Yet more proof of Angel Olsen's golden touch. I've never thought much of Tom Petty, and 'Walls' seemed like a pretty unremarkable song - until Olsen and friend/tour support Hand Habits got their mitts on it. This performance - beautifully filmed during lockdown by Ashley Connor at the Masonic Temple in Olsen's adopted home town of Asheville, North Carolina - is utterly stunning. Incredible (and upsetting) to think it's only a little over six months ago that I saw them both on stage in Bristol on the All Mirrors tour - it feels like a lifetime ago.
If it wasn't for the eternally wonderful Amoeba series What's In My Bag?, and specifically the Melvins episode (my favourite, bar none), then I'd never have discovered this ridiculous song, which somehow switches from plaintive croon to 70s Bowie pomp without batting an eyelid - or new album Songs For The General Public, for that matter.
Viscerals is without doubt my most listened-to album during lockdown. Not sure whether that says more about its quality or the extent of my cabin fever, though. It's such a shame that they had this record all ready to go before the pandemic struck and have been denied the opportunity to take it out on the road, where it belongs.
Try to pin Islet down at your peril. Latest record Eyelet has been described, not unjustifiably, as psychedelic pop - but lead single 'Good Grief', with its intricate construction and busy percussion, is just one reason I think it could (and should, if there's any justice) find favour with fans of latter-day Radiohead.
A fiver for the first three Motown Chartbuster compilations? You don't get much better value for money than that. They haven't been off the car stereo since being picked up on a stall in the covered market in Abergavenny in October. An ode to the irresistible power of lust, 'No Matter What Sign You Are' - on the third and best of the discs - may not have been a big hit, but I love the stylish sweep of the chorus and the way it sticks two fingers up at the contemporary hippie obsession with star signs.
"Rarely can you say that a record is perfect. But Fun House is perfect." So said Henry Rollins of the Stooges' second LP, on the occasion of its fiftieth birthday. He's not wrong, you know.
Who knows when live music will return - but when it does, TJ Roberts are top of my list of Cardiff bands I haven't seen but absolutely must. Their debut LP, the cheekily titled Best New Reissue, is a power-pop/melodic slacker-indie delight.
If I'm being completely honest, my love of rock didn't start with Nirvana, or Guns 'N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction before that, or Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet before that. No, it started with this song on a 1984 double-cassette compilation - something I was reminded of when it cropped up on the radio last week.
With Howling Bells seemingly on indefinite hiatus, any opportunity to hear Juanita Stein's vocals is welcome. The gentle psych haze that envelops 'Snapshot' suggests that her forthcoming solo LP might just satisfy those of us still pining for a worthy successor to Howling Bells' debut.
A band I wish I'd watched more of at last year's Green Man - especially since discovering that not only is Richard Dawson among their ranks, but Rhodri Davies too, whose creative destruction of a harp in support of The Ex had me mesmerised at Clwb last September. 'Trouble' is a first taster of new album Free Humans, a bold venture into "weird and wonky pop" (as they recently told the Quietus' JR Moores).
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