GARETH’S ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2012

My Top 5 Albums Of The Year were published in last month’s Rock Sound Magazine, along with all the other writers’, but here’s the full 10 for your delectation:

10. TITLE FIGHT ‘Floral Green’ (Sideonedummy)

9. BATTLE FOR PARIS ‘Superstar’ (Tangled Talk)

8. FUTURE OF THE LEFT ‘The Plot Against Common Sense’ (Xtra Mile)

7. THE SWORD ‘Apocryphon’ (Razor & Tie)

6. HAWK EYES ‘Ideas’ (Fierce Panda)

5. SUCIOPERRO ‘Fused’ (Medals For Everyone)

4. THE UNWINDING HOURS ‘Afterlives’ (Chemikal Underground)

3. TORCHE ‘Harmonicraft’ (Volcom)

2. SOUNDGARDEN ‘King Animal’ (Mercury)

1. BARONESS ‘Yellow & Green’ (Relapse)

(the top 5 were originally published in rock sound magazine issue 169 Jan 2013)

THE REVEREND PEYTON’S BIG DAMN BAND – ‘Between The Ditches’ (Side One Dummy) ★★★

Pitched somewhere between Seasick Steve and The Kills, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band are from Indiana and deal in sleazy American hick-blues with plenty of slide guitar and lyrical subjects like death, crystal meth and devils who look like angels. It may prove too pure a distillation to achieve the genuine crossover appeal that The Kills briefly enjoyed, but their authenticity and lack of compromise will doubtless prove their strongest suit, attracting just as many followers as it repels.

www.bigdamnband.com

(this review was originally published in the Sept 2012 edition of buzz magazine)