual tracks. And while many of the lyrical themes like love and true friendship, as sung about on the title track, are touched upon abstractly, Cabral can flick the switch and sting the listener with something direct and forthright. ‘Boys At School’ is one example of this, with an unfiltered lyric dramatically singing about adolescent trauma. Overall, though, the shimmering lyrical twists and the boundless musical turns must be experienced firsthand. Which is exactly why I am flagging ‘The Turning Wheel’ as one of the outstanding albums of 2021. This is one for people who really love to lock in, listen and engage; the rewards inside these grooves are many.

Find a vinyl copy of ‘The Turning Wheel’ here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19310530-Spellling-The-Turning-Wheel

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Yola – Stand For Myself

Whether as a featured vocalist for Massive Attack or front woman to the Americana outfit Phantom Limb, Yola Carter has been a low-key presence on the music scene for a couple of decades now. The impression you get now that she has fully burst onto the scene is that in those years, she quietly readied herself for the spotlight and always held a little something back for the day it arrived. How else do you explain a full force gale like this? She does not come across like a singer who naturally sits in the background, this is a woman with a commanding authority when she grabs the microphone and a hard-to-dent conviction in the words she imparts. She shouts without bawling, it is a no bullshit approach, the kind that only comes from a true voice with a vision singing from the heart. And even though this is in fact her second solo LP release, I find myself comparing it to something like the first George Harrison solo album. It is that magical moment when an artist who has previously jostled to find their space, finally finds a footing, turns on the tap and watches the music come flooding on down.

I stop short of calling ‘Stand For Myself’ one of the outstanding Soul albums of 2021 because, musically, it is so much more than that. Yola has explained in interviews how she simply grew up loving music; music that she heard on the radio, music she found in her mother’s record collection, whatever spoke to her emotionally she soaked it all up. It has resulted in this, an album that is a mesmerizing mixture of all her influences but not exactly like any of them. In doing so she has created that rare thing that not all artists can effectively realize; her own sound, this record introduces to the world the Yola sound. Impossible to pigeonhole and undeniably belonging to nobody else.

Her solo work truly began in 2019 with the Dan Auerbach produced ‘Walk Through Fire’. I did pay a little bit of attention to that album, mainly because something in the way it was marketed and in Yola’s image caught my attention, it looked like the kind of rootsy soul record I would be into. And it was indeed a good piece, but it did not register in the album of the year stakes or anything like that, maybe it lacked the unique identity so prevalent on this follow up? The Black Keys Auerbach has produced once more, but this time Yola’s own personality is a lot more visible. The creative period of lockdown facilitated this a little, affording the artist time to work out what she really wanted to do with her music. The array of collaborators and writing partners have also opened the possibilities. In addition to the producer there is also Natalie Hemby from the Highwomen, Ruby Amanfu who has performed in the backing singer department for Jack White as well as the quietly brilliant pop master Aaron Lee Tasjan.

The tune Tasjan contributed to, ‘Diamond Studded Shoes,’ is an early album stand out. As a rousing song it is shot with a rare realism. It is very much a call to arms in sound and style yet in anticipating if things would turn out right it emphatically answers, “we know it isn’t, we know it isn’t.” That alone typifies an underlying motivation throughout, in that Yola has viewed this album as a chance to get real, a chance to unleash the soul power at the heart of what she does while simultaneously refraining from presenting things in a one-dimensional way. Musically this leaves the door open for a multitude of influences to reveal themselves. Among the tracks there is everything from Brill Building pop craft, Sister Rosetta Tharpe style electric gospel, Black Keys riffage, Philadelphia soul lushness and even a hint of Freedom Singers folk protest poking through. Lyrically, what has poured onto the page is social, political, personal, lived and learned street wisdom. She is not just going to blindly say everything is going to be OK when she knows better but do not deny her right to hope for improvements and to stand up and fight for her beliefs.

Any album where claims for ‘best of the year’ status are made should, as a baseline requirement, be without any weak tracks or filler. ‘Stand For Myself’ definitively fits those criteria, from start to finish the songwriting standard is high and the range of emotional textures visited upon are dizzying. ‘Dancing Away In Tears’ is arguable the records smoothest soul moment, it has late night pop classic written all over it. By contrast to that tunes widescreen production, ‘If I Had To Do It All Again’ leaves sonic space for the catchy melody to breathe. The rhythm stutters, the bassline punches while the guitar executes savage knife slices, the effect is both dramatic and cool. ‘Whatever You Want’ has one of those low-hanging-fruit kind of melodies that sounds like it has been around forever. That fact alone invests the song with a self-assured strut. Finally, title track ‘Stand For Myself’ has undeniable sunrise chord progressions. It makes for music that incredibly evokes light overwhelming the darkness as Yola testifies “I used to feel nothing like you, now I’m alive, I’m alive!” For real!

Find a vinyl copy of ‘Stand For Myself’ here: https://www.discogs.com/release/19686967-Yola-Stand-For-Myself

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Fruit Tree Records Of The Year, Records of 2021

Declan O’Rourke – Arrivals

As Declan O’Rourke released ‘Arrivals’ in the early part of 2021 the talk was all about how this would finally be his moment. After two decades of being the songwriter’s songwriter, this well-kept secret would finally start to enjoy the recognition he so richly deserved. Ah, predictions very rarely pan out in such a straightforward fashion, in fact as we enter 2022 the side to Declan’s creative output that is enjoying newfound time in the spotlight is his prose writing. He had spent a prolonged period of the lockdown completing his first ever novel, a fact-based fiction called ‘The Pawn Brokers Record.’ Set in a six-month period during the 1845-1848 Irish Famine, O’Rourke had disciplined himself to writing at his desk for six-hour sessions, seven days a week. And in terms of success and exposure, the end product saw his book appear at number four in the best sellers lists on the first week of publication.

Those bold predictions of success and recognition for the album were largely based on the name of the producer, Paul Weller. It always did look a bit fanciful to suggest that fact alone would see the waves of appreciation arrive at Declan’s door. If there is one thing Weller has always done consistently throughout his career, it is respecting the soul of any music with which he is involved. He is not going to muscle in with his own voice and sound trying to make this sound like a Weller record, he has too much class for that kind of stunt. But he did do a fantastic job on production; if the producer’s role is to tap into the essence of an artist and facilitate the realization of that performers sound on vinyl, then he did exactly what was required. Yes, Weller is there on the back cover, regularly cropping up in the song credits on either guitar, piano and harmonium and he also brings in a collaborator of his own in Hannah Peel on gorgeous string arrangements. But the stars of this show are O’Rourke, his weather battered Irish voice, his dexterous guitar playing and those wonderful character driven songs.

Weller’s own connection with O’Rourke began way back with his appreciation of the man’s earlier work, especially the song ‘Galileo’ which the senior Mod went on record describing as the only song he wished he had written in the last thirty years. The story goes that the producer wanted to hear the songs before committing to proceed but you have to say, it would be a shock if he had declined on compositions like these. ‘Arrivals’ is a collection of songs that sees Declan often looking inward, examining his relationship with his craft and his place in a creative industry. He appears to be explicitly addressing this on opener ‘In Painter’s Light’ and yet, as often happens on this LP, the song expands into a broader meditation on the purity of dreams, how the things you hold close to your heart can be so easily crushed when life does not always line up with your inner plans.

Wider topics are written about with equal aplomb, take ‘Convict Ways’ and it’s definite depiction of transport ships moving convicts over to Australia. The song does not merely settle on dry description, it states that progress has not moved far enough away from the days of “being slaves without the name of slaves.” And ‘Have You Not Heard The War Is Over’ may just be one of the finest anti-war folk songs ever written. Not simply because of the way Declan precisely deconstructs the many shady positions that justified past conflicts in the first place, nor for the undeniable way he puts humanitarianism at the forefront of his position. No, it is also because this song has a damn fine folk chorus that can be sung along with instantly and stays in the musical part of your brain long after the album is over.

‘Andy Sells Coke’ begins as a critical, advisory take down of a delusional character dealing to fund his own drug habit. Again though, the song turns inward to focus on the singer himself passed out in a chair when he should have long since grown out of that kind of behavior. “I’m too old in the tooth to be round this shit” the number concludes. O’Rourke often arrives at the core of a song in the moment when his lyric writing turns in on himself. ‘The Harbour’ might seem like a straight-ahead tale of an old gardener and an introspective tiler and the life lessons they have acquired along the way. Still once more, the writer looms into view, recognizing in himself a hunger and desperation to uncork the inner heart and soul of all he encounters to feed into his own creativity. Imagining himself in turbulent waters, where “every wind has a tail,” the singer longs for the relative sanctuary of the harbour. Well, with ‘Arrivals,’ every song really does have a tale and they are all performed by an honest craftsman taking his work seriously and investing with all the passion and feeling it demands. This is a fine piece of folk, singer-songwriter work that could not have been better executed and easily one of the finest we heard in this form during 2021.

Find a vinyl copy of ‘Arrivals’ here: https://www.discogs.com/release/18204775-Declan-ORourke-Arrivals

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